No Filler Music Podcast - "Record Store Zombie" - A Conversation With Mark Burke

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

We end our look back at the music of our youth by talking with the man that sold us those records: the one and only Mark Burke, current owner of Mad World Records in Denton, TX. With nearly 20 years experience owning and operating record shops (and roughly 7 years managing them before that), Mark gives us an inside look at what it takes to run a record store. We also chat about his years in the Denton punk scene where he organized house shows for acts like At the Drive-In, Braid, and Jimmy Eat World. Tracklist Miserable - Damned To Love You Ritual (feat. Karolina Engdahl) - Then Comes Silence The B Boys - Cognitive Dissonance This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Special, at least to you and I, Travis, and to anyone who grew up. in Carrollton or went to college in Denton, Texas. So yeah, anyone who lived in Carrollton from about 2003 to 2011, and then anyone who's lived in Denton, 2011 and beyond, if you did live in either of those places during either of those time periods, you may have popped into either CD addict in Carrollton. or Mad World Records and didn't. And the man behind the counter most likely was our guest on this show today.

His name is Mark Burke, and he is a lifelong music lover. But more importantly, he has either ran or worked at a music store for the last 30 years. And we have actually named job to him quite a bit, Q. Yeah, quite a bit, especially in these last batch of episodes that we've been. doing the, you know, we've been doing our back-to-school episodes and almost guaranteed any CD that we bought, any of these bands that we've covered of the last couple months, more than likely that CD was purchased at CD Addict from Mr. Barkberg. He was our, our dealer, if you want to go with that metaphor.

Oh, yeah, I'd say he was like our, you know, our, um, our Jedi. We were the young Padawan. There's a lot of metaphors you could throw out here. Totally. But what we talked about with him today was just how, like, approachable and, like, how easy he made it for anybody who walked in those doors to not feel like they were being talked down to or, you know, he wasn't condescending at all. You know what I mean?

He wasn't the generic kind of what you'd think of when you think of a, you know, pretentious. Erigantial record store. Yeah. Exactly. And, yeah, he was just a super important part of our lives and probably a lot of other people lives. I know we've we've reached out to some friends of ours that lives in Carrollton around that time with us and they all said the same thing like oh yeah, Mark, the guy that has CD addict, you know.

So yeah, it was a fascinating conversation. We talked about just what it was like owning a CD store for all these years. He gave us some really awesome insider information. So I may have to go open up a CD store right now. I figure like I know the insider secrets. I know the I know what to do. Yeah. So we're going to fade us into our conversation with Mark. We just wanted to give everyone a little introduction. We were really excited to have them on and we're really excited for you to hear it. We did want to give you a quick heads up. We used a different route to get this thing recorded so that it would be easiest for all three of us to make it work. So we used a browser-based recording program. So it might sound a little conference call kind of ish in a way if I'm explaining that, right? It's going to sound a little bit different, but it was a great conversation and we are super excited to share it with you all. So here is our conversation with Mark Burke. We have a guest with us.

His name is Mark Burke. And he is, as he called himself once, a, if he has a guest. lifelong record store zombie who we know very well from our from our days in in carolton texas a city that we've mentioned on this podcast numerous times and i think we've even name dropped the store quite a bit but yeah we have yeah so we that was a sleepy little suburb of dallas texas and mark you owned a cd store in there back when we were in high school so tell us a little bit about that and a little bit about yourself? It was, I guess I opened the store in 2003. I graduated in 2003 college with an anthropology degree and I could either teach or I could do what I had been doing

since I was 18 years old, which was working in record stores. The weird thing is there are a bunch of stores going out of business at that exact moment because of Napster or other, you know, pirating on the internet. So not a lot of people were buying music anymore, but so many went out of business that I knew that there was a little bit of a void to fill. And then at the same time, I was able to get all this merchandise or stock CDs and records, whatever, fixtures, registers, all kinds of things for cheap,

because all these businesses are going out of doing like blowout sales and things. I got some CDs at 90% off and things like that. So if everybody hadn't been going out at the time, then I wouldn't have been able to start the store. So like did you think to yourself like, hey, all these CD stores are growing out of business. Is it a good idea for me to open a CD store? Or maybe I shouldn't?

Sounds like you made, obviously you made the right move. But I mean, I was wondering, like, was it just because of how readily available that stuff was and how cheap it all was? You're like, hey, why not, you know? Well, I mean, honestly, It came down to having two choices. My wife has a really good job that is always steady, where we never had to worry about whether she was going to have a job or not because it's an industry that works well.

So she will always have a job. And we led modest lifestyles, I guess you'd say. We're not buying giant houses and stuff like that, new cars. We run our cars into the ground. So we never like material things were never our things. never our thing. So when it came time and I graduated, I really honestly had the choice of trying to give it a go with a record store because I had sat there and watched other bosses of mine through the years when I worked at their businesses, both big and small, major corporations

and mom and pops. I watched them make mistakes and I watched them do successful things. And I just kind of took all those things in mind. And I went from there. I just got rid of the things that are mistakes. My only other choice was really teaching with an anthropology degree. And I just sat through a few years of college watching kids not caring about what they're learning about. And I was like, why I'd rather inspire than bore. So I guess I'll just do the record store.

Well, you were the professor of music at this store. And we were the students. Yeah. So 2003, Travis and I just turned 16. Is that right? Yeah. So, yeah, 2003. Yeah. So, you know, we just got that freedom of having a driver's license and doing whatever we wanted, basically, in a sense. And we were also huge music fans always have been. So you were the store that we went to to buy every CD that we owned. We've talked to a lot of other people that grew up in Carrollton. around our age. And yeah, everyone remembers you, Mark. And everyone loved your store and just loved the whole vibe that you gave us, you know, as an owner. You were never pretentious, which was awesome. Yeah, it was a huge, huge place for us. Thank you. That's cool. I mean, my, my goal is to make it comfortable for people. I, that's one thing I took from all the other stores is pretentious record store people are just the most obnoxious things in the world. It's like the comic guy

from Simpsons or something like that. Yeah. I live up in Washington in Seattle. And man, they're a dime a dozen, dude. Every other record store is just, they're just super pretentious.

Like, you don't even want to talk to them. Yeah. And it is really hard to get a job in a record store because it's the right place, right time more than anything else because people don't quit their jobs at record stores when they have them. So maybe there's that kind of entitlement that happens.

I don't know. But it's funny. I've seen it. It's not a style of music. It's not people that like. just cool music or whatever because sometimes you'll see people that listen to top 40 or whatever and they're still like pretentious in a record store. It's just it's just something that it's a culture in that store and most record stores that that has been created through time and history for some

reason. But I've made a conscious effort to try to hire people that were not going to be like that. that would be willing to have conversations, be willing to let people know they don't know everything about music, and just learn while they're working and have fun. I bet you that was like an important piece of it for us, you know, because we were, like we said, we were lifelong music lovers, but like at that time, that's when we were discovering bands for the first time, like on our own, like, you know, beyond like the music that our older brother would play or like our dad would play when we were growing up. So I'm sure that, you know, being able to approach the guy at the counter.

and not, you know, be slapped in the face or whatever. Probably helps quite a bit to, like, build up our, maybe our ego a little bit and, like, not make us feel like we are complete nubes. Because I'm sure I walked up to you and asked you for stuff that you were like, I can't believe this guy is asking me for this. I know, I mean, I told you in that Facebook message I sent you that I, for some reason, I wanted to get my hands on the best of CXC expundic. Yeah.

Which is probably, I bet you that was the first and the last time somebody asked you to get. Oh, for sure. My only connection was like, I got to see what else these guys do because they were on the Ferris Bueller soundtrack for that funny scene when he's, man, I don't know what he's doing. I think that's in the beginning or something like that. Anyway, but yeah, that's just kind of how my mind works. I'm like, man, what else do these guys do? Well, that's how I was too. And honestly, that's what I liked about having kids, you know, high school, middle school kids come in because they're at that point where they're finally breaking away from what they're.

they're raised to listen to. Yes. And they're starting to decide on their own what's cool and what's not cool. And so when I was a kid, I was dropped off from sixth grade on, the town next door to us. My parents would drive us out there. And we just walk around and at night to all the different record stores. But people wouldn't give us the time of day. We just did our own thing.

And this is pre-internet. So this is probably like late 80s or late. 90s where you had to see something on MTV and then you'd buy a tape, not a CD, you buy a tape, and then you'd read, if you liked the tape that you bought that week, you'd read who they thanked, and then the next week you try one of those bands out if you didn't have something else to buy. So I guess me growing up not having any guidance and being so curious and hungry for music, I think I wanted to make sure that I could provide that if people wanted it. I guess. And yeah, you definitely provided that too. Yeah, I think that's an interesting phrase there,

the curious and hungry. Like, I feel like that's just my entire life has just been, I'm sure you're the exact same way. Like I, I'm always looking for the next band. Like, anytime I hear a band that I like, it's like, all right, give me more of that. You know, let me find, like, who are they influenced by it? Like, where did the sound start? You know what I mean? Yeah. So that's kind of, it's kind of like the basis for this podcast, at least. Like, we're always bouncing around from genre to genre. Well, I'm not going to see that because that's a lie. But yeah, I mean, we're pretty much honed in, especially. So speaking of and going back to the early 2000s, that's one of the reasons we reached out to you is we've been doing a batch of episodes on music that we listened to in high school.

Q, you wanted to bring this up to Mark because it sounds like you have a connection to this band in a way. Well, I've for sure, without a doubt, bought every night fireworks by Haymercadies in CD Addict. I know that for sure. And we were doing some research, Mark. You actually used to run at kind of a house show in Denton. That's right. And you guys hosted Braid at some point?

Yeah, a big show, nine bands. That's crazy. Yeah, eight touring bands that day. And Braid was one of them. The biggest one was at the drive. was also that. Oh, wow. Yeah, they didn't have a record out yet.

They only had a seven-inch, so they were really young. But, yeah, they came and played too. I also bought Cave-in's antenna from your store. And we could have a whole other conversation on Cave-in and that album specifically. So we were trying to figure out, did you live in Denton the entire time that you owned CD-addict? No, I didn't want to. I did for the first six months or so, but I just didn't want to have to drive all the time. So eventually we got an apartment in Carrollton and then eventually got a house.

And the store was open eight years. And then once I moved the store to Denton, same deal. I lived in Carrollton for six months and I had to drive every day. But eventually we got sick of that and got a place back up in Denton. Would you say that getting back to Denton was always always in the plans there? It wasn't in the plans. Denton just has that effect. I've lived different places and I've been all over because I've been in bands.

So I've been all over traveling. Denton is one of the easiest places to live because most people are pretty laid back. And until this corona stuff. But before that, everyone's been pretty laid back. And it's just, it's a, it has a big city conveniences where you can get anything at any time of the day that you need. But it still has the security and safety of a small town and feel of a smaller town. So you don't, it's the perfect mix. But I have tons of friends here and the ones that haven't moved away.

And then the music scene was always strong in Denton, too. so I guess I just had a connection to it. Yeah, well, I mean, what I was going to say is like, for people who are listening who aren't from the North Texas area, I mean, Denton is kind of like the music capital of North Texas, at least. Yeah, it's the closest thing we have to Austin. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's the perfect place for a CD store.

But so, yeah, so you moved, I guess you, would you call it a renaming or did you just kind of reopen? Because you went from CD addict and Carrollton, and then you opened up shop in Denton, and the name of your store there was called Mad World Records, is called Bad World Records, I should say, because it's not like you're closing up shop completely. No, yeah.

Honestly, it was, I knew I'd sell more records in Denton because vinyl's more popular, and they did. But what's weird is, as records have gotten more expensive over the past few years, they've almost doubled, if not doubled in lots of cases. CDs have become more popular with high school kids again. Really? Not that is never a gift.

I know. Instead of going back and downloading, like they grew up doing or whatever, kids have actually decided to buy CDs. They'll get the records they want the most. So they'll get their strokes, is this it? Never mind, Nirvana. They'll get all that kind of stuff on records. but they'll get in utero and Room on Fire and everything else on CD.

They'll get the albums there aren't their absolute favorite on CD. It's been interesting. That's kind of cool, though. I would have never thought. I know. Cs in my store are back. I know other stores they have trouble. But when I opened the store, it was probably 80% records, 20% CDs.

And then when this stuff hit and we're shutting the store part down, I would say it's close to 60% records, 40%. CDs. So they jumped way up. What was the ratio when you opened up CD-Aidic though? It was the other way around, right? I mean, you had not a very big vinyl section if I remember. No, because they weren't making it yet

again. The only reason vinyl stayed in print was for punk records because punk's liked vinyl and for DJs, so hip-hop. So if it wasn't for hip-hop and punk, vinyl would have just died off completely. So

somewhere in the middle of CD-A-D-A-A-T-A-X, life, they started making three issues like REM or things like that, and then started releasing some bigger albums again. And then, and it's funny, like one was Beck, C Change, another was Tom Petty Wildflowers. That Tom Petty Wildflowers, which was a $10 retail back then, is a $400 record now. Oh, my God. Yeah, no, that new wave, because they never made it again, that new wave of records ended up being kind of valuable. But within the next five years of that, they just all, the retail of them jumped way up to from like 10 to 12 to more like 20 to 25 or so.

Wow. I feel like our generation, I mean, people around Travis and I and in my age, early 30s, we latched on to vinyl pretty hard when we were, you know, getting out of the house and doing our own stuff. Right. You know, it's just owning that physical piece of music has always been special. And it's cool to hear that even people that are even younger now, even if it's CDs, they're still latching onto physical copies of music. That gives me help. Well, honestly, it was my at Maddled Records, that part of it didn't really change. I actually think my average age of customer probably went down. So, meaning we no longer sold. tons of hip hop like we used to we did only basically on vinyl at this point not cd anymore at all and so it was mainly high school and college kids that kept the business going for sure um there'd be

tourists and stuff but it's for sure kids getting into vinyl that that kept the business going i'm also happy to hear that uh the younger kids are still still into the strokes because that was a you know a pivotal band for us we were like the perfect age for them when they hit yeah i still so is this it once or twice a week yeah that's great isn't that crazy it's just keeps on forever it's just you know the music is just so like simple and accessible you know what i mean like garage rocks and timeless really yeah yeah yeah so you have ran some form of a music store for going on what is it let me do some quick math here 30 like 30 years right i mean before cd addict you would work either working at or running cd stores right that's right yeah because i'm 47 i just

turn 47 and then I was 18 when I started. So yeah, 29 years. So you've seen, you know, kind of as you mentioned, you've survived, I should say, like the rise of streaming. And it's kind of interesting because it's almost like the rise of streaming along with that was the resurgence of vinyl record sales, right? So it's almost like, was it like you were able to trade in the loss of CD purchases because of streaming for like vinyl? you know what I mean? I think so. Yeah, honestly, I think that happened. But then again, I mean, if I stayed in Carrollton, it wouldn't have worked. So being in a college town with two universities and a pretty laid-back music-based town helped and having a great location. So there's a lot of stores that try to do what I do. But they're just not in the right place. So it's not really possible. And it doesn't hurt. to have 20-something years of experience and knowing what people actually like and dislike and knowing your neighborhood. That's part of a record store is some stores just try to sell what they

like, but the reality is it's not for you, man. They're buying records for them. Yeah. So they need to, you need to cater to your neighborhood. You really do. Yeah. So you got to have your finger on the pulse. Yeah. How did your inventory change between Carrollton and Denton? Because I'm curious, that you said you got a sale to your neighborhood. I feel like you had everything, you had everything that I was looking for when I walked in the door. But, and then I've popped into Mad World too a couple times.

You've never not had what I, what I needed. But like, would you say that there was any major genre change between the two cities? Yeah, for sure. For what sold. I still carried everything. But in Denton,

we sell almost no hip hop on CD. And the hip hop we sell is not, what it was in Carrollton. It's more like Tyler and Kendrick Lamar. It's the stuff that you'd call, well, what I call smart rap sometimes is because it's really well thought out and put together really well and everything else.

And it's not like a macho thing as much or something. Yeah, that's the kind, and it's not top 40 for the most part. If it is, then it's because luck that it became that way. You know, Tyler shouldn't be top 40. He's so weird, but somehow he is. But so we'd sell that kind of stuff.

R&B went away completely. We only sell old soul. New modern R&B can't sell to save my life at the new store. That's not even a thing that I think of as being a continuing genre. I don't know why. It's there. It's there because I still see these albums coming out. But in the past, in Carrollson, I'd have to get like five of them for the first day that it came out.

And Denton, I, debate whether I should even get it at all. So it's a totally different feel. So we sell way more indie rock. We sell tons of metal. Medals come back up. But what I realize is you carry things like punk and metal that are hard to find at other stores because other stores are closed-minded or whatever they are. Or not knowledgeable, maybe even.

And you carry all that stuff and people will travel. I mean, I have people coming from all over Wichita, Follong. I mean, obviously all over the Metroplex, but people would come down from Oklahoma just because of our metal section. So again, you cater to what you know people are going to want rather than what you like. And the kicker is record stores that people don't realize the biggest, hardest part about a record store is it's all math. You're taking your own money out of your pocket. And these records are 20 bucks cost that we sell for $2.00. 25 or 26.

So you say, okay, am I going to sell five Tyler of the creators this week? Am I going to sell one? Am I going to sell 10? And it's like betting almost because you're taking a ton of cash and taking a risk. If it was just five bucks a pop, it's not as big of a risk. So CDs were a lot easier, even though they were never five either. But the records, you have to really play the game smart. And I think that's where most record stores fail is they, they guess just wrong on what, what people actually want.

So I wanted to ask you something, Mark, you know, you were talking about how important, you know, location is we were lucky to have you in Carrollton, but was like what, what made you go to Carrollton? Was there any reason behind that? Yeah, well, there's a store in that spot before it. So I knew there's a city warehouse that had just gone out of business. six months prior to it. And the tollway had just, I mean, it had been there for a few years, but it was, what was that, Turing Mills before that, but they, yeah, it was, it was a big exit, I guess. It just seemed like right next to a target.

It seemed like a pretty good spot. And I think in a lot of ways it was, but. Yeah, especially for Carrollton. Yeah, for Carrollton for sure. It was right in between a couple of high schools. And one of them being ours. Right down the street. Yeah.

So, yeah, it was, but it was more about the fact that I knew people are already used to going to that exact spot. And some people only go to record stores once a year. So, so just at Christmas or whatever. So I knew for sure that I would have some automatic business just from people knowing that there was a record store in that area. Yeah. And did you actually buy all the stock from CD Warehouse? I bought a lot of it. What I would do is I bought all the fixtures and then they left some, which so I got lucky. But I bought, I would always wait until stuff was like 70, 80% off because they would slowly just blow out all their stuff. And probably three or four CD Warehouses,

three or four tower records. I mean, not tower record. There's another one. Sam Goody, I guess. There was a tower records that I did. All the, what was it called then? Warehouse music. Is that what it was called? Or was it Blockbuster? It was a blockbuster music. It was a thing, I think, right? Yeah, it was a thing. I just kept on changing their name. But I bought tons of stuff at those places, too. Because if you go to the right part of town, again, you can have, you can go find Tupac in one neighborhood at 90% off, where in another neighborhood, But they want to pay full price for it, no problem. So if you just play it smart and you go buy your punk over here and your metal over here and your rap over here, because that's not just wasn't what was popular there,

then I was able to fill my store with decent stuff for pretty cheap to start off. But then you sell that and you have to replace it. And that's where the whole store gets really expensive is I might have bought it for three or four dollars the first time. But the next time I had to spend like 11 or 12 bucks just to get in the store. So it was. Again, it's a math game. So you have to have kind of like a left-right brain. You have to have both.

You have to have the creative and the math part of it to be able to pull off a store, I think. Yeah, man, that's awesome. And you, of course, had the, this is a segue, but here we go. You had the wall of buttons. Yep. And I don't know how common that is. It's probably pretty common in CD stores. But like we, you know, we loved it.

We had our little Chevy tracker that we shared back then. We had a bunch of buttons just on the liner of the car and stuff like that. That's cool. Was that, we noticed that that you carried that over to Mad World. I would think, I mean, our button sales still going up. I mean. For sure. I never even had to raise price or anything because, and, you know,

it's the one thing that in 15 years, inflation, didn't touch at all. I bet you the exact same price. Yeah, the only people buying buttons have got to be people like young, really young people because you got to put that on your backpack or whatever. You got to slap it on your backpack, totally. Yeah, high school and college. And then I definitely had other people say they would have an old car they were driving

around and their roof would start to fall down. So they started pinning it with that. And then eventually they said they would fill their entire roof with buttons, which sounds really cool. Yeah, those buttons actually destroyed the inside of that Chevy Tracker. It was the opposite for us. Yeah, you did it before it was falling down. Yeah, that's funny.

But yeah, we sell lots. We definitely sell lots of buttons because, and honestly, the reason why I had those was never a money thing. It's not really a money venture. It's because the psychology of a store is you're going to come in a group. let's say you two come in and you're Jones into look at music, but you have two other friends that are not interested at all. They just download everything or they don't care. Well, give them something to look at.

That's why I decorated Mad World in a weird way too, and CD-A-D-A-T too, but MadRold, I have more room where everywhere you looked, if you took the time, it was almost like a museum. There's stuff to look at. And so I did that for every age group, too. Like I have stuff that would, that my parents would have hanging on their walls here and there. And people from my generation would have and their childhood walls. And the buttons, of course, if you do that, then they're not going to be bugging you to leave the store.

Because they have something to look at. So smart. Yeah. So that was always, that's why I would try to make it a visual thing as well as just a record store. I got to ask you if the Fisher Price record player made its way to Mad World. Yeah. And honestly, that was my wife's when she was a little girl. Cool.

We found it in her attic. But yeah, actually, I've been cleaning out Mad World in the front window. That's one of the only things that's still there. I haven't pulled that out of there yet. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, I remember you had it hanging up on the wall in the city attic. And he had a bunch of little 45s or whatever. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a really cool area. Well, let's talk about the Bonnie Bray house. I was kind of curious about the punk scene in Denton. I guess that was mid to late 90s? Yeah, it was, well, I think there was a generation a little bit before us that started the house shows. In 96, my brother and I moved into the Bonnie Bray with a couple of friends.

And we started doing shows. And at the same time, we became friends with this. other group of people, and they had a house called the mansion, no, the manor. And then within a year, another house popped up called the mansion. And then we had this club called the Argo. So in 96 and 97, we had three different house venues and a club so that during the summertime, we'd have easily a show every night, a punk show. Never mind.

But punk was much more broad of a term. back then. This is pre-fast internet, so no one used the internet back then. It was probably just a government thing at that point. So it was all word of mouth, but people would call us at the house and say, hey, I'm so-and-so, and I'm coming through there. And we would, if I couldn't do it, I would pass it off or sometimes set up at one of the other houses. Or if we thought, you know what, you're too big for a house in Denton. You're going to need to play the Argo. So we all just worked together and kind of shuffled around what made sense in which area the best.

Ours was the most diverse, meaning we would have like emo, hardcore, punk, you know, all in the same show. That was just our thing where one house was good for rock and roll punk and one house was good for hardcore or whatever. And it was just, it was a network. It was cool. That's awesome. And you actually got Jimmy World to play there? They asked us, yeah. They,

um, the funny thing is there's only three bands that we ever asked. I asked one band, my brother asked one band and one other band. Um, one other roommate asked for a band and, and they weren't big bands. They're just bands that we liked a lot.

And we, we wrote them a letter like the old days because we didn't have their number. So all we could do is look up their address in like a 45 or something. and we would send them a letter and they would write us back. So, yeah, we're coming through here and that will play your show. But yeah, Jimmy at World, one day I came home from work and I worked at a record store in Plano. So I had a long drive and I was tired and I came home and Jimmy from Jimmy World is staying in my living room. I'm like, what in the world?

And his friend was sometimes. a roadie was someone who lived in Denton and was one of my friends. And so I got to hear Static prevails maybe three or four months before it ever came out and stuff like that. It was weird. We had this. I was going to ask you if this was like Static Prevails era or clarity. They played clarity era, I think. Maybe somewhere in between. They're on a major label. And I think the first major label was Static Prevails because suits showed up to the house. But they, to say, you can do better than this. But they called us, because they're sick of playing like stuffy shows.

And they wanted to play a house show again. They were started off as punks. I have a CD of theirs that sounds like Southern California punk that's before, that's before Stack prevails. And it, I'm sure it was floating around Napster back in the day or whatever. But, but they played a little coffee shop across the street from U&T called. a Karma Cafe and there's probably 15 people there and and it was all punk rock. It's fast punk rock. And then like no effect style. And then the next time I heard him was that static prevails,

we go to a show, my friend and I and somebody walks up to him and said, Jimmy told me to give you this. And so we drove home listening to the new Jimmy World, which sounded bizarre to us because all of a sudden they're kind of an emo band. But it still sounded good. Yeah. And so, So, but within another year, they, they were calling us because they were just tired of the rat race and wanted to have fun again, basically, is what it was. That's awesome. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, we, Bleed American was a pretty big album for us, obviously.

So I didn't get into, I didn't really listen to clarity instead of prevails until later on. And we did an episode on clarity. I'm sure we'll do an episode on Bleed American at some point. But yeah, it's kind of fascinating, kind of like you said, they're like the evolution of like punk to emo because it's kind of it's definitely a line, right? It's the same lineage, you know, if you think about it. Oh, yeah. But yeah, that's awesome. Yeah.

So, I mean, speaking of punk, like Quentin and I, we, you know, for us and you're going to have to forgive us because you have a legit, you're a card carrying like punk rocker. Like you've got legit credibility there. If you had a house show that had nothing but punk shows, like, I mean. But yeah, our introduction to punk, quote unquote, was like Blink 128. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. A lot of people's introduction was either blink or Green Day. Exactly, because that's what made it mainstream, right?

And honestly, there's no difference how you get into it. I mean, that's the funny thing is people worry about stuff like that. But like I, when I was in 91, I moved to Dallas. I just jumped on a greyhound. I lived in Connecticut, and I jumped on a greyhound. And I was exposed to different stuff for the first time besides, well, no, I was on it, man. But I, music wise, but when you go to a new region, you do hear different things. Plus in 1991, a lot of stuff was happening.

So there was genres that were actually popping up that were destroying the popular MTV bands of the time. And the whole world flipped in 91 and 92. And then in 92, I got lucky enough to go to England, to live in England for the summer. And that is record store heaven. I mean, there are two record stores that were the size of football fields. Oh, my God. And they're within 10-minute walk of each other. And the road you walk on, which is like the British Soho area of town, the road you walk on has probably five or six underground record stores.

one pure electronic, one pure alternative music. It was nuts. I don't know how many of them are still there today, but it was heaven for my brother and I. We were just loving it. So we were exposed to different stuff there too. And then I came home and my brother had gotten into home to Connecticut. My brother had solely gotten into punk and hardcore shows through the Bostones,

the Mighty Bostones. Now, people known by the radio songs, But if you went to a Boston show up there, which they're a local band for us, basically, if you went to their shows at this point before they were famous, their shows were like crazy, just pure chaos and anarchy and punk. They're punk for sure. I mean, it was just no other way to describe it. And so that was my gateway.

When I saw Green Day, I went to go see Bad Religion in Boston. and this little band I'd never heard of called Green Day was opening up. And they had the audience who no one knew who they were eating out of their palms the whole time. So you just knew that if anyone ever got a hold of this band, they would just be a giant. So you could see a lot of these bands, and a lot of the bands I grew up kind of idolizing as a teenager, I became friends with later in life because that's what punk is. It was a community where they're really. isn't some kind of hierarchy.

Some people have made it. Some people haven't. But you're either cool or you're not. Some people are mean, whether they've made it or mean or they're nice, you know. But like, for instance, Billy Joe from Green Day was on MTV a few years ago. And they asked him who his favorite band, current band was. And he said, my brother's band. So. Was it Mark?

Which was the marked men. Yeah. So, yeah. So that kind of thing, they're all, no matter how famous they are, they're still somewhat tied to the punk world. And that came from that generation of the late 90s where we had no choice but to write each other or get numbers from friends, but everything was word of mouth. And the punks that grew up famous, like the Green Days and the bands like that, they understood that still, that they came from the spot where they had to hustle and they had to, they know so many people that they'd become. the worst people ever if they just ignored their past so they they hang on to it it's cool yeah that's

awesome but you say there's any any genre right now that has a similar kind of like organic uh sort of way that it's it's developing or whatever i mean would you say i'm trying to think of like i don't think so because it's impossible now it's not not necessary anymore right i mean because you have the internet that's right um it's just it's just straight up not necessary um ban camp alone could have just instantly destroyed that kind of thing because now don't get me wrong. Okay, my brother is still tours and stuff and he still has the same network in place. So that network still exists. He'll add people here and there and things like that.

But there's always the same people you trust when you go to a town and you don't want to stay in a hotel, where you stay and who's going to set up your show and things like that. So that never really goes away. So punk still has it in a way. I'd say it more in Australia than anywhere else. And that's how open our world is now that I even know that. Is that because of band camp and just knowing my brother's friends there and stuff like that, they have these Sydney and what's that other big city.

Are you talking about the place that Tim and Paula dude is from, Perth or whatever? No, well, that too, Perth too. But if you go to band camp and you listen to all these bands that sound somewhere, they're more rock and roll, more like the OCs, punk rock stuff to Sykes stuff. But there's a huge movement where they're blown away the rest of the world. And they're all interchange, the people play in each other's bands.

And there's this big network down there. But like you said, I mean, the internet kind of just ended that. It's weird because you don't need it. You can just go online and find out whenever you know. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's kind of depressing in a way. It is. But at the same time, I mean, you can put your, if you play music, you can get it on band camp

and someone from who knows where has a chance to hear it. So it's, yeah, definitely. That is cool. I mean, that part of it's really great. I can't tell you, I don't know if you are going to enjoy hearing this or not. But I mean, I can't tell you how many bands I've discovered on Spotify, right? I mean, obviously. Yeah, of course.

Yeah. And you know, and here's the thing there. Here's the honest truth. Like a lot of times that that will equate to a physical purchase of a record, right? Yeah. I honestly feel like that's what the world should be now, is band should step it up and give you an album more than just a couple songs and be held accountable, meaning, you know, held accountable is probably not the right word, but in a way it is. Meaning they're going to, they need to write quality stuff, no matter. what the genre is so that if you want people to buy it, you've got to compel them to buy it

because there is so much out there now that I don't listen for myself. I listen for the store. I always have. I haven't listened to my own record collection in years because I am constantly doing research to try to figure out what I should get to sell. And then every once a while, I'm like, oh, wow, that's a great album, and I'll buy it. I'm compelled to buy it. But bands are in a way now where they have really no choice, but to write as good as they possibly can if they hope to make physical sales. I mean, because they can't do anything lazy anymore, because people have alternatives everywhere. My watch you heard last week was from a band that reached out to us called Arms of Tripoli. And they did the same thing where they, they

they released the entire album for free on band camp to listen to. And it's not even out for another couple days. But yeah, if you like it, you will go back and you will. And yeah, it will lead to actual physical purchases of their music. Because I still want to support these bands as much as I can. Right. Exactly. And a lot of people do.

I think there's a skeptical audience out there in the world that doesn't believe that, they think, oh, well, I can just get it for free. No, there's a lot of people that support the. arts in every form of it. And, and, you know, it's kids. Like, you know, when I was a kid, I'd tape my tape off, like I'd tape or burn CDs or whatever. And when you get older and you have a little bit more integrity or you have a little bit more, um, understanding of what goes into all that, then yeah, you support them rather than. And definitely when you understand like what, what's on the line for these guys, you know what I mean? Like if you don't, you, you understand you have a,

understanding of how money works you know what I mean yeah it's like well I should probably throw some throw a few bones these guys way you know yeah um yeah well so you mentioned earlier that uh you listen primarily for the store but occasionally you'll be compelled to buy an album what was the last record that you were compelled to buy because it was just so good you had to you had to have it um I bought a couple recently I bought the new strokes because uh and this is the first one I bought in probably three albums or so, but it, it's, have you, I don't know if you've listened to it yet, but oh yeah. They've come full circle. I mean, yeah.

It's fantastic. Not stop wise, but feeling wise. Like they've, they've gotten their mojo back. You know what I mean? Yes. And I agree. I thought it was just really well written. There's something else.

Oh, oh, new Spanish love songs. And actually, I think you guys will like it. It's, um, it's, it's, um, it's, um, it's, um, emotional. You could put quotes around punk, you know, but it's more in the vein of gaslight meets against me, maybe. But it's the singer's got a really good voice, but I would definitely check out that Spanish love songs. It's really good. There's a new one. That's the name of the artist.

That's the name of the artist. Yeah, Spanish love songs. Yeah, Spanish love songs. They have probably two or three albums, but the new one is the one I like a lot. I don't know. I bought the new Beths because I like, have you heard the Beths yet? No.

Out of New Zealand. It's a female fronted three piece. She plays guitar too, I think. But their first album, the last one, which I can't remember the name of it. It's a future me hates me.

Yes, that one is fantastic. The new one, I'm getting into it, but it's not the last album. Not yet for me. But that's the only thing I bought recently. I've been trying to be good. I'm trying not to, I'm trying to buy stuff I only really,

truly care about. It's, it's tough. I've been facing that problem too. I'm looking at my record collection. I'm like, man, like, why did I even buy that? Yeah, and I've done that. I don't know how many times. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm obsessed with this, I'm just, I'm just going to say it. Kew, you know exactly what I'm going to talk about it. Yeah, dude, do it again. I'm obsessed with these guys out of Houston called narrowhead. Have you heard of them? narrow head? Oh my God, dude. Is it just a narrow head, like arrowhead, but with an N?

Yep. Okay. They are. It seems like grunge is kind of making a resurgence. For sure. And it's actually, it's kind of grunge mixed in with some shoegays, right? Yeah. Narrowhead is like better than most of the original grunge bands, but they have that,

they have that sound perfected, but not in a way that's like gimmicky. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it feels genuine. Yeah, it's not carbon. carbon copy or anything like that. It's, it's brand new. Yeah, yeah. That's happening again because those Grange bands, the one thing they were lacking was, um, the understanding to get their sound out there right. I mean, don't get me wrong. Never mind was beautifully recorded and stuff. But for instance, the band Hum has come back after all these years. Oh, I fucking love them too, man.

I just got into. Yeah, their new album is fantastic. We dropped a new one. Yeah. Right. And it's fantastic because it's finally got the recording. They always. needed so the and it's not like a lot of times modern bands will over process stuff and it sounds goofy and and it sounds digital and but but the grunge side of things the grunge and shoegaze people have been and punk for the most part have been very smart about the recordings and if they're not done analog they they sound like they're done analog and they they have this feel of of realness and warmth Yeah, yeah. Other bands aren't pulling off right now. Yeah. Well, Nerahead actually names Hum is one of their, their biggest influences. And these guys are like young. I mean, I'm talking like 20, you know, 18. I'll check it out tonight. They're on band camp, I'm guessing. Yes, I think they are. But yeah, they have a record that came out in 2016, a few years old called Satisfaction. That is unbelievable. And then they're getting ready to drop a new one in August. So they've they've teased. a couple of singles off of it.

And yeah, I was really disappointed because they had like, they said, oh, we got, you know, 24 copies of the vinyl of satisfaction. We're going to throw it up. So, you know, come get it in like 15 minutes after that tweet. It was already sold out. And I was like, gosh, don't know. You got to jump up. But yeah, these guys are kind of exploding a little bit here.

It's cool. Good. Yeah. And they're, you know, somewhat local. They're from Houston. So, yeah. Yeah, check out for sure. I will.

All right. Yeah, dude, get ready. Okay. So, I mean, what, Q, you've got anything? So, I mean, we can ask you sort of what's next. I mean, we understand that Mad World is closing its doors, but digitally, Mad World is staying open. Is that right? I mean, is that the plan for the foreseeable future or? Yeah, and as long as it works. But I honestly, because there's no overhead, I don't even have to do that much. Like, we still live modestly. So we're not like racking up the bills on expensive high-priced items. So we can get away with me not selling a ton on the website to pay all of our bills.

So I'm just going to sell off this stock for a while. I might start writing again. I don't know. We'll see. That's the thing is whenever I, like I've said, I've been dedicating all this time for all these years that haven't been able to listen to music for myself. I haven't been able to make music for myself for 12 years. So I'm, I just, I don't know, I haven't been able to spend as enough time and with my family and travel and stuff like that.

So I think all that stuff I'm going to concentrate on getting my head level and everything else and stop thinking about the public at all times and then then go from there awesome you deserve it mark i'm telling you man i'm ready i've given us enough over all these years you know and that's not changed like i anybody ever asks wants to know anything i'm an open book even if people say i want to open record store uh whatever i don't care i'll tell them whatever they they need to know so i mean that's that's one of the things I have always enjoyed is imparting what knowledge I do have onto other people. Well, maybe we could have you on the show as a recurring guest. You can.

If you want to, just that whenever you need something that my brain would compliment, I guess. Yeah. Mark Burke Minute or something like that. Sweet, the Mark Minute. All right. Cool. Well, yeah, man, we just wanted to, you know, speak on behalf of all your customers over the last couple decades and say, you know, thank you for, you know, being an approachable, not dickhead CD store guy. You know what I mean? But yeah, you know, for us, kind of like we've said, like it was a, you know, you played an important role in the, in the fabric of our musical journey for sure, kind of like the dealer, if you will, you know. Yeah, it's been awesome, man.

And it's awesome talking about you, definitely. Yeah, thank you, guys. All right. Well, that'll do it here. So we're going to do our weekly segment here. Actually, you know what? Let's let's let you name drop the website. I mean, I can read it out loud here.

I know it's a Shopify site. Yeah, go ahead and read it because I don't have it in front of me, and I'm still not used to it. So go, go ahead. It's that dude. All right, so it is mad-world-records. dot my shopify.com. So you'll ship anywhere, right?

Yeah. Well, anywhere in the U.S., yeah. Anyway in the U.S. Okay, cool. So yeah, swing by there, anybody listening, and support Mark. And all right, so that's that. Let's do our weekly segment here. This is what you heard. So this is our weekly segment where we bring a song to the table that we have heard since our last recording. We do this once a week.

It's nothing new to people who listen. but now that we have a guest on, we're going to have you supply a tune as well. So let's see here. Who wants to go first? Q, do you want to go first? Yeah, I'll go. All right.

So, and this is no news to people that listen to this podcast, but I'm a huge KexP fan. It's a local radio station up here in Seattle. Most people probably know what KXP is. But I heard this song the other day on there. Travis, you actually brought one of her tunes to the table a couple months back. Her name's Christina Espandiari. I'm probably not saying that.

I'm not recalling that name at all. Well, she goes by miserable. Okay, okay. Cool. Yeah. And Mark, if you heard any of her stuff, she also is in a band called King Woman as well? I know King Woman. I do know that band, but I don't know that.

So that's her, yeah. So that's one of her projects. She just dropped a new single And I'm just going to let the music play for itself It is It's awesome It's a little bit Shoegasy

Dreampop I know we throw that around a lot But let's just give it a listen So the song is called Damned to Love You Damned to love you yeah Yeah as good as haunting Yeah. It's kind of like if Stevie Nix was in a shoegates band.

I can see that. And you know what it reminds me of the most? And I don't know if you guys ever watch Twin Peaks. But I have been meaning to give that a watch. They would end episodes, especially the modern one when it came back for a third season with a band, not every time, but a lot of the times with a band in this bar. And it was different bands. And it would always be this haunting kind of like ethereal. a song with just with just i don't know that feel it's exactly what it's reminding me of so i'm all about that feel so yeah it's cool and her um her voice and kind of at the end there too uh i didn't pick up on this when i heard her the first song that i brought a couple weeks back but like i got kind of a beach beach house vibes too at least the the league here you know what i'm saying yeah like

i mean absolutely low register um but yeah awesome i think i think you're So you brought one of her songs from Lover Boy, I believe, which is an EP of hers from 2018. So yeah, again, that was a new, brand new single from Miserable, damned to love you. All right, Travis, you want to go next? Let's let the guest go next. All right. Mark, what you got? What you've been heard in lately?

Well, the past couple weeks, I haven't been listening to music as much because I've been getting the psycho and everything. but I have been on the way back and forth from the cars, I mean, to the store. I heard this one band called Then Come Silence. I don't know anything about this band. And the song that I really liked had a feature, which is kind of weird. So it's usually a male singer, and he sings in this song too. But Carolina, and she's from a band.

And she's from a band, and I don't remember which band, I guess Discogs could tell. us or something. But the song just, it starts kind of slow, but it ends just like their asses are on fire. And that's, I think my favorite kind of music is always when artists push, push the feel of it, making you feel like if they can't get this out of their body, then they will explode type thing. I just love that, especially live. So that's the feel I get from this woman who's the guest singer in this song called Ritual. All right.

Well, we're going to have to let it play until that moment happens because there's no way we can we can see that and not hear it. So all right. So here we go. This is a ritual by then comes silence. Yeah, I fucking loved it. So, okay, I'm just going to name job like the bands that came to mind for me. But I heard some like Interpol a little bit, maybe the guitar style in a little bit, which is like, I guess kind of a new wave throwback, right?

A little bit. Yeah, new wave, sure. Some Morrissey vibes, even though I hate saying that guy's name. I almost feel like a little bit of sped up Jesus and Mary Chain. So not the same style, but if you took them and sped it up a little bit, I think. Yeah, yeah, that was a great track. Yeah, it's a cool song. Very cool.

I can always count on you to point us in the direction of good music, Mark. Yeah, some things never change. All right. All right, I'm going to bring us on home here with, so I purposely seeked out, well, I guess it's just kind of lucky that I stumbled upon these guys this week because they're kind of a punk punk throwback here. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts, Mark. Okay.

But these guys are called B-boys. B-boys. Like B-space boys? Yep. Yeah, they're from Denton. They live in Brooklyn now. Okay. Two of the four, I think, used to live in Denton, yeah.

Okay, well, here's what's funny. Okay, here's what's nutty, dude. I was reading the roster, and I was like, I recognize the name Andrew Kerr. Yeah. What the f? Hold on. Let me look this guy up. Yeah, you know.

This is starting to get. Let me look at this up here. Okay, well, so you know these guys. The question is, do you know this record? Andrew Kerr. Oh, dude. this fucking guy yeah wait a second he was a grice fight yeah this is fucking and okay holy shit this is some weird shit so uh mark here's something here's a little interesting fact about

grass fight i was their guitar player for maybe two months oh that's funny and they crashed on their this son of a gun so did he did i think grass fight is dissolved um i know that um what's his name um nathan nathan forster of grass fight they all moved up to New York, so I guess that makes sense. Yeah. And yeah, I'm pretty sure grass fight's dead, but I'm glad to see that the Andrew has moved on to bigger and better, because these guys are great. No offense to Nathan.

I'm sorry, Nathan, if you're listening. Nathan's been on the show, so he might be just fucking nutty. But here we go. Small world, man. We're living in a small mad world. Small mad world. All right. Okay, we're going to play the song in our way, Q.

You probably haven't heard this yet. So this song is off of their 2018, 2017 album called Do Do, and it's called Cognitive Dissinence. There for a second. Yeah. So yeah, that's, I didn't realize that that's who I was dealing with here.

Yeah, that's, that is the Australia sound right there. Where it's like, it's like minimalist, where the guys are singing, but not really, really singing. And then at the same time, it seems super basic, but you'll catch these floating guitar lines behind that make it interesting, but the bass will do the same thing the whole time. Oh, that baseline is killer. Yeah, that's textbook Australia 2020, 2019. Right now, it's just what's blowing up over there. So that's interesting. I haven't listened to that record in a while, but I'm going to go back to it in school. Yeah, it's pretty solid. That was the first

track off the record. It says here on the band camp page that these guys were influenced by the clash, wire, and talking heads. So I don't know if I hear any talking heads in that track, but I think that it pops up a little bit throughout the record. It's a pretty varied record. So, yeah, they kind of bounce around a lot. But that's cool.

I didn't realize that I knew that name sounded familiar. So, all right. Man, what a perfect way to end the show here. So, yeah. All right. That's going to do it for the show, man. Mark, thank you so much for being on the show. This was great, man.

Yeah, really, of course. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, thank you guys. And all right, well, you can find us on our website, no filler podcast.com. We can find all of our previous shows. And every show has a show notes page where you can see our track lists.

So that's every song that we play or talk. about including much of herds any sources that we cite i mean there were no sources here although i might i'll drop your website on there mark and then maybe some of those articles we read some articles about you we were you know doing our due diligence here so we found some dallas observer articles over the years so i'll drop those in there um but anyway then you can also find us on pantheon pods.com that's the podcast network that we are a part of uh where you could find many other great podcast, or music podcasts that are like us.

And that's that, man. I want to stop talking. And yeah, so next week, we got a whole new set of, a whole new series, I should say, because this is the official end of our back-to-school episodes. And we're going to transition to what we're calling Dad tunes. So we're going to talk about all the songs that we grew up listening to

we're going even further back in time back when we were we lads listening to our our dad's music collection so we're still going to be on that nostalgia trip dude i can't we can't give it up yet so all right that'll do it my name is travis and my name is quentin and i guess my name is mark yes it is mark that's mark that is mark all right guys thank you so much mark thank you take care hey want to play the sims create empower captivate inspire The Sims is a platform where you control life. Putting the power of creativity in your hands and celebrating it. It's a place that sparks imagination,

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