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In this episode, multi-instrumentalist and music producer, Carlos Andujar aka Navigateur, stops by the store to chat about the best comeback albums with Natalie and Tara. Learn more about Record Store Society, your new favorite music podcast.
Creators & Guests
What is Record Store Society?
It's time to visit your favorite local record store; a place where music fans spend countless hours flipping through records, discuss the minutia of favorite b-sides, best live albums, and anything else music-related. If you have any questions, you can always find Tara and Natalie behind the counter ready to give a recommendation or tell you about a recent discovery. Join Record Store Society, a music podcast, biweekly to see what’s new or just to hang around for some music talk.
0:00:01 - Tara
Hi Natalie
0:00:19 - Natalie
hi Sarah, how are ya? I feel like you could hear the Wednesday in that greeting.
0:00:28 - Tara
Very good, how are you? Yeah, I am struggling to get over the hump. Yeah, that is for sure.
0:00:33 - Natalie
But at least we have a pretty cool place to, you know, spend our time during the day.
0:00:37 - Tara
That's true. Oh, hi, how are you? Welcome to the store. I'm Tara
0:01:00 - Natalie
I'm Natalie.
0:00:37 - Tara
Let us know if you need anything. So yeah, recently we talked about something. I don't remember what it was, but oh, it might have been one of your new to you songs and it was kind of like a newish vaporwave type song.
0:01:00 - Natalie
Oh yeah, it was the group Death's Dynamic Shroud.
0:01:03 - Tara
Yeah, you're pretty into vaporwave stuff, aren't you?
0:01:06 - Natalie
Yeah, I dig it, I like it, my favorite being Le Cassette. It's another group I really like. I think it's like the popularity of, you know, shows like Stranger Things that are kind of bringing that vibe back, that 80 sound and synth sounds, that the that whole music genre is kind of having this resurgence lately.
0:01:41 - Tara
Yeah, oh hey, look who it is it's Carlos Andujar, a navigator, cool, hello, hello.
0:01:49 - Carlos
What's up?
0:01:50 - Tara
How's it going?
0:01:50 - Carlos
It's going great.
0:01:52 - Tara
Thanks for coming into the store. Are you picking up anything special?
0:01:58 - Carlos
Just looking around today, you have a great, great store here.
0:02:02 - Tara
Thank you. It's funny that you've just walked in at this perfect time because we were just talking about vaporwave synth music very much the whole like 80s synth stuff, stranger Things and you are a producer, musician and kind of lean into a lot of that synth type vaporwave stuff, don't you?
0:02:25 - Carlos
I do. Yeah, I was over in the new age section and did I overhear somebody say a desk dynamic shroud.
0:02:43 - Natalie
You heard me, oh man.
0:02:45 - Carlos
I just saw them play in New York and it was unbelievable, oh really.
0:02:50 - Natalie
Yeah, oh, that's so cool.
0:02:52 - Carlos
I highly recommend going to watch them if you get a chance. Really, really amazing live show.
0:02:56 - Tara
Nice, nice, yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, I mean one of my favorites, I guess of that genre is Com truise, oh yeah. Oh yeah definitely when you listen to Com truise you almost immediately see maybe like the HBO logo from the 80s, just like bouncing and like all the lasers and things coming off the H and yeah, I just imagine like VHS or old movie production companies, names like floating and lasers everywhere. I don't know why.
0:03:33 - Carlos
Yeah, I mean it's pretty close to his like visual brand too. He's also a designer, oh, but yeah, he worked in like the pharmaceutical industry, I think, as a designer and like his whole aesthetic is very much kind of in line with that too. So he's got the whole brand nailed, I feel like with the 80s aesthetic. Yeah, he totally does.
0:03:54 - Tara
I didn't know that he was a designer, though which? Totally makes sense because all of his like album, art and whatnot is so impeccably designed and fits his aesthetic. So much yeah definitely. Which is also kind of related to vaporwave. I feel like this whole idea of aesthetic.
0:04:10 - Natalie
You know the whole the nostalgia yeah.
0:04:12 - Carlos
They go hand in hand, for sure, with the vaporwave stuff.
0:04:15 - Tara
Yeah, but Stranger Things really. I think was a big player in how some of that retro popular culture had a huge comeback. Yeah.
0:04:24 - Carlos
I think you're right. I'm trying to pinpoint a time of when this all started to research and, from what I can recall, I feel like this all started even further back, like in 2010,. Seems to be this sort of like.
I don't know like awakening or consciousness of, hey, we like the 80s At least that's how it happened for me and I feel like, yeah, you're right, like shows like Stranger Things, even like, you know, halton Catch Fire to some extent, and there's even some movies like Beyond the Black Rainbow, a few other kind of like shows and movies on TVs, that kind of like caught on as well and like dug into like the 80s aesthetic. But yeah, I feel like for me, I think that my recollection is like the 2010, 2011 era is like when it started, kind of like hopping off, and there's a few artists in particular that I can point to and say like they kind of help popularize that. I don't know if you want me to get into that now, or.
0:05:19 - Tara
Sure, I mean, I guess what I was thinking of Stranger Things, I meant more like in the mainstream, but I 100% agree, because there was like games, and I even remember Calvin Harris had a song about liking the 80s and it did go quite hand in hand with some of the like indie dance type stuff that was out at the time. Yeah, yeah.
0:05:42 - Carlos
Yeah, that's a good point, even like Daft Punk to some extent, I feel, has some of that less of the aesthetic side, obviously, but like more of just like the 80s vibe a little bit and a lot of their like on. I feel like on homework.
0:05:54 - Tara
Oh, that's true. And also they did Random Maxis Memory Tron which had of course, obviously, tron is Totally.
0:06:01 - Carlos
Is that Totally?
0:06:02 - Tara
Essentially.
0:06:04 - Carlos
I even feel like there was a point around again, like 2011, maybe 2012, where you can remember Cpunk, that like sort of like variation of it's, like a subgenre of Vaporwave almost, and had its own kind of aesthetic too. But there was a moment where Rihanna was playing the show on TV and she had these like Cpunk visuals in the background. I was like, okay, this is crazy. Now we're sort of like starting to hit the mainstream with, like the Vaporwave stuff.
0:06:29 - Tara
But yeah, I feel like oh yeah. Yeah, I wish I could remember the performance but Diamonds, yeah, on Saturday Night Live, yeah, 2012.
0:06:38 - Carlos
Yeah, yeah, 2012. Okay, so it was pretty close, but yeah, that's. I think it's like the 80s aesthetic kind of even more popular on the mainstream media.
0:06:52 - Natalie
I feel like I think that kind of music and the Vaporwave thing, it's going to always have a presence in popular culture and in the media. Because even if the music isn't always at the forefront, I think those nostalgic movies or those really influential sci-fi movies like Blade Runner and Tron, like you mentioned, those are just, they're going to be timeless, they're always going to look cool, they're never going to go out of style. So I think that's always like the bridge between the cultures, totally the subculture and the mainstream, to appreciate Vaporwave.
0:07:24 - Carlos
Yeah, that's a good point. I feel like a lot of younger people are just starting to discover that stuff. I kind of grew up with a lot of that stuff and for me, when I was a kid, I kind of hated the 80s music. But now I don't know what clicked, like a switch flipped and like, oh, this is so amazing, what was I thinking. But I feel like a lot of younger people are just discovering it and kind of more organically appreciating it for what it is. So that's kind of cool to see, yeah, yeah.
0:07:53 - Tara
Yeah, slightly related. I did pre-order a Trapper Keeper. They just relaunched them.
0:08:01 - Natalie
Are you serious? I got one with.
0:08:02 - Tara
Yes, I got one with, like the many layered heart on the front.
0:08:06 - Carlos
Oh my God.
0:08:07 - Tara
It hasn't arrived yet. I hope I didn't get swindled, but it was by me. The brand oh wow. Trapper Keeper brand. So Google it, pre-order your Trapper Keeper today. There are many styles to choose from.
0:08:19 - Natalie
It's really hard to choose.
0:08:21 - Carlos
Amazing.
0:08:22 - Natalie
Do they have a gym in the holograms? One Then I'm all over it.
0:08:25 - Tara
Yeah, there you go. Nice Well, like I said, I'm glad you're in the store today. Usually, when we have friends in the store, we like to play the high fidelity game where we list our top five, something music related. Would you want to play with us today?
0:08:41 - Carlos
Sure, yeah, sounds great.
0:08:43 - Tara
How about I don't know top five comeback albums?
0:08:47 - Carlos
Ooh, that's a tough one, but I think I could help.
0:08:50 - Tara
I bet you thought we were going to say top five vaporwave. Well, it makes sense, you know come back in the 80s and since come back.
0:08:59 - Carlos
I can see the connection.
0:09:00 - Tara
Yeah, well, you guys have time to think through yours, because I already have a list, so I will kick it off, all right? How about it? All right, so I'm going to start number five with an album that was released in 1989 by our boy, roy Orbison. Anything you want, you got it. Anything you need, you got it. This is the album Mystery Girl. It says 22nd album. Oh my gosh, but everyone knows Roy Orbison. If you don't, you need to go and read a book and touch some grass. He's a legend, but it was his last album to be recorded.
During his entire lifetime he was known for his singing style. He was a singer, songwriter, musician. He had emotional ballads Sometimes they're a little dark and he was originally signed by Sam Phillips from Sun Records in 1956, just like our boy Elvis Presley. But he had his biggest success with Monument Records and from 1960 to 1966, he had 22 singles that reached the Billboard Top 40. So it's like only the lonely from 1960, running scared from 1961, crying from 1961, in Dreams, 1963. And, of course, the one we all know, oh Pretty Woman, from 1964. But in the late 60s his career started to decline. He had kind of personal traumas, some drama. Actually, his wife cheated on him with the person who built their house and also he had some major health issues, but he kept recording albums. By 1976, he had a full decade since any of his songs charted, which is a bummer.
I would definitely feel like throwing in the towel at that point if I were him. But he was doing some side projects in the 80s that kind of started his career in motion again. One notable side project happened in 1988, where Roy Orbison started collaborating with ELO band leader like Electric Light Orchestra, jeff Lynn, on a new album and Jeff had just completed working some production on George Harrison's album, cloud 9. And then all three of them got together one day and had some lunch and Roy accepted an invitation to sing on George Harrison's new single. Then they reached out to Bob Dylan who was like hey, you want to use my studio? That's cool. So along the way Harrison stopped by Tom Petty's house to pick up a guitar and Tom Petty and his band backed Dylan in his last tour. But by the evening the group of fellas had written a song which became the concept of a whole album and they called themselves the Traveling Willberies, and that album was released in 1988.
But that's not the comeback album that I'm referring to. Of course not. But this is the one that sort of made him feel motivated to do another solo album. So, and that album was of course, like I mentioned earlier, mystery Girl and was his first album of all new material since 1979, a long time since his last full solo album but is produced by Jeff Lynn in 1989 and released in 1989. And then the biggest hit for Mystery Girl was you Got it and it earned him a Grammy Award.
Sadly he was having some health issues and he died before the record was actually released, so technically it was post-humus album. But yeah, it was huge. He got a Grammy. It hit the charts. It was meticulous and perfect in production. On top of that, also, the Traveling Old Berries album that he recorded before that also charted. So he really hit it right there at the end of his life and Rolling Stone included it as one of the top 100 albums of the decade. But one last note is that Roy Orbison became the first deceased musician since Elvis Presley to have two albums in the top five at the same time.
0:13:13 - Natalie
That's an interesting bit of trivia, wow.
0:13:16 - Tara
Yeah, so sad. Yeah, it is. He was so young, he was like what like 50, early 50s, 52?
0:13:23 - Natalie
Was he, I don't know, when he passed away? He was young though, was he? I don't know?
0:13:27 - Tara
Yeah.
0:13:28 - Carlos
I'm young there, though, bessie Kitt.
0:13:29 - Tara
Yeah, he did a lot of great stuff there at the end and I'm glad that he found some success.
0:13:34 - Carlos
Yeah, I feel like more success. Yeah, I'd probably give up after way earlier, without having even had a fraction of that success.
0:13:45 - Tara
Yeah, but he's a legend. And even reading about the Traveling Little Berries, Jeff Lynn, of course, Electric Light Orchestra, Tom Petty all of them were kind of just in awe that they were in the same room with Roy Orbison, but, like, all of them are legendary too, and so it's just like wow, those people, those guys who are legends, are like wow, Roy Orbison, so he's, he had, he left quite a legacy. But that was a pretty epic comeback to have two records in the top five at one time. Yeah, definitely.
0:14:17 - Carlos
Seriously.
0:14:18 - Tara
All right. Number four, speaking of our boy, elvis Presley, from Elvis in Memphis 1969. This was Elvis's 10th studio album and it was actually triggered by another kind of special event similar to Roy's story. So after Elvis returned from the military in the 60s, his manager, tom Parker, he, started to make Elvis, which his career from live music and albums to films and soundtracks and I think that worked well for him for a little bit.
In 1961, performed his last show, which would be his last show for eight years, in Pearl Harbor, hawaii. But during that three of Elvis's soundtrack albums reached number one in the pop charts and included some hits like Can't Outfalling in Love, return to Cinder, which we all have heard a million times. But from 1964 to 1968, he only had one top hit and it was Crying in the Chapel, which is a gospel song that he put on a gospel record recorded in 1967. He did want to grant me for that, but in 1968, his manager arranged for him to have this TV special. It was supposed to be a Christmas special to be filmed in front of a live audience and he had planned for Elvis to sing all Christmas songs. But the show's producer, steve Binder, convinced Elvis to perform some songs from his original repertoire.
The show's closer, the producer decided to replace the spoken statement with a song and he told one of the music directors and allerisers to write a song that reflected Elvis's beliefs, because around the same time Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis and Elvis was deeply saddened by that. Of course he's, he is a Memphis boy himself and he just thought that this confirmed everyone's worst feelings about the South. So Goldenberg and Earl mostly Walter Earl Brown wrote this song called If I Can Dream. He sent it to Parker, which is Elvis's manager, and Parker was like I still thought that the show would be closed with I'll Be Home for Christmas, and so he had kind of a negative response to this song.
But Binder, again, the show's producer went around him and was like hey, elvis, check out this song. And Elvis listened to it three times and was like I have to record this, and so he was so moved by it and of course he did close with that song. I just want to add that for that closing song he wore all white three-piece suit and on the back it said Elvis in red letters, and at the end of the show he was like thank you, good night. And anyways, the show was a success and it actually displaced Laughin, which was huge at the time, and 42% of the total television audience watched it. From the you know those Nielsen reviews which I've wondered are those still around?
0:17:27 - Carlos
That's a great question. I was thinking about that the other day actually.
0:17:31 - Tara
Does that still exist? But the show's soundtrack actually charted and because of the popularity of this show everyone knows it now as the comeback special, not the Christmas special. But after that Elvis said I'll never sing another song that I don't believe in. I'm never going to make another movie that I don't believe in. I mean, I don't know if he stuck by his words, because we all know his ending. His demise was not so great, not a good look. But he was also inspired to do more songs. So after that he recorded a new album and that is from Elvis in Memphis 1969. And this one included the single in the ghetto.
0:18:13 - Natalie
On a cold and gray Chicago morning, a poor little baby child is born in the ghetto.
0:18:24 - Tara
It reached number 13 on the Billboard charts. This, the single, reached number three and a certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and it just kept growing in legacy, and Rolling Stone included it on the list of top five greatest albums of all time.
0:18:42 - Natalie
Of all time yeah.
0:18:45 - Tara
I don't know. I love that story. You can go watch the Bozlerman Elvis movie. It's not too bad and I think sticks pretty true to that part of his story which is that comeback special. Yeah, I just love it. He was like no, I'm not going to do some silly Christmas thing, I need to do this. This speaks to me, this speaks to my community and who I am. And he played that song and he crushed it and man. I just thought that was a good. I love that story.
0:19:11 - Carlos
Yeah.
0:19:11 - Tara
I have chills just thinking about it.
0:19:13 - Natalie
Yeah, it's pretty fascinating.
0:19:15 - Carlos
I've never really been like a huge Elvis aficionado, but every time I feel like I learn I hear interesting story about something he did. So just adding that to the list of respectful yeah, the only thing that I know about him other. Well, one of the key things I know about him didn't he try to get, like the Beatles, arrested or something?
0:19:34 - Tara
I don't know. I don't know about that story, but I should look that up.
0:19:39 - Carlos
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I misheard, but I thought I heard something. That's nice to hear, a positive story about.
0:19:43 - Tara
There's a lot of positive stories about Elvis. I will say a lot of Elvis's black backup bandmates and singers were paid a lot more touring with Elvis than they would have at the time, like on the Chitlins or Go, which is sad. But I'm glad that he took care of them. And you can hear Little Richard say this too, that yes, elvis has covered some of his songs but because he was a white man, he opened doors for Little Richard to do what he loved to do. And again, it's unfortunate that that's how it played out. But I think he really appreciated those people and their music and I just I think there's more to Elvis than a lot of us really know. But yeah, totally fair but yeah, cool Comeback story.
All right, this one is way more modern. Number three is my Bloody Valentine with MBV, released in 2013. Mbv is the third studio album by my Bloody Valentine, released again February 2013. And it was produced by Kevin Shields, who's the band's singer and guitarist, and is the first full-length release of original material since Loveless, their second studio album in 1991, so like two decades prior. So this is a major comeback. But following their departure from Creation Records, they released their second studio album, loveless.
My Bloody Valentine was then signed with Island Records in October 1992 for reported 250,000 pounds. The band's advance from that signing went towards construction of a home studio in South London, which was completed in April 1993, but some technical problems they had with the studio sent them all into this meltdown which led to their demise. The band did end up breaking up in 1997, but luckily they did record some songs for MBV in 1996. Fast forward to 2006,. Kevin Shields resumes recording after a time when the band had reunited, and he combined the recordings from 1996 sessions to these new sessions and then added some more vocals, bass and drum tracks in around 2011-2012.
The song she Found Now was the only song recorded completely from scratch in 2012, and then the album was recorded and mixed and then released February 2013. When they released it, the website crashed within minutes. I think I was one of the lucky ones that got through, because I definitely bought that record as soon as it came out. It received critical acclaim and one of the guys from LA Times wrote that the album's opening was a surpy, drunk and vessel of deep tremolo guitar and ending on a whirlwind of rhythm adding. The record blossoms 20 minutes in and over its length, presents the sound of a group living in the here and now Rhythms of the moment and staticky love anthems like if I am as beautiful as anything the band has ever done. The end.
0:23:05 - Carlos
Wow.
0:23:06 - Tara
So good, such a good record.
0:23:07 - Carlos
Nice to see a positive review of a Shugay's album from a critic which I guess we're not in the 90s anymore, but you know it's still nice.
0:23:16 - Tara
I definitely, Hans liked it that one. There were some who were like, ah, two stars out of four. I'm like, no, you are not welcome here.
0:23:23 - Carlos
I have a very embarrassing confession to make about this record. So I heard about it coming out and I was like you know, like it's my bloody Valentine, I need to hear this on vinyl. And I was going to wait to listen to the record until I bought the vinyl record. I never bought the record, so I've never heard the album. I've heard like maybe one song from it, I think, just like Spotify like threw it in my playlist one day and I was like wait, I haven't heard the album on vinyl yet.
So I'm super embarrassed to say I haven't heard the album, the latest album, all the way through.
0:23:57 - Tara
Well one. I admire your determination to not listen to it until you have a physical copy in hand, because I couldn't do that, but to add that thing to your Christmas list.
0:24:07 - Carlos
I need. I don't know why I don't have it yet. I've bought so many other albums, you know, on vinyl, since that particular one's come out. Yeah, maybe I just forgot. Like I need to put that back on my to-do list for sure, though.
0:24:18 - Tara
It's good. Yeah, it's a good one.
0:24:20 - Carlos
Yeah.
0:24:21 - Tara
Natalie, have you heard it yet?
0:24:23 - Natalie
I have not. I think. What is it? The really popular one? Loveless was the only my bloody Valentine record I'm somewhat familiar with. That's completely missed this one.
0:24:34 - Carlos
So don't feel embarrassed, I'm with you Well yeah, I mean, loveless is a classic, so at least you've heard that one. That's the one you should hear. I feel like the song that I did hear from that from their last record, was well, I stepped back, like my friends were kind of telling me about it because they obviously listened to it and I think their reaction was like it sounds more like just like another my bloody Valentine record. It didn't seem like there was anything like crazy different in terms of like what they've put out before or you know, right after Loveless. But and so like I kind of with the one song that I did here, I kind of got that vibe a little bit. I was like, okay, this is definitely my bloody Valentine, nothing crazy new. But I'm curious if you had that same reaction to, or if it was like this is groundbreaking or it's like, oh, this is like super new or like yeah, I mean, I okay.
0:25:21 - Tara
so there is actual quote from Kevin Shields who says that the album is different from Loveless in so many ways. But we all know he made these guitar sounds, so, like you know, those sounds as being Kevin Shields, it's gonna sound like my bloody Valentine no matter what. Plus, they did treat the mastering and recording just like they did Loveless.
So, at least in terms of quality of sound and like how it sounds as a was as it was produced, not like the actual notes and stuff may have a similar sound as well. But he said he was trying to be more impressionistic, not trying to think of songs of as having beginnings, middles or ends. Interesting, but I haven't ever really listened to them back to back. So I don't know, I wouldn't say yeah, I don't think it's like way different. And of course he would say that right, right, yeah, I would imagine.
0:26:19 - Carlos
so.
0:26:20 - Natalie
So I have a couple of questions for you, tara. Then, seeing as you were so excited that you slid in before the whole website crashed, was the album everything you wanted it to be when you first heard it? Oh, yeah. And then also, what's your favorite track?
0:26:34 - Tara
I don't have a favorite track from that album, but when it first came out I was definitely like, oh, this is so great, so good, and I thought it was definitely worth it. The hype was true for me. I thought, okay, it sounds like my Bloody Valentine and for that I'm glad Cause. What if it didn't? It would not be a fun time Everyone wants.
0:26:55 - Natalie
What if they tried to be all modern and do like you know? Trap yeah.
0:27:00 - Tara
I was like this is trash.
0:27:01 - Carlos
Well, I mean cause that's why I asked about like the you know it sounds like, does it sound like a my Bloody Valentine or something different element to it? Cause, like I feel like when, with Loveless especially if you listen to, like the other stuff that they've put out was more like I guess raw maybe is a good word for it Like there's more like rock forward, whereas Loveless was I felt like experimenting with a lot of like samplers and like drum machine the loops and like a little more maybe conceptual. So I was I wasn't sure if, like they were trying something you know, conceptual again with this new album or if it was just more like well, let's just get back to the kind of raw roots of my Bloody Valentine, which is just like loud yeah.
0:27:41 - Tara
It's definitely not conceptual in that sense. But that's a good point that you bring up the like samples and the looping and whatnot, because Kevin Shields did talk about how he was influenced by some jungle music and there is, like, definitely some drum and bass influence there. So if you haven't heard it yet and you're into those things, go and check it out and see what you think, cause I don't think it is very dramatically different, especially, like you said, from maybe the older stuff prior to Loveless, and Loveless was kind of way more groundbreaking in that sense. But it's still so good. It's still so good yeah.
0:28:17 - Carlos
I mean that's good to hear. Like it sounds like they stuck to like the core of what makes them my Bloody Valentine, which that's something hard to do, especially like comeback albums. I feel like I don't know. I feel like there's this fear of like not having that sense of identity in the band, or that you know about the band, like with their new album, you know, like it's always sort of like oh man, I hope this is good. I think you even said that earlier. Like, like I hope this is going to be good.
So that's cool that I feel like few bands are able to kind of pull it off, stay true to who they are, but then like still kind of like put out good music and kind of keep moving forward.
0:28:54 - Tara
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it seems like history has shown that usually it's the sophomore slump that's the hardest thing, that for them was the the best. So, after that you're like I don't care, I'm doing what I want.
0:29:08 - Natalie
Maybe that's a great point.
0:29:11 - Tara
I don't know. Ask Roy Orbison. No, I mean speaking of someone who had crazy comeback moment. This guy number two and it happened to be his 67th studio album. A comeback on the 67th studio album. Can you imagine the output? Any guesses?
0:29:32 - Carlos
Hmm.
0:29:34 - Natalie
Yes.
0:29:35 - Tara
Oh, is it because we have overlap? Do we have overlap? What's that? Is it because you know who it is?
0:29:41 - Natalie
I think I know who it is. I'm gonna. I'm gonna wait.
0:29:43 - Tara
No, no, guess I want to see. I'm sure you know who it is.
0:29:46 - Natalie
Willie Nelson? No, it's not Willie Nelson, but close. No, actually very close. Okay.
0:29:51 - Tara
This man has worked with Willie and then not talking about. So Willie is our redhead stranger. I'm talking about the man in black.
0:29:58 - Carlos
Ah, Johnny Cash.
0:29:59 - Tara
Johnny Cash, your own personal Jesus, someone to hear your prayers.
0:30:12 - Carlos
Hey 67th.
0:30:13 - Tara
This is.
0:30:14 - Carlos
I didn't realize he was so prolific.
0:30:16 - Tara
Oh man, well, he had all those gospel records. That's true, he had the live albums in the jail, he had so many things, but this was from that collection, the American collections. This is American, for the man comes around. It was released in November 5th 2002. And it was also, sadly, his final studio album Little History. Before we get into that album, though, is in 1997, during a trip to New York, johnny Cash was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, shy Drager syndrome, which I've never heard of. It's a form of multiple system atrophy, but then the diagnosis was changed to autonomic neuropathy and associated with diabetes, and it forced him to not really tour as much or anymore. Then he was hospitalized in 1998 with pneumonia which caused him damage to his lungs. So this was like fully already like during the last stage of his career, and he released the album American 3 in 2007, and then started working with Rick Rubin. So this album, american 4, is mostly covers of songs, but in his own sparse, dark style.
0:31:33 - Carlos
That's the album with Hurt right the Hurt cover, the famous one, yeah.
0:31:36 - Tara
Yeah, he covers personal Jesus by Depeche Mode. Hurt by Nine Nails, yeah.
0:31:42 - Carlos
Video for Hurt is so beautiful and so it just paired so well with the song was like I remember distinctly watching it and he realizes like he's close to the end and like highlight reel of his life was like just paired so well with the music.
0:31:58 - Tara
Oh gosh, I have chills already. But yeah, I'll also say also I just wanna add this part that for the song personal Jesus, red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frisante reworked the guitar part into an acoustic version and he also got some backing vocal assistants from Fiona Apple, nick Cave, don Henley on this album, which is, you know, all star cast I know.
Don Henley and yeah, but yeah this. So after this record is released. It was the first non-copulation album to go gold in 30 years for Johnny Cash and it won album of the year at the 2003 CMA Awards. It was certified gold by 2003, march 24th 2003 and platinum by November 2003. I hurt myself today to see if I still feel yes. The video for Hurt, which was originally written by Trent Reznor of Nine Nails and originally released in 1994, was nominated for seven categories at the MTV Music Video Awards and won an award for best cinematography. Trent Reznor said that he was flattered but worried about the idea of Johnny Cash covering his song. He thought maybe it might be gimmicky, but when he heard the song and saw the video for the first time, he said he was deeply moved and found Johnny Cash's cover more beautiful and meaningful, and even went as far as to say that song is not mine anymore.
Wow, that's amazing, it is yes, then I will say too that. So Johnny Cash, of course, having a lot of health issues at the time and had lost most of his vision, kept interrupting the recording sessions, but he was hospitalized and later died of complications of diabetes on September 12th of 2003. He was only 71 and, like I said, that record came out in November of 2002. So very shortly after, and also only four months after June died.
0:34:10 - Carlos
So that is sad yeah.
0:34:12 - Tara
Yeah, I promise the next story is really positive.
0:34:16 - Carlos
Well, I was just thinking I gotta go watch that video again and I don't know that's gonna put me in a mood, but it's worth it. It's such a great song.
0:34:23 - Natalie
So I'm looking at this track list for this Johnny Cash album because I've heard you know personal Jesus. I've heard as well, but I didn't realize that he covered. First time ever, I saw your face, which is like my favorite love song of all time. So, immediately, I'm gonna have to listen to this when I get home.
0:34:43 - Carlos
Oh, and I forgot, he also did Bridge Over Troubled Water. That was the one he did with you and the apple, and then we'll meet again. Yeah, that was that the last song in the album. Oh man, that's too sad, oh yeah.
0:34:55 - Tara
Oh snap, that's sad. Yeah, last song. Wow, Best save that one for a best last track list hi-fi game. All right, we've reached the end. This one is a celebratory story, also an album released in the 80s Tina Turner. That's all what's love got to do.
0:35:18 - Carlos
got to do with it. What's love but a second hand emotion?
0:35:25 - Tara
Private dancer yeah.
0:35:27 - Carlos
Love it.
0:35:28 - Tara
So we all know for many, many years she was fronting a band with Ike and they were very successful. They had a lot of hits, like Proud Mary. Just one example we know Riverdeep Mountain High. In 1976, she left Ike. She was 36 at this point. She left Ike, found herself raising four kids and drowning in debt. She took on just about any gig she could get cheesy TV variety shows, performing in hotels, vegas dinner shows. And then, luckily, someone agreed to partner with her on this remake of Bollack Confusion, which is a Temptations song. Well, someone who was going to remake Bollack Confusion had the person they were going to work with bailed on them. So Tina was able to join in. That was a lucky opportunity for her because the Temptations remake was only released in the UK. But it saw some success which allowed Tina or helped her to get signed with Capitol Records. But then some boring old asshole said they were gonna drop her. However, a&r superhero guy John Carter got on his knees and begged this old boring executive to reverse his decision. You better change your mind because you're gonna regret it if you don't. He begged, he begged and pleaded. He actually got on his knees. Luckily, the executive begrudgingly agreed to reverse his decision not to not drop Tina Turner from Capitol Records. But he did say they're barely gonna lift a finger to promote her album and maybe her new music might be dead on arrival.
Recording sessions for the album took place at several studios in England and then, of course we all know, one of the songs, what's Love Got to Do With it, was rejected by a bunch of other artists. Tina herself nearly passed on it. She said I didn't like it, I didn't think it was my style, I thought it was wimpy but persevered. And luckily she did do it because it brought out this tenderness in a different way from Tina Turner and one of the big hits that kind of launched her rebirth.
But this record was probably one of the greatest comebacks in music history. It went multi-platinum. It had the singles what's Love Got to Do With it, which Won a Grammy, private Dancer, one Record of the Year, and it was her first and only number one song on the Billboard 100. So at age 44, at this point she was the oldest female solo artist to have a hit in the top 100. And then her chart success continued with Better Be Good to Me, private Dancer. We Don't Need Another Hero, typical Male, the Best Stolen Eye. But she also embarked on a tour and became the top grossing female on tour in the 80s and set a Guinness World Record for the then largest paying audience in a concert at 180K. And so yeah, this man, she just hit a hot streak and had one of the best comebacks ever Tina Turner.
0:38:37 - Natalie
Amazing, and she's gotta be like the biggest crossover artist to have that time Right, yeah.
0:38:42 - Tara
She didn't wanna do R&B anymore. She didn't wanna be pinned into some genre, she wanted to rock. She wanted to rock.
0:38:48 - Carlos
Yeah, best in peace.
0:38:49 - Tara
And that she did, and that she did.
0:38:52 - Natalie
But yeah, this, I mean this really is the quintessential comeback story, redemption story. She was up against a lot like just let's just disregarding, you know, ike, you know lurking and actively threatening her throughout this time and all of her other troubles the industry was not very welcoming either Like she was having to overcome the ageism, the racism, the misogyny to make this happen. I mean it really is just spectacular how this worked out for her.
0:39:22 - Tara
Yeah there were some really fun moments, though, for her that I read about how I think on some television interview someone asked David Bowie what are we going to do after the show or something? And he was like I'm going to go watch my favorite artist, tina Turner. And that was before private answer was out. So, and I think also Mick Jagger had said something along those lines of Tina Turner. So it's really cool to have those two legends like on your side too.
I mean she was already a legend too in her own right. But yeah. I don't know, I just thought those were nice highlights.
0:39:53 - Natalie
That's part of the reason why Capital got all hot on her again, because she had some good career boosts in there, like she went on tour with Rod Stewart, she opened for the Rolling Stones, she did another cover, an.
0:40:07 - Carlos
Al Green cover right.
0:40:09 - Natalie
That was, I think, big in the UK. So yeah, it's good to have friends in high places like that.
0:40:16 - Carlos
I feel like she'll probably be a good candidate for another biopic movie, Like they just did one for when Houston feel like Tina Turner would be You're late, I'm what.
0:40:27 - Tara
You're late, you're late.
0:40:29 - Carlos
I'm late, oh yeah.
0:40:30 - Tara
Wait, did they already have one?
0:40:31 - Natalie
It was a Broadway show.
0:40:32 - Tara
Oh yeah.
0:40:33 - Natalie
Oh man.
0:40:34 - Carlos
Okay, yeah, fair enough, I'm late.
0:40:36 - Tara
It was epic too. You just checked out. She has a great biopic film and now a Broadway show about her life.
0:40:45 - Carlos
What's it called? What's the film called?
0:40:47 - Natalie
Tina. Oh well, the show.
0:40:50 - Carlos
Is it a recent? Did it come out recently or like?
0:40:52 - Tara
Yeah, similar recent, I forget.
0:40:56 - Carlos
I know, like Selena had one, whitney had one 2021. Wow yeah, just not promoted, man.
0:41:04 - Tara
I'd oh no, it was huge. I don't even watch TV, or movies and I watched it.
0:41:08 - Carlos
Yeah.
0:41:09 - Natalie
I think it's on HBO Max actually.
0:41:11 - Carlos
Wow, that's crazy Okay.
0:41:13 - Tara
Oh yeah, HBO. I think you're right.
0:41:14 - Carlos
Man, okay, I'll definitely check it out then.
0:41:16 - Tara
Yeah, it's very good, but that's my list.
0:41:20 - Carlos
Man, a lot of heavy hitters on your list.
0:41:22 - Tara
Yeah, for sure, it's pretty solid yeah.
0:41:26 - Carlos
Cool.
0:41:27 - Tara
Well, I'm excited to hear what you guys have. Kick it off, Carlos.
0:41:29 - Carlos
Well, all right, cool, well. So my list is not as impressive as yours, tara. You had a lot of cool history and context behind your albums. The ones that I thought of were more based on, you know, bands that I think kind of went away for a little bit and just kind of didn't do anything for a while and then came back with an album with varying degrees of success. So I think one band that comes to mind I'll start like top five. I guess right that we're doing yeah, okay, yeah. So like number five, I'm gonna cheat a little bit. I'm gonna because I just wanna talk about it. I'm curious what you guys think about it.
When I chose an album that was a comeback album that I didn't like, I'm gonna cheat a little bit and so for that spot, I chose Weezer's Green album oh, you've got your big cheese, I got my hash drive which is the album right after Pinkerton. You know, like you guys know, that's the album that didn't have Matt Sharp. I wonder if that has a lot to do with why it was not as good and why it sounded totally different than their previous records. I just felt like it didn't have the same essence of Weezer. You know we were talking about that with, like, my bloody Valentine. I also didn't realize that you know, as I was looking at who produced that album. It's crazy to know that, like Rick O'Kaseyck from the Cars produced that record Me, so maybe that's a big reason why it sounds the way it does.
0:42:58 - Tara
I don't know, because the blue album was also produced by Rick O'Kaseyck.
0:43:01 - Carlos
I didn't know that really, but it had such a, so the blue album had such a more raw sound. I feel like you know.
0:43:08 - Tara
Yeah, definitely.
0:43:10 - Carlos
So yeah, I don't know why, but for me it just didn't hit Like it was one of those weird things where it's like I almost tried to force myself to like it because it was Weezer you know, at the time I was like this is Weezer you know Like this is.
There's gotta be something in here that I really like. There's a couple of songs on the green album that I thought were okay for a while, like Island in the Sun, hashpipe, you know like there were certain catchy elements of those songs, but then I feel like it just kind of came to terms and it was just like this is actually just not good. Yeah, maybe that's a hot take, right.
0:43:42 - Tara
Here's my take on the green album, because I love the blue album and I love Pinkerton and they're both totally different from each other. The blue album has those like classic rock moments that that's what Rivers Quamo was so into when he was younger he was into classic rock and he just got kind of sucked in by the whole grunge and alternative movement and music. And then Pinkerton was like influenced from a rock opera or was kind of like a rock opera in itself, rather Makes sense.
But influenced by Madame Butterfly, and I think it was like maybe a more mature, his more mature thing. But for green album it seemed like he was trying to go simple again. But maybe we were the ones that changed because we were older.
0:44:28 - Carlos
Maybe so like. So, first let's see the blue album came out, I think in 95. 95, yeah. And then green album was 2001. For me, I was a junior in high school.
0:44:42 - Tara
Wait in which for blue or green, For green, that's maybe dating me a little bit. Well, no, I was gonna say I was 15 when the blue album came out, but I was 21 when green album came out.
0:44:57 - Carlos
Well, yeah, okay yeah.
0:45:00 - Tara
So for me I was like I'm not really into it, but by then I was already into like peaches and stuff. You know what I mean. Yeah, you had moved away. Yeah, yeah.
0:45:10 - Natalie
Well, I just was gonna say I agree with your point, tara. A lot of the times we have these expectations or we have, like, these memories and then we don't take into account how we've matured and how our tastes have changed. But also, at the same time, I think it was just kind of stale, like I'm sitting here trying to think about it Like either I bailed halfway through listening to it or the latter half was just completely forgettable to me, because I have no recollection of those songs in the latter half of it. It just made so little impact that I'm a little too apathetic to form an opinion on it. Really, I mean, I just, you know, I don't dislike, I don't like, I'm just kind of eh whatever.
0:45:47 - Tara
I think that's totally. I mean for me, because I think it was still, because when you look at the rest of other albums that came out in 2001, which I just had to cheat and pull up Discovery by Daft Punk, Amnesiac, Radiohead is that, if you want to relate it to a rock record, is this, it by the Strokes, which was more classic rock in a sense, Like it took so many influences from like Blondie and stuff like that. Vesperteen by Bjork I mean, I was just on another level by then I feel like we were pretty spoiled.
0:46:22 - Carlos
Yeah, that's a good point, Like I guess, in comparison to what was coming out. It's like the quality of like those ended up becoming classic records. You know, vesperteen. I'm like that's the Strokes album.
0:46:33 - Tara
The Shinzo inverted world. So there's a lot going on right Musically, and then but Green Album felt like Hash, like Hash Pipe, blink 182, like Crot Chiroch, I don't know. That's what it felt like.
0:46:48 - Carlos
I don't know what it was. For me it almost just felt like hey, I guess we're due an album, let's put something out, which maybe that's harsh, but it just kind of how it impacted me and it was so disappointing. Like that's where I'm starting.
0:47:03 - Tara
I respect this choice to bring this up as a good combo. I yeah, because I loved Weezer and I still love them, but I don't listen to anything new by them.
0:47:15 - Carlos
Exactly, and that's like that for me, was sort of like the beginning of their musical decline, in my opinion. You know people love them still today. Yeah, I would say that album that they put out recently of like 80s cover songs since we're talking about the 80s, right, oh, it was actually pretty good. The Toto cover was actually pretty good.
0:47:34 - Tara
There's a new oh yeah, I like that cover. Honestly it's cheesy but I like, I enjoy a cheesy moment. But there's an even newer one of not covers of original stuff that I think I've, I think I like it. I think that one is called Seasons or SDNZ.
0:47:52 - Carlos
I'll have to check that out then.
0:47:54 - Tara
Wait, they have like a season, they have a spring, they have a winter.
0:47:58 - Carlos
Oh, yeah, all those seasons that sounds familiar Okay.
0:48:02 - Tara
One of them I really liked.
0:48:03 - Carlos
Yeah, I can't remember which one.
Anyways, yeah, so that was disappointing. It's all uphill from here, though, for my list, I think. Anyways, yeah, this is such a hard topic and I was struggling to kind of think of some impactful ones and again my choices came mainly just from time base, like kind of went away for a while and then they came back. So this next one kind of going sticking with the shoegaze theme a little bit, and I have a little bit of a bias for why it shows this album. But the album is Molten Young Lovers by a band called Ariel. They're from Chicago, they're a shoegaze band. They've been around for a long, long time. They were one of the first, like other shoegaze bands, that I heard outside of Slow Dive and, like my Bloody Valentine, they're one of the first bands that, like you know, I heard and sort of discovered that there was like a cool scene of like underground, like shoegaze bands that exist. This was like late 90s, early 2000s, I think. So they have this box set of. They were released as EPs called Winks and Kisses. They recently reissued it. The bias part comes in because they actually asked me to remix one of their songs for the reissue, and so that's you know kind of why I chose this Because, like again they were, they became one of my favorite like shoegaze bands and so, like you know, I loved their earlier work and I was I wish they would come out with something new and they finally did.
They came out with this really great record, molten Young Lovers. Yeah, I think it's a good comeback album because it feels they still kept the essence of Ariel. Like the production value still feels the same, like the songs are still. Like it feels like an Ariel record, like we were talking about that with my Bloody Valentine, but you know you can tell like they're still pushing it a little bit forward, like the songwriting is really great, really great lyrics. So I don't know, I just love the album and I love that it kind of like kept that identity carried through, putting that one at number four on my list. I've never heard of this band.
0:50:14 - Tara
I don't think I've heard of this band, but sometimes I'll like listen to something one time and then forget about it.
0:50:20 - Carlos
Yeah.
0:50:21 - Tara
But yeah, I don't think I've heard of this band.
0:50:24 - Carlos
Yeah, and the reason I even got in touch with them is because a buddy of mine that I used to work with was friends with this girl that sang on one of their like you know more recognizable singles, which is called Firefly.
Her name is Stella Tran and she does the vocals on that song. Again, I think it's called Firefly, and I actually got to remix that song, which was amazing for the record. That's the one they asked me to remake and so, anyways, like my buddy put me in touch with her because he told her I was a big fan of Ariel, and then she put me in touch with Jeremy, who's the frontman of the band, and we just kind of like talked online for a bit and got to know each other. And you know, it's just this sort of like really cool moment to like meet and like talk to like this iconic figure. You know, like in my musical sort of like library. I don't know, it was a weird sensation, weird feel, but yeah, so this one is pretty like top of mind for me because it's I love the band and I love the record.
0:51:24 - Tara
That's cool, and how long the time break was there between?
0:51:29 - Carlos
Yeah. So I think this one actually also might be cheating a little bit, because it's a little bit less than 10 years, I think. But I want to say the last thing they did was in 2007 maybe, and then Malton Young Lovers 2017. Oh, so I guess maybe that's about 10 years, ish, that's 10 years.
Yeah yeah, the Battle of Sea Land. That was the last thing that they did. That's kind of an interesting story behind that, recorded on this little. It's literally a country called Sea Land. It's like an independent country, but it's like a super small like I don't know, I don't even know how Micro, micro nation. Micro nation. There you go, it's crazy.
0:52:10 - Tara
Interesting.
0:52:10 - Carlos
Yeah, it's an interesting story of how they played a show there. I think or they did something about they have some association with Sea Land outside of just naming their album after it.
0:52:22 - Tara
They were named official lords of Sea.
0:52:25 - Carlos
Land. That's it. That's so cool, though, like I want to be like a lord of a country.
0:52:31 - Tara
Yeah Well maybe if you could go there and also name something on your new album related to them and you could get even more success than them maybe you can become a lord also.
0:52:45 - Carlos
Well, I got a lot of work to do. I got a big, big right ahead of me there.
0:52:49 - Tara
Better start now.
0:52:50 - Carlos
I'm well been at this for years now with Navigator, but we'll see, maybe something will happen. The Roy Orbison story was a good inspiration for that.
0:53:01 - Natalie
Lord Navigator sounds pretty cool, though I think you should just play, actually Just re-brand it. Yeah, just take it, I like that actually. Do that.
0:53:06 - Tara
That is Lord Navigator. That's great actually.
0:53:09 - Natalie
And I'm badass, I love that. I have never heard of this band before, but I have to say I love the title Multin Young Lovers Like that's intriguing enough for me to check it out.
0:53:20 - Carlos
Oh yeah, definitely check it out. They've also worked really closely with Ulrich Schnauz. If you're familiar with him, he's like a great electronic producer. He's been around for a long time. Check out Sugar Crystals. That's a track that he produced and it's a beautiful track.
So that was my number four and I guess I'll go on to number three. So this next album is another like pretty. This band had a pretty influential record for me musically, which is also a little bit of why it shows it and then they went away for a while and they came back and put out a really amazing album. So for number three, this is Inlet by this band called Hum, which I'm sure you know of Tara. You've got to know who Hum is, yeah, so the last album that they did before this one, I think, was I think it was like it was 90 something Inlet was released 2020. And again, one of those albums that like production value, like sound wise, just everything, just like felt like a continuation of Hum, but like even better, like I got to see them live and perform their songs here in Atlanta. It was so cool. Like, when they were doing this, me too, you did Breaking ball. Yes, yeah, that was it. Yeah, I was there.
0:54:47 - Tara
It was so great right. I was yelling at some guy who's going you suck what I was like. Why are you here?
0:54:54 - Carlos
I don't understand that. I was like shut up, of course me.
0:55:00 - Tara
Skinny little girl in the middle of the crowd and he's like bye, fallouche, I'm like God you're dumb, oh no.
0:55:06 - Carlos
You're actually just a dumb, dumb. That doesn't make any sense. Like I'm going to spend. It wasn't a cheap show necessarily, right, Like, so like I'm going to spend a lot of money and go it was a festival right. Yeah, I think the night I went to see them, I think there was like one night where it was just yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think there was one night where it was Pre party maybe.
0:55:26 - Tara
Maybe that's what it was.
0:55:27 - Carlos
Yeah, because I think it was just them, at least when I no, I think you're right.
I think that was like a special one off or something, but yeah, so like they played a lot from this album, from what I remember and yeah, it was so good and their first, their previous two albums you'd prefer an astronaut and then like downward is heavenward, I think, is the other one. I mean those are two like pretty iconic albums, I think from like the 90s, you know, and I feel like this one kind of I think it could sit up there with those two albums. I mean, they had the songwriting still there Again, like they still have that huge wall of sound and like there are certain songs on this album that I listened to on repeat and to me that's a mark of like a classic album, you know, and there's multiple tracks like that that just like sound so good and I have to listen to them on. I thought this was worth mentioning.
0:56:21 - Tara
So this was like what? Like almost 20 years went by.
0:56:25 - Carlos
Yeah, this was a big time in my mind comeback album. Like they just totally disappeared. I don't think any of the members did anything related in other bands or anything like that they just kind of like disappeared in a plume of dust and then just like surprise or back. So yeah, I put this one on number three.
0:56:44 - Tara
Yeah, it does seem like they did have. Some of the members had side projects, but they, of course, well, we didn't know who they were, and I mean like they're small.
0:56:52 - Carlos
Yeah, I mean like yeah, that's not like not really doing anything that would know about on the same level as Hum. So definitely a good album to listen to if you're into like heavy like wall of sound type production.
0:57:06 - Tara
I love those quiet moments, then just explode into loud which was a guitarist.
0:57:11 - Carlos
That was like a big theme. I feel like in the 90s Grand Jair was like the quiet, loud, quiet, loud, dynamic, yeah, but they did it really well. That's number three. So number two is also a shoe gaze record. It's a big shoe gaze theme. So my number two pick is the self titled album from Slow Dive. And yes, so again, like this band was like put through the ringer, like you know, back when they were putting out Suvlaki and Pigmalion, like they were sort of panned across the board, Like they weren't really paid attention to that that much. You know they were famously part of the you know shoe gaze like movement and they were called sort of like the scene that celebrates itself. You know the part of that whole movement. But now, like they've come out with this beautiful new album, they've had this resurgence, this new like tour. I actually got to see them twice. I saw them play in Chicago at Pitchfork Festival.
0:58:17 - Tara
Me too, I was there.
0:58:19 - Carlos
Well, what's up, Tara? Let's get us some shit.
0:58:23 - Tara
We were in Chicago at the same time.
0:58:25 - Carlos
Yeah Well, wasn't it beautiful when they played the last song. I think it was lit and I'm spacing on the name Let Down your Golden Hair, I think the name of it.
0:58:33 - Tara
The sun was like behind them.
0:58:35 - Carlos
Yes, that was just like so beautiful. So anyways, I digress, but yeah, I felt like that album. So this is a good example of an album that still feels like Slow Dive but they're actually trying a few new things here. Like they're, the drumming is a little bit simpler, the production is a little bit more stripped down, but they still feel. It feels like a shoe gaze like Slow Dive album to me. Like you know, rachel and Neil still have that perfect like combination of vocals that like you can maybe understand their vocals a little bit more in this production of this record versus the earlier stuff.
But like, I feel like this is a great example of like a comeback record where they're trying new stuff, you know, but just kind of like still feels core to who they are. You know there's layered synths. Now they're doing a lot more with like different samples and stuff like that. A lot of that is also because, like they're drummer Ian I think he's been doing a lot of like film production, like sound design kind of work since Slow Dive. So I'm curious if maybe some of that kind of came or crept into like some of the new material. But yeah, I loved the record. I thought I thought it was like just really beautiful. And again, this was, I think, pigmalion. I'm trying to remember when that came out. That was the last one they did, if I'm 95.
Yeah, 95. Yeah, so I mean, and then, um, yeah, exactly, and then the self titled was a 2017. So beautiful record. I don't know if you've heard it right. Yes, of course.
1:00:04 - Tara
I love, I love Slow Dive, but also how fun it's like you get dropped by creation records which they were kind of going through, some stuff too, but then you're immediately picked up by 4AD, Like if all the labels that you want to be on it's 4AD. That's where all the credit is. Yeah that's where all the good cocktail twins.
1:00:24 - Carlos
Oh yeah.
1:00:25 - Tara
All of them.
1:00:26 - Carlos
Absolutely. Yeah, yes I love Slow Dive.
1:00:28 - Tara
This is a great example. Plus what, how many years? That was almost 20 years for them too.
1:00:33 - Carlos
Yeah, it was, yeah, was it, oh man 95 to 2017. Yeah.
1:00:39 - Tara
I can't do math. Someone do the math for me.
1:00:42 - Carlos
And of course they did Mojave 3.
1:00:44 - Tara
Yeah.
1:00:45 - Carlos
Neil and Rachel did that project but you know, totally different than Slow Dive. It was interesting to like hear them come back to that like sort of shoegaze rock setting because like Mojave 3 and Neil Solo stuff was very country folk inspired and so just like I don't know having them come back to the loud stuff, yeah, yeah, interesting.
1:01:06 - Tara
Good one, Natalie. Do you like slow dive?
1:01:09 - Natalie
You know I've listened to a bit of slow dive but honestly I'm not a big shoegaze kind of person, so I'm going to let you aficionados take the reins. No, no worries.
1:01:18 - Carlos
Yeah, it's interesting, shoegaze has been bleeding into a lot of other genres of music, like I just saw Def Heaven in Asheville not too long ago, and they're often described as like shoegaze, black metal, like the weirdest combination. But it makes sense if you kind of think about it.
1:01:35 - Tara
I mean, is that not drone in a sense?
1:01:38 - Carlos
Yes.
1:01:39 - Tara
Just like bang on your guitar as loud as you can, just let it ring out. Ah and sludgy and loud.
1:01:44 - Carlos
Yes, I mean, you know they did the tremolo thing at their show every now and then, so maybe that's the shoegaze part of it.
1:01:51 - Tara
But Thank you, Kevin Shields.
1:01:52 - Carlos
Thank you, Kevin Shields. But yeah, it's interesting to see like the influence that shoegaze has brought into mainstream culture as well, like I can hear it in so many like contemporary modern acts too.
1:02:06 - Tara
So Mm-hmm For sure.
1:02:08 - Carlos
Anyways cool.
1:02:09 - Tara
Well, that was your number two.
1:02:11 - Carlos
That was my number two, Ooh okay, number one, number one, yeah. So again, these were really hard to pick and there are probably much better albums that I'm blanking on, but some of these are recent, like this number one pick is super recent because I just saw them live too, actually. So my number one pick is LP2 by American Football, never change baby, that's okay.
So this is one of those bands that Okay, if you know who the concelas are, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about Like super influential Midwest indie punk, emo scene. Some people say that they invented or maybe perpetuated the emo kind of sound. There are bands out there that sound identical to bands that members of American Football have been in, super influential, like I was obsessed with them for the longest time. I think I first heard them 2002 or three, which was they had been broken up by then, I think, because I think their first and only album was 99. Maybe, yeah, 99, I think, is when they put out their self-titled LP and then they just they're all named, they're all self-titled, are they, I think, the most.
1:03:34 - Tara
Oh, they just call them LP1, LP2.
1:03:36 - Carlos
Well, I think the most recent release, which I think is an EP, might have a name, but otherwise, yes, they're just the first one is LP1. It's got this very iconic picture of this house which has been carried through and a few other things. But yeah, so you know, 1999 to, let's see, 2016 is when I think they put out the LP2. And again, like a perfect example of just like a band that carried through, like they actually got better, I think, with this follow-up album.
Yeah, it just kind of comes out of nowhere Like the original lineup all three original members and then they added a couple of people to play live shows. I recently saw them in Asheville. That was a busy weekend, by the way. I saw American Football and then I saw Def Heav in the next night. So interesting, nice weekend of live music.
1:04:26 - Tara
But they played here too, Same night as King Cruel, but I went to King Cruel oh yeah, they played with Dinosaur Junior right. Yeah, yeah.
1:04:34 - Carlos
I didn't feel so bad about missing that one because I'd seen Dinosaur Junior already. Great live band.
So, yeah, I didn't feel as bad missing out on the Atlanta show, but again, just like perfect example of like great instrumentation and they bring that to the live show as well. You know, they added a few different people to like play instruments like Vibraphones. They have other drummers, just like. There's this cool thing where he's like playing trumpet solo. You feel like you're in a jazz club somewhere in the live show. So, yeah, just really expand on like their instrumentation. It sort of feels like it's almost like the album. This is the album that they wanted to make but they couldn't Because it was just the three of them two guys and a guitar and a drummer. But now they have like cult following going for them and it's yeah, they've just been getting better and better. So this is where I ended up with my number one, I think. I think it's a great album and a good comeback album.
1:05:27 - Tara
And that's LP three.
1:05:29 - Carlos
I think it's LP two. Yeah, LP two.
1:05:31 - Tara
Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. I thought it was a later one that you're referring to. Ok, LP two.
1:05:36 - Carlos
LP two Yep, yep.
1:05:37 - Tara
And I don't remember if I've listened to that one, but I love the first one definitely. And also, yes, heard it back when I was in college, and I also really enjoyed Captain Jazz, of course.
1:05:47 - Carlos
So which, yeah, which, if those listening. If you don't know, it's Mike Kinsella is the brother of Tim Kinsella. They were both brothers in Captain Jazz, who spawned a myriad of other bands. There's actually a cool graph that exists somewhere online of like the family tree. Someone actually took the time to diagram, like OK, these two people in this band and they split it, this band. It's kind of interesting to track the lineage of all those bands.
1:06:16 - Tara
Yeah, cool.
1:06:18 - Natalie
That's it. That's all I got Very cool. I always like a list where I have lots of new stuff to listen to, so thank you for that. Awesome Got a little homework.
1:06:27 - Tara
I also do like how your list was more like rock and indie, and so I'm now I'm because mine had a lot of not country, but yeah, I mean, like Roy Orbison, elvis and Johnny Cash, like these are classic stuff, the old guys, I know I'm excited to see what Natalie has, to see how we're like covering all the different we are drastically Awesome. Different. No, that's great, that's cool.
1:06:58 - Natalie
Yeah, ok, so I'm going to. I'll get through these speedily. My number five is Madonna Ray of Light. Oh yeah, it turns 25 this year so I got to give it its props.
I feel like Ray of Light was Madonna's most significant, ambitious pivot in her whole career. Like we're used to her changing up her concepts and her styles and stuff, but there was something really I think brave and like special about this particular era because she'd hooked up with legendary electronic producer William Orbit Me and she put out these really silky, trippy, trancy dance tracks. I just think it was the next level for her and this is when she really became a master of reinvention. You know, frozen was a massive track, definitely a curveball to lead with such an ethereal, melancholic ballad, you know, with the beautiful strings and the Moroccan influence and the percussion. And she had that gorgeous Gothic visual in the Mojave Desert directed by Chris Cunningham. It was just, I'm telling you I well, the whole school school was so much fun when Ray of Light came out Like everybody was going crazy over it to see what else. I mean, madonna has never been known for her voice but I think, coming off the filming of Evita, this was the best her voice has ever sounded.
1:08:34 - Carlos
I feel like there was an era. When did this album come out?
1:08:37 - Natalie
This was 98.
1:08:39 - Carlos
It was an era where, like, a lot of pop artists started to really go to get like techno inspired and like incorporate a lot of electronic production. It's just around the same time that Cher was doing her that kind of stuff with like auto team OK yeah, this was like right on the break of that, yeah. I'm sure there are other artists that that were doing the same thing, but I feel like there was a period of time where, like there was this, like tronic, like techno inspired production coming to mainstream.
1:09:04 - Tara
For sure, that was also 1998.
1:09:06 - Natalie
Yeah, william Orbit was in high demand. You know when Ray of Light came out for sure. Of course, this shift in sound was also heavily influenced by Madonna's foray into Cabala, and it was her first release since becoming a mother. So the whole vibe was just dripping with this cosmic spiritual energy. Let's see, we had Ray of Light, which was was an instant dance pop classic. Side note, did you know that Ray of Light is sort of a remake of a 1971 tune called Saffron by English folk duo Curtis Maldoon?
1:09:38 - Tara
What no idea.
1:09:40 - Natalie
It's like pretty much the lyrics are exactly the same. It's exactly the same. We'll play a little bit of it.
1:09:45 - Carlos
Yeah.
1:09:57 - Natalie
So this album came out four years after bedtime stories, which is my other favorite Madonna era. So she was. She was really rock and mo world in the 90s, but I suspect Ray of Light will be the Madonna record that really stands the test of time, I think.
1:10:11 - Tara
Yeah, it was like way different, like I agree, as she pushed herself a little further out that time. And then I really enjoyed the one right after that music, because it has. I liked music too. The song Music Makes that People.
1:10:26 - Carlos
Yeah, oh was that after Ray of Light. Yeah.
1:10:29 - Tara
And then Don't Tell Me what it Feels Like to Be a Girl. This whole era of Madonna is so good, Dude she was killing it.
1:10:37 - Natalie
Yeah, she, she didn't miss for a long, long time. Yeah.
1:10:40 - Carlos
Natalie, do you see any overlap with this style and some of the like pop singers that are getting popular today? Like I feel, like I hear elements of this stuff and like stuff like Charlie.
1:10:51 - Natalie
XCX, yes, yeah, xcx, oh, for sure.
1:10:54 - Carlos
And like other, like I don't know, maybe like Dua Lipa or I don't know. I don't follow those artists as much, but I feel like I hear some elements of like from this album and like some modern music too.
1:11:05 - Natalie
Yeah, yeah, you're definitely right. I feel like there was a period of time in pop, maybe a decade ago, where, like everyone was doing a dance remix with David Guetta or something like that, everyone was kind of dipping their toes into the techno thing.
1:11:16 - Carlos
Yeah, exactly yeah.
1:11:18 - Natalie
All right, so my number four is Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters.
1:11:36 - Tara
Yes, so good. Yes, so she could come back. I'm so glad you said this one.
1:11:40 - Natalie
Yep. She released this in 20, 20, eight years after her previous album, the Eyelur Wheel, which I also really loved. I loved that she announced this album on Instagram by spelling it out in sign language. That was just it. It's a pretty spectacular album, which is no small feat Like considering. I think all her albums are pretty solid. Many critics called it her best work to date. The album won two Grammys one for Best Alternative Album and Best Rock Performance for the lead single, called Shamika.
1:12:11 - Tara
Shamika said I had potential. Shamika said I had potential. Shamika said I had potential.
1:12:22 - Natalie
This album was recorded almost completely at her house during a period of time where she hardly ever left Kindred Spirits she and I and then, of course, during the COVID quarantine. In an NPR interview she explains how she believes her house is alive and she wanted to repay the house for taking her and her dog in by making it the music. So throughout the album you hear lots of unconventional homemade percussion. You know people marching through and chanting, random sounds, dogs barking, who are credited on the album for their contributions, by the way, which I love.
1:12:56 - Carlos
It seems like a very Bjork thing to say, yeah, I would expect that from you.
1:13:00 - Natalie
I know right. Yeah, I think, Fiona, they're kind of cut from a similar cloth. Yeah, I can see that those two. Another favorite track of mine on that album is Heavy Balloon.
1:13:12 - Tara
I spread it like strawberries. I climb like peas and beans. I've been stuck in it so long that I'm busting ass.
1:13:22 - Natalie
I like how her voice is so dynamic, like she can be really really soft and kind of sing like in an upper register in her head voice and kind of purr, but then she can get really strong and gritty and growly when she wants to and you just kind of get. You get the whole gamut of her range in this album and I think it's really great.
1:13:40 - Tara
Yeah, I love Under the Table. That one's my favorite. Yeah, that's a good one too.
1:13:44 - Natalie
Under the Table Relay is another one I love. It's a great album. I think there's just this like organic creativity and freedom in the way it came together. That like perfectly matches the theme she had of like not being afraid to speak, breaking out of whatever prison you've allowed yourself to live in, you know. So Well done, miss Apple.
1:14:04 - Tara
She's I love her so much.
1:14:07 - Natalie
Yeah, she's super cool. All right, Number three I have a tribe called Quest. We got it from here. Thank you for your service.
1:14:15 - Tara
We don't believe you because we, the people, are still here in the rear. Yo, we don't need you. You ain't killing all good young nigga. Move when we get hungry, to eat the same fucking food.
1:14:25 - Natalie
The ramen noodle. So I love this one. Yeah, this is a double album released in 2016, nearly two decades after their previous album, the Love Movement in 98. And it's also the final album from these hip hop Titans who brought us, you know, can I kick it? Electric relaxation. Benita Applebum, just like tons and tons of classics, definitely one of my favorite groups of all time. Sadly, member five dog passed away about five months into recording. So you know, the album became a. It became a farewell. That was even more significant, you know farewell instance of the group and also the passing of this member. So the remaining members Q-Tip DJ Ali, shahid Muhammad and Jarobi White invited some long time collaborators to step in and fill in the gaps. For example, let's hear a bit of their second single called Disgeneration, which features Busta Rhymes. Other guest appearances include Andre 3000, kendrick Lamar, kanye Anderson, pock, jack White, consequence and Elton John. So it is star studded, this record.
1:15:40 - Carlos
Yeah, sounds amazing.
1:15:41 - Tara
Yeah, we the People, is my favorite off this one.
1:15:44 - Natalie
We, the People, is that that's got that black Sabbath sample in there, right oh?
1:15:48 - Tara
does it. That's the rocky one, that's cool. Yes, drum break from yeah, I dig that one.
1:15:54 - Natalie
Yeah. So what's really great about this album? It still sounds so distinctly tribe 27 years, you know, these guys have been in the game and, at the same time, just completely current and relevant against the backdrop of all the like social and political shit that was happening in 2016. Like this dropped days after the presidential election, so you know, things were tense, but yet they still know how to like address complex themes of like, racial inequality and injustice, while maintaining this carefree, witty block party kind of vibe which I've always loved about them. But I gotta play a little bit of my favorite track on the whole album. It's called Kids and it features Andre 3000. Kids don't you know how to shit this fantasy?
1:16:35 - Tara
Kids don't you know how to shit this fantasy Kids? Don't you know how to shit this fantasy For real?
1:16:41 - Natalie
So, yeah, this was a huge success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album charts. Great way for these guys to go out, I think.
1:16:49 - Tara
Yeah, I saw Tribe at Pitchfork also.
1:16:52 - Carlos
Wasn't the same Pitchfork right? Was it the first Lodive? I can't remember.
1:16:56 - Tara
I don't think it was.
1:16:58 - Carlos
In Natalie. I remember hearing that album come out or like being advertised and like being promoted. I totally slept on it.
1:17:04 - Natalie
So I'm gonna go add it to my like must listen to list.
For sure, for sure. All right, I'm at number two. Wow, I know I'm going to go down through. Okay, this is D'Angelo Black Messiah. So Black Messiah, December 2014,. 14 years after his album Voodoo, the man drops an album in the middle of the night with his band the Vanguard, as well as Pino Paladino, James Gatson and Questlove. Featuring His story is really fascinating. His fame and that whole like you remember that, how Does it Feel? Era, yeah, when people were just salivating over him. He got really weirded out by his popularity and his new status as a sex symbol and he basically retreated into the shadows. It's weird. I feel like a lot of those really popular neosoul acts from the 90s just could not deal with the fame, Like Lauren Hill did the same thing. There's a handful of them that just were like I don't know about this and just cut out completely A stream where they didn't really need to do anything else, because they're still rolling in it after all the success.
Well, that too, but just being so like this, really turned off by fame and all the attention, like Dave Chappelle also. Yeah, it's just a lot of really talented artists.
1:18:33 - Carlos
I wonder how much of that was like the music industry itself too. Like I wonder if they were kind of pushing artists more to be like more what audiences wanted, versus like promoting, like who they were and like what they wanted to do. Like I feel like I wonder if it was more of a toxic industry back in that era versus I was going to say maybe it's less toxic these days, but I don't know if that's true either.
1:18:57 - Natalie
Oh yeah, I'm sure it was for sure toxic, especially to these artists who just had something really pure that they wanted to express. It had to be filtered through this. You know money hungry yeah.
1:19:09 - Carlos
Yeah, it was like earlier days, like they wanted you to be this product more, be a product that you could sold to people and like maybe that's eased up a little bit these days, but I definitely get that vibe from the earlier era of time.
1:19:22 - Natalie
Yeah, definitely. So he returned home to Richmond and, you know, struggled with drugs and alcohol. Things kind of fell apart. Plans for a live album were scrapped, funding for his next album was cut, personal and business relationships fell apart. Then the DUI and the rehab and then that infamous mugshot circulated of him not looking too great and then, on top of it all, he was in a near fatal car crash, breaking half his ribs. So he was really going through it. But throughout that time he was he'd been recording and like really hustling and he did it. He put together this amazing album.
The first single is called Really Love. It's this gorgeous mix of hip hop, swing, flamenco. It's got that sample from Curtis Mayfield's song we, the People who Are Darker Than Blue, and like the production on this track just blows my mind. I don't know how they got it to sound so smooth. The mixer, russell Elevato like. There's some interviews with him online where he talks about the creation of this album and it's absolutely fascinating. I mean, he's a Grammy award winning engineer, he's been in the game a long time but like, for example, in the liner notes it says that no digital plugins of any kind were used in the recording. All of the recording, processing effects and mixing was done in the analog domain using tape and mostly vintage equipment, and reportedly about 200 reels of 24 track tape was used. Like do the math on that? Like that budget has to just be in outer space.
1:20:50 - Carlos
It's a lot of patience too for that.
1:20:52 - Tara
Yeah, yeah, but it does seem rather tedious.
1:20:56 - Natalie
It's insane, but it's completely paid off. Like he achieved this mellow, warm sound, I just it blows my mind when I listen to it. It's something else. The New York Times said that Black Messiah quote captured American unrest through the studio Merc of Sly Stone. The fervor of Funkadelic and the off kilter grooves somewhere between Jay Dilla and Captain Beefheart.
1:21:20 - Carlos
Interesting range, I know.
1:21:22 - Natalie
Right.
1:21:22 - Tara
I love both of those.
1:21:24 - Natalie
A lot of stuff in there, a lot of prints in there too, with all the multi-track vocals. Here's a little bit of the second single that I really love. It's called Betray my Heart. I'm lost last year. I will never betray my heart. I will never betray my heart and, yeah, in 2016, this won the Grammy for Best R&B Album, so this was really like a rising from the ashes story for. Deangelo yeah.
1:21:54 - Tara
I'm so glad you put this one on here.
1:21:58 - Carlos
It's on my shortlist.
1:21:59 - Tara
I'm so glad that you covered it, deangelo.
1:22:03 - Natalie
It's just such a fascinating story.
1:22:05 - Tara
Except for, like I'm sorry, how could you not know you're going to be a sex symbol when you put that video out? Like that, I mean true that you were naked and you worked out for it a lot.
1:22:15 - Natalie
Yeah, he was doing a lot in that video, Like half the whole world thirsting. What did you expect?
1:22:21 - Tara
I know what did you expect. Maybe he just wasn't expecting that much, but still.
1:22:27 - Natalie
Oh, I'm sure Like what's the big deal? It happened like overnight, right. What's the big deal? I'm just over here like seductively licking my lips and flexing.
1:22:36 - Carlos
He's just like this is how I normally am.
1:22:39 - Tara
I'm just like Not to mention his body just looked like an actual sculpture or something Right like how?
1:22:47 - Natalie
Yeah, I can imagine it's probably a bit of a screws with your mind when you have that kind of attention on you all of a sudden. Yeah, all right. Well, this is going to be easy, because my number one is also Tina Turner, private dancer.
1:23:00 - Tara
No way yeah.
1:23:11 - Natalie
I think we covered pretty much everything. I mean I'll say it remains her best selling album in the United States. It was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. Oh yeah, Sadly Tina Turner passed away this year just a few months ago, May 24th. But what, what a life, what a legacy, what an amazing pair of legs. Love her.
1:23:33 - Tara
Yes, amazing pair of legs. She gives me chills just thinking about her. She's so wonderful yeah. That's it. That is my top five. I love it Excellent yeah. So, much range between all of these lips Totally.
1:23:47 - Natalie
Yeah, it's fantastic.
1:23:48 - Tara
So good, quickly, let's do our honorable mentions. Keep going, natalie.
1:23:53 - Natalie
All right, I had a Portis Head third, oh yeah, chiba Mato. Hotel Valentine, mariah Carey, the Emancipation of Mimi, just cause she saved herself from that whole glitter debacle and came back. That's true, really great. Yeah, those were my top ones.
1:24:10 - Tara
I have Apex Twin, syro and D'Angelo.
1:24:13 - Natalie
That was what I was going to do.
1:24:14 - Tara
Really. And D'Angelo Black Messiah, nice, what about you? Yeah, what else you got?
1:24:20 - Carlos
Yeah, I had Syro as well. I used their comeback album Freedom as being a kind of a let down but being a notable comeback album from a notable band.
1:24:32 - Tara
I love it. Awesome, sweet. We have stayed in this store for far too long. We need to close it down.
1:24:39 - Natalie
Well, before we go, if you could, our special guest, please come to the intercom and let the folks in the store know how can they hear your music.
1:24:46 - Carlos
Oh yeah, Good call. The best way to hear my music right now is probably to go on Bandcamp Bandcampcom, slash Navigator. I've also got music on SoundCloud and I have a few albums uploaded to Spotify. If you're a Spotify user, those would be the best ways to hear my stuff.
1:25:01 - Natalie
And spell that for us, because I know you've got a unique spell.
1:25:03 - Carlos
Yeah, I spell it a different way than it sounds, so N-A-V-I-G-A-T-E-U-R. So just kind of spell the last part like a French person might. Right, but pronounce it like, I guess, an American word. I don't know what I was doing when I gave myself that.
1:25:19 - Natalie
I think it's super cool.
1:25:21 - Carlos
Well, thank you.
1:25:22 - Natalie
And I love your music. I've been checking it out on Spotify and on campus as well. Awesome, appreciate it.
1:25:27 - Tara
Great stuff, and now I also need to check out the remix from that aerial.
1:25:31 - Carlos
Oh yeah, the you. You did Very cool Firefly remix, and then there's another one for Cloudburst, so two remixes.
1:25:38 - Tara
Nice, oh nice, excellent, yes, and we will also put links to your material on our store website and Instagram and socials and et cetera. Plus, we hang out in Discord when we're not in the store, so if anyone wants to hang out, chat, tell us your top five, come back, albums or whatever else. We also have channel in our Discord for self-promotions shameless self-promotion. So come, chat and tell us.
1:26:07 - Natalie
Yeah, we want to hear what you're doing.
1:26:09 - Tara
Yeah.
1:26:09 - Natalie
Share your tunes.
1:26:10 - Tara
We like to listen.
1:26:11 - Natalie
Some recommendations. Yeah, awesome Cool. It's been fantastic having you yeah.
1:26:16 - Carlos
Thank you so much.
1:26:17 - Natalie
And thank you for having me. You're welcome Great. And thank you for being part of our conversation.
1:26:24 - Carlos
Yeah, this was super fun. I hope it was okay. Oh, absolutely Awesome. Yeah, this was super fun.
1:26:28 - Tara
Thanks again for having me Always happy to chat music. Thank you for hanging out with us in the store let's lock up and go home Awesome See
1:26:35 - Natalie
you guys at home. Good night, everybody. See you later, bye, bye.
1:26:45 - Tara
All right, all right, thank you.
Transcribed by https://podium.page