Shoulda Beens

(SPOILER ALERT:  In this episode, we peel back the mystery behind a great DC band from the 1980s -- and in the process, prove once and for all that alt-rock luminary Mitch Easter is, in fact, extremely pleasant and a joy to work with in the studio.  Prepare to be shocked by the astonishing truth!) Washington, D.C. has been home to a lot of great music over the years, but one of the unsung heroes o...

Our latest episode of Shoulda Beens takes us to Long Beach, a tiny seaside hamlet on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. In 1981, three teenage boys formed a band called Next Window, and for the next few years wrote and recorded some exciting, on-trend, and vital “new wave” music — the kind of thing you would expect to hear in places like New York, London, or Los Angeles. But Next Window’s pop/punk mus...

In the post-punk, college rock world of the 1980s, the American South seemed poised to rise again, thanks to the wide-eyed, DIY enthusiasm of bands and artists like REM, the dBs, Mitch Easter and Let’s Active.  These groups looked beyond the blues-fueled cliches of “southern rock” and created a brainy new kind of guitar pop that owed more to Television, Devo, and XTC than it did Lynyrd Skynyrd and...

Join us as we unravel the story of Grey Blue Theory, a group of 16-year-olds who, in 1968, were pioneering an early version of prog rock. Hear the band explain their innovative approach to songwriting, their obssessive, eardrum-bursting practice regimen, and relive their victory over Eddie Money at a local Battle of the Bands, which ended in an unforgettable brawl.  Plus, for the first time since...