Only Three Lads - Classic Alternative Music Podcast

It's the first full weekend of Daylight Savings Time here in (most parts of the) U.S. You bring the sunshine, and we'll supply the tunes!

Brett Vargo chats with electropunk pioneer Peter Pepper about his journey from a "dirtbag punk kid" growing up in Florida to becoming an underground cult hero of a genre he accidentally helped to create. He is currently a renowned multimedia creator, world-traveling storyteller, and founder of the AdventurePunk movement - a philosophy centered on curiosity, reinvention, and crafting meaning through exploration and doing something rather than nothing...even if it's hard.

Featured in our most eclectic six pack yet:

1) Peter Pepper - "Monday Night Electropunk" (single)

2) Mekons - "Mudcrawlers (Version)" feat. Benji Webbe (from the forthcoming LP Horrorble, Fire Records)

3) The Sweetest Ache - "Briaris"

4) Heavenly - "Robas Escenas" (original version from the LP Highway To Heavenly, Skep Wax Records)

5) Special Friend - "Isolation" (from the LP Clipping, Skep Wax Records)

6) Boiled In Lead - "King of the Dogwoods" (from the LP King of the Dogwoods, Omnium Records)
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This week, we’re covering bands who released one…and only one…proper album in their career.  Sometimes they say everything they need to say in one album long statement.  Sometimes, they attempt to chase the same feeling of the first album and can’t quite repeat the magic.  Sometimes they’re not given a chance. 

Our Third Lad knows a little something about being in a "one and done" band.  Frank Boscoe’s great ‘90s indiepop band Wimp Factor 14 released exactly one proper album for Little Teddy Records, 1993’s Ankle Deep.  Fortunately, more music followed with his mid-to-late ‘90s band Vehicle Flips, 2000s group The Gazetteers, and this decade, The Ekphrastics.  Fortunately, The Ekphrastics were NOT "one and done," as they released their marvelous third album, All of a Sudden, Pow!, on Harriet Records in September 2025. Like the two albums that preceded it, it contains the kind of songwriting prowess that makes you marvel at how the songs can be so clever, so novel, so well researched, and yet so infectious and accessible.  For example, how about a song called “I’m Going to Read You the Riot Act” where he then ponders where the term came from, and then actually READS you the Riot Act as it was written in 1715 England?  Or how about  the wind chill factor?  Or journeyman first baseman John Jaso?. Experience short stories about aging marching bands, bee stings, COVID testing vans, money-laundering art galleries, rampageous hockey fans, who’s in the obituaries today, and unwritten pop songs.  You can get another glimpse into the mind of Mr. Boscoe in his sixth book of poetry, Tiny Delivery Robots All Over Campus. 

Proud members of the Pantheon Podcasts family.

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Croon•er (n) ['kru:nər]: a singer, particularly a male one, who sings sentimental songs in a soft, low voice.

Decades before Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, or Uncle Gregg captured the hearts, imaginations, and undergarments of a swooning audience, crooners ruled the earth. The term typically conjures up golden throated singers like Bing Crosby, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett, and Mel Torme interpreting the timeless songs of Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin. But one crooner reigned supreme: Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. He was "The Voice," possessing an instrument of rare, pure, crystalline perfection, with a phrasing, tone, and ability to charge every word with such emotion that you can palpably sense his audience getting weak in the knees.

Never has Sinatra's legendary 1940s performing career sounded as immaculately and pristinely alive as it does on the SING label's recent archival projects: At the Hollywood Bowl 1943-48; Christmas on the Air; and the 5-LP box set Long Ago, Far Away, all lovingly restored and mastered by an award winning team and featuring exquisitely detailed liner notes by no greater authority than record producer, historian, archivist, author of the acclaimed Sessions with Sinatra, and host of the weekly radio show Sinatra Standard Time, Chuck Granata.

We are fortunate to have Chuck join us this week to chat about all things Sinatra: the innovative new sets, his important role in pop music's breakthrough, his classic and most underrated albums, and the use of AI for good. And, of course, because O3L is focused on classic alternative music, our lists cover some of our favorite singers who carried on crooning into the '70s, '80s & '90s.
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This week, we celebrate the life and music of Elliott Smith, tracing his journey from noisy indie rocker to lo-fi DIY troubadour to the reluctant voice of a generation. Elliott released three records with his band Heatmiser and five solo classics before his untimely passing at the age of 34 in 2003 (with two posthumous collections that followed), leaving a rich, beautiful, emotionally wrought catalogue of music that continues to influence artists today.

We explore the complex, brilliant, funny, but ultimately tragic figure that was Elliott Smith, and we are fortunate to have a Third Lad who had a front row seat to his musical development - Lucas Ward from The Silver Snails. Lucas was a close friend of Elliott's (née Steven) in high school and college and shares an intimate portrait of the artist as a young man.

But this episode has a dual purpose, as we also celebrate the release of the second Silver Snails album, Speed of Light. The Silver Snails are a glam rock space pop family band based in the wine country of Italy, consisting of Lucas, his wife Elisa Fantini, and aided and abetted by their three children. It's a cosmic delight of an album - a string of ten pearls lovingly crafted to uplift, inspire, and open the hearts of listeners. It draws from a stylistically diverse, spiritually enriched, globally connected palette. Oh, it also rocks and is a lot of fun! And if their cover and video of "Video Killed The Radio Star" doesn't have you smiling from ear to ear, consult a doctor immediately.

Learn about Lucas's journey from Portland-raised Wall Street titan to Italian-dwelling psych-pop craftsman. Get a primer on Italian pop music. Laugh. Cry. Feel. Get reaffirmation that you are pretty. Be the faro d'amore. All this and more...only on O3L.

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Get ready for six new tunes that hit the mark every single time! Speaking of bullseyes, this week we welcome the charming and talented Nicole Laurenne from "spooky kitten garagepunk" band The Darts and torch/soul/trip-hop project Black Viiolet to O3L! Learn about Nicole's fascinating journey, get a glimpse of her creative process, and marvel at a work ethic that has produced two great new albums in the first quarter of 2026 and a seemingly endless touring schedule throughout the rest of the year.

The Darts: https://thedartsus.com

Black Viiolet: https://blackviiolet.com

In this six pack:

1) The Darts - "Apocalypse" (from the upcoming LP Halloween Love Songs)

2) Fake Friends - "Hyperconnection" (from the LP Let's Not Overthink This, Stomp Records)

3) Softjaw - "Pleased with Me" (from the forthcoming LP Softjaw, Dandy Boy Records / Bachelor Records)

4) Shapes Like People - "Lately" (from the upcoming LP Under The Rainbow, Jangleshop Records)

5) The Suncharms - "Midnight Train" (from the forthcoming LP Darkening Sky, Sunday Records)

6) Black Viiolet - "One" (from the LP Dark Blue, Adrenaline Fix Music)
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