Quick Hits, Vol. 99 (Wire, Lukas Graham, Fitz and the Tantrums, Buzzcocks)

As an aside, I woke up the morning after the election all sorts of fuzzy and bummed out.  Partially from drinking the majority of 2.5 bottles of wine while watching the election results, but also because I just couldn't believe that Trump had actually won the election.  You know what helped?  Day drinking during the work day here at my desk certainly made things better, but I also listened to Tame Impala's Currents about 8 times throughout the day, and it made me feel better.  The great click in the middle of "Disciples," and the morose truth in "New Person, Same Old Mistakes," just seemed to make me feel right again.  I'm a big fan of that album, and it was good to take a break from new music and just find a groove in there.

Wire - Pink Flag.  A 1977 album of punk bounce from some Brits who were in on the original punk movement.  This thing is 21 songs, many of which don't even hit the minute mark, and none of which break 4 minutes.  One track, "Three Girl Rhumba" sounds like a riff later borrowed by Garbage.  One track, "Strange" is familiar to me because R.E.M. covered it years ago on 1987's Document.  Pretty great, fuzzed out track.  Not especially punk rock -ish, but still a good tune.  But the most popular track in their arsenal, which also comes from this album, is "Ex Lion Tamer," which in fact sounds like an R.E.M. track and makes me realize that those boys might have owed more to the punk sound than I ever thought.

This album is fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to name it a greatest album of all time or keep it around for later listening.

Lukas Graham - Lukas Graham.  This band, confusingly named as though it is one individual, is several dudes from Denmark, and you've almost certainly heard of them despite not recognizing that name.  This is because their ubiquitous hit, "7 Years" has been an unstoppable radio juggernaut.  And for good reason, quite frankly, as it hits on the right nostalgia notes and is preciously solid.

The rest of the album?  No thanks.  Reminds me of someone, maybe Jason Mraz or Ed Sheeran, with that kind of vaguely whiny rap/sing thing.  Not terrible or offensive, just nothing memorable.  Have a feeling that VH1 (or whatever takes their place in the Virtual Reality world of the future) will be featuring this band as a one hit wonder in 20 years.

Fitz and the Tantrums - Fitz and the Tantrums.  Funny story, that one tenth or so of my readership already knows, is that a friend of mine has two twin boys, who are like 4.  And those twin boys freaking LOVE themselves some Fitz and the Tantrums.  They wanted to be Fitz for Halloween. They watch live Fitz shows in their free time.  They know the name of the drummer for the band.  I'm very jealous of this maneuver, as my kids wrinkle up their nose to any music that isn't the absolute most overplayed pop music at any given time.  Taylor Swift or the godawful Chainsmokers!  They're in. Zeppelin or Chilis, and they're yelling at me to change the station.  I've done something terribly wrong in the raising of my children.

Anyway, beyond my parenting shortcomings, this band is super fun.  I saw them play ACL a few years back, and it is just a straight up massive dance party when this group starts blasting you with their good times.  This is the new album from 2016, and it keeps the same vibe, lots of imminently danceable tracks and fun stuff ("HandClap" or "Complicated"), that really never slows down for any serious or slow jam tunes.  Obviously, the big hit is "HandClap" with just under 27 million streams.

Quite a set of dancers in that video.  Good song, very catchy and the kind of thing I think I could easily get behind jumping around to like a crazy person if seeing this band live.  The album really sticks that same fun and danceable flavor - I also like "Fadeback."  This thing is good and I'll keep listening.

Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady.  Another old album (1979) I'm giving a shot because of its purported iconic status among punk people.  You gotta love the start to this album. The opening chords sound like this is a White Stripes b-side made in a garage, and then you realize that the song is literally titled "Orgasm Addict," and is actually about an orgasm addict.  Who like ends up with damp pants and stuff.  Which is an odd thing to make a song about, and an even more odd thing to make the opener for your singles collection.  But whatever!  These days, this song is probably being played on Disney Radio or something. And, then again, the freaking band is called the Buzzcocks, so maybe I'm the ignorant person here.
This music is fast and raw, but its not all that punky to me.  The singing actually sound pretty tuneful and harmonic, and while the pace is fast, it isn't the breakneck crazy speed of what I think of when I think of punk rock.  The top song from the album, with 1.2 million streams, is "What Do I Get?"

See, not all that sneering and asshole-ish, right?  I mean, a little whiny, what with repeatedly asking what he gets, but still they sound relatively clean in this track.  Do you know of a more boring video than that one?  I mean, white background, and the four guys just standing there playing the track?  Is there a music video anywhere set to an image of a snail crawling across a white board?  This album is just fine, but I'm not going to keep it around.