Three Track Week #27: Hearing Things Differently
- Anne
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Some songs stay with you because of what they say. Others because of the way they make you listen.
This week's Three Track Week 27 brings together three very different releases. Nanaco Sato turns a single conversation into a song that waited almost thirty years to be heard. Mad Tab return with the urgency of a band that never stopped moving forward. Joy Buzzer revisit a Beatles classic and somehow make it sound fresh without changing what made it great in the first place. Different stories. Different sounds. Each one offers a new way of hearing something that might otherwise have passed you by.
Listen to this week's Three Track Week 27 selection:
This week's tracks are available in our playlist INDIENOXZINE | Selections, updated weekly on Spotify
Nanaco Sato - When One Conversation Stays With You
Some conversations end the moment you walk away. Others stay with you for years. That's what happened to Nanaco Sato. After hearing Belgian curator Jan Hoet describe war as "a bullet hole in the ear",she couldn't let the image go. It became a poem, then a song and nearly thirty years later "A Bullet Hole In My Ear" finally finds its place on ”LUST” (announced for September 25th).
Sound / Mood
Nothing about the performance feels overworked. The guitars move freely, the rhythm section follows instinct rather than precision, and Sato's soft vocal quietly holds everything together. Knowing the musicians were responding to her poems in real time makes the recording feel even more natural.
Why This Matters
One detail kept coming back while listening. Sato didn't sit down to write a song about war. She wrote down a sentence she couldn't forget. There's a difference. The track never tries to explain that image or make it bigger than it already is. It simply lets it exist, trusting the listener to sit with it. That's probably why it still feels so immediate, despite being recorded almost three decades ago.
Context
Although "LUST" arrives this September, the recordings date back to spontaneous sessions at Maison Rouge Studios in London during 1996 and 1997. Rather than working from finished arrangements, Sato brought poems into the studio and let the songs grow from the musicians' first reactions. "A Bullet Hole In My Ear" captures that approach beautifully, preserving the feeling of a moment that was never planned.
🎧 Stream "A Bullet Hole in My Ear" on Apple Music · Follow Nanaco Sato on Instagram
Mad Tab - When Waiting Was Never Part Of The Plan
Some bands spend years trying to recreate the excitement of their early days. Mad Tab never really stopped living them. After nearly two decades of house shows, lineup changes and long stretches of silence, "Stock Itch" doesn't sound like a comeback. It sounds like a band that's simply carried on, whether anyone was paying attention or not.
Sound / Mood
There's barely a moment to catch your breath. Sharp guitars collide with bursts of analog synth, the dual vocals constantly push against each other, and the rhythm section keeps everything moving forward. It's loud without becoming messy, and technical without losing the rawness that makes punk feel alive in the first place.
Why This Matters
One thing stood out while listening. For a band that's been around this long, "Stock Itch" feels surprisingly impatient. There's no sense of looking back or celebrating how far they've come. The song keeps charging forward, as though the last twenty years were only the warm-up. That urgency gives it far more energy than nostalgia ever could. Sometimes experience makes a band more careful. Mad Tab sound like it had the opposite effect.
Context
"Stock Itch" is the latest preview of "Alas! The Bomb Voyage...", due later this year through Norwood Fisher's InnaNuttshell Reekordingz. Recorded after almost four years of work, the album captures a band that has gradually folded ska, reggae and rocksteady influences back into a sound that remains firmly rooted in Southern California punk, while refusing to settle into a single formula.
🎧 Stream "Stock Itch" on Apple Music · Follow Mad Tab on Instagram
Joy Buzzer - Hearing An Old Song Again
I went back to the Beatles' original after hearing Joy Buzzer's version of "She Said, She Said". Not because I wanted to compare them. I was just curious. Somewhere between the fuzzier guitars and the faster pace, I'd started hearing the song differently.
Sound / Mood
Joy Buzzer don't add much that feels unnecessary. The guitars hit harder, the rhythm has more urgency, and everything feels a little less polished than the 1966 recording. The melody, though, stays exactly where it belongs. That's probably why the whole thing works so well.
Why This Matters
I don't think this is a cover that's trying to improve on the original. It doesn't need to. Listening to both versions back-to-back, what stood out wasn't what Joy Buzzer changed. It was everything they left alone. The hooks were already there. So was the momentum. All they really did was play the song like a power pop band, and suddenly it felt as though it had always belonged there. I ended up listening to the Beatles version again afterwards. Not many covers make me do that.
Context
Released through Wicked Cool Records, "She Said, She Said" arrives as Joy Buzzer continue building a reputation for sharp, hook-driven guitar songs. Instead of treating a Beatles classic as something untouchable, they approach it with the confidence of a band that genuinely enjoys playing it, and that enthusiasm comes through in every minute.
🎧 Stream "She Said, She Said" on Apple Music · Follow Joy Buzzer on Instagram
Across this week's selections, it's often the smallest shift that leaves the biggest impression. Nanaco Sato shows how a single conversation can stay with you for decades. Mad Tab remind us that experience doesn't have to soften a band's edge. Joy Buzzer prove that even a song most of us know by heart can still sound different. Three very different releases. Three reasons to listen a little more closely.
Further perspectives are available in our Artist Features, Cultural Essays and On This Track, each situating music within broader cultural and structural contexts.
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