Molly Burch

One Liner: Torchy tunes with a sad bend but a nice voice.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, Indie rock
Home:  Austin

Poster Position: 24
Day: Saturday at Noon
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: Her name sounds familiar, like she is a DJ on the local radio or something.  Wikipedia doesn't mention that, but I found this saying she had done an hour of guest DJing at KUTX.  I wonder if I actually happened across that and it stayed in my brain?  Weird.  

Anywho, this is kind of throwback sounding torchy music - lovely voice, simple arrangements, Nina Simone or Lana Del Rey without the electronics.  Or Mallory from Natural Born Killers when she sings in jail.  I had my daughter up here at the office yesterday and was still listening to this one, and she listened intently for about 5 seconds, asked me what I was listening to, and then said "this song is, uh, OK?"  So, not a ringing endorsement from a ten year old.

One album 2017's Please Be Mine, and the top track in her Spotify is the title track from that same album.  Just over a million streams.

I mean, its damn pretty.  Sad as shit.  But super lovely to listen to.

Her second-most streamed tune is called "Downhearted," and appears originally on a two song single (also called Downhearted) that popped up in 2016.  It is also the album opener on her new disc.  About 1.1 million streams.

Another with that kind of surfy guitar, her torchy vocals, and sad ass lyrics.  I've left this playing in my office for a few days, and its quite nice to have going on in the background.  I don't know that I'd necessarily want to see it at a festival, seems like you'd be all bummed out by the end and needing a couple stiff cocktails, but for listening at home or the office, this is good stuff.

Janelle Monae

One Liner: Funky, freaky bad ass melting styles into great pop soul grooves.

Wikipedia Genre: Funk, R&B, psychedelic soul, hip-hop
Home:  Atlanta

Poster Position: 5
Day: Sunday at 4:00
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: Hot damn.  I don't know what I expected from this.  Well, that isn't entirely true, I was expecting some pop R&B stuff - fluff, empty, soulless.  This ain't that.  Sexy, cool, lyrically interesting, and with varied sounds of soul, rap, rock, R&B, all-the-above-at-once.  You hear snippets of Stevie Wonder ("Ghetto Woman"), Madonna ("Screwed"), Prince ("Make Me Feel," and many more), Beyonce ("I Like That"), some Jackson 5 era Michael Jackson ("It's Code"), Kendrick Lamar ("Django Jane"), Erykah Badu ("I Got That Juice," among others) - all over the map of people with distinct voices that she channels at different times.  In fact, "Americans" sounds like just about all of them at once.  I had zero expectation of enjoying this, and yet now I'm still listening to these albums three days later.  She is legit good.

Well, I won't say that I love all of the older stuff as much as the new album.  The new album is excellent.  2018's Dirty Computer is some cool future funk stuff born of her love for Prince but reaching out way beyond that music.  She's got weird collaborators, from a Beach Boy to Lenny Kravtiz's daughter to Pharrell.  But I fully enjoy it.  All ten of her most popular songs on Spotify are from this album.  I'll give you the top one, the highly cool "Make Me Feel."  29 million streams.

You feel that Prince/Janet Jackson shit right there?  I love it.  Funky, groovy, bold, badass.  This is the only album where she doesn't seem to have a concept going on behind the music.  Older albums have a theme/concept, usually based on android/humanoids as allegory to those who are different in society (I think, anyway).  But I mean, come on.  That song is good.  And "Pynk," "I Like That," "Django Jane," and "I Got that Juice" are also good stuff.  It's not all perfect, but overall I like it very much.  Oh, and her voice is killer.

Parts of the older albums are also good, but they are a little uneven.  Like, for example, 2010's The ArchAndroid has a few fun songs like "Tightrope" and "Cold War," one of which features half of Outkast, the other of which cribs the drum breakdown from Outkast's "Bombs over Baghdad." But then "Come Alive [War of the Roses]" and "Mushrooms & Roses" are respectively screamer doowop and psychedelic-autotune-Lenny-Kravitz-dropping-acid-in-the-Yellow-Submarine shit.  So, no one is perfect or anything, but I just have to note how uneven these can be.  Here is "Cold War," for your enjoyment, which is the standout from that 2010 album.

Strangely powerful video right there.  Just focused on her face.  Damn good song.

Her 2013 album, The Electric Lady, is pretty solid too.  Unfortunately, the Prince collaboration on it is blanked out on Spotify (I assume because his family is still refusing to license his music for streaming), but the Erykah Badu collaboration rules.  11.8 million streams.

The fact that this song isn't a huge hit is a travesty.  If you don't want to boogie when it is playing, then you dead inside.  The groove, the beat, the intricate measured vocals (and great voice).  So good.  AND then you get to the rap at the end, and she full on brings it there too.  Hell yeah.  I've been singing this around the house for the past few days, and although my youngest has no clue what I am singing, I heard her making up her own lyrics to the chorus cadence the other day.

Her first album (Metropolis: The Chase Suite) starts the weird android thing, with an album opener of her speaking like a dystopian world announcer, calling on all bounty hunters to find an android who had the audacity to love, in order to dismember it and win a prize.  "Many Moons" was the hit from that one, although it only has 1.7 million streams.  Here is the "official short film."

Once again, sounds like she has been listening to a lot of Outkast, and especially the drumbreak in "Bombs over Baghdad."  But a fun track.

Rolling Stone had her on the cover a few weeks ago, and it was a pretty interesting read.  The obvious titillating tidbit in there is this:

And she has another rumor to confirm. "Being a queer black woman in America," she says, taking a breath as she comes out, "someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker." She initially identified as bisexual, she clarifies, "but then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.' I'm open to learning more about who I am."

But also a number of other factoids that I didn't know about her:

• She appears in both the Oscar-winning Moonlight (as the girlfriend to Mahershala Ali's character) and the Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures (as one of the three main ladies).  Cool.
• She is a CoverGirl model.
• She grew up in Kansas City with like 50 cousins, living on the same street as several other family members in a row of houses her grandmother owned.  How cool is that?
• Talented from childhood, she covered Lauryn Hill's album to win three talent shows in a row.
• She moved to NYC to study music, but then relocated to Atlanta because of a friend, where she turned some little gigs at college quads into getting noticed by Big Boi and signed to his label, which then connected her to Puff Daddy and getting signed to Bad Boy.
• My favorite part of the interview is the discussion of her Dad, fresh off getting sober, goes to a show doubting that Puffy will actually show up to watch his girl, gets made fun of by his daughter for creasing his jeans, but then has a cool realization that his daughter is bad ass.

She seems like a genuinely cool person, and her music is genuinely awesome.  One more track before I move on, here is the legit rap from her new album, "Django Jane."  Get some.

I'd absolutely sign up to go see this in person.  Why not?  It isn't my normal musical region, but I've loved listening to these tracks.  I'm not saying that she can carry forward Prince's freak funk into another lifetime, but she definitely has the fun and chops to make something in the same neighborhood.  Let's do it. 

Deftones

One Liner: Mid-90's hard rockers with a few great tunes and then some Incubus and screaming sludge.
Wikipedia Genre: Alternative metal,  experimental rock, art metal, post-metal, nu metal (early).  I like that - a differentiation to show that they were nu metal in the early days before shifting.  Good work Wikipedia peoples.
Home: Sacramento, California

Poster Position: 3
Day: Saturday at 6:30
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  I very much enjoyed a few of their songs back in the post-college days.  I have a distinct memory of downloading a few tracks from the early Napster hellscape, burning them to a disc, and jamming them in my truck while commuting from Dallas to Lewisville each day (along with System of a Down, Rage, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, etc.  Such great taste in tunes).  
Saying that this sounds like Tool isn't quite right (this is more punkish), but neither is the comparison to Rage Against the Machine (more arty than those guys), but its somewhere in that same wheelhouse of hard rock bordering on metal that depends on syncopated rhythms and vocals that vacillate between a quiet menace and a loud bellow.  Definitely harder than regular alternative rock, but most of their hits don't go quite hard enough for me to call them metal.  I'm not a fan of this entire catalog, but some bits are very good.

The only album I ever really knew was White Pony, which came out in 2000, but they have a surprisingly large number of other albums.  A 1995 debut called Adrenaline, 1997's Around the Fur, White Pony, and then more albums in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016.  I'll give you the two hits from White Pony before we dive into the newer stuff.  "Passenger" is my favorite one, although it is only their third most listened to track - this one sounds very much like Tool (because lead singer Maynard James Keenan does the vocals, but also because of the Tool-esque metered jams).

Still dig that track.  19.2 million streams (up over a million since I started this review, which was right after the bands were announced, originally at 18.1 million streams, which is interesting.  Is it because of being announced for ACL?  Why would they get a 5% bump in listens in one month 18 years after this album came out?).  Very good stuff.  

Interestingly, the band won a Grammy at the 2001 awards show, but not for that track or for their most popular track, but for a different one called "Elite."  "Elite" is literally one of the least-listened to songs on the album, and yet it won the band a metal Grammy award.  Weird stuff.  The Grammys are wack.  We'll skip that one that the dork judges liked so much (because it isn't great, shitty vocals over a generic driving fuzz track) and give you the band's most popular track (by quite a bit at 50.5 million streams, edit - up to 53.4 million since last month).  This is "Change (In the House of Flies)."

Another good one.  That track still gets play on alternative rock radio even today.  

Before that White Pony album, their earlier two albums were a pretty similar sound, the comparison to Tool is even stronger to me, although nothing on the first one is that memorable.  "Bored" is the most listened to, and the album opener, and it sounds kind of like Nirvana trying to play Tool.  The second album, 1997's Around the Fur, has a few tunes I recall from college days (as well as the cover, which features a very high angle photo of a young lady in a bra or bikini top.  The top track from that album, their second most listened to track overall, is "My Own Summer (Shove It)," which has 33.4 million streams and that same whispered then yelled vocal style over an aggressively sour guitar riff.

Meh.  I guess I like the music groove, but the screaming portion of the lyrics I can do without.

And honestly, that is what holds me back from fully embracing this band.  I've been running through the albums after White Pony, and they have some really good songs that make me think I need to add this band into my normal rotation, but then they'll have one that is all dissonance and screaming and it breaks the spell.  The 2016 album (Gore) has one song with almost 10 million streams, but it is the album opener, and you know my theory about that.  One more gets over 5 million (the relatively chilled "Hearts/Wires"), but its not that special.  
Likewise, the 2012 (Koi No Yokan, which translates to Premonition of the Dark - spoooooky!) album has one song with significantly more plays than the others, and it is the album opener.  I like it, check out "Swerve City."

Oooh, that hot cowboy lady's gonna shoot that fancy car man!  Driving beat, kind of sweeping sound, makes my head bob, I like it.  And other bits of that album are great too, but then you'll get a screamer like "Poltergeist" and it snaps the mood.  Too bad, although I'm sure they have a legion of fans who live for that screamy art of the album.  I also like the long ass track "Rosemary" from this one.

If not that Koi No Yokan disc, then I think my favorite album after White Pony would be the 2006 album Saturday Night Wrist (although not a single song from that album shows up on the band's current top ten songs).  Pretty sure the lead singer from System of a Down is on "Mein," although he doesn't get credit. Yet again, the top listened to track on this album is the first one.  Maybe I should explain this theory again, in case you are new here.  When a band has a great debut album, or really any album that is very popular, but their later albums can't live up to the goodness of the old stuff, you see a lot of people hop onto their Spotify to try out their later albums, but my theory is that they try out that first song, decide it isn't as good as the classic, and move on without hearing the rest of the disc.  I think that is what you are seeing here.  The opener on this disc has over 6 million streams, then nothing else breaks 5 million and most don't break 2 million streams.  Big falloff.  Like other albums, my favorite parts of this are when they go kind of chilled, restrained, coiled.  Try this one out, "Cherry Waves."

Hard enough to rock.  Melodic enough to be pretty.  Kind of longing and sweet, while still not pandering or adding in a suite of strings.  Good tune.  But then "Rats!Rats!Rats!" is awful.  Like a bad Refused B-Side, and just full of jarring transitions from melodic to screaming.  Hate it.  And the ending of "Pink Cellphone" is foul, like one of those stupid, juvenile outros that Limp Bizkit used to do.

I'm also entertained by the 2011 album Covers, which is an album of (wait for it!) cover songs.  I wouldn't say that Covers is necessarily great, but it is entertaining to hear them tackle such diverse stuff as The Cars, The Smiths, Skynyrd, or Sade.  I don't recognize a lot of these other tunes, they are going deep into the musical rabbit hole.  I gotta say I was excited about "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want," but the original is infinitely better, the nuance and simplicity of the original music matches the song too well. But I do enjoy "Simple Man," because that song rules.  They also have a B-Sides album, which includes a cover of Helmet's "Sinatra," which definitely rules (although it doesn't stray very far at all from the original).

So, a final ruling.  I guess I'd go see them play.  Their good outweighs the bad, and I would expect that they will be trying to bring their good out instead of trying to go full screamo for a crowd of people who are definitely not their core fans.

Borns (2018)

One Liner: One good album of psych rock pop, then one less good album of synth pop.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, psychedelic pop, alternative rock, synth-pop, electropop
Home:  Michigan.

Poster Position: 5
Day: Friday at 3:45
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: This guy was here in 2015, and I was pretty lukewarm about him back then.  Unfortunately for him, his most popular song from back then continues to be his most popular song now.  So, although he released a 2018 album, it isn't quite lighting the world on fire.  First, here is that old song, "Electric Love," which I actually like pretty well.  Kind of a 70's rock vibe.  151.8 million streams.

Oh yeah.  I do like that tune.  It has a HAIM-like sound in it several times throughout.  Now that I am remembering this guy, I saw his show in 2015 and liked it, and then he put out a full album and I dug that as well.  Kinda psych rock-ish, less electronic sadness than I thought when I first reviewed him.  Although some of it is a little too 80's synth rock for me ("Past Lives" is a good example).

Uh oh, but now I'm listening to the new album (Blue Madonna), and it is no where near as good as the old (Dopamine).  That is unfortunate.  Much more of an 80's synth sound, less of the good guitar licks that made the older album better.  The opening track features Lana Del Rey doing her breathy/torchy vocals, over kind of annoyingly insistent synth notes and a spare beat.  The most popular track off of that album is not that one, but is instead one called "Sweet Dreams," with 11.9 million streams.

Definitely better than most of the rest of the album.  Its too bad that he leans so heavily on the synths in the new one, leaving behind the guitar and adventure.

The guys name is just Garrett Borns, but his band name actually has a stylized "o" in it with a slash through it.  What do you call that?  A slash o.  If you want to dive deeply into usage of that character, here you go.  His Wikipedia says "At the age of 10, he was a professional magician going by the name of "Garrett the Great", both performing at parties and getting paid for it."  Wow.  How could he have let that great stage name go?  If he had already built up a loyal following of magic lovers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, you'd think he would keep the name and capitalize on the cachet created.

Spotify has a live album - Spotify Sessions recorded live at SXSW in 2015, and it sounds pretty solid.  Much more of a rock and roll show - live drums, etc.  So I'd be curious to know if he is going to go full synth band now, or keep the real band vibe going.  I think I'd be up for checking this one out.

Illenium

One Liner: More entirely generic EDM with the usual female singing platitudes

Wikipedia Genre: Future Bass, Trap, Dubstep
Home:  Denver

Poster Position: 5
Day: Sunday at 7:00
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: I knew what this music would sound like before I even heard it.  I literally searched for the band name, and said to myself, "will this be San Holo or Gryffin?"  And the answer is yes.  If they schedule the shows right, you might be able to just sit at one stage and hear the exact same sound for like 6 hours without ever moving or knowing who is on stage.  Magical.

If you are super into electronic medium-level bangers with an unknown female voice (Annika Wells?  Nevve?  Kerli?  Daya? Emilie Brandt?  Dia Frampton?  RUNN?  Ember Island? - no shit, all of those are lady singers on this one album.  I didn't make up a single one.) singing over them about life and wonder and love and hope, then this is your jam.  Every once in a while you get a dude voice, although again I don't know those names either (MAX?  That's it, just MAX?  Nope, just MAX.).

Two albums, 2016's Ashes and 2017's Awake.  Hoping we can soon experience a new album called Able or Amazing or Anustart.  The top track for this guy on Spotify isn't even his own song.  And guess who it is by?  Gryffin.  Sometimes I amaze even myself.  That one is "Feel Good," which I recognize so I probably linked to it in the Gryffin review.  So after that one (which has 86 million streams), this guy's most listened-to track is "Fractures," which has 32.5 million streams.

Yeah, man.  Do or die, yo.  She runs full speed at what she wants, bro.  Gotta get it while we're still young!  We're finally not afraid!  Yeah!  
That play count is kind of weird, right?  Why is Gryffin lower on the poster than this dude, when Gryffin has the more popular stuff?  Interesting.  Hardcore negotiations by agents.  I want to see an ACL contract, actually.  Would be interesting to see what they say.  SOMEONE GET PAUL ROSENBERG ON THE PHONE!

So this dude was a lacrosse bro, who purportedly went to college for lax, but then started making sick beats yo.  Grew up in SF and then moved to Colorado.  That link is to a weird interview, like a woman walking down the sidewalk with this guy walking right behind her and answering questions.  Odd.  But he says he grew up on country music nonstop, which is odd as well.  And then he says he tried to make music in high school but he sucked at it.  Well, yeah.  And then a Bassnectar show at Red Rocks changed his world, and so he taught himself how to do this music through YouTube.  Why haven't I done this?  If all I have to do is watch some YouTube and then be a rich guy who just hits play in front of a crowd, what am I waiting for?

Second most listened to track is called "Crawl Outta Love," with 22 million streams.

Yeah, this is just nothing special at all.  I will not remember this 10 minutes from now, sounds just like 100 songs I've heard before it.  The singing, the beats, the chopped up singing to mix it up after the beat drops.  Boring.

One more try, let's see what the live experience looks like.  Here is an hour long video from a festival called Lost Lands 2017.

1) Nice basketball jersey with your name on it.  2) Nice drum pad for the intro, so powerful.  (although after watching this for a while, I tend to think those drum pads aren't connected.  He keeps hitting and nothing happens). 3) The people trying to dance to "Crawl Outta Love" make me realize that it is a little bit too slow for people to actually bounce to after the drop, its just not quite at the right beat for people, so you can see their hands trying to bang but being all out of sync and jerky.  

I made it about 8 minutes.  I'm just a man, not a machine.  Also, know that his older album is much worse than the new album.  That isn't saying much, but if you are going to give one album a try, go for the new one.  I do not appreciate what this guy has going on.

Rhye

One Liner: Beautiful falsetto-driven chill tunes

Wikipedia Genre: Alternative R&B, downtempo, soul, sophisti-pop
Home:  Toronto

Poster Position: 12
Day: Saturday at 4:30
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: Oh no.  There is a musical genre called sophisti-pop?  That is not OK.  Well, let's look it up.  "The term has been applied to music that emerged during the mid-1980s in the UK which incorporated elements of jazz, soul and pop. Music so classified often made extensive use of electronic keyboards, synthesizers and polished arrangements, particularly horn sections."  Huh.  The first song sounds like Sade.

I'll give the group bonus points for the sexy album covers.  But I won't say the music does much for me: on one hand, it is pretty, sleepy, sensuous, same; on the other hand, it can be more upbeat, but still kind of sleepy/chilled.  Maybe that is what "downtempo" is all about...  The top track is called "Open," with 51 million streams.

Of note:

1. That song is very pretty.
2. I would like to go on that vacation right now.
3. That is a dude singing that song.

I thought for sure that was a female vocalist.  Nope.  The whole band is apparently a dude named Michael Milosh, who collaborates with different people but mainly does this on his own after breaking up with a Danish dude (Robin Hannibal) who helped him with his first album.  By the way, Wikipedia says that their vocals were likened to Sade (boom, I'm smart!) and The XX.

Two albums, 2013's Woman and 2018's Blood.  That top single up above is from the first album, as is their second-most listened-to track, "The Fall."  The top track from their new album is "Song For You," which has 6.2 million streams.

Once again, supremely gorgeous music.  Simple instrumentation, lovely voice, aching lyrics of love.  I'll also credit them with having stunning women in their videos.

And finally, because you get the idea now of these cats, here is a Tiny Desk concert.

All those fake candles are distracting as shit.  Because if they were real candles, then all the tchotchkes on those shelves would be on fire immediately, and NPR would burn down, and then I wouldn't get the news in the morning on my drive to work, and it would be sad.  Actually, I might take that back, I can't listen to the damn news anymore without feeling awful for a couple of hours, so maybe yes, let's burn down NPR and I won't have to think about horrible things happening because of our government.  Ahem.  Sorry.  Back to the music.  No, actually, hold on.  What I wish I could see right now is the video footage of some poor intern rolling up with 278 fake candles and having to flip the tiny switches on the bottom of each one and getting them placed just so to make this hot-detective-in-the-bathtub-after-a-long-day-fighting-crime vibe a reality.  

But, as for the music, yet again, extremely pretty stuff, just not much excitement in there.  This is good makeout music for those of you who still need to makeout for hours instead of just getting down to brass tacks.

I doubt I'd go see this played live.  Seems like a nice show to see in a tiny theater, not something to go stand up in a crowd to hear on a hot Texas day.

Ikebe Shakedown

One Liner: Funky instrumental jam outs with tons of horns

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, gonna go with funk, R&B, soul instrumentals
Home:  NYC

Poster Position: 17
Day: Saturday at 1:45
Both Weekends

Thoughts: Yeah, baby.  Groovy as hell, retro funk soul shit that should be immediately sampled by Ghostface for a new collaboration album.  This falls into the same type of thing as BadBadNotGood or, kinda, Khruangbin, where the band just gets into a funky soul groove and rolls with it for a couple of very danceable minutes.  And for real, raps over the top of this would slay more than half of the other stuff coming out right now.

Three albums, 2011's Ikebe Shakedown, 2014's Stone by Stone, and 2017's The Way Home.  I don't notice an appreciable difference in the sound on each one, but they are all solidly enjoyable.  Their most-listened-to track comes from that middle album, "Last Stand," with 299k streams.

That 70's style guitar wakawaka, and then the horns, the start is hot.  And for a video that looked like it was going to be a live version, that one has really solid sound.  Only a few tracks break the 200k streams plane, so people aren't flocking to jam this, but it is extremely good background for work music.  No lyrics but some funky elements, I dig it.

The band name is apparently based on a favorite Nigerian boogie record.  I looked for it to try to hear the original but can't hunt it down.  And the name is pronounced “ee-KAY-bay,” so that you can announce it properly to all your hip friends and sound like you know whats up.  Most of the band met at Bard College.  I so wish I had met with some dudes and formed a rad band in college.  Instead I just drank all the Schlitz Light I could afford and sat around on decrepit couches listening to other people play music.  Dammit.

The top track off of their most recent album is "Out of the Shadows," with 111k streams.

Starts out like one of those Beastie Boys instrumental tracks, then adds in some guitar sound like an old spaghetti western tune, then tosses in a little surf rock reverb.  If you don't like funky stuff, then go somewhere else, but this is highly enjoyable.

The problem for me is what are we doing at the show in the Fall?  Just kinda turtle head dancing with a white man overbite?  I have no clue how this will come off on a huge stage at a festival.  Willing to give it a shot, but just seems like it would be odd.  Still, gimme more of the funky junk and let's see what happens.

Disturbed

One Liner: Oooo wahahaha!  Nu metal rockers with a schlocky side.

Wikipedia Genre: Heavy metal, hard rock, alternative metal, nu metal
Home:  Chicago

Poster Position: 4
Day: Saturday at 6:30
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: Now, listen.  I'm not going to act like I didn't fully enjoy some of the Disturbed songs back in the early 2000's.  The same way I enjoyed me some Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock right about the same time - it was highly fun to leave the grunge sound and seriousness of late 90's music in favor of this highly aggressive cock rock anger shredding.  Their most popular song, "Down With the Sickness" reflects that spirit entirely.

Ohhh wahahaha!  Oughhh ouughhh (*scary angry monkey sounds*).  Pure aggro feelings in there.  99% sure I downloaded this from Napster back in the day and put it on a mix CD I would use in my truck to get hyped up during my boring drive from Dallas to Lewisville each day.  This song, from their debut album The Sickness, was released in 2000.  197 million streams since then, with over 4 million copies of the album sold.  Pretty large.

The other song from that album that I recall well (and probably also downloaded for my sweet road rage mix) is "Stupify," which I also always think of when watching Harry Potter movies.

In fact, I think I liked that track better than "Sickness," because when I hear both now again, for the first time in a long time, that is the one that brings back memories of yelling along to it in my truck.  However, I appear to be alone on that island, as the track only has 17.6 million streams.  Ooo yeah, and the sweet middle eastern breakdown in the middle.  So worldly, before the rock hammer crushes back in with DON'T DENY ME, NO BABY NOW DON'T DENY ME!  Good memories right there.

That being said, these dudes have continued to release albums, and after running through them, I seriously don't think I've heard a single one of these songs (with one exception to come later).  After that 2000 album, you've got 2002's Believe, 2005's Ten Thousand Fists, 2008's Indestructible, 2010's Asylum, 2011's The Lost Children, and 2015's Immortalized (as well as a live album from Red Rocks in 2016, which is so weird, to think of these guys angrily shredding at the idyllic and all natural Red Rocks).  Among those albums, some of the songs have been popular - way more popular than I would have expected - to the tune of all of their top ten songs having more than 33 million streams.  I'm honestly shocked that they continue to be so huge.  Per this website, which is bound to be full of crap: "DISTURBED is only the third group to score five consecutive chart-topping records, joining an elite club in which METALLICA and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND are the only other members."  That seems extreme, but who knows, Drake has like 47 straight number one albums in 3 years of existence, so I know nothing.

Other fun thing to do, search "Disturbed sucks" in google.  You get fun posts like this or like this.  Personally, I just think that the musical world has passed these guys by.  If you think about other bands who came out and were huge around the same time based on this same type of nu metal/hard rock sound - Korn, Limp Bizkit, Nickelback, Creed, Drowning Pool, whatever - none of them get any respect or modern love.

Many of these songs sound like the kind of thing that a movie would use to show how hardcore being a soldier is in modern times.  Like the tune they used in Hurt Locker when Jeremy Renner was rocking out by himself in his room, or like during a scene of The Punisher destroying some foes.  See "Warrior" or "Ten Thousand Fists" or "The Vengeful One."  From IDMB, it looks like their most popular actual movie soundtrack was Transformers (which also makes perfect sense) and Dawn of the Dead (which also works).  And a lot of spots on video games.

My top ten ranking of places where Disturbed got so many streaming plays, based on nothing more than pure conjecture:

1. Hummers/Jeeps/ RAM trucks.
2. At the gym/ CrossFit arena/ home garages outfitted with weights.
3. Forward Operating Base Camp American Freedom Forever Lasting America Power.
4. Video Game Dungeon rooms in Moms' basements.
5. Non-denominational mega churches.
6. Football (NFL/college) locker rooms.
7. Kentucky strip clubs.
8. Guantanamo Bay detention rooms.
9. My office right now, where the sudden spike in streams has likely been noticed by the Feds.
10. Mixed Martial Arts Arenas.

That 2008 album had their only Grammy nomination (until just recently), with the truly bad "Inside the Fire" being nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.  Here you go.

Holy shit, man.  Who makes that video and thinks a short PSA about suicide is enough?  That shit is disturbing.  And literally cutting from the lead singer doing his crappy laugh in the shred/synth intro to him dropping to his knees to hold the legs of his dead lady friend?  Who thought this was a good idea?  Also, why is he washing her boobs in the tub later?  What is going on?  Final thought, what the hell does the singer have in his face?  Like spider legs poking out from his bottom lip.  The best part of the song is the Dimebag Darell-esque guitar solo in the middle.  But fuck that video and most of the jenky song.

Finally, I'll give you their most listened to track on Spotify (224.9 million streams on the studio version, yet only 1.5 million for the live version), the one that garnered their most recent Grammy nod (2017 for Best Rock Performance, which they lost), and the cheesy reason that they regained popularity enough to probably be added to this poster.  Which you can sense on the live album, because he tells the audience to fire up their lighters because "NOW IS THE TIME!"  And then slides into the shoes of Paul Simon.  "Sounds of Silence," as covered by an over-the-hill nu metal band:

Oh the raging self-importance.  Well, I'll say that the original song is so amazing that this still works, but I still can't get behind these pure riff rock dudes breaking out the Queensryche string section to show all levels of their feeling.  But then he just goes ahead into full metal voice to scream/sing the last minute or so.  For further comedy, they also remade "Land of Confusion," that Genesis song with the Ronald Reagan puppet video.  To predicable results.  "There's not much love to go raaaaawnd!  Uhhhh uhhhh! *scary monkey sounds*"

For the sake of science, I went ahead and listened to the live at Red Rocks album twice.  And honestly, it sounds pretty fun.  It continues to have a very homogeneous sound - every song has a similar tone and speed until they get to the cheesy interlude - but if you are in the mood to thrash and throw your fist in the air and hear repeated scary monkey sounds, then what the hell man, give in.  Although I have to feel a little bad for the guy, still playing the Sickness 18 years later and having to get the crowd hyped up with a cheesy intro of "Oh man, hey guys, I think all of Colorado has been infected!  WITH THA SICKNESSSSS!  HA HA!"  Ugh.  And then still having to scream the spoken interlude about his mom.  Cringing right now listening to it again.

Hell, I might just go do it and have a metal freakout.

Buffalo River, Arkansas, 2017

Partially for my own record keeping, but also for the edification of the world, I have been keeping notes of trips I've done with the family, so here is another installment.  To break the suspense, we had an amazing time in Arkansas.  I know they get the jokes and reputation for the toothless hillbilly making moonshine and sleeping with his sister, but we met a bunch of really nice people and saw some beautiful country.

The town where we stayed was a tiny little squirt of nothing called Ponca, population 9 (literally there was a sign) that is located just north of the Ozark National Forest and on the Buffalo River.  The Buffalo is cool in that it is a National River, so there is no development on a long section of the river, leaving visitors able to fully access and enjoy the river without private ownership or development.  It was beautiful.

We stayed in a series of cabins owned by the Buffalo Outdoor Center, and while they were very basic and pretty small, we didn't really come up there to hang in the rooms in the first place.  Our place was slightly bigger than the ones that our friends rented, and we had the hot tub, so our place ended up being the hang out spot, which was great.  The house came with a wood-burning fireplace and a ton of wood, so we enjoyed loads of comfy fires and relaxing time.

We also went out and hiked our asses off in the woods.  In order of preference:

1. Lost Valley.  We were actually glad that this hike was the last one we did, and I'd advise you to do the same, because it was the coolest one and easiest one, so that cut down on the whine-factor from the kids.  Short, like 2 miles round trip, but you get a ton of caves and waterfalls and climbable surfaces that the kids can go nuts on.  Really great.
2. Whitaker Point/Hawksbill Crag.  This was one where the hike itself was fine, nothing particularly special, except that it snowed on us as we walked, which made it more special. About 3 miles round trip.  But the ending is this spectacular rock outcropping that pokes out over a deep valley and really looks amazing.  We ate a picnic down there and everyone took a million photos, it was cool.
3. Hemmed-In-Hollow.  This trail also had a good payoff - the tallest waterfall in mid-America, which was cool - but the hike itself was not an easy one for the littler people in our posse. About 5 miles round trip, and it is straight down on the way in and then straight up on the way out, so be prepared for the stairmaster ride of your life.  The waterfall was cool and the views were nice and all that, but hard hike and not nearly as good a payoff as those others.  Oh, and you should stop at the Compton store to ask directions, because the signs stop telling you where to go once you are in the backwoods.

Then we spent another day floating the river, which was fantastic.  Well, I thought it was great, my kids will likely remember it as the time they froze to death and wished they had died.  Our youngest just curled up in a ball and cried herself to sleep.  27 degrees ambient temp. and 47 in the water, so it was pretty damn frio.  But, it was a fun and fast float (lots of recent rains) that didn't have any truly extreme water features but enough action to make it interesting and fun.

For one of the days, we made a side trip up to Eureka Springs.  My wife had good childhood memories of that being a neat town with cool old-timey stuff to do (milking a cow or watching a blacksmith do his thing).  Instead, it was a super depressing tourist trap of t-shirt stores, fudge shoppes, and bad food.  Well, the actual inner town where we hung out wasn't that depressing, more annoying that they took a truly interesting historical place and turned it into a cheap tourist trap.  The depressing part was the detritus surrounding the town: shuttered businesses, dilapidated hotels, and liquor stores.  I wish we would have just stayed back and gone on another hike in Ponca.  

One other note, we ate at a place called the Low Gap Cafe that was legitimately amazing.  Middle of nowhere, tiny little dining room, but like real deal, well-made gourmet food.  It was strange to find out there but it really impressed.  And BYOB, which is always an awesome thing.

Supa Bwe

One Liner: Another sing/song rapper without much good to say.

Wikipedia Genre: Rapper, Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Audio Engineer
Home:  Chicago

Poster Position: 19
Day: Saturday at 12:45
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: More soundcloud style rap - hard beats, along with mediocre lyrics that are half-sung/ half-rapped.  Or screamed.  Some of these tunes - looking directly at you, "The World Tournament (Year of the Dog)" - just have this dude yelling about his sad feelings over a mediocre beat.  Actually, I take back my opening line up there.  His currently most popular song has a good beat.  Much of the rest of these songs do not have good beats.  Here is the Netflix & Chill tweaking "Breakfast & Chill" about boning all night long.  265k streams.

Moody, spacey open that turns into a trap banger beat.  I like that part.  But the hangdog ass lyrics, pleading for the boning, is not good.  

More about this guy - real name is Frederick S. Burton, and he grew up in Chicago.  You pronounce the name as Super Boy.  He grew up listening to a lot of punk from his mom and rap from his dad (mentioning Master P and Busta, specifically).  In another interview, he says that his sound is "a conglomerate of english fuck you dystopian punk and Rick James’ cold blooded, I’m going to do my cocaine and smack you about it and Prince’s ambiguous individuality."  I have no clue what the hell that is supposed to mean.  But you do you, super boy.

In a video interview (linked below), he talks about some other rapper named Trippie Red stealing his style and how it flattered him at first, but now it pisses him off.  That Trippie guy is apparently stealing Supa's style entirely, which wasn't especially popular for the prior ten years when Supa Bwe was trying to make it, but now is hot and Supa feels like he's not getting credit that Trippie is taking.  Or something.  Seems like it sucks for Supa.  And I just went and looked up the Trippie guy, and yes, he does sound just like this (but is extremely messed up looking, like Marlon Wayans cut the face off of Lil Wayne and tried to loosely wear it as a mask).  I don't honestly care who wins in their battle for this style of crappy singing rap.  Good luck to you both.

He just has one album, 2017's Finally Dead, which is worse.  The top song from that album, his most listened-to overall, is "Thot Goddess (Sailor Moon)," with 662k streams (which is pretty solid for a song by an artist on the 19th row of the ACL poster).

As we have frequently established in this space, I don't much care for auto-tuned singing over the top of good hip hop beats.  This one is slightly catchy - I don't hate it - but still I'm not looking to hear more of it.  Second most listened to track from this album is the cheerily titled "I Hate Being Alive."  Neat.  Oh.  And now I see this other video where he admits he tried suicide in part because of playing around with Xanax back in the day.  Criminy.  He still uses Xanax to deal with bad anxiety, which is kind of insane after a history of issues with it.  That hate my life song, jeez - the lyrics are like "FUCK MY LIFE!" and then yelling about weird shit I don't understand like being "hard like 36" and telling a witch to hurry up and saying Tom Brady is a bullet. (?)  All with a very dank beat.  So that'll be neat, a bunch of stoned kids screaming about FML!!! in the park in the Fall.

I'll give you one more, just for curiosity's sake, his new single, "Take It Outside," which popped in April and has 127k streams.

Nope, that doesn't get any better.  I can see the appeal of this style of party, popcorn rap, but I wouldn't choose to spend my time in the park with it.

Breaktime!

Hola amigos!

I hope that you are enjoying the reviews.  Some of these bands have been amazing - I'm digging some of the unknown stuff I've found already - The Texas Gentlemen, Khruangbin, Japanese Breakfast, Manchester Orchestra, Wilderado.  I've completed 44 reviews, so while I'm no where near done, I'm creeping up on the 1/3 mark.

I received an announcement this morning that new bands have been added to the lineup.  I had already noticed that a few things had been moving around, but I thought I'd take note of the changes here in case you had missed them.

Added:

• Disturbed - Weekend 2 Only - AW YEAH!  DOWN WIT DA SICKNESS, BRA!  (at least I think that was their song.  Or are they the BODIES HIT THE FLOOR BODIES HIT THE FLOOR people?  Whatever.  We are going to RAWK)
• Donna Missal - Weekend 2 Only.  Never heard of it.

Huh.  That's all the new bands.  Seems like they would have had more to send out an official announcement e-mail.

Moved up the poster for some reason:

• Bishop Briggs - was on the 13th row and was moved up to the 10th row for some reason.  Must have scored a hit?
• Injury Reserve - was on the 23rd line, now on the 19th line.  Finally respecting my boys, yo.

Still there although I am nervous:

Brockhampton.  They've been in the new recently for firing one of their main members for being shitty to women, and as part of that announcement they said they were cancelling the remaining dates on their tour and going home to regroup.  Pusha T took over their slot at the Governor's Ball festival, so I'm still worried that we might get them yanked from our poster as well.

Observation so far with the people who are signed up for only one weekend or the other - the Weekend One Only people are better.  Deftones > Disturbed.  Greta Van Fleet > most of this lineup.  Khruangbin > Any other Thai influenced funk bands.  Injury Reserve > all the other rappers on here not named Childish Gambino.  Texas Gentlement, Wilderado, and The Weather Station, all weekend one only and very good.

Maybe I'm just not into the rad Weekend Two portion of the poster.  Let's get there, baby.

The Texas Gentlemen

One Liner: Roots rock by a badass backing band out on their own

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, Roots Rock, Americana, Southern Rock
Home:  Dallas

Poster Position: 25
Day: Sunday at 12:15
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: Frickin' awesome.  Like Southern Culture on the Skids met up with Little Feat to make a Allman Brothers album with the ghost of Jimi Hendrix and an occasional appearance from Waylon Jennings ghost.  They don't have a Wikipedia page, but their Spotify bio makes them sound interesting - a studio band and gig band for big time guys like George Strait, Ed Sheeran, and Kris Krisofferson, and small fry acts like Paul Cauthen and Kirby Brown (and also apparently Leon Bridges and Shakey Graves).  They only have one album, and the mythology on it is that their main guy, Beau Patrick Bedford, had booked time at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, to produce an album for another artist, but when that other artist failed to show up, Bedford called his buddies from the band and they made good use of the studio time.  TX Jelly is the album, released in 2017, and it kinda rules.

The top song, by a good-sized chunk, is the mostly-instrumental funk jam burner called "Habbie Doobie," with 478k streams.

Funky junk is the first layer, with a little slice of Wonder's "Boogie on Reggae Woman," and some rad guitar licks and barroom piano, like a big party where no armadillos got hurt.  This article claims that the song was their jam opener without a name, and they just started calling it Habbie Doobie, without any deeper meaning to the name.  Well, OK, but I would have liked it more if you had a reason for that weird name.  Either way, it kind of rules.

But then the band tosses a curveball out and does "Superstition," which sounds more like Paul McCartney doing a sax-drooled love track that also happens to mention ghost fellatio.  Or the oddly lyricked and kind of mournful "Trading Paint" about road rage tough guys.  But I'm going to present you with the excellent "Shakin' All Over," even though it isn't in their top four.  51k streams.

Live version, so slightly tweaked versus the album track, but you get the idea.  Some guitar explosions, some deep down soul roughness, good harmonies.  I dig it.  "Pain" is also cool, and their second-most jammed tune at 180k streams.  Funkier, kinda Beatles-y.  Then the third most popular track is on some Aaron Neville/Sam Cooke shit - "Bondurant Women."  They made a super weird, kinda funny extended video for that last song.

I can't think of the last time I looked at a YouTube video that had zero comments.  I mean, someone out there is always going to say "awesome!" or "you dudes suck ass!" or "You cn Earns big monies if you work from home in my program!!"  Weird.  But kind of a funny, low rent take on the Hands on a Hard Body movie.

I dig the tunes, would love to see them, although as usual, they are first weekend only.  Booo.

Red Yarn

One Liner: Kiddie Limits music with a barnyard/animal theme

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, Kiddie.
Home:  Texas born, Oregon-based.

Poster Position: 30
Day: Friday at 4:30 and Saturday at 12:30
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: Kinda roots country sounding, but with lots of barnyard and animal references.  The most popular track is "I Had a Rooster," which has a kinda funky butt to it that I like.

I saw a live version video of that one as well, and without the bassist in the background, the song is much less pleasant.  Reminds me of a song Andy from the Office would have sung - especially the "doodly doooodly doodly doo" bit.  Can't you just see the Nard Dog wandering into Michael's office giving it the full doodly doo?  I'm sure the 2 year olds would enjoy toddling as this stuff plays, but as my kids are out of that zone, I likely won't have to go to it.  I'll give you one more, which is called "Bile Them Cabbage."

Again, the tune is good, the guitar-work and drumming fun, the violin classic.  I generally enjoy what this has going on, as far as kiddie music goes.  As for what the hell bile has to do with cabbage, this is apparently an old folk song that has to do with slave food and boiling cabbage to go with a hoe cake.  Good tune.

The Nude Party

One Liner: Goofy name, but tasty countrified rock

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, going with rock, psych rock, garage rock, alt. country?
Home:  

Poster Position: 27
Day: Sunday at 1:00
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  The band name is garbage.  I mean, you're just never going to make it far with a silly ass name like that.  Also, when I searched YouTube, I was disappointed to not receive any awesome NSFW videos of people partying without clothes.  Which I would have had to watch in the name of research.  So in the end, I feel like I got robbed here.  You know what I mean.  But, aside from the band name, the music is a good time.  Here is the top track, with only 29k streams, but a fun, silly tune with a touch of Bob Dylan in the lead singer.  "Chevrolet Van."

Its the ending inflection of his words that makes it sound like Dylan.  That slightly froggy dismount to the notes that is classic caricature-building stuff on Bobby D.  Ehhh!  Ehhh!  Although their actual van is a Ford Econoline, so this is some false advertising bullshit and I want my money back.
Then the second most popular track is a shaggy little Hand-Jive/Bo Diddly Beat shamble that is also solid.  This is pretty good stuff.  Here is that second one, called "Life's a Joke."

OK, I get that these guys aren't taking themselves seriously - that video is exhibit 1 - but their music is fun.  I bet they'd be highly enjoyable live.

I said Dylan before, but I'd put them more in the Strokes bucket, or The Doors at times, or even Velvet Underground for bits.  None of those band comparisons would make me pumped to see these guys, but I really do think they sound legit.  Oh, and the new song ("Records") released on May 2018, sounds like some classic Stones bluesy rock.

This article says they got their start playing actual naked parties in Boone, North Carolina. What in the actual hell. Like I can't even truly imagine what the hell this looks like.  I mean I guess I can imagine it, but, like, I guess I can't imagine feeling like this was ever a good idea?  Just like a bunch of dudes with semis, trying not to directly stare at the ladies, but failing, while everyone tries to jam out to a rock show?  I just, nope.  Can't wrap my head around it.  I'd need all the drugs to think that was a good plan for a night.

That being said, so long as I am allowed to keep my threads on, I'm in for checking these guys out.