The We Live Skull & Brains Society!

If you’re a fan of 80s nostalgia and electronic music, then you’ve probably heard of synthwave. And if you’re a fan of synthwave, then it’s time to add the album Two Lane Highway and its synthetic retrowave beats by California-based artist Valley Lights to your playlist. 

For those of you who don’t know, Valley Lights gives a strong resemblance to a Jim Morrison who never aged and who traded drugs and alcohol for reps at the the gym. I’m not saying his music is cleaner and more polished than the Doors frontman, but also that is exactly what I’m saying.

Synthwave first emerged in the late 2000s and draws inspiration from the sounds and aesthetics of the 1980s. The genre often features pulsating basslines, catchy melodies, and atmospheric synths that transport listeners back to the neon-lit streets of a retro-futuristic city. I’m going to name three songs that heavily influenced the modern synthwave style. “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, “Blue Monday” by New Order, and “Take On Me” by A-Ha.

Congratulations. That was your synth crash course. If you want to get the full immersive experience, then you’ll want to add in the electronic sounds of Berlin’s Kraftwerk and Detroit’s CYBOTRON.

In an exclusive interview with Ricky Lee Potts from his website, Valley Lights describes his inspiration for his latest album from a bad breakup and some of the worst pain he had experienced in his entire life.

The process of working through that pain was Two Lane Highway, an album according to the Valley Lights Bandcamp page that transports you “to a world of love, loss and excitement set against the backdrop of sun drenched California coastlines.”

Synthwave is not only limited to music, by the way. The genre has also influenced other forms of media such as movies, video games, and even fashion. In fact, the We Live Zombie Carnival podcast is inspired by the synthwave and retrowave subgenre.

The podcast’s original vlog bases its entire first episode around the classic 80s movie Night of the Comet. The scene from the abandoned radio station where Regina and Samantha first encounter Hector heavily influenced the structure of the entire podcast.

Valley Lights graciously lends his musical expertise to the We Live season finale. His track “Chasing Ghosts” lends to the overall cinematic vibes of the finale and can be heard about halfway through the episode.

Visit the Valley Lights Bandcamp page here to download his digital album or to purchase a physical cassette tape because you have to. That same Bandcamp page describes Two Lane Highway as “a visceral, danceable entry into the synthwave genre that takes hold and doesn’t let go. Earworm melodies flow seamlessly over arpeggiated synth lines, power-chord guitars, and screaming saxophone solos. Like a mashup of Blade Runner and The Weeknd, Valley Lights relishes the neon aesthetics of the synthwave genre, but is never afraid to break out of them with pop sensibilities that will immediately have you singing along.”

For a full list of all the amazing artists from every episode of We Live! follow the Joe Deez Bandcamp page here and check out our Collection and Wishlist pages. Listen to the We Live! Zombie Carnival podcast and hear the Valley Lights killer track "Chasing Ghosts" here:

Stealing time between cow hides being wheeled in and out, Black Dog Otis banged through 11 songs in two days. Leather Factory is six guys tearing apart the blues and restitching them together with punk, garage and country threads.

Those six guys are former pawn shop employees, bar bouncers and hand models, current archeologists, creative directors, designers and satellite installers. Guys who used to play over 200 shows a year, been in dozens of bands from Seattle to Pittsburgh and recognized routinely on the CTA in Chicago as, “That one guy in that one loud country band.”

This is Black Dog Otis. A band that’s every bit Louisville. Not quite midwestern. Not quite southern. And of course, not quite sober.

Ideas at 3 a.m. rarely ever work. Ideas at 3 a.m. after a pint of bourbon, well, those are the ideas that should’ve been put to bed before the bottle came off the shelf. Black Dog Otis is one of those ideas – a band built almost backwards. Guitars? We have three of them, but every song was built from bass riffs. Play some gigs and then record? Why do that when you can send rough, out of time bass demos to five friends who’ve played in various bands for over 20 years.

Our album, Leather Factory was recorded in, you guessed it, a leather factory. Really. Between piles of cow hides, we hooked up guitars and mics and cables to a laptop that was “borrowed” from an out of business ad agency. In two days, we had 11 songs.

Members are: · Gene Brock – Lead guitarist and Kentucky institution. · Tony Feltner – Co-lead guitarist and the glue holding this all together. · Brian Crimmins – Co-co-lead guitarist and producer extraordinaire. · Brian Hughes – Vocals, harp and West Virginia’s second favorite son. · Ashleigh Bills – Bass and Casio PT1. · Keith Raines – Drums, air piano and bringer of thunder.

Listen to The We Live! Zombie Carnival podcast and hear who died to their killer track here:

For a full list of all the amazing artists from every episode of We Live! follow the Joe Deez Bandcamp page here to check out our Collection and Wishlist pages:

Thank you for being a valued member of The Skull and Brains Society! 

We Live is more than just your average morning radio show taking place in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Sure, guests call from all over the world and end their interview by getting eaten by zombies live on the air. Sure, these guests are athletes, musicians, artists, actors, journalists, and overall legends. But We Live is more than listening to hilarious interviews that always end the same way - people dying. It also is a show that plays the best indie and underground music on planet Earth.

The governments of the world have collapsed. Zombies lurch on every corner of the world. The living are encouraged to stay home and stay safe. But that doesn’t seem to happen. The world goes on, just with zombies. And since all bets are off, that means the industry conglomerates no longer own the radio waves. Thanks to the end of civilization as we know it, and the rise of undead ghouls, we all get to listen to amazing music from phenomenal artists. 

We Live boasts the best underground music library from indie artists anywhere that the living still survives. Every week, we bring you music from around the globe that you would most likely never hear anywhere else. We’ll prove it. Go ahead and check out our Bandcamp page. And those are just some of our celebrated artists. We also search abandoned record stores and music studios for CDs, tapes, records, and even 8-tracks of forgotten or never “broke-through” musicians. We also search Soundcloud and Spotify for artists waiting to get noticed.

Every week, we highlight one particular artist or band that we think you’ll really enjoy regardless of your taste in music. This week, that band is PROCRASTINATRIX.

We Live is more than just your average morning radio show taking place in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Sure, guests call from all over the world and end their interview by getting eaten by zombies live on the air. Sure, these guests are athletes, musicians, artists, actors, journalists, and overall legends. But We Live is more than listening to hilarious interviews that always end the same way - people dying. It also is a show that plays the best indie and underground music on planet Earth.

The governments of the world have collapsed. Zombies lurch on every corner of the world. The living are encouraged to stay home and stay safe. But that doesn’t seem to happen. The world goes on, just with zombies. And since all bets are off, that means the industry conglomerates no longer own the radio waves. Thanks to the end of civilization as we know it, and the rise of undead ghouls, we all get to listen to amazing music from phenomenal artists. 

We Live boasts the best underground music library from indie artists anywhere that the living still survives. Every week, we bring you music from around the globe that you would most likely never hear anywhere else. We’ll prove it. Go ahead and check out our Bandcamp page. And those are just some of our celebrated artists. We also search abandoned record stores and music studios for CDs, tapes, records, and even 8-tracks of forgotten or never “broke-through” musicians. We also search Soundcloud and Spotify for artists waiting to get noticed.

But every week, we highlight one particular artist or band that we think you’ll really enjoy regardless of your taste in music. This week, that band is DEAD CHANT.

Dead Chant is a skate punk band from Seoul, South Korea. They are on the forefront of the K-Indie scene that is taking over the nation. The punk band consists of Rumgirl on vocals, Kangboy on guitar, YBomb on guitar, and Blion on drums. They came onto the scene with their first single “Jimmy’s Punk”. They followed that single up with the single “Kill Your Boss”. You can follow Dead Chant on their Bandcamp page HERE.

The band’s song “Monologue to Her” was featured in this week’s episode of We Live titled “Strain to Busan”. Make sure you follow all of our great artists on their social media accounts and support them on Bandcamp. Listen to We Live on Spotify and enjoy every episode HERE. You can take a listen to their song on this week’s episode in the link below. Also remember that our 24/7 Deadline messaging phone number is open for voicemail or text. If you have anyone you’d like us to discover, please let us know at +1(360)836-0628.

It all started with a cross-country trip to the Chicago Blues Festival in June. Gina and Joe took a long weekend to celebrate the return of the annual music celebration after it was postponed for a number of years due to the outbreak of the apocalypse. Retired taxi driver and zombie death bus driver for hire, R. Kidds (and you’ll learn about him more later), took them on the 28-hour long drive from the Washington state mainland to the Second City. And it was there, in the heart of Chicago, that Gina realized the history surrounding Joe and the Deez lineage of radio disc jockeys.

As discussed in Episode Three: Undeath Before Dishonor, Joe’s great-grandfather was a 1920s DJ by the name of That No Good Lowdown Back Door Jody. It turns out that, although Back Door Jody is arguably the greatest disc jockey who ever lived, his career has gone mostly unnoticed throughout the annals of time. Surprisingly, the 115 year old record-spinner is still alive and working at an AM radio station somewhere in the Dakotas (we think) and will continue to remain there for the rest of time.

Back Door Jody’s son, on the other hand, is dead. But he was also a famous Chicago DJ in the 1940s and 50s - and even into the early 60s. He went by the name Werewolf Dex and his broadcast reach went from coast to coast as he could be heard on late night programming from New York to San Francisco and everywhere in between. Werewolf Dex was even broadcast on Hawaii and in Japan and Korea during those United States conflicts.

Werewolf Dex was famous for his midnight howl and his love for upsetting anyone who was in a position of authority. He was a pioneer of the rock and roll movement and is even credited with playing the first-ever rock and roll song on the radio. That song was Rocket 88 and if you’ve never heard it before, it’s best to take a listen and understand the rich history of American music.

Unfortunately, one evening on his way to the office, Werewolf Dex was involved in that infamous Chicago L train disaster that people still debate to this day. We won’t go into details as the tragedy is well known and many believe it has ties to the Kennedy family. Nonetheless, we honor Werewolf Dex and his pioneer efforts in the world of radio DJs. Do yourselves a favor and honor him alongside us by playing Rocket 88 and boogie-woogie with the Werewolf up in that moon in the sky (but not the actual moon - the metaphoric one).

"Everyone you’ve ever loved may be dead, but radio isn’t."

We Live! Is a fun and one-of-a-kind new podcast. Only it’s not a podcast. It’s a radio show. And here’s everything you need to know to understand the deadliest new program available today.

The Backstory!

We are all living during a zombie apocalypse. You, me, and everyone else. The governments of the world urge the public to remain calm and to practice social distancing. From an isolated lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest, vlogger Regina hosted the We Live - Life After Reanimation podcast to help those afflicted with the psychological stressors of killing their infected family members better cope with a post-apocalyptic planet.

Life was serene until Joe Deez, a renegade pariah and former 1990’s radio DJ from New Orleans, stumbled upon her sanctuary and high-quality studio. While squatting, Deez slowly encroached on the show’s format. Incorporating many outdated Gen X tropes such as conversations about recreational drug use and sex, Joe used his background in shock jock radio to inadvertently offend Regina’s listeners.

The Zombie Carnival!

An overnight sensation, the We Live Zombie Carnival Morning Show catapulted the two to fame in the modern dystopia. Now, Queen Regina and Joe Deez are a pair of odd couple podcast hosts living on an island in the Pacific Northwest who have nothing better to do during their isolation than reach out to the outside world and entertain themselves. They’ve recreated the shock jock-style radio show concept now that the FCC has abandoned all regulations. And they air their show from the safety of their shoreline lighthouse.

Understanding the Format!

We Live isn’t your average podcast. The show follows the old-school morning show format that was popular back in the day. Broken up into four segments, each show consists of current events, call-in guests (who end up always dying live on the air), and the best underground music on the planet. Literally.

Starting at 6 o’clock in the morning, Gina and Joe begin every Friday with a top story. It could be anything from a zombie outbreak at the NBA Finals to their station manager faxing over new formatting procedures. But whatever the story is, it will carry through the rest of the show until the final, unforgettable moment.

Killer Music!

Each segment of We Live ends with an unbelievable song you’ve probably never heard before. Unfortunately, Joe usually plays it to fill the “dead air” after a guest has been attacked and eaten by a horde of zombies over the phone. Although a tragic ending, these untimely deaths provide a great opportunity to hear some of the best music out there today.

The amazing music gives listeners a college radio station vibe. And artists who have graced the show with their presence include Five Fingers of Funk, Bobby Edge, Immune, Lauryl Sulfate, and The Allergies. You can find these great artists and download their music at the Joe Deez Bandcamp page.

The Characters!

Queen Regina lived peacefully on an isolated island off the coast of Washington state in a picturesque lighthouse hosting a self-care podcast until former shock jock, Gen X DJ Joe Deez shows up and weasels his way into becoming her co-host.

Joe Deez has no filter and he’s the chaotic ringleader of the We Live Zombie Carnival! After convincing Gina to turn her podcast into a wacky morning show, he usually shows up to the show late and up to no good.

Red hosts the lighthouse’s afternoon drive-time show On the Road with Red. She travels the country in her El Camino and keeps listeners informed on everything happening out there in the post-apocalyptic world.

Susan Gunderson became the show’s main advertiser when her dead husband set up an endowment to air commercials for her Post-Apocalyptic Trading Post before he was eaten by the zombies. Susan is dead. Or is she?

Neil is the lighthouse station manager who never shows up. He usually blames his absence on taking care of his son JORDY but Gina and Joe think he’s too afraid of the horde to make it into work. He’s known for being the bearer of bad news.

Dr. Ricci is the head of the CDC and he keeps listeners informed on his experimental cures for the Zed Head disease. Unfortunately for him however, call-in guests get him confused for a relationship advice doctor.

How To Listen!