Download here or click below to play It's Independence Day, but not really. It's more akin to anti-independence day. But it is July 4th, so celebrations abound. My musical selections for today probably show my cynicism, but a few project a bit of hope. So, enjoy the musical interlude today. It's back to reality tomorrow...
When Alanis Morissette burst onto the scene in the summer of 1995, KSCA fm 101.9 had been on the air in Los Angeles for about a year. I was one of the lucky few to be in the room for a showcase at a small club in West LA whose name I can't remember, though I can still picture the scene quite clearly. She was in the larger, upstairs room, filled with mostly industry people. I was mesmerized as she strutted across the stage, flinging her hair wildly while sing-screaming about going down on her ex in a theater [...]
Last week, I posted a link to this page of music interviews to social media. One response I got was from a listener who recalled an interview I did with Evan Dando of The Lemonheads as one he particularly enjoyed. So, I reached back into the vault for this very laid back interview with Evan Dando in the KSCA Music Hall from November 18, 1996. Click here for more of Nicole’s classic music interviews
In October of 1998, shortly after we signed Channel 103.1 on the air, a band called New Radicals released its one and only album, Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. It quickly became my favorite album of the year, with “You Get What You Give” my personal theme song. Although the album was recorded under the New Radicals moniker, it was really a Gregg Alexander project. He wrote and produced all the songs and played most of the instruments. After YGWYG took off, Gregg shunned the spotlight, realizing he really hated the “rigamarole” that goes along with promoting a [...]
Tom Petty with Nicole Sandler, Sandy, and Keith Cunningham of Channel 103.1/Los Angeles, and Nancy Klugman of WB Records https://fans.fm/p/aJlpM3E.mp3 Since I spoke with Jon Scott - the guy who broke Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and wrote about it in his new book, Tom Petty and Me on Friday's show, I thought I'd share my one and only interview with him as well. It was April of 1999, and the 10th studio album from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Echo, had just been released. I was working at Channel 103.1 in Los Angeles. Tom didn't [...]
Like most people my age, I grew up with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. Some artists are just legendary in stature, and those three are rock and roll royalty in my book. So when I heard Ray Davies was in town for a show, had written a new book, and a new Kinks album was coming out, I figured I'd try to get him in the studio for an interview. Though he said no to a live performance, he did join me on the air for one of the most memorable mornings of my [...]
Twenty years after their seventh studio album, Steely Dan reconvened at Riversound Studios in New York City to record would would become their eighth, Two Against Nature. In advance of its release at the end of February 2000, I was hired to travel to NYC to interview Walter Becker and Donald Fagen for the world premiere radio broadcast, to be produced by Mark Felsot at SFX. I had to pinch myself throughout the day. It was February 8, 2000. I can still picture the setting quite clearly. Sadly, I can't share that picture with you as we didn't seem [...]
I had met Jackson Browne a few times over the years, and had seem him in concert dozens of times. I finally got to interview him for the first time when he joined me in the fm 101.9 Music Hall on September 13, 1996. This still ranks up among my favorite artist interviews. I then went on to host Jackson Browne for his appearance on the "Columbia Records Radio Hour". (I haven't been able to locate a recording of that, sadly.) For a few years, we tried to schedule an interview on my Air America radio show. By [...]
From Billboard magazine Oct 5, 1996 I still remember the day in 1978 when I received Outlandos d'Amour, the first album from a new band called The Police. I was in college at the University of South Florida working at WUSF, the 100,000 watt NPR station that sat in the basement of the student services building, where I hosted the only four hours of rock and roll on the station that played classical music all day and jazz at night. I was relegated to Friday and Saturday nights from 11pm-1am. But it was where I learned my [...]
Marc Bonilla, Nicole Sandler, Kevin Gilbert KLOS Mark & Brian Christmas Show 1990 I'll never forget how I got the news that Kevin Gilbert had died. It was May 18, 1996. I had been out late that night, and returned home to an answering machine flashing with messages. One was from Doug Buttleman, Kevin Gilbert's and Toy Matinee's manager; another from Mark Bonilla, Toy Matinee's brilliant guitarist. We'd all become good friends through the Mark & Brian Show. Both messages were of an urgent nature, asking me to call whenever I got in. I somehow already knew what [...]
