Only Three Lads - Classic Alternative Music Podcast

’Twas the night of the O3L Holiday Party, and all through the cabin The drinks were a-flowin, and the friends were a-blabbin’ Meanwhile, the snow piled up, it was treacherous out there, And Bob Dylan’s words rang true, you ain’t going nowhere. The turntable hummed with a familiar warm crackle, As laughter rang out with a loud joyful cackle. Mixtapes were stacked by the glow of the fire, Each one tells a story, a hope, a desire. (Oh, and incidentally, cassettes melt, so that’s a really bad idea.) From post-punk to new wave, these songs tell our truth, We argued what really defined the music of our youth. There were games full of nonsense, of trivia and cheer, “Did this actually happen?”—the answer unclear. But what clatter arose, and echoed all through the city It was flippin’ “Word Girl” by Scritti Politti, But oh how they danced, some arguably twerked Brett was seething in the corner, like a judgmental jerk And just when they thought it couldn’t get any funner, “Come on Eileen” came on, by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. We all joined in on the chorus, what a jubilant sound, That is, except Uncle Gregg, but perhaps he’ll come around. So settle in close as for the 6th year, Our holiday tradition is finally here. Tonight, we’re all snowed in at O3L cabin So let the memories start, Let the party begin! Join Uncle Gregg and Brett for a holiday party filled with laughter, (mostly) good cheer, and plenty of holiday spirit(s) - including our friends Joshua, Kimberly (who brought along Timmy the Taxi with her!), Lance, Paul, and Matt & Stefan from Paisley Underground legends The Rain Parade. We make the most of the blizzard-like conditions, making themed mixtapes, playing brand new O3L games ("That's Soooo 2025!") and Alternativity") and spinning future holiday classics by Swansea Sound ("Not My Order"), Mossy Ledge ("Christmas Lights"), Autos ("X-Mas Eve At The Metro"), and Slow Owls ("Counting Down To Christmas"). It may be freezing outside the cabin, but inside we're gettin' LIT! Happy Holidays to you and yours from O3L! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get ready for more petty arguments, hot takes and fisticuffs*, because we're back with more cover versions that we feel are better than the originals. Annie, are we OK? You betcha! Joining us for this discussion are two members of the iconic Seattle indie pop band Tullycraft, vocalist/songwriter/bassist Sean Tollefson and guitarist Chris Munford. For more than three decades, Tullycraft has married DIY punk ethos to tender twee pop songs featuring charming boy/girl vocals and clever songwriting filled with pop culture references. Appropriately enough, one of their early songs was the brilliantly titled "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid To Know About," which not only does a great job of summing up Tullycraft's career but is also the namesake of Sean's great Friday night radio show on Seattle's SPACE 101.1 FM that he hosts with his wife. Tullycraft practically defined the twee movement in the US, inspiring legions of bands, zines, and record labels. Their debut album, 1996's Old Traditions, New Standards, was named as one of Pitchfork's 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the '90s. And, now they're back with their 8th album, Shoot The Point on HHBTM Records, which runs the full Tullycraft spectrum - from tender, heart squishing moments to full-throttle freakouts. It's fun. It's weird. It's very Tullycraft. Special thanks to Mike Turner from HHBTM for the introduction and coordination. *No podcasters or guests were actually harmed in the making of this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, it's all about personal growth with a side of nostalgia. We cover some of the albums that helped to shape or change our taste as music fans, consumers, and/or musicians with Derek Almstead (Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Marshmallow Coast, Circulatory System, Faster Circuits) and Emily Growden (Marshmallow Coast, Faster Circuits) from Elephant 6 band Giant Day. In October, the Elephant 6 Recording Company released Alarm, the second full-length album by Giant Day. Their first, 2024’s Glass Narcissus, bore a unique weight — it wasn’t just a debut album, it was the debut album by the first official Elephant 6 band in more than 15 years. With the 2023 wide-release of the documentary The Elephant 6 Recording Co. codifying the E6 “sound” for some and introducing it to others, what Giant Day conjured into being on Glass Narcissus was notably darker than the lysergic, sun-drenched pop associated with their former Athens, Georgia home.The word “former” is important to Giant Day’s origin story. In 2020, Almstead and Growden moved from Athens to rural Pennsylvania, where they became caretakers of a family farm. They converted the horse stables into a studio and continued to write and record music, but they were dislocated from their sense of the world, let alone anything resembling a “scene.” That lack of place — what Almstead and Growden refer to as the “dissonance” between the beauty of their new home and the reality of the world beyond it — crept into their songs, a desperate signal emanating from off the grid. On Alarm, that signal is stronger, more urgent. The alluring, paranoid throb underpinning their songs is keener now, more lived in, as if the veil between the fears of characters whose points of view Almstead had written from on Glass Narcissus and his own had dropped. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Record Store Day - Black Friday is Friday, November 28, 2025. In this bonus episode, join O3L's Brett Vargo as he spotlights some of the releases that will appeal to classic alternative music fans. Hit our social media and let us know what's on your want list, and what ends up in your shopping bag! Song: American Lips - "Record Store Day" (from the LP On Strike!, Ancient Fashion Records) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

**PART TWO** Life is beautiful! This week, we have the extraordinary honour to welcome the creative nucleus of Brett's favourite band of the 21st century...Murray A. Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak from Montreal's orchestral pop noir heroes The Dears! Life is beautiful! We are heading into the future from our normal O3L timeline to the year Two Thousaaaaand (more echo, please) to commemorate the albums that are unbelievably a quarter of century old this year. This includes The Dears' debut album, End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story. Life is beautiful! We celebrate humble beginnings to a life less ordinary... from an innocent encounter to musical partnership to a love story of marriage and family. Along the way, The Dears have continued to hone their unique brand of indie rock, boast one of the most consistent catalogues of the past 25 years, play in front of 50,000 people at Glastonbury, and garner fan adoration and critical praise (well, mostly...ahem, Pitchfork). Life is beautiful! The Dears' brand new album, Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! is out now on Next Door Records. Their ninth studio album finds them at the top of their game, equal parts passion and compassion, beauty and defiance, intimacy and universality. Part 1 premieres Tuesday, November 25, 2025 Part 2 premieres Thursday, November 27, 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stranger than fiction, larger than life...we are elated to welcome Split Enz singer/songwriter/pianist Tim Finn and keyboardist Eddie Rayner to O3L! This is gonna be a hard act to follow. Formed in 1972 in Auckland, New Zealand, Split Enz, known initially as Split Ends, were, and remain, utterly unique. As the first band from New Zealand to achieve major success beyond the Southern Hemisphere, they blazed a trail with a sound and style entirely their own. Evolving from folk-inspired beginnings into a fusion of art-rock, new wave, and theatrical performance, Split Enz didn’t just follow trends, they genuinely created them. While no one sounded like Split Enz at the time, countless acts have drawn inspiration from their legacy over the past five decades. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, Mental Notes, the first installment of a landmark archival project, ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two, presents a comprehensive tribute to New Zealand’s most visionary and influential band.  ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two is housed in a deluxe 5-CD box set (also available as a 3-LP + Blu-Ray edition), this release has been curated in close collaboration with the band. It offers an in-depth look at their formative years, showcasing the evolution of a group whose creative spirit reshaped the boundaries of popular music from New Zealand. The CD set features remasters of their first two albums, Mental Notes (1975) and Second Thoughts (1976), a remix of Second Thoughts, a partially remixed, remastered version of the early tracks comp The Beginning of the Enz, and a disc of live tracks, rough tracks, and alternate mixes. ENZyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 is out now on Chrysalis Records. Special thanks to Maria Malta for the introduction and coordination. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are heading back into the weird and wonderful world of the Elephant 6 collective - this time to talk about E6 obscurities. Yes, "obscurity" is relative. To the casual music fan, perhaps it's all obscure. We take it to mean that we don’t need another episode to extol the virtues of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane, Over The Sea, Olivia Tremor Control’s Dusk At Cubist Castle, or The Apples In Stereo’s Tone Soul Evolution. Either way, we aim to uncover some of the lesser known gems in the consistently consistent E6 catalogue. Outside of the four founding members - Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum, Will Cullen Hart, and Bill Doss - there is arguably no bigger name in the E6 universe than Elf Power and their songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Andrew Rieger.  Elf Power is responsible for some of the finest psych-pop and indie rock records since 1995...but we’re actually NOT here today to celebrate the release of a new Elf Power album, but rather roughly five minutes of some of the most surprising music to come out in 2025. Leap Through Poisoned Air is a from the vaults collaboration EP between the late, great Will Cullen Hart, who we lost in 2024, and Andrew Rieger, and released on Rieger and keyboardist Laura Carter’s label Orange Twin.  Thanks to Mike Turner from Crashing Through Publicity for the introduction and coordination! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes too much is just enough! This week, our criteria is simple…but that doesn’t make it easy.  We're looking at albums with 20 or more songs - whether they are long or concise, and regardless of how many slabs of vinyl or hunks of digital plastic are contained within. And, ultimately, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. Just because it's sprawling doesn't mean it can't be purposeful. One such album, weighing in at 27 tracks and nearly 85 minutes, is the purposeful new album Proverbs by Atlanta/Athens band The Shut-Ups. To quote the synopsis on The Shut-Ups Bandcamp page, Proverbs is a “double album full of dubious advice for a stiff-necked people.”  It’s a sprawl of an album that’s rooted in power pop and new wave-influenced indie rock, but covers a dizzying range of stylistic ground, and is all tied together by sardonic songwriting and an irreverent sense of humor.  Our Third Lads are the constant creative force of the Shut-Ups, songwriter/vocalist/keyboardist Don Condescending, and multi-instrumentalist Jason NeSmith…a name that we’ve brought up a bunch of times on this very podcast as he not only also plays in Pylon Reenactment Society and Casper and the Cookies, but is also the renowned mastering engineer behind so many of the sonically and musically great records and reissues by many of our past guests. Get happy with O3L! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, geez, you caught us feeling all nostalgic and celebratory. It's time for the landmark 300th episode of Only Three Lads! During this episode, you'll hear: Your messages! A special visit from the original Third Lad...Bueno! New music from Tony Valentino, The Goods, The Melody Chamber, and The Chelsea Curve A brand new O3L game...based off of O3L's past - "Pod Sharks" A new segment of "You Weren't Supposed to Hear THAT!" We are so grateful for and touched by the wonderful audio messages that you sent us. Thank you: The Jack Rubies Barry Andrews (Shriekback, XTC) Jesse Jackson (Set Lusting Bruce podcast) Debora Iyall (Romeo Void) Love Tractor Marina Muhlfriedel (Vivabeat, Backstage Pass) Maurice Bursztynski (Love That Album, See Hear podcasts) Tony Valentino (The Standells) Steve Barton (Translator) Dave Scheff (Translator,) Genny Schorr (Backstage Pass, author - All Roads Lead to Punk) Pylon Reenactment Society Matt Piucci (The Rain Parade) Daniel McKeown Dean Brownrout (Big Deal Records, author - No Big Deal) The Rishis Kimberly Brown (author, Timmy The Taxi) Timmy the Taxi Allison Landa (author, Bearded Lady) Slender Dan Lemoyne Alexander Allen Wagner (Kilkenny Cats, Is/Ought Gap) Mat Mills (Goodbye Wudaokou) DoubleVee Dan Voznick (aka Alec Tension - Afterimage) Julio Santos Frank Boscoe (The Ekphrastics) Jim Basnight Tears Run Rings The Melody Chamber Carl Cafarelli (DJ - This is Rock n' Roll Radio, author - several fine books!) Daniel House (Skin Yard, C/Z Records) Tony Jenkins (Kobayashi Bookstore) The Open Flames Terry Banks (Dot Dash) Lance Carmine Joshua Cole Stay tuned for the next 300! Want to access the O3L Index for a handy reference on where to find discussions about your favorite artists? Go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EpesEJ-JWBTxVZ3C11J3MGZ1qcAzrDx_/view?usp=sharing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices