The Blue Nile would never be accused of being overly prolific. In 20 years of activity, they only managed four albums, two of which, 1984's A Walk Across the Rooftops and 1989's Hats, are absolute masterpieces. Ask Taylor Swift if you don't believe me. The hallmarks of their unique sound is part Paul Buchanen's soulful voice and part PJ Moore's who…

We all miss Prince. It's a hole that will never be filled. Imagine what it would have been like to be a part of the Revolution during his peak 80s period. He can play every instrument better than his band members, but he's reliant on them to put on incredible concerts and keep his musical instincts in check. It's not an accident that he made his be…

Author Graeme Thomson returns this week to discuss the updated release of his 2012 book, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush. He had no idea when he finished that book 12 years ago how Kate's profile would change in the next few years. From induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, to the rediscovery of "Running Up That Hill" by million…

Music writer Chris Charlesworth joins us to discuss his new book, Just Backdated, which depicts his years writing for Melody Maker in the seventies. Every music lover would kill for a job like this and Chris was the lucky guy that had it. He befriends his favorite band (the Who), sleeps with groupies, parties with everyone, lives the high life in N…

We've got a unique twofer for you this week. First up is Mr. Big frontman Eric Martin! Eric had been at it for a decade before Mr. Big happened. He fronted bands in the Bay Area and recorded a solo albums that were as poppy as it gets. Luckily, Mr. Big worked out and they just completed their "last" tour and released the live album, The Big Finish …

The wonderful Carlos Alomar returns to discuss the new Luther Vandross documentary, Luther: Never Too Much. Carlos and his wife Robin Clark have been friends with Luther since high school and that friendship extends from their first group together, Listen My Brother, to them all being introduced to David Bowie for the Young Americans album and beyo…

The Bolshoi flirted with Goth and synth pop in the late 80s, but what they ended up doing was releasing some great alternative rock songs. "A Way", "Lindy's Party" and "Sunday Morning" still hold up and tours with Peter Murphy and Sisters of Mercy should have propelled them further, but it didn't happen. Eventually the band splintered with lead sin…

Ska Week concludes with author Daniel Rachel and our discussion on his fantastic new book, Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story. This essential document tells the story of one of the most revolutionary record labels created to release some of the most revolutionary music ever made. Created by Jerry Dammers in the late 70s, 2 Tone was meant …

Bassist Horace Panter has been a valuable and reliable sideman for his entire career. He starts out as a founding member of the Specials, contributing mightily to the magic sound of that revolutionary band. After their demise, he joined forces with Dave and Roger to form General Public and rode that wave for a few years. Since then, he's been aroun…

We're kicking off "Ska Week" with a conversation with author Marc Wasserman about his new book, Sole Savation: A Gen X Love Letter to the English Beat. Marc writes beautifully about his tough childhood - specifically a broken family life and poor health - and how the band's last album, Special Beat Service, got him through all of it while also info…

We continue celebrating Morrissey's guitarists this week by hearing from longtime collaborator Boz Boorer! The love of rockabilly runs deep with this group and was central to Boz and Moz hitting it off. Boz stuck around for decades and co-wrote many of Moz's best songs including "The More You Ignore Me", "Maladjusted", and "Jack the Ripper". Right …

The wonderful Dean Pitchford returns to the podcast to deep dive the gargantuan soundtrack to 1984's Footloose. After winning the Oscar for "Fane: in 1981, Dean set about creating the entire world of Footloose - the songs, the screenplay, etc. It's gone on to sell millions and millions of copies and never left the zeitgeist. Dean goes track by trac…

For the next two weeks we're celebrating the guitarists that make Morrissey the artist he was. First up is the great Alain Whyte! Alain was brought on in 91 to simply mime behind Moz in a video, but once they realized how much they had in common musically, he stuck around for the next several years, not to mention he co-wrote many of his best songs…

Man, the Bangles had a ton of hits in the 80s. It came to an end by the end of the decade, but what a legacy. From there, guitarist and founding member Vicki Peterson took a break from the spotlight and got involved with a sort of mini supergroup called the Continental Drifters. Originally, the Drifters were made up of LA musicians looking for some…

Drummer Omar Hakim is one of those players you know it's him when you hear him. He's been the go-to guy for dozens of legends for over 40 years. Artists like Miles Davis, Sting, Bowie, Dire Straits, Kate Bush rely on him to make them the best they can be. These days, Omar is excited about a new project called Sonic Boom Squad which is almost a solo…

Carmine Appice is one of the few drum legends we have left. What's interesting to me about his career is that his name is usually bigger than the bands he's in whether it's Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Beck, Bogart, Appice, King Kobra, Blue Murder or his side work with Rod Stewart and Ozzy. These days he's turning his attention to Cactus, who recently re…

Zebra were a fascinatingly interesting hard rock band in the early 80s that are hard to categorize. While they toured with Sammy Hagar, REO Speedwagon, Journey and the like, their style is what I call "ambitious rock" where the ideas are flowing, but not to the point of prog. They released three exceptional albums, but didn't quite reach the top an…

Jon was invited on the Permanent Record podcast recently with friends Eric Miller and Heidi Waugaman-Page to do a fantasy-styled draft of an 80s super group. We each picked a singer, guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist, producer and a special flex person and you can vote on whose band you like the best! Go to this link and let us hear your pic…

L7 were pioneers. Yes, there were all female rock bands before, but how many rocked as hard as they did with as much authenticity? Those four girls let it all hang out and walked it like they talked it. Success had to find them, they weren't going to play any games to find it. They finally broke through with 'Pretend We're Dead" off their third alb…

Actor John Scott Clough appeared in two of the great 80s movies - one underrated and one super cheesy. His big break came in the Sidney Poitier directed Fast Forward about a dance troupe from Ohio who move to the Big Apple to "make it". After appearances in other movies and TV shows of the era like Family Ties, Empty Nest and the Love Boat, he also…

Britain's Railway Children were a band stuck between movements. Too late for the post-punk explosion of the early 80s and done just before Britpop conquered the world, they released a handful of albums and songs that deserved more attention. "Every Beat of the Heart" did crackthe UK top 40 and singles like "A Pleasure" and "Brighter" did well on th…

Candi Staton is arguably one of the best, and most underrated, soul singers in history. While Aretha and Gladys and Diana were getting most of the attention, Candi was consistently recording incredible music whether it's deep r&b in Muscle Shoals, disco smashes like "Young Hearts Run Free", or quality gospel music. She remains one of the finest int…

Producer/Engineer/Mixer Danton Supple has been at the forefront of big music by big artists since he first broke into the business in the 80s. U2, Coldplay, Pet Shop Boys, Morrissey and more are prominently on his CV. In this conversation we cover all of those as well as Elbow, Doves, Starsailor (which included Phil Spector's last project), Spandau…

Annie Golden's career has hit on almost every creative endeavor there is. She starts out in the 70s fronting the punk/new wave band The Shirts who are making waves in the CBGB scene with Blondie, Television and the rest. The band released three good albums, but none of them really took off. Then, one fateful night, director Milos Foreman goes to th…

This week we continue speaking with some of the authors of the wonderful @ series. Our guest is Gillian Gaar, author of Springsteen@75. Gillian discusses her love of Bruce and how her book contributes to the narrative of one of America's most beloved artists. We discuss many of her other projects as well like books she's written on Nirvana and Quee…

This week's twofer is a fun one. We hear from a major British rock band and then we hear from a newer band heavily influenced by the first band! First up is Mark Gardener of Ride! They, along with bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine, were the key figures in the Shoegaze movement of the late 80s. Ride's debut album, Nowhere, is o…

Has it really been 25 years since "Everything You Want" took over the airwaves? The 90s are littered with one hit or album wonders, artists that broke out, but were forced to break down thanks to a chaotic music biz, but VH mastermind Matt Scannell has not only survived but thrived. He could have packed it in after the label buried their follow up …

Included in the bedrock of the American alternative rock sound created by bands like REM, the Feelies, the Bongos and the Replacements is the dB's. Their debut album, Stands for Decibels, is essential to showing what us Yanks were up to while New Wave and Post Punk were gestating largely in the UK. That seminal album was just re-released on vinyl f…

You can't tell the story of British rock and roll without acknowledging the impact of The Jam. Unfortunately, Paul Weller pretends that chapter never happened, which is sad and confusing. Drummer Rick Buckler recently published the book The Jam 1982 depicting the last year of the band's existence. They start off releasing The Gift with singles like…

Did America ever fully "get" 10cc? Their mix of perfect tunes with a biting sense of humor flew over the heads of many of us. Luckily, that didn't stop them from having a long and legendary career back in the UK. The only original member these days is the great Graham Gouldman, but he's taking the band on their first US tour in ages soon. He joins …

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the masterpiece that is Prince's Purple Rain, we welcome author Andrea Swensson to discuss her fabulous new book celebrating the achievement. Andrea knew Prince and had been to Paisley Park a few times, plus she's an acclaimed writer, podcast host, and expert on the music of Minneapolis, making her the perfect…

This week we welcome reggae royalty to the show with guitarist Junior Marvin! If you can believe it - on the same day in 1977, Junior was offered jobs playing with Stevie Wonder AND Bob Marley! Which would you choose? He decided to go with Bob and it changed the rest of his life. After Bob's death a few years later, Junior focused on session work a…

With the recent re-release of the breakthru Call album Reconciled on vinyl and remastered, we felt it was a good time to welcome back keyboardist Jim Goodwin and guitarist Tom Ferrier (for the first time) to go deep on the album that changed everything for the band. The album includes the powerful singles "Everywhere I Go" and "I Still Believe", wh…

In 1985 the German group Propaganda managed their one perfect album, A Secret Wish. Released on Trevor Horn's ZTT label (he was also the Executive Producer), this synth pop classic featured hits like "Duel" and "Dr. Mabuse" which haven't aged a day. Though it was an achievement, it created friction within the group (as well as financial and interpe…

t took a few years, but Tom Bailey is finally reclaiming the wonderful legacy of the Thompson Twins. The excellent hit makers were everywhere in the 80s, but eventually Tom lost interest in pop music and moved on with then wife Alannah Currie to making dub and trance music under the names Babble and International Observer letting the Twins' flame d…

Session keyboardist Jeff Babko has a career that even he can't believe. His day job is playing keys in Jimmy Kimmel's band every night. Then, his side hustle on the weekends is as the musical director for Steve Martin and Martin Short on their tour. Those alone are incredible, but he also releases solo albums and has done sessions and tours with a …

We have a very special twofer for you this week! We kick it off with the birthday boy himself, the great Ian Hunter! Ian turned 85 this week (!) and is still at it and as good as ever. He just released a new album called Defiance 2: Fiction (Defiance 1 came out last year) and both are star-studded affairs featuring Joe Elliott, Brian May, Slash, To…

Have we come back around to Hootie & the Blowfish yet? They went from fun, good-time band, to hugely popular, to overexposed, to punching bag, back to fun, good-time band. Today, they've settled into a nice level of fame where the band successfully tours when they feel like it and the guys each do their own projects during the downtime. Guitarist M…

Jim Peterik has the power to create a whole band for every musical impulse he ever has. Survivor is mostly in the rear view, but his original band The Ides of March still get together to perform for special occasions. He has a country band called The Stormchasers. He has a smooth jazz band called Lifeforce. He has a rock band called Pride of Lions.…

Not only did the mighty Midnight Oil bless the world with their incredible music, they also educated us on the plight of Australian people and politics which ended up informing many of us and how we see the world. Guitarist and primary songwriter Jim Moginie recently released a memoir called The Silver River which tells the band's story, but, even …

For this week we welcome author, podcast host and private investigator (!) Darren Paltrowitz to discuss his book DLR Book. Capturing the real David Lee Roth, while also separating the real guy from the mythology he's worked hard to create is no easy task, but Darren does his best. David Carruth joins co-hosts this episode as we dissect DLR's Hollyw…

Jon was invited to hang with his good friends Haydn and Bee of the INXS : Access All Areas podcast recently to discuss our love of Australian music, the rich history, and, of course, our mutual love of INXS. Any fan of this band needs to know this great podcast is out there if they don't already. Every member has appeared on there, it's a wealth of…

Can you believe another year has gone by? We can't! Who would have ever thought 9 years The Hustle would become what it has. As usual, we always celebrate this day with a very special guest and this year is no different. This week we welcome the wonderful Nick Laird-Clowes of the Dream Academy! The band snuck up on everyone in 1985 with the seminal…

For this Deep Dive we welcome back John Parr to discuss his underappreciated album from 1992, Man With a Vision. By this point in his career, John was all alone with no major label support and litigation making it hard to get heard. He self-produced this album and it's an excellent slab of peak AOR goodness, even though it's from the early 90s. Joh…

The short but solid trajectory of the Undertones' career reflects the arc of popular British music during the same time. Starting off in Derry Ireland as punks with an ear for melodies in the late 70s and ending up about five years later exploring sophisti-pop is a map of what was in style in the UK. If the band wasn't so good at both genres you mi…

Grammy winning engineer/producer Tom Lord-Alge has been behind some major music the last 40 years. He starts out in NYC under the tutelage of his brother Chris and breaks big working on Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life album. Over the years he's engineered dozens of gigantic hits including albums by Blink-182, Pink, Weezer, Marilyn Manson and …

Bassist Neil Stubenhaus was a key member of that pool of exceptional talent in LA in the 70s and 80s that were first calls to play on the great albums made during the era. Neil stood shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Nathan East, Lee Sklar and Pino Palladino (among many) to make good music even better. Included on his resume are people like Bi…

Mike Post is probably the most successful composer of the last half century. He literally wrote the themes to hundreds of TV shows from the early 70s until now. In fact, there's a good chance that during the heyday, almost every person on earth heard his work at least once a week. That's astounding. You could argue that shows like NYPD Blue, Law & …

Imagine being one of the architects of one of the biggest albums in rock history. It's like winning the lottery. As we know from the Fleetwood Mac story, what was happening behind the scenes on Rumours was as juicy and tasty as the music they were making. Witness to all of it was the great Ken Caillat! He went on to co-produce with Richard Dashut T…

This week, Jesus Jones embarks on their first US tour in 30 years! It's short, just a few shows over a couple of weeks, but it's, hopefully, the beginning of restoring a relationship with the states that will grow in the near future. Since lead singer Mike Edwards was on the show a few years ago, we are joined this time by keyboardist (and band man…