Season One: Episode Two
Doomsday Profit lead vocalist + rhythm guitarist and Ryan’s long-time creative partner-in-crime Bryan Reed joins the podcast to talk about his selection:
“Search & Destroy” by The Stooges Iggy & The Stooges
Listen on Spotify
Season One Playlist
Transcript
Bryan: Yeah. Could you imagine if Herman’s Hermits was the most influential rock band of all time?
Ryan: I’m going to have to go look that one up. I don’t think I’m actually familiar.
Bryan: Oh, you don’t know Herman’s Hermits?
Ryan: I don’t know Herman’s Hermits.
Bryan: [Sings] “Mrs. Brown you’ve got a lovely daughter.” That song, never heard it?
Ryan: It’s not ringing bells.
Bryan: Well, Herman’s Hermits, you heard it here.
Ryan: My guest on today’s episode is my good friend and creative collaborator, Bryan Reed. I first met Bryan when we were just interns at Yep Rock Records, something like 17 years ago. Bryan is solely responsible for bringing me into the local music scene here in the North Carolina Triangle (that is Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill for all you out of towners).
While my college medium was radio, his was print. Neither of us really considered ourselves musicians, which might be why it took just over a decade for us to start a band together. In 2018, we started writing songs for what would become Doomsday Profit.
Up until that point, the two of us had been on the scene sidelines supporting our musician friends via our preferred mediums of print and radio. Now we are what I call “doing the thing.” Booking shows, playing shows, recording, you know: doing the thing. I didn’t want Bryan to guest on this first season because it’s an easy and obvious way to promote our band.
No, I’ve spent long hours talking with Bryan about music and music opinions, probably more hours than the total shows we’ve played. Talking about music is one of the major pillars of our friendship. He was also instrumental in helping me workshop this idea for a podcast, so I had Bryan guest on this show because I know he’d have a really good song selection and something interesting to say about it.
Fortunately, his selection was not that Herman’s Hermits song he was singing at the start.
All right, that’s enough intro. Let’s make a mixtape.
[Intro Theme By Scotty Sandwich]
Ryan: Bryan, thank you for joining me on Let’s Make a Mixtape. You chose, for your opening track selection, the fantastic opener for The Stooges Raw Power, “Search and Destroy.” Not to be confused with Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy.”
Bryan: Also a great song, not an album opener, and I do have to make a correction. Raw Power is actually credited to Iggy & The Stooges
Ryan: Oh, okay. My bad.
Bryan: Yeah. There’s The Stooges, and then Funhouse, attributed to the Stooges, and then Raw Power is Iggy and The Stooges, and I believe that’s when they added James Williamson into the mix as well.
Ryan: Alright, if you’re gonna drop the whole music nerd thing right out the gate. I’m going to ask you, which is your favorite mix? Bowie’s mix of Raw Power or Iggy’s mix of Raw Power?
Bryan: I actually don’t have a strong preference. I have had a CD of the original mix. That’s what introduced me to it. That’s what always sounds right. But I haven’t sat down and A/B’d it. ‘Cause I don’t care that much.
Ryan: But you cared enough to pick it for this podcast.
Bryan: Yeah, it’s a great song and the song transcends the mix. The mix isn’t what makes the difference. The album’s called Raw Power, and they start off with a song that is absolutely, definitively “raw power.” That was when The Stooges, Iggy and The Stooges, clicked for me. Even in my young punk rock phase, The Stooges were a little bit too retro, too classic rock, in a way.
As a kid, I was reading about like, “Oh, what are the punk bands that I have to listen to?” And the name, The Stooges, comes up and I’d go to the record store and I’d look at the CD and it’s eight tracks and they’re all six minutes long. And I’m like, “what the hell is this? This isn’t punk rock.” And eventually, much too late, I came around and I listened to the self-titled, I listened to Funhouse and Raw Power is personally my favorite, just because it’s the one that really grabbed me first and hardest. And it was from that opening track.
Ryan: Why did you pick it? Any reasoning beyond what you just talked about?
Bryan: There’s a lot of great opening songs in the annals of music. I picked this one because it was top of mind, because we actually talked about it the other day in band practice.
Ryan: Because we were having technology issues, right?
Bryan: We were referencing that line where Iggy goes, “look out, honey, cause I’m using technology.” And we both remarked how we like to use that line in conversation with people and nobody ever gets it, but it’s such a great lyric and in a song full of them. Again, opening song from the album opening line, “I’m a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm, the runaway son of a nuclear a-bomb.”
It’s perfect. It’s, it’s so,ah, it’s just awesome.
Ryan: It’s the kind of energy that the Stooges are known for and have put their legacy into. It really is a very strong opening track. I’m very, very glad that you picked it because it really defines them. It defines an era. It defines their legacy just with that one song almost.
Bryan: I mean, I don’t know if I’d go that far. There’s so many great Stooges songs” “No fun,” “I want to be your dog,” some of the early stuff, obviously Funhouse. It gets weird and wild and kind of goes back to how they were more like an art project, experimental performance art thing at the very beginning. Honestly, Raw Power is the most rock and roll.
It’s the most straightforward and least psychedelic, least exploratory Stooges record. If anything, you could argue it was kind of a sellout record because they tightened everything up and just made it loud rock and roll, especially after the weirdness of Funhouse. But like I said, it’s my favorite and I have actually put it on mixtapes in the past just because it’s such a great song.
It’s one of those that, I don’t know, just moments in music that whenever it comes on: mood elevated. A lot of Stooges songs can have that effect. But this was the one that, like I said, hit me first and hardest, and then kind of made way for all the other songs for me to finally go, Oh. Yeah, this is awesome.
You know, I kind of revisited it a bit. I think it was last year when we all got into No Dogs in Space and they did that long series on The Stooges, which was fantastic.
Ryan: And listeners, if you have not listened to No Dogs in Space, definitely go listen to No Dogs in Space. Also spend, I don’t know, what? 10… 15… hours listening to their multi-part series on The Stooges because it is worth it and it is fantastic.
Bryan: I don’t know if it’s quite that long, but yeah, it’s a, it’s a few hours.
Ryan: It’s a, it’s a time commitment, but it’s, it’s worth it. And they, they talk about Iggy Pop and his bird [BiggyPop]
Bryan: Yeah. Iggy Pop and other pets that he has. That was one of the things like when it felt like the band was kind of starting to build some momentum and we were really gelling as a group and we were all kind of listening to the same thing and then getting into The Stooges.
I think was the one that we were all just sort of like, yes, The Stooges and Dead Kennedys were the two series that they did that we were like, “yeah, we need to go back and listen to all those records.” And I mean, I was really into the one on The Cramps and Suicide was great. And it was cool to kind of revisit all that early punk rock in a deep way.
That music was really formative for me in a lot of ways. Especially just what sounds good to me, but it was also kind of cool to revisit and deep dive into those records and those bands at the same time as you and the other guys were, that’s what we were talking about when we took breaks, “did you like the Iggy mix or the Bowie mix?”
Ryan: And even for me, I had never even done a deep dive before I I’d listened to The Stooges, I had enjoyed The Stooges, but I finally took time I spent time with the Stooges and some of those other bands, which I hadn’t before.
Bryan: Yeah. And I’m sure they really appreciate the academic approach to their music.
Ryan: Uh, it sounds so shitty.
Bryan: You really get the terroir of mid-seventies Detroit.
Ryan: It was a good year.
Bryan: That’s the exact opposite of everything they were about. It was literally shoot-from-the-hip, gnarly rock and roll and. The legends around all of that and all of the antics and sex, drugs and rock and roll that they got into is a whole thing, but honestly is kind of just trivia more so than a lot of bands of that era or really any era.
They really stand up. I listened to The Stooges today and it still sounds powerful for me. Bands from decades past, there’s a lot of stuff that I listened to. It’s like, “oh, that’s cool.” And I kind of see where the influence was and where it fits in the evolution of different strains of rock and roll.
There’s not a ton of bands from the 60s or 70s that I listen to regularly that still feel as potent, just because music moves on, production values move on. And I guess something that simultaneously feels of an era, but also outside of time. Deep Purple’s great, but a lot of times when I listen to Deep Purple, I just, it feels like I’m listening to 70s rock, which is great.
And sometimes I’m in the mood for it, but Black Sabbath or The Stooges, it doesn’t matter what year it is or anything. It’s still sounds to me, just monumental.
Ryan: You could put them on a mixtape with a modern punk or garage band and it wouldn’t feel out of place.
Bryan: I mean, I know we’re here to talk about mixtapes, but, and like where, where songs fit, but it’s not even just the songs with any band, any album, there are certain songs that stick harder individually, it’s just something about what that band was able to do in that period of time.
Sabbath, again, I say Black Sabbath, but we can infer that I’m really talking about the first handful of albums, not even the last ones with Ozzy, but everything up to and including Sabotage and minus, like, I’m going to be honest here, maybe a hot take: I think you could get rid of a third of Vol. 4 and not miss anything.
There’s some stuff on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath that I could probably do without, but the first three albums and then the vast majority of Sabotage and the highlights of Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, there’s your mixtape.
Just all of the good ideas that Sabbath had minus a few of the cocaine-fueled detours and we don’t need Ozzy’s changes anymore. Lee Fields took care of that or wait, it was Charles Bradley, wasn’t it? I think it was Charles Bradley.
Ryan: Yeah, it was Charles Bradley. Yeah, yeah.
Bryan: In any case, it worked really well as a soul song.
Ryan: Yeah. And as the opener to Big Mouth.
Bryan: That too.
Ryan: I definitely prefer the soul version to the original. For sure. But, personal preference. I’m sure there are many people out there that will send hate mail of how much they love the Ozzy version.
Bryan: You’re in this boat with me, but I’m the one opening my big mouth and I’m in a doom band, so I’m just blaspheming all over. The sacred texts.
Ryan: It’s all right. Maybe I’ll edit that one out.
Bryan: I’m going to try to keep talking longer so that just, yeah, that’s the nadir of this interview. That’s what hits the cutting room floor. Patreon subscribers only.
Ryan: You can hear Bryan’s hot takes for a low, low price of $5 a month. Bryan talks shit about his favorite bands. If I do a Patreon, maybe that’s something that I’ll offer up and I’ll give you 50% of the cut. Maybe that’s just something we should do for the, for the band is have a Patreon subscription Where all it is, is just you just ranting about hot takes for bands.
Bryan: I feel like it has to be hot takes of bands that I actually love very dearly.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise it just becomes shitty.
Bryan: You know, back when I was writing a lot, especially like early in my writing career, writing a really scathing review was always kind of fun. And you’re just like, “Oh yeah, I really took it to them.”
I look back on that now and. Some of the writing itself was kind of fun because it’s always fun to come up with clever ways to skewer somebody verbally, but it helps no one. Negative criticism is important but, especially when you’re talking about lesser known acts, albums that are not blockbusters, a teardown review serves no one.
“Oh, so I shouldn’t buy that record that I wasn’t going to buy anyway.” I always hated when people would be like, “Hey, could you help us promote this record?” No, I’m a critic. I’ll assess it. I’ll, I’ll review it, but I’m not doing it to promote you. This isn’t for you. It’s for the people reading it who are trying to figure out what’s going on in music.
What should I fill my head with? And what shouldn’t I? The more I got around to it, is sort of like, I just assume most stuff is going un-listened-to, and I don’t need to encourage somebody to not listen to something they’re already not listening to. Save the teardowns for U2.
Ryan: It just seems like a better use of everyone’s time and, you know, to a degree, emotional energy.
Bryan: You kind of figure out early on when you are listening to dozens of records a week. And different stuff. Honestly, most stuff that’s coming out is fine. You know, there’s probably somebody for it. Everything is derivative of something. It’s just a matter of how is it hitting you individually.
There’s literally nothing new under the sun. We’re all working with the same ingredients. And at least in Western music, the same 12 pitches, there’s only so much you can do. And most of us aren’t that special or that lucky that all of the right confluence of sound and look and timing and substance all congeal, you know, like they did for The Stooges.
Hey, brought it back.
Ryan: Yeah. Rewound that tape and hit play.
Bryan: They really were kind of a lightning in a bottle thing. It’s hard to imagine that they could have come out and done the same thing, and had the same legacy even 10, 15 years later. Even though, like I said, it still sounds super fresh and explosive and exciting to me today.
I don’t think they could have come out later or earlier and done the same thing and been as successful. I also literally don’t think they could have come out at any other time from any other place and done the same thing, period.
Ryan: Reflecting on it, it’s really interesting how it is a product of an era, but it’s completely timeless.
And I think that’s definitely credit to, to the band and also to the, to the time. And the perfect confluence of all of the factors going into it.
Bryan: Legacy is a self-fulfilling thing, right? Part of the reason we’re still talking about Iggy and The Stooges today is because a bunch of other bands that got successful and influential saw them and heard them and were like, “Wow, this is incredible! I want to do something like that!” And then they talk about it. And the fact that they were involved with The New York punk scene, as it was taking off, and bands like The Velvet Underground and Ramones and Blondie, and they were all part of those same circles, and then the connections with David Bowie, they’re all fueling each other’s gravitas by association.
I’m sure there’s work involved and personal circumstances, but also luck. If they’d never gotten out of Detroit, we wouldn’t have heard them, and we wouldn’t be talking about it.
Ryan: I’m sure there’s an alternate universe where The Beatles weren’t at the right place at the right time, and there was some other band got picked-up and became the massively influential pop-rock sensation.
Bryan: Yeah, could you imagine if Herman’s Hermits was the most-influential rock band of all time?
Ryan: I’m gonna have to go look that one up. I don’t think I’m actually familiar.
Bryan: Oh, you don’t know Herman’s Hermits? I don’t know Herman’s Hermits. [Sings] “Mrs. Brown, you’ve got a lovely daughter!” That song? Never heard it?
Ryan: It’s not ringing bells.
Bryan: Okay, well, Herman’s Hermits. You heard it here. Actually, it probably would have been the kinks, but yeah. Yeah. What’s she going to do? It would have been somebody who played in a skiffle band. That much is for certain.
Ryan: Yeah. It is interesting to. I think a lot of The Beatles notoriety has to do with, there’s definitely some, some magic that they had going, some really strong talent and the ability to write a good hook and write a really good pop rock song.
Bryan: Ringo notwithstanding.
Ryan: I’m not gonna dunk on Ringo.
Bryan: I generally am not on the dunk on Ringo camp for the record. “Yellow Submarine” should not exist in this world.
Ryan: Yeah. I kind of pretend it doesn’t exist, but it’s so hard.
Bryan: It’s so hard to do that,
Ryan: Especially when we all live there.
Bryan: Going into the whole time and place and, and all of that. I said, the Stooges, when I first heard them, 30 plus years after they came out, it didn’t sound like punk to me. It didn’t sound like what I expected when you’re talking about punk bands. I mean, honestly, the MC5 had a little bit more of that kind of driving, chugging, punk rock feel and of course, “kick out the jams motherfuckers!”
That made sense. The Stooges were weird. I mean, even on the first record, the songs are longer and more just drawn out. And some of it is pretty succinct. Those are the singles, so to speak, right? “I Want to be Your Dog,” “No Fun,” those kinds of things, that you get it. It doesn’t feel like the Ramones or The Clash, much less Minor threat or Black Flag, kind of understanding the context in sort of time and place.
I learned more about that and actually heard some of these ostentatious prog rock bands that the punks were rebelling against and it really did start to make sense. As weird as they got, it always felt street-level. It didn’t feel theatrical, it didn’t feel costumed or grandiose in any way.
Ryan: It felt like they were literally experimenting with sound.
Felt more like they were constructing something for the, the quest of doing so.
Bryan: Yes, but not in a…
Ryan: Not as pretentiously as I just phrased it.
Bryan: Yeah, no, like it doesn’t… The Stooges don’t feel like an arty band. I know that’s part of what is going on. Factually, based on what they have said that was influencing them and things, but it doesn’t feel that way.
It feels dangerous. When you think about 50s rock music and how people are like, “Oh, it’s causing juvenile delinquency.” It feels like Link Wray. It feels like “Rumble.” And for me, Raw Power is the album that does that more so than the others. It feels more redlined all the way through in the recording. It’s just blown out and it feels much more muscular and massive than the previous albums.
I know now, thanks No Dogs in Space, that their compromise with John Cale in producing the first record was that they would turn the amps down to nine, and that was a hard fought compromise. Those are loud, ballsy records, too. Raw Power just… For me, that’s the one and it gives you danger. It does. In fact, have you seen the, the Jim Jarmusch documentary?
It’s worth watching. It’s on Prime. If you want to venture back down the Stooges rabbit hole.
Ryan: It’s been on the list for forever, but there’s so much music to listen to and so many things to watch that my mind only has so much time in the day to digest it.
Bryan: Yeah. So we’re going to create more media about media people should consume.
Ryan: Exactly.Exactly. Now you’re getting it.
Bryan: The Ouroboros of media consumption and creation. People who create media are the most voracious consumers of it, right?
Ryan: You’re stating that it is fact so I assume that it is.
Bryan: I mean, I don’t have statistics to back that up. I just feel like writers read a lot. Musicians listen to a lot of music.
You have to know the vernacular that you’re working in. You got to know the medium. You can’t do this without a lot of context into what mixtapes are and the purposes that they served and all the bands and the songs that you’re talking about. And if I recall the lore correctly, Iggy worked at a record store.
He was in bands before The Stooges. He was a drummer for The Iguanas. There’s your Iggy trivia. It doesn’t come from nothing. There’s always that sense that something like this is just sort of birthed like Venus fully formed. There’s just a big grimy Detroit seashell that The Stooges stepped out of, slathered in peanut butter and silver spray paint. That’s just not true. And, knowing all the things that they were a part of and aware of, it adds context. It gives more stuff to go explore and listen to, but kind of reiterates every song is in conversation with every other song one way or another.
Sorry, I’ve wasted my entire life listening to records.
Ryan: It hasn’t gone to waste. I think that was a quite insightful point to end this on.
Bryan: Well, I mean, it’s maybe insightful, but only in, inside that world of songs. I guess it’s useful for this podcast.
Ryan: It’s quite useful for this podcast because each song has a conversation with each other song on the ultimate final mixtape.
Bryan: Circling all the way back to the original question, “why did I pick this song?” I was thinking of a number of different things. It didn’t take very long because it was top of mind since we’d been talking about it. It seemed fitting for this occasion because we had been talking about it at band practice because so much of our friendship is based on a mutual love of music and sharing new bands and new songs and new sounds and trying to make some of our own and the way that we interact with it.
I know it’s a weird thing in terms of the broader world around us, but most of my closest friendships are pretty well-rooted in music, and if they’re not, they are shaped by it all the same, because it’s the people that I go to shows with, the people that I grew up with, hearing new things and pestering them to go listen to the Dead Kennedys, or whatever, and I’m excited to hear what the other guests choose and kind of how that fits.
You know, the real challenge for this season is going to be figuring out which of the first songs goes first. “Which is the ultimate first song?” In an ideal world, you would just have 12 interviews all about “Search and Destroy” by Iggy and The Stooges. Yeah,
Ryan: Because that is the correct answer.
Bryan: Yeah, it really is.
Ryan: Well, thank you so much for helping me make a mixtape.
Bryan: I’m excited to listen to this mixtape. I mean, I know what the highlight for me is going to be, but maybe I’ll hear something new and exciting. Maybe I’ll start second-guessing my choice.
Ryan: You should. You should second-guess it. There’s some, there’s some interesting stuff coming.
Bryan: I don’t know. It’s Iggy and the Stooges.
Ryan: It’s Iggy and the Stooges.
Bryan: It’s going to be tough.
Ryan: How much of this going in did you see it as like a competition angle when I asked you?
Bryan: Oh, not at all. The prompt, “best or favorite first song” is catnip to music nerds. Desert Island Top Five. It’s like that kind of question.
Which probably isn’t the prompt that’s going to take you the deepest into my being or my life story. It’s just a chance for me to kind of geek out about a song I really like. But I also kind of feel like if you’re not the type of person who can’t hang with me or any of your other guests talking for half an hour about a song they really like, then this probably isn’t the podcast for you.
Ryan: Yeah. I have a feeling listeners will figure that out, uh, hopefully sooner than later.
Bryan: Yeah. Well, if they don’t, I’m here and I can go longer.
Ryan: That is all the time-
Bryan: That’s an open offer/threat.
Ryan: Well, always a pleasure to talk music with you. I know we do this. Pretty much, uh, weekly, if not daily.
Bryan: Yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow at band practice tomorrow.
Ryan: Yeah I’ll see you at band practice tomorrow we’ll probably do some version of this, not recorded.
Big thanks to Bryan for basically letting me record just one of our normal conversations. If you’re curious about Doomsday Profit, I’m gonna put a little track in here for you. This is “Consume the Remains” off of our debut album In Idle Orbit.
Ryan: Thank you so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe or write a review within your podcast service. to feed those algorithm gods of show notes and transcript can be found at letsmixtape.com. Follow the pod on at @letsmixtape on your preferred social channel. The music was composed by the one and only Scotty Sandwich.
Tune in next week as I talk with Rock N Roll Bedtime Stories podcaster Mark Murdock.