Send us a text The great John Sebastian celebrates his 81st birthday today as we're posting this. We had the good fortune to have a lengthy conversation with John this past fall to discuss John B. Sebastian , his 1970 debut as a solo artist. It's an album which is certainly underrated and if your ears have never had the pleasure of hearing it, today's the day to change that. Our good friend Peter Lubin helped to arrange the time with John and joins us for this discussion, which is one that we'll...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 143
Send us a text In picking her favorite album, author K.L. Doty let us know up front that she couldn't settle on just one -- something which we're all familiar with as music fans, right? So we talk about a lot of different music. But in regards to Disintegration by the Cure, specifically, she shared a thought that will land with many of us who have grown up (I guess that's all of us) and made our way out into the real world, which can maybe be the first real moment where you learn about things li...
Nov 23, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 142
Send us a text You might know Brian Wecht as Ninja Brian . Or maybe you know him as Trey Magnifique . Perhaps, you just know him as Brian and that's fine too. Matt and Jeff were just thrilled to have him on the podcast to talk about Al Jarreau's mighty fine Breakin' Away album. But there were conditions. First, an impromptu 20 minute discussion about Kenny G. You'll see. Is there a Chicago reference followed by some scathing condemnation? You know there is. As it happens, Brian, er, Trey Magnifi...
Nov 15, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 141
Send us a text Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip joins Matt to discuss the 35th anniversary of the band's 1989 debut, Up to Here , which is being celebrated with a lavish box set featuring a wealth of previously unreleased content. The box set is available today digitally and will be released in a variety of physical formats on Nov. 15. You can order your copy of the box set here . The conversation with Rob was wonderfully free-flowing and numerous topics are discussed, including of course, storie...
Nov 08, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 140
Send us a text Professor Louis Moore joins Matt and Jeff to discuss his essential new book, The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans and the Making of the Black Quarterback . Our engaging discussion with Lou took us deep into the history of Black quarterbacks and athletes in general in the NFL and he talks about the journey he took as he was writing the book. However much progress you might think has been made in the NFL (and beyond), this discussion -- and Lou's book -- will remind you ...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 139
Send us a text This is almost a "lost episode" of sorts. To pull the curtain back a bit, we recorded this episode back in July and then promptly got busy with a bunch of other things. So if you hear a mention or two that sound a bit dated, there ya go. What remains is a fun discussion that we had regarding Robert Wyatt's 1974 album Rock Bottom. We examine where Robert was career-wise in 1974 as he was continuing to evolve his solo work following his time with Soft Machine and subsequently, Match...
Oct 23, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Send us a text The guys end summer break with a completely random "accidental Cassingle," as Jeff tagged it. There are discussions of Funyuns (which still exist!), Taco Bell, concept albums, Jeff's new book , asbestos, kids who swear a lot, new music from Jon Anderson of Yes, the upcoming solo album from Warren Haynes and other subjects that are probably being forgotten. We got together to record a simple introduction for our next podcast episode....and this happened. Anyway, it's been a good su...
Oct 10, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 137
Send us a text Our latest Bonus Track features a conversation with author and journalist John Barry, who covered Woodstock '94 as it happened. Thirty years later, he joins Matt to share some of his memories of the experience. Music fans will also be interested in the book that John wrote about Levon Helm's incredible second act with the Midnight Ramble and other events that happened during the later years of his career. Levon Helm: Rock, Roll & Ramble - The Inside Story of the Man, the Music...
Aug 15, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 136
Send us a text Jeff and Matt love nothing more than coming across obscure AOR gems. Jesse Colin Young' s 1982 album, The Perfect Stranger , fits into that category. Featuring guest appearances by Carly Simon, Michael McDonald, Bill Payne and Fred Tackett of Little Feat and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles, The Perfect Stranger also finds Jesse surrounded by an unbelievable cast of many of the era's best session players. Jesse tells the guys how he came to work with producer Michael James Jackson ...
Aug 07, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 135
Send us a text Podcasting pioneer Jimmy Pardo hosts the award-winning podcast, Never Not Funny . But he also puts his name behind a lot of good things. Witness his annual Pardcast-a-Thon , which provided nine hours of laughs from Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Dave Holmes, Jon Cryer and numerous others -- INCLUDING DAVID FOSTER -- raising over $125 thousand dollars for charity in the process. For $25 you can purchase an archive of this year's performances and if you like to laugh, we highly rec...
Jul 13, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Send us a text This is a flashback moment to our previous podcast, 1991: The Year AOR Ate Itself . For those of you who didn't hear that podcast series, you'll be interested to hear this episode, which aired July 5, 2021. In my memory (note: I'm making this up), we decided to celebrate Independence Day by talking about Foreigner's first album without Lou Gramm, Unusual Heat . Even though that's not true, we did have a lot of fun discussing Unusual Heat with our friend Ben Arthur , who brought a ...
Jul 07, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 133
Send us a text Our latest Bonus Track features a great conversation with the legendary Leland Sklar and director Denny Tedesco regarding his film, The Immediate Family . That's right, someone finally made a movie about Lee Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel. If you're a liner notes nerd, you know those names! Here's one example: Jackson Browne's Running on Empty album was one where the music fans got to be part of the process. Because it was recorded live on stage in concert -...
Jun 29, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 132
Send us a text The 1974 Project continues as we welcome back our friend and A&R man Peter Lubin to discuss Pussy Cats by Harry Nilsson. Produced by John Lennon, Pussy Cats is an interesting and at times, unfortunate mile marker in Nilsson's career -- and the guys discuss why that is. There is once again a great tribute album at the heart of all of this Nilsson stuff for Jeff and Matt, 1995's For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson . Jeff describes the doors that opened for him as a mu...
Jun 22, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 131
Send us a text In 1984, Christopher Cross added a unique new entry to his discography. " A Chance For Heaven " was selected as the official swimming theme for the Olympics. I bet you didn't even know there was an official swimming theme that year, did you? Neither did we. Discovering that factoid during our episode about Christopher's 1985 album, Every Turn of the World , was enough to send us out on an important quest. What if we were to discuss the Olympics soundtrack albums for 1984, 1988 and...
Jun 07, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 130
Send us a text In our first Bonus Track of 2024, legendary artist and producer Narada Michael Walden tells Matt about his time working with the late Tommy Bolin. It's an emotional subject for Narada, but also a period in his career that he retains a lot of love and affection for. We spoke in November of 2023 as Narada was just about to release his newest solo album, Euphoria . The record features a wealth of exciting new compositions -- and also, a long-in-the-works collaboration with Sting, Car...
Jun 02, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Send us a text The magnificent Davia Schendel joins Jeff and Matt to discuss Suzi Quatro's second album, Quatro. Today's conversation definitely goes deep into "music nerd" territory. We talk about record stores of the past, making playlists devoted to things like gated reverb and snare hits. Should we talk about the underrated power player in music that is known as the saxophone? You're darn right, we should. How much does the bass rule? We've got thoughts.There are stray conversations about mo...
May 31, 2024•1 hr 38 min•Season 1Ep. 128
Send us a text It's time for the first solo Jeff and Matt episode in a good while! Today, the guys team up to look back at Every Turn of the World , the third album by Christopher Cross. They dig through a number of topics including the album's relative lack of success, how Jeff found it -- and why he loved it so much at the time. We also discuss Jeff's forthcoming debut novel, Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the Mundane , which is set for a July release. Jeff gives fans of The...
May 24, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 127
Send us a text We have another first on the podcast, but you're going to have to listen to find out what it is. Let's start with the facts: Benjamin Miner of The Feldons joins Jeff and Matt to talk about 1969's Uncle Meat album, by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Have you ever heard this album? It's a wild ride, just like our discussion. In addition to Uncle Meat , we also discuss pinball machines, pinball lust, churches with pinball machines and basketball gyms that have no air condit...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 126
Send us a text Benjamin Wagner joins the guys for a frank discussion about mental health in the midst of Mental Health Awareness Month . He's spent a good amount of time thinking about -- and researching the subject. His new film, Friends & Neighbors , is the result of that work. Benjamin tells Jeff and Matt how his own mental health struggles influenced the movie -- and what he learned once he finished the project. In Friends & Neighbors , Benjamin thinks back to the words of his friend...
May 11, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 125
Send us a text Emmy-nominated songwriter Ben Arthur released his third album, Edible Darling , in 2004. A longtime friend of the podcast (long before there was a podcast, in fact), Ben joins Jeff and Matt to look back on the album in its 20th anniversary year. He recaps his rollercoaster experience navigating the music industry in those early years and how it ultimately influenced where he's gone with his life's work since then. To date, Ben has released 10 albums and an ongoing series of single...
May 05, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 124
Send us a text Legendary producer Tom Werman joins Jeff and Matt to talk about one of his favorite albums, Who's Next , by the Who. Tom is one of the best kind of people you can hope to meet in the music industry, because not only is he very talented as a producer, but he also is a music fan at heart. That's something that comes through again and again as you're reading his new memoir, Turn It Up: My Time Making Hit Records In The Glory Days Of Rock Music (Featuring Mötley Crüe, Poison, Twisted ...
Apr 28, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 123
Send us a text Andy Timmons is one of our favorite folks to talk about music with and he returns to the program -- with his guitar once again in hand -- to discuss his love for Peter Frampton's fourth studio album, 1975's Frampton . Andy tells Jeff and Matt why Peter has been such an important influence on his own career -- and he shares the story of how he came to write his newest single, " The Boy From Beckenham " as a tribute to Frampton. Happily, Frampton himself joined Timmons to play on th...
Apr 13, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 122
Send us a text The Reverend Shawn Amos is our guest today on the podcast. Matt has had a conversation with Shawn in the past, so he knew that Jeff would love speaking with The Good Reverend. Shawn opened up right away, getting deep and personal with Matt and Jeff about a wide variety of sociopolitical topics surrounding his latest album, Soul Brother No. 1 , including the reckoning with past traumas that informs the music making up the album. But don't let us give you the wrong impression — much...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 121
Send us a text UCR's Allison Rapp is back with Jeff and Matt for another episode of The 1974 Project . This time, they're talking about On the Border by Eagles and digging into a bunch of related (and yeah, sometimes, unrelated topics). For instance, why do so many people hate the Eagles? Why do people get worked up about calling them "the Eagles" instead of "Eagles" when the band is discussed. What was it like covering the recent trial regarding the allegedly stolen Hotel California lyrics and ...
Mar 28, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 120
Send us a text We couldn't miss out on the chance to post a new episode of The Record Player on a rare Leap Day! As one of our comrades said very recently, "Happy Leap Year, to all who celebrate!" We're back with the latest installment in The 1974 Project, our ongoing collaboration with Ultimate Classic Rock spotlighting a variety of albums that were released, as you might have guessed, in 1974. UCR's Nick DeRiso joins Jeff and Matt to discuss What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits by the Doobie Br...
Mar 01, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 119
Send us a text Mike Duquette of The Second Disc and Duque's Delights is in the hot seat with Jeff and Matt to discuss The Seeds of Love by Tears for Fears. Matt has been waiting two years and several days to have an in-depth conversation with Mike. But he's also been waiting since the early '90s to find someone to have a similarly long conversation about The Seeds of Love. On this day, two dreams came true at one time. For only the fifth time in the history of this podcast, Jeff and Matt agree o...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 118
Send us a text The latest episode of The 1974 Project finds Jeff and Matt teaming up with Matthew Wilkening of Ultimate Classic Rock to discuss the self-titled debut album by Kiss, which was released on February 18, 1974. But the conversation covers a lot of territory involved with just being a music fan. Sneaking out of the house to go buy albums. Parents putting their foot down regarding bands/music they find to be objectionable. How the albums that you're hearing can change your impressions (...
Feb 18, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Send us a text Van Halen's self-titled debut celebrates its 46th anniversary this month (today in fact, as this is being posted). Jeff and Matt celebrate by welcoming journalist Steve Rosen to discuss this legendary album. Steve brings unique insights to today's discussion as someone who was covering Van Halen from the moment that the album hit the shelves. He became friends with Eddie Van Halen, kicking off a series of conversations that lasted more than two decades. Those discussions have now ...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Send us a text Our second entry in The 1974 Project focuses on Court and Spark , Joni Mitchell's sixth studio album. UCR's Allison Rapp once again joins Jeff and Matt to discuss a number of topics related to the album. We talk about the impact that Court and Spark had on Joni's career -- and why it stands out when compared to the rest of her discography. How challenging is it to navigate Joni's overall body of work? How was it received by some of her peers, then and now? Allison also shares her ...
Feb 01, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Send us a text The wonderful Bill Lloyd returns to The Record Player nearly two years after he stopped in to discuss Paul and Linda McCartney's RAM with us. This time, we're talking Todd Rundgren with Bill and the conversation spirals in a lot of different directions -- including plenty of record collector nerd chatter. We also discuss Look Into It , Bill's latest solo release, which has a really cool music video for the initial single, "This Ain't My Parade." Our thanks to Bill as always for ta...
Jan 27, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 114
