Woody Radio DJ Mike Show #129 7/11/2020: interviews with Tim Bracy of The Mendoza Line and Peter Marston of Shplang!

Oh thank heaven for 7/11! For that’s the day, 7/11/2020, that I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Bracy of The Mendoza Line, and Peter Marston of Shplang.

It’s an interesting pairing of artists, that kind of came together last minute. Both bands started during the heyday of the alternative rock era, around 1994-95. I got to speak with a founding member of each band. Each band is celebrating a re-release of some of their music. And in both conversations, the meaning behind the bands’ names is revealed (no spoilers here; you’ll want to listen to the show).

In the first hour, we got to meet Tim Bracy. The Mendoza Line ticked off a few sweet spots for me. They started in the mid-90s alternative era (check), in Athens, GA (check), have the same initials as me–“ML” (check), and a self-effacing band name (check). Seriously, it cannot be overstated how important being in Athens was to this band. A fully nurturing music community. The influences were everywhere. They had the opportunity to play on amazing bills, and record their first singles and albums.

One other sweet spot for me: Bar-None Records had their eyes on The Mendoza Line. Bar-None is one of the preeminent indie record labels in the country. If Bar-None wants you on their label, that means something. And that brings us to the re-release of “We’re All In This Alone”. This was their first offering on Bar-None, and the first record that they truly made their own. And it is pretty wonderful. It’s by turns mellow, shoegazey, and melodic, and rocking and drony–but still melodic. And there’s some devastating lyrics in there as well. Turns out this was sort of like the indie version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”–so take that comparison and run with it. The band broke up in 2007, but amicably agreed to the 20th anniversary re-release of this wonderful record, which is gaining new audiences, including yours truly, in 2020. Check them out at https://www.mendozaline.com.

A little later in the show, we got to meet Peter Marston of L.A. fixture Shplang. I spent the first hour of the show saying “Shplang” as often as I could, because that band name is just a fun word to say out loud. But it was great to meet Peter, and he came highly recommended. Shplang is now part of the Big Stir Records label, which more or less contains two kinds of artists: 1) Bands I’ve liked for a long time. 2) Bands I’m about to like. Shplang fell into the latter category. But they’re no newcomers–they recently celebrated their 25th anniversary as part of the sprawling Los Angeles music scene.

Shplang, like The Mendoza Line, started in the mid-1990s–a very fertile time for music. But as Peter told me, as fondly as we look back upon those times, the L.A. music scene (and probably a lot of others) was somewhat disjointed. Hair metal factions, punk, and post-punk factions. Playing at clubs was brutal for up and coming bands–part of the crowd would leave after “their” band played–so very little cross-pollination occurred. Somehow, Shplang’s sound–which is, as has been said, “Beatles meet Zappa in a pop-psych Sumo match”–got accepted by the “power pop crowd”, and that turned out to be a very accepting scene. In this world, for the most part, musicians do indeed cheer on other bands, and fans stay for “the rest of the show”–and along the way, acquire new favorite bands. Once this quarantining is over, I’m hoping to see more of that again.

Fast forward 25 years to now, and Shplang has released a career retrospective, entitled “Los Grandes Excritos” (listen to the interview for the fun story behind that name too). It’s a heaping helping of why people like them–because their songs are so musically diverse, and their live shows are legendary. This album is a really, really good way to debut on Big Stir Records. More at https://bigstirrecords.com/shplang

Enjoy the show. It was a fun one.

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