Episode 34 – “My sense of rejection is no excuse for my behavior”

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

Welcome to Episode 34 of Songs That Don’t Suck. Thanks for checking out the episode. Much appreciate it. This episode, I am also going to start with yet another concert review. I got to see another band that I discovered through the podcast process, and it just so happens to be my favorite band that I’ve discovered, and that’s the Bites. This was their first tour, and they were opening for Small Town Titans. Also on the bill for the Cleveland show was a local Cleveland band called Quick Mystery. So let’s start there. These guys were probably one of the more talented local bands that I’ve seen in a while. The guitarist and bassist were monster players, and the vocalist was really good, had really good stage presence. My only annoyance with the band, honestly, was I thought their songs were just too long, and if I was like producing them or giving them advice, I would shave a minute to a minute 30 off of every song. I felt like most of it was just repetitive choruses, and it was just kind of, I was done with the song and I was ready for the next one. They were good songs. They were just a little too long. The headliners of the tour, as I mentioned, a band called Small Town Titans, I’d honestly never heard of them, but they were really great live, tons of energy, and their lead vocalist has crazy range. But I wasn’t there to see them. I was there to see the Bites, and they were fantastic live.

They were exactly what I hoped they would be when I first heard them back in what February, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. The only thing that was odd was that the bass player wasn’t there. They were playing his bass tracks from a laptop, but honestly, couldn’t notice. It was seamless, and the entire band is just fantastic players. Jordan has such stage presence, honestly, I totally anticipated that, and man, he delivered. The really cool part is I got to hear basically the rest of the album that is going to be coming out in September, and I can very safely say, if you liked any of the songs that I’ve shared on the podcast up to this point, you will love this album. They were such a good time on stage, and I guess front row, second row, I wasn’t right up on the stage, but I was singing along every song that I knew, and a couple times the band made eye contact with me, and they just got these huge grin on their faces, because this is their first tour.

They do not have a huge fan base that’s going to come out and see them live, so I was just giving as much energy as I possibly could, because I was so psyched that they were in Cleveland. Like I said, they were such a good time on stage, and I know they aren’t an 80s throwback. I’ve stated in the past that it has that sunset strip energy, but they are from Hollywood. Some of that is going to come off, but this is just a good time rock band, and if they are coming to your town, by all means, go check them out. You won’t be disappointed. After the show, I did fanboy a little bit, as anybody who knows me, and they know how excited I am about the bites. This is not a surprise, but I was talking to Jordan first, and I mentioned that I was really there to see them, and the look on his face, like you would have thought I just saved his dog from a tragic accident. He was just really touched, as was the rest of the band, honestly, because I got a chance to kind of talk to all of them for a bit, and at the end of the night, like I was kind of on my way out, and I stopped by to say goodbye, and like grab a picture with the whole band, and they gave me this really nice autograph photo, which was awesome, and I had kind of picked their set list off the stage, and I had them sign that too, and it was just an absolute pleasure, you know, meeting them, seeing them live. It was really, really, really good, I just, it was awesome, such nice guys too.

So again, if they’re coming to your town, go see them. Do not, do not miss that.

Alright, before I get into the music, I have to make mention of a Gen X milestone moment, and that is, if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that my oldest daughter, Jenna, every now and then will come on and talk, usually it’s after we go to a concert. So I moved her to college last week, and as you can imagine, it was a mix of excitement and a little bit of melancholy, to be honest, and I know she’s going to do awesome things, and I am super proud of her, but I couldn’t let that moment go without kind of marking it as a milestone. So if she’s listening to this, which I think she does, I love you, and we will see you soon. Aww.

Alright, let’s get into this week’s brain-bending cover. This one comes from a compilation album called Harder and Heavier, 60s British Invasion Goes Metal. The band consists of Scott Ian from Anthrax, playing guitar, Greg Bissonnette, who is played with many artists. I think he’s currently playing with Ringo’s All-Star Band, and the one and only Lemmy on bass and vocals. The song is from The Beatles, and it is Twist and Shout. How can you possibly go wrong with Lemmy on vocals in any song, honestly? It’s a trick question, because you can’t. I think my favorite part of this song, honestly, is the really kind of sweet female backing vocals in the chorus that are just juxtaposed against Lemmy’s whiskey and cigarette-tinged vocals. It’s a beautiful thing. And I love when I find these funky little collaboration albums, and I feel like there are so many more out there that I’m yet to discover. So if you know of one that you’re like, no one has ever heard this one, please, please, please send it in to me, because I love kind of bookmarking them and saving them for the podcast.

Alright, let’s get into the new music. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the family. I’m glad you’re here. If you don’t know, every week I listen to a ton of new music, anywhere from two to five hundred songs depending on the week. This week, honestly, it was a little light. For example, in the New Rock playlist, there was only about fifty-five songs. Usually it’s up over a hundred. So it was a light week, we’ll see what happens. But anyway, I listen to all these songs, I weed out the crap, and I deliver to you hopefully five songs that you can add to your playlists, and it ranges from genre.

So let’s get into it. The first song this week comes from Guns N’ Roses, and it’s called Perhaps. When this song first kicked on, I thought it would be right at home with the Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 albums. It’s very piano-driven, kind of like a November rain or yesterday’s. And after digging through and doing a little bit of Googling, I understood that it was a remnant from the Chinese democracy sessions. Granted, it has been reworked according to the article I found, the core members of G&R, put their kind of fingerprints on it. I will say Axl sounds great vocally here, especially in his upper register in the chorus. I know when they started touring, a lot of people were commenting on his vocals that he just wasn’t in shape the way he used to be. Sounds like that’s kind of snapped back. I’ve heard on the recent tour dates it’s been kind of old Axl, you know, at least that level, so that’s really cool. With this song coming out, I am curious if another album might surface at some point. I know in interviews they’ve all basically said repeatedly that there are no plans to record an album. But I think we’ve had three new songs from Guns N’ Roses since they started to go back on tour, was that seven years ago at this point? So I feel like it’s a never say never thing. I feel like if the weather’s right, you might get another album from Guns N’ Roses.

The second song this week comes from the Grogans, and it’s called I Cannot Read Your Mind. The Grogans are a very genre fluid band, so much so that this song in particular sounds nothing like the other six or seven songs that I just sampled from them to try and get a feel for what they were doing. These guys are from Australia, they’ve been releasing music since 2018, and they seem to have built quite a following despite this genre shifting style. Now for me, I’m not sure how deep I could get into them because I like a band to be somewhat consistent in what they’re doing. You know, I don’t want to be eating a steak and all of a sudden it tastes like chicken. I want to eat the steak. But I will say, I really like the energy and punchiness of this song.

\The third song this week comes from HAWXX, and it’s called Embrace the Ugly. HAWXX flow between alt-metal and punk, and lyrically they take up the feminist battle flag and wave it really proudly, which is awesome, because the message that they are putting forth in their lyrics are important things that need to be talked about. And for the longest time, at least to me, it always seemed like rock and punk or metal bands. It was very much a boys club, and if you had bands that were made up of women, it was almost like they were viewed as a novelty act, like at least back in the day. You know, you had bands like The Pretenders, which wasn’t all female, but Female Fronted, Vixen comes to mind, and yeah, they just, they never got the same respect. But now, we’re in a world where representation matters even more, and it’s awesome to see all of these diverse voices coming out. I think it’s really cool. This song, honestly, it really hits hard. Vocally, I love how the singer switches between their growl voice and this really pure, beautiful voice in the choruses. So really, really cool stuff. Be really interested to check out a little bit more of them.

All right, a bit of housekeeping. As always, spread the word on the podcast. You can share stuff on social media, but the biggest, most important thing that you can do is just tell a friend directly about the podcast if they are a music fan. Hopefully they can dig what’s happening. We have a website, songsthatdon’tsuck. net. You can send me artist recommendations, song recommendations through there, you can find transcripts of the shows, and links to all the social media stuff.

The fourth song this week comes from Des Rocks, and it’s called I Am The Lightning. Des Rocks returns to the podcast with his latest song, I Am The Lightning. Since the first time he was on the podcast, I’ve been watching his social media and his live shows look intense. This song, honestly, just kind of continues his unabashed headfirst rock and roll, which is honestly super catchy. I’m bummed. I missed him when he came through Cleveland on tour back in July, but he is officially on my radar as one of those artists that I need to see live. This was just a great rocker overall, great, you know, I think all of his songs, like, and I say this a lot, but it’s one of those things that I could drive to, right? Like it just gives me that feeling of put the windows down, turn it up, and let’s go. So good stuff from Des Rocks.

The fifth song this week comes from The Bites, and this one is Good Love. Yes, another song from The Bites, Sorry, I’m Not Sorry. This is another great feeling song from them, and I remembered hearing this one at the show, and I was glad to see it come out this week. The Bites have a formula to their songwriting and to their song structure, and quite frankly, it works for me. And again, I am not sorry, because I enjoy the hell out of them. Super catchy guitar riff here, fantastic sing-along chorus, and I was like thinking about The Bites and like what we could do, I want to see them tour with the struts. I think these guys and the struts carry the rock and roll flag for me right now. And man, if they were touring together, that would be amazing, and it would probably make my dreams come true. All right, that is it for this week. Thanks for checking it out, and until next episode. Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.