The Official ACL Blog for like Eight People!
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One Liner: Another redux classic soul band crushing the style
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is classic soul, Chicano soul
Home: L.A.
Poster Position: 17 Weekend Two Only. Friday at 3:10.
Miller Lite Stage.
Thoughts: Weird. When I typed in "Thee" into Spotify, Thee Sacred Souls was the first thing to pop up. Who were here last year. Who, it ends up, kind of have the same thing going on as these cats. Like a classic soul revue sort of thing.
The most popular song makes me think of Steve Perry from Journey singing over a classic 60's doo-wop groove. 15.8 million streams for "Seems Like."
It is honestly weird how much I feel like this is Steve Perry about to start singing about his open arms.
No Wikipedia. Their label has their "official website" link send you to Bandcamp, so that is not very helpful either. But I found an L.A. Times article on them, which is helpful. A nine-piece soul group from East L.A., who filmed a Tiny Desk show inside a flower shop on Whittier Boulevard (instead of going all the was to D.C.), they are remaking an old-timey vibe with Chicano soul music that could very much pass for 1960's tunes.
Cool visual, and a really nice set - their voices are silly good. Their catalog is pretty bare so far - a few singles and then one 2024 album that repeats some of those singles but otherwise goes brand new. Mostly, the new disc sticks to that '60's soul sound - the one exception I think is the instrumental "Talking Back" which has more of a snazzy jazzy surfer vibe going.
Overall, pretty cool! Although, in my fully honest brain, I don't go seek out classic soul music to vibe to anyway, so why would I listen to new soul music that copies the old style I've let disappear into the past? But yeah, I could see this being a nice way to spend a half hour at the start of a day.
One Liner: Catchy alternative indie rock born out of a senior thesis
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, alternative rock
Home: Vermont
Poster Position: 14 Both Weekends. Friday at 2.
T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: This jams. I was not expecting much when I pulled it up - another pop singer with a twee name - but instead this is pretty enjoyable indie rock action. It is not just one single gal, it is a five piece band from Vermont. The lead singer formed the band when she was a senior at Bennington College in Vermont. At 880 students, that is even smaller than the teeny tiny little school where I went. BUt some legit folks have passed through those halls - Alan Arkin, Betty Ford, Carol Channing, Bret Easton Ellis, Peter fucking Dinklage! Fascinating.
Anyway, instead of writing a thesis for her major in music composition, she decided to create a concert with a band consisting of her brother and close friends, and then perform all original music. It apparently worked, and then a track from their debut album went viral on TikTok. Since then they have gotten to tour with Beck and Phoenix, which is pretty major!
The debut album is 2020's Party Favors, and in addition to the big hit has "Animal" with 129.1 million streams. But the title holder is still "Michelle," with 252 million streams.
I've never had to click an acknowledgement to see a music video. Wikipedia says that she has cited Cage the Elephant as an influence, but it feels a little more like a St. Vincent thing to me. I guess now when I meet a Michelle my first thought might not be the Beatles song. Her eyes appear impossibly big. They also did a cover of "Femme Fatale," which REM covered a million moons ago, that is great.
2023's I Am The Dog has no songs with anywhere near that many streams. Like, nothing over 4 million. But it sounds really good - this is "Hooves" with 3.7 million.
Definitely more lively, and I guess I can hear the Cage the Elephant stuff there more as well. Or even Beck - the intro could be one of those lively Beck tunes. Lambs are cute! I hope they didn't crap on her couch! That one makes me think of some 80's female singer who I can't come up with right now. Souixie? Looks like a new album is on the way, they have been doing one of those annoying rollouts where a single was released on 11/3/23, then that song with another song was released on 1/17/24, then those two songs with a third added on was released on 3/8/24. Just release the damn album!
But, those three songs are solid - "Over Again" has a little Velvet Underground tinge to it and goes between a sunny sound and a dark undercurrent. "Seventeen" has more of an aggressive burn to it, like they'd been listening to Nirvana instead. "Home Where" is even a touch more aggressive and reverby. I think these songs have a catchy pop sensibility while still being genuinely rocking enough to make me happy. I like it.
Poster Position: 24 Weekend One Only. Friday at 2.
IHG Hotels Stage.
Thoughts: Well, this is an even bigger bummer than the last one I tried from the bottom of the poster. Not even on Spotify or YouTube. Holy Wave, Healy, and The Moss each have songs called Chaparral, but not spelled like this. Can't even be the Westlake High School marching band, since they spell that differently too. Literally nothing coming up on Google either. Did they just make up a band name and stick it on the poster so that they wouldn't have empty spaces?
One Liner: Prepare for noodling guitars and extended jams, baby!
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is jam band music
Home: Connecticut
Poster Position: 12 Both Weekends. Friday at 4:30.
Tito's Tent.
Thoughts: Tasty jam band goodness that my wife would most definitely hate! Tap it into my veins! They have no presence on Wikipedia, but checking for their name led me to learn all sorts of things. Eggy the Ram is the mascot of Ryerson University in Toronto. Eggy is also a recurring character in the Penguins of Madagascar show. The more you know, baby.
But this is a four piece band from Woodbridge, Connecticut. Three of them attended high school together and formed the band about 11 years ago, before adding a drummer from an opponent they met up with during a battle of the bands. Since then, they haven't been doing just a ton of studio sessions, being that they have one single studio album - 2019's Watercolor Days. But they have been touring their ass off, as is evidenced by all of the live albums with names like Eggy Selects: Fall Tour 2021 and Eggy Selects: Spring Tour 2023, Vol. 1. They have a few Dead covers in here amongst the action, which always tickles my fancy.
Their most streamed tune off of the album is called "Golden Gate Dancer," and it has a paltry 200k streams.
Yeeeeeeesssssss. I'm not a major jam band guy or anything, but what I really enjoy in here are the harmonies with the vocals and the super funky bassline. That is stuff that I can definitely get behind even when the song is 6:21 long. Gimme that funky groove, baby. Their most streamed tune is a live version of one called "Hux," with 850k streams.
This is not the same version as the one that gets so many streams on Spotify, but you'll get the feel anyway about this song about a dog. That video quality is freaking awful. And this song is not as groovy as that earlier one. But I will say that I have just let these dudes play for two days while I work and I am really enjoying it. They are not as catchy as Goose, the last big jam band that wandered through Zilker, but this is pretty enjoyable for me.
I had a thought to myself over the holiday weekend of how weird it is that I give a band like this a pass, when they are just copying the jam band sound from so many before them, but then don't do the same for the folks who are recreating 60's soul. I don't know why that is, but suspect it has to do with the fact that jam bands continue to be current and in favor, while the 60's soul sound died out for a chunk of time before a revival. Or maybe I just have biases. Dunno.
One Liner: Cool mix of Tejano culture and southern hip hop
Wikipedia Genre: Southern hip hop
Home: Bay City, Texas (although he's bound to live somewhere else now)
Poster Position: 8 Both Weekends. Sunday at 5:45.
T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: My first impression is that he sort of sounds like that DaBaby guy with his flow. But then I really love the little touches of culture like a grito yelped out here and there or a background snippet of cojunto or mariachi. He sounds like Kevin Gates sometimes too, that depth of voice. And he has an entire album that is fully chopped and screwed, which is harder to fully enjoy as a normal dude sitting in his office working. I think you need to be sipping lean for that to sound good. Although now, as I listen through more of this, he has so many guests (including DaBaby and Z-Ro and Slim Thug and Paul Wall and others) that I'm not entirely sure when I am hearing him do the vocals or when it is the other guy on the track. BUT, I will say that the track with DaBaby low key rules. 18.8 million streams.
Love the Pulp Fiction ripoff. Love that he has "tacos, diamonds, and coke." The chorus is the money part, with a perfect flow over that brawny beat. Dig it. My guy can get silly too, on one of the albums there are spoken word bits calling a luchador fight that includes "The Invisible Masturbator" waiting to be tagged in.
Virgil Rene Gazca (never seen that last name before) is the real name, and he is from Bay City, Texas. I am not familiar with that city - I sort of figured it was just part of Houston and the massive sprawl down there - but it appears to be its own little town near Matagorda. 18k residents, and Wikipedia interestingly notes that it is majority Hispanic by a large percentage. But enough about the town - Virgil's mom was killed in a drunk driving collision when he was eight, and his father was in jail for at least part of his childhood. So, no Leave it to Beaver childhood here. After high school he was releasing rap tapes independently and gathering some steam with his new moniker - OT stands for Outta Texas for some reason - until getting signed and releasing his 2023 Lonestar Luchador album on a label. It is a fun album - just something different from the other rappers of today to hear some regional flair.
His earliest track is 2020's "Yoppas & Choppas," and it is pretty weak in comparison to what he is doing now. But he's been saying his tagline - "is that That Mexican OT?" - ever since the first moment. His first mixtape, Southside Steppin, popped out in 2017 and has a weird sound issue where some of the songs are more quiet than others. The top song on there is called "Boobies." He looks very baby-faced on the cover compared to his look now. After that, he released 1 Double 0 in 2021, Nonsense and Mexican Shit in 2022, and then The Show Must Go On in 2023, before he finally nailed his major hit in 2023 off of that Luchador album. "Johnny Dang," featuring Paul Wall and something called DRODi has 120.5 million streams.
Oh, its a jeweler. DRODi looks like he plays outfield for the Astros' double A affiliate and just wandered into the video shoot. But I very much enjoy that they are letting the little jeweler guy be a part of the video and advertise how he likes to drink and pull on his lips. Catchy track. This guy is honestly very enjoyable. So far I care about very little on Sunday, so I'd go check this guy out.
Thoughts: I really wish that I cared about the electronic bands. I just don't get the allure and it bums me out because there are always a handful on these posters, so they end up being like the Spanish language groups where it is just a hole in the lineup for me. It's a bummer.
But I've listened to our man Alexander Kotz here for pretty much a full day and I couldn't tell you anything new about what that experience was like. No mountainous drops. No hype beats. Just kind of a generic synth-tinged set of bops with either a lady or a falsetto-jamming dude over the top that stretch off into eternity. The kind of stuff you shop for cut rate perfume to, or hear on a video of a struggling real estate agent trying to hype up a depressing condo near Q2 stadium.
Wikipedia claims that his "most notable song" is "Cola," a collaboration with CamelPhat, which reached number one on the Dance Club Songs in the U.S., and was nominated for best Dance Song at the 2018 Grammys. It is also for sure his top streamer with 352 million streams.
A commenter said this Adidas ad has nice music and I love it. I mean, I can definitely see having fun just dancing along to this and letting the night ride, but on line 7, I don't think we are looking at a headliner slot. So, the idea of spending the 5pm hour in the blazing sun at the Honda stage doing the I-ate-all-the-Molly dance is not very likely. Dunno. I just caught myself bobbing my head along to it. I guess it is fine.
Mr. Kotz started out in an indie band, and then went out on his own to be a singer-songwriter at the age of 19. He called it a folky-acoustic thing. But after starting university, he started listening to electronic genres and shifted gears. His first EP is 2015's Simmer Down, and it sounds like more of the same to me. Well, maybe a little more spare and a little less smooth. I'll give you the top one just so you can try it on for size. "Could" has 17.3 million streams.
Not nearly so well-produced and slick as the more recent stuff. His first real album is 2017's Talking, and on that one he pops a bigger hit off with "Talking," boasting 58 million streams.
There's that generic electronic pop with the falsetto guy over the top that I had been hearing for hours yesterday. I do like the dancing in that video.
Lots of singles, including that Cola one, before his 2020 album Why Do We Shake in the Cold? As someone who has had to take more than one Wilderness First Aid classes, I can tell you that we shiver in the cold because our body is trying to use that small amount of motion to expend some energy and warm us up. Muscles moving equates to warmth. But that is not what you are here for. You are here for another generic falsetto tinged EDM song that sounds like a remix of a Maroon 5 song to me. "Numb" has 101.1 million streams.
Pay Adam Levine his money, yo! This one especially feels weird to jam out to at the Fest - like gimme the Chainsmokers telling everyone to party. Don't give me sad ass lyrics like this: "Oh, that's just how it goes / Risin', risin' up / Right until we fall / Oh, reachin' in the dark / Nothing's there to touch / I wish I could love." Criminy. Welcome to the depression portion of the dance party, sponsored by Honda!
Very much doubt that you will find me grooving to the dulcet depression dance domination.
One Liner: A really great indie rock band that can't quit ruining songs with screaming
Wikipedia Genre: punk rock, indie rock, noise rock
Home: Philadelphia
Poster Position: 14 Weekend One Only. Friday at 3:10.
Miller Lite Stage.
Thoughts: This is one of those bands that critics seem to like and you hear about, but then when you try it out, its not that fun. Kind of like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for me. This is the kind of band who gets props from both NPR and Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and SPIN. Here is what I had to say a few weeks ago when listening to one of their top singles to see what the fuss was about: "Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven. I want to like this more than I actually do. The backing music is great, but the vocals grate on me." Feels about right. 4.8 million streams.
It's like if one of those good Wet Leg songs got remade with an angrier lead singer. Again, I'd like to actually like it. I never really gave Hole a chance back in the day - the few songs I heard with Courtney Love freaking out over the top just turned me off immediately. This is what I imagine I was missing.
The band was originally formed by the current guitarist and lead vocalist Marisa "Missy" Dabice and Athanasios Paul, who met in school. Just a two piece at the time. They released an early album called Gypsy Pervert, but later re-released that album as an eponymous album because the band regretted using the word gypsy, which is often used as a pejorative insult. Funny that they are totally cool with using pussy in their band and album name, but gypsy is a line too far. There is an old man who lives on the street behind us who uses that word all the time, pretty much in his head it means anyone he doesn't like in the neighborhood - yard workers, homeless guys, thieves, someone knocking doors asking for signatures, whatever.
In one interview, they were asked if they think the band name is sexual, and the response was "[t]here was never an intention for it to be, but I’ve definitely learned just how little control we have over how others will interpret it." Really?
Anyway, but 2015, they've bulked up the band to a four piece and released their second full-length, Romantic, in 2016. Rolling Stone called the title track from that album the 14th best song of 2016, and it is still the band's top streamer at 11.3 million.
Yeah, sticking with my earlier thought. Nice for a bit, then unpleasant for a bit. But as you go through the catalog, there are some genuinely enjoyable tunes. Sometimes they hold the screamo in check. For example, on the I Got Heaven disc from this year, "Nothing Like" is pretty, but then "OK? OK! OK? OK!" just shreds all of that nice feel. When it is nice, I get some Japanese Breakfast or Soccer Mommy vibes. And I like both of those! When it is not nice it detracts from my whole day.
We'll do one more to listen to a track from the 2019 album Patience. This was the last one with that founding drummer before he left to go find himself. "Drunk II" is the track from there with 8.2 million streams.
I wanna go boogie while I play pool at that bar. I don't think I want to make out at that bar tho, that part looks stressful. But yeah, a nice rock and roll tune that never devolves into something that would make me nervous to play it around my wife who hates angry things. And even though the lyrics are sad, they are also poignant in a great way. But this album does the same thing, following up a lovely "Who You Are" with the grating "Clams" and "FUCAW."
We'll see. Friday is looking like a really solid day, except that the top line is a bummer with both Stapleton and Blink at the same time. Couldn't they move Blink to up against Dual IPA? But who knows, this may end up being the right show on that day despite the screaming.
One Liner: Completely acceptable, if uninteresting, pop music
Wikipedia Genre: pop
Home: NJ
Poster Position: 4 Weekend One Only. Friday at 7:30.
IHG Stage.
Thoughts: "Well well, what can I say about Fletch? He's been fantastic. ... He is actually 6'5". With the Afro, 6'9"." And a look on Wikipedia brings up a treasure trove of things named Fletcher - a dorm at the University of Florida, a collection of British stamps in the British Library, a firearm that fires flechettes, a U.S. destroyer ship, a public use airport in Coahoma County, Mississippi, an a Canadian island, among many other exciting things!
But this one is an American pop singer from New Jersey named Cari Elise Fletcher who, somehow, was included in the Forbes magazine 30 under 30 for 2022. Born in Asbury Park, NJ, she attended NYU before moving to Nashville to pursue music full time. She is now based in L.A. (I guess no country angle revealed itself in TN?). But, while still in high school, she was part of the premier season of The X Factor, where Simon Cowell put her and three other ladies into a group called Lakoda Rayne, which was eliminated from the competition.
The tunes are pretty pure pop stuff. Her first EP in 2016 was called Finding Fletcher, and featured her first big viral hit called "War Paint." 38.3 million streams. That song name sounds so familiar, it is really weird.
Nope. Was certain I had reviewed that song at some point, but not correct. I definitely do not like that song. She's definitely model beautiful, but that song is not good. Super generic.
Her next EP was called you ruined new york city for me, was released in 2019, and featured her biggest hit yet with "Undrunk." 174.1 million streams.
That is a very clever tune lyrically, with the un-drunk, un-lose, un-call, etc. bit. Completely boring track in the background. But I get why the sentiments she is singing about there, in that original way, hit with people. Feels like something written in one of those towers in Nashville by a collection of seven writers.
Right around here, she got derailed by the pandemic. She was just about to go on tour with Niall Horan when everything got shut down and she went home to make another EP. One 2021 single, called "girls girls girls" is weird - she directly steals the "I kissed a girl and I liked it" bit from that Katy Perry song. That feels really wrong.
Her first real album was 2022's Girl of my Dreams (Deluxe) (i.e. I don't see a non-deluxe version to know which songs don't really belong on here), and it is more of the same. No huge hits on this one though. 2024's in search of the ANTIDOTE is her most recent attempt. Same sort of aim here, and we'll take a look at the top song so far, "Eras of Us," with 13.1 million streams. Trying to cash in on that TayTay "Eras Tour" SEO, eh?
Yawn. I am well aware that pure pop is a blind spot for me, but the backing tune just sounds like some pop/rock preset on a computer program that advertises "energetic guitar" and "building synths," there is no way I remember that song three minutes from now.
Strange aside, she caught Lyme disease in 2023. That stuff is no joke.
One Liner: Duo making indie-folk-rock magic after meeting at UT
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie rock, folk rock, gentle sounds
Home: Austin and Alabama
Poster Position: 14 Weekend One Only. Friday at 3:30.
IHG Stage.
Thoughts: Well, that is weird. They were on the 14th line of the poster last year as well. Have we really run out of the 14th line-sized bands that we have to immediately have them back? Welp, makes my review a lot easier! No new albums, so here's to last year!
There was a time a few years ago when it felt like every new band was Thing & Thing. Shovels & Rope. Penny & Sparrow. She & Him. Iron & Wine. Mumford & Sons. I know there are others, I actually thought this was a different band when I pulled it up that was a mother and daughter. There it is - Cliffs & Caves. Strangely, there is no Wikipedia entry for this band. They feel big enough to be online. Maybe I'm thinking of a different band. Also, strangely, Penny Sparrow was a white woman in South Africa who compared "littering black beachgoers to monkeys," and was sentenced to two years in prison! Holy shit! I mean, those words are definitely rude and offensive and ugly, but prison time! South Africa does not mess around!
This is not a racist African lady. This is a pair of dudes making soft, folky indie tunes who met in Austin while attending UT. They started out playing cover songs at local bars, calling themselves random names like Dallas Cowboys or Utah Jazz. They came up with their name because one venue said they needed a real name, so they cribbed it from a friend who wrote under that pen name. That was back in 2013, and they've released albums steadily even since. Strangely, the guitarist lives in Austin but the singer lives in Alabama. Eight-ish albums, and some live discs and EPs, over that time, quite a bit of production.
The most streamed tune, by quite a bit, comes from 2019's Finch. "Eloise" clocks in with 34.8 million streams.
The instruments don't even kick in for like a minute. Always curious why some people shape their mustaches the way they do. Like, why does his go down and cover the corners of his mouth. Grosses me out a little. But a really pretty song - Bon Iver or Lord Huron feels to me - and amazing harmonies. Also, I would be terrified about that bird eating my ear off. That album also boasts their second-most streamed, "Don't Wanna Be Without Ya," with 20.3 million. But I'm going to give you another that shows up on their newest album, 2022's Olly Olly. "Need You" has 10.2 million streams.
Sweet song. Makes me think of a Jason Isbell lyric with the storytelling part. But the chorus is cute and full of SAT words.
Yeah, these guys are really good. This is nice music. Not so sure about a festival set, feels like music to lounge to late at night or on the back porch during a rainstorm or something. But sure, stamp of approval!
One Liner: Pop country one hit wonder who wants to abandon her boyfriend in Austin in his time of need
Wikipedia Genre: pop, country
Home: California
Poster Position: 13 Both Weekends. Friday at 2:45.
American Express Stage.
Thoughts: oh noes. Her Spotify bio is "cuntry" and now I feel sad.
I think we are looking at a TikTok star here, because she has one song with 85 times the next song's stream counts, and then her fifth most popular song is a version of that same song but sped up. Which is a very TikTok thing these days to offer sped up and slowed down versions of songs so that the weird Tikkers can Tok their stuff at different speeds. But at least the song is named "Austin," so we've got that going for us. 180.2 million streams.
Makes me think of Kesha doing something slightly countrified. Oh, she's not being nice to Austin at all. She's saying that her loser boyfriend will still be stuck here after she leaves him to go to L.A. Well that isn't nearly as appealing for me. She's got a younger, dirtier, Taylor Swift vibe going on in there. Haha! The top comment on the YouTube video is that this was Eminem dating Taylor Swift. Perfect, no notes.
Dasha is a planetary period in Indian astrology, or an alternative translation of the word for a Russian summer home. The other four Dashas listed on Wikipedia are Ukranian, Israeli, Russian, and Belarusian. It's like a damn NPR story up in here. Her real name is Anna Dasha Novotny, and despite that name she was born in San Luis Obispo, California. She left there to attend Belmont University in Nashville until COVID sent her packing. Pretty limited bio though...
Her first song, 2020's "Don't Mean a Thing" is straight crappy pop. Uninteresting beat, effects on her voice, vapid. She still sounds like that in 2021 with "$hiny Things," and into 2022 with "FUCK YOU" or "Eyeliner" as well. Her first album was 2023's Dirty Blonde, which collected a bunch of those earlier singles and added a few new ones, but this is straight pop. Not a lot of streams for anything on there - "Olivia" has the most with 2.1 million.
I'm kind of rushing through this writeup because I desperately want to move on to something else. She released What Happens Now? in 2024, which looks to be a quick release to capitalize on the "Austin" thing with only eight songs on there. Nothing seems to have much traction beyond that one tune but I'll give you "King of California" with 1.1 million streams.
Doing the Texas thing here again. She doesn't appear to have any connection to Texas at all, but she name checks both Texas and Austin here. I wish this was a different King of [insert state here] song. Time for a ranking:
Jason Isbell - King of Oklahoma
Brett Cobb - King of Alabama
Getting hit by a Capitol Metro Bus after your girlfriend left you to move back to L.A. and said you'll be a drunk loser forever
Dasha - King of California
Bunch of great "King of" songs. the Road. Pain. Wishful Thinking. I'm sure I'm missing lots and google is surprisingly unhelpful. But that one up there ain't it. I don't like to be rude in these writeups - everyone loves different things in the musical world, but this one absolutely feels to me like a one-hit thing that we won't remember in a year.
One Liner: TikTok star through wholesome funny videos also makes pretty solid synth rock
Wikipedia Genre: indie rock, emo, electropop
Home: California
Poster Position: 13 Both Weekends. Sunday at 2.
IHG Stage.
Thoughts: When I pulled this up, there was a slice of my brain that was hoping it was Petey Pablo and he had just dropped the Pablo from his rap name. I really liked that "Raise Up" track with the bit about waving your shirt like a helicopter.
This is not that. Wikipedia says he is Peter Martin, a social media personality and musician who rose to prominence on TikTok during the pandemic. His early life is kind of weird - born in Michigan, raised in Illinois, and played in an emo band called Young Jesus before going to Loyola University in New Orleans. He then moved to California and lived for a period in a friend's backyard in a hand-made tent. Mmmkay.
But when the pandemic derailed his music career, he started making "wholesome" and "absurd" TikTok videos, which lead to him amassing more than a million followers and collaborations with all sorts of sponsors and other people of note like Fred Durst. There is also apparently a pianist named Peter Martin, but a search for Petey got me some videos (I can't TikTok on work computer!)
Yeah, I grinned a few times. That is kinda funny. I watched two others that were less funny. But wholesome and absurd makes sense. Strange thing - he's playing the Moody Center in September (obviously opening for someone) but that is too close to the Fest! Here is a significantly longer thing called LEAN INTO LIFE (Original Drama) that incorporates some of his musical sounds into there.
(don't feel like you need to watch that whole 22 minute thing unless you really want to as I'm not sure that I laughed at all before the first commercial break, just FYI)
His album releases seem weird on Spotify. First is 2021's Other Stuff, then 2022's Lean Into Life. Seems like the "Other Stuff" album should have been the second one, a b-sides collection after the first one did well. Huh. And that 2022 album has his biggest streamer by a lot - "DON'T TELL THE BOYS" racks up just over 7 million streams.
Sort of a silly tune, and the music is kind of a mix between that Bleachers guy and the LCD Soundsystem stuff. Petey kind of looks like the dude who lives across the street from me, except my friend has a lot more grey in his beard.
But it is 2023's USA that is a really good disc from front to back. There are a few tunes on there that made me stop what I was doing and listen - they hew more rock and less synth. "The Freedom to Fuck Off" is great, for a moment I was like "is this dude a Christian artist?" but it ends up he was just integrating that into the well-written lyrics. I think that song is very cool. And "Did I Mention I'm Sorry" is good too, but so far it is "I'll Wait" that is winning the streaming wars. 3.3 million.
Something in his voice sounds Canadian. Out of curiosity, I pulled up his live set at Bonnaroo, and it is much more of a full-band experience than I expected. The LCD synths play such a major role in my head that I expected more of a laptop show, but of course that had to be wrong with the guitars you hear in so many of the songs. If you are also curious, here you go.
I could do with a little less of the voice shedding yelps. You can sing. Just do it. I find myself liking this more and more as I listen along. That new album is definitely good.
One Liner: Pop-forward country by a trailblazing artist
Wikipedia Genre: Country, R&B
Home: Nashville (but from Arlington, TX!)
Poster Position: 13 Weekend Two Only. Friday at 3:30.
IHG Stage.
Thoughts: I had heard of her before, but never tried any of the music. Definitely on the pop end of the country spectrum. Real name is Candace Mycale Guyton, and she was actually born in Arlington and raised around Texas. She moved to Nashville in 2011 when she was around 28 to give the music thing a real go and signed with Capitol Records. The reason I had noticed her was a few years ago when the George Floyd protests were a big deal and she released "Black Like Me," which got traction with its lyrics about being a black woman in the country music scene. Interestingly, that is not in her top ten songs on Spotify, even though at 9.4 million streams, it is bigger than more than half of those songs in the Popular list. I wonder what that says?
I don't know if you see the commercials I do when I click on these videos, but that one for Taco Bell drives me nuts because of the way that lady says she is a "chicken girlie." WTF does that even mean. Sorry, that has nothing to do with this song, which has an excellent chorus - "if you think we live in the land of the free, you should try to be black like me." Her voice is wonderful. But again, calling this country just feels really generous to me.
She came up singing in a Baptist Church in Arlington, but says that racism was still pretty prevalent in Arlington. After enrolling in the local public school the discrimination forced her to change to a private school. How damn sad is that? She was inspired to try a singing career by seeing LeAnn Rimes sing the Star Spangled Banner before a Texas Rangers game. She moved to L.A. to sing and attend college. While struggling to make it she even sang background on some other albums, before ending up on American Idol - she didn't make the top 24 so she didn't get much airtime apparently. After she moved to Nashville and got signed, she was the only black female artists signed to a major label in the country genre. Later, she was the first black female to ever be nominated for the Best Country Solo Performance category and then the first black woman to top the Canada Country chart.
Several of her top songs on Spotify are with other folks - Kane Brown, Maroon 5, someone named Lukas Graham, but her top streamer is a 2022 single that definitely sounds more traditional country. "Somethin' Bout You," with 15.3 million streams.
Still has some pop sensibility but I could definitely see some of the other country ladies doing that sort of tune. Catchy for sure, if a little generic with the pablum like the t-shirt, the eyes, the smile, etc. A couple EPs to start the career, and only one album - 2021's Remember Her Name. The top track from there is "Lay It On Me" with just over 15 million streams.
That dress is really weird, like an AI thing put on her in post-production. While this one has some steel guitar in the background, it just sounds more like an adult contemporary R&B tune. Heavily produced. Not my place to tell her what kind of music to make, but I just think she has a great voice and could lean a little further into doing real country. Go the direction of Kacey or Miranda or Brandi and see what happens.
One Liner: Sloppy, bashing, raucous rock and roll action
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - rock and roll
Home: Abilene, TX
Poster Position: 15 Weekend One Only. Friday at 5:10.
BMI Stage.
Thoughts: So, without looking them up yet, my first impression from a run through their limited catalog is that this sounds like a Kings of Leon cover band that was hired to play a fictional L.A. rock band in an Almost Famous/Daisy and the Six-style story about a young band learning how to deal with fame and groupies. They sort of remind me of that Dirty Honey band too, except their sloppier. This definitely feels DIY and done in a garage.
Their website explains that they actually come from Abilene, which is a trip. And that their fans call their genre Western Space Grunge. Which, okay. They claim the following as influences - Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and Whiskey Myers. I don't know that last one, but I guess I can hear the Foos and RKS. None of the four members of the band appears to be named Dexter. The drummer's name is Fox, which is pretty badass.
Their first single, from 2021, is their most popular track by quite a bit. "Couch" has 14.8 million streams.
Pretty chill. In a different song he laments that all the songs he writes are so sad, and it sounds like this starting point got him aimed that direction.
They have a 2021 EP, a handful of singles, and then a live album. The live album is definitely fun - you get a good idea of these guys just bashing it away up there on stage and having fun with it. If you listen through their catalog though, it gets annoying because they have that song in here like eight different times. The second top song is a 2024 single that sounds even better to me. "She Likes Girls" has just over 1 million streams.
The bashing drums and that little twiddly riff sound pretty cool in the chorus. And newest single "Sad in Carolina" is solid too. I am on board with checking this out - legit sloppy rock and roll action.
Wikipedia Genre: Trap, Southern hip hop, gangsta rap
Home: Atlanta
Poster Position: 6 Weekend Two Only. Friday at 7:30.
IHG Stage.
Thoughts: Jay Wayne Jenkins, who used to go by Young Jeezy before he got all old and stuff was born in South Carolina but is better known as being one of the big Atlanta-area rappers. He is one of the guys who is credited with pioneering the trap music style for mainstream audiences. As he was coming up, he signed with Bad Boy for a period of time and was in the group Boyz n da Hood, but Def Jam came after him as a solo artist and signed him in 2004.
His first three albums - Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (2005), Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration (2006), and The Recession (2008) were all commercially and critically successful, with the latter two both topping the Billboard 200. The first big hit from those albums was "Soul Survivor" (featuring Akon), which now has 160.1 million streams.
He has a very distinctive voice - so gravelly. That track does nothing for me. Funny that it was such a big hit, because it just seems like run of the mill stuff now. I do really enjoy the screencap they used for the YouTube video up above, because it makes him look a little nuts and like he might be about to try to kiss me with crossed eyes.
Then the big hit, and still his biggest streamer today, is "Put On," which features Kanye West. 247.4 million streams.
14 years ago. Still complaining about record high gas prices. I really like it when he laughs - those HA HAs are a million feet tall. I have that song in my Popcorn Rap playlist that I use all the time. Funny how that video makes it sound like the song is about like being a good American or something, meanwhile he's rapping about having expensive jewelry while people are getting foreclosed and going to the soup kitchen. Confusing.
Since those first three, he has released approximately 800,000 more albums, but none have been as successful as those first three. 2008's Can't Ban the Snowman, as an example, has only three songs with more than a million streams. 2006's Snowman has one. 2006's I Am The Street Dream has one. 2009's Trappin' Ain't Dead and 2010's 1000 Grams, Vol. 1 have zero. But then 2011's TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition was a hit and jumped him back into the charts. I think he just has to name every album with that Thug Motivation title structure... The top track from that one features Ne-Yo and has 47.8 million streams. "Leave You Alone."
Random aside that is freaking cool - after Hurricane Katrina, he apparently opened up his own home to give people displaced from their homes a place to go.
By 2014, I was starting to do this psychotic blog, and so I started checking out his stuff as it got released (well, some of it anyway). Going back to those reviews to see what I had to say, I'm afraid that Jeezy wasn't doing it for me. Here are four of those reviews.
Jeezy - Seen it All: The Autobiography. 2014. What is it with rappers and their extended album titles? Jeezy (used to be Young Jeezy, but I guess he grew up) has five solo albums since he became popular, and three of those five album titles involve a colon. I also have to note that he apparently skipped the second course in his "Thug Motivation" coursework, seeing as he released "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101" in 2005, then "TM: 103 Hustlerz Ambition" in 2011, with no mention of how he got the course credits to just skip right over the 102 level class. [ED. note - I guess maybe Spotify didn't have that second album available, because that joke doesn't work now!]
Maybe the lack of that class in Thug Motivation theory is why I am unimpressed with this new album, but pretty uninteresting stuff. "Seen It All" is the single, which likely gains significant popularity by having Jay Z on the track, but Jay Z isn't going to save this song from being boring. More likely, the opposite. Try it out for yourself:
Yawn. You two are super rich and you used to sell drugs and still know more than anyone else who has ever sold drugs. Good work.
Jeezy - Church in these Streets. (2015) I'm shocked that this album isn't named Thug Motivation: 104 BallerzzzFoSho. I guess he ran out of educational material to follow up on his last few classroom titled albums. 19 songs, and the album feels like it is 9 hours long even though it is only 62 minutes. Jeezy has put out a few good songs in the past, but I don't hear anything on here that sticks to my ribs. The most listened-to on Spotify is called "GOD." (in 2024, at 7.8 million streams)
Yaaaaawn. I have no clue why 3 million two hundred thousand people would have listened to that song. Maybe Jeezy just opened his own computer and put that track on repeat and then left it alone for six months. I won't keep this album around.
Jeezy - Trap or Die 3. (2016) Is it really that hard to come up with a new title for your album? I bet I could think of 5 new puns using the word "trap" that he could put to use immediately. Trap Smear. Trap My Bitch Up. Trap Crackle Pop. Don't Worry Be Trappy. Admiral Ackbar's Favorite Album. I mean, those 5 took me less than a minute. Does this guy really need to make 3 albums named Trap or Die? The correct answer is no. As for the tunes, yawn. I will give it one thing, this album made the woofer on my desktop speakers thump and rumble for real. I had to turn down the bass levels just to avoid my office sounding like a '92 Cutlass Supreme driving down Crockett Ave. He's got a few guest stars on here (Lil Wayne, French Montana, Yo Gotti) but none of those guys save this album from being boring. The top track, with 8.1 million streams (up to 47.8 in 2024), is "All There," which features someone called Bankroll Fresh. I love that for a rapper name. Makes me think of the Pillsbury Doughboy being a badass gangsta.
I can't say anything bad about that video now, because little kids acting hard like adults is amazing. That kid repping his hot cheetos is a boss ass little kid. But the tune is more whatever - not for me. And he has a Chris Brown song, and I've come to hate the Chris Brown songs. I'm not even that worried about the guy being a scumbag woman-beater, I just don't care to hear him sing anymore generic hooks. This one can go.
Jeezy - Pressure. (2017) Now that is an interesting question. Among garbage male rap-song-hook-singers, do I hate Tory Lanez more than Chris Brown? How can one world contain this much hatred? I think Brown still takes the cake, but Lanez is awful and horrible and blood-pressure-creating as well. And his name is stupid. This album ALSO gets a hook song from Trey Songz. This is America in 2018. Kill us all.
I'd say that some of the tracks on this album have a good general feel - good beat, nice flow over the top, rough and rugged. But then a lot are pretty mediocre and weak (first and foremost, the ones with the crappy R&B hooks). The top track is "American Dream," which features both J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, so I'm not so sure that Jeezy is responsible for those 7 million streams (up to 50.5 in 2024), or if this isn't a product of Kendrick's name being associated.
Good track. Jeezy's verse is good, J. Cole actually sounds pretty good, but Kendrick's sounds kind of like a throw away. Like this: "These streets made for ballin' (yeah yuh), Ten toes ain't for fallin' (yeah yuh), I hear the world callin', Tell me if ya all in (tell me if ya all in)." Nope, pretty weak. The album closer ("Snow Season") has a nice swagger to it, and "Cold Summer" is pretty cool sounding. But all of these, lyrically, are pretty plain. I'll let this one go.
I did not review 2019's TM104: The Legend of the Snowman, 2020's Twenty/20 Pyrex Vision, 2020's The Recession 2, 2022's SNOFALL, 2022's GOATED: Jeezy, 2023's But I Don't Forget, or 2023's I Might Forget, but not many people listened to those anyway.
BUT! A Tiny Desk Concert! In 2024! That is wild.
That is pretty damn cool - with the strings behind him and the live drummer going after that drum machine. I don't want the audience participation though... Dig the vibe of that "Bottom of the Map" song. Hell yeah. Still not saying anything worth a crap, but the feel of that swagger is good stuff.
One Liner: Wild NYC art rock with a few too much dissonance for my taste
Wikipedia Genre: post-punk, indie rock, art punk
Home: Brooklyn
Poster Position: 13 Both Weekends Saturday at 1:35.
T-Mobile.
Thoughts: Confusing me, in that I got excited seeing this thinking that Goose was coming back to the Fest. Dangit. Complete first impression on the first hit is that this is the singer from the New Radicals who got tired of singing about how you have to get what you give.
These cats are based in Brooklyn, and I think you can hear it in every song. Fun origin story though: They formed in high school up in Brooklyn, and recorded an album during the pandemic. As graduation neared, and several of them were looking to graduate and head off to Berklee and Oberlin, they figured that they would break up. But then their demos started to get some attention from record labels, and they ended up making a go of it. Now they've become the latest saviors of NYC rock – touring the world, performing on late night television, and creating significant industry buzz with their run of gigs at SXSW in 2022. All before they could even drink legally at a club where they are jamming.
That 2021 album, Projector, is so much better for my tastes. Recorded in their basement from 2019 to 2020. Like a Parquet Courts kind of garage rock album with loose edges and a little funky feel. Meanwhile, the more popular 2023 album 3D Country can be painful. "3D Country" is just weird. Like a lounge singer trying to sound like the classic Rolling Stones in a dilapidated Vegas cocktail bar before he passes out in a pool of his own vomit, complete with the background singers and sloppy piano. "Undoer" gets some Radiohead vibes like when Thom Yorke just starts yelling long words over a blasting, unnerving guitar line from Greenwood. Way too much screaming and dissonance for me, and I love a little well-placed screaming in a song. It's not all terrible by any means, its just that even an otherwise solid song like the album opener "2122" can go from a good, tight, little rock song into a soundscape freakout. Shafts the groove for me. Makes me wish this really was Goose!
Top track is from that new album - "Cowboy Nudes" - which I think I have heard on the radio a few times. 4.5 million streams.
Maybe the fact that is their top song will help them realize that they can make nice rock songs instead of adding in terrifying dissonance and screaming. Those people in the video are scary tho! The only tune in their top ten right now that is not from that 2023 album is a new single from 2024 called "Jesse" - I'll give you that so you can see if the new sound is catching on. 679k.
Well, now that I lured you in with two songs that sound pretty sweet, I am obligated to also give you one of the terrifying ones. Here is "Undoer."
Wow. Yeah. 7 minutes punctuated with pain. Now, I will say that I pulled up a live set of them from Rolling Stone's studio, and it sounds pretty solid. If you want a little more, that can be your source.
He gets a little animated at times with the vocals, but it is nothing like the stuff he is wailing on the album. Dunno. This will be a gametime decision for me, depending on who they are against. On the one hand, I can't be choosy with rock bands because they are few and far between. On the other hand, not sure how this will hit.
One Liner: The Pumped Up Kicks guys, still making pop rock goodness.
Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, alternative rock, indie rock, dance-pop, indietronica, neo-psychedelia (oooh, "indietronica" is a new one).
Home: Los Angeles
Poster Position: 2 Both Weekends Friday at 6:10.
Honda Stage.
Thoughts: Last here in 2017, with a 2014 appearance before that.
Pop rock for the masses. Unless you have been living under a rock or refuse to listen to normal radio or watch TV or otherwise exist in a regular, public arena with the rest of us, you have heard "Pumped Up Kicks" before. Likely more than a million times before. Because it has an insane 1.7 BILLION streams on Spotify. Holy Hannah.
This video has been seen over a BILLION freaking times. I mean, damn. It was a number one single, received a Grammy nomination, and generally took over the world in 2011. And despite the sunny little tune and happy sounding chorus, the whole thing is about a psychotic kid who is telling other kids that they'd better run when he starts shooting them. You would also probably recognize "Helena Beat," "Don't Stop," "I Would Do Anything For You," and "Houdini" from their first album. This video, for Houdini (from their first album) was up for a Grammy but did not win:
That original album (2011's Torches) ended up selling a ton because of "Pumped Up Kicks," and some of those other songs were pretty popular in their own right, especially "Don't Stop."
The next album was 2014's Supermodel. Had a few singles, nothing as world destroying as Kicks, but "Coming of Age" is a pretty catchy ditty. 77.9 million streams.
My preconceived thought is that I dislike these guys. "Pumped Up Kicks" got (and still gets) so much airplay that I'm annoyed by it. This seems like pop factory music made to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Without giving them a shot, I've got loads of that hipster-held-hatred garbage for something inauthentic. But if I toss all of that out the window and just enjoy "Coming of Age," its a damn fun jam. Supermodel is pretty good from front to back. Just enjoyable dance rock. It should set off some fun, even if it won't inspire the next Springsteen.
And I think Mark Foster is a great success story. He moved to L.A. from Ohio to pursue music and was going nowhere, working day jobs and just trying to get noticed, scuffled around for a few years, got heavily addicted to drugs, but then came up with "Pumped Up Kicks." Launched him into the stratosphere. I think that is cool. Well, not the drug addiction bit, but the old rising from the ashes bit.
As an aside, I had a weird moment, where I thought Spotify had messed up and started playing A$AP Rocky, because Foster the People's track "A Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon" actually samples A$AP Rocky's "LVL," which is an odd juxtaposition.
Weird, right?
After that, Sacred Hearts Club came out in 2017. It did not break much new ground for the band, they are still sticking to really danceable pop rock jams that are pretty fun to just jam out to. But they do extend more into electronics. The top song back when the album came out was "Doing It For the Money," now at 38.1 million streams.
This got some radio play back then and honestly, it isn't my favorite tune. I feel like they are trying too hard to court the electronic side of their demographic and leaving behind the fun party rock in favor of sounding kind of like a trap EDM track. And the album has other unfortunate examples of the same, like "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy," which is about a minute worth of EDM thumping that opens up a little but stays pretty lame. The more I hear that track the less I like this whole album. On the other hand, "Lotus Eater" is a good rock song that should be their yardstick for measuring good songs. But the big hit that erupted from the album ended up being "Sit Next To Me," which still gets radio play even today. 346.6 million streams.
Overall, I've enjoyed listening to that album all day - even with my reservations about going electro instead of sticking to their core sound. "SHC" is pretty solid. "Sit Next To Me" is tasty.
But after that 2017 album - no more albums. Curious what happened there. Some 2021 singles, a 2020 EP, and some remixes, but not much for like seven years. Wikipedia has nothing explaining that gap, it just sounds like they split from their record label and have been enjoying the freedom of releasing a single when they feel like it. Unfortunately, that makes it a little less interesting to see them live, when I've already seen them play the tunes from those three albums described above. Oh well. I can't be too choosy here, depending on the schedule, I'd probably go watch these guys do their thing. Maybe a new disc is just about to drop.
One Liner: Lovely indie folk and lite rock full of harmony
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, folk rock
Home: Melbourne
Poster Position: 15 Weekend Two Only. Friday at 3:30.
T-Mobile Stage.
Thoughts: Aussies! Hooray for the Aussies! I got to go to Australia when I was eight (terrible age to spend a bunch of money on a dumb kids going to see things he'll never appreciate - my memories are of a Toblerone bar I got at the hotel, a wild bird's nest made out of noodles I got to order at a Chinese restaurant, and some bits and pieces from the Sydney Zoo. Dumb.) and so I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the land of the kangaroo.
Some of these folks were in high school together, and lead vocalist/guitarist Sam and keyboardist/guitarist Christina began making music and singing together back in high school. Around 2010, they expanded the group and added the rest of these blokes. Their 2010 single "Bloom" was their first big hit, getting a lot of attention online and through word of mouth. It continues to be their biggest tune, with 578.4 million streams. Pretty legit!
I feel almost certain that people do little pensive TikToks to this tune. Really pretty stuff. They even do a whistling part! How cutesy is that? At this point, they were selling out small venues all around Australia, and even got a song featured on the season 8 finale of Grey's Anatomy. Since then, they've regularly received nominations for ARIA awards, winning in 2016 for Best Folk Album.
So, that tune was on their 2013 EP called Woodland. After that, they have released a pretty steady stream of albums - 2013's States, 2015's twelvefour, 2018's On the Train Ride Home, 2018's On the Corner Where You Live, 2021's Roses, and 2023's At the Roadhouse. The most recent album is really, truly lovely. A little groovy, a little folky, a hint of country here and there. But overall it is just super pretty. The top track is "Till the Flame Turns Blue" (which I think is misspelled) with 6.1 million streams.
That steel guitar just adds a layer of mournfulness to the slow groove you get there. Prior to this album, they had some adventures, but this new one feels like a return to form. The 2021 one is a little too Cigarettes After Sex for my tastes. Like slo-mo country-fied Lana Del Rey-hanging-with-Chris Isaak stuff. And it has a million collaborators too, not just the one female singer. The 2018 albums have some John Mayer-style guitars on there and kind of a soft-rock vibe to go along with more acoustic strummed beauties. "Arms" is a standout there. "Never Heard a Sound," from 2013's States sounds like some Crosby Stills Nash and Young from back in the day. I've been just letting this one play all day.
I'd absolutely go see this play live. Feels like a lovely way to spend an afternoon in the middle of the day.
One Liner: Homer Simpson's favorite American band jamming out since 1969.
Wikipedia Genre: hard rock (which is, uh, super not true)
Home: Flint, MI
Poster Position: 13 Weekend Two Only. Saturday at 6:20.
Tito's Tent.
Thoughts: Huh. I have a memory of them playing a live show in some town where I was and thinking what an excellent band name they have. But if you had asked me before just now what they sing, I would have had no clue - some kind of Parliament/Funkadelic/Gap Band/Kool & the Gang-type funky stuff? Nope - despite the name, this is a 70's rock and roll group with several songs that you probably know really well. And some sound super familiar, but I don't think I actually know them. BUT, today I learned that this is Homer Simpson's favorite band.
Homer knows more about this band than I ever will.
They are a funny band, in that some sounds like a tune that would have belonged on the Forrest Gump soundtrack ("Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)"), and then others would have been more at home with Dazed & Confused (We're An American Band"), and each of those soundtracks captured a very different view of an era of rock and roll. Interesting to listen through. Definitely love that Wikipedia calls them hard rock when this is not hard at all.
Originally, the band was named Grand Trunk Railroad, which is apparently a well-known rail line in Michigan. The railroad objected to the use of their name, and so Grand Funk was born. This bit is probably too long, but I enjoyed it, so here is the singer's story of the formation of the band:
"We were actually a five-piece, I was the singer, there were four other musicians (including Brewer), but I wasn't playing anything in that band, the Fabulous Pack (so renamed after Knight had gone). I just stood up front and sang. We got waylaid; we were out in Cape Cod in a summer beach house, a little cabin, and it was winter. We had the worst snowstorm in the history of the world and we got stranded there for weeks in February of 1969. We were melting down snow to have water to drink and mix with our oatmeal that didn't have any butter or sugar and that's all we were living on. These two other players were married. When we got home (to Flint), the two guys that were married, their wives were gonna divorce them and the band broke up. We got all these gigs coming up and now we don't have a band. I said, 'We ought just do a three-piece' and Don said, 'Do you think we can?' And I said, 'If we get the right bass player we can.' We started looking and went out to Delta Promotions in Bay City where this company that sent us out to the Boston area to do these gigs [was located] and we were going to give them a piece of our minds. But while we were sitting in the outer office waiting to get in, there was somebody in their rehearsal hall playing. You couldn't hear it very good, but you could feel the bass coming through the wall and I said, 'Ooh, listen to that bass player, that guy's getting down under that. We gotta see who that is.'
So, they took a break and it was ? and the Mysterians and Mel Schacher was playing bass. Mel and I had grown up together, rode dirt bikes, hung out together and I said, 'Mel, are you playing with him now?' and he said, 'Yeah, but I'm not liking it.' I said, 'Brewer and I were talking about putting together a three-piece. Would you be interested in being the bass player?' He said, 'Hell, yeah, when are you gonna do it?' and I said, 'Next week we're gonna start.'"
They have a lot of music - being that they got their start in 1969, that should make sense. From 1969 to 1976 they were tossing out at least an album a year. And among those six went platinum and seven went gold. But then they broke up in 1976. According to a few things I have read, the critics hated them at every turn, but they were able to crush it anyway by selling out arenas around the world. Which is odd. You'd think that wouldn't work if the critics hated them, but who knows!
Let's get to the tunes. Three of their biggest songs are covers - "Some Kind of Wonderful," "The Loco-Motion," and "Inside Looking Out" - and so even though those may be top streamers, I want you to hear the originals. That leads us to two songs. "We're An American Band," with 76.2 million streams, is from the 1973 album of the same name.
MORE COWBELL!!! The thing that has always gotten me about this tune is how insistent that organ/synth can be during the choruses. Chill the hell out organ guy. I'm trying to groove here. But, classic rock action right there. I'm jamming.
The other big one is "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)" with 21.8 million streams. Because it is ten freaking minutes long, my assumption is that the radio must play an edit, because some of it doesn't ring a bell, but the back half is a classic flute jam from the 70's.
I can see why they wanted to snag that bassist. He's got the juice. "Sin's a Good Man's Brother" is actually a jam. Pretty heavy too. Dig it. Just because this kind of stuff fascinates me, I noted that they are on a Classic Rock Workout mix on Spotify (just an awful mix, by the way) with American Band right in between Judas Priest and Bad Company.
Now, the question is, these dudes are 75-ish years old right? Do they still have the old fastball, or is this going to be like watching the desiccated corpse of a classic rock band still trying to hold on? The lead singer is long gone but the drummer and bassist are still here to jam with some other randos. Okay, maybe not randos, the new lead singer used the be the guy for 38 Special. But their lead guitarist joined the band eight minutes ago and has no Wikipedia entry. I watched a few songs worth of them playing the Foxwoods Casino in January, and I will say the gray-haired people in the audience were major fans. I will also say that from that exemplar, they are loud AF.
I wish I could have seen them 30 years ago instead of now. We'll see how the schedule shakes out, but more than likely, I'll leave this one to Homer.
