Episode 28 – “Sex so good make the neighbors smoke a cigarette”

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

Welcome to Episode 28 of Songs That Don’t Suck. Today we are officially kicking off the second half of 2023. This week I’ll be looking back at the last two weeks of new music, because if you missed last week’s episode. I did a review of the first half of 2023 and shared my top 10 favorite finds. If you didn’t hear that episode because it was the holiday week, be sure and go back and check that one out.

As I said, we’ve got a bunch of new music to talk about this week, but first I do want to share a brain bending cover. This week it’s part mashup and part cover all at the same time. It’s a whole lot of Folsom from the Surreal McCoys. The Surreal McCoys are taking a whole lot of love from Led Zeppelin and combining it with Johnny Cash’s Folsom, Prison Blues. Really really cool song and it actually kicked off kind of this need for me to find really unique covers during the pandemic. And I created a playlist out of them, which is grown to well over 7 hours at this point. And it’s honestly where a lot of the covers that I share each week are coming from. If you’ve got a cover that you want me to check out, please head over to SongsThatDontSuck. net and send it my way through the suggestion form.

Alright, let’s take a look at the last two weeks of music, shall we? If you are new to the podcast, each week I listen to 300 to 500 songs, about 30 seconds each. If they suck, I skip them. If they don’t, I put them on a playlist, review them, and I usually share about five songs a week. This week we’re sharing eight, so let’s get right into it.

The first song this week comes from show favorite, The Struts, and it’s called Too Good at Raisin’ Hell. The thing I really like about The Struts is that they are not afraid to live that cliche rock and roll lifestyle and they share it lyrically. Now, I don’t know if they’re actually living that kind of rock and roll excess lifestyle, but it certainly feels that way. It feels authentic when they’re singing about it. Now I first learned about The Struts when I saw them open for Foo Fighters, gosh I don’t even remember what year that was, and usually I don’t pay attention to opening bands. Generally opening bands are not that great, and I don’t know if they don’t get the production value from the tour or they’re just not polished, they’re trying to break through and they’re getting an opportunity. This wasn’t going to happen with The Struts. Luke and The Struts boys refused to let that happen. They kind of demanded that the audience pay attention and the majority of the crowd by the end of their set was into it. And when he came back out, when they did a queen cover, the crowd went nuts. So he won that entire crowd over, which was awesome. But this is another great example from The Struts. I’ve had them on the show before, so you’re familiar with them, you know who they are. But this one I feel like it’s really going to pop off in concert when you see them live, and you do need to go see them live. I’ve yet to catch them on a headlining show, but it’s got to happen soon. The Struts are just one of those bands that I feel like they can save rock and roll and kind of bring it back to the forefront of music. And I wonder if you feel the same way.

The second song this week comes from Fox Royale, and it’s called So Different. If you were a long time listener to the podcast, you might remember the name Fox Royale. I saw them perform live at Bright Winter here in Cleveland back in January of 2023. They are from Missouri, and they thought it would be brilliant to perform with no shirts on outdoors in Cleveland in January. And they killed it. They were awesome. Their music, it’s bright, it’s happy, and it just makes you feel good. As I was listening to this song, you can’t help but kind of bop around. If you’re looking for a comparison, it definitely gives me Cage the Elephant kind of just kind of jangly indie music, which is cool. They are currently on tour, and I know podcasts kind of live in like a static state, but check out to see if they’re coming to your town, and go see them, go make it happen. They are entertaining live, and I really, really dig this new song.

The third song this week comes from Dirty Honey, and it’s called Won’t Take Me Alive. I discovered Dirty Honey for the first time during the very early days of the pandemic, and I was immediately drawn to their kind of no-nonsense rock sound. It was something that was definitely lacking at that moment. Their debut EP came out in 2019, but they had a single that came out in like 2018, it was called Fire Away. From the 2019 EP, you’ll probably remember When I’m Gone, which I think was the first single that really kind of got attention for them. But the vocals are so distinctive here. The guitar riffs are super catchy with this band, like all the stuff they have kind of has that just great guitar rock riff thing going on, and this single is no different. I found myself kind of constantly singing the hook from this, and as a drummer, I’m a sucker for that offbeat hi-hat feel that you’re hearing that the drummer is laying down, but just great song from Dirty Honey.

The fourth song this week comes from Hollows, and it’s called The Floor. Hollows are from Northwest England, and it’s very early days from them from what I am kind of finding as I’m researching them. Reading over their bio, it sounds like they’ve had some lineup changes, but the current trio seems to have really gelled from kind of the press release that they have in their Spotify profile. I personally really like this song. It actually reminded me of another band that I shared a couple of episodes ago called The Sheratons. They did a song called Mystic Pizza if you remember that show. So if you like The Sheratons, this is another band for you to check out for sure.

All right, we are halfway through the music this week, so let me take a moment for some housekeeping. Tell your friends about the podcast. You can like, share, review whatever on your podcast platform of choice, but I’ve found that it is way more effective just to talk to individuals. So tell your friends to go listen to songs that don’t suck. I really appreciate it. I mentioned the website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. You can find show transcripts there. You can find links to all the social media stuff. Twitter is the mainstay. I am on Instagram and Facebook, and I recently signed up for Threads. So if you’re new to threads, go ahead and follow me on Threads.

All right, the fifth song this week comes from The Glorious Sons, and it’s called Mercy Mercy. These guys had a huge hit with SOS back in 2017 or 2018 if the name Glorious Sons sounds familiar. This song is very different from SOS. SOS was very kind of aggressive, where this is way more laid back. It’s still got energy. Don’t get me wrong, but this song just, it’s got a much different feel, and I love the overall sound of this track. These guys, along with Dirty Honey and the Struts, are also bands that I feel like have that potential to bring music back, like I said, and it’s interesting that all three of them have new music out this week. So maybe it’s a concentrated push to bring rock and roll back. What do you think? Let’s hope, right?

All right, the sixth song this week comes from Brad, and it’s called Hey Now What’s the Problem. When I first started listening to this one, I was like, oh, this is so grungy. It’s definitely got Seattle sound, grunge vibes, 90s all the way. The guitar tone, the loose feel of the rhythm section that’s happening between the drummer and the bassist. And when I started to look into Brad, because I’d never heard of them before, I come to find that it’s Stone Gossard’s side project. Stone, if you’re not sure who that is, is the guitarist for Pearl Jam. Brad and Pearl Jam were happening at the same time, and then Pearl Jam blew up and Brad became kind of the side project. They continued to put out music continually, I think five or six albums, if I remember correctly. And their lead singer unfortunately passed away in 2019, but at that point, the band had started to work on new music. This is the result of it, and the song is pretty great. I’m definitely going to have to go back and check out the rest of their catalog because I really like what I’m hearing here.

The seventh song this week comes from High Fade, and it’s called Burnt Toast and Coffee. Now, I actually discovered this song while I was doom-scrolling Instagram rather than my normal way of looking at the Spotify playlists. And when I heard it on Instagram, I was blown away. I immediately jumped to Spotify to find it, and I did. And it reminded me of a band that I was in that is not on Spotify. Back in 2000, I played with a funk rock band called Melodic Twist. The drummer actually recorded with Parliament Funkadelic, and I was immediately reminded of those days. Here is nothing like a good funk rock groove. I immediately would think about really early Red Hot Chili Peppers before they went poppy and do whatever they’re doing today. But High Fade is just really tight when you’re listening to it musically. And there’s some really cool things happening, like musical nuggets that are happening in the chorus, where the bassist and the drummer are playing the same rhythm, and it’s just super tight and super intricate, and just put headphones on and give that a listen, because it’s so good. So good. The one thing that I really liked about this song, probably my favorite part of this song, is the guitar solo. And it’s not that the guitar solo is amazing. I mean, it’s a great solo, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t record a backing track, like a backing guitar track for him to solo over. It’s just the bass and the drums holding down kind of the rhythm section part and him just playing the solo, which if you’re seeing them live, that’s what you expect to hear. You don’t expect to hear a backing track of guitar. You know, if there’s two guitarists, great, but this is a trio. So I really, really appreciated that they didn’t do a whole lot of studio magic, or at least they chose not to do it at that point in the song. Give me that. Give me that all day long. I did find that High Fader from the UK, and this song is actually a bit viral at the moment. So if you’ve heard it, awesome. It’s a great song. I really, really enjoyed it.

The eighth and featured song this week from the last two weeks of music is from Back to Yours, and it’s called I Must Be Confused. When I first heard this song, I was instantly drawn to it, because it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite bands, Jellyfish. There are some things musically that scream Jellyfish to me. There’s chord progressions that don’t quite resolve the way that you expect them to in the time that you expect the chords to resolve. But when it does kind of get there, it feels really good because it took you on this emotional journey with some kind of suspense to it, which the musicians who are listening know what I’m talking about. But there’s a feeling that you will get when you hear kind of through the chorus when the vocal kind of comes up and changes pitch and goes higher. That just feels so good. Like Jellyfish, there’s some rich harmonies here. There’s big musical interlude. And after I started looking into the band a bit more, they actually started as a Beatles cover band, and this made everything so clear. Jellyfish had a huge Beatles influence to them. So the DNA between Back to Yours and Jellyfish, it matched. DNA was the same. This song actually comes from their second album, and I listened to a couple of tracks off of it. And honestly, I’m really excited to see where they go. They might have the potential to do some really cool things, but we’ve just got to get some ears listening to them. So, you know, spread the word. I hope you enjoyed that song.

That is it for this episode of Songs That Don’t Suck, as always. Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.