Badass Records

Kyle Davis is a son, a brother, a husband, a father to three adorable daughters, and the co-proprietor of Cicada Co., a design-and-build company.

Kyle was kind enough to give of his super-busy schedule and come sit with me for episode #20 of Badass Records Podcast. He chose Radiohead's In Rainbows (2007) as his musical selection, but we didn't limit our conversation to just that record.

The Cicada crew's fine, fine work is visible on the Web (cicadaco.com) and evidence of their fantastic work can be found on the 'Gram at @cicada_co.

A single father of two couldn't ask for better neighbors, and -- were they not corner-lot dwellers -- I'm sure the folks on the other side of their home would say the same thing.

Please consider giving our episode a view or a listen, and if you dig it, please tell a friend. And above all, please remember to be a good neighbor.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio. They are samples from "Is There Anybody Here That Loves My Jesus" and "Jelly Belly," both of which are from Shack-Man (1996), c/o Gramavision, Inc.

Jordan Gooch is a daughter, a sister, and a dog mom.

We met in the service industry around a decade and change ago back when I was a first-time new dad and she was feeling her way through the post-high-school/early-college years. We would -- on occasion -- cross paths behind the restaurant and swap stories about life and music over cigarettes, so I knew that once I got this project off the ground, she would be a good candidate for an episode.

It took a handful of tries to get Jordan in the room, but from jump street, her selection for what wound up being episode #19 was Circa Survive's On Letting Go.

Spiders and tornadoes kept her up most of the night before we recorded, but she rallied, showed up, and did a C- job of pretending like she wasn't going to fall asleep across the duration of our chat.

So, shouts out to her, and shouts out to you if you happen to give our conversation a listen or a view. And a lil' extra something for you if you tell a friend.

Thanks for stopping by the Badass Records Podcast.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio. They are clips from "Sagittarius by Moonlight," by The Olympians from their self-titled 2016 release, c/o Daptone Records, and Ween's "Bananas and Blow" from the 2018 record of the same name (c/o Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group), respectively.

Shawn Damm is a son, a brother, a husband, a proud father of two, and an all-around righteous dude.

He's written more return addresses in the top-left corners of envelopes than he can literally remember, and unless you wanna be told to go fly a kite, don't tell him what to do.

Mr. Damm was kind enough to join me for a fantastic conversation about life and love and children and music. We had a couple cold ones, cracked a lot o' wise, and tried to burn the place to the ground.

Movies came up, and books were discussed. Cars and jobs were touched on. We examined college failures and discovered our love of Too $hort was mutual.

As a matter of fact, I'm not sure what we didn't cover.

Eventually we got around to Shawn's selection for this episode (#18), which was Rage Against the Machine's self-titled debut from 1991, and it was fun to re-discover what a banger that record was.

Please give our chat a listen or a view, and if you're feeling intimidated by the episode length, take comfort in the fact that I cut out the first 50 minutes just for you. 'Cause I'm a thoughtful podcast host like that.

Anyway, please tell your friends about Badass Records, and please send any potential interview candidates that come to mind my way.

Thank you, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio. They are samples from "Mercury's Odyssey," by The Olympians from their self-titled, 2016 album, c/o Daptone Records.

Dave Tschirhart is a son, a brother, a father, a husband, a lover of music and tattoos, and he is also the proprietor of Blue Valley Tree & Outdoors.

He's a friendly, knowledgable dude, that was pretty pumped to come do an episode of Badass Records Podcast with me, and his selections did not disappoint.

Please have a view on YouTube (channel link in bio) or a listen via the Web site -- badassrecordspodcast.com -- and perhaps you'll enjoy us talking AC/DC Back in Black and Def Leppard Pyromania enough to tell a friend.

Thanks for stopping by.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio samples. They are clips from Morcheeba's, "The Great London Traffic Warden Massacre" off of their 2002 release entitled Charango, c/o China Records, LTD.

Joe Strobl joined Badass Records Podcast for episode #16, and I'm not sure what we didn't cover: being engaged, smoking briskets, Anthony Bourdain, pro wrestling, Wakarusa, high school, family, Chiefs season tickets, collecting vinyl, Bruce Springsteen, Swedish visas (or the lack thereof).

You know. The typical Tuesday-evening fodder.

Joe chose My Morning Jacket's Z, The '59 Sound by Gaslight Anthem, and everybody's favorite Wilco record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as his initial dabbles into records of badassery.

Early in our conversation I called Joe, "something of a unicorn," and later supposed that perhaps he was striped. He said it was a testament to his family going through stuff together and having that bring them close together. That sentiment hasn't left me since and I don't imagine it ever will.

I barely know Joe. He's a friend of my youngest younger sister and we've only really seen each other at gatherings for a number of years. He's always been a sweetheart in my mind, though, and the kind of human he has always struck me as being now resonates as certain truth, and I can't help but tie that to his upbringing. It in fact makes me hopeful that I am perhaps a little ways down the path to raising quality people that will always have a good relationship with their family and always be kind to those that they meet while out in the world.

Joe owed me nothing, but he gave of his time, nonetheless.

He took from the busy vault that is his soon-to-be-married life, and drove to my house to talk music for the better part of three hours, and for that I am grateful. When I really decided to roll with this project, I had an undecipherable feeling pushing me forward and I think that that feeling was this notion that talking to one another face to face about our lives and the twists and turns in them carries with it a good bit of worldly medicine. And I think a good bit of worldly medicine has felt something along the lines of necessary for the past 26 months, if not the last six years.

So, that's the unconscious impetus here, I guess; the ingredients and the steps for doing a cool thing exist, and if it's potentially mutually beneficial, why not do it.

Someone told me a couple of months ago that this project is "a brilliant idea and the world needs more music love and such if it's ever going to heal and thrive, again. I know you can make this something truly great and you are well on your way."

I don't know how much of that is true, but I hope all of it is. I love that sentiment and love the person that delivered it.

I also love Joe Strobl for hanging out with me and being a part of whatever mix this is.

"Thanks for stopping by. And, please: Enjoy yourself."

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio. They are samples from Kurt Vile's "Wedding Budz" off of his It's a Big World Out There (And I Am Scared) EP from 2013, c/o Matador Records. You should get you some Wakin On a Pretty Daze (Deluxe Daze [Post Haze]) stat. It's good for the soul.

Bet.

What is there that I could possibly say about this human being?

It's a lengthy list, actually, and I know how we're all doing with attention spans these days. And that's fine. I know that -- if you care -- you'll read it, and if you don't, you won't. No big deal.

I don't, um, mean to shun any of the previous guests of Badass Records Podcast, because they've all been super-fantastic. They really have.

I've had my eye on this particular calendar date, though, and I feel really grateful that this conversation happened and did so with a quote/unquote timeliness as it pertains to the go-live launch date of this project, and that's because the nuts and bolts of this thing involve and require an investment to not only give time, but to be personal and honestish and vulnerable. And when the person you've known longer than most anyone on the planet agrees to sit down with you, you wanna do them right.

Relationships are kinda like jobs. You gotta show up, clock in, and put in your 40 per week. At the very least. Or else the job essentially ends, right? And sometimes we take relationships for granted, and sometimes the fact that we've done just that (whether we realize it or not) does an unidentifiable bit of damage to the living, breathing thing that is the relationship. And sometimes we nurture and enable relationships when we probably shouldn't, and that has the potential to be damaging, too.

Either way, they're delicate. Like newborns. You gotta support the neck and always have a burp cloth and a spare diaper on hand and don't be late for feedings or sleep, 'cause any one of those things can fuck shit up for the long-term.

And I really like this relationship. It doesn't look like it always has, which has been a huge challenge for me to deal with and adjust to, and I haven't necessarily done a bang-up job at that, but I keep trying, and I think that maybe -- whether we know it or not -- that's all we really need from the important people in our lives: that they try.

Anyway, this gal is one heck of a daughter. She's a pre-school director. She's a Hollywood fanatic. She's witty and she's organized. She's determined. And she makes one heck of a Mitt Romney video.

She picked Crash by the Dave Matthews Band (1996), Everyday by Widespread Panic (1993), Live's 1994 release entitled Throwing Copper (1994), and a little blue number Phish put out that's called Rift (1993). If Yoda were here, he might say, Strong...with the early-to-mid-'90s...is this one.

She also did her due diligence (not a Badass Records Podcast requirement, you should know) with her selections, in that she pondered and pondered and made a list and checked it twice. She's thorough like that. And she's epic, too. A can't-miss if you're new to B.R.P. She's amazing. She's a hoot. And she definitely makes my top-three-sister list.

Tiffany Johnson, ladies and gentlemen.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio clips. They are samples from "Colors." This is a monster, mega-track from Black Pumas's self-titled 2019 release (c/o ATO Records, LLC), and because the inclusion of two 10-second clips of that song that bookend a three-hour, original-content conversation, this episode will probably get a YouTube copyright claim slapped on it, which means that -- were this episode ever to one day be monetizable -- I don't get to have any of that. But whatever. That's not the point here. The point is to have quality conversations with quality human beings about quality music. That's what we do, and that's what we did. As my daughter might say (in signing off on a TikTok video), "So...yeah...."

Ethan Brown means so many things to both me and the world. Besides the titles of son, brother, father, husband, friend, bartender, boss, and expert, he has earned the right to be called kind, thoughtful, clever, witty, warm, and a bucketful of other things, too. He’s the portal to what’s hip. He’s a vehicle for what’s hilarious. He’s the embodiment of passionate when it comes to the things he loves, and his presence is the elixir you need to right yourself.

Ethan blew my mind with his selection of badass records, except for that he really didn’t.

That is -- right, wrong, or otherwise -- I had a natural expectation that what he would come up with would leave me feeling like a musical novice, and I was not off the mark in unintentionally thinking that that would be the case.

I mean…

It’s hard to believe that I’ve somehow managed to churn out 14 of these sons o’ guns, and not one guest has disappointed me. In fact, I’ve really, really enjoyed every last one of the conversations and the records that accompanied them. All of them have been fun; a large majority have been surprising and educational. And if you like nice, round numbers like I do, the 15th installment wound up being the perfect slot for Ethan in that each privilege I get in the form of hanging with a fantastic human while chatting life and music refuels the tank that often feels somewhat depleted upon the conclusion of producing a finished episode. And it seems as though laughter is the primary component in the fuel of said recharging; no one has made me laugh harder than Ethan, and that’s a tribute to his electric personality.

Ethan and I have seen the other side of midnight together a time or two, and each of those occasions were both some of the best nights I’ve ever had and precursors to the worst mornings rememberable (or barely rememberable). I recall one evening at a Waldo watering hole in which we were having shots of some concoction called Five Alive.

I know. Makes you think akin to fruit punch, right? Nope. Pretty gross, actually. But we had more than one a piece. And the next day we agreed to forever call those red beverages, Hello and Have a Shitty Tomorrow. On another occasion, I had to be retrieved -- due to overindulgence -- from his housewarming party, and between his front porch and my then-fiancee’s car, I lost my keys and stepped directly in the mud I’d been attempting to avoid. Pretty sure a portion of the evening (once safely home) was spent on the bathroom floor.

Anyway, Ethan picked Hailu Mergia’s Tezeta, Super Ape by The Upsetters (a Lee "Scratch" Perry outfit), El-P’s Fantastic Damage, Too Hard to Swallow by UGK, and GZA’s Liquid Swords. And if you’re anything like me, first glance at that list might yield a heavy dose of, Huh?! Turns out, the thing’s a pile of gems.

And that’s kinda the point of this whole deal. I enjoyed this conversation so much. Hope you do, too. Thanks for stopping by. If you happened to share this episode with a friend, I wouldn’t be mad at ya’. And if you’re viewing on the YouTube channel, it’d sure be swell if you hit “like,” and “subscribe” on your way outta here. Oh, and by the way, if you happen upon Ethan out there on them streets, please refer to him by his true given name, Pipecock Jackson. Thank you. That is all.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the intro/outro audio clips. They are samples from Coolbone’s cover of the Bill Withers tune, “Use Me,” and it’s off of their 1996 record called Brass-Hop, c/o Broadcast Music, Inc.

Adam Boyd joined the Badass Records Podcast for episode #13, and what a treat it was to have him. We go back some 15ish years to the good, old service industry, a time in which we'd occasionally agree to disagree on this, that, or the other. These alleged debates were -- in my experience -- almost always light-hearted, in the spirit of quality conversation, and often over a post-shift cold one.

Adam was always one of my favorite F.o.H. soldiers, and -- though we seldom see one another now -- he remains one of my favorite humans; I suspect his wife and kids feel lucky to have him both a) in their lives, and b) out of the business, as the saying goes.

When it came time for calendars and brass tacks, etc., we -- by way of happenstance -- broke a few BRP barriers, in that this conversation not only included more badass records than any of the previous, but it also shattered the existing longest-run-time mark, clocking in at just a smidge over four hours. I imagine the Wednesday morning after our chat to've been a foggy one for Mr. Boyd at the ol' jobby-job, but, hey -- when you're hashing out 15 records -- it's gonna be a minute.

Anyway, Adam's list arrived via the text-message machines and included the following albums (in this order):

Nirvana's In Utero (1993)

This Year's Model (1978) by Elvis Costello & the Attractions

the infamous London Calling (1979) by The Clash

Pink Flag (1977) by Wire

the game-changing Loveless (1990) c/o My Bloody Valentine

Enter the Wu-Tang (36 chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan

the currently-on-display-behind-Tom-Segura's-chair (2 Bears 1 Cave Podcast) Ready to Die (1994) by The Notorious B.I.G.

Prefab Sprout's 1985 record titled Steve McQueen

the 1976 self-titled album by The Modern Lovers, which I accidentally skipped

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969), Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Joy Division's 1979 release, Unknown Pleasures

Paris 1919 (1973), John Cale

The Velvet Underground's 1969 self-titled debut

a 1968 number called Odyssey & Oracle by The Zombies

Either/Or (1997), Eliott Smith

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968), by The Kinks

Many thanks to Adam for being willing to dust off the ol' communication lines and share his unofficial COVID-19 music project with me, and extra-special thanks for being willing to come sit in my basement and bullshit about it for four hours. Please consider giving our conversation a view or a listen, and please -- if you dig it -- pass it along.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio, but -- as per yoozsh -- they're too good not to use. They are samples from 2Pac's "I Ain't Mad At Cha (featuring Danny Boy)" from his 1996 record, All Eyez on Me (c/o) Interscope Records, and "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" off of the Talking Heads's 1978 release entitled More Songs About Buildings and Food (c/o Sire Records).

Nick Leckey is a son, a brother, a husband, and a father. He's a lot of other things, i.e. a token work-place professional, both president and a member of the KC Incognito Vacay Association (K.I.V.A.), and you know what else he is? He's a goddamn Super Bowl champion (New Orleans Saints, 2010).

My guest for episode #12 of Badass Records has a lot of great qualities about him, but my favorite is perhaps is sense of humor and infectious laugh. Seriously. He's one of the the best matches I've ever encountered when it comes to cracking wise on an even keel, so this conversation was a hoot.

Nick was one of the first potential guests I reached out to when this thing started to sprout, so it pleased me to get him on the books and eventually in the chair. He selected Cornershop's Handcream for a Generation and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as his pair of excellent LPs, and they were a trip to visit and revisit, respectively.

He doesn't have a ton of interest in boosting his Twitter following, but were you to be so inclined, you could find him at @mrleckey on that platform. And, hey -- if you're nice, he might even like your comment. I mean...probably not, but you can always hope, right?

Anyway, give our chat a view or a listen, will ya'? You'll giggle at least once. Guaranteed. If not, I'll hook you up with a free sticker whenever it is I get around to getting my merch' line up and running. Here's the catch, though: If you do giggle, ya' gotta tell a friend about the podcast. Deal?

Peace.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio, but they're righteous clips from a kickass song -- Natural Self's "Feet Keep Moving" from their 2008 release, The Art of Vibration (c/o Tru Thoughts) -- so I'm doing it, regardless.

I had the pleasure of hosting Ian Gordy for episode 11, and when I say pleasure, I mean it was a true joy and a privilege to be gifted his time to talk music, which is really what this thing is all about.

Sometimes -- across this pandemic -- I've heard folks say things like, People need people, or, We need each other. Hell, my old man was saying that 25 and 30 years ago.

It's a strange thing to contemplate, though. I mean, we've kinda carved ourselves into these seemingly self-sufficient grooves, but what we've really done is eliminate a lot of direct, one-on-one contact with others, and I feel like these kinds of conversations are a sort of food for the soul. At least they are for me, anyway.

I don't know where this thing will go; I'm now kinda, sorta three months into recording episodes and the growth has been snail's-pace, to say the least, but I really, really dig it. It's good to see people. It's good to talk to them about where they've been and who they are and where they're going. It's lovely to hear them open up about their journeys and be true and honest and, yes -- vulnerable with both me and the Internet. I like to think we're learning from each other.

Anyway, I've known Ian for a minute, and he's always been one of my favorite dudes. He's always had a sense of humor and an angle of determination about him, and I couldn't be happier for him when it comes to where he's landed in life, and I'm excited for him and his family and all that they have ahead of them. I suspected Mr. Gordy'd nab a Hendrix album, and my hunch proved correct. Electric Ladyland was such a treat to revisit and, boy did I learn a lot about what I thought I knew but didn't from this conversation.

So many thanks to him and his family for the time. And thanks to Ian for another fantastic chat about life and music. And, hey...if you enjoyed this, please tell a friend. Cheers, everyone.

copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio samples. They are both from The War on Drugs's A Deeper Understanding, which is a goddamn grand slam (2017) of a badass record, if ever there was one. The samples come from "Thinking of a Place" and "Strangest Thing," c/o Atlantic Recording Corporation.