Tune Tag #58 with Tommy Blanchard of "Cognitive Wonderland": Bad Religion, Tool, Yardbirds, Joe Boerne, Genesis, F(x), Meredith Bull, Jake Holmes

A mix of the classic and the punk, and a few things in between! Would you believe we've uncovered members of two bands who attended the same L.A. high school 30 years apart?📣Rah rah!😱

Hey, Tommy! TagTagTagTagTagTag….You’re IT!

Tune Tag welcomes

Tommy Blanchard

of Cognitive Wonderland!

Proof that I have a ukulele (and definitely understand how to hold it properly)!

I did my PhD in neuroscience at the University of Rochester, hold degrees in computer science and philosophy, and did a postdoc at Harvard. By day, I work as a data scientist. I’m also a science fiction writer, having published a handful of short stories in various venues. I recently started writing on Substack, where I write in my publication Cognitive Wonderland about philosophy, science, and science fiction.

You’ll notice nothing above mentions music. That’s because my closest relationship to music comes from having married someone with two music degrees. I also learned how to play a few chords on a ukulele last year (mainly so I could strum “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to entertain my young kids). So expect some extremely ill-informed musical takes from my end!—Tommy Blanchard

Last week, we enjoyed the musical company of

Miter

aka Ryan Stubbs, with his Memoir in Real Time Substack:

Tune Tag #57 with Ryan Stubbs aka Miter, Pt. 2: Daft Punk, George Duke, Frank Zappa, Don Williams, Barry Manilow, Guided By Voices, Puhdys

Next week, join us for more vinyl-centric Tune Tag surprises, with our guest,

Rich Headland

of Record Shop Stories!

Let’s drop the needle on Tommy’s first song from Bad Religion!

Tommy’s song #1 sent to Brad: Bad Religion, “Shattered Faith,” 2002

Bad Religion formed in Los Angeles in 1980 when lead singer, Greg Graffin (l) founded the band with his high school buddies when he was 15.

March 1981: Bad Religion singer, Greg Graffin at 16, backstage at East L.A. Club Vex, located on the 2nd floor of the original Self-Help Graphics & Art building. Music-loving Chicanos used Club Vex as an incubator for the burgeoning punk scene. No telling if Greg had left the house that night without getting his homework done. Not to worry, he eventually earned his PhD in zoology at Cornell.

Tommy’s rationale: I went back and forth on which song to start with, but all of the ones in contention were by Bad Religion! They’re one of the few bands who write intelligent lyrics about topics that are near and dear to my heart.

“Shattered Faith” to me is a story of the intellectual journey of someone trying to make sense of the world:

The world won’t illuminate what really matters

And I’m an imperfect mortal meaning extractor

Processing the complexity

The protagonist of the song is grappling with a complex world and things like free will and morality. This eventually becomes too heavy and overwhelming, with the mournfully sung verse:

I had a dream

Light and carefree

But now there’s doubt

And gravity

Despite the gravity, the song ends on a positive note. The vocals become more optimistic as singer (and evolutionary biologist), Greg Graffin, begins the last verse:

But I won’t run in place

In the human rat race

I can set the pace

And accept my fate

The song finally ends with the line:

Shattered faith

The part of me I can’t erase

This line really resonates with me because in a lot of ways, it was my own “shattered faith” (losing belief in the Catholic religion I grew up with) that started my own journey looking for “what really matters” as an “imperfect mortal meaning extractor.”

Brad’s response: Formed nearby in Hermosa Beach four years earlier: Punk/power poppers, The Last. It’s quite likely they have long-known the members of Bad Religion. FR&B did an Audio Autopsy (includes a photo of their Hermosa Beach house!) on their astoundingly diverse 1979 album, L.A. Explosion, an article a couple of their members have read, via online contacts:

Audio Autopsy, 1979: The Last, "L.A. Explosion!" LP on Bomp! Records: Anachronistic Power Pop

Brad’s song #1 sent to Tommy: f(x), “Summer Lover,” 2014

Tommy’s response: We’ve gone from an old West Coast punk band to a short-lived Korean pop band. I’m immediately realizing I’m way out of my depth, and Brad is going to bury me in esoteric connections on dimensions of music I didn’t even realize existed.

I suspect Brad’s connection is something along the lines of: the intern at the studio “Shattered Faith” was recorded in had a secret fling with the third cousin of the producer on “Summer Lover,” or something!

I’m going to go with my first thought: What first stood out to me was the band’s name—f(x) being a surprisingly nerdy reference for a pop band (it’s the mathematical notation for a function). Bad Religion, in general, is pretty nerdy—the lead singer has a PhD and has taught biology at Cornell and UCLA. “Shattered Faith” itself started by talking about scientists and theologians, so maybe it isn’t such a big leap to mathematical notation from there.

Brad’s rationale: Then-18-year-old guitarist, Brett Gurewitz (above), helped form Bad Religion in the San Fernando Valley’s Woodland Hills (an L.A. county suburb) in 1980, with Greg Graffin (vocals), Jay Ziskrout (drums) and Jay Bentley (bass). All four attended Woodland Hills’ El Camino Real High School.

Amber Liu (aka Amber) of f(x), shown below, also attended El Camino Real, graduating around 2010. She contributed some of the music to f(x)’s “Summer Lover.”