No Filler Music Podcast - No Filler Rewind - Niche-less Indie Rock: The Music Of Ambulance LTD

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Each week in November we are hitting pause and rewinding back to an episode covering an album that just embodies the vibes and ambiance of the Fall season. This week is Quentin's pick from an episode that dropped back in 2022 where we dove into Ambulance LTD's first and only album "LP" from 2004; a true gem in the era of cookie cutter indie pop. Tracklist: 1. Primitive (The Way I Treat You) 2. Ophelia 3. Sugar Pill Sugar Pill (demo version) 4. Stay Tuned 5. Drug Cabin - Steely Dad This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This Black Friday, you've got a whole month to catch all the exclusive offers waiting for you. See your local Nissan dealer or nissan.ca for details. Conditions apply. Welcome to No Filler. Quentin here. This month, we are going to be dropping some rewind episodes to gear up for our 2025 best-of episodes that we're going to be dropping in December. We are going to be dropping a new episode.

at the end of this month, which is going to be Fleet Fox's self-titled, which is one of those records. It's just a shocker to both of us that we haven't covered that one yet. We're both huge fans of Fleet Foxes. So in the meantime, each week we're going to be dropping a rewind episode from albums that just feel like fall to us, which is totally subjective. But I mean, I'm sure you're the same way. There's albums to just like conjure up these certain vibes. I've got some that feel like summertime to me. I have some albums that doesn't matter what the lyrics are about, what, you know, what the overarching theme of the album is, even if it's not anything to do with fall or autumn. I just feel like I'm in the fall when I listen to it. So I'm going to pick

this week's next week, Travis is going to bring one. And then we'll go from there. So I'm going to go with Ambulance LTD and their first and only album, which it's called LP, but it's a self-titled. It was released back in 2004, and man, this album is just fall to me through and through. Even if it's July 1st, I put this record on, close my eyes and I can see those leaves, those colors change, and I can see those leaves fall into the ground. I can see my breath when I breathe. You know what I'm saying? Love, love this record.

It's got a special place of my heart. Pretty sure I heard it back in 2004 when it came out. So I was a, let's see, I was a sophomore, maybe junior in high school when this came out. So anyways, yep, this is my pick. Hope you enjoy it. I think this, let's see, this episode originally dropped back in January of 2022. So it's been a while. So maybe you're hearing this one for the first time.

If you've been listening to us for that long, I love you. That's what I'm going to say. So this could be a repeat for you if you've been a listener of the show for that long. And I love you. And please keep listening. All right, that's going to do it. Hope you enjoy it. Again, this is Ambulance LTD's LP from 2004.

And welcome 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 Quentin, with me as always is my brother Travis. And today, we're jumping all the way back to 2004. And we're going to cover an album by a little band called Ambulance LTD called LP. So taking a little break from the 2010s to revisit an album that I hold very dear to my heart, dude. This song was on heavy repeat in 0405. We were sophomores, juniors, juniors, in high school. This was it for me, dude.

I was all over this album. Yeah, this is one of those records that, like, there's just something about these songs that, like, made it stand. out, you know, like it, it feels like a gym. Like, it feels like this is a record that we're going to be, by gym, I mean, like a hidden gym, right? Yeah. It feels like this is going to be, and maybe I'm wrong, but like, I feel like this is going to be an introduction for a lot of people tuning in. I hope so. I don't think I've ever ran across anybody who's familiar with this group. Not that I, it's not like I'm talking about them all the time, but like, you know, I've named dropped them. Well, they were very, they were a very short-lived band and I was looking into this today. So,

Um, the, the main guy behind the band, and he's actually not even a founding member, his name's Marcus Congleton. And he joined the group, which was actually founded by two dudes, Michael and David. I'm not, not even messing with last names today, dude. Um, they founded the group back in 2000. And Marcus joined and continued on with the name of the band and the ideas, like, I guess the sound that they, started with completely different members. So Michael and David were just like, we're out. I don't know. Like, I don't know what the circumstances are, but they left and they're like, you can have the name. We don't care. Which is interesting. So Marcus continues on the band, brings in new members, and then they

released a couple tiny EPs, then dropped this debut album, which is called LP in 2004. Not shortly after that, the rest of the members left. And he was once again all by himself. Hmm. So made it very hard for him to continue to write and release music the way he was hoping to in ambulance LTD. So that's a quick and dirty rundown of possibly why they didn't last as long as they could have. Because, yeah, there is something about this album. And honestly, so let's just get this out there right now, dude. This one we're pulling out of our ass. You know, it's been a while since we've done that.

But I mean, well, you know, Q, we got a lot, we got a lot going on in our personal lives right now, Q. We do. Somebody is going to be a daddy. Oh, dude, is this how we're dropping it? Sure. Yes, that's me. I'm going to be a daddy. Quentin sent me a little, what does it call it, a picture of your baby, sonogram?

Zonogram, Triff. Q, Q sent me a sonogram the other day. Said, check this out. And it was, you know what, it was a little more ceremonious than that. It was, sure. But anyway. The news is out. We've shared it with the rest of the family. We're super excited, dude. And I'm on track to finish school by May if I bust ass. Because I'm at a college that is, you know, take it at your own pace, competency based. So I make my own schedule. And I'm like, well, I'm going to finish it in May. And that'll give me a few months of time between school. And I also got a job. Are we just sharing all this with our pod fam draft? Just so much stuff going on.

Yeah, so I got a job that's waiting for me when I graduate. Yeah, dude. It's like the cards, you know, you just got a nice deck. What do they call it? Did I say that you just got dealt a nice hand. There you go. There we go. Yeah, it feels good, dude.

Haven't been dealt a nice hand in a while. So, yeah, dude. Well, on my front, I'm getting prepared for a nice, lengthy road trip. That's right. That happens next week. So we'll see about what next week's show is going to look like but um well i guess i'll be i'll be in arizona when this episode drops but anyway one thing that that every music lover has to do when they prepare for a long road trip is is get that playlist in order

you know so that's what i've been doing nice you know you got to you got to get that curated playlist for the road you know what you should do is hit shuffle on our old what you heard playlist it's not a bad idea huh so last week we we had our first what you heard episode of the year that's an episode that we do once a month where we bring music to the table, just songs we've been listening to in between recordings. And we have a massive Whatcherard playlist with every single song that we've played on this podcast as a What You Heard. I mean, I don't even know how many hours, dude.

This playlist is clocking in it right now. But 19 hours, man. Nearly 20 hours, actually, of music. Dude, that's about the length of driving that I'll be doing. There you go, at least one way. Give it a shuffle. There you go. So yeah, you can find that playlist on Spotify.

So anyway, needless to say, you know, like you said, Q, we're pulling this, pulling this out of our asses. We like to say sometimes, but that doesn't mean the tunes won't be a plenty. That's right. And the, yeah, who cares what we have to say or how prepared we are? We're here to listen to music, you know. Totally. So, you know, I seem to remember. and it may have been pitchfork.

So, you know, take this with a grand of salt because pitchfork back in the early O's were pretty brutal, I feel like. But I don't remember this album getting too much love. I'm surprised it even made it on the radar of pitchfork, honestly. Yeah, yeah. Well, we all heard the clip coming in.

Our intro was one of the singles on the album. It's called primitive, parentheses, The Way I Treat You. that had like a I don't know man how would you describe that that intro like riff you know and and the little jangly piano bit like

how would you describe their sound because that was that was one of the one of the criticisms was that they're kind of all over the place yeah I mean I can you know like this was around the time that the quiet is the new loud kind of folk indie

bands you know where they where they crank the distortion down. Yeah. And so like this, I feel like they, they kind of fall into that vein of like those more light indie rock bands, if you will. Yeah, you could throw them in the mix with like Peter, Bjorn, and John at Pompeii. Yeah, that's where I've always grouped them like in my mind. But like as far as that song that played us in, like it's almost got like a, I don't know,

dude, like that little piano, that little jingly, jangly piano has got kind of like a, like a, How did they describe them? Just indie rock is... Okay, well, here's how they describe them themselves. And now I'm pulling everything from Wikipedia today, okay? So, sir, the band has said that their niche is not sticking to any particular niche. Okay, I mean... And that they do not want to be stuck in any subgenre of rock.

That's fine. I think that's a bit of a cop out of me. Yeah, but see, because what I was going to say is like, you know, a lot of bands for their first EP, LP, or whatever, you know, It might take a group, a couple of tries to figure out their sound. That, to me, is what's happening with these guys. And maybe they just never, they never got to really iron it all out and figure it out. You know what I mean? No, they didn't.

Marcus couldn't keep the bands together, right? Right. He lost members immediately. The founding members of the band were like, sorry, we're out. And then right after the LP comes out, other members of the band that he, when he regrouped with new members. also left. So these guys just weren't even, you know, it didn't even get off the ground really. Right. Exactly. Now, before we play our first song, and I know we're kind of all over the place today,

but I've thought this was funny, dude. And I don't know where this, let's see, the, okay, I think this is coming from NME. You know, sometimes it's hard to tell what lines are coming from where in Wikipedia, but it says here, the band mixes the genres of dream pop, nope, indie rock, sure. and the British Shoegays movement of the late 80s and 90s. No, sir. Yeah, I don't know where that came from. Neither flavor of Shugays. No. Not Dream Pop, not proper Shugays.

I'm not hearing a lick of that with this album. I agree with that, yeah. I don't hear it. Not at all. I mean, really. I mean, is there at least, like, is there one song maybe where it kind of flirts with Shoegays? Because other than that, like, maybe I've got one in mind that maybe we could say that. His voice isn't Shoe Gays. No. We know a thing and three about Shue Gates Q. That's a, that's a term you're going to hear every week on this podcast.

Every week. Yeah, we can't, we can't escape it. All right, well, let's jump into some picks. I'm playing my favorites from the record that are not singles. And, I mean, let's just point out again, dude. This album was very special to me in my high school years. Got me through a breakup, dude. Got me through a breakup, dude.

I was playing it on the heavy shortly after, I think, my second proper girlfriend, dude. And by proper, I mean, lasting more than, like, a week dumped me, man, for another dude. That happens to the best of us, Q. Especially in high school. Yeah, and I found solace in this record. So, all right, here we go. We're going to jump to track five. This song is called Aphilia.

That's the song that I always remember that I always think back to. Yeah. Whenever I think about this band, that's the song that I hear in my head. I love that song, man. Here's the thing, like, these guys are solid, man. As far as, like, musically, everything about it is, like, is pretty damn perfect, right? As far as, like, just how these guys sound together when they make music. So it's unfortunate that they bailed.

It's a damn shame. Because they had a good thing going, you know? It did. And it makes you wonder why they left, you know, like maybe Marcus is hard to work with. Yeah, maybe the guy's an asshole, you know? Yeah, it's very possible. But yeah, it is a bummer because they've got a really great sound. And he was apparently working with John Kale, who was one of the founding members of the Velvet Underground for their next record in 07. So three years later, in Los Angeles, writing new material, none of which has officially surfaced. And then the band kind of dissolved.

So, yeah, man, the one thing that I love about this record, just killer, killer riffs, man. Yeah. Song after song, really cool guitar lines. Yeah, I was trying to think of, like, what it reminds me of. And, like, I was thinking maybe some of Coldplay's first record. Yeah, sure. Parachute. Yeah, I can see that.

Parachutes, right? as far as like the really clean guitar style, but like that open chord kind of like a riff, right? Yeah, yeah, that's good, dude. I was trying to, I was trying to find more bands to kind of group them in. And, you know, I don't know why we always try to do that, right? It's not always necessary, but it helps. Dude, we're humans. Humans like to group things together, you know.

And you're right, dude. Yeah, definitely. That's the same. I guess Colplay came around a little bit before this time, right? Parachutes came out in 2000. Okay, yeah. So, right, yeah, all around the same time. Quiet as the New Loud.

And I think this record is, what I like about this record is it's just not all quiet. Let's go back to that quote from Ireland, Oia, from Kings of Convenience, when he was explaining that Quiet as the New Loud, which is the name of their debut album, Kings of Convenience. Yeah, I think he said something along the lines of like when like the quietest parts of a song or the parts that you want to pay attention to the most, right? Or something like that. Yeah. But what I like about this record is there are some more, a little bit heavier or more lively songs. It's not all quiet.

Yeah. I mean, that's that's one of those songs that to me has just been, always been there. Right. Yeah. like in my rotation as far as like songs that I always go back to right yeah it's a great great track now speaking of changing things up a bit I think they do it in a really great way and we'll see what I'm talking about here with this next track we're going to pick you know if they're if they're trying to not get pulled into one sound like like what they were saying their niche is not

sticking to any particular niche I think they do it in a really good way on this record all right So we're going to jump down. I think this one might be my favorite. This is track seven. This song is called Sugar Pill. I thought of Kill the Moonlight-era spoon on this one. Yeah, dude. That was the first time that they really leaned into the piano, right?

The Brit Daniel leaned into that piano, right? Because, like, he was, remember, as we kind of covered when we talked about all the spoon records, like they were sort of like burnt by the studio the last time around and like we're just tired of making rock you know and like didn't want to have to follow the the prescribed like path of a rock band right formula yeah they're like fuck it man and you know what dude that this just made me think of um radio head and tom york's you know getting burnt out on on the whole rock and roll like star kind of thing. And they transitioned from a rock band to super experimental, like electronic stuff.

Same kind of deal. Yeah. And Kill the Moonlight is the first record of theirs where they started kind of working with loops, you know, or like not all just analog instruments. Same here, man. This is, you know, the song comes out of nowhere with, I mean, it's hard to tell if this is all just real instruments or if there is. like a loop drumbeat going on or a loop, um, like that, that one note, the sound that kicks off

the song is very prevalent in the background. And it doesn't go throughout the whole song, but it's always there throughout that first verse and it picks back up in the second one. Yeah, that's interesting. I love that. I mean, it sounds like a note from like the bass or something like that, but it's like looped, you know? Yeah. So yeah, I've, dude, I've always loved this song. Actually, you know what would be fun, dude? Since we're going to be running light on this episode, And we did this with the Beach House episode that we did. We want to hear something really fun, dude. Listen to this demo version of Sugar Pill.

It came out on an EP called New English. That actually, this EP was released after LP in 06, and they just dropped a couple demo versions of their early stuff in it. Check this out, dude. Yeah, I think that's more proof of just how these guys were really, trying to figure out what they wanted to sound like, right? I'm curious when this demo version came out, you know? I mean, yeah, that's a very different.

Different, but, I mean, it's kind of a toss-up for me, which one I like more. I mean, the LP one is fantastic. The one that they went with on the LP sounds like the rest of the album. So, like, it makes sense. More melodout. I wonder if the producer of the record had anything to do with that. You know what I mean? You always have to wonder.

about that but he may have helped them like just kind of polish the sound to kind of make it more cohesive yeah but yeah heavy on the distortion with that it's the guitar that's front and center both great and i mean really ambulance LTD is marcus congleton it was really just him in a backing band in a way i mean even with this record because they didn't stick around for very long but he did kind of bring the band name, I guess, back into play in 2008. He legally acquired ownership of the band name in 2007. So he technically didn't even have legal ownership of that band name, even though those two dudes back in the early O's were just like,

that's fine. You can keep making music under this name. He went on in 2008 and hired a backing band and started touring again as Ambulin. LTT so this has been his baby basically since the beginning and to add more bad luck for this dude the record label that he was on it's called TVT records filed for bankruptcy around 2008 which prevented ambulance LTD from releasing new material it says here TVT also attempted to sell artists back catalogs resulting in Cogleton along with label mates the polyphonic spree to file a

lawsuit against the label and its parent company Universal Music Group in 2008. So that sucks, dude. That record label sounds like they were trying to pull a fast one on him, play dirty, and prevented him from releasing new material. Good Lordy, man. Yeah, that's terrible. But, you know, at least we have this gym of an album. And I've got one more song to play.

And this one I always forget about, which is this, okay, let me say, this is one thing about this album that's fantastic. I'm going to say the majority of the songs are great on the record. But the way it flows, I'll get three quarters of the way through the record. And then another song plays that I just love. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I still haven't heard this awesome song. And that's this one, dude. This is track nine.

The song is called Stay Tuned. So, yeah, it's hard to say like how much of the actual music you give full credit to Congleton poor, right? Because, I mean, yes, he's the primary songwriter, but was he a Casablanca's, right? Because I remember for the first Strokes record, you know, apparently Casablancus wrote most of the instrument stuff too, right? I'm going to say yes, dude, and here's why. So why doesn't this guy just make music by himself, right? What was the draw to like the name and having the band?

Like, I know he was like permitted from releasing music. Well, I mean, they sold like 100,000 copies. copies of this record. So he, you know, he probably just didn't want to start over as far as like trying to attach, you know, bring fans of ambulance LTD along to a new act. So he just, he just stuck with the name. But it is absolutely all him, dude. He's actually in another band. I'm not sure if they're still making music, but he has since started a new band called Drug Cabin. We're going to outro us out with one of their songs. Dude, if, if, if you, if you. you've been just itching for more ambulance LTD, just play a drug cabin song. I just found out about him today. And it's, it's him, dude.

It's straight up. It's ambulance LTD. Okay. Yeah, cool. It's great. So a song filled with more killer riffs, dude,

really, really catchy guitar. I love their melodies, man. Yeah, this one's got a little bit more of a proper rock flare to it, you know,

with that riff, totally. Yeah. But I love, dude, gonna play it again man that just the the opening bit of this song pay attention to both the guitars man because like i really love how how the two guitars basically create the main riff of the song but there's two guitars working here i love that guitar the strumming in the background right yeah even the strumming

is great yeah you're right it's so cool dude anyways this is one of those records for me that i'll always bust out at least once a year and and play through you know yeah totally and i feel like this is kind of a good transition to where we're going next. And dude, we're wrapping up, man. Short and sweet. That's all I got for this one. But yeah, I think we're going to, we're going to venture into 90s. No, I don't know. Not Alt Rock. Not All Rock. Because I learned recently when I read that book on Sonic Youth by David Brown. Alt Rock was the name that they were throwing on grunge before they had a name for grunge. But we're going to dive into some of the more like easy listening kind of 90 stuff.

Think REM, think. I mean, yeah, honestly, I would have called them alt rock, very different from Grunge. But call it, maybe college radio rock. Maybe we should call it that. Let's call it college radio rock. We're going to dip our toes in the 80s too, because we're going to cover, you know, both sides of this band, I guess. So we're talking about, I mean, we've hinted this before, but we're going to play some music

from a band called Miracle Legion. And then we're also going to play some music from a band called Paleris. And then we'll talk about how, you know, it's essentially the same band, right? But the record that we're covering for Miracle Legion, it's called The Backyard, came out in 1984, Q. So, you know, just like REM, right, started in the 80s. Yeah. Yeah.

So, yeah, college rock maybe. College, alt-rock. So, yeah, well, maybe we'll dive into that cue because I haven't heard this. this knowledge that that you picked up by reading a book. I mean, who knew that you could, you know, you could pick up some, some knowledge from a book. But yeah, it was, it was right before grunge, I guess, exploded and before the term was coined. So, yeah, I guess we'll look, we'll look into it. Maybe, maybe that was such a large umbrella that all these bands kind of fell into it. And I want to, I want to hang out in this era, dude. Mid 80s through the 90s. Maybe we should do

another R. Em record. Oh, dude, all day. All day. I'll do that. Yeah, because I would love to do murmur. I say we do murmur. That's their first record. And Miracle Legion is great because you can definitely hear the influence that maybe not they had directly, but this style of music from the mid-80s to 90s had a big influence on bands like real estate. And, you know, all those bands from that dream pop resurgence of the 2010s. Totally. We're going to dig into it. We're going to get to the bottom of it,

try to trace the origins of that sound. And who knows what we'll do after that, man. But that is the plan. I'm excited. Dude, I can't wait to dive into Miracle Legion. Yeah. And, you know, reminisce about our love of Nickelodeon. And we'll dive into all that next week.

That's the other side of this. Yeah, dude. I just want to... Yeah, we'll save it for the next episode. But, yeah, the fact that a show like Pete and Pete can exist where they literally commissioned a rock band to make the theme song and to appear in episodes and stuff. Not only the theme song, but music throughout the entire series run.

It's just, like, amazing. Super cool, man. Yeah. All right. Well, that's going to be awesome, dude. I know we say this all the time, but like, we have been talking about doing a Polaris episode since the inception of the podcast. So I'm surprised it took us this long, but here we are, dude. The time has come.

Next week. We're going to cover him. If you were a kid in the 90s like we were, odds are that, that, that you have an affinity and, like, in nostalgia for the Nickelodeon era of, like, kids' entertainment. It's the orange years, dude. Like pre- SpongeBob Nickelodeon, right? Yep. We'll put that caveat out there. Yeah, there's just something about it, man.

Well, dude, before we wrap up, I got a question for you. Have you enjoyed that cup of lavender camomel yet? Yeah, it's good, man. Solid. Of course it is, dude. We're talking about Testa T again here. Travis promised me that he was going to finally brew a cup of their lavender camomile, which is one of my favorites of theirs.

and surprise, surprise, it's just as delicious as all the other teas of theirs that we've tried so far. And right now you can get 15% off your purchase at tsatat.com with the promo code no filler. Punch that in at checkout and just get yourself some tasty loose leaf tea. Give it a go. If you're like, you know what, historically I'm a coffee drinker, I've always wanted to try some tea. This is the tea to try for the first time. If you're going to venture out into tea, Testa T is the way to go for sure, man. It is no Lipton's, tell you that much.

Yeah, this is not that, right? So if you're like, I don't like tea, you got to give Testa a shot. This is real ingredients, dude. Dude, I still can't get over the nutty almond cream. I still can't get over it. It's something else, dude. Like, there's bits of almond in it. Yeah.

And you just brew, and the oils from the almond just get extracted into. the tea and just it's just the most subtle almond flavor there's apple chunks in it come on cinnamon yeah it's like a delightful cinnamon apple muffin yeah so you know hey we never ask you for nothing so here we are asking you to go to tsatat com use promo code no filler 15 at checkout and you'll get 15% off your order thank you that's t s to t a bowl T for a bold you. All right. So, like we said, next week, we'll see what happens.

We might throw a, you know, a thriller rewind out there. Oh, that's right. You're going to be out of town. So if we just got you real excited about the Polaris episode, you may have to wait an extra week. But that's all right. Whenever we speak again, we'll be talking about Polaris and Miracle Legion and Nickelodeon. That's going to be fun.

I can't wait. So next week, it'll be a rewind episode. So we'll pull something out of the back catalog. Hopefully it's an episode you haven't tuned into yet. But it'll be along the same vein. It might be the R.E.M. episode that we did. That would make total sense, wouldn't it? So it'll probably be R.M.

We covered Life's Rich pageant. So yeah, that'll be that next week. And then we'll be coming back at you with Polaris. So yeah, we're going to outro us out with, again, one of Marcus Congleton's new bands. It's called Drug Cabin. Like I said, if you liked the tunes we brought from LP, from Ambulance LTD today, give Drug Cabin and listen. There's more of that just smooth vibe and this song name jumped out of me, so we're going to play it. This is an album there's called Wiggle Room that came out in 2015. Song's called Steely Dad. Oh, okay. You got my

interest. And hop on over to the Pantheon podcast. network at pantheonpodcasts.com. Check out all the other great podcasts that are in our network, all music-centered, all great, pantheonpodcasts.com. And as always, thank you to AKG for sponsoring the show. And until next time, thank you, as always, for listening. My name's Quentin. My name is Travis.

You all take care.