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Carr Stereo Podcast
Join veteran Rock Broadcaster and host Terrie Carr for in depth artist hangs , New Music Discovery and more on The Carr Stereo Podcast. TC hangs with her music pals for weekly chats and a deep dive into the world of rock, the music industry and more. Turn up your "Carr Stereo"!
Carr Stereo Podcast
Underrated 80's With Gary Jay From Land Shark Promotion Studio
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I love having my industry pals on Carr Stereo to discuss music and this week it's one of my oldest and dearest pals, Gary Jay, the founder of Land Shark Promotion Studio who joins me to talk - "Criminally Underrated 80's".
Why do some bands/songs become hits while others are misses? It's not always talent! Gary and I break down 22 of our favorites from an amazing decade of tunes.
I have known Gary since his days working for TVT records and Land Shark is a company dedicated to the artists they represent and have a great track record of breaking amazing artists. We have these convos all the time- this time, I hit "RECORD" .
I hope you enjoy our deep dive into the decade of fun and don't worry, we cover rock, metal, punk, new wave and pop!
Hit me up with YOUR Underrated 80's Faves!
TC Out! Tune in next week!
Welcome aboard. It's the Industry Insider Edition that's we've talked in formerly underrated 80s with my friend, industry executive, and owner of West Core Promotion Studios, Gary. Watch your subscribe if you watch this podcast or my podcast. You can check out me out on my website, storycore.com. It's celebrated with conversation. Oh, let's talk new way of going down to all first. And other people that music is all you talk about. And that's me and Gary J when we get together. And we're discussing amazing songs and performers that should have been hit and not listed this week on the Car Stereo Podcast. So it is the Car Stereo Podcast, and it is the Industry Insider Edition. Every so often I love to get my industry friends together. And we zoom and we talk about music, and it's always amazing. I am with my great friend, Gary J, who is the founder, president, CEO, and be all and end all of Landshark Promotions. Gare, welcome to the Car Stereo Podcast.
SPEAKER_01It's so good to be here.
SPEAKER_03Tell everybody a little bit about what Landshark does, because you are such a big player in the music industry. You and I have worked on so many promotions with so many incredibly cool bands over the years.
SPEAKER_01So Landshark is um celebrating a 20-year anniversary next year, which is gonna be very exciting. Um, and you know, when I I worked at record companies for years and years in New York City, and I always wished that there was like this team of people that I could bring on board that would just kind of like fight the good fight with me, that I trusted, that I believed had my band's best interest at heart and had really rock solid relationships to kind of help further, you know, their agenda. And when we started Landshark back in uh 07, you know, that was kind of the idea. We wanted to be that company. We wanted to be that ally that bands and managers and record companies could count on to help further their agenda, uh, certainly at radio, but you know, in other facets of marketing as well. And um, you know, over the years, we've just been very fortunate to have uh a client roster that I think uh is is just is is really, really just remarkable. Um we've been a part of breaking some you know massive bands uh from thigh finger death punch to sleep token and and just uh it's it's it's been a really you know, career-wise, this has been absolutely the most interesting adventure uh of mine. And I'm just proud of the work that we've done and continue to do. And I get to work with my friends, which is also a plus. So, you know, it it's been great. Um, it allows me to talk about music all day. And honestly, there's there's not much I'd rather talk about.
SPEAKER_03So what do you think the most fun promotion that you and I have worked on together? We've done some really, really cool shit. There's no doubt about it. Off the top of your head, just give me one. It doesn't have to be the most fun, but what is a memorable one? I I can have one.
SPEAKER_01I love the parking lot parties. I thought the parking lot parties were so kind of innovative. It was such an opportunity for listeners not only to have kind of that, you know, VIP private concert experience, but also a chance to meet and greet their artists like they actually had a moment of connection with the artist that, you know, you can't you can't go out and buy, you know, and and having their local radio station provide that opportunity for them, you know, was a real sort of bonding experience between um radio station and the listeners, and then to have our band in the middle of that. Every band that we did a parking lot party with would come out and just be like, let's do more of those. And I'd be like, Well, there really aren't a lot more of those out there. This is a very unique radio station and a very unique radio.
SPEAKER_03We were very unique. We were very unique indeed. Yeah, I'm just gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01Those were those were really special. Uh, I always loved Poptoberfest and the times that we got to bring artists to come and do you know acoustic sets for Poptoberfest. That was fun to see them play in front of people who, you know, had probably in a lot of cases never heard of these bands before, but you know, by the time they walked out, they were taking selfies with them, they were getting autographs, and I I felt like it was exposure to a much more passive audience, perhaps, um, than some of these artists get a chance to play in front of.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, we've had some fun times. I remember Mew and Chickenfoot on many occasions, and that was fun.
SPEAKER_01I keep hearing Chicken Foot are there's a lot of chatter about them trying to maybe do something again, whether it's record again or play some shows again. Um, honestly, you've got you know, three-quarters of Chickenfoot out there now touring with Sammy as his um best of all worlds experience. So if they could just get Chad Smith into the mix um and and call it Chickenfoot, you know, I I I'd love to see that music played live again. I think those two studio records were just so remarkable. And um, you know, whether you're a Sammy Hagar fan, you're a Joe Satriani fan, you're a Van Halen fan, those records, there's something for everyone on there. And I was very proud of those records.
SPEAKER_03I agree, I agree. And you were behind all those records. I poured a cocktail, by the way, for our for our hang tonight because you and I are gonna do something so fun. We are talking about an amazing decade of music, and that is the 80s. But we're not just doing 80s, we are doing criminally underrated 80s. Now, you and I were just sort of starting to come up in the biz as the 80s were trailing out, and there were so many incredible bands and so many really cool songs that were getting on the radio in the 80s, but not necessarily always the big giant 80s hits, not always the Bon Jovies or the Culture Clubs or all of these artists that were making all this noise. So we both compiled a list of some underrated 80s, and we're gonna kind of go back and forth a little bit and talk about why we think these songs were what they were. I'm gonna start in 1981 with a band that I never really quite understood because I don't know if it was a band or if it was just the guy, but I'm going with one of my favorite ballads of all time, and that is Marillion and Kaylee from 1981's misplaced childhood. That record was a smash everywhere. But here, I think I don't even think it got into the top 50 on the Billboard charts. I think it kind of peaked at 74. They had that big guy named Fish, I think, that was the singer for Marillion. He didn't really look any kind of part of anything, but that song and that video, like literally thinking about that song right now, I could cry because it's such an emotional song.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember dancing in the stilettos in the snow?
SPEAKER_03And it's such an incredible song. I don't know how that was not a monster hit. Do you agree or disagree?
SPEAKER_01I I remember, you know, Marillion being very um sort of Genesis, Peter Gabriel era Genesis-esque. Um, that they the singer certainly wore makeup and costuming, um, and kind of I felt like played different characters and different songs. And they were also very progressive. They were kind of like another band of that era, um, saga, who um, you know, were really brilliant musicians, but they wrote these kind of lengthy compositions that were complex. They weren't very easy radio songs, they weren't very, you know, formula verse, chorus, verse. Um, and you know, that probably kept their audience a little more fringe. Yeah. Um, but uh Marillion certainly, I remember, also had this beautiful imaging. All of their album cover art was so striking looking. And um, they got just just a little bit of MTV back in the day. Um, not a lot, but just enough to like be like, oh yeah, I think I know who that band is. Um, and that's sort of my experience with Marillion. But I remember Kaylee being that one video that would just come on in between, you know, the big hits of the era and was kind of like, well, what's all this now? You know?
SPEAKER_03And definitely one that stays with you. That's still one of those songs that whenever I hear it, it takes me exactly back to the first time that I heard it. So Marillion, Kaylee, definitely on my list for underrated 80s, 1981, the year.
SPEAKER_01Europe. All right. Well, I'm gonna put my glasses so I can read my own notes here. Okay. Um, that's one of the pitfalls of growing older. So I'm gonna start uh also in um in 1981. Uh, and I actually brought um some props with me for this.
SPEAKER_03You are the vinyl collector. I've got to let everybody know you have everything.
SPEAKER_01I don't have everything, but we we've got a lot. And um, I I decided to go through my 80s section and pull out my picks. So I'm gonna start right here in 1981 with Taxi.
SPEAKER_02I love them.
SPEAKER_01I I, you know, I thought this band, first off, um, I didn't realize this band was not American. These are actually Brits. And, you know, these guys had a a flicker, a moment in of time where they were starting to get some real traction. They were opening for the biggest bands of the day, the police for Loverboy, for Motel. That I did not know. They had songs on a couple of the big 80s soundtracks like Weird Science and The Secret of My Success with Michael J. Fox. But honestly, they really had one hit that kind of caught any traction that you and I have talked about. Uh, the magnificent I'm leaving, um, which uh, you know, to me, it sounds it still sounds fresh today, even though this song is 40 plus years old. Um uh little known fact, uh Randy Jackson of American Idol Fame uh played bass on the track, was never a full band member, but played on a lot of tracks on this record. And uh I I just, you know, this is one of those where I had the vinyl, I had it on cassette, and uh I will still play this and just go the the first side of this album is a no-skips, absolute just banger after banger. I love it. Taxi, taxi.
SPEAKER_03Excellent. All right, I'm gonna go on to a band that people probably have heard of from the 80s, but I thought the song was such a monster, and I don't know why it wasn't of Bon Jovi, Motley, like all that status. And that is Hurricane, and the song is I'm on to you. So catchy, so amazing with that Kelly Hanson vocal, uh, Robert Sarzo in the band playing guitar, uh, Rudy's brother. The video was very cool. It had video vixen Bobby Brown in the video, you know, the cherry pie girl.
SPEAKER_01Oh, was that her? I didn't realize that was her in the video for that. How about that? All right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she's in that. She's a little planer in the video, believe it or not. But yeah, she's in that video. And the chorus, you know, the na na na na na na it's so catchy, it's so infectious, and it's like that borderline hair metal pop. And I just don't know how that was not a bigger hit than it was because I thought it was one of the most infectious, feel-good songs of 1988.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, the first stanza of the lyric was brilliant. The first words out of his mouth. I'm not one to give advice. Girl, you're in trouble, and you better think twice. And his voice is a little bit more than a little bit. You're already good. You're already into that song in two seconds.
SPEAKER_03Yep, yep, yep. So, Hurricane, I'm on to you. Definitely on my list for underrated 80s.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. All right, well, now that we're into the the more heavy, you know, rock side of things, I'm gonna go here. We're gonna go to Kansas City, Missouri, and break out Viper. This album, this album to me, I I would like you said, I you they were in uh an era where a lot of bands kind of had a similar look and a similar sound and a similar vibe. This band I just thought did it better than a lot of bands that became much more popular. They really only made this one studio record and then an EP, and that's it, and kind of disbanded. But I I just this album to me was Sunset Strip, Glam Sleaze Rock at its absolute peak. Christy Black on lead vocals.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the bit he had big, big moppy dark hair.
SPEAKER_01The big hair action.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I kind of remember the I kind of remember video the video for for that one kind of quasi-single that they had.
SPEAKER_01Jackie Fox on guitar was doing you know the two-handed tapping. Yeah, cool, cool. They had all of the elements that bands from that era that got much, much bigger. Uh, I think they just probably, you know, their record company went belly up after their first record or second record, second EP, and it was kind of like that was it. You know, we've heard that story. How many times were bands um, you know, were were riding high and then their their company ran out of money and went bankrupt and up and too many times.
SPEAKER_03We heard that too many times for too many of these bands that really were on this trajectory. I I think it was a 50-50 shot in the 80s. You had 50%, you know, of being really talented, and then the other 50 was luck. And sometimes you just got shit canned for stuff.
SPEAKER_01It it really is. I I will tell bands that now that even now and today in 2026, there are there's still a huge element of luck and timing, and it's something you have no control over. So you kind of have to just put yourself out there, put your music out there, be smart and strategic about it. But you know, there's luck and timing, and sometimes it works for you and sometimes it don't. Uh sadly with Viper, it never did. But this album, I listened to this album as a teenager incessantly. And honestly, I still break it out now and go. It's a it's a tremendous record. If you don't, if you've never heard the Prepare to Strike album, go listen to Viper Prepare to Strike. It is uh it's it's a moment in time, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03I love it. I love it. All right, I'm shifting gears now because I'm moving over to the 80s new wave side. And uh, there were a lot of those new wave bands that were really super talented and just kind of got clumped into that new waveness. The fix, definitely one of those bands. And this band that I'm gonna talk about right now is uh a band that I absolutely love, and that is Talk Talk.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's a song that they have from 19 uh 86, because I think it's 40 years old this year, called Life's What You Make It. And the vibe on that song is like no other. I noticed these songs too, some of these songs showing up in these Netflix shows or whatever. I was watching the show about the the new FX show with uh uh JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bissett called Love Story, and it's very infectious to watch. You start watching it, you gotta watch all of them. And uh the the music in it is incredible, but Talk Talk's life what life's what you make it is such a vibe song. The singer for the band Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, had this really unique voice that kind of got down into your soul, and uh he sounds like nobody else. And I think that they were one of the underrated new wave bands of the 1980s. So I am throwing Talk Talk, Life's What You Make It, on my list. I think all of the 80s New Wave fans will be on board with me for this one because it's one of those incredibly underrated songs that definitely should have been a higher charting song and um in everybody's uh walkman.
SPEAKER_01I felt like, you know, my experience with Talk Talk was very much the videos that MTV would show. So it was the the the song talk talk and then it's my life, which laid on the second, you know, bite of the apple when no doubt covered it. Um but I'm with you. I think um life is is what you make, it is a little more um, it's a little more under the radar. Takes me away.
SPEAKER_03It just takes me someplace when I hear life's what you make it.
SPEAKER_01Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo just for the record, I'll be doing zero singing in this podcast. Just to all right, you're up. You're up. All right, well, I'm gonna join you on the new wave train. Um, so I'm also gonna go back to uh 1980 and break out the first album by New York City's poly rock. Um if if you're of a certain age and used to watch Nickelodeon as a kid, they used to have a show called LiveWire.
SPEAKER_02Remember LiveWire?
SPEAKER_01I loved LiveWire, hosted by that guy, Fred, who did all the funny voice uh voice effects and everything. Um, they used to have live bands play, but they had the Ramones play one episode. Um and they had one episode where Polyrock showed up. And polyrock were basically four synthesizers, one guitar, no live drums, everything was programmed. It was incredibly minimalist, it was devoid of fashion, it was almost everything that the 80s anti root in the 80s became. It was stark, it was kind of dark subject matter. Um uh legendary um avant-garde producer Philip Glass produced this record and played uh some keyboards on it as well. Um, you know, they again they never really had any uh any real fame. They released two studio albums and an EP um before they kind of went away. But this first poly rock album on RCA um is is really uh an amazing record. If you're a fan of even like Lou Reed Velvet Underground, um, this album is so worth checking out.
SPEAKER_03I always thought of them as like a stripped-down talking heads, no pomp and circumstance, but still that gritty feel of what the talking heads were kind of about.
SPEAKER_01Much less funky than the talking heads, like you couldn't really dance as much to poly rock, but it was just so kind of icy, cruel, and you just felt like you were you felt like you were on the pulse of something that was very interesting and new and different. And I remember as a you know a 10, 11-year-old kid watching this and just realizing it was like nothing that I had, you know, experienced before. And um, I I I just this album meant a great deal to me then, it still does now. So poly rock.
SPEAKER_03I am going with a song that I used to hear on the radio, but not every station. I used to hear it on my old station when I was in junior high, and it was a song that always stuck with me. 1980 is the year, so I'm just getting it in. And that is shooting star, and the song is last chance. It was one of those big, epic, you know, shooting. I think they were the first band, American band, to sign to Virgin Records. And um, they were just of it was a very interesting epic saga kind of song where you had a sort of, you know, you know those songs that are four songs in one song, and that's what that was. Hey, Ken, your laugh is, you know, and and then it would have this big instrumental in the middle, and then this big chiming chorus at the end. And um, I never understood how that big epic saga song was not a bigger epic saga hit because it was one of those songs that drew you in, and the passion in that song was great, the songwriting was great, the musicianship was great, and definitely one of my favorite 1980s songs that is shooting star and last chance.
SPEAKER_01It almost could have been um uh like something Jim Steinman could have written where it was very bummed.
SPEAKER_02Today will be your last chance to believe in yourself, your last shooting stars, right?
SPEAKER_01That's that's deep tracks, TC. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Deep track. So I had to go shooting star last chance for my list of uh criminally underrated agents.
SPEAKER_01All right, um, okay, well, let's see. I think we're gonna go to my hometown of Philadelphia.
SPEAKER_03I'm excited because I think I know who you're gonna pick.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have a couple actually.
SPEAKER_03All right.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna we're gonna start right here with this. This this record meant the absolute world to me as a teenager. Um true story. I was there at JC Dobbs on South Street the day they filmed the change reaction video. I think I was 12. I had no business being there, but I was there.
SPEAKER_03Um you were getting ready to ride the escalator of life.
SPEAKER_01I listen, that was growing up in Philly in the 80s, you know, the Hooters were really the biggest one. They were the one that really broke and became as big as everyone said they were gonna. Um, you know, Robert Hazard's story is a little different. Robert, little known fact, in 1979, recorded a demo, never actually put it on a record, but recorded a demo of a song called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. We all know what became of that song.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I remember hearing that. I never heard the demo, but I remember hearing that. That's right.
SPEAKER_01You can go on YouTube, you can go online, and you can hear the demo. It sounds very different. It's exactly the same lyrically, the arrangement is completely different. Uh, but that was kind of Robert's first taste of fame. Um, story has it that he was playing a show with his band, and Kurt Loder, speaking of MTV, uh, who at the time was a writer for Rolling Stone, came in, saw the show, was very taken by the show, and wrote a feature in Rolling Stone. Wow, I did not know that. That kind of got him some interest enough where he was able to record and release this EP of songs um under his own imprint first. That featured, of course, Escalator of Life, which did become a uh peaked at 58 in Billboard, according to my notes here. So not a top 40 hit, but 1982 was certainly, you know, got a little bit of MTV love.
SPEAKER_02I remember the Escalator of Life being on MTV, and such a brilliant when you think we're riding on the escalator of life, we're shopping at the human mall.
SPEAKER_01Like what a he was so cool. You never saw him without a lit cigarette. He was to me, he was just the epitome of he was cool without trying to be cool. He just had absolute natural charisma, um, an absolutely gifted live performer. Um, you know, growing up in Philly, we had two rock radio stations, WMMR and WYSP, who would both play a great deal of his music. So, you know, at least locally, he was very celebrity. He signed to RCA Records uh in 1984 and released an album called Wing of Fire, uh, that I also love, that was really unfortunately not quite a big hit. You know, his career kind of freefalled a little bit after that. Um, this is also a very personal uh artist for me. Um, one of the absolute highlights of my career uh when I worked for Ryko Disc was to sign Robert along with Jack Ferruvi uh to his final record contract. Wow. He released an album for Ryko Disc called Troubadour in 2007. Um, that was so different than his 80s music. It was very much a folk album, very acoustic, stripped down, beautiful. It really showcased his songwriting. And this is kind of as an older gentleman where he kind of felt he was musically. Um sadly, Robert passed uh in 2008, but we still have the music. And honestly, this this record for me will forever be a classic, front to back. If you if you if you've never heard this CP, I I highly recommend you find it and and take a listen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, some great, like new wave-infused storytelling with Robert Hazard, because he was a really great storyteller, and there were so many of those great stories behind the songs. I'm gonna pick from my list somebody who is kind of a little bit in that vein, too. And um, this song really inspired me to want to be on the radio. There were two songs I think that inspired me the most to want to be on the radio. Obviously, I'm a rush geek, so rush spirit of radio would be the first one. The second one was from Gary Meyrick and the figures, and it was called She Talks in Stereo, and it's from 1980. Best known, of course, for the Valley Girl soundtrack. A lot of people know it for that. But Gary is such a talented guy. I'm actually friends with him on Facebook. I don't know how that came to be. But we, I don't know who friended who first, but I did send him a private message and just say, look, she talks in stereo is such an important song to me. It means everything to me, and it really influenced my entire radio career. I like now looking at pictures of his Chihuahua because that's what I mostly see on his Facebook page. But there is no song from the 1980s that moves me more than that song. And I will sit through Valley Girl, which trust me, I don't have to sit through it. I love that movie. Not the remake, the original. Not the remake. Oh, the remake is terrible. And when, you know, when Skip goes to Susie's mom's house and it's playing in the background and she's by the pool and she's going, I have a tip for you, plastics. And you can hear, you know, this Gary Myrick song. She talks in the stereo. It's a very sexy scene. It's very Mrs. Robinson, obviously, because you know, they're referencing the graduate. And it's a perfect song because it's really such a sexy sounding song, and it makes the radio sound sexy, and it made me feel like being somebody on the radio would be kind of a sexy job to have. So, okay, phone sex operator on the radio. I guess being on the radio would be better. So Gary Meyer and the Figures figures, such a great song. She talks in stereo. So that's that's that's one of my picks.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, now I'm gonna go out of sequence because you brought up the Valley Girl soundtrack, which again, you and I both uh uh love a great deal. Uh I'm gonna bring up another artist from that soundtrack, and that is the one and only Josie Cotton. Um born uh born Josie Jones. Uh, this 1982 record is is absolutely stunning. Love her. Love her. I uh, you know, obviously the Valley Girl soundtrack, not only is she uh three songs deep on the soundtrack, but plays live in the movie at the high school prom. Um, but certainly as a fan of that movie, I sought out this record. Um, and Convertible Music by Josie Cotton, which does feature Johnny Are You Queer and He Could Be the One, and all the songs from that movie. I don't know why Cindy Lauper is Cindy Lauper and Josie Cotton isn't, because to me, Josie Cotton was cooler, um, a little less shtick and a little more substance.
SPEAKER_03She was a rock star. She was such a cool rock star. She had that great edge and she had balls, and she I love the way Josie Cotton too used to grab the microphone. You know, our good friend Zuzu from Soraya did shows with Josie Cotton um not that long ago. And I remember just being so impressed by that. Like, you're doing shows with Josie Cotton. She's like a little bit.
SPEAKER_01He does still, she still plays shows. I don't think she's made a record in a in a really, really long time. But um, you know, just one of those like like we talked about, like, why does one artist become massive and one doesn't? Um, you know, Josie Cotton honestly should have been much, much bigger, more popular. But um, this record is such a wonderful time capsule. Um, it's just it's just fun, it's bubblegum, it's just everything that was cool about the early 80s on one record.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I agree. I agree. Oh, where do I go now? Do I go more little hairbands, or do I I'm gonna go, uh, I think I'm gonna go uh a record that was one of my favorites from 1987. Very underrated record called House of Dolls from a band called Gene Loves Jezebel. And they had a song on that record that in 1987 I wore out called 20 killerhertz. Um it was just everything to me, and I was such a fan of the band. I kind of put them in the almost in the pocket of being a not as edgy cult. And they had some really, really great songs. Uh, the Aston Brothers, John and Jay. And uh, I think Jimmy Iaveen was involved in the production of the House of Dolls record along with Peter Walsh. I don't think that he clicked that well. Uh, I remember hearing with the Aston brothers. I I think they were difficult characters, but there's a song called 20 Killers. She's gonna burn, bone, bone, she'll do it again. And I loved like, wow, there was all this like wild screaming in the middle of these Gene Love Jezebel songs. And I thought they were a severely underrated band. The Aston brothers still go out, they still do shows, they still tour. They had other songs, Jealous and Motion of Love and some other cool things. But I thought House of Dolls in 87 and 20 kilohertz were 20 kilohertz should have been a massive radio hit. It's just so incredibly catchy, never was. And that album to me is completely brilliant, and I was obsessed, obsessed with that band.
SPEAKER_01So now they still tour as two separate versions.
SPEAKER_02Correct, because they don't like each other very much, I thought, I don't think.
SPEAKER_01I've seen one of them, and honestly, I I couldn't tell you which version I saw, but I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_03I think Jay toured more, so you might have seen Jay. I saw Jay, I never saw John.
SPEAKER_01Okay, there you go. But uh But I love them. I still don't know that is some sibling rivalry right there. Let me go. I'll show you. Okay. Yep. All right. Well, now I'm gonna go back to Philadelphia and I'm gonna keep it a little new way before I start breaking out uh some more of the heavier stuff. Okay. Um, but this is another Philadelphia act. Um, it's an act that we both um have a bit of a personal connection to. So um this is uh this is 1987. This is Pretty Poison. And uh the Catch Me I'm Falling album.
SPEAKER_02Catch me, I'm falling. This was a brilliant song.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. This was what pop music is supposed to be. It's clever, it's hooky, it's fun, it's it's actually it's it's the arrangement of this song was actually really kind of ahead of its time, uh, way cooler. Uh the keyboard player was using patches and samples and and technology that was still evolving. Um, and it made this record sound so of the moment. Like it in 1987, this just sounded so fresh and so new. Um uh the title track, of course, was featured in the uh John Cryer motion picture, hiding out, which would never have gotten made today, by the way. So you're an you're you're hiding from the mob as an as a high school student. As a high school student dating one of them. That's anyway, very problematic.
SPEAKER_03But um I love Jade Starling. I think she's also of the Josie Cotton ilk, where I don't know why she wasn't a bigger star. She was so beautiful and so charismatic, and I love her in that video, and she's dancing, and she's got the cool kind of Madonna-like clothes on. And I remember I had started my FM radio career at WPST. We did a big WPST bash, and Pretty Poison was one of the bands that was playing, you know, because the station was from that area. And I was just mesmerized by watching them. I thought, oh my God, they're just so great. And I thought she was just such a rock star. I love that song. I love that song. That song makes me so happy.
SPEAKER_01They were incredibly polished and professional and you know, signed to a major label to Virgin Records, and it just seemed like everything was happening for this band until it wasn't. I honestly don't really know. They've had other hits on the dance chart since then, but certainly nothing to the extent of Catch Me I'm Falling. Um, the band's guitar player, uh Louis Franco, uh, used to come in my in 1987. I worked at a um at a music store, guitar store, uh, shout out to the music barn in Feast of Lpa. Uh and Louis Franco would come in to buy strings or buy picks or buy, you know, whatever it was that he needed. Um, and he was just at a cool dude with giant, you know, giant hair. He looked like Steve Stevens.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they were almost kind of like a rock band, but not like they looked so cool and they really looked like a rock band of the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Pretty Poison is one of those, just you know, again, you scratch your head and just go, I I don't know why it didn't become a global phenomenon, but um, but this record is is is just magic. It's just so much fun. Highly, highly recommend. Five stars.
SPEAKER_03All right. I'm gonna actually, I'm gonna grab another woman who I thought was gonna be a big star, and that is Fiona Flanagan out of Phillipsburg, New Jersey. I remember the first time in 1984-ish, maybe. I don't know the year exactly, four or five, maybe five, where I heard Talk to Me from Fiona. And again, it was another one of those cool, kind of sexy songs. I think she had five albums out. That was her debut. Um, she ended up marrying the producer Bo Hill, and then a lot of people know her from Doing Your Sex in Me with Kip Winger.
SPEAKER_01I didn't know she married Bo Hill. That's it.
SPEAKER_03She married Bo Hill, and he did her second record, Beyond the Pale, and he produced that. But I thought she had so much potential on that first record. It was, I think Reb Beach was on that record, I believe, uh doing guitar. And I loved the video for it, you know, and it was so talk to me.
SPEAKER_04I can't understand why you talk to me.
SPEAKER_03And she's like freaking out in the song, and she looks really beautiful and but not overdone. You know, she looked like the girl next door, you know, this pretty, beautiful girl next door. And uh, I just thought she was an amazing rock chick and had the potential to be such a rock chick, and then it sort of imploded for her too. And it never really happened. I don't think anybody knew where to put her. Then they were trying to make her an actress. She was in Miami Vice, the episode with Ted Nugent, where she was little Miss Dangerous, and they were playing that. So it was kind of like I think everybody was probably pulling at her. Ironically, I gotta tell you a funny story. So I did a female rock show called the Queens of Noise Show. And who do I get an email from one day? But Fiona! And Fiona had heard about the Queens of Noise show. She was living in a town in New Jersey and hit me up. And what do I say to her? I'm like, I don't believe this is Fiona. So she sends me a selfie of herself, and she looked exactly like she looked in 1985, and she was in her driveway or something, and lo and behold, it was Fiona. And um, I was so I was more excited by that than like all these artists that I've interviewed over the years because I was literally like, oh my God, Fiona is listening to this Queens of Noise show that I'm doing. Like, how exciting is this? This is great, this is amazing. So, yeah, I love that song, and I actually love that that record. I loved her second record Beyond the Pale, too. She had a song called Living in a Boys World. That was always so cool to me. So uh yeah, Fiona's on my list for underrated 80s. I thought she was a giant rock star of the day.
SPEAKER_01I felt like she was very like punky, spunky, like she was almost Avril Levine before Avril Levine. Um, maybe a little more rock than Avril I ever got, but uh I remember her being just so um energetic and just you know, the the level of energy coming out of that video uh when you would sit empty.
SPEAKER_03She was so beautiful, she was stunning, just absolutely stunning. She had her own style and her whole own thing going on. So yeah. All right, so who you got?
SPEAKER_01All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with the ladies here. Uh, and I'm gonna go take you back to uh 1988 and break out the misbehaving album by Joanna Dean. Ah man, this uh, you know, she had a voice somewhere between, you know, Janice Joplin and and Bonnie Raitt, and she was Sass Jordan before Sass Jordan, and she was just this cool, you know, rock chick in black leather pants, and had plenty of attitude. And I I thought Kiss This and Ready for Saturday Night just could have been much, much bigger. Um, felt like she had that like brief MTV sort of moment, and you know, she got to open for a bunch of bands, um, opened for ACDC, and um, you know, she had like southern charm, but had like New York rock grit. Uh true story, the kiss this video uh was filmed at the old Roxy in New York, and if you look closely, uh you'll see a very young Jim Belushi as the bouncer in that video.
SPEAKER_03No, you're kidding, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01Uh little celebrity sighting there uncredited, but um I yeah, I don't know. I don't know what really whatever became of Joanna Dean, other than this record. And um, you know, this is one of those records that if you're lucky, if you're a record collector, you know, you might find a cheapy copy somewhere in a dollar bin. Grab that thing because this record is just chock full of goodness. Um, it's just again, it's a really good time. It's kind of no frills rock and roll, like you're in a sweaty club, but her voice was just elevating. She could just absolutely uh sustain notes and had that had that rash, but it was just effortless for her. Um, I did a little digging on her of my own. Um fun story. Joanna Dean actually sang backup for James Brown as an 18-year-old. Wow. Isn't that isn't that crazy? That's wild.
SPEAKER_03That is wild. I felt like the women of that era really had a tough time because there was maybe room for a leader or room for a Joan Jet, but there really wasn't a lot of room for women. There's there's still not a lot of room for women, but there's way more room than there used to be. So I don't think talent could sustain anybody back in those days because the doors just closed in your face. It didn't matter what you did. It was just like, yeah, we already have a woman, so we don't need you. We don't need you. And especially somebody like her who was not all style and was mostly substance.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_03That unfortunately is going to be a strike against you anyway, because they want you in leather pants with your boobs hanging out rather than having the voice of a Janice Joplin, like, you know, your boobs matter more.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, she she had all of that and she had the big hair. I mean, she definitely had the the they styled her the way that you felt an 80s female rocker should be styled. Um, but yeah, for some reason, um, this album honestly, you know, didn't become a huge hit. And then honestly, I sort of lost track of her after that. But I will still break this out and just remark to myself, like, you know, coulda, woulda, shoulda. Joanna Dean could have been much, much bigger.
SPEAKER_03So I'm going power ballad now, and I have to go back to 1982 for one of my favorite power ballads and probably one of the first power ballads that I really remember hearing. And that is Vandenberg.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_03This burning heart of mine. Uh Burning Heart, uh, Adrian Vandenberg. Barely cracked the top 40, but an incredible song, especially the beginning of that song with that uh the way that the guitar is kind of mixed. It's just very beautiful. There's an acoustic feel, and then the song just kind of builds and builds and builds. And I think I probably cried to some junior high school boyfriends during uh Burning Heart from Vandenberg because it just has that, you know, does it feel the same way? You know, it's just such a beautiful song. And uh, I think the beginning of the power ballad as we knew it. And then Adrian went on to, of course, join Whitesnake in 1985, six, um somewhere in there, uh, and recorded that album that had uh Here I Go Again and Still of the Night and all these monster, monster Oh, that's still that Still of the Night video with all of that, what all of that stuff going on in that video with everybody's like Rudy's slapping the bass, and it's just like this wild, like what is everybody's kind of covernails up on the thing, and it's like something you never I you just never experienced before. It's like, what is going on in this video? It's wild. It's like everybody's having sex with their instrument. That's how I viewed that video.
SPEAKER_01Everybody is having sex with their instruments, and um, I I saw Whitesnake opening for Motley Crue in '86, it was '86. Um, and I'm not sure if I know uh Viv Campbell was in the band. I'm not sure if Adrian Vanderberg was still in the band at that point. Yeah, they had ins and outs.
SPEAKER_03It was like John Sykes and Viv and Adrian. I didn't know what was going on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but but but boy, uh I haven't thought about your the power.
SPEAKER_03I loved Burning Hearted. I still do and I still listen to that. You know, I still listen to that song when uh, you know, when I'm lamenting over something, when my heart is broken. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Alright. Well, then we're gonna we're gonna get rocked then. That's what we're gonna do. So we're gonna go to uh we're gonna go to 1989. 89 in New York City's circus of poem.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. So unique band such unique band.
SPEAKER_01This was this was the cult. This was the doors. Monster magazine. This was just so freaking cool. Yeah. And um, you know, one of the first records when I when I was at my college radio station and got to pick out what I was gonna play on my show, I played the circus of power and Motor and Call of the Wild, these are such great songs. They they've continued to make music. Um, they broke up for a while, they got back together again. I mean, I think they've got uh a much deeper catalog than I'm familiar with. Um, but this self-titled record is is a masterwork. Um if you love just big, big sounding rock, but it had a little bit of that like you know, doors-ish shaman-esque quality to it, um, gritty like the cult. Uh I just can't recommend the Circus of Power album enough. Big, big, big record.
SPEAKER_03And a little sprinkling, just a sprinkling of stoner. Just a sprinkling of stoner in that sound. Absolutely. That was kind of the beginning of that. The beginning of the water.
SPEAKER_01Probably what worked worked for me in 1988 very well. So absolutely.
SPEAKER_03So I'm gonna pick, I think, for my next one. Oh my goodness, because I have so many cool ones, but I think I'm gonna go for my next one, a band that I loved and I was so obsessed with. And I don't know which song I'm gonna pick, because I I may I may do two, but I'm going to Canada, and the band is Honeymoon Sweet. They were so brilliantly produced by Bruce Fairbairn, and of course, New Girl Now, but I really liked the record The Big Prize. And there was a song on the big prize called Feel It Again, but I love that whole record, top to bottom. Top to bottom to me. That was a record that I listened to with my bestie, who's still my bestie, Phyllis. And we listened to that in the summer of 1986, just over and over and over, because that record, bad. I think it starts with the bad attitude is the first song that it starts. And you know, you want the big prize, you got your bad attitude, and Feel It Again was really the kind of quasi-hit. But Honeymoon Sweet, very underrated band. Never understood why they weren't the Bon Jovi, you know, um, that Bon Jovi was, because I thought that they definitely had the songs and uh love that band and love both those songs.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad you brought them in. I should I consider bringing that first album on my list as well. I think they were just honestly, they were you know, I hate to say this, they were they were not as good looking as Bon Jovi. And ultimately, I remember seeing those videos on MTV and it almost felt like they were trying to feature the band without getting too close up because they kind of knew what they were working with. So they had a lot of shots where they were pulling away and kind of like you know, in the 80s when everything was such a visual medium.
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, if you were if you didn't look the part, or have a front man, you know, if you were kind of a little more nameless and faceless. Yeah, it was tough sledding.
SPEAKER_01It was tough sledding, and um, you know, I'll that brings me to uh to my next band, who honestly, again, this was a a record that meant everything to me in high school. Um uh and and to this day I I still put this record on a very huge pedestal. Um, and it's from Seattle's TKO. And the album In Your Face that came out in 19 uh 1986. 86? No, 81. 81 81. 81, my bad. Um they uh they disbanded in 86. Um this album was really spectacular. So they had an album that came out before this called Let It Roll. Um, that was a much more kind of just rock album. Um great songs, a little bit of a lineup change. Uh, when they recorded this record, they moved in a much more heavy metal direction. They brought in a young 18-year-old whiz kid guitar player named Adam Brenner, who later became known as Adam Baum. Remember Adam Baum, sure. Most of this record and played guitar on it. Um, lead singer Brad Sincel is one of my favorite front men of all time, uh, not only as a lyricist, his phrasing, the way that he would attack certain syllables and and emphasize and and twist a phrase. Uh this record to me is just so powerful and brutal, but but awesome. And just um, you know, the album cover is certainly of its time. Um, but uh I I honestly can't say enough about this record. They made a follow-up album called Below the Belt. Um, that's also worth picking up, worth checking out. Um, but the In Your Face album, I had a cassette of this that I had on my Sony Walkman, and I would traverse the hallways of my high school from class to class with this record blasting. And um yeah, I you know, TKO never had an MTV hit, uh never had um any of the spoils that a lot of the 80s rock bands had. Um, and I think it's really a shame because this record is just truly uh it's spectacular.
SPEAKER_03Love it, love it. Um God, we're and we're coming to the ends of our lists here. I think I have to go, because I have a bunch and some of them are not gonna make the list, but I gotta go uh blue, I gotta, I gotta get blue murder in here. 89, so I'm coming in under the wire, you know, for the 1980s. But Jelly Roll is a song that is just again, it's four songs in one song. What a band with John Sykes, who was everything. I mean, just what a guitar player, uh, a phenomenal lead vocals on the Blue Murder stuff, gorgeous beyond belief. I mean, he looked like I don't know what, like just this Viking model. And you're like, this is the guy in the band. He's beautiful. Uh, Carmine, of course, Tony Franklin, just a really incredible power trio. And it starts off as this country don't, and then it comes, breaks into this, you know, there's all these hooks. Every every quarter mile is a hook on this song. I don't need no doctor, I don't need no priest, and then you know, love can break your heart. Then it breaks into that whole beautiful the sky opens melody with Love Can Break Your Heart. And then the guitar solo at the end. I mean, it's just brilliant. There's I don't think there's ever been a song like that song. That is just one of those songs. And I would play that on the radio. And for those that knew it would be like, I can't believe you're playing this the greatest song ever. And for those that didn't know it would be like, What was that song you played at 120? You know, because it just is such an impactful song. I don't know how that was not a monster hit. That whole record is great. Valley of the Kings and Blue Murder, and the whole record is great. I think they put a second record out, but it just never, nothing really ever happened.
SPEAKER_01No, didn't Tony um was no, I guess he was that was before, right? Was the firm? I think predates Blue Murder. Yes. But the firm was 84, I think. Yep, yep. So Tony went from the firm to Blue Murder. Um, I actually saw Tony a year or two ago. Um, he's been playing bass in Lou Graham's solo band.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's incredible. Incredible.
SPEAKER_01So he's just, you know, a big fretless bass that he would play.
SPEAKER_03But you know, those super groups are always hard. They don't stay together for a really long time, and everybody's always doing something else. And, you know, I think John Sykes was an interesting character to work with, definitely a genius, but it's such an underrated guitar player, and he just had everything. Beautiful frontman, great vocalist, great lyricist. Uh, Blue Murder, Jelly Roll, definitely on my list.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, you and I, besides Blue Murder, you and I are big fans of the Power Trio paradigm as a whole, whether it's Rush or Triumph. Uh, I'm gonna add one more power trio to my list. And that's the Mighty Zebra. Boy, oh boy.
SPEAKER_03That first record is top to bottom, every song.
SPEAKER_01From uh from Long Island to New Orleans, um, this is a band that's got inducted into uh two music hall of fame, both Long Island and New Orleans. Um I remember seeing the Who's Behind the Door video on MTV, and that was it. I needed to know everything about this band. Um, this album is stunning. Um, it's another no-skips album album where every song is really great. Um, but Who's Behind the Door was just so it was unlike anything I'd heard. Um now in hindsight, I recognize the influences, certainly the Zeppelin influence. Um, there's absolutely some Rush influence in there as well. Um what's actually most remarkable, uh, this band first formed in 1977. So this year they are celebrating their 50th anniversary and they're still touring, and it's the same three guys. Three guys, yep, yeah, it's Randy, it's Felix, um, and it's uh and Guy Gelson. It's the same three guys out there doing it who played on this magnificent record. So if Zebra comes to town, go see them. You you can't believe that they can still do it at this level, and they absolutely can.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Oh, I I loved that record. Oh my god, tell me what you want is still one of those great, you know. And I I just I love the way that song comes in, you know, where it's just his kind of vocal, almost cold. I've been wasting my time.
SPEAKER_01Oh, just we deal with power trios. Just there's the thing about a power trio is, you know, when you're a tr one leg of a tripod, like there can't be a weak link. Yep, there can't be. Yeah, every leg's gotta be rock solid. And zebra, much like triumph, much like rush, much like blue murder, every guy in here was really important, and every guy really held their own and brought a lot to the table. So zebra. I think do we have like one left each? I think. Well, that was 10. I I I brought an 11th. I'm gonna cheat and bring it up.
SPEAKER_03All right, let's do well, we'll each do one more. All right, you first. Um, I'm just trying to figure out which which one of my one more. I think I might go with uh a song from 1986, which I think should be one of those songs that everybody is always singing in their daily lives. And um, that's a band called World Party. And they had a record out called Private Revolution and a song called Ship of Fools. Uh, Carl Wallinger is a brilliant storyteller and songwriter. And Ship of Fools is one of those songs that you could listen to now, and there's no dating on it whatsoever. It should be an instant classic. You should still be able to hear it on radio stations around the country and you don't. And um, there's a line in that song that I love more than anything, and it comes towards the end of the song after he goes through the whole chorus where he goes, all aboard. It's just such a brilliant song. I love everything about World Party. I love everything about that private revolution record. And I think he's one of the great storytellers of the 1980s and beyond, and certainly doesn't get the credit for being an incredible, incredible songwriter. So listen to World Party Ship of Fools and punch it into your everyday life, how you live right now, and think of all the people that are around you sometimes, and you're like, I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, I gotta jump off. And uh, it's a really, really incredible song and certainly very, very underrated.
SPEAKER_01I would suggest recommend it if you like um Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Um uh certainly he had uh World Party had an XTC ish-ish kind of vibe to them. Um, but just yeah, Tears for Fears. Like if those are bands that you love and you don't you don't know World Party, you should get to know them. I think Carl passed away a year or two ago, yeah, but definitely dig into his catalog on brilliant yeah, on YouTube, on your streaming platform of choice. But um, some really there's a lot to dig into there. Great stuff. Yeah, great stuff. I'm gonna go one more.
SPEAKER_03You get the final, the final vote tonight, Gare. This I I love talking music with you, and me and you text sometimes daily about cool songs and cool, you know, movies and stuff. So deep diving into any era with you is a pleasure for me because I love chatting music with you.
SPEAKER_01Same, uh, honestly. And look, the um the 80s were just a fun, a fun decade of music. It was a fun time to grow up. But how lucky were we? Yeah. I mean, musically, it was just so all over the place. And you you could listen to um in in some cases, uh, a radio station and hear something like, you know, world party, and then five minutes later hear something like uh, you know, zebra, motley crew, or or something completely different. And it was it was an interesting time when I felt like the lines were much more blurred and artists were able to kind of fit seamlessly in between categories. They weren't so pigeonhole, radio wasn't as tightly formatted as it is now. Um, the rules were different, you could get away with a lot more back then, I feel like. And um, you know, maybe because there was no internet, there was no permanency, and there was no accountability. So artists would push the envelope more, and I think it made for better art, quite honestly. All right, so my last one uh is from 1988. Um, it was my freshman year in college, and I remember this record being a really important record for me. It was as much as I loved heavy metal and I was a metalhead in the 80s, um, I was a punk kid too, and I loved a lot of punk rock, but I thought what made this band so special was where a lot of punk rock was really, it was very violent and screamy and super aggressive. This was punk while keeping it close to the vest. It was icy cool, it was almost a little bit removed and just but it had a sneer to it that I really identified with, and that is The Godfathers and the birth school work death album. This this entire record, again, to me, is skip-free. But even just the picture, look at these guys, they didn't look very punk rock, they're wearing suits, but boy, this record is so full of attitude and just bristles with it's a real um indictment of blue-collar uh culture, it's a real indictment of um capitalism um and sort of um the homogenization of everything through corporate mentality. This record was punk without trying to be punk, and I think that's why I loved it so much and still do. They made other records that were also really cool. Um, some of them went a little more new wave than this record, but I I always go back to to this album and even just the the opening track, the title cut of this record to me is just an absolute stone called classic. Birth, school, work, death, the godfathers.
SPEAKER_03Perfect. Yeah, absolutely perfect. I remember beginning of my radio career, one of my favorite songs, favorite songs to play on my night shift was that song. It was just it electrified the students. So much energy and attitude. Yeah, attitude, just all, all attitude. Wow, this was a really fast hour. We zipped through probably 11 songs each, and we probably we could have easily gone 20 more each.
SPEAKER_01I had a whole B list of records pulled just in case.
SPEAKER_03I know. I had a bunch too. I mean, I just you know, a couple of mine, I was like, you know, I'm not we'll we'll save them for next time. And it's always such a pleasure talking to you. I'm always so grateful to have you. Um, is a part of my wheelhouse, a part of my life. And it's really nice to have you on my podcast, my new car stereo podcast.
SPEAKER_01Uh it's my the pleasure's all mine, TC. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03And you also have to let me know what's going on with Landshark. What can we look forward to with some of the cool Land Shark artists that you're gonna be working with?
SPEAKER_01Landshark is Landshark is crazy busy right now. Um, and that's fantastic. There's there's so much good music here in the first quarter of 2026, including a brand new Atreyu single. So good. Um, there is new Black Vale Brides music coming. We're still very much involved in um the Rob Zombie album. Very excited about that. Um, Dayseeker, which is just absolutely blowing up.
SPEAKER_03Congratulations uh on the success of Dayseeker. Such a cool band.
SPEAKER_01We're we're we're thrilled to see the evolution. Honestly, it's been really kind of remarkable seeing them grow from you know this band that had this incredible cult following, this pretty passionate cult following, into something that's gone much more mainstream. Um, and and honestly, the the the numbers on it are just extraordinary. And um, and this record is just really, I think, uh a landmark record for not only them, but people look back on this record. The way we're talking about these records 40 years later, I'd like to think they're gonna talk about this Dayseeker album as being a very, you know, important record of its time. Um, I got a couple other great things coming out. Um, some bands that we're excited to work with. Uh, I'll drop some names out there. Uh, there's a new Bullets and Octane record. Um, this band's been around for 20 plus years and have made maybe the best record of their career. Um, and then a really new band out of Austin, Texas called Bridges Ablaze. Keep an ear open for them. Very cool stuff. So, yeah, we're we're super busy and I wouldn't have it any other way.
SPEAKER_03Gary, thank you so much for being with me on the Car Stereo Podcast. Always a pleasure. Criminally underrated 80s. Nobody that I enjoy talking music with more than Gary J. Thank you, my friend.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Tsu. Don't forget to like this podcast and subscribe to the Car Stereo page on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Rob Moorhead, Tasty, and I will see you next time.