Back to the joys of listening to the music I know and love! Well, sometimes I get some stank albums in these quick hit reviews, but this first one is going to be all good stuff because I've been jonesing to listen to these albums but held off until I was done with the ACL bands. My "new stuff" playlist has 82 hours worth of tunes in it, so I'm pretty stacked up for listening to things I'm interested in beyond the ACL bands. Right back at it. I'll have more to talk about with the ACL stuff, just give me a few days to rock out. Queens of the Stone Age - Villains. I'm a lover of the Queens. This brand of swaggering, brawny rock is right up my alley just about any given day. So I'm loving this album. The two opening tracks, "Feet Don't Fail Me" and "The Way You Used to Do" are surprisingly danceable rock tracks, but they still keep the new music right in the same wheelhouse as their old albums. Here is the second of those, the hot one, with 8.9 million streams.
That's a groovy ass love song right there. I feel the need to see it live and clap along like I'm an extra in that Cry Baby movie and Johnny Depp is doing his thing. "If the world exploded behind us, I never noticed if it done, Let nobody dare confine us, I'll bury anyone who does. But it doesn't matter now, Just come and love me how, Like the way you used to do." There are a couple more introspective tracks on here, but the glorious ones are the crunchy rockers like the above two or "The Evil Has Landed" or "Head Like a Haunted House." Very fun album that I'll keep listening to. Arcade Fire - Everything Now. Hearing this album makes me even more bummed out that I was wrong about them being on the ACL lineup for this fall. I'm still sincerely bummed out that my prediction was wrong, but especially now that I hear how fun and awesome this new album is. There is an odd thing they do, where the final song loops around to the opening song, which means that the opening song is kind of oddly half-baked (since it truly belongs with its partner at the end of the album). But then the next two songs are some amazingly weird disco-fied rocking jams that make me need to boogie. First, "Everything Now" sounds like an Abba b-side to be used to dance down a street while stealing grapes from a street vendor who, instead of getting mad, will just smile at your cheekiness and give you a high five. That grape stealing rogue! *extra hearty laugh* The lyrics are also a clever indictment of our current societal need for instant gratification.
That video gives you the odd intro from the first song on the album, before you hear the actual track for "Everything Now." But the tune itself is just so sunny on the surface, and darker underneath. Its well done. "Pledge allegiance to everything now. Every song that I've ever heard, is playing at the same time, its absurd, and it reminds me of everything now, we turn the speakers up til they break, 'cause every time we smile its a fake, stop pretending you've got Everything Now" and "'Til every room in my house is full of shit I couldn't live without." "Creature Comfort" is also dark as hell. "Signs of Life" is another disco-fied party track. Several of the next ones, like "Chemistry" and "Peter Pan" have a kind of world music flavor to them (I don't know world music well enough to tell if these flavors are Haitian or Jamaican or Senegalese or whatever, I just know they make me think of some sort of world music taste). I also dig the guitar crunch on "Chemistry," which sounds like something from "We Will Rock You" or something. That is a good track that I want to bump, because it strangely meanders from a reggae-ish honk to that brawny rock. Cool sound. This album is great. Waxahatchee - Out in the Storm. Some more good 90's alt. rock crunch from Katie Crutchfield. She came to ACL in 2015 and I had just before then professed how much I enjoyed her 2015 album, so I've discussed previously how good she can be, but this album is even better, I think. Reminds me of the 90's groups led by ladies, The Breeders or Veruca Salt or when Kim Deal sang for the Pixies. She piles on the crunchy guitar riffs and keeps the songs basic, but I dig them. The top track is "Silver," with 645k streams.
You get it? Nice harmonies for the vocals, piles of guitars, and a lyrical poem that I think is maybe about a shit relationship. "The kiss on my lips, starts to feel unfamiliar, A part of me rots, My skin all turns silver. You tell a classic story, Smothered underneath formality, I'll portray the old shag carpet, You can walk all over me." The whole disc is really good, in the same sound vein. I'm keeping it around. The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding. This guy alternatively reminds me of Bob Dylan and David Gray, with tunes that sound very much influenced by classic rock. I reviewed him a few years back when he came to ACL, and really liked his sound. Its generally pretty relaxed, but still rock edged, and I can't shake the thought that the singer sounds like Dylan. The top song is an 11 minute long one, so I'm going to give you second place to save you some time. This is "Holding On," with 3.2 million streams.
Kicks in like a Springsteen song, with the bells ringing and the music ready to be used on a road trip mixtape immediately. My God I'm such a softie too, that damn video got me right up to the edge of tearing up over the superintendent from Coming to America losing his wife but having a good day reintroducing himself to his town. Criminy. But the tunes are good, a lot of them have that same driving feeling, and I repeatedly think that the organ/ synth is just about to start playing the lick from "Walk of Life." Good album, I like it all.
The fine folks at C3 are always working out kinks in the viewing experience, even years after the launch of the festival. Last year they added in a kiddie entrance and moved the Kiddie Limits stage over into the woods closer to Barton Creek. This year, as you can see from the handy graphic that I borrowed from their announcement e-mail, they've expanded the southern border of the grounds and added in another entire entrance to the park. Which is awesome. The more lanes to enter the park, the better, because no one wants to wait in lines instead of jamming to tunes. But I'm very interested to see what that is like, having a strip of road right in the middle of the crowd for the Barton Springs stage, that will be weird. Hopefully its no big deal - I'll get to check it out in person on Friday afternoon to see Royal Blood - but it seems like that would be weird to be standing in the middle of Barton Springs Road during a show. It'll also make traversing the grounds a little more difficult, just in that there is more acreage to walk through, but hopefully that annoyance is offset by the fact that the crowd will therefore be more spread out and you won't have those painful choke points from past years. They also claim that the change in stage location will help with sound bleed so that the shows won't interfere with each other. On board with that as well. Let's do this!
I made it! We survived! Done-Zo! Hail to the king, baby!
111 bands, singers, rappers, and other oddities, listened to and dissected and discussed in posts about all of the bands to come to ACL's Weekend One. Only two artists were added to the lineup since I printed out my copy of the lineup, and one was removed, so I guess I really did 112 posts about artists. Good stuff. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I enjoy checking out the new tunes and then blathering on about them.
Always such a freeing moment, in part because of the other music I've been saving up like flood waters in my New Stuff queue on Spotify. So yesterday I finally listened to the new Arcade Fire (super awesome, wish they would be at ACL this year), the new Waxahatchee (also very good), and then went back to the new Royal Blood for some more. And today is going to be all Queens of the Stone Age new disc all day. It is already awesome and makes me want to go fight Hurricane Harvey with my bare fists. So, next I'll be putting together some posts about each day, linking up my thoughts into time slots and giving suggestions for who I think you should see in each time slot for each day. Always a good time. Then I'll check on the beer and food options to see if there is anything new to discuss, and I still need to show you the changes they've made to the park to better accommodate the masses and control the crowds. All coming soon! Someone buy me a beer!
One Liner: Alt country and rock and roll goodness by the ton Wikipedia Genre: Rock, alternative country, folk rock Spotify Says Similar To:Whiskeytown and Josh Ritter Home: Chicago, I think. Poster Position: 26 Slot: Sunday at 4:30 pm
Thoughts: I really like Ryan Adams. I know a bunch of people who really deeply dislike him, but I thought alt country starter band Whiskeytown was great and then later listened to Adam's solo album Gold more times than I can count. The hardest things about liking Adams is that (1) he appears to be a big fat dickhead; and (2) he puts out so much damn music that he dilutes the excellent with the mediocre. To that second point, here is his discography:
Heartbreaker (2000)
Gold (2001)
Demolition (2002)
Rock N Roll (2003)
Love Is Hell (2004) [although this was actually released in two separate EPs and then later combined, which was annoying]
Cold Roses (2005)
Jacksonville City Nights (2005)
29 (2005)
Easy Tiger (2007)
Cardinology (2008)
Orion (2010)
III/IV (2010)
Ashes & Fire (2011)
Ryan Adams (2014)
1989 (2015)
Prisoner (2017)
Almost an album a year. And some of those albums, Gold, Heartbreaker, Easy Tiger, and Prisoner, have a bunch of excellent tunes on them. But trying to keep up with all of that music makes your head spin and you stop wanting to keep track of which album is which. I feel like Adams would benefit greatly by cutting back on the output and honing his best songs into his best albums instead of rapid firing them out. He's been nominated for a couple Grammys, but has yet to bring home any statues. (He also had a band for a bit called The Finger, and their album was called We Are Fuck You. How can you not appreciate that artistry?)
Before I get to the solo world, let me provide a note on Whiskeytown. The band only put out three albums, all with Adams as the frontman, before he left to pursue his solo stuff. I remember seeing their ACL taping when I lived in Dallas, and absolutely falling for "16 Days" and "Yesterday's News." I found those tracks on Napster and played the hell out of them as I also started to understand the Americana world through KHYI in Dallas, and so Whiskeytown just has the sound of Americana to me. "16 Days" is greatness.
Great harmonies, excellent build up, just a solid song of longing. But, that was then, this is the solo stuff that features just Adams (and likely his band the Cardinals).
2000's Heartbreaker has several songs that are also perfect pop rock Americana songs, like "Oh My Sweet Carolina," "Come Pick Me Up," and the Dylan-esque "To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High)." Of those three, I'm going to give you the longing lovely sadness of "Come Pick Me Up." Has 12.9 million streams.
Damn, son. I mean, that chorus of "Come pick me up. Take me out. Fuck me up. Steal my records. Screw all my friends. They're all full of shit. With a smile on your face. And then do it again. I wish you would." Just gave me goosebumps listening to it again. I don't know why, but the "steal my records" bit of that is the devastating portion I always remember, which is silly when compared to her boning all of his friends. And when the start of "In My Time of Need" kicks up, I get all excited that Adams is covering Townes Van Zandt, but no such luck. Very good album.
The 2001's Gold, which was released Sept. 25, 2001 added to that same type of rock/Americana sound, with more tender songs and more jangly, fun rock. "New York, New York" was a love song to the city, released just right after the twin towers fell. Not that it explicitly mentioned them, or 9/11 or whatever, it was just a pure love song to the city that hit at the right time. "La Cienega Just Smiled" is a beauty, as is "Harder Now That Its Over" and "When the Stars Go Blue." "Gonna Make You Love Me," "Answering Bell," the whole album is just full of good stuff. I soundtracked two big road trips with this album right around then, one a drive from San Francisco to Austin in a convertible (which was an amazing trip, should you be so inclined) and the other a group-in-a-van trip to Salt Lake City for the winter Olympics. So I have a lot of good memories of these tunes. I'll give you the most listened-to track, the beauty "When the Stars Go Blue," which has 19.3 million streams.
That is a live version, with a guy named Neal Casal, which doesn't have the most pristine sound, but I liked the spare version with the double guitar picking. So nice. Also a very good album. If you are trying to understand the Adams appeal, spend a few hours with those first two albums and see what you think.
But then the next few albums (Demolition and Rock N Roll) were pretty forgettable and/or annoying. Nothing on Rock N Roll has more than a million streams, and most of the album is pretty shrill. Demolition was a collection of songs from several unreleased albums, and it has that lack of cohesion. Love is Hell was the next one, which was released in two separate EPs, and I remember buying the first one without realizing that it was only part one and now I didn't have the whole album and I wanted the entire earth to burn in a blue fire from the anus of a dead dragon zombie. But, I will admit that Love is Hell boasted a few good tracks that I liked, especially his cover of "Wonderwall," which I still use for playlists and is the version of that song I sing to my kids as a lullaby. At 50 million streams, it is his most popular track on Spotify by a large margin.
So good. I love Oasis in the first place, so this feeds me anyway, but that version of it is damn fine. The next album was 2005's 29, and it was forgettable (and short), but the next one is his third best album in my opinion, 2007's Easy Tiger. This one has "Two" and "Everybody Knows" as the "hits," even though they don't even really have that many plays in comparison to other hits. "Two" is the one that was played all the time on local radio, but I like "Everybody Knows" better. 1.7 million streams.
The album is mostly a shuffling kind of alt country that barely ever really edges up to rock. Well, no, "Halloweenhead," rocks out, but the disc is mostly more chilled. Like a good Neil Young album from the classic days. Of note, Adams was apparently mixing heroin with cocaine and snorting it, along with abuse of alcohol and pills, during this period of his career. Holy shit man. Having never done either, maybe I'm overreacting, but it seems like mixing horse with coke is a recipe for instant death that involves spraying blood from the nose. Don't do speedballs, kids.
Cardinology has him going in a more blues rock vein, like he had been listening to a lot of the Black Keys at the time. "Fix It" was the radio hit from this one, which is pretty good too. 730k streams.
Hahahaha! Look at the size of the amp behind him as he is playing. THIS ONE GOES TO 11! Live version, but you get the gist, more brawny rock than most of the tender tunes I've been showing you so far. He did two more albums of music with the Cardinals, that strangely aren't included on Spotify. But homeboy quit on the Cardinals (or disbanded them, or whatever) apparently partially because he was going to quit touring because he had Meniere's disease, which causes vertigo, tinnitus, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. That sounds super shitty. He probably got it from snorting weird shit.
During his hiatus, he married Mandy Moore (since divorced) and moved to LA. When he actually decided that he was in to music after all, he released a "metal influenced" album called Orion, which Wikipedia says was issued on vinyl only. So I've never heard it. And it seems like that might be a good thing.
Strange thing, pretty sure I have never even heard of 2011's Ashes and Fire, much less actually heard the album, and yet the average song play count is significantly higher than either Easy Tiger or Cardinology. I think I just got fatigued and quit trying out the new albums, but maybe I missed out here. It makes me think of Norah Jones, with the pervasive piano licks in here, this is more of a laid back set of songs than the last few albums. Ha! Wikipedia says that Norah Jones and Benmont Tench (from the Heartbreakers) were contributors to the album. Pretty weird that Norah Jones is so distinctive on the piano, but she just is. It's actually a pretty good album.
2014 brought us to the self-titled album, which goes back to the more guitar-centered sound, both in the acoustic ballads and the electric rockers, on the hits "Gimme Something Good" and "My Wrecking Ball." Here is the latter, which fires up 10.4 million streams.
As usual, his ballads have such a deep sense of sadness to them. I mean, I know that the lyrics themselves are kind of sad, but Adams does a damn good job of conveying emotion just through the arrangement that the lyrics live in. Even if that was an instrumental, I feel like you'd know it was sad.
Among all of this time, by the way, if you feel like hearing some live Ryan Adams licks, the dude put out Live at Carnegie Hall, which has 42 tracks, as well as multiple albums called Live After Deaf, each with the city where they were recorded in the title, that provide hundreds more versions of his songs. Its totally overwhelming.
2015 found the strangest release of all of these albums, and yet one of my personal favorites in the catalog. Adams covered the entire Taylor Swift album 1989 - the whole thing, not just one song like a normal cover - and its actually pretty awesome. I just had a conversation with someone about it, and we were both discussing how it created a new appreciation for just how great Taylor Swift is, because when all of the pop beats and electronic flourishes and breathy vocals are stripped away, you're left with some pretty damn solid lyrics that are relate able and well-crafted. Adams just strips them down to the core, and it is great. It's funny, because I've heard the originals many times in the car with my daughters, but to hear the hits transformed is kind of fascinating. Here is "Bad Blood."
19.2 million streams for that song (while the original only has 16.2 million - because TayTay hates on Spotify and removed her stuff for a few years and only just recently reloaded it all. I bet the real streaming number for her album is three times the current population of the planet). "Blank Space," "Shake it Off," "Wildest Dreams," "Out of the Woods," there are a bunch more of these versions by Adams that are really good.
And finally you get to the most recent album, 2017's Prisoner (and the recently released 17-track long Prisoner B-Sides album also available on Spotify). Three of the songs are already getting quite a bit of play around Austin, "Do You Still Love Me?," "Shiver and Shake," and "To Be Without You," each of which has just over 5 million streams. I think, of the three, I prefer the last one.
Its funny. Now that I look back at this post, I realize that many of these albums have a rocker that is popular and a more chilled tune that is popular, and pretty much without exception I seem to pick the chilled tune and not the rocker for my preferred track. Interesting. BUT I WON'T APOLOGIZE! SUCK IT, ROCKIN' RYAN FANS! Actually, I like the rockin' songs too, but I think the ballads are just so damn good.
Going back to the point, very long ago in this post, that Adams is apparently a dickhead, Wikipedia lists a few different times that he courted CONTROVERSY, including an anecdote where he apparently got pissed off at a fan who yelled for him to play a Bryan Adams song, had the lights turned on, found the guy, paid him $30 as a refund for his ticket, and waited until he left the building. Adams claims the guy was drunk and yelling during quiet parts of the set, but I like the first version better and plan to scream "CUTS LIKE A KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!" over and over during his set in October. It'll be great.
One Liner: Soulful lite rock guy from Canada who apparently likes cars Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia page, going with rock? Spotify Says Similar To:Noah Kahan and Loote Home: Ontario Poster Position: none, new addition. Slot: Sunday at 11:45 am
Thoughts: Only two songs to judge him by, but its a pretty nice, soulful sort of rock. His dad apparently won the 2006 Bon Jovi “Have a Nice Gig” competition, which led to him opening for a weird bunch of artists, with The Allman Brothers, Joe Cocker, Counting Crows, and Chris Isaak on one end of the spectrum, and Kid Rock, Nickelback, and Uncle Kracker over on the other end. Weird. Anyway, this is that dude's son. I'd say that, of that list, the kid is more Joe Cocker than Kid Rock. With only two songs, let's give 'em a listen, shall we? First up, "Dark Four Door," his most recent single, which has 847k streams and kind of creeps me out.
I'M LOOKING FOR YOU. Don't think you can hide that dark four door car from me, because I'm hunting for you and I WILL FIND YOU. Something about his vocal delivery is very full, like Meatloaf or, well, maybe Joe Cocker. Then, his more popular tune is "Driver," which cranks up 2.4 million streams.
The rotation in that video makes me feel sick. Weird that both songs have to do with cars/driving. I wonder if he works in a mechanic's shop somewhere and just soulfully sings his tunes to himself and scribbles down song ideas on the whitewalls before he installs them facing in. And, seems like that video must have cost some coin, or else he has a really good CGI guy who owes him some money (for free whitewall installation). These songs are fine, but I'm not going to be there before noon on Sunday, so I won't be seeing this guy.
One Liner: Snappy pop indie girl group that I like despite myself Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia page, going with pop rock? Spotify Says Similar To:Machineheart and Ralph Home: Utah Poster Position: none, new addition. Slot: Friday at 1:15 pm
Thoughts: Interesting, in that Wikipedia has "Ace (band)," which is a 1970's British rock group, "The Aces (blues band)," "The Aces (Jamaican group)," and a buttload of other uses for the name Aces, but none are the Provo, Utah-based girl group who comes up on Spotify, which is also the band described on the ACL bio. They should probably consider a new band name. Two sisters and then two other childhood friends, who apparently cut their teeth in music playing all ages and alcohol-free shows in Utah. Only one four song EP, that sounds kind of like the dance rock pop of HAIM. Check their second most listened-to track, "Physical," which has racked up 1.6 million streams.
Sounds like something I've heard before from Days Are Gone, but who the hell cares, that tune is kind of a jam. I can easily see them getting the crowd bouncing to that tune at the Festival. I'd dance like Molly Ringwald to it. I just went back and has another listen before finally posting this, and yes, still makes me bob my head and want to groove. Their most popular tune is called "Stuck," and fires up 3.6 million streams on Spotify. According to their bio, its a tune about toxic relationships.
More of that kind of disco-fied pop dance music. And not that I'm a drummer or anything, but you'd have to think that the girl behind the kit is pretty bored in both of these songs. But both of those are undeniable little dance nuggets. They have a handful of YouTube videos of behind the scenes for filming videos and interviews and whatnot, and they seem like pretty down-to-earth ladies. Although when I look at the screen-capture for that video, it looks like Aubrey Plaza fronts this band, but then when she is out of her makeup, she looks like a regular senior in high school out to walk the dog. I'll probably be watching Band of Heathens, or maybe Sigrid, instead, but I could make a case for going and enjoying these ladies for a good time dance party.
One Liner: Four gospel ladies from Houston (not the rap group, the hardcore metal group, or the world music group) Wikipedia Genre: gospel Spotify Says Similar To:No Spotify, so I don't know who this is similar to. Home: Houston Poster Position: 25 Slot: Friday, 11:30 (the very first band of the whole weekend)
Thoughts: Aw man, I got caught in the same trap again as 2015, thinking that this was going to be the sweet Christian rap group that is available on Spotify. Here is my 2015 review, that just made me laugh out loud all over again. But I did just get to jam "To Da Dome" again, and it still rulez. According to the ACL bio page, the actual Disciples of Christ that we will be hearing is a Houston, Texas gospel group made up of four lovely ladies. Searching for these folks on YouTube brings you to some interesting stuff. Here is a band called Disciples of Christ, who I am pretty sure is not a Houston gospel group.
That kind of stuff makes me giggle. Who really wants to hear any of that? BBBBBWWWAAAAAAAA!!!! GGWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Gggrrr gggrgggglll nnnrrggrggddd!!! The band's "full set" is 13 minutes. Killing it! The majority of other music on YouTube for this band name is the rap group mentioned above. But here is another band using the name, who appears to be singing in a non-English language. French maybe?
Ah, wait, now I see. You have to search for Disciples of Christ Houston. They really should look into one of the other infinite names out there that have yet to be claimed by multiple other bands.
Here's a little action from the Stubb's BBQ stage - I assume this is part of the gospel brunch thing they do on Sundays. The person shooting this video is using what I call "Puke Mode" on the camera, wiggling the hell out of it and coming in for random close ups. Just set the phone on the table and prop it up and let her roll, man. But, regarding the tunes, they've got nice voices and can harmonize well. I won't be there at 11:30 on Friday to see them, but they will be the absolute first sounds that anyone hears at Austin City Limits 2017, so you might get the chance to be there and get baptized with these ladies.
One Liner: Lovely indie pop that switches between groove and sorrow. Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, indie electronic, dream pop, electronic rock Spotify Says Similar To:Foals and Metronomy Home: London Poster Position: 2 Slot: Friday, 8:15p
Thoughts: I remember discussing this band a few times previously, including in a review of their most recent album, 2017's I See You. I also recall making fun of the fact that their top song is an instrumental introductory track called, wait for it, "Intro," but then yesterday I see an article stating that "Intro" is the greatest, most important song of all time. They really do argue that it is "one of the greatest songs of all time." GTFOH. The reasons offered in the article:
"The fact is, "Intro" has been on a mix you once made, because the song makes you feel alive." Again, GTFOH. You know what else was on a mix I once made? The fucking Spin Doctors. Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do I Do It For You," for crying out loud. I wish I still had all of the mix tapes I gave to girls, because I bet even more cringeworthy stuff is on there that I can't recall right now. Point one in this argument is shit. Is "More than Words" one of the greatest songs of all time? No. Just no.
"Rihanna samples "Intro" throughout her 2012 song "Drunk on Love."" You know what else Rihanna sampled? Avril damn Lavigne (on "Cheers (Drink to That)"), the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme song, and flipping Korn. Don't try to tell me that being sampled by Rihanna should lend your 2 minute instrumental a special gravitas in the history of mankind.
YouTubers have created a "seamless edit lasting 2:45 hours" or another that lasts ten hours. Yes, because a song gets infinitely better when you drill it into your head like a Guantanamo-style torture session.
"Soon after the world caught on to the short but mighty track, it was notably everywhere. It was used in the 2010 comedy/drama It's Kind Of A Funny Story during a drawing scene." This one actually seems to hold water, as Wikipedia mentions a bunch of other places (that are significantly more well known than that one movie) it was used. But so what? Again, the Spin Doctors had "Two Princes" all over the place back in the day, including in feature movies "So I Married an Axe Murderer," "Love and Other Drugs," and "Sesame Street."
"It's the definition of "epic minimalism": A song that feels only mightier and more massive for the scarcity of musical elements actually present in its construction." Here is the worst point of all five. "Dude, silence is totally mighty because the musical instruments used in it is like, scarce, bro." All of the xx songs are pretty low on ornamentation and excess. This just makes no sense to me.
The fact is, its actually a pretty great song. I enjoy it too. But to add it to the pantheon of greatest songs of all time is just dumb. Here, give it a shot, with its 199.7 million streams.
That is the two hour and forty five minute version, so just let it roll and see if you want to die after an hour. It really is a great groove. And that is the best part of these tunes overall, the groove. The album opener for the most recent album, 2017's I See You, is a track called "Dangerous" that fires out as a horn-laced groove that makes me want to shimmy around at my desk. Then, "Say Something Loving" is more of a slow burner of traded verses and echo-ey instrumentation. The hit from that new album, which isn't as popular as multiple tracks from the two older albums, is "On Hold," with 65.1 million streams.
Filmed in and about Marfa, I had some good commentary on that in my prior review of the new album. Suffice it to say that the transformation of Marfa from no-wheresville West Texas to the kind of place that a dream pop group of Brits would want to film their video is just damn weird.
The interesting thing is that their first album appears to be the most popular, in terms of number of listens. Oh shit. In the three hours since I started writing this post, the streams for "Intro" went from 199.7 million streams to 200.2! Half a million streams today? Was this the most popular eclipse soundtrack song for the entire world? So crazy. Anyway, the numbers are like this:
2009's XX:
619 million streams total (ish, I rounded down on each number)
avg. per song: 56.3 million
Hi: 200.2 million; Lo: 24.2 million
2012's Coexist:
342 million streams total
31.1 million avg. per song
Hi: 108 million; Lo: 13 million
2017's I See You:
189 million streams total
18.9 million avg. per song
Hi: 65 million; Lo: 7 million.
Obviously, XX has been out longer, so people could listen more, but even if you took out the greatest song ever, that first album would still be the tops. Not sure that any of this matters, I just found it interesting, I guess because my Twitter feed made it sound like Jesus was back when these guys put out their new album, and I didn't even know who they were. Lets do something from that second album. Here is "Angels," with 108.1 million streams.
Damn, son. Put that shit on a mixtape and you're gonna be swimming in ass. Screw the "Intro" tune, when she sings about "being as in love with you as I am," I feel like she means it. And so will the ladies.
This band reminds of the Cure in their sound, as though Sarah McLaughlin fronted a new super version of that band once Robert Smith heads off to clown school. I think it is mainly the guitar work on these songs, kind of plucky in a way that reminds me of the Cure. Like on "Crystalised," which sounds like Alt-J, the Cure, and Sarah hooked up to do a quiet practice session for a benefit concert to help puppies.
The band won the Mercury Prize for 2010, for that debut album (which I just talked about with Skepta, it is the top album of the year for the UK and Ireland). Pretty impressive. Two of the members (the two who aren't Jamie xx), Romy Croft and Oliver Sim (which are such very Brit names) were apparently raised as friends from birth and independently started making music before deciding to go in together on it with a girl-boy group. They originally just sang over a computer drumtrack, but early fan Jamie Smith came on board to make electronic tracks for them to sing over. Jamie Smith became Jamie xx, who does solo music on the side now, including a well-regarded album in 2015 (In Colour) that did nothing for me when I reviewed it. From reading a few interviews, the band members seem endearingly awkward and introverted, which seems perfect for this brand of chilly, dreamy pop. Seems like all of the songs on the older two albums could be about love or missing love. The new album has more bounce and fun to me, and I like it even more, but there are some real beauties on the old ones. I know I won't go see this show, just because I really want to go see Jay-Z, but I totally would go check them out. I like the tunes. You should just go listen to the top ten on Spotify, you'll like it.
One Liner: Folky, beautiful indie rock from the Seattle crew behind that "Lost in my Mind" song Wikipedia Genre: Indie folk, folk rock, and indie rock Spotify Says Similar To:Blind Pilot and Dawes Home: Seattle Poster Position: 3 Slot: Sunday at 6:15pm
Thoughts: I've seen these guys live before twice (once at FFF, then in 2014 for ACL), and enjoyed it thoroughly each time. They are pretty gentle and lovely, but they really put on a good show anyway. And their new album is a little more lively. I reviewed that new album (2016's Signs of Light) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I also previously did a review of them for that 2014 show, so I won't go back into my review of their first album either, because I kind of already did that. (but I still love "Library Magic," for what thats worth). So what can we still talk about, if I've already reviewed all of their albums and gotten into some backstory? Let's go deeper into the backstory for a bit. First, here is their most popular track on Spotify for you to play as you read:
"All We Ever Knew," with 37.5 million streams (although several songs from their first album end up having more streams, that is the currently most popular one on Spotify). I like it. The band is from Seattle, and formed in the summer of 2009. Oddly, their Wikipedia page says that the lead singer has been on hiatus since March 2016 because of drug addiction-related issues. Which seems like it would make it hard for them to show up at the Fest as a band. According to this Feb. 22, 2017 article, he is still out. Their website gives an interesting bio, explaining that they all pretty well shot off in different directions in 2014 after four years of non-stop touring, but then came back together to make the new album. Although, sadly, it doesn't even mention that lead singer (Josiah Johnson) until the very end in mentioning that he wrote the title track for their most recent album (which is a very lovely track, by the way, sounds like the good version of Coldplay). Feels kind of like a bummer. I can't find any news saying that he is back with the band, so who knows what their live show will sound like these days with a new singer. Here is the most listened to track from their sophomore album, 2013's Let's Be Still. This is "Another Story," which has 23.2 streams.
They just make really pretty music. I can see people not liking it, just because their tastes are different, but it really is a lovely style that is well executed by these folks. I hope that Johnson gets his stuff together and comes back to the band. Sadly, I already know I'm not going to see them play this year, as they are up against Run the Jewels. RTJ MOFO!!!
One Liner: Dear Lord, I hate these dudes. Every freaking year. Wikipedia Genre: Not on Wikipedia, but bad kiddie rap is their genre Spotify Says Similar To:Bonga & the Voodoo Drums of Haiti (no lie) and The Dream Jam Band. Home: Chicago, I think. Poster Position: 26 Slot: Sunday at 4:30 pm
The 2014 one is going to have the most information, I think. Just one album, 2006's The Feel Good Album of the Year. Eleven years ago. No one listens to it except for me, I think, as the most listened to track is up to 3,216 streams, and I have a feeling 25 of those have been me over the years, suffering through this shit. Here comes the most recent video I could find:
A description about what they have made as a re-do of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Its like Hamilton in Hell. I will not further describe any of this.
One Liner: German combo of singer/songwriter with pop electronica that works well. Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, electronic, reggae, folk Indie (Reggae? Really?) Spotify Says Similar To:The Griswolds and Vance Joy Home: Kassel, Germany Poster Position: 4 Slot: Sunday, 4:15
Thoughts: Huh. I thought for sure that these guys had already played ACL in the past few years, but apparently I'm losing my memory in my advanced age. I reviewed their debut album, 2014's Sadnecessary, a while back, and I wouldn't say I was in love with it. You've heard of these guys, or at least you've heard one of their songs, unless you've been living under a rock. "Stolen Dance" is their big hit, and even years after its release, the alternative rock station here in Austin continues to play the damn thing, over and over again.
Definitely catchy tune, don't get me wrong, but it just seems odd that it is still in constant rotation when Sugar have been relegated to the poppy rock dustbin of history. Tragic. But, that tune has 346 million streams on Spotify, and another 328 million views of that video on YouTube, so it is a true and legitimate hit. Two other tunes from that older album break the 50 million stream mark, "Flashed Junk Mind" and "Down by the River," both of which are also nice little pop rock numbers, but nothing too terribly memorable. They all use some acoustic guitar picking over the top of electronic beat machines. Which I suppose makes sense, since the band is made up of two guitarists and a DJ. They are from Germany, which was also kind of a surprise to me. But the combination makes it sound like you have a kind of regular sounding singer/songwriter who is playing lovely little acoustic tunes with his guitar, but then someone remixed those with electronic beats. Wait, that is just wait this sounds like - remixes. Check out the most popular track from the new album, with 74.1 million streams, this is "Cocoon."
So, what the hell is up with that video? Weird people in white clothes live and work (?) in an abandoned factory in the woods, and one of them finds a passed out girl, who ends up being able to transform scarves into baller gold chains while she sleeps, so the head factory worker guy eats an apple like a zombie with a fresh liver, and then gets a crapton of scarves, so then the girl throws up a handful of teeth (? they might also be diced onions?), but then goes ahead and converts all the new scarves to gangster gold, which the factory people turn into golden tuna cans, but the girl is real sad and barfs some more teeth, and the apple guy now has a shitton of apples that he is in love with, but now one of the workers feels sad about tooth barfing girl, so he goes to free her, and she's turned into non-gold and non-onion rocks. So, there you have it. The story of the golden rock goose girl and the apple man. Just out of curiosity, I also looked up what was up with their name. Here is a great interview of their first time in America, where they got to watch Jets football fans tailgate and explain their name. And the story of how they came up with the name is extremely boring. Clemens: I came up with some artists names when I was younger just for fun. When we started making music, I just went with that one.
And now you have to live with it forever.
Philipp: Yeah, I'm not sure, maybe we should change it.
Clemens: Yeah…
Philipp: I don't think we care that much about names, but Milky Chance is not the best name.
So there you have it. Made up by a child and neither of them actually like it. PERFECT! I think its actually about jizz, they're just scared to mention it now that they've become big time. After running through their two albums a few times while writing this, I've come around on them. This really is catchy pop music that sounds pretty good. It's just such an odd juxtaposition: the heartfelt, singer/songwriter, lyrical, acoustic music, set to electronic beats and boops. Some of the new album kind of reminds me of the direction that Coldplay has taken recently, where they use a rock song's basic structure but then add a dance party of electronica underneath. For example, see "Clouds."
Doesn't that sound like something Chris Martin and company would be bouncing around the stage to right now in a video? I think so. Overall, I've enjoyed listening to these guys more, and would consider checking them out in the fall. They're up against Dram and Skip Marley, so I suspect that I'll be checking them out in person.
One Liner: The king rapper of UK Grime Wikipedia Genre: Grime, British hip hop Spotify Says Similar To:Jme (who happens to be his brother) and Lethal Bizzle Home: Tottenham, England Poster Position: 6 Slot: Friday, 5:15pm
Thoughts: Prior to recently, about the only Brit rapper I could have named was The Streets. I reviewed this guy's most recent album (2016's Konnichiwa) not that long ago, and really liked it. My favorite line of my own review (if I do say so myself), is this one: "Oooh, and when the beat kicks in on "Detox," I want to go creep around Surrey in a low slung Vauxhall and brandish Walther PPKs at other gingers before robbing a bank with Jason Statham." Truth. Here, try it out for yourself.
From spacey to some deep ass bass that must be respekkted immediately without question. I honestly can't understand half of the words that he is saying. His accent is so thick that I hear some bits and pieces, but then I miss entire bars tangled into random consonants. But that doesn't mean I don't feel like a bad ass while listening to it and imagining myself stalking around that grimy park at the start of Order of the Phoenix, gun turned sideways, popping caps in dementors like a boss. And then having my soul sucked through my nose because dementors don't care about gats. But, that track right there isn't anywhere near his most popular on Spotify (I just liked it) at only 4 million streams. His biggest track is "Shutdown," at 39.6 million streams.
The opening bit of this track makes me laugh, just because the lyrics are so tough, but that happy little synth bit doesn't match it at all. Like someone taking the Smurf's theme and then putting Geto Boy lyrics to it. Actually, that might work... Despite the humor, I dig the track. Tough and tight. I dig when he talks about someone trying to show him their Fendi, and he shoots them down, saying it doesn't impress him. Respekkt. That 2016 album is good. One other note about the Konnichiwa album, it won the 2016 Mercury Prize, which goes to the best album from the UK or Ireland. So, that's a pretty cool thing, winning the best album of the year for the homeland. I feel like he does a very good job of making the chorus something you can jam to with your hands up and screaming with your people. "It Ain't Safe" is the best example of that, with the repeat holler of "it ain't safe on the block, not even for the cops," over a grimy bass rumble and light high hats. Looking forward to screaming that in a crowd. He can also drop some clunker bars, like on his most recent new single, "Hypocrisy," where he raps that "I got 15 different iPhones but I am so not phony." Uuuuuughhhh. I'm gonna give you one more, because I think you need another legit banger to throw up your finger gats to. Here is the third most listened to track (after "Shutdown" and "That's Not Me") "Man," with 24.2 million streams.
If you aren't the greatest real fan of all time of Skepta, THEN DON'T FREAKING TALK TO HIM MAN! He only hangs with his posse, and hates you if you want pics for Instagram. Also, that video reminds me of some lovely "graffiti" that is near my house. There is a section of sidewalk nearby that is etched with the lovely sentiment of "FUCK YOU" and "SMOKE WEED." That was neat, when my kids could finally read, and the oldest one threw me some side eye as we walked the dog over that portion of the sidewalk. Thanks a lot, unoriginal ass kids (and the guys that Skepta hangs out with, apparently). Before this album, he had a bunch of what look like mixtapes. 2012's Blacklisted doesn't even list track names on Spotify. The cover of 2009's Microphone Champion looks like my 6 year old made it on the iPad. But 2007's Greatest Hits is a cheeky title for a first album. The most popular track from those old albums is "I Spy," from Greatest Hits, with 12.6 million streams.
Which is interesting, because it means that two different artists on the 6th line of the ACL poster (Skepta and SuperDuperKyle) both have rap songs called "I Spy." Maybe they'll do a sweet mashup and then fight to the death to win their home countries the right of ownership over the entire Virgin Islands. You know what I have been failing to look at all year? The YouTube artist insights thing. Dammit. I need to make a predictions post for next year's lineup that uses that. Remind me later. Now that I recalled this, I just went and checked his, and here is an interesting thing - top city is no surprise, London, but then four of the top six cities are all in Poland. WTF? Why would he be huge with the Poles? Holy shit, this is why, YouTube is mistakenly listing this jenky Skepta homage song by some Polish dudes as an actual Skepta song:
Key line: "You're wearing tracksuits and that sucks. I'm rocking tracksuits like Skepta." What the shit is that? Leaving out the weird Polish stuff, I'd definitely go jam out to Skepta in the park in October. "IT AIN'T SAFE ON THE BLOCK, NOT EVEN FOR THE COPS!" "FUCK THAT I AIN'T A CHIPPENDALE!" "KONNICHIWA BITCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" Ah, except that now that the schedule has been released, and I'm going to see Royal Blood. That sucks, even worse than you wearing tracksuits.
I've talked about my love for the Fleet Foxes several times, and so I was pretty excited when I saw that they would be coming to town, and playing the best venue around for that type of harmonic, beautiful indie rock. I took the wife, knowing that she would actually enjoy a show like that, and scored seats up in the balcony that were pretty close to center stage. The opening act was a group called Bedouine, which was a lovely lady playing guitar and singing while three dudes behind her tried their hardest not to doze off while they brushed drums and tickled keys. It was truly lovely music, but so chill and light. No lie, a girl in the row behind us fell asleep on the guy next to her. Out cold. The wife and I just kept giggling about how the whole theater was about to pass out and sleep right through the Foxes. So we went and got more drinks instead. The Foxes came out and they looked great, the instrumentation was awesome, the harmonies were tight, but up in the balcony, the level of echo and distortion that was used on the two microphones was so high that I honestly couldn't tell if Robin was singing in English or not. My wife was seriously confused about what he was saying, and she was bummed because she had just read an article about how Pecknold had left the band to go to Columbia, and then came back with a bunch of deep literary references in his lyrics. But he might as well have been singing in French for as much as we could tell, the echo and reverb was just so high on the mics. I still loved the show, mainly because I already knew the words to half the songs and so it didn't matter if I couldn't quite catch his diction, but when he played songs from the second album, Helplessness Blues, I was just lost at understanding what he was talking about. I talked to two friends who saw the show from the floor, and they said that the lyrics were crystal clear for them. Bummer. I was also surprised at how big of an actual show they made it. You know, we're talking about a pretty quiet band, using harmony and lovely intricate musicianship to weave beauty in their songs. We aren't talking about a band that is going to thrash around and dance and kick. And they didn't try to pull that sort of thing off (like the bummer First Aid Kit show where those girls tried to headbang and just came off badly), but they had a pretty legit light show and changing backdrop that made the stage interesting, and then they moved around enough to give you something interesting to look at as well. Probably my favorite bit of the show was when everyone else left the stage and Robin Pecknold (the lead singer) stayed on with just his acoustic guitar and killed the "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song." So stinkin' good. This isn't from my show, but you'll get the flavor of the tune in solo form.
Loved the show, and I'll try to avoid the balcony in the future, in case there is an acoustics issue up there for all shows. You should go check the band out, and if you are looking to try their albums out, go for the first one.
