The Now Spinning crew explores their latest musical discoveries, featuring a deep dive into Prince’s iconic album Sign of the Times and its lasting influence across genres. They share thoughts on artists like Linkin Park, Black Sabbath, and Sleater-Kinney while celebrating the connections between classic and modern music.

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Website: LCC Vinyl Record Club

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Now Spinning, the official podcast of the Lansing Community College Vinyl Record Club. We meet twice a month to listen to vinyl and talk about music. Stay tuned to learn about how you can get in touch with us and attend our meetings.

Hello everybody and welcome back to Now Spinning. So good to have you with us. With me today I have

Andy.

Leo Ackerman.

Jacob Zokvic

and I am Simon Medina. As all official sources will tell you.

So today we thought what we did last time with our recent Discoveries episode was so much fun. We just want to do it a second time and don't be surprised if.

We do a third one at some point. We seem to really enjoy these.

We just like to chit chat which is. We can't help it. We love running our mouths. It's what we do best.

And we find a lot of new music.

Yes we do.

Here in the LCC Vinyl Record Club. So much new music. Check us out over the summer, pretty please.

Yes, we will. We'll have more information about that at the end. But first, I just want to get us kicked off with a recent discovery of mine.

This is one's a little bit. It's not really niche at all because it's Prince, but this is an album that I somehow had gone these last couple years without hearing about.

And that is Sign of the Times by Prince. And that is, I just have to say this is like quickly become one of my like very favorite albums of all time.

Like even on the first listen, it just immediately just like knocked me out and like I. For context, I had just started the Prince deep dive after talking about doing it for years and years. Very rewarding.

He's an incredibly talented artist.

But I think that everything that he does in his first couple albums all just kind of culminates in a Sign of the Times with all the different themes he has and all the different like genres he plays with. It all just comes onto its own right there.

Like for example, I mean like he does like, you know, funk, R B, soul, even like psychedelia and rock and stuff like that. It all, it all, you know, just culminates in this one album.

I actually had a couple like a couple songs in there I noticed that are like exactly this one talking about there's a like housequake. That's a good song. That's like just 100% funk. Like he leans really heavy into it. You know, there's a starfish and coffee.

I love that song that I don't know if that's a Popular one, but I adore that song. It's been stuck in my head for the past couple weeks now. I can't get it. I can't get rid of it.

And then, of course, the song that I probably took home with me the most that I have been listening to non stop again is I can never take the place of your man, which is.

Oh, baby.

My favorite Prince song.

Now, that has been my favorite Prince song for about a year. I had never heard it before. Like you, I had never bothered to hear this album.

And.

And I heard it on the radio. I don't remember what station. It was one of them. But yeah, I was like, what is this? Is this Prince? Like, this doesn't sound like any.

Because, you know, on the radio all you hear are the cliche Prince songs. They don't play any of the serious stuff.

And that's one is just like such a heavy sort of message while still kind of sounding really fun and still just, like, having a cool, like, vibe and groove and. Yeah, and. And that's. I. I had always been like, okay, Prince is pretty good, I guess, but never really, like, put that much thought into him.

And that was the song that, for me, I was like, okay. No, like, Prince is. He's a great.

He's a genius.

I'm so glad that you said that. That's like, your new favorite. Because I had the same exact experience.

Honestly. The heaviness combined with, like, it's still having a sense of fun is really what sets it apart in his discography.

Like, yeah, there's some, like, sonic similarities to some other records of his. Like, it sounds a little bit like Parade, but, like, the writing is just so much more mature and, like, reflective.

Yeah.

Like, Ballad of Dorothy Parker.

Oh, gosh, I love that song.

Like, I don't know. On previous Prince records, he's. He's really raunchy and he stays raunchy later into his career, but on Sign of the Times, it's.

It's just more about his relationships with the people he meets and, like, grows to know and. I don't know, it's that combined with him pioneering a few genres like. Like lo fi. Like, again, Ballad of Dorothy Park. Ballad of Dorothy Parker.

Stumbling Over Myself. Like, that's lo fi pop in, like, definitely the 80s. And, like, modern lo Fi, like, proto chill wave stuff in the 80s. He's like, it's.

I could rant about him for hours. I had a huge Prince phase in high school. I'm really glad you're, like, having the. The Prince Dive.

Now I know I'm getting. I'm getting into the Prince phase. This is.

This is kind of your fault because you mentioned it, like, right after recorded the last episode, and I said I'd been putting it off for so long, and I finally got into it. Very worth it. But I. One of these days we got to do, like, a proper, like, Prince deep dive on the show. Definitely.

I could talk more about this album a lot.

You're gonna make me listed all of them.

To a point. To a point.

Oh, are we gonna. Are we gonna be, like, we're gonna split it up and then so we only have to listen to the, like, first half of his career. That would be.

That would be terrible.

A little mean from someone who has heard his entire discography. That would be fine. It would be so fine. And I say this with so much love in my heart for Prince.

Well, have I ever talked about my, very briefly, Prince history?

You have not.

Okay, so when I was a kid, dating myself here a little bit when I was a kid, it was not too long after the artist formerly known as Prince phase, okay? And so I had, like, I. My parents didn't listen to Prince and stuff. Like, not like that. You know what I mean? It would have been around.

It would have been tolerated, but they didn't, like, have albums lying around and stuff. So for me, Prince was something that I didn't really know. Like, I kind of knew vaguely of it.

But, yeah, it was always, like, introduced to me as, like, this artist formerly known as Prince, this pretentious artist that's so full of himself, whatever. And so, like, by the time it got around for me to, like, okay, let me give the.

Listen to this Prince stuff, I had this, like, idea in my head of, like, oh, no, this guy said, this guy's a weenie. You know, like, you can't get into it. And, like, that's so not fair. You know what I mean? All artists go through phases.

And especially when you are as famous as Prince, like, it messes with your head, you know? And so, yeah, the. The artist formerly known as Prince will always be, like, etched into my mind is, like, it is that guy.

But like, now that I can, like, look back and reflect and, like, really enjoy it, I do really enjoy a lot of Prince.

I'm glad when I First got into Prince, weirdly enough, I got into 90s prints first. Which.

Huh.

Yeah. I don't know. It was like Gold Experience. I don't know. I was like, that's a good album. I just like, picked up Gold Experience somewhere.

I really loved the track Gold and Endorphin Machine. And, you know, I was like, no, this is sick.

And then I, you know, listen to the other 90s Prince records and was very confused, but, like, confused but in a way that, like, is like, you know, you're compelled to, like, learn more about it because you just don't know what you're hearing.

Yeah, it's a. I thought his 90s stuff, there's a lot of gems in there, but it's. It's. It's interesting to hear it. That's all I say about it. It's very interesting. He does a lot of.

Just, like, not only on this album, like, his whole career, he's always experimenting with, like, jumping between genres. Not on. On this one, you can kind of almost hear he's starting to get towards hip hop. He gets further into it with the album after this.

But, like, this album especially, like, there's a little bit. So you can tell that, like, he's List. He's taking that in.

It's definitely influential, I think, on some, like, later, like, a lot of modern R and B stuff, hip hop, that kind of stuff, they all owe a lot to, you know, Prince.

He does. Like I said, he's. There's a ton of genres on this album. He does them all perfectly.

Like I said, funk, rock, psychedelia, like, soul, anything like that. He's just a master of it, like, seamlessly jumping between them on songs.

Like I said, this album, it really shouldn't work on paper because half of it's scrapped songs from earlier albums that he's rehashing. And it seems like it shouldn't be cohesive, but it just works together perfectly.

I Believe and I Believe was like, three scrapped albums combined, and one of them was based around this, like, very speed version of his voice.

Yeah.

An alter ego named Camille. And it was like a whole thing. Like, I think Housequake was from the Community. It's just like it's. He's.

He was crazy, like he was a genius, but also like he was off his rocker.

Well, most of the best musicians are though, aren't they? You know what I mean?

Definitely. My last comment. I'm gonna want to move on because I've been taking up too much time.

But my last little comment is where we're loving the Prince is that I got into Prince like backwards from Wayne, unfortunately. Because we go, yeah, yeah. Cuz we're like giant Prince fans. Like they are like. Like you can definitely hear it in their music all over the place.

Like once I did the Prince deep dive, I was like, oh, so that's where that comes from.

But like this album, especially with like the various speed vocal stuff, all of the early weed and stuff they're always messing around with, like the pitch shifting, just like making funny voices and stuff. And like they're definitely doing it as like a been influenced by Prince and this album especially like House Quake.

That's a. I don't want to say, like I don't want to sound like the guy who's only ever listened to Wayne, but I could hear them doing that song, I think. Anyway. Yeah, check it out. Sign of the Times by Prince. Maybe the greatest album of all time. It's up there, in my opinion. I've only listened to it.

Listen to the censored version of Push the Little Daisies by Wayne.

You'll hear a very short snippet of Alphabet street of Alphabet street by Prince where they just throw in like a yelp of princes to censor out a swear word.

And it's so beautiful.

It's beautiful. It's jarring every time you hear shouldn't work and it doesn't. It's awesome.

I can't believe you got a ween reference into this episode.

Prince is no Prince. They're huge Prince fans. There's an overlap. I could go on about it, but I'm not gonna move.

But moving on anyway, so I got. My recent discoveries are like three different artists that are actually kind of well known and I kind of want to get into. I want to get one.

Get into Linkin Park. I was like listening to them again on my playlist, cleaning the house or whatever. Heard the song like, what? Who is this? Look, it's Leakin Park.

They are so, so good that I heard them later on the radio. Like, man, who is this? And again, it's Lincoln Park. I don't know why I'm not listening to these guys. Mark as they are freaking amazing.

They're kind of.

Yeah.

They're kind of old news now.

I know.

It's kind of the problem. That being said, they came back, they had that big song like two or three years ago with the new singer.

Yeah.

And I was like, oh, I get. Maybe Linkin park isn't done, but. Yeah. Yeah. Linkin park for me is a solidly listened to by my sister.

So I was not allowed to like it when I was a kid. So, yeah, I never bothered listening to Linkin park until I was older. I still don't really listen to him, but I get it.

Like, yeah, there's some good stuff in there.

Oh, man. When I was a kid, my exposure to Linkin park was mean. It was everywhere. When I was, like a little kid growing up, like, I watched.

I was a big Transformers fan as a child. So my.

My first memory whenever I hear Linkin park is I think of, like, the ending of the first Transformers movie where they play what I'm Michael Bay. Transformers. Yes. And every time. I can't hear Linkin park without thinking of those movies. And I think it's a perfect association. I love those movies.

When I was a kid, I still have a soft little. I have a soft spot for it. So I can never. I could never hate those movies. I could never hate Lincoln Park. They're just.

It just brings back good memories to me whenever I hear it.

Awesome.

All right, then. Next I got. I gotta get into Black Sabbath. I don't know why. I think it was Simon. You brought it in.

Yes, I did. For the.

I'm hearing Ozzy's voice, but, like, because I love Ozzy. I love Ozzy Osbourne. So I don't know why I'm not into Black Sabbath more.

Black Sabbath is so. I don't want to say so much better because they are slightly different genres,.

But they do add something to Ozzy.

But Black SAP. No, Ozzy. You could get rid of Ozzy and Black Sabbath would be just as good. But.

It was good. It was really good.

But, yeah, Black Sabbath, like, basically invented or helped solidify, like, what metal would become and, like, what hard rock was at the time. And they, like. They're one of those bands where you're like, you listen, you're like, this is a good riff. This is a good riff. This is a good riff.

And.

And they're all in the same song. And you're like, a lesser band would have taken the same riff and, like, written three different songs.

And they're like, no, we're all going to get all these into one. We're going to get all these into one and just like, for no reason, just have like sick guitar work all over this song.

And you're just like, awesome, awesome. And that's where like. Oh, what's his name? The guitarist that worked with Osborne.

Tony I. Wait, no, no, different guy.

Road.

Zach something. I forget his last name.

We're terrible. But anyway.

But like Randy. Randy Rhodes. Randy Rhodes, Yeah, yeah.

First, that's like. You're like. You hear a lot of the guitar work on Ozzy Osborne stuff. You're like, this is sick. And it is. It's a.

It grows out of what they were doing in Black Sabbath. But yeah, like, Black Sabbath itself is just some of the heaviest, like solid, just like guitar work that you're ever gonna get.

And like, they've never liked. There's plenty of bands after that have emulated it and expanded on the idea. But I adore Black Sabbath. Obviously.

I didn't mean to like steal your thumb.

They're good. I gotta get into them.

I'm curious though, of the Black Sabbath records, which one would you say is your favorite right now? That's important because, like, I feel like the first few Black Sabbath records, they're all heavy metal, but they're all slightly different flavors.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like, the guitar playing isn't the same on any. Like, it's similar, but like, he isn't playing the same on Master of Reality.

Yes.

On the self titled.

I don't think I'm. I don't think I'm deep diving to albums yet. I'm still on the singles, definitely.

That's fair listen to. If you're gonna listen to any albums, like, obviously go there for like their first through. I think Sabotage is like their.

That's considered their like golden run. I think my favorite of those is definitely, like. It jumps between Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath and Master of Reality. But I.

Right now it's Master of Reality. I love that album. Master Reality is like greatest riff of all. Like Sweet Leaf, maybe the greatest riff of all time.

That's when you were talking about like riff after riff after riff. The only thing I could think of is Sweet Leaf. And it's just like it's. It's hook after hook.

I've got another one for you that I think is like technically the best Black Sabbath song. And like hardcore Black Sabbath fans are gonna be like, what? But like, go listen to it. And you're like, no, like, that's.

It's just them showing off how good of musicians. They are symptom of the universe.

Yes. Yes.

I literally have half of the song isn't even like hard rock. You know what I mean? It's like they're basically just doing like.

Yeah.

Like bluesy Prague. Yeah. If you've never heard Symptom.

Yeah, that's on Sabotage.

And A Symptom of the Universe. That's my favorite. In spite of how much I love everything else.

Definitely.

Finally, I gotta get into Green Day. I don't listen to enough. I know. I mean, I was listening to Times yous Life on the Radio, heard it a thousand times.

So I'm finally like, okay, who wrote this song? I saw Green Day flash across the screen. Like, well, that makes sense why it's so good.

That's your point of reference for Green Day, huh? Yeah, I mean, that's fine. I'm not a, like, middle period Green Day guy. I'm a very early Green Day guy. I liked when they were doing punk rock.

Like, and they've always done punk rock. To be clear, they never gave up on punk rock. But, like, Leo's doing a little motion. Yeah, but, like, Kerplunk is great.

That's, I think their first album, Dookie, is like, one of the best punk albums of all time. I would say. It's like top two or three 90s punk albums. And I like, that's high praise. There's, there's some, gonna be some 90s punk fans.

They're gonna be mad at me for that. But, like, Dookie is so good. It's, it's very punk. You clearly get these sense, like, these guys still don't really care what anybody thinks of them.

And, like, we were just talking about great guitar work. Great guitar work, great bass work, great drums. It's just like these three guys just, like, kicking it out. And it's very exciting, very fun.

I think Billy Joe Armstrong, sorry to cut you off. He's such an underrated guitarist.

Yes.

Like, I like, I don't think his rhythm gu gets enough praise. I mean, you know, it's, They're a solid punk band. But like, his, like, he's so tight, but that's whatever.

That's like any guitarist that sees a video of him playing guitar goes like, what on earth are you doing to that thing? You know what I mean? He's just like, chugging with such violence at such a weird angle. Apparently.

He just chews, picks right up, which I think is just, like, so funny. But yeah, I, I, I, I don't know. I don't Know where that style came from. But it is fascina to watch.

You're pouring about the drum work. The drum work on Basket Case like that. That is one of my favorite parts of that song is drum work on Basket Case.

That whole song's tight. That's got a cool bass part too. The guitar is great. The lyrics are very funny, in my opinion.

And like, really do kind of capture that like teenager, young adult vibe of like, oh, man, I'm a little weird. I'm a little, I'm not sure what's going on, you know what I mean? Love it.

Delightful.

Delightful.

Then next is.

Oh my God, it's my turn already.

Oh, dear.

Oh, Lordy. I'm gonna be honest, I've been kind of preoccupied with a lot of like, music hopping lately.

I've just, I do this like album of the week thing with my friends and we just kind of listen to album to album to album, and I haven't really had a chance to just like dive into something until recently with Sleeter Kenny's album. The Hot Rock Slater Kenny, if you're not familiar for the lovely people at home, is very, very influential female punk trio.

Yeah, they're like, to say the very least, and to just say female punk trio does not do them justice.

I've listened to how they are. Sorry, I've listened to a bit of Sleeter Kenny, right? And anytime I hear a song that I'm not familiar with, I'm like, oh, what's this new band?

This, I've not heard this song before. And I was like, oh, it's Sleeter Kenny. Like, so many alternative bands right now sound so much like sleep.

You're like, you're like, this song's like 25 years old. Like, what the heck? You know? But yeah, clearly super influential.

Which is weird because, like, you never heard them, they were never on the radio, they were never in anything and, and I don't know what that's about. I, I, I certainly did not know about Sleeter Kenny at the time.

You know, I mean, I was young, but like, even when I was getting into like alternative music around the time when they were still popular, like, nobody talked about them. And it's a shame because they're amazing.

And like, it, it's so different from record to record too.

Like their first two records, I'm not sure, it's like, it might be a self titled and then Call the Doctor is just straight up like first wave of Riot Girl. Then we go into Dig Me out, which is you know, it's just punk. It's like ferocious punk trio, super tight band.

Then we get into the hot Rock, which is not like anything else they made before or after because they turned the distortion all the way down. And it's just like, weird guitar interplay with a really dry production and, like, dejected lyrics. I think it's. You say, handling their darkness.

They deject with lyrics. Before that, though, I don't. Like, One More Hour. That would have come out before that and stuff.

Yeah, it came right up. It came right before. This is an album full of songs, like, One More Hour, but make them more dour and, like, dry. There. There isn't like a.

Not as heavy either.

No, honestly, I think, you know, One More Hour still has, like, a light bounce to it because of the drums from Janet, but I don't know. The hot rock is just, like, heavy and sluggish. And a key thing to know about Sleeter Kinney.

They have no bassist, it's two guitarists, and they're both tuned to C sharp like Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. But they're all playing clean. Everything sounds, like, funky and out of tune and weird and, like, it's just.

It, like, it feels like it's crawling in your ears at points and it's.

Mixed so well, and that's where. That's where you get away with. Not having a bass is like. Yeah. When you don't, like, just scoop the low end. You know what I mean?

And you leave one of the rhythm guitarists is, like, catching up on all that. You're like, you know, really need that bass. Like, would it sound cool with the bass? Sure. But, like, still sounds heavy. It still sounds hard.

And when you have a drummer as. Like, when you have a drummer as animalistic as Janet Weiss, you don't need it.

Use that kick to make up for the, like, thud of the bass. Yeah.

Especially on the woods, which is not the album of discussion. But if you have not heard the woods, please, I'm looking in the camera right now. Please go listen to the Woods. It's like.

It's like top five psych records ever. Please. But, yeah, the hot rock has just been on repeat lately because it's just. It's suffocating.

But it feels like you're suffocating in an open room, which I does. I can't explain it.

It's just the interplay between both guitars is so tight and the drums are so ferocious that, you know, it feels like the instruments are attacking you, but the production is so spacious.

And.

And open and clean. I just. I. I cannot get enough of it. I love Sleeter Kinney. I love them so much. If you're.

If you're listening, if you're listening, Carrie, Carrie and Corin, please come on the show. Thank you so much.

And they get played sometimes on a radio station that I hear around here sometimes.

Local radio station known as Impact 89 FM. I don't know if you guys have heard of it.

Yeah, don't switch to it right now. Finish the show first.

Finish our show first. Before you go to impact89fm, can I.

Steal it and start talking about the other MSU radio stations?

Go ahead.

Let's so WK our place of amazing classical music. And I feel like we haven't been talking about classical music enough recently. I know I bring it up all the time, but, like, I love it.

And we're always talking about the old stuff, so we gotta talk about the new stuff and newer. Ish, you know, I mean, it's not that new. But a newer composer that I really wanted to bring up is Gareth Farr. He's from New Zealand.

A lot of his influences are very, like, what we would consider, you know, eastern in terms of, like, classical music style. So the song I really want to recommend is Shadow of the Hawk. It is piano and cello.

I'm sure it's been played on some other combinations, but it is amazing. It hits, like, movie music. I don't know if it was ever in a movie. I didn't do that much research.

But, yeah, I heard it on wkr, and I was immediately like, what is this? This is so cool. And that's, like, just the best way to describe it is it's super cool. It's tense.

It's just, like, hard in a really exciting way that, like, you don't normally get out of a duet between piano and cello. You know what I mean? Two of the prettiest instruments out there. And so the one.

The little research I did do is he was very influenced by, like, Indonesian gamelan music, which is, like, super cool. And it's something that I. I learned about years ago in a music appreciation class. I was like, man, this gamelan stuff's pretty chill.

And then, like, you hear this and you're like, oh, but it doesn't have to be chill, you know, I mean, and there's some very cool stuff there. I've heard another song of his. I believe it's pronounced Waipua. W A I P O U A that I believe is influenced by Moa traditions.

I'm not certain of that, but yeah. And that's a way more chill song. Just very pretty song, but definitely not, you know, just like a pure western classical style.

You can definitely hear influences in there that are very different and that I love. Go listen to it. I could talk about it for more, but I'm not going to. Another song I want to talk about is theme Verier Opus 89 by Cecile Chaminade.

It's just a very pretty piano piece. If you like pretty piano music, go listen to it. It's amazing.

It was right around the time when, like, French or not French, rather women composers were finally being recognized and taken seriously. So it's great in that regard. Go listen to it. I love it. And one more. Running out of time.

One more woman composer that is new and is, like, actually younger than me. Don't look it up. Don't find out how old I am, please. Okay. I want to make sure I get this right. Lauren. Oh, no.

I'm just get the list.

We're just going to look it up because if I get it wrong, I'm going to feel like such a fool. Lauren. Brianna Ware. And the song that I'm specifically really liking is Moonlit Waters. Just very pretty, but still intense in very exciting ways.

It's amazing. Go listen to it. If you're like, I don't like modern classical because it's so atonal and weird. This isn't that.

But it does still, like, expand upon what classical music can be. There we go. I rushed it out.

Thank you.

Listen to classical music. I love it.

And if you want to hear any classical music or other music from any other genre that we talked about today or genres we didn't even talk about today, you can check out the Record Club. Our website will be linked with the show. You can find our schedule there. Any other information you need, past playlists, past podcast.

We're gonna be having our first summer meeting very soon, by the time this episode comes out. So check our schedule out 25th. Yep. That might be after it comes up. But anyway, if you like music, come on in. We would love to have you there.

Thank you for tuning in. We hope to see you next time. Bye. Bye.

Love you so much.

Bye Bye,