No Filler Music Podcast - Dad Tunes: The Cars - Self-Titled

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

To kick off our batch of episodes devoted to all the music our dad listened to when we were growing up, we talk to the man himself about his time as a radio DJ in the 70s and 80s. And on top of that, we listen to some music off The Cars debut record and talk bout how perfectly they merged new wave, punk, and synth rock. We even dig up a tune from Orr and Ocasek's prior folk-rock Crosby, Stills, and Nash-esque band, Milkwood. Tracklist: The Cars - Bye Bye Love The Cars - Moving In Stereo The Cars - All Mixed Up Milkwood - Dream Trader Todd Rundgren - Hello It's Me Yellow Magic Orchestra - Light In Darkness Sebastian Maschat & Erlend Øye - Bad Influence The Smashing Pumpkins - You're All I've Got Tonight  This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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My name is Travis. I got my brother Quentin with me as always. And today, Q, we're starting something new. Last few episodes have been devoted to music we listened to in our youth, right? We had Mark on last week, the guy that sold us all the CDs when we were growing up. The man behind the counter, dude. The man behind the counter. That was an awesome conversation. I go back and listen to that. If you're, if you're wondering, hey, what does it take to run a record business? How do I, what are the tricks, you know? What are the, what's the insider scoop. Go back and listen to that episode. So yeah, you know, mainly our focus has been

in the 2000s, right? Early 2000s, emo, I mean, mostly email, right? So now... Mostly email, yeah. Yeah. Turns out we listened to a lot of email back then. So now we're going even further back and we're talking about music that our dad listened to. We're covering some dad tunes, music that we heard coming through the speakers of our dad's music room while we were growing up. Or while we were driving around, you know, just music that we were exposed to through him when we were younger than our former, you know, basically what were we listening to before we listened to our own stuff? You know what I mean?

Before we branched out and found our own music. So we're kicking things off with the cars and we're going to cover their debut self-titled from 78. We're actually going to be hanging out a lot in the quote, classic rock vein. But we managed to get our dad on for this episode. So we've got another guest, our old man. Turns out he's not doing much right now, as, you know.

Yeah. As is the case with a lot of people. And yeah, let's just get right into that conversation with him. So anyway, strap in, buckle your seatbelt cue. Because of the kind. Yeah, because we're talking about that kind. Well, we had that metaphor. about the school bus when we were talking about.

Oh, there we go. Well, I'm just saying what's our metaphor going to be now? Oh, uh, well, now we're in the, how about this? Oh, you smell that pipe tobacco friend? No, how about this? Cute. Now we're riding around in the backseat of the sob that he used to drive. Of that, in the backseat of the, uh, of the station wagon.

Let's just do that. Now we're in the back seat of the station wagon. Dad's got his, you know, his cassette tape in. And it's the car's debut record. And let's be honest, dude, I'm kicking the back of his seat, man. Yeah. I feel like we were fidgety kids, man. Yes, and I still fidget.

That's a trait, I think, that we actually picked up from our mother. But who gives a shit is the real thing. So, all right. All right, let's get into it. All right, man, we're in the back seat. We're rocking out. What's in the tape deck? The car's debut record.

Here we go. The thing separates like musicians from, you know, just people who are interesting and have a style. A lot of musicians, pure musicians, don't have style. They only have technique. And I'm really more interested in style than that. But you're saying that you initially, you weren't, like, for example, when this record came out, so we're talking about their first record, their debut record today.

So that came out in 78, and you weren't really paying attention to them necessarily. You were, like you said, you hadn't bought any of their record. their records prior to getting your hands on the greatest hits? I was still in radio in 78. So, you know, I was playing their, you know, first album hits on the air. So that's how I discovered them. I mean, they were on our playlist. And, you know, so yeah, that's how I discovered them.

And probably because I played them so often on the air, I probably just, you know, got tired of them and decided I didn't want to listen to him at home. because I heard them all day at work. Yeah, that makes sense. We wanted to talk to you about that, too, as far as, like, your days in the radio and whether or not you, because I think we talked about this last time we had you on, which was the Larry Carlton, Steely Dan episode that we did. Weren't you the, you were the program director or something like that?

You had something to do with picking the songs, right? Or am I remembering that wrong? That's right. at an FM hit station that I worked at from about 76 through 78. I was the music director and also the morning drive air personality, I think is what they called us. But yeah, so I picked the songs and we tried to mirror hit radio tunes that were making. the playlists on radio and records, which posted the key stations around the country and what their playlists were. And you're always competing against your crosstown rival for what they play

and how you mix it during the hour. So the cars hits had tons of hooks in them and people put them on the air almost immediately. So they were great in that regard. But I just didn't think they were quite as original with what they were doing as they were in their second and subsequent albums after that. That was just my opinion. Yeah. But like did you, so did they just say, hey, here's the, the Billboard Top 100, pick which ones of these were going to play? Or did you have any? Because if you guys were a hit, hit radio station, you only focused on songs that were charting, right? Yeah. The record companies would send us records and we would get calls from their reps telling us, ones they were pushing and which ones were getting early airplay at some of the big market

stations around the country. And then we would look at the billboard and more than that, even Radio and Records was a trade journal. And that was the one that posted the playlists of all the reporting stations around the country. They called them reporting stations because they literally posted their playlist for everybody. So we were seeing how much airplay the cars were getting around the country and in the major markets. And so it was up to us to the side of it fitted with fit with our audience. And the cars clearly did. They were just, I mean, they were they were hits waiting to happen.

Oh, yeah. And so, you know, yeah, we played them. So, Dad, you're kind of saying like you, you were competing with the major station. So you were a small town radio station. Yeah. There was no internet back then, so no radio on the internet. So the only thing you were competing against was your airspace. So if people were close enough to pick up your signal, they could listen to you.

If they weren't, they couldn't. Yeah. So we were in our own comedic, in our own little universe of competition there. There was another hit radio station on the AM band, and we were one of the early hit stations on the FM band. And so we were competing. So that was another thing we wanted to talk to you about, Dad, because a lot of our love for music, we also had the convenience of streaming music.

And I mean, I can discover a new band, multiple bands every day. Just by using streaming platforms like Spotify, where I can click on, you know, these bands, like here, if you like this band, you'll probably like this band.

Did you, were you ever, I'm going to quote Mark from last week, Did you ever have like a hunger and a thirst for discovering bands back then? And if so, how did you go about finding new music back then? Well, first of all, there were far fewer bands recording back then. Because if you didn't have a recording contract, you really didn't have access to a studio. And you really, really, for the most part, didn't record. So now people have studios in their bedrooms and garages and they can record things digitally and so clean.

And they just throw them online and that's it. Oh, yeah. So there was just a lot fewer recorded artists out there to choose from. Did you ever get to play a song on the radio just because you liked it? Was that even an option? You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, we would have the option to play songs that weren't necessarily being picked up by any of the other radio stations.

And we did. So when you play a song that no one else is playing, you are breaking that song. Yeah. And so, yeah, we did break a couple of songs there. And then later when I was down in the Houston market, Houston Galveston market, we broke some records there too. And so it was, yeah, you could do that.

I mean, you know, how often you play it determines whether or not it gets any momentum going. If you played it once every three hours, unless it was a hit that people just were overlooking, chances are, you know, it was your own little fantasy hit, but it didn't go anywhere, you know? Yeah. You know what? I thought just for fun, Dad, why don't you give a shout out to the call stations and the cities that you were DJing? And just in case someone is listening that happened to be in that city back in the late 70s, maybe they heard you. Well, the FM station in Abling was K-F-M-N-108 FM.

The station in Galveston was K-I-L-E or K-I-L-E for Galveston Island, and that was 1,400 AM. And then in Port Arthur, it was K-O-L-E, what they call King Cole. I forget the frequency of that station. How many times did you? played that can't Cole never we weren't we weren't into that deep of oldies rotation and then in Beaumont was K-A-Y-D it was an FM station which was a little bit more progressive played fewer hits and more album tracks and things like that but anyway yeah that's where I was cool so yeah

let's talk about the car so you had you had said earlier that these guys were, you know, in the punk vein. But obviously, I think what made them, you know, such an immediate hit, kind of like you were saying. And I wonder if this, this is just popping in my head right now. But, Q, you know how we, our introduction to punk, as we told Mark last week, was Blink 182. And he said, it was a lot of people's intro into punk, that or a band like Green Day, right? because these bands had

they were more packaged, I guess, you know, and not as like maybe aggressive or or whatnot as like quote unquote like genuine punk. I feel like that's probably the case for the cars. And then you know, they're kind of

more of like a new wave band as well. Like they did a lot with their sound. But maybe it was just kind of through the lens of like a, maybe like the attitude and spirit of a punk band. So yeah, Dad, first off, what does New Wave mean to you, Dad? Because we're, you know, we're just in our early, we're early 30-somethings.

New Way, we have all this time to look back at all these bands. Like, what was New Wave in? Because I feel like that was when it was starting to emerge. It was the late 70s, early 80s. And I feel like the cars probably helped usher us into that. You know, the early and mid-70s had a lot of, I guess, semi-country. influenced rock a little bit like the Eagles and the Doobie brothers and, you know, other, you know, real crossover country bands like the nitty-gritty dirt band and Marshall Tucker and Leonard Skinnerd and

those guys, right, Allman Brothers. So I think what happened with punk was they immediately had a more urban sound, not, you know, country at all, right? Right. But then they were sort of so far out there, especially the sex pistols and guys like that, that they intentionally were offensive, right? Right. So I think that was part of it, the shock value. But then I think New Wave came along and they started polishing that a little bit. You could even call the police's first album classic New Wave, right?

Oh, yeah, but also very punk, too. Very punk. And so, and then when the cars came along, they were a little bit of both. but they were so polished and their production was so clean. And their songwriting was so original that they sort of, I thought, set a bar higher than anyone else had while staying true to the new wave mindset, really. Yeah. And Rick O'Cossack says, so actually let's name off the roster real quick.

We've got Rick O'Cossack, lead singer. You've got Benjamin Orr, bass player, also lead singer. Elliot Easton plays guitar. He does all the guitar solos, but I guess he's the lead guitar. Greg Hawks is the keyboardist and drummer is David Robinson. So Ocossack had said that as polished as, you know, quote unquote polished as they sounded, when they started writing these songs and started touring, they got to where they didn't even really rehearse anymore.

They just fit so well as a group. They didn't really need to do much of that. And so that's something that I feel like maybe a lot of people who don't like the cars. A lot of people have hate for the cars. And I feel like the word polished is probably one of the reasons why people don't like them because they think of them as just this, like, they're churning out these hits and there's nothing punk about that. Well, it's probably the same for a lot of old school fans of punk.

You know, like, if you listen to the sex pistols and then you listen to the cars and you're being told that you're listening to a punk band, I don't think they would have much credit in like the, you know, the more underground punk scenes and whatnot because they were so polished, like you're saying. So who is the guy that sang car, right? here in my car. Oh, yeah. That was Gary Newman. Yeah, okay. So, you know, that was so the programmed almost robotic punk stuff that came along.

And I think that the cars had a little bit of that because there wasn't a whole lot of improvising outside of Easton's solo work. Everything was very, very programmed and everything was produced so well. And I actually think their keyboard work is what really set them apart and gave them a completely different, much more sophisticated sound, at least the way I heard it. Yeah. I feel like that's the new wave side of it. That's the new wave side of it. Yeah.

And that's, I mean, that's what perfectly, like, ushered them into the 80s, too. Like, you can even hear it on this first record that, you know, they were playing around with some of that synthesizer stuff that dominated the 80s, you know. Yep. Yeah. And Dad, it's funny. You mentioned cars by Gary Newman. That came out in 1979. So that was just a year later.

So, Trabb, you want to play our first clip? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So here's the funny thing about, I feel like, so, you know, this is no filler. We play the songs that weren't singles, right? But because of these greatest hits records that came out that probably a lot of people have familiarity with, the first two songs that we're playing, especially the second one, you've probably heard these songs.

And I guess, I mean, that says a lot about the cars. Like even their non-singles were hits, right? So anyway, this very first song that we're going to play is called Bye Bye Love. I don't think there's any punk in that at all, right? No. But, I mean, I think, okay, if I were to try to, you know, pick something out of that that's punk, maybe his voice and like his delivery, his vocal performance, maybe a little bit, but at the same time it's like, not at all.

I don't know. But like, here's a quote. So here's a quote from a music critic for the New York Times and the Rolling Stones. His name is Robert Palmer. He described the car's musical style. He says, they have taken some important but disparate contemporary trends, punk minimalism, the labyrinth synthesizer and guitar tech. of art rock, which to me I think of talking heads, right?

The 50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop and mix them into a personal and appealing blend. I think that's what it comes down to, right? Like, I think we get too hung up on genres, right? Because in my head, I have punk rock, like, filed away as one particular sound, you know? But it's the fact that they took all of these different things and packaged them into a completely different sound that you can call them punk if you want but they're there are a lot more than that right you know from my perspective when you start talking about the subcategories of rock and roll

everything falls into in my opinion two different categories either blues based or everything else and this is part of the everything else part and then you start dividing that up into lots of different subcategories but there's just no there's just no blues in it at all. There's no blues keyword or anything like that. And so it's and that's just that's part of what new wave and punk were. They were un-b blues, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And like that you had mentioned this to us before. And with that quote bringing up rockabilly, I mean, that's that's pre-punk. And you said buddy Holly, uh, you know, must have been a huge influence on Rick Ocasic and his style of singing and even their writing styles.

So, you know, if you want to take punk as far back as Buddy Holly, then the cars are very much punk. Yeah. I mean, if you mentioned Elvis Costello, you know, he clearly has Buddy Holly in his veins, you know, and he's considered one of the fathers of New Wave too. Yeah. So I have another quote here from Ocasic as far as his influences. He says here, my taste was to always go for that mix, even back in the 60s. I obviously was a huge fan of Dylan, but my other favorite band was the Velvet Underground.

I always went for the left side of the music brand too. I loved the Velvet Underground and the Carpenters. And there's an emphasis on the word and, meaning like, you know, he had a varied mixture of influences. But that's interesting, carpenters, you know? And maybe you hear some of that in the cars a little bit, maybe. Because like you said that, you know, that first quote I said from the critic, they're kind of tapping into that rockabilly revival, which I guess was happening in the 70s. I didn't ever really get into that.

But I mean, there was that one band. What were they? Shana or whatever, didn't they do that? Not sure. But that was definitely, that was definitely something that was happening in the punk world as well. around the 70s, yeah, that rockability revival. You can't ignore the Ramones and Springsteing too because they had elements of new wave in what they were doing and certainly punk too.

That's true. Yeah, the Ramones are very pop-y, like pop punk. But the Ramones to me are way more like centered, punk-centered, you know? Maybe that's just the power cords because they weren't writing stuff that was too complex because like you said, the cars, what makes the cars so amazing is how complex they're arrangements were and all the different experimentation that they would do, you know? And my guess is a Cossack was a

perfectionist in the recording studio and that probably comes into play with even the carpenters who were renowned for having almost perfectly produced records, you know. Yeah. All right, we got another clip here from Bye Bye Love

so let's listen to that. I had to get that guitar solo in and. Yeah, well, I always thought that was a great way to end a track. But yeah, there's there's the guitar playing that you fell in love with Dad. Yep. And that's all the way back on their first record. But I got to say, I feel like that's kind of a blues-oriented solo a little bit.

Yeah, you're right. That solo clearly could have been in a thousand rock songs. Yeah, and a classic rock song maybe even, you know, like a Zeppelin. But I guess that's what makes them so great, is that they really did take all of these different sounds, you know, and put them into the car sound. Yeah, so before we move on, I want to play a clip from this radio interview that Ocossack did back in 79, I believe. 78, actually. So that's the same year that this came out. Dad, you're probably very familiar with this radio show called Interview.

Does that sound familiar to you, Dad? I don't think so. No. Man, they did not have very creative names back then. Well, interview, I-N-N-E-R view. All right. Ooh. Okay.

So DJ's Jim Ladd. He sounded familiar to you, Dan? Nope. Okay. Well, apparently this was an hour-long radio interview show. It was the first one that became syndicated in the U.S. And it focused on rock artists and their music. So it was just an interview show, all rock music.

And it went from the mid-70s all the way to the late 90s. And what's cool is they actually press. pressed these interviews on vinyl. You can pull up discogs. There are over 160 of these pressed onto vinyl, which is really cool. So anyways, Jim Ladd kind of presses Okasik on whether or not any of what you see in the cars is calculated or, you know, on purpose, basically just saying like, you know, if you're going to, If you're going to say bands like, I don't know, Toto or Boston, you know, like those

session musician bands, like Ocasic was trying to say, we are not those bands. So anyways, I'm going to play a little bit of this clip here. You know, I get upset that, you know, so many bands get signed that are the same when there's so many other bands who have interesting and creative things to offer, who could probably do albums for like $30,000, $40,000, whereas, you know, a label might sign some used band or a sort of combination band, like a guy from here who never made it, and a guy from there who's stale on this and put them together and give them $200,000 to record like a nice, clean studio album that offers nothing but a satin suit and a TV rock star move.

Okay, but on the other side of this, you guys are one of the most calculated bands I've ever heard about as far as packaging goes. I mean, real calculator. Well, that's, I don't know what calculator. I mean, I don't know who the calculator is. The band, the car is, we decided to wear colors, red, black, and white. That's an idea, not a calculation. You know, I've had these shoes three years.

It's longer than the cars have been together. I mean, it's not so calculated. There's a lot of eccentric people in the cars. Interesting. So the reason I wanted to play that, I know a few people that just despise the cars. Who are these people? I'm not going to name names.

But I think the main thing is, for people that don't like the cars, I think they put them in the category of, and it's funny that I keep bringing up Boston, but bands like Boston where where they just think of them as just these, you know, lifelong seasoned musicians that all just come together almost like a supergroup and just release all these polished songs with little to no effort, you know, just almost like a cash grab. And he's saying, I mean, yeah, it kind of comes across that way that we may be one of those bands.

You know, we chose to wear all black, white, and red as a band, but it wasn't like something that some record producer told us to do, you know, like there's no calculated anything about us. It's just there's eccentric members in the band and we just happen to, you know, just have this style and this feeling behind us, but it's not like a, it's not fake, you know. I can tell you somebody who probably hates the cars and that's deadheads, right? Grateful Dead fans, they would hate the cars. Oh, well, they probably hated all of the, all the 80s, new waste stuff. Because why would you just because of the?

The car is opposite of a jam band. I mean, if you've ever seen them in concert or check out YouTube videos of their concerts, their songs that they play in concert are almost studio perfect. They don't improvise. They don't drag on to, you know, long five-minute solos of junk. And that makes deadheads go crazy. Right? Yeah.

I mean, isn't that kind of like... Fishheads. Yeah. But kind of like Boston is known for that too, right? Where they were so perfect, they were perfectionists in every aspect, including like their live shows, right? Yeah. I mean, even other than the times when Eddie would take the stage and just jam for 10 minutes, that was the way Van Halen was too. They played their songs as they were written and recorded.

And you heard them live that way. Yeah. I mean, that's probably what this guy. I was trying to get at what the calculated. Yeah, that's what he was trying to push him to admit something like that. But you can see how like when you look at them, yeah, they do look like they had, you know, a reason for doing everything, you know what I mean, especially if they're all wearing black and red. I mean, but to Ocote's point, like that's a first three albums, right?

Sure, sure, but they were wearing, but was that, but were the Beatles doing that because of a label or did they do that? I know I've seen so many documentaries on the early days of the Beatles, and I probably have that information in my head somewhere. But was that the producer or the record label that said, hey, let's throw these guys in the same suit? Because when you see the early, early footage of them playing at that tavern, they were wearing, I mean, they looked like punk rockers almost.

They were wearing like leather and stuff like that and had their hair slick back and stuff like that, or at least McCartney was. Yeah. So that is exactly what, oh, Kossack is saying, we are not that. And I, I am not a fan of record labels that will, that will create bands, you know, over and overlook bands that, that are, have really good potential, but aren't necessarily polished.

Let's do the next track here. This is going to be a long episode. So, um, this, this next song, if you have seen the fast, fast times at Ridgemont High, then you know this song. There's an iconic scene in cinematic history that is almost like this song is almost synonymous with that scene. This is the... I can't not picture that scene in my head when it was. Exactly.

And it's been parodied before. Like there's a family guy parody of this. Same song is used, obviously. But anyway, it's a killer song. So we're going to play it and it's not a single. So everybody's heard of this song. And now you're going to hear it again. This is called Moving in Stereo.

You know that little synth riff in the beginning that Yeah That's one of my favorite moments in any song ever I just love I always loved that And I'm always waiting for it and like it's just I love little moments like that to get thrown in that seemed like just sort of this little thing that happens really quickly. But to me, like that, that is a key part of that song. Yeah.

I wonder when that little ditty got formed if it was just something that he was doing while, like in a particular session during recording and it just stayed in there. Because the last time I was thinking it doesn't happen again, doesn't? I don't know. It might, but I don't think it does. So, Dad, was this a song that you heard early on when it first came out? Was this a greatest hits song that you visited later? No, this was early.

It wasn't even on their greatest hit CD. Oh. Believe it or not. Which is funny because of that scene in that film. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's why it has such, you know, such a notoriety. I'm reading a little article that I found online about this exact scene where this guy is writing about how, you know, he says that moving in serial was.

was actually not on the soundtrack. So a lot of people back then, they, you know, as he says, he was forced to go out and buy the car's first self-titled record so that he could listen to it. Oh, man. And then that's what turned him on to the car. So a lot of people, you know, may not have ever heard of these guys until this movie. You know, they're probably, you know, waiting in the theater as the credits go by to see if they could, you know, figure out what the band's name was, you know.

When did fast time come out? option you had. I don't know. 1984, so four years later. Yeah. And that's after their, I mean, shit, by then, by then they had already had their first three records come out. Four records.

Sorry, they had all the way up to shake it up. So it's kind of interesting that, that perhaps, I mean, I don't know about this, but maybe that movie put them on the map even more so than all the singles that had come out before that, you know? I don't think so. So this guy was just an idiot then. No, no, no. It's not been the first car song that he really liked because it was a little bit different than some of the others they had, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's on there, here it is on their first record, you know. But yeah, I love how his voice kind of goes up an octave at the end and he's almost, he's yelling kind of. So maybe this is an accident, but all three of the tracks that we're playing today are, Benjamin Orr and not O'Cazic. So that's interesting that we're doing a Carr's episode, and you're not hearing O'Cazic's vocals other than the interview clips that we're playing.

I didn't realize Bye Bye, Bye, By, Love is also Or, huh? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because, I mean, O'Casic has such a great voice, an iconic voice, but then Or also, I mean. And his, I love his voice. Yeah.

especially on, I mean, probably one of my favorite car songs that features or is drive. And I don't know what record that was on, but that's, yeah, that's a killer track. And everybody knows that one too. Heartbeat City is the classic, a Cossack vocal. Okay. Yeah. All right. So we have one more song here.

We have two clips. and this week is the first time that I had ever heard this song because it's the very last track. I too am kind of guilty of really only being familiar with their singles and the stuff that's on the greatest hits records. So this song, to me, I feel like kind of flirts with progressive rock a little bit. When I heard it the first time, which again was like a couple days ago, I immediately thought of like a yes, you know, or a moody blues kind of progressive rock sound.

So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, Dad, because I know you're a mega fan of both yes and moody blues. But to me, I think this song is very unique amongst their catalog. And maybe I'm wrong. But here we go. This song is called All Mixed Up. It's the very last track on the car. debut record. All right, Dad, what are your first impressions there? Very uncars in a lot of ways. Yeah, no, that was great. I had never heard that song before.

Very good. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, we were hoping that we could get your, your hot take on a song for the first time. But yeah, what an awesome song. I mean, I had a lot of moving parts to it. But do you see what I mean by a little progressive rockish? Very much, yeah, no question. Yeah, because like there's like a, almost like a little horn section almost it kind of comes in. That's probably the keyboards. That synthesizer, yeah. Yeah, which I mean, yes, did that too, you know. All the time, yeah. So, yeah.

Yeah, it kind of, it was drawn out a little bit more, more like the prog rock. Yeah, it's more almost a little bit more, not theatrical, but like, cinematic or thematic or. I even heard some Jefferson airplane in some of the vocals, you know, it was great. Yeah, yeah. Well, we have another clip here, so let's just get right into it. Here's the next clip from All Mixed Up. So that's how their first record ends right there. Yep, that's the end of the record there.

That's a great song, man. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. That almost sounds like a saxophone solo at the end, you know? Yeah. It could be. But yeah, here's what I always think to myself. Like, even on their first record, they were capable of writing songs like that.

They did write songs like that. So I would love to hear a whole album of stuff that sounded like that from them. you know are there are there are there b sides out there that that i'm not aware of you know like you know b sides on on singles that were never put on the major releases that that sound more like that like give me more of that you know who wrote that song do you know well um Wikipedia doesn't really although there is a link i can follow here wow look at this this was a single in the netherlands okay wow no i'm sorry it was released as the b side to good times roll So there you go.

Was a B-side on a single? But I'm not getting any information on who wrote it. Well, no. Songwriters, Rick O'Cocasic. Okay. Wow. So, of course, it was Oar on the vocals. But yeah, I love that track.

That's great. Yeah, very good. So there is a deluxe edition of this debut record that was released in 99. So I guess 20-year anniversary. And they have a bunch of, demos on here. And I'm trying to see here. Yeah, there's some demos on here that didn't make it to the record draft. So there you go. I'm going to have to go back and listen to those for sure. Yeah. So it's funny. I read Ocasic had said once that he actually thinks of this debut record

as their greatest hits. Wow. That's how much he loves the songs on this record. That's cool. That's not unusual for first albums to have great stuff on it that people have been working on. for 10 years or more before they got the recording contract and never do anything better than that. That happens a lot. Yeah, we talk about that all the time. Yeah, I feel like that's the case with a lot of, we tend to focus on the debut record when we do an artist. Like we always go to the debut.

It's typically our favorite record of the band. Because, I mean, it kind of makes sense. Like, that's before the pressure of a record label, you know, that's before they've signed any contracts where they have to put out X number of records of. however many years, you know, and then there's less expectation on them because it's just them in their raw form, you know. And those songs could have been written over a long period of time, 10 years, 15 years. And then their next album, they've got to crank out new songs in four months, right?

Exactly. I mean, obviously, the cars kept putting out hit after hit. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? They never stopped making great music. But, yeah, what an awesome debut record. I mean, yeah, no kidding. When you look at the tracks on here, it's crazy.

So, yeah, I mean, it does seem like they were calculated, if not like, super well packaged. But I guess Ocasic is just saying, no, that's just who we were. Yeah, it's just who we were. And we played well off of each other. And he said that there was never any, like, arguing over who should do what or, you know, how a song should be structured. I mean, kind of like we just found out, Ocasic wrote all mixed up, but or is the one who sings throughout the entire song. You know, so. I wonder how they came to that decision.

Yeah. Was it just, hey, your voice will be better suited for this? Yeah, probably. For this range, you know. They were best friends, those two guys. Yeah. Apparently, when Orr died, Ocasic went into a state of depression, apparently lasted over six months. It was tough.

Yeah. I mean, I've heard, you know, you hear stories like that where band members, I mean, they are like family members, you know. They spend so much time together, like on the, on the, on the, the, you know, on the, road, you know, the studio. Like, yeah, it makes, it makes sense, you know. And that's why, that's why, like, you know, band drama, like the, like all the Metallica stuff, there's a whole documentary devoted to their family drama, if you will. Yeah. But anyway. Yeah. So I wasn't sure when we could play this, but I wanted to play it so badly when I found out about this. But speaking of them going back, you know, way back, Ocasic and Orr were in a

Crosby Stills and Nash-style folk trio band in the early 70s with a lead guitarist named Joss Goodkind. I'm not sure who this guy is. There's no links to if this guy ever did anything else. But they released one album in 73. It's like the really pretty harmonizing kind of fulky rock. And it failed to chart. So, Dad, I don't know if you've ever heard of a band called Milkwood.

Nope. It's new to me. All right. So I want to play a song that features Ocossack as the lead singer. And this is going to blow your mind. I'm excited about this, man. I've never heard this either. It's really great. So this is Ocassic and Or? Yep. And they harmonized together. But Ocossack is the lead singer in this song. So here is a song from Milkwood's 1973 album, How's the Weather?

So this song is called Dream Trader. Yeah, definitely a Crosby Stills Nash knockoff. Does that sound like 72 or what? Right, 73. Well, the funny thing is if you look at photos of them from that era, it doesn't even look like Ocassik. He's got a mustache. Yeah.

And then, or he looks like Stephen Stills on this photo. So yeah, that's funny. But yeah, this just goes to show just how talented these guys were. The fact that they could write stuff like this. And then, you know, six years later, they're writing the car stuff. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. And also, like, you think about how long they've been writing and playing music together, too.

Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. But can you imagine, like, when I heard this, I was like, man, like, what if Millie? Milkwood was the one that made it big, and we never had the cars, you know, and they just continued doing music like that, crazy. Yeah. So, Dad, that's an example, right, of, of, so no one knows about Milkwood because they never made it to the charts, so they never made it to the radio.

Right. And that's how it was back then. Yep. I mean, you know, album rock was really getting into high gear in the early mid-70s, so it wouldn't surprised me at all if that was being played on progressive rock station so people might know about it yeah but uh certainly not mainstream it's a really good album though it's really pretty um it just blew me away when i when i heard it there was a lot of groups that sounded just like that though so it's hard to stand out with that sound yeah that's true but yeah they bring all of that to to the cars if you think about

i mean even if you don't hear songs that sound like that like that's still in their You know, that toolbox. Yeah. Yeah. And the guitar work. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's it. That's all we got for this album.

I thought that was a excellent conversation there, fellas. Yeah. It's almost like we've known each other. It's my entire life. So, yeah, it's funny, like, talking with you, talking with you about music and stuff. It just, it makes sense that Quentin and I love talking about music so much. much. It's in our DNA, I guess. Yeah, it's your DNA. And our experience is what we talked about.

Well, for my, my, well, still did this day, whenever you and our older brother, Spencer, get in a room together, you talk about sports. But when we're in the room together, we usually talk about music because Quinn and I don't, don't give two, two flips about sports. Yeah. But anyway. All right. So, yeah, that's that. That's our, that'll wrap us up. for our coverage of the Carr's debut record. Obviously, I mean, this is one of those, I feel like the last few episodes, Q, we've been talking about such obscure bands that we kind of encourage people, hey, go back and make sure you listen to the record all the way through and stuff like that.

Yeah. I feel like we don't have to say that with a band like the Cars, you know? Well, but hey, people are. We just found out that, Dad, you never listened to this album all the way through. Nope, never did. So yeah, go back and listen to the car's debut record. That's true. Go to, you know, how about pull up the car's debut record and push play on the, on the titles you don't recognize?

Because that's, I mean, it's only like four songs, but. It's going to go on the Spotify playlist today. Yeah, there you go. Anyway, again, that track at the end all mixed up. That's going on in my list of favorite cars tracks for sure. All right. So let's do our what you heard segment. And we're actually going to have, Dad, you actually brought a track to the table here.

I did. So do you want to go first? Yeah. So this track was from 1975, which happened to be my senior year in high school. And the connection to the cars is that this particular artist in his much later years joined the revisited cars called the new cars. and toured with them. And I'm really not sure how many of the original cars were in that band. I know that Elliot Easton was,

but this was after the passing of Orr, so he wasn't. It looks like Elliot Easton and Greg Hawks were in the new cars. Okay. But I knew Ocac wasn't, and they brought in Rungren, essentially to do vocals. And he was a very out there guy in the 70s, and he had a few great albums, but had a cult following, big cult following, really. And this was probably one of his two or three biggest hits ever.

And it brings back a lot of memories, but he has a connection to the cars. So the song is called Hello, It's Me. All right, here we go. Hello, It's Me by Todd Rundgren. I don't know if I ever heard that song, but I like it. I like a lot. Well, it was the opposite of a filler. It was a top 10 hit. It was a big hit. Yeah, I'm on a

it. It did reach number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He had a unique style. That whole album was very interesting. And the interesting thing about that album was that that record was all, that particular song was recorded in one take. And so in the album, it just sort of trails off as they just, you know, kind of finish up. But it was all one take. So pretty, pretty important. I could definitely see how he could stand in for oars vocals when he covers cars songs. Well, you should YouTube, Todd Rundgren, with that song, and you'll probably get a YouTube video of a TV show, probably, you know, the Midnight Special or some of the other TV shows where they had artists on. You've got to see what he's wearing on one of them. It's pretty extraordinary.

Was he trying to do like a... Oh, he's wearing a jacket that's pretty much over the top, yeah. I guess, I mean, at that time you have to compete with Elton John, right? A little bit like that. I mean, you know, his, you know, he had makeup on almost look like Alice Cooper. So it was pretty interesting stuff, yeah. Yeah, I guess, I mean, if you're if you're going on TV, you know, you're like, well, I got to stand out here. Yeah.

So to me, music like this never. really caught on past the 70s. Like this sound is so the 70s, what would you call it? Soft rock? Adult contemporary. It's something I'm seeing here. Well, and you know,

what came to an end in the 70s, really in early 80s, was the predominance of top 40 music where you could hear Led Zeppelin, Barry Mantelow, Smokey Robinson, the Spinners, Todd Rundgren, Olivia Newton-John,

all in the same hour. So, you know, that kind of variety, you know, you got it all in one hour because they were trying to hit everybody's taste. And so it created some really unique challenges for mixing radio songs in an hour. You know, the playlist was a challenge and getting the mix just right was a challenge because you were constantly fighting people pushing the button in their car radio to change when they didn't hear a song they liked. So, you know.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like if you're tuning in for Zeppelin, you're going to switch it off when Rungren comes on, right? Yeah, Grungren had a pretty strong following in the rock world. He wasn't as pop, as you think. He had some real, real rocky stuff on his. If you listen to that whole album, a lot of it's real rock and roll. Okay. So this is his ballad or whatever.

Yeah, something, anything, is the name of the album, and there's some really, really good stuff on there. Cool. All right. I'm going to go last cue. So, because I've got, I've got something special. All right. Okay, so this is a band.

Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to give a shout out to the vinyl subreddit community again. So that it's kind of like a message board community of people that, that love listening to music on vinyl. And basically, you'll share a picture of the album art and then kind of talk about what you love about the, the album. So I have found a ton of really great music through this community. And one person posted an album by a band called Yellow Magic Orchestra or YMO for short. Have you ever heard of them, Dad? Nope, have not. So they are a Japanese trio. They're an electronic act from Japan. Synth pop, electro pop. They've been releasing music. since I think 78.

So same time that the cars was happening, this was happening in Japan. The thing about these guys, from album to album, track to track, they're all over the place. There's songs that have kind of like a, I don't know, almost like a, I don't like, Trave, do you know like the Human League? Yeah. Or like even, um, man, it's. Devo, stuff like that, you know, like really just polished melodic, catchy stuff. And then they have more like ambient, almost kind of in the same vein as Wendy Carlisle.

Is that her name? I thought you're going to say Wendy Carlos. Winnie Carlos, yeah, from... Of like the Shining score. I'm thinking more Tron vibes. Okay. That kind of atmosphere kind of stuff. the album that I listen to theirs of theirs all the way through is called Technadelic which came out in 86

and this is considered one of the very first albums to feature mostly samples and loops so they were a huge influence on later electronic you know sample heavy songs so the song that I'm playing today I picked for because I think all three of us will enjoy listening to it together this is one of those more like cinematic like tron kind of vibes really cool song really it's like equal parts rhythmic and atmospheric it's awesome so this song is called light in darkness dad what'd you think i think it could have been the soundtrack to an 80s video game for sure oh man so if you go to uh their first album it's even more just straight up like eight-bit sounding music.

It does have a... You got my interest peaked right now. Yeah, Jeff, go back to the... I think it's just a self-titled. So is it safe to say that you would not have heard... You would not have heard this band in America back in the 70s, you think? No. Because that's what I love about the current era that we live in

and how accessible this stuff is. Yeah. is you can discover all of these bands for the first time that you never would have heard back when it originally came out, you know? Yeah, and you know, back in the days when I was in radio and the record companies would be promoting certain songs over others, you know, they would send, you know, a box of at that time 45 RPMs out that were singles. and they'd be promoting three of the 20 that they may have sent you in a week. And a lot of times I thought that the three that they were promoting were nowhere near the best songs out of the 20. But because they were promoting for some reason, they had a lot of money behind a certain band or somebody there at the company just thought that was the sound they needed at that point in time, at that time of year, whatever. it was all about creating a hit or creating an artist from nothing.

You know, first hits created that. So it was interesting. There was a lot of great songs that never got airplay. They just faded into nothing, you know. Yeah. So anyways, yeah. So that is a band called Yellow Magic Orchestra, also known as YMO. And that was a song called Light and Darkness.

All right, Travis, what you got for us is bring it on home. Okay, so I think everybody is aware of Taylor Swift's record that just dropped. I've heard good things. So I'm not playing a Taylor Swift song. But I guess the point I was trying to make was like, we're getting a lot of music right now that would not exist if it wasn't for artists being quarantined. That's the case with Taylor Swift's record that is blown up all over the place. she was set to tour. She should have been touring right now on her record that came out, I think last year or whatever,

but she wasn't able to. And so she wrote this record that came out, you know. So, you know, I don't think there was much press or whatever. It just kind of dropped and there it is, you know. So anyway, here is another band, Q that is near and dear to us. And actually, Dad, you're actually a, you're a fan of this particular guy as well. So back in March, a band called The Whites Boy Alive. Oh, yes.

Came out with a new single called Sirius, which was the first single since, you know, I don't know, almost a decade since their last record. So, Dad, The Whites Boy Alive consists of a fellow named Erland Oya, who is one half of Kings of Convenience. And I know you're, that's one of the bands that we introduced to you that you actually liked quite a bit if I remember, right? Yeah, love it. Love those guys. Amazing. Why to Spoil Live is one of his side projects. Erland Oia is like a super prolific musician.

He's always making music. The other guy, the other half of Kings of Convenience just isn't, he just doesn't, at least you can't find it. He doesn't put solo records out. He doesn't have, I think he did have a side project. but anyway. So if you're a fan of this guy, there's always music to hear from him. Anyway, so White Is Spoil Live, very similarly to Taylor Swift, was set to do this festival. And they were in, basically they already flew down to this location. This was in March. So right before things started going into lockdown. And it was this music festival in Mexico. And they started to prep for this

performance. And then things went on lockdown and the festival was canceled. But as part of their contract or whatever for this this festival, they had been given four days worth a free studio time at this place called the Hotel El Canso in San Jose Del Cabo. So,

two of the Widespoilai members, including Ireland and the drummer, Sebastian Maschat, were able to make it to the studio and they put out a record basically while they were in quarantine. The other members weren't able to get there. But anyway, long story short,

this is a sort of like a Writerspoor Live set of songs, but not really because it's only two of the members. But anyway, I've got one track here. And Q, what I loved about this record is that it reminded me of, you know, those live performances of their new songs, Kings of Convenience that we latched on to? I will never forget it.

Yeah. So Kings of Convenience, before they put out their following record after writing on Empty Street, they had recorded and written these songs and were playing them live. I don't know if they had recorded them yet, but they were playing them live and we latched onto these YouTube videos because it was the only way you could hear these new songs before they even came out on a record. Anyway, but they would have those like count-ins and like these live things, right? These live elements to them. So this record has that vibe to it because, you know, it was kind of thrown together quickly. But anyway, I'm going to stop talking. We're

going to listen. This song is called Bad Influence. One, two, three, four. The introduction, the first time you met, like digging a hole and proceeding to walk right into me, act as if I had all the time, and I didn't see it coming, hit the ground running on the terrace with a be my role model when we were young, place helpful pointing, out all the things I did wrong. He got serious. So early, he grew up too fast.

And pretty go off the city. He got jealous for the freedom. He saw that I had. He's a bad. Bad song. Kea, what did you think? Oh, I loved it, man. I love everything that guy does.

It was great. Okay, so that sounded like it could have been Birdback rack. Yeah, I was thinking that too. That's a good reference. I couldn't think of the name, but yeah, Perf Ackarach for sure. The piano for sure. Yeah. But so to me, that almost sounded like the Keynes a Convenience song.

The harmonizing was there for sure. Yeah. More so than a Widespoor Live song. So the Widespoor Live stuff has got more... It's more disco. You know, it's more disco-centered up-tempo. But anyway, yeah, so the album is called Quarantine at El Gonzo, which is the name of the studio.

Cool. But anyway, I have one more thing here. I know this is getting long, but we don't have to keep this in if we don't want to, but I thought this was really cool. At the very end of the record, they have a song, it's not really a song. It's called Credits. I'm going to let you guys hear it because I think it's really cool. Thanks for listening to Quarantine at El Canso.

My name is Erlon Oya. I sing, I play guitars, and I take on the role of producer on this album. Hello, dear listener of this album. My name is Sebastian Mashad, but everybody calls me Mashad. And on this record, I sing lead vocals on some tracks, backing vocals on others. I also play the flute, the trombone, the piano, the juno-syntheser and the Rhodes, and Harmonium. Also, I play a lot of percussion instruments, like the tambourine, the clavis and the tambachine, which are a special kind of shakers which grow on trees all around Baja California.

Hi, I'm Bear Kete and I sing all sorts of vocals and play acoustic and nylon string and electric guitars and even a sitar on this record. Also, one of the owners here at Hotel El-Gonzo where we recorded this record during the quarantine. My name is Jorge Aguilar. I am playing drums, also some percussion. mostly congas, and harmonium in a couple of songs. Hello, my name is Paco Rosas. I play the bass guitar in this album. I'm also the recording engineer and the mixing engineer. I just thought that was really cool. You know, how often do you get to hear everybody that was involved in a record, actually hear their voice and say, list out the instruments that they, they played, you know, and even like the engineer, you know, gave him his craft.

I thought that was really cool. And I wish more records did that. Yeah. But I think it makes it more special because like they said, you know, this was a quarantine record. It's something that shouldn't exist, you know, but it does because of the pandemic, you know. And I just thought that was really cool. Certainly a lot more personal than you usually.

Yeah. Yeah. And if you're fans of Kings of Convenience and you've seen their live performances and stuff, like they are always super personal with their audience. They are always interacting with the audience and stuff like that. So I'm not surprised that something like that would be thrown on at the end there. But it's just cool to hear all the instruments that you're going to hear on this record. And like, you heard all those instruments, right?

I mean, it's crazy. But anyway. That is cool. I think more albums should do have a credits track like that. That's really cool. Yeah, it's cool. Because otherwise you have to open up the liner notes to see that stuff. But it's cool to hear the voices, you know.

Anyway. So, yeah, that's that. That's our episode here. This is our first episode devoted to Dad Tunes. And thanks for chatting with us. dad. Thank you for hosting me. I appreciate it a lot. Yeah. All right. Well, you can find us on our website, Noel Filler Podcast.com, where you can find all of our previous episodes going back to episode one, or episode zero, I should say, because we have a teaser episode. But on the site, you can find

show notes for each episode, which includes track lists. So every song that was played on the episode you can find on the website, as well as any sources that we cited, if you want to read more about the band that we talked about. You can also find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network, which is the podcast network for music lovers. And that's it. That'll do it for us today. Well, hey, hey, now. Hang on, Drive.

I got an outro for us. Okay. So I just found out that the Smashing Pumpkins covered You're All I've Got Tonight as the and they threw it up as a B-side to bullet with butterfly wings. So we can't not play a Smashing Pumpkins cars cover. So that's going to outro us out today. Thank you as always for listening. And yeah, we'll be shouting at you next week with some more dad tunes.

All right, my name's Quentin. My name is Travis. They'll take care. I'm Sophia Loper Carroll, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome, and I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea,

was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus. At Desjardin Insurance, we put the care in taking care of business. business to be exact. Our agents take the time to understand your company so you get the right coverage at the right price. Whether you rent out your building, represent a condo corporation,

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