The Strange Brew - artist stories behind the greatest music ever recorded

Steve Berlin revisits Los Angeles during its most volatile creative period, the late 1970s and early 1980s, when rent was $170 a month and sewage regularly seeped into the Cathay de Grande, the basement club where Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs held their Monday night residency. Berlin recalls producing and playing on their newly reissued album Pigus Drinkus Maximus and joining Los Lobos after they’d spent years developing east of the LA River, completely off the west side scene’s radar. He also addresses the Graceland controversy head-on: Paul Simon’s failure to credit Los Lobos for writing the music to ‘All Around the World or The Myth of Fingerprints.’ Berlin also discusses his work with REM, producing Faith No More, and offers a moving tribute to Mavericks frontman Raul Malo.

Further information

Pigus Drunkus Maximus

Steve Berlin podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Steve Wynn – The Dream Syndicate, Matt Piucci – Rain Parade, John Cowsill and Vicki Peterson, Harold Bronson – founder of Rhino Records

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

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The post Gods Walking the Earth: Steve Berlin Remembers the LA Music Scene That Made Los Lobos and Top Jimmy appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Vox, lead vocalist of Chameleons, discusses the group’s successful reformation and their latest album Arctic Moon. The conversation explores the Chameleons’ origins in Manchester’s late 1970s post-punk scene, their breakthrough John Peel session, and challenging relationships with CBS Records and producer Steve Lillywhite. Vox reflects on their early years and the tensions that led to the band’s original dissolution. Throughout, the conversation highlights the Chameleons’ status as one of the most influential guitar bands of the 1980s, whose atmospheric sound has cemented their legacy as Manchester’s most underrated musical export.

Further information

chameleonsband.com

Chameleons podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: Steve Diggle – Buzzcocks, David Gedge – The Wedding Present, Peter Perrett – The Only Ones, Andy Gill – Gang of Four, Barry Adamson – Magazine

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Vox – Chameleons appeared first on The Strange Brew .

Damon Minchella, founding bassist and songwriter of Ocean Colour Scene, and longtime collaborator with Paul Weller and Richard Ashcroft, talks about his time in music. Damon reflects on a remarkable career spanning Britpop’s rise, creative battles with major labels, his friendship with Oasis, and performing with The Who for Live 8 and Paul McCartney for War Child. He also discusses his autobiography You’d Look Good on a Donkey, the realities behind Ocean Colour Scene’s success, and how a life-changing injury led him into academia while continuing to tour at the highest level.

Further information

Damon Minchella: You’d Look Good On A Donkey: Britpop, Basslines & Bad(Ish) Decisions

Podcasts also available: Steve Cradock, Stephen Street, Billy Bragg, Lynval Golding, Bruce Foxton

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post Damon Minchella – Ocean Colour Scene appeared first on The Strange Brew .

In 1968, a group of Luton apprentices started creating a rock opera. Chris Stokes and his band Genesis (not that Genesis) conceived a concept album with baroque piano arrangements and experimental passages, then packed it away and got on with their day jobs. For over 50 years, this album and other material spanning a decade, existed only on deteriorating tape and acetates. Chris recorded with various lineups from the mid-1960s including The Mantis Set, Genesis, and Sunday Painter, mostly at home on a Revox tape machine; self-financed, largely improvised, never properly released. Then Dimorphodons from Hand of Glory Records bought a battered Hohner keyboard on eBay for £10, heard a sample track, and discovered a treasure trove of lost British psychedelia. Chris and Dimorphodons share highlights from this incredible archive, with the bulk of these tracks heard in public for the first time.

Further information

handofglory.co.uk

A Story By The Genesis

The Genesis – podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1967, A Kaleidoscope Of Sounds Psychedelic & Freakbeat Masterpieces, Arthur Brown, Hawkwind’s Days of the Underground, Pete Brown – Cream/Jack Bruce

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google apps and all usual platforms

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post The Genesis That Time Forgot: Unearthed British Psychedelia appeared first on The Strange Brew .

James Warren joins us to talk through a life in songs, from the playful invention of Stackridge to the studio-bound success of The Korgis. James reflects on writing Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime, why its acoustic reworking finally restored a lost verse, and how choices around touring shaped the band’s fate. Along the way he discusses working with George Martin, later reformations, and highlights from recent Korgis releases.

Further information

thekorgis.com

James Warren podcast tracks

Podcasts also available: James Warren (2017), Chris Difford, Gordon Haskell, Steve Harley, Karl Wallinger

This podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Google apps and all usual platforms

If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi

The post James Warren – Stackridge, The Korgis appeared first on The Strange Brew .