5 Songs We Can't Stop Listening To is a collection of our newest favorite songs. Every week we ask an artist that we love to tell us about the music they love.
Listen to the whole segment and all the songs below.
1. Tune-Yards picks “Medusa” by Debbie Friday
Our gust today is Tune-Yards. Tune-Yard’s music is a mixture of world music, electronic loops, and everything that is weird and fun. Their new album is “I can feel you creeping into my private life.” My guest today is Merrill Garbus, lead singer of Tune-Yards.
Justin Barney: Merrill, what is one song you can’t stop listening to?
Merrill Garbus: I am currently obsessed with Debbie Friday. She’s a musician out of Montreal. There is this song called “Medusa” from her that is amazing.
Justin Barney: What’s amazing about it?
Merrill Garbus: It’s rare to have the experience, but sometimes you get exposed to an artists that has created a world. I think that’s what I’ve always strived for, so when I see it in people I’m really drawn to that. Where they don’t sound like anyone else. They pull you in with every element of the production.
I think particularly because I get met with this, “Well, there isn’t a lot of female-identifying producers.” I think that was a myth that I kind of internalized for a long time and it is so simply not true.
Debbie Friday is a DJ, producing her own music. So being able to understand that this is a world totally created on her own and by herself. I don’t know a lot about her, but that track “Medusa” became a run-on-the-treadmill-in-the-hotel-gym song because it’s completely infectious and danceable.
- “Medusa” was released in March on Debbie Friday’s album “Bitchpunk”
- Listen if you like: Tune-yards, Ibeyi, Zed Kenzo
2. Jessie Reyez – “Body Count”
So this is Jessie Reyez. She was born in Toronto, moved to Florida where she was busking for a while and then she was accepted into the Remix Project’s Academy of Recording Arts, moved back up to Canada, released the song “Figures” in 2016 to critical and popular acclaim. In 2018, she won a Juno award (which is basically a Canadian Grammy) for Breakthrough Artist. So Jesse Reyez is an artist on the rise here.
“Body Count” has this kind of coffee house feel to it in the instrumentation and she balances that coffee house feel with lyrics that are very hard and confident. The lyrics let you in, they allow her to be vulnerable and soft. But the lyrics come in as if to say don’t mess with her.
- “Body Count” was released in May as a single.
- Listen if you like: Acoustic songs with an attitude, SZA, Kiiara
3. G Flip picks “Monsoon” by Amber Mark
Our guest is G Flip. Georgia Flipo or G Flip, is a multi-instrumentalist from Melbourne, Australia. We discovered her at SXSW this year where we heard her play her song, “About You,” which is fantastic.
Justin Barney: G Flip, what is one song you can’t stop listening to?
G Flip: Her name is Amber Mark. She’s got this song called “Monsoon.” As soon as I’ve heard it I’ve been obsessed. I literally listened to it on repeat for the past three days. So it’s the only song I’ve listened to for the past three days.
Justin Barney: I love that.
G Flip: When the beat kicks in there are some, like, tribal rhythms, some world rhythms. Which I dig because when I was at Uni, when I went and studied music after high school, I did a lot of courses in world percussion and Latin rhythms and Latin percussion and stuff like that. So if I ever hear a touch of that in a song I’m always like, “Ooh that’s interesting. That’s cool.”
- “Monsoon” was released in 2017 on Mark’s EP- “3:33AM.”
- Listen if you like: G Flip, world rhythms, Rhythm Lab
Cody Gaisser - “Wish There Was A Way”
Every year, we have this event called Sound Bites at the Iron Horse Hotel. Restaurants all around town are paired up with DJs from here at 88.9. They pair a dish with a song. There is also an auction, which Bridget Flynn won and is our guest today for our 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To segment.
Justin Barney: Bridget, what is one song that you can’t stop listening to?
Bridget Flynn: I had to find something that, 1, I didn’t think you would know, 2 would…
Justin Barney: Not a prerequisite, but okay.
Bridget Flynn: I wanted it to be sort of a sad song, so my pick is Cody Gaisser, “Wish There Was A Way.”
Justin Barney: Okay, so I don’t know it. Good. We’re on the right track. Tell me more about it.
Bridget Flynn: So I met Cody probably 15 years ago, and he’s a singer/songwriter out of Florence, Alabama. It’s fun, but it’s a little sad.
Justin Barney: Do you remember hearing it for the first time?
Bridget Flynn: I do. He used to come in and do open-mic nights at the place I worked. The first time I met him, he was just this little 16 year-old guy. He pulled out a guitar and no one really thought anything of it, and he opened his mouth and I was like “Oh my God! My life is changed.” He’s got this crazy voice that I just love.
- “Wish There Was A Way” was released in 2002 on Gaisser’s “Good As Velvet” EP.
- Listen if you like: Kyle Craft, Van Morrison, gritty vocals and guitar
- Get tickets to Sound Bites here.
4. Cardi B – “I Like It”
Justin Barney: This is 5 Songs We Can’t Stop Listening To and I’m here with our Community Stories producer Vianca Fuster. Vianca, what ratchet stuff are you listening to?
Vianca Fuster: Oh, we about to get real ratchet up in here, Justin. Cardi B, with Bad Bunny and J Balvin, they just came out with the video for “I Like It.” And it’s been on loop non-stop and when I get in the car it’s been on non-stop loop as well. So that’s my pick.
Justin Barney: Why this song?
Vianca Fuster: Cause they sampled that “I Like It Like That” song. It’s such a good sample on a classic and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a hip-hop song sample a salsa classic like this before. It just gives me all the feels. It’s ratchet. It’s intense. I get pumped when I’m hearing it. It’s my vote for the summer jam.
- “I Like It” was released in April on Cardi B’s debut album, “Invasion of Privacy.”
- Listen if you like: Pete Rodriguez, summa jamz, getting pumped
5. Retirement Party – “Passion Fruit Tea”
I think that songs that hit me in the biggest way are about the smallest things.
This song is almost about nothing. Lead singer Avery Springer sings about not having a job, but having things that are more important, about having a couple friends, drinking passion fruit tea. And she’s got this great line in it that says, “I’ll keep reporting on all of these events.” Which seems like a sarcastic way to say that there aren’t all that many events to report on.
For some reason, I find songs like this to be the most endearing to me. It seems to be a little look into this life that says it doesn’t always have to be about the biggest things, like most of life is just about these little things.
Also it’s this great power-pop song that comes in with heavy amounts of distortion and feedback and fuzzy guitars and she sings over these great riffs which I love too.
- "Passion Fruit Tea" appears on Retirement Party's new album, "Somewhat Literate."
- Listen if you like: bedroom rock, Alex G, Slaughter Beach, Dog