Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: You're listening to the Mistress of None.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Podcast with Aaron Harks.
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Mistress of None. This is Aaron Harks and my guest today is Jeff Smith. Jeff, how are you?
[00:00:18] Speaker B: I am awesome. How are you, Aaron?
[00:00:19] Speaker A: I am fantastic. It's so good to see you.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Great to see you.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: It was wonderful running into you. The timing was. Was perfect because I was looking for my next retro metro and there you were at the Blotto thing. I mean, who wasn't there?
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that was so awesome. Fantastic.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: That was fantastic.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Everything about it.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And I just was there and I looked up and you and I, we probably haven't seen each other in many years. And I was just like, I like zero in these days. I'm like, okay, this is what we're doing and you know, yeah, thanks.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: You reluctantly agreed and I appreciate that very much.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: I'm more behind the scenes guy like we talked about, but.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Yes, but that's okay because, you know, there. That has to. Somebody has to speak to that as well. And luckily you had somebody that was.
Was pushing you towards the right direction.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah, my wife.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: She also told me I don't need to be so self effacing and apologize all the time. And I said, erin's known me long enough. That's just who I am. Self deprecating.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Listen, we all do it.
Any art form has a hint of that. But I was glad that she reached right into your pocket and gave me the card because you have a really amazing event coming up.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that too.
For my record label and one of our bands, Trauma School Dropouts, they're playing with a pretty known punk band called the Queers and they're opening the show. And my wife and I actually designed a cool poster for it, which we made into a handbill. And we were handing them out at Blotto because we thought some of the crowd might be interested.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: That was a great place to hand them out again. Yeah. Self effacing because she had to.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Reach for it and give it to me. So you designed that flyer as well?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: That's a beautiful flyer.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Oh, thanks.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah, we're for you.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Sure. Anytime.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: See, I'm always completely out of order. I work backwards. Tell us more about your record label.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's where you want to start.
So this will kind of play into the Metroland thing too, if that's okay.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fine.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: I knew we were going to talk about Metroland, So my brother and I worked at Sundazed Music, a reissue label down in Koksaki.
We were living in Albany, seeing amazing bands at the clubs at the time, QE2, bogeys, wherever, both local and touring acts. And we're like, we were really interested in working with new bands, not just reissue music. So we started to do that and we realized the only way we might we could really make it happen is if we kind of took a hiatus from Sundays and dedicated ourselves to Cacophone Records, which is what we named the label. Full Time.
When you're in your 20s, leaving your full time job to do a record label sounds like a great idea, but you kind of run out of food and rent money pretty quickly.
Yeah, no. Who would have guessed? So we had to supplement our income, needless to say, I mean, Kagophone still to this day, just, it's a labor of love. It's never provided a paycheck for us or for the bands. I have to give them credit too and they stick with us anyway.
But.
So I have to give a shout out at this point to Charlene Short Sleeves because we needed some money. She gave me a bartending job at the Q. And my brother Sound, he ran sound at the QE2. So we had some money at night coming in, but it really wasn't enough. And one night I run into Doreen Walsh from Metroland. And Doreen was the. I'm not going to get the titles right. John Brocky was the art director and Doreen was kind of the art supervisor, manager, really, the head of the art department.
And she said, I'm leaving Metroland to move to New York City. And I told Steve, Steven Leon, you're the one he's got to hire. You have the skills and you can do great looking stuff for Metroland. And he needs to hire you. And I didn't even put in a resume. I didn't even know about this until she told me. But I think two days later I was in Steve's office with Doreen and Nikki. Nicole Lasher, who was moving into Doreen's position as a supervisor and interviewing me. And I had the job like a day later. And I started in the art department in Metroland.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So what was the position, though?
[00:04:36] Speaker B: I was just graphic designer. I took Nikki's, Nikki moved up and I took her old position. Okay.
Anyway, so now we're already in the Metroland thing, but it's a good segue.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: I couldn't have planned it better.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it allowed me and my brother to keep doing Cacophone. We had a lot of Successes there. We did. Eventually I said hiatus because we both ended up back at Sundays for another good long stint of time there. I mean, it was an awesome job. And we worked with some of the coolest bands and music we ever could have dreamed of being. People that love kind of retro, you know, 60s, 50s, 60s, 70s music at the time. And that makes me feel old because I think retro now is probably like the early aughts, right? So anyway. But we love working with the music there. Bob Irwin, they're just taught us so much. It was great.
So I don't know, I'm talking away, but Metroland, I guess going back to that just was. It couldn't have been a better job. Everyone there, the office, the people I worked with, we were just four people in the art department at the time.
I would spend my time doing ads and updating ads. And then the editorial would start to come in and we do the layout and drop in the photos and the captions and those would go back to the editorial department for proofing. And this is kind of crazy. At the time I was thinking about this on the way here.
It should be. You gave me the opportunity to promote Cacophone more. And I'm talking about.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: We'll get back to it. It's all right.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: Anyway, I would. They still did mechanicals old school, so there PDFs were around and as well as ways to output films for printing directly from a computer from like Quark Express at the time.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Explain to the common folk what mechanicals are.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: So this is the old way of doing it. You take basically a poster board and you paste up all the ads and all the articles exactly like you want them to look on the page.
Luckily, I thought it'd be fun. So I'd taken a course in mechanical layouts in school and I kind of. It definitely helped at Metroland. I never thought I'd use it because computers were around. But they're printing at the Berkshire Eagle over in Pittsfield. And we would lay everything out on these poster boards, like I said, left and right hand pages exactly like it would end up in the paper.
And we would then take all those mechanicals in a portfolio, big portfolio, and run them over to Pittsfield every. Not Wednesday, because the paper came out every Wednesday night. And so each one of us would do like once a month the run to Pittsfield. And the Berkshire Eagle guys were pros at just shooting the mechanical layouts and turning them into films. And then we go back for a press check, which I thought was super cool, seeing all the big presses operating at the Eagle, and once the press check was fined, head home, and there'd be a Metroland on the stands the next day.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: So you know what? I've gotten to watch them get printed, and it really is pretty amazing, especially the first one. I was, like, weeping because I had put, like, I had been up for three weeks straight at that point to get that first one out. See, I started the first print one and never told my team that I wanted to print. I was already doing it. And they were like, okay. And about halfway through, I go, wait, did I ask any of you guys about this? And they were like, nope. And I was like, cool. All right. They were like, we were just following you, and next thing you know, like, we're printing. And it was just a really emotional to watch it come out and. And see how beautiful it came out. And the. The whole process is fun to. To witness. I still. We're on. This will be our seventh issue, and I'm still the first one to pick them up. Like, I don't work that day. Well, I don't go anywhere that day because I, I. There was one day where I was supposed to be in the studio, and at the last minute, I go, I'm gonna be late. I can't let somebody else pick this up first. Like, it's just. It's my baby now. Like, you know? But, yeah, being part of that is definitely very special. But I had Joe put rock in a couple of weeks ago, and when he says cut and paste, he said they used, like, wax.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Like, yeah, there was a waxer. I didn't get into the whole. But, yeah, exactly. Yeah, he remembers that, too. That's great.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah, he was like. He would walk in, and it would smell like wax because they're, like, literally cutting and pasting.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, they used wax instead of, like, rubber cement because it was just easier to pick back up and move things when you needed to, which you did. And you'd have to use a, Like, a T square, basically a straight edge to make sure everything was lined up so people. You wouldn't have a crooked ad or a crooked copy, which would be bad. So you would line everything up with, like, a T square, and. Yeah, that was a long time ago.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Do you use InDesign now?
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Yes. I've moved from Quark to InDesign. I don't even know if Quark's still around, but, yeah, but do you have.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Moments where you're using that where you, like, hearken back to the days where you were literally Cutting and pasting with the T square.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Oh yeah, I think about that and I think just the experience at Metroland. And I was the art director for Sunday's music too, and graphic designer there and for Cacophone all around. So I'm in those programs all the time. And I think about Metro, but I learned so much about just working at a paper and how the paper lays out and what I learned about making things look good in that kind of layout was just useful to this day for sure.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Do you remember what years you were there?
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I want to say. So we left Sundays right around. It was like the end of 96, going into 97 and I was there a good three years. I want to say I didn't. Like I said, I took some time working on Cacophone and then ran into Doreen and I left to go back to Sunday's right at I want to say 2001.
So like a solid three, maybe a little more years.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, that was. Right. I moved. I mean, I went to college in North Carolina in 96, but I spent my summers in Albany. So that was when I first started to become acquainted with the scene. I was like a self taught guitar player. I actually played a classical acoustic, not knowing that you weren't supposed to strum it. That's how self taught I was.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: It's great though.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: It wasn't until like two years in that I took it to a place actually on Lark Street. Whatever. The guitar shop was on Lark Street.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Remember the name of it?
[00:11:20] Speaker B: I think it was Lark Street Guitar.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: I think so. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Buzzy and John Whipple and.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And I brought it in and he like slid something underneath the bridge and showed me that it was coming undone. And I've like burst into tears. I'm like, I'm gonna need a new guitar. Because he was like. He looked at. I go, is it worth getting fixed? And he goes, yeah, no, like, no. Like it was a really cheap guitar, but it was my first one. And he goes, wait. He goes, are you strumming this? And I was like, yeah, like how else do you. And he goes, oh, no, honey, this is for. And I was so like embarrassed and mortified and whatever. So then I learned steel string, which was like learning all over again.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Yeah, the.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: You know what they called calluses on my fingers? Um, but so I was like kind of slow to. Cause I knew I had enough self awareness to know that I wasn't great at it yet. I wanted to be But I didn't like completely ingratiate myself into the community right away. I like, you know, dipped in every once in a while to see what was going on. And it wasn't until right around actually like 2001 that I really started going like ham about it and meeting people. So that was a really interesting time. It was a really great time for. Yeah, for the area for music and the early Audis and. Yeah, it was a wonderful time.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that whole period.
I lived in New York City for a few years after college, moved back up here closer to the mid-90s to go to work for Sundays and live.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Now what Sundays?
[00:12:55] Speaker B: They are a. It's Sundays if I'm not saying it. D A Z E D they are a reissue record label that Bob Irwin started in Cooksockie, New York.
And if you've heard of Rhino Records, which most people have, he had the idea that Rhino Records kept growing bigger and bigger, only interested in artists and albums that could sell more and more. So to move in the space they were leaving behind and work with lesser known artists and albums that wouldn't maybe sell quite as much. And Rhinon wasn't interested in. So it was a really good business model. He did great with it. He has now sold it to a distributed distributor in North Carolina. It's no longer based in Koksaki and he's retired I believe, from what I know. But anyway, they. They had quite a reputation, but it was pretty obscure stuff and. And some big names too.
Bob had a freelance contract with Sony Legacy and so he also did a lot there, made a lot of connections and it really help my brother and I as well because we would go in and help with the freelance work and meet a lot of people around Sony and just there's a ton of cool stories that would probably take too long for this particular podcast. But if you ever want to talk about any of that stuff, stories there. Yeah, whenever you want.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's great. So tell me a little bit more about. About Cacophone Records.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: So we started in, our first record came out actually I want to say 95 even, which was just a 7 inch by some friends because we're like, who's gonna wanna put out a record with us? And then we started to talk to other bands. The first full length was Trauma School Dropouts who are still around, who are playing the show with the Queers. I think that amazes me and you can probably appreciate this more than anything is all the bands we worked with back then that are still around so that includes Mike Trash and the Erotics, the Luster Kings, Boy. And then our original initial sort of concept for the label was to definitely work with local music, but to try to boost the local scene by being more than just a local label. So we had bands from New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh on the label as well.
Probably the. Well, I'll tell you a couple. So the biggest successes we had one was a band called the Turbo acs, who still mostly tour in Europe. And Kevin Cole from the Turbos is one of my favorite people. He's awesome. People from the punk crowd around here even, really, the Turbo acs have a name in that market, I guess. And we put out an album by them and we started to work on a second album with them. And Dexter from the Offspring was starting his own label called Nitro Records. And he really loved them and he wanted to pick up the record. So we kind of moved them on to Nitro. And that was sort of our goal was just whatever is best for the artist. We're not worried about the money, which is not what, you know, I don't know. Not what a lot of people think, unfortunately. Well, yeah, and unfortunately the case, which is whatever. But, yes. No, not what a lot of people think of when they think of record labels. But probably the biggest success we had is we were blown away by Super 400. When we first saw them, they were definitely out of the kind of the punk, garage, rockabilly scene. Anyone that knows who Super 400 knows that. But we loved him and we said, we want to work with you guys.
So we signed a contract with them.
They played New Year's Eve at the Armory, opening for the Figs. And the Figs manager at the time, Brad Morrison, saw him, he also fell in love with them. So he agreed to produce the record because we didn't really, again, know producers in that field and stuff. And so we recorded the record with them down in the studio in New Jersey, that I'm not going to remember the name that Brad got us a deal at Super Professional Studio down there. And we recorded the first album. And then with Brad's help and because they're so awesome, we helped move them onto Island Records.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: So we helped get them the island deal. Unfortunately, like everything, Brad said this, and it's very true. He said major labels are very good at taking someone that has a lot going on and running with it. But bands that don't already have much going on, they're kind of lost. And we ran into that issue. I mean, super 400 was. Was amazing. So I don't want that to come out the wrong way. But they hadn't really toured. They hadn't really gotten around the area.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: They actually brought that up. I interviewed them back in October and they. They talked all about that. So you're not saying anything out of line. They didn't have the best experience with. With Island Records.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: With island, yeah.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: It seemed good, but it just didn't manifest the way they had hoped.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: And island didn't give them the attention they should. And I don't know if they brought this up, but island, right after the record came out and we're seriously talking like a week or two, put out a press release that. Were they part of Universal Music Group? I think Universal said, okay, we're reconfiguring our labels. And Island Music, that's gonna be our urban music label. And Super 400 is not like, I love urban music, great, but they are not urban music either. So that just was another nail in the coffin. Like, where is this gonna go?
[00:18:12] Speaker A: I don't think they said exactly what the change was. So you're filling in that gap for me. But that was definitely an intricate or an integral part of their story where it was like. And then just.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And that just didn't work out. And they've had some great experiences since then. And we continue. They haven't done anything else on cacophone since then. But they do appear on a maybe hard to find CD compilation we did. I think it's the only place you can find a song Kenny wrote that is fantastic. It's on that compilation. We recorded that locally and island was fine with that.
It's a really great song.
And it's called I Wonder Trying to remember the name. It's been a while since I listened to it. And then they.
And then we've continued to work with them when they put out their own stuff. So I have helped them with some of their artwork and stuff.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Like the live album that came out.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: I was just gonna ask you about that.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yeah. A young woman whose name, who is a friend of Laurie's wanted to do an album cover. And Laurie. So awesome. She said, sure, do this album cover. So she did that. It's a cool cover. But she didn't really know how to set it up for print. And so I just kind of took what she did. I set it up for print and I think I did some of the. The work on like the labels and stuff like that too with Laurie. So I just. I mean, I don't care. Very easy going about that. I was going to say her artwork. I'm not taking credit for it, but I just.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: It's nice that you. Your ego because some other people be like, I especially some graphic artists, and you have to respect what they say. But it's like, you know, I'll do all of it or none of it. It's like that. Come on.
[00:19:45] Speaker B: No, I'm not. Yeah. Madison was her name. Right?
[00:19:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, so she did a beautiful job and Lori was very complimentary of working with her.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: And I missed. I'm sad to say I missed the launch for the album and your launch for Metroland at the hangar because I was out of town.
My wife and I, we have two sons in college and we planned to visit one of them in college. So I just. Sorry. And we planned it in advance.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Wow. No, don't be sorry. I'm sorry that you have two kids in college.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
I don't know how I'm still putting out records, but I'm going to do it till the.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's okay that you missed the party. It was a lot of fun. And it was funny because I. I mentioned to them the idea of sharing, you know, the. The launch. And I just kind of said it, like, out of the side of my face in case they were like, no, this is like. And Lori loved the idea. And I was like. Because that's Lori.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
[00:20:37] Speaker A: You know, But I also.
I know how nice she is, and I didn't want her to be like, you know, okay, well, like I did. I don't ever want anybody to just do it because they think I'll feel bad. Like, I am not made of glass. I don't want you to do something that you don't want to do. I might be disappointed, but I'll get over it. I'd rather be disappointed than have you do something that you weren't interested in. And she loved the idea and loved the synergy of it, and it was a great night. It really was.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm so sorry I missed it.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: I think we're. We're going to have. It's the beginning of. Of many other events, my big idea. And I mean, I have a thousand a day, but I would like to try and bring, like, a bigger music type festival that. That has everybody, like, all, as my friend Chet calls it, the Burrows. Everybody involved. But I said this even before I decided to get the name Metroland to do this. I started talking to, like, you know, like, Broder and even like, Mike hotter and Like, a bunch of people from. From that heyday of, like, the early August and be like, we need to have a Metroland stage.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Of, like, all former Metroland staff or people that were around Lark street during that time. And I just could see. I like, envisioning the stage right at the corner of Madison and seeing these, like, old players come back and just.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, as long as Broderick gets. What is it? Five Alpha Beat down. Was that.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Listen, I've already told him he's got to get 5 Alpha beat down. I've been saying 5 Alpha beatdown reunion is first and foremost sense offenders because we got to get those jabronis together. And honestly, whatever other thing, I got.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Another one, which is maybe even pre. Before you were in Albany, he had a band, Rich Baldis, called the Explosives. They're one of my favorite bands that never recorded anything.
They Cacophone would have. Yeah. That was. There were actual fist fights involved. Not that I should probably say that.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Between Rich and John.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: I think between everyone in the band. Honestly, I won't. I won't put the point of finger anyone in particular.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: I bet Rich would own it, though.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: But so good. So. Yeah. So unbelievable. And Rich is just one of my favorite local songwriters and whatever.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Anyway, I love popping in to see him at the Apple Store.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: I always pretend that I'm gonna be like that white lady, Karen Meltdown, like, in that video. I was like, I'll go viral if you don't help me right now. I will go viral.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So we would have definitely worked with them, but the tension in the band, they didn't last long enough to do anything, really.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: But I love that band.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: I'm trying to think of what band Rich was in when they played at a place I worked in Troy. But they sang I'm not in Love by 10cc.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: It might have been the Day Jobs. Would have been.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, I love this. So we should quiz each other.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: But I remember being like, what the.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Yeah, day jobs were great.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Or he did that. Or, like, the Reading a Coolidge song.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Oh, I'm gonna space on that.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I can't remember now, but, like, what's funny is, like, with somebody like Rich and now. Now I'm like, I have to call him as soon as we get off this and get him on here. But, like, he would do something like that, and I would see him weeks later. I was like, oh, my God, that song. He was like, which one? Like, it didn't even matter to him. He just. You know, he Wasn't doing it to be like, a novelty or be like, you know, wow, look what I just did. He was just like, I just picked a song.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: So that's what made it even cooler. It's like, me, I'll do a song and I'll be like, look what I just did with that song. And he was like, no, I just picked the song.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:03] Speaker A: But, yeah, they were always a lot of whatever groups.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, they were great. I missed them.
And who. So if I can go on Cacophone, had the Vodka Sonics back in the day, which is also another pop band with Seth Powell.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: And I'm trying to think the bands from out of town. People wouldn't notice much. But we've continued to work with a lot of the same local bands. We have a release coming out in June that we're very excited about. It is a Hudson gentleman named Dimitri Wilde.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: And he moved. He played a gig in Hudson when he was living in Brooklyn and fell in love with Hudson and moved up to Hudson. And it's super awesome. It's kind of out there, Garage, blues, rock. Reminds me a little of some of those bands like the Record Company and stuff that are heavy blues. But then it's got this cramps element in it. It's got horns. The reason we met him is Justin from Blase Debris, local sax player.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: I love this, like, scroll.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Justin play sax on the record and it's amazing. And Justin said, I haven't heard the.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Name Blase Debris in a while.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: They're working on a new record that'll come out on Cacophone. When Duane just told me at the Blotto that it's being mixed by somebody new because he really was unhappy with the mix. But he's using the same tracks and remixing, so they'll have a new album sometime in the next year, I guess.
And anyway, Justin said to Dimitri, you should talk to Cacophone. They would love this stuff. And we get a lot of submissions and we weren't expecting much, I'll be honest. And my brother and I were like, wow, this is very cool. Really, really different. Really unique combination of all the stuff I kind of mentioned. Just straight rock and roll, blues, garage.
So we're excited about that. And he wants to get out there and tour, which is a big deal.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Is there a date set or, like, a release party?
[00:26:08] Speaker B: No fun. On the 27th, I believe. I'm still waiting for 27th of June. Yes. I'm still waiting for confirmation on that. He's also Playing a super cool gig my wife and I are going to go to up in Lake George. There is. It's not even a steampunk festival. I'm going to forget the name of it, but it combines, like, steampunk and Goth and Renaissance fair all in one festival. It's like, come as you are, Dress up. My wife has a big Renaissance fair. I always have to give her yags. It's not me, but I have to. I have to poke fun of her about. She used to perform at Renaissance fairs and stuff. And it's just. It seems like this super cool thing. It's. Oh, I wish I could remember the name of it. It's super cool.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: It's not Rock the Dock, right?
[00:26:50] Speaker B: No, it's at a farm up there just outside Lake George. It might come to me. It's like Wonder Fest or Wonderful.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Well, when you find out, let us know, because I would love to cover something like that.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: It sounds unbelievably cool. So we're going to go up there. He is like the headlining act on Saturday night at this festival.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Sounds very ambitious. There's a lot on that list.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: It's a lot. It's a lot. But. Well, yeah, we'll see. We'll see how they have. How the attendance is. I don't know if it's Wonder Place Alpha, maybe, something like that. I'll send. Anyway. So there's another release I have to talk about that we have coming that my brother and I have been working on for a year and a half. Probably closer to. It's going to be closer to two years right now, honestly. So this is sort of a dream of mine.
We. I've always wanted to put out a comp of the early punk and new wave scene on Lark street and in Albany. That kind of kicked off to me. All the great bands today just kept going from there. So bands like the 80s and the Verge and the Misfits. Albany had its own Misfits before Glenn Danzig, and it's probably. Well, someone will probably punch me for saying this, but better than Danzig or better than.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: No one's going to punch you.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well, there's some pretty hardcore Misfits fans out there.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: I don't think they're listening.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. And. Oh, man, so many bands that I'm gonna. It's hard to even list them. I feel bad even just listing three of them because there's so many. So I worked with Paul Rapp, who, you know, from Blata, and Paul helped draw up a Contract. So it's all official. It's not a bootleg. And I started diving into the research. Fear of Strangers is the big one that's gonna be on there.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: El Cash has helped me, like, just dig up, like, stuff that's been used, you know. He's so into this comp, is all I'll say. And the Fierce Strangers guys have all been great.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: And, girls, I'm impressed that Al's able to find things.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: Yes, Al's great. Al's so awesome. And he.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: He would laugh if I said that.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: If he would laugh. Yeah. No, I know. He's been so excited about this comp. And I've just. It's been an unbelievable experience. Speaking of the local community and scene. I've just had the best experience meeting people. I've had people who's like, 7 inches I've admired for years, sitting at my kitchen table talking about the old times.
I wanted to make it a really concise one LP compilation. We found so much good stuff. It's going to be two LPs, which scares me.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: So good.
We found the original master tapes by a band from Skidmore, two girls from Skidmore called Mechanical Servants. And you know Jim Romano probably as well, from Capital, of course, you know Jim from. That's how we met, actually, originally in the old days at Valentine's with Jim. And. So can I say that you were in a burlesque troupe?
[00:29:49] Speaker A: Yes, you can.
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Okay. I didn't know if you wanted that out there.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: No, it's fine. It's all out there.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Only saying and beautiful singing and performances.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: I did one reverse strip tease one time.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: I think I remember that.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: And then I did one where I. Because people, especially the lesbians, kept asking if I was going to strip. And so Mark said, she's finally going to do it. And the song played, and I had, like, 400 layers on, so I took off one.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: I remember this.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: That might have been, like, the start of, like, my comedy, I guess. I had, like, a robe on, and I had, like. And it took, like, six minutes to take it all off, and the song stopped. I was like. I tried and walked off stage.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: That's great. Those. Those shows were so much fun.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: They really were.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: They were great. So. So, Jim. Where was I going with. So Jim's band, Capital, is on the comp and. Oh, he, he. You know, I had a long conversation with him about, like, okay, what bands do I need on this? He's one of the places I started, along with Paul And Jim's like, there was this band, Mechanical Servants. I used to roadie for him when he was, like, 18. Maybe he. He would just carry stuff for people. And he said they were the coolest band because he's like, all these, you know, punk bands are walking in with amplifiers and guitars and drum sets. And these two girls from Skidmore just had synthesizers they'd hold over their shoulders and walk in, and he's like, they would blow everyone away. And it's. It's like, real early. Like, I don't believe how early they were creating music that nowadays sounds familiar, but for the 79, 80, when they were doing this stuff with synthesizers, it's super awesome.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really great.
[00:31:28] Speaker A: Oh, when you said, like, back, I didn't know you were going to go like, that far back.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Yeah. The oldest we found is from 1979. The oldest material, which I believe is Fear of Strangers. First single, Mechanical Servants are right on there. And then a band called the Dial Tones that are credited in a couple reviews as Albany's first punk band. With punk in quotes, I believe, even in, like, the Times Union, I think, wrote it up. It was a show at J.B. scott's, opening for the Ramones, I think. But they went on about how great the Dial Tones were. Sarah Ayers, I think, was an original member of the Dial Tones. She left before they recorded anything. But one of her best friends, Jennifer Anderson. And I hope I'm getting these names right, Sarah. No, Anderson was a lead singer. And we have an unreleased song called S.O.S. unbelievable punk song. And S.O.S stands for suicide on Stage, which is pretty punk rock.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: And it's so good, no one's heard it in years. We have a ton of unreleased stuff on this with all these cool bands. Mike X writing liner notes. We're getting very close. I'm nudging. I got to get my brother to listen to this, so he'll feel a little shame. He needs to finish the mastering. It's a lot to master. In defense, we have stuff from cassette tapes, stuff from original master tapes from the two local studios, mainly Arabellum and mce, that we've gotten transferred. And we have some that people had already transferred to digital themselves, like Sarah, who's great about that stuff. But we. It's all over the place. So for him mastering it, and luckily his Sunday's experience, because that's what he did, he would take do compilations from all over the place, or even a group compilation that the group recorded all over the place. So he has an ear for that. He's the best at it. But it's a lot of work and we both have families and day jobs, so he's got to finish that. My wife and I are working on the artwork and Mike's written some amazing notes. And I'm going to get a couple other contributions.
Yeah, it's going to be cool and it's going to come out this year. I'm bound and determined. I wanted it by the end of last year, so it's got to come out by this fall.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: And there's a party right when this is coming out.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: I got to plan that. Al Cash wants to drum at a party.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Of course he does. So he'll be the drummer, though. Was that not for a specific event?
[00:33:48] Speaker B: That was for the Trauma School Queer show at Empire Underground. So those bands are still around. Al wants to play. I'd love to make it happen. I have two ideas. I'd love to do the actual people playing their songs.
A lot of them haven't played in years, so I don't know, we'd have to see. But like, Fear of Strangers would do a reunion now and then. That would be amazing.
That'd be so great.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: You have to be there, so you need to.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: I don't know if you know about this. I don't know if Blotto would be up to kind of getting on stage for one song. What Blotto song are we using?
The B side, which I talked about in the documentary. Yeah. Which seems like the perfect choice. It's a great song and it kind of shows. We didn't want to use Life because it's everybody.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Yeah, everybody.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: So we're using the B side by them. The other idea I have is one of my favorite shows at Valentine's, and now it's moved to no Fun is the punk rock cover show. So I'd love to get younger bands to just pick their favorite song from the comp and cover them like over at no Fun.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: I love that idea.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So I think it'd be awesome. So I just gotta get it off to press because, you know, pressing vinyl nowadays is a three or three month ordeal, if you're lucky. And if I can get it off to press, then I'm gonna worry about planning some release parties.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: Stuff. Yeah. You.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: You must let us know. We need to be there.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Awesome.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: I mean, that's. Yeah, yeah. We have to be there. That sounds so exciting. And if I get to see Al Cash drum again, I'll be very happy.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Yeah. He brings it up often when I talk to him, so.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he and I were in a blues band together for a while, so we got to go to Memphis together back in 2005 for the BL Blues Northeast Blues thing. We.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: We won the local thing, so we went to the International Blues Festival.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: And Mike X did this year.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: When I heard that, I was like, yeah. He was like, what do I need to know? Yeah, have some good barbecue and no expectations because. Well, we walked in this one auditorium and this woman was singing, and I turned around, I looked at the guys, I was like, I'll see you at the airport. Yeah, I'm like this, like, nope, we are out of our league here. You know, the solo thing might be.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: A little bit different, but Memphis is crazy. Love Memphis. I go again. Whole other podcast, if you're interested. I did spring break years ago with Graham and Ian from Rocky Velvet, and my brother and I, we went their senior year spring break because my brother and I are older. We took vacation and we went to Memphis and we had the most amazing time. We spent a week there. It was fantastic. But to your point, we just went to an open mic night to go have a couple beers, and there was like, a jam band, Memphis style. And, you know, not necessarily our thing, jam bands, any of us, sorry to say, but that's the truth. And they were doing, like, Booker t. And the MG's Jam Songs. And Graham, who. You know, Graham is like musician par excellence and purist. He's like, oh, my God, these guys. These guys just get together once a week to jam and they're. They are amazing. This is incredible.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: So, well, my experience with. I. I think I got the yips for the contest because, like, I just. I lost my voice.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: I. I, like, it was just this weird thing, and I felt completely fine. So. I know it was, like, mental. I think it was just a lot of pressure. I mean, I was in my mid-20s at the time with these, like, you know, old men in their blues band and.
Because the day after the contest and no. No local band has ever made it past the first round down there. So, again, I wasn't going down there thinking I was going to be the one that want it, but I'm still proud that we went. I'm glad that we did it. I still did much better than I thought I did. And then the next day, I felt better. So we went to this blues gym and I got up and I. Of course, my voice is back, and I nailed It. And I, I did really well. And my favorite part about that was I, I felt really good that I had been able to at least once on Beale street. And this woman comes running up to me, and I just, I, I, you know, she looked like a deer. She just came bouncing up to me and she goes, your fly is down.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Well, and I was like, all right, now I'm going to the airport.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: But also, the night that we checked in, we actually had to. There was a shooting outside of the hotel.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: And we had to lay on the floor of the lobby until everything was cleared up.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: And I was like, yeah, Memphis is that. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at the time across from Jefferson Davis Park. And we were like, really? There's still a Jefferson Davis Park? And then we, we rode the bus around because we didn't want to rent a car at first. And. Yeah, the, it's just such a segregated city, I guess, as I'll say at the time. Yeah, it was, we were kind of, it was a little sad or whatever, but hanging out on Beale street was amazing.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:42] Speaker B: And I have to. We got to go to Jerry Lee Lewis's house. We did rent a car because we found out you could go and book a private tour of Jerry Lee Lewis's house. It was given by his brother in law, not by him. He was hiding. But it was just amazing. And we also got a tour of Elvis's first house. Not Graceland.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: Oh, not Graceland.
[00:39:02] Speaker B: We went to Graceland, of course, but he had a house.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Graham had to have dragged you guys.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, of course. By the end of Graceland, my brother Kip, Graham and Ian were in tears at Elvis's grave. And I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I was like, what are you guys crying? The guy died.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Nerds.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know, but they were honest, genuine tears.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: I know. This is the same year that those guys were born.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much.
But Elvis had made the promise to his parents in the tenements, as soon as I can afford it, I'm gonna buy you a house. And he bought another house before Graceland. He actually ended up buying Graceland because of the fence and stuff, because the first house was just in a regular neighborhood and there were people running up to the windows and stuff all the time. But we met the guy that owned it, and he took us on a tour, and it was very much left alone. And at the time, Life magazine followed Elvis around everywhere. And he actually had pictures from Life in all the rooms of like, that life photographed Elvis in these rooms. It was really incredible and crazy and disgusting story, which I might as well tell because I told you I'll embarrass myself.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Let's do it.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Anyway, so he's telling us a story. He's like, Elvis put in this rec room as an addition so he could play pool with his buddies. And he invite him over here, and he played pool in the rec room. And then he put a bathroom on here so he didn't have to bother his parents because they needed an extra bathroom. So he put in this bathroom, and he's like, okay, tour's over. And he was driving us around. He drew. He drove us there. And he said, before we go, does anyone need to use the bathroom? And Kip and Graham were like, no, we're fine. And Ian and I looked at each other like, that's Elvis toilet. We're. We don't have to go either, but I'm gonna go sit on Elvis's toilet.
Come on.
So he lost that opportunity, but Ian and I both. Yeah, we. We went into Elvis's bathroom and meditated on the toilet.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm gonna have to have a talk with Graham. I'm actually disappointed that he didn't use Elvis's toilet.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: But, yeah, that's not as disgusting as you think it is. I think that's a fun story.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: It's. Yeah.
[00:41:01] Speaker A: I mean, you're. You're being very discreet about it. You're not saying, you know, the consistency once you were in there.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: I was very polite about using the bathroom.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: So, yeah, I sat to pee. But, you know, you have to get the full experience.
[00:41:14] Speaker B: Yes. You have to sit because it was Elvis's toilet. Sure.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Well, this has been amazing. On that note, this has been amazing. Tell us when the Empire Live show is again.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Oh, gee. It's coming up in May on a Wednesday night, I believe. The 17th. I'm sorry. I have so much information. Nope, that's okay. Wednesday, May 17th, with the queers, Empire Underground.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Empire Underground. Okay.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: But, yeah, we'd love people to show up. They're trying to have a good showing there. Cause they'd love to get other gigs opening and whatever.
And it's gonna be a ton of fun, so that's great. And Demetri Wilde, release party, June 26th. I might have said 27th, because I think it's a Thursday now. On the 26th, there's supposed to be. All I know is a cool garage band from Brooklyn playing with Dimitri. That'll be a lot of fun. Wonder Place Elf, I think is the other gig he's playing soon. And, yeah, watch out for the comp. Sometime this fall.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Okay. And where can people find more information about this?
[00:42:12] Speaker B: So cacophone.com is our website.
Our most recent releases are there.
I haven't done a good job.
[00:42:20] Speaker A: C, A, C, A. Phone.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yes. Sorry, I should spell it. It's C, A, C, O, P, H, O, N, E. It's cacophony, but we change the Y to an E in honor of Gramophone Parlophone. All those old labels.
[00:42:32] Speaker A: So C, A, C, O. Phone.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Yeah, phone. And our newest releases are there. I don't have a lot of our legacy releases up. We also put everything up on bandcamp. So cacophone.bandcamp.com or ritzcarlton. Oh, we have a Ritz.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Oh, I'm not going to Ritz Carlton.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: We have a Ritz Carlton release.
Do you have one more minute?
[00:42:52] Speaker A: I do have one more minute. Especially if it's for Ritz.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: Yeah, for Ritz. So Ritz, one of our best friends. He and superstars on our label. I mean, he's such a star. We're lucky to have him.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: If he doesn't do some duet album with me soon.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: Oh, okay. We're in for a while.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: I need to find my own alter ego.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: To get on stage with Ritz. But I think it would be epic.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: I would love that. That would be. Oh, that'd be epic. I just.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: I want to pretend to be drunk and slap the shit out of him.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Oh, fantastic. He would love it.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: Right?
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Perfect. Yes.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Thank you. Go on.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: So he does the jingles, which people might have heard on WEQX for Indian Ladder Farms. If you ever listen to eqx, they will advertise their different events. Pickle Fest, Farming Man, Music Festival, Maple Fest, whatever. So he's done these jingles over the last couple years, and we've heard from the Weqx DJs that they actually get requests. People will call up and say, can you play that Pickle Fest song? And they'll be like, that's a paid ad. We can't just play it anytime we want. They're paying. Indian Ladder Farms is paying for those ads. So we got this great idea. We asked Indian Ladder Farms, who were also very.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: Wait, are you sure it's not Ritz calling EQX and asking them to play it could be.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: Or getting his daughters to call so it doesn't sound like him. Hey, daughters, would you call?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: I see him getting people to do that.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: I didn't even think of that. That's great. So. And we know the people at EQ, some of the DJs there who are great. And so we just asked permission. Can we put out. He made the joke on the air once that Jeff Mourad said, well, you should put these out. And Ritz is like, I am a cassette. I'm putting them out on cassette. One cassette. One cassette. And everyone's gonna have to share it. And I said, ritz, let's actually do it on cassette. So we have a cassette only release of all the Indian Ladder Farmers jingles. We should have the cassette in a week or so. And we gotta plan there'll be some sort of release event at Indian Ladder Farms. We don't have it planned yet because we're a little behind on that. I want the scoop look for the release. And it's all just jinkals. It's nothing.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: But I can cry right now. I'm so excited about that.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: It's pretty amazing. And my wife and I did the artwork. It's fantastic.
We had a picture at Indian Ladder Farms of Ritz sitting on a tractor and my wife looked at it and said, the tractor's gotta be gold. So we made it a gold tractor.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: And does he still have the light blue suit?
[00:45:12] Speaker B: Does he change his suit at all? Well, I don't know. For lie, that suit was pretty old and nasty.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Well, that's why I like it.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: He is wearing it on the tractor.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: And he probably still has it. He's got to wear it for the least part. Good point. He is wearing it on the COVID So it's cassette only. And the songs, they're like ear worms, I guess is the right word. We listen to it at home when we're, you know, I'm listening to the masters my brother did and everything. And my wife and I are like walking around singing Farming man and other, you know, songs about apples.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: I love this so much.
[00:45:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, yeah.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: The dates for the. The underground shows, the Empire Underground, those are on your website.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
They.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Yeah, let's get them up there before this airs and maybe. Well, I will, just so that people can find them. But I want to be able to.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: We'll put them on the homepage.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you're going to give me the scoop for the Ritz show anyway.
[00:46:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: So we'll make sure that everybody has the news for that because I. I'm not going to miss that show. I've missed too many Ritz shows in my lifetime because of my own work. And now I don't have that excuse anymore. I mean, I'm busier than ever, but not at night. Okay, So I have to go see a Ritz.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: You should. It's going to be a blast. And the people at Indian Letter Farms love them. They're so much fun.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: They're wonderful people out there, too. Yeah. It's always a great time.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Jeff, thank you so much.
[00:46:33] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: And I'm gonna post all the information so you can follow more about Cacophone Records, more about Ritz Carlton, more about this compilation, which. I can't wait for this to come out. That sounds really unbelievable. There's so much good stuff, so much fun history, so much like little fun gossip. I'm gonna tell each of these people that we brought up to make sure they listen for their shout out.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: But we covered a lot today.
[00:46:57] Speaker B: Yeah, we did. Thank you for giving me the time and the opportunity.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, no, it was a great time. Thank you for coming in and, yeah, follow along, get you some more information about those shows and those releases. And this has been the Mistress of None. We will see you soon. Bye.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: You're listening to the Mistress of None podcast with Aaron Harks.
