Welcome to the 20th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

For our big 2-0, we’re back on American shores — the Jersey Shore, to be specific. Bruce Springsteen is someone whose work is extremely dear to both of us — though because of our slight difference in age and the fact that we grew up on opposite sides of the Atlantic, our experiences were quite different when it came to discovering his music. We compare notes on the “origin stories” of our Bruce fandom in this episode, while also taking a closer look at a Springsteen album that didn’t chart in either the US or the UK at the time of its release: 1973’s The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle.

Released just 11 months after the acoustic-oriented Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., Springsteen’s ambitious second album found him plugging in his electric guitar to record seven songs — four of which ran seven minutes or longer — with a full band, while drawing upon a much wider range of musical styles and influences. The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle was an incredibly important stepping stone in Springsteen’s career, once which put him and the E Street Band on course to create Born to Run and to play their first shows in the UK and Europe, including their now-legendary appearance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on November 18, 1975.

We talk about that incredible performance in this episode, along with why Wild/Innocent is still such a compelling listen, Bruce’s knack for myth-making, the time Tony interviewed Bruce for his book with Eddie Floyd, Knock! Knock! Knock! on Wood: My Life in Soul, and a whole lot more!

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them!

Music on this episode: "Put It Down" by The Dear Boys. More info at https://thedearboys.bandcamp.com/album/put-it-down

Welcome to the 19th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

After making an appearance in our previous episode on The Beach Boys and their influence upon the UK pop scene, The Who finally make their long-overdue appearance on this podcast. The band has loomed exceedingly large for both Dan and Tony — the latter of whom authored the best-selling biography Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, published in the US as Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend — and now they are about to embark on their North American Farewell Tour, a 17-date trek with stops at such massive venues as Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s United Center and New York’s Madison Square Garden.

But in this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, we flash back to 1967, the year The Who played their first North American gigs. The band’s inaugural US performance took place on March 26, 1967, where they promoted “Happy Jack” — their first real US hit — with a brief but brutal set as one of a dozen or so attractions on Murray the K’s “Music in the Fifth Dimension” show at midtown Manhattan’s RKO Theater.

Dan and Tony discuss how The Who’s burgeoning popularity in the US not only helped to keep the band afloat during this uncertain period, but also set the stage for their breakthrough 1969 album Tommy and the band’s legendary appearance at Woodstock. “If it wasn’t for America there would be no Who,” says Max Ker-Seymer, a friend of the podcast who has seen The Who in concert over a longer period than anyone still attending their shows, and we’re very much inclined to agree.

As The Who’s 1967-1969 visits to North America also included such infamous incidents as Pete Townshend’s bad acid trip on the flight home from Monterey, Keith Moon’s raucous 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, and the concert with The Doors at New York’s Singer Bowl that inspired Townshend to write “Sally Simpson,” there was no shortage of material for our esteemed hosts (and diehard Who fans) to touch upon; indeed, with the help of only a few pints, this nearly 90-minute episode could have easily stretched to nine hours.

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers.

Welcome to the 18th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

The Beach Boys fit in quite nicely with our whole CROSSED CHANNELS concept, as they were a quintessentially American band that was both profoundly impacted by the British Invasion and hugely influential on a number of British artists. And when their immense US popularity began to decline as Brian moved the band’s music away from surfing and hot rod songs, The Beach Boys experienced a new wave of popularity in the UK — a wave set in motion in May 1966, when The Who’s Keith Moon personally insisted that Beach Boy Bruce Johnston (then visiting London to promote the newly-released Pet Sounds) join him for an interview segment on ITV’s Ready Steady Go!

Of course, The Beatles also show up in this CROSSED CHANNELS episode. The competition between Britain’s biggest import and America’s biggest homegrown band produced incredible music from both camps, at least before the May 1967 release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band caused Brian Wilson to scrap The Beach Boys’ ambitious Smile project. But even with Brian on the ropes, his band’s post-Pet Sounds output continued to sell remarkably well in the UK, where the influence of Pet Sounds itself also manifested in Billy Nicholls’ remarkable 1968 album Would You Believe, which Dan recently wrote about at his Substack:

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers.

Welcome to the 17th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

This time out, our subject is The Smiths, the most iconic British indie band of the 1980s. Specifically, we discuss the period bookended by the August 1984 release of their fifth UK single, “William, It Was Really Nothing,” and the conclusion of their first US tour at the end of June 1985. During that frantic 11-month stretch, the band released the odds n’ sods collection Hatful of Hollow and their second studio album Meat Is Murder, and their epic B-side “How Soon Is Now?” became a massive underground hit in America, thanks in part to a video that Sire Records commissioned and released without the band’s awareness or permission.

Meat Is Murder, the first Smiths album released domestically in the US, reached #110 on the Billboard 200 in May 1985 — which, while not quite as impressive a feat as knocking Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA off the top of the UK charts, was still a damn fine showing for a band that had only played one US concert date (New Year’s Eve 1983 at Danceteria in NYC) prior to its release. The record stayed on the US album charts for 32 weeks in all; and on June 7th of that year, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce kicked off their first US tour with a show at Chicago’s 5,000-capacity Aragon Ballroom.

Although Dan was living in Chicago at the time, he happily passed on attending that now-fabled Aragon show. By his own admission, he spent many years stubbornly resisting the charms of The Smiths — so much so, in fact, that he somehow managed to avoid hearing almost all of Meat Is Murder until just a few weeks ago when he began prepping for this episode.

Tony, on the other hand, is exceedingly familiar with the album, as well as the rest of The Smiths’ densely-packed catalog. Not only was he lucky enough to witness the band (which acrimoniously fell apart in 1987) play live on numerous occasions, but he also penned the excellent 2012 biography A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths.

Please join us for an animated discussion on a legendary band. Why did such a quintessentially English act resonate so deeply with American audiences? Does Meat Is Murder still hold up for Tony forty years later? Will the album help Dan to finally see the light (that never goes out) and inspire him to delve deeper into The Smiths’ discography? And how come Slim Whitman and Gordon Lightfoot both come up in the conversation? Tune in to find out!

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers.

Welcome to the 16th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

While most of our previous episodes have covered bands or artists that have been received very differently in the UK than the US, this one focuses on a band that was hugely successful in both countries (and a whole lotta other places as well): Athens, Georgia’s R.E.M.

But instead of zooming in on one of R.E.M.’s classic early/mid-eighties albums like Murmur or Reckoning, or delving into one of the releases from their multi-platinum run in the nineties, Dan and Tony fast-forward here to the penultimate studio album of the massively influential alternative rock band’s 31-year career: 2008’s Accelerate.

Produced by Jacknife Lee (who had previously worked with Snow Patrol, Editors and The Hives, among others), Accelerate is a 35-minute blast of hard-riffing, tightly-wound tunes, featuring such bracing singles as “Hollow Man” (video below), “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Supernatural Superserious”. Viewed by many — including R.E.M. co-founders Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe — as a significant comeback from their previous outing, 2004’s soggy Around the Sun, the record received rave reviews pretty much across the board, and reached #2 on the Billboard 200 in the US while going all the way to #1 on the UK Albums chart.

But despite its commercial and critical success, Accelerate remains something of an overlooked entry in R.E.M.’s extensive discography. Dan, for example, was only dimly aware of its existence; even though R.E.M. was once quite literally his favorite band in the world, he’d never actually even listened to Accelerate until Tony suggested it for this episode. Tony, on the other hand, was already highly familiar with the album, having detailed the story of its unusual gestation, especially the role of Jacknife Lee in revitalizing the group’s mojo, in the last update of his band biography, Perfect Circle: The Story of R.E.M.

In this episode, Dan and Tony discuss the circumstances around Accelerate’s creation, the album’s various musical and lyrical highlights, and where it ultimately ranks in their respective R.E.M. standings. Will Tony make a convincing case for the album’s enduring greatness? Will Dan kick himself for waiting nearly 17 years to actually listen to the record? Tune in to this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS and find out!

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers.

Welcome to the 15th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

This time out, our subject is Slade, a British band who are justifiably legendary in their homeland. From 1971 to 1975, these self-described “yobboes” from Wolverhampton in the Midlands absolutely ruled the UK and European charts with one hard-rocking, rafter-raising singalong after another, lodging 17 straight singles in the UK Top 20, including six Number Ones, three of which came in at Number 1, the first act to do so since The Beatles and the last to do so before The Jam. As the incredible 1975 show from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom below attests, few acts could touch Slade onstage, either.

But despite numerous attempts to break through in the US — and even after acquiring devoted fanbases in several American cities — Slade never managed to reach higher than #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 (a placing they achieved with 1972’s “Gudbuy T’Jane”) during their UK glory days. In 1983, however, Quiet Riot’s hit cover of their classic “Cum On Feel the Noize” gave the band an unexpected commercial boost in the States, resulting in big MTV hits with “My Oh My” and “Run Runaway,” the latter of which actually made it to #20 in the US.

Both CROSSED CHANNELS hosts are both massive Slade fans — in fact, Dan is currently running a multi-part interview with Slade frontman Noddy Holder on his Substack — but growing up on opposite sides of the Atlantic meant that our respective introductions to Slade and their music were vastly different. We get into our origin stories on this episode, as well as our favorite songs and albums from the Slade discography, and how the act’s growth as songwriters did not yield equivalent success; we also debate the relative merits of Slade In Flame, the gritty 1975 film that follows the travails of an up-and-coming 1960s band called Flame (who are, of course, played by the members of Slade). Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Slade In Flame will be rereleased in UK theatres this spring, as well as released on Blu-Ray for the first time… though only one of us is at all excited about this news.

As always, the full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in all its Slade glory, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them!

Welcome to the 14th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. And this time out, our subject is Curtis, the 1970 solo debut of the legendary American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer Curtis Mayfield.

Curtis produced two international hits — “(Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go” (listen via the YouTube clip that follows) and “Move On Up” — and topped the US R&B Albums charts while reaching #19 on the Billboard 200, setting the stage for Mayfield to leave The Impressions and embark upon a successful solo career that would peak commercially in 1972 with his soundtrack for the blaxploitation film Super Fly.

As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode (75 mins) is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one (or both!) of our Substacks.

Welcome to the first 2025 episode (and 13th episode overall) of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond. And this time out, our subject is one of the great British bands of all time: The Kinks!

Rather than talk about one of the band’s widely acknowledged classics like 1968’s The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society or 1969’s Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), we’re discussing a Kinks album that’s largely underappreciated: 1977’s Sleepwalker.

Though largely (and perhaps unfairly) remembered as a one-hit wonder in the US, where their 1993 single “Laid” reached #3 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart (and #61 on the Hot 100) and helped their album of the same name sell over half a million copies in the States, James remain massively popular in the UK. Yummy, the band’s 18th and latest studio album, even topped the UK charts upon its release this past April, giving James the first Number One album of their lengthy career.

Will Tony make a convincing case for the enduring brilliance of James? Will Dan be able to move past his long-held suspicion of the band and actually find ways to connect with them and their music? Will a certain accusation about James made by a certain member of the British band Thee Hypnotics be squarely refuted once and for all? Listen to this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS and find out!

As always, this podcast episode is only available in full to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith - where Tony also recently posted the transcript of his 2011 interview with Tim Booth for his Smiths biography - though a short preview of the episode is available to all. To hear it in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one (or both!) of our Substacks.

Welcome to Episode 11 of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast, in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.

Actually, we should probably change it to KROSSED CHANNELS for this episode, since it finds us discussing one of Dan’s all-time favorite bands: Southern California cult heroes Redd Kross!