World Famous Pets

One Liner: Edie Brickell!  A drummer who played with her, Pearl Jam, and a pile of others!  A bassist who played with John Legend, Sia, Bruno Mars, and Sting!  A guy who plays guitar!
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but going Finnish Death Pop
Home: Space and Time

Poster Position: Third Quarter - Line 14
Day: ???
Weekend Two Only.

[location].

Thoughts:  Now here is some good intrigue!  A band that for sure has never been here before, because it just formed and they have no music available on Spotify or YouTube.

Here is what we know:

World Famous Pets is a new musical project featuring Edie Brickell, drummer Matt Chamberlain, bassist Kaveh Rastegar, and guitarist Mason Stoops. Announced in late 2025, the band has been working on new music at EastWest Studios and teases upcoming shows. 

Key Details About World Famous Pets

• Members: Edie Brickell, Matt Chamberlain, Kaveh Rastegar, and Mason Stoops.
• Status: Active as of late 2025/early 2026, working on new music.
• Genre/Style: Known for creating new music and teasing shows, with members having extensive backgrounds in various musical styles.
• Instagram: You can follow their updates on their official Instagram account, @worldfamouspetsband.

This collaborative effort emerged from the musicians' shared passion for creating music and working in the studio, with the group often highlighting their love for pets and collaborating with artists like Tig Notaro, who is considered the "band Godmother". 

Looking forward to knowing more!

Cannons (2026)

One Liner:  80's tinged synth pop formed from Craiglist

Wikipedia Genre:  Indie pop, dream pop, electropop, synthwave

Home: L.A.

Poster Position: 5
Weekend One Only.
Day?

[location]

Thoughts:  Last here in 2024.  Not a very long turnaround, so you'd think they have a bunch of exciting new music.  You would be wrong.  I mean, they did release a 2026 album, but no song on there has more than 2 million streams, so it isn't exactly burning up the charts.

Has what I would characterize as a lush, deluxe, smart pop sound, like the kind of stuff you'd hear playing in a nice boutique store in the background.  It is interesting to me that there are three people in the band, because it definitely sounds like it is just a singer and a computer.  The guitarist and keyboard guys had been friends since childhood, making music in their teenage years.  In 2013, they formed the band after seeing a Craiglist ad from the vocalist, who had posted in search of a band needing a vocalist.  That is wild to me.  Is that at all normal?  At first, they just e-mailed parts back and forth, before finally getting into the studio.

Five albums - 2017's Night Drive, 2019's Shadows, 2022's Fever Dream, 2023's Heartbeat Highway, and 2025's Everything Glows.  The biggest song, by a large margin, is from that 2019 album and apparently blew up after it was featured on a show called Never Have I Ever.  284.9 million streams for "Fire For You."

Completely adequately pleasant little nugget of pop.  The bassline is supremely delicious.  They are definitely intelligent to use the lead singer as the screen grab for all of their videos instead of the two schlubby dudes.  The second-most streamed track is from the third album - "Bad Dream" has only 43.7 million streams.

80's vibes in that one with the synth that comes in for the chorus.  Seems like a terrible idea to dance with a butcher knife like that killer guy does.  Weird that she needed Craigslist to find a band though, her voice is really great.  My only beef after letting this roll over me for hours is that the songs definitely get to feeling same-y after a while - just more pretty vocals over 80's tinged synth rock all day.  But I generally enjoy it as boring but pleasant backgroiund music.

Don West (2026)

One Liner: Throwback soul from another Aussie
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia - classic soul
Home: Sydney

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

[location]

Thoughts:  This freaking guy was here just last year.  Can we really not find something new?  Well, here is my review from then for you to re-enjoy.

I really wish that this guy was one of the four listed Don West people named in Wikipedia.  Don West (educator) (1906–1992), American writer, poet, educator and civil-rights activist; Don West (wrestling) (1963–2022), American pitchman, television personality and professional wrestling broadcaster; Major Don West, a fictional character on the TV series Lost in Space; Don West, a lawyer in the trial of George Zimmerman in 2013.  Instead, we have a soulful supermodel-looking dude from Australia.  More Aussies on Saturday!  What is going on!?

Anyway, the sound here is (mostly) some classic Stax/Motown-era soul music.  Real instruments, real recording, etc.  Occasionally, he angles into a classic rock sound like the Black Keys might.  Very limited catalog for now with only singles and on 2024 EP named Don West.  Biggest single so far is called "Small Change." 55.8 million streams (up from 22.7 last year).

I mean, look at my guy.  If he is not modelling on the side then someone is asleep at his agency.  On top of that, to have a beautiful singing voice to go with it?  Who could say no!?  The horns and falsetto in there just make me happy.  That is a fun tune.  He apparently taught himself guitar with his dad's classic guitar, and then joined his brother's band - Sons of the East - as a bassist.  How you gonna keep that sexy bastard off to the side behind a bass?

Second-biggest streamer is "Friends," with 35.3 million streams (up from 11.3 last year).

And then this one brings all the vibes to the table.  Just slow and sultry and groovy to the max.  Although it is hard to understand how you claim you can just be friends right after you just claimed that you still touch yourself when you think of her.

Great tunes.  Easy call to go and let this classic sound just wash over my early afternoon.

ACL 2026 - Lineup is here!

And I'm afraid that it has been built to appeal to my teenager daughters and not me.  I see a few good rock things on there, but the weekend one headliners are all things that I would naturally avoid.  I'm a little bummed out right now.  We will have to dig in and find the gems, I suppose!

The most important thing I need to figure out is how to fix the cookies or whatever it is with Google and Blogger that are making it so that I can't upload videos or images.  I can't add an image of the dang lineup without going to my phone to add it from there.  If I don't fix, this season of writing these blogs is going to be really frustrating!

But those headliners are very pop-heavy - Charli, Rufus, Twenty One Pilots, Lorde, The XX.  I've done Skirllex before and don't need to do it again, and the Kings of Leon are great (but are only weekend two).

Turnstile, The War on Drugs, Amyl and the Sniffers - those will be fun.  And then, yikes.  I've heard of a few of those below there, but very few.

Onward!