Welcome to another episode of the original Slacker Podcast, presented by Round Guys Brewing Company. Today, we will be chatting with Gene Smith of the Gene Smith Band and Chris Henderson of these same bed and they will be doing a. there'll be performing here on November 16th, which is a Friday down here at the underground. The Original Slacker is presented by Round Guys Brewing Company, Round Guys Brewing Company has three locations. We're proud to announce a new location in Glenside, that Glenside ale house, which features eight of our beers on draft and Mexican food. We also have the underground, which is where the show is being performed, where we're chatting. We're actually recording the show for the first time right here in the underground. The underground is our live performance venue where we have everything from drag yoga, music for games, jazz. Some shows will have tacos, some shows won't have tacos. If we don't have food, you're welcome to bring food in. We do not serve food, we do not have food at the actual venue, the underground itself, but we do across the street at the Lansdale brewpub, which is home to our original brief facility. We have 16 beers on draft takeout. We have everything over there. We get full service menu, full service bar, and if you want to see in the back, just wave to someone and say, Hey, what's back there? Can I check it out? We might be able to get you back there. So give it a shot and thank you again for listening to the podcast. Today's gonna be a fun one. Gene Smith is, he's, he's a cool dude and we got to chat about man Rocco, what'd we chat about? We chatted about some of the influences of vinyl and the impact of, of different technologies on music. And we chatted about, uh, the impact of technology on the human spirit as well. These guys will be performing a well. Gene Smith will be performing a song at the end. So definitely pay attention. We have a live performance the first time on the original soccer podcast, live performance at the end of this podcast. Thank you again and have a good one. Welcome to the original slacker podcast. This is our new it's a new segment at peace. The, um, Music Mash Tun. It used to be all music and podcasts now, splitting it up.
:Groovy, man. Thanks for having us. We liked this place. Like I said, we played here a couple times and we've had fun here and uh, we, the people here have been fantastic to us and we'd have a lot of people that live around here. We know a lot of people in the neighborhood, so we've been able to bring people in and hopefully that will continue.
Bill McGeeney:Yeah, we like having you guys down here personally. You're kind of music is what I prefer as a jam fan.
:What kind of music exactly is that people asked me what kind of music we played?We struggled to explain what kind of music we have, what kind of music we are. Please tell us. because
Bill McGeeney:It's more livelier then dead, right? It's way more mellow than Umphreys and it has less of the folkiness than widespread panic, but somewhere there's a triangle that's formed and you guys are in the middle of.
:Wow! To be mentioned in the same breath as lose people. There's an honor. Thank you. I think those are good comparables. I mean, you know, the jam style is very. It's very laid back, right? I mean it can be. When I was in Boris Garcia, sorry, that's a plugging of one of my old bands there. They're still out playing. They're great guys. Go see them. Um, when I was traveling with him, we got to play with a lot of those bands that you just mentioned and we got to meet them and they're interesting people and I've seen how they progressed over the years and if we can progress anywhere near like that, we're going to be in good shape.
Bill McGeeney:Now. You guys are progressing. I always changing to new tracks, right? A twinkling of an eye. That's one of them. Everything's going to be fine, right? Yes. And those songs I noticed there's a kind of a spacey sound you guys have in your music, kind of like a a celestial.
Chris Henderson:Yeah, his name is Dave Brown. He please slide guitar. There are four or five songs that kind of fit into that vein that are bit more spacey, which I love it. I think it's pink Floyd type type of stuff.
Bill McGeeney:That and twinkling of an eye is on one of them. Yeah. That spacey vibe definitely defines a sound that did Gene Smith band hats.
:Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment. You know, where it's, I don't know if that just happens organically or if it's, you know, years of abuse. No, seriously to make drugs for too long. The time. Well, you know, the thing is we were not young guys, you know, we grew up in the sixties and seventies and that stuff, you know, it all goes in, filters around squirrels around your brain comes back out again. So when people say, what are your influences? Like man, every damn sound I've ever heard since I was awake, you know, Mozart to megadeath the birds chirping in the woods. All of these things go in and make the music that comes out of a. So you know, the fact that it's jelling into something that people say, Oh, this is, it has its own sound. I'll take that as a compliment.
Bill McGeeney:You guys did make the Song Scooch, right? Yes. Which is about a cat.
:Well, the perception of the world from a girl and a guy and a cat and a place in a time. It's a love song.
Bill McGeeney:Oh, okay. Got The cat part. I enjoyed the cat.
:Well, yeah, sort of, sort of from a cat's point of view. Um, it's sort of a, you know, from an overall point of view, a guy taking a look at the situation and appreciating how the girl is kind to animals and how the animals respond to the girl and you know, from a cat's point of view, it's like, you know, you're rubbed our bellies, you put our dinners on the floor, but else could. We asked for, you know, who doesn't like their belly rubbed, who doesn't want dinner, you know, maybe a bowl of water. Never met anyone that didn't like their ability.
Bill McGeeney:So you guys met up. It was very organic growth.
:Chris tell this part of the story. He's really good at it.
Bill McGeeney:You knew gene for awhile, right?
Chris Henderson:Well, um, yeah, we weren't first name basis. We were on good friends or anything, but I knew him from various bands. He'd been in Garcia and psychobilly and you know, the turnips, a bunch of bets and the turnips. Yeah. But I used to see him come out to shows and I didn't even know he was a musician and he would come out to shows and you know, in between sets, you know, we'd go out and have a cigarette and standing there talking and it was just one of these really good guys and every time I turned around he was there. It was like, wow, this guy's really offend. And so we just got hitting it off and talking.
Bill McGeeney:And you didn't think he was stalking you? It right or not?
:I didn't even know he was a player. I didn't even know. He's a musician and somebody came up and said something along the lines like, oh yeah, it's weird about Chris. What do you mean? Well, you know, Chris had had some health issues and had to stop playing. I think everybody knows that. I don't think it's a big secret. Yeah, sure. Yeah. He had to drop out of a few bands and things, but he was known as a really good bass player.
Bill McGeeney:So Chris, unfortunately you've had two strokes, right? Yes. But you were able to recover and yeah, they didn't.
Chris Henderson:There weren't any real physical deficits. It's more loss of muscle memory and it was.
Bill McGeeney:That's pretty important, right?
Chris Henderson:Yeah. So, so when I found out he was a bass player, I said, well, let's get together and jam, you know, just to have some fun.
:I, I figured he was a fan of my tunes and everything and I know you said he has this big house, you know, come on down and party. So I just grabbed an acoustic guitar one day and went down and started playing and just very organically, we didn't even mean to start a band. It just sort of, we started jamming and next thing you know, it started sounding like something and we had other people come in and start playing along and you know, a Dexter Myers is a, is a stepson for lack of a better term. Came down and started playing drums with us. And then one day he opened his mouth and started singing. I'm like, Oh my God, this kid's got like genuine pipes. So now we're trying to use him, you know, get him singing more. And the whole thing just sort of grew, you know, next thing we knew people were coming up and uh, you know, we started to go out and play in a couple of little like parties and stuff and you know, some of my other great musician friends started jumping in on it and it just started to sound like something. And now we've got. And I'm probably the one that, that really pushed us in the direction of becoming a band because I missed being in the environment of a band where you're tight and you know, you were well rehearsed with the material. I mean, I, I, I really missed that. So I was the driving force behind me kicking and screaming a little bit. I was busy at the time and uh, I was doing, you know, starting a new job and playing in other bands and all this stuff. But when I, you know, when I had the idea in my head, you know, that suddenly I could do all original music. Like all we were playing when my songs, we weren't doing any covers or anything. And uh, when it finally came to me like, I could actually do this, like I never considered in my lifetime doing my own band thing. I could just never even really with us, you're able to write your own full pledge music. I remember that was the first time I spoke to Chris. That was the exciting part. Yeah. That you guys had bottled up energy from years and years. And Allison chats and, and, and, you know, the thing is when you write songs, every band takes them and does something different with them and I never really got to play them the way I wanted to play them. Like people would just say, we're going to do this with your song. Oh, okay. I'm a little bit wishy washy sometimes when it comes to this. So finally Chris says, let's just play them the way you will hear them. How do you hear them in your head? Like play them the way you want to play them in your tense. So he was really the one who talked me into this. He was really the one who said, look, just play your songs the way you want them to play however you want them to sound. We'll try to get them to sound as much like the way you hear them in your head as we can. And right now I gotta tell you it's getting real close. I mean we're some of these recordings we did. I listened back to it and I say, man, I wouldn't change much if anything. What song would you say is really dead on? Everything's going to be fun. When I rule the world, that's, you know, I, I really liked that song that is quirky, catchy, fancy timing changes in it. It's just an enjoyable salt. Well, you know, I, I have to say, in all honesty, I write simple songs. I write words that people can readily understand what makes this band better is the fact that it happened to have some of the best musicians on the east coast playing with me. He talked about guys like Dave Brown and bud boroughs, Staten Messa Chris, uh, you know, we get young talent in the band like texter who's just phenomenal. You know, you got guys like this around you. They take the stuff and they run and sometimes I feel like the quarterback, I just pitched the guy in the ball and he runs a 100 yards and it's like I did the easy part. These guys are doing the work, you know, they're doing the heavy lifting. Uh, but it's gratifying to hear the final result. And you know, everyone walks up to me at the end of the night and shakes my hand say, wow, great stuff. I really liked your songs while these guys are packing up the gear. And they just did it all, you know. So they make me sound good and I don't even think they know that. I know. I think they know that. I appreciate it. I don't take it for granted. That's how good organizations, good partnerships run, you know, it's not easy to be an all original thing is sort of like here's my heart on a plate, have a slice. You know, it's, it's a lot easier to play cover tunes because they're covered tunes, you know, you, you got the cover of not having to take responsibility for them, you know? Uh, you know, some of my songs can be a little on the edgy side, a little political side. I've had people get offended, I've had death threats because I had somebody threatened me one time because one of my songs, there's a line in one of my songs about guns. And somebody once said, sent a message like, yeah, you better keep on talking and you'll find out what a bullet can do or something like that. You know, there's some kind of sort of. I don't even remember the exact thing, but a couple people were a little upset over it. I told them, don't worry. People like that never followed through. It's just a coward speak. But, uh, yeah, we're not afraid to stand up for what we believe. We try not to rub it in people's faces, but uh, you know, we do. We do have our beliefs and our stances and uh, you know, we're not afraid to say it.
Gene Smith:Culture. What we still have jam is as being the community music, right? You build a community with your music. Some other types of music, we'd go to Indie rock and you go to, you know, hip hop or, or some of these other areas. You're making songs and you're trying to impress people. Those saws. But will, you guys are doing is you're, you're building a community. That's what you're doing there. The people who are going to listen to your music are going to be there because they want to be part of this group. They want to, they want to,
:you know, I hope so. Um, you know, I hope that, uh, you know, we're not being too divisive. I know in this the current atmosphere, you know, people are going to pick sides and uh, you know, we try, I try anyway to be a little bit broader minded than that. I have a lot of friends who think differently than I do. They're still my friends, you know, and I'm not gonna kick them out of my life or anything. But uh, it's, it's a tough atmosphere these days. It's a politically charged, um, you know, there's a lot of tension in the air. So these days I find myself trying to choose my words a little bit more carefully than I used to. Some of these songs are at a long time ago and sadly they mean more today than they did when I wrote them all. They mean a lot more now. That's saying something managing. Well it's, it's, it's good and it's bad. I mean, people say, yeah, it's a great song, but it's a reflection of what's really going on in the world and sometimes that's not so good.
Gene Smith:Do you think the world has ebbed and flowed since you were a kid? Do you, how do you feel? Absolutely. What do you see the current state versus say, 30 years ago?
:Um, have things changed that much? And you know what, why? Because of education and knowledge of the Internet when we were kids, we believe that people told us if we really wanted to know what, you'd have to go to the library and look it up in books these days. Somebody tells you something, you don't believe a word anybody says you pick up your phone, you find out if it's true and it's instant. It's there in 30 seconds so people don't get away with the, uh, the bull they used to get away with before. Um, you know, everything is called into question. Everything is scrutinized. You know, 10 year old kids right now have more knowledge about the political scene and how things run in the world. The good, the bad, and the ugly. You know, then I had any clue until I was 30. I mean, you know, when I was 10 years old, I was busy writing my bicycles and catching frogs and stuff. These kids are sitting at home watching guys get beheaded on the Internet and you know, this stuff's going into these kids' brains at this age can't be a good thing for our society. Just can't. We wonder why there's so much tragedy in the world because that's what they're being fed. That's what goes in. What goes in, comes out. I think there's also a flip side where back when we were kids and young adults, people who were out there were different and we're on the fringes of it. The reviews, they knew it. Okay, whether it's for good or bad, they knew that they were different and now you can. No matter how different you are, you can find a community of likeminded individuals. So whether for good or bad, whether you a neo Nazi or whether you're, you're into a little kitty cats, you know you're going to find a community of people who feel just like you and you and I can make you feel normal, whether it's normal or abnormal or whether you like animated animal porn. What, whether you're a furry right, you're, you're going to find people that, well, this isn't different.
Gene Smith:Would you say? I'm of the generation that had to have 12, had no internet. So I remember what it was like before and I remember obviously I know what it was like after and I looked back a lot of times questioning myself, like why did I not do any, what was I doing for the first 12, 13 years of my life? Fourteen years, what, what was I doing? Why was I not that productive compared to my friends' kids or whatnot where they're at in their stage of life. And then I go back because I didn't have youtube there. I couldn't learn anything I want to learn when I was eight. I couldn't sit there and be like, oh, I got all this time, I want to learn how to do. Sure something stupid a kid will want to do. But you know, like the learning now you have, you probably have. How big is this band on average? Because I know you guys have players that come into now.
:That's another great question. It depends on who shows up. Um, the gene Smith band, I would describe as five to eight PM, Chris, myself and Dan mess with the drummer. A Dexter is there 90 percent of the time. Um, and then, you know, bud shows up when he can. Dave shows up where he can, uh, Luke cleary of Luke in the Ego Young Guitar Player, a brilliant, brilliant young player and singer in his own right. He writes great songs and everything has been playing a lot of guitar with this lately. And that's been a lot of fun because he's got a different style. He's a little more crunchy rock and roll. He brings a lot more of an edge to it. And he's, he's, he's awesome. And really marky Mark Berkowitz on the harmonica. Kenya Lancey on the horns of people just show up and sit in with us. I never know who the band is going to be all. No before that night. You don't know what I mean. Guys will tell me. I can make show sometimes. I know. Okay. We're gonna. Have these guys for this show. Google calendar is your friend. Exactly. But uh, sometimes like bud can't make. We have a show later this afternoon. The Bud can't make. He's, he's playing with box of rain out and I'm a Pittsburgh today, you know, he pleased in a dead band. And um, you know, Dave Brown isn't going to be here either. Izzy? I don't think so. Yeah, he, he just bought a house. He got things to do. So Luke's going to come out and play. We got other people sitting in with us. So like I said, we have the core band and then whoever can make it a. But when we have the full band, when we have all of those guys on stage, it's an orchestra and it works really well.
Gene Smith:What I was thinking about is, do you notice a skill difference between so many younger players you have then when you were at that age?
:Oh, absolutely. There are. Um, you know, I take a look at a guy like dexter for example, textures, what? Twenty nine, 30 years old now. He's 27, 27. Yeah. Twenty seven years old. And vocally he sounds like I did when I was 27 years old. We have a kind of similar voices. He's much stronger voice than me. Um, you know, I'm old now so it's getting a little thin. But um,
Gene Smith:it's weird how your voices sounded like when he plays piano, Dexter started to sing the lead vocal on one more of our songs and there've been times where I thought the texture was going to sing this song and it, because it sounds just like gene, they have very similar timber,
:but uh, yeah, he, I do see some of these young players and they're unbelievably advanced for 25 slash 27 year olds. Um, maybe it's because they've had time, more time to work with it. Maybe they just have more talent.
Gene Smith:Well, I think you guys talking about, you know, the Internet age, that tower, so it goes both ways, got some terrible disgusting things, but then you also, I think on a positive side you're able to start off so young with learning skills that you would have needed to take a program for or go through college for. You don't even need to go to college for law that the soft skills these days you can learn them time, you're 14, you get all your soft skills down to go to college for, for your heart or your math stuff and whatnot. But when music, I feel like it, it's just the talent level and I think he noticed this probably in the beginning of two thousands is that you started seeing a on average maybe this had to do with the music industry kind of decentralizing also at that time they started seeing on average, I think the quality of overall like pop music got better almost overnight.
:Well, you know, being an old school guy, I would look at it two ways. The technology is definitely better and it's easier to do. I know kids, they can, you know, I know people have their little home studios now guys can sit in their bedrooms and make album quality stuff on their computers now and I think that part of it is great. I think it's fantastic that it gives a way to put your stuff out there. However, I would rather go into an old school analog studio one day and go through the process of the old with the old tape and everything because it really does have a different soul, a different feel to it. At the end of the day, it's more three dimensional. If you ever done this test to, you know, vinyl friend of mine has a recording engineer and a very, very good and semi famous one. I won't mention his name on the air for copyright purposes, but I was at his house one day and he goes, I want you to hear something. He took us to the same album was on cassette tape, vinyl and CD. The first thing he put on was this, the, uh, the CD. And it was one of my favorite albums. And we sat there and listened to this great song. I said, I love that song. He goes, okay. And I listened to it on the tape and he took a cassette tape, put it in a really nice cassette tape deck and played it and it sounded different. It sounded earthier, I guess you could say it wasn't as two dimensional. He and he had me close my eyes and listen to this while you did this. Then he put on the vinyl and it was like as if it was standing in the middle of the room while the band was standing around me playing, the drummer was behind me. The guitar player was to my left the keyboards, but to the right, the singer is right in front of me singing right to my face. And that's exactly how it felt. It was so three dimensional. It almost like went through you. There's no comparison. There's just no comparison to the way they used to record things and the new technology as far as depth. It sounds good, but it's just not the same thing. That wasn't original vinyl. That was that. That's an original vinyl. It wasn't, yes. Every. No, no, no, no. This was an original vinyl record. Um, special directed disc recording. Oh No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was, um, you know, it was, uh, I can tell you I don't think there's any infringement on this is a Peter Gabriel. So album. Okay. Yeah. And that came out right at a time on all three of those formats are still available. You could still buy it on vinyl. You get, you can get it on CD and they still sold it on cassette, so he had all three of them and it was three totally different experiences when you close your eyes. So, you know, that's why I say yes, I liked the new technology, but I still dig the old technology better. Do you think that just also might be that different producers were more talented or had different talents and now maybe that information, that skill wasn't passed along and I don't know if it's so much better, it's just expedience. You know, these days that it takes a long time to record things. Analog, you know, you have to rewind tape and splice stuff and it's just not interested. They spice up your physically. You guys used to actually physically take scissors and cut tape. Yeah. You know, two inch analog recording tape. I think it was partial skill, partially this different skills because you don't need to learn these skills and partially the actual physical work. Then it's just like people are losing those skills because they don't use them anymore. In a very few guys and Gene was talking about on vinyl, you need to have a great turntable with more importantly, an exact top notch cartridge that costs several hundred dollars. Yeah. This guy had the technology to prove his point to me and he did in no uncertain terms that there was just really no the important decision. The transducers were any sound changes. Medium microphones, speakers, partridges digital analog converter converters, analog to digital converters where it switches realm from a vibrations on a piece of vinyl to an electrical signal transducer. You know with the speaker, right where you have electrical signal. All of a sudden it's creating waves in the air when it changes medium. If that's where you put your money, I always used to. People would ask me back when people used to buy high fi systems and that was a big deal. Where do you put your money? Will always put your money in the speakers and the cartridge. The transducer is where it changes medium. Yeah, I can. Yeah, and there's a reason why so many of these bands are we releasing stuff on vinyl. There's a reason why vinyl is making a huge comeback and it is. There's no doubt about it. I mean vinyl is coming back and it's because it just fricking sounds better. Sorry, but it does.
Gene Smith:I gotta say I, I stopped by music and the end of the nineties and I mean I have a million CD's, right? Which I grew up with cds, but I've been buying vinyl now for what, three years? And it's not just the sound is a physical takeaway. It's your actual. It feels like people, the band makes it for you. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it's just thrown out there or maybe mass produced. It feels the texture. Even the texture of the actual. The packaging,
:yes. Beyond the technology, the music, you can't take the stuff out of the CD and pour over will you do with like an album cover? The album covers the pictures and everything. Posters. Pink album. That's no more putting together an gone nice as a collection that progresses from the opening song to the. There is not. If people are into songs now instead of
Gene Smith:Chris. That's so right, but when I got back into vinyl, when I started listening to vinyl, I started listening to whole albums. Yeah, and that's what I'll. I'll start looking for albums, so I'm buying them. I go out there and purposely look for a whole album, not a song, not two songs that are on that album. Now I want to hear the whole thing because things that are going to play it, they don't even. Again, this one is things that I think a lot of people just don't think about with when he purchased her, their music or their media. With vinyl. You're not going to stop it halfway. That's a pain in the butt, right? Like you're not on track. You're not going to start on track to even hit play and you're going to like everything on there because it's like you said, it's this start to finish of an album is as the bands concept in our forum is not a quick, a quick track here and there. I know a lot of the bands we, we get through there. They don't do full albums. Full albums are guesses. Football now. Right. It's not the thing to watch it come back in two years. Right.
:Well, you know, I, again, I, I as a, as a, just a, as a fan, I missed that experience. You know, I was never a kid that went out and bought a lot of music anyway because I had too many brothers and sisters running around. Just mess it up. But I um, you know, I used to love just being able to sit down and listen to like dark side of the moon or brain salad surgery or uh, you know, um, King Crimson and things like that because of the whole, the whole thing's an experienced background
Gene Smith:music. But as that was the activity, you would have a friend or two over and that was what you were doing. You were listening to this album side. Oh yeah. And I think discussing the album afterwards. You know what the, the another thing I never thought about vinyl. A lot of times people get disconnected from purchasing decisions. Right. And you're starting to see it as some retail outlets just for clothing in order to entice people. They actually have other experiences going on. It might have some, a coffee shop in there or they might have a bar and narrow. They might. Something else is going on. That shared experience still rings through for Bravado. You still share it. I still do that, right? Different people in my life. Just listening to an album, you still do it. You have that shared experience. I never did that for a CD, right? I mean tapes, tapes. Oh, can just start on taste. But it never did it for a CD. Right. And I think CD, when it comes in the Christmas of sound, I don't know if you get a better audio quality from a technical standpoint. I think
:the good thing about cds and it, first of all, it's a lot, it's just cheaper for them to make them on its packaging and they're light weight, you know, just logistically album covers the little tiny print. So the logistics kind of took over the money side of it took over and say, okay, we can make these a lot cheaper if we make them on cd and I understand that, but again, it's not the same experience. And I think that um, you know, sadly that's just one of those cultural things that I think we'll kind of get lost a little bit. I don't think that that will ever fully come back. But the, the idea of the shared experience from a writer's point of view when you're a musician, that's, that's what it's all about. I mean that really is the point of it is getting people together to do this and listen to it all. So one song at a time. Usually it doesn't cut it. I mean, it's, you know, you don't, you don't go through all the trouble, play one tune and people don't come to Barnard to a party here. One Song, you know, uh, they want the whole package. So I think they want free bird. You don't do well sometimes, you know, although I can tell you, it's been a long time since anybody yelled that at one of my shows. And uh, you know, when I was a kid growing up, I played in a lot of cover bands and I've, I am, I will raise my hand and tell you that I've probably played that song more times than I would like to admit, but it was actually a fun song to sing. You know, when you're a singer and you're up there and there's a whole car full of people singing along with you, that's a blast. Yeah. You feel like a rockstar when you're 17, you know, but after about 10 times, it's like, that's the great thing about playing your original songs is that, you know, every time out there, you know, it's still fun to sing it, you know, because you know that this is not something that they've already heard before. You know,
Gene Smith:what do you feel are the challenges, the differences between being a cover act and doing your sewer solo? You're your own original music. Um, I think it's, you know, getting regular bookings. There you go. Okay. I mean, it's venues that have all original music bands are not nowhere near as many venues as, oh yeah, there's a bar and we're going to, we're going to have a higher cover band for Fridays and Saturdays. So, you know, getting bookings on the guy gets smoked. Most of our shows. It is a tough row to hoe
:and from an artistic point of view, it takes a long time for people. Like we're at the point now where people come out and they sing along. A lot of our people that come out a lot know every word to every song, they'll come up and talk to me about it. Um, but most people that just go out on a Friday night to have a couple drinks with their friends. They want to hear stuff they already know. I understand that completely so that from an artistic challenge. But what Chris was just saying from a, from a logistical challenge, um, you know, we perfectly will understand that, you know, most of the places that hire us are selling beer. That's basically what they do. This is what the underground does and we love them because they'll bring original music in any way. You know, they could probably bring in cover bands and packed the joint every night, but they are trying to do something better than that. They are trying to create an artistic culture in a town that desperately needs it. Um, they're trying to stand out from the crowd. They don't want to be just another, a bar. And I can tell you something from a business point of view that I've noticed, some people are just about the bottom line, some people are about the experience, they care about the people who come in and out and everything. You're going to get a nicer crowd. You're going to get them more educated crowd. You're going to get a much more well behaved crowd when you have art as opposed to noise. Right? If you went 20 year olds in here breaking glasses and getting rowdy and things like that, that's fine. But if you want an older crowd that's going to be nicer to your may be better to person, things like that. Then you go the artistic route. And I, I applaud them. I hats off to places like the underground for choosing that path. There are not just about the money, they're about the experience there, about the art there, about the food there just to be a lot of places. I mean I would. I lived in California for in late eighties for awhile. I moved back to the Philadelphia area in 1992 and when I got back into the local music scene, there were places I could. I would, I mean, I didn't know different bands, original music bands, but I know if I went to the north star bar or if I went to certain venues in town, the mermaid, if it was an interesting sounding bad name, I was there because they had a reputation for having good bands. And you don't find that anymore. This is gonna sound a little bit odd. But I've been hanging around landsdale, you know, off and on for 40 years. A lot of my friends come from this neighborhood. There was a time and this time it's kind of run down. It was in, you know, service kind of community and they weren't doing so well. This town has come back. Uh, there's a lot of art and music in this town now. There's a lot of Nice restaurants, landsdale, sort of like some of the other smaller towns around here that it'd be really enjoyed. Uh, almost a renaissance, you know, and it's just because of the young people that are moving in out of necessity, you know, there's need now these people want good food, they want good music, they don't want to have to drive to Philadelphia or you know, new hope or anything, you're doylestown to enjoy these things. And so some of these entrepreneurs that are moving in and opening places like this I think are going to do very well because there's a need for it. There's a younger crowd in this town now that really wants it. So I think you're going to do well. I think business wise it's a good location now.
Gene Smith:When we started 2012 was just awesome. Molly maguires hold the town down and now stove tap. You got well crafted brewery just opened up in town. You have a slew of new tasty restaurants here and noticed it's really starting to come through the upstairs, back your beans. Great Coffee Culture is through here in Lansdale. So yeah, it, it has changed. You're right about that. Um, but before I'm going to wrap this up right here, I don't think I have any other questions. I think this is a great interview. I really like talking about your perceptions on audio quality and, you know, in talent levels and, and it changes you. Just, you've witnessed that. Maybe some of her younger audience who hasn't birthright
:trip. I turned 60 years old last weekend and uh, you know, the, you look at a number like that and uh, you know, it's supposed to be a milestone and everything. Rocco was clapping. Yeah. Yeah. But when I, when I think about the fact that I've actually made it this far and I look back on my years of experience, I, I'm astonished at the changes I have seen so many, not just in art and music, but culturally in the whole world. Um, so many changes have taken place in our lifetime that we almost take it for granted. We should be aware of the fact that things are moving and changing rapidly and we are the ones who have the power to steer it in any direction we needed to go. But unless we're unified, that's not going to be a good thing.
Gene Smith:Couldn't end it better then with those words right there, gene. Okay.
:So you should love to everybody out there, man. Don't, don't, don't forget to support your local brew pub.
Gene Smith:Gene Smith. Chris Anderson. Thank you so much for coming on.
:Thanks for being. So it was fun.
Gene Smith:The Gene Smith Band will be here at the underground on the 16th of Friday of November. I'm looking forward to your third stint here. Were here in March and you're back here in June. And, and I know it's always a great time. Everyone loves it. I hear great things. Rocco was telling me how much you'd like to show that he did back in June for you guys. So.
:Oh, that was a, that was a good one. We had a really good crowd in here when we first got here. I, I, I, I think it's funny. Uh, the, the poor sound guy they had was new and couldn't figure out how to work the border areas. Uh, so he had to call somebody else in to fix up the board. But at the end of the day, but by the time they get to go in there with the sound was incredible. Uh, they troubleshot it. They, they, uh, they, uh, they were marines about it. They overcame, they adapted and as we did as well. But you know what it was, um, it, it turned into one of the best nights because everybody had so much fun that night. We're all back, you know, you know, laughing and having a good time. I saw a lot of good friends came out and it was a beautiful thing. So we're really looking forward to November.
Gene Smith:Oh well I can't wait for you guys to be back. Well, there you have it. The Gene Smith Band was in the house at the underground. And thank you again for listening to the original soccer podcast. You can find out more about the original slacker podcast by going to facebook.com/the original slacker. Or you can find out more about the brand round guys brewing company by going around guys, brewery.com. And you can find out everything you need know, Glenside Ale House, the Lansdale Brewpub, or the underground. Even a podcast is all at ground guys,[inaudible] dot com. So check us out. Email me if you have any issues, concerns, questions, thoughts, compliments. I'll be nice. Hate Mail. All goes there. Bill at round guys, Barry Dot Com. Without further ado, we're gonna. Finish up with just a clip of this live performance here by gene. It was cut off a little bit only because we're still working out trying to figure out how to get this, this live studio action going and stuff happens. But definitely it's a good live performance by Gene. I enjoyed it and we're really glad to have these guys back. So check it out and look forward to hearing from you guys and seeing you guys in the next episode. Thank you.
:Better lead sound. All those funds, dirty patrons who hung around, bound and determined to dance their blues away. Say, hey, hey wants to play bb king. Checked out the, uh, go stub muddy waters waiting for him in the lobby. He said, come on bb. My old friend that they. We got one more to the moon. The man said, if we're good we get to come back again. No Gene Shave still on the radio. Voice of God Guthrie. Crack to the alley where there's that old man leaning on a cane. Who knows? Thesis. I was there in 64. He just don't come like that no more, and it sure feels good to hear that song again. Say, hey. Hey moms, dj. He's still on the radio.
Gene Smith:Thank you Gene. Thanks bill. Gene Smith of the gene Smith Band. Again, a reminder there will be here on the 16th of November, which is a Friday and I'll be coming up probably in a few weeks after this recording, so. Awesome. Great. This was fun. Thank you. Oh, thank you guys for showing up. Looking forward to seeing the show. Say Goodbye, Chris. Bye. Goodbye. Chris. I'm gonna. Be posting a picture of you appearing on the podcast.