Quick Hits, Vol. 113 (Banks & Steelz, Dawes, Bonkaz, The Pixies)

Banks & Steelz - Anything But Words.  I listened to a couple of their songs last year when they were a last minute addition to the ACL lineup.  I was interested - this is the Interpol lead singer (Paul Banks) and WuTang member RZA, mashing up their musical styles into indie rock tunes with rap.  I liked it well enough to go give it a try at the fest last fall, and it SUCKED.  Like, sucked on toast.  👅🍞.  I just spent like 30 seconds trying to hunt down emojis in the crappy interface that google now added to this blogger deal, and that is the best I can come up with.  But it was really like each guy was doing their own song and then the other one just jumped in and screwed it up.  Just didn't work and RZA was being annoying as hell.  So this is the whole album, and while I still think it has a few tracks that mesh well, overall this thing is still destined for the digital equivalent of the used bin at Waterloo Records.  I won't play you the three tracks that were pre-released and therefore got more play, so here is the next most popular, "Speedway Sonora," with 278k streams.

Not terrible, but nothing on either side of their house really makes this memorable or special.  How most of the album works.  Maybe the "Sword in the Stone" track, with Kool Keith, is better, but that is because it's mainly just a rap track and doesn't try to be everything.

Dawes - We're All Gonna Die.  Yeah, I'm not feeling much about this one.  I like North Hills a bunch, and then Nothing is Wrong was pretty good, and I felt about the same for All Your Favorite Bands, but this one feels like it is striving for a rockier tone that falls flat.  It also has a song called "Roll Tide," which does not appear to be about Alabama football, but it still makes me want to fight a random redneck bandwagon member, even though the sentiment and sound of the song is super soothing.  The best part of this are the story-telling tunes, like "When the Tequila Runs Out" or "Less Than Five Miles Away."  The former of those two is the most popular of the tracks on the album so far, with 1.3 million streams.

Meh?  Not sure its doing much for me.  Although the slow mo video and Mandy Moore sightings were entertaining in that video.  Overall, the album is just fine after a handful of listens, but I can't say that anything on here is really just grabbing me by the ears and demanding me listen.

Bonkaz - Mixtape of the Year.  Interestingly, no Spotify bio at all on this guy.  For some reason, I've had two of his songs at the top of my queue for months, waiting for a full album to come out, so I've heard of the guy somewhere even if he isn't big enough to be recognized fully by Spotify.  This type of music is apparently called "grime," and its an offshoot of regular rap music that apparently defies simple explanation.  Seriously, go read the "origins" section of this Wikipedia article and see if that is any clearer for you.  From what I can tell, it is energetic, hard-to-understand rap over the top of electronic beats that don't quite get so far as EDM, but kind of take a snippet from an EDM sound and repeat it. I'm not deep down in the GRIME GAME, yo, but I like this guy.  According to an article I just read on Noisey, he previously had a massive hit with a song called "We Run the Block," but I don't know that one and it isn't on this album. But let's learn together - Check it.

That song is cool.  Makes me think of Da Ali G show ("RESPEKKT!"), but is bouncing and looping and confusing and kind of intoxicating.  And that article from Noisey is so full of insider references, I don't know that it even helped me understand the scene all that much more.  Weird.
Anyway, most of this is pretty good.  I find the guys yelling "SKIRT SKIRT" in "Outside" and again on "Bands" to be offputting, although those are otherwise good songs.  I think "Trouble" is cool, and "And Dat" is the top track on here, but I think I like "Run Out the Ends" most, personally.

Cool ass sound right there, and kind of makes me want to bounce, so I'm enjoying it.  I'M A HUGE GRIME FAN, Y'ALL.  LIKE THE BIGGEST IN ALL OF TEXAS, BRO.

The Pixies - Head Carrier.  Oh man, I am so very thankful that this album is good.  Is there anything worse than when a great old band comes back together for a new shot and its just garbage?  They could have tried to update the sound or otherwise screwed with the perfect formula they had from back in the day, but instead, this sounds like the real deal Pixies from back in the day.  And actually in some ways, it is better, since Black Francis doesn't ever really devolve into the screaming shredding that he used to do, which wears on you after a while.  I think the title song is my favorite on here, but most of them are solid tracks.  "Oona" sounds old school for sure, just like a b-side that would have been at home on Doolittle.  Weird thing about these guys on Spotify, all of their songs are listed as having less than a thousand streams.  Everything, even Fight-Club-fanboy-anthem "Where is My Mind" or "Here Comes Your Man."  Weird.  Now I think Spotify might be having issues, because other artists are showing the same issue.  Well, none of the songs on this album are in the top ten listed on Spotify, and it won't show me play counts for the individual songs, so I'll check out YouTube.

Here's the one with a video, "Tenement Song," and its another good one too.  Especially when the soloing kicks in around 2 minutes.  But this is why the Pixies rule, they've got good boy/girl harmony thing, but then they can chug/jam out for a while with their rock.  This is another good album that I'll save.