Episode 71

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

Welcome to the show, friends. Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. My name is Mark. I’m your host every week. I listen to hundreds of newly released songs sifting through the crap as the protector of your ears. And I deliver to you the ones that I deem worthy because I care about you. Thank you so much for checking out this and every episode of the podcast. Before we get into the new music, however, I have a fun thing to share with you and a frustrating thing to share with you. So let’s get into it.

Last episode, I asked the question, what song would you want to hear again for the first time? And there were some good ones. Books on social media chimed in and I’m happy to report the findings. Andy from the UK clocked in with the entire Dark Side of the Moon album. Now Andy broke the rules, but I’ll allow it because honestly, I can’t listen to one song off of Dark Side of the Moon. It’s one of those things where I have to listen to the entire album or I can’t listen to it at all. So I agree with Andy in that regard. Nick pick, Anna picked Queens duet with David Bowie under pressure, solid. Christina checked in with something more modern. Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out and I say more modern as I’m pretty sure that was released over 15 years ago. I’m just going to feel like a dinosaur. Kirk flew in from Canada, dropped Iron Maiden’s classic Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. I remember hearing that one for the first time. I had just purchased Live After Death. It was a double cassette and it was the live version from the Los Angeles Coliseum or whatever it was. And yes, that is an epic first listen, solid, solid pick from Kirk. Harry from Australia chimed in with another Pink Floyd tune, Comfortably Numb, off the Wall album. Yep, fantastic. Michael sent Angel of the Morning and particularly the Merrilee Rush version. Juice Newton did a version of this and I think it was in the first Deadpool movie. So you will know the tune. You might not know the version. So she does a great version of this song. Great pick. Michael. And lastly, Alex checked in for New Zealand with a song that I actually was not familiar with. The artist is Wren and the song is called High Wren. And as I’m listening to this, as it finished, my response was, whoa. This song is a seven and a half minute epic that is a lyrically deep look at mental health. It’s a conversation that happens between two consciousnesses, one that is negative and one that is trying to be better. And it’s it’s it’s fantastic. Now Alex sent me the link to YouTube and at the end of the seven and a half minutes, there’s two minutes of Wren kind of talking about it. And I don’t know that it puts it in perspective. It just kind of adds more depth and it’s it’s really just super. Now this was obviously the first time I had heard it. I totally get where Alex is coming from. This is one of those epic pieces of work that yeah, you’d want to hear again for the first time. For me, it dances this line between song and spoken word. It would be very disingenuous of me to kind of call it rap or or hip hop because it’s not. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s super good. And I’m going to drop a link to the song in the show notes. So check this one out. If you want the the two minute story, make sure you go to the YouTube link off of the song whip page, otherwise you can check it out wherever you get your music. I want to thank everybody who did take the time to share their songs through social media. I really, really appreciate it. And if you’re not following us on social media, get with the program next time we can talk about your picks.

All right, let’s get into the frustrating news, shall we? The U. S. government, obviously, has fucked shit up. They on April 1st decided to increase the cost of an artist visa. Now, prior to April 1st, it cost $460 per person to apply for a visa to perform in the United States. That has now gone up over 250% costing north of $1,600 per person. It does not matter how big the group is, doesn’t matter how successful they are, that is the price you pay per person to play in the United States on a tour. Now, if we think about the basic band, right, four people, the cost of those necessary visas has gone from over $1,800 to over $6,600. Now, God forbid the band tours with staff. So maybe they’ve got a tour manager, they’ve got merch people, they’ve got people to help set up gear, they’ve got sound and lights. Every one of those people requires an approved application. All the fees have to be paid in advance. And if the band got short notice on when this tour is happening, the band can apply for expedited processing for an additional $2,800 per person. Again, all of it has to be paid up front. And by the way, if your application is rejected, you will not get a refund. So fuck you very much. Now, these fees apply to all foreign acts, including those from Canada, Mexico, the UK, all of the EU, Australia, South Korea, Japan and India. Basically they’ve excluded all non-American artists from the US market, which is the largest music listening market there is, and you’re like, Hey, Mark, but what do these other countries do? Obviously they’re charging fees for visas. Well, for contrast, Canada does not charge any visa fees for American acts seeking to perform in Canada. Doesn’t seem very fair. Now does it? Now, there’s obviously a lot of negative ramifications here. There’s obviously going to be a sharp decline in foreign acts that are touring the US. And this is going to really affect small and medium sized venues. These are the ones that aren’t owned by giant music conglomerates, right? These small venues rely on foreign acts to keep their schedules full and to generate revenue. So the US government is again, screwing small businesses. Now for the bands that can’t afford the upfront visa costs, we’re going to see increased ticket prices because they’re going to pass those costs onto the fans. Through all this, we’re going to see reduced exposure to non-American acts, which sucks because there’s so much talent around the globe as I have found over the last 18 months. It’s ignorant for us to do this. I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. I hope there’s like a petition, call your Congress people, do whatever you can because there’s no reason for us to be punishing art and artists. We already do it in the schools, you know, it’s just, it’s bullshit and it pisses me off.

So with that, let’s get into new music. The first song this week is The Road by Droze and the Drift. An important note to start out, Droze and the Drift hail from Charleston, South Carolina. I say that because when I listened to it, I immediately got the Oasis vibe. Now usually when I get the Oasis vibe and when I look at the artists, they are from like Manchester, UK, but no, these guys are from South Carolina. I think what’s giving me the vibe is the depth of the reverb on the vocal. Now this song overall is just very laid back, it’s very groovy, just kind of a straight ahead rock tune, right? It’s got a nice easy opening on the acoustic and then the band kicks in and this groove just maintains through the rest of the song. Now to go along with the heavily reverbed vocals, the acoustic guitars, I feel like it’s got a slight phaser effect on it and the electric guitar has a ton of fuzz, like distortion. It’s not like heavy metal hard rock distortion and fuzz, but whatever it is, it works really well and it gives the whole song kind of a dreamy feel. So check out the road from Droze and the Drift.

The second song this week is Zombieland by Jake Bugg. It took me a few listens, but I finally figured out what this song reminds me of. There is a guitar lick and it dots in and out of the song and it sounds very similar to the song Walk Like an Egyptian by the Bangles. That’s kind of where the comparison ends honestly, because musically it reminds me of very like early British skiffle bands. And then as I started to look at Jake Bugg’s bio, he mentions the Beatles, which started out as a skiffle band. So musically, I’m not hallucinating. I think it’s all there. I really, really dig this song. It’s got a great feel through the verses. It’s got a very catchy hook in the chorus, lyrically, if you’re listening for those things, I feel like everybody can relate to what’s going on in this song. At some point in your life, you have felt this way, whether it’s during your school years, like I felt this way in high school, or you might feel this way in your career. Either way, I think you’re going to dig Zombieland by Jake Bugg.

The third song this week is Electric Love by Velvet Wasted. I think this is the first band from Austria that I found and it’s a good find. If you like bands like Dirty Honey, you’re probably going to dig these guys and their brand of rock. If you want a great comparison for this song in particular, think the Arctic Monkeys song Do I Want to Know, very much in the same vein. And it’s really good. It’s got gritty guitars, crunchy vocals. It’s got all the aspects of a great rock song. So check out Electric Love from Velvet Wasted.

The fourth song this week is She Plays the Theremin by Balancing Act. Now they pronounce it Theremin and I think they do that because at one point they tangentially rhyme it with Halloween and it made me laugh, but I’ve always heard it pronounced Theremin. So I’m not sure what the proper pronunciation is, but that’s it. She Plays the Theremin. Now this song I have been wrestling with for a few weeks and this does happen to me every once in a while. I will put a song on the review list and I’ll be listening to it and it won’t make the show and I’ll come back to it and sometimes it still doesn’t make the show and sometimes I forget about it, but sometimes the song will catch me in the right mood and it is scientifically shown that sometimes music hits you based on your situation. And I think that’s what happened this time. So I’ve been listening to it this week again and I was driving with my youngest daughter and the song came on and all of a sudden she bursts into spontaneous passenger seat dancing and exclaimed, “I like this. This is a vibe!” And I was like, you’re right. That is the best way to describe this song. It is just a vibe. So she Plays the Theremin by Balancing Act comes to you with the Jillian stamp of approval. I hope you enjoy it.

All right, that is it for this week, as always, spread the word to fellow music fans. It is a fantastic way for them to find new music. Follow the show on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and threads. Every now and then I do throw out a question. And as you’ve heard in this episode, sometimes I will share your answers. Be sure and check the website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. You can send me messages through there. You can leave me feedback. You can share artists with me. You can find show notes and transcripts of the show, all the good stuff. Now in the show notes, there are links to all the songs that I talk about. Those links go to every music platform that you can think of. So regardless of where you get your music, you can find these artists and I want you to go find these artists. I want you to go to support these artists and thanks for listening. And until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.