One Liner: Massive EDM dance booms from an Aussie lady DJ Wikipedia Genre: EDM, electropop, trap, chillwave, future bass
Home: Sydney Poster Position: 5 Both Weekends
Saturday at 7:20 on the T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: Wonderland was last here in 2017, so it wasn't a surprise this time to hear her bumping electronica despite her name sounding like she'd be a folk artist. Real name is Alexandra Sholler. Wikipedia says she is the "highest billed female DJ in Coachella history," which doesn't really seem like much of an accomplishment? Maybe I'm just blind to the plight of EDM women and the fonts of festival posters. I wonder if she wins the prize for ACL to by being on the 5th line now? I just did a search for best female DJ, and because I've never heard of any of them, I'm going to say that none of them have ever been higher than the 5th row on the ACL poster. As such, Alison now also holds that revered record.
I like the genre name "future bass," "described as music that "takes the ecstatic drops of dubstep or trap, but provides a warm bounce rather than a lumbering bruteness." I like that description. I'll say this is intricate bass and layered electronic sounds to create pretty cool rhythm tracks. For the most part, I like this stuff pretty well. What I have found I like less, and this is a good sign, are all of the myriad remixes of the original songs. It seems like I like the real stuff better than the reinterpretations by others.
Two albums, 2015's Run and 2018's Awake, and then a mess of singles and remixes and other garbage. The top track overall is from that first album, with 47.1 million streams, called "I Want U," and comes off more as a Skrillex-style banger than a dance tune.
Creepy Shining ass video. And according to comments on that video, the track is apparently featured on NBA2k17 video game, which for some reason makes a bunch of people go to YouTube, listen to the song, and then comment that they came there because of NBA2k17. Why do people do that? What is the purpose of commenting on a YouTube video about why you found and streamed that video? Such a weird thing to go do (says the guy writing 4,000,000 words about ACL bands for eight people to read). :)
She also has a track on that first album that features Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips. This is "U Don't Know," with 14.9 million streams.
McLovin'! Munchin' a donut! (that he apparently drops without finishing so that he can beat himself in the head). Oh noes! He's a mean kidnapper guy who yells like Wayne Coyne sings! Interestingly, when he stands at the back of the car, and she is thrashing about with all her might, that sweet ass old school station wagon just doesn't even rock. That thing was made for sexytime. Ain't no rockin' when McLovin' comes a knockin'! Wait, where did those scissors come from? Nobody runs with scissors in the pocket of their jeans. Well, maybe psychopaths. Nevermind. Aw, young love! Oh noes! We suck again!
The top track from the 2018 album is a little more of a pop song that happens to have electronic music behind it - less of a dance track, more focused on her voice. "Church" has 31.1 million streams.
I think I prefer the earlier stuff that is more focused on dancepartytime. Less singing, more banging!
OK, here is an hour long video of her doing a live DJ set at some thing in L.A., and man, DJ'ing is so lame.
Go to like 1:58, and you can see her reach up for a knob near the top of her board, and she does absolutely nothing to that knob (maybe tweaks it by 1/1,000th of a centimeter) and then does it again a little bit later. JEAH! Wait, even better is 3:24. Multiple knob touches! DJ FEVER! I mean, screw me, right? I couldn't make these songs in the first place, but can we all just agree that there is no reason for that tiny crowd to actually watch her DJ? They should just be dancing and ignoring what she is doing, and she should just have programmed all of the noises in to her laptop so that she didn't even need to fake turn knobs by tiny fractions in the first place. She could be out there in the audience, dancing her ass off as well and enjoying a beverage or three. The whole thing is silly. And awkward. That crowd seems weird just standing there and kind of nervously bobbing. I made it about 6 minutes and decided that was enough.
After all of those complaints, I think her music sounds like a good time, and I bet the show at ACL will be pretty fun for those that go over there.
Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop, pop-rap, rap rock, pop punk Home: Cleveland, OH Poster Position: 2 Both Weekends.
Friday at 4pm on the Honda Stage.
Thoughts: I had no clue that this was going to be pop punk. I had thought, this entire time, that Kelly was a rapper. Didn't he have a rap beef with Eminem at one time? Instead, this is some Blink 182-sounding stuff. Seems like we have a lot of Blink-ish bands here this year - did Travis Barker buy an interest in C3?
Real name is Colson Baker. He got his break from Puff Daddy signing him to Bad Boy. In an extremely confusing turn of events, he won "Top Rock Artist" at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards. Which is honestly just deeply confusing. He was up for the award against AC/DC, AJR, Five Finger Death Punch, and twenty one pilots. What the actual hell, Billboard? Who came up with those nominees? I guess no women made rock last year? What a garbage list of rock. Seriously, even if you think the Pearl Jam, Green Day, or Springsteen records last year were no good, are you trying to tell me that this shite is better than the HAIM disc? The Soccer Mommy album? Fontaines DC, Hum, Phoebe Bridgers, Waxahatchee, Car Seat Head Rest, My Morning Jacket? I'm unnecessarily worked up here. Sorry.
Ah, looks like his old albums were rap, but then he shifted into pop punk with his most recent album - 2020's Ticket's to my Downfall - which has his most popular tracks. The pop punk stuff is entirely forgettable, except for when it's terrible. "kiss kiss" involves a chorus where he sings "kiss kiss, kiss kiss the bottle all night. Hello, Goodbye." It would have been cheesy if Avril Lavigne had done it 20 years ago, but trying to pass it off right now, its just embarrassing to even listen to it. And then, literally, if you played me "concert for aliens" or "nothing inside" and told me they were un-used b-sides from Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, I'd believe you. And the songs are tiny - 15 songs clock in under 37 minutes. I guess that is a plus? The big track is one with blackbear, called "my ex's best friend," that uses some trap elements in addition to the pop punk instrumentation. 311.3 million streams.
Huh. blackbear appears to be a rapper as well, with some of those painful looking throat tats. Why does this song have 331 million streams?
One of his newest singles, which somehow has 40 million streams, is deeply unpleasant. "DAYWALKER! (feat. CORPSE)" has a crappy beat and has about half of it's runtime taken up by Kelly just screaming the word FIGHT!
The dude is also an actor now. I have seen him in two roles - as Tommy Lee in The Dirt (pretty okay) and as a jerk in the Sandra Bullock movie Bird Box about monsters who only get you if you see them. Which was very weird.
I tried his first album out as well, and the opening track is just plain terrible. 2015's General Admission opens with "Spotlight," and its a bombastic mess of a song, trying so hard to sound important but just falling on its face. No wonder Eminem made fun of this guy. Actually, I just went and read up on that feud, and it all started when Kelly tweeted that Eminem's 16-year old daughter was "hot as fuck." Seems totally fair for Em to hate the kid after that, but I also have two young daughters, so keep your goofy blonde ass away from them kids. The top track from this first album is called "Till I Die," with 135.5 million streams.
I guess he is proud to be from Cleveland? Seems like a weird thing to be proud of. That being said, that track is legitimately good. Tough beat and good lyrics. Over 123 million views of that video too? Crazy. He also has a track on here with stupid ass Kid Rock. Gross. This album is over an hour long too, which is just too much. I also like "Oz," sounds like a classic UGK track. "Merry Go Round" sounds like he is copying Eminem.
The interesting thing is how hard he reps Cleveland up there, when his Wikipedia says he was born in Houston, and then moved around a lot, until settling in Denver. But it looks like he finished high school in Cleveland, so I guess settling on that as his identity makes sense.
I reviewed his 2017 album years ago:
Machine Gun Kelly - Bloom. This guy seems like a jackass. I read a short article about him in RS a few months ago, and he has one of those personalities that makes you just shake your head. First, the description of his sartorial choices:
"His fashion sense is singular: Think Axl Rose styled by Elton John during a blackout. Tonight, he's got on a distressed, acid-washed pale-blue denim jacket with "Thrill Ryde" etched on the back, a black and red floral shirt, low-hanging black jeans (with safety pins where the fly should be, a wallet chain, plus a black bandanna in a rear pocket) and pink-tinted circular-lensed glasses not unlike the pair Canadian reggae artist Snow wore in the "Informer" video. The shades nearly match the ruby grilles on his teeth."
Ugh. Or this great quote (now that he is going some movie and television work):
"On the set of a sci-fi movie he just shot, an actor playing a cop kept punching him in the chest, for real, in take after take. When he complained, he says, he was told to suck it up. "As Colson Baker, I took that loss on the chin," MGK says. "But, like, dude: Machine Gun probably would've whupped his fucking ass."
That is like fourth person speaking in the 12th person about a fictional person in the first person through the fourth wall. And so douchey. "If I would have been myself when I'm rapping when you punched me I would have killed you, bro! But since I was just me and not myself then its cool" And, finally:
"I just gave everything. I gave everything on that fucking stage! That's not right! They don't even know! I might not even walk the same at 40 years old because of how much shit I leave onstage. I'm fighting every night up there! How are you dissatisfied?"
Come on, man. If you literally are damaging your ability to walk in 13 more years, which I sincerely doubt, then you are doing it wrong. So stupid. Just jam your weak pop punk raps out and people will still enjoy. Or not. But you get paid either way. Don't injure yourself. "Let You Go" is the bad pop punk rap song I'm thinking of here, but the massive hit (and yes, this clown really does have a massive hit) is "Bad Things," which features Camila Cabello and boasts over 284 million streams. (that is now up to 531.6 million since then).
Biting a little bit of Pachelbel's Canon in D, but also some of Austin band Fastball's "Out of my Head," to make a radio-friendly cross-over hit like just about every one of Eminem's recent hits with some lady singer on board. Not a fan of that song or the rest of this album. Bits of it got my head nodding, but nah."
So, I apparently loved it! The top track from his 2019 album, the one right before he went "punk" shows some leaning into that style. "I Think I'm OKAY" features YUNGBLUD and Travis Barker (told you that guy keeps popping up!). 284.8 million streams.
Weird that the lady friend he has at the start looks like YungBlud if he shaved his terrible haircut off. I saw Yungblud with the kids at ACL a few years back, and that dude absolutely made his show difficult to watch with small children. What I realized about 5 minutes into the show was that the kids thought that they were about to see 5 Seconds of Summer, because they had a popular song right then called "Youngblood." They were deeply disappointed when it ended up being a heavily makeup'ed guy in a leg cast yelling F bombs and poking out his tongue.
I just asked my 13 year old what she thinks about MGK, and she had never heard of him. I am irrationally pleased by this fact. I even played the track with the bear guy and she didn't recognize it. There is hope for the youth.
Unfortunately, my buddy that I do ACL with has already warned me that he wants to see this. So, I'm just going to have to suck it up and go jam out to the Blink 182 redux action. Oh well, at least he didn't tell me I have to go watch any of the 38 other pop punk wannabes.
One Liner: Goofy looking white kid who metamorphized into a legit rapper
Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop Home: Louisville, KY Poster Position: 4 Both Weekends.
Saturday at 7:20 on the Miller Lite Stage.
Thoughts: Huh. Unexpected rapper here - with a name like Jack Harlow and a face like a college hockey player's mugshot, I had no clue I was about to log in to a rap thing. His top track is called "WHATS POPPIN" and has a remix with DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne, so maybe we'll get a DaBaby sighting on stage for this dude's show. The beat for this track is cool - the quick little piano bit and the heavy 808s is nice. The original version has more streams than the remix, so here is the OG, with 483.7 million streams.
Uhhh, so YouTube has lots of silly ass videos that the dude did as well - Dammit, is this another TikTok star?
Dude. This guy looks about 90% like I did at age 13. Just a goofy ass, skinny white kid with glasses. Wait, he even had a lazy eye! AND HIS NAME IS JACK!?! This is me in an alternate timeline, apparently. And for him to turn some little stolen-beat freestyles into a career where now he has Lil Wayne on one of his tracks? This is kind of amazing. I need to read more about him.
"Whats Poppin" was indeed made popular by TikTok, but it looks like Harlow was hustling his rap game long before that. Dude opened for Vince Staples when he was still in high school! Now he just played SNL in March! This is wild. Here is an amazing quote from an article I just read about him: "As his parents pulled into the driveway, Jack Harlow had a question from the backseat. He was 12. “Mom,” he said, “how do I become the best rapper in the world?” His mother had just read the book Outliers, which popularized the theory that the secret to greatness is 10,000 hours of practice. With Jack’s 18th birthday as a deadline, she did the math. For the next six years, her son would need to work on rapping for four or five hours every day. “OK,” Jack said." Truly, wild. Like, this goofy kid just decided he was going to be a famous rapper and then, like, made it happen. In seventh grade, he made a mixtape and gave it away to all the kids at school. After high school, he moved into his own apartment, working for his parents during the day and then doing music at night. That article also mentions that he is managed by C3, who also runs ACL.
He also says something only a crazy person would say: "When he was 10 he asked for permission to listen to the explicit albums in his mom’s collection. A Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, N.W.A. “A lot of people regard the ’90s as the golden age of hip-hop, but” — you can determine whether or not you’re too young to even be considered a millennial by how you react to what he says next — “my generation, who we’ll be talking about in 10 to 20 years, realistically, is Drake.” " Uggghhhh.
Six albums, with his most recent in 2020, called Thats What They All Say. "Baxter Avenue" has a real heart on the sleeve chunk about him feeling uncomfortable in his industry and wishing things were different for him and his black friends. The album also has "Whats Poppin" (and no, although it is killing me, I am not omitting apostrophes in these song and album names) and is second-most streamed track, named after a Miami Heat player, "Tyler Herro." 181.9 million streams.
Instead of a piano run, it uses a little flute melody. Feels kind of the same though, like a cuteness added to the track over the brawny bass. The thing that is kind of wild? His first album, 2016's 18, is a fully formed thing with him sounding pretty much like he does now. I figured it would sound like that goofy kid up there, riding in a skid steer bucket and rapping about homeroom class, but this album is legit too. That being said, the new album definitely adds a lot of famous collabs to the mix, with Lil Baby, Big Sean, Chris Brown, Adam Levine, and others. He wasn't getting platinum artists to help with his stuff back in 2016. I like the laid back track "Keep It Light." Sounds kind of like Mac Miller.
He also has a track on the soundtrack for the new Fast and Furious movie. Well, it is him with Ty Dolla $ign and something called 24Goldn. It also calls back to "Poppin" with a little piano trill that weaves through the whole song. Nothing great.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but their website says "Texas Reggae / Southern Rock" Home: Austin! Poster Position: 22 - bottom row! Weekend One Only.
Friday at 1pm on the Tito's Stage.
Thoughts: Well, they pulled one over on me. Thought for sure this would be another local rapper down here on the bottom line. Instead, this is, uhh, what kind of music is Sublime? Like, reggae alternative? Ska pop rock? Well whatever, this is that. Makes strong use of that offbeat synth thing that I associate with reggae, or Sublime, or 311, or the Samples. After some research, it appears that technique is called the "ska stroke up." Learn something new every day!
"Come and Toke It" is, not surprisingly, about how we should have legal weed in Texas and everyone should smoke it right away. And that matches perfectly with the Sublime vibe here. 125k streams, by far their most popular.
Digging the angry red-bearded rapper with the dreads. It's actually damn catchy. Most of this is pretty fun music - maybe not what I would normally aim for personally, but it seems like a good time. Also, on Spotify, their next live show listing, under Artist Pick, says they play October 1 at Zilker Park, Austin, at 8pm. I think that time slot is a liiittttle bit ambitious for a band on the bottom line of the poster. But who knows?
"Coffee & Bongs" is cracking me up though - they leave behind the reggae riddims to break out a happy trails-ass song about boning. According to one thing I read online, the band started up in 2010 with Ronnie Bowen and James Tobias, who are now the singers and songwriters. But the guitar player seems like the star of the show, even if the synth player has to hit more notes than anyone else to keep the upstroke going. Like, the solo on "Don't Wait Up" is a pretty legit run of guitar action. Or the opening of "King from Under" - the guy's name is Travis Brown.
Three albums - 2020's Head Change, 2018's Indica Nights, and 2015's Sativa Sunrise. Hmm, I wonder if they like weed? "Don't Wait Up" is their second-most streamed, but it is also from that new album, so I'll reach back into one of the older ones to give you a little taste of the older stuff. This is "Mesmerized," from Indica Nights, with 54k streams.
I was just fully mesmerized by that jenky ass video. But again, pretty good song if you're into this island goofball vibe. I think I like it. It's supremely goofy - the schtick that these dudes have come up with. A dreadlocked white dude who raps is inherently goofy, and making rock with reggae riddims is also kind of silly today, but at the same time, I'm kinda digging the vibe. What's wrong with feel good music?
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I'll say rap. Home: Austin! Poster Position: 22 - bottom row! Weekend Two Only.
Sunday at Noon on the VRBO Stage.
Thoughts: With only one single song available on Spotify, its kind of hard to get a great feel for the guy, but I can tell you that he is a rapper who interpolates a little 2Pac (HAIL MARY!) into his only single, and uses a good amount of effects on his voice.
"Black Odyssey" is a play by Marcus Gardley, that sounds very weird. "Black Odyssey mashes up Greek mythology and African-American folklore in this musical and visionary new take on Homer’s classic. After he is lost at sea and presumed dead, Ulysses Lincoln, a Gulf War veteran, struggles to find his way home to his wife, Nella and his son, Malachi. A host of Gods control his fate, including the dignified Deus, scheming Paw Sidin, and radiant Aunt Tina, who make Ulysses confront his ancestral past so he can embrace his unsettled present." Mmmkay. Well, that play is not this individual, but I just thought it was interesting to bring up where he maybe got the name from?
The opening of this song has him saying that he was driving down "35," so it sounds like he might be another local rapper. That is the third local rapper down here on the bottom row of the poster. It's like they dropped the gospel people out of the bottom row ghetto and moved the local rappers into their space.
This guy was "formerly known as Sam Houston," which is a weird thing to say. The article I read says that his prior persona was Americana music, but that now he has switched over to rap. Here's that one track - "BID BAD WOLF/SOBER" with 54k streams.
The track starts as straight rap - makes me think of a Brockhampton track - confessional and intense, over a hard beat - and then it becomes a singing/yelling thing, before it fully shifts into a pretty R&B tune. I like the rap portion. Less sold on the R&B half. Doubt I'll go see this based on this single song...
One Liner: Bastrop rapper signed to Chris Bosh's new Austin label
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I'll say rap, hip hop. Home: Bastrop, Texas! Poster Position: 22 - bottom row! Weekend One Only.
Sunday at 12:15 on the Miller Lite Stage.
Thoughts: Local-ish dude! And I dig the Screwed nuance to most of his raps - you can tell that he was raised on the Houston sound of rap. But his Spotify bio claims that Smithville, Texas is the hip-hop epicenter of Texas. I guess it is because that is where DJ Screw was born, but come on man. The town where Hope Floats was filmed is not the center of Texas hip-hop. Nobody thinks Smithville when they think of Screw, everyone just thinks of Houston. C'mon.
No real album available on Spotify, just two singles and a 2021 EP called Geto Gala (Chopped and Slowed). So maybe there is a version of this somewhere that isn't chopped? Also, the album is credited as by Geto Gala, Deezie Brown, and Jake Lloyd, so this may actually be a group with those two guys in it. So it creates a weird juxtaposition, because both of those non-Geto Gala tracks are pretty good, but they are relatively regular rap. Then all the rest of these songs are chopped and screwed, which is a totally different sound.
So what that ends up meaning is that there are really only two songs by this guy on Spotify. And if that is true, then it appears that both of those songs have Chris Bosh on them? Chris Bosh? Like, the guy who won NBA championships with Lebron and Wade? Holy smokes, yes, it really is that Chris Bosh.
That was "Imitate," which the pair released on 2020. It currently has 7,363 streams on Spotify. Which is deeply weird, right? All the weirdo NBA fanboys are just ignoring this stuff? I actually like it. I dig the line of stacking enough dough to make biscuits for the projects. ooooooh, Bosh never actually raps on there. He's just the producer! Okay, so then all of those vocals are from Deezie, and I can more properly pronounce him as pretty damn good!
Here is the other one, "I Want It All," which also lists big Bosh as an artist.
Huh. Weird that he's citing to Kobe so much when he's got Bosh on the track? Can't you do a track for the guy making your beats? You can't rep for Dwayne Wade, at least?
Looks like Bosh actually moved to Austin to become a producer. Originally from Texas (just south of Dallas), he moved to town, started a record label named after his grandfather (Daddy Jack), and signed Deezie Brown. By the way, Daddy Jacks is also a restaurant in Dallas, and we did an anniversary or two there back in the day, and it is awesome. Nope. Sadness ensues. It closed back in 2017. Damn you progress! Anyway, Bosh's wife apparently suggested Austin, and he's loved it ever since moving his family here. This little section of an interview is awesome:
"AC: How'd you connect with Deezie Brown?
CB: I read an article. My wife tore it out of a magazine. She said, "Well, you've been talking about working with local artists. Here's this article." It was about [KUTX] radio show The Breaks. I listened to the artists, and he became my favorite of the bunch, so I decided to cold call him.
AC: You realize how unusual that is, right? "Hey, we don't know each other, but I'm 11-time NBA All-Star Chris Bosh and I'm a fan."
CB: [Laughs] I always tell folks, "I know, man. I know. I'm just trying." I know this is probably strange and unusual, but you got to go for it."
That is very cool. I like this guy. I'm not sure if I'll be there for the noon slot that he is likely to have, but I think his flow is good and the beats are solid.
One Liner: Local rapper making art rap and odd electronic music
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I'll say rap, hip hop, and experimental electronic. Home: Austin! Poster Position: 22 - bottom row! Weekend Two Only.
Saturday at 12:05 on the VRBO Stage.
Thoughts: Local guy making solid rap. And a good story about how he came to be local - he came to Austin to see his girlfriend, and although he was living in Detroit, he just decided to stay. " “She posed the question like, ‘What do you have, basically, at home?’ I wasn’t doin’ music or shows too much in the city. I couldn’t get the bigger gigs. I was like, ‘Sang, if I go back, what would I be going to - a job?’ I had $8 in my pocket, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna stay’.” A few months after moving to Austin, Melinoe became homeless." Jeez! Since then, he's gotten back on his feet, and even had Mayor Adler declare November 14, 2019 as Mike Melinoe Day. Hooray for Mike Melinoe Day!
He only has two songs with more than 10k streams, so he hasn't quite hit the mainstream just yet. Neither of those are on his proper albums. The first one, creeping up towards 20k streams at 19,055, is "Costco."
Well, that was weird! Okay track - good beat to it. I just shopped at Costco yesterday, so now I feel attacked. But I very much like that he held his (?) baby for the first couple bars of the video. That was a little tiny baby.
This one kind of sounds like Andre 3000. "Her Name."
His most recent album, 2021's Puu, is an instrumental album. The opener is a more than 6 minute long track of spacey synths and trappy clicks. And the album just keeps unspooling into strange sounds and boppin' beats for the remaining 14 tracks. "No Clouds" is pretty groovy. "Detroit Sluts" is a completely different track - I need to learn what that style of music is called, because it just makes me think of that Ghost Town DJs track about the lady singing "AT NIGHT, I THINK OF YOU." Miami Bass, apparently. "Finger Love," which is a great name, is a sleepy slow jam that sounds nothing like a normal rap beat. Anyway, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this album, I'd rather have the man rap over these beats, rather than just meandering my way through a bunch of beats/sounds.
The disc before that one, 2019's Clajidu (currently laughing at jokes I don't understand) mixes up a more traditional rap sound ("Waldo," "Love is a Joke") with a handful of arty tracks ("Lifetime," "2:22"). "4:44" has an off-kilter beat, but "3:33" brings a tough beat along to a brawny rap (with some little asides in the background that call A$AP Ferg to mind). Wasn't 4:44 a Jay-Z album? Here is that track:
Before that, 2018's Oo has more singing than I would like to hear (kind of reminds me of my less favorite Childish Gambino stuff), and before that 2017's Caveman and A Night, with Hanabi, are each more raw rap sounds. But "Dlog Taog" is kind of hard.
His 2020 EP Bukneu has his second most streamed track, and I dig the laid-back feel on this one. "Waves." 11,025 streams.
I have no clue what it is about - he hates a lucky person's eyes but doesn't think a donkey should be surprised? 39 total views of that video.
I won't be there for the second weekend, but honestly, I'd go check this guy out. Kind of intrigued by the weird mixture of rap and art that he has going on.
Wikipedia Genre: Blues rock, indie rock, garage rock, country rock Home: Cincinnati, OH (maybe now in Austin, sort of?) Poster Position: 13 Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 2:30 on the LadyBird Stage.
Thoughts: Thank God. Finally, something on this poster that I hadn't heard of before but sounds good. This is some bluesy rock goodness. Of course, that means that their streaming numbers are a fraction of those I've recently seen for TikTok star emo rappers and whatnot, but I think its more important that at least they got named to this bill and some people can discover these tunes.
The band was initially formed by a woman named Erika Wennerstrom back in 2002, who mainly did all of the instruments herself. Sounds like one of the Black Keys guys noticed them and they were soon signed to a label. According to Wennerstrom, the name of the band comes from a question on a trivia quiz game at a bar. A question asked the name of Tom Petty's backing band, and one of the options was "Tom Petty and the Heartless Bastards". She thought it was funny, and used it when she later formed a band.
Interestingly though, when I first listened to the top track, I thought it was a dude doing the singing, not Wennerstrom. It was only after watching this video that I realized that she is still the one singing, just using her octaves. The top track, by a good amount, is "Only For You," with 35.9 million streams.
Actually sounds kind of like Wilco at first. But then the higher octave singing removes that illusion. Great groove in there though. And that little jam sesh at the end is wonderful.
Five albums - sounds like the band has been through multiple lineups, with only Wennerstrom as the constant throughout. 2005's Stairs and Elevators, 2006's All This Time, 2009's The Mountain, 2012's Arrow, and 2015's Restless Ones. I hope they're bringing something new to the table, since that is a six year gap since they last put out any new music.
That first album has a definite rawness to it - you can hear some mistakes here and there in the jam - but its appealing nonetheless. Almost a Sleater-Kinney sound at times, and the band has a Crazy Horse sound at times ("Pass and Fail" for sure). I can also see why a Black Keys guy would have been attracted to this band - lots of blues swagger and big riffs.
By 2009's The Mountain, they're a little cleaner. The title track adds a steel guitar to the mix that sounds pretty good. And "Had to Go" drops into a pleasant Appalachian banjo/fiddle mix, kind of ominously, which sounds cool. The top track from this album, and their second-most streamed overall, is the title track with 6.8 million streams.
Pretty good, right? The album closer is awesome - "Sway" starts to sound like Alabama Shakes to me. (or maybe Alabama Shakes sounds like "Sway" to me, since this stuff is so old...). Same with "Low Low Low" from Arrow - I dig the Shakes so much.
2012's Arrow makes me think more of classic rock. "Got to Have Rock and Roll" sounds straight up like some T Rex track chugging its way towards a Freebird-lite solo that then gains some "Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo" vibes. "Parted Ways" makes me want to go drink whiskey with her near the Rio Grande. And "Down in the Canyon" comes on like a flash flood and then slinks around a little bit. Dig it.
I'll admit one shameful moment in here, when my brain went to 4 Non Blondes. I wish I hadn't thought of them, and I wish for you that you can eliminate that thought from your brain now. Otherwise, sing it with me "HAAYAAAYYAAAYYYAAYY! HAAAYYYAAAYYYYAAAYY! I SAID HAY! WASGOWANON!!" I saw them live at La Zona Rosa a million years ago, opening for, maybe Blues Traveler? Dave Matthews? Spin Doctors? Haha, in '93 they toured with Aerosmith. Can you imagine the Aerosmith bros being like WTF when 4NB cranked up? Otherwise, Google can't tell me who it was that they opened for. Even more depressing, what if they were the headliner I went to see back then? Anyway, this band is way better than 4NB.
By the time you get to 2015's Restless Ones, they're even cleaner, albiet with a little touch of jam rock added to the Southern charm rock sound. Like, "Black Cloud" is really good, and the mandolin on "Hi-Line" made me purely happy. "Pocket Full of Thirst" sounds like it could be a Dead cover. The final song is making me think of some weird Yeah Yeah Yeahs stuff. Either way, I am really enjoying this album. "Gates of Dawn" is the most streamed, with 2.5 million.
The band didn't break up after this album - apt title though! - but they all decided to take a break to explore other stuff. Wennerstrom used that to make a solo album, Sweet Unknown. Everyone else boogied out to do their own thing as well. A 2020 piece in the Chronicle mentions that they had released a new track ("Revolutions"), but also calls them "Austin indie curanderos." So have they moved to Austin? Also, FYI, a cuandero is a native healer/shaman in Latin America. I had to look that up. Huh, this profile says that Wennerstrom lives in Lockhart now. Cool. Also says that they finished a new album on March 1, 2020, so I guess we should expect that to show up sooner or later?
Either way, I've enjoyed jamming these albums for a few days. This is solid stuff. I'd go check out the live show.
One Liner: Another emo rapper dabbling in bad pop punk after becoming TikTok famous
Wikipedia Genre: Rock, pop punk, emo rap Home: L.A. (previously in Chatanooga, TN) Poster Position: 14 Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 2:30 on the Honda Stage.
Thoughts: Another skinny white emo rapper guy who sounds like he's rapping over Travis Barker drums? Apparently, you pronounce this name as "Jaden." The guy's name is really Jaden Hossler, and Wikipedia tells me to write the band name in all lower case and pronounce as Jaden. Which, mmkay. He was born in Texas but then moved to Tennessee, so I vote that they have to claim him.
No actual albums yet. The biggest hit, by a ton, is "ANGELS & DEMONS" with 102.6 million streams.
Okay. So, we're doing a model shoot that just happens to involve lip synching a terrible Post Malone copycat thing? God that sucks. Watching him thrash his frosted tips repeatedly to convey all of his emotion is brutal. I deserve hazard pay.
His Wikipedia also explains why we are stuck with him - TikTok. In 2019, he joined and over the next few months he gained millions of followers before being asked to join the Sway House. WTF is that? Apparently there is a house in L.A. where a bunch of very popular TikTok personalities all just live and make their little videos? "It is a collaborative content house, allowing the different influencers and content creators to make videos together easily." I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. This article just told me that if I haven't heard of Sway House, then I probably have a mortgage. Well, up yours too. But I actually like this line "If you were to mock up a pop culture family tree, Sway House would be the Gen Z problem child of The Real World, Jackass, and Meekus from Zoolander." The house was founded by agents, and populated with 7 good looking dudes who already had big follower counts. The article says that jxdn left the house in May 2020 after a road trip led to an arrest on drug charges. So, this is why we now know about this doofus.
Ahhh! And he got signed to Travis Barker's label! I knew this sounded like the trademark Barker pounding. Is that three guys coming to ACL this year all with Barker ties? Four? Is he like the Bill Belicheck of emo pop punk with his own coaching tree? That is weird.
His Wikipedia says that he attempted suicide twice during his senior year of high school, and he's spoken some about that in his lyrics. The third song is called "BETTER OFF DEAD" and includes this line (super repeatedly) "cloudy with a chance of depression" and then followed up with "cloudy with a chance of anxiety." The thing that is strangest about that is the background music is a sing/song tune and a poppy trap beat. Doesn't seem to match the downer lyrics.
"Comatose" is his second most streamed track. Hey, shocker, he is thrashing his frosted tips in that one too.
Holy shit. Usually, when I watch a video for a song, it makes me like it more. With both of these tracks, I absolutely thought they were pretty harmless and okay, until I watched these videos, and now I deeply hate this guy.
I'm sure he'll have a massive crowd and everyone will talk up about how they got to see those frosted tips get tossed in real life, but I wouldn't go watch this one if THE HYPE BEAST paid me to go. AND NO, JASON, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, WE ARE NOT GOING TO WATCH THIS GUY!
One Liner: Pop country singer, more on the pop end now, with a great voice
Wikipedia Genre: Country pop Home: Huntington Beach, CA (but Nashville now) Poster Position: 9 Both Weekends.
Sunday at 3:30 on the VRBO Stage.
Thoughts: So weird. I could have sworn she came here a few years ago. She totally looks familiar, and I remember because she looks like someone that should be part of Lady Antebellum. Swear I've done this before. Oh well.
According to her bio (and I'm just not going to independently investigate this), her song "Burning House" "remains the highest selling song by a female country artist since its release." Which brings to mind two things. First, huh? Seems like a very exact record to set. Second, this is supposed to be country? I would not have pegged this as country music. But here is that mega-seller, with a whopping 116.5 million streams.
I mean, her voice is great. Better than great - powerful and full and wonderful. And she's very pretty. I guess that sounds like country? I mean, are we back to believing that TayTay is a country artist because her recent albums involved a guitar? This sounds more like an Adele song or James Taylor or something. I guess this is what "country pop" sounds like. Also I hear the newer iteration of The Chicks in some of these songs. Full name is Camaron Marvel Ochs (sounds like a superhero real name - wasn't that the bad guy in a Spiderman movie?), and she's from California. She got her break writing tracks for Sam Smith and Miley Cyrus. Maybe that is how she got on the bill here? Her Wikipedia says that she had originally gone by her full name, until she found that people had trouble pronouncing the last name. Since then, she has opened for diverse things like Harry Styles and Tim McGraw/Faith Hill. Dang. The music industry is harsh. Wikipedia says she released 2018's Road to Happiness, which did not chart, and so she split with her label. Damn.
"The Otherside" makes me think of Lady Gaga, a strong voice and more vibrato than is necessary will take me that way every time. "Palace - Cover" gives me Jewel vibes during the chorus. Okay, "Untamed" sounds like country. But then "Hungover on Heartache" is right back to pop music. This is weird to pigeon-hole.
The album that I remember is Untamed, the 2015 album with a cover of her drinking a lemon through a straw and staring directly into the camera. That one has the single up above on it. No other song is nearly so popular, the closest is 11 million. Only "Mayday" is also in her top ten from that album, so it has all been replaced. Her newer album is 2020's Otherside, which mostly populates her top ten. The big song from that is "Diane," with 15.9 million streams.
Has a Jolene feel to it, except from the other way around. She's claiming that she didn't know he already had a wife when she hooked up with him. But definite country vibes in that one. Also, that dude is a dick.
She has a live album, from SXSW in 2015, and those sound very country in a way that most of this studio music does not. Like, she has banjos in one of these songs. Another one has her singing that she is "sweating like a pig," which doesn't match up at all with her glossy, Shirley-Temple-curls look now. But then she ends the set with "Uptown Funk " of all things. Nothing from these more recent two studio albums sounds anything so country as most of this. However, the first single available on Spotify - "Down this Road" - for sure sounds like a Dixie Chicks thing. Strong voices tune about a small town girl ready to face the world.
Her voice is great, but I don't think I'd ever aim for pop country. Maybe I'd go do it if nothing else is great in her time slot, but this isn't my thing for sure.
One Liner: Mellow rapper who also happens to do some techno? Yeah.
Wikipedia Genre: Experimental hip hop, Detroit techno, West Coast Hip Hip (quite a list! why can't people just do one thing?) Home: Compton, CA Poster Position: 9 Both Weekends.
Sunday at 5:30 on the VRBO Stage.
Thoughts: Okay. This is kind of fun. I was getting worried about ever finding something on this poster that I liked but didn't already know. This stuff is funkay. Well, it's not all funky, but when you play the most streamed tune, "Topdown," it feels like I'm at a very exclusive pool party full of beautiful people who are ignoring a DJ who is playing this tune really hoping that someone will vibe it. I'm vibing it, Mr. DJ. I see you. 21.4 million streams.
I also dig on the G-Funk synths near the end. Hell yeah. The vibe of the tune in the background is both chilled out and danceable, which is odd, but cool. And then the vocals are one step away from Barry White just rumbling in your vulva.
Just one album, 2020's i can't go outside. I totally thought that "skate depot" was saying "stanky boy" for the first several listens. Which made me grin. "Weedman" makes me think of that "then I got high" song from a long time ago. Goofy. "Alter Ego" isn't on the album, but its a kind of fun EDM type track. The top track from the album is the one with Tyler, The Creator, called "fuego," with 5.9 million streams.
Cool. Again, he's keeping the vocals down in a smooth ass register. I've provided you with two tracks that both show the same vibe. I need to play one of the other ones that sound different. So, here is "Weedman."
Kind of like a Prince track mixed with that "and then I got high" track. I dig this guy's flow. SO mellow. Funny thing is, a lot of the tracks on Spotify for this guy are more like EDM, while all of these top tracks are straight rap.
Guy's real name is Sheldon Young. He's based out of Compton. HIs Wikipedia bio says that he grew up in Compton, left for college, but then came back and a mutual friend got him in the studio making beats for people like Duckwrth and Wale. I know I've already given you three songs, but he apparently blew up based on "Controller," in the UK and Australia, so let's hear that one too.
Another good one. The beat is a little goofy, a little playful, but it's also fun in that way. A little less seriousness is fun when his voice sounds so much like a tough rapper.
One Liner: Heavily auto-tuned rapper and singer who I've already forgotten while typing this sentence.
Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, trap, alternative R&B Home: North Carolina Poster Position: 12 Both Weekends.
Sunday at 3:30 on the T-Mobile stage.
Thoughts: Real name Nau'Jour Grainger. Born in Syracuse, NY, but then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. He was discovered down there by the label that also signed fellow North Carolina rapper DaBaby. Which likely explains why he's on this bill.
Never heard of this one for sure, but he's out there throwing music into the ether as quickly as possible. 2017 debut album (Why Not Now), and then since then he's released a 2019 album, two 2020 albums, and a 2021 album. He's in a hurry to make sure that everyone gets a chance to hear him do battle with an auto tune machine.
"shop," his track with DaBaby, shows just how weak this is, as DaBaby is the only interesting thing on the track. It's just some smeary auto-tunes singing where you can barely understand the lyrics, farting around over a mediocre beat, until DaBaby hops on the track and tosses out an efficient little bar.
"Truth Be Told" is the top track with 14.1 million streams. This was on the 2020 album Platinum Heart.
Welp. Yeah. Plain jane beat I'll never recall, piles of auto-tune, and generic lyrics about getting a fancy car or having a nice watch and having sexual relations with the ladies. Yawn. One article I read noted that he was glad not to have any collaborators on that album. "I've never been a big fan of features." Maybe a feature or two would have been a good idea!
In a crazy ass story from an interview, Toosii says that his three best friends murdered his grandpa back when they lived in New York. His extremely messed up quote is "You don't know how to feel. It's your grandad, but those are your best friends." Then, he says that he hopes they get freed from jail, although he probably wouldn't hang with them anymore when they do. What in the world is going on there... "Red Lights" even speaks to that experience.
Second most streamed is "Love Cycle," from the new album, 2021's Thank You For Believing. 12.8 million streams.
Guess he's still ready to get it on with the ladies. He's all into collaborators on the new album! The tattoo on his forehead that says Empath is interesting. Just watched a video interview where he says the broken heart on his face is "exactly what it is" - not from love, but from what he's seen, ya dig. As for the empath tattoo, it is because "the dictionary definition is a person with a paranormal abilities [sic] to apprehend [sic] the emotional state of any character." Mmmmkay.
Wikipedia Genre: (look at this list!) emo rap, trap, indie rock, pop punk Home: Vermont and Massachusetts Poster Position: 14 Weekend One Only.
Friday at 2:30 on the Honda Stage
Thoughts: Joseph Edward Mulherin performs under this happy moniker, mainly making unhappy emo rap tracks that include good times lines like "i don't give a fuck if you hate me or "losing you's a win/win, i don't need a fake friend." Lots of guitar in the mix for some of these, so it almost sounds less like rap and more like emo rock, but the lyrics are pretty clearly more like rap. He's got KennyHoopla on a track, so maybe he also has Travis Barker on all of these tracks like that guy. Apparently not, but they did do a collaboration together.
In 2017, the New York Times called this guy's album Reaper "one of the most promising pop albums of the year." WTF, old grey lady. Really? Also, Wikipedia mentions that he has sometimes debilitating depression and anxiety, which led him to cancel a string of shows in 2018. That sucks. Wild to become a touring artist with anxiety in your makeup. Like, singing in front of a crowd has to be the most anxious thing around for many people.
His newest album, joyfully titled Trauma Factory, starts with a spoken word intro by some grizzled, unhappy man who lets us know that life is a trauma factory. Then we go right into "lights (4444)," which is also not a very happy experience. "imma go my own way, i don't give a fuck if you hate me." But the beat is kinda snappy! "upside down" has a happy sounding track for sure. Most of the beats on the straight rap tracks on this album are relatively generic. Some 808 thumps and trappy little snaps over the top - listening to "exile" right now and it's just boring. Maybe it's supposed to sound ominous and spare, but instead I just want him to quit saying "yeah." "death" is an actively terrible track, like a super shitty NIN track. But then a lot of the songs are more Blink-ish with guitar and drums. The overall feel of the album is all over the place - no two songs sound exactly the same - you might hear Blink 182, or Nine Inch Nails, or Fall Out Boy, or Sum 41, or whatever other yelpy emo rappers exist out there. "fake friend" (heavy on the pop punk feel to me, and pretty catchy) and "nightmare" are the two top tracks on the album, here is the latter with 9.8 million streams.
It's fine. I can see pogoing to it in a field and singing about how you want to break stuff because your girl has a new guy. But nothing about it feels particularly new or interesting to me. It just dawned on me that people who like Machine Gun Kelly might really like this - maybe that is how this dude is on the bill, seeking out other rap/rock/emo people to gather together.
Interesting thing is that despite the NYT thinking Reaper was some sort of classic, no song from that album makes n,n's top ten songs. One track features Dashboard Confessional and cracks the 13 million stream zone, but most of them are in the 5 million-or-less stream zone. But, this is a much more cohesive album - the songs almost all aim for an emo rap feel. "Clarity in Kerosene" is the top one after the Dashboard collab, with 8.8 million streams.
I get it. I can absolutely see a 13 year old, messed up over some relationship, playing that song over and over and wallowing in his broken-heartedness. And singing along about hoping that she dies with him on her mind. Childish fantasizing about jilted revenge. The next song is called "Funeral Fantasy," which is more of the same - "if I die would you even cry, would you weep, would you keep it on the side." Dude is deep in his feelings. Next song is all "all I think about is YOOOOOUUUUUU!" Funny thing, the track on here that drops the rap feel in favor of heartfelt singing, "Marykate," is also the least streamed one of the album. This would not have been named a top album of 2017 for me.
I'm good without seeing this live. Feels like it would be me stuck in a field with a bunch of sad teenagers crying about broken relationships and then trying to halfheartedly mosh against each other to escape the pain.
One Liner: Former American Idol contestant who loves vocal effects despite a strong voice.
Wikipedia Genre: Soul, pop, funk, bedroom pop Home: Palo Alto, CA Poster Position: 12 Both Weekends.
Saturday at 3:20 on T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: Le sigh. I was really hoping that, when I picked this band off of the poster, that I was picking some sweet guitar rock stuff. WOLF RAWK! I was very wrong. This is kinda R&B/hip-hop, mostly plain pop, with loads and loads of voice effects that make it seem childish.
Her only album is a bunch of remixes of her singles. So, like, instead of a cohesive album of original songs, it will be two different remixes of a bunch of her tracks. One of them involves Beck, although he never sings, and its pretty alright. She never turns her voice into a funhouse mirror nightmare in that one. In "Woo!" with Panda Bear she screams like Bjork having a baby.
Her top single is "Photo ID," with 32.5 million streams. From a 2020 EP called I'm Allergic to Dogs!
Minecraft ass video. With the song, the tune is kinda catchy when the chorus pops in, but her computerized vocal tones make my mouth turn down like a grandmother who just saw a nose piercing. Sometimes I fear that I'm hitting the age when nothing new is every going to be appealing again. I'll just have to die alone with my copy of Automatic for the People clutched in my sad old hands. I like the funky part in the chorus, but I don't much care for the vocals or the verse music.
When she was a senior in Palo Alto, she appeared on the 2014 season of American Idol. Let's see if her voice was intentionally grating back then? Here's an interview. No singing.
Loogit all that hair! Here's a live video of singing from the year after that American Idol year.
Good voice - but she's still using effects. her Wikipedia says that she was in the audition rounds of American Idol, and got her golden ticket, but then "without any formal dismissal, mysteriously didn't re-appear later on in the show." MYSTERY!?!?!
One of her remixed songs was used in an iPhone commercial:
I actually remember that commercial! Neato!
"Woo!" (the original version) is actually kinda funky and good. "Hello Hello Hello" (again, the original version) has a little calypso feel to it. "Disco Man" is kind of a groovy R&B jam. But my overall feeling with each of these songs is that they are just SO MUCH. Just bring me a plain ass song for once. Actually, the most recent single is a little closer - almost an early Amy Winehouse vibe. "Liz" from 2021. 68k streams.
Well, I thought it was a little more normal, but that is just the first section. After that, she's still pushing it a bit too far for me. Who is this Liz lady who is making you get so damn excited? And skee-boppin' all over the place...
Wikipedia Genre: alternative dance, electronica, house Home: Sydney, Australia Poster Position: Headliner Both Weekends.
Saturday at 8:20 on Honda Stage.
Thoughts: They were last here in 2017 (which is a theme I am starting to notice about a lot of these bands) but were down on the fifth line of the poster back then. Apparently now they are big enough to be a top 5 headliner.
They were originally known as RUFUS, but in North America they had to go by Rufus du Sol because of some other band who already had Rufus. Which seems weird, to have one name in one country and another name for the rest of the world. I've said this before, but if I ask five random people on the street if a band name exists and none of them say yes, then you can't have copyright on it. The most popular band should always win.
This is three guys making house music to dance to, not the more recently-big EDM sounding stuff, more like the fun house stuff that was big before the Skrillexes and DeadMau5es of the world took over. They've won a few Australian music awards, including a "Best Dance Release" ARIA in 2015, for "You Were Right." Their most streamed at 108.5 million.
Pretty good tune. Here is the thing that confuses me - their Spotify bio says that they were formed in 2010 "when a rain-soaked vacation to Byron Bay turned into an impromptu jam session." How do electronic artists enter into an impromptu jam session? Was everyone sitting around with their macbooks on their lap, reading their twitter feeds, when suddenly one of them turned on a sick beat, the other starting throwing in some tight hand claps, and the third one sang a few insane bars about love and peace and the relativity of time? I can see some guitar nerds having a jam sesh, but I'm not sure I can imagine it with machine music.
Their Spotify streaming totals are actually surprisingly low for a headliner. Only one song with more than 100 million streams? Only five with over 50 million? I'd expect a bigger set of popular songs for a big print band. Maybe their manager has naked photos of the Charleses from C3. Three albums from these guys, 2013's Atlas, 2016's Bloom, and 2018's Solace. Another interesting thing - I'd guess they must be just about to release new music, because EDM seems like the kind of genre where you need to be fresh and can't be only playing old-style stuff. The majority of their top songs come from the new-er album, with 2 each from the older two albums up in their top ten on Spotify. That earlier one ("You Were Right") is by far their most popular, and their next most listened-to is also off of that album ("Innerbloom" with 80.3 million). "Sundream," from the first album, comes third on their most popular list, with 49.6 million streams.
I don't know why the word that comes to mind for this song is "smart." Something about the tune and clean tone of the music makes me think this is smart music. Weird thing to think, but there you go. Watching that video though reminded me of being a kid and watching scrambled Cinemax in the hope of catching a little slice of boob through the scrambled picture. If only that kaleidoscope was a little closer... In listening through the middle album, I keep getting snatches of Chris Martin/Coldplay in the singing, even if the music is nothing like traditional Coldplay music. I like some of these tunes. Normally, I wouldn't say that I would go after dance music or electronica, but I've enjoyed listening to these albums for the past day. I guess I like "house" more than "EDM."
The new album keeps using this one BLATT of synth sound that reminds me of something from the Stranger Things opening music. "Underwater" is the most popular song and has the most streams, from that new album, with 67.7 million.
Pretty dang catchy. Again, that doesn't mean I'd actually go spend the time to boogie around to this at the end of a night, but I could imagine that being a fun time.
One Liner: Lovely voiced Irish pop with folky undertones
Wikipedia Genre: Pop, rock, folk Home: Ireland Poster Position: 7 Both Weekends.
Friday at 7pm on VRBO Stage Thoughts: His voice is somewhere in between Marcus Mumford, David Gray, and Ed Sheeran, definite British vibes, with a very strong, soulful vocal. Huh. Looks like he was at ACL in 2018, according to Wikipedia. Had zero recollection of his name (so not expecting that I thought much about him back then!). I can't find that I made a post about him back then - that is weird. (although, that lineup was so freaking fun! Metallica! Sir Paul! Chvrches! Brandi Carlile! Brockhampton! Greta Van Fleet!) I can't find his name on the poster - so Wikipedia must just be mistaken?
The fun thing about this guy's music is to look at the list of playlists where you can find him - Beast Mode (with a ripped dude working out on the cover), Mood Booster (feel good songs, apparently), Soft Pop Hits (exemplified by Adele), and Strange Fruits (the best Deep House and EDM). Who can put all of those into one place?
Oh, a Kevin Gates collaboration? A Kevin Gates collaboration. He also has two techno songs with something called MEDUZA, and I deeply dislike those two things. Of course, one of them is his top song, because we can't have anything nice these days. I'm not going to play it for you, because it is not representative of his music at all.
Otherwise, his top track is "Power Over Me," with 234 million streams.
Hear that David Grey yelp at about 2:20? This is also the song that he collabs with Kevin Gates, who pretty much turns this otherwise kind of blandly empowering love song into a purely nasty sexual thing. Good tune - great voice!
One cool story about this guy - do you remember Glen Hansard? The guy from Once? That movie was fantastic, and the wife and I even saw a stage production of it at Zach Scott that was very good. Anyway, that dude apparently spotted Kennedy busking in Dublin, chatted him up, and later on gave Kennedy a shot on stage with his band. The quote I read was that Hansard "called back and offered me ten minutes onstage at his sold-out Christmas show. He said, 'You can use the guys in the band, you can do it acoustic, the stage is yours for ten minutes.'" Which is cool as crap! He turned that moment into massive streaming numbers for his first single, called "After Rain," which is more of a folky tune.
He looks so young in that video! Beautiful song.
Just one album, that includes both of the tracks above, as well as his second-most streamed one called "Outnumbered." 222 million streams.
I like that one more than the more popular one - always good to know that Dermot is out there having my back. It also turns into a rap, and I love the way he says the word "art." And again, killer voice. And a Tiny Desk! A Tiny Desk.
Sometimes he borders on a yelling in his voice - he pushes so hard to be emotive in that opening song that he strains to the edge of his nice voice sounding pretty. I like it much better when he backs off of that style where he pushes past his throat's limits. Like, "After Rain," or "Rome" are damn pretty.
I'd go check this out. Not that I would normally angle towards the emotive pop world, but this voice sounds like something I wouldn't be sad to see live.
