The Official ACL Blog for like Eight People!
If you want the daily schedule post, look below at those tabs or down and to the right at the September posts. Have fun!
One Liner: Wanna-be Beastie Boys sound like fun Wikipedia Genre: Punk rap, rap rock, nerdcore, experimental hip-hop, electronica Home: Pennsylvania Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 10 Day: Saturday Both Weekends.
Beatbox Stage at 3:30.
Thoughts: Huh. They are really failing the world with that group name. When you see that name, what do you expect? Some sort of indie bedroom pop? Joey plucking gentle riffs on his guitar while Brae sings wistful lyrics about lost love. NOPE. This is a hip hop duo from Pennsylvania making angry rap action. I hear some Beastie Boys and some Pharcyde and some House of Pain in here.
Strangely enough, that isn't even a real name. Joseph Bertolino (Joey Valence) and Braedan Lugue (Brae). The two met as freshmen at Penn State and after becoming friends started making music together. Their first single dropped in 2021, but their big hit landed in 2022 as a single. "PUNK TACTICS" has 152.6 million streams.
Apparently filmed entirely on a Nintendo DSi. Ridiculous and silly, and yet its pretty damn enjoyable. They released a 2023 album named after that track. This is going to be a fun show, I think. The Internet says that they do a really high energy show with backflips and moshpits. Perfect for the kiddies who haven't been getting enough fun rap stuff on the poster.
Funny thing, after deciding that I liked this and was excited about it, I played it for wife and child #3 yesterday in the car. You know how when you play music for someone else, after you have claimed it is good, and then you start really listening closely to it? You really shouldn't do that with these two goobers. It's fun music that would be a good time at a festival, but it's not something that will ever be critically acclaimed or something to impress your middle-aged wife with.
The top track off of their 2024 album is called "OK" with 15.9 million streams.
Man, if you thought the video shot on the Nintendo was bad... But again, you get some more Beasties-lite action. Yeah, I'd absolutely go and bop along to this mess. It's bound to be a good time.
Wikipedia Genre: indie rock, alternative rock, folk rock Home: Utah Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 5 Weekend One Only.
Saturday.
T-Mobile Stage at 6:15.
Thoughts: Last here in 2021, but way down the poster back then. They've risen considerably, which is only surprising because normally rock and roll is dying and not rising. But literally last time they had one of those kiss-of-death 1:45 on Friday afternoon slots. Now they are somehow on a higher billing than Modest Mouse?!
Digging it. Finally, a little rock and roll in the poster.
Their bio on their management website gives this background story: "The band started when Josh [Harmon], having heard of local drummer Juice Welch, introduced himself and asked if he wanted to start a band. They immediately started working on arrangements for some of Josh's songs. Later Josh met lead guitarist and vocalist Jonas Swanson while waiting in line for an open mic at the Velour in Provo city. Neither of them got on the list to play that night, so they sat on a park bench outside the venue and played their songs to each other until they ran out of stuff to play. Josh invited Jonas to come down and play with him and Juice. It was that night that Out of Tune, a song Josh had been holding onto since he was 16, came to life when they arranged it as a group." That tune has a couple different versions on Spotify, but sounds like a good early example of who they were. 29.2 million streams.
The dudes look like they are 16 years old. Their sound is kind of a Kings of Leon/Strokes sort of thing. And there is someone else that their lead singer reminds me of, but its not coming to me right now. Someone I like, who has that same rough-edged voice at times. He's almost got a Brit sound to him - kind of like the singer from Travis. A little bit of that dude who was supposed to come to ACL but then bailed and I was very sad, uh, the "Hypersonic Missles" guy, uh, Sam Fender! Thanks Google! NO! It just hit my brain like a lightning bolt - this guy reminds me of Benjamin Booker! Another dude I discovered through ACL Fest. Super good. Anyway, after forming, they won a battle of the bands contest at a Provo, Utah venue.
Their first album - 2019's When We Were Friends - is pretty solid - I think their guitarist is legit. One song off of that album has exploded - two other tunes crack 100 million streams, but then "Kilby Girl" is out there with 413.1 million streams.
Yeah buddy. Jangle those jangly guitars right up into my jangle spot. "Intuition" is a good track too, with a cool tempo change. "Heavy" is a good one too. I'll give you one more, their second-most streamed at 156.6 million. "Maple Syrup" (although this is an acoustic version, on a sailboat, with a pretty sunset going on in the background).
It's hard to see his mouth, but it feels like the music doesn't match the video, which would seem impossible to do. Either way, a nice version of the tune.
After that, one more album, 2022's Waiting to Spill. Interestingly, at least to me, only two tracks from that disc have made their way into the band's top ten on Spotify. I guess people just dig the first disc. For me, not sure why. I mean, nothing here is as catchy as "Kilby," but it is still a solid disc of rock and roll pleasure. Maybe its a little more chill overall, but I still enjoy. "Growing/Dying" is the top streamer with 24.3 million spins.
So, I have a plant on my windowsill in my office that exemplifies that really well - seems like it is always an inch from death before another little leaf pops out. I got the plant after it protected President Joe Biden one time. Which sounds very strange but is entirely true. I'd absolutely go see this show. Hell, if they played an aftershow one night, I'd be up for going to see them in a smaller venue.
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but like an indie pop
Home: Concord, NH (via Taiwan/Hong Kong)
Poster Position: Late Addition Day: Friday Weekend One Only.
Ladybird Stage at 2:00
Thoughts: For the first time that I can recall, when I searched for this fella, the top biographical result is an article by his high school - St. Paul's School in Concord, NH. Class of '18. It notes that he is/was a third-year computer science and archeology student at Brown University. A fascinating dichotomy between the past and the future with those majors. He also calls his music "spicy flannel rock." I'd say it sounds like what an American Idol contestant makes after coming in tenth (and no, I don't think he was on the show). He split his childhood between Taipei and Hong Kong before moving to the U.S. for high school (as a "Third Former," in the description from his school, although I dunno what that means and don't care enough to look it up).
Two albums - 2020's The Raspberry Men, 2023's Ginkgo - a handful of EPs, and an appearance on that Bebe Stockwell album that I just listened to earlier today. Another bio claims that he is a descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which is pretty slick. But probably more important to him right this minute, he won second place in the John Lennon Songwriter's Award from BMI in 2023. I was trying to find other winners that I recognized, but no such luck without serious digging. Top track is "House We Share" from the 2023 album, with 2.6 million streams.
His description of the song was that this song is about how attentive and wonderful at tending house he was when his relationship started, and then how that slipped as the relationship melted. I guess I missed the part where he stopped making three course meals and chopping firewood.
His second-most streamed is from his first release, and EP from 2017 called The Indigo Tapes. "The Wandering Mind" has 1.7 million streams.
[extreme Italian voice] Thatsa spicy flannel! It is fine. I don't dislike it by any means, it just feels to me like a nice little space filler that was added to the poster after the bookers realized that they needed to fill some more time. I am always hoping for a big time addition here at the last minute, but usually it will be more like this fella. I'm probably good.
One Liner: Raucous but fun punk rock from a pack of Aussie girls Wikipedia Genre: riot grrrl, punk rock, post-grunge Home: Canberra, Australia Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 21 Day: Sunday Weekend Two Only.
Thoughts: Hell of a band name right there. Also, I wonder who decided just how many r's should go into the genre name for "riot grrrl"? Two seems like it would have gotten us there, and four seems like it could have been a fun option. Three would not have been my first choice.
This foursome was formed in 2015 by 15 year old girls who went to school together in a suburb of Canberra, Australia. When I was eight, I got to visit Canberra, the lovely capital of Australia. I recall absolutely nothing of it, other than when we were on the road from Sydney to Canberra a flock of sheep took over the entire highway and we had to wait for the shepherds to move all eighty billion of those sheep out of the way for our big ass tour bus to continue. Anyway, the band released their first single in 2019 and was named as a Triple J Unearthed feature artist. Pretty sweet for a bunch of teenagers. Since then, they've gotten to open for the Foo Fighters (2023) and Pearl Jam (2025). That would have been funny if I had already seen them before, but they were not on the Austin bill.
My first comparison was Wet Leg, probably because I have been listening to a lot of Wet Leg. But as I have kept going in this catalog, I think I'd compare it more to The Beaches (here last year) or something more punky like Cherry Glazerr (who was here a few years ago). It's good fun. A 2022 EP called Pretty Good for a Girl Band and 2 2023 album called I Love You (which includes the songs from the earlier EP). So, not a ton of output for a decade-old band. The top track is on both of those - helpfully titled "AHHHH!" 5.1 million streams. And again, why four h's? Is there a proper number of h's to create the sound of screaming? Wouldn't more h's add to the allure of that song name? I don't know.
That seems like an excellent song to yell along to at the top of your lungs while seeing this band live. Pogo jumping all over and yelling WAHOEWAAAAOOOHHAAAAAWWW! over and over. Good fun - and the breakdown and riffage at around 1:38 jams. Rip it up, little teenage Aussie bras. "Girl Sports" is a good one too. The second-most streamed is "I Used to Be Fun," with 3.5 million streams.
"I used to be fun, until they took my car away." Stupid parents, man. They don't understand.
Yeah, this band is a good time. Even if their name is a mouthful that will be hard to say correctly when I try to remember what I recommend in a month and someone asks, but it is fun business. WEEKEND TWO ONLY IS BOLLOCKS!!!
Wikipedia Genre: Future bass, deep house, trap Home: Boulder, CO Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8 Both Weekends.
Sunday at 5:15 on the Miller Lite Stage.
Thoughts: I am hopeful that the stage name here is about cocaine. That feels like it tracks, right? I am a big fan of his Wikipedia entry though, because it contains a total of about 50 words. Which also seems correct - generic EDM guy that no one will remember in a year? Sure, why write a lot about him?
Thadeus Francis Labuszewski was raised in Colorado and attended CU Boulder. He started making EDM in high school after hearing a Skrillex album. He appears to have a ton of songs on his Spotify, but I am 90% sure I have been listening to the same one for the past few hours. First single was 2019's Honey. Biggest early hit was a remix/cover of Taylor Swift's "Love Story" with something called Cassidi singing. Biggest hit overall is the 2022 single "Baby Girl" with 204.7 million streams.
Sure. I could groove to that. No albums, just singles. Also no other song with more than 100 million streams. Closest one is a 2025 single called "No Broke Boys." 92.5 million streams.
Features something called Tinashe. I suspect that is the lady in the forefront of that image above, who needs a new t-shirt. Google's jenky AI agreed with my idea that this stage name is likely a play on the act of consuming lines of cocaine.
Also, and of course because I am about to cite Reddit, who knows if there is any truth here, but apparently this guy doesn't even really do anything on stage. "Last week I saw a DJ who’s been blowing up on social media, namely TikTok and Instagram. His name is Disco Lines and he’s gotten a ton of traction on a few of his remixes and songs and was playing a party I went to. Dude gets on stage and straight up plays 4 songs in a row that the opener had played 30 minutes before him. Just your generic EDM hits, like pepas, pursuit of happiness steve aoki, you know the drill. I go up near him and I see that sync is on his controller. I ask him if he plays his sets with sync on and he’s like yeah and laughs."
So that I could understand, the "sync" button is apparently a feature in DJ software that automatically synchronizes the tempo and beat of two tracks, so that you can create a seamless transition between the two. Many folks see that as cheating because you are not showing any DJ skill - the machine is doing it all.
Not that any of this really matters - people aren't going to these EDM shows because they want to see a guy creating something. They just want to watch a guy or gal pump their fist in the air, act like they are tweaking knobs on a sound board, and get the crowd hype. He's probably great at it!
One Liner: Yummy, vibey Noah Kahan-esque tunes Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie Home: New Orleans (or maybe back home to Vermont?) Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 15 Day: Sunday Weekend Two Only.
T-Mobile Stage at 12:45.
Thoughts: "Eeeh! Sorry Hans, wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change?"
My first thought when I saw the name wasn't actually Hans Gruber, it was that this was the guy who wrote the Star Wars and Indiana Jones theme songs. But that was wrong. I was conflating Hans Zimmer (Lion King, Dune, Gladiator, Pirates of the Carribean, Dark Knight trilogy, and many more) with John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, E.T. Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, and many more). THEN, about halfway through his first song I had to look and make sure I hadn't accidentally played Noah Kahan instead of this fella.
Dude is from Vermont. Maybe everyone from Vermont sounds the same? A bio I read said that he started making music in the third grade and would hand out CDs after school. Which is hilarious. I would have taken one and thrown it so hard at some kid waiting for his mom, I'd still be in trouble in middle age. He got some tunes on Spotify and had more than a million streams before graduating high school. He moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane and kept at it, writing his first hit about a student on his dorm floor who committed suicide. Heavy shit. Thankfully for my brain, that is not a top track.
No albums, just one 2024 EP called More Than One Way Home. The hit from that one is also his second-most streamed track overall - "Skin" has 23.6 million streams.
Bro. Is that the same field and house that Noah Kahan is standing in front of on his Stick Season album cover? Vermont-ass weirdos. Only one house in that state. Anyway, very pleasant little indie bop right there. Good vibe.
The bigger tune is a 2022 single called "All is Well," and you'll notice that he keeps the style rolling over time. 53.4 million streams.
Dude looks 14. But another cute, little strummy nugget of pleasant indie. Also, I want to go wander around that ferny little gully with him. That looks nice. Also, wonderful set of lyrics - the "if I get overwhelmed, I'm sure you'll never know, keep it to myself, all is well" bit of the chorus hits home.
I threw this on in the car just now, and the kiddo and wife agreed with my NK comparison. But also, it helped to realize that some of the top songs are different for sure - like "93" has a drum machine beat going on in the background of the guitar. I like the organic things better.
I'd go check this out - too bad it is weekend two only!
One Liner: One of the Stranger Things actors making good psych and indie rock.
Wikipedia Genre: neo-psychedelia, indie rock, psychedelic rock, synth-pop Home: L.A. (born in Massachusetts, college in Chicago, but he's bound to live in L.A. now, right?) Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 2 Both Weekends.
Saturday.
Ladybird Stage at 7:30
Thoughts: He was supposed to come in 2022, but he actually bailed at the last minute. On Insta, he shared a cryptic message saying that an unfortunate last minute scheduling conflict is causing him to miss. But it was a month and a half prior to the Fest. What is last minute? You've got a month and a half to get it fixed! But, since then, he has grown significantly in popularity.
Before I understood who this was, I was slightly confused. Here was my digging into that in 2022... Always fun to have someone like this on the poster, where I get to find out that Djo is a Portugese futsal player, DJO is a manufacturer of medical devices (headquartered in Lewisville, Texas!), DJO High is Bishop Denis J. O'Connell High School (high school of Eric Metcalf!), Djo d'Eloy is a Cape Verdean singer (whose greatest song is "Arriola"!), Djo Mpeko is a footballer (a defender for the Girabola!), Djo Tunda Wa Munga is a film director (winner of the 2011 MTV Music Awards for Best African Movie!), AND HE IS ALSO THE OLDER BROTHER IN STRANGER THINGS!?!?!
Of all the things I did not expect to happen today, way way way high on the list would be to click on the listing for Djo and see that it is the stage name for Joe Keery's music career, when he is not starring as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things or the movie Free Guy or the fifth season of Fargo (as a super psycho Sheriff Deputy). Fascinating. He went to DePaul University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting. In his musical career, he apparently started out by releasing music under the name Cool Cool Cool, but then became a guitarist for a band called Post Animal for a few albums. According to one interview I read, he said that the fame from Stranger Things made that weird because the rest of the band didn't want to just be the "guy from Stranger Things" band - but they've stayed friends and he's gotten their help on making his solo album. In 2019, he started releasing music under the Djo name.
And you know what? It's actually pretty solid! Kinda low key indie psych rock. Think super basic Tame Impala. One song, which I have heard in the interim on the radio a good bit, is for sure the megahit with 1.58 BILLION streams. Damn. "End of Beginning."
Good, chill, nugget for me. I dig the groove. Part of me wanted to come to this post with the angle of whether or not he would have gotten this far on the ACL poster if he wasn't the Stranger Things guy. Like, would he have separated himself from the other indie rock out there without that slice of pop culture notoriety? Almost like a nepo-baby thing, but instead of a famous mom, being cast on a wildly popular show. But after churning through these songs for a day, this is legitimate. I dig it.
Well, then I have to say that the 2020 single "Keep Your Head Up" is not my favorite. Too much falsetto, too much saxophone, too much squelchy synths. The stuff from the 2019 album Twenty Twenty is much better. The second most streamed tune from that album, called "Roddy," has 102.4 million streams.
Pretty good tune - nothing particularly stands out in there, but good guitar and vocals and a nice little groove. The synth voice thing in the middle, straight out of Ferris Bueller, is a little weird, but otherwise it is a solid tune. "Chateau (Feel Alright)" is the other big song, with 142.9 million streams and a similarly woozy rock sound.
Nice chill tune. Brings me some Beck vibes. "Mutual Future" has some Strokes vibes, but also some jam band guitarage near the end. "BNBG," with its ridiculous outro of repeatedly saying "babygirl," is a massively cringe inducing moment. "Personal Lies" kicks in with a pop rock swagger, but then devolves into a spacey meander. I like it.
After that disc, you get 2022's DECIDE, which includes that mega-hit posted up above. Nothing else on there comes anywhere close to that level of excitement. The top song otherwise has 33 million streams. Finally, you get 2025's The Crux, which is pretty good as well. The title song has a Beatles piano ballad vibe to it. The bigger song is "Basic Being Basic," but I like "Delete Ya" much better. 20.4 million streams.
Again, nice groove to go with a catchy tune. Sort of a The Cars vibe in there to my ear.
I'm in. A little shocked at that decision with where my head was pointed when I started this, but I like it.
One Liner: Very catchy pop punk action Wikipedia Genre: pop punk, alternative rock Home: Oxford, England Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 23 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only.
BMI Stage at 1:30.
Thoughts: Nice to be pleasantly surprised as I troll around the dregs of the poster. Not that many songs really, and so I feel like I've heard some of them five times in just the last few hours. Regardless, the mix of alt rock and a poppy vocal is kind of fun. Like, you know how Linkin Park added a new female vocalist to take Bennington's spot? This is like if Britney Spears took over the singing duty and didn't try to scream her way into it.
No actual albums, just singles and a few EPs. The biggest track, by stream-count, has played several times, and I always look up from my work and notice at the same time. It made me laugh out loud a few minutes ago to realize I had done it again. "HOW 2 GET AWAY WITH MURDER" has 9.1 million streams.
At first, for me, those voice effects are a turnoff, but then I get caught up in how damn catchy that pop punk flavoring is. It's that throwdown around 2:25 that catches me up every time.
The band itself is from Oxford, England and was formed in 2021 at university in Guildford. They apparently named themselves after a sign they saw in a shopping mall called Westgate Oxford. They released a few singles that got a little traction, but then their band rehearsals at BBC Radio 1's studio went viral for some reason on the TikketyTok. Their own cited inspirations? Avril Lavigne, Gwen Stefani, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park. Maybe that is a better pull than Britney - this is like if Stefani was brattily singing for Linkin Park. Sometimes, I hear Miley Cyrus as well (like on "Supermodels").
This one is the biggest streamer from their 2024 EP, "2005," with 8.6 million streams.
Tasty, crunchy riffs will open the door to me anytime. And so even when those vocals get a little too cutesy, I'm still over here biting my lip and nodding along. I spent all weekend out in North Carolina, enjoying some nice weather and good company with some friends. These songs kept popping into my brain - they are just super catchy for my brain!
One Liner: Kings of Leon-esque rock and roll from LSU Tigers Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is rock and roll Home: Baton Rouge Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 20 Day: Sunday Weekend Two Only.
BMI Stage at 5:15 (they get the top show for that stage, interesting)
Thoughts: I saw a great license plate the other day that said SWMPOND and decided that Swim Pond is a pretty great band name. Brings to mind summertime innocence and cannonballs and sun-dappled coolness in nature. That obviously has nothing to do with this band, but I absolutely immediately think of Radiohead when I see this band name. No way not to.
But, this is not a Radiohead band at all. This is The Kings of Leon, if the Kings of Leon were from Baton Rouge and only had four songs. Also of note, Earl Sweatshirt and Mr. Bungle also had songs called The Bends. Sort of makes me laugh to think that maybe Radiohead named their hit after a Mr. Bungle song that came out in the same year. But having a name that sounds like a hugely popular album makes it harder to find information about these bros. Also, there is a Radiohead tribute band called The Bends (the "Midwest's premier Radiohead tribute band"!), which similarly makes this harder. Looks like there are other tribute bands using that name as well.
But these dudes met at LSU with two childhood friends linking up with two other fellas to make rock and roll. They got notoriety playing college bars and whatnot, selling out the cool-ass venue there called The Varsity. The top song of their extensive four-song catalog is "Makeup." 2.2 million streams.
Stone cold KOL from the first lick. I like it though. KOL is a great band to get compared to! Maybe they will release an album by the time they come to town - sort of reminds me of that West 22nd band who was at the Fest last year and was pretty solid. I'd go check this out.
One Liner: Like a college town bar band broke loose to bring old school rock and roll back Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is classic rock and roll Home: Fayetteville, AR Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 26 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only.
Tito's Tent at 1:00.
Thoughts: Aaaaaand the award for the worst band name on the poster goes to .....
Very strange, hitting play on the first song makes me feel like I am listening to one of those Yacht Rock playlists where they try to go crazy deep into the genre and you are hearing songs for the first time (when your goal in clicking on that playlist was to hear Steely Dan and Michael McDonald classics). According to the Fayetteville Flyer website, Fayetteville musicians such as these fellows are having a HUGE moment right now. Definitely, as indicated by this band being the absolute last one on the poster for Saturday.
The band started up right at the worst possible time - March 2020. They were doing masked shows with the social distance thing going on, so they were definitely stubborn about it all. Ted says that he had been writing songs for a long time but couldn't find people to play with him, so he put out a solo album in high school where he played all the instruments himself. he also says that they play rock and roll with emphasis on the roll. Ugh. But he also says that this is intended to be classic rock and roll. I agree.
Also, if you have never been to Fayetteville, it is dope. I was really hoping that the boy would end up there for college, but he picked Knoxville instead. But it is a great college town with a lot of cool character and outdoors stuff. I dug it.
Two albums - 2022's Out of Context and 2024's Shouting in Small Rooms. Two songs in their catalog have more than 10k streams. Several songs on the albums have no recorded streams. But honestly some of these tunes are cool. "Drive With Me" comes on like some long-lost Stones track being played by a Black Crowes cover band. But "Give Me a Call" is the top streamer, and from the new album. 12k streams.
You hear that yacht rock flavor I mentioned? The problem with choosing to go see these guys is that their show will likely be at noon on Saturday. "Walk Away" has a little reggae-ness and sounds like it was maybe an early track from when they were just learning.
One Liner: WEST TEXAS DIRTGAZE Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but Brooklyn Vegan said "slowcore, post-rock, alt-country, ’90s alt-rock and emo" which is quite a lot. Home: Houston Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 26 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only.
T-Mobile Stage at 12:45.
Thoughts: Shallowater, Texas is a tiny town with less than 3,000 people up near Lubbock, Texas. However, this is a Houston band who called their music West Texas dirtgaze. I really like that description, because I'm hearing some shoegazey sort of elements, but also some grimy, dirty rock and roll as well. Like, if Neil Young asked Hotline TNT to back him up on some new tunes his nephew had written.
According to one website, the band is actually from Lubbock, but is just based in Houston now. I can't tell if they met at Tech or not, but I now know that they are Skipper (vocals), Tristan (bass) and Ryan (drums). And listening is very simple because they only have a 2024 album and then one single that is an acoustic version of one song from the album. So, you won't get bogged down by too many tunes here!
The top track, unsurprisingly, is the one that was later made into an acoustic version. "Angels" fires up 263k streams.
Opening lines just draw me right in - "when I woke up from dreaming / all I saw was clay / windshield is useless / on a day like today." Did he wake up in the passenger seat during a foul west Texas storm? And the guitar solo in the midst of it, where the song opens up and blooms into something louder and larger and livelier, is delicious. And the final line throwback to classic country from Kitty Wells. The title song sounds kind of like butt, but otherwise this is a good disc.
Oh, they literally released a new song since I started listening to these guys yesterday. Maybe I was the first person in the history of the world to listen to it. You can't guarantee I wasn't. "Highway" comes on very quiet and chill, and, as with many of these songs, ramps up to a fire. "Birdshot" is the second-most streamed though, with a raucous guitar line to fire up any listener. 171k streams.
Fascinating way to start an entire album - "here is some music that is so quiet you may be unsure if you hit play! Oh, no, wait, now let's melt faces!" Too bad they are weekend two only, because I'd sign up to see it happen in person.
One Liner: Oddball R&B gal from Minnesota Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but R&B, pop, synth pop, hip hop Home: Minneapolis, MN Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 23 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only.
BMI Stage at 3:15.
Thoughts: From the name and the flavor of the first song, I thought this was a Brit for sure. Nope. Minnesotan! Just like no one thought! Funny that I just talked about Gwen Stefani in the last post, and now "Hug My Throat" has a bratty sound like Stefani talking about Harajuku Girls.
No Wikipedia, and honestly not many good articles that really dig into her background, so I will just give you this slightly unhinged comment she made when she was asked about how she came up with a song called "My Baby Loves Me."
I love dissecting this world. I really have for a long time built a world, and I kind of want to take you through the journey of it real quick. It's pretty fun to talk about, but it kind of helps with all the projects I've put and where it's going. And I'll probably say this a few times, because I think it helps anybody at any time, get on the bandwagon, but understand me a little bit more. I'm a very visual thinker, and so I think of like, okay, boom — Alice in Wonderland. I'm in a field, it's beautiful, there's flowers everywhere. And then I'm reading my book, my cat is probably doing his thing, climbing up the tree. I'm like, "Get out of the tree!" I'm very in my element. And that is Free Form, my first mixtape. That is just me, free flowing, free forming, just kind of being who I am, what I am, in this space. And then it starts to get a little cold, and I'm like, "Oh, I should probably bundle up, figure out my next move. I can't lay here forever." And so on that journey of just being like, "Alright, my consciousness is starting to need a plan. Something is happening." That's my next mixtape, NO GMO. So I'm kind of going, I see this river. I like to say chocolate, because I like to add a little pizzazz. And so I'm like, "Let me get on this river." I get on a boat that's going down the river, and there's a map in it. And I'm like, "Oh! Okay." I hold the map up, that's my EP Antenna. So now I'm like, "Okay, I have directions, an antenna. I have something calling to me to do what I'm supposed to do. I felt it earlier from NO GMO, and I was building from Free Form." So I'm like, moving the map around, upside down, looking at it. I'm like, okay, North West, South — okay, period. I'm like, "I should probably get off the river, because the map is telling me that." I get off the river, I continue to follow the map. And then the map takes me to this door, and I look down, and the place mat in front of the door says, "Are We There Yet?" And that's my last EP. Because now it's kind of at a point where like, "Okay, well, this is the map takes me, takes me right here, like, are we there yet? I think we might be!" So I look inside the keyhole. Hence, "My Baby Loves Me" at the beginning, when I started doing content, you saw a keyhole, then it zoomed in, and I look in, I'm like, "Okay! I see some in there." I open up the door, and that is going to be my next project. So that's gonna be my debut album.
Wow. Yeah, sure, now it all makes complete sense.
As you may have surmised from that diatribe, she has yet to release a real album. 2018 mixtape called Free Form Mixtape, the 2019 NO GMO Mixtape, the 2021 Antenna EP, the 2024 EP called Are We There Yet, and then some more singles that will maybe be about her keyhole and what you can see inside when you drop acid and read her interviews.
Top track is a single that then made it onto the Antenna EP. "Body Move" with 6.3 million streams.
Speaking of taking acid - do not walk toward the talking tree with the big mouth, girl. I am guessing this was a minor TikTok hit to get it those streams, because I don't hear anything great to keep around. She was apparently classically trained in opera and jazz, which is kind of wild as I listen to her rap about boning in a backseat. She caught the eye of Lizzo and got to open some shows for her on tour a few years ago.
Second-biggest streamer is from the debut mixtape, "Baby Pillz" has 4.5 million streams and a deeper electronica sound.
She's got a good voice and a pretty face, but I just don't care for the actual songs themselves. By the way, she claims her fanbase are called Dizzerts. Which made me grin. Not my jam, but I can definitely see how the combination of oddball stuff and her great voice could appeal to others.
One Liner: Pretty great southern rock/red dirt country in the vein of Turnpike/Flatland Wikipedia Genre: No real Wikipedia for the band, but Red dirt country, southern rock Home: Stillwater, OK Poster Position: Last Quarter - Line 22 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only.
BMI Stage at 5:15.
Thoughts: Southall is a section of London, but in this instance is the current name of what used to be known as the Read Southall Band. They are an American country rock band from Stillwater, OK formed by Read Southall that sounds very much like Flatland Cavalry to me. Rolling Stone did an article in 2023 that I am not allowed to read because of dumb paywalls, but I can see that they are referencing the explosion of Oklahoma country acts that was presaged by Zach Bryan's rise to fame. In that article, they cite to Southall, Wyatt Flores, Kaitlin Butts, and Lance Roark. Flores and Butts have already played Two Step, and are great stuff, so now we get another slice of this world.
Five albums - 2015's Six String Sorrow, 2017's Borrowed Time, 2018's live album, 2021's For the Birds, and then, after the re-branding, 2023's Southall. Let's go old school with the first one. That second album boasts five of their most popular tracks, but "Why" crushes all the others with 124.2 million streams.
Almost sounds like Kaitlin Butts is the harmony-singer on there, like in a bunch of the old Flatland tunes. Good, if very sad, song about losing love. Also, the comments are very sad - loads of people being like "damn, I screwed up with you and I'm sorry and now when I hear this song I'm just so damn sorry." The early single "Clean Slate" is also very good.
I watched a nugget of a documentary called Southall or Nothing, which is super generic and silly. "Man, as long as you are real to yourself, bro, you get what you give, man." But they did note that the band, when the name changed, went from Read being more in charge to it being the whole band giving their input and being involved. Sounds like a good thing to my ears. Looks like maybe they record in an old church? The video did a bad job of actually explaining this.
For the next, let's go with the new sound of the revamped and renamed band. This is "Scared Money" with just about 4 million streams and a real video!
A little more southern rock than Red Dirt in that one. Like Lynyrd Skynyrd on training wheels. I also heard both "Tulsa Time" and Jason Isbell's "Super 8." Also on that new disc, "Out Alive" comes on a little like grunge, maybe if Kings of Leon was covering Soundgarden. "DLTGYD" is almost metal underneath.
I played this for the wife last night as we drove to dinner and she was in. I really like it.
One Liner: Solo-ish guy dropped the DIY and now makes the best kind of confessional rock and roll. Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, lo-fi Home: Leesburg, VA (but now in Seattle) Poster Position: First Quarter - Line 6 Day: Saturday Weekend Two Only (SADNESS).
T-Mobile Stage at 4:00.
Thoughts: Saw him/them when they were last here in 2017 and it was a great show. Well, I'll readily admit that their charisma is not their strong suit, but the tunes themselves were excellent.
Overall, I love this dude. The backstory on the main guy (Will Toledo) is that he would go make his music in the back seat of his old car, and so he named the band after the thing that he looked at the whole time. Makes for kind of a clunky band name, but if you just get over that and jam 2016's Teens of Denial, you'll be on board. At first, he was self-releasing stuff on Bandcamp, but since then he's been putting out legit albums with a full band that sounds like R.E.M. or Replacements grew up listening to Black Flag or The Smiths. The early tapes are not the stuff I'm in love with - very DIY and lo-fi - but 2015's Teens of Style and then 2016's Teens of Denial are the stuff you want to start with in my opinion.
2015's Teens of Style boasts "Something Soon" as its second-most listened-to track, at 12.2 million streams.
Those Beach Boys harmonies are killer, as is the entire tune. I'm a fan of that thing. When I originally looked at this album, I decided that the effects on his voice were annoyingly overused. I'll still go with that, but I like the album more now with time.
The next album is the even better one, that made my top ten albums of the year list and still jams. This album is actually really great. Teens of Style was more lo-fi and dissolved, but this one has a real cohesive alt-rock/garage rock sound kind of Replacements-y ("Fill In the Blank") and sometimes Strokes-y ("Vincent") and sometimes R.E.M.-y (aspects of many of these songs) enough to be really cool sounding. Several great songs that I still play even years after my first look at this disc - "Fill in the Blank," with 42.7 million streams, and "Destroyed by Hippie Powers," with 25.3 million streams - are both great tunes. Crunchy grungy goodness. The breakdown and re-smashing at 4:20 in that latter song freaking rules (and includes cow bell). But, the streaming winner is "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales" with 65.6 million streams.
It's the second verse that kills me, before the harder tune kicks in at 3:18, which is also extra cool. "It's too late to articulate it, That empty feeling, You share the same fate as the people you hate, You build yourself up against others' feelings, And it left you feeling empty as a car coasting downhill, I have become such a negative person, It was all just an act, It was all so easily stripped away." and then "IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!" I'm fully prepared to yell my throat raw to that line in concert.
A likely useless aside that just popped into my head. I went to a tiny college, where drinking was a pretty regular part of passing the time. One drinking game in particular, named "Drunk Driver," was painfully ripe for cheating, and I can recall abusing Stephen with it when he was already too hammered to see me switching out the cards on him. Sorry, buddy. Glad you still talk to me.
This whole album is excellent. "Unforgiving Girl (She's Not An)" was the first moment when I realized that this sounded very much like mid-80's R.E.M., mainly from the guitar strummage. "Destroyed by Hippie Powers" jams, especially when it breaks down into quiet at about 3:50 and then cow bell kicks in with full band roar to fire up the remainder of the song at 4:21. "Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (but Says This Isn't a Problem)" wins the title contest and also rocks out after the intro portion. Just go queue this album up on Spotify and check it out.
So, the band was originally just Will Toledo doing experimental stuff on his own. Strangely, Toledo's real name is William Barnes. At first, he recorded as 63rd Fret, Nervous Young Men, and Mr. Yay Okay, before finding his new identity. After a year at Virginia Commonwealth, he transferred to William & Mary and released an album called Twin Fantasy. We will talk more about that album later. But, of note to here, he graduated, moved to Seattle, signed to Matador Records, and put together a full four-piece band as of 2015 (when those two above albums became the thing). So, it is a good thing he grabbed the full band!
In 2018, they re-recorded the Twin Fantasy disc with the full band, and released it back out to the public. It is great. I'd love to go talk to 10 year old Jack right about now, to let him know that someday, you'll listen to more than just R.E.M. and U2 and Midnight Oil, and instead you'll listen to a handful of bands where their band names sound like some complicated list of phrases you need to use the next time you play MadLibs. This post is especially on point. So, as a reminder, this album was actually released in 2011, to little fanfare. If I ever heard the original tunes, I have no recollection, but these version are freaking good. Like his last kickass album, this is full of 90's buzz bin fuzzbox guitars and his plaintive singing, but this one sounds like lyrics to a lost lover or crush. The track they kept playing on the radio a few years back is no where near the top tune by now, which is always interesting to me. "Nervous Young Inhumans" is that one, with 12.5 million streams, and it shows off some Beach Boy harmonies and 80's synths added in to the buzzy rock sound.
For some reason, that video is only 3:07 long, while the track on the album is 5:26. I guess that is the more popular single edit, which is probably actually a good thing, because the last few minutes of the real track are of Toledo mumbling a long spoken-word screed. The other track that rules is "Beach Life-in-Death," but it is 13:19 minutes long, which is a little long for the blog. But it rules, like a multi-part song that builds and jams, then mellows out, and then builds even higher with the power pop, super-yellable chorus "the ocean washed over your grave!" That line gets mirrored again in "Famous Prophets (Stars)," the other crazy long tune (16:10). This album is very good. The actual streaming champ from the album is "Sober to Death" with 71.4 million streams.
Kind of a brutal lost love song. "Take my hands off your neck and / Hold on to the ghost of your body / I know that good lives make bad stories."
Finally, we get 2020's Making a Door Less Open. This one lands out of left field, a little bit. The album literally includes an EDM beat drop ("Deadlines (Thoughtful)") to go along with his normal indie rock tunes. At first, that track sounds more like an LCD Soundsystem tune, before the true EDM-ness pops in. Which, at first, was a major turnoff, and now that I've heard it a few more times, got me kind of fired up. I just danced so hard in my crappy home office chair I worried it might crack. Same with "Famous," where at first the heavy electronics pushed me away, but after repeat streams I've started grooving it. But he still does good rock and roll licks, like the opening to "Hollywood," which I want to tattoo on my eardrum. And "Deadlines (Hostile)" is back to the normal bashing indie rock that he did so well on his previous discs. I figured that "Must Be More Than Blood" would be the hit track, with its loopy, laid back sound, but it's actually "Can't Cool Me Down," which feels like something Napoleon Dynamite should do a sweet dance routine to. 12.7 million streams (the only track on here that breaks 8 figures).
"What's With You Lately" is odd, in that it's like a minute long and sounds like an out-of-place b-side from a Grave Dancer's Union session. The one that goes a little too much on the electro side is "Hymn - Remix," which I could do without here. But overall, I still really like this album.
Now, the sadness seeps in because they are only slated for second weekend. Maybe we can convince Riize to drop out of the Fest and we can just slot these dudes into their space first weekend. WHO SAYS NO?!?!
Her jenky statement she gave on social media says: "Unfortunately, I will not be performing at Austin City Limits this year. When I made the commitment I didn’t know exactly when Vie [her next album] would be released. I’ve been working on finalizing the album, making videos, taking the time to put together an album campaign that I am really excited about, and it’s become clear to me that I cannot give you guys the show you deserve within this time frame. Thank you to the ACL team for their support and I hope to see you all again soon when the time is right. I’m forever grateful for the opportunity.”
That is some bullhonkey. I had no clue that it was going to take time to release a new album, and so now I can't come perform for an hour and a half? I'm sure no other artist who has ever been to ACL was also releasing a new album in the month prior to the show! That is super freaking annoying, even if it actually is good news for me because now the Killers will be here instead.
One Liner: Top shelf raunchy pop with raps that sound like Nicki Minaj
Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, pop, R&B, pop rap Home: L.A. Poster Position: HEADLINER! Both Weekends.
Sunday at 8:30 on the AmEx Stage.
Thoughts: If you would have asked me when she was last here, I would have said 2 years. Ends up it was 2021. However, even though I previously wrote about her, I could not tell you a single song that she does or tell you if she has been in the news cycle at all in the years since then. I am pretty much just going to use the last post I wrote about her, with some thoughts about new music at the end.
I feel like this is going to be a post where someone tells me to stay in my lane. I've never understood the appeal of what little I have heard from Doja Cat. I recall seeing some sort of Twitter dust up about her years ago and going to check out a few tracks, and feeling underwhelmed. More recently, when my teenage daughter saw this lineup, she was excited about seeing Doja on there, so I have a feeling this is going to be a show I don't need to attend. But, I just wrote all of that before diving into her music at all. Let's go on a voyage of musical discovery, shall we?
Real name is Amalaratna Dlamini. According to Wikipedia, she caught viral fame in 2018 as an internet meme when "Mooo!" became a thing about her claiming to be a cow. Freaking weird, man. She was born in L.A. in 1995, to a Jewish mother and South African father. He was apparently a Broadway performer who ended up on tour and abandoned his family before moving back to Africa. Doja has accused him of being a deadbeat and that she has never met him. At one point, she joined a professional poplocking troupe in high school. Which is a very funny thing to say. She ended up dropping out of high school to pursue music. She started surfing the internet all day, finding beats to add vocals to and uploading things to Soundcloud.
"Kiss Me More" is her top single, with a whopping 2.170 BILLION steams (up from 530 million streams in 2021). It features SZA, FYI. One interesting thing about the current state of music is that I have definitely never heard this song before. Released in 2021 and apparently very popular. It feels like a massively popular song from 1995 would have been inescapable, even if I didn't listen to that particular genre's radio station. Like, I wasn't searching out Mariah Carey back in the day, but I sure as hell heard a bunch of her songs a million times. But, this single is a pretty good little pop song.
Catchy, danceable groove. And the lyrics kinda made me grin. Also won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo Performance. Nothing ground-breaking or new to any of it, but perfectly pleasant dance pop. But the lyrics are also a little nasty - and a few songs later, I'm realizing that she got a penchant for some nasty lyrics. "Dick" (I know, the title should have fully explained this) would make a great companion piece with "WAP" in the Fox News Moral Freakout Broadcast. A lot of these tunes sing explicitly about her P and the action it receives.
Oh, wait, I recognize one of these - "Say So" has a dumb number of streams too - 1.307 billion (up from 806 million in 2021) - and is a fun little disco party that feels tailor made to do some serious roller skating to. Oh! I thought that Nicki Minaj was on that track - Doja's raps sound just like she is copying Nicki. Interesting. The groove and funk of that track is very fun. Again, sounds like something that Dua Lipa started before.
Interesting (to me at least) aside here - I saw something on Twitter not long ago - one of those question prompts where someone throws out a prompt and then waits for everyone to respond with their answer. Said something to the effect of "what was a lie the older generation told us." And someone I follow answered with "that disco sucks." Which stuck in my head for two reasons. One, because I think that's true. Disco is flipping fun and catchy and groovy and funky. Two, because I saw a response that stuck in my head saying that it was racism that caused people to start claiming that disco sucked, as white folks tried to destroy the popular black music of the time. Fascinating. But glad it is on the comeback swing right now, because more fun is a good thing to me.
Four albums - I think the first one is the one that put me off of her in the first place. 2018's Amala starts with an ode to cunnilingus and never really moves on from that sort of crass subject matter. The big track is "Candy," with 631.2 million streams (2021 count was 207.4).
I always find it interesting when a hit song doesn't get a video made to go along with it. Seems like, once this one blew up, they would have come along afterwards and made a visual for people to see. Pretty good track - the bass is great and the sugary innuendo is legit.
She's been controversial for a long time, but in 2020 she was "cancelled" (temporarily, it would appear) for some bad acting. "While videos and photos of Doja Cat saying the N-word, stripping, and hanging out in an alleged alt-right Tinychat room went viral, internet sleuths unearthed more insensitive videos, tweets, and even music." If you want to run through all of the controversies about her, you can read them all here. I think she's just an insensitive idiot or looking for attention. Actually, that doesn't even have all of her controversies, as I see that she's also said dumb shit about COVID. I think she is just VERY online, and raised in that arena where that sort of thing was normalized. Who knows.
Honestly, I kinda like the 2021 album. 2021's Planet Her has some fun tunes. Dammit. "Get In To It (Yuh)," even though the name of the song is horrible, actually made me look up from my work and check out the song name, because its a snappy good time. And "Kiss Me More" got stuck in my head. "You Right," featuring The Weeknd, is actually good. Dadgum. I had expected to be able to crap all over this stuff, but its actually good pop music.
2023's Scarlet starts out with a tune that I have for sure heard as well - pretty sure my kids have played "Paint the Town Red" around the house or in the car. This album definitely feels more like a rap move, and less like a pop thing like those earlier albums. And she keeps it nasty - I'll give you one guess about the subject of "Wet Vagina." There is still other stuff here too - "Often" makes me think of Eryka Badu. The top track, but a lot, is that "Paint the Town Red" one. 1.4 Billion streams.
Nothing much to it, but it is obviously touching a nerve with the youths to have garnered that many streams. TikTok, man. I guess it is pretty catchy.
My original thought was that there is no way I'd go see this, but honestly, its better than I expected. And on top of that, nothing else is happening on Sunday night, so I might as well go watch the rapper go to town. This is better than I expected.
One Liner: Low-key Black Keys vibes for a Spanish/Welsh groover Wikipedia Genre: Singer Songwriter, Indie, Funk, Latin, Tropical, Acoustic, Folk, Rock Home: Wales (via Spain) Poster Position: Bottom Quarter - Line 25 Day: Sunday. 1pm on the AmEx Stage. Weekend One Only.
Thoughts: GIZMO KAKA!!!
Just to make sure I was getting that quote right, and there is no way I was getting it wrong because I have said that line from Gremlins about 300,000 times in my life, I googled it. I would be embarrassed if it was actually "dudu" or something. Anyway, the four "People also ask" items on Google, after a prompt of just "gizmo kaka", are as follows: (1) What does Gizmo kaka mean?; (2) Why does Stripe hate Gizmo?; (3) What is Gizmo's full name?; (4) Does Gizmo have a gender?
Gizmo's full name? Have human beings ever actually asked that dumbass question? Really? "Well, actually, his middle name of Terrence was given to him to honor Mr. Peltzer's great-grandfather, who was actually the first Peltzer to try his hand at the age-old pasttime of invention." WTF google.
Anyhoo, sorry, I digress for sure. But this is pretty sweet guitar rock action kind of like a lower key Black Keys, if they frequently lapsed into Spanish lyrics. Guillermo Varillas Kortabarria was born in Spain but then raised in Wales. His first single was in 2014, when he was 24 and looked like he was 11. 4 albums - 2017's El Dorado, 2018's Dreaming of Better Days, 2020's Out of the Darkness, and 2025's The World in Colour. That last album is honestly great. Top song on there is "End of the Line" with 1.3 million streams.
"No War," from his first album, sampled John Lennon with the permission of Yoko. That disc still had his top five streaming songs - while his 2020 album is definitely the ignored little red-headed step-child with very few streams. "Paraiso" from the debut disc is his top streamer at 47 million.
Reminds me of those brothers who were here last year. Hermanos Gutierrez. Their sound was cool as hell. The second album sometimes has a Lord Huron flavor to it. "The Truth Will Be Heard" very much sounds like a cover of some other song that I have heard before (but Google didn't help me figure it out).
I like it. I'd go check it out, except that the 1pm Sunday show is a tough sell!
One Liner: Gothy, unpleasant electropop with some heavy metal snips
Wikipedia Genre: indie pop, electropop, pop-punk Home: New Jersey Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 13 Both Weekends.
Sunday at 3:30 on the Ladybird Stage.
Thoughts: One of those sorta goth pop singers. We've had a number of those come and go through the festival over the years. Sort of hard to quantify, because some songs sound like EDM, some sound like lite metal, one sounds like some sort of gypsy pop. Who knows. Lots of goth imagery and face makeup though. She is a featured artist on multiple of the top songs in her Spotify - rather than them being her tracks. Things I have never heard of, like Stand Atlantic, Arcane, Slash Puppy, Sleeping with Sirens, Jutes, or Lindsey Sterling, and them some I have heard of like Demi Lovato(?!?). The thing that makes this weird to me is that she doesn't have an especially amazing voice - why are so many other tiny artists seeking her out to add vocals to their song?
Ryan Jillian Santiago was born around the time I graduated from high school. She was a competitive dancer as a child, until she apparently shattered both of her heels at age 14 while jumping from a stage. Gaaaaaaah. Don't do that! She got into musical theater and taught herself how to play guitar. At 18, she moved to L.A. to attend art school and bartend. She says that the stage name translates to "Me + My Ego." Which, errr, sure. I guess I missed the part where she is actual royalty?
No albums, just three EPs. 2021's searching for nirvana, 2022's IF I DIED WOULD ANYONE CARE, and 2022's Happiness is an Inside Job. We have issues with capitalization, I see. The top song that she is featured on is one from Gayle, who was hear at ACL previously, with her catchy "abcdefu" song that somehow has over a billion streams. The top track that is just from Ms. Santiago is a single that was featured on that first EP. "overwhelmed" has 213.1 million streams.
Another popular track about being anxious. Between her and Doechii, we can fire up an anxiety party for all of the youth who need a mental health break. Don't love it. Top track after that is "FUCKBOI REJECTS" from the second EP. 11.3 million streams and just a terrible song name.
Well, that is a weird detour into a more straight-pop direction. Well, a dark as shit straight-pop thing, but that is a terrible song. If Avril Lavigne had no filter and tried to out-raunch Eminem. I thought about providing you with a new single, but honestly, if what you have heard so far is appealing, then please feel free to search that out on your own.
One Liner: Unremarkable synth pop Wikipedia Genre: pop, rock, indie pop, indie Home: London Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 14 Day: Sunday Both Weekends.
Ladybird Stage at 1:45
Thoughts: Dangit. I just want a band that I can jam for a while so that I can get some work done. Instead, I keep picking things that are either annoying or only have a few songs. I feel like I have heard all of this lady's songs repeatedly by now, so I need to knock out this review.
Joyce Cisse is a British-Ivorian singer and model. She won Artist to Watch at the 2022 A&R Awards and New Artist at the 2024 Music Week Women in Music Awards. In 2022, she was named one of VEVO's Artists to Watch and The Forty Five's Future Five, and named Future Artist of the Month by BBC Radio 1 in 2023, so for those who follow those random-ass-sounding awards, she's got some action. She said One Direction's "Best Song Ever" helped her realize the "power of music… [and] creative visuals", as the group "didn't just release a song, they released a world". Suuuuure.
Three EPs and no albums, so listening to the catalog gets you a lot of the same songs over and over as they pop back up as singles or remixes or whatever. Top track is "breaking news," which was a 2024 single that then also popped up on the EP called ache in my tooth. 23.7 million streams.
Sweet little pop nugget of a love song. The vocals are a little cutesy for me, but that seems to also be the thing that she is shooting for anyway. I feel like this will be something that I forget in about three minutes. There is also a sped up version of the song, so it was likely a TikTok hit. Prior to that video, I was treated to a commercial telling me that John Cornyn has voted with Donald Trump 99% of the time and how he makes Texas Great. How do they think someone searching for a Flowerovlove video would have any interest in that moronic shite? Idiots.
Only one other song cracks 10 million - "a girl like me" from 2023 also made that recent EP. But let's go older than that since you already heard a recent tune. "Malibu" is a 2021 single with 5.7 million streams and a MUCH cooler vibe.
Give me more of that! Unfortunately, she doesn't. Her hits are definitely more pop forward and less rap tracks. Like, her newest single is called "new friends" and it just more generic synth pop. Sounds kind of like she is trying to be like a Taylor or Chappel vibe. I don't think I would go see this one.
