17. The Return of Dark Country.

Dark Country has returned to Ain't Talking Bout Pop.  Justin and Noah enjoyed discovering music in this genre-blending topic, they decided to revisit Dark Country.  The music in this episode features rockabilly acoustic and electric guitar elements with songs rooted in folk, blues, and bluegrass which creates a unique sound.
     Justin has a new Hot Flash and Noah discusses the difficulty in to place an artist in a particular genre in a new edition of the Beard of Knowledge.   Also, check out the extended playlist for the songs that did not make the episode, including a fusion of hip-hop and bluegrass. 

16. Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from Aint Talking Bout Pop. Justin and Noah created a special Valentine's Day playlist perfect for the candlelit dinners and romantic drives. There is music from the 90's and today and this episode Noah introduces his new segment the Beard of Knowledge. Check out the episode and click on the extended playlist below.

14. Expectations for 2018

Justin and Noah list what they are most looking forward to in the new year of music.
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Connected By Love/Respect Commander | Jack White | Single Review

  Today we are looking at new music that I have been waiting for somewhat impatiently for the last 6 months or so.
Ever since Third Man Records’ official Instagram posted a picture of Jack White and a group of studio musicians with
the tag saying that White was recording a new album, I’ve been hotly anticipating this one. I was halfway expecting the
single to release before the end of the year, but it took until three days ago for us to finally get the first true single,
Connected by Love.

    Now because this was released like a vinyl with the single and then the B side I will go ahead and look at both of
them in the same spot as a double track review. First off the single, Connected by Love. This song simultaneously
sounds very different and exactly the same as everything else by Jack White. The track is heavily driven by lo-fi

synthesizers that remind me of some the Dead Weather’s songs and a drum machine. The contrast between the
somewhat pristine electronic elements and Jack’s raw and unprocessed vocals is really interesting, especially
when coupled with the gospel background singers.

    Along with these elements there is also what sounds like acoustic drums (mainly cymbals) and organ that adds
to the mix of electronic music and gospel blues on this track. Overall I really enjoy this track as it sounds like the
same style I’ve come to expect from Jack White but with some new flavors that I wouldn’t. This is most evident on
the organ solo on the bridge that has very similar timing and phrasing to the Jack White would do a guitar solo;
similar ideas, different sounds.

    The B-Side Respect Commander is a bit different however, being extremely experimental with it’s incorporation
of various sound and samples, especially through the intro. While the sounds do feel a bit random and thrown together
they still feel like they are building up to something before dropping down a slow blues when the vocals come in.
This track also makes use of both drum machines and acoustic drums, but they are kept separate this time, with the
drum machine driving the opening part and acoustic drums sitting behind the blues guitar driven main section.

    I really enjoy the way that the synths are mixed into the main section behind the guitar and vocals, adding an
interesting new flavor to Jack’s arsenal. Overall the main section is vintage Jack White, with it’s build from a slow
blues to an insane guitar solo being something Jack has done going all the way back to the first White Stripes album
on something like I Fought Piranhas. The experimental bits on the intro are really interesting and cool to me, but
what I really like is that even though the sounds and ideas may be different, so far the core is still Jack White playing
the blues.

Trial By Fire- Yelawolf- Album Review

    Here is another artist who I didn’t realize how good they were until very recently. I

originally had written Yelawolf off as a hillbilly party rapper, but after hearing his verse on the

Shady records cypher a while back I began to appreciate his lyrical ability. Around this same

time I saw a YouTuber who I follow called the Rap Critic put the song Shadows on his best of

the year list for 2016, and it’s easy to see why. Shadows is a complete masterpiece, mixing dark

bluegrass and folk elements with vivid imagery and lyrics that remind me of a southern Kendrick

Lamar.

    Shadows was the first single released ahead of the full album Trial by Fire, along with

Row Your Boat and Punk. While I enjoyed both of the other singles, Shadows was far and away

the best single and ultimately the best song on the album proper. The full album starts with the

title track that serves as an introductory skit to the whole album, setting the scene of Yelawolf,

Bones Owens and DJ Klever performing in a blues bar. This opener has a distinct and powerful

southern rock sound with Yelawolf rapping the story of his birth that blends into Shadows.

    As I said I loved Shadows before the album came out, and hearing it in the context of the

album is even more awesome. The third track is a hyper aggressive Nu-Metal/Rap Rock

throwback with a bit of southern rock flavor thrown in for good measure. The thing that makes

this track a bit strange is the featured artist of Kid Rock. This certainly feels like something in

the style of late 90s early 2000s era Kid Rock and it’s a pretty solid track.

    After Get Mine we have one of the best tracks on the album that really lets Yelawolf dip

into his storyteller side with Son of A Gun. Similarly to the opening track, this is a

autobiographical track, this time detailing his destructive nature and the similarities to his father.

This really shows the perfect way that country and rap can blend together as the biggest element

of these two genres when done right is storytelling. The next track is a heartwarming one about a

friend of Yelawolf’s who despite taking a different path in life has always had his back.

    The album then has a spoken word interlude which perfectly sets up one of the best tracks

on the album, Daylight. Daylight is a good split between a drinking party song and a positive

turn on the album. Do For Love is a pretty average track on the album that has good lyrics but

kind of a mediocre sound. The next track Punk has a blistering tempo and powerful rhythm,

courtesy of Travis Barker, but Juicy J’s hook is kind of lacking in my opinion.

    Row Your Boat is proof that they knew what they were doing when they picked the

singles off of this album. Aside from Punk I would say that the singles off of this album were all

of the top songs here. Row Your Boat has a kind of laid back beat on it but features one of the

most interesting flows on the album with Yelawolf having a slippery flow that slides into each

line on the verses. He also does a good job performing his own hook in a way that suits the low

key vibe of the song.

    True to Yourself features guitarist Bones Owens actually singing the hook as well as

playing on it and has some sick trumpet playing. Sound wise this track is very similar to

Shadows and is pretty solid. The next track Sabrina is a bit of an odd track as Yelawolf raps

nearly acapella the story of his fictional daughter drowning in a lake near his house. On Violin

Yelawolf raps about various people who have been used or “played like a violin”, including a

soldier abandoned by his country and a woman in an abusive relationship. The song features

violins throughout it behind a military drum roll and a soulful hook by Lee Brice.

The final track is a huge standout, featuring Yelawolf at his best telling his life story in

vivid detail over a a mix hip hop synth bass, country lap steel and bluegrass mandolin. The

chorus features country star Wynonna Judd giving the perfect summation of the song, singing

“This is my story, This is my glory, This is what keeps me alive”. This track, and this album as a

whole is what happens when a storyteller with a gift for poetic writing takes full control over a

project.

          The self produced effort by Yelawolf feels not only like his strongest work, but also his
most complete and fleshed out work. It’s weird to say that a rap album only has touches of hip
hop production, but the majority of this album’s music is Bones Owens’ guitar and lap steel
playing with touches of 808 drums and hip hop bass accompanying acoustic snare rolls and
piano. While the elements used on this album might not sound like they would go together that
well, this album truly is more than the sum of its parts.

13. Best Songs of 2017

Full list

Noah
1. Ego-Rag n Bone Man
2. Hook, Line & Sinker- Royal Blood
3. Believer- Imagine Dragons
4. Walk On Water- 30 Seconds To Mars
5. The Man- The Killers
6. Died In My Sleep- Demon Hunter
7. Blame- Bastille
8. Feet Don't Fail Me- Queens of The Stone Age
9. Story of OJ- Jay-Z
10. Blood In The Cut- K.Flay

Justin
1. What Are We Fighting For- The Federal Empire
2. Come Together- Gary Clark Jr.
3. Legendary- Welshy Arms
4. Freak Like Me- NoMBe
5. High- Sir Sly
6. No Roots- Alice Merton
7. Feel It Still- Portugal. The Man
8. Fire Escape- Andrew McMahon in The Wilderness
9. River- Bishop Briggs
10. Love is Mystical- Cold War Kids
--honorable mention-- Champion- Barns Courtney

note-Jay- Z is not on Spotify so Story of OJ is replaced by Mask Off(remix) on the Spotify playlist.

 
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12. ATB Pop Christmas 2017

Justin and Noah bring you a blend of Christmas rock songs and some tracks with a distinct New Orleans flavor. Merry Christmas from ATB Pop!


*because of how hard it is to find a decent quality Beatles version of Christmas Time is Here Again, we went with Ringo's version instead.


**The First Noel by Bad Religion doesn't exist on Spotify for some reason.



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11. Alternative Music

From Jack White to Maynard James Keenan, Noah and Justin
discuss their favorite artists of the Alternative genre. 





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Ahead of Myself - X Ambassadors - Single Review

    If you saw my previous X Ambassadors review then you know that I cannot stand this band. Aside from their song designed to sell Jeeps I despised everything on their first album, VHS. Given all of that, you can imagine how much I was looking forward to ripping into their biggest single off of their upcoming second album. Unfortunately, Ahead of Myself actually isn’t too bad.

    The first thing I noticed about this track is Sam Harris’ vocals sound much stronger and overall just better on this track. While Unsteady did showcase a bit of his range, it was in a kind of limp and whiny kind of way. Here Harris presents a pretty powerful and full sounding vocal performance. Unfortunately once you get past the vocals there really isn’t much to the song.

    There is a little bit of a guitar and some drums here and there but it’s a very empty sounding mix for the most part. This would seem to signal to me that X Ambassadors saw the success of Unsteady on pop stations and decided to lean more in that direction. Unlike a band like Imagine Dragons who walk the line between Top 40 and Alternative, X Ambassadors are falling firmly into Top 40 territory.

    I can’t say I expected anything less from this band as VHS was a mess of boring indie songs trying desperately to sound like something deeper. I’m just about ready to call it on X Ambassadors; a boring and unoriginal band with a hell of a lead singer. Overall this song is just okay, nothing special but not nearly as bad as most of their music.

Came Back Haunted - Nine Inch Nails - Track Review

Happy Halloween everybody, today we are looking at the first single off of Nine Inch Nails’ 2013 album, Hesitation Marks. Aside from having a spooky sounding title that fits perfectly with Halloween, this is one of my favorite NIN songs with Hesitation Marks being my favorite album. Most NIN fans would consider that last statement blasphemous, but in my opinion a lot of Reznor’s earlier albums don’t hold up as well now.

Let me first state that I have never been a huge NIN fan; I liked some of With Teeth and some of the other singles but they were never a project I really got into. Hesitation Marks was the first album of Reznor’s that I got into enough to listen the whole thing from beginning to end without skipping around. Even with this album I found that the majority of it felt more like a movie score to my ears, with the only tracks I was really interested in listening to outside the context of the album being Copy Of A, Find My Way and Came Back Haunted.

Came Back Haunted in particular is a good mixture of the 90’s Industrial Rock sound that NIN is known for with some more contemporary electronic elements including some Dubstep leaning bass wobbles. The lyrics to Came Back Haunted seem to be relating to a character in the vein of Victor Snowden, even making an allusion to Deep Throat. While on the surface the lyrics remind me a lot of the kind of conspiracy theory Rock songs Muse put out, their is also a more personal level relating to Reznor’s battle with addiction and depression.

Regardless of the lyrical meanings, this track is the perfect mix of threatening and

danceable that a NIN track should be. Like I said, I love the whole album, but this track is one of the best off of it, and easily the most digestible.

Lorde - Perfect Places - Single Review

    Today we are looking at Lorde’s latest single off of her Melodrama album, Perfect Places. I heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago and I really couldn’t stand it. Whereas with Green Light I was just kind of on the fence about, Perfect Places I developed a deep distaste for. The main issue that I have with this track is that Lorde somehow has become boring and maybe even common.

    This isn’t necessarily all Lorde’s fault as she managed to be a bit before her time, striking it big before the trend of dark electropop started. Because of how long it took for her to release her follow up, Lorde’s style has now been endlessly copied by artists like Halsey, Selena Gomez and even Taylor Swift. So now that Lorde has come back to the post Royals world of mainstream music, she’s no longer particularly original or unique sounding anymore.

    Further hurting Lorde’s potential to stand out with this track is her choice to base the lyrics around the all too common theme of the consequences of partying. These lyrics wouldn’t seem out of place in a Drake or Lana Del Rey song, but again the issue is that these artists set the trends that have been done to death now. Of the few changes that Lorde has made to her style, the additions she made to this song make it blend it even more as the stark emptiness of her earlier work made it stand out more.

    I want to listen to the full album Melodrama before making a complete judgement on Lorde, but I’m worried that much like Drake, the originality of her earlier content isn’t going to hold up on subsequent releases now that she is established. I have heard a lot of good reviews of Melodrama, so it’s entirely possible that my personal opinion is not in line with the majority opinion on these new tracks. I’m personally hoping that the rest of the album is dramatically better than these two singles. Either way, I don’t like this song but I can see why other people would.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard-Flying Microtonal Banana / An Album Review

    Today we are looking at an album that I had recommended to me quite a while ago but just never got around to writing a review of. I listened to this album multiple times over the last months but couldn’t ever real figure out how I wanted to talk about it. But I’ve decided today to quit putting it off and finally do a review of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s album Flying Microtonal Banana. If that name isn’t a dead giveaway, these guys are a pretty weird band. Featuring seven members with three guitarists, two drummers and a bassist as well as interludes of synth, piano, harmonica and flute.

    For a little background on this band I highly recommend a Premier Guitar article entitled Microtonal Madmen where Stu Mackenzie and Joey Walker (two of the guitarists) are interviewed. To sum it up, King Gizzard started as a jam band among friends who played in various bands and the seven man band consists of the guys who stayed and made it their main band. Flying Microtonal Banana is their 9th studio album and features the interesting gimmick of using microtonal instruments, that is instruments with extra notes not commonly found in western music.

    To better explain this I have a few diagrams I’ve made to demonstrate the difference between Mackenzie’s Banana guitar and a standard one.

The Banana has six extra frets that are placed halfway between where two normal frets on a guitar would be creating “in between” quarter notes.

These quarter notes are not typically heard in Western music but are very common in Eastern music such as traditional Arabic, Indian, Japanese and Chinese music. Because of their association with Eastern music, quarter tones have a very exotic sound to those who are familiar with Western music.

    Getting to the album itself, it is way more melodic and enjoyable to listen to than I first anticipated. Many of these type of weird for the sake of weirdness bands cross over into unlistenable territory, but as weird as King Gizzard get they are always making music. I’m not 100% sure of the recording process for this album, but I have to believe that at the very least the demos for this album came from hitting from record and jamming. Every track has the feel of clips from a 70’s psychedelic rock band’s jam session. The mix of traditional western rock conventions with the Eastern tinged sounds brought out by the microtonal instruments creates a really cool sound throughout this album.

    Stand out tracks in my opinion are the opening track Rattlesnake, Open Water and Nuclear Fusion. Rattlesnake is one of the most straightforward songs on the album, reminding me a bit of a lighter take on a Doom Metal song, featuring heavy repetition and subtle shifts of the main riffs over it’s 7 minute length. Open Water is driven by an Egyptian/Middle Eastern sounding drone and a vocal drone that is doubled by something that sounds like a Sitar. Along with the Eastern elements on Open Water there is also an extremely tight and dynamic rhythm section, with the twin percussionists and bassist doing an amazing job at grounding the otherwise floaty track.

    Nuclear Fusion is about halfway between Rattlesnake and Open Water, being a fairly straightforward Alt rock track but still having those heavy Eastern sounds. The drumming is also superb on this track, with plenty of delicious fills in the transitions of this track.

    This is an album that is best experienced as an album rather than as a collection of tracks. I highly recommend just putting this on and letting it wash over you, just don’t expect to be productive as some of the dronier bits become a very relaxing wall of sound after a while. If you’re looking for something different or weird give this one a listen, it will be well worth your time.

10. Halloween Rock Special

Justin and Noah bring you the music to rock out all October long, plus Justin's Hot Flash explores the classic New Orleans TV show Morgus Presents.





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Bobby "Borris" Pickett The Monster Rap- Song Review

    Now we get into the cheese. Today we’re looking at Bobby “Borris” Pickett (The Monster Mash guy) and one of his various attempts to score a second hit. After the huge success of the Monster Mash, Pickett did various other parodies and spoofs throughout the years including the Transylvania Twist, Monsters Holiday, a Star Drek and even a King Kong parody. The biggest follow up hit he ever had was The Monster Rap, a cheesy 80’s rap song that served as a sequel of sorts to that graveyard smash.

    The track effectively mixes 80’s synths with the typical horror movie/sci-fi sounds you’d expect and a funky bass line. Funnily enough, as goofy and cheesy as this song is the rap verses by the monster aren’t that much worse than typical 80’s rap songs. The basic idea of the song is the story of Frankenstein’s monster told as a rap song, intercut with lines by Igor, samples of the monster roaring and complete rap verses by the monster.

    The sad part is I actually kind of prefer this one to the monster mash as a song; they’re both cheesy songs that no one should ever listen to outside the month of October, but this one actually some cool things going on with the music. The 80’s hip hop beat mixed with sci-fi noises and monster samples actually sounds pretty cool and that funky bass line is completely danceable. Like I said, I wouldn’t recommend this outside the month of October, but leading up to Halloween, why not throw this on and get into the graveyard smash made for everyone out there looking to bust a rhyme.

Nightmare Revisited-Album Review

    Continuing our look at spookier music leading up to our Halloween episode this Sunday, we are looking at the album Nightmare Revisited. This is an album that features various Rock bands covering the songs from the Tim Burton classic Nightmare Before Christmas. The album has a mixture between covers and parts of the original score, featuring artists like Marilyn Manson, Korn and Rise Against in between Danny Elfman scores.

    First off, I have actually yet to see Nightmare Before Christmas so any nostalgia or emotional attachment to these songs is gonna be lost on me; I’m looking at these wholly on how the song sounds and how they compare to the original versions. Also I’m really not going to comment on the scores lifted straight from the movie because I really don’t have much to say about film scores in general. With all those qualifiers out of the way, let’s get started.

    Starting off the covers on this album is Marilyn Manson’s cover of This Is Halloween. Having Manson do this cover was the perfect choice because he is one of the few vocalists who has enough different voices to cover the wide range of characters that sing this tune in the movie. Manson and his band do an amazing job of transforming this largely orchestral track into a creepy hard rock song that wouldn’t be out of place on one of their albums. As much as I enjoy the original version of This Is Halloween, the Manson version has become the definitive version for me.

    Next up we have the All American Rejects version of Jack’s Lament. Unlike Manson they really don’t change up the arrangement much from the original aside mildly speeding it up. Whereas the Manson version of This Is Halloween arguably surpasses the original, this cover is really not that good. The main issue here is that Danny Elfman’s performance as Jack Skellington is bassy and growling while Tyson Ritter isn’t exactly Tom Waits. Honestly I don’t know that anybody other than Elfman could nail this track, but All American Rejects were not a good choice for this cover.

    What’s This? By Flyleaf is interesting because of how much it differs from the original, not even really following the same tempo as the original in a lot of places. While I still don’t like it as much as Elfman’s performance, because of how different it is I don’t dislike it as much as I do Jack’s Lament. Lacey’s performance on this track is really breathy and almost ethereal sounding, which works great over the aggressive guitar driven music and does a good job of matching the tone of the original.

    Sparklehorse sucks; that’s all.

    Next we have the second best track on the album, second only to Manson; Kidnap The Sandy Claws by KoRn. Just like Manson’s multiple voices for the characters in that song, Jonathan Davis does an even better job of having dynamic passages and giving each character their own sound. This is a natural evolution of the original song into a creepy Nu Metal track that is absolutely KoRn and fits the insanity and tone of Tim Burton.

    Directly following KoRn is Rise Against’s Punk Rock tinged rendition of Making Christmas. This is another one of the covers that changes up the sound without losing the feeling of the original and while it may not be better than the movie version, it is a valid cover (unlike Sparklehorse).

    The last of the covers that improves upon and replaces the original (at least in my mind) is Amy Lee’s rendition of Sally’s Song. While the original was good, Amy Lee’s vocals are just a massive step up in quality, with the hauntingly gothic tone of her voice really conveying the despair and hopelessness of the lyrics. Also their is a perfect bridge featuring some rock guitars and ad libs by Lee before she comes back and delivers the last line of the song. This, along with Manson and KoRn masterfully covered the songs from this movie.

    The last of the covers on this album is Poor Jack being covered by the Plain White T’s. This suffers from some of the same issues as Jack’s Lament having a singer who’s voice really cannot touch Elfman’s performance. The difference here is that at least on this version they tried to follow the original as closely as possible and do a pretty good job here. Nonetheless it’s not better than the original.

    Overall this album is a mixed bag, having three great covers a few decent ones and Sparklehorse. The bits of the movie score throughout are also kind of cool, but to me the main draw is the covers. I personally love about half the covers off of this album, and their are some cool ones that were on a different album including Fall Out Boy doing a much better version of Jack’s Lament. I highly recommend checking these out if you were a fan of the original soundtrack or film, but expect to be disappointed by a few of them.