Episode 75

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

Hey, that’s me. I’m Mark. I am your host. Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. Now every week, I listen to hundreds of newly released songs. In the hopes that I’m going to find a few that I can add to my personal playlists, and in turn, you can add them to yours if you dig them. If this is your first time listening, thank you so much for checking out the podcast. If you’re a long time listener, thank you just as much. I do this as a passion project, and you’ll notice there’s no ads, there’s no sponsorships, and it’s really just an avenue for me to find music. I got bored. If this is your first time listening, just for a quick background, I’m a Gen Xer, and I was listening to all the same music I’d been listening to since college. And I got really, really tired of it, so I kind of said, hey, you know what, beginning of 2023, let’s start a new podcast and let’s force ourselves to find new music. And you know what? I think it’s been going pretty good. We’re a year and a half into this whole process, and I love every minute of it. So again, thank you for listening. Before we get into the new music this week, I’ve got a couple of things I got in my mind, so let’s get into it.

On Friday night, I was lamenting the whole process of finding new music on threads. And on a Friday night, I did not expect to get any responses, but I did. The last few weeks, I noted that finding new music had been a bit of a slog. The music has felt very derivative, very homogenized, very copy-paste, and this started a minor deluge of local and regional musicians who happened to be home on a Friday night, and they started sharing their links with me, telling me that their songs didn’t suck. So I did the honorable thing. I listened to every one of those songs that I got sent. It took me a couple of hours, and it still was happening up through kind of Saturday evening, and then I think the thread kind of died out. But I wanted to do a little lightning round of three artists that I thought at least caught my interest, so let’s get into those first. The first two, honestly, are what I would use for very chill evenings, like when I don’t want to listen to lyrics and I just want a cool instrumental thing to kind of listen to as background, these two artists fit the bill. The first one is an artist called Carved. Carved is spelled K4RV3D. They note that they produce music for neurodivergent folks. And I was like, that’s pretty cool, honestly, because I know some neurodivergent folks, and that’s probably an underserved musical audience. So to come into it thinking that, I can get behind it. Now, as I was listening to the track that I was sent, it’s a track called City Lights, it fell right in line with some of the things that I really love to chill out to, like lo-fi hip-hop. And yeah, if you’re the same, like if you like kind of just very chill, you know, electronic music in this case, you’re really going to like this one. The other one is on the other end of the spectrum, though. So M. Walker sent me a track called Shifting Again, and it’s just really stripped down instrumental guitar. Very different, but all in that same chill spectrum. It’s a great listen. The last one was a band out of Buffalo, New York, or at least Western New York, called Stress Dolls. I really dug the track Ghost Rider, they sent me their whole album, this is the one that stuck out. The thing that really stuck out to me was actually the fiddle work in it. They’re not a country band by any stretch of the imagination, they’re an indie rock band, but it’s got a really cool bounce to it, and the addition of the fiddle just really like hit it out of the park. If you’re in Western New York, I was looking at their Spotify profile, they play a ton in Western New York, so you should go like see them and support them and check them out for yourself. I will drop links to all of these songs in the show notes for you to check out.

Now, Stress Dolls reminds me to remind you, every band starts as a local artist. Playing in small bars and coffee shops, it’s paying your dues, right? Every artist worth their salt does this. So we should make an effort as music fans to go out and support these smaller artists, as the smaller artists some day become the larger artists of tomorrow. And if you’re going to a larger show, show up early and catch the opening act. Nine times out of ten, it’s probably a local band. You never know when you’re going to find the next diamond in the rough, because that opener does become the next global phenomenon.

Now, speaking of global phenomenon, another major artist has sold their music catalog. Now, what happens when an artist sells their catalog? Well, the artist or the estate of the artist gets a huge influx of cash. There are tax advantages to this, by the way of capital gains laws that are very beneficial to the artist in these transactions. And the companies who buy these catalogs whore these catalogs out in hopes to make their investment back, and then some more on top of that if possible. These revenues come from a variety of places. Music streaming, performance royalties, master royalties, and use in TV movies, commercials, and other digital sources like video games. Now the most prolific catalog buyers is a company called Hypnosis. They own 150 of the most successful and culturally relevant song catalogs, with a net asset value over $3 billion at the article that I found. Now other companies like Round Hill Music, Primary Wave, and Concord Music are also players in these games, but all across this market, there has to be close to $10 billion spent at this point. Now, who was that latest artist to sell their catalog for a record amount of money? Queen, $1.2 billion for their music catalog, probably 100% worth it. Now, Queen joins a growing list of nearly 200 artists who have sold all, or part of their catalogs. Some of them have just sold single songs, and it’s interesting because we only really hear about the big transactions, your Bob Dylan’s, your Kiss, your Queen. But there’s quite a few that are on the list that I found that made me raise an eyebrow. Bands that I wouldn’t think have a huge demand, but they made deals. Bands like Jet, Tame Impala, Travis Tritt, Silverchair, and Imagine Dragons were all on this list, among others. Now nothing against them, but their catalogs to me don’t hold that same value as others, like Prince, or the Beach Boys, or Bruce Springsteen. Now granted, the dollars that Jet got, which were undisclosed, I don’t know what it was, but it’s nowhere near what Queen got. Not a chance. This whole thing honestly fascinates me. And just as a side note, if anybody is listening to this who is in the market to buy music catalogs, I will happily sell my shares of bands that I’ve been in. Just let me know. Alright, let’s get serious.

Let’s talk about new music, shall we? The first song this week is Birthday Baby, The Girl With No Smile by Joe P. This song is a gentle mix of folk singer-songwriter and pop-tinged rock. I really like the way this song builds from beginning to end. The drums start out sounding very distant. It’s a reverb style that’s kind of referred to as big room, so they sound really far away. And then they come in fully at the chorus. Got in some spacey keys, some unimposing bass lines, but the bassist has moments where the lick is exposed and it’s super tasty. And all in all, you’ve got a very listenable track. Joe P looked to have a sizable hit a while back with this track called Off My Mind, racked up 38 million streams to date. If you dig the male singer-songwriter vibe who exhibits rock tendencies from time to time, Joe P is one that you want to check out. I checked out some of the other catalog and it falls right into that vein.

The second song this week is Can’t Stand the Mourning by American Authors. Now this is the second time the American authors have appeared on the podcast this year. And honestly, it’s really due to them showing different sides than what I’m used to. This track Can’t Stand the Mourning, and that’s a mourning like mourning a loss. It’s a really beautiful retrospective on how it feels some days when we’ve experienced a very deep loss. Here the songwriter is talking about the loss of his father. It’s got a very authentic country sound at times, a very pained voice, some deep harmonies, and in the distant background of the mix, there’s a beautifully played steel guitar. If all you know of American authors is the best day of my life, you should really explore this other side of them. For me, the hit’s fine. The hit’s great. But this music feels like it comes from a much different place, obviously. It’s funny, though, because they actually reference best day. In the lyrics, there’s a line that says, I can’t pretend that it’s still the best day of my life. And for me, when a songwriter does something like that, it’s where the artist reveals a true feeling. It’s not all happiness in a constant party. It’s experience loss and pain and problems, just like the rest of us. And for them to show that more vulnerable side rather than always writing the party, I think it’s a really, really authentic motion, and I love to see it from artists. This song is a perfect specimen of those moments.

The third song this week is in front of me now from Nada Surf. Yeah. For my Gen X brethren, Nada Surf, 90s alt rockers who brought us the hit, Popular. Now if you’re like me, you probably only are familiar with Popular, and you wrote it off as kind of a novelty song, great song, and I’m a fan of it. But when you hear in front of me now, you’re going to be surprised. This track scratches an itch that I’ve had for a long time that was caused by the absence of the Fountains of Wayne. Another tasty indie pop rock, not what I expected from Nada Surf. It’s so catchy. It actually made me really curious to explore more of their catalog, and I was listening to their last three releases, and this is the river that they are swimming in very deeply. There’s a great retro synth keyboard in this song that gives it that fountains of Wayne thing that I love. The rest, it’s just straight ahead indie rock. Great vocals, great harmonies. It’s got a great bounce to it that you just won’t be able to sit still as you’re listening to it. So go check out in front of me now from Nada Surf, and if you dig it, go check out their most recent two or three releases, and you will get more from where that came from.

The fourth song this week is Black Road by Return to Dust. Now this is the second appearance for Return to Dust on the podcast, but the last track was a live unplugged track. So when this one popped up, I got a little bit excited that I was able to share it here with you. Now, if you remember the last time Return to Dust was here, I made comparisons to Alice and Chains, and in full electric glory, it is more of that fantastic grunge sound. Super chunky guitars, heavy drums, fantastic vocals, harmonies, all that good stuff that made Alice and Chains just this powerhouse makes Return to Dust the updated standard bearer of this sound. It feels really familiar, but it’s not a carbon copy of the Seattle sound, right? There’s a freshness to this sound. It doesn’t feel dated, it just feels right. This is the first track from their full album that was just released, and if you love grunge as much as I do, give this whole album a spin, I think it’s fantastic.

The fifth song this week is Symptom of Life from Willow. Now, if you’re a longtime listeners of the podcast, you know I’m a drummer, and you know I love music and odd time signatures, and when you have it, along with amazing vocal performances and beautiful orchestration, I’m an easy soil. I saw this track first on an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and I was like, oh, if she can do this live, I have to have the recording, I need to listen to this. Her band is monstrous, jazzy piano with a beast of a bassist, tasty, tasty drummer. This track is epic. From a time signature standpoint, it’s in 7-4, but it’s so smooth, like it’s so good. This jazzy sound just makes it just flow. The rich vocal, it just washes over you as you listen. In the chorus, we’ve got a little bit of vocal processing, but it really just fits the vibe correctly, and I think you can dig this track no matter what your musical tastes are. It’s just that good. This one comes from her latest album, which is called Empathogen, and let’s just say, if you’re looking for eclectic music, you’ve found it. And all of her albums are different, and this one is no exception. So check out Willow and this track, Symptom of Life.

That is it for this week. As always, spread the word to your fellow music fans. I can post all I want on social media. It doesn’t get to the people that need my show. Only you can get it there. So find your music fans and drag them to the podcast. You can follow us on social media. Sometimes fun things happen, like what happened this week on threads. I’m on threads, obviously, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and check out the website, SongsThatDon’tSuck. net. I got reports that the artist submission form was broken. I fixed that. So check out the website. There’s transcripts and all that good stuff there. And then check out the show notes of the podcast. Each week, I put all of the links to the songs, use a platform called SongWhip that generates links to all of their songs on all the platforms so you can find it really easily regardless of where you listen to music. And yeah, go listen to these artists. They’re putting out really good stuff. So as always, thanks for listening to the show and go support these artists. Love you. Thanks for listening. Next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.