HYRO THE HERO, courtesy.

This week’s Tuesday Tracks include the hip-hop and metal stylings of Hyro the Hero, alt-rock from Luna Aura, a glimmer of optimism from Night Talks, a sneakily catchy track by Ida Mae, something different from Kaien Cruz and an instrumental track by a barber.

Evidence of a Struggle, “Sal-E” — Evidence of a Struggle is a solo project by Rev. Billy Simmons, who writes the music and plays all the instruments. That’s not uncommon. This is uncommonly good, mind you, or I wouldn’t have put it on the list—it takes a lot for an instrumental song to sink its hooks in me like this one did. But that’s still not the unusual part. No, the noteworthy part is that when he’s not making music, Rev. Billy is the proprietor of Rev. Billy’s Chop Shop, a barber shop and art gallery in Chicago. That part I really didn’t expect.

Hyro the Hero, “Sho Nuff” — The name of this song and its accompanying video are references to the 1985 movie “The Last Dragon,” the story of Leroy “Bruce Leeroy” Green fighting Sho’Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem. It was produced by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, and costarred Prince’s protege Vanity. Sho’Nuff was played by Julius Carry, who went on to play Lord Bowler in ’90s sci-fi western “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.”

Obviously all that has nothing to do with the song, and obviously you don’t care, so why did I write it? Because I just love that a young artist like Hyro the Hero has an appreciation for the classics. And there’s no effusive praise I could write about the song that can describe it better than just listening to it.

Luna Aura, “LOST IN THE FICTION” — I’ve had a soft spot for grungy, fuzzy, riff-heavy alt-rock since the ’90s, and it always warms my ancient heart to hear it come back. “LOST IN THE FICTION” is an especially good example, with catchy verses and a heavy, room-filling hard rock chorus. Imagine if the Breeders or Veruca Salt got into headbanging and you’ll have a rough idea of what to expect. It’s Luna Aura’s second appearance in Tuesday Tracks.

Ida Mae, “My Whispers Are Wildfire” — When my week to write Tuesday Tracks comes up, I listen to around 200 songs to pick my top six. Admittedly, after a while, the songs start to sound the same, a phenomenon not helped by the fact that new songs all sound pretty much the same to begin with. But every time there’s one song I hear, don’t immediately like, but have to go find later when I realize I can’t get it out of my head. And this week that song is “My Whispers Are Wildfire,” which I initially dismissed due to the lyrics not making a ton of sense but just refused to leave my brain until I found the press release and listened again. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a sure sign of a very good song. It’s also the second appearance in this column by duo Ida Mae.

Night Talks, “Roll On” — We’re still getting songs written during 2020 about the pain of isolation and I don’t expect it to end any time soon. Most of them sound pretty much the same, which makes sense since the early days of the pandemic were pretty much the same for us all, and most of us don’t want to relive it. But “Roll On” by L.A.’s Night Talks is different. Not only is the music bubbly and optimistic, the lyrics are too. And three years later we still need that, because the world isn’t giving us a ton of reasons for optimism and much of art reflects that.

Kaien Cruz, “I Lay” — I mentioned above that a lot of new music sounds the same. There’s a formula; a reality-show-style singer, either behind a fairly generic backing track or with an acoustic guitar, sings in one of two or three accepted styles. So when I got to Kaien Cruz I immediately noticed, because they don’t fit any of those boxes. They’re a very good, polished singer, but not in the cookie-cutter “American Idol”/”The Voice” way. The music they’re singing to isn’t one of the standard, generic archetypes. And most of all, it’s good. I want to encourage this. Music needs more.

Danny’s pick: The best of a collection of very good entries is “Sho Nuff” by Hyro the Hero. I didn’t get too deep into the music above so I’d still have something to say here: The ’00s style of nu-metal made the concept of hip-hop/metal toxic, but Hyro shows that it can be done really well. Hopefully, he’s an example for others who want to break out of narrow genre silos.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.