Talk About the Passion

#48: Get The Lead Out (A Conversation With James Koury)

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 him on including a great story about showing up at Boston singer Brad Delp's house as a teenager, becoming friends with Brad Whitford's of Aerosmith's mother and some great touring stories. James is extremely passionate about music, and made the perfect guest. 

#47 Till The End (A Conversation With Jeff Morris)

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 takes a similar path (Although I don't think Kiss was mentioned once!) and he is a great story teller so his memories and thoughts on music are all worth hearing. This was a great episode to record and it was great catching up with an old friend. 

#46: It's Alive! (A Conversation With Brian & Guy About Live Records)

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 like Dave Brubeck and Sammy Davis Jr. This was a lot of fun to record and there will most likely be a volume two to this one 

#45: God Of Thunder (A Conversation With Chris Giguere)

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 music, classic rock music and everything in between. Chris made a great guest, he and I have a lot of the same ideas and opinions on music and life so this conversations is natural and sounds like I'm talking with an old friend, when in fact we had just met. 

#44: Get On The Mic (A Conversation About The Beastie Boys With Brian Smith)

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 a loose episode that meanders a tiny bit but mostly stays on course, just like their discography, as we discover here. Join two friends talking about one of their favorite bands. 

#43: Loose (A Conversation With Daniel Brockman)

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. Daniel has some unique and fascinating takes on music and I've always enjoyed talking to him about music. His writing has appeared in such places as Vanyaland, Spin and Rolling Stone. 

#42: Reaction Making Impact (A Conversation With Brian & Guy About Rush)

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 out there that a non fan won't appreciate the conversation and hopefully track the songs down themselves. This is the first round table episode with Brian and Guy and we look forward to doing many more like this as well as other subjects and formats. 

#41: Even In His Youth (A Conversation With Duane Bruce)

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 has some great stories about everyone from Stephen King to Nirvana who this episode is named after. Duane has a current radio show called American Debauchery and also authored a book called Hang the D.J. which talks about his time in radio.

#40: So Long Ago (A Conversation With Kevin Norton)

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 over. Kevin has never stopped and his passion for music make him a perfect guest for this podcast, his work in the labor movement is discussed as well and Kevin talks about how being involved in the hardcore scene has informed his career and work ethic. 

#39: Chemistry (A Conversation With Brian Smith and Guy Wetherbee)

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 Rush song) is so fitting. We talk about everything from Rush to Gorilla Biscuits to Asia to the B-52's and Krokus. As we talk about in this episode Brian and Guy will be appearing on some future episodes as well.