August 11, 2025 ā¢ 18 mins
Live music lovers, rejoice šø ā full review of The Struts & Dirty Honey at House of Blues Cleveland + 4 new indie rock tracks you need in your playlist.
To check out this weekās songs on your platform of choice head to the website Songs That Donāt Suck
Connect with Songs That Donāt Suck ~ ā ā Instagramā | BlueSky
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:38):
Welcome to Songs that Don't Suckwith your host Mark Bradbourne.
What is up friend? Welcome to songs that don't
suck. My name is Mark, I'm your host
and every week I'm here after listening to literally hundreds
of songs, 4 or 500 songs I lose count honestly.
(00:58):
And a lot of it is crap in my opinion.
Right, I've, I've stated this many a time, but I do this so
that our playlist stay fresh. I hope that of the songs that I
find each week, one or two make it onto your playlists, make it
into your rotation that I have shared something good with you.
I hope that's the case. If this is your first time
(01:19):
listening, thank you for checking out the show.
Long time listeners, you know I love you more than I can admit
for supporting me for as long asyou have.
It's pretty amazing. I've got 4 songs for you this
week. But before we do that, I've got
another concert review. So last concert was on a
(01:41):
weekend, was wonderful. This one was on a school night.
And to make matters worse, I have a day job and I had to
actually be at the airport the next morning for a stupid,
stupid early flight. But this did not dissuade me
from seeing this show. The show in question, The Struts
with Dirty Honey opening. There was zero chance that I was
(02:04):
going to miss this show. So this show was at the House of
Blues downtown Cleveland. I did a pre show dinner at the
House of Blues and for those of you who don't know if you do
this, they have a fast lane. Sometimes for certain shows they
will let you into the venue early and you can get right down
front. And the show, they did that
(02:27):
luckily, and I got to the the 2nd row basically, I had one
person in front of me who was atthe rail, but she left or moved
I guess after Dirty Honey playedand before the struts went on.
So I was right at the rail, which was awesome.
So let's talk Dirty Honey first,obviously.
(02:47):
So I went back through my Spotify listening history and I
discovered Dirty Honey in 2019 and I've been told by a few
people how amazing they are live.
Unfortunately, between COVID calendars being misaligned and
just life in general, I hadn't been able to see them yet.
So when this show got announced that The Struts had Dirty Honey
(03:11):
opening this tour was really excited.
They open their set with Gypsy and they continue to roll
through an 11 song set, finishing up with Rolling
Sevens, which I think was the first song I heard from them.
It was either that one or When I'm Gone, can't remember which.
I might have been heard the same, might have been the same
(03:31):
day when I heard both of them, but they included an unreleased
song or maybe a soon to be released song called Too Good At
Being Bad, which I will share with you in a moment because I
got a little bit of it on audio.But from beginning to end, Super
High Energy absolutely blew the roof off of the House of Blues.
(03:52):
There was a few folks who were standing around me who had never
heard of them at all. And post that they were all
fans. They were like, that was
amazing. Which honestly, that's always
the goal right when you're the opener.
Like if you're exposing yourselfto some new ears, you want to
turn them on. Dirty Honey absolutely crushed
it. They did their job.
After the show. I ended up picking an autograph
(04:15):
final of the live album they just released and they tossed me
a few stickers and the lead singer, Marc LaBelle was
actually at the merch table. So I was able to say quick hi,
shake his hand, complimented himon the set.
Super, super nice gay guy. He stood there for all the time
that I was in the lobby because I was also in line for some
Struts merch and just talked to every fan that wanted to talk to
(04:39):
him. It was awesome.
So I mentioned a little bit about a new song too good at
being bad, and this guitar riff is filthy good.
So good. Check this out.
(05:40):
Can't can't wait for that one tobe released it's so good.
So they finished up and Next up was the struts.
As I mentioned the woman that was in front of me decided to
shift down the rail which openedup two spots on the rail.
So me and another gentleman slidup to the rail or we would sit
the rest of the night. So this is the third time I've
seen the struts. The first time back in 2018,
(06:03):
they were opening for the Foo Fighters.
So I was in the lawn at Blossom,which is kind of our outdoor, I
guess, outdoor venue here in Cleveland, if you're not aware.
And the second time was last year up in Detroit with Barnes
Courtney. I reviewed that one last season
(06:23):
on the podcast, and I was kind of like midway back on the
floor. So it was cool to be right up
front for this one, just to experience the show from
different spots. I don't know, you just get a
different vibe, right? But anyway, The Struts are
celebrating their 10th anniversary of their debut album
Everybody Wants. They played it from beginning to
(06:46):
end after the first two songs. So they opened with Put Your
Hands Up, which was the first song I'd ever seen them perform
live when they were opening for the Foo Fighters.
And after that one they did Prima Donna like me.
And then they kind of introducedthe the the album and they're
like, we'll probably never do this again.
But they played it from beginning to end and then they
(07:10):
came back and on court after they finished the debut album
and they did a cover of Queens We Will Rock You, but it was
like a speed up version. They kind of put their own spin
on it, which was honestly a lot more fun.
They did Body Talks, Pretty Vicious and they closed with one
night. Only 19 songs and all.
Awesome show. Luke Spiller, the lead singer,
(07:32):
always just so full of energy, playing with the crowd and just
generally kicking ass. He literally leaves everything
he could possibly leave on the stage and the rest of the band's
no different. Adam, Jed, Geth, all on fire.
They really are one of the better shows that I've seen and
super consistent in their performance.
(07:54):
All three shows that I've seen, whether it was opening for the
Foo Fighters or headlining theirown shows, they're just just
amazing night after night. After they're set, I grabbed a
shirt, headed home, got 4 hours of sleep and got on a plane and
headed to Seattle and I don't regret my life choices.
(08:15):
Here is a little bit of their performance from that night.
(09:17):
All right, let's get into the new music.
The first song this week is DustBowl from Ethel Cane.
So this one touched a mood in me.
Apparently. I was in Seattle all week for
work, and I think I was feeling a little nostalgic, maybe a
little melancholy. I was definitely in my feelings
(09:39):
about just being in Seattle, andEthel Kane is fairly well known,
but she is new to me. She has four million monthly
listeners, but maybe she's new to you the same as she is to me.
This is off her new album, Willoughby Tucker, I'll always
love you. It's dark, it's brooding, it's
emotional, and I was really curious.
(10:01):
So I went through and sampled a few of the tracks from the
album. And this is a constant thread
through the album, which from what I can tell and what I've
read, it's a concept album and it's a prequel to her first
album, Preacher's Daughter. So I can safely say that this
song is going to lead me to study a pair of albums in the
coming weeks because I love her vocal.
I love the feeling that she gives as a singer-songwriter.
(10:25):
So check out a bit of Dust Bowl from Ethel Cain.
(10:46):
But all you could see was me and.
You walked. Down you were seen, man.
You tried to wait and because you wanted just to tell me who
you were, you were. Second song this week is Ghosts
(11:15):
from Moving Mountains. This one's slightly more upbeat
but still I was in my feels on it.
Really cool feel to this one. To me the drums and the vocals
don't quite match in feel, but at the same time they do and it
causes this really cool push pull feel through the songs for
(11:35):
me. But it moves, it moves along
really well from the onset. There's this cool piano, kind of
sets the tone at the beginning, and then the guitar picks up and
builds the song as it goes, getsinto the chorus with a slightly
higher dynamic feeling. The bridge adds a whole bunch of
different audio elements. There's some sleigh bells
(11:56):
happening, and then we get this big drum break as we ease back
into this kind of, it's a chorusor pseudo chorus.
The song is just really well puttogether as you listen to it,
and then in the outro we get full circle with that piano just
kind of by itself leading us outof the song.
It's a master class in what I would consider classic
(12:17):
songwriting. So good.
So here's a bit of Ghosts by moving Mountains.
(13:08):
3rd song this week is Dreaming in Stereo by the Jelly Bricks.
OK, kind of got out of my fieldsfor this one because this is a
solid pop rock or or indie rock jam.
It's got really strong elements.It's a mixture of like 60s
British Invasion with a lot of kind of 90s in the alternative,
(13:29):
like I hear Fountains Of Wayne, I hear Ben Folds.
Like it's kind of got that quirkiness to it a little bit.
The part that stands out in thistrack for me are the vocals, and
when I say they're all over the place, I'm saying that in a very
positive way. There's harmonies, there's
counter harmonies that are alternate parts, and it all
weaves in and out of itself and it creates this really beautiful
(13:52):
mosaic, especially through the chorus.
And although this is going on while the guitars, drums and
bass just kind of keep this track on what I will describe as
full bounce. Like it just goes and it's a lot
of fun to listen to. These guys have been around a
while, so I'm actually going to dive into their catalog a bit.
I love the sound that they've got.
So here is Dreaming in stereo from the Jelly Bricks.
(14:15):
The sound. Was amazing in my head it fell
out. The Movie.
Cast was the perfect match thing.
So well read. And how can it be?
Does it really have to? The 4th song this week is A Day
(15:02):
Off in Margaritaville by Liang Lawrence.
OK, the mood is up, we are goingstrong and I've been flirting
with this song for a couple of weeks now and it's time.
We need this positive lift, thisupbeat pop rocker to get us out
of a funk and it does a great job of doing just that.
(15:24):
There's a really cool slide guitar part that gets sprinkled
throughout this song and I thinkthis one, it kind of hit me in
the right spot this week. As I said, I've been flirting
with it for a few weeks now, butI've been on the road a lot for
work. And I think this one just kind
of described how I'm feeling like, you know, it's, it's hard
(15:46):
being on the road, but you just got to keep doing all the things
that we do. And this song kind of embodies
that spirit, right? We just, we keep going.
So check out the great vocal on this, the catchy hook, the very
cool guitar tones on this one. This is a day off in
Margaritaville from Liang Lawrence.
(16:14):
Lies fade away I swear I'm goingto lose it don't you death the
brakes I don't know if I got what it takes punched out but we
just hit the road barely made itdone that's so far to go away
(16:39):
broke down but we're. And that's it for this week.
For songs, for good ones, songs that don't, suck.net is the
place to go. For all the podcast stuff, you
(17:01):
can listen on the website or youcan catch us on your podcast
platform of choice. You know that because you're
listening to us right now. I don't have to tell you that,
but you can interact with the show there.
You can get the newsletter whichgets you access to the Live
Music Archive. That's a free benefit for
subscribers. There's merch, there's a poll
every month, concert photos get posted, and there's a great
(17:26):
discount off of earplugs. I'm not sponsored by them.
I get no benefit from them. But you know me.
I like you to protect your hearing because when we can't
hear anymore, we can't hear music anymore.
And that makes Mark sad. So go get some earplugs.
Don't forget to like, review andsubscribe the podcast on your
preferred platform. Tell your friends about the
(17:46):
podcast. Do you know how many people I've
told about the podcast recently as I've been travelling around
and going to shows? It's a lot of fun, it's great.
I encourage you to do it. Thanks again so much for
listening and as always go out and support these artists.
Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for
and listening to songs that don't suck.
Welcome to Songs that Don't Suckwith your host Mark Bradbourne.
What is up friend? Welcome to songs that don't
suck. My name is Mark, I'm your host
and every week I'm here after listening to literally hundreds
of songs, 4 or 500 songs I lose count honestly.
(00:58):
And a lot of it is crap in my opinion.
Right, I've, I've stated this many a time, but I do this so
that our playlist stay fresh. I hope that of the songs that I
find each week, one or two make it onto your playlists, make it
into your rotation that I have shared something good with you.
I hope that's the case. If this is your first time
(01:19):
listening, thank you for checking out the show.
Long time listeners, you know I love you more than I can admit
for supporting me for as long asyou have.
It's pretty amazing. I've got 4 songs for you this
week. But before we do that, I've got
another concert review. So last concert was on a
(01:41):
weekend, was wonderful. This one was on a school night.
And to make matters worse, I have a day job and I had to
actually be at the airport the next morning for a stupid,
stupid early flight. But this did not dissuade me
from seeing this show. The show in question, The Struts
with Dirty Honey opening. There was zero chance that I was
(02:04):
going to miss this show. So this show was at the House of
Blues downtown Cleveland. I did a pre show dinner at the
House of Blues and for those of you who don't know if you do
this, they have a fast lane. Sometimes for certain shows they
will let you into the venue early and you can get right down
front. And the show, they did that
(02:27):
luckily, and I got to the the 2nd row basically, I had one
person in front of me who was atthe rail, but she left or moved
I guess after Dirty Honey playedand before the struts went on.
So I was right at the rail, which was awesome.
So let's talk Dirty Honey first,obviously.
(02:47):
So I went back through my Spotify listening history and I
discovered Dirty Honey in 2019 and I've been told by a few
people how amazing they are live.
Unfortunately, between COVID calendars being misaligned and
just life in general, I hadn't been able to see them yet.
So when this show got announced that The Struts had Dirty Honey
(03:11):
opening this tour was really excited.
They open their set with Gypsy and they continue to roll
through an 11 song set, finishing up with Rolling
Sevens, which I think was the first song I heard from them.
It was either that one or When I'm Gone, can't remember which.
I might have been heard the same, might have been the same
(03:31):
day when I heard both of them, but they included an unreleased
song or maybe a soon to be released song called Too Good At
Being Bad, which I will share with you in a moment because I
got a little bit of it on audio.But from beginning to end, Super
High Energy absolutely blew the roof off of the House of Blues.
(03:52):
There was a few folks who were standing around me who had never
heard of them at all. And post that they were all
fans. They were like, that was
amazing. Which honestly, that's always
the goal right when you're the opener.
Like if you're exposing yourselfto some new ears, you want to
turn them on. Dirty Honey absolutely crushed
it. They did their job.
After the show. I ended up picking an autograph
(04:15):
final of the live album they just released and they tossed me
a few stickers and the lead singer, Marc LaBelle was
actually at the merch table. So I was able to say quick hi,
shake his hand, complimented himon the set.
Super, super nice gay guy. He stood there for all the time
that I was in the lobby because I was also in line for some
Struts merch and just talked to every fan that wanted to talk to
(04:39):
him. It was awesome.
So I mentioned a little bit about a new song too good at
being bad, and this guitar riff is filthy good.
So good. Check this out.
(05:40):
Can't can't wait for that one tobe released it's so good.
So they finished up and Next up was the struts.
As I mentioned the woman that was in front of me decided to
shift down the rail which openedup two spots on the rail.
So me and another gentleman slidup to the rail or we would sit
the rest of the night. So this is the third time I've
seen the struts. The first time back in 2018,
(06:03):
they were opening for the Foo Fighters.
So I was in the lawn at Blossom,which is kind of our outdoor, I
guess, outdoor venue here in Cleveland, if you're not aware.
And the second time was last year up in Detroit with Barnes
Courtney. I reviewed that one last season
(06:23):
on the podcast, and I was kind of like midway back on the
floor. So it was cool to be right up
front for this one, just to experience the show from
different spots. I don't know, you just get a
different vibe, right? But anyway, The Struts are
celebrating their 10th anniversary of their debut album
Everybody Wants. They played it from beginning to
(06:46):
end after the first two songs. So they opened with Put Your
Hands Up, which was the first song I'd ever seen them perform
live when they were opening for the Foo Fighters.
And after that one they did Prima Donna like me.
And then they kind of introducedthe the the album and they're
like, we'll probably never do this again.
But they played it from beginning to end and then they
(07:10):
came back and on court after they finished the debut album
and they did a cover of Queens We Will Rock You, but it was
like a speed up version. They kind of put their own spin
on it, which was honestly a lot more fun.
They did Body Talks, Pretty Vicious and they closed with one
night. Only 19 songs and all.
Awesome show. Luke Spiller, the lead singer,
(07:32):
always just so full of energy, playing with the crowd and just
generally kicking ass. He literally leaves everything
he could possibly leave on the stage and the rest of the band's
no different. Adam, Jed, Geth, all on fire.
They really are one of the better shows that I've seen and
super consistent in their performance.
(07:54):
All three shows that I've seen, whether it was opening for the
Foo Fighters or headlining theirown shows, they're just just
amazing night after night. After they're set, I grabbed a
shirt, headed home, got 4 hours of sleep and got on a plane and
headed to Seattle and I don't regret my life choices.
(08:15):
Here is a little bit of their performance from that night.
(09:17):
All right, let's get into the new music.
The first song this week is DustBowl from Ethel Cane.
So this one touched a mood in me.
Apparently. I was in Seattle all week for
work, and I think I was feeling a little nostalgic, maybe a
little melancholy. I was definitely in my feelings
(09:39):
about just being in Seattle, andEthel Kane is fairly well known,
but she is new to me. She has four million monthly
listeners, but maybe she's new to you the same as she is to me.
This is off her new album, Willoughby Tucker, I'll always
love you. It's dark, it's brooding, it's
emotional, and I was really curious.
(10:01):
So I went through and sampled a few of the tracks from the
album. And this is a constant thread
through the album, which from what I can tell and what I've
read, it's a concept album and it's a prequel to her first
album, Preacher's Daughter. So I can safely say that this
song is going to lead me to study a pair of albums in the
coming weeks because I love her vocal.
I love the feeling that she gives as a singer-songwriter.
(10:25):
So check out a bit of Dust Bowl from Ethel Cain.
(10:46):
But all you could see was me and.
You walked. Down you were seen, man.
You tried to wait and because you wanted just to tell me who
you were, you were. Second song this week is Ghosts
(11:15):
from Moving Mountains. This one's slightly more upbeat
but still I was in my feels on it.
Really cool feel to this one. To me the drums and the vocals
don't quite match in feel, but at the same time they do and it
causes this really cool push pull feel through the songs for
(11:35):
me. But it moves, it moves along
really well from the onset. There's this cool piano, kind of
sets the tone at the beginning, and then the guitar picks up and
builds the song as it goes, getsinto the chorus with a slightly
higher dynamic feeling. The bridge adds a whole bunch of
different audio elements. There's some sleigh bells
(11:56):
happening, and then we get this big drum break as we ease back
into this kind of, it's a chorusor pseudo chorus.
The song is just really well puttogether as you listen to it,
and then in the outro we get full circle with that piano just
kind of by itself leading us outof the song.
It's a master class in what I would consider classic
(12:17):
songwriting. So good.
So here's a bit of Ghosts by moving Mountains.
(13:08):
3rd song this week is Dreaming in Stereo by the Jelly Bricks.
OK, kind of got out of my fieldsfor this one because this is a
solid pop rock or or indie rock jam.
It's got really strong elements.It's a mixture of like 60s
British Invasion with a lot of kind of 90s in the alternative,
(13:29):
like I hear Fountains Of Wayne, I hear Ben Folds.
Like it's kind of got that quirkiness to it a little bit.
The part that stands out in thistrack for me are the vocals, and
when I say they're all over the place, I'm saying that in a very
positive way. There's harmonies, there's
counter harmonies that are alternate parts, and it all
weaves in and out of itself and it creates this really beautiful
(13:52):
mosaic, especially through the chorus.
And although this is going on while the guitars, drums and
bass just kind of keep this track on what I will describe as
full bounce. Like it just goes and it's a lot
of fun to listen to. These guys have been around a
while, so I'm actually going to dive into their catalog a bit.
I love the sound that they've got.
So here is Dreaming in stereo from the Jelly Bricks.
(14:15):
The sound. Was amazing in my head it fell
out. The Movie.
Cast was the perfect match thing.
So well read. And how can it be?
Does it really have to? The 4th song this week is A Day
(15:02):
Off in Margaritaville by Liang Lawrence.
OK, the mood is up, we are goingstrong and I've been flirting
with this song for a couple of weeks now and it's time.
We need this positive lift, thisupbeat pop rocker to get us out
of a funk and it does a great job of doing just that.
(15:24):
There's a really cool slide guitar part that gets sprinkled
throughout this song and I thinkthis one, it kind of hit me in
the right spot this week. As I said, I've been flirting
with it for a few weeks now, butI've been on the road a lot for
work. And I think this one just kind
of described how I'm feeling like, you know, it's, it's hard
(15:46):
being on the road, but you just got to keep doing all the things
that we do. And this song kind of embodies
that spirit, right? We just, we keep going.
So check out the great vocal on this, the catchy hook, the very
cool guitar tones on this one. This is a day off in
Margaritaville from Liang Lawrence.
(16:14):
Lies fade away I swear I'm goingto lose it don't you death the
brakes I don't know if I got what it takes punched out but we
just hit the road barely made itdone that's so far to go away
(16:39):
broke down but we're. And that's it for this week.
For songs, for good ones, songs that don't, suck.net is the
place to go. For all the podcast stuff, you
(17:01):
can listen on the website or youcan catch us on your podcast
platform of choice. You know that because you're
listening to us right now. I don't have to tell you that,
but you can interact with the show there.
You can get the newsletter whichgets you access to the Live
Music Archive. That's a free benefit for
subscribers. There's merch, there's a poll
every month, concert photos get posted, and there's a great
(17:26):
discount off of earplugs. I'm not sponsored by them.
I get no benefit from them. But you know me.
I like you to protect your hearing because when we can't
hear anymore, we can't hear music anymore.
And that makes Mark sad. So go get some earplugs.
Don't forget to like, review andsubscribe the podcast on your
preferred platform. Tell your friends about the
(17:46):
podcast. Do you know how many people I've
told about the podcast recently as I've been travelling around
and going to shows? It's a lot of fun, it's great.
I encourage you to do it. Thanks again so much for
listening and as always go out and support these artists.
Thanks for listening, and until next week, keep searching for
and listening to songs that don't suck.
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