This was a fun one! You’ll hear some jangly indie-rock set to pop-energy tempos with heart-on-the-sleeve emotional ruminations with Sock Jock, and then you’ll get intricate guitar stylings and sweet, groovy psych-rock rhythms with charming, pensive, and sometimes metaphysical lyrics with Waunband!

I’m honored and thrilled to have the opportunity to bring talented members from the local music scene, where we can hear their stories, get to know them, listen to some of their new songs off their latest records and hear them perform live! And the good vibes I see resonating from these artists when they come in to this studio feels emblematic of how vibrant and supportive our local music scene; that supportive energy extends to us, the listeners, the folks in the audience, too! Thank you for listening, by the way.

Sock Jock’s self-made music joins metro Detroit’s scene

Taylor Brown aka Sock Jock is a talented singer-songwriter who has been playing music for most of her life, self-taught on every instrument she plays. She comes to us from North Carolina by-way-of Chicago, settling here after she wrapped up college at Purdue and released her first EP, “anothernovember.” 

Solid influential reference points for Brown would include Snail Mail, but you might also hear some Clairo and Soccer Mommy in there too. What’s rad about Brown, too, is that she self-produces and records her music, including her latest single, “Curtain.”

Brown shared how she initially chose this band name as a joke, intended to be temporary, but once one of her early singles went essentially viral and boosted her signal, she decided to embrace it.

We’ll also hear about how the last few years have led Brown to fall in love with the metro Detroit music scene, and we talk about upcoming shows where you can catch her live. During the show, she performed her song, “Sober,” live in-studio.

Waunband combines quirk and good company

Waunband is led by Jeremy Waun, a talented singer-songwriter who’s adjacent to, if reminiscent of, something we millennials used to call “freak-folk,” with a sound that feels warm and inviting, with narrative-rich lyrics and a vaguely classical-richness, but skewed with an appealing bit of quirkiness that might present itself in a turn of phrase, an aesthetic choice of tones, or even Waun’s own distinctive voice with its warbly high-arching hum.

Waun talked about starting out as a solo artist, but how it came to feel right to have a full band around him, particularly for the sense of camaraderie, as he’s known his mates for such a long time. The band includes Brad Potts on bass, Johnny Weeks on drums, and Steve Lofman on electric piano and synth.

Waunband releases their new album, “In These Lungs” this Saturday, with a release party that night at the Lexington Bar.

Also on the show this week, some new tracks to premiere, including, some experimental art-rock from Wolf Shambles, who are living somewhere between 90’s Tom Waits and 70’s Genesis—and honestly that doesn’t even come close. We also heard from the melodic indie-rockers Remnants, an ambient jazz project known as Yimes, and the latest from singer-songwriter Mike Ward!

Listen to the full episode for two weeks after it airs using the player above.