Quick Hits, Vol. 72 (Jeezy, Logic, Sweatlodge, Punch Brothers)

R.I.P. guy from Earth Wind and Fire.
Hard few months for famous musicians, man.  The wife made fun of me this morning, saying that she already knew what I was going to write about today on my blog.  So true.  Maurice White, apparently the heart and soul of this funk group, passed away today.  I went back and listened to some of their tunes.  "Let's Groove" is my favorite, with "September" right behind that one.  "September" is the track that Griz played in the middle of his set at 2015's ACL, firing up the crowd into a frenzy.  I had no clue that the (median age 21.4) crowd at his show would even know who EW&F were, but they loved it.  In addition, I like that E-40's "Hope I Don't go back to Slinging Yayo" copies EW&F's Sun Goddess. That is tight.

Jeezy - Church in these Streets.  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."

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.

Logic - The Incredible True Story.  I'm digging this Logic guy.  His flows are crazy fast, and this new album has a theme of guys in a spaceship travelling to a special paradise planet that will be humanity's future home if it pans out as expected.  But the tracks have great beats (again indebted to Tribe Called Quest.  Check "Innermission" for the prime example) and interesting lyrics to go along with the sweet flow of his words.  He's getting a bunch of listens - multiple songs on this album are up over 5 million streams of Spotify.  The most listened of those is "Fade Away."

Man, something about the way he does the live versions of his tracks, I'm just caught up in watching him go.  We're not on the Busta or Twista level here, but when he gets trucking he can just blaze through some lines.  And a cool tidbit at the beginning of how he made the beat for the track.  He's also got a track or two (see "City of Stars") that remind me of Kanye. This one is worth listening to again, I'll keep it around.

Sweatlodge - Talismana.  Heavy-duty Sabbath homage by this band.  An Austin-based group, these guys pour all the hard rock sludge and fuzz they can into this album, and it works pretty well. No one listens to their music on Spotify, apparently, as their most listened-to track has 3,687 as of right now.  However, that song ("Tramplifier") is not available on YouTube, but this one, "Bed of Ashes" is ready for you to check.

I mean, if you start a song with a clip from Friday, then you are on the right bus as far as I am concerned.  Poor Red, got knocked the F out.  I spent like 10 minutes just now trying to figure out where that video was filmed, but never saw any signage for the bar.  Some skeevy pool hall though, I bet that was fun.  Pretty good album, kind of a mood thing for me.

Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues.  If you've read me for any period of time, you know that I have a special place in my heart for just about anything Chris Thile does.  The guy is the ultimate mandolin wizard, and I've seen him 5 times now and always come away with stars in my eyes.  The stuff he does to that instrument, it would be illegal in 49 states.  Their last album was a classic - "This Girl" was my jam.  And this album does more of the same, you'd want to categorize it in the Americana/bluegrass zone because of the fiddle and mandolin and banjo, but really, it sounds like nothing else in that area of music. The hit, without a doubt because of over 7 million listens, is called "Julep."

Nice slow burner, not one of the firework songs like "Magnet" or from prior albums.  In fact, most of this album is pretty chilled, which sounds good but is not my favorite mode for the Mandolin Master. If you like Americana or bluegrass or technical mastery of an instrument, you should definitely check this (and their last album, Who's Feeling Young Now) out.