Jeezy

One Liner:  Classic trap rapper from Atlanta

Wikipedia Genre:  Trap, Southern hip hop, gangsta rap 

Home: Atlanta

Poster Position: 6
Weekend Two Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  Jay Wayne Jenkins, who used to go by Young Jeezy before he got all old and stuff was born in South Carolina but is better known as being one of the big Atlanta-area rappers.  He is one of the guys who is credited with pioneering the trap music style for mainstream audiences.  As he was coming up, he signed with Bad Boy for a period of time and was in the group Boyz n da Hood, but Def Jam came after him as a solo artist and signed him in 2004.

His first three albums - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (2005), Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration (2006), and The Recession (2008) were all commercially and critically successful, with the latter two both topping the Billboard 200.  The first big hit from those albums was "Soul Survivor" (featuring Akon), which now has 160.1 million streams.

He has a very distinctive voice - so gravelly.  That track does nothing for me.  Funny that it was such a big hit, because it just seems like run of the mill stuff now.  I do really enjoy the screencap they used for the YouTube video up above, because it makes him look a little nuts and like he might be about to try to kiss me with crossed eyes.

Then the big hit, and still his biggest streamer today, is "Put On," which features Kanye West.  247.4 million streams.

14 years ago.  Still complaining about record high gas prices.  I really like it when he laughs - those HA HAs are a million feet tall.  I have that song in my Popcorn Rap playlist that I use all the time.  Funny how that video makes it sound like the song is about like being a good American or something, meanwhile he's rapping about having expensive jewelry while people are getting foreclosed and going to the soup kitchen.  Confusing.

Since those first three, he has released approximately 800,000 more albums, but none have been as successful as those first three.  2008's Can't Ban the Snowman, as an example, has only three songs with more than a million streams. 2006's Snowman has one.  2006's I Am The Street Dream has one.  2009's Trappin' Ain't Dead and 2010's 1000 Grams, Vol. 1 have zero.  But then 2011's TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition was a hit and jumped him back into the charts.  I think he just has to name every album with that Thug Motivation title structure...  The top track from that one features Ne-Yo and has 47.8 million streams.  "Leave You Alone."

Random aside that is freaking cool - after Hurricane Katrina, he apparently opened up his own home to give people displaced from their homes a place to go.

By 2014, I was starting to do this psychotic blog, and so I started checking out his stuff as it got released (well, some of it anyway).  Going back to those reviews to see what I had to say, I'm afraid that Jeezy wasn't doing it for me.  Here are four of those reviews.

Jeezy - Seen it All: The Autobiography. 2014.  What is it with rappers and their extended album titles? Jeezy (used to be Young Jeezy, but I guess he grew up) has five solo albums since he became popular, and three of those five album titles involve a colon. I also have to note that he apparently skipped the second course in his "Thug Motivation" coursework, seeing as he released "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101" in 2005, then "TM: 103 Hustlerz Ambition" in 2011, with no mention of how he got the course credits to just skip right over the 102 level class. [ED. note - I guess maybe Spotify didn't have that second album available, because that joke doesn't work now!]

Maybe the lack of that class in Thug Motivation theory is why I am unimpressed with this new album, but pretty uninteresting stuff. "Seen It All" is the single, which likely gains significant popularity by having Jay Z on the track, but Jay Z isn't going to save this song from being boring. More likely, the opposite. Try it out for yourself:

Yawn. You two are super rich and you used to sell drugs and still know more than anyone else who has ever sold drugs. Good work.

Jeezy - Church in these Streets.  (2015)  I'm shocked that this album isn't named Thug Motivation: 104 Ballerzzz Fo Sho.  I guess he ran out of educational material to follow up on his last few classroom titled albums.  19 songs, and the album feels like it is 9 hours long even though it is only 62 minutes. Jeezy has put out a few good songs in the past, but I don't hear anything on here that sticks to my ribs. The most listened-to on Spotify is called "GOD." (in 2024, at 7.8 million streams)

Yaaaaawn.  I have no clue why 3 million two hundred thousand people would have listened to that song.  Maybe Jeezy just opened his own computer and put that track on repeat and then left it alone for six months.  I won't keep this album around.

Jeezy - Trap or Die 3.  (2016)  Is it really that hard to come up with a new title for your album?  I bet I could think of 5 new puns using the word "trap" that he could put to use immediately.  Trap Smear.  Trap My Bitch Up.  Trap Crackle Pop.  Don't Worry Be Trappy.  Admiral Ackbar's Favorite Album.  I mean, those 5 took me less than a minute.  Does this guy really need to make 3 albums named Trap or Die? The correct answer is no.  As for the tunes, yawn.  I will give it one thing, this album made the woofer on my desktop speakers thump and rumble for real.  I had to turn down the bass levels just to avoid my office sounding like a '92 Cutlass Supreme driving down Crockett Ave.  He's got a few guest stars on here (Lil Wayne, French Montana, Yo Gotti) but none of those guys save this album from being boring.  The top track, with 8.1 million streams (up to 47.8 in 2024), is "All There," which features someone called Bankroll Fresh. I love that for a rapper name.  Makes me think of the Pillsbury Doughboy being a badass gangsta.

I can't say anything bad about that video now, because little kids acting hard like adults is amazing. That kid repping his hot cheetos is a boss ass little kid.  But the tune is more whatever - not for me. And he has a Chris Brown song, and I've come to hate the Chris Brown songs.  I'm not even that worried about the guy being a scumbag woman-beater, I just don't care to hear him sing anymore generic hooks.  This one can go.

Jeezy - Pressure.  (2017)  Now that is an interesting question.  Among garbage male rap-song-hook-singers, do I hate Tory Lanez more than Chris Brown?  How can one world contain this much hatred?  I think Brown still takes the cake, but Lanez is awful and horrible and blood-pressure-creating as well.  And his name is stupid.  This album ALSO gets a hook song from Trey Songz.  This is America in 2018.  Kill us all.  

I'd say that some of the tracks on this album have a good general feel - good beat, nice flow over the top, rough and rugged.  But then a lot are pretty mediocre and weak (first and foremost, the ones with the crappy R&B hooks).  The top track is "American Dream," which features both J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, so I'm not so sure that Jeezy is responsible for those 7 million streams (up to 50.5 in 2024), or if this isn't a product of Kendrick's name being associated.

Good track.  Jeezy's verse is good, J. Cole actually sounds pretty good, but Kendrick's sounds kind of like a throw away.  Like this: "These streets made for ballin' (yeah yuh), Ten toes ain't for fallin' (yeah yuh), I hear the world callin', Tell me if ya all in (tell me if ya all in)."  Nope, pretty weak.  The album closer ("Snow Season") has a nice swagger to it, and "Cold Summer" is pretty cool sounding.  But all of these, lyrically, are pretty plain.  I'll let this one go.

I did not review 2019's TM104: The Legend of the Snowman, 2020's Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision, 2020's The Recession 2, 2022's SNOFALL, 2022's GOATED: Jeezy, 2023's But I Don't Forget, or 2023's I Might Forget, but not many people listened to those anyway.

BUT!  A Tiny Desk Concert!  In 2024!  That is wild.

That is pretty damn cool - with the strings behind him and the live drummer going after that drum machine.  I don't want the audience participation though...  Dig the vibe of that "Bottom of the Map" song.  Hell yeah.  Still not saying anything worth a crap, but the feel of that swagger is good stuff.

Geese

One Liner:  Wild NYC art rock with a few too much dissonance for my taste

Wikipedia Genre:  post-punk, indie rock, art punk

Home: Brooklyn

Poster Position: 13
Both Weekends
Saturday.

Thoughts:  Confusing me, in that I got excited seeing this thinking that Goose was coming back to the Fest.  Dangit.  Complete first impression on the first hit is that this is the singer from the New Radicals who got tired of singing about how you have to get what you give.

These cats are based in Brooklyn, and I think you can hear it in every song.  Fun origin story though: They formed in high school up in Brooklyn, and recorded an album during the pandemic.  As graduation neared, and several of them were looking to graduate and head off to Berklee and Oberlin, they figured that they would break up.  But then their demos started to get some attention from record labels, and they ended up making a go of it.  Now they've become the latest saviors of NYC rock – touring the world, performing on late night television, and creating significant industry buzz with their run of gigs at SXSW in 2022. All before they could even drink legally at a club where they are jamming.

That 2021 album, Projector, is so much better for my tastes.  Recorded in their basement from 2019 to 2020.  Like a Parquet Courts kind of garage rock album with loose edges and a little funky feel.  Meanwhile, the more popular 2023 album 3D Country can be painful.  "3D Country" is just weird.  Like a lounge singer trying to sound like the classic Rolling Stones in a dilapidated Vegas cocktail bar before he passes out in a pool of his own vomit, complete with the background singers and sloppy piano.  "Undoer" gets some Radiohead vibes like when Thom Yorke just starts yelling long words over a blasting, unnerving guitar line from Greenwood.  Way too much screaming and dissonance for me, and I love a little well-placed screaming in a song.  It's not all terrible by any means, its just that even an otherwise solid song like the album opener "2122" can go from a good, tight, little rock song into a soundscape freakout.  Shafts the groove for me.  Makes me wish this really was Goose!

Top track is from that new album - "Cowboy Nudes" - which I think I have heard on the radio a few times.  4.5 million streams.

Maybe the fact that is their top song will help them realize that they can make nice rock songs instead of adding in terrifying dissonance and screaming.  Those people in the video are scary tho!  The only tune in their top ten right now that is not from that 2023 album is a new single from 2024 called "Jesse" - I'll give you that so you can see if the new sound is catching on.  679k.

Well, now that I lured you in with two songs that sound pretty sweet, I am obligated to also give you one of the terrifying ones.  Here is "Undoer."

Wow.  Yeah.  7 minutes punctuated with pain.  Now, I will say that I pulled up a live set of them from Rolling Stone's studio, and it sounds pretty solid.  If you want a little more, that can be your source.

He gets a little animated at times with the vocals, but it is nothing like the stuff he is wailing on the album.  Dunno.  This will be a gametime decision for me, depending on who they are against.  On the one hand, I can't be choosy with rock bands because they are few and far between.  On the other hand, not sure how this will hit.

Foster the People (2024)

One Liner:  The Pumped Up Kicks guys, still making pop rock goodness.

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie pop, alternative rock, indie rock, dance-pop, indietronica, neo-psychedelia (oooh, "indietronica" is a new one). 

Home: Los Angeles

Poster Position: 2
Both Weekends
Friday.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2017, with a 2014 appearance before that.

Pop rock for the masses.  Unless you have been living under a rock or refuse to listen to normal radio or watch TV or otherwise exist in a regular, public arena with the rest of us, you have heard "Pumped Up Kicks" before.  Likely more than a million times before.  Because it has an insane 1.7 BILLION streams on Spotify.  Holy Hannah.

This video has been seen over a BILLION freaking times.  I mean, damn.  It was a number one single, received a Grammy nomination, and generally took over the world in 2011.  And despite the sunny little tune and happy sounding chorus, the whole thing is about a psychotic kid who is telling other kids that they'd better run when he starts shooting them.  You would also probably recognize "Helena Beat," "Don't Stop," "I Would Do Anything For You," and "Houdini" from their first album.  This video, for Houdini (from their first album) was up for a Grammy but did not win:

That original album (2011's Torches) ended up selling a ton because of "Pumped Up Kicks," and some of those other songs were pretty popular in their own right, especially "Don't Stop."

The next album was 2014's Supermodel.  Had a few singles, nothing as world destroying as Kicks, but "Coming of Age" is a pretty catchy ditty.  77.9 million streams.

My preconceived thought is that I dislike these guys.  "Pumped Up Kicks" got (and still gets) so much airplay that I'm annoyed by it.  This seems like pop factory music made to appeal to the lowest common denominator.  Without giving them a shot, I've got loads of that hipster-held-hatred garbage for something inauthentic.  But if I toss all of that out the window and just enjoy "Coming of Age," its a damn fun jam.  Supermodel is pretty good from front to back.  Just enjoyable dance rock.  It should set off some fun, even if it won't inspire the next Springsteen.

And I think Mark Foster is a great success story.  He moved to L.A. from Ohio to pursue music and was going nowhere, working day jobs and just trying to get noticed, scuffled around for a few years, got heavily addicted to drugs, but then came up with "Pumped Up Kicks."  Launched him into the stratosphere.  I think that is cool.  Well, not the drug addiction bit, but the old rising from the ashes bit.

As an aside, I had a weird moment, where I thought Spotify had messed up and started playing A$AP Rocky, because Foster the People's track "A Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon" actually samples A$AP Rocky's "LVL," which is an odd juxtaposition.

Weird, right?

After that, Sacred Hearts Club came out in 2017.  It did not break much new ground for the band, they are still sticking to really danceable pop rock jams that are pretty fun to just jam out to.  But they do extend more into electronics.  The top song back when the album came out was "Doing It For the Money," now at 38.1 million streams.

This got some radio play back then and honestly, it isn't my favorite tune. I feel like they are trying too hard to court the electronic side of their demographic and leaving behind the fun party rock in favor of sounding kind of like a trap EDM track.  And the album has other unfortunate examples of the same, like "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy," which is about a minute worth of EDM thumping that opens up a little but stays pretty lame.  The more I hear that track the less I like this whole album.  On the other hand, "Lotus Eater" is a good rock song that should be their yardstick for measuring good songs.  But the big hit that erupted from the album ended up being "Sit Next To Me," which still gets radio play even today.  346.6 million streams.

Overall, I've enjoyed listening to that album all day - even with my reservations about going electro instead of sticking to their core sound.  "SHC" is pretty solid.  "Sit Next To Me" is tasty.

But after that 2017 album - no more albums.  Curious what happened there.  Some 2021 singles, a 2020 EP, and some remixes, but not much for like seven years.  Wikipedia has nothing explaining that gap, it just sounds like they split from their record label and have been enjoying the freedom of releasing a single when they feel like it.  Unfortunately, that makes it a little less interesting to see them live, when I've already seen them play the tunes from those three albums described above.  Oh well.  I can't be too choosy here, depending on the schedule, I'd probably go watch these guys do their thing.  Maybe a new disc is just about to drop.

The Paper Kites

One Liner:  Lovely indie folk and lite rock full of harmony

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie rock, folk rock

Home: Melbourne

Poster Position: 15
Weekend Two Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  Aussies!  Hooray for the Aussies!  I got to go to Australia when I was eight (terrible age to spend a bunch of money on a dumb kids going to see things he'll never appreciate - my memories are of a Toblerone bar I got at the hotel, a wild bird's nest made out of noodles I got to order at a Chinese restaurant, and some bits and pieces from the Sydney Zoo.  Dumb.) and so I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the land of the kangaroo.

Some of these folks were in high school together, and lead vocalist/guitarist Sam and keyboardist/guitarist Christina began making music and singing together back in high school.  Around 2010, they expanded the group and added the rest of these blokes.  Their 2010 single "Bloom" was their first big hit, getting a lot of attention online and through word of mouth.  It continues to be their biggest tune, with 578.4 million streams.  Pretty legit!

I feel almost certain that people do little pensive TikToks to this tune.  Really pretty stuff.  They even do a whistling part!  How cutesy is that?  At this point, they were selling out small venues all around Australia, and even got a song featured on the season 8 finale of Grey's Anatomy.  Since then, they've regularly received nominations for ARIA awards, winning in 2016 for Best Folk Album.

So, that tune was on their 2013 EP called Woodland.  After that, they have released a pretty steady stream of albums - 2013's States, 2015's twelvefour, 2018's On the Train Ride Home, 2018's On the Corner Where You Live, 2021's Roses, and 2023's At the Roadhouse.  The most recent album is really, truly lovely.  A little groovy, a little folky, a hint of country here and there.  But overall it is just super pretty.  The top track is "Till the Flame Turns Blue" (which I think is misspelled) with 6.1 million streams.

That steel guitar just adds a layer of mournfulness to the slow groove you get there.  Prior to this album, they had some adventures, but this new one feels like a return to form.  The 2021 one is a little too Cigarettes After Sex for my tastes.  Like slo-mo country-fied Lana Del Rey-hanging-with-Chris Isaak stuff.  And it has a million collaborators too, not just the one female singer.  The 2018 albums have some John Mayer-style guitars on there and kind of a soft-rock vibe to go along with more acoustic strummed beauties.  "Arms" is a standout there.  "Never Heard a Sound," from 2013's States sounds like some Crosby Stills Nash and Young from back in the day.  I've been just letting this one play all day.

I'd absolutely go see this play live.  Feels like a lovely way to spend an afternoon in the middle of the day.

Grand Funk Railroad

One Liner:  Homer Simpson's favorite American band jamming out since 1969.

Wikipedia Genre:  hard rock (which is, uh, super not true)

Home: Flint, MI

Poster Position: 13
Weekend Two Only.
Saturday.

Thoughts:  Huh.  I have a memory of them playing a live show in some town where I was and thinking what an excellent band name they have.  But if you had asked me before just now what they sing, I would have had no clue - some kind of Parliament/Funkadelic/Gap Band/Kool & the Gang-type funky stuff?  Nope - despite the name, this is a 70's rock and roll group with several songs that you probably know really well.  And some sound super familiar, but I don't think I actually know them.  BUT, today I learned that this is Homer Simpson's favorite band.

Homer knows more about this band than I ever will.

They are a funny band, in that some sounds like a tune that would have belonged on the Forrest Gump soundtrack ("Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)"), and then others would have been more at home with Dazed & Confused (We're An American Band"), and each of those soundtracks captured a very different view of an era of rock and roll.  Interesting to listen through.  Definitely love that Wikipedia calls them hard rock when this is not hard at all.

Originally, the band was named Grand Trunk Railroad, which is apparently a well-known rail line in Michigan.  The railroad objected to the use of their name, and so Grand Funk was born.  This bit is probably too long, but I enjoyed it, so here is the singer's story of the formation of the band:

"We were actually a five-piece, I was the singer, there were four other musicians (including Brewer), but I wasn't playing anything in that band, the Fabulous Pack (so renamed after Knight had gone). I just stood up front and sang. We got waylaid; we were out in Cape Cod in a summer beach house, a little cabin, and it was winter. We had the worst snowstorm in the history of the world and we got stranded there for weeks in February of 1969. We were melting down snow to have water to drink and mix with our oatmeal that didn't have any butter or sugar and that's all we were living on. These two other players were married. When we got home (to Flint), the two guys that were married, their wives were gonna divorce them and the band broke up. We got all these gigs coming up and now we don't have a band. I said, 'We ought just do a three-piece' and Don said, 'Do you think we can?' And I said, 'If we get the right bass player we can.' We started looking and went out to Delta Promotions in Bay City where this company that sent us out to the Boston area to do these gigs [was located] and we were going to give them a piece of our minds. But while we were sitting in the outer office waiting to get in, there was somebody in their rehearsal hall playing. You couldn't hear it very good, but you could feel the bass coming through the wall and I said, 'Ooh, listen to that bass player, that guy's getting down under that. We gotta see who that is.'

So, they took a break and it was ? and the Mysterians and Mel Schacher was playing bass. Mel and I had grown up together, rode dirt bikes, hung out together and I said, 'Mel, are you playing with him now?' and he said, 'Yeah, but I'm not liking it.' I said, 'Brewer and I were talking about putting together a three-piece. Would you be interested in being the bass player?' He said, 'Hell, yeah, when are you gonna do it?' and I said, 'Next week we're gonna start.'"

They have a lot of music - being that they got their start in 1969, that should make sense.  From 1969 to 1976 they were tossing out at least an album a year.  And among those six went platinum and seven went gold.  But then they broke up in 1976.  According to a few things I have read, the critics hated them at every turn, but they were able to crush it anyway by selling out arenas around the world.  Which is odd.  You'd think that wouldn't work if the critics hated them, but who knows!

Let's get to the tunes.  Three of their biggest songs are covers - "Some Kind of Wonderful," "The Loco-Motion," and "Inside Looking Out" - and so even though those may be top streamers, I want you to hear the originals.  That leads us to two songs.  "We're An American Band," with 76.2 million streams, is from the 1973 album of the same name.

MORE COWBELL!!!  The thing that has always gotten me about this tune is how insistent that organ/synth can be during the choruses.  Chill the hell out organ guy.  I'm trying to groove here.  But, classic rock action right there.  I'm jamming.

The other big one is "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)" with 21.8 million streams.  Because it is ten freaking minutes long, my assumption is that the radio must play an edit, because some of it doesn't ring a bell, but the back half is a classic flute jam from the 70's.

I can see why they wanted to snag that bassist.  He's got the juice.  "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" is actually a jam.  Pretty heavy too.  Dig it.  Just because this kind of stuff fascinates me, I noted that they are on a Classic Rock Workout mix on Spotify (just an awful mix, by the way) with American Band right in between Judas Priest and Bad Company.

Now, the question is, these dudes are 75-ish years old right?  Do they still have the old fastball, or is this going to be like watching the desiccated corpse of a classic rock band still trying to hold on?  The lead singer is long gone but the drummer and bassist are still here to jam with some other randos.  Okay, maybe not randos, the new lead singer used the be the guy for 38 Special.  But their lead guitarist joined the band eight minutes ago and has no Wikipedia entry.  I watched a few songs worth of them playing the Foxwoods Casino in January, and I will say the gray-haired people in the audience were major fans.  I will also say that from that exemplar, they are loud AF.  

I wish I could have seen them 30 years ago instead of now.  We'll see how the schedule shakes out, but more than likely, I'll leave this one to Homer.

Whookilledkenny

One Liner:  Austin rapper who moved to L.A. and wants his fee to be paid.

Wikipedia Genre:  No Wikipedia, but rap and hip hop

Home: Austin!  (but now based in L.A.)

Poster Position: 20
Weekend Two Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  So, I am assuming this is a South Park reference with the name?  Sadly, no, or at least he did not reference that.  He says he used to go by Kenny Gee, but found out he might get in trouble from Kenny G, so he switched it up and thought this would look cool on festival flyers.  Lame.

Not a lot of simple stuff on the web, one of the first things that came up is so useful, telling me: "He has had support across all platforms, having appeared on a total of 30+ Editorial playlists – he was also featured on the Cover of “Fresh Finds” + “Fresh Finds: Hip Hop” on spotify. He was the Centerpiece of Spotify’s ripple Effect campaign for texas With a Billboard in Houston And Digital Posters at every bus stop in the City. He has also been a centerpiece In Tidal’s “Tidal rising” campaign.  Whookilledkenny has been Interviewed."

Wow!  Bus Stop Digital Posters and everything!?!  I especially like that last line.  Great.  Thanks for that insightful information.  I did find another article on allhiphop.com that gives some more description, but also involves awful statements like "the rising star is best known for his unique blend of R&B and hip-hop, exploding onto the scene with his one-of-a-kind voice that demands attention."  Nothing about what you are about to hear is either one-of-a-kind or unique.  He describes his sound as "Player and luxurious or lavish."  Ugh.

I do like an honest moment in that interview though, where he admits that he released something in 2019 and then pulled it down because the streams were so bad.  I didn't realize they did that, but pretty smart so that people don't find your old weak stuff.  But also kind of funny because his first single on Spotify has 9,583 streams.

2021 EP NO Refunds and 2022 EP Strictly Business are all you get other than singles, so not any real album work going on here.  Top track by a lot is a 2021 single called "Rich Rich" (which just shows you that amazingly unique perspective he brings to the rap game, with such an original title!)  4.8 million streams.

The money shooting out of that woman made me laugh, but otherwise that is a mediocre set of bars.  I like the beat, but he's not saying a thing with those lyrics.  PTF on all of those bills is his little saying - Pay The Fee - about making sure he gets paid.  "AllHipHop: Explain your “pay the fee” mentality.  Whookilledkenny: It’s universal. Everybody paying the fee to somebody. And everybody collecting a fee from somebody."  Deep man.

His only other track with more than a million streams is 2021 single Finna Charge, with 2.1 million.

More of the same.  Solid beat, he flows over it really well, but meh lyrically.  Also really weird for him to be giving his mom some sweet gifts to take care of her, as he's rapping about getting a girl's pants off.  That seems like poor timing there.

End of the day, I bet this show would be kind of fun, to just turn off the brain for an hour and bump along to this guy rapping about getting paid and making sweet love.

Kenny Beats

One Liner:  DJ guy who will apparently just play a bunch of other people's rap snippets

Wikipedia Genre:  Hip hop, R&B, punk, jazz

Home: Greenwich, CT

Poster Position: 10
Weekend One Only.
Saturday.

Thoughts:  Kenneth Charles Blume III started out with some instruments, but when he was in high school he came in second place with an entry into a national electronic music competition, and he began to take electronic music production more seriously.  He left Connecticut for New York City, where he collaborated with Smoke DZA on four albums, worked on an ad campaign, and then ended up heading to Boston to study at Berklee.

The fun thing about listening to this catalog is that you get all sorts of different rappers jumping in on these beats.  J.I.D., Denzel Curry, someone named Dominic Fike, something called 347aiden, Larry June, and a bunch more.  Sometimes, that is not great.  Like the Teezo Touchdown track, or the Jany Green track, of the Since99 one, all of which are awful.  That last one is super duper awful.  Makes me really want to stop listening to this guy altogether.  But with June or JID, that is great.

His first album available on Spotify is from 2017, and is with HoodRich Pablo Juan and is called South Dark.  Meh.  The beats are fine, but mainly just clicky little trap things like I hear from the backseat all the time because of the TikTok.  Also back there in history, an album with KEY! from 2018 that is unimpressive, and a single from 2018 with something named Zack Fox and it is very much not good.  Pretty sure he makes fart noises a few times at the start of the track.  In 2019, he does an album with Rico Nasty that still doesn't do much for me, even the track featuring Earthgang, who I like.

But in 2019, his hit popped up on a single with Dominic Fike who has some huge hits.  "Phone Numbers" has 258.5 million streams.

Thoroughly mid.  Beat is fine, but just entirely unmemorable.  Very basic and there is no way you'll recall anything about it in five minutes.  Some clicks and bass and bloops.  I'm guessing this was a big hit on TikTok.

More recently, in 2022, he released an album of mostly instrumental beats called "LOUIE," that is pretty good for like a chill studying vibe type record.  Or maybe for in a clothing store to be innocuous enough to just bop along to as you look through the J Crew outlet mall ties.  Top track is "Last Words," with 14.4 million streams.

Yeah, that's kinda nice.  Vibe and all that.  I guess that is the sort of thing to expect from his live show - being that he is not listed as bringing along any rappers with him, I guess you'll just get to vibe along to some beats for an hour and then wander off to find something else.

For curiosity, I looked up live shows on YouTube, and I found one from a year ago called Boiler Room x Primavera Sound Barcelona x Cupra.  And yeah, it sounded like it was just a DJ set where he plays a bunch of bits and pieces from other people's music, while he pushes buttons and moves sliders around.  So, this is going to be a show built for the kiddies so they can go yell "SHUT THE FUCK UP" with a Baby Keem song for a minute before the track transitions into Missy Elliott.  Probably pretty fun!

Lucy Kalantari and the Jazz Cats (2024)

One Liner: Jazzy scat-a-rat gal for the Kiddies.

Wikipedia Genre: Children's music
Home: Brooklyn

Poster Position: 27
Weekend Two Only

Sunday.

Thoughts:  While the lyrics are, of course, goofy as hell on these songs, the music and her voice are great!  Heavy on instruments like ukulele and clarinet, but jazzy and cute with a good bit of jazz-scatting as she goes along.  Wikipedia says that she was born to a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father, and graduated from college in New York the same year that I did.  She has won a bunch of awards, including two Grammy Awards for Best Children's Album in 2018 and 2020.  She apparently teaches college and high school kids about music, although I'm not sure in what capacity.

The top song by a good bit is the very literal "Our Garden."  56k streams.

I want to grow some sweet basil!  But a really nice little cute and silly song.  Oddly, not all of the albums are available on Spotify.  So you can't hear the newest disc that won a Grammy.  But you definitely get the vibe here anyway.  She's great!

Teddy Swims

One Liner:  Soulful tattoo monster who went from YouTube covers to one huge hit

Wikipedia Genre:  R&B, soul, country, pop, blue-eyed soul

Home: Conyers, GA

Poster Position: 3
Both Weekends
Saturday.

Thoughts:  When the lineup popped out a few minutes ago, this was one of the artists my buddy Jason immediately pointed out as being exciting.  I have absolutely never heard of this.  Which is always fascinating - Jason generally has my musical tastes with our shared love of things like Pearl Jam or cleopatric or whatever, but this is outside of my wheelhouse for sure.

Also, before I dig in further, doesn't it feel like calling something "blue eyed soul" is racist or somehow inappropriate?  If I called Living Colour "black-skinned rock," wouldn't that seem wrong?  I don't want to get into this, really, there is just something offputting about typing that genre up above.  It's just soul, right?

Anyhoo - Jaten Collin Dimsdale is Teddy Swims. I watched a short YouTube video about where the name came from, and it was honestly confusing.  He says "I got called Teddy in my life a lot cause I guess I look like that," and then he says that he had previously called himself "Swims" as part of a hip hop thing he was doing, because "its like for someone who isn't me sometimes."  Ahh.  Sure.  Everyone knows that the word swims stands for someone other than yourself.  Right.  NO, WAIT, I GET IT NOW.  Someone Who Isn't Me Sometimes = S.W.I.M.S.  Roger.

He's also an avid tattoo guy.  Covering his head.  On the face.  Knuckles.  Legs.  Blackened ears?  Literally blacked out his ears.  Just so very many tattoos.  I know this is a thing now between Post Malone and Jelly Roll and others, but it still looks shocking to go so hard on the tats.

His first track, from 2019, is called "Someone You Loved," and it shows the leaning towards soul and R&B, but has more of a Post Malone kind of feel where he combines country and pop and rock and R&B.  It is apparently a cover of Lewis Capaldi.  He also covered "I Can't Make You Love Me" in 2019.  Just singles until his 2021 EP called Unlearning.  The top track on there is "Bed on Fire" with 37.4 million streams.

There's the more pure soul sound.  I mean, I say that, as though I listen to any soul music at all.  I don't know that I care for it.  Feels like the title phrase should be about hot sexy time, and instead its about how he wants her to kill him when she leaves.  

The covers were apparently his foot in the door.  At first, he was in a handful of rock, post-hardcore, hair metal, or soul bands around Atlanta, but it wasn't until he started posting covers on YouTube in 2019 that people started to really notice him.  Shania Twain's "You're Still the One" popped off, and he ended up signing with Warner Brothers.

The 2022 EP Tough Love has one that I like quite a bit better - "911" boasts 38.7 million streams.

Sweet groove in there, which really matches up to the smooth vocals.  The visuals kind of gross me out though, milk plus beard is kind of nasty looking.  But smooth singing and a tasty slice of funky stuff.

Then, we finally get both his only real album as well as his massive hit that gets him posted up here at the third line of the poster.  I've Tried Everything But Therapy is his 2024 album, and "Lose Control" blasted out 621.5 million streams (more than every other song on here combined).

Makes me think of something Alicia Keys would do.  Although I also hear some Stapleton in his voice.  If this was set over roaring guitar and drums, instead of organ and bass, I could see it as Stapleton.  I'd honestly prefer the "911" song over this, but again, soul and R&B have never been my jam.

With apologies to Jason, I sure hope that something more interesting is up against this cat.  He's got a great voice and apparently single-handedly keeps a few tattoo artists fed, but not really my choice.

ACL 2024: The Lineup!

Welp, pretty sure I got every single guess wrong this year!  No Post Malone.  No Pearl Jam.  No Future with Metro Boomin.

BUT, I freaking love Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson.  Khruangbin doesn't belong among the headliners, and probably Leon Bridges too, but both of those are really good artists.  Dua Lipa ain't it, and having her as the top artist on the whole poster makes me question my life, but hopefully that makes the small children happy this year.  I also don't care much for Tyler, but again, maybe that gets the kids hyped.  Blink is whatever - I guess it will be fun to see them play live, but that also feels like one that shouldn't have continued trying to be bratty teenagers once they became 50 year olds.  Never heard of Pretty Lights, which makes me assume they are techno.

Not a ton of instantly recognizable things in the smaller print either.  I remember Norah Jones being lovely 20 years ago.  Foster the People are fine.  I've heard of Caamp.  Vince Staples is cool.  Jeezy exists.  Catfish and the Bottlemen are great.  David Shaw is the lead singer for the Revivalists.  Grand Funk Railroad is a thing I've heard of.  Penny and Sparrow were just here so my writeup will be super simple.  Katie Pruitt is great.  Bob Schneider is apparently still alive.  

LOTS to try out!

Quick Hits, Vol. 346 (Bleachers, The Black Keys, Khruangbin, Future x Metro Boomin (again))

Bleachers - Bleachers.  You know how everyone thinks that "Blinded by the Light" is a Springsteen song because it sounds so much like the Boss?  Well, you can welcome "Modern Girl" on this album into that club of songs that so shamelessly rips off the Springsteen schtick that it is overwhelming.  Saxophone and guitar riffs!  Even steals the little xylophone hits.  It's for sure the most popular track, so just check it out for yourself.  17.1 million streams.

I say all of that, and yet its a blast of a song.  Rip off or not, but its a pure party locked into there.  There are some other good rock bops on here as well.  But some of this album veers into the boring Taylor Swiftian world that Jack Antonoff has been foisting on the world for a while now, and I don't need any of that anymore.  Like, the one with, I think, Lana Del Rey on it, is like a mopey ripoff of "My Hometown" that I definitely don't need.  The Vampire Weekend-ish autotuned "The Waiter" is also unneeded.  It's too bad, this album has some good bits, but also some misses for sure.

The Black Keys - Ohio Players.  Speaking of a weird trip of an album - this thing starts off like a classic BK album - the first three songs are classic rock and roll swirled with a little funky soul and they rule.  The top track is that third one, and it's a funky groove.  "Beautiful People (Stay High)" has 10 million streams.

The hand claps, the horns, the guitar licks - this feels destined to be a classic for play at their live shows.  I need to go learn some sweet dance moves like those folks.  Love it.  But as the album continues, things morph - there are two rap verses lodged in here, which is deeply strange.  Beck pops up.  Even the first track with a rap verse in it - "Candy and Her Friends" spends two minutes sounding like a normal BK rock tune, until the beats shifts and something called Lil Noid starts laconically spitting over a super basic beat.  It honestly works, feels cool, but also is just a strange detour.  Overall, entirely solid album though - mostly more of the usual bashing rock jams.

Khruangbin - A LA SALA.  You'd never know that this wasn't the same album they put out a few years ago.  Not that I know the hustle, they found a lane and they are sticking to it, but it is exactly more of the same.  Maybe a little more chill, if that is possible, with less of the upbeat numbers as last time.  great vibe music - although if I am being honest, a few times through this one and my brain has wandered and wished I could put some music on.  Which is not a great sign.  3 songs crack 5 million, with "May Ninth" being top of the pile at 12.4 million.

Not sure if I like the singing ones or the pure instrumentals, but either way, they really use the smeary little vocals like they were just another instrument in the quiver.  Yeah, good vibe here, something nice to hear at a restaurant while you chat.  Otherwise a little less than exciting.

Future x Metro Boomin - We Still Don't Trust You.  Weird to release this like 2 weeks after the We Don't Trust You disc, and in my opinion, a significantly less good collection here.  Beats are definitely weaker.  Is this the B-Sides?  The album opener is the top track, with a J. Cole-assisted track in distant second place.  "We Still Don't Trust You" with 35.4 million streams.

Having the Weeknd on there works really well, because that sounds like a boring beat that the Weeknd would have on his schtick.  Doesn't do a thing for me.  I have slogged through this hour and a half several times by now, and there is nothing remarkable in here at all.  Which is a bummer since I think they'll be at ACL.  [sound of sad balloon deflating]

Quick Hits, Vol. 345 (Sarah Jarosz, Wolves of Glendale, Hozier, Beyonce)

Sarah Jarosz - Polaroid Lovers.  I've always loved Jarosz, and although this album feels entirely out of character for her normal schtick, it is really good.  She came up as the mandolin-slinging wunderkind from Central Texas, but this eschews that style for more of a folky pop thing.  "When the Lights Go Out" has a little bit of Paul Simon's Graceland album in it.  "Runaway Train" has a little classic Kelly Willis to it.  I sniff a little Taylor Swift in the lovelorn confessional of "The Way It Is Now."  Its all damn pretty though.  "Columbus & 89th" is the top streamer with 660k.

Now that sounds more like the classic sound.  Lovely fingerpicking and a beautifully understated set of vocals.  Man, this whole aging thing is so dang weird - I've heard this song 20 times by now and then I find myself getting leaky over watching her stand on the edge of Central Park.  Such a wonderful melody.

Wolves of Glendale - Wolves of Glendale.  This is the dumbest, funniest shit I have heard in forever.  It is like a Toto cover band hired a Saturday Night Live writer to create the weirdest lyrics possible, and then they faithfully crushed those like an absolutely real band trying to make it big in 1986.  Lonely Island but with killer musicians making legit songs.  There are some other influences in here - "Free Sample" has notes of Queens of the Stone Age, Rage Against the Machine, and the Chili Peppers - but most of this feels like something that would have been on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, but with hysterical lyrics.  I keep finding myself singing snippets of "Vapin' in Vegas" or "The Gym" as I'm wandering through my days.  I mean, I'm listening to "The Gym" again right now, for like the tenth time, and laughing out loud in my office.  It's absurd but perfectly pitched - "even the Rock has a cheat day!" and "I passed the pasta test!" - and after the first two verses that make sense for the song, but then it just goes off the rails with the strip club and the coma and the cockfighting ring and everything else.  But still, great tune, and funny ass lyrics.  Oh, and I sing "Olivia" in my head all the time now too - mainly the "sacrifice a puppy for love" line which nails me every time.  "The Gym" is the top streamer, although the whole thing is criminally under-streamed.

See how that one launches into the song like Huey Lewis or Glen Frey are about to start singing?  But it also nails it with the details - three year membership at the gym, new clothes, and then you do seven pushups before heading to get some special food.  So perfect.  "Loud Ass Car" and "Just Give Me Cash" are also funny shit.  The whole album nails my type of humor honestly.  This whole thing rules.  I am going to be annoying about evangelizing for them.

Hozier - Unheard.  I guess this is some little B-sides collection, being that it is just four song long, but I'll be damned if it doesn't showcase some of his best stuff anyway.  The first song, "Too Sweet," sounds like he joined up with the Black Keys for some southern, soulful riffage.  "Wildflower and Barley," with Allison Russell, has a funky shuffle but otherwise is an ethereal little burner.  "Empire" builds in a really tasty way.  "Fare Well" starts out really quiet and sneaky, and then erupts into a dance party.  "Too Sweet" is crushing it though - 268.1 million streams!  Nothing else here breaks 20 mill.

I find myself just singing "I take my whiskey neaaaaaaaaaaat" at random times now.  Not sure what he means by taking his bed at three, but its a funky little tune.  Good stuff.

Beyonce - Cowboy Carter.  There are things on here that I really like.  Her covers of "Blackbird" and "Jolene" are great.  I think the "Texas Hold 'Em" track is definitely fun.  The brassy rap throwdown of "Spaghetti" is very enjoyable.  But telling me that this is her country album is really freaking weird.  Most of this is absolutely not country no matter how much I stretch my mental definition of that genre.  "Bodyguard" is like an indie rock tune sung by a soul singer.  The "Dolly P" bit makes me cringe.  "Daughter" is lovely.  But it is also too damn long - 27 tracks and an hour and eighteen minutes?  C'mon man.  "Hold 'em" crushes all of the other tracks with 338.5 million streams.

Goofy is many ways, but I'm not going to try to be the dick who can't just let go and enjoy something fun.  It's fun.  The tune with Miley Cyrus is also fun.  The "YA YA" track is really weird, because it steals bits from "Boots Are Made For Walking," but isn't that either.  I'm sure it will be a hit in live shows, but it seems out of place.  The album, overall, is just all over the place.  I think that is partly the point, to poke a finger in the eye of the genre purists who want to put her into one genre, but it also makes for a weird listening experience to get country, folk, rap, R&B, soul, and 14 other styles jammed into this one thing.  I don't love it.

Quick Hits, Vol. 344 (Waxahatchie, Taylor Swift, Sierra Ferrell, Gary Clark Jr.)

Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood.  Damn pretty stuff right here.  I've enjoyed some of her albums in the past, and this one just has a really nice vibe all throughout.  I put one of her songs on a playlist I made to drive through Alabama with my son, and every time it came on I was pleased with myself all over again.  "Right Back To It" is the top track with a paltry 4.5 million streams.

The combo of that slow and steady bass line, the plucking banjo, and then the harmonies in those voices is just like a salve to my brain.  So damn nice.  "i’ve been yours for so long / we come right back to it / i let my mind run wild / don’t know why i do it / but you just settle in / like a song with no end / if i can keep up / we’ll get right back to it."  As someone who just celebrated 23 years with my wife, anything singing about being with someone for "so long" nails me.  Sometimes, this album is straight indie rock, other times it leans into that country sound, but it never strays from a lovely vibe.

Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department.  And then on the other hand, the best known artist on the planet put out an absolute dud of an album.  Over 2 hours of completely underwhelming whispery confessions.  Zero bangers.  Zero interesting, memorable, or exciting tracks.  People spent the weekend tweeting out snippets of the lyrics that were of interest, but this is just such a pile of deeply boring white noise that I don't even care about all the names she checks throughout.  What a disappointment.  The album opener, with Post Malone warbling along with her, is the top streamer.  39.8 million streams.

Sounds like Lana Del Rey.  And actually, I laughed out loud at the face tattoos.  That is funny.  But nothing there is going to stick with me past the next ten seconds.  Just a throwaway track.  Maybe my brain has reached peak TayTay saturation, but I really believe this is a bad album.  I'll let this go (and probably be proven wrong when this becomes her biggest album, but whatever, I'll take the potential L versus having to hear more of this).

Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers.  So, I actually just saw her play live yesterday, and it was fantastic.  The group I made walk over there to see it (skipping out on Neal McCoy and his classic hits) likewise were loving her sound.  But to be honest, all of us were a little turned off by her look - she had some sort of tooth thing going on that she normally does not, like a huge gold snaggle-tooth thing - that was super distracting.  But she sounds phenomenal.  And this album is very good as well - country, bluegrass, folk, and more of that patented Patsy Cline-esque sound.  "Fox Hunt" has the lead for streams with 2.3 million.

I sort of wanted her to throw a fist into the sky as she unloaded this one into the sky.  But she's too busy playing.  Love the hollerin' in there like you're really at a hoe-down with her and her band.  Not only does she make wonderfully rootsy music, but she's also just a wild person - she apparently died while shooting up with heroin and then came back to life.  Keeper.

Gary Clark Jr. - JPEG RAW.  This album does nothing to dispel the thought that my man could really benefit from being part of a band.  I just imagine someone else helping him get aimed at a particular sound or style, and then unleashing his rad guitar into that chosen space.  Instead, this feels like he just went into the studio with his guitar and some curiosity and just got after it.  The most fascinating song, without any doubt, is the Stevie Wonder one.  On my first listen, I was like "damn, that intro makes this sound like an old Stevie Sonder song," and then I'll be damned if the man himself didn't pop up to sing and boogie around.  Low stream count all around this one - I wonder what the hell he is doing with the title as well, as it makes it sound like some sort of throwaway single.  "Maktub" has the most streams, barely edging out the Stevie tune, so here you go.  1.1 million streams.

Got a wild influence in there - uh, African?  Indian?  It is fine, lyrically, I just don't know where it gets me.  Is it supposed to be a protest song?  Just feels trite to say we gotta move and time for a new revolution over and over.  Mainly, I feel like if he could just focus his powers and make the songs aim for a catchy vibe - I don't need pop or anything, and I don't want just an Eric Johnson collection of molten lava guitar solos either, but there is a scattershot quality here that never lets this disc coalesce.  

Quick Hits, Vol. 343 (Tierra Whack, The Black Crowes, Pinegrove, Future and Metro Boomin')

Tierra Whack - WORLD WIDE WHACK.  Man, I didn't expect to prefer her tiny little 30 second tracks, but this album gets really old to me really quickly.  It is her singing that does it - she seems to repeat the same sound and cadence every time she sings, so it just seems to sound the same.  I can't quite describe what I am hearing, but it just wears on my ears over the course of this huge album.  Sort of like she is singing the theme to a nursery rhyme in each song?  And then the lyrics are just not very fun either - suicide and mood swings and depression and cutting - set against this childish sounding singing.  Which, sure, it is good to talk about those sorts of things, but it sure makes a 15 song album feel like a slog to have that stuff nailing you in every tune.  "Chanel Pit," with its weird way of calling herself the shit, and a lighter subject matter, is the top streamer with 1.5 million streams.

"9, 10, 11, fuck 12" sounds good, but the whole "mosh pit smells like Chanel" is weird, and "Microsoft I'm an excel" is clunky as hell.  I don't hate the album, but I definitely prefer hearing her have fun than wallowing in her issues.

The Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards.  I read a short review of this album the other day.  I generally try to avoid reading stuff before I've formulated my own opinions, just so I won't be influenced by someone else.  But the line in that review that was super good said something to the effect of "nothing on this album marks it as a 2024 album."  I love that, and completely agree.  This is just right back into the usual shaggy blues rock stuff that they were making in the 90's.  Which is a great thing!  I mean, no, it is not as good as Southern Harmony or Shake Your Moneymaker, but it is groovy and rockin' and funky and very enjoyable!  The opener, "Bedside Manners" even has Chris Robinson doing some of the old school ad lib goofiness that he did in the past, and it's fun.  The top track is "Wanting and Waiting," with 1.7 million streams.

Good old slow moving classic rock jams, baby.  I love how ratty Chris looks - he's still doing those same little poses and moves as 30 years ago, but looks like a homeless dude trying those moves on for size.  The last time I saw them live, it was one of those shows where they played the entirety of Shake Your Money Maker from start to finish, and it super ruled.  I love that album, and hearing the deep cuts was deeply pleasing.  Again, this isn't getting into that absolute classic territory, but it is solid.

Pinegrove - Cardinal.  I went from having never heard of these dudes, to reading about someone coming to Two Step Inn who admires them, to digging deeper and deeper into their catalog.  This is a 2016 album they made before the implosion of the band, and it is more deliciously good Death Cab x Band of Horses x Decemberists indie rock action.  Three of the tracks top 10 million, making me think they must be the hits for the band.  The top one without a doubt is the album opener with "Old Friends" at 41.5 million streams.  A live version, but you'll get the idea.

The way they look at each other and nod is unnerving.  But a lovely little tune with a killer lyrical bit that should make you feel like a bad kid every time you hear it.  "Walking out in the night-time springtime / Needling my way home / I saw Leah on the bus a few months ago / I saw some old friends at her funeral / My steps keep splitting my grief / Through these solipsistic moods / I should call my parents when I think of them / Should tell my friends when I love them."

I went to a short wake for a friend's dad yesterday, and I very literally left there thinking I really should have told him that I loved him when I hugged him goodbye.  Dope.  Anyway, pleasing album of really nice tunes.

Future & Metro Boomin' - We Don't Trust You.  Weird to see the guy making the beats get top line billing with the rapper on an album.  I guess Timbaland got that sort of treatment back in the day, but still mostly they just get announced by those annoying producer tags without being on the name of the album.  In this one, it's Future saying the mangled sounding words: "If Young Metro don't trust you I'm gon' shoot you" which is not fun to hear over and over at all.  A few tracks on here are super solid - the Kendrick Lamar one "Like That," the other collab on "Type Shit," and it totally has to do with the beats - brawny, thumping, intimidating.  Pretty good.  But the Kendrick track is for sure the standout, and the streams prove that up with 148.9 million streams.

I hear the sniped sample from that old Eazy E joint, "Eazy Duz It," but those bells sound familiar too.  I will tell you, when this song came on in the car the other day, after I'd been listening to some gentle track mixed in, the bass was like a thunderous herd.  Lyrically, it feels like the other Future features where nothing interesting is happening at all, but it sure sounds cool.  The Kendrick verse is good tho. Nothing here is as good as "Mask Off" or "Thought it was a Drought" or "I Serve the Bass," but it isn't awful either.  Normally, I would not be on board with "Slimed In," but the vibe of the track is cool, even if the actual rap is uninteresting.  Yeah, that is my review here.  Great beats, underwhelming rhymes, definitely enjoyable vibe.

Quick Hits, Vol. 342 (Liquid Mike, Kacey Musgraves, Willi Carlisle, Ariana Grande)

I actually won a March Madness bracket.  I don't think that has ever happened for me before, and it only netted me $260, but still, pretty sweet!  Because I am old and sad, I am considering using it to buy bedside tables.  Wheeeee!

Liquid Mike - Paul Bunyan's Slingshot.  I don't recall at all how this got in to my new music queue but I absolutely love it.  Power pop pleasure from front to back, with mounds and mounds of gritty riffage burying the melodies.  According to the internet, the Mike here is a postman from Marquette, Michigan.  He sounds a lot like Bob Mould to me on many of these tracks, which get me to the Sugar comparison that I have had a lot while jamming this.  They do a good job of combining a skuzzy lo-fi shreddiness with completely melodic pop flourishes.  It's grand.  I want them at ACL to melt faces.  Like, "Works Bomb" is such a rad little blast of a minute and a half underscored by fuzzy riffs and smashing drums.  Prior to checking, I literally couldn't figure out what the top single would be - I guessed the album opener just because that's how things usually work, but it is the second tune - "K2" with 72k streams.

Comments are turned off.  Why do people do that?  But this is a great jam of summertime boredom (although it includes a weird callback to Coldplay by saying that a guy who passed out pissed his pants and they were all yellow).  I dig the tambourine in there, which adds something unexpected to an otherwise straight rocker.  Excellent shit.  The riffs about half way through "American Caveman" are pure bliss.  I hear Ween sometimes, but mainly I just hear unhinged pop rock pleasure.  Will hold on to.

Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well.  C'mon Kacey!  I need you back in the spacey kacey stage, making jokes and writing amazing hooks.  Last time was a depressing breakup record, and now this one is more of a "mature" folk record.  Which is pretty!  Don't get me wrong!  But there are tons of pretty but uninteresting albums all over the place, and this one never hooks me.  It even starts off with a riff that makes me think of the Mamas and the Papas "California Dreamin'."  "Deeper Well" is a nice song, and I like the sentiment of her pushing away her bad habits in favor of finding a better way to use her time.  But I'm not fully enamored with it, and it might be the highlight of the disc.  Most of the tunes on here don't crack 4 millon streams, but that title tune has 26.8 million.

I'm glad that she has learned so much about herself, and I'm sure that many people hear those lyrics and feel understood/seen.  But the whole idea of "you've got dark energy and I've got to take care of myself" are cringey to my old man ears.  As "Too Good to be True" kicked in again just now, it made me think of Beck, a comparison that I made to Kacey before because of how "Slow Burn," from Golden Hour, called to Beck's soft/folky vibe from Sea Change and Morning Phase.  I love those two Beck albums, so I hope that I'm not being too harsh on this album when it could just be her vibey detour album.  Also, I hate "Anime Eyes" so very much.  But the majority of this album just slips on by without me noticing it is going.

Willi Carlisle - Critterland.  Great songwriter, with that sort of folky songwriter voice that is fine but not entirely powerful enough.  Rolling Stone had some sort of little blurb about him in a recent magazine, so I thought I'd give it a chance.  The weirdest part for sure is the Dukes of Hazzard-ass short story at the end of the album, where he tells a story of growing weed and paying protection money to the cops, with his spoken word story interjected with little bits of singing.  Super strange and way long.  BUt most of this sort of makes me think of Tyler Childers, with his hard-scrabble stories over spare and folky tunes.  But the opening track, also the title track, is the best one on here and is the most streamed.  151k streams.

That opening is endearingly loose and wild, and then the stories start flowing.  That video is like a Southpark episode.  The song feels like it should be the self-aware, goofy theme song for a summer camp.  Now I want to see him and his critter friends fight off the apocalypse!  Anyway, this is a nice little disc.  Nothing else on it is insanely catchy, but the songwriting is good and interesting and the music is nice.

Ariana Grande - eternal sunshine.  I think this misses the mark for me mainly because I just don't care for her vocals or the backing tunes.  R&B is never my thing, and the pop had better be catchy and sticky as hell to get to me.  Instead, here, you get a ton of the same-sounding, layered falsetto-feeling, whispery griping over boring beats.  "yes, and?" at least provides a different beat sound, like Madonna's "Vogue" for another generation, but the singing bothers me again.  And yes, I know that she is a killer technical singer who can hit forty-eight different octaves, but I don't really hear her using that tool here very much.  I'm not interested in it.  But other people sure as hell are!  Lowest streamer on here has over 33 million.  Instead of giving you the top one (yes, and, with 327 million) I'm going with second place - "we can't be friends (wait for your love)" at 263 million, because I think it is the superior song.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!  That track, while sounding like an 80's redux for sure, is the best tune on the album with much stronger writing and vocals.  Very cinematic.  I hope this disc brings all sorts of people cathartic joy and healing from their bad relationships, but I don't find it to be very fun at all.

Quick Hits, Vol. 341 (Real Estate, ScHoolboy Q, MGMT, Madi Diaz)

How have I done so freaking many of these little reviews?  Three hundred and freaking forty one of them?  Weird.  A random aside that I very much enjoy, taken from a Defector article, because F Drake.

"At the core of it though, Kendrick just does not like the very idea of Drake's whole get down and what he represents—for all the reasons everyone else probably suspects. Drake is the manifestation of the last 40 years of the corporate absorption of hip-hop culture into mass entertainment. Drake is the lab-invented ideal of a rap superstar. Drake is this scene from The Simpsons. Drake is an algorithm-approved representation of rap. Drake is the gentrification, commodification, and globalization of hip-hop culture. Drake is a British museum stealing the artifacts of hip-hop's past for their exhibits. Drake is the personification of things like “trap brunch” and “trap yoga” and “I am not my ancestors” t-shirts. Drake is the tug of war between white dollars and black art. Drake is the pipeline between sensitive sad boy online performance and the deeply violent and misogynistic incel culture that is currently threatening to consume all of hip-hop. Drake is an Illuminati wet dream."

Chef's kiss.  Back to the tunes.

Real Estate - Daniel.  Absolutely wonderful album.  Love listening to this.  Nothing game changing here, just more catchy, melodic indie rock jams that have a sort of spacey quality to them.  REM is probably my favorite band of all time, and this feels like the kind of thing they could still be making if they wanted to.  Amazingly, no one is listening to this disc - only one song with more than a million streams - but it ought to be the top album on every February 2024 list.  Check out the biggest tune - "Water Underground" with 1.5 million streams.

Kind of a Shins, Decemberists vibe.  Beautiful and cheerful and just wonderful to hear.  I'll absolutely keep this album in rotation.

ScHoolboy Q - BLUE LIPS.  I really wanted this to be an instant classic.  I like Q a lot, and his live shows are freaking fun.  Maybe it will become a classic the more I spin it, because the beats are fun for sure - he yanks the beat from Project Pat's "Chickenheads" on "THank god 4 me" - and some are brawny as hell.  He does one thing throughout the disc, like with a cool maneuver with the first three songs - the incongruously soft "Funny Guy" followed right up by the hard edges of "Pop" that bleeds right into a soft flute intro to "THank god 4 me."  But the whole disc ends up being a little uneven for me - some songs are super good on first stream, others grew on me, and then a few are just uninteresting.  But I definitely enjoy the differences here - the soft jazzy background of "Blueslides" is super laid back but then followed up with "Yeern 101" and its hyper-aggressive electronica.  That's the top single for now with 10.6 million streams.

He jumps onto that beat like a speed bag at the gym.  He's a big golfer too, I know that, but it is still funny to see him smacking golf balls in here.  Great track - relentless.  But, like, "Love Birds" featuring some other crooners in it really doesn't get me anywhere.  "OHio" with Freddie Gibbs bangs, taking us through three different zones during one tune.  "Pig feet" is hard too.  Just an all-over-the-place disc, but overall I dig the vibe.  Lots of soul samples and development of the feel.

MGMT - Loss of Life.  I didn't have very high expectations on this disc - these guys made some massive hits many moons ago and then haven't done much of note since.  They're weird and experimental in ways I usually don't need.  But this is actually enjoyable.  I had a moment where I wanted to compare them to Jet, but that seems rude these days.  But they definitely have some of the slow burning British pop sounds that Jet went for when they were trying to recreate the Beatles.  "Mother Nature" is for sure one of those - oh hey, and its the top streamer too!  5.1 million streams.

Spacey and weird, as their tunes should be, but also melodic and pleasant.  "Dancing in Babylon" sounds like some 80's pop hiding from a teen romance soundtrack.  "Bubblegum Dog" is a fun one for sure - more like a David Bowie vibe there.  I just realized that the overall vibe actually makes me think of The Flaming Lips.  Weird and enjoyable album.

Madi Diaz - Weird Faith.  I'm just in a wonderful space with some of these albums - this is freaking great.  She is apparently a friend/opening act for Harry Styles, and he nailed that co-sign because the combination of confessional lyrics, a great singing voice, and catchy indie pop stylings make this an excellent disc.  She also gets the Kacey Musgraves co-sign with a duet on here.  That track gets the most streams - unsurprisingly - but I'll give you a different track to get the full Madi experience.  "Everything Almost" has 317k streams.

Love her voice so much.  Not sure how these work together, but it is both cute and strong.  Watching her sing it just then gave me goosebumps - fascinating, started to tear up near the end.  Aging is such a damn weird experience.  Great song, excellent album.