Quick Hits, Vol. 60 (The Sword, Maddie & Tae, Gary Clark, Jr., Disclosure)

This is hilarious.  A Comprehensive History of Wu Tang Clan's Beefs.  The Internet is a godawful bowl of turd in so many instances, and then Joseph forwards you a link to the pure ridiculousness of someone writing a 3,200 word chronology of moronic infighting within a great rap group.  I feel like people before us spent their time discovering cures for polio or winning the right to vote for women, while we spend millions of hours writing, discussing, commenting, and belly-button-staring the most pointless garbage ever.  That being said, Ghostface 4EVA, y'all.


The Sword - High Country.  I bought (like, actually picked up the physical piece of plastic wrapped in plastic and purchased those pieces of plastic with the swipe of another piece of plastic.  Old school, right?) their last album, Apocryphon, and it is a jam.  This is that sludgy stoner rock grind that sings about dwarf axes and ice kings and the "velvet cloak of night" and probably something about Valhalla.  I know some of you are turned off by that description, but I'm a fan of this kind of hard music that never merges over into screaming or anything truly unpleasant.  It just pounds large riffs into each song, with driving guitars, a touch of psych, and a deep groove from the rhythm guys.  High points = "Dreamthieves," "Early Snow," and "Tears Like Diamonds."  Here is the title song, "High Country"

Oh, and these dudes are from Austin, which is pretty cool.  And when you see pictures of them, they don't exactly look like doom metal rockers or the guys who should be opening for Metallica (although they have).  I'll put them in the same bucket as Sabbath and Wolfmother.  I bet they'd be a blast to see play live.  I may have to make that happen.

Maddie & Tae - Start Here.  You probably don't remember the movie "Nell," or if you do, you don't remember this line, but my wife has cracked me up for decades, somehow, by quoting part of that movie about "tayin' in de winnn."

Weird stuff.  I have no recollection of that movie either.  I bet it was amazing.  Anyway, I can't hear this group's name without hearing "TAAAAYIN' IN DE WINNNNNN" in my head.

Anyway, the point is that this is some seriously popped up Nashville country action that, somehow, I don't detest. They break off some nice harmonies throughout, reminiscent of the Dixie Chicks, and they throw out some humor in between some of the more schmaltzy tunes.  For example, their hit is "Girl in a Country Song," which sends up the stereotypical hot chick who gets to ride down that old dirt road in her daisy dukes with the guys in every Nashville-ized bro country song.  Although the music is electronic crapola until the chorus, it is kind of funny.  And "Shut up and Fish" is similarly clever.  It would be easy to just dismiss these two as pretty, blue-eyed blondes with cutesy names and some Daughter-of-Shania lyrics up their sleeves, but then you get to songs like "Waitin' on a Plane" and "Fly," which are straight pretty songs that don't cheese out while sounding great.  I'm going to give you "Fly" instead of "Girl in a Country Song," because I think it is a better song even if not quite the hit.

Gary Clark Jr. - The Story of Sonny Boy Slim.  I've spoken before about my love for Clark, especially his electric live shows.  His live album is freaking sick.  I was bummed to miss out on his show this year at ACL, but at least got a little taste of him during the Foo Fighters set.  I hope to get to see him do his thing again sometime around Austin - maybe at the newly re-opened Antones.  Here is the album opener, "The Healing."

This album picks up where Black and Blu left off, but sounds like he wanted to flex his creative muscles a little more.  He still has the blues-guitar-God stuff on here ("Stay" or "Grinder"), classic crossroad blues ("Shake"), and acoustic hymns ("Church"),  but then he also goes further afield with dance-ish stuff ("Can't Sleep") or 80's falsetto-drenched rhythm and blues ("Down to Ride"). "Wings" sounds like John Legend.  This music is all over the place.  I know the normal touchstone for guitar heroes from Austin is Stevie Ray Vaughan, but for some reason this album makes me think more of the collaboration SRV did with his brother, Jimmie Vaughan.  Family Style.  I thought that album was the good stuff back in the day.  Like a combination of bombing guitar mastery, along with an Austin-ified lite blues swagger, and some left-field weirdness for good measure.  While I'd like to hear more molten guitar lick thunder on here, I like the album.

Disclosure - Caracal.  Now, I wouldn't give up the Foo Fighters show from the ACL Fest this year, because it was a blast.  But I wish I could have gone to see Disclosure.  If only they would have played the Saturday slots when I didn't really care about the headliners. But I couldn't diss the Foos in favor of anyone, much less an electronic act.

Fast forward to now, and this new album is excellent.  And that is coming from a guy who isn't all that in to the EDM/techno movement going on in the world. Instead of those dubstep, dizzying, bass-heavy, drop-fest groups like Skrillex or Bassnectar, this reminds me more of the old school house music that was big before people used the term EDM.  The first three songs are top notch fun - featuring The Weeknd, Sam Smith, and Gregory Porter (who is apparently not the actor who dances in ballet movies, but some guy in a crappy looking hat in his google search results.  If there was an internet thing treating hats the same way the internet thing about shoes says "WHATRRTHOOOOSE!?!" then his hat would be deserving of that treatment.)  But his voice is choice, so what are you going to do?
"Magnets," featuring Lorde, is the most popular track on Spotify right now, but I have to present you with the second tune, "Omen," featuring Sam Smith, because it is a deceptively sunny blast of good times with bummer lyrics that you should hear.

That jam makes me want to dance.  It should make you want to dance.  They do a ton of that sound, like a smearing of notes, which I can't identify by a particular name, but in combination with tightly wound beats, it makes this entire thing interesting, danceable, and fun after many listens.  Really good album.