Rilo Kiley

One Liner: Reunion show for a seminal indie rock band featuring Jenny Lewis
Wikipedia Genre: indie rock, indie pop
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: First Quarter - Line 3
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only (booooooo).

Thoughts:  This is one of those bands that I have always heard the name of, but have never really given any sort of time.  I have yet to even start playing their songs, and none of them look familiar by the title.  I know that Jenny Lewis was in this band, because she has been to ACL twice and I think she is pretty great on her own.  But I am sort of excited to hear what this band is all about.

For some reason, in my mind, I have conflated them with Sleater Kinney.  I guess female singer and late nineties rock and roll vibe.  But I think this is significantly better than my opinion of SK.  The band came together in 1998, and their first album was released in 1999.  In 2000, Lewis and Blake Sennett (lead guitarist, but also as a supporting role actor in Salute Your Shorts and Boy Meets World) acted as fictionalized versions of themselves on an ABC drama.  Which is kind of funny.  Their first few albums weren't necessarily ignored, but 2004 saw their notoriety increase as Lewis appeared on the Postal Service's album Give Up, while Sennett and drummer Jason Boesel's side-band The Elected released a new album.  So, their 2004 album More Adventurous popped into the charts, they scored some cherry late-night appearances, and they got to open for Conor Oberst and Coldplay. 

However, by 2010, the drummer said that there was no more new music coming, and they were on a break.  Sennett's quote, in 2011, was "I would say that if Rilo Kiley were ... hmmm ... a human being ... hmmm ... he's probably laying on his back in a morgue with a tag on his toe. Now, I see movies where the dead get up and walk. And when they do that, rarely do good things happen."  In the decade and a half since, some of them have collaborated here and there, but it is only just now that the announced a reunion and a new tour.  No new music that I see though.

1999's eponymous debut is kind of jenky at times, feels like an unserious lark that they threw out there to see what happened.  You know the music from Napoleon Dynamite?  Sometimes I think of that as I listen.  But other songs flash with harmonic rock that is appealing.  And Lewis's voice is always welcome to me.  Low stream count too.

2001's Take Offs and Landings gets a little more put together, and 2002's The Execution of All Things sticks with that same sort of sound.  As I listened through these, I couldn't really tell the difference between those two albums.  Not that they aren't good, just that they seem like two sides of the same rock and roll coin.  A little smidge of grunge smeared on the otherwise indie rock sound, but I am enjoying it.  But, two of the songs on the 2002 disc are #3 and #4 for stream count, so let's take a listen to "A Better Son/Daughter" with 15.4 million streams.

It's alright.  Sort of disjointed and plodding.  I think the lyrics are good, but the song doesn't get me excited for more of the band.  I swear there are better things in the discography.  "Paint's Peeling," for example, from the same disc.  Or the sing-a-long, kiddie piano bopper of "With Arms Outstretched."  Or the title track.  Weird what catches on sometimes.

The band's name has multiple origin stories, but I don't see which, if any, are legitimate.  Here are the three on Wikipedia: 

"On the syndicated radio show Loveline in August 2005, Sennett explained that he had a dream in which a sports almanac was chasing him: "When it got me, I leafed through it...and I came upon an Australian rules football player from the 19th century named Rilo Kiley. It's kind of embarrassing." When asked by co-host Drew Pinsky if he had ever seen this name in reality, Sennett said, "I don't think so, I don't think that character exists...If you Google 'Rilo Kiley, ' you will just come back with a lot of pictures of us." ...

In 2005, Sennett told the teletext magazine Planet Sound that the name came from a Scottish athlete. On a 2005 episode of the MSNBC entertainment show MSNBC Entertainment Hot List, the female host stated that the name came from "old Scottish sports almanacs." In the following interview segment, Sennett stated, "We just looked in there, and the name of one of the star players from the turn of the century was Rilo Kiley."  In an interview published in Q magazine in September 2007, Sennett stated that Rilo Kiley is named after a character he'd met in a dream who had predicted the date of Jenny Lewis' death."

Mmmmmmmmkay!  Next is that 2004 hit album, which has their second-biggest streamer.  "It's a Hit" is also a good tune, but "Portions for Foxes" is the big one with 24.7 million streams.

Good rock and roll blast right there, along with some bad-girl-sexiness.  I said this during one of my previews for Jenny Lewis by herself, but do you remember that show The League?  It was pretty solid - based generally on a fantasy football league, but also with a lot of other funny bits and relational gags between a group of longtime friends who messed with each other constantly.  Anyway, Lewis looks kind of like the main female lead in that show - Katie Aselton.  This album is pretty reliably good.  I am having fun digging in to this stuff.

Their last real album is also their most radical departure from the prior sound.  I don't know if this is what broke them up, but 2007's Under the Blacklight is significantly more pop-forward, almost with an eighties tinge to it.  Their top streamer is the first on this, and you could convince me that it was a New Pornographers or HAIM or maybe even Lake Street Dive track.  "Silver Lining" has 37.9 million streams.

It honestly now sounds like Jenny Lewis's solo stuff.  Her stuff is definitely brighter than those early RK albums, so maybe the issue here is that she just took over the band and made it in her own image, leading the bros to get mad and bolt.  Now they need some cashola and are back on the Jenny Train!

I am really pleased to dig this stuff.  I won't see the show, being that it is weekend two only, but proper, seminal indie rock goodness is welcome in this house.

Dylan Gossett (2025)

One Liner: Another Zach Bryan acolyte, from Austin, making good acoustic tunes
Wikipedia Genre: Country, red dirt, Texas Country, Americana
Home: Austin!

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 7

Friday

Both Weekends

Thoughts:  This guy was at Two Step Inn two years ago, when it felt like half of that poster was made up of Zach Bryan-ified guys.  I like ZB, but it feels like one or two of those stripped down guys is enough, before we'll just have singer-songwriter night on every stage.

He actually grew up in Austin, the son of a school teacher and a high school basketball coach.  He tried guitar lessons as a kid, but those didn't pan out.  He ended up teaching himself via lessons from YouTube, immersing himself into classic country and some of the new school guys like Turnpike and Flatland.  Maybe I need to give the guitar a try again.  I wonder how you go about finding the best guitar lessons on YouTube, so that I'm not just wading through garbage for hours?  Anyway, he went to A&M, and after he graduated he took a job at the Circuit of the Americas in the Operations team.  He kind of reminds me of Jackopierce's early stuff, but also of the kind of guy you would hear in the corner of a bar just rocking out by himself while everyone talks and drinks.

He started posting covers online ("Ophelia" by the Lumineers, for example), and then finally caught on with "To Be Free," which apparently became a thing on TikTok.  But it was "Coal" that really blew up and catapulted him into the big time.  At 294.9 million streams now.  Impressive.

Great central line - "they say pressure makes diamonds, how the hell am I still coal."  Good tune, very low key, DIY, basic singer-songwriter vibe.  That song blew up, with the New York Times calling it one of 2023's best country songs.

When he came through Two Step, he only had six songs available on Spotify, so there was a limited amount of vibe to figure.  "Coal" blew up and he quit his job.  Now, he has two EPs - 2023's No Better Time and 2024's Songs in the Gravel.  He also scored a single on the Twisters soundtrack, which is kind of cool.  He definitely went for it on that song, cranking up the banjo and the tempo.  His tune "Somewhere Between" is sort of the same, where he cranks up like a Mumford and Sons freakout.  Even with all of those new songs, his second-most streamed tune is still his first sing, "To Be Free" and is lovely.  61.1 million streams.

Still just a boy and his guitar, but that one gets a little more of a snappy tempo going.  "Beneath Oak Trees," which is about him getting married in Wimberly under an oak tree canopy, is really nice.  "Lone Old Cowboy" is good too, like a REK story song.

Two new singles, and they add in a little more instrumentation, but still stay pretty low key and pure.  He still sounds like a singer/songwriter.  I'd go catch his set.  Even if it is chill, he feels like the kind of guy who may be on the up elevator right now.

Bilmuri

One Liner: Whack ass combination of metal, country, and emo
Wikipedia Genre: Metalcore, hard rock, electronicore, post-hardcore, acoustic (sure, yeah, why not?)
Home: Columbus, Ohio

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 9
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts:  I said the name of this out loud as I typed it into Spotify, only then realizing that this was likely a play on Bill Murray.  I am very confused by the first tune and it's thick riffage, but that also sounds very much like a current country song.  Is this the first metal country song?  I know we've done country rap and country rock, but now we've got some gnarly riffage to go with it.  And those drums - I don't know what to call that tangled little drum fill that metal dudes use at the end of verses, but that is well-represented here.  See what you think with the terribly named "BETTER HELL (Thicc boi)" - 14 million streams.

That bro doesn't look like the voice at all.  He is also terrible at mowing the yard - no pattern at all.  Oh, he doesn't even have the handle down that keeps the motor running.  This video is built on a foundation of lies.  But I will admit that the song kind of makes me laugh for a sec.

Johnny Franck, also known as Bilmuri, is this dude.  His Wikipedia says that he was formerly the "clean vocalist" and rhythm guitarist for Attack Attack! before he left to start a new band called The March Ahead.  I am unfamiliar with the term "clean vocalist" but it apparently means, in the context of metal music, that he is the guy singing in a normal, clear, natural voice, as opposed to the Cookie Monster ass guy doing something extreme to get the nerds turgid.  The top ten "clean singers in metalcore" does not include this gentleman.  Loudwire seems to tell me that Bjorn Strid, of Soilwork, is the finest in all the land.  Sure.  Sometimes he goes into the screamo stuff though, so he's not always clean.

Wikipedia claims that Franck left Attack Attack! to focus on his relationship with God.  And sure enough, in 2013 his new band played at Liberty University and then he gave his testimony to the audience and fielded questions.  So, there is a good chance this dude stormed the Capitol on January 6.

He says his influences are Enter Shikari and Forever the Sickest Kids.  I feel like he made up those band names to sound cool.

Fascinatingly, he has released approximately four million albums since 2016: Jaguar Shark (2016), Bilmuri (2016), Letters (2016), Frame (2017), Banana (2017), Solid Chub (2018), Taco (2018), Wet Milk (2019), Rich Sips (2019), Muri and Friends (2020), Eggy Pocket (2020), 400Lb Back Squat (2021), Goblin Hours (2022), and American Motor Sports (2024).  The majority of the most popular songs on Spotify are from that last album - most of his early albums don't have anything that cracks a million.  One exception is "Near" from 2016's Letters.  Let's check that one out.  12.6 million streams.

More of a pure emo/metalcore lite thing.  Never been my taste, that sort of whiny soft-loud emotive stuff.  His next one with a stream count over ten million is called ABSOLUTELYCRANKINMYMF'INHOG.  Which is a sweet title.  Sounds like terrible Post Malone trash with the riffage.  Very bad music.  The track from that same album - 2020's Eggy Pocket - that edges that one in streams is "FLUORIDEINTHEHARDSELTZERWATER."  10.8 million streams and just an exhausting title.

This is all like a joke that gets old the second it starts.  I totally agree that it is funny for a second.  Like, the kind of thing where a friend is like "oh man, you have to check out this hilarious band that is half metal and half country and half emo" and then they start it and are looking at your face as you listen and you have to provide a wan smile and nod your head a little and be like "yeah, man, funny stuff for sure, bro."  And he won't stop watching you listen and so you have to swallow your own tongue and hope to die.

I super did not listen to all of these songs.  I did the top ten twice and that early one up above, but please.  I'm only a man.  If I keep going I'll die.

Role Model

One Liner: Mac Miller-ish rapper turned pop rock rocker
Wikipedia Genre: Pop, bedroom pop
Home: L.A. (via Pittsburg)

Poster Position: Top Quarter - Line 4
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Trying to know what you are about to hear, based upon appearances, is a fool's game here.  Good looking young guy in a cowboy hat - ah, this will be country.  First song - oh, no, its bright pop.  Dig into the old music - a rapper?!

So, interesting backstory, in that he started off as a rapper, and has since transitioned into a poppy rock.  Impressive to be so talented as to do either/or.  He enrolled at Point Park University in Pittsburg to major in film, but after two broken wrists kept him stuck in his dorm room, he started messing around with friends' music equipment and made a few rap mixtapes while teaching himself to use Logic Pro.  He soon dropped out of college and started rapping under the name Tucker.  Which makes sense because his name is Tucker Harrington Pillsbury.  Which sounds like the name of a prep school kid who plays lacrosse in Massachusetts.  He later changed his name to Dillis and kept rapping.  

But in 2017, he switched the whole thing up - changed his moniker to Role Model and started singing more, while still rapping a smidge.  His debut EP, available on Spotify, has him sort of straddling the line between rap and singing.  Makes me think of a worse Mac Miller.  Haha!  I just read that he has called Mac Miller an inspiration!  I swear I wrote the thought above before reading his citation of Mac.  I have to say that his initial EP (2017's ARIZONA IN THE SUMMER) is no where near as good as his later tunes that are more popular on Spotify.  He definitely figured out a better sound.  The top track from this era is "i don't rly like u" with 7.2 million streams.

After that, a lot of singles until another EP, 2019's oh, how perfect, which shows him changing styles and getting a lot more streams.  "hello!" has 48.5 million.

Still a sort of rapping cadence to his singing, but I like that style much better than the initial EP's sound.  His next EP brought up his top streamer overall - 2020's our little angel EP and "blind." 133.9 million streams.

Sort of a Dayglow vibe, but again with Mac Miller style singing involved.  That lady is not very nice to him when he looks like a real sweet fella.  His first album is called Rx, and I've run through it without ever really feeling great about anything in there.  Definitely still dabbling in rap, like "neverletyougo."

But it is the new album, 2024's Kansas Anymore, where he hits a great stride and becomes the best version of himself.  All ten of his most popular songs on Spotify right now are from that new disc.  And, I think, for good reason.  I get a Ben Kweller whiff in there, as well as more of that Dayglow fella.  By the way, Wikipedia claims that he chose his moniker after the Paul Rudd movie.  It actually says: "Pillsbury allegedly took his name from Paul Rudd's character in the 2008 film Role Models," but Paul Rudd's character in the movie couldn't have been called Role Model, right?  That would be deeply weird.  Anyway, his top streamer overall is "Sally, When The Wine Runs Out," with 55.3 million streams, and on the new album.

Maybe a John Mayer vibe running through there this time?  Or Harry Styles.  Mac Miller is long gone in that tune (well, until the rapper bit in the middle).  Either way, I find it fun and engaging.  The whole new album is leagues better than the old stuff - hopefully that is the show that he is here to play.  If that is the case, I think it will be pretty fun.

Vincent Lima

One Liner: Bombastically large indie rock songs about loss and grief and Greek myths
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is indie rock, folky pop
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 14
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  His voice sort of makes me think of some country guy, but I can't come up with who it is.  But his music is more of a The Fray - made for Gray's Anatomy - type bombastic, emotional indie rock pop stuff.  He got to open for Jonah Kagen, who was on last year's line-up.  Maybe they are both just managed by C3.

He says he wrote his first songs when he was six or seven, but never really considered that music could be his viable career until more recently.  Born in Chicago, raised in New Jersey, now in L.A.  He taught himself how to play the piano, and when a close friend died, he started writing songs as a way of processing his grief.

His top song, "Orpheus," is inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and about grief, memory, and holding on to lost loved ones.  Here is the story that inspired it all: "While walking among her people, the Cicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a satyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld. His music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. Orpheus set off with Eurydice following; however, as soon as he had reached the upper world, he immediately turned to look at her, forgetting in his eagerness that both of them needed to be in the upper world for the condition to be met. As Eurydice had not yet crossed into the upper world, she vanished for the second time, this time forever."  11.3 million streams.

He also has another song called Eurydice, so he is really leaning into that Greek mythology angle to tell sad stories about love and loss.  Lotta singles and two EPs in his discography.  No full album yet.  Visions of Uncertainty is the 2024 EP that has those two songs I have mentioned, as well as his second-biggest streamer "The Fire."  10.1 million streams.

Oh, the little blurb I read about him says that the entire EP takes inspiration from the tales of Orpheus and Eurydice.  Seems odd to base your whole career off of one Greek myth, but these songs are pretty damn powerful sounding, so maybe he is on to something.  The next EP will be all about Jason and the Argonauts.  Well, maybe not.  His newest single is called "Something Sweet," so maybe it is about ambrosia and the Lotophagi.  Let's try that one on just in case - 357k streams.

Damn, he is still singing about not being allowed to look behind himself.  Chill on the looking back, homie.  But yeah, that is another pretty, sad song about loss and leaving.  I mean, these songs sound really good and feel important.  But what a bummer of a set to just hear massive sadness songs for an hour.  

I think I am likely good on this one, although it's not a hard no.  I just assume there are other things I'd rather see that hour.

Tiera Kennedy

One Liner: Nashville country with a voice that annoys me
Wikipedia Genre: Country, R&B
Home: Alabama

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 18
Day: Friday
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  Huh.  I am remembering last year, while writing up Brittney Spencer, and realizing that her top track was actually Beyonce's "BLACKBIIRD" cover.  Well, same thing here, and it is weird because you have no opportunity to understand which of the voices in that song belongs to the four extra names that come after Queen Bey.  So, this gal's voice is among there somewhere.

Her top single is kind of weird - some sort of industry thing that I just don't understand - because "Found It In You" has 6.8 million streams, and then "Found It In You (Tiera's Version)" has 21.9 million streams.  Aren't both versions her version?  Did that dickhead who bought Taylor Swift's back catalog already snap up this young lady's 2022 single so that she had to create a copy and her fans wouldn't pay that guy?  I dunno.  But here you go, the newer version, in its cheesy and terrible glory.

Its the little affectations to the voice that make me immediately want to turn it off.  I don't know if those are actually effects being added to her voice through a computer, but they kind of sound like it and they turn me off.

I need to write this up so that I can turn off this music.  She grew up in Gardendale, Alabama, which is a northern suburb of Birmingham.  She taught herself how to play guitar using YouTube videos, and would play anywhere around town that would let her - including restaurants like Chick-Fil-A and Buffalo Wild Wings.  She was planning to attend Belmont in Nashville, but ended up at North Alabama, where she studied for a year before ditching it to head to Nashville.  She was on a reality TV show called Real Country, where she was mentored by Shania Twain and won an episode (whatever that means).  She signed with Big Machine, was named MusicRow's Next Big Thing, and opened for Kelsea Ballerini.

One album, 2024's Rooted, although somewhat strangely, the songs on it are super low on stream count.  Most of them are under 100k, including a confusingly titled song called "Sweet Home Alabama" that is not a cover.  "Jesus, My Mama, My Therapist" wins for best title, even if the song is not great.  "Alabama Nights" is her second biggest streamer, a 2022 single.  2.1 million streams.

I refuse to listen to that song again, so just know that it is about her love for her home state and involves more of that voice that is making me cringe.  Happy for all of her success!  I hope that her show is amazing!  I will not be there to see it!

Amble

One Liner: Fresh and lovely Irish folk
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is folk
Home: Dublin

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 14
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Oh, sign me up.  Three Irish singer-songwriters in one band named after just about the best possible walking gait?  How can you resist?  

Did you know that Amble is a coastal town on the North Sea coast in Northumberland, England?  I did not.  Also, Alf Amble was an anti-Semite from Norway.  Michele Bachmann's maiden name, too.  But this trio - Robbie Cunningham, Oisin McCaffrey, and Ross McNerney - hail from the Midlands and West of Ireland and decided to join forces to make modern folk music fun.  They just got started in 2023, but are already selling out shows and crushing it despite only a few published songs.  When they first got started, they were doing day jobs - two school teachers and one data scientist - and then got a call from a label in L.A. looking to sign them up.  Gone were the pub shows and they got down to work of becoming a proper band.

No albums yet, just two EPs - 2024's Of Land and Sea and 2024's The Commons.  So far, each of the songs is pretty simple and pure - no drums, no odd instruments, just guitars and mandolins and harmonies.  Which is excellent to hear.  I want to be in a dank Galway pub right now, hearing these three wander their way through this catalog.  Top streamer is a 2024 single that didn't make the EP - "Lonely Island" with 12.2 million streams.

Please take me there immediately to frolic on that hillside.  Damn Texas heat blasting the world into dust outside while those folks can touch green grass and dance around a fire.  I played this for the wife last night as we puttered around the kitchen preparing to go out with some friends, and she loved it too.  Although she thinks one of the singers sounds like the Crash Test Dummies guy, which I find hilarious.  "The Commons" stands out to me because of the instrumentation and the soloing at the end, and "Mary's Pub" sounds classic.  But I'm going to give you the newer single called "Schoolyard Days."  3.9 million streams.

  

I've been to Ireland once, but it is fascinating how nostalgic these tunes are making me feel, for a place I really have no right to feel a longing for.  Almost an Appalachian feel to the guitar-work there, which I guess is how that works - our hayseeds took from their hayseeds and now they're taking it back.

I think this is great.  Not sure how it will feel in a huge dusty field in a crowd, versus how amazing it would be at the Cactus Cafe or something like that, but I'd absolutely give it a shot.

Jensen McRae

One Liner: Fantastic folky pop with clever lyrics
Wikipedia Genre: Folk, alternative folk, folk-pop, indie rock
Home: L.A.

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 13
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Pleasantly surprised.  That name made me think I was about to get some vapid teenybopper thing, and instead this is really pretty confessional pop indie type stuff that is well-written with strong vocals.  Draws me right in.  Oh, that is Tate McRae I was thinking of.  She sucks on toast.

Instead, this is wonderful.  Makes me think of boygenius and Maggie Rogers.  She claims early childhood influences of Carole King, James Taylor, and Alicia Keys, and has been singing and playing piano since age seven.  She attended something called Grammy Camp in high school, which helped her decide to pursue music.  Now I want to know about this camp.  A seven-day non-residential music industry program to help high school students interested in careers in music.  Three in 2025 - Miami, New York, and L.A.  You can choose a track - music production, songwriting, music business, vocal performance, etc.  Pretty rad.

Anyway, she graduated from USC's Thornton School of Music with a degree in music performance.  She has said that the music industry has tried to shove her into the R&B and soul categories because she is black, but her music is neither of those things.  At all.  She has had multiple great co-signs, with Phoebe Bridgers re-tweeting her, Joy Oladokun collaborating on a song, NPR naming one of her songs one of "16 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing," she got to open for Noah Kahan, and was featured on a CBS morning show.

Two albums - 2022's Are You Happy Now? and 2025's I Don't Know How But They Found Me.  IDKHOW was a band on the poster last year!  It all comes full circle, y'all.  Her top streamer was a single that popped up in that first album.  "My Ego Dies in the End" has 20.5 million streams.

That little "Exodus" drum roll that pops up over and over in there made me laugh out loud the first time it fired out.  That video is brutal though - who knew that watching someone remove makeup and cry could be so affecting.  The top track from the second disc is also very good, confessional folky pop.  "Massachusetts" fires up 5.6 million streams.  And no, I cannot spell that state name without help.

Sort of like a Taylor Swift vibe in there for me too.  I love the idea of her knowing she could make some cash off of that chain, but also clearly knowing it ain't for sale.  Her videos are definitely pretty crappy and low-rent!  But her voice is liquid honey and her lyrics are clever and interesting.  I feel like maybe she should change her performing name so that it doesn't make me think of crappy Canadian pop singers, and then she'll be #1!  I'd go check her out for sure.

The Heavy Heavy

One Liner: Retro soul-tinged rock and roll perfection
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - rock, soul
Home: London

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 17
Day: Saturday
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  I think I was conflating this with the Brand New Heavies.  Remember them?  Like, sort of rap, sort of jazz, sort of funk.  This ain't that - this is a duo doing soul-tinged rock and roll that sounds like something from 50 years ago.  Oh, and a cover of Father John Misty that sounds pretty true to the real thing.  This stuff sounds impeccable.

Did you know that there is another band called Heavy Heavy Low Low that is apparently mathcore?  And that a Scottish indie group called Young Fathers released an album called Heavy Heavy in 2023.  The Madness greatest hits album was called The Heavy Heavy Hits.  As I think you can tell from that recitation, this band is not listed in Wikipedia.

Well, just kidding about it being a duo.  Even though all of the photos are of a curly-haired lady with a curly-haired dude, this is apparently a five-piece band.  I am guessing those are the co-founders Georgie Fuller and William Turner.  Band was formed in 2019, the band mates met and lived together in a London flat while they started dreaming about the band.  Turner was from a small town and played in a handful of psych-rock bands, and Fuller is a classically trained singer who has acted in London theater.  This has that throwback vibe going in spades, and it sounds rad as hell.

One EP, 2022's Life and Life Only, and then one album, 2024's One of a Kind.  Their bio on their website makes it sound like they are super different from each other, but I don't guess I really notice.  Maybe the new stuff is a little smoother and the old a little rawer?  Both sound very retro cool.  Biggest streamer for sure is the second track from the EP.  "Go Down River" has 10.8 million streams.

Just smooth and chill as you can get.  Sounds like COVID shut the band down right as it was getting on its feet, and so once that was over they were finally able to get some live shows going and found some interest.  Their voices sound supremely good together.  On the full disc, I was kind of hoping that "Miracle Sun" was the big track, because that one grabbed my attention both times I ran through the album.  "Everything" is kinda dope too, a little Allman/jam-band-ish with the guitars.  But it is "Happiness" instead - 1.5 million streams.

Yeah, if you told me that was a track from 1970, I would absolutely buy it.  Perfectly spot-on classic vibes.  Vocal harmonies for days.  All in.  I'm moving this album into the new music queue so that I write a proper review of it after all of this is over, and so that I can save it in the mega playlist of good stuff.

Still grooving it after the weekend.  This album is classic.

Crowe Boys

One Liner: Actual brothers making pretty fun folky rock
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but indie rock, Americana, folk rock
Home: New Orleans (via Baton Rouge)

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 15
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: My elementary school principal was named Mrs. Crowe.  She freaking ruled.  Well, you know how memories from childhood persist and morph and settle in, to fit what you think they were, but if my memory is correct, it was Mrs. Crowe who made it so that our hallways were like a miniature zoo full of animals we could look at during the school day.  If I remember correctly, good grades or attendance or something would earn you time with the animals.  I definitely remember the insanely soft, light grey chinchillas.  But my favorite of all of the animals in the school was, in part, because of my favorite place in the school.  The library (who knew, I was a nerd?) was my refuge to go read, and the left side wall of the library had windows looking out into a large aviary that had been built into a nook of the building.  There was a magical little spiral staircase that led up to a similarly small upstairs part of the library, and I would go hole up in that space with a book.  And the soundtrack to that space was the gently soothing cooing of the group of mourning doves that lived in that aviary.  I loved that space.  While in law school, I found that the sketchy bamboo thicket out back of our crappy duplex was the home to a pack of mourning doves, and so when I was stressed out I learned to go sit on the tiny back patio and just listen to them call.

You can see the spiral staircase there, and those windows in the bottom right corner led out to the aviary.  I think I had to spend extra time here after school while my mom did PTA stuff, and so I spent some nice, quiet time in these spaces.

Oh, I am so pleased.  Go to 17:20 in this video and you can see some of what I meant!  At 21:35 you can see the aviary!  I am literally tearing up right now.  God, I hope this band is actually good.  Haha.

Hooray for me!  A nice little Americana/folky sound with great harmonies and some tasty banjo licks.  Their Spotify bio says that they spent their childhood traveling around the American South with their family band until their mother passed away.  So, the boys put down roots in New Orleans as young teenagers and started to gravitate towards folk-influenced artists.  Ocie Crowe on acoustic guitar and Wes Crowe on mandolin.  According to their website bio, they originally tried to break through as an indie punk band, with Ocie on guitar, Wes on bass, and other brother Jacob on drums, but that was apparently a major flop.  "After one night of hustling to fill up a venue, the crowd completely emptied out after the opening act’s set."  That has to be a horrible feeling.  But as they evolved into something else, a friend played their tunes for one of the guys in the Revivalists, who jumped on it and helped the brothers get into the studio and record their sound.

They reluctantly started posting little clips to TikTok, and a rendition of "Where Did I Go Wrong" went viral while the two brothers were at their normal jobs, trying to keep track of it going crazy.  Within hours, several hundred thousand views, and by the next day they snagged more than a million views (with it finally topping out over 13 million streams).  That led to managers and labels and everyone else popping out to snatch them up, and they ended up signing with C3.  That is still their top track, with 6.8 million streams.

Good lyrics about just trying to figure out life as it keeps hurtling by.  No actual album yet, although their last several singles are released with the cover for a future album that will be called Made to Wander.  "Let Me Feel Alone" is the second biggest streamer so far with just over a million streams.

His voice sounds like someone else who I can't quite recall.  But the harmonies and the instruments and the vocals, all just spot on for me.  Good ass hootenanny song to boogie down to in an open field!  "Bootstraps" is also a good tune.  For all the people who wanted to hear Caamp last year, this ought to get them in the mood this time!

Sam Barber (2025)

One Liner: Funny to think that Zach Bryan has been around long enough to have artists following in his footsteps, but this guy is right there.
Wikipedia Genre: country, rock, folk, alternative (err, really tho?)
Home: Southeast Missouri

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 7
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: He was at Two Step Inn in 2023, and to be completely honest, I thought I was about to hear Sam Fender.  I am sort of sad that this is not Sam Fender.  I was pumped that he might be trying to come back, since his last attempt to ACL was cancelled.  Alas, a country guy instead.  No offense intended to my man Barbs here, just wanted some of that Hypersonic Missiles action.

Back in 2023, Wikipedia was unhelpful, in that "Sam Barber" there was this: "Samuel Barber (September 17, 1919 – April 18, 1999) was an American baseball pitcher in the Negro leagues. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Barber played with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1940, and served in the US Army during World War II. He died in Birmingham in 1999 at age 79."

But by now, this Barber has begun to make a name for himself and has an actual Wikipedia entry.  Born in 2003 in Fronha, Missouri, he is just barely old enough to drink.  He was raised on his family's ancestral farm in far eastern Missouri, a population of 254 in the town.  He started learning to play guitar when he was 16 while messing around with his grandfather's guitar, and by 2021 he was enrolled in State Technical College of Missouri and releasing little music videos on TikTok.  He then auditioned for the 20th season of American Idol and received a Golden Ticket to head to Hollywood.  However, he was subsequently eliminated, and his performance did not air.  Booooooooo.

But his rise has been ridiculously fast - he played the Grand Ole Opry just three months after his first official headlining concert at The Basement, in Nashville, in 2023.  His big hit, which has already been certified as Platinum by the RIAA, is "Straight and Narrow", and that remains his top track by a lot.  313.7 million streams.

I love that location - can I please go there right now?  Super simple tune, but a powerful message about overcoming setbacks.  Wild to think he wrote that while still a teenager.  And by the way, in one interview, he admits that he first learned the guitar by playing Zach Bryan covers.  He gives a shout out to Tyler Childers, saying that Bottles and Bibles is his favorite album ever.  He also includes ZB and Stapleton as his other inspirations.  And the comparison to an early Zach Bryan is a quick and easy one to make.  Some of these songs have a touch of production going on, but most of them are super stripped-down tunes with this kid singing over his acoustic, and nothing else going on.  

One EP - 2023's Millon Eyes - and one ridiculously long album - 2024's Restless Mind.  In an interview, he said that his favorite track from the EP is "Save Me," which is funny because it is in the bottom three for streams for the disc.  His second-most streamed tune on the EP is a cover - "Dancing in the Sky," originally by something called Dani & Lizzy.  102.4 million streams.

Definitely the track on here with the most production - he leaves behind the stripped-down sound in favor of drums, bass, organ, etc. and it almost actually sounds like he might be somewhere other than his bedroom.

The new disc is an hour and thirty-four minutes and 28 songs, so he is taking another page out of the Bryan playbook by just shoveling everything into one bag and hoping it holds.  I actually like the direction he is going, with more production and a richer sound.  The top single that isn't a re-released track is "Indigo," featuring Avery Anna.  172 million streams.

Terrible blurry video.  But very nice little tune.  Her voice is leagues better than his, but it still works together.  The playcount on the album is honestly confusing.  I guess some songs have made it onto playlists and others have not, because it is literally like 1.7 million, 14 million, 1.6 million 29 million, 1.7 million 1.5 million, 1.8 million, 172 million.  For an old person trained to listen to entire albums at once, that is jarring to see.

I'd go see him play.  Too bad he is Weekend Two only.

Johnny Stimson

One Liner: What I imagine a Justin Beiber b-side would sound like

Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, indie R&B pop dreck
Home: Maybe Dallas, maybe New York City.  Who really knows.

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 19
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts:  Oh man, I am in the valley of sonic death right now.  This guy screwed with me, as his Spotify cover picture looks like a young Willie Nelson, black cowboy hat, beard, and braids all included.  And then you click play and this is what I imagine Justin Beiber's b-sides sound like.  Kind of an indie R&B sort of sound, very soft and soulful and boring.

No Wikipedia, but a Reddit thread says that a member of the K-Pop band BTS covered once of his songs in 2019, and it made the song go massively viral in South Korea.  I had to get to the third page of Google results to find any sort of background on the dude - I'm sure its all available on TikTok or something - but it was pretty useless.  "Johnny Stimson captures the full spectrum of human emotion in his music, weaving love and loss, joy and sorrow, nostalgia, and growing up into melodies that transcend borders."  Oh, thanks AI!  That doesn't sound like the background blurb of every artist ever, at alllllll!  According to another blurb, he was born in New York City in 1988 and taught himself to play guitar as a teen.  He collaborated with "the music industry's top artists, including Lennon Stella, Samantha Jade and Bryce Vine."  Yeah, sure.  Those people are definitely bigger than Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and the next 7,278 most popular artists.  Strangely, the tiny little "Overview" on Google says that he is a Dallas-born musician who blends soulful rasp with modern pop to create romantic melodies that spread positivity.  Are there possibly two Johnny Stimsons?

At the end of the day, for me, I do not care where he is from and who he has worked with, because I cannot stand these songs.  Top track is "Flower" with 65.3 million streams, from his 2021 album of the same name.

eeeeyyyahhhhaaaawwwwww, eyyyy eyyyy eyyyyyy.  If you have been reading me for a while, you know that R&B has never been my thing, but this just feels so paper thin and forgettable.  If this guy is still on anyone's radar by this time next year, I will learn how to make a super jenky beat on a computer just like him.  I wondered if maybe his new single would give me something different to go with the Willie look.  Not so much.  This was released 11 days ago and has 68k streams.

I'm just going to have to burn one of the artists on the poster that I already know I like, because I need to get out of this rut.  Blurg.  I will not go see this.

Confidence Man

One Liner: Techno stuff with tons of top end sounds and not enough bass for me

Wikipedia Genre: electropop
Home: Brisbane, Australia

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 11
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  When the first 30 seconds of the band makes you sigh very loudly at your desk, you know you are in for a real treat.  It is house music, I think.  Never entirely sure how to parse the different genres of EDM, but it is also deeply annoying to me.  This is the kind of techno where it is really fast, like too fast to comfortably dance to it unless you are one of those scary tweakers with the little lights on the ends of your fingers, and a lady sings inane crap over the top the whole time.  I was really hoping this band name was going to lead me to something cool.  Not so much.

I know I should write this stuff myself, but the Wikipedia entry here is really just so weird that I feel like you need it: "The band was formed in 2016. The members had met on the Brisbane music scene, and had been in other bands including: The Belligerents, Moses Gunn Collective and The Jungle Giants, and use pseudonyms ....  They started writing dance songs together, initially as a "kind of joke", but eventually reali[z]ed the material was worth pursuing.  Planet and Bones provide vocals and dancing while Goodchild and McGuffie, who appear as masked figures, play keyboards and drums." Those are some special pseudonyms for sure.

3 albums - 2018's Confident Music for Confident People, 2022's Tilt, and 2024's 3AM (La La La).  Their top streamers are not actually their songs, they are two tracks by DJ Seinfeld with these guys on the track.  But a 2019 single called "Does It Make You Feel Good" is the top streamer that is just them.  And to be honest, it is much better than the first six tracks on their Spotify Popular list.  15.6 million streams.

Not quite as frenetic as more popular tunes, although it still doesn't do much for me.  I think when I want the techno music I want more bass and heft than this more top-end-heavy stuff that sounds like half of it is just high hats.  " I CAN'T LOSE YOU" is from the new disc and has 5.2 million streams.

Naked people in a helicopter is pretty fun.  But man, that song is terrible.  All the worst parts of that Barbie Girl song sped up and repeated over and over.  I don't know if she is Planet or Bones, but she is brave to hang half-way out of that chopper with her boobs flopping around.  "Holiday" has 10.4 million streams.

Oh, a hot air balloon this time.  They need to do that on stage in the Tito's Tent and burn that sucker down.  That song is maybe better than the last one, but still relatively annoying for me.

I will let other folks enjoy the sounds of these weirdos.

Latin Mafia

One Liner: Spanish indie pop, which, I guess I knew had to exist, but somehow didn't expect

Wikipedia Genre: reggaeton, Latin trap, house, Latin R&B, dream pop, indie pop
Home: Mexico City

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 8
Day: Saturday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  This was one of the bands that was teased with the postcards that went out before the lineup was announced.  I had no idea who they were, and now I know why.  This first song sort of feels like if a K-Pop song was in Spanish.  Which is an ignorant take, since I don't think I know a single K-Pop song, so maybe this is like what I imagine K-Pop would sound like in Spanish.  It is terrible.  Like, crazy generic guitar licks coming in over completely forgettable pop synth garbage.  And a bunch of Spanish words saying lots of things.

This band has two twin brothers doing the vocals, which is kind of fun.  Milton and Emilio de la Rosa, with their older brother Mike doing the production.  It's all in the family!  Wikipedia says they "appeared on the scene" using TikTok during the pandemic.  Not sure which scene, but they did some tracks on video in their bedroom and received a positive response.  By the end of 2022, they sold out the Olympic Velodrome in Mexico City in minutes.  By April 2024, they were at Coachella, and I guess now we get to enjoy this too.  They won the Lo Nuestro Award for Best Latin Fusion Song in 2024.  So, they've got that going for them.  Which is nice.

One album, 2024's TODOS LOS DIAS TODO EL DIA.  Which is weird to type and means Every Day, All Day.  JEAAAAHHHH!!!  But their top song is a 2023 single called "Patadas de Ahogado," which I swear I have ordered in a restaurant before.  What does that mean?  According to the google, it means "Drowning Kicks."  Which is a really weird title.  But I can't understand what they are singing about anyway, so maybe it is all about how a person they were drowning while doing hardcore mafia shit kept kicking them as they drowned?  Dunno.  221.4 million streams.

🎶 "I drowned that dude in the bathtub while he kicked like Pele!"  🎶 Iconic line for sure. Yeah, not really.  That song is not my thing at all.  Even if I could understand it, it sounds super lame.  Second-biggest streamer is "Julieta," which translates to "Julieta."  179.8 million streams.

Bro.  If you can sell out a stadium, you can afford some real Chuck Taylors.  Damn.  Also, that song is very boring as well.  Even if this was in English, I really think I would have felt the same way that these are bad tracks made by Mike in his bedroom when he should have just like, gone to college and become a nurse practitioner or something.  This is not my thing.

Hotline TNT

One Liner: Wall-of-guitars, shoegaze-adjacent, but really tuneful and great
Wikipedia Genre: shoegaze, alternative rock, noise pop
Home: NYC

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 17
Day: Saturday
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts:  Oh, this is good.  I was judging the cover of the book and expecting some explosive punk or something, but instead it is a sort of shoe-gazey rock and roll.  Makes me think of that Teenage Bandwagon album from like 30 years ago.  Which I really liked.  And lookie there, Wikipedia also calls them shoegaze.  Also says this style is characterized by frontman Will Anderson's wall-of-sound layering of distorted guitars.  I can hear that, but this is also very tuneful and catchy in a way that I don't necessarily associate with the shoegaze I hear on the Sunday morning radio program.  He claims that Loveless, by My Bloody Valentine, was a big influence.  I don't know that album.

Anderson was apparently previously part of a number of small indie rock bands I have never heard of, like Happy Diving, Weed, and Crazy Bugs.  He was feeling burned out at one point, while pursuing a masters in education, and considered quitting music.  Instead, he formed this band, where he would be the sole constant member and a rotating group of other members.  he apparently vowed to never explain the meaning of the name.  Which is lame.  Two albums - the first was 2021's Nineteen in Love.  Anderson somewhat foolishly released the album as one long YouTube video where you could not select individual tracks, as a statement against streaming services and their damage to the album form.  But, shockingly, the album didn't do too well.  I just tried to find it and it was not apparent after 8 seconds of hunting.  Oh well.  

After that, as he was touring with other bands, Jack White's Third Man Records came calling and asking to sign him to the label.  After hearing from other bands that he would retain a lot of creative freedom, he went for it.  2023's Cartwheel is the next disc that came out (but they are supposedly preparing to release a new one this summer).  Both Paste and Pitchfork gave it favorable reviews.

Stream count is pretty low, despite how much I like this stuff.  Only two tracks with more than a million, and both are on that 2023 disc.  "I Thought You'd Change" is the top one with 1.3 million streams.

Sure, that is a lot of guitars, but when I think of a "wall of noise" it is not that tuneful.  Kind of a Bob Mould vibe in there too.  The video makes me laugh too, those two goofy shitheads bouncing around while everyone else wishes they'd bugger off.

For what it's worth, I also tried out Weed, and it was pretty cool too.  A little heavier.  One of the new singles, which is their most popular track right now, and so likely will be on the new disc, is even more tuneful.  "Julia's War" has 234k streams as of now.

Yeah, that one jams.  The na-na-na-na bits took me off guard at first, but now I like them.  Does the lead singer sound a little like the They Might Be Giants vocals?  That video made me laugh too.  These dudes are goofballs.  Another new single, "Candle," has even fuzzier guitars, but is likewise catchy.

I'd absolutely check it out.

Gigi Perez

One Liner: Excellent indie rock lyrics with a surprising voice
Wikipedia Genre: indie folk, indie pop
Home: West Palm Beach, FL (although maybe NYC now)

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 7
Day: Sunday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: She's got a track with over a billion streams?  What in the actual?  And, I'm not trying to be a rude ass boomer or something, but she definitely sounds like a dude?

It's a nice song, but why in the world does that have a billion streams?  "Sailor Song" and 1.021 billion, for those keeping track.  But if this was just called Perez, and I hadn't seen a video, I would definitely think this singer was male.  Fascinating.  Anne Hathaway look-alike getting her vape on.

Gianna Brielle Perez was born in New Jersey and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida.  In high school she was in a band called Wendy Lane, and then attended Berklee College of Music before the pandemic shut it down.  Her older sister Celene died in 2020, and to cope with her grief she started releasing videos on TikTok.  Her tracks "Celene" and "Sometimes (Backwoods)" went viral there, which got her signed with Interscope Records.  After a few singles and an EP, she was released from Interscope and then released that track above in July 2024, which went to #22 on the Billboard Top 100 after also going viral on the TikeddyTok.  Some Christian nerds got uptight about the line saying she doesn't believe in God, but either way it helped her get signed to Island Records.

I've just let it roll for a day, and this is honestly really good music.  She had a 2023 EP called How to Catch a Falling Knife and then a 2025 album called At the Beach, In Every Life.  Sometimes, she sort of sounds like Jeff Buckley.  Her second-most streamed track was her first single (well, at least what Spotify provides us).  "Sometimes (Backwoods)" has 158.4 million streams.

I like that too.  Got a great indie rock vibe going - in addition to Buckley, I'm hearing Death Cab.  She credits Troye Silvan as being an inspiration, but that is something that I don't know at all.  She is great - a fun surprise when I was expecting something different.  I'd go see her for sure.

Panda Bear

One Liner: Influential indie/chillwave piece of Animal Collective
Wikipedia Genre: psychedelic pop, electronic
Home: NYC (via Baltimore, although now in Portugal, so, whatever)

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 12
Day: Friday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: I feel like I have heard about Panda Bear for years, but never really known what he has going on.  I similarly never remember listening to Animal Collective, so I have missed out on his original band as well as his current thing.  Well, no longer.

Noah Lennox started using the name Panda Bear in the late 90's when he added a drawn picture of a panda to the cover of a tape he made in his bedroom.  He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, went to Boston University to major in religion, and ended up in New York City.  Since 2004, he has lived in Portugal.  When he got to New York in 2000, he and some of the others from Animal Collective shifted that band from a loose, long-distance thing into a more formal band and started releasing music.  They released five albums from 2000 to 2007, when Panda Bear released his first real solo disc - 2007's Person Pitch.  But then they both just kept on doing their thing concurrently.

I fired up his new album, and it sounds like the Beach Boys are still making lush and catchy pop harmonies in my office.  I absolutely love it.  But I want to go back in time and dig in on this guy, so let's go to the beginning instead.

2007's Person Pitch still sounds kind of like it was influenced by the Beach Boys and that sort of spacey harmony thing, except that it also wiggles with samples and electronica involved.  The album opener is the top track on it - here is "Comfy in Nautica," with 4.8 million streams.

If the Beach Boys had acquired an army and asked them to march upon Malibu, this would have been the sound as they goose-stepped up the Pacific Coast Highway.  "Take Pills" burbles with random noise as the underlying song seems piped through a distant tunnel.  "Bros" also has an echo-ey quality, but shines with the trippy harmonies of a Pet Sounds b-side, until it goes into the 12 minute trippy freakout of a Sargeant Pepper's b-side.  There are nice little ideas and sounds in here, but I'd say that the overall feel of the album is stressful and weird for me.  Wikipedia claims that this album inspired the chillwave genre and numerous other acts.  This ain't the type of chillwave I want to hear then.  Also interesting, to me at least, that multiple things I read called this album highly acclaimed and trailblazing and whatever, and yet the top streamer has less than 5 million listens.  Doesn't feel especially acclaimed if no one listens.

I asked a friend who is in to chill music what he thought of Panda Bear, and his response was something like "the songs I love, I really love, but much of it is not great."  He then sent me a link to "Good Girl/Carrots," saying that if you would just forward about three minutes in the song is amazing.  But it sucks to have to forward a chunk of a song to get to the goods.  Oh well!

2011's Tomboy also comes on with those trippy harmonies and Brian Wilson vibe, but there is more straight guitar in the mix.  "Slow Motion" almost has a hip hop vibe to it.  Hahaha - I was literally coming here to say that a song sounded like a hellacious drone track, only to find that the name of it is "Drone."  Spot on, Panda Bear, spot on.  That song sucks!  Like the first one, the album is up and down, but none of the stream counts point to any particular hit here.

In here, the Bear appeared on one of Daft Punk's songs from that Random Access Memories album that won all the Grammys and reintroduced Daft Punk to the world.  So, despite it being a collaboration, Pandaman has himself a Grammy.

2015's awesomely titled Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is his highest charting album, reaching #2 on the US Indie charts and #34 on the regular US charts.  He keeps the weirdness alive here too, with the layered harmonies and electronica sounds.  "Mr Noah" is louder and harder than most of the other stuff though, while "Tropic of Cancer" is a harp-fueled cloud.  "Come to Your Senses" is almost poppy.  Just feels all over the place.  But the big streamer from it is "Boys Latin" with 11.3 million streams.

It sort of loses the beat there at the start - that is weird.  it's like I am listening to two songs at once.  I just paused it to make sure I wasn't.  Are any of those vocals actually words?  Trippy, brah.  Here is what I will give the guy with this album, I am genuinely curious to hear what is coming next.  You literally cannot predict what the next song will be like the first time you hear this disc.  I don't know if it is all good, but at least it is interesting for sure.

2019's Buoys starts out with a song that reminds me of the new Radiohead style of strangely sparse songs, although this one also has water drop sounds interspersed throughout for reasons.  He is using effects on his voice here that are kind of trippy and remind me of the times that Vampire Weekend has used the same.  No big songs here.

2022's Reset (which is done with someone or something called Sonic Boom) heads back towards the Beach Boys angle.  And like that last disc, you really never know what is coming next.  Spanish flamenco influence?  Sure.  Morose folk?  Of course.  "Edge of the Edge" is probably my favorite on here.  No songs on here crack 2 million either.  I am really interested to know how the songs from the new album sound so amazing in comparison to much of this.  He also does an extended version of this and then a "dub" version too.  No one listened to that.

Finally, we get to 2025's Sinister Grift.  It is rad.  I feel like he took the Beach Boy harmonies and the Tame Impala usage of that and wrapped them into a new set of tracks.  I don't know why this one registers so cleanly with me, but I think it is really great.  Still kind of trippy and weird, but also a more normal-ish indie rock record with guitars and drums and whatever.  Top track as of now is "Defense," featuring the elusive Cindy Lee.  1.6 million streams.

Nice groove underlying that action.  Ooooooh, wait, a Tiny Desk from 4 weeks ago!?!  Fresh Tiny Desk!!!

Reminds me of Car Seat Headrest at times.  The explainer on that says that this is the first time Panda Bear has toured with a full band since he started doing solo action.  Two songs from the new disc ("Ferry Lady" and "Defense") and then a deep cut from a 2009 Animal Collective disc.  Great harmonies.  Definitely just seems like a regular ass indie band though - they stripped off the weird stuff.  Which I dig!  Let's go do it with the Panda!