Episode 2 – Tulsa
January 9, 2023
This week, I continue to adjust things. Thanks for the continued feedback as we hone the podcast.
For the Top 5 list, we are making it a monthly segment, so the first episode of the month will have the Top 5 giving you a full month to send in your entries. Don’t forget this month’s topic is songs that mention a city, state, country, place, etc.
Show Transcript
Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck, Episode 2. My name is Mark and I’ve had a hell of a week. It’s been very stressful in my real job and yeah, I don’t recommend it to anybody. So I actually got to spend the week in Seattle which was kind of cool. I hadn’t been out that way in about three years and I think maybe the music might reflect a little bit of that trip as I was prepping for the show on the airplane.
So one of the things I did while in flight was I thought about my preferences like what do I really like when it comes to music and I made a list. So here’s that list and the list starts with the obvious. If you know who I am as a drummer, I need real drums. Now I will say this is like 99% of the time. If it is genre appropriate for a drum machine or programmed drums, if you will, then that’s fine because it fits stylistically. But a lot of rock-pop alternative, it feels like it’s being programmed using like a garage band or a Fruity Loops or Pro Tools or whatever and I just can’t get into it. I feel like along with the real drums, we need the real musicians as well and when it’s a producer who’s just programming drums and they don’t actually have, I don’t know, education is not the right word but experience maybe in playing drums and creating music in the truest sense of the word rather than just programming it, you can tell, I can tell. Usually there’s very little variation, it’s just like a four bar loop that is cut and pasted and when you have a real drummer, you can hear the variation because the stick is not going to hit the drum or the cymbal in the same way in the same angle every single time. Now I will say that some of the live drummers do deal with triggered drums from a recording standpoint which cleans it up a little bit but even then you can kind of tell. Now I mentioned real musicians and I think that goes for everything. So I am a drummer that’s really the only instrument I play with any kind of expert level skills. I can dabble on a guitar and a bass and some keyboards but like if I open up garage band I can get really impressive because it’s just pushing buttons and I think as much as I want a real drummer, I want real musicians in the band as well because what that gives you when you have a band, you get variation and it’s not just the sound, it’s the structure of the song. So like with kind of pop and kind of, I don’t know what to call it and it’s in the rock genre but it’s questionable because I don’t get like an ABA structure, I don’t get really cool creative bridges, you know you’ll get a catchy chorus and a hook but you know there might not be a solo, there’s definitely not going to be a key change, you know those types of things that musicians really bring to the table is that variation in the composition of the song and I want a really, really good composition. Along with that, I want good lyrics, I don’t want to hear cliches, that drives me crazy in music, you know, just, I just can’t even express to you how infuriating cliches are to me in music and the same goes for weak lyrics. If you are writing a song and you’re rhyming like June, Moon, Spoon, just be a little more creative, like stretch your vocabulary and your intellect to make things interesting for the person listening and with those lyrics, I want a good vocal singing it and when I say that, I mean Bob Dylan is a horrible vocalist but he’s a great vocalist because that is him. The same goes for Adele, Adele is an amazing vocalist because that is her but if your vocal is overproduced and it’s auto-tuned out of its mind, that’s not a good vocal. That is you trying to cover up your shortcomings with technology and I’m not here for it. Now, I will be 100% transparent. I have been in a band that our vocalist was a phenomenal vocalist and when we recorded our EP, like there were certain moments where he was like a half a cent flat and for the sake of the recording, our engineer auto-tuned that up a half a cent which is like nothing but it’s not like what you hear in some of the auto-tuned songs of today. Those are my preferences. Those are the things I wrote down as I was sitting on the plane. Just to give you a little bit more background into what I’m really looking for as a consumer of music.
This episode is going to be shorter than the last because I’m not going to talk about music history. I didn’t look back and I don’t have any news to share really. I will encourage you to like and share the podcast, review it if your platform allows you to. You will have noticed that there was a Cliff Notes version that came out for my Google friends and my Apple podcast friends which just had me talking about the music. I hope that was okay. It seemed to get as many listens as the other version, the full version that’s on Spotify. I’m going to continue to do that when it makes sense. Thank you for doing all that thing. Make sure you follow us on the socials, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter.
With that, let’s talk about the top five. When I did episode one, the theme of that was songs that make you happy. We had a great number of submissions, ended up with a nine-hour playlist. The thing that I realized as I was coming home was that I gave y’all four weeks to submit and with a small audience, which I have right now, that was a lot of time and I was able to get the word out and we got quite a few submissions, like I said. What I’m looking at now is I’m expecting y’all to bring that same energy in the course of a week. I think that’s a lot to ask right now. I’m going to make the top five an actual monthly feature, so I’m going to give the month of January to submit songs that mention geographies, so your cities, states, countries, places, what have you, and then the first episode in February, we will review the top five. Each week of January, though, I will pick one song that has been submitted and I’m going to highlight it just to remind us of the theme and hopefully garner more submissions for the ultimate top five. This week, I’m going to go through the submissions and I’m going to feature a song by the Indigo Girls called Get Out the Map, so here you go.
Okay, so this week I’ve got seven new tracks as I mentioned. It was a really, I don’t know, I’m going to guess this was a better week than last week as far as songs that I found that I actually liked. A couple of artists that I’m familiar with will be featured, including the first one. The first track comes from The Smashing Pumpkins, and this is their new song Beyond the Veil.
Smashing Pumpkins – Beyond the Vale
Okay, that was Smashing Pumpkins with Beyond the Veil. Now if you’ve listened to Smashing Pumpkins over the years, you’ll recognize that the aspect of rage that used to be in music like Siamese Dream and that era of Smashing Pumpkins tended to have, not so much here. It’s very clean, and again I feel like Billy Corgan heard the podcast, I feel that’s true, and he decided to just drop this great track on us. Now the thing that I really liked about this, generally I will not focus on bands that are familiar to me, but when a band that’s been around a long time puts out new music, it tends to sound dated, but in this case I’m not really getting that vibe, like it feels more modern, and I don’t know if it’s the minor change in personnel, and I say minor with my tongue planted in my cheek, I don’t know if it’s a new producer, I don’t know if it’s Billy’s frame of mind and writing, but whatever it is, it worked. So definitely a cool track, looking forward to hearing the rest of that album when it decides to drop.
Now the second track that I found this week is a band called BRKN Love, and this is called Spell.
That was Broken Love with a song called Spell. Now it’s hard to deny a good hook, and this track has a few very tasty moments. The pre-chorus and chorus have really delivered here, definitely caught my ear with just the overall composition of the song, I thought it was really good. Great vocals, and just overall songwriting I really liked. I talked about bridges a little bit in the open, and last week I talked about the need to have a really good bridge, and this band, a really great bridge in this song. Be interested to hear more from Broken Love, if you’re looking for them, it’s actually spelled B-R-K-N, so I’m assuming it’s pronounced broken, and not broken, but I digress.
Now the next find that I had this week was from a band called DMAs, I don’t know if that’s pronounced that way or not, but it’s DMA, apostrophe S. Okay, I’m old, and if you’re going to name your band weird things, chances are I’m going to mispronounce it, and I’m going to look foolish at some point. But this is a track called Olympia, check it out.
Last week I had Travis as my number one in my top five songs that make me happy, and the DMAs give me some of that vibe. I need to look up to actually see where they’re from, if they’re from the UK it might make sense why I’m getting that feeling, because I also feel a little bit of oasis, but not as whiny, but this song definitely gives me road trip feels, like if I’m going to make a road trip at some point, this is going to be included in that playlist for sure. Definitely want to check more out from them, because I really liked what I heard here. Now the next find, I wasn’t sure if I was going to include it or not, but I’ve decided to share it as somebody might get into it.
This is a band called Viper Club, and this song is called Retweet.
Like I said, I went back and forth on including this one or not. I really dig the groove though, but at the beginning I was just not a fan of the verses, and Heather kind of been, you know, spoken slash wrapped, what have you, but I can’t lie it’s growing on me. Really I hate to harp on the bridges, but I really like the bridge here. You need it to like break up the song, and then kind of bring it back, change the pace, and bring that song to a proper close, and being able to kind of stop the energy and start the energy is really important. And I think Viper Club really did a nice job here. So yeah, I’m curious what your thoughts on it are honestly, because like I said, I went back and forth, but it’s growing on me.
Now the next song is a little bit of change of pace, going back into country for a little bit. This is a song called So Much Wine by Phoebe Bridgers.
Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine
That was Phoebe Bridgers with So Much Wine. Now her voice really grabbed me. I’ve heard her name before, but I don’t remember ever hearing her music. The one thing I think I mentioned at some point when I’m talking about country music, the instrumentation is really important for me. And this had all of the ingredients for a classic country song. Stand-up bass, mandolin, acoustic guitars, fiddle, drums, just very classic country vibe from this. And from a songwriting standpoint, when I think about country music, she’s a storyteller. So she’s singing about things that are happening in her life, rather than something that is more of an abstract concept. You don’t get abstract concepts so much in country music, you get a lot of cliches. And just I really, really appreciated what she brought with this song. So I definitely want to check out more new music from her in the near future.
Now the next song is from the Wombats. And this is a song called Dressed to Kill. Check it out.
All right, that was the Wombats with Dressed to Kill. Now this is another band who I’ve heard some of their other music, hadn’t heard anything in a while, and this one came up in the playlist and I was like, oh, this is really good. There’s a bit of an 80s new wave feel here, but it’s modern. It’s weird, honestly. I hear a little bit of like a killer’s influence almost. I don’t know if they find that to be an influence of theirs, but I could definitely hear a little bit of it. Like it’s got a little, almost a little Mr. Brightside kind of energy to it. It’s honestly short and sweet. And it’s catchy as hell. I love the chorus line about Dressed to Kill, and if I don’t, someone will. It’s just really, really clever. I liked it.
So the last song for this week, the featured song, if you will, for this week is from Elle King. And this is her song called Tulsa. Check it out.
I guess I’m bookending with artists who I’m familiar with. People remember Elle King. She had a huge hit with X’s and O’s. And I feel like Tulsa could be another fairly big hit. I personally love Elle King. I think she’s a really clever songwriter. I love the attitude in this song. And when it comes to country, this is the sweet spot. There’s a real subtle slide guitar in here that’s really tasty, and it gives that country feel that I expect. Overall, I just really like this track. I’ve listened to it quite a few times since I found it. And yeah, if you’re into country, I’m imagining that you appreciate that too. Because it’s almost like that outlaw country vibe, like the Whalen Jennings, Johnny Cash kind of thing, just got really good attitude towards it. So that’s it. That’s your track this week, the Elle King, Tulsa.
All right, so to close up the episode, I just want to remind you about the top five. It’s going to be a month long run here. And we’re looking for songs that talk about geography. Cities, states, countries, streets, places, buildings, who knows. Get creative. Help me find some new music, because I find that this is really what the top five has been about. There are certain songs that I immediately will say, oh yeah, that one’s going to be included and then I don’t see it. And I’m like, wow, I’ve got an eclectic group of folks listening to this podcast, which is awesome. And I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you listening, how much I appreciate you submitting your music and giving me feedback and all the things. So with that, I will wish you the best for this week. I hope mine goes better than last week. And until then, keep searching for and keep listening to songs that don’t suck.
