Who are we?
Liam (aka the zoomer musician)
Music is my life, and rock and roll is my religion. I fell in love with classic rock growing up (thanks pops!) and learned to play guitar and write music. I later co-founded the band Back Alley Miracle, and I'm currently chasing the dream with my bandmates. To me, what makes rock and roll special is its ability to authentically and powerfully express any emotion. Whether I'm angry, happy, sad, contemplative, melancholy, or anything in between, I know there's an album, a band, or a song to fit my mood. When I think of what makes an album great, two things pop into my head: authenticity, meaning the art I'm experiencing can trace its origins back to the heart of the artist, and vision, meaning that every choice on an album was made for a reason (not necessarily a good one). To me, this podcast is an opportunity to listen to a bunch of music with my dad, and while it'll definitely be cool to crown a winner, at the end of the day I'll have a blast regardless of which year ends up on top.
Pops (aka the boomer music historian)
This is Pops. Yes, I’m a boomer, so my love of music was cultivated on ‘60s and ‘70s classic rock. My earliest memory was watching the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and I was hooked. The first vinyl album I bought was Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. I obsessed over that album for weeks, playing it constantly, poring over the trippy cover art and liner notes, and playing air guitar and air drums to many of the songs. But my love of music is not just about the finished product. I am also acutely interested in the process of music-making: from the incubation of song concepts to the techniques used to produce the desired effects. Besides listening to music, I love reading about the making of music and have consumed many articles as well as books about the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, and others. Having a son born on the cusp of a new century has rekindled my love of music through introducing him to many of the sounds of my formative years. In turn, he has turned me on to a lot of new sounds that I probably would not have heard otherwise. Over the years, we have had countless conversations about music, and this podcast is an outgrowth of that shared interest, which we hope will be of interest to many others.