Record Store Day (Freddie Gibbs, Mavis Staples, Dio)

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude. 420 bros. Hello, it's Dude. It's Album Nerds podcast. I got Andy and Don with me. We're going to be celebrating 420 but in a different way. You guys ready? Hey man, I can celebrate two things on one day. It's no problem. Are you excited for record store day, Don? Put the needle on the record. Put the needle on the record. Remember that song? Pump up the volume. Oh yes. Yeah, that sound just like the sample.

That's why I was confused. I thought you started the song. Yeah, happens a lot. All right, so this is the Album Nerds podcast. We love talking about albums, the album format, and generally having some very healthy male bonding. Got a great show for you today. We're going to be talking about record store day on April 20th and getting into some, getting into three album picks that will be released on that day. Don's going to ask us a deep question. So deep.

We're going to do some shout outs to some album related items that we're digging and then we're going to spin the wheel of musical discovery to find out what we'll talk about next time. But this week, it's all about record store day. It's called a record store. That's what I'm talking about. Record store day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 to celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store. It is held on one Saturday, every April and every Black Friday in November.

The day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world. Many records are pressed specifically for record store day with a list of releases for each country and are only distributed to shops participating in the event. This year's record store day takes place on April 20th. And today, each of us will present an album that will have a special edition for record store day 2024.

Yeah. And to celebrate, we talked with a friend of the show, Benji, who's a record store owner in Grand Haven, Michigan, off the record, it's the name of his store. So why don't we hear from him and see what he has to say about RSD, as they call it, the kids, the kids, the kids in the industry. So excited to be on the show. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about record store day at off the record in Grand Haven. It's a huge day for me. I listen to the community.

I see what people want to have in here. I go for those records. And luckily this year, it's one of the best record store days I've seen. So many titles coming out. I'm personally always stoked on the jazz dispensaries. That's one of my favorite ones that come. I've got a bunch of those coming this year. Dr. John's got Gris Gris Gumbo dropping. That's one of my favorites. And anything Grateful Dead, the Jerry Garcia band's Electric Eel is going to be dope.

But for us, that's a day for me too, to show appreciation to the vinyl community. That's a day for me to say thank you to all of the shop family that come in here. So we'll have free food from Carvers in Grand Rapids. They come out and they're going to be cooking epic tacos for us all day long, starting at 5 a.m. Our cafe will open at 5 a.m. so you can get a warm cup of coffee while you're waiting in line. The door's open at 8.

We're going to have some live music, get some free food, get a cup of coffee. Let's have some fun. And it's on 420. That's my favorite day of the year. Like I am. Big thing too for me is make sure if you live in a certain community and you have a small independent record store, go in on that record store day and buy these records that you can only get at those stores on that day. You're not going to be at the big box stores. That's why record store day is so important.

It's an opportunity for the small guys to get records for you that mean something. So be sure to support that local record store no matter where it's at and show up. 420 is going to be a day and there's amazing albums dropping. Amazing. So keep talking about records and have me on your show live one of these days because I want to talk some shit with you guys. Hopefully get to talk to you all again soon. Thanks, Benji. He's excited. Yeah, it's like Christmas and April here guys.

I mean it's a big day. I love how he talks about the shop family. That's such a nice term because it is such a community for people that don't collect or don't go to record stores. It's become more friendly than it used to be. It used to be kind of snobby. Back in the day I feel like it's a more friendly environment than it used to. So thanks again to Benji for helping us out there.

So a big list of record store day releases, many of which are singles, live things, compilations, lot of cool stuff, but not a ton of actual full length LPs or albums. So we dug from that list. How'd you guys do? Did pretty well. Did pretty well. There's a little gems in here, things you wouldn't necessarily expect or maybe wouldn't be like the go-to record for an artist, but there's some cool stuff. I'll throw out a couple that I was enjoying, a Little Richard record.

It was really enjoyable from the 1973 call to Right Now. It's got a few of his hits on it. Not super lengthy, but it's got a good Little Richard energy. Also from that same period, Elton John's Caribou, one of his more popular. The Bitch is Back. Yeah, really a fun record. Quite a few hits on there. Also part of record store day. Just to clarify, The Bitch is Back is a song on the album. I'm not calling Elton John a bitch.

Although I think he was referring to himself in that song, but that's different. I'll mention one more record I almost picked for today's show from a duo called Nightmares on Wax. They put out this cool chip-hop record in the late 90s called Carboot Soul. Have you guys ever heard of them? No. No. It was such a big record for me at the time. But then looking back on it, I don't think anybody else ever listened to it. So I'm glad to see it's getting some notoriety now. How about you, Don?

Well, The Cure are putting out a 40th anniversary picture disc of their 1984 album, The Top, which is one of my favorites. Also Alex Chilton, kind of a cult artist, was in the box tops and big star. He has an album called Clichés, which seems to be out of print. And so that's getting a vinyl release and hopefully it'll show up on the streaming services. And also the English singer, Kristi McCall. You might know her from that POG song, The Fairy Tale of New York.

She had an album from 1993 called Titanic Days, which is pretty good. That's getting a vinyl release. Some of the things, if you look at the Record Store Day list, they have different categories. Some only have a limited number of pressings and a Record Store Day only. There are other things that are released on Record Store Day that will continue to exist. So you do have a shot of getting some of this stuff even at a crowded store.

Yeah, so for me, I looked at the UK Record Store Day list because I was really scraping and I found Black Sabbath Paranoid, which I thought about. It's very doomy, but I wanted something with a little more energy, a little more zazoo. I'll call it. You brought the zazoo in my friend. I also listened for the first time to Collective Soul's Dosage, which is getting a Record Store Day release on vinyl. Collective Soul, I like many of their songs.

For me, they're more of a greatest hits band than an album band. I just couldn't get into the whole thing, but it was a fun exploration. Then I wanted to do Pearl Jam's new album, Dark Matter, which comes out on April 19th. Then a special edition is being released the next day on Record Store Day, but I couldn't listen to it, so we couldn't really talk about it here. Maybe next time. All right, so enough about what we were looking at. Why don't we talk about what we picked? You choose me?

I mean, for instance, the record with Madlib, lyrically, just to step into his realm of

beats and bring my type of shit to it. Is there a jackhammer in the background? Yes. I didn't know that before. That's how you do a professional interview, make sure there's a jackhammer in the background. That's how you know they're on the streets. Talking about turning up the streets. All right, so that was Freddie Gibbs talking about his 2014 album, Piñata. Would you say it's a plethora of piñatas? From Three Amigos? Yeah, that's from Three Amigos. I just wanted to say.

Okay. Plethora of piñatas, yes. Okay, so this is the first collaboration for Mr. Gibbs and Madlib. So Freddie Gibbs at this point was mostly known for his gangster rap style. Madlib was more associated with kind of more of a left field approach to hip hop, best known for his work with like MF Doom, who we talked about in the show, J Dilla, kind of in the early 2000s there.

So it's kind of a weird mixture was what kind of made this record special at the time, these two kind of guys from different ends of the spectrum of hip hop. Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't try and get Sudoku, the other producer. I was just thinking of Madlibs. Madlibs, yeah, yeah, good jokes, guys. That's funny. Yeah. All right, why don't we jump in here and play the lead single. This is called Thuggin. There's a lot of mother trucking going on there.

Yeah, definitely a fairly explicit album in terms of the lyrical content. But you know, it's a very real album in terms of what Mr. Gibbs is rapping about. And the quote here I have from this record, this track in particular, what I'm rapping is what I'm living. I'm using rap as a vehicle to get me away from that type of living. So this record was recorded over a three year period and Mr. Gibbs' life. He's from Gary, Indiana, which is a pretty rough part of the country.

He was a drug dealer kind of in that game. He talks pretty explicitly about that game during most of this record. But then he was able to kind of get out of that lifestyle and move to Los Angeles at the end of this album. So you kind of like see that transition happen over the course of these tracks, which I think is pretty interesting. My clickbait headline is Gibbs busts open a flavorful portrayal of life on the streets of Gary, Indiana. Bust it wide open. Like a pinata. There you go.

The album was originally supposed to be titled Cocaine Pinata, I think has a little different context around it than just pinata. Those can be important because you want to set the tone before someone sees the cover of your album, but you don't want to drive people away either. I imagine that's why it was changed. If I had to guess, maybe that was a little too polarizing for some.

Well it sounds more like a celebration of cocaine rather than the stories of having to do what he had to do to survive. Right. Yeah. Which this record is really more, it doesn't paint a rosy picture of that street lifestyle by any means. It's pretty explicit in painting it in a very dark light, I would say. It doesn't sound like something you'd really be striving for. Maybe you're striving to get it away from, if anything. Let's play another cut from the record here.

This is track three called Deeper. Really should have been the opening track, you know, because usually the first cut is the deepest. Oh God. Really? Is Cheryl Crowe reference right now? I think it was Rod Stewart first, wasn't it? Yeah, that was, yes. Okay. Yeah, I had the crow on the brain there. I'm sure very influential. So yeah, that one actually I think has a little bit to do with love for, I don't know. Sounds like there's two men that are basically dealing with a woman who's cut them.

Hey, there's cut them deep. Yep. Yeah. So it's harsh. You know, I think this whole album is a bit harsh, but my clickbait headline is, Freddy Gibbs completes mad lib with gritty adjectives. There you go. The mad lib angle. So yeah, this was a real shock to my system after kind of immersing myself in the hip hop we did during the OMTV raps episode. In the early 90s, late 80s stuff. Yeah. A little more party atmosphere. Even amongst the darkness, there was light.

Yeah. And this was a total eclipse. We didn't touch on the sort of the gangster rap. And I don't know, I think those, you know, Guru and Rakim, you know, they were more sort of observational and maybe they were saying more big picture things. But with, you know, Freddy Gibbs seems to be more. NWA. Yeah. You know, West Coast kind of feel.

Yeah. And it's like you're immersed in the scene, you know, so it's more about like experiencing what's happening rather than actually like saying something about what's happening. Kind of like an urban poet sort of thing, you know. There were moments where he reminded me of Tupac. Yeah. People definitely compare the two. Do they? Okay. I think I know more about this than I thought because my conclusion is other people's, then that makes me feel better about it.

Yeah. And yeah, the lyrics are kind of rough and gritty, but for the most part, the music isn't. And I think sometimes it works and then in other times it's not quite as good. Yeah. That's kind of what set this product apart was like I was saying, these two different, very different styles kind of juxtaposing each other.

I think what set Gibbs apart or why he's, you know, become fairly prominent in hip hop space since then is his ability to work against these beats that are kind of more in flux and shifting and you know, madly deals a lot of these like old school like soul samples and they're kind of woozy and coming in and out of pitch. And it's pretty hard for an MC to kind of stay on that beat if the beat is like constantly shifting.

So I think having that mix here of the two of them together, yeah, it's not a 100% a slam dunk, but I think it did something interesting that they've been trying to reproduce since then. I mean, what did you guys think? Did you feel like this was pretty effective in terms of communicating his life and what he was going through in 2000 times? Yeah. Yeah. It was like watching a movie, you know, like a gangster movie, kind of a street movie sort of thing. It's just, I don't know.

It also reminded me of Nas at times in the way that he was able to paint the pictures and Gary, Indiana is an urban life in the same way as a giant city. I mean, it is a city, but it's a small city in the Midwest. Much poorer. Yeah. New York City. So it paints a bleaker picture and I can definitely see it. Yeah. Let's play another track from the album. This is towards the end. It's called Nicks.

The lyrics kind of touch on the themes again, street life, survival, resilience, but the storytelling abilities here, I really like how he paints his vivid picture with the lyrics and this kind of theme of how life can feel cyclical. Kind of comparing eras of basketball to eras of his life is interesting.

It captures that time, like 95 when Jordan came back from playing baseball for a while and came back to basketball, the cultural impact Michael Jordan's basketball playing had, like it was huge. And then the juxtapose those memories with the rough stuff going on, it really kind of helped set a scene for me as someone that remembers that time period very well and was living a much safer life than this guy was. It really kind of helped bring it all home for me.

So I could connect with this one the most and really start to understand what he was talking about. I thought he'd be a Pacers fan. That's true. Where's the Reggie Miller track? No, no, no. I mean, you know, Gary is in Indiana, but during that time period, if you're anywhere close to Chicago, then you're a Bulls fan. Yeah. And most of the country was Bulls fans back in those days. Yeah, that's true.

The clickbait headline I came up with for this one is put on a blindfold and take a swing, break the pinata to find hard hitting tales of street life and survival. So I also went with the breaking open a pinata, but yeah, good rhymes, dark storytelling, but it's compelling. It's not as fun as some other hip hop to listen to, I think because, you know, it's not as fun to watch the news as it is to watch a documentary. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, sure.

It's a little bit, maybe a little too real to really have fun with. Yeah. I think this record holds up really well. If you haven't heard it, I think it's one of the better albums in the last decade in the hip hop space. So check it out. Freddie Gibbs, Madlib, pinata, available at record store days in a special 10 year anniversary package this year. I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me.

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Even the church people. They started going and saying, them staple singers, they singing the devil's music. I did so many interviews. I had to let these people know that the devil ain't got no music. The devil ain't got no music. Amen. She's so good. So that's Mavis Staples. Staples? That's Mavis Staples and her record store day album is the 20th anniversary edition of her album, Have a Little Faith, released in 2004.

This is the sixth studio album by the soul and gospel singer born in Chicago in 1939. She was a member of her family's band, the staple singers, which had a lot of success. You probably know the song, I'll Take You There. A very big influential band. So this was kind of a comeback album for her. She had to self finance it, but kind of got her back into recording. Let's hear the opening cut from the album. This is Step Into the Light. Kind of a traditional gospel sounding track.

My clickbait headline is Music World Still Needs Mavis When She's 64. So little Beatles referencing. But yeah, she was 64 when this album came out and yeah, she sounds really young. Yeah, very alive. Yes. Vivid. Vivid. Vivid. A lot of energy. I was surprised actually by kind of the blues rock treatment to the album. I think I was expecting more like traditional gospel. A bunch of organ and stuff. Yeah, and piano. But it felt kind of country blues. Yeah, slumpy.

Yes, which I think is very effective with her voice. She is a vocal talent. I wouldn't describe her voice as beautiful, but it's emotive and it has a lot of character and it is gospel. Yeah. She's got like one of those voices where you can like almost hear her smiling sort of as she's singing. She's such a great personality. It just shines through in every track. Well, if she's singing about love, you feel that love.

If she's singing about God and faith, you feel that gospel celebratory sort of vibe. When her voice gets kind of gravely at times, she just is able to really emote everything in a unique way. It gives me all the feels. Yeah. She could sing a phone book. It's anything she's singing, exciting to listen to. Yeah. Positivity in music is not something I gravitate towards nor is religious.

How was it standing in the sunshine for once when you're... I also don't really gravitate towards faith-based music, but it's just so pure and sincere. She's not selling me anything. She's just celebrating what she believes in and in a point of view and it's nice. Well, let's hear another track, classic sort of gospel country track, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Will the circle, will it be unbroken? By and by, Lord, by and by. Yeah, we get sort of a Delta blues sort of...

Yeah. A little bit swampy thump going on. It's nice. Yeah. So the song, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, has been recorded by many artists over the years. In 1907 by Ada R. Habersohn with music by Charles H. Gabriel, Christian hymn, themes of family, loss and reunion with family in the afterlife. In that eight-year period between albums, she had lost her father, Pops. And I think this was a celebration of him. I believe that this arrangement was partially his.

So I think it was a celebration of her family and her father and that they'll all be together again someday in heaven. It's nice. Sassy, though. I've never heard this song be so like... Sassy. Have so much personality, you know? Clickbait headline I came up with for this one is, have a little faith in Mavis Staples, a performance powered by the soulful force of her voice. She makes you, like it's kind of a sit down young man and listen kind of a moment.

She makes you listen with every song and that's pretty cool. What else can you ask for when an artist is laying it all out there, especially that far into their career where she loves what she's doing? Yeah. It feels like a pretty intimate record, especially with the tie to her father and her sister was sick at the time as well. She gets into a lot more personal details here than I expected or just later in her discography.

And that tracks like Pops recipe where she really does get into like some specifics about her dad and kind of what legacy he left behind. He was her manager as well, if I recall, like as well as a, was he part of the band even in the back in the sixties? Yeah. He was the main songwriter and guitarist, I think. Yeah. A big part of their lives and it's nice. It's kind of serves as like a tribute to him here. And strangely there's very few references to office supplies.

Yeah. I mean, it was our, maybe a coupon included in the liner notes where you could get 20% off printer paper. That was easy. All right. Well, let's, let's, let's hear another one. This is in times like these. It's one of the more modern sounding gospel tracks on the record there. I was trying to find some big critique on this album.

I think that'd be my biggest critique is, you know, when it does go into those more modern directions, it doesn't sound quite as interesting to me, but it's also maybe staples. I'm not going to be with his critiques. Yeah. Yeah. It's always like this album is perfect, but the one thing. It's hard to critique someone like Mavis. She's such a national treasure in my opinion. My clickbait headline is nerds faith in modern gospel music restored with Mavis's return.

It's so great to have her kind of just back in that music conversation and contributing to that space. Just such a great example for just living how people should be using their time on this earth. She's a good person and you really can hear on every track here. Yeah. I think it works best when it does deal more with that traditional blues and gospel sound, which is the majority of the record.

But as it gets into those more modern sounds a little bit later on, I don't know, she would deal more with that sound later in her career. I think it sounds better than here. It just sounds a little bit like an awkward combination to me. Did you guys feel that at all? You seemed to like that song in particular. Honestly, I didn't notice, but you're more familiar with her discography than I am. Yeah. I don't know. I didn't really notice a big difference from track to track.

I felt like it all kind of had that bluesy treatment. I didn't notice the more modern sounds to those. Sorry, Andy. You've been outvoted. That's okay. I was impressed just how much, lyrically though, it was pretty simple. There's not a lot of metaphor, everything's pretty much clear cut. But you get so much emotion out of just her voice and the way she presents things. It's just really charming and it's likable. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine her ever putting out a bad record.

She just has such a high bar of quality for her music. Though I don't know if she's ever really put out an epic classic record necessarily. Yeah. I think it's more of a story of consistency, just good music rather than like, I got it like a classic album per se. Yeah, but she always shows up and brings the quality. Okay. Well, as I said, Have a Little Faith is being released in a silver vinyl 20th anniversary edition. There's a reminiscence letter by Mavis with expanded artwork.

It's remastered on two LPs at 45 RPM. So it's Mavis Staples Have a Little Faith from 2004. Records tour today and they were playing all this music I never heard of. Excuse me.

I'd like to ask you a few questions. Now, deep questions by Don. So, you know, I think part of the experience of record store day is, you know, waiting in line, you know, for these incredible releases. Off the record, you're getting free food too. Yeah. Tacos, right? Oh, that's right. Yeah. Have you guys waited in line for? Well, Don, since you're prying so deep into my inner psyche.

I mean, the first thing I remember waiting for in line for was in college and there was a new Krispy Kreme donut came to town. Oh, God. Yeah. And everybody like lined up to get those glazed delicious balls of fat. I didn't have to wait in line. They brought me a box. The Krispy Kreme representatives I was working at the record store in the mall, they brought boxes to all the shops to say, hey, tell people to come to Krispy Kreme. So we got a box before they even opened. Free promos.

Yeah. That's the way to do it. Yeah. I was out there like a sucker waiting in the cold. But yeah, you know, over the, obviously the iPhone lines were like a big thing and, you know, just people like camping out overnight to get stuff like that. And I mean, that whole experience of just being in line with people must be kind of interesting. Like all these people who are so passionate about something that you're willing to sit outside and the elements to just to get it.

I don't quite understand that. Not as much of a consumer, I guess, to do something quite that extreme. But how about you, man? Yeah. So I did wait in line for a phone once, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G at Verizon. Wow. Like in 2011. What were you there for? I don't know. 40 minutes. There was like 12 people in line. 40 minutes. Okay. That's not exactly, I guess it's. But there was a line like for an Android phone, which I don't think there probably ever has been. Maybe not.

Waiting in line for beer at concerts and things like that has always been the most frustrating thing. Like I, there are more than one concert that I went to that I left because the beer line was too long and I just went to a bar. 30 minutes to get a $12 beer. Yeah. Especially if you're missing something that you want that you paid to see, you know, like here in the background and you're like, I wish I could actually witness this. Yeah. That's for sure.

Yeah. So then I figure if I can't, if I'm waiting in line and missing the show, I might as well just go to a bar. Yeah. Did that. Go to a bar and listen to the album. Did that a few times. A Godsmack concert and a Stuntable Pilots concert I left part way through. Geez. It's not a baseball game, man. Come on. Well, sometimes you actually have to wait in line just to go to a concert.

You know, back in the day before we had like online ticket sales, you know, people used to like camp out and I remember camping out for Pet Shop Boys tickets, you know, at our local amphitheater. And actually, I mean, there were a bunch of other events on sale at the time. I think like the first Lollapalooza and stuff. So just a really interesting crowd to be hanging out with overnight. How many, how many Pet Shop Boys were there? You and what? And my friends.

And yeah, everybody else is our Lollapalooza. Yeah. And so anyway, so we eventually, you know, get our, get our tickets and a couple of weeks before the show, they actually, they canceled probably due to poor ticket sales. But they got you and your friend. I mean, we have good seats. Well, what have you waited in line for? Let us know on Instagram and Facebook or leave a comment on our website, AlbumNerds.com. It's time to rock and roll. MTV killed heavy metal music.

You suddenly had the hair bands coming on. It was only about what they look like and how many parties they could have. I mean, the music was rubbish. What's that all about? This is not metal? Dio does not pull any punches, man. No. So yeah, we're going to be talking about Dio's second, the band Dio, second album, The Last in Line.

Dio being formed by Ronald James Padovona, known professionally as Ronnie James Dio, heavy metal and he was born in July of 1942 in New Hampshire of all places, but grew up in upstate New York. So he began his music career in 1957, went on to be in bands like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven and Hell. But this is his band that he formed after leaving Black Sabbath. So why don't we jump into the title track, The Last in Line.

I'm pretty sure that bands like Metallica had stopped picking up a little bit of that thing from Mr. Dio. Expanded upon it a little bit. Yes. The Last in Line was the first Dio album to feature keyboardist Claude Schnell. The rest of the lineup was Ronnie James Dio, obviously Vinny, a piece on drums, Vivian Campbell on guitar, later to go on to Def Leppard and Jimmy Bain on bass. This is their highest charting album, number four in the UK, 23 in the US.

And it was the second album to feature their iconic mascot, Murray, the demon looking dude. This was the Last in Line was the third single from the album, which did go platinum. The music video kinda helps set the scene for what it might be about. It depicts a teenage delivery boy who's transported to a fantastical dimension and must escape from cyborgs and demons, you know? Of course. Standard stuff. My clickbait headline to describe this album.

Last in Line, more than just rock and roll, it's a devil horn waving journey through heaven, hell, time and space. Nice. He's on these trips with his vocals and the fantastical settings. It's not very specific. He's not painting really tight pictures. It's very broad pictures, but his soaring vocals and his personality kinda carry in a metal way, like Mavis Staples. It kinda carries you through the songs, even some of which you might be like, what did he just say?

And we'll get into a little bit of that in a bit. This guy was 42 years old at this point. Wow. I mean, that's in rock and roll, that's old. In rock years, yeah, that's really old. He was with Black Sabbath for a long time. Yeah. For him to be setting the pace and be dictating what heavy metal music was to become is pretty cool. Yeah, comparing Mavis Staples and Ronnie Dio together. I didn't think we'd have that in this episode, but they do have that in common.

Yeah, it does kinda... I didn't think of it until I was mid-sentence and then I thought, well... Well, and dude said he could listen to Mavis sing the phone book. I could listen to Dio sing the phone book. Yes. Oh yeah. Yeah, that would be good. All right, so why don't we listen to another track. This one is the final track on the album. It's called Egypt. The Chains Are On. Yeah, kinda the epic closer of the album there about slaves and pyramids.

I'm not sure if it's about Egypt and our world or maybe Egypt and another planet maybe. Kinda silly lyrically. I mean, you definitely listen to that sci-fi thing, but I think they sell it on this album generally. My clickbait headline is, doesn't reach to the depths of Diver, but doesn't deserve to be last. I mean, this doesn't... You okay? I was just laughing at your diver. Oh, okay. You're referring to Holy Diver, the first album from Dio. Yeah, the debut.

I mean, this is kind of in that same spirit as Holy Diver, same lineup, not that long after they recorded that album. I think the quality levels here maybe aren't as consistent as Holy Diver. There's songs in here I really did enjoy, but there's also a handful that I think are just maybe lesser than and tracks like... I don't know, people are fans of Dio like the opening cut, We Rock. I did not really like it. I like the sound of it, but the term We Rock could have not...

It just was repeated a lot and I feel like there could have been other variations, but yeah, people do love that song. I mean, it does kick off the album nicely. You know what you're getting into, but it is a lot of We Rock. It brings a lot of energy, but yeah, it's just very repetitive. I think that's my biggest critique is lyrically overly simple. But in those days, hard rock bands and heavy metal bands had to do a song where it was about rocking. Yeah, I guess it was required, huh?

At least it was really catchy. I mean, it's a great sounding song. It's just lyrically like by the end it's like, okay, I'm not going to sing along anymore. I can't say we rock one more time. Yeah, I mean, there are handfuls of songs like that. I Speed At Night, which seems just about driving fast in the darkness. I don't know, but overall I think the band sounds good. Dio sounds great.

His voice is just such an epic force and I think he sounds really good on this record as good as he has on anything else. But there's moments where you can start to hear sort of like the 80s commercial sound creeping in. I think in particular, the ballad, Mystery has some keyboards. That sounds like a stick song to me a little bit. Yeah, definitely. But it also, I think the keyboard sounds sort of sounded a little bit more like Richie Blackmore's Rainbow that Dio was in.

I think it was hearkening a little back more than forward the way the keyboards are used. I don't know. I feel like there's a little bit of a sheen on that track in particular that I wouldn't have gotten in like the 70s. Andy hates that sheen. Give me that sheen off of me. He hates all kinds of sheen. Charlie Sheen, Tiger Blood, he's winning. All right, so why don't we get into another track. This one is One Night in the City.

Yeah, well, One Night in the City, kind of a traditional tale of good people, you know, sort of going to the city and sort of finding evil or being corrupted. It seems like the same kind of thing that would have been written about in a country song or something like that, you know, going into town and finding booze or the devil or whatever. So I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. My clickbait headline for the album is Eat Your Heart Out, Halford. Dio Reigns is the vocal king of metal.

Eat Your Heart Out. Yeah, we've already talked about Dio's vocal stylings. He stands alone. The album just delivers exactly what I expected. You know, I was familiar with Holy Diver. This is pretty much just a continuation of that. I guess it doesn't feel quite as special as Holy Diver for some reason. And also, you know, the Rainbow record that we covered a while ago on the show. I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe it just time passes or something and things just aren't quite as novel.

I was actually reminded of the Twisted Sister record that we did, you know, not too long ago, Stay Hungry, right, which I believe was released in the same year. There's a lot of similarities, kind of comes from the same place. And of course, you know, I think Dio is a better singer. I think the musicians are probably better in Dio. But for some reason, I think I prefer the Twisted Sister record and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it just feels a little more vibrant or new or something.

It was more about rebellious energy and taking on the man and more, yeah, like less fantastical also except for the story about the serial killer. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that's it. Yeah, maybe Dio doesn't feel like he's of this world. Yeah, you're right. And Dee Snider, despite the horror stuff, feels kind of just more like an ordinary fellow, I guess. Yeah, this record's not really grounded in anything. It feels very abstract, which can be a good thing though.

I mean, he's into more sci-fi side of metal. Mythology, yeah. Yeah. But again, I think any Dio record like this, I could probably listen to and enjoy, you know, just like Mavis Staples. I hadn't listened to this album with a lot of attention before. I usually listen to Holy Diver. But I thought this is a really good follow up, pretty solid, maybe not quite as classic, but still a very good Dio album and metal album of that era.

Record Store Day is going to be featuring a picture disc release of the album. So I have a feeling you'll be seeing Murray very clearly on the disc. So yeah, if you haven't listened to it, go check out Dio, The Last in Line. And if you're interested in picking up that record, go to Record Store Day. Can you dig it?

Can you dig it? Can you dig it? All right. Well, I know we've all been caught up in the excitement and anticipation of this album. And anticipation of Record Store Day. But you know, what other things have you been digging lately? Well, I got a handful of things here in my new release bag. I'd love to show you guys. You always do. I'll try and do it in a non creepy way this time. Whip them out. Jeez, thanks doc. God, he's got you covered. One of us does.

All right, first thing up here is from jazz vocalist, Ellis Russell, what it is called. I am. This is her first interview from her 2013 album to Dust. She's a very soulful jazz vocalist from Suffolk, England. This album sounds very much in line with that 2013 album. This is not what I expected to hear. Yeah. I thought it was going to be a little more runs and like maybe a higher register. It's a little more subdued than I expected. Is this typical of her sound?

Yeah, it's more like loungey, lounge jazz kind of thing. No scatting? Scatting? I don't know, there's a lot of scatting. She's more in like the Adele space, I would say. All right, next one up is from a UK group called Ugly. The album is called Twice Around the Sun. This is a very interesting record. It technically is an EP, though it's about 35 minutes long. I guess I would call it chamber pop, but there's elements of like post rock for sure. I heard like some Queen in there at times.

It is a really inventive record. I almost don't even know how to classify it. Is this completely new to you? Yeah, I've never heard of them before. I never know what to expect from you, man. This is kind of twangy a little bit. I never do either. You know, but it could have, whenever you introduce anything, it could be some dude screaming bloody murder or it could be something like this. It sounds kind of light and lilty. Yeah, it's a pretty fun record.

They can do like these amazing vocal harmonies on a couple of tracks that remind me a little bit of Queen. So it's an interesting one for sure. And last one from a group we've talked about a few times on the show, I believe this one is Crown Bin. They're an instrumental guitar group from Houston, Texas. They have a new record called A La Sala. It's very chill. So I was doing this while I was doing my taxes and it kept my blood pressure down.

I think that's, I mean, that's a, that's a beautiful review. I'm sure the band would appreciate it too. Great album to do your taxes by. Now they're a really good chill group. They had a direct market to the HNR Block. See if those folks want to use this music to help do their job. A La Sala translates to do your taxes. Wow. It's April 15th. We got all you guys out there. What you been digging on Dan? Well, I've mentioned it several times and I'll keep mentioning it.

So the Pet Shop Boys do have an album coming out April 26th. It's coming soon. But they released another single from the album called Dancing Star. And typical of the Pet Shop Boys, even though they're, you know, kind of just simple dance pop, they also just have weird subjects to the, to the writing. And so this one is actually about a Soviet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, who was one of the first like Soviet celebrities to defect to Western Europe in the 1960s. Kind of a cool story.

Also typical of the Pet Shop Boys, there's some good B-sides. There's a song called If Jesus Had a Sister, which, you know, provides some, some interesting, thoughtful ideas. So, yeah. So I wonder if people are already starting to line up with tents and such to get their hands on this album on release day. That's why they're not doing it on record store day, because it would just be too many people. No one would care about the other releases. What about you, dude?

Well, I'm digging a few different things, but I've heard of this band before. They're called Acid Mammoth. I've listened to their albums, but they just released one called Supersonic Megafauna Collision. Nice. It's their fourth full-length album. Their Doom Metal band from Athens, Greece, formed in 2015 by Chris Babalas Jr. And the lead guitarist is his dad, Chris Babalas Sr., which I think is really cool. And on our recent episode about family bands, I wish I had known that connection.

But you know, it's Doomy and Gloomy and cool album art. It's kind of a Sabbathy record. It's a fun listen. Yeah, sounds cool. Metal band from Athens, Greece, not Georgia? Correct. Okay, cool. And then as always, I did a little shopping at the record store and found a copy of a record I've been looking for for a while. I was on my way out of the store. I'd already made my purchases and I saw it on the wall and it was like, oh no. And I had to turn around and spend more money.

It is the 1986 album Control by Janet Jackson that we talked about on episode 218 of the podcast. So it's really nice to have that in the collection. I had a memory about the vinyl copy of it. My friend Sean lived next door to me and had it on vinyl. I was like, why don't you have the cassette? He's like, well, because I don't have a cassette player. I only have a record player. When that still was a thing.

We listened to it in his room in red light because he had spray painted a light bulb red to give his bedroom a little more mood letting. Yeah. A little more style. Nice. That was a good record though. I was impressed by coming back to that. Yeah. All right. Well, what are you digging? Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads. Also on our website, albumnerds.com.

Well, as we were celebrating record story day on April 20th, I was reminded of this fairly well-known quote from one of our founding fathers of this country, Thomas Jefferson, who said, some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see. So to translate in today's parlance, it would be smoking if you got. If you want to say, sure.

With that in mind, let's bring out my friend and yours, Wadbop to see what we'll be talking about on next week's show. As album nerds, you obviously enjoy the experience of listening to albums from start to finish. Next time, you will double down on your love of the album format. You will test your limits and explore double albums. Just how nerdy are you? We shall see. Back to the grind boys, double albums. Ooh, that's a long grind on these ones. Those long plays. Size matters.

Too big can be too much. Just getting away. When it comes to records. Yeah. We'll have to find some ones that are good fits for us, I guess. It can be a lot to take in. Oh, Don always likes to go deep. Well what's your favorite double album of all time? What else are you listening to? Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at album nerds dot com. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and threads at album nerds. And please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app.

And if you'd like to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at album nerds dot com slash support. Thank you once again for joining us on the album nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time with some double album action. Yes. Hopefully not too much action. I don't know how to deal with that. Nice listen everybody. Catch you next time. There's no sign of the morning coming. You've been like a rainbow. Ugh, I can't get there. I don't think I've seen that before. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think I've seen that vein in your neck before, Don. That's why Dio is special. Yes. If he was able to do it, then it would be meaningless if he can't.