Episode 20 transcript

Note: this transcript is AI-generated, and as such, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.

Chad (00:01.294)
Greetings and welcome back to the Aural Mess podcast. I'm joined today by Alex Sciarra. Hey, Alex.

Alex Sciarra (00:07.049)
Hi Chad! Going well, I am very excited to be here, so thank you for having me.

Chad (00:08.782)
How's it going?

Chad (00:14.895)
Absolutely, I'm super excited to have you. We've been friends on Twitter for some time and I think, you know, we've had some great conversations there about music, specifically playlists and playing guitar and, you know, recording on four track recorders in our bedrooms when we were younger. So.

Alex Sciarra (00:32.041)
I still have your T -Rex cover on my Google Drive that you just sent me.

Chad (00:35.439)
Hahaha

I think you're the only one that actually downloaded that. It's funny, I found a bunch of other stuff. I mean, didn't find it. I knew I had it, but I sort of went back and listened to it again. Things I recorded myself and also a bunch of demos that I did for the various incarnations of the bands that I was in in the 90s. So at some point, I'm going to have to publish those. Maybe I'll throw them up on my Aural Mess sub stack, which nice free plug here. If you haven't subscribed to the Aural Mess sub stack, why haven't you? And you should go do it right now. All of you. Thank you.

Thank you. So what are we going to talk about today?

Alex Sciarra (01:12.681)
So in anticipation, I was so excited to join up and you know, you graciously let me set up for a guest host and I had a lot of kind of ideas. I was toying with, you know, I was gonna think about, you know, my personal teen years, which was the strokes, hot, hot heat I recently discovered again, which are great. I mean, okay, go with the very nascent.

YouTube phenomenon of viral videos and all around the treadmills. And then I said, you know what, let's start from scratch. Let's go back to when I really discovered music, which was a lot through my mom, because interestingly enough, I realized she was about my age when Jagged Little Pill came out and I was four. So, you know, your life, you're like, ah, my mom, this, my mom, that.

I was like, oh my gosh, she was me with the jagged little pill cassette, you know. Angsty would be the equivalent of a child discovering something on my rotation. But that was my first concert actually, Alanis Morissette at the Greek theater. I was 11. Yeah, so I, you know, it was an interesting trajectory. It was Alanis Morissette, R .E .M.

Chad (02:23.854)
Oh wow.

Oh cool.

Alex Sciarra (02:34.441)
And then middle school, I started getting into Nirvana like everyone. I did have the realization by the time I was 14 in high school, it was only 10 years that Kurt Cobain had passed away. What? I am that old? It seems like ages ago. Oh, were you there when Kurt Loder like came on the TV? Did you see it?

Chad (02:49.806)
Yeah, right. How do you think I feel?

Chad (03:00.046)
I remember the day very well and I spent the rest of the afternoon locked up in my bedroom playing Nirvana songs on my guitar at top volume because I just didn't know what else to do.

Alex Sciarra (03:10.761)
Absolutely. Yeah, I had the journals when they published them. Of course, even as a preteen, I was conflicted to read the journals or not. Is this is this capitalism? So I was a very interesting middle schooler. My teacher and an assistant at an arts class I was taking found out I liked the pixies. So she burned me every album. Do a little surfer Rosa.

Chad (03:19.278)
Sure.

Chad (03:36.398)
Oh nice.

Alex Sciarra (03:40.489)
Hopefully I could do that for a teen one day. And let's see here. So pixies. And then I was really attracted to violent fems for some reason.

Chad (03:50.961)
Oh God, yes. Oh, they're the best. That first album soundtracked a lot of my, I think, junior year in high school. It was just like always on in the car. You know, it was like one of those tapes that we just played over and over and over again. We all knew every word. We would shout all the parts and, you know.

Alex Sciarra (04:13.897)
I didn't have any albums. I was old enough to just have the compilation added up. So that was on my rotation. And I was listening to it again recently. And that was another thing I was thinking of coming to this podcast. What do I always come back to? What do I come back to? And it excites me, not in a way that was just added to my Spotify likes and trash. I liked it for a second and now it's permanently.

Chad (04:19.793)
okay

Alex Sciarra (04:40.329)
in my records. But what a great band just the audio and the heart and that thrashy kind of four track and Gordon's voice is just so great. And I really liked it. And then I did have a thought listening to it. I think it was Give Me the Car and

Chad (04:41.585)
Hahaha.

Chad (05:06.065)
Huh?

Alex Sciarra (05:08.393)
I was like, I would never let my teen daughter listen to this. This is way too horny. This is way too horny.

Chad (05:11.153)
hahahaha

Chad (05:17.393)
It is. And it's so funny because that album is punk as fuck and it's acoustic guitars. You know what I mean? Like there's not an electric guitar on, I don't think any of the, maybe later albums. I don't know. I think I sort of stopped listening to their newer stuff after like the third album came out. Maybe I'm not familiar with anything beyond that, but it was just like the fury of Gordon's lyrics and the singing and the playing and like they were just thrashing, you know? But yeah, totally, totally.

horny, almost all their songs really.

Alex Sciarra (05:52.105)
That was a later revelation, you know, when you have the self -awareness to actually listen to the lyrics of something recently I discovered. Violet Femmes are great. And then also a lot of REM I come back to. And I made the joke recently. REM is like the Smiths if the Smiths were American and good.

Chad (05:58.609)
Ha ha ha.

Chad (06:16.945)
I have to disagree with the if they were good part because I love the Smiths, but yeah, I can see the parallel. I can totally see it.

Alex Sciarra (06:27.593)
Yeah, I, you know, Georgia just kind of that art house and I was surprised to see that their TV debut actually on Letterman was 1983 because they seem to be such a 90s staple to me. So.

Chad (06:39.281)
Yeah.

Chad (06:43.763)
I think that's when they really hit the radio more, right? They got out of the college rock shackles, if you will, and they hit a little bit of mainstream success. I think I really became aware of REM.

Probably in 87, I think their first big radio hit was the one I love off of Document, right? And then I think from there, they just sort of blew up and started to get a little more popular, you know, in the mainstream. So I think, yeah, by the time that the 90s rolled around, they were like, you know, on the radio a lot. And on MTV and everything else.

Alex Sciarra (07:15.881)
And you said college rock, which is really funny. Someone tweeted, I think you saw it recently, how she said, oh my gosh, just discovered Hole was this band and not some random indie. I was like, oh, and I went off and that was an important distinction before, I guess, 2004, that sort of music was college radio music.

Chad (07:42.803)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (07:43.273)
It wasn't indie, it was college radio. So I forgot about that.

Chad (07:45.875)
Oh yeah.

I had a radio show my freshman year of college and I remember playing the Pixies and the Sugar Cubes and who else? This is 89, so I think I played REM I'm sure, you know, was there. And it's funny because a lot of these bands weren't getting airplay, you know, you can only hear them on the college stations or, you know, if somebody burns you a CD or, you know, whatever.

Alex Sciarra (08:11.432)
Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I'm not sure the state of college radio. I know Cal State Long Beach, we had K -Beach, which was thankfully appropriated to K -Jazz, which I love, and America's jazz and blues station. But they had a program, I think it was streaming by that point, 2009.

not tuned into the radio dial, which is very unfortunate because I recently got just a cube little alarm radio station because I was so upset of waking up to the iPhone alert and I said, oh my gosh, what a treat. I think you're not sick of your alarm because it wakes you up with a different kind of sound and

Chad (08:52.053)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (09:02.697)
You know, and we had Arrow 93 -1 when I was in middle school and one time David Lee Roth came on right as I woke up and that was terrifying. It's like, shoot my banana! I'll be Joe Benson! I was like, I'll never forget it, I think Arrow. So that was a surprise and there's something just so nice. I know we're going to get into our discussion about the access we have to music.

Chad (09:14.357)
Hahaha!

Alex Sciarra (09:30.153)
It's not a decision you put on the genre of music you want to listen to and you have that subset.

Chad (09:38.101)
Yeah, oh, I agree. And same with me. Like I barely listen to the radio anymore. But every once in a while I'll throw on there's a station here called WFUV and there's a DJ in the mornings, Corny O 'Connell, and he plays this great mix of stuff, a little bit of everything. So I try to tune in, you know, once in a blue moon when I'm in the car in the mornings and I just don't feel like listening to Spotify or, you know, whatever. I'll just turn that on and just bask in the randomness, right? Because, you know, I'm a passenger. I'm not driving the

the musical experience, I'm letting somebody share stuff and you know sometimes I hear things that I know and I love, sometimes I hear things that I'm like, eh, other times I hear things that I'm not familiar with, you know, and that's the beauty of it.

Alex Sciarra (10:19.881)
really great. In LA, I'm not sure if it's like that where you are, everything has been kind of taken over by audacity, which is the... and I think the closest in LA we have to a radio station that used to operate is KLOS.

Chad (10:27.989)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (10:38.921)
that feels like the most hands -off lunch hour with the typical hardware store mid -afternoon songs you'd hear. So I have it on my headphones at work and I'm like, yeah, I'm totally browsing an antique store listening to this. So it's still flavors in their DJs, which K -Rock, rest in peace K -Rock, and a lot of stuff doesn't have anymore, unfortunately.

Chad (10:47.861)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Chad (11:01.525)
Yeah.

Chad (11:05.781)
I feel like that mid afternoon hardware store mix has to have some Steely Dan in there somewhere. Even now in 2024 with how amazing we all know Steely Dan is, they're relegated to, you know, soft rock radio. It's pretty funny.

Alex Sciarra (11:12.105)
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh my god.

Alex Sciarra (11:23.497)
Yeah, for me Steely Dan is an afternoon after going to Costco, you unwind with some wine. You're a yoga pants mom and you turn that on with a live love wine wooden sun. I'm sorry, I know you love Steely Dan so much and I do too.

Chad (11:41.589)
Oh god.

Chad (11:50.101)
And yeah, it's a shame, but I can totally see it. So who are some other 90s bands that you got into before the advent of streaming and this music availability? What other bands did you come across because somebody made you a tape or burned you a CD probably and that sort of thing?

Alex Sciarra (12:07.753)
Mm -hmm. It was a lot of, I would say at, my music shifted right after middle school, Pixies and Ravana, and then into high school, I spent one year at a convent, Ramona Convent, which was actually a secondary school. It wasn't really a convent by that time. And I had a really great friend introduce me to pulp and Radiohead. So that's where it skewed into that Britpop.

Chad (12:25.011)
Oh well.

Chad (12:33.779)
Nice.

Alex Sciarra (12:37.577)
And at one point I tweeted, you know, I forget how much I really love Radiohead and someone sub tweeted said we can tell. I've never been clocked so hard. So that was kind of it before it kind of transformed into the rest of my high school with Indie Sleaze. So a lot of the strokes, I'm forgetting what else I don't want to repeat hot, hot heat. Trying to think what else I was really into.

Chad (12:45.651)
hahahaha

Chad (13:08.787)
Oh, what's the Franz Ferdinand, like that whole second wave of rock stuff that came back around that same time?

Alex Sciarra (13:12.297)
Oh.

Alex Sciarra (13:17.353)
Yeah, I was never really a fan of Franz Ferdinand. Same with Modest Mouse. I know they have a more cult following. But, you know, I carried on with that kind of music through my middle school. I saw the Pixies two times live and that was really great. And let's see what else. But yeah, I feel like.

I have like this black hole of my high school, unfortunately for music. I was trying to go through my Spotify likes, you know, since Spotify came out like 2011 to see what was at the very beginning. And I was like, Oh God, please don't be Chris Brown. Please don't be Chris Brown. And it was LaTigra. And I was like, yes, LaTigra and Sandigold. I was so excited. I was like, okay, cool. I was not.

Chad (13:57.363)
hahahaha

Hahaha!

Chad (14:09.523)
or vindicated. Latigra was Kathleen Hanna, right? Was that one? Okay, I was making sure I had the right band. Yeah, I'm not super familiar with them. I know of them and I knew she was involved in that. So love her.

Alex Sciarra (14:10.761)
Mm -hmm, and then also...

Alex Sciarra (14:16.777)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (14:21.577)
Yeah, that was after Bikini Kill and I think maybe 2000s they came back. And I saw them last year at the Greek. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. And then let's see here. I was blanking out. That just did a brain transfer to Beastie Boys. Yeah, I love that she says that. You know, I am feminism and I am married to a man.

Chad (14:31.507)
Oh wow.

Chad (14:41.619)
Of course.

Alex Sciarra (14:51.465)
who sang girls. She says that very lovingly, but I think it was in that documentary, The Punk Singer, and I just really loved that. So what else? And then yeah, I've just kind of transformed from there. Lots of nirvana still, but it's evolving. And now I'm very sad because I'm in this sea of what do I like with the advent of Spotify?

Chad (15:18.995)
So what have you been listening to lately? Like what sort of stuff has caught your ear?

Alex Sciarra (15:22.889)
So recently, since I got back from London, it's been a lot of ELO, which is really funny. And I had made the joke that, you know, oh, you know, I'm UK's number one ELO fan. And I downloaded this app, which streams all of the UK radio station. And there's Virgin Radio Anthems. It's so much ELO. Like it's our version of trying to think like...

Chad (15:29.075)
Nice.

Chad (15:47.315)
hahahaha

Alex Sciarra (15:53.257)
You know, I'm forgetting, but it's just so much. And also, so I've been going back there and I have a really great fascination with obscure Spotify playlists that are kind of bit Spotify playlists. So there's a great one. It's white people grocery store music.

Chad (16:06.547)
Yeah.

Chad (16:10.515)
Yes.

Chad (16:15.635)
Ha ha ha ha!

Alex Sciarra (16:18.665)
And there's so many good ones, but you have to like my joy is finding them in the wild. You can't search them. And then the last one I found was you angsty, sexy, manipulative sluts sold out all of the Smith's finals.

Chad (16:34.323)
Ha ha.

Chad (16:38.579)
You need to send me that one so I can link it in the show notes. That's amazing.

Alex Sciarra (16:42.121)
Oh, absolutely. I am all for it. And then we collaboratively made one on Twitter one time. I said, okay, you're you're getting pulled over from for speeding what what's playing. Yes, you did. Yeah. It's like a prompt. And so that was great. Also a lot of love. Sorry, I'm jumping around for Foo Fighters growing up.

Chad (16:52.723)
I sent you songs for that one. I remember that whole thing. Yeah.

Chad (17:05.107)
Yeah, okay.

Alex Sciarra (17:05.417)
I love them. I had the one I'm forgetting the album. It was a paper cover. It was cardboard and it had the back shot of the neck with the Foo Fighters tattoo on the back. And what was great about that is it came with a temporary tattoo of the F. Yeah. And then also CDs used to have you put it in your CD -ROM player and it would have like two music videos.

Chad (17:21.779)
But did you put it on your neck? That's the question.

Chad (17:34.675)
And they were like this big and all blocky.

Alex Sciarra (17:36.073)
Yes, yeah, exactly like in the media player. Like, all right. But now you can go on, you know, I would wait for VH1 or MTV to replay a music video that I wanted to see and you'd sit and wait and get excited about it. And now I could listen to, you know, Hole whenever I want. Oh, Hole is another big one.

Chad (18:01.747)
Yeah, hole's great.

Alex Sciarra (18:04.201)
Yeah, she gets a lot of flack, but you know, I love Courtney.

Chad (18:07.379)
You know, I was not on the Courtney train years ago, but I feel like a lot of the flack that she's gotten is really undeserved and and you know hearing her story now sort of looking at it from a different perspective I feel like you know, she's she's a badass. I mean, there's no other way to describe her Have you listened to the thing she did for the I think it was the BBC?

Alex Sciarra (18:24.233)
Mm -hmm.

Alex Sciarra (18:28.489)
No!

Chad (18:29.907)
Yeah, she did a series of episodes, like a, almost like a serial podcast kind of thing. Um, I think where she's just talking about music and I'm not sure if it's focused on albums or artists. I'm not sure, but I just randomly offhandedly saw it on Twitter. Um, and somebody said that you should, you know, everybody should listen to this and I need to go find it and do it because I want to hear the stories.

Alex Sciarra (18:51.881)
Oh, absolutely. It's, you know, I think also the music scene. I mean, I don't know. I wasn't old enough. Didn't know what to do with such a, you know, like this is a woman who is so out there. I think I watched montage of heck recently and they met. She was like, oh, you're a short little guy. Kick your ass. And they wrestled. And then from there, Kurt and Courtney were a thing. They're like obsessed with each other.

Chad (19:21.043)
They were like my generation's Sid and Nancy, you know? Yeah, I mean, I really feel like that. Did you ever see the clip of her just like giving Madonna shit at the MTV Music Awards or what? Oh, that's...

Alex Sciarra (19:34.153)
That was a big one being replayed on VH1 where she's throwing her makeup bat - makeup shit.

Chad (19:42.483)
That video just lives rent -free in my head. Like she's just wasted and falling all over herself. It's hilarious.

Alex Sciarra (19:50.921)
it's oh my gosh yeah i was Courtney Love in for Halloween in high school at the convent and one of my teachers said are you Ann Nicole Smith?

Chad (19:59.187)
Ha ha!

Chad (20:02.931)
Ha ha!

Yeah, let's go with that, sure.

Alex Sciarra (20:07.849)
I got like the vintage polka dot baby doll like this weird lipstick the wig. Oh my gosh, but yeah, so Also, so speaking of punk and Sid and Nancy and that kind of era I began watching decline of what the decline of Western civilization part one and It was just so

Chad (20:30.387)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (20:34.505)
great because it was shot on film so it had that gorgeous glow to it seeing all the eyeliner and you know Penelope Spheres and correct me if I'm wrong I want to say she she did what she went on to do Wayne's World right

Chad (20:50.77)
Yeah, I think so.

Alex Sciarra (20:51.817)
Which is so funny because she checked out the scene. I didn't see part two quite yet. And then she did this mainstream goof parody on music, which is, I love it. She went to Cal State Long Beach, so I just love her enough. And then I did write down a quote from that movie that I think could maybe be a segue. Let me pull it up if you don't mind.

Chad (21:08.019)
There you go.

Chad (21:19.283)
Sure.

Alex Sciarra (21:20.201)
So it's Claude Bessie, and he was the lead singer of Catholic Discipline. What a great name. They all had these great fucking names in the late 60s. And this kind of came up for me. He said, I have excellent news for the world.

Chad (21:26.803)
Oh god, yeah.

Alex Sciarra (21:37.545)
There's no such thing as New Wave. It does not exist. It's a figment of lame kind's imagination. There is never any such thing as New Wave. It was the polite thing to say when you're trying to explain you are not into boring old rock and roll.

But you didn't dare to say punk because you were afraid to get kicked out of the fucking party and they wouldn't give you coke anymore. There's new music, there's new underground sound, there's noise, there's punk, there's power pump, there's Scott, there's rockabilly, but new wave doesn't mean shit.

Chad (21:56.467)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Chad (22:07.955)
Hahaha!

Did you ever hear the story of the Dead Kennedys winning Best New Wave Band? I don't know what year it was, but it was like the Bay Area Music Awards and um...

It's the funniest thing because they showed up to play the you know to accept the award and they were asked to play so they got up and they did this sort of piss -take on on the industry and They launched into California Uber Alice and they stopped like, you know ten bars in and jello B. Offer says Wait, stop stop stop. He goes. We're not a punk band. We're a new wave band

And he says, we have to prove we're adults now. And they launch into this song called Pull My Strings. And it's just this takedown of the record companies and stuff. And it's just hilarious. And the funny thing is they all came out with t -shirts on. I don't think there's video of this that exists. I wish there was. They all had t -shirts on with the letter S on them. And when they launched into the second song, like the parody song, they all turned their neckties around.

so it went down over the estimated dollar sign. Oh, it was brilliant. Just.

Alex Sciarra (23:17.961)
Oh wow. You don't see that anymore in performances with the time delay and all that stuff.

Chad (23:29.459)
Yeah, they probably would have gotten kicked off for sure. But there is audio, you know, it's on, I think that song ended up being released on one of their compilation albums or something. I'll link it, but yeah. But yeah, exactly, there was no new wave and like, there's nothing new in music. You know, I feel like from rock and roll to punk to new wave and beyond, like, has anything really changed, you know, or is it just the same sort of ethos?

Alex Sciarra (23:56.649)
Exactly. And that's what kind of drives me crazy about the Instagramification of music because I follow a lot of new wave accounts. You know, new wave this, new wave that, that, and every single thing under the sun they consider new wave. Of course, we'll do blondie, Depeche Mode, but is the cure new wave? I guess so?

Chad (24:23.315)
Yeah...

Alex Sciarra (24:23.529)
Maybe like everything in the 80s to these kids new wave you're like, okay, here's for fears. Yeah, but it's just this amalgam of, I guess, you know, my friend described it, you know, everything in the past is melded together for your generation. But yeah, sorry, I let's go back to what you're saying.

Chad (24:28.339)
Right.

Chad (24:47.859)
Oh, no, no, no, no, you, you, you took it absolutely in the right direction. And yeah, everything, you know, I think everything after like you had this huge punk explosion in 77, right? By the time 78, 79 came around, it was over. It was almost like a flash in the pan. I mean, you know, there were other movements and there was like the eighties, so Cal hardcore stuff in the early eighties. And there was a whole skate rock and thrash and all that stuff that sort of evolved, you know, into the mental eighties. But like the, the original punk bands were all sort of, you know,

washed up if you will, right before 1980. So you had bands like The Knack come out with my Sharona. You had The Cars who were considered New Wave, right? Even though to me they're more like a classic rock band, I mean, I guess because of the synthesizers and stuff. So it's just, I think people played fast and loose and they still do, like you said, with that definition.

Alex Sciarra (25:24.649)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (25:40.521)
and I, you know, of course going into teen.

Yours as well. Of course some 41 was great and they have that music video with one of the guys from mad TV and They come into the room. It's the beginning of the music video. They come in the room. He's like that's over No, he's like the numbers thing is over some 41 blink 182 and he starts knocking shit over he's like the strokes the hives your thoughts sums and then they go on to perform as the subs I was like, okay, they they know they have some self -awareness and

Chad (26:04.883)
Ha ha ha ha!

Alex Sciarra (26:15.147)
Of course that was the same era of Stacey's mom and I know we've talked about that band before a little bit. They have great stuff. They really do have great stuff so it's not fair that they're just that kind of one hit thing of the 2000s.

Chad (26:22.515)
Yeah.

Chad (26:32.499)
Yeah, I, you know, Green Day for me kind of started that whole, you know, pop punk, if you will, explosion, I guess. And yeah, there's some 41 and Blinkwinnity too. I don't know. I think I was, I was in a weird.

spot in my musical taste at that point because I never really got into any of those bands. I like Green Day's first album. And then after that, it just to me got really repetitive. And, you know, I didn't I didn't think they were doing it justice, you know, so I sort of just didn't really get into anything they did after that. But yeah. And then fast forward to like the late 90s into the 2000s.

everything since then I've sort of largely ignored up until recently. And I said this on previous episodes, but I think it's because as my daughter gets older, she's 18, you know, she's graduating high school this year. And she has gotten me into music and I've tried to stay hip. You know.

Alex Sciarra (27:33.993)
Oh yeah, I'd love to hear what she's listening to. What has she shown you? That's really interesting.

Chad (27:40.403)
Well...

The funny thing is, um, she listens to a lot of 90s stuff. Um, and you know, I've probably influenced her a little bit here and there, but I feel like she's discovered a lot of things on her own through Spotify, through movies and TV shows and YouTube stuff. Um, so like we're in the car one day and she puts on her playlist and it's like radio head hole, the pixies, um, pavement. And I'm like, looking at her and I'm like, did we just tie more back into the nineties?

like what the hell is all this, you know, and she's like, what are you talking about? I love this music. And I'm like, I know, but you know, I'm just very happy that you're, that you're so into all this stuff. But I guess on her side of things, um, I don't know, she kind of changes, um, you know, who her favorites are. Um, like every teenager does and even like I do at 52, but, um, some of the artists that she's gotten me into that I really like are, um, I like some songs by Mitski. Um, I can't believe I'm saying this out loud on my podcast.

again, but but but Beba Doobie. I love Beba Doobie. I feel like she's really talented and just, you know, her music is not like anything else that I've heard recently. There's an artist named Lizzie McAlpine. Only familiar with the one song, but I played that song I don't know how many times over and over again after the first time I heard it or the first time Isabella played it for me because I was obsessed with it. Songs called Doomsday and it's just this fantastic song, like well written production on it's incredible.

Alex Sciarra (28:41.193)
Mm -hmm.

Chad (29:11.059)
Lyrics are great, like just, you know, gives me hope that there's this new generation of young songwriters, you know, bringing craft back to the fore instead of just, you know, kids sitting in their bedrooms making mumble rap songs, you know.

Alex Sciarra (29:27.753)
the SoundCloud rappers of yore. Oh my mumble ruffles.

Oh my gosh, how funny. Yeah, there was that weird hip hop in my high school. It was like, teach me how to dougie. And I never really liked it until I came back to it. I was like, this is great. Like, actually. But yeah, what a trip. So I'm proud of her. You should be proud of her as well. That's it.

Chad (29:55.121)
I'm super proud of her because her music taste is impeccable. Like, you know, I don't think there's anything that she's ever put on or I've overheard her playing where I'm like, ew, what are you listening to that for? Like everything she listens to, I'm like, I love that song. You know, that came out when I was your age or, you know, the other thing is like, oh, I love that song. Who is that? She's like, oh, it's this new band, you know, whatever. So, um, yeah, can't, can't complain whatsoever. Um, makes driving in the car together nice too, because we're not fighting over who has the aux.

Alex Sciarra (30:23.945)
Homer Simpson. Yeah, when you're driving you can listen to you. You want to. Was it I die laughing that she puts on like St. Elmo's fire. Anyway, sorry, I'm not gonna go down since it's rather cool. Speaking of that, you know, parent, the generational thing. I'm sort of an outlier on my mom's side of the family. So my mom and uncle were disco, disco, disco, disco, disco, and.

Chad (30:25.075)
Hahaha

Chad (30:38.129)
Hahaha.

Chad (30:50.225)
Okay.

Alex Sciarra (30:53.705)
you know, I was putting on Decline a Western Civilization and of course it's loud as noise and I was like, what the f - like that is so weird. Like she doesn't even have the - it's weird. It is weird. And I think I, you know, even though I didn't really spend much time with my dad or know him, I've kind of, you know, internalized that kind of punk weird experimental.

side so that's that's really nice so i'm an outlier here so it's not hey cool you're listening to the stooges it's what is that guy doing on stage why is he bloody what does he know to himself but it's it's really interesting but you know of course my my friends and i have have have shared that my friend recently turned me on to cheek face

Chad (31:26.481)
hahahahah

Alex Sciarra (31:46.28)
and she sold them sort of an interpretation of cake. So it's very talk heavy little melodies and we're seeing them later in the month in May. That'll be really fun. But yeah, it's also screaming females were great. I put that on the playlist a little bit and I saw them live too and it was just that kind of heart of punk and Marissa.

Chad (31:46.513)
familiar.

Chad (31:57.777)
Oh cool.

Alex Sciarra (32:14.889)
I don't want to butcher her last name, but Marissa the lead singer was named as best guitarist by Rolling Stones and they just split up unfortunately in December, but just to be right in front with someone like shredding the guitar on a guitar solo is just so...

so nice and bring back guitar solos. I know that's not in our line of grunge, but man what happened to guitar solos. That was a fleeting moment.

Chad (32:35.857)
hahahaha

Chad (32:45.521)
Yeah, it was. I mean, it kind of died with I think the end of grunge, right? So that was sort of the the death of guitars, although then it came back again. Maybe not so much with like the strokes and that generation. I think they were just more riff driven, not so much guitar solo stuff. But yeah, bring it back. I'm all about a good guitar solo. What are some of your favorite guitar solos?

Alex Sciarra (33:09.577)
Um, let's see. What is the name of the song? I don't want to hum the guitar solo. Oh, Killer Queen! Killer Queen, hands down!

Chad (33:17.105)
Yes.

Alex Sciarra (33:20.137)
Killer Queen. And you know, I got my acoustic guitar repaired. Finally, the strings were just busted for mis - you know, non -use. And I went to guitar center and I actually tried restraining it myself first with some strings I had in the pack. And I went up to the guy and I was like, you know, I think I used the wrong strings. And he was like, no.

Chad (33:21.617)
Wow, okay.

Alex Sciarra (33:42.505)
And I did it and I was like, fuck you. So I tried learning that. I did try learning Start Me Up, which was really funny on an acoustic classical guitar without a pickguard, which is just so funny because when I started acoustic, it was, you know, smells like teen spirit.

Chad (33:45.233)
Ha ha.

Chad (33:53.713)
Hahaha

Alex Sciarra (34:05.961)
you know, a wave of mutilation and now I'm like no no no like we're gonna we're gonna try to learn Killer Queen. So that was fun. I did see Queen live with Adam Lambert last year, I remember. Really great. I was skeptical at first because you know.

Chad (34:16.849)
Oh, how was that?

Alex Sciarra (34:23.369)
skeptical, but it was my first stadium rock show and I didn't realize how hard it would be to get in and out of. You know it's not the Hollywood Bowl which is already hard to get in and out of here in LA, but...

Chad (34:39.857)
Yeah, I haven't been to a stadium show in a long time. The last one, 2018 I think was my last one over the summer. I went and saw Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden in New York. That was great.

Alex Sciarra (34:52.393)
That's gotta be fun.

Chad (34:53.905)
That was a fantastic show. He's he is still an amazing performer. And I don't know if you saw he just did his 100th residency show and they had a whole like recorded telecast of it or whatever. So they played it on I think it was like ABC or something. I think you could stream it. I'm not sure where the streaming of it is, but it was great. You know, I mean, he's just he's got this fantastic band. I think half of them have been with him for years and years. I don't think it's any of the original guys.

Um, but you know, it's, it's, it's the ones that sort of came into his band, I think right around the time where he kind of stopped recording like his last album or two, maybe. Um, but anyway, it's great show. You know, I'm as, as very happy. Um, and I'm not a big live music person. Um, I've said this a bunch of times on, on other podcast episodes, but, um, I'm so focused on how a song sounds and how parts are recorded, like on a studio version, like a recorded version that for me, a lot of times a live version is the

doesn't hold up, it doesn't sound as good or you know, let's face it, there's some singers who are not great singers, you know, they're great in the studio when they've got, you know, all the time in the world to do retakes and you know, right, but you get that one chance to hit that high note live and if you miss it, it's like, ooh, you know, so it's always been a thing for me, but I think as I'm getting older, I'm starting to appreciate it more just because it's about the experience, it's not so much about the music being note perfect to the record, you know, or at least not anymore.

to be that way for me.

Alex Sciarra (36:25.449)
Yeah, I'm big. I am big on going to see the concerts, especially recently since, you know, you're an adult and you're like, wait, I could buy tickets to a concert. I don't have to, you know, go stand in line at Amoeba and beg mom for 20 bucks. And that was another interesting point my friend made. She said, now that...

Chad (36:35.505)
Hahaha

Alex Sciarra (36:48.041)
fees and everything have gotten so expensive, it's these nostalgia tours because now we can afford to go to the shows. So it's like, wow, like I could actually see Blink -182, you know, and the day teens were going to concerts all the time because it was like $5 and there's three, there's like Sabbath and the Who on the same bill or something while like, well, not anymore.

Chad (37:12.945)
A friend of mine just went on an 80s cruise, so it's like a...

all inclusive cruise ship thing and it's all bands and artists from the 80s all performing. So you get to see like 10 or 15 different bands which I thought was amazing. It was like Soft Cell, I think Berlin, like maybe not Berlin but like you know like bands in that vein like just typical 80s you know. So I thought that was kind of funny and same thing like you know years ago like who's gonna spend that much money right but now it's like

Well shit, we're adults, we can afford to go on a cruise, so why not? You know, and we get to see all these cool musicians, so.

Alex Sciarra (37:55.657)
That's really wild. I could not imagine. And I did see a job listing for that one time because I'm in the travel industry and I think someone reached out to me on LinkedIn. They're like, well, we don't really have anything local to you, but if you want to do like music cruises and I was like, maybe not. Like you have to drive down a Costa Mesa. And I was like, but yeah, that would be fun. That would be fun. If the genre, if the right genre crosses my table, I might consider going on a music cruise.

Chad (38:01.137)
Really?

Chad (38:11.921)
Ha ha ha ha.

Chad (38:25.009)
Well, I think if you wait 10 years, all the 90s bands will be on the cruises, you know.

Alex Sciarra (38:30.569)
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Yeah, the closest, I guess, 10 gentle to a cruise. I saw No Doubt in 2010 at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. And that was a lot of fun. And we saw the guy with the dreads walk by in the casino. So I can only imagine being on a cruise ship with just people hanging out. And I mean, gosh, Blink 182.

Chad (38:44.177)
Oh cool.

Alex Sciarra (39:00.169)
I'm calling it Blink 182 Cruises is nigh. Is nigh. In the Port of San Diego.

Chad (39:03.377)
That's it. That's it. It's coming. Coming soon to a cruise ship near you.

Alex Sciarra (39:13.513)
For sure, oh my gosh, yeah, I don't think they'll get green day It'll be like blink Paramore It will be yeah, oh boy, I love them actually They don't deserve to be on their cruise they're headlining and then let's see paramour panic at the disco

Chad (39:24.721)
bowling for soup.

Chad (39:39.217)
Yes.

Alex Sciarra (39:42.569)
But I guess the newest band that I've really liked is Monoskin. I saw them too, recently.

Chad (39:49.169)
Oh yeah, I've heard of them, but I'm not familiar with music. I'll have to check them out too.

Alex Sciarra (39:53.225)
Yeah, that's really, really good. I recommend.

Chad (39:57.585)
Nice. So talking about discovery, maybe a good segue into the other thing that we wanted to talk about today is, so people don't burn CDs anymore. In my day, it was mixed tapes really was the big thing. And then, you know, got into mixed CDs obviously later in the nineties when that was a thing, but Spotify and iTunes and all the streaming services. What are your thoughts?

Alex Sciarra (40:24.425)
Well, I recently remembered one of my uncles on my dad's side, he said, remember when iTunes had a feature where it was all the radio stations in the world? Do you remember that? That was great. I just miss the limit of things to listen to because like I said in the first part,

Chad (40:36.657)
Yes, I do.

Alex Sciarra (40:49.673)
you forget what you like. You'll have an earworm and be like, okay, I'm really into Depeche Mode and now it's going to play Depeche Mode and then you're like, okay, I'm sick of it. And then it's going to move on to the next thing. But my liked songs are just a hodgepodge and you shuffle likes and these songs, you know, it's so easy to click, you know, it's so easy to click on the button and like it and not go out and buy the track.

And so it kind of dilutes what you have in your reservoir. That's very unfortunate. Very unfortunate.

Chad (41:20.849)
Yeah.

Chad (41:25.489)
No, I agree. And I can make the argument either way. I think, and I was, we were talking about this right before we started recording, but you know, half of me is like when Spotify came out and I mean, not came out, cause I didn't really get into it until I think 2017 was the first year that I dove in and paid for premium. I was like, this is great. I can listen to any song ever, anytime I want. And now open Spotify and I'm like, ah, this sucks. I can listen to any song ever recorded anytime I want.

What am I supposed to listen to today? Like there are days when I literally will open Spotify and just close it two minutes later because I'm like, I just don't know what to pick. It's overwhelming sometimes. And, you know, I have playlists and, you know, I have the whole like song things and I think I have like, I don't know, close to 6 ,000 songs and my likes. But.

Yeah, I'll hit shuffle on that and song comes on and I'm like, eh, skip. Another song comes on. I'm like, oh, I haven't heard this song in a while. And I let it play for like 30 seconds. And I'm kind of like, oh, let's see what else is on, on, on the shuffle today. And then I hit next, right? Skip that. It's rare. I have to make myself listen to a whole song, let alone a whole album. Like it's, it's, you know, and you know, first world problems. Right. But at the same time, um,

I agree with what you're saying. Like it dilutes the experience because at least when I was a kid and you know, I'm sure same with you, you had to buy music, you know, even, even if you had somebody that was providing you with, you know, CDs and tapes and things like that, like you would still go out and buy a CD of an album that you loved or a band that you love when I knew it release came out. Um, and for me, it was like, you know, especially being a kid, like I had to save up my allowance money to go buy an album. Right. Um, you know, I had to make sure that I paid all my bills.

when I was in my early twenties before I went out and bought the new Radiohead CD to make sure I had enough money to eat for the week. Right? So it was like you, you really had to be careful and kind of pick and choose what, what you spent money on. And it was super disappointing if you spent, you know, I forgot what they even used to cost 13, $14 and you would get home. And if there was like, you know, maybe two good songs on it and the rest of the album was terrible, you felt really cheated, you know? But now, um, what's an album, you know, I mean, like who puts out albums anymore? And.

Chad (43:51.635)
and who actually puts thought into making a collection of songs that are sequenced a certain way and, you know, is meant to tell a story. I mean, some artists do, but for the most part, it's just singles, right? It's just like there's a song, you put a song out.

Alex Sciarra (44:07.785)
And that was an interesting point because I was thinking of that in preparation because of our discussion of Spotify and just random songs. I would say the albums in my life that I've listened to, No Skips, were Kanye's West, College Dropout, through Life of Pablo. All of those albums I know I can put on and listen to the whole thing, No Skips.

And how rare is that? You know, I mean, you know, say what you want, you know, he, you know, whatever. But I mean, those first few albums and I have the emotional ties like when my dark twisted fantasy came out, my mom and I went to Spain. And so every time I put it on, I'm like, I'm right back there in Spain listening to it on my Android phone. And those are the only albums. Do you have any No Skips albums currently in rotation?

Chad (44:34.417)
It is.

Chad (44:59.729)
Um, Radiohead's OK Computer is a no skip for me. Smashing Pumpkin, Siamese Dream is a no skip for me. I'm just pulling like favorite albums out of my head right now. Every Steely Dan album, except for the two reunion albums is a no skip for me. Marvelous Three's first album.

second album sorry I always call it their first album it was the first one that was like major label and had radio hits the first one was kind of like indie and nobody has ever heard it except me I think but that's a no skip it's called Hey Album I don't know

Great, great record if you've never heard it. Yeah. Um, but there are other artists that, you know, I'm only familiar with five or six songs and that's okay because I don't want to listen to the rest because, you know, I've tried to listen to other stuff that they've put out or albums and things and couldn't get into it. So I think, you know, I can argue on, on both sides of that, but, um, just, you know, and there's a good part of that too, because, um,

The one thing about Spotify that I like is if you're listening to an album or a playlist or whatever if you have the setting turned on It'll just shuffle up something, you know using the algorithm that it thinks you're gonna like which you know nine times out of ten It's something that you already heard because you know, it repeats the same ten songs usually but once in a while it throws out a gem, you know, and it's something that is Directly related to something that I like it's in the same genre or it sounds something similar to another artist that I really like and Every once in a while one of those songs comes out. I'm like, what's that?

this, you know, and I'll give it a listen and then more often than not I'll throw it in my one of my playlists.

Alex Sciarra (46:40.425)
Yeah, it's kind of... Yeah, Spotify is great and then Discover Weekly, that's what I was gonna say. That's a great one that I have also discovered some gems, but I'm trying really hard to train the DJ function to be good for me, but it just won't. Every time it's like, hey, this is X, we're gonna throw it back to the worst song you've ever heard, here's Chris Brown.

Chad (46:47.505)
Yes.

Chad (46:58.129)
Hahaha

Chad (47:04.849)
Ha ha ha ha!

Alex Sciarra (47:06.953)
Like I listened to that once in 2007 and Chris Brown is still haunting me? Like what? That's terrible. That's a fate worse than god knows what. But yeah, it's mixed. But yeah, I think being more intentional with my Spotify listening has really helped instead of waking up first thing in the morning and you know.

Chad (47:15.249)
Ha ha.

Alex Sciarra (47:28.361)
turning it on mindlessly to just wait and be like, no, I'm going to listen to, you know, Jagged Little Pill. I'm going to put on Zappa, which is always great.

Chad (47:43.217)
What sorts of considerations, besides funny playlists like the getting pulled over for speeding one, do you make other playlists for yourself and how do you craft those? Is it genre? Is it just a collection of different things that you're into at the moment?

Alex Sciarra (47:49.097)
Hmm.

Alex Sciarra (47:59.785)
Yeah, that's a great question. I was going through my playlist also in anticipation and a lot of them are sketches for different aspects of my life than listening. It would be, you know, I'll hear songs like, man, that would be a great track for a teen movie, like a script that I want to write, you know?

like just like fast, like irreverent, this would be great. So I have those kind of playlists. I have them working out was a big one before I started doing more structured workouts, sort of periphery to listening pleasure, I'd say. So not many, many ones. I am lucky I've gotten.

quite a handful of mixed CDs. I mean, that's a language of love, right, from my friends and, you know, who went into it and, you know, made the effort. One of my friends from Ramona made me a great French pop, 60s pop one, because I mean, Tarantino, you know, was really big with that new one, Death Proof and all that kind of fun stuff. But soundtracks are really big for me, too. I feel like that's a...

parallel to a playlist because it's curated in a certain mood, so I will listen to a lot of soundtracks as well. But as far as making playlists, I was proud of the one I made for this podcast because that was really... Thank you. That was probably the one I put the most effort into.

Chad (49:24.273)
Yeah, it's great by the way. I meant to tell you that. It's fantastic.

Alex Sciarra (49:34.121)
ever. Not like ever. I didn't spend sleepless nights, but I mean, it's like, okay, no, Violent Femmes comes after Pixie. It was fun. So now I'm inspired to make more mood sort of playlists because it could be really fun, especially in the digital age.

Chad (49:50.449)
Oh good, that's great. I'm happy to be the catalyst for that sort of indirectly. That was a big thing for me.

a long time ago making mixtapes, I used to obsess over A, what songs went on a mixtape I was making somebody, B, the sequencing of those songs, which sometimes had more to do with getting as much onto the side of a cassette as you could without leaving a whole lot of blank space. So I was then there, they had a little notebook and I would sit and look at like song lengths and I would add them all up and be like, okay, well, if I just cut two minutes here, then I can fit this song on instead. And I'll put

the other song on side B and that's not really a side opener. So I'll throw that in the middle. I would just sit and juggle songs before I ever hit record. I would pretty much have it all mapped out. The sequencing and the songs that were chosen depended a lot on what the purpose of the mixtape was. Is it for a girlfriend? Is it for somebody who I'm interested in to let her know I'm interested in her? Is it just for a friend? Music discovery kind of thing. Like, hey, here's 20 songs that you should really like.

listen to that I know you don't have already. A lot of times it was for family. My sister and I used to trade music all the time. So, you know, I would make her mix tapes of all the stuff that I was into. Funnily enough, my mom...

I used to make her cassettes to listen to in the car because she would hear things I was playing and be like, oh, I like that song, you know, whatever it might've been. So I would just, you know, make her collections of stuff for her to, you know, discover modern music, if you will.

Alex Sciarra (51:29.193)
That's really nice. And it's kind of, yeah, narrative, like you said. I mean, it's the time stamp, which is also the sentencing and the long sentence. So it was really cool because it transitioned to writing because I really like writing.

Chad (51:33.873)
Right.

Alex Sciarra (51:44.137)
as well so that I could see the timestamp is a very good one because you were limited on cassette time. It was just wild because now it's in the cloud forever and you have all the time in the world you need wherever the cloud is.

Chad (51:56.817)
Ha ha ha.

Chad (52:02.225)
Yeah, like now I have playlists with like, you know, 300 songs on them and it's just like, you know, that's just unwieldy. There's the ones you just put on and hit shuffle and just hope for the best, you know. But I want to get back to making intentional playlists. So I think, like you said, like, you know, maybe I inspired you. Maybe I should give that a whirl again, too, because I enjoy it, you know, even if it's just for myself, just making themed playlists, you know, whatever the theme might be.

than sort of picking out how to sequence them. I think that's the most important part, right? Because you want to tell a story. Did you ever see the movie High Fidelity or read the book? Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (52:39.177)
I did not, it's on my list. I do need to watch it.

Chad (52:44.081)
Yeah, the original is great. They did a reboot series, which was also fantastic. It was I think it was Zoe Kravitz played the lead and she's great. And the book was great. It's Nick Hornby who I love, but highly recommended. But that movie and the book just goes like microscopically into like, you know, how to make the perfect mixtape for somebody. So.

Alex Sciarra (53:07.945)
That's really nice. That's really nice. And then parallel to the algorithm, I'm big on YouTube as well because I really love music videos. So I feel like I have more YouTube playlists than Spotify just because the age of YouTube was so much longer for me. But I'm going to take that in note and make some for myself that I'll be excited to listen to on my drive on Fridays, you know.

Chad (53:16.497)
Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (53:38.377)
So kind of themed like that. That will be refreshing to carve out the length of what's accessible. I think the good midpoint to that was the iPod. So between streaming and limit, it was the iPod. That was the sweet spot.

Chad (53:52.273)
Yes.

Chad (54:00.785)
Yeah, I agree. And you were, yeah, I had an iPod.

I had a few different ones actually and it was the best thing ever because no more carrying CDs around. Because when I had the CD player in my car, I had the wallet like everybody had that you stuck in the middle or under the seat. I pull it out and try to change discs while you're driving. I never had a CD changer. I was never that baller. By the time I guess that whole thing kind of played itself out, it was gone. Like, you know, cars didn't have CD changers anymore. But...

So videos, classic like old school kind of music videos or just modern stuff? Like what do you watch?

Alex Sciarra (54:39.145)
Modern stuff, I'd say, like live concerts I really like. There was...

A great, which I was heartbroken by. They used to have a full length REM concert. It was in Germany. I think it was like the sound and shape or something like that. And it was this great, throw it on the treadmill. You watch the whole thing. It was shot to be a film. So it wasn't just a iPod and someone scrubbed it. Someone got the copyright, got with it and they broke it into little segments. And I was like, you motherfuckers. Like now I have to watch an ad? Are you kidding me?

Chad (55:12.945)
hahahaha

Alex Sciarra (55:15.691)
What did you do? So a lot of live performances. Nirvana's last concert, 93, 94, an airport hangar. More fun stuff. ABBA is great. Lots of Sonny and Cher. That was my first like love too. And the medley, the Cher show. They have medleys where with Jackson 5 and what happened to the medley?

Chad (55:26.225)
Yeah.

Chad (55:39.601)
Yes.

Alex Sciarra (55:44.265)
I want the music medleys back.

Chad (55:47.793)
Well, what happened to like variety shows like that and people just, you know, covering other people's songs, even if it was like something as cheesy as the Cher Show. But yeah, I just the last episode of this that I published, we were talking about the whole Donnie and Marie reel in the years. I don't know if you've seen that.

Alex Sciarra (56:10.953)
Oh, no, I have not.

Chad (56:14.033)
It's the Donnie and Marie show and they're covering Real and In the Ears and they're just smiling and dancing and it's just like, man, you know, this is like one of the most sarcastic songs ever recorded and you guys are just fucking it all up. But it's great. It's, you know, it's just amazing. So, um, we checked the show. No, I think it's episode 14. It's in there. I linked it. I linked it with an apology. I was like, I'm so sorry for posting this, but it has to be done.

Alex Sciarra (56:33.737)
Mm -hmm.

Alex Sciarra (56:39.625)
Yeah, like the bright lights behind I can only imagine the bulbs that's that's a mismatch I would

Chad (56:45.425)
Yep.

Chad (56:51.505)
But I loved music videos, especially in the 80s and into the early 90s because, you know...

some of them were so like almost cinematic. They told a story, you know, and they either told the story of the song or they just had like something that had nothing to do with with what the song was about. But it was just like, you know, its own little short film almost. And then you had the ones that were just performance or just the band like in a room, you know, singing into the camera or whatever. But I was a huge MTV junkie until that whole thing kind of dried up and became like, you know, reality TV shows. And that was about it. No more music videos.

Alex Sciarra (57:26.313)
Yes. What was it there was it was it Fuse? What was there's another one? It was Fuse TV. That was a good one to spot them on.

Chad (57:27.315)
Thanks for watching.

Chad (57:31.505)
Oh yeah.

Alex Sciarra (57:37.641)
But VH1 was good. I loved Aerosmith, oddly enough, when I was like 11, which was really funny because I think that was right after crying and crazy. And I discovered one of their very, that was a good thing Spotify was for their very, very, very first one where they're just straight up blues. And somehow Steven Tyler's voice sounds completely different in the seventies. What was that about? Do you know what this?

Chad (58:03.601)
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

Alex Sciarra (58:09.513)
But that's pretty great. So big on Aerosmith, Aerosmith music videos. I mean, who didn't love those Alicia Silverstone? Great. Just addicted to those. And then it became, you know, the downturn of VH1. Like you said, the reality, it was the talking head sort of, I love the series, which was great, but.

Chad (58:27.921)
Alright.

Well, there was always Beavis and Butthead too, which got it started on MTV and I was a huge fan of and I'm purposely mentioning that because we're going to talk about this song, Alex. We're going to do it. So.

Alex Sciarra (58:34.697)
Thanks.

Alex Sciarra (58:43.209)
I took a note here too about this song.

Chad (58:47.633)
So one of the songs that you put on the playlist, which of course I'll link in the show notes to, um, hobo hump and slobo babe by a Swedish band called whale was from like 1995, I want to say 94. I'm not sure when it came out right, right around that time. So how the hell did you come across that song? And I thought I was the only one that knew it.

Alex Sciarra (59:10.345)
It was... yeah. So it was funny enough, so like transitioning it was kind of, I think... ugh.

One of the songs I put right before it was in the Clerks soundtrack. So it was that gritty kind of Beavis and Butthead indie movie vibe and Whale made it onto one of my LimeWire surprise downloads and I loved it, loved it, loved it. And you had tweeted about it probably a year ago and I saw it again. I was like, oh my gosh, this song rocks. And then I was looking it up and I guess, uh, Sheffert, I'm not sure.

not sure what member he is but he said people have been getting too clever in the business so we'll just be stupid. We're just like alliance with Beavis and Butt -Head so well.

Chad (59:59.025)
Awesome.

Alex Sciarra (01:00:04.201)
But I mean, what is that? It's like the, that just like, you know, the heavy, heavy, heavy male vocals and then that woman appears out of nowhere and it's just an angelic voice and that's great. I need to watch the Beavis and Butthead bit of that too. It was a limeware discovery.

Chad (01:00:19.537)
I will link it. I will link it. Yeah, there...

You know, the show itself, I mean, it doesn't really hold up for many reasons, but their commentary on a lot of the music videos was on point and it's still on point looking back on it now. There's a channel, again, I keep saying this, but I like it. There's a guy who's got like just clips of probably 50 or 60 Beavis and Butthead doing a certain song clips. So it's great. It's funny to go back and listen to some of those now.

Alex Sciarra (01:00:53.833)
How great. Yeah, that was, you reminded me of that. Yeah, hobo humpin' slobo, babe. You don't forget a song like that. It's always in the back of your brain. Oh my gosh, I was like, how did this? Yeah, I wish I could tell where it infiltrated me, especially being a little too young for Beavis and Butthead to take it in, you know, in a...

Chad (01:01:04.305)
Yeah, total earworm.

Alex Sciarra (01:01:19.113)
in a conscious way as an adult with the commentary rather than, oh, it's a cartoon. Like, I'm gonna watch this cartoon. And I did actually, that's really funny. I was big on, was it in Beavis and Butthead Do America? Or no, it was separate?

Chad (01:01:32.529)
No, it was in one of the original episodes, I think. Yeah.

Alex Sciarra (01:01:35.049)
Okay, yeah that was a big one for me on VHS. I'd watch that a lot.

Chad (01:01:40.369)
Hahaha.

Chad (01:01:44.593)
And they rebooted it recently, like last year or something, they came out with like new episodes, a new movie. I don't know, I watched a few. It's not great, you know, but it is kind of funny to see them like, you know, in their 50s.

Alex Sciarra (01:01:58.761)
funny so they did they did it as they're older.

Chad (01:02:02.641)
current day. Yeah, yeah, they're older. So like, you know, I don't remember like the situations but like something like, you know, but it has to go get a colonoscopy, you know, like, it's like, that's the topical stuff now.

Alex Sciarra (01:02:15.561)
Oh, that's funny. I need to check it out. I do. Paramount Plus is the one I've held out from getting, unfortunately, because I'm like, you have all the stuff I want to watch. Rocco's Modern Life. But I don't want to pay another person $16.

Chad (01:02:31.121)
Yeah, oh I hear you.

Yeah, I just had to scale back till we got rid of a few streaming services because it's just, it's way too much money and there's nothing, it's funny. It's like, you know, Spotify, like, you know, a hundred million songs and nothing you want to listen to. And all these streaming services have thousands and thousands of movies and TV shows and you still can't find anything that you want to watch. I actually just watched, um, fast times at Ridgemont high, speaking of great soundtracks. I just rewatched it after not having seen it for probably 10 years and.

I it's sad because I can still quote pretty much every line.

Alex Sciarra (01:03:08.841)
How funny. Oh my gosh, yeah, that was a great one. But yeah, like the last time I watched it, I didn't realize that it had like a very sad storyline in it. Don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't saw it. I was like, whoa, that's dark for a teen movie.

Chad (01:03:24.017)
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty dark.

Alex Sciarra (01:03:26.697)
But I did like that. I liked that one a lot. I mean, you know, Spicoli. And I was also maybe, you know, Ferris Bueller was great, but I was really into 16 candles and Pretty in Pink are my all two favorite ones of that kind of era. And of course, Molly Ringwald had that art girl look, I guess, bringing that to mainstream with the skirts and the new wave glasses.

Chad (01:03:39.953)
Yeah, love those movies.

Chad (01:03:56.209)
Yeah, she was like one of the original little boho girls, you know. Thrift shop queen.

Alex Sciarra (01:04:02.313)
Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, all the kids are on Depop now buying recycled stuff. Yeah, Todd, we had that you did that great post about what concert t -shirts do you have?

Chad (01:04:09.521)
Ha ha ha!

Chad (01:04:18.193)
Oh yeah.

Alex Sciarra (01:04:20.713)
I was like, which ones do I still have? Because I did a major clear out recently, unfortunately.

Chad (01:04:26.865)
Oh, I loved what you said too about just having too many black band t -shirts.

Alex Sciarra (01:04:31.689)
That was the truth because I like, you know, like it was like the real reason was to like, you know, of course you're never going to go into like the real background reason with like a teen and hot topic and they're like, is there anything wrong with it? I was like, look, when you get to be my age, I can't, I can't start doing this again. I have too many like, please.

Chad (01:04:52.945)
I know, I've been on a kick recently and I had to stop myself. I was at a clothing store yesterday and I saw a Beastie Boy shirt and I was like, oh, and I'm like, no, I have too many, I'm good. I don't need any more t -shirts.

Alex Sciarra (01:05:07.625)
so hard and eBay is a great one for me. I like getting I got a great Metallica one, a concert shirt for not like a thousand. It was probably like 20, 30 bucks. So I didn't, you know, all of the ones I was like, you know, vintage Nirvana t -shirt, it's like $450. It's like threadbare, like on a hanger just drooping. I was like, you guys like, come on. Yeah, I was trying to find a violent film, a good violent films one. And I'm still hesitant to buy the kind of a

Chad (01:05:13.873)
Oh.

Chad (01:05:17.873)
Nice.

Chad (01:05:23.953)
Ha ha ha ha.

Alex Sciarra (01:05:36.489)
cookie cutter, you know, we're gonna screen print this as soon as you order it.

Chad (01:05:40.945)
Right? Yeah, you want the authentic ones. I get that.

Alex Sciarra (01:05:46.473)
I need a good Sabbath one, love to find a good violent femmes one. I think I got rid of a pixies one unfortunately. I'm trying to think what else I need in my collection. I'm trying to find a good Aerosmith one and surprisingly there's a really great Tom Petty one at Nordstrom which is really funny. It's like white and it has kind of a wood cut of his face and I think I have to buy that.

Chad (01:06:06.961)
Oh, wow.

Chad (01:06:16.721)
That's cool.

I found a really great Led Zeppelin shirt, I think it was at Hollister. I was taking my daughter school clothes shopping last year and she's in the dressing room with 50 things and I'm standing there. So I started just looking through the men's section and I'm like, I can't wear any of this shit, I'm too old. And lo and behold, they have this whole graphic tee section and I just pulled the rack apart and it's like, whoa, there's this white Zeppelin t -shirt with the Swansong logo and it's got the Led Zeppelin name across the top.

Alex Sciarra (01:06:33.897)
Yeah.

Chad (01:06:47.571)
in the bottom it says like 1975 tour and it's all like tie -dye colors like not tie -dyed but like those bright bright colors like that you'd see on like a 60s band t -shirt and it was just like I have to get this and it was on clearance for like 12 bucks or something so couldn't leave that on the rack I'm like all right you're going home with me.

Alex Sciarra (01:07:09.865)
Yeah, a t -shirt is good because I've had that, you know, kind of like, yeah, it's like, well, you're not 13 anymore and you should maybe wear something more feminine and not just like, ska pants and a green day, like not even a good green day shirt, but that weird one with like the girl, like, you know, you know the one, like, it's like, what was I saying? Like dude ranch green day, like, cause you don't know when you're 13, what's good of green day. And you're like, hey, green day, like, but.

Chad (01:07:15.857)
...

Alex Sciarra (01:07:35.817)
Yeah, I need to bring it back. But I did when I was at Hot Topic buying things. You know, they have the wall of shirts. And I really wanted the Nirvana typical smiley face that I had on a hoodie when I was younger. And I was like, everyone has it. So I bought a really cool black Sabbath one. So I might have to rebuy it. It had the purple, just maybe Sabbath.

Chad (01:07:56.977)
Oh yeah, yeah, love that one. So what else do you want to talk about? Anything you want to cover?

Alex Sciarra (01:08:03.977)
See you. I think we hit everything good on the head.

Chad (01:08:08.273)
Yeah, cool. I have one parting question for you then. And yeah, so, you know, we've been talking about your musical taste and you've told me a bunch of bands that you've loved, you know, foundational and since then. But if there was one song that I would never expect that you love, like an absolute bop in your world. And if you told me, I would be like, really? What would that be?

Alex Sciarra (01:08:12.073)
Worse.

Alex Sciarra (01:08:33.353)
pre -Madonna girl.

Chad (01:08:36.177)
By who?

Alex Sciarra (01:08:37.065)
Oh gosh, who is it by? I don't wanna... Oh, what's her name?

Alex Sciarra (01:08:45.257)
Let me look it up. Sorry, I don't mean to do that.

Alex Sciarra (01:08:51.497)
Marina.

Chad (01:08:53.041)
Oh, okay, like Marina and the Diamonds?

Alex Sciarra (01:08:55.049)
Mm -hmm.

That came to my mind immediately. Because it's so cheesy and so like, oh, buy me everything. And that's the opposite of my anti -capitalist recently dichotomy of, you know, but I just really, it's something catchy. And that's one that I surprisingly go back to.

Chad (01:09:00.017)
Amazing.

Chad (01:09:18.833)
Nice. All right, well, I think we can wrap it up. Thanks so much for being on, Alex. It's been a real pleasure talking to you. I've really enjoyed getting to meet you in virtual space. Yeah, for sure. Any parting thoughts for our viewers and listeners?

Alex Sciarra (01:09:29.993)
Oh, just the Twittersphere.

Alex Sciarra (01:09:37.577)
Well, you know, keep listening, keep discovering new things. If anyone has an inkling to sit in their room and record something and they think it's not worth it, do it anyway. And best of luck to you on your podcast because I'm so excited and it's just so exciting. As soon as I found out you had a podcast, I was like, yes, this is going to be great.

Chad (01:09:50.865)
Yeah.

Chad (01:09:55.761)
Thank you.

Chad (01:10:01.169)
Nice. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is the 20th episode that I'm recording right now, believe it or not. Yeah. And that's only since January. So it's like still a little bit of a disbelief, you know. Thanks.

Alex Sciarra (01:10:14.761)
Congratulations. No, it's awesome. I'm so stoked you decided to do this because it's a missing segment of the podcast land. So, thrilled to be a part of it and honored that you let me join.

Chad (01:10:24.945)
Hahaha!

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being here. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye.

Alex Sciarra (01:10:31.337)
You're very welcome, Chad. Thank you. All right. Bye.