Episode 92

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

What’s up friends, welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. I am your host, Mark, and every week, I’m listening to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of newly released songs, hoping to find a few that I deem worthy to share with you, dear listener. This week, I listen to more songs than normal. A, it was a rough week. And B, I had a really long flight back from the West Coast and I had some time on my hand, so I dove deep this week. Despite my efforts, I only came up with three songs for you this week. But before we get into those, let’s get into some fun stuff, shall we?

So, getting back from the West Coast on Friday, I immediately drove to visit my eldest daughter, while the family drove to visit my eldest daughter at college, it was family weekend. And unlike most families who were doing stuff around campus, we caught the football game and then drove one hour north to go to a concert. Now, you know that I’m not a religious man, if you know me, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I have mentioned before how sacred a concert can be to me, and in that sense, I guess, venues become churches for me. This week was special. So I got to return to one of the greatest quote unquote churches that I have ever sat in, that being the Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Ark is a not-for-profit music venue that was ironically started by four churches back in 1965. The focus of the churches was not to preach or prosthelize, but really to listen to the concerns of the students around the University of Michigan to provide a warm, safe, peaceful place to come together free from drugs, alcohol, and the storms of academic life and personal stress. It was meant to provide a creative outlet for talent in music, poetry, and artwork. Now, I first visited the Ark back in the late ’90s when bands like Moxie Fruvas, The Paper Boys, and Eddie from Ohio were very actively touring. And I was traveling pretty far and wide to see shows.

I discovered the Ark, ’cause, you know, I didn’t live anywhere near Ann Arbor. I think Eddie from Ohio was the first band that I saw there, and I fell in love with the place. The Ark is an extremely intimate venue. I don’t know how many it holds, but it’s not a lot. If it’s two or 300, that’s pushing it, I feel like. But it mainly hosts folk and folk adjacent artists. Every now and then you do see some fairly known, fairly well-known artists kind of roll through there. Like, if you’re into folk, like Ellis Paul has played there quite a bit. Dar Williams, I’m trying to think some of the other ones that I’ve seen on the list, irregardless. We went to see Carbon Leaf. Now, if you remember, I think back in April of this year, I saw Carbon Leaf and I talked about them. They just put out a new album. So they’re touring again. So I was like, oh, totally wanna go see them. So they happened to be playing at the Ark. The family, at least 75% of us are fans of Carbon Leaf. The youngest one was kind of apprehensive, but we dragged her along anyway ’cause she really had no choice. But even afterwards, she actually really enjoyed the show. So it was good. And she got a free sticker because she was under 21.

So, excellent stuff. So, Carbon Leaf was fantastic. I’m not gonna do a full in-depth review ’cause I just did one. But during the show, I was sitting there in the pew. I’m gonna stay on this church motif. And I had one of those moments as a father and a husband where I just kind of like paused and I looked down the row at my family, kind of singing along, enjoying the concert. And I was like, this is what I want my wife and kids to remember, like moments like this where we’re all together enjoying art, something that we all love like music. And I know that this is not going to be the last of those moments, but as the kids get older, those chances start to become less and less. And I think the reality of that continues to grow clearer as it comes closer and closer. So I’m really, really thankful that we all got to go to church together this weekend.

Now, in other news, this goes, start talking a little bit about vinyl, right? So, you know, if you’re a long time listener of the podcast, I’ve started a little vinyl collection and this kind of came through my news feed and they’re talking about vinyl sales are starting to fall when they’re comparing them to prior year sales, about 30% lower in 2024 versus the prior year, which feels significant. In concrete terms, it’s about 35 million units were sold in 2023. And this year so far, it’s 23.3. And I think the way that they’re looking at is to date. So as of when the article was released sometime this week, but the drop of sales for vinyl is not happening in isolation. The resurgence of vinyl was obviously been really well documented after decades of decline for obvious reasons. Vinyl sales started to come back in the early 2010s, peaked around 2021 when 35 million records were sold worldwide. But those latest figures, they’ve got some people concerned. But again, it’s not just vinyl, it’s CD sales, it’s digital album sales even have been declining. Obviously the one platform that is not suffering is streaming, more and more people continue to ditch the idea of physical media and simply listen to music online, which I get it. Like you can literally walk around with the entire history of music in your phone, and accessible if as long as you’ve got an internet connection.

So why not? But there’s a few reasons I think why vinyl sales are coming down. Obviously the first one, if you’ve bought a vinyl record recently, it’s the price. Vinyl records are not cheap, not the way they used to be. And obviously with the cost of living going up, people are looking for ways to save money. They’re gonna cut that out of their kind of budget. The other side of it is pressing vinyl records is costly. It’s not like there are vinyl plants like there were back in the 70s. And the pandemic didn’t help. It shuttered a lot of those places. The other reasons that they’re stating the hype honestly around vinyl is starting to die. When it started to come back in style, there was a nostalgia and cool factor around it. And I think we’re getting to the point where people are probably getting tired of it. Couple that with the cost. It’s an easy thing to cut out of the budget. Now it is important to note that vinyl is still outselling CDs. It’s a very dedicated fan base. And those who purchase vinyl really appreciate the craftsmanship of it and the nostalgia. I personally like getting all of the lyrics in, you know, if it’s a foldable, like if it’s a bifold album, like you get all the lyrics and notes and there’s stuff inside like posters and stuff. There’s definitely a nostalgia there. It might be just the vinyl market is gonna level off, right? You know, it went through this hype phase and now it’s gonna just plateau and be steady. But we’ll have to see. You know, this could be the beginning of the end for vinyl, maybe, I doubt it. I think it’s probably just temporary. But I don’t see it disappearing entirely. It’s survived literally decades of technological advancements, but there’s a tactile experience to it that I think will just endure. The real question is if the industry can keep vinyl accessible to sustain that healthy market. ‘Cause I feel like there’s probably some greed that’s gonna come into play with the cost of the vinyl. And it’s just gonna be trying to find that balance point. And if there’s one thing the music industry has done in the past, it’s fucked shit up. (laughs) God.

All right, let’s get into the new music. As I stated at the top, only three songs this week. It was a horrible, horrible week, just bad. But let’s get into these three ’cause they’re actually really, really entertaining.

The first song this week is “Don’t Let Me Down Again” from Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham. So “Don’t Let Me Down Again” is an interesting mix of, like it’s almost borderline stomp and holler, but it’s got a lot of elements obviously of Americana folk and even some indie pop. The pairing of these two is really interesting. Andrew Bird is a virtuoso violinist, a singer, songwriter, and his first taste of success came as a member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. For those who don’t know who that is, when Swing came back into Vogue in the ’90s, Squirrel Nut Zippers was one of those bands. Now Madison Cunningham is a guitarist, singer, songwriter. She’s won a Grammy for best folk album. And honestly, this song, it’s finds like this, why I continue to do this podcast because I come across these really interesting pairings. Obviously the two of these folks are really musically talented, but they’re still an obscurity. And while I know my audience is small, it is mighty. So like I like shining this stuff onto y’all so you can like appreciate this as much as I do and who knows, maybe like you share it and then it just continues to grow in popularity. Anyway, musically this song really well written. The percussion parts really simple, but there’s some really kind of fun slick syncopation in the drums throughout that I find really cool. The harmonies are exquisite and I love the fiddle work that’s kind of scattered throughout this. And is it okay to call a virtuoso violinist when he plays on a track like this? Is it okay to call it a fiddle? I don’t know. But anyway, it’s a fiddle to me on this track. You decide, here’s a little taste of “Don’t Let Me Down Again.”

The second song this week is “Hold You Responsible” from Cake in collaboration with “Noise For Now.” Now this is cool because I didn’t know about this. “Noise For Now” is a national initiative that enables artists and entertainers to connect with and financially support grassroots organizations that work in the field of reproductive justice, including abortion access. “Noise For Now” is the link between touring musicians, progressive promoters, athletes, artists, and local reproductive rights organizations and cities across the country. They create music albums and other things to support this really, really important initiative. Super cool. The number of artists that they have involved and creatives in general, it’s a really, really long list. And the organizations they support are really important on a really important mission. So think like Planned Parenthoods across the US. And okay, let’s boil it down. This is a new song from Cake. When was the last time we got new music from Cake? 2018, they put out a single called “Sinking Ships”. Now, as a Cake fan, this was an amazing find for me. Really, really excited to hear it. And it’s got all the classic markings of Cake. A little trumpet, some group vocals from a bunch of folks shouting, “Hey!” in the background. Very quirky yet catchy guitar lick. And of course, the trademark Montone deadpan vocals. Awesome stuff. Very, very awesome stuff. This entire project, various artists are on it. You can search for “Noise For Now”, but this album is called “Songs For Sex”. So check out the whole album. If you are inclined, donate to “Noise For Now”. I’m gonna put a link in the show notes so it’ll make you easy for you to do that. But right now, give a listen to “Hold You Responsible” From Cake.

The third song this week is “Sorry I’m Late, I didn’t want to come” from the Wombats. If you are a long time listener to the podcast, you might recognize the Wombats because I had them on the podcast very, very early. In fact, it was episode two. That song was called “Dressed To Kill” and it was a rocker. Still love that song too this day. Shows up in my playlists all the time. This track, much different feel, way poppier to me, very different vocal approach where the lead vocalist is leaning very heavily on his falsetto in the chorus to the point where there are moments that that falsetto actually feels a little bit like the Bee Gees, especially when the harmony falsettos come in. But the whole thing works really, really well. Super catchy track. Yeah, just really, it’s good. It’s good. I was really glad it came across. Anyway, here is a little bit of “Sorry I’m Late, I didn’t want to come”.

And that is it. Sadly, just three songs, but honestly, three really, really good ones. And I will take quality over quantity any day. Now, as always, feel free to follow me on social media. I am on all the platforms, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok, and X, but God damn it, every week I really combat with deleting my X account. Fuck you, Elon. There’s a website, songsthatdontsuck.net. There you can find links to all of these songs on seven major streaming platforms. And it’s not just this week’s, it’s every week’s, back all the way to episode one. So if you feel like you missed one and you wanna go find it, feel free to do that. Also on the website, you can send me feedback. You can send me song recommendations. And if you don’t wanna do it through the website, you can just email me directly, mark@songsthatdontsuck.net, we’ll get that done. As always, I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this podcast. Whether it’s your first time or you are a long time listener, know that I love you for it. And I love you anyway, ’cause that’s the kind of guy I am. So, as always, please go out and support these artists. – Thanks for listening and until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.