Summary

This week, we’re disappearing down some serious rabbit holes. From the casual Aussie swagger of Bel Air Lip Bombs to the psychedelic sway of Alex Chilton’s cover of “Rubber Room,” the episode is a love letter to overlooked tracks that quietly demand a place in your rotation. Charles Hale, Sloane Spencer, Rachel Cholst, and Kim Ware come together like a carefully sequenced mixtape, swapping stories about their latest musical fixations and music Venn diagrams that overlap way too much and not at all. Punk-leaning jazz that used to be in a duo with a noted blues musician, and a lot of tiny touchpoints connecting us to the music. So throw on your headphones, pour yourself a drink, and sink into the rich, unpredictable soundscape of the Dive Bar Music Club.

Catch Our Tastemaker Playlists

1. Apple Music
2. Tidal

Bands Featured in Episode 2

1. Alex Chilton (Big Star, The Box Tops)
2. Audrey Hobert
3. Becky Warren
4. The Belair Lip Bombs
5. Fust
6. Gladie
7. Johanna Rose
8. Minus Five
9. Valerie June

Venues Mentioned

1. The 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA

The Regulars in Episode 2

1. Rachel Cholst
2. Charles Hale
3. Sloane Spencer
4. Kim Ware

Musicians Also Mentioned

1. Augusta Koch (Cayetana, Gladie)
2. The Baseball Project
3. Buffalo Nichols
4. Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys)
5. Dolly Parton
6. Emily Ray (Indigo Girls)
7. Florry
8. Geese
9. Gracie Abrams
10. Hurray for the Riff Raff
11. Indigo Girls
12. Jeff Rosenstock
13. Louis Armstrong
14. M. Ward
15. Nickel and Rose
16. Neko Case
17. Peter Buck
18. Porter Wagoner
19. R.E.M.
20. Replacements
21. Scott McCaughey
22. Self Esteem
23. SG Goodman
24. Steve Wynn
25. Sun Volt
26. Taylor Swift
27. Young Fresh Fellows

Recommended If You Like

Dive Bar Music Club, 90s alt rock, emerging songwriters, indie rock playlists, music podcasts, female vocalists in rock, Australian indie bands, Bel Air Lip Bombs, Alex Chilton, Big Star, record collecting, Americana music, Southern indie rock, music industry discussions, Jeff Rosenstock, indie music scenes, underground music recommendations, vinyl records, music discovery, music and mental health,

indie music podcast, music nerd podcast, underground music podcast, music roundtable podcast, best new indie bands, independent music podcast, music discovery podcast, alternative music podcast, podcast for music lovers, dive bar music podcast, low key music podcast, deep cut music discussion, music tastemakers podcast, music festival discoveries, music zine culture, DIY music scene, touring musician stories, hidden gem bands, vinyl collector podcast, music conversations podcast,

Automated Transcript

Speaker A

00:00:01.200 - 00:01:47.260

Welcome to the Dive Bar Music Club podcast, where the guest hosts drop in and out, but the opinions are always passionate and the playlists loud. It's like cheers if everyone at the bar had a strong take on 90s alt rock or a suspicious number of burned CDs.

Around our table, you'll find an emerging touring songwriter, a former cult band favorite whose work since then is even more interesting.

I a portrait photographer with a not so secret metal penchant, a record store owner who learned about Swifties the hard way, a retired folk singer who regrets nothing, and a zine maker with more cool music projects than we can count.

We're all just here to share what we're currently obsessed with and maybe convince someone that, yes, that weird Icelandic synth folk band is worth a listen. Okay, that last one's probably me, Sloane Spencer. It's Dive Bar Music Club. Low key, high taste happy hour for music nerds. Well, hey, y', all.

It's Sloan Spencer, and we are back with another episode of Dive Bar Music Club. This time diving into a few new friends. We've got Charles Hale joining us today, Rachel Colst and Kim Ware.

Hope you all had a chance to listen to those introductory bio episodes so you can get to know a little bit about them.

And if you haven't had a chance to listen to any of our prior episodes, every time we have a show, we like to start it off with everyone sharing one of the three things they've been listening to lately. Now, because I get to be the ringleader of all the episodes, I'm going to sit this one out and just kind of act as cat wrangler.

And I'm going to let our guests talk about the music that has been on their playlist lately. So let's dive in with a new friend, Kim Ware. Hey, Kim, what have you been listening to lately?

Speaker B

00:01:48.180 - 00:02:50.010

So I have been listening to a lot of, like 20, 25 releases, right? And around the end of the year, I was trying to catch up on things that I was not able to get to earlier in the year.

And Bel Air Lip Balms was one of them. I think I had seen the name come up from time to time. It stood out because I was like, what is this?

Because at first I thought it was like Chapstick lip balm, but it's not. It turns out it's like a skateboard or something is where they got their name. But, yeah, I love their album.

I had never heard of them until this year. They're from Australia. Their album is entitled Again and there's one track in particular, if you've got the time. It's the name of it.

This, like, just so freaking catchy. And, yeah, I just. I love them. It's just, like, really cool indie rock with female vocals, really neat guitar interplay stuff.

So that's one that I've been loving.

Speaker A

00:02:50.650 - 00:02:56.490

We'll kind of do a little roundtable. Rachel and Charles, have either of you heard of this band before? Bel Air Lip Balms?

Speaker C

00:02:56.970 - 00:03:08.650

Not at all. But once you said they were Australian, I was like, this makes sense.

There's just this sort of casualness that I feel like I've heard from other Australian bands. Not casual, but, like, effortlessness. Yeah.

Speaker D

00:03:09.610 - 00:03:27.110

I had not heard of them, but I did really enjoy that song, and I listened to the whole album, and I. I enjoyed the whole thing. I was surprised, but I'm also always happy when there's young people making rock music with instruments.

Speaker B

00:03:27.190 - 00:03:35.590

Yes, I know. That was one of the things when I first heard them, too. I was like, oh, these. These kids are pretty young. And, yeah, they're great.

Speaker A

00:03:36.310 - 00:03:46.250

I was not familiar with them at all. And I listened to the one song, and then I also went ahead and was like, wow, I'm checking out this whole entire record. So I. I'm super thrilled.

How did you know?

Speaker B

00:03:46.250 - 00:04:09.730

I don't. I really don't remember, honestly.

I think I had seen the name come up a couple of times, probably in, like, one of my streaming algorithms or something, I think on Tidal. Because I listened to Tidal a good bit, and I think it came up on that, and.

But it took me a while to actually, like, check it out, and then instantly I was like, oh, my God, this is like, my new favorite thing. Yeah.

Speaker A

00:04:10.450 - 00:04:11.570

Shout out to title.

Speaker B

00:04:11.570 - 00:04:11.970

Cool.

Speaker A

00:04:11.970 - 00:04:19.390

Rachel is our title expert helping us get our playlist over there. So that's pretty cool. Speaking of which, Rachel, what have you been listening to lately?

Speaker C

00:04:20.110 - 00:04:35.310

I wanted to dedicate my first song of the episode to Becky Warren, the writer of Dive Bar Sweetheart. It was just stuck in my head as soon as you invited me to be on the podcast alone. And it just seems like it's sort of the perfect theme song for us.

Speaker A

00:04:35.710 - 00:04:44.920

Well, you and I had a little chat about that, and I will admit to just shamelessly tagging Becky Warren in social media, who thought it was hilarious and reshared it.

Speaker C

00:04:46.360 - 00:06:08.890

Yeah, I did a little digging on her today, because I was thinking she hasn't put out new music since her last album, which was, I think, the very end of 2019, and it was called the six season. And then that ended up being very relevant to everybody else. But she's really cool, so if anyone out there hasn't listened to her music yet.

Her first couple albums were concept albums. The first about veterans, war surplus, and then the second one is about homeless people, specifically the stories of homeless people in Nashville.

And then she finally turned to writing about herself with the sixth season, and that was an album about depression. And all of a sudden, the medication she had been on just kind of stopped working.

And, you know, it's always such a roller coaster to have to, like, readjust your meds. And it's just like an amazing album. Just great sense of humor, as always.

And she hasn't put out an album since then, but according to her Instagram, she had, like, two posts on her official Instagram this year, and one of them was that she had started a sub stack like everybody else and that there's more music coming.

But I'm curious to read the substack because there is an entry there about how she's just continuing to live a life in music without being beholden to the album cycle. And I'm sure Kim has some thoughts on that, too.

Speaker B

00:06:08.890 - 00:06:33.010

Yeah, Yeah. I, like, I really appreciate that, and I think a lot of people are starting to do that as we get older, and it's harder and harder to.

I mean, so many reasons, right? It's harder and harder to make money on music. And, yeah, touring is also really tough.

And so I like when I see people that are just like, you know what? I'm going to do this, like, at my own pace. That makes sense for me and is healthy.

Speaker C

00:06:34.100 - 00:06:34.340

She.

Speaker D

00:06:34.980 - 00:07:00.180

She. Several years ago, she got in with the Indigo Girls, and she's been an opener on a bunch of Indigo Girls dates sort of all over the Southeast.

So I feel like she's been doing stuff, just not releasing records, but I. I feel like she's probably open for the Indigo girls 10 or 15 times since that last album came out.

Speaker B

00:07:01.210 - 00:07:13.770

Yeah, that's how I had heard of her, actually, through Indigo Girls, so that's cool. Yeah. And I. I was glad that you brought her song Rachel, because I actually. I was a fan of that sixth season. Is that what it's called?

Speaker C

00:07:14.330 - 00:07:20.250

Yeah. And Emily Girls was on there, too, as well as I think their longtime producer.

Speaker B

00:07:21.370 - 00:07:24.410

Very cool. Yeah, I like. I like her stuff a lot.

Speaker A

00:07:24.810 - 00:07:40.310

I love how this brings up so much great overlap for all of us in different areas of both our interest, but also just little tidbits that we can p. I had completely forgotten about the association with Indigo Girls. And now I'm like, how did I not know that? Charles, you've always got interesting things in your ears. What are you listening to lately?

Speaker D

00:07:40.790 - 00:09:41.150

So the thing I listed was an Alex Chilton song. Alex Chilton, being from Big Star, he put out a solo record in the 90s, and I just bought it in the last year or two called Feudalist Tarts.

And, you know, I don't digest an album sort of all at once and, and very thoroughly. So I probably had the record a few months before. I really picked up on a song on the B side called Rubber Room.

And it's a weird and strange, trippy song. And then I looked at the back of the album cover and saw that Porter Wagner wrote the song, which really confused me because this is a.

A psychedelic song about someone locked up in a padded room in a mental institution, which does not feel like the kind of thing that Porter Wagner would have ever written about. But sure enough, I. I went looking. I found the Porter Wagner version. And it's not as if Alex Chilton took a standard country song and made it trippy.

The Porter Wagner version is also weird and trippy. And I guess that he. His version came out in the 70s and he was trying to latch on to the counterculture. But the Alex Chilton version is great.

It's longer than the Porter Wagner version, so there's, you know, more guitar solos, more psychedelic effects. But I'm. I'm a huge Alex Chilton fan.

And just the thought that he hears this Porter Wagner song and decides, nope, I'm taking that into the studio and I'm going to make it even weirder, and puts it on a record just excites me no end.

Speaker A

00:09:41.790 - 00:10:30.950

This is fascinating to me. So I have no problem exposing my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to music.

So I was a big Replacements fan, and the first time I ever heard the name Alex Chilton was, of course, from their song Alex Chilton. And then that led me back in the day to go to the record store and ask some questions. And here's the weird part.

I knew the band the Box Tops, really, really well. I did not know Chilton by name, nor that he was the lead singer as a teenager, but I had never heard of Big Star at that point, not at all.

So I kind of worked backwards on all of that, of finding Chilton's name from the replacement song, going to the record store, learning about his at the time, solo work, and they assuming I knew Big Star when I did not. But me then being like, oh, yeah, I know all the Box Top stuff. So how on earth did you become a Chilton fan?

Speaker D

00:10:31.430 - 00:10:33.670

I'm a rock and roll kid from the South.

Speaker B

00:10:33.990 - 00:10:35.350

I mean, me too, though.

Speaker D

00:10:36.470 - 00:12:13.190

I know, but I came to it the same way you did, essentially that it starts with the...

Welcome to the Dive Bar Music Club podcast, where the guest hosts drop in and out, but the opinions are always passionate and the playlists loud.

It's like cheers if everyone at the bar had a strong take on 90s alt rock or a suspicious number of burned CDs.

Around our table, you'll find an emerging touring songwriter, a former cult band favorite whose work since then is even more interesting.

I a portrait photographer with a not so secret metal penchant, a record store owner who learned about Swifties the hard way, a retired folk singer who regrets nothing, and a zine maker with more cool music projects than we can count.

We're all just here to share what we're currently obsessed with and maybe convince someone that, yes, that weird Icelandic synth folk band is worth a listen.

Okay, that last one's probably me, Sloane Spencer.

It's Dive Bar Music Club.

Low key, high taste happy hour for music nerds.

Well, hey, y', all.

It's Sloan Spencer, and we are back with another episode of Dive Bar Music Club.

This time diving into a few new friends.

We've got Charles Hale joining us today, Rachel Colst and Kim Ware.

Hope you all had a chance to listen to those introductory bio episodes so you can get to know a little bit about them.

And if you haven't had a chance to listen to any of our prior episodes, every time we have a show, we like to start it off with everyone sharing one of the three things they've been listening to lately.

Now, because I get to be the ringleader of all the episodes, I'm going to sit this one out and just kind of act as cat wrangler.

And I'm going to let our guests talk about the music that has been on their playlist lately.

So let's dive in with a new friend, Kim Ware.

Hey, Kim, what have you been listening to lately?

So I have been listening to a lot of, like 20, 25 releases, right?

And around the end of the year, I was trying to catch up on things that I was not able to get to earlier in the year.

And Bel Air Lip Balms was one of them.

I think I had seen the name come up from time to time.

It stood out because I was like, what is this?

Because at first I thought it was like Chapstick lip balm, but it's not.

It turns out it's like a skateboard or something is where they got their name.

But, yeah, I love their album.

I had never heard of them until this year.

They're from Australia.

Their album is entitled Again and there's one track in particular, if you've got the time.

It's the name of it.

This, like, just so freaking catchy.

And, yeah, I just.

I love them.

It's just, like, really cool indie rock with female vocals, really neat guitar interplay stuff.

So that's one that I've been loving.

We'll kind of do a little roundtable.

Rachel and Charles, have either of you heard of this band before?

Bel Air Lip Balms?

Not at all.

But once you said they were Australian, I was like, this makes sense.

There's just this sort of casualness that I feel like I've heard from other Australian bands.

Not casual, but, like, effortlessness.

Yeah.

I had not heard of them, but I did really enjoy that song, and I listened to the whole album, and I. I enjoyed the whole thing.

I was surprised, but I'm also always happy when there's young people making rock music with instruments.

Yes, I know.

That was one of the things when I first heard them, too.

I was like, oh, these.

These kids are pretty young.

And, yeah, they're great.

I was not familiar with them at all.

And I listened to the one song, and then I also went ahead and was like, wow, I'm checking out this whole entire record.

So I. I'm super thrilled.

How did you know?

I don't.

I really don't remember, honestly.

I think I had seen the name come up a couple of times, probably in, like, one of my streaming algorithms or something, I think on Tidal.

Because I listened to Tidal a good bit, and I think it came up on that, and.

But it took me a while to actually, like, check it out, and then instantly I was like, oh, my God, this is like, my new favorite thing.

Yeah.

Shout out to title.

Cool.

Rachel is our title expert helping us get our playlist over there.

So that's pretty cool.

Speaking of which, Rachel, what have you been listening to lately?

I wanted to dedicate my first song of the episode to Becky Warren, the writer of Dive Bar Sweetheart.

It was just stuck in my head as soon as you invited me to be on the podcast alone.

And it just seems like it's sort of the perfect theme song for us.

Well, you and I had a little chat about that, and I will admit to just shamelessly tagging Becky Warren in social media, who thought it was hilarious and reshared it.

And then that ended up being very relevant to everybody else.

But she's really cool, so if anyone out there hasn't listened to her music yet.

Her first couple albums were concept albums.

The first about veterans, war surplus, and then the second one is about homeless people, specifically the stories of homeless people in Nashville.

And then she finally turned to writing about herself with the sixth season, and that was an album about depression.

And all of a sudden, the medication she had been on just kind of stopped working.

And, you know, it's always such a roller coaster to have to, like, readjust your meds.

And it's just like an amazing album.

Just great sense of humor, as always.

And she hasn't put out an album since then, but according to her Instagram, she had, like, two posts on her official Instagram this year, and one of them was that she had started a sub stack like everybody else and that there's more music coming.

But I'm curious to read the substack because there is an entry there about how she's just continuing to live a life in music without being beholden to the album cycle.

And I'm sure Kim has some thoughts on that, too.

Yeah, Yeah.

I, like, I really appreciate that, and I think a lot of people are starting to do that as we get older, and it's harder and harder to.

I mean, so many reasons, right?

It's harder and harder to make money on music.

And, yeah, touring is also really tough.

And so I like when I see people that are just like, you know what?

I'm going to do this, like, at my own pace.

That makes sense for me and is healthy.

She.

She.

Several years ago, she got in with the Indigo Girls, and she's been an opener on a bunch of Indigo Girls dates sort of all over the Southeast.

So I feel like she's been doing stuff, just not releasing records, but I. I feel like she's probably open for the Indigo girls 10 or 15 times since that last album came out.

Yeah, that's how I had heard of her, actually, through Indigo Girls, so that's cool.

Yeah.

And I. I was glad that you brought her song Rachel, because I actually.

I was a fan of that sixth season.

Is that what it's called?

Yeah.

And Emily Girls was on there, too, as well as I think their longtime producer.

Very cool.

Yeah, I like.

I like her stuff a lot.

I love how this brings up so much great overlap for all of us in different areas of both our interest, but also just little tidbits that we can p. I had completely forgotten about the association with Indigo Girls.

And now I'm like, how did I not know that?

Charles, you've always got interesting things in your ears.

What are you listening to lately?

So the thing I listed was an Alex Chilton song.

Alex Chilton, being from Big Star, he put out a solo record in the 90s, and I just bought it in the last year or two called Feudalist Tarts.

And, you know, I don't digest an album sort of all at once and, and very thoroughly.

So I probably had the record a few months before.

I really picked up on a song on the B side called Rubber Room.

And it's a weird and strange, trippy song.

And then I looked at the back of the album cover and saw that Porter Wagner wrote the song, which really confused me because this is a.

A psychedelic song about someone locked up in a padded room in a mental institution, which does not feel like the kind of thing that Porter Wagner would have ever written about.

But sure enough, I. I went looking.

I found the Porter Wagner version.

And it's not as if Alex Chilton took a standard country song and made it trippy.

The Porter Wagner version is also weird and trippy.

And I guess that he.

His version came out in the 70s and he was trying to latch on to the counterculture.

But the Alex Chilton version is great.

It's longer than the Porter Wagner version, so there's, you know, more guitar solos, more psychedelic effects.

But I'm.

I'm a huge Alex Chilton fan.

And just the thought that he hears this Porter Wagner song and decides, nope, I'm taking that into the studio and I'm going to make it even weirder, and puts it on a record just excites me no end.

This is fascinating to me.

So I have no problem exposing my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to music.

So I was a big Replacements fan, and the first time I ever heard the name Alex Chilton was, of course, from their song Alex Chilton.

And then that led me back in the day to go to the record store and ask some questions.

And here's the weird part.

I knew the band the Box Tops, really, really well.

I did not know Chilton by name, nor that he was the lead singer as a teenager, but I had never heard of Big Star at that point, not at all.

So I kind of worked backwards on all of that, of finding Chilton's name from the replacement song, going to the record store, learning about his at the time, solo work, and they assuming I knew Big Star when I did not.

But me then being like, oh, yeah, I know all the Box Top stuff.

So how on earth did you become a Chilton fan?

I'm a rock and roll kid from the South.

I mean, me too, though.

I know, but I came to it the same way you did, essentially that it starts with the Replacements and then you work backwards.

I never went into a record store asking about Alex Chilton, and I didn't know the Box Tops before I knew Big Star.

But I feel like, especially in, like the record collector world and especially in the Southeast, Big Star is, is absolutely a stepping stone that every serious record collector has to step over.

You have to.

I mean, you have to spend some time with Big Star if you're going to be a serious record collector.

And then it was only in the last year or so that I was sort of like, well, let me get a bunch of Alex Chilton solo records and dive into those.

And for the most part, his songs are, you know, catchy rock songs, which is what you want.

And this one is just.

This one is an outlier, but in the sort of best possible way.

And the, the Porter Wagner.

And I guess I'll say for folks that aren't aware, Porter Wagner is a 60s country superstar that launched Dolly Parton.

Though I will say Dolly didn't need Porter.

She was going to be launched no matter what.

But yeah, just that that Alex Chilton was also enough of a music fan to be aware of this Porter Wagner song and decide to do his own version.

That's sort of the, that's the thrill of being a record collector.

That's got to be the greatest, like, weird, weird find of the day.

The Porter Wagner connection there.

Wild, wild, wild.

So, Kim, what else are you listening to?

Yeah, well, there's a band, and I assume that they pronounce it like Fust.

Fust.

They're from Durham, North Carolina, and similar to the Bel Air lip balms.

And, well, that was when I finally checked them out.

I kept seeing the name and I don't know, for some reason I would see the name.

And I just kind of assumed maybe because it's like a short one word name, that it would be kind of like geese.

And I was so wrong.

And I was really surprised when I finally checked them out, not even lying.

I think it was probably midway through just the first track on their album, which was the one that I sent to you guys for today.

And I was like, probably halfway through it.

And I'm like, okay, this sounds like Sun Volt.

A little, which I love.

And it was like right up my alley.

And I ordered the vinyl like that quickly, like in the middle of the.

Just the first song, because I was.

Just knew that I would love the whole thing and I do.

It's just, you know, good Southern influenced kind of rock music.

And yeah, I've been listening to it a lot lately and I guess this is like their fourth full length, I think.

So They've been around and they're just a couple hours from me.

But yeah, I had never seen the name until this year and never even listened to them until just recently.

And now I'm kind of obsessed.

Yeah.

Same song for the exact same series.

Just that opening verse.

Yeah.

But I think it fits really nicely with Rubber Room because it's about the same thing.

Yeah, that's funny.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I guess it's.

It's a certified fresh dive bar music club song, clearly.

Well, yeah, I know that's really funny.

But I mean, I guess if you follow kind of like southern indie music, then there.

It does seem like they were mentioned a lot, especially here towards like the end of last year.

But yeah, out of all the songs we could have chosen.

That's really funny.

Yeah, I love this.

So I think this is super cool.

And I can't believe that we've had any overlap, especially this quickly.

Yeah, I had them on my top 10, so maybe you saw that.

I don't know, but I don't.

Yeah, I don't remember.

Maybe I might have.

Cause I mean, I kept seeing it mentioned, so probably.

And I think like the comparison to Geese might not be so far off because when I saw them in New York, it was definitely a lot of like 20 and 30 somethings who were there for us specifically.

And they were opening for SG Goodman.

So yeah, I think there's definitely overlap between those two fan bases.

That makes sense.

That makes sense.

And I mean, I don't know.

So where did you see them?

Where'd you say you saw them?

I saw them in New York.

They were opening for SG Goodman and the crowd was like a really nice mix.

I think it was like a Wednesday night too, and the place was full.

Yeah, that's cool.

I mean, I think they appreciate that kind of southern indie stuff up in New York.

So.

Yeah, that's really cool.

Rachel, what else are you listening to?

I wanted to talk about Joanna Rose and her new album, Chain Smoking Below Sea Level.

So if you are a real Americana fan or just a nerd like the rest of us here, you probably remember a duet called Nicko and Rose and they had a song called Americana that sort of called out the hypocrisy of a genre that keeps claiming to be so progressive and forward thinking and then like not actually following through on any of that.

So the duo ended up splitting off the nickel.

Part of that duo is now Buffalo Nichols, who I'm sure a lot of you all know as an amazing blues singer, songwriter.

And Joanna, I think, took some time to stay in Milwaukee and was in a bunch of punk bands.

And at some point I haven't followed her very closely.

Moved to New Orleans.

So this song, Real One, is just like amazing kind of New Orleans jazz inspired song about just what it means to kind of have people come in and out of your life because you're sort of waiting for the real one to come.

But the thing that I really love about this is there's a lot of great sort of southern indie music coming out of New Orleans right now, especially on the Garhole Records label.

But that music is kind of a little more indie rock sort of inspired, that kind of like what Tucal Garage called Apathetic Melancholy.

But this is just like if Louis Armstrong had heard punk, this is what it would sound like.

But you know, Hooray for the Riff Raff is an example of that.

But you know, I feel like this album just is produced so beautifully and the way the horns just fill everything when you're listening.

In terms of streaming, I think it's only on Spotify and Tidal and probably Apple Music, but it's not on Bandcamp or YouTube, I don't think.

So you do have to dig a little bit to find it.

I was not familiar with this artist by name at all.

And I appreciate you bringing the connection there with Buffalo Nichols, because of course I knew what they had done previously, but I didn't connect this at all.

But I really like this whole kind of like street performer sound.

But it's such lush jazz happening.

And we've talked previously about how I'm not educated in any form of jazz whatsoever, but I hear this and I'm like, oh, just viscerally responsive.

And then you pay attention to the lyrics and there's so much to it.

So I thank you so much for finding this.

I really enjoyed this song and in some ways I'm completely out of touch because I was not at all familiar with the nickel and Rose group.

And so obviously I had no idea that part of Nickel and Rose was Buffalo Nickels.

But I have seen him.

So blows my mind.

You learn something new every day.

But I thought the song that you suggested was really cool.

And when I have time, I'm definitely planning to go listen to more.

Yeah, very same.

Except I haven't heard of anybody that you just mentioned, but.

And yeah, because I don't.

I don't listen to jazz much at all.

But I appreciate it so much.

And when I was listening to this and when I got.

I got a new turntable recently, so I've become kind of like re.

Obsessed with vinyl.

When I was listening to this track in particular, I was like, oh, this would sound really good on vinyl.

Is it out on vinyl, do you know?

I think so.

And I think.

Let me check.

I think it was put out by like a specific record label, which is why it's not on Joanna's Bandcamp page.

But it's not on the record labels bandcamp page either.

So maybe it's just not going to be on Bandcamp.

Might be a choice.

I mean, obviously there's plenty of other places to listen to it.

Charles, what have you been listening to?

So my.

Penelope is Scott, the main guy's wife.

But the song I chose is Let the Rope Hold.

Cassie Lee.

I don't know if the minus 5 are a household name, but they're all veteran players.

And there's part of me that recently has really gotten into what I'll call veteran players when they're doing something that feels really fun and interesting.

It's definitely a garage, power pop kind of band.

And Scott.

Does anybody know how to pronounce Scott's last name?

Yes, it's Scott McCoy.

I've seen them like eight times.

So yeah, okay.

Scott McCoy has been around forever.

He's had a band called the Young Fresh Fellows.

He played forever with REM he's played with M. Ward, with Nico Case, all kinds of other people.

But the Minus Five is his band, usually with the rotating cast, but most often with Peter Buck.

And it's just a catchy, fun sing along song.

I'm a huge fan, so to the point where I pitched to Scott McCoy One time, I said, do a Scott McCoy tour of all the different bands you've played with, and they can all just rotate up on stage.

And that's kind of what we got.

They did the dual Headline tour with the Baseball Project this past year.

And I got to see them twice for that.

And that was super fun.

They had Steve Wynn with them.

Peter Buck was there.

Like, fun was really clearly the whole purpose of all of it.

It was fantastic.

Very jealous.

That was one of those.

We had previously talked about how I will hop in the car and drive four hours to go to a show.

And that was one of the ones.

I had bought tickets on a whim, thinking, yeah, maybe I can go.

And then it rolled around and I was like, oh, my gosh, that's today.

And I got in the car and I drove there.

The show was fantastic.

Saw somebody in line who said, yeah, I've got an extra for tomorrow night in North Carolina.

I was like, well, that's actually closer to me.

So I drove home after the show, slept for like four hours.

And then the next day, I went and saw him up in North Carolina as well, and it was so fantastic.

And I think it's safe to say that everybody in the band is at least 50 years old.

Oh, yeah.

So.

So, like, they've been around the block and they're still making interesting music.

And they're not playing to big crowds, are they?

Okay, so, like, we were at the 40 watt, and the 40 watt was sold out, but that's like, what, 300 people max?

Maybe 250.

Yeah.

That's not a big crowd.

No.

Here's what I love about it.

Yeah.

They were clearly doing it because they wanted to and it was fun.

Not because they had to or anything.

And it.

I don't know how to explain how much fun it is to watch someone on stage genuinely loving the fact that they're getting to do it.

And especially Scott had a stroke several years ago and recovered from it.

And I think he's.

He's really genuinely just happy to be here.

Yeah, they don't need the money, you know, like, they're not playing for the door at the 40 watt.

Right.

But, yeah, the OR on Penelope record is actually really good.

And I'm pretty sure Young Fresh Fellows have a new record coming in the next year.

Okay, inside tip.

I may be wrong, but if I were on a game show, I would guess that I believe that's what I read.

That's awesome.

I wish they would tour, but I'm sure it would not come to Colorado.

So, Kevin, what else you been listening to?

All right, so when we had our initial conversation, I don't know if you recall, I'm pretty sure that I mentioned that I typically listen to, like, Americana music, indie music.

But I also love pop music.

So when I was trying to figure out, okay, well, what three songs?

Because that was really hard for me to narrow it down to three songs.

I was like, oh, well, you know, I could just include like an Americana ish tune, an indie tune and all right, I got to throw in some pop music because I just kind of had a feeling that there might not be much of that.

You're right.

Yeah.

So Audrey Hobert was another.

I discovered her this year as well.

And I cannot remember how, but it might have been through another kind of sad girl songwriter, Gracie Abrams.

But I think that's how I became aware of Audrey Hobert.

And she actually wrote, I think it was like seven tracks or co wrote with Gracie, seven tracks on the Gracie Abrams album, which may or may not mean anything to you guys if you don't listen to this kind of music.

But I just kind of on a whim was like, okay, who is this?

This is kind of a different ish looking name.

And you know, I guess that prompted me to.

I think that.

I think the album cover also caught my attention.

Who's the Clown is the name of her album.

It's got like a clown, like looking in the window at her and it's like creepy but funny at the same time.

And she's hilarious.

Like a lot of her lyrics are really funny.

I've watched some interviews with her and she's just super quirky and like really just like natural and goofy.

And I just love her album because it is just filled with catchy, fun songs.

I like to put it on after work, work in Charlotte and then I drive home, which is about like 45 minutes or so.

So it's a good drive for as far as like the length to listen to an album.

And there's so many songs on her album that I could have chosen, but the one I picked, Wet Hair, it's got really funny lyrics also, and it's probably the catchiest one on there.

I think in my opinion, it's just super fun to sing along with.

And her phrasing is incredible.

I think just the way that she can squeeze so many words into like two seconds.

Yeah, I love her stuff.

I so appreciate that you brought this because you're right, this is completely out of my wheelhouse until I did a little research.

So curious what everyone else thinks.

And I'll give my little tidbit at the End.

So I was not familiar with her, but just harken back to the last episode.

I spent five minutes listening and reading and seeing her connection to Gracie Abrams.

And then Gracie Abrams I'm somewhat familiar with because she rose to prominence because she opened some shows for Taylor Swift on the Eras tour.

And I just need to be the guy who talks about Taylor Swift every episode.

I mean, I think you're just like, you're doing this to yourself, Charles.

Why punish yourself?

I love that.

I'm doing it for the people.

This is great.

But I will say, as much as I'm not a fan of pop music, I have a number of friends who are.

Who love pop music and who love lots of other styles of music.

And I really appreciate when people are able to sort of drop, like, the idea of cool music and just recognize that, hey, this music makes me feel good, so I'm going to listen to it.

That is exactly what this is like.

I love mindless television.

And I don't want to say that this music is, like, mindless, because I think her lyrics are actually really clever.

But it's similar for me, you know, and some people say, like, it's a guilty pleasure, and I guess that's what it is.

But I'm not guilty.

Like, I don't feel guilty.

It's an innocent pleasure because, yeah, it's fun.

It does make.

Make me feel really happy.

Like, I like to dance around in my living room to it.

And I work in mental health, so it's like some of my work days can get really, really heavy.

So having something like this after that is just like, I'm a Gemini.

I need balance.

So it provides some levity for me.

I also think it's like any other genre, right?

We all listen to country music, but not the country music most people think of when we say that.

And yeah, it's smart.

I really like pop music.

Self Esteem is one of my favorite artists from this past year.

She's like a British pop singer who is also, like, really funny in her interviews.

And yeah, definitely check her out.

Maybe I'll bring her on for next time.

I don't think there's anything that anybody should ever call guilty pleasure as far as music.

Like, I know that I'm like the.

I could be the pretentious record store guy.

If people like it, they should just like it.

And.

And that's the end of the conversation.

Like, enjoy it.

It's fun.

Yeah.

No, I really appreciate that you brought this up, Kim, because Audrey was not on my mental list.

At all.

However, as soon as I saw the connection to Gracie Abrams, I was like, oh, wait, I do know who this is.

So, quick little story.

I worked in AAA radio.

I worked in a lot of different radio, but I worked in AAA radio during the pandemic, and we were interviewing TikTok stars, and one of the TikTok stars that I interviewed was Gracie Abrams.

From her bedroom during lockdown, and she was getting ready.

She said she had been singing songs in her room and recording them and uploading them to TikTok and was getting ready to hopefully go record things.

And she said she'd been writing songs since middle school with her friend Audrey.

And that turns out that's what this is.

Yeah.

And they'd been friends, I think, like, for a frigging ever.

And roommates for a long time too.

I think.

So.

Yeah.

They're, you know, more than just like, co writers.

They were like.

They're super.

Sounds like best friends, probably.

So.

Yeah, I thought that was.

Yeah, that was really cool, too.

I love to see women supporting women, you know, in entertainment, and it seems like they are, like, fans of each other, you know?

So that's.

That's been really cute, too.

Rachel, what else are you listening to?

My last song for today is by Gladdy, or maybe it's pronounced Glady.

Someone please correct me on that.

They are an indie rock band out of Philly.

And I guess this is her new project.

And this song, future Spring, was produced by Jeff Rosenstock, and that's, in fact, how I found out about the band.

Some of my guy friends are kind of more into Jeff Rosenstock, whose music tends to be a little more intense.

And my friend Steve will just buy tickets for all of us and be like, okay, who's coming with me?

And we all end up liking the openers more because Jeff's fan base is also really intense.

And you just got, like, the whole room moshing.

So we've decided we are too old to go to Jeff Rosenstock shows, but we're.

We're not too old to go to Gladys shows.

I had never heard of this band either, and I loved this one.

We're having an unintentional Philly theme with this show, too.

I think this is, like, the third band maybe with a Philly connection.

I talked about a Philly band last episode.

Flory.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there was another one.

There was one on my list.

And we didn't get to it, though.

That's what it was.

I was like, I know there were three.

Rachel, have you seen this band?

Yeah, and I'm not totally sure how many times.

Definitely once.

We've been to a lot of.

It's not even, like, about, you know, if I remember the night.

It's just we've been to so many Jeff Rosenstock shows, and he tends to have, like, a rotating group of people open for him, and so it's possible I've seen them more than once.

That's cool.

In fact, I'm pretty sure cool.

But, yeah, it's.

I think there is this very specific Philly sound.

I mean, I was in college in Philly, you know, when Kayatana would have been active.

But I was kind of too much of a nerd to go into the city to go to shows.

But I have noticed that even in, like, this age of Internet and streaming, like, there are local scenes that have their own vibes, and Flurry and Glady and Cayetana all just sort of feel of a piece.

And I've often said that if I had to live somewhere that wasn't New York, it would definitely be Philly because of their music scene.

I don't even really like the Brooklyn music scene as it exists now, so there you go.

I didn't even know Geese was from here.

There's a couple of really cool radio folks that I know from the Philly area.

I might see if they'll pop in sometime and join us just to talk a little bit specifically about the music scene there.

Just because now suddenly I'm even more interested than I was previously.

Yeah, I love this record.

This was fun.

How about the rest of y'?

All?

Yeah, I love this.

I love this track.

And I just wanted to add.

I didn't know if anyone else appreciated this as much as I did, but I was a DJ for a good bit also in my past, like, college.

But then I also did a little bit here and there, like, kind of guest DJ slots.

And then I was a DJ on a friend's Internet radio station several years ago.

So when one song goes into the other, like, pretty seamlessly, and it just makes sense, that makes me really happy.

And whenever I listen to our playlist, that band going into Bel Air Lip balms that song.

Did anyone else notice how, like, perfect that seemed?

I was like, if I had an indie radio show, I would totally put those two songs on back to back, because it just.

It was great.

I'm so Proud of myself for planning it that way.

So I did not listen to those two songs like that, but there's a good chance I'm gonna steal that transition and use it on my next radio show.

We have a person who will be joining us on some of the others named Nelson Gullett, and he is the master of doing that with music.

He, like, he has a gift for knowing intros and outros and being able to blend them like that.

I love it.

So how about you, Charles?

What else is on your playlist these days?

I just picked the first song because it's such a feel good song, and it's just called Joy Joy.

And as much as I feel like I can get overly serious about music, there's people like Valerie that I love that.

One of the things I love about it is that it's just.

Just fun.

And she has a voice that I feel like can't help but be uplifting.

And I really dig this record.

It took a while for it to really sink in for me.

But, yeah, Joy Joy is just a fun song.

I don't know about any of y'.

All.

I grew up in the Southern church, and the church that I grew up in specifically also used a traditional African American hymnal as part of the music.

And when I listened to this song from Valerie June, it reminded me very much of a specific song that I learned as a child that I will spare y' all my singing, but the line from it that it reminded me of specifically was, I have joy, joy, joy, joy deep down in my heart.

And, like, there's no way she doesn't know that song.

Just.

There's just something in the tone and the feel that references that historic tune.

Oh, she certainly was borrowing from that song in her song, there's no Way.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know her.

Like, I'm familiar with her professionally, but I don't know anything about her as a person.

But it has to be something.

But it was just.

I heard the song and I was like, whoa, wait, I love her, too.

So I would agree that.

I think I've heard.

I think I've heard most of her albums and enjoyed all of them.

Yeah, she's great.

I'm surprised, Sloane, that you haven't listened to much Valerie June.

She's.

I think she's made four records at this point, and all of them are worthwhile.

Her first record was produced by Dan Auerbach, but I think it was early in Dan Arbach from the Black Keys in his career as a producer.

And that first record is one of.

One of my all time favorites.

It's more rustic than this one, but yes, she has absolutely got her own wavelength going on.

Yeah, I did not even know this album had come out until like the last couple weeks of the year, but definitely on my long list for best albums of the year.

I've heard her say, like at live shows that, you know, it doesn't sound great when I say it, but the idea that the vibrations of music and when you loop sounds and how it all comes together is very healing.

And then she also will talk about colors and things.

Like she's on literally like a whole different wavelength.

Like some synesthesia stuff.

Yeah, kind of, if I'm remembering correctly, because it's been a while since I've seen her.

But yeah, the music she's put out over the last decade or so does have that same similar meditative quality of sort of being repetitive, but in a good way, in a really soothing way.

And so that's what I got out of this whole album.

But especially this song.

I will admit that I don't.

This is going to sound really bad.

I don't listen to a lot of pretty music because it doesn't generally grab me.

So this was nice because I was like, I knew who she was, but I really had not spent a lot of time with the music.

I'm going to have to give this more time, like make some intentional time to sit with the music and give it what it deserves.

That's last call at Dive Bar Music Club.

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