I go to the Clyde
I mourn and weep
For satisfied
I ne’er can be
Then I write her a letter
Just a few short lines
And suffer death
A thousand times
Hi friends. I’ve got something cool potentially happening with a certain band I’m in that has been together for like 14 years. I’m hoping I can begin telling you about it within the next few of these episodes. In the meantime, I’ve got music inspired by some recency. I went on a beautiful trip to Scotland with my Mom and my sister, Lauren “Lowie” Cannon, enjoyed some new music, and got the covids. In fact, I bring you this transmission as I prepare to emerge from a much shorter quarantine than I remember from the last time I got Covid-19. Yeah I also don’t understand.
As if me ranting about music isn’t boring enough, let’s do the boring stuff first. Here’s the links to Episode 3’s playlists:
Spotify – Brotherless Radio | Episode 3 | 10.12.23
AppleMusic – Brotherless Radio | Episode 3 | 10.12.23
Alright. “So Tell The Girls That I Am Back In Town” by Jay-Jay Johanson is the song you want playing while the credits roll in your next feature film. I mean, I actually thought I found this song from hearing it in a TV show, but I can’t find info about what it could’ve possibly been in. Anyway this song rips. I am overjoyed to kick this episode off with this absolute destroyer of a slammy jammy.
High Vis put out one of the best punk/punk-adjacent albums of 2022, and “Trauma Bonds” is easily one of the best songs on the record. Usually what happens is you hear the intro and you go “ok yeah The Cure thats coo.” And then Graham starts singing and you go “OH SHOOT. Yes chef you have my attention.”
You’ve heard Spiritual Cramp here before. “The Erasure” is the first track from their 2018 LP, and it reeks more of Talking Heads than their more aggressive releases after this LP. It’s important to get to know this band since you’re going to be assaulted with their music once their self-titled LP comes out this November.
“Rumors” by Club Nouveau is one of those songs from the year I was born that makes a long-dormant memory light up in the back of my head. Let me know if you can find the line that didn’t age well. TWO of my favorite songs of all time are with us today. One of them is “Mirroir Mirroir” by Desire. I can’t explain it very well, but the song is so catchy and simultaneously so awkward that it’s relatable. Like, who needs rhyming, right? Just get to the point, and oh by the way the point is actually weird as hell. Amazing.
Look at the artwork for “Remember Me Ballin’ (feat. Gangsta Boo)” by Indo G. It’s so bad. That’s how you know this track is top tier.
“Black Is The Colour,” specifically, this live recording by Christy Moore, is the other of my favorite– sorry, favourite songs of all time (Yes, I also hate myself.) I took a visit to The River Clyde in Glasgow while I was in Scotland with my family and reflected on the line where the writer visits The Clyde, where he suffers his own emotions, the worst fate of all. No one is sure who actually wrote this poem that later became adapted into a song, but nerds (see: “scholars”) agree that it is of Scottish origin.
I did promise I’d get a bit heavier this time around. This Baroness track kicks off their newest record, and what a snare fill to do it with. Negative Blast‘s Echo Planet came out a while ago now, and it’s STILL one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2023. “Carbon Copy,” featured here, is an untouchable song.
“Slide Away” by Oasis. I used to sing this song to my nephew when my sister and brother-in-law were on dates and the rest of us couldn’t get him to fall asleep. I think about how The Beatles were the rock-band-turned-lullaby-machine my parents would utilize to get us to fall asleep, and I wonder if Oasis will be that for my children someday. Probably not, but my nephew fell asleep when I sang this song, soooooo.
I saw City and Colour with my longtime pal and former bandmate Lydia, her sister, Emma, and my cousin, Kathleen in Columbus in April, and more recently listened to a ton of City and Colour with my fam on our Scotland trip. “Weightless” is one of his stranger tracks. Shoutout. “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend” by Don Williams, now here’s a song I know I heard in a TV show! I’ve been watching The Righteous Gemstones, and it’s exposing me to really great country tunes that I never would’ve given the time of day to.
Pleasure is a hell of a band name. A song called “Bouncy Lady” is a bit over the top considering the band name, but this jam is just way too fun. Pool Cosby is also a hell of an artist name. Check out the masterclass in sample-based composition on “Saturday Morning.”
Ya’ll know they recently arrested Duane “Keffe D” Davis for being involved in 2Pac‘s murder, right? If you’ve watched all the documentaries and poorly made 20/20 style programs about Tupac’s cold file, you’ll recognize this name. I don’t know as much about the case as others, like the people that run @truthabouttupac.movement or other organizations, so I’ll stop right there. But “How Long Will They Mourn Me?” has always brought a tear to my eye. I’ve told friends who know that I have some hippie-dippie tendencies that I think Tupac had the gift of prophecy, and of course songs like this aren’t very good proof of that, but I can’t help but wonder if he knew. We’re still mourning, not just his death, but also the circumstances of his death, the darker latter part of his life, and some of the things his lyrics thankfully brought to the popular psyche.
and anyway,
for all the things you know
tell me,
why does the river not flow?
“Its a Banguh” by Redman utilizes the classic boom bap sound I can’t get over. I watched this beautiful lady play an acoustic version of “The Riverboat Song” by Ocean Colour Scene at one of the oldest pubs in Edinburgh (The White Hart Inn, est. 1516) on our last night in Scotland. I had never heard it before, but that chorus sounded like I’ve known the song my whole life. Every time we DJ together, my brother-in-law, Jeff, always plays “Polaroids” by Jay Prince before I can. No man it’s cool you go ahead. In fact play “Reel It In” by Aminé before I can too while you’re at it.
MC Lyte with “Cha Cha Cha” for some 90’s flavor of course. “Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky (From Now On)” by Lee Dorsery needs no explanation. Even no-bass-player-havin-ass-organ-havin-ass-dorks-(see: “scholars”) The Doors can get funky with “When The Music’s Over.” “Get Away” by Cloak/Dagger is a punk masterpiece, even from a harmonic standpoint. I love analyzing why some of the chord choices in this song work so well. I can’t explain why I still love Smash, the penultimate Offspring album.
NEPOTISM ALERT: Zachary West & the Good Grief has Zach of course, and a bunch of other friends in it. “Something About Closure” is the spitting image of a perfect GUK-style fast emo song from the 90’s. 46 seconds. A triumph indeed.
I also can’t explain this Sango track. This sample is so busy, wild, and exotic. That’s all I needed. I went into my oldest DJ playlists to find “Weg da” by HOTBOY CHADO & NARU. These two tracks back to back, followed by “Back In” by Kuttem Reese, my nephew’s current favorite song? That might be my best 7-and-a-half-minute run I’ve had yet.
I recently discovered this great crusty band called TRISTE. “Joke’s On You” is both tough and fun, but also look at that album art, oh shooooooot thats mysterious, right? We’re in the home stretch now, I promise. Saiming‘s “Woof Meow” should chill us out a bit. I truly hope you enjoy this Lijadu Sisters track, “Life’s Gone Down Low.” It’s a reggae song, but the vocals are giving Motown, and the execution is perfect.
I’m closing this one out with a masterpiece by the criminally lesser-known punk band Transistor Transistor. Most of their music was faster, disjointed screamo-adjacent punk. “Pillar of Salt” has more metal, even doomy qualities than the rest of their catalog, but done with 2nd Wave Punk guitar tones. I never get to hear that kind of marriage, and I love it. You can barely understand the lyrics, and it doesn’t matter. You have felt the way this song sounds many, many times.
If I ever see that city again
I’ll turn into a pillar of salt
I hope I rot
Enjoy. Talk soon.
Brotherless | John
Brotherless, underscore, yo. 