Upon lighting the inaugural candle at Arcade 160 Studios new location in Atlanta GA, I, Jim Bois, and the eclectic Jimmy embarked on a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage back to the grunge-laden era of the '90s. Together, we savor the sonic boom of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which tore through the fabric of the music scene, and pay homage to the tragically woven tapestry that is Kurt Cobain's legacy. We unwrap the rawness of "Bleach," and the decade changing songs of "Nevermind," reveling in the tracks that continue to resonate through the corridors of rock history. We look back at Hole and their album "Live Through This," released the week after Hole's frontwoman, Courtney Love's husband, Kurt, took his life. From the opening chords of "Violet" to "Doll Parts," and "Softer, Softest", it's a really good album that doesn't get the credit it deserves.
The spotlight refuses to dim as it dances over the corners of our music library where The Hoodoo Gurus' "Stone Age Romeos" stands proud at its 40th anniversary, and the timeless jangles of The Beatles' guitars on their second album still beguile listeners. McCartney's unrestrained vocals on "Long Tall Sally" and the cowbell charm of "You Can't Do That" are just appetizers in our feast of musical milestones. We then shift gears to honor the craft of Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze as we approach their golden jubilee. Whether it's the quirky allure of "Cool for Cats", The Psychedelic Furs evolving with "Mirror Moves", or the punk revolution signaled by The Offspring's "Smash," this episode is a testament to the enduring power of anthems that have become the soundtracks of our lives. Join us for a harmonious blend of reflection and revelation in a celebration that transcends generations.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes. You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Upon lighting the inaugural candle at Arcade 160 Studios new location in Atlanta GA, I, Jim Bois, and the eclectic Jimmy embarked on a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage back to the grunge-laden era of the '90s. Together, we savor the sonic boom of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which tore through the fabric of the music scene, and pay homage to the tragically woven tapestry that is Kurt Cobain's legacy. We unwrap the rawness of "Bleach," and the decade changing songs of "Nevermind," reveling in the tracks that continue to resonate through the corridors of rock history. We look back at Hole and their album "Live Through This," released the week after Hole's frontwoman, Courtney Love's husband, Kurt, took his life. From the opening chords of "Violet" to "Doll Parts," and "Softer, Softest", it's a really good album that doesn't get the credit it deserves.
The spotlight refuses to dim as it dances over the corners of our music library where The Hoodoo Gurus' "Stone Age Romeos" stands proud at its 40th anniversary, and the timeless jangles of The Beatles' guitars on their second album still beguile listeners. McCartney's unrestrained vocals on "Long Tall Sally" and the cowbell charm of "You Can't Do That" are just appetizers in our feast of musical milestones. We then shift gears to honor the craft of Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze as we approach their golden jubilee. Whether it's the quirky allure of "Cool for Cats", The Psychedelic Furs evolving with "Mirror Moves", or the punk revolution signaled by The Offspring's "Smash," this episode is a testament to the enduring power of anthems that have become the soundtracks of our lives. Join us for a harmonious blend of reflection and revelation in a celebration that transcends generations.
Please Like and Follow our Facebook page Music In My Shoes. You can contact us at musicinmyshoes@gmail,com.
Speaker 1:
He's got the feeling in his toe-toe.
Speaker 2:
He's got the feeling and it's out there growing. Hey everybody, this is Jim Boge, and you're listening to Music In my Shoes. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 22. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. So, jimmy Arcade 160 Studios has moved to a new location here in Atlanta, Georgia, and I believe this is the maiden voyage.
Speaker 1:
This is You're the very first. I love it. I'm so glad that you're in here first.
Speaker 2:
How lucky am I to be here to be the very first person. I love it. I'm so glad that you're in here first. How lucky am I to be here, to be the very first person that's in this room with you.
Speaker 1:
I think you're really lucky. I think I'm really lucky. This is I'm excited.
Speaker 2:
Well, it's good to be here. So, yes, the first 21 episodes were done at the old location and now we're going to start here with 22 in the new location. But before we get into it, Jimmy, when you're not spending your time with me on Music in my Shoes, what are some of the services you provide? Oh yeah, tell us a little bit more about Arcade 160 Studios.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, we record other podcasts. I do a lot of true crime podcasts. We record other podcasts. I do a lot of true crime podcasts. So we're working on one right now about Cop City with the folks at Campside and they did Over my Dead Body and Suspect, and we've got one running that's just starting now called Noble, and I'm about to start a big job doing sound for TV game shows. Ding, ding, ding ding.
Speaker 2:
That sounds exciting. I like that Ding ding ding, ding.
Speaker 1:
That sounds exciting, I like that. So yeah, keeps me busy.
Speaker 2:
I figured the audience was wondering what do you do? You know, I know they don't think that you're just sitting around waiting for me to show up. So I thought you know, let's let them know a little bit. And since it's the first day here, yeah, thanks, let's do it. So, jimmy, back in April 1994, I was sick with a sore throat, runny nose and a sinus headache, and I know you're saying to yourself where is this going? But stay on track, stay with me, I'm with you, you'll see. So I took some NyQuil in the morning and I stayed in bed, but I took the nighttime. Nyquil that, you know, makes you drowsy and kind of just puts you out, and I remember hearing some snap, crackle and pop sounds while I was sleeping. But I thought it was kind of like a dream.
Speaker 2:
Eventually I smelled smoke and I woke up, running around looking to find where was the smoke coming from. I look out a back window and I see the smoke is outside. I make my way to the backyard, find a couple of sections of my six foot privacy fence ablaze, on fire. Wow, and it's heading towards my house because the privacy fence is connected, so it looks like it had started, not the section towards the house, the section you know away from the house, and it's just coming around towards it. I tried putting it out with a garden hose while I'm calling the fire department at the same time, and they were only a few blocks away, got there in minutes to put the fire out and it turns out my neighbor was burning a pile of leaves. He went inside his house, forgot about it and the next thing you knew, my fence was lit up.
Speaker 1:
They say when you're burning a pile of leaves, make sure and stack it up against a fence, so that way it has like a barrier next to it. That's a good rule of thumb. Just kidding kids.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
That's a bad idea.
Speaker 2:
That is our public service announcement for today. Yeah, Don't leave and go inside, even if you think it's just for a split second because who knows what can happen, don't be near somebody's house or their fence.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so he agrees to replace the fence and some crepe myrtles. They got burnt up as well, and that was April 7th 1994. I still wasn't feeling well the next day. I slept late, woke up to find that Kurt Cobain had taken his own life. And this is the next, very next day, and it was really hard to fathom that he did it. If you had said he died from a drug overdose, unfortunately, that wouldn't have surprised me. I would have believed that. But the fact that he took his own life really kind of shocked me. It was really one of the first people of the famous rock stars that had done something like that. So I think that shock value there for me was like wow, why would someone do this, no matter what's going on? You know why, why would you do it?
Speaker 2:
You know I remember hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit back in late 1991. And after a few times of hearing it I told some friends the 80s are over and I meant it. I was like you know, this is like a defining moment. The 1980s are over, this band, this song and other songs that they have. The 90s have just begun and today I still think it. You know, I think it's a decade ending and a new decade, the 90s, beginning, and I felt that way. You know, Since then I haven't changed my opinion at all. I saw kevin bacon. He had a reel yesterday where he talks about his three favorite songs off of the nevermind album. Come as you are poly and smells like teen spirit. So nirvana's first album, Bleach, was released in 1989, sans. Dave Grohl has the classic song About a Girl and the song Blue. That is a bit Alice in Chains-ish, and a song that I really like called School. And then we spoke about In Utero and Unplugged in New York in depth on episode four with guest Chris Cassidy, who was at the show.
Speaker 1:
If you haven't listened to it and you're a Nirvana fan, you definitely should- so let me tell you so when Kurt Cobain passed away, I had just gone to recording school in Chillicothe, ohio, middle of nowhere, ohio, and it was a great place to go to recording school because there was nothing else to do there but but just learn recording. And I was driving back to Atlanta from Ohio and heard the news on the radio and, just like you, I just could not believe it. And I stopped at this little yard sale in a farm along the road and they had this rusty, old but like really cool heavy cast iron skillet and I'd never had one of those and I was like in my early twenties at this point and I was like this thing's cool I don't know, it was $5 or something, $2 maybe and bought it, took it home and like took these tools and kind of tried to scrape all the rust off of it. It took me a long time to get the rust off and then you got to season the thing but the only marking it had on it is under the lip.
Speaker 1:
This thing's an antique, it's probably 100 years old or something. It just has a K on it. I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:
That is actually kind of cool.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I cook in that every single day. Really, it's our main pot for our family. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:
It's a fantastic skillet.
Speaker 2:
That's pretty cool. That really is. I like that story. I think most of our listeners were never expecting to hear about a fence that was on fire and you're stopping and picking up a skillet and you're still using it to this day. So a week before Kurt's death Hole, fronted by Courtney Love, his wife released the single Miss World, and that was on March 28th 1994. And then they released the album Live Through this a week after, on April 12th 1994. And she was asked if she wanted to, you know, postpone the release. She said no, she wanted to go ahead with it and even with all the craziness around, you know everything that was happening when you listen to this album. It's a really good album. I like a good alternative punky band that play well together and I really feel that when you listen to this album they had a good group of people the four of them together that just had this sound. That was fantastic and for the time I just can't say enough about it. What do you think about that album, jimmy?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I liked it. I didn't get as into it as you did, I just knew the songs that were on the radio, but it was very cool, really well produced and great sounds and everything and, yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you know, when you start up the album it's got the opening chords of the song Violet. I know you were in a band called the Violets, but this song is just a fantastic song and the sky was made of amethyst and all the stars were just like little fish. I mean. Those words I think are just super cool. I really really like the song. It's got plump, asking for it, doll parts, softer, softest. It has all the emotions of Courtney Love singing Because she had to live through this and I don't even think she realized what she was about to live through. Oh God, yeah, when she recorded this album. The album was actually recorded outside, outside Atlanta, here in Metro Atlanta, and previously at the same studio. Was the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream was recorded at that studio as well? Hey, jimmy, do you know what time it is? Music?
Speaker 1:
in my shoes. Mailbag.
Speaker 2:
From the music in my shoes mailbag some amazing words from Viking Maiden, located in the US. That's Viking Maiden. Love it. I love it too. What a great name. Jim is so right. Every time I listen to an episode, I remember something old and learn something new. Jim Boge and his partner have a terrific natural rapport and a deep knowledge of music. Every episode inspires me to fire up an old beloved album or listen to something I've never heard before. Keep these episodes coming. The world needs to be reminded of how essential our connection to music is. I love that ending there. I mean, that's so true, that is fantastic.
Speaker 2:
I just absolutely love that.
Speaker 1:
Viking Maiden yes, love it.
Speaker 2:
Viking Maiden. Yes, from Jackie in New York, episode 19,. Because what the world needs now is a new Roy Orbison. It was a great show. Your daughter is so much like you. Very awesome to pass on the music knowledge like that. And thank you, jackie, because I feel the same way. It's great to have my daughter, Jessica and you know previously I feel the same way. It's great to have my daughter Jessica and you know. Previously I had Allie and Mackenzie as well. It's really fun sharing everything with them and kind of having them talk about it back to you. Yeah, from Robert in Athens, georgia. I'm loving the podcast. Jimbo's and his sidekick, jimmy are a great team. Now, jimmy, I don't think you're a sidekick, but this is exactly what Robert and Athens wrote.
Speaker 1:
Okay, All right, you have to read it. I mean, that's like part of the rules of the mailbag, correct? Yeah, you're not editorializing.
Speaker 2:
No, I'm telling you as it is, as they said, but I don't think of you as a sidekick.
Speaker 1:
Thank you.
Speaker 2:
You're welcome. I never realized how much I didn't know about music. I mean the person's being honest, I love that line. My question for you both is name a band or solo artist that you might be embarrassed to say or we would be shocked to find out that you used to like or you currently listen to. Robert says his is Yanni.
Speaker 1:
All right Okay.
Speaker 2:
Now, I don't know a lot about Yanni, but I know he used to put out a bunch of CDs, you know, back in the 90s, and he used to sell a heck of a lot of them. That I know. I don't know a lot about him.
Speaker 1:
Is he like an opera singer or something? I don't know.
Speaker 2:
I don't even know what Yanni did.
Speaker 1:
Maybe New Age. New Age, that's what it was.
Speaker 2:
Maybe New Age? That's what I was thinking. So you know, Robert, I would never think Yanni would come out of my mouth as someone that I would listen to, but hey, if that's who yours is, I hope that you do enjoy him, Jimmy. What about you?
Speaker 1:
I think one of my guilty pleasures is sometimes on a Friday afternoon, when it's been a long week and I'm ready to kick back, I turn on Cowboy by Kid Rock. Really, yeah, it's just a fun song.
Speaker 2:
Nothing wrong with a fun song. What about you? Mine is going to be. In the 80s I was a big Debbie Gibson fan. I liked her. She was from Long Island. I grew up on Long Island, she was from there, and I still have her CDs and every once in a while I'll listen to one of them Electric Youth Out of the Blue. I'm not going to lie, that kind of is my thing and I think people have kind of made fun of me over the years, over the decades, about it. But I still like her. I still like the songs.
Speaker 1:
Oh, you got to own it.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I do, for sure, I definitely do. So you can reach us at music in my shoes at gmailcom, or you can reach out to us on our Facebook page, music In my Shoes.
Speaker 1:
Music In my Shoes Mailbag.
Speaker 2:
That was good. I enjoyed doing that Me too. I like hearing from the listeners Love it.
Speaker 1:
Keep it coming.
Speaker 2:
Keep it coming. Let us know what you think, let us know how you feel. We do appreciate it. So, jimmy, in honor of us recording for the first time here, I thought that we would do a new thing Minute with Jimmy. I like it. How does that sound? You like the sound of that? Yeah, yeah, it's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with.
Speaker 1:
Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy. It's time for Minute with Jimmy. Minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy. We're keeping that. We're using that every time. All right, you ready? I got a timer, here we go. All right, I want to talk about the Hoodoo Gurus' Stone Age Romeos. Do you know that album? I do not, okay. So Hoodoo Gurus are from Australia. This is their first album. Came out in 1984. So it's having its 40th anniversary. Was released in march 84 in australia. It's got incredible songs on it minutes. Not very much time let's all turn on. I want you back. It's got dig it up leilani, uh and my favorite Hoodoo Guru song, tojo. So if you don't know all those songs, check out Hoodoo Guru's Stone Age Romeos. It was a very formative album for me.
Speaker 2:
I do know I Want you Back. That was played on WLIR when I was much younger, 40 years ago.
Speaker 1:
That would make sense. Yeah, it's a LIR-friendly import. You know, kind of import, kind of deal.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I don't know the other songs though.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, look at that Minute with Jimmy's up.
Speaker 2:
Minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy, minute with Jimmy. So let's revisit some past albums. It's been a bit of time since we've done something like that, jimmy. I want to start off with the Beatles' second album I had mentioned we would talk a bunch about the Beatles in 2024, since it's the 60th anniversary of a lot going on, with them coming to America in 1964. So on April 10th they released the Beatles' second album. As I've mentioned before in the past in America it was a different set of albums than what they released over in the UK up until the time that Sgt Pepper's came out. So this album has Roll Over Beethoven, which is a Chuck Berry song. Love Chuck Berry's version, great song. But I think this could be George Harrison's finest guitar work as a Beatle on this version of Roll Over Beethoven.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I got to check that out.
Speaker 2:
It's really really good. I mean it's like he probably played this song forever until he just absolutely mastered it, because in the early Beatle days he was always playing it. Great song, A song, thank you, girl. It's a great Lennon-ccartney shared vocals, john lennon on harmonica and it's also kind of to me one of those last love songs that it's. You know, the sound quality isn't the same as the rest of the songs, like the. It's the end of the beginning of the Beatles, kind of the way that I look at it, you can't do that. One of my favorite Beatles songs. It's got cowbell in it, so it's got to be good, that's a good song.
Speaker 2:
Long, tall, sally, made famous by Little Richard. Paul McCartney does a great job, the way that he can scream and yell in this song I Call your Name more Cowbell another good song. And the last song on the album she Loves you, which I think we've talked about before that. I think that it should be the ending of a movie and the credits should come up, kind of you know, boy meets girl and then the girl leaves and then he's back with her and then boom, all of a sudden the credits she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll continue to visit the Beatles throughout 2024.
Speaker 2:
But next up is Squeeze. The Cool for Cats album Came out April 4th 1979. So yes, came out that long ago. Believe it or not. What a great band. Squeeze is one of my favorite bands of all time. And before I go any further, I want to say someone asked me the other day what person would I like to meet that's alive today and just spend some time, have dinner with them, just talk with them. You know long, extended conversation. Immediately I said Paul McCartney and they said, wow, you didn't even have to think about that. I said no, that's the person I mean. Not only have they been part of writing so many good songs and being in a band with John Lennon and the rest of the Beatles, but then doing solo stuff and being friends with the Rolling Stones and being friends with Keith Moon of the who and just so many different things. That's the person.
Speaker 1:
That's a great choice.
Speaker 2:
My second person because they said all right, then what's your second person? And again, without thinking twice, glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze. Right, yeah, I love the band Squeeze. I've met them at some record store promotions over the years. But I would love to sit down with them and just talk about everything. I mean they're going on their 50th anniversary tour here in 2024. They've been around a long time, a lot of good songs. They still sound good. We've talked about that before. I just think that they're underappreciated for everything that they've done. So yeah, glenn Tilbrook would be my number two. Going back into the Cool for Cats album that we were talking about, first single from the album was Goodbye Girl, came out November 1978, followed by the Cool for Cats single, which came out March 79, and that's sung by Chris Difford. Glenn Tilbrook sings most of the songs, but this one's actually done by Chris Difford and it's a great song. I mean, you know that voice that Chris Difford has. You know that kind of.
Speaker 1:
Scratchy low voice yes.
Speaker 2:
Great song Up the Junction came out May 79, Slap and Tickle, August 79. I mean, these are four of their best songs that they have, and what a great album Really really was a good album.
Speaker 1:
See, for me and I don't know if this was a WLIR thing like did you hear these back in 79? Because I definitely didn't hear any of these songs until further into the early 80s, when, like Squeeze singles came out in America and there was sort of a resurgence, at least in my friend group, and stuff of Squeeze.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So WLIR started playing new music in 1982. There was a station, wpix, that a few years earlier for a short time kind of played new music. You could hear the Boomtown Rats. You could hear Squeeze. Squeeze actually sings in the song. I Think I'm Go-Go. They say P-I-X and rock and roll, which is a nod to W-P-I-X, but they didn't do it for that long.
Speaker 2:
In 1980, wplj, wbab, a bunch of different stations were playing Squeeze. Pulling Muscles from a Shell was like a regular radio hit. You know where I was Right, another nail on my heart. You know they played these songs. You know If I Didn't Love you so that stuff we heard all of the time. And then by the time WLIR started doing theirs in 82, that's when you had Squeeze singles you had, you know, annie. Get your Gun was this big single off of that? So yes, you would hear a lot of them on the radio.
Speaker 2:
The Psychedelic Furs, mirror Moves, all right. The album came out in August of 1984, but the first single, heaven, came out in March 84 and was actually a Screamer of the Week on WLIR the first week of April. A new song and then they would talk on the radio why you should vote that as the best new song and they would have a weekly contest and play, you know, these 20 songs each week and people would call in and vote and then they would have the tally after four hours and then they would name what the best song of the week was. Oh yeah, first week of April was Heaven, but then in May of 84, the Ghost in you Mm-hmm, you know, here Comes Cowboys was on the album Heartbeat, another good album by the Psychedelic Furs, definitely taking another leap, as they had done with their last couple of albums. They're just, you know, reaching out and getting a little bit further to me out of their comfort zone, but do a great job of making it their new comfort zone.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I agree. I really like that album. Alice's House is another great song and, by the way, the Ghost in you. If you want to hear a really cool version of that, look up robin hitchcock's version of the ghost in you really yeah, I will definitely do that. I like robin hitchcock solo acoustic guitar, two, two acoustics or something, and which is fantastic he has a great voice, very unique.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it fits that song well, I'm gonna have to listen to that. Definitely have to listen to that. Definitely have to listen to that. So we go to 1994, april 8th 1994, the day that Kurt Cobain took his life. The Offspring released an album called Smash and I think that it's kind of strange or ironic, or I'm not even sure what the word, right word would be. But Nirvana came out and they played some, you know know, punk type music and started to get people to like a little bit different, get away from the the 80s hair metal and you know everything else that was going on. And then the day that kirk cobain is actually found he actually took his life a few days earlier, but the day that he's found the Offspring release this album that between them and Green Day really took punk to a whole new commercial acceptable level. So the first song off of Smash, come Out and Play. And that's the song where they say got to keep them separated. That song, it was just so cool. That album also has Self-Esteem. That was the second single. Self-esteem didn't come out till the end of 1994.
Speaker 2:
Now this album has a ton of songs and I've always wondered why it took so long to release the next single. Because, as you heard in this episode and previous episodes, you know singles usually came out, you know, every couple of months and not, you know not that long, like this, um, the beginning of the album, where they're just like time to relax and saying pop in the CD. I mean that was not something that was a norm back in 1994. The song Nitro is a great song Gotta Get Away. But again, I know I mentioned it. I just find it a wow moment of the day. Kurtz found that that's the day that they released that album. That became a huge smash, no pun intended, became a huge smash, no pun intended. As well. As you know, we've talked about Green Day and the Dookie album and those two bands really taking over and opening up the roads for so many bands after Nirvana had done that for them.
Speaker 1:
True yep.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's it for episode 22 of Music in my Shoes. I'd like to thank show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios at its new location here in Atlanta, Georgia, and to Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Boge, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life and keep the music playing.