No Filler Music Podcast - Dad Tunes: Gloria Estefan

Episode Date: September 7, 2020

On this episode we look at one of the groups that stood out amongst the trove of hard rock, classical, and jazz that our father exposed us to growing up: Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine. It wasn't until their 8th studio album, Eyes of Innocence, that the group started making music aimed at the American market. Their first hit single came in 1985 with their crossover signature track "Conga", which peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. We let the rhythm get us as we listen to a couple tracks from Primitive and Let It Loose and discuss how the group so successfully blended the trends of 80s pop with their tropical, latin-infused sound. Tracklist: Gloria Estefan - Rhythm Is Gonna Get You (intro) Gloria Estefan - Movies The Power Station - Some Like It Hot Gloria Estefan - Let It Loose Gloria Estefan - 1-2-3 Equip - Druids (Encounter) R.A.P. Ferreira - No Starving Artists R.A.P. Ferreira - Laundry Gloria Estefan - Can't Stay Away From You (outro) This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. Is it the matcha, or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundled together? What a steal. And that packaging is so cute. It practically wraps itself.

And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the summer Fridays and rare beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from summer Fridays, rare beauty, way and more are going fast. Get full-size favorites and must-have minis bundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In-store online at Sephora.com. And welcome back to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gems that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin with me today as always. And it's just you and me, Q, you and I, the two of us together.

Just the two of us. As it always has been since the womb. We've always been together. And you know what's been there for a good chunk of that time, dude? Gloria Estefan. Gloria Estefan. Indeed. You know what, dude? Maybe Dad played some Gloria, you know, put the little speakers up to Mom's tummy tombs. Maybe we heard her in the womb, dude.

This album came out in 1987, Q. Well, Let It Loose came out in 1987, June. Yeah, man. So, yes, there was a little, at least a month. A solid month where we could have been exposed by way of headphone to pregnant belly. I mean, think about it, man. If dad was already a fan of Gloria Estefan, he had to get his hands on that copy, you know, just came out. Yeah, that's true.

I bet he was blaring it all the time. That's true. But based on our conversation with him, I bet you he wasn't a fan yet because he said that he was turned on to Gloria. the radio singles. And I bet you this was the album where she really exploded. Oh yeah. And we'll get into that.

Yeah. So we don't have our father on this episode, but this is a continuation of our episodes devoted to diving in a little bit deeper into the music that our dad listened to when we were growing up. So this is music that we were exposed to, right?

And I think that's, like I always like to go back to these records. especially we did gino vanelli a couple weeks back i think somebody like uh like gwen stephanie what the fuck uh gloria estefan yeah if you take a geno vanelli and a gwen stefani god damn why don't you should goin stephan because it's it starts with the same estherne letter and then estherne stephan stephan yeah dude when you take a gino venelli and a gloria Estafan and you mix that in with the majority of like classic rock stuff that we were exposed to. You know what I mean?

Like most of it was Zeppelin, Van Halen, Aerosmith, right? Dyerstraight, which is Boston. But then you throw in a Gloria Estefan or a Gino Vanelli or a Steely Dan for that matter or a seal. Or a shot A. Or a shot A. Yeah. It's no wonder that we appreciate such a wide range of music, right? So yeah.

With Gloria Estefan, we're introduced to the more, I feel like this was the most 80s sounding female artists that we were exposed to, if that makes sense. Because we didn't hear Madonna in our household. We didn't hear Cindy Lopper or anything like that. But we did hear some Gloria Estefan. And she definitely sort of taps into the sound of the 80s. The 80s pop. Groups.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So anyway, we are just going to talk about a few tracks off of, and you know, IQ, we need to say their names because they're an important part of this act. Yes. Her backing group, which, and we can talk about all that here in a second, but Miami Sound Machine. So this is, you know, all of the musical instruments that go into a Gloria Estefan record,

that's by this group called the Miami Sound Machine. Yeah, so let's talk about this. Gloria Estefan joins Miami Sound Machine back in the 70s. So they were a group before she was a lead singer. They used to go by Miami Latin boys before becoming the Miami Sound Machine in 77. So one of the members of the band, his name is Emilio.

Estefan, Jr., that is, and he later marries Gloria. So the story goes that in 75, he was called in to advise some high school musicians. So I guess he's like a, I don't know, trained musician. So he was like a teacher or something. One of the high school kids was Gloria. A few weeks later, him and the Miami Latin boys were playing. They had a gig at a wedding. and he invited Gloria as a guest to the wedding

and remembered that she had a really great voice and asked her up on stage to sing a few songs with them. And the rest is history. So she joins the band as the lead singer right from the get-go. You know, it makes sense that she would become the face of the band. You know what I mean? Because you're the singer, so you are the face of the band. Yeah, and she was writing the songs too.

I don't know about all the songs, but she wrote a lot of them herself too. So this reminds me, and we talked about this on our Shade episode, but this reminds me of kind of, it was a similar kind of story with Shadee. Yeah. I'm just reminding myself by looking at the Wikipedia page here, Q. But. Yeah, what was the name of the band that she was in? Pride.

The band was called Pride. That's right. But it wasn't that, you know, she sang with pride and then Pride became Shade. she she she she she did backup singing with him yeah but then the saxophone player Stuart Matthewman right did they him and Chadee wrote songs together

and would do these little mini sets before Pride played yep and blew everyone away at their gigs yeah and then her and Stewart broke off and formed the band Chade yeah with with some other people so yeah not exactly the same, but yeah, similar in that, and that, you know, Shade goes on to be crazy successful. She brings along Stewart for the ride. Gloria makes Miami Sound Machine a household name, basically.

So by 76, she's in the band, and apparently they played just a ton of parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, anything they could get their hands on, played for. about five or six years, basically just as a local band in Miami. Being a Latin group, they had songs in both Spanish and English. So, you know, they were attractive to both the English and the Spanish-speaking people in Florida. And their first recording was actually a small local label. Their first recording actually had English songs on one side, Spanish on the other. I thought that was kind of cool. That is cool. Yeah. So, yeah, so they're just kind of, you know, not really making it big. They're, they're staying local. You know, they're not going on any tours. And so then we're jump to about mid-80s. Something kind of changes in their songwriting and the way they approach their music. I'm going to let Emilio and Gloria speak and kind of talk about what changed.

This is an interview from around 1988. One night we was playing in Holland. Thousands of people were there. We played like three English tunes, and then everybody wanted more and more and more. So we didn't have nothing else. So I asked Gloria and say, I think we should go with a, let's play conga.

I said, you're crazy. And then he said, well, it's in Spanish. He said, they don't understand English either. They speak Dutch. I go, that's true. So we went ahead and we did coma. We got a bigger reaction than we did with the hit, which was Dr. B.

So we're standing around and I say to our drummer, you know, we should write an original conga because these are all like so old. We should write an original tune based on this rhythm, but at the same time give it that mix that we have with the dance beat that the United States is used to hearing and do it in English so that everybody can understand because in these countries they release you in English. So Kiki, our drummer wrote that song on the way from London, from Amsterdam to London on the plane. And when he played it for us, playing on the tray table and singing, I said that song's a hit. So that's cool, man. So they were at a gig. They ran out of English songs to play. And so then they just start playing a traditional Kanga beat.

And this was before the Gloria Estefan song, Kanga, was even written. And the reaction from the audience made them think, huh, like we're on to something with like their dance beats mixed with that traditional like Cuban conga music. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, you know, music is universal, right? I mean, even if you don't know the words, like you're going to react and move to the beat, you know? Yeah, dude. So that's cool.

That's cool. Kind of faded out with a little bit of the song, Kanga, which she was talking about that they decided to write an original Kanga song. song with their dance beat flare to it. So yeah, Q, I definitely remember hearing Kanga as a kid and other songs off of Let It Loose. Like one, two, three, I've talked about that before. Yeah, and Congo was on primitive love. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, you're right.

But I think our exposure to Congo was probably from that VHS tape that dad had recorded of a concert that that that that that they did yeah it was recorded from TV because that was a thing that it was more popular back then and that was a thing that we did back in the day was you put a blank VHS tape in and you would record and do commercials and all I loved about that yeah dude you get the commercials man that's how YouTube is filled with commercials from from that era probably because people just you know would rip them off of their old VHS tapes you know. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. And I remember Canga and I remember a lot of stuff off of Let It Loose, which was like, Rhythm is going to get you. One, two, three. I remember Bad Boy, which was another

one off of primitive. All those songs were part of that set list. Yeah. Yeah. But we were familiar with the singles is the point I'm trying to make. So yeah, when we were doing research for this episode, there's some really interesting and cool things that they did. on the tracks between the singles, as we like to say around here. Yeah. So, yeah, let's play one that really jumped out to me for a lot of reasons. And we'll talk about it after we play it. But yeah, let's go back to primitive love.

So this was their ninth studio album, but their second English language record. Yeah. This is after they realized, like, oh, we've got an audience in both, you know, the Latin world and the English. world like people are eating this up yeah and i mean there's no it's no surprise dude miami sam machine is such an awesome band right right and their mix of those conga beats with uh you know heavy 80s kind of dance synthy stuff is is really cool yeah but yeah it's also worth mentioning that this is this is still a record that does not have her name on it as in like this was just when they were when they went by miami's miami sound machine right so the song

that we're going to play here is called movies dude what a fun song man yeah man uh there's got some some heavy like b 52's vibes so here i'm gonna name three artists that jumped out to me or that came to mind when i heard this for the first time which was this afternoon um oingo boingo mm-hmm yep totally talking heads yep i thought that to you man absolutely and and peter gabriel yeah dude like I thought of that, that, you know, and when you think about the time that this came out in 85, like Oingo Boingo, I think had came out with weird science by then. Now, same year.

Dead Man's Party came out in 1985, and that's when they were doing weird science, which I think had a similar, you know, it was like the weird kind of, when you listen to this movie's track, like they've got that weird, that dude with a weird voice that kind of just says his line in the middle of the song. The lights camera action, all that kind of fun stuff. So yeah, let's read the lyrics real quick.

Make pretend like in the movies and do another take in the dark. Please, baby, please, baby, please. Maybe you can be like Brando and give me your tango lines. Squeeze, baby, squeeze, baby squeeze. I'm getting turned on over here, dude. So think about what they're,

I think it's just thinking like, hey, why don't you direct me? You know? Oh, yeah. Like I'm in one of your movies. Damn me. Well, we're in the movies. You'd be the director.

And, you know, I'll give you a performance you won't forget. That's spicy, man. You know what? I wish we were still doing promos for Adameneve.com. I know, dude. Shit. Perfect. It writes itself.

There's even a song on Let It Loose called Love Toy. Ah, damn it, man. If only we were still doing Adameneave. That's all right. You just gave a free shout out. Yeah, I know. It's all right. Yeah.

Anyway. So, yeah, they're, like, what I love about this album and let it loose is, like, this is just quintessential 80s pop sound, you know, like in all the right ways. It's cheesy, but I fucking love that it's cheesy, you know? There's just something about the 80s, you know, that the sound of the 80s, you know, that the sound of the 80s for for whatever reason is just so how do you describe it Q? Innocent? I mean, is that stupid to say that? I mean, playful. Yeah, really. Wimical. Not whimsical, but just kind of, yeah, just fun. There's a lot of fun in the sound of the 80s. Yeah, the 80s pop sound, at least. And yeah, like you said, this was just kind of a quintessential. You know, when you

listen to their early, early stuff, there's no way they sounded like this, right? So obviously when they're like, hey, let's start making some records that we can push to the American market. Yeah. I mean, they, they, they are clearly tapping into that sound. And that's why we're able to list off all these artists that that we are kind of reminded of here, you know? Yeah. That's not a coincidence, right? I mean, obviously they're doing that on purpose. But it's, it's cool to hear it through their lens, you know, like with their horn section and stuff like that and all the cool stuff that they did. It is cool too that their, you know, Kanga beat heavy songs also made it onto the charts. So again, that song Kanga came out in 84 on Eyes of Innocence. By 1985, it became the only single

in history to appear on Billboard's pop, Latin, black, and dance charts simultaneously. So that song was everywhere. That's insane. Yeah. Four different billboard charts. It made it on every single one of them. Yeah, that's awesome.

So cool. Dude, let me just read this last lyric here, Q. Direct me, do anything to me. Come on, we'll make up some lines. I mean, I got to take a break real quick. This flower is wilt. But no, I was going to say also that this sound, I feel like, you know, you can hear it in modern bands, for sure. Like I can hear a band like Mr. Twin Sister doing a song like this.

I mean, they have done songs, you know, Eric Cardona, which is one of the members of the band, he'll play a saxophone. Oh, dude. You know what? I was just reminded of a band and I almost want to play. a little bit of it because this song is so awesome, man. Do it. Oh, what's the name of the band? Are they?

Oh, wait, wait. I got it. I got it. I got it. All right, dude. So, it's a band by the name of the power station. Something like it hot, dude. Well, when did something like a hot come out?

When did that come out? 85, same year. Yeah. It's all coming together, dude. It's the sweaty dance club vibes. All of these songs that we're talking about. talking about now, weird science, something like it hot. All of these bands probably saw the success that Conga had. And I'm just pulling this straight out of my butt. Sure. But yeah, man,

you might be right. You know, it's such a crossover hit. It makes you wonder if, now, let's not even speculate, because I could be way off. Well, but hey, let's, let's bring up the fact that, you know, the, what do you call it? The Latin explosion. That's happened a few times in music history, dude. And the 90s. What was it? Yeah, I wanted to talk about that. Late 90s, early 2000s,

we had, Shakira was everywhere. Ricky Martin. Yes, Ricky Martin, and Ricky Aglacias. Yeah. Like, we, we were teenagers when that happened.

What was that? Like, let's find out. That must have been late 90s, early 2000s, right? I feel like I had to be around that time, yeah. Yeah, 99. We remember that for sure. Yeah, man.

And dude, I just did a quick search. I mean, It seems like every 20 years or so, a Spanish, mostly Spanish song, like, makes it big. La Bamba, Richie Valens. La, la Bamba. 1959, dude. And then Despacito.

You know that song, right? Yeah, yeah, I do. That's a newer one, right? 2017. That reaches the Billboard Hot 100. So, yeah, man. there's major love for that Latin sound, man. Well, I'm reading right here, Q,

that Gloria Estefan is one of the most successful crossover performers to date in Latin music. So, yeah, perhaps it all started with her. It's very possible. That's cool. Yeah. So anyway, let's jump on to our next song here. So I want to say one last thing, Congo related.

And this is something that happened in the same year that Let It Loose came out. So by the time Let It Loose comes out, they're touring, you know, massive stadiums, you know, thousands of people are going to their shows. During a concert of theirs in 87, in Burlington, Iowa, more than 11,000 people attended, and they all followed the beat of the band,

creating the world's longest conga line, and they made it in the Guinness Book of World Records. That's really cool. Proof in the Guinness Book of World Records, just how huge Gloria Estefan in Miami Sawmachine was. So that was obviously a mega, massive hit. We remember the Macarena. Remember that?

How can you forget? Yeah. That's another one, dude. Yeah. But with a Macarena, that wasn't like a pop song, was it? I mean. Wasn't it just some like... I mean, that was a dance, like steps to a dance.

song but is it but what i want to know did the macarena hit the billboard top 100 are you looking it up dude let's find out what it's ranked as the number one greatest one hit wonder of all time baby h1 2002 number seven on billboards top 100 there you go all time top 100 wow so there you go cue when the latin music crosses over it uh crosses over in a big way it always hits the top top top 10 at least. All right. Let's move right along here, dude. Yeah, so we had plans to play one of our favorite Gloria Estefan songs, one, two, three. For some reason, when I was doing research, I thought that it was fair game, that it wasn't a single. Turns out it is. So we had to, on the fly, just pick something else to play from the album, Let It Loose, and we're going to

play the title track. So let's do it. Yes. So, yeah, the song, is another one that we haven't heard up until, you know, the last 24 hours. So it's good to hear new, new Gloria tracks aside from the ones that we remember from our childhood. So, all right. Well, hey, before we play the next song, let's take a quick break. Here we go. This is going to be my fresh reaction cue, because I haven't heard this all the way through. I'm excited, man.

It's another fun one. All right. So this is called Let It Loose. Hoping in Square. I was letting it loose over here, man. Yeah, I mean, it just has so many, like, hallmarks of 80s, you know. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Dude, last week, you and I were making that guitar face.

I was making that saxophone face listening to that solo, dude. Yeah. You know what it reminded me of? You know that song, Electric Avenue? Yes. Didn't it have that same kind of vibe? Straight up, yeah. It's almost like they.

Yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing. You know what I mean? Yeah. They're like, hey, this is our, you know, so for Miami Sound Machine, this was their 10th studio record, which is crazy, 10th. Yeah. But this was only their third record that was kind of aimed at the American audience. And it's worth noting, we didn't say this earlier. But this is when, like, her name became front and center, right?

Right. It was Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Yeah. So, yeah, they were like, let's just, let's just go with what's going to sell here, you know? Yeah, and I think what's probably frustrating for the members of this band, at least, I mean, dude, if you look at the past members list on Wikipedia, there's like 40 names. But it's got to be frustrating that over time, most people just think of them as Gloria Estefan's backing band. You know, even when they think of bad boy or conga, you know, where the rhythm is going to get you, they think of those as just Gloria. Estefan songs.

But no, that was Miami sound machine. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people, a lot of musicians that have to, you know, kind of deal with that where they're just the instruments in the background with the pop star in the front. Yeah, I guess with any band like that where, you know, the lead singer is the name of the group, unless it's just a group of musicians that tour with that person, you know, if they If they're part of the songwriting and if they're in the recording studio on the record and all that, yeah, it's probably a super frustrating when they don't get credited. But yeah, dude, it is interesting to hear this music and think about how it shaped the young minds of myself and you.

Not that anybody listening cares. Well, it's interesting to think about those kind of things because obviously you are shaped by the environment that you grew up in, the pop culture that you were exposed to. And so when you throw this into the mix, it all makes so much sense, you could draw a line back to Gloria and it makes sense that I would be into. Mr. Twin Sister. You know, I wish I had more artists off the top of my head, but it's all. all just part of the, part of the, what is it called? The melting pot. Yeah, I mean, I've got a couple that come to mind, dude.

What was the name of that band that you showed me a couple weeks back? It made its way onto our 2020 favorites list, our brainstorm list, which we're peeking behind the curtain. Oh, uh, Topps. Oh, yeah. Stuff like that. Well, and Topps was like, to me was very much like, Mr. Twins' sister. Yeah.

Very similar. But yeah. I'm a big fan of, yeah, I'm a big fan of, of female fronted pop disco kind of groups. There you go. That's probably what it is. You and I both have always,

have always liked female vocalists, and that probably does tie back to hearing Chadeh, and Gloria Estefan when we were growing up. We have dad to think for that, man. And, you know, singers like, singers like the Wilson the Wilson sisters or whatever

from Hart right I'm trying to think of other bands Fleetwood Mac but I'm just saying like these are fronted female fronted pop stars right yeah but yeah anyway

yeah dude good stuff one two three for whatever reason to me still is the most nostalgia inducing one of the most nostalgia inducing songs

for whatever reason Let's play some of it, man. Let's break the rule. Let's break the rule, dude. Let's just hear the intro. Because that intro fucking just takes me right back, dude. Oh, yeah, man. Let's do it.

Such a great song. A great song. Man, man, yes. Dude, I never took these lyrics to heart. I should have. They tell me you're a shy boy. Yeah, that's accurate, dude. I was a super shy kid.

She's saying, if you need some coaxing, I will do it. There's nothing to it. step by step there's nothing to it nothing to it dude follow my lead yeah exactly take my hand you know I never come out look at the next

the next verse come out of your shell dude I mean she's singing to us little little twin boys we were so shy back then yeah if I could go back in time I would do like a Billy Madison style like take my little kid face

and just fucking shake it you know like that scene in Billy Madison where he's like you kind of cherish it you out of your shell listen to Gloria Yeah. Yeah. She was telling you that there's nothing to it. There's nothing to that, man. So that's that, dude. Short and sweet on this one. Yeah. So I don't know why, but this song just makes me think of, hopefully people can connect with this imagery here. But like, it makes me remember playing Sega Genesis in our din is what we called it. It was the TV room, basically. But I would sit on the edge of the coffee table. so that I could be close to that. I don't know, maybe the chord didn't stretch to the couch or something like that.

And I would play Sonic the Hedgehog. Our parents didn't care one bit that we were sitting on the table. No, dude. The house that we grew up and we were not. We were super chill, man. Precious with stuff like that. Super chill parents. But it was Sonic the Hedgehog, too.

Yep, I remember that. I don't know why. But the funny thing is, and we've talked about this before, like with our Com True's episode that we did, talking about like, you know, hypnicogic pop. There it is, man. again. Yeah, of course I had to bring it up. It's one of our favorite genres.

Hypnagogic pop and synth wave and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. It ties directly back to the 80s. Video game music back then, uh, sort of nodded to that kind of stuff in a lot of ways sometimes. Well, they had no choice with, you know, the,

whatever they could fit on the, on the disc itself. It had to be, you know, eight bit or whatever, 32 bit, whatever music. But when you listen to some of the music on Sonic the Hitchhog, too, It kind of sounds like 80s pop.

Dude, that's such a great electronic stuff. Soundtrack. Yes, it is. Dude, that's going to tie directly into my, my watch you heard, which is a good segue. Yeah. So is it safe to say, Q, that we have one more episode left in our dad tune marathon? I think so, yeah. So next week, we are going to talk about seal.

That's how you wrap it up right there, dude. This is another one of those artists that I, like, I can't even explain how excited I am to play some seal tunes on here. Yeah. And we're going to talk about his second self-titled record, I guess. Oh, I guess so, yeah. And we're going to have our older brother Spencer on to chat it up with us. As well as our dad, right? Perhaps.

Maybe if we can make it work. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. But yeah, dude, you want to talk about a... Nostalgia, dude. Yeah. Holy monkeys. This record is amazing.

Yeah. It's crazy how good this record is. So we're talking about the guy that sings Kissed by a Rose. You know, if you don't know who still is. Kiss from a Rose. Oh, my bad. But yeah, if you are familiar with the Batman Return soundtrack, or maybe it was Batman Forever, which one was it?

Was it the George Clooney one? I think it was the George Clooney one. Let's figure it out right here and right fucking now. Yeah. Yeah. Batman forever. So this was the Vel Kilmer. And I think this was when you got introduced to Robin for the first time.

Yeah. But yeah, Kiss from a Rose was featured on the soundtrack. And it may perhaps was part of the movie. Anyway. So if you've heard that song, then you know who Zeal is. Other than that, like, there's just so many cool parts to this album. And the tracks that we're going to play are actually some of the best on record and they're not even single so yeah yeah dude i'm so thankful and grateful to dad yes for playing

so much seal for us when we were kids yeah that you want to talk about shaping you know our love for music and and yeah and the kind of music that we listen to seal as another artist that had probably had a big part in that yes definitely so um yeah and if if if i can somehow man to do it. I'm going to figure out a way. There is video evidence of my love for SEAL at a young age from a home video, which I think I have on DVD, and I will put that up on the website. I think I'm in that clip too, dude. I think I'm hanging, I think I'm hanging up in the top bunk and you're standing on the bottom bunk, lip singing along to... To kiss from a rose. Yeah. And like bouncing up and down on the bed with excitement.

Yeah, and our dad's behind the camera, like, giggling. Yeah, giggling or like saying to himself, like, what have I done? What am I, what have I produced? Dude, I can see it in my head now, and it's wonderful, dude. And I'm pretty sure, dude, you want to talk about an Easter egg, I'm pretty sure there's a Sonic the Hedgehog 2 poster on the wall. Yeah, dude. Or a, I know for a fact that it was an Aladdin poster. Anyway, chock full of 90s nostalgia.

If you're anywhere close to our age, all of these words that I'm seeing out loud, hopefully it means something to you as well, like Aladdin, Sonic, etc., etc. All right, Q. So let's just move right along here into our what you heard segment. And do you want to go first or do you want to go last? I'll go last. I'll let you go first. All right.

So, as should be pretty, pretty well known to people who listen to this show on the regular, I am a massive fan of video game music and soundtracks. And we've also used the word vapor wave pretty recently. Let's not forget hypnagogic pop. Hypnagogic pop, it is all related, right? So hypnagogic pop, as we've mentioned, dozens of times. is like, you know, it is not, it doesn't have to do only with music, but like, hypnagogic is like invoking, you know, nostalgia, right?

Nistalgia invoking music or whatever. So bands like, or artists like Tycho, Comtrus, a dozen other bands, they sort of get looped. They fall under that category because their sound uses instruments from the era sometimes. and it just sounds like it sounds like a video game score that from a game you never played before because it doesn't exist. It just evokes that stuff.

For people that are around our age, it sounds like nostalgia. Yeah. If nostalgia had a sound, that's what it is. It's hard to explain, but that's basically it. So this guy, he goes by the name equip,

as in you equipped a sword, right? Something that you might. Got it, got it. Just read on an old, like an old video game or something like that. Sure, sure. So back in 2016, he came out with a record called I Dreamed of a Palace in the Sky. Dude, I really like the album cover.

Yeah. Basically, this record and the one that came out after it, which is called Synthetic Core 88, they're paying homage to old Japanese RPGs. Cool. So, you know, a Japanese RPG, what are some of the best ones that you may know of, right? The ones that come to mind are obviously the Final Fantasy stuff. Chrono trigger, right? Those are some of like the old ones that people usually think of.

But I confess I haven't really played a lot of Japanese RPGs, if any. Yeah, me neither. But it's still, it sounds like those older video game scores. At least that's what you're going to think of when you hear the music. but obviously it's not a soundtrack to a video game, right? It's kind of like that disaster piece song. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

And like the record's Synthetic Core 88. It actually says on the album cover, original soundtrack, but there's no game tied to it. So like, it's just funny. Anyway, so we're going to play a song off of the record. I dreamed of a palace in the sky. And this song is called Druids Encounters. Sure. It's like

that kind of music that you heard back then, but like with more depth, you know, it's like more full. It's almost like going from like 2D to 3D, you know? Sure. It's like what this music could have been if it was, if they were able to have this much like low end, you know, bass and and depth is the only word I can think of. like no yeah it's just it it's like high five I guess yeah yeah um great yeah the whole record is a you know what you call a concept album so everything every track plays from one to another it's kind of telling a story if you look at the you know like some of the track names kind of read off as like levels or something like that right you know like a dungeon there's a track called dungeon there's

a track called moonlit chamber outside the gates it seems like the the part of the the song titles that are in parentheses are almost It's like, yeah, the level that you're at in the game. Yeah. Well, the first song on the record is called Startup New Game. Yeah, nine seconds. So that's what you're going to push when you start the game, right? Cool.

But yeah, let me just read this real quick in case you need more enticing. Step forth, young adventurer and boot up the most realistic operating system ever developed, the human brain, pixels per inch beyond the limits of perception. three-dimensional oral immersion dreaming yet put on your headphones and immerse yourself in the brand new world of equip there you go dude so um yeah if you're a fan of music like that uh i like to say like it's the perfect music to code to or work to uh but yeah it's just i love it man and if you're in our age group i think you you will connect to it on a another level right all right so Q. What do you have for us this week? All right, man. So this is an artist that I just found out about yesterday. He is a rapper, producer. He goes by RAP Ferreira. He also just says

Rap Ferreira. His name is Rory Allen Phillip, so Rap Ferreira. He used to go by Milo before that. And he just released an album under the new name. rap Ferreira back in early March of this year. So it's a fairly new album. It's a really, really great album. What's cool about it. So the name of the record is Purple Moonlight Pages. And it says rhythm and poetry by RAP Ferreira and the Jefferson Park Boars. So the Jefferson Park Boers. How many RAPs is rhythm and poetry? Whoa, dude. Nice. Catch. I mean, I like to pay attention. Holy monkeys, bro. So the Jefferson Park Bores helped, they co-produced. So my guess is they had a lot to do with the beats. What's great about this album is it is maybe two-thirds of it is like

spoken word kind of poetry. Anyways, dude, it's really, really unique, really great lyrics. Some of the songs are more lighthearted. Some of them. dig, you know, dig pretty deep. Really great stuff. So I'm going to play, there's just like a couple songs that I really want to play. But my favorite one, I think by far, I've played it like two or three times today,

is a song. It's about halfway through the record. This song is called No Starving Artists. Built yourself back shoulder chip by shoulder chip only to find the method used erroneous Why you always transmitting from a place of desperation? Why those low frequencies be your final destination, huh? Huh? Singing weeping willows while that dilla swing coaxed the bellowing from the center,

solar plexus, noble savage ghosts ride the Lexus. Parallel universe who was bumping letters to Alexis. Never have I ever been impressed with how they compromise the message for the spectacle and presence of the spectacle heckler. I widen the vector. You clowns pine to be victor. I pivot to miss her. Courage of the swerve became permanent fixture like old timey sings in Jaime's basement

with the whiny faces. These hidden forces propelling the door swing, arpeggiated with poems, rode into the sunset on the arquebones. Cultural mothership turns sacred utterance, dalliance, an army of one green stallion. We're growing scallions, yeah. Put yourself back, shoulder chip by shoulder chip, only to find the method used erroneous, why you always transmitting from a place of desperation, why those low frequencies be your final destination, huh? No starving artist, just artists

stiving to know No starving artist Just artist starving to know No starving artist Just artist starving to know Just artist starving to know It's no starving the artist

Nah Yeah, that's great man Dude The whole album is fantastic And I thought this was his first album Because this is the first time He went by RAP Ferreira And then, yeah,

I just found out today That he used to go by Milo So I was pleasantly surprised to find that he has six more full-length albums under. He actually has gone by several different names, but I'm really excited to dive deeper into what he does. He's fantastic, man. Yeah, just the baseline alone.

And like, is that a, you know, is that a sample from something? I always wonder that. Yeah, but that's, so shout out to the Jefferson Park boys because they co-produced it with him. You know, I'm sure they had a lot to do with those bass lines and beats. Good stuff, dude. Yeah, I love, I love. love, you know, we talked about this on our Tribe Cult's Quest episode, just the jazz, the jazz

that goes with rap. With hip-hop, yeah, and hip-hop and stuff like that. I love that. Dude, I'm going to play, I just want to play a little bit of another song from it. Just like another side of the coin on this record, this song just makes me so happy. You'll see why. So this song is called Laundry Another day, another day, another load of laundry. As soon as I woke up that feeling was haunting me

Another dad with a hamper I wonder if chance the rapper do his own laundry Who cares? I scoop socks calmly from underchairs Underwears is its own loading spin cycle Towels too How are you I've been busy keeping this home together

You know A family just growing together The hovering center cool linens While the loop demands The fools keep sinning Myself included Shit I'm just humming in the kitchen

My son listening He's staring with them wide old eyes I'm just humming in the kitchen My son listening He's stared with them wide old eyes Humming in the kitchen My son listening He's staring with them wide old eyes

We're doing laundry We doing laundry We doing laundry We're doing laundry I'm hot like the clothes in the dryer I know the devil is a liar Silk pants don't go in the dryer Hang them on the back of the bibles reclining

I feel inspired by the shuffle of my foe Cut of the jib Born in my rib We should have four or five hundred kids I wonder how many loads of laundry that is How many bottles of gain will I gain in this game Former rappers It's fast dog walkers

A podcast talk As a blue shoe fit So great, dude Yeah How many bottles of gain Will I gain in this game Just the best line I just love the thought of him

Doing laundry in the kitchen And his son's hanging out with him You know And he's humming a tune This song probably just came from that Dude He probably just just humming in the kitchen My son listening

Yeah I mean if you're If you're a lyricist like that you have to be, you know, writing songs in your head all day long, you know. I like that line when he's like, I wonder if chance the rapper does his own laundry. Who cares? Yeah, no, you're right. It's definitely like a train of thought. Yeah.

Kind of lyrics, you know, which is cool. Yeah, good stuff. But yeah, and I like the music in the background just is perfectly matched. Yeah, and he samples a couple like old hip-hop tunes in there. Like, there's one that says, like, I'm hot like clothes from the dryya. I don't know who that artist is, but that's, it's, uh, oh, yeah. Yeah. It's cool.

He throws in a couple samples from, uh, old hip-hop artists that are singing about doing laundry. There you go. Yeah, so again, that album is called Purple Moonlight Pages, Rhythm and Poetry by RAP Ferreira. Well, all right, man. That's going to do it for this week. Next week, it's going to be, like you said, man, this is, this is going to be one hell of an episode. Oh, yeah, man. How can it not be?

And, you know, we're going to have our brother back on, our older brother. He hasn't been on for a long time. He was on one of the early, early episodes. He was on our Food Fighters episode way back. And when this was just a young, we didn't know what the hell we were doing, podcast, you know? Yeah, man. Do we know any more now?

Probably not. But anyway, yeah, so that'll be next week. We're going to talk about SEAL. hopefully to a large portion of the audience you'll be hearing some of this stuff for the very first time I hope that's the case. Yeah, I really hope so too. Because to my knowledge, I've never talked about to you know, had stumbled upon anybody that

is familiar with the guy. But anyway. No, yeah, it's one of those things where you have to be like, you know, the song Kiss from a Rose? And they're like, oh. Yeah, you know the song on Batman? Yeah. Yeah, that one. Oh, that guy. Yeah, the bad, the bad one, the one with Jim Carrey. Yeah. Which was funny because we loved Jim Carrey when we were kids.

So that was like the perfect. We were all about him. The perfect movie. Yeah, man. Now, was that the one that also featured Schwarzenegger? No. That was, what's his name? That was Tommy Lee Jones.

Two-Face. That's two-face. What a goofy. When you watched that now. I want to say Drew Barrymore was in it to think she was like Poison Ivy or some shit. Nope, Nicole Kidman. I'm looking at the poster, movie post. Drew Barrymore's on one of them.

Drew Barrymore? I don't think so. Yeah, dude. Is she? I swear, man. Yeah, dude, she is in that one. Oh, she's not. Yeah, man.

Oh, maybe she wasn't on the cover. Yeah, you're probably right. I think she was, she was like some, yeah, she was, she was, she was just hanging out with, with, uh, two face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. What a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what a, what I wonder if she's, uh, canonical or whatever, you know what I mean? I wonder if she's in the, if, if that, if that. characters in the DC world. Her name was Sugar. Two-Faces good, blonde assistant. So he had a, he had a good and a bad assistant. Of course. Two-Face, man. So her name was Sugar. The bad

assistant was called Spice. I mean, you can't, it writes itself. The thing about the, okay, you know what, let's talk about Batman Forever with Spencer next week, because I'm sure we're going to get into it. Yeah, that's a good point. We'll talk about it with, with our Steel episodes, since he was featured on the soundtrack. So there you go. Perfect. Perfect. Everything is perfect.

So that's that. You can find us on our website, Nolfellerpodcast.com, where you can find all of our previous episodes and show notes for each episode. And you can also find us on the Pantheon podcast network. It is a podcast network of like-minded content similar to ours. It's all music-related. So there's plenty of great shows. And that's that.

So we're going to fade out with, so we reached out to our dad today, which we should have brought this up earlier. But I asked him, like, because I really, I needed to know. How did you stumble upon Gloria Estefan? You know, the answer is never as interesting as I wanted to be. No, it isn't. When we ask him these questions. But he told us that he was always a fan of her ballad tunes. And it was only the songs that he heard on the radio.

which you would think he would hear the dancing numbers on the radio. He heard those too, man, you know, but he didn't like those phones. So, yeah, he wasn't into the dance beats. He was more into like the slow jams. And he mentions the song Can't Stay Away from You from Gloria, which was a single on Let It Loose. And we're going to fade us out with that song. So this one's for you, Dad.

And yeah, that's going to do it for us today. Thank you, as always, for listening. We'll shout at you next week. My name is Quentin. My name is Travis. Y'all take care.