Quick Hits, Vol. 321 (King Princess, Bartees Strange, Noah Cyrus, Little Simz)

King Princess - Hold On Baby.  When this one started, I legitimately thought that it was a new St. Vincent song.  She came to ACL in 2019, and I remember liking her (although I didn't go to the show).  My one liner was: "Gritty pop music reminds me of cleaner Billie Eilish, dirtier Maggie Rogers."  "I Hate Myself, I Want to Party" and "For My Friends" are the two tracks that stick out to me as being really solid here.  But "Little Bother" has slightly more streams than "For My Friends," so I'll let you try that one on.  6.5 million streams.

Nice harmonies, kind of makes me think of Lucius.  "Let Us Die," the final song, is also a good one.  I'm surprising myself about this album, but I really enjoy it.

Bartees Strange - Farm to Table.  Really odd album, a mix of several sounds.  Like, "Mulholland Dr." makes me think of so many different things - Living Colour, Gary Clark Jr., 80's R&B ballads, an emo rock band - while also including some auto-tune voice effects.  I don't know what to do with it.  "Co-signs" is more of a straight rap soaked in Auto-tune.  Dude is weird in the first place, I remember reading a bio about him in Rolling Stone and his whole image is incongruous.  "Wretched" is the top track, and surprisingly it only has 1.3 million streams.  In my mind, this guy was blowing up in a major way.

Big ol' dude in overalls, looking like a Key and Peele sketch thing about hillbilly folk, and yet his voice is so nice.  And the song pops in like a dance party track after the slow intro.  Just all strangely mashed together.  Sort of makes me think of Khalid as well.  "Escape This Circus" starts like an introspective sing-songwriter thing, and then erupts into a blast of rock guitars.  You just never know what is next here.  Sometimes it makes me wonder if a different album has started.  Just like with his voice, swinging from falsetto to depth and back without much warning.  I think I actually like it, although its hard to say!

Noah Cyrus - The Hardest Part.  Hard to believe I am saying this, but I love this album.  Some of the songs in the middle don't hit quite so hard, but the start and end make up for those in spades.  Great songwriting, great vocals, nice instrumentation.  Just all-around great for me.  The acoustic version of "Unfinished" at the end is lovely.  "Noah (Stand Still)" is also lovely and really poignant.  To me, the killer track is "Mr. Percocet," with killer lyrics and a memorable tune.  Although it is the second-most streamed (loses to "I Burned L.A. Down," which is also good) that is the one I want you to hear.  14.4 million streams.

Hey overly pouty lips and fame always make me want to stay away from her, but the chorus of that song is just perfection.  "You're only kind when you're all fucked up, you're only mine until your high is gone."  You can feel the reality in those words.  And the line of "you are malevolent and benevolent" is a slick little turn of the tongue.  I just think this sounds slinky and interesting, which being lyrically solid.  Makes me wish I could have seen her ACL set last year (but she was against Wet Leg, so there was no chance).  Really good disc.  I know you are doubting me right now, but just try the first few songs and give it a chance.

Little Simz - NO THANK YOU.  I was super bummed last year when Simz announced that she couldn't go forward with her world tour because the costs were just too high.  I had wanted a chance to see her do this thing in person.  Hopefully, since I have seen her on a few festival posters, she'll head to Austin and throw it down.  She just has a great cadence to her flow, a confidence and tone that is really appealing to me.  She never gets loud, or excited, or over-the-top, she just cruises along over some relatively relaxed beats, telling stories and being imminently relatable.  The big track is the one I hear on the local radio every once in a while - "Gorilla" - with 8.5 million streams.

Those horns bust out like it's about to blow up, but then the beat slides in with a little wink and she starts off by citing Beenie Man.  That bopping little bass line and loopy violin bit is just excellent.  She just comes off as chill and fun and interesting.  I don't think she is saying anything much in that track (unlike some of the others where she rails against the music biz) but it just sounds so chill!  Good disc to just bob along to and enjoy.

Quick Hits, Vol. 323 (SINGLES! SO MANY SINGLES!)

The singles have been building up in my queue for a long time.  The first one of these was added to the queue in March 2022.  I've been way to concentrated on the full albums!  Well, today I fix some of that!  Come along for the ride!

• Silk Sonic - Love's Train.  These guys jam.  Cheesy as hell, but also slinky and smooth and funny, and played like champions by this band.  Just tight as a watchspring.
• Future - Worst Day.  I wish I liked Future more.  He has a few bangers, but this one just sounds depressing (which, yeah, it's name should have tipped me off) and I don't want to be depressed when banging out a rap song.
• HAIM - Lost Track.  Cute little toy piano and hand-claps makes me think of Wes Anderson. HAIM are great.
• Joey Bada$$ - Head High.  Super chilled rap track.  I like it.  Got some J Cole vibes, some nostalgic vibes about looking back and figuring out a way forward.
• Royal Blood - Honeybrains.  Word.  Back to the good stuff for these dudes, less of that synth heavy stuff.
• Freddie Gibbs - Ice Cream.  Short little nugget, but I still think Freddie Gibbs is an excellent rapper.  I'm kind of tired of the same-old-same-old from Rick Ross, who appears here, but this one gets me bobbing.
• Maggie Rogers - That's Where I Am.  First few times of hearing this on the radio, I was not on board.  Didn't like the overly electronic sound.  But then I caught myself singing it later and the power pop balladry has stuck in my head.  I know it is trite, but "even boulders turn into sand" is good.  I also really like the bridge.
• Lizzo - About Damn Time.  She just has something in her brain that knows how to make earworm bangers.  So great for Lizzo to exist and just pop out another Chic-influenced bop.  So fun.
• Phoebe Bridgers - Sidelines.  Did you watch that show Shrinking?  Great show.  My wife and I loved it.  But there was a scene that has stuck in my head and made me laugh ever since.  The Dad is told that he can maybe feel better about a sad situation if he listens to a very sad song and just bawls his eyes out, and he picks Bridgers' "I Know The End," and as he's riding his bike jamming the song and bawling, he yells out "FUCK YOU PHEOBE BRIDGERS!" twice.  Freaking great.  Anyway, this is not that song, but it is another than just seeps into your bones with emotion.  I don't know how she does it, but she really knows how to create a mood and smother you with it.  I love her music so much, even if it makes me bummed half the time.  This one just poignantly dives into the feeling of finding love and fearing its loss.
• 100 gecs - Doritos and Fritos.  I hate this song so much.  I had read a thing about how the youth love this band, but this is just garbage.
• Megan Thee Stallion - Plan B.  Classic beat, and some hard disses to the dude she is eating Plan B because of.  Love the turn of the tables against so many of the dude tracks talking shit about ladies.
• Paerish - Stick to Silence.  I know that no one knows this band, and I can't recall how I came across them, but they freaking jam.  One of their albums from years ago was in constant rotation for me for so long.  Still can't believe they are French - you can't detect the accent at all.
• Logic - Tetris.  I like Logic way more than I intellectually think I should.  No one ever talks about Logic, he's never on a list of top rappers, but for whatever reason I'm usually in on anything he releases.  This one is just a free-flowing freestyle poured out all over a chill breakbeat.  Because he mentions it like 10 times, I guess this is a JDilla beat.
• A$AP Rocky - D.M.B.  I've mentioned before how Rocky felt like one of the best rappers of all time on that first mix-tape, but it feels like he gets less and less vital as he goes.
• My Chemical Romance - The Foundations of Decay.  Always with the melodramatic song names... this one has some of the usual emotive power and propulsive rock as their best stuff, but also feels a little plodding.  I need them to speed it up or tap into a better chorus.  it's also 6 freaking minutes.  That being said, I'd still go see them live in a heartbeat if they came through.
• Notorious B.I.G. - G.O.A.T.  Yeah, I know he's dead.  I dunno man.  This is the future, just rehashing things by dead people forever.  They just took his verses from an old song, slapped them into this new song, and I guess made money?  Not good.
• Logic - Vinyl Days.  Great beat, spinning a little violin sample over some good drums.  Wish he did more with the lyrics on it.  Just a bragging freestyle about how cool he is.
• Taylor Swift - Carolina.  This was the tune for that Where the Crawdads Sing movie.  Great book, you could literally feel the grime and stickiness that she lived through.  The movie was a little too clean for my tastes, but was still good.  This tune perfectly matches the vibe though.
• Kevin Gates - Bad For Me.  Another good one from him, I just like his sound.  Although not so sure I like the whole choking her during sex thing.
• Gorillaz - Cracker Island. I really dislike this one.  Under my skin for some reason.  Although I still laugh about someone calling the brotilla in Lady Bird Lake the Cracker Island.
• Eminem (feat. Snoop) - From the D 2 The LBC.  Yawn.  Eminem's verse is actually pretty cool, just the usual non-stop spraying of rhymes and freeform association.  Snoops verse is boring as hell though.
• Djo - Change.  The Stranger Things guy, who was supposed to come to ACL and then bailed on us.  When this song has popped up in the queue, I always thing it is the start of a Two Door Cinema Club album.  Which seems like a compliment.
• Brandi Carlile - You and Me on the Rock.  Lovely song.  Sounds a little like a classic Indigo Girls tune, just a perfectly wrought little love song.  Truly makes me want to buy my little abandoned house in the Japanese countryside and talk Amy into leaving everything behind to go live without any of this mess.
• Bjork - Atopos.  Freaking Bjork, man.  Debut and Post were the bomb diggity.  The more recent stuff just feels like a test to see if someone will actually subject themselves to it.  Aggro drum machine and bassoon!  Let's Go!
• Hozier - Swan Upon Leda.  Soft little atmospheric tune.  Pretty, if forgettable.
• First Aid Kit - Turning Onto You.  Another nice set of harmonies and 70's a.m. gold vibe.  Dig it.
• bling-182 - EDGING.  I'd like to yell at them about the need to just grow up already, but really, who needs to grow up.  Not a great song, but we can always use another bratty group of 50 year olds joking about sex in a church.  But I'd definitely say that I don't need to see them when they come back to town.  Just feels sad in a way it wouldn't to see other old bands.
• Zach Bryan - Starved.  Builds up in an interesting way from a quiet acoustic strummer to a hollering, bashing tune.  Not his best stuff, even though that line "there ain't no world in which I am good for you" is a solid one for the crowd to yell with him at a show.
• Mom Rock - Dishes.  Yeah baby, this song jams.  Each time it has come up among other albums in the New stuff playlist, I've enjoyed it.  Yummy indie rock jammer.
• Mom Rock - Grand Romantic Life.  This one is a little more kitschy, but it also rules.  Just a fun blast of over-the-top showtune-ass rock and roll.  I dig these guys.
• A$AP Rocky - Shittin' Me.  Better than that earlier one, just because the beat is brawny and fun.  Still, he's got nothing in his lyrics.
• Bizzy Banks - Don't Start Pt.2.  This is some sort of new style of rap that Rolling Stone told me I needed to check out.  Just sounds like boring stuff I've heard before, don't hear anything special.
• Parker McCollum - Stoned.  Surprisingly confessional tune for a young country star.  I don't know much about him, but I know some high school dudes who think he rules.  Pretty good song, actually.
• Zach Bryan (feat. Maggie Rogers) - Dawns.  Good pairing here.  They sound good together.  I'll also say though that he played this song live the other night, and it sounded significantly better than he does on this recording.  He's a little uneven and rough in this studio version, and the violins are weird.  He can do this one better, as that line of "give me my dogs back" was a great one to yell along to.
• Dave Matthews Band - Madman's Eyes.  I wonder what it is about DMB that makes them want to re-do this sort of middle east influenced thing over and over.  I feel like this is just a rehash.
• Beabadoobee - Glue Song.  Her voice rules on this track - its overly cutesy sounding, but it really matches the tone of the track itself.
• Bully (feat. Soccer Mommy) - Lose You.  Jam.  Really good rock and roll tune, dig the drumming and the fuzzed out guitar.
• The Revivalists - Kid.  Solid, not a ready-made hit, but catchy and fun.  I frequently listen for the pedal steel in their songs, just because it is the thing that makes them different, but it is frequently really hard to hear it.  Hope they'll be at ACL!
• Larry June - 60 Days.  Cool ass track - just a chill beat and a smooth delivery over the top.
• Lizzo - Special.  Not as exciting as her fun bangers, this one is more R&B.  Meh.
• Gracie Abrams - Amelie.  JJ Abrams' daughter, folks!  I want to like her, the Rolling Stone review I read about her was great and made her seem very likeable, but this just doesn't sound like anything special at all.  My daughters saw her open for Taylor Swift last night and were similarly non-impressed.
• Beck - Thinking About You.  Nice tune.  Not quite as atmospheric and singular as those Sea Change or Morning Phase songs, but a pretty little acoustic love song nonetheless.
• Tame Impala - Wings of Time.  Funny thing is, this sounds a lot like an old tune from InnerSpeaker.  At least that driving drumming really brings to mind one of those tracks - maybe "Alter Ego" is what I am thinking of?  Anyway, nothing special for me in this track, although it sounds like something that some cosplaying dudes might want to jam.
• Home Free - Sea Shanty Melody.  Do you ever have people suggest a song to you and then want to stand there and watch you listen to it?  Brutal.  A family member was shocked that I was not familiar with Home Free, and then proceeded to bring up the video of them performing Man of Constant Sorrow.  It is actually pretty wild - dudes can sing, and they make insane noises out of their faceholes.  Anyway, I saved this one to my queue because it is their top song.  Like Glee for pirates.
• Militarie Gun - Very High.  Sweet!  This one just came to me from a playlist I found by Brooklyn Vegan, and its a tasty little nugget!
• Killer Mike - Don't Let The Devil.  Just from the first few seconds, this one sounds so freaking good.  Like, the beat kicks in and Mike just starts literally flowing along with it like a fish being buoyed by the waves.  Sounds so freaking dope.  Also, how you going to have El-P show up on a solo album track?  How is this not a RTJ track?  Feeling it for sure.
• Family Dinner - Revenge Dress.  Chugging good time, joining the ranks of a handful of other ladies making kiss-off rock right now.
• Foo Fighters - Rescued.  Man, I'm glad that they are still up for making new music.  I was really worried that they would just retire to live off of their riches after Taylor Hawkins died.  Another song with inscrutable lyrics - you can try to read something into it about Hawkins - "I'm just waiting to be rescued, bring me back to life" or "I fell in a trap, my heart's getting colder."  Or the opening: "It came in a flash, It came out of nowhere, It happened so fast, And then it was over, Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Is this happening now? Oh, Are you feeling what I'm feeling? This is happening now."  I could see that being about losing Hawkins out of no where and them struggling with their feelings.  But, another good, bashing, howling rock song.  I dig the way it all kicks in at the start - this sounds like some classic Foos.  I'll take it.

The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field / The Beths - March 10, 2023 - Scoot Inn

If you read my blog regularly - thanks to you wonderful few! - then you know that I rarely take the time to write a post that is solely about one album.  But this one gets that treatment.  And because I also need to write up the show I just saw with them, we'll just tuck it all together into one package.

I freaking love the Beths.  My wife just recently accused me of a crush, but it isn't just Liz Stokes who I am enamored with, it is the entire group and what I feel when I hear these songs.  She walked into the living room last Sunday to find me watching their tiny desk show on the TV through YouTube, and was like "it is so weird that you are just sitting here intently watching this woman sing."  But I wasn't just watching her.  The whole band has this wonderfully lovely innocence about them, a joy for the music along with a naivety about acting cool on stage or trying too hard.  I find it all endearing, and on top of that their music freaking jams.

So, first let's talk about the concert.  That is the third time I have gotten to see them play live, and I am seriously contemplating buying tickets to see Death Cab in August just so that I can see The Beths open for them.  It helps that I think their first album is their best, and then also love the most recent one, so that whether they are going deep in the catalog or reeling off new tunes, I am pretty happy either way.  But their versions of old tunes like "Future Me Hates Me," "You Wouldn't Like Me," "River Run" and "I'm Not Getting Excited" made me want to run through a brick wall of excitement.  I listen to those tunes over and over, and so to hear them crisply done by the live band is so very exciting.  And then to hear the new tunes again was also badass.  The radio has been playing "Silence is Golden" and so it has lodged into my head in a new way that made it even more exciting to yell along to it in a crowd.

I was supposed to see them play during the pandemic, which of course got shoved off.  So I watched a few live-stream things that were not nearly as good as a real live show.  So glad we are back to real live music!

On top of the great tunes, they also do a great job of minor joking and playful banter among themselves.  I've now heard about the bassist's travel blog three different times.  Keeps things light and clever versus some straight-forward, no-frills show.

As for the album, I also love it.  After the initial streams of it, I thought that I still liked Future Me Hates Me more, but after many more streams, this one could be better.  It runs a really fine line of being legitimately rocking and then tenderly tuneful.  Bright, sugary, poppy, fun, but also with the edge of real guitars and rhythm section.  You get something that sounds like an old REM driving song, like "Head in the Clouds," to something that pummels you a little bit like "Silence is Golden," to a lovely, harmonic love song like "Your Side."  Also, when she Liz sings "you know" over and over in "When You Know You Know," I can't help but love the way she pronounces the word "know."  "A Passing Rain" builds and throws chugging guitar and fuzzy rips at you in a purely happy way as well.

And lyrically, its top notch at times as well.  The lyrics to the title track - Expert in a Dying Field - start like this: "Can we erase our history, Is it as easy as this, Plausible deniability, I swear I've never heard of it, And I can close the door on us, But the room still exists, And I know you're in it."  Several of the songs dive right in to that - the breakup, the longing, the sadness.  "Love is learned over time, 'til you're an expert in a dying field."  Clever and cool as hell.  And on top of the band being very good with their respective instruments, you get great harmonies from them underneath Liz.  Tracks like "Best Left" or "Change in the Weather" exemplify their skills.

The album, regrettably, shows the lack of popularity with the wider world.  Some dumb Juice Wrld track gets a billion streams and yet these guys pour their hearts out and can barely muster a million.  The first three songs are generally the hits, and each has more than a million streams.  Then the second place track is "When You Know You Know," which I think ought to be the one you hear.  1.8 million streams.

"running down the road to job the memory, like tit for tat, that is you for me."  Just a clever little turn of phrase that feels simple and yet perfect.

I feel like you should listen to the album right now, with the lyrics printed out and in hand, and you'll feel it much more deeply than I did the first few listens.  Like, the imagery of Stokes only wading ankle deep into the waters on "Knees Deep," as she wrestles with her fear and admiration for the bold.  it's so good.

Top notch.  You should do what you can to enjoy them when you can.  My pure desire is that they could get added to ACL lineup, even though they'll be playing in Austin in August.  They can't cost that much!  Just make it happen!

Quick Hits, Vol. 320 (Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin, Nas, Billy Strings, Mount Westmore)

Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin - Ali.  All-star band name for having to check the spelling repeatedly as I type.  Damn!  I was joking to myself, in the car, the other day that KUTX's playlist is just Khruangbin in different iterations.  By themselves, with Leon Bridges, with Toure, probably with like Megan Thee Stallion and Dolly Parton.  But, this one has a completely different style than the collaborations with someone like Leon.  Toure is a Malian guitarist, the son of another famous Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure (thus the album name, because this is a set of his dad's tunes).  And so the funky worldiness of Khruangbin gets a boost from the African sounds of Toure to make a really nice combination.  It is a chill gem of long grooves and relaxed funk.  The top track is the opener, but I'm going to give you second place because it is on the radio a lot around here.  "Diarabi" has 4.9 million streams.

Would be dope as hell with a cool rapper freestyling over the top of that.  No clue what he is saying in the lyrics, but the smoothness of the overall track is cool as hell.  Now just set Kendrick loose over the top to talk about his childhood and we're cooking with gas.  Good disc.

Nas - King's Disease III.  I keep going back to Nas.  Every time he releases an album, I am there, hoping that it is Illmatic all over again, and each time it feels more like a slog.  Not that this album is awful - it whips ass when compared to some of the new rappers who don't have HitBoy making them beats and who don't know how to rhyme or flow without just copying the newest, hottest sound around them.  Nas can flow all day, and you can understand what he is saying, and his beat selection is sweet.  But in the past Nas albums seemed like an event that needed to be attended if you were a rap fan.  Now, he's been relegated to the back burner, even though he still sounds pretty solid.  BUT, I will say that I reviewed his last two King's Disease discs, and I didn't love them.  I said this about #2: "I don't love anything on this one.  It's fine - good sample-based beats, his smooth flow over the top, a few good cameos (EPMD, Eminem, Lauryn Hill) - but each time I fire it up it feels like a chore."  And this to say about #1: "Nothing on here is terribly memorable, no need to save it."  So, I am pleased to report that this one is markedly better than those two.  "Michael & Quincy" is the top track, which I find kind of funny, since as I started to write this post, that was the song I had noted as maybe being my least favorite.  Shows you what I know!  5.9 million streams.

My reason for liking it less is for sure the beat.  The story-telling is good and some of the references are clever, and the beat gets better when it switches a little more than half-way through.  But there are definitely better tracks on this disc.

A quick aside.  I was reading commentary the other day that mentioned a theory that Jay-Z was responsible for the death of rap writing.  Apparently, "every story about Jay confirms that he hears a beat he likes and goes into this Rain Man–like trance in the studio and comes out with a mostly done verse or chorus. He doesn’t write anything down."  And so the theory is that people wanted to be like Jay-Z, he bragged about being so good that he didn't have to write down his raps, and so it became uncool to write down your raps.  WHICH IS HORRIBLE.  So many modern rappers really need to sit down with a pen and paper and spend the time to come up with something good to say.  Damn you, Jay-Z.  I bring that up, in part, because I think Nas takes the time to write, and edit, and improve.  Which is why he can weave good stories and say something worthwhile.

"Legit" has a great beat - sounds like something Kanye could have used in his early days.  Piano licks, bass, drummer getting some.  Very head-bobbable.  Several more tracks with cool strings, or call backs to other old rap tracks, or __.  Of course, as with many rap projects these days, this one is too long.  17 songs and almost an hour makes it feel like it is just going forever.  And because this one doesn't have any guests (unlike the last disc), you end up without any other rapper's flow to change stuff up.  But, even with the length complaint, I think this album is better than the last few.

Billy Strings - Me / And / Dad.  If you know me, then you know I freaking dig Strings.  His live shows are a revelation and his recorded tunes are usually solid as well.  This one is medium to me.  Still has some guitar fireworks and the classic bluegrass stylings, but it leans a little too hard on the traditional without feeling as new and special as the old Billy stuff.  Now, I know that part of this was him working out some old issues with his Dad and putting him on a record, but still, I would have liked to hear more of the cool stuff that made Strings stand out from the pure bluegrass traditionalists.  Like, the second tune, "Life to Go," definitely sounds like some dusty old classic performed by a cover band.  "Peartree" is a nice instrumental.  "John Deere Tractor" is memorable just because of the imagery of a full-sized tractor trying to work on a half-acre field.  This is an album where the first song has the most streams, because people checked it out and then moved along.  That tractor song gets second place though, so we'll go with that one.  807k streams.

Nice tune.  I want more of the jam band stuff in this album - part of the fun of Billy is how he bridged the worlds of bluegrass and jam bands in a rad way.  But that is not this album, this thing is just straight bluegrass with his dad's less-than-great voice on it.  "Dig a Little Deeper" is pretty good.  It isn't bad by any means, but I guess I just hope for something more transcendent from this guy.  I'll probably let it go and just hope for the next one.

Mount Westmore - Snoop Cube 40 $hort.  I know that this may not be popular among the rap heads of the world, of which I am decidedly not allowed to be a part of, but is E-40 really part of the Mount Rushmore of Westcoast Rap?  I think Too $hort is iconic, so I'll allow it.  But off the top of my head, it seems like Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, or Ice T are old-school classics who should have been named first, and dudes like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, or even YG would make more sense.  Just creates an immediate weird feeling about the album that they are claiming the Mount title for someone who doesn't belong.  Imagine if they had replaced Short and 40 with Dre and T?  That would have been pretty rad.  As for the actual album itself, mediocre.  I am a huge Cube lover, but his writing has been off the tracks ever since he became a movie star.  No more perfectly crafted ghetto tales or political bangers, now it is more likely for him to just rap something lame about how hard it is for some lady to put on her jeans?  It's like a whole, long rap, about how great and huge this lady's ass is and how difficult it is for her to get dressed.  Just not good and a really long way away from "Fuck tha Police" or "Steady Mobbin'."  Zero love on the streaming service, as the top track has 4.1 million streams and many of these tracks have less than a million.  "Free Game" is that top track.

That video made me giggle at the start - 40's binoculars just wrote "ARMED GUARDS" at the top of the screen.  So jenky.  And Ice Cube doing his trademark scowl as Snoop is whisper-singing the words "free game" is so lame looking.  This just seems silly.  It also sounds like they are saying "freak out," not "free game."  This one can go...

Quick Hits, Vol. 319 (Say Sue Me, Elijah Wolf, YG, Alvvays)

Say Sue Me - 10.  This is an odd one - a Korean band who sounds like they should be a California surf rock band.  Sounds like Alvvays or Best Coast - something in that vein with a fuzzy, shoegazey guitar-driven rock sound and a demure female vocalist over the top.  No clue where I found this, but their Spotify bio says that The Beths are fans, which is enough of a selling point for me.  It has a nice purity to it that is really appealing.  Top track is the first one - I suspect that people are trying it out and then moving on - this is "Season of the Shark," with 93k streams.

Almost an 80's vibe in there, not something I can put my finger on, but maybe it is the bassline that sort of sounds like Psychedelic Furrs or The Cure or something.  Just a pretty song, feels head-noddingly poppy while also feeling longing.  I don't know where the band name came from, I'm guessing it relates to the singer's name being Sumi, but I couldn't figure it out in 30 seconds of research.  Good stuff!

Elijah Wolf - Brighter Lightning.  This dude was a late add to the ACL poster last year, and so I gave him a shot and came away impressed.  It is a quieter style of rock and roll - I hear echoes of George Harrison, The Black Keys, and Jose Gonzalez at different times throughout this disc.  It is really enjoyable stuff.  It is almost 100% under-the-radar too, as none of the tunes on here have more than 100k streams.  "The Point of Trying" sounds like The War on Drugs.  "Brighter Lightning" sort of sounds like Conor Oberst.  But the top track on here is one that pulls out a lot of the Harrison guitar moves.  "Like This, Anymore," has 78k streams.

Dig it.  I think this whole album is really well-done and pleasant to listen to.  I could dig adding some of these into playlists to enjoy for a long time.

YG - I GOT ISSUES.  There was a time when I thought YG had something to say, but that time is long gone.  This album is boring and uninteresting and entirely forgettable.  It has rotated through my queue a handful of times by now, and each time I just want it to be over so I can hear something better.  Boring beats.  Boring flow.  Boring lyrics.  The top track is one featuring J Cole and Moneybagg Yo, called "Scared Money."  56.7 million streams.

Yaaaawn.  "Half-a-Milly on my neck" is so boring.  Definitely a better track than some of these, but its not because of the lyrics.  Nopedy nope to this one.

Alvvays - Blue Rev.  I have always enjoyed me some Alvvays.  Such bright and sunny pop rock that always makes me pleased.  That "Archie, Marry Me" tune is lovely greatness.  So this one doesn't seem to have any immediate ear worm bangers like that one, but it still sounds really nice.  Loads of fuzzed up guitars and soaring vocals.  The first song gets the most streams, but I vote we go deeper because I think it is just people checking out the album and then moving on.  The second-place streamer is "After the Earthquake," with 5.8 million streams.

Twigs all of my pleasure centers in my brain.  80's vibes for sure, especially when the chorus kicks in.  Seems like I'm hearing the 80's in all of the indie pop rock today!  I wonder why.  The abrupt switch in the middle to the quiet synth bit it very weird in that tune though.  You're cruising along and enjoying the soaring joy of the tune, and then you just suddenly get wrapped in bubbles for 20 seconds.  Another solid disc.

Quick Hits, Vol. 318 (Starcrawler, Ryley Walker, Freddie Gibbs, Nikki Lane)

Starcrawler - She Said.  Relatively generic rock and roll, but I am enjoying it each time it runs back by in the queue.  Also, loving the runtime.  Just a tight set of ten good songs that clocks in right over 30 minutes.  No fluff, just a selection of bangers to fill it up.  The album is hilariously perfect in streaming numbers, so that you can easily tell that people don't much like it.  The first song is the only one with more than a million, and then it almost perfectly drops off in streaming numbers with each song.  You can practically see the lack of interest.  I really liked their song "I Love LA" from a few years ago, and this stays in that same lane.  Heavy-ish rock and roll, but never too hard.  I'm not going to give you the first one, despite it being the most popular, but will throw you song three.  "Stranded" has 273k streams.

Gives you just what was advertised, right?  Guitar rock.  Fine bass.  Fine drums.  Fine vocals.  Nothing especially special or memorable, but still pretty fun to rock out to.  But with the dearth of legit rock and roll in the world these days, I'll take it.

Ryley Walker - Deafman Glance.  I still have no clue how this dude ended up being the opening act for Dinosaur Jr a few months ago.  Their music styles couldn't be more different.  But you know what?  I freaking DIG this album.  Very chilled out stoner tunes - slow and spacey and radiant.  Some Dead vibes, but less countrified than the Dead.  Every time the first song kicks in, it just makes me want to stop what I am doing and let the music wash over me like a warm blanket.  "Can't Ask Why" rips it up a little bit, with more splashy, fuzzy guitar licks, but even that still maintains the stoner groove vibe.  "Telluride Speed" totally sounds like something they'd be listening to in the Brewery in Telluride.  "Rocks on Rainbow" is the top streamer at 3.2 million.

Has a little Mac Demarco vibe to it, keeping it both simple and lush at the same time.  Makes me feel warm inside.  Tight little 1:45 of lovely picking.  Really enjoyable album.

Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old $eperately.  I said this last time when he came to ACL - he was for sure the best actual rapper on the poster.  He's not as exciting as many of the guys who will get higher billing at the festivals, but if you are just looking for a bar-for-bar dude, this guy punches above his weight.  This album is weird, in that it is some sort of thematic thing with him checking in to a hotel or something, and his reps are mad at him, and Joe Rogan brought him some bulletproof underwear and drugs, and other odd bits and bobs.  But regardless of all of that weirdness, the beats are solid and the verses are good.  I keep starting it over and finding myself just bobbing my head, enjoying the flow.  He has a bunch of good cameos in here, from Offset to Rick Ross to Anderson.Paak to Raekwon to Pusha T to Scarface.  Pretty solid list.  And yet, the top track is buried in the middle of the disc and has no features.  Just Freddie throwing down over a sad beat.  "Dark Hearted," with 7.3 million streams.

My man definitely loves himself some rabbits.  "Pray the chopper never jam on me."  Good tune.  The one with Paak and Raekwon is really good too, as the is the opener with Kelly Rowland.  Just solid up and down on this disc.  I don't really hear a pure hit that would cross-over to the radio, but the whole thing hits for me.

Nikki Lane - Denim and Diamonds.  She is coming to that Two Step Inn festival in Austin in a few weeks, and so I found this album while listening to those bands.  This is freaking good.  The opener, "First High," is like a Black Keys song and it rips.  I really like that one a lot.  The title track is also a great tune, fuzzy guitar licks and attitude ripping through her vocals.  "Black Widow" is cool too.  I don't see this as country at all, sounds more like classic rock to me.  Top track is that first song, with just over 2 million streams.

Bass line is a winner, and the devil-may-care power of the lyrics and vocals freaking rules.  Gotta bob the head and prepare to punch the sky.  Freaking great.  The whole disc is tasty.

ACL 2021: I have no clue how to do this

Haha - I was going back through drafts and just cleaning things up before the 2023 writing project begins, and came across this.  No clue why I never published it in the first place.  Welcome back to the weirdness of 2021!!!

Howdy team!  Welcome back from a year+ of weirdness, and no concerts, and few albums, and trying to decide whether live streams are okay or if they suck.  As far as I can tell, ACL will go on as planned in October.  But how do I do my usual inspection of artists to figure out who might be coming along to the Fest?  I'd usually look at major album releases, but a ton of artists pushed off their album releases because of the virus.  I'd usually look at the big tours, but all of those evaporated last year.  I'd usually look at other Festival lineups, but most of those are either retreads of recent ACL lineups (like Firefly, with Billie Eilish, The Strokes, Tame Impala, and Lizzo as their top four, or Bonnaroo, with Lizzo, Foo Fighters, Tame Impala, and Tyler, the Creator (?!?!) as their top four) or are now slated to happen when ACL is happening (New Orleans Jazz Fest, Outside Lands, and a lot of other smaller ones).  Coachella might have just bagged it for the year - they had been scheduled for dates in 2021 but now the web says looking like 2022.  And when Lolla's lineup comes out, that is usually a good indicator of what we have coming.  But despite their dates being at the end of July, still no lineup announcement from our friends in Chicago.  I'll sometimes scour radio playlists, or Shazam data, or dig into all sorts of other nooks and crannies to find stuff that might be coming along.  But everything is messed up!

So, what are we going to do?  I think I'll try to put together two guess posts - one about tours, because some people are touring again, and one based on mega artists.  I was having a discussion with a friend the other day about ACL this year, and my gut feeling is that we'll get something really big this year.  If most tours are limited, or waiting, or otherwise weird, this is the perfect time to hit up someone big who doesn't necessarily tour anymore, or someone who has seemed too big for ACL in the past.  Taylor.  Bruce.  The Stones.  Madonna.  Dear God, please let it be, an R.E.M. reunion.  I've done some thoughts like that in the past, but this year feels like a good one to revive that line of thought.

Let's dig into it, and hope that the shows go on!

Predicting ACL 2023: Artificial Intelligence edition

We are getting dangerously close to the big announcement day!  I'm excited, as always, because no matter how many people act disappointed and let down by the lineup, there are ALWAYS gems and good bits and pieces that will make for a super-fun weekend of music.

You might know that I enjoy predicting the lineup!  And a new thought I had the other day was to see if ChatGPT could figure out the lineup for me.  I haven't played all that much with the AI text chat function stuff, mainly just goofed around with it for an afternoon at work to write a happy hour e-mail that included a Willie Nelson Christmas song (that was surprisingly solid!).  But, if I understand what this thing can do, I ought to be able to feed it some parameters - bands currently on tour, no shows between October 6 and October 15, but more shows after October 15, and get a list of probable bands.  Right?  Makes sense in my head at least.

I did that by hand one time, except I was just hunting for bands that played in nearby places during the week in between our weekends.  Like the Chili's playing Mexico City the Wednesday between the weekends, or something.  I just tried that again, and see Shania Twain playing San Antonio on Thursday, October 12 (but I already predicted her!), Chris Stapleton playing in Corpus on the same night (I already said he would not come back yet).  Hmmm.  Sting plays a show in Rogers, AR on 10/12...  But otherwise a lot of weird stuff - will All American Rejects be here?  Pile?  Snarky Puppy? Rina Sawayama? Avenged Sevenfold? Sorta doubt it.

Sadly, I don't think the technology is ready for this project yet (although it really feels perfect).  Just seems like sending the robots out to scour all of the websites and tour announcements for me would be pretty simple, but maybe not.  ChatGPT gave me a massively mealy-mouthed response that pretty much told me to go do the work myself.  Do you remember that scene from Willy Wonka?  I loved that movie as a kid.  

As he starts to sweat, it always cracked me up.  But yes, pretty much the ChatGPT told me how to do it by hand: "As a language model, I don't have access to real-time information on current tours and concerts, but I can suggest some approaches you can take to find this information. [which is bullshit, if you can access the Internet, then can't you see the current information?] ... Another option is to use a search engine to look up the tour schedules for individual bands or artists. You can search for the band or artist's name along with keywords such as "tour dates" or "concert schedule" to find relevant information. Once you have a list of bands that do not have concerts scheduled for the relevant dates, you can check their upcoming tour schedules to see if they have any shows scheduled after October 15."  Oh, no shit?  Really?  Awesome. 

So, I tried using Bing's AI chat function, and it at least tried to answer the question.  Not sure if this is worth a damn, but I just wanted to play along anyway because maybe the AI will be so good next year that I can go back and laugh at how bad it was this year.  Here is the list:

• Coldplay.  Definitely got the question wrong, as I said that the band had to be on tour in the U.S. right now.  The Coldplay website shows them as being on tour starting May 17, and in Portugal to kick off.  BUT, they come back to the U.S. at the end of September and their last published show is October 1 in L.A.  Sooooo, they could definitely be waiting to announce a pair of shows in Austin at the start of October.  Funny thing, my older sister really hates Coldplay.  I think that is funny because I think they are great and can't imagine hating them.  Sure, why not!?  I've probably predicted that they would come thirty times and it has always been wrong.  Burn me again, boys!
• Elton John.  Yeah, Bing, my dude is also not on tour in the US right now.  Dork.  His tour ends in July in South Africa, and he already came through the US on this tour, so I don't see it happening.  No.
• Bruno Mars.  I don't think he is really on tour, looks like doing a residency in Vegas, and then a few other shows.  The last item on his calendar is Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville, KY on Sept. 17.  That website is powered by Front Gate Tickets, just like ACL's, so I guess there could be a connection there.  Although, like Coldplay, Mars has nothing else announced after that 9/17 date, and part of my input to the AI was to tell it that they needed to have shows announced after the October gap for ACL.  Stupid machine.  This doesn't feel awful as a potential headliner, even if I don't think he has any new music.  Still just the rad Silk Sonic disc.  Seems possible, but I'm not going to predict it yet.
• Maroon 5.  Gross.  [Michael Scott face gif]  Are they really still touring?  WHY WONT YOU DIE?  Their tour is in Europe this summer (nothing right now, dumbass Bing) and then a Vegas residency until a Fest in Brazil on Sept. 7.  I know ACL has gotten more poppy over time, but please just no.
• Guns N’ Roses.  No.  I see no reason to bring them back again.  Also, freaking Bing, you suck.  They have shows on the dates I said they couldn't!  Houston on Sept. 28, so that would seem promising, except they also play PowerTrip in CA the weekend of 10/6 to 10/8.  Literally I told Bing those dates had to be empty!  Idiot!
• Katy Perry.  Okay, then maybe this is all just dumb.  She is not on tour.  She is doing a Vegas residency, and it includes shows on 10/6, 10/7, 10/13, and 10/14.  Bing still sucks, folks!  Don't buy in to the hype!
• KISS.  I'm not checking the rest of these.  Bing is a moron.
• Rod Stewart
• Taylor Swift
• Iron Maiden.  Also at PowerTrip!  Dummy!
• Rammstein
• Def Leppard
• Billy Joel
• Imagine Dragons
• Ed Sheeran
• Sting.  What?  This popped up above in my short-lived by-hand research.  I love classic Sting.  But no, he plays Austin on 9/17 at the Moody Center.
• The Weeknd
• Snoop Dogg
• Eric Clapton
• Scorpions

This really could have been awesome.  Like, you would think that the AI stuff could work this way: a program to scrape the available information on the Internet about concert schedules, aggregate it into one database/list, and then apply queries to it.  That would be too much to do by hand, but it seems like using the computer overlords to handle it would have worked well!  Oh well.  Just to be stubborn, I'll predict Coldplay again [Charlie Brown missing the football gif]

Two Step Inn 2023: Post-Mortem Thoughts

Yeeeeehaw!  Had some good times in the Georgetown dust bowl this last weekend!  I wasn't able to go see nearly as much as I had wanted to, but we still had some good fun and laughs at the old school country action on display.

• I would definitely go back to this Festival again.  Overall, a blast.
• Zach Bryan was absolutely amazing.  Like, I get the hype on the kid now.  He pumped up the crowd and seemed genuinely in to the party that was happening.  The crowd was PSYCHED to see him, and yelled along with every word.  I loved it, especially the encore version of "Revival" that took like 20 minutes and seemed like an old time hootenanny jam session (even including dumb ass Joe Rogan wandering on stage).
• Other highlights for me were Pam Tillis, Clay Walker, and Tracy Byrd.  Byrd has a ton of good songs!  I had forgotten him.  I teared up during Clay Walker while thinking about good old Tate.
• Lowlights for me were Lonestar, Wynonna Judd, and Tyler Childers.  Lonestar were just lame - they must have kept all the hits for the end of the show because the first half hour was boring.  Judd was entertaining, and her voice is great, but I realized that I literally do not know her music at all, and no one around me seemed to know it either, which just made for a mediocre show.  Childers was very good, I would have enjoyed that show at 2 in the afternoon while lying on a blanket and chatting with friends.  But after seeing Bryan crush it the night before, the stark difference in their styles made it seem really boring for Childers to just walk out and start playing music.  No fanfare, no chatter (he did announce his band, but it had no fire), he just got after it, glaring at the crowd while wearing Satan's jacket.
• The lineup was dope.  Well, at least for me, it was amazing.  
• But I'll tell you that from chatting with other folks around me, I think the lineup crossed a pretty large line that normal people do not straddle.  The old school, classic-country folks who were here to see Lonestar and John Michael Montgomery were not on board with the headliners, who are more new-school guys who don't do the cheesy classic stuff.  One guy next to me was trying to figure out if Zach Bryan was Luke Bryan or Zac Brown, and was confused when people kept saying a third, unknown guy.  Meanwhile, the folks who were there to see Childers and Bryan were rabidly in support of those guys and gave zero shits about the old school guys.  We stood with some 20-somethings in the crowd for Wynonna, as the massed jammed in there for Childers, and one of them literally was like "who the fuck are all of these other things?"  I asked him if he liked Clay Walker, and he was like, "I don't know what that means."  I said the guy right before Judd, and he was like, "oh yeah, that sucked."
• Entry to the Fest was stupid easy (although, more on that later).
• Food options were great!
• Drink options were even better - they actually served cocktails along with the beer and wine.  Way better than the ACL Bar tents that only serve beer and wine.
• The park itself was really neat - lots of big rocks you could sit on, picnic tables with umbrellas here and there, and they even put out some little dance floors in the way back of at least one of the stages.  I thought that was a cool add-on.
• The weather.  Holy crap, the weather was amazing on Sunday.  Just the absolute best Festival weather ever with pure sunshine and temps that were cool enough to be conformable all day long.  I expect that ACL avoids April because of the possibility for rain around now, but damn that was sweet!

Thoughts about the next time:

• Parking/logistics.  I'm spoiled by how easy ACL and Zilker is - just feels like that area is ready made to handle the crowds in a way that Georgetown is not.
• The first day, I had the amazing benefit of a kid who was willing to drop me off at the show, so that half was super easy.  But then leaving on Saturday night felt like some Mad Max shit.  Cell service was spotty, so they had some signs up advertising Wifi for people to use.  Hopefully that helped folks, but the crowd there was madness.  My ride had parked a few miles away at a hotel, which meant we ended up walking on sketchy highway overpasses with no sidewalks and stumbling through construction zones with piles of other people to get over to where the car was parked.  It was definitely a mess.  As we finally pulled out, the local businesses like Whataburger and McDonalds were totally overrun.  Anecdotally, I heard of folks not getting back to Austin until 1am.
• The second day was slightly better, but the parking vendors need to do better with signage.  I saw a sign at Georgetown High School advertising "Festival Parking," and followed the long line of cars to the gate.  At the gate, the worker told me that this was only for people who had pre-paid for Festival Parking.  So, like many others before, and after, me that I could see, we all wasted time waiting in line to get that information and then do a fifteen point turn to exit that queue.  Some signs at the front end, saying that this was only pre-paid parking, would have saved a lot of people time and annoyance.  But later we found a side street with parking and only had to walk about a mile and a half down a nice walking path.  No biggie.
• I'm sure C3 did everything they could plan for, but maybe additional shuttles or agreed parking lot usage could be added for next year.  I was fascinated that some businesses just had their lots roped off, when they could have been charging money to use their lots.  But for sure, I would not recommend parking on the other side of I-35 - Saturday night was scary enough that I won't do that again.
• Security.  Minimal from what I could see. On the front end, that was awesome, because I didn't have to empty my pockets to go through the metal detector or get a pat-down, and no one looked inside of the wife's fanny pack, so the entry was quick and easy.  Should have brought my carbon fiber knife and bottle of bourbon!  No guarantee it will be lax next year though!
• Selfishly though, the lack of strong security presence was annoying because it meant that people set up chairs EVERYWHERE.  Despite all of the signage that said to keep chairs behind a certain area, folks just did whatever and it made it really hard to navigate the crowds.  Likely also a fire hazard.  That part made me uncomfortable.
• The crowd. Surprisingly dickish as a whole.  I don't know if country fans just never go to Festivals or what, but the usual manners of a festival crowd were absent and you had a lot of people being really rude.  Now, we had several great interactions with folks standing around us in the crowd (folks had come in from Florida, Mississippi, also met a guy who apparently had sex in my current house when he was in high school!), but what I repeatedly saw around me (and heard a few times during verbal altercations) were people who just refused to let other folks get by and got mad about it.  And not just someone trying to get to the front!  As we tried to leave a crowd, two ladies crossed their arms and stood in our way and as we squeezed by them one of them yelled "fuck you!" at my wife.  Folks in front of us at Tyler Childers made a literal wall with their chairs, linked together, so that others couldn't get through, and about 30 minutes later a big dude just kicked them to hell to get him and his lady friend through.  Again, felt a little scary and like security wasn't on the ball.
• The tilt of the ground.  I'm sure consideration was given to the design of the stage layout, by people who know about such things (which I do not!).  But the main stage was set up facing that river, which means that the slope of the audience went downward.  I'm pretty tall, but I couldn't really see either of the headliners without looking at the screen.

I sort of worry that they could even do the festival again.  It feels like they nailed the lineup so well, with a perfect mix of new and old, but that they also used up all of the old school stuff that is: (1) not too huge; (2) still worth a damn; (3) still alive and well; and (4) not racist shitbags.  Like, it feels like some 90's folks are too big for that fest - George, Garth, Shania, Reba, Alan, Brooks & Dunn, Clint Black.  Maybe they can get Leann Rimes and Billy Ray Cyrus?  Tim McGraw and Faith Hill?  Alabama and Dwight Yoakum?  Oak Ridge Boys!  I bet there are enough out there they could build a lineup around.

I also wonder if they would just move it to Austin and Zilker Park.  The Zilker experience is just so nice!  But overall, great stuff!  We had a blast.  Hope they do it again!

Predicting ACL 2023: Lollapalooza 2023

Man, I have been terrible at predictions this year!  I suck!  I literally haven't even really read up on the Lolla lineup, and that has been out for weeks.  Slacker!  Let's work on fixing that now.  But first, some of the usual discussion of the close-knit relationship between these two Festivals.

I always think of Lollapalooza as the sister show to ACL.  They get some things that we just saw.  We get some things that they just saw.  We're linked and its fun.  I was very grateful though, that the link between them has been fraying more over the past few years, as their lineup seems to be consistently leaning more towards the pop stuff that I don't want to see.  But they are getting the Chilis, Carly Rae Jepsen, Diplo, and some other stuff we just got last year, and I expect that we'll get some crossover from this year's lineup as well (even though last year's link was almost nothing).

I always fear that Festival life is about to pass me by and leave me the bitter old dude still listening to the few rock shows on tiny stages instead of trying new things.  So far, I'm still pretty varied in my musical love, but I am definitely not the target audience of the 2023 Coachella lineup - the majority of the lineup leaves me unimpressed.

But still, I love this post.  I love the guessing game and murder mystery sleuthing that comes with trying to figure things out. This is a fun game for me.  You want to see some of the history?  Sure!  I still have this stuff around... if you don't care about all of this, then just scan on down past the little charts.  The closest were 2012 and 2014, with 7/9 matching at the top of the bills:

2012: Red Hot Chili Peppers yes Black Keys yes Black Sabbath no Jack White yes Florence & the Machine yes At the Drive In no Bassnectar yes Avicii yes The Shins yes 2014: Eminem yes Outkast yes Kings of Leon no Arctic Monkeys no Skrillex yes Calvin Harris yes Lorde yes The Avett Brothers yes Foster the People yes

Third place was 2015, a 6 of 9 year, where we missed out on McCartney, Metallica, and Sam Smith.

Paul McCartney	no
Metallica	no
Florence & the Machine	yes
Sam Smith	no
Bassnectar	yes
The Weeknd	yes
Alt-J	yes
Alabama Shakes	yes
Of Monsters and Men	yes

Then 2011, 2013, and last year (2018) show that maybe the relationship isn't as strong as I thought, with only 4 out of 9 matches:

2011:

Eminem	no
Foo Fighters	no
Coldplay	yes
Muse	no
My Morning Jacket	yes
Deadmau5	no
A Perfect Circle	no
Cee Lo Green	yes
Damian Marley & Nas	yes

2013:

The Cure	yes
Mumford & Sons	no
the Killers	no
Nine Inch Nails	no
Phoenix	yes
the Postal Service	no
Vampire Weekend	yes
New Order	no
Queens of the Stone Age	yes

2018:

The Weeknd	no
Bruno Mars	no
Jack White	no
Arctic Monkeys	yes
Travis Scott	yes
The National	yes
Vampire Weekend	no
Odesza	yes
Logic	no

2016 was a little stronger than those two years, but it is kind of an apples to oranges comparison, because Lolla went to four nights in 2019 in order to celebrate an anniversary. But you still get a 5 of 9 matchup (if you ask me), which is still a close link but not that strong:

Radiohead	yes
Mumford & Sons	no
Kendrick Lamar	no
LCD Soundsystem	yes
Major Lazer	yes
Kygo	no
Chris Stapleton	yes
The Chainsmokers	no
Flume	yes

2017 had the weakest link ever, with only 3 of the top 9 shared between the two festivals.

Chance the Rapper	yes
The Killers	yes
Muse	no
Arcade Fire	no
The XX	yes
Lorde	no
Blink 182	no
DJ Snake	no
Justice	no

Some of the differences come because the two festivals apparently value people differently.  For example, in 2018, Khalid was the #7 artist on the ACL poster, but only #11 on the Lolla poster.  Camilla Cabello was #9 on the ACL poster but was all the way down at #24 on the Lolla poster (which is honestly weird).  Chvches was #13 on ACL, but #15 for Lolla.  Why are all of our bands worse in the eyes of Lolla?  So you can't solely judge off of the top two lines of the poster, even if those are usually the most exciting things to see.

2021 only shared 3 artists.  2022 shared Billy Strings and Doja Cat, but ZERO of the main headliners.  ZERO!!!  That is sort of wild.  Maybe the connection has been severed?

So, how likely are we to see the top artists on the Lolla poster for this year?  Let's dig in.

Headliners:

• Billie Eilish.  Blurg, I super-duper hope we aren't stuck with her back here again.  That would make me very sad.  Her current tour is just a string of Festivals, but the last one is in August.  So, at least there is not like an appearance in New Orleans on October 1 and then Phoenix on October 18.  Not feeling it, in gut, heart, and mind, so saying no and crossing my fingers that I am right.
• Karol G.  Not even really on tour.  A show in April, one in May, and then Lolla.  She was here in 2021, so that is enough of a gap to expect that she could be back on the poster.  But I'm not expecting it.
• Kendrick Lamar.  Are any of the headliners for Lollapalooza actually on tour?  He's doing Governors, Bonnaroo, Lolla, Outside Lands, and finally something called Life is Beautiful on Sept. 22.  Certainly good timing to be a part of ACL.  I'm less excited about this, if true, than in the past after seeing him play live before.  I know this will probably not be a popular opinion, but smart rap is just not as fun in a live setting.  I still think Good Kid is one of the best rap albums ever!  But it is way more fun to get stupid to Brockhampton than to hear someone rap about their feelings or Maya Angelou poetry.  But yeah, I feel like this seems likely.
• The 1975.  They played the Moody last fall, and from what people say about this tour, it is not something you really need to see.  Sounds like the lead singer just does weird crap during the set. They are in Europe now, but then come back to the States for Lolla, Outside Lands, and Life is Beautiful.  Which sure sounds familiar after looking at Kendrick.  So, yeah, this feels legit even though C3 doesn't book those other Festivals (I don't think!).
• Odesza.  Oh Lordy, another artist claiming this is their last tour ever.  That schtick is tiring...  But, LOL, they are playing Lolla, Outside Lands, and Life is Beautiful!  But, their tour also goes to Arkansas on Friday of Weekend One, and Kansas City on Friday of Weekend Two.  So there is a little more interference than with Kendrick or the '75.  But yeah, sure, this feels like it could be the big EDM artist for this year.
• Tomorrow x Together.  WTF is that.  Ah, some sort of KPop thing.  Huh, they are playing two nights in a row in San Antonio in May.  That seems like a good indication that they are pretty popular! Lolla is the last thing on their calendar, so I'm going to go with no on this one.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Nope!
• Lana Del Rey.  I feel like I have predicted her so many times in the past, and she's never on the bill.  She's doing part of the trifecta I've outlined above - Loll and then Outside Lands (8/11).  But without Life is Beautiful right before ACL, I see no good reason to predict that she'll head back out in October.  Nah.

Other Top-Line Type folks that I am feeling:

• The Revivalists.  Are my guys ever going to release another album?  Oh, okay, a few new singles recently, that is good news.  Playing Jazz Fest, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Bumbershoot, and end with Red Rocks on Sept. 14.  That feels like a pretty good setup for them to head to Austin afterwards.  They'd be pretty dope to see at Red Rocks!  Going with yes.
• Maggie Rogers.  Lolla and Outside Lands, but no Life is Beautiful because she'll be in D.C. on Sept. 29.  Nothing on the calendar after that, so I'm feeling good about her coming to Austin.
• [God, I'm old and don't know any of these artists who are supposedly better than The freaking Revivalists]
• J.I.D.  On a monster tour, hits Lolla and Outside Lands at the end, but then nothing else.  I'd like to add him to the poster, as I think he is freaking good, but I see nothing here that really spells that out for me.  Nah.
• Fred Again.  No clue what this even is.  Literally never even heard of its existence.  Playing lots of Festivals internationally, but the website doesn't even list Lolla.  But the Ticketmaster website has that listed as the only US date on their schedule.  So, no reason to expect this is happening.
• Noah Kahan.  Another I've never heard of, and yet he is listed higher than a bunch of really good stuff.  And he is playing a sold out Red Rocks in July!  He must be something special!  He hits something called Ocean's Calling on Sept. 30, and nothing else is on the schedule after that, so he sure sounds like the perfect fit to add to the poster.  I better start checking him out!  Yes.
• A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.  Just a terrible name.  Awful.  Almost as bad as the Young Boy Never Broke Again guy.  Playing Coachella, but his dumb website doesn't even list Lolla.  The Ticketmaster site shows that Lolla is his last show until he plays Wilkes-Barre, PA on New Years Eve of 2031.  Which is either very forward-looking or a typo.  I see no reason to think he'd stop the tour and then fire up for Austin, so no.

Also of note, I predicted Green Day in my Recent Radio Uptick post, and they were a headliner last year for Lollapalooza, so maybe they are the one that we are trading for the Chilis.  Feels even better that we'd get them this year.