Ep. 164: Baby Gopal w/ Alex Garcia-Rivera

Explicit content warning

02/04/22 • 81 min

2 Listeners

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for $1 and I will love you forever.

Baby Gopal was fronted by Australian-born singer/guitarist Sri Kesava the band fused Hari Krishna dogma laced lyrics with a meld of hardcore and pop-punk to astonishing results. The music is endlessly catchy and Sri‘s beautiful voice will keep you captivated like a siren from wire to wire. This amazing album was sadly overlooked in 1996 because of another similar “girl power” band that was already ripping up the charts. You might have heard of them, No Doubt anyone? They later signed to Tommy Boy in 1998 before breaking up shortly thereafter.

Shot out to Casey Iodine for the intro

I got Alex on the Skype and this is what we chat about:

Playing in Kingpin
Playing in Shelter
How he got involved in Baby Gopal
How was it seen that Shelter made money off the band
What happened with him and Shri
How he got into recording bands
Out of Band Experience Stickers in Boston
American Nightmare
Why they had to change their name
Touring with them in 2022
And a ton more

If you want to record your band in all-analog studio in Medford, MA then check out Alex’s studio Mystic Valley Studio.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day. I also have an Instagram for it.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email [email protected] and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for $1 and I will love you forever.

Shot out to Casey Iodine for the intro

I got Alex on the Skype and this is what we chat about:

Playing in Kingpin
Playing in Shelter
How he got involved in Baby Gopal
How was it seen that Shelter made money off the band
What happened with him and Shri
How he got into recording bands
Out of Band Experience Stickers in Boston
American Nightmare
Why they had to change their name
Touring with them in 2022
And a ton more

If you want to record your band in all-analog studio in Medford, MA then check out Alex’s studio Mystic Valley Studio.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day. I also have an Instagram for it.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Previous Episode

Ep. 163: Thick Records w/ Zak Einstein

Before we start, feel free to support the podcast if you’ve been listening for a while by signing up for my Patreon for $1 and I will love you forever.

Thick Records was formed in 1994 by Detroit native Zak Einstein, who started the label when he relocated to Chicago after graduating from Michigan State University. Early releases include albums from Chicago ska-punkers The Blue Meanies, Alton, IL's Judge Nothing, Seattle's grunge rockers Truly, and the Omaha-based Commander Venus. Blue Meanies singer Billy Spunke joined Einstein and signed multiple Chicago punk rock artists including The Tossers, The Arrivals, and The Methadones. Thick released picture disc vinyl including 7" records from Alkaline Trio, At The Drive-in, ALL, and Citizen Fish. The label also released several compilations documenting Chicago rock and punk music. The compilations included 2000's Magnetic Curses: A Chicago Punk Rock Compilation, which included music from Gaza Strippers, Alkaline Trio, and Pegboy. Oil: Chicago Punk Refined, a 2003 release from the label, included tracks from nineteen Chicago-area punk acts, including Rise Against, The Lawrence Arms, The Tossers, Plain White T's, Bob Nanna, and Local H.

In 2004 Einstein moved the label to Los Angeles. The last label releases came in 2007 with CDs from The Brokedowns and Seven Storey Mountain.

Thank you Monika Ebly for the intro to Zak who I got on the Skype and this is what we chat about.

Brendan Kelly
Rise Against
Picture disc vinyl
The palette of Blue Meanies CDs
The letter the Blue Meanies sent to MCA
What did the record label look like on a day to day basis
The At the Drive-In / Burning Airlines split
Turning an oil production factory into a studio
What really killed the music industry
What 2008 did to the label
And a ton more

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day. I also have an Instagram for it.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.

Next Episode

Ep. 165: Absolute Punk w/ Jason Tate

1 Recommendations

Before we start, if you're company has a hard time explaining what it does you can hire me to do that in 60-90 seconds with an explainer animation. Go to drive80.com or email me at [email protected] to learn more.

AbsolutePunk was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate. It mainly focused on artists who were relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to feature artists who have eventually achieved crossover success, including Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, The Gaslight Anthem, Anberlin, Thrice, All Time Low, and a shit ton more. The primary musical genres of focus were emo and pop-punk, but other genres were included. On March 31, 2016, it was announced that founder Jason Tate would be re-acquiring AbsolutePunk from SpinMedia (the parent company of Buzznet) and the website would be shuttered and folded into Tate's new music and social platform, Chorus.fm.

I reached out to Mr. Tate on Instagram, asked him to be interviewed and he was delighted. So I got him on the Skype and this is what we chatted about:

When We Were Young festival
Starting Absolute Punk
How honest was he with reviews
Spin buying the website
The toxicity of the internet
Becoming the place that released new songs or streaming albums
Rob Dobi
Emogame
Panic at the Disco
Blender’s article including him
Andrew McMahon’s diagnosis
His relationship with Victory Records
Downloading music
Brand New’s leaked demo
And a ton more

Go sign up for his newsletter at www.chorus.fm/newsletter

Check out the band Anxious and their new album Little Green House that he likes and talks about at the end of the podcast.

This week’s sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

Mint 400 Records is an indie record label from NJ with bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The label features everything from Indie Rock & Folk to Post-Punk and Soul. Over 400 exciting releases.

You can find Mint 400 Records' releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

Here’s a clip from their band Reese Van Riper’s song “Well Runs Dry” from the album The Swamps Are Burning.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day. I also have an Instagram for it.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.