There’s three very specific feelings that I absolutely adore: the feeling of hearing an album that I just know I will come to absolutely love, the feeling of sharing an album I love with people who have never heard it before, and the feeling that you get when you hear someone talk about something with passion. So, I thought about it — and with some brainstorming assistance from the team — I thought I would mix those ideas together for a column here on the site.
Welcome to the first edition of Dead In Our Tracks, a monthly journey through the music that shapes us and makes us want to share. Each month, I’ll chat with a different artist and pick their brain about a different album. Although, they won’t be the ones picking the album in question. Each month, we’ll be talking about an album selected by the previous artist. In this inaugural edition, we will be talking to producer, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, salad enthusiast, friend, and the founder of this very website: Mike Abiuso.
Since there was no previous edition of this column, record selection duties fall on me. I chose one of my favorite records of all time: IX by folk-punk outfit Rent Strike. I simply love this record top to bottom and it has served as the soundtrack to countless foundational memories, and knowing what I know about Mike’s taste, I was hoping he’d love it too. Next time, we’ll be talking about Deloused in the Crematorium by the Mars Volta, and a playlist featuring all of the music we talked about today can be found here. That’s more than enough preamble; this is Dead in Our Tracks, let’s get to the chat.
Hey man!
How’s it going dude, it’s Mike!
Hey! Are you ready to chat? I even gave you those two extra minutes of prep time.
Yeah dude, you have me a hot two. That’s very kind of you. I’m for sure ready.
How have you been? What have you been doing in these apocalyptic times?
I’ve been getting deep into wild flavors of coffee which is pretty fun. I even got my lemon-lime big seltz for this interview.
The coolest thing about this being pre-recorded and not live is when we make our dumb in jokes like big seltz, the reader doesn’t have to subject themselves to that.
Honestly, you’re doing them a disservice by cutting that if you do. Let’s get into it though.
Yeah, we really should. Since the last time I saw you, what have you been up to?
The last couple months I haven’t been doing anything different. I have been either at home watching Schitt’s Creek — I watch an episode or two in the evening then I go to bed — or I go to the studio to record bands or solo artists or write music for people. Actually, my friend Chris and I…we grew up playing music together and now we are scoring our second feature film at the moment! I worked with Emma today. She’s one of the artists we work with here under the name Emmrose. She’s got some cool stuff going for her. I’m in this side project right now called The Mayor, which is just me and two friends from high school and college, we’ve been friends forever. It’s like a heavy Converge style project. We’re playing tomorrow, getting in the studio. I’ve been playing baritone guitar and I scream. We did a track in a day the last time they were here. All music stuff, we can’t really do much else around here.
So when you get off a long day of recording and listening to music, what music are you putting on the rotation to bring yourself down and relax?
Mike: Let it be known that I have Mariah Carey’s Daydream CD in my truck and I listen to that to and from work every day. Unless I’m on a call. So, usually that or a phone call. I have been telling people that it influences the sound of their record. I’m afraid when I say that it might ruin people’s record. When I get home, I listen to a playlist called Floating through Space which is just all ambience. One of my favorite bands is on that ambient playlist — Radiohead. One of the songs from Kid A is on that playlist. That’s a band that I can listen to any time anywhere and still enjoy it.
It took me a really long time to like Radiohead and now that I am comfortably there I get. I’m kicking myself that I missed out on the hype for so long.
Mike: Yeah, it’s a weird thing man. My high school band, we would have sleepovers and we would play music or whatever. I was at my friend’s house and he had this huge Kid A poster on his wall and I would wake up early in the morning and just stare at it. He had Spice Girls posters on the wall and all this random shit, but one day I took his CD out and put it in and I was just like: I don’t get it. I didn’t know what the hype was. In a similar realm to you, it took me a while. Then I fell in love with them. One year when I was in high school, I spent Christmas Eve at my friend’s house. I had been kicked out of my house at the time…but my friend and I — we had taken mushrooms — we watched Nightmare Before Christmas with Kid A. That sort of sealed the deal for me on how amazing that record is for me. As far as newly released music goes though: Dua Lipa. I don’t know if you watch much TV but on Netflix they have that show Song Exploder. It’s 26 minutes and her Song Exploder rules. Lizzo rules. All that feels good, new pop based off of 80s pop you know? They just take vibes from different areas and I love that.
Yeah! I don’t understand why but for some reason the 80s are back. I’m not unhappy about it because I love that synth-heavy pop but it’s bizarre that it’s in front of me all the time now.
It’s especially crazy when you are unsure what is from the 80s or what is from 2021.
I remember telling you about that synthwave supergroup with the lead singer of AFI and the rhythm section for No Doubt. The first time I heard that band — they’re called DREAMCAR — if it wasn’t for the really familiar voice I would’ve sworn up and down that it was from that era. There was a time on tour where if I was driving and the album opener All Of The Dead Girls wasn’t on, it wasn’t happening, you know? I needed that song to get my head on the drive for a little bit. That tour is why we’re talking about the record we are talking about today. IX by Rent Strike. We stayed at this person’s house in Pittsburgh who we knew through the act we were touring with at the time. We woke up the next day and were given a fat stack of Yugioh cards and an invitation to a delicious potluck breakfast at a local bookstore. Right before we piled into the van to get to the next town they gave us their album. In a zine! It was gorgeous. Instantly mesmerizing. We popped it in to the CD player in the van, and we did not take it out the rest of the next ten days we were out on the road. We ended up wearing out the CD. Knowing you, this is right up your alley, so I thought I would pick your brain on it. I want to start by asking you; before you hit play and before you went through the record and listened to it, what did you think it was going to be?
Before I hit play… well at first I saw the roman numerals and I saw the art and I figured that it was some sort of a punk band. But my opinion was less based on those things and more based on you and your pre-emphasis on how heavily you’re influenced by it. I thought it would be wonky and intense. Loud too, probably.
Had you ever heard of Rent Strike before I sent this album to you?
No, this was a brand new artist for me. I had never heard of them in my life. And I didn’t do any research as to like how big they were. But I did find out they were from the Pennsylvania area. I didn’t look into how old or large they were. I just gave this record a listen.
After a thorough listen what did you think of this record?
I think it takes you on a rollercoaster ride through totally different feels and vibes, it’s pretty raw and powerful and I didn’t expect it to be what it was at all. I didn’t expect it to be like, eclectic and celtic, really. But it is very much that.
It’s a gorgeous record; the transition between Snowdrop and The Road Giveth ranks up there as on my favorite transitions in music. My favorite track on the record is Fair Trade Death March. On this listen, what were some standouts for you?
I was thinking that Me, Myself, and the Eye reminded me a lot of Choking Victim or Leftover Crack and brought me back into that realm in addition to the dissonance of the music itself. It was so wonky. That was a standout for me. Family Graveyard and Shadow and Gloom were both very grim but also foot stomping, They reminded me of this band I toured with in 2009 I think? O’Death! Very much organic and raw punkish energy with a violin. Those two tracks reminded me a lot of the older O’Death records from when we were touring with them. High energy and folky. I love the high energy punk stuff. And then one of the tracks towards the end To The West gave me this walking through the desert kind of feel.
Let me turn this around on you and ask you a question. If you came across them through different circumstances… let’s say you didn’t have the very specific experiences with this record that you did and you just found it, do you feel like you didn’t have the same thoughts about it that you do, or does the fact that it played such an important role in an important time of your life color your experience with this project?
I think a little bit of both. That tour was incredibly important to us…as a thing that we did and the ways that we developed our lives and relationships. That was the soundtrack driving through Virginia at 5 am and driving through Chicago and all that. Pulling over on the side of the road at 3 am in Ohio with this record being the only thing you hear besides other cars. It’s the soundtrack for these huge experiences. Every time I pop on Don’t Let Love Bog You Down, I am instantly transported back there. I feel like I wouldn’t have found this record if it wasn’t for that tour. But, at the same time, If I had somehow found it, just based on the music that I listen to and vibe with and love, I would have really loved this. It’s in the Taxpayers niche that I just adore.
Let’s exchange some band recommendations based on this record
Definitely Taxpayers, Days N Daze, Leftover Crack for sure.
Word. I would also add Mischief Brew, the Pogues, Larry and His Flask, and Man Man.
Gogol Bordello, too!
Oh, yeah! For sure. Completely forgot about that band. They’re so sick!
So now it is time for us to move away from IX by Rent Strike. Mike, what is the record that we will, like a baton, pass to the next artist?
Mike: Let’s go with Deloused in the Crematorium by the Mars Volta. The members of that band, some of them were in At The Drive In, they had just released Relationship of Command. Me and my entire band from high school, my dad, and his girlfriend all went to Olive Garden. We took the two hour drive, we went to the Bowery Ballroom to see them play. My dad and his girlfriend sat in the back of the bar, and the five of us just went in. The ballroom wasn’t crowded at all, maybe there were 50 or 100 people. So we were up there. And that show changed each of our lives so much To the point where we changed everything we did as far as thinking about music. We thought that it couldn’t get any better! And then they broke up. A couple of members from At The Drive In put out this record as a new band: Deloused in the Crematorium. It was on all the time! Similar to you and the album we just talked about, this album was on all the time for us. This is when I was younger so I wasn’t touring yet, but we were playing that record at basement parties, beach parties, and it was in every one of our cars on repeat and it brings me back to that time. So I’m going to go with that album, for sure!
Mike Abiuso can be found here and here, while Rent Strike can be found here and here
