No Filler Music Podcast - No Filler's Best of 2020: Part 3

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

On perhaps our most eclectic set of tunes so far in our year-end batch of episodes, we bring everything from 70s-inspired dance/funk indie pop to songs that make you stop and reflect on the human experience world around you in this crazy year we've all been through together. Tune in to hear our next 5 picks from our Top 20 Tracks from 2020. Tracklist: Laura Marling - Only The Strong Tall Black Guy - F.I.Y.E (feat. Tony Ozier) George Clanton & Nick Hexum - Under Your Window The Whitest Boy Alive - Serious LA Priest - Beginning Post Malone - Drain You (Nirvana cover) This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And welcome back to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that filled the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I've got my brother Quentin with me today. And we're continuing our countdown of our favorite tracks from 2020. This is week three. So we're now in our top 10. Although, These aren't in any particular order. So it's not really ranked at all. But anyway, we're down to our final 10. And Q, you're going to kick us off. We're going to jump right into it and start with some tunes right out the gate.

Kicking us off, I'm bringing another song that Travis has no idea what it's going to be. We're going to try to flow with it. Keep it going. That's right. We're going to try to flow from track to track. We're amateur DJs, you know, we're not like we don't get paid to just to scratch it out. I mean, here's the challenge. The challenge is our songs are picked.

Our songs are what they are. We have to, so whatever you play, I've only got five tracks left to choose from on my list. So I'm going to do the best I can to pick something that flows well with your pick. But as we get down to our last few, it's not going to be perfect. That's all right, dude. We're going to try our best. We'll see what kind of convoluted way we can tie it to each other, right? We're having fun with it.

Yeah, you know, just a couple of bros have. fun. All right, Q, what do you got? All right, man. I have been in love with this song all year. I can't get enough of it. Every time I hear it, it gives me goosebumps. Goosebombs, okay. So, goosebumps, dude. And I've, I have blasted a link to this song to you throughout the year. I don't know if you've ever actually pressed play. I'm hoping that you haven't. Okay. Every like three months, I'll be like, dude, I don't know if you've listened to this yet. You got to hear it.

I'm sure surely I've pushed play at least once. Well, sometimes you let me down, brother, and like a couple days will go by and I'll be like, did you listen to that song I sent you? And you're like, nope. You know, what can I say? I'm a busy guy. Busy guy. You're busy coding. That's right. All right. So the artist is Laura Marling, folk singer, songwriter. She has been in the music industry.

Like she grew up around music, basically. in her entire life. Her mom's a music teacher. Her father runs a record studio. She just released an album called Song for Our Daughter. Came out earlier this year back in April of this year. And we're going to get right into it, dude. Again, I can't stress this enough, dude. This might be my favorite song of the year. Okay. Man, the hype has been built up. It's just something about it, man. All right. So this song is called Only the Strong. Only the strong survive. Only the strong survive.

Only live their lives. We've been here a thousand times. Wish I could go back and find. Letters I wrote you in my mind. Perhaps I could unnoticed from this awful bind. Most I have forgot or over refined Love is a sickness geared by time Love is a sickness geared by time

This is all Love is a sickness scared by time That you can change My head to leave this crying Oh behind to somebody told Only the strong Only the strong survive

You can change Mom on anybody told Yeah that's one of those tracks that kind of stops you, you know, and you, you're captivated by you, right? Oh, man. Yeah, dude. Or, you know, you might be, I've talked about this before, like, where, you know,

you're listening to music, you know, you're doing something. And then something happens to the song and you're like, whoa, I need to, I need to pay attention to this, right? Yep. And because it's just, it's moving, right? Her vocals are very, like, this is a timeless song. In a hundred years you could listen to this song, and it'll be just as great. as it was today, you know.

Yeah, dude, I'm not, I'm not exaggerating, dude. I got choked up again, man. Yeah, it's one of those tracks. Every time. Yeah, because of what she does with her vocals, you know. And the lyrics, dude, my, one of my favorite lines, she says, wish I could go back and find letters I wrote you in my mind. Perhaps I could unknot us from this awful bind.

Like, I wish I could think back to, all these things that I've thought about telling you, but I never did. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great track. And that's setting a particular bar for this episode. But I've got the perfect. Can I just say real quick, dude, another thing I really like about it, you notice that there's a gradual, very subtle build throughout the song.

Like, at 10 seconds in, there's a little, like, a beat comes in. Yeah. It's just like something, a little click. track sounding thing and just a little kick drum. And then throughout the song, there's more harmonizing vocals that come in behind her. And then by the end of the song, it's almost like a choir that's singing along with her. Yeah. It's really good, good layers. Good layers. It's not kind of simple, but I mean, that was a song about layers on top of each other, building that to that. Because by the end, there's so much happening, right? It's kind of like,

a crescendo at the very end. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, dude. All right, so that was Laura Marling and a song from her album's song for our daughter. That one is called Only the Strong. All right, dude, you're going to keep it in the somber pocket? Are we going to... Well, I do have the perfect song to follow that, which is great. I'm glad that I saved it, and I hadn't played it earlier because it's actually a really good companion to this song. As far as like, songs that will stop you your tracks that you kind of have to pay attention to. So this guy, he is a producer that goes by the name Tall Black Guy. And he's been on my radar for a while. He actually has put out some records that kind of feature more down tempo, instrumental type stuff. That's how I got cute into him.

There's a record he came out with in 2013 called Eight Miles to Moenart. Or Moinar. Anyway, that was my introduction to him. So he put out a record this year back in June called Restless as We Are. So I'm going to read a little, these are his words describing the record. He says here, I think around the second month of us being quarantined, I started to be more in tuned to the police brutality and racism going on around the country and the world. To me, it feels like deja vu.

It seems like we just went through something similar with the murders of Trayvon Martin and Eric Gardner five to six years ago. Today we have unarmed Ahmad Arbery murdered by white civilians and unarmed George Floyd murdered by a police officer. There are so many more to be named. Between this pandemic, being stuck on the house and the protests worldwide, there is a looming uncertainty about all of this shit. I put all of my heart, soul, time, and frustrations into this EP. So, with all of that being said, I'm going to play a track here that features a vocalist named Tony Ozier or Ozi or something like that. Anyway, he's the rapper on this track.

And this song is called F-I-Y-E. I'm not going to tell you what that stands for because it's more impactful to hear it in the song. So here we go. I'm all about it, dude. All about it. Yeah, it's great. Really good stuff. So does tall black guy sing as well?

No, he's just a producer. Okay. So. I really like the harmonizing in that. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, there's lyrics, dude, gut punch. Yeah.

For sure. So, you know, the lyrics are about, you know, the experience of being a person of color in America, right? So if you F-I-Y-E stands for fear in your eyes, right? Yeah. So, you know, the gist of the song here is, says here, I'm guilty of just being me. My skin is brown and I wore a frown today. I've seen it too many times the fear in your eyes.

You can't deny, you say you're colorblind, but I see the fear in your eyes. I mean, that's powerful stuff, man. You know, powerful. Yeah, dude. I'm guilty simply because I have brown skin and I woke up with a frown today. Yeah, sorry I didn't smile at you when I walked by. I saw you, you know, clutching onto your purse and stuff like that and like move into the other side of the street and shit like that. And so, yeah, you know, he was talking about Trayvon Martin and stuff like that, right?

Obama had very similar comments after the Trayvon Martin ruling where he said, there are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. So this is the exact same. It's the same thing. It's the experience of people of color in this country, right? And a lot of people like you and me, we just don't know what that reality is, you know? Right.

We've never had to even conceive of it. Right. So this year has been one of those years where a lot of people have. have come to terms with this reality, right? It's about time, right? But stuff like this, music like this, is important. One of my favorite verses, and I'm going to have to read it right now, dude. I gushed over Earthgang a couple weeks ago.

They have an EP called Rags. It came out in 2017. There's a song on there called Meditate. and yeah dude let me see if I can find these lyrics real quick the chorus is he says looking for peace in America looking for peace when I stare at you that's all they're asking for dude yeah you know

like they like you said they can see the fear in your eyes yeah and all I'm doing is sitting on the bus and I happen to glance over it or I'm just walking past you on the street yeah so anyway we've said a fucking mood and vibe for this episode having with you. So it could be interesting where we go from here because all we got is what we got left on our pick of songs here. But this may be a pivot depending on what you.

I've got a bumper sticker on my car actually that says that, dude. All we got is what we got left. Really? Really makes you think, no, dude. I was going to say, that sounds like it's almost like a climate change type bumper sticker. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Okay.

So, well, I'm going to change it up a little bit. Here is, this one's a doozy. Where do we go for, here, Q? I hope you, uh, well, I hope you can guide, guide the ship to, to something else. I'm gonna, gonna make, it's gonna be a little more lighthearted. Okay. Uh, so, we're all fans of 311, right?

Anyone around our age. Who isn't? Right. So, this magical thing happened this year, uh, where the lead singer of 311, his name's Nick Hexum. decided to collaborate with this vapor wave guy vapor wave yeah chill hop dude his name's george clinton uh they came out with an album it's i guess it's self-titled it's just called george clinton and nick hexam it came out in may this year and i mean it's just one of those things where like it just made me

so happy dude to hear that buttery nick hexam three 11 voice you know thrown onto some some vapor wave tunes. So I'm going to play a song from that album. It's called Under Your Window. Didn't realize that Nick Hexon was the lead singer of 3-11. Because I've actually listened to parts of this record just because I kind of, when I went into my Vapor Wave hole earlier this year and couldn't dig my way out of it, I was listening to some George Clinton stuff. But yeah, I didn't realize that that was the 3-11 singer. I feel, well, now it's obvious, but it's like, Oh, duh. But yeah, you want to talk about like a bridge between like two generations, right?

Right. George Clinton is very much a musician for this generation. 311 was like the 90s. And that's a cool mashup of the two. And it's perfect, dude. And like his voice is great for this kind of stuff, the kind of stuff that George Clinton does. Yeah, there's another song on here called Topanga State of Mind.

Yeah. Topanga, dude. from Boyme's World. Isn't the funny thing about vapor wave is like it taps into like 80s and 90s aesthetic. Yeah. A lot.

I mean, shit. I'm pretty sure George Clinton has an album. Yeah, he's got an album called Virtua. Dot Zip. And like, I think he's got like some record called like Encarda or something like that or. Oh, was that that encyclopedia? Yeah.

Or at least there's a, maybe there's another artist out there that goes by Encarra. But yeah, it's just funny how. vapor wave sort of taps into the 90s, the weird 90s, like, aesthetic. It's a tongue and cheat kind of thing. Yeah, and then they're like, well, let's get this guy from 3-11 to be on my record. Pretty smart. But it's a good pairing for sure, you know.

Yeah. All right. Travis, song number two for you, what you got for us? All right. So at the end of the episode last week, we talked about Ireland, Oya, and Sebastian a shot. Oh, boy. And a little record that they put together while they were stuck in, while they were stuck in,

at this hotel. So that record was called quarantine at El Canso. Sebastian Machot and Ireland Oya are in this group called the Whitest Boy Alive. And you want to talk about like a special, like those two records that they put out. Those are just unbelievable records. It's the last one that came out was called Rules. It came out in 2009. So this is another band where it's like, man, we haven't heard from these guys in so long.

And they did actually split up completely. Yeah, they weren't. Like in 2014, on their Facebook page, they wrote that they were no longer composing and playing together as Wattest Boy Live. So if you were a fan of these two records that they put out, we had no clue that any new music would come from them, right? It's kind of like Kings of Convenience. I feel like I'm always wondering, like, will there ever be new Kings of Convenience? Yeah. Songs.

And Kings of Convenience, of course, is the other group that Aeronlind Oia has been making music. It's him and this other guy. We mentioned it last week. What's his name, man? I can't remember his name. I always forget because Aaron Lina Oia is just, like, etched in my brain. I'm looking it up, dude, because we need to give him a shout out. Eric Glombac Bay, or Bell Boye, something like that's a weird heart of the house.

It's Eric. Eric Glombeck. Iric or something? I, Rick, yeah, that's right. Anyway. So, Why to Spoil Live is, you know, Kings of Convenience or more, I don't know, singer, songwriter, folkie kind of, Simon and Garfunkel kind of music. Yeah.

Why Dis Boy Alive is straight up like 70s disco pop. Yeah, disco dance, funk. Yeah. And, you know, Ayrloid Oreo is just way more prolific, I think, as a musician than his counterpart. on Kings of Convenience. Like, he's a producer, he's a singer-songwriter. He, like, he has a ton of side projects. He always has.

But anyway, so Why I Spoil I put out a single back in March. And the funny thing about it is that they were planning on recording a second single when they got together for that music festival. So it's kind of a bummer because, you know, as we talked about last week, only two of them had arrived at the hotel before flights were canceled, festivals, canceled, stuff like that. And that's why Sebastian and Ireland put out that record. It was just them too and they were in quarantine. So that's crazy.

They just put out that record out. But it's like. You want to talk about like planets aligned, you know, like, yeah. We would not have had that lovely quarantine and Algonzo record if the rest of the boys from. But we would have had another white, why to Sport Live single. What a catch 22? Man. Okay.

All right. Well, that dude, you know what? At least we got this one. Yes. It is so great. One of my favorite songs of the year for sure. Definitely. And it's one of those things.

I remember when it happened, like, I immediately, like, texted you. I think we featured this on the show. So if you, we did. If you listened to our podcast back in March, you've heard this song before, but that was months ago. So we're going to hear it again because it's great. I think we should play the whole song, man. Yeah. So much happens throughout the whole song that needs to be heard.

Totally down with that. Okay. So this song is called Serious by The Wattest Boy Alive. or should I do you know that boy can do no wrong that widest boy yeah can do no wrong dude

if you look up pictures of Ireland or yeah you'll know why they call themselves the widest boy alive because that's what you think of when you see pictures of him yeah I love that man I love I'm so stoked to be living on this planet at the same time as this guy

yeah you know yeah and um if you like that song there was no doubt that you will love their first two records. The first one was called Dreams, came out in 2006, and then Rules came out in 2009.

But yeah, what I've always loved about this band is the guy that plays the Rhodes piano. And like the Khrumar synthesizer, his name is Daniel Nintwig. It just adds such like a, like this nice texture and like lushness to it, you know.

And it makes it sound like a like, it's kind of a 70s dance song. Which is really cool, right? I mean... And I don't know if this is the case, but I'm guessing so. Because Dreams and Rules was recorded live. You know, the whole... The band altogether playing the instruments as if they're playing it at a show.

That's how that, you know, it's all one... Not one take kind of thing, but, you know, the whole band's together playing the song. That adds to it, too. Based on what we know about what their plans were when they met up in Mexico, was to record another single. So yeah, that's probably still their process, right? But anyway, so if you're a fan of Aeronlea, like, this has been a good year for you, you know, musically, because like not only do we get a new Wattest Boy Live single,

the first one in, you know, the first new song from them in 11 years. But we also got that never would have happened had it not been for the pandemic album between him and another band made from Wides Boy Live, right? So anyway, hopefully that didn't, you know, this year hasn't put too much of a damper on their plans to put out more singles and hopefully a full record as wide as spoil life. Shit, maybe they've gotten together, you know, in the last few months and found a way to record more music. But nothing has been released, you know, since this track. But it'll happen eventually. We know they're back together.

They're still putting on great tracks. So anyway, all right, Q, what are you going to do here to close us out? What do you got? All right, so I'm going to finish off this episode with a track by an artist that goes by L.A. Priest. Have you ever heard of this guy? I don't think so. I don't know much about them. But this is one of those albums where, so I'm going to play it, this is actually the first track on the album.

And it's just one of those things where it's just like, all right, this album's going to be great, you know. Especially with when I'm discovering an artist for the first time and I press play on, and track one on an album is just a banger. I'm like, damn, dude, this is, this is going to be a doozy. So this guy, let's see, I don't know much about them. I'm not even going to look it up. Who cares? Let's just let the music play.

I think you're like this, dude. This reminds me a little bit of, here we go, magic. Or what's the guy's name? Luke Temple. Yeah, yeah, it kind of reminds me of that stuff. So, this is a song from L.A. Priest's album, Gene. This is track one off the record. It is called Beginning.

Yeah, I can definitely see the Luke Temple comparison. It's kind of that, like, Peter Gabriel kind of vocal type style, you know. Yeah, really unique. The whole album's really, from track to track, it's all over the place, but really cool stuff. I really like the harmonies that he does and the, like, the overlapping vocals throughout that chorus. It just kind of repeats the word beginning

or in the beginning and whatever, whatever he says. I love it, dude. Really good. That was one of those tracks that just stood out to me and I just kept going back to it throughout the year. Yeah, that's a good way to end this episode queue. It's a good song to take us out on. Well, Travis, you seem to always forget.

I don't know. I know what's coming. In fact, I'm already already got plans for it. Or at least I think I know which one we're going to do. So yeah, if you listen to our last couple of episodes, what we're trying to do in addition to our picks of top 20 tracks, we're picking songs that are moments is what we call it. So yeah, we're also picking our top five musical moments of 2020. And, you know, last week, one of them was just talking about the quarantine at Algonso record that came out, which now we've talked about a, three times on this episode on this podcast but yeah one of the other um moments that i think

stood out to a lot of people and a lot of people paid attention to this year because i've how amazing it was we actually did an episode on it was when post malone covered some nirvana songs for a live stream to raise money for uh it was for p p p p p p p p and first response or stuff like that. Yeah. Dude, it was just, it was, it was amazing. Let's put it this way. Anybody who wasn't a fan of Post Malone, maybe because they don't like the kind of

music that he puts out, you were a fan of Post Malone after watching that performance because basically what he did was like, you know, people like us who, who love Nirvana and grunge music and love 90s rock music, he brought us in to his or. world, right? Everybody knows who Postman. He's one of the biggest artists on the planet for a little bit there. And then, you know, I think people who are familiar with, like, his story, like, we all kind of know that he's a fan. Like, he grew up on metal music. He grew up listening to, you know, bands like Nirvana and stuff like that.

So it was awesome to see a Nirvana tribute performance that was done so perfectly. And not to mention, Travis Barker was on the drum set, right, of Blink 128. So it was like the perfect, like, again, like the bridging of two generations, or at least two fans, you know, two generations of music fandom, right? So anyway. Yeah, and I got to mention, dude, like, I fell in love with Post Malone. Earlier this year, I found this video that he posted on Instagram where he's just jamming out to Fleet Foxes.

I think it was Shrine. The Shrine, the Shrine Slashvin, aren't you? From Helplessness Blues? Him and this other dude, they're just like jamming out to it. And the title that he posts with the video is, if you don't love Fleet Foxes, then fuck

you. Yeah, just that alone was a cool moment. That guy is all over the place musically. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Post Malone is a lover of all music type. right um and he brings all that to the to the table with his own music you know he famously collaborated with Ozzy Osbourne right on his last record which may have came out this year

shit I don't even know but um like again so so what makes Post Malone so unique is that he really is kind of this like he he listens and takes and everything he was on I think he was in a metal band or something like that back when back in the day So anyway, so this concert was amazing. If you haven't seen it already, go back and watch it. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube. But, yeah, how about we close out with them doing Drain You? I was going to suggest something in the way.

Well, but we played that on our episode. Okay, good call. Yeah, if you didn't hear our episode, go back and listen to it. But, yeah, let's close with Pose Malone and his, I don't remember who the other guys were beyond Travis Barker, but it was him and four other guys. paying tributes in Nirvana. So follow us on Twitter at No Filler Podcast. You can also find us on our website,

no fillerpodcast.com, and you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network, which is the podcast network for music lovers. That's pantheonpodcast.com. All right. Next week, here's our last five picks of our top 20 tracks from 2020. And then again, just to mention this one more time, if you want to send us your picks of your favorite tracks from 2020, hit us up on Twitter.

There is a tweet that we stuck to the top. Is that what they say these days? No, the kids these days are saying pinned. Okay, we pinned. We pinned a tweet on our profile that says, hey, send us your submission. If you have some tracks, you're like, man, this song was amazing this year, then tweeted at us. And we will throw it into the mix. And we're going to do an episode in a couple weeks where we feature some songs that you guys have tweeted at us.

We've reached out to some previous guests on the pod as well. So anyway, that's how we're going to close out the batch of recap episodes. So that's in a couple weeks. Anyway, that's that. We're going to talk to you guys next week. In the meantime, like I said earlier, we're going to close out with Post Malone covering Drain You by Nirvana. My name is Travis. And my name is Quentin.

You all take care.