🎧 Songs That Don’t Suck – Episode 38: Zappa Balls, Algorithm Walls & Songs That’ll Shake Your Speakers
Welcome to Episode 38 of Songs That Don’t Suck—the podcast that finds fire in the algorithm fog.🔥 This week, host Mark Bradbourne brings the receipts as he revisits a bold claim from Episode 0: streaming killed social music discovery. Guess what? He’s got the data to back it up.
And if you’ve ever tried explaining Cake to your dentist or wondered if Stairway to Heaven could work as reggae, this episode has your name all over it.
📊 Did Streaming Kill the Music Mix CD? (Spoiler: Yes)
Back in the pre-Spotify era, discovering music was an event. You found stuff through friends, burned mix CDs, or stumbled on magic via FM radio. Now? It’s all algorithmic.
Mark dives into a 2022 Q3 survey on music discovery and finds:
- 📈 85% of people say finding new music is easy
- 🎥 YouTube is #1 for discovery, followed by radio (and TikTok for Gen Z)
- 🧠 Streaming algorithms reinforce niche, rarely introducing new genres
- 🎧 Younger listeners treat music as transactional, not experiential
“People aren’t exploring anymore. They’re being fed. You’re not building relationships with artists—you’re speed-dating songs.” 💔
🧠 Brain-Bending Cover of the Week
🎵 “Stairway to Heaven” – Frank Zappa (Live, 1988)
There are covers, and then there are “what the hell just happened?” reinterpretations. This is the latter.
Zappa’s version of “Stairway” is:
- 🥁 Played 100% live, no backing tracks
- 🟢 Delivered with a reggae twist
- 🎺 Boosted by a brass section
- 🎸 Finished with harmonized vocals and chaos you didn’t know you needed
“Only Frank Zappa could turn a sacred cow into a funky, jazz-prog beast and make it work.” 🐄🎷
If this is your intro to Zappa, start with Joe’s Garage or The Black Page (if you’re feeling bold). And yes, it’s called The Black Page because the sheet music looks like ink spilled on it. 🤯
🎂 Cake: Genreless Goodness with a Vibra Slap
Mark saw Cake live for the first time and tried (and failed) to explain them to his dentist. If you’ve ever tried to define Cake’s sound, you know the struggle.
“A lead singer who sings off-tempo on purpose, trumpet solos, acoustic guitars that sound like AM radio—it’s chaos, and it’s glorious.” 🎺🕺
This show was the final stop on their tour, and Mark hopes it’s not their final tour ever. Verdict? ⭐ “Incredible.”
🆕 New Music That Doesn’t Suck (Really)
Each week, Mark listens to 200–500 songs and brings you the top 5. This week? He shook off a musical rut, ventured beyond comfort zones, and came back with five wildly different gems:
🚘 1. “Mother Road” – Grace Potter
Grace Potter continues to quietly dominate the rock-country-soul space. This track is a personal reflection on driving, memory, and healing.
🎶 “Three chords and the truth… and some beautiful gravel in the vocal.”
If Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow had a sister with a motorcycle and a journal, it’d be Grace.
💔 2. “Born for Loving You” – Big Thief
An intimate narrative of love from cradle to grave. The vibrato-laced vocals, poetic lyrics, and raw honesty will grab your soul.
📝 “From the first kiss to the first f***—I just don’t think it’s luck.” 👀
Big Thief might finally click for listeners who (like Mark) needed a little more life lived to appreciate them.
🛸 3. “Alien Love Call” – Turnstile, BADBADNOTGOOD, Blood Orange
A dreamy, Rhodes-soaked soundscape that blends post-punk, jazz, and ambient vibes. Vocals here serve as texture more than narrative.
🥁 “Hints of The Police. Layers like a lasagna of sonic coolness. And then—bam! Trumpet solo.”
For fans of: vibes > lyrics, and playlists labeled “late night existential.”
🌳 4. “The Tree” – Maren Morris
Country’s most thoughtful powerhouse is back with a track full of self-layered harmonies, grit, and grace.
🎤 “She can belt, she can whisper, and she harmonizes with herself better than anyone else could.”
Even if you don’t love country, this one might win you over.
🌀 5. “Woven” – Too Many Temples
Hands down the most sonically ambitious track of the week. A single-chord drone à la Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows, with strings, sitar, layered melodies, and a climactic mix flip that hits like a dream sequence.
🎧 “Nobody’s listening to these guys… and that needs to change.”
🔥 Recommended: Put on headphones. Press play. Float away.
📣 Spread the Word, Break the Algorithm
- 🎶 Tell your music-loving friends. Your word = this show’s lifeblood
🎙 And in the immortal words of our announcer, Zach…
🎵 Thanks for listening. And until next week, keep searching for and listening to… songs that don’t suck.
