Episode 55 – “I can only speak honestly behind your back”

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

Welcome to Episode 55 of Songs That Don’t Suck. I’ve made the executive decision that the season thing is confusing. It is still season 2, but I’m not restarting the episodes number. This is episode 55, so for the handful of folks that listen, I’m sorry for the confusion. Anyway, let’s get into it.

The first thing that I really want to talk about this week is that I fucked up. I’ve got to make a correction. So last episode, I said that Paula Cole sang, running up that hill, confusing her with Kate Bush. Now, I am not sure why I did that. Both are amazingly talented, both have amazing voices. But Kate Bush recorded running up that hill, not Paula Cole. Apparently I am indeed human. Go figure.

Alright, that’s out of the way. This weekend, I got to knock out not one, but two bands from my bucket list of bands that I want to see that I did not get to see when I was younger. And in addition, I got to hang out with some of my new buddies from Rock and Roll Autopsy podcast, Scott and Rico. Now, if you have not checked out Rock and Roll Autopsy, you need to. It’s fantastic. It’s one of my favorite podcasts to listen to. They talk about classic tracks and sometimes new tracks too, and they use their self-developed science to figure out if that artist and song did indeed kill rock. It’s humorous. It’s thought-provoking. I laugh every episode, and you will too. So when you’re done listening to this episode, go over to Rock and Roll Autopsy and give them a chance as well.

Okay, to the concert. So it’s not every day, every week, every month, or even every year that you get to see two bands that you love in one night. Unless it’s, you know, one of those weird festivals that you end up not showering for three or four days and there’s like a hundred bands on the bill and you’ve got to run across a giant field to see band one and band two. So yes, it is indeed rare that two and only two bands are touring together that you want to see both of them. The last time this happened for me, Dream Theater was opening for Iron Maiden, which was incredible. This weekend, Extreme rolled through Cleveland with Living Colour. The minute I saw this show, I bought tickets and I would not be denied attendance. Both bands were in very heavy rotation for me back in high school. Extreme’s self-titled debut, the follow-up PornoGraffiti and Three Sides to Every Story were amazing and then Living Colour’s debut, Vivid, followed up with Times Up and then Stain. You want to talk about like three album runs that are amazing. Both of these bands had them and it was such a formative time for me musically that it just imprinted it on me in ways that I cannot talk about. So the show was at MGM Northfield, which is one of the local casinos here in Cleveland. The venue center stage holds about 2,600 people. From what I could tell, it seemed close to sold out, if not sold out completely. Living Colour technically opened the show. They played for 45 minutes. They opened with Middleman from Vivid and they sounded incredible from the jump. Corey Glover’s vocals were spot-on. Like if you closed your eyes, you could think that it was just the early 90s again. He has not suffered at all with time, which is amazing. Vernon Reed is an underrated guitar god. Will Calhoun, their drummer, is one of my influences as a drummer from very early on. He actually convinced me to buy a cymbal that I had no need for, but I had to have it because Will Calhoun was advertising for it. Just amazing to see live. And then Doug Wimbish was incredible. If you want to make nominations for the most criminally underrated and underappreciated band, Living Color is honestly at the top of that list. They ripped through their 45-minute set. They did a quick nod to Prince when they covered Nothing Compares 2 U. And they kind of did a nod to Doug Wimbish’s amazing musical heritage. And they did this medley of white lines, Apache in the message, which was just a lot of fun. It was literally everything I wanted from a Living Colour show, minus more Living Colour show. I could have done an hour and a half to two hours of Living Colour and still probably not been satisfied. They were amazing live. After they were done, a quick pause changed the stage around. Extreme took over. They hit the stage. They opened with It’s a Monster off of Pornograffiti, and they were off and running. My only kind of criticism is that I don’t know if Gary Cherone was not feeling well or what happened, but I’d say his voice was maybe like 75% of what it used to be, maybe 85%. He had tons of energy. He’s moving the whole show. But vocally, he just, he was a little flat at times and it just, it wasn’t what I expected, honestly. Nuno Bentoncourt, fucking amazing. Something to witness as a musician and God, anybody seeing him, it’s just incredible, the things that he does. Easily one of the greatest guitarists on the planet. The biggest shock in this show was like me realizing how great a vocalist Pat Badger their bassist is. He is basically extremes Michael Anthony. About a quarter of their set was from their new album 6, which is really good. The other quarter of it was from Pornograffiti and the rest was from the other collection of albums, including they did this really cool medley of songs from their debut album. At one point Nuno had kind of asked the audience who’s at their first Extreme show and a lot of hands went up, which was shocking. And he said, well, this will be great because a lot of people think Pornograffiti was our first album, but we actually had a self-titled debut. So they did a bunch of songs from the first album, which was really cool. However, they did not do my favorite song from that first album, which was Mother. But oh well, can’t get everything you want, right? All in all, I left a very satisfied customer. Super happy to knock off these two bands off the bucket list. And in honor of the show, I’ve got a great cover that Living Colour did. And it’s their version of the Beatles tomorrow, never knows.

This is probably one of my favorite Beatles songs. And this version takes it in a slightly different direction. The electrification of it is fantastic. There’s some tempo and feel changes that happen that really allow Living Color to kind of make it their own. Vernon Reed gets the chance to really sonically experiment, which is what he does best. Doug Wimbish holds down this really silky smooth bass line, which you would absolutely expect. And then there’s like every now and then you get this callback to the sitar part in the original in some of Vernon’s soloing. And then the last minute or so, it kind of comes down off of its high energy and then all of a sudden it just ends. It’s very unsettling, but amazing at the same time. So I hope you enjoy checking that one out.

All right, let’s get into some new music for this week. If this is your first time listening to songs that don’t suck, welcome. Or if you’re a long time listener, welcome back. What I do every week is I listen to a bunch of new songs. And I pray that there are five that I can share with you here on the podcast. This week, my prayers were not answered. I’ve got four for you this week, but I’ve got four good ones, so let’s get into it.

The first song this week is from Dark to Lightness from Close Talker. Back in 2017 or 2018, the band that I was in at the time called The Singular opened for Close Talker when they were passing through Cleveland. And live, they were simply incredible. The scariest thing of that show was the fact that it was the last show of their tour. And they were driving from Cleveland to Saskatchewan to go home. And it was like probably 30 hours of driving. And just the thought of that just made me cry. Anyway, this new song from Dark to Lightness picks up honestly right where their last couple of albums really left off. And if I was tempted to kind of give you a comparison or like an influence, I would say Radiohead is among one of their bigger influences. This is one of those bands that I honestly just don’t get why they’re not bigger. Musically, they are incredible. They have an incredibly talented drummer who I absolutely fell in love with watching him play live. And they write damn good songs. They’re really strong. So if you dig this track, go check out their earlier albums as well.

The second song this week is Universal Credit by Shambolics. I love the Scottish accent. I really do. And I love the conversation that they’ve built lyrically here between the banker and the band. When it gets into the chorus, it is very beatlesque to me, like super, super catchy. I can imagine this is an actual conversation that Shambolics have experienced and possibly a lot of bands have had with someone in their life, you know, when they don’t believe in what they’re doing. It could be a family member or friends or whatever. But when you believe in what you’re doing and you love what you’re doing, as they say in the lyrics, they don’t need no money. They want to be happier than you because when you’re doing what you love, it’s way better than doing something you tolerate just for the money. If you’re a longtime listener, I did feature another song from Shambolics last year, Never Gonna Change. A little bit different feel with this one versus Never Gonna Change, but both songs are fantastic. I’m really becoming a fan of Shambolics. These guys have a sound all their own. It’s addictive. It’s very catchy. And by God, if the ball bounces right, I think they could be huge. They are recording and releasing a ton of music on Spotify. I feel like every couple of months I see a new single that has dropped. So if you dig this, if you dig Never Gonna Change, go check out Shambolics.

The third song this week is Town Ease from Liquid Mike. What would an episode of songs that don’t suck be if it wasn’t steeped in 90s nostalgia? Anyone hear the later releases of Fountains of Wayne in Liquid Mike? I mean, Liquid Mike has it going on, right? Crunchy guitars. There’s this really fun kind of keyboard harmony line that weaves its way through the rhythm section. Really magical stuff as you listen to it more and more. Town Ease is two minutes and 12 seconds of indie rock post-grunge goodness. Lyrically, depending on how big your hometown was, there are probably some themes that you feel in your soul. I know I had some moments listening to this where I was like, yep, that certainly feels like where I went to high school. I got turned on to this song by one of the many people on TikTok who I’ve discovered who are sharing their musical finds. And honestly, just like the Spotify playlists, most of them suck, but they nailed this one. So I was really glad to catch this one this week.

The fourth song this week is On Your Side by The Last Dinner Party. I featured Sinner last season from The Last Dinner Party and their debut album finally dropped this year. And after all the buildup, you know, yay, it’s been released. And while I will admit that some of it honestly is hit and miss for me, there are some great songs, including this one On Your Side. For me, it’s hard to write a good ballad today. I feel like, you know, sometimes it can just get a little bit too cliched. This one, I think, has all the ingredients of a great song, right? It’s got a very interesting musical composition. It’s just not straightforward, you know, here we go, here we go, here we go. There’s a lot of space for the vocalists to really show their talent, which I think is a good trademark of The Last Dinner Party. I feel like in everything they do, they leave space for the singer to do her thing. It’s not sugary sweet. There’s some really sharp lyrics that are here. And it’s like there’s a physical longing and the tension being portrayed, and it’s just really well done. When I initially discovered The Last Dinner Party, I made a comparison to Abba vocally. Still think it’s there. A lot of the same really kind of beautiful tone and quality that Abba has as a vocal group. So go give the new album a listen and judge it for yourself. It’s not for everybody, like I said, but there are real moments of brilliance in this album. It’s definitely worth at least checking out once or twice.

Alright, that is it for this week. Only four songs, but I think I gave you four good ones. As always, grab a friend who you really, really like, who really likes music, and tell them about the podcast. Follow the show on your podcast platform of choice. If you want to follow us on social media, you can do that. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads. You can find the podcast pretty much any platform you want at this point, as far as like checking out the actual podcast. And if you’re ever in need of getting ahold of me, telling me about an artist that you want to share with me, you can do that through the website at songsthatdontsuck.net.

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