Tag Archives: podcast

Shows

#187 – Greg Lake – Songs of a Lifetime

Greg Lake is one of the most recognized voices in all of rock.  His vocals have adorned such classic rock staples as “Court of the Crimson King,” “Lucky Man,” “Still You Turn Me On,” and “From the Beginning.”  Lake’s latest project is called “Songs of a Lifetime,”  a document of his recent interactive tour where he played some of his most famous songs and told the stories behind their creation.

Icon Fetch talks with the former King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer vocalist & multi-instrumentalist about the intimate, interactive shows that he’s done, the process of writing his autobiography, and the idea of “shared music” that has gone by the wayside in the iPod era.  He also tells us the great story behind “Lucky Man.”

Shows

#186 – Lisa Germano – No Elephants


You could say that Lisa Germano colors outside the lines of conventional pop music.  Her songs are oftentimes brutally honest and jarringly unconventional, yet deeply personal – she plays the lion’s share of the instruments herself.  Germano has just released her ninth album called No Elephants.  Her use of everyday electronics (like cellphone noises), interspersed with the sounds of bees and animals, somehow manages to be both strange and beautiful at the same time.  We talk to her about how she collected the array of sounds on the record and the inspiration behind several of the songs.  She also touches on her time as violinist in John Mellencamp’s band.

Shows

#185 – Kim Longacre of the Reivers – Second Story

The Reivers came out of Austin Texas in 1985 with a critically-acclaimed album Translate Slowly.  Boasting both a male & female vocalist, the band was part of what was known then as the New Sincerity movement.  After three more records, two of them for a major label, the band called it quits in 1992.  Now, they’re back with their first new studio album in 22 years called, appropriately enough, Second Story.  We talk with vocalist/guitarist Kim Longacre about what brought them together after the long layoff, and the addition of keyboardist Eric Friend.  We also delve into the band’s history – how they assembled their first 7-inch with glue stick, what is was like to tour the country with a newborn in an unairconditioned van back in 1986, their experience being signed to a major label for two albums.

Shows

#184 – Devon Allman – Turquoise

With a last name like Allman, there’s going to be heightened expectations, but Devon Allman certainly delivers the goods.  After spending several years in the band Honeytribe, and more recently the supergroup the Royal Southern Brotherhood, Devon has stuck out on his own for his first solo album, call Turquoise.  Recorded in part at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis Tennessee, he’s crafted a very classic-sounding soul-rock album, full of honest lyrics, and supple guitar lines, that fit right in with those Allmans that have come before him.

Shows

#183 – Kristine W – New & Number Ones

She is the queen of clubs – Kristine W has scored 16 number ones on the Billboard Club Play singles charts, beginning in 1994 with “Feel What You Want.” At one point she placed nine consecutive singles at the top spot.  When Billboard magazine tallied their end of the decade results for the 2000s, Kristine came in third only to Madonna & Beyonce.  To celebrate, she’s looking back and looking forward with New & Number Ones, featuring past hits, and some brand new tracks, including the hit single “Everything That I Got.”

Shows

#182 – Tribute to Reg Presley of the Troggs

With the recent passing of Reg Presley of the Troggs, Icon Fetch has put together an hour-long tribute to the band and their influential lead singer.  We’ll hear the story of “Wild Thing” from the man who wrote the legendary song, Chip Taylor.  From Larry Page, the band’s manager & producer, who wouldn’t give up on the song, even though everyone hated it, Mike Mills of R.E.M., who played with the band on a collaboration called Athens Andover, and Graeme Clark of Wet Wet Wet, who took the Troggs’ “Love is All Around” back to the top of the charts in the Nineties.  Also contributing are Richard Barone, Peter Zaremba of the Fleshtones, Tommy Keene, producer Mitch Easter, Debora Iyall of Romeo Void, pianist David Lanz, Jon Weiss of the Vipers, Peter Holsapple of the dB’s, and filmmaker Grant Wakefield, who talked with Presley about his obsession with crop circles.

Shows

#181 – Herbert Gronemeyer – I Walk

He is perhaps the biggest artist you’ve never heard of.  Herbert Gronemeyer is the biggest selling artist in Germany – racking up well over 18 million records in his homeland.  He first gained acclaim for his portrayal of Lieutenant Werner is the classic German film Das Boot (the Boat) released in 1981.  But Gronemeyer’s first love was music and he began concentrating more on that, finally breaking through in Germany with a hit record in 1984.  Since then, he’s the biggest selling artist in that country.  His latest venture is a new challenge – an entire album sung in English titled I Walk, containing English translations of some of his best-known songs.  Herbert plans a tour of the States in 2013.

Shows

#180 – Marshall Crenshaw – Kickstarter EPs

Marshall Crenshaw released his debut album right at the peak of New Wave’s popularity in 1982, when the world was embracing silly haircuts and synthesizers. Full of melodic hooks, it recalled a time when rock was a little more straight-forward, and featured the hit single “Someday Someway.”  Crenshaw has parlayed that success into a career that’s lasted over 30 years, with many twists and turns along the way. His latest endeavor is perhaps his boldest yet – a series of vinyl EPs, via a subscription service, which Crenshaw plans to release over the next two years, all funded by his fans through a successful Kickstarter program.   We chat with Crenshaw about why he prefers singles over albums, and how he feels about his first album 30 years later.

Shows

#179 – Jon Goodman – Dickie’s son – Long Live the King

Dickie Goodman is the King of Novelty – he holds the record for most novelty singles to hit the Billboard charts  – at 17.  Things began In 1956 when Goodman, along with his partner Bill Buchanan produced an odd record called “The Flying Saucer” – which took snippets of popular songs and spliced them into a fictitious news report about aliens landing on Earth.

The comedy record was a surprise smash hit, jumping to #3 on the charts and spawning a series of followups.  Goodman called them “break in records,” and they were full of controversy.  Because he was using pieces of other peoples’ music, was he stealing, or was it a new kind of art?  In a sense, Goodman was the first artist to use sampling as a way of creating new music – way before those rap guys.

From the late Fifties to the mid Eighties, Goodman’s records were a mainstay on the charts – poking fun at the news of the day – be it political blunders or flavor of the month fads, and each one using the popular music of the time to tell the story.  In this sense, Goodman’s records help paint a true picture of the public consciousness at the time – making great time capsules.  Now, his son, Jon Goodman has compiled Long Live the King, a collection of 26 of his dad’s greatest hits, plus a newly assembled “Election 2012” which Jon created himself.

Shows

#178 – Claude Hay – I Love Hate You


He’s taken the Do It Yourself mentality to a whole new level.  Australian Claude Hay has built his own instruments, his own studio, even customized his touring van.  When he plays live, he’s a one-man show, using looping technology to essentially play all the instruments himself.  We talked to Hay when he released Deep Fried Satisfied back in 2010.  Now, he returns with his 3rd album, entitled I Love Hate You. The title track is about his touring van, which he’s tricked out with a bar, but also has left him stranded on several occasions.  He also talks about recording in his home studio, which is fitted with a giant Darth Vader head which lights up.