Quick Hits, Vol. 66 (Sevendust, Moon Taxi, Wavves, Mutoid Man)

Hot Topic: People who honk the car horns are a-holes.  I got honked at the other day after having my signal on and then moving into the other lane with plenty of room.  Very little infuriates me more than people honking.  Seriously, imagine being at the Zilker Trail of Lights right now, with a million people milling about and walking, stopping, chasing kids, taking pictures, etc. And now imagine that, anytime someone made you slow your pace or otherwise alter your trajectory, you yelled at full voice "HEY! HEY! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!"  This is what a horn sounds like to me.  Guess what, people?  You are going to have to use your brakes and accommodate other drivers as they try to get around.  Not all of them are on their phones (although likely 99.9% are) and no one is perfect.  I blame the internet and people from CA or NY for making screaming with horns seem acceptable.

Sevendust - Kill the Flaw.  I really liked Home and Animosity from their back catalog back in the early oughts, so I thought I'd give this a shot.  This is the kind of music you need to play when you are getting hyped for an at-bat in baseball or a robbery of your meth dealer. It stays right in the same wheelhouse - tuneful metal - but I'm not feeling this one as much as I liked them in past albums.  If you want to hear the best of their old stuff, go with "Denial."  If you want to hear the best of this album, I guess it is "Thank You," the album opener.

They keep the hard metal action underneath, but the singing always struck me as surprisingly tuneful and pretty for the underlying riffage.  I think I'll stick to the old Sevendust and let this one go.

Moon Taxi - Daybreaker.  Great album.  I'm biased, as I've seen them live now twice and think their live show is pretty boss, but I think this whole disc is really fun and tuneful. You've got the jammy "All Day All Night" with spiraling, ethereal guitars weaving around through the steady bass, and then erupting into a yell-along chorus.

Can't you just imagine yelling that chorus along with them at a crowded show?  It locks right in. You've got the quasi-EDM sound of "Make Your Mind Up," which uses organ and guitar to make a jumping drive of a song that could seriously have been done by Avicii.  You've also got the lovely "Always," slinking along on a tight drum line and a groovy bass progression.  And then a bunch of other great tunes that walk the line of rock and jam, to make something pretty sweet.

Wavves - V.  I had some weird bias against this album before I started it - I don't know why I thought that Wavves would be lame, but the opposite is true.  This is high-octane fun - fuzzy, punky, lo-fi jams with poppy harmonies somehow welded onto the top.  I thought for sure that the surf-punk sunshine of "Pony" would be the top song when I went to check it out on Spotify, but instead it is "Way Too Much."

Isn't that weird?  The music is scuzzy and raw, but then the vocals are so nice sounding and bright. There is a definite same-ness about this album, each song just fires right into the next with more driving skunk-punk-pop, but I enjoy it anyway.  Fun stuff.  I'm going to save this.

Mutoid Man - Bleeder.  I can dig some heavy stuff.  I have no clue where this album came from in my Q, but the opening track is pretty good.  This is "Bridgeburner."

The sound switches around so much, I'm having some trouble figuring out if I like them or not.  I think I like the metal and prog sounds, but some of it just gets too intense for my tender sensibilities. The middle of "Dead Dreams" is just too much, and the title track is like an annoying Alice in Chains B-Side.  Meanwhile, "1000 Mile Stare" is a Queens of the Stone Age-esque rocker ready-made to force you to kick a hole in your speakers and then jet.  Not enough though, I won't keep this album around.