Rob Nichols

The continuing story of the the echoing Influence of Tom Petty…and how Mike Campbell has taken that influence and made some magic. I hear lots of bands than dig for that bit of Petty magic within their sound. The Wild Feathers.  American Aquarium. Turnpike Troubadours. Eddie Vedder. Cody Canada. Band of Heathens.  Petty left us too early.  His influence has stayed.  I thought it would but you never know.  Some artists just have louder echoes.  And now, Heartbeakers guitarist and his band, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs, have an album out  – released in early 2022 called External Combustion. Petty … Read more

On the weekend we recorded this, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died. He was 50.   People are fans.  We aren’t friends.  If it feels awful or heart wrenching to fans, know his friends feel it harder and bigger and sadder. I’m a superfan of what the Foo Fighters represent. The fervor of how they play rock and roll. The satisfaction and pride they seem to feel when they are doing what they do. The Spirit of the Foo Fighters.  What he brought to them.  The fun.  The wow.  The fanboy love of rock and roll, played in the pocket … Read more

Georgia Satellites are owners of one fluke hit from their self-titled debut album – a Chuck Berry-ish throwback-for-the-80s radio.  One song amidst their bucket of barroom rockers.  Those songs don’t come around Top 40 too often anymore.  The “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” or “Jealous Again” type of songs are outliers.  So is “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”.  It rocketed all the way to #2 on the top 40 singles chart in early 1987.  Bon Jovi kept them out of the top spot with “Livin’ on a Prayer”. And why do I still think about the band?  They really weren’t anything … Read more

Huey Lewis and the News  A bar band is a good thing anyway, right?  That means they cut their chops live and can make a crowd – big or small – happy. RN Huey Lewis and the News were a bar band that was better than a bar band. That’s such a lazy way to describe a band anyway.  A bar band is a good thing anyway, right?  That means they cut their chops live and can make a crowd – big or small – happy. Lewis and the band just happened to have the songs, the performance chops, and … Read more

Let’s do a little Jackson Browne history: Browne wrote several songs for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band early on – he was briefly a member in 1966 before they were signed. He co-wrote the first Billboard Top 40 hit for the Eagles  in 1972 with “Take It Easy”. Browne released his debut album in 1972, which had one Top 40 hit, “Doctor, My Eyes” (#8) and another that should have been “Rock Me on the Water” (#48) With his third album, Late for the Sky, he reached number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and earned a Grammy nomination for … Read more

With this episode, we’re cranking the power pop sound. A lot of bands fit this genre so the episode is a teaser – a primer if you will. Not everything that ever happened, but a taste of that sound. Some history, some not-so-talked about bands, and the roar of guitars bashing, sugared harmonies, and cracking drums.  We dive into some rocking rabbit holes to talk about bands and artists, and hear throwbacks to the sounds of many, including Marshall Crenshaw, Rockpile, Phil Seymour, and Donnie Iris. Cheap Trick may be the biggest of the genre, still doing their thing, playing … Read more

Who was the best and biggest and most consistent rock band of the 1980s?  That’s a question that was banging around my head.  I have a winner.  And you aren’t going to like it. Or maybe you will.   I was thinking about who truly, really was the kings of rock and roll bands of the 1980s and I can’t say no to u2.  Springsteen and the E St. Band Right are up there, but The River was 1979. Then it was Nebraska.  So Bruce is really one band album in the decade.  Petty?  Always solid.  Prince?  I mean, he had … Read more

It is the curious case of The Romantics. Detroit rockers worth another listen. 60s garage rock.  Pop punk.  Ear worms for those who like hard candy. Detroit attitude. The group’s debut was a 1978 single “Little White Lies on Spider Records,  followed that year by the Bomp! single “Tell It to Carrie”.  Here’s what you know for sure about the Romantics: “What I Like About You”. 
 Would seem like a strong start, right?  But the song wasn’t a hit when they released it.  Sort of, but not really.  #49 on the Hot 100 – didn’t crack the top 40. … Read more

In the years since Tom Petty’s passing, his music rings authentic and sounds just as it was meant to be – timeless. We uncover why he is, and they are, the band that has best represented American Rock music for 40 years – a deserved title for Petty and the Heartbreakers. And we choose the Essential 7  – the albums of Tom Petty. It’s a band with a long history, going back to the original Mudcrutch days. Giving them the nod as the quintessential American rock and roll band is no small honor. Petty and his boys owned the whole … Read more

The Rolling Stones spent much of the 1980s on the struggle bus.  After a couple of good early decade albums, they were fighting amongst themselves, Keith Richards didn’t want to be in the band. Mick Jagger made a solo record. So did Keith. The 1986 One Hit to the Body single was about all they did right. Harlem Shuffle was weak. The early decade live shows weren’t strong.  The Rolling Stones pretty much had fizzled out as a group. Then they made Steel Wheels. The final album they would make that really mattered. We take a listen to why that … Read more