Episode 50 – The Don’t Sucky Awards

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

Welcome to Episode 50 of Songs That Don’t Suck, aka The Don’t Sucky Awards. This is the season finale of the podcast, and I am excited. So let’s get started.

Since I dreamed up this podcast back in November of 2022, I didn’t really think about things like how things would look a year later. I didn’t think about doing seasons. I didn’t think about how I would manage breaks. All I wanted to do was discover new music, and this was the vehicle that I was going to use to do it, so I dove in and I did it. I think it’s been a great year. I’ve tried things, things haven’t worked, and I’ve gotten better, I think, at presenting the podcast and editing it and all the stuff that goes into it. And overall, I’m really happy with it, and I hope you as the listener feel the same way, and I truly do appreciate your listenership and support during this year.

Now before we get into the depth of the awards program, I want to do a little recap and see just how well I’ve done for myself. So if I look at my 2022 Spotify Wrapped, it marked me as an adventurer. I listened to 55 genres, over 1,000 different artists, and my listening time was 23,000 minutes. My top genre was rock, not surprising. Now this year, my Wrapped put me as a shapeshifter. Now basically, I see that as a fine line between very erratic listening and eclectic tastes, and honestly, pretty accurate for this year. Diving into the statistics, I listened to music across 98 different genres, and I listened to about 44,000 minutes, nearly double from last year. Artists that I actually listened to was over 2,500, and it’s important to note that the 32nd song previews that I did as I would prep for the podcast did not show up on my Wrapped, and that’s honestly probably a pretty good thing, because I feel like the 44,000 minutes is accurate to what I actually listened to versus what I’ve reviewed. My top genre was still rock, I honestly did not expect that to change. My top songs this year were all from the podcast, and that shocked me in a very positive way. I thought that was very cool.

I’m really happy with how I was able to kind of force myself to broaden my musical horizons through this podcast. I hope you have found some new songs and artists along the way so that we can all say mission accomplished. Now as for you, dear listener, over 170 people had songs that don’t suck in their top 10 of their podcasts for Spotify Wrapped.

In my first year, I never thought how I would measure success, but honestly, 170 different people listening to the podcast enough for it to show up in their top 10, I’m honored. I’m flattered that you have stuck with me and that you found the podcast and that you enjoy it enough to listen to it that much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck and the 2023 Don’t Suckie Awards. To take a look back at 2023, here’s your host, Mark Bradbourne.

Without further ado, let’s kick off the 2023 Don’t Suckie Awards. Each week of this year, minus three weeks, the one week that I did a top 10 at the halfway point of the year, and then there were two weeks where I found no good music, other than those three weeks. I spent every week reviewing thousands of songs and I shared 13 hours and 44 minutes of music, which I deemed to not suck. Now some weeks were stronger than others and that became very apparent as I did more and more weeks over the course of the year. And because of that, I was like, how do I wrap things up to the end of the year? And I thought there was no better way than to do a deep dive review of the 231 songs that I had curated and reward the best of the best with the soon to be globally coveted Don’t Sucky Award. Now to begin the process, I moved songs from my main playlist into genre playlists, so general categories. Now some songs you will probably argue belong in a different category or maybe they cross multiple categories, but for simplicity sake, I had to make a judgment call and I dropped them where I felt they were most appropriate. I then reviewed the songs in each genre, listening to them, analyzing them over and over again, and narrowed them down to a top five nominees for each genre grouping. From there, I took the top five in each genre, did more analyzing, more listening. From sleepless nights, and I finally came up with this year’s Don’t Sucky Award winners.

Tonight’s first category is rock. Rock is easily my most listened to genre, my Spotify wrapped confirms that to be true. I have always loved rock music, I love the spirit of it, I love the energy of it. And guys like Gene Simmons say dumb shit like rock is dead. Gene is just wrong, he’s wrong on a lot of things that he talks about, and he’s very wrong in the fact that rock is not dead. It might not be the mainstream power that it once was, but rock is alive, it is well, and I found a ton of great bands that are the standard bearers for today’s rock genre and rock generation. One day I think rock will return to the top of the musical mountain, and it will dominate the airwaves once again. There were over 80 songs from the podcast in this year’s rock category, making the process to get down to five nominees and the eventual winner a very tough task.

And now the rock Don’t Sucky nominees.

• Do Me a Favor by The Bites
• Caroline Fritz Hager
• Find a Better Way the Commoners
• I am the Lightning Des Rocks
• Life Support Friday Pilots Club.

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky award for rock is, Do me a Favor, the Bites.

What can I say? The bites are probably my number one find for the year as far as bands go. I think I featured them four times over the course of the year as their debut album was kind of being teased and they were releasing singles. The album is out now. It’s fantastic from start to finish. I love it. I got a chance to see them live and they did not disappoint. They were fantastic. And as I am recording this episode, they are touring in the UK and they are selling out night after night, I truly expect some big things from the bites in 2024. I think it’s going to be a great year for them.

The next category is folk. This category was not as deep as I expected it to be considering how big a fan I am of singer songwriters. Only 19 songs in the genre playlist, but it was still a gut wrenching decision to make. The thing with this category is the lyrics are generally so powerful and they evoke emotions for the performer and for the listener. And I can remember the first time I heard all of these songs as I was reviewing them and I remember being affected in that moment, which is something really special. And it’s honestly something that music has that power to do with great ease when it’s really done right. All of these songwriters paint amazing mental pitchers and I love every one of them.

And now the folk Don’t Sucky nominees.

• Find Your People Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
• Chutes and Ladders, Odie Leigh
• Cannibal Within, Amigo the Devil
• Taking Things for Granted, Joy Oladokun
• Jim Carrey, Billy Raffaul.

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky Award for Folk is Find Your People by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.

This song lyrically means so much to me. I remember when I was listening to it, it was describing all of my friends who I have scattered all over the United States and quite frankly all over the world at this point. When I listen to this song, I think about them and I smile and I think about times that we’ve had and conversations that we’ve had and when music can bring back a moment like that, even when that music is new and it wasn’t present at that moment, that is power. You cannot ask for more from music than for it to affect your emotions in that way. And Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors do just that with Find Your People.

Our next category is indie alternative. This is a very broad category in today’s musical landscape. It’s truly transformative as a genre because indie alternative bands of today are the mainstream monsters of tomorrow. This is where musical innovation truly happens in my eyes. Artists aren’t afraid to try new things. They experiment with sounds and styles and they mix things together and create new and exciting music. This is a very deep category with over 70 songs to choose from this year.

And now, the indie alternative Don’t Sucky nominees.

• Dancing in the Rain, Young the Giant
• Watching the Credits, the Beths,
• Cleanup Crew, Spanish Love Songs
• June’s Stolen Car, The Paper Kites
• Sinner, the Last Dinner Party

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky Award for indie alternative is Sinner by the Last Dinner Party.

This song and the band overall just hits really different. They’re by far one of the more unique acts that I have seen to date. They’ve released three songs so far and I’m assuming all of those will be part of their full length album which is being released in February of 2024. They have spent the year touring both Europe and in the United States and they continue to gain momentum. This is another band that I honestly expect to hear more from in 2024 and I think based on their current trajectory some big things are going to happen for them next year.

Our next category is Metal Hard Rock. When I was younger, the full of angst and aggressive mark, you could describe me as a metalhead very easily. It’s basically all that I listen to. And when the mood strikes, I still love to throw up some devil horns and just enjoy the raw power that is metal and hard rock. From thrash to progressive to punk inspired tracks, it all has a home in my playlists. There were 16 songs from the podcast that are classed as metal hard rock this year. Here we go.

And now the metal hard rock Don’t Sucky nominees.

• Another Celebration at the End of the World, Mammoth WVH
• Deny the sun, Black Orchid Empire
• Pain killer, Sickjoy
• Heresy, Boskat.
• People Are Vomit, the Used.

The winner of the 2023 don’t sucky award for metal hard rock is Deny the Sun by Black Orchid Empire.

I remember how blown away I was when I first heard this song. When it comes to metal and progressive rock in particular, I am a very picky consumer. It generally will come down to the style of vocal and the quality of the vocal and Black Orchid Empire has amazing vocals. Put that together with their musical prowess and skill and it’s magic and this track Deny the Sun completely blew me away and I love when it rolls through my playlists even today. It’s fantastic.

Our next category is Country Americana. Now between my middle years and today when I was in college, I went through a huge phase of listening to country music and quite frankly, Western fashion. It was not an odd thing to see me rocking a cowboy hat, boots, and a rodeo style buckle for an evening out, it was kind of the norm. But the 90s to be fair were an amazing era for country music and I was completely wrapped up in it. It’s definitely more desolate nowadays, at least to my ears, with all the bro country and dip hop that happens, drum loops and lack of real musicianship, it’s all crap. But it’s fair to say that every singer sounds like a clone of the next, so finding something that stands out is tough, especially when you kind of carbon copy the lyrics about pick up trucks, beers, and girls. So finding those that stood out was a challenge this year. 12 songs made up the selection pool for country and Americana.

And now the Country Americana Don’t Sucky nominees.

Devil’s in NOLA, Drayton Farley,

Congratulations and Condolences, Greensky Bluegrass.

Like my dog, Jimmy Buffett,

in your love, Tyler Childers,

Halfway to Hell, Jelly Roll.

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky awards for country Americana is Devils in NOLA, Drayton Farley.

This is such a fantastic track. Any lyric that you can easily turn into a mental pitcher, truly, truly powerful and some of the lyrical lines Drayton Farley pens in this song are pure poetry. For me, this song has all the aspects of a great country song, regardless of decade that it fell out of. The right instrumentation, it’s got fantastic lyrics, it’s got a great vocal performance, and a great subject, honestly, it’s just a great, great story that he is telling in the lyrics. Devils in Nola is epic.

Our next category is pop. Pop is not a huge listening category for me. I’m exposed to it a lot from my daughters, but I did manage to find a few pop gems this year and I’m really happy with that. Pop burns bright for moments and then fades into the ether like last year’s fashions. Unless of course you’re Taylor Swift, then, you know, the window for commercial success is huge. For most artists, it’s pretty small and it’s elusive because pop tastes change very frequently, especially in the viral age. Other songs from the podcast made the cut for pop this year.

And now, the pop don’t sucky nominees.

Eye for an eye, Rina Sawayama

Dream House, Kuinka

23 Lawrence

Waves, DaytimeTV,

it’s all right, Cecilia Castleman.

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky award for pop is 23 by Lawrence.

I am so glad that I discovered Lawrence this year. Gracie Lawrence has such an amazing and distinctive voice. The first time I heard her in the band was a track called I’m Confident That I’m Insecure. It was a jaw-dropper for me. 23 took it to the next level. It’s one of the catchiest songs that I’ve heard this year. I constantly find myself humming it and singing it, and that honestly is what pop music is all about. It’s all you want from a great pop song.

Our final category tonight is the Unicorn Award. Didn’t know what to call this, but basically this is the category reserved for all those fringe genres and artists that either didn’t have enough contemporaries for a full genre, or the artists kind of defy a category in many ways because they’re mixing a bunch of things together. Some of these songs stood out more than most over the course of the year because they are so unique. From blues to funk to rap to satanic doo-wop, it was eclectic and it was amazing. There are a dirty dozen songs that ended up in the Unicorn genre this year.

And now the Unicorn Don’t Sucky nominees.

Florida Man, Selwyn Birchwood,

Burnt Toast and Coffee, High Fade,

Nine Beat, Half Moon Run,

Burn Your Bible, Twin Temple,

Paradise II, Logic, featuring Nora Jones.

The winner of the 2023 Don’t Sucky Award for Musical Unicorn is Nine Beat by Half Moon Run.

As a musician, it was really hard for me not to pick this track. The overall composition of Nine Beat is second to none in the Unicorn category. The odd time signature that the song is composed in, the band doesn’t make the casual listener work to really enjoy the song. Half Moon Run has such a smooth delivery of this track, it’s legendary to listen to it. It is, and it’s, yeah, I mean, it’s just, I love this song and the way that it’s presented and as a musician, I just respect the hell out of this song, it’s so good.

All right, it is time to poke fun at myself. There’s some funny moments from the podcast as well as some of my favorite aspects of the podcast. So let’s get into it. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know that on occasion I’ve completely butchered names, and most of the times I’ll call it out and say that I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing it right. Honestly, every time I feel horrible, but sometimes I’m honestly guessing. There’s no guidance, really, when you’re looking at the internet on how to pronounce something correctly. And sometimes I’m just screwing it up. Here’s some of the worst from this year. The Mysterians was probably the first one that I remember butchering horribly. I pronounced it the Mysterines for some reason. I’m not sure why that happened, but good God, I’m so sorry to the Mysterians. The second one was the Wans. Now because I work in tech, I pronounced it like a wide area network or the Wans, but nope, it is the Wans, and the last one that is worth mentioning is Joy Oladokun. No excuse on this one, it’s honestly just me tripping over my tongue, and I apologize for messing that up. I might still be messing it up, I don’t know. I will try and do better next year to all of the artists.

Now one of the coolest things that I got to experience with the podcast was actually interacting with some of these acts. Some of them would interact with social media posts. Something as simple as a like or a retweet or a repost. Others would DM me, and we had some really cool conversations. These are some of the best interactions that I had this year. Shad, so the band Shad, I featured their song Sad But True, and Matthew Shad reached out to me, and we ended up talking music over the course of a couple of weeks. It was just really cool. Probably the most, I don’t know how to describe it, but it was just a really transparent and vulnerable moment, because as I told him, I said, in the podcast, I wasn’t really complimentary of his other songs. I really like this acoustic song because of where I was with my mindset and just like the powerful kind of harmonies that was going on. He totally got that. He’s like, you know what, sometimes you’re just in a mood and you appreciate things. He said there’d actually be more of that on his forthcoming album, so he was like, he understood, and I felt bad because you never want to talk too negatively about it, and I didn’t think I had, but when I went back and re-listened, it wasn’t great, but anyway, it was a really cool conversation, and I really appreciate him having that long kind of drawn out conversation with me. It was really cool. The second one is The Lags. When I put The Lags on the show, they were blown away to the point where they were kind of reached out to me immediately. Turns out they are a local band. They were just starting out in the UK, and I ended up chatting with their drummer a little bit, and it was just kind of really cool. I guess if you kind of get randomly picked for something out of the blue, it makes you feel good, right? Like recognition, people like recognition, right? So it was just really cool for them to reach out and say thanks. The third one is The Wands. When I mispronounced their name, one of the guys had listened to the podcast and the band reached out to correct my pronunciation, thankfully, honestly. We had a good laugh about it, and we chatted about music for a bit, and it was really cool. I ended up featuring them a second time, and they kind of sent me another DM just to say thanks and whatnot, so it was really cool. Fourth one, Fox Royale. I saw Fox Royale initially when they toured through Cleveland when they did Brightwinter back in February of 2023. They released a single kind of later in the year called So Different, which I put on the podcast, and we got to chat a little bit. Then they were touring through Cleveland, told them I was going to come to the show, and we got a chance to meet and talk a little bit, which was really cool. They’re such good dudes, and since then they’ve been kind of touring the world. I got a chance to go tour Europe, so I’m really excited for those guys. I’m wishing them all of the success. Then the last one was the Bites, so I interacted with the Bites quite a bit after featuring them a couple of times, and when they toured through Cleveland I got a chance to meet them and talk to them in person. They actually recognized the show logo. I wore a songs that don’t suck t-shirt, and you ended up talking on and off kind of all night after they’re set as the other bands were playing, and it was just so great to meet them. As I’m recording this, they are actually touring the UK. Like I said, they’re selling it out. Man, I just hope they have so much success because they’re such nice guys and I just love their music.

That is it for the Don’t Sucky Awards and for the first season of Songs That Don’t Suck. To hear all the nominees and all the songs that I found in 2023, I’ve put everything in a single playlist. You can find that. There’s a link in the show notes of the podcast, and you can find it at the website, SongsThatDon’tSuck. net.

Before I wrap for the year, I want to take a moment and thank some folks. First I want to thank everyone who has liked, shared, reviewed, commented, told people about the podcast. They’re amazing, and I really appreciate the support.

There are a few individuals that I do want to call out by name. I want to thank Deb for all of her interaction on Facebook. I really appreciate the support and the comments and the conversation. I want to thank Clayton for the text messages. Clayton is a buddy of mine, but he is super supportive of the podcast and always has good feedback after each and every episode. I want to thank Luigi on Twitter / X. He is a great supporter of the podcast, is always sharing posts and letting people know about the podcast, so I appreciate all of you. Thank you so much. You don’t know how much that means to me.

The next person I want to thank is the official voice of SongsThatDon’tSuck, my friend and podcast brethren, Zach Bowders. Zach convinced me to play around with the idea of a podcast during the height of the pandemic, and I’ve done a couple of different things, but he has always been such an amazing cheerleader, sounding board, and just a good friend. So I love you, brother. Thank you so much for everything you do for me.

And lastly, I want to thank the other music podcasts that I’ve kind of got to know either through interaction or just listening to your podcast over the last year. I want to spend a minute and just send thanks to Scott and Rico from the Rock and Roll Autopsy. I want to thank Brian Colburn from my weekly mixtape and Big Rick from Rock Talk Studio. I can’t wait to see what happens in 2024, but I have a feeling that we’ll continue to support each other and just continue to make great podcasts.

Until then…

Thanks for listening to SongsThatDon’tSuck Season 1. It’s been an amazing year with lots of great music. Mark will be back in January of 2024 with even more SongsThatDon’tSuck. In the meantime, be sure to follow this show on social media and check out SongsThatDontSuck.net for updates. As always, keep searching for and listening to Songs That Don’t Suck.

2023 Songs That Don’t Suck Complete Playlist