Center Stage: An Abandoned Albums Podcast

Episode 310 - Matt Mahaffey of sElf - Breakfast with Girls

Geoff Calhoun joins Keith as they talk with Matt Mahaffey, the frontman and visionary behind the band sElf... and so much more. Oh, trust us, you know Matt's work. 
Matt Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, and started writing songs and playing the drums at age 4. He would often perform with his brother, Mike Mahaffey when they were growing up. 
By age eleven, he played drums at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. In the mid-nineties, he moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and attended MTSU. He lived and worked for ten years in Murfreesboro, where he co-founded Spongebath Records and formed the band sElf in 1994. 
In the early 2000s, Mahaffey relocated to Los Angeles. 
Matt has performed with and produced artists like Pink, Beck, Liz Phair, Tenacious D, Snoop Dogg, Beyoncé, Keith Urban, and on and on and on. He has also worked with various filmmakers, including Ivan Reitman, Michael Mann, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Andrew Adamson, & Hans Zimmer (for film score). 
He's also written jingles and composed music for Pedigree, Jumbone, Medicare, and Lexus. His music has been featured on numerous shows, including CSI: Miami, DanceLife, Entourage, MTV, E! Entertainment, Dirty Sexy Money, Weeds, and 60 Minutes.
You get the idea. He's done a lot.
LINKS
Matt Mahaffey
Matt’s TED Talk
John Mullaney on Murfreesboro
The Dead Deads
The Gherms
They Might Be Giants
Kane Churko
Shrek
Blackfish Band
Bizzare States Podcast
Letterkenny
 

BONUS - Abandoned Albums 45 rpm - Timmy Williams from WKUK

Too busy for the full episode? We got you. 
 

Episode 309 - Bill Hicks - In his own words (mostly).

Bill HIcks was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—was controversial and often steeped in dark comedy.
At the age of 16, while still in high school, Hicks began performing at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas. During the 1980s, he toured the U.S. extensively and made a number of high-profile television appearances, but it was in the UK that he amassed a significant fan base, filling large venues during his 1991 tour. He also achieved some recognition as a guitarist and songwriter.
Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994, at the age of 32. In subsequent years, his work gained significant acclaim in creative circles—particularly after a series of posthumous album releases—and he developed a substantial cult following. 
In keeping with the way his career unfolded, in 2007, he was No. 6 on Channel 4's (UK)  list of the "100 Greatest Stand-Up Comics", and rose to No. 4 on the 2010 list. 
Here in the US, in 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 13 on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
LINKS
Bill Hicks Website
LBJ Great Society
American: The Bill Hicks Story - the full documentary
Why did David Letterman cut Bill Hicks 
New Yorker Article by John Lahr
All Clips of Bill Hicks on Letterman (including Mary Hicks)
The Great Society Speech
It’s Just A Ride
Love and Fear
Bill Hicks on Religion
Bill Hicks Interview from 1988
Bill Goes Off on a Heckler

Episode 308 - Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over

Buffalo Tom is an American alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis.
Released on March 10, 1992, Let Me Come Over is the band's third album. Take your Xanax  Gen X’ers; that makes the album 30 years old. We're fairly certain some of the concert t-shirts around the office are even older... but they've been washed
The album's peculiar cover art is taken from an issue of National Geographic and shows an Aboriginal Australian stockman.
LINKS:
Face Cluture
Face Culture 2
Radio BDC 
120 Minutes from 1992
Bill J Retrospceives Interview
Culture Codes: Charting the Rise of Boston’s Hardcore Punk Scene - quote from Filmmaker/Musician Derek Stone 
Abandoned Albums episode 106 - Go! Dog! Go! - Writer/Musician Eric Beetner
Bill J on De Laatste Show
Magnet Magazine - The Making of Let Me Come Over
Sit and Spin
Boston Herald with Jed Gottlieb
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on The Rolling Stones
Face Culture Interview with Bill J 
Yahoo Finance
Artist Interviews & Performances
 

Episode 307 - Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

WARNING: This episode mentions alcohol abuse, depression, and self-harm.
This album is a long-time favorite around the offices. The Holy Bible (The Manic Street Preacher's third album, not necessarily the book) is caustic, relentless, and at times, verbally claustrophobic... and as it approaches 30 years of age, it's still one of music's most potent.
In the early nineties, rising above the noise of the scene from Manchester and the budding dominance of Brit-Pop, was no easy task. These four childhood friends from Wales found a way. 
Ripping pages from The Clash, Guns-n-Roses, and even Public Enemy, the band blazed new territory with their unique sound and lyrics that sometimes begged you to have a dictionary handy - (this was pre-internet).
You either know the story of Manics rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards, or you don't. 
On this episode, we tell the story of the band's seminal third album, The Holy Bible. Well, we don't; we let the band tell it in their own words.
Interview Links, etc.:
Planet Rock
Richey Edwards Last Interview
Trash Theory Documentary
PMRC
The Filthy 15
Evidence Locker Podcast
20/20 Sound
The Making of Radio Interview 2012
BBC1 News Report Feb 1, 1996
Itv Report on Missing Persons
NYTimes Retro Review on PMRC
Rock and Roll True Stories
BBC From There to Here

Episode 306 - Richie Weeks and Jerome Derradji

After reading a profile of Richie Weeks in The New York Times, we thought: "if ever there was an artist that should be on the pod, it's this guy." 
In the spirit of transparency, Keith is a rock-n-roll guy, so dance music/disco isn't his jam. But he couldn't help but bop up and down and smile while listening to Richie's music.
We're confident his music will have the same impact on you. 
Richie's story is not atypical to the music business - talent, exploitation, and redemption. The first two are much too familiar. The third is more elusive. 
Past Due Records majordomo and DJ/producer Jerome Derradji and Richie stopped by to talk about their first release together. Richie Weeks, The Love Magician Archives - Disco - New York City 1978-79 vol. 1. 
They shared with Keith the rest of the story that The New York Times article didn't tell. 
After the usual battle with a record label, Richie and Jerome are lining up a release schedule re-packaging Weeks' entire catalog. And they're planning the release of new music. And maybe even a tour.
Did we forget to mention that he was a full-time US Postal Worker at the height of his musical career? 
In this episode, we tell the complete Richie Weeks story... so far.
LINKS
Richie Weeks on Spotify
Richie Weeks on Soundcloud
Qmax LLC on Soundcloud
Still Music/Past Due Records
NY Times Article
Variety Magazine - Article on BMG’s Discriminatory Contract Terms for Black Artists’
The Conversation - Article on Denying Black Musicians Their Royalties
Rolling Stone - BMG Finds Disparity in Black Artists' Contracts
Patrick Adams
Salsoul Records
Prelude Records
Kool & the Gang
Kashif
 

Episode 305 - Chris Canterbury

Keith manning the keyboard here - On this episode of Abandoned Albums I sat down with singer/songwriter Chris Canterbury stopped by to chat about Quaalude Lullabies. This album is the first album in a very long time that made me stop and listen to the lyrics. There was a time when that would’ve been standard practice listening to new music, but now? Well, you know…life. 
Chris Canterbury is one of those rare singer/songwriters, his songs are straight-ahead and hit you where it matters most - the head and the heart. The nine songs on this new record are the type of songs that build careers and become legendary. If you're not identifying with one of the characters he’s singing about, then you know someone who will.
Given the title, Quaalude Lullabies, you go into it with an understanding that these songs will be a bit on the sad side. In more simple terms, as Chris points out, “the album is a collection of downers.” That said, these characters may be sad, and lonely, and they’re definitely damaged, but they’re not tragic. 
Achieving that kind of symbiosis is no easy task, and on Quaalude Lullabies, Chris Canterbury does.
 
LINKS
Chris Canterbury website
American Songwriter article
Will Kimbrough
Bill HIcks Arizona Bay
Denis Leary No Cure for Cancer
The Sceneius Explained
Yellow Mama

Episode 304 - Bill Goffrier of The Embarrassment

Hailing from the great plains of Witchita, Kansas, The Embarrassment, like their contemporaries R.E.M., The Replacements, and Husker Du,  helped blaze the trail for what would become college or alternative rock in the early to mid 1980s. Affectionately known as The Embos, their smart, catchy, and quirky songs were a ballast to the moodier sounds of early R.E.M. and the more punkish sounds of the mats and Husker Du. 
The band was guitarist Bill Goffrier, lead singer and organist John Nichols, bassist Ron Klaus and drummer Brent Giessmann.
Bill stops by Thunderlove Studio to talk about how the band went from a name like The Elastic Wasteband to The Embarrassment and how R.E.M. allegedly had them removed as an opening act - for fear they would outperform the headlining guys from Athens, Georgia. 
Keith and Bill talk about the band, its place in history, and the upcoming documentary We Were Famous, You Don’t Remember.
LINKS
The Embarrassment Wiki
We Were Famous, You Don’t Remember
Bill Goffrier 
Chucky Fume - Thoughts From the Universe
Bar None Records
Last Laugh Records
Fresh Sounds Records
Big Dipper
The Del Fuegos
Article about Documentary
We Jam Econo - The Minuteman Documentary
Los Straight Jackets