Only Three Lads - Classic Alternative Music Podcast

It's time for another Weekend Six Pack bonus - the show within the show where we bring you half a dozen new tunes, including: Taxi Girls - 'Midnight Mixtape' (from the LP Static, Stomp Records) My Raining Stars - 'Fine' (from the album Toy Club, Too Good To Be True) The Prongs - 'Stanley Milgram Says' (single) Fuses - 'Garden of Ashes' (from Sawdust in the Transmission, Having Fun Records) The Pre...

This week, we place our focus on songs that one established artist wrote for another artist. And what better ceremonial Third Lad than Robert Ellis Orrall, a songwriter who has not only penned his own hits ("I Couldn't Say No" with Carlene Carter - #32 Pop, 1983; "Boom! It Was Over" - #19 Country, 1992; "A Little Bit of Her Love" - #31 Country, 1993) but has also written many hits for other artist...

This week, we're slaying the proverbial demons of jangle pop with Andy Jossi (Switzerland) and Gretchen DeVault (USA) from transatlantic "jangle gaze" duo The Blue Herons! The Blue Herons create wistful dreampop with a cinematic sense of space and emotion, lit by sparkling layers of guitars and clear, expressive vocals. Since their debut in 2020., their music has drawn comparisons to The Sundays, ...

Are you ready to rumble?!? Very few topics seem to provoke as much heated debate as power pop - what (and who) is power pop? This week, we dare tackle our Top 5 Power Pop Songs of the '90s. Raise your pitchforks! Nah, we're not worried...because, truth be told, power pop during the decade would have looked drastically different without our Third Lad this week, Dean Brownrout. As the co-founder of...

In the '60s, thousands of young rock n' roll hopefuls picked up instruments and took to the garage to play music that was loud, raw, primitive, and spiked with attitude. It was a sound that was later branded as "garage rock", and it became massively influential when these wild records were rediscovered by a new generation of bands through seminal compilation albums like the Lenny Kaye-curated Nugg...

In the 1980s, college radio served as a vital alternative to increasingly corporate and playlist-driven commercial radio. These stations became incubators for emerging alternative genres, provided early exposure for artists who would later become influential acts, and championed independent labels, local scenes, and adventurous programming. In a tenth anniversary book issued in 1989, CMJ, the trad...

This week, we grab the reins on a discussion of self-produced albums; that is, records on which the artist takes control over their own vision and not only performs the music, but takes responsibility for the final production as well. Joining us on this an exploration is a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and pop craftsman who has been a vital part of the New York City music scene, George U...

Climb aboard the mothership...because we wants to funk YOU up! This week, we celebrate the music of the P-Funk universe - revolving around the nucleus of the George Clinton-led Rock & Roll Hame of Fame bands, Parliament and Funkadelic. Joining us as our Third Lad is none other than "Kidd Funkadelic" himself, P-Funk guitar hero Michael Hampton! Led by visionary bandleader George Clinton, the wildly...

Choo-chooooo! All abooooooooard! This train may not run on time, but it does run off the rails...and fast. This week, the Lads complete their "Metal MAY-hem" trifecta by covering the heaviest metal of 'em all: trains. Joining in on the fun is Wallace Dietz and Dan-O Deckelman, who make up the creative engine of the Richmond, VA post-punk locomotive The Melody Chamber. Their self-titled debut (HHBT...

We've got another six pack of fresh tunes for you in our "show within the show" bonus! This week, Brett chats with composer/keyboardist Johnny Iguana from Chicago band The Claudettes, as they prepare to release their 7th album, Garage Glamour, due June 5th from Pravda Records. “Garage glamour” is about as apt a term as you can get to describe a band who has defied neat categorization over the year...

O3L's Metal MAY-hem continues, but this week we're talking about a different kind of heavy metal: the kind you drive. From “Rocket 88” to “Little Red Corvette”, the automobile has long been a popular subject in song, representing freedom, escape, prosperity, power, control, solitude, safety, danger, or passion.  Some artists simply sing about cars because cars are cool. Much like a classic ‘57 Che...

It's Metal MAY-hem over here at O3L! This week, we're talking about some of the metal albums that we would recommend to alt-rock fans, whether it be the thundering classics whose influence crossed stylistic boundaries or the albums that could serve as a gateway into the genre for the uninitiated. And, when we say "uninitiated", we might as well be talking about Brett. Fortunately, not only has Unc...

Are you all sitting comfybold two square on your body? Then I'll begin. We return to the topic of the concept album...with a spin. Some concept albums simply don't work without context. Others function as a cohesive collection of songs, even divorced from a weighty backstory or overarching theme. Those are the records that Brett Vargo discusses with this week's Third Lad, Bill Kopp. You may rememb...

DON'T you forget about us. DO listen to this week's O3L! That's right...we're covering songs with "do" or "don't" in the title. Our Third Lad is French songwriter/guitarist Stéphane Schück from The Salt Collective, the unique international collaborative project who recently released their second full-length album, A Brief History of Blindness, on Propeller Sound Recordings. The record features voc...

Hope you like curling up with a good podcast, because this week we're all about books...well, specifically, songs that are about or inspired by literature. How high brow of us! Our Third Lad for this discussion is "literate folk-pop" singer/songwriter Robert Deeble. Literary themes are central to the heart of his music, and his recently released 7th album, The Space Between Us, is no exception. It...

We're gonna make you an offer you can't refuse...because this week, we go way back to discuss some of our favorite songs of 1972 with the marvelous Anne Richmond Boston from The Swimming Pool Q's! Possessing a crystalline voice, Anne's journey led her from church and high school choirs to the quirky new wave of the Swimming Pool Q's. Following their debut album The Deep End on DB Records in 1981,...

It's the darkest, most spiteful O3L yet! Thanks to an expected guest standing us up at the last minute, after 322 episodes of musical positivity, this week it's all about pushing each other's musical hot buttons. We each curate a list of five songs that we believe the other will loathe. Detest. Hate. Which means you get more scorn. More disgust. More Uncle Gregg rants. More annoying Brett "grunge...

"The merit in action lies in finishing it to the end." - Genghis Khan Well, you'll definitely want to finish this six pack to the end, because this week it's all about Meritorio in action. That is, Meritorio Records, the splendid Madrid-based record label founded by Álvaro Lissón that has been connecting some of the finest indie pop/rock artists with worldwide audiences for nearly a decade. During...

What the world needs now...is O3L, sweet O3L! The lads are joined by guitarist/vocalist duo Eric McFadden and Kate Vargas — collectively known as Sgt. Splendor — to count down the top five songs this messed-up world needs right now. The conversation explores how music can heal, empower, and unite in difficult times. Guest Bios: Eric McFadden — A spellbinding guitarist with a catalog stretching bac...

BIFF! This week, we're focusing on Album 1-2 punches...that is, albums where the first two songs knock you out. BANG! Our Third Lad is Ben Crum from long-running Elephant 6 band Great Lakes. POW! More than 25 years and eight records on from Great Lakes' classic debut, Ben Crum returns with a fantastic new Great Lakes album, Don't Swim Too Close (HHBTM Records). The immediately accessible record dr...

It's the first full weekend of Daylight Savings Time here in (most parts of the) U.S. You bring the sunshine, and we'll supply the tunes! Brett Vargo chats with electropunk pioneer Peter Pepper about his journey from a "dirtbag punk kid" growing up in Florida to becoming an underground cult hero of a genre he accidentally helped to create. He is currently a renowned multimedia creator, world-trave...

This week, we’re covering bands who released one…and only one…proper album in their career.  Sometimes they say everything they need to say in one album long statement.  Sometimes, they attempt to chase the same feeling of the first album and can’t quite repeat the magic.  Sometimes they’re not given a chance.  Our Third Lad knows a little something about being in a "one and done" band.  Frank Bos...

Croon•er (n) ['kru:nər]: a singer, particularly a male one, who sings sentimental songs in a soft, low voice. Decades before Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, or Uncle Gregg captured the hearts, imaginations, and undergarments of a swooning audience, crooners ruled the earth. The term typically conjures up golden throated singers like Bing Crosby, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett, a...

This week, we celebrate the life and music of Elliott Smith, tracing his journey from noisy indie rocker to lo-fi DIY troubadour to the reluctant voice of a generation. Elliott released three records with his band Heatmiser and five solo classics before his untimely passing at the age of 34 in 2003 (with two posthumous collections that followed), leaving a rich, beautiful, emotionally wrought cata...

Get ready for six new tunes that hit the mark every single time! Speaking of bullseyes, this week we welcome the charming and talented Nicole Laurenne from "spooky kitten garagepunk" band The Darts and torch/soul/trip-hop project Black Viiolet to O3L! Learn about Nicole's fascinating journey, get a glimpse of her creative process, and marvel at a work ethic that has produced two great new albums i...