Bonus Episode: Tribute to Sick of it All’s Lou Koller, Plus More John Frusciante and River Phoenix

We pay tribute to Sick Of It All’s Lou Koller, dive deeper into the theories surrounding River Phoenix’s death and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante’s alleged involvement, and of course answer your questions, voicemails, texts, emails and more, See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 2:15Jake Brennan?

  Hey, Discos. Need a little more DisgraceLand in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to DisgraceLand: The Afterparty. Welcome to the DisgraceLand bonus episode, a little thing we like to call the afterparty. This is the show after the show, the party after the party, the bridge to get you from one full episode of DisgraceLand to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. Our mission to uncover the truth, to confront the myth, to reclaim the story.

• 2:57Jake Brennan?

  On this bonus episode, we pay tribute to one of the greatest to ever do it, Sick of It All's Lou Koller, and we dive deeper into the theories surrounding River Phoenix's death and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante's alleged involvement. Plus, we are previewing next week's episode on Smashing Pumpkins. We're gonna get into your emails, comments, DMs, and as always, a whole lot of Rosie. This is the podcast for the musically obsessed, the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DisgraceLand is where I tell the stories they didn't want told, the kind you'll end up telling to someone else.

• 3:29Jake Brennan?

  All right, Discos, let's get into it. On a Saturday afternoon back in 1989, when I was just 15 years old, I left my house in central Massachusetts, jumped in my buddy Rich Hoag's car, and headed out to Boston to go to a hardcore matinee. I'm not sure where I told my mother I was going to, but I most certainly did not tell her that I was going into the city with some seniors to see a band called Sick of It All. That was the beauty of hardcore matinees back in the day, at least for me, anyway. The city was only an hour away, max, wasn't a far drive.

• 4:14Jake Brennan?

  The shows got out around 5:00 PM, so I could leave my house in the morning and be back by dinner, and my mother would be none the wiser. My mother hated the music I listened to growing up. She blamed most of my juvenile delinquency on the music that I listened to. She blamed the rest of my, you know, many faults on my dad, and he was a musician. So basically, she blamed everything on music. There's no way in hell she would have approved of me liking a band or going to see a band, in Boston no less, a band called Sick of It All. But I did. I first heard Sick of It All on the 1988 Revelation Records New York City hardcore comp, The Way It Is, and right around that time, in 1988, '87 actually, it might have

• 4:59Jake Brennan?

  been earlier, there was a 7-inch that was released by Sick of It All. It got to me after the comp, even though it was probably recorded beforehand. And not long after that, in '89, Sick of It All, they were releasing their first full-length album, Blood, Sweat, and No Tears, and they were coming to Boston to celebrate within all ages matinee, and there was nothing that was going to keep me from seeing my new favorite band. Now, at this time, Sick of It All were like Metallica or AC/DC to me. I'd only been to a few punk shows at this point. I'd never been to a show in Boston before. Only local shows around my hometown, those are the only ones I went to, and those had like local bands playing at them. Guys I knew, basically.

• 5:44Jake Brennan?

  Many I didn't, but you know, it was friendlier is my point, less foreign. Going to see Sick of It All to me in 1989, therefore, was the same as going to see Ozzy Osbourne. I made no distinction in my mind. Hardcore, DIY, punk, none of that really meant anything to me yet. This is just a band whose songs I got my hands on and I loved, and they made me want to break shit. And for some reason, tickets to see them only cost about $5, but I wasn't really concerned with that. The culture, the hardcore scene that Sick of It All was connected to, it meant little to me at this point. So, all this, you can imagine my surprise, some, you know, kind of dumb metalhead at

• 6:27Jake Brennan?

  this show here, you know, getting into punk and hardcore for the first time, and I show up at this club called Bun Ratty's with my friends on a Saturday afternoon. First of all, what the fuck even is a Bun Ratty? I don't know. It was a tiny little club at the time, way out in Alston, which was, you know, I wasn't really hanging around in Alston at the time. If I went into the city to visit my dad or whatever, I was in like Harvard Square, maybe Kenmore Square. Alston's a little further out. And this club was tiny, held about 150 people. When we got there, early, there was Sick of It All, right there. I recognized them from their 7-inch. There they were in the flesh, loading in their own equipment, lugging their own amps

• 7:08Jake Brennan?

  and instruments, and even stranger, backslapping and hanging out with the kids who had already arrived, kids just like me. I was shocked at the lack of separation between the band and their fans. I'd been to concerts before, I'd been to shows, the Worcester Centrum, local shows, like I said, with like, you know, again, local bands, not bands that I was a fan of necessarily, that I would be kind of like starstruck around, not bands who were on album covers and 7-inches or whatever, that I obsessed over in my room and just stared at the pictures of, like I did with Sick of It All. And here they were, right there, at the club, carrying their own shit and talking to their fans.

• 7:53Jake Brennan?

  And in the middle of it all was their singer, charismatic singer, I should say, Lou Koller. This guy, straight out of like a, you know, now I see. You know, when I saw Goodfellas for the first time, which wasn't much longer after this point, it might even been that winter or that summer or something, I can't remember, when Goodfellas came out, 1990, so it was a little after this, this is '89. I remember distinctly thinking that De Niro reminded me of the guys in Sick of It All. And these guys were larger than life, and here was the singer, we show up at this club, and he's talking to all those kids there like we're regular people, not starstruck wannabes, which of course, nobody really was but me.

• 8:33Jake Brennan?

  But the way that Lou Koller graciously interacted with Sick of It All fans in that moment, right then, right there, at that show, it changed me. It imbued me with a sense of humility and a love for the hardcore scene and its culture of unity that I carry to this day. Rock star bullshit was not allowed, okay? It was not only not allowed, it wasn't tolerated in any way. Hardcore, Sick of It All, I would later find out, it was all about this sort of us versus them mentality, and we were united against the monolith of them, okay? And you could hear all of that in Sick of It All's music, in their lyrics, and I suppose

• 9:16Jake Brennan?

  that's what I was responding to when I think about it now. It's what drew me to the band. And then the cherry on top was when I finally got there to see them live, here was the singer of that band, acting offstage in a way that directly mirrored the themes that he sang about onstage. This was completely novel to me at the time. Lou Koller lived hardcore, and Lou died a couple of weeks ago, on July 24, 2026, from a long battle with cancer. The hardcore scene that Lou leaves behind, the scene that he helped build, the scene he helped spread from New York to Boston, to practically every corner of the world is hurting right now.

• 10:01Jake Brennan?

  Lou was the real deal, one of the good guys. He never stopped making great music, never stopped touring until he ran into this horrible, horrible disease. Sick of It All was around for nearly 40 years. Lou was famous, not just for being in the band, but famous for his support of younger bands in the scene, for helping out, for taking them on tour. And my band, back in the day, benefited from his and his bandmates generosity. We were lucky enough to open for Sick of It All for a small East Coast tour in 1997. On that tour, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about being a touring musician. I learned a lot about how to carry myself. I learned a lot about how to maintain my cool on the road, away from home.

• 10:45Jake Brennan?

  And, you know, that's not unusual if you're, if you're open and you're curious and you're smart. And, you know, you, when you're traveling with, with bands who at the time Sick of It All was, they were giants, really. I mean, they were just, they were seasoned veterans and they couldn't have been cool. That was, they couldn't have been cooler to us. I've toured with other bigger names, actually, and I'm not going to mention them now, but complete assholes, really, and just, just total dicks. And Sick of It All was not that at all. They were the complete opposite of that. I learned a lot, too much to mention, but one thing I do remember, a funny thing here

• 11:27Jake Brennan?

  that I learned from, from Lou in particular, I remember talking to him one night, I believe it was in Alabama, and we were sitting around and, you know, you do these tours and these, you play these punk rock clubs and you either get like a buyout where they give you cash to go buy dinner, or, you know, they'll buy you pizza. It's always pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza. And I remember Lou explaining to me that what I was eating at that moment was not pizza, that pizza was only something that could be made in New York City or in Italy. And not only did he not eat pizza in any other locale other than New York City or in Italy, he didn't even consider what people called pizza outside of the Five Barrows or Italy pizza, which I thought was very funny. And I never forget about that.

• 12:12Jake Brennan?

  Things have changed a little since then. This is the 90s, but he did have a point. He did have a point. I didn't know Lou Collerwell, and I don't want to give the impression that I did, but every interaction that I had with him made me feel better as a person. And it's hard to say that, like I mentioned earlier, about other musical heroes of mine that I've come in contact with. A few years ago, I opened my Instagram app to a notification from Lou and he'd made a video out of nowhere. I hadn't been in touch with Lou since that tour back in 97. And the video that Lou had made, he was holding my book and telling his followers to go check it out. I was fucking blown away.

• 12:57Jake Brennan?

  Just a totally random act of generosity that for Lou Collerwell wasn't random at all. It was just the way he was, the way he lived. My heart goes out to Lou's bandmates, his brother Pete, to Melissa, Aurelia, to his friends, to the Sick of It All fans, for all of you who, who loved the band and who knew Lou and are hurting. I'm sending you PMA, sending PMA to all you guys. For those of you who, who have never heard Sick of It All and are curious, go check out their debut album, their debut full length, I should say, Blood Sweat and No Tears. Start there and then listen to everything. It's great. Check out the tributes that are going on online, everybody from, you know, Quicksand

• 13:38Jake Brennan?

  and Dropkick Murphys and just it's fantastic to see Lou honored this way. And, you know, if you want to honor Lou, whip out a random act of generosity today for somebody who's not expecting it. Put a little more PMA into the world, a little more unity, all right? A little more love. R.I.P. Lou. Couple of years ago, Sick of It All performed at Coney Island, a screening for the movie The Warriors, and they did so in these awesome, you remember the movie Warriors?

• 14:07Jake Brennan?

  The Warriors gang wore those vests, Sick of It All had those vests made and that's what they performed in. Warriors had nothing to do with hardcore or punk rock, really, but they're such a part of that. That movie's such a part of New York culture. It's no surprise that Sick of It All was so into it. And I loved that tribute. I thought that was fun. That was maybe 10 years ago, something like that, maybe a little longer. But it got me thinking about great New York movies and this whole thing has me thinking about great New York music. And in the exclusive section of this after party, Zeth and I are going to be giving you our recommendations, our favorite obscure New York films and albums. And if we do our jobs right, you won't immediately recognize these recommendations.

• 14:52Jake Brennan?

  I want to keep it underground oriented, so it's still relative to Sick of It All. Zeth is going to handle the film recommendations. I'm going to handle the music recommendations and I promise you, we won't be talking about the Ramones and Taxi Driver. We're going to go deeper than that. Our New York underground Dirty Rex are coming up in the exclusive section of this after party, but you got to be an All Access member. You know the drill. Go to sign up at disgracelandpod.com and join me and Zeth and your fellow discos in this conversation and get additional exclusive content like this, plus ad-free listening. All right. In your feed right now, you may have heard our John Frusciante, Red Hot Chili Peppers John Frusciante episode is available for you, creating quite the stir on the internets. We're going to get into that later.

• 15:36Jake Brennan?

  Coming up right after this after party is our rewind episode on another controversial subject of ours, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Ted Bundy. That'll be available for you this weekend. And then next week, we're going to come at you with our Smashing Pumpkins episode. And this whole bit about Billy Corgan and the shapeshifter, two shapeshifters, actually. I don't know if you've heard this story. It's a crazy one. Nobody tells it better than Billy on the Howard Stern Show. So if you want to do a little pre-game action, you can check that out.

• 16:15Jake Brennan?

  But we're coming at you with our take on Smashing Pumpkins. And look, I love, I love Smashing Pumpkins and I like Billy, Billy Corgan as a guy. I know people can't stand him, namely other musicians, and he takes a lot of heat for a lot of different reasons. When I recorded this episode, I was thinking, God, if he ever hears this, he's going to fucking hate me. But I don't, I like, I just want to be on record before you hear the episode, before you listen to it. I really, really love Smashing Pumpkins. I've seen them live. I saw them with the Chili Peppers, actually. I saw them open up for the Chili Peppers. I've mentioned this before, they went on second Chili Peppers headline. Pearl Jam went on first, the Rocky Point Amusement Park in the roller rink there in Rhode Island. I've seen them other times as well. And like I said, I like them.

• 17:01Jake Brennan?

  Not sure Billy's going to like me after he hears this, if he hears it. All right. So that's coming up on Tuesday. Now, when you're listening to this disgraceland Smashing Pumpkins episode, just, the question is just, do you believe Billy? Do you believe this shapeshifter story? Billy Corgan strikes me as a lot of things. He does not strike me as a bullshit artist. In this story, it sounds like the height of bullshit.

• 17:27Jake Brennan?

  And I kind of want to, I want to litigate it further. Maybe we can do that in the after party next week. 617-906-6638. I want to know what you guys think. Call, leave a voicemail, send me a text, let me know. You can also, as always, email me [email protected]. Hit us on the socials at disgracelandpod.com. You might hear your answers on next week's after party. Speaking of socials, we're going to be back after this with a bunch of your DMs and comments. Also going to do some voicemails and texts. We're going to dive deeper into this John Frusciante River Phoenix thing. Talk to you in a bit.

• 18:11Speaker 05

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• 19:19Jake Brennan?

  All right, guys, we are back. A lot of you have chimed in on, namely on Instagram, on this River Phoenix, John Frusciante story. I want to get into some of this. I want to get into your, your messages, and I want to get into some of the criticism, the nature of the criticism around this story, not necessarily the story we're telling, but the story we're talking about that we, the story we talk about on Instagram, if that makes sense. Anyways, this one comes from Christian Hernandez, and Christian says, hey, fantastic episode. I never looked into this theory too deeply. Maybe because I was scared to be heartbroken that an artist who meant so much to me and made an impact on my life would have been responsible for River Phoenix's death. Nice to know that I can, at the very

• 20:04Jake Brennan?

  least, listen to John Frusciante's solo records with ease. Great work to you and the disgracing team. Christian, I appreciate that very much. And namely because, A, you listened to the episode, you're not just commenting on an Instagram post that lots of people are commenting on right now. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot of praise for the episode in these comments, but there's a lot of stupid, stupid, I don't even want to call it criticism. And I'm not one to really address criticism. I think it's dumb. I think criticism comes with the whole game, and you gotta take it. And I kind of typically feel like you just

• 20:46Jake Brennan?

  don't address it. I feel like for every 50 people who are into what you're doing, there's one who fucking hates it. And, you know, we're talking about millions of downloads, et cetera, that that adds up pretty quick. So anyhow, there's, there's two types of commenters I've found on Instagram. Okay, I don't really fuck with X. I don't really mess with TikTok or Facebook that much anymore. And it's mainly just Instagram, besides the Patreon where I interact with people. And on Instagram, you get exposed, the way the algorithm works, you get exposed now to a bunch of people who don't follow you. It's mainly exposure to non-followers. So people have come in, they've seen this story, they'll read like

• 21:30Jake Brennan?

  half of what we've posted and think that we're literally saying that we are alleging that John Frusciante had something to do with River Phoenix's death. And of course, we are not saying that. We are litigating this theory. Okay. And the reason that we told this story is because there's a lot to the theory, the internet theorists, as we're calling them, I don't want to call them conspiracy theorists, because there's actually some pretty good discourse on this online. There's a lot of bullshit, mainly bullshit, but there is some, some good discourse. The theorists do have some good points. And John Frusciante was there, and he was absolutely involved that night that River Phoenix died.

• 22:15Jake Brennan?

  Does that make him a killer? Well, that's what we try to get into in this episode. But you would think from some of the comments, that we're kind of saying that we're being accusatory here, that we are making the case that the internet is making, the monolith of the internet. And we're not, clearly, clearly. So that's part of it, and that's really fucking annoying. But it's fine, whatever, you gotta deal with it. The other thing that I cannot, I just can't stand, and I'm so grateful for the listeners who chime in and jump in over the, the top rope and get into the comments here, it's that these fly by night sort of, uh, social media, I don't know if they're real, but they're just immediately

• 22:59Jake Brennan?

  dismissive of any exploration of the topic. Like, this is just, and in, and in their mind, in four words, in a four-word comment, they can put a nail in the coffin of this story. The lack of curiosity is offensive to me as a human being. Okay. These stories are fascinating. The ins and outs and the drama, they are absolutely compelling and riveting. And there's a reason why a shit ton of people have listened to this episode yesterday, and frankly, commented on and shared the post. And it's that reason. These stories are endlessly entertaining, and they are, they are hard to, they're, and oftentimes

• 23:43Jake Brennan?

  unbelievable. So for someone to come along and just be like, oh, fuck you, this is a figured out, we knew this 20 years ago, man. You know what I mean? It's like, take your fucking lack of curiosity and fuck off. Unfollow us, don't listen to us, I don't care. Fuck off. Okay. So that's sort of my take on the takes. I want to get into some emails here from you guys, still on this subject. [email protected], you want to email us. All right, this one comes from way out west. Jake, it's your girl from the 303. It's been a minute since I wrote you, but today's episode absolutely warrants it. I think the last time I reached

• 24:25Jake Brennan?

  out was the Sharon Stone episode of Hollywoodland. Anyway, I felt like, once again, you read my diary from the 90s while researching this episode. In 1993, I was working at the infamous Tower Records on Sunset that was literally across the street from the Viper Room. My ex and I went there a few times, and I vividly remember Harry Dean Stanton performing with a band that included Johnny Depp and members of P, and the vibe was always very dark, and I didn't care for it much. Working at Tower, you saw tons of celebrities every day. John Frusciante, Johnny Depp, River Phoenix, and everyone else you mentioned were there all the time. I remember a few conversations with Johnny, Johnny Depp, and he was always a sweetheart. One afternoon, when I was working, this extremely disheveled guy comes running in, he looked like death, and was obviously high as a kite, and he

• 25:07Jake Brennan?

  started ripping CDs out of the bins. We all watched horrified. I asked one of the other clerks who it was, and he said, John Frusciante. He used to be in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was incredibly sad, and I didn't think he'd be around much longer. Fortunately, as you discussed today, that wasn't the case. Glad he got his shit together eventually, but I never forgot to sight him. Finally, I worked at the store the day after River died, and I remember because it was Halloween, but nobody felt very festive. It was heartbreaking. Thanks for jogging my memory every few months with a very interesting story. Always a pleasure to listen to your show. Rock or roll up. I love when we get to hear from people who were there on the scene in some way, shape, or form. I have heard from other folks, friends of John Frusciante's and River Phoenix's

• 25:48Jake Brennan?

  as well, to people in particular who requested that I keep their names and their messages private. And I gotta say, this, this episode has stirred up a lot of emotion in people. Want to go to another listener here, another email, this one from Joe. Hey, so glad you covered this awesome episode, man. John Frusciante is my favorite musician ever, and his solo music has touched me throughout the years in ways that nothing else has. It's crazy. I thought I knew everything about the Chili Peppers for years. I read all the books, all the magazines and TV interviews, and this rumor eluded me until about probably 10 years ago. I knew the story of River's death in the Viper Room, and John throwing up on Gibby and all that, but I never heard anyone blame John Frusciante for River's death before.

• 26:32Jake Brennan?

  Again, this is alleged. I'm adding that. It's not part of the email. I caught this allegation on Reddit after something piquing my curiosity, and at some point, and I finally really looked into it. Anyway, man, I really enjoyed this episode. Been listening since day one. Last thing, since you're into recommendations, I'm sure you've already heard them, but are you into The Black Lips? They're so good and original, and I've been listening to the shit out of them lately. Also, gotta recommend Flea's autobiography. Covers his life from birth to the start of the band. Hope you're having a great summer with you and the family. Appreciate you. Joe Kenbach. Joe, thank you for the message. Appreciate you. Happy you're digging the Frusciante story. And I have heard of The Black Lips. I've

• 27:13Jake Brennan?

  seen them live before, so an incredible show downstairs at the Middle East, probably in like 2008-ish. It's a long time ago, and they were amazing. They were incredible. Great band. And I have not read, I've read some of Flea's autobiography, not a lot. I picked it up for the research for the Frusciante episode. I didn't end up using it because he doesn't really get into John or River that much. But I am excited to read it. I got a good copy of it. I see the Flea turned up at the Newport Faux Festival. That's exciting. These, the clips of Flea's jazz band playing out there, pretty amazing. They're going around right now. Looks like he's on tour. It's awesome. All right. Speaking of being

• 27:56Jake Brennan?

  on tour, we're going to take a break from this tour right here, and we'll be back in a minute. We're going to do a couple of your calls and voicemails. Don't go anywhere.

• 28:17Jake Brennan?

  All right, guys, welcome back. 617-906-6638. You want to get at me with any topic at all. I want to hear your thoughts on John Frusciante. I want to hear your thoughts on River Phoenix. I want to hear your thoughts coming up next week on Smashing Pumpkins and Billy Corgan's Shapeshifter. This voicemail comes from the 503. Hi, my name is Crystal, and I'm calling from the 503. I absolutely love your podcast, both of them. And I was listening to the after show about albums that changed our lives, and Hold, Live Through This, came out when I was in the seventh grade, and I was a little outcast kid in a town where I didn't fit in. And the first time I heard it, I was like, this is somebody that gets me. And to this day, like, you can't make

• 29:02Jake Brennan?

  me dislike Courtney Love. And I love that she's getting her moment in the sun. And I just had to call in. It's my first time ever calling or ever sharing an opinion on anything in the shows.

• 29:14Speaker 02

  I love what you're doing with the Marilyn Monroe episodes. Uh, the best Marilyn Monroe movie for anyone that knows is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It's her ultimate performance, but Niagara is also really great. And she didn't get the chance to be what she should have been in her final movie with Clark Gable. She pretended her whole childhood that Clark Gable was her father. So she was living out this fantasy in real life. And because of Arthur Miller and all of those pressures, she sort of crumbled and then ultimately died. But yeah, so thank you for all you do. And I feel like you need to give more love to Courtney Love.

• 29:59Speaker 02

  So thanks, guys. Bye.

• 30:01Jake Brennan?

  Hey, Crystal, really appreciate the voicemail. A lot to get into here. Courtney Love, I'm supposed to be researching Courtney Love right now, and I have delayed it. And good news is I'm doing another story that I've been delaying for years. That's the Bobby Fuller story. But I delayed the Courtney Love story because we're, I want this documentary to come out. There's a movie that's been made about her and I think it's having trouble finding distribution or something. I'm not exactly sure. It's just not out and it should be. And I want to use it as part of the research. So I'm waiting on that. Also, there was some news that broke yesterday in New York Post about Kurt's death and Courtney's attorneys.

• 30:44Jake Brennan?

  And it's, it's, I mean, they're trying to, it's thinly veiled alleging that Courtney has something to hide regarding his death. And that's, I don't believe that at all. And there is a huge industry of folks who believe that Courtney Love had something to do with Kurt Cobain. And I'm kind of tired of it because I've really looked into this. I have looked into the, the so-called evidence they have and it's, it's complete bullshit in my mind. And I kind of want to litigate it, including all the so-called new information that has come out in the last 12 months, which we have, we have that entire dossier of quote unquote research. And I kind of want to do a Courtney Love episode that just finally, you know, does

• 31:25Jake Brennan?

  her biography and, and, and celebrates her, but also puts a nail in the coffin of these rumors. Unlike kind of what I'm doing with Bobby Fuller, which is really kind of like, hey, you know what? The way they said he died, that ain't the way he died, actually. But anyways, Courtney Love is on the brain. You're going to get more Courtney Love content soon. I'm not sure in what, what the exact take will be. On Marilyn Monroe, we have those two episodes that are, have currently been in the Hollywood Land Archive recently. And yeah, you're right. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I don't love it as much as I love Misfits because Misfits is just so fucking weird, the Clark Gable movie that she did. And it reminds me more of kind of a seventies movie, but I like the whole big set piece

• 32:10Jake Brennan?

  thing and then all the dance numbers and, and everything. And Gentlemen Prefer, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no. I'm thinking of How to Marry a Millionaire. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, yes, fantastic. That's the, the Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis one. Great. And Niagara, I need to watch it again. She's just so incredibly beautiful in Niagara. It's, it's distracting. It's truly distracting. It's another level. Thanks for the call. Appreciate you. Appreciate you, Crystal. 617-906-6638. You guys want to get at us about anything. Always Talking Covers That Are Better Than Originals, 610. New texts, Rock-a-Rola, Covers That Are Better Than the Original.

• 32:52Jake Brennan?

  I Never Knew, Don't Do It, Don't Break My Heart was a Marvin Gaye cover until I checked it out. Great tune and great unlock. And you know, the band's version is better. Swampy, rocky and awesome. Rock-a-Rola from your pal Jonathan in the 610. Yeah, you know what? I, it's that, that cover, that cover is, is, I clearly knew that was a Marvin Gaye song the first time I watched The Last Waltz. I went about 10 years of watching The Last Waltz without associating that song with Marvin Gaye for some reason. And I think it's because the band just fully own it. Yeah, I agree with you. It is better. It is better than the Marvin Gaye version. So there, I said it. Don't be mad.

• 33:36Jake Brennan?

  617-906-6638. If you are, you can get in touch with me and let me know. Big shout out to Bill Strobel, his Patreon, uh, over in the Patreon chat. Bill is a, is an all access member. Bill is a, is an artist. He's a visual artist and he, he did this, this mural of LeBron James in Philly or in and around Philly. It's really cool, actually. It's great. And I'm not a LeBron James fan at all. But of course LeBron signed with the Sixers. So Bill gets interviewed by Sports Illustrated. This is like this week and uh, somehow, I think it's his daughter or his wife or his girlfriend or something.

• 34:20Jake Brennan?

  I can't get, I'm trying to find the article right now. They, they called his house to talk to him, to interview him about this LeBron James mural. And uh, the person who answers the phone is like, I gotta, I don't know if I can get him. He's, he's listening to his favorite podcast, Disgrace Land, and they print that in Sports Illustrated, which is just fucking awesome. So Bill, of course, drops it in the, in the Patreon chat, which I thought was very cool. Thank you, Bill. And congrats to you on your awesome work and on getting LeBron and Jalen Brown. You can have both of them. I'd rather lose than have those guys on my team. For real. For real. Good luck. It took about 40 seconds for me to go from being gracious and complimentary to just

• 35:04Jake Brennan?

  being a Boston prick. That's just, it's, you know, you know, it's just what it's about being from New England. But here's the deal, people don't understand this. If you, if people, when people in New England give other people shit, it means we like you. That's what that means. People take it too, too, too seriously. 617-906-6638. Voicemail and text, you want to get at me about anything? [email protected]. Speaking of Patreon, if you are in the Patreon, that means you're an all access member. And if you're an all access member, you're going to get access to this conversation that Zedd and I are about to have right now. disgracelandpod.com to sign up. We're talking great New York obscure, underground recommendations, music and film recommendations

• 35:49Jake Brennan?

  coming up right now.

• 35:57Speaker 00

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• 37:01Jake Brennan?

  All right, we're back. I forgot to pimp out. This film should be played loud in the last block there. This is the E block. I usually do it in the D block earlier. Not that you care about that, but a little inside baseball. This film should be played loud. Our all access members podcast that we do once a month where we explore our favorite music from one of our favorite films. The one we got rocking for you right now is on Do the Right Thing. You don't want to miss this. Go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up and unlock that content. Anyhow, we're about to get out of here. We just published our 282nd episode. We're almost at 300 episodes. 300. That doesn't even include Hollywood Land. That's just Disgrace Land. That's just music subjects.

• 37:46Jake Brennan?

  Lots of stories in the archive on basically any, any major musician you can think of. We have covered them and the, the true crimes that they have either committed or been involved with, like the John Frusciante one this week that we get into. So if you have questions about, say, your favorite artist and you, you don't know where to find them and you're wondering if we have an episode on them, hit us up and we'll let you know. 617-906-6638 at disgracelandpod on the socials, [email protected]. You don't have to call us. You can send us a text. That works too. All right, I get it out of here. So let's recap. Number one, this week, our new episode on Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante in River Phoenix, that's available for you right now in the rewind slot this weekend.

• 38:31Jake Brennan?

  Our classic episode on Blondie, Debbie Harry and Ted Bundy. Don't miss that. Number three, next week, coming up, our next new episode on the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan and his shapeshifter. Number four, Zedd's going to give you those Hollywood and crime vibes in Hollywood Land. So make sure you are subscribed to the Hollywood Land feed and Apple Podcasts, the iHeart Radio app, wherever you get your podcasts. Number five, this film should be played loud. Our video podcast, new episode on Do the Right Thing is available for you right now. Next episode on Licorice Pizza, that's coming up at the end of the month. Go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up, become an all access member, unlock exclusive content just like this, along with ad-free listening. 617-906-6638. Hit us up. Your voice keeps us digging into the dark corners of music history. So keep calling, texting with your answers to this week's question of the week or with

• 39:16Jake Brennan?

  whatever else you want to talk about. Number seven, do not forget Discos. This is not just content, it's a community, a community of the obsessed and no one cares about music, books, records and the crime and grime that ties them all together like you do. And well, that's a disgrace. All right. Back on October 30th, 1993, River Phoenix's life was cut short outside of the Viper Room and this was what America was listening to on that day, according to the Billboard charts. Number one, Dream Lover, Mariah Carey. Last week, one. Peak position, one. Weeks on chart, 13. Number two, I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that. Meatloaf, last week, three. Peak position, two. Weeks on chart, seven. Number three, All That She Wants.

• 40:01Jake Brennan?

  Base of base. Last week, four. Peak position, three. Weeks on chart, seven. Number four, Just Kickin' It, Escape. Last week, two. Peak position, two. Weeks on chart, six. Number five,

• 40:33Speaker 01

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