Episode 59 – “Lots of little life we take for granted when we Finish our Decembers empty-handed”

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck with your host, Mark Bradbourne. What is up? Welcome to episode 59 of Songs That Don’t Suck. Thank you for checking out the episode.

No data this week, but I’ve had this idea for a couple of weeks now and I’m finally going to execute it. So recently, Billy Joel was on the Howard Stern show and he made mention in the interview that he had this idea of forming a supergroup similar to the traveling Wilburys. He mentioned grabbing guys like Sting, Don Henley from the Eagles. He said like he could grab John Mayer to play guitar. He wanted Paul McCartney, but he didn’t have the guts to call him. And in the interview, kind of it came out that, you know, all those guys were busy and it just never, never came to fruition, never happened. And that whole interaction got me thinking about the traveling Wilburys and how amazing of a group of artists that was at the time. So just to kind of level set, the traveling Wilburys were a British American supergroup. They were active from 1988 to 1991. And the members were Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynn, who was in ELO, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Best described as a roots rock band, honestly, but they’ve been described as the biggest supergroup of all time. I remember in 1988, I think I was in seventh grade, maybe, but they came out and I was like, these guys are old as shit. And I remember listening to like really early Roy Orbison records. And I think that was kind of the point of reference that I was coming to this from as I was looking at Roy and I figured all these guys are the same age. But you know, with age comes wisdom and perception.

So when the Wilburys formed in 1988, George Harrison was 45, Bob Dylan was 47, Roy Orbison was only 52, Tom Petty was 38 and Jeff Lynn was 41. So for the record, I’m older than all of them except Roy Orbison today.

So damn it.

So in brainstorming about this, like I was thinking like if the if the Traveling Wilburys were happening today, keeping the age range in mind to try and keep a similar kind of feel and vibe to it, right? What would that look like? So I’ve been like racking my brains about who I would put in this band. And I think I’ve got it. And I’m going to present to you the 2024 traveling Wilburys.

So the first person that jumped into my head when I sat down to really think about this was Dave Grohl. George Harrison was credited with kind of being the brains behind the Wilburys who brought it all together. And I feel like Dave could easily take that role as the unofficial leader of the group. Dave would bring his prolific songwriting along with his guitar skills and his drumming skills. But a little bit more on that later. Dave’s collaborated with a ton of artists in the past. And I feel like he would have no issues putting his ego aside to make one of the greatest super groups on the planet. So Dave is in. And for the record, Dave’s on the older side of this at 55 years old.

The second member of this group would be my elder stateswoman. So kind of the Roy Orbison person. But it would be Cheryl Crow. At 61, she would be the oldest member of the group. She brings some pop sensibility to the group along with her phenomenal songwriting skills, beautiful voice and multi instrumental talents. I think she would bring a beautiful counterpoint to Dave’s grunge alternative style. She would cover the bass guitar parts for the band. And she’s got some kind of country edge to her. So I think her presence would add a really nice dimension to this group. Her entire career has been filled with collaboration. So she too, I think would leap at this opportunity to be part of the Wilburys.

The next person that I came up with is Zac Brown from Zac Brown Band. Obviously very deep in the Southern rock and country genre, but obviously has flirted with Island music and reggae and pop. He’s done collaborations with Jimmy Buffett and others. And he just has a deep appreciation for all music live that he loves to kind of almost be in a jam band. Very prolific songwriter. Zach’s only 45. And I think his beautiful baritone voice and his guitar skills would be very welcome in the group.

Okay, next, I was like, we need something a little bit different. So a little blues rock garage rock influence with Dan Arbach from the black keys. So Dan’s going to bring a very vintage sound. And he is enormously known for his deep experience in producing records, not just for the black keys, but for others as well. He will help guide the band. And I feel like it almost guarantees that there would just be an amazing recorded product that comes out of this. And I think just from a continuity standpoint, Dan should bring Patrick Carney, who is the drummer of the black keys, which would free up Dave from the whole drum thing. And he could just play guitar and sing. And I’m sure at least if I was Patrick Carney, I’d be a little nervous playing drums behind Dave Grohl. But I think it will work. I think Patrick is the right man for the job for this group.

Lastly, I was like, we need something else. We need some spice. We need a little flavor. And I think the perfect person to bring some funk, some rock and some R&B into this would be Lenny Kravitz. Lenny would bring the funk, the soul, his 60s and 70s feel for arranging, and it would just kind of blow the entire roof off the whole project. Now Lenny is also on the older side at 59. But man, the last video I saw him in, he does not look 59. He is extremely youthful looking. And I think that exuberance would like overshadow what his actual physical age is. And I think it will just work beautifully. So when you put these five together, I think this group would be fucking amazing. And while I know that it’s never likely to happen, I think it could unseat the Traveling Wilburys as the greatest supergroup of all time. What do you think? I’m honestly curious, and I’ve asked for feedback in the past, but I would love to hear your thoughts. Like who are your modern day traveling Will Berries? Go to songsthatdontsuck.net and you can send your comments in the feedback area of the website.

All right, let’s get into some new music for this week. If this is your first time listening, welcome. If this is, you know, the 51st time you’ve listened, thank you. Thank you and welcome back. As always, I listen to a ton of new music each week, and most of it is crap. It just, it just is, there’s no nice way to put it. And I’ve said it before, like every music has audience, right? Like somebody’s going to like all of the crap that comes out. But I have a discerning ear. I have taste. And I like to think that that it’s pretty good taste. And I’ve got feedback from y’all who listen to say, yeah, Mark, you’ve actually picked some really good songs. So here I am, podcast in hand with more songs for you this week. Only got four this week. It was a rough week, but here we go.

The first song this week is Love and War in Your Twenties by Jordy Searcy. When I was listening to this one, it reminded me a little of Vance Joy, who if you remember had a hit with Riptide. Man, a long time ago, a few years back. Haven’t heard much from him since. But anyway, the beginning of the song, it’s fairly stripped down, just simple kind of picked acoustic, very simplistic. And then it kind of slowly builds as more instruments and you know, a little bit more voice comes in from backing vocals. It’s just really a beautifully written and composed song. There’s nothing that’s like, oh, this part’s super amazing. This part’s super amazing. It’s just really good all around. Jordy has a really nice voice. And he’s got this really nice rasp that he just turns on and off at will later on in the song, which is really cool. It’s very well produced. It’s got some really catchy elements. It’s a really easy song to listen to. So check out Love and War in Your Twenties by Jordy Searcy.

Second song this week is Meandres by Birdstone. Meandres is French for meanderings. And this song has a very obvious influence, at least to me, in the shape of Alice in Chains, but this is Progressive Rock. Quite frankly, this is a very rare Progressive Rock song because you don’t get slow Progressive Rock songs. Usually it’s the, you know, shredding, ripping, you know, really odd time signature stuff. And that’s just not what this is. And that’s what honestly really turned this song into a early favorite as I was going through this week. There’s a really cool juxtaposition of the two vocal styles that happen here. There’s a part A and B in this song. Part A is the kind of the first part where you can hear Lane Staley’s vocal style. It’s dark, it’s brooding, but then when part B comes in, it’s very clean and the music is very sparse and it’s very precise. Vocally, there’s like, he’s got beautiful pitch and timbre, but like in part A, he just lets it rip. Like it’s really cool. And the really, I think, amazing part between A and B musically, they’re very extreme feels, like different stuff going on. And they kind of blend these things seamlessly and it just works really well. My only complaint about this song, and it’s a really minor one, is that it’s over six minutes long. And for me, as I’m listening to it, it was just a touch too long. And I got to thinking about it. I’m like, with progressive rock, usually the speed of which it is played at makes you forget about the length because there’s so much going on. There’s like these ripping solos and, you know, all kinds of stuff going on. But with a slower tempo song, I think the length becomes more pronounced. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s how I was feeling when I was listening to it. And then kind of when I was thinking about this at the end, I was like, well, the title, Meandres, maybe that’s the whole point. The song just kind of meanders. So that works.

The third song this week is Balu by Elbow. I remember when Elbow hit the scene in 2001. I was playing in a band called Mile One, and the bassist turned me on to them. How he had got, you know, turned on to them, I don’t remember, don’t recall. But Elbow has a very distinctive sound. They seamlessly blend alternative rock with progressive elements and art rock. Their latest release really kind of continues that record of putting out really interesting music to listen to. Lots of things happening musically here. There’s some horn arrangements. I’m going to guess they’re probably keyboards because there’s some other synthy keyboard work going on. The baseline in this one reminds me a little bit of Muse, which isn’t something I remember from their early releases. I’m going to have to go back and listen to some of those earlier records. But the one thing that I’ve always appreciated about Elbow is the lead vocalist’s voice. There’s something really distinctive about it, and it just sits in my ear really nicely. This is one of those bands that over the last 20 years has unfortunately fallen off my radar. But when I saw they had new music out again, I got really excited to explore and see what they had in store. And honestly, I was not disappointed. So check out Balu from Elbow.

Fourth and final song this week is Act of God by Gossip. From the first downbeat of this one, I was like, wow, this is the second coming of Motown. And then when the vocal hit, I was immediately able to draw a line with the vocal powerhouses like Diana Ross and Martha Reeves from Martha and the Vandellas. There’s some haunting background vocals here. There’s a driving baseline. There’s this 60s kind of Hammond organ thing happening. And it just really pulls the whole thing together. It’s super catchy. And for someone who like me, who was raised on Motown, this was really refreshing to hear, you know, something like this coming out today. From what I can tell, they’ve worked with Rick Rubin a lot. This has been produced by Rick Rubin. And I was reading their bio. And the thing they listed as the kind of their genre didn’t make sense to me. And it still doesn’t make sense to me. But maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t know. You tell me in their bio, they say that they have proved their queer blues punk bona fides. What? I hear no blues and no punk in this. I listened to the single that was released prior to this one, and it’s more of the same, very retro. I went back to their 2009 release, and it’s still more of the same. It’s still got this really cool retro Motown thing going on. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’m missing something. Genre confusion aside, if you dig Motown and this updated retro sound, I think that you need to check out Gossip.

Alright, that is it for this week. As always, spread the word to your fellow music fans. If they have problems finding new music, this is a great place to do it. I’m a little biased, but it’s true. You can follow the show on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, threads, and I am posting on X again. I don’t know why. I get absolutely no traction there, but it is what it is. Check out the website, songsthatdontsuck. net, check the show notes for links to all the music that I talked about this week, support these artists, and thanks for listening and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’tsuck.