5 Songs We Can't Stop Listening to is a collection of our newest favorite songs. And Every week we ask an artist that we love to tell us about the music they love.
Listen to the whole thing in the player below.
1. Jeff Rosenstock picks “One of My Lies” by Green Day
At the beginning of every week we ask one artist that we love to tell us about a song that they love.
Jeff Rosenstock used to be in the band Bomb the Music Industry! which is how I remember him. He is a solo artist in his own right. This year, on January 1st he released his new album, “Post-“ and I have been obsessed with it. It’s one of the best things I have heard in a long time, so I got on the phone and called him up. This is Jeff Rosenstock.
Justin Barney: Jeff, what is one song that you can’t stop listening to?
Jeff Rosenstock: Hmmmmm, I’ve been listening back to “Kerplunk!” by Green Day a lot. And the song, “One of My Lies.”
Justin Barney: How is it different listening now from when you first heard it?
Jeff Rosenstock: I still think it sounds cool and really good. I’m impressed that they were so young and made such a good record. You know?
Justin Barney: Yeah.
Jeff Rosenstock: I’m a sucker for good pop-punk. That’s kind of gotten me into everything I’ve gotten into in life. Basically, pop-punk got me into writing.
Justin Barney: And I feel like those are often written off as being frivolous when I think some of the best writing has come from pop punk songs.
Jeff Rosenstock: They are written off because pop-punk devolved into this fasion-cor/mall-core bullsh*t that seems like it was designed to be consumed.
But the side of pop-punk that I like is that 90’s Bay area style pop-punk or anything like that. Where it sounded like a bunch of scrappy people, a bunch of scrubs trying to be like, “Yo, I don’t care that were scrubs. Were gonna make a punk tune. We’re gonna make a pop song and it’s gonna sound nasty cause we don’t care and we just want to make a song.”
That’s the kind of vibe I like a lot about pop-punk.
- “One of My Lies” was released in 1991 on Green Day’s album, “Kerplunk!”
- Listen if you like: early 90’s Bay area pop-punk, scrubs making songs, Bomb the Music Industry!
2. Jeff Rosenstock – “All This Useless Energy”
When I was 14 years old I bought the album, “Pinkerton” by Weezer. And it became my everything. The Distortion, the feedback, the feelings. Is the bedrock of which all of my musical taste has grown from. We all have that album. You know yours. So, do I love this song because it could be the 11th track on Pinkerton? Or do I love it because it is objectively, good art? I don’t know. And I don’t think it really matters.
- “All This Useless Energy” was released on January 1st on Jeff Rosenstock’s new album, “Post-“ via Polyvinyl.
- Listen if you like: Weezer’s “Pinkerton,” lots of distortion and feedback, feeling like you are a fifteen year old kid again learning every single word of an album and singing them loudly at the top of your lungs after you listened to the album twenty times in a row
3. Dan Croll picks “Motion Sickness” by Phoebe Bridgers
Dan Croll is from Staffordshire, England. We have played multiple songs by him over the years including his newest song, “Bad Boy.” His new album, is “Emerging Adulthood.” This is our interview with Dan Croll.
Justin Barney: Dan, what is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Dan Croll: Phoebe Bridgers, “Motion Sickness.” That was the stand-out-album of 2017 for me. She’s got this brilliant way of storytelling and that’s my weakness. I love music, and writers, and people who have this ability to tell stories. Usually it’s quite blunt lyrically. You can really follow along and visualize exactly what they are talking about or feeling.
That album and song really resonated with me. In the chorus she’s saying, “I have emotional motion sickness.” Which I think is such a great line and personally I spend so much of my time in transit or traveling. I find that the bus or the plane or the train is the place where I get to switch off, but usually that’s when I become the most vulnerable or most emotional because it kind of all catches up with myself.
- “Motion Sickness” was released September 22nd, 2017 on Phoebe Bridger’s album, “Stranger in the Alps.”
- Listen if you like: Margaret Glaspy, Anna Burch, great songwriting
4. Jeff Rosenstock – “Yr Throat”
Justin Barney: This is 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To and I’m here with our Digital Content Coordinator, Amelinda. Amelinda, what is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Amelinda: The song I can’t stop listening to is “Yr Throat” by Jeff Rosenstock.
I think, no matter your political affiliation, it’s safe to agree that there is a lot of tension in America right now. It’s kind of a steady hum of existential dread in the background of everyday life. Pop-punk veteran Jeff Rosenstock put out a new album on New Year’s Day for free that really hit so specific and internal struggle for me, personally, that it was kind of jarring.
I read somewhere that when he sat down to write this record he turned off the internet, took social media off his phone, and just sat with a notebook and poured everything out. I think that’s good advice, to unplug and process everything that’s going on.
But it’s not as bleak of a listening experience as you might think. It’s super cathartic with those choruses and just that comfort of hearing someone articulate your feeling a little better than you.
- “Yr Throat” was released on Jan. 1st on Jeff Rosenstock’s new album, “Post-.“
- Listen if you like: bleak lyrics with a team chorus, pop-punk, anthems
5. Shannon & the Clams – “The Boy”
Shannon and the Clams is a personal soft spot for me. The first band I ever saw at the Cactus Club. They are part of this little subculture in music with other bands like Hunx and his Punx, Nobunny, King Khan & BBQ Show that really have an affinity for proper rock’n’roll, old do-op, or anything that could be in the soundtrack of a John Waters movie. They are holders of the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll.
Shannon and the Clams used to be on Hardly Art, a label near and dear to my heart, but for this album they moved to Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label. Which hasn’t changed their sound, it seems to only have given them renewed energy.
This song is classic Shannon and the Clams, the Link Wray guitar, girl group harmonies, and, of course, Shannon’s heartbreaker voice.
- “The Boy” will be released on Shannon and the Clams new album, “Onion” due out Feb 16th.
- Listen if you like: Nobunny, rock’n’roll, John Waters movies