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September 30, 2026
Episode #36Riding the New Wave
September 30, 2026 ◷ 2:57:56
This month we're diving into the colorful, synth-soaked world of New Wave, exploring the movement that blurred the lines between punk, pop, art rock, and electronic music. We discuss the bands that defined the era, how we each discovered them, and why its influence can still be heard across rock and pop today. Jay follows up on last episode's Joe Jackson discussion, and we wrap things up by talking about some of the shows we've been to lately. Join us for another trip up the Stairway to Eleven.
36Albums Mentioned in This Episode
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Albums Mentioned in This Episode
View AlbumsOur AI is a real Trooper (Up the Irons!) but it still doesn't get everything right. So please excuse any missing or incorrect items.
#ArtworkArtistAlbumYou Must Listen
Culture ClubColour by Numbers
David BowieScary Monsters
INXSKick
INXSShabooh Shoobah
Jimi HendrixAxis: Bold as Love
Jimi HendrixElectric Ladyland
Joe JacksonNight and Day
Men at WorkBusiness as Usual
Men at WorkCargo
Missing PersonsSpring Session M
Simple MindsNew Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Simple MindsOnce Upon a Time
The B-52'sThe B-52's
The CarsHeartbeat City
The CarsShake It Up
The CarsThe Cars
The Jimi Hendrix ExperienceAre You Experienced
The PoliceGhost in the Machine
The PoliceSynchronicity
The Power StationThe Power Station
XTCBlack Sea
XTCEnglish Settlement
XTCSkylarkingSpotify Playlist
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Transcript
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Transcript
View TranscriptDownload Transcript ⇩ⓘ This transcript may contain errors. Please don’t quote it in your yearbook.
There's a podcast that's sure all that rocks hard is gold.
And they're climbing the stairway to 11.
When they get to there they know the record stores are all closed.
But online they can get what they came for.
And they're streaming the Stairway to 11.
I forgot about that. That's how long ago it was.
Yeah. Unfortunately,
I'm responsible for the medical part.
Oh,
so am I.
August was mine. Well, yeah, we both.
Yeah. Well, I was before that, we thought we were in the clear.
And George and I decided to say, you know what?
Surgery,
hold our beers.
Yeah.
Let's go somewhere else with this.
So it's been it's been complicated around these parts for both podcasts,
but we'll hopefully both be back on track now.
I actually have to thank the people present today because we also tried to do this last night.
So now we're, but now I'm up and running and everybody was able to reschedule, which is a greatly appreciated.
The universe is trying to stop us, but we won't let it.
And I will persevere.
I want to send out one message to our good friend,
Derek.
This is not AI.
We're actually all four of us are here that as far as we know,
we're looking at the screen.
This steak is delicious.
There's no sky in here.
We're here.
Yeah.
And yeah.
So hopefully,
like I said, back on track.
And so anyway,
this episode,
we are going to be talking about something I think we actually talked about last time briefly that inspired this episode.
New Wave.
New Wave music.
And so the guys are going to let me start just briefly because I want to share my misconceptions and misunderstanding of New Wave. New Wave.
Yeah, see, there's your first misconception right there.
New Wave.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
No, that's rap.
Yeah, no, but we had, you know, we all kind of grew up during the kind of New Wave, New Wave of British heavy metal,
hard rock, and all those kinds of things, and a lot other things were going on.
And so for me, New Wave was like this weird enemy as this,
like, young kid on,
you know,
like,
because it was metal, dude.
And so I wrote New Wave off entirely as Flacco Seagulls,
keyboard-type bands,
exclusively if you're British,
I thought.
So you ran so far away from it.
Which, by the way, a song I like, once I grew up and became a more open-minded person, there's a lot of great songs by some of those bands.
So I didn't know. And then I think somewhere along the line, I got into a big Elvis Costello phase. This was probably 20 years ago.
And I was reading something about him, and he was referred to as a New Wave artist. And I thought, I have no idea,
apparently, what New Wave music was.
And so I'm just starting this off as the dumb guy on the podcast who pays attention to every kind of music and somehow let a whole genre go by me without understanding what it is.
And I think enjoying a fair amount of it.
So I think the thing to do is start by asking one of the smarter members of the podcast,
or perhaps the Google machine,
What is New Wave Music?
Go ahead, Google Machine,
let us know.
All right,
so I... Working.
I accessed the Google Machine and put together some information for us about what was New Wave,
the sound.
New Wave wasn't just a single genre.
It was an artistic explosion.
Emerging in the late 1970s and dominating the 1980s, it was the cleaner,
more melodic,
and highly inventive cousin of punk rock.
While punk wanted to burn down the music industry with raw aggression,
New Wave wanted to rebuild it using art, fashion,
and technology.
It mixed traditional rock and roll guitars with cutting-edge electronic synthesizers, drum machines,
and quirky jerky rhythms.
It gave us everything from the jittery intellectual art rock of talking heads,
to the gloomy gothic atmospheres of the
All the way to the sleek neon-drenched electric pop of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran.
So where did the name come from?
The term was first borrowed from the French New Wave, or Nouveau I believe is pronounced,
the French New Wave cinema movement in fact of the 1950s and 60s,
which broke traditional filmmaking rules to create something self-aware,
artsy, and radically cool.
The term came to be applied to music in the mid to late 70s when there were British music writers in magazines like NME and Melody Maker and also the head of Sire Records in the US,
Seymour Stein,
Hello Signed the Ramones.
They started using the term New Wave to describe bands that had the raw energy of punk but were too pop-friendly,
sophisticated,
or experimental to be called punk.
It was their wave to get these edgy bands played on the radio.
The visual revolution.
You can't talk about New Wave without talking about how it looked.
It was the first musical movement engineered for the visual age because video killed the radio star.
When MTV launched in 1981,
New Wave bands with their dramatic haircuts, Hello Billy Idol,
asymmetrical fashion and theatrical makeup became the kings and queens of the music video format.
It rejected the hairy, denim-clad,
arena-rock look of the 70s. Hey, I resemble that remark.
In favor of retrofuturism, neon colors,
geometric shapes, and gender-bending fashion.
So,
why does it still matter today?
It laid the foundation for modern alternative rock, indie pop,
and electric dance music.
So every time you hear a modern band using a driving synthesizer hook or a moody bass line,
you're hearing the DNA of the new wave.
And as I was saying all of that and thinking about what Jay had said, I also came up with this,
which is think of it like alternative music in the 90s.
Alternative music was not just Nirvana.
Honestly,
that's way more helpful.
Even though that was a hugely helpful definition you just read,
the last thing you said was the most helpful thing.
Because, yeah,
alternative music was everything from Nirvana to the Cranberries to,
you know, it was alternative,
but it wasn't just a single thing. And that's pretty much the same way you need to look at New Wave.
Okay, that is helpful,
especially since I'm looking at the Wikipedia page with lists of bands, there's some shocking names on there.
I think John's going to walk us through a list of bands soon,
or maybe even now.
But like I say, looking in the Wikipedia page, there's like little things with a list of Billy Joel during the
houses era. And I'm like, okay,
yeah, I'm lost.
So,
and John Hyatt is listed there during a certain era. Yeah, for just one small period.
Yeah. I'm like, he's, he's a blues guy. Come on. He's not,
but you know,
he probably like many people,
uh,
acclimated himself to the times for a period to try and fit in.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, John,
let's cue that list.
Sure.
So,
uh,
one thing I want to add to,
to what George talked about is,
yeah,
this is a
a pretty big umbrella.
So while on the other podcasts and predominantly outside of the New Wave episode where I talk about Prague,
that's become somewhat of an umbrella term now too.
It seems like that's in every subgenre.
That's what New Wave was.
But before I named some of these bands, to help out even a little more,
they kind of break down even there.
There's the synth pop bands, which you guys talked about offline,
what you thought of initially.
But then there's the post-punk art-punk,
or art-rock, excuse me, art-punk that came out. There's the power-pop that eventually kind of started to evolve from this.
And then there's the whole new romantic version of it, which,
while you may not know or think about that, it actually played a part kind of big because it helped shape one of the biggest bands in this whole weird world that we all grew up in.
from the very inception. I'm sure,
Jay and George, you guys remember MTV.
But those few years, three or four years, make a big difference in your impression of things when you hear stuff, especially with what you're listening to at the time also.
So I won't waste some more time. I'll go through some names.
George, you already mentioned a couple of them.
Jay, I think you mentioned a couple. These are just some of the names.
Trust me, I could have read off a list of supposedly the 100 greatest new wave bands.
I looked at this site called Digital Dream.
door.
It's just some guy's list.
I don't know if I agree with his list.
Whatever. It doesn't matter. He put it together.
So I'm just using that.
So we've already heard talking heads.
Elvis Costello,
The Police,
Blondie,
Eurythmics,
Duran Duran,
Tears for Fears,
Depeche Mode,
The Cars,
B-52s, Psychedelic Furs,
The Pretenders,
In Excess, The Fix,
Devo,
A Flock of Seagulls, Simple Minds,
Thompson Twins,
Ecstasy,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Human League, Squeeze,
Howard Jones,
Talk Talk,
Level 42,
Gary Neumann,
New Order,
Joe Jackson,
Missing Persons,
Split Ends, The Go-Go's,
Graham Parker and the Rumor,
and a bazillion other ones.
I mean, that's basically your MTV playlist for like the first three or four years.
Now,
there are other bands that kind of touched,
that had brushes.
Peter Gabriel,
Suzy and the Banshees, David Bowie,
Roxy Music,
Stray Cats, they weren't necessarily New Wave, but they kind of touched it. And especially Bowie and Gabriel and Roxy Music,
you could say that those bands kind of helped shape New Wave because they're kind of the proto New Wave.
And of course,
you can't forget the band Japan.
I would be in serious trouble if I didn't mention them.
Japan from the UK,
which was kind of the precursor to Duran Duran.
And I mentioned Japan because TR and I are
to actually know somebody from that band who also happened to be in the band Porcupine Tree, Richard Barbieri, the keyboard player.
And they kind of were in that post-punk early on phase, and then they kind of shifted to this kind of art rock,
ambient pop kind of... It wasn't necessarily a new wave,
because it was almost even a little proggy.
Not like 70s prog, but just pushing forward.
and doing something different.
And you can go back and listen to some of the early stuff and you'll hear Duran Duran considerably.
Before we close it out,
it's not just these bands.
New Wave Infected Prague.
Like, you would not believe.
So much so that some of my bands that I absolutely love were doing that stuff.
Like Rush.
There they are.
Yep.
Got that into the episode.
But it is important because there's a new documentary that will come up, I'm sure, later on about Neil Peart that came out.
That shows Stuart Copeland from the police playing with Rush on the most police song that Rush ever played.
That just dropped on the documentary.
King Crimson got into this with their stuff in the early 80s,
especially the album Discipline.
Yes,
was neck deep in this.
Two different versions with the album Drama,
which is
very new wavey with the prog and then they did it with 90125 which is the new
wavy stuff i didn't like that's their best song yeah george hey and that's totally new wave
but it is i mean there's there's i mean the song leave it you can't get any more new wave than that
uh peter gabriel his three and four albums are very art rocky new i guess they fall into the new wave
umbrella they're more kind of i think influenced than anything else and then the band saga from canada
which was a prog band in the 70s for the first two albums the next three albums for they start kind of delving into prog and new wave so even prog bands were venturing into that i'm not going to include genesis because that was not new wave that was just adult contemporary stuff that i never want to ever hear again that's garbage so that i love that yeah so i just wanted to mention some of those uh bands now i guess the cure kind of straddles a lot of different parts of this because
at times they were kind of early on not necessarily new wave but then they kind of went into it themselves and became like a juggernaut of it so they kind of straddle the whole whole yeah i think of the more post-punk because i like the earlier stuff yeah but they eventually start to venture into that themselves yeah of course i think they just really did what they wanted to do and it just did it well but i don't think we can underestimate the influence of like bowie and gabriel and roxy music on
a lot of those bands.
And then Japan on top of that.
How much influence.
And Bowie didn't really do it much.
Because his 80s stuff was a little.
That power pop kind of stuff. With the heavy gated drum sound and everything.
But his album.
Which maybe comes up later on. I don't know. It's possible.
Scary Monsters.
It's very new wave-ish.
And it's sound.
Anyway.
That's just a list of artists. To kind of throw some context.
Are there any other ones that you guys can think of that I didn't mention?
Oh gosh, you mentioned so many.
I mean,
uh-huh.
Yeah.
I may repeat stuff you said because I didn't completely memorize everything you said, but like the Bengals maybe.
Yeah,
I mean, it starts to go that route. Cutting Crew,
Cindy Lauper, of course,
Nick Lowe,
Men at Work even,
Midnight Oil.
Yeah, I was going to ask you if you thought.
was there and also like the knack would you put them in there yeah i see the idea is like you said george it wasn't that they were following jay like jay's conception of the synthy yeah look all that it's they were just doing something different almost taking a cue from punk which was trying to do something different from old rock old prog and disco yeah they strip it down this is sort of what's happening and like george you mentioned the alternative scene in the 90s same thing just doing something
different.
It wasn't a scene.
The scene developed around what they were doing.
Yeah.
I'm going to throw out big,
big country class as a big,
important one to probably mention.
Which is,
which is weird because they started out as full on punk rock.
Punk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then as they got more commercially successful,
yeah,
their sound started to change dramatically.
I've got a few more.
George,
I'm surprised you didn't mention Joe Jackson.
He did.
I did.
Oh,
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I do at some point want to circle back and see if Jay did his homework on that one.
But if you didn't,
wink,
wink, you did. All right.
I do have a few.
Go ahead. Yeah, I have a few more.
Midnight Oil,
Missing Persons,
Modern English,
Naked Eyes,
Oingo Freaking Boingo.
Yeah.
Oh,
God. Every time I hear them,
I think of Robert Downey Jr. on the floor.
Yeah.
What movie was that?
I'm spacing on it. Say it!
Say it!
No.
Oh,
that's right. Back to school.
He hired Oingo Boko to play the party.
Maybe you can tell us what happened in the Korean War.
Oh, I like you.
I'm going to be watching you. I'm going to be watching you.
And one other one that back in the day,
this was one of,
you know, back when I was Mr.
80,
He's metal-only guy.
There were a number of bands that I completely trashed and disliked on principle,
Duran Duran being one of them,
that I am now a huge fan of.
But there's another one that I am more recently a huge fan of,
and that is the Pet Shop Boys.
Yeah, I've heard a lot of metalheads,
musicians,
are fans of the Pet Shop Boys.
They've got some really good hooks,
man.
I forget the hits.
You've got the brains,
or I've got the brains, you've got the money,
let's take lots of money.
That song's really good.
East End Boys, West End Girls is a big one.
I don't know what the fuck this is.
Should we throw the fix in on this?
Oh yeah, they were mentioned.
Oh yeah.
So I want to just state, what's interesting about some of these bands, and this might come up in some of the stuff that I bring up personally,
is that they started out very synthy and pop oriented like you mentioned Jay but as their careers moved on they became just more just a rock band and their sound change and the sound became more I don't want to use the word organic but you know what I'm saying that will kind of warm full instruments coming off an amp not running through a processor or through a synth you know no electronic drums back to acoustic drums.
And George's,
you know, Google machine rant there,
he mentioned cutting-edge electronics.
And it's funny because it's cutting-edge, but it's dated as hell. And I mean,
how cutting-edge it was at the time, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
And how weird and square and completely synthetic things like,
I'm trying to think of what the,
there was this technology that was used at that time, MIDI.
Yeah. Stuff like that.
At this time.
Which I think I all kind of went into this grotesque misconception and false bravado like George was talking about where I sort of like, well, I just kind of like those guys, you know what I mean? Or something like that. It's funny, too, because I missed a lot of good music.
I mean, I heard it.
I'm glad I circled back.
Yeah.
Well, you know, it's interesting.
TR can attest to this a little bit because he's a big Peter Gabriel fan. But you go listen to those early Peter Gabriel albums,
like three and four.
And you listen to Bowie when he was doing the Berlin Trilogy,
like with Lowe.
and heroes the synths on those are one thing and even king crimson they weren't using synths but the way they were playing it sounded like it but then you go to synths like a flock of seagulls and a human leak and it's like literally 180 degrees different from each other yeah the sound is just one is adding texture and layers and atmosphere and one becomes almost abrasive and not on purpose but the sound sounds like in your face like a soundtrack from a video game or something yeah and it's
Right.
And it's interesting how that developed over time.
You know, we're some of the artists that followed the kind of proto versions of the new wave.
I mean, we forgot to mention,
and they're not necessarily new wave, but Bauhaus.
We didn't even mention them.
Yeah. You know, Peter Murphy. I would have put them in that category,
right?
Yeah, but they fell in the post-punk realm to start.
You know, and I think as time went on, they kind of became
part of the genre.
Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not an expert in this.
As much as I love all this music,
I'm not a super expert. I don't know anything. I remember Yaz upstairs at Eric's. That was a big wave style.
I don't think it's easy to define.
I'm thinking about New Order and how they went from Joy Division and then early New Order was more guitar-based oriented to eventually being a very
Synth Forward Band.
Yeah,
electronic. You know, it's funny,
too, because all of the definitions and everything,
this has all been super helpful to me. I mean, help is the word for it, but it's also made it clear how kind of confusing it can be.
That's why we're here for you.
We're here for everybody today.
And it's funny because I don't know if there are a lot of... I mean, is genre the word for this?
or is it a is it um i don't think it's a genre it's i don't think so either is it a period it's an era that i think it's an era well you know what i kind of feel like one of the things that we haven't mentioned is the fact that the technology was finally catching up with what people wanted to do with it and and you know if you look at kind of these proto keyboard electronic bands like tangerine dream and what larry fast was doing in synergy
When it was literally, they would record a single note at a time because the technology didn't allow them to do anything else.
Yeah.
When all that stuff became a lot more mainstream and the keyboards and everything that you could get were more capable and synthesizers became a little more powerful and capable,
then you pretty much,
it enables this whole thing to happen because then you've got like people that can purchase this stuff and like tinker around with it and shape sounds with all the different because i mean uh my buddy jason had a uh juno 106 and i remember this keyboard basically you could literally it was a tone generator really and you could change the shape of the tone based on like what kind of sound you wanted no it was
Millions of knobs.
Yeah,
exactly.
All kinds of buttons and knobs.
It's like, you know, if you wanted a sawtooth, you get a sawtooth.
If you wanted a sine wave type thing, you could do that.
And it literally changed.
Like, you could create your own sounds,
which,
you know, when you listen to all that music,
that, you know,
nothing really sounded like that before because nothing existed like that before.
Sort of.
Sort of. Because we can't forget Brian Eno.
I mean, a lot of these bands don't exist without him.
And he was such cutting edge when it came to this, especially his work with Bowie,
and then his own solo work. I mean, he just,
he kind of set the table for everyone to jump on board.
But so I kind of want to do a sidebar here on this too, because what's interesting,
I keep thinking of the era we're in now, which is this utterly accessible era as far as technology goes. We're in the end times.
Music.
But musically speaking,
and you know, like anybody can produce their own stuff.
And I have to say that one,
having at least touched a little bit,
and I'm curious of other people's experience,
the other people present here,
the electronics to me seemed like you had to have a computer science degree to operate that stuff. Like it was all seemed so complicated to me.
Well, yeah, I mean, think about like all the like old like Moogs and,
and all the things with like a million patch cords and stuff.
Yeah,
exactly.
But in MIDI in particular,
which I mentioned previously,
which was a big guitar tool, but also used probably.
And I never,
I never was able to kind of, I never tried that hard, but I never was able to kind of pull in like, whoa, this is not worth the effort. You know what I mean? It was like. MIDI rules.
And so that's interesting to me that that's changed a lot, but also that,
you know,
you've talked about these guys experimenting.
I mean, it wasn't just push a button and that says fuzz box on it, you know.
It is now.
I just picked. It is now.
I'm more of a guitar guy,
but I just picked up the Omnisphere package,
which is a massive synth keyboard thing,
plug-in software suite.
And that's what I thought of when TR was talking about all the different knobs and stuff, because they go all in with like, they've got all these classic synths and keyboards in there,
and you've got all these digital virtual knobs that you can tweak.
tweak all that stuff to whatever kind of waveform you want and tweak these sounds. And it's so above my head, but I'm like, I just want to play with it.
I'll never figure it out, but I want to play with it. Do you play with it while playing your guitar or are you saying it's like a keyboard thing?
No, I've got a keyboard,
like a MIDI controller keyboard.
You can even just do it on the screen.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Jay, you just gave us our next little voiceover sample.
Do you play with it?
Can you play with your guitar?
Yeah, I use it like a slide.
We don't even realize when we're doing it anymore. It just comes out like it's natural.
But you know what, Jay?
Back in the day, it's been a while now, I picked up the Roland GR1 guitar synth, which was this thing.
It was like an outboard, like, I don't even know what to call it.
What do you call it?
An effects box.
Not like a pedal,
but bigger.
And it attached to your guitar via this additional pickup that you attach to it.
And you could play synth via your actual guitar.
And so I would play piano parts by doing chord arpeggios.
Hello,
GTR.
Yeah.
Turbo and Somewhere in Time.
A bit different.
To metal again,
because we don't always have to talk about metal,
but now it's suddenly interesting to me that metal was really in no way under this umbrella at all.
I find that odd that the new wave of British heavy metal,
which was basically a more sophisticated punk,
is such an exclusively different genre.
Well, I blame that on Manowar and their no wimps, no posers, no sense creed.
You got it, George.
You just nailed it actually. Well,
them and Bruce.
Yeah. Yeah.
He says keyboards and metal.
And then the next album comes out and it's all synths.
But you know what? That harkens back to write what both George and I said, which was to us these,
you know, this was antithetical to heavy metals in my mind.
Yes,
it was. Much to our detriment.
And now look at it.
I mean,
artists that are big now,
not new artists,
ones that are got 20 years in,
they all
I point back to that stuff now some of them.
Yeah I mean. They get inspiration from it. Yeah and then when symphonic metal came along they just blew the doors off of that and they were like oh yeah we're using keys.
We're using MIDI.
Come on now.
So.
And then you have bands like Symphony X are like well we're just going to write a symphony intro to every album.
And then they're not the only ones but pretty soon now all those bands you mentioned George and the symphonic metal bands with the female singers and they have the harsh vocals from the
They're all doing these huge intros with symphonies and it's just progressed in so many different directions since the 80s. I mean, I know there's still a lot of hardcore,
brutal black metal folks.
They're like,
you know,
completely against all this stuff. But metal music in particular has splintered into so many different factions and styles now that you're never going to please everybody.
Enslaved and Borknagar might kind of push back on that.
because they use a lot of keys now. Well, yes,
but I'm talking about the raw,
atmospheric.
That's what I was making.
It's,
yeah, those guys living in their mom's basement up in those single black metal bands in Pennsylvania that we seem to always see at shows, and I don't know why.
It's funny because the biggest black metal bands, I mean, Eson is a perfect example of somebody who's gravitated towards that sound on his solo work.
Yeah, big time. You know, I've come to,
In my many decades and years of music and exploration among the stars,
I've come to the conclusion that only a fool limits themselves intentionally.
Of course.
You know,
it's fine to have preferences,
but don't exclude things based on ridiculous principles that really don't stand up.
So this genre has to be a product of its era,
right?
I mean,
the 80s. I mean, this music doesn't happen without the 80s. But do you guys, can you,
we're all roughly in the same age group. And by the time we're all in the home together,
we won't even know how long the difference between us.
But think about this in a 10-year span.
Let's just say from like 76 to 85.
We went from hard blues rock to prog.
Don't forget punk.
To disco.
To punk.
Yeah.
To post-punk.
To art rock.
to New Wave,
not to Hip Hop yet.
To Thrash.
Thrash. I mean, Metal blew up New Wave.
I mean, that all happened in 10 years.
It's bizarre.
Yeah,
that's amazing.
And now throw in.
How bizarre.
Vinyl to cassette.
We're going to skip the 8-track as fuck that.
You know, then to CD,
which we may not have had them yet, but they were there.
They were out there a little bit.
Oh, yeah.
MTV,
that show Night Flight.
which predates mtv by a couple months i mean all of a sudden i got the visual stuff going on and then you got that shitty synth bass that getty lee used for a couple albums so i was like what the hell is he doing you know i know and it just that all happened in 10 years oh yeah let's just throw in computers on top of that yeah and cable and you know no longer did we have to stand there and hold the antenna anymore go go fix the bunny ears speak for yourself you know my dad was like we're done with that we're getting cable so we had a box we were too far
We never had that, yeah.
It's funny,
John, because it's like a weird renaissance,
isn't it?
A previous era to that,
to me, that comes to mind would be when Picasso started to happen and when psychoanalysis started to happen and we're making great strides in medicine and all these different things.
And then I think we kind of hovered for a while, and this does strike me as one of our big evolutionary jumps.
Yeah, this was like a step function. I mean, there was a lot that happened.
In a really short period.
Yeah,
boom.
And it's like,
yeah.
Yeah,
there's so much that like it took and it took like years for that stuff to kind of splinter off and do its own thing.
You know what I mean? Like that, like you said, John,
like that kind of led to so many other things that that took off from that time that we're seeing all the way up till today,
pretty much.
You know,
as a slide aside here, I keep seeing this.
Well, not keep, but I've seen several times now this documentary,
or excuse me, not a documentary,
but I've seen the trailer for it. It's called The 80s,
and people are raving about this thing.
Is that all on your radar?
I've seen a little bit of it.
You saw a little bit of the actual documentary?
Or you mean you've seen the trailer or whatever?
Is this like a CNN thing?
It's been around for a while, I think.
Yeah. I don't understand it. I think they tell the tale.
in music and clips from popular culture. And somehow this guy spliced together this movie that's supposed to tell the story of the 80s. But I thought there was a series.
If you watch the trailer,
you know, the quotes at the end of the trailer from, you know, Rex Reed of the LA Daily Blaine are like all like this is the greatest movie I've ever seen. So it's one of the reasons I'm bringing it up.
George,
I'm like you.
I remember like a series that used to be out that like it was on CNN or something.
No, no,
not that thing.
I'll send it to you guys.
I'll send you the trailer and the trailer is like to Purple Rain the song Purple Rain and it's clearly just scenes from the movie but it's everything from heavy metal parking lot type things to national events international events just in Madonna and I mean it's I think it's going to strike close to all of our hearts for that reason but it's also supposed to be this really amazing new version of storytelling I'll send you guys the trailer yeah just a crazy I was hoping when you had seen it no nope okay well
Thanks for nothing,
guys.
Hey, before we move on to anything else,
I've been looking for an in for this for a while since John mentioned them.
John mentioned the band Split Ends.
And I've never I've heard the name before,
but recently,
not for the first time,
I heard them on the radio, the song I Got You.
Yep.
And I was like,
oh,
yeah,
who are these guys again? Oh, yeah, Split Ends. I've been meaning to look those guys up.
The Crowded House guys.
Yeah,
basically.
Oh, are they really? Okay, I see. I don't know.
I think two, right,
TR?
Two of them,
I think.
But that song.
The Finn Brothers, yeah. That song is so good. And so I've been like, I haven't listened yet, but I made a huge playlist with all of their albums so that I could get into them.
Don't they have a song called Monster or something like that?
Because I remember the video.
The video is... So we have to add this part.
The visual is huge for us back then.
Absolutely.
videos absolutely sucked and we couldn't stop watching them we didn't have anything else you know like i just oh you would watch mtv and you'd see the same video four times in a day and you'd be like this is amazing yeah right you'd get sucked in like oh dude yeah i so i did not have cable and i had to go over to my friend jason's house because he did have cable and i'm like dude i just want to watch mtv i want my mtv
on my MTV.
And he's just like, dude, I've been watching it for hours. I don't want to watch it anymore.
I'm like,
what?
Like,
dude,
like we got to watch this.
And you hate your friends like that.
Yeah, it's like, yeah. Oh, I've got it so much. I can't even stand it anymore. And I'm like,
all I want to do is watch like as much of this as I possibly can get. Like I wanted to intravenously put MTV into my body because it was like and you know, the funny thing is, is like half of these bands,
I didn't
I didn't even like I mean it was just but it was so yeah it just captured a moment in time that like it was just so cool to watch this stuff well it's more than that CR if I may be so bold but previous your previous experience was magazines dude so it was static images right I didn't know how half these guys looked when they moved around you know well that's true yeah I mean if you watch look to cream magazine or like Rolling Stone or any of them and then to see like these people moving
Yeah,
exactly.
It's like, this is like, we've never had this.
And it's just like, and they're giving it to you in this like package of here's the song.
And here's like this,
you know,
kind of arty thing with the song that you know,
you've never even seen. And like,
sometimes it was like a better,
very literal kind of translation.
But sometimes it was like,
so off the,
you know, like,
what in the world was that?
Like, I,
that, that was an interpretation.
of that song that I never would have imagined.
And I agree. Like,
like when all these bands started showing up on MTV,
it was kind of like, it was fascinating.
But,
you know,
in terms of new wave, like Jay,
I just,
it didn't really grab me at all.
But it was still,
I mean, I was still captivated by the videos because it's like,
okay,
I've never seen this before.
That's what they were showing, and you like music.
I'll
prevent John from correcting us, and I will drop a few names like John.
No, no, no.
Don Kirshner did exist.
Oh,
yeah.
Love it.
And so I'm not saying we never saw these people move.
But, you know, John, we were talking briefly before we hit the record button,
and John made a sad and financially dangerous attempt to watch the ZZ Top documentary.
It's like five bucks, but I wasn't giving them that five bucks. Yeah,
goddammit, I'm keeping my money.
But I mention it because that documentary culminates in the Eliminator era. They don't bother talking about anything else after, and their success at that time was very dependent upon MTV.
And synthesizers,
they were heavily synth-based. They weren't New Wave, but they were influenced.
Yeah,
definitely.
And they talk about that, but there's a very charming little piece of interview where Frank Beard is saying,
I turned on the television.
They probably all had the most expensive cable box.
There was a show on about music.
I watched it and I kept watching it. It was on for like two hours.
I called Dusty and I'm like, dude, you got to watch this show. We watched it until four in the morning. We were like, when is this damn show?
It was the first day of MTV.
That's how they discovered it.
Anyway.
I got to tell you, there's something I just thought of what we're talking. This was a massive culture shock for us too.
And I'm not using that lightly.
Think about it. We're used to seeing Van Halen early on. Or we're used to seeing Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant without his shirt unbuttoned.
And then he uses Foghead with their sweaty little thing singing Fool in the City.
And then all of a sudden you're looking at Duran Duran and you're like, what just happened?
Where did this come from? You're looking at Ozzy all coped out on stage.
Who am I,
you all?
Let me see your hands.
you see the fix and you're like what the hell is going on you know and it was and i'm not using that lightly culture shock i mean it was kind of like just getting remember the three stooges you get smacked on one side of the face and your face would turn and you get smacked on the other side of your face and then you poked in the eyes yeah or or you get nut punched you know so i mean well it's funny because your friends were assholes we were talking about you were talking about the early technology and we've all been talking about that and how this
And some of it was not that approachable because it was a little,
you know,
produced or synthetic.
And the videos kind of weren't too, though. They were way more angular than what we were used to. You know what I mean? They were sharp corners.
You know what I mean?
We were used to guys coming out who didn't maybe shave that good and blah, blah, blah.
And suddenly it was a production,
you know?
And that is, I've never really thought about it that way, but I think there might have been a part of me that internally kind of rejected some of it for that reason.
Oh, yeah.
I'm with you Jay. I mean, like,
I mean, this all,
when this came out, it was kind of diametrically opposed to kind of the music that I liked.
So it was kind of like an assault on,
you know, what I thought was good music.
And I think that's why I kind of didn't really care for it. I mean, it just seemed like,
I don't know,
like it was opposed to.
It was everywhere.
That's the other thing.
Well, that's true.
It was on the radio.
It was on MTV.
And don't get me wrong,
I didn't hate it, but I just didn't connect with it. I just didn't really,
I don't know.
It didn't really,
it felt lightweight to me, and it just didn't really kind of like, there was no heaviness to it, and there was no kind of balls to it, I didn't feel.
We were kind of wrong though, weren't we? You totally missed the boat on some of that.
Well, I may have, but to be honest,
like I just,
I don't know,
like it just didn't speak to me at all.
You're hitting on a point that I didn't really clarify when I talked about how we, you know, we were dumb to not listen to things because of principles and blah, blah, blah.
But the fact was in the eighties and probably the nineties and the seventies and the aughts and the
the 10s and the 20s now,
there's still social aspects that have nothing to do with the music.
And in the 80s,
the reason I didn't like this music wasn't because it wasn't good music.
It wasn't your tribe.
It was because I didn't like the people that liked this music.
I liked my music because it was my music.
And I disliked your music because I disliked you.
And this is a terrible thing,
but this is also how teenage people work out. That's why they didn't like our music.
It's the same.
Absolutely.
And then you became friends with them 10 years later.
Like, why aren't we friends?
Yeah.
TR,
just real quick, I want to say this because I don't want to lose this thought,
Jay. I apologize for cutting you off.
No.
You were saying how you didn't connect with it. The reason these bands existed is because of the stuff we like.
It became so bloated and overdone. Like, let's be honest,
I could see why this music exists after I hear it.
here,
Dazed and Confused Live for the third time.
It's 30 minutes long. Yeah, I won't disagree with you. And that's why Punk came out of nowhere,
because... Well,
right. It was a reaction,
and I get that.
But at the same time, I don't have to like it. You know what I mean? No, I'm not saying you have to like it. Nobody's saying that. Nobody's putting a gun to your head here. What I'm saying is... I just felt like, okay,
it's a result.
I get that you guys don't like this stuff, and I get that,
yeah, it's probably bloated,
and I get all that, but at the same time, it's like, maybe you should learn
how to play your instruments.
And I get that you've got all this
hatred.
See, that's the misconception.
You think they can't play their instruments,
and that's so wrong for some of these musicians.
You're referring,
I think, more to the punk period now.
Yeah, the punk.
That's a punk movement.
It was just kind of like, okay,
I don't know.
I don't know. They rejected even talent.
I mean,
in a lot of cases.
Well, that was the whole point, that they didn't even want to know how to play their instruments.
I mean,
I mean, Barrett could not even play bass.
He had no idea how to play bass.
I really want to validate. But neither did Nicky Six, and he was playing hair metal. He had to be taught by Randy Rhodes how to play bass.
So, I mean. Yeah.
I really want to validate and jump on George's point, though, and just say I really think he had something there, because you can forget how culturally tribal we were, especially when you were in junior high and high school. So,
the 80s itself was already bad enough,
just as, I mean, that's what represented in every John Hughes. The preps and the stoners.
The breakfast club.
Yes.
Yeah, and every other John Hughes.
There you go.
That was the perfect reference.
It's the breakfast club.
And we lived through that. And it was. It was weird. We were all in our weird little silos.
And I know we kind of still are. But we were Bender.
They were Molly Ringwald.
Screw them.
Well,
and in a weird way,
Fast Times,
too.
I mean, that wasn't as defined.
But Fast Times is all about clicks,
too.
You know, what group you belong to. Just,
I think, a little more realistic in the sense that I think we all went to that high school.
All those kids existed in Fast Times in high school. Well, that's why that film was so great.
I mean, it nailed it because it's like,
yeah, that's reality,
man. That was like you totally got exactly what was going on. The Breakfast Club,
while true,
I think they purposely amp things up a little bit just to create the division for the story itself.
But it's existed.
But I'm going to be honest with you right now. They would have not have survived the next day,
next Monday.
That's just the truth.
You mean survived as in still been friends?
Right. Yes,
absolutely.
Bender even says that. He goes, I don't know.
You know, what happens on Monday?
Yeah.
Yeah, I had situations like that with people.
Yeah. I love this, guys. This is great because this really,
this is all relevant to New Wave and why it was embraced, why it probably developed the way it did.
Well, I think we kind of answered our question when I put this little thing together. Like, how do we get into it?
answered that tenfold here um so are you okay if i move fast forward it george or is there something
yeah maybe we should talk about some music i mean we've been talking about music but maybe we should talk
about some music yeah okay because i think we and i think we sort of answered where we are now whether we still like it or not or we got to it or you know yeah let's just roll with some of our favorites if you have them yeah if you don't yeah maybe you'll
of something that we don't know about.
Who wants to start?
I guess I will,
since I probably have the least to say on this.
So,
I guess of these new wave bands,
probably I'm the biggest fan of The Police and Devo.
There you go.
Those are like my two,
probably the two bands that I have the most stuff from.
And I,
you know,
it's hard to understand,
like,
you know, when you look at,
like,
my,
the rest of my collection and, like, what I've got.
And it's hard to explain,
like, why I really like these bands. Like, not so much the police,
because I really like how,
as a three-piece and as just,
like,
the way that they were,
there was a lot of energy there.
There was a lot,
but it wasn't like,
I don't know, they were kind of punk,
but like,
but they were not angry punk.
You know what I mean?
Like they just seemed like they were more like fun punk.
They were definitely post-punk,
no doubt.
Yeah. Because they had the whole ska reggae thing going. Exactly.
And so,
you know,
I really,
I kind of took to them and I really liked them.
And Devo was another band that I just thought they were weird. They were quirky.
Were they men?
Are we not men? We are Devo.
But George,
it was Tierra's Beautiful World.
I mean, come on.
Not me.
But yeah.
For you.
So yeah,
I just,
I don't know.
Those two bands were kind of like probably the biggest ones that I actually really got into in terms of like quantity and albums and everything.
these bands that I'm going to mention later are like, oh, I have like an album or two or less or just a few singles.
Because,
you know, that was really all that I kind of got into.
But like,
I like Devo because I just thought,
you know, they were kind of weird and they were kind of funny.
And they were different from everybody else.
And you like to whip it good?
Yeah,
you could say so.
Actually, I just,
you know, I just,
I saw them live for the first time this year.
And I was so glad I went to see them because I had never seen them live before.
And it was just it was such a cool show.
And they just put on a really good show. And it was just really entertaining.
And I just enjoyed it a lot. So it was really good.
Play peekaboo with anybody there?
I can see you.
And I know what you do.
So Depot's a great one because they had just the quirkiest videos.
Yeah. And it made it fun.
I mean,
is it,
which one is it? Is it,
um,
what's the song?
Not that's all.
What is it?
Um,
the one with the,
uh,
donut.
Oh, that's good.
That's good.
Yeah.
And we were all like,
Oh,
the French fry and the donut.
It's like, Oh boy.
Okay.
What's going on there?
Why does he keep whipping that woman when she's trying to make that weird whipping cream in the video?
Whip it, you know, so
Nice,
okay
And the police obviously
It's hard to escape the police in this period because not only were they one of these bands
They're also one of the biggest bands in the world
They're also the police. You can't get away from the police.
Yeah,
literally
You know and now you still can't get away from because stuart copeland won't stop talking
blah blah blah
I mean,
albeit somewhat interesting,
but sometimes like take a breath,
let somebody else get a few words in and we'll come back to you.
You're not going anywhere.
But I do find it interesting to hear him talk drums.
So anyway.
All right.
Nice.
Jay, what do you got?
I'll, I'll,
I'll,
well, I'm going to say first,
I'll, I'll just talk about one artist and I've already kind of mentioned them, but,
um,
I will say this too, though, because, and it's,
I've really enjoyed this whole conversation and, and like hitting on the weird,
the tribalism thing and the clicks and all that stuff we did and the way technology affected all this and my own kind of rejection of it because I was crazy in the number of the beast and all that stuff but I did I always there were always great songs that I recognized as great songs and I'm going to call some of those out like and I mean I'm going straight now for my old mistaken definition of this genre which is the keyboard bands from Britain and stuff but like I ran so far away that was such a good song and I love that song Big Hunt
by big country.
I like tainted love, which might not fall into this, you know, like there was definitely falls in soft.
Yeah.
And,
you know, and I'm sorry, but the song at the end of, uh,
uh,
breakfast club,
don't you forget about me still makes me deeply nostalgic,
you know?
Oh, absolutely.
That's a good song.
There were always things I could attach myself to it. And unfortunately they're all time machines for me now, if I hear them, you know,
but as far as,
um,
and that list would be very, very long of the
I liked.
But I'll throw out Elvis Costello just because I think he kind of typifies this movement a little bit and that he really came in as a post-punk guy.
He had an immense amount of talent.
His early stuff is very mod kind of inspired.
You could tell he was he was like in the punk arena.
Yes. Without question but then went on to have this great complex career.
But you know to stick with the New Way version I loved everything he did in the New Way version.
And he early on really embraced the keyboard stuff. Like if you know the album Imperial Bedroom or any of his other kind of technology-driven albums that are still guitar-driven but also technology-driven.
I don't know. I think he kind of typifies this whole movement a little bit. And I would also,
I had mentioned it sort of confused me to hear that he had been part of this era,
I guess is what we decided to call it.
It kind of makes an awful lot of sense to me because he was deeply rooted in kind of like really basic rock and roll and embraced technology,
was a fabulous songwriter and singer,
and kind of like survived that era to show you,
not unlike your friend Joe Jackson, to show you the kind of talent that was underneath these things.
You know what I mean? Because some of the presentation in this genre was a little plastic.
But I'm going to jump on John's boat and say I can think of some great musicians who wants the kind of,
you know,
frame that this very specific era had under it. And they started to kind of branch out a little bit. And we were like, oh,
this guy can play.
And same.
Right.
Yeah.
I think we got kind of, I think the point,
Jay, I think that's a very good point.
We kind of got led down.
this synthesizer path that, you know, when you actually take away the synthesizers and you look at, like, the music.
It's just drums.
Yeah.
It does kind of change things because,
you know,
if it hadn't been synthesizers,
and like you said, you know, as time passed and that whole thing passed along,
they chose to use different
different kinds of instruments and different kinds of arrangements and they,
you know,
grew as artists.
It, it, it, it's not so much tied to that whole era so much as their talent and what they were able to accomplish and, and the music and things that they were able to do. And so I think that,
yeah,
you know,
when you look at this era and what was in it,
you know,
I think we,
got kind of waylaid by some of the instrumentation.
We did.
When really,
like if we had been paying attention to the actual music,
and I think like what you're saying is, you know, like,
hey,
there's some really good songs here that,
you know, because we were like,
kind of like, well, wait a minute,
you know, why does this have to be synthesizer?
And I don't like these haircuts and blah, blah, blah.
It's like, well,
maybe these are pretty good songs,
you know?
So,
yeah.
Yeah, and it's funny.
So it's funny how that is, but it's great to see these,
to kind of, it's great to find that.
And part of that is just age.
I mean, some of this I realized on my own a long time ago,
like,
oh, I actually kind of like that.
You know what I mean?
Well, you know, like alternative music.
That's where I,
that's, I'm not going to have a huge list.
I would just say there's a million songs along the line that move me in pretty specific ways.
And I think Ellis Costello is a great example of somebody I love who is definitely a child of the New Wave era.
And one of its, you know,
forerunners, you know. Yeah.
I was going to say,
you know, the 90s alternative music scene was sort of a response to the excess of the 80s and the guitar solos and the wankery there.
Yeah.
And New Wave was probably kind of a similar response to the guitar heroes of the 70s.
Yeah.
Because that was pretty wankery,
too.
Of a different... I mean,
you know, a lot of people were like, I'm tired of these rock,
roll,
guitar player people.
And let's just do something completely different. And,
you know,
I think that was probably a similar response.
Anyway,
I don't know where I was going with that.
Except there.
So,
um,
well, ask John,
what's something you like?
So before I get started,
uh,
George, I want to know this for you,
since you and I, I think are in the same boat,
meaning you and I would probably go to shows of these bands before TR and J would join us.
Sure.
But that's okay because this is stuff we liked.
I want to find out when,
when the dam broke for you. For me,
it was actually a band that had some of the,
most over-processed 80s sound ever,
but it told me that, hey,
wait a minute, these dudes in this band can actually play.
Why don't I like their other band?
And that was the Power Station.
First time I heard the Power Station, I was like, man, Andy Taylor plays some freaking heavy guitars,
man. He's not a wimp on this.
And I was like,
John Taylor's a really good bass player.
I sort of knew that already,
but now I really know it.
And then Robert Palmer.
who's this blue-eyed soul singer and not durand durand yeah and then i was like wait that's the drummer from david bowie's serious moonlight tour tony thompson from i guess it was chic who he's in or whatever like who is this band and i'm not gonna lie that album and the song of veto a kill by durand durand from the james bond movie i was like okay i'm missing something here and that's kind of when the dam started to break for me and that was 85
So I was already,
you know, it was already past a lot of what come out.
So,
but this first, I haven't mentioned two bands now,
two bands,
but I'm going to pick two albums from those bands because I can't talk about everything from those bands because I like them, but I don't know everything about them.
This isn't Rush,
okay? Jeez.
All right, my God.
All right, so my first one is a video that I saw.
I don't know why it intrigued me.
I loved it. I kind of loved this simple,
I love the fact that a guy was using a tambourine in this.
And I was like,
this is weird music to me.
But I it stuck with me.
And I'm a fan of this band to this day. I don't I've got like six of their albums,
but and I wouldn't call myself.
But I wouldn't say I'm the biggest fan of this band.
However, I love this band.
And so I get in around the same.
I hate this band.
No,
not at all.
Sort of an inside joke with Tara and I.
Anyway,
the band is Ecstasy.
Oh, yeah.
The Album is English Settlement,
which came out in 1982.
And I could talk about Ecstasy for all their other albums, but I'm mentioning this one because Senses Working Overtime played on repeat on MTV. Such a good song.
And I was like, this song is catchy.
It's not clicking in my head that it's kind of post-punk-y,
new-wavy,
and jangle rock, which I didn't really get the whole jangle rock thing until I got a little older. I'm like, oh,
wait, The Birds.
Oh,
wow.
How did I miss this? Yeah, beatley kind of stuff,
right? Yeah,
where did this jangle stuff come from now? Oh, wait, Tom Petty's jangle rock.
What the heck's going on here?
You know?
And I just fell in love with this album.
And it took a few years to kind of gravitate towards it.
But I really think if you want to get a band that has a more warm acoustic instrument sound,
then this would be one of the bands you do.
If you're not a fan of the synthesizer, especially the abrasive sound that the synthesizers, you know, where it was up front and it was dominating the sound,
you might want to give Ecstasy a spin because they've got some really cool early stuff is post-punk-y. Then they started to get more in the new wave, power pop.
I don't want to say power pop yet, but pop rock,
which is... The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead.
Yeah,
dear God.
Yeah, well, so I was going to say,
for me,
I got into them with Sky.
Gylarking and Dear God,
which is a few years later.
But yeah,
it is a few years later.
But that Dear God by XTC or XTC,
however you want to say it. Yeah, I know.
They both fly. It's one of my favorite songs of all time. I love that song.
It is so good.
I would say listen to that song George just mentioned.
Listen to the song I mentioned since it's working overtime. Oh, I know that song very well. Oh, no, I'm saying in general to anyone.
Yes, yes.
Not me.
All the rest of you fools.
TRNJ.
And then go to the album Black Sea.
They have a song called Respectable Street.
And you could hear almost three different styles on three albums within five, six years of each other.
And it's just they were kind of just pushing all over.
So that MTV is responsible for that. And I'm a fan.
Again,
not the biggest fan in the world.
But I consider myself a fan. I like their stuff. And I kind of am interested in getting an album I haven't heard yet.
Because like I said, I don't have everything.
Yeah.
So George is right.
And they had even more poppy type songs later on.
Like the Mayor of Simpleton. You remember that,
George?
Yes. Yes.
You know,
and like you said,
the Dear God, the Ballad of Peter Pumpkin. All these songs were big radio hits at the time.
You know, but they were transcending the new wave and just becoming then just rock at that point.
Yeah.
Right. So my second one,
and I don't care, I'm dying on this hill. I absolutely love this album.
This album resonated with me because I remember,
remember we used
to have those all school assemblies like in like wherever you know uh the auditorium and i remember we had we're gonna watch this video you guys gotta get in touch with your feelings that crap you know like the principal's talking like oh god shut up and they played a song from this album on there now mind you that was 86 85 86 and this happened but the album came out in 82.
and i'm going with this album because it's by far
the weirdest situation of any new wave band because most of this band came from one of the weirdest bands ever and i'm going to go with missing persons in the album spring session m if you know anything about missing persons you'd know that four of the five people in this band were in frank zappa's band i didn't know steve i was in missing persons steve i's not on this speaking of which i just bought his
His like children's it's not children's but it's animated uh his book on like music theory because I was like you know guitar based music theory and I was like oh I don't know read this anyway sorry I'm sure it's good no I was gonna say Dale Bozio and Terry Bozio Dale Bozio the singer and in Terry Bozio is one of the greatest drummers ever to live uh the Warren Kukarulu I think is how you say his name the guitarist and Patrick O'Hearn this they were
They went from Fake Zappa,
singing about yellow snow and going to Montana,
which are amazing songs,
and going from that kind of dark humor fused with jazz and rock and prog and whatever you want to call it, all the way to this crazy synth,
new wave, hard rock driven album that has songs like Destination Unknown,
Walking in LA,
Words,
Noticable One, Windows,
US Drag. I love Words.
Words, that's the song from the Assembly that was blasting in our auditorium. And I was just like,
whoa,
this is actually really cool. No one listens anymore.
Then you go back and listen to this album. What are words for?
Like this song, US Drag,
that they have on there,
that's a Zappa-esque song.
I mean, it just absolutely reeks of Zappa. And you're like, wait a minute,
they have high hair and a lot of makeup,
and they're wearing all these weird clothes.
and all these synthesizers.
And you're like, but that sounds like Frank Zappa.
It's, I would suggest at least that album.
I've listened to the other two and I'm like, eh,
not so big.
That's the thing about these bands with me.
I like albums,
but I don't, I'm not, it's not like Rush.
I'm not buying every album, all right?
Even if Hold Your Fire sucks, I'm not, I'm still buying it.
I'm going to just jam this Rush right up your.
Damn right.
Your Rush hole.
Your Rush hole, which I think it's this one over here.
Yeah.
Well,
I'm going to make a new one.
And we liked it.
And we liked it. Remember that?
So anyway, I would suggest Missing Persons 2 because,
like I said,
Terry Bozio.
Terry Bozio. Can't go wrong with Terry Bozio.
He's one of the greatest drummers ever to live.
Yeah.
And he's got the biggest drum set in the world.
So anyway,
those are my two to start.
All right.
So I'm sort of going to start with two,
but I do have a
I have to start with a prequel of piling on the whole police thing.
Because,
I mean,
cha,
you know.
But I wanted to mention that, you know, my notes say the police.
I walked in the building as they were walking out.
Because I got into them with synchronicity.
Oh,
wow, really? And I was all like, this is amazing. Wait, they broke up?
So I had to like,
you know, go back from there.
This band is so cool.
But yeah, you can't go wrong with the police.
But anyway,
one of my absolute favorite new wave bands and just bands in general.
And to sort of,
I guess, call back to John's question of like, like, when did you get into this stuff?
You know,
in the 80s,
obviously, I was very much a metal dude and,
like, not inclined to listen to things that were not metal,
at least unless I was in my house,
in my room,
in my bed under the covers where nobody could see me or know.
And then I would listen to things like Huey Lewis and The Police and this band,
The Cars.
Oh,
yeah.
Nice.
I love everything about the Cars.
And honestly, I think they're probably one of the greatest new wave bands of all time.
I got into them physically,
and this by I mean my first album was Shake It Up.
I got that from where?
Columbia House and Record and Tape Club.
One red cent.
But their first album,
The Cars,
self-titled. That's crazy.
Good Times Roll.
You Know It.
One of my favorite songs of all time and one that I have poorly covered.
Just What I Needed.
Just What I Needed.
Such an amazing song.
You're All I've Got Tonight.
Bye Bye Love.
And I'm hearing all these choruses right now.
Moving in Stereo. That's a cool tune.
That is a ridiculously cool tune. This is all off their just their first
This is like Bad Company's first album,
their debut,
just like loaded with hits across the board,
albeit completely different style of music.
And it wasn't even like their biggest album,
you know, I mean,
Shake It Up has Since You're Gone,
Shake It Up.
But then Heartbeat City,
you know, is probably I'm guessing that maybe the first album. Did that have Drive on it?
Heartbeat City?
That's the big one, yeah.
Heartbeat City.
Yeah.
That was the one they were saying.
Magic and You Might Think.
So,
you know,
massive. But their first album is still their best album, I think. I agree.
But I will listen to anything by the cars.
And... Well, Rick Okasik also gave us all the kind of just false hope that somebody like that could pull the supermodel. Yeah, well,
not false hope.
He pulled it. It's just, you got to be famous.
Yeah.
It still has us wondering,
Jay, like, what the hell?
How did he do that? All things are possible when famous.
What's going on back there?
He just died in the last couple of years.
I know.
He was significantly
older than the rest of the guys. I think by
seven years ago.
Yeah,
it was quite a bit.
Oh, playing the trumpet over there, I hear.
Sorry about that.
Jay's an Oingo Boingo fan.
You know, that's my natural sound
for what it's worth.
And it draws laughter.
And I'm like, what?
What's everybody talking about?
It's cute.
When did he die? Because I'm actually kind of curious about it. It was 2019.
Wow.
That was a while back. He wasn't young.
No, he was 75.
75.
Yeah,
he'd be in his 80s by now.
Not anywhere near William Shatner,
but you know.
Speaking of which, have you heard him do Crazy Train?
He did his metal thing.
That's not unprecedented.
some stuff like this years ago.
Oh, yeah.
Lucy,
this guy with diamonds, he did. Yeah, oh,
yeah.
And he speaks just exactly.
It's more like metal-spoken word.
Yeah, there's nobody that I would rather listen to butcher songs than William Shazner. Oh, yeah,
absolutely.
He's a national treasure at this point.
Cory Feldman is 90.
95.
He's 95.
It's unbelievable that he's 95.
And just to add to this,
He is going on a tour where they're showing Wrath of Khan.
And he's like there,
like physically,
like they're going to like talk to him.
And I can't. It kills me that I cannot be there. I actually I've seen this before where he where they like interview him.
And then they went to one before.
You mean you just saw like, yeah, I went to this before where like they they had Wrath of Khan,
like they show Wrath of Khan in the theater.
him come out and like they talk with him and he talks about like you know how the making of the movie and all that he's doing it again oh that's awesome and and so he's going on i don't know how big of a tour this is but he's definitely playing in baltimore and i can't be there because i'm going to be elsewhere at the time so it's a bummer but like my buddy bill is going to be there and he's going to see it but shatner is like dolly parton to me he's like somebody who has so played a role in real life of like who
he is or might be that I don't even care anymore. Like, I don't care how put together it is.
I love him.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, you can't help but love him.
Do you remember when he saved his career?
What actual moment it was?
Was it the SNL thing?
He said, move out of your parents'
basement.
Get a life.
He just started yelling. He literally reinvented himself right then and there.
That whole episode was great.
I remember there's one sketch in there where he's getting ready to go out to eat with his wife.
And he just spends the next like three minutes looking in the mirror just going,
yeah,
I still got it. You know what I mean? Like maybe pumping his muscles like that bad.
95.
That's insane.
So he's playing the lyric on January 31st in Baltimore.
Oh,
if I can get this,
I am totally going.
That's the one I can't do.
And yeah.
Yeah, he's going to be the Lyric, and it's like,
yeah, they're doing Rathacon,
and they're doing like a little interview session with him. Oh, it's for that. It's not a tour. It's not like a music tour. Holy crap,
but it includes a photo and autographed poster with him. I am buying this right freaking now.
Oh,
George,
you're killing me.
Oh, wait.
This is the,
sorry, you have to click here to get the,
how many thousands of dollars is it?
Come on.
I don't care. I don't even care.
I don't know that our fans are really going to care about this right now.
I know.
Our whole new wave thing just got derailed.
Sorry.
You can't expect me to do that when there might be some shat.
Yeah, that's right.
Wait a minute.
Hold on.
Wait a minute.
Hold on.
You mean Shatner,
right?
Oh, yeah, I guess. Not Shat.
Orchestra,
Roji,
Seat 112.
What are you going to tell us that you have a chocolate squirrel?
So the... It looks like the... Oh.
So I'd like to apologize to the five people that are listening to this.
Sorry, I am derailed. You don't even know.
This is going to get cut out anyway. No, it's not. Don't worry about it. The Shat Love must endure.
Oh,
Jesus.
Okay,
well.
The only thing that would make that show even more perfect,
than it could be, is if you're sitting and waiting for everything to start,
and it's got the fight song in the back playing on the PA.
As you're waiting for everything. Oh,
the Gorn.
Well,
he also fought Spock.
Oh, well, that's true.
Spock almost killed him in that. Yeah.
Okay, so this is interesting.
You have to buy a separate ticket for the photo op.
The photo op costs more than the ticket.
You have to buy both.
That's the VIP set.
It's $97 for the ticket,
$129 to get your picture taken with him.
Well, can you just get your picture taken with him and go home?
That's a good question.
I've seen Brath of Khan like 97 times.
Oh, but dude,
that's like the best one.
The autographed poster is sold out, but I could still get,
I don't, still a picture?
Come on. How could I not?
I'm fucking buying it. I don't care.
And if for some reason I can't go, I'm going to take my money.
Yeah,
I'm doing this right now on air.
During our episode.
During our episode.
It's all staying in. I don't care. For all of you out there still listening.
Sorry, you can't tell me.
Don't worry about it.
They've tuned out.
They're probably drinking a beer.
Fast forwarding 47 minutes from now. Okay,
we don't need to hear this. We didn't even finish George's segment. I know, I know.
I've completely derailed the whole thing.
Yep.
Oh, let's not put it on that card.
I shouldn't have mentioned it, but honestly,
like Shatner,
dude.
Shatner, you can't. Well, I mean, I brought up the,
or I don't know, maybe.
I expanded on it anyway.
Rathacon is the best Star Trek film ever.
Yeah, I saw that in the theater when it came out, and it actually kind of terrified me because I was a young lad.
Oh, well, the little earwig thing.
Yeah,
that and like the whole like hanging bodies on the space station.
And I was like, yeah.
And do you want to know why it's the best film?
It's the same reason why Empire because Ricardo Montalban is a badass and he kicks ass.
And when the bad guys do well,
those are the best films.
I'm sorry.
So glad you're still talking about William Shatner.
Yeah,
Jay just rejoined us here. Well, for those who can't see, I was my dinner.
My wife nicely brought me my dinner and then I had to.
Yeah, what you can see is Jay went to the dumps. He went to the recycling center.
He went to the store. By that time,
George finally bought his ticket.
I'm working on it. I'm just curious.
I mean,
I love that guy. So I'm just so glad you were still talking. It's a Sunday.
Okay.
We're waiting for him to get his damn tickets.
I know.
Ricardo Montalban was like, he couldn't have played that role any better.
He's conned.
Let me ask you this.
He is.
He's conned. I did.
Did we all see that in the theater?
Yes.
Yeah.
Of course.
Yeah.
And dude,
like,
what a great film.
Yeah. It was great.
And it was because it was like, was it, was it the first one? The first film? Second.
No, no.
Second film. Second. Star Trek II.
Star Trek, the movie. The Wrath of Khan.
Yeah. Star Trek, the movie.
Yeah.
I'm going,
baby.
Yeah,
he's in.
He's in.
All right, man. Little Star Trek tidbit here.
Take a second.
Is the fourth one when they were in San Francisco?
Yes. Oh, boy.
Yeah.
Yes.
That's my mom's favorite one. Yes.
Here's the thing.
That scene they're filming in the water,
that was filmed at my high school pool.
Oh, wow.
Really?
Because you could go down along the side of the pool underneath ground,
and they had windows to watch the swimmers as they were swimming by.
And that's why they used my high school for that.
Okay, can I do a Star Trek trivia question?
Okay, but first I have to give my greatest line, because you're all like talking about, you know,
the earworms and the other
things, but the greatest thing,
not even the con.
No,
the greatest line in this movie and all movies ever is.
Well, actually, there's two.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.
Which is just the greatest philosophy.
Okay.
Vulcan philosophy. Go figure.
But then the one that brings me to tears every single time.
Even now?
I am and always will be your friend.
Okay.
So I'm going to counter that with just one other line that might,
for me, it tops it. It's two words.
I know.
Shut up, Han Solo.
Let's be honest. We all were like, he's going to die.
Like a poor marksman, you keep missing the time.
Target.
You've got Genesis Con,
but you don't have me.
You're going to have to come down here. You're going to have to come down here.
Literally,
two words made him an absolute,
that character, an absolute icon.
All right, trivia question though.
It's not that hard,
but I just love it. I just think it's the greatest.
What does the T in James T.
Kirk stand for?
Tiberius. Come on.
That's such a good name.
Tiberius.
I asked my wife one time, do you know what the T stands for? And she said,
what? And I said, Tiberius.
And then she just walked out of the room.
Meanwhile,
back at the podcast.
The other thing I was going to mention,
and they have been mentioned,
but the band The Arrhythmics.
There you go.
But I could be wrong.
Sweet dreams are made of this.
That is like my childhood in that song.
That is like every school bus ride I ever took as a child.
And they were so like art rock that I think they even for you and me as these like,
you know,
trying to live up to the macho metal thing.
I think they transcended that. They were one of the things.
I loved this regardless. And that was sort of the point why I chose it.
It's those spooky violins in that track,
too.
Here Comes the Rain Again.
Did she ever go back?
Did they split on good terms?
Were they married?
You know, I don't think so. I don't think so.
And I think they split on good terms. I think they went back and did something together again.
And her voice is just undeniable.
Annie Lennox is amazing.
I didn't see her with Eurythmics, but I saw her solo.
Oh, I'm sure she was great.
That No More I Love You
And that one she did at the end of the Lord of the Rings, God,
End of the West, I think it was called.
So beautiful.
Nice.
They are still close friends and maintain a strong bond per the Google machine.
What about him? Did he go on to like become a producer or something?
Yeah, he was a producer.
Absolutely.
Maybe he was even a producer back then. Dave,
what's his name,
Dave?
David Stewart.
Dave Stewart.
A.
Stewart, I believe. Dave Stewart.
David Allen Stewart.
Was he the one that worked with Tom Petty?
There's two guys that believe in the same name,
isn't there?
There is another one.
I've always felt there was a second Dave Stewart.
But I could be wrong.
Because, you know, one of those guys worked with Tom Petty when he did Don't Come Around Here No More.
I'll get you.
Oh,
yeah, that sounded like something he would have done,
too.
Now that you mentioned it.
I'll do a little discography check here. Just real quick.
Yes, it was him that collaborated on Don't Come Around Here No More.
Yeah,
they invited him in, and it was like he was kind of, like the rest of the band was like, what's going on here?
And,
you know,
that video and everything was very weird,
and at the time,
like Tom Petty was kind of into that thing,
and like he pulled him in,
and they did that song.
And,
you know,
it was very keyboard-y and like what you'd expect from Dave Stewart.
He co-wrote it,
according to what I'm looking at. Which, by the way,
that is such a great song.
That song is so haunting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a really,
really good Tom Petty song.
He worked with Stevie Nicks. He worked with Bob Dylan, Brian Ferry, Josh Stone,
No Doubt.
So, yeah, he got around.
I'm just going to keep going further down the rabbit hole away from where we're supposed to be.
Well,
we're talking about the rhythms right now.
But I was going on a deep dive of Dinosaur Jr.
the other day.
And I was like, wow, this guy really sings like Tom Petty.
He's got that nasally kind of Tom Petty thing going on.
I haven't listened to them in years.
Yeah, me neither.
And that's why I was like, oh, you know, look at all these albums.
I need to go back and check this out.
Because, you know, I liked that back in the day.
And it's cool,
but it also has a limit so far anyway.
Like a lot of this stuff,
unfortunately. Yeah.
But I really was... That was a good call-out, Eurythmics. That's a good one, too.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And kind of like, almost like Elvis Costello said, like a he part of the genre.
Very visible on MTV.
Couple of big hits.
Yeah, but look how much they changed. How they proved that you didn't have to have synthesizers with Missionary Man and Would I Lie to You?
which are just basically pop rock songs.
Almost Motown songs,
really.
What I like is a Motown song.
Yeah,
and so just with heavy guitars,
that's the only difference.
Yeah. Yeah,
so now the rest of the album is still synth,
do wavy,
but anyway, cool.
All right.
I'm going to write this. We can't do any more Spock and Khan and all this shit.
Why not?
I'm still a Star Wars guy first.
Oh, fair enough. Well, I mean,
yes.
I'd rather go see.
I'm by side.
I do both.
Oh,
no.
The first three films,
George Lucas, we would want to see.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, in person,
the person.
If I had to choose between what George is about to do and going to have dinner with George Lucas,
I'd go see Shatner talk about Rathcuk. Oh,
damn right. Yeah.
Yeah,
that's true.
That is true.
CR,
where are you going to go next?
Well,
because there is such a
in the music of this type in my collection,
I'm just going to kind of rattle off a few more bands that I have like a few songs,
but not a whole lot of stuff.
Now, I will say this next band,
I have quite a bit.
And I just went to see them recently in concert.
And that's Kraftwerk.
Yes. I know that they're kind of a little bit before all this.
But like,
you know,
they kind of laid some of the groundwork as an electronic kraut rock style band.
But Kraftwerk was a band that I actually did like.
They were kind of different and they,
you know,
were a little quirky and they kind of fit into this mold of the,
of,
you know, this new wave business.
But the rest of these bands,
it's like I literally have,
just singles or like I bought a 45 other than maybe Joe Jackson which actually I got the Tucker soundtrack which is not it's like big band so it's not even like it's a new wave thing so I don't I almost don't even count that Blondie some 45s of like different songs that Blondie did the knack the fix you know saved by zero and a few
of the singles that came off of that.
I did like Men at Work.
And I don't know if we would include Jan Hammer in all this,
but he was kind of like more of an electronic guy.
He's a fusion guy,
too.
Yeah.
I don't know that I'd put him in this category,
but I don't know.
He's more of a soundscape,
almost original soundtrack guy,
too,
at that point.
Exactly.
And I mean, he did all the Miami Vice soundtrack stuff.
And so it's like,
I don't know if you'd call that new wave or not,
but now I don't know. He was in Maha Vishnu and Jeff Beck, you know?
Right. Exactly.
It's like, but he reinvented himself with an electronic sound.
So it's still a good pull though, because come on,
everybody knew the Miami Vice soundtrack.
Yeah.
We all did.
Right.
And I kind of, it like,
it, it kind of fits into that era.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I don't know that you'd call it New Wave.
But anyway,
that's about all I've got, really.
All right.
I don't have much to add either,
but I'll call out Gary Newman's Cars was a really cool song. Oh,
yeah.
Yeah.
And because I'm kind of like going through the list here myself,
I actually think the Cure is a pretty cool band.
There's a few things that they've done. They had a live record that I really liked that somebody gave me once live in Paris. I think it was.
B-52s did some really cool stuff.
And these are just all, in my face, it's not as red as it looks, I promise you, this is the light.
For those of you that can't see.
Yeah,
I'm B-Red right now.
And I'm going to call it a really weird one. And this is one of those things where it was sort of like,
you know, again,
I'm calling back to this too much, but where I didn't embrace it because of machismo or whatever it was. But Cindy Lauper was great, dude. You're like, you know. Yeah.
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
and "Time After Time." Those are two of the great pop songs of the 80s.
Like really great.
I mean,
"Time After Time" is kind of a tearjerker.
And then,
and I,
it's been a few years now, but it was like maybe five years ago, I heard "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" on the radio.
And I was like, this is a perfectly written song.
And I don't even know if she wrote it, but it was just like it,
and it's just fun and joyful.
And it, it's perfectly shaped and sized.
You know what I mean?
And so a lot of cool stuff like that came out of this. And I'm not going to add a bunch of other bands either,
but you know,
you can, you can kind of write the eighties off.
And it was this,
well, it was the me generation thing. And there was a lot of plastic stuff there, but it is cool.
How much of this stuff had a real soul to it more.
And, and,
and this,
especially with the survivors,
the people are still around doing stuff and everything.
And I would call them on Cindy Lauper who's still performing to this day. I think she has had some diseases or something,
but.
And there was a lot of cool guitar driven stuff too. As mentioned,
like the song,
Big Country,
like I mentioned that before and things like that.
There was a lot of cool stuff that definitely came on the radio and I didn't turn it off.
But I'm not going to throw the other big names out either.
This is almost too large a conversation and it's been very educational so far.
Cool.
All right.
I'm going to rattle off like three this time.
just because if you guys don't have as much then i'll try to work through mine a little faster so uh one band i always kind of liked and yeah i'm not gonna lie the single from a movie may have sold me i know getting into other stuff from them and now i might i picked the single out is probably the one i'll get beat up for the most because i'm not going with one of their more new wavy albums but it's simple minds is a band that i always kind of liked
which was more their kind of arena rock sound at that point is the one i went with and i know any like again bigger simple minds fans than me would be annoyed that i didn't pick like new gold dream 81 82 83 84 that album because it's got you know promise you a miracle in it but i went with this one just because i like the live and kicking i don't care i liked it and i know he was accused of trying to sound like bono at this point yeah you know okay whatever you know
But I always thought I had cool songs like Sanctify Yourself,
all the things she said, ghost dancing.
And again,
MTV used to show live concerts,
and I saw their live show from Paris,
and all these songs were on there. I was like, wow, this is actually a really cool band.
But it all started because of the single from Breakfast Club with Don't You Forget About Me, which, by the way, they were like the third or fourth band that got offered that song.
It was written for Billy Idol,
and he turned it down. Is that right?
I mean,
just listen to it. You can hear Billy Idol singing that song. I can hear it, yeah.
I don't want to hear it any other way than the way it is, but I can hear him doing it. And the only reason Simple Minds rejected it, and the only reason they did it is because of Chrissy Hine,
because she was married to, what's his name, Jim Kerr? Oh, yeah, that's right. The main guy is Simple Minds. Jim Kerr was married to Chrissy Hine. She's like,
you're missing the boat on this. This is going to be a huge hit.
And he's like,
looking back now, she was right.
But it so doesn't gel with the rest of their catalog.
No, because it was written by somebody else.
Yeah,
it wasn't even written by them.
So,
agreed.
Real quick, we've mentioned The Fix a couple times.
I love The Fix.
Yeah.
I'm a fan.
I don't have a lot from them,
but I love them.
And the album Walkabout was the one that I liked the most because of one song, Built for the Future.
I absolutely love that song.
And it just seemed to me like if they just had turned the guitars up a little more on that,
I was like, this is just a good rock song.
And got rid of that 80s, that gated sound from the 80s, which is just so dreaded now when I hear it.
Because I'm like, man, we live with that parachute pants.
I'm glad I never got parachute pants. I wanted them so bad.
I had stupid pants.
I mean,
I'd never got them.
And then one day you're like, I'm keeping the Hawaiian shirts,
but I ain't keeping these pants.
So yeah, I was a Fix fan and they had so many songs that when I went back and looked, I was like,
Holy smokes.
All these songs,
if you just change the sound of the instruments,
they'd be just regular rock songs.
JR, you mentioned a couple songs from them.
I mean,
there's just so much in their catalog that it didn't dawn on me. One thing leads to another. It's just a good funk kind of bass rock song.
Saved by Zero,
obviously, is great.
I mean, Deeper and Deeper, which I don't know if you guys remember that song.
Huge.
Are We Ourselves,
Stand or Fall.
Red Skies. Oh, yeah.
That was a good tune. They're all cool tunes.
Yeah.
I always like the fix.
And the last one I mentioned,
I want to throw in because we've already mentioned twice, The Police.
I mean,
it's hard to escape them at the time.
But the funny thing is, is the album I like the most from them is probably the album that people don't think about the most.
And that's Ghost in the Machine. That's my guess.
Absolutely awesome.
First off,
has there ever been a better opening track for that type of music with spirits and material?
He actually is ripping on bass.
We don't talk about him often on bass.
Oh,
no.
He could rip.
That sounds crazy,
dude.
Yeah.
Everyone always talks about Stuart Copeland.
And yes, he's a great drummer.
I'm going to get killed for this.
I think he's a little overrated,
but I still think he's a top drummer.
I think people push him a little higher than he needs to be.
And I know that's fact because he still can't play New World Man by Rush.
Ouch.
It is funny how the most police sound song... He can't play it. He couldn't play it. And he admitted.
He admitted.
He said that was really hard to play.
Yeah. So I'll give him credit. I thought he would have been... I thought he would slide right into that and he couldn't.
His vibe is different though, dude. He's almost like a Miracle Uso guy or something.
Yeah.
He's actually... He's a pounder.
He wants to play as loud as possible.
And his symbol work is incredible.
It's too much sometimes.
He's an amazing drummer, actually. He is.
But I think that people elevate him higher than he needs to be. Just me. That's just me.
That's my drum world.
But anyway,
just about this album. Every little thing she does is magic. It's just a great song. That is one of my favorites.
That is,
you know, that was my barb song when we started dating. There you go.
But then you've got some, like, some semi-politically charged,
like, angry songs that are very atmospheric.
Invisible Sun is just a freak.
I mean,
Demolition Man, let's be honest.
We still can't think of that song without thinking of a certain actor.
Come on.
You know what I'm talking about. Demolition Man.
Honestly,
was that Stallone?
Yeah.
Well, it could have been Arnie.
Oh,
no.
Yeah, it was Stallone.
I got it.
I got it.
I think of Grace Slick,
or not Grace Slick, Grace Jones.
Grace Jones, yeah. That's who I think of when I think of
What became of her, man? I loved her in Conan the Destroyer. She was the best.
I think she died kind of young or something. She died?
There was something about her.
Let's see what happened to her.
No, she still lives. Yeah, I was going to say, I didn't think she died. Yeah, I didn't think she passed away.
She's 78.
Wow.
I don't think the police can be underscored.
They just,
they crossed so much ground in five albums.
Yeah.
You know,
and still the greatest box set ever.
It's just that one
four CD,
albeit
pisses me off that I have to cut the CDs up
to get the albums.
I have that too.
I never did.
So the problem with that is
I never knew what songs
went with what albums
because all I have is that box set.
You can use your Google machine
to figure that out.
I think I will.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Have a cheap trick box set like that too.
But with that said,
it's still everything the police ever did is on there.
So not everything.
There is a B-side that didn't get on there.
Is it good enough to be on there?
Probably not.
But it's basically da-do-do-da-da-da-da in Japanese.
That's not it. Okay.
How do you say that in Japanese?
Is it still do-do-da-da-da-da? That's how you say it in Japanese.
or the Bowie album in German.
You don't need it if you don't speak German.
So there.
Seriously.
Okay, that's it.
Okay,
then.
Where are we?
Are we back to me again?
Yeah, your turn now.
All right. So there's a couple things that,
well,
one in particular that I am shamed that I did not mention last time that has come up, and that's Men at Work.
Oh, yeah.
Men at Work is one of my all-time favorite bands from the 80s.
When Business As Usual came out,
I was a young lad,
okay?
And this was one of my early purchases,
and I don't think it was a Columbia one. I think I actually went to the store and paid hard cash for this thing. Oh, man.
And their next album,
Cargo,
I vividly remember buying,
because I was down in Florida visiting my grandparents and I went to some rando Fort Myers,
Florida record store and picked up cargo.
And I was all Dr.
Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde or whatever.
But such an amazing band. And this is another band that despite my metal BS,
I was always a fan of Men at Work no matter what.
And Colin Hay solo is also an amazing,
amazing man.
And I got to see him a few years back.
I've never seen Men at Work or Colin Hay solo,
but I did see him play with Ringo Starr's All-Star Band.
Oh,
wow. And he did a couple of Men at Work songs,
and it was joyous.
So yes,
Men at Work for the win,
for sure.
Yeah.
Nice.
I'm with you, George.
The B-52s were also mentioned, I think, by John,
perhaps, at the beginning.
You know, everybody knows Love Shack.
You gotta know Love Shack. And, you know, it's good.
Rock Lobster?
Cosmic Thing,
yes.
But we have to go to Rock Lobster.
The first B-52s album,
so,
like, you know, post-punk,
beautiful.
What I love about this song and this album is the same thing I love about The Cure,
Early Cure,
is that it's just,
e.
and see R.A.M. the other night or something. You know, I mean, they that that was such a funny scene.
Yeah.
There's another band.
I've mentioned them on one of these podcasts.
An Athens band?
Yes.
Driving and Crying.
Oh,
right.
They were also from Athens and their song Fly Me Courageous, which I freaking love.
Such a good song.
Yeah. It's so funny how those how
That happens how there's little fires that start in these little sections of the country.
You know what I mean? And all of a sudden, it's like a cool place to be. Yeah,
it's like, I mean,
Seattle, you know, that was clearly like a record label thing to do.
But but Athens,
I think was just pure talent.
It had to be. And I think maybe there was like some kind of like forward thinking college there or something.
Yeah, I know it's college town.
Yeah.
Yeah. So maybe they had maybe there's an art school or something. I don't know. But or a big university.
I'm sure there's got to be.
Yeah.
They have a few in Georgia.
Another one that I want to mention, and not necessarily a huge one in my mind, but definitely memorable from the time to me, and it hasn't been mentioned yet, so I want to mention it,
and that is Culture Club and their album Color Bright Numbers with, of course,
Karma Chameleon.
I'm going to just two steps back just because John was just saying that Georgia has a few colleges, and I just wanted to remind you that,
according to the manager,
of Spinal Tap Boston is not a big college town. It's not a big college town.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah.
We've been canceled.
Don't worry about it. Yeah. Sorry, Chase. Yeah, no worries.
But Karma Chameleon, man, that was a school bus song.
So Barb and I were always talking about school bus songs,
songs that were huge to us when we were kids,
because you always,
you know, the bus driver,
school bus driver,
if they were cool,
would put on the rock music channel.
And you'd hear this song every day on the way to school.
And Karma Chameleon,
to me,
is me stepping onto the school bus.
That is what it is to me.
You had a radio on your school bus? Yeah, we did,
man. We had a really cool,
like,
70s rocker chick bus driver.
Her name was Mrs.
Toma. I don't know what her first name was. She was Mrs.
Toma.
And she was a badass.
She played stuff.
And she put up with me in my high school years bringing a boombox on and blasting Metal Church and Slayer on the school bus to annoy everybody.
But yeah,
Yeah, I mean, she there's so much of my initial musical DNA rests in school bus songs.
And Carmen Chameleon is one of those.
Another one that I absolutely love from that era that is not in any way new wave, but Elton John's, I guess that's why they call it the blues.
But of course, all the rhythmic stuff was also school bus songs.
The romantics talking in your sleep.
Another school bus.
Yeah,
anyway,
I am going to digress and let it go back to others.
Yeah, TRJ, you guys have much more stuff.
I don't really have anything else to add.
If you don't, I have a few more and then we can move on.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, go.
All right,
because I know TR, you probably are thin on the stuff.
Yeah, I've expended everything here.
Okay,
cool.
I'll do three more that I want to bring up.
There's two,
obviously, which I'm a fan of. One that I'm not a super fan,
but they need to be mentioned for numerous reasons.
My first one, In Excess.
I'm a big, I like them.
Oh, love them.
You know,
and Kick,
I've always loved the album Kick.
Every song on that album's awesome,
and it's big rock at that point. It's not even,
it's not even New Wave.
It's a little bit, you know, but there's just big sounds on that album.
But the album that got me into them,
again,
MTV,
was Shaboo Shabba.
I knew it this the song the one thing I just like what is up with this 20 Western guitar sound why are they eating at this table like a like a Greek orgy or a Roman orgy you know and then this had an orgy it doesn't matter where it's from yeah whoa it's cool check it out you know and then that cat keeps coming in yeah what is up with that cat that cat coming from yeah and then you add in this Australian Jim Morrison
because he had that vibe he just did and he was elegantly wasted nice yeah exactly you know well we don't want him to change so don't change dude um and that song don't change obviously got me hooked and from there i've again i don't have a whole lot from them but i've always really liked their music and i get it so they're like oh it's so typical that sound all right whatever show me your collection and i'll pull your crap out of it so yeah well this is one of the bands that i
hated in high school because of the people.
And then after high school,
X came out and I was like,
oh,
yeah.
And then I worked my way back from there.
And X is just them being a rock band, an arena rock band at that point.
But their early stuff like Shabu Shabba,
that's all full on new wave.
Then I want to talk about two influencers here.
God, I hate that word so much.
But it would be, I'd be remiss not to mention Bowie.
And I'm not even going to mention his Berlin stuff. I'm going to go with the album Scary Monsters for a number of reasons.
One, because I think that's probably his most new wave-ish album.
But it's just loaded with so many songs that you can hear these songs and these other artists.
Obviously,
the big two songs are Ashes to Ashes and Fashion are on this album,
which are basically the kind of the forefront of when this scene was starting.
But the song Scary Monsters itself,
It couldn't be any more kind of new wave,
kind of post-punk art rock sound.
It's so new wave that Joe Jackson covered it when George and I saw him.
Yeah, I was just going to say, where did I just hear somebody covering this?
It was Joe Jackson.
And his version was, and I,
you know me, I complain about cover songs.
His version was awesome.
He changed it up just enough to make it his,
which was so cool.
The album,
or the song Teenage Wildlife,
I mean, you haven't heard that before. That just screams.
First of all, it's heavily Bruce Springsteen.
I can't even think of Bowie and Springsteen in the same brain.
But Bowie was influenced by him in a weird way for a period.
But what's crazy on this album,
Robert Fripp's on the album, I don't think it could be underscored how much of Robert Fripp's guitar playing permeates in some of these bands early on.
You go like,
whoa,
that harsh,
nasty guitar sound that he came up with.
It's all over the place.
Pete Townsend's on the album.
I mean, Roy Bitten, is it Bitten or Bitten or whatever from Bruce's band,
the piano keyboard player is on the album. I mean, it's just, anyway.
And my last one, I would be in trouble if I didn't mention the band Japan a little more than I did earlier,
which was kind of the band that was before Duran Duran,
where Duran Duran sort of kind of Japan, Japan.
was influenced by the look the androgynous look the sound uh if you're not familiar with
japan they're a uk band started in the mid-70s kind of hit the avant pop synth pop early new wave kind of the
early new romantic sound if you don't need people in the band david sylvan basically i mean go ahead and
listen to the last three albums from japan and you go listen to durand durand and tell me
Simon LeBond's not influenced by his singing style.
They sound almost exactly the same.
Oh, and then don't tell me that Sylvan wasn't influenced by Bowie or by Roxy Music.
But then,
of course, I have to mention this band because of Richard Barbieri,
the keyboard player,
who they had these just weird new sounds that nobody else was doing at the time,
albeit,
you know, not mentioning Brian Eno.
And it's just funny to hear how those sounds have transcended consistently.
over time through some of those bands in the new wave period,
all the way into Porcupine Tree,
which is crazy to think that. But I think if you don't know this band, you might want to give them a listen.
It's not what you think.
Because while you can hear the Duran Duran influence, you know, them pulling from Japan,
they're real art-rocky. I mean, they kind of make Peter Gabriel look like he's standard rock in some spots.
Which is kind of funny,
because I'm listening to their stuff the last couple of years.
couple weeks,
I'm like,
wow,
this takes some work,
some of this stuff.
And then you get to appreciate what they were trying to do at the time.
So that's it.
That's what I got.
All right.
TR,
Jay,
any more to say?
No.
All right.
I'm just going to rattle off a few things. I mean,
they've been mentioned, but Blondie,
big fan of Blondie.
Duran Duran.
Not a big fan in the 80s. Huge fan now,
especially after having gone to see them.
Can't say enough about those guys.
And honestly,
of all the bands that continued after the 80s, they still put out good music.
Really good music.
The Human League,
I think John mentioned them. Good stuff. Oh my god, I just went and saw them,
by the way. Who did?
My friend Alan,
this guy,
a friend of mine I kind of reunited with here.
He lives in Tucson. He went and saw the human lake a couple weeks ago.
Oh,
nice.
Yeah.
Talking Heads, we didn't talk about enough,
but anything about the Talking Heads,
that's so, so 80s, so brilliant.
And they're kind of at the top of the pyramid,
too. Yeah, David Byrne and all of that stuff.
The Go-Go's, big fan of the Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat.
Also Vacation.
And yeah,
I mean, Depeche Mode.
We talked about them, but Violator.
Another band that I despised in the 80s and was like, what was I thinking?
Depeche Mode, their entire catalog is amazing.
So,
yeah.
You know, you go back and listen to Depeche Mode.
And I know you know this song,
George.
Never Let Me Down Again.
And then go back and listen to the Farmer Boys do their version with Annika Van Gearsbergen. The Farmer Boys. Oh, my gosh.
That is a name I haven't heard in a
A Long Time.
You go back and listen to their version,
and you can hear where these might be synth-based songs,
but you add guitars and bass and drums,
like organically,
and you're like, whoa,
this is really wild how this transcends.
Yeah.
Oh, my God, the Farmer Boys.
You're blowing my mind, John.
It has been so long since I've listened to the Farmer Boys.
By the way, I never mentioned Tears for Fears,
Joe Jackson,
or what was the one I wanted to mention?
Because we talked about them before in previous episodes,
Talk Talk.
I didn't mention those.
They were also really big in this scene.
But we mentioned them at Adonisum before.
All right.
Well,
speaking of Joe,
if we're ready to move on, I want to talk to Jay and be like, what up with Joe?
this.
I mean, I'm not going to get into too many specifics with you.
I've listened to all the stuff you guys told me to listen to, but actually it's sort of like new wave.
This is somebody who I vastly did not know who he was or what he did.
I only knew the hits and there's just a sheer amount of talent there.
There's still more listening than I have to do to give you like my deepest opinions,
but I like it and I see that the guy is like,
he's kind
of a monster.
You know what I mean?
Like,
I,
and it's, and it's just so funny to be turned on to something like that because we don't,
I mean, there's always something new to discover,
but less and less of the old stuff.
And,
you know, most of the geniuses have gone across my desk at this point.
You know what I mean?
To me, it's like,
it's like Warren Zevon,
you know,
he's kind of like a Warren Zevon.
He's a freaking genius and nobody really knows.
I mean,
people know it, but not as many people know it as they should.
As they should.
And so all I can say is that you guys were right.
Give me more time and I'll tell you some of my favorite stuff.
But I just didn't understand the depth that was there. The depth.
Absolutely.
So I hope that's satisfying enough for you for now.
But I just put it all on a playlist.
The stuff you guys want to check this out. So I would make one quick suggestion and not belabor it, but go back and actually listen to Night and Day in Order.
Okay.
Because that's got two of his biggest hits.
you know stepping out and breaking us in two and you hear those you're like oh these are adult contemporary well go listen to the rest of the album you're like what you know i mean i mean the song cancer is on that album that song alone is going to be like okay this isn't two and two is not adding up to four on this album right because of his sheer i mean another day the opening track the the volume of where he how he can cross over genres on his own album in within
is kind of crazy.
Okay.
That's that I will do.
I'm more than intrigued enough.
I mean, I was just like,
I don't know.
It's funny.
I don't feel silly about it, but there are just things that I was like,
well, how come I don't know this?
You know, I don't know if I mentioned it when we were talking about it before.
I may have looked this up afterward,
but the thing that drove me absolutely freaking crazy in a good way when we saw him live was the syncopation.
Okay, I didn't know how to describe it at the time because I am not a music theory person.
But you hear it, you feel it, you know it.
And I was trying to describe it to Barb and eventually I looked it up and it was like, oh yes,
Joe Jackson,
his live performance very much uses incredible amounts of syncopation.
And I was like, that is what was so much different about listening.
listening to it on the album is compared to live.
Live, the syncopation is just ridiculous.
Gotcha.
You guys both just said his band was like lights out.
Yeah.
It helps that everyone's awesome.
Yeah.
Yeah. They,
you, you can't top these guys.
And,
and no one showed off. That was the thing.
Even playing this,
not the simplest parts, but the, the most basic in the song structure,
like the guitars,
It's in the groove.
It's in the pocket.
It's there.
And it's amazing.
Yeah.
And that is, by the way, there's something to have that be effortless is special.
I mean, when you listen to George, like during like Look Sharp and Sunday Papers, when he's doing the reggae guitar parts,
he never overemphasizes the sound.
And then you hear him and he stands out.
Yeah.
Without being like up front and stealing the spotlight.
It's crazy how good they were.
And then obviously Graham, maybe the bass player is just like awesome.
He's so good.
Anyway,
cool. I'm glad you listened, Jay.
Oh, no, and I'll be listening more. That's what it's that way too. He's not part of the family,
so to speak.
Excellent.
And you don't have to like everything.
That's what's the beauty of him because he's all over the map.
Yeah,
gotcha.
All right.
All right.
Well,
I don't have anything written down after this point. I know we talk about things,
people like.
I know we talk about all the shows that DR's been to and maybe other people too.
He's not the only one about the shows recently.
I know.
I went to one just last week-ish.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, should we rip through those real quick?
Sure.
Hold on.
I had another chimichanga, so this might take a while.
You want to do shows? You want to talk about music?
I don't know.
Whatever you guys want to do first, I don't care.
I don't have any new music.
Yeah, I hadn't really thought about that.
You know what?
I've got a sales pitch. Oh,
yeah.
Oh,
yeah.
That's great.
I'll be fast.
But I just got this.
First of all, I'd also like to take this moment to suggest that we schedule or at least put on the big list somewhere a Jimi Hendrix episode.
Absolutely.
I could really talk about him for a while.
I could listen to you guys talk about him for a while.
That would be bold as love.
Indeed,
sir. I know.
So I was
I'm pitching John and anybody else interested in these wonderful backs box sets that I got recently and I'm going to just walk the boys visually through one and then I won't bother with the other one but I just want to show you what comes so first of all this is the boldest love one John and this is a rainbow dragon by Jimi Hendrix at age five he drew that that it comes in he drew it as a little boy wow and now this
These things are just amazing.
So first of all, you get the Boldest Love.
And the vinyl on these has got to be better than 180. I don't know what it is because they're crazy.
And then there's the Boldest Love Mono.
This was the original one that came out in England.
And then you get studio outtakes,
studio sessions,
and a show in Sweden,
all vinyl,
and a great cool book.
But the real reason I wanted to sell you on these, and I was going to... I appreciate that this is your favorite studio album. It's so underrated,
too.
I don't underrate any of them, but I hear what you're saying.
Well, because everyone goes to Voodoo Child,
or they go to Purple Haze, I'm like, dude, Spanish Castle Magic.
No,
and that's why I wanted to do an episode on him.
Bold as Love Itself?
I mean, come on.
You mean the title track?
Yeah,
I mean, just the whole album. He wanted to be Bob Dylan, dude, and he could have been.
Wind Cries Mary is my jam. Just saying.
Of course.
That's one of the great songs he wrote.
So my sales pitch on this is just, first of all, the quality of these boxes and what comes in them.
And you can go listen to this on... What's the stupid music app?
Spotify?
The one I use.
Spotify.
And I want to suggest it to you, John, because it's almost heartbreaking
to listen to.
There's a.
This second record in this box that is called the making is called that last. The beginning, the making of electric lady land,
which is the one I'm showing you, which is this,
by the way, the original intended cover.
Right.
And what it has is his demos just like done in his apartment or something of 1983.
And where man, I should turn be food, a child, and then a bunch of unreleased stuff.
And it's like having Hendrix sit down and go, hey, I'm going to play a bunch of songs for my new record.
And then just strung them acoustically on his Stratocaster.
And they are so sweet. And he sounds so good.
And it's just him and his guitar basically playing through a large chunk of this record.
And it's one of the coolest little acoustic records I've gotten in the longest time. So I would like to suggest you get on Spotify and check out that.
So last night when you were having no power and we were here wondering where Jay was,
I was talking about my disdain for albums with bonus tracks and blah, blah, blah, blah,
but you're kind of turning me on right now.
In particular,
if you're going to do this, just go to Spotify because you can do it for free and listen to 1983.
I should turn to be and this is from at last the beginning the outtakes or the demos from this record and then just let it roll through the next like 10 tracks and it's so like it makes me want to cry listening to it it's literally like sitting in a room with him and he plays the prettiest versions of these songs and you also get to see him kind of like understanding what orchestration was going on because he continues on playing his part during certain parts when there's nothing behind it and you're like well that would sound weird if it was if I didn't know what was going on there I cannot recommend it enough so
So if nothing else, go listen to that.
To defend my position.
Blu-ray making of Electric Ladyland, which was very good. It was the original,
what do you call this, classic rock series,
but with 40 additional minutes.
And then just lastly, I'll add that I just watched the,
there's a new documentary out called Electric Ladyland,
The Making of a Dream or something like that, and it's about the actual studio.
And I highly recommend that documentary.
I'm so sad they shut it down.
I didn't know it had been shut down.
Really?
I,
I,
I, my understanding was they were closing Electric Ladyland and tearing it down.
Let me, uh,
and even tearing it down.
I hope that's not true.
It may be true. I mean,
they may have fallen on hard times in the internet world.
Uh,
okay.
Nope.
Still active.
I guess.
Maybe it was a like it might happen kind of thing because I was all like you can't tear down
Electric Lady in a studio.
Maybe you're thinking of Sound Factory though.
No no it's definitely Electric Lady.
Okay.
Well anyway and I just can't say enough about how I don't know why but I don't think Hendrix is just like you know selling he's not flying off the shelves right now and so I got these both for a very reasonable price on Amazon.
There is one for are you experienced.
I don't think it's
It's a 45-speed version of the whole record, so I think it's more of just a high-quality thing. But it does come in a box. I'm going to get that one, too. But anyway,
highly recommend it.
And if nothing else, check out those documentaries and listen to Jimi Hendrix's demos from Electric Ladyland,
the studio album,
and I promise it'll break your heart.
Awesome.
So I am not wrong,
just to say.
In the early,
late 2000s, it wasn't in danger of being closed.
But some guy named Keith Stoltz, who is obviously a god,
and Lee Foster,
they, in around 2010 or so, managed to fund a massive multi-year renovation and keep it open.
So,
yes. There's a lot of his original ideas are still in there as far as, like, the construction goes and all that.
And, by the way, actually one other offshoot that I'll just mention is having watched both the Electric Lady Land,
making of the album doc and then also the studio doc which is a very different thing eddie kramer is the nicest guy i mean what a nice guy dude i mean you guys have seen him interviews right sure yeah he just comes across as so sweet and humble and to hear him tell stories about hendrix that are never overblown and he never tries to put himself in the center of the story it's just great you know i think he's he must be a pretty good dude so he's not bob rock
So he's not playing Deed.
Yeah.
And also,
he was Hendrix's go-to guy.
Can you imagine if you were there from the beginning and you were basically responsible technically for every one of those records and were friends with that guy and got to make suggestions and stuff? I mean, he got that guy.
He's heard more Hendrix than the rest of us.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah.
You know,
to back up my,
oh,
I don't like all these extra bonus tracks,
demo tracks, blah, blah, blah.
albums because it messes up my Spotify playlists was the thing that I was complaining about.
But when it comes to Hendrix,
especially given the small catalog of work that he had before he passed,
anything is gold.
And he does something interesting in everything he does.
You know,
I mean, there's a great,
the great unreleased record was,
which was called First Race of the New Rising Sun or something to that effect.
That thing's been released so many times.
It has.
No, no.
It was after that. After Band of Gypsies.
But it was just as cool as... I mean, he had so many... He does something interesting in every song.
Jay, that thing's been released like four or five times.
Under different names.
Slightly different song lists. It's got Easy Rider and Freedom on there.
And a song called In From the Storm, which is one of my favorite songs.
And then on that Berklee show, there's a song called... That Berklee show's so good.
What's Up With Called Pass It On?
Which actually turned out to be a different song, which is on the new Rays of the Rising Sun thing.
But it's so the version on the Berklee show is so much better.
But yeah,
Hendrix, man, he just was he was endlessly creative,
you know,
that was one of the biggest tragedies in music history.
Oh,
terrible,
terrible.
And I well,
again, I think we should do an episode because I agree. I'm just obsessively.
He's kind of my current black hole that I can't get out of, you know, and
Yeah, when I was in my mid-20s, I went through a massive Hendrix phase.
I read the book Kiss the Sky. No,
Kiss the Sky. I think it was Kiss the Sky. Probably.
Yeah.
I was just like, because I was a guitar player and I was like, I must worship at the altar of Hendrix.
You can write him off, though.
If you're just like, oh, I want to check out Cluster Crack and you hear Fire and a couple other tunes,
and he's like okay i get it no you don't you got to put them all on and listen to him and then you'll see why hendrix's thumb has more talent yeah than i have ever had agreed the next two of us but and it's still just the one thumb he doesn't even in the second thumb for me it's just the one thumb more talent than both of us here you go jay jay this is the first show from new york with machine gun the band of gypsies show yeah but it's called
I'm just looking at all like my extras not from the first three shows our first three
what did that come out of I've just got so much band of gypsies expanded thing no no this is just the first show
it's so what is it part of is it just released by as its own it's just they released the single
so for the band of gypsies there's four shows two one night to the next night this is just the first
of the four shows as a single disc.
And it's the whole show.
Okay.
Yeah.
There's just so much.
And like we were saying,
he's got like three or four different versions of the posthumous stuff that was released that has all these other really cool tunes that Band of Gypsy's influence, but they're still, you know, in his vein,
like Easy Rider.
If you don't know the song Easy Rider,
you got to get on that. If you're a Hendrix fan.
Yeah,
it's a great song.
And it's... He also became a better singer towards the end. He was always a great singer. But at the end,
he was really coming along,
man.
Oh, I forgot Dolly Dagger is another cool tune.
Yeah, they talk about that.
Eddie Kramer breaks those down in the doc about the studio.
Here you go, Jay.
I mean, they pulled Dolly Dagger out and gave it the treatment.
Get this.
if you don't have it.
I have the Rainbow Bridge,
yeah. Rainbow Bridge is so good.
And it's not because I think he's a super great guitarist. I just think he was his inventiveness of playing guitar was what made it cool. Deeply,
yeah. Yeah.
So,
I mean, guys today could run circles around him,
technically.
Sure. Yeah, but what if he had lived? I mean,
you know, I've often thought about, like, Lennon and what he would have done,
but what would have Hendrix done?
He would have gone farther than any of them.
I mean I don't know about guitar and I'm not talking about the technical aspect I I would I would never want to do this to anybody but I often think boy I wish I could sit somebody down and walk them through what I'm hearing here and so my point is is that like if you really start with are you experienced and go through all the way up through the new right new rays of the rising sun and um and see how much modern rock he's kind of responsible for and then listen to four different versions of machine gun and see how he changes his mind when he's doing things tonally and and he's walking up
a certain pattern and then suddenly does something you've never heard him do before.
I,
there was so much,
he just never stopped. I mean, there was no, there was so much left in him.
I'm sure of it. Yeah.
It's ridiculous where he could have gone.
There's only one thing I would have wanted to see is him and Stevie Ray Vaughan on stage together doing voodoo child.
Cause there's only one guitarist that's been able to play that song just as good, if not better as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Keep talking.
Which by the way, that's something we were robbed of is,
He was widely open to collaborations and stuff.
I did just find out, by the way,
John,
do you know who plays keys on, or I should say him in Oregon,
on Voodoo Child, not Slight Return,
but the Voodoo Child, the Big Blues, Bust Up?
Remind me.
Steve Winwood.
That's what I thought, yeah. And they talk about,
there's a point in the studio,
or in the making of that record documentary, that one, and they're interviewing him,
and he wanted,
he kept saying, do you think Steve Wood would join? He wouldn't want to play with us.
Do you think he joined our band? He'd never want to play with us. He was like scared of Steve Winner for some reason.
But he wanted to collaborate with people. So that's the other thing is he would have played with Stevie Ray and he would play with a bunch of other.
Can you imagine those guys playing?
I mean, bringing this back to the topic of this episode.
What would Hendrix have done in the 80s?
I mean,
he would have been so,
you know,
late 60s was his,
you know,
when he came on.
of things.
So by like early 80s, he would have been,
you know,
a new veteran of the scene.
What would he have done in the 80s? I always wondered if he would have had like any cringeworthy albums,
like a disco album or something like that.
Disco, I don't know, but he would have done some stuff he would have been embarrassed by.
But I would float that in the 80s.
I think he would have been Jeff Beck adjacent.
Like that level of his career would have been like,
that wouldn't be huge people would be like yeah hendrix you know you would everybody would know who he was but he would have been doing these sort of slightly avant-garde right he wouldn't have been like pop you know on the pop charts he would have been doing behind the scenes stuff and you know what now i don't know because the guy could write a hit too he really could and i don't know that's just it i'll never know how many beck hendrix collaborations will we have had holy smokes and i honestly do think that would have
That would have been one of his go-to guys.
And then you could probably pick out some cool bass players that he would want him to play with.
Buddy Guy?
Oh, my goodness.
Unless Claypool.
He would have gotten to the fusion thing for sure.
Oh, he was already doing it. He was setting down that house. Yeah, he was.
That's fair. Yeah.
So I think his career would have gone towards John McLaughlin and those guys, and he would have been that guy who sold a couple million records. That would be the cleaned up Jimi Hendrix.
What's that? That would have been the rehab Jimi Hendrix.
He would have cleaned up,
started putting on some nicer clothes,
no more of those hippie clothes.
And he would have gotten into Fusion then because he's like, well,
man, I'm all cleaned up. Now I got to play like these guys.
Or Ultimate Universe,
he could have had a Clapton-like career,
I guess.
He would have been Clapton-like. Stylistically,
but I think maybe he could have had some top 40 hits here and there and stuff.
Might have.
Yeah.
I mean, like I say, if you go back and listen to
to his catalog,
all that sounds possible to me, you know?
Yeah.
I'm like,
just thinking about it. It's like, wow,
I can see this reality,
you know? And I'm like, oh, yeah.
I can too, but I've been spending way too much time with him lately, but I also just think you can, he was so forward thinking at the time,
let's put it that way. And I can hear things that are very much would have been friendly on the radio right now.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not talking about,
you know,
Purple Haze or anything,
but you know what I mean? There's tons of stuff that... The New Rays of the Rising Sun, if you haven't listened to that one, George, listen to it. That was basically the record that was about to come out.
But you know, people cut down on their prime like this. You think everybody's like, oh man,
the potential,
the potential.
But you know, most of the people that were big in the late 60s,
by the 80s... Oh,
Janice would have lost their voice.
They had a touch of gray,
you know?
You know,
it was like,
eh,
or it was, you know, we built this city,
or,
you know.
Or the ones that did die. Jim Morrison was petering out. Janis Joplin's voice was not going to last past 1975.
Sure.
But no way.
It's like, you have to be realistic and go,
yeah,
he was amazing for that short period we had.
But by the time the 80s rolled around, he might have been mediocre,
or at least, or like certain other people,
like Clapton and others back.
Good,
but not commercial.
Or he may have transcended the whole commercial thing to this amazing music that the commercial listener just doesn't get and doing this wild, crazy stuff that was amazing,
but nobody knew about.
I mean,
well, okay, so here's the other thing. If you listen to Electric Ladyland,
well, all of them, but if you listen to Electric Ladyland,
You can see how he used the studio as an instrument,
too.
It's almost Nine Inch Nails-like in the way he mixed it with voices coming in and out and all kinds of stuff.
I don't know. I just think the guy loved music so much,
had infinite ideas,
and always was going to come up with something new.
But what it would look like, I don't know.
But I think he had enough love for music to have not gotten too plastic anywhere.
I mean, he really didn't give a shit.
Yeah.
You know what? Here's why I know that.
And that's because just like Elvis,
and I was in that and one of these documentaries I was talking about when he used to go on tour.
He that's the they would he would play the show.
And then they would go out and play in a bar all night long.
He play,
you know,
some big place in Los Angeles,
like the Hollywood Bowl.
And then literally,
he'd be like, does anybody want to go out and play? You guys want to go find a bar where we can play?
And he would just find people to play with. That's all he wanted to do.
Yeah.
Well,
anyway.
Yeah, you guys really gave me a lot of latitude there, but
that was my two cents of what's going on in Jay's musical life right now.
All right.
Some show reports and stuff.
Yeah.
All right. So
who's been to shows? I know there's been certain
thing in Atlanta recently.
I'm going to grab a coffee real quick.
Yeah, there might have been some shows in Atlanta.
So,
real quick, I don't want to forget this, because I don't know,
I talked about, I don't think I talked about this real quick.
I know TR also saw this show.
Simon Phillips and his jazz fusion band protocol did a few dates,
like 10 dates, I think, total in the States,
but we were fortunate enough to get a whole bunch on the East Coast and saw them.
I don't want to forget that.
It was a 90-minute set.
They went on at 7 o'clock,
and we're done by 8 30. I was like,
this is like the greatest night ever.
Old man music.
Yeah.
No,
old man setting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause the music was killer,
dude. Yeah.
It's just awesome.
His band is so good. If you don't know who Simon Phillips is,
he's,
he's one of the greatest drummers ever. I know I said that about Terry Bozio. I, I think even more highly of Simon Phillips.
Um,
just a great show.
of Jazz Fusion done in 90 minutes.
They only played like nine songs.
And then they came out afterwards.
I think I was out of there by like 9.15 and I was as happy as a clam because I got to meet him,
you know, because I'd never met him before.
And I know, TR, you saw the show,
I think a week or maybe two weeks before me.
I mean, maybe a week. And it's just so good.
And I've been a fan of his,
you know,
I go back to the 80s when I'm a fan of him.
You know,
that's no joke. Actually, I've been a fan of Simon Phillips since the 80s.
But I love his solo work. I think it's awesome.
So.
Yeah,
I enjoyed that show.
And his band was amazing.
I saw him up at Sellersville because I couldn't I couldn't do the Baltimore show with you, which I wanted to be there with you because I really would have enjoyed seeing him with with you because I know how much of a fan you are of him.
But I went with my buddy Alex up to the Sellersville show,
like,
probably almost a week before the Baltimore show, I think.
And,
yeah, it was great.
And like you said, they came out afterwards and signed stuff. And just they were it was just so cool. I mean, they just were so nice to everybody and gave everybody the time,
which was really I mean, they didn't have to do that. Right.
But it was nice that they did.
So yeah, that was a great show.
And I'm really glad I got to see him because I know he's toured in the past and he's done some protocol tours.
But I don't know, for whatever reason, I just never saw him until this time. And I'm so glad I did.
I will say when I met him and talked to him and all within seconds racing through my mind, I'm like,
This is the dude who played with Judas Priest.
He played with Pete Townsend.
He played with The Who.
And he played with Toto.
And I'm talking to him right now.
This is so cool.
Yeah.
So,
anyway.
I won't spend much time on this. I don't know how much time you want to spend here. But we both just went to Atlanta to see Prog Power.
25,
which was the last year for the longtime promoter, Glenn Harveston.
who is retired from promoting the Fest.
He's handed over the reins to a new person to go forward. He was going to actually retire it completely,
but he felt confident that Milton would do a good job taking over.
And I wish him the best.
I'm still going to stick around for it. We'll see how going forward. But Glenn always seemed to find a way to do wonders with the Fest.
I'll just mention some bands real quick that we saw.
T.R., I'll let you add on to that also.
performances,
whether you liked them or not,
because I know Tiara's not a huge Voyager fan, but I'm glad he got to see them because they are not like anything else you'll see.
Plus, we got a whole hour of stage four cancer with that band,
because the singer,
surprisingly,
has stage four cancer,
and he's still playing.
He's even admitted he's lucky to be alive, but they just,
the whole, it was more just a,
The Crowd was so into them,
which was good to see.
But we saw Ashes of Aries, which absolutely just destroyed their set.
If you still listen to Ice Earth,
they did the Dark Saga album, I think.
And it was just insane how good Matt Barlow is still alive.
Absolutely insane how good he is. He was so good.
That was a true highlight for me.
Yeah.
And it's his band. So Freddie,
who was with him also in Ice Earth for a little bit.
That was good.
We saw Conception, who actually played twice because they filled in for a spot that literally had to cancel like three or four days before the fest.
So they played two sets.
So that was awesome.
Saw the band Threshold.
We saw TR's brothers from another mother fires in the distance,
which was very cool to see them.
The Reticent depressed everybody again for an hour,
but they were awesome.
Crimson Glory was great, but they kind of played a standard set. I was hoping for more new stuff.
They didn't give it to us, but that's fine.
DGM.
Roy Kahn from Conception performed a Camelot album,
The Black Halo.
So people were into that.
Redemption played,
and then this might be the best show I've ever seen in my life.
I'm not hyping that. It's not recency bias.
The Gathering played with Annika back in the band,
and the full band
that played on the album, Mandillion.
They did the 30th anniversary,
and this is one of the last shows they're doing for that album.
And it was just... I can't even say enough about that set. I was gleaming like a little schoolboy for like a week after that show.
Like a little girl?
I was so happy. And it was, you know, okay, yeah.
It was Annika.
Okay.
I'm not going to lie to you.
But to see everyone who was on that album there.
And I believe,
you know,
five of the people, they were all original members,
you know, or at least,
you know,
up to that point, they had all played on the albums. And so it just,
it was a great fest. We had a good time. We didn't have much to do because we had such tight schedules. We watched a lot of bands that we wouldn't have watched, but we watched them anyway,
because we had to keep our seats.
We got to hang out with our friends,
Julian Lance,
who are listeners of both podcasts and have been going to Prague Power for a while.
So it was cool.
We had a good time.
Nice.
I don't have much to add because you hit all the highlights for me.
And yeah, it was definitely a good time down there in Atlanta.
Like you said, we were we were really kind of because there were so many bands that we did want to see and so many other things that we did want to see, like Glenn's Goodbye and various other things that,
you know, it's like you need to be in your seats for that.
We kind of didn't really have the time that we normally would have.
Where,
you know,
sometimes at Prog Power,
there's some bands that you're like, eh, I don't really need to see these guys. And so you kind of go off and do some things before the band you want to really see. And so we didn't have as much of that kind of time this time.
Because there were so many good bands and so many things that we wanted to be kind of present for.
So we were in the theater for quite a bit of it.
But yeah, it was a good time.
And yeah,
you pretty much hit all the highlights for me.
Absolutely.
We might have had a few beers at the Brickstore Pub.
Yeah,
Brickstore Pub.
We're always going to go there. That's why we get there a day early.
Yeah.
We still went for our coffee and booze at like 10. Oh yeah, Cafe Intermezzo.
Still did that you know so it's good it's good
All right,
one last show real quick and I'll I don't want to steal too much stunner as TR was there too
We both went and Jen came along to and bought shirts herself to mm-hmm. It was amazing
So Russian Cleveland. I finally was able to redeem Dallas Fort Worth
Yes
It was great,
you know, and just
Jay,
if you get a chance,
I know George,
you're going to go here in DC.
You got to go Jay.
I am going to Phoenix around Christmas time.
Nice.
Yes.
Yeah.
It just,
they're going to love it.
Merry rushmas.
I can't even describe how,
uh,
just to see how much fun they're having on stage.
And they,
I've never heard them talk so much on stage ever.
Oh my.
You know,
and,
uh,
Anika,
Anika, how have you?
I think she's got the same name just spelled differently as Annika from The Gathering. She just... Boing.
She's a powerhouse on drums.
Yeah.
The addition of Lauren Gold on keyboards who, by the way, I actually saw him with Chicago.
He was their keyboard. Oh, yeah. I saw that. It was kind of wild.
Oh,
cool. He adds a nice layer to it and the spectacle,
the show itself,
is the best they've ever had in the 40 plus years I've been going to see them.
Well, I'm glad I waited until the best part.
They're just getting better every show. Yeah,
they actually are. I mean, it's like they're getting looser and they're just having fun.
And Annika finally looks like she's like really in the groove and just loving it.
And like those early shows,
like she was super focused,
but now she seems like she's having fun,
too.
She's she's screwing up a lot now, which is really funny because she screwed up during the most important moment of any Rush show is the drum bit during Tom Sawyer.
because every fan's just like is she gonna be able to play it can she do it and i think she dropped the stick during it one of the shows whoops and she just kept going like it was nothing yeah so this calls to mind something that's kind of come up in the chat since at least in the last couple days and john's actually referenced it at least once tonight um if you get a chance there's a nice documentary i don't know why it's available on youtube maybe it was always going to be there but the neil pert no one's disciple yes series out very much worth anybody's
who's interested in Rush or Neil Peart.
A lot of cool sort of like history of Neil, who he was, blah, blah, blah. And then they,
and they,
throughout it, it's peppered with performances of some of today's more famous,
you know,
lauded drummers doing Rush tracks with them.
And so when John mentioned the Stuart Copeland New World Man,
that's one that's on there and some other cool stuff.
It was well put together.
By the way.
who did the Rush documentary,
the top documentary,
blah,
so on and so forth.
Now,
can somebody explain to me why this is on YouTube?
Was that always the intention?
Just a bunch of bootlegs up there.
Yeah, I'm not sure. It's the only place I've seen it.
Yeah, me too.
And it's there.
Nobody's taking it down.
Maybe the whole thing is made from AI and it's not even real.
No,
this was very real.
Is it,
though?
Is anything real?
I'm playing drums in there. So it's yeah.
Pardon me while I eat this steak.
Yeah. So worth your time,
by the way, great.
Since we've.
Yeah. If you're a Rush fan, you should definitely check that out.
What if you're not?
Yeah.
You should still check it out.
You'll, you'll,
you'll actually try Widow's Bay.
I recommend the series.
I think you might enjoy that if you're not a Rush fan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think you'll gain a new appreciation for Neil and all the elements and aspects of his
I mean,
you know, they don't just focus on drums or lyrics.
They focus on,
you know,
literally everything he was.
He was such a an amazing person in so many aspects.
And,
you know,
like the drummer from Jethro Tull talks about like I could only have certain conversations with him that I couldn't have with anybody else just because he was such a student of everything.
And that was, I thought, really cool.
A Renaissance game.
Yeah,
exactly. He really was. And I think that that came through on this documentary.
So,
you know,
definitely check it out.
And it is.
It's interesting to hear these guys playing Rush,
you know?
Like, Stuart Copeland, it's just like, like we said earlier,
like he's playing the most police-like tune that they ever
ever played in Rush.
And it just,
it's like, well, he came close.
Anyway.
Well, Danny Carey one is funny too,
because they do 12.
And then he realizes suddenly,
oh, this is not like four beats of silence between everything.
It's like four,
six,
nine,
12.
Which is really funny, because if you've been watching any of the Drumeo stuff where they challenge Mike Portnoy to play Numa,
Like this is like the pinnacle of like drumming and and even like even Danny Carey is having trouble with the opening to 2112 which I was like I can't believe I'm seeing like I can't believe like he's having trouble with this you know but it's also nerves too they don't want to screw up.
Yeah sure yeah I mean your heroes are standing in front of you.
Yeah I can't even imagine like you know sitting down at the drum kit in front of the guys like that inspired you to play music.
and you're just like oh crap you know i don't want to mess this up so bad you know and it's being filmed on top of it you know like there's like cameras and everything it's just like oh god you know like i don't i want to do this but i don't want to do this there's one really kind of sweet part where they're doing trying to work out 2112 and he's like okay so i think it's in getting knows he's like it's four beats eight beats six beats whatever but anyway then they're playing it and then it screws up
and and and and and uh getty looks at alex and i think he says something like did i
screw it up yeah he's like i know i played it right yeah he goes the only thing i know is i'm i'm the only one who played it right yeah
i'm lost but i'm i'm what is this in what are we watching this is the no one's the documentary okay got it
It's a documentary,
yes.
Got it.
And it's, again, free on YouTube for the time being.
It hasn't been pulled down yet.
And I know it's been up there for several days.
So you can watch it from start to finish.
Yeah.
And it's as good as the other,
you know, like the other Sam Dunn stuff about Rush and ZD Tom stuff. I mean,
so.
I'm glad he's still getting work,
by the way. Like,
that could have dried up at some point. But he seems to keep getting some work.
I was talking with one of the big metal music publications.
Busy, okay. Yeah, I forget which one.
I think he did the Triumph one that I told you. He did. Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.
Well,
George, I think you have a show to talk about.
Yes,
so where are we? Today is the 29th? Eighth, I think.
20 is the 29th.
28th was when we should have recorded.
29th is when we are.
So the 15th of September was when I was in Hershey,
Pennsylvania with three of my old,
old, old friends from Michigan,
George,
Dave, and Josh,
Iron Maiden and Megadeth. Yes.
At the Hershey Park Stadium.
So a few days prior to this show,
Iron Maiden and Megadeth had played at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia,
the much closer venue to me.
But based on past experience,
I knew.
Jiffy Lube is a mother to try to get to and park for before a show.
And I was like, I don't want to go there.
Hershey,
it's a big stadium,
but it's probably like half the size of Jiffy Lube.
And I was like, would I want to see Iron Maiden in a massive venue that I can't get into to park?
Or would I like to go there and see them in a much smaller venue? I mean, with your friends.
Yeah, with my friends.
And get chocolate.
Yeah.
I didn't get any chocolate,
actually.
Yeah.
But,
I mean, I have seen Iron Maiden in Harpo's in Detroit. That's the smallest venue you're ever going to see Iron Maiden in.
But that was during the Blaze period.
But, anyway,
last year I saw Slayer at the Hershey Park Stadium with Justin and Nick.
And,
yeah,
Justin and Nick.
And let's just say that was a story and an ordeal.
Great show.
Also part of why I decided to come back for Maiden.
So my boys from Michigan drove down a few days before.
We spent the weekend hanging out doing what boys do.
You know,
beer,
liquor,
cigars,
hanging out,
telling the old stories.
And then Tuesday,
we drove up to Hershey and we caught the show.
And wow.
Yeah.
Well, they've got a lot of cool new graphics now.
Yes.
So there's pros and there's cons to this.
In the past,
since the 80s,
Iron Maiden has had this stage show of doom.
You could not compete with Maiden.
You know,
the giant Eddie animatronic stuff comes up behind the stage and the guys come out on stilts and they walk around on stage.
Maiden is just the best.
Sorry,
not the previous time, the previous,
previous time. The last time I saw them was with TR two years ago in Baltimore.
Was it Baltimore? Yeah. That's right.
But before that,
I saw them with John and Will.
And I think it was at Jiffy Lube.
Yeah.
And that was when they had the like the Aces High.
They brought the plane out.
Yeah. Yeah.
The inflatables.
Yeah.
And,
you know, it's like,
wow.
This time,
other than the dude walking around on stilts,
there were no,
you know,
they play Iron Maiden and you expect the big Eddie to come out.
It was all on screen this time.
But I will say that the on screen stuff that they do,
did this time was far superior to the stuff that they have previously done.
Oh, yeah.
And it was it was it was really good. I mean,
yeah,
you know, you kind of miss having the the physical actual stuff in your face,
but it was still really good.
And on top of that,
Bruce sounded amazing.
Yeah,
yeah.
I've watched some clips and I gotta say he's right there.
Dude has got to have been like practicing and something because I mean,
He sounded better than he has in like the last at least two tours.
He sounds better live than on record too. I mean, he hasn't had a great performance on a record in a while, but when you see him live.
For sure.
But he really hit the notes. I mean, there was,
there were a few things here and there where he had to rely on like backing vocals and stuff, but for the most part,
he really hit the notes and he was just phenomenal.
of the Michigan guys,
this was their first time seeing Maiden ever.
And they were just like,
mind blown.
The other guy was the guy that I saw Maiden with for the first time.
So it was like,
the first time I saw Maiden, this guy was here.
Possibly the last time I've seen Maiden,
this guy was here.
I saw the No Prayer for the Dying tour with him back in the day.
Wow.
And so,
I mean,
so many feels about this.
I mean, these guys, these are my brothers. These are my boys from back in the day.
And I can't say.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't say enough about these guys.
They are a part of me.
And to see this show with them just made all the difference.
And I was so happy that Maiden was awesome because Megadeth was not.
What?
I thought they sounded great.
Not to blame them,
but Dave was sick.
He was really sick. And so the music was good. His vocals were absolute shite. Oh,
man.
But when I saw them on the 5th,
which was 10 days earlier,
they sounded great.
Every time I've seen Megadeth, Dave's been good. I mean,
you know,
people complain about Dave's vocals.
They are what they are.
But if you like them, you like them. And I like his vocals.
But the poor guy was just sick as hell. And I mean, you could tell.
I mean, he was like coughing and sneezing and stuff between songs. And he didn't mention it, but it was clear that he was not well. And his voice was just not there.
Music was great.
Not going to knock him, but it was bad.
That's a shame.
Yeah.
The show I saw in New Jersey,
his vocals actually sounded really good.
And the whole band sounded great.
And just the whole thing was just really satisfying as a Megadeth set.
And George,
I'm sorry that that's like what you got. Well,
I mean,
personally,
I've seen him. I don't even know how many times, a number of times.
I know how good Dave and Megadeth are,
whoever the backing band is.
I know how good they are live.
I know. Right.
You know.
Yeah.
But,
you know, for the guys that hadn't seen them before, I was a little sad because.
You know, the music was great,
but you could barely hear him. He was just kind of... I mean, you know, he's got that voice,
right?
But he couldn't even manage that. It was just... It was bad. But,
you know, according to the guys, they still enjoyed it, so I'm happy with that. I mean, you know, maybe it's just me knowing what it could sound like.
Yeah.
Having seen him before, but regardless,
it was great to see Megadeth again and to see
Dave on what is apparently the final tour.
And yeah,
if this is the last time I see Maiden,
no regrets.
Because it was amazing.
Yeah,
nice.
And it is kind of, you know,
I don't think we're right there yet, but it is one of those things where it's sort of like any time could be the last time. Well, you know, I was thinking about that while they were playing.
I'm like, if this is what they sound like, why would
You quit now
Yeah
Well that's true
I'm like
They're not losing
Any steps here
I mean
No
And the new drummer
Sounded pretty good
Like I
You know
I mean I definitely
Wish they still had
Nico with them
But like
He played
Stuff like
He definitely
Captured the
Nico sound
But like
Had his own thing
Going too
And Yalek
Didn't kill anybody
With a guitar
That was a bonus.
As much as he swings it around and puts his leg up on the amp.
Yeah. And he'd like stomped on it at the end.
Yeah.
But and,
you know,
Steve is still Steve.
Every time I have seen Maiden,
Steve is Steve.
That's all you got to say is,
you know,
he does the he does the thing where he's like,
he's shooting you.
Yeah.
Well,
that and he never stops. I mean,
they they all in their way never
But they obviously don't tour like they used to.
Steve got bored.
They was like, we're not going to tour all the time. I'm going to start another band. You know what I mean? Like Steve doesn't. He just loves playing, man.
Yeah.
And he loved being on the road and playing.
Yeah.
So if I were them,
I would be like, hey, let's I mean,
maybe put out a new album or maybe not. But at least keep doing what they're doing. Where are we? 26,
28.
Come back to the U.S. again and do it again because they definitely still got it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bruce is 68 too so you know I don't know how Rob is Halford but
um Bruce is 68 he got another 12 years in him come on we got a couple more tours I mean that's why I brought up Rob because I think Rob's in his 70s and he's to don't know right you know
could kind of bring it but uh yeah well that's cool man yeah it was it was wonderful and you know
I want to mention this because so many shows.
This is the first show I've seen this happen and I hope it's a new thing,
but you get there and they're like doors is X time and show is X time.
Okay.
And so we roll up to the gates and we're like, all right, well, let's try and get in line early because it's going to take forever to get into Hershey Park because last time we did this, we missed Exodus because it took so
to get in.
Yeah.
And what they did was,
yes,
you have a line to get in,
but they also split it up between several different places to get in.
But the important thing was.
Gates doors,
I think, were like,
I don't even remember. Let's just say six o'clock. OK,
at five o'clock,
they started taking people and checking their stuff.
taking their tickets.
And then you got into a.
An area.
Between.
The parking lot.
And the seats.
And at Hershey Park.
That's where like all the.
The vending is like.
Not the vending.
Like the.
The food trucks and stuff.
Okay.
Not.
There was a merch tent.
But.
But mostly it's the food trucks.
And so.
you get in early and just kind of mill around and you're like what the hell's going on
but then when it's like doors at six the gates open and everybody just goes in yeah instead of oh well
okay the gate it's open and now it's an hour for people to get in because everybody has to give their tickets
right yeah exactly there's like this mid period where you you get all that stuff done and then you
could just go in and I thought that was brilliant.
Yeah.
Yeah. And in Jersey,
we actually went to the merch tent before all that.
So we got our stuff.
So it was like,
you know, we were able to kind of take care of that and then get in line for the,
you know, just to get in.
And that went quickly.
And it was kind of like,
okay,
we pretty much did everything.
Now we got to get like something to eat and a beer,
you know,
like that.
It was actually great.
I agree,
George.
It's a nice... I hope that that's the way of things to come.
And I'm sure you've probably seen this in some of these venues where there's sports venues.
You go to the whatever,
where the food and the drink is, and you just walk in and you walk out and it just charges you.
You put your card in first.
Yeah,
we did that. It made in last time.
Yeah.
And it's just like,
wow,
that's pretty amazing.
Like it knew exactly what I had picked out and,
you know,
just charged me for what I grabbed.
And it's just nice because it's like you just get to stop and you're out and you don't have to,
you know,
fool around.
Crowd management,
man.
Yeah.
Okay,
John.
For those of you that can't see,
John just put up his cyberdyne. Maybe it's AI. Maybe it's AI.
But I don't care. It made things easier and I understand.
I enjoyed it.
Yeah.
I was,
of course,
irritated initially because I didn't understand.
I'm like, we're standing here still.
Yeah.
Okay.
Boomer.
Now see, that's exactly.
I don't understand this.
Yeah.
But then I saw the gate and I was like, all right, we're at the gate.
And I knew I was like, oh,
they're going to like open the gate and we're just all going to go in and everybody's equal at this point. I mean,
we had seats,
so it didn't matter.
But like if you're you know rushing to get to the you know you don't want to be yeah you want to be sitting in your seat when the show starts you know yeah and having got your shirt got your beer whatever exactly right by the way did you get a shirt or you I got two yeah I got uh I got a like power slave updated power slave thing I mean it's like the the you know the the statues with the pyramid thing and it's like all blue
Yeah,
that's the one I got with the Rime of the Ancient Mirror stuff on the back.
Yeah.
And then I got one that's,
you know,
I hate to say it because I'm such maybe a Derek Riggs fan.
The newer Iron Maiden artwork.
No,
it's agreed.
But I got one that's sort of a, it's the Eddie with an axe. And he's like, I think it's probably like the main tour one.
And he's kind of like, ah,
with the axe.
And I was like, all right, I want to get a second one.
and all the rest of these sucks. I'll get this one.
I'm sad for our listeners that they couldn't see your reenactment.
I assume very accurate.
Yeah.
He looked, for those of you listening,
he looked just like Eddie. I looked just like Eddie.
Oh, here we go. We're going to get some show and tell here.
So for those of us that can see what's going on.
Yeah.
He's got the shirt.
now and he's showing us here okay i can't it's it's all messed well you gotta kind of grab the other end there george i got that you gotta walk him through the shirt thing okay yeah that one okay yeah and then this one it's because i tried them on they're all messed up yeah oh there you go there's eddie i mean it really does look exactly like what you portrayed just seconds ago it's like
It's like if Killers were,
or not even Killers, the first album,
were redone by AI.
And George was the guy.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Georgie.
So, I mean, you can't go to an Iron Maiden show and not buy Iron Maiden shirts.
You have to. That's exactly right. It's pretty much required.
Yeah.
But you can't wear them to it.
Oh, I will.
Well,
you might care. I'm with you.
I didn't. I wore them.
What am I wearing?
I'm not wearing the right shirt.
Yesterday I was wearing the shirt that I wore to Maiden, which was a Metalhead shirt.
Ah,
there you go.
Because you got a pimp podcast.
That's right.
And I got to say,
it was much easier getting out of this show.
Slayer took us like two and a half hours to get out of.
This one we were out in half an hour.
I've skipped Encores at Mount
because I just didn't want to be there for hours.
Now we watched the whole thing.
And then in fact,
they literally kicked us out.
We were sitting in the,
we had,
we had like bleacher seats off to the,
like as close as you can get to the stage,
bleacher seats.
And quite good.
And we were like,
you know,
there's a million fricking people here.
We're going to wait until they,
they leave.
And we sat there and eventually somebody was like,
all right,
people,
you got to get out of here.
And we're like,
what?
Possibly the first time in a show in 40-odd years that I've been told I have to leave.
People pushed you out.
I was like, all right, we're going, goddammit.
But I still got out of there in like half an hour because I got the primo parking spot.
That is nice,
dude.
That does make for a long night if you're, well, like I said, John knows Mountain View.
God, he used to take forever to get out of Mountain View. I hated it. When there was a show there, if it was something I really
I really,
really,
really,
really wanted to see. That was the only reason I could go there.
Yeah.
And I lived, like,
in Palo Alto,
so I was, like,
five miles from there, and I still didn't like going to shows there because I was like, it's going to take me two hours to get home.
I walked.
Yeah, I didn't even have to get on the freeway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
All right. We got anything else?
Just a couple of upcoming shows.
All right. What's got?
I'm going to see Styx down in southern Delaware.
at the Freeman Arts Center or whatever it is.
And it just so happens that the next night, Roger Daltrey's playing, so I'm going to see that too.
Yeah,
I've never been a big Who fan or whatever,
but I'm pretty excited to see him because I've never seen him or any of those guys.
Dude, how can you not like the Who?
Well, I don't not like them. I just never got into them that much. Well, you should.
Just saying. Just saying. No judgment.
You just should.
I got Russian Circles and they're touring with Pelican and that'll be down in Baltimore and then two days later I'll see my one of my favorite bands Howling Giant and they're also playing in Baltimore so so that's it I am thinking based on my love for this band and your review of their show TR of because I haven't I haven't really traveled for anything
for a while.
And Triumph has added some dates.
I thought it might be kind of fun to go see him in Vegas. And me and Matt have been looking for something to do again together.
To go with me.
Dude,
yeah.
It was a great show.
They were just so good.
They sounded great.
And like the visuals and everything.
It was just really worth seeing.
I'm seeing them again.
I'm going to go see them. They're playing in Baltimore.
So I got tickets for that.
When is that?
Like November, I think. Yeah.
November 21st. Maybe it's a Saturday.
George,
if I could come out there, would you want to go to Triumph in Baltimore?
Are you asking me?
Yeah.
I was intending to go to that show with TR until he was like, oh, yeah, there's like 20 other people going. I was like, well,
screw that.
I don't want to go to that.
I'm like, if I can go to Triumph with TR,
I'm there.
with TR and John,
I'm totally there.
But if I'm going to triumph with TR,
John,
and like half a dozen other people,
I'm out.
You shouldn't let that keep you away.
What about John and Jay?
Well,
if you were here, I would go anywhere you are,
assuming I can get tickets.
You know what?
I'm going to look at that. Well, if you look at that and you can get a ticket, get me one.
If you can do it and it's there,
I mean,
I'll go anywhere you go.
I'm ready to fly for a chef.
So even if it's not that one, I'll pick something out. Well, you got to pick one. I mean, like come out to Decibel or something.
I don't even know if I'm going to Decibel, but you know what I mean. Just come out and go to something like this.
But not that I dislike Decibel, but I really want to see Triumph.
Yeah, so do I.
Okay,
I'll look just to see what's available.
All right.
But I'm glad you're going to see him again,
too. That's awesome.
I just thought I better not miss this chance.
That's what I was thinking too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean,
got to see Rick Emmett play live.
You must have seen him.
No, never saw him.
That's weird.
But you're a fan, right?
Didn't have the opportunity or just didn't get around to it? They were kind of over by the time we were seeing shows,
right?
Yeah.
I was seeing shows back then. Well, you were, but by the time I was seeing shows, it was kind of weird. Seeing shows.
It's just when these tickets went on sale, I was
unfortunately dealing with my post-op stuff.
Yeah.
And I just was like, there's not a damn thing happening in this world right now
that's going to get my attention.
Obviously.
Yeah.
Fair enough.
You got to do what you got to do.
Yeah.
But if Jay's coming, you got to figure it out.
Well, you know what?
It's time I got on an airplane.
So let me look around and see what else is going on and stuff.
Because if we can't make this one work.
And then let's... I'll take a look at something I know we'll both and or all want to go see.
Okay.
In the next couple of months.
And maybe this one.
Let's see. But I'm jealous, dude. That's cool.
And is it the same? I guess it's probably the same group of people, Felix and all those guys.
and everything else.
November 21st.
I did see some footage and it all looked good.
Just out of boredom, I watched that S Festival performance.
Yeah, well,
that's good stuff.
It's just like on YouTube and it's like, hey, do you want to watch this again?
And I'm like, you know what?
I do want to watch that again.
Yeah.
All right.
Shall we wander off?
I think we shall.
Before we sign off, I have a joke I need to tell you.
And it's not very long,
so I think you'll enjoy it. And I hope I didn't tell you that it's this joke.
An old man told it to me,
so let that be the caveat that it should be.
So the guy got in a terrible car accident,
and he wakes up,
and he's been out for quite a while, and the doctor comes in and says,
hey,
you're back with us. I'm a ghost person.
The guy says, yeah, but I'm freaking out. I can't feel my legs.
Because we had to amputate both of your arms.
Actually,
I do think you told us that.
But,
yeah.
That's good.
I like it.
All right. Nice to see your faces,
boys.
All righty.
Let's do this.
Thanks, guys.
All right. See you next time.
Yeah.
See you.
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