Episode 89

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

What’s up, friends? Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. I am Mark, and every week I am here sharing with you songs that I have found, which I think don’t suck. The process to do that, I listen to hundreds and hundreds of newly released songs. Most of them are crap. It’s just that simple. Now, I do throw the disclaimer on that every song has an audience. It might just be your mom, but it has an audience. It’s just not mine. So before I get into the new music this week, I do have a bit of a reflection.

So a couple of months ago, I discovered that there was a book written about Jellyfish. It was written by Craig Dorfman. It’s called “Brighter Day, a Jellyfish Story.” And if you are a longtime listener of the podcast, you’ve heard me talk about Jellyfish before. You probably know they are one of my favorite bands. So when I discovered this book existed, I wanted to get my hands on it, but I found that it was out of print. Now, I’ve successfully tracked down a near mint copy of it for about $80. And I consider myself lucky, because I just looked on Amazon and the used market. They are selling anywhere between $120 and $220 for a condition unknown used copy. So I recently finished it. And I wanted to kind of share some thoughts, because it got me thinking about some other things. The book is compiled through a series of interviews with the band and the people around the band, so managers, sound engineers, people in the studio, all that fantastic kind of team that built Jellyfish. And it documents their childhood, their adolescence, their high school years, how they met, and then the ultimate making and unraveling of Jellyfish. There are two primary band members and songwriters, Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning Jr. And when you think about the two of them, they really had something magical when it came to their creativity and their musicianship and their ability to bounce things off of each other and just ultimately make themselves this amazing duo. And it’s just so rare to see that nowadays.

They were laser focused with the idea of what jellyfish was going to be, especially from a music standpoint. And as they built the band out, they continued to find these other amazing musicians who also had a ton of creativity. But through that, there was a lot of personality clashes. Members felt disrespected and minimized. And through all that strife, they managed to record their debut album, Belly Button. It was released, they toured on it. And the battles continued until eventually after the Belly Button tour was over and it was time to start working on the second album, the two non-primary band members, Roger Manning’s brother Chris and Jason Faulkner left the band.

Roger and Andy went back, started writing the second album, created more amazing music, recruited new members to fill in the band, and then eventually Spilt Milk was recorded and released and toured on. But internal pressures, creative differences, personal conflicts, Andy really struggled with being the face of the band. He just wanted to create and write. He didn’t really necessarily want to perform from what I kind of gathered from the book. But ultimately the band splintered for good.

And this, I’ll tell you, like as I finished the book and I was kind of reflecting on my thoughts around it, I had recently seen a video by Rick Beato and he was kind of talking about how there is such a lack of bands on the music charts nowadays, because being in a band is hard because you’re managing personalities and creativity and all the things that go with being with a band and being with the same people over and over again. Solo artists don’t do that. They just hire session musicians, they do their parts, they cash the check and they go home. But the difficulty in being in a band is when you have highly creative people with distinct visions who refuse to let their egos go or they refuse to collaborate, the other members who want to be a part of a collaborative body feel minimized just like Jason Faulkner did. We don’t want to be hired guns. Andy really refused to include Jason’s songs in Jellyfish’s catalog because he really saw it as Andy and Roger’s vehicle. And Jason writes a Damn Good Song. His solo stuff is fantastic. And he had ambition and he wanted to be part of this amazing collaborative thing. And Roger thought eventually Andy might relent but he just never did. And it was just the undoing of that Jellyfish 1.0. And I think about this and I’m like, I’ve experienced this in my own bands over the years.

Sometimes I’ve worked with main creative souls who can put their ego aside and they work collaboratively. And sometimes it just doesn’t happen. And sometimes it’s just personality conflicts. And while sometimes that tension can create great art for a little bit of time, it eventually just eats away at kind of your psyche and you just stop having fun. And you don’t want to be in the same room. And you feel like you’re faking it when you’re performing. And sometimes bands just run their course. And that is what it is. So I think back through my bands, right? My first band, we were together for about three years and it had just kind of run its course. It wasn’t really gonna go anywhere and we all kind of cast our chips. And at the time I was really kind of heartbroken ’cause I loved playing with those guys but hindsight I can really see it now. It’s like we had kind of reached as far as we were gonna go and that was it. After that I joined this existing band and there was all kinds of personality conflicts which I had no idea going into. But like less than a year, like probably less than six months the whole thing just imploded. It ended with like two of the guitar players like playing “Smooth” by Santana. And I’m playing along and I’m like, oh God, I don’t wanna fucking do this. And I packed up my shit and left. So yeah, that was it. After that I got lucky. I found a creative soul that was happy to collaborate but there was personality conflicts between that person and the bassist. And eventually after a really decent run and we had a really good following, it just kind of fell apart. Then I was a hired gun for one band and I learned very quickly that if I have no creative input I don’t wanna be bothered with it and I left. Then I probably hit the greatest run that I had as a musician with two different bands. One, we were together for a while and then I had my daughter and I kind of took a break. And then that band had kind of ended and then a new band had kind of formed from the ashes of it and the drummer left and kind of when I was ready to get back into it, I jumped back in and they spent a long time playing with that band. That band eventually kind of ran its course. And then, but that was like almost 10 years I think. And then the last band I was in just, he absolutely refused to collaborate. Hated feedback, couldn’t take it. And between the band trying to collaborate and COVID, it was just doomed.

And I recount all of that because I’ve been thinking about like, would I even want to put a band together now? Because it is so hard to get lightning to strike in the place you are standing. And at this point, I don’t know if I have the fight in me to try and make it happen. ‘Cause it takes a lot of energy and I got a lot going on. So instead, I have the podcast. So let’s listen to some bands who are making it happen. Let’s get into new music.

The first song this week is from Terrycloth Mother and it’s called “Figure It Out.” Now, full disclosure, Terrycloth Mother features one of my former bandmates, James Pequignot. And he was the creative soul for two of those bands, the two that had really great runs, Emmett and The Singular respectively. I have had many friends send me their music since the podcast started, but I am as discerning with them as I am with strangers. So believe me when I tell you that Terrycloth Mother’s new album is great. Now, fun story about Terrycloth Mother. After The Singular kind of ended, James joined the lottery league here in Cleveland, which basically randomly builds bands by lottery. The bands are then tasked with creating original music and perform live for 10 minutes at the end of the lottery league season, which runs only two months. It’s been going on since like 2007. And it truly is one of the cool Cleveland things that happen when it comes to the music scene. But anyway, I digress. This is the title track, figure it out. And I’m going to describe it to you as experimental indie rock. Lyrically, the phrasing and the word play are fantastic. And I’ve known James since he was 17 when he was opening for another one of my bands, Lost in America. And he was such a gifted musician and songwriter then he’s only continued to grow and he’s just phenomenal. Musically, the guitar actually takes a little bit of backseat here and it’s got a very active bass line. And then later in the song, it becomes very atmospheric. Reminds me a bit of Pink Floyd. So here is a little sample of Figure It Out by Terrycloth Mother.

The second song this week is Taking Care of Business by High Fade. Back again on the podcast is High Fade, but this time it is something completely different from them. For me, High Fade and the thing that always draws me to them is they are breakneck speed funk with such intricacy and intimacy when it comes to them playing. Like it’s just so tight, it’s mind blowing to me. Some of the stuff they do on stage that I’ve seen in video. And the recordings don’t, they don’t disappoint either. And they record them live as a band. They don’t track it out. They don’t overdub. It’s like, we’re gonna do a take and we’re gonna get it and then that’s it. Which I respect the shit out of. After the last time I featured them on the podcast, someone from their team actually reached out to me and I got a sneak peek of their soon to be released album. And they are so much more than the things that they have released today, which is that high tempo, super tight, funky, amazing stuff. Which is awesome. Like that album, it’s great all around. And I think if you’ve liked some of the stuff that I’ve shared on the podcast from them, you are really going to like the album. I didn’t know if they were gonna release any more songs from the album, but I was really glad when I saw this one pop up and I was like, oh, I’ve gotta share this one just because it is different. This track shows off a much slower, almost bluesy, but still funky side of the band. Not much more to say about it, honestly, but just check out a little bit of Taking Care of Business from High Fade.

The third song this week is Panic Attack from Certainly So. In listening to this track, I was definitely drawn to it because of a very familiar feel, reminds me of the bands, like the black keys, this modern blues thing that, I won’t say it’s really popular right now, but there’s definitely like a DNA pattern that you can track back to the black keys and some of their earlier influences. And it’s definitely more of the early black keys versus the later stuff. It’s funny though, because the rhythm in this song actually takes me back to Gary Glitter and Rock and Roll Part Two. If you are the correct age in listening to this podcast, you know exactly the song that I’m talking about. And if you’re not, if you’re younger, you’re going to go to Spotify and find that song. And you can be like, “Oh yeah.” But don’t get too attached to it ’cause Gary Glitter’s a pedophile. So there’s some really cool keyboard things that are sprinkled in throughout this song that probably get lost if you aren’t actively listening, but they do add so much to the overall composition that I just had to point them out. The guitar riff here, super hooky. And the vocal delivery is just perfect for this song. Like, you know when you hear songs and you’re like really excited, because musically it’s really good and then the vocalist hits and you’re like, “Oh, that ruined it.” That happens so much to me when I review music for the podcast, but it’s not the case here. Perfect vocal for the style of the song. And it all comes together in a great way. So take a quick listen to Panic Attack from certainly so.

The fourth and final song this week is Rule 39, “Lore” from Fish and a Birdcage. Yep, I couldn’t resist. It’s so different from everything that is out there that I listen to that when it pops up, I’m like, “Oh, it’s so good.” And there is this weird part of me that is just absolutely obsessed with this band. When I can’t figure out what I want to listen to, I will inevitably just put on the “This is Fish and a Birdcage” playlist from Spotify, and I will just listen to their stuff because there’s so much differentiation in the songs of the same group, but it’s just different from everything else, and I can just listen to it and not really, like, I don’t know, it’s just, it puts me in a good state of mind. But I do have a bit of confession, and I will say this because I believe there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure, and I’m sure that some of you are gonna judge me, but when I travel for work, I go down Netflix rabbit holes because honestly, I have nothing to do in the evenings after dinners and whatnot, and I’m sitting in the hotel and I will attach my Netflix account to the TV and I just go down rabbit holes. And one of the rabbit holes I ran down this year was the three seasons of “Bridgerton.” Now, obviously I am not the target audience of that show, but one of the best parts of “Bridgerton” for me is the music because occasionally, they will include music from the “Vitamin String Quartet,” who do covers of modern songs, but they do it in a string quartet fashion, right? Like, I think I shared their Radiohead album very early last season. Anyway, it’s fantastic, and I love picking them out when it happens, like figuring out what song is playing, but anyway, Fish in a Birdcage, very string heavy, you know, a little bit of percussion here and there, and it reminded me a bit of what I’ve heard on “Bridgerton,” sans the vocals, of course. And I’m curious at this point, if you have checked them out, do you dig them as much as I do? Let me know. But anyway, here is a bit of their newest song, “Rule 39.”

And that is it for episode 89. Wow, episode 89. As always, thank you so much for taking the time to listen, whether this is the first episode you’ve checked out or if you’re a longtime listener. Either way, totally appreciate your support. You can follow the show social media. You can check out the website to get links to all of the songs. If you go to songsthatdontsuck.net, right in the middle of the page, you’ll see a fun little widget that lists the song and links to seven of the major streaming platforms. Trying to make it as easy as possible for you to get the music that I’m talking about. Other than that, let’s see. If you got feedback, you can also send that through the website, songsthatdon’tsuck.net. You can email me directly, mark@songsthatdontsuck.net. With that, as always, thanks again, and please go out and support these artists. – Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.