The Royds Reinvent the Podcast

In a world where it seems everyone and anybody can have their own podcast (and not necessarily pull it off so it's interesting) it's refreshing to find one that's done it right - even more so to find one that offers a unique twist - adding something you're not likely to come across just about everywhere else. (What is that, you ask? Well - we'll get to that in a moment...) May I direct your ears to a relatively new addition to the podcast world "The Royd's Revue Podcast" featuring Robb Hall and Andrew Jefferes.

Full disclosure: Andy's my nephew. Am I biased? Go scratch yer ass!! I mean - no - of course not... I can write an unbiased review - just watch me...

The title of their podcast "The Royd's Revue" gives you some insight to what to expect. They review movies... as to today's date they've done several from the Jurassic Park franchise, Toy Story, and Thor - but here's the twist...

Being musicians they give themselves an ingenious homework assignment - they create songs to accompany their individual perspectives - record them separately - and then reveal what they've done to each other at the end of the podcast, after a coin flip (or as a few episodes I've listened to, a guitar pick flip.) The result is nothing short of amazing.

Given the time constraints these are often spontaneous, unpolished recordings - and they admit to flubs they've left in, recording styles outside of their comfort zones, and even riffs they've nicked from other sources.

More often than not they choose to record from the perspective of one of the characters in the movie - most recently, episode 8 - Thor: The Dark World, Robb wrote "That Hammer" from Jane's perspective (Thor's love interest) - while Andy wrote "I'll Show You" - from Loki's (Thor's brother - and as the Royd's put it - a very sad boy).

But before they even get to the music I must say I enjoy the banter... Robb and Andy, longtime pals, are genuinely synched - and quite funny! The Royd's have done a hilarious video to their Christmas single "Christmas Is Cancelled" and Robb is no stranger to doing stand-up - we've also featured Robb several times on our website doing his "Dick Bones Show" - interviewing a fork, a bat, a box of tissues, a french press, a printer, over-ripe bananas...

So check them out! Listen to the podcast - you can find their spontaneous combustions available for download at their band camp channel and you may even find a few podcast accompanying videos courtesy of Ravid Design on their youtube channel.

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As a side note to The Royd's: How can you possibly think Woody tried to murder Buzz Lightyear - you sick BASTARDS!!!

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The OOBs Win BEST SONG Alternative Pop Rock 2021 at IndieMusicPeople.com

 

I should really pay more attention to these things... apparently the Out Of Bodies have WON BEST SONG Alternative Pop Rock 2021 at IndieMusicPeople.com - and we've been awarded our first Golden Kayak for "On and On" - To think that a little impromptu warm-up recording we did in Dan's cramped bedroom in the Bronx on Ollinville Road - so many years ago - could somehow find life anew and cut through all the clutter and get noticed today - that was... well, UNEXPECTED to say the least!

Various internet stations took the time to leave us notes... 

 

The PICNIC station wrote "reminds me of a Beatles outtake maybe, or The Kinks, poppy, catchy concoction, musical and fun - kudos..."

 

SMILE ABOUT IT wrote "enjoy the musicality, and quite c-a-t-c-h-y chorus, who doesn't understand "on and on", and the repetition is strangely liberating, neat backing vocals also, recalls the 60s in exuberance and pop simplicity, kudos..."

TERRY TONER, Radio Southland wrote "Congratulations to the OOB on your award win - wonderful news - from Terry T :-) - longtime supporter of OOB - New Zealand - lemonade all around - all the best for many more :-))))

 

 

To be fair it's easy to see why last year's nominee picks got lost in the rubble - as the site crashed during a routine maintenance procedure which left it almost completely inoperable for several months - and it happened just around the same time they began announcing their Golden Kayak winners. Good news is that they've apparently worked out their site bugs and are back online - and bleary-eyed musicians everywhere are returning to their pages to find, as I did, whether or not they've won any categories. Best Song Alternative Pop Rock on our first go around - what a nice surprise - and it's a song that features Dan, Mark and myself... can't wait to tell the other fellas...

ON AND ON

 

In addition to our win we've been nominated for several other songs which caught their attention, "Roses", "In The South Bronx", "Mirror Land", "Willow" and "Mashed Potato"...

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Beavis and Butthead Meet Cher

Beavis and Butthead..... and Cher?

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You read that right... Beavis and Butthead are back in a new movie set for release this June, "Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe" and here's a little sneak peek.

Mike Judge returns as the voices of both Beavis and Butthead, and this time they're on a space mission with NASA in the year 1998 (the year after the original series ended) - - but somehow they wind up in the year 2022 (oh, God - help them!) As the NSA and the U.S. government track them down, the two struggle to adjust to this bizarre new world they find themselves in - while retaining their juvenile sense of wonder and awkward innocence. I guess the lesson here would be is, if Beavis and Butthead can get through this, so can we.

Regarding the cameo with Cher - she looks pretty damn good here (I just googled her - is she really 76 years old?) - she looks better here than she's looked 10 years ago. With modern de-aging technology available these days could there be some digital tampering afoot? Regardless, she's a good sport - even to go as far as making Butthead think he's got a chance to score with her, "You feeling' lucky, Butthead? ...You know all you gotta do is... yeah... lose... (gesturing with her eyes towards Beavis) ....lose... you know who...". Butthead lifts off his virtual helmet and looks at Beavis, who still has his on and says "Hey, Beavis... get OUT of here!" Butthead's already forgotten the whole encounter with Cher was via virtual reality. But to Butthead scoring is scoring... even virtually.

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Pine Bush UFO Fair

If you were at the Pine Bush UFO Fair this weekend you probably saw THIS guy! That's our Joey (with some friends) posing between the kiosks I made for him! It was a lovely event - and unlike last year the transient lunatic touching all the objects clearly marked "do not touch" was a no show - although they were ready for him this time! (I'm imagining security guards dressed up as extraterrestrials).

Hey, did one of these things just move?

For MORE on the Pine Bush UFO Fair click HERE!