Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Before Alternative Became Cool We Had Trouser Press's Ira Robbins
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been there yet. Arrow dot
- 0:01Speaker 1: net A r r oe dot net. It is a
- 0:04Speaker 1: network of podcasts every choice you could ever imagine. I mean,
- 0:08Speaker 1: if you're into pickleball, or if you're into ya authors,
- 0:12Speaker 1: even if you're into those who start on NBC's The Voice.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Ero dot net really does check into what you're doing.
- 0:19Speaker 1: It's your content, it's your stage. Ero dot net A
- 0:23Speaker 1: r r oe dot Net. Enjoy your exploration, all right.
- 0:27Speaker 1: I gotta tell you thank you right here from the
- 0:29Speaker 1: very beginning. And the reason why is because before the Internet,
- 0:32Speaker 1: before we even had a USA today, we had Trouser
- 0:35Speaker 1: Press and got you guys were our our lifeline. Otherwise,
- 0:41Speaker 1: how would we have known, as radio jocks what was
- 0:43Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Well, you know, there were a lot of radio jocks
- 0:48Speaker 2: that cared what was going on behind the scenes. They
- 0:50Speaker 2: just want them to know what was in the billboard
- 0:51Speaker 2: top ten. But that's that's another story entirely.
- 0:55Speaker 1: So I always thought of myself as being the freak
- 0:57Speaker 1: because I went for the underdogs. I was the one
- 0:59Speaker 1: that went after New Year's Day from you two and
- 1:02Speaker 1: we wouldn't add the damn thing. And I still don't
- 1:04Speaker 1: understand why we didn't add it back in the nineteen eighties.
- 1:07Speaker 1: And yet, and yet you guys were all over that band,
- 1:09Speaker 1: and you guys really really put things out there which
- 1:12Speaker 1: educated the community.
- 1:14Speaker 3: Thank you. Well.
- 1:15Speaker 2: You know, the thing is, we didn't have we didn't
- 1:17Speaker 2: owe anything to anybody. We had no corporate overlords, we
- 1:19Speaker 2: didn't have a budget, we didn't have a money, we
- 1:21Speaker 2: didn't have you know, an audience really, so we just
- 1:24Speaker 2: did whatever we wanted to. You know, it's a real
- 1:26Speaker 2: freedom in being you know, unconnected and being DIY.
- 1:29Speaker 3: You just do whatever moves you.
- 1:31Speaker 2: So, you know, we started the magazine because we wanted
- 1:33Speaker 2: to tell people about bands that we were excited about
- 1:36Speaker 2: and we liked that we didn't think we're getting written
- 1:38Speaker 2: about anywhere else. And we just kind of kept doing
- 1:40Speaker 2: that and so, you know, we did run into a
- 1:43Speaker 2: few problems along the way.
- 1:44Speaker 3: I mean, I once we once ran a really negative.
- 1:47Speaker 2: Review of an album that the ad for was on
- 1:49Speaker 2: the back cover, and the record label was not happy
- 1:52Speaker 2: about that. But you know, just literally never even occurred
- 1:54Speaker 2: to us that that was something we should worry about.
- 1:57Speaker 1: But you guys have always inspired me because you guys
- 1:59Speaker 1: were band warped tour way before they even became cool,
- 2:02Speaker 1: because you were doing the mimeograph fanzine, you were on
- 2:05Speaker 1: the street, you were pressing the flesh. I mean, you
- 2:07Speaker 1: were doing guerrilla warfare right there in front of us.
- 2:12Speaker 1: You know.
- 2:12Speaker 2: The thing we did that was really kind of far
- 2:14Speaker 2: sighted was we had a telephone connected to an answering machine,
- 2:17Speaker 2: you remember the old answering machines with the cassette ape
- 2:20Speaker 2: in there, and we would do daily music news reports
- 2:23Speaker 2: and people could call in and it would auto play
- 2:26Speaker 2: the news report for them. And like years before there
- 2:29Speaker 2: was the Internet and having you know, like you know,
- 2:31Speaker 2: podcasting or anything like that, we were telling people what
- 2:34Speaker 2: was going on, you know, in the world of music.
- 2:36Speaker 2: If you could spare a dime to call us.
- 2:39Speaker 1: Uh, I got to admit, and if you want to
- 2:41Speaker 1: assume you can. I was on Cook Radio and Buildings Montana.
- 2:44Speaker 1: I called it, I recorded it, it went on the air.
- 2:46Speaker 1: I stole it.
- 2:48Speaker 3: Believable, I do know. That's so efin cool.
- 2:50Speaker 1: I will never forget that because that's how much I
- 2:54Speaker 1: really wanted to get the word out there about different things.
- 2:56Speaker 1: And you guys were so in touch with what was
- 2:58Speaker 1: going on and that. You know, I always called it
- 3:00Speaker 1: future speak, and that's exactly what you guys were tapped into.
- 3:05Speaker 3: I can't believe you remember that.
- 3:06Speaker 2: That was Jim Green who did that for us, And
- 3:09Speaker 2: it was the phone was on the floor in our
- 3:11Speaker 2: little one room office. The answer machine was one that
- 3:14Speaker 2: I had like used at home and had replaced with
- 3:16Speaker 2: a better one, and you know, he would just go
- 3:18Speaker 2: in every day record something. And then you know, we
- 3:21Speaker 2: only had one one phone line and people got busy
- 3:23Speaker 2: signals all the time. But that was I thought that
- 3:26Speaker 2: was a really clever idea that we had. And another
- 3:28Speaker 2: clever idea that we had was the autodiscographies that are
- 3:31Speaker 2: in the zip it Up two book.
- 3:32Speaker 3: Oh my god.
- 3:33Speaker 1: See, no matter what you guys do, you're always in
- 3:36Speaker 1: touch with what we are or where we are and
- 3:39Speaker 1: what we are because what we became is what you
- 3:41Speaker 1: guys were putting on display. It's there. You can physically
- 3:44Speaker 1: see it, even in the fashion. It's like, Okay, where
- 3:46Speaker 1: did this begin? Go back to Trouser and see exactly
- 3:49Speaker 1: what they were doing first, because every everybody else became
- 3:52Speaker 1: a follower.
- 3:53Speaker 3: That's very kind of you to say, Arrow, well.
- 3:56Speaker 1: Did you not see that? Did you not feel that
- 3:58Speaker 1: or was it because I was in radio and culture
- 4:00Speaker 1: just had to be our thing or get out.
- 4:03Speaker 2: We had no idea because we were operating in a
- 4:05Speaker 2: complete vacuum, you know, I mean before the internet. You know,
- 4:08Speaker 2: the feedback we got was like occasional letters to the editor, right,
- 4:11Speaker 2: So you know that happened a couple of times a week.
- 4:14Speaker 2: But you know, we were working really hard to put
- 4:16Speaker 2: the magazine out and you know, we only barely knew
- 4:19Speaker 2: that people were responding to it. I mean, you know,
- 4:21Speaker 2: we'd subscriptions, we'd sell some copies, but we didn't really
- 4:25Speaker 2: have that kind of instantaneous sense of like, you guys
- 4:28Speaker 2: are on the right track, or like, you know, we
- 4:29Speaker 2: would get a letter to the editor if we did
- 4:31Speaker 2: something that they didn't like. But you know, it's only
- 4:35Speaker 2: really been in the year since Trouser Press ended, which
- 4:37Speaker 2: is now you know, forty two of them, that I've
- 4:40Speaker 2: gotten a real sense of how much of an impact
- 4:43Speaker 2: the magazine had on people, you know, and the real
- 4:45Speaker 2: fans that followed us. I mean, you know, it's that
- 4:48Speaker 2: thing that they say about development underground, right, I mean,
- 4:50Speaker 2: you know, only a few thousand people bought the records
- 4:52Speaker 2: but every one of them started a band. You know,
- 4:54Speaker 2: maybe only a few thousand people read Trouser Press, but
- 4:56Speaker 2: every one of them became like a serious rock fan.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Some of them started answered, some of them started magazines,
- 5:01Speaker 2: and some of them became writers, and some of them
- 5:03Speaker 2: started record labels.
- 5:05Speaker 1: I got to give you guys credit again here, because
- 5:07Speaker 1: I think that the only reason why I even ever
- 5:09Speaker 1: landed an interview with the Ramones was because somebody had
- 5:12Speaker 1: to set them up and put them out here for
- 5:14Speaker 1: the radio people to do that. And I have to
- 5:16Speaker 1: give you guys the credit for that, that you took
- 5:18Speaker 1: them from the underground and made them a part of
- 5:21Speaker 1: what was going on when it came to water cooler
- 5:23Speaker 1: conversation and all of a sudden I get an interview
- 5:25Speaker 1: and I look cool. I owe you guys the credit.
- 5:28Speaker 1: You We look cool every time now, right, no matter.
- 5:31Speaker 3: What need us.
- 5:32Speaker 1: No, No, you don't know how much I depended on you.
- 5:36Speaker 1: You and Joel Whitburn. I mean I had to have
- 5:39Speaker 1: you guys in my studio at all times.
- 5:42Speaker 3: I'm proud to hear that. I'm glad to have helped.
- 5:45Speaker 1: Yeah, but don't you think that you know, during the
- 5:47Speaker 1: and you live this as well. During the eighties and nineties.
- 5:50Speaker 1: The one thing that everybody wanted, I want an alternative station.
- 5:52Speaker 1: I want an alternative station. They want, they want, they want,
- 5:55Speaker 1: And then when we finally build it, they didn't come.
- 5:58Speaker 1: And it's like, did you guys do this same exact thing.
- 6:01Speaker 1: It's like you you kept giving, giving, give me giving,
- 6:03Speaker 1: give me, gim me giving, And it was like, well,
- 6:04Speaker 1: why aren't they biting?
- 6:07Speaker 3: Well, I mean, we.
- 6:08Speaker 2: We didn't have the capital to invest to really market
- 6:11Speaker 2: the magazine, so we did the best we could.
- 6:13Speaker 3: But di iy only gets you so far. You know.
- 6:16Speaker 2: The interesting thing that happened in my life was that
- 6:18Speaker 2: when we were just about to go out of business,
- 6:20Speaker 2: spin Magazine started. And the thing that was amazing about
- 6:23Speaker 2: Spend was that Bob Guccioni Senior gave his son a
- 6:26Speaker 2: million dollars to start a magazine. And as I've said
- 6:29Speaker 2: to many people, you know over the years, if I
- 6:31Speaker 2: had a million dollars, I'd start a magazine. But we
- 6:33Speaker 2: started Trouser Press with thirty eight dollars, and you know,
- 6:37Speaker 2: at our at our best, we invested about thirty thousand
- 6:40Speaker 2: dollars of other people's money in the magazine.
- 6:43Speaker 3: And we still ran out of money.
- 6:44Speaker 2: And so you know, if we'd ever had you know,
- 6:46Speaker 2: serious amounts of backing, we probably would still be publishing today.
- 6:50Speaker 3: But there's only so much you.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Can do, you know, on on the kind of hand
- 6:55Speaker 2: to mouth you know, months to months, you know, get
- 6:57Speaker 2: the money in, send the money out. Is this so
- 7:01Speaker 2: you know, we we did what we could, but yeah,
- 7:03Speaker 2: it was it was a tough slog in terms of
- 7:05Speaker 2: keeping the magazine in business, and I wasn't much of
- 7:08Speaker 2: a businessman as publisher. It would have been better if
- 7:10Speaker 2: we'd had somebody who actually knew how to run a
- 7:12Speaker 2: business and let us just do the editorial, but we didn't,
- 7:15Speaker 2: so you know, that was kind of our death nail
- 7:18Speaker 2: after ten years.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Well, it's almost like just just listening to your story,
- 7:21Speaker 1: it's almost like you guys were podcasting before it became cool,
- 7:24Speaker 1: except you use words and print in order to get
- 7:27Speaker 1: those stories out there. But you were doing exactly what
- 7:30Speaker 1: so many wish they could do with podcasting.
- 7:32Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 7:33Speaker 2: Well, you know, the thing that's interesting that I've said
- 7:34Speaker 2: to many people over the years is that when MTV
- 7:36Speaker 2: came along in nineteen eighty one, you know, the thing
- 7:39Speaker 2: that they could do was they could play the music
- 7:41Speaker 2: and they could show the bands, and all we could
- 7:43Speaker 2: do was write about them and take pictures of them.
- 7:45Speaker 2: And so you know, that kind of was another level
- 7:48Speaker 2: that they were able to bring that we weren't able
- 7:50Speaker 2: to and that was kind of a problem for us,
- 7:52Speaker 2: because you know, it suddenly started to seem like what
- 7:54Speaker 2: we were doing was kind of last year's thing, right,
- 7:57Speaker 2: all we could do was talk about things, whereas you know,
- 7:59Speaker 2: your podcast analogy is really spot on, because you know,
- 8:03Speaker 2: it's kind of like what podcasting was is to like journalism, right,
- 8:08Speaker 2: It's like you can sort of really make it live
- 8:10Speaker 2: and real and put it in people's face, whereas all
- 8:12Speaker 2: we could do is like here, open up this piece
- 8:14Speaker 2: of paper and read what's what's on the pages?
- 8:16Speaker 3: You know. So, yeah, you're right.
- 8:17Speaker 2: I mean we were kind of like of a different
- 8:20Speaker 2: generation and we suffered for that. But you know, I'm
- 8:23Speaker 2: certainly fine about it. And now you know, we're doing books,
- 8:26Speaker 2: so you know we're still clinging to that printed word concept.
- 8:30Speaker 1: Well, you know, since we're going to be on the
- 8:32Speaker 1: subject of podcasting for a moment. They always say that
- 8:34Speaker 1: podcasting did not come from the musicians, like MySpace or
- 8:37Speaker 1: the comedians. It came from the author. So therefore, with
- 8:39Speaker 1: you guys going into publication with a magazine and now books,
- 8:42Speaker 1: where's the podcast?
- 8:45Speaker 2: Well, you know, the last thing I need at this
- 8:47Speaker 2: age is another obligation deadline and like, where's this podcast?
- 8:52Speaker 3: You know, the books? I can do on my own.
- 8:54Speaker 1: Schedule, Please do not move. There's more with Ira Robbins
- 8:57Speaker 1: coming up next. Zip it up two to but we
- 9:03Speaker 1: mean the number two as a continuation. We are back
- 9:07Speaker 1: with Ira Robbins. We were talking about the photographs and
- 9:10Speaker 1: the stories and things. But I must have come from
- 9:12Speaker 1: that generation that required those because once they appeared in
- 9:16Speaker 1: your magazine, I'm sorry, I ripped it apart and I
- 9:18Speaker 1: would put the pictures up on my radio station wall.
- 9:20Speaker 1: We're talking nineteen seventy four here. I was still in
- 9:23Speaker 1: my bedroom in seventy four with a mister microphone and
- 9:26Speaker 1: your pictures up on my wall, which I had to
- 9:28Speaker 1: continuously trade out us.
- 9:31Speaker 3: Awesome.
- 9:31Speaker 2: You know you talk about radio station walls, you know
- 9:34Speaker 2: you certainly remember WLR and Long Island, which was like
- 9:37Speaker 2: YELP station, which had a huge impact on us and
- 9:40Speaker 2: on me personally. I once wrote a really negative review
- 9:43Speaker 2: of The Fix, and I went out to LR to
- 9:46Speaker 2: do an interview. I think I'm Ben Minilla's show, and
- 9:49Speaker 2: on the wall they had blown up the words that
- 9:52Speaker 2: I had written about The Fix and they were just
- 9:54Speaker 2: completely derisive of that because they played The Fix constantly.
- 9:58Speaker 2: They loved them, you know, and they were like, you're
- 10:00Speaker 2: an idiot for writing that, and it's like, I'm really
- 10:03Speaker 2: proud of that.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Wow. So then what You've been close enough here? Why
- 10:09Speaker 1: is it that Iggy pop still remains this gigantic mystery.
- 10:12Speaker 1: In fact, I've always called Iggy more mysterious than Gene
- 10:16Speaker 1: Simmons have kissed with paint on.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Well, Iggy's stage persona is completely different from his real life,
- 10:25Speaker 2: you know, and you know when you interview him, he's
- 10:28Speaker 2: like articulate and soft spoken and gentle, and then you
- 10:32Speaker 2: see him on stage and he's a monster. He's a beast,
- 10:34Speaker 2: and so you know, I think that really is is
- 10:37Speaker 2: what's kept him alive all these years, is that he
- 10:39Speaker 2: can separate those So it's like Alice Cooper, right, I
- 10:41Speaker 2: mean Alice Cooper off stage as a golfer. You know,
- 10:43Speaker 2: you go on stage and he's like a guy with
- 10:45Speaker 2: his head in the guillotine. So you know, I think
- 10:47Speaker 2: that's a really effective division of concepts that really is helpful.
- 10:51Speaker 3: And I mean, Iggy's just amazing.
- 10:53Speaker 2: I mean, you know, the guy's still going after all
- 10:55Speaker 2: these years, and you know the shows that I've seen
- 10:57Speaker 2: him do over the years have been unbelievably exciting.
- 11:00Speaker 1: There's there's got to be a side of your journalistic
- 11:03Speaker 1: values that wants to do a story on Johnny depth
- 11:05Speaker 1: the rock Star because now that the Hollywood vampires are
- 11:08Speaker 1: putting him on lead vocals, I want a Trouser Press
- 11:11Speaker 1: interview because you guys have the balls to ask the
- 11:14Speaker 1: right questions and put him in a way to where
- 11:16Speaker 1: we speak our street.
- 11:18Speaker 3: I don't get why Johnny Depp thinks he's a rock star.
- 11:21Speaker 4: And I I'm sorry, no, no, no, no no, I'm
- 11:29Speaker 4: just only only because it's like it's like, now that
- 11:32Speaker 4: he's a rock star, I don't want him to be
- 11:33Speaker 4: a movie star.
- 11:34Speaker 1: So that's why I started laughing. I'm going, I know,
- 11:36Speaker 1: I don't want him to go back to movies. Ever.
- 11:38Speaker 1: I love him as a rock star.
- 11:41Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 11:41Speaker 2: I've seen him on stage once or twice and he's
- 11:43Speaker 2: just kind of like a Strummer, you know, like I was.
- 11:46Speaker 3: Like, yeah, i'll give you that. I'll give you that. Yep, yep. Yeah.
- 11:50Speaker 2: I haven't seen the Hollywood Vampires yet, but you know,
- 11:53Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I really want to. I forget
- 11:55Speaker 2: who I've seen him on stage with, but I've seen
- 11:57Speaker 2: him a couple of times and it's like, yeah, you know,
- 11:59Speaker 2: you're year better in the movies.
- 12:01Speaker 1: Okay, I'll give you that, because you're right. I've been
- 12:04Speaker 1: I am somebody who will go to a concert to
- 12:06Speaker 1: watch the guitarist fingers, and you're right, I'm sharing at
- 12:09Speaker 1: those fingers. I'm not seeing those fingers move. Okay. So
- 12:12Speaker 1: I saw him singing a video where you know it's
- 12:14Speaker 1: singing in a video. I'm thinking, oh my god, this
- 12:16Speaker 1: is great. It's not just the voice, it's the attitude.
- 12:18Speaker 1: He's not over there, like being Joe Perry and things
- 12:20Speaker 1: like that. So you win on this one, dude, and
- 12:23Speaker 1: you do. You see that's why I need your magazine.
- 12:25Speaker 1: You give me the opposite part of what I think.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Therefore I become wiser through Trouser Press.
- 12:31Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 12:31Speaker 3: The other version of that is like, what that guy's
- 12:33Speaker 3: a jerk? What's this? And a lot.
- 12:39Speaker 1: Was it fun to step back into this era again,
- 12:41Speaker 1: or was it like, Okay, I've got I've got all
- 12:43Speaker 1: this stuff put in a file. I'm taking really good
- 12:45Speaker 1: care of it. I think it's time to get it
- 12:47Speaker 1: to generation alpha and beta because they know the music,
- 12:50Speaker 1: they just don't know the damn story.
- 12:53Speaker 2: Yeah it was fun, I mean, but you know, I've
- 12:54Speaker 2: kind of lived with this stuff, you know, for a
- 12:56Speaker 2: long time. You know, the trouser Bus website has all
- 12:59Speaker 2: the issues of the magazine scanned it online for free,
- 13:02Speaker 2: so you know, I know that this stuff is there,
- 13:04Speaker 2: and it hasn't really gone away from me. It was
- 13:06Speaker 2: more a question of kind of rooting through it and
- 13:08Speaker 2: just making sort of editorial choices about what should be
- 13:11Speaker 2: in the book. But yeah, I mean, it's fun to
- 13:14Speaker 2: kind of see the quality of the writing that we
- 13:16Speaker 2: were able to do without any resources or any real skill.
- 13:20Speaker 2: I mean, none of us, well maybe one or two
- 13:21Speaker 2: of us had some journalism background. But I went to
- 13:23Speaker 2: engineering school, so you know, I just became a writer
- 13:27Speaker 2: because I wanted to become a writer, and I just
- 13:28Speaker 2: worked at it and got to the point where I
- 13:30Speaker 2: could not be completely embarrassed by what I was writing.
- 13:33Speaker 2: But it's it's sometimes pretty horrible to look back at
- 13:35Speaker 2: the stuff you did.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Did you have to do the official rule of in
- 13:40Speaker 1: order to land an interview for the magazine? You had
- 13:42Speaker 1: to do a bunch of really bad people that didn't
- 13:45Speaker 1: deserve the press in order to land the big one?
- 13:48Speaker 1: What was your secret to your mess?
- 13:51Speaker 2: It's funny you should say that, because obviously you know
- 13:53Speaker 2: how this works. But you know, what we did was
- 13:55Speaker 2: because we were interested in, like the bands nobody else
- 13:57Speaker 2: cared about. Yes, we would labels coming to us and
- 14:00Speaker 2: going like, well, we don't know about this who this
- 14:02Speaker 2: guy is.
- 14:02Speaker 3: He's coming from England? Would you think about him? He's like,
- 14:05Speaker 3: oh my god, that's so great. Can we really interview
- 14:08Speaker 3: Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel? Wow?
- 14:11Speaker 2: And so that actually earned us the brownie points that
- 14:13Speaker 2: got us the big interviews later, you know, because we
- 14:16Speaker 2: were able to like, we were enthusiastic about the bands
- 14:19Speaker 2: nobody else cared about, you know.
- 14:20Speaker 3: So you know, the Trogs came over.
- 14:22Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy six, were like cool, you know, and
- 14:25Speaker 2: everybody else is like, oh, that band that did wild thing?
- 14:27Speaker 3: Who cares about them anymore?
- 14:28Speaker 2: And we were like, I mean we were in a
- 14:30Speaker 2: hotel room, Dave Shoulps and I with the trogs that
- 14:32Speaker 2: it was the funniest thing ever. We were just like
- 14:35Speaker 2: hysterics because they were so silly, you know. So yeah,
- 14:38Speaker 2: we did it backwards. Rather than you know, doing the
- 14:41Speaker 2: little bands as a payoff to get the big bands.
- 14:43Speaker 2: We did the little bands because we wanted to and
- 14:45Speaker 2: got the big bands as a bonus.
- 14:48Speaker 3: See.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Now I understand why I can't get enough of your
- 14:51Speaker 1: book Zip It up To and the reason why and
- 14:53Speaker 1: why I couldn't get enough of Trouser because in all honesty,
- 14:56Speaker 1: you were the opposite of Casey Kasem and Dick Clark.
- 15:00Speaker 1: You were giving us the r authors and the musicians
- 15:02Speaker 1: that were not on American Top forty every single week.
- 15:05Speaker 1: And that's what I wanted. I wanted those deep cuts.
- 15:08Speaker 1: And I blame that on Fleetwood Max Rumors.
- 15:12Speaker 3: Well, you know you were our audience, Arrow, You're the
- 15:14Speaker 3: guy that we were writing for. We just didn't know it.
- 15:17Speaker 1: And isn't that the shock of it all that here
- 15:20Speaker 1: you are doing this project, you don't know your audience,
- 15:22Speaker 1: you don't know what the next magazine is going to do,
- 15:24Speaker 1: and yet all of a sudden, your magazine starts taking off?
- 15:27Speaker 1: Was it a head shaking moment? Just ride it, ride it,
- 15:30Speaker 1: just ride the wave.
- 15:31Speaker 3: No, we never knew that we were taking off.
- 15:33Speaker 2: We we just you know, we were fighting a battle
- 15:36Speaker 2: uphill all the way and until we finally stopped. It's
- 15:38Speaker 2: literally only been since the magazine ended forty two years
- 15:41Speaker 2: ago that I've understood how much impact it had.
- 15:45Speaker 1: See and that just shocks me. And I saw that,
- 15:47Speaker 1: you know, forty two years ago. There's no way that
- 15:49Speaker 1: you and I are this old. There's no way. It
- 15:51Speaker 1: feels like it was just yet, coach. Does it not
- 15:53Speaker 1: feel like that we were just going through those pages?
- 15:56Speaker 3: Yeah? For sure? All right?
- 15:58Speaker 1: So I do have to ask you, only because I
- 16:00Speaker 1: do love collecting weird stuff, who has the original version
- 16:03Speaker 1: of this glossy magazine? Because it's got to be out there.
- 16:06Speaker 1: There's got to be several different copies of it.
- 16:09Speaker 3: I mean a complete collection of Trouser Press.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Oh, I'll give you that, because you should see the
- 16:13Speaker 1: boxes of magazines that I've got. But i'll give you that.
- 16:15Speaker 1: Who's got the box?
- 16:17Speaker 3: I do? And then you got them?
- 16:22Speaker 2: And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a
- 16:23Speaker 2: set that I gave them.
- 16:26Speaker 3: A couple of people have them. Yeah, no, it's I've
- 16:29Speaker 3: kept them all these years.
- 16:30Speaker 2: I mean they're getting kind of worn, you know, and
- 16:32Speaker 2: torn here and there, but I've kept them all.
- 16:34Speaker 3: Right.
- 16:34Speaker 1: Now, this is an author or a journalist speaking to
- 16:37Speaker 1: another journalist. Here, what does it smell like? Because you know,
- 16:40Speaker 1: we like the scent of ink on paper.
- 16:42Speaker 3: It doesn't smell like ink anymore.
- 16:44Speaker 2: It spells like like dusty paper, you know, because you know,
- 16:49Speaker 2: paper kind of dries out and it gets yellow. So
- 16:51Speaker 2: I mean some of the issues I have are like
- 16:53Speaker 2: bright yellow. They look like like sam paper.
- 16:57Speaker 1: And I got to give you guys kudos on the
- 16:59Speaker 1: way that you laid out to the index, because I mean,
- 17:01Speaker 1: I mean, of course, my eyes instantly saw Jefferson airplane
- 17:04Speaker 1: and and and then today that that I read an
- 17:07Speaker 1: article that Starship is still out on the road, and
- 17:09Speaker 1: I'm going, oh my god, Trouser Press was all over
- 17:12Speaker 1: this years ago, and yet this band is still going today.
- 17:16Speaker 1: And I hope to god they read the magazine and
- 17:18Speaker 1: read the book, because I want them to understand that
- 17:20Speaker 1: these people were there for them when the foundation was
- 17:23Speaker 1: was just being built.
- 17:26Speaker 2: I suppose that's true. I mean, you know, we a
- 17:28Speaker 2: lot of bands are still around. I mean, you know,
- 17:29Speaker 2: the Buzzcocks are still touring, you know, and so it's like,
- 17:32Speaker 2: I mean, other than the Ramones, who unfortunately all passed away,
- 17:35Speaker 2: you know, everybody else is still out there.
- 17:37Speaker 4: You know.
- 17:37Speaker 3: Look, the the sex Pistols are touring, you know, with
- 17:41Speaker 3: a different singer.
- 17:42Speaker 1: Okay, all right, it's amazing, mister magazine. How do you
- 17:44Speaker 1: feel about that that he that Johnny is not part
- 17:47Speaker 1: of that?
- 17:48Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think it's it's it becomes a
- 17:53Speaker 2: tribute band, you know, I mean becomes well in the
- 17:56Speaker 2: same way that who Is It? I mean even Townshend
- 17:58Speaker 2: is acknowledged. Who is now a tribute who tribute band?
- 18:01Speaker 2: You know, because there isn't enough original members to actually
- 18:05Speaker 2: bring back the sound and create the vibe that they had.
- 18:09Speaker 3: It's just peep. It's the two of them and a
- 18:11Speaker 3: bunch of sidemen. You know. It's a different thing.
- 18:13Speaker 2: So, I mean, you know the same way that like
- 18:15Speaker 2: the Temptations might have like one one person who's ever
- 18:19Speaker 2: in the band when they were great. You know, it's
- 18:21Speaker 2: like it's not the Temptations, it's a Temptations tribute group.
- 18:24Speaker 3: And you know fine.
- 18:25Speaker 2: I mean, I don't go to those shows anymore because
- 18:27Speaker 2: I don't really need to see versions of bands that
- 18:30Speaker 2: I've seen in the flesh and the real when they
- 18:31Speaker 2: were great. But you know, for people who are just
- 18:34Speaker 2: coming up, it's like, sure, go right.
- 18:36Speaker 1: Ahead, Wow, where can people go to find out more
- 18:39Speaker 1: about everything that you're doing, Ira, Because I mean, I
- 18:41Speaker 1: love what you're doing, not only because I'm just an
- 18:44Speaker 1: old guy in radio, but more importantly, I'm a fan
- 18:46Speaker 1: of all music, every genre that's great.
- 18:50Speaker 2: The two places I recommend are Trouserpress dot com and
- 18:54Speaker 2: Trouserpressbooks dot com. They're both places that you can get
- 18:59Speaker 2: stuff that we do and read about it and read
- 19:01Speaker 2: the old issues of the magazine and buy the books
- 19:03Speaker 2: that we're doing. They're also available from all the places
- 19:05Speaker 2: you buy books from, like Amazon and Barnes and Noble
- 19:08Speaker 2: and Apple for ebooks and things like that, and they're
- 19:11Speaker 2: in stores and you know, just come on down.
- 19:14Speaker 3: I've got a lot of reading to do.
- 19:16Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
- 19:18Speaker 1: the future. The door is always going to be open
- 19:20Speaker 1: for you, sir Ah.
- 19:21Speaker 3: That's so cool. Thank you so much.
- 19:23Speaker 1: You'd be brilliant today. And once again thank you for
- 19:25Speaker 1: what you did because you gave us words to share
- 19:27Speaker 1: on the radio over those intros.
- 19:29Speaker 3: Appreciate it, Thank you so much to have done it.