Weekend Music Roundup

The weekend is here, the last one before the holiday weekend. And though I really hate posting the Roundup without having posted anything else between the last one, I decided to go ahead as this will be the last one before my year-end roundup. I wanted to get in a bunch of 2018 releases that I recently listened to and threw in a past release that I'd been meaning to include for some time. Enjoy.

Kurt Vile - Bottle It In: With his tenth album. the Philly native and once member of The War on Drugs continues to establish himself as one of the premier folk rock artists of the time. This album doesn't stray from the sound he's created on his previous records. He swaggers through these guitar heavy tracks with confidence and bravado and delivers another quality record. "Rollin with the Flow," "Check Baby," and "Come Again" are personal favorites of mine.  

Black Thought - Streams of Thought Vol. 2: Following the first volume released earlier this year, the Roots man released the second volume of hard hitting rhymes last month. Like the last volume, this gets right down the beginnings of Black Thought's career, using jazz influences and socially conscious lyrics to talk about the world as he sees it. The two EPs combined make for an incredible listen and some of the best hip-hop released this year. 

Ordos - Ordos: The self-released debut from the Swedish stoner metal band is one I sought out after loving their official debut two years ago. As expected, this one is less polished, but the rawness of it actually serves the band well. There's something primal that comes out in these recordings as opposed to the more orchestrated doom of the official release. This six track record is pretty much flawless stoner metal, with "Hounds of Hell," "Crossing Over," and "The Witch" being standouts. 

Electric Citizen - Helltown: The third album from the Ohio heavy psych band falls somewhere between many genres. It's not exactly stoner rock, not exactly power metal, and certainly not what I often think of as heavy psych. There are definite NWOBHM influences that remind me of Iron Maiden. This is a band I'd been meaning to check out since their debut four years ago, but never got around to it until now. "Heart Attack," "Ripper," "The Pawn," and "Mother's Little Reject" are my personal favorites.

Death Valley Girls - Darkness Rains: Garage rock bands from L.A. rarely seem to disappoint me, so when I came across this album, the band's third, I wasn't about to skip over it. I'm glad I didn't. This is a blistering garage noise rock album that never really lets up from start to finish. It reminds me of early Yeah Yeah Yeahs with an West Coast psych feel. "More Dead," "Wear Black," "Abre Camino," and "Street Justice" are among my favorites.

Ty Segall - Fudge Sandwich: With his fourth album of the year, I'm left wondering if Ty Segall ever sleeps. This album of covers is another exception piece of lo-fi garage rock with incredible re-workings on songs by Funkadelic, John Lennon, Neil Young, and others. "Slowboat," "Lo Rider," "The Loner," "Class War," and "Isolation" are my personal favorites on this delightful covers record.