Solid Gold (Rick James, Madonna, Twisted Sister)

Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts Andy, Don, and Dude. I am a golden god. Yes you are. It's the Album Nerds podcast. I'm Dude. I got Andy and Don with me. Andy, how the hell you doing my friend? You know man, I'm doing great. I got my glittered covered unitard on here. Oh, there's nothing better. Andy works out so folks you gotta understand this looks really good. I've got some leg warmers and a slouchy cut sweatshirt down over my shoulder. Don, how you doing? I wanna rock!

You're about to my friend. Got you covered man. Alright, so this is the Album Nerds podcast. We love albums. The album format. Talking about them. Sharing them with everybody. Loving the music. We got a solid show for you today. We're gonna be talking a little bit about the musical performers on Solid Gold, the 1980s music countdown show. We're gonna talk about three albums from artists that performed on Solid Gold. We're gonna do some shout outs and some album related items we're digging.

We're gonna spin the wheel of musical discovery to find out what we'll talk about next time. But this week, that's what I'm talking about. Solid Gold was an American syndicated music television series that debuted on September 13th, 1980 and ran until July 23rd, 1988. It typically aired on Saturday evenings. Like American Bandstand and Soul Train, Solid Gold focused on popular music of any given week.

From mimed performances from stars at the time, the Solid Gold dancers would perform routines choreographed to the week's featured songs. Solid Gold had several different hosts over the years including Dionne Warwick, Marilyn McCoo, Andy Gibb, Rex Smith, Rick Dees, Nina Blackwood, and Arsenio Hall. Today each of us will present an album by an artist who performed on Solid Gold. I love the name Marilyn McCoo. It's so McCoo, you know? I always liked that name.

Yeah, so Solid Gold, I watched it religiously for the countdown. They would count down the top hits. It was kind of like Casey's Top 40, but they'd have performers and when they didn't have performers the Solid Gold dancers would do a routine. Number 10, Lionel Richie all night long and then they'd dance around and they had props and stuff. I was waiting for the quote unquote live performances. Gotcha.

So there were quite a few performers on this over the years, mostly in the pop space and R&B space, but things got a little crazy once in a while. How'd you guys do on this topic? This is pretty fun. They had a surprisingly wide variety of artists on the show.

I was assuming it was going to be pop, but there was some stuff in some more extreme genres and it was so funny watching these very wholesome hosts introduce acts like, let's see here, the Plasmatics for a group I stumbled across, this very in your face punk rock group from the early 80s. Their record New Hope for the Wretched slash Metal Priestess was pretty enjoyable. Also Adam and the Ants. Kind of like them actually. Yeah, the record Prince Charming from the early 80s was pretty fun.

I also listened to the Poynter Sisters and Billy Idol and Three Dog Night, which was surprising that they were on the show, but it was a pretty cool mix. I think mostly it was current stuff, but I think they'd have theme weeks where it was like 60s bands or whatever. Get my parents to watch, get the Boomers to watch the shows. Yeah, that's what it felt like. How'd you do, Don? Well, I ended up exploring some albums from the new wave space that I hadn't spent much time with before.

Checked out an album from Berlin, Pleasure Victim, which has that Metro song on it that I like. Not bad. I know a Flocka Seagull's debut album, which had like Iran and Space Age love song, but I listened to the follow up called Listen, which was decent. Also Uh-Huh. Uh-Huh. Uh-Huh. Hunting High and Low, which of course has take on me. How'd you like the rest of the record? Not bad. I knew a couple, I guess somehow those songs got into my psyche.

It's tough with an album like that if you come in not at the time. I certainly did not hear that record at the time and then hearing it decades later, take on me is so overpowering that it's hard to let the other stuff in. If you listen to it in 1985, when it was new, perhaps some of those album tracks would click. For me, Tears for Fear, songs from the Big Chair came to mind after I'd already made my pick. I'll have to look for that another time.

One of my favorites from the 80s, Bon Jovi from their debut album, Billy Ocean. I remember seeing Billy Ocean on Solid Gold. That's what made me know who he was and want to go get his cassette tape. Carpets Queen, never said. Is Billy Ocean here? And then Billy Idol, Adam and the Ants, Quiet Riot were other considerations for me. So there was a lot to consider, but we each made some really good choices, I think. So why don't we get into it? You choo choo choos me?

I'm Rick James, bitch. Enjoy yourself. That laugh. All right, we are in dude talking about Rick James and his 1981 album, Street Songs. It's the fifth studio album for the singer-songwriter from Buffalo, New York, born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. Street Songs would go on to become James' most successful record, reaching number three on the US pop charts and staying atop the R&B charts for over 20 weeks. Let's play a little bit of that hit that he performed on Solid Gold. This is Super Freak.

I really love to chase her every time we meet. She's all right, she's all right. That girl's all right with me. Yeah. Yeah, so that song was nominated for a Grammy. It's been famously sampled. MC Hammer, Nicki Minaj, and quite a few others. So we're trying a new segment on the show this week called Nick Clickbait Headlines. So my Clickbait headline for this record is Buffalo Funk and Roll Steals the Show.

I love the fact that he refers to the band as a funk and roll group during the record and I think that's very apropos. Yeah, fancy, apropos. All right, so this is a big funky, sexy record. I think what drew me to it was I was just impressed by the band and how great they sound. It's a loose groove that they get into on these tracks here, but it's very high energy. It reminded me a lot of what James Brown and the famous Flames were doing back in the 60s there.

Rick James' voice, really pretty strong. He sounds good. I mean, he's a young dude. He hasn't gotten too deep into cocaine yet. So I think his voice sounds really good and he brings the energy and just so much emotion to every lyric on this record. It's just like oozing with his personality. For better or worse. By this point, he had had enough success that I think the Motown, here's our Motown label or a sub label of Motown, Gordy Records, I think.

But the sound, I think he had all of the toys available to him at this point for this record, all that Motown had to offer. Yeah, exactly. It worked out pretty well for him in the end here.

So one of the things he does expertly well, I would say, is kind of mixing this large in life, kind of goofy persona that he has and mixing that in with some like legitimate serious topics about just like urban life and dealing with Gramp and Buffalo and interacting with the police and people in his neighborhood. Let's play one of those tracks next. This is called Mr. Policeman. It's a disgrace, why every time you show your face, somebody dies man, somebody dies man.

Say la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la Yeah, lyrically, it's a very direct song about interactions with the police. But it's just kind of funny that you're talking about somebody dying at the hands of a police officer and then it's la la la la la la la la la. And so that happens a lot on this record. I think there's a lot of serious themes, but it's lightened up with this kind of funky, fun treatment.

So my clickbait headline is James brings funk to the 1980s. So this is kind of a cool transitional record here. I'm not sure I would just call it a funk album. I think it borrows from a lot of things going on at the time. I mean, you mentioned Motown, but I think there's even maybe a hint of New Wave in it. Even that little keyboard part or whatever it is in Super Freak kind of sounds like the Depeche Mode part or something. Just for the listening audience, Don hears Depeche Mode in everything.

Raindrops. Yep. Car horns, he hears Depeche Mode. But definitely a fun album. I mean, we've listened to albums sort of in the funk universe. We did the Chic record, the Barry White is sort of on the fringes of funk. This one is just much more loose. Those albums were very polished and structured. And here it's like James is just having a fun freak out or something. Yeah. So the record definitely deals with a lot of real life, harder hitting topics like that. It's also a very sexy record.

It has a couple of ballads on here. I think by the standout is Fire and Desire with Tina Marie. She saves that song. Oh my God. It's amazing. She crushes that song. I wasn't familiar with her, but man, she has a huge voice. Go listen to her albums, man. She can sing. Yeah. That was impressive. It's kind of the apex of the record and they both really go for it.

I think another one of those songs here that kind of marries that sensuality with kind of like an urban feel is the second track on the record. This is Ghetto That. Yeah. It does. That's really good. I think that's the best song on the album. Yeah, that's good. It sounds like Marvin Gaye, like with the strings. Yeah, it kind of dips into that territory, but it's got Rick James silliness kind of in it as well.

Yeah. There's truth, of course, but the section there about playing tag with winos, it really does paint the picture, but it does it in a way where it makes it less severe somehow, even though when you really think about it, it is, but the words he chose were a way to kind of- It's more palatable. ... get into it, I guess.

The section about learning how to make love or that he already, he was so good at it as a part of his, as the story in the song, those moments are a little like, come on, for me anyway. He's a bit braggadocious. Yes, he is very braggadocious. I'm Rick James, bitch. So, the clickbait headline that I came up with, Motown gets funked up, one man held responsible. I feel like he really brought that- That sweet, that nasty. Yeah. That fucked up sweet. Yes, he did give it to me.

I knew Super Freak as a kid, I'd heard it, but give it to me was on a Motown compilation cassette that I got from BMG or Columbia House, and that bass line there and the horns, I really thought more of Rick James when I heard that, that there was more to his sound in this album. The thing is, it's got that mix of sex and social consciousness, which is fine, but sometimes I feel like they're at odds with each other because they're sort of outlandish levels for each.

The sex braggadocious stuff sometimes tarnishes the social consciousness stuff for me a little bit and then I kind of have to reset sometimes between tracks or I'm like, okay, this is the sillier stuff, okay, this is the more serious. That was a bit of a challenge, like you mentioned Fire and Desire, when it starts and it's just him singing, oh my God, it's like, oh gross, this is a disgusting representation of- You know, baby.

Yeah. He does love those little spoken word passages there that are- It's like, oh man, this is disgusting, but she comes in and I'm like, oh, okay, we get the female perspective on the same thing, then it felt very sexual assaulty when it started. It's also the 80s here, man, so it's a little different time period.

Yes. I know that the attitudes and what was things that were said that were just accepted is different, but the legend that is Rick James, I really think that a lot of bad stuff went down with him because of drugs, including in my opinion, his production of the Eddie Murphy single Party All The Time.

He's in the video, like in the studio mixing it and telling Eddie how to sing it, but some bad stuff happened with him and I think that the Chappelle thing really did bring him back into that and the Hammer sample brought him back into consciousness for people to discover his music.

I remember before I saw the Chappelle show, but after it had premiered, I was at a bar, went to the bathroom and on the speaker, Super Freak was on, you know, it happens, no big deal, I'd heard the song, a guy at the urinal screams, I'm Rick James, bitch, right in my face at the urinal next to me. I just thought he was crazy. I'm like, this dude is saying he's Rick James, but then they explained to me that it was because of a TV show. Yeah, that really blew up at the time. Yes, it did.

Yes, it did. Well, I think looking back on this record now, he was a legit talent before all these other things happened later in his career. He wrote and produced this entire record. There's a lot of really great gurus and you know, it's a weird mixture of personalities and topics for sure, but there's something to it and I think it works really well. This is probably the best example of his sound, I think. It's something to behold, you know, it's very 80s, but it's cool.

Rick James Street Songs, check it out, bitch. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it, people like me. If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite podcast app. Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy. Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.

I don't know. We're living in a material world and I am a material girl or boy. Okay, so Madonna, occasionally called the queen of pop, is that right? I hope not. She actually appeared on Solid Gold multiple times, but in 1984, she performed Like a Virgin. Like a Virgin actually appears on the album, Like a Virgin, which is the second studio album by Madonna, born Madonna Louise Ciccone in Bay City, Michigan in 1958. Again, it's her second album.

She was really looking to make a smash and she chose Nile Rodgers to produce the album. Here he comes again. Yep, who had just worked with David Bowie on Let's Dance. So let's hear that title track. Here's Like a Virgin. I remember it famously defeating Duran Duran Wild Boys on Friday Night Vagabond. Like a Virgin was written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steenberg. These guys have actually created a bunch of hits over the years.

True Colors by Cyndi Lauper, Eternal Flame by The Bengals, I Touch Myself by The Divinals. Like much of the album, it features the members of Chic. So Nile Rodgers on guitar, Bernard Edwards on bass, and Tony Thompson on drums. So what I like about the lyrics of this song are that basically the implication is there that she's not a virgin. No, no, no, no, no. She wore a white dress on the MTV Video Music Awards. She clearly was a virgin.

Yeah, so I think that's, I don't know, there's something about that that I think is kind of special. And I think that sort of sets her apart from maybe some other female pop stars. She's empowered here. So my clickbait headline for the album is Female Pop Star Takes Charge of Her Sexuality. So while there's a lot of songs about sex on this album, I feel like she's in charge. She's not a passive sex object.

And it reminds me of, I think Tina Turner and Janet Jackson sort of come from a similar perspective. Madonna is the most powerful woman to ever walk the face of people. Let's hear another cut on the album. This is Material Girl. Okay, so Material Girl was written by Peter Brown and Robert Rans. So one must consider the perspective of the songwriters here.

I think maybe it was just written about being a material girl, but I think the way Madonna delivered it felt like she was railing against, like she was an individual and she did things her own way. So relying on some guy giving her a bunch of gifts, I think it was more a rant against that kind of ideology if you're going to be a strong individual. The clickbait headline I went for was Children of the 80s Wonder What a Virgin Is, Parents Panic. It was spicy in those days.

I had a sister that was very young, maybe three or four at the time, and she was wriggling around singing like a virgin. I'll tell you, that's disturbing. That's a disturbing... So many don't want to see. It was so pervasive and I think it probably did make for a lot of uncomfortable conversations. I remember at that time, Material Girl, the video, I remember pointing it out to my parents of like, see, she's dressed like Marilyn Monroe and she's nice and this is about the good things in life.

I mean, I was a little kid, I didn't know what I was talking about, but I remember thinking that that was the way to convince my parents that she wasn't dirty because I wanted to listen to it. I never actually heard the whole album until I was an adult a few years ago, actually, and it's not super compelling. The singles are great. The filler is not super interesting to me, like shooby-doo, yikes. Shooby-dooby-doo, no thank you. Yeah, the end of this record falls off fast, I would say.

There's some weird scatting moments. She got the job done here with Material Girl, Angel, Like A Virgin, Dress You Up. Then on the subsequent album, True Blue, that's a much more complete record. She was much more involved in the production and the songwriting. The vocals, she got to be a little more diverse in her vocal style on subsequent records. So I think she, after this record, it was the Madonna show from that point forward. All right, well, let's hear another one from the album.

Here's Love Don't Live Here Anymore. That's probably the best non-single on the record, I think. That's vocal performance too. Definitely the most emotion we get from Madonna on the record, in my opinion, on that track. Originally recorded by Rose Royce in 1978. Yeah, I think her voice sounds great on that track. The rest of the record, I struggle with sort of what she's going for with that sort of more nasally kind of- Betty Boopish.

Yeah, it's really so cute and adorable and young on this record. It's a little hard for me to get behind. I've heard it a lot of times, but my clickbait headline is, Niall Rodgers unleashed his chaos on unsuspecting teens. This was a huge deal. I remember thinking of Madonna as very scandalous and sexy and just kind of almost revolutionary at the time for young adults. And this was the record that kind of put around the map, at least from an outsider's perspective.

But listening back to it as an adult, I wasn't as into it as I thought I would be. Mostly comes down to her vocal performance for me. I just get caught up on that. She doesn't really sound like her true voice. You really do get that later in her career and maybe there's flashes of it here. I think the main thing holding this record together is the production and just how well crafted the hits are.

These two-year-old girl and like a virgin especially just are so well composed and they have such an infectious quality to them that still makes you smile and still makes you dance around like an idiot even after all these years. So not my favorite Madonna record, but I can definitely see why it's still kind of relevant nowadays.

Yeah, I mean, there are some good songs on the previous record too, but yeah, this is what allowed her to actually be the artist she wanted to be, to have the power to do so. So, okay. Well, if as Andy said you want to dance around the room like an idiot, check out Madonna's Like a Virgin from 1984.

Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Now Deep Questions by Don. All right. So we're talking about these pop music programs. I just really feel like just something from the past, right? So what other old school television programming shaped your childhood? Yeah, for me, it's really two programs that were, I want to say were my childhood, but they were a big part of who I was in the 80s. He-Man, I just recently rewatched the series. Oh really? Wow. It kind of blew my mind actually.

Very scantily clad people in that show. Yeah. Well, Skeletor is so like not threatening when, you know, it's like, I'm evil. He's more like a jester in that show than like a villain. It's very interesting. Is he the same voice as Cobra Commander do you think? I don't know. It could be. It might be. They're very similar. I don't know. Never thought of that. Yeah, the other show I was big into was G.I. Joe. Sure. He saw a lot of fights between my G.I. Joe and He-Man action figures.

Yeah, but He-Man had to win because you turn his upper body and it would spring out and it's got a punching action. It was like twice the size of the G.I. Joe characters. Depends if you had the old school G.I. Joe that were like legit like two feet tall. I had some of those from my dad. Those are Barbie size.

Yeah. Yeah. So for me, when I think back on like the music shows, like Friday night videos, American Bandstand, Solid Gold, those were my favorite things to learn about music because I was always fascinated with it. But after school specials, something that like lately I got caught in a rabbit hole on YouTube. Some of those ABC after school specials are posted up on there starring like Scott Baio. Stone. Was the one called Stone?

Yes, where he's a good kid, but then he gets hooked into marijuana and it ruins his life and he almost kills his brother. And I got like a few months ago, I just was watching those like all the way through and but they were basically little movies. They were made for TV movies to teach youngsters about the dangers of drugs or being careful with premarital sex.

There's one where this teacher is teaching about Nazi Germany and then ends up to for a social experiment creating this club like called the movement or the wave, the wave. And then the students all like start warring with each other and whatever. And so they were pretty heady. I mean, for kids, you'd watch this after Monday afternoon, there'd be an occasional after school special. They were hard hitting subjects.

So I think I appreciated those because they treated me like I was worthy of understanding the world around me and not just cartoons. I think we had to read that wave book like an eighth grade or something like that. So I mean, for me, I spent my childhood kind of watching MTV. And so that doesn't exist anymore.

But thinking back to watching television back in the day, Andy might not even be aware of this, but the television networks or those channels, they would sign off like at a certain point in the middle of the night. So I remember like if I had a friend staying over or something, you'd try to stay up as late as you could. And so like one signpost was when the station would sign off and play the national anthem.

I remember getting up super early on Saturdays to watch cartoons and none of the channels were on yet. It would just be a screen going beep. So I'd go on PBS and watch some yoga show, just anything because it was the only channel that had anything on it. What old school television programs shaped your childhood? Let us know. Hit us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads. Also on Discord, AlbumNerds.com slash Discord. With this week's number nine star, we're not going to take it.

Twisted Sister. Yes! Who was that? That was Rick Dees. That was pretty wild. Is that where he was like eating his leg as he was introduced to the band? I hit crazy Dees night. Like I was really looking for something outside of the norm and I happened to find a list of quote unquote metal and hard rock acts that appeared on Solid Gold. So Twisted Sister made perfect sense for me and their album Stay Hungry from May 10th, 1984. Twisted Sister formed in 1972 from Hohokas, New Jersey.

Love saying that. Hohokas. So Twisted Sister's classic lineup, which was formed around 1982, had the members Dee Snyder of course on lead vocals, Eddie Ojeda on lead guitar, JJ French on rhythm guitar, Mark Mendoza on bass and AJ Pero on drums. This was the lineup that started recording albums and their third was Stay Hungry. Why don't we kick things off with the big hit song, We're Not Gonna Take It. All right. So Stay Hungry and We're Not Gonna Take It.

Man, was that ever the first probably fist pumping anthem that I ever at a young age was trying to challenge my parents with to some degree. I'm sure parents around the 80s were very appreciative of Dee Snyder providing this father for all children of America. The song We're Not Gonna Take It is pretty clear. It conveys a message of self-empowerment, seizing control, you're phony and fake. Don't make me be someone I'm not.

And we all appreciate that, especially when we're young, that idea that we can take control. The clickbait headline that I came up with here, alleged bad influence sings about hell and serial killers. Allegedly. The themes and lyrics can be interpreted in many ways and there's quite a few songs on this album that seem one way and might be really about something else.

But the PMRC, the Parent Music Resource Center, a committee formed in 1985 by Tip Regor, they were basically looking to take control over the access of children to music deemed to have violent or drug related or sexual themes and Twisted Sister, specifically We're Not Gonna Take It was on their list. It's like the naughty 100 or something like that. I can't, that's not, I don't think that's right. I'm not sure. Is it before the parental guidelines that it called the naughty 100? Really?

Yeah, something like that. What was it called, Don, do you remember? That sounds right. It's like the most wild list, but for music. Yeah. No, the Filthy 15. Yeah, so this Filthy 15 list, as I mentioned, included Twisted Sister, but it also had Madonna dress you up from Like A Virgin was on the list. Prince was on the list with Darling Nikki, which makes sense, I think. Def Leppard, Cyndi Lauper, and then metal bands like Judas Priest and Wasp were on the list as well.

But so yeah, indeed, this is what led to the parental guidance stickers on albums. But yeah, Twisted Sister was sort of on trial. Dee Snider appeared at some hearings and they go look it up on YouTube. He said some pretty cool stuff. He handled himself very well. And so yeah, so that did eventually get resolved, allegedly. So back to the album, there's songs about serial killers, there's songs about hell.

And these themes, of course, are part of what made Heavy Metal of the 80s as it was on its meteoric rise to popularity at this time. Those were some of the tropes that were common, but Twisted Sister did a really good job of taking all of those and doing it effectively throughout the record. And they kind of made a perfect amalgamation of those types of themes, but in clever and entertaining ways. They even managed to make a song about going to hell with a lesson.

So let's check out a little bit of Burn in Hell. Love that song. It's a great song. Surprisingly, I mean, maybe I shouldn't be surprised by how dark that song is. At the age I was when I first heard this record, I was just like, oh my God. I didn't really understand that it was about not making bad decisions so that you don't go to hell, essentially. Yeah. It's really a positive message, but it paints it in this dark landscape. I think it just sells to kids perfectly.

Yeah. I couldn't understand it enough as a kid to then explain to my parents this was not a bad thing, but they saw the title and that was it. Yeah, well, I mean, you see the album cover of this record here with Dee Snider in a cage eating someone's thigh bone or something. You could definitely get the wrong message pretty easily, I would say, if you were a parent. But yeah, this record as a whole, I really came to enjoy quite a bit.

I was surprised at how substantial it felt to be listening to it now. My clickbait headline is, local man found in Dee Snider's basement. Okay, well fed. This record is pretty wild. There's a lot of graphic dark stuff happening here, especially the center of the record, this horror terrier, short trilogy, eight-minute epic that talks about this character who's kidnapping kids and keeping them in their basement. It's creepy stuff, man. And he really goes into detail about how it all transpire.

And I bought into it, man. I was definitely captivated by the storytelling. He reprises the role in 1998 film, Strangeland, which Dee Snider would act in as well. Playing Captain Howdy. Captain Howdy, yeah. Pretty dark stuff, kind of out of its time, I would say, in terms of the online aspect kind of working into these songs here. But yeah, I know the B-side I thought was really solid too. Songs like Don't Let Me Down and SMF were particularly memorable.

That was a code I even got away with in Catholic school. I would all say that and not get in trouble. Yeah, it's not very thinly-veiled acronym there. I think it is actually the name of the fan club, the sick motherfucking fans of Twisted Sister. Yeah, sounds right. The one thing going back and listening to the version on Spotify is, it struck me as the mixing. There's a little low end.

The low end of this record feels important and it's got a real metal edge to it, but you can hardly hear it on a lot of these tracks here. It's unfortunately just been mixed down to hardly anything. But if you can get past that, I think this is a pretty enjoyable listen for me at least. It's surprisingly good when it's so easy to dismiss albums of that era, especially the get thrown into the hair metal bucket sometimes. Yeah, this wasn't as hair medley as I thought it would be.

A lot of those trips are not here, thankfully. All right, so why don't we listen to a little bit of The Price. The Price is I guess sort of like the one kind of melodic ballad on the album. But it's not romantic. That's the best part. It's not a romantic ballad. Yeah. Well, it might be. It could be. Yeah, it seems to be about sort of like the consequences of getting what you want. So I guess that could be fame or love or whatever.

And just shout out, I know we have some audience members in the Rochester, New York area. The video for that song, which I remember because it was like the first time I saw them without makeup, the video was shot at the Rochester War Memorial. Really? Yeah. They were opening for Iron Maiden on that tour, I guess, and they passed through Rochester. Anyway, my clickbait headline for the album is The 80s Finds Its Kiss.

So I mean, even without the makeup, they are kiss-like in that they're sort of creating these rock anthems. But I would say the big difference is a lot of the kiss songs are about getting laid. And I don't think any of these are. These are about horror or rebellion and stuff like that. So it's just a solid and I guess accessible rock album. I mean, despite the makeup and all that stuff and kind of their scary look, it's just a really accessible album.

I remember even when I was that age, and I mean, I was frightened by this kind of thing. But for some reason, that album seemed sort of safe. The funny videos for We're Not Gonna Take It and I Wanna Rock, I think helped to make it more superhero cartoony than scary. But yeah, it's really just a charming little album. That's exactly what they were shooting for, I'm sure. It's accessible, but somehow it's not pandering. And I'm not really sure why it doesn't feel that way.

No, it feels very authentic. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. All right. So I encourage you to go watch the Solid Gold performance. You can find on YouTube of Twisted Sister. They are outlandish and silly and fun to watch. It's not good quality, but the music is. Go check out Twisted Sister, stay hungry if you haven't heard it before, or even if you

have. What do you wanna do with your life? Can you dig it? Can you dig it? All right. Well, we spent the last week sort of immersing ourselves in the world of Solid Gold performances. But what else have you been digging lately? A handful of new release recommendations are out here. First one is up from a three piece called Slift. They're from France. The album is called Illion. Kind of experimental rock. It's a pretty lengthy record.

It's in the vein of like the OCs, if you're familiar with them. No. The OCs, yeah. Oh, wait. The O-H-S-E-E-S. Yes, I'm familiar with them. Not the O period. C period. Not the Irish counties. I was thinking about the show and stuff. California. The other one I'll mention here is from like a power punk group here. I believe this is their first record. They're called Nick Deep. Not my usual jam genre, but I think it's actually pretty well written.

But if you saw them here, that struck me as being pretty well polished. So sticking with the neck deep. Are you sure that their name isn't Blink 183? I was going to make that joke. Very welcome to be. Damn it. Another punk rock group here called Green Day. You may have heard of them. Oh, yes. Blink 181. But yeah, they have kind of a return to form record out, I guess I would say. The record is called Saviors. It just came out last week.

It's got quite a bit of buzz on the internet and streaming and things. So that exists. I can't believe that these dudes are like 50 and they sound like it so far, they really sound like full of them and vigor. Maybe they're taking their one a days like I am. That's what we have to do. So I was listening to another cool music podcast called Broken Record and there was a guy from a band that I hadn't heard of called Future Islands. Apparently, they're actually quite well known.

I'm just out of touch. They're out of time. They're like a synth pop group. So I figured I'd check them out and I'm kind of enjoying them. Their latest album just came out. It's called People Who Aren't There Anymore. So I'm not sure I love them yet, but maybe it just takes a while to get used to synth pop that doesn't come from England. Yeah, definitely. I think they're pretty decent. I feel like someone that you wouldn't enjoy. So I wasn't surprised this came up on your list.

Where are they from? Cleveland, I think. I was hoping they were from Canada. That would be an easier transition for you. Okay, so for me, I've been playing around with an old favorite, Judas Priest, their new album Invincible Shield is... Don't know why I love that name, but that's coming out March 8th, 2024. It's their 19th album. Supposedly, it's a bit more progressive than their last album, Firepower, which I love. Some touches of the 70s Priest albums. So we'll see.

The singles that are available right now are Crown of Horns, Trial by Fire, and Panic Attack, which I really enjoy that one. Lots of guitar. Ooh, feels like you could melt your headphones with that. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I know. It's impressive stuff, for sure. Also as far as me acquiring vinyl, on episode 153 of the Album Nerds podcast, we talked about the Wu-Tang Clan, which I had never really explored or listened to. I did pick up Enter the Wu-Tang 36 Chambers on vinyl.

It's due to that show and due to my appreciation of what they were doing at the time in that space. It was my first hip hop album on vinyl. I had stuff as a kid, like on cassette, DJ Jazzy, Jeff and the Fresh Prince and stuff, but that was the first and I've added another since, and maybe I'll get into that on another episode. Congratulations, man. Is that a double or is that a triple maybe? It's a lengthy record. Just a two-sided... Yeah. Two chambers. Which is great. Yeah. Two chambers.

It's got the Shaolin Sword, side A, and I think the Wu-Tang Sword is side B. Nice. Well, what are you digging lately? Let us know. Hit us up on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads at Album Nerds. It will be a discovery of extraordinary value.

Well, guys, as I'm sure you know, it's about this point in the show when I like to think about the famed Scottish inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, who famously said, great discoveries and improvements are invariably involved in the cooperation of many minds. He stole that from me. Uh-huh. Somehow he did that. Well, with that sort of group collaboration and discovery in mind, it is that we bring out Wadbach and find out what we'll be listening to on next week's show.

February is often referred to as the month of love. You will spend the next four episodes exploring themes of romance. You will start by discovering albums that can set that mood with a sensual serenade. Wow, so a little curve ball from the young and vivacious Wadbach. So a theme of love and romance through the next four weeks. We'll be focusing on those sensual serenades in the first week of that series. So albums that are good for midnight connections. Well said. Well said. Thank you.

Yeah, well, that should be nice, guys. We can get into a good groove here, get a good rhythm established. Hopefully it won't get too uncomfortable. No video feed during that discussion. Oh, I'm sure it'll get uncomfortable quicker than we think. What's your favorite romantic album? What else are you listening to? Let us know. Email us at podcast at albumnerds.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and threads at Album Nerds. Also, 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 albumnerds.com slash support. Thank you once again for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time with some sensual serenades and we'll try not to creep you out. Thanks for listening everybody. See you next week. Turn it down you say, but all I gotta say to you is time and time again I say no, no, no, no. Wow, Don. I had to read the words because I, that's hard. That was still good.

The tempo of that is still. Yeah, hats off to Dee Snider. He makes it seem easy.