Episode 20 – “Talking lies in the space of a thousand truths”

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck, with your host, Mark Bradbourne.

Hello friends, welcome to episode 20 of Songs That Don’t Suck. My name is Mark, I am your host as always, and as always I want to thank you for listening. I truly do appreciate it.

This week Eurovision came to its completion, and it seems like I only ever hear about Eurovision after the fact, and I always forget that I kind of want to try and watch it, whether it’s YouTube clips or whatever, and ugh, just didn’t happen. But it made me curious, I actually started digging into Eurovision a little bit. Dates back to 1956, which actually blew my mind, I figured it was more of a modern phenomenon, but it is not, it’s super old. But you might remember the US actually tried to copy the format a little bit with American Song Contest, and it featured songs from all 50 states, but I think it faded pretty quickly. I don’t even know if it finished the season, to be honest. I think I watched like two episodes and checked out pretty quick. But I did find out that Eurovision is on one of the streaming platforms available here in the United States, but it is not one that I subscribe to currently, and it’s not one that I’m going to subscribe to just to watch Eurovision. So I guess I’m just going to feel cheated and feel like I’m missing out on watching Eurovision. I do remember one and only one song that ever caught my ear, and it was back in 2020, I believe it was during the beginning of the pandemic, and it was a song called Think About Things, and really, really good, I actually still like that song, still listen to it. But I got to thinking about how it really surprises me how much of that music doesn’t hit the US markets. But then I think about like when I was younger and I was talking to my cousin who lives in the UK, and we were comparing artists and she had no idea what I was talking about, and I had no idea what she was talking about, and these were huge artists on our side of the Atlantic, but over there they hadn’t dented yet, so it’s very interesting.

Now I did happen to find a Spotify playlist, and I was listening to a few tracks from this year’s Eurovision, and it’s interesting, right? It’s pop music, obviously, and it’s not really my thing, but yeah, it’s okay. The winner this year was from Sweden, her name is Loreen, and the song is called Tattoo. When I gave this a listen, it sounded a lot like a modern ABBA, and it makes sense because she’s from Sweden. It’s not a bad pop song overall, I think she’s got a good voice, and the song is honestly better than some of the other ones that I’ve heard. So if you are interested, I will pop that playlist in the show notes if you want to listen to the Eurovision 2023 songs. They are yours to be heard.

Okay, let’s talk about this week’s brain-bending cover. This week I was doing my music review on a plane back from Las Vegas, I’d been in Las Vegas all week, I was exhausted. So flight back, I drifted off to sleep as I was listening to music, and I literally sat straight up in my seat the minute this song hit my subconscious. It was the strangest thing, but I was like, I have to put this in the episode this week. It’s a no-brainer. The artist is called Scary Pockets, and it’s a cover of ACDC’s Back in Black. Having been in Las Vegas for the last week, that very chill lounge version of Back in Black feels completely correct for this episode, and it honestly doesn’t surprise me that it kind of brought me out of a slumber. It’s such a cool vocal, it’s such a cool arrangement. I hope you like that one.

Alright, if you have a cover for me to check out, be sure and send it to me through the website that is songsthatdontsuck. net

Okay, let’s get into new music. Each week I dig into new music playlists, I listen to a lot of songs. I listen to about 30 seconds per song, it sucks, it’s painful, but I do it for you because I love you. If something catches my ear, I throw it on another playlist and I review that over the weekend, and then they come to you every Monday.

The first song this week actually came to me as a recommendation. You might remember Samantha Monroe, I interviewed her back in episode nine, and if you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly recommend you go back and listen to that interview, it was so much fun. But she actually sent me a note and said, hey, Noah Kahn just put out a cover of If We Were Vampires. If you’re familiar with it, it’s a Jason Isbell song originally, which is why Samantha sent it to me. She is a big Jason Isbell fan, if my memory serves, and while I’m not generally a fan of his, despite her recommendation of him to me, this is actually a really good song. Noah does it in a slightly higher key, if my ear is trained properly, than the Jason Isbell version, and Noah has some mandolin in the mix rather than cello, which I think brightens the song up a little bit and gives it a slightly different feel. And overall, having compared both songs, I think I just prefer Noah’s voice over Jason’s. But excellent cover, Samantha, thank you for sending that in. I really, really appreciate it.

The second song this week comes from The Warning, and it’s called More. The Warning are a trio of sisters from Monterrey, Mexico. When I first heard this track, the thing that really stood out to me was kind of the aggressive stance that it took. These ladies have been rocking since 2015 when their debut EP came out, and they are definitely ones to check out a little bit more in depth. They’ve cranked up a ton of streams and views on YouTube, and probably flying under the US radar just because they’re from Mexico. But absolutely, you should go check them out.

The third song this week comes from Des Rocs, and it’s called Never Ending Moment. Des Rocs is from New York City, and from what I can tell, it’s a one-person show. Now when I first heard it, I thought The Cult and Heart had had a love child, and I was absolutely all in for it. There’s something I really like about the sound being produced here, and it’s probably because I liked The Cult when I was in high school, and I liked Heart. I still do, but it was, I don’t know, it was just a fantastic mix of two feels that just felt really, really good in the ear. This is a case, however, of me wishing that the artists listed more information about themselves so I can get a better idea about who they are. I’d be really interested to see who Des lists as influences, you know? It’d be nice, but none to be had. So Des, if you hear this, help a brother out, would you?

All right, before I get into the last couple of songs, it is housekeeping time. I spent a lot of time in Vegas talking to people about the podcast oddly enough. I would be just sitting, and conversation would strike up, and we start talking about music, and I would mention the podcast, and they got really interested, and hopefully got a few new listeners out of it. And I find that this is the best way to share the podcast, but if you can share it on social media, like it, follow it, review it, all those things help, too. Mondays you get a full version that has the music embedded that’s exclusively on Spotify, Wednesday the CliffsNotes version comes out, and it’s available everywhere. I mentioned the website earlier, songs that don’t suck. net, recommendations, show transcripts, links to all the things, all of it’s there. I am on social media, mainly on Twitter, but I do exist on Facebook and Instagram as well.

All right, fourth song this week comes from Kuinka, and it’s called Dream House. Kuinka is from Seattle, and there is a lot going on here musically. And there’s nothing I feel I can compare them to off the top of my head. Vocally, there’s actually a band here in Cleveland called BiitchSeat, which I am reminded of very heavily. Kuinka is very folky, very poppy, and I very much enjoyed finding them. I’m definitely going to have to check more of their music out when I get the chance.

The fifth and final song being featured this week is from Lovejoy, and it’s called Portrait of a Blank Slate. Lovejoy lists themselves as a zero hit wonder, and all I could say was, aren’t we all my friends? Aren’t we all? They are a British indie rock band, and at first listen, I was reminded of Two Door Cinema Club. If you liked this song, you might want to check them out. But it’s really more about the groove that they’re laying down, because I think the two bands have very distinct sounds on their own, regardless they released their first music back in 2021. So I think they’ve still got plenty of time to get one hit under their belts. Maybe this is the one? Probably not. It’s too good for mass appeal based on the garbage that I listen to every week. But that’s why we’re here, right? To find songs that don’t suck.

That is all I’ve got this week. I want to thank Samantha for checking in with that song recommendation. Again, go back and listen to Episode 9 if you want to hear Samantha’s interview. And as always, thanks for listening and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.