Djo

One Liner: One of the Stranger Things actors making good psych rock.

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia about his music, but this is rock, synth rock, psych rock
Home: L.A. (born in Massachusetts, but he's bound to live in L.A. now, right?)

Poster Position: 14
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts:  Always fun to have someone like this on the poster, where I get to find out that Djo is a Portugese futsal player, DJO is a manufacturer of medical devices (headquartered in Lewisville, Texas!), DJO High is Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School (high school of Eric Metcalf!), Djo d'Eloy is a Cape Verdean singer (whose greatest song is "Arriola"!), Djo Mpeko is a footballer (a defender for the Girabola!), Djo Tunda Wa Munga is a film director (winner of the 2011 MTV Music Awards for Best African Movie!), AND HE IS ALSO THE OLDER BROTHER IN STRANGER THINGS!?!?!

Of all the things I did not expect to happen today, way way way high on the list would be to click on the listing for Djo and see that it is the stage name for Joe Keery's music career, when he is not starring as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things or the movie Free Guy.  Fascinating.  I've been wanting to watch the new Stranger Things season!  He went to DePaul University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.  In his musical career, he apparently started out by releasing music under the name Cool Cool Cool, but then became a guitarist for a band called Post Animal for a few albums.  According to one interview I read, he said that the fame from Stranger Things made that weird because the rest of the band didn't want to just be the "guy from Stranger Things" band - but they've stayed friends and he's gotten their help on making his solo album.  In 2019, he started releasing music under the Djo name.

And you know what?  It's actually pretty solid!  Kinda low key indie psych rock.  Think super basic Tame Impala.  Well, then I have to say that the 2020 single "Keep Your Head Up" is not as good.  Too much falsetto, too much saxophone, too much squelchy synths.  The stuff from the 2019 album Twenty Twenty is much better.  The top track overall is from that album, called "Roddy," with 31.2 million streams.

Pretty good tune - nothing particularly stands out in there, but good guitar and vocals and a nice little groove.  The synth voice thing in the middle, straight out of Ferris Bueller, is a little weird, but otherwise it is a solid tune.  "Chateau (Feel Alright)" is the other big song with 29 million streams and a similarly woozy rock sound.

Nice chill tune.  Brings me some Beck vibes.  "Mutual Future" has some Strokes vibes, but also some jam band guitarage near the end.  "BNBG," with its ridiculous outro of repeatedly saying "babygirl," is a massively cringe inducing moment.  "Personal Lies" kicks in with a pop rock swagger, but then devolves into a spacey meander.  I like it.

I really wish this guy was going to be both weekends, because I'd go check it out for sure.