Episode 104

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

What’s up, friends? Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck. My name is Mark, and every week I listen to way too many songs. I listen to hundreds and hundreds of newly released songs. And it sucks, because most of the music that’s coming out, if you are of a certain age, you probably don’t identify with it. And that’s why we’re here. We are here to find music for generally Gen X. Like, if I look at my stats, it’s Gen X that listen to the podcast. But you know what? There are some younger folks, millennials, Gen Z, who do listen to the podcast. Appreciate what I’m bringing to the table. And for that, I thank you. If this is your first time or your 100th time listening to the podcast, I appreciate you very, very much. Now, before we get into the new music, I got some shit I got to get off my chest. So let’s just fucking go.

All right, the first topic is a little state of the podcast report. A little early for that in the season. But hey, you know what? When it comes, it comes. So as you may or may not know, I don’t monetize the podcast. I never have. I never will. If I mention something here, I’m doing it because I like it. I’m doing it because I use the product, or I listen to it, not because I’ve been paid to do it, not ever, ever, ever. And I feel the need to mention that again, because I just got a notification from Facebook that tells me that a couple of artists have claimed royalties to videos that I post. Fantastic. The day that I get enough views on one of the videos that I post to warrant a royalty, they can have every last penny. I don’t want it. I don’t want it at all. They can have it. I do this because I love it. I love finding new music. I love sharing music with you. And when that ends, honestly, the podcast ends. I’m done. Now, speaking of Facebook, I’m deleting. I’m deleting my account. So the podcast won’t be on Facebook anymore. So if you followed the Facebook page on Facebook, yeah, it’s gone. So sorry about that. It is joining the social media graveyard that is my Twitter account and the Threads account. All of those are gone. I’m making a quote unquote business decision to continue to maintain my Instagram account. Because honestly, like 99.9% of the artists that I talk about on the podcast have an account there. The same cannot be said for the other platforms. So I need that to be able to connect to them, to let them know, hey, you know what? I’ve talked about you on the podcast. It helps support them. And I’m basically following my credo of supporting the artists. So I’m doing that. So the podcast is going to exist on Instagram for now. I’m also going to maintain my Blue Sky account, because it’s not doing evil things. And we’re just going to leave it at that. And honestly, I don’t see a lot of engagement on Facebook or Threads or Twitter. And honestly, the Twitter account’s been deleted for a while. But there’s a problem with social media in general, I think, because it seems like everyone who was on there now is some sort of creator. And no one’s looking to be engaged or entertained. And honestly, the algorithms are so fucked up at this point. It varies. Most of the content we’re actually interested in. And it’s just feeding us ads and AI bullshit. So I’m going to limit what I’m focusing on. So if you are a social media person and you want to follow the podcast, Instagram and Blue Sky are the places you can do that. Honestly, the other place that I really encourage you to engage with is the website, songsthatdontsuck.net. All the stuff that’s there, it’s good. And there’s no AI and there’s no algorithm. It’s just the podcast.

OK, back to music-related things. If you are a Spotify user, you were probably underwhelmed by the rap last year. I know I was. And I questioned its accuracy on an episode before the end of last season. And honestly, it was just a lackluster effort. Like, they just gave zero fucks to the quality compared to prior years. And then I was reading Medium, which is a website that I subscribe to to get different news and takes on things. And someone mentioned Last FM and I’m like, oh, shit. That’s actually a really cool platform that I am a member of. And if you are into your listening behavior and the data behind it, and you kind of want to get involved in a little bit deeper level, there’s a community on that site. It might be worth checking out Last FM. If you’re like a general user, a free user, you can see what you listened to last week. You can see what you listened to last year. There’s a running list of things that you have listened to, like your recently listened to thing, and a lot more. Website’s got a lot of content for free. There’s also an app on the phone. If you decide to subscribe, you get access to more stats and more website functionality. Honestly, it’s really nice. I was looking at the weekly report, and I can see the counts of how many tracks I listened to, different albums I’ve listened to, different artists I’ve listened to. There’s a listening clock that tells me kind of the amount I’ve listened by the hour. And probably my favorite stat that I saw was the mainstream score. And it basically scores how much mainstream music you listen to versus how much non-mainstream music. And I’m about 50%, which I was kind of proud of. I was very balanced in that. It tells you what’s on repeat. Like if you’re completely fixated on a song, it also tells you what you’ve discovered that’s new. So if you listen to something and you forgot what it was, you can easily find it there. Highly recommend you check out Last FM. I understand that it works with Apple music as well, but I think there are some limitations. So your mileage may vary.

Alrighty, let’s get into why we are here, and that is the discovery of new music. So here we go.

The first song this week is “You’re Alright” from the IDKs. I don’t know if it’s IDKs or the I don’t knows, but I’m sure they will let me know ’cause these guys actually reached out to me on Instagram to say, “Hey, if you haven’t heard our song, we would appreciate you listening to it.” And you know what? I did. The same way I do every band that reaches out to me on Instagram, I do give it a listen. Sometimes I don’t respond. Sometimes I do. Sometimes you end up on the podcast. So starting off this week, we have some simple bare bones rock. And I think it’s coming from the heart. When I first heard this song, I will be very honest, and I nearly dismissed it because of the vocal. But I had this moment of clarity, and I remembered that sometimes the vocalist might not be the greatest vocalist of all times, but they might have the best voice for the situation. And I think this vocalist kind of fits that case. The immediate kind of comparison that I came up with was the clash. I love the Clash. And Joe Strummer, is he the best singer? No, not at all. Is he one of the greatest vocalists when it comes to what the clash produced? I’m so fucking lutely. And honestly, I think there’s actually a lot of characteristics that the IDK’s vocalist has that are seen in Joe Strummer. It’s got this guttural sound to it, very passion forward, especially when it gets up into his upper register. And it’s just, it’s really, really good. You know, the more I listen to it, I was like, I can get behind this. Musically, I really like the mix. Production makes the world go round. In this one, everything, every instrument has the room to be heard. I like that the bass is particularly forward in the mix ’cause they’re doing some really interesting things. ‘Cause sometimes the bass just gets buried. And as a drummer, I like to hear the bass ’cause that’s what I lock into. But everything, everything is really good. It’s a very even, it’s a very balanced mix. And I like that. So have a listen to the IDK’s and their latest track, “You’re Alright.”

The second song this week is “I’m Alright” from Johnnyswim. Yes, I’m going from “You’re Alright” to “I’m Alright.” This is the fourth time that Johnnyswim has appeared on the podcast as we inch closer and closer to their new album dropping. I’m very excited about the new album coming. I’m very upset that they are not touring anywhere near me in Ohio, but what am I gonna do? Honestly, when I heard this song, I really needed it. I needed a little affirmation and it truly came in the shape of this song. Somebody said recently that we have survived every worst day that we have experienced. We have a hundred percent success rate. And you know, select your chosen deity. We will survive the rest of them. And this song kind of reminded me of that. What is there to say about Johnnyswim? I know a few of you have actually reached out to me and said that you have discovered Johnnyswim through the podcast and you really like them. I have said all kinds of amazing things about Johnnyswim. You can go back and listen to other episodes that I have featured them on. But if they are new to you, you are welcome. They are an amazing husband and wife duo. They write amazing songs. They put on amazing live shows. So here is a little bit of their latest release, “I’m Alright” from Johnnyswim.

The third song this week is “Mister Mister” from Telecom. The minute this song fires up, you will draw an immediate line to the Beatles. It’s impossible for you not to if you’ve heard a Beatles song ever. It is very, very Beatlesque. The song in particular that it reminds me of is “Paperback Writer” and it’s probably just kind of the jangly guitar sound that’s happening. This is their debut single, first thing that they have put out. And it’s super catchy. It leans into the best parts of power pop, like pop rock. There’s elements of psychedelic rock. There’s a lot of rich harmonies. I think the production matches their vibe perfectly. And it’s a really, really enjoyable song to listen to. If you wanna be in a good mood, this is a song to throw on that playlist. Like I said, this is their first song. So I’m really looking forward to hearing more from them. I kinda wanna get a feel for them in totality. I wanna know exactly what they’re thinking. So here is a little bit of “Mister Mister” from Telecom.

The four song this week is “The Lights Won’t Shine Forever” by Floodlights. Now, throughout the two plus years of doing this podcast, every now and then I run into a song that completely captures the vibe of a similar song that I loved. And in this case, “The Lights Won’t Shine Forever” is the exact same vibe for me as the 1995 release from Pulp called “Common People,” which was comically covered by William Shatner at one point. If you haven’t heard that version, go find that one. But Floodlights, I think, are channeling a little bit of that all rock classic. There’s other influences to you, more modern influences. I think like the Killers are probably getting a little bit of a nod here as you’re listening to this. But it’s a really kind of chill music bed. It’s got moments of change that kind of keep it interesting where things kind of swell. And the vocal is this half-spoken, half-sung thing. It’s very fun. It’s very enjoyable. And it’s funny, as I was listening to it, I had a little bit of a flashback ’cause it actually reminded me of a track that I played drums on with one of my bands. The band was Emmet. And we did this song called “Falling” on our, I guess that was our only album we put out, perfect song for a plane crash. And it’s really the lead guitar part. It’s very floaty and very spacey. And it was like, “Oh yeah, I remember us recording that.” And it was just a lot of fun. And that song’s almost like half-spoken, half-sung as well, but I think it’s more song. But anyway, when it works, it works. So have a listen to “The Lights Won’t Shine Forever” by Floodlights.

The fifth song is “Every Stage of a Genuine Heartbreak” by Big Society. This song has a fantastic build. Like right from the beginning, it starts with what I describe as a muted scratch guitar track. Like it’s very muted, it moves between the chords. And then after the first chorus, you get a harmony vocal, and then you get this random percussive hit. And at that moment, you’re not quite sure where the song is gonna go. Is the tempo gonna launch off? Or are we gonna stay in, what I’m gonna describe as a dark ballad. As you move through that percussive hit, you realize that you’re staying in the dark ballad, but more instruments start to come in and fill the space. And at about two thirds of the way through, you get a really nice solo and musical interlude that leads into this nice bridge. And then it goes back into the main theme. Really fantastic musical structure. Like I was cooked, like from beginning to end, it was so good. Really, really well executed. So go enjoy “Every Stage of a Genuine Heartbreak” by Big Society.

And that is it, my friends. That is episode 104. As always, thanks for listening. Check out the website, songsthatdontsuck.net. You can find all the things there. You can find links to all of the podcast platforms that we’re on. You can send me feedback. You can send me recommendations. You can subscribe to the newsletter. You can buy merch to support the podcast if you’d like. Don’t forget to review, subscribe, tell your friends about the podcast. And yeah, as always, I love you for listening. And as always, go out and support these artists. – Thanks for listening. And until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.