Episode 82

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

What’s up everybody, welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. I am Mark and every week you know that I’m listening to hundreds upon hundreds of newly released songs in the hopes that I can bring a few of these hidden gems to your life. It’s a tough slog, week after week, but I’m here for you. And hey, special shout out, whether this is your first episode or your 82nd episode. Thanks so much for listening. For anybody who I met over the weekend up in Michigan, hopefully you’re enjoying this episode and especially if you secretly scanned the QR code on the back of my shirt. It was a lot of fun chatting with folks randomly at the concert, which I’m going to talk about right now.

So I’m happy to report that rock is not dead. Its demise has been grossly exaggerated and Friday night was proof. So anyone who is out there saying that rock is dead, I’m pleased to inform you that you are ill-informed. I made a three hour drive northwest of my home up to the Motor City, to Detroit, Michigan and there I got to witness Barns Courtney and the Struts play a magnificent show. That is a truly beautiful day when two artists that you like are touring together. I feel like it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it is magical.

So let me start by saying there’s something that both of these artists have in common. Barns Courtney and Luke Spiller both have the DNA of the greatest front men of all time. Think about your Mick Jaggers, your Roger Daltries, your Freddie Mercury’s, your Michael Hutchinson’s, all the iconic ones that you can think of. Both of these gentlemen have the swagger, the stage presence, the presentation of themselves, the crowd play, the crowd control. It truly made for an epic evening of entertainment. So let me start with Barns Courtney. Three words to describe that show. fucking brought it. He hit the stage and just completely owned it. Just nothing but energy and it didn’t let up from start to finish. I mean, I expected it to be a great show, but exceeding my expectations is putting it very lightly. He played a great mix from all of his three releases. The band overall, just freaking top notch, man, just killer players. After the show, I ended up bumping into Jermaine, the bassist, super nice guy, killer player, and vocalist to boot. Davis covered keys, guitar, backing vocals, just really held down the whole thing. Barns’ lead guitarist Andy, just oozes rockstar energy. When you’re watching him, there’s no way you could see that guy in the street and be like, oh yeah, that guy’s totally a musician. He just fucking lives it. And then, unfortunately, I do not remember the drummer’s name. Completely escapes me. I think Barns only said it once, but she was fantastic as well. There was a moment during the show where Barns came out into the crowd during kicks. And I ended up supporting him while he sang standing on a rail, which was really funny. If you follow me on socials, you’ll have seen me post that video, thanks to Janet for sending it to me. But I was really happy to help out. It was funny. I was very stunned during the moment that it happened. And when I was younger, I did a lot of special event work, and it was mostly like concert security. I worked for Gwar, Kid Rock, Buddy Guy, a Norwegian death metal band. I’ve done a lot of different concert security, so when this happened, it was like I went into my old concert security mindset, and all of a sudden my job was to secure the talent and make sure he didn’t fall, and everything went off without a hitch.Like I knew exactly what was going on. It was bizarre. It was a very fun flashback. And the minute he let go of my hand and came off the rail, I immediately started enjoying the show again. It was hilarious. But his set was amazing, like Bravo to Barns and the entire band. It was epic, and I cannot wait to see y’all again.

Once we kind of caught our collective breaths after Barns’ set, the Struts took the stage, and the Struts bring something back to rock, and in particular live shows, and this is going to sound really bizarre, but they look like rock stars, and they all dress like they’re in the same band. I’ve seen a ton of bands where they just kind of wander out in whatever they happen to be wearing that day, and there’s something to be said for giving a bit of thought to what you’re wearing on stage. They all had bits of red in their outfit, and it just, it looks like a really planned complete thing. There’s this visual cohesiveness to it, which it’s on a very subconscious level, but I feel like it adds so much to the show. There’s no distraction about, oh, he’s wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt, and he’s wearing a Buc-eess’ t-shirt. You don’t get that. It’s just, they’re all very uniform, and to be fair, Barns Courtney and band also had this pretty much. The drummer was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, but honestly, as a drummer, I completely appreciate that because we’re different, we’re fun.

Anyway, so the last time I saw the Struts, they were opening for the Foo Fighters, so it’s been a minute. But even then, that first exposure that I had to them, I knew there was something very special about them, and now that I’ve seen them in a smaller, more intimate theater, it’s absolutely confirmed. One of the things that I noted, as I was kind of like, looking before the show started, you know, in between Barns Courtney, and the Struts, was the audience. There’s a really interesting demographic spread from an age standpoint, which makes me really ask the question, why are these guys not enormous? The venue they were playing in was like a 1700 person venue, and it could have easily been 17,000. I saw kids probably around 10 or 12, and then I saw folks who were 60 plus, and everything in between, and everybody was going nuts, everybody was having a great time. So again, I’m like, how is this not one of the biggest bands on the planet right now? Because they appeal to everybody, they’re so much fun. They opened the show with Primadonna, and after that they were just off and running. They played a couple of acoustic songs, it was just Luke and Adam, Adam playing guitar. They did Mary Go Round and I Won’t Run, which I love the stripped down versions of that. It always just kind of solidifies the fact that they’re amazing musicians when they have the ability to do that, and bring just as much like passion and power to a stripped down version, versus like the full band version.

Let’s see, the entire set, honestly it was a great mix, some early Struts tunes, and obviously some of the latest releases like Fallen With Me, and the crowd was on fire. As much as it pains me to admit as a Clevelander, the Detroit audience is killer. All night, every ounce of energy that the bands pushed out was pushed right back. It was awesome, and hilariously at one point Luke came out into the audience, very much the same way Barnes did, and took up residency right next to me, standing on the rail, and I’m like, man I picked the right place to stand for a show.

Again, it was an amazing night of music. My last stop, of course, was at the merch table. I picked up some vinyl, Pretty Vicious is the struts latest release which I picked up, and then I picked up an autographed copy of Supernatural, which is Barns Courtney’s latest release.

On a closing note, on the fun side, I actually bumped into another podcaster. I bumped into Jace and his family. Jace is one of the co-hosts for X Radio X. If you haven’t listened to that podcast, be sure and go check it out. Jace and I were talking a little bit, and we’re going to try and figure out some collab that we can do in the future, so stay tuned for that.

Alright, let’s get into the new music, shall we?

The first song this week is Feel Like Flyin’ from Warplay. If you need some gritty, straight ahead rock in your musical diet, Feel Like Flyin’ by Warplay, it might need to show up on your musical menu. They’re based out of Nashville, and this trio, it’s weird, there’s almost like a Midwest rock feel to it. Like Heartland rock almost, like Springsteen or Mellancamp, but at the same time, it’s way more edgy, way more rock focused, but there’s definitely something familiar and I don’t know, almost like you feel content when you’re listening to the song. Oddly, it reminds me a little bit of the last band that I was in, especially the guitar tone and a bit of the vocal. Not that anybody knows that band, but it was the first thing that kind of came to mind as I was listening to this. And yeah, I’m inadvertently not mentioning the name of this band because I’m bitter the way it ended, so call me petty. Anyway, this is one of those tracks that when you hear it, you’re just going to instinctually kind of tap your foot and bob your head to it. It’s really catchy. I think it would be fantastic in a live setting. It’s just got a great pulse to it. So here’s a little taste of Feel Like Flyin’.

The second song this week is from The Smashing Pumpkins. I’ve got a little old school alternative for you. Now, honestly, Billy can still craft a great song. So when he does a release that I really dig, it’s just worth mentioning. So this is a track called Edin. It is the first track off their new album, which I am going to now attempt to pronounce and probably butcher it in the process. It’s a Gori Mori May. And looking at it, I feel like I nailed it if I didn’t let me know. But in listening to this track, there’s definitely a maturity that has come into Billy Corgan’s voice. And granted, he’s much older now. So there isn’t as much of the screaming as the wrong word, but you know what I mean. He sounds fantastic. The guitar tone is classic pumpkins. Sounds amazing. Bass line is great. The whole production is really rich. Like when you listen to it, like it’s just masterful the way that it’s put together. Truly a pleasure to listen to. No notes. Here’s a little sample of Edin.

The third song this week is Maktub. I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that right, but it’s from Gary Clark, Jr. This is also the first track of Gary Clark’s new album. The rhythm is the first thing that really caught me with this track. The drum part, super intricate and really groovy. And if you’ll forgive my drum nerdiness for a moment, I’m going to break it down a little bit. So here’s the things that you’re hearing. So the drummer is closing the hi-hat with his foot or her foot. I don’t know who’s playing drums. So they’re not hitting it with the stick. Playing the main part of the rhythm on the rim of one of the drums and then supplementing it with toms and cymbals. You don’t hear a lot of snare drum in this. And like as a drummer, like anytime I can hear something that’s just kind of just a step away from the norm, it’s one of those things that just makes me super happy. Like I love hearing that creativity from a musician. Now take that really cool drum part, then layer on this fun syncopated guitar part. Really subdued bass line. And there’s like this really nice musical landscape that then Gary Clark Jr. kind of uses as a canvas and sings over and then wraps over. Really, really cool track. Here, give this a listen.

The fourth song this week is Anger by Nina Nesbitt. It’s sad when I hear things in music, which used to be very commonplace, but it seems rare as time moves on. For someone to understand the powers of dynamics and how they can build a song, it feels like it’s becoming a dying art. Now, granted, most of the stuff that I do find matches that and they use dynamics because I think that brings such a high quality to the song. But it seems like most of the stuff that’s coming out, they just lock the volume on 11 and they just go. And there’s a bit of artistry that is dying. Nina Nesbitt does a great job. The arrangement of the song is fantastic. It’s a constant build from start to finish. The vocal continues to grow and a beautiful vocal rasp appears like towards the end. And then, like right as the vocal really climaxes, it goes into this halftime outro and then it closes beautifully with the last notes being just her voice acapella. Chef’s kiss for real. Here, take a listen to this.

The fifth song is Feel from The Heavy Heavy. Last song of the week brings a great retro feel. So you got reverb soaked, really soulful vocals, great organ, some funky bass, solid drums, and then the super tasteful guitar part that’s adding really lovely texture to the overall song through the verses. And then in the intro in the chorus, the guitar is a little more pronounced and more upfront. Really nice contrasting notes. There are moments where the song catches a really strong blues vibe, reminds me a little bit of some of the earlier Black Keys stuff, but really fantastic. This is a male-female duo, so you’ll pick up some of the female vocal on a backing track on this one. It’s not like a traditional duet, but really, really cool song. Definitely want to check out more from The Heavy Heavy. So check out a little bit of Feel.

And that’s it for this week. Thank you again so much for listening, totally appreciate your time. Be sure and connect with us on all of the socials, website, songsthatdontsuck. net. You can send me feedback, you can send me recommendations for songs for me to listen to. I love getting those. And hey, I haven’t asked in a while, but be sure and subscribe or follow the podcast on your podcast platform of choice. If there’s an option to leave a review, please do that. Five stars is obviously preferable, but hey, say what you feel. With that, thank you again as always. Go out and support these artists. Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’tsuck.