Feb 02 2025 65 mins 3
On nearly every previous episode of You, Me and An Album, Al has invited a guest to introduce him to one album he doesn’t know well (or at all), but this week’s guest talks about seven of his favorite albums. Mike Montgomery, who owns Candyland Recording Studio in Dayton, Kentucky, and is a member of R.Ring and Ampline, suggested 11 possible albums to discuss on this episode, but he and Al weren’t able to narrow the list down. So Mike talks about seven of those albums (noted in the rundown below).
Not only were they unable to settle on one album from Mike’s list, but Mike also suggested that Al introduce him to some of his favorite albums. From Al’s short list of eight albums, he decided to discuss three of them on this episode, bringing the total albums featured up to an even 10.
Mike explains how his love of skateboarding led him down a musical rabbit hole that ultimately brought him to several of the albums on his list. Al talks about his tendency to immerse himself in a single artist’s discography, and how that led him to discover several of the albums that made his short list.
Mike also discusses his Nervous Verbs solo project and the debut Nervous Verbs album Pony Coughing, which will be out on February 28. He explains why he decided to not record his Nervous Verbs songs with his other bands and talks about some of the musicians he collaborated with for this project.
There are several places to keep up with Mike and his bands on Instagram, and they’re all worth a follow!
@candyland_recording_studio
@nervousverbs
@r.ringsings
@amplinegram
Al is on Bluesky at @almelchior.bsky.social. This show has an account on Instagram at @youmealbum. Subscribe for free to You, Me and An Album: The Newsletter! https://youmealbum.substack.com/. You can also support the show on Buzzsprout at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1542814/episodes or at the link at the bottom of these show notes.
1:27 Al introduces Mike and explains why they will discuss several albums instead of just one
Mike’s picks:
4:40 Speed Freaks by Santa Cruz Skateboards Soundtrack
9:25 Dinosaur Jr., You’re Living All Over Me
10:53 fIREHOSE, Fromohio (plus an aside about Steve Martin’s “King Tut”)
12:37 Dead Kennedys, Plastic Surgery Disasters
16:58 Superchunk, Here’s Where the Strings Come In
21:34 Weakerthans, Left and Leaving
23:42 Hayden, The Closer I Get
Al’s Picks:
26:03 Unwound, Leaves Turn Inside You (and a side discussion of Lungfish)
38:36 Deep Sea Diver, Impossible Weight
43:07 Toto, Tambu
48:06 Mike explains how his Nervous Verbs project came together
52:49 Mike talks about why “Chasing the Strings” didn’t wind up as an R.Ring song
54:38 Mike created a “Zoom band” during the pandemic
59:31 Mike talks about the status of R.Ring and his other plans
Outro music is from “Vicious Riffs” by Nervous Verbs.
