Quick Hits, Vol. 96 (Residual Kid, case/lang/viers, Frankie Cosmos, Flatbush ZOMBiES)

Is there anything worse than auto-play videos on websites?  Makes me rage when I've scrolled down past the garbage at the top of a website and I'm getting started on the reading when some loud ass advertisement for Clay Matthews starring State Farm starts blaring in my speakers, covering up my happy tunes and scaring the piss out of me.  Screw you, autoplay videos.  If I want to watch a video, I'll let you know.

Residual Kid - Salsa EP.  This is a band I found through last year's ACL listening spree, which ends up being made of children.  I'm too lazy to hunt for their ages, but I think they are all still teenagers even now.  Their 2012 EP, called Faces, freaking jams, with a very crunchy Nirvana and Sonic Youth sound.  This new disc goes even further in on the Nirvana love, with the album opener and lead single called "Scentless Princess," referencing the bruising "Scentless Apprentice" from Nirvana's In Utero. The Kids' song is no where near as crunchy as the Nirvana track, but it still has a riffage guitar crunch attack and soaring solo.  The song is pretty solidly good.

The video makes me grin - looks like a 90's alt-rock video all the way, although the over-expressiveness of the lead singer is kind of freaking me out.  I also like that they brought out some friends from their high school to shove each other around in an 8 person mosh pit for a few seconds of the video.  The second track on the album, "ICSTW," is a little more Teenage Fanclub and reverb, "Chill" is a little more driving, maybe some Dinosaur Jr. sound, and then the final track, "Salsa" is back to the more Nirvana-ish sound.  I like these guys a lot, just wish this was a legit album instead of four songs.

case/lang/viers - case/lang/viers.  There is just something about Neko Case's voice for me, man.  I'd listen to her read Trump speeches.  I first saw/heard her in a live show with the New Pornographers years ago at a Fun Fun Fun Fest show back when FFF was at Waterloo Park and very few people were there.  I remember being snagged by the ears when she started singing.  Her other solo stuff later, especially Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is freaking great.  I know k.d. lang, but I don't really know her music beyond "Constant Craving."  And I've never heard of Laura Veirs in my life.  A quick Wikipedia trip and now I know the following factoids about Laura Veirs:

• She was once in an all-girl punk band called Rair Kx!  I don't know how to pronounce that band name, but like to think that it involves a cat growl and high karate kick every time it is said.
• She made an album called: Tumble Bee: Laura Veirs Sings Folk Songs for Children.  I think this sounds like the first thing of hers that I should try.  But she has a bunch of solo albums of her own.
• She was featured on Sufjan Stevens excellent Carrie and Lowell.

So, this is a super-group of sorts, and I think it is fully awesome.  "Best Kept Secret" is instantly attractive and snappy.  I swear, listening carefully to "Down I-5" just about made me want to cry. And the album opener, "Atomic Number" kicks the album off with finger-picking and a line by each that introduces the entire album beautifully before the harmonies kick in.  That track is the most listened to, with 794k streams, and I'd listen to it all day while lounging in the grass and watching clouds roll by up above.  But I'm going to play you the second most listened-to track, "Best Kept Secret," instead.

A bouncy little track about getting happy with your friend out in CA.  Not quite as sunny as a Best Coast song, but in that same wheelhouse.  I'm keeping this album for sure.  In fact, I'm just going to keep on listening to it right now.

Frankie Cosmos - Next Thing.  Do you remember the soundtrack for the movie Juno?  This girl reminds me very much of the recurring music on that soundtrack.  I think the girl's name was Kimya Dawson.  Very lo-fi, very simple songs, with a nice but hushed indie voice over the top.  This gal gets press because her parents are famous (Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates - who else just heard the Cars in their head when I said that name?), but honestly this is pretty and good music that I enjoy by its own worth, not just as a curiosity project.

Kind of a Courtney Barnett vibe as well, but without the killer lyrics.  It is all very pretty and nice, but I doubt I'll keep it around after today.

Flatbush ZOMBiES - 3001 A Laced Odyssey.  These are some crazy ass rappers who bounce off the walls with odd lyrics and strange sounds, over excellent beats.  The three dudes, Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick Arc Elliott, grew up together since grade school in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, and rap in a non-stop flow of thoughts and rhymes that are hard to pick apart as they speed by.  This is no hook-filled modern R&B rap, this is grimy ass old school flow, dense and merciless. "RIPCD" and "New Phone, Who Dis?" are both good stuff, but the most listened to track is called "Bounce," and it cranks off 7.9 million streams on Spotify.

Woah, man.  That video is all sorts of crazy, although I guess it matches well with the insane rap. You want to see dirty cops, drugs, strippers, and homeless dude fights?  This is your jam.  The ending to the album is also kind of interesting - it sounds like they must have taken voice mails they received from fans and spliced them together into a 5 minute long love fest from people who sound extremely high and excited about the group.  I kind of figured that I would just check this album out to hear what people are talking about, and then move on, but even after about ten listens, I'm not done.  I just keep going back to the start and trying to figure out the lyrics.  Cool stuff.

Quick Hits, Vol. 95 (Drake, James Blake, Clams Casino, Mudcrutch)

Had no intention of this, but we've got a rhyme (Drake and Blake) and then some clams in the mud by a casino populated with folks on crutches.  Makes complete sense, right?

Drake - Views.  Oh, Drake.  I'm finally getting around to listening to this album, which was released as an exclusive for Tidal or Apple or HotBeatz.org earlier this year, so I couldn't hear it on Spotify for the first few months, and then got caught up in ACL listening, so I haven't heard it until now.  Also, I really dislike Drake.  So my reluctance to listen to the disc has also played a part.

Why do I really dislike Drake?  Mainly I think that is in response to the rest of the world's worship of the guy, when I think that worship is undeserved.  I read a list recently ranking the "songs of the summer" and it claimed that Drake's "One Dance" was the clear winner for 2016.  Which is a terrible thing to say during the summer when Justin Timberlake's "Can't Fight the Feeling" was the obvious party-jam-feel-good track all summer long.  And, I think "One Dance" blows.

Oh man, don't even get me started on the morose and introspective intro to that video.  Two minutes of being so dang deep!  So deep!  Then the beat is an uninteresting Caribbean piano riff and click. However, while I bag on the track, he has 882,697,457 streams for that song alone on Spotify.  That is, like, more than all of the ACL artists this year combined.  For one super crappy song.  Amazing. And it crushes his other "hits," like "Started from the Bottom" (143 million), "Hold On We're Going Home" (290 million), "Marvin's Room" (83 million), and even "Hotline Bling" (547 million).

Because I'm all about being real on this blog, I have to admit that I like "Hotline Bling."  I know this goes against just about everything else I've said in this post, but something about that awesomely bad Casio 2000, on-hold-music beat sounds just right to me and I get sucked in despite my general distaste for Drake.  I have a problem.

Realistically, the only time I like Drake is when he leaves the generic 90's R&B singing behind and just freaking raps.  This is why I similarly do not like the stupid sounding "Controlla" track, where he actually name-checks Jodeci (if only he also called out Dru Hill, Sisqo, and K-Ci & JoJo). Unfortunately, none of the tracks on here really go brawny.  Maybe "9," "Still Here," or "Hype," but even those are pretty weak.  Maybe Drake got all of his manly rap out of his system on the What a Time to Be Alive mixtape and needed this album to be all about sad-face-emoticon mumbling and coo-singing.

I'd also like to note that this album is 1:21 long and has 20 freaking songs.  Just give me the 12 best, man.  No need to fire out all of the future b-sides about your sadness right here.  I will not hold on to this album.

James Blake - The Colour in Anything.  This album is going to be affected by the fact that it comes right after me bagging on R&B blandness.  Blake is an interesting sounding dude, kind of a D'Angelo, Sam Smith, Disclosure thing going on.  The album is brooding electronica that never quite gets to the dance floor, but steps up tempos every once in a while to make it seem like it might. Another album that seems to just drag on a little too long for me - 17 songs of very similar sounding stuff gets lost on me.  The most listened to track from the album is "I Need a Forest Fire," with 11.8 million streams as of right now.

So much Bon Iver influence in there.  Starts like the sun is coming up over a mist-shrouded lake in the woods, and then all the Auto-tune descends over a strange, simple sample and beat.  Like the rest of the album, it is pretty enough, but imminently forgettable.  I won't save any of this.

Clams Casino - Rainforest.  Nope.  This guys made some of the best beats on the A$AP Rocky mixtapes, but this stuff is b-side garbage compared to the beats for "Palace," Bass," or "Wassup." This EP is from 2011, so this might have even been what A$AP heard to turn him on to the guy, but you'd have to have a dang good ear to go from this odd, atmospheric sound to the heft and bang of A$AP's sound.  I guess the best one on here is "Waterfalls."

Don't bother going back to check out this EP, not worth your time.

Mudcrutch - 2.  Hell yes.  I was starting to think that this entire post was going to be negative Nancy about everything, but this album is excellent.  For those of you living under a rock, this is Tom Petty's old band, his first band from way back in the day, that he has resurrected to make classic rock goodness with.  Their first disc was also good, but this one just hits a perfect sweet spot for me of classic Tom Petty and southern blues rock swagger.  However, temper my excitement slightly, as this is one of those classic "check it out!" albums where the album streams start high on the first song and then drop as the songs progress.  Meaning that a lot or people try it out for a song, or two, or three, but few are finishing the whole thing.  I might be wrong, and what the hell, I dig the whole thing. The most listened to track is the album opener, "Trailer," with 367k streams.

Just a classic sound - kind of a She's the One/Wildflowers era vibe, and a good story/lyric about living in that trailer after high school.  The rest of the album is generally like this too.  If you like Petty, then you're going to enjoy this thing.  I'll be saving this one to listen to many more times.

Quick Hits, Vol. 94 (Car Seat Headrest, Young Chop, Chance the Rapper, Lil Uzi Vert)

Just bought my ACL passes for first weekend of 2017.  I'd like to say I'm psyched, but $240 for the early bird tickets is a little steep, especially when I just bought four of them and the C3 folks are now going to just hold that $1k for the next year.  Obviously my own fault for wanting to jump right on the early bird tickets, but that stings a little.  Nonetheless, I am psyched to get started on sleuthing to see if I can figure out who is going to be here for 2017.  Always a fun game to play.

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial.  I recall trying out his last album, and being sincerely underwhelmed, but this album is actually really great. That older album (Teens if Style) was more lo-fi and dissolved, but this one has a real cohesive alt-rock/garage rock sound kind of Replacements-y ("Fill In the Blank") and sometimes Strokes-y ("Vincent") and sometimes R.E.M.-y (aspects of many of these songs) enough to be really cool sounding.  My recollection of the guy is that he made his first albums in the back seat of his car, which is why he named the band after what he looked at the whole time he was recording.  The top track on Spotify is "Fill in the Blank," with 1.8 million streams, but the one I like the most is lower down the streaming totem pole at 860k called "Destroyed by Hippie Powers."

Crap video, sorry, no good versions of that tune on YouTube right now.  But this is more of a bashing Nirvana crunchy nug of a track, which jams and endears me to my boy Will.  The breakdown and re-smashing at 4:20 freaking rules (and includes cow bell).  I'm going to hold on to this one and keep unpacking it for a while.

Young Chop - King Chop.  Tough sounding rap, with good beats, but the kind of new sound that depends heavily on boring repetition.  For example, I think that "With tha Choppa" might say "I'm like Blago with the chopper" 7,297 times during the course of a 3:17 long song.  This is the guy who produced several of Chief Keef's biggest tracks, which is what lead me to him, but since then he's produced tracks for everyone, from Gucci Mane and Pusha T to Juicy J and 2 Chainz.  The best part of these tracks is definitely the beats - you can see why he is a popular track guy who gets signed up again and again.  But the raps are nothing special.  The most listened to track from this album (with only 117k listens) is "Ring Ring Ring," which features Chief Keef.

I do appreciate the homage paid within "Mo Money, Mo Problems," being that "Kick in the Door" is my jam.  I don't think I'll keep any of these tracks around after this, but I won't deny that I felt very tough today drafting a settlement agreement while nodding my head to this album.

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book.  I just wrote an entirely different review of this album, generally saying that while I like the exuberant, bouncing Chance, I could do without the slower introspective stuff.  However, after going through the album another couple times, I find that I've been sucked in by the album as a whole.  I don't know what the deal is, I had never heard of Chance as being a particularly Christian-inspired rapper (in fact, my recollection of Acid Rap was that it had a lot to do with drugs and getting kicked out of high school), but this thing is heavily steeped in gospel and raps that center on Christian thoughts and ideas.
Still, the best thing about Chance the Rapper to me is when he puts on his exuberant hat and bounces off the walls with some fun stuff.  This album has a few of those kinds of moments, stashed among the gospel bits. For example, the Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz-assisted "No Problem" has this bouncing, joyous beat backed up by a choir, and its just hard to not grin and bob your head as Chance disposes of beef.

AND, he references Friday in his verse, which is always a winning combination for me. Chance has the best verse of the three, although I grinned at Weezy's line "Codeine got me movin' slower than a caterpillar race."  That is funny.  Then "Mixtape" has a tough sound and good verses (except for the AutoTune business - can we just collectively get over using that crap for rap verses?), "Angels" goes back to the fun, bouncy, exuberant well, and then "All Night" does more of the same.
But then he also has some tracks that leave that bounciness behind in favor of a more traditional roll with the gospel and R&B sound.  Although I wasn't into it at first, "Blessings" snuck up on me.

Look, I can dig the message going on there, but I'm not trying to say that the beat is anything worth remembering.  If you are looking for rap that you can bump in your car and look tough to the guy next to you at the stoplight, then go get some Young Chop.  This beat is boring and uninteresting. I have no clue how people on YouTube comments are saying this is fire.  I cannot agree with you, Ahmad.  Other beats are similarly uninspiring - "Summer Friends," which sounds like something off of the new Bon Iver album - has little going for it on the beat, but it nonetheless got under my skin and I found myself enjoying it too.  But I still don't care for "Same Drugs" or "Juke Jam," and you can't make me like them. I'm going to keep this disc and keep listening, I think this is good stuff.

Lil Uzi Vert - Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World.  No clue where this came from.  Don't go listen to this album.  Got that AutoTune Chief Keef sound, and just uninteresting.  Just so you can see for yourself, here is the most popular track on Spotify (which, amazingly, has 58.8 million freaking streams, showing that others may love this dude despite my dismissal), "Money Longer."

Just instantly forgettable.  Its fine, but nothing in the beat, or the rap, or the cadence, or anything is memorable or something I'd try to go hear again.  Also, that video makes no sense.  Why would the kidnappers take her to the drag race track to watch Lil Uzi dance on the track?  Why isn't anyone a good shot with their uzi?  What is on the back of her jean jacket, under her name?  Inquiring minds, man.

Quick Hits, Vol. 93 (A$AP Ferg, Bad Brains, Blink 182, Vince Staples)

This article about Vince Staples is cool.  I appreciate the dude for trying to be thoughtful and appreciate someone else's perspective.  These days, in the era of Trump and hot takes and instapundits and the mess that the internet comments section has created, I am refreshed by someone being appreciating of a differing viewpoint. That being said, "Norf Norf" is a damn jam, son.  That lady needs to respect.  His new album/mix-tape is cool as well (see below). 

And before we get to anything else, my friend Joseph just sent me this video, which is freaking amazing.  Good song too, but having these guys mouth off to each other and then go to town is soooo awesome.

A$AP Ferg - Always Strive And Prosper.  This album is all over the damn place.  His last disc had a damn classic on it with the weird-ass "Shabba," which has allowed me to crow "MASTAH BRUCE!" for several years every time I hear it.  I don't know that anything on here reaches that level of absurd coolness, although some of this is definitely absurd.  He's also got a massive list of guest stars on here, including Future, Missy Elliott, Skrillex, Schoolboy Q, Rick Ross, Big Sean, and many others.  I think the Schoolboy song might be my favorite, "Let it Bang," but the apparent hit is the one with Future called "New Level."

That beat right there was meant to be played before NBA games at maximum volume as the jumbotron shows video of Kahwi Leonard crushing inferior opponents with windmill dunks. I'M ON A NEW LEVEL!  I still find Future's delivery to be dumb sounding and annoying, but you can't deny the toughness of the track.  And then Ferg comes up with "Beautiful People," which is a gentle little Common-esque song that ruins the mood.  "Hungry Ham," the one with Skrillex, is decidedly weird.  And "Let You Go" is another shift into some sort of 90's love rap/ballad thing. I'm also so very tired of the Chris Brown hooks in rap songs.  When A$AP sticks to the banger rap, he sounds good.  I'll probably just save a few tracks from this one into my rap playlist.

Bad Brains - Bad Brains.  I know this is old stuff, but I never really listened to these dudes back in the day when they were making this music.  RS did a recent ranking of all the best punk music of all time, and so I've thrown a couple of those albums into my Q for a listen. This band is/was weird mainly because they tried to mingle hardcore with reggae.  Although, honestly, they rarely actually meld those two sounds, they just toss off a reggae tune in the midst of a bunch of thrashing, raw, punk tracks.  Back in the day, this only came out on tape, and I don't think I ever heard it until now.  I had heard their later album "I Against I" because the Living Colour people mentioned something about it being amazing, so I went and checked it out.  It is much more funky and polished than this older, rawer album.

Holy crap, I just recalled the band 24-7 Spyz.  Do you remember that band?  Likely not.  I have one of their CD's, which I likely either found in the Waterloo used bin or got for free from Dave at the Austin Access tv station when I used to roll over there for free music after midnight on weekends, but it is kind of awesome.  Man, I loved Living Colour back in the day.  I need to do a write-up on my love for Vivid and Time's Up.

Anyway, the most popular track on this album is "Banned in D.C.," which cranks out 2.4 million streams.

As you can hear there, and read from my words above, the word of the day is RAW.  No tinge of reggae in that track, that is just straight-forward pummeling and destruction.  I won't keep this album around, but it was a fun trip.

Blink 182 - California.  Man, I like this album a lot.  Nothing new from the old sound of the band, in fact, any of these songs could have been taken from the sessions for Take Off Your Pants and Jacket and I would not have been surprised.  Strong drumming, tight harmonic singing, quick blast songs, it sounds just like the old Blink.  And they still keep their boyish frat party vibe going, with two super short songs ("Built This Pool" and "Brohemian Rhapsody") that contain a juvenile joke and little else.  If you never did like Blink, then this disc will still be disappointing and boring to you, but as someone who enjoyed TOYPaJ back in the day, this sounds good to me.  The hit off of here so far is "Bored to Death," and I like it even though it has been on constant rotation on the radio.  Such a trademark sound, especially the chorus and the line "Life is to short to last long," sung as a throwaway line after the main portion of the chorus.  I assume you've already heard that song 80 times, so I'll bring you my second favorite track, "San Diego."

That video makes me want to vomit - the movement of the lyrics is unsettling to my eyes. But I dig the tune, and the nostalgic points making about jamming the Cure in the parking lot before a show. "Los Angeles" is also good, as is "California" and "No Future."  Another album that is fun, although you're not going to want to parse the lyrics and make a case for a Pulitzer.  But fun to jam nonetheless.

Vince Staples - Prima Donna.  The EP starts off with a messed up intro of Staples singing "This Little Light of Mine" before a gunshot cuts him off, and then segways straight into the Andre-3000 sampling start of "War Ready," which bangs a pretty tough ass track over a basic click/clack/thump beat.  I can't unpack all of these lyrics, but it sure sounds like this is the future battle anthem of the Black Lives Matter army.

"Heaven, Hell, free or jail, same shit
County jail bus, slave ship, same shit
A wise man once said that a black man better off dead
So I'm, war ready."
The rest of the album doesn't get much lighter, even if the beats do get a little more buoyant and excited.  I especially like the sound on "Prima Donna," which also features A$AP Rocky and this great, bouncing, bass heavy beat.  "Pimp Hand" is also a tight beat.  Speaking of Andre 3000, "Smile" sounds a lot like Andre's rap delivery.  I'm going to keep listening to this disc, I'm interested to keep unpacking what is going on in here.

Quick Hits, Vol. 92 (Savages, Lake Street Dive, Loretta Lynn, Petit Biscuit)

Before I get to the albums that have been languishing in my New Music list for months while I worked through all of the ACL bands, I just have to provide you with this track from Trinidad James, Mystikal, and some (apparently hungry) white cat named Lil Dicky.

Seriously, if you aren't going to go watch Lizzo's show at ACL this coming weekend on Sunday morning, then you are a big loser and don't know.  And this Lil Dicky guy cracks me up.

Savages - Adore Life.  I have a weird hangup about screaming in music.  My friend Jordan and I just had a discussion about this while bowling the other night.  By the way, if you haven't been to the Texas Student Union bowling lanes in 25 years (like me), then going back will be a major shock to the system of weird nostalgia and stink.  A few things are different (goodbye video game machines!) but much of it is exactly the same.  So weird to walk back down those stairs again.

Anyway, our discussion started because he really likes the new Hop Along album, which I reviewed a few months back.  I liked it too, except that I thought the singer did a little too much screaming for my taste.  The underlying music and most of the singing was really good on there, but then she ratchets it up into screamy mode, and it got on my nerves.  So our conversation revealed that I have much less of an issue when dudes scream (although I'm still not cool with the Cookie Monster singing style) than I do when the ladies scream.  I am apparently a sexist scream listener.  I'm sorry. However, because I like Bjork (whose screams are usually more of ecstasy than anger) and L7, maybe I'm not too terrible?

So why did that come up here?  Because for some reason, in my mind, this album was screamy.  I had listened to these tracks at random while shuffling my new music queue over the past few months of writing about ACL bands, and in my mind, this album had a bunch of screaming.  Strangely enough, not true.  These tunes sound really good, indie alt-rock stuff, and now that I'm really listening hard for an example of screaming, I've got nothing.  I think the instruments do the screaming, but her voice stays in a really lovely register the entire time.  The tunes sound like Siouxsie and the Banshees to me as well, maybe a little Cowboy Junkies here and there.  Here is the most popular track from the album, "Adore," which has 1.5 million streams.

Freaking awesome song.  Doesn't devolve into the screaming here, just has this swaggering smolder. Listening again just gave me a rash of goosebumps all up my arms and back and neck.  "I understand the urgency of life, In the distance there is truth which cuts like a knife, Maybe I will die maybe tomorrow so I need to say, I adore life."  Love that track.  This whole album is pretty rad.

Lake Street Dive - Side Pony.  I've listened to these dudes before because they came to ACL a year or two ago.  They've got a fun sound, funky and soulful, kind of classic sound. The lead singer's voice is infectious and awesome.  While I haven't seen them live, I bet it would be a fun show, high energy and fun.  The big track from this album is "Call Off Your Dogs," with 1.6 million streams.

Feel that funk right there.  The gal on that stand up bass is making things freaking happen, man. Solidly fun album.  "Hell Yeah" and "Side Pony" are both good examples of the fun stuff.  

Loretta Lynn - Full Circle.  Classic album of country tunes by the coal miners daughter, some 50 years after her first hits.  This one is a little more straight-forward than her last album, the one produced by Jack White, but her voice is still distinctive and treated well here.  It's not her most listened to from this album, but I love "Fist City," just makes me think of a feisty little grandmother threatening anyone around her with "Fist City."  

"You better close your face and stay outta my way, if you don't wanna go to Fist City." Probably the best part of the album is the intro, when you hear here telling an old story and then, when she gets tired of telling, she just says "Oh Lord, let it rip, boys."  Love that.  I like this album well enough, but honestly I am not going to keep it around to listen to anymore after the last few listens.

Petit Biscuit - Petit Biscuit.  No clue where I found this album, especially once I listened to it. Dreamy, wordless electronic dance bleeps and bloops.  Very chilled out.  His top track, "Sunset Lover," has 28.1 million streams, so somebody is listening to the dude a lot.

Well, I guess there are maybe words, they are just chopped up and sped up and smeared around so that I don't know that they are intelligible.  Pretty enough music, but I'm not going to listen to it anymore.

ACL 2017: Extremely, Outrageously early predictions

dudes.  I know this is ridiculous. Making guesses even before this year is done. But I have thoughts. They are based on nothing at all. This is pure conjecture. But I feel like I have solid guesses and I need to share them. Here are the top 6 headliners. [edit - if you want my more thoughtful thoughts, go check out the 2017 tab above and see the other posts I've done with some research behind them, what you see here is just what the title says, an outrageously early set of predictions]

1. Green Day. This is my most solid guess as of right now. Perfect headliner. Huge band with a devoted old people following, plus a new album coming out soon, plus they've been on hiatus and I guarantee they want to make a huge tour next year to support the new album. 

1. Metallica. Mainly, I just want them to come so badly that I'm adding them here. The only proof of anything I have here is that they are putting out a new album and thus will likely tour, and they played Lolla two years ago without playing ACL, which is rude and not nice. 
2. Daft Punk. I think they are the guess every single year forever. Apparently ACL needs at least half of the bands to be EDM, so these guys would fit. I also read something the other day that said Daft Punk may be having a tour next year because they apparently launched a lame website that just says ALIVE2017. http://alive2017.com
3. Steve Aoki. I don't know squat about this dude, except an article I just read about him in Rolling Stone and how his dad started Benihana and he is insanely popular for making EDM stuff and being generally happy. 
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Just because I want to see them again. They just played Lolla without playing here, and I love them. Please come to Austin. 
5. Paul Simon. Again, just because I love him, and he never plays ACL, but he did a taping (that was amazing) and he proved that he will play a fest by playing Jazz Fest in NO. 

Amazing headliners, right?  I'm almost certain this is 5/6 wrong, but some of the most fun is making the guesses and backing them up before the announcement happens. Other thoughts:

1. Maybe Kings of Leon?  New album dropping soon. 
2. Maybe Beck?  Please yes and thank you. If his new album sounds like Dreams and Wow, then it will be freaking amazing. 
3. Ryan Adams or Jim James?  Sting?
4. Arcade Fire are working on a new disc to be released in 2017. 
5. Kanye?  Kind of hope not. 
6. The Killers?  The Shins?  T.I.
7. Ooooooh!  What about Prophets of Rage!?!?  God, that would be rad as hell. 

All for now. More to come, many more posts like this to come. 

ACL 2016: Final Reviews of Weekend One

ACL 2016!  I'm honestly sad that it is all over.  Hell of a good year, with lots of really solid shows all weekend long.  A few let downs as well, but in general terms, I'd say that this was a good year.

Friday:

• Banks & Steelz.  Not that great.  Most of their stuff doesn't sound properly mashed up, more like they just cameo on each others' tunes without really collaborating.  "Giant" is an exception, but we just stayed for a few songs.
• Welshly Arms.  Should have gone to this whole show, these guys were great.  Bluesy and rockin'.  I just added their album back to my Q of new stuff, I want to hear this some more.
• The Strumbellas.  Excellent.  These guys (and gal) were very endearing, they seemed genuinely pleased to be there and just put on a really good show.  Very Canadian in their mid-song discussions and jokes.
• Foals.  Favorite show of the day.  These guys are really great.  I want to get into their music even more now, but know that they bring it and sound really awesome.
• Cold War Kids.  Better than I expected, although we only heard them from across the field so that we could get up close for Die Antwoord.  I can't believe I just admitted that.
• Die Antwoord.  Exactly like I expected.  Terrible, but kind of like watching the Presidential debates this year, you still want to see what awful crap they'll do.  We stayed for about half the show, and I got a lot of weird looks as we walked out because I was singing along to "Cookie Thumper" and I think people must have thought that was odd.
• Radiohead.  Honestly, a little disappointing.  I was so very excited to see them, and I think they sounded good, but they just choose an off selection of songs that hew very slow and introspective.  I was hopeful that they'd go into their hits catalog, but instead they played freaking three songs from King of Limbs.  Part of me doesn't want to write this, because it is kind of jenky to complain about a setlist, but its just honest.  The King of Limbs music is not very good.  Why use up three songs on that thing?  And why did we get more than Lolla?  I wish I would have seen them play in a concert hall or something, sitting down and not tired and not crowded and just listening, like it was a poetry reading.  The people around me were about as excited as you would have been during a poetry reading.  Now I'm mad that I skipped Band of Horses and M83 to go get in prime position for this show.

Saturday:

• Nothing But Thieves.  Great show.  I like this band quite a bit now, although I can sometimes feel over the falsetto voice maneuver.  Not a lot of people at the park this early in the day, but a pretty good crowd over here enjoyed the show.
• Kamaiyah.  Very disappointing.  We spent about 20 minutes listening to a hype guy play other people's music and tell us to get turnt up, then Kamaiyah wandered out and rapped over the top of a vocal track, so that you almost couldn't tell if she was rapping live or just lip syncing, and then she wandered off.  Best part of the show was the hype guy playing the "bomb drop" sound effect on his laptop about 3,000 times in the 40 minute set.  That was funny.
• City and Colour.  Very pretty music, but kind of boring.  One of those shows where you realize that the crowd talking around you is somehow louder than the guy playing the music up on stage.  We stayed for about half and then wandered away.
• Saint Motel.  So fun.  Wish we would have done this whole show, they were getting the crowd going, singing along and jumping and having a good ass time.
• DJ Mustard.  So freaking stupid.  Literally, an hour of this guy just playing other people's music.  I know he probably produced a lot of the tracks, but still, it was just a bunch of people rapping along to short sections of different songs.  (1) why do people want to do that?  (2) I listen to a lot of rap, and yet I only knew about half of the tracks he played, while the group of 12 year old boys next to me yelled out every sexual innuendo and curse word with gusto.
• Catfish and the Bottlemen.  Second favorite show of the day, these guys are just excellent rock and roll action, right up my alley.
• Melanie Martinez.  I walked my buddy up to this show, and he saw the stage, which looking like a baby's playroom, and was like "nope."  So we walked up towards The Naked and Famous and just chilled on the ground for a while.  
• Cage the Elephant.  Awesome.  I like that band a lot now.
• Two Door Cinema Club.  Favorite show of the day.  I really didn't know this band, but my friend wanted to go see them and I'm so glad I did.  They are super fun, high energy, and the entire crowd was singing along to every word.  I love shows like that, where you can tell that everyone there knows all of the songs and is super pumped to just be there jamming along. The drummer was getting himself a damn workout in the back.  Also, while I didn't go see the Chainsmokers, the crowd over there, which we walked through after Two Door, was absolutely insane.  I bet 90% of the crowd was there.
• Kendrick Lamar.  Really good show - best rap I saw of the weekend.  The thing I appreciate so much about Kendrick Lamar is that he freaking brings it.  He has a real band of funk players up there to go with his DJ, and every single lyric that comes out of the speakers is really him spitting those rhymes.  No backing track BS like Eminem.  In my mind, Lamar is super serious all the time, but that thought makes you forget that he actually makes some groovy, funky stuff that is pretty fun to bounce along with.  He also brought Schoolboy out for a verse on "That Part," which was fun since I missed that show to see Cage the Elephant.

Sunday:

• Lizzo.  Dude.  Lizzo was freaking hilarious and amazing.  She is a big girl, and just doesn't give a damn, wearing a skin tight leotard and some sort of see-through thing over the top that ended about hip level.  And he backup dancers were big girls too, but they could dance like freaking champions.  Lizzo spent the show twerking and bouncing and dancing and slapping her ass, she couldn't be more comfortable in that body.  And then the rapping and singing (her voice is great) was top notch as well.  Loved this show.
• Wild Child.  Pretty good.  Was kind of half listening because we found some friends to hang with and just sat in the field.
• Kacey Musgraves.  I got up close for this one and loved it.  Great crowd sing-a-longs, funny asides in between songs, band sounded awesome, and her voice is excellent too.  She did a fantastic acoustic rendition of "Merry Go Round," with the rest of her band offstage, that brought my soft ass to tears at one point.  If you get a chance to see her, I think you'll enjoy it.
• Margo Price.  Good show, but as I was listening, I was having a lot of FOMO about not being at Pete Yorn.  Kind of wish I would have gone to see Pete.  The wife decided that Margo was a little too generic.  I think she did a good show, with solid versions of her own songs and good cover, but FOMO.
• Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats.  NATE FOR PRES!  Super fun show, loads of energy (although the horn player from his ACL taping was missing, and I was sad to not see him up there grooving his ass off), and perfect set of tunes.  The whole crowd was dancing and shouting along up where I was for this one.
• St. Paul and the Broken Bones.  Sounded really good, although I didn't go way up close for this one because I needed to be up front for Nathaniel and Chris, my besties.
• Chris Stapleton.  So damn good.  He just does it for me, lots of blues and soul influence in his outlaw country sound, and it just makes me feel tough and smart and bad ass all at the same time.  I have to say that I was disappointed that he didn't play "Whiskey and You," but otherwise a solid show.
• Mumford & Sons.  Really good show.  I won't give it my unequivocal seal of approval because they played so much of the new album boring soft rock stuff, but when they went back to the old school well with the banjo-fied rock of their first two albums, the crowd was bouncing for it and having some fun sing-a-longs.  I was surprised that they fired up "Little Lion Man" with the second track, and felt like a crowd left to go check out LCD after that song was over, but the whole show was good stuff.  The band just really seems to love what they are doing up there, just very passionate and earnest, and it translates to the crowd.

Non-music thoughts:

• I know this is why you come here, to listen to me ruminate on crap like bathroom lines, but whatever man.  My blog.
• Seriously though, the bathroom lines were freaking AWESOME.  I can't tell you how it was for the ladies, but the guys now have big, open areas full of portable urinal trough things, and so I never once waited at all to whiz.  So great.
• No Bag Line.  Still amazing.  I never waited more than a minute to get into the park.
• Security.  Tight as hell this year.  They took away my booze on the second day, apparently shaking a bottle of water produces no bubbles while shaking a bottle of vodka produces a bunch of obvious bubbles.  Which is annoying as crap, since they apparently could care less about the 8 billion pounds of weed that everyone in the park smokes around me all day, but god forbid that I bring in some Tito's.  I'd guess that it is about protecting profits, but you'd think that the stoners would also drink if their schwag was taken away?
• Beers at the BAR tents are now up to flipping $9.  For super premium brands like Miller Lite, Coors Original, Imperial, Pilsner Urquel, and Fireman's Four.  Blurg.
• The grass is already dead.  I don't know how next weekend will do it, because we even had nice, temperate weather, and by Sunday afternoon the dust in the air was pretty brutal.  Time to astroturf the whole place.
• The new Cirrus stage, up on the plateau with the Honda stage in the west end of the park, made that end of the park damn near impossible to navigate after about 3 on Saturday.  It was just a huge sea of people when we wandered up there to see the Naked and Famous while Melanie Martinez was playing the Miller Stage.
• East Side Kings is the FREAKING BOMB!  Their chicken thighs dish is so damn good.  Had a chicken tikki masala wrap that was highly mediocre, a chicken sandwich from East Side Kings that was dry, a cold chicken taco from ChiLantro, some really good meaty fries from there, and some pizza rolls from Austin's Pizza.  Oh, and some good ass Torchy's tacos.  I'd say that the food wasn't all that great this year, but I also refused to wait in lines so I ended up at unpopular joints.  Maybe my own fault.