Listen to a podcast, please open Podcast Republic app. Available on Google Play Store.
Not Political
Dec 8, 2018
A wonderfully deep podcast on the subject of various rock bands. The scope is massive, from The Beatles to Arcade Fire. Each episode is with two constant podcasters Jeff and Scot and one invited guest reviewing each album chronologically
Episode | Date |
---|---|
Episode 119: Noam Blum / Tool
02:20:55
Introducing the Band: Noam’s Music Pick: Tool But Tool in many ways represents the final flowering of that line of intellectualized hard rock that began in the '70s, became unfashionable in the '80s, and then reemerged in the '90s. Their heavy sound and emotionally involuted lyrical obsessions would become endlessly imitated by many lesser groups seeking to recreate the intensity of their music, but those would be pale imitations. Here's the genuine article, a tool to use for yourself. Use wisely. |
Jan 31, 2023 |
Episode 118: Phil Wegmann / The National
02:35:50
Introducing the Band: Phil’s Music Pick: The National Looking at Wiki's description of The National -- “The National has been compared to Joy Division, Leonard Cohen, Interpol, Wilco, Depeche Mode and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds” -- you could be forgiven for thinking this already was one of Jeff’s favorite bands. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact there’s a lot of Arcade Fire in this music, as well. Much of your opinion of The National could hinge on how you feel about lead singer/lyricist Matt Berninger and his classic baritone voice. There’s not a ton of vocal modulation on these tracks! That, of course, makes for a distinctive sound and separates the band from many of its peers. The band’s self-titled debut is a bit of an outlier – there are sounds there they never quite would return t0 – but after that, a fantastic string of albums begins with Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, one Scot argues actually is among their best. Alligator, Boxer, and High Violet make the case for The National becoming one of the most consistent acts of the decade while continuing to tweak their songwriting and performance at each stage. 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me ends up as a top choice of all three of your hosts. Maybe you’re new to the band, too! Don’t worry. Jump in and experience The National through the eyes of a superfan and two other hosts who were in the same position you’re in. And if you already love The National, well, there’s a decent chance our takes will somehow manage to irk each and every one of you in some way. We can’t all be “Mr. November,” after all. |
Dec 19, 2022 |
Episode 117: Andrew Fink / Otis Redding
03:10:19
Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: Otis Redding Redding's early singles established him, simply on their own terms, as an early Sixties soul great. ("Pain In My Heart," "Mr. Pitiful," "That's How Strong My Love Is," "I've Been Loving You Long," and "Security" are the sorts of timeless Redding soul belters that went immediately into the working books of countless English R&B bands, notably including The Rolling Stones.) His mid-Sixties albums demonstrated that he, alone among all major soul/R&B artists of his era -- long before Stevie or Marvin moved for their artistic freedom -- had a sound and vision that belonged to something more than a series of singles. And the music he was making before he suddenly died (in a December 1967 plane crash while flying between shows) was mutating both into chart-topping contemplative folk-pop ("(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay," his only #1 single) and forward-looking hard funk ("Hard To Handle"). Four albums of posthumous Redding material were released between 1968 and 1970. Much of it is great work. But one can only imagine where Otis would actually have been by 1970. He was growing so quickly as an artist. Join us this week, as we open with a long discussion of Stax/Volt and the nature of its "sound," and then engage in a celebration of one of the greatest popular musical artists of the Sixties -- and perhaps the most heartbreaking loss of modern musical history, in terms of what we likely missed when that plane went down on a cold winter's day in December 1967. Hail to The King of Soul. |
Nov 07, 2022 |
Episode 116: Noah Weinrich / Weezer
02:44:29
Introducing the Band: Noah’s Music Pick: Weezer Of course, we spend a huge portion of the show discussing Weezer’s twin pillars of excellence: the debut (Blue) and Pinkerton. One beloved from the moment of release and the other taking years for fans and critics to fully appreciate. The response to Pinkerton clearly changed the trajectory of the band and influenced musical decisions for years to come. The second self-titled (Green) album heralded a comeback in 2001, but it was a different kind of band, divorced from much of what made the first two albums so consequential. Regardless, fans, some new and some old, embraced most of these sonic moves. There’s lots to discuss about the last 20 years and how Weezer should be considered so long after the early success. There’s also Rivers Cuomo’s lyrical journey from sharing ultra-personal thoughts and desires to crafting pop songs from spreadsheets and syllable counts. It’s . . . weird. One of the longest-lasting rock bands of the 1990s, but should it be considered one of the best? That question and many more get tackled on this Political Beats. |
Oct 20, 2022 |
Episode 115: Jesse Walker / Willie Nelson [Part 2]
03:11:43
Introducing the Band: Jesse’s Music Pick: Willie Nelson What’s changed? Well, Willie stops writing music for himself for an awfully long stretch. It’s somewhat ironic that his biggest successes in this era will come from other people’s songs after Willie’s writing helped so many artists move product in the years prior. Near the height of “Outlaw Country,” Willie takes a sharp left turn by recording an album’s worth of compositions from the Great American Songbook. Stardust becomes a huge hit and allows Willie to do what he wants. Specifically, that means a series of tribute albums and duet albums in the late '70s. The '80s would bring a string of crossover hits like "On the Road Again," "To All the Girls I Loved Before," "Pancho and Lefty," and "Seven Spanish Angels.” Always on My Mind was a HUGELY popular album at the time but signaled the end of a certain creative era for Willie. He writes again on Tougher Than Leather to mixed returns and the rest of the decade would see occasional hits among a plethora of releases. The 1990s kick off with Willie’s tax trouble and a pretty great release meant to raise money to pay back the government. We dive into Who’ll Buy My Memories and other highlights from an interesting decade of music, with Across the Borderline, Moonlight Becomes You, Spirit, and Teatro (with Daniel Lanois producing) among his best work. Willie has continued his firehose release schedule to this day, with a new album on the shelves just a couple months ago. We skim through the latter portion of his career, stopping to shine a light on a few of the more worthwhile albums. Over two parts and more than six hours, we hope to give both die-hard Willie fans and those new to the artist an overview of what made him so great. |
Sep 26, 2022 |
Episode 115: Jesse Walker / Willie Nelson [Part 1]
03:13:45
Introducing the Band: Jesse’s Music Pick: Willie Nelson In Part One, we take Willie from his early songwriting days up through Phases and Stages. That’s right -- it’s 3+ hours and we don’t even get to Red Headed Stranger. That’s how much we have to say about Willie. We discuss much more than the music in this one. For example, we ask why country music's greatest albums are not considered among popular music's greatest as well? Why do we cabin them off to one side? How should we consider the songwriter versus the performer? Why would someone like Willie, early on at least, successful at one but not the other. And the voice. The delivery. What makes Willie truly Willie? From Liberty to RCA to Atlantic, all of Willie’s record labels are represented on the show. It's a straight-up crime that some of these records aren't routinely listed among the greatest American albums of all-time. However, that's the silo country music finds itself in, at times. We try to bust through that silo. It’s an exciting mix of styles and eras with entertainment and information for newbies and hardcore fans. Relax in any way you see fit, grab a bit of yesterday’s wine, and be amazed at how time slips away when you listen to Political Beats. You can even stay in your underwear, if you like. |
Sep 05, 2022 |
Episode 114: Steve Miller / Mott The Hoople
02:22:07
Introducing the Band: Steve's Music Pick: Mott The Hoople So that's where you're wrong, kiddo. Mott The Hoople was a band that managed to set Britain (and particularly London) afire during the early Seventies, even as they consistently eluded chart success. They were brought together by famed rock & roll madman/record-jobber/A&R man/heavy drinker Guy Stevens, who realized his dream of creating a band that sounded like both The Rolling Stones AND Bob Dylan simultaneously by pairing a chubby Dylanesque vocalist/pianist (Ian Hunter, hiding his insecurity behind enormous shades) with a workaday gigging band that hailed from within spitting distance of the Welsh border (the Doc Thomas Group, with Mick Ralphs). From that fusion came Mott The Hoople, and their 1969 self-titled debut album. The pure rock & roll energy -- gruff, with zero pretensions, utterly available to the fans and the audience, yet strangely literate and aspirational as well -- was there from day one. The only question was whether Mott could ever properly harness it in the studio. The gang argues that they actually did quite a good job during their pre-Bowie years (especially on Brain Capers, an album of such loopily memorable hard-rock ferocity that it must be heard to be believed), but the record-buying public certainly didn't agree. Which is where David Bowie stepped in, rushing to save the band after they'd announced their own dissolution in the UK music press. His song "All The Young Dudes" became their most famous number, and yet on this episode everyone is at pains to argue that neither the song nor its namesake album are the real highlight of Mott's career. So let us explain to you how a band you've more or less never heard of recorded one of the greatest albums of the entire decade after their involvement with David Bowie as we sing you the ballad of Mott The Hoople. And if it seems we've lost just a little bit on the journey, then please treat us kindly. |
Aug 15, 2022 |
Episode 113: Andrew Heaton / 'Weird Al' Yankovic
02:58:20
Introducing the Band: Andrew Music Pick: “Weird Al” Yankovic The short Al story begins with the “Dr. Demento” radio show. Al was a fan. He passed him a cassette tape with some songs when the Dr. visited his high school, one of which then was played on the show. After that, Al continued to contribute and people took some notice. Well before the first album was released, he got national airplay with the singles "My Bologna" and "Another One Rides the Bus" -- the latter was recorded live on Demento's show and not even re-recorded for the debut. That '81 performance also is where Al met his long-time drummer. The rest of the band was put together in '82 and they've been together since. Not bad when it comes to longevity and loyalty. There are essentially four types of "Weird Al" songs: 1. Straight parodies (think "Eat It," “Fat,” “Smells Like Nirvana”) 2. Pastiches (song in the style of REM, Devo, Talking Heads, Cake, Bob Dylan, etc.) 3. Pure originals 4. Polka medleys of current or past hits There are certain recurring themes – food, TV, movies, the sad sack in love, lyrics with escalating comedic situations -- but through Al’s lengthy career, he’s shown the ability to adapt to whatever is in front of him, both musically and culturally. There are ups and downs to be sure, but his last album, Mandatory Fun (2014), was Al’s first number one album, a sign he still commanded a sizable fanbase of nerds and weirdos. Of which all three of us are, of course. Join the crowd, shout it out loud! Dare to be stupid with Political Beats and “Weird Al” Yankovic. |
Jul 04, 2022 |
Episode 112: Scott Immergut / Squeeze
03:02:21
Introducing the Band: Scott’s Music Pick: Squeeze If you know Squeeze at all, it might be because of the placement of “Tempted” on the soundtrack for Reality Bites. Or, perhaps a roommate at college had the Singles 45's and Under collection on CD, as most roommates seemed to in the 1990s. But there’s a heck of a lot more to the story. This is, of course, where Political Beats steps in to solve the problem. Because the truth is you won’t find music any better than what Squeeze produced, particularly at their peak from 1978-1982. The highly literate lyrics of Chris Difford, filled with sharp storytelling and British allusions, paired perfectly with the beautiful, melodic, and sometimes quite complicated music written by Glenn Tilbrook. Tilbrook’s soulful tenor took most of the leads (except, famously, on perhaps the band’s best-known song, “Tempted”) while Difford’s deep croaking voice contributed backing vocals. The duo were called the heirs to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting throne, though the comparison never really fit and actually harmed the band’s output, as we discuss on the show. But they were something special, producing some of the finest pop songs of the era, like “Another Nail In My Heart,” “Pulling Mussels,” “Up the Junction,” and “Is It Love”. The band broke up in 1982, making way for a pretty awful Tilbrook/Difford duo album that was a naked reach for the charts. Squeeze reunited in 1985, fell apart in 1999, got back together in 2007 and remain a recording and touring entity to this day. Pick up almost any album from their collection and you’re going to hear at least a handful of well-crafted, melodic, memorable tunes. If nothing else, you’ll learn about a whole bunch of British slang, like “argybargy,” “up the junction,” “that’s not cricket,” and “slap and tickle.” But we’re pretty sure you’re going to love this music, as well. It’s not just an East Side Story, it’s one everyone can enjoy on Political Beats. |
Jun 13, 2022 |
Episode 111: Eli Lake / Prince [Part 3]
02:53:16
Introducing the Band: Eli’s Music Pick: Prince, Pt. 3 (1992-2016) What the gang are at great pains to explain here, during this final episode of our Prince spectacular, is that even though Prince was willfully obscurantist or difficult during this period, the music remained every bit as good as it had been during the earlier phases of his career. You never heard most of this music on the radio, and unless you were already a Prince fanatic at the time you likely didn't purchase it either, but up through 1999 or so, at least, there was no perceptible diminution in his talent. Welcome to the part of our Prince journey, where you'll be hearing music you had no idea even existed. |
May 23, 2022 |
Episode 110: Eli Lake / Prince [Part 2]
03:11:57
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by Eli Lake. Eli is a contributing editor at Commentary, and fellow at the Clements Center at UT-Austin. Follow him on Twitter at @EliLake. Eli’s Music Pick: Prince, Pt. 2 (1985-1991) Join us once again as we deepen our Strange Relationship with Prince! Eli rejoins the gang as they pick up their discussion of the amazing career of Prince Rogers Nelson in the aftermath of Purple Rain and Around The World In A Day and Eighties megastardom. Having conquered America his own way, yet endlessly restless and ambitious, Prince proceeds to wander through an ill-begotten movie project (Under The Cherry Moon, with the wildly underrated album Parade attached) and a period of indecision and various scrapped projects until finally he emerges with Sign O' The Times in 1987. Now widely hailed as his greatest achievement, it didn't sell at the time and inaugurated a period where Prince would increasingly go to war both with himself and his record label. Hear the early results on this episode, as we discuss the fascinating narrative that leads to Lovesexy (a CD he insisted be released as one single 44-minute-long track, to prevent listeners from skipping around), then Batman, then another unfortunate movie tied to a fantastic album, and finally his great commercial revival with Diamonds And Pearls. Yes, the dire rhymes of Tony M. are discussed. Yes, all the outtakes and discarded projects are discussed. And the story will only get stranger in our final episode, next time. |
Apr 18, 2022 |
Episode 109: Eli Lake / Prince [Part 1]
03:55:48
Eli’s Music Pick: Prince Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called Life. Electric word, "Life," and it's a mighty long time, but I'm here to tell you, there's something else: Prince Rogers Nelson. Known to the world by his first name, Prince was a self-made musical polymath who performed the singular trick of somehow altering the world to accommodate his eccentricity and musical genius rather than the other way around. We know Prince in our cultural memory as one of the classic 1980s MTV megastars alongside Madonna, Michael, and Bruce, but what is less appreciated is just how remarkable it is that he managed to vault himself so easily into that rarified company despite being so unapologetically weird. A Minneapolis kid who refused to ever give up his roots, Prince was so determined to carve his own path through the musical world of the late Seventies and Eighties that he recorded nearly every single note of all of his albums during this era. From his origins as an upstart in the R&B charts (as an heir to the autonomous tradition of Stevie Wonder, with crossover ambitions to match) to the avant-garde outrage of Dirty Mind and Controversy, to the world-conquering success of 1999 and Purple Rain, Prince moved with such method and purpose that the gang is almost in awe of the scope of his growth from 1978 to 1985. Join us for Part 1 of a three-part series where we celebrate the transcendent genius, and oddness, of The Purple One, his Royal Badness. We're living the pop life over here on Political Beats for the next few episodes. |
Apr 04, 2022 |
Episode 108: Mike Long / Robbie Fulks
03:05:31
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Mike Long. He wrote the sort-of-bestselling book The Molecule of More and he teaches writing at Georgetown University, but mostly he writes things for other people to put their name on. He’s on Twitter at @mikewrites. Mike’s Music Pick: Robbie Fulks This is almost certainly the most obscure artist we've ever covered on Political Beats. Yet, when the three hours are up, we think you'll also consider him one of the best. Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello to the incredibly talented Robbie Fulks, an artist who would be a household name if there were any justice in the musical world. Scot has been a fan for more than 20 years, dating back to finding one of the artist's CDs in a stack he was to review for his college radio station. Jeff’s new to the music, but hit on something by describing Robbie as “the country Elvis Costello.” Like Elvis, Robbie has an encyclopedic knowledge of multiple decades of music and isn’t afraid to jump from genre to genre in his work. And like Elvis, his lyrics and stories can often take center stage with creative wordplay and rhyming. Whether you are a rock (Let’s Kill Saturday Night), folk (Upland Stories), bluegrass (Gone Away Backward), country (Country Love Songs, Georgia Hard), pop (50 vc. Doberman), or, in Jeff's case, post-punk fan, there's going to be something here for you to grab a hold of. And we haven’t even mentioned what might be his best album, Couples In Trouble. No, none of them have been hits on the charts, but the consistent quality of the music will impress any listener. Robbie has a keen ear for creating stunning instrumentals and picks wonderful partners for occasional duets. He can make you laugh out loud during one song while moving you to cry in your beer over the next song. He’s adept at road songs, love songs, murder ballads, and cheating laments. And if you’re not careful, he’ll even turn you on to some of the underloved classic country artists of the past. If you’ve never heard of Robbie Fulks, we’ve provided the perfect introduction. Join us and you’ll soon be a fan. |
Mar 14, 2022 |
Episode 107: Rory Cooper / Paul Simon
03:12:08
Introducing the Band: Rory’s Music Pick: Paul Simon As Jeff points out early in the show, Simon’s music is largely about rhythm and finding different places and sources to get that rhythm. His second effort, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, features one of the best and purest slices of '70s pop in “Kodachrome”. Following a Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Still Crazy After All These Years, Simon took five years off before returning to mixed results, though Jeff makes the case for Hearts and Bones as a minor classic. Simon’s career renaissance would come via a cassette handed to him by an artist he was supposed to be helping. Instead, he fell in love with the music and stole/borrowed the idea to compose and record an album inspired by the sounds. This would be Graceland, a miracle of an album that still holds up well today. Yes, we discuss the circumstances surrounding the recording, the accusations of “cultural appropriation,” and much more. That album served as a template for much of the rest of his career (though the less said about Songs From The Capeman the better). Simon continued producing quality albums every five years or so with a handful of gems and no real embarrassments up until what appears to be his final new studio album in 2016, Stranger to Stranger. Hop on the bus, Gus, and come along for the ride. There is a need to discuss much about Paul Simon on Political Beats. |
Jan 31, 2022 |
Episode 106: Andrew Prokop / Kate Bush
03:49:53
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by Andrew Prokop. Andrew is Senior Politics Correspondent for Vox, and you can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter at @awprokop. Who? Unless you're an art-rocker, Englishman, or Lisa Simpsonesque girl-poet-dreamer, the name "Kate Bush" quite likely means nothing to you. Bush is something close to a beloved institution in the United Kingdom, where she has grown up in public to become the nation's officially designated Eccentric Bookish Aunt, but in the United States she is almost a pure cipher outside of music fanatics, a weird lady with a flute-like voice who occasionally shows up on '80s-era Peter Gabriel singles. Well get ready for a massive course-correction then, because this is an episode of Political Beats that has been brewing since the day the show began. And it doesn't take a psychic to figure out which of your hosts has been quietly lying in wait, ready to explain the deeply committed art-rock genius of Kate Bush to you for four years now. Bush began her career as a downright creepily preternatural child prodigy (she was writing at age ten, recording by age 13, professionally recording at age 15, and released her debut LP at age 18), swiftly gathered up complete creative control into her hands, and went to work from 1980 onwards shaping a career that stands for so many things, but perhaps most of all for the miraculous idea that gallery/exhibition-level art and "pop music" can still coexist within the same skin without shedding representation altogether. Instrumentally, this is piano-based music, but the real instrument here is the Fairlight CMI, a synthesizer program set that allowed her to retreat into near-complete isolation and play every single note of any instrument herself; Bush, more than nearly any other rock or pop artist with mainstream success during the 1980s, is the sound of Virginia Woolf's A Room Of One's Own made good. Ah, but it's not just about art! It's about love and beauty! Bush balanced all of her arty instincts with an achingly pure lyrical vision that magpied from every influence imaginable to take form in her own unique style: a literary fascination with artifice -- with the self-construction that knowledge and imposture makes possible -- combined with an elementally deeply fascination with men and the inscrutable mysteries of masculine anxieties, ambitions, and inchoate needs. So here we go! It's coming for us through the trees! Take your shoes off, throw them in the lake, click play, and before you're 20 minutes in, hopefully you'll be two steps on the water as well. |
Jan 10, 2022 |
Episode 105: Bruce Edward Walker / Warren Zevon
02:39:18
Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Bruce Edward Walker. He’s Midwest Regional Editor for The Center Square. He has written extensively on popular culture, literature and public policy for reference books, newspapers, magazines, and websites. He’s on Twitter at @bruceedwalker. Bruce’s Music Pick: Warren Zevon The show begins its 2021 finishing kick with a long-requested episode featuring the music and career of the great Warren Zevon. Zevon is an artist with passionate fans who, at the same time, also can prove to be difficult to grab onto for newcomers. We hope to provide a path. As a singer/songwriter, Zevon can be difficult to pigeonhole. He’s a cynic, yes. He writes about portions of society -- outlaws, sociopaths, drug dealers, villains -- that many others might like to forget. He’s full of humor and wit. He writes biographical songs yet also has a wonderful way with literary narratives. He was a drunk. He recovered. He was a drunk again. Personal demons often got the best of him. Yet the work stands up. As Scot mentions on the show, a trip through his discography is like a series of mini “We Are the World.” Zevon, for most of his career, was able to attract the biggest California rock stars and the best session musicians around to contribute to his albums. Hey, there's Bonnie Raitt! Lindsey Buckingham! Leland Sklar! Ben Keith! Don Henley! David Lindley! Jackson Browne! Linda Ronstadt! Jeff Porcaro! Steve Lukather! J.D. Souther! The three of us have very different opinions on various portions of Zevon’s career, so this one can be a spicy listen. Send lawyers, guns, and money … and get ready for Warren Zevon. |
Dec 13, 2021 |
Episode 104: Charles C. W. Cooke / Fleetwood Mac [Part 2]
03:13:20
Introducing the Band: Even though the story only covers a handful of albums, the journey is vast. From the 1975 self-titled album (a fitting title for a true rebirth of the band) to the world-dominating pop-rock perfection of Rumours to the willful obscurantism of Tusk and the retrenchment from Mirage and onwards, the Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac is populated with landmarks of modern music, and attests not only to the restless studio genius (and technical perfection as a guitarist) of Lindsey Buckingham but of an entire group. They were a three-headed songwriting behemoth backed by the finest and most organically creative rhythm section in all of popular music. The soap opera is the stuff you probably already knew -- though you might not have known the Stevie Nicks cocaine factoid Jeff lays on the audience during the show -- so come and stay for an appreciation of the greatness of this music. We'll save you a place. |
Nov 15, 2021 |
Episode 103: Charles C. W. Cooke / Fleetwood Mac
03:15:25
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Fleetwood Mac’s career (1967-1974) with Charles C. W. Cooke. Introducing the Band: Charlie’s Music Pick: Fleetwood Mac From a hardcore electric blues band to a preternaturally self-assured and professional pop-rock act, from the East End alleys of London to Los Angeles, from a five-piece band featuring three separate lead guitarists to a shellshocked husk of a group without a single one . . . the story of Fleetwood Mac is one of the wildest, most improbable, least believable stories in rock history, and that’s all before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join the group. This is a band whose manager once sent a fake version of the band out on tour to impersonate them, for crying out loud. And the music is utterly superb. Early Fleetwood Mac feels somewhat schizophrenic due to their rapid mutations and personnel changes, but every era of this band up to the 1990s brought something of value and there are few treats more pleasurable than the sound of founder and original bandleader Peter Green’s blues-guitar playing. From blues, to art-rock, to ’50s pastiche, to prog-rock, to solid Fleetwood Mac-style pop, this was a band that could play in pretty much every style due to the versatility of its rhythm section. Come along and join us on an exploration of the wonderful forgotten years of Fleetwood Mac — back when their secret weapons were a songwriter whose favorite lyric to use in songs was “la,” a balding SoCal post-hippie burnout, and a woman who was literally born Perfect. |
Oct 25, 2021 |
Episode 102: Daniel Gullotta / Michael Jackson
03:39:08
Scot and Jeff discuss Michael Jackson with Daniel Gullotta. Introducing the Band: In this episode the gang tackles the discography of none other than The King Of Pop himself, and we refuse to stop ’til we’ve gotten enough. After the requisite throat-clearing (yes, you can’t talk about Michael Jackson without addressing the bizarre circus that was his life or the allegations of abuse that dogged him later in his career and after his death) Political Beats turns its attention to what our show always focuses on: the music. And what an incredibly rich career it is! From his earliest days as the biggest child star of the pop-music era (Jackson had four #1 singles, three with his family group the Jackson 5, before he even reached the age of 13) to his post-adolescent emergence with the explosively danceable Off The Wall, to the biggest-selling album in world history and all that followed, Jackson always focused his singular talents on conquering the world commercially, and pretty much succeeded. (As the gang jokes, 1/6 of the entire United States bought Thriller back in the mid-1980s, and the remaining 5/6ths correctly calculated that if they wanted to hear it all they had to do was turn on the radio, which was playing every single track.) The myth, the media, and the mess all have tended to obscure the power of one of the biggest and most influential artists in the modern era of music, so this week we want to take you back to how it felt to listen to someone sing a love song to a murderous pet rat, or explain to you why a solid 25 percent of American kids were wearing one white glove and a white fedora for Halloween during the late ’80s. Get up, get out on the dance floor, and let Political Beats burn this disco out with you. |
Oct 04, 2021 |
Episode 101: Matt Lewis / John Mellencamp
02:34:21
Scot and Jeff discuss John Mellencamp with Matt Lewis. Introducing the Band: Matt’s Music Pick: John Mellencamp This is one that Jeff was not necessarily looking forward to, but an episode we hope many of you are excited about. Scot and Matt do their best to convince Jeff of the worthiness of Mellencamp’s catalog, while Jeff begrudgingly admits yes, there are some outstanding albums to be had. Mellencamp’s career began with a series of albums that stiffed (except in Australia!) before finally hitting paydirt with American Fool. He followed that with a run of classic LPs, Uh-HUH, Scarecrow, and The Lonesome Jubilee, in which his lyrical focus jumped from a being a tough-guy ne’er-do-well to bemoaning the state of American farms and the living conditions for many lower-class people in the U.S. In that transition he also moved from a Stones-meets-Springsteen presentation to introduce fiddle, banjo, dobro, and many other folk/country instruments not usually heard on rock tracks. An argument is made that while Mellencamp is not the greatest lyricist, he is a great storyteller and is able to convey the feeling of his songs effectively. Even in his more “protest”-minded songs, he’s able to craft a narrative that avoids finger-pointing (for the most part) and focuses on the problem at hand. And he has a knack for writing melodies that are hard to forget. You can’t tell the story of 1980s and 1990s rock without including multiple songs by Mellencamp. One word of caution: if you’re a fan of his output for most of this century, well, you might be disappointed. All of us have tried to get into the recent albums that feature a more stripped-down folk sound but, unfortunately, we have very few compliments to throw around concerning that music. Whether you’re from the big town or a small town, John Mellencamp’s music likely resonates on some level. Check it out . . . and check out this episode of Political Beats. |
Aug 30, 2021 |
Episode 100: Andrew Fink / The Allman Brothers Band
03:33:56
Scot and Jeff discuss The Allman Brothers Band with Andrew Fink. Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: The Allman Brothers Band Have the risers for the twin drum set-up been properly double-bolted? Have all the lines into the amps and board been checked? Is the organ plugged in? Then there’s no need for a soundcheck as we move through the dog days of August with a trip to Hot ‘Lanta! Today we celebrate the greatness of The Allman Brothers Band, a little group originally out of Jacksonville, FL (and later Macon, GA) put together piece by piece during the late Sixties by brothers Duane (the elder) and Gregg (the younger). The Allmans are regularly described as one of the greatest “Southern Rock” or “jam” bands to have ever existed. The irony, of course, is that they disdained both labels: on the one hand, “Southern Rock” didn’t even exist as a genre until these guys invented it, and was a reductivist label that put them in a box they didn’t properly belong to. And on the other hand, in the words of Gregg Allman, “we aren’t a jam band, we’re just a band that jams.” What the Allmans were really about was incredibly hard, sweaty electrified blues-rock, electrified in a way nobody had ever heard prior to their emergence onto the scene in late 1969. With a twin-guitar attack (Duane and co-lead guitarist Dickey Betts), a double drum engine-room churning away behind them (Butch Trucks — perhaps the most quintessential “southern rock” name ever — and Jai Johanny Johanson), eloquently melodic bass counterpoint (Berry Oakley), and Gregg Allman on organ and lead vocals, what the Allmans came up with was a fusion of blues, rock, and jazz that took three old and hallowed genres and somehow managed to create something new out of them. Join us this week as we travel through the prehistory of the Allmans (all those early bands, Duane’s amazing career as a session guitarist, etc.), their glory years (including one of the greatest live albums in the history of popular music), and their extremely “tabloid drama” decline (yes, Cher is somehow involved). For the first five years of their career these guys never set a foot wrong despite having to survive not one, but two tragic motorcycle deaths, and if you aren’t already familiar with the music then don’t keep yourself wonderin’, just dive in and eat a peach for peace. |
Aug 16, 2021 |
Episode 99: Randy Barnett / Traffic & Steve Winwood
03:19:15
Scot and Jeff discuss Traffic/Steve Winwood with Randy Barnett. Introducing the Band: Randy’s Music Pick: Traffic/Steve Winwood Traffic’s blend of folk, rock, jazz, and soul were driven by the partnership of Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood, along with the talents of Chris Wood. Dave Mason became the Rachel to the band’s Ross through the years, joining and leaving multiple times. Beginning in 1967, the band first turned out eclectic pop singles flavored with psychedelic influences. Traffic emphasized Winwood’s organ and piano and the reed instruments played by Chris Wood. After a first break-up, members reconvened following Winwood’s trouble crafting a solo album. In its second iteration, Traffic developed into a band that favored extended jams, leaving room for jazz-like improvisation. Perhaps best-known in the States now for “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys,” the band frequently touched the Top Ten album charts during the 1970s. On this episode, you’ll hear music and discussion involving Spencer Davis, Traffic, Blind Faith, Steve Winwood, and Dave Mason plus special appearances by The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. It’s a veritable Rock and Roll Stew around here. Jump in and enjoy the program. You’ll be feelin’ alright in no time flat. |
Aug 09, 2021 |
Episode 98: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 3]
04:18:58
Scot and Jeff discuss the third part of Neil Young’s career (1980–2021) with Jeff Dufour. Introducing the Band: Jeff’s Music Pick: Neil Young (Part 3) |
Jun 21, 2021 |
Episode 97: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 2]
03:28:21
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Neil Young’s career (1973–1979) with Jeff Dufour. Introducing the Band: Jeff’s Music Pick: Neil Young (Part 2) |
May 31, 2021 |
Episode 96: Jeff Dufour / Neil Young [Part 1]
02:46:32
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Neil Young’s career (1963–1973) with Jeff Dufour. Introducing the Band: Jeff’s Music Pick: Neil Young This is a tale of a man who almost always refused to compromise, who only bothered to make music that personally pleased him, and yet who somehow managed to amass a worldwide following and a musical influence that lasts to this day. Rest assured, we’ll be back for more next time to continue covering his career – this is not our last dance. |
May 17, 2021 |
Episode 95: Helaine Olen on Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis
02:59:58
Scot and Jeff discuss Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis with Helaine Olen. Introducing the Band: Helaine’s Music Pick: Rilo Kiley/Jenny Lewis Those actors, Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett, went on to form one-half of Rilo Kiley and were responsible for writing the music and lyrics for the band. And it all started out because actor/comedian Dave Foley offered to pick up the tab for recording a group of demos. While Rilo Kiley never sold a ton of albums, they became a successful and artistically interesting group that made waves in the indie rock community. Jenny Lewis began her solo career before her band officially ended its run, with the superb Rabbit Fur Coat, released in 2006. Rilo Kiley produced one more “grab for the brass ring” album, titled Under the Blacklight. By that point, though, it was clear Lewis’ talent meant more solo albums were on the way. Rooted in a California/Laurel Canyon sound, Lewis rarey repeats herself on record. Her voice has matured over the years to become a true musical weapon. Many of her friends, like Beck, Elvis Costello, Jonathan Rice, Benmont Tench, and others pop up on songs here and there. Whether you’re new to this music or simply taking a deeper dive, be more adventurous with us and listen to the Political Beats take on Rilo Kiley & Jenny Lewis. |
May 03, 2021 |
Episode 94: John J. Miller on The Afghan Whigs/The Twilight Singers
03:35:36
Scot and Jeff discuss The Afghan Whigs/The Twilight Singers with John J. Miller. Introducing the Band: John’s Music Pick: The Afghan Whigs/The Twilight Singers The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers are the vehicles for the music of Greg Dulli, chief songwriter and singer for both groups. The Whigs were in operation from 1986–2001, at which point Dulli launched The Twilight Singers. That band created music for about a decade until a reunion of the Whigs led to new music from Dulli and bassist John Curley. While never tasting mainstream success, the bands developed a devoted following. The dark, angst-ridden narratives of bad relationships and addictions of various kinds lent an uncommon edge to the music. Dulli thought and wrote in cinematic scope; his recorded aren’t recorded, they are “shot on location.” Musically, the Whigs found influence from the great ’60s soul and R&B acts. The band created a fusion-rock sound that manifested itself in different forms on each album. The Twilight Singers, meanwhile, largely de-emphasized the waves of guitar that marked the Whigs’ sound in favor of a keener sense of rhythm and groove (though neither were previously in short supply). And while the hosts are “meh” on one of the two reunion albums, the other gets a very big recommendation. If you missed them the first time, we’re here to fill you in. Black out the windows, it’s party time with The Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers. |
Mar 29, 2021 |
Episode 93: Christopher Scalia / Spoon
03:09:31
Scot and Jeff discuss Spoon with Christopher Scalia. Introducing the Band: Christopher’s Music Pick: Spoon Spoon, essentially, is vocalist/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno, the only consistent members of the group. And there’s that word: consistent. As you’ll hear during the show, it’s perhaps the best description of Spoon’s output. They’ve never released a bum album. They’ve never taken a wrong turn sonically and continually put out interesting music. Over the years, the band has evolved from early efforts with clear Pixies/Pavement influences to clearly identifying a “Spoon Sound” — songs constructed with only the most essential elements, featuring shifting rhythms, tight drums, and rock-solid bass lines. Daniel’s skill as a lyricist is in finding couplets and phrases that rattle around your head weeks after you’ve heard a song. Since GIRLS CAN TELL, the band has subtly added new elements to its songwriting, leaving behind a string of albums that all have their own identity yet that live up to high standards previously set. It’s great album after great album, great song after great song. And, it’s argued on the show, perhaps one of the greatest efforts of the decade of the ’00s. We let the music do a lot of the talking on this episode. Give it a listen, and we’re convinced you’re going to come out the other side as a fanatic. |
Mar 15, 2021 |
Episode 92: Mark Hemingway / Nirvana
02:37:50
Scot and Jeff discuss Nirvana with Mark Hemingway. Introducing the Band: Mark’s Music Pick: Nirvana Nirvana was, of course, more than just one song or one album. The three-piece from Aberdeen, Wash., first made noise with Bleach, released in 1989. Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic were present, but the band was still churning through a series of drummers, a merry-go-round that would end in late-1990 with the addition of one Dave Grohl, who has been featured previously on the show via his work with Foo Fighters. That’s the lineup which would create the iconic Nevermind, an album that some on the show argue owes as much to The Beatles’ brand of pop/rock than any burgeoning Seattle scene. “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “In Bloom,” “Come As You Are,” and “Lithium” are still played on rock radio stations everywhere. Heck, Sirius/XM directly named their 90s rock channel after the latter song. Amid spiraling drug problems for their leader, Nirvana pressed on, releasing the caustic, abrasive In Utero and recording an iconic live performance for MTV’s Unplugged. That album would be released following Cobain’s suicide, which occurred on April 8, 1994. The argument is made on the show that it’s one of the best live albums in history. It’s a short, yet fulfilling, career and we cover all of it on this episode. |
Feb 15, 2021 |
Episode 91: Damon Linker / David Bowie [Part 3]
03:19:40
Scot and Jeff discuss the third and final part of David Bowie’s career (1982-2016) with Damon Linker. Introducing the Band: Damon’s Music Pick: David Bowie |
Jan 18, 2021 |
Episode 90: Damon Linker / David Bowie [Part 2]
03:36:15
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of David Bowie’s career (1974–1981) with Damon Linker. Introducing the Band: Damon’s Music Pick: David Bowie |
Jan 11, 2021 |
Episode 89: Damon Linker / David Bowie [Part 1]
03:11:30
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of David Bowie’s career (1967–1974) with Damon Linker. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Damon Linker, Senior Columnist for The Week. Read Damon’s work here and follow him at @DamonLinker on Twitter. |
Dec 21, 2020 |
Episode 88: Steve Singiser / Living Colour
02:22:38
Scot and Jeff discuss Living Colour with Steve Singiser. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Steve Singiser. Steve is a contributing editor at Daily Kos Elections. Find him on Twitter at @stevesingiser. Steve’s Music Pick: Living Colour That riff is indelibly inked on your brain. You know the one. The first musical notes put to vinyl/tape/compact disc by Living Colour, kicking off “Cult of Personality.” That riff that comes just after a quote from Malcolm X and carries through to famous orations from JFK and FDR. Yes, from the start, this all-black rock/funk/soul/metal band from New York really was something different. The band was driven by the guitar heroics of Vernon Reid, who would put his signature all over various tracks through the band’s existence. Lead vocalist Corey Glover featured rare range and power, and the rhythm section of drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Muzz Skillings (later replaced by Doug Wimbish) held down the bottom end. VIVID, the debut album, sold more than two million copies, presenting a foursome with solid melodies, street-smart lyrics, and an incredible intensity. Mick Jagger was such a fan he produced two songs on the record and invited the band to open for the Rolling Stones. The follow-up album, TIME’S UP, didn’t miss a beat, featuring guests such as Little Richard, Queen Latifah, Doug E. Fresh, and others. The songs were just as satisfying, and lyrically the band dove deeper into the political, including social commentary on racism in America. The subsequent offering STAIN, features a darker, grittier sound. The band would split soon after. Three post-reunion albums of varying quality are covered on the show, but more importantly, we offer an appreciation for a band that has somewhat slipped through the cracks but deserves a second, or for some, a first look. What’s your favorite color? |
Nov 23, 2020 |
Episode 87: Brad Birzer / Genesis [ Part 2]
03:28:09
Scot and Jeff discuss second part of Genesis’s career (the Phil Collins years) with Brad Birzer. Introducing the Band: Brad’s Music Pick: Genesis And what an amazing musical tale it is, the story of a niche British progressive rock band that was all but left for dead by the musical press after Gabriel’s departure, only to immediately come blazing out of the gates with one of the most impressive albums of the Seventies in 1976’s A Trick Of The Tail. With their diminutive balding drummer (a gent you may be familiar with by the name of Phil Collins) accidentally promoted to the role of lead singer during the sessions for that album, Genesis went on to not only weather the loss of their lead guitarist Steve Hackett, but to improbably ascend to the heights of worldwide commercial superstardom with Phil as their frontman. Genesis was ubiquitous during the 1980s, and in a good way: as Scot, Jeff, and Brad all argue, NONE of these albums have dated much at all, and in fact their stature has grown over the years (not even Patrick Bateman jokes could prevent it). Welcome to Political Beats’ loving conclusion to a tale that spans from Genesis to Revelation, one of the great underdog stories of the rock era . . . a band that spent 30 years making new music, evolving constantly, and never getting lost in a changing world. |
Nov 02, 2020 |
Episode 86: Patrick Frey / Genesis [Part 1]
03:23:52
Scot and Jeff discuss Genesis (1967-1975) with Patrick Frey. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Patrick Frey. Patrick has been a blogger of national repute since 2003 and is still committed to the form, even though it has been dead for years. Read his work at Patterico’s Pontifications and follow Patrick on Twitter at @Patterico.Patrick’s Music Pick: Genesis We’ve been waiting here for so long to discuss this band, and all the time that’s passed us by? It hardly seems to matter now, because Political Beats is finally tackling the first half of Genesis’s career (the Peter Gabriel years; 1976-1997 will come in our next installment) with the sort of reverent fervor that only happens when one of the show’s two hosts is discussing their single favorite group of all time. No prizes for guessing which of the two co-hosts feels that way about them. During this era Genesis — originally formed by a group of 16-year-olds at a genteel London-area private school — rapidly evolved from a halting group of adolescent pop songwriters (failed pop songwriters, mind you) into one of the biggest progressive rock bands of all time. Later, after the years discussed in this episode, they would also become one of the biggest commercial successes on the planet as well, without ever really losing the core of what made them uniquely Genesis. But for now, buckle up as the gang travels through tales of Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, Anthony Phillips, Steve Hackett, and a young drummer you might have heard of by the name of Philip Collins. This is some of the best, most well-composed, goofiest, and most profound music ever made during the 1970s, extremely British but also universal in its eternal musical verities. For the next three hours we will enjoy selling you England by the sound. P.S. Don’t worry, none of you are going to die. But you may need to make a visit to the Doktor when all is said and done. If you think that that’s pretentious . . . well then, you’ve been taken for a ride. |
Oct 19, 2020 |
Episode 85: Christian Schneider / Ramones
02:49:34
Scot and Jeff discuss Ramones with Christian Schneider. Introducing the Band: Christian’s Music Pick: Ramones |
Sep 28, 2020 |
Episode 84: Steven Levy / The Doors
02:54:43
Scot and Jeff discuss The Doors with Steven Levy. Introducing the Band: Steven’s Music Pick: The Doors |
Aug 31, 2020 |
Episode 83: Andrew Feinberg / Hüsker Dü
03:15:58
Scot and Jeff discuss Hüsker Dü with Andrew Feinberg. Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: Hüsker Dü |
Aug 17, 2020 |
Episode 82: Dan McLaughlin / Bruce Springsteen [Part 2]
03:41:49
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Bruce Springsteen’s career (1980-2020) with Dan McLaughlin. Introducing the Band: Dan’s Music Pick: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Maybe you had a brother in Khe Sanh fighting off the Viet Cong, but after forty years from 1980 onwards to the present day as we resume the second part of our Springsteen summer spectacular, Bruce is still there, and we’re all gone. Part Two witnesses Springsteen’s explosion from cult favorite, critical darling, and sometime-chart-entrant into The Biggest Musician Of The Eighties sweepstakes (it’s a four person standoff between him, MJ, Prince, and Madonna). From Nebraska to Born In The U.S.A. to Live 1975-85 (a five record set that entered the Billboard charts at #1) to the deeply personal Tunnel Of Love, Springsteen owned the decade like few other artists, and his retreat from that during the Nineties (and subsequent reclamation of both the E Street Band and the massive concert audiences from 1999 onwards) is only part of an incredibly complicated and rewarding story set out in musical form. Join us as we run through all of it — not just the albums, but the outtakes, the live performances, the archival releases, heck even the autobiographies — on this epic installment of Political Beats, bringing our survey of The Boss to a close. And after you’re done, assuming you’re the last one out, make sure to shut out the light.Part Two of Two. |
Aug 04, 2020 |
Episode 81: Dan McLaughlin / Bruce Springsteen [Part 1]
03:21:02
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of Bruce Springsteen’s career (1972-1980) with Dan McLaughlin. Introducing the Band: Dan’s Music Pick: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Summer’s here and the time is finally right for racing in the street. Yes, Political Beats is finally throwing its arms around the single most-requested artist in its three-year history: Mr. Bruce Springsteen, an artist who achieved a modest amount of fame during the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s (and most likely the ’20s as well). Who is Bruce Springsteen? Well, if you only know Springsteen from his years of mega-stardom and commercial ubiquity during the Eighties then you’re missing out on a long, winding artistic evolution that he underwent during the Seventies, the decade that Jeff for one asserts was truly his. From “the new Dylan” to Van-Morrison-meets-the-Jersey-Shore to The Future Of Rock And Roll to dusty roads littered with broken dreams, Political Beats takes you on a lovingly detailed tour of Bruce Springsteen’s evolution, over the first eight years of his career, into The Boss. Outtakes? Obscure live performances? Surprising amounts of Danny Federici on accordion? This episode has it all, a story about a guy in a town full of losers pulling out of there to win.Part one of two. |
Jul 20, 2020 |
Episode 80: Randy Barnett / The Zombies and Argent
02:27:40
Scot and Jeff discuss The Zombies and Argent with Randy Barnett. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Randy Barnett. Randy is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he directs the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. He also writes at The Volokh Conspiracy. Follow him on Twitter at @RandyEBarnett. Randy’s Music Pick: The Zombies and Argent But the story doesn’t end there! After The Zombies broke up due to lack of commercial success and critical recognition (both would eventually come, albeit too late for the group), Argent and White went on to form a new band, the eponymous Argent, based around the songwriting skills of Rod and Chris and with the added strength of lead singer Russ Ballard bringing his own music to bear. Argent rapidly moved away from the bright, brisk pop-rock of The Zombies into the piano/organ-based art- and progressive-rock style of the Seventies, and yet still managed to put out a remarkable amount of fine music on their own. Click play and enjoy — is this the dream band you’ve been crying out for? |
Jun 29, 2020 |
Episode 79: Lynyrd Skynyrd / Mark Davis
02:42:09
Scot and Jeff discuss Lynyrd Skynyrd with Mark Davis. Introducing the Band: Mark’s Music Pick: Lynyrd Skynyrd |
Jun 15, 2020 |
Episode 78: Jeff Pojanowski / Crowded House
02:31:20
Scot and Jeff discuss Crowded House with Jeff Pojanowski. Introducing the Band: Jeff’s Music Pick: Crowded House |
May 18, 2020 |
Episode 77: Nick Gillespie / The Byrds
02:50:45
Scot and Jeff discuss The Byrds with Nick Gillespie. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Nick Gillespie. Nick Gillespie is an editor at large at Reason and the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America. Find him online at @nickgillespie on Twitter.Nick’s Music Pick: The Byrds Today the gang is soaring high in the friendly skies as they contemplate the career of one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of post-’50s rock music, The Byrds. Jeff is at pains to emphasize how The Byrds are not just a “Dylan covers act,” but rather one of the most influential acts of the entire era, sparking three separate musical revolutions in popular music with folk-rock, psychedelia, and country-rock. Nick adds that there is true pathos to the story of The Byrds, who brought forth such an effulgence of musical beauty (particularly on their first six albums, a run which represents one of the best winning streaks in pop music history), and yet were always crippled by warring egos and human frailties that prevented them from reaching even higher. But what they did achieve is staggering nonetheless; if for some reason you have remained ignorant of the greatness of what Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, and Michael Clarke accomplished during their heyday, click play and prepare for takeoff. |
Apr 27, 2020 |
Episode 76: Cam Edwards / Fountains of Wayne
02:20:39
Scot and Jeff discuss Fountains of Wayne with Cam Edwards. Introducing the Band: Cam’s Music Pick: Fountains of Wayne But that’s not all he did! Though FOW is the focus, we also touch on his work in movies and television, plus his creative efforts with other bands. Schlesinger clearly was one of the most prolific and talented songwriters of his generation and his absence will be sorely missed. |
Apr 13, 2020 |
Episode 75: Ben Domenech / The Who [Part 2]
02:55:46
Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of The Who’s career (from 1970 to 1982 and afterwards, thereabouts) with Ben Domenech. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Ben Domenech. Ben is the publisher of The Federalist and also writes a daily newsletter, The Transom, which you can subscribe to at thetransom.com. Follow Ben on Twitter at @bdomenech. |
Apr 06, 2020 |
Episode 74: Ben Domenech / The Who [Part 1]
03:05:17
Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of The Who’s career (from 1964 to 1970) with Ben Domenech. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Ben Domenech. Ben is the publisher of The Federalist and also writes a daily newsletter, The Transom, which you can subscribe to at thetransom.com. Follow Ben on Twitter at @bdomenech. Today the gang is talkin’ ’bout its generation as they cover the first part of the career of one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of rock music, The Who! Yes, the ‘orrible ‘Oo, more or less the definitive power trio (despite the fact that they had four members), innovated in so many different ways — instrumentally, lyrically, vocally, conceptually, and also in terms of writing songs about masturbation and dog-racing — that it takes us a little over three hours to cover the explosively imaginative first six years of their career, up through Live At Leeds. Sit back, relax and let your mind roll on over all your problems as Political Beats brings you Emergency Quarantine Relief by revisiting the glory of a band that you might have known, during their early years, mostly for anthemic proto-punk singles, but which was also by equal turns inspiring and charmingly goofy. We promise we will not put a car in your swimming pool. |
Mar 30, 2020 |
Episode 73: Alfred Schulz / The Pogues
02:14:27
Scot and Jeff discuss The Pogues with Alfred Schulz. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Alfred’s Music Pick: The Pogues Happy St. Paddy’s Day! Okay, so you probably didn’t get to attend a parade (and we hope for prudence’s sake that you ‘socially distanced’ yourself on Saturday instead of hitting the bars), but let Political Beats keep you company this Monday instead as consolation as the gang covers the most Irish band of all time that is actually ironically composed mostly of English people, The Pogues! Yes, most of them had Irish blood running through their veins, but the fascinating thing about Shane MacGowan & company was how they actually emerged into prominence during the mid-’80s as rebellious standouts in the London music scene, where their fusion of Irish traditional music and punk drumming and speeds stood miles apart from everything else out there. Combining a magnificent touch for traditional and Irish covers with the magnificent lyrics and concepts of Shane MacGowan (whose self-presentation as a stumbling bad-toothed drunkard in no way disguised his literary skill), The Pogues redefined what was possible in terms of mixing popular and traditional music and also helped define a nation’s modern musical tradition in doing so. As Alfred points out: People will often put The Pogues on for St. Patrick’s Day, or maybe Christmas, but it’s music that deserves to be listened to all year ’round. Póg mo thóin, ladies and gents. |
Mar 16, 2020 |
Episode 72: Sean Hackbarth / Tears for Fears
01:55:42
Scot and Jeff discuss Tears For Fears with Sean Hackbarth. Introducing the Band: Sean’s Music Pick: Tears For Fears |
Feb 24, 2020 |
Episode 71: Brad Birzer / Rush
02:35:35
Scot and Jeff discuss Rush with Brad Birzer. Introducing the Band: Brad’s Music Pick: Rush |
Jan 20, 2020 |
Episode 70: Vincent Caruso / Roxy Music
02:17:41
Scot and Jeff discuss Roxy Music with Vincent Caruso. Introducing the Band: Vincent’s Music Pick: Roxy Music |
Dec 23, 2019 |
Episode 69: Jane Coaston / Jimi Hendrix
02:26:43
Scot and Jeff discuss Jimi Hendrix with Jane Coaston. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Jane Coaston. Jane is Senior Politics Reporter at Vox with a focus on the GOP, conservatism, the far-right, and white nationalism. Jane is on Twitter at @cjane87. Jane’s Music Pick: Jimi Hendrix Excuse us while we praise this guy. Jimi Hendrix’s career lasted only four years while alive (with decades of posthumous releases to follow), but he remains one of the most influential guitarists in history. He pioneered new uses of the guitar, experimenting with feedback, distortion, and effects on a higher level. The songs weren’t so bad either, of course, kicking off with the single releases of “Hey Joe” and “Purple Haze” and continuing through Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. Hear Jeff and Jane fight over the relative merit of Noel Redding’s songwriting contributions to the band! And as for those posthumous releases? We spend specific time discussing First Rays of the Rising Sun and Blues, along with various live releases. So much has been said about the music of Jimi Hendrix, but we find new angles for you to consider on this edition of Political Beats. |
Dec 09, 2019 |
Episode 68: James Poulos / The Smashing Pumpkins
02:21:49
Scot and Jeff discuss The Smashing Pumpkins with James Poulos. Introducing the Band: James’ musical pick: The Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight, tonight. |
Nov 11, 2019 |
Episode 67: Ben Jacobs / Gram Parsons
02:07:14
Scot and Jeff discuss Gram Parsons with Ben Jacobs. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Ben Jacobs. Ben is senior political reporter for Jewish Insider. Ben is on Twitter at @BenCJacobs. Ben’s Music Pick: Gram Parsons Considered to be one of the godfathers of country rock, Gram Parsons had his own name for what he was trying to achieve: “cosmic American music”. That meant country, blues, soul, rock, and folk all rolled into one. Parsons’ output during his short time on earth is staggering for its quality and quantity. Before his death at the age of 26, Parsons had formed the International Submarine Band before leaving to join The Byrds. After only a few short months in that band, he quit to create the Flying Burrito Brothers. Following his dismissal from the Burritos, he crafted two immaculate solo albums with the help of Emmylou Harris. None of the records sold very well at the time, but virtually all have become classics of the genre. It’s entirely possible, even as a music fan, you’re entirely unfamiliar with Parsons oeuvre. No worries! We’ll walk you through the catalog, explain what’s important and why, and celebrate the vision of an American original: Gram Parsons. |
Oct 07, 2019 |
Episode 66: Kevin Madden / The Cars
01:54:21
Scot and Jeff discuss The Cars with Kevin Madden. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Kevin Madden. Kevin is the executive vice president of Arnold Ventures. He’s a Republican strategist and former advisor to President George W. Bush, Governor Mitt Romney, and Republican House leaders John Boehner and Tom DeLay. Kevin is on Twitter at @KevinMaddenDC. Kevin’s Music Pick: The Cars The team at Political Beats mourns the death of Ric Ocasek by doing what we do best: obsessively listening to and breaking down his career in The Cars. This is a nice, tight compact show, like the best of their hits. In fact, we dove so deep into their discography that you might think we’re foolish. All three of us are really big fans of the debut album and Ben Orr’s vocals. And all of us choose a different second-favorite album alongside the consensus number one, THE CARS, one of the best debut albums of all time. Why don’t we know Ric’s real age? Why did “You Might Think” win the first MTV Video Music Award, beating out “Thriller”? How did Elliot Easton score a solo album deal in the 1980s? Answers to those questions and much more on this week’s tribute to Ric Ocasek and The Cars. |
Sep 23, 2019 |
Episode 65: Anthony Fisher / Elvis Costello [Part 2]
03:17:27
Scot and Jeff discuss Elvis Costello (Part 2, from King Of America through to the present day) with Anthony Fisher. Introducing the Band: Anthony’s Music Pick: Elvis Costello |
Aug 26, 2019 |
Episode 64: Anthony Fisher / Elvis Costello [Part 1]
03:16:16
Scot and Jeff discuss Elvis Costello (Part 1, from My Aim Is True through to Goodbye Cruel World) with Anthony Fisher. Introducing the Band: Anthony’s Music Pick: Elvis Costello If you’re already a fan of Elvis Costello, then not only do these references make sense to you, hey: you’re already listening. If for some reason you’re not, let us take the time to explain to you why Britain’s most literate and craftsmanlike songwriter of the past 45 years combined with one of its most explosive backing bands to produce an album catalogue that no music-lover can afford to be ignorant of. Oh, we just don’t know where to begin. |
Aug 12, 2019 |
Episode 63: Jeff Dufour / Rolling Stones [Part 2]
03:23:42
Scot and Jeff discuss The Rolling Stones (Part 2, from 1969 through to the present day) with Jeff Dufour. Introducing the Band: |
Jul 29, 2019 |
Episode 62: Harry Khachatrian / Rolling Stones [Part 1]
03:25:10
Scot and Jeff discuss The Rolling Stones (Part 1, through LET IT BLEED) with Harry Khachatrian. Introducing the Band: Harry’s Music Pick: The Rolling Stones
|
Jul 22, 2019 |
Episode 61: Matt Welch / The Beach Boys [Part 2]
03:06:46
Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar discuss the second part of The Beach Boys’ career with Matt Welch. Introducing The Band: Matt’s Music Pick: The Beach Boys This was the period of their great commercial collapse, and Brian Wilson’s concurrent mental collapse, but here’s the paradox: both Jeff and Matt believe THIS phase of the band’s career to contain much of their most fascinating and rewarding music. From Smiley Smile and Wild Honey all the way through to Holland and the weirdness of the man-child directness of The Beach Boys Love You, the boys’ later career reveals equally as much amazing music as their earlier, more famous material. And yes, everyone hates “Kokomo.” |
Jul 08, 2019 |
Episode 60: Matt Welch / The Beach Boys [Part 1]
02:53:17
Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar discuss the first part of The Beach Boys’ career with Matt Welch. Introducing The Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@scotbertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Matt Welch, former editor-in-chief and current editor-at-large of Reason, and co-host and self-described “provost” of “The Fifth Column” podcast. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattWelch and check out The Fifth Column podcast (whose members Political Beats likes so much that we’ve had literally every single one of them as a guest) here. Matt’s Music Pick: The Beach Boys Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for some Game Theory (if you get it, you get it…) as Matt Welch returns to the show and Political Beats begins its Summer Spectacular by returning to the place where it all pretty much started for the show: with The Beach Boys, a band that Jeff has been known to discourse about on Twitter. We invite you to celebrate the official beginning of summer by immersing yourself in the magnificent, groundbreaking music of Brian, Carl, Dennis, Mike, and Al (and also Bruce). One thing the gang are at pains to make clear, as they lovingly cover the scope of The Beach Boys’ first five years of existence (from 1961 through to Pet Sounds) is that, even given the Legend of Brian Wilson, Lonely Genius, the band is still somehow underrated compared to their peers. If you thought Brian Wilson’s talents were more or less limited to Pet Sounds, “that lost album,” and a few songs about cars and surfing, then this show will hopefully be an education for you in what the sudden flowering of musical genius sounds like. If you already know just how good The Beach Boys were, then this show will be a glorious celebration. Catch a wave, ho-daddys. |
Jun 24, 2019 |
Episode 59: Scot Bertram & Jeff Blehar / Soundtracks
01:59:38
Scot and Jeff discuss their favorite soundtracks. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with . . . no guest at all! Yes, this is a Very Special Episode of Political Beats, in which Arnold learns to avoid the local bike shop and Jessie finds out about the very real dangers of caffeine pills. In other words, this is PB’s second format-bucking episode where, instead of having on a guest to discuss her favorite artist, the subject is Scot and Jeff’s favorite soundtracks of all time. To give a general sense of how the show is structured, we begin by discussing soundtracks composed of all-new material then move to soundtracks made up of older songs, previously released. Finally, we look at the hybrid soundtracks with both vintage and fresh material. What makes a great soundtrack? Why aren’t certain candidates on our lists? Are there any that actually appear on both Scot and Jeff’s Top Ten? Listen to find out! |
Jun 11, 2019 |
Episode 58: Matt Murray / Randy Newman
02:29:01
Scot and Jeff discuss Randy Newman with Matt Murray. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Matt Murray. Matt is editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal and is the author of the book The Father And The Son: My Father’s Journey Into Monastic Life. Matt is on Twitter at @murraymatt. Matt’s Musical Pick: Randy Newman It’s lonely at the top when you’re one of America’s greatest modern songwriters, but the case of Randy Newman is an even stranger one than most: a professional songwriter since 1962, a celebrated solo artist since 1968, and one of Hollywood’s go-to men for movie soundtracks (including, yes, all those Pixar movies) since 1981, Newman is still arguably hugely underappreciated by the public at large. We suppose that’s inevitable when you sing like a bullfrog and your greatest commercial success was a quasi-novelty song about loathing diminutive folk, but Matt, Jeff and Scot are at great pains on today’s episode to explain why Randy Newman is in fact one of the most profound (profoundly acerbic, profoundly cynical, profoundly hilarious, profoundly moving, you name it) artists of the modern popular era. From the halting orchestral experiments of his youth to the deep exploration of the dark weird corners of America during his prime to the scabrous wit of his political and social commentary, Newman is one of the most truly American musicians of the past fifty years, and his musical legacy reveals truths both uncomfortable and undeniable about our national psyche. Dive on in with us — and you can leave your hat on. |
May 20, 2019 |
Episode 57: Michael Brendan Dougherty / Ben Folds Five
02:20:17
Scot and Jeff discuss Ben Folds Five with Michael Brendan Dougherty. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Michael Brendan Dougherty. Michael is a senior writer at National Review and is the author of the new book My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home. Michael is on Twitter at @michaelbd. Michael’s Music Pick: Ben Folds Five Were you never cool at school? Are you a fan of Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Hornsby, and Todd Rundgren? Well, Ben Folds Five might be the band for you. You must know a few things upfront, though: There are only three members of Ben Folds Five (it just sounds better than Ben Folds Three), and there is no guitar used on any of the band’s proper albums. Piano, bass, and drums. That’s it. Ben Folds, Robert Sledge, and Darren Jessee use those instruments to cover a wide range of styles and dynamics. Jazz? Sure. Rock? Yep. Power pop? Sure? Prog rock? A little. Singer/songwriter laments? Absolutely! We take a deep dive into their output prior to the band’s breakup in 2000 and also cover Ben Folds’ solo work and the band’s reunion album in 2012. Join us Underground, where everything is heavy and everyone is happy. |
May 06, 2019 |
Episode 56: Kmele Foster / Marvin Gaye
02:15:15
Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar discuss Marvin Gaye with Kmele Foster. Introducing The Band: Kmele’s Music Pick: Marvin Gaye Marvin Gaye — the man, his demons, the dizzying heights to which he ascended and the personal lows to which he plunged — is a topic so vast that you might think it impossible to properly throw your arms around the complexity of the man’s work in a mere two hours and change, and yet with the expert assistance of guest Kmele Foster we somehow managed to do justice to every phase of his career. How sweet it is. |
Apr 22, 2019 |
Episode 55: Tim Miller / LCD Soundsystem
02:10:26
Scot Bertram and Jeff Blehar discuss LCD Soundsystem with Tim Miller. Introducing The Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@scotbertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Tim Miller, communications consultant, GOP operative, contributor to The Bulwark, and co-founder of America Rising. Follow Tim on Twitter at @Timodc. Tim’s Music Pick: LCD Soundsystem This week, Political Beats is selling its guitars and buying turntables, and then selling its turntables and buying guitars, as we explore the brief but dense discography of LCD Soundsystem, one of the premier acts of the 21st century, and finally back in business after a long hiatus. The band is the brainchild and primarily the work of one James Murphy, former Brooklyn DJ and middle-aged rock snob/producer who finally decided in 2003 to say screw it and start releasing his own music rather than just produce it for other people. His first single, the hilariously self-deprecating music snob’s lament of “Losing My Edge,” became a indie phenomenon and launched LCD Soundsystem on a career path that took it all the way from the New York City hipster underground to selling out the entirety of Madison Square Garden before a breakup and recent reunion that finds Murphy and his friends sounding as vital as ever. Jeff labels LCD Soundsystem’s music “a journey to the end of rock music,” a terminal point for an entire era of musical creativity and fusion, but what a glorious one. If you’re already a fan, then get ready to hit the dance floor with the gang this week. If you’ve never heard LCD Soundsystem before, or know them only from their immense critical reputation, then get ready to experience one of the true greats of the modern century. As for me? I was there. I was there. |
Apr 08, 2019 |
Episode 54: Cameron Joseph / Jackson Browne
02:12:47
Scot and Jeff discuss Jackson Browne with Cameron Joseph. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Cameron Joseph. Cameron is Talking Points Memo’s senior political reporter, where he covers Congress and the permanent campaign. You can find him at talkingpointsmemo.com and at shows standing back by the soundboard. Cameron is on Twitter at @cam_joseph. Cameron’s Music Pick: Jackson Browne One of the faces of the 1970s west coast singer/songwriters movement, Jackson Browne is the writer and performer of some of the most literate and moving songs of his era. His self-titled debut was the work of a man who had spent some six years honing his craft. A Top Ten hit, “Doctor My Eyes,” was emblematic of what was to come over the next decade: a series of preternaturally mature and affecting songs about, life, love, and death. Browne had a rough transition into the 1980s artistically, though his albums continued to sell well for the first half of the decade. A bounceback with I’M ALIVE proved he still had some gas in the engine. Literate, direct, and armed with a tremendous gift for observation, Jackson Browne can sing the soundtrack for your life, if you’ll let him. |
Mar 25, 2019 |
Episode 53: Jay Cost / The Black Crowes
02:29:17
Scot and Jeff discuss The Black Crowes with Jay Cost. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Jay Cost, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and co-host of National Review’s Constitutionally Speaking podcast. Jay is on Twitter at @JayCostTWS. Jay’s Music Pick: The Black Crowes They’ve been called the “The Most Rock ‘n’ Roll Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World,” and The Black Crowes did their best to live up to the title. Success, label fights, lineup changes, warring brothers, drugs, break-ups, hiatuses, triumphant returns, epic live shows, and unreleased albums. Heck, these guys had their “Behind the Music” on VH1 before some band members had turned 30. Through it all, The Black Crowes turned out some of the best music of the 1990s. We cover it all on this episode, from the initial platinum-selling albums to the unreleased gem, THE BAND, and two extremely well-received albums reunion albums in the 00s. Both Scot and Jay count the Crowes as their favorite band of all-time and bring the passion and knowledge to this episode. They weren’t just Rolling Stones rip-offs; The Black Crowes paved their own road in their career and didn’t care who stood in the way. |
Mar 11, 2019 |
Episode 52: Jeff Pojanowski / Pavement
02:29:12
Scot and Jeff discuss Pavement with Jeff Pojanowski. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Jeff Pojanowski, professor at Notre Dame Law School. Jeff is on Twitter at @pojanowski. Jeff’s Music Pick: Pavement Political Beats has been dressed for success for a long time, but success it never comes. Finally it arrives with their episode on Pavement, a band that Jeff (Blehar, that is) considers to be the single greatest of the entire 1990s. The discussion carries the gang from Pavement’s early lo-fi EPs and debut album (complete with a ’70s hippie burnout on drums and behind the producer’s desk) to their more assured (but never ‘straight’ or particularly commercial) mid- and late-’90s material. This is a band that, for all their practiced inscrutability and just-don’t-care posing, never set a foot wrong over their entire career (five EPs, five albums, and countless B-sides and outtakes) until the end — a record of near-perfection that makes them one of the most essential bands of the rock era. Join us as we go back to those gold soundz, and you don’t even have to keep your advent to yourself.
|
Feb 18, 2019 |
Episode 51: Stephen Miller / U2
03:51:10
Scot and Jeff discuss U2 with Stephen Miller. Introducing the Band: Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Stephen Miller. He is a contributor to National Review, Fox News, and a well known social media raconteur. Stephen is on Twitter at @redsteeze where he will calmly insult your music tastes, among other things. Stephen’s Music Pick: U2: The gang gets its Irish up this week as we cover a small Hibernian band of little renown known to the world as U2. As Stephen jokes, they’re the biggest band in the world (still) and yet everyone pretends to hate them. In this epic installment of Political Beats we trace the story of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, and that guy who Jeff used to mistake for a notorious New York City Congressman from their beginnings as a Dublin hooligan gang to world-saving musical superheroes. And in the telling we explain why, even though their most recent albums signal a seemingly permanent decline, you secretly love them too. You know it’s time to go, across the sleet and driving snow, across the fields of mourning light in the distance. |
Feb 04, 2019 |
Episode 50: Jack Butler / The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)
02:46:44
Scot and Jeff discuss The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) with Jack Butler, host of Ricochet’s Young Americans podcast, sidekick of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, and a freelancer writer living in D.C. Introducing the Band: Jack’s Music Pick: The Electric Light Orchestra: |
Jan 21, 2019 |
Episode 49: CJ Ciaramella / The Clash
02:39:09
Scot and Jeff discuss The Clash with CJ Ciaramella, a criminal justice reporter for Reason Magazine. Introducing the Band: CJ’s Music Pick: The Clash: The gang wraps up its second year of Political Beats with a discussion of The Only Band That Matters! From rock to pop to reggae to ethno-fusion to, well, “Fingerpoppin’,” The Clash belie their reputation as one of the greatest punk acts of all time with the startling diversity of their music. And what a weird career arc it is, encompassing not only one of the most important punk rock records of all time (their self-titled debut), one of the greatest double albums in any genre of modern music full-stop (the glorious London Calling), and one of the worst TRIPLE albums in history (the fascinatingly failed Sandinista!). Scot, Jeff, and C.J. love much of this music passionately and are deeply confused and dismayed by some of it as well (please, dear reader: never listen to Cut The Crap) but celebrate all of it anyway. Happy Holidays to all of our listeners, and we’ll see you again in January! |
Dec 17, 2018 |
Episode 48: Adam White / Queen
03:12:33
Scot and Jeff discuss Queen with Adam White, law professor and a think-tank researcher. Introducing the Band: Adam’s Music Pick: Queen |
Dec 03, 2018 |
Episode 47: Molly Ball / Radiohead
03:16:46
In this episode, Scot and Jeff discuss Radiohead with Molly Ball, TIME magazine’s national political correspondent and a political analyst for CNN. Introducing the Band: Molly’s Music Pick: Radiohead:
|
Nov 19, 2018 |
Episode 46: Jamie Kirchick / Elton John
02:39:41
In this episode, Scot and Jeff discuss Elton John with Jamie Kirchick, author of The End of Europe. Introducing the Band: Jamie’s Music Pick: Elton John: He had seven No. 1 albums in a row in the U.S. These albums, in a three-and-a-half-year period, spent a total of 39 weeks at No. 1, a bit less than a quarter of that overall span. By Billboard’s rankings, he is by far the biggest album act of the 1970s (despite the fact that he didn’t have a top-ten album after 1976). He is also Billboard’s biggest singles act of the decade, and the magazine’s third-biggest singles artist of all time, with nine No. 1 singles and 27 top-ten hits, which is a lot. In all, he’s sold more than 150 million albums and 100 million singles. We cover his classic period in-depth, discuss works through Too Low For Zero, and then do our best to summarize the remainder of an amazing career. |
Oct 29, 2018 |
Episode 45: David Lowery / Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker
03:27:36
In this special episode, Scot and Jeff discuss Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker with David Lowery, the main singer/songwriter and bandleader for both groups. Introducing the Band: David’s Music Pick: Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker: No, really. The actual David Lowery is on this podcast with us. You must listen.
|
Oct 15, 2018 |
Episode 44: Jessie Opoien / Old 97s
02:39:03
Scot and Jeff discuss Old 97s with Jessie Opoien, political reporter with the Capital Times in Wisconsin. Introducing the Band: Jessie’s Music Pick: Old 97s: |
Oct 01, 2018 |
Episode 43: Dave Weigel / King Crimson
02:21:20
Scot and Jeff discuss King Crimson with Dave Weigel, political reporter for the Washington Post. Introducing the Band: Dave’s Music Pick: King Crimson: But first, come join us as we travel through the career of the most fearless, most stubbornly mutagenic progressive act of them all. King Crimson never sold as many albums as its three “major” Seventies prog confreres (Genesis, Yes, and ELP), but they had a more lasting influence on later artists than all of them and have outlasted all comers as a band, still touring and making relevant music to this day in 2018. Since setting the tone for an entire genre of music with their 1969 debut album (and immediately collapsing, something which would become a ongoing theme), Crimson have gone through at least seven different iterations, wild shifts in musical approaches, and have cycled personnel in and out of the group with only one constant: the restlessly visionary guitarist and bandleader Robert Fripp. The gang are men with an aim this week: we somehow manage to get through the entire scope of KC’s majestic career in under 2 & ½ hours, which is frankly a miracle given that this isn’t merely Dave’s favorite band, it’s one of Jeff’s as well. Long live the Crimson King. |
Sep 17, 2018 |
Episode 42: Robert VerBruggen / Guns N’ Roses
02:00:36
Scot and Jeff discuss Guns N’ Roses with Robert VerBruggen, deputy managing editor of National Review Online. Introducing the Band: Robert’s Music Pick: Guns N’ Roses: You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby. But if it’s a jungle with wi-fi, you’re in luck! This week the crew tackles the rock ‘n’ roll excess of one of the biggest bands of the late 80s and early 90s. Guns N’ Roses exploded out of the Hollywood club scene with the biggest-selling debut album of all time, created some of the most iconic music videos on MTV, then spent the better part of two decades laboring over Chinese Democracy. It’s all here, including a discussion of how we should look at GN’R’s musical legacy. Political Beats: where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. |
Sep 03, 2018 |
Episode 41: Andrew Kirell / Bob Dylan [Part 3]
02:56:22
Scot and Jeff discuss Bob Dylan with Andrew Kirell, a senior editor at The Daily Beast overseeing breaking news, political media, and occasionally music coverage. Part 3 of 3. Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: Bob Dylan: |
Aug 20, 2018 |
Episode 40: Andrew Kirell / Bob Dylan [Part 2]
02:17:54
Scot and Jeff discuss Bob Dylan with Andrew Kirell, a senior editor at The Daily Beast overseeing breaking news, political media, and occasionally music coverage. Part 2 of 3. Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: Bob Dylan: |
Aug 13, 2018 |
Episode 39: Andrew Kirell / Bob Dylan [Part 1]
02:55:30
Scot and Jeff discuss Bob Dylan with Andrew Kirell, a senior editor at The Daily Beast overseeing breaking news, political media, and occasionally music coverage. Part 1 of 3. Introducing the Band: Andrew’s Music Pick: Bob Dylan: |
Aug 06, 2018 |
Episode 38: Charles C. W. Cooke / The Beatles [Part 2]
03:14:11
Scot and Jeff discuss The Beatles with Charles C. W. Cooke, editor of NationalReview.com and the author of The Conservatarian Manifesto. Part 2 of 2. Introducing the Band: Charles’s Music Pick: The Beatles:
|
Jul 16, 2018 |
Episode 37: Charles C. W. Cooke / The Beatles [Part 1]
02:53:13
Scot and Jeff discuss The Beatles with Charles C. W. Cooke. Introducing the Band Charles’s Music Pick: The Beatles |
Jul 09, 2018 |
Episode 36: Christopher J. Scalia / Cheap Trick
02:39:25
Introducing the Band Chris’s Music Pick: Cheap Trick |
Jun 18, 2018 |
Episode 35: Jon Gabriel / New Order
02:20:26
Introducing the Band Jon’s Music Pick: New Order |
May 28, 2018 |
Episode 34: Mark Joseph Stern / The Velvet Underground
01:50:19
Scot and Jeff discuss The Velvet Underground with Mark Joseph Stern of Slate. Introducing the Band Mark’s Music Pick: The Velvet Underground |
May 14, 2018 |
Episode 33: Kevin Madden / Wilco
02:18:30
Scot and Jeff talk to Kevin Madden about Wilco. Introducing the Band Kevin’s Music Pick: Wilco Too Far Apart: Uncle Tupelo and the origins of Wilco The overwhelming critical consensus is that Farrar won round one in a knock-out with Son Volt’s magnificent debut Trace; Wilco’s 1995 debut A.M. was seen by most as an afterthought — a middling continuation of the Uncle Tupelo sound — and proof that the real magic in the band came from Jay Farrar. In retrospect we now know that not to be the case, but the gang argues that A.M. is itself an underrated record in its own right, far too quickly dismissed by critics and fans (and even the band) for failing to advance much on Uncle Tupelo’s original sound. Scot and Kevin praise the guitarwork of Brian Henneman (on temporary loan from the Bottle Rockets) in particular, and note that the embryonic “Tweedy style” of lyrical introversion is found in so many of the highlights of this record, like “Box Full Of Letters” and “Should’ve Been In Love.” Misunderstood: Jay Bennett and Being There A Shot in the Arm: Mermaid Avenue and Summerteeth The results of that reassessment are, by universal agreement between Jeff, Scot, and Kevin, the true masterpiece of Wilco’s career, the glorious Summerteeth (1999). Fans whose last checkpoint for Wilco was (the wonderful, but still largely rooted in well-worn alt-country sounds) Being There must have been completely shocked by the mutagenic growth on display with Summerteeth, a sonically complex, glossy, almost summery-sounding album of art-rock, art-pop, and weirdly crabbed balladry. Scot gets emotional talking about this album, as it is a part of the fabric of his young life – he remembers the first time he heard and spun “I’m Always In Love” on his college radio station, blown away by the complete shift in style after Being There. Jeff is fascinated by the contrast between the vibrantly arranged and produced music (he affectionately calls it the “Jay Bennett goofy synthesizer album”) and the naggingly recurrent darkness of the lyrics: Tweedy is singing about death, doubt, inability to communicate, dashed hopes, the frustration of unrequited faith, and broken relationships, but you would have to listen very carefully to find that in, say, the ethereally pure beauty of “A Shot In The Arm,” which may just be the greatest song of their career. The gang spends a full twenty minutes rhapsodizing about Summerteeth, from “Can’t Stand It” all the way to “Candyfloss,” and all we can say to you is: please listen to this album. The Late Greats: From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to A Ghost Is Born That said, these criticisms feel small compared to the breathtaking scope of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album as purely consistent in tone and mood as any in Wilco’s career. Kevin cites to “Ashes Of American Flags” in particular as representative of the whole of YHF: a ghostly, almost evanescent melody (Jeff isn’t even quite sure it’s a ‘song’ per se), a descent into noisy chaos at the end of the track, but an overall atmosphere of aching beauty and grandeur. Jeff prefers the more lyrically direct material like the wistfully nostalgic “Heavy Metal Drummer” and the lyrical “Poor Places,” while Scot declares that “Pot Kettle Black” is the album’s masterpiece and dares all comers to fight him on the matter. It’s impossible to discuss YHF without discussing the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, filmed during these sessions. It caught the band in the midst of twin crises. First up was their record-label disaster: at work on what would become the band’s universally-acknowledged masterpiece, Wilco found the final product rejected by their label Reprise, and dropped as recording artists. (The resulting outrage from critics, who had been given copies of YHF by the band’s manager, created a huge backlash and secured them a new deal with a different label in short order…and also generated enough buzz to make the record Wilco’s first real chart success.) More importantly, the cameras documented the painful dissolution of the relationship between Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett; Bennett was a full participant in the sessions and co-wrote most of the album’s songs, but would be fired by Tweedy immediately afterwards, and the film captures their ongoing communication breakdown in a particularly poignant way. Scot insists that when Jay Bennett left Wilco he took a certain amount of their special magic with him, but Jeff isn’t quite so sure…he thinks Tweedy was being driven by different demons during this era. Just exactly what that was became painfully apparent by the time of 2004’s A Ghost Is Born: the record’s release was delayed at the last second because Tweedy needed to check into rehab to rid himself of an addiction to prescription painkillers acquired over the last several years of self-medicating to ward off panic attacks, migraines, and clinical depression. A Ghost Is Born is the sound of that exhaustion, and while Scot disdains it, Jeff rates it highly, seeing in its exhausted and paranoid tones and outre experiments the last truly fearlessly experimental record of Wilco’s career. Sure, nobody needs to hear the hopelessly misbegotten “Less Than You Think” (a middling folk song married to 12 minutes of boring tuneless noise serving no worthy end), but drug-exhausted chance-taking pays off wildly elsewhere on songs like “At Least That’s What You Said”–whose “clever song + guitar freakout” format would establish a template Tweedy carried forward on the rest of their career–and the singular “Spiders (Kidsmoke),” an out-of-nowhere tribute to Krautrock (the specific reference points are Kraftwerk and especially Neu!) that sees Wilco pushing out into genres they had never before even hinted at attempting and succeeding wildly. P.S. None of us can really figure out what “Muzzle Of Bees” is supposed to be about either. You are not alone. On And On And On: From Sky Blue Sky to Schmilco, and the Present Day With “Wilco (the song)” off of Wilco (2009) the band unexpectedly scores a rock ‘trifecta’ (album/song/band all of the same name, e.g. Bad Company or Talk Talk), but aside from the title track (which Kevin notes is a perniciously listenable earworm), the gang agrees that this is a much more unfocused record than the previous one. Still, this song is as professional and assuredly listenable as all of Wilco’s late period records, with highlights like “One Wing” (Jeff’s pick), “You And I” (Kevin’s favorite) and the disguised Civil War tale of “I’ll Fight” (Scot’s favorite, and one of his five favorite Wilco songs ever). Unfortunately, The Whole Love (2011) is as close as Wilco comes to sounding generic in their career, with only “Art Of Almost” standing out. (Jeff damns it thus: “Very professional. Very tasteful. Very likable. Dad-rock.”) That leads us to the present day and the one-two punch of Star Wars (2015) and Schmilco (2016), which were recorded at the same sessions and then divided after the fact into two very different sounding albums: Star Wars (yes, Tweedy named it after one of the most famous movies of all time–for absolutely no reason whatsoever–and then put a painting of a cat on the cover), released for free online as a surprise record, is by gang consensus the better of the two, a left turn into harder rock sounds than either the sedate The Whole Love or the unrepentantly folky Schmilco. Scot likes Star Wars quite a bit (its tightness brevity is a real plus), in particular the groove of “Random Name Generator” and “Taste The Ceiling.” Jeff and Kevin both agree (Kevin shouts out to “You Satellite”), and all are agreed that the soft Schmilco is the weaker half of these sessions, barely rising above a whisper (though “Cry All Day” is a fine song). Finale |
May 07, 2018 |
Episode 32: Ellen Carmichael / Dire Straits
01:53:09
Scot and Jeff talk to Ellen Carmichael about Dire Straits. Introducing the Band Ellen’s Music Pick: Dire Straits |
Apr 23, 2018 |
Episode 31: Christian Schneider / Pixies
02:02:39
Introducing the Band Christian’s music pick: Pixies |
Apr 16, 2018 |
Episode 30: Matt Murray / Talking Heads
02:37:12
Scot and Jeff talk to the WSJ‘s Matt Murray about Talking Heads. Introducing the Band Matt’s Music Pick: Talking Heads From CBGB to ’77: The Formative Years Little wonder, then, that they were very quickly given a major-label record deal and immediately began to make good on it. Their only officially-released recording as a trio was their debut single “Love -> Building On Fire” (the title alone gives fair indication of how Byrne wrote), at which point they expanded to a quartet with the addition of keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison (formerly of the ahead-of-their-time Modern Lovers), who rounded out their sound. This is the group that would record their debut album Talking Heads: ’77 (no prizes for guessing which year it was released). Jeff thinks this is their most underrated album, unfairly neglected because it falls outside the upcoming “Eno trilogy,” and chockablock full of wonderful, weird tunes. Matt and Jeff spend a lot of time discussing why David Byrne is so compelling as a lyricist. Matt says that he is an artist in the truest sense of the word: trying to take the familiar things in this world and see them with fresh eyes. Jeff agrees and compares the seeming lack of artifice in Byrne’s vocals and lyrics to outsider art. He also adds that Talking Heads’ lyrics during this era make sense the moment you realize that they are meant wholly unironically: “New Feeling” is about a new feeling, “The Book I Read” is about a book David Byrne read, and “Don’t Worry About The Government” is a song that suggests that you shouldn’t worry about the government. Matt and Scot also note that “Pulled Up” is exactly what it purports itself to be: an earnestly cheerful song of thanks from Byrne to his parents for pulling him up from the doldrums of depression. The Brian Eno Era: More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light Fear Of Music (1979) is a departure for Talking Heads in many ways; the second record of their Eno trilogy finds Byrne working up a new batch of lyrics for the first time since the 1975-76 era, and his response was to create a concept album that most people never even realize is a concept album. This is “fear of”-music: songs each written about specific topics of potential neurosis. (Literally just add the words “(fear of)” as a parenthetical to every single song on the record outside the instrumental opener and you’ll get the point.) It’s hard to know whether Byrne is channeling his own feelings on songs like “Air” or “Memories Can’t Wait” or “Animals,” or speaking in an imaginative voice as on “Psycho Killer”, but the result is a glorious catalogue of modern paranoia. One that feels like it comes from a more personal place is “Heaven,” Byrne’s meditation on the afterlife. Jeff raves over the brilliance of the conceit — heaven as an eternity of boredom and ennui as you are spoonfed your “favorite things” over and over again without variety until you loathe them — and thrills to the way the ice of the click-clock metronomic arrangement finally cracks when Chris Frantz roars in frustration heading into the final chorus. Scot proclaims this their greatest album, citing Byrne’s vocal performance on “Mind” especially. Matt gets an enormous laugh out of “Life During Wartime” and “Air,” a song where (as he points out) Tina Weymouth’s backing vocals feel for all the world like they’re mocking David Byrne’s neurotic fear of very environment around him. As it turned out, the one song on Fear Of Music that pointed toward the band’s future was the mostly instrumental opening track “I Zimbra.” Without it, nothing would have prepared anyone for the landmark Remain In Light (1980), where the band as previously known nearly disappears, to be replaced by a polyrhythmic hydra. This album (inspired in large part by the recordings of Nigerian music legend Fela Kuti) basically invented the subgenre of rock/world-beat fusion, and yet has never itself been equalled in critical esteem. Which makes it all the more interesting that all three of the gang argue that this record, for all its universal critical adulation, is significantly flawed: the back end of the album is glutted with forgettable music and failed experiments. (“The Overload” = interesting in theory, pointless in practice.) But who cares, as Jeff says, when the first half of it is so perfect? The gang spends time discussing every song on Remain In Light (except for “Born Under Punches,” a fantastic song that we sadly could only spare a lone “TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANDS!” for), but it’s “Once In A Lifetime” and the epochal “The Great Curve” that naturally come in for the most praise. If Scot is right that Remain In Light is not the place for neophytes to begin with Talking Heads because of its density and weirdness (and he is), this is nevertheless an album that all serious music lovers owe it to themselves to hear. But then the same could be said for all four of Talking Heads’ early albums. Hiatus and Return: The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues and Stop Making Sense In 1983, the Heads finally returned with Speaking In Tongues. Shorn of Eno and now self-producing, this represented their commercial and critical peak, although in retrospect all three of the gang agree it hasn’t aged as well. Still, this is Talking Heads working in a deep art-funk mode, with songs like “Making Flippy-Floppy” and “Girlfriend Is Better” rolling through oceanic grooves (“Burning Down The House” was inspired by Parliament Funkadelic and sounds like it). The gang is also less effusive in its praise of the critically beloved “live” album Stop Making Sense (1984) than most others: the word live is in scare quotes back there for a reason (everything was re-recorded in the studio except for the drums, pretty much) and all agree that it works far better as a visual experience (you really need to SEE David Byrne in his “big suit”) than as a purely auditory one. What Happened? Little Creatures, True Stories and Naked Finale |
Apr 09, 2018 |
Episode 29: Terry Teachout / The Band
02:37:54
Scot and Jeff talk to Terry Teachout about The Band. Introducing the Band Terry’s Music Pick: The Band Terry talks about how, as he went on to become a gigging jazz bassist in his college days and afterwards, he returned to much of the rock he had absorbed earlier to find it trite and ephemeral….but what had not aged for him was The Band’s deeply authentic take on the American tradition. Jeff comes from a much later generation (born in 1980, a tail-end Gen X’er) but feels exactly the same way despite telling a different story, one about being exposed to The Band (simultaneously with Dylan) by his father, who was a Sixties folkie at heart. All agree about how preternaturally uncanny The Band’s skill was at creating music and lyrics that evoked the true, beating heart of the American historical experience — music both current and modern, yet inexplicably timeless — despite the legendary irony that 4/5ths of the group were actually Canadians. From the Hawks to The Basement Tapes: The Pre-History What happened next is truly the stuff of music legend, and yet the legend is actual history: working as Dylan’s backing band during the moment of his most transcendent cultural importance, they participated in the recordings of the Blonde On Blonde (1966) era, and then went on tour with him as he visited the United Kingdom and played one of the most infamously confrontational series of concerts in the history of modern music. The protest-music lovers and Trotskyists roundly booed Dylan and The Band on a nightly basis for “selling out” to electrified music — “JUDAS!” — even as they were churning out a miasma of sound that still sounds to this day like (to quote Dylan himself) “thin white mercury music.” Levon Helm actually bowed out of the tour, tired of the brickbats he’d received on Dylan’s American gigs and unwilling to play music being denounced as the second coming of the man who sold out Christ. (Adding to the legend of the group, he ducked out of the music business entirely and went to work on an oil rig in Louisiana.) The true story of The Band as an independent entity (outside of Levon & The Hawks) really begins after this point, when Dylan crashed out of the music scene in 1967 (nominally in a motorcycle accident, but more accurately in a bid to escape from the pressure of the unanswerable expectations placed upon him) and began recording demos with The Band in the basement of a curiously-colored house in Woodstock, NY. These of course became The Basement Tapes (perhaps the most famous bootleg recording of all time, before they saw an adulterated release in 1975 and a full and proper one in 2015). Jeff talks about how Robbie Robertson must have been influenced by watching Dylan come in, day after day, with traditional ballads, obscure covers, and then finally with new lyrics that were entirely out-of-step with the prevailing psychedelic trends of the time. (The way he set Richard Manuel’s “Tears Of Rage” to a lyrical theme of parents heartbroken by the callousness of an ungrateful daughter is the quintessence of this.) We Can Talk About It Now History As Mystery N.B. Jeff and Terry both agree that Joan Baez’s (more well-known, hit single) version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” is on the shortlist of the Most Benightedly Awful Covers Of All Time. See The Band with the Stage Fright The Wilderness This was clearly evident than in their next release, Moondog Matinee (1973), an album of “classic covers.” It has long been Jeff’s personal thesis than unless your name is Bryan Ferry, the recording of a “covers album” is an admission of creative exhaustion (see: Bowie, Costello, etc.), but what is most depressing about Moondog Matinee is the fact that The Band should have actually nailed this kind of foray: who better to delve into the deep taproot of American rock culture than a group seemingly to the manor born? And yet so many of these covers are merely passable. The one exception, as Terry is at great pains to stipulate, is their version of “Mystery Train,” the classic ’50s rocker about the inarticulable loss of death (first made famous by Elvis, with a hundred subsequent takes to follow). Terry argues that, at least on this one song, The Band knew they had come up with something special, not only in terms of arrangement but in terms of performance and singing. And Terry is right. At a loss for inspiration during this period, The Band fell back upon something comforting and familiar: working with Bob Dylan and supporting him as his backing band. A proper discussion of Dylan’s Planet Wave (1973) and the subsequent tour album Before The Flood (1974) will have to wait until Political Beats’ inevitable Dylan episode, but for the present moment the gang agrees that Robbie, Rick, Richard, Garth and Levon provide stunningly sympathetic accompaniment to Bob on the record, no more obviously so than on its most famous song “Forever Young.” Northern Lights/Last Waltz The gang dispenses quickly with Islands (1976) a contractually-required record which feels likes the odds-‘n’-sods outtakes release that it is, but inevitably must spend time on The Last Waltz, the 1977 biopic/soundtrack that nominally was meant to herald The Band’s end as a touring act, but (rather obviously, if you’ve seen the film) also ended up heralding the end of The Band. The gang gives it a surprisingly mixed review given its critical reputation — the sort of ambivalent review that could only come from serious fans of The Band’s music and lyrics, as opposed to their reified ‘Hollywood’ myth — but all happily admit that some of these Last-Concert-Ever performances really are among the finest of their career…in particular, Levon drumming and singing his heart out on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Finale |
Apr 02, 2018 |
Episode 28: Mark Davis / Paul McCartney and Wings
02:39:36
Scot and Jeff talk to Mark Davis about Paul McCartney and Wings. |
Mar 25, 2018 |
Episode 27: The Cover Version Special
02:17:47
Introducing the Band Instead of a formal set of show notes like we would do for a typical episode, we feel it’s better to let this show’s surprises unfold themselves organically, but to give a general sense of how the show is structured, we begin by discussing Peter Gabriel, then move to covers of Beatles songs. Then: Al Green, coming and going; Motown; covers done with toy instruments; bands that jam econo; repurposed late ’60s pop; the great singer-songwriter book; total demolition/reconstruction cover versions; The Jimi Hendrix Problem; and finally our last few favorites that didn’t really fit into any category but just had to be cited to. Throughout the show we refer to the picks of our former guests, but for posterity’s sake, here are the picks they submitted to us: – SEAN TRENDE: The Gourds, “Gin & Juice”; Van Halen, “You Really Got Me”; Dwight Yoakum, “Ring Of Fire” – TIM MILLER: Fugees, “Killing Me Softly”; Gary Jules, “Mad World”; Talking Heads, “Take Me To The River – JANE COASTON: Nine Inch Nails, “Physical”; Soft Cell, “Tainted Love” – DAN MCLAUGHLIN: Aretha Franklin, “Respect”; The Beatles, “Rock & Roll Music”; Bruce Springsteen, “I Want You (live 2/5/75)” – JAMES POULOS: Helmet, “Army Of Me”; Creedence Clearwater Revival, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”; The Byrds, “Mr. Tambourine Man” – MARK HEMINGWAY: Jimi Hendrix, “All Along The Watchtower”; Eef Barzelay, “Faithfully”; Bettye Lavette, “Love Reign O’er Me” – PHILIP WEGMANN: Jimi Hendrix, “All Along the Watchtower”; Johnny Cash, “Hurt”; Jeff Buckley, “Hallelujah” – JAY COST: Joe Cocker, “Feelin’ Alright”; The Band, “Don’t You Do It”; The Rolling Stones, “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” – MATT WELCH: Jimi Hendrix, “All Along The Watchtower”; The Beach Boys, “Sloop John B”; Jeff Buckley, “Hallelujah” – ANTHONY FISHER: Merry Clayton, “Gimme Shelter”; Amy Winehouse & Mark Ronson, “Valerie”; Nirvana, “Ain’t It A Shame” – EZEKIEL KWEKU: The Slits, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”; McCoy Tyner, “My Favorite Things”; Woven Hand, “Ain’t No Sunshine” – STEPHEN MILLER: Jose Gonzales, “Heartbeats”; Noel Gallagher, “To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have A Nice Time)”; The Flaming Lips, “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” – ERIC GARCIA: Jimi Hendrix, “All Along The Watchtower”; The Ramones, “Baby I Love You”; Emmylou Harris, “For No One” – BRUCE ED WALKER: Santana, “She’s Not There”; Patti Smith, “Gloria”; Was Not Was, “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” – JOHN J. MILLER: Calexico, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”; The Ataris, “Boys Of Summer”; The Afghan Whigs, “My World Is Empty/I Hear a Symphony (live medley)” – KAROL MARKOWICZ: Sinead O’Connor, “Night Nurse”; White Stripes, “One More Cup Of Coffee”; Jeff Buckley, “The Other Woman” – JULIE ROGINSKY: Derek & The Dominoes, “Little Wing”; Led Zeppelin, “Traveling Riverside Blues”; After The Fire, “Der Kommissar” – ROBERT DEAN LURIE: Afghan Whigs, “Band Of Gold”; Bryan Ferry & Todd Terkel, “Johnny and Mary”; Isaac Hayes, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” – JAY CARUSO: Johnny Cash, “Hurt”; Stevie Ray Vaughn, “Voodoo Chile”; The Rolling Stones, “Not Fade Away” |
Mar 19, 2018 |
Episode 26: Jay Caruso / Foo Fighters
02:11:37
Jeff and Scot talk to Jay Caruso about Foo Fighters. Introducing the Band Jay’s Musical Pick: Foo Fighters From mere colour to real shape: Foo Fighters and The Colour and the Shape The big hosannahs are reserved for 1997’s The Colour And The Shape, however. Suddenly the Foo Fighters are an actual band: Grohl recruited the rhythm section of the newly-defunct Sunny Day Real Estate and added ex-Nirvana (touring version) guitarist Pat Smear — but then subtracted the Sunny Day drummer to re-record his tracks himself! — and came up with one of the finest albums of the late ’90s, and one of the most long-lasting as well. We’ve collectively forgotten the vast majority of the alt-rock/hard-rock acts from that era, but Shape lives on, all the way from “Dolls” to “New Way Home.” Jeff adores the whiplash contrasts of “My Poor Brain” and the earned anthemicism of “My Hero,” while Scot and Jay both single out “Everlong.” Scot and Jeff strongly disagree about the merits of “Hey, Johnny Park!” (“in my notes, there’s a big equals-sign saying ‘Goo Goo Dolls'” — Jeff), but there is universal agreement about the utterly consistent greatness of the rest of Colour And The Shape, whether it’s “Monkey Wrench,” “Up In Arms,” or “Wind Up.” Something Left to Lose The band famously dislikes the follow-up album One By One (2002), though Jeff (the newbie listener) actually thinks it’s an unfair rap. The Foo Fighters re-expand back to a four-piece by adding Chris Shiflett on guitar, and come up with two radio-dominant singles in “All My Life” and “Times Like These” (you know it as “oh…I’m a new day rising” song). But while Scot, Jay and Jeff all agree that the back-end of this album is sludgy and unmemorable, Jeff really thinks “Tired Of You” and “Halo” are excellent songs. Foo Fighters: In a Folk Mood Patience Rewarded There was some disagreement about the merits of Patience. But none of the gang disagrees about Wasting Light(2009), an album so shockingly great, so late in the Foo Fighters’ career, that both Jay and Jeff argue that buttresses any argument to be made about them as a truly great band. Back to basics, recording analog in Grohl’s garage with Butch Vig behind the board, Wasting Light is a brutally powerful tour of everything that made the Foos worth hearing up until this point: naggingly memorable hooks, overwhelming (yet still well-measured) sonic attack, and an appealing lack of bombast. “Rope” comes in for major praise by Scot and Jay; Jay and Jeff both salivate over the Bob Mould collaboration of “Dear Rosemary”; everyone loves “Arlandria”; and “I Should Have Known” is the song about Kurt that music journos had been accusing Dave Grohl of secretly writing for 14 years. Sonic Highways to Concrete And Gold Finale |
Mar 12, 2018 |
Episode 25: Ezekiel Kweku / Talk Talk
02:17:57
Scot and Jeff talk to Ezekiel Kweku about Talk Talk. Introducing the Band Ezekiel’s Music Pick: Talk Talk Ezekiel argues, intriguingly, that Talk Talk isn’t necessarily a band for everyone; he doesn’t mean that in the condescending hipster sense, rather in the sense that their music begins in one niche genre (early ’80s New Romantic/postpunk synthpop) and ends in another (early ’90s visionary jazzy post-rock), so it isn’t exactly Top 40 hit material. But Jeff, ever-voluble proselytizer that he always is, disagrees: this music should be for everyone, he thinks, and if he can introduce just one more person to The Colour Of Spring or Spirit Of Eden, then he’s done God’s good work. Jeff also notes that Ezekiel (who has a background as a DJ) made a fantastic, beautifully sequenced mix of artists influenced by (or influencing) Talk Talk called “Watershed,” and we recommend it heartily to you. All You Do to Me is Talk Talk: the Synth-pop Years But while the gang agrees that The Party’s Over (1982) is merely adequate as a debut — halting, a bit chintzy, and dated aside from the still-memorable hit single “Talk Talk” and “Today” — they also agree that its follow-up It’s My Life (1984) is a major leap forward. Unless you, intrepid listener, are a big post-rock/art-rock fan, you know Talk Talk primarily through No Doubt’s cover of their hit “It’s My Life” (which Ezekiel still rates as one of their best songs), but the ominously nagging “Dum Dum Girl” and “Tomorrow Started” (where Jeff notes the ‘hook’ is merely a two-note guitar, oscillating up and down) are every bit as good. And “Renee” is, as Ezekiel points out, the first moment where Mark Hollis embraces the idea of ‘space’ and quietness within his productions. Chameleon Day: Talk Talk Discovers the Colour of Spring The Rainbow: Spirit Of Eden After the Flood; Laughing Stock and Mark Hollis Mark Hollis (1998), delivered years after Talk Talk had been formally dissolved and almost as if by surprise, is the sound of Mark Hollis almost consciously trying to fade away, and daring you to follow along (Ezekiel: “if you put it on in the background, you can easily forget it’s playing”). None of which should be taken as criticism. Finale |
Mar 05, 2018 |
Episode 24: Eric Garcia / AC/DC
02:10:35
Jeff and Scot talk to Eric Garcia about AC/DC. Introducing the Band Eric’s Musical Pick: AC/DC The Aussie Years: High Voltage, T.N.T. and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Everyone is much more positive about the band’s second album, T.N.T. (1975), where the band scores their first real classic in “It’s A Long Way To The Top” (featuring Bon on bagpipes) and generally sounds ten times more competent and self-assured. Only the rather stifled production (Jeff says “Live Wire” sounds like it was recorded in a tube sock) and a few obnoxiously repetitive songs — to wit, Scott’s ode to venereal disease “The Jack” — let it down. Scot loves the ‘boogie’ sound on this album – not quite the blazing metallic hard rock of their later career, still more openly bluesy. Eric draws attention to the interplay between Malcolm and Angus as guitar players, weaving in and out of one another all over this record, and particular on the title track (oi! oi! oi!). While T.N.T. eventually gained international release outside of Australia (in an adulterated version that was, confusingly, called High Voltage and included two songs from the debut record), their 3rd album was rejected by American record executives and kept away from U.S. audiences. The irony is this record was Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976), the record where many believe AC/DC really put it all together for the first time. (Certainly, most readers will be familiar with the fascinatingly charismatic grunting of the title track.) Scot avers that the record company might have had their reasons, not only because the album is still a bit unformed (with a few generic tracks), but also because it’s a deeply, deeply sleazy record, with songs like “The Squealer” about which the less you understand lyrically, the better. Jeff agrees but nevertheless cannot help loving wonderfully stupid dirty jokes like “Big Balls,” which is pretty much about exactly what you think it is. (Jeff declares Bon Scott to be “the Leonardo da Vinci of singing about balls.”) Let There Be Rock: AC/DC Find Their Sound and are Fully Unleashed Scot thinks that 1978’s Powerage might even be better, from its delightfully silly cover on downward. One of the few AC/DC albums that gets away from goofy sex songs and clowning around for more hardscrabble serious lyrical concerns by Bon Scott, the Young brothers match it with an all-out guitar assault on songs like “Riff Raff” and “Down Payment Blues.” There isn’t a single bad song on Powerage, and indeed Scot claims it as the best AC/DC album. To Hell and Black Again Jeff makes it a point to salute what a fantastic rock singer Bon Scott finally became on Highway To Hell, a vast difference than his tentative beginnings back in 1975. This made his death in the beginning of 1980 that much more of a loss for the band – he was cut down in his prime. The man AC/DC found to replace him, Brian Johnson, was a freak of nature vocally: capable of shrieking the highest notes of the male range, at top volume, and in key. And the result was Back In Black (1980), an album that saw AC/DC recovering from the death of Bon Scott without missing a single beat. This is their most famous and best-selling album, with their single most famous song (“You Shook Me All Night Long”), and nothing the gang can say about it is going to change your opinion of it. But the gang presses on anyway, because they love the dickens out of this from start to finish. Jeff explains that Back In Black is the most *ridiculous* rock album of all time, a riotously funny joke of insanely extreme hyper-riffage, hyper-sexuality, and hyper-activity that directly inspired Spinal Tap (“Let Me Put My Love Into You” is simultaneously one of the most absurdly on-the-nose lyrics in history and an amazing hard-rock song). Eric loves “Hell’s Bells” and Scot thinks “Back In Black” (the title track) may be one of the band’s most effective moments ever. You probably own this album already. If you don’t, you probably should. AC/DC’s Lost Decade, then Sudden Revival on The Razor’s Edge Nobody wants to spend much time on Blow Up Your Video (1988) either, but everyone is surprised by AC/DC’s big comeback The Razor’s Edge (1990), which doesn’t rise to the same heights as Back In Black (nothing ever could), but still has “Thunderstruck,” for cryin’ out loud. The Final Years Finale |
Feb 19, 2018 |
Episode 23: John J. Miller / The Police
01:56:35
Scot and Jeff talk to John J. Miller about The Police. Introducing the Band John’s Musical Pick: The Police Faux-punks: Outlandos D’Amour White Reggae: Reggatta De Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta Then it’s Jeff’s turn in the barrel as he goes to bat for Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) as one of The Police’s greatest records while John and Scot disagree. They find much of the music on this one to be forced and generic, whereas Jeff considers it the fullest expression of the great Robert Fripp-like sound that Andy Summers brought to the band with his guitarwork. “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” may occasionally be mocked for its title, but Jeff hails it as a postpunk marvel, with “When The World Is Running Down” and “Driven To Tears” not far behind. Scot salutes the peppy ska of “Canary In A Coalmine” while otherwise downing on what he perceives as the increasing ponderousness of Sting’s socially aware lyrics. Bring on the Horns: Ghost In The Machine Ending on Top: Synchronicity The gang wraps up by discussing The Police’s ill-fated 1986 remake of “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and Sting’s less-than-impressive solo career. While each of them can identify songs from Sting’s post-Police days that they enjoy, they agree that by and large it lacks the urgency or importance of his work with Copeland and Summers (Jeff identifies one exception, the immensely moving “All This Time”). Finale |
Feb 12, 2018 |
Episode 22: Eli Lake / Steely Dan
01:56:53
Introducing the Band Eli‘s Musical pick: Steely Dan From Brill to Can’t Buy A Thrill: the formative years Steely Dan tries to be an actual band, then thinks better of it: Countdown To Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic The transition into studio obsessionalism: Katy Lied and The Royal Scam Aja and Gaucho: from the perfection of jazz-rock fusion to the drawn-out hangover Aftermath and reunion: Fagen’s The Nightfly and the reunion albums Finale |
Feb 05, 2018 |
Episode 21: Bruce Walker / The Monkees
01:48:15
Scot and Jeff talk to Bruce Walker about The Monkees. Introducing the Band Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Bruce Walker, policy advisor for the Heartland Institute, contributor to The Federalist and host of the Acton Institute’s “Upstream” pop-culture podcast. Follow Bruce on Twitter at @BruceEdWalker. Bruce’s Musical Pick: The Monkees Bruce was there from the beginning, listening to them as a kid in the late ’60s, while Jeff and Scot (who are roughly the same age) remember them from their late ’80s revival era. All are pretty emphatic that this was a pretty great band, and are entirely uninterested in questions of “authenticity” that mean even less in the modern era than they did back in the ’60s, despite noting that the band had managed to wrestle complete creative control away from their creators after a mere year into their career. The Prefab Four: The Monkees and More Of The Monkees But so what? These are great albums. The gang rolls its eyes at schlock like “I Wanna Be Free” or “Gonna Buy Me A Dog,” sure, but you’d have to have a heart of stone not to enjoy “Last Train To Clarksville” or “Take A Giant Step,” or the assured proto-country-rock of Nesmith’s “Sweet Young Thing” and “Papa Gene’s Blues.” And More Of The Monkees (an album, as Scot points out, that the band didn’t even know was being released until they saw it on store shelves) is even better. “I’m A Believer” is arguably the best song Neil Diamond ever wrote (Bruce and Jeff want you to check out the Robert Wyatt cover version!), but that’s only the loss-leader; “Sometime In The Morning” is a lovely ballad, “She” and “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)” are incredibly catchy could-have-been singles, Nesmith’s “The Kind Of Girl I Could Love” again signals his country allegiances, and “Steppin’ Stone” is so punkish that it didn’t sound out of place being covered by the Sex Pistols. Masters of Their Own Destiny: Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones As good as (and as important a declaration of independence) Headquarters was, the gang agrees that it’s not a patch on the remarkable Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. (1967), which the gang agrees should be regarded as one of the classic albums of the Sixties. Scot laments that people don’t recognize this record as one of the greats of its era, citing to Nesmith’s drug-pusher ode “Salesman” and intense psychedelic hysteria of “Words.” Bruce, Scot and Jeff all align on Nesmith’s “What Am I Doin’ Hangin’ ‘Round?” as one of the best songs of the Monkees’ entire career and one of the truly great founding tracks of the entire country-rock genre. Jeff amuses himself by pointing out to people how pivotal the Monkees were, via Nesmith, in laying the groundwork for country-rock that other bands like the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers later took credit for. But he’s got bigger fish to fry on Pisces, raving about Nesmith’s other amazing contributions to the record, namely the pastel sci-fi of “The Door Into Summer” and the heavy rock workout of “Love Is Only Sleeping.” And with all of that said, there’s still “Pleasant Valley Sunday” (one of the band’s finest singles), and “Goin’ Down” (their best B-side and a favorite of Scot’s). Buy this album. Drifting Apart: The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees and Head The Birds should have marked obvious beginning of the Monkees’ decline phase, and it would have were it not for the singular Head (1968), the soundtrack to the Jack Nicholson-written/Bob Rafelson-directed Monkees movie of the same name. Jeff takes this time to make a serious pitch for the film Head as a bizarro landmark of counterculture cinema and a key signpost on the way to Easy Rider (which is not really a stretch given the people who made it), but he also praises the album as nearly The Monkees’ best despite the fact that it contains only six actual songs glued together by sound collaged excerpts from the film assembled by Jack Nicholson. The music on this record is, quite simply, among the best The Monkees ever recorded. (In the case of “As We Go Along,” it is among the best recorded by any band during the 1960s, period.) But the manner in which this music and sound is all assembled into a 29-minute-long record, with all of its cleverly self-aware juxtapositions and recursions, turns it into one of the more weirdly compelling (and inexplicably thought-provoking) cultural artifacts of the immediate post-hippie era. Compiled at the precise moment when the liminal innocence of the Summer Of Love was curdling over into the dark cynicism of the “1968 generation,” Head is that least expected and least comprehensible of things: a genuinely profound cultural statement from The Monkees, of all people. Denouement: Instant Replay, Present, Changes and the Reunion Albums In subsequent years there have been several reunions, both partial and complete, of the band. The one the gang is most interested in singling out as (almost shockingly, after all these years) a legitimately fantastic album is 2016’s Good Times!. This is no mere cash-in, but a collection of remarkable songs brought to the band by everyone from Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller to XTC’s Andy Partridge and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo. People: it will shock you how great a record this is. Finale |
Jan 29, 2018 |
Episode 20: Guy Benson / Billy Joel
02:12:01
Scot and Jeff talk to Guy Benson about Billy Joel. |
Jan 22, 2018 |
Episode 19: Karol Markowicz / Pulp
01:42:56
Scot and Jeff talk to Karol Markowicz about Pulp. Introducing the Band Karol’s musical pick: Pulp Ten Years in the Wilderness: Pulp 1981-1992 Pulp Put it Together: the Gift Recordings and His ‘N’ Hers Becoming Cultural Icons: Different Class and “Common People” The Sound of Someone Losing the Plot? This Is Hardcore Pulp Crashes Out at Dawn: We Love Life Finale |
Jan 15, 2018 |
Episode 18: Julie Roginsky / Led Zeppelin
01:37:54
Scot and Jeff talk to Fox News’s Julie Roginsky about Led Zeppelin. |
Dec 25, 2017 |
Episode 17: Stephen Miller / Oasis
02:08:38
Scot and Jeff talk to Fox News’s Stephen Miller about Oasis. Introducing the Band Stephen’s Musical Pick: Oasis “The band you were waiting for your entire life”: Definitely Maybe and the Creation of Britpop KEY TRACKS: “Rock ‘N Roll Star” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Columbia” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Live Forever” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Supersonic” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Cigarettes & Alcohol” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Digsy’s Dinner” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Slide Away” (Definitely Maybe, 1994); “Whatever” (A-side of single, 1994) First Britain, then the world: Oasis conquer the globe with (What’s The Story) Morning Glory KEY TRACKS: “She’s Electric” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Roll With It” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Don’t Look Back In Anger” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Cast No Shadow” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Some Might Say” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Wonderwall” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995); “Champagne Supernova” ((What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, 1995) The Masterplan: Oasis as one of the great B-side acts of rock history No understanding of Oasis’ career makes even the slightest bit of sense unless their stunningly impressive passel of otherwise unavailable B-sides are considered, which is what the gang does now. Many (but not all, by any means) were eventually released on the 1999 compilation The Masterplan, and that is probably the best place to collect most of the songs they reference, but Jeff loves the acoustic version of “Up In The Sky” (which he dopily misnames as the similarly titled “Underneath The Sky” during the show) and Stephen picks “D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman” as one of his five favorite Oasis songs — and you’ll have to go find the singles or the deluxe reissues if you want to hear those. Please listen to every one of these songs. KEY TRACKS: “Up In The Sky (acoustic version)” (B-side of “Live Forever,” 1994), “D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?” (B-side of “Shakermaker,” 1994); “I Am The Walrus (live June 1994)” (B-side of “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” 1994); “Half The World Away” (B-side of “Whatever,” 1994); “Talk Tonight” (B-side of ‘Some Might Say,” 1995); “Acquiesce” (B-side of “Some Might Say,” 1995); “Rockin’ Chair” (B-side of “Roll With It,” 1995); “The Masterplan” (B-side of “Wonderwall,” 1995) Popping the Balloon: the Monumental Self-Indulgence of Be Here Now Jeff notes that the only thing missing from the “rock excess” car-in-a-swimming-pool cover of Be Here Now(1998) is the giant bag of cocaine that clearly fueled the poor decisions made during this album’s recording sessions. (Scot: “it’s there, you just can’t see it because it’s already up their noses.”) Be Here Now is usually treated as one of most legendary own-goals in rock history: the universally-anticipated follow-up to one of the most beloved albums of the last 40 years that ended up as a spectacularly self-indulgent, flatulently long (72 minutes!) flop that failed to yield a single song the band considered good enough to put on their later “best-of” compilation Stop The Clocks (2006). And yet! The gang is willing to defend some aspects of Be Here Now. Yes, it’s hideously overlong — five of its eleven songs are over 7 minutes long, and not a single one is under 4m20s — and yes, the mix sounds like it was done amidst a blizzard of cocaine and whiskey. But there’s something interesting going with nearly every one of these songs, Scot, Jeff, and Stephen each come up with their attempt to ‘redo’ Be Here Now to make it palatable, but it’s Stephen’s (cut a bunch of songs and use some of the songs foolishly already given away for non-LP B-sides) that most tracks with Noel Gallagher’s own alt-history take on it. Also, Stephen reads from Noel’s Gallagher’s self-written edits to his own Wikipedia entry. KEY TRACKS: “D’You Know What I Mean?” (Be Here Now, 1998); “My Big Mouth” (Be Here Now, 1998); “Stand By Me” (Be Here Now, 1998); “Don’t Go Away” (Be Here Now, 1998); “All Around The World” (Be Here Now, 1998); “Stay Young” (B-side of “D’You Know What I Mean?,” 1998) Digging Out from the Mess: Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants and Heathen Chemistry KEY TRACKS: “F***in’ In The Bushes” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, 2000); “Go Let It Out” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, 2000); “Put Yer Money Where Your Mouth Is” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, 2000); “Gas Panic!” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, 2000); “Where Did It All Go Wrong?” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, 2000); “The Hindu Times” (Heathen Chemistry, 2002); “Songbird” (Heathen Chemistry, 2002); “She Is Love” (Heathen Chemistry, 2002); “Little By Little” (Heathen Chemistry, 2002) The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life (If You’re an American): Don’t Believe The Truth, Dig Out Your Soul, and Oasis’ Collapse This leads up to the collapse of the band (short version: Liam behaving like a prat again, Noel finally saying “that’s it, I’ve had enough”), and therefore to wrap things up, the gang has a discussion about the elephant in the room: the wildly compelling, tabloid-famous sibling rivalry between Noel and Liam Gallagher. Is this the most entertaining sibling rivalry in all of rock history? (Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Black Crowes, and the Beach Boys all have compelling candidacies as well.) That gang thinks so, if only because both Liam and Noel are spectacularly fun (and extremely vulgar) interviews, but also because unlike, say, Tom and John Fogerty (who were truly estranged), you always get the sense that one day Noel and Liam will patch things up…and then promptly fall out with one another again next week. KEY TRACKS: “Turn Up The Sun” (Don’t Believe The Truth, 2005); “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” (Don’t Believe The Truth, 2005); “Lyla” (Don’t Believe The Truth, 2005); “The Importance Of Being Idle” (Don’t Believe The Truth, 2005); “Bag It Up” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2008); “The Turning” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2008); “The Shock Of The Lightning” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2008); “I’m Outta Time” (Dig Out Your Soul, 2008) Finale |
Dec 18, 2017 |
Episode 16: Josh Jordan / Pearl Jam
02:23:13
Scot and Jeff talk to Josh Jordan about Pearl Jam. Introducing the Band Josh’s Musical Pick: Pearl Jam Ten, Vs., and Pearl Jam’s role in the Seattle grunge scene Perhaps surprisingly, the gang isn’t particularly enthusiastic about Ten, which most casual fans regard as Pearl Jam’s greatest album (it is certainly their most famous, one that nationally defined the sound of the grunge revolution). Jeff violently hates its quasi-hair metal anthems (even “Even Flow,” a great song, sounds like sludge on the record). He considers “Black” to be faux-sensitive tripe and is authentically offended by the terribleness of “Deep,” though he relents when it comes to “Jeremy” and the straight ahead dash of “Once.” Scot isn’t much more complimentary, noting that so much of PJ’s music is compulsively listenable but he never feels the need to return to Ten. Even Josh isn’t an enormous fan, though he defends many of these songs as live juggernauts (particularly “Release” and “Porch”). Josh notes that the album’s production (which feels more “late Eighties” than grunge) is the primary culprit, and that producer Brendan O’Brien (who joins the band on Vs.) was a savior for the group. The gang is vastly more positive about Vs. (1993), an album that looms nearly as large in the legend of early ’90s grunge as Ten and which is approximately twenty times better-sounding and more consistent. Jeff calls this their “classic rock album”: Brendan O’Brien’s crisp production blasts away all of the chintzy reverb heard on Ten and the band comes up with a set of massively catchy, memorable hard-rock tunes. Jeff prefers the remarkably sensitive lyrical conceit of “Daughter” (Vedder writing from the point of view of a young girl) and the hilarity of “Glorified G” — if you’re gonna work political messages into your music, this is the way to do it: with a smile. Scot is all about the titanic chorus of “Dissident” and the propulsiveness of drummer Dave Abbruzzese’s “Go.” And as the gang remarks on how an album with so much cursing on it managed to get flood-the-zone radio airplay, Josh tells the story of trying to convince his dad that Eddie Vedder wasn’t singing exactly what he is actually singing on “Leash” by futilely showing him the CD’s censored lyric sheet. KEY TRACKS: “Release” (Ten, 1991); “Even Flow (single version)” (A-side of single, originally from Ten, 1991); “Jeremy” (Ten, 1991); “Alive” (Ten, 1991); “Once” (Ten, 1991); “State Of Love And Trust” (Singles – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1992); “Go” (Vs., 1993); “Animal” (Vs., 1993); “Dissident” (Vs., 1993); “Daughter” (Vs., 1993); “Glorified G” (Vs., 1993); “Leash” (Vs., 1993); “Rearviewmirror” (Vs., 1993) Pearl Jam revolts against their fame and nearly implodes: Vitalogy and No Code Perhaps the real problem with Vitalogy was that the band was at war with itself; this was the era where Vedder was forcefully asserting himself as the leader and lead songwriter of a group he had invited to join a mere four years earlier, and it shows up not only in the strangeness of the record but in the songwriting credits, a full 50% of which are his alone. Vedder forced out the band’s drummer Dave Abbruzzese (for buying the wrong car, more or less — not a joke), incited a war with Ticketmaster that was doomed to failure, and forced Pearl Jam to take a hard left-turn into weirdness with their next record, No Code (1996). Not that Jeff is complaining, though! He loves No Code, considering it not only Pearl Jam’s most underrated album but also one of their two best. There’s exactly one “classic PJ”-style rocker on No Code (the roaring “Hail, Hail,” which careens through a truly innovative chord progression in its riff/chorus) and the rest is a mixture of eastern-tinged mysticism, tribal beats from new drummer Jack Irons, soft electro-acoustic ballads, and surly, ostentatiously uncommercial punk and hard-rock songs. Lord, is it ever a delight. Jeff cites the entire first half of the album, but particularly salutes “Sometimes” (where PJ flips the script by opening on an ominously soft note), “Who You Are,” and “In My Tree”: four minutes of luminously rapturous catharsis. Scot points to the sequence of “In My Tree,” “Smile” and “Off He Goes” as the linchpin of the album: if you like them, you’ll like this record. Josh remembers radio DJs playing “Who You Are” as the leading single of No Code and making fun of how terrible it was (how little they knew); he suspects Pearl Jam was daring people not to buy this record, which they still did…but tellingly, this was Pearl Jam’s last #1 album during the CD era. KEY TRACKS: “Not For You” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Spin The Black Circle” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Corduroy” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Last Exit” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Nothingman” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Better Man” (Vitalogy, 1994); “Long Road (live from The Concert For Heroes, September 21st, 2001)” (originally from Merkinball EP, 1995); “Sometimes” (No Code, 1996); “Hail, Hail” (No Code, 1996); “Off He Goes” (No Code, 1996); “Who You Are” (No Code, 1996); “In My Tree” (No Code, 1996) Pearl Jam learn to live with themselves, and with their fame: Yield, Binaural and Riot Act Binaural (2000) and Riot Act (2002) are records that divide the gang somewhat: Jeff likes both of these records quite a bit, but understands that they are flawed; what he appreciates is that even the songs that don’t work fail to work in interesting ways. Still, he singles out “Light Years” on Binaural as one of Pearl Jam’s most moving ballads. Scot thinks that Binaural is too compromised by failed experiments, but favors “Of The Girl,” as an experiment that works extremely well. Josh’s choice is “Parting Ways.” Riot Acthas much the same problem, but it kicks off with one of Jeff’s favorite pieces in the ghostly “Can’t Keep.” Jeff also ruefully admits to enjoying the anti-Dubya philippic “Bu$hleaguer” for the creativity of its music alone and wishes “Thumbing My Way” had closed the record. Scot wonders why “I Am Mine” isn’t more well-loved than it is. Josh is more negative on Riot Act than the others, citing “Get Right” and “Help Help” as being particularly obnoxious. Between the discussion of Binaural and Riot Act the gang (and Josh in particular, veteran of countless Pearl Jam concerts) takes time to discuss the band’s live act and their continuing durability to the present day. This was the era where the band actually released every single show from their 2000 and 2003 tours commercially so that fans could get a professionally-recorded souvenir. They also debate which of Pearl Jam’s many drummers was their best. “Faithfull” (Yield, 1998); “Brain Of J.” (Yield, 1998); “Wishlist” (Yield, 1998); “No Way” (Yield, 1998); “Given To Fly” (Yield, 1998); “In Hiding” (Yield, 1998); “Low Light” (Yield, 1998); “Breakerfall” (Binaural, 2000); “Of The Girl” (Binaural, 2000); “Light Years” (Binaural, 2000); “Nothing As It Seems” (Binaural, 2000); “Insignificance” (Binaural, 2000); “Parting Ways” (Binaural, 2000); “Can’t Keep” (Riot Act, 2002); “Love Boat Captain” (Riot Act, 2002); “I Am Mine” (Riot Act, 2002); “Thumbing My Way” (Riot Act, 2002); “Bu$hleaguer” (Riot Act, 2002); “All Or None” (Riot Act, 2002) Pearl Jam in the 21st Century: Pearl Jam, Backspacer, and Lightning Bolt KEY TRACKS: “World Wide Suicide” (Pearl Jam, 2006); “Gone” (Pearl Jam, 2006); “Inside Job” (Pearl Jam, 2006); “Johnny Guitar” (Backspacer, 2009); “Amongst The Waves” (Backspacer, 2009); “Unthought Known” (Backspacer, 2009); “Sirens” (Lightning Bolt, 2013); “Lightning Bolt” (Lightning Bolt, 2013); “Infallible” (Lightning Bolt, 2013); “Sleeping By Myself” (Lightning Bolt, 2013); “Yellow Ledbetter” (B-side of “Jeremy,” 1992) Finale |
Dec 11, 2017 |
Episode 15: Philip Wegmann / Creedence Clearwater Revival
01:21:50
Scot and Jeff talk to Philip Wegmann about Creedence Clearwater Revival. Introducing the Band Philip’s Musical Pick: Creedence Clearwater Revival As for Philip, he describes the joy of discovering CCR as a kid from downstate rural Indiana, listening to honest and plainspoken songs that spoke to his experiences growing up in what, culturally, is more South than Midwest. (If Phil’s parents are reading this, he would like to apologize for blowing out the family speaker system by blasting “Up Around The Bend” on max volume all the time.) Jeff can’t remember a time when Creedence wasn’t part of his life, from his dad’s old CD edition of Chronicleonwards. Only later did he get into the bands albums and realize that nearly every one of them was stuffed full of amazing music. Scot is perplexed that the popular perception of CCR as a singles act has no relationship to the quality of their full body of work. KEY TRACK: “Up Around The Bend” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970) The Long Hard Road from Tommy & The Blue Velvets to Creedence Clearwater Revival The result? Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968), a self-titled debut album as impressive as any of the Sixties. Jeff argues that this is CCR’s most underrated record by far, with nary a wasted second on its brief 33 minute running time outside the clumsy instrumental jamming in the middle of “Susie Q” (the group’s first hit single, present here in a ‘spacey’ 8 minute long extended version). Scot disagrees somewhat, arguing that as entertaining as the debut album is, Fogerty’s songwriting isn’t there yet: the best songs in his opinion are the covers, particularly “I Put A Spell On You” and “Ninety-Nine And A Half.” Scot and Philip point to “Porterville” as the true turning point for the band, not only in terms of their soon-to-be-iconic instrumental sound, but in terms of Fogerty’s newfound ability to tell stories that feel authentic and real — in large part because they do draw upon the well of his personal experiences. Jeff also takes time to salute Fogerty’s lead guitar playing (perhaps the most overlooked part of the entire CCR equation), particularly the Neil Young-like guitar tone he gets on songs like “The Working Man.” KEY TRACKS: “I Put A Spell On You” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968); “Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968); “Walking On The Water” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968); “Porterville” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968); “The Working Man” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968) An Explosion of Creativity: Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 The gang is all agreed that the first of them, Bayou Country (January 1969), is the weakest of this legendary trio, too heavily dependent upon long bluesy instrumental jams that ramble on without going anywhere particularly interesting. But then it’s hard to care too much when this is the album that also contains “Proud Mary,” one of the greatest pieces of American popular music ever written. Jeff can’t even quite believe that “Proud Mary” was written; surely this song has been sung by people on Mississippi River for a hundred years or more, no? Scot loves “Born On The Bayou” and both he and Phil laugh at the fact that these guys were so amazingly good at counterfeiting Louisiana roots despite never having been within a thousand miles of the state. Jeff also shouts out to “Bootleg,” surely one of the most hypnotically simplistic rhythm beds ever laid down Sixties rock. If Bayou Country was impressive but flawed, there are no flaws on its follow-up Green River (August 1969). The gang agrees that Green River is such a titanic achievement that it almost defies standard commentary: these are songs that you have been singing your entire life, simple, elemental, immensely moving, with tinges of darkness and foreboding lurking in unexpected corners. Jeff calls “Wrote A Song For Everyone” one of the most devastating social comments — when interpreted on either a personal level or a more public/political one — ever written in rock. Scot marvels at “Bad Moon Rising”‘s ability to pack some of Fogerty’s bleakest lyrics into one of his peppiest instrumental tracks (a contrast which actually makes the lyric more grimly effective). And everyone pauses to pay their respects to “Lodi,” which may as well have been Creedence Clearwater’s pre-1968 autobiography. Three months after Green River Creedence was back at it again, with Willy And The Poor Boys (November 1969). Jeff refers to this as CCR’s “political” album, but considers the politics to be brilliantly subtle and infinitely more durable than the contemporaneous ventures of CCR’s San Francisco-scene counterculture rivals like Jefferson Airplane. “Fortunate Son” isn’t even an anti-war song, properly understood, so much as it is a coruscating commentary on class struggle: the working man paying the price and bearing the burden that the rich elite are insulated from. (“Don’t Look Now” is even more on-point in this regard.) Phil notes just how many sheerly bad protest songs there are out there, and how remarkable it is that not only are CCR’s uniformly excellent, they’re all radio hits too. Scot thinks that “The Midnight Special” is “Proud Mary” in reverse: instead of being an original that sounds like it’s been around for 70 years, it’s a 70-year-old song that CCR masters so perfectly that it seems pointless to cover it anymore. KEY TRACKS: “Proud Mary” (Bayou Country, 1969); “Born On The Bayou” (Bayou Country, 1969); “Bootleg” (Bayou Country, 1969); “Wrote A Song For Everyone” (Green River, 1969); “Green River” (Green River, 1969); “Commotion” (Green River, 1969); “Lodi” (Green River, 1969); “Bad Moon Rising” (Green River, 1969); “Fortunate Son” (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969); “It Came Out Of Sky” (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969); “Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You Or Me)” (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969); “Down On The Corner” (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969); “The Midnight Special” (Willy And The Poor Boys, 1969) 1970: Creedence reaches the summit of the mountain, and then begins to tumble down the other side At this point the gang discusses CCR’s unfortunate struggle for artistic acceptance among their counterculture peers in the SF rock scene, and how drove Fogerty in particular to distraction. The tribalism of the contemporaneous hippie disdain for CCR’s plaid-flannel-shirt meat & potatoes hitmaking ways is a sad comment on the same in-group/out-group dynamics that seem to operate eternally, and this led inevitably to Pendulum (1970), the last classic CCR album, where Fogerty insisted that every track be self-penned (to prove his artiste credentials) and in doing so sabotaged it with inexplicable album-concluding noise collage “Rude Awakening #2.” But the rest of the record remains a piker. Scot loves the smoother, organ-based Stax/Volt sound that defines most of Pendulum and all agree that “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” might just be one of CCR’s finest songs. Phil notes the poignancy of the lyric, which was written about the internal turmoil in the band (primarily John’s worsening relationship with his older brother Tom) and how, even at this moment of triumph, all involved had to have known they were playing a song that signaled the death-knell of the band. KEY TRACKS: “Ramble Tamble” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970); “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970); “Who’ll Stop The Rain” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970); “Run Through The Jungle” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970); “Long As I Can See The Light” (Cosmo’s Factory, ,1970); “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (Cosmo’s Factory, 1970); “Pagan Baby” (Pendulum, 1970); “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” (Pendulum, 1970); “Hey Tonight” (Pendulum, 1970); “It’s Just A Thought” (Pendulum, 1970) The End: Mardi Gras, the Collapse of Creedence, and John Fogerty’s Intermittent Solo Career But at least they left us with all this great music. KEY TRACKS: “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” (Mardi Gras, 1972); “Someday Never Comes” (Mardi Gras, 1972); “Centerfield” [John Fogerty] (Centerfield, 1985) Finale |
Dec 03, 2017 |
Episode 14: Nicholas Confessore / Ryan Adams
01:57:01
Jeff and Scot talk to Nicholas Confessore about Ryan Adams. Introducing the Band Nick’s Musical Pick: Ryan Adams KEY TRACKS: “Amy” (Heartbreaker, 2000); “New York, New York” (Gold, 2001); “Jacksonville Skyline” [Whiskeytown](Pneumonia, 1999/2001) Origins: Whiskeytown, the Classic Debut Heartbreaker, and the Overstuffed Follow-up Gold Then it’s on to Heartbreaker (2000), and the gang could have spent an hour on this album alone. Is it one of the greatest debut albums of all time? One of the greatest country-rock albums of all time? Is it even country at all? (Jeff, for one, thinks it owes far more to Bob Dylan and Neil Young than Nashville, despite Adams’ country background; already he was spreading his wings and refusing all stylistic straitjackets.) Scot declares Heartbreakerto be one of his favorite albums of all time, perhaps even his #1 pick. (Scot: “I can’t even be rational about it.”) Nick raves about how Adams creates an entire world with his soft, thoughtful folk melodies and lyrics: a New York City that isn’t quite New York and a Carolina that isn’t quite the real Carolina, but a magical, idealized version of both. Jeff marvels at how every song on Heartbreaker sounds like a standard — like people have been playing them for decades. And yet some young punk who came pretty much out of nowhere wrote them all, and did it on his first album. Jeff can’t even quite believe that “My Winding Wheel” was written; it just feels like it’s been kicking around Appalachia for a century or so. Gold (2001) was Adams’ big grab for the brass ring (as Scot characterizes it), and its failings are telling, the gang agrees: here the first problematic tics of Adams’ career show up: over-prolificity, overstuffing his albums, and being a questionable judge of the quality of his own material. (Nick complains that many of the best songs were left off the original album and only released on a “Side 4” bonus disc that isn’t even commercially available anymore — and he’s right!) But Jeff will walk through fire to defend Adams’ big attempt at a pop hit “New York New York,” and also points out that Adams’ straight rock moves (like “Nobody Girl” and “Enemy Fire”) actually work extremely well, proving how capable he was of playing in genres outside of country and folk. KEY TRACKS: “To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)” (Heartbreaker, 2000); “My Winding Wheel” (Heartbreaker, 2000); “Oh, My Sweet Carolina” (Heartbreaker, 2000); “Come Pick Me Up” (Heartbreaker, 2000); “New York, New York” (Gold, 2001); “Nobody Girl” (Gold, 2001); “Enemy Fire” (Gold, 2001); “La Cienega Just Smiled” (Gold, 2001); “When The Stars Go Blue” (Gold, 2001); “Firecracker” (Gold, 2001); “Gonna Make You Love Me” (Gold, 2001); The Weird Years: Demolition, Love Is Hell, and Rock N Roll “Successfully” is the key word in the preceding sentence, since Rock N Roll (2003) — recorded in an amphetamine-rushed two weeks after his record label rejected Love Is Hell — is of course Adams’ Big Major Rock Statement. Few albums are more controversial in the Adams discography than Rock N Roll, and Scot lines up with the general fan consensus that it’s embarrassing musical cosplay, Ryans Adams wearing The Strokes as a skin-suit. Nick is having none of that, however, and loves “rock Ryan,” with particular praise for “Do Miss America” and “This Is It.” (“This was the guy that I loved doing more of the thing that I loved that he did.”) Jeff falls in the middle; he doesn’t think this is a great album, but he’s pretty much willing to forgive all its sins simply because of the existence of “So Alive,” one of the finest songs (and vocal performances) Adams will ever reel off in his life. People, go watch Adams’ live performance of this on the David Letterman Show. The link is below. Click it. KEY TRACKS: “Starting To Hurt” (Demolition, 2002); “Dear Chicago” (Demolition, 2002); “Chin Up, Cheer Up” (Demolition, 2002); “Hallelujah” (Demolition, 2002); “Tennessee Sucks” (Demolition, 2002); “Afraid Not Scared” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “This House Is Not For Sale” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “Love Is Hell” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “Wonderwall” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “Please Do Not Let Me Go” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “I See Monsters” (Love Is Hell, 2004); “This Is It” (Rock N Roll, 2003); “So Alive” (Rock N Roll, 2003); “Burning Photographs” (Rock N Roll, 2003); “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home” (Rock N Roll, 2003); “Do Miss America” (Rock N Roll, 2003); “So Alive (live on David Letterman, January 5th, 2004)” (previously unreleased, 2004) 2005: The Year of the Three (Yes, That’s Right, Three) Ryan Adams Albums Nick, Scot, and Jeff are equally enthusiastic about Jacksonville City Nights, and lament the fact that people might be avoiding it because it was marketed as Adams’ “trad country” album. Yes, there are pedal steel guitars on nearly every song here, but this is as far from a generic country album as could be imagined: a warm, vibrant collection of some of Adams’ finest songs and (in particular) his finest lyrics. Nick wants people to own this album for no other reason than “Dear John,” Adams’ emotionally devastating collaboration with Norah Jones. Scot could talk about every single song on this record, but particularly adores “The Hardest Part” and Adams’ lived-in, casually country scansion on pieces like “The End.” All agree that this is part of the core Adams discography, which is more than they can say for the final Ryan Adams album of 2005, the mopey concept-folk LP 29. Jeff suggests that Adams was better off not pushing his luck beyond the two classics he already released, and the gang agrees that this is the least worthy, and most mannered, of all Adams’ records up until this point. KEY TRACKS: “Magnolia Mountain” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Cherry Lane” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Mockingbird” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Let It Ride” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Cold Roses” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Sweet Illusions” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Meadowlake Street” (Cold Roses, 2005); “If I Am A Stranger” (Cold Roses, 2005); “Friends” (Cold Roses, 2005); “The Hardest Part” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “Silver Bullets” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “Don’t Fail Me Now” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “Trains” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “The End” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “Dear John” [with Norah Jones] (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); “Strawberry Wine” (29, 2005); “Night Birds” (29, 2005); “Carolina Rain (live June 23rd, 2011)” (Live After Deaf, 2012; originally from 29, 2005) Ryan Adams Sobers Up: Easy Tiger and the Cardinology Sessions KEY TRACKS: “Halloweenhead” (Easy Tiger, 2007); “Pearls On A String” (Easy Tiger, 2007); “Two” (Easy Tiger, 2007); “Everybody Knows” (Easy Tiger, 2007); “Born Into A Light” (Cardinology, 2008); “Go Easy” (Cardinology, 2008); “Magick” (Cardinology, 2008); “Cobwebs” (Cardinology, 2008); “Dear Candy” (III/IV, 2010) To the Present Day: Ryan Adams Reclines then Roars Back At this point Jeff steps in to make a 100% serious plea for people to give Ryan Adams’ track-for-track re-recording of Taylor Swift’s 1989 (2015) a chance, no matter how utterly ridiculous the idea must sound. A good song is a good song, and Adams’ entire point in recording and releasing his version of 1989 (where he recasts many of its most famous songs as brutal Nebraska-era Springsteen ballads) is to emphasize to those who might otherwise dismiss pop music what a fine songwriter Taylor Swift actually is. The gang concludes with high praise for Ryan Adams’ most recent album, 2017’s Prisoner. All are impressed by the vigor and vitality of this music from an artist who has already released well over 200 original songs in the past 17 years — as well as the fact that (my God!) he might actually finally be learning to edit himself. KEY TRACKS: “[This Is What Every Single Song On Orion Sounds Like]” (Metal Machine Music [Lou Reed], 1975); “Dirty Rain” (Ashes & Fire, 2011); “Invisible Riverside” (Ashes & Fire, 2011); “Gimme Something Good” (Ryan Adams, 2014); “Trouble” (Ryan Adams, 2014); “My Wrecking Ball” (Ryan Adams, 2014); “Bad Blood” (1989, 2015); “Shake It Off” (1989, 2015); “To Be Without You” (Prisoner, 2017); “Do You Still Love Me?” (Prisoner, 2017); “Shiver And Shake” (Prisoner, 2017) Finale: Nick, Scot and Jeff Each Name Their Two Key Albums and Five Key Songs from Ryan Adams Scot’s albums: 1) Heartbreaker (2000); 2) Jacksonville City Nights (2005) | Scot’s songs: 1) “Come Pick Me Up” (Heartbreaker, 2000) ; 2) “Please Do Not Let Me Go” (Love Is Hell, 2004); 3) “Let It Ride” (Cold Roses, 2005); 4) “The Hardest Part” (Jacksonville City Nights, 2005); 5) “Rosalie Come And Go” (Gold, 2001) Jeff’s albums: 1) Heartbreaker (2000); 2) Love Is Hell (2004) | Jeff’s songs: 1) “My Winding Wheel” (Heartbreaker, 2000); 2) “New York, New York” (Gold, 2001); 3) “So Alive” (Rock N Roll, 2003); 4) “Afraid Not Scared” (Love Is Hell, 2004); 5) “Meadowlake Street” (Cold Roses, 2005) |
Nov 20, 2017 |
Episode 13: Michael C. Moynihan / The Smiths
02:07:01
Scot and Jeff talk to Michael C. Moynihan about The Smiths Introducing the Band Michael’s Musical Pick: The Smiths Jeff’s intro to the band came later: college and a chance encounter with an eccentric friend who refused to lend her Smiths CDs to him because she valued them like other people value family heirlooms. Jeff emphasizes his love not only of Morrissey’s literate, playful lyrics, but actually elevates Johnny Marr’s contribution above it: even if only by a 51-49 margin, Jeff argues, this was Marr’s band, and his love of the eternal verities of melody, production, arrangement, and rock and pop are what make nearly every Smiths track from their beginning right up until the end worth hearing. KEY TRACKS: “The Queen Is Dead” (The Queen Is Dead, 1986); “William, It Was Really Nothing” (A-side of single, 1984); “Rusholme Ruffians (alternate version)” (unreleased, originally from Meat Is Murder, 1985) Morrissey meets Marr: The Formation of The Smiths and the Troubled Debut Album And nobody in the gang can agree on its merits! Scot grants Jeff’s point that the Tate version of “Reel Around The Fountain” is magisterial, but he thinks this is the worst of The Smiths’ four proper studio LPs. Jeff thinks it’s their best studio LP, even better than The Queen Is Dead, and explains why in detail. Michael is in the middle: he loathes “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” with eloquent passion, but praises the obscure B-sides from this era like “Accept Yourself,” “Wonderful Woman” and “Jeane.” How deep does the rabbit-hole go? This deep: Michael spends time praising Sandie Shaw’s (Smiths-produced) covers of “I Don’t Owe You Anything” and “Jeane” (and Jeff agrees)! Michael also calls out Andy Rourke’s follow-the-bouncing-ball bassline on “Pretty Girls Make Graves” and laughs about the song’s conceit as a Beach Boys number gone horribly wrong. He then spends time discussing his personal experiences with Rourke, and the cosmic unfairness of his lack of appreciation (including a depressing story about watching Rourke open for a Smiths cover band where some other guy was pretending to be Andy Rourke). KEY TRACKS: “Hand In Glove” (A-side of single, 1983; The Smiths, 1984); “This Charming Man” (A-side of single, 1983); “What Difference Does It Make?” (The Smiths, 1984); “Reel Around The Fountain” (The Smiths, 1984); “Still Ill” (The Smiths, 1984); “You’ve Got Everything Now (live at the BBC June 26th, 1983)” (Hatful Of Hollow, 1984); “Suffer Little Children” (The Smiths, 1984); “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” (The Smiths, 1984); “Wonderful Woman” (B-side of “This Charming Man,” 1983); “Jeane” (B-side of “This Charming Man,” 1983); “Pretty Girls Make Graves” (The Smiths, 1984); The Smiths as the Last Great Non-Album Singles Band; Hatful Of Hollow and Smiths Compilations in General This inevitably leads to a long and loving discussion of The Smiths’ adventures in repackaging. Few bands are better known for their sheer compilatory fury (especially given the relatively small overall discography) than The Smiths, but it actually makes sense given how nearly a third of their output was never released on an album. Jeff lays his cards down and declares Hatful Of Hollow (1984) to be the single greatest Smiths album ever released, even though it’s not even really an album: it’s essentially a revision of the debut LP and its various associated session recordings using impressively muscular, raw BBC takes in place of the overproduced studio versions. Add in all those great 1984 singles A’s & B’s, and in Jeff”s opinion you get the best value-for-money proposition in the band’s entire catalogue. Michael is a Louder Than Bombs (1987) man, which makes sense given that this was the USA’s (later) answer to Hatful and thus the one he grew up with: a sprawling 2LP set collecting a slew of non-album singles, B-sides, and obscurities. As the gang is talking about the wonderful miniatures of The Smiths’ B-sides and BBC sessions, Michael takes the opportunity to point out how terrible Morrissey is when working in longer form. Particular attention is paid to the self-indulgence of his autobiography (which he insisted on having released as a Penguin Classic) and his even worse attempt at fiction, List Of The Lost. (List is so bad that it won an award for “worst sex scene” and yes, we are required per Jeff’s promise on the podcast to inflict it upon you here). “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” (A-side of single, 1984); “How Soon Is Now?” (B-side of “William, It Was Really Nothing,” 1984); “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” (B-side of “William It Was Really Nothing,” 1984); “London” (B-side of “Shoplifters Of The World Unite,” 1987); “These Things Take Time (live at the BBC June 26th, 1983)” (Hatful Of Hollow, 1984); “Oscillate Wildly” (B-side of “How Soon Is Now?,” 1985); “This Night Has Opened My Eyes (live at the BBC September 14th, 1983)” (Hatful Of Hollow, 1984); “Back To The Old House (live at the BBC September 14th, 1983)” (Hatful Of Hollow, 1984) The Smiths Go Rockabilly (?!) on Meat Is Murder “The Headmaster Ritual” (Meat Is Murder, 1985); “Barbarism Begins At Home (live March 18th, 1985)” (previously unreleased, originally from Meat Is Murder, 1985); “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” (Meat Is Murder, 1985); “Nowhere Fast” (Meat Is Murder, 1985); The Smiths Commit Regicide: The Queen Is Dead But all that is prelude to The Queen Is Dead, which to this day remains the band’s most beloved album. Jeff states outright that the first four songs on Queen are actually garbage (he feels someone is pouring soil on his head every time he has to sit through “I Know It’s Over”) but “Cemetry Gates” may just be the single greatest thing they ever did and the rest of the album miraculously maintains that level, even the inevitable rockabilly number. (Seriously, “Vicar In A Tutu” is actually a good song.) Morrissey’s humor is in full flower here: he knocks on his own plagiarism issues with “Cemetry Gates,” commits majestic self-martyrdom on “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” and somehow ejects himself from his own home on “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.” Michael and Jeff wonder how people could have ever misunderstood the winsome, open-hearted humor of “There Is A Light” — double-decker buses and ten-ton trucks aside, this is a song about being transported by the heights and depths of romantic emotion that still manages to undercut its own self-seriousness. And then the LP ends with an extended fat joke. The gang quickly surveys the four post-Queen singles the band released in 1986 and 1987, as they were working their way towards their swan-song. Everyone agrees that the highlight is the epochal “”Panic,” a song inspired by Morrissey’s appalled reaction to the BBC Radio 1 announcer who segued from announcing the Chernobyl meltdown to Wham’s new big hit single “I’m Your Man.” With Aztec Camera’s Craig Gannon on second guitar and a riff nicked from T. Rex, “Panic” somehow manages to end with a children’s choir singing alongside Morrissey about the urgent need to lynch all DJs, yet still sounds like a glorious triumph. Michael unpacks the suspect racial undertones of “Panic” with reference to some of Morrissey’s later solo provocations, and Scot singles out “Half A Person” as the great late Smiths B-side. KEY TRACKS: “Rubber Ring“/”Asleep” (B-side of “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side,” 1985); “Cemetry Gates” (The Queen Is Dead, 1986); “Bigmouth Strikes Again” (The Queen Is Dead, 1986); “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (The Queen Is Dead, 1986); “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (live December 12th, 1986)” (B-side of “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish,” 1987); “Panic” (A-side of single, 1986); “Speedway” [Morrissey] (Vauxhall & I, 1994); “Half A Person” (B-side of “Shoplifters Of The World Unite,” 1987) To the Madhouse with Them: Strangeways Here We Come Ends The Smiths’ Career KEY TRACKS: “Girlfriend In A Coma” (Strangeways, Here We Come, 1987); “Death Of A Disco Dancer” (Strangeways, Here We Come, 1987); “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” (Strangeways, Here We Come, 1987); “Unhappy Birthday” (Strangeways, Here We Come, 1987); “I Won’t Share You” (Strangeways, Here We Come, 1987) Finale |
Nov 13, 2017 |
Episode 12: Anthony Fisher / Pink Floyd
01:44:10
Scot and Jeff talk to Anthony Fisher about Pink Floyd. Introducing the Band Anthony’s Musical Pick: Pink Floyd KEY TRACK: “Comfortably Numb (live August 1988)” (Delicate Sound Of Thunder, 1988) From Blues-Rock (?!) to Space-Rock: the Syd Barrett Era, 1965-1968 During this part of the show, Jeff works an interstitial conversation in about Pink Floyd’s five early non-album singles, all of which he considers top-shelf. “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play” are already well-loved (and well-known) enough as Syd Barrett tunes to need no introduction or defense, but Jeff is at great pains to point out that “It Would Be So Nice” and “Point Me At The Sky” are, if anything, even better, and inexplicably underrated by both band and fans alike. Jeff also points out how pivotal Rick Wright was to Floyd at this point in their career; Roger Waters was actually an afterthought in 1967-68, and it was Wright who carried the most singing, performing, and songwriting weight behind Barrett until 1969. People, go listen to the wistful sadness of the B-side “Paintbox.” The discussion of Wright carries the gang into A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968), where all agree that his “Remember A Day” is a highlight (indeed, probably the best song on the record). Jeff rates Saucerful significantly higher than either Anthony or Scot do, but then he has an avowed preference for horrible noise. The gang discusses Syd’s fade into non-functionality, with “Jugband Blues” as a key track signalling Barrett’s creepily altogether-too-on-the-nose farewell to the Floyd (and to sanity). KEY TRACKS: “I’m A King Bee” (The Early Years 1965-1972, 2016); “Arnold Layne” (A-side of single, 1967); “Astronomy Domine” (The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967); “Lucifer Sam” (The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967); “Bike” (The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967); “Interstellar Overdrive” (The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, 1967); “See Emily Play” (A-side of single, 1967); “Apples And Oranges” (A-side of single, 1967); “Paintbox” (B-side of “Apples And Oranges,” 1967); “It Would Be So Nice” (A-side of single, 1967); “Remember A Day” (A Saucerful Of Secrets, 1968); “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” (A Saucerful Of Secrets, 1968); “A Saucerful Of Secrets” (A Saucerful Of Secrets, 1968); “Jugband Blues” (A Saucerful Of Secrets, 1968); “Point Me At The Sky” (A-side of single, 1968) The Soundtrack Era: More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, and Obscured By Clouds (1969-1972) Nobody has much good to say about Ummagumma‘s 1970 follow-up Atom Heart Mother either (Jeff can barely believe that it hit #1 in the UK record charts), though Anthony will stand up for the early unadorned “band-only” version of the title suite. The one piece that everyone agrees on is Rick Wright’s “Summer ’68,” a criminally forgotten piano ballad hidden away on the middle of the record that suggests that, as late as 1970, Wright was still bringing the best music to the Floyd collective. It’s hard to think of an about-face reversal as abrupt as the transition from Atom Heart Mother to Meddle (1971), however. Sure, “Echoes” has too many minutes of ‘whale noises’ in the middle. Sure, we probably didn’t need to hear about Seamus the dog. But otherwise, Meddle is a crowning achievement of pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd, from the terrifying proto-industrial grind of “One Of These Days” to the dreamy diurnal epic of “Echoes.” Jeff also rhapsodizes about “Fearless” for several minutes until Anthony points out that he sounds just like a stoner from a Richard Linklater film. The final album of Floyd’s transitional pre-Dark Side phase is another movie soundtrack, Obscured By Clouds (1972). This one is usually beloved by hardcore fans as a secret gem, but the gang isn’t too terribly impressed — they’re all already tired of Roger whining about his dead dad (yeah, war sucks, we know) in “Free Four.” But Anthony loves “Childhood’s End” (he just wishes Roger had written the lyrics, to make them sharper), Jeff and Scot both dig on the instrumental “Obscured By Clouds”/”When You’re In” pairing, and everyone praises the two unabashedly pop songs on the record: “Wot’s…Uh The Deal” and Rick Wright’s “Stay.” KEY TRACKS: “Main Theme” (More, 1969); “Green Is The Colour” (More, 1969); “Cymbaline” (More, 1969); “The Narrow Way, Pt. 1” (Ummagumma, 1969); “The Narrow Way, Pt. 3” (Ummagumma, 1969); “Sysyphus, Pt. 2” (Ummagumma, 1969); “Careful With That Axe, Eugene (live May 2nd, 1969)” (Ummagumma, 1969); “Interstellar Overdrive (live May 2nd, 1969)” (outtake from Ummagumma, 1969); “Summer ’68” (Atom Heart Mother, 1971); “Fat Old Sun” (Atom Heart Mother, 1971); “Atom Heart Mother (alternate version)” (The Early Years 1965-1972, 2016); “One Of These Days” (Meddle, 1971); “Fearless” (Meddle, 1971); “Echoes” (Meddle, 1971); “Obscured By Clouds“/”When You’re In” (Obscured By Clouds, 1972); “Wot’s…Uh, The Deal” (Obscured By Clouds, 1972); “Childhood’s End” (Obscured By Clouds, 1972); “Stay” (Obscured By Clouds, 1972) Eclipse: Pink Floyd Become International Superstars with Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall People get tired of Dark Side Of The Moon. People get tired of The Wall. Some people have never had any time at all for Animals. But nobody has gotten tired of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side follow-up, the Syd Barrett tribute (and music industry lament) of Wish You Were Here (1975). This one gets a unanimous thumbs-up from the gang (even Jeff, who openly writes off this era). Scot talks about the pleasures of the title track and how it slowly unfolds into its final chorus, and argues that “Have A Cigar” features one of Gilmour’s finest guitar solos. Anthony calls this the ultimate “teenage blacklight” get-blazed album. We would recommend this album to you, but then again how on earth could it be possible that you haven’t already heard this album? Animals (1977) is the very odd, very strident next step in the Pink Floyd discography: Roger Waters takes over with a series of thinly veiled Orwellian allegories (is there even a veil on “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”?), but the gang overlooks that because the music is still so endlessly, recombinatively creative. Anthony and Jeff both agree that “Dogs” is one of the best Pink Floyd songs ever recorded, and the “jazz chill”-cum-“raving and drooling” slice of rage that is “Sheep” also comes in for praise. The Wall (1979) is where the gang sharply departs from critical and commercial consensus. Popular opinion holds The Wall — Roger Waters’ opus to the alienation he experienced from life as a world-famous rock star — to be their crowning achievement. Meanwhile, none of the gang likes it that much (Jeff memorably describes it as a “meticulously crafted piece of shit”). Jeff, Scot, and Anthony are all a little bit turned off by Waters’ rock star trip on this album (Scot also points out how utterly shot Roger’s voice sounds throughout the record), and argue that the turn toward highly programmatic musical theater hamstrings the band. That said, all agree that there are several great moments to be found on The Wall, though they also agree it’s telling that most of them are ones where David Gilmour has an outsized involvement. (The one exception may be Anthony’s pick of “Nobody Home,” which was itself written by Waters about Rick Wright, whom Waters kicked out of the band at this time.) Still, despite the bombast, it is an amazingly well produced and sequenced album — Jeff thinks the segue from “Happiest Days Of Our Lives” into “Another Brick Pt. 2” may justify the entire mess. KEY TRACKS: “The Great Gig In The Sky” (Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973); “Money” (Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973); “Us And Them” (Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973); “Brain Damage/Eclipse” (Dark Side Of The Moon, 1973); “Have A Cigar” (Wish You Were Here, 1975); “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Wish You Were Here, 1975); “Wish You Were Here” (Wish You Were Here, 1975); “Dogs” (Animals, 1977); “Sheep” (Animals, 1977); “Comfortably Numb” (The Wall, 1979); “The Happiest Days Of Our Lives”/”Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” (The Wall, 1979); “Mother” (The Wall, 1979); “Goodbye Blue Sky” (The Wall, 1979); “Hey You” (The Wall, 1979); “Nobody Home” (The Wall, 1979); “Run Like Hell” (The Wall, 1979) Collapse: The Final Cut and the Post-Waters Era of Floyd KEY TRACKS: “The Gunner’s Dream” (The Final Cut, 1983); “The Fletcher Memorial Home” (The Final Cut, 1983); “Learning To Fly” (A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, 1987); “What Do You Want From Me?” (The pision Bell, 1994); “Marooned” (The pision Bell, 1994); “Coming Back To Life” (The pision Bell, 1994); “Poles Apart” (The pision Bell, 1994); “High Hopes” (The pision Bell, 1994); “Autumn ’68” (The Endless River, 2014) Finale |
Nov 06, 2017 |
Episode 11: Robert Dean Lurie / Hall and Oates
02:05:24
Scot and Jeff talk to Robert Dean Lurie about Hall and Oates. Introducing the Band Robert’s Musical Pick: Hall & Oates KEY TRACK: “Maneater” (H2O, 1982) Folk-rock and Philly soul: the Atlantic Years: 1972-1974 There are no such reservations about H&O’s second record, Abandoned Luncheonette (1973). Jeff argues that this is their finest album, despite the fact that, sonically, it’s miles away from their classic hitmaking-era stuff like Voices or H20. Soulful, assured, with weird progressive touches to boot, there isn’t a single subpar track on Abandoned Luncheonette as far as he’s concerned, and on top of all that it also happens to contain one of greatest singles ever recorded in the history of American popular music. Robert shares his dark reading of “I’m Just A Kid (Don’t Make Me Feel Like A Man)” and notes that Luncheonette is Hall & Oates as a true duo: both write an equal amount of material, and both members’ contributions are sterling. Jeff praises the obscure corners of this record, from “Laughing Boy” (Daryl Hall alone at a piano, with a flugelhorn) to The final record of Hall & Oates’ Atlantic era is the extremely bizarre War Babies. Those hints of prog heard on Abandoned Luncheonette (which recur throughout H&O’s 1970s career) come further to the fore with this LP, produced by Todd Rundgren and featuring his progressive-rock band Utopia as the backing band. There’s a reason you’ve never heard of this record; despite a much more modern-sounding production, it’s such a weird thematic left-turn that it sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of their discography. Jeff admits that, no matter much he genuinely loves the song, he has difficulty recommending a song named “War Baby Son Of Zorro” to others and expecting to be taken seriously. Robert likens War Babies‘ casual oddball fusion to a proto-“Beck” aesthetic — an easy junk-shop mashup of styles that flopped at the time but sounds better and better as time goes by. KEY TRACKS: “Fall In Philadelphia” (Whole Oats, 1972); “Lilly (Are You Happy)” (Whole Oats, 1972); “Waterwheel” (Whole Oats, 1972); “When The Morning Comes” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “I’m Just A Kid (Don’t Make Me Feel Like A Man)” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “Laughing Boy” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “Everytime I Look At You” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “She’s Gone” (Abandoned Luncheonette, 1973); “You’re Much Too Soon” (War Babies, 1974); “’70s Scenario” (War Babies, 1974); “War Baby Son Of Zorro” (War Babies, 1974); “Better Watch Your Back” (War Babies, 1974) The Commercial Breakthrough: Darryl Hall & John Oates and Bigger Than The Both Of Us Bigger Than The Both Of Us (1976) was where Hall & Oates really broke into the mainstream, and it’s all because of “Rich Girl,” which children after 1976 are actually required to be born knowing under Federal law. Aside from that #1 hit, however, there is a remarkable amount of top-shelf material on an album that is otherwise neglected. Robert calls out “Crazy Eyes” (one of John Oates’ best songs) and both he and Jeff cannot rave enough about “Falling,” which in its gorgeous, ghostly playout sounds more like Genesis circa-A Trick Of The Tail than anything you would ever associate with Hall & Oates: prog-soul. That, as you will soon see, was no accident. KEY TRACKS: “Camellia” (Daryl Hall & John Oates, 1975); “Sara Smile” (Daryl Hall & John Oates, 1975); “Gino (The Manager)” (Daryl Hall & John Oates, 1975); “Rich Girl” (Bigger Than The Both Of Us, 1976); “Crazy Eyes” (Bigger Than The Both Of Us, 1976); “Do What You Want, Be What You Are” (Bigger Than The Both Of Us, 1976); “Falling” (Bigger Than The Both Of Us, 1976) Sacred Songs and the Late ’70s Dip in Fortunes Scot, on the other hand, is a bigger fan of 1978’s Along The Red Ledge, which finds H&O recording with a star-studded array of guests and allies (Todd Rundgren, Robert Fripp, George Harrison, and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, among others) and coming up with their one great commercial success of the era, the sparkling “It’s A Laugh.” Scot really enjoys the Cheap Trick-isms of “Alley Katz” as well, and singles out “August Day” as another one of those arresting “Daryl Hall at a piano” moments strewn throughout the Hall & Oates discography. The more dance-oriented X-Static (1979) is a comparative disappointment, but Robert loves “Wait For Me” (he argues that the best way to appreciate it is in its occasional Daryl Hall solo performances), and he’s even more spun around by an outtake from the record: the perfect pop confection “Time’s Up (Alone Tonight).” KEY TRACKS: “NYCNY” (Sacred Songs, 1977); “Something In 4/4 Time” (Sacred Songs, 1977); “Babs And Bads” (Sacred Songs, 1977); “You Burn Me Up I’m A Cigarette” [Robert Fripp] (Exposure, 1978) “You Must Be Good For Something” (Beauty On A Back Street, 1977); “The Emptyness” (Beauty On A Back Street, 1977); “Bad Habits & Infections” (Beauty On A Back Street, 1977); “Winged Bull” (Beauty On A Back Street, 1977); “It’s A Laugh” (Along The Red Ledge, 1978); “Alley Katz” (Along The Red Ledge, 1978); “Don’t Blame It On Love” (Along The Red Ledge, 1978); “August Day” (Along The Red Ledge, 1978); “Wait For Me” (X-Static, 1979); “Running From Paradise” (X-Static, 1979); “Time’s Up (Alone Tonight)” (outtake from X-Static, 1979) Megastardom: Voices, Private Eyes, H2O, and the 1980s If Voices was a flawed triumph, there are no such questions from the gang about Private Eyes (1981): Robert, Scot, and Jeff are unanimous in agreeing that this is one of the greatest Hall & Oates albums ever, and in fact one of the greatest early ’80s pop-rock albums full-stop. “Private Eyes” (Scot: “If you don’t clap your hands along to the chorus, I don’t think you’re cool”), “Did It In A Minute,” “Your Imagination,” “Head Above Water”…this record is great from start to finish. Jeff mentions the importance of Sara Allen (Hall’s longtime partner) and her sister Janna as co-writing partners during this era, and also praises the classic #1 single “Billie Jea”–erm, wait, he meant “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).” (The story of how Michael Jackson nicked the bassline of “I Can’t Go For That” is recounted.) Scot, interestingly enough, does not care nearly as much for H2O, the platinum-selling followup to “Private Eyes” (and home of “Maneater,” among other famous singles), citing a mechanical feel and downing particularly on “Art Of Heartbreak” and “Open All Night.” Robert is having none of this, however, claiming that he has been waiting his entire life to mount a defense of this record — which he then does, admirably. Jeff mostly just can’t believe that Mike Oldfield (he of Tubular Bells fame) wrote a Hall & Oates hit single. After Jeff takes time to praise the non-album hit “Say It Isn’t So,” the band addresses Hall & Oates’ final hit album, Big Bam Boom(1984), and then wraps up the rest of their career. All involved agree that it’s all about “Out Of Touch” (both Scot and Jeff even identify it as one of their five key H&O tracks); so much of the rest of Big Bam Boom is sabotaged by unfortunate ’80s production choices. The gang then concludes by reflecting on the remainder of Hall & Oates’ post-1984 output. All agree that there are still good songs to be found, but that the fire had gone out of Hall’s heart in a lot of ways. KEY TRACKS: “How Does It Feel To Be Back” (Voices, 1980); “Kiss On My List” (Voices, 1980); “You Make My Dreams” (Voices, 1980); “Everytime You Go Away” (Voices, 1980); “Private Eyes” (Private Eyes, 1981); “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” (Private Eyes, 1981); “Did It In A Minute” (Private Eyes, 1981); “Mano A Mano” (Private Eyes, 1981); “Head Above Water” (Private Eyes, 1981); “Maneater” (H2O, 1982); “One On One” (H2O, 1982); “Family Man” (H2O, 1982); “Go Solo” (H2O, 1982); “Say It Isn’t So” (Rock ‘N Soul, Part 1, 1983); “Dance On Your Knees” (Big Bam Boom, 1984); “Out Of Touch” (Big Bam Boom, 1984); “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid” (Big Bam Boom, 1984); “So Close (unplugged)” (Change Of Season, 1990) Finale |
Oct 30, 2017 |
Episode 10: Jane Coaston / Nine Inch Nails
01:32:41
Scot and Jeff talk to Jane Coaston about Nine Inch Nails. Introducing the Band Jane’s Musical Pick: Nine Inch Nails KEY TRACKS: “The Fragile” (The Fragile, 1999); “Head Like A Hole” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989) Beginnings: Pretty Hate Machine and the Hardcore Turn of the Broken EP If Pretty Hate Machine is sometimes dismissed by aficionados of industrial music for its New Order/Depeche Mode synth-pop underpinning, nobody does that with Broken, an EP that Reznor recorded in secret while trying to escape from under the thumb of his original record label. Broken is only 21 minutes long (31m if you count the bonus tracks), but in many ways it remains one of the most definitive industrial ‘statements’ ever released and is also the most impressively brutal thing Nine Inch Nails released. Everyone loves “Wish.” Jeff argues that the unexpectedly quiet transitional instrumental “Help I Am In Hell” is the moment where Reznor’s conceptual ambition (and genius) first emerged. And Jane wants you to watch the video for “Pinion.” KEY TRACKS: “Terrible Lie” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989); “Sin” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989); “Something I Can Never Have” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989); “Wish” (Broken EP, 1992); “Help Me I Am In Hell” (Broken EP, 1992); “Gave Up” (Broken EP, 1992); “Suck” (Broken EP, 1992) A Beautiful Corpse-Flower: The Downward Spiral and the Album as Art-Form A brief sidebar ensues as Jane is invited to discourse on the significance of NIN/Reznor’s many remixes and remix albums (e.g. Fixed, or Further Down The Spiral), and why NIN stands apart from nearly every other band in rock history in the critical importance and value of their remix work, which is rewriting much of the time. KEY TRACKS: “Closer” (The Downward Spiral, 1994); “Piggy” (The Downward Spiral, 1994); “March Of The Pigs” (The Downward Spiral, 1994); “The Becoming” (The Downward Spiral, 1994); “Reptile” (The Downward Spiral, 1994); “Hurt” [Johnny Cash] (American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002); “Hurt (quiet)” (Further Down The Spiral, 1995); “Closer To God” (Closer To God EP, 1994) Drugs, Darkness, and The Fragile With Teeth divides the gang. Scot enjoys this one immensely, whereas Jeff feels like, for the first time, Reznor has made a semi-generic-sounding NIN album. KEY TRACKS: “The Day The World Went Away” (The Fragile, 1999); “The Wretched” (The Fragile, 1999); “We’re In This Together” (The Fragile, 1999); “La Mer” (The Fragile, 1999); “The Great Below” (The Fragile, 1999); “Where Is Everybody” (The Fragile, 1999); “Starf***ers, Inc.” (The Fragile, 1999); “The Hand That Feeds” (With Teeth, 2003); “Only” (With Teeth, 2003); “Right Where It Belongs” (With Teeth, 2003) The Mid-2000s Outpouring and the Comeback LP Everyone has strong praise for NIN’s “comeback” album Hesitation Marks however, released in 2013 after Reznor temporarily retired the NIN name (from boredom or exhaustion). Hesitation Marks is the sound of a man who actually seems reasonably well-adjusted and comfortable in his skin for once, and the result is a record that recaptures many of the sonic subtleties of his ’90s era work with a new commitment to melody and structure. KEY TRACKS: “6 Ghosts I” (Ghosts I-IV, 2008); “Letting You” (The Slip, 2008) “Lights In The Sky” (The Slip, 2008); “Find My Way” (Hesitation Marks, 2013); “All Time Low” (Hesitation Marks, 2013); “Copy Of A” (Hesitation Marks, 2013); “Everything” (Hesitation Marks, 2013) Finale |
Oct 23, 2017 |
Episode 9: Mark Hemingway / The Replacements
01:33:54
Scot and Jeff talk to Mark Hemingway about The Replacements. Introducing the Band Mark’s Musical Pick: The Replacements. KEY TRACKS: “Talent Show” (Don’t Tell A Soul, 1989); “Bastards Of Young” (Tim, 1985) The Early Years: from Punk to Hardcore to . . . Hootenanny? Everybody loves Hootenanny (1983), however, which is a hoot-and-a-half: the ‘Mats suddenly start displaying diversity (Westerberg even uses synths and a demo electronic percussion track on the LP). The result is a record that fuses their early, goofy punk loutishness with promising stabs at maturity in songs like “Color Me Impressed,” “Within Your Reach,” and “Willpower.” And Jeff will always love “Mr. Whirly,” if only for the Beatles parodies. As an aside, both Mark and Jeff are passionate fans of Bob Mehr’s book Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements, which is no mere quickie rock biography, but rather a true work of journalism: the comprehensively definitive result of years of research, over 200 interviews, access to the Replacements’ outtake vaults, and participation of nearly every living relevant actor (including bandmembers’ friends and family). If you like The Replacements beyond mere casual enjoyment, we cannot recommend this book to strongly enough. It is the last word on the band. KEY TRACKS: “I’m In Trouble” (Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, 1981); “Takin’ A Ride” (Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, 1981); “Johnny’s Gonna Die” (Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, 1981); “Kick Your Door Down” (“this song was written 20 mins after we recorded it” – Paul Westerberg) (Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, 1981); “Kids Don’t Follow” (The Replacements Stink EP, 1982); “F**k School” (The Replacements Stink EP, 1982); “Go” (The Replacements StinkEP, 1982); “Hootenanny” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Within Your Reach” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Lovelines” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Buck Hill” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Willpower” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Color Me Impressed” (Hootenanny, 1983); “Mr. Whirly” (Hootenanny, 1983) The ‘Mats Grow Up, at Least as Much as They Ever Will: Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased To Meet Me With Tim (1985), The Replacements’ major-label debut, Jeff thinks the problem is even more acute: is there really any better song in the entire corpus of American 1980’s indie-rock than “Bastards Of Young”? (Answer: no.) “Kiss Me On The Bus,” “Here Comes A Regular,” “Hold My Life,” “Left Of The Dial”…half of Tim is comprised of anthemic explanations of what rock (and adolescence!) was about in the ’80s. But then you also have to sit through “Dose Of Thunder” and “Lay It Down Clown” and “Waitress In The Sky.” Was it that The Replacements were fundamentally limited as a band, or was it more about self-sabotage? 1987’s Pleased To Meet Me suggests that it was probably self-sabotage, as this is the one that the gang agrees is right up there with the best The Replacements ever did. Fresh off of firing lead guitarist Bob Stinson (it’s a very sad story) and manager Peter Jesperson, the ‘Mats are somehow wrestled into making an extremely assured, varied, movingly smart album that proves what they could’ve accomplished with more discipline. Jeff and Mark agree that even though the lone Replacements song any non-fan is likely to know is “Can’t Hardly Wait,” well, that’s not a bad thing. “The Ledge” finds Paul Westerberg writing about teen suicide from a deadly serious perspective, and while Mark argues that there was no universe in which this could ever have been a hit single — circa-1986 teen suicide news stories notwithstanding — it’s still one of their best. Scot loves “I.O.U.,” not just because of the muscularity of its music but also because its lyric feels like a veiled argument about Stinson and Jesperson (“I owe you nothing”). The gang remarks on the irony of “Alex Chilton,” a song about a legendary failed band that never reached its full potential performed by a legendary failed band that never reached its full potential. KEY TRACKS: “I Will Dare” (Let It Be, 1984); “Androgynous” (Let It Be, 1984); “Unsatisfied” (Let It Be, 1984); “Black Diamond” (Let It Be, 1984); “Answering Machine (live February 4th, 1986)” (For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s 1986, 2017); “Sixteen Blue” (Let It Be, 1984); “Bastards Of Young (live on Saturday Night Live, January 18th, 1986)” (originally from Tim, 1985); “Left Of The Dial” (Tim, 1985); “Hold My Life” (Tim, 1985); “Kiss Me On The Bus” (Tim, 1985); “Here Comes A Regular” (Tim, 1985); “Skyway” (Pleased To Meet Me, 1987); “Can’t Hardly Wait” (Pleased To Meet Me, 1987); “Alex Chilton” (Pleased To Meet Me, 1987); “I.O.U.” (Pleased To Meet Me, 1987); “The Ledge” (Pleased To Meet Me, 1987) The Collapse: Don’t Tell a Soul and All Shook Down. Opinions are highly mixed on the overproduced/overmixed Don’t Tell A Soul (1989), yet another troubled production given an ultra-slick commercial sheen by the record label. “I’ll Be You” was actually the band’s best-charting single, but it’s telling that nobody really talks about it as ranking among their best songs nowadays. Mark can’t defend Don’t Tell A Soul rationally, but he will always love it as his first ‘Mats album and points out that a lot of the songs themselves are excellent ones, merely sabotaged by production choices. Jeff also argues that the real issue is that Westerberg was no longer really writing “Replacements” songs, he was writing “Paul Westerberg solo songs.” To that end, he enjoys “Talent Show” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Ghost,” both soft numbers, while Scot singles out “Darlin’ One.” As for All Shook Down? Well it’s a Paul Westerberg solo album in all but name, with the “Replacements” brand affixed to it for various commercial reasons. The one full-band ‘Mats song is “Attitude,” a skiffle-folk number that isn’t exactly typical Replacements style but which all agree is pretty good nonetheless. Other than that, the rockers seem forced on All Shook Down (e.g. “Merry Go Round”) and it’s only on the quieter piano/acoustic tunes where any sense of direction comes through…it was just a direction leading inexorably away from the band. KEY TRACKS: “I’ll Be You” (Don’t Tell A Soul, 1989); “Asking Me Lies” (Don’t Tell A Soul, 1989); “Darlin’ One” (Don’t Tell A Soul, 1989); “Rock ‘N’ Roll Ghost” (Don’t Tell A Soul, 1989); “Merry Go Round” (All Shook Down, 1990); “When It Began” (All Shook Down, 1990); “Attitude” (All Shook Down, 1990); “The Last” (All Shook Down, 1990) Paul Westerberg’s Solo Career KEY TRACKS: “Black Eyed Susan” (14 Songs, 1993); “It’s A Wonderful Lie” (Suicaine Gratifaction, 1999); “Best Thing That Never Happened” (Suicaine Gratifaction, 1999); “Only Lie Worth Telling” (Stereo, 2002); “Let The Bad Times Roll” (Stereo, 2002); “Silent Film Star” (Mono, 2002) Finale |
Oct 16, 2017 |
Episode 8: Dan McLaughlin / Tom Petty
01:46:42
Scot and Jeff talk to Dan McLaughlin about Tom Petty. Introducing the Band Dan’s Musical Pick: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers KEY TRACK: “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (Southern Accents, 1985) It Crawled from the South: The Early Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers KEY TRACKS: “Breakdown” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, 1976); “American Girl” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, 1976); “The Wild One, Forever” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, 1976); “Strangered In The Night” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, 1976); “When The Time Comes” (You’re Gonna Get It!, 1978); “Hurt” (You’re Gonna Get It!, 1978); “Listen To Her Heart” (You’re Gonna Get It!, 1978) At War with the Record Label: the Damn The Torpedoes/Hard Promises Era The story behind 1981’s Hard Promises is that MCA wanted to charge an elevated “superstar artist” price of $9.98 for it, so Petty threatened to name the record $8.98 to humiliate them unless they relented. Yet again, he won his fight against his label, and came out with a triumph. Scot raves about “The Waiting,” naming it perhaps his single favorite Heartbreakers song. Jeff adores this record as well, and laments that the only way most people know about it is through the (admittedly classic) episode of The Simpsons where Homer wants to buy a gun. So much good material was available from these sessions that Petty was even able to give away “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” to Stevie Nicks. Dan salutes the glimmers of hope that are always imbued in the stories of the protagonists of Petty’s songs (“Nightwatchman” is a good example of this on Hard Promises) and Jeff agrees, contrasting him favorably to the depression-chic of, in his words, “wannabe-John Steinbeck-era Bruce Springsteen.” The gang is somewhat less enthusiastic about Long After Dark (1982), the last album of this early era of The Heartbreakers, though yet again nobody can really find too much to criticize. What stands out is the interesting synthesizer attack of “You Got Lucky” and the killer album track “Straight Into Darkness.” KEY TRACKS: “Refugee” (Damn The Torpedoes, 1979); “Even The Losers” (Damn The Torpedoes, 1979); “Here Comes My Girl” (Damn The Torpedoes, 1979); “Don’t Do Me Like That” (Damn The Torpedoes, 1979); “Louisiana Rain” (Damn The Torpedoes, 1979); “The Waiting” (Hard Promises, 1981); “Something Big” (Hard Promises, 1981); “Nightwatchman” (Hard Promises, 1981); “A Thing About You” (Hard Promises, 1981); “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” [Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers] (Bella Donna, 1981); “You Got Lucky” (Long After Dark, 1982); “Change Of Heart” (Long After Dark, 1982); “Straight Into Darkness” (Long After Dark, 1982) Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Spin Their Wheels with Southern Accents and Let Me Up If Southern Accents was a flawed-yet-worthy record, its follow-up Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) is the first (and maybe last) truly poor album of Petty’s career. None of the gang has much good to say about this album outside of the lead single (co-written with Bob Dylan) “Jammin’ Me.” Jeff observes that it’s the only LP of Petty’s career that is saddled with classically “Eighties” production tics (drum sounds, synth tones, etc.) and it does it no favors. This sounds like a band at the end of its rope, and it’s no surprise that Petty took a break from the Heartbreakers for several years afterwards. KEY TRACKS: “Rebels” (Southern Accents, 1985); “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (Southern Accents, 1985); “Spike” (Southern Accents, 1985); “It Ain’t Nothin’ To Me” (Pack Up The Plantation – Live!, 1985); “Jammin’ Me” (Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), 1987); “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)” (Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), 1987) Revival Although Full Moon Fever was mostly in the can by mid-1988, it was held back because Petty was fully ensconced in another project, the delightful Traveling Wilburys. The Wilburys were basically the super-est supergroup to ever exist: Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Bob Dylan. And yet Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 is the opposite of a pompous, bombastic ego-trip: it’s a breezy, charmingly low-key record full of pop/rock songs and sly humor. The entire gang agrees that you’re missing out on one of the finest rock albums of the ’80s (of all time, in fact, Dan would argue) if you don’t own this record. This era concludes with Into The Great Wide Open (1991), Petty’s reunion with The Heartbreakers. Jeff likes the big singles, but is down on the record as a whole, arguing that it’s more of a Tom Petty/Jeff Lynne solo LP than it is a true Heartbreakers record. But Dan really loves the rockers on the record like “Out In The Cold” and “Makin’ Some Noise”: tributes to rock & roll for its own sake. KEY TRACKS: “Free Fallin’” (Full Moon Fever, 1989); “Runnin’ Down A Dream” (Full Moon Fever, 1989); “I Won’t Back Down” (Full Moon Fever, 1989); “Yer So Bad” (Full Moon Fever, 1989); “The Apartment Song” (Full Moon Fever, 1989); “Last Night” [The Traveling Wilburys] (Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1, 1988); “You Got It” [Roy Orbison] (Mystery Girl, 1989); “Learning To Fly” (Into The Great Wide Open, 1991); “Two Gunslingers” (Into The Great Wide Open, 1991); “Makin’ Some Noise” (Into The Great Wide Open, 1991); “Into The Great Wide Open” (Into The Great Wide Open, 1991); “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” (Greatest Hits, 1993) Into the Firmament KEY TRACKS: “Wildflowers” (Wildflowers, 1994); “You Wreck Me” (Wildflowers, 1994); “It’s Good To Be King” (Wildflowers, 1994); “A Higher Place” (Wildflowers, 1994); “Walls (Circus)” (Songs and Music from the Film “She’s The One”, 1996); “Angel Dream (No. 2)” (Songs and Music from the Film “She’s The One”, 1996); “Change The Locks” (Songs and Music from the Film “She’s The One”, 1996); “Room At The Top” (Echo, 1999); “Lonesome Sundown” (Echo, 1999); “Echo” (Echo, 1999); “Swingin’” (Echo, 1999); “High In The Morning” (Mojo, 2010); “Running Man’s Bible” (Mojo, 2010); “Fault Lines” (Hypnotic Eye, 2013); “American Dream Plan B” (Hypnotic Eye, 2013) Finale |
Oct 05, 2017 |
Episode 7: Jay Cost / The Kinks
02:08:54
Scot and Jeff talk to Jay Cost about The Kinks. Introducing the Band Jay’s Musical Pick: The Kinks KEY TRACK: “The Village Green Preservation Society” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968) The Early Garage-Rock Years: Massive Singles and Dodgy Albums The gang spares more of an ear for the Kinks’ third record, the transitional Kink Kontroversy. The originals still aren’t very sophisticated, outside of the single/B-side and a track or two, but they’re getting more refined and “Milk-Cow Blues” is maybe the only great cover the Kinks ever recorded. Also, The Kink Kontroversy sports one of the coolest, sleekest album covers of the entire pre-psychedelia pop era. Check it out here. KEY TRACKS: “You Really Got Me” (Kinks, 1964); “All Day And All Of The Night” (A-side of single, 1964); “Nothin’ In The World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl” (Kinda Kinks, 1965); “Tired Of Waiting For You” (Kinda Kinks, 1965); “Something Better Beginning” (Kinda Kinks, 1965); “Set Me Free” (A-side of single, 1965); “See My Friends” (A-side of single, 1965); “Milk-Cow Blues” (The Kink Kontroversy, 1965); “Where Have All The Good Times Gone?” (The Kink Kontroversy, 1965); “I’m On An Island” (The Kink Kontroversy, 1965) The Kinks become The Kinks The halting flirtation with psychedelic touches found on Face To Face are abandoned completely after this point, yet the Kinks keep rising from artistic triumph to triumph even as their commercial fortunes decline. First with “Dead End Street,” a brilliantly catchy pop single written about the horrors of living in a tenement slum, and then with Something Else By The Kinks, home to twelve deft character sketches of life in mid-sixties Britain. Jay thinks that Face To Face marks Ray’s initial lamentation of the costs of modern ‘progress’ for the simple dreams of ordinary folks, but doesn’t proffer a solution: the solution, at least as Ray sees it, is put forth on Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society. Jeff thinks “Death Of A Clown” and “Situation Vacant” are Something Else‘s best songs, but of course Scot and Jay point to “Waterloo Sunset,” often hailed by other musicians as the most beautiful pop song ever written in the English language. Scot marvels that a song so highly rated by Davies’ peers (and by critics) is actually relatively obscure in terms of radio airplay. The Kinks’ US performance ban (and its effect on Ray Davies’ delve into a highly British songwriting obsession) is discussed, and the primitive production stylings of Shel Talmy are lamented. KEY TRACKS: “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion” (A-side of single, 1966); “Party Line” (Face To Face, 1966); “Rosie Won’t You Please Come Home” (Face To Face, 1966); “Dandy” (Face To Face, 1966); “Session Man” (Face To Face, 1966); “Fancy” (Face To Face, 1966); “Sunny Afternoon” (Face To Face, 1966); “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” (B-side of “Sunny Afternoon,” 1966); “Dead End Street” (A-side of single, 1966); “David Watts” (Something Else By The Kinks, 1967); “Waterloo Sunset” (Something Else By The Kinks, 1967); “Death Of A Clown” (Something Else By The Kinks, 1967); “Situation Vacant” (Something Else By The Kinks, 1967); “Susannah’s Still Alive” (A-side of single, 1967) Maturity Jeff thought he was going out on a limb by dismissing Village Green‘s critically adored 1969 follow-up Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire (perhaps the ‘critical consensus’ choice as their best record) as a flabbily substandard album, but he finds a surprising ally in Jay. Scot likes the album (a concept piece originally conceived for a TV special about one man making his way through the wreckage of the post-war, post-Empire British dream), but Jeff insists it’s an ominous example of Ray subverting musical quality in favor of ‘conceptual unity,’ and cites to the Dave Davies B-sides of this era as proof that far better work was being discarded in order to service a premise. Jay agrees that musically it’s a dip between the albums that bracket it, but is taken by the surpassing gloom and pessimism of the album’s defeated protagonist. That said, all rational human beings love “Victoria,” and “Shangri-La,” and particular respect is given to the pathos of the title track “Arthur.” (“Arthur the world’s gone and passed you by, don’t you know it?/You can cry all night but it won’t make it right, don’t you know it?”) KEY TRACKS: “Do You Remember, Walter?” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Picture Book” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Johnny Thunder” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Last Of The Steam-Powered Trains” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Animal Farm” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Monica” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “People Take Pictures Of Each Other” (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, 1968); “Days” (A-side of single, 1968); “Victoria” (Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire, 1969); “Yes Sir, No Sir” (Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire, 1969); “Brainwashed‘” (Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire, 1969); “Mindless Child Of Motherhood” (B-side of “Drivin’,” 1969); “Shangri-La” (Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire, 1969); “Arthur” (Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire, 1969) Lola and Muswell Hillbillies: The Kinks Complete Their Golden Era Scot is indifferent towards Muswell Hillbillies (1971), but Jeff is not; while it’s not his favorite Kinks record, it’s up there, and it’s certainly their last truly great LP even if it’s a left-turn away from radio-friendly commercialism into a unique fusion of country and jazz-tinged music-hall. Jay then takes over to sing the praises of Muswell, his single favorite Kinks album, the one that fully diagnoses (as Ray sees it) the illness of modern society. “This is the album where Ray basically says ‘they’re coming for you’…there’s no getting away from the People In Grey.” KEY TRACKS: “Lola” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “Strangers” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “Get Back In Line” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “Apeman” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “Powerman” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “This Time Tomorrow” (Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, 1970); “20th Century Man” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971); “Skin And Bone” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971); “Oklahoma U.S.A.” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971); “Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971); “Have A Cuppa Tea” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971); “Muswell Hillbilly” (Muswell Hillbillies, 1971) The ‘Theatrical’ Years KEY TRACKS: “Celluloid Heroes” (Everybody’s In Show-Biz, 1972); “Sitting In My Hotel” (Everybody’s Show-Biz, 1972); “Sitting In The Midday Sun” (Preservation Act 1, 1973); “One Of The Survivors” (Preservation Act 1, 1973); “Sweet Lady Genevieve” (Preservation Act 1, 1973); “He’s Evil” (Preservation Act 2, 1974); “Salvation Road” (Preservation Act 2, 1974); “Slum Kids (live March 1979)” (originally an outtake from Preservation Act 2, 1974); “Everybody’s A Star” (Soap Opera, 1975); “Holiday Romance” (Soap Opera, 1975); “Ducks On The Wall” (Soap Opera, 1975); “No More Looking Back” (Schoolboys In Disgrace, 1975) The Commercial Revival KEY TRACKS: “Life Goes On” (Sleepwalker, 1977); “Life On The Road” (Sleepwalker, 1977); “Sleepwalker” (Life On The Road, 1977); “Misfits” (Misfits, 1978); “Permanent Waves” (Misfits, 1978); “A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy” (Misfits, 1978); “Black Messiah” (Misfits, 1978); “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman” (Low Budget, 1979); “Destroyer” (Give The People What They Want, 1981); “Better Things” (Give The People What They Want, 1981); “Come Dancing” (State Of Confusion, 1983); “Do It Again” (Word Of Mouth, 1984) Finale |
Oct 01, 2017 |
Episode 6: James Poulos / The Eagles
01:17:10
Scot and Jeff talk to James Poulos about The Eagles. Introducing the Band James’s Musical Pick: The Eagles (N.B. The terrible country-rock supergroup whose name Jeff can’t remember is Stephen Stills’ godawful ‘Manassas.’) KEY SONGS: “Doolin’ Dalton” (Desperado, 1973); “The Best Of My Love” (On The Border, 1974) The Early Country-Rock Years Jeff thinks the cover of Desperado (1973) is (inadvertently) one of the funniest damn relics of the entire Los Angeles soft/country-rock era (Bernie Leadon awkwardly cradling that shotgun is a particular delight), and thinks its title track’s sole value is as a punchline in a classic Seinfeld episode. Scot can never hear it again without the skip that was on his parents’ original vinyl version. KEY SONGS: “Take It Easy” (Eagles, 1972); “Train Leaves Here This Morning” (Eagles, 1972); “Witchy Woman” (Eagles, 1972); “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (Eagles, 1972); “Desperado (Seinfeld version)” (Desperado, 1973); “Tequila Sunrise” (Desperado, 1973); “Bitter Creek” (Desperado, 1973) The Hitmaking Era Begins with On The Border and One Of These Nights One Of These Nights (1975) is where Don (“Mr.” to Don Henley) Felder joins the Eagles, where Bernie Leadon finally calls it quits, and where the band truly breaks out big, with the title track and the sappy-but-beloved “Take It To The Limit.” Jeff is meh on it but Scot and James both love it. Jeff feels the need to point out that the Swedish hardcore Frank Frazetta-style album cover is hilariously out of place given the band’s style, more “Eagles of Death Metal” than “Eagles.” James salutes any song where Don Henley sings about the Devil be it implicitly or explicitly, and considers “One Of These Nights” to be one of those songs. KEY SONGS: “Already Gone” (On The Border, 1974); “Midnight Flyer” (On The Border, 1974); “James Dean” (On The Border, 1974); “My Man” (On The Border, 1974); “Good Day In Hell” (On The Border, 1974); “One Of These Nights” (One Of These Nights, 1975); “Journey Of The Sorceror” (One Of These Nights, 1975); “Take It To The Limit” (One Of These Nights, 1975) You can check out anytime you like . . . Hotel California But the rest of the album is pretty great as well! The big difference this time of course is the addition of Joe Walsh, who flexes his muscles on “Life In The Fast Lane.” But really this is a pretty consistent record all the way through. Scot speaks up for “Wasted Time,” as a soulful ballad from Don Henley that rings true. James points out how Hotel California finds him finally acquiring a truly authentic writing voice, writing about how the fantasy of the band’s fans was becoming their prison. Since the gang is pretty sure they’ll never get a chance to do an episode specifically devoted to Joe Walsh, they take some time to sing his praises — not just as a musician, or as a guitarist, but as a personality. A hugely underrated ’70s artist who might have only contributed to two classic-era Eagles albums, but was a force in his own right. People, listen to the amazing full-length version of “Life’s Been Good.” KEY SONGS: “Hotel California” (Hotel California, 1976); “New Kid In Town” (Hotel California, 1976); “Wasted Time” (Hotel California,1976); “Life In The Fast Lane” (Hotel California, 1976); “The Last Resort” (Hotel California, 1976); “Life’s Been Good” [Joe Walsh] (But Seriously, Folks…, 1978) The Long Run, the Long Collapse, and the History Of The Eagles Nobody has much other than eyerolls to offer for the Eagles’ post-1994 reunion efforts (“Get Over It” comes in for some mockery), except for Scot’s observation that it probably saved Joe Walsh’s life. However, James, Scot and Jeff are united in their love of the remarkable documentary movie History Of The Eagles, done with the full participation of every member of the band, most of whom currently dislike one another and let it show to great effect. Jeff offers the highest praise possible to History Of The Eagles: “I don’t even like this band, and it’s one of my favorite music documentaries ever.” It’s available on Netflix so don’t miss out. It’s a hoot and a half. KEY SONGS:”The Long Run” (The Long Run, 1979); “I Can’t Tell You Why” (The Long Run, 1979); “In The City” (The Long Run, 1979); “Get Over It” (Hell Freezes Over, 1994) Finale |
Sep 25, 2017 |
Episode 5: Chris Hayes / Beck
01:05:10
Scot and Jeff talk to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes about Beck. Introducing the Band Chris’s Musical Pick: Beck The Lo-Fi Indie Years KEY TRACKS: “No Money No Honey” (Golden Feelings, 1992); “Rowboat” (Stereopathetic Soulmanure, 1993); “Asshole” (One Foot In The Grave, 1994); “Satan Gave Me A Taco” (Stereopathetic Soulmanure, 1993) Beck makes it big, and then self-consciously gets weird Jeff would like to tell you that Odelay is overrated and is really second-rate compared to the rest of Beck’s discography, but alas, he cannot. It is every bit as good as its reputation. Scot and Chris note the influence of a quality producer in sparking Beck’s creativity: the Dust Brothers on Odelay, and then later Nigel Godrich. Still, Scot concedes that it is not quite an ‘album’ so much as a collection of excellent songs. Everyone thinks “Ramshackle” is one of the finest songs of Beck’s career, and particular love is shown for “Jack-Ass,” a song built off a transcendent sample of Van Morrison doing a Bob Dylan cover — with all the layers of ironic meaning that entails. KEY TRACKS: “Loser” (Mellow Gold, 1994); “Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)” (Mellow Gold, 1994); “Nitemare Hippy Girl” (Mellow Gold, 1994); “Blackhole” (Mellow Gold, 1994); “Hotwax” (Odelay, 1996); “Novacane” (Odelay, 1996); “Jack-Ass” (Odelay, 1996); “Where It’s At” (Odelay, 1996); “Ramshackle” (Odelay, 1996) Beck’s Mutation: Mutations and Midnight Vultures As for Midnite Vultures, everyone appreciates the wild fusion aspects of the record, but both Chris and Jeff note that there are perils here as well. Jeff is tired of everyone citing to “Debra” as a standout track when it’s at best something like the 20th-best song Beck ever wrote, and essentially Beck wearing silly musical drag, taking ironic homage to a ridiculous extreme. Chris agrees; while he likes it, he thinks it comes weirdly close to an uncomfortable ‘blackface’ vibe — the comparison to David Bowie on Young Americans is hard to avoid. There is more to Midnite Vultures than just “Debra,” however: “Milk And Honey” may be one of the best songs of his entire career. KEY TRACKS: “Nobody’s Fault But My Own” (Mutations, 1998); “Canceled Check” (Mutations, 1998); “Tropicalia” (Mutations, 1998); “Sexx Laws” (Midnite Vultures, 1999); “Debra” (Midnite Vultures, 1999); “Hollywood Freaks” (Midnite Vultures, 1999); “Broken Train” (Midnite Vultures, 1999); “Milk And Honey” (Midnite Vultures, 1999) Sea Change KEY TRACKS: “The Golden Age” (Sea Change, 2002); “Paper Tiger” (Sea Change, 2002); “Lost Cause” (Sea Change, 2002); “Guess I’m Doing Fine” (Sea Change, 2002); “Sunday Sun” (Sea Change, 2002) Guero, The Information and the long afternoon of Beck’s ’00s-’10s career KEY TRACKS: “Girl” (Guero, 2005); “Missing” (Guero, 2005); “Strange Apparition” (The Information, 2006); “New Round” (The Information, 2006); “Dark Star” (The Information, 2006); “Modern Guilt” (Modern Guilt, 2008); “Chemtrails” (Modern Guilt, 2008); “Say Goodbye” (Morning Phase, 2014) Finale |
Sep 17, 2017 |
Episode 4: Matt Welch / R.E.M.
01:55:36
Introducing the Band Matt’s musical pick: R.E.M. The Early Years KEY SONGS: “We Walk” (Murmur, 1983); “Wolves, Lower” (Chronic Town EP, 1982); “Gardening At Night (different vocal mix)” (Eponymous, 1988); “Laughing” (Murmur, 1983); “Perfect Circle” (Murmur, 1983); “Sitting Still” (Murmur, 1983); “Talk About The Passion” (Murmur, 1983); “Harborcoat” (Reckoning, 1984); “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)” (Reckoning, 1984); “Pretty Persuasion” (Reckoning, 1984); “Camera” (Reckoning, 1984) R.E.M. in Transition: Fables Of The Reconstruction and Lifes Rich Pageant Scot focuses on the underrated greatness of the record’s 1986 followup Lifes Rich Pageant, and everyone heartily agrees that it is mysteriously neglected. Jeff explains why it was a record that should have failed: heavily reliance on old/recycled material, a curiously odd instrumental, a cover track — and yet none of that matters. Matt singles out the effectiveness of the album’s environmental and political themes: powerful without ever seeming preachy. KEY SONGS: “Driver 8” (Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985); “Maps And Legends” (Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985); “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” (Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985); “Auctioneer (Another Engine)” (Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985); “Fall On Me” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986); “Superman” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986); “Cuyahoga” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986); “These Days” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986); “Swan Swan H” (Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986) R.E.M. breaks into the big-time with a big new sound. Document and the major-label debut of Green. It also points the way toward Green, their big-boy-pants major label debut for Warner Brothers. Matt is similarly iffy on Green but Jeff is a big fan, insisting it be understood as two EPs–a catchy rock one and a visionary oddball folk one–that rammed into one another in a head-on collision. KEY SONGS: “Finest Worksong” (Document, 1987); “The One I Love” (Document, 1987); “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (Document, 1987); “Disturbance At The Heron House” (Document, 1987); “King Of Birds” (Document, 1987); “Stand” (Green, 1988); “Orange Crush” (Green, 1988); “Hairshirt” (Green, 1988); “The Untitled Eleventh Song” (Green, 1988); “World Leader Pretend” (Green, 1988) Chamber-pop: R.E.M.’s artistic culmination, or the beginning of the end? Automatic For The People, the band’s universally-praised follow-up, surprisingly divides the gang far more: Matt boldly stakes out his position as That Guy and argues that it’s not that great of a record, not even among R.E.M.’s top five albums, and marks it as the Beginning Of The End. Jeff is having none of that however and singles out “Sweetness Follows” in particular as the sort of song he is simply in awe of. Everybody defends “Everybody Hurts.” KEY SONGS: “Losing My Religion” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Radio Song” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Texarkana” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Near Wild Heaven” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Belong” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Me In Honey” (Out Of Time, 1991); “Drive” (Automatic For The People, 1992); “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight” (Automatic For The People, 1992); “Everybody Hurts” (Automatic For The People, 1992); “Sweetness Follows” (Automatic For The People, 1992); “Man On The Moon” (Automatic For The People; 1992) The disastrous faceplant of Monster, the revival of New Adventures In Hi-Fi, Bill Berry’s departure and the long slow sunset of the band Jeff has high praise, however, for its follow-up New Adventures In Hi-Fi, which he considers the last truly great record the band ever released. Matt and Scot are less impressed, but this merely means that they are wrong. (N.B. Jeff writes the show-notes.) Jeff also praises Up as an admirable attempt to react to the loss of Bill Berry, who retired from the group in 1996 after a brain aneurysm, and while Matt can see the argument he thinks the band should have hung it up at this point. All three agree that R.E.M. lost something critical with Berry, something that renders their last four records (and the final decade of the career) a curiously unnecessary appendix. KEY SONGS: “Strange Currencies” (Monster, 1994); “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” (Monster, 1994); “Be Mine” (New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996); “Bittersweet Me” (New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996); “Leave” (New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996); “New Test Leper (acoustic version)” (B-side of “Bittersweet Me,” 1996); “Wall Of Death” (Beat The Retreat – A Tribute To Richard Thompson, 1994); “Lotus” (Up, 1998); “Walk Unafraid” (Up, 1998); “Hope” (Up, 1998); “All The Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be A Star)” (Reveal, 2001); “Beachball” (Reveal, 2001) Finale |
Sep 11, 2017 |
Episode 3: Tim Miller / Arcade Fire
01:31:50
Introducing the Band How did he get into them? Tim and Jeff relive their musical young adulthoods. Tim talks about finding Arcade Fire after his Widespread Panic phase, plunging into ’00s indie-rock scene. Jeff recounts his quasi-LCD Soundsystem “Losing My Edge” tale of watching them bomb HARD in Washington, DC as an unknown opening act in the pre-Funeral era. KEY TRACKS: “Wake Up” (Funeral, 2004) Funeral: a Debut Album That still Ranks with the Greatest of All Time The gang discusses why this is a hip indie album that still resonates: songwriting, thematics, instrumentation — a record made by young, inexperienced men and women that somehow sounds like the culmination of a long career, not the beginning of one. The purity of Win Butler & Regine Chassagne’s lyrical conceits, the maturity of the band’s song constructions, arrangements, and production . . . an album that seemingly landed on earth as if from another, better universe. KEY TRACKS: “Rebellion (Lies)” (Funeral, 2004); “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” (Funeral, 2004); “Crown Of Love” (Funeral, 2004); “Neighborhood #2 (Laika)” (Funeral, 2004); “In The Backseat” (Funeral, 2004) Neon Bible: the Sophomore Act KEY TRACKS: “Intervention” (Neon Bible, 2007); “The Well And The Lighthouse” (Neon Bible, 2007); “Neon Bible” (Neon Bible, 2007); “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” (Neon Bible, 2007); “No Cars Go” (Neon Bible, 2007); “Windowsill” (Neon Bible, 2007) The Suburbs: Where Subtext Becomes Explicit Text KEY TRACKS: “The Suburbs” (The Suburbs, 2010); “Ready To Start” (The Suburbs, 2010); “Rococo” (The Suburbs, 2010); “Modern Man” (The Suburbs, 2010); “Half Light II (No Celebration)” (The Suburbs, 2010); “We Used To Wait” (The Suburbs, 2010); “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” (The Suburbs, 2010) Arcade Fire Throws a Curveball: Reflektor and the Move Toward Dance KEY TRACKS: “Reflektor” (Reflektor, 2013); “Here Comes The Night Time” (Reflektor, 2013); “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus)” (Reflektor, 2013); “Porno” (Reflektor, 2013); “Afterlife” (Reflektor, 2013); “Supersymmetry” (Reflektor, 2013) The New Album: Everything Now KEY TRACKS: “Everything Now” (Everything Now, 2017); “Creature Comfort” (Everything Now, 2017); “Put Your Money On Me” (Everything Now, 2017); “We Don’t Deserve Love” (Everything Now, 2017) Finale: Two Albums and Five Songs |
Sep 03, 2017 |
Episode 2: Bob Costa / Dave Matthews Band
00:56:01
Introducing the Band This is really where the action is with DMB, as all agree. Scot singles out Tim Reynolds as Matthews’ key collaborator outside the band, with a nod to the Live At Luther College album. Jeff goes on an extended rant about Boyd Tinsley’s awfulness as a live performer, both as an uninspired soloist and an out-of-tune clodhopper whose questionable violin pitching slaughters promising material around it. Bob vehemently disagrees and cites evidence! KEY TRACKS: “Minarets (live 2/6/96)” [Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds] (Live At Luther College, 1999); “Crash Into Me” [Dave Matthews & Time Reynolds] (Live At Luther College, 1999); “Don’t Drink The Water (live 4/22/07)” [Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds] (Live At Radio City, 2007); “#41 (live 12/19/98)” (Live In Chicago, 2001); “Last Stop (live 6/21/98)” (Boyd Tinsley at his absolute worst); “Lie In Our Graves (live 8/15/95)” (Live At Red Rocks, 1997) The Lost “Lillywhite Sessions,” and the Problematic Follow-ups The gang discusses the Great Lost Dave Matthews Album, the collapse of which in 2000 turned DMB to a much more simplified, pop-oriented songwriting path. Jeff still thinks that “Grey Street” is a great song, though. KEY TRACKS: “JTR” (The Lillywhite Sessions, 2000); “Sweet Up And Down” (The Lillywhite Sessions, 2000); “Monkey Man” (The Lillywhite Sessions, 2000); “The Space Between” (Everyday, 2001); “Everyday” (Everyday, 2001); “Grey Street” (Busted Stuff, 2002) To the Present Day KEY TRACKS: “Grux” (Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King, 2009); “Why I Am” (Big Whiskey & The GrooGrux King, 2009); “Belly Full” (Away From The World, 2012); “Sweet” (Away From The World, 2012); Final Thoughts |
Aug 28, 2017 |
Episode 1: Sean Trende / Van Halen
00:59:16
Scot and Jeff welcome Sean Trende from RealClearPolitics to talk about his love of Van Halen. Introducing the Band The David Lee Roth Era: From Van Halen (1978) to 1984 (1984). KEY SONGS: “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” (Van Halen, 1978); “Eruption” (Van Halen, 1978); “You Really Got Me” (Van Halen, 1978); “I’m The One” (Van Halen, 1978); “Runnin’ With The Devil (goofy isolated vocals-only version)” (Van Halen, 1978); “Little Guitars” (Diver Down, 1982); “Sunday Afternoon In The Park” (Fair Warning, 1981); “So This Is Love?” (Fair Warning, 1981); “Panama” (1984, 1984); “Jump” (1984, 1984), “I’ll Wait” (1984, 1984) Ranking Eddie Van Halen Among Rock Guitarists “Van Hagar” — the Sammy Hagar Era Question: Is Sammy Hagar the worst rock lyricist ever? KEY SONGS: “Why Can’t This Be Love” (5150, 1986); “Black And Blue” (OU812, 1988); “Source Of Infection” (OU812, 1988); “Poundcake” (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991); “Right Now” (For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991); “Amsterdam” (Balance, 1995) The infamous “no brown M&Ms” contract rider story Finale |
Aug 18, 2017 |