The Hustle

We are welcoming back Hall of Famer Gina Schock to discuss her lone solo album, House of Schock from 1988, After the Go-Gos called it quits, and with each member going off to do their own thing, Gina formed House of Schock with bassist Vance DeGeneres (Ellen's brother). They only managed one album, and a decent hit with "Middle of Nowhere" before moving on to other projects. Gina fills us in on the full story and much more. Enjoy! 

Producer John Leckie's long and storied career spans from Syd Barrett and John Lennon to Doves and the Coral. That's over 50 years of amazing work. In this 2 hour conversation we try to cover as much of it as possible. The diverse and far-ranging list of topics include Fela Kuti, Ornette Coleman, the Stone Roses, Human League, Simple Minds, Gene Loves Jezebel, Spiritualized, the Verve, Ride, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, George Harrison, XTC, T. Rex, the Fall, Public Image Ltd, Magazine, Radiohead, Elastica and Los Lobos. The man can do, and has done, everything and became a legend because of it. Enjoy every minute!  

It's been a long, sometimes confusing, ride for Tony Carey. His breakthrough on the big stage was being recruited to join Rainbow on their Rising album. After a year or so, Tony decided he'd be happier on his solo and chose to go back to focusing on his solo career. In the early 80s things started to pick up with the success of "A Fine Fine Day" and "Why Me" under his Planet P Project moniker. But, once again, he decided the rock and roll ratrace wasn't for him and he moved to Germany where he's been stationed ever since. We may not have heard from him as much, but his career's been going strong over the decades including his 2019 album Lucky Us. Tony and I try to make sense of it all and he does so in his own laidback and funny way. Enjoy! 

It hasn't been easy for Sean Dickson. In fact, he doesn't even look like the Soup Dragons frontman you remember from early 90s hits like "I'm Free" and "Divine Thing". There's a good reason for that - almost nothing is the same. Since the Soup Dragons closed up shop in the late 90s, Sean came out, left music for many years, spent some time battling mental health, marrying his husband and finally becoming an in demand DJ named HiFi Sean and releasing a hit new album with vocalist David McAlmont recently called Happy Endings. Sean opens up more than he ever has before, especially when it comes to the endurance of "I'm Free" which he doesn't benefit from. It's a lot and, ultimately, a story of redemption. By the end, we're both in tears. Enjoy!

Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith has been so consistently strong his entire career that it's easy to take him for granted. If industry respect equated to hits, he'd have hundreds, but instead he carries on effortlessly doing what he does and doing it well. Last week we released his latest album, The Vivian Line, and it's just as good as anything else he's done, of course. Ron joins us this week to discuss his lengthy career, his unique Twitter persona, his approach to songwriting, and more. Give us a listen. 

Much like with recent guest Martin Popoff and his Bowie @ 75 book, author Gary Graff has summarized the incredible career of Alice Cooper into 75 key moments and illustrates the significance of each. Starting with his childhood in Arizona and Detroit, and then moving on to being discovered by Frank Zappa, hitting their stride thanks to Bob Ezrin, the big comeback with "Poison", and the settling in as shock rock elder statesman, every major up and down is featured in the book along with hundreds of glossy images rarely seen before. His love of golf, his born again Christianity and his crazy stage show are all included as well. Gary discusses how he put the book together as well as his history with Alice. And, there's a giveaway! Enjoy! 

Last year songs written by Dan Wilson were streamed on Spotify 743 million times. Think about that. Dan has turned a decent run as the frontman for Semisonic ("Closing Time"), into one of the most successful songwriting careers of the last 25 years. The big ones are Taylor, Adele, Mitski and the Chicks, but we also discuss his work with bands like Weezer and Nada Surf among others. Alongside all of this is his own beautiful solo career. He recently released an EP called Dancing on the Moon and it's just as wonderful as the work he's done for others. Listen up and catch a glimpse of how a master of his craft came to be. 

There's a good chance Steve Hillage was beamed here from another planet and has been living among us as an alien for over 70 years. He starts out in the far out prog band Gong making super challenging music. He then goes solo and makes equally challenging music with producers like Nick Mason and Todd Rundgren while exploring where the mind (and his guitar) could go. Then, he decides techno and trance music has a similar spacey effect so he becomes System 7 and travels the world DJing. Along the way he produces albums by Simple Minds, Cock Robin, Tony Banks, the Charlatans, Real Life, and more. What a long, strange trip it's been! Here him try to explain it all. Enjoy! 

The great DJ Richard Blade joins us to discuss a couple of his recent books. A couple years ago he released his entertaining memoir World In My Eyes which details his rise to fame as one of the most recognizable DJs in the world. He also recently released another book, The Unlocked Interviews which are conversations he had during lockdown with some of music’s greatest personalities. We discuss both of these as well as many behind the scenes stories from his long career.

The wonderful Swing Out Sister are celebrating 35 years of exceptional music this year. They may be best known for the global (and still evergreen) hit "Breakout" from their debut album in 1987, but there has been a steady stream of excellent albums and hits of all kinds ever since. Their style has gone deep into jazz, lounge and house while always remaining uniquely SOS. The duo of Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell are celebrating that history with the recent boxset Blue Mood, Breakout and Beyond... The Early Years Part 1 which collects their first three albums as well as discs of remixes and b-sides for the fans that want it all. Corinne joins us (after years of trying to make this happen) to tell us the full story, discuss some of their deeper tracks, and how they keep it going. She doesn't do a lot of interviews, so we're especially honored to have her. Enjoy!