Quick Hits (Drenge, Joanna Gruesome, Broken Bells, Uncle Tupelo, Springsteen, Sun Kil Moon, Mount Kimbie, Step Brothers, Freddie Gibbs)

When I read Rolling Stone or music blogs, or talk to friends about music, I'll usually try to go throw new music into one playlist I have on Spotify called New Stuff.  I try to run through there every few weeks to see if any of the music is worth holding on to long-term, or if it gets the boot.  With all of the new music I have been listening to for ACL Fest, I have fallen very behind and have a huge build-up of stuff to check out in my playlist.  I'm hammering some out this week and thought I'd provide thoughts.

Drenge - Drenge.  Two English brothers who crank out some great, grungy rock and roll.  I forget who told me about this, but it was good enough to make the Keepers playlist.

Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister.  Welch band that does a really great mid-90's alternative sound.  Their Spotify bio says they are influences by the "C-86 scene and buried shoegaze guitar tones," but I have no freaking clue what that means.  What I do know is that Sugarcrush sounds like classic Teenage Fanclub or Sonic Youth to me.

Broken Bells - Broken Bells.  I know we already talked about them for the ACL preview, but I wanted to keep listening to this one even more than just for that preview.  Really good, smart pop music.

Uncle Tupelo - No Depression and Anodyne.  I have listened to the resulting pieces, Son Volt and Wilco, for many years but had never given Uncle Tupelo a chance.  Love both of these albums.  Alt. country, roots rock-y tunes that still feel fresh and part of the current musical landscape even 20+ years after they were released.  You ought to go check them out.

Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes.  Although I like Bruce and Rage Against the Machine, I find the guitar licks from Tom Morello to be annoying on these songs.  Feels like Bruce is trying to up his street cred for doing protest music by adding a known rabble-rouser to a few tracks.  I thought Wrecking Ball was much more interesting to listen to and had stronger songs.  Not a keeper.

Sun Kill Moon - Benji.  Interesting music, well, no, the music itself is really basic but nice acoustic finger-picking.  But this guy packs pretty great little stories into his songs.  Makes it really hard to actually listen to this music while getting work done.  I feel like I need to hear more of this before I can make a call.

Mount Kimbie - Cold Spring Fault Less Youth.  No verdict yet.  Interesting rap/beats/electronic music that Lorde mentioned in a Rolling Stone interview.  I'm keeping it in New Stuff to hear a few more times before I can decide.

St. Vincent - St. Vincent.  Yes.  This is good stuff.

Step Brothers - Lord Steppington.  This is part of Dilated Peoples with The Alchemist.  I like it.  Not much generic pop/rap styling, and I think the beats are good, almost old-school sample driven, but they have been deconstructed to where you can't really be sure.  Reminds me of Ghostface or Madlib.  And Action Bronson guests on one track, and I dig him, so bully for me.  I'll keep this one.

Freddie Gibbs - .  Nah.  Not bad, but just didn't interest me all that much.

More to come...