Quick Hits, Vol. 125 (Thundercat, Stormzy, Open Mike Eagle, Cherubs)

Float Fest 2017 just released their lineup, and for it being a small-time local-ish festival, they got a hell of a good lineup.  You can pay $99 for a weekend pass that includes camping and tubing, and see Weezer, Cage the Elephant, MGMT, Mac Miller, Girl Talk, Moon Taxi, and some other bands?  I'd do it solely to see Weezer and Cage the Elephant again, although I've never had a bad time at a Girl Talk concert either.  $99!?

Thundercat - Drunk.  This guy is super weird, but he can play the bass like its going out of style. The general tone of the music is best described in my mind as To Pimp a Butterfly. You can tell that this dude was heavily involved in that project, because they sound very similar, that finger-picking bass meandering around in the background of tracks, creating a beat and melody at the same time.  
He brings on a bunch of guests, including Kendrick, Pharrell, and Wiz Khlaifa (as well as Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald on one weird tune).  One track seems to be a love song to his cat.  The album opener has him saying that he feels weird, so he reminds himself to comb his beard and brush his teeth and beat his meat and go to sleep. The crazy thing is that the album is 23 freaking songs long, which seems ridiculous, but then it is only 51 minutes, which is significantly more manageable.  Its an interesting album, a pretty similar sound runs throughout, and the guy's voice is this gentle falsetto the whole time, makes it kind of just pass by in the background without much friction.  And then you end up with the album closer, which is just so oddly bleak (with these kind of jazzy synth trills in the music) that I had to make note of the lyrics:

"Sometimes you're alive
Sometimes you are dead inside
With the time to read between the lines of life and death
Sometimes it's okay
Sometimes it's the worst thing ever
Hopefully you work it off and get a DUI
You will see that it's not so bad
There's always tomorrow
Bottom of the glass
At this point you've made an ass
And your friends will let you know tomorrow
I am so tired
One more glass to go
Where this ends we'll never know"

Jeez, dude.  Freaking bleak, man.  So the most listened to track is the one with Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald, but I'm going to give you the second-most because it has the Kendrick verse on it.  This is "Walk on By" and it has 1.5 million streams.

Those eyes are terrifying.  But Kendrick is a damn national treasure, so I dig that track more than the rest of the album.  Well, maybe not, the other track to note is "Uh Uh," because the man flies all over his bass in that track.  Just bounces all over the place with jazzy funk freakouts.  If the songs were a little bit happier, I might be on board with keeping this one around, but damn its depressing.  I'll let it go but you should probably check it out.

Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer.  This is another of the big "grime" dudes from the UK, like that Bonkaz guy I reviewed a few weeks ago.  I'd say that several of the tracks on here are solidly enjoyable, tough and brawny rap tracks, but then there is a bunch of this bad Drake-esque R&B BS that makes me not want to listen to this at all.  For example, "Mr Skeng" is a skittering, brass-fueled blast of anger about how bad ass he is (that repeatedly calls his enemies a "dickhead crew," which I find hilarious), but then the next song, "Cigarettes & Cush," is this bland R&B love song with lame 80's sax meandering under a boring tune. The big hit follows in the style of the rap I'm liking, not the R&B garbage I'm against.  So go with "Big for Your Boots," with 23.3 million streams.  And another 19 million YouTube views.

So frenetic.  The guy just skates over that speed beat without ever taking a freaking breath. Impressive flow for sure.  And I also have to say how much I like the accent added to the mix.  Its like the way The Streets used to sound so interesting on Original Pirate Material, with that brit accent, which transformed an otherwise fine rap flow into something much more interesting because of the odd cadence and pronunciation of English run through that thick accented voice. I like it.  Stick to the rap and I'm on board.

Open Mike Eagle - A Special Episode.  This guy's rap is legitimately funny.  His bio says that he was good friends in college with Hannibal Buress, so I don't know if they were friends because both are funny or if the sense of humor transferred over or what, but this guy uses excellently odd beats and funny turns of phrase to create something pretty sweet.  "Ziggy Starfish," with 2.4 million streams is the top track, but I think the "Dark Comedy Late Show" is better, so I'll give you that one.

Live version in the van, but you get the idea.  Dense lyrics that can be both funny and poignant, over a cool ass beat that sounds like old Kanye.  I dig a few of these tracks enough to keep them around, and would like to go listen to more from this dude.

Cherubs - 2Ynfynyty.   These dudes are brutally loud and fuzzed out.  Like, don't go here if you want to save your sanity.  Somehow the band hails from Austin, which just seems weird because I wouldn't say their sound matches up to what you think of when you think Austin. But whatever.  "Monkey Chow Mein" sounds like Tom Petty fronting a Soundgarden cover band.  Their bio on Spotify says that they broke up right after releasing their 1994 album Heroin Man, "one of the most distorted, red-lined, oddball noise rock records ever made." Well, they apparently got back together, as this album was released in 2015, and they are still vying for the crown of distortion and noise.  The top track on this album, with just under 18k listens on Spotify, is "Sandy on the Beach."

Sounds like a Nirvana b-side where Kurt let a mic tech sing the song for the demo and then they forgot to go put Kurt's vocals in later.  This track is actually pretty solid, but the effect of listening to this whole album is too much.  Something to be enjoyed in bite sized pieces, not as a full 43 minute long slog.