Talk About the Passion

In this filler episode I'm stuck indoors during the Coronavirus pandemic letting you know I'm old and like to tell stories, I tell you how many times you've heard Bungle in the Jungle by Jethro Tull, argue that Stairway to Heaven is not the most overplayed Zeppelin song, recall the last time I was stuck indoors during a snowstorm in 2015. Also tacked on the end of this is the track "Jennifer Lopez...

Episode 52  & 53 is a two part long, free form conversation with Brian Smith and Guy Wetherbee about the late Neil Peart. Rush is a big band for the three of us and with the news of Neil passing in January of 2020 we gathered to hang out and talk about all things Neil from our first impressions of him to fascinating detail about some of his drum sets through the years. This is a long conversation...

Episode 52  & 53 is a two part long, free form conversation with Brian Smith and Guy Wetherbee about the late Neil Peart. Rush is a big band for the three of us and with the news of Neil passing in January of 2020 we gathered to hang out and talk about all things Neil from our first impressions of him to fascinating detail about some of his drum sets through the years. This is a long conversation...

Episode 51 is a short episode where I talk about an upcoming project happening with the Boston Hardcore aspects of this podcast, my introduction to hardcore music in Boston in the early 80's and I start off on a sad note and talk about the death of Reed Mullin who I learned died a couple hours before I recorded this. 

Episode 50 is a great conversation with Glen Stilphen. Glen plays bass in the band Northern Skulls, and got his start playing bass for Gang Green as a teenager during their Another Wasted Night era along with his brother Chuck. We talk quite a bit about his time in that band as well as the time that lead up to that and what he's been up to since. His new band Northern Skulls are great and I'm glad...

Episode 49 is a dive into guitar players, and not the same ones you always hear talked about. We talk about the more unheralded guitar players from Jim Babjak of The Smithereens to Geordie Walker from Killing Joke. There are a few more well known names on here but we wanted to shine a light on less-household names. As with other episodes I've recorded with Brian and Guy this one was a lot of fun a...

Episode 48 is a conversation with James Koury of Boston based metal band Meliah Rage. James is one of the original members of the band and in this episode we talk about the long history of the band, from the formation in the 80's to what the band is up to now. James is a great storyteller and has some cool stories about growing up outside of Boston and how he found music and the journey it took hi...

Episode 47 is a conversation with my friend Jeff Morris, Jeff was a founding member of The Bruisers. We talk about his time in that band as well as how a couple of upcoming reunion shows came to be. Jeff grew up north of Boston and talks about getting into music at an early age, his first time at a hardcore show and everything else that happened in between. Like all of my guests, Jeff's story take...

Episode 46 is a deep and long dive with my co-hosts Brian Smith and Guy Weatherbee about live records. More than just a discussion of our specific favorite live records, we get pretty loose and open about the live album as an archive of a band at a certain point in time, infamous "fake" live recordings, and we somehow manage to cover everyone from the usual suspects like Rush and Kiss to artists l...

Episode 45 is a conversation with Chris Giguere. Chris plays guitar in the band Conclave, he has also done time in Tenebrae and Panzerbastard. In this episode we talk about growing up in Blackstone, MA which borders Woonsocket, RI. As the title indicates and as a good amount of these episodes go, Kiss is an early influence on Chris so we of course talk a bit about them, as well as other heavy musi...

In this episode of Talk About the Passion Brian and I talk about one of our favorite bands, the Beastie Boys. We share our experience first hearing them and what they meant to us early on and what they mean to us now. We talk about their legacy on pop culture, underground music, and hip hop. Going through most of their catalog album by album and song by song, this is a bit of a deep dive but also...

Episode 43 is a conversation with Daniel Brockman. This episode, recorded over the phone, is named after The Stooges song of the same name, the nature of this episode is indeed pretty loose. We don't really get into Dan's former Boston area bands Medea Connection and The Hidden at all but instead focus more on his experiences writing about music, interviewing artists from Danzig to Robyn Hitchcock...

On episode 42 I sit with my co-hosts Brian Smith and Guy Wetherbee and we talk about Rush. Five minutes before we hit record we each wrote down five Rush songs and we would then go around the table and talk about the songs, why we picked them, some we gave a little background and history. We get deep enough that long time Rush fans should enjoy our takes on these fifteen songs but never too far ou...

Episode 41 is a conversation with Duane Bruce, Duane is best known for his work as a DJ on WFNX out of Boston (Well, Lynn), Massachusetts. He got into radio at a very young age, listening to and eventually working in radio in Maine where he grew up. We talk about his time as a DJ and how he eventually made his way to Massachusetts and everything else in between. Duane is a great storyteller and ha...

Episode 40 is a conversation with Kevin Norton. Kevin played bass in the excellent Boston hardcore band Eye For an Eye and now he's still playing music with his current band The Eulogy based out of Southern California. We talk about growing up in Lynn Massachusetts and what it was like getting into metal and hardcore in the early and mid eighties when metal and hardcore were regularly crossing ove...

Episode 39 is a conversation with Brian Smith and Guy Wetherbee. Brian and Guy are lifelong friends and also collectively have a group called Four Way Anal Touchfight. They talk about the origins of that project here. We spend over two hours talking music from their formative years, sharing music with each other and by the end of the episode you'll understand why the title "Chemistry" (after the R...

Episode 38 is a conversation with Kevin Grant, this first episode of 2019 is a long episode and it covers a lot of ground. Kevin talks about Fall River, MA where he is from, what it was like growing up there. We talk at length about his experiences singing in a number of bands including The Hidden, Gaskill and his latest project Wire Lines. Kevin has some fascinating ideas about music and what rol...

Episode 37 is a conversation with Randy Larsen. You may know Randy from his band Cable who have been putting out good quality heavy music since the 90's and are set to release a new record next year as he explains late in this episode. We talk about how he got into music, other musical projects he's been involved in as well as his guest hosting on the Everything Went Black and Metal Matters podcas...

Episode 36 is a conversation with Mark Vieira. Originally from Massachusetts and now on the west coast we talk quite a bit about his time getting into music on the east coast. Mark has been around the music scene in various roles for years, currently he manages a number of bands including 1349, Ringworm, Tombs, The Atlas Moth and The Casualties among many others. Mark has some great insight on the...

Episode 35 is a conversation with author Michael T Fournier. Michael has authored a few books including the 33 1/3 series book on The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime record, his work appears in Maximum Rock & Roll, Razorcake and RS500. We talk about growing up in New England and getting into music, his writing both fiction and writing about music. Michael is a great writer and made the perf...

Episode 34 is a conversation with Boston area author Brian Coleman. Brian has written a few absolutely essential books for fans of hip-hop, Rakim Told Me, and Check the Technique Volumes 1 & 2. His new book, Buy Me Boston is a look at advertisements, flyers and vintage posters from Boston in the 60's, 70's and 80's. In this episode we talk about his evolution in getting into music, and his process...

Episode 32 is a special episode, Mark McKay, founding member of Boston hardcore band Slapshot and Hank Peirce, long time roadie for Slapshot among other bands get together and talk about a backpacking trip around Europe they took in 1988. This 90 minute conversation is filled with some hilarious and interesting stories, covering just about all of their stops along the way. This is the story of two...

In this special one year anniversary episode, former guest, radio personality and my good friend Angie C Shaw talks to me about where I grew up, how I got into music and how I got to doing this podcast. 

Episode 30 is a conversation with Boston area guitar player Scott O'Dowd. Scott has played in various bands in the Boston area, his current band Cortez are a great hard rock/stoner rock band, and Scott draws influences from all over the place as he talks about in this episode. Scott has a diverse taste in music and we talk about all different types of music from Black Sabbath to Foreigner (who the...

Episode 29 is a conversation with Boston area photographer Coleman Rogers called The Power to Believe. As you'll hear in the conversation Coleman is more than just a photographer, he has a long history working as a recording engineer, and is extremely passionate about all of the creative outlets he's been involved in. We talk about his beginnings growing up outside of Detroit, through his time in...