Quick HIts, Vol. 123 (Sugar Ponies, Future, Pigmeat Markham, Bob Weir)

By the way, while this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, the new Iggy Azalea song is absolute garbage.  Just a flaming Mountain Dew bottle that someone stuffed full of used diapers.  Also, that Remy Ma diss track aimed at Nicki Minaj is also super lame.

Sugar Ponies - It's a Sign.  While on a death march drive the other morning from Austin up to Denton for a 9 am meeting, I put the Spotify New Stuff playlist on shuffle to check out some new music with no work distractions.  One of the songs that came up early on in that drive was "Hey Cowboy!!" from this album.  This could be hyperbole (which I've never trafficked in on this blog, never ever), but this might be the worst song in the history of all songs ever.  I had to suffer through this, so you do too.

HEY COWBOY YOU'RE THE BOMB YOU'RE THE BOMB YOU GOT IT GOIN' ON!!  So very terrible.  Makes me think of some early nineties alt-rock tragedy of a band.  Can't think of who it is, its not Four Non-Blondes although that is what is sticking in my brain.  Maybe Letters to Cleo? Lucious Jackson?  Needless to say, none of the songs on this album have more than 1,000 streams on Spotify and they won't get any more from me for sure.

Future - Future.  Everyone made a lot of noise about this album and its almost immediate follow up, just because no one had ever had a number one album that was replaced on the charts by an album from the same artist.  The guy has a ridiculous amount of fans, but I still just can't get it.  Well, that isn't entirely untrue, I get how a lot of this is tough sounding popcorn rap, that you can just bump along with all day and get a good feeling from, but as with all Future raps, the vast majority of this stuff is idiotic and/or terrible.  That being said, the beat on "Face Off" is enough so that I was singing that thing in my head all weekend long.

That track is so laid back, its just perfect.  But then you get the lyrics, which are just more of the stream of consciousness blandness you get when you listen to this dude.
"Percocets
Molly, Percocets
Percocets
Molly, Percocets
Rep the set
Gotta rep the set
Chase a check
Never chase a bitch
Mask on
Fuck it, mask off
Mask on
Fuck it, mask off
Percocets
Molly, Percocets
Chase a check
Never chase a bitch"
Ah yes, of course.  So glad we got to enjoy that illuminating bit of well-crafted poetry. Similarly, there are several other tracks on here that make me want to bob my head and jam out ("Rent Money," "Poppin' Tags"), but its just a fact of it for me that these tracks are nothing more than popcorn.  I'll keep a few tracks and let the rest go.

(Have I mentioned how much I like that Paerish album?  Oh, I did?  I think I'm just going to listen to it once daily forever)

Pigmeat Markham - Here Comes the Judge.  This dude was the real deal precursor to rap from back in the day.  The majority of this album is super cheesy spoken comedy sketches, but the key track is the title song, which was a rap back in 1968 when there was no such thing as rap. According to his bio, this type of track had been a staple on the "chitlin circuit" for years, but was new to the radio and became a mainstream hit, rising up to number 19 on the pop charts.  Check it out.

Got some fine funk musicians making it happen in the background, with some rhyming and comedy bouncing over the top.  Pretty cool.  No reason to keep the album around or anything, but now you know what the first rap song ever probably was.

Bob Weir - blue mountain.  Weir is the rhythm guitarist and often-times-vocalist for the Grateful Dead.  His voice (to me at least) is instantly recognizable from tunes like "Sugar Magnolia," "Mexicali Blues," or "Cassidy."  Well that same voice is alive and well here, he sounds great.  The tunes are even in the same folky/country-ish/rock vein as the Dead as well.  Its actually a really enjoyable album.  The top song on Spotify is "Cottonwood Lullaby," with just over a million streams.

Good stuff.  Longing and lovely.  Funny thing, his personal discography (at least according to Spotify) is 1972'a Ace, 2005's Kingfish, and then this album from 2016.  I like the idea that he's still got his own person music to make in the midst of being part of one of the most famous bands ever.  I know the dude is still out there with the Dead & Company deal (or I think he still is) but it would be a cool show to see live sometime.