Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
Parumpa pum pum.
That's some drum.
Alright, it's the Album Nerds podcast, I'm Dude.
I got Don with me, Andy is still on safari,
son of a bitch,
searching for the perfect albums out there in the world.
But Don's here, I guess we'll have to settle for that.
How you doing, Don?
Good, just my hair is clean.
I just washed my hair with some Pert Plus.
That's gonna be really hard for anyone at the top here to grasp.
Hang on with us, folks.
You'll get the joke in a few minutes.
Alright, so this is the Album Nerds podcast.
We love albums, the album format, talking about them,
marinating in them, getting all delicious.
But we've got a great show for you this week.
We're each going to bring an album to the table to discuss that features,
and this is a broad kind of definition, legendary drummers.
Don will also be asking us a deep question.
We're gonna have some shout outs to some albums and album related items we're digging.
And then we're gonna spin that wheel of musical discovery to find out what we'll talk about next time.
But this week, it's all about them Rumpa Pum Pums, bands and their drums.
People have literally been playing drums for centuries.
Drums made with alligator skins have been found in Neolithic cultures in China,
possibly dating back to 5500 BC.
Drums and percussion now play an important role in modern music,
establishing rhythm, dynamics, atmosphere and melody.
And some drummers are celebrated not only for their technical prowess
and innovative techniques, but also for their contributions to the sound and styles of their bands.
Today, both of us will present albums that showcase legendary drummers.
And this is, this would be a very open topic where a lot of people could easily disagree on who are legendary,
who belongs on the list.
So we're going to try and go through some of those that we thought are,
you know, most notable, let's just run through them a little bit.
This was such a hard thing to decide on.
It really was more about show dynamics and what might make interesting conversation than who's the best.
Well, of course, John Bonham, legendary drummer of Led Zeppelin.
You should check out Led Zeppelin 4 for a good taste of that.
Stuart Copeland from the police.
Check out Synchronicity, some kind of reggae vibe and new wave there.
Phil Collins, he can go back to the days of Genesis with a trick of the tail.
He'd also go into the 80s.
Yeah, I think he gets forgotten about his great drumming because of the singing and the whole,
you know, nice guy routine, but great drummer.
Well, the most famous part of In the Air Tonight is the drums.
Have you heard of Gene Krupa, was like a big jazz big band guy played with Benny Goodman?
Didn't he steal the princess in Mario, Mario Brothers?
Mario Brothers, no. That's, that's Koopa, I think.
Ah, King Koopa, yes. Sorry.
Yeah. My bad.
But if you want to find, you know, some of his stuff, the jazz rhythms of Gene Krupa from 1955
is pretty good. Have you heard of Ringo Starr?
Yes.
From a band called?
Called?
The Beatles.
He's kind of actually an underrated drummer.
I think he gets sort of dismissed because of the quote unquote simplicity, but it was what they
needed.
Yeah. Zach Starkey.
Abbey Road, you know, in the end, the drum solo there.
Richard Starkey.
What did I say, Zach? Oh, that's a son of a bitch.
Do you want to make me look like an idiot?
You're not an idiot. It's okay.
Okay. Steven Morris of Joy Division in New Order is known as the human drum machine.
Sure.
Yeah. That's how precise he is.
If you want to hear some of him.
They used the drum machine and just pretended.
No, it sounds like that. Yeah. So check out Joy Division's Closer from 1980, their final album.
And Clyde Stubbefield is the legendary funk drummer for James Brown. Actually, there's a song
called Funky Drummer that's been sampled a bunch of times in the world of hip hop. Who else?
Well, we got Keith Moon, explosive drumming for The Who. We recently talked about Who's Next,
where he just goes ape shit. Jazz legend Buddy Rich, masterfully captured on the Roar in 1974
with his own big band. Ginger Baker. I wanted to do a Blind Faith album potentially today.
Influential blues rock, psychedelic rock drumming with Cream. Best exemplified probably on Disraeli
Gears. Dave Grohl from Nirvana and Foo Fighters and a bunch of other projects. Obviously you can
hear him on Nevermind. Tony Williams, who we talked about on the show. Jazz fusion drummer.
Emergency is the album we talked about and I would recommend checking that out if you want to hear
some great jazz rock fusion drumming. Good one. Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Three players in that band. Go check out Electric Ladyland. They make so many sounds with three
people. Danny Carey from Tool. Lateralis. There was a lot of really great drumming on that album
in the progressive metal space. And then Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater and other projects
like the Winery Dogs and tons of other stuff. I wanted to do talk about his complex poly rhythms
and everything like on Metropolis Part 2, Scenes from a Memory from 99 or any of the other Dream
Theater albums, but it's so overwhelming. I feel so under qualified to talk about them because I'm
not super familiar and I would piss a lot of people off if I said something wrong because
their fans are a musicians band. Yes, their fans are as precise as they're playing. So yeah,
there's so many more that we didn't talk about, but there's just so much recorded music.
There's bound to be a lot of legendary drummers out there. So why don't we get to our picks
and get this show on the road. You choo choo choose me. So my pick for a legendary drummer
is Neil Pert of the band Rush. Born Neil. There's the shampoo joke. Yes, Pert. There it is.
Sorry you had to wait so long for the punchline to make sense. Neil Elwood Pert was born in
Hamilton, Ontario in 1952, joined Rush in 1974. He first appears on their second studio album,
Fly By Night from 1975. Went with the album Moving Pictures from 1981. Here's the first cut
of the album, Tom Sawyer. That's some rapid drumming. This is. So Tom Sawyer was developed
from a poem by Pai Dubois, originally titled Lewis the Lawyer, Luis the Lawyer. Neil Pert,
so the drummer is also the lyricist for the band, which is pretty cool. So Pert basically
transformed the song into an anthem about individualism and rebellion,
kind of drawing inspiration from the Mark Twain character, Tom Sawyer. Yeah, I mean,
you're getting a taste of his drumming there. It's precise. It can be complex.
They actually call him the professor because he's in corporate.
Just like you. Yes.
Pai Dubois.
Is it Dubois?
So fancy.
So early in Pert's career, he was more just into hard rock. So he was inspired by the likes of
Keith Moon and Ginger Baker and Bonham. But as time went by, he started to emulate jazz
and big band musicians like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. I was watching some Rush documentary,
I forgot the title of it, but Pert ended up becoming a pupil of this jazz instructor,
Freddie Gruber. And he just started over with his drumming technique and it made him better.
So however many years later, he was still trying to be better.
You want to get some Neil Pert all up in you?
Here's another cut. This is YYZ. Or in Canada, it would be YYZ, right?
There you go. I was just about to correct you.
Wow. It's like going a hundred kilometers an hour.
I'm sorry. I don't know my kilometers at all. I don't know what a hundred is. It could be very
slow. I'm not sure. YYZ is an instrumental piece. YYZ is actually the IATA Airport Identification
Code of Toronto Pearson International Airport. When the range finder or whatever, it broadcasts
in Morse code YYZ. So the song is actually in the time signature of that Morse code,
which is just so... I wanted to pick this song because it's the drummiest,
obviously it's instrumental. But I saw that fact about it and I was like, darn, it's going to take
this. There's no question. But yeah, that's another cool thing about Neil Pert and Rush in general,
is they tend to step away from the simple four, four time signatures and go all over the place.
I think sometimes he's not even hitting on the beat, but it still works. Anyway, my clickbait
headline for Moving Pictures is, a modern day drummer mean mean fills, rushes moving pictures,
gives Don chills. I would prefer if you try to Getty Lee style.
A modern day drummer mean mean fills, rushes moving pictures, gives Don chills.
That's how you do it. There you go.
Yeah. So just talking more about the album in general, it's a slow shift that was happening
for Rush. They were moving away from the progressive rock and having shorter songs and just a more
mainstream sound. But there's still a lot of progressive going on. So they really strike a
balance on this and the album was a huge hit. And lyrically, it's not quite as goofy.
Right. Well, it's not a concept album. It's thematic, right? The connections are the
philosophical and introspective lyrics, but the Moving Pictures is like a collection of these
distinct tracks. But they're all storytelling, largely. So there are little stories. So that's
why I think Moving Pictures, where it's kind of these little films throughout the course of the
album. This is probably my favorite Rush album, which makes me not truly a Rush fan most likely.
But it's the one I enjoy the most just because it's got a lot of the elements I like, but not
overdone as some progressive rock can be. Yeah. There's a lot of reasons to listen to it. So,
I mean, you can just listen to it for Neil Peart's drumming, because it's incredible.
However, Geddy Lee's bass playing, because those two things work together so well,
not to discount Alex Lifeson's guitar work at all, but the interplay between the bass and the drums
is amazing on so many of these tracks. I don't know. If you look at Neil Peart's lyrics,
just on the page, they're kind of awkward, but Geddy Lee just has a way of delivering them.
So they're sort of smooth. I don't know, all the lyrics to Limelight and stuff, they're not what
you would normally find in a pop song. No. But it works and it's still catchy.
All right. Well, let's hear some more. Here's Red Barketta.
This song tells the story of a young man who visits his uncle's country home,
and he discovers a hidden outlawed sports car. Like this is in the future or something, right?
Yep. The thrill and freedom of speeding through the countryside, outmaneuvering futuristic vehicles.
It's basically, in the late 70s, early 80s in movies and television, car chases were the thing.
And this feels like the car chase scene in the movie.
Isn't that how Rick Allen lost his arm? Oh, yes.
Speaking of drummers.
Of drummers, yes. Def Leppard's drummer, who continued to be an excellent percussionist
after he lost his arm and now uses his feet in one arm. But this song, it really explores
freedom, rebellion, nostalgia. But Neil Peart's drumming mirrors the narrative, the emotional arc,
and enhances that to make it a more, I mean, on the surface, it's kind of like, yeah, how many
times, little deuce coop, you know, how many times have we heard car songs, but there's something
unique about the sound and the way they tell the story. My clickbait headline.
Moving pictures, the ultimate soundtrack for your next existential crisis.
I mean, there's all this human experience, personal freedoms, like we just talked about,
introspection, navigating technology and evolving world. And they're not, like I said,
they're not interconnected concept album wise, but they definitely tell stories and it's good stuff.
This album, very enjoyable. And the drumming, obviously, this guy is legendary. Like I think
indisputably legendary, not like genre specific legendary.
Yeah. And you get the sense that he could play anything. I mean, he could play any genre. So,
you know, just kind of going through the album highlights, you know, of course, Tom Sawyer
and Limelight were the records that you'll hear on classic rock radio. I just, I love the guitar
solo on Limelight and the camera eye is kind of more in that traditional progressive rock vein,
10 minute long thing. Yeah. You got to do one on an album like this,
for the progressive rock fans that they had, you know, you've got to have one epic on there.
Yeah. Yeah. Like for me, one of the more interesting moments was actually at the end,
Vital Signs. It blends reggae rhythms with rock and electronic elements, which to me is very
reminiscent of The Police, which kind of came around this time. But it sounded police-ish to
me because I'm probably more familiar with The Police than I am Rush. Great closing song. I never
really hear anyone talk about that one. No. You know, did you know that Getty Lee's name is Gary
Lee, wine rib, and that Getty is his nickname because his grandma had a Yiddish accent and it
sounded like Getty? Getty. It's like Lou Getty. And it stuck. Yeah. Nice. All right. Well,
I think this is a great record. We already have a Rush representative in the Album Nerds Hall of
Fame, 2112, but I'm going to nominate this one. This album has everything, so it still has that
like progressive, you know, nonsense that I like as great musicianship, but it's also, I mean,
it's pretty tight. It's still basically three or four instruments, you know? So it's, yeah, it's
just a classic album. So definitely belongs in the Album Nerds Hall of Fame. What do you think, dude?
I'd say yes as well is the example of, you know, kind of that crossover, like you mentioned,
album where it steps more into the limelight of hard rock rather than progressive rock. And
they balance it really well. And there's legendary songs on here, legendary drumming, legendary bass
and guitar playing. So yeah, I'd say absolutely. Okay. Well, so I guess we'll have to wait for
Andy's vote and the audience's vote. But, you know, for now, Rush Moving Pictures is off to a great
start. Check it out. It's great balance of progressive and modern rock with stellar musicianship from 1981.
Rush's Motion Pictures. All right. Before we answer Don's deep question, let's hear from our
friends over at the Worst Podcast on Mars. I'm Amanda and that's Evan. Say hi, Evan. Hi, Evan.
And we're the hosts of the Worst Podcast on Mars. This is the podcast that talks music. And on
Fridays, we work our way through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 200 definitive albums.
I do a bunch of research trying to figure out why it's on this list. And on Tuesdays, we do smaller
episodes that are not part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list. And Evan, well, he just literally
shows up. So if that's what you're into, please find us on Apple Music or Spotify. But not Mars.
Yeah. But not Mars. Wow. Two shows a week. Yeah. Wish we had that kind of energy. All right. Question
time. Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Now it's the time on the show where I
ask a deep question. When we first talked about legendary drummers, the first one I thought of
was Animal from the Muppets. Yeah, I thought of that too. So I started thinking about some of the
fictional bands and artists out there. So what are some legendary fictional artists?
Animal drum? Yeah. So there's so many and I probably forgot a bunch, but there's the Wonders.
The O'neaters. That's the Wonders.
From that thing you do, which we reference all the time, Don and I anyway. Eddie and the Cruisers.
Which are an interesting one though, because they had a real band. John Cafferty and the Beaver
Brown band made all the music for it. So that band had hits for the first time, kind of a Bruce
Springsteen-y deal, but it was attributed to this fictional band in the movie that unfortunately is
not the best movie. There's Steel Dragon from Rockstar. And again, the art singing that stuff
didn't get total credit. But the cavemen on Flintstones, they sang, we're going to rock all
day. We're going to rock all night. We're the cavemen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. That was
made in the sixties. So I think that was like a Beatles riff, but yeah, just a lot of fun stuff
like that. Gemini holograms that we brought up on our last episode more than once. We've definitely
mentioned the Brady Six and the Silver Platters a bunch of times. Right. The Brady kids put out
actual albums. That's true. They're real. Just like the Monkeys. Yep. Yeah, that's true. The
Monkeys were made in a laboratory, but then became reality. Good band too. So I mean, I think the
rock and roll answer is Spinal Tap. Of course. Yes. It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
But a related group from the movie, A Mighty Wind, right? It's kind of like a Spinal Tap,
but it's in the world of folk music. It's really a fun movie, but the same guys from Spinal Tap are
in this group called the Folksmen, which is pretty good. Oh yeah. You mentioned the Flintstones. Do
you remember in the Jetsons, there was like an Elvis type character named Jet Screamer. Yeah,
Judy was like a big fan. Eep op ork ah ah. That's it. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. What does Eep op ork
ah ah mean? I love you. That's right. That means I love you. Okay. Well, what fictional artists do
you enjoy? Let us know. Hit us up on Instagram, Facebook and threads, or leave a comment on our
website, AlbumNerds.com. And don't forget to tell the special people in your life, Eep op ork ah ah.
I went a little bit off the beaten path, get it? Drums beating. And a band that, you know,
this is going to be more genre specific in the legendary status of the drummer. I went with
Slipknot and their 2004 album, Volume 3, The Subliminal Verses. Slipknot formed in Des Moines,
Iowa in 1995. So rock and roll hotbed. Yeah. My neck of the woods. They're known for their
distinctive image with the masks and the jumpsuits and which I think did detract from the music,
at least for me at the time. I'm like, these guys are clowns. One of them actually does wear a clown
mask, but I didn't even give them much of a shot. They've had a lot of lineup changes. There's a
lot of guys on this album. Corey Taylor on vocals, Mick Thompson, Sean Crayanne, Craig Jones,
Jim Root, Chris Venn, Paul Gray, Joey Jordison, Sid Wilson. But Joey Jordison's who we're going
to be talking about today. They released their first album in 1999, self-titled. Iowa was the
follow-up. Very heavy. The drumming on it is incredible, but it is not very accessible for a
listening experience for an hour. It is brutality. So that's why we went with Volume 3. So why don't
we jump in and listen to a little bit of the big hit of this Rick Rubin produced album, Duality.
So that was the lead single of the album. Themes of, well, self-inflicted pain
as a form of defiance and control. Corey Taylor himself said that the message is kind of about
struggling on making difficult decisions and using that metaphor of this persistent headache.
The drumming, double bass patterns, dynamic fills, drives the song's relentless energy and
that rapid footwork and precise rhythms are really what makes the drumming on this fun to listen to.
Joey Jordison will briefly get into it. Nathan Jonas Jordison, powerhouse drummer. He died in
2021, unfortunately, but has that high energy approach, extreme metal punk and hard rock all
blended into one blast beats, double bass drumming, complex poly rhythms, pushing boundaries.
And when I first heard Slipknot, that was the first thing I noticed was the percussion.
Just being out of control. Some of his influences are Dave Lombardo from Slayer,
Lars Ulrich from Metallica, John Bonham from Led Zeppelin, Vinnie Paul from Pantera. I guess he
also listened to some jazz drummers like Buddy Rich, but Don, new to the knot?
Yeah. I mean, I've heard of them. I remember the song Wait and Bleed. I remember seeing the video
and the masks and stuff, but I didn't pay much attention to them. I also, I remember Stone Sour,
which was Corey Taylor's other project. But yeah, this is the first one I've listened to all the
way. And yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it was still a bit long. I mean, it was about 60
minutes and it is very intense, so it can be a bit much, but yeah, it was, they changed it up a lot.
There was a lot of melody on this record, which was kind of surprising to me. And I think that's
kind of what this album is known for is sort of a movement in that direction.
You can only do the same thing for so long. And it's hard when you're a band that tours
relentlessly and then you're recording an album and expectations are high and you don't want to
do the same thing over and over again. So with that in mind, why don't we jump into Three Nill,
which I think probably leans more into the angry side of things and the less acoustic,
which we do get some of that on the album as well. But let's listen to Three Nill.
I love the drums on this one. I mean, I do think that there's some legendary drumming on this
record. Three Nill's a term for an embarrassing defeat, reflects its themes in the intense
lyrics about public humiliation and defiance. Right, because in football, right, if you lose
Three Nill, you suck. That's right. The lyrics express frustration with being the subject of
ridicule. There's lines like, I'm sick of being the butt of a cosmic joke and I don't get the punch
line. Kind of like the Neil Peart joke at the top of the show. And it's just very aggressive track
and Joey Jordison's rapid drumming and fills and snare hits help drive that energy. My clickbait
headline, Slipknot's Volume Three is the perfect storm of intense heavy metal and unexpected
melodic butality. That's my word. Butality. You should coin that because I don't know.
Somebody's going to use that. You know, the album as a whole with the melody that they work in.
And I think some of the more alternative sensibilities of Stone Sour kind of get worked
in here. And there are beautiful moments and there's more clean singing. And for me, this was the
entry point. The first two albums, I liked Iowa, but it was just a little too much for me at that
juncture of my life. And this was, you get a few breathers, you know? And I like that. It's a
pivotal album in the discography and Joey's drumming does not disappoint. All right, so why
don't we move on to the next track? Let's check out The Nameless.
I thought for sure you'd go for one of the more ballad-y songs. You would think that, but I do
think maybe what I enjoyed most about the album was the thrash. And I guess I've- Don, what's
happened to you? What is this? I've slowly acquired a taste for the thrash. But that song actually,
so The Nameless, it mixes those thrash elements. There are some more emotive and quiet parts of
just that track. But the album as a whole does that a lot. There's a lot of the loud and then
soft, kind of like System of a Down does, that kind of thing. Who also Rick Rubin produced,
I believe he worked with them as well. But yeah, The Nameless features lyrics
about control, obsession, and duality again within relationships. Yeah, I think Corey Taylor's a
pretty good metal vocalist. Yeah, I agree. He's got some range and he's got the raw, but he also
has the nice melodic. Yeah. I mean, I'm a metal fan, but this is the kind of vocal I like. I like
that mix of clean singing and then hard- It doesn't need to be a sing song, clean singing,
but when it's just growling for an hour, that's the metal that I have a hard time getting into,
which is a lot of what's going on now. That's what Andy often brings to us.
Yes. What do you call that stuff? The not grind core or something or what is that? I can't remember.
I call it Cookie Monster singing, but- Cookie Monster.
So my headline for volume three, the subliminal verses is Jordison drive slipknot through new
metal magic. New metal. Yeah. I'm not sure if they, I mean, I guess they belong in that category,
sort of just the time period, but- The time period, I guess. And then they also did have the DJ.
There are scratch sounds and stuff, but I like how little it's just part of the percussion.
There's not a moment where Corey Taylor's like, kick it DJ so and so. It's not in that vein. It's
just part of the noise. And I like that. Yeah. I mean, I want to say more about Jordison,
but I do find it hard to talk about drumming just because it's probably the instrument I
know the least. It was actually funny listening to some of the tracks. Sometimes the drum is hard
to pick out because everything's in unison. So like the power chord and the bass, it's all,
but it's all just so fast. But then you get the fills and that's all you get. Oh, there is.
Yeah. Yeah. And he's amazing. But I mean, the whole album is intense. Even the choir at a
moment still have that intensity. And I think that's why it works. They're not just thrown
in power ballads or something. They fit with the mood of the album. Yeah. It's not Gary
Charone and Nuno Bettencourt sitting with acoustic guitars singing more than words.
Yeah. And there's good, so beyond the drumming, I think the guitar work is good. So I guess it's
Mick Thompson. Is he like number eight? They're one of those groups that like numbers their people.
Didn't like De La Soul do that or somebody? Yeah. They had the plug one, plug two, plug three.
Yeah. Cause it was which plug on the soundboard were they. So they were, you know, the guy that
the microphone one was plug one. That's how they got their nicknames. Which track am I when you,
when you edit the podcast? You are three. Here, plug three. But anyway, so Thompson and Root,
you know, they seem to play well together. So love the guitar and the lyrics are really good.
You know, Before I Forget has some, some cool lyrics, kind of like Limelight. It's their,
it's their version of, of Rush's Limelight, you know, dealing with, you know, pressure and fame.
They won a Grammy for that song. Yeah. Nice. And then, you know, kind of, I don't know if they're
sort of anchors of the album, but Vermillion and Vermillion part two. I enjoy those. Yeah. So that's,
I don't know, kind of like obsession kind of stuff. Yeah. Being obsessed with somebody. And then I
think in part two, it's the realization that you're not getting that person. Yeah. It's very brooding.
Yeah. So there's definitely disappointment, angst, anger beneath it. It's not like girl,
you know, I love the smell of your hair. It's not, it's not that kind of thing. Yeah. A couple of
the album highlights for me were Circle, which does have some acoustic moments. Yeah. It's haunting
kind of, and it's an inner turmoil, cyclical nature of life. But then it gets pretty heavy.
I like that. I like it when a song goes back and forth. And the song I almost picked to highlight
drumming is The Blister Exists, which is just a great gruesome name for a song, but lots of
rapid double bass patterns and just so much energy. So yeah, I think they deliver a great metal album
here. And I know it's, you know, for Slipknot fans, it's a divisive one, whether or not it's,
you know, because it was the sellout album where they changed their sound. But I think it's to
their benefit. I think it's why they're still around, honestly, if they hadn't made that turn
and worked with Rick Rubin in The Mansion, where they recorded this same place as Red Hot Chili
Peppers and a lot of other bands. This album stands as a defining moment for Slipknot. It blends that
relentless aggression with the melody and Jordison's drumming is central to that. And his drumming is
not just a cornerstone of the album, but a key element in its enduring sound and legacy. And
I can't believe how long ago it is that that came out. 20 years. Yeah. So check out volume three,
The Subliminal Verses by Slipknot, whether you've heard it before or you're not, you know, you've
never really listened to Slipknot. I think it's probably a good entry point. And then you can go
back and break your neck banging your head. So check it out. Can you dig it? Can you dig it?
Okay. So we've been, you know, living in the world of drumming and drummers, but, you know,
did you have a chance to dig anything else this week? Yes, I did. And it was pretty easy because
I kind of mentioned it last week. Fontaine's DC came out with a new album on August 23rd.
They're Irish post-punk band, energetic sound, poetic lyrics formed in Dublin in 2014. We have
talked about them on the show. Why don't we check out a little bit of the track favorites.
Little Curie for Diana. I feel like we could really bond over this record.
I think we could. We could just let's launch a zoom, stare into each other's eyes and listen
to it together. Yeah. So a little bit different than what I had been soaking myself in the blood
of Slipknot for the week. So I needed a little break and this was perfect for me in that case.
And the album explores futuristic dystopian themes based on Japanese manga, Italian cinema,
and films like phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, phenomena.
Do you have more Muppets? Yes. But they've widespread critical
acclaim for the album so far in their sonic evolution. So go check out Fontaine's DC. Have
you listened to that one yet, Don? I listened to like the single or the first couple of songs
that were released before the album, but I haven't had a chance to check out the whole thing yet, but
I'm ready for it. Next up, I like to do a vinyl record on one of these picks here. And it's one
I grabbed in the spring of this year and haven't talked about it yet. It's a limited edition reissue,
remastered, repress in the color yellow, 180 gram of Automatic for the People by REM.
Here's a little bit of drive. Again, another break from Slipknot and even from Rush.
Yeah, this album was originally released in 92, melancholic, introspective, themes of loss,
nostalgia, societal change. It's kind of an orchestral and songs like Everybody Hurts a Man
on the Moon are the ones I think are remembered the most. Yeah, my favorite is actually the closing
cut, Find the River, just a really beautiful song. Yeah, it was nice, kind of licking my wounds and
listening to those two albums. What about you? What you been digging? I mentioned it months ago,
but it's finally come out, the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds called Wild God.
This is the opening cut, Song of the Lake.
Once again, I'm being serenaded by Count Dracula.
So this is their 18th studio album and typical, particularly of the last few records, themes of
grief, redemption and joy. There is some uplifting stuff on here. So, it's not all just sad and
depressing, but he's really been on a great run. I mean, I really feel like his last four or five
albums have been really great and this one's really good. I had not listened to it yet. I'll
check that out this week. Nice. And another one, this was brought to my attention listening to the
Broken Record podcast. Hundred Watt Heart is basically a side project for the guy that's
been the lead guitarist for the Roots since the early 2000s, Kirk Douglas.
Michael Douglas' dad? Yeah, I think he's actually, is it Kirk Douglas? Oh, it's Captain Kirk Douglas,
I think is how he goes. Yeah. But anyway, so an album, this goes, actually it's from 2022
called New Unknown. Sounds pleasant. Yeah. It's got a cool mood and vibe to it that I like.
Sometimes my brain is weird and these odd images or phrases come into my head and I haven't heard
this at all, but I was going to say it sounds like brushing your hair music. I don't know what that
means, but that's what popped up in my head. I could see that. I don't have hair. Anyway,
well hopefully soon we'll find out what Andy's been digging, but let us know what you're digging.
Join us on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads. Also on our website, albumnerds.com.
It will be a discovery of extraordinary value.
Well, it's about time on the show when I'm reminded of the great Walt Whitman who said,
beat, beat drums, blow, bugles, blow through the windows, through the doors,
burst like a ruthless force. That was kind of Christopher Walken issue.
With that in mind, let's bring out my friend and yours,
the Will of Musical Discovery and see what we'll be discovering next time.
Sometimes bands break up, artists retire or tragically pass away and the final album that
they recorded can take on even more meaning. Next time you will be exploring those final albums.
Choose carefully. Final albums. Yeah, so a lot to think about there.
We're probably going to be getting into some classic album territory, probably some well-known.
Hopefully it won't be our final episode.
Who did the best final album ever? What else are you listening to?
Leave a comment on our website or email us at podcast at albumnerds.com. You can follow us on
Facebook, Instagram and threads at Album Nerds. Also, please subscribe, rate and review on your
favorite podcast app. If you want to support the show, you can do so via PayPal at albumnerds.com
slash support. Thank you so much for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast. We'll catch you next time
with some final albums. It's the final albums. A Monday warrior, mean, mean strides. I push my
fingers into my eyes. That's a mashup. All right. See y'all.