Girl Tones

One Liner: A White Stripes inspired rock duo of sisters jamming out
Wikipedia Genre: no Wikipedia, but hard rock, blues rock
Home: Nashville (via Kentucky)

Poster Position: Last Quarter - Line 23
Day: Friday
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts:  Kind of a less aggressive-feeling Wet Leg.  Not very many songs, so it is not that easy to get a full read on them, but pretty much whenever a band has fuzzed out guitars and covers classic Radiohead, I am probably on board.

Two sisters, Kenzie and Laila, are classically trained musicians who switched from cello and piano to guitar and drums and found a way for Brad Schultz of Cage the Elephant to fall in love with their action and agree to produce their tunes.  Nashville is not where I expected them to be from, but another article claims Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Maybe that is why Cage is on board with them, repping the same sweet-ass Kentucky hollers.  Kenzie was apparently a sophomore at Bowling Green when she grabbed a guitar and recruited her little sister to join the jam.  Kenzie described it as a punkish blues rock that was inspired by the White Stripes and the Riot Grrrl movement of the '90s.  Sounds about right.  Strangely, their last name is Crowe, and they were in a family band with their mom, just like the Crowe Boys who are also on this poster.  What is up with Crowes on this year's poster who are not Black or Counting?

No album.  Four singles starting in 2024 and then a 2025 EP called Blame that just has those four singles on it with one new tune.  So, you really only get five songs and one is Radiohead.  "I Know You Know" is the top track.  156k streams.

Really pretty, and then with a little guitar crunch at the end.  I'll give you one that trends more to the anger end of the spectrum next.  This is "Again," with 145k streams.

Well, that video is unsettling.  Dig the building groove and fuzz of the tune though.  I'd absolutely go check this out, even though it feels like the kind of band who will get the 1pm on Friday treatment with a crowd of 45.

Aiden Bissett

One Liner: Earnest pop rock that I liked more than expected
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, this is alternative pop, pop rock
Home: L.A.

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

Thoughts:  Immediate snap judgment of the first few seconds of his top song was extremely negative, and then he's grown on me ever since with a nice mix of Coldplay earnestness, Strokes coolness, and the pop bounce that the 1975 use.

He has no Wikipedia, but after reading a few interviews and articles, I can tell you that he has ADHD, his brother works his merch table on tour, and he is a big fan of Chappell Roan. He started playing guitar in second grade, but didn't really get to singing until he was 17.  He claims to have been a horrible singer, which I think is kind of funny.  Not sure where he moved from, but he has said that L.A. was hard to move to and get in line with the vibe there.

One early single that is by far still his biggest streamer.  "More Than Friends" was a 2020 single that then made it onto his first EP, the tragically titled More Than Friends & Friends.  94.2 million streams.

Like, that initial "uh, hello" over those strummy little guitars had me ready to hate, but then the more I let it jam, the more I decided that this was pretty nice.  I guarantee it is a TikTok song where the kiddos use the "girl, lets be more than friends starting now" line.  I wish I knew more background, because he truly looks 14 in that video.

His second-biggest single popped out in 2022 and then was re-released on his second EP, I'm Alright If You're Ok.  "Tripping Over Air" has 53.2 million streams.

That is one of those poppy 1975 joints to me.  Still no real album, although Spotify lists the eight song-long Supernova, from 2024, as a single.  Which seems incorrect.  I'll give you one more from that one, because it is the most Coldplay of these tunes and I wanted you to hear that too.  "Bloom" has 7.1 million streams.

I want to go to that green and lush hillside immediately.  The weirdest damn thing, I take one day off for Memorial Day and my fingers are literally missing every key here.  I am re-typing half of the words as I write them.  Deeply annoying.  Anyway, I thought he was saying that you make everything "blue" the first ten times I heard this song (it is in his catalog many times) because he is talking about other colors in there - black and white, everything's green, etc.  But yes, the earnestness of Coldplay is on display.

Surprisingly, I like it.  Normally, I might shy away from earnest pop music, but it has held my attention for longer than I would have expected.