Episode 29 – “It’s so hard to love when you’re dying in an empty room”

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

Welcome to Episode 29 of Songs That Don’t Suck.

I was having a conversation with some friends over the weekend and we kind of agreed that
the next 10 years for our generation, you know, Gen X, it’s going to be very difficult because all of our musical heroes are going to start to die at a much quicker rate.

This was the conversation we were having as we were reflecting on Ozzy Osbourne’s announcement
that he was pulling out of the Power Trip Festival. He’s had a rough go of it. He had an ATV accident back in like 2009 and he had back surgery in 2019 and he’s got Parkinson’s disease. He’s got a lot going on physically and I’m starting to wonder how quickly maybe the Parkinson’s has started to progress and honestly, if it’s that, I’m really glad that he’s pulling out because I personally don’t want to see the
shell of a man performing because he feels like he’s got some sense of duty to the fans. And honestly, I think that’s why a lot of these older guys are still touring because they feel like they got to give their fans like one last glimpse, one last tour, one last listen. And I don’t know. I feel like it’s just such a bad move. It’s almost like lessening the legacy. And I think about it from my perspective. I am a musician who is
semi-retired at this point and I miss it. Jillian, my daughter, asked me today, she’s like, do you miss being in a band? I’m like, absolutely, I miss it. There’s nothing that replaces that feeling. Now, it doesn’t matter how small the crowd is, but I miss performing. I miss the applause. And I can only imagine how hard it is to go from giant arenas full of people to sitting alone in your living room. Father Time is undefeated and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. As fans, we have to make a very tough decision when these
tours start happening. Do we say yes and do we go see these artists one last time? Now, I kind of have a rule in place. If I’ve never seen them live, I will say yes and I will go see them. I still have a few that I’m trying to catch. But if you have seen them, you have to ask yourself, can I live with the memories of that last show? Can the artists still do it at the level that I am expecting them to do it at? Like Phil Collins is a great example of this. I saw Phil Collins on his first final farewell tour. And like he jokingly called
it that, that was what the tour was called. And it was fantastic. It was probably top five shows I’ve ever seen. It was amazing. And he toured very recently and he was propped up and he was sitting in a chair. And I was really, really glad that I gave that show a miss. I talked to a buddy who went to it and he just said it was not good. So, but on the flip side, like Peter Gabriel is coming to Cleveland here this year, I have tickets for that and I have never seen him live either with Genesis or solo. And he doesn’t have
any major health issues. So I’m honestly expecting it to be a brilliant show. Cannot wait for that. Judas Priest, another example. I have never seen Judas Priest. I saw them on their last tour. Rob Hallford, 70. And he was killing it. He’s not running around the stage obviously, but his voice was still intact and he sounded amazing and was absolutely worth it. And then of course there’s Kiss, the perpetual farewell tour. I’ve seen both of their farewell tours and I’m good with that. I’m kind of done seeing Kiss live. I’ve
got memories. I’m good. And it’s this idea that these bands are starting to stop touring, you know, and they’re getting too old to do it, which really kind of drives the podcast when I start to think about it. I just bought a ton of tickets for bands that I featured on the podcast so far this year and I’m excited to go check them out. Now obviously they’re not playing in huge arenas. They’re playing in small and kind of mid-sized venues and it’s going to be fantastic because live music always is.

All right. Let’s get into the brain bending cover. It’s a cover of Alanis Morissette’s Hand in My Pocket by Stories with Georgia Parker. Stories is a band who teams up with other artists and produce and release stripped down acoustic covers each week, basically. And for this one, they teamed up with Georgia Parker. She is from Kent, England and is currently recording her first album. She’s done quite a few songs with Stories and I really enjoyed this one. Hand in My Pocket, honestly, is fairly laid back anyway and is practically acoustic as it is in its original form. But there’s a really subtle change to the feel of this one that I really like. The intro is almost like swampy feeling and while I do love Alanis, I like this version a little bit better. Like if I could get Alanis’ voice on this backing track, I’d be really interested to hear it.

All right. Let’s jump into the new music for this week. If this is your first time listening,
welcome. Thanks for stopping by. I listen to a ton of songs each week, anywhere from
three to 500 depending on the week. The ones that live past my 30 second preview, I put
on a playlist. The other ones I just kind of skip and don’t pay attention to. And each
week I deliver new songs to you for your playlists.

The first song this week comes from Dan Arbach and it’s called Every Chance I Get (I Want
You in the Flesh). Dan is the front man for the Black Keys and there are three very distinctive
elements that Dan basically lifted from other songs. I’m not going to accuse him of like
plagiarism or whatever, but the minute I heard the song, I was like, oh, that’s that song.
That’s that song. Oh, and that’s that song. The first one is the drone of an instrument
called Dilruba and it was immediately reminding me of Within You and Without You from the
Beatles. The second one is from Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield. If you know the song,
you know the little guitar lick that I’m thinking of. It’s kind of the really strong
guitar lick that kind of runs through Preacher Man. And the last one is screaming Spirit
in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. But Dan put these together in a very interesting way and
it gives you a really cool feel to the song. And it’s funny because I’ve heard Dan’s solo
work before and I often wonder what constitutes a solo track from a Black Keys track because
it’s not a mental stretch to hear the Black Keys actually playing this one. But anyway,
really great song from Dan Arbach.

The second song this week comes from Boskat and it’scalled Heresy. When this one kicked in, it immediately put me in an older Red Hot Chili Peppers kind of funky bass. But the more and more the song kicked in, there was a band called Infectious Grooves that was an offshoot of Suicidal Tendencies that was immediately brought to mind for me. Now in their bio, they mentioned Rage Against the Machine as an influence as well. I can hear that a little bit, but they aren’t as heavy as Rage was. And I think they’ve got more of like a punk sensibility than Infectious Grooves and Rage. But honestly,
it’s just kind of a great energy in this song. Boskat are from Belgium and they released
their first song on Spotify back in 2018. I listened to their most streamed track and
it’s completely different from a feel standpoint. And that one was released in 2020. I listened
to another track to try to get a feeling. And they’re definitely evolving. Honestly,
this latest single, if this is kind of where they’re at and where they’re going, this
one’s a banger. I really like this one a lot.

And now for something completely different.

The third song this week comes from Greensky Bluegrass. And it’s called Congratulations
and Condolences. Now, if you’ve listened to the podcast at all, you know that bluegrass
music is not the norm on the podcast. But this one caught me. I am a fan of bluegrass
music. And I really like the theme and the sentiment of this song. I heard it while I
was heading home after that visit with some old friends of mine, guys that I’ve been
friends with for 30 years now. And I thought about others who I can’t say the same about
people who I’ve grown apart from, who I’ve stopped talking to, or they’ve stopped talking
to me. And I’m thinking about how people flow in and out of our lives as we kind of
continue down the road. I’m getting old, I’m getting retrospective. What can I say?
Now Greensky Bluegrass are from Michigan, and they have been together since 2000. If you
are a bluegrass fan, this is definitely a band to check out. As I was kind of going
through their catalog, they’ve got a really cool cover of Time from Pink Floyd. If there’s
one thing I do like about bluegrass, it’s bluegrass covers. And if nothing else, you
should absolutely go and check out their cover of Time. It’s fantastic. But definitely
dug this song. Dig into the lyrics on this one. It’s really interesting.

The fourth song this week comes from Durry, and it’s called I’m Fine (No, really). Durry
is from Minnesota, and there have been a couple of Durry songs that I’ve heard in playlists
since I started the podcast. And this one finally caught me. It’s got a great little
feel to it. It’s happy go lucky in the delivery, even though the lyrics are the lies that we
tell each other from time to time. And by time to time, I mean all the time. Durry is
another band that was born during the circumstances around the pandemic. The brother moved back
home with his wife and his sister was there, and that was how the band was born. And it’s
honestly nice to see how kind of this creativity has emerged during such a garbage time in
history. And like I said, I’ve heard their songs, a couple of different playlists as
I’ve been reviewing music. It’s good stuff, but this one by far is my favorite that I’ve
heard from them.

The fifth song this week comes from Spanish Love Songs, and it’s called Pendulum. This
is the second time on the podcast for Spanish love songs. And I honestly do try to keep
that to a minimum. I want to expose you to new music. But this is another great song
from them. I’ve really fallen in love with the vocals of Spanish Love Songs. I honestly
can’t get enough.

I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it just gets to me when it’s combined with the
lyrical content that they’re putting out. There is an aspect of this that does feel
familiar to me. And like the first time I heard it on the podcast, I said it reminded me of
talking heads, but that’s honestly not it. And I can’t really put my finger on it. And
whatever it is, I like it a lot.

I started to listen to some of their older stuff, and it’s all solid. It’s very solid.
So if you’ve liked this song, Pendulum, or you liked the first one, which was called
cleanup crew, definitely go and check out the rest of their catalog.
That’s it for this episode of songs that don’t suck… As always…

thanks for listening. And until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.