No Filler Music Podcast - Best of 2021 - Part Two

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

The countdown continues with our next 10 top tracks from 2021. This batch of tunes ranges from Turkish-folk infused psychedelic rock to an indie video game score composed by one of this decade's greatest indie artists. Tune in each week of December as we countdown our Top 40 Tracks of 2021. Tracklist: Magdalena Bay - Hysterical Us Magdalena Bay - Secrets (Your Fire) Mini Trees - Doomsday Dauwd - La Nota Little Simz - Protect My Energy Little Simz - Miss Understood Ovlov - Cheer up, Chihiro! Working Men's Club - X Japanese Breakfast - The Ewer (Day) Altın Gün - Maçka Yolları Jordana & TV Girl - Lo on the Hi-Way Empath - Born 100 Times --- Visit tiestatea.com and use promo code NOFILLER15 for 15% off at checkout. A bold tea for a bold you. This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That cold case you're listening to? Nasty stuff. But you know what else is a crime? Missing even a moment of whatever you're doing to go on a drink run. Luckily, there's Drizzly, the number one app for alcohol delivery. With Drizley, you can compare prices on the biggest selection of beer, wine, and spirits, then get them delivered in under 60 minutes. So download the Drizley app or go to Drzley.com. That's D-R-I-Z-L-Y.com today. And welcome to No Filler. the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records.

My name is Quentin. With me as always is my brother Travis. And this is week two of our countdown of all our favorite songs from the year, dude. We are bringing 10 tracks each week, very similar to our what-you-heard formats, but these are all brand-new jams. And for the most part, at least for me, dude, artists that we haven't played yet on no filler. Yeah, I think for today, that is going to be true for me as well. Nope, that's not true. I lied.

I got two tracks of artists that you may remember hearing from No Filler episodes past, but I don't think any of these were from this year. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. You know what? Yeah. I'm bringing some artists that I've played in the past, like a few years back, you know. But like I did last week, I'm still just going to be kind of playing on the fly.

I don't have five in mind for today. So just going to be feeling the vibes and work off of what you play. Well, I've got a great one to start us off cue. So I'm going to set the tone. And I'm setting the tone that's going to, I think that's going to put us, we're going to be floating around the room. Did you know what else helps me float around? What's that you? A tasty cup of chamomile tea, dude. Especially if it's from T-S-to-T. Oh yeah, dude. I think I mentioned last week, the lavender camomime meal is quickly becoming my favorite of theirs. Camming meal, you know what?

I've always associated a camomile with like, you know, you're winding down for bed, you drink some camom meal. I always think about sleepy time tea in that. Some sleepy time tea. Yeah, the little teddy bear. Teddy bear all snugly in his, you know, PJs and his night cap. Yeah, dude. Well, dude, we don't care about sleepy time. Sleepy time, that's like the chilies of tea. And TSTATI is a steakhouse, dude. But yeah, Q's.

We talked about this the last few weeks. This is the time of the year to get some gifts for your friends and family, right? And if you have a tea lover in your life, there is a lot that you can find on TSTATT.com. variety packs, gift boxes. We're looking at one right now. It's called like the brewmaster and tea gift box. And it's got what Testa calls a brewmaster. It's basically like gravity infusers, what they call it.

So like you put your tea in there, you add the hot water, you steep it, place it directly on the mug, and then it releases the tea into your mug and holds on to all the leaves, right? Yeah, you just like press down on the top of your mug. Yeah. And as TSTAT says right here on their website, just like great beer, and I would add, just like great coffee, it requires quality brewing, right? So if you need a good brewer for your tea, like this is a good, this looks like a pretty good deal. Well, yeah, and you can get the Brewmaster and Tea gift set. It comes with their chai love and their Maui mango.

It comes with a couple tens of those. dude and two great teas man i love their chai is great and their Maori mango i've tried the chai but i haven't tried the mango yet and it is really good anyway so yeah go to t sotie dot com we haven't even mentioned yet that you can get 15% off if you use our promo code no filler 15 at checkout that's all you got to know and that's t s to t my friend a bold tea for a bold you now let's get on with that tune yeah you know so we didn't do it in unison this time like last week because it was just That was a complete embarrassing, dude.

Disaster. That was embarrassing. And you know what? I, I blame the, uh, the voiceover IP. Yeah.

You know, the frigging, trying to do this over Zoom. Yeah, we couldn't, we couldn't sync up because we're doing this over Zoom. Slight delay. Slight delay.

All right. So yeah, like you said, Q, let's get into the tunes here. That's what we're here for. You, you started last week,

so I'm going to start this week. And like I said, I've got a banger for us to, to kick things off, Q. So this group, really interesting. They're essentially they're like a pop group. It's really hard to describe them. They're an indie synth pop group, right? But this record, it's called Mercurial World. It floats between like 90s,

hip hop styles that kind of get infused to it with like just your your most like poppy of pop, like I guess when I mean pop I'm talking like the type type of pop that's that that that um like radio friendly radio friendly pop yeah it's very I'm intrigued yeah it's very like pop forward but it's also done in a way that that that that's unique right so I I waver between two different songs to play but I finally pinned it down I'm going to play a song called hysterical us this is not a single off the record, but it's a banger. So here we go. This is a band called Magdalena Bay, and this song is called Hysterical Us. I'll tell you a little bit about the group after this song. Floating around this room. So I feel like I didn't really tee them up enough. So you didn't

hear it in this song, and that's really all I said earlier was that they they flirt with hip hop too. Yeah, yeah. So like, if that's all you heard for me and then you heard that song, you're like, what are you talking about? There's no hip hop. it's in some of their other songs, but it's like 90s rap almost, those styles. Now, she's not rapping, but it's elements of 90. You know what, dude? Let me just play. Do it.

Just the intro. Do it. I have an artist in mind where I'm bringing two songs at some point. Maybe not today. Okay. Well, then I'm bringing, let's listen to a little bit of this other song. So this was one of their big singles. And I think you're going to hear a little bit more what I'm talking about.

And it's going to showcase more about what these guys do. So I think you may have heard in that song, hysterical us, some 70s kind of stuff, right? Dude, I heard some Doobie brothers, man. Yeah, what a full beliefs? In the piano. Absolutely. The piano and the chorus.

Yeah, that's like a straight up nod to it, man. Big time. Right. And so these guys, let me name this. It's a, it's a duo. Micah Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, they met in high school at a, it's called the live modern school of music. And they were placed in a, they were placed, which is interesting, placed in a classic rock

cover band and later began writing their own Prague rock music as Tabula Rasa. I swear. I've heard of Tibera. Me too. I don't know if that's if I've heard of the band, but I've heard of Tabula Rousseau or something like, anyway. Something. So yeah, they, if you're in a classic rock cover band, you're probably going to play some

Doobie brothers, right? Anyway, so they're they're musically trained, right? They went to a musical high school, right? So they're well studied, right, in music, right, from all day. decades probably. So yeah, let me play this other song here. I think you'll get a better idea of what these guys are doing. So this song is called The Secrets Your Fire. So they mix a little bit of everything. You know what I mean? There's, there's, like I said, there's a hip-hop thing right in the beginning. Sounds like freaking, you know, Snoop Dog or Dre or something like that.

Yeah, right. But then there's a lot of synth and like 90s hip-hop type stuff. And then her voice, you even said it to you when we were listening to it. It's like Ariana Grande or something like that. Like, or something. Yeah. That's the first name that popped in my head. But, but that's what we're talking about when we're talking about like the pop. Like, like stand, like, and not, I don't want to say standard either because I have respect for for the powerhouses and pop. Yeah, yeah.

If you take away the music that's happening, her voice, she could, she could make a pop album like Ariana Grande or, I mean, we're revealing our ignorance in this area. But like, or Miley Cyrus. Yeah, sure. Yeah, you and I do. This is not our wheelhouse at all. But I think our point is getting, you know, made that, like, her voice is very much a traditional pop voice. Yeah. But what they're doing, you know, makes them kind of an indie pop group.

Or they're experimenting with a bunch of different things. They're taking all these different deck age and styles and kind of making it their own, which I think is really cool. Anyway, this record came out not even two months ago. So it, but it's kind of blown up and gotten them a lot of attention. So again, this band is called Magdalena Bay. The record is called Mercurial World. And yeah, if you like those two tracks, this is one of those bangers, man. Hit play.

It's a blast to listen to. A lot of fun. Well, there you go. Where do we go from here? All right, man, I've got, this is one of my favorites of the year. And, you know, I'm not saving all my faves. My favy faves for the last episode like you are, dude. But there's just something about this song.

I don't really know much about the artist. She goes by mini trees. Let's see if I can find her real name. Like tiny little trees. Yep, like tiny little trees. I can't find. So you type in mini trees and Google, guess what you're going to get? You're going to get mini trees.

You're going to get little bonsai trees and stuff. Yeah. Okay, I can't see her name in this little write-up. Actually, this is like a novel, dude. I just expanded on it and it's like down to the end of the page. So yeah, I didn't really look into her too much, but she's just a solid. This is another solid, just indie pop artist, man. And she just released an album back in September.

So this, again, not too old of a record called Always in Motion. And I really connected with these lyrics, too. This is another one of those, you know, just kind of like confronting, like, existential crisis kind of stuff. You know, a lot of artists wrote about this stuff over the last few years, you know what I mean? Yeah, there's been a few things going on in the world. Just a few things going on.

Anyways, here is a song by Many Trees off of her album, Always in Motion. This song is called Dooms Day. Another good track. Let's just talk about how either we're seeking out female artists like exclusively this year or this has just been a year

of killer music, really by females because like I've lost count of how many great female artists I've discovered this year and I know that I I have found myself drawn more to to female indie artists lately and maybe that's what it is we're just seeking it out more but I dude I've been I've been like this is the year man for for really great female artists like in the indie sphere you know what I mean big time and that's what I would I would classify mini trees under that yeah and the lyrics dude, I just love the lyrics on this song. First verse, nervous wreck.

I play with a thread in my pocket. Avoiding the dread. If we're honest, everyone's nervous these days. Ain't that the truth, man? Cough in your sleeve. Assure us it's fine, but it's hard to believe. We've lost our patience for sympathy. Oh, man.

Dude. That is. Assure us, it's fine. I love it, dude. That is a fucking cold, hard truth. And then it says, the next line here. How do we ever get this far? I mean, questions we've been asking ourselves.

Slippery slope, dude. They were just gliding down that slope right now. Yeah. We don't know where the bottom is. Who will be left when we get to the end? Terrified, I pretend it's some doomsday myth. In other words, like, she sees doomsday coming, but she's just going to like, eh, probably, whatever. That's just another one of those, you know, crazy conspiracy theories. Yeah. So, again, the artist is mini-tree's. album is always in motion. One of my favorites of the year, hands down. And I'm going to pass it on

to you, brother. You're going to keep it in the same packet? I am not. I'm going to 180 is here, Kew. You can always count on me to pull a 180. Always. So I have brought this guy before. I brought him last year. He goes by Dowd. His full name is Dowd Al-Hallali. So he is a house producer with roots in Iraq, but he was born in the U.S., was raised in Wales, and is now based out of London, England. Damn. But anyway, he's known for fusing house, garage, and techno with a heavily layered frequently dreamlike sound

that works in a club and home listening settings. So the record I brought last year to what you heard, it was just great because I couldn't fucking pronounce it because it's impossible to pronounce, right? Um, p-0-0-1. Okay. Dude, I remember this track being very interesting. Yeah.

Well, it's P-S-S-S-H-0-0-1. It was a single that he put out last year. His first under his label, P-S-E-RECD. And guess what, Quesh. Okay, Pes-S-S-H-E. Well, this year you put out Pes-S-S-E-T, too. And this song, dude, has been, I've played. it like consistently throughout the year because it is one of those songs that just kind of

sticks in your head when you hear it and what I love about this track is he's he's mostly like a house like a deep house kind of producer right but he uses very classic down tempo styles in this song you're going to be reminded cue of like Tosca and stuff like that right which one more do you need to hear all about that dude yeah we did a whole month on this kind of stuff if you go back a few months. It was our downtempo month. We had a blast. Anyway, so I'm going to play a song here. Again, this is by an artist named Dowd. This song is called La Nota. Just some solid down tempo tunage. I just love that little kid. And he pulls from like, I mean, Tosca, I feel like is probably a major, major influence on a lot of electronic artists. But yeah, he pulls from

that like that playbook of repetition that pulls away. a lot and it comes and gets introduced back in a second and third time slightly different each time when it comes back in with the layers. And there's like some percussive like some, I don't know if it's bongos or something like that in the background, right? So like that's another classic element of down tempo is pulling from like. Kind of like the Bossa Nova stuff. Yeah, worldly kind of instruments and stuff like they have to get incorporated into it.

Yeah. But yeah, I love the drumming that kind of the layer building on the drums and stuff, the hi-hat and stuff like that and like the beat kind of increasing. and stuff like that. Anyway, I just, for some reason, whenever I heard that kid, I wish I knew what he was saying. La Nota translates to the note, which is pretty obvious, right? I wish I knew what else he was saying, but there's just something kind of like interesting about a kid's voice. He sounds like he's telling us something like, he sounds mischievous. I don't know. I don't know what it is about it, But, all right, that song was called La Nota by a European house artist named Dowd.

All right, Q, I'm going to throw it back to you. Where are you going to pivot us from here? Do you have something that goes with that? Are you going to do another 180? I mean, I think it's going to flow well. Okay. Definitely not in the same wheelhouse, really. Now, this artist, she's been getting a lot of love recently.

She goes by Little Sims. She's making it on a bunch of top artists and top albums of the year. I just recently got into this album of hers that came out not that long ago called Sometimes I Might Be introvert. Let me just read this quick little write up on Spotify here. So it says here, sometimes I might be introvert, her most important and ambitious record yet, a carous skating. Whoa, that's a new one.

Coruscating journey into the heart. Is this Pittsburgh, dude? Could be, dude. They always know how to sprinkle in those vocabulary words to remind us that they're better than us. They don't usually credit the quotes that they pull from for Spotify. But anyways, a journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times and one which looks set to handily cement her position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. High praise.

Absolutely deserving of it, dude. So I'm going to bring two songs from it, just to kind of show off. So she's got a really unique and really interesting, like, flow and how she rhymes and wraps. But she also has songs where there's not a lot of that, and it's more just like a really, like, solid, almost like trip hop in some elements. Reminds me a lot of the stuff that all the members. of the internet are doing, you know, that kind of hip hop. So, first song I'm going to play is called Protect My Energy. Yeah, I think it's safe to say that, like, 80s, like, 70s and 80s, like, inspired synth pop

is, is on the rise, dude. You know what I mean? It's on the rise and... And being embraced. Yeah. And then the, like, the new talent, you know, like, the younger generation, like, new emerging artists are just killing it in that department, dude. Yeah.

Like they're really like embracing it like you said and just, I mean, perfecting it. And then and what they do with it is so awesome. They're refreshing it a little bit. Yeah. So like I want to know are these artists using old equipment or are they using? I bet it's a mix of both, dude. Yeah. I feel like, yeah.

I mean, knowing our generation and dude, I can never remember when our generation ends and Generation Z begins, but... Sometime in the 90s. Yeah, our generations have like a strong hold on retro stuff. And the Generation X as well, but like we're embracing the analog and like tinkering with it in the studio and finding really cool ways to like breathe new life into it. Yeah, like it's something about the aesthetic of the 80s. Our generation is kind of obsessed with it. Yeah.

And it started with like synth wave, you know, which was like almost a decade. year ago probably when synth wave became a thing yeah or at least when when when when not when it became a thing but like when it when it became a when it was sort of like refreshed or whatever with with bands like kivinsky and stuff like that right and who would have thought right like i'm all in the in the early 90s like that was beyond cheese that's like what what disco was to people growing up in the 80s you know like disco's dead or whatever yeah who would have thought that this kind of stuff to come back in such an awesome way. But yeah, they're like what you were saying,

they're refreshing it, you know? Yeah. They're taking the musical elements of it, but like the songs and the lyrics, the melodies are a little bit more modern. All right, so I got one more song of hers to play. This is actually, I believe, yeah, this is the last track on the album.

Really powerful lyrics. I love her flow and her unique, how she connects words together I guess her cadence and everything is really unique I really love it so here we go

Little Sims this song is called Misunderstood I don't want to be all popping down for days laying in my misery hoping I'll be saved stuck in my way

starving I know it can't be changed living in isolation attention I never crave there go little Simby from around the way she wanted the credibility never cared for fame while the palette fades

release the colors of pain it's a black and white well still in the area great. Looking back, was it all a waste of handshakes and how we're used and what you've been up to's and will you be home soon? And when are you dropping again, sussing me out secretly hoping I'm done with a pen. No receipts can't return the gift I was sent. Everything I touch is fell with the purest intent.

Conversations with you was causing resentment. Hard to accept the realness you said. I've been loving you freely. Back when you was broke handing out them CDs, tried to fall in love and you cut because you need me. I told you gave it up and you never believe me Your obsession with me is being your Achilles heel Feelings equals weakness and that's why you bury yours

Understand you were just a vessel for the Lord Lying hard don't you feel these blessings in your paws Lise leading misguided Misunderstood misjudged Little mistaken heartbroken That's basic mistrust For many days and for many nights I'll just cut a fathom more of fate stuff

To fate love Because no much check you for you when you got it back Sounds like a completely different artist from the first song of you that you play for me. Yeah. So that just shows kind of what we were talking about earlier. Like, you know, the older kind of aesthetic and style of synth and stuff like that is kind of being embraced. But it's these artists that can do so much more, you know, and they pull in the modern stuff and sort of sprinkle it in, you know, and fuse it together and like make it something new. And yeah, and put it together in a cohesive.

like album, you know, from start to finish. And this is such a, such a great way to end an album, you know, like, it's very, it's very somber just like. Yeah, well, that's the genius of this song. It's very stripped back. It's just her vocals and a piano and some like backing vocals. Maybe her doing the backing vocals as well, but like, you know, she strips away all the other stuff that maybe is on the earlier tracks, like this, like the, the, the synthy stuff that we heard on the other track you played, right? Because she's just, she's just rapping. like you said. Right. And a lot of the album is kind of is, you know, there's a lot going on. And then this is how it ends. Yeah, because she's wanting you to like, now, does she

rap anywhere else in the record? Yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a lot. That's a big part of who she is. So again, that was Little Sims. That was her from her album. Sometimes I might be introvert. And, uh, yeah, dude, I'll pass it back to you. What you got. All right, Hugh. Let's, let's, let's finally bring some rock into our best stuff here. It's been a lot of, it's been a lot of indie I feel like and synth pop even last week. Yeah, you're right, dude. Yeah. So, you know what?

I brought that Gangostron track. Yeah, but still, that was kind of synthy. That's true. That's true. It was more like bedroom poppy, kind of dream poppy stuff. All right, so these guys are called Avlov. They're from Connecticut. And it's really just like an indie rock band, right?

They put out a record called Buds, not even a month ago. A lot of my picture are pretty new. for the year. But I'm going to bring a song here off of this record that I feel like incorporates some grunge elements and his singing, which isn't true for the entire record, but for this song in particular, he kind of borrows from bands like Hum and Failure, who I've brought in the past before. Nice.

Where it's more of kind of like a, I don't know, okay, I'll let you decide. So here we go. I'm going to play a song here called Cheer Up Cheerio. And I fucking love that, dude. Really good. I feel like there's a lot of influences that they're drawn from. Yeah, and you can definitely hear the grunge, right? Dude, I was getting some, like, early foo fighters, just in the way he said.

He reminded me a Dave Grohl a lot. I guess maybe, like, I don't know if Dave Grohl still harmonizes with himself. You know, so I'm thinking, like, the foo fighter self-titled where it was all Dave Gris. It's all him. Yeah, I heard some Dave Girl harmonies on there. Yeah. Which, you know, I'm all about. Yeah, so like these guys are kind of grouped into the bands like Spirit of the Beehive and like horse jumper of love, stuff like that.

Where it's this kind of, it's indie rock. It's the next evolution of like, you know, it's funny because we were talking about indie rock, indie pop. We've been talking about a lot about indie pop today. But like, this is indie rock, right? The next iteration of it, I guess. Yeah. Although these guys have been around since like the, the, since like 2013.

But it's kind of like slacker rock almost. His delivery on this record, this song at least is kind of that lazy delivery cue that you like a lot. Yep. So according to the pitchfork review of cue, this song is a make-believe letter to the spirited away protagonist.

What? Which, I know you're a huge, spirited away person or a fan of Studio Jibbley stuff. Yeah. Let me see if I can pull up the lyrics and we can maybe figure this out. And you know what? I'm not big enough of a fan that I know the names of the characters by heart. But it's the protagonist.

Yeah. Well, there's a few that could be considered a protagonist in that movie. Yeah. So during an interview, so lead singer confirmed it is a made-up letter to the protagonist of Spirited Away. That's awesome, dude. Hop down and explore the land. Oh, but you won't rest to go down on the afternoon. Daddy's got your credit cards.

So you. No one seems to be around now. Maybe pigs they'll be. Oh, yeah, dude. Now that's a reference to that scene, right? Yeah. Have you seen that movie? Yeah, we haven't.

We on it. Okay. It's great. It's a freaking like... This is definitive masterpiece. Yeah. I don't know if it's my favorite of his, but yeah, dude. Now, listen to this.

This seemed more interesting, Kew. This song has been recorded five times over the past 10 years. First as a demo for their first full length. But for whatever reason, it never made the cut for any of the records that they recorded it for until this record. Wow. It's a, what a killer track, dude. So I'm glad they finally decided to like to throw it on a record, you know, for whatever reason, maybe it just wasn't fitting with like the vibes of their other records and just didn't fit anywhere. But it's a great song. So her name is Chihiro by the way. Oh. Well, that's the fucking, okay, well, then that's in the, it's called cheer up to hero.

I said cheerio. No wonder I didn't notice. My bad. All right. So this song is called cheer up chihiro. Cheer up chiro. My bad. I thought it was like a clever way to spell cheerio, but.

Oh, I got you. Okay. No, all right. So cheer up chihiro. Dude, anybody who's a spirited away fan heard me pronounce it cheerio and they turned off their, their iTunes or whatever. No, dude. We're good because this, this is. is a podcast, you know. They didn't know how it was spelled. Yeah, but once I said spirited away,

they like to, wait, he said cheerio. It's clearly, fucker, he said cheerio. Yeah. Anyway, that's, you know, that's on brand for no feel like we like to mispronounce things all the time. All right. Anyway, that, that was a, a song called Cheer Up Chihiro by a band called Avlov, off their record, Buds, another solid record. All right, Q, I'm going to throw it back to you. All right, man. This is a band that I also just discovered recently. They're called Working Men's Club. And I, dude, I just fucking love everything that these guys are doing.

They don't have too much out there. Just a few EPs and albums since 2018. They're under the post-punk revival electronic acid house rock. So that's a mouthful. I'm just going to let the music play speak for itself, dude. This is a tiny little single called X, as in the letter X. So this song is the title track off of the single. It's called X.

Yeah, I like that little turn, like that twist that happened. They added that like synth kind of drum thing toward the end there to kind of mix it up a little bit, which I wasn't expecting. But yeah, his vocal delivery is really cool. It's kind of like, I don't know, Lou Reed or something like that maybe. Yeah, a little bit. And dude, so you know what? I honestly don't know if this band is still making waves or doing anything, but it reminds me a lot of the faint.

Did you ever get into them, dude? I was pretty obsessed with these days. Are they from like the 2000s? For a while. Yeah, early 2000s. See, the last album was actually back in 2019, so they're still doing it. But yeah, so it's that heavy, like,

it's like synth dance punk you know yeah right and these guys are doing it in a really cool way i'm i'll be bringing another song from them in january dude anyways uh yeah dude so that's working men's club love what they're doing can't wait to hear more from them and is this number five dude are we are we at the end here i got two more oh man we shoof this gonna be a long you know what dude it's it's because we both brought two songs from one out from one artist right right right That's cool. That's cool, dude. Let's do it. Keep it going. What you got? All right, Q. This artist has made the rounds as well on a lot of publications best of 2021 lists that I'm starting to see pop up everywhere. She's been featured this year on a What You heard episode. You know her. I know her. We all know her.

She goes by a Japanese breakfast. Oh, yeah. We all know and love her, dude. So here's the thing. She put out a record this year called Jubilee. That's not when I'm bringing a song from, Q, because she also scored a video game soundtrack. Oh, I know how much you love those, brother. I do. So I'm in two birds with one stone here, Q,

because I love video game scores as Spotify rapped told me this year. Video game music was my number one genre. So the numbers don't lie. But anyway, I always love it when, you know, an indie artist or an electronic artist or something like that puts out a video game score. It's always really interesting. And the game, I haven't played it,

but it looks very, it looks like one of those beautiful games, right? Like Journey or something like that. Dude, don't get me started on Journey. But it sounds like the maker of the game specifically reached out to Michelle Zowner, aka Japanese Breakfast, because they knew that she liked video games

and they wanted the score to come, come from somebody who doesn't come from the video game, like, realm of, like, you know, somebody who's never scored a video game before because they wanted it to not follow the same trips. They probably didn't want it to sound like Journey, you know what I mean, something like that, where it's like a more traditional video game type of cinematic score, you know what I mean? Right. So anyway, I'm just going to play one of the songs here.

This song, again, is from Japanese Breakfast's score for the video game, Sable. and this song is called The Ewer. I mean, I just want to immerse myself in that world, dude. She fucking nailed it. Yeah, and if you look at like screenshots of the game and stuff like that, like yeah, it's spot on. So apparently she started scoring the game based off just like concept art and nice and stuff like that and like descriptions of the worlds and stuff that the character

will be traveling through. That's really cool. But if you listen to the record, it's, it's pretty long track count wise but like it's like an hour and 36 minutes i guess that is pretty long for a record right um but if you're a fan of a video game music you'll probably hear some influence if she loves video games so she's probably you know well-versed in this kind of stuff but it's a beautiful record it's got a lot of different moods to it much like video game levels right but a lot of it is kind of this ambient kind of atmospheric type stuff like that with these sort of

beautiful string elements and stuff like that. Man, I could listen to that all day, dude. Cue it up, dude, it's great. So again, that was a Sable soundtrack by Japanese Breakfast. That song was called The Ewer. All right, Q, this is, we're getting old here, just sitting there. This is a lengthy one, dude. It's a long one.

So we got three more tracks. Yeah. So what do you got for us? All right, dude. This band needs no introduction. This is another one of those groups that we all just fell in love with over the last few years. I would say they're like the darlings of psychedelic rock and funk right now. Alton Goon.

I mean, come on. Of course. Of course we were going to have them. I want to say they were on last year as best of, right? Well, no, they didn't release anything last year. So now. Really? Actually, they released Ordoneone de,

De R-R-R-L-L-E-R-E-R-E-R-E- You know, he says the word, and I still can't pronounce it. They released a song that eventually makes it to this album that I'm bringing from called Y-L that came out this year. But anyways, it doesn't matter. This album is so good, dude. I'll say it again, the album name is called Y-O-L. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. They're Turkish, among other things. You know how we are with pronouncing words, but...

and this one's going to be real fun to pronounce dude the song i'm bringing uh i can't get enough of this album can't get enough of this band i love everything that they do uh this is might be my favorite song of the year dude i mean it's just i mean you just get you hobbing at squirming dude every time all all right man so again this is alton goon this song is called maca yallari Dude, there's nothing not to like about it. Unbelievable, man. I just love...

I dare you to find one thing. For real. I just love the way that they mix in the traditional, you know, Turkish. So they're Turkish, right? Yeah. It's so cool how they do that, man. Let me tell you something, dude. Last time I said, let me tell you something.

One of our listeners, Mitchell Scott McKnight. I got a good chuckle out of it. Just just tell his middle name as well. Did he just throw his social security number on there too, right? Don't you? I just always say his name. Let me tell you something, dude. Why don't you tell me, dude?

I'm getting ready to. Anytime I'm, this is going to sound stupid probably, but anytime I'm in like a Greek restaurant or like a Chinese restaurant, Thai restaurant. And I hear. I think I know, I think I know what you're going to say, dude. All right. Well, here we go.

I look back at my life. I guess what I'm trying to say is like, what? What is our, we don't have much of a cultural heritage dude. You and me? Oh, we're white bread motherfuckers. And we're like, you know, you can't trace our lineage back to anything, but maybe like Europe, right? I think there's, I think we have like some dudes in like England or something like that. We have some Vikings.

Some Vikings, yeah. Yeah. I don't feel one ounce of that in my blood, though. Anyway, when I hear music like that or I, you know, I see movies of like, you know, Greek weddings and stuff like that. I'm like, man, I wish I had some of that. I know. We're slacking on that, too. I wish I had some like, we're lacking in that arena.

Some culture to point to. Yeah, dude. Some heritage, you know. Well, you know what's great about what Elton Goon is doing is they're bringing in their culture. They are. And I'm like, fuck. I wish I had some of that. But thank you to Alton Gune because I can cherish and like appreciate what they're doing.

Because like, well, that's what, I mean, that's what makes them, there's nobody else like him. Yeah, right. It's psychedelic rock plus like all this different, this Turkish. There's other musical styles that they incorporate too. Yeah. It's like funk. It's almost disco at times, psychedelic. and then it's got those traditional Turkish instruments and especially the female singer.

I don't know her name. But she, her singing style is very traditional Turkish vocal stylings as well, which is really cool. Yeah. I love it, dude. I love it. All right, man. So that's Alton Goon. We're coming around to home play, dude.

It's finally, you know, we got two more songs. How are we going to finish this one, man? I'm going to end us, at least in my picks here, with another just so I can catch you tune. So I don't know much about these two artists, but this is a collaborative EP between this bedroom pop artist who goes by Jordana and this indie pop California group called TV Girl, who have been around since 2010. So they've been around for a while. and Jordana is a relatively new bedroom pop artist. Anyway, so they went on tour together this year, and they have a sold-out tour,

and I think they've actually been like long-time friends or something like that, Jordana and the lead singer, but they put out this collaborative EP, so it's kind of cool. Like they basically announced their tour, and they're like, oh, by the way, we have this record together. Nice. So this record is called Summers Over,

and this song just stood out to me, because it's got this really cool, like, classic country twang guitar element incorporated into it, which is done really, really well. I love that shit, dude. Because with her vocals on top of it, it just sounds really great. And it's just, like, classy as hell. Anyway, this song is called Low on the Highway by Jordana and TV Girl. Those vibes, dude, they crushed it.

Yeah, I mean, TV Girl is like an electronic indie pop group. So it's not like this is the style that they do, right? And you could tell it was kind of like looped and stuff like that. Yeah. So, you know, I think it just goes kind of with the, with just the style that they were going for. Like, Lowe on the highway, even the name has kind of like a country kind of, again, like a classic country kind of vibes. So like it just works really well. Like the rest of the record doesn't sound like that at all.

And we should mention, too, that low is spelled LO and high is spelled H-I. So like lo-fi-hi-fi. L-Fi, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, that's just one of those songs that, like, I couldn't, you know, I've been listening to it for months now, you know, basically ever since it came out. This was another October release. So, again, a lot of my picks, it's almost like I didn't start listening to 2021 releases until the fall. And that's when I was like, oh, you shit, I got to come up with, you know, some tracks.

Dude, I feel like you've admitted that several times throughout the year. Yeah, I will admit. Like, I wasn't really plugged into a lot of new records this year. So I kind of just crammed, like, you know, as one does before a test, right? I just kind of crammed it and found a bunch of tracks that spoke to me. But some of them are legit favorites that I've been holding on to. But, yeah, this is another one that, you know, just came out maybe a month or two ago. but again it's it's just like a earworm right oh yeah man like you're gonna have that that little that little

melody in your ear uh for the rest of the year cue maybe in the next year yeah that was great all right cue what you got what are you gonna do to to bring us home here how you're gonna how you're gonna let us let us close all right dude i'm bringing i think the most fun track of the year for me okay i just i just love the song man it's it's quick and dirty it's just it's loud it's it's boisterous it's fun I'm going to read a boisterous

no wonder I just said that awesome word is because I just read it I don't have words like that just rattling around in my brain so I'm going to read this off of Spotify and you're going to hear that word boisterous so I can't take credit for that

but here is just a quick description of this band between the contrast of Elyxon's lush almost delicate vocals Koloski's boisterous drumming and the half-harmonious wash of guitar and Shanahan and Coon's synths, Impath equips us with a healthy dose of emotional repose.

All right, so here is another one of my favorites of the year. I mean, it's almost like we're playing all of our favorites. Yeah, it's almost like it. This is just a single of theirs. This song is called Born 100 Times. Man, such a fun track, dude. So I can't finish off the year without giving another shout. out to K-E-X-P.

When I heard this song on the radio, dude, I was just like, fuck yeah. I was just like, super, like, stoked and, like, juiced and pumped after it, man. Well, it's, you know, just like, uh, the roots there that they're kind of nodding back to you, like the punk rock stuff, right? It's kind of reminded me of Slater Kinney, like old school Slater Kinney. And I love the, uh, I mean, like, honestly, the low, the low quality sound of the recording. Like, that just adds to the charm and the fun of it.

Yeah, I mean, it's on brand with what they're trying to do, you know? Totally. With the sound they're trying to go for. Yeah, that was just one of those songs. As soon as I heard it, I just had to have it. So I threw it on the list and here we are, dude. That's, I figured that would be a fun way to wrap this one up. Speaking of wrapping it up, dude, let's do just that.

This was a long episode. Let's wrap it the fuck up, dude. All right, man. Well, this was a long one. So we got two more of these to go. So tune in next week for the next week for the next. 10 picks for our countdown of our favorite 2021 tracks. And dude, I want to say like six out of the 10 tracks that we brought today, at least,

were female-led groups or at least female vocalists, man. Yeah, four out of the five for me, man. Okay, three out of the five for me, so seven. Yep. That's saying something. So anyway, next week, we're going to bring 10 more tracks, and we'll see what happens then. I've got some stuff stored up my sleeve cube.

So get ready. Yeah, I still got a lot of great tracks to share, man. And then I'm saving my best five for two weeks from now. So stay tuned for that. And let's just rapidly rapid, rapid this up, you know? Rapid fire. Rapidly wrap it up. Check us out on Instagram at No Filler Podcast.

Go to TST.com. Use Nofiller 15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. And of course, as always, you can find. us on the Pantheon podcast network. That's pantheonpodcast.com. Where you can find plenty of other great music-centric podcasts just like this one. That's it, man. This has been week two of our count on of our favorite tracks from 2021.

We got 10 more coming at you next week. So stay tuned for that. And you know what, dude, I'm going to wrap us up with, because we don't have an outro in mind. I'm just going to play that track from Alton Ginn. Ordo Noon dera larry And yeah Thank you so much as always for listening My name's Quentin

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