No Filler Music Podcast - Best of 2023: Part Two

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Join us as we continue our countdown of favorite tracks from 2023. Tracklist Beach Fossils - Numb bdrmm - Be Careful André 3000 - Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor Slowly Sprout into Undying Gardens LAANDS - Fortune Manatee Commune - Cast Windows96 - 240p Flickerstick - Whatever Gets You Off Day Aches - New June Erlend Øye - Two Chord Samba Skalpel - Konfusion Skalpel - Jan Tajemnik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Welcome to No Filler. I'm Quentin. And I'm Travis. And this is part two of our best of 2023 episodes. Bring in 10 more tracks tonight, some of our favorite Jamie James over the

past year. Man, I've got a treat for you tonight, dude. I can't wait. Oh, I'm bringing treats too, man. I don't think it would be a best of the year episode if we weren't bringing treats. I've got an extra special treat, dude, considering our shared love and history for this particular group. That's all I'm going to say. Hmm. Because I'm based on what you just said, I mean, we only have a few bands that we share a very longstanding love and history with. I don't know.

I think that list is longer than you might think, dude. Okay. But, you know, it's possible that you also listen to this record, obviously. But we'll see. We'll find out.

All right, dude, I'm kicking us off. Let's just dive right into it, dude. So, it's another group that that we've both loved for a very long time. See, that's what I'm saying.

Beach Fossils is the group, I'd say one of the OGs of the dream pop, resurgence of dream pop. Yeah, the reimagining of it maybe, I'd say, in the early 2000s. Yeah, this is like when everybody on the blogosphere, the music blogosphere. And we were one of those people. We were one of those, yeah. But there were so many indie dream pop bands that had, you know, a beach-related ocean water-related name. You know, I mean, this is one of them.

Yeah. Surfer Blood. Sea Pony. Beach Fossils. Sea Pony. Beach House. Washed out. Yeah.

The list goes on and on, dude. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, they dropped an album this year. This album has shown up a few times this year on the podcast queue. Well, I hope I'm bringing a track that we haven't featured yet. I think we play one of the singles, like, as a intro track or something like that. Well, this is not a single.

So Beach Foss. dude. I'd say they were, yeah, one of the OGs, like I said, alongside like Washed out, neon Indian Beach House, all them. And they've had a pretty strong staying power, I'd say. I haven't really kept up with them with all their releases of the last, you know, decade. Their self-titled from 2010 is really the one I'm most familiar with. Yeah, me too. I mean, I think Somersault, I tapped into it a little bit. But they've, yeah, they've been pretty consistent. Their groups from that era, like they've, I think they've been like one of the mainstays, you know, the ones that have just kept it gone.

Kept to go on. And they've kept their, they've kept true to their sound. And it's just as good as it was, man, in 20, from, you know, from their self-titled in 2010. So, all right, man. This album is called Bunny. It came out in June. And I'm going to play track 10 off the record. This song is called NUM.

Just a good little tune to start us off here, Q. Yeah, I thought so. But yeah, like you said, like the guitar tone, like his vocal quality, like everything has been, like he had that, figure it out, like on that first record. Yeah. But it was so lo-fi, you know what I mean? Like that's the one thing that's changed is like, you know, just the quality of the production. I really like the way it's produced, man.

It sounds great in a pair of headphones. I want to say like back in the early days, like when he would play live and stuff, it was just him and like a drum machine in his guitar. So like he's, you know, he's evolved quite a bit in terms of like, you know, beyond just the head count. But like, you know, just the way he kind of reminds me of this is a completely different realm. But like Tyco, right? Because like I remember seeing Tyco, you know, when he just had a laptop on stage with them, you know. And then I wonder if washed out has done the same over the years.

It's been a long time since we've seen him. Yeah, it wouldn't be surprised. That's funny. We're talking all about these are all people that were part of that movement in the early 2000s that. Right when like DIY, quote unquote, you know, like bedroom, bedroom, pop. Yeah, bedroom pop. Right. when that was all coming to the forefront.

These were different, you know, two different, three different genres, if you want to, you know, call it that. So like Tyco's what, IDM, hypnagogic pop, hypnagogic pop, washed out was chill wave. Chill wave, yeah. Beach Fossils is Dream Pop. But yeah, there was that thing where you could just like you put out an album, put it on Myspace or Band Camp, you just produced it in your bedroom. Right, it was starting to get easily accessible and easy to, yeah, release to the masses on your own terms too. Yeah, exactly. Anyways, man, yeah, I will always have a special place in my heart for Beach Fossils.

Beach Fossils is perfect summer music. And that's probably why they put it on June because they're like, this is our time. This is our time of the year right here, summertime. Yeah. All right, so that was Numb off of Beach Fossils record, Bunny. and I'm going to pass it to you, brother. What do you get? All right.

I don't know too much about these guys, but I feel like we've featured them at least a once. So this band is called Bedroom, B-D-R-M-M. No, dude, I'm pretty sure we featured them on this pod before. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I want to say you brought one of their songs, dude. I really enjoyed it. It was from...

Maybe they're self-titled? It's from the self-titled bedroom, which spells out the word entirely. Yeah, which is kind of funny. Dude, great record. And that was from 2020. Yeah. So that might have been, either they showed up. I don't think they showed up on my best of of 2020, but they showed up in 2020 at some point.

Anyway, they've put out a new record. Obviously, I wouldn't be talking about it on this episode here. But this, yeah, this record is called I Don't Know. And before I try to like describe them, let's just. Let's just hear it, you know. So, yeah. It's what we're here for, man, the tunes. Yeah, exactly.

This may have came out the same week or the week after that Beach Fossil's record came out in June as well. So here we go. This song is called Be Careful. So vocally, he reminded me a lot of Tom York. I was thinking the same, yeah. Mm-hmm. ...stuff or the music that he was putting out under. under his new group, the smile, right?

Yeah, man. I guess reflecting on this on this group's like previous stuff, they are considered a shoegaze band. I don't think that track was shoegaze at all. But that's kind of what their previous stuff, like their debut record bedroom, which we talked about a second ago, NME called it a modern shoe gaze classic,

gave it a five-star review. Yeah, that, their self-title was was yeah a little bit more fuzzy yeah a little bit more shoegazy and so apparently you know with the success of that record they picked up um some support from like ride and magway which are like two legendary uh shoegaze bands and like they signed to magway's label or maguire's label and then so like you know since then I think they've been getting some like some help and encouragement from those classic shoegays artists and like have been sort of encouraged to like you know experiment and try try to sort of expand their their palette and stuff like that their musical

palette so they put out a couple singles last year that had some like electronica elements in it so they've just been sort of like expanding their their their their sound a little bit. And so, yeah, this record feels different than some of their older stuff. But it's definitely, it's all, I mean, it's all good, you know. Definitely a good direction for them to go in. For sure, yeah, it's great. So anyway, that track was called Be Careful.

The artist was called Bedroom, B-D-R-M-M. I'm going to pass it back to you. Q, what's your next track for us? Okay, dude. This album just came out. on November 17th. And if you're not aware that this exists and that this guy has, I mean, almost pulled a 180 where he, you know, from his roots, you're in for a fucking treat, dude. Is this your treat that you tell me about?

Oh, I got multiple treats. Okay. All right. So, you know who Andre 3000 is, right? Dude, I was listening to that record today. It was really There's something Because it's like not what you expect from him

Right And I love the name of the first track to you Oh yeah I know Which is really funny Anyways jumping the gun here But yeah Andre 3000 has released a I mean I want to call it like a space jazz

Acid jazz ambient flute record dude Yeah it's something else dude Not one word spoken or wrapped on the record. I was skipping through the first track being like, maybe he'll start singing. Nothing. Yeah.

So it's really cool. Yeah. And the first song, the first track is called, I swear I really wanted to make a rap album, but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time. Yeah. So he's basically,

I just love how that's the first track because he's like, if you tuned into this expecting the usual Andre 3000 stuff, I don't know what to tell you. That's basically what he's saying. Yeah. And it's funny because, I'm thinking of Leslie Jones in particular. She's like the fill-in host of the Daily Show right now

while they find like a permanent new host because Trevor knows gone. Why don't they just give it to her? You know what I mean? I always wonder that. Yeah, I don't know about that, man. But I just watched her little clip about it. Apparently she was, I mean, her whole schick is like,

I'm angry all the time. You know, like I'm very loud and I'm going to let you know my opinions on things. That's like kind of her persona. Anyway, she was just like so mad at Andre 3000. He's like, we've been waiting, I don't know, like 15 years. You're one of the greatest rappers of all time, and you don't rap at all on this record. It's a flute record.

I mean, she's not wrong, you know. She's not wrong. But, I mean, do what you want, Andre, you know, do what you want to do. Dude, we've had this conversation before. Like, you can't just expect creative people. to just keep doing the same thing that they've always been doing. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's not fair to them.

That's, that's selfish. As a fan of the person themselves, if you love what they do, let them do what they freaking do. Exactly. So anyways, yeah, this, this album you need to actually sit down and listen to, you know, and enjoy. Most of the songs are over 10 minutes long. So, you know, it's kind of hard to play a, you know, two-minute clip of it

and even give you any sense. of how the record is. So I definitely recommend giving this a solid listen. Getting the album is called New Blue Sun. I don't know if I said that yet. But I'm going to play a song that features his flouting. I don't know what you call it. Earlier on in the track, you know,

so you don't have to wait 10 minutes before it comes in. Man, dude, it's such a, it's a good record, dude. It, like, demands your attention, but not in like a, Let's just put it this way, dude. I can't, I can't do bitches brew. I can't do that kind of jazz, Miles Davis, bitches brew. Yeah, yeah. I can't do it, man.

When it's, when they're just all over the place, like improvbing on the recording. You don't like the chaotic improvisation. Yeah, that's not, I can't do it. This is not that. So I'll just, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go.

All right. So again, this is Andre 3000's brand new flute record. This song is called Dreams Once Buried Beneath the Dungeon Floor slowly sprout into Undying Gardens. Yeah, I mean, I for one Q, I'm happy that this is what he's putting out, you know? I think that's great. If you're a fan of his, you should be like, you know what? He's in either like a really kind of meditative space right now or he's just like, he's in a headspace where this is what he's putting, this is what he's feeling creatively.

You know, that's what he's putting out there. take it or leave it. Here's a quote from the Rolling Stone, dude. Sums it up, great. And then we can just move on, man. It says, Andre 3,000 is a kind, gentle, creative soul that's been marred by our collective capitalist greed. Let this man play his bass clarinet across America in peace.

That's right, dude. That's exactly it, man. That's it. Leave the guy alone, man. In other words, look, Rolling Stone wouldn't have put that in an article, you know, this wouldn't have been a quote that this is on his Spotify page. When you click on About, that's all that pops up right now. Yeah, basically, I think people are probably expecting pushback, you know, like one of his,

somebody on his record label or him personally went in there and said, you know, let me update my bio real quick and put this quote from Rolling Stone defending me or defending him, you know, because this album is going to get a lot of hate. Yeah, because he's probably our. already got enough shit from his quote unquote fans that were upset that he didn't just release another album with him rapping on it. Yeah, exactly. Boo-hoo.

I'm here for it, dude. I know. It's a great album, dude. Great record. All right, man. Pass it over to you. How are you going to bring us forward? Okay.

Well, it's hard not to do a 180 from that because it's so different from anything. you know, that we typically play on this show. But, yeah, so I guess what I'm saying is, you get ready for a 180. And let me just say, shout out to run-for-cover records. So Fiddlehead and Nairorhead are both on Run for Cover Records. So we've had two artists so far from this record label that have appeared on our best of 2023.

Here's another one that I have never really gotten into until recently. I was literally, I went to the run to cover, run for cover website just to see what their roster was about, you know, and see what else, you know, what other kind of artists they put out. It's not just grunge and post punk, it's like that. This particular artist, it looks like it's a duo. They go by the name L-A-N-D-S. I feel like we're just out of band names, and so, you know, people have to come up with creative ways to spell common words, right? So anyway, this group, like I said, it's called Lans. They put out a new record back in March called Music for the Future.

And, man, the singer, she's got this amazing voice, and they put out kind of like this electronic, dancey kind of poppy stuff. So here we go. This song is called Fortune. Music for the future. Yeah, man. That's awesome, man. I got no other words to say about it. Perfect song, right?

There's no, yeah, there's no point in even trying to like, like compare it to something or, you know, like you usually try to do when you're trying to describe new music. Yeah. That's just, you just got to hear it to understand it. Yeah, yeah. That's good stuff, man. Yeah, and this is their debut record. So, that's very impressive.

They put out a few EPs before that. But yeah, let me just let the write-up on the record label site describe this better than we could, Q. So let me just say it real quick. This is two people, like I said earlier, Brian Squillis and Rania Woodard. So Rania is the vocalist. So here's what the write-up says here. So after finding their own unique sound across three EPs, Lanz has expanded their lush electropop palette into new territory. Music for the future is a confident, sweeping feat of enlivened production and intimate, emotional storytelling, both gentler and more mature than the band has ever been.

replete with messages of care and reflection. Woodard describes this album as an open letter to herself. And she says, I just want to allow the universe to speak through me right now. What is it that I want to say and how do I truly feel? So that's what this record is. And it's gorgeous, man. And a lot of it they produced, well, the entire thing is produced and engineered and mixed by the two of them.

some of the vocal tracks were recorded in this cabin in Georgia and some other ones were recorded in Brian's apartment so yeah it's just it's a DIY like perfect record that's awesome yeah so run for cover records man um I'm gonna have to pay more attention to that label because you know I initially thought they were just putting out you know the grunge revival post punk kind of stuff but if they're starting to sign bands like this like they could be a pretty good indie label to to keep an eye on definitely yeah that was great man i already already saved it to my faves and that's the first track dude that's the opener all right cue i'm gonna throw back to you where do we go from here all right so this is an artist that i mean i feel like i got pretty close to literally

i know i know where you're going with this cute okay uh when we first moved up to Washington. So this was back when we were still running the blog. I started a, I think it was a weekly. Yeah, weekly. Because, dude, we were posting every day on that freaking blog. I think it was like once every Wednesday or something. I did what I called the Puget Sound, which I'll never come up with a better,

I'll never come up with a better name, dude. Because for those of you who don't know, that's what like the, the, bodies of water that that spill into the Seattle area from the ocean it's called the puger sound and I brought I think like five artists every week from Seattle didn't matter what the genre was or not from Seattle but from Washington State and I think on the first one that I ever did I stumbled upon Manatee Commune, aka Grant Edy. So 2014 was the year that I found this guy, and that was the same year he released his

album, Brush, and a lot of his thing was going around and picking up found sounds. I think that's what you call it. Or, yeah, like field recordings. Field recordings, there you go. And he would find ways to, you know, incorporate that into his sound into his music. And yeah, dude, to me, that record just became, you know, the Pacific Northwest and our new home. And Sir and I, you know, both fell in love with this guy. We went to every show that he put on up here.

And, yeah, we kind of got to know the guy in a way. And he stopped making music maybe like, I don't know, three years ago. Turns out he was just taking a break, dude, because he's back. And what's exciting to me is, so I haven't really mentioned what he sounds like, but he's, it's definitely, I'd say bedroom pop, a little more dancey, uh, just very lush, pretty music. At least that's what his music was like. Would he fall under the chill wave?

I would say chill wave, yeah. But then over the time, he just kind of got more and more dancey. What excites me is the first, the few songs that he's released this year, going back to his old style, man. So I'm pumped. I hope he continues to do it. Here we go. This is a single of his that came out just a couple months back in September. This song is called Cast.

Really, really good evolution, that song, I feel like. Because it started as one thing and then sort of like transition. into, like you say, like, starts introducing more of those, like, dancey type elements to it. And it became something else, you know. That is what I loved about Brush from 2014. And he always finds creative ways to, like, yeah, evolve what sounds like, just raw recordings of, you know, his guitar pickings.

And, yeah, just flows, like ebbs and flows in with this. electronic beats and words too. He puts a lot of vocals in his music, but a lot of times he chops it up like that. And it's hard to get that right. But yeah, man, I'm actually really stoked because as soon as we stopped recording this, I'm going to show that song to Sarah. She doesn't even know that he's back, dude. We said we went to his farewell show like three years ago up in Bellingham. Awesome. But anyways, that's the most excited I've been about his music in a long time. So it's cool.

I love it, dude. Yeah, I liked the, you know, just a lot of like acoustic instruments. Like not just the guitar, like the piano and all that cause. He's more than just like a producer or like a quote unquote DJ. Yeah. Or like someone who splices up music and turns it into something else. Like he's a really, really good music. just in his own right.

Musicians like that, where you just described, are like a dime a dozen. You know what I mean? You hear it so often, like you just said, it's hard to get it right. And like, this is a good example of like, oh, yeah, this is actually a really well-composed piece of music, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I really love the, like you said, the evolution of the song as it goes along. Yeah, man. I mean, I should have known that he couldn't leave it behind, you know?

Yeah. He just needed a break. I get it. So yeah. Anyways, manatee commune. My boy is back. Our joke was, because he's a redhead. Our joke and we told him this ourselves.

Our joke was that we're convinced that he is actually our son, but a time traveler. Well, it's interesting because probably when you told him that you didn't have a son. I sure didn't. And I didn't have a red-headed son. This is weird, bro. So maybe it's a parallel universe kind of thing And maybe my son Ronan is in fact Grant Edy The theory is starting to have some legs, cute

I know You have a son now He has red hair And I bought him A little toy drum set So And he's got a really good rhythm dude It's just natural man

He's like a freaking metronome It's all coming together I know All right anyways that Again manatee commune. The song was called cast. Love it, dude. Pass it back to you. Another 180? Um, not really, but no, I wouldn't say it to 180. I think it's a good transition. So what I like to do, Q, when I'm putting together my best of the years is I like to make sure I'm

representing, you know, all the genres that I, that I listen to, right? Um, so I wanted to make sure, I had some vapor wave to bring. I'm so glad you didn't say metal. Well, I'll find a way to get some metal in here, key before the end of the year. But technically, Spotlights last week was metal. I mean, I know that you refused to acknowledge it,

but you did listen to and enjoy a metal song. I did enjoy that one. A couple weeks ago when this last episode came in. Anyway, so this particular artist, I stumbled upon this year and really enjoyed his first record called Nematofi came out in 2016. He's put out a bunch of stuff since then. Dude, he's staying true to the vapor wave aesthetic too. Oh, you have to.

Yeah, that's true. It's like unspoken rules. Right. And the funny thing is I haven't listened to any of his other records. I've only listened to his first record. and then I saw that he put out a new record back in February. So it's funny because I've heard his first record and I've heard his latest record. So there's a lot of stuff to listen to that came out in between there.

But anyway, you know, vapor wave is hard to describe. So I'm just going to play the music. And I think this guy is an example of like vapor wave when it's done really well. So here we go. Again, the name of this artist, he goes by Windows 96, because yeah, that's part of the aesthetic, right? That's part of it. 90s electronics, you know, right?

Mostly Windows. Microsoft. And the name of this track is also a reference to, I don't know, computer tech type stuff. So here we go. The name of this track is called 240P. Yeah, that's another. I think that's another genre that's like a dime a dozen. You know, it's easy to, you know, get a picture of, you know, whatever, the Michelangelo statue and, like, throw it on like a pink and light blue background.

Throw some saxophone samples into your work and, hey, I'm a vapor wave artist. You know what I mean? Some lo-fi, like synth with some, like, saxophone samples in it. But there's some die-hard. I that's actually most vapor wave fans are diehard fans and oh they love it I mean that's skewer you yeah that's true if you label yourself vapor wave and you're not right that's the classic yeah that's like the classic that's the sound you know um but I guess I like the vapor wave that like I guess is not just that that strict like adherence to like the the template or whatever the formula

yeah that one that one was definitely a little more unique. Yeah. Now, there are songs on the record that do kind of sound more like the generic vapor wave sound, but like he just elevates it a little bit more, you know? And that track was a little bit darker and more

synthy kind of sounding. But yeah, I love it. I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. I just like instrumental electronic music, like when you really want to just throw it under a big umbrella, you know? Yeah, and that's another one that has some vocal elements to it, but it's used.

more as like another instrument. Yeah. Yep. All right, Q. Well, we got, I feel like we got our two electronic, sort of like, you know, chill-wavy,

you know, some sort of wave. We've got our waves out of the way, you know. We've ridden the wave. We're back on shore. All right, dude. I was actually just listening to this song.

I was flipping through these four songs on this record that came It's an EP, I guess you'd say. It came out in September. I just wanted to pick a song real quick based on listening to it for 10 seconds each song while you were talking. So I wasn't really listening on the last maybe five minutes or so that you were talking there. Sorry. But I was scrolling through my albums that I had saved this year, completely forgot that this is a thing that I happened this year.

And speaking of, dude, it's weird. bringing all these records from artists of your flicker sticks back dude are you shitting me right now is it the original lineup uh i don't believe so because look at this uh okay okay look at this lineup shot dude they're taking they're taking promo picks and everything bro well no i think that's three out of the four three out of the five original yeah you got what was his name you got you got rex yeah rex and you got brandon and you got brandon and you got brandon I feel like the guy on to the right, to the left of Brandon, maybe was... He wasn't original from the VH1 Bands on the Run.

Right, right, right. Which, all right, everyone. Travis and I fell in love with this VH1 series. You know what? We did a whole record on Flickstick, but anyways. We did a hell episode. There was a, there was one season of this show on VH1. It must have been when we were, I don't know, middle school?

Maybe. High School. Yeah. Called bands on the run. It was a Battle of the Bands type show. I don't know. Four bands went up against each other. And this group Fligger Stick won.

And they're from Fort Worth. Yeah. So it was like perfect. I mean, it was just perfect for us. So we were rooting them on the whole time. Yeah. And we were big fans, man, for a long time. Welcoming home the astronaut is a great record.

I mean, I think it is. I think it is. I mean, I think it is. It holds up. I think, yeah. For what they were doing at the time, dude. Yeah. It holds up.

So anyways, they've hit on, they've hit on some hard times over the years. We're not going to get into that, but they're back, man. Go listen to our episode on them. Yeah, we do. Probably a couple of years ago. We talked a little bit about, like, what happened to them. Yeah. So anyways, man, they're back.

And they dropped a little four-track EP in September. That's exciting, man. It's Fliggur stick, dude. Here we go. All right. So this is the last track on the record. And this is fresh to my ears too, man. Like I said, I was just, I got excited, a little too excited.

So I stopped listening to you and I put music in my buds. And this one stood out to me as a classic flicker stick song. So here we go. This song is called Whatever It Gets You Off. Doesn't that even sound like a flicker stick title? It does, dude. Here we go. His voice just brings me back, dude.

Yeah. That was just for you and me, man. Yeah. That's a great. You know what? That was a good song. That's good. How many fans are still there with us?

I can tell you, we can look at the play count and tell you that there's not many out there. Yeah. Pretty enemic. But man, they were maybe my favorite band back then. I mean, they were up there. Yeah. I mean, you know, yeah, alongside like intimate of the state and there's nothing left to lose and probably like, I don't know. some 41 or something,

Phantom Planet Spoon. What was these guys, you know? Dude, good times, man. Let's not forget embers and envelopes. May, yeah. I think we've done an episode on all of those bands. So those records, actually, probably. Anyway, but that was the one thing I think that,

well, the guitar playing and the vocals, those were the two things that I really liked a lot about flicker stick. And that's, yeah. And you can tell that's the, those are the two, some of the, maybe the two founding members that are still in Flickricks, Brandon and Rex, and that's guitar and vocals. His guitar style hasn't changed much, like that, that slide guitar and like the trin alone and stuff and the vibrato and stuff like that.

Yeah. And his, the lyricism, like the subject matter of the songs really hasn't changed a lot either. Yeah. Like he, you know, he sings about his inner demons, man. Sure. And he has a lot of them, dude. He does, dude. Go back to and listen, find our episode on welcoming home the astronauts.

Yeah, that's our coverage of our band. And you know what's funny. You used to rally behind them, dude. Yeah, I mean, I guess that is a good way to describe him. Like, we felt like this was one of the first bands we felt like ownership of. You know what I mean? Like this is our band, you know. Yeah.

We're going to get the t-shirts. We're going to go to the concerts. Yeah, exactly. We're going to have our dad drive us to the concert. Right. Oh, man, that's funny. Dude, and yeah, I forgot, they, Phantom Planet opened for them. Or Matthew was the way around.

No, I think that was part of their, what they won, was that they had a headlining tour. Okay. For when they won the show. Isn't that crazy that Phantom Planet? We saw them at the same, the same freaking time in a tiny little venue in, Texas. And I like to mention this every time.

This was back when Jason Swartzman was behind the kit, which is funny. Yeah, because you want to talk about it. It's cool to think about that we got to see him play some drums for Phantom Play. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Anyway, it's funny when you go

to the flicker stick page and you scroll down to the fans also like section. it's just other bands from bands on the run. It's Soul Cracker. Wait a second. I can listen to a Soul Cracker record right now. They're still on air?

I think that's the one that they probably were playing stuff from. God, all right, dude, I got to save this and listen to it. The Josh Dota's Band. Josh Dota's band. And then there was like a girl band. There was a girl, a goth group. I can't remember what they were called. They're not on here.

But they were something like, you. know, casket or something like that, you know, just something generic. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Josh Dota's was like Steely Dan. They were definitely like a jazz fusion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, all right, man. We can talk about, but thank you for, for reminiscing with us all there for a second. Well, that's cool, man. Happy to, happy to see it, you know, knowing, you know, kind of the history of that, of Brandon in particular, the lead singer. You know, happy to see it. You know, having, you know, kind of the history of that, of Brandon in particular, the lead singer. You know, happy to. see that he's out there doing what he loves to do. Exactly. All right, let's just keep moving here, Q.

Here's just another example of the Grunge Revival, Q. But these guys are a little bit different. They actually describe themselves as grunge gaze. Oh, gosh. Here we go. Awesome. You know, the last episode I brought a Doomgaze band. Here's Grunge Gaze.

And I think we've actually said this before, Q, shoe gaze, the elements of shoe gaze, like the signature sound of shoegays, the elements of shoegays really can be paired with any other genre and sound awesome. And it's going to be awesome, yeah. It's basically it's just like reverb and wall of sound and perhaps like ethereal vocals and stuff like that. That those elements can be mixed with any other type of rock genre, I feel like, or genre in general, dude, and just sound amazing.

So here's another group that I stumbled upon recently. These guys are called Day Akes and this song is called New June. I'll tell you why I love that, dude. It's not a lot of music that reminds me of cave-in circuit antenna. Ding, ding, ding, dude. Ding-ding, ding, ding. Ding. That's one of my favorite records, maybe top 20.

dude of all time and man they were hitting all those notes dude his his his voice sounds very much like like that dude singer from cave-in yeah great man if the whole record's like that bring it on it is man of course it is uh yeah i thought the same thing his vocal quality the way he yeah the way he sang sounded a lot like lead singer of kban who should we should know his name but we don't um But yeah, yeah, right. Antenna, there is something sonically special about that record, I feel like. It just sounds for sure. Huge, you know what I mean?

It's got this loud. And I think Kavan referred to or sort of labeled that as a space rock album, if I remember correctly. And they were pressured by their record label to sound like that too. We got a whole episode on that record. And we bring some awesome tracks. from that one. That's a really good episode. Yeah, go back and listen that one.

Yeah, I agree. Guys, go back and listen to all our episodes where we actually dove in deep to records, you know? Yeah. It's been fun doing this this year or what you heard format, but we're getting back to the basics. I'm all over the place here, dude, but we mentioned this last, on our last,

on part one of the best of, but we're going back to the true format of no filler for 2024. And I'm excited about it, man. So we're, yeah, we're, we're introducing those episodes back into the mix. So like it's going to be two episodes a month. One episode is going to be a deep dive into a particular artist or album. And then the other episode is going to be, you know, basically this format that we're doing right here.

But our standard what you heard format, I guess we'll call them what you heard's again, Q. Because it's just been like the format for 2023. But yeah, yeah, the weekly. I guess monthly mixtape format. But yeah, I'm excited to get back into the core of, I think, what we, where we, I think, Shine Q is when we're diving into albums and artists that we love. For sure, man. All right.

Yeah, and that song, yeah, that song brought me back to Cayman. So, yeah, totally. Good shit, dude. Yeah, so again, that band was called Day Akes, their new record. come out in September called One Last Dream Before Dying. That song was called New June. All right, Q, what is your last pick for us? All right, man.

Everyone knows this. And it's definitive now. I don't think it's ever going to change. My favorite band of all times is Kings of Convenience. Well, you got to cross off a bucket list item, Q, from your things that both of us agreed we must do before. we die and that's see them live find a way to see them live and i'm i'm super jelly man super jelly because you you send me those videos it looks like like like that's a dream were you looking

around and just seeing that like nobody's feet were touching the ground because i mean that's what it felt like dude i were all floating man yeah yeah because they don't tour in america it's been exactly that's been forever since they came here. We had a chance to see them when we were in high school, but for whatever reason, we just weren't feeling like going into Deep Ellen that night. I mean, I think it... No, we had the chance, dude.

There was nothing stopping us. So we knew about it? It's not like it happen. Yeah, okay. I distinctly remember us making the decision not to go. You know what? Because we didn't know. We didn't know.

Man, that's just so they do. Oh, literally never going to come back to. America until just now. Yeah, and they don't put music out too often. So like there's not an opportunity to see them on a tour because they don't, they don't put out music very often. And so they don't tour very often. And when they do tour, they usually don't even come to the States. You know what I mean? Because why would you? Yeah, why would? I don't blame them, dude. But yeah, if they're going to come to the States, they're going to play New York or Seattle or Seattle, I know. Yeah. So, yeah. One thing, though, which is great, is Ireland,

oh yeah uh one half of the duo he's prolific dude he's he's never stopped really he can't he can't stop won't stop you know he can't stop won't stop he's he's been releasing solo stuff the whole time man and honestly i have not listened to enough of it um and he also plays with the widest boy live that's that's his like i don't know 70s disco group i don't know how I'll describe them. And he just released a little six-song EP back in April of this year. And actually on the album cover, it says, recorded in Mexico City, January, 2023. So he recorded it this year, released it this year.

It's just, dude, it's like listening to a more playful Kings of Convenience. Because that's who he is. He's the playful one. He is the playful one. Yeah. They're both fun dudes. Would you say he's the Simon of the group? I don't know the first thing about Simon and Garfunkel.

Well, I think Paul Simon is pretty well known to be like the more, you know, like when you listen to his stuff that he wrote, like it's more playful, you know. That's what I'm trying to get in here. Okay. And, you know, the funny thing is like Simon and Garfunkel, that is, you know, you know how else can you describe kings of convenience so that's what you're getting at yeah there's modern day simon and that's purposely right that's like the kind of music they set out to make was like that like uh you know quiet as the new line yeah they started the movement man

green inch village folky kind of stuff you know for sure yeah um i will say there's a lot of really pretty songs on this record that aren't on the silly side but i'm going to play one of one of the fun ones and we're just going to play the whole the whole song so here we go this is a an album called Winter Companion and this song is called two-cord samba it's a two-court samba it's a two-court samba it's a two-court samba it's a two-court samba one cold one cold it's a two-court It's a two-court samba It's a two-court samba It's a two-court samba

First E First E It's a two-quard samba It's a two-core samba It's a two-chord samba It's a two-core samba It's a two-court samba It's a two-court samba

It's a two-court samba It's a two-called samba How do you not just instantly fall in love with the guy? I mean, come on. So great. We've talked about this before many times throughout our lives queue That we are just

Happy to exist on the planet With this fella Yeah And you got to exist in the same room You got to breathe the same air I got to sing along With them I wish you could have been there

man. I would, dude, I would have gone into debt. That's all I'm saying. You should have bought a plane ticket and come up here, man. Well, the timing was weird, too. But yeah, I should have. I should have. It was on a Monday night, right?

Who cares? I don't even remember what day it was, but, no, I think it was a Sunday. It was a Sunday. Oh, okay. Anyways, yeah, dude. You know, I noticed this was released on Bubbles' records. That's his record label that he first released, Why, His Boy Live?

That's got to be his record label. No. You remember when they had a new single a couple of years ago and then nothing else happened? Yeah, I know. I know. Anyway. So, yeah, that's how I'm ending it tonight. It's a good way to end it.

It's a great way to end it. So I hope you do it justice, brother. Wait, you mean with what I've got for you here? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I sure. This is the surprise. Oh, yeah. I forgot.

There's a surprise. This is the treat that's going to knock you off your feet. All right, Q. So have you ever listened to a down tempo record and wondered, man, what would that sound like live performed by an actual band of musicians, right? You know, I've thought that sometimes, brother. I bet you have. So this is one of our favorite, longstanding favorite down-tempo duos. We've done an episode on them.

I'm talking about scalpel, the Polish down-tempo duo that have been around for a very long time. I'm going to describe, I think this is a good way to describe him. So on their debut and sophomore albums, Scalpel and Confusion, they were able to resurrect the dusty spirit of the 60s and 70s jazz and reimagined it for the 21st century audio files. So what they did was they took old Polish jazz records and like sampled them and like brought them into their electronic down tempo music, right? No one can do it like scalpel.

nobody can do it. And, you know, they put out some records here and there. Since those original ones. Yeah, those first few EPs of theirs, man, just freaking hit in a different way, dude. Like, yeah. Yeah. I'd have to queue that stuff up again, man. Well, you're going to want to cue this up first, Q.

So just a couple weeks ago, they put out a record called Big Band Live. And let me just read. The synopsis here to you. Beloved Polish downtempo new jazz master's scalpel present an exquisite collection of the older scalpel's classics and some exclusive material performed live by a masterful 17 piece big band. Oh my God. Dude, I'm looking at the track list. Yeah.

Oh. Scalpel's big band live brings mellow, smoky vibes, hypnotic grooves, and vibrant, occasionally blissful mood. Polish jazz at its best. Here we go, Q. I'm going to let this speak for itself. How are you going to pick a song out of all these great scalpel songs? I've been bouncing back and forth through trying to figure out which you want to play, but I'm going to play Confusion, which is a great, great track. It's a classic Scalpel track.

Here we go, Q. So here is a 17-piece band playing Scalpel's Confusion. first off you have to be crazy talented to even attempt to to perform this with other musicians these are like top of the tops oh yeah i mean each of these musicians man that drummer oh yeah how else do you like how do you as a drummer how do you how do you pull off like break beats and spliced up drum beats live like that dude i'm glad you asked that question because i'm gonna i'm to play another track as our outro from this record. That's like a, you know, it mentioned in that write-up that there's a couple of exclusive

tracks. So like new tracks and this is one of them, dude. The drummer is insane, dude. Yeah. I wish I could look up his name, but I don't. I actually, of course, I ordered this immediately. So this is coming my way at some point, which I'm sure we'll have the full roster. So maybe I'll, I don't know.

Maybe I'll bring it up in the next episode. I don't know. Because like, I feel like these guys deserve a shout. out. Well, hopefully they do it justice with like a solid final release. You know, I hope it's not just a flimsy, a flimsy record. You know what I'm saying? There's definitely a vinyl release. No, no, no, no. I just mean like, I hope it's a, on a good, like a good press. Oh, yeah. Well, all I can say is it sounds amazing. Just listening to it on Spotify. Do you like some good speakers and stuff? Sounds incredible. Yeah, I can't imagine seeing that live. So this record earned them a

Polish Grammy, which is called the Friedrich Award. So yeah, amazing. Just so cool, dude. Especially for people like us who've been listening to them forever. I was about to say. This is amazing. Yeah. Yeah, what I like about it is that

obviously there's a little wiggle room given to the musicians to change it up just enough to make it work for a big band. But man, they stay. true to the song. Yeah, especially that one. Yeah. Super cool. But yeah, dude. Just incredible. When I first saw

that they did that, like it just blew me away and the record does not disappoint, dude. It's just incredible. From track to track. It's amazing. Oh, that's awesome way to end the night, dude. Yeah, totally. Anyway, so again, that was scalpel. The record is a live

record called Big Band Live. If you're a fan of jazz music or down tempo music like that's it's a must listen you know what I mean and then after that go back and listen to the records that these songs you know originated from which is mostly confusion in 2005 and the one before that scalpel yeah the self-title yeah both of those came out and and go back and listen to I'm pretty sure we did an episode on scalpel we did yeah yep yeah yeah cool all right well that's that is our uh we've now hit 20 tracks in total on our countdown.

And it's not really like countdown because these aren't in any particular order. Because I think that track, if I had to come up with a top five, that one would be on, or at least that record, definitely a top five for sure this year. But so yeah, find us on Instagram to search for No Filler podcast or don't. I don't really care. But we do, I mean, we do genuinely would like to hear from our listeners because I think there's a few of you still left out there. So, you know, if you,

yeah, if you listen to this podcast, chances are you listen to music a lot. You got to be listening to something out there. Reach out. Tell us what you've been listening to. And if we like it, we'll tack it on to the next episode as an outro track. But since we haven't heard from anybody, I'm going to play another track off of this scalpel album

because it's incredible. And Q, I want you to admire the drummer on this track because it's amazing. So anyway, all right. Well, next week now, two weeks from now, ish. We'll put out part three of our best of 2020 episodes. And hey, you know what? Hope you guys all had a good Thanksgiving or however else you celebrate. Hope you got to relax and spend some time with family and stuff like that because

Turkey Day will have already happened by the time I put this episode out, Q. That's right. So anyway, happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Yeah. Right? It's the most wonderful time of the year, Q. That's what I'm told. All right, Q, well, until next time,

my name is Travis. And I'm quite. Y'all take care. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point.

Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. Simons, insuffles of magic, in your time of the fair. Millie an idea of the cado and auton of decorations festive for a lot of the decorer and the beauched

and the boasts and vets a new ornament to suspend, the other pyjama to end. Sheimans. Hi, I'm Sophia Lopercaro, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love,

Artists of all genres are welcome. And I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus.