Episode 63

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

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. I am your host, Mark, and every week I listen to hundreds of newly released songs, just so that you don’t have to do the same and suffer. I’m just an extremely nice guy, and I find the best ones, and I put them on the podcast each week right here, just for you. This week, well, shit, we’ll get into that later. Before I do that, I’ve got some updates and thoughts to share.

First, let’s do the vinyl update.

I was in Canada all week, and I got to check out a couple of kind of great record stores in the Toronto area, Sonic Boom and KOPS. Here’s what I added to the collection. And I had to smuggle these across the border, so I didn’t have to pay extra tax on them. Now thank you to the border crossing guards who did not search my vehicle. So first, I grabbed Iron Maiden’s third album, Number of the Beast. That completes the original trilogy of albums from that band. I picked up Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, a couple of albums from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, one of being Caravan, the other one is Moanin, which both fantastic jazz albums. I picked up a recording of Holst’s Planets, which is a fantastic symphony if you’re into classical music. I picked up a couple of progressive rock bands, Liquid Tension Experiments’ first album, and Dream Theater’s first album, which I was really excited to find. And just all in all, just fantastic record stores, man. If you’re in that area or you find yourself in Toronto, they’re on Queen Street or in that kind of neighborhood, and yeah, I absolutely spend a couple of hours in there, you will not regret that time.

Okay, last episode, I mentioned these new mix playlists that I found on Spotify, and they have these unhinged names like GoblinCore and Angry Happy. Well, in the drive time that I had, back and forward to Toronto and kind of around Ohio for Easter, I did manage to check out a few, and I gotta say, overall, I’m pretty happy. But I will say that sometimes I don’t get what the hell the name means in regards to what the songs are. So I tried the ones that I could kind of make heads or tails of, so Mood Music was the first one I listened to, Very Down Tempo, Date Night Vibe, really cool, liked it. The Angry Happy Mix was really good, great high energy, but they had like lyrical chips on their shoulders, and that seems to be like the theme of that one, which was good. Example of a song on my playlist with that name was The Man by Taylor Swift, which is a fantastic, fantastic song, and it absolutely is Angry Happy. I’m gonna continue to check some of these playlists out because I really like the way that they’re structured. It is a mix of songs that I have played in the past, along with artists that I am not familiar with that I haven’t listened to. So it’s a great secondary avenue, I guess, to find new music, which for me is a plus. So some of that stuff might end up on the podcast in the future.

So after spending this week in Canada, I looked at my calendar and I realized that on Thursday night, the bites were in Cleveland, and if you’ve been a listener to the podcast for any stretch, you know that the bites are basically my favorite band that has come out in recent memory. This was their second show in Cleveland, and it was a question of, could I get back from Toronto early enough to go to the show? I did not have a ticket, so I was like, let’s make it happen. So got up super early, drove back from Toronto, and got home, took care of some business that I needed to, and then half an hour before the doors opened, I said, yep, I’m gonna go to the show, bought a ticket, drove to the other side of town because it’s a venue in Lakewood called The Winchester, and so happy I went. The last time the bites were in town, they were also in Lakewood at a smaller club called The Foundry. The Winchester is a slightly bigger room, and yeah, they killed it. It was fantastic, but very different, so let’s kind of recap the evening. So I rolled up to the venue just as doors were opening, and I bumped into Jordy, their lead vocalist, said hello, and much to my surprise, he was like shocked and excited to see a familiar face, which was cool that he recognized and remembered me from the conversation we had, I guess last year, wandered inside, bumped into Mark, their drummer, who also recognized me, and we ended up chatting a ton that night, which was really cool. I love talking to other drummers, and he was filling me in on how their UK tour went. I talked about being a drummer, because I mentioned that I had played in The Winchester in a former life and how the stage situation had changed a little bit, and he’s like, oh, you gotta see my drum kit, because it’s different than the last one I had. So we walked over to the backstage area, and he starts showing me this classic Ludwig kit, which used to belong to Billy Squire’s drummer, Bobby Shenard. And apparently his dad was also a musician, knew Bobby, and when he was like 12 after Bobby had passed, his dad was in New York, I think it was New York or Boston, and he got this kit for a gift, which was amazing, and he’s had it ever since, and he recently had it shipped out, and he’s been touring on it, and it sounds amazing on stage, like it was mic’d, and it’s just so good to hear that drum kit. Anyway, he and I were chatting, he’s kind of filling me in on some of the things that they had planned for this year, the things they were working on, really exciting stuff. I’m not going to spill the beans here, I want to make sure all those things happen. Keeping it close to the vest, but my fingers are crossed that all that stuff happens. As Mark and I continued to chat, Zack came out, Zack is their bass player, who last time through Cleveland, he was not with them, they had a conflict with his dates, so they were playing to a backing track of bass. Still put on an amazing show, but as you can imagine, they’re a little bit more locked in to what they can do on stage, but Zack was super nice to meet. Apparently knew who I was, apparently I had become a topic of conversation, which kind of embarrassing, maybe I fanboyed a little too hard, who knows. Anyway, a little later, John O came out. One of the guitar players said hello, and when I tell you that these guys are literally the nicest band I’ve ever met, I’m really not exaggerating, I just absolutely love these guys. They had an opener, then they went on and then the headliner went on, but the moment that the bites took the stage, I knew that I had made the right decision to go to the show, and going to a live show is always the right decision, but sometimes you just need that affirmation. The minute the first notes hit the sound, it was just amazing. These guys don’t have an off switch once they start. Jordy was just on fire, playing with the audience, teasing the photographer, mugging the camera, just laughing the whole time and having just the best time possible. He didn’t care. If nobody was having a good time, he wanted to make sure they were, but he loves what he does, which is awesome, and it’s completely evident. Jono and Dustin, their guitar players, just tearing it up, running all over the stage, just full energy all the time. Jono’s standing on speakers doing solos. Zack, having not seen him before, seeing him in the flesh, bass just monster, fabulous backing vocals as well, just adds a whole new dimension, like seeing all five guys on stage getting the true Bites experience, awesome. The rhythm section that is Zack and Mark, fantastically locked in, just super, just that’s what you want in a rhythm section. Mark is like the heartbeat that just keeps that rock engine moving. All the energy is just pumping out, and the band is just, the chemistry between the five of them is fantastic, and just seeing it live again was just amazing. Afterwards, as they’re breaking down, I was just hanging out at the front of the stage, Jordy tossed me the set list so I could add it to my collection, the guys signed it back at the merch table, ended up buying a copy of their album on vinyl since they had it, so that’s another one I added to the collection this week, chatted to all the guys for a bit, kind of gave them my review of the show, which obviously is glowing, I thought it was fantastic, and yeah, it was fantastic, it’s everything I want out of a live show. These guys have been putting the work on the road, like they’ve just been grinding, right? They’ve been doing US tours in support, they did a UK tour, and that UK tour was brutal, I was talking to Mark, and it was 10 shows on, a day off, and then 10 shows on, and then they flew home. That type of repetition for a live band just does amazing things for their chemistry and how they feel each other on stage, and you could see it. Now granted, it’s hard to do the comparison with the backing track from the first show to all five of them, but just some of the things that they were doing on stage, like you know that they were feeling each other, and it was fantastic. I have said this before, I think after I saw them the first time, you have to go see the Bites. If they are rolling through your town, go see the Bites, it doesn’t matter if they are headlining or if they are opening for somebody, just go see them. In the days of kind of no show bands where they’re just kind of up on stage standing there playing, these guys are the real deal. They are what rock and roll is, and is all about, like they say in their bio that it’s the best thing to happen to rock and roll since sex and drugs, and I agree. Tell them I sent you when you go see them, because again, you will not be disappointed.

All right, enough about that, you can tell I enjoyed the show. But let’s get into the new music. This week I literally found nothing I liked, absolutely 0.0 for this week if I was scoring it musically, but there’s been a couple of weeks recently where I did find more songs than what I generally try to target, which is five, and I kind of discard them as weaker songs in that week. So this week I actually went back and pulled those songs back and said, let’s give these songs another listen. And honestly, upon additional review, I’m kind of happy, so let’s get into it.

The first song this week is like a lesson from Pillow Queens. Folky Indie Poppers Pillow Queens are from Ireland, and the thing that I really love about this song is the vocal. The lead vocal has such a unique note and timbre to it, and the backing vocals complement it really well. All of these ladies, I believe, sing, and it’s fantastic. The kind of amazing apex climax of the song for me is the bridge. That bridge is so good. There’s this nearly acapella section, and I am such a sucker for a good bridge, and this one just got me. There’s a great musical hook within the guitar melody that kind of floats through the song. And just overall, like a lesson has a great sonic feel. I went listening to some other tracks because I was not familiar, and I started with their 2020 release in Waiting, and it dawned on me that they actually remind me of the last dinner party if you’ve been listening to the podcast or if you’re familiar with the last dinner party, you know who I’m talking about. But these ladies were obviously first, so perhaps it’s the last dinner party that were influenced by the pillow queens. I will say that I feel like the pillow queens are more accessible from a musical perspective. They are much more kind of straight ahead poppy where the last dinner party has that baroque pop thing happening that isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. So definitely check out the pillow queens if you dig the song this week, which is like a lesson.

The second song this week is from American Authors, and it’s called My Last Time. This one has a similar stomp and holler feel, kind of like their biggest hit that you are probably familiar with, Best Day of My Life, but this definitely has more of a bluegrass tilt to it. Gone are the big gang vocals, which was kind of a cornerstone of their more well-known songs. And I actually went back in the catalog because I really only know one or two songs from them. And while all of that bluegrass instrumentation is there and fits and starts, the production on some of that old stuff is so over the top you kind of lose it. And this new track is very stripped down, and I personally love it that way. It lets the instruments and the vocals really shine and breathe, and it’s, I don’t know, these guys are freaking talented. Not that they, you know, you couldn’t tell that from their hits, but when you strip it all down, I feel like the musician really shines because a lot of production can hide a lot of things. Now I’m not sure if this is a hint of an album coming or just a song that they released. I’m hoping that it’s the former. It feels like this album I could really get deep into if it’s the stylistic direction that they are headed. So check out My Last Dime from American Authors.

The third song this week is from Bully, and it’s called Atom Bomb. This year on the podcast, I discovered Bully for myself, and I featured a track of hers called Change Your Mind, which has a very much different feel than Atom Bomb. One of the musical traits that I live and die for an artist, it’s the ability to make me feel what they are portraying, either lyrically or musically. And her voice is so emotional in this song, and the lyrics are so painful, it’s just beautiful to listen to. The strain in her voice paints this beautiful landscape with very expert brushstrokes. The piano and the cello set a very moody backdrop, and it is perfect. As the song builds, some violins come in, and then on the bridge, she just breaks your heart even more deeply as she really starts to belt with that pain in her voice, until she just kind of gives out in the song ends. It’s an emotional roller coaster for sure. Honestly, if I was in the wrong emotional state, I feel like I’d be in tears, and luckily I had a good week, so an amazing emotional song for you.

The fourth song this week is from a band I’ve been a fan of for a very long time. It’s Guster, and their latest song, Keep Going. Guster’s sound has changed over the years, and it’s really interesting. Now I am admittedly a bigger fan of their earlier music, but I will always listen to any music that they release, just to kind of give it the chance, because I love them as a band. I think they’re fantastically talented, and they write damn good songs. The only problem, and it’s my problem, is that I love their original sound so much that was just a rawness to it, and the new songs just make me miss the old stuff. But I 100% understand why they pivoted and why they had to, and I’m fine with it. It’s okay. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Guster, they are an indie folk-pop band from Boston, extremely large musical catalog, their first release was Parachute back in 1995. This new track actually does start with some hand percussion, which was kind of their trademark when they first came out, and it’s sprinkled throughout the track, which is nice to hear. Vocally it is super smooth, has some great backing vocals, and sonically it is a wall of sound, but nothing feels forced or out of place, and that truly has become their hallmark of their sound, probably since kind of 2015’s Evermotion album. I think that’s when I really noticed the hard pivot to the way they were producing their records. I highly encourage you to check out their whole catalog from beginning to end, because they are truly underexposed as a band, if you ask me, and they deserve way more fame than they have.

The fifth song this week comes from Hozier, and it’s his new single, Too Sweet. You probably know him from the gigantic hit Take Me to Church, and honestly that entire 2014 album is amazing start to finish. This new track is very dangerous as an earworm for sure. I found myself humming it since Jenna texted me the link telling me that she was obsessed with it, completely understandable. The chorus is super catchy, and his voice honestly has always been really magical, and it’s just soulful, it’s powerful, it’s got moments of vulnerability and introspection. It’s a great vocalist, that’s it. Considering that this track already has more than 42 million streams on Spotify, I’m not exposing a ton of people to this one, but if you’re unfamiliar that he had a new track out, now you know, and it’s definitely worth checking it out.

And what the hell, bonus 6 track this week, All in Good Time, from Iron and Wine with Fiona Apple. First, let’s get this out of the way. I was thrilled to hear Fiona Apple’s voice. Her smoky delivery is iconic to me. This song, as I was listening to it, oddly made me feel like it was a gospel tune. Like think later Elvis and Vegas type composition, like with the strings that start to swirl and swell as the song builds. In the beginning, the piano sets this really kind of soft, gentle tone, and this song is a beautiful duet. Like when you start listening to it, it is a love song, it is a song of loss, it is a song of reflection. I highly recommend checking out the lyrics because, you know, it’s funny, Rick Beato did a video recently talking about how lyrics don’t matter anymore and people just write really crappy lyrics. This one does not fall into that category. It’s fantastic. Some really masterful lyrical lines here. And the combination of the two voices, it’s an amazing pairing, which I wouldn’t have put together, but I’m glad they did.

All right, that is it. As always, please spread the word to your fellow music fans, follow the show on social media, check out the website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. Inside the show notes, I’ve got links to all the songs that I talked about. So please go support these artists on whatever platform you listen to your music on and. Thanks for listening. Until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.