Quick Hits, Vol. 329 (Queens of the Stone Age, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Baseball Project, Portugal. The Man)

I needed a break from the country music of the Two Step Inn for a hot minute, so I dipped into some of the rock and roll waiting for me in my queue...

Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman...  I take no pleasure in reporting this to you, but this is not an especially interesting album.  I love QOTSA, and think some of their albums are perfect (or close to perfect - Songs for the Deaf is my favorite for sure, except for that damn "Six Shooter" song).  They have a swagger added to their rock and roll, a heavy swinging dick metronome to their funky groove, and I love it.  But sadly, nothing on this album is especially great.  It is exactly the kind of music the last album was covered in, but there's no hit on here.  I don't hear anything on here that just begs to be added to the radio rotation, but every other album has had two to three bangers like that.  "Paper Machete" is getting radio play, but I just don't hear it as a vital track that will still be in the rotation the way that "No One Knows" or "I Sat By the Ocean" or "The Way You Use To Do" still are.  I wonder if I need to try this one in my car for a few days... I did that (I may have written the part above a month ago, not sure) and it is definitely better that way, but still, it's not chock full of action.  I was sad to be missing the show this weekend, but less-so now.  "Paper Machete" and "Emotion Sickness" are neck and neck as the top tracks, each with 11.6 million, but Machete has the slight lead.

The normal swaggering guitar and cocky power, a rambling, staccato guitar solo, with lyrics vaguely about someone being a fake prick (might be about his ex-wife).  Yeah, I like it just fine, but it isn't nearly as sticky as the past albums.  I normally try not to read other reviews so that mine is unbiased, but just out of curiosity I checked Pitchfork.  They give it a 6.8 and say it is their angriest and heaviest record in years.  I'll probably keep listening, but not because it's necessary.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Eart and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.  WTF guys.  I know y'all release like 9 albums a year, but that title is too much.  Listening to this album in the shower the other day, I had a great idea.  Instead of vaguely inscrutable lyrics about some stupid spirit animal or whatever they are going on about, what if you took a tight group of heavy rock songs and then recited truly great food recipes over them?  No more "Oh, holy frontier art unbound / Thee kiss thy god, I kisseth ground" weird shit, and instead you get someone yelling about "slice the onion / nice and thin / need a full cup / now brown them!"  This is an excellent idea and someday I will be very rich.  Anyway, this is another album of these dudes creating exquisitely tasty melodic riffage underneath some more weird lyrics.  But nothing in it sticks in the slightest.  Just a fever dream of thrash and doom and then its over.  The top track is "Gila Monster," with 6.3 million streams.

GILA! GILA! GILA!  woooooooooooo!  High tone stuff there.  I dig the backing tune though, sufficiently complex and melodic while still rocking.  But yeah, this disc can go back.

The Baseball Project - Grand Salami Time!  This one had me geeked up because, if you are a reader of this blog, you know that REM is my favorite band.  And this "alternative rock supergroup" enjoys the presence of Peter Buck from REM, so I thought maybe it would be a way to keep a little of my REM love alive.  Not so much, but it is still kinda funny.  The songs have some sort of baseball-themed lyrical thing going on - homer runs, getting the yips, being a journeyman player, Shohei Ohtani, the guy who either walks, strikes out, or hits a homer, the Disco Demolition night, the Fantasy Baseball Widow, etc.  Kinda cute and clever, but the tunes themselves feel very dads-in-a-garage-bashing-it-out, so it doesn't really get me going.  "Journeyman" may be the best actual song on here, with a little more production.  It has 18k streams.

I can let this go, but it is a fun little album.  Man, I really wish that R.E.M. still existed...

Portugal. The Man - Chris Black Changed My Life.  The new disc is really good.  The second song ("Grim Generation") feels like they went back to the well of the 60's groooooovy-baby sound to see if they could tap back into that zone of their mega-hit.  It's not quite that catchy, but it is definitely a tight earworm that is very snappy.  And then the most streamed song is one that I have already heard a good number of times (in part because it was on a Taco Bell commercial that played during sports things this year) but also because it interpolates Coolio's "1,2,3,4 (Sumpin' New) (which he could have stolen from something else, I dunno) and at least one line follows the same vocal patterns as Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" (about 1:00 in).  13.5 million streams for "Dummy".

Hahahahaha  That video is unhinged and awesome.  WTF.  Catchy song for sure.  The track with Unknown Mortal Orchestra on here is good as well.  Solid album.  Ends up that I just like this band, apparently.  Most of the tunes have a much lower stream count, like a million or so.

And if you are wondering about the album name, I did too: "We lost a very dear friend of ours on May 19, 2019. It shook us to our core. Chris was one of those people who was like glue; he brought everyone together. His passing really messed with us. The band was in shambles and this record is the first time I feel I made a complete record; a complete thought about our world crumbling around us and the journey back. While it is a very personal journey, I feel like everyone has a Chris Black in their life; at least I hope that everyone has a Chris Black in their life. That one friend who has a way of making everything right and making everything fun. The one who keeps you in check when you go off course and is always there to celebrate the good times and to support you in the bad times. Chris Black Changed My Life."  So, that might explain some of the gap in their output.