Only Three Lads - Classic Alternative Music Podcast

Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway. Yup, this week we're looking for adventure...and whatever comes our way...because it's an O3L Road Trip! Everyone's piling in the van and bringing five albums with them.

Our Third Lad this week has not only spent countless hours on the road, but has made some great road trip albums himself! Jamie James is best known as the singer/songwriter/guitarist of the new wave/roots rock band The Kingbees. The Kingbees recorded two albums for RSO Records (Robert Stigwood's classic label that was also home to Bee Gees and Eric Clapton) - the first of which included the Billboard Top 100-charting single "My Mistake" in 1980. Jamie has also played with a late-70s touring version of Steppenwolf, and spent decades playing with musically inclined actors (or is it dramatically inclined musicians?) Harry Dean Stanton and Dennis Quaid.

Better yet, Jamie has a new album out on Oglio Records called Straight Up. It channels a lifetime of grit, heartbreak, and swagger into a punchy collection of blues and rock n' roll tunes.

You'll hear some amazing tales of rock n' roll - including crashing Apple Records headquarters, getting bottled off the stage while opening for AC/DC and ZZ Top, and getting a pistol pulled on him by Phil Spector while trying to escape listening to a Celine Dion demo!

Your only mistake would be NOT listening!

Dang it! This van only has an 8-track player?!?!
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Ah, 1990...the year of acid washed jeans, Beverly Hills 90210, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oh, and lots of Bea Arthur.

Of course, none of which we really talk about on this episode. Instead, we're focusing on the best (mostly) alternative albums to come out of that fantastic year.

Returning to Third Lad-dom is power pop great Jim Basnight, a fixture on the scene since the late '70s. What has Jim been up to in the past two and a half years since his last appearance? Well, good thing you asked, because the answer is "plenty." For starters, his bands The Meice and The Moberlys were honored with tracks on the definitive Cherry Red box sets Looking For The Magic: American Power Pop in the Seventies and I Wanna Be a Teen Again: North American Power Pop of the '80s. He also released a steady stream of singles throughout 2025 that culminated in the full length album release of Under The Rock in December. As a blues devotee and expert, he's finished writing an exhaustive history of Sonny Boy Williamson, which will hopefully see a silver screen adaptation one day. All that, and he's still found the time to partake in his favorite pasttime - hanging out with O3L.

Relive the fun, memories and music of this pivotal year. Plus, play along with the brand new O3L game "Ninety...or Nonsense?!?"

It's the most fun you can have without telling someone to "eat my shorts, man!"

Buy Jim's music at https://powerpopaholicproductions.bandcamp.com.
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We're not quite ready to say goodbye to 2025 yet. Join Uncle Gregg and Brett as they celebrate some of the year's finest LPs...with YOUR help!

Oh, and by the way...you think you're Andy Warhol, but you're not.
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2025: Was it a "Golden" year for songs or did it coast on the fumes of 2024's hits?

This week, Uncle Gregg and Brett dive in to discuss their top songs of the year that was. Better yet, some of YOU chimed in with your opinions as well!

Settle in as we recap the year's most listened-to songs, 2025 trends, discuss the future of physical media, give our 2026 predictions, and much more!

Albums of 2025 episode coming soon.

Happy New Year!
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Think about your favourite records. Go ahead.

Chances are, one of the first things that popped into your head was the album cover. And it makes sense...who hasn’t studied an album jacket while listening to a record?  Or scanned the track listing, or read the liner notes or credits?  How many of you have bought an album solely based on the cover art? The artwork colors how we hear the music, and, likewise, the music informs how we interpret the artwork.  Either way, when done effectively, the two are intertwined.

But don’t take it from us.  This week, we have one of THE greatest creative art directors in music history joining as our Third Lad.  There's a near certainty that you have the iconic work of John Kosh sitting in your record collection - and it’s absolutely staggering list of credits since the late ‘60s.  For starters, how about his work as with The Beatles' Apple Records, like Abbey Road, Let It Be, or John & Yoko’s Wedding Album? Or how about Who's Next?  Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out?  Hotel California?  Out Of The Blue, featuring his familiar ELO spaceship logo?  In fact, he is the only Art Director to have worked with The Beatles, The Stones, and The Who.  That’s not enough for you?  Among the hundreds of album covers Kosh has designed, there are also familiar sleeves for Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart, Marvin Gaye, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffet, Donovan, Aerosmith, Family, The Moody Blues, Badfinger, 10,000 Maniacs, T. Rex, and so, so many more.  And, oh yeah, the four decade string of gorgeous covers he did for Linda Ronstadt, three of which have earned him Grammys. Aside from album covers, there’s artwork for singles, books, TV, film, posters, and billboards - like, for example, the simple but incredibly effective John & Yoko campaign declaring WAR IS OVER…if you want it. 

Listen as Kosh recounts stories from his fabled career and discusses his Top 5 Album Covers (other than his own). This is living history, kids!

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