Oliver Tree

One Liner:  Weird ass rapper with terrible hair and bad sunglasses

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative rock, indie pop, indietronica, electronic, hip hop (really?  alternative rock?!?)
Home: Santa Cruz, CA

Poster Position: 10

Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: What the hell is this?  Clicked on the first track, expecting that this name was going to lead me to some pastoral indie music about nature or something, and instead its like an angry ass rap/yeller with a horrible haircut who grew up on Die Antwoord and some singer/songwriter from Mars.  Just listened to "Fuck," which comes on the 2019 single of the same name, and has a cover incorporating this guy, with his super shitty haircut and weird sunglasses, standing in an inferno, holding a nail studded bat, wearing a pair of jeans that are so wide they look like a dress, and grinning maniacally.  And the song sounds like he took the basic idea for Mo Bamba, dropped out the singing part, and just went for it over an ominous beat.  I'm sure my middle kid is already listening to this each night before bed.

No actual albums, just a 2018 EP called Alien Boy, which throws me off somewhat.  It has these semi-ballad type tunes, guitar and beats and song/rapped lyrics, as well as regular rap songs.  That includes his top song so far, the title track, with 63.6 million streams.  Er, actually, this is two songs - starts with "All That," more of the regular rap sounding song, and then shifts into "Alien Boy" at about 1:30 after he gets killed while scooting.

He really is a good scooter rider - or at least his stunt double is pretty solid.  He also really enunciates the words as he is singing them - his tongue and teeth are really getting an appearance!  Also, why does he have make beef with the muscle-bound ginger? Sure, Giantsbane probably takes the beef too far with the murdering, but don't run on nobody's minivan if you don't want none, yo.

He released a new EP on Aug. 2, and one of the tracks already has 11.6 million streams.  So, somehow, this weird ass version of rap/yelling.singing stuff is beloved by a group of people out there.  I'm so old.  Here is "Miracle Man."

I mean, this guy just absolutely feels like someone who inexplicably made the 10th line of the ACL poster this year, and a year from now, all of the people who think he is hilarious will have graduated from middle school and no one will even remember his name.  Again, with the wrecked face/broken glasses, and over-enunciation of words, and getting run over by a vehicle.  I'm so confused why this is a thing.

Apparently, his name is really Oliver Tree Nickell.  Not sure why to go with Tree in the musician name instead of Nickell.  When he got started, he went just under the name Tree, and got to open for Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean, which is pretty wild.  Tree apparently covered "Karma Police" and Thom Yorke approved.  Also, Wikipedia says that he has announced his final tour.  So, I think I was probably correct about no one remembering this dude in a few years.