Stairway to Eleven Episode #11: Devin Townsend Project, Humble Pie, The Tea Party

00:00:00There's a podcast that's sure all that rocks hard is gold. And they're climbing the stairway to 11. When they get to there they know the record stores are all closed. But online they can get what they came for.

00:00:33And they're streaming the Stairway to 11.

00:00:40Hello and welcome to Stairway to 11. My name is George.

00:00:44This is John. And I'm T.R.

00:00:46Today we have three more albums to discuss for you.

00:00:51Believe it or not, episode 11.

00:00:54Stairway to 11, number 11.

00:00:57Yes. Thunk it.

00:01:00So this time we're going to start again apparently with John and his pick. Yeah I'll go first with probably my hardest pick to talk about. Not because I don't like the album because there's so much to talk about with the artist I chose next. So I'll do my very best not to go on and on because I'm having some trouble talking right now. And also I don't want to take up too much time.

00:01:28So we'll just dive right into it. So for my pick, I may have chosen someone that some of the listeners may have never heard of. And that's okay if you've never heard of him. However, if you are in the metal world and now the prog world, you certainly would have heard this thing somewhere down the line. And while we haven't really done much metal on here, he's definitely a good choice because of how prolific he is. And that is, I went with the album

00:01:58by Devin Townsend. And if you don't know him, he got his start early on, I believe the age of 19 when he played or when he sang on one of Steve Vai's albums. And he actually toured with Steve Vai. And from there, he went on to another band called Strapping Young Lad, which was an extreme metal band, which he really cut his teeth on and became famous and then started to incorporate a solo career, which has evolved.

00:02:28or he might say is devolved into quite

00:02:34bludgeoning of albums that have come out to put it the best way possible.

00:02:38There's a lot to talk about when it comes to Devin Townsend.

00:02:41The more I sit here as I start and think it might be too much to talk about because he has quite the history.

00:02:47So we'll just jump right into the album itself and I'll give you a brief bit on him.

00:02:51So the album I picked, like I said, was Addicted, which was released on November 17th, 2009.

00:02:57So it's a fairly recent album for me. He recorded it in May through September of 2009 also. The way to describe this album, it's progressive metal, it's alternative metal. Some people call it pop metal. I don't like the classification of pop more. I would say it's a rock album more than anything else. And there's a reason why I'll say that. This came at a time when he kind of was in a transition.

00:03:28Prior to this period, he was quite the partier, I guess is the best way to put it, or as he would say it, himself. He had reached a point in his career where he was, the extremes were reaching their breaking points, and so he had to step away actually from writing music. And so he had disbanded his band Strapping Young Lad. He had a band also called the Devon Townsend Band. So he's been Devon Townsend and the Devon Townsend Band and Strapping Young Lad. He had all these things going on.

00:03:57He had his trademark skullet, which everybody knew. If you don't know what a skullet is, it's bald on top and it's a long party all the way around for your hair. But he decided at this point in his life that there was too many extremes and he decided that he needed to clean things up. He needed to get himself clean on drugs and alcohol and needed to take a break to focus on his family and to produce bands. But eventually he decided to start making music again and hence we get the

00:04:27album, Addicted, which is part of a four album cycle that he decided to do under the moniker of the Devin Townsend project. So no longer the band, no longer Solok, now it's the project. It's all Devin Townsend, but this is what he named it. And there were four albums in this original run. There were seven total that he did with this band, but they started out with four in this run. The first was called Key, which came out prior to Addicted. It's kind of an acoustic, quiet rock album.

00:04:56There's the Addicted album, which is this kind of hard rock metal album with a commercial direction. He then released Destruction in 2011, which is extreme avant-garde metal. And then an album called Ghost in 2011, which was kind of his ambient album, which he had done quite a bit of ambient work before. He was exploring it some more. So, but let's get back to the Addicted. This is the time when he came up with a new band of people he wanted to work with where there was no drama at all.

00:05:26people, some that he'd already been working with, but just real quick, names like Rand Van Poudaroy was his drummer, Brian Waddle on guitar, Mark Cimino on guitar. These are people he'd worked with for a while, and most of these people stayed with him for quite a long time going through this Devin Townsend project. There was also Dave Young on there on additional keyboards, but he added a new person that worked on some of his albums that kind of took it to a whole new level, and that was with the addition

00:05:56of a singer named Annika Van Geersbergen, who formerly was with The Gathering, and she's been solo now for a while, but she made her name in the Gothic, originally Death Doom, but Gothic and then kind of trip-hop proggy alternative band called The Gathering. Said The Gathering a number of times, might say it a few more times. Anyway, she ended up working with him and created this amazing chemistry between him and her and their ability

00:06:26to sing all this music that Devin Townsend was cranking out. So that's kind of in a brief nutshell. I don't know if there's anything you guys want to add or say before we get started on the albums or the album itself. I remember when the Steve Vai album came out and that scrappy young lad, that strapping young lad with the little knot of hair on the back sang for Steve. And so when strapping young lad came along, I was like, oh, it's that guy.

00:07:00I got cities when it came out and it was cool. But I never really got into strapping or Devon until much later. I was aware of his solo stuff. I even saw him at Jack's once, which was the first time I really paid attention and I said, this is interesting. But it wasn't until I went to Prog Power with John and TR and saw him there that I really caught the bug.

00:07:27That was when I was like, I really got to listen to this guy more because he's very entertaining and unique. And so I did. And however many years later it is now, I'm a big fan. So. Yeah. And so I've seen Devin Townsend six times in concert now, but it was actually because he was opening for another band. Usually he's great live. He's a funny guy. And the band sounds massive live.

00:07:56Though I've seen him a bunch of times, I really haven't listened to any of his albums other than Ghost, which John mentioned, which is a mellow, almost new age album that he released in 2011. I think one of the reasons I didn't get into his stuff is because he records with like a giant wall of sound and I need more dynamics. This is just my perception after listening to a few tracks of various albums and hearing him live.

00:08:26I hate to say it, but it gets fatiguing when your ears don't get a break. But I wanted to give this a try and listen to this because actually I had never, even though I'd heard some of these songs live, I had never heard the whole album. So I was excited to listen to this and I like all the exclamation marks. Yeah, I was going to bring up the wall sound as we got started. And this seems to be a drawback for a lot of people. And if you can't get past the wall sound, then it's better just to walk around to the entrance to a different place.

00:08:56in the musical world. That's not a knock. It's just you're never going to get that wall. However, I will say that he's not just an all wall of sound. I mean, if you really, especially if you listen to him on headphones, it's actually way more dynamic than you would think, TR, to be honest with you. I mean, I got that on this album and we'll get into that. Right. But I think the key is when you listen to his stuff, you have to listen to the whole album because it's really

00:09:26It's really easy to pick songs out and I'm not saying what you did to you. But I'm saying it would lend itself to what you just said. If you sing singularly picked off songs, you would miss kind of a lot of what he does because if you don't know much about him, he's I don't want to say he's crazy, but he's just wild. Yeah. He is uninhibited. He's but I would say that part of him is almost gone. He's very introspective now about everything. Yeah. And he's very philosophical. I mean,

00:09:55It's interesting how he's like, you can see that he has really gained a lot of wisdom over the years. Because now when he talks and when you see interviews with him, you can tell that he's grateful for where he is. He's very contemplative about what he does and what he has done. And he's very conscious of,

00:10:25everything it seems and so yeah he definitely like I think he I don't want to say he has regrets about like his earlier what he did when he was younger but I think he definitely learned from it and I think he definitely grew up and and yeah you want to talk about a prolific songwriter this guy has put out an enormous amount of music it's pretty amazing what this guy has done and diverse music for a guy who was gonna take a break

00:10:55Yeah. Comes back after his year and a half break with five new albums, four being part of the Devin Townsend project. And it's been nonstop since then. So you hit everything on the head there perfectly, Tara, describing him. I think his big change in life came when he and his wife had a kid. That changed everything, I think, for him. And he knew he had to be responsible for taking care of them. And I'm glad, to be honest with you, that he found that because if you knew anything about the strapping era and the early

00:11:25parts of his career. Or even the Vi era. He talked about taking a dump in Steve Vi's guitar case and just really weird stuff where it's like, oh my God, I can't believe you did that. But that shouldn't dissuade you from him. Because when he talks about that, you can see he's just... He's toilet trained now. But he has become one of the giants in kind of the prog circles. Modern prog, I should say. He really is. He's huge. And so many people who wouldn't have listened to him 20 years ago,

00:11:55I first got into him. George, you probably went into him first because of strapping, but I got into him probably 2001 when Terria came out. So that was old. I was really early in his solo career. I think there was only his, he put out four albums in like five years pretty fast. So, so four albums is really early in a career of somebody who's got 24, 25 albums now at this point of all different musics. Like TR mentioned, he's all over the place.

00:12:25So anyway, to make a long story short about Devin Townsend, he is quite an interesting person, I think. And while he might be introspective now to see him on stage, he's like controlled chaos now on stage when you see him, I think is the best way to put it. He's terrifying. Yes. So to get started with Addicted, the last things I want to say about this is that he, like I said, wanted to work with people where there was no drama.

00:12:54people he was comfortable working with where everyone got along.

00:12:58And that seems to show with each of these albums he did with the project.

00:13:02With this specific album, though, and I got this from watching a podcast when I listened to it, that he put where he discussed each one of his albums.

00:13:12During the pandemic, he started doing this, and I had never gone back and listened to them because it's just his voice like us.

00:13:18There's no images.

00:13:19When I watched the YouTube video, which was the same image the whole time, it's like,

00:13:24He's not moving. What's going on here? He's doing ventriloquism now. How did that work? How did he stay so still? And he looks like a satellite now. Anyway, on this album, he really wanted to try to write traditional rock song structures. And I think that's pretty apparent on this album when you listen to it. Because if you know anything about his other material, it's extreme metal. On some, and progressive metal on others.

00:13:53He tried to put together classic rock type, not classic rock, but classic rock structures for the songs. And it was also the first time he really paid attention to production in the studio. He knew how to do production. He said he didn't really understand production and what came with it and what was behind it. So this actually was a difficult album for him to record and to produce. And so with that said, let's move on.

00:14:23lyrics, but I will tell you, the album is about addiction. All different forms of addiction. So if you didn't get that from the title, being addicted, then you will going forward. Now, as TR said, each song has an exclamation point at the end of it. So if it sounds like I'm yelling, I'm just reading how the song goes. Calm down. Talking in all caps. Yes. So the first song. Dead.

00:14:53Actually, the opening track is Addicted. And this is probably, George, would you say, the closest to his normal sound, his regular prototypical Devontown's sound. It opens with a heavy riff, heavy drums coming in. And then the synth wall, like Tiara mentioned, comes in. And it's methodical and it's pounding, but it's very mid-tempo. And it's kind of reminiscent of other great openers from his career, like Seventh Wave off of the

00:15:23The Ocean Machine Biomech album, his first album, or Depth Charge off of Accelerated Evolution. The song is, like I said, probably the closest you're going to get to his previous work up to that point. Now, as we move through the album, that'll change a little bit. As this song is prodding along and building to him coming in to sing, as if the Red Sea had parted or the gates of heaven had opened in the skies and this angelic voice comes in.

00:15:53as I named her earlier as Annika Van Gersberg. And she starts singing and it becomes quite apparent that even just early on in this first time you hear her singing with him, that this was literally a match made in heaven to use that expression because it just seems to work so well. They seem to have this chemistry right off the bat. I'll leave it at that. It's just a very hard, charged, chugging song. He switches between his extreme vocals.

00:16:23and his clean vocals. And it reminds me, like I said, of earlier songs because his vocals are even really rough. This is probably one of the harshest songs he sings on the album. But I'll let these guys try to explain it because it's hard when you're a super fan of this guy. You almost can get lost in the weeds with his stuff because there's so much going on. So. Yeah. You guys take it away. All right. So addicted. I'm hooked on a Debbie.

00:16:53Not a feeling, a Devi, because I'm addicted. This one starts off banging. I picture a maniacally grinning Devi driving a giant tractor over everything with his, like, knees out and his elbows going on the wheel. And is that Anika singing back up there at the beginning? I was like, whoa, I didn't almost notice it because it was, like, in the background. But this one is definitely a skullet bobber. Yes. And that wall of sound that was previously mentioned.

00:17:23the house or perhaps on the house this is like a slightly discordant juggernaut yeah so i

00:17:33completely agree with john's account because i said it starts with a great riff and huge drums

00:17:38you get some electronic sounds and a brutal scream and beautiful backing vocals by annika

00:17:45i heart her so much as tr holds up his hands i think you eggplant her yeah

00:17:53So yeah. Oh yeah. It's heavy, patchy, dark vocals, but musically epic. Yeah. And it seems like this would be like a great song to open a show with because of the way it starts. Or like if you're Rush and you're like really famous and you're doing two sets a night now because you're playing for like 75 hours. You bring it out in the second set at the beginning. Exactly. It has that feel.

00:18:22There aren't many places you can put this song in a set. Yeah. Because it does really. And we've seen him do this live. I know. And it was in a, I can't remember where he did this in the set. I'll have to look. Yeah, I don't remember either, but I know we saw this. Yeah, I've seen him 15 times and I've seen all different variations of him from the Devon Townsend Project, the Devon Townsend Band. I believe I may have seen him once solo. I have to look. I'm not sure.

00:18:52So anyway, the song ends and it immediately kicks into a big drum riff intro. And the song is called Universe in a Ball. And you really aren't getting any. No, John. Universe in a Ball. Yes, I'm trying to preserve my voice. Thank you. Okay, yeah, I can help you with that. TR on the exclamation point. Yes, sorry. Actually, that ball, that's the universe just sledgehammer me. Because that's what really happens here.

00:19:22It's almost like it's relentless how this one kicks in. And I'd mentioned earlier, people like to call this a pop album. I think it's more the kind of rock structure album. It's just like radio rock, like big rock. Yeah. Almost like Nickelback rock. He's friends with Nickelback. He's produced them. Yeah. What I mean is he's trying to write songs that are written. You open with the intro, the verse, the pre-chorus, the chorus, the bridge, the solo.

00:19:52All that stuff. He was trying. That's what I mean by the rock structure.

00:19:54The classic structure. And let's be honest, whether we like Nickelback or not, they have mastered that structure quite well. We may not like them, but there's a lot of people to do. And plus he's produced them. So I think that's where he's getting this from. He's thinking radio type songs. And we're still not there yet because this has still got the pre-addicted, pre-Devin Townsend project feel to it.

00:20:20He's got harsh vocals mixed with clean. It's relentless with the drums. It's pretty simple song. There's not much to it. It's fast tempo, tons of energy oozing from it. But he has this unique way of in his songs of even though he's got his harsh vocals and his harsh vocals are not deep guttural. They're not screeches because you can hear what he's saying, but he just somehow tries to find a way to create. He almost has a wall of sound of vocals too. If you think about it when he has his harsh vocals.

00:20:50But he has a unique way of still creating emotion with them, though. You still, the subtle changes, if you're tuned into them, you can pick them up, especially during his choruses are quite, again, to use it, be redundant, emotional in itself. I'm trying to think of the right word there. It's at this point you realize, though, in the album, even though we're two songs in, it's either you get them or you don't. And that's okay, because it's going to change. But you realize a few songs in, like you were saying, TR, when you start

00:21:20to listen to a song here and a song there. It's like, either I get it or I don't. And so we're at that point. It's going to change though. So, but I said, like I said, simple driving, fast tempo song, big drum thing going on. What do you guys think? I said, wonky riff robot has arrived. And I had to, I had to stop myself when you were just talking about his vocals because it wasn't my turn, but I said his vocals, his clean vocals are super

00:21:50of the recent cattle decapitation clean vocals. That kind of clean but gravelly. Go back and listen to it. But I love his range. It's ridiculous. With great power comes weird and unique songs. Yeah, that is true. Yeah, so this song continues with the heaviness, for sure. The vocals go from scream to semi-operatic.

00:22:20I'm not sure I understand the lyrics, but they don't get in the way. So the lyric police are not going to come out today, George.

00:22:26Just a warning.

00:22:28Yeah, just a warning. Lyric police are not on patrol today.

00:22:32I think even you could admit, TR, he doesn't seem like the guy who would write just dumb lyrics to write dumb lyrics.

00:22:38They may not be profound lyrics.

00:22:41Exactly. And that's what's kind of funny about it, because they are like, even though like some of it's kind of out there,

00:22:49They're still like a polite Canadian's lyrics. I don't know. I don't know how to like, I don't know how to put it, but just like, that's kind of the impression I get. He's even though like, even though like he's this extreme metal guy, like he's still a polite Canadian, right? Like that's that like at his core, I think that's really who he is. And when, when you see interviews with him and like, he's very sensitive, he's a very sensitive guy. And even though like,

00:23:19in his prior life, he probably might not have been as sensitive and he was probably a real jerk. I think like now he's like, I think he has become a more magnified version of who he always was because I think he's let himself become that as he has evolved himself. Like as he has grown up, he has embraced his inner nerd, all the ziltoid stuff and all the goofy little weird things that he does.

00:23:48and exalted in that which is great and i i really appreciate that element of him

00:23:55because it is it's enormously entertaining and just remember some of the live shows that

00:24:03we've gone to with the little zoltoid puppet up on this on the screen it's just really it's really

00:24:09comical so i i enjoy that and yeah this song really it's big and i enjoyed it and i think that also

00:24:17to be a note on this album, there's only one really long song. All these songs are three, four, or five minutes. There's nothing that's extended so that, like TR mentioned, on some of this stuff, if the wall of sound is not your friend, yes, it could be exhausting. None of these songs reach that point because they are catchy songs, especially in the choruses. And so the reason I bring that up is because now the album changes.

00:24:47Now you start to hear this kind of formula he was trying to get at with his songwriting. And the third song, a play on Bend It Like Beckham, it's called Bend It Like Bender, which is only a Devin Townsend sense of humor that would make sense to him. This third song is, like I said, the first song where you start to really hear that commercial song structure he was driving at with the album.

00:25:15It's another kind of straight ahead, kind of a rocker more now. It's come down on the aggressiveness and the heavy, harsh tones has come down slightly. It's a little bit more of a straight ahead beat on this one. Still have a, the whole album has big drums throughout the whole album, but now the drums are a little more restrained on this song. And you get, of course, Annika's great vocals throughout the whole song, but the chorus especially you hear the most. The melodies do have a pop-like quality.

00:25:46to them, despite the song still being somewhat heavy. Devin indicated on his podcast about this album that this song is pretty simple. He wrote it while he was sitting in his car. I mean, literally, are you serious? You're just sitting in your car? Oh, I'll write a song. Yeah, there you go. Okay, we'll do this next. And after that, we'll do this. I got myself a song. Yeah, that's cool. That's pretty much, and the funny thing is I could see him talking to himself like that. So I will say I've gushed already enough about Annika, but I really think she's shy.

00:26:16here on this chorus. I mean, you really get a lot of her. And her vocals kind of lend to that catchy. It's not AOR. And it's not pop as in modern pop. It just has that kind of traditional pop sound. It's an earworm that catches you the way she sings. Her voice lends to it. So that's all I got for Bend It Like Bender. I'm guessing Bender is the dude from Futurama?

00:26:45I haven't really seen the show, but I know the name. Was he even around back then? I'm sure. Wasn't that long ago. When did Futurama come out? It's been at least 20 years, I think. Oh, God. Yeah, they stole all the best guys from The Simpsons. That was the problem. Yeah. And it could also be Bender from Breakfast Club. No, Dad. What about you? Anyway, this one is... Smoke up, Johnny. This one is definitely like a heavy dance pop song, especially when

00:27:28Sperte,

00:27:45It soon gets put back on. I like Annika's vocals. No surprise there. And it's got a super catchy chorus. Definitely. Yeah, I think this might be the catchiest radio-friendly chorus on the whole album. I'm thinking. For the everyday person who listens to the radio. So not someone who gets deep into the sub-genres or deep into underground music.

00:28:15So we move to the fourth song of the album. This is probably the song that he's played the most from the album. He plays this song a lot, and there's a reason for it. But the next song is called Super Crush. Again, with another exclamation point. And this one opens with this gigantic chugging riff that leads into pounding drums. And of course, Annika again. She's all over the place on this album. Thank God.

00:28:45Yeah, exactly. Hey, what the hell does that mean? Just thank God. Just that I hate, I hurt her so much. I'm joking. And it is just this gigantic, this is the first bombastic song in terms of the synths and keyboards. He's created this huge sound when the keys and synths come in at this point. And then it just drops to this kind of quiet. I don't, you could get away with probably using electronic drums here if you wanted to.

00:29:15But it gets to that point. And then she takes the lead and sings. And it's just like, oh, this is good. I like this. More of this, please. We'll take a second order. And then it builds back up into another bombastic chorus that features some of Devin's best singing. George, I know you mentioned him being gravelly. And TR, you mentioned him being operatic. He does actually have a really good operatic voice.

00:29:46It's massive. And he does it all in the same song. It's pretty amazing what he does. He's a very good singer, actually. And I think he's probably spent his whole career learning how to sing. And that's not a knock on him. I mean, I think he's really worked hard. He's always been a good singer. You can go back to his debut album, Ocean Machine. And he's great there. But I think he's learning how to sing. The nuances of being a singer itself. And he gets very operatic in this.

00:30:14There's a part on this album, I don't know if it was this song or not, I don't remember which song it was, but it's like you can tell he's going high, he's going high, and you're like, okay, yeah, he's there, and then he takes it, and he keeps going, and he's not, and it doesn't even sound like he's exerting himself, he's just like, and he just does it, man, he just goes, he's still like, oh my god, I did not think he could go that high, and still maintain, like, composure.

00:30:43Yeah, the power. The power. Exactly. Yeah. He is the Steve Perry of extreme metal. It's not even screechy or piercing. It's still got depth to it. And TR knows what I mean by that. We were once, I don't know, we were in a hotel somewhere. I think we were listening to a Journey Live album that we both were kind of psyched to get. We're fans of that late 70s journey. Yeah, man. And I made a comment to TR. I said, Steve Perry doesn't even sound like he's trying. He was just that.

00:31:13It just rolls out of them. Yeah, exactly. It's like it's just that good back then. Yeah. And to George's point, it's sometimes you wonder, I'm sure Devin Towns is exerting a lot of energy, but it doesn't sound like he is. You're right. He just keeps going and going and it never as operatic as it gets. And I bet there's a tinge of humor in it, too, when he does. Yeah, because you can see him kind of mugging it up a little while he's doing that. But it's done so well. It is done well. Exactly. Yes.

00:31:44It's a little hammy, but not too hammy. It's like his vocals go up and they break through the clouds and they're in the upper atmosphere. Yeah. And he's still got control. I can hear him all the way down here. So to finish up my part of this song, I do think this is probably his most recognizable song on the album, especially given how it starts. And like we've said, his vocals on this are outstanding. But it's also a song that really features Annika in the lead vocal.

00:32:12She's really the lead on this. And then they both sing together in the chorus. And it just goes to show you how great she is because she can do everything from gothic metal to trip hop to progressive rock to singer-songwriter to Devin music. So take it away. Chunk. Chunk. Chunk. Chunk. Devin's crash in your head. Crash. Crash.

00:32:42For those of you that can't see, George was crushing your head with his fingers. So, but then there's Annika. Swoon, she sounds amazing. Finally in the forefront. And now this reminds me of Mandy Lyon. The two of them together is like a stupid collision of worlds. Love it. Love it. Yes. So I said, first word,

00:33:12I wrote was heavy. And then I said, Annika is angelic. I'm glad they pulled the wall of sound. And John, you mentioned this. They pulled the wall of sound back for the first portion of her vocals in the verse. And I was so grateful because strip all that away and listen to her because listen to her voice. It is just beautiful. Devin's vocals are also epic on this.

00:33:41And I also like the layered vocals at the end of the song. Amazing. Oh, and they kind of trade off with each other a little bit? Yeah, and you get like these layers that were just awesome. So, yeah. Yeah, you bring up a good point, even though I may have mentioned, but to use the word stripping it down, I think that's exactly what they did on this song is they stripped it down to kind of forefront her on the song to show you the power. Yeah, you don't want to, you don't want to like overpower her, even though you can't.

00:34:11I can't. And John, because we heard her live when the power went out. And I can't, was that Prague Power? It was Prague Power, yeah. Yeah. The power went out, the microphones were dead, and we could hear her almost like as much as if she were singing into a microphone. It was incredible. Like when the power went out, you could hear her in that hall. The night the lights went out in Georgia. Yeah. I'm telling you, I was blown away by that. Blown away because,

00:34:41She was singing at a level without, there was zero power, no power. And you could hear her singing like an angel. It was incredible. And I will never forget that because I don't think, I don't, there aren't many vocalists that could do what she did that night with no power. Like she continued singing because at first I don't think they knew that the power had gone out. But she continued singing and you could hear her.

00:35:11Like you could hear her, I'm sure, all the way in the back of the place. And we weren't in the back, but we were, you know, that was an amazing thing. So yeah, I instantly became a huge fan of her, if it wasn't already, when that happened. Sorry, I didn't, I'm sorry I got on my soapbox there. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. So before we go any further, I'm gushing about her, but I have stated this numerous times on our,

00:35:42sister sibling, whatever, big brother podcast, the metal edge podcast, George Viltestas. I have numerous times stated she is not even close. She is my favorite singer vocalist of all time. And it has been for years. This isn't just some new thing with me because she's singing with Devin Townsend. I'm a huge gathering fan. And I'll tell you, when I, George, you mentioned in Mandelian, whatever it's called, I can never figure out what the hell that album's called. When I first heard that opening note on that album,

00:36:11The Strange Machines. I just went, oh, rewind. What was that? You know, when I heard her. And I've been a fan 20 plus. Oh, God. That album came out in 95. I first got in the late 90s. Holy smokes. 25 years at least. She's been my favorite singer. So that's not me just doing that. I really do. She's one. If we had to put together our band, she's my singer in the band. People wouldn't want, oh, that's a chick with a bunch of dudes.

00:36:41No, she's way better than those dudes. So, all right, let's move on. Are we good to go? We're good to go. So next we're going to Hyperdrive. Hyperdrive. So, yeah. So Hyperdrive. I don't know if this is about addiction because this song was actually originally released on the album Ziltoid. The Omniscient. Yes, which is from 2007. It's an actual solo Devin Townsend album. Tara mentioned Ziltoid. Ziltoid is the alien that came to Earth that drinks a lot of coffee.

00:37:11Yes, Evan Townsend gets out there with his stuff. He gets really strange. As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly, Tiara, you and I were at Philadelphia when we saw him this time. We had never seen the video. He has like a 20-minute video that plays before he comes out. And it's all this stupid stuff. But at one point, there were like these three like little bears or like, no, they were badgers. And they were flapping their arms up and down going, literally, we sat down.

00:37:41there, the two of us mesmerized and just giggling the whole time. And then when they left the screen, we're like, what the what's going on here? Bring the badgers back. Who brought the snakes out? And we had to wait for the loop. Oh, there they are. Oh, thank God the badgers are back. You could literally just see everyone in the audience just laughing. Half the place just rolling. I feel like I saw that. You probably have seen it at some point. The badgers, remember? Yeah.

00:38:11Just silly stuff. And then he's... Anyway. So this is what Zilltoid is all about. And this song was off of that album. And Devin originally sang this. But on the Zilltoid album, it's very slow. This is a picked up, punchy, rocky... Again, I hate that word pop because this isn't traditional pop. But it's got a catchy, upbeat style to it or vibe to it compared to the original. And Annika is the full...

00:38:41on this song. She sings most. She shines again. And I just wrote, she just shines, comma, period. But it's weird because I said period in and I put a period. And you put the comma before the period because you pause and then it stops. I before you except after Anika. This song is just a great example of the commercial sound he was trying to get with. And what's really amazing, I think, is his ability to take a song that had a mid-paced tempo to it and to just tweak it enough.

00:39:11to make it now a whole new song, even though it sounds like the other song, but now it's got that commercial vibe to it. And I think it really captures what he was trying to do with this album and what he was trying to work on. It's upbeat. It's driving. Like I said, catchy. There are heavy guitars in it. And it's just a great kind of middle part of the album. It's great to feature her here at this point because it's going to get into a different place soon. But I absolutely love this song. I love that she's featured. And a little story I didn't know, he never knew about her.

00:39:42Apparently somebody gave him a video of her playing this song live on acoustic guitar I think are with her band he's like wow she's pretty good at this and this is how he found out about her as I believe oh she played the song he was playing this before she met him the Viltoid song yes that's what I've heard wow okay that's cool yes and he said hey I'm Devin Townsend would you like to sing on my album she's like sure and he flew her out to Vancouver I think she did all her parts in like a week and a half and she was done

00:40:11So here she is singing a song now on the album. So he had just released this two albums prior to that. And so he brought it back, which he's done several times with a number of songs. He's rehashed them again later on, new versions of them. So anyway. More Annika! Exclamation point. This is so funny. I can't wait. Go ahead. These two really need to do something together again. I love how this album has such bone crushing heavy guitar chords mixed in with beautiful melodies and weird noise.

00:40:41It's a perfect storm of awesome. And who else would do this? It's uniquely Devin. So the first thing that I wrote was more Annika. Yes, please. Exclamation point. There you go. And John, just like you said, catchy, almost poppy song, very driving beat and riff. So in complete agreement. So what I'm hearing from you is you need to see two burned out hippies in the middle of Hippie Jam Fest

00:41:14And you just

00:41:15More Annika! More Annika!

00:41:19Annika!

00:41:20Turn it up!

00:41:21Turn it up man!

00:41:23Wait till this little Eichmann hears some more Annika!

00:41:26We'll be back for you later!

00:41:28You know who we're referring to?

00:41:30South Park's

00:41:31now not only infamous but probably the greatest

00:41:3430 minutes of animation ever

00:41:37Die

00:41:38Hippie Die

00:41:40And George, what band comes to save the day at Hippie Jam Fest 2005? Boy, I think it was Slayer, right? Was it Slayer? Random Blard. Yes. Yeah. It's been a while. It gets rid of hippies faster than Slayer. That's right. It's the largest hippie jam fest in the world and they dispense within five minutes. If you really want to get rid of hippies, you need guar. How do you hide money from a hippie? Put it under the soap.

00:42:10All right. So now let's. I love you guys. All right. We'll move on to the next song. I want to scream it. I can't. The song is Resolve. I'll let somebody else pick up from Resolve. Thank you. Which is really funny because I think we do get a yelled resolve in here. This is another. Another great uptempo song. Again, it features Anaconda lead vocals.

00:42:39the album and it's interesting in that it doesn't sound anything like the previous songs this is i almost feel like this song should be played during an encore because of the way it closes it almost feels like the two of them are just singing their hearts out and all of a sudden all the like confetti starts coming down at the end and the lights are going on and off and everyone's still the beach balls bouncing all around at the end and everyone's cheering i just feel like this song has that vibe to it it's catchy as hell considering it's so short

00:43:09There's a lot to it. The chorus kind of reminds me a little bit of

00:43:14his first album, Ocean Machine Biomech, because it has that little bit of a vibe in the chorus.

00:43:19I mean, even some of the lyrics, when you hear it, he says,

00:43:22I want resolved to receive what you'll be, the ocean's return to the sea.

00:43:28And his whole first album was based on ocean flows, how he wrote the album.

00:43:32And I just kind of always thought that was cool that he threw that in there,

00:43:36whether it was intentional or not.

00:43:37I don't know.

00:43:38This is actually my favorite song in the album. I don't know if other people feel that way, but there's just something about the way they sing in this song. And it's got this bizarre intro where he just has this weird laugh and it just builds up. It's almost like it feels like it's attached to another song like when Rush would do their compilations, their melodies at the end of songs. Yeah, the medleys. Yeah. And just certain songs that you're like, oh, this sounds so great in a medley. Even though I hate medleys, I hate Rush medleys. I hate them. I freaking hate them.

00:44:08I want the whole songs. Yeah, it just gives you a taste. You want more. Right. So anyway, it just has that feel. But I do love this song. I love the chorus because it's basically the hallmark of the song and it ends in such a way. And at this point, it kind of sets the stage for the album because you've had, for the most part, while Super Crush was slow, there were kind of six bangers all following each other in varying ranges, but they're all following each other up to this point.

00:44:37And it almost feels like, all right, ta-da, we've reached the end of act one almost, it seems like. It's resolving. Yes, it is. Very good. So, how about it? Strap in. I didn't like the sound of that cackle. But, more Annika. So, how bad can it be? Now I know why John likes this album so much. What can I say? Another cool song. So, yeah, similar thing here. Maniacal laugh to start. More nice vocals from Annika.

00:45:07But I am starting to feel the wall of sound fatigue here. So after six tunes where you're kind of getting slammed, I was starting to feel it. Well, lucky for you. Yes. So what T.R. is saying is he's not a Motorhead fan. Nope. Which is just weird. That's weird. Motorhead is the original wall of sound. Phil Spector had the original wall of sound. True. True that.

00:45:37talking about, I was just going to say, in the hard rock heavy metal world,

00:45:42would probably be the true first Wallace down. I agree.

00:45:45Yeah, I don't like to talk about Phil Spector.

00:45:48That's okay.

00:45:48You die! You go to hell and you die! Oh, he did that! You right in the house!

00:45:52I didn't like his wig during the trial.

00:45:54I didn't like his crazy.

00:45:56I mean, aside from the fact that he shot someone and went to jail for it,

00:45:59he held a gun on the Ramones.

00:46:02Yeah, I know. He was just a crazy crazy answer.

00:46:04So, screw that guy.

00:46:06But he did, for a time, own the first Shelby Daytona Coupe, CSX 2287, which was an amazing car. Yeah, too bad he wasn't amazing. Sorry, I had to geek out on the car side, sorry. Yeah, all right. So, TR's worn out. So, Devin, at this point, says, hey, I gotta bring things down for TR a little bit. Ah, E! Ah, okay. Ah, stubbed my toe!

00:46:36The song's called E-Ah. Things slow down big time. I don't think it really needs an exclamation point, though. Well, I don't know. The whole album does. Yeah. It's just a simple sing-along. This is a pop song. Simple guitars, both electric and acoustic. Piano kind of fill out the song. I have to say, not a fan. What? Never really dug this song. Oh, my God. I've just seen it live, and I'm like, eh, here we go.

00:47:06go. Everyone, get your lighters out. Come on, sing. And I almost hope that this is his joke on the album. I mean, like, I got you guys. You thought it was going to be all fun and games. And probably is. But this is the song that kind of reminds me, all right, here, who am I going to pull from? John's in his little bag of who are we going to pull from to match this album or band to? This is his Lazarus from Porcupine Trees.

00:47:36Dead Winged. Am I not right, TR? Oh, man. That is digging deep, dude. Yes. Yeah. Okay. This is obviously will be a fan favorite live because everyone can sing, and he does this a lot of times on his acoustic. Yep. It's just not my thing, but I get it. People like it, and it's also, it's definitely a palate cleanser. Like TR said, at some point, you're like, if you're not a Wallace Sound fan,

00:48:06You need a little break? Here's your break. Yep. I hesitate to say my notes now. I know this track the best. I saw them play it and loved it, and it's been one of my go-to tracks since then. Go hooping your hat, John. Yes. Somebody pooped in my hat. Changing gears here. I totally get it. I totally get it. Clean arpeggios, close, intimate, clean Devon vocals. Pretty.

00:48:36I love the tone of his voice. So much comfort in his voice, but you just, you know that just below the surface is lava. Heart emoji. Pooped my pants emoji. Where do I go from there? So yeah, I got my wish and got an acoustic song. It picks up a little, but thankfully they don't go overboard. It's a beautiful song with nice harmonies for Monica. And I enjoy this song. I like it. I think it shows like a very sensitive side of Devin Townsend.

00:49:06And I think it was very bold of him to be able to like reveal this to others. Like, I don't think this is a joke. I think it's real. I think it's like, this is a real part of him and he's putting it out there. And I think that I really appreciate it because I think it is a beautiful song. And I think it is a really good song that was very welcome at this point in the album. And when you talk about like the album order and the songs that you put together, I was really pleased for this to show.

00:49:36show up when it did. Yes. Now, when I say the joke, I'm referring to the lyrics on this one, the whole chorus of E-Ah. So that's musically. Yes. I have no issues with the music itself. It's the campy lyrics on this one, which he doesn't do often on his stuff. But not all of it's camp, right? I mean, there's very loving things that are said here that I think are genuine. Like the lyrics of this song, even though E-Ah is like kind of goofy,

00:50:05and I think it's kind of a tip of the hat to kind of pop love songs. What he's saying is very genuine in the rest of the lyrics. And I kind of feel like this was a very serious song for him. Even though the E and the Ah is just kind of fluff or nonsense, what backs it is real to me.

00:50:35Anyway, like my interpretation and what I got from this song was like, yeah, there's fluff and you put, you know, love song stuff in something. But but the main lyrics are very touching. And I don't know. To me, it sounded very real and very authentic. I'm not getting past that. It's just all. All right. Yeah. Looks like someone else is the lyrics police for this episode. Literally two words.

00:51:05They're not even real words. They're just like, uh, uh, uh, they're grunts. It could be anything. It's like Rocky Bobo taking a punch. All right, let's move on. Let's get going. We've talked enough about this. All right, next one, The Way Home. Similar song to Eeyah. A little more of a driving tempo, though, but it's another slower, not slowed down, stripped down song to follow. And it kind of gives you still some more. These songs are short, so you still need a few more minutes to get your bearings straight.

00:51:35The one thing that stands out is Devin shines as a singer on this one, I think. It's a pretty subtle song. It goes from subtle to kind of rock operatic vocals throughout it. Straightforward. Not a lot of layers to it. A little more tempo to it than Eeyah. But they're kind of companion songs together at this point in the album. Sticking in calm Devin mode. Slightly heavier music than the last one, but his vocals are still clean and intimate.

00:52:08And at the front of the train, it has Devin's face. And it's singing into the darkness as it plows through the countryside. Next stop, nine and three quarters. I don't know, man. Sorry, no. I know that was weird, but it was just what I was picturing. Like an animated music video in my head of this train chugging along and Devin's face screaming at the train. Yeah. Badass.

00:52:35So yeah, I said heavy, but still not a full wall of sound, which was good because they're kind of, they're building it up again. And, and Devin really gets a lot of tonalities from his voice in this song, which I agree with you guys. Like again, as a vocalist, he's really shining here by getting all those different kinds of sounds from his voice. Yes. Good point. He's building you back up because the next song, number nine, which is called. Number nine.

00:53:05you back into consciousness from his sing-along moments with this heavy, riff-driven, thundering drums and again, angelic vocals from Annika. And this song is right back to it. And this is, the drums on this are very prominent. They dictate where the song goes. It's one of the heavier songs. It's big, chugging riffs. It's got a mid-tempo. But then the chorus, where they sing numbered,

00:53:35kind of gets back to that still radio-friendly chorus rock vibe. Even though the song's heavy, it's almost like a Beavis and Butthead, dun-dun-dun kind of thing a little bit if you think about it. This is cool. And then she starts singing, and they'd be like, what is this crap? That's what they would do. No, no, I know. Who's that singing? But this one does bring in that wall right back. Boom. You thought you broke through, and it just fell right back on top of you again.

00:54:04So, but I love this song. I just love how throughout the album, he kind of moves around and does different things, even though you may not notice it. But after time and you listen enough, you start to pick up on new things. And this is another crushing song that he does on the album. Cool tune. Not sure what else to say. Music is cool. Check. Vocals are cool. Check.

00:54:34Soaring vocals? Check. Tightening of the pants? Check. Yeah, so I said super heavy, but then you get Anika's beautiful vocals. Again, this is super catchy. Anika seems to float. I like the arpeggiated guitars in the second verse, and Anika's outro vocals are awesome. We all float. Yes. All right, last one. Let's finish this.

00:55:04It's called Awake. Awake! With two exclamation points. You really need it. Is that two? Yeah, there are two. Only one of mine. I must not have that much. Mine's had two. Did you get the special edition? Ten percent more. It's more awake. Ten percent more exclamation points. I must be sleeping. I don't know what's going on here. They made it more awake. I guess they had more caffeine. Not a peach basket.

00:55:34It's got two exclamation points. You did a pretty good Resident Alien there. You don't even realize you did that. I don't even know what you're talking about. Yeah, George knows what I'm talking about. Yes. This is some book. Anyway, Awake. Yes, the final song. It says it's nine minutes and 44 seconds. It's really about six minutes, five and a half, six minutes, because there's a long fade out on this song. But again, another big riff, catchy beat. Devin's clean vocals again are

00:56:04It's outstanding on this song. But the song does get heavy during the chorus, and his harsh vocals are raminate as ever. It's bombastic, kind of accented drum beats throughout it. And again, we keep saying this, but it really is true. Annika's vocals are just soaring all over the place. Awake is a mix of that commercial meets Devin's unique insanity, all in this one song, this big kind of finalized vision from this album. It eventually fades, like I said, around the five and a half

00:56:34half to six minute part. And it just goes, it fades these layered synths and kind of vocal loops. And then it just is Devin eventually singing out at the last outro into this kind of complete fade out. Just kind of finally ends. But the interesting thing about these lyrics is that they include the line that mentioned, or has the word deconstruct, which ends up being the title of his next album, Deconstruction, which is his

00:57:04Off the charts, banana, insane, extreme, wild, nutty. We don't know where we are, but we ended up somewhere we didn't think we were going to be last night kind of a moment. So, and then the album kind of just finalizes. That's all I got for it. This one is huge. Almost 10 minutes. Let's see where this goes. I feel like this one is yet another slightly different style. It's not like exactly like any of the other tracks.

00:57:34And was that a Pantera callback? Walk on home, boy. That's okay. You're only human, boy. Yes, Annika, take me home again. Her hook is ridiculous. This song kicks all the asses that need kicking. It's heavy and soft. It's mean and it's nice. It's got melody, but it's got brass knuckles. At last, Devin is free.

00:57:59So I said another poppy tune, but there's always a heaviness. Devin employs a bunch of different vocal styles in this one. Stong starts to fade in the middle and kind of gets somewhat electronic and then kind of ambient. I like how it just feels like the camera slowly panned up to space at the end. Yeah. And then the credits kind of slowly just come up as it's still playing in the background. Yeah. It kind of feels that way. That's kind of how it felt like to me. That's funny that you say that about the credits.

00:58:29We'll see. Later. Much later. Hmm. All right. All right. So I will finish up by saying I'm glad you guys listened to it. I'm not sure. I know George is a fan, TR. I hope you got a little something out of it because I know you're not super big on the wall of sound. And I knew that when I picked this, but hopefully you picked up on some stuff other than Annika on the album. Oh. Do I have to? I dare to say with the, I don't even know how many albums I have. I don't have everything,

00:58:59is you don't have to have everything in his collection if you're a fan you can literally skip some stuff if you don't dig in it because there's so much he's not the grateful dead for live shows like they release like 9 000 live shows but he's got a lot of releases but i would say that this is probably it's not my favorite it's definitely in the top three of his albums but it's pretty close so either like i said you get him or you don't he's kind of a musical madness wizard magician genius

00:59:52This one might work for some people who want to try

00:59:54some more modern sounding,

00:59:58progier,

00:59:59rock metal-ish alternative,

01:00:01whatever albums.

01:00:03Nice.

01:00:04Yeah.

01:00:05So,

01:00:05so overall,

01:00:06I enjoyed this album a lot and I still,

01:00:09there's still that wall of sound,

01:00:11but I like this stuff.

01:00:13And while it's hard to listen to an entire album of this,

01:00:16I really enjoyed it.

01:00:18And I will definitely continue to see him live because he is super

01:00:22entertaining.

01:00:23Alrighty.

01:00:25Moving on to our second album of the evening, TR? Yep, so my pick this time is Humble Pie's album, Smokin'. Released in March of 1972, Smokin' is Humble Pie's fifth studio album and the first after Peter Frampton departed for a solo career. I have to admit that the dirty blues rock is not something I typically like or listen to, but I like Steve Marriott's vocals so much on this that I can get past

01:00:54some of the things that I don't usually like about the genre. Still, there's a lot to like here. Clem Clemson helped the Pi maintain the dual guitar attack, and there are some soulful vocals, harmonies, and general boogie-woogie. While this style of music is not my thing normally, I really love this album. I thought I was at least vaguely aware of the music of Humble Pi, and maybe I am, but based on this album, perhaps I am mistaken. I am familiar

01:01:24with one of the song titles, though, as it turned out, not the song itself. So I haven't got much history to offer only to say, let's see what the future holds on this album. I will say I was actually quite surprised here that you picked this because you've never struck me as much of a blues fan. No, and I don't mean like traditional blues. You've just never really talked about. I've never had a conversation to you about Eric Clapton or that kind of English blues or Stevie

01:01:55Yeah. That's because I don't have any of that stuff. Yeah. And it's just absolutely, I'm actually surprised you don't have at least one Steve Ray Vaughn album, just given how good he was on guitar. Good enough to play pop rock with David Bowie and then good enough to be jambo with Buddy Guy. I mean, he just, anyway. So I was a little surprised. And I don't mean that as a knock. I just, I was like, wow, okay, this is going to be interesting because this is where I first cut my teeth early on.

01:02:24Because for us, just being those three years older than you, George, this is all that was on the radio. And we were like 11, 10, 12. I mean, this was this type of rock. And I was a little apprehensive listening this because I haven't really listened this much in a long time. And I will say what every casual, nonchalant fan will say, that you just want to just pull them out through the internet and just smack them really hard in the head.

01:02:54No Frampton, no Pie. Yep. All right. Be that as it may. I'm just joking. No, it's... Hey, I recognize that a lot of people felt like you don't have Humble Pie without Peter Frampton, but for me... But this is their biggest album, isn't it? Actually? It's one of them. I mean, certainly there are some hits on this album, and it was... I have to admit, like, this is probably the only album I have...

01:03:24the album I have by them. I have like a compilation. But honestly, like, this is kind of one of those, I don't want to say it's a guilty pleasure because I wouldn't put it in that category necessarily. But it definitely is. I agree with you, John. This is a kind of like a almost an aberration in my collection because I don't listen to this. This is not the kind of stuff I listen to. Like, like you said, we've never had a conversation about Eric Clapton. We've never had a conversation about Stevie Ray Vaughan or anything bluesy.

01:03:54because I actually really don't like most blues based rock music. Anything that's like, now don't get me wrong. I love me some Led Zeppelin, right? Like that, there's no doubt about that. But, but in terms of like the stuff that's like, where's blues on its sleeve? I just never really got into that and really never cared for that stuff. But this is kind of, this is the exception of the rule. And we've talked about this many times.

01:04:24throughout this podcast of how we all have rules in our minds about different music.

01:04:31And this one definitely under most circumstances, I wouldn't give this a second listen.

01:04:37But I'm telling you, like this album, I love this album.

01:04:42And most of it's really Steve Marriott's vocals.

01:04:46So let's get into it.

01:04:47The first album or the first song, I should say, is Hot and Nasty.

01:04:51It's a funky R&B grooving song with a wah-wah and a walking bass line. I love Marriott's high whiskey-soaked vocals. I like the Hammond organ and the background vocals. And this is a rockin' tune to kick off the album. First of all, it's pronounced hot and nasty. I beg your pardon. This certainly sounds like 1972. I think the singer might like Robert Plant.

01:05:21The Song Title reminds me of my favorite budget burger joint in Michigan in the 90s, Hot and Now. When I was broke, I could load up there for a couple of bucks. And the only place I've ever seen that had a green olive burger, which for the record was outstanding. Back to music. It's got a cool loose groove to it and some cool lead working keys, but you know, I'm still on the fence. Hmm. This is so funny. I'm probably the person who has the most background.

01:05:51on this type of stuff. And I had never heard this album before. So this was a dive in for me. And right off the bat, I got this, I got the cool groovy drum and keyboard intro and the bluesy guitar work right off the bat. Yeah. And then the funk kind of mixed in with it. And you do, you get that boogie woogie kind of thing going on there. And I think at some point they were considered like the premier kind of hard rock boogie band out there at one point. I think what is noticeable right away for me on the album

01:06:21is that the version I listened to was mixed pretty well because the bass is there the whole time. And a lot of those old albums, the bass gets lost and the drums get lost, but everyone seems to stand out kind of nicely on this album. So I think there's a great balance. It's a good opening track. I personally would have called it hot, then quotes, letter N, close quotes, and nasty would be with a Z and not an S, personally.

01:06:51And two E's instead of a Y. Like tasty cone or whatever it is. Tasty cream or tasty freeze. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But not like tasty cake. No. Definitely not. All right. So the next song is called The Fixer. This has a climbing intro that goes into a riff that is hotter and nastier than the first song. Gnarly. Plenty of cowbell and some tasty vocal embellishments by Marriott.

01:07:19The solo section is jamming and killer. Man, I love the riff. And the ending chord progression is pretty cool, too. I like the intro into the riff. Cowbell! I think they could use a little more, just saying. Reminds me a bit of Mountain, too. They don't seem to be so much on having big, catchy vocal hooks, but the music is pretty cool. So I'm going to dip into the bag here a little. Let's find out.

01:07:49who our connection band is. Let's find who our love connection is with this album.

01:07:53Yeah, I like it.

01:07:54So right off the bat, it's amazing how this song reminds me of a fictitious band.

01:08:02Wait, don't start laughing yet.

01:08:05I almost think of the sound that the band Stillwater had in the movie Almost Famous.

01:08:10It just has that big, bombing, bluesy guitar riff that is just great.

01:08:16It's heavy. And it's interesting that I would think of that because Peter Frampton was a technical advisor on the movie Almost Famous, albeit he was out of the band at this point. But he wrote some of the Stillwater songs for the album, which is kind of interesting how that all ties together in this little world. And we know that Cameron Crowe is a huge fan of this era. So I just, it just, I got that correlation. Obviously Stillwater would sound like Humble Pie, not the other

01:08:46the way around because the movie came out so much longer. But I just love how I got that vibe and you could see that the connection where it is. It's got a good, heavy, slow, driven riff. You can almost get a little cream vibe to it a little bit here and there. But I think that's just because that's the time. And that's what these bands sound like. And that was what was big back then. Albeit cream at this point, I think is almost for the most part done.

01:09:16They're done, yeah, I think so. I can't remember when the Farewell Goodbye album or whatever came out. It was like 70? Right around this time, I think, or a little before that. Yeah, I think it was like 70, maybe. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, 71, I can't remember when that was. 70, 71, yeah. Yeah, but it's, you know, but that's where we are in this world, and that's what these bands all sound like. I do find it interesting that it's Steve Marriott's vocals are a cross between Robert Plant and Rod Stewart to me. I get a little bit of Rod Stewart's raspiness sometimes when he sings, and there's that,

01:09:46Some points I'm almost like, is that Rod Stewart? I almost feel that way. Kind of like Jay here in Ozzy in the new Judas Priest album from our other podcast. That's interesting. I hadn't thought about that. I've been listening to the new album and it's like, I got to think about that. There's one specific spot where he sounds. He really just like him. And I feel that way. I bring that up because I feel that way on this album. Sometimes I feel like Marriott's vocals. I'm almost like, did Rod Stewart guest on a vocal here?

01:10:16because it's very similar to me. I will point out one thing. I always have remembered about this band. And that is until I found out he's really not that tall. But Steve Mara, when you look at some of the old album covers, he looked like the trucking guy. Remember the trucking guy when we were kids who would have his foot sticking out and he'd be leaning back with his thumb? Steve Mara has that picture where he looks like he's like 25 years old.

01:10:47He's probably only about 5'5", or 5'6". But he's kind of leaning back, so it's like he's got his thumb out. He's sticking his leg out. It's like the total power pose. That's always how I remember him. All right. This third song is called You're So Good For Me. And it's a slower song to start. It's acoustic. But then you get the soulful backing vocals, and then it goes into a little bridge, and then back to the chorus.

01:11:16And you get like this really big kind of black soulful chorus thing that's going on with this song. And it's, yeah, this is, I felt like this was a definitely kind of a, an early palate cleanser after the first two tracks that are kind of heavy and kind of rocking. This kind of pulls it back a little bit and kind of gives it a little lovey dovey.

01:11:43I said it's ballady.

01:11:46I like his vocal style on this. It's a nice change. Got some of that funky 70s clean guitars. Bring in that choir chorus. Amen, brother. Mm-hmm. I got similar stuff as you guys. I wrote almost like a, not a hippie folk, but like just kind of a folky blues. There's a difference, but with a gospel feel. Yeah. We mentioned the backup singers with the chorus. It's a decent song. Probably not something

01:12:16I'm really into that much anymore, but I could see where you would put it on this point in the album to kind of divide things up a little.

01:12:25So the next song is called Come On Everybody, and it's a cover of Eddie Cochran's tune. And they definitely gave it the sound that permeates the rest of the album. This is a slower, bluesier version than the original. Marriott's vocals are great on this. They added a cool dual guitar section.

01:12:45and a gritty solo. The end is played with reckless abandon, and it's definitely very different than UFO's version. I said, all right, guys, blues riff in D, go! I dig the guitar playing on this album. Nothing crazy special, but it's the highlight for me. Gets the job done. The vocals are competent 70s hard rock vocals, but it's the music that works for me.

01:13:13Yeah, I got the same stuff as you guys. Big riff, mid-tempo hard rocker. Although my notes are slightly different than you guys. Mine says good groove and booby feel. I think I should say. Copping a feel there? Yeah, I want to know more about this booby feel. Boogie feel. Oh, I thought it was booby feel. No, I said my notes say booby feel. Oh, but I meant to say booby feel. Oh, well, I kind of would be more interested in the booby feel. Yeah, go back and listen to it.

01:13:43by Devon Towns. Okay, thank you. Heart emoji. Eggplant. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a good hard rocker. I like this one, their version of it. Good. All right. So the next song is called Old Time Feelin'. And this is an old time blues song with a rollicking piano, harmonica, and lead vocals by Clem Clemson. Got a tasty acoustic guitar playing on it.

01:14:13Reminds me of Seamus from Pink Floyd's Metal. Just more amped up and without the bang hounds. Piano bar! Woohoo! Just hanging out at the old-timey saloon with some desperados. Sounds a little discombobulated and rambling, but it's aight. I got similar things. You know, I said slower, bluesier song. Obviously, the piano is the forefront. It really kind of reminds me of something off of Let It Bleed or Exile Main Street.

01:14:43It has that kind of vibe. Again, this is that period when a lot of these bands are playing this stuff and they're venturing into this. So it's kind of cool. And yeah, the vocals are a lot more laid back on this one, which is a change of pace on that. It's a good song. It's got a nice kind of tempo that I kind of dig. So. All right. So the next song is probably the biggest song on the album, and that's 30 Days in the Hole. It starts off with a behind the scenes take of the Black

01:15:14and then launches into the song.

01:15:17It's got a great riff and Marriott sounds gritty.

01:15:21The chorus is so catchy.

01:15:23This song was the hook that pulled me into this album.

01:15:26The 45 is in my jukebox.

01:15:29So this is the one I'm supposed to know.

01:15:32But I really didn't experience any recognition when listening to this.

01:15:36The group chorus thing is catchy.

01:15:39Could be a bit of an earworm.

01:15:41Cool harmonica.

01:15:43I think this is probably the most solidly constructed song so far. I guess that's why it's got that single potential. That I've heard so much about. That I've heard so much about, but never experienced. But didn't really know. I mean, I've heard of the song 30 Days in the Hole, but that's it. Yeah. Yeah. I would agree with all that. You can definitely hear how this was the song that they were trying to get the big push for the album on the radio. And I'm a little surprised it didn't, too.

01:16:12a lot better than it did. But maybe it's because Humble Pie as a name was not the same as bands like Led Zeppelin at the time or The Who were just dominating during this period. It's got a great, good, now I know it's here to say boogie groove. So I'm guessing that the notes are correct there. There's no mistyping. Yeah, and it does. It has a big memorable chorus. Like I said, I'm just surprised it didn't get more traction at the time. It got a little from what I read, but it seems like this is a song that would have got a lot more airplay.

01:16:42because it's written and like you said jord this is the song that

01:16:46should stand out as the song that's definitely the biggest hit on the album i mean no doubt

01:16:52like yeah yeah right but unfortunately it's not as big as i think the band probably hoped it would

01:16:57have been that's probably true yeah yeah that's always true it's yeah well it's a shame because

01:17:02it's a great song yeah that's the point i'm making is that yeah i'm really just surprised it didn't

01:17:06it's an amazing song and like i said this is that that it was the song that pulled me in like i i was

01:17:11I got to hear more of this. All right. So the next song is called a Roadrunner slash Roadrunner's G Jam. And this is another cover. But again, they make it their own. And of course, after a couple of verses, they launch into an outro jam that really grooves. The keyboards throughout this track are outstanding. I really like this song. So basically, it's a jam in the key of G, right? So that's why it's the G.

01:17:42I suspected as much. Mm-hmm. I'm a roadrunner, baby. Yeah. What does that remind me of? I've got to roll with the baby. Maybe Steve Winwood a little bit. Super bluesy. Yeah. And he bets these guys were sitting around getting high and watching cartoons when they wrote this one. That's still entertaining. Acme. Yeah. Yeah, this is a Junior Walker song, isn't it? Yeah.

01:18:11the all-stars? I think so, yep. Okay, maybe he was sitting around getting high watching cartoons. That would explain the whole funky groove going on. It's a Junior Walker song, that's for sure. Yeah, I actually love the bass and drum grooves on this. Again, I think that what stands out in this album for me is that everything is so well-placed production-wise. In terms of, for an album that's over 50 years old, I expect some of those albums to sound kind of crap out of it.

01:18:41by certain standards. But this one really, you can hear everything really well on this. And surprisingly, with such a big guitarist name-wise, he doesn't hog all the space and the sound spectrum, which is kind of nice. He really, he just doesn't. The two of them don't. So yeah, this is a cool tune. I dig this. I could really see this song being a crowd pleaser live, and I could see them extending this out. Now, I'm a little confused. I thought it was Roadrunners that G stood just for good jam.

01:19:10But, you know, obviously. Well, it could be. I don't want to say that it's one thing or another, really. That's actually my rap name, G-Jam. G-Jam. That's you, George. Word to your mother. G-George. G-Jam. Right. So the next song is called I Wonder. It's a smoky, bluesy showcase for Steve Marriott's vocals. It's another cover, but again, it works. The wah-wah guitar solo is sold.

01:19:40and searing. Marriott emotes throughout and even has a tasty solo harmonica segment.

01:19:47The guitar solo at around the six-minute mark is particularly good as it builds and builds into a searing, soaring, blues explosion, yielding at the end for Marriott to make his plaintive exclamation before a final rockin' conclusion.

01:20:04This intro riff reminds me of something, but I'm not sure what. It'll come to me one day.

01:20:10Robert Plant is back. This album is definitely more about riffing and rocking than Saw and Craft, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's like a guilty pleasure kind of thing. Maybe it helps being a guitar player. I don't know. I hear a little Sabbath in that harmonica, like the Wizard. It just kind of has that same vibe. Yeah, okay. Interesting. Unless the last song really rocks, this is probably my favorite song on the album. That's interesting to hear that. So...

01:20:40Again, I have not ventured much into the blues world. So this was kind of like dragging me back in. So when I first heard this, I was like, oh yeah, I knew this was coming at some point, the long drawn out blues song, because this is very common in this period. And so it is, it's a long, slower down, drawn out blues. He gets to shine on guitar, Steve Mara. Almost has a little bit of a Zeppelin since I've been loving.

01:21:10vibe to it. The way it's constructed. Now, the funny thing is that this is a cover from a much older song. So, puts on the question Led Zeppelin again on some of their songs. But it has that kind of vibe. So, if you're not sure what we're talking about with this, if you know that song, then you'll get the general gist of this song. Yeah, it's got great guitar work on it. There's that kind of subtle extended midsection with the harmonica, like you mentioned, and toned down bass and guitar. So, it almost has that little bit of Midnight Rambler vibe.

01:21:40there too, where it kind of slows down for the harmonica. It gets real quiet. And it's kind of cool. And when I bring these bands up, when we bring them up, it's not to say that they're ripping off those, but they're not at all. It's just, it reminds me of that because. It's how we relate to it. Yeah. And again, it's that, it's this period. Harmonica was big in this period. Everyone was using them. Yeah. Harmonica. Yeah. Cause that instrument. Well, yeah. I mean, you really don't, that and the saxophone, right? Like you really don't hear that stuff at all much. You're not listening to the metal.

01:22:10We're listening to because there's a lot of sax boom going on in metal right now. Yeah. It really is. No, but you're right about harmonica is just don't hear it anymore, but it was really popular back then. Yeah. Huge. Forget a lot of everyone used to everyone had a song. What before there was cowbell? There was harmonica. I was going to say forget cowbell hashtag more harmonica. Really? Really? It's just. Yeah. All right. So the last song on this

01:22:42It starts with a cool drum intro and goes into a riff that sounds huge. Marriott also sounds like he's totally laying it out when he sings. I like the trading of vocals and harmonizing by Clemson and Marriott. The outro jam rips and grooves.

01:23:02This whole album makes me feel like a long haul trucker in the 70s with a mullet, a mustache, a cowboy hat, and mirrored aviator sunglasses cruising down open road. One hand on the wheel, the other slapping out the beat on my thigh. What's that got to do with this song? Not much. But I couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't just be regurgitating what I've said about the other track.

01:23:31But this is the feeling that I get from this album. For those of you that can't see this, George had his hand up on the wheel and his other hand slapping his thigh. Yeehaw! Yeehaw! I really don't even know how to follow that up. You feel like Matt right now? No, I'm not even going to say anything. Anyway, an enjoyable album closer. It starts off, TR apparently stole my notes,

01:24:01which is kind of cool. Yeah. It's just, again, loads of good guitar solo work throughout the album. The thing that they do well is they don't venture out of their lane. They stay in their lane nicely and they expand within their lane, but they don't try to do, they don't try to experiment, which a lot of bands were trying to do at this time. And some were successful and some failed miserably. And they don't do that at all. They know what they're good at. And they, in the end, kind of forefront this whole,

01:24:31hard rock boogie style of music that was kind of popular in the 70s up into the mid almost late 70s but more mid 70s the only issue i have with this song is while you got this great outro it then just kind of unsatisfyingly fades out and i'm as you guys know i've said on both podcasts i hate the fade out sometimes you just want to hear it there's so

01:25:01If you turn up your volume on your headphones, you're like, he's still playing and he's crushing it. I can name off. I don't know how many songs for that happens. That's true. And I wish we just got a little more. Yeah, that's true. And like, that's why. Yeah, I said the outro jam rips and grooves and it's like, yeah, as it's fading out, it's like, dude, let me hear the rest of that. But it's like he's jamming and you're like, yeah, we're done. Yeah, thank you. And I that's I guess that's leave them wanting more, right? Like that's what happened there.

01:25:31Yeah, well, we want more. Damn it. Yeah. So to wrap it up, I don't own a lot of Humble Pie. This album is it, other than some live performances from this period. Even other stuff from this band didn't really hit me the same. Smokin' kind of stands on its own to me. I love it, but it's kind of an anomaly in my collection.

01:25:55It's not exactly an album that screams out to me to come back to, but I will admit that is an easy listen. Doesn't ask a lot of the listener. And sometimes that's what you need. Some nice, easy rock and roll. So yeah, I give it a thumbs up. Ooh, thank you, George. Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure how much I would go back to it because it's just not my wheelhouse. But I'll tell you, when I was in middle school and

01:26:25In high school, this would have been right in my wheels because this is all I listened to. So I enjoyed a lot of stuff on it. Just not there anymore. And I didn't think I'd go back until you introduced it to his TRC. It kept pulling me back in. I thought I was out. So thank you for that. I will say, I immediately went to see if Shine On was on this. I was like, damn it, album before. Yeah. Because that's the only song I knew really by them. Because Peter Frampton plays that.

01:26:55and his solo stuff.

01:26:57But no, it was cool.

01:26:58It was a nice change of pace.

01:27:00We went from a wall of sound to kind of not dirty,

01:27:04because that seems kind of a clean sounding album,

01:27:07to be honest with you.

01:27:07But very organic, right?

01:27:09Yes.

01:27:10Not GarageBand either, but, you know,

01:27:13blues bar sounding.

01:27:15So good stuff.

01:27:18Indeed.

01:27:20All right.

01:27:20So we're not entirely done with the blues just yet.

01:27:24So I'm terrified to introduce The Tea Party and their first album, Splendor Solus.

01:27:34The Tea Party, a Canadian rock band from Windsor, Ontario, just over the water from Detroit, released their second album and first for a major label, Splendor Solus, on June 11th, 1993.

01:27:48I remember picking this one up in a Best Buy in Ann Arbor, Michigan, based on the cover art.

01:27:53I wasn't sure what to expect, and little did I know at the time this would go on to be one of my favorite rock albums of all time. This album caught some criticism over the fact that the singer sounds a bit like Jim Morrison, and the music, due to some of the Eastern musical styles, was reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. Due to this criticism, the band would in the future start moving away from this style, which I think was unfortunate, because despite those similarities, I think this is an amazing album.

01:28:23and one that not many people seem to be aware of. This is the type of album I wanted to talk about when we started this podcast. Something I think is just phenomenal that most people don't know. So I hope you guys were able to get something out of it. So yeah, I never heard of these guys. And so this was, I was very interested to hear this because like I said, this was new to me. And I read that I could expect traces of Led Zeppelin

01:28:53and Jim Morrison. So I was definitely intrigued. Yeah, I have never listened to one of their albums until this album. And to be honest, I've always known the name. I've always heard of them. That's the Boston Tea Party, John. Boston. No, I unfortunately heard about this band the first time. Boy, this is going back early 2000s. Very early. No, I didn't know them in the 90s. I found out about them maybe 2000, 2001,

01:29:23I was just on a forum and two people were fighting about this band. Interesting. I mean, it was nasty back and forth. And one guy was a super fan of this band and the other guy didn't like him. I don't even know if he ever even listened to him before, but it was just back and forth. And it just rubbed me so wrong. I was like, I don't know if I want to listen to it to support the dude who likes him or not to listen to support the guy who hates him. And I kind of never,

01:29:54ventured and I should have but it's just one of those bands that

01:29:58slipped through the cracks and I always knew the name because it's always come up in a number of

01:30:02different places for me this was just a dumb luck find for me I probably never would have heard of this band if I hadn't picked it up at Best Buy that day so so but I'm glad I got a chance to finally listen to it like like the Humble Pie I just always knew him but only knew one song so I'm kind of glad I got a chance to check these albums out okay yeah well

01:30:23Be gentle. All right, track number one, The River. This one starts off with some cool psychedelic guitar work and pounding drums. Somebody's got a wah-wah pedal. The vocals kick in and hello 1967 Jim Morrison. So, I would guess it was probably about halfway through this track in 1993 that I knew this was not a product of its time. Grunge was king at this point and here we have a psychedelic hard-rocking album

01:30:53coming out of left field and saying, hey, we may sound like so-and-so, but we're doing our own thing regardless of the current trends. It's a great album opener and a great track in general. I love it. Yeah, so a lot of echoes what you said, George. Psychedelic beginning with heavy wah, and this guy definitely has a Morrison vibe. But I'm hearing Eddie Vedder too. The use of half tones gives this song an air of mystery.

01:31:23The car riff and solo in the middle of the song was pretty cool. Definite Zep vibes at the end of the song. Yeah, I mean, I'm unfortunately not going to be able to add much because these guys have both nailed it. I thought it was a great opening mid-tempo groove song to start. It has that hard rock blues and a little bit of a psychedelic vibe to it. Like we've said, yeah, you can hear the influences of Zeppelin and you can hear Jim Morrison and Jeff Martin's vocals. And yeah,

01:31:53You can hear the Middle Eastern influence more of that to come. However, I just think it's a cool tune. And it's not an anomaly on the album, but it's certainly not like the rest of the album in a lot of places. So it's kind of cool. And yeah, it's just somebody who's working that foot really hard on this song because it's got just these cool sounds. And while they don't just dive into the psychedelia, they do have little psychedelic moments.

01:32:22Just use it as kind of a nice backdrop to their sound. Which adds. Just gonna say it adds a little flavor, but I'll change it. It gives it just a little spice. Not too hot. It's mild, but just enough. Right. Yeah, it's a great, I actually dug this song a lot. Excellent. Track two, Midsummer Day. Nice acoustic intro. Very pretty. Whoa. Vocals come in.

01:32:52And just listen to this guy. This voice is buttery smooth and just so melodic and haunting. He can sing so clean, but he can also start putting that gruff edge on there. And that sounds amazing, too. I love how they balance and switch back and forth between acoustic and electric, something they do a lot on this album. Yeah, I like the acoustic beginning, and it's musically reminiscent of stuff on Zeppelin 3. I love how there are distinct sections of this.

01:33:22this song, but they all go together. Nice. Yeah. Again, I'll be just adding the same stuff. Kind of a cool acoustic folky start, subtle vocals, which is kind of nice. It's an interesting follow-up song to the opener. I've said this a million times on all these episodes. I'm a real big fan of the second song on albums after a good opening track. I want to see where they're going to go. I usually like bangers to follow. This is not a banger. It's a slower song.

01:33:52And it kind of showcases Jeff Martin's vocals a little more here. Even though they're toned down, you still get more of this sound. So it's interesting. I got more of a mid to late Zeppelin vibe as the song kicked in more. But I think maybe because there's such a Zeppelin influence, we could probably pick a lot of different points that we tied to, I think.

01:34:15Yeah, we'll get to that later on in the album. I've got some, yeah, I've got a bunch of different eras of the Zeppelin that emerge on this album. I'm curious to see if I sent one, I sent one to George. So I'm curious to see if you got the same one. But the last thing I'll say about it, I kind of do dig the darker feel in the midsection of the song. I thought that was cool. Maybe a little long at the end for me, just for me. But it's a good, it's a good song. Again, I didn't

01:34:45I think I what I was going to think about this album two songs in and I'm like oh hey this is kind of cool I can dig this I can check out some more it's good for the next song all right and that next song is track three a certain slant of light pretty electric guitar intro lots of effects and panning enter the killer vocals I really love some of the melodies he sings on this album it's chalk full of earworms and I hope they are even now burrowing into your

01:35:15and taking up residence.

01:35:18Oh, I think she's coming down again.

01:35:23Well, I, my first word on this was shimmery.

01:35:28Yeah.

01:35:28The transitions are Zeppelin-esque.

01:35:31His vocals get bettery the more he pushes it.

01:35:35The solo interlude about a minute and a half before the end is very pagey.

01:35:41The little guitar flourishes on this one.

01:35:46But even the guitars create incredible hooks and melodies with just chords.

01:35:51Yeah, again, I don't know how much more I can add. I like how it starts off slow and kind of builds like it does into that nice heavy section and chorus. And that's what I like the most about the song. And I almost at times were like, man, I wish they did more of this in the song because the heavy buildup in chorus I thought was great on this. Yeah, I have one note here that says, I wish the guitar solo during the back half of the song,

01:36:15had a little more oomph to it though just a little more pickup for me as a non-guitarist what i would like to hear but i did dig the heavy sections a lot on this song and they're not long they're accented i think for the structure of the song another cool one yeah all right track four winter solstice an acoustic instrumental track it's two minutes 44 seconds so it's not filler this is just boot stomping around the campfire badass

01:36:45Yes, guitar work. Very folky. Yeah, so they're definitely using some sort of alternate tuning and definitely a nice 12-string playing. There's a serious nod to Braun-Eyer-Eyer-Stomp, Braun-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-Eyer-

01:37:15It's so funny you should say it here because that's what I got from it too

01:37:19That piece it is it's nice

01:37:21Instrumental piece again

01:37:23It's

01:37:24It's in the right spot because I can't stand acoustic pieces that are like 45 seconds

01:37:29And I can't stand them where they're like six minutes. Yeah, we're going back to the jethro toll where the like the little filler tracks that we were like

01:37:37Yeah, this is totally not memorable

01:37:39Oh, no, I'm gonna take it one step further. Oh

01:37:45from Rush. Wait a minute. It's one of the most outstanding guitar pieces I've ever heard in my life. Yeah, absolutely. And it's only a minute 37. I want another minute of it. Alex playing a classical guitar. Yeah. I want to make it two minutes and 44 seconds like Winter Solstice on this album. I agree. I would be all in for that. And this, he gets it just right on this, I think. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Sure, it's got the Zeppelin influence. It's still really cool. Yeah, but it's very cool.

01:38:15Yeah, exactly. And it's got nice, there's nice passages that are subtle, melodic, and the playing is, without being show-offy, it's cool. Right. Yeah. It's definitely in the vein of that era of Zeppelin, of the pastoral style of Zeppelin. All right, track five, Save Me. I think all the songs on this album are big tracks, but this is the biggest of the big.

01:38:44It's a melancholy tale of loss. And when he hits the chorus, it just brings chills because it is so damn good. The layering of the music tracks is very mystical and roomy. This far into the album, have either of you ever heard anything quite like this? Dismissing Doors and Led Zeppelin. I'm curious because if so, I want to get that too, because I've never heard anything quite like this. I basically said this is another Doors-y tune with psychedelic leanings.

01:39:14A Cool Tune, kind of chill. Jeff Martin gets guitar tones like Page in Latter-day Zeppelin, and he's using a bow during portions of this, which I found interesting. So he's evoking a lot of door stuff with the vocals side of it, but interestingly, the guitar tones are in through the outdoor kind of tones.

01:39:46for the guitar,

01:39:47but yet he's using a bow during part of it.

01:39:50Cause you can hear him like doing this kind of thing during parts of the song.

01:39:55So yeah,

01:39:55it was a kind of a melange of all that stuff put together.

01:40:02Yeah.

01:40:03I dug this song a lot.

01:40:04I like the kind of simple drum bass groove.

01:40:06That's the foundation of the song that pieces it together.

01:40:09I got the same thing out the psychedelic guitar work.

01:40:13There's a little bit of an Indian atmosphere to this sound. Now, I hear something slightly different. Again, not being a guitar player, but I think this is how you say it. Some of the chord progressions on here remind me a little bit of Interstate Love Song from Stone Temple Pilots and kind of Zeppelin from Presence. I just saw that later Zeppelin, which you could say that maybe Stone Temple Pilots got that. And it's very short. It's not long. And I'm like, whoa, I've heard that two or three seconds.

01:40:43before summer and it drove me nuts for about a week and it all of a sudden popped in my head yes which is interesting too because this album predates that album from stone temple pilots but again right around the same time as each other and i believe stone temple pilots probably had a little bit of a zeppelin influence even though they didn't necessarily sound like them but yeah it's a cool tune i like it exit track six sun going down super bluesy

01:41:13the acoustic song. Got some slide going. Vocals are pure blues. Hello, sweet Satan. Drums kick in with the acoustics for a heavier but still clean sound. About three quarters of the way through, on comes the electric guitar, drowning in wah pedal. As we round the last stretch into the end, Singer Dude completely loses his mind, and I love it. I said, now, Peter, listen, Peter. Come on now, Peter. Why'd you not?

01:41:44The tempo kicks into overdrive as the sun goes down. End scene. This song and the previous mark the high tide level on this album. They are my favorites. But wait, there's more. Ooh. So I agree with you, George. There's a cool blues slide guitar. Now I will say it's vocally nowhere near the kind of bluesiness that Marriott gets on Humble Pie.

01:42:13But you can tell this is kind of there in my time of dying. Even copying lyrics like, Jesus, won't you meet me in the middle of the air? And St. Peter at the gates of heaven, won't you let me in? So unfortunately for me, it was just a little too derivative for me because they kind of copped all that in my time of dying lyrics. They were trying to be too much like Zeppelin here, and I kind of felt like it was a little too much.

01:42:42Yeah, I definitely got the Zeppelin in my time of dying vibe on this song. No doubt, especially at the buildup at the end. It really reminds me of that song. I thought his vocals actually were pretty good on this, even though he's not the blues singer, traditional blues singer, like a lot of people. Loved the slide and guitar work on it. Yeah, I mean, I could see if you're not big on it because it's derivative. It is. This is probably the most Zeppelin-esque song.

01:43:11on the album.

01:43:14I'm looking at the lyrics and they literally

01:43:16lifted this shit.

01:43:17Yeah, they totally ripped it off.

01:43:19Maybe they thought that nobody would notice, but

01:43:22maybe it's just an homage.

01:43:24Yeah, like Zeppelin fans that

01:43:26actually know the lyrics

01:43:27would be like, wait a minute, dude.

01:43:29They already did this.

01:43:31Yeah, I mean, for those of us

01:43:33that have this in their top 10 favorite

01:43:35Zeppelin songs, and this is

01:43:38definitely.

01:43:38Yeah.

01:43:39And this is actually, I think,

01:43:41Is this even, I don't even know if Zeppelin wrote this song. Is this like traditionally arranged by them? I can never remember if this was the song. I don't recall off-scene, but. Yeah, because the slide on this is very distinctive. It's hard to miss it. So, so, and plus they have, do they, there's like telephone vocals to start things off a little bit. Am I getting things wrong here? I always point out the telephone vocals because not many bands do it. Yeah. Jethro Tull did it. Yeah. So, but.

01:44:11Yeah, it's a cool bluesy song, but it definitely has, what did I say here? It's a bluesy Zeppelin fronted by a middle-aged Jim Morrison. Yeah, and I'll say it right now. I'm sure that Jim, or what's his name? Martin, whatever, Jeff Martin. I'm sure he was like freaking kicking himself because he was given by God like a baritone voice when he wanted to be like,

01:44:41a soprano or like a high-pitched vocalist, but he just didn't have the page vocals. And I know for a fact, like if this guy could sing like plant, he would have done it, but he couldn't. So he was like, I got to use what I got. And here's what I'm going to do. Like, I'm going to sing the way I can sing. And he was limited by his vocals. And he just did what he could, which was, okay.

01:45:11I've got a Jim Morrison voice and I'm going to use it and I'm going to push it like kind of Eddie Vedder and I'm going to do like that and that's what I'm going to do and so and that's as much as he could do right that's what he could do with it I think he did

01:45:41I have some of that tone at times. I get it. Yeah. Tone is one thing, but style. I feel like the pushing it part. Like when he's like really pushing it, he sounds like Eddie Vedder when he's like really pushing it. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's really all it is. I'm not like trying to pigeonhole this guy, but those were the kind of some of the things that I got from this when I listened to it. At least he can enunciate. I like better. Yeah.

01:46:13It's like, what the hell just happened? What was that? Yeah. Hold on. No, I think that Jeff Martin's a much better singer. Much better singer. Yeah, yeah. All right. Track seven. In This Time. After the frenzied ending of the last track, this one comes in gently, like a breeze, and is one of the prettiest songs I know. Beautiful, arpeggiated acoustic guitars,

01:46:41and his deep expressive voice. More goosebumps. And I will always be here. Always be with you. I mean, come on. And there's some nice clean wah pedal work. I just love this so much. Yeah. Yeah. I said this is a nice acoustic tune. It's got a going to California.

01:47:11vibe. I really like it. It's funny. I, this was not a joke. I'm like, is that a pedal steel guitar here? Now I know it's not, but it was like, he got some nice sounds off his guitar, which I do believe he uses a harp guitar on the album. I'm not mistaken. So it had some nice sound. It's folky, subtle acoustic bass song, which is nice. And it's kind of weird. I'll tie it back to Almost Famous. This is a song I could hear them including in that soundtrack.

01:47:40had it been for that time because it has that little bit of vibe because if you go back and list that soundtrack i mean it is not the one on the released one but all the extra songs that they play that don't get released on album you know in the compilations on the soundtracks to the movies it could easily been placed in there and it would fit a spot somewhere on that album or that movie excuse me i love how unassuming but emotional the song is and i think that's really cool and it's a great placement

01:48:10after the past two songs, because it kind of pulls you down a little, you know, sets you back up. Track eight, Dreams of Reason. Pretty intro guitar melody, pretty vocal melody. I don't care what anyone says about him sounding like Jim Morrison. Morrison never sounded this good. Never gonna get it back. Never gonna get it back. Hell yeah.

01:48:41It has the rock, but it hangs back and remains pleasant. Those drums, massive, but not intrusive. I think this is the first straight-up standout electric guitar solo I've heard on there that's actually not wah and, like, in your face. It's super cool. Yeah, so I definitely like the different parts of this song. There are a bunch of them, and they all go together, and I like that. But at this point, the vocals,

01:49:10were starting to grate on me a little. I hate to say it. I said, I just, at this point, like that, that it was starting to be like, not sure about this. That's it. You're just unsure. That's yeah. Okay. It's not. Yeah. Oh, I wasn't sure we had more to say. No, that's about it. Okay. Yeah. I felt like this had almost like a singer songwriter feel to it a little bit in the structure of the song at the beginning. I agree. The guitar solo is definitely kind of a straight up. No effects, just playing.

01:49:40I hate to keep bringing up Bled Zeppelin.

01:49:42Because I feel bad about doing that at some point.

01:49:44But it almost reminded me of the solo in 10 Years Gone from Zeppelin, which I'm all about.

01:49:52Because I know that's...

01:49:53Oh, dude, that solo is awesome, dude.

01:49:55Yeah.

01:49:56And it's funny that I keep bringing that album up because that's my favorite Zeppelin album.

01:50:00And if there's an album you're going to pull from, I'd rather you pull from that than pull from, you know, "Hole Outta Love."

01:50:07You know, I don't want to hear that anymore. You know? How is this a single? Yeah, it's just like, oh, Scott, stop it. I like the buildup at the end and the closing section I thought was kind of nice. So. Excellent. All right. Track nine, Raven Skies. Okay. So this is the

01:50:37One that for me was the most standout overtly Zeppelin, musically speaking. But you know what? It also sounds like the Tea Party. This is yet another earworm digging into my brain. However, the vocals in the chorus do make me think of STP or Eddie Vedder or something along those lines. But so what? This came out in 93. It's okay. Still a really cool song.

01:51:05Yeah, so I said the guitars are doing cool things, but this isn't the most melodic song. I like the transition about two-thirds of the way through the song. The vocals are starting to wear out their welcome, though. Dang, I don't even get that. I can listen to this album on repeat all day long. Ah, all right. So, yeah, okay, I get it. Again, we're mentioning Zeppelin. Yeah, it's got an up-tempo, definite Middle Eastern-type vibes. I do like how it gets a little aggressive in the chorus. I love that.

01:51:35I like that part right there. That's where it's like STP. Yeah, because that makes me think of Wicked Garden a little bit kind of thing. But I just I like that part of the chorus right there. It is a little aggressive. I kind of love the many kind of proggy jazzy jam section that happens in the middle of the song. And it's not long. But I kind of I just dug that they did that a little bit there. And I do like the closing section. I still can't tell if it's a harp guitar,

01:52:04It sure sounds like a sitar a little bit, but I know it's not because I didn't see that listed, but that would be awesome if they played a sitar in the album. But I do like the sounds he's getting from his guitar. I don't know what he's using, but he's getting something that's interesting. All right, track 10, Haze on the Hills. Another acoustic instrumental track. Not quite as long as the last one. Not quite as pretty as the last one. But still a good song placed to give us a break before the final track.

01:52:35So I said that this instrumental came at the right time. I could listen to this kind of thing all day. And I wish there was more of this on this album because I love this song. Yeah. Great. It's another great acoustic track that doesn't where it's welcome or come up too short. And I love how it merges into the final song, which I thought was great. It's the transitions. Excellent. That you could hear how they might be.

01:53:04Played together live. So it's great. It's a nice little melodic guitar solo. Intro. And track 11, that final song, is called The Majestic Song. The opening riff comes in, and you know this is going to be sick. It already sounds majestic. I bet that was the working title that stuck. The waiter just dropped off a double portion of Earworm with a side-out. What the hell did I just listen to? This song is an excellent way to close the album.

01:53:34It's catchy and melodic and epic, and it just kind of rides off into the sunset. I can see the credits rolling over the screen while this plays. Thank you, and good night. So this song is pretty good, but if you're going to call it the Majestic song, it better be epic. It almost gets there, but it doesn't quite. I think I would have liked this song more if the title was different. So I'm sorry, George. The not-quite-so-majestic song?

01:54:04It wasn't quite enough. It wasn't majestic enough for me. I'm sorry. But it was, I thought it was a good song. Just not majestic. Yeah, just not majestic enough, I think. That's interesting you'd say that. So the song title killed it for you. Yeah, pretty much. What about songs like Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing? Does that title kill it for you? Don't start with me, Mr. Comiskey.

01:54:33I'm currently reading the Joe Satriani book. I'm up to the self-titled. Yeah. And while it's interesting, it's also a terrible book because all he does is talk about the music. I'm like, what's wrong with that? Okay. So he's like, yeah, I'm born. I'm a kid. I find guitar. I take guitar lessons. I practice a lot. Yeah. And then I make not of this earth.

01:55:03And then I make this and that. I'm like, wait, did you, you got married in some, there somewhere, right? You mentioned that you have a wife. Who is she? Did you meet her? Were you guys like born together? That's an important, that's an important dude. Like, that's what you put in biographies. No, you talk about the music, man. No, I mean, you can do both, but I'm like, he doesn't talk about anything but music, which is indicative of who he is and his personality and the way he does.

01:55:34But you know what? Here's the thing. A lot of that's very personal, right? So I'm sure for him and maybe for his wife, it was, yeah, don't put that in the book. You could at least mention that they met. It's like he goes from being a teenager to being married with no segue whatsoever. He just, you would think the editor would have said, who is this Rubina person that just suddenly shows up half, like a third of the way through the book?

01:56:01Yeah, I mean, I guess I agree with you to some extent, but like all the people that are reading the book are guitar playing nerds. I understand. Exactly. Extreme guitar playing goofballs like myself who are like, don't care about like who he met when he was 22 or whatever. And like, tell me about the album. Like, what did you do? How did you write the album? So yeah, I read his book. And it's funny because I didn't even think about any of that.

01:56:30What you're saying is like, I didn't, like, it didn't occur to me like, hey, he didn't talk about his wife. He didn't talk about like when his son was born. He didn't talk about anything. All he talked about is recording the album and then moving on to the next album. I was good with that. I mean, I get it. I get it based on his personality. I get it. And then, you know, the gory details are him going, I went from an A to an A sustained ninth. And then from that to the, and then I used the,

01:57:00proximity, whatever thing. And I'm just like, okay, I play guitar, but this is over my head, dude. Yeah. And that's when you understand his personality. It's like, he is like music incarnate. He knows music better than music. Music theory is his blueprint of life, pretty much. Yeah. And I like how he is like, I took this picture and I put it in my practice space and I just stared at it while I played guitar. It inspired me.

01:57:30I'm like psyched go.

01:57:32It's funny because like my whole approach,

01:57:35like my whole take from that book.

01:57:39And I read that book and I read his whole book and I was like,

01:57:43yeah,

01:57:43that's great.

01:57:44Like I didn't come away like,

01:57:46Hey,

01:57:46he didn't talk about this.

01:57:48Why didn't he talk about his wife?

01:57:49I don't know anything about him other than that.

01:57:51He plays guitar really well.

01:57:53That's all I cared about.

01:57:55What did you do on this album,

01:57:56man?

01:57:57And he's like,

01:57:57yeah,

01:57:58crystal planet.

01:57:58I wrote every song in a different key.

01:58:00And I changed it so like each key was like a different step. Spoilers man. Yeah I was like dude that's deep like I can't even imagine like and of course he didn't like he never like really mentioned that in any of the interviews when Crystal Planet came out but like when I read about that I was like oh my god like I had no idea and when you listen to the album normally when a song's in a different key you can typically hear it like as you're listening to the songs because it's like okay

01:58:30this is in a different key.

01:58:31Because when you listen to the song, it's like, oh, something's different here.

01:58:35What's going on?

01:58:36And so.

01:58:36Me too dumb to know.

01:58:38Yeah.

01:58:39But, you know, I was, wow, like that's pretty trippy.

01:58:43Like he wrote every song in a different key.

01:58:45That's like, that's different.

01:58:47Like nobody's, nobody like sets out to do that on their album.

01:58:51Nobody's like, oh, wait a minute.

01:58:54This is in the same key as the other song we put on this album.

01:58:57Let's do it in a different key.

01:58:59And you can do that when you're an instrumental guitarist because you don't have to worry about what the vocalist is going to do because it's out of their range or whatever. It doesn't matter because you can do whatever you want. It may be a little more difficult to play because when you put it in a certain key, now you're doing different things on the fretboard than you would in another key. But it's funny you mentioned that, George, because that was kind of the things that you got hung up on in his book.

01:59:28I kind of had no problem with when I read that book because I was like, I didn't even think about what you're talking about. Whatever you were saying, like, oh, what the heck is, where's this? Where's the meat? Yeah. I was like, hey, this is great. He's talking about how he recorded this album. This is what he did when this album came out. In The Matrix, Neo sees the world in code. In the real world, Josiatriani, with his bald head and sunglasses, sees the world.

01:59:58in modes. Yeah. Multiple keys. Multiple keys. Mixolydian. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's. Dorian and Mixolydian modes. Yeah. He is the, he's the music matrix. Yeah. Anyway, we just went off on a side tangent, a whole Joe Satriani part of the episode. Bonus. Part of this song. Yeah. Sorry. John, did you have something else to say? I haven't said anything yet. What I will say is what I gathered from this side diatribe is that

02:00:28that TR prefers production notes for his biographies. And George prefers People magazine. Yes. Nah, something trashier than that. National Enquirer or something. Yeah, there we go. Bat Boy. So bringing it back to the tea party for the final song, the majestic song. Oh, yeah. I'd like to add that I thought this was a great final song. It's probably one of my favorites on the album.

02:00:58Last Comment About It Is That This Song Just Does A Great Job Of Encapsulating Everything They've Done On The Album In One Song You Get To Hear It Here At The End And I Thought That Was Kind Of A Great Way To Finish Things Off Nice And I Will Never Mention Another Joe Satriani Song Title Ever Again You Did Mention The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing Yeah You Took Us There I Was Started You Started It Actually You Started It Here By Saying Yeah I Like They Said Talk To Me Just So

02:01:30It should be called the semi-majestic song.

02:01:38You like this song, Kyle?

02:01:41This is how I said it.

02:01:42Yes, just like that.

02:01:45All right, I think I used to have, like, closing notes, but I lost those.

02:01:49So I didn't write more of them.

02:01:51I can give my closing notes.

02:01:54Okay.

02:01:55So I said, overall, not bad.

02:01:57Music and guitars on this album were my favorite part. Got anything, John? Yeah, I'm glad I listened to it because I hadn't listened to it before. It's not what I expected. I dug the overall vibe of the album, even if it does have a lot of influences from Zeppelin. I didn't have an issue with him sounding like Jim Morrison because there's literally only one other person that sounds like Jim Morrison that's lived, and that was Jim Morrison. So it's a rarity for

02:02:27for someone to sound like him. Actually, that's a good point. Like, not many people have sounded like him now. And sound better than him. Yeah, let's be honest. He certainly has more range. I mean, that's for sure. I was just going to say, like, with Morrison, there was a lot more kind of spoken word, almost, I don't know how to put it, but like, just dramatic reading, almost, that Morrison would do.

02:02:57And this guy didn't fall into that. He pretty much actually sang. And I feel like as a singer, he probably was better than Jim Morrison. And also, like I said, I feel as though when he kind of pushed his range, he kind of got into the Eddie Vedder kind of mode where you got this kind of higher, grittier kind of sound that I don't think Jim Morrison really ever did.

02:03:27that I think he kind of took the two of them and kind of melded in into what he was able to do so yeah I feel like he definitely kind of pulled from a couple of different sources there to kind of influence his sound and I feel like he kind of took it to a different level he took it and improved it yeah exactly just to spitball a closing as I mentioned earlier this is one of my favorite albums of all

02:03:57It's almost, you know, any song that has vocals is an earworm to me.

02:04:02You just overlook the fact that there are influences.

02:04:05Everybody has influences.

02:04:06They just wear them more openly.

02:04:08So, and that being said, okay, I want to know if either of you would listen to this again.

02:04:13I probably would.

02:04:15Like there are a couple of tracks, like certainly the instrumental tracks I really liked.

02:04:20And there are a few songs that I enjoyed that I probably would listen to again.

02:04:24There was a lot of Zeppelin worship on this. And when you've listened to all the Zeppelin, it's okay. This guy really loves Zeppelin. I get it. But at the same time, they definitely did stuff that was kind of their own and they made it their own because like this guy's not going to sing like Robert Plant. He doesn't have the physical ability to do that. So he said, okay, I'll take what I got and I'm going to do it the way I can do it. And he made it his own. So I can appreciate

02:04:54the way that they kind of said, okay, this is what I can physically do. And this is like who I love in terms of guitar. And I'm going to create this sound that kind of melds all those together. So yeah, I can respect this. All right, I'll take it. John? Yeah, I probably would. Again, I don't know when it would roll into my rotation if I didn't have to listen to

02:05:249,000 albums for another podcast. I probably would listen to a lot of other stuff more often, to be honest with you. But I would be more inclined to venture further into the catalog, to be honest with you.

02:05:37I was going to say, you should check out the next album, The Edges of Twilight. It's a little different, definitely less Jim Morrison-y, I think, as I recall. It may still be kind of Zeppelin-y, but it is different.

02:05:52After that, I mean, they've got one, two, three, four, five, like six or seven albums through the years. But this one and the next one are pretty much an island in their catalog. And after that, they start to get into like electronic stuff, like Nine Inch Nails-y kind of things. And then they kind of bring it back a little bit, but it's still not quite the same. But his vocals are still good. They're just less Jim Morrison-y.

02:06:22And the music is definitely less Zeppelin-y. So maybe check out the next one. And if you like that, check out the one after that. Cool. Will do. Yeah. Thanks, George. All righty then. We're only two and a half hours in and we are done. Thanks for coming. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time. Yep. Three more albums. Surprisingly, we're closing in on one year. All right. Rock on.

02:07:18Thank you.