Only Three Lads - Classic Alternative Music Podcast

09/12/2025

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Listen wherever you get podcasts or go to https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads. Drop your list in the comments!**

Get ready for more petty arguments, hot takes and fisticuffs*, because we're back with more cover versions that we feel are better than the originals. Annie, are we OK? You betcha!

Joining us for this discussion are two members of the iconic Seattle indie pop band Tullycraft, vocalist/songwriter/bassist Sean Tollefson and guitarist Chris Munford. For more than three decades, Tullycraft has married DIY punk ethos to tender twee pop songs featuring charming boy/girl vocals and clever songwriting filled with pop culture references. Appropriately enough, one of their early songs was the brilliantly titled "Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend's Too Stupid To Know About," which not only does a great job of summing up Tullycraft's career but is also the namesake of Sean's great Friday night radio show on Seattle's SPACE 101.1FM that he hosts with his wife Liz.

Tullycraft practically defined the twee movement in the US, inspiring legions of bands, zines, and record labels. Their debut album, 1996's Old Traditions, New Standards, was named as one of Pitchfork's 25 Best Indie Pop Albums of the '90s. And, now they're back with their 8th album, Shoot The Point on HHBTM Records, which runs the full Tullycraft spectrum - from tender, heart squishing moments to full-throttle freakouts. It's fun. It's weird. It's very Tullycraft.

Special thanks to Mike Turner from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records (HHBTM) for the introduction and coordination.

*No podcasters or guests were actually harmed in the making of this episode.

07/12/2025

Less than a week away from our 6th Annual O3L Holiday Party episode! Those of you who have responded or expressed interest in some manner will receive the recording link and further details within the next day or two. Anyone else who may be interested, please let us know - give us a reaction, comment, or DM, and we'll send details on how you can join in on this fun, festive, and unique holiday experience!

For the sixth year in a row, we invite listeners and friends from around the world to join us for a fun-filled extravaganza with games, prizes...and, of course, music discussion. This year, our theme is "Snowed in at the O3L Cabin." We've got nothing to do but play games, make mixtapes, chat, and drink ourselves into a stupor (that last part is optional)! You ain't goin' nowhere!

If interested, here's what you need:

• Computer with a reliable internet connection
• Some sort of microphone - an external (i.e. USB) mic is best for sound quality, but your internal computer mic will work if not
• Headphones/earphones - very important, because echo and feedback can ruin a recording

Let us know if you're interested either by sending us a PM/DM on any of our social media pages or leaving a comment, and we'll send you further details!!

Happy Holidays from O3L!

04/12/2025

It's December...and you know what that means! (Oh, and just in case you don't, then we'll elaborate.)

We end every year with two year end recap episodes - one recounting our top ALBUMS of the year, and the other celebrating our top SONGS of the year. And 2025 brought us a bounty of great music.

This year, we want to try something different. Rather than having ONE guest for these episodes, we want to get the feedback from as much of the community as possible. So, we want to know what YOUR favorite album and/or song of 2025 is...and make it a part of the show!

Please record an audio message and email it to onlythreelads(at)gmail.com by December 18, 2025. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate or professional - just a minute or two where you wax ecstatic about what you've been listening to this year. If you want to choose an album and song, that's even better...but please record them in two separate messages, as they will go in two separate episodes.

Thank you for making 2025 the best year yet for us!

02/12/2025

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Listen wherever you get podcasts or at https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads. Drop your list in the comments!**

This week, it's all about personal growth with a side of nostalgia. We cover some of the albums that helped to shape or change our taste as music fans, consumers, and/or musicians with Derek Griffin Almstead (of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Marshmallow Coast, Circulatory System, Faster Circuits) and Emily Growden (Marshmallow Coast, Faster Circuits) from Elephant 6 band Giant Day.

In October, the Elephant 6 Recording Co. released Alarm, the second full-length album by Giant Day. Their first, 2024’s Glass Narcissus, bore a unique weight — it wasn’t just a debut album, it was the debut album by the first official Elephant 6 band in more than 15 years. With the 2023 wide-release of the documentary Elephant 6 Movie codifying the E6 “sound” for some and introducing it to others, what Giant Day conjured into being on Glass Narcissus was notably darker than the lysergic, sun-drenched pop associated with their former , Georgia home.

The word “former” is important to Giant Day’s origin story. In 2020, Almstead and Growden moved from Athens to rural Pennsylvania, where they became caretakers of a family farm. They converted the horse stables into a studio and continued to write and record music, but they were dislocated from their sense of the world, let alone anything resembling a “scene.” That lack of place — what Almstead and Growden refer to as the “dissonance” between the beauty of their new home and the reality of the world beyond it — crept into their songs, a desperate signal emanating from off the grid.

On Alarm, that signal is stronger, more urgent. The alluring, paranoid throb underpinning their songs is keener now, more lived in, as if the veil between the fears of characters whose points of view Almstead had written from on Glass Narcissus and his own had dropped.

Thanks to Mike Turner for the introduction!

Proud members of the Pantheon Podcasts family.

28/11/2025

Here's your Thanksgiving dessert! New bonus episode is out now wherever you get podcasts or at https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads.

Record Store Day - Black Friday is Friday, November 28, 2025. In this bonus episode, join O3L's Brett Vargo as he spotlights some of the releases that will appeal to classic alternative music fans. Hit our social media and let us know what's on your want list, and what ends up in your shopping bag!

Song:
American Lips - "Record Store Day" (from the LP On Strike!, Ancient Fashion Records)

27/11/2025

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Part 2 of our conversation with Murray and Natalia from The Dears is out now wherever you get podcasts, or go to https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads. Drop your list of Y2K albums in the comments!**

As the Bee Gees once sang, "everything's happening at the turn of the century/I'm gonna buy myself a time machine, go to the turn of the century." Fortunately, we've got your time machine covered as we go to the turn of the 21st century this week. Join us as we welcome Murray A. Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak from Brett's favourite band of the century, The Dears, to celebrate the albums of 2000 - including The Dears' debut End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story - as well as their new album on Next Door Records, Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!, and everything in between!

To O3L's fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving! To everyone else in the world, Happy Random Thursday Where There's A New O3L Episode Day!

Proudly part of Pantheon Podcasts.

25/11/2025

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Part 1 of 2 is out now wherever you get podcasts, or go to https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads. Drop your list in the comments!**

Life is beautiful! This week, we have the extraordinary honour to welcome the creative nucleus of Brett's favourite band of the 21st century...Murray A. Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak from Montreal's orchestral pop noir heroes The Dears!

Life is beautiful! We are heading into the future from our normal O3L timeline to the year Two Thousaaaaand (more echo, please) to commemorate the albums that are unbelievably a quarter of century old this year. This includes The Dears' debut album, End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story.

Life is beautiful! We celebrate humble beginnings to a life less ordinary... from an innocent encounter to musical partnership to a love story of marriage and family. Along the way, The Dears have continued to hone their unique brand of indie rock, boast one of the most consistent catalogues of the past 25 years, play in front of 50,000 people at Glastonbury, and garner fan adoration and critical praise (well, mostly...ahem, Pitchfork).

Life is beautiful! The Dears' brand new album, Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! is out now on Next Door Records. Their ninth studio album finds them at the top of their game, equal parts passion and compassion, beauty and defiance, intimacy and universality.

Part 1 premieres Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Part 2 premieres Thursday, November 27, 2025

Proudly part of the Pantheon Podcasts family.

20/11/2025

RIP Mani. Another legend gone.

20/11/2025

Happy Birthday to Eddie Rayner! How's that for timing??? Listen to this week's O3L and hear the keyboard legend talk about the early days of Split Enz and the new box set. Of course, Eddie also has extensive career of playing on others' records (uh...Paul McCartney for a start!), production, mixing, and mastering. Celebrate the man wherever you get podcasts or https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Listen wherever you get podcasts or go to https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads.**

Stranger than fiction, larger than life...we are elated to welcome Split Enz singer/songwriter/pianist Tim Finn and keyboardist Eddie Rayner to O3L! This is gonna be a hard act to follow.

Formed in 1972 in Auckland, New Zealand, Split Enz, known initially as Split Ends, were, and remain, utterly unique. As the first band from New Zealand to achieve major success beyond the Southern Hemisphere, they blazed a trail with a sound and style entirely their own. Evolving from folk-inspired beginnings into a fusion of art-rock, new wave, and theatrical performance, Split Enz didn’t just follow trends, they genuinely created them. While no one sounded like Split Enz at the time, countless acts have drawn inspiration from their legacy over the past five decades.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, Mental Notes, the first installment of a landmark archival project, ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two, presents a comprehensive tribute to New Zealand’s most visionary and influential band. ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two is housed in a deluxe 5-CD box set (also available as a 3-LP + Blu-Ray edition), this release has been curated in close collaboration with the band. It offers an in-depth look at their formative years, showcasing the evolution of a group whose creative spirit reshaped the boundaries of popular music from New Zealand. The CD set features remasters of their first two albums, Mental Notes (1975) and Second Thoughts (1976), a remix of Second Thoughts, a partially remixed, remastered version of the early tracks comp The Beginning of the Enz, and a disc of live tracks, rough tracks, and alternate mixes.

ENZcyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 is out now on Chrysalis Records.

Special thanks to Maria Malta for the introduction and coordination.

Proudly part of the Pantheon Podcasts family.

18/11/2025

**NEW EPISODE ALERT! Listen wherever you get podcasts or go to https://linktr.ee/onlythreelads.**

Stranger than fiction, larger than life...we are elated to welcome Split Enz singer/songwriter/pianist Tim Finn and keyboardist Eddie Rayner to O3L! This is gonna be a hard act to follow.

Formed in 1972 in Auckland, New Zealand, Split Enz, known initially as Split Ends, were, and remain, utterly unique. As the first band from New Zealand to achieve major success beyond the Southern Hemisphere, they blazed a trail with a sound and style entirely their own. Evolving from folk-inspired beginnings into a fusion of art-rock, new wave, and theatrical performance, Split Enz didn’t just follow trends, they genuinely created them. While no one sounded like Split Enz at the time, countless acts have drawn inspiration from their legacy over the past five decades.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, Mental Notes, the first installment of a landmark archival project, ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two, presents a comprehensive tribute to New Zealand’s most visionary and influential band. ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two is housed in a deluxe 5-CD box set (also available as a 3-LP + Blu-Ray edition), this release has been curated in close collaboration with the band. It offers an in-depth look at their formative years, showcasing the evolution of a group whose creative spirit reshaped the boundaries of popular music from New Zealand. The CD set features remasters of their first two albums, Mental Notes (1975) and Second Thoughts (1976), a remix of Second Thoughts, a partially remixed, remastered version of the early tracks comp The Beginning of the Enz, and a disc of live tracks, rough tracks, and alternate mixes.

ENZcyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 is out now on Chrysalis Records.

Special thanks to Maria Malta for the introduction and coordination.

Proudly part of the Pantheon Podcasts family.

18/11/2025

Sweet dreams...then wake up to a new O3L dropping tonight at midnight PST!

"Sweet Dreams" is a song from New Zealand band Spilt Enz's second studio album "Second Thoughts" released in 1976. The album was recorded in London with Roxy...

14/11/2025

Haha!!