Week 3 - march 15, 2024
The Third Show Was Awesome!!
Quick overview:
- My name is Scot Apathy – I’m the lead singer for Zero-G Racetrack, and I curate the ‘Floating Around the Racetrack’ Spotify/YouTube playlist. It’s not a pay for play list; I personally choose what’s on it based on what I hear. True story.
- For Z-GR! Radio, I pull from tracks/artists on the playlist (current and archived) and include newer finds that might not be on the list yet.
- The artists included come from myriad genres, geographical locations and stage of growth. I stay away from mainstream established artists, but I will play artists that I’ve followed as they grow. I love it when emerging artists gain traction, and I like to celebrate it.
- I include a cover song each week, and highly recommend checking out MetroVeteran’s (Ruel Smith) ‘Synthwave Covers’ Spotify playlist. There are 900 great tracks on that list.
- I post a page like this each week to help you find out more about the artists you heard on this week’s show and to make it easy to do so.
ALSO – You can hear an On-Demand replay of this Episode on the NEWHD Radio Mobile App – go to either the NY or LA station and use the menu to navigate to the On-Demand section.
Have fun with the list below, enjoy the artists and and PLEASE share the page out on your Socials! Thanks, and see you next week!
Episode Three - On Demand
Z-GR! Radio Episode Three Lineup
Breathe of My Leaves - Trepidation
Breathe of My Leaves is a project by Stephano Barberis, who is known most notably for creating and winning awards for music and concert videos and vocalist Jordan Gant, who’s performance on ‘Trepidation!’ is fantastic. I’ve had this one on repeat lately, and it’s a great track to kick things off – it’s big, it’s catchy and it sets the perfect tone for the show.Â
Danz CM / Cody Crump - I Don’t Need A Hero
Danz CM is a favorite of mine – I’ve been a fan since she was going by the ‘Computer Magic’ moniker, and I had ‘Fuzz’ on the playlist when it was still sub-100k streams; it’s now just shy of 2 million. Awesome and deserved. For the show, I selected Danz CM’s ‘I Don’t Need a Hero’ as remixed by Cody Crump because I love great lyrical storytelling, and the straightforward rebuff of Danz’s potential long-term lover is well told and interesting. I went with Cody’s remix because it sounds a bit more aggressive/interesting than the album version, and with nearly double the streams, it seems that I’m not alone in my preference.Â
She’s indicated that she has some new Danzy material on the way, and I am looking forward to it.
Danz CM:
Cody Crump:
RJ Thompson - Rescue You
RJ Thompson is another recent ‘discovery’ of mine, though he’s charted #1 in the UK for downloads and hit the UK Top 40. I can understand why; he has a great big modern rock sound that hits the Rock Evolution tag square on the head. I included ‘Rescue You’ off of his ‘Yearbook’ album for the show.
Martin Prahl - I Want More
I really, really dig Martin Prahl’s ‘I Want More’. The track has a bunch of cool musical moments throughout and interesting fills on multiple instruments that keep things interesting. I really like his modern take on late 80’s indie rock; he has this really cool 80’s Pop Prog-Rock meets Peter Murphy vibe going and I’m here for it.
Zero-G Racetrack - Sexy Pretty Thing
Full disclosure – I’m Zero-G Racetrack’s singer/lyricist, so I have some insights into this week’s Z-GR! Track, ‘Sexy Pretty Thing’. Bill Williams, the better half of Z-GR! had the idea to re-imagine a post-punk short and sweet power guitar track as an Electronic Rock song. He tightened everything up, locking the guitars to the grid as one would a synth track and saturating them with interesting distortion and wah effects.
For the vocal, I was looking to create a big, memorable hook that was pure, stupid Rock and Roll while keeping my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. I kept the verses simple by re-using words rather than adding ones for the sake of rhyme, and did the opposite in the Bridge by moving to a conversational sing-song replete with unnecessarily multisyllabic words (see what I did there?). The chorus leaves all nuance behind and just gets right to the point – the point being that when it comes to verbalizing sexual attraction, everyone has a different idea as to what to say and how to say it.
Rickety Cliffs - Different Eyes
An old and dear friend pointed me at SoCal’s Rickety Cliffs. ‘Different Eyes’ is a standout of theirs – the transition from old school punk to a 70’s arena rock guitar solo and back is a lot of fun, and the percussion used as the tempo slows really caught my attention. Good choices on the sounds, for sure. I noticed that there’s quite a cool music scene going on in San Diego and North County; it’s been a long minute since I lived in South California, but I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled that Punk Rock is alive, doing well and kicking it in the San Diego sun.Â
Forty Feet Tall - Crash And Burn
I really like Portland’s Forty Feet Tall – these guys have a nicely polished bar band sound which tracks since everything I’ve read indicates that if you get in a room with them, they’ll stick a guitar or two in your ear. ‘Crash and Burn’ does nothing to counter the notion…this is a banging track that should sound awesome live. If you’re in the Austin or the Dallas/Fort Worth area in May, you’ll get the chance to hear for yourself. Hit their website at fortyfeettall.com for the details.
WillJack / Doctor Zee - End Of The World
WillJack is a Canadian father/son band, and I originally knew them as Doctor Zee – I discovered ‘End of the World’ on a very cool compilation released to raise funds for planetary awareness called ‘Minds Behind the Music’. I fell in love with the song but hadn’t heard much from them in a while, so I reached out to find out what they were up to and am happy to report that they have new material coming this summer. Looking forward, for sure.
Fuzzle - Waste Your TIme
Fuzzle is an excellent SoCal RetroSynth band that hit my radar via Instagram in early 2022 and I’ve been a fan ever since. They definitely carry an 80’s dance pop vibe, but I love that they lean into the rock side of things as often as not, and they do it really really well. I’ve had six different Fuzzle on the playlist, but 2021’s ‘Waste Your Time’ just might be my favorite. I really do suggest spending time with their catalog – you won’t be disappointed.
Red Cell - Only Night
Inadvertently, this week’s show ended up laden with artists out of Sweden – not surprising, as I really do believe that there is a magic something in Sweden’s water supply that makes people automatically create awesome synthpop. Red Cell’s ‘Only Night’ is a perfect example and you would do well to spend some time checking them out.
GunShip - Send Me An Angel
It’s true that Gunship doesn’t need my help getting the word out; they have a huge following and deservedly so – this week ‘s cover is Gunship’s take on Australian band Real Life’s 1983 hit ‘Send Me An Angel’. It’s truly amazing as anyone who is familiar with Gunship’s music would expect. Simply put, this is a great version of a classic 80’s pop anthem and shouldn’t be missed.
Sweet Tempest - Giving It Up
Sweet Tempest’s ‘Giving It Up’ was a standout from last week’s show – I think it’s fantastic, and I wanted to make sure that you heard it if you missed it last week. I’ll add this – the more I listen to this track, the more impressed I am with it. You definitely owe it to yourself to check out the rest of their stuff.
Social Ambitions - Heaven
Another band out of Sweden (Stockholm, to be precise), Social Ambitions has been around in various iterations for nearly 20 years, but their current lineup, headed up by founding members Anders Karlsson and Mikael Arborelious, is absolutely killing it. Known for blending classic synthpop with indie pop, techno, rock and new wave to great effect, Social Ambitions’ ‘Heaven’ off of 2020’s ‘A New Frontier’ is bouncy and it’s fun.
O+HER - Virus Meadow
I don’t remember where I came across Sweden’s (yes, THAT Sweden :-)) O+HER (pronounced ‘Other’), but they knocked me out with ‘Virus Meadow’. It has one of the most potent earworm melodies I’ve encountered, which is saying something. I figured that you need it stuck in your head like I do, so…you’re welcome.
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