Hey, Sound Opinions listeners, if you support us on Patreon, you get to listen to our podcast ad-free on Patreon. You're listening to Sound Opinions, and this week we talk with early 80s punks verboten. I'm Jim DeRogatis. And I'm Greg Kott. But first, we'll review the new albums by The Cure, Emil and the Sniffers, and Tyler, the Creator.
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Goose's locations in Chicago, Goose Island Beer Company, Chicago's Beer. That is a little bit of a loan from The Cure's new album, Songs of a Lost World. The Cure have been around forever, it seems like. It's their 14th studio album. 48 years! Yeah, it's amazing. In the mid-70s, right? came together in England. But it's been 16 years since we last got a studio out of them, 413 Dream in 2008. So what's been the delay?
Robert Smith does like to take his time with his records, in this case an inordinately long time. He's talked about, off and on, about breaking up the band, like moving on, doing something different. I think the band, though, rejuvenated. itself by touring regularly in the last decade or so, and Smith got really excited about what he was hearing. One of the key additions has been guitarist Reeves Gabrels.
joined the band as a regular guitarist. Some people may remember him from the ill-fated tin machine, David Bowies, but don't hold that against him. He's been a great addition to the band. You know, one of the most important influences, I mean, the Curian edition. to being part of the goth scene and the post-punk scene.
have maintained a steady presence both on the charts and in the stadiums by doing it their own way. I think they've had a DIY approach to their career from the very beginning. And as a result of it, that they become quite an influence and let us not forget they are now our new heroes for the way they stood up to Ticketmaster nobly few bands that did that and said listen you're charging the kids too much money to come see our show
Never mind that the median age of their fans is probably 55. Yeah, and Ticketmaster did cave. They did offer a refund because they were charging an exorbitant amount for those Ticketmaster fees. Robert Smith, we did a piece on him last year where we talked about Robert Smith and Taylor Swift as being the two heroes of the summer concert scene. Let's play a track from the new album, The Long Gestating Songs of a Lost World. It's called Drone No Drone on Sound Opinions.
That is Drone No Drone by The Cure from Songs of a Lost World, their first album, first studio album since 2008. And it's a strong one, Greg. You know, to be clear, this is not the cure of the Love Cats or Friday I'm in Love. No pop songs. No pop songs. This is the cure of pornography or disintegration, you know, from the 80s. the swirling atmospheric
proto-shoegaze, goth rock, drone band. It's ironic, that song, Drone, No Drone, because there's a lot of great guitar drone. I've got to also give a shout-out to the return in the studio of Keith. You know, despite Smith obviously being the flamboyant frontman of The Cure, he's always been very democratic in the studio. And if you listen to those early Cure records...
especially from the early 80s, you know, they were laying the groundwork for much of what would come. Cocteau Twins, first on that list, and then all the shoegaze bands of the 90s. You know, that swirling atmosphere. dark sound now you know Robert Smith's makeup's always thrown me a little bit, and so has his worldview. You will be glad to know, Cure fans, he is, quote, still staring at the blood-red moon, still pondering.
quote, something wicked this way coming and still maintaining there is nothing you can do to change the end. Oh, so goth. So very, very goth. But, you know, at this point in his life, Smith is pondering mortality. He lost both of his parents and his brother in the last couple of years. And there is a lot of wondering about a life. Was it well?
lived uh what comes next how do i exit the stage when time comes in other words you know all that existential stuff that makes goth rockers uh i i was gonna say happy but i guess that's not right i guess they're happy miserable. They know somebody out there understands them. Robert Smith is the understanding older brother who gets what they're going through. It's a great Cure album. It really is. It really is.
There's a symphonic aspect to the way these songs build, and I'm not saying that as a put-down. I think it's beautiful, the way the synths and the keyboard lines sort of create these beautiful elegiac moments. You know, the classic Cure intros. Like he goes, is this going to be an instrumental? Yeah, how long? How long till we get there? And the words come in. And the fans love that stuff. He takes his time, but the songs pay off because they build and build.
and build. And I have to say, Jim, one of the underrated aspects of this band has always been bassist Simon Gallop, who has been his kind of sidekick from the beginning. He's been one of the constant members of The Cure. than Robert Smith, and Jason Cooper, the drummer. That rhythm section is kicking some serious butt on this record. There's a real punch to what they're doing, so it...
To me, it almost contradicts the gloom. Like, oh, we're wallowing in self-pity, but we're making these rockin' songs, these songs that have big buildups to them. His favorite word on this album is the end. There is the end of every song we sing. the first lines on the album. There's nothing you can do to change the end. That's in the fragile thing. End song is the end of the album. Yes, you're right. It's about mortality. He's been singing about...
He was worried about death before he was even 30. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He sang songs about mortality. And I think, you know, he was relating to his younger self and his younger audience in that respect. We're all going to lose this youth. Now he's lost his youth. Because looking back on it,
But he's still making music that's so beautiful, almost like it's still worth moving on, still worth doing this. And that's a good message. And let's face it, these are rather dark times. So this is a dark soundtrack for them. Thank you. Dark in a very different way. That is a little bit of the opening track Jerkin from the new album by Emil and the Sniffers cartoon. Darkness. Jerk and Greg is an insult to our profession. It's a song about critics. The band is saying they got no need for them.
None. None whatsoever. Amy Taylor, the incredible firebrand lead vocalist of this band that originally came together in Melbourne, Australia. I first discovered her beef with critics. I lauded them as a buried treasure back in 2018. Comfort to me, their second studio album was my number one album of 2021. So, you know, where could they go? This explosion of punk rock energy.
They have made some inroads into the mainstream, surprisingly, with a rather uncompromising sound. Where are they going on album number? I'm going to play a track from it. We're going to review it in a second. This is a song about body shaming. Amy... Taylor wants you to know that if she wants to wear a tiny bikini, she will do so. Tiny Bikini by Emil and the Sniffers from Cartoon Darkness.
That is Tiny Bikini from Emil and the Sniffers. Cartoon Darkness is the new album. A lot of attitude from Amy Taylor. You've got to love it. You expect that. You want that. And, you know, you mentioned Uncomfort to Me, the 2021 album.
What a great record that is. I played it again to sort of do an A-B comparison. How's this one hold up compared to that one? One song after another where she's really talking about, you know, being a sort of a... post-feminist kind of diatribe against society, against...
You know, guys who are being total jerks. I mean, the fact that you still can't walk home at low and at night without feeling like you're going to be accosted. Well, the last album, she imagined knifing a guy like that. This album, she's telling him, get off the Xbox, you jerk. My choice, my own. My voice, my own. My body, my own. I mean, these are issues right front and center. The social commentary combined with the blistering rock and roll. I mean, in a great Australian bar band tradition.
upon a time, ACDC was a bar band, and they rocked like, you know, the Saints' birthday party. They're in that tradition, so I love that. Nick Lanay is the producer. He's worked with Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Idols, you know, Nick Cave. An experienced guy, the hooks are way up on this record in terms of the textures that they're using. The hooks' quotient is higher. The songs stick for that reason. Her voice remains a powerhouse. Let's go!
I just feel she's retreated a little bit as a lyricist. I don't think the songs are quite as powerful as they were on the previous record. There is a lot of getting back at the critics, you know. Why are you saying mean things about me? jerk you know and she has entitled to say that but at the same time i feel like she did better lyrically like she's sort of gone down this rabbit hole of making the mistake of reading her reviews and commenting on it which have been hugely positive yeah
I don't understand. And there's even a conventional slower love song in Chewing Gum. I do love the explosions of energy, Greg. You know, Tiny Bikini and Motorbike Song and Pigs. I think it's interesting you mention ACDC because there's a little bit of a more... mainstream AOR rock, big rock, W-R-O-C-K sense going. And to quote Amy herself, the best roses always grow out of...
Cow dung. I liked when they were a little more garage. However, you know, Robert Smith found me wallowing in my misery with the new Cure album this last 10 days, and Amy gets me pumped. up to go out again and fight. You want to go out and crash a car or something. And we need those two extremes. Yes, that's true. I don't know.
like the way that this is looking mirror got me thinking about my book i just need this time to myself to figure me out do i keep the light on or do i gratefully bow out All right, and now for something completely different. That is Saint Chroma, the opening track on the new album by Tyler, the creator, Chromacopia. Tyler Okonema has become a major force at age 33 in the...
world of alternative hip-hop. We first met him as part of that super controversial group Odd Future in the 2010s. They were dedicated to offending Everyone who possibly could be offended. But as a solo act, Tyler, the creator, has been far more ambitious, and he even began to break into the mainstream with Goblin, you know, and that's... single, Yonkers. He has now given us eight studio albums. This new one is super ambitious.
I'm not sure I quite understand, but the title and that track we bumped in on St. Chroma may refer. to a character from The Phantom Tollbooth, the children's book. Chroma the Great was the orchestra conductor who brought color to the world. And we have a lot of shifting from black and white. on this concept album into Glorious Technicolor. It's sprawling. It's ambitious. It's about Tyler's childhood, that voice that opens the album and is heard several times.
throughout is his mother giving him life advice. And we sort of figure out why he is the way he is at 33. His mother was sort of in the same mold he was. She's a hellion. We're going to dive into it a little more after we play you another track. This is Noid from Tyler the Creator's Chromacopia. Thanks for the lotto. That's a little bit of Noid from the new Tyler, the creator record Chromacopia. Noid as in Paranoid.
I talked about Technicolor emotions here. He's running the spectrum. And getting back to what he was like pre-17, he says, nobody knows what I was before I became semi-famous. Or now he is very famous. He's probably one of the most famous. accomplished. hip-hop artists of our time. This is his eighth studio album. You're right, he's made an incredible transformation from being sort of the bad boy who just wanted to upset people early on to this, considered a really incredible artist.
And I love this album because it is a work of art. Beginning to end, it works as a concept piece for me, talking about various aspects of his childhood. The fact that Bonita... Smith, his mom, is the narrator, as you mentioned, the voice of reason, also dispensing advice and hard-earned lessons, life lessons, many of which she's lived through herself. So she understands what her son is going through. You are the light.
It's not on you. It's in you. Don't you ever in your life dim your light for nobody. So when you got mom involved, and she's pretty cool too, it's a nice touch on this record. And I also noticed the women's voices are very much a part of this record. The Pregnant Woman and Hey Jane, right? The former lover.
who writes him a letter from the grave in Judge Judy, kind of a very moving song. You get the sort of the payoff in the final verse. You go, oh, my God, this is an amazing piece of writing by Tyler. you for the moments i could grab before i left i hope you live your life your truest self with no regrets i wasn't living right until they told me what was left i'm wishing you the best yes thank you for not just Thank you
I just think it's notable that a number of cameos done by female artists, Santee Gold, Glorilla, Sexy Red, Dochi, all contributing to this record. So respect here and also wrestling with his own childhood as a, you know, growing up. with a single parent. You know, where did my father go? Can I be a good father?
you know i'm wrestling with this whole idea of like growing up you know yeah parenthood looms throughout this album you know at 33 uh by his own admission he's beginning to turn gray and he's gaining weight and he's He's thinking about mortality and he's thinking about relationships where partners may want a child. And he's wondering if he wants to bring a child into this way. You know what it had me flashing back to?
interviewing Cobain shortly after the birth of Francis Bean, his daughter. And my daughter was pending, the arrival of my daughter. And we were talking about how this miraculous life experience also was terrible. Right. And there's a lot of that here. There is also still that Calvin character, you know, being, you know, a true snot, you know. Oh, my goodness. You know, but he admits.
That was his personality. What we have here is an example of young, still, toxic masculinity, trying to figure out what maturity... is and what a relationship is and what parenthood is and sometimes he's uh railing about it trying to be as offensive as he can and other times he's he's very honestly examining it i think one of the key lines is i hope
you find yourself and this is mom talking i hope you take your mask off and he's wondering who is this self and and is there anything under the mask and you know it's got to be said musically wow this album is you know everywhere you know from flutes to martial drums to to just you know synthesizer prog rock almost sampling a zombie and rock band on uh annoyed right you know it's this you're right i love
That is an aspect. I'm glad you brought that up because I think the density of the arrangement is incredible. There's so much going on in those songs. There's sort of like a foreground and then there's stuff happening in the background. Everywhere. What's doing that? He is a...
does it all he's the producer he's the arranger he's the songwriter he's the primary rapper he's got these guests but nobody outshines him uh he's really a gifted artist and uh you know alongside kendrick lamar he says it on this record there's nobody better than right then than me except for Kendrick, and I think he's right.
Well, that's what we thought of Tyler, the creator, Emil and the Sniffers, and the new album by The Cure. As always, though, we want to hear from you. Share your thoughts in a voice message on our website, soundopinions.org. We'd love to play it on the show. There's certain... more to say about these albums. Coming up, we talk with Tracy and Jason of Verbotin. That's in a minute on Sound Opinions.
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Today we have the rather unique story of the band Verboten. One member of that band, Jason Narducey, has been on Sound Opinions many times, playing bass for Bob Mould and in Superchunk, currently touring with... sunny day real estate his own project split single in the 90s he led the alternative band verbot but before any of that he had a punk band in evanston called verboten
That's right, Jim. Jason was just 10 years old in 1982 when he and bassist Chris Keene and drummer Zach Cantor joined with singer Tracy Bradford to form Verbotin, and they became one of the youngest punk bands in this very hard-nosed punk scene. In Chicago, we had at the time.
Amazingly, these young kids wound up playing shows with Chicago punk legends like The Effigies and Naked Ray Gun, and they inspired one of America's current rock stars on his path to life and music. But that all came later. First, Jason... had to get his hands on an electric guitar. I lived in Evanston. I still live in Evanston, but I was 10 years old and I walked across the street to Lincoln grade school.
i met chris keen we were playing basketball we hit it off we started talking about music and he brought me to his apartment which was just two doors down from mine and showed me his brother's electric guitar which you know for my world that was like i couldn't believe i was looking at a real electric guitar just seemed like something that i would see on records or on tv or something
And soon after that, I got a guitar, which was unbelievable to me that my parents did that. And Chris's... upstairs neighbor on the third floor zach had a practice pad which is a piece of it's a wood block with a round rubber piece that you know early young drummers learn how to tap out beats
Yeah, the rudiments. You had to have that Mel Bay rudiments book. Yeah. A paradiddle and a flam. Yes. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Okay, well, Jim, you knew all the terms. Yeah. And then he graduated to a snare drum. And we would set up cardboard around him so that would be his tom. So he'd play the snare and do a fill on the cardboard.
and uh and then chris started playing bass and tracy just reminded me this in a recent practice i'd completely forgotten but the three of us me and zach and chris called ourselves the reflex and I wrote original songs and there's a cassette somewhere. I have to find it. I can picture this black cassette with the handwriting, the reflex. And we pretty early on realized we needed a singer. And I went to school with Tracy. She was older than me.
uh we asked her to join the band and that's that's sort of the real simple version of it and that's when we became a real band not only because we had a charismatic singer but also because Tracy was immersed in Chicago punk rock and knew the bands, you know, like we would hold an Effigies record and go, I can't believe there's a band from Evanston that has a record. But Tracy went and saw those shows and was immersed in the community. So she took us to a whole other level.
Tracy, how were you getting this stuff? Because, you know, the effigies and Big Black and Ray Gunn, they were scary. You know, they were big. They were big Chicago guys with broad shoulders. And I remember the first time I saw the letter, I didn't, you know, it's like I was glad I was seeing the show, but I didn't want to talk to him or anything. Well, so the differences between boys and girls is that, for starters, I never had that feeling.
You know, everybody was super welcoming to me. You know, I never went to a club or to a show where I was ever scared or ever afraid. Everybody was very approachable. And probably because I was one of four girls out of a room of 200 boys. You were always welcomed. Yeah. There were two other younger bands at the time, Rights of the Accused and Negative Element, and I became close friends with them.
really quickly. And then they were friends with Naked Ray Gun or Articles of Faith. Effigies, I played soccer with Steve Economo's sister. And so, again, like there were ways you could infiltrate and not come across as like a groupie or or whatever. It was just like, you're always welcome.
One of four young women who are fans, Russell, give or take, right? Exactly. That I can understand, Tracy. But when these three gents, Jason and his pals, come to you and say, we need a singer, we think it should be you. You know, what made you think you could do that? All right. So for starters, Jason and I have different view of this. So Jason's view is that they wanted me.
My view was I wanted them. So the thing was, Jason invited me when I was at the end of eighth grade and had given me the reflex tape. And it said, we think it'd be really fun if you would come to a band practice and hear us. So I agreed and I listened to them and I was like, damn, they're really good. And I thought, you know what, you need a manager. I'm going to be the manager. And so now I'll need to go to practices and, you know, help manage and get their career started.
Pretty quickly then I switched from wanting to be the manager to be the lead singer because nobody had a girl singer in Chicago. There was Da, but I don't think we knew about Da. i didn't know about her yeah in our scene nobody's very rare yeah so i was like this would be super cool and you know if i can be with three people that are really good
then, you know, I can be whatever and we can make this happen. Chris and I were sort of like the front cuties. You know what I mean? It was kind of like Chris had like this super cute charm. Zach was super cute. Jason was just precious. I mean, I could carry him in my arms. He was so tiny. You did that many times. And I did. But it was sort of like one of those things. We were, you know, they were really good.
So, of course, I wanted to be in their band. You guys were writing songs and actually did some recording as well, right, during that era? Yeah. it seemed like you you moved along like okay we're we're not just because i wasn't like when i when i was your guy's age we would goof around in the garage but nothing ever came of it you know it was nothing
He was just goofing around. We had no ambitions. Did you have ambitions like right away? Like, oh, yeah, effigies did this. We can make a record. Oh, absolutely. Well, the recording the recording came around because Zach's dad was an advertiser. And he had this concept for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese where there would be this young punk band that is in this TV commercial. And he pitched us. And in order to pitch us, he needed a recording.
That also coincided with this opportunity to be on a NBC Saturday morning TV show called Kidding Around. They're going to play an original song they wrote called My Opinion. And now here they are, Reboatin'. you And they also needed a recording. So Zach's dad booked time at Studio Media in Edmonton, which is where Naked Raygun recorded and Slint and many other bands. But...
The purpose of it was to just have a representation of the band. And so it was live to two track. And we had no idea what we were doing. One thing we did do that was kind of sneaky is that Zach's dad said, you can record four songs. um so we wanted to record five so we combined two songs into one it's a bit of a bit of a medley but um
It's funny now as an adult and as someone who's been playing music for a while to listen to those recordings to me because the first song is hesitant. The second song gets a little bit better. And by the third and fourth, we're really humming.
And, you know, if there was somebody in the room who knew what they were doing, they would say, OK, now do all those four songs again now that you guys have warmed up. But I love what it captures. It captures this moment of these nervous kids, you know, trying to. trying to play punk rock and i think a lot of the recordings end up sounding like new wave which is fine we love new wave too um
There was maybe one or two songs where I think we really kind of got to that level of punk rock, but we were embraced by the scene. So I'm glad that those recordings exist. These bands are embracing you to the point where there was the Cubby Bear show, right, where you guys are opening for two of the biggest bands on that scene.
Yeah. Naked Reagan on Articles of Faith, right? Right. I think that one was Rights of the Accused, because those guys jumped on stage. Yeah, okay. Tracy and I were talking about this the other day. Verboten played with Articles of Faith at COD. But I was grounded. And I couldn't play. What had you done, Jason, to get grounded, to not be allowed to play in the punk rock show?
This is a matter for my therapist, I think. There were two or three shows that I didn't play because I was grounded. And Chris, this is just last week, Chris goes... You were a good kid. He was very frustrated. I had a situation at home that was tough. But I like it that they played the shows. without me i think it's funny you know i saw jason as being much older and much more together than i'm sure a parent does
And some of these venues are bars. Oh, absolutely. That none of you could have gotten into. Had we not been in the band. Yeah, there's always the exception that if somebody is playing, you know, but then they're ushered out right after the show. Oh, absolutely. I've always said, Tracy, this is the great... tragic and often unreported story in rock and roll. Because I was young and going to shows in Hoboken and New York, and I was...
sneaking in at 16, 17, 18. And then, you know, the age, the drinking age went up to 19. And then it went up to 21, right? And today in Chicago, which, you know, despite all the challenges, still has a vibrant, thriving music scene. It is almost impossible to get all in. licenses right the city doesn't give them out now who needs music more than a 14 15 16 year old kid and they can't see it right live music
And I was a master manipulator in that. If there's a way, I'm going to figure it out. I would say, Tracy, you were oozing of charm. Manipulation was... Part of the charm. If you want something bad enough, you figure out a way to make it happen. Now, back to sort of the beginning is my first show. Dead Kennedys were the closer. And I met East Bay Ray and we exchanged numbers and addresses and we would write each other back and forth.
I would tell him about my band and, you know, he would encourage me, you know, if we want to go on tour with the Dead Kennedys, I was pretty sure I could make that happen. You know, when you have enough people like that. encouraging you or kind of saying like hey you too can make this happen it was sort of like an invitation to you know make that the goal
It's interesting that they were so welcoming. I think that was unique in the punk scene as opposed to just about any other gig you might want to get in Chicago.
the level of nervousness though like opening these shows like your kids you're going on this stage is probably a new thing i mean how did you did you feel confident right away or did you feel like oh my god what are we doing what was the attitude getting up on those stages for the first time well there was there were so many different situations i mean i remember cubby bear really clearly
But we also my dad videotaped it so we can you can watch you can watch that on YouTube But we would also feel like we played the Battle of the Bands at New Trier High School. And there was no other bands like us, not only our age, but it was all like Rush cover bands. Nutri are probably the ritziest high school in all of the Chicago area. They got money.
Nonused, suburban, pretty in pink. Yeah. And a huge, a huge rival, you know, like we, there was definitely like that, that energy and that, but yeah, I mean, we did a lot of like, you know.
basement parties or gymnasiums and um i don't know tracy did you feel nervous i mean i think i was nervous at the beginning of some of those shows but a couple songs in we just kind of like found our thing and just did it i don't remember ever being nervous um what would throw me was my mother showing up so if my mom showed up in her black fur coat it would just kill the vibe
Outside of that, really, I don't think I was ever really put off. Besides the fact my mom was a beautiful singer and a great musician. So I think there was always... And a very tolerant patient. There was one practice where Zach and I got there early. We would practice in Tracy's basement. She had the only house in the whole band.
Zach and I got there early and I jumped on bass and he's playing drums and we were playing really loud before Chris and Tracy got there. And, you know, it shattered a vase above us. There was a vase in the dining room and it fell off and shattered. That was never a problem. I mean, Tracy, maybe she was angry with you, but we never heard anything about that. We felt terrible. But she seemed so patient and forgiving.
allowing us to have that space in that basement was pretty amazing. It was a very fancy family heirloom. Was it really? But again, it was something that... The glass shelf had vibrated off and fell. It wasn't like we ran into it with a football and broke it.
You know, besides the old ages thing, the great untold story, the other great one of punk rock is supportive moms. You know, I got to talk to Charlotte, Joey Ramone's mom, several times. She'd drive them in the station wagon from... queens uh to the lower east side you know my mom used to the neighbors used to complain when we were rehearsing my mom would go now they have a nine o'clock cut off you just you just deal with it right the enablers yes
So we had neighbors. You know, you figure it out. What can we do to not have that happen again? My mom's line always was, at least I know where he is. Yeah. Right, right, right. Our house was always open. When we return, more of our conversation with Jason and Tracy of Verboten. That's in a minute on Sound Opinions. And we're back.
We're talking with Jason Narduzzi and Tracy Bradford about the band they founded in 1982 for Bowton. In early 2020, the long-dormant band came back to life in the form of a musical. Jason explained how he helped create... a play based on his own experiences as a preteen punk. You know, that came about because of the Sonic Highways, the HBO show that Dave Grohl did where he interviewed Tracy and I.
You know, the simple story is that Dave was 13 when he and his mom and his sister Lisa came to Evanston to visit with family. And Dave got to see his practice, and he cites that as an influence to him, you know, if these young kids can write. original music than I should, I should write original music. And he was nice enough to feature us in that.
in that program and include footage that my dad shot of us. And there's a playwright in Chicago named Brett Nevue, who's a part of a Red Orchid Theater, a very well-respected theater. in chicago who saw it and got a hold of me through mutual friends and pitched me on this idea of making a musical and i i remember being I'm thinking it was absurd and wild, but he was very persistent and he interviewed all four of us.
and started to put together different scripts. And, you know, we worked on it for a very long time. It was, I don't know, five years or something where he was writing the book and I was writing the music. Many times I thought it would fall apart. You know, the vain part of me during that process was kind of like, good luck finding Jason. But they went and cast this amazing cast, including an actor named Kieran McCabe, who played the Jason character.
uh more talented than me better looking than me and nicer than me um and you know i i was so impressed with the whole thing and i Basically, all I did was consult a little bit and write the music. I feel like... there were so many contributors, you know, the house theater and the director, Nathan Allen, just amazing cast. And it was, it ended up being quite successful and award-winning even and full houses.
Just a great experience. I mean, one of my favorite memories is Tracy and Chris coming in for the previews and us all sitting there. Tracy, you remember you and I sat next to each other and there's a scene, you know. The musical, we took liberties with the story. It's not a biography. It's not a documentary. But there is one scene where Tracy's parents in the play sing something to Tracy.
we both grabbed each other's hands and were crying and it was, it was just very moving and, um, I'll never forget it. Yeah. Yeah. It's honestly the, the music to that was so good that. For me, that made taking it a step further that much easier. And it just reinforced how much the four of us cared about each other. you know, at that time. And, you know, that we still enjoy seeing each other. It's been a family, a chosen family for, you know, over 40, I don't know, close to 45 years.
As things then progressed even past the musical, because obviously COVID sort of shut that down, it was easy to kind of revisit doing something else because that was so amazing that, my God, if Jason can... write all these great songs, he can do it again with Verboten. And, you know, as I started hearing the first four songs that he would write.
It was, you know, I was in love with the music immediately. There was interest from a promoter for the band to reunite to possibly play a festival, and they approached Tracy about this. And Tracy and Chris kind of talked about it. And then they came to me. So just like with the musical where it wasn't my idea and it was something I never would have even thought of being possible.
Tracy and Chris approached me about the possibility of doing this, and my first reaction was, you guys want to play music? Because you had not sung for decades. Right. You were the only member, Jason, right, that continued with music, right? Tracy, you and the others had sort of dropped out.
from the music zach zach did continue to play um he's not playing anymore and that was another factor that was like we needed to go to zach and see if he was okay with this um and he's completely not only gave us his blessing but i worked on some of the new songs with him arrangement and and ideas and he's he's been integral to the behind the scenes part of this but the yeah the other thing i said to them after i said i
i couldn't believe they wanted to play music was we don't have enough music to play a set if we wanted to and there are songs i wrote when i was 11. And so this was back last summer and I was like, well, maybe we try to think about making a record and then see if we can play some shows. So that's how that all came about. And then it just got wild where it was like, I remember calling Chris and going, what should verboten sound like now? Chris said, you should write songs that...
He said, don't forget that many bands we listened to back then you could dance to. And I said, what are you talking about? He said, The Clash, The Talking Heads, Susie and the Banshees. and he really pushed me to write a dance song which i did there's a song on the new record called better life which to me sounds like If Glenn Tilbrook fronted the Stooges and they played a season of Benji song. Here comes the rock critic and Jason. Sorry, I'm taking over.
That song has so many, you know, the distorted bass, the bells like the Stooges. I call it the aerosol beat. That's Suzie and the Banshee. I mean, there's so many moments, and the spoken word thing over the chorus is Bowie. So many of our influences smashed into one song.
I don't know that I ever would have written a song like that if Chris didn't kind of push me in that direction. And then Tracy just has some, as you can tell already from this interview, Tracy has so many great stories and she inspired.
a lot of lyrics on the record and just became a very it became a more collaborative record than even back in the day because back then i basically wrote everything tracy helped write lyrics to one song but um this one was really like we were all working together well it's jason's um way in creating music is also interesting as far as lyrics go because he'll sort of like interview you but not interview you so like hey so tell me about you know this or so you know tell me well tracy
Tracy was a hospice nurse and I had so many questions. And one of the questions was about. I remember asking, is the hardest part of the job dealing with the families? And you were like, yeah. And then I just imagined what those families were going through. Not only in that moment, but what those families went through before they got to hospice. And that's the song of Machine, you know, Life by Machine. It's so good.
Tracy, what kind of a kick is it for you? How does it feel? Is it a thrill? So the music, honestly, is so good. It's distracting for me from actually singing, but there's also so much power behind the songs and so much that really means something to me. So there's a part of it that, you know, I feel like Vic Bondi or, you know, Jello Biafra at times where I'm just like, yeah, you know, like, you know, like, I feel so powerful.
it's us it's this is who we are these are the type of people we are we want to make this world a different place a better place uh you know we're passionate and so for me there's If it was bubblegummy or whatever, I wouldn't have been interested. There's something very powerful about being up there. and being able to share that with people. I tend to not have a lot of stage fears. Again, as long as my mom stays and long goes to you and doesn't come, we're good.
Well, you guys sound pretty confident on this record, and the million-dollar question is, I know you're doing a festival show, Riot Fest. You're doing, I think, one other gig. Is there going to be anything beyond that? Is this going to be like one and done, or are we looking at something that has less? No.
Yeah, we want to do more. Well, we want to thank Jason Verducci and Tracy Bradford for being our guests. Didn't think it would take 41 years to get... get the band back together i didn't know we'd ever see this day but we're glad we did verboten is back together and thanks guys for for telling us the story pleasure talking to you thanks
That's it for our chat with Verboten. And I dare say that's one of the most unique stories we've ever told on Sound Opinions, Greg. As always, we want to hear from you, our listeners. How has punk rock shaped your life? Were you making a glorious noise at age 10? Share your story by visiting our website, soundopinions.org, so we can play it on the show. Mr. Cott, what do we have next week? Next week, Jim, a 40th anniversary tribute to... You Prince is great.
Purple Rain album, a life-changing album for many of our listeners, I'm sure. And don't forget to check out our bonus podcast where we add new songs to the Desert Island jukebox. Some really timely ones of late. Thoughts and opinions expressed in this program belong solely to Sound Opinions and not necessarily to Columbia College Chicago or our sponsors. Thanks as always to our Patreon supporters.
This episode of Sound Opinions was produced by Andrew Gill with help from Alex Claiborne and our Columbia College intern, Max Hatlam. Our social media consultant is Katie Cott. In addition to support from listeners like you, Sound Opinions has opportunities for corporate sponsors to reach our smart and engaged audience. Email us at sponsor at soundopinions.org and we'll fill you in on the details. details.