Quick Hits, Vol. 78 (Rayland Baxter, Sunflower Bean, Trey Anastacio, Otis the Destroyer)

Interesting Chronicle article about the Mayor's plans to save Austin music.  Losing 1200 jobs is brutal.  And the rent hikes that are either killing clubs or killing profitability are even worse. Hopefully. the City is really committed to making changes and getting some financial incentive handed down to keep venues in the City, or else venues are going to die.

Rayland Baxter - SOHO.  This fella came to ACL and released a great album in 2015, called Imaginary Man.  This EP goes back to that well, re imagining several of the best tracks from that album in a more stripped-down version.  He also covers some old My Morning Jacket with a cool version of "Bermuda Highway."  Here is the opener, "Mr. Rodriguez."

The picking is lovely, the voice is gorgeous, and the lyrics are kind of mesmerizing in this package. Too bad the EP is so short, but you should totally check it out and hear for yourself.

Sunflower Bean - Human Ceremony.  I don't know what it is about the chilled out psych movement that is happening right now, but I can't get enough.  This is more straight rock than the Tame Impala school of psych, but it also begs a good bit from the dreamy Britpop/Shoegaze/Madchester scenes from the 90's.  I keep starting this album over again.  The rest of the world apparently aren't yet into it, as the most popular track from this album only has 74k streams right now, but my guess is that they'll be playing the festivals this summer and those numbers will jump.  Here is that most-listened-to track, "Human Ceremony."

That soft-focus guitar noodling and sweet vocals, totally brings to mind some early 90's Slowdive. But the one I keep coming back to is called "I Was Home," which goes a little harder and with more guitar crunch.

Jam it.  The lyrics aren't going to beat down Courtney Barnett for poetic twist of the year ("What did you do today?  I stayed at home today.  I was home, and then I wasn't.") but I honestly don't care.  By about halfway through the tune, the lyrics disappear and you get a sweet ass groove for a few minutes.  I've literally been waking up with this song in my head for the past few days.  This is the good stuff.

Trey Anastacio - Paper Wheels.  Solo album from the lead singer for Phish, and as far as I'm concerned there is zero discernible difference between this solo album and a noodly jam-fest of a Phish album.  I never have been able to get my head around the appeal.  One of my awesome sisters made me a mixtape of Phish back in college or high school, and I listened to it quite a bit.  If she liked it, then it must be good!  But I've never gotten it figured out.  If you feel like it, here is the most listened-to track on Spotify from this album.  It is called "Sometime After Sunset."

If that isn't some disco-Phish-wannabe-Dead, then I don't know what is.  He says the word "wiggles," man.  This is also one of those albums that is only an hour long, but felt like it took the whole afternoon to listen to.  I'm out.

Otis the Destroyer - Belushi EP.  Awesome band name and some good straightforward rock and roll.  "Fight" is a chugging cow bell rocker in the vein of Queens of the Stone Age that I like a lot. Not too terribly much information out there on the Net, and the website that google suggested I check out is more into Otis Elevators than the band.   None of the four rockin' tracks on this EP has a YouTube video yet, so I've got to go with this one that is out there, called "Love Bug."

I think this new EP is all much stronger than that track, so hopefully they'll kill a couple of SXSW shows and get the cash to make some sweet new videos.