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Hello, friends, and welcome to Coach Cut's Corner.

Streaming bright from Michigan's capital city.

This podcast is dedicated to helping you better understand the who, the what and the why of mental performance, personal growth, and Lansing Stars baseball.

Down on the victory line.

Coach Cuts Corner, brought to you by Eyewash in collaboration with Lansing Community College. And now, here's your host, Stephen Cutter.

Welcome to Coach Kutt's Corner, where we challenge limits, push for greatness, and develop athletes who thrive on and off the field. We built a program centered on discipline, self belief and relentless preparation. Each week I bring you insights from my coaching journey, conversations with high performers and lessons that drive winning habits. If you're serious about growth, whether as a player, coach or leader, you're in the right place. Let's get after it. Today we're breaking down self belief, why it's the difference maker and how you can build it. Jeff's with me today. Jeff, when you think about self belief in sports, what comes to mind?

I think that there are a lot of things that go into self belief. I think that it's, it's kind of a process, more than just one thing. I believe that it really starts with having a big goal, you know, and then you develop a plan towards that goal and then you put in action and when things get hard, I think the positive self talk can kind of play a big key into that. I think that when you really boil it down though, it really comes down to that action that you put into your goal because that confidence comes from that preparation.

Yeah, I think it's not just confidence, it's trust in yourself with the ability to figure things out. I believe that true self belief is not loud. It's built through consistency and it's built through actions and it's built through work and not words. And often have used Henry Ford's quote of whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And I've used that for, it feels like a number of years now and really seen players with like all the talent in the world struggle because they didn't believe in themselves. And the opposite is also true. Guys with less talent but also have extreme beliefs in their work end up winning. And we talk a lot, you know, internal with our coaches and stuff about how we're really careful not to impact the self belief. If somebody has a higher belief than them themselves, than what they actually are able to do, we really don't touch that because it's so hard to build self belief. You need processes and it's really hard. If you're just going to rely on success in life to build self belief, you don't get a ton of that all the time. So your self belief is going to grow and then it's going to shrink and then it's going to grow and then it's going to shrink with every failure. And so you got to have some processes in place and it becomes one of these things that it's super important to have a belief system. And we really saw it firsthand. I mean that our first year here, that team that went to the college World Series went 44 and 11 that year. That was a absolute study of a belief system. Absolute 100%. So when you see things like that and you can look back on it, you can really take a lot of notes from things like that. You can say, wow, the belief system is so important for yourself or your team or just the individuals in itself.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Do you believe that self belief is a skill, not a trait?

I think that it is definitely a skill that you can develop. I think that some people are born with kind of a higher self belief system, but it can always be grown through repetition and through, you know, 100%.

People assume confidence is something you either have or you don't, which is also false. Self belief is built, just as you said, with, with repetitions. It's, it's built the same way a great swing or a dominant fastball is. Will stick to baseball only, but it's reps, it's preparation and it's the, the big C word. Consistency is a superpower. It's built through those things. Yeah, it's, it's developed through skill and it's, it's not the, the will to win that matters. I, I think everybody has that right. You know, I mean, everybody wants to win. It's. It comes down to the will to prepare, which goes into the consistency and you start building it. Jeff, you worked with a lot of players. What have you seen that separates those who build belief from those who don't?

Well, it really goes back to what you were just talking about. That will to prepare and that will to win, kind of. And the will to win doesn't necessarily mean everything in that situation. Cause like you said, everybody's going into it wanting to win. I don't think anybody goes and competes and wants to lose. But I think that the thing that really separates people is, is that mindset of being able to handle those failures and moments and realize that that's not the end of the line. You Know that there's going to be another opportunity and that failure in itself is an opportunity to learn and grow from it. I think the guys that are able to do that really flourish when they have a high self belief system. But the guys that aren't able to see that really are kind of what we consider streaky players. You know, they'll get the super high highs and the super low lows and.

The roller coaster for sure.

Yep.

I think there's some enemies of self belief. I think there's a lot of them, but kind of want to talk about a few of them. Comparison is the first one I want to talk about that really affects self belief and comparison theory. And when you're constantly comparing yourself to somebody else, you're always going to find somebody that is better. And whatever that better might be is going to be defined by you, whatever you're looking for. The same could be said though with the comparison that you can always find somebody that's had it worse. But very seldom does our minds go to who has it worse. We're always looking for who has it better. And so comparison is the thief of joy and it is the enemy of self belief. And then the external validation. If you're going around looking for external validation to grow your self belief, that's going to be pretty challenging. You're going to have to be in a pretty special environment where somebody is telling you you're doing a great job every 15 seconds for that self belief to keep growing. And then finally one of the biggest ones, fear of failure. Yeah, that is that that fear is, is a real thing and it sits there. And the fear of failure affects your self belief immensely because you're just always worried about what could happen.

Yep.

And then it goes back to like what you were talking about where you're riding a roller coaster and the winds feel great that you have in your day and the losses feel absolutely horrible and the self belief system is just going up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. Have you noticed anything in your journey about the, the comparison theory or fear of failure? As you know, when I, as I'm kind of talking about these stories a little bit, is there some things that pop up to you?

Yeah. From, from a personal standpoint, I think I kind of fell into, into that trap of the comparison and it never really helped me. I mean it motivated me at times. But then when you kind of take a step back you realize that everybody's running a different race. And I think that it's important to really Boil it down to you versus you and are you getting better today than you were yesterday? Kind of just lining up those smaller goals and knocking them down to build that self confidence. And I think that goes a long way.

Yeah, I remember when I was trying to get into coaching, starting the first piece of the journey, the comparison theory was running wild because I'm looking around at everything that was better. Every coach that was at this level or knew this or was speaking here or impacting here. And it was incredibly tough on the belief system. And if you have a, if your belief systems challenge, you're going to have a hard time leading others as well. And so I struggled with a lot of that. I remember going in and speaking to a coach. He was the head baseball coach at Hope College and it was Stu Fritz and he was there for a long time and had a ton of success. And you know, this was probably 10 years ago at this point. And I went into his office and I was asking him all kinds of questions. And I remember he, he talked about the comparison theory and that comparison was the thief of joy. And you know, I was taking notes, but that was one of the things that stuck with me. And as I used it more, it became more about like what you were saying, like you have to run your own race. You can't constantly looking around at what everybody else is doing. And I think in today's society it makes it really hard for us because it's. What everybody else is doing is so easily available because of our phones and computers and, and things like that. But I was, I know you've worked with a lot of players and what, what do you think is one of the biggest mistakes you see young athletes make when it comes to self belief?

One of the biggest mistakes I think that I've seen is, is kind of, I guess I would call it false confidence where you're, you have that confidence in yourself but you have not put those actions into place. So I think that that, that can really be detrimental. You know, you, and that's really where you see a lot of the, the guys that ride the super high highs and the super low lows and kind of that emotional roller coaster. But I think that just having that base confidence, or what I just called false confidence is, is a really great stepping stone. I think that somebody just needs to put it into perspective for those players that have that said false confidence and just let them know that there is a process to it and it's not just, you know, walking out there with your chest big and you know Thinking that you're, you're the greatest out there. You have to put in the work in order to see those results. And the more work you put in, the more results you end up seeing.

Yeah, it's really solid. And, you know, we kind of talked about the enemies of it. I want to talk about the other side of it, you know, the other side of self belief. And that's when athletes bet on themselves. Oh, yeah. And that's one of those things that, yeah, you're like, yeah, I love to see that.

The best story.

You don't, you don't see it all the time. And so I'd like to label that as it's an outlier. I want to talk about Jose Altuve real quick. You know, he was too small to make it. It's, you know, I'm sure you remember the Jose Tuve story.

Oh, yeah.

But I'll talk about a little bit. Like, he went, he went to an open try and they basically labeled him as too small. They thought he was older than what he was. He was lying about his age. They told him to go home. Basically, he came back the next day and kind of, you know, really just begged to give him an opportunity to go on the field and, and take batting practice. And somebody allowed him to do that. And he put on an absolute show. So his actions, they signed him for, for, for a ridiculously low amount. I think it was around 10 or 15,000 that day. After that, you know, and, and I think everybody kind of knows the rest of the story. Yeah, but, but that's what it looks like. You know, that's a great story for what it looks like to bet on yourself when people are telling you you can't do it. If you struggle with self belief, you will never get to that point.

No. Right.

And so that's how I'm important. It is, but I mean, do you relate to the Altuve story? Did you understand that story and, and know it?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I knew that one very well because I feel like I always kind of fell into that category of, of, you know, being undersized. But I, I think that players and people hearing that story, it really gives you some motivation to, to know that, like, yeah, there might be some people along the way that don't think that you can do it. But as long as you believe that you can do it and you put in and, you know, just having a mindset of just give me one shot, let me show you. I'm not going to give you a choice. I think that that's that's, that's an amazing story and I think a lot of people can learn from that.

Do you think you could share maybe from a coach's perspective how maybe we, or you have evaluated players beyond raw ability, where you're looking for some of that stuff?

Yeah, yeah. I think that a big thing that I look for in players is how they respond to failure. I think that you can, you can tell a lot about a person's personality and the way they carry themselves, of how they react when they, you know, things aren't going great when they're over three, are they going back to the dugout and slamming a helmet or, you know, getting mad at teammates and pointing fingers. And I think that the great team players and the guys that are really instrumental pieces to those great teams are able to kind of take those failures and learn from them. And you know, like we talk about pretty often that five second rule, you know, you sit on it, you respond and then you keep moving forward, you go to the next pitch and you do whatever you can to help the team win. And I think that being able to do that, you're going to see a lot more success because you're not really relying so much on your own personal statistics, but more so just helping the team win.

Yeah, you're talking a lot about emotional toughness, but you're also hitting really heavily on the belief system. And whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're most often going to be right. And when you fail, if your belief system isn't really high, it's, it's frustrating and you're not sure if you can actually get back up off the mat again. If your belief system's high, you just look at it as a bump in the road. It still is not great. It's, it's not a fun thing to fail, but it's a bump in the road and you know you're going to get back up and that's the difference. And I really believe that there's ways to build unshakable self belief and ways to build belief systems. And it starts with, with action and it starts with the ability to stack proof to yourself daily. And that proof can come in a lot of forms and we don't have, we don't record long enough podcasts to talk about all the forms, but the proof can, can, can show up daily with what you do. And that's through process and, and that's, and that's 100% on you. And when you do these Things that stacks proof for you that, oh, the belief system is starting to grow because I'm doing these plus ones. I'm, I'm winning this moment. And that's where the belief system starts growing. I think another one would be controlling your input, meaning, you know, the not looking around at all times to see what others are doing. You're, you're controlling the input. You're controlling what's going into your mind, what you're seeing. Social media, once again, is one of those things where you don't have any control. You're taking in things. Not all those things are bad by any stretch, but you're taking in stuff and you don't have any control over it. And that's where the, like the comparison theory will start. Driving, oh, look at this person driving this car, this Lambo, you know, whatever it might be. And then the next thing, which I'll let you speak on a little bit, but really trying to detach from the results or the outcomes. Can you speak on that a little bit?

Yeah. Kind of goes back to what I was talking about a minute ago of realizing that that failure isn't the end of the line. You know, it's more so about doing whatever you can to move forward and to learn from that failure. And, you know, when you're able to do that, the game kind of slows down and it becomes a lot more simple. And the higher the level you get in different sports, the more the game kind of speeds up on you. And any way that you can learn to slow down is extremely beneficial. So I think that breaking it down into, you know, not, not necessarily, completely ignoring the failures because there's always something that you can learn from them, but being able to take that and just keep moving with it.

Being able to detach from the outcomes is a hard thing for everybody. I believe it's been putting. Put into us from grade school.

Yeah.

And you're rewarded for passing the test or doing great on the test. You're rewarded for scoring 20 points. You're, you know, you're rewarded for all these things. You get medals, etcetera, etcetera. Being able to detach from the outcome and focus more on what your process is. Reward yourself for your processes.

Yeah.

Not somebody else's processes, but your processes. What, what does it take to have a plus one here? And, you know, we talk about the snooze button, we talk about making your bed, you know, whatever it might be, it. That doesn't have to be for everybody, but it needs to be. You need to define what your process is and then beyond the fourth thing, beyond stacking proof, controlling your input, detaching from outcomes, the last thing is winning the mental battle.

Yeah.

And that's your voice in your head saying there's somebody better. You're not enough. You can't do this. You that to really stack self belief, you have to win the metal mental battle. And sometimes the best way to do that is stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think a really great example of that is, you know, a guy that had probably one of the highest self belief systems and Kobe Bryant, you know, they asked him are you ever nervous to take that, that game winning shot? And he responded, no, I've, I've done it a million times. Why would I be nervous now?

Right.

You know, it's just being able to reinforce the work that you've done and go into it with confidence from that work.

What she's talking about, you know, he probably did it, you know, so many times in his head. He did it so many times on the court, he did it so many times in practice. It's one of those things where it's a process. Quick question for you. What's a moment where you had to bet on yourself?

I feel like there's been a lot in my life really love that. Yeah, I just, I, I kind of enjoy being bet against. So I, I feel like that's a, that's a big key for me. But one instance that I, I think of specifically is after my shoulder surgery in 2016, I had, I got my shoulder surgery and I was going through the rehabilitation process. And during that time we ended up having a coaching change at the school that I was at. So I was, you know, kind of stuck without a school to play at for the next year. And yeah, I had people telling me, you know, maybe, maybe you should just hang it up, maybe you should, you know, just get a, get a full time job, you know, join the union. And I was, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, there's, there's different paths for everybody. But I just knew that, that that was not my goal and that I still had unfinished business. So I bet on myself and I moved down to San Angelo, Texas with my best friend from high school and he was going through a rehabilitation process at that time too. And you know, we thought there's not a better opportunity for both of us to come back from this. So went down there and we treated every day like it was, it was going to be the day that we had an opportunity to, to go and make another team. So I, I mean we were throwing every day, lifting every day, eating right, you know, kind of, kind of studying up on the mental game. Not as much as I have recently, but starting to, starting to study it and I went and tried out for a couple schools down there and fell, fell a little short, you know, kind of going back to the undersized thing. And I thought that man, if I'm that close to making these teams, then there's definitely somewhere that I can keep playing. So even after going down there and what some people would kind of see as a failure of not making those teams, I said I'm just going to keep going. And I found Bay College in the next year or so and was lucky enough to go and play on that first year team there. And I think through those kind of trials and tribulations I really developed a lot of self belief and kind of helped me step into a leadership role there. And from there I kind of realized that I can carry that into coaching and I think that I'm still kind of kind of betting on myself and there's no better way to do it. I don't think.

I love that. That's it. Start stacking proof. You don't need permission to believe in yourself. You just need to put in the work and the action. Let's make it happen. Make winning in life your habit, not your goal. Excellence isn't an outcome, it's a daily standard. My mission is to build athletes and teams that compete at the highest level, not just on game day, but in every aspect of their journey. Build the right habits, lead with the right intent and push yourself beyond the limits others set for you. And don't forget to cherish the small moments. They'll pass by in a blink of an eye. Until next time, keep stacking bricks and go stars. Coach Cutscorner is recorded live in the WLNZ Studios with the Dallian Lowry and Jereny Robinson providing engineering and production assistance. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please share it and follow us on all forms of social media. Our program has been built and maintained with the help of many great people. If you want to be part of our mission, you can donate using the link in the show notes below. You can learn more@coachcutter.com and more about our team@lccstars.com See you next time.

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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 everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Now Spinning. I'm Simon Medina and with me today.

I have Jacob Zocvic, Leo Ackerman.

Today we have another interesting little meeting we did and this One was on October 8th of 2024. And the theme of this meeting we finally have themes again is space.

Space.

Yeah. Pretty cool. I thought that was a fun theme because it was, it was like open ended. Anything that's vaguely space related. There's a lot of music like that.

And we had a lot of people really sticking to it. Like, normally we have like, maybe what, a quarter? Like, or less. I mean, less than half buy into the theme. This one was over half.

People liked it a lot. And we started off fittingly with the song Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band with the space intro before that.

Space intro? Yeah. Just an outstanding, still somewhat experimental use of synths in rock music. Steve Miller Band, just like a great kind of high energy rock band that really, really made that transition into adding synth without changing how it was gonna work. You know what I mean? They don't sound futuristic or spacey except when they want to. And when they want to, they nail it. I mean, like, Fly Like An Eagle is an iconic song, almost not a rock song. But then the entire rest of that album is like, pretty good rock album. Yeah, it. It really builds energy, especially with the intro into the song. Into the, like, guitar heavy songs that follow it.

Right? Yeah. I mean, this is the only Steve Miller Band I've, like, actually listened to all the way through. And it's the only one I own. But I really do enjoy this album. Again, like you said, tasteful use of synthesizer. It's not, like, overpowering or anything, but still experimental. Absolutely. No, they found the balance for it, for sure. There's one other song on this album as well that I thought also fit the space theme that I would have played if I was there. Which I think was Wild Mountain Honey. Just because they say we're lost in space in it. And I thought that would work. Good album. Following that up, though, we have the song Space Lab by Kraftwerk.

French Craft. Craft. Verk.

I'm not Verk with the We're Americans, so.

Kraftwerk. If I'm not mistaken, they're pretty beloved in the club. Or at least by Steve.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I'm honestly not too familiar with their work. I've liked what I've heard. I love Computer World. You know, I just. I'm not.

I listen to Autobond. I have that one.

Oh, yeah, that's got plenty of stuff. I hate to say it. They have plenty of stuff that's kind of skippable if you're not into that style of music. Yeah, it's very repetitive electronic music. It's very. I mean, German electronic music was extremely experimental at the time. And they really drove the genre in those early days. And some of it, like craftwerk never falls into, like, being like Custer, where it's bordering on ambient sounding, you know. I mean, their stuff is still clearly being influenced by, like, Disco sounds and things that are happening at the time. And there's an energy.

Also Kraut rock, that's another big influence because I. I don't know much about Kraftwerk, but what I do know is that a few of the members from I think it's called Noi were actually in. They like started craftwork and they branched off from Noi. And that's where the. Where the repetitiveness comes in is that big kraut rock influence, I'd say.

Yeah. This song especially though, I think is heavily influenced by like disco sounds, though.

Oh, yeah.

Good song, though. I love this one.

Yeah. And just go check out Kraftwerk. Just a really cool experimental electronic sound. Kind of like we were saying with Steve Miller Band, but from a very different angle. A very different take on it.

Yeah, definitely.

But still just very cool. Highly recommend.

Following this one up, we have another space themed song, if you'll believe that. And that is you Are My Starship. And I believe you have something you'd like to share about that album.

Yeah. So I brought this in. I had never heard of this before. I saw a YouTube video about this song talking about how the bass part is freaking wild. And it is. So Norman Connors is a drum player and an arranger and he put this album together. But the actual song is written by Michael Henderson, who would go on to find solo success. But this was before any of that. So he wrote and performed this song and he played bass on it. And he's a really good bassist and writes not parts that aren't very complex, but do do in the song what they need to do and can be very driving. And this one is so fascinating because at the end of the chorus, he uses chords on the bass, which is already rather unusual, and he's sliding them down a little bit. And it's not in the key. Like it's openly dissonant with what's happening. And there's no resolution to the chord progression in the chorus. So the chorus in so many songs to get people with like a hook ends with a move by like a fourth or a fifth or something, often back to the root or stuff like that to give the chorus really strong, like resolved sound to make you like feel good about the chorus. And this is the opposite. The whole chorus is like just creamy smooth, like spacey. Like, it really does sound spacey. It's still having this like pleasing sound. But then all of a sudden at the end of the chorus, the lyric is, but don't you come too soon? Which is like kind of Is implying probably a couple different things, but is, you know, implying don't mess this up. And I think it really kind of this bass part forces you with the lack of a resolve to feel it in a, like, so much more like, nervous way or in a way that you just, like. You can tell it's not quite right, but it's still, like. It's so central. And this is. I mean, this is like a classic bedroom song and, like a Marvin Gaye style. You know, it's. It's very much trying to push that idea. But this. This lack of a resolve actually kind of builds the tension back in and I think kind of makes it more exciting in that way. Michael Henderson, totally worth checking out. His solo stuff is also really good. And this album is also very good to check out. I entirely listen to side A. Every time I put it on, there is. There is no just listening to you Are My Starship. I always listen to the songs that follow it.

Also, I want to comment on that album cover. It's very yacht rock, but, like, it's not. It looks like a yacht rock album, but it's not. It's not quite that.

I love his pose on the back.

Oh, yeah, look at him.

It's really good.

Smug.

I'm not too familiar with the work.

But, like, Norman Connors is not particularly popular. Neither is Michael Henderson, really. So, you know, it's. It's that kind of RB soul kind of style that was, you know, really popular in the 70s. And I think these guys are a bit, you know, removed from the, like, kind of Motown sound and stuff that were really useful too. And, yeah, it's. It's just not that popular. I don't know why, but I really like it. And that's like. I discovered it entirely by accident. Yeah. I think the first ever time that as a club, we went to buy records together.

Yeah, the record show.

I bought this.

Oh, I actually. I remember you buying that from the.

First ever, I guess, record club field trip. You want to call it?

Wow, sure.

Anyway, I texted, like, three people and said, hey, let's go to a record start, but we'll call it. That's a field trip.

Yeah, it was cool.

Wore the T shirts and everything.

Next we got Venusian one by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Friends of the show.

Think I've seen this one before.

Mark. Mark, your bingo cards.

Yes.

It's every meeting. And that is totally okay. We love King Giz.

Absolutely. Yeah, we said friends of the show.

We played. We played a song from Infest the Rat's Nest at the last meeting. But it just lends itself to being in this meeting because so many of the songs on that record, Infest the Rat's Nest, are space themed.

Yeah. Wild.

And then the one that got played at the last meeting, you know, Mars for the Rich, like, obviously that could have been played this time and nobody would have had an eye about it. Are there any other songs in this that are like Planet Named. Hang on. I've never actually looked at the track list of this album before. Oh, yeah, that's like. Yeah, like three other ones. Okay, fantastic.

Oh, really nice.

Planet B. And then Venusian 2.

Venusian 1 is. It's a lot less bluesy than Mars for the Rich, which was played at the last meeting. This is way more of a. Like a straight up thrash song. It gets way more aggressive and it kind of showcases what they would go on to do in Petro Dragonic Apocalypse. Very aggressive. It's awesome. It's King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Please go listen to it.

This is the one album that you have to go listen to off of this, I think. Yeah, we'll say that. Following that up, though, we have this song which I want to call out just for the album cover of it, which I love. It's a. The song Spider by the band Pylon off the album Chomp. And the album cover is just a giant picture of a dinosaur. And I love that with the title and everything. I think it works perfectly.

I did also like the song, to be fair, to give the band and whoever played it full credit. This song was also.

No, it's a good song. Yeah, but just the dinosaur. I think it's. It's. It's great packaging. Just the album called Chomp on the Picture of a Dinosaur.

All by most records that have a dinosaur.

Oh, yeah. 100% pretch. Your draconic. All right. That had a dinosaur on it. Great album. I don't think it's a coincidence.

I think it's inherent.

Yeah, I think it is. Following that song up, we have a song by the song Turtles all the Way down by Sturgill Simpson. I can't. I'm sorry. I'm bad at pronouncing names, but I like this song a lot. I don't know if it's like. Yeah, it's like a space themed, but it kind of like leans into like the, like. Like the old Earth mythology stuff, like the old, like, worlds on the back of a turtle. That space. Yeah.

In a way, it's I mean, lyrics and all that aside, even the music itself, it's like very obviously space.

Yeah.

And sort of mystery influenced country music.

Progressive country.

That's like, you know what I mean? It's very different than what we're used to hearing, while still very, very obviously influenced by its roots. And, boy, does Sturgill just nail at putting it all together in that way. And we've heard a couple songs. I think this album's been brought into meetings maybe two or three times now. I always enjoy it. I have gone and listened to it after the fact and been like, yeah, no, this is very solid as pretty experimental for country music.

Yeah. No, he's a. I haven't heard a. I'm not really a country guy, but, like, I haven't heard a Sturgill Simpson song that I like, don't like. You know, I think he's a great artist.

Yeah.

One of the. Probably one of the strongest country artists working today. Absolutely underrated.

Oh, yeah.

And not very famous.

Oh, no.

At all.

But just really solid. Just Sturgill Simpson.

Go check him out.

Go check him out.

That's. Never mind. That's the one thing you gotta take home with us.

Every single album gonna be.

Well, I think if anybody says it again. Come on.

Just don't do that. I'm sneaking it in every time.

Don't worry about it. Okay. Try with this one. Next up, I just want to touch on this one, Cinnamon Girl, which is a cover of a Neil Young song by Typo Negative, which is. It's like a goth metal, I think is the word for gothic metal. And it's, like, obscenely long.

Every typo song is.

Well, yeah, I've been like. Every time. They've been played a couple times, mostly at, like, the summer meetings because, again, 10 minute songs get to sit there and just, like, wait for it to be over, but not to be mean. I love that. I like the Neil Young version of the song a lot. They do a good cover of it. I think it's like, they keep the essence of it there. Yeah. It's not like a.

But it sounds creepy.

It does.

It's in, like. And that's what I was gonna say about the long stuff, too, is that it's never bad.

No.

Yeah. It's really long. But it doesn't get boring. And their sound is kind of so well refined in this, like, hard rock kind of sound. But ultimately, like. Because it doesn't quite drift into metal a whole lot. Like, it absolutely does. But it's hard rock that is still just so heavy and dark in a way that isn't, you know, it does. It never sounds childish, you know what I mean? There's a lot of those songs that are dark that you're like, oh, this is a bit goofy. Where typo is always a little too messed up to just be like comfortable, you know, I mean, it, it sounds dark, it feels dark and it is dark.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's good. They. They walk the walk. They don't just, you know, talk it, you know. But anyway, moving on from Typho Negative, here we have another. I don't know how I'm going to connect Gautier to Typo Negative, but he's up next.

Yes. Another artist, Godier. Yeah, so a friend of mine brought this in and gave me a bit of a history lesson about it. But yeah, so Godier, obviously very famous as a bit of a one hit wonder. Somebody I used to know. He did not want to be famous. He was not ready to be famous. And he has not really released music since. He's done a lot of cool musical projects. Godier's really into historical preservation of instruments and has put like a lot of his just own money into that. And I think that really speaks to not just being a musician, but being a lover of music. Yeah. And wanting to preserve these, these ideas and these styles. And his first album is not what I expected. It's not weird or out there in any major way, but you hear somebody I used to know and you're thinking like, it's probably like a sort of synthy pop song, whatever. And a lot of this stuff is. But it's not just that. It's very complex. He uses a ton of different samples and it really. The entire album has a great deal of variety while maintaining a pretty consistent style. And I think it's really cool. So I. I do genuinely recommend that one also.

Good. Yeah, that's a. Moving on from Go Che. That's his name.

Yeah, yeah, you're close enough.

Whatever his name is. I'm sorry. We have Radiohead and the song is Tree Fingers off of their album Kid A. Oh, boy, oh boy.

Okay, so Tree Fingers is kind of a hard song to talk about because it is an ambient interlude in what is otherwise a post rock electronic album. Just really beautiful, spacious track. Don't know really how to talk about it because it is just so atmospheric and so spacey, like the theme.

So I'll ask a question about it then. Yeah. Is. Is do you feel any obvious ambient influence? Like, do you Hear it and go. This is Custer. Do you hear it? And go. This is Eno. Like, do you get any of that? If I were to pick one, I.

Would definitely say, you know.

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.

A lot of the guitar effects done by Ed o', Brien, he uses this thing called, you know what. I forget what it's called. Doesn't matter. It's an. It's an infinite sustainer called an Ebo. That's what it is. And it makes the string resonate infinitely. A lot of Radioheads like. A lot of what makes them special is what Ed o' Brien does, which is add ambient textures to what is otherwise pretty standard rock songs, at least early on. And this is sort of their first foray into what is purely an ambient song. And I think it's a really interesting stepping stone to what they would do on later projects like Amnesiac and the King of Limbs. Not so much ambient, but it's more textural than it was before. And I think it's an important song in their discography for that reason.

Yeah, that's a. This whole album, though, it's incredible. I love this one. Might be my second favorite Radiohead album. It's very good, but moving.

Steve recommended Listen.

Steve was good recommendation.

He said, if there's a. This is a good first one, listen to it.

Yeah, it's very. It's kind of different than the earlier stuff, though. I mean, like, they kind of.

I would vehemently disagree with Steve on that one, but it's still a great record. I don't think it should be your first Radiohead record at all, so.

And I've heard plenty of Radiohead songs, but I've never, like, sat there and listened to the whole album.

If you're gonna start with Radiohead, I think you should start with okay, Computer or the Bends and then go from there.

And okay, Computer is probably the only album that I have listened to all the way through.

Yeah. Once.

Once, yeah.

Anyway, Radiohead's great. Go listen to Creep. Moving on.

Next.

I'm gonna touch on this one a little bit. We talked. This is another one where it's a repeat album. Unintentional again. We're sorry again. Beach Boys. Love you. This song, I talked about it last time, how it's very lyrically simple.

Childish.

Childish. This song is Solar System. It's basically just Brian Wilson talking about the planets. And he said, there's this bar. I'm gonna say the bar. It's a line in the song.

Yeah.

That goes, if Mars had life on It. I might find my wife on it. Which I think sums up the whole album succinctly in terms of the lyricism in it. But it's. It's goofy, it's silly. It's. It just. It makes you smile a little bit, even if it's a little bit. Like you cringe a little bit. But it's. It's just wholesome. It comes from the heart, you know?

Yeah. Nice.

I think cringy, but wholesome is kind.

Of like, that's the Beach Boys a little bit. Kind of.

And get derided unfairly a lot. Especially in the terms of the Beach Boys. There are so many people that listen and they're like, that is cliche. They can't stand the harmony and stuff. And it's like, it is such a good vibe. Like, just chill out and enjoy it. And you will have a good time listening to the beats.

It's also cliche because they were the invented.

They were cultural icons.

Like, they are like. They are vocal surf. Like, that's them.

This is not vocal surf. But this song is not. But.

But the general idea is like, the, like, vocal harmonies and whatnot in the harmonic progression and stuff. They are kind of the group that made that cheesy in massive quotation marks.

Yeah.

So it's. I don't think it's kind of unfair to deride them for that when they were the ones who kind of started it. They're not really, like, being copycats or like, leaning into a cliche if they did it first.

Right. Beach Boys. Love you. Great album. Don't listen to it first.

Please don't.

Don't listen to it first. That's like a. That is a late stage Beach Boys album. But. But moving on from that one into another two songs here that are kind of connected to each other in that they're both space themed. From artists who would go on to make much, you know, much greater music. No offense to these, but. And that is Astronomy. Domine. Yeah, Domine by Pink Floyd and then Space Oddity by David Bowie. And obviously, like, it wouldn't be a space meeting if someone didn't bring in Bowie. I was kind of concerned it was taking so long for someone to play it. And I was being like, that. Somebody. Somebody brought it. Right. There's no way we forgot Space Oddity. Right. But I have. I can talk a little bit about Bowie, but I mean, it's a little bit cliche now. Like, people talk about David Bowie and this is immediately the first one you think of, obviously. But maybe not the first one, but it's one of the first ones.

Yeah.

And obviously this was his like, big break.

I think it's cliche. Kind of the same way we were talking about the Beach Boys cliche though. It was a way to write and perform a ballad that people weren't really doing at that time.

Yeah.

And it had a sound and a style that really drove not just Bowie, but a lot of other artists into kind of replicating a lot of those types of like storytelling in the songs. Like obviously ballads have been around for long before David Bowie was even born. Yeah, of course it's all used in a way. It's mixed with the like psychedelic nature of it and stuff to really tell a story and really to get you to kinda to feel something in a song where if the lyrics were sung over a more simple musical bass, I don't think you would care much.

And like, obviously this song came out at I think, the perfect time to make like a space related song, which is like the moon landing was happening right when this came out. So obviously, you know, exploded. And then of course, David Bowie kind of never did anything like the this in particular ever again. Like after this album, he immediately just jumped to like hard rock for the next one and then into glam after that. But it's interesting, kind of just to see where they stay, you know. He started off like, not quite started, but like how he really, you know, first made it and how he's able to, yeah. Escape being boxed in as like the space pop guy, you know.

I think a lot of those themes do carry through.

Well, yeah. Theme space.

Well, not even. Not even that, like even musically.

Right.

There's some of that, like especially the use of guitar and tone that he uses on that song. I definitely comes up later.

Yeah, it's mostly just like the folk thing. He never really goes back to making folk music like that ever again.

But if you heard that song without it being in a folk album, you would barely think of it as folk though, right? No, it is.

It's a psychedelic folk. I guess it's just very heavy, like space vibes.

I guess it's unique for a reason, because it is.

It was unique when it came out. Nothing else like it when it came out. Great song. David Bowie, he's our. He's pretty cool.

Hooray.

Alright, friend of the show.

The other one that we got here is Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd. This is off of what I believe is the very first Pink Floyd record with Sid Barrett. This is an instrumental track from I'm forgetting what the name of that record is.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Yes. Piper at the Gates of Dawn. You know, in a lot of ways, I can definitely hear Pink Floyd in there because it is Pink Floyd at the end of the day. But it feels so different from the rest of their later work. Like you were saying with Bowie, they never really go back to this, like, light, psychedelic sound. A lot of Pink Floyd's later work is defined by, like, its emotional weight and, you know, how long the guitar solos are and whatnot.

Just how psychedelic it gets.

Yes. But with this, it almost feels like we're having, like, Pink Floyd light. Not in a bad way. It's just a very different flavor than what I'm used to from Pink Floyd, because, of course, most people are more acclimated with Dark side of the Moon. Wish he were here. But going back and listening to Piper of the Gates of Dawn, I just think it's a really real interesting look at where the band started and how much influence Sid Barrett really had on their early sound.

Great song. Plays a very important, like, piece in, like, just the whole story of Pink Floyd, that whole era. But like you said, it's just the story of it, I think, is especially interesting as well. Not just the music itself, just the story of it. It's like Sid Barrett, his whole life story is very fascinating. Like, tragic a little bit. Just fascinating.

Tragic more than a little bit.

You know what I mean? It's just. Yeah, yeah.

But, yeah, after that, we have Don't Stop Believing. My journey. Oh, goody.

Oh, yeah. I'm. I'm. It's 2008, and I'm watching a Red Wings game and they've. They're playing Don't Stop Believing just because they say the word Detroit in it once.

Yep.

And everybody loves it. Everybody loves that song. It is so cliche and for a reason. It's a really good song quite often.

On any rock station ever, I think.

I'll tell you my method for Don't Stop Believing. Yeah, I never choose to listen to Don't Stop Believing. And that way, when I inevitably hear it in a radio, at a bar or at, like, the hair salon, somehow it's still special because it's like, oh, I get to hear this today. But, yeah, I haven't chosen to hear that song since I was about 12 years old, and I was over it even then because it's on the radio once an hour. I.

This song I have. I don't mean to be mean to Journey or anything, but I Have, like, a very specific personal hatred for it.

Oh, no.

Because when I was in high school, they would make us run laughs in gym class. And they had one CD that had. And this was like, one of the songs on it. And every time they made me run in gym class, we'd listen to, like, Don't Stop Believing and we'd stop running when the song was over. So every time I hear the song, I just think about running in circles.

Did people sing Don't Stop Running?

No, nobody's saying that.

What a bunch of uncreative.

Anyway, take it up with the high schoolers in 2018 or whatever.

Other than Don't Stop Believin, we have Space Is the Place by Sun Ra. Just wanted to mention this real quick. Hugely influential, like, avant garde jazz artist. Love a lot of his work. Other than that, we have Life's A Gas by T Rex.

Great album.

Yeah.

Electric Warrior. It's a one of like, the, like. I want to say, like, foundational. Yeah, probably foundational. Glam rock albums like T Rex. It's very different than, like, Bowie, I think it's not going like that, but.

Unfortunately, I think they kind of get lumped in. Right. And a lot of people go, oh, I don't need to listen that stuff.

Like T Rex.

Some pretty rocking music.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Serious rock and roll in there. And they're great.

I love T Rex. This album especially is very good. Would say go check it out. I'd recommend that album as well. Yeah, we can't recommend like, five one things, so I'm just gonna say we're gonna recommend that one too. Not as the only thing, but go listen to it, please. It's great. Electric Warrior.

Yeah.

Fantastic record.

Other than that, do we got anything else?

I'm gonna. I'm pretty sure a Coheed and Cambria song.

Yes, it did. It's not getting the last song, actually.

Yeah. We may end up doing a co Heed deep dive at some point. Don't know. But, yeah, I'll just throw it out there. Kind of related to theme. Not really, but just a pretty weird kind of metal sound from the. From the late 2000s that is kind of almost nostalgic for me, but I didn't really listen to this band at the time. Just ones that sounded like it. We did manage to get a metal song on there.

Nice.

And just, you know, wow. The basics. Yeah, well, we get a lot of variety at the meetings. That's why I wanted to point it out is we get a lot of variety.

We do.

You can always bring in whatever you want.

And of course, yeah, no, there's a lot of variety to be found at our meetings. And of course, if you are interested at all in coming to any of our meetings, you can check out our website, which will be linked with the podcast. You can find our meeting schedule there, as well as themes, playlists and links to our past podcast episodes. If you are interested in coming to the club, everybody's welcome. Whether you're a student, you're a staff member, or your community, any amount of musical, you know, musical interest is encouraged as well. Even if you've never collected vinyl before or you've been collecting your whole life, everybody's welcome to come in, share your music taste, expand yours as well. Listen to other people's, you know, what other people bring in. You can tell from this meeting alone there's a very, very big variety of stuff people bring in. But I think that just about wraps it up and I hope to see you next time. Bye bye Bye bye.

Love you.

Love you. See you later. Tell him you love him. Tell him you love him.

Jacob, no.

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