No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Echo & The Bunnymen - Show of Strength

Episode Date: June 3, 2018

Following last week's episode on Interpol's debut album "Turn On The Bright Lights", we focus on new wave's "chumps from Liverpool", Echo & The Bunnymen, and their second studio album from 1981, "Heaven Up Here". The album's dark, moody, somber vibes puts us in the same headspace as Interpol's TOTBL. With frontman Ian McCulloch's imperfect & strained vocals, & guitarist Will Sergeant's reverb'd & angular stylings, it's no wonder Interpol was often compared to Echo & The Bunnymen. For more info, check out our show notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/music-review-interpol-turn-on-the-bright-lights#sidetrack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won!

Feel the fun! The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. With MX Platinum. You have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Live with confidence. while Peloton IQ counts reps,

corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training Treadplus at OnePeloton.ca. Life's never felt so expensive, and most people are cautious about spending. But IKEA's always been the smart choice for creating beautiful homes, on a budget.

Right now, IKEA family members can save even more with an extra 5% in store on eligible purchases. Visit IKEA-e-eash-e. USA.com slash family for more details. Offer valid starting September 1st, 2022, limited to qualifying purchases, exclusion supply, not valid on services, discount applied in store only, before tax, shipping, and handling, cannot be combined with coupons. And welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. This is our sidetrack episode for the week.

My name's Quentin. Got my brother Travis with me. And we covered Interpol's debut album from 2002 last week called Turn on the Bright Lights. And today we're going to dive a little bit into Echo and the Bunnymen. We're just going to stay in the shallow end of the pool. I'm not going to dive too deep. Travis, what do you know about these guys? So I know that they are one of the most influential new wave bands of the 80s.

Really, I mean, I'll be honest, the only song that I really know intimately of theirs is Killingman, which was on Donnie Darko. Right. I feel like a lot of people have heard Echo on the Bunnyman because they saw Donnie Darko. You know what I mean? Yeah, so I'd put them up there with The Cure. Yeah. You know? Right.

I feel like they were probably I mean I don't know Maybe they knew each other And maybe they you know I'm sure they They at least bumped into each other And music festivals and whatnot Because they were

They kind of burst on in the scene Around the same time early 80s And they were also a major influence on Interpol Or at least Interpol Was compared to Echoing the Bunny Men I don't know if they were in influence So much as like people say oh, they sound like Echo and the Bunnyman,

or they sound like, you know, Paul Banks sounds like Ian Curtis from Joy Division. Yeah. So getting ready for this episode, I went back and listened to the early stuff, trying to find where people might. Because, I mean, you could maybe see some comparison to the voice, maybe a little bit, but, you know, I think there's a certain, like, flavor of New Wave, like guitar that kind of matches the anchors. the angular guitar stylings of Interpol.

Maybe that's why they get compared to him. But, you know. Yeah, yeah. More so than the strokes, for sure. You know, because we talk about the strokes, because they're, you know, strokes in Interpol or the two New York bands that people think about when we go back

to that early 2000s post-punk revival. Yeah, and we touched on this last week. the Interpol and the strokes are like on the different sides of the baseball field, you know what I mean? Yeah. They're definitely in different ballparks even. Yeah, definitely. As far as their sound.

Right. But they do, yeah, they got lumped into that category together because they're both from New York and, you know, there was this quote unquote garage band revival that came about from New York in the early 2000s. But yeah, Interpol definitely. would fall more into the post-punk new wave category. Yeah, I would say so.

Yeah. So, you know, I will say that I liked the early Echo on the Bunnyman stuff quite a bit compared to. I did too. Because, you know, I went, I think I've done this before. Like, I've gone and listened to Ocean Rain, tried to get through it, you know, and just didn't find it all that interesting. but then I went back and listened to like crocodiles and heaven up here and porcupine for that man and like you know there's some good stuff on there and we need to do a we need to do a like a proper dive into new wave you know what I mean yeah yeah maybe we could do kind of similar to what we're doing

with spoon maybe like every other episode for a while we can start from the origins and go from there maybe maybe or at least just you know do a cover a new wave artist do a full episode on a well-known new wave artist and do a deep dive for that episode, you know. Yeah. Because I am curious about the origins of the sound, you know what I mean? Like that new wave 80 sound. But for now, we're just going to stick to Acom on the Bunnyman. And from what I understand.

So you mentioned three albums of theirs that you listen to that you enjoyed. Crocodiles was their debut album. Came out in 1980. Heaven up here is the one kind of that we're focusing on today, which was their second studio album came out in 1981. And our intro clip had just a little bit of track two from that album called With a Hip, which I really liked. And then you mentioned Porcupine as well, which is their third studio album. So I think each one of these had somewhat mainstream success.

We don't need to go into that because, I mean, really, who cares? but when you listen to their early stuff, those three albums that we mentioned, you can kind of hear that interpol sound. And I think it's mostly in the guitar. Right, right. That's what I was saying. Like, the voice, not so much. I mean, you can hear it.

Okay, here's the thing, though. You're like, okay, well, so first of all, what's the name of the guy, the singer? We need to. So his name's Ian McCulloch. Okay. It's another Ian. Right. Yeah.

I mean, so sometimes he will sort of, you know, I associate this with new wave. Like he'll do like a, man, I wish I knew the term to use, but it's not like a strain, like sort of a whale. I don't, not really a whale either. Like his voice will. You say strain and you know, that's kind of something that we said about Paul Banks. Well, that's too. Well, that's what I was trying to say. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say.

But I will say that Ian McCollum has a, he is more, McCullock. He's more melodic with his voice than Paul Banks. I think that's why Paul Banks got compared more to Ian Curtis as far as the vocals go. Because, you know, Ian Curtis sang with that kind of monotone delivery as well, you know, not so much on the Echo and the Bunnyman guy. But definitely with the guitar. I think that's, I think Interpol borrowed a lot from like the new wave guitar sound. I think so too.

one thing I thought was kind of cool about Echo and the Bunnyman. So they formed back in 1978 in Liverpool. And the original lineup consisted of, so we got Ian McCulloch, singer, guitarist Will Sargent, I believe he's still their guitarist. Yeah, they're still kicking it, man. They're still doing the thing, apparently. They had a bassist, less Pattinson.

And then they had a drum machine, which they lovingly referred to as Echo. That was the name of the drum machine. Interesting. Yeah. And then a couple of years later, they get some guy named Pete as their drummer. So that's interesting, dude, because they're almost making it like the drum machine as the front man, because it's Echo and the Bunnyman. Yeah, and there's this Rolling Stone interview from 1981 that,

They quote McCulloch here. He says, we won people over on charm more than anything else. We were three naive, innocent-looking chumps from Liverpool with the drum machine and people felt sorry for us. So. Well, did they always have a drum machine? I mean, they had an actual drummer, right?

Not until 1980. So they went two years as a band. Okay. without a drummer. Interesting. Yeah. Which, you know, I mean, if you think about it, it's just more convenient, you know? Yeah.

You don't have to. It's hard to find a good drummer. And with a drummer comes, you know, it takes up a lot of space in your van. If you got nothing but a van to haul your gear around. That's true. They can just bring a tiny little drum machine and it's always on time. You know what I mean? I feel like the drum machine is,

is probably used quite a bit for like singer-songwriters who are out there like writing, writing rock songs, but just haven't found a drummer yet, you know. They could, they could program the drum machine and just play along with it, you know. So maybe that's what was going on. Especially now from, you know, early 2000s, well, maybe 2008, 2009 when the whole,

the huge DIY chill wave movement, I guess, for like a better word came about. It's, you know, it's all about just the one-man band and you've just got your keyboard. Yeah, like washed out. And your drum pad. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

So let's not make this one too lengthy. Let's go ahead and play our pick, our sidetrack pick. So again, this is recovering their second studio album, Heaven up here. and we're going to play just a little bit of track one, which is called Show of Strength. Let me just say that I'm really glad that they found that drummer. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great drumbeat.

I'm not even going to try to say his last name. I'm not going to butcher that shit. Yeah, what a great drummer. What a really cool drumbeat in that song. It's almost like he creates, it almost sounds like, his snare drum is echoing, but it's just the way that he's playing it. Did you notice that just right at the beginning? Like it just kind of sounds like there's an echo effect on his snare drum,

but it's just the way that he's hitting it. Oh, really? See, I would have thought that was just an effect. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's him. I liked it. I like that a lot. It's cool. That's a really cool song.

And I see what you're saying with his voice. Yeah. It's like he's really singing for the fences. Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess, but I mean... I don't know why I've got all these baseball analogies today. Yeah, yeah. I mean...

But... Right. Yeah, he belts it out. And it is... I can see whale. Like you said earlier, it's kind of like there's a whale. I mean, it falls in line with the cure and these other new wave bands. Like, it's just kind of the way they sing.

Right. Right. It's hard to describe. I mean, the way that Paul Banks, I mean, you know, he's famous. for his baritone voice. It's funny because, like, with a baritone voice, like, he covers, like, both high and low, but at the same time, he didn't really have much of a,

like, a range with, like, the, like, as far as, like, melody and whatnot. Paul Banks, you know what I mean? He was monotone, but he, but he could sing both, like, between, like, low and high because he was baritone. Yeah. Versus Echo and the Bunnyman guy, Ian McCulloch. he has more melody he's not so not so monotone but like yeah i feel like paul banks and just interpol

in general like they had more like bite to their sound you know i mean like i had more of a punch yeah um dude so i have some notes when i was i was listening to this album for the first time a few days ago and i i typed in a a timestamp on this song so i don't remember why what significant thing happens at that moment in the song, but let's, let's play it. Let's do another clip. I'm just going to kind of zero in on this time stamp. So this is going to be a little more than halfway through the song. Let's see if something cool happens, shall we? Yeah, they changed. I mean, I like that. You know what that sounded like to me? I feel like Arcade Fire must have been huge fans of that. Oh, yeah. You can definitely hear that, yeah, for sure.

What's his name? Will Butler? Is that his name? Singer for Arcad Fire. That sounds right. Let's see if I'm right. Something Butler, yeah. Yeah, well, win.

Win, Butler. Win, okay. Yeah, I was getting some Arcad Fire vibes there, so in other words, I was getting, I get Echo and the Bunnyman vibes from Market Fire. Yeah. Yeah, so that's a really cool song. What a cool song to lead you into that album? And then track two is, is again,

and with a hip, which we played a little bit of in the intro. Yeah, so that's Echo and the Bunnyman. Just another one of those important new wave bands from the early 80s with, you know, influence that stretches a couple decades, you know. So, Q, I've gotten into the habit of posting our episodes on the Reddit, the subreddit of whatever band we could. cover. Yeah.

Just to kind of, you know, try to get some exposure to the episode. Sure, sure. And people seem to like our interview. What? People seem to like our Interpol episode. Is that right, bro? Let me read some comments here. Listen to this here, Q.

Okay. Diogo underscore 170792 said damn that was great and you mentioned Spoon another of my favorite bands so Diogo 170792 if you're listening you need to go back and listen to our two spoon episodes that we've done so far we've covered series of snakes and we've covered girls can tell and next week we're going to cover Kill the Moonlight. We are doing a spoon marathon, if you will. So we're glad that you liked it, and we're glad that you're a fan of spoon, because that means that you're probably going to like quite a bit of the stuff that we cover. So check it out and tell us what you think.

Yes, thank you, Diogo, for the shout-out. Also, it means a lot. Seriously. Also, H.A.G-14 says, good stuff. Kept me up last night. Kept me up last night. So there you go. So, I mean, that's what I'm saying.

That means we're not putting people to sleep, which is good. Well, that's exciting, brother. Yeah, dude. That is good to hear. Thank you, Redditors. You know what? I knew Reddit would pull through for us. Cheesy underscore Star said, that was fun.

I loved every bit of Interpol goodness in, and meet me in the bathroom, especially Paul's insights. It's always fun to hear other people talk about something I love so much interpol and turn on the bright lights. We agree with you, Cheesy. Basically, that's the hope of this podcast. It's just two guys talking about the music that we love, and we hope that that, like, that comes across, you know what I mean?

And that, like, it's as fun for, hopefully it's as fun for you guys to listen to it as it is for us to have these conversations, you know what I mean? Yeah, dude, I've had a blast, man, since start. It's been great. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, it's been a lot of fun.

We're going to, you know, we're, at some, at some point, we're going to get some more guests on here to, to make it to where it's not just the two of us talking. Yeah, the only thing that we're trying to figure out, really, is the logistics of making it work because I live up here in Washington state. Travis lives in Texas. Yeah, I mean, not to, uh, to pull the curtain back too far here, but we're not in a studio right now. You know what I mean?

And we're not in the same room. I know most people were probably thinking like, damn, they got themselves a studio. They're sitting in the same room. That audio quality, top notch. Right. They probably say, man, it sounds like I'm listening to NPR. That's what they probably say as far as the sound quality goes. So, Travis, what do you want to do for our outro song, man?

I got nothing for this one. You want to do, you want to do like a Joy Division song or something? Yeah, we could do that. Well, actually, you know what, though? I was just reading on that Rolling Stone article, I just quoted earlier. Apparently the Velvet Underground, well, no, dude, I'm not going to start on a Velvet Underground thing here. Because I know we're going to do a full-length episode on Velvet Underground at some point. This could be just a tease, dude.

All right. All right. So they, I mean, who wasn't influenced by the Velvet Underground, you know? Right. So apparently the doors and Velvet Underground were two big influences on Echo and the Bunnyman, which is weird because neither of those bands sound anything like Echo and the Bunnyman. Well, dude, it's funny that you should say that because Paul Banks has, and I'm going to have to paraphrase him because I don't have the quote in front of me. but he talks about how he was

he was into rap music and stuff when they when they formed Interpol like people are always shocked when he when asked about his influences because it's never what you'd expect so people can be

you know be into bands and influence by bands but but not incorporate that sound into their music you know yeah so like most people

my first introduction to the Velvet Underground was the Andy Warhol record it's got the banana on it and it features Nico in it she sings in quite a few of the songs in this one there's so many great songs on this album so this was this was one of theirs that came out in 1967 let's just play it out with their first track on that one it's called Sunday morning and I know we're going to cover this album in a full episode at some point we'll find we'll find time to squeeze them in somewhere but yeah so again our next full length episode is going to be on spoons kill the moonlight which came out in what

2003 2002 and okay and that album was our introduction to spoon um i want to say we saw saw them perform on like conan or probably it was probably conan it may have been they may have been linux No. It may have been a lot of rented. No, dude, around that time we were all about Conan. And I'm pretty sure that we saw them on there. It doesn't matter. But yeah, I think they played the way we get by or something.

And we dove into them from there. So, dude, I'm excited about that one, man. There's so many cool songs on that one. That album is when they started to experiment even more with the sound. I think that that's, I feel like Kill the Moonlight is like when spoon becomes like the spoon that, that we are still listening to today. As far as like, that's a good way to put it. You know what I mean? Like as far as how varied their, the songs were between tracks and it's like, you know.

Right. All right. So, here is track number one from Velvet Underground's 1967 release. the Andy Warhol record. This song is called Sunday Morning. And that's going to do it for us. We will see you all next week. And by C, I mean, you will hear us next week.

That's right. Bye-bye. It's the don't it. It's just a restless feeling. By my side. The donut. Sunday morning. It's just the wasted years so close.

Watch out the world's behind you There's always someone around you who will call it's nothing at all Sunday the longest streets you cross not so long There's always some