Which artists are on your wishlist to see live? And just for fun, when was your last live show, and who did you see?

Hey people!

Fancy making a shared playlist? No rules, so anything can be added. Try to avoid full albums but aside from that, let's see what we can make together.

Here is the link for you to join: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BkJeatJSLWpu2jh8c4ZRn?si=cd7f8f72c17441d9&pt=3cf614d66501b90ef0c72937a4713400

Spent part of this morning with an episode of the Yacht or Nyacht podcast called "Yacht Rock: Origins." The hosts dug around online for earlier uses of the phrase, making sure nobody beat them to it, and turned up some pretty funny ones.

Best of them is a 1997 Minneapolis Star Tribune column on what's playing around town, where yacht rock means "classic singer-songwriter material each weekend on the deck at Lord Fletcher's on Lake Minnetonka." Same writer floated boner boogie as another genre name in the same piece.

Nothing in the sense we use now, though, and you can hear how pleased they are about it. Strange thing, a genre getting its name roughly twenty-five years after it was hot.

(More on that over at Signal Study, if it's your thing: https://signalstudy.substack.com/p/yacht-rock-genre-named-after-the-fact)

signalstudy.substack.comYacht RockWhat Is This, Really? Part 1

What's in the rotation today? I've got Theo Parrish, Leikeli47, and Sketch Show.

Happy Monday wherever you are in the world. Today: "Frogs" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, from the Wild Gods album. As an extra piece of info, I think Murder Ballads (1996) would be my fave album.

What are you listening to today, or maybe what track gets you through a Monday morning?

https://open.spotify.com/track/39irRnySrRADgui9AVTqdx?si=9b710cfd36ce4cd9

As a nice way to end the week, today the most popular song is Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up. It made me laugh a bit because I immediately had all those memes and GIFs in my head. Friday mood 🕺

Today's been Diana Ross's "Soon As I Get Home / Home" into Lady Blacktronika's "At Home Goin' Crazy." Same source material, completely different orbit — Ross's version sits inside the song; Blacktronika's take pulls it apart and rebuilds it as something else entirely. Different as they are, they're still the same planet — this is Black music, tracing itself back to itself.

That's basically what I'm always chasing — I keep a running playlist called originals, covers, takes, reimaginings, revisits, recitations, nods and odes to, and remixes just for pairs and chains like this, tracking how a piece of music mutates as different people pass it along (more of this kind of tracing lives at signalstudy.co).

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpGJC0ekurVz4_kVTC5ImIhf3YEOt9LSR&jct=YV1-a_CPuUVw8OXrIeggRA

Curious what's in everyone's rotation today.

Laila! is making a comeback. She recently released a new song, "Anything Could Happen" and her entire discography is gaining a lot of traction in the UK. Playlist adds have increased across all of her songs. Most people probably know "Like That!" from the sound that went viral on TikTok.

I absolutely love her voice. I've been listening to Record Player since yesterday. Definitely check her out. I really hope she releases a full album soon.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXAMdYDDwvx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

InstagramOmigie on Instagram: "garage performances until i’m on the big stage #fyp #original #singersongwriter #recordplayer #liveperformance"5,283 likes, 117 comments - iamomigie on April 11, 2026: "garage performances until i’m on the big stage #fyp #original #singersongwriter #recordplayer #liveperformance".

Was scrolling through the Trends tab and this popped up under Unusual Activity: "Silence for 4 Minutes" is up +45.5% right now.

Silence Moments sits at 17K monthly listeners on Spotify. Not huge. But somebody's out there quietly (pun intended) adding this to playlists faster than usual.

I'm currently looking for artists to feature on @songsbrew.radar. If you know someone who deserves a bit more attention (or if that's you), drop the link below 🎶

Are there any Kendrick fans here? Not sure what happened, but looking at the UK data, “United In Grief” has been getting massively added to playlists. Love seeing an older track like this start doing numbers again. What's your fave Kendrick track? we can see how it compares.

I was looking for some tracks with solid (heavy) bass/sub bass, so the first track was A$AP, Drake, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar - F'in' Problems.

Swiftly followed by Angel by Massive Attack.

What about you?

Welcome to SongsBrew After Hours.

Take a minute to set up your profile. Add a post with what you're currently listening to or a band/artist you've recently discovered - or a music hot take.

We do have moderation. If you find your post has been removed, we'll take a look and see why.

Anything that may be considered hate will be removed, and so will you.

Aside from that, we're looking forward to chatting with you all and hearing your song recs and sharing a bit more than a weekly newsletter.

NOTE: If you want to advertise, get in touch directly for options.

We've partnered with Music24 to bring real playlist data into this channel. Not streaming numbers, not chart positions. Private playlist adds, the stuff that happens before any of it becomes a headline. Every post here is pulled straight from their dashboard.

Here's today's read.

Billie Eilish is gaining fast. One song is doing almost all of it.

Playlist Gain Score today: 2,743, up huge over the past two weeks. 2,688 of that comes from one track. WILDFLOWER.

On the surface, it's about dating someone's ex. Underneath, it's about comparing yourself to whoever came before you, and never winning that comparison in your head. That gap between the specific story and the universal ache is why it lands for people whose situations look nothing alike. Eilish leaves enough space in the writing for someone else's heartbreak to fit inside her own. 

Why we're bothering to post this

Music24 catches this for every artist, every day. Gain Score, Loss Score, Visibility, all before it's a public story. 

Pull up your own favorite, or someone you're scouting, and see what the playlist data says before anyone else notices.

You can find all of our fave new artists on our Instagram first:

https://www.instagram.com/songsbrew.radar/

www.instagram.comSongsBrew RADAR (@songsbrew.radar) • Instagram photos and videos154 Followers, 267 Following, 116 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from SongsBrew RADAR (@songsbrew.radar)

Okay, you're not going to believe it, but we are going to do it anyway. Grab any mobile device, and play something that you know for sure has a low-end deep bass. Hit play.

You can hear the bass right? Rumbling in there? Nice and deep, a beautiful low frequency… What if we told you it wasn't really there?

Your phone cannot produce that sound. The speaker is physically too small to generate the frequency you are hearing. The bass does not exist in the air between you and the device.

Your brain made it up.
https://songsbrew.com/p/involuntary-hallucination

Sidechain compression is where one sound automatically turns other sounds down. Nice and simple. A compressor tool reduces the volume when a signal gets too loud. Normally, it listens to the sound it's controlling. With a sidechain, it listens to something else. Feed the kick drum into the sidechain input, put the compressor on the bass, and now every kick hit turns the bass down for a few milliseconds. Kick stops, bass comes back.

So there is now some breathing happening between the bass and the kick.

A great place to hear it in action is any well-mixed dance track anywhere in the last twenty years.

Are we saying you will 100% pick it out as you’re listening? No, but it’s fun to try and flex your listening skills.

https://songsbrew.com/p/sidechain-breathing

Funniest reply to this one was..

Aside from that.. Most setups aren't set up. Speakers get placed a reasonable distance apart and often end up against the wall. They sound good, but they could sound great with a couple of adjustments.

Usually, there is nothing wrong with the equipment, and everything is just slightly wrong with the geometry.

The real sweet spot is a physical space where you can sit and get the most out of your speakers.

https://songsbrew.com/p/sweet-spot

Think of the headroom like the space between the top of your head and the ceiling. It’s that gap between the loudest point of a track and the point where it starts to clip and distort.

When there is enough space, the loud parts actually feel and sound loud, but without room, there is nowhere to move. It would be like the top of your head touching the ceiling, then going on your tiptoes; you’ll need to tip your head to fit. There is nowhere to go.

So for this one, we are eyeballing millennials with a little bit of scope on either side.

You’ve probably had the universal experience regardless of the age group you fall into, though. You hear a song, and it has to be at least 15 years, if not more, since it last crossed your ears.

As if you had stepped into a time machine, you’re back there. Wherever there is. You start thinking of the people, sounds, and what you were doing… Who you were at that time is suddenly at the forefront of your mind.

And while you didn’t know they had been filed away, you still know the lyrics.

That is the Sleeper Agent song.

If you’re like us, and we suspect you might be, you hear a song a couple of times, and whether it is a Beyoncé high note or Chester Bennington's 18-second banger, you give it a good go, probably in the car. Something about it has you trying your best to choke it out, failing, but still, the attempt was there.

An artist hits a note and just refuses to drop it long beyond where the bar might’ve allowed for it. The breath control is otherworldly; they push the note, hold it, pull it back - they own it; we’re just along for the ride.

This week, something a little more relaxing. It’s never impossible to be tired of music. Sometimes switching to eyes-over-ears is a good move.

What are we watching?

Catchy is the earworm, heavily manipulated to be something you can hum along to and will never forget. Catchy is solved. Anyone with Logic, a vague sense of melody, and 40 free hours can land it. We could probably have a go.

So when catchy gets thrown around as a compliment, it’s like saying something is nice. Anything can be catchy, and anything can be nice.

A disgusting flow pocket, though. A different situation entirely.

There is a version of listening that is apparently so rare that hardly anyone is doing it. It’s not the background streaming type, or accidentally hearing your fave song in the supermarket.

It is the active sitting-sipping-relaxing one. No skipping or skiddadling your way through it. Just the good old PLAY button. Phone face down, eyes closed, doing absolutely nothing else. It looks, to anyone watching, extremely unproductive.

And as we run Weight of the Woods, Dermot Kennedy for the 100th time, from top to tail… we don’t believe it.

We believe that those who are doing this, who are lovers of albums, simply enjoy it and don’t feel the need to post, publish, wax lyrical (good vinyl pun, you’re welcome) about it. That is just happening.

We got to thinking, though, just because we’re doing it now, is that our natural state of listening? Are we lying to ourselves because Dermot is soothing us today? But tomorrow we revert to the hyper consumer?

But maybe that's the thing about real listening. When you're in it, you forget to ask yourself if you're doing it right.

SongsBrewThe Last People Who Listen.Real listeners are rarer than you think. Exploring the scarcity of genuine music fans and what it means for the industry. Join us.

Let us know whether you listen through headphones, speakers, or a mix of both!

I'll answer this one first. For headphones, I use Sony WH-1000XM4 (tried the 6, didn't like the feel/sound), and AirPods Pro on the go. I do have some Beyerdynamics for when we are listening to music submissions, but they're head huggers, so less often. Gaming (if you're into that): RODE NTH-100 because the pads are so comfortable.

For listening sessions: Wiim amp, Pro-Ject E1 BT (but I keep it wired), and Dali Kupids.

Always looking for good hardwear recs, so let me know what you use (or what is on your wishlist).