The Hustle

It's difficult to summarize Robert Margouleff's career in a nutshell. He's a musical innovator thanks to him and his musical partner Malcolm Cecil's invention of a sort of synthesizer they dubbed Tonto's Expanding Headband. Tonto caught the ear of Stevie Wonder, who brought the guy's onboard to engineer/produce him during that peak 70s period (Innervisions, Talking Book, etc). This lead to further jobs with other legends like Devo, Billy Preston and Richie Havens. Music might be most of the story, but not all. He's made movies, sang opera, sailed ships, sang opera, started businesses and tons more. He tells his story well in his newly published memoir, Shaping Sounds. Robert joins us this week to discuss it all. You won't want to miss our chat or the book! www.margouleff.com www.patreon.com/c/thehustlepod

In this fantastic Bonus episode, Phil Collen and Simon Laffey of Manraze join us to discuss their brand new career-spanning box set, Lock, Stock & Barrel. Phil and Simon's friendship goes back over 40 years to the glam rock band Girl. Then Def Leppard recruited Phil and you know how that went. About 20 years ago, Phil and Simon decided to make some music together and recruited Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook to join them. This box set includes both studio albums as well as instrumentals, a live show, remixes, and new songs. Check it out! www.patreon.com/c/thehustlepod

We've seen this movie before. Band comes out hot with their debut, have hits, sell millions of records, and then record a follow-up the label says isn't good enough so it gets shelved for a while and all that momentum stalls and never comes back. Fort Worth's Toadies lived it, After Rubberneck and the smash "Possum Kingdom" exploded, the label didn't hear a hit on the follow-up and told them to try again. Four years pass and when a new album does get completed, the label doesn't promote it. Though it was bumpy at first, Toadies carried on anyway and even have a new album called The Charmer and a huge North American tour kicking off any second. Front man Vaden Todd Lewis joins us this week to explain it all and share his stories. Enjoy! 

www.thetoadies.com

www.patreon.com/c/thehustlepod

Our Book Club this time features author Paul Rees who has recently written one of the most enjoyable rock books of recent memory - Raised on Radio: The AOR Glory Years. Even though he's a Brit, Paul was the perfect guy to author this oral history of one of America's most unique musical genres. All the major players - Steve Perry, Pat Benetar, Tom Scholz, Lou Gramm, Gary Richrath, Steve Lukather and scores of others - weigh in on where this genre came from, why it succeeded despite critic's hating it (of course), and why it ended. You'll love this conversation AND the book! 

www.dacapopress.com/titles/paul-rees/raised-on-radio/9780306836046/

www.patreon.com/c/thehustlepod

Bassist Greg Norton was the George Harrison of the mighty Husker Du. While alpha's Bob Mould and Grant Hart competed for album space and song excellence, Greg remained a loyal soldier in the background playing his part well. When the band broke up in the late 80s, he changed careers and became a chef for a while. Finally in the last few years, a musical project has come along that's deserving of his massive talent - the all-star punk band Ultrabomb. The supergroup (members of Social Distortion and Soul Asylum round it out) just released their third album, The Bridges That We Burn which easily rivals anything their original bands released. Greg discusses his post-Husker Du years and his thoughts on those years and the history of Ultrabomb. We're lucky to hear from him. Enjoy! 

www.patreon.com/c/thehustlepod

www.ultrabomb.bandcamp.com