Seeing as it's the time of the year when many people explore their inner Goth, we thought we'd dig deep into the Ongoing History archieves and pull out our 2 part series on Goth.

This is the second part of out examination of the Alt-Rock scene and this time we go from mid 80's right up to today.

Goth has always had a bad rap so we're going to try to clear everything up with our deep dive. Don't worry...no one's going to get hurt.

I hope you’re ready for an interesting interview with Ash and Jay from USS…because this is another one of those occasional “in their own words” profiles where I just let the artist tell their stories in whatever fashion they choose…and if listened to part one, this talk with USS was not in anyway ordinary…

When you sit down with Ash Boschultz and Jay “The Human Kebab” Parsons of USS, you end up having a conversation where you’re not sure how you arrived at this place, but there you are…so just open your mind, sit back and take it all in…

It’s part two of USS: in their own words…

If you’re a fan of a particular artist, you want to know everything you can about them…maybe you scour things like their official bios, their Wikipedia pages and maybe read through as many interviews and articles as you can…

All that is fine…but what if there’s a way to get more?....

When it comes to telling the story of an artist, it is always best if you get the artist to tell it themselves…you get the unvarnished truth, told from the heart by the people who are actually making the music…

That’s great in theory, but it’s awfully difficult to get everyone in one place at one time, what with touring schedules, recording commitments and life…but if there’s just two people, then it’s a little easier…

With a little bit of wrangling, I managed to get Ash and Jay from USS into the studio…has their story been told before?...yes, of course…but not like this…

This is USS in their own words, part 1…

I love the smell and feel of recording studios…if you’ve been inside a proper one, you’ll know what i mean…

The air is kept clean and dust-free to protect the equipment…the a/c is usually cranked up to offset the heat generated by the electronics…there’s a slight whiff of ozone created by all the electrical circuits…and it’s usually very, very quiet…loads of isolation and baffling and sound-proofing…

To me, a recording studio is the musical equivalent of an operating theatre; a place that’s dedicated to one thing and one thing only…and what goes on within the walls is deadly serious…

Okay, I’m not saying that recording a song is the same as a heart transplant or something, but there is the same sort of vibe…

There used to be dozens and dozens of these places around the planet…people would travel thousands of kilometers to work there because they were thought to be magical in some way…

But that’s when you needed a full-equipped recording studio to make a record…today, you can do a pretty good job with a laptop in your bedroom…

Many of the legendary studios are gone, a victim of the changing economics of the music industry…a few of these behemoth still exist…

This is another look at the world’s legendary recording studios, both past and present…

 

Songs in this Episode:

David Bowie - Life on Mars

Sex Pistols - Holiday in the Sun

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

Mumford & Sons - Believe

The Clash - The Magnificent Seven

The Black Keys - Tighten Up

The Tragically Hip - Poets

Bob Marley and the Wailers - No Woman, No Cry

When we started posting "bonus" epiosodes of the Ongoing History, lots of people began requesting topics...wondering if we had ever covered them.

With 800+ shows in the vault, there is a good chance that we have.

One request came to us from a drummer who asked "I'm sure you've done shows about singers and guitarists...but what about drummers? I play the drums and often am the butt of jokes because...well I play the drums".

Well...good thing you asked becasue in May of 2004 we paid homage to the Drummer.

And here it is...in Podcast form.

Every song comes from some sort of story. Sometimes it’s just the story of a feeling…good or bad…or maybe it’s just a way of getting a point of view across.

Other songs are actual stories. They have a narrative, characters, drama, beginning, middle and end.

But what if you’re a composer and you have a story that is too long….too complex to fit in the standard four minute song. Well then maybe you need to think about breaking it out to its constituent parts and telling the story across multiple songs. You do this over enough songs and you create a concept album. A record where a story or a variety of themes tie everything together front to back and back to front.

Your four-minute short story has turned into an hour-long novel.

This is part 2 of the history of the concept album in alt-rock.

It's not easy making a living as a rock band in Canada...

This is afterall the second largest country in the world. And when you consider that the Trans-Canada Highway is over 7600 kilometers long, and there is nearly 10 million square kilomters of land spead out over 6 time zones, well...it's a little daunting to say the least.

 And even though 77% of Canada's 36 million people live in big cities, bands still have to work really really hard to reach everyone.  

It's even harder when you factor in that we live right next door to the largest exporter of pop-culture in the universe. 

Geography has chewed up the domestic careers of countless bands...but some have it figured out. They've got the routine and fanbase all figured out. They may not be rich, but they are making a solid and respectable living as rock stars in Canada.

Sloan is one of those bands. They've been around since 1991and have become somewhat of a Canadian institution. 

This is Sloan in Their Own Words...Part 2.

There are many ways to tell a story...a book, a movie, at TV, a comic book. You also use music of course; a ballad is a story set to music,  a lot of music videos tell a story. Operas and ballet are more grand. 

The other musical option is the concept album. These are records where all the songs, all  the imagery, is somehow tied togethor by some sort of unifying theme or thesis. The music, the lyrics and sometimes even the artwork come togehtor to tell a story. 

These were big in the '60's and 70's but they were seen as old rock and needed to be expunged from popular culture. 

But then a funny thing happened. They started to make a comeback...the stigma vanished, and they even found a place in Alt-Rock.

Here...let me show you.

Songs in this episode:

Green Day - American Idiot,

David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust,

Kraftwerk - Computer Love,

Husker Du - Pink Turns to Blue,

Nine Inch Nails - Hurt,

Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings,

Weezer - No Other One,

Tool - Stinkfist,

Marilyn Manson - Beautiful People

We were able to get Chris Murphy and Jay Ferguson in a studio and we thought it best to get them to explain the history of Sloan...in their own words.

We're going to dispel some myths about the rock star. Over the decades, most people have come to believe that rock stars...of both sexes...are drunken, drugged out sex machines that had they not learned to play an instrument would have had a hard time holding down the worse type of minimum wage job. 

But being a rock star isn't necessarily synonymous with having the intellect and manners of a caveman.

Don't believe us? Have a listen and you'll see.