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 Laptop, BJD, Around About Dusk, Shallowdrown

I mention my band’s gig on the 1st November at The Spice of Life, deep in the heart of Soho. Details here: https://nicktann.co.uk/2025/09/08/the-spice-of-life-saturday-1-november-2025/

A bit of a rushed one this week as I recorded this on the Sunday before the Monday when each episode goes live and I felt the pressure!

And off we go with the marvellous Laptop and I Don’t Know. A wonderful trundle down the road of a song from the New York father and son duo with a distinct Beck type vibe. Lovely bit of bio here:

https://linktr.ee/laptoptheband

Upcoming album On This Planet (spring 2026).

Written years ago by Jesse Hartman and his then four-year-old son Charlie (no co-frontman) after Charlie gleefully sabotaged his first standardized test, the song channels the spirit of rebellion, absurdity, and questioning authority.

It’s a back-to-school anthem with a deadpan bite, equal parts childlike defiance and Orwellian pushback. As the chorus shrugs: “I don’t know, I’m just a kid — thinking about silly stuff.” You can even hear the actual real Charlie as a 4-year-old during the intro and outro, as he and dad wrote this crazy song.

The track’s recording is as universal as its theme. Originally tracked in Valencia, Spain on one of Laptop’s chaotic family trips, it later picked up overdubs in Nevis in the Caribbean before being finalized in the band’s hometown of New York City. Along the way, it pulled in a cinematic cast: Nevis vocalist Anna Hadeed, whose playful lines spar with Jesse and Charlie; Lulu, Hartman’s daughter, standing in for young Charlie with echoes of the song’s origin; and a raw, soulful harmonica turn from Santo Fazio — an actor and longtime Hartman muse, now lending a theatrical edge to Laptop’s sound.

“This song has always cracked me up. Charlie was four when we came up with it, after he came home from this IQ test. We knew he was a child genius (for real), but he fails this test ‘cause he gleefully answers every question with purposeful wrong answers or just a plain ‘I don’t know.’ The song stuck with us all these years because it felt bigger: a child’s joke that is really a protest anthem. And boy, do we need a protest anthem right now. It’s rebellion by accident, which turns out to be the perfect kind,” says Jesse Hartman.

The video, directed by Jesse, was filmed at Bravo Studios in New York. It reimagines a classroom as a surreal stage: Jesse and Charlie at school desks, Korina Deming as the stern teacher (and also choreographer of the dances), and Stephanie Koffroth as “Lulu,” the child stand-in. Shot against a green screen and punctuated with animated detours (based on Smbat Harutyunyan’s brilliant animation on “Weirder”), toy harmonicas, and absurdist deadpan, it transforms the origin story into a playful, cinematic echo of the song’s fever dream.

Laptop also recently staged an epic return to New York live performance with a 14-piece band at Sony Hall — their first hometown show in two decades. A Stop Making Sense–like spectacle, it underscored the scale and ambition of Laptop’s reboot and set the stage for the release of I Don’t Know.

Second up was the wonderful BJD and Cold Bias. All I can tell you is that his first name is Barry and he puts me in mind of Audioslave and Bob Mould’s Sugar album. I know nothing else so if you find anything please post it here.

By the way, this is Gretchen, the sweet guitar I bought from the lovely Matthew in Bristol yesterday. I hope to be featuring his band in the very near future.

Also from Bristol is the wonderful Around About Dusk and The Swarm. Surely channelling FOTP (friend of the podcast) Anja McCloskey with a hypnotic gypsy jazz vibe. Socials and stuff can be found on their Facebook page. No website for them that I could find.

And finally the wonderful Shallowdrown and I Bet You Hate Me. A tactile guitar sound that puts me in mind of Paramore Playing God (no YOU look it up!). I bloody loved this song!

Socials abound here and check out their launch in Leicester on the 22 of November:

• Facebook

• Linktree

I mention my band’s gig on the 1st November at The Spice of Life, deep in the heart of Soho. Details here: https://nicktann.co.uk/2025/09/08/the-spice-of-life-saturday-1-november-2025/