Episode 25 – F*** the garden in the yard, I can barely tend to my own dreams

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

Welcome to Episode 25 of Songs That Don’t Suck. Thank you for checking it out.

I got to tell a quick story before we get to the music. So I was traveling for work last week and I was in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I got invited at the last minute to go to this dinner. And I was like, sure, I was wearing a t-shirt and a sport coat because whenever I do kind of talks to companies, that’s kind of what I wear. And I said, am I okay in what I’m wearing? And the person that invited me assured me that that was fine, but this is a really, really swanky steakhouse. And I was like, okay, so we went. And the population of this dinner is a bunch of executives. So think CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, you know, vice presidents, all the important people. And I am not important people by any stretch of the imagination. So they’re all going around this table and it’s a round table about artificial intelligence and how they’re using it in their companies. And I was like, what am I going to talk about? So it gets to me and I explain that, you know, in my day to day, I don’t really use it a whole lot. The only place I really use AI consistently is for my podcast. I use it to do vocal transcriptions. I use it to summarize those transcriptions for social media, et cetera, et cetera. And immediately it went from how corporate America uses AI to Mark, tell us about your podcast, give us music recommendations. I have never been so flattered, first of all, that they were interested, but also mortified because I know that was not the point of the dinner at all. So I tried to like get through it as quickly as possible. But throughout the rest of the evening, we kept having kind of side conversations about the podcast and music in general. So it was really, really kind of funny. So when I say talk to your friends about the podcast, I really mean it because it really works. And to any of those folks who I had dinner with, they happened to be listening this week. It was great to meet you all and I hope we get to see you again sometime. It was a lot of fun.

And speaking of AI, I caught a news article that Paul McCartney is going to be releasing the final Beatles recording. Apparently, what’s going on is he has a cassette or some sort of tape of a demo that John Lennon had done. It was John with, I think either piano or guitar, I forget, I think it was guitar. And through the use of artificial intelligence, they’re able to actually isolate that vocal. So they’re not producing a vocal to kind of emulate John Lennon or anything like that. It’s an actual John Lennon vocal track. So they don’t know for sure what the track is. I think it’s called Now and Then, that’s the rumor at least. And this is one of those instances where I’m really excited about the use of AI when we can use things that actually exist. Not something that we’re generating, but it actually exists. You know, the fact that John died in like 1980 and we’re going to get the last recording in 2023 or 2024, I’m kind of excited, especially as a Beatles fan. I can really appreciate that. And Paul has already said and Ringo said that this is the last Beatles recording that will ever be released. And I am for what I’m looking forward to it and I’m curious what your thoughts are. So let me know.

All right, let’s get into some music, shall we? First things first, let’s talk about our brain bending cover. This week, I’ve got a cover of Miss Independent. That’s a Kelly Clarkson song. And I am a casual Kelly Clarkson fan. I don’t seek her music out, but if I’m flipping through the radio and I happen to hear a song that she is doing, I will probably listen to it. She’s a fantastic vocalist, great songwriter. And this song in particular, I actually listened to quite a bit when it first came out. I really thought it was just a killer track. This version is by Meet Me at the Altar. I’ve always thought that you could do Kelly Clarkson songs in a pop punk or indie rock kind of way. And I would bet a dollar to a donut that Kelly Clarkson could do it herself. But in the absence of that, Meet Me at the Altar has done that. This is on one of the Spotify singles where they kind of pull a band into a studio and have them do some stuff. Really cool version of the song. And yeah, I mean, if you dig kind of that pop punk, Avril Lavigne kind of thing happening, check out more from Meet Me at the Altar.

All right, let’s jump into new music this week. The first song this week comes from Secondhand Sound, and it’s called Rorschach. Secondhand Sound are from Nashville. When you read their bio, it’s everything you want a band to believe in, right? As I was reading it, I could identify with everything that they were talking about, you know, being the 10-year-old in the band t-shirt and wanting to like scream the lyrics to your favorite song with the windows down, like all that stuff is what I want out of music. And they finish it with this idea that they want to be the biggest band in your world, not necessarily the world, which I think is a very important distinction. Now, I love the feel of this track. I think it’s just a great straight-ahead rock song. And I honestly, I dare you to not kind of bob your head or tap your feet when you first listen to this song. Everything in this song fits together really nicely. And honestly, the other ones that I’ve listened to from Secondhand Sound as well, I love the guitar tone. I love the vocals here. The rhythm section isn’t doing anything overly flashy, which is great. It just all lends itself really nicely to the song. And it’s one of those ones that I want to put on a road trip playlist. Fantastic stuff.

The second song this week comes from Stepsons, and it’s called Mary’s Getting Married. Sometimes when you hear a song, you get reminded of things from your past, like lyrically, it takes you back to a point in time where you’re kind of going through something very similar to what you’re hearing. And those are some of the magic moments for me in music when someone who has written a song has tapped into something from your human experience that you’re instantly relating to. And it makes the song that more endearing to you as you’re listening to it. And that’s honestly how we end up with our favorite song sometimes. Sometimes it’s music that’s happening in a moment, and sometimes it’s music that reminds us of a moment. And Mary’s Getting Married definitely reminded me of some moments. Really, really cool song. And if you’re familiar with the band Vertical Horizon, I get a very similar vibe. Vertical Horizon used to be an acoustic duo, and then they kind of went through this transition into more of a rock band, but there was this kind of middle ground where they did a live album. And in that moment, that’s where Stepsons sits for me as far as Vertical Horizon is concerned. But anyway, great vocals here. I love the syncopation that is happening in and around the chorus. It definitely has some of that Vertical Horizon feel to it, especially some of their bigger hits like You’re a God. And what’s the other one called? It’s Escape at Me. Doesn’t matter. Anyway, Stepsons. Mary’s Getting Married, fantastic song.

Third song this week comes from Spanish Love Songs, and it’s called Clean-Up Crew. When this song initially hit my ear, I immediately started thinking about the talking heads. It was something very similar to, I think it was, this must be the place. I think that’s the song that I’m thinking of that just kind of reminded me of it. But this LA band definitely has their own thing going on for sure. There is an energy in this song that I feel is very undeniable. There’s pain in the vocal that you can feel that I am just such a fan of because that just tells me that the lyricist, the vocalist is attached to it. And the more I listen to it and the more lyrics that I started to pull out of the song, the more I really fell in love with this song. I started to check out some of their other songs from their catalog, and it’s all got a very similar vibe. So if you dig this song, which is called Clean-Up Crew, definitely check out some of the other ones as well.

Okay, the briefest bit of housekeeping. I mentioned it actually at the top, best way to tell people about this podcast is to actually talk to them one-on-one. The way that we used to find music by sharing it together. We’ve got social media, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all that stuff. We’ve got our website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. You can send me recommendations of artists. You can find transcripts of the show, all that good stuff too. Appreciate everything you do to support the show.

All right, the fourth song this week comes from Young the Giant, and it’s called Dancing in the Rain. I’ve seen Young the Giant floating around playlists for quite a while actually. And to be honest, nothing ever really made me sit up and take notice. I remember kind of their first single many years ago, Cough Syrup. And they’re probably honestly a band that I need to spend more quality time with. But this song, for some reason, it just caught me in the right spot. There’s a lot of layers as I was listening to this. This was recorded live in a studio. And if you’ve never been in a studio, there’s a couple of different ways that things are approached, right? Either you’ll have the drums laid down with a scratch guitar track, and then people will come in and layer things, or the band plays all at one time and gets it in one take, well, multiple takes depending on who your musicians are. But this is all recorded kind of all at one time. And I prefer that when I’m recording and when I’m listening to music, that’s what I want. I want that sound so it’s not so sterile, like it has a little bit of motion to it when the whole band is doing their thing. But again, there’s some really cool things sonically that are going on. There’s a lot of rich harmonies, the strings, and there’s some hand percussion that kind of float in and out of the mix. Like it comes up in the mix, it kind of drops back down. And it’s just a really, really cool song. I love the lyrics here, just kind of the ideas that the lyricist is kind of floating. Just really, I don’t know, just really resonated with me this week. This is off their new EP, it’s called Both Sides. And yeah, maybe this song will be a gateway drug to Young the Giant for me, and I’ll get to spend some more time with them.

The fifth and final song this week is from the Pink Spiders and it’s called Let’s Go Home. I first became aware of the Pink Spiders back in 2005 when I heard their song Little Razor Blade. I found them through a now defunct isn’t the right word, they got acquired, but it was a music service called Slacker. And they had hardware and you know, it was kind of internet radio, you know, you could download the songs and what have you, but it was awesome for finding new music. You could create playlists and then the playlists were customizable. They had sliders where you could say, I want more new music or I want less new music. And depending your mood, you could move those sliders and you got introduced to cool bands like the Pink Spiders. Slacker got purchased by a company called Live One and honestly, it kind of fell off my radar and I kind of fell in love with Spotify’s music. I wish they had the customizable thing as far as finding new music, but I’ll keep suggesting it and they’ll keep ignoring me. Anyway, I always like the Pink Spiders because they have this very cool kind of oldies rock and roll feel at times, like, I don’t know if it’s the rhythms they play or the chord progressions or what, but it’s definitely reminds me of kind of like 50s rock, but it’s updated like it’s modern. It makes sense today. And I was honestly really excited to get new music from them and I really, really dug this song. It almost feels like it’s in two parts though. Like the first part of the song has a certain feel, but like after it hits, I think it’s the bridge, it goes, you can definitely feel that kind of oldies type thing going on when it gets into the chorus. But anyway, I hope you dig that one. Again, I was excited to see the Pink Spiders and definitely go check out their catalog. They got a lot of music going on.

All right, that is it for this episode of Songs That Don’t Suck and as always, thanks for listening and until next week, keep searching for and listening to Songs That Don’t Suck.