Hey, everyone. This is JT from The Uninvited,
and you're listening to my weekly mixtape with
Brian Colburn. In fact, you're listening to the
best episode he ever recorded because it's with
me. And we talk about indie alternative rock
from the 90s. So awesome stuff. Welcome to My
Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that takes the classic
mixtape approach to building a modern playlist.
I'm your host, Brian Colburn. Joining me for
tonight's collaboration is JT, lead singer of
The Uninvited. JT, thank you so much for joining
me tonight on My Weekly Mixtape. Brian, it's
great to be here with you. I've been really looking
forward to this. Likewise, likewise. And what
I'm going to do is start by asking you the same
question I ask each and every guest on this show.
JT. What does the word mixtape mean to you? Oh,
mixtape has so many good emotional connotations
to me. I'm mixtape generation, right? I've made
mixtapes on cassette for years and years and
years. And so mixtape to me is love. I mean,
I would make mixtapes for friends, for potential
girlfriends, you know, and they're like little
love letters, right? You know, you make this
cool mixtape. You say, hey, I made this mixtape
for you. And then... you know, the person understands
the vibe that's coming off of that, you know,
from that music. And yeah, it's a little love
letter. It's for thank you. It's, you know, it's
a matter of friendship, you know, saying, you
know, I get your vibe. I know what you dig. And
here's some of it. Here's, you know, here's what
I think is super cool that I think you're going
to think is super cool too. I loved, I loved
making mixtapes and just, yeah, love it. And
what's great about that is you could take other
musicians' stories and create your own story
by mixing them together. And where in playlists
now, people drag and drop and hit shuffle, you
lose that privatization of the music. And that's
what this show is about. Right. Getting us back
to that moment again. That's a great point about
hitting shuffle. You know, a good playlist is
supposed to be heard in the order you do it in.
And, you know, coming up with today's playlist,
I'd even thought of it that way. It's like, all
right, this is the order. It's got to go. All
right. Well, tonight, JT and I are going to be
co -curating a mixtape of 90s indie alternative,
or as I like to call it, songs that I feel fall
under the category of. underrated 90s rock music
because a lot of the songs that i have on my
list in the 90s i lived in north carolina for
a few years and there was a station called 1065
the end and they always said indie alternative
and they played a lot of bands that everybody
knows matchbox 20 counting crows garbage the
big arena headlining bands but they didn't just
play that Any time they played an insanely massive
band, it was followed up with a band that you
might not know. And a lot of these bands we're
going to probably be talking about tonight. And
that is what I looked for in my songs that I
chose for tonight. JT, what were you looking
for in the songs that you brought to the table
this evening? You know, that's a great, you kind
of stole it right from me there. That same kind
of vibe of, you know, when in the 90s, when we
talked about alternative rock. there was sort
of this upper echelon that meant alternative
nirvana pearl jam sound garden pretty much anything
from seattle you know that was what defined alternative
and you know but before those bands became mainstream
shall we call it alternative you know they were
underground indie alternative bands nirvana was
on sub pop for years before you know they broke
through and nobody had heard of them and those
who did were like this is like My satanic underground
music. And so for me, living most of the 90s
in Los Angeles and being in the clubs and trying
to get the band going during that whole time,
I had so much great exposure to indie alternative,
to the alternative bands that were the alternative
of the alternative and got to listen to radio
stations, not just like KROQ, who were like the
number one alternative station in the United
States. But they also weren't afraid. to play
all sorts of underground stuff. They even had
a couple of shows, Rodney on the Rock, where,
you know, Rodney Bingenheimer, the scene king
from the 70s and 80s of Los Angeles, would play
all this underground stuff that no one had heard
of. And then you had KXLU, which was the college
station playing just like the most cutting edge
alternative rock. And so, yeah, so I was thinking
in terms of like, okay, indie what is the alternative
of the alternative without getting too far off
into like obscure college rock weirdness nothing
wrong with that but like oh here's here's 20
bands you've never heard of in your life and
never will and their music kind of sucks you
know so it was you know uh so there well i will
say this there are one or two bands i might dip
into that might fall under that You've never
heard of them. However, there's going to be some
bands that I mentioned tonight that I know a
lot of people listening are going to immediately
be like, no, they're popular. Don't you dare
say that they're indie or alternative. Yes, they're
very popular bands, but I'm talking about the
mainstream popularity where some of the bands
I'm going to talk about tonight. are musically,
musicians love these bands. They have massive
followings. They play big venues, but mainstream
radio and MTV pretty much ignored them. So they
still are outliers on the indie alternative scene,
if you would call it that. Yeah. Yeah. That's
a great call. And a lot of the ones on my list
are sort of part of my personal musical journey.
They're bands that I heard. and considered to
be either influential or peers at the time. And
I would listen to them like, oh, wow, crank that
up. And I have, and this is going to be a common
theme throughout this whole thing, I have this
real affinity to guitar pop music. I love a great
song. I love a big hook. I love a melody you
can sing. And you take a look at bands like Sonic
Youth and some of these others that were really
experimenting with noise pop at the time. And
I had great you know, respect for what they were
trying to do. But what resonated with me personally,
you know, during that time period were these
great songs, you know, and especially, you know,
if you heard them on the radio or somebody put
them on a mixtape or something like that, and
you're like, oh, wow, they did kind of, you know,
this band got out there and got a little bit
popular. It gave us hope. It gave us hope that,
you know, maybe we could get popular too. So
yeah, that definitely. inspired my choices. So
let's get down to business. Tonight, as I mentioned
earlier, JT and I will be curating the ultimate
90s indie alternative mixtape, and we'll use
the old cassette deck approach, meaning our mixtape
is going to be broken up into two sides, side
A and side B. JT, as the special guest, will
begin side A with his first song choice, and
then I'll add a song that I feel best follows
up his choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for side
A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial flip
and we'll map out side B, only this time I'll
kick things off with JT choosing second. Our
overall goal for the episode is to craft the
best 90s indie alternative mixtape possible through
only 20 songs. At the end of the show, you could
take our conversation to the next level by visiting
the 90s indie alternative page at myweeklymixtape
.com to give our final mixtape a listen via the
embedded playlist. Finally, if you like what
you're hearing on the show, please consider becoming
a Patreon mixtaper at patreon .com forward slash
myweeklymixtape. And speaking of Patreon mixtapers,
a few of them have chimed in with some of the
songs they would kick off their 90s indie alternative
mixtape with. Starting with Ben from the Too
Vague podcast, who chimed in with Local H's Cool
Magnet. Cactus Pete, who chimed in with G Love's
Baby Got Sauce and Course of Nature's Caught
in the Sun, and David Owens, who chimed in with
Spot's Moon June Spoon. I also had some people
reach out to me at My Weekly Mixtape on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter, and I want to shout those
out as well. Kicking things off with two from
Sunny Day Real Estate, Trevor Dale chimed in
with Seven, and the Music Rewind podcast chimed
in with In Circles. Frank Lewis chimed in with
Morphine's Buena. Paris Saint -Germain chimed
in with The Dismemberment Plan's Rusty. Philip
Bergman chimed in with Voice of the Beehive's
Scary Kisses. Chris Uminski chimed in with Sonic
Youth's Teenage Riot. Derek Caravue chimed in
with the Afghan Whigs' John the Baptist. Sean
Faust chimed in with Dig's Believe. Raoul Dukes
-Burner chimed in with Jay Unger and Molly Mason's
The Contra Dance. Chael chimed in with Jellyfish
joining a fan club. Mally Hart chimed in with
the folk implosion Slap Me. Rob Ebert chimed
in with Harvey Dangerous Carlotta Valdez. We
have two for Ned's Atomic Dustbin with Frankie
Pants chiming in with Kill Your Television and
Jim Santora chiming in with Throwing Things.
Jim Bricker chimed in with The Jim Blossoms Found
Out About You. Cinema Poison chimed in with Sloan's
Money City Maniacs. Dave Schneier chimed in with
Something Happens Devil and Miss Jones. Seth
Bafilia chimed in with Hums Stars. LI Sports
Fan chimed in with Fugazi's Waiting Room. Hutch
chimed in with Cakes the Distance. Jason Whistle
of the It's Not That Bad and There Can Only Be
One podcasts chimed in with the Nixon's Foma.
Pedestrian at Best chimed in with Adorable Sunshine
Smile. Seeker 11 chimed in with Screaming Trees
Transfiguration. The We Needed Roads podcast
chimed in with Screaming Trees Nearly Lost You.
The Media Path podcast chimed in with Yola Tango's
Tom Courtenay. Conda 96 chimed in with Dada's
Doreena. Semi Skeptic podcast chimed in with
Travis' Something. Cheryl Simone Miller chimed
in with Concrete Blonde's God is a Bullet, which
she did note was from 1989, but I'll allow it.
Daniel Dissinger chimed in with Candlebox's Far
Behind. And Matthew Kennedy at the X Radio X
podcast chimed in with Modest Mouse's Trailer
Trash. Okay, JT, with that laundry list of songs
out in the open, I am ridiculously curious to
see how you're going to kick this one off. So
with that, I'm officially pressing the record
button on this mixtape and throwing it over to
you. What song are you starting tonight's 90s
indie alternative mixtape with and why? All right.
Well, I decided to go chronologically. So we're
going to start with 1990. And the one I'm going
to kick it off with is There She Goes by The
Laws. Now, there's a reason for this. To me,
that song was kind of this 1990s turning point
of everything that had happened previously in
the 80s overseas, right? You had these bands
like the Stone Roses and the Soup Dragons and...
All these kind of guys that were doing a kind
of like a guitar pop thing and it really defining
a sound. And to me, there she goes by the laws
was like this perfect culmination of all of that.
It was like this lofty, perfect pop song, like
the Beatles could have done that song. And it
was this beautiful connection for me between.
The turning point that was occurring in the 1990s
and the entire musical history of guitar pop
before it. Absolutely love it. And you know that
song had meaning because of the fact that seven
years later, Sixpence None the Richer takes the
song and turns it into bubblegum pop that the
entire country is salivating over. And if you
think about it, the people that knew the Laws
original. Must have been like, where was this
love seven years ago? Right, right. Because we
already know this song is great. Yeah, exactly.
And it goes to show the importance of a great
song, right? It wasn't just their performance,
which is so much more stellar, if you ask me,
and raw. It had a rawness to it as well. But
it goes to show that a great song is a great
song, that you can interpret it in many different
ways. Well, I hope I'm following up that great
song with one that you consider is a great song
as well. And I'm going to stay in the early 90s
like you are. And I'm going to play off one that
I feel just was a band that was criminally underrated.
I'm probably going to use that word a lot tonight.
And this is a song when I first heard it, I went
looking for it everywhere, trying to find it,
looking at it. Because at this point in 1992,
you couldn't Google. the song it was word of
mouth so i'm walking all over the local record
store saying i heard a song it's all about disneyland
i need to know who does this song and they're
like disneyland i'm like yeah like the one that's
out in california only it's spelt weird it's
d -i -z -z -k -n -e -e land and the band is dada
the album is puzzle This song, to me, was everything
about 90s indie alternative. This song, the fact
that it wasn't a massive number one hit single
shocks me. But especially in the New Jersey,
New York tri -state area, this song did take
on a pretty big moment in 92. But as fast as
that moment was. It was gone, and unfortunately,
so was the band. But I still, to this day, have
seen cover bands pulling that song out. So there's
definitely an element of timelessness to the
song. And realistically, now with time, you realize
they called it Disney, like with two Zs and a
K -N -E -E, so they didn't get their asses sued
off. Exactly. But what a great song. So great
song. Dada Disneyland. Thrown it to you, JT.
Nice one. Nice one. In fact, so now I have to
scratch one off my list because I was going to
go with Dada's Dim from the same record. Nice.
Yeah, because that's yeah, it's sort of like
Disneyland to me showed this really cool sardonic
side to them. And then Dim was this really heavy,
serious. you know, breakup kind of song. That
was really amazing. Also, I'm just going to say
a shout out to seven horse, which is a band that
is comprised of the X members of Dada who are
active on the scene. Still, they're playing gigs
all around and you can find them on Tik TOK at
seven horse band. I believe it is. And it's the
number seven horse and yeah. So they're still
doing it. Go geriatric rockers. All right. So
I'm scratching that one off the list. I'm sticking
in 1990, and I'm going to go with a song, again,
flew completely under the radar with a band that
went mostly under the radar for a good reason.
They just got squashed, unfortunately. The song
Golden Blunders by The Posies. Golden Blunders
and The Posies in general were, to me, one of
the best, but the last of the kind of Paisley
underground pop rock. uh movement and it's such
it's just it's a beautiful song it's got great
lyrics you know that come from this really it's
a cool little story and again again very very
poppy and stuff but you know it's 1990 in seattle
and these guys you know this is one of their
last records that they released and one of the
last singles and like next year nirvana drops
with smells like teen spirit and it's just freaking
over right if your amp isn't cranked to 10 and
you're not flying the flannel you're done and
these guys you know to me they just got smushed
when that happened it was criminal because it's
they were a great band and golden blunders especially
such a great song This was a group that was carrying
the torch for the Elvis Costello's in the 80s.
I feel like continuing that sound. But for some
reason, the musical landscape just wasn't having
it because you got to realize they're competing
at that point against. The hairband scene, which
was still your big rock moment. You still had
Poison and Warrant and these bands selling out
arenas. And you had labels that were looking
for the next Poison and Warrant still. They weren't
looking for the next Elvis Costello. Right. Exactly.
Exactly. And then they managed to get their sign
and get their records out. But then it was a
double whammy for them because then grunge hit
big and grunge just swept away everything. Yes.
Yeah, it was. Yeah. And with that, I am going
to follow up the posies with something that a
couple of years later, I'm going to go to 1993
for this one. I'm a bass player by trade. And
the first time I heard this bass line, I immediately
said, I'm going to love this song for the rest
of my life. And I didn't even it didn't even
get to the vocals. I just knew. And it was right
up my alley. It was one of the first songs that
I sat down and was like, let me learn how to
play this. This is fun. And this band, everybody's
going to know and everybody's going to know the
song. But to me, it falls under this category
because I don't even want to say a one hit wonder,
but how this band wasn't massive is beyond me.
And the album is Last Splash. And I'm going with
the Breeders Cannonball. Nice. Yes. I mean, big
hit. Big hit. Everybody knows it. It's in its
30th anniversary, which I don't even want to
wrap my mind around this year. But this song
was everywhere. I don't understand how the label
didn't have the foresight to have a follow up.
Like this band had what it took to break through
the mold in 1993. And the fact that this is the
only song that did to me is criminal. Yeah. And
I'm just going to. say it that i i there had
to have been sexism involved you know as much
as we tried to uh push the needle in the 90s
you know it was still the 90s and we weren't
quite there yet not the way we are now which
still you know we have work to do but yeah chick
band it's like okay well that wow we had a nice
little success with chick band onto the next
dude rock band you know yeah i i think that had
to have been part of it and that's a shame if
that is because The Breeders, that entire album
is amazing. But I wanted to go with the one in
this playlist that really made people go, yeah,
why? Why weren't they bigger? That song was amazing.
Yeah. And, you know, at the same time, you had
like Julianna Hatfield and you had Liz Phair
and, you know, these others that were really,
you know, trying to push alternative rocks, but,
you know, indie alternative rock. And it would
take until like the later nineties until Tori
Amos and others were coming along that there,
there was actually this kind of like huge commercial
breakthrough. Fair time. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Sarah McLaughlin. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But it
was, it's, it's a shame that they weren't bigger
than they were. All right. I'm going to go. I'm
going to go one more from 1990. And then I promised
to get out of. And there's a couple of reasons.
There's a sentimental reason for this and also
just the underrated aspect of it. So. I'm going
to go with the Rembrandts, just the way it is,
baby. Everyone knows the Rembrandts from the
theme to friends, right? I'll be there for you.
And funny story, we crossed paths, I'll say,
with the guys in the Rembrandts a couple of times.
And we were hanging out at Club Lingerie once
and one of the guys was there and we struck up
a conversation and they're like, yeah, everything's
screwed, man. You know, we got dropped from the
label. The tour was a bummer. I don't know what
we're going to do. And I'm like, how could you
be dropping the label? Just the way it is, baby.
It's just, again, another beautiful pop guitar
song and just a great song. And he was like,
yeah, well, it's just the way it goes. And we
got a couple of pokers in the fire. We're talking
to another label, but we don't know if that's
going to work out. We'll probably put together
our own tour and just go to the cities where
it worked out for us. I don't know, we recorded
some, you know, one of our songs for a NBC show
or whatever, and maybe something will happen
there. So that took off and, you know, that's
a nice royalty check to this day. But for my
band, especially, you know, hearing songs like
The Way It Is Baby and Golden Blunders and even,
you know, There She Goes and that sort of thing
was just affirmation that for us, that there
was an audience out there that, loved guitar
pop because we sure loved it. And, and so it
gave us hope that, you know, there'd be, there
could be success in that, in that genre, you
know, despite the fact that monster bands, you
know, that were following the trend were, were
really what was popular at the time. Well, I'm
going to pivot this to the uninvited for a second
here, because obviously everybody knows the theme
from friends. Some of your music was featured
on some TV shows like Party of Five, Beverly
Hills 90210, MTV's Road Rules, The Real World.
These are all shows people know. A lot of young
indie bands are striving for just that kind of
exposure. My question to you is, because you
knew the Rembrandts and you know the whole Friends
theme and everything else, having had your songs
in different shows, how much exposure did that
get the band? How much of that was Atlantic Records
kind of trying to reap the benefits of it? How
much of it went back to them? How much of it
did it really, truly help you? And then with
streaming, a lot of these shows are having second
lives. Are you seeing any piece of that? Because
the shows have your music. Yeah, it's a great
question. Honestly, the biggest impact is the
money. The the residuals, you know, at the time
you get a small fee for the licensing and then
the rest is is, you know, the the royalties that
come from the publishing and writing side. We
were very fortunate in that we had a we had a
friendship with a gentleman named John Rosner
who had a publishing company. He worked with
his father on a publishing company. His father
had been in the publishing business for decades.
He had like Neil Diamond's catalog and a lot
of old school 70s publishing. And John was sort
of co -owner of the company with his father.
And at that time. you know publishing companies
were the ones that you called to get sync licensing
and you know it's a whole different model and
a whole different paradigm now but at the time
you know that's who you called so he had connections
with a lot of different production companies
and he was able to get us these placements and
yes the mechanicals were owned by atlantic so
you know they got they got that portion of the
money but we struck up a great deal uh with john
where He did not take the publishing of the song
forever. We struck up a side deal where he had
the publishing from that placement, you know,
and then we got the writer's share. And yeah,
I mean, we're very fortunate too that those were
especially, you know, 90210 was a huge hit TV
show. So we never stopped seeing royalties from
that. I mean, it just went on and on and on.
And then. And then it got big in South Korea
and Taiwan. And, you know, we're talking like
$1 .43, you know, but we're not, you know, after
a while. But it's still there. It's still in
every BMI check we get is, you know, our residuals
from those two shows, especially 90210 and Party
of Five. So it's something that we're looking
into again, you know, since we have such an extensive
catalog. but it's a much more competitive and
difficult process these days. The deals are a
lot different. I mean, there can be large money
deals, but because of how competitive it is and
how good the music is, the fact that anyone can
really make a pretty good record these days,
it's so competitive that you can... And a lot
of these publishers, these sync placement people,
they have relationships with people who will
go and make music for them. Hey, I need something
moody. Oh, I can do that. And no, and here it
is, or, you know, I don't want to pay. And this
is what happened in the last couple of films
we were in was, you know, I don't want to pay
a hundred thousand dollars to get this green
day song. Do you have something that's like it?
I'm like, yeah, this one. And we'll, you know,
and we'll charge you $5 ,000 deal. And to answer
your original question, uh, made no difference
on our popularity or yeah. I mean, it was something
we could brag about. And again, this is, this
was pre -social media. So, you know, we'd send,
we'd send out postcards saying we got a placement
on party of five and our fan base would go, woo.
And they would watch it. And then they'd co -host
the show and say, I heard you on that show. And
that was it, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah. We couldn't
make a giant international deal about it because
there was no such thing as social media at the
time. Yeah, definitely. Well, you had brought
up the Rembrandts. Everybody knows that band
name for one reason. And now I'm going to follow
that up with a song again from 1993. I think
we're stuck in certain years here. We're stuck
three years apart. But here's a band that I'm
going to say the name and everyone's going to
be like, shut up. They play. Large venues. They're
not indie. They're not alternative. However,
coming from the standpoint of being embraced
by radio, top 40 radio, this was one of the songs
that I heard on 106 .5 The End in North Carolina
in between the hit bands. And the band is The
Flaming Lips. And I am going off of 1993's Transmissions
from the Satellite Heart and She Don't Use Jelly.
Nice. It's a fun, weird, twisted song that would
only come from him. Everybody knows this band.
Of course, they've toured with Weezer. They've
done big shows. We get it. The bubbles that are
going around. I understand they're a big band.
They've recorded with Miley Cyrus when they redid
Sergeant Pepper. But radio airplay, mainstream.
She Don't Use Jelly had its very brief moment
in the sun. And then college radio truly embraced
the flaming lips because I continued to hear
them all throughout my college and then beyond.
But mainstream radio did not. And that's where
I feel they fittingly deserve a spot on this
list. Nice. Yep. Great call on that one. Great
call on that one. And it's funny that, you know,
you'd say that. People say, oh, they're just
too mainstream. They were a big act and they
sold out big shows, but not everybody starts
out that way. Especially in this alternative
world, you're just slogging it out and you're
making your crazy music to grab people's attention
and stuff like that. And then suddenly it gets
everybody's attention. And there's such a great
example. That one was so left field. It was so
left field. that everybody started listening
to it. And now you have the fun of trying to
follow that up because I know that is a left
field song for you. That is. That's a great one.
All right. I'm going to skip up here into 1991
now. I promise that the years fly by a little
faster after this. And I'm going to go with this
one before the other one. I'm going to go with
Teenage Fan Club, Metal Baby. So another act
out of Scotland, I believe they were. But just
this four piece band, two guitars, bass and drum
strumming big old chords, you know, with their
Marshall stacks turned up to 10 and singing these,
you know, beautiful pop songs with their stacks
turned up to 10. And I just when I when I heard
I was like, you know. This is so cool. This is
so this is so beautiful and yet so loud and grungy.
And I know that part of the reason they got their
success is because it just it sounded grungy.
Right. But it was very pop. The chord changes,
the melodies, again, something the Beatles could
have done only with Marshall Stax. And and I
loved it. It's a fantastic song. And I'm sitting
here scrolling through my list. Because I could
lean into that grunge aspect of it or I can lean
into the pop part of it. Right. And I think coming
out of that, I'm going to lean to the pop side
of things and I'm going to jump ahead a little
bit because we've been staying in the early 90s.
And because we're covering a whole decade, I
want to give some love. to the second half of
the nineties here. So I'm going to go all the
way up to 1996. Nice. And I'm going to go with
one of my favorite power pop songs of all time
by a band that I feel is one of the most criminally
underrated bands of the nineties. And the fact
that they're not a household name to me is actually
shocking. And the album is regretfully yours.
And I'm going to go with super drag and sucked
out. Nice. His voice, it's such a beautiful,
airy pop song. But when he gets to the who sucked
out the feeling, he's kind of letting it almost
that visceral growl at the end of the notes.
It adds this complexity to the song that takes
what would normally feel like the theme from
That Thing You Do, something written by Adam
Schlesinger, very breezy power pop, and it adds
this extra layer to it. There's something about
this song that always stuck out to me. To this
day, every time I hear it, it immediately puts
a smile on my face. So I am going to follow up
Teenage Fan Club with Super Drag and something.
Nice. Good one. Good one. All right. Well, if
you're going to take a jump into the end of the
later 90s, then I'll jump up there, too. And
before I jump back, take a dip in the water.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I'm going to go up
to 1997. So this is a band. So all you really
alternative aficionados will appreciate the fact
that this is a band that you probably have never
heard of. They were from Los Angeles. They were
right there alongside us in the clubs. And they
had landed a deal, I believe, on Geffen Records.
And Phil Ramone, I believe, produced this album.
uh the song's called flying solo by the tories
and again i'm just a power pop guy and they were
just a power pop band and they were so good two
guitars bass and drums you know they were they
were a four piece and the best thing about it
was that all of them could sing and they could
just sing their ass off and they had the most
incredible harmonies. And we'd play shows together
and we would just stand there in awe at the execution
of their songs. Their songs just all sounded
brilliant from stage. And they hit all of those
notes and we're like, God, how did they do that?
And then we'd go up there and just flounder and
scream and work the audience into a frenzy, but
it doesn't mean we were good. Yeah. Flying Solo
by the Tories. Just another amazing, cool power
pop song. And again, they had some experiences
with television because. Yes. The show Jesse
with Christina Applegate. Exactly. Exactly. And,
you know, like I said, we hung out with them
all the time. And so, you know, by that time,
friends had taken off and they were like, God,
this better do for us what it did for the Rembrandts.
Do you know how much money this could mean? But
yeah, barely one season. And that was that. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, you followed them on stage. So I
am going to end the side. And I promise you,
this is not me brown nosing, but I am going to
close out side a with my favorite song from your
1998 self -titled CD too high for the supermarket.
Awesome. This to me is everything that I love
about The Uninvited. It is fun, memorable, and
there's a little bit of a quirkiness to it that
works really well. It's funky. It's indie. And
I have to ask, is this a true story? As a matter
of fact, yeah. Oh, it's a 100 % true story. I
was going over to my brother's house to watch.
college football game, USC versus UCLA. And I
was supposed to pick up snacks on the way to
his place. And so, yes, I partook before I went
to the grocery store. And the thing was, literally,
I was going to go in there and buy like 30 bucks
and chips and salsa and stuff like that. And
$170 later, you know, I'm walking out with everything
imaginable. I come in with these like five grocery
bags of crap. And I'm like, bro, I'm too high
for the supermarket. And it just sort of wrote
itself after that. And, you know, one of the
things that we do, it's such a true story. When
we would have these episodes, like various members
of the band would have episodes in the supermarket.
And so we would come in with a new verse. And
so when we play the song live, we have like a
library of 15 verses to choose from. And we'll
just throw out random verses, you know, about
experiences with snack pack pudding or Jimmy
Dean's pure pork sausage or what happens in the
feminine hygiene aisle. And I just, yeah. It
just goes on. This is a song. The first time
I saw the movie half baked with Dave Chappelle,
Jim Brewer. How did this song not get in this
movie? There's the scene where he walks out,
where Kenny walks out with all the snacks and
he feeds them to the horse. And every time I
hear the song, I feel like there was this synergy
between the two. But I absolutely love the song
to the point where if my wife and I are. In the
food store, sometimes I'll just turn to him and
be like, stay focused, man. Oh, that's awesome.
So with that, we close outside a of our nineties
indie alternative mixtape, kicking things off
with the laws. There she goes. Dada's Disneyland,
the posies, golden blunders, the breeders, cannonball,
the Rembrandt's just the way it is, baby. The
Flaming Lips, She Don't Use Jelly, Teenage Fan
Club, Metal Baby, Super Drag, Sucked Out, The
Tories, Flying Solo, and my guest for the evening,
The Uninvited, Too High for the Supermarket.
Remember, you can head over to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all the songs we're discussing in
this mix through the embedded playlist. Now,
I want to go back to the 90s as we're talking
about the 90s right now and talk a little bit
about... The uninvited here, because back in
the early 90s, where a lot of side A was the
band won MTV's Beach House Band Contest during
a time where there was no Internet and people
were discovering bands either on the radio at
concerts via word of mouth or MTV when MTV was.
mtv it wasn't right right television shows they
actually played music videos right so here you
are you win this contest on a major network mtv
this is probably their golden years the 80s through
the early 2000s with trl is when everybody knew
mtv how much did this truly help catapult the
band and was this that defining moment for you
guys Well, I'll tell you, we sure tried to make
it our defining moment. It was it was huge at
the time. We thought that this was going to that
this was it. This was it. And, you know, it's
funny because when they announced it on MTV,
it was almost like an aside. They were just they
did these two VJs were, I think, at the beach
house and they were reading off who the winner
was. And it was like, you know, the uninvited.
And then they cut to commercial break. And I
mean, that's, that's it. That was it. But, you
know, we tried to milk it for all it was worth.
We also got, we got $10 ,000 that we could use
to buy musical equipment with, you know, and
this is, what is that? 93, 94, something. And,
you know, so in adjusted dollars. So we go out
to, we go out to buy our musical equipment and
there's a single stipulation is that, okay, since
there's five guys in the band, you each get to
spend $2 ,000. but you can only buy one item.
So it wasn't like we got to go on a shopping
spree, you know, it was like, pick out one thing.
And so we each, you know, just tried to find
that most expensive thing that we wanted. And
then, yeah, we, you know, we did a new round
of, you know, demos and inquiries to all the
record labels, you know, and we put that up at
the very top of the list. We got this, you know,
we won this contest, we're getting, you know,
exposure on MTV. And Yeah, big goose egg. Just
did not lead to anything. Did not lead to anything.
Wow. A couple of years later, like five or six
years later, we played for the MTV Music Video
Awards. Yeah, that was 99. And interestingly,
that was a wholly separate thing. I mean, they
had since forgotten about us. And a whole new
people in the executive suite, right? You know,
we managed we managed to get that, but it was
completely unrelated. So, yeah, I mean, we milked
it to death, but it we it it did not move the
meter. Yeah. And at that time, that's actually
shocking because you would think MTV, all it
would take was simply a mumble of the band's
name and everybody would have been salivating
to get to the store and buy it because that's
how influential MTV was at that time. Yeah. And.
The thing was, you know, one of the main reasons
that it didn't pan out to be anything was that
the song that won the contest was this song called
Successful Vegetarian. And very much, very much
like the Flaming Lips, just a weird kind of song,
but straight up bluegrass. It was a bluegrass
song. My brother on banjo, acoustic guitar, played
with the standup bass. uh harmonica and it's
just straight and i mean it is bluegrass music
you know and that was part of the blessing and
the curse of the uninvited to this day is what
are you guys doing what is this you know that
was you know it was a super popular song for
us the fans loved it and we put it on the seven
inch single and you know but it's bluegrass and
you know you put that against too high for the
supermarket same kind of funny content in terms,
you know, uh, but yeah, too high is like kind
of a funky pop guitar driven song. And then,
you know, the song was a kind of a breakout forest
on our Atlantic record. What God said is straight
up ska punk. It is a punk and that's what it
is. And that's the difference. That's the difference.
If successful vegetarian was what God said, if
it was like a ska punk song at the time. Yeah,
we probably would have gotten signed at that
moment. But, you know, the record label was like,
that's a bluegrass song. Yeah. And what God said
was the other song that I had in my list that
I was debating between the two. But I felt like
where side one was heading too high for the supermarket
just fit that vibe a little bit better, in my
opinion. Absolutely. But now fast forwarding
to. current times. The Uninvited has been super
busy. Your latest album, Broken Promise Land,
was released through the band's website in December
of 2022. And there's something that I personally
find extremely interesting about this album.
You can buy it on the band's website, which is
theuninvited .band, but you can't buy the MP3s
on iTunes or stream it on Spotify or Apple Music
or any of the other providers. Is there a reason
for that? There is a reason for that. Overall,
I mean, the reason is we are experimenting. You
know, this is our first album in 20 years or
whatever, and it's a new digital age. And so
we're just trying to find the best way to market
ourselves and make a buck at it. So we decided
that we were not going to just put the album
out to the streaming services en masse. Like,
here's all 10 tracks. Here's the album. Go out
and stream it. You stream the whole album and
we make a penny and a half, unless we're on Apple,
then maybe it's two pennies, something like that.
If you buy the album for 10 bucks, we net $8.
So that's huge. That's huge. You go out and sell
10 ,000 copies like that. Well, that's huge.
So we're doing it kind of the old school way
of like, we'll release singles. on the DSPs,
on all the streaming services. And if you're
interested in getting the album, you can go buy
it. And you can buy it for streaming. You can
buy it as a CD. And we're thinking that maybe
our next album is going to be vinyl exclusively.
You can stream some singles on Spotify. And if
you want the album, you can go buy the vinyl
album. You can put the needle down on that baby.
Streaming is a humongous ripoff. It's money -wise.
Money -wise, it's just, you know, there's no
money in it. You go out and get yourself a million
streams on Spotify. That sounds like a lot. Sure
does. That's $3 ,000. Yay. Yay, $3 ,000. How
much did it take you to get that? Streaming is
purely, you know, exposure. You have to look
at streaming now as a way to parlay album sales
and concert revenue or merchandise. I find that
fascinating because as somebody who owns 4 ,500
CDs, I also have a Spotify account. But I use
it for one reason and one reason only, which
was something I did not have in the 80s and 90s
when I started my CD collection, was the ability
to listen to something before I purchased the
physical copy. So if there's an album that comes
out, I can listen to it all the way through.
If it's an album I just don't jive with, I don't
have to buy it and I could save some money to
put towards, I don't know, my kid's college funds
at some point. I'm going to have to worry about.
But even though it was just a penny and a half,
at least the band got something for their work
for me. Because they might not be a band that
I jive with, which is totally fine. But I still
supported them in some way. Now for the bands
I do like, I go out and... Try to find a way
to support it via physical. So if you do press
the next album on vinyl, please do a CD as well.
Thank you. Just throwing that out as a PSA. Just
one copy. It's fine. I'm sure we will. Yeah.
You can do CD on demand now, which is crazy and
affordable. And so, yeah, that's what we do.
Everything's on demand. Yeah, definitely. But
you know what? Like I said, it's an experiment
and we're figuring it out. I may come back on
here next year and say, yeah, yeah, that idea
didn't work. Here's a new one. Yeah. But by experimenting,
you're finding out and learning along the way.
And I do the same thing with this podcast. So
I do want to talk about some of your singles.
And because you are the band on the show, I have
permission to play some of these clips. Anyone
you want. All right. The first one I'm going
to start with is a song called I'm Not Dead Yet.
All right, JT, there are two versions of this
song. The version I just played, which is available
on Spotify and all the other streaming services,
as well as a version on the website that's listed
as the remix. And I listened to it there. A little
bit of different lyrics. What's the story between
the two versions of the song and releasing a
new version to streaming services? Absolutely.
So actually the. The one that's on the one that's
called the remix is a remix from the album version.
The version on the album, it's got some colorful
language. So we decided to take out the colorful
language and then we just wanted to remix it
to be bigger, louder and more in your face. And
that's basically what we did. So we. Uh, we,
uh, hooked up with this guy, uh, Gordon Saron,
who, uh, mixes all of Nickelback stuff, by the
way, or like make this rock. And so, yeah, he
just basically applied the rock to the mix and
we redid the lyric and yeah. And, and, and that's
it. That's what you got on, uh, on Spotify. And
you just heard a clip there. It's an awesome
song. I purchased it through Qbaz. Oh, nice.
Which is a hi -fi. digital service because i
i hope essentially the band gets more from that
cut however i'm not an mp3 person i like my lossless
and they do sell lossless so nice that is me
being the music nerd there yeah oh well you gotta
you gotta and the next track i'm going to do
is another one i bought from that cuba site and
it's a single you put out called unwritten yes
Now this track has a real, I want to call it
Americana vibe to it while still keeping that
signature sound intact. And I'd love to know
when you play a song like I'm not dead yet. And
then you play a song like unwritten, you're getting
the same story. Like we talked about earlier
with what God said and too high for the supermarket.
There's a lot of different vibes that happen
in the uninvited. Is that something that the
band. actively seeks to accomplish during writing
and recording or am i really overthinking this
from the outside looking in no no it's you're
not overthinking it because it's something that
needs to be thought about um so this is this
is a thing this is an issue if you want to call
it that you know that has has plagued us i'll
just say uh from the very beginning My brother
and I are the primary songwriters, and our focus
has always been on songwriting. We're not stellar,
amazing guitar players. We don't have the best
voices in the world. The thing that we really
focus on is songwriting. And we came from an
Americana background, a bluegrass background.
The first thing we did was a bluegrass band.
My brother was 14. I was 12. He played banjo.
I played mandolin. And we did bluegrass bands.
Weird. So that element is in our DNA. But mostly
what we end up doing is we write all these songs.
And especially in the early years, Steve and
I, we co -wrote a lot. And we were very 100 %
honest with each other. And we'd come to each
other and say, I got this idea. Your idea sucks.
Okay, I'll go on to the next idea. How about
this bridge? That bridge is good, but the chorus
sucks. Let's do something else. And then we'd
get to the point where when we were writing songs
on our own, it was like, I came up with a song.
What do you think of the song, bro? Oh, that
song sucks. You got another one? Yeah, I got
this one. And so the pattern that emerged from
all this was, is it a great song? You know, is
that a great song? If it's a great song, let's
work it up. And then we'd work it up like, wow,
that's kind of a great song. And then we would
play it and we'd play it. And the ultimate arbiter
would be the audience. And if the audience really
loved it, we're like, it's a keeper. And so stylistically,
we might be all over the map and we were, and
we still are. That is not helpful in a marketing
point of view. And this happened to us. I mean,
this happened to us all the time. I mean, Atlantic
even came down and said to our manager, hey,
look. And this was a defining moment. The label
came down and said, look, we know how to market
widgets. So what's the widget here with the uninvited?
All right. Are they? a party rock band, okay?
Because if they're a party rock band, we know
how to market a party rock band. Or are they
a serious band? Because if they're a serious
band, we know how to market serious bands. But
what we don't know how to do? We don't know how
to market a band that is both a party rock band
and a serious band on the same album. A band
that has two lead singers. We don't know how
to do this. A band that has a banjo in one track
and then a farfisa in the other. Yeah, we don't
know how to do that. So if you could just get
them to be one thing, we'll give you another
single and we'll move on with that. And, you
know, our manager came to us with that and we're
like, yeah, we're this weird thing. You know,
we couldn't we couldn't make the decision not
to, you know, choose one. And it is that that
decision, that choice, that thing that haunts
us to this day in terms of I'm out here trying
to market our music on Spotify. You're trying
to use Facebook ads to get Spotify plays on whatever
playlist, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And it's still like right here in my face. What
are you guys? What are you? And my brother and
I have this conversation to this day. Hey, bro,
should we just say that we're an alt Americana
band and lean that direction and take songs that
are outliers and cast them aside and say, look,
no, we understand that song's an outlier. We're
not going to do it. We are. alt americana band
are we going to do that should we do that after
50 freaking years should we do that and we haven't
made a decision yet now well one of the things
that i love seeing is i'm not a massive tiktok
person i do have my tiktok channel your channel
is one of the main reasons i enjoy going on the
app i love hearing the stories about what you've
done through your band your experiences some
of the stories you've told one of the ones if
you don't mind me poaching one of your pieces
of content from the channel you had a band open
for the uninvited that went on to do some pretty
interesting things yeah yeah i mean We did, you
know, we played a lot of shows. We did a lot
of touring, especially in the pre -Atlantic years,
you know, just, and especially around the Western
US since we were based in Los Angeles. And, you
know, we, so we played San Diego, Las Vegas,
Salt Lake City, you know, big Western US tour
circuit. And so, yeah, we had a lot of bands
we played with and a lot of bands that opened
up for us. And I think one of the, one of the,
one of the great examples is We used to play
this place called Doc's Lab, Doc Ricketts in
Monterey. And Monterey is sort of our adopted
hometown because we became very popular in Monterey.
And we became so popular at Doc Ricketts that
whenever we played, there was a line around the
block, that whole thing. And so other bands wanted
to play with us. And this one band wanted to
play with us really bad. And so the owner eventually
of the club was like, well, You got to talk to
the band. You got to talk to JT or Steve and
they'll let you know if you can open for them
because we don't need an opener. They're going
to pack the place no matter what. So the guy
gives me a call. He's like, yeah, I'm in this
band. We're called Train and we're big here in
San Francisco and we want to open for you. I'm
like, all right, come open for us. So they come
and open. I didn't hear much of the set. I only
heard that they closed with a cover of Zeppelin's
Kashmir. And everyone seemed to like their cover
of Kashmir. But after the show, an inordinate
amount of people came up to us like, God, that
opening band sucked, man. What was up with that?
Like, oh, I'm sorry. You know, wow. We were just
trying to give these guys a try. You know, sorry.
And so the guy calls. again. It's like, dude,
that was so cool. Let's do that again. I'm like,
Hey man, I'm sorry, but no, um, crowd thought
you sucked. And so we, we can't, we can't do
that. We can't, we can't do anything that's going
to jeopardize our crowd. So no, you, you can't
open for us anymore. And you know, but they ended
up being train. So they went on to, you know,
a level of, of success that is quite excessive,
quite a bit more than we ever obtained. So, you
know, and there's, there's a small handful of
very similar stories of bands that opened for
us that went on to much greater levels of fame
than we did. I guess you're not picking up the
phone and saying, hey, train. No. Remember us?
Remember us? Yeah. Yeah. That's a hard one. Yeah.
Well, for the independent music fans out there,
I highly suggest you follow The Uninvited on
TikTok. JT's content is absolutely amazing. I
feel like you're kind of working through. With
your experience of being on a major label and
kind of breaking down the walls for musicians
that might not know about that. And I think that's
important for musicians to hear because there's
these people have views of what they expect the
industry to be. And you've lived it and experienced
it and you're still doing the indie thing. So
having the insight of major and indie, I just
find the channel absolutely fascinating. And
I'd love to know. Are you getting from the band
level something out of it where you feel like
it's turning to more listens? Is it turning to
more engagement? And are other artists reaching
out to you? Because I feel like the stories you're
telling are important for indie musicians that
are trying to start out now. I feel like this
is stuff they need to just know. It's interesting
you would put it that way because the biggest.
biggest benefit of our TikTok channel at this
point is that, yeah, it's a, it's group therapy
for musicians. You know, we went in going, all
right, here's this new social media platform
that we have to be part of, you know, and let's
just, you know, okay, here we go. And we did
our band thing, right. And we had put out little
clips of us playing live shows and getting ready
to go on tour and recording in the studio and,
you know, that kind of stuff. And it just fell
on deaf ears. No one, no one, no one gave a crap
about it at all. And so it was only when, you
know, we started getting in front of the mic
and saying, all right, here's our experiences,
what we've been through, that it started getting
any traction. And, you know, it becomes sort
of a, you know, its own little macrocosm because
now you stop reaching music fans as much as you're
reaching musicians. But you know what? I think
it's great because if, you know, it's become
this place where I'm able to talk about my experience
in the business and my perspective on things
and other musicians come in and say, oh my God,
I feel the same way. I'm going through the same
thing. What did you do about this? What did you
do about that? Or they can come in and say, wow,
man, you are so full of BS. I can't even believe
you're on this platform. But then we can engage
in some good dialogue because the more things
change, the more they stay the same. Oh, man,
you were on a label back in the Jurassic period.
You don't know anything. It's like, oh, no, man,
no. The motivation is still the same. This is
about optimizing shareholder value. They don't
give a flying you -know -what about anything
else. So yeah, it's become something different
than I thought it would be. And, you know, going
back to your question of, you know, has it helped
the band a little? There's a couple of truisms
here. One, it has helped a little, right? I can
see that people click on our link, you know,
that's in our bio and, you know, people go and
listen to the music. Not a ton of people, you
know, maybe it's a 2 % conversion rate there.
Some people have come to our shows. I, you know,
I saw you on TikTok. Oh my God. How about that?
So, you know, that's cool, but it's also part
of the self -fulfilling prophecy of the whole
thing. We've had a couple of successful videos,
you know, I've been doing this for a while now
where you got to like up to like 10 ,000 followers
and promoters want to hear that promoters want
to hear how many, how many followers do you have
on TikTok? I got 10 ,000 followers. Oh, okay.
I'll answer your email then, you know, and They
don't know that 9 ,700 of them don't interact
with the account at all. They just want to hear
the number. And so you can tell them the number
and suddenly you have legitimacy. But I think
that applies to any social media platform. Oh,
by all means. Yeah, Facebook followers. Oh, you
are legit. I got 100 ,000 Instagram followers.
Oh, you are legit. And the problem is you can
spend, and I have the same problem with the podcast,
more time being a social media person than you
can investing that time into your songs or for,
in my instance, into reaching out to get guests
on the show, booking and producing the show.
There's a lot of work that goes into podcasting.
I wish I could say that you and I just turn these
mics on, we talk, and I just hit stop and upload
it and I walk away and I'm all done and thousands
of people are going to be running to listen.
That's the goal. But there's a lot of work that
goes into podcasting, just like music. And you
could conceivably spend more time engaging social
media just to because for me, podcasting is a
discussion. So the social media is where the
discussion continues after an episode goes out.
And I'm blessed to have a lot of the mixtapers
who engage with me on social media. So it does
become a double edged sword, though, because
you could stop investing into the actual. art
that you're trying to create. And I'm not trying
to say the show is art, but it is a form of output.
It's a creative output. Yes. So trying to strike
a balance is very complicated. So I completely
see where you're coming from. And I think that's
why I resonate with the content so much. We are
going to continue talking about the uninvited
in a little bit, but we did promise people a
side B to this indie alternative playlist. So
let's get back to it. And I get to kick things
off this time. And I'm going to go to 1996 and
ask the question. So just how far down do you
want to go? And we could talk it out over a cup
of Joe. I am going with the refreshments banditos
from 1996 is fizzy, fuzzy, big and buzzy. Another
band that just I don't get. That album to me
is a snapshot of 1996 musically. They checked
off every box that to me would put them in the
same and if not maybe even bigger than a Matchbox
20 at the time. They had the sound, the look,
everything, the catchiness, the hooks. And Bandidos
is the one song that did get a little bit of
play, but I feel like this band just didn't get
their just due. And I want them to have it tonight.
Nice. So I'm kicking it off with Bandidos from
The Refreshments. Such a great choice. Love that
album. Love that band. We opened for them one
time in Tucson, Arizona. yeah with dead hot workshop
which was sort of a rising band from that that
scene too but i think you know that you had the
gin blossoms were were like were like the big
band of what the refreshments were were doing
um and got you know and again talk about another
band that gave us hope of like oh yeah you know
we kind of do songs like that we could do songs
like that yeah and yeah a great great song great
band all right so Let's do one that's going to
challenge the notion of what is alternative,
okay? I'm going to go to 1995, right in the middle
of the 90s, with a song off of Wilco's, what
I would say, breakthrough album. And the song
is Out of Mind, Out of Sight. And the thing with
Wilco is you can follow their musical DNA all
the way back to, you know, what people considered
one of the original alternative bands, which
was Uncle Tupelo, right? And they started the
whole no depression kind of movement, this new
Americana movement, which I was totally into
being, you know, coming from a bluegrass history
myself, loved Uncle Tupelo. And then when they
split off, you know, the two guys went their
separate directions and one started Sunvolt,
the other started Wilco. And, you know, Wilco
was kind of present through the 90s. But to me
in 1995, you know, this song, especially Out
of Mind, Out of Sight was like. their calling
card style. And so you ask yourself, okay, you
know, is this alternative? Is that really alternative
music, you know, or is that just more, you know,
kind of alt Americana? But if you look at the
fact that what was pop at the time was boys to
men and Madonna and TLC. Yeah. Hell yeah. It
was alternative. You know, that's exactly what
alternative was. And it was just great. You know,
to me, it just, you know, it still had those
roots elements. to it and yet you know just giant
blazing guitars love that song that is damn near
impossible to come out of scrolling through my
list because Wilco has a sound of itself so there's
no there's going to be a pivot here musically
And the one thing I will tie into Wilco is the
year, 1995. That's about all I've got. I love
Wilco, but nothing on my list truly comes out
of that naturally. So this is going to be a little
bit of a left turn, but an album that I feel
is, again, in that indie quirky vibe that fits
where we're going here. And when you have a band
that has an instrument called a bass guitar and
a git bass. which are regular six string guitars
modified. You get the presidents of the United
States of America. And no, yeah, I am not going
with lump weird out, covered it. I understand
that that song becomes its own stratosphere.
And I am not going with peaches. The one that
everybody thinks I was going to go with. I'm
going with the song that kicks the album off.
Kitty. Nice. My foot. And I want to touch it.
The whole part where, The kiddies going to spend
the night outside and to scratch it. And just
it was so quirky. And I think maybe the storytelling
aspect of the song is the only way I could even
draw a line to Wilco, because musically they're
two different entities. But Presidents was something
where I don't understand how this band didn't
get bigger other than the moment in. the wedding
singer, when they did their cover of Video Killed
the Radio Star, they're still putting out music
and it's still great music. I just don't feel
like I've seen the presidents play with jam bands
like Mo. So they're another band where they're
able to kind of hop from bill to bill and people
respect them no matter what bill they're on.
And that's an interesting aspect. So tying it
into Wilco, I feel like that's kind of my linchpin
to connect those two. That's great. And what
year did that album come out? That was 1995.
1995. Okay. So in 1994, right before that album
came out, they were the buzz band at South by
Southwest. And we got to see them in concert
at this club and they just tore it up. And I
mean, everything that you think that their live
show would be, you know, listening to that music,
it was, and it was amazing. And there was one
moment where the lead bass player, I guess, is
jumping, is jumping so frantically that he smashes
his head on the top of, of the stage. And he's
literally bleeding out the skull and he just
keeps going. And it was such a rock moment and,
and they were so good and so tight and so different.
Yeah. And they were all the buzz the next day.
That was such a great album. And like you say,
yeah, just. Where'd that come from? You know,
so unique. So cool. All right. Well, now you're
making it really hard to follow up. So I'm going
to, we're just, we're just upping the ante here
every time. All right. Then I'm going to go,
I'm going to go with something else that was
kind of artsy and quirky at the time that became
incredibly inspirational for me. 1997. Ben Folds
5. And the song that I'm going to go with is
The Battle of Who Could Care Less. Wow. Good
one. Thank you. So, you know, Ben Folds 5 became
kind of a household -ish name. They became a
mainstream name. Still make music to this day.
Ben Folds is an absolute genius himself. I believe
he is now the creative director of the Philadelphia
Philharmonic. I might get that wrong, but he
is. became the creative director of a big national
orchestra recently. When that album came out
in 97, they'd done a couple albums before, I
believe. I think that was the first single, Battle
of Who Could Care Less, before Brick came out.
And Brick, of course, was a number one hit and
propelled them off into the stratosphere, from
which they quickly came down. I mean, it was
a fluke alternative hit, Brick was. And I also
don't think that that song is indicative of who
Ben Folds is. Yeah, 100%, 100%. But the battle
of who could care less, especially coming out
then in 1997, to me just sort of encapsulated
that alternative rock was getting commercial
because it's this total indictment of the scene,
you know, of who can be most. who can have the
most antipathy in the room, right? Who, who can
care less? And it's so clever and it's so different,
you know, again, it's guitar, it's piano, bass,
and drums, you know, and the bass player has
got a fuzz box forever. So he's, he's rocking
it and it's jazz, it's pop. It's, I don't know
what it's uniquely them. And when I heard that
record, I got my hands on everything Ben Folds
that I possibly could and then listened to every
album he put out since. Ben Folds became an influence,
a major influence on, especially on finding my
voice in songwriting because his voice is so
distinct. It's such narrative songwriting and
there is not a single cliche or anything even
close to a cliche in any of his songs. And it's
incredible. And so I'm going with that one. And
what's funny is I recently finally picked up
a copy of Rock in the Suburbs on CD. You go back
and you listen to that. You're like, man, this
is this is something else. He really has a way
with words, a way with delivery. And the way
I'm going to tie into Ben Folds is with another
artist. I mentioned his name earlier, but it's
a band that. Had a massive hit song. It was a
pop smash cover bands cover it to this day. And
that hit song is Stacy's mom. Nice. But when
you're talking about fountains of Wayne, there
is a era of this band prior to Stacy's mom. And
when I first saw the band, they were this small
group getting their big exposure, opening up
for smashing pumpkins on the melancholy and infinite
sadness tour. And I did not know a single thing
about them. We went to the show and they come
up on stage and they open up with this song that
blows my mind. And to this day, it is such a
perfect snapshot of 90s power pop that I feel
like it fits in this mix. And that song is Radiation
Vibe. Oh, yeah. The first song off their self
-titled album. Adam Schlesinger, when he passed,
it broke my heart. The guy had such a way with
melody. He had a power pop band called tinted
windows with James Eha from the smashing pumpkins
with Taylor Hanson and with, Oh God, drummer,
a cheap trick. Oh my God. Bunny Carlos, Bunny
Carlos. I am so sorry. And this album came out
in the late two thousands and it is such a perfect
snapshot of power pop. And when Adam passed,
it broke my heart because I mean, he wrote. the
theme song to one of my favorite movies, which
was that thing you do. The guy just had a way
with music and this song to me, I just wanted
to spotlight it because it's not the Stacy's
mom. It's not the, that thing you do. It's radiation
vibe. And it's a song that is so underrated and
it fits so well musically with what we've put
together so far. So that is my track five. Awesome.
Awesome. Great choice. All right. Underrated
then let's go with, um, Underrated. That's got
to be the linchpin here. All right. Well, underrated
in my opinion. I'm going to go with G Love and
Special Sauce, also from 1997, I -76. I -76.
All right. So to me, I heard about G Love's first
album on Karo Q and Richard Blade, the DJ. He's
like, okay, here are the bands in town this month
or this week. Glove and Spatial Sauce. And I'm
like, what band would be called Glove and Spatial
Sauce? And I finally figured out it was G Love
and Spatial Sauce. And I got the album just on
that. And had been listening, you know, I think
that. the album was called yeah it's that easy
that's right so um yeah it's that easy was maybe
the third album or something like that and to
me g love was in peak form peak form so as a
white boy rapper he had his flow down as a blues
guitarist he was authoritative his his other
albums the previous albums you know he was so
far in the back pocket he was like in another
pair of pants but you know his playing was authoritative
and his songwriting was, was like on point now.
And so it was to me, that was like one of the
best G love and special sauce albums. And I 76
just has this great vibe, you know, of a bunch
of guys just talking about what, talking about
what's the best way to get to the arena to go
watch the game. Like what, what route should
you take? And it's just. It's awesome. And so
I've been a huge G love fan. And to me, that's,
that's the one, that's the one right there. I
love it. I had cold beverage from their 1994
self -titled. I couldn't see a universe without
G love making this list. I have had G love on
my prior podcast playlist wars, been a fan for
a long time, but that's a tough one to come out
of looking at on my list. Side B is, is a little
mixed up and all over the place, but in a good
way. But isn't the 90s mixed up and all over
the place? I mean, that was the beauty of it.
100%. And I think the song I'm going to pick
fits in that mode just so well. Because G -Love
was kind of this outlier. Like you said, it's
mixing hip hop. It's mixing blues. It's mixing
acoustic. It's mixing a little bit of everything.
And in 1995, on the album I Am an Electric Firecracker,
a band called Tripping Daisy did a little bit
of everything. And they had this song that was
so 90s. To me, it defines the decade. Just vibe
and sound. I'm going with I Got a Girl. Nice.
This was another one of those songs that I heard
endlessly on 106 .5 The End down in North Carolina.
And sometimes if the damn DJ didn't talk up at
the end of the song, you didn't know what the
hell it was. And you had to start asking around,
who does the song I Got a Girl? Who does the
song I Got? And finally you find it. And it's
always the, you knew the album cover because
when you see the album cover, you're like, that's
a 90s album. And sure enough, but everything
about it worked and everything about that band
is so cool. I'm surprised that I Got a Girl was
the only one that captured people's attention,
at least at the mainstream level, because such
a talented band outside of it. Lest we forget,
members of Trip and Daisy went on to form the
Polyphonic Spree, which is still growing strong
now. And then there's the fact that some mixtapers
chimed in with their songs. So I know they're
on people's minds when it comes to this topic.
Yeah, that's a great choice. And to me, there's
a there's a direct line between that and Flaming
Lips. Right. Oh, yeah. There's that same kind
of quirkiness. And yeah. OK, then I'm going to
take a step back and go back to 1993 to a band
I loved that was, again, to me, one of those
90s alt rock power trios that was really underrated,
really overlooked. But really, I think helped
define the genre. And that's Buffalo Tom. All
right. And I'm going to go with Soda Jerk from
their 1993 album. I think the album was Big Red
Letter Day. And I want to say they were from
Boston. Shoot, was it Boston or Detroit? Anyway,
to me, they have even if they're from the Midwest,
they have this kind of they have this kind of
East Coast sound to them. And I should probably
just look this up and solve it once and for all.
But it was just, you know, again, there was just
the three of them, guitar, bass and drums. And
when you're doing the power trio thing, your
songs better be freaking great because you're
not covering anything up with, you know, lead
guitars and keyboard padding and, you know, lush
textures and stuff. It's. You're belting out
a great song. And to me, that was a boy. Loved
that song. Loved that album. And very alternative.
Very, very alternative. And one of those bands
that, again, you had mentioned Juliana Hatfield
before. They were all kind of in that, I guess,
lumping by stations because you would always
hear those songs kind of. In a series or in a
block, so to speak, because you wouldn't be tying
them up with a band like sponge or somebody else
from that, which is on the list. Yeah. I have
them on the list too. And Oh God. Damn. This
is tough because I am looking through my list
and I've still got 15 songs and I've only got
one choice left. Oh, all right. We down to our
last choice. We're down to our last choice. All
right. And this is really tough, but. All I'm
going to say is there's an easy volume two to
this list here because I have so many leftover
songs that were not even scratching the surface.
But being a bass player, I'm going to go with
one of my favorite bass lines of all time. This
bass line, the first time I heard it, I literally
told my buddy next to me, shh. And I turned the
radio up because I had to just absorb what was
happening. And this song blew my mind in 1996.
And here we are in 2023. And the song still blows
my mind. Only now it's when I'm in the movie
theater watching the trailer for Guardians of
the Galaxy 3. And it's playing in the background
because this is a band that never got passed
in the meantime. And it's. Space hog from 1996
is resident alien. Nice massive arena rock. I
don't know what you'd call this song. The baseline
is funky. You've got it over this halftime groove,
but then his voice comes in and this got this
beautiful falsetto over these soaring guitars.
You don't know if the chorus, if they're trying
to be Bush, if they're trying to be that alternative
hard rock, or if they're trying to go with this.
funky mix and it stuck out to me and it was so
fresh and so original and the label i don't think
knew what to do with them because this was it
that i heard on radio from them and it's an absolute
crime so i'm gonna go with space hog in the meantime
and i'll tell you where guardians of the galaxy
in the first movie touched on everybody's 70s
nostalgia when i saw that trailer and they played
this i'm like oh they're going after my age group
now damn it and it's working i have to see this
movie now no matter what yeah yeah a great choice
on that that would that i had i'd absolutely
considered that one uh for the list so i'm glad
you covered that and yeah i don't yeah you know
it's interesting because We could probably have
a whole other podcast about how the record industry
was changing the 90s and was changing. I mean,
it was changing dramatically in the 90s with
the advent of Napster and the Internet starting
to take off and this whole idea of digital music
and digital downloads and that sort of thing.
And I think it was really accelerating and an
idea as old as time. That was accelerating further
and further. And that was, you know, sort of
lack of artist development. Yeah. It was, you
know, there was a lot of just like, all right,
let's see, you know, let's sign some bands and
see what works. And, you know, there were so
many major labels at the time. And, you know,
they were releasing, each releasing four new
bands every three weeks. And, you know, so there
was it was just a lot of running up the flagpole
and see who salutes. And the part that I could
never figure out is like, that was a great songs.
But, you know, why didn't you give him a follow
up? You know, you're telling me the follow up
wasn't as good or, you know, you just you were
too busy going on to the next thing because that
was the schedule. The schedule was four new bands
every three weeks. Oh, and you also have all
of your veteran bands, too. You know, so it was
just you can't. You can't keep up that schedule.
Anyway, like I said, whole other podcast. So
let me just get to my last song then. Yeah, you
get to close out the whole night tonight. All
right. Well, then I'm going to close out kind
of the way that we were going in, you know, talking
about what is indie alternative rock. So I'm
going to go a little more obscure and I'm going
to go with Mockingbirds by Grant Lee Buffalo,
1994. Such. a beautiful song beautiful ethereal
song that you know to me again was sort of like
uh you know this wasn't his first album um it
wasn't their first album you know there's this
direct line into the paisley underground you
know that was that was happening and you know
making sort of lilting beautiful ethereal music
that was in direct contrast to the formulaic,
you know, pop that you were getting from Madonna
and Michael Jackson and, you know, and this kind
of thing that it truly was an alternative to
what else you could listen to. And, you know,
again, really underrated band making really.
Beautiful music. And to me, Mockingbirds was
the sort of the one. Love the pick to me. Grant
Lee Buffalo kind of fits in the same category
as a band like the Sundays. If I throw them out
there. Yes. Yes, please do. Yes. Their cover
of Wild Horses. Again, like Mockingbirds, it's
this atmospheric song that really is. It's hard
to define because, yes, the one I'm talking about
is a Rolling Stones cover that everybody knows
the original, but they were able to make it this
heartfelt, tender ballad, beautiful, soaring.
And I think coming out of the big, heavy, in
the meantime, kind of funneling it down from
that thought process, except without the distortion,
Mockingbirds is a perfect way to close this out.
So there you have it, folks. Side B of our 90s
indie alternative playlist, starting with the
refreshments, Bandidos, Wilco, Out of Mind, Out
of Sight, Presidents of the United States of
America, Kitty, Ben Folds 5, The Battle of Who
Could Care Less, Fountains of Wayne, Radiation
Vibe, G Love and Special Sauce, I -76, Trippin'
Daisy, I Got a Girl. Buffalo Tom, Soda Jerk,
Space Hog, In the Meantime, and Grant Lee Buffalo,
Mockingbirds. I'd listen to that. Wow. Hell yeah.
And you should by visiting the 90s indie alternative
page at myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the
songs we've discussed in this mix through the
embedded playlist. Now, JT, before we close up
shop for the night. Getting back to The Uninvited,
at the end of 2021, your brother Stephen released
a book through Hearn Publications called The
Uninvited on the road with the greatest rock
band you've never heard. My most difficult question
of the night, did you read the book? Yes, I read
the book and my brother even gave me an advanced
copy and said, you have to approve of this because
there's some revealing information in here. And
I'm like, just print it, bro. It's all good.
Well, why don't you tell people a little bit
about what you read and where they could snag
a copy? Because I feel like when people understand
the story, it just creates a bigger connection
to the music, which is something that certainly
happened for me. Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah.
I mean, my brother is a fantastic writer and
he finally decided to do a memoir of the band.
And what's cool about the book is that it's more
than a memoir. It's more than just a, okay, on
this day, we did this. And then on this day,
we did that. He really tries to weave a story
of why he was doing this great adventure. And
what are you willing to sacrifice for your dream?
And then what do you do when your dream changes?
Then what happens when your dream changes? It's
a great book. I mean, all humility aside, it's
just it's a great book. And kudos to my brother.
It actually hit number one on Amazon's punk rock
memoirs chart. He actually got over Dave Grohl's
book. Oh, wow. Just for a week. But he did it.
And so, yeah, I mean, you can still get on on
Amazon. You can get it off our website at uninvited
.com or the uninvited band. And I recommend it.
I certainly do as well. It's a fantastic read.
Now, a couple more questions for you, JT. Going
back to your TikTok page, given all the stories
that you tell on there, what advice would you
give an indie band starting out now if you could
go back and maybe give yourself the same advice
when you guys were starting out in the 90s? Oh,
interesting. Very interesting. Because I'd probably
give two different bits of advice. At this point,
I would tell a young band, be yourself. Just
absolutely 100 % be yourself. Look at your musical
influences and let them influence you, but don't
try to be them. Don't listen to anybody about
what your music should be. Be you and take the
time to really look inside and say, okay, here's
what makes me special. This is my voice. This
is my perspective. This is what I do. This is
how I think, how I feel. This is my perspective
on things. And then be that. Don't try to be
anything other than your really authentic self.
Because in a world of competition where we're
all competing for attention, authenticity is
the only thing that's going to capture and maintain
someone's attention. And the competition has
never been. more fierce than it is right now.
So that's what I tell a young man. Then if I
went back and told myself, you know, had to tell
myself a bit of advice, you know, it would lean
a lot more towards believe in yourself, believe
in your instincts, trust your instincts. And
I guess, you know what, I guess, honestly, I
would tell myself as well that, you know, there's
a business side to this, which I guess is something
you should tell kids these days too. This is
as much business as it is art. And, you know,
not business in the respect of, yo, mind your
money, because no, like you are a business now.
You better know your marketing. You know, you
got to understand artist development from a sales
and marketing standpoint, because no one is going
to help you there. Labels don't do that. Nobody
does that. Nobody does development. So, you know,
hone your business chops. Because it is more
business than it is music, which wasn't quite
the case back then, but really is the case right
now. Well, speaking of that business, JT, what
does the rest of 2023 have in store for The Uninvited?
Is there any new music on the horizon, shows,
touring? Absolutely. All of the above. So we're
going to be releasing a couple of more singles
from the new album this year before we go off
and make another album. And we're doing a little
bit more touring where we're going back up and
down the West coast again. And then, uh, we're
keeping our fingers crossed on a couple of festivals
that we're going to, uh, are, are hopefully going
to come through. So we're back at it. We're,
um, yeah. So, you know, if you come to the website
uninvited .com or the uninvited .band, you can
get on our email list. You can see all about
tours and shows. You can buy the album. You can
find out where you stream The Uninvited, which
is basically everywhere. We're The Uninvited,
so you can stream us everywhere. We're the one
that's not a Viking death metal band, basically.
There's like six Viking death metal bands that
decided to call themselves The Uninvited, and
we couldn't get a cease and desist order to.
So we're the ones that are not Viking death metal.
Well, you guys are eclectic, so maybe you should
write a Viking death metal song. Exactly. Well,
JT, thank you so much for joining me on my weekly
mixtape. And I hope to have you back on the show
again sometime, because I feel like there's a
lot more of this road we can go down. Brian,
it was an absolute joy. So thank you so much
for having me on. Really enjoyed it. Remember,
Mixtapers, you can find My Weekly Mixtape on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at My
Weekly Mixtape. You can also head to MyWeeklyMixtape
.com to check out the full catalog of My Weekly
Mixtape episodes. If you want to support the
show, please consider becoming a Patreon Mixtaper
at Patreon .com forward slash My Weekly Mixtape.
That's all for this week. Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, enjoy the tunes.