Hinds

One Liner: Spanish lo-fi rocker ladies.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, lo-fi, garage rock

Home: Madrid

Poster Position: Line 11

Weekend Two Only.

Friday at 3:15 on the VRBO Stage.

Thoughts: I could have sworn that I had reviewed this band before, for some other ACL in the past, but I can't find anything.  There can't be that many all lady Spanish bands out there, but maybe I'm thinking of the Aces.  The band started out being called Deers, but had to change it once someone in a similarly named band threatened suit.

I am having to listen to them on my phone, because my work is being a jerk and blocking Spotify right now, and I have to say, their raw-ness and almost scream-y vocals is really making me unhappy.  At first, I thought that I was digging it, but I think the semi-yelling vocals, brought to me by the tinny iPhone speakers, is not great.  And I just had a laugh - Spotify apparently got to the end of all of the music Hinds has on the service, and they started playing other similar items.  But I didn't know that, and I was like, "oh, okay, they've made some pretty good stuff once I get down to this album!"  I picked up the phone to see which song it was, and it was actually Soccer Mommy.  Doh.

Their cover of "Spanish Bombs" is pretty fun.  "Davey Crockett" grabs the tune from Neil Young's "Farmer John," which I randomly sing all the time for no known reason.  I also really like the instrumental "Solar Gap," nothing particularly special about it, but it's very pretty.  "Riding Solo" is good.  Makes me think of M.I.A. in a good way.

Three albums - 2015's Leave Me Alone, 2017's I Don't Run, and 2020's The Prettiest Curse. I think that middle album is my favorite of the three. That new album has a cleaner sound that I like - less of the yelled vocals that I was complaining about up above.  (and yes, I know this all makes me sound very old and crotchety).  The top track from that new album is "Good Bad Times," with 2.6 million streams.

Part Spanish, part English, and set to a deliciously terrible video featuring a literal Nazi with super-powers.  Fine song.  Kind of plodding.

The most streamed song overall is called "Bamboo," and is from that first album.  5.3 million streams for that one.

This is the stuff that is making my brain curl up into a ball and request freedom from these sounds.  I know crap-all about producing music, but was this just made with a Fisher-Price microphone or something?  The shorter one sounds like an evil muppet everytime she sings.  Which makes me like the new album much better (although that same tone comes back here and there, such as in "Come Back and Love Me <3").

I doubt I'd go watch this show.  We'll see - I need to find some good stuff before I start crossing the maybe stuff off the list!