Quick Hits, Vol. 110 (YG, Violent Soho, Dinosaur Jr., Joseph)

YG - Red Friday.  muzzyonnabeathoe!  I enjoy me some YG, even though he's more of the party and BS brand of rap with very little to enrich yourself from.  I'm going to start calling that Popcorn Rap.  Usually produced by DJ Mustard, so he's got pretty solid beats.  If "I Be On" or "Down Bitch" weren't such dumb garbage lyrically, I'd bump the beats all day.  The big track off the album, with over 8.4 million streams is "One Time Comin'," which is an ode to that single moment you had sex.  Oh, no, wait, it is about the cops coming and what you should do (apparently say "oh shit" and begin running).

Damn, man.  That video is too real.  I'd say you should watch it to the end to see what happens when a black guy runs from the cops, but you probably already know what happens.  Damn.  I'll hope that the full album to come out soon will be better than this little one, because I'm not too impressed by any of this.

Violent Soho - WACO.  The album title has me all sorts of internet sleuthing around here. Who would intentionally name their album after Wac-town?  These dudes are from Brisbane, Australia, so that isn't helpful.  I haven't found that they are fans of Baylor or the combined initials of Washington and Colorado that news stations kept showing when both of those states passed legal marijuana statutes at the same time.
Apparently, they were discovered by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, signed to a big label and moved to Brooklyn, fell into the gears of the machine and got ground into pieces.  They got dropped by the label and moved back to Brisbane, where the guitarist applied to work at McDonalds.  But then they got nominated for an ARIA (the Aussie version of a Grammy) and decided to give it a go again, resulting in their third album (the one before this) which went gold and turned them into huge stars in Australia.  But none of this has answered my essential question.
Until, holy shit, they really did name it after Waco, Texas.  "Guitarist James Tidswell explains: “It’s not about the actual event [the Branch Davidian massacre] but rather it’s the easiest way to grab the feeling behind the album… I think it best describes how we feel in this make-believe culture of our own. They [the community at Waco] replicated an idea which they fully believed; Jesus and the Second Coming, to the point where they died believing it.”"  Woah.  Finding parallels with the whackjob Branch Davidians for your band. That is another level of crazy.
Well, anyway, this is a good album of rock and roll, dipping a toe into a grunge sound here or a pop-punk/emo sound there.  Here is my favorite, and coincidentally the most popular track, called "Like Soda," which has 3 million streams.

Starts out like a Pixies track, then kicks in like Weezer with a Sugar rush.  Those old people know how to party, yo.  I cracked up at the image of the guy taking his SMTWTFS container, dumping out the contents, crushing them up, and snorting away like some high school kid in my neighborhood. All the usual other sound-a-likes for a band like this apply here - "Evergreen" starts off like the Foo Fighters, then veers into Nirvana.  I hear screaming emo like Brand New, and some Refused here and there.  If you like that style of hard alternative rock, with occasional screaming, then this is in your sweet spot.  I like it, and want to go back and try out the Hungry Ghost album from a few years ago.

Dinosaur Jr. - Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not.  Heck yeah, back at it.  Funny thing is, I looked back at these guys' catalog, expecting that they hadn't released anything in decades, but they've continued to put music out over time.  Nothing so awesome as "Start Choppin'" though.  Classic Dino sound - guitar and fuzz forward in most songs - with "Tiny" the most popular, at just under a million streams.

Some classic alt-rock sounds right there, like the 90's never ended and these guys are still kids.  Although watching that video, they are definitely not kids anymore.  Mascis and the drummer look old.  I'd note that "Love Is..." is not in their same normal sound house.  Kind of an odd departure, each time I've listened to this album I keep thinking that the album must have ended and a new band is playing.  The best song on here is the fuzzbomb grunge classic "I Walk for Miles."  If you have any old love for Dinosaur Jr., that one is your jam.

Rock and damn roll, baby.  Just let that filthy grungyness wash all over your chuck taylor lowtops and soak into your flannel.  That is the gold right there.

Joseph - I'm Alone, No You're Not.  Like a lovely, endearing mash of First Aid Kit with Haim.  Not as spare as FAK, and not as pop/funky as Haim, but at times reminds me of both of them.  Super pretty album opener "Canyon" is the one I feel like I should play for you, but it is significantly less popular than the poppy "SOS" (4 million streams) or the uplifting "White Flag," which fires up just over 7 million streams.

Those harmonies are so very sweet.  And I want to know where that video was shot, beautiful spot to go with the song.  I've been listening to this album over and over and am enjoying it more and more as I do.  This is the kind of music my wife could wholeheartedly support and get behind, and its good for certain moods for me.