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.