Quick Hits, Vol. 83 (Jack Garratt, White Denim, Explosions in the Sky, Iggy Pop)

Before I get to the albums, I have to note that I've been listening to a few singles from people who don't appear to have the full-length out yet, a few notes on them:

• Bonkaz - You Don't Know.  A pretty damn fun blast of brit dance-y rap bounce.  I played it for the kids in the car the other day and had the whole car bouncing along.
• Rat Boy - Left 4 Dead and Sign On.  Skuzzy brit rock.  Pretty good, but not amazing.
• Sigala - Easy Love.  Freaking awesome, man.  EDM track using a young Michael's ABC lines as a hook, I can't help but smile and enjoy this one.  In fact, check it out yourself below.
• Margaret Glaspy - You and I and Somebody to Anybody.  Classic slice of alt rock crunch.  I can't remove it from my list of new stuff to listen to, I just love it.  Looking forward to a full album from her.
• Catfish and the Bottlemen - Soundcheck.  HELL YES.  Kind of a mouthful of a band name, but this song kicks ass.  Looking forward to this album as well.

Here is that Sigala track:

And those dancing kids are bad ass!  All around good times.

Jack Garratt - Phase.  This was the guy who the media was preemptively anointing as the next big thing for 2016, as of the end of 2015.  His full-length came out a month or so ago, and I've been living with it for a while to try to figure out where the fascination is.  Not doing it for me.  I mean, its fine, like if Disclosure released a bunch of b-sides with a falsetto-wielding sing-rapper.  And his voice is really nice, he's got an effortless sounding transition between full voice and falsetto that he uses repeatedly on here.  I don't know, I guess this album just seems overly long to me and it never really grabs me at any time.  19 songs of electronic soul meandering.  The big hit from the album is "Worry," with almost 23 million listens on Spotify.

By the way, I don't know if you'll get the same ad as I just did before playing that video, but there is now freaking vodka made from fair trade quinoa.  This is the tipping point to where our world spirals down into the rabbithole of its own ass and can never be retrieved.
But, I mean, that song is fine.  Catchy enough, and I also kind of liked "Surprise Yourself," but over the course of an hour and twenty minute long album, I'm going to need more than one or two that I kinda liked.  I'm fully expecting that I will get to revisit this guy when he is named to the ACL lineup, but for now, I'll let other people listen to this thing.



White Denim - Stiff.  This album is absolutely excellent.  First, you have to at least smirk at the album title and cover.  But even when the junior high humor of a bathing suit bottom full of cacti wears off, I'm still jamming this album.  Fully steeped in classic rock, blues rock, garage rock, and some legit riffage, these guys are making the kind of music I fall in love with way too easily.  Like any girl who would smile at me when I was in junior high.  ZING! Not only that, but these dudes are from Austin, and so I probably have the chance to see them play this stuff live.  I feel like I've been missing out.  I recall really liking their last album - Corsicana Lemonade - but for some reason that never translated into me seeking them out for a show.  Well, I think that was dumb.  Of course, they are on tour right now and aren't coming to Austin anytime during that tour.  Dammit.
Anyway, their track with the most spins on Spotify is called "Holda You (I'm Psycho)," with almost 400k listens.

Hell of an air guitar paradise right there.  Although his left hand starts to kind of look foul as it hunts down those air strings and frets.  Like a creepy 'bater.  But if you dig Zep, you'll be digging those riffs in the middle for sure.  Do you like the Allman Brothers?  Then check "Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)."  You dig the Black Keys?  Try on "Take it Easy (Ever After Lasting Love)."  Go get you some of this album right now.  I hope they'll make time to come home for some ACL time.

Explosions in the Sky - The Wilderness.  I've never understood this band.  I kind of like it sometimes, like during Friday Night Lights episodes, or if I was trying to fall asleep, but chill rock instrumentals are just kind of weird to me.  I thought of these dudes last weekend when at a retreat where, every time the speaker wanted to pray, the musician dudes would crank up their guitar or keyboard and start playing an ad lib Explosions in the Sky riff to meander along underneath the prayer.  At first it was distracting, then it became funny, one of those giggling-when-inappropriate-but-quietly-uncontrollably-shaking-anyway kind of things.  Anyway, the YUGE jam off of this album, with about 218k listens on Spotify, is called "The Ecstatics."

A little more beat-forward than the old stuff I recall, but still pretty chilled for a song named the Ecstatics.  I won't keep this album around.

Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression.  Man, it kind of sucks sometimes to have young kids in school. All my bitchin' single or kidless friends were out at SXSW all of Spring Break week, shredding their faces and tweeting about the newest, biggest rad bands.  Don't get me wrong, I had a good ass Spring Break hanging with my family and a bunch of friends out in Big Bend.  Which was awesome.  But I still have a Balancing Rock-sized pile of #FOMO going on with the inability to go check out the fun new tunes.

I bring this up because Iggy Pop and Josh Homme came to do an ACL taping at the Moody during that SXSW week, and I had two different friends offer me a ticket.  And I had to turn it down.  Now, at the time, I hadn't listened to Pop's new album and wasn't crushed to miss out on the show.  But now that I have listened to it a number of times, I gotta say that it is a damn fine album.  Homme's influence is all over it, and since I love the QOTSA, I can dig what the band is laying down here. The most popular track from the album right now is "Gardenia," with 1.5 million spins on Spotify.

Weird ass broccoli-head video.  Apparently a fan-made video?  As far as I can tell, this is a song about a hooker.  Which makes the broccoli man even more strange, but whatever man.  Hookers dig broccoli too, man.  Despite broccoli guy, the music itself is good stuff, even if Pop's voice is a little worn and tired sounding.  I'll keep playing around with this one.