Welcome to the BroBible New Music Round-Up, where we’re happy to announce that we’re dropping a remix of this column featuring Justin Bieber next week. For more follow me on Twitter:  @ryanoconnell79

This Week’s Playlist

In honor of the release of Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a movie that will no doubt feature an amazing soundtrack, this week’s playlist is a compilation of my favorite tracks from his movies and their soundtracks.

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Spoon Everything Hits at Once

So on the one hand, you have to appreciate the fact that Spoon put forth the effort to compile a proper greatest hits collection. I mean, they certainly have the catalog to do such a thing.

Yet on the other hand, my dudes, we’re still doing greatest hits albums? I love a good greatest hits album as much as they next guy, but with streaming services making a band’s entire catalog readily available, not to mention giving fans the ability to put together their own greatest hits album via a playlist, the greatest hits album seems a lot like the product of a bygone era.

Why waste your time then, Spoon? Why even bother doing Everything Hits at Once?

“The idea of doing a best-of came to us a couple times,” Britt Daniel of Spoon explains in the bio that accompanies the album. First I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but at some point I remembered that when I got my first Cure record it was Standing On A Beach. When I got my first New Order record, it was Substance. That was how I met those bands, and I moved backwards from there but I still listen to those comps. I love a greatest hits LP when it’s done well. It can be a thing unto itself.”

I 100% agree with that. I myself first got into a lot of bands and artists via their greatest hits albums. It should be noted that this was back in the day, before streaming services, when you had to buy physical copies of albums. Thus it was harder to deep dive into a band’s category than it is now. More expensive too.

Daniel elaborated some in a recent interview with Fader, saying “I don’t know, call me old-fashioned. I like the concept of greatest hits records — I’ve had good experiences with them, and we’re making a big deal out of this one.”

Fair enough.

Everything Hits at Once features 12 classics from the band. However, if you’re looking for something before their 2001 album Girls Can Tell, you’ll be sadly disappointed. The album does feature a new song, though. So it’s kind of a good news, bad news situation if you go all the way back with the band, back to when they started some 26 years ago.

For more on how the band selected the songs that did make the cut, check out an interview Daniel recently did with UPROXX’s Steven Hyden.

Spoon are currently on tour with Beck and Cage the Elephant. The tour makes a couple stops in Texas this weekend.

Really quickly, here are my top 5 favorite greatest hits albums:

5. Red Hot Chili Peppers What Hits!?
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
3. The Beatles 1967-1970
2. Bob Marley and the Wailers Legend
1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits

The Hold Steady “You Did Good Kid”

The Hold Steady have a new album coming out. Sadly it is not called You Did Good Kid. That would be a great album title.

Instead, “You Did Good Kid” is the latest single to be released from Thrashing Thru the Passion (also a good title,) which is set to be released next month. It’s the band’s first album since 2017’s excellent Teeth Dreams.

If you’re familiar with The Hold Steady, then this song makes sense to you. The music is tight and energetic, powering it’s way behind singer Craig Finn’s super distinctive vocals. A lot of singers are storytellers, but not many singers tell stories with the delivery and level of detail that Finn does.

“We were sleeping on the shuttle on the way to the club/ And the holy perception and the most precious blood/ It flooded the ruts and it soaked the upholstery/The driver made us walk the remainder”

The band will be on tour throughout late summer and into the fall.

Zac Brown Band “Leaving Love Behind”

Zac Brown Band are prepping a new album, The Owl, set to be released this fall, and on Friday dropped the second track from the upcoming release. The new album is their first since 2017’s Welcome Home.

The band is changing things up a bit with the new album, working with an interesting variety of producers from the EDM and Pop world such as Skrillex, Benny Blanco and Andrew Wyatt of Miiike Snow. Generally when an established band elects to team up with new producers, especially ones outside of their perceived comfort zone, the results are mixed. I’m not saying mixed in a band way; just mixed in a okay, then kind of way.

In a statement, Brown addressed the changes, saying that the band is “always pushing ourselves as musicians by blurring genre boundaries and incorporating all kinds of music we are personally inspired by, elevating what we are capable as a group. This album will have something for everyone.”

Well dudes, as long as this new album of yours has at least four songs I can singalong too while driving and/or drinking beers on my deck, I’m cool with it.

Rayland Baxter good mmorning

Rayland Baxter first got hip to Mac Miller’s music back in 2016, when the late rapper, who died in September of 2018, performed at the Okeechobee Music Festival. Baxter “was instantly captivated and felt an overwhelming connection to the music.”

According to a press release that announced Baxter’s latest EP, a collection of Mac Miller covers, “Baxter was deeply inspired by Miller’s music and frequently cited Miller as one of the major inspirations on Baxter’s latest album, 2018’s critically acclaimed Wide Awake.”

Baxter generally stays true to the originals, a fitting way to pay tribute to someone who apparently had a pretty significant impact on him.

The seven song EP includes such Miller classics as “2009” and “Small Worlds.”

Rico Nasty “Time Flies”

Rico Nasty blew up last year when she dropped her major-label debut, Nasty, and has kept on trucking this year with the release of her collaboration with producer Kenny Beats, Anger Management.

On “Time Flies,” the D.C. native chills some and gets reflective.

DJ Shadow feat. De La Soul “Rocket Fuel”

DJ Shadow is back, dropping his first new tune since his 2017 EP The Mountain Has Fallen. This time the legendary producer is teaming up with De La Soul, legends in the own right.

The new tune screams old school hip hop, especially with De La’s tag-teaming vocals bouncing all over the top of Shadow’s horn and drum-heavy production. The tune will be featured on Shadow’s next album, which is set to be released later this year.

Vida Blue “Analog Delay”

When Phish was on a break back in 2001, the band’s keyboardist extraordinaire Page McConnell found himself with some free time. Looking to both fill that time and possibly find a new challenge, he ended up forming the funky trio Vida Blue with bassist Oteil Burbridge and drummer Russell Batiste Jr.. They released a self-titled album in 2002, but when Phish suddenly ground to a halt in 2004, so did Vida Blue.

Now the trio is back, despite Phish currently maintaining a fairly healthy touring schedule. Also they’re not a trio anymore, having added guitarist Adam Zimmon. So the four piece are back with a new album, Crossing Lines, slated to come out in September. Earlier this week they released the first single, the trance-heavy groove, “Analog Delay.”

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, McConnell says that he started kicking around the idea of getting his side project back together in 2017. A year later, the guys got back together at a studio in Miami and started putting tracks down. Burbridge also discussed the reunion in a 2018 Reddit AMA, saying “it was really great to get the old band back together, complete with Adam Zimmon.”

Crossing Lines comes out on September 20th, with the band playing a handful of shows around that date.

Soundgarden Live From the Artists Den

In 2013 Soundgarden was on tour in support of their latest release, King Animal. The band had reunited after being apart for way too long, but sounded as if they had never left. They were still powerful and full of enough force to hammer their way through a cascading mountain range.

They wrapped up their King Animal tour at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. The show was taped as part of Live From the Artists Den series and six years later, the nearly three hour long show is being released as a live album.

The 26 song set, spread out over two discs, spans the band’s entire catalog, from early songs like “Jesus Christ Pose” to a handful of King Animal tracks.

“This live show was really special, and I know how much fun Chris had that night,” Vicky Cornell, the widow of singer Chris Cornell, said in a press release. “The idea of giving fans the opportunity to experience it in its entirety is something I’m proud to share with them.”

In addition to the album, a concert film will be released, as well as a box set that features “the 29-song performance on Blu-Ray, 30 minutes of interview footage with the band, four LPs, two CDs, a photo book, among other memorabilia.”

The Ghost of Paul Revere “Nothing From Nothing”

The Ghost of Paul Revere is a self-described holler folk band from the wilds of Maine who have spent the past few years touring almost non-stop and releasing a handful of albums full of thick and infectious harmonies and toe-tappingly delightful tunes. Their last release, Monarch, came out in 2017 and as they prep their next album, they’re releasing Field Notes, Vol. 2, a compilation of live tracks, outtakes and cover songs.

The band released a similar compilation, Field Notes, Vol. 1, in 2015. That EP was highlighted by an inspired cover of The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” and it looks as if this latest entry into the band’s Field Notes series will also be anchored by another fun cover.

On Thursday, the band released “Nothing From Nothing,” a rootsy and joyous take at the Billy Preston original. The idea to cover the tune came from a band discussion about Preston’s contributions to The Beatles’ last days and ended up proving to be a welcome challenge for the group, as guitarist Griffin Sherry said recently that “figuring out how to perform a piano- and horn-based song without any of those instruments is a ton of fun and very rewarding.”

The Ghost of Paul Revere are currently in the midst of summer tour and in late August headline their Ghostland festival up in sunny Portland, Maine, with this year’s lineup also featuring Rayland Baxter, Sister Sparrow and the Suitcase Junket.

Violent Femmes Hotel Last Resort

Who among us didn’t go through a Violent Femmes’ phase at some point in their life?

Hmm, probably everyone under the age of 25.

YOU ALL ARE MISSING OUT!

The band is back with their tenth album, Hotel Last Resort. It’s their first release in three years and bassist Brian Ritchie says “it’s probably the best one we’ve made since [1984’s] Hallowed Ground.” 

Really?

“It’s just a very focused album, the songs all hold together. It’s a classic album, in the sense that people should actually sit down and listen to the whole thing. It’s not too long. It’s short, it’s punchy, it’s solid, it’s to the point, goes a few different directions but it always comes back to the core approach and then it’s over. Hopefully you’ll think ‘I want to hear that again.’”

If you say so, Brian Ritchie.

Elsewhere in Music…

So Like, Woodstock 50 is Back On?

Dude, stop asking.

But you’re the one asking.

THIS CONVERSATION IS OVER.

(Just like it looks like the dreams of Woodstock 50 are.)

Hold on! How do you feel about spending the weekend in Maryland instead of New York?

Lil Nas X Won’t Stop, Can’t Stop

Last week we talked about Lil Nas X reaching out to Dolly Parton on Twitter about having her jump on a “Old Town Remix,” to which we replied:

I mean, dude, enough already. You know what’s cooler than one dope ass song, Lil Nas X?

A second one.

Now to be fair, this latest remix of the song that can’t be stopped or topped isn’t Lil Nas X’s fault. We can blame BTS leader RM for this one. The K-pop rapper dropped “Seoul Town Road” earlier this week, making it the 258th remix of the song, give or take one or few.

If only the Mueller report contained a remix of the tune, people might pay more attention to it, am I right?

The Best Tweet About an Unfortunate Situation

Rapper A$AP Rocky has been held in Swedish jail for the past few weeks following an assault charge and reports about the conditions in which he’s being held has caused an uproar, especially in the hip hop community. One of those members of said community (i.e. West, Kanye) happens to have a direct line with the President of the United States and decided to get him involved.

And Trump continued to tackle the issue Thursday evening because of course he did.

Politics aside, this is a good thing.

Twitter not aside, Trump’s tweet was met with equal parts ridicule and humor.

Hence the best tweet about an unfortunate situation:

Rocky was formally charged with assault by Swedish authorities on Thursday.

R.I.P. Poppa Funk

New Orleans lost another music legend earlier this week. Art “Poppa Funk” Neville, a co-founding member of The Meters passed away at the age of 81. The Meters are one of those groups whose influence and legacy will continue to live on and Poppa Funk was a big part of that.

Do yourself a favor and spend an hour listening to the Meters. You’ll be happy you did.

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Got an Extra $300K You Want to Spend?

Every band has an origin story and within that story usually contains a part about that band spending hours honing their craft in a particular club that gave them a place to play when no one else would. For Phish, that place was Nectar’s in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

Phish first played the joint on December 1, 1984 and went on to play there several times over the years. Their major label debut, A Picture of Nectar, was named after the club’s original owner, Nector Morris.

In a 2017 Rolling Stone interview, Trey Anastasio of Phish talked about the club and how “we played long, multiple nights there” and how “it was very comfortable and homegrown.”

And now, for just $300,000, this piece of rock ‘n roll history could be yours. If you feel like ponying up more, say $2.2 million, the entire building could be yours.

Remember what your dad always told you, invest in real estate, especially if that real estate makes killer french fries with gravy.

You Ever Wonder What Ice T Is Up To?

Blowing your mind. That’s what he’s up to.

And We’ll End Here

 

See you next week!