Quick Hits, Vol. 271 (Nothing But Thieves, Wallows, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, 2 Chainz)

I'm not going to review it, because I couldn't actually listen to it, but there is a band called Kvelertak that was recommended on Twitter by someone I figured I could trust, and it is very much unpleasant unpleasantness with small sections of lovely Foo Fighter-ish tuneful rock.  Did you ever listen to that album The Shape of Punk to Come?  There was one track on that old album I thought was boss, but the rest of it made me need have my head ripped open like I was a victim of one of the "good" guys in The Boys.

Also, I grabbed some music from the Spotify new releases page the other day because the cover art and band name sounded good - Nighttime Boogie Association.  It is absolutely godawful.  I found out later that this is the Pearl Jam drummer with the Foo Fighters drummer, but their sterling pedigrees cannot save this trash.

Nothing But Thieves - Moral Panic.  I always get these guys confused with Highly Suspect - another band that does very stylized, pop-forward alt-rock tunes.  They're a little bit Killers, a little bit 21 Pilots, a little bit Muse.  I liked these guys' earlier albums too - "Trip Switch," "Graveyard Whistling," and "Wake Up Call" from their first album are all very enjoyable.  I like that "Can You Afford to Be An Individual?" talks about being a "walking contradiction in a MAGA hat," to make it clear what they are yelling about.  The currently more popular song is "Impossible," but the streaming champ for them right now is "Is Everybody Going Crazy?" proving that they love songs with question marks.

Kind of a funky line that weaves throughout the verses, until the chorus kicks in with all of the falsetto that you can handle.  I like the "heaven's a mindset away" as a line for these weird pandemic times.  "Yeah everybody's going crazy, Cant get through to you lately, We're so hopelessly faded, Is anyone else feeling lonely?, It just can't be me only, Losing our cool so slowly, It would feel so good to steal some time, It would feel so good to make you mine."  The breakdown in there is good.  "UnPerson" is also a good one, although it is a little more synthy, but also much more danceable.  These guys walk the line really close to heavy rock, and just back out each time they get close to the edge, to head back over to a more poppy direction.  Sometimes I wish they'd give in the the heavy more.  But I dig the album.  I'd do it some more.

Wallows - Remote.  I kinda think these guys came to ACL one year, and that is why I have them on my radar.  They sound fun, kind of like Two Door Cinema Club jamming with Weezer, a little bit whimsical, a little bit rock and roll.  It's a got a nice shine to the tracks, a brightness that makes me happy.  At only 6 songs, this one feels like an EP or single, but I think the clear winner is "Nobody Gets Me (Like You)."

Oh shit!  These guys did come to ACL - this is the band with a semi-famous actor in it.  The guy who was the lead in Alexander and the Horrible Bad Super Lame No Good Day.  Sorry to make you watch that video - the first 3 minutes are kind of annoying blather.  But the tune is a catchy little ditty.  "Talk Like That" also has a cuteness and danceability that is very fun.  I like this one.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rat's Nest.  Much like that title just made me wrinkle my nose in distaste, this album turns up the grungy psych shredding of their prior discs and makes it all skuzzier and louder.  Some tunes get into a good Sabbath-ish groove (check the chugging "Mars for the Rich"), but overall, this is a tougher listen than a lot of the old albums from these guys.  Too much of everything for my taste.  The album is supposed to be some sort of space odyssey, according to something I read online, and maybe that accounts for all the weirdo sounds, but I am not with it in the end.

I can find pleasure in some hard rock.  I've dug old stuff that these guys have done.  But this disc just never hit right for me - screamy and thrashy and squally in ways I don't need to hear right now.  Apparently the same is true for my family, as my wife just walked over from the living room to close the door to the guest bedroom so that she could avoid even the distant flavor of this music.  I'm good.

Also, just because you need to hear this semi-psychosis:

Pack a dingos, there mate!

2 Chainz - So Help Me God!  2 Chainz is an interesting rapper to me.  I don't think he gets his due as a relatively skilled rapper.  I don't know if the early AutoTune stuff, his initial name of Tity Boi, or his general goofiness has hung around his neck to keep him from getting his proper recognition, but I don't feel like anyone talks him up like other top tier rappers.  I think he's pretty damn solid.  He's funny.  He can really dominate a beat and use intricate turns of phrase to match the time.  And when he pops up on other people's tracks, he can hammer them and steal the spotlight - "Mercy" was one of those, as was "Bandz a Make Her Dance" or "Fuckin' Problems" or "Rich as Fuck."  Weird, I guess I listen to a lot more of him than I thought.

"Money Maker" does a good job of interpolating the song that 2Pac used for "Run Tha Streetz" 20+ years ago - but with kick ass horns, which makes me dig it.  I think Wayne sounds like crap on that one - what happened to that dude?  And then the next song "Can't Go For That" freaking samples HALL & OATES!!!  That is a boss-level move.

LOL.  That video is amazing.  Hard to believe that they could clear that sample, but hell yeah.  The only other Hall & Oates sample I can recall is De La Soul back in the day.  The one with Kanye is actually pretty good, as is the one with Kevin Gates.  "Quarantine Thick" has Chainz saying that he hates when a pretty girl starts snoring, and it makes me smile every time.  The beats on this album are good stuff as well - they move around so that its not all trap and not all boom bap and not all sample-based.  I dig that.  Pretty good stuff.