Quick Hits, Vol. 205 (Smashing Pumpkins, Imagine Dragons, Flatland Cavalry, Animals as Leaders)

The new video from Gary Clark Jr. is freaking amazing.  Blazing hot song, married to great imagery in the video.  Check it.

That "Fuck you, I'm America's son" line in the chorus gets me fired up.  I need to see this one done live.

Smashing Pumpkins - Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1.  Dammit.  What is the quote, about how you live long enough to see your heroes turn into villains or something?  Hahaha!  If it is what I am thinking of, its from the freaking Dark Knight: "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." I had no clue I was such a batman aficionado.  Anyway, you only need to go so far as the first song on this album, a turgid piano banger with the recurring sound of someone trying to sing with a mouthful of Listerine.  Blurg.  The second song has the most streams - "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)" with 3.7 million streams - and its OK, I'd rather they go harder than this milquetoast soft rock stuff.

They had video stuff with that guy at their concert in the fall - Mark McGrath, the lead singer from Sugar Ray, of all bands - and its super weird that he is some sort of special spokesperson for the band.  I'd say that "Solara" is the best thing on the album, and some of the others crank it up slightly.  But, nothing on this album stands out like a potential hit or something showing signs of future awesomeness, just a pile of mediocre filler songs that were likely cut from the Melancholy sessions.

Imagine Dragons - Origins.  I was trying to figure out how to quantify what it is that makes this band so truly, deeply horrible.  It is easy to point to the yelling chorus thing, where every hit involves the lead singer shifting up from his normal singing voice into a grating, chanting-kind of yell for the chorus.  YOU'RE A NAT-U-RAL!  NOW WE STANDIN' ON TOP OF THE WORLD!  IT'S WHERE MY DEMONS HIDE!  MAKE ME UH, MAKE ME UH, BELIEVEAAAH!  BELIEVAAH!  That is an easy source of annoyance.  Is it the fact that I love alternative rock type music, but this feels like a soulless, corporate reproduction intended to draw me in?  Yes, that is true.  And they bastardize the whole thing with all of these drum machines and snaps and coke bottle dinging, after they've drawn me in with the guitar chug.  Bastards.  Is it the chanting nature of so much of their music, as though they just want people to be prepared to holler it all at their next appearance at HOT 105.9's Summer Jam concert series?  Is it because they have a song that my kids love to sing that repeats the word thunder at least 300 times while simply repeating that lightning comes after thunder?  And that song makes me want to claw my ears out?  Is it the generic platitudes that are firmly seated in every inch of their lyrics, as though they found a BE STRONG lyric generator and just sang whatever it printed out?  I guess it is all of those things.

This album encapsulates all of those things, as well as one other that I didn't mention, which is that "Cool Out" and some of these other songs sounds just like a low rent Coldplay.  Which bums me out, because I loved Coldplay once, and conflating them with this yell-factory of mediocre fist pumpers sucks.  And "Digital" tries to be some sort of deep message presented in rap form over a terrible beat, and I hate that I've listened to this.  "Natural" is the hit from this one so far, with 264.5 million streams.  "Bad Liar" is trying to make a case for hit status as well, with just over 100 million streams right now.  But that latter song sounds like a shit ripoff of recent, bad Taylor Swift, so I'll make you hear "Natural" instead.

Can I just talk about the four guys in the band for a moment?  The lead singer is dressed like a cosplaying idiot from the Civil War.  The bassist is waaay to pumped up and dyed hair to be playing in a song that doesn't even appear to have a bass guitar used in it.  Same with the drummer, all sweaty and pained, when his beat is an exceedingly basic boom bap augmented by lots of electronics.  Only that strangely chilled guy on the acoustic guitar seems like an OK guy (even if he appears misplaced with this group of insanely pumped other guys).  Ugh.
Meanwhile, these dildos get picked to play the halftime for the National Championship game, and get a song on the Ralph Breaks the Internet soundtrack - so they keep worming their way into the world's consciousness.  Thankfully they haven't been added to any big music festival posters, so I don't have to worry about them infiltrating ACL.  Oh yeah, and this album sucks.

Flatland Cavalry - Humble Folks.  An in-law went and saw this band live a few weeks back and loved the show.  I had never heard of the band so I thought I'd check it out.  Pleasant enough Texas country stuff, in the vein of Pat Green.  In fact, the lead singer frequently sounds like Green.  "A Good Memory" is a good place to start to hear that similarity.  The hit on here is the one featuring the excellently named Kaitlin Butts.  Who is either an heir to the HEB fortune and therefore it makes sense that she kept that surname, or was hoping for the old Beavis and Butthead crowd to find her and push her into stardom, or has a fantastic seat.  I'm going to imagine it's number 2.  Huh huh, cool.  Butts.  Anyway, "A Life Where We Work Out" boasts 4.9 million streams, which is damn solid for a Texas country band I've never heard of.

Nice little tune - her voice is nice.  I've been through this album a few times, and if I were still in my Americana 4 Lyfe mindset from post-college, I'd probably hold on to this one, but as it is, I'm cool letting it go.

Animals As Leaders - The Madness of Many.  Where in the hell did this album come from?  Super intricate math metal stuff, like Les Claypool is doing his usual Primus bass freakout but with all of the instruments in the band.  No lyrics, all dense instrumentals.  So thick and chunky.  Meanwhile, the guitarwork and meandering solo pieces make me think of jam bands.  It's like Phish combined with Tool and Primus and fired their lead singer.  I actually kind of like it, even though it all feels a little insanity inducing.  The top streamer is "The Brain Dance" with 3.5 million streams.

Those nylon strings - makes it sound like you're about to hear a classical song, then everything else kicks in and it goes in all sorts of directions.  Also, that song is way more chill than many of these on the album, that go harder.  "The Brain Dance" is more like a Dave Matthews instrumental track...  Challenging album.  I do think that I like it, but its honestly melting my brain.