One Liner: One of the One Direction guys making really good pop rock tunes
Wikipedia Genre: Soft rock, pop, folk-pop, pop rock
Home: Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland
Poster Position: Level 2 (3) Both Weekends. Sunday.
Thoughts: Hey, another One Direction guy! I had no clue when I started listening, but after a few songs I literally was like "this is kind of like a lesser Harry Styles or something," and then two seconds of research reveal that this was one of the other dudes in that band. "What Makes You Beautiful" and "Best Song Ever" were dance-party bangers in my house with my little girls. Around 2016, the band was coming apart, and by 2017, each of the members had released solo stuff. Seems now they are out on their own.
My man is Irish, and back in his 1D days, he had ridiculously large blond hair. Like, a massive coif of Bieber hair that was then gelled to hell and swooped up over his head. It actually made me laugh out loud when I just saw it. But now, he looks much more like he sounds, an earnest Irish singer/songwriter with boyish good looks and a great set of pipes. He taught himself to play guitar with the help of YouTube tutorials. I should do that [he thinks for the three-hundredth time]. Recently, he has been acting as a coach on The Voice. I've never watched the show, so I don't really know what that means, but I hope he screams in a singer's face while they try to navigate a bad cover of Fleetwood Mac.
Three albums so far - 2017's Flicker, 2020's Heartbreak Weather, and 2023's The Show just released. Top streamers are for sure from that initial album - you can tell that fans were still in on him big time back then. "Slow Hands" is the top dog with 838 million streams, but there are five songs on there with more than 100 million, and another with 775 million. So, he was definitely still on top of the world.
Funny to think that there were judges on that X Factor show back in the day who were like, this dude isn't good enough, so he got thrown into the consolation prize boy band of other losers, and now those guys are one of the most successful boy bands ever, and have spawned multiple megastars afterwards. Just fascinating the way the world works sometimes. But that is a nice tune.
His second disc was not as well-streamed, with the top track topping out at 314 million. "Nice to Meet Ya" is that tune, beating out "Black and White" and "Put a Little Love On Me" as the only track with more than 300 million.
Danceable, jumping tune. Would definitely be fun to jam out to in person. "Put a Little Love On Me" is also a lovely little tune. Listen to the opening track on that newer album, the title song, if you want to hear what I am talking about with the Harry Styles comparisons. Got that swanky 70's guitar swagger and a danceable beat that feels like something that could easily be on a Styles disc. I really like it, and I think this whole album is better than the first one.
Two singles for the new disc - "Heaven" and "Meltdown" - and they are also solid tunes. In all honesty, I have really enjoyed listening to all of these tunes - with the exception of the EDM remixes that are sprinkled throughout his Spotify. So far, "Heaven" is the streaming winner with 147.5 million spins.
That bassline is groovy (although, and I know this is annoying, it reminds me of the sound of the warbling bassline sound at the start of Style's "Grapejuice"). I would never have said this beforehand, that I might want to go see a One Direction solo artist who was not Styles, but I'd expect this to be a really good show.
One Liner: She's a classic country star, but I don't recognize much of this.
Wikipedia Genre: Country, outlaw country, country rock
Home: Nashville (or maybe Malibu, CA now, but born in Texas!)
Poster Position: 3 (10)
Both Weekends
Saturday.
Thoughts: So, Tucker was supposed to come to ACL in 2021, but ended up needing emergency surgery and had to back out of the Fest. Now she's back!
You know what is fascinating? When I hear the name Tanya Tucker, I'm immediately like "yeah, okay, sure. Tanya Tucker. Classic star for sure. She's like Reba or, uh, like, uh, Wynona? Right?" And then if I try to name a single song that the woman sings, my brain looks like a goldfish struggling for air after it just jumped out of the fishbowl. I have absolutely heard her name for years, but have I ever heard a song she sings?
Here's the deal though, until college, about as far into country as I ever strayed was Willie, Robert Earl, and Jerry Jeff. And in college I pretty much just added George Strait, Pat Green, Ray Wylie, David Allan Coe, and a few random tracks from pop-country weirdos like Brooks & Dunn. Oh, and I loved Alison Krauss because of camp. But the deep cut world of real country that is depicted here? I never waded that deep. I dabbled in the Texas stuff and the outlaw stuff, and just enough to keep me relevant when trying to dance at the one bar in my tiny college town, but knowing what Travis Tritt or Tanya Tucker sang was way outside of my lane. It was way later when I dug deeper and learned about the goods available with folks like Don Williams, Chris LeDoux, or Waylon Jennings. And accepted that Garth Brooks and Clint Black and Dolly Parton were actually fun. But Tucker never came onto my radar before trying to write about her.
Her most popular song - "Delta Dawn" - doesn't even sound like country music. Sounds more like something Janis Joplin would have sung in the 60's. I've certainly never heard it before now. Then the second-most popular track - "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane" - sounds like some easy listening-ass shit. I have literally never heard either of these songs. Oh, I've heard "Texas (When I Die)," but I don't think I knew it was her singing it. 6.9 million streams.
Shooting up those longhorns! Also, her voice is so rough and rugged in comparison to her look. Look at those waiters walking through the crowd with mugs of beer on a tray! Awesome. I'd pay at least a nickel to have that happen at ACL while me and a bunch of cool kids clapped along to this song for 5 minutes. Her dancing is freaking cracking me up. She looks very uncomfortable trying to move, like a straight-up mom trying to dance along with the newest dance craze. That video is amazing.
Oh wait, I've heard "Strong Enough to Bend" before. That's a good tune.
Digging into her history now, and that first hit with "Delta Dawn" came when she was freaking 13 years old, in 1972. So, no wonder it doesn't ring a bell, I wasn't even alive. But I have to say, it's pretty amazing to listen to that song right now and imagine it being sung by a child. I never would have suspected. Her most streamed at 48.6 million listens.
She was born in Seminole, Texas, which is the county seat of Gaines County, way out in the western panhandle up against New Mexico. But she then moved all about the west and lived in Nashville after becoming famous, so she's "from" all over. Wikipedia also says she hooked up with Merle Haggard, Don Johnson, and Andy Gibb, so she's into all sorts of dudes. She performed the half time of Super Bowl 28! That's pretty crazy, that was in 1994! I probably watched that Super Bowl - Cowboys over Bills.
Sounds like she was highly popular back in the 70's, but then fell off the radar a little in the late 70's and early 80's. In 1988, her family got her into Betty Ford and she got some things straightened out. By the late 1980's, she was back into the Top 40 with a bunch of songs I don't know, but also "Strong Enough to Bend." 3.4 million streams. She is apparently not much of a streaming artist!
Freaking amazing that the top video on YouTube of that song is some bootleg ass version recorded onto VHS from CMT and then uploaded. Really? We can't get the actual video uploaded? Why does the world work like that sometimes? But, that is an enjoyable song.
"Love Me Like You Used To" is pretty great. Some classic country gold right there. "Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone)" is one I recognize, but only because that is by David Allan Coe and has also been covered by Willie and Johnny Cash. "It's a Little Too Late (to do the Right Thing Now)" also sounds familiar. She covers/mashes "I'm on Fire" and "Ring of Fire" in the same song on a live album and it's pretty great. "San Antonio Stroll" is entirely new to me, but I dig it. She definitely sounds like a child here. More footage from that sweet ass concert!
Wait, that intro sounded like the intro to Austin City Limits? Weird. Anyway, I dig that oompah ass backbeat going on there, and now I'm planning to annoy my family to death the next time we go walking in San Antonio by loudly singing this song over and over.
She's got some other Texas-centric tunes to make sure to cash in on this whole thing - "The Pecos Promenade" is one of those that just name-checks a bunch of locations in Texas. I'm expecting that she does this for big effect at a show to get the Amarillo nerds to try to out-holler the dorks from Corpus.
A good bit of this sounds more like easy listening than anything else. "Soon" just came on as I was writing the above, and it made me think that I don't love alot of this music. A good bit of it is enjoyable, classic country stuff. But then the schmaltz kicks in and I'm turned off. Also in that zone is the breathy ass "Your Love Amazes Me." Blech. Like, "Rainbow Rider" has some of the cool pieces of "Amarillo by Morning" or "Hooked on an Eight Second Ride," about being a real-deal cowboy chasing his dreams, but then its like also super lame at the same time. [as an aside, Rainbow Rider is also the name of a public transit system in part of Minnesota. Which is very funny and weird. The term is also, per Urban Dictionary, slang for a guy who hooks up with a dude but maintains he is straight.]
Twenty Five total albums, spread out over a million years. The newest one (2023's Sweet Western Sound) is actually really pretty good, even if her voice is worn in a way it didn't used to be. She's got Brandi Carlile on a track and its really nice. Her last album before that included a cover of one of the Highwomen tunes, called "Wheels of Laredo," and opens it up in a really nice way. I think the Highwomen might be the background singers on there in fact. Probably so, because that album was co-produced by Brandi Carlile (as was the 2023 one). And she won the Best Country Album Grammy with this disc. She also got into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2023.
Yeah, I might go watch this. I'm not on fire about it, but it seems like she'd be a pretty lively show. I hope she wears that thing from the Orlando shows above and dances like Elaine some more.
Wikipedia Genre: Electro-funk, nu-disco, synth-pop, dance-rock
Home: Montreal
Poster Position: 3 (7) Weekend One Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: Last here in 2014, and they are just silly, good fun. It’s like a Lonely Islands joke that is not a joke at all. Two hairy dudes making disco techno funk dance music. Sounds kind of like the new (well, 2013) Daft Punk stuff or 80’s funk Gap Band/Cameo type stuff. Kind of fun. I want to jump up and down and rhythmically thrust my pelvis. Seriously. Listen to this right now and try to not smile and try to be still. "Jealous (I Ain't With It)," with 71.3 million streams.
Has some Katy Perry bass line crossover. Super derivative of what has come before them and all, but come on! This would probably be a freaking blast to see live. I’m going to need to work out some before October to be prepared. Amazingly, all of their music is like this – this is not a one song move in homage to their favorite 80’s funk band. This is legit. "Fancy Footwork," with 19.8 million streams.
For some reason, this song makes me think of Napoleon Dynamite - I know this was not what he jammed to at the assembly, but I think it would have fit in just right in that scene. Uh, hey Pedro, like check out my fancy footwork, okay?
Spotify lists their first album as being from 1983, but that cannot be true. Wikipedia says they formed in 2002, so that must be a typo. Since that 2002 formation, they've put out 8 studio albums - 2004's She's in Control, 2007's Fancy Footwork, 2010's Business Casual, 2014's White Women, 2018's Head Over Heels, 2020's Quarantine Casanova, 2021's Bend the Rules, and 2023's CLUSTERFUNK. The quarantine album is funny because the song names are perfect - "Clorox Wipe," "6 Feet Away," "Stay in Bed (And Do Nothing)," "Cabin Fever," etc. Very Lonely Island vibes on that one, singing about falling in love from six feet away and not being able to hear each other because of masks.
The group is from Montreal - two high school friends (David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel) - who have called their group "the only successful Arab/Jewish partnership since the dawn of human culture." They started making music together at 15 - mainly hip hop production - but then angled towards disco club greatness.
Let's do one of the newest tracks to see if anything has changed over the years. The new album feels a little more like Parliament/Funkadelic at times, but then throws off the Chic vibes too. The top track is called "Everyone Moves to LA," with 815k streams.
I'd go watch this - silly and fun and pleasurable.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - bedroom pop, bedroom R&B, depressingcore
Home: London
Poster Position: 5 (27) Weekend One Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Deyaz is a tattoo fan who claims to be a "non-confined musician." Whatever that is supposed to mean. I mean, I know that it is likely supposed to show how badass he is because he can't be held into a single style - but then you listen and he's absolutely got a style. So it just ends up being a dumb thing to say. He was raised in London, a Jamaican/Syrian kid who shares too much over bedroom pop beats. Before this solo thing, he apparently played the drums in punk bands in east London, and produced rap tracks. I wish he was still doing one or the other of those things.
He taught himself guitar as a kid, learning Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains by ear. These tunes do not sound like someone who claims that as their original background. More like someone raised on Post Malone. But he won a scholarship to study at London's Guildhall School of Music (which more than one source called "prestigious"), and turned that into this current melancholy sound.
One album - 2022's WHY NOT. "Don't Leave, Don't Go" is the top single from that one, with 6.9 million streams.
So simple and yet very powerful. If you just stop and feel the emotion of what he has going on, it is really lovely. At the same time, not sure how much I want some sad sack song like that at the Festival - I wanna jam out, brah. His second-most streamed is "I'll Scream (All the Words)" which has 4.7 millon streams. Well, there is a normal version with 4.7 million, and then a remix featuring someone named Jessie Reyez that has another million. This is that duet.
Sure. That is pretty, and sad, and depressing. And I don't really want to hear it anymore! Some of his other songs are more upbeat in tone, like "Helpless," even when the lyrics are a bummer again. I wouldn't go out of my way for this one.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - southern rock, outlaw country
Home: Otsego, Michigan
Poster Position: 5 (27) Weekend Two Only. Sunday.
Thoughts: I *100%* just said "Myron" in a voice like Rose Maisel. But then I fired this up, and, uh, this is kinda badass. Despite the name, this is some southern rock/country boogie fun shit. According to his bio, he graduated high school and became a teenage welder in his small Michigan hometown. He had played a little music, but not much, but would make up songs in his head as he welded. A family member signed him up for a battle of the bands, he put together a group, won second place, and started to consider a new career. Pretty sweet (if a little too on-the-nose cinematic).
Now he's got a full-on album out, even produced by Dave Cobb (some of the coolest country-adjacent albums in recent time, like Chris Stapleton's Traveller, Sturgill's Metamodern Sounds, and Isbell's Southeastern). Prior to that, he had one EP called Just Another Asshole With a Guitar, which is funny. But 2023's Factories, Farms & Amphetamines is a really solid disc of classic sounds and great songwriting.
The title track is the biggest streamer for sure, and it comes on like an Allman Brothers classic. 659k streams.
Great groove in there - the tambourine is a vital piece of that one. I'll also note that the lyrics written on the screen during that "lyric" video are sometimes very clearly wrong. So that's fun. But the guitar fuzz and boogie slathered all over that track is just plain tasty. "Wrong Side of the River" is the other bigger track with 542k streams.
Can someone please explain to me why this guy is the second-to-last name on the Friday lineup, and yet he's freaking awesome? Sure, maybe he's derivative of other old sounds, or sounds like a Nashville cover band playing a Skynyrd song to an empty bar, but this is just plain fun. I'd go see him do it live for sure.
One Liner: Every year's favorite western swing purveyors Wikipedia Genre: Ameripolitan, Texas country, western swing (Ameripolitan is a new one for me). Home: Austin, Texas Poster Position: 4 (18)
Weekend One Only.
Friday
Thoughts: You know these guys, or if you don't, then you have never been to the opening morning of ACL on weekend one, when these guys are more predicable than grass turned to hay by day 3 and no AT&T cell service by 3pm each day.They still just crank up the excellent western swing stuff like they always have, and everything is all good. Warms my heart that C3 continues to include them on the bill each year, despite the fact that attendance at their show probably wanes each year as more of the true Austinites at the festival die off and are replaced with 14 year olds vaping weed oil and asking where to find the EDM tent. If you actually don't know them, then know that they have won nine Grammy awards, have over 20 albums, and have charted more than 20 songs on the Billboard country charts, while keeping alive a very particular type of country sound that was best exemplified by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Ray Benson is the lead singer, and the 6 foot 7 dude is kind of a legend of the Austin music scene by now. They were voted the best country western band of 1977 by Rolling Stone, which is a weird award, but right on. They actually released a new album in 2021, which is a new and exciting wrinkle for these previews, as otherwise, each year has just been listening to "Hot Rod Lincoln" and "Miles and Miles of Texas" all over again and half-assing a preview. So, what do we have here? 2018 album called New Routes, which would make you think that they are gonna change up their style and make their long awaited EDM album or something, but nope. More western swing, country rock, soft country, and rockabilly packed into 11 songs. Some are covers ("Seven Nights to Rock," "Dublin Blues," "Willie Got There First.") but a lot are originals. And then 2021's Half a Hundred Years, which is yet again chock full of western swing and country - with a bunch of great guest spots like Lyle, George, Emmylou, Willie, and more. I wanted to hate on them re-making Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues," because that song is a damn masterwork, and on first blush I thought this one wasn't very good, but on repeat listening, I've decided that I will allow it. They also do a cool tune with the Avett Brothers, paying tribute to Willie's effect on the rest of us all. Good one. None of the songs from the 2018 album crack their top ten most popular - deservedly, most of those popular tunes are from the Bob Wills tribute Still the King (which is great) - and most of that album's tunes have been streamed less than 100k times, so I'll give you the most streamed, the one with the Avetts. "Willie Got There First," with 373k streams.
I could curl up and sleep in the voices of the Avetts. Just warm and cool and perfect. Good tune, acknowledging that he already did everything worth doing in country music. "I had such a good idea for a song! But Willie, he got there first." Of course, that is an Avetts song, so let's see about one of their new originals on this album - this is "Jack I'm Mellow," the album opener and with 145k streams.
Not only is that a fun little tune, but the video as advertisement for Willie's Reserve weed and the Luck Ranch outside of town are both a good time. Also cool to feature the violinist as the vocalist - maybe that had been happening in the past, but she (Katie Shore) appears to be a new addition to the band and she sounds great.
Go see, 'em, kids. They play the best renditions of Bob Wills tunes since the King himself.
Speaking of which, their most streamed track from the new album is a spot-on rendition of "Take Me Back to Tulsa," featuring, by God, Willie Nelson and George Strait. C'mon. 546k streams.
Word up. Good times. I doubt I'll be there in time to see these dudes doing the thing, but love knowing they are out there plugging along.
One Liner: The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective
Wikipedia Genre: The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective
Home: Austin
Poster Position: 5 (26) Weekend Two Only. Friday.
Thoughts: Spotify has music from the Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir, but nothing from their Jazz Collective. Swing and a miss... Also no YouTube videos. There is a BS video that makes you think you are about to see "The Huston-Tillotson University Jazz Collective ::LIVE:: At Zilker Park. Austin. TX. USA" but when you click it all you get it some generic rock riff and a request to click a link. NO thanks!
Soooooooo, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is a jazz collective from Huston-Tillotson University who will be at the festival to play some jazz in a collective group. Woohoo! Jazz! Collective! University! Yeah!
One Liner: Another neo-Afro-Columbian-Latino-rock outfit from Austin
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but Afro-Caribbean rock
Home: Austin
Poster Position: Level 5 (24) Weekend Two Only. Sunday.
Thoughts: Dang. With a name like that, I was hoping for something rad. Instead, this is another Spanish language thing a lot like that Nemegata band I just reviewed. Has some traditional sounds - I don't know enough about traditional Latin music to know if this is cumbia or bolero or whatever - mixed in with rock and roll. All sung in Spanish, so no clue what is going on.
One album, 2022's Noestasaqui. Most of their stream counts are under 100k, but they have one tune with 334k - "Window Seat."
That one is a little more modern funk, with a hint of West Coast Dr. Dre-style G-Funk, and less of the Afro-Caribbean Latin music stuff. It is fine. I just don't really love listening to music that I can't understand.
One Liner: Local C3 employee getting to take the stage with some classic country flavor
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but I'd call this Country
Home: Austin!
Poster Position: Level 5 (25) Weekend Two Only. Sunday.
Thoughts: I reviewed her not long ago, because she also appeared on the poster for the Two Step Inn festival that just happened in April. Very classic country sound - heavy on the steel guitar, fiddles, etc. And that is a good thing in this case. One album and two EPs - 2013's Old Soul, 2016's Don't Give a Damn EP, 2019's Making It Up EP - so not a lot of output over the years. Very few streams for those tunes either (I mean, a ton more than I have!) but her top song is a 2020 single called "One Long Sad Song." 437k streams, and her only one with more than 100k.
Bluesy country tune. Feels like something that would have been made in Austin, like someone who plays at Antone's one night and then the Spoke the next. Let's dig in to who she is...
Oh, wow. She actually works at C3! That is pretty sweet - they run the Fest and she gets a spot on stage! She is the "Festival Marketing Manager + Production Lead" at C3 Presents. So, she lives in Austin and is fully immersed in the music scene, and works a normal job in addition to pushing out some nice tunes. Cool! She's been able to play a few other festivals like Shaky Knees in the past, which is also cool to me. I wish I was a side-hustle musician!
Her other top tune is from that 2019 EP, called "Sit Here & Cry." 71k streams.
There is that classic sound I was talking about. The rim shots with the drums, the plucked bass line, the steel guitar moaning in the background, the intermittent fiddle bits. Reminds me a little bit of an old Kelly Willis song.
Yeah, sure, I'd go watch this happen live, if I'm there that early...
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but cumbia, bullerengue, gaita music
Home: Austin
Poster Position: Level 5 (25) Weekend Two Only. Saturday.
Thoughts: You know the way David Byrne sounds on "Nothing But Flowers?" Imagine that vocal tone, but singing something in Spanish as though he is the guy who chants stuff from the top of the tower in a Muslim city. Some of this sounds like Japanese? Is this Spanish? Am I going to have to go research something? Dammit. Meuzzin - the guy who proclaims the time for prayer. That dude. Well, that is what their most recent single makes me think of. This is "Pasos." 10,940 streams.
The music itself has an African vibe - like the Khruangbin stuff. Funky and worldly, swirling and raw. Kind of fun.
Namegata is a city in Japan, located in the Ibaraki region. A small town, bordered by Lake Kasumigaura to the east and Lake Kitaura to the west. But this is Nemegata. The band is apparently located here in Austin, despite sounding nothing like a traditional Austin thing. The Chronicle calls it a "whiplash tabula rasa rock." They were part of the 2022 class of the Austin Artist Development Program, and the basis of the music is apparently Columbian (with some of the language being Muisca?). Their stream count is abysmal, so they are not getting much in the way of good traction with this mashup of traditional Columbian music, psych rock, and African rhythm, but it sounds pretty fun to me. I just wish I understood the words.
One album 2022's Hycha Wy, and a handful of singles otherwise. Only one other song has more than 10k streams, one of their first singles called " Si Landero Fuera a Marte." 15k streams.
Much more traditional sounding than any of the stuff that they put out later. This single was released in 2018, and I much prefer the later stuff that gets a little freakier and psych-rock-ified. Their website claims a new album is on the way, that is explained as so: "The new album is a powerful Afro-Indigenous Colombian shamanic journey filled with tobacco-seeped jungle sounds, eerie synthesizers, and distorted psychedelic guitars." Yokidoki.
Likely will not hunt them down at the Festival, but I can think of a lot worse ways to spend a sunny afternoon hour than to grooving along to whatever they are talking about.
Poster Position: Level 3 (11) Both Weekends. Friday.
Thoughts: Feels like there have been a larger number than normal of bands chasing that classic soul sound. These dudes sound amazing. I've definitely heard one of these tunes before on local radio. I'd also like to know what's up with the extra "e" in there. I tried looking up why Megan Thee Stallion is styled that way, but the articles about her name don't explain the extra "e" they just talk about how thicc ladies in the South are apparently called stallions. According to Urban Dictionary, the word "thee" is used when "it's the official one of something, and that its 'thee' original, rather than the original. It's a way of saying something is unique and unlike anything else." Huh. So these guys were apparently nervous about being confused with the other Sacred Souls, so they made it super official. I can't find the posers who that needed to seperate themselves from, but we'll go with it.
Actually, it sounds like they intended the name as a partial homage to "Chicano rock heroes Thee Midniters." So now you know.
For some neat reason, my work Internet will not allow me to see their official website, and they are not on Wikipedia, so I'm going to have to dig for sources. Their record label's bio says that their very first club date led to their deal with Daptone Records, and their first singles grabbed big name fans like Black Pumas, Gary Clark Jr., Alicia Keys, and Timbaland. I gotta say, "Easier Said Than Done" is so freaking smooth. Just a lovely thing in my ears. 7.2 million streams.
Nothing especially new-sounding in that classic style recreation, but it is so deeply beautiful when they do it. Buttery smooth and so very chill. Three dudes in the band - curious thing is that they make it sound like the lead singer just does the singing while the other two handle all the instruments, but I hear bass, guitar, and drum in that song above, so they must have an extra set of hands somewhere. But the whole catalog sounds like this - sweet soul from the 60's.
Just one album, 2022's Thee Sacred Souls, and in a weird pattern, the two top songs on it are both battling it out with 18.something million streams. Top contender is the lead song, and supposedly the first song these guys ever wrote together, right after they met. "Can I Call You Rose?" has 18.9 million streams.
Another smooth one, with some Curtis Mayfield-sounding vocals. Just a cruising tune, so comforting. I want to go drink beer at that backyard barbecue for sure. "'cause your thorns won't let love in too soon, " and "cause your roots have the power to consume me." Those are good stuff. Like some of these other soulful bands, I feel like this show would be perfect to see in a small club. But this looks to be the only way I'll get to see them for the foreseeable future, so maybe I'll check them out. Great sound, amazing singer, lots to dig here.
One Liner: Very arty rock with more screaming than I would have guessed, based on "Maps."
Wikipedia Genre: Garage punk, garage rock, indie rock, art punk, dance-punk, post-punk revival
Home: NYC
Poster Position: Level 2 (2) Both Weekends.
Sunday.
Thoughts: Weirdly, this is the absolute first time I have ever intentionally listened to this band. They've been a part of the cultural discussion for so long, and yet the only thing I had ever heard of before was the one or two radio hits. So it is really weird to realize what was behind all of that hype. I also fear that my cool friends are about to be disappointed in me.
The band was formed in 2000 between Karen O (vocals, screaming, piano), Nick Zinner (guitar), and Brian Chase (drums). Note that there is no bassist listed there. Everyone met in college, while at different fancy colleges - Oberlin, Bard, NYU - and after forming they supported some other arty, loud bands like The Strokes and White Stripes. The band's name is supposedly taken from the way a New Yorker would dismiss something, like "yeah yeah yeah, whatever, buddy."
Their big hit was "Maps," and I fully agree that it is a great tune. But the rest of the album misses me entirely. I know that it is a critical darling, and I'm probably going to be seen as an idiot for this take, but it truly sounds like the band wanted to riff some classic rock jams, and their friend came in to the room and started just singing/squealing random brain farts onto the tracks. "Waaah! Ooooh! bum bum bum! I gotta man! gosh! Wow! yeah yeah yeah! [random sexy noise] WHO! tick tick tick tick tick tick!!!" I really dig the tunes in the background - these dudes are laying down tight rock and roll jams - but the vocal are actively aggravating to me. And obviously I am in the minority, as all the cool kids love this band. It makes "Maps" just that more jarring, because it is a legitimately beautiful song full of nuance and style. "Pin" has a Zeppelin groove to the tune, but Karen is just bop bop bopping over the chorus like she forgot to write lyrics before the recording started. Here is "Maps" which has 151.9 million streams.
Truly, a lovely song. Starts out so quiet and curious, and Karen O's vocals just layer in there with beauty. She is again very repetitive with half the first verse just being her saying the word "say." But that song is legit. I was curious what the song is about, because it makes zero sense to say the lyric "Maps / Wait, they don't love you like I love you." Like, a big paper map of the world is not being loved enough? According to the Internet (and when has that ever been wrong?), it is an acronym for "my Angus please stay." Deeply, confusingly, odd, but sure makes a lot more sense!
The rest of the album though, that is a hard no for me dawg. But meanwhile, Pitchfork gave that album a 7.4 and bends itself into knots about how compelling they are as a trendsetting band. Metacritic has it at 8.3. NME named it the #5 best album of the decade. I dunno man. I don't need that much squawking I guess.
I tried their debut album, and it also has a similar vibe. "Art Star" has her spouting weird lines until she decides she needs to engage in scream therapy. And then she just says doo doo doo da doo da doo for a while. It's awful.
After Fever to Tell, you get 2006's Show Your Bones. I like this considerably better. Still has the tight, brawny, thumping rock sounds, and O seems to control some of her natural instinct to harm my eardrums. Interestingly, the stream counts are really low for something I would have considered to be a big record. Nominated for Best Alternative Album Grammy, ranked well by Rolling Stone, NME, and Spin in their year-end lists. Odd. But the top song crushes the rest for streams, this is "Gold Lion" with 46.6 million streams.
Her voice in that one sounds like some 80's singer I can't identify right now. She is very affected in the way she sings. But at least she sounds like she is trying to hit some notes and actually sing. But the underlying song is a nice alt rock skuzzmobile.
After that album, you get 2009's It's Blitz, then 2013's Mosquito, and 2022's Cool It Down. That big gap in there was a hiatus after 2014 for no known reason that I can see. Looks like they were just bored, wating to get the "urge" to make more. Their big comeback was supposed to be for Sound on Sound, an old Austin festival that had supplanted Fun Fun Fun Fest, but that was the year that the main investor pulled out and the Fest died. Jerks. But of those three later albums, lower streams on each as they get newer, except for the second track on It's Blitz! "Heads Will Roll" has 213.1 million streams.
(indie music starting) - I love the subtitles to these songs. I just remembered who she sounds like, its the "Voices Carry" person from the 80's - Til Tuesday. Holy shit. WTF. Did you know that the lead singer of Til Tuesday was Aimee Mann? NO way. I love Aimee Mann, "Save Me" is amazing stuff, but I had zero idea at all that she was the affected voice of "Voices Carry." Weird. Anyway, this song is too 80's throwback for me, I'd rather hear them do the heavy classic rock sound from those earlier albums. This is like some weird Lady Gaga tune. I like the album opener "Zero" better!
The most recent album continues that trajectory to the band sounding like an 80's synth band. "Wolf" is pretty good. "Spitting Off the Edge of the World" is fine. Interesting that they took their hiatus, and then apparently felt like this was the album they needed to come back to make. Not bad, but also not very interesting.
Weird. I guess I don't like Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This is not at all the expectation I had when starting this post, I figured this was going to be a cool opportunity to finally join the masses who love this band and catch up with the times. Instead, now I know that "Maps" is just a singularly great song.
One Liner: Identical twins churning out the indie tunes
Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, indie folk, synthpop, indie rock, pop
Home: Calgary
Poster Position: Level 3 (7) Weekend Two Only.
Saturday.
Thoughts: Never a great sign when you look up from some work thinking to yourself that you need to find something to listen to, only to realize that this band has been playing for a few hours. Definitely doesn't make me feel like this is a top tier band for me, personally.
Identical twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin are Canadians who started making music together when they were 15. One of their first songs was called "Tegan Didn't Go to School Today," and was recorded onto a cassette tape at their house. They started really recording music in 1997, and won something in Calgary called Garage Warz, which granted them studio time that they used to record their first professional demo. At first they were Sara and Tegan, but that got misheard as Sara Antegan and so they flipped it. Their mainstream success apparently didn't pop until 2004's So Jealous, but they have grown more and more popular since then.
Are identical twins badass or what? Like, how freaking awesome to be able to just look like another human and go do shit in their name anytime you want. My identical twin would hate my guts for all the crap I would do in their name.
The only song I actually know that involves them is the "Everything is Awesome" song from the Lego Movie, which is genius. Although, for reasons that are likely deeply rooted in my psyche, I always switch up the lyrics to be "everything is awful." And "Walking With a Ghost" rings a bell even if I don't really actually know it. But the vast majority of these songs are pretty, wordy, indie tunes that sort of remind me of a less affected First Aid Kit. I randomly get a feel for Ace of Base here and there as well, or the "I Love It!" singer people. The biggest tune is "Closer," from 2013's Heartthrob, with 83.4 million streams.
That is a fun tune! Bouncy and happy tune with lyrics about getting together! Feels like it would be a fun one to jam in the park and jump around and yell out. I get that one. The vast majority of their songs are not nearly so energetic. That 2004 album So Jealous has the other top streamer - "Where Does the Good Go," with 64.8 million streams. No other song in their catalog breaks 50 million streams.
Apparently featured in Grey's Anatomy, the badge of honor for any respectable indie rock band in the last 15 years. Meh. What I notice about this band is that their most popular songs are mostly the ones that are louder, faster, peppier. Once you dive into the full catalog, you just get mired into a ton of milquetoast stuff. But their peppier stuff is pretty good. I doubt I'd go see this one in the end.
One Liner: Supercharged love anthems and motivational speeches.
Wikipedia Genre: Soul, pop, R&B, gospel
Home: L.A. (via Denton and Houston)
Poster Position: Level 5 (25) Weekend One Only. Sunday.
Thoughts: The guy's voice is great, but damn if his songs aren't cheesy as hell. Love songs, so many love songs. His top seven most popular songs on Spotify have the word "love" in their title. And they're sweet! His love song about his momma is lovely! But also a deep dish slice of cheesy glop. Like, he's singing about "holding back the moon, in case you want a little more afternoon."
And then, in an even more strange development, he has TWO albums of pep talks. 2021's MAJOR.HOPE Motivations and 2022's MAJOR.HOPE Pep Talks. Literally, some basic music in the background, but with him intoning something to encourage the listener. Like "You're doing too much with your amazing self. No one like to hear that, but if its truth, honor it and fix it." Ten tracks of him speaking advice to you. SO weird. What the hell. He also has a 2019 album of he and his friends reading? What a weirdo. His last album of actual music was 2018's Even More, which followed his 2016 debut called I Am MAJOR.
Top track is from that debut album - "Why I Love You," with 28.9 million streams.
I don't do much in the way of soft R&B, but this makes me think of John Legend, or at least my mental image of John Legend. It is very sweet and nice. It is also very treacly and cheeseball. The other hits don't get much better - the second biggest tune is from the 2018 album, "Better With You In It." 3.2 million streams (so, a major fall-off after that one hit from seven years ago).
Oh, hey, a love song for once! He is definitely biting Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" in the tune to that song.
Born in Denton, raised in Houston, he is a Grammy nominated singer who has been classically trained at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston and then the Berklee College of Music. Stevie Wonder called "Why I Love You" the "wedding song of the year." He just recently released a new EP - 2023's The Hope of My Soul, and it is more of the same. The first song has "love" in the title. I think I'm good on this guy! He's got a great voice, but I am good on the supercharged love anthems and motivational speeches.
One Liner: Jazzy multi-instrumentalist doing electronica solo
Wikipedia Genre: Nu jazz, Electronic, Rhythm and blues, French house
Home: Tours, France
Poster Position: Level 3 (8) Both Weekends. Friday.
Thoughts: I don't know where, but I have absolutely heard that first song before. Made me think he must have been at ACL before, but I'm not finding anything when I search his name. Ahhh, its because that is someone else's song. I can't read so good. This song is actually by Masego, who was at ACL previously, and features FKJ. The track is called "Tadow," and all I can hear in my head is the Ice Cube lyric from "What Can I Do," of "tadow, tadow, tadow! How you like me now!" Instead, this is not a classic rap track, this is some smooth ass R&B love making music made for knockin' da boots. 372.5 million streams.
Smooth, laid back, cool as hell track. But I have to say that the high-pitched interjections of "lady" or "dayday" or whatever he is saying, those get to the level of bugging quick. Oh, that is him saying "tadow?" The lyrics claim that is him saying "tadow," and yet that is not at all what it sounds like to my ears. There is no "ow" sound, hell, I don't even hear the initial "t" sound. Weird. Cool ass jam though. But I don't know which parts of it are this person. We gotta dig deeper.
French Kiwi Juice, or FKJ, is a French dude who apparently does solo live performances where he plays all the instruments and uses his laptop to do live loopings. Several of his tracks feature his wife, whose stage name is ((( O ))), which is deeply weird. Is that a wrinkly butthole? Is that fingers curled around a very open mouth? Is it a dinosaur's eyeball?
He has three albums - 2017's French Kiwi Juice, 2021's Just Piano, and 2022's V I N C E N T. His biggest tunes are definitely from that first disc, his streams fall off a lot from there. The most recent album is a gentle vibe - kinda jazzy, but unlike anything I can really think of. His top song on Spotify (other than that one above that isn't really his?) is called "Ylang Ylang," and features (((O))) for a chill piano instrumental that inexplicably has 113.2 million streams despite sounding like a Rodgers and Hammerstein interlude that has been remixed.
Ehh, sure? Nice little vibe piece? I have no clue why that would have so many streams? I sincerely doubt that I will make my way to whatever stage this man graces with his piano, although I'm sure it will be a lovely show.
