Quick Hits, Vol. 361 (Leon Bridges, Silverbacks, Amyl and the Sniffers, EARTHGANG/Spillage Village)

I read a very good post from Ryan Holiday titled How I'm Preparing for the Next Four Years.  If you don't know Ryan Holiday, he is an interesting dude who bought a small bookstore in Bastrop, practices Stoicism, and had a good writeup in Texas Monthly a little while back.  Anyway, I won't go in to all of his points, because I honestly can't wrap my head around at least one of them, but the first one is a fantastic reminder that I want to hold on to and allow to roll around in between my ears:

I’m focusing on what I can control. Epictetus described this as our “chief task in life.” We have to get real clear about what’s up to us and what isn’t. What Putin does? Inflation? Tariffs? My mother’s health? The weather? Not up to me. My attitude? My emotions? My wants? My desire? My focus? My response to these things? That is up to me. Who I am is up to me. So that’s what I am focusing on.

That is so good.  It's by no means rocket science, but it makes so much sense.  My thoughts about it were not as succinct, but I have nibbled around the edge of this thought for years about my in-laws.  They are big watchers of cable news, and therefore get very uptight about the many daily grievances that get loaded into their minds each day.  So, the next time they ask me what I think about the new fear bomb that has been foisted upon them, this is the perfect model of a rational response.

Leon Bridges - Leon.  I'm feeling bad about this, but I just find this album boring.  It is lovely, and lush, and calming in a wonderful way.  But I fired it up while the wife and I were stuck in the car waiting on a lightning delay for kid sports, and after about half an hour she was like "WTF is this muzak stuff?"  Which all makes me feel bad, because his voice is beautiful and I really want to support the Texas guy making wonderful sounds, but the accompaniment just never ramps up out of Norah-Jones-Taking-A-Nap range.  That is not entirely true, but even when he ramps up the pace a little, the songs still feel like he is just whispering them from somewhere far away.  Not surprisingly, the most happening song on the album is the most streamed - "Peaceful Place" has 9.2 million streams.

Comes on like a Paul Simon song off of Graceland.  Yeah, okay, that groove is really enjoyable.  I wish the rest of the album kept that same energy.  Because the next song on the disc is another soft and slow burner.  Hell, just give me 10 versions of the "Texas Sun" track with Khruangbin and I'd be entirely satisfied.  Sadly, I'll let this disc go back to the sea.  Sorry I let you down, Leon.

Silverbacks - Easy Being a Winner.  I am guessing that my friend Marshall suggested this one, because I can't recall it on my own and it is in a group of similar albums that I likewise don't recall.  But this one is really fun.  Kind of like that band Parquet Courts, except Irish.  Pretty much tell me that something is Irish and I'm in.  Kerrygold butter is the freaking bomb, man.  It's one of those bands that very much sounds like a catchy little indie music thing, except that the guitars are frequently very insistently piercing.  Huh.  And now that I look at the stream count, this band is not making things happen.  Fascinating.  Top streamer that isn't the first song is "Something I Know."  37k streams.

Weird ass TikTok dance video... "Gallic Horns" is an amazing sign while lyrics are still going on.  Also, that is not how I would have spelled that word.  Interesting.  But, you get the great groove in that track, but you really never get the guitar attack that I mentioned above.  Also, it is usually a guy singing.  But, I dig the catchy groove of these tunes, this is pretty solid.  Some tunes actually remind me a little of old school R.E.M., which of course turns me on to no end, and then some make me think of the Velvet Underground.  The changing of lead singers makes the album interesting, like a mixtape instead of a cohesive unit.  I like it.

Amyl and the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness.  "Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)" is the track that caught me in the Sniffers' net a few years back, and while nothing on here is as viscerally, ridiculously amazing for me, it is another patch of skuzzy punky rock bashing.  The album opener, which I somehow actually heard on terrestrial radio the other day, is just so amazingly rude and weird, I need to tell you the lyrics.  

You're a dumb cunt, you're an asshole

Every time you talk, you mumble, grumbles

Need to wipe your mouth after you speak

'Cause it's an asshole, bum hole, dumb cunt

You are ugly all day, I am hot always

You are just a critic and you want to hit it

You are fucking spiders, I am drinking riders

Don't wanna be stuck in that negativity

Keep jerkin' on your squirter

You will never get with me

I don't wanna be stuck inside that negativity

Keep jerkin' on your squirter

You will never get with me, yeah

I have to say, the lyric "keep jerkin' on your squirter" is really going to stick with me for a long time.  But as soon as that one is over, "Chewing Gum" has a super-catchy set of lyrics bopping over the top of a nice little Madchester-ish rock track.  Super fun.  Sadly, I don't get to show you the "Jerkin'" video, which is something (especially if you hunt down the uncensored version), because "U Should Not Be Doing That" is winning the stream wars with 10.2 million.

Her dance moves crack me up.  It's like an almost TikTok-ian rapper vibe, but while she's spouting these angry lyrics.  But again, I find the tune itself to be very catchy and groovy.  That bassline gets me moving.  Same with the breakneck chorus portion of "Do It Do It."  This stuff is fun and ridiculous.  Give it all to me.

EARTHGANG/Spillage Village - PERFECT FANTASY.  Kind of bummed about this, because EARTHGANG has some really excellent rap tracks in their older albums.  This ain't that though.  More of a spacey R&B thing, like something Andre 3000 would have created and then realized he should probably shelve until 2054.  Lots of popular help on here - Damon Albarn, Pharrell, T-Pain, Snoop Dogg - but mostly low stream counts and nothing special to me.  The Snoop track doesn't even have half a million streams.  At least some of them get back to the rap side of the equation - like the top track, which is named after the iconic Adam Sandler character from Waterboy.  "Bobby Boucher" has 9.1 million streams.

SO MUCH BETTER than the slow jam R&B crapola!  Bouncy little beat with some creepy undercurrents, plus a solid flow over the top.  But then, the next rap-centered song on here is not nearly so good.  "DIE TODAY" was the first single I heard, and it just bugs me.  Like I said, definitely disappointed.