Local Music — Listen to This Sh!t

I don’t know when it happened but I have always loved spicy food. I would say that spicy food, hot sauces & spicy challenges are an interest of mine. In fact my band Lost Arts had the not so original idea of creating our own sauce, as my drummer Drake shares a similar interest in the world of spice. Drake already secured the instagram handle, you know… just in case. Over this last week I was faced with the fact that I am just a measly fan of hot sauce and not the connoisseur I thought myself to be. It wasn’t due to some Spicy Challenge or the unfortunate aftermaths that generally follow such instances but instead a TV Show. Under new releases on Disney Plus was a very red Hot Pepper infused with a fire log engulfed in smoke with the title “Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People”. I was not prepared for the 10 episodes that would follow my pressing play. Superhot’s description reads:

A wild ride is right because I was locked in from the moment that nobody wanted to answer the question “is the Carolina Reaper the Worlds Hottest Pepper?” There was genuine concern of repercussions for responding in the negative. This was in the first 10 minutes of the show but the conspiracy did not end there. Jimmy Pickles is a Paranoid Pepper Grower form Pittsburg Pennsylvania. Jeez I didn’t intend all the illteration but it’s the truth. Jimmy wants the king of the Chili Heads community, Johnny Scoville to fly out & try this pepper because Mr. Pickles believes he has created the worlds hottest pepper… the JP Pirhanna. He refuses to ship them to Johnny Scoville because Jimmy is concerned about Seed Ninja’s… Yes Seed Ninja’s will steal his seeds & take credit for his work. The conspiracies don’t end there, this is only the beginning & today I am going to express my love of spicy food & my new favourite show through some superhot music.

Check this out….

Now, something that really blew me away in Superhot is how some of these figures in the community are idolized. If Johnny Scoville says that your pepper is hot, that could change your life, if he thinks you have “it” Troy Primeaux might add you to his wrecking crew or Vic Clinco could add your hot sauce to his Hot Sauce Museum. I want to make it clear, I am not making fun of these people, I am absolutely in awe. I knew half way through my first viewing of Superhot that this had to be the theme of the next episode of Listen To This Sh!t. But how was I going to incorporate music into my love of Hot Peppers & apparently the Hot Pepper community as an entity. Spicy Music of course… what the fuck is spicy music? I use these terms a lot, this song rips is a popular one, I believe I coined the term “quakes” for when something really gets into your soul by way of rattling your bones around in your meat suit. But for anybody that has tried anything exceptionally hot they know that the burn can have different qualities. Some start slow & some kick you directly in the teeth the second they break the therophytes. That’s a term I learned from the show meaning the outer shell of the pepper. There is not doubt that you have to kind of love the pain and discomfort that comes with eating this peppers. The flushing the faces, the tears, the sweat, the tingle up your spine…. Here’s SOHLER & Kind Beast.

I am upping the intensity here. Much like the League of Fire does during their pepper eating challenges. I have never taken part in a hot pepper eating challenge. I’ve eaten a ghost pepper that Drake grew & episode #10 of We Should Jam Sometime is a ode to Hot Ones right as it was becoming popular. I suffer through some Dabomb or Mad Dog 357 with my dinner every now & then followed by my girlfriend questioning why I do this to myself. The answer to that is… I truly don’t know, I just like it. There’s something about over coming that burn. But I don’t know that I want to enter a competition where I may need to eat up to 50 superhots in an attempt to bring home the belt. On the other hand, I would really love a championship belt. This is the part of the pepper journey where the heat kicks you in the teeth & drags it’s claws down your esophagus.

I saw The OBGMs at the Alexisonfire festival in the summer of 2022. I had heard of them but I was unfamiliar with their music. They opened the day & were tasked with getting the audience there to mainly see PUP & Alexisonfire to approach the stage area. I have never seen a frontman demand & take control of an audience like Densil McFarlane did that day. The set started with them struggling to get people to the stage & ended with the crowd of hundreds of rock fans shift left & right at the singers request, as a frontman myself it was inspiring shit.

As we come to a close today I wanted to explore one last point about Superhot. An interesting through line of the show was the comparisons of Drug Addiction & Hot Pepper Obsession. Zachary Goot was very open with his former addictions to drugs including Meth & Alcohol. He found help & a way through those addictions finding a community in the world of Hot Peppers. He has a YouTube channel The Texas Hot Spot where he reviews hot foods. He became such a large part of his life that it was starting to affect his home life. His wife wanted him to retire from hot foods and…he did. He unfollowed it all, he closed down the YouTube channel & focused on his family…. Until he started drinking a little, then a little more then a lot more. His Pepper obsession kept him focused & off drugs. I am not a doctor so maybe that’s where my analysis should end but I found that so interesting. Zach was slowly able to get back into the pepper community & off alcohol restoring some balance into his life.

That’s where I want to end this today. Part of why peppers heads like to put them through this pain is the high that follows. The chemicals that are released in your brain. Dead Poet Society & Queens of the Stone Age. Queens just put up the deluxe version of Era Vulgaris that has the much sought after songs like the title track that never made the album & what I am going to play for you today, The Fun Machine Took a Shit & Died. But first the lead track off the new Dead Poet Society album Fissions: 5:29:45.

I’ll talk to you next week… Shiny side Up

Spotify very likely does not pay their marketing department enough because they continuously find new ways to distract the public from being… kind of a prick company honestly. Whether it’s Spotify being one of the worst paying streaming services, the doofus comments by CEO Daniel Eck, like that time he told artists if they wanted to make more money, they needed to write more music or laying off nearly 20% of their staff in 2023.

Despite all of that every December we flock to Spotify to look at our much anticipated Spotify Wrapped to share it across social media. Artists take time out from complaining about making .003 cents per stream to thank all of their listeners for their support over the year, while giving some free advertising to Spotify themselves. I don’t share my wrapped but you better be damn sure I look as if I haven’t had the same top 5 artists in varying order for the last 5 years.

Now we have Daylists. The subject for one of the first memes of 2024; Don’t tell me your resolutions show my your Spotify Daylist Title. Don’t tell me your astrological sign show my your Spotify Daylist Title. I was intrigued as Spotify doesn’t really have a great record with playlisting as far as I’m concerned. Look I get it, MGK has a large fanbase so he has to put on the Rock On playlist. I have always felt there should be avenues for lesser known artists to be on these curated playlists. So you could imagine my surprise when I tracked down my Daylist, hit shuffle & found bands with 1000, 100, or even 50 monthly listeners. I quickly became obsessed with what was going to be next.

Today I am going to share some of my favourite findings with you. Check this out….

Wild & free chaotic Thursday afternoon, paranormal dark cabaret afternoon, Nervous ocean thursday morning or Doom Metal Monday Night which had my band, Lost Arts single “Dead Eyes” has the first song. These are some examples of the interesting titles Spotify creates for our Daylists. Now, I’m not convinced that Spotify understands what Doom Metal is, because Lost Arts is 90’s Pop Country if you asked a Doom Metal aficionado. However I feel reinvigorated in my music discovery. The Daylists updates 3 different times throughout the day, with fresh names & fresh music. Streaming has not necessarily made music discovery easy. It’s actually really hard to stumble onto anything. You share your habits with your platform & they spit it back out, often times it’s the same 6 artists for you to listen to. As I mentioned earlier Spotify playlists are honestly very weak as music discovery goes but that isn’t really what they are for. Spotify is creating playlists for people to use their platform and artists with huge listener bases make the most sense. Today I have 8 songs, that I have found in a few variations of my Daylists. First up I have “You Know What It Is” By The Pistolwhips & Song of The Morning by Imperial Tunfisch. I cannot find much information about The Pistolwhips, they seem to now be defunct, with their last release being In 2018. They do have 2 albums & boast 5200 Monthly listeners however. Imperial Tunfisch are a psychedelic indie rock band from Belgium. They released 2 ep’s & the single that I am about to play for you in 2022, rocking only 64 monthly listeners. Here is our first song “Song of The Morning”

What actually got me to take to this Daylist concept was that when I was going to some of these bands profiles, they had such low monthly listeners. As I said, Imperial Tunfisch only has 64 monthly listeners. In fact everything that will be played today from now on has under 1000 monthly listeners & most under 500. Why am I harping on this quote unquote low monthly listener count? Because this is the type of music I want to discover & I’m bit of annoying bitch in the sense that back in high school to discover an unheard band, they still very likely had to be signed or have something go viral. Lost Arts is sitting around 40 monthly listeners right now. I like the idea that we could be graced by the algorithm & placed in someone’s Daylist titled like Desert Shirt Buffalo Afternoon & we get that ever desired like & personal playlist add. The internet is a magically horrendous place where sometimes your dreams come true…. damn that is lame…. Next I have two songs I really enjoyed & fall under the quake label for the show. First I have The Shirts & Shoes from Boston with their song “Toothache” followed by Queen Chiefs, I could not find where they are from but their song “Space Funeral” is tripping somewhere in the desert.

I am bad for listening to the same music, which isn’t conducive to a long term podcast/ radio show. There is so much great shit out there but I can’t keep playing Dead Poet Society on the show. They’re a great band, new album “Fissions” out now. I am grabbing these songs from a playlists that I have made, that is essentially a dumping ground for my favourite finds from my Daylist, titled “Fuck Yeah- Discovery”. I cuss a lot because I didn’t rebel has a teenage & frankly I’m an idiot. But not when it comes to music, you should listen to me. I will never lead you down a path that doesn’t either rip or quake. Here’s a band from somewhere in the USA, You would think more people would have where they are from in their socials. Kid Pastel with their newest release “Cracks & Breaks” followed by the UK’s Bison Face with his ripper “Wishkah”.

Finally I am going to take you out of the desert but not the sand. We’re on the road to the beach maybe? I don’t know man. Bad Mothers - “I Hate the Road”. Bad Mothers are from Albany New York & I really dig this guys voice. If I could sing like anyone it would be Chris Cornell but this would be a close second. It drips with natural emotion. I actually gave Craig their album for You Should Jam, a segment on my main pod, We Should Jam Sometime. I haven’t even listened to it yet, but if it is half as good as this song, it will be perfect. Finally for today we have Okay Dane from Melbourne Victoria with “You’re Sick”. I’ve been obsessed with song. It’s giving me a Wavves meets Modern Baseball vibe. Like maybe if Modern Baseball grew up in LA or maybe fucking Australia. This is a really fun track that takes the mental health subject matter & makes you dance to it.

Shiny Side Up