6. JBM's Tunes ep. 0: Playing Catch-Up

I've decided to write small decription / reviews of the music I feature on my page. Hopefully this inspires you to check out these artists and think about music in a more nuanced way (Not like I'm very good at that yet, lol).

Anyway, This is episode 0 of JBM's Tunes: Songs I played before I started this series

SHMU - Diamonds:
SHMU is a one-man-and-some-hired-session-artists project out of Austin, Texas. Headed by multi-instrumentalist, Sam Chown, SHMU finds new and interesting ways to record music, smash it to bits, and put it back together again (Think stained glass windows, but they're songs.)
Diamonds, appearing on their 2015 album "Shhh!!!!", serves as a great introduction to the Sam's style. It has plenty of compellingly distorted guitar and synth riffs, recombined in a oddly pleasing package, yet retains a traditional rock song structure with a two verses, two choruses, a bridge, and an outro.
Diamonds is a high point on the album, only outdone by a couple other, more difficult tracks. Expect to hear some more SHMU on here again.

That Handsome Devil - Rob the Prez-O-Dent
"Four score and seven beers ago..." is the opening line to the groovy and boozy Rob the Prez-O-Dent by That Handsome Devil (THD). They're a retro-inspired funk depression group that does their best to make our bleak future fun! Look up GodForbid: THD's raspy vocalist and frontman. He's so fun to watch.
Anyway, Rob the Prez-O-Dent is a humorous take on modern American malaise; solving 9 to 5 culture in the most direct way possible: Just steal from the guy in charge! Classic bluesy guitar lines mix with blaring klaxons and a downturned church organ to create an atmosphere that's as grody as it is entertaining (Maybe that was the intention; like a commentary on watching real life violence on TV. The rockabilly cousin to Tool's Vicarious.)
Whatever! Enough analysis! That Handsome Devil is fun, funny, and endlessly clever. Hear the fuckin' thing and get back to work!

Wallpaper - Gettin Drip
From the party rock craze of the late 00s came Wallpaper: The greatest autotuned band of all time. Wallpaper really got the pop music of their time. They understand how highly commercialized, rigidly constructive, and uncreative a large portion of it is. So in response, frontman Ricky Reed (Who's real name is Eric Frederic. Look this guy up, he's a suuuuper successful producer now) formed a party funk band that satirizes pop trends while embracing and improving on what makes them fun to so many people.
Take Gettin Drip, off of their first (and best) album, DooDoo Face, for example. It's moral is horrible, advocating liquoring up babes at house parties so you can fuck 'em later on in the night. Hell, it goes so far as to have it's backing vocals be a pitched-up loop of "I- I don't want none baby- No I don't."
That's pretty fucked up, right? Well that's how Wallpaper conveys their arguments: through boldfaced acceptance that's supposed to make you go "Is that what they really said?" The music itself is really funky and well produced with plenty of smooth grooves.
Check 'em out. Despite how they seem at first, they're really worth your time.

Alright! That was a big information dump; I know. Regular episodes going forward will only cover one song at a time. See you tomorrow!