Watch & Listen
The Algorithm
Suno AI CEO says “people don’t enjoy making music”
Summer Music Draft
Summer Music Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4oJk1ORUhrKGXVwFCjZKIA?si=54b23d6636bd485a
AJ
- Could You Be Loved – Bob Marley
- BAILE INoLVIDABLE – Bad Bunny
- Love Me – Fia
- Doin’ Time – Sublime
- On Melancholy Hill – Gorillaz
- Feels – Pharell
- Texas Sun – Khruangbin, Leon Bridges
- Brujeria
- Black Roses – Barrington Levy
- Sweet Life – Frank Ocean
Vince
- Ganja Smuggling – Eak-A-Mouse
- Badfish – Sublime
- (Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
- It Was A Good Day – Ice Cube
- San Francisco Knights –
- Twice As Hard – The Black Crowes
- Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Beach Boys
- Murderer – Barrington Levy
- Runnin’ – Pharcyde
- High Priced Shoe – Prof
Summary
In this episode, Vince and AJ discuss their workout routines, the impact of AI on music creation, and dive into a summer music draft where they pick their favorite summer songs. They explore the nostalgia associated with summer hits, the changing landscape of music consumption, and the role of AI in the creative process. In this engaging conversation, Vince and AJ explore their favorite summer songs, sharing personal memories and the emotions tied to each track. They delve into various genres, including reggae, hip hop, and classic hits, while discussing the perfect vibes for summer activities like barbecues and beach outings. The discussion highlights the nostalgic power of music and its ability to evoke memories of carefree summer days. In this engaging conversation, Vince and AJ Marotte explore their favorite summer music picks, discussing the evolution of music discovery, the influence of various genres, and the significance of independent artists. They share personal anecdotes about their musical journeys, highlight reggae and hip hop favorites, and reflect on the changing landscape of music consumption. The discussion culminates in a light-hearted exchange about their summer plans and the importance of music in creating memorable experiences.
Takeaways
- AJ enjoys Pilates and is incorporating it into her workout routine.
- Vince is getting back into shape and considering yoga.
- AI can only mimic existing patterns and cannot create original art.
- The process of making music is a passion for true musicians.
- AI music generation tools are becoming more accessible.
- The music industry is evolving with trends influenced by social media.
- Summer songs evoke nostalgia and memories of good times.
- Bob Marley is a classic summer music choice.
- The importance of enjoying the process of music creation.
- Music trends are often driven by platforms like TikTok. The album ’40 Ounces to Freedom’ was a significant introduction to Sublime for Vince.
- Music can paint vivid pictures of summer experiences, like surfing and beach bonfires.
- AJ’s choice of ‘Love Me’ by Fia reflects local Hawaiian vibes and memories of college life.
- Nostalgia plays a crucial role in how we connect with certain songs and artists.
- Sublime’s ‘Doin’ Time’ is a quintessential summer driving song for AJ.
- The Beach Boys’ ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ is a timeless classic that evokes poolside relaxation.
- Hip hop tracks like Ice Cube’s ‘It Was a Good Day’ capture the essence of summer fun.
- Calvin Harris’s ‘Feels’ represents the upbeat energy of summer music from 2017.
- Songs can serve as a backdrop for memorable moments, like barbecues and road trips.
- Music preferences often reflect personal experiences and cultural backgrounds. Music discovery has evolved significantly over the years.
- Reggae music is a staple for summer vibes.
- Barrington Levy is a must-listen for reggae fans.
- Hip hop can be a summer soundtrack, but it varies by personal taste.
- Frank Ocean’s influence is notable in modern music.
- Independent artists are shaping the future of music.
- Creating playlists is a fun way to curate music experiences.
- Summer music often evokes nostalgia and personal memories.
- The conversation highlights the importance of family in sharing music.
- Exploring different genres can enhance the summer experience.
Transcript
Vince Marotte (00:01)
X and Y episode two. So we’re in lieu of the normal suburban kings because John had something going on. He was going to be on today, but something came up. last minute. So we’re just going to keep rolling because life happens, man. You got any coffee?
AJ Marotte (00:05)
I got us two.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Water coffee tastes like dirt.
Vince Marotte (00:21)
There you go. There you go. Are you back to working out?
AJ Marotte (00:27)
a little bit by myself. I just got done with Pilates class actually, so I have that twice a week. So that’s been my workout. And then I’ll lift.
Vince Marotte (00:33)
Nice. What is Pilates
like for real?
AJ Marotte (00:38)
Okay, my class is called Pilates slash Bar, and Bar is like a specific type of Pilates, but she said we’re probably not even gonna do a lot of it, but it’s literally like you’re on a-
Vince Marotte (00:47)
So it’s pronounced bar,
because I’ve seen that like at the strip mall, play it B-A-R-R-E. I always said baray or baray.
AJ Marotte (00:53)
Yes.
I know it looks like it should be fancier, but it’s literally like you’re on like a ballet bar, you know, like they have with the room and the mirrors and everything. And you do like exercise on that, like lots of calf raises, like lots of quick exercises back to back, like lots of reps, like literally where you’re left like shaking like your calves, you just can’t like stand, which we haven’t even done yet. We do lots of stuff on the floor, lots of like leg bridges and like sit-ups and different ab workouts like on mats right now is where, whoa.
Vince Marotte (00:58)
What, yeah.
Okay.
Okay, and that’s bar.
AJ Marotte (01:25)
we’ve been doing, so. I’m actually enjoying it. It’s fun to do something different other than like power lifting for basketball, so.
Vince Marotte (01:27)
Right.
I need to get into some yoga this spring. Mom and I have talked about that. you know, the weather’s been good. So I’ve been getting my workouts in. I’m finally starting to get back in shape. I don’t feel like a fat sausage, but but awesome. So this today’s episode, we have the summer music draft. We’re going to pick our favorite. You know, it’s our drafts always kind of a hybrid between what’s our favorite and what’s like the best. So, you know, we don’t want to just
AJ Marotte (01:45)
Hehehehe
Vince Marotte (02:00)
be homers and just go like my stuff, but like what people might like as well. There’ll be some surprises. There was some music draft, you know, what are we going to be spinning this summer? And then at the top I got, I found an article about AI generated music. what’s the, what’s the, take, what’s the, do we know about AI generated music? Have you heard it and known it or what do they say? And what do they say in college?
AJ Marotte (02:05)
Yeah.
Not like actual music. I’ve only seen like on TikTok, they’ll make like a character on TV to sing like an AI song or like usually they’re horrible. Like it’ll be like LeBron singing a, singing a Nirvana song and you’re like, how, what? So that’s the only version of.
Vince Marotte (02:44)
Right.
AJ Marotte (02:49)
AI music I’ve heard? Unless I’ve heard it and I don’t know, because there’s a lot of times where I’m like, I didn’t even realize I was AI until I looked at the comments. So.
Vince Marotte (02:57)
Yeah.
Well, I live and breathe AI most days. It’s just a huge part of my work and what I’ve been doing for years. And even, even before it was AI back in like 2006, it built some stuff and we just, was machine learning, but it’s the same thing. The thing I always say when it comes to the creative stuff, I think people get all ex either excited or nervous, depending on your point of view on AI in the creative space. Like it’s doing writing or in this case, doing music or making
art making pictures. The thing is, is it can’t create. AI can only do, it’s constrained to what it’s been trained. So what’s already known essentially. What it can do is connect a bunch of patterns, you know, and make it seem smart, which is why I probably seem smart because I have ADHD and I can connect patterns that most people can’t connect. And it’s like, that, but I’m not smart.
AJ Marotte (03:31)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (03:54)
And AI is the same way. Like I relate to AI as someone with ADHD. It’s just very good. It’s very good at connecting patterns. And so it doesn’t know anything. It can’t truly create. know, when you think of, you know, I think of like a melody, especially like a Chris Cornell melody, like some of the, some of the melodies he comes up with one song I’m thinking at top of my head is from Audioslave. It’s called Moth and it has this
AJ Marotte (04:02)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (04:22)
Melody this vocal melody on the verse that is every time I hear it. like, how did he come up with that? That is not of this world. Like it’s surreal the way and and AI could never do anything like that because it hasn’t it hasn’t a quote unquote heard or been taught that melody because it didn’t exist. True art is creating something out of nothing. AI can’t create anything out of nothing.
AJ Marotte (04:36)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (04:48)
So on that end, when it comes to creativity, the least interesting thing it can do when you understand it is the creative stuff, creative writing, creative music, creative, you know, making fake photos and that kind of stuff. That’s not interesting because it’s not actually creating anything. It’s just mimicking what it knows. You know, like that robot in the electric state, doesn’t know language. can only, it’s limited to the dialogue that’s programmed into it from a TV show.
AJ Marotte (04:48)
Yeah.
You
Thank
Yeah.
in that show. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (05:17)
And
so there’s a company, I’m sure there’s lots of them, but this one is the one that came to came in through my feeds because of some controversy. The CA CEO of a company called Suno AI that’s S U N O A I URL is suno.com and it is an AI music generator. Okay. And I went there and poked around for a second.
AJ Marotte (05:26)
Okay.
Vince Marotte (05:43)
It’s just like a chat GPT. You type in some natural language prompting and it’ll make some music. And I had it, I forget what I put in there. let’s see. there it is. Yeah. So I made something. I just wanted like, my first thought was it’s probably good for making like an introduction, you know, like for the podcast, right? Cause originally we had put a little bumper on the front of the end, but, YouTube will flag it because it’s somebody else’s music.
AJ Marotte (06:06)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (06:12)
Turns out we can kind of play little snippets of music and movies in the podcast under fair use. Cause we’re critiquing or, know, if you’re doing, you’re doing criticism, intellectual criticism of works, you can sample it and play it and not get in trouble. Like Spotify just pinged me about a song that was on one. And it was like, you know, that’s fair use. We’re allowed to do that. But
AJ Marotte (06:18)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Okay.
Vince Marotte (06:34)
You know, if it’s becomes the thing that’s on the podcast every episode, then you know, there’s some licensing issues and things like that. And so getting those what’s called synchronization rights is difficult. I can see AI music being great for that kind of thing. Like, you know, we’re doing this for fun and you know, maybe a thousand or so people are listening to at any regular time. And it’s not something I’m investing money in or going to make money out of. don’t expect to just doing it for fun, trying to make sure I stay connected to art and.
AJ Marotte (07:00)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (07:04)
storytelling and that sort of thing. And it’d be great for that because I can just have it make so I had to make one of those. It did pretty good. Just did a first stab. It made a little break beat. You know, I had to put a little 808 drop in there with some with some low brass. So it was like some tuba and, know, like a like a bassoon kind of thing. It sounds pretty cool. Like and so that’s an easy way. And it literally took me as long as it took to type two sentences to make it.
AJ Marotte (07:06)
Mm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (07:31)
And so I think it has legs for that, but here’s where the controversy is. See the CEO, it’s his name here. Mike Schulman CEO of AI company. Suno was on a venture capital, you know, business tech bro nerd podcast. And he is quoted as saying, people don’t enjoy making music.
AJ Marotte (07:35)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (07:57)
I mean, you see that headline, what’s your first reaction?
AJ Marotte (08:01)
What? That’s people’s passions and jobs. Like, what? What is the thought behind that?
Vince Marotte (08:10)
He believes, right?
believes AI’s future, more people will take part in making music with AI. He believes that this will change how customers, listeners interact with music. And he says, to me, it seems crazy that music should not be as engaging as Fortnite, says Schulman. Schulman wants to see a future where more people can make a living making music without the struggles of the process.
He goes on to say that people don’t really enjoy the process of making music when asked about why he thinks this way. She even states that many people drop out during the process of making music.
that’s on its face, that’s ridiculous.
AJ Marotte (08:48)
That’s crazy. What?
Vince Marotte (08:50)
If you don’t,
if you don’t enjoy the process, guess what? You’re not a musician. You’re, you’re not, you’re not an artist. That’s, that’s bonkers. You know, like, I think the same is true in like sport. If you don’t enjoy the working out and the practice, the same for you. You get to show up, get to show up and play games. So, you know, having known many professional musicians,
AJ Marotte (08:54)
Yeah, that’s like the whole point.
That’s crazy.
Mm-hmm.
You and yeah. What? Yeah.
Vince Marotte (09:18)
many that people have heard of and worked with them with a nonprofit I was on the board of for years. They love making music. Probably more than actually the stardom and the famous, performing it in front of people. That’s a cool rush. That’s like the payoff. But they love noodling. And when you talk with them, they love arguing about music. They love…
AJ Marotte (09:18)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (09:44)
just nerding out on all the equipment you need and instruments you need and the pro, like they love the process. This is crazy, this guy.
AJ Marotte (09:49)
Yeah. Yeah.
That’s insane.
Vince Marotte (09:56)
So Shulman, think he’s, yeah, I think he’s missing it here. So this has always worried me. know, making music is easier than it’s ever been, or at least getting music out to an audience is easier than it’s ever been, right? Right? So like, you know, even what we’re doing now, this podcast, to cost some money because one, the equipment costs a lot of money.
AJ Marotte (10:12)
100%. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (10:24)
But also the distribution costs a lot of money. You had to have a pretty good size server because the audio file sizes are pretty big and you had to code up an XML file and have it syndicate to places like Apple podcasts. And now you can just drag and drop, boom, boom, boom. And it’s free. I don’t pay to host the files anywhere. You just get to buy a microphone and a way to put in a computer and you’re off. like to make music, that’s all you need now too, because you can just get
AJ Marotte (10:37)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (10:53)
synthesizers and samples off the internet and sing your, can make music today and publish it to the world today. we’re in the past, you know, you had to play gigs. You couldn’t even record. Like maybe you could record like a really bad demo, you know, on a tape and you could bring that and maybe give it to somebody, but you had to play shows somewhere and then eventually get good enough to where you could play a show.
AJ Marotte (10:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (11:23)
that someone from a record company or a studio would show up to and watch you. And if they liked you, they would front the money to get you actually recorded in a studio, because it was expensive. Thousands of dollars an hour to run one of those things, millions of dollars of equipment in them. And that’s not necessarily necessary anymore. And so now he wants to cut all of that out of there.
AJ Marotte (11:28)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (11:50)
The downside, you this is me being old head, so yell at me. You know, the downside is when the bar is lowered, you know, there’s a lot of garbage to sift through. Like any Barney could put some music online on SoundCloud. And so there’s a lot of noise. And we kind of looked at that a few episodes ago, the key changes in music and how they fell off it like a cliff in 1997, which is…
AJ Marotte (11:58)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (12:18)
which is to say music got less interesting after OK Computer. Or at least key changes went away. I think it’s probably because hip hop isn’t really key related, you know, it’s it’s already pretty easy. This it’s not art. I don’t think any I’m not worried because I don’t think real interesting art is going to come out of this. But maybe it’ll flood the the chaperones and the.
AJ Marotte (12:28)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (12:46)
and that stuff out of the zone.
AJ Marotte (12:49)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (12:50)
because that music is pretty same same. You know, it’s just four on the floor, pretty woman singing. It’s basic lyrics. mean, you know, it’s not, there’s not a lot of pain there and struggle to create. It’s just, you can turn it out. It’s fast food. And I don’t see McDonald’s getting Michelin stars. So.
AJ Marotte (12:54)
Yeah, I agree.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (13:18)
On the one hand, I’m not worried. I’ll keep my eye on it. But for the music I like, I don’t think it’s in danger because the music I love, the stuff that moves me is true art. I don’t, and as someone who works with AI, don’t see AI being able to do that, to be able to create something that doesn’t exist. And that’s the best stuff, a surprise.
AJ Marotte (13:21)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (13:44)
So there you go. Brave new world for your generation. All right, let’s get into the summer music track.
AJ Marotte (13:46)
AI music.
okay. Nervous.
Vince Marotte (13:58)
This, this
popped into my head to do a few weeks ago or last month when I was in San Diego and I was driving down, you know, the, the, the coast road there through Encinitas and listening to some music and, my, like, Oh, what is it? You know, cause I grew, you know, I went to college and started life in the area and it was just felt like a homecoming for me. And the music I listened to, you know, when you’re out there near the beach, it’s just, you know, you just, I.
AJ Marotte (14:05)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (14:26)
turned on some of that stuff. I don’t want to give away what I’m thinking right now. What’s it to be on my… But like summer music, you know, it has a, it has a feel to it, right? And then what, what’s been like the summer banger, you know, there’s always like that, that hit that takes off in the summer.
AJ Marotte (14:34)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (14:48)
And you know, back when had radio, would take over the radio. Is that, is that something that’s happening currently?
AJ Marotte (14:52)
Yeah, those were the days.
I don’t know. There always is, like eventually. I don’t know if I know it yet, but like I do kind of miss the radio when that was a thing. Cause even now I still remember the songs from like summers in middle school and stuff that were just on the radio nonstop cause they were ingrained in my brain forever. But now that we don’t have that, I don’t know. It’s just honestly, whatever will be trending on Tik Tok.
Vince Marotte (15:17)
Yeah.
Well, last last summer, the top 10 during the summer versus on the charts were I had some help with Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, a bar song by Shaboosie, not familiar, not like us, Kendrick Lamar came out last summer, espresso, Sabrina Carpenter. That’s your girl. Million dollar baby, Tommy Richmond. Is he, is that a country? Is that a country tune?
AJ Marotte (15:25)
Okay.
yes. Shaboosie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
yeah, I like that one. No, I don’t know.
I don’t know what that is. That was on repeat all summer for me, so I get that one.
Vince Marotte (15:53)
Okay,
okay. So is it a summer song or is it just a hot hit at the time? Would you classify it? Yeah. And we had Please Please Please, Sabrina Carpenter, Two Sweet by Hosier. I didn’t even know Hosier had some new stuff out. I loved that first album.
AJ Marotte (15:58)
I think it’s just a hot hit. I don’t think it’s a summer song. Yeah. I that one too.
too sweet
Vince Marotte (16:11)
year and then lose control teddy swims birds of a feather billy eilish and beautiful things benson boone so not familiar with those summer 23 summer 23 morgan wallen had another hit for the summer last last night and then luke combs covering fast car by tracy chattman was number two in 2023
AJ Marotte (16:15)
yeah?
I know the Hoesher song. I think I know all of them.
my
goodness, it was really painful to see everyone loving that song and not know who Tracy Chapman was. That was kind of sad.
Vince Marotte (16:45)
Right, right.
was kind of like I was, it was cool and I’m sure she got paid for that. Um, but yeah, you you, you grew up with it with a lot of Tracy Chapman in your life. So you’re, you’re familiar. No. Teach your children well people. Tracy Chapman.
AJ Marotte (16:51)
Yeah, yeah, I think they did some concerts together.
Yeah, so that was kind of sad. That’s
like when people put like a song like that on TikTok and it goes viral for a little bit, it’ll be one that you’ve always loved and nobody’s ever known about because it hasn’t been on social media. And then when it goes on TikTok and people are like, oh my God, wait, I like this song. I’m like, no, get this off of TikTok. This does not need to be a trending song. This is not for you guys because it’s so upsetting.
Vince Marotte (17:24)
when
Stranger Things was airing, especially that last season, but a couple times there was songs that featured and they trended and I’m like, my kids knew those songs. We raised them right. I remember being proud when Master of Puppets was that big climactic scene where I’m I’m so thankful that my kids, the first time they heard that song was not at Stranger Things because that’s one of the best metal songs of all time.
AJ Marotte (17:35)
yes.
Yeah.
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yes, that’s a great
song. Yeah
Vince Marotte (17:54)
Right and same with I think
Space Age love song by flock of seagulls was in an episode and it kind of trended and that’s That you know, that’s that’s on like the morning rotation at our house when you’re growing up. So that song comes on a lot. So Yeah summer songs, so we’ll go through the draft. I’ll give you first pick as I always do and and
AJ Marotte (18:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
You
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (18:18)
try and set the scene for each song. So not every summer song is about sitting on the beach. There’s different things that you do in the summer, different moments in the summer where you want some tunes. So with that, 2025 Summer Music Draft, AJ, what’s your first pick? What are you thinking?
AJ Marotte (18:20)
Yeah.
All right, my number one pick, I’m going with the classic. I couldn’t leave it off the list and I think it deserves the number one spot every time is Could You Be Loved by Bob Marley.
Vince Marotte (18:48)
I’ll give you that.
AJ Marotte (18:50)
I’m taking that one. That’s my favorite summer song. I immediately think of being in Maui with my teammates because we get to go every year to play a tournament there. And that’s always like one of the first songs I play because I get aux when we’re in the car, when we’re in the hotel, in the locker room. And I always play this. So that’s what I think of is usually we ride in vans to everything. So it’ll be like five or six of us in a van and with the windows down and I’ll play this song every time.
Vince Marotte (19:05)
Yeah.
AJ Marotte (19:20)
And it just makes me think of being at the beach and in the sun with the palm trees. It’s a classic. Can’t go wrong.
Vince Marotte (19:28)
I You can’t can’t go wrong that whole album like that is probably Everyone’s first and most people’s only Exposure to reggae is the Bob Marley album legend, which you know is kind of a greatest hits and that songs on there Just you can’t be mad about any pick off that album really and and reggae I believe is gonna feature heavily in this draft But similarly I’m gonna kind of go with a defensive pick because I
AJ Marotte (19:47)
Mm-mm. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (19:56)
There’s two on here. We’re going to say I’m going to stay in reggae because I know AJ’s got her eye on a couple of these. But this is like a driving summer song, especially near the beach. So when we’re in Kauai or Maui or I’m in San Diego and driving and I want kind of like a driving just a good beat and some reggae, it’s it’s this I was turned on to Ecomouse when we lived in Kauai.
AJ Marotte (20:07)
Okay.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (20:25)
And a little bit before that so my roommate my freshman year in college was from Hawaii and introduced me to more reggae than just the Bob Marley that we got you know on the west coast and so my number one pick summer song In the draft is ganja smuggling by Eka Mouse Banger that’s that’s a banger
AJ Marotte (20:45)
Number one, wow. Yeah,
that’s a good one.
Vince Marotte (20:55)
What do got for number two?
AJ Marotte (20:57)
All right. Number two, kind of sticking with the theme right now because this is what I’ve been into heavily lately. But most of my teammates, not most, but I have a few teammates that are Spanish speaking, and so they’ve put me onto a lot of their music. And so this just makes you think of hanging out with them and being out with my friends. And we like to dance a lot to this song. So it’s just very good vibes. But this is my number two right now because I’m kind of addicted to this song.
Vince Marotte (21:12)
nice.
current earworm.
AJ Marotte (21:27)
Yes, I don’t know if I’m going to butcher this pronunciation, but it’s ballet inovatable by Bad Bunny. I don’t know if I said that right, but it’s very, very upbeat. think you can classify it as salsa music, but.
Vince Marotte (21:36)
Ooh.
Yeah, think that’s,
yeah, I think that’s, if I’m translating that, that’s unavoidable dance. Okay.
AJ Marotte (21:52)
Yeah, I looked it up too. It said unforgettable dance. I don’t know if that
he’s he’s talking about dancing with the girl and he’s like I only want to dance with you like I looked up the lyrics to make sure but Yeah, it’s just about dancing. Have a good time. The music video is really cool It’s just him like taking a salsa class and like pretending he doesn’t know how to do it It’s fun
Vince Marotte (22:03)
Yeah.
Oh, and then
he’s got moves when it’s time to show up.
AJ Marotte (22:16)
Yeah, yeah,
it’s awesome. Bad Bunny at my number two.
Vince Marotte (22:21)
Yeah, the bad bunny, the bad bunnies happening lately.
AJ Marotte (22:25)
That album,
that whole album is gonna be on repeat this summer for me. But that’s the one I’m gonna take in my draft.
Vince Marotte (22:32)
Cool side. All right. The next one is the song actually starts with a party happening in the background and guys talking. So it has like a sample over the over the background. So this is the kind of song that, you know, hanging out with the crew, you know, whether you’re you’re, you know, bonfire at the beach, barbecue, grilling, you know, dinner, just chilling, watching the sunset.
AJ Marotte (22:34)
100%.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (23:02)
Like this does it for me partly because it paints a picture of surfing that I understand deeply. But also, you know, a lot of poetry and art and again, very reggae. It might not qualify as reggae, but it’s, you know, it’s a sublime song. And so this is pure summer. And this is the song I played when I was in San Diego.
know, cruise down the road going, have to play that song, not just that song, but the whole album, 40 ounces to freedom from from sublime is, you know, that was my introduction to sublime from a friend in high school gave me that album and it was just, you know, mind blowingly different at the time. my number two pick is bad fish by sublime.
AJ Marotte (23:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I knew it.
Well.
Vince Marotte (23:51)
such
a good track, beautiful vocals, reggae-ish, you know, and just it to me it sounds like what I’m playing from the car after I finished surfing and I’m changing out of my trunks. Like that’s what it sounds like. That’s where I am when I’m listening to that song. And so deep, deep, deep memories and so love it. That’s number two.
AJ Marotte (24:10)
Mm-hmm.
Yep. Great pick.
Great pick. I had that one, so I gotta… I gotta…
Vince Marotte (24:19)
I figured you might. I figured you have ganja
smuggling and I figured I have bad fish. Bad fish really probably end up my favorite, but I need I need to grab ganja smuggling because I thought you might have your eye on it.
AJ Marotte (24:26)
It’s so good. Yeah.
Let’s see here.
Okay, number three. This is my other some other reggae. I think you’d consider this reggae or like local music. My number three pick is Love Me by Fia. I believe that’s how you say his name. FIA. Added the playlist in there. This is I’m pretty sure he’s like local guy. Let’s see.
Vince Marotte (24:43)
Yeah.
Ooh.
in Maui.
Why?
Yeah, mom had her help me kind of build a short list here and Shiloh Pa, I looked up and he’s in Spotify and only into like 30,000 spins. So it’s some old school local music from Kauai is in there.
AJ Marotte (25:10)
yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Well, Wikipedia is giving me nothing, but great song. Some of the there’s a lot of Polynesian athletes here, like on the football team and stuff. So freshman year, freshman year, a few of them put me on. when we got here, it was the summer. So every time I hear this song, I’m like thrown back to freshman year summer, you know, first stepping onto campus, meeting all these new people, hanging out, going to the pool. And that’s immediately I think of I love this song.
Vince Marotte (25:30)
Right.
AJ Marotte (25:49)
Great, great vibes. Local vibes makes me feel like I’m transported back to Hawaii. It’s great. That’s my number three pick of me.
Vince Marotte (25:51)
Nice. Nice.
taking it.
You love me. All right. Now I’m going to go old, old, old, old. This is probably going to be, this could be the oldest song that’s going to get drafted, I think on this one. But I first remember hearing this song. So here’s the scene that I think anybody can relate to. You’re sitting maybe on the back porch or the deck or in the front yard or, know, you know, and the sun, it’s like golden hour. The sun’s getting low.
AJ Marotte (26:14)
Okay.
Vince Marotte (26:31)
Still kind of warm, but it’s starting to cool off a little bit. The breeze is dying down and there’s music playing in the distance a little bit. Like you’re not getting, know, you know, feeling the full power of the music because maybe it’s playing off, you know, back in the house. And that’s kind of the setting for this. I was in, as a kid, we grew up, you know, I was born in the Chicago area and one time we went to Florida for a vacation and we were.
AJ Marotte (26:48)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (27:01)
on a beach, know, our hotel or whatever we were staying was on this beach, but like a quiet beach, like there was nobody else there. And there was a little pier next to it and just a little bit of wave action. And I would kind of play in the waves. And it was enough to where I could hear the music coming from one of the like neighbor guests, condo or hotel room. And they had this song kind of on loop.
And it fit perfectly. I painted the picture because there’s a pier. like a dock. this, song and is just sounds like summer. It just sounds like a quiet evening in the summer. And that is sitting on a dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. That’s my number three pick. Just a, just a good quiet, you know, it’s background music that makes you stop and listen and brings you back there. So love that song.
AJ Marotte (27:39)
Yeah. Oh, that’s a good one. That’s a good one.
Yeah,
I like that one. Great, great pic.
Vince Marotte (28:03)
What do got?
AJ Marotte (28:03)
Okay,
what are we at? Four? All right, I have to shift some things around since you took Bad Fish. My number four, I need Sublime on there and I had this as a second choice so it kind of works out perfectly. My number four pick is Doin’ Time by Sublime. I needed, I need Sublime on there. That was up there, I was going back and forth between that and Bad Fish and so it works out. But this is another like driving song I think.
Vince Marotte (28:10)
Hahaha
yeah, that’s in the shortlist.
AJ Marotte (28:32)
So this whole album like you said is just I like putting this on the call and somewhere at the windows down like The weather’s been nice in Oregon the last few days So it’s been really fun to drive with the windows down or even when I’m just walking to class like all the flowers are blooming Everywhere like the nice breeze like it’s been great to just listen to while I’m on the move. I Love it
Vince Marotte (28:37)
Yep.
That is a great song. I want to know what’s the it’s a it the lyric it’s Ella Fitzgerald’s summertime is the main hook there. So it’s an oldie, you know, from 1935 was when it was written by Gershwin Ella Fitzgerald’s noted for singing it. But yeah, that’s it’s a it’s a classic. And Sublime had done that a few times with some of their songs.
AJ Marotte (29:04)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (29:22)
And made just made a killer modern track really good. Not quite a cover, but almost a cover. Love. You can’t be bad about that song. I mean, it has the summertime. The word is the hook. It’s banger summer song. Love that one. Plus it’s got a, it’s got a sick beat, you know, so it’s in the car, windows down. Yeah. Got gotta love doing time. Good one right there. I am going to dip into some hip hop.
AJ Marotte (29:22)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Summertime, the living’s easy. Yep.
Great.
Mm-hmm. It’s perfect.
Vince Marotte (29:53)
have a few on here, but I think I have to be defensive again. I think I’m going to break your heart right here. But yeah, on the short list, I have a good 10 or so summerish songs. And actually, in this moment, I’m torn between two by the same rapper, your favorite rapper, Ice Cube, or one of your favorite rappers. I don’t want to your favorite.
AJ Marotte (30:08)
Mm-hmm.
huh. Yeah, yeah.
He’s up there.
Vince Marotte (30:21)
But of the of the old school of the legendaries, I got two on the short list and I think I’m gonna pick one because I think the one that most people are gonna be familiar with and it is a really good summer song and so my number number four pick is it was a good day by ice cube
AJ Marotte (30:38)
out
That’s a good one.
Vince Marotte (30:43)
funny enough that sounds like a summer song like it you know playing basketball at the park and just kind of hang in and all that kind of stuff it sounds like a summer song but have you ever seen someone I don’t know how true it is but they put together all the facts of the song about you know the Lakers beat the supersonics you know there’s no smog and and it’s like sometime in January or February definitely not some if that’s true but it’s hilarious but
AJ Marotte (30:47)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, figure out what day it was.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Vince Marotte (31:12)
Just, you know, all time classic, know, top, easily top 50 all time hip hop songs and definitely a summer track. Ice Cube, it was a good day.
AJ Marotte (31:15)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s a great pick.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (31:27)
Nice cube. I love them.
AJ Marotte (31:27)
Alright.
My final pick. I don’t know if this is we’re doing 10. I thought we were doing five. OK, that’s perfect then, because I have so many more. OK, well, number five, then I have I don’t know if this is like a traditional summer song, but this is a summer song to me. I have on melancholy hill by the gorillas. That’s my number five.
Vince Marotte (31:33)
No, you get 10 picks. Yeah. No.
That’s all that matters.
nice.
AJ Marotte (31:56)
I don’t even know. It’s just good vibes. It makes me feel happy. I love the little… Like, just feel good when you listen to it. So that’s my number five pick.
Vince Marotte (32:03)
It is.
This song came up in another draft on the pod and I can’t remember which one. I know, I think I drafted it, maybe a driving song or something like that. But I am been just itching for someone to cover this song, particularly a female vocalist who’s got just good vocals, but also can do something creative with it. I love this song. is an all time, you know, one of the…
AJ Marotte (32:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (32:37)
I love that album for driving and the song kind of comes towards the end of the album just kind of winds it up and it’s just beautiful. But yeah, it sounds like summer, you know, it’s just a it’s a it it sounds like the end of summer. You know, the days are starting to get a little bit shorter in September and you know, there’s that there’s almost a crispness in the air at the end of the day. It sounds like the end of summer. Things are getting quieter.
AJ Marotte (32:45)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Just a nice conclusion. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (33:04)
you know,
and you’re trying to just maximize what time is left before fall. It’s what it sounds like. That’s a great pick. Great pick. All right, I am going to go with another hip hop song. This one’s just out of kind of out of the blue for a lot of people because a of people don’t know this group. And the group is People Under the Stairs.
AJ Marotte (33:09)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (33:32)
Now you’ve been around our house, you’re familiar with them. But I don’t think you, maybe you don’t know when you’re hearing people under the stairs, but they’re a, you know, a 90s hip hop group. The album that I am, that I am taking this track off of, I think is from 1999. So towards, you know, the second half of what they were doing. But the song and what is my number five pick in the draft?
is San Francisco Nights by People Under the Stairs. And it has, they do a lot of sampling, like do kind of like take some old music and do some sampling. So it has this little hook, you know, and the hook, don’t know if it’s verbatim, but the, but the lyric kind of sounds like you’re saying warm San Francisco night, you know, and it just, it just has a cool little, cool little hook to it that I love. Great, great driving album, but People Under the Stairs,
AJ Marotte (34:22)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (34:30)
San Francisco Knights and Knights is spelled like K-N-I-G-H-T-S like like a like a medieval knight. So that’s my number five pick.
AJ Marotte (34:35)
Mm. Okay.
Yeah. All right. Let me check when this came out, because I don’t know if this is this is a more my generation summer song. OK. yes. OK. So number six or six is feels by Calvin Harris. It’s like he’s a good prominent DJ or producer or whatever with featuring Pharrell and Katy Perry.
Vince Marotte (34:53)
That’s what I want.
Yeah, it’s from Trolls. Right? I don’t know. It’s from a movie though, isn’t it? Feels. No, I’m thinking of the other one that for real is like a, like a, I’m thinking of something else. Anyway, Feels, okay.
AJ Marotte (35:11)
Is it in Trolls too?
I have no idea. I don’t think so.
I Pharrell. This is just great vibes. It came out in 2017, I had to check, which was such a great year for music for my generation. The rap and hip hop that came out then is stuff that we still listen to and are addicted to. It was just a fun year, I think. So, It was up there. I love anything with Pharrell in it.
Vince Marotte (35:39)
Right?
And in 2017, the summer hits, kind of curious how we were there. 2017, yeah, 2017 summer hits. your number one was Despacito was the big hit. Feels not in there, but Bruno Mars, that’s what I like. I’m the one DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, all those guys.
AJ Marotte (35:55)
Yeah, what did that look like?
Yup. Wah-ha.
Yeah
Vince Marotte (36:14)
Humble by Kendrick Lamar. That album came out. That probably drove a lot of things. French Montana with Unforgettable. Body Like a Back Road, Sam Hunt. Congratulations, Post Malone. So yeah, that album was on rotation at our house. that Beerbongs and Bentley’s or whatever? Yeah, so that was, yeah, a great year for music. Can’t be mad about that. Fields for Real Williams. Yeah, I feel like he…
AJ Marotte (36:19)
yeah.
Yeah. Something posty. Yeah. Feels.
Vince Marotte (36:42)
His sweet spot is summer music.
AJ Marotte (36:44)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (36:46)
Like he’s got a knack for making just the catchiest songs. that, but that are also different, like not just same, same, you know, not just like a Katy Perry, you know, getting the girls going to the club and a sing-along song. Like like he, it’s got broad appeal, but I also believe him. Like I think he’s true to, true to himself and does really interesting things, that are, that are fantastic.
AJ Marotte (36:52)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (37:15)
All right, now I’m go to the barbecue. This is a barbecue certified banger. And this is so out of the blue, especially on the heels of two hip hop choices and some reggae and an oldie. This one is, you know, one that you may or may not remember. You know, this is like when you got the grills fired up and everybody’s just kind of hanging and just playing a little bit louder music, but it’s still fun.
AJ Marotte (37:21)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (37:43)
you know, not too hard, not too subdued. We’re not going to phone it in and just play Jack Johnson. You know, we’re going to we’re going to play something, you know, a little, you know, a little bit, you know, with some with some some tempo to it and some guitars. And so for that music, I’m kind of going to I don’t think they’re like officially like Southern rock, which I’m not a huge fan of, like your Lynyrd Skynyrd, you know, that kind of thing.
AJ Marotte (37:59)
Okay.
Vince Marotte (38:11)
but they kind of have a retro vibe because this album came out around, I want to say around 1990. Yeah, 1990. The album is called Shake Your Money Maker. And it is by The Black Crows. And the Barbecue Banger, my number six pick in the draft, is Twice as Hard by The Black Crows.
AJ Marotte (38:20)
Mm-hmm.
you
Vince Marotte (38:39)
It’s just super catchy and it’s on the playlist. Easy to sing along with, stomp your feet. This is probably one of their big hits when they close a show kind of a thing. So love it. Twice as hard. That’s the barbecue banger that I’m picking.
AJ Marotte (38:40)
ice is hard. Yeah.
Yeah.
yeah, okay.
All right. Seven, we’re at a seven. My number seven pick. All right. My list is getting very chaotic here at the end.
Vince Marotte (39:06)
Let’s get your seventh pick.
It always does, because everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
AJ Marotte (39:21)
Yeah, so far you haven’t taken anything crazy. It was really just sublime that got me messed up bad.
Vince Marotte (39:24)
we
haven’t gotten to the Barrington Levee yet.
AJ Marotte (39:29)
Mm.
That makes me want to rethink things.
Vince Marotte (39:33)
Mm-hmm.
AJ Marotte (39:35)
gosh, I actually might make a switch right here just because you said that.
Vince Marotte (39:39)
I mean, that’s important. Maybe for my money, the greatest male reggae vocalist of all time, Barrington Lett.
AJ Marotte (39:51)
That’s so hard. Okay, well actually that just made me think of a song that I’m gonna take. My number seven pick is gonna be Texas Sun by Leon Bridges. That’s, I came out of left field for me, but that’s going up there.
Vince Marotte (40:07)
Why, paint the picture, where’s that?
AJ Marotte (40:11)
Obviously growing up in Texas, it’s it’s fun to have a little song like I know you guys like didn’t grow up there and you might not claim it as much as I do But like, you know, I will provide being from there So like it’s fun to have a little song thinking about the Texas Sun Even though it’s really hot and unbearable. Sometimes it’s nice to think about it in a song
Vince Marotte (40:20)
Right.
I’m familiar
with the Krogbin Leon Bridges version. Is that the only version? Or does he do one by himself?
AJ Marotte (40:39)
The Krogbin? What does that mean?
Vince Marotte (40:41)
That’s the name of the group. Tammy’s constantly spinning the Krog bin.
AJ Marotte (40:47)
I see, I see, I see. I didn’t even realize it was like with a group too. I thought it was just him.
Vince Marotte (40:51)
Yeah. So Leon Bridges does,
does his own thing, but that’s a great song. so yeah, the Krogbin maybe that I think that’s how you say it. That’s a, the word is very strangely spelled. Yeah. That’s how, that’s how I hear people saying it. but I don’t know how, it actually says it says it, but yeah, I love that song. That is a, that’s very similar to like melancholy Hill, kind of end of the day, end of the summer.
AJ Marotte (40:57)
that one.
It looks, that’s how I would say it.
Yeah.
Yeah, like…
Vince Marotte (41:21)
You know.
AJ Marotte (41:23)
Maybe I’m just
cooking some food for dinner while the sun goes down or something in the kitchen.
Vince Marotte (41:27)
Yeah. No, that’s a,
that’s a, that’s a killer song. That’s good background music, you know, driving with the windows down on a back road. You know, that’s, that’s a good, I’m happy. Yeah. Reading the hand. There it is. You know, a little, a little fire crackling. All right. I am going to go with the beach boys.
AJ Marotte (41:33)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Reading in my hammock. Yep.
Yep, number seven. Number seven, Texas sun.
Ooh, I thought about that.
Vince Marotte (41:56)
I got a few Beach Boys joints on the short list. And I’m gonna go with Off the Pet Sounds, which is credited with being a innovative album. When you think about it now, it…
AJ Marotte (42:00)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (42:19)
might not sound as innovative, but the sounds they were making in terms of layering things and some of the sonics, weird instrumentations, Pet Sounds was a revolutionary album. was kind of like, I would think of it like the OK computer of its day, you know, where it kind of changed the game and everyone had to reset and go, wow, OK, everything’s been, everything’s different now. And so important album sonically.
AJ Marotte (42:27)
Yeah.
You
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (42:45)
And I love that Spotify has the original kind of mono stereo versions on there because there’s a lot of weird things that happen. But if you just listen to it, you know, in a modern remaster, you might miss out on some of the some of the nuance of it. But my number seven pick in the summer music draft is Wouldn’t it be nice by the Beach Boys?
AJ Marotte (42:52)
Mm-hmm.
Great pick.
Vince Marotte (43:07)
And that one, you know, that’s a, it’s, it, that’s kind of more of like a poolside kind of a, you know, late afternoon, you know, the weekend sitting by the pool, sipping a drink, you know, you’ve already, you’ve already been swimming and that’s just kind of playing in the background. Um, you know, one of those songs that sounds great on any speaker, particularly kind of sounds good on, on shitty speakers, you know, you know, or in a, in a noisy environment, because it’s just, it’s just different and it kind of cuts through.
AJ Marotte (43:15)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (43:37)
A lot like sitting on the dock of the bay by Otis Redding. When they had to make music for people prior to having good speakers, it plays well in that kind of environment. So wouldn’t it be nice by the Beach Boys? The Beach Boys had to make the list somewhere. So I’m going with that.
AJ Marotte (43:40)
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s a good one. All right. Number eight. This song makes me think I just went to the pool with my teammates yesterday and I was playing this in the car. So that makes me think of that going to the pool, another great driving song. But it also makes me think of like after a long day at the pool when you’re just kind of like wet and tired and you know, you’re a little sunburn and you’re like going to going to eat and you’re just like.
Sitting on the curb in a parking lot, like eating some dirty food like a burger or something. I don’t know. That’s what that makes me think of. I’m sitting in the parking lot like you just feel good even though you’re tired and whatever. And it’s another it’s another Spanish song. I don’t even know how to pronounce the group, but it’s Brujeria. I there are the artist’s name is very long, so I’m not even an attempt.
Vince Marotte (44:28)
Right.
I would say. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico.
AJ Marotte (44:52)
El Brujeria.
It’s a very fun song. I don’t know, I just love it. I played it on repeat yesterday with the windows down driving through town, so that was really fun.
Vince Marotte (45:09)
For those that if you if you’re not looking this up to here it has a salsa Kind of swing almost what’s the Portuguese in Brazil? It’s kind of Flamenco salsa. They have a type of music What’s it called? Girl from Ipanema is that type of song? it? Bossa Nova or something like that has that kind of sound big some big bands some horns Cool song
AJ Marotte (45:32)
I don’t know.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (45:37)
Very, very eclectic. You got me beat on the modern stuff because I am old and stuck in my ways. But I’ll take it.
AJ Marotte (45:47)
I
don’t even know where I found it. I think it was like listening to a Bad Bunny song and I clicked on like go to radio or something and it just popped up and I haven’t, I have really no memory of how I found it but I just feel like it, yeah.
Vince Marotte (46:02)
Right? Yeah, music, discovering
music now is so different, so different, you know, like you had to be much more intentional in the past, but just kind of being free, you know, in the moment to listen to some, love the radio feature when it gets it right. Hey, Spotify, I’d like to, I’m nervous about like, like not liking a song or, or giving it a thumbs down because what if I love every song by that artist?
AJ Marotte (46:08)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (46:30)
but this one song or this one version of this song. So I’m scared to inform the algorithm. It’s like, no, I love, know, there’s a different version of a, of like a Junior Gong reggae song that I really like. And it just turns into like reggae tone where it’s like almost techno, which I don’t like. I like my reggae mellow. And so this one comes up in the radio all the time. And I wanna, I wanna,
AJ Marotte (46:30)
Yeah.
You
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (46:56)
unlike it or whatever but I’m nervous because I love the rest of the stuff and I don’t want to get burned by that one. But yeah, no. So I have trust issues with the algorithm.
AJ Marotte (47:09)
That’s valid.
Vince Marotte (47:11)
So, we have to do it and because of some defensive picks, it’s probably lower on the list than it actually is. When I have complete control over the music and it’s time, and this is where I tend to trust the algorithm, I’ve built some playlists to that effect. But when it’s time for me to pick the music in its summertime, whether we’re barbecuing or just hanging out on the lawn,
AJ Marotte (47:29)
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (47:40)
You know, this is my go-to when I’m working on bikes in the garage. you know, my go-to is, is always going to be Barrington levy. And when I want to listen to reggae, proper reggae, and I don’t want to think too hard, I’ll, I’ll do Barrington levy radio on the Spotify and let that spin. And that always gives me, you know, that’s tons of just killer tracks stuff. know I discover some new stuff, you some deep tracks, you know, the, the reggae mentality.
AJ Marotte (47:44)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (48:09)
down in Jamaica in particular is just crank out music, crank it out, crank it out, crank it out. So these artists have so much stuff. And so my go-to, my number one summer Barrington Levy track is Murderer. That’s my number eight pick, Barrington Levy. Love, love it. Great song. And a good introduction to Barrington Levy for people that aren’t familiar who’ve only listened to Bob Marley.
AJ Marotte (48:16)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (48:39)
That’s
my number eight pick, Murderer by Barrington Levy.
AJ Marotte (48:45)
That’s a great one. That’s the only song you want to take a Barrington Lovie song. I feel like I can move some things around.
Vince Marotte (48:50)
I mean, it’s hard not
to. There’s going to be Barrington levies in the honor mentions too. For sure.
AJ Marotte (48:55)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (49:01)
Getting down to it, two more picks.
AJ Marotte (49:03)
I know, I’m
like, which one do I wanna?
Vince Marotte (49:08)
What you haven’t touched on, if you want balance, I’m just saying, I wanted to lead the witness, but you really don’t have any hip hop in you. For someone who listens to a lot of hip hop, you don’t have any there. Just saying. not trying to, you know…
AJ Marotte (49:08)
I think we will do.
Yeah.
Yeah, that’s true.
I just like don’t think of hip hop as I feel like hip hop I’m thinking more like when I’m in season like I’m grinding and then in the summer it’s like I don’t even like country like that but in the summer I’ll even play some country just because it feels right
Vince Marotte (49:33)
Yeah.
That’s probably because you were raised on a lot of hard hip hop. And so it makes sense. Like hard hip hop is not necessarily summer.
AJ Marotte (49:43)
Yeah.
I guess I could put a Kendrick song on there because I have been
Vince Marotte (49:51)
Don’t for don’t for
don’t force it be true to yourself
AJ Marotte (49:54)
Okay, then I’m going with I’m going with my gut here at nine. I’m going with black roses by Barrington Levy. That just makes me think of you and listening to songs with you in the summer, like when we go to the beach and stuff. And I can’t I can’t leave him off the list. It is it hurts a little bit that he’s at low. That’s my bad, but great song. And in my I have like a little bit of a reggae playlist right now just from
Vince Marotte (50:08)
Yep.
sense.
AJ Marotte (50:22)
my reggae class that I took last term.
Vince Marotte (50:24)
Yeah.
No, I think, I think the reggae for everyone that has not really listened to reggae, deserves, you deserve it, you know, owe it to yourself to dig into the reggae and the place to start is Barrington Levy for sure. and then if you want to get into the old school, the other ones, you know, kind of that middle ground, I would go with Don Penn. Do you get it? Some Don Penn and reggae class.
AJ Marotte (50:27)
But yeah.
I don’t know my own
Vince Marotte (50:54)
She’s
the legendary female reggae vocalist. She is just incredible. that, and really one of the four forerunners of the newer sound as it shifted from really quiet kind of reggae to something with a little bit more production, more danceable, that kind of stuff. Dawn Penn is, she’s a reggae legend. But Black Roses by Barrington Levy, certified banger.
AJ Marotte (51:16)
Yeah.
Yeah, I don’t think I did.
Great sound.
Vince Marotte (51:23)
Love that track.
All right. My number nine pick. I am going to go back to the hip hop because it probably just where I have been, you know, just with my music journey of the last few years. Like I don’t listen to country, you know, I don’t even know the country. I don’t mind when it’s on, you know, when you’re at a barbecue restaurant, it makes sense or whatever. But like the country I like is more introspective. You’re Johnny Cash, you’re old, you know, you’re,
AJ Marotte (51:28)
you
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (51:58)
Patsy Cline, that kind of stuff. it’s, I wouldn’t consider it summer music. although there’s probably some summer stuff in there, but so I don’t listen to the country and then like classic rock is kind of the default summer music for a lot of people at the barbecue. But I just, I’m so, I, think I was just so tired of it growing up because it was all over the place. just feels creatively bankrupt the, for summer music. And so.
AJ Marotte (52:02)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (52:28)
I’m going to go back to the hip hop and I’m going to go with the far side who is just. If you if you haven’t had a chance, you know, all the all the 90s stuff that most people are familiar with, you know, like your ice cube and your your your Snoop Dogg, you know, and even when you get into the more. Kind of lighter stuff where it’s not like.
AJ Marotte (52:51)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (52:56)
Gangster rap, know, like people people know I’m drawing a blank people know Why am I blanking, know, you know Shoot anyway the far side the far side is a Totally is that is definitely not gangster rap. It’s more musical not quite like it’s you know, it’s not like
AJ Marotte (53:14)
Gangster rap.
Vince Marotte (53:25)
like a Belvedere Devo musical, but it’s more instrumental, not super heavy on samples, not super heavy on beats. You know, you can listen to this and that’s kind of maybe one reason that it plays well. plays, you a lot of their stuff is still good. It still fills the space that it should on bad systems when you got a Bluetooth speaker at the beach, you know, and there’s wind noise and a barbecue happening, you know.
AJ Marotte (53:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (53:53)
So
it really, you you don’t need it to, you know, where some of that harder stuff, if you don’t have the sound system to move the air, it kind of gets lost. You know, even like your like Wu Tang and stuff, need, you know, that stuff needs to hit and the far side doesn’t need most of their stuff doesn’t need to hit. It’s nice when it it when it hits, but it doesn’t need to. And so my number nine pick in the summer music draft is running.
AJ Marotte (54:08)
Yeah.
Mm.
Vince Marotte (54:22)
by the far side, just it sounds like summer. It sounds like the word running. It sounds like running through the neighborhood as a kid. Like I picture that. I picture just kind of cruise around to my friend’s house, you know, and just has that moving through summer vibe. I played at barbecue. I played in the background at the beach. You know, it’s certified banger.
AJ Marotte (54:29)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (54:51)
Lots of of great songs.
AJ Marotte (54:52)
Bye
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (54:56)
That’s my number nine pick.
AJ Marotte (54:57)
Good pick. All right. Now, actually, the last pick. My number 10 pick. So I actually just looked up this song because I didn’t really know what genre it was. And so this is a Frank Ocean song. He hasn’t dropped an album since like 2016 and everybody’s still obsessed with him. He just kind of disappeared off the face of the earth. Like he doesn’t.
Vince Marotte (55:16)
Okay.
You
AJ Marotte (55:26)
post anything, think like he deactivated all of his social accounts, like he’s just gone. And so it’s kind of fun that he’s a little bit of a mystery, but this is from like his second album, maybe your first album. And I didn’t know this, but it was all it was written and produced by both him and Pharrell. So that’s cool. I should know that he produces everything. But it’s my number 10 pick is Sweet Life by Frank Ocean.
Vince Marotte (55:49)
Right.
Nice. Was,
AJ Marotte (55:57)
So it says the genre
is like R &B, neo soul and jazz funk. that’s.
Vince Marotte (56:02)
Yeah,
I would say Frank Ocean is R &B based on, you know, based on him and, probably the, one of the most successful out of the odd future camp, you know, which was like, I don’t think you listened to much odd future, which their full name is, I want to get this right. So I’m going to look at it. Look it up. is, it’s, you know, we know Tyler, the creator, he’s kind of the front man of it.
AJ Marotte (56:05)
Yeah.
Yeah, not really.
Vince Marotte (56:31)
but it’s often abbreviated, it’s Odd Future, but the full abbreviation would be OFWGKTA, which stands for Odd Future Wolf Game Killed Them All, which is very on brand for Tyler, the creator. I think they probably started this when they were like teenagers. it goes with a thing that I’ve kind of…
AJ Marotte (56:48)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (57:00)
I’ve had for a long time and and it you know, sometimes I think it’s my bias But sometimes it’s validated by things like this when it comes to style and what is cool You know what in what is you know, know innovative and cool something different than what the normal cool is a Lot of a lot of the coolest stuff comes out of skateboarding culture
AJ Marotte (57:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (57:27)
And it always seems to lag about seven years. And, and it was almost to the day where odd future, you know, they were deep in the skate culture when they were, when they were young, just getting started off with their first album and their first stuff and skateboarding adopted them. Cause it was weird and counterculture. didn’t sound like anything else. And they kind of figured it out and finally broke. And you know, Tyler Crater has his career. Frank Ocean has his career.
AJ Marotte (57:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (57:57)
Earl
sweatshirt had a great album. and you know, there’s just a bunch of dudes. So it’s kind of like this small crew of, of just friends and yeah, odd, odd future is kind of where that gets that start. But Frank Ocean was definitely the, the outer left field one with an R and B sound versus, know, the original odd future rap was not just hard. It was violent. and, and you know, in a, in a sarcastic way, you know,
AJ Marotte (57:59)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (58:26)
it was violent, like, think I don’t, I don’t like Tyler’s newer stuff. I’d love his old stuff because just his voice and his style lended itself to this ridiculous, you know, rap and, and, and violent stuff that he was doing early on. And even his first solo album was much harder, you know? and so really cool. Love Frank Ocean. Love the, love the backstory there.
AJ Marotte (58:26)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, he’s fun.
Yeah,
I checked and it is off his first album. He only has two. I don’t know why I thought there was more. He hasn’t released anything since 2016 and still has 36 million monthly listeners.
Vince Marotte (58:55)
Nice. Nice.
Right? He did it. He’s just riding that wave and doing just fine. So love it. So now number 10, same thing. I’m in that same dilemma where I have a bunch of songs. I had some defensive picks. I want to pick one that’s… I’m torn between one that’s a little bit out of left field, especially for your generation. But…
AJ Marotte (59:09)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (59:29)
But I think what I’ve decided on after kind of looking through this and looking at what you picked is I’ve got to pick one that is going to be new to a lot of people and maybe the second song you should listen to by this artist if you’ve never listened to him before. This album put him in the top 10 globally for sales for Billboard during a particular block of time, whether it was a month or a week. Not a huge
Not a huge artist in the US specifically, but one of the most successful independent artists of recent years. He’s not attached to a label, which I think is the future. And you’re super annoyed by this because I’ve been spinning it for a year. I discovered this artist almost a year ago this month. Like I said, I’ve had my trust issues with the algorithm and this is one why I don’t trust the algorithm. Because when I first discovered it,
AJ Marotte (1:00:08)
Mm-hmm.
No.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:00:25)
It came through my reels on Instagram and this guy was guy was like rapping live to his track kind of like in an artsy studio, you know in a you know, just a fantastic outfit and just everything about it it was one of his harder songs and I immediately just went down the rabbit hole and just went through his account list and everything looked up on Spotify Hit a couple tracks and it was like immediately hooked and I was mad. I was mad at the universe
AJ Marotte (1:00:53)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (1:00:55)
because
I’m like, this album at that time, so this is 2024, this album had come out maybe nine months before and the album prior to that, two years before that. So we’re looking three, four years out and he’s been doing this to come to find out for more than 10 years at this point. And I was mad because it was so perfect for me and what I like, you know, am I not feeding the algorithm the right stuff? Why the heck wasn’t this, I was pissed.
AJ Marotte (1:01:15)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:01:25)
And I played it
for steel and he liked it, but you know, dad likes it. So it’s like, but he was same thing. He’s like, how come I haven’t heard of this? I should have heard of this too. He’s independent. I, and I like independent stuff. His favorite group of all time is opening for this guy in a couple of weeks. And so my number 10 pick is high priced shoes by prof. just a ridiculous, it’s, it’s a song just about getting the crew together and
AJ Marotte (1:01:34)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (1:01:54)
Just having a goofy fun time. Like it’s just what it’s about. It’s just about having fun. But at the same time, he always tends to do this thing with a lot of his, these types of songs where it’s funny, you know, and there’s a bit of a humor to it, but he’s also hard and he has some of the, some of the, you know, experiences, his lyrics, he’s got the background. He can back it up with when he wraps kind of more about harder stuff, but it’s still like a party. Like this is, this is kind of a party.
AJ Marotte (1:01:56)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (1:02:24)
you know, summer hip hop song. I love it. And so it’s it’s on rotation as the weather warms up. It’s back in the mix. High price shoes. Prof.
AJ Marotte (1:02:31)
Yeah.
I swear to end it. I was wondering when he was going to get on there.
Vince Marotte (1:02:37)
Now, honorable honorable
mentions.
So I like to rattle off a few. So I’ll rattle off a few and then you you rattle off a few, you know, things that I that I might have might have wanted to pick. So kind of kind of roll through my list here. One reggae track that I was torn there. needed to get Ecomouse. I needed to get Barrington Levy in there first. And so there just wasn’t room if I wanted to be, you know, I could just do reggae.
AJ Marotte (1:02:46)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (1:03:13)
And that would be it. But Burning Spear, Hail Him, is one of my favorites. Love that. You know, of course, anything from Don Penn. My favorite, you know, quiet background Bob Marley song is the original recording of Kaia. Like most Bob Marley songs, he’s just singing about weed and being high. You know.
AJ Marotte (1:03:14)
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:03:40)
kind of more, you can’t go wrong with Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, AKA Will Smith, right? Another barbecue banger would be Sweetness by Jimmy World, I would throw in there. The other Ice Cube song that I was torn on was You Know How We Do It, which just sounds like you’re a barbecue when you’re spinning that. Pretty much anything from Sublime, but Santa Ria in particular.
AJ Marotte (1:03:59)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Vince Marotte (1:04:07)
I’d throw in there as an honorable mention. And then let’s see, can I kick it? A Tribe Called Quest, one of the bands I couldn’t think of. then Blur, Girls and Boys, probably the only dance track that I would even put in there. But Girls and Boys by Blur, as the kids know, is more pretty much the gorillas now. So any honorable mentions?
AJ Marotte (1:04:26)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I had Gin and Juice on there. That one, good barbecue song. I have Is This Love by Bob Marley. I love me some Bob Marley. Also had Summertime, DJ Jazzy Jeff. I also had Just A Cloud Away by Pharrell. It’s from the Despicable Me playlist or soundtrack or whatever, but it’s a great summer song. That was kind of it. My list is very chaotic.
Vince Marotte (1:04:36)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yup.
nice.
AJ Marotte (1:05:03)
but those are the main ones that were kind of floating around in there.
Vince Marotte (1:05:04)
That
can’t go wrong with that. No, I love it. Barrington Levy to experience is a real quiet summer jam. like didn’t get into some chili peppers. It was kind of like there’s a few I know under the bridge was a just a summer just smash when I was in high school that that came out. So that was kind of big. And I noticed we didn’t get too much into the pop like the Miley Cyrus, know, Justin Timberlake stuff that that are summer jams didn’t go in there. But
AJ Marotte (1:05:08)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Vince Marotte (1:05:34)
Yeah, no good stuff Yeah, that’s that’s the draft Good stuff. So we’ll put the show notes out there. We’ll link to we have a massive playlist It is now sitting at 61 songs and four hours of that’s the short list. That’s kind of all the stuff we were thinking we plopped in there we’ll link that up, but Yeah, what is
AJ Marotte (1:05:47)
Mm.
yeah. Yeah, I need to add some of my pics in there.
Ahem.
Vince Marotte (1:05:58)
What are you looking
forward to this summer? What’s a moment? What’s an experience that you need to check off this summer?
AJ Marotte (1:06:06)
I think I just need to get to a beach. I just need to hang out at a beach. The last few times, like, I got to go to some cool places during the season, but you know, that was also more so a business trip. I just need to go to a beach and just get to lay and do nothing and have no responsibilities for like a day or two. That’s… I need that.
Vince Marotte (1:06:16)
Right.
Right?
Let’s make that happen. I’m actually looking forward to doing some backpacking this summer and getting up in the mountains. For sure. So we’re going camping next month, awesome. So that’s it. 2025 Summer Music Draft.
AJ Marotte (1:06:33)
Yeah, I need some hiking. need some camping. Yeah, I’m excited.
Yup.