The Rock Geeks

On episode one of their two part investigation into one of the most criminally overlooked albums of the 90s, Dust by Screaming Trees, Phil and Julian kick things off with some correspondence from American artist Mark Danielson, who painted the cover art for the album. Danielson writes about the inspiration behind the enigmatic image that makes Dust one of the most complete albums of the era, sending Phil on a voyage of discovery into the world of art history. Later Phil and Julian swap notes in their track by track analysis before getting stuck into the gear that the band was using around the time of Dust's recording.

In part 2 of the Rock Geeks' investigation into The Doors' eponymous debut album, Phil and Julian have a chat about the artwork and make the startling discovery that it's possible to be a pacifist in the US Army and that John Densmore has an unexpected link to the band's logo. Then the chat turns to the music, which turns out to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of quality control. Sorry die hard Doors fans, but if you search deep within your hearts you'll find that half of this album is a bit pants. The good news is that the other half is an iconic, era defining, work of genius!

Groovy baby! On episode 8 of The Rock Geeks podcast Phil and Julian get their 60s vibe on as they focus their attentions on The Doors' eponymous debut album. Join them as they take a trip to the legendary Sunset Sound Recorders where they marvel at what engineer Bruce Botnik was able to achieve with the available technology of the time and, despite being woefully under-qualified, Phil delivers a physics lesson in standing waves to Julian who was, we're sure, delighted. Later the discussion turns to the band's equipment, which was, it turns out, pretty much bank rolled by Mr and Mrs Krieger. Far out, maaaaaaan...

On this special episode of The Rock Geeks Phil and Julian chat to Magnus Sveningsson, founding member of and bassist with The Cardigans, about the band's masterwork, Long Gone Before Daylight. Magnus shares his memories of the recording of the album and talks about how the songs and the process, as testing as it was sometimes, ultimately helped to heal the band individually and collectively. Also, he very kindly did his bit for the rock geek in all of us by contacting Cardigans guitarist Peter Svensson in order to procure some seriously geeky info about the guitars and amps used in the recording of the album, which we hugely appreciated. Finally, Magnus gives us a definitive answer as to whether or not there will be a new Cardigans album arriving in the near future.

In part 2 of episode 7 of the Rock Geeks podcast, Phil and Julian continue their fine tooth combing of Long Gone Before Daylight by The Cardigans. Phil, loses his mind trying to identify a synthesizer and a bass drum and Julian discovers his new favourite instrument - the pump organ. If you thought that Lovefool was all that The Cardigans had to offer then we hope that maybe our in-depth track by track chat will give you cause to investigate the band's later output, and perhaps reappraise your position. Finally, we end the epsiode with some very exciting news...

On episode 7 of The Rock Geeks podcast, Phil and Julian get stuck into one of the most criminally overlooked albums of the 2000s, Long Gone Before Daytlight by The Cardigans. The album took 10 months to record with the band visiting 8 different recording studios scattered across Europe, initially in an attempt to escape the Swedish winter, and, whether they knew it or not at the time, the long journey would eventually result in their masterpiece. In the absence of any seriously solid leads for this episode Phil gets out the pin board and the red string and tries to connect the dots of the case while pronouncing every Swedish name and place name incorrectly (apologies people of Sweden!). Thankfully, there is one key piece of evidence to work with. A studio diary...

In part two of The Rock Geeks podcast all about the biblically apocalyptic Dirt by Alice In Chains, Julian marvels at Mike Starr's bass rig, Sean Kinney's drum kit is found hanging on a wall and each track gets a good poke and prod to see what makes it tick.

On episode 6 of The Rock Geeks podcast Phil and Julian get stuck into one of the greatest albums of the 90s, Dirt by Alice In Chains. In part one they discuss in some depth the recording techniques employed by producer Dave Jerden in the making of this absolute behemoth of an album, talk about Jerry Cantrell's unique choice of guitar as well as his quite extensive guitar rig and Phil discovers a new brand of bass guitar that nobody else has ever heard of. Ever.