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And who are you? I'm ReFrandel, Rock and Roller. Huh? [MUSIC PLAYING] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dollar Band Podcast, a record collectors podcast, a set of high gold mine magazines. And now your wacky city hosts, Don't let go! [CHEERING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [GROANS] Thank you, everyone, for stepping away in from watching the horrible news and reruns of Tbiletubbies and joining us on today's episode of the Dollar Band Podcast. Part of the Gold Mine magazine family of shows, I'm your host, Doc Disk, and with me, as always, the man whose eyelashes I've been collecting to make a special art project with, Rev. [LAUGHTER] Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I can't wait to see what you came up with. Please follow us on Instagram at Dollar Band Podcast and email us at [email protected]. So what were you doing in 1984? Me? I was in high school, listening to bands like White Snake, Deep Purple, Motley Crew, and Judas Priest. While I listened to these bands, today's guests lived it. Guess, please introduce yourselves to our audience. I am Joe DeBias, President of Lee's Lord, also of Withering Scorn and Pack of Dogs, and formerly of Fates Warning. I'm Anthony Trilio, known as Tony. I started Lee's Lord, and I was in a band called Helmet, also. Awesome, man. Hey, thank you guys for taking the time to be on the show today. We really, really appreciate it, man. Happy to be here. So a quick question, obviously, to both of you. For you guys, was there an album in the beginning of all this? In the beginning of your life of music, was there an album that you got or you heard or you purchased that release kicked it off for you to where you were like, oh, man, I got to start collecting records. I got to start buying albums. Well, the very first rock album I bought, I was in seventh grade, and I was going to show it, but we're not on video. But it was Erasmus Toys in the attic. Oh, hell, yeah. I will confirm that you're holding it up right now, and you do still have it. I do. I have the original. I think it looks like it's from 19, whatever the hell it was. It's in good condition, though. That's good. Yeah. But that was the first real rock album I ever bought. I believe I was in seventh grade. I knew the album that come out before that, but that was time Erasmus and Kisch was starting to be big with kids of my age. Awesome. What about you, Tony? Well, I got one here that was pretty important to me. As a kid, you know, I had an older sister. I was 14. I'm going to be 60 this year. My sister turned me on to rock music. I got really into it. This was. It's probably not my favorite, but it's my introduction to the Beatles. Hell, yeah, magical mystery to her. Nice. Is that the is that the OG copy of yours? This is my sister is from whenever it came out. Probably. That's so rad. That's awesome, man. Pull on a part a little bit about like, you know, I mean, that's that's sick that you still have it, though. Still there a couple pages. Oh, that's sick. This was pretty important to me. Yeah, you know, you'll find a lot of those that have the inner pages ripped out too. Like someone lost them and stuff or the covers on those. That era started to a split to like the glue and stuff did. So the fact that it's still holding together is pretty amazing, honestly. I when I grabbed it and there was one I couldn't find, but when I grabbed it, it's like. Or the album is it's got to be in the bin someplace. Yeah, they were notorious for the glue getting like if there was any moisture, the glue would just fall apart. Oh, man, well, that's right. I mean, those are both like, like, that's a good way to start your. I mean, it's crazy how much kiss gets brought up on this podcast that kiss was a big opener for a lot of folks. Yeah, who are collectors now, you know, because kiss really opened our minds to the idea of like, you could have more than just one thing from a band. Oh, yeah, there's some kiss. Yeah, exactly. Dude, I have tons of how many here's kiss collector to, but it is crazy. Like my so, I mean, I'm not to out myself here, but I'm definitely the youngest guy in this chat room right now. And my dad, oh, yeah, Alan's got kiss records today. It's right there too. They want my role. Yeah, my dad, I looked out in this in the sense that my dad was a huge kiss fan. And he really opened me up to that, like right out of the gate. And so I feel like a kinship with folks who started their journey with kiss because I had it at such a young age. But kiss really did teach us that we should fucking buy everything from a band. Yeah. Kiss was the band that they influenced me slightly different than Erasmith. Erasmith got me introduced to the music. Kiss made me want to play music for a living. Play a nice rock and roll star. That's what kissed it for me. Yeah, you know, it's funny. That was another question I had. So Tony, was there a band that did that for you? Like, did you see a live show or was there a band that really made you go like, oh, shit, I got to play music as a kid? You know, I think the first show I saw was twisted sister. Like awesome high school at a bar. And that was like, I thought, like, had pretty much impact on me, like just seeing the freaks and enjoying it. And they were heavy at the time early on. It wasn't as commercial. Yeah. You're just priest influence, you know, yeah. What you guys were in Connecticut, is that right? Yeah. So in that area, was there a record store or record stores where you guys could go to grab albums? For me, when I was, you know, maybe 13, 14, me and a bunch of my high school friends that were into music would take the bus to the Haven. I live about a half hour from the Haven. We take the bus every Saturday. And we hit festoons, which was like the, the bargain bin place where the A.R. All cutouts for a book 99 hell. Yeah. Then we woke up the street to cutlers and and rhymes, which had all the European and English imports. So that's where we get our cranks. And our, you know, import magazines to learn what albums to buy the following week, you know. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Where'd you go to get records? So my first cool albums came from the department store called Calvars. And Woolworth's, which my mother would take me to when I'd beg her to buy me something. And I think I still have the 45. What was this, a B side of rock and roll all night? I don't know. I have a 45 someplace. Luckily, there's no cover on it because I was raised by, you know, a tie and immigrant. Demons weren't like popular in our culture. It's like, it's now. Yeah. It's kind of crazy to think about that. Like that's a conversation we have all the time. Like Joe's wearing a black Sabbath shirt. And it's crazy to like listen back to those old records and be like, Oh, parents were scared of this. Like, the moment I get to know is a different time, but it is kind of crazy. Because some of it can be so campy in a good way, but especially with kiss. It's like, that's just campy as hell. And which we all love about them, but it is pretty crazy to think that Christian parents were like, Oh, no, the dark side took my kids. Well, I was the youngest of three. It's the one time they got to me they were used to it because my brother, older brother and sister were big rock and roll fans too. You know, and that's where actually I first began learned about all this good music. My sister and my brother and my sister was more, you know, new, new young, of course, but so's Nash America. But when my brother was only like five or six years old, we made and we shared a room. So that's when I heard, you know, rushed 2112 and you know, all this good stuff. I learned from my brother. So I had a good head start, but my parents are used to all that shit by now. That time I got old enough there like whatever. Listen to what you want. Tony being Italian immigrants. So did the was there any old Italian music in your house at that time? Well, my father was a musician. Oh, okay, Italy, Rosani Giuseppe Vetteri, a lot of the classical music is what my father liked, but my sister was into like, you know, I hear out and John the Beatles, then Hendrix cream. I mean, my sister used to go to the film more. So she's a pretty intense show. Yeah, I got a father from my father. I got this. You can't see it again, but it's Johnny Cash. That's where I grew up listening to. Of course, really, my mother and father always had Johnny Cash playing stuff like John Denver. But I love Johnny Cash and I still just gave listen to him. That's very cool that you still have records that, you know, that were inspired by your parents. So this was actually my father's album. I'm sure that is really cool. So I do want to ask you a question about your own, meaning like the the lead award stuff, the artwork on those albums were always absolutely amazing. So badass. Oh, yeah. Nice going to a real professional. I can't just start this over. No, no, thank you. How important how important was the artwork to you guys when you were, you know, thinking about the whole piece? Was it just, you know, did it help sell the music? Was it, you know, this is the thing that people are going to catch it's going to catch their eye when they're in the store. I mean, as far as leech lord, our first album we had no control. We're just given what the label wanted, which I have. Wow. I have someplace. I'll show you guys real quick and, you know, honestly, I'm not a huge fan of some some of the stuff because. I guess it's with mentally get a little corny or our first down this was. The American issue, which is as our ironworks. And this called freedoms rise and this was the European release. It's got a bird like. Oh, wow. Right or something. Yeah, crazy. So, you know, we didn't get the pick. I don't know about Joe Joe. In fact, maybe the guys that read did you okay everything? Yeah, we, well, when I was in face warning. Yes. You know, we pretty much take control over what we wanted and a funny thing was the leech lord, face warning connection is. One artist actually did covers for both of our bands and great Johannes, who just passed away last year. I got to rest him. He did. Well, he did our second and third album cover and about that same time, I believe he did. And these lords was your second record, right? They're second now. Yeah, we're right about the set, right about the same time frame. And he was from Connecticut where face warning and leech lord both came up. So we actually shared an artist, which was pretty cool. Tony, so they did a separate or a different cover in Europe than they did in the US. Did they ever tell you why they released it that way? Well, because we ended up getting our own deals. We got a deal in Europe, a deal in the States and a deal in Canada. So we didn't really have, you know, like we didn't have management. We did everything ourselves. So there were two of the guy we signed to our works as our friends were to be called Jagpanzer. So, you know, he told us we weren't going to make much money and we just wanted to get it out there. And you know, like Joel, tell you to when you're young, you just want to get your product out toward you. You just think, all right, later we'll make some cash. So it's really like, you just, they just did what they wanted to. And those two albums were just great to get them out. I just graduated high school in the next year we put albums up. Oh, wow. Wait, so am I hearing that a label took advantage of a band? That number has it. No, look, you're probably full of shit, Tony. Next week we're flying to Europe first class. That's so well. I'm from Seattle. That's right. That's right. I'm out right now. And let me tell you the record industry is very trustable. And I don't know anyone who's been fucked by them in my career. The rarities are rarity. You could throw a rock here and hit somebody who was fucked by a major in the 90s. Oh, man. Oh, I did. I want to touch out you mentioned going to Europe. So you guys are doing some festivals, right? Next Wednesday and we're playing crease two shows in Greece. Check with public and Poland. Poland. Yep. Awesome. Up the hammers festival in Greece. I believe writes up the up the hammers. The hammers sold out a couple shows already sold out. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, do you guys do that often or is this kind of a one off thing? Yeah, we've been doing it almost every year since we got back together 2013. So almost every last year we stayed in the States. Before that, we were in Europe and almost like I said every single year, we were able to go to which is great. Because I love I love it there. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, awesome. And are you doing any US touring? We're doing Seattle will be in Seattle the second week of August. Oh, awesome. Awesome. What are you doing here? Soldiers of steel. Not cool, which hasn't quite been announced yet. Well, feel free to come and get you on a list. I appreciate that man. Thank you. Yeah, it's a. Now that's fucking rad, dude. I love it up here. I feel very fortunate to be in this city. It's it's fucking great for music for sure. And a lot of good heavy metal and heavier music from your. I believe the revamped sanctuary is headlight and that festival. Yeah, awesome. Oh, yeah, dude. That's somebody good metal bands up here that like no one ever talks about like Skeletor is from here that been fucking rules. That metal church right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. So when you guys were first starting out and you were, you know, playing around New England. Was there any bands coming up at that same time that are still going today? Maybe from similar scenes? Well, that's a funny question because I'm not an original Lee's Lord guy came up in face warning in 1983, which is about the same year. Lee's Lord came around. So we both kind of grew up in the comedic scene at the same time, you know. We were great friends back there. We knew each other. We hang out at the same bars, same rock clubs and stuff. But I think both of us would probably have to say like at the time the big band we looked up to at the time was obsession. Would that be correct, Tony? Yeah, first. Yeah, I know about it, right? Yeah. So that's rough. Wow obsession. They're the fucking kings, you know? And that's where we'd go see them hang out new Haven. Yeah, almost like a mid ground from, you know, for us. It was, you know, pretty far, but you were kind of closer, right? Yeah, well, yeah, well, face warning was based in Hartford. So it was kind of in the middle. I live kind of actually near to having myself, but yeah, that was New Haven was the. Probably the center of the heavy metal scene back then. And obsession at the time where the kings of it. So yeah, I don't think they're together anymore. Or I think maybe like Lee's Lord is now we, they play a couple festivals every couple of years. I kind of think. Right. Yeah. And it's just one or two original guys right now. I think it's just one. Yeah, like, yeah, the singer Mike. Awesome. So are you guys still actively buying vinyl now as collectors? I'm not because of certain things going on. I know you are right. I don't really actively buy a lot of vinyl these days. I still have a turntable and I still have lots of records that I listen to. I got about three or four thousand out of my basement. It's I don't know every day like I used to. And I, you know, I do buy certain collectors type. Yeah, I know that I regular vinyl purchaser anymore. Yeah, got you. Yeah. Is there what's the jammer your collection? What's the one record that you are the most proud of there? I would have to say the last LP that I got was a rerelease version of Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous and red vinyl. Awesome. That is a fucking great record. Yeah, we just got that recently. Me and my son is a huge also a huge saloon, a fan because I raised my kids correctly. He actually was the one who received that, but we should so we share it. So the last one I actually purchased I gave to you the Rory Gallagher one. That's right. Which I have. Oh, wow. I'm a massive. I remember I'm a huge Rory Gallagher fan. And today is Rory's birthday, by the way. Yeah, fucking a yeah. Now he's absolutely one of my favorite guitar players. When I was just on tour in Ireland and it got to go see like one of the big statues of him that's outside of like Ulster Holland stuff. But it was the legend that nobody knew. He's my favorite guitar player. Yeah, same. I love when Jimmy Hendrix was interviewed and they were like, how does it feel to be the best guitar player in the world? Jimmy Hendrix was like, I don't know. I asked Rory Gallagher. So fucking good, man. Yep. Happy birthday, Rory. Yeah. You saw statue in Valley, Shannon. That's where a statue is, I believe right? There's so there's multiple. I went to the one that was out in front of Ulster Hall in Belfast. Okay. Yeah. Fucking awesome. Yeah. He's awesome. So I'd be remiss if I didn't ask are is there any plans for any new music from the band? We do have new stuff. It's not it's all demo format. We played two songs live. We've been doing that for a few years. It's we just got to bring it together. It's long overdue. Very cool. Yeah. This year maybe at the end of the year, maybe next year we'll see we'll see what happens. Awesome. Man, but let's still be creating. You know, that's all the fucking matters as long as you guys are still working and still doing stuff. And the fact that you're still playing live shows, you know, all over the world, you know, it's pretty fucking awesome, man. And you know, the band sounds fantastic. It's a great bunch of guys. We all get along, you know, which is. It's not all after a little long and just playing some great music. Hell yeah. I mean, I'm kind of the new guy in town because unfortunately, Matt has to wait a great Matt Vincy. They needed a base base player for a couple of shows. I guess they already had booked. So that was what three years ago and I'm still here. That's like a threat. I try getting away and Tony told me psyched him off. Yeah. Once you're in, you're not getting out alive. So I do want to ask his, you know, getting to know Rev and do this podcast with him. He tells me all the time about going overseas and how much more kind of better treated musicians are in Europe than they are in the United States. And I guess I wanted to get your, your take on that. Joe, why did you do it before I did with faith? I mean, like, it's just this style of music, the throwback or traditional heavy metal is still has a much bigger following over there. Then, then here, you know, we do festivals here and you're cool, but they're much better attended and much more enthusiastic receptions over there. In general. And it was another funny thing about European crowds is they like all heavy metal, you know, over here is kind of everything's broken up in sub genres and you guys, you know, but over there, the metal festival has all different kinds of metal and they like it all equally, which is really cool. You know, we got power metal bands, you got 80s, hair type bands, you got trash bands all in the same festival and they're all equally accepted, which is really cool. Yeah, you know, they don't mind mixed bills, which is something that's so like different from over here. I play in a punk rock and roll band called the drowns and we tour a lot over there and it is crazy how often we get put with bands and different genres and we love that shit because we're all huge fans of other genres, you know, we're not, we don't only listen to punk rock and it's like, you know, so it's nice to see these other bands, but it is crazy how some of those bills couldn't happen in the United States just people get weird out by it. Joe and I have gone on before heavy bands before in the past right in the 80s, you know, like you're playing with like overkill and you weren't as heavy as them, but, you know, like I remember being at one of these festivals and hearing like lay it down by rat and then motor it right after, you know, like so they're definitely like they're not as like, like if you're trash and you have like a power metal band before it. So it kind of didn't go over that well back in the year. Yeah, it's kind of it's crazy like it's crazy. I mean, like, you know, it's time specific. So like the scenes were different back then, but it is, I think Europe is ahead of us in that sense to where they're probably making more money technically too because you get cross pollination in the fans. Yeah, and then fans who would normally be in front of one band because it's a specific type are now watching that band because they're there to see another band and all that does is make more money for everyone involved. So it seems to make more sense from a financial standpoint. Like one thing one that stands out for me is when we did a when I was back in face warning days, we did a Swedish Swedish rock Sweden rock. Alright, so there's like seven stages, but our stage when I was in face warning face warning open the day on that stage second was winger. Third, third spring field. Awesome. And then back when turn our over drive and guns and roses headline that stage that day and all it's all mixed up. You know, people who are really cool. My mom is a massive springfield fan like fucking massive. I like I grew up with the springfield. She used to throw the roses at him because he would grab a dozen roses and play the guitar with it. Like I'll never forget when I saw I got to see my mom be like a fangirl and be like, oh my god, he used my roses like he seems like such a good dude. But yeah, that's a fucking crazy bill. Yeah, it seems like every girl on the planet is in the rick spring. If you haven't seen California Cation, then you want to see about rick spring field watch California Cation. I love to check that out. Oh, that shows fucking that show was great. Never seen. Oh, man. Well, so you guys have those. Is there any other shows other than Europe and that Seattle festival we talked about? Right now that's it. Cool. Awesome. So what's I mean, you guys going to work on a new record. Is there anything coming up in the future? Hopefully we can get this album that's the most, you know, important thing on my play. So I don't think anything else is as far shows for the rest of the year. But I mean, it's almost all done in demo format. It's just like taking it to a studio or doing it. I'm not like very technically proficient. Joe can record in this house. My stuff's all outdated. So and it kind of like going back into the studio like there's a studio here in town that offered us to do it. A lot of the face warning albums were done at called the garage house. Awesome. So I don't know if that's doable at this point. So I guess. A lot of bands are recording remotely. I mean, I don't we don't really have to do that because we're basically in the same geographical area. We're two version of Connecticut to officer in Jersey and Joe is in Pittsburgh, but like I'm in another project called withering scorn with Glenn and Sean Jover from formally of megadeth. And we the band is in four different three different countries, so two of us are in the US ones. A Canada ones in Germany and recording two albums like that remotely. It's actually fairly easy these days and it sounds great. You would never know. You know, more and more bands are doing that. It is crazy. You can write full records that way. We've written full albums that way where you just send your parts back and forth. That's exactly what we did. Two albums. You know, it's and it's that I don't have any great big studio here. I have an interface that would laptop and a couple things, you know, the whole set up cost me 500 bucks. I mean, Glenn has his own actual studio at home. So I mean, he gets sent to him and he mixes it professionally and all that. But as far as me being a bass player, I plug in the little red thing on my desk here. You know, it's easy, easy as pie. Well, before we let you go, we're going to ask you each the question that we ask almost everybody we've met with, which is what is that white whale that holy grail of a record that you wish you had in your collection that maybe one of our listeners has and they're like, Oh, I can send it to Joe and Tony. Let me answer that for them. It's Rick Springfield's first record. If they got an autographed copy that would be better. Sorry, go ahead, guys. I'm going to think about that one Tony better go first. I'm going to tell you something I kind of have my green record because my sister bought this year came out. Oh, wow. Yeah, Jimmy Hendrick is pretty. I mean, I love it. It was my introduction and fell in love. But this is, as you can see, it's got like masking tape. This is from the year it came out. My sister gave us to me. She saw him. So I guess I have my tree. Actually, I probably like that access bold is love from. Okay, there we go. An original access bold is love. All right. Your sister sounds cool as hell. She was. She's no longer with us. But keep her in my memories. Yeah, man. It sounds like she was fucking awesome. But that's tough to say because I mentioned how I have that new red vinyl live and dangerous, which is my favorite album of all time. I would love to have it signed by Phil, but that's not going to happen these days. I don't really have one that I don't own. I really don't. What about this? How you have Phil is Dylan. Dylan. Yeah. I'll give you that when I see you Sunday. How's that? I mean, I used to be a huge record collector back in the day and I have pretty much. There's nothing. I don't have a glaring omission. So, one, Joe, if I, if I heard you correctly, I'd assume that when the time comes that you write off into that great metal show in the sky that your son, your son's going to get your collection. 100% yeah. Okay. And so Tony, what about you? What happens to your collection? I have two kids. So, you know, they're more than welcome to take them or, you know, they can sell them, put some money in your pocket. That's a good dad right there. Well, dude, we really appreciate it, man. Thank you guys for being on the show. And we wish you the absolute best. It's awesome that you're still kicking and you're still doing it, man. So congrats on that. Thank you. It's great being on. Absolutely, brothers. All right. Take care of yourselves. I will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, tonight. I hate you, buddy. Appreciate it. Have a good one.