The Hustle

Australian band Real Life have many classic albums, but we thought it would be fun to invite back front man David Sterry (ep 73) to discuss a covers album he did in 2008 of classic 80s synth pop and new wave songs. Not only do you get to hear Real Life's take on standards like "I Melt With You", "Blue Monday", and "Cars" but you also get to hear what these songs and artists meant to him. Real Life also put out a new album recently called Sirens that we discuss as well. (Listen up for how David himself will email you a copy!) David's one of our favorites, so we hope you enjoy it! 

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In this time of quarantining we could all use some distractions. In this spirit, we bring you this roundtable discussion on Rock Docs. Joining the discussion are fellow podcasters Brad Page from the I'm In Love With That Song podcast, Eric Miller from the Pods & Sods Network, and Ben Montgomery from Records Revisited. Together we debate the good ones vs. the bad ones, will we watch a doc about any musical topic, and we countdown some of our faves and recommendations. A complete list of every doc mentioned and where it's available will be posted on the facebook page. If you like these, we'll do more! Enjoy!

At this point, Joey Scarbury is a bit of a pop culture icon. He's the voice of the eternal "Believe It Or Not", that most excellent theme song to the Greatest American Hero, which reached #2 in 1981. But what else do we know about him? Where did he come from? How did he happen to sing that song? Why was there not more? What has he been doing ever since? We go about answering those questions. Today, Joey leads as normal a life as you and me. Here's the whole story!

Jon and Jan recap the first quarter of 2020, the ups and the downs (extremes on both ends). the messiness of normal life, how we're handling the quarantine, what we're watching, and what we thought of the last three month's worth of episodes. 

Once again, we're joined by a fantastic producer that's behind tons of music we all love. Clive Langer started out fronting the crucial Liverpool band, Deaf School in the 70s. While they never made it global, they were a really big deal locally. Soon, Clive with his musical partner Alan Winstanley "fell into" producing the first singles by Madness (he's produced almost everything Madness has ever done) and it was off to the races. Artists like Teardrop Explodes, Elvis Costello, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Bush, Morrissey, They Might Be Giants, Hothouse Flowers and David Bowie all followed. We hear about all of these, including the creation of "Come On Eileen", how he wrote "Shipbuilding" for Robert Wyatt and, of course, the manic flurry around recording "Dancing in the Streets" with Bowie and Mick Jagger. More recently, Clive formed a new band called the Clang Group, which we also discuss. SO much great music in this one, the guy's a legend! 

We're trying something different this time. We're proud to welcome Van Halen Rising author Greg Renoff to deep dive Van Halen's debut album from 1978. Greg is probably considered THE expert on the early days of Van Halen, so it made sense to hear the stories he knows about the creation of this seminal work. In addition, Greg is now releasing his next book, Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music which features Ted's recollections of working with artists like Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, Nicolette Larson, BulletBoys and many others. 

Peabody Award-winning rock writer David Wild joins us to share tales from his many years as a rock journalist at Rolling Stone and his tenure as a writer/producer on just about every music award show of the last 20 years. Top on that list is "Let's Go Crazy: The GRAMMY Salute to Prince" airing on Tuesday, April 21st on CBS and featuring Earth Wind and Fire, Sheila E., Gary Clark Jr. and many more. If you've heard David before you know he's a master storyteller, so we get to hear his interactions with people like David Bowie, Hall & Oates, Terence Trent D'Arby, Paul McCartney, Morrissey, LL Cool J and about a hundred more.  Sit back and enjoy!

We're welcoming back Glen Burtnik (ep76) this week to discuss his second album, 1987's Heroes and Zeros. Glen's debut, Talking in Code, is a favorite of mine and when combined with H&Z showcases his incredible ability to write catchy, pop/rock songs. Unfortunately, neither album got the attention they deserved (even though the single "Follow You" should have been a hit), but Glen has maintained a successful and busy music career ever since. Enjoy! 

Lisa Velez always wanted to be a singer and that dream came true when the mighty Full Force production team plucked her from the dance clubs in her early teens (!) to sing the classic "I Wonder If I Take You Home". The mixture of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam's performance and Full Force's production struck gold for a couple years when tracks like "Head to Toe" and "Lost in Emotion" also went on to be giant hits. Eventually the hits slowed down, but Lisa Lisa has never stopped performing. In here we talk about how she got discovered, what it was like being a teenager in that environment, what the challenges were as a woman in that environment, and her thoughts on the music. She couldn't be sweeter! 

Bruce Woolley has done a lot, but his largest contribution to pop culture is probably writing "Video Killed the Radio Star." Back in the 70s, he and his friend Trevor Horn created that song while pursuing their musical goals - Trevor with the Buggles and Bruce with the Camera Club. Of course MTV made the song iconic. His partnership with Trevor has continued to this day, in fact Bruce also wrote "Slave to the Rhythm" for Grace Jones (produced by Trevor), as well as songs by Cher, John Farnham and many others. These days he plays the theremin (!) in the Radio Science Orchestra. Imagine being an expert theremin player! He's got many wonderful stories that we uncover here. Enjoy!