The Doors. Rock fans either revere or revile them….and by them, I mean Jim Morrison, the public face of the band. While it’s true that the lead singer is often the member the general public remember more than, say, the keyboard player, few bands take this to the extreme like The Doors. It seems to me that people forget The Doors were a BAND, not Jim Morrison’s pseudonym. So when all is said and done, how good WERE The Doors when considered as an entity, and not just Jim and friends? On Episode 2...
May 19, 2012•2 hr 2 min
The Gaslight Anthem have in the last few years attracted a dedicated following with their cross of modern punk and Springsteen influences. Songwriter Brian Fallon has put together a side project called The Horrible Crowes for material that would not necessarily work in the context of his main band. If you’ve listened to previous episodes of Love That Album with Geoff Smith as my fellow commentator, you’d know of his love for both of these bands. In episode 20 of LTA, Geoff, John Stirrat and myse...
May 07, 2012•2 hr 5 min
I have been heard to say that I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. You like what you like – end of story. As will be obvious from Episode 19 of Love That Album, I love Billy Joel’s album “The Stranger”. Nowadays in some people’s eyes (and for someone from this list you KNOW who you are), that is an admission tantamount to confessing to having an STD. The fact of the matter is that this album is full of well constructed songs – melodically rich, well arranged, mainly (though not completely) cleve...
Apr 23, 2012•1 hr 54 min
From the mid 70s through to the late 90s, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook had a songwriting partnership that had the pundits comparing them to Lennon/McCartney. Don’t feel under any pressure, guys. As mainstays of the band Squeeze, Tilbrook’s music and Difford’s lyrics covered a multitude of subjects including spouse abuse, living under cramped conditions, infidelity, and wanking. They survived the new wave label and later on, the AOR label to just make great songs till Squeeze’s demise. Both m...
Apr 13, 2012•1 hr 13 min
On Episode 17 of Love That Album, we try something new and something old. For the first time, there are three of us discussing the album of the episode. In addition to LTA regular Geoff Smith, I’m joined from Sydney by Springsteen aficionado John Stirrat (not he of Wilco fame), to discuss Bruce’s latest long player, “Wrecking Ball”. The fact that we’re covering Bruce is the “something old”, since Jeff Jenkins and I went head-to-head way back in Episode 1 discussing Springsteen’s “Darkness on the...
Apr 02, 2012•2 hr 15 min
For episode 16 of Love That Album podcast, we see the return of an artist previously discussed on the show, Paul Simon. Back in 1980, the music world was on the cusp of an onslaught of New Wave. Paul Simon wrote and starred in a film called One Trick Pony about a journeyman musician trying to find if he still has a place in the new musical landscape. Famous in the sixties for one anti-war song, he now has to compete with the new popular bands (the B52s make an appearance), swim around the sharks...
Mar 18, 2012•2 hr 22 min
For episode 15 of Love That Album podcast, Michael Pursche (of Sitting in a Bar in Adelaide podcast) discuss the wonderful but seldom talked about album from 1981, the eponymous album for Broderick Smith’s Big Combo. (You might say that we’re doing a Brod-cast) Brod emerged from Carson and The Dingoes to form this fantastic ensemble that reminds me of “Darkness” era E-Street Band and reminds Michael of Van Morrison. Either way, Brod is a gifted songwriter with a talent for painting a picture and...
Mar 08, 2012•1 hr 40 min
Why, on a Ramones related show do I have the Allman Brothers song “‘Ramblin’ Man” going through my head? On Episode 14 of Love That Album, the one and only Doctor Zom of Silva and Gold podcast returns to discuss the Alan Arkush / Roger Corman rocksploitation film “Rock and Roll High School” featuring The Ramones in Oscar-worthy performances, as well as their Phil Spector produced album of the same period, “End of the Century”. In true Silva and Gold fashion, there were many detours from the pros...
Feb 26, 2012•3 hr 22 min
If you were a pop music loving teenager back in 1980 (and face it – we all were) and living in Australia or New Zealand, then Split Enz album “True Colours” was part of your aural landscape. This album and its ridiculously catchy singles “I Got You” and “I Hope I Never” were impossible to avoid. The huge success the album gained came for the band after a rough patch living in England. So how does the album hold up in 2012? On Episode 13 of Love That Album podcast, I discuss the album and its leg...
Feb 13, 2012•2 hr 36 min
On episode 12 of Love That Album, regular contributor, Geoff Smith returns to discuss with me Suzanne Vega’s second album “Solitude Standing”. I’d heard the album many times. Geoff heard it twice. As a result, Geoff suggests the podcast undergoes a controversial name change. What was his suggestion? What did he have to say about the album? Will Geoff get kicked out of Tom’s Diner next time he’s in New York? All this and more is discussed. Send feedback to rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au Search for the s...
Feb 01, 2012•1 hr 38 min
Back in the seventies, San Franciscan band The Tubes set out to shock all those who saw their live shows with their satire of our obsession with materialism, white rich kids with too much time on their hands, and what REALLY went on behind the white picket fences. They were a very theatrical band, but many of their songs stand proudly without the visuals. In 1979, they recorded their final album for A & M records called “Remote Control” recounting the story of a man’s obsession (and ultimate...
Jan 23, 2012•1 hr 53 min
Love That Album hits double digits, and I celebrate the start of 2012 by focusing on one of the great albums of 2011, Paul Simon’s “So Beautiful or So What”. Simon is in deep philosophical mode here (when isn’t he?), but unlike a couple of his most recent albums he has the melodies to match. This is a beautiful album using a small number of great musicians to convey Simon’s music in the best possible way. At the age of 70, Simon still has things to say and beautiful melodies in him to let out. T...
Jan 10, 2012•1 hr 2 min
For the final Love That Album episode of 2011, my special guest, Julian Gillis, and I discuss our fave albums of the year and then shoot the shit about Matthew Sweet’s two brilliant slices of power pop, “Girlfriend” and “Altered Beast”. These albums are musically sunny and lyrically overcast. There’s some complex stuff going on in Matthew’s head. Does he have stalker tendencies? What is his interest in Caligula? All this and more are discussed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...
Dec 23, 2011•2 hr 26 min
This is a really big shooo. The longest Love That Album so far. I'm joined by co-host of the Silva and Gold podcast, Doctor Zom to discuss The Who's "Quadrophenia". We discuss in a lot of detail both the double album from 1973 (just re-released in November 2011 in a multi CD "Director's Cut" edition) and the 1978 film directed by Franc Roddam featuring a very young Ray Winstone and Sting in an excellent acting performance (filmed during the early days of the Police). Is this the Who's masterwork...
Dec 10, 2011•2 hr 37 min
For this episode of Love That Album, I’m working without the safety net of a co-host to bounce thoughts off. I discuss Joe Jackson’s album of 1982 “Night & Day”. Recorded only 3 years after his punky-pop debut “Look Sharp”, Jackson’s musical thoughts are miles away from his early style. More focussed on jazz, samba and piano ballads than punk, pop and ska, Night & Day is a modern musical masterpiece. I go through my thoughts on the album, career highlights, and his essay advocating smoke...
Dec 01, 2011•1 hr 1 min
I'm joined by Melbourne broadcaster and rock-guru Billy Pinnell for a discussion about The Doors' final album with Jim Morrison. Heavy on blues. No Oedipus allusions here. Was Paul Rothschild right to say Riders on the Storm was cocktail music? Is there too much focus on Morrison and not enough on Kreiger, Densmore and Manzarek? Was Morrison saying farewell to the Doors in song through this album? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 19, 2011•1 hr 23 min
Maurice and Geoff Smith discuss Steve Earle's great album of 1997. It's a compendium of all that Earle holds dear - politics, justice, love, Woody Guthrie and Townes Van Zandt, bluegrass and RAWWWKKKK. The third part of the great trinity of albums released after a stint in jail, and with Earle desperately trying to stay off the substances. Where does this album stand in the line of other Earle releases? Any opinions or different Earle preferences? Send feedback to rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au. We'd l...
Nov 10, 2011•1 hr 15 min
In Australia, the band Cold Chsiel inspires either full blown adoration from those who grew up listening to them until today, or dismissiveness from those who only pay attention to the full blown hyena hysterics of lead singer Jim Barnes post-Chisel. In this episode of Love That Album, Jeff and Maurice discuss their two most popular albums East and Circus Animals. How did one follow up the other? How did the band dynamics change after East? What is the band's legacy? Whycan Jim Barnes attract th...
Oct 27, 2011•1 hr 27 min
Maurice and Jeff discuss in some depth why Get The Knack is a classic album, and should not be reviled by the shoe-gazing, too-cool-for-school, Nirvana-loving hipsters. Think about it - if My Sharona makes the Knack a one-hit-wonder, what does that say about Smells Like Teen Spirit? Simply put, Get The Knack is a hook-drenched rock and roll album about lust - isn't that the essence of rock and roll? Listen and be convinced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Oct 15, 2011•1 hr 15 min
So it's like this, folks. This episode was meant to be about Geoff Smith and I chewing the fat about John Hiatt's classic album "Meet The Family". During the editing process, I somehow "edited out" that entire section - with no backup. AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!. Fortunately, Geoff agreed to record that section of the show again, but the recording program did something weird to the audio rendering it unlistenable. I'm too slack to record it a third time, so what I have here is everything we recorded to ...
Oct 03, 2011•44 min
A debate between Maurice and Melbourne music Journalist Jeff Jenkins on one of life's more important issues: Which is the better Bruce Springsteen album? The Wild and the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle or Darkness On The Edge of Town. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 12, 2011•44 min
