Episode 42 – “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

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

Welcome to episode 42 of Songs That Don’t Suck. This episode is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. If you know, you know. So thanks for checking out the episode.

Last week, I got to see Cam Cole for the second time. And he was amazing. If you’re not familiar with who Cam Cole is, if you were a Ted Lasso fan, he was the musician in season 1 who was performing on the street, who Ted got pulled into the fundraising thing. Anyway, he’s a one-man band, spent years busking on the streets of London, and now he’s able to tour the world because he’s got quite a following. A lot of it thanks to Ted Lasso. And he is incredible live. If he is rolling through your town, by all means, go check him out. That is money well spent.

But I had some things that really bothered me about the show, and I want to talk about them. Now, before I jump into that, let me just say that I have lived in Cleveland and in Northeast Ohio for many years at this point, 30 years. And I love Cleveland. I love everything about Cleveland, from our arts to our sports to our museums. Everything is fantastic, and I will defend Cleveland to the end. Anybody who’s talking shit about Cleveland is going to hear defense from me. But with that said, what the fuck, Cleveland? What the fuck is wrong with you?

I am not sure if it was a lack of advertising or the fact that it was a Sunday night, but when I rolled up to the Beachland Ballroom in Tavern and I find that the show has been moved from the ballroom, which is the bigger room, to the tavern, and that the tavern isn’t even sold out, I was scratching my head for the entire time that I was sitting there waiting for the show to start. You missed a great show. You fucked up, Cleveland. But the thing that I really want to focus on is etiquette. Now, I’ve been going to a lot of shows this year, and it’s been awesome. I think very early in the podcast, I said something to the effect of I see live music as a safe space, as a sacred space, and it kind of recharges my soul. But the more and more shows that I’ve been going to, the more irritated I am becoming with the lack of etiquette at these shows. Etiquette towards both the artists and the other people who are attending the show. So let’s start with what I think is my biggest beef, which is phones. Now I will admit, beginning of the show, I will snap a quick pic. I will take a quick video, but that’s the end of it. The rest of the time, the phone pretty much stays in my pocket. Now, at the Cam Cole show, the entire front row of people, and this is a small room, well lit, Cam could see everybody in front of him. They had their phones out, and they recorded probably 90% of the show. It made me long for the Tool concert that I went to pre-pandemic, and they had a very strict no phones policy, and it was honestly one of the best concert experience I had ever had. I wish more artists and venues would do this. The glow from the phone screens is distracting from what’s happening on stage. So let’s stop it. You paid money to see something with your own eyes, not through the screen on your phone. I mean, do you really go home and watch these videos repeatedly? No. And honestly, the worst is people who FaceTime their friends to have them watch the show. And then they try to talk to them at the same time, like what the actual fuck are you doing? Just fucking stop.

And speaking of talking, okay, maybe this is my biggest irritation. Why are you at the show? You paid money to see a live performance. Now at Cam’s show, there was a douchebag, and I’m describing him in the nicest possible way that I can. He was standing in the front row, basically dead center, and he decided to have full fucking conversations while Cam was playing a more laid back tune called Look Into the Moon. And I just, I had never wanted to punch someone in the throat more than in that moment. And honestly, I wanted to do it more for Cam’s benefit than my own. How fucking rude do you have to be to do that to someone you paid money to see? Like I get it. If you’re in the back of the room and it might not be a song you’re into and you might talk quietly to the person next to you, but even that’s fucking disrespectful. Now, if you’re at a concert, here’s my advice. Shut your fucking mouth. Watch the show. If you want to talk, stay the fuck home. You want to sing along? Great. Otherwise, unless you were cheering and screaming at the end of a song, shut the fuck up.

God damn. All right, I feel like I’m borderline get off my lawn guy at this point, but I respect the artists and I think you should too. We aren’t here for your fake internet points. We don’t want to hear your conversations or any other bullshit that is beyond watching the damn concert. So fucking get it together. And honestly, I’m seeing it more in Cleveland than in other places I’ve gone to see shows. So I’ve gone to Pittsburgh and seen a show. I’ve gone to Columbus and seen a show recently and I’ve gone to Detroit and seen shows. None of this bullshit is happening at the level it is in Cleveland. So Cleveland, I am calling you out. Get your shit together.

All right. Let me take a sip of tea here. OK, calm down now. All right. I had a fun blast from the past with the brain bending cover this week. It’s a band called Sunfish and they were covering the 1996 song Super Bon Bon, Mike Doughty and Soul Coughing. Man. I listened to this song so much when I was in college. The original just had such this laid back groove to it and Mike’s vocal delivery just had this cool, almost spoken word, but, you know, sung a little bit. The updated version, Sunfish, the lyricist or the singer, I guess, it’s sung more like it’s more melodic than Mike Doughty’s delivery and it gives it almost a different feel. Although the version of it is very true to the original. I will say the newer version feels slightly slower from a tempo point of view and there’s a few more instruments kind of filling the space with some different effects. So it’s got a different sound and it works really nice, honestly. When the chorus hits, again, I don’t know if it’s the mix or the effects or what have you, but it feels like it’s just got such a different energy than the original. Both of them have this fantastic energy in that chorus, but I don’t know. It’s just different, right? And it definitely made me kind of perk up and listen. But anyway, not sure how it happened, but I’m really happy that this one landed on my release radar this week.

All right, let’s get into the new music. If this is your first time listening, welcome. I appreciate you checking out the podcast. The quick rundown is every week, I listen to a ton of new songs anywhere from two to 500 depending on, you know, the week. And there’s a lot of crap being released and I’m probably scratching less than 1% of it. But I try to go through and find good stuff that I think you might like. Gen X is my target audience, but I feel like folks who like music from that era just go across generations. So regardless of where you identify, welcome. So let’s get into it.

The first song this week is called Drywall and it’s from Paris Paloma. The first thing I thought when I was listening to this is that there is an aspect of Paris’s voice that reminds me a bit of Joni Mitchell. It’s really beautiful and I feel like it’s quite distinctive as far as like female vocalists go. And I’ve heard a lot recently. I don’t know if there’s something in the way she’s phrasing the lyrics. There might be something in her vibrato in certain moments of the song, but it definitely gave me Joni vibes. Now as a side note, I discovered that Joni Mitchell isn’t on Spotify and her catalog is missed. There’s a couple of things that she did from a compilation album stuff, but I was very happy that I still had CDs because I needed to check my hearing to make sure that I was hearing what I thought I was and I think I was. Anyway, the middle section, the bridge part of this song has a really cool dynamic shift as all bridges should. And basically she’s repeating this lyric and the volume is increasing. And then in the background, she’s almost screaming the lyrics as the background vocal and it builds this really beautiful tension right before it climaxes and then everything drops out and she brings it back into the verse section at the end, which is really cool. Out of curiosity, I did check out her most popular track, which is called Labour. And it’s very much in the same vein, but it’s different at the same time, different energy. So if you dig this one, you should check out some of her other music catalogs, pretty good.

The second song this week is Glass House from Joe P. Now I’ve made a very conscious effort to find interesting things in the songs over the past few episodes, trying to bring more reasoning as to why I picked something. I was afraid that it might be too nerdy from a musical sense, but I’ve kind of settled in on that’s what I’m going to do. But with this song, I honestly just enjoyed it. It’s very straight ahead. It’s got a great hook. It’s constructed well. I like the backing vocals. There’s a lot of layers that are happening all throughout the song. He uses dynamics really well and he kind of brings the listener in, especially right at the end of the song. As you’re listening to the end, you’ll kind of feel it fade out. And if you’re not watching the track indicator to see where it is in the song, you’re waiting for it to come back in with a bang and it just doesn’t. It’s beautiful. It’s a great way to leave the audience wanting more from a song, and that’s honestly how I felt at the end of the song. I was like, I need the payoff and you just don’t get it. So it’s fantastic in that regard.

The third song this week is Killing My Borrowed Time From Geese. From the first notes, I was immediately struck and thought it sounded like there she goes by the laws, but it very quickly shifts when the singer kind of growls or grunts into the mic and then his voice hits and it is super distinctive. It’s one of the voices that you would say something like, he’s not a great singer, but he’s a great singer for the environment he’s in, for that situation that he is in. It’s like Bob Dylan or John McCrae from Cake. It’s just perfect for that band and that’s what we have here with Geese. There’s some really cool musical moments happening as well. There’s some really cool percussive things happening. That’s the stuff I always listen for, but it’s hard to nail down the actual instrument that I’m hearing. Now, at the end, it sounds like there’s a xylophone playing right at the end, some sort of mallet percussion, but I think xylophone, and I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the backing vocals on this track because it gave a very classic sound. Just like Black Crows. When I think about classic sounding female backing vocals, like black crows, Shaker Your Moneymaker has some great backing vocals from that standpoint. This track comes from their new EP called 4D Country. If you dig this track, definitely give the rest of the EP a listen. There’s some very interesting things going on there, so check out Geese.

The fourth song this week is Qualified from Blues Traveler. While Blues Traveler haven’t had the huge success that they had back during their 1994-1995 breakthrough album 4, they have continued to put out music for their devoted fan base since those early days. And honestly, the formula hasn’t changed, and it’s good. They always have been and always will be a jam band, and the groove on this track is just, it’s undeniable. Great horn line, great harmonica work from John Popper, of course. It’s such a trademark thing for all things Blues Traveler. Lyrically, I love the juxtaposition that Popper’s laying out here, kind of hammering home the idea that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and that nobody’s better than the other based on what they are or who they are. Which is really cool. I really enjoyed it. And it’s honestly, it was good to hear new music from them. I know that they’ve been putting out new music, but they’re not one of the bands that, like I follow that intently. But it reminded me how much I did enjoy their earlier albums. And it encouraged me to go check out some of their more recent catalog, and I’ve been missing some good stuff, and my guess is you probably have been too. So go back and give Blues Traveler another pass.

The fifth song this week is TK421 from Lenny Kravitz. Lenny Kravitz is a certifiable badass. Always has been, quite frankly, always will be. And this track is so funky. When the song kicked off, I was immediately reminded a bit of Prince. It just had some of that kind of Minneapolis funk feel, like Morris Day in the Time, you know, Prince and New Power Generation, all that stuff, but Lenny’s voice is just like prototypical balls and chunk rock. It’s fantastic. Now I was googling around trying to figure out what the TK421 reference is, because when I first heard it, I was like, it sounds like a Star Wars reference to me. And everything that I’m finding, it’s basically a nod to Star Wars. TK421, for those who aren’t aware, is the designation of the Stormtrooper who was famously not at his post. Not much else to say about this, but I did find it interesting, because as I was googling around for information about the TK421 reference, every article that is talking about the song is actually just talking about the video. The video is definitely not safe for the office. And that is all the media seems to be focused on, which is a shame, because this is another fantastic song from an amazing artist. All they’re focusing on is his sexuality, which is quite frankly on full display, literally and figuratively in the video. And it’s sad, but this is where media is, right? They are just competing for clicks. And my only hope is that those who are enticed by that clickbait, they hopefully go and actually listen to the song, because it’s really great. That is it for this episode of Songs That Don’t Suck, as always, spread the word to your fellow music fans, follow the show on your social media platform of choice, check out the website at songsthatdon’tsuck. net, and… Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck. Hello Cleveland, hello Cleveland!