Bandsplain

Podcast on Spotify with 3-6 hour episodes on a given band/artist's career with intermittent musical selections. I'm a fan, though the quality of the episodes vary significantly based on the guest and Yasi's experience with the artist. Favorites so far:

- The Replacements episode with biographer Bob Mehr
- Gram Parsons episode with John Strohm of Blake Babies/Lemonheads/Rounder Records
- Dave Matthews Band episode with Grayson Haver Currin
- U2 episode with Rob Harvilla
- Pixies episode with Gina Arnold

episodes are three to six hours long??

lol yea...it's not "tight" at all. Most of these artists/bands have large discographies. They go album by album and tell the story of their arc, the recording and reception of each album, talk about a song or two and play it...It's made for a very specific audience.

the new two-part episode on The Cure (w/ guest Hanif Abdurraquib) is 7 hours and 27 minutes long.

:D :D

i love this goddamn gorgeous beautiful podcast so much

episodes are three to six hours long??

But I looked around and saw how long the episodes were and even with my long-ass commutes, I was like, damn son.

It's still too soon to know for sure, but I think the Joy Division ep may have permanently diminished my enjoyment of that band. Yuck.

Some bands maybe are just naturally resistant to 'splainin, or shouldn't ever be 'splained

all the more for me!

new season is HITTING for me so perfectly

The Cure two-parter was joyous, love how Hanif is just continually dropping beautifully eloquent insights, v lovely pairing w Yasi - great 2 parter, no notes

Joy Division included a lot of new info to me (I llove their music but never knew much beyond the headline) Dude from Ceremony was a nice guest but i felt bad bc he brought a little less insight/input to the table. But he had nice friendship chemistry so it was enjoyable more in a “friends talking” way

Enjoying Depeche so far <3

HILARIOUS to me that all the reddit comments are about the format change since they moved to The Ringer & how the full songs arent included anymore!?! like omg god forbid you seek out the music on yr own my god lmao lame poor Yasi

I mean, I do think it's a bummer SOMETIMES when they can't play the full song. She was talking all about how killer the lyrics to some song are, and then she played 5 seconds of music with no vocals. I understand the line they're trying to walk but when they really zero in on a particular song, it'd be nice to actually just hear the song. (Maybe they do this occasionally, I don't know. I'm only halfway through my second episode.)

idk, it never bothered me? but ymmv

Hang on, these fucken things are 7 hours long and that's not even because they're fitting in lots of music????

not anymore!

:D

oh man I hadn't realized they moved. That's a bummer, I really did like what they were doing with the included tracks thing. It felt new and interesting. I mean, I'll probably still listen and stuff because I think the pod is good even without that but I won't lie that feature was definitely a draw

I didn't realised they'd moved. Means I can grab as a podcast from my podcast app rather than using Spotify, which is useful. I'll admit, I liked having the songs *right there*, but I'll live.

the PJ harvey two-parter with Ann Powers (the god) truly healed me in ways I didn’t anticipate

i feel like i just took a college course in the best way <3

oh and the Clash 2-parter was interesting by contrast! Gaslight Anthem guy was the guest & he barely spoke! I think he was probably being respectful of Yasi & maybe not knowing the level of input expected but it was kinda funny. Her obsession w Bernie Rhodes made it a great listen though imo

the new Jane’s Addiction episode w Jessica Hopper is SO great imo

For me it scratches the same itch as the PJ Harvey two-parter w Ann Powers - maybe it sounds corny & obvious but i just love hearing two women talk about music in a way that celebrates and elevates it. sometimes intellectually, sometimes emotionally, sometimes “just vibes” as yasi would say. all-encompassing.

also their discussion of jane says is excellent

i love this goddamn gorgeous beautiful podcast so much

Since I've been listening to this podcast solidly for the last month I've started describing every song I hear in this way. I'm so glad I got over the host's annoying voice because I now love her and this podcast. She's so funny.

i have had to restrain myself from calling my friebds babe in group chats lol

"They've blocked out the wacky hats! They've blocked out the bongos! But I'm telling you, I was there. [...] This was part of the fabric of alternative culture. You cannot erase it."

Two to three hours on the Dave Matthews Band?

I have always called my daughter some form of baby or babe, but since getting into Bandsplain, I've been giving it the Yasi inflection.

<3

omg also Jessica Hopper’s you weren’t truly a teen in the 90’s unless you’ve given a dry handjob under a giant Ritual de Lo Habitual wall poster had me ROLLING

xxpost jimbeaux it’s longer than that, it’s a two parter! also they’re yasi’s favorite band and it was her birthday

Don't drink the motha fuckin' water

what are you all doing while you're listening to this podcast?

working on a computer? hanging out in the living room? running on a treadmill? riding the bus?

i'm genuinely curious.

it's so long i have to listen to it on, like, five different afternoon walks. (i can't listen to it while working.)

The only podcast I listen to anywhere near that long is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, each episode of which I have to break up into chunks. Long road trips do provide an extended listening opportunity.

I have a 20 minute drive to and from work each day. The stereo in my car doesn't work, I've got a small Bluetooth speaker which is rubbish for music so that's when I listen to Bandsplain. Took me about 2 weeks to get through the Cure episodes.

i listen to it mostly while walking, and while working (work from home) … often in chunks but i like being able to go back to it in installments

plus it’s not like they’re time-dependent, you can take as long as you want to listen to them

I have a pool that has to get scrubbed 2-3 times a week because it was poorly maintained and needs constant attention and I hate it. I listen to this when I scrub the pool which takes an hour.

So far the PJ Harvey episode was my favorite. I like the dense, longer episodes so much that a shorter one is disappointing.

I'm halfway through Neutral Milk Hotel which has been great, lots of stuff I had never heard before. Favorite bit: while recording In The Aeroplane... one of the bandmembers would wake Mangum up in the morning by saying "Hey Jeff, wake up, we're gonna make a classic album." and at first Jeff would say "we are?" After a while he started saying "yeah, we are."

xp: yeah, for me podcasts (particularly long ones) are just what I throw on to keep me from going insane when I do chores. Walking the dog? On goes a podcast for 10 minutes. Washing dishes, cooking dinner, etc.

the “24 Question Party People” episodes that Yasi is putting out on the Bandsplain feed are so great - literally not a bad episode yet

so far: Liz Phair, Adam Duritz, Jason Isbell, Ian Shelton (Militarie gun), and today is Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind)

what's the concept?

kind of a spin on the Proust Questionnaire - she asks 24 questions starting out with light easy fluff & delving into deeper personal/music questions as they go along. It’s quite revealing!

I listened to the Pixies one recently. Gina Arnold! Route 666: On The Road to Nirvana had the exact same impact on me that it did Yasi. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and finding that book exposed me to SO MUCH. It gave me a shopping list for my BMG/Columbia House orders. During the episode, Arnold talked about how nobody read the book except Yasi, so I wrote her an email telling her how much it meant to me. She wrote back a sweet reply. I printed it and tucked it in the book. I did a search and she doesn't get a lot of love around here, but she opened music up for me.

The Cure episode was really good. During the Pixies episode Yasi mentioned that she will do The Breeders in the future which I'm pretty excited about.

i requested Ginas book from the inter-library loan system after that Pixies episode, it’s next on my reading list!

xp that's awesome <3

I checked out Gina's book on Amazon, and stumbled on this gem in the reviews section:

my one problem is i found a number of discrepencies such as her naming chuck dukowski as the drummer of black flag? sorry sweetheart, he was the bass player.

(coincidentally(?), I also just started Yasi's podcast with the Liz Phair episode, where she describes her experiences with condescending gatekeeper rock dudes)

i went back and listened to the Gram Parson episode with John Strohm. Super-good episode. Strohm’s a huge fan but also brings a lot of musical insight, and he has a lovely chill vibe w Yasi.

Parsons*

Misfits was probably my least favorite. It was informative, but there was no chemistry between the hosts.

Randy Newman, on the other hand, was fabulous. Molly Lambert and Yasi almost broke my brain with the multi-layered vocal fry. They were having so much fun together that it was infectious, especially in the back half when they had loosened up and were getting into Randy's awkward years ("Masterman and Baby J").

The 24 Question Party People with Liz Phair also did this, but less so.

Radiohead episode blew my mind; they had a dude who knows a lot about music composition and it gave me new respect for a band that I already loved.

Molly Lambert is great - her podcast Heidiworld about Heidi Fleiss was so good

Radiohead episode blew my mind; they had a dude who knows a lot about music composition and it gave me new respect for a band that I already loved.

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, August 1, 2023 12:44 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

If you liked that episode you should listen to his podcast Dissect. It's rap focused and insanely detailed, occasionally ridiculous, but all around a great listen if you like the album he's dissecting.

The Talking Heads episodes with Rob Harvilla are a good time and well worth a listen. Yasi cracks me up, and they have a great dynamic together. The Paramore episode was interesting, as I'd known some but not a lot about their start and band turmoil, but I found the guest a bit short on insight.

I have to admit that the "new" format with short song snippets is a big improvement...Since I only really listen to the episodes of acts I already dig, I'm not sure there was much benefit to 1-1.5 hours worth of music I already know well being mixed in.

I had to bail out of the Dave Matthews Band Redux episode (part 1) after a couple of hours. I had already heard the original (shorter) version, and it was just too much DMB, who I don't like at all. I would get interested in the story and feel invested, and then they would play a clip and fuuuuuuuck no, it's just the wrong sound for my ears. Every instrument sounds like the worst version of that instrument. Nope nope nope

The Misfits episode wasn't too great, mainly because the guest was kinda humorless and thinks Danzig is a lyrical genius or something.

I'm enjoying this but only listening to ones about bands I like. Maybe I'll try others once I run out of those, I dunno if the vibes are enough to carry me through hours of DMB talk. Really enjoyed the epic Cure one, liked Jane's Addiction and Paramore.

I enjoyed the first part of the Talking Heads one, but I pretty quickly found the second one a little self-satisfied (even by the standard set by the first episode). I think I found it frustrating that so much of it is really well researched and funny/perceptive, but there are also these gaps that they (sometimes amusingly) just have no interest in filling. I dunno, felt kinda like a sober episode of Drunk History. I'll probably still finish it, though, it's mostly pretty enjoyable. And I really want to hear the Cure one.

The Cure one is so good. I never had any sense of their social band dynamic and it was fascinating. Poor Lol.

My favorite ones are about bands that I like that I haven't done deep dives on already. I've probably read most of the source material they used for the Talking Heads episodes, so it just didn't have much new stuff for me.

I tried the Songs That Explain the 90's (Birdhouse In Your Soul) and I couldn't get into it. Something about the cadence of the guy's voice. He dipped into that a little during the THeads episode but not enough to bother me too much.

PJ Harvey is probably still my favorite.

I actually find the length of these a plus rather than a minus, because I can just dip into it here and there — in the car, at the gym, mowing the lawn etc — over the course of days or a week.

I am a lapsed DMb fan. Became an outright DMB hater after a fan shushed me at the the one concert i attended lol

but I found yasi’s DMB deep dive pretty charming! I have encountered quite a few women my age recently talking about their DMB fandom (incl my fave writer Samantha Irby) & it has made me think that i should attempt a re-appraisal & maybe revisit what i liked originally idk

by the same token though i can’t say it would convert absolute haters … i think you have to be at least slightly open to them

I'm slightly open to DMB in the sense that I more or less enjoyed a long set by them at Bonnaroo, under sufficient influence of my jam-band-loving friends and assorted friendly substances. But I could not tell you a single thing about the actual music. But I know from her frequent namedropping of them that Yasi is a huge head, so maybe it would be fun to listen to her go on about them.

plus yasi coming at their music so passionately & from a lyrical/emotional appraisal rather than pure music-nerd definitely helps in these on the fence situations

like if it had been just the guest dude Grayson telling me about them i would have noped out STAT lol

it has made me think that i should attempt a re-appraisal & maybe revisit what i liked originally idk

i still like before these crowded streets and the lost record/lillywhite sessions which i guess by proxy means busted stuff but i still have never heard those versions out of stubborn devotion to the first leaked and unreleased record i ever downloaded

just think there’s a ton of good songcraft and dope band interplay and arrangement work on those albums still, e.g. “the stone” in particular, totally his best song. crowded streets contains prob my favorite alanis vocals ever on both her features. lillywhite sessions sound so defeated and strange to their extreme benefit

i'd rather listen to people talk about/splain bands i don't like than the ones i already do like and do not require splaining for -- i don't need anyone to tell me what's great about bands i already love but the ones i truly cannot understand are more interesting. for that reason i enjoyed the DMB ep i listened to.

mostly i am not interested in hours of splaining if i already know why i like a band (personally)

Yeah it probably depends on the depth of your fandom. I've loved the Cure forever but honestly never really delved much into the backstory. So I learned a lot. Same with Paramore, where everything pre-2013 was kind of a blank for me. Jane's Addiction I knew more about, but honestly I can listen to tales of L.A. debauchery for hours happily. (And plenty I didn't know about, like the weird movie Perry Farrell and Casey Niccoli made with Warner Bros. money.)

yeah same

That’s what I loved about the Mats ep, which features the guy that literally wrote the band’s history.

Re: DMB, the Bandsplain ep gave me the push to revisit after a fifteen year hiatus, and though I’m perfectly glad to have outgrown that phase, I maintain that Dave and Tim Live at Luther College is a goddamn gorgeous beautiful album. Nearly every version on there is better than the band’s.

I really enjoyed the Mats ep too; Mehr is such a great ambassador for the lore of the band, and he & yasi clicked so well

Almost done listening to Mats part one right now and yeah, even if there’s very little new to me, still enjoying hearing Mehr go over it once again and the chemistry between the two of them.

The turn in the conversation now is making me think about similarities between Paul and Robbie Robertson.

Theme music by Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast?

the one & only
she also guests on a v enjoyable No Doubt episode

If you are a Jane's fan and you have not seen that movie, you should seriously see that movie.

It is not good by any means, but it's something.

Me and my friends watched that repeatedly in high school, there are lines of it that pop up in my head all the time.

"A lobstah! We dipped it in hot buttah!"

"What is this - grease? I'm sorry. I'm used to gettin' grease on my hands, workin' with pizza and all!"

Television episode is v enjoyable- I like the eps that feature Yasi’s more cantankerous “ugh dudes, why tho” mood lol

also
1 maybe she just brought Evan on the pod to publicly roast him for his behavior at her xmas party & i support it

2 Evan being able to work Dylan into ~every~ conversation thread is so deeply nerdy & wonderful in its way

3 Yasi re Marquee Moon being too long “ok wrap it up bitch” cracked me up

1989 draft episode was fun

super fun! i love how they all dragged caramanica for his wildcard

Yeah, that was great "my wildcard is my opinion" come the fuck on dude. I enjoyed that and the recent Television episode. I gave the Death Cab ep a shot, thinking "maybe this band is more interesting than I give them credit for," but nope, still can't be bothered with 'em.

yeah i have enjoyed Gibbard on the Teenage Fanclub ep & his 24 Questions, and thought maybe i would enjoy the Death Cab deepdive but it turns out i’m still very meh on Death Cab oh well

It's so weird how I hate Gibbard's singing voice but I love Doug Martsch's voice when they're like maybe 85% the same voice

the new two-part episode on The Cure (w/ guest Hanif Abdurraquib) is 7 hours and 27 minutes long.

Dan Carlin's whole series on World War I didn't last much longer than that.

but this is sadder

and BETTER

hanif is a great guest, the runtime is worth it

don’t be a baby

I just can't imagine having that much to say about the Cure.

It's so weird how I hate Gibbard's singing voice but I love Doug Martsch's voice when they're like maybe 85% the same voice

― feed me with your chips (zchyrs), Tuesday, September 19, 2023 11:14 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Never thought about this!

Lou Barlow on 24 Question Party People <3

deeply enjoyable. funny, chill, thoughtful dude

re: the Barlow appearance on 24 Question Party People, was not expecting Sebadoh's "Skull" to have been inspired by a one-and-done night of hard-drug debauchery at Chateau Marmont c/o Evan Dando (that it was aided and abetted by E.D. is of course infinitely less surprising)

Right?!

Excellent easter egg

Interesting, need to hear the show but does have me thinking that the best version of the Lemonheads I saw had Lou's old bandmate Murph in back in '97.

So far have only heard teh Television episode of the main show of taht podcast.

Afghan Whigs episode was really enjoyable- I really didn’t know anything about them except had always gotten a kind of “avoid” vibe from the music somehow, I think bc Dulli seemed kind of bro-y from a distance.

Anyway I may explore some records! I dug the convo a lot, she has v good chemistry w Chris Ryan & he’s got a lot of good insight/knowledge etc. He’s kinda like the “brother” to Harvilla’s “dad” in the Bandsplainverse lol

The Smiths episode was kinda weird? Yasi was often stepping all over the guest host, not giving her much time to talk. Halfway into episode two she chills out a little, but she was really taking up all the space.

During the episode she mentions that she's going through some serious shit, so maybe it was nerves or she was just trying to power through.

idk i really enjoyed it!?

i figured it was just bc Yasi was in high-speed host mode & Fry was a bit more laid back

i loved it though, reminded me of why I love the Smiths & i pictured all of Morissey’s lines being delivered in a swoon from a fainting couch, one arm flung across his forehead in woe

Yasi clearly did her homework and there was a lot of interesting Morrissey discussion, but it would have been cool if the episodes featured a guest able to talk about what's interesting about the instrumental side of things as is sometimes the case.

Listened to the Lou Barlow episode yesterday.
Which is prompting me to want to listen to his own podcast.

Also discovered there's an Australian podcast called Jazzplain.

I was so excited abt the Singles Soundtrack ep today! but mostly i’ve been muffled yelling & shouting & pausing to stomp around my house in annoyance because Sean Fennessy maybe exists to make me yell?

when they both agreed that Pearl Jam’s “Breath” was skippable forgettable etc my heart shattered into a million tiny pieces and i may never recover

lol I had the same feeling during the Talking Heads ep when she and Harvilla kind of shrugged off "Stay Hungry."

i get way too invested in this podcast & i’m officially the neighborhood crazy lady now yelling & flapping her arms in the street
THE WAY I YELLED

I doubt I'll get a lot of people agreeing but Talking Heads - Naked got a bum rap.

1.) Breath is an excellent Pearl Jam song. Don't worry guys, I see you.
2.) High praise for the Paul Westerberg songs drove me insane. Those songs are corny-ass sitcom themes seated next to some of the best hard rock of the day. Yeah, I hum along to Dyslexic Heart out of a sense of nostalgia when I hear it at the grocery store, but eventually it's cycled out of the playlist for I'll Be There For You or How Do You Talk To An Angel or That Thing You Do.
3.) Their praise for the movie is itself suspicious. I haven't seen it in its entirety in a long time, but my friends and I walked out of that shit when it was in theaters. Based on the movie clips available on YouTube, I still would.
4.) I was definitely yelling in my mind while they struggled to build a case for the Lovemongers' Zeppelin cover. They got there eventually, but jesus christ.

I probably skip Breath too, I think. It's decent but State of Love and Trust is THE PJ song on the soundtrack to me.

this is why i can't listen to these podcasts, i will feel the need to yell at the hosts and they can't hear me

("breath" and "state of love and trust" are the two of the top three pj songs, third is "rvm")

yeah them being meh on Lovemongers def hurt my feelings too, i love that “Battle of Evermore” cover so fuckin much!

State is all-time, and I agree the linchpin of the soundtrack. End credits? Can't recall. Maybe it's the Trees song, which also rules.

thematically the Zeppelin cover makes so much sense.

way more sense than the westerberg schlock

totally!

i do have a soft spot for the Westerberg songs, myself

Drown
State of Love and Trust
Nearly Lost You
Would?
May This Be Love
Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns
Overblown
The Battle of Evermore
Birth Ritual
Seasons
Waiting for Somebody
Breath
Dyslexic Heart

'smore or less how I'd rank the songs from the original soundtrack. god i listened to this so so so many times back then.

i dunno if i could rank them, it’s all like one big song in my heart lol

fair! that was harder than i expected it would be

The Westerberg songs are the best ones of there

i was gonna say, thread's being a little harsh on "Dyslexic Heart" imo.

"State of Love and Trust" does rip, though.

I don't hate Westerberg's songs here, they are fine, but compared to his best work they are super corny.

The Kills were on 24 Questions today - it was almost like a podcast over beers, was such a fun conversation

Yasi is v good at this format imo

Jamie’s anecdote abt the Primal Scream guitar tech lining up rails of coke for the band onstage was not at all surprising but v amusing nonetheless

She should get the Raveonettes, I've ever heard them interviewed but they're probably cool

Talking Heads - Naked got a bum rap.

YES! I haven't listened again after that "they made one LP too many" nonsense. (I mean, it's about 7 times better than True Stories FFS.)

This happens with a lot of podcasts once I've listened to a bunch, but I am constantly vacillating between thinking she is the coolest person ever and one of the most annoying. Like, she seems pretty chill and dry and ironic and fun, but other times she speaks like a human meme. I still enjoy it, but it really irks me when people constantly say something slaps or bangs or is "gorg," or "I am dead,' or calls people "babe" and, very specifically in her case, shortens "bonjour" to 'bonj."

Josh, babe, you're giving Scorpio.

lol

babe, happy for u & sorry that happened but i’m not reading all that

<3

no thoughts just vibes

The Joshness of it all.

josh = not a bandsplain girly

It put me off at first, but I have come around to loving Yasi's idiolect

I do admit aspects of it are cringey because I generally don't like it when middle aged people use teenager slang.

It varies with the guest, i think?
For instance, Rob Harvilla seems to raise the level of discourse, but there was an episode with the guy from Eve 6 where i just couldn't do it.

this weeks mailbag w Rob is a delight imo

Love the show but my biggest gripe is Yasi’s middling taste in 90’s alt rock. Will be so relieved once we run out of all these Hootie, Gin Blossum, Toad the Wet Sprocket bands.

boooooooooooo

love it or leave it babe

Yeah great stuff existed prior to 1990 and post 2000 we used to be a proper society etc

y tho

Just want to pipe up that I've been listening to the records that Yasi and Rob recommended in the mailbag episode. I'm really excited about Blondshell. I'm only halfway through the album, but had to stop and post about it on ilx because I was getting my socks knocked off. As I mentioned in the indie thread, I definitely try to give a chance to any contemporary band that takes a page from 90s alt-rock, but usually don't come back to them that often. But I can already tell that I'll probably be listening to this for the rest of the year.

yeah i like Blondeshell thx to bandsplain also!

the 24 Questions w the Gaslight Anthem dude was fun
“Bryan Josephine Fallon” is a v good bit

I'm going to see Blondshell (w/Liz Phair) thx to Bandsplain — after I listened to the 24 Questions with Phair, I looked up the tour dates and promptly bought tickets. I'm not totally sure but under the impression Blondshell will play first, then will back Phair during her set. Psyched!

Oh, I think Blondshell's just opening, then Phair with her band. Anyway, should be good.

i’m seeing the show in SF! excited:D

i too bought tix after the 24 Questions w Phair <3

Mazzy Star ep is v good

also lol @ yasi referring to England as “Ole Limey” instead of “Ole Blighty”

Posted this in the Radiohead thread, but if you liked the Bandsplain on Radiohead, Cole Cuchna -- the second of the two guests in that ep -- is doing a full season on In Rainbows on his podcast Dissect.

oh cool!

24 Questions w Dogstar today was v fun, Rob & Bret seem like good dudes; esp enjoyed Yasi giving Keanu shit for playing bass throughout lol

Dammit, Yasi, why did you even bring a guest on the Smiths episodes if you’re just gonna talk over her every time she says more than 4 words in a row

It gets better in the second half, but that was the first (only?) time that Yasi bugged me. She mentions having some heavy shit going on in her life so maybe it was just a bad day.

She really did talk all over Naomi Fry.

Considering that we learned in the recent 60 Songs live episode that Yasi's most streamed song of the decade was Call Me Maybe, she should do an episode on Carly Rae Jepsen.

Is there some legal/royalties reason why the music clips are so short on this podcast?
Even for the albums that I'm already familiar with, I feel like I'm playing Name That Tune, trying to identify the song in the first 10 notes, before the clip gets cut off.

Hang on, the episodes are 3 years long WITHOUT INCLUDING MUSIC?!?

it used to be a listen-along format on spotify only with full songs but since they switched to Ringer they only do short clips which is standard for most podcasts (not all) bc of fair use copyright etc

anyway the Kevin Drew 24QPP ep is really good and deep and nice

(in contrast the Evan Dando ep last week was chaos incorporated lol)

That's good to hear. I couldn't make it one question into the Dando interview, his way of speaking is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

The Dando episode reminded me of so many conversations I have had with smart people who's brains got battered by drugs.

otm :/

listening is like the verbal version of watching a dog chase butterflies

Yasi’s 24 Questions with Joe Talbot of IDLES is a fuckin all-timer. So good!
Plus he has an A+ accent

Bandsplain fiiiiiinally back with an entire season curated towards me and my tastes that have remained unchanged since 15 years of age :D

Grunge prehistory ep Green River, Mother Love Bone & Temple of the Dog w Patty Schemel

Leading up to next week’s Pearl Jam two parter weeeeeee

I only wish Yasi & Patty were more enthused by Mother Love Bone but it is also unsurprising as few ppl are as into them as say, uh, me lol

otherwise a fun episode & lots of incredible info nuggets like Chris Cornell auditoned to be lead singer of Shadow!

my only note is i think Yasi sometimes gets caught up in her own research & doesn’t always have the in-the-moment ear or knack for picking up something a guest says & diving into that, a few missed opportunities with Patty’s comments imo

but overall a v cool conversation

Ooh! Can’t wait to tune in.

That’s definitely a Yasi thing. I think it’s partly congenital, partly conditioned by limp-ass guests she’s had on the past (cf. Smiths episode)

yeah definitely

about halfway thru, Patty def doing a lot of “yeah” and “uh-huh” but it’s been a good listen so far.

i need to replace my old cd’s of a lot of this music i foolishly traded in many years ago

my only note is i think Yasi sometimes gets caught up in her own research & doesn’t always have the in-the-moment ear or knack for picking up something a guest says & diving into that, a few missed opportunities with Patty’s comments imo

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, April 18, 2024 4:24 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is absolutely the biggest problem with an otherwise great podcast.

sometimes, too, if she's not high on the band, she spends an inordinate amount of time explaining why she's not high on the band, which is weird, because you have to assume most of the people listening are

**5 hour** Pearl Jam episode is up! weeeeeee :D

^ i do feel like it’s some weird kind of karma that the guest os Kevin Ryan who is much more sports bro than I would have wanted as a guest

he’s not terrible just kinda basic i guess, convo is good so far mostly but dude coming out of the gate w a Tom Brady reference was like “oh no i am in hell?” lol

Ha, Kevin is, or was, a total The Ringer sports dude, kinda of funny, but def a football / locker room personality. I will expect copious sports analogies. I’m not a huge Pearl Jam fan, but will listen to this all the same.

he does have a lot of uh fan cred, and is very engaged so it’s not like it’s a wash or BAD in any way … i just am v triggered by sports bros with this band i because in my experience they were the most insufferable fans in the 90’s so there’s like a weariness in my soul for that specific vibe

quietly i wish it was at least someone my age or older who had a bit more context for the early chronology of the band idk hello yes i love looking a gift horse in the mouth

In high school, we had a friend who was a sports bro PJ megafan. A local band wrote a song about him that rhymed "Pearl Jam rare imports" with "Jordan boxer shorts"

lmao

breaking news: the Pearl Jam draft episode is fun & great

i hate drafts as a concept, i always bummed that yasi is seemingly contractually required to do them

BUT this is a great group of did hard fans & the conversation scratches such a deep fangirl alt.music.pearl-jam itch … highly recommend if (like me) you like the band and ordinarily hate drafts of anything

*die hard fans

guests are the great Jill Wilson, Steven Hyden & Brian (Josephine) Fallon of Gaslight Anthem

5-hour Alice in Chains episode with Harvilla...

The Pearl Jam episode makes the classic mistake of confusing Andy Gill the journalist with Andy Gill from Gang of Four

loving the Alice In Chains ep already <3

i suddenly felt quite defensive (and old & unfashionable) when they were laughing about Social Parasite

however i am deeply hair-metal pilled and never really thought much about it other than i liked it?

it does sound like a Ratt song now that i listen with fresh ears lol

Much as I love Rob H, he wasn’t the right guest for the Albini memorial.

I take that back. The last 10 minutes, he pulls it out.

the last 30 minutes of the Alice In Chains bandsplain is just me crying nonstop ;_;

i knew what i was in for but every time it just punches me in the stomach

they were a special band for me as a teen. i had a lot of anger & depression & struggled with selfharm… their music was so different & that angst & anger & fragility just made me feel so much less alone. i never told my friends or anyone about about my dark shit at the time, so AIC were kind of like my fuckedup therapy where i could feel my feelings in a cathartic way. RiP Layne.

I was looking for a heart emoji for that post. Thank god for music.

The Layne stuff in Lanegan's autobiography haunts me. Clearly a total dude, fucked-up and all, but a dude.

The last hour of this is so goddamn sad. Jesus.

i keep trying with this podcast, but ultimately it's a good concept that would be better off in the hands of more competent people: a producer who will tighten things up in general and a host who is charming but also listens to their guests and engages in conversation rather than prioritizing jokes, personal anecdotes and notes from the research. some of that is fine, of course, but not *this* much and not for 4+ hours.

Hunh! I find Salek's insights pretty unique and have helped recontextualize a lot of artists I'd just kinda worn out and discarded. Interview with Kim Thayil might be my favorite thing she's done, 'cause he's been such an opaque figure, really felt Iike I got where his artistic impulses came from.

She’s pretty inconsistent — some episodes definitely better than others for her particular quirks. Seems to track with her general mental well being? Kim Thayil episode was great. Soundgarden episodes were good, altho when you’ve got Hanif Abdurraqib on your podcast, for god’s sake, girlie, let him cook!

i really enjoyed the Soundgarden eps and that Kim Thayil interview was so great.

i had been dreading the end of the Soundgarden final ep surrounding Chris’s death but she seemed to dodge most of the details
which I guess is good but felt a bit odd?. Like I didn’t WANT it but I didn’t want nothing? But I guess it’s complicated & weird so I get it.

new Happy Mondays & Stone Roses ep today :D

guests are John Niven and Chlöe Walsh who are v fun

john & chloe correcting yasi’s pronunciations & giving her needed insight on slang is proving v enjoyable

Yeah that was a good one. I loved the story of the original Happy Mondays berating the original bassist for getting a fry-up by himself.

also this:

John Cale: Tell me about your chords
Mark Day: uh I got them at Marks & Spencer i think
Gaz: He means your guitar chords you tit, not your pants!

I heard there were some stylish chords
That Day had worn and it pleased the Lord
Cause you don’t want them super tight now do ya?
“Where’d you get ‘em?” the Welshman barks
Mark sez “I think at Marks & Sparks”
“Your guitar chords, you tit,” says Gaz, “Ah, screw ya”

lmao

A+

Excellent work

Cause you don’t want them super tight now do ya?

A loose fit, if you will.

You might even say .. resembling a bag

This may be my favorite thing Salek has yet done. This four hour gab about two bands I don't care about is one of the most amusing music discussions I've ever heard. Such great rapport between the three, taking all her deep digging and giving it a context. The year I lived in London was during the rise of these bands, and I didn't get it. I was dedicated to the Blast First/Creation/Earache gig circuits, so the woozy sounds of these bands was just a small enough difference to frustrate. I actually gave the Stone Roses album a listen a few months ago and finally liked it quite a bit, but my cassette of Bummed was hardly ever played through. I still cant hear the funk that moves so many people. The podcast did a better job than even 24-Hour Party People at explaining the charm/exasperation of the personas in and around the Mondays, but I have to accept the the proper combination of drugs and room sound will never line up for me.

Niven & Walsh do some top shelf color commentary, it really feels like story-time down at the pub or something

really looking forward to part 2

omg

I was listening to pt2 of Happy Mondays/Stone Roses .. when Yasi got to the story of how they hired a vocal coach for Ian Brown on the Second Coming tour who pretended to be a friend of a friend? I had to stop & lean against a tree i was laughing so hard.

Truly the funniest, enjoyable series she’s done maybe ever thanks to the craziness of these 2 bands

Niven & Walsh absolutely topshelf guests, such great stuff from them

fascinated by chloe walsh’s globe-spanning accent, which varies between continents even within words, but yeah these episodes are amazing

their final story, Niven & Walsh going to see the Roses together in Sweden is gold, so fucking funny

Really surprised there was no mention of how Baggy was so huge that U2 adopted its sound wholesale for Achtung Baby. Or is that just so obvious that it didn’t even need mentioning?

I think there may be a separate thread but I'm very much enjoying the new season of Sixty Songs That Explain the 90s (The 2000s).

Harvilla thread: Rob Harvilla's 60 Songs that Explain the 90s

> fascinated by chloe walsh’s globe-spanning accent, which varies between continents even within words, but yeah these episodes are amazing

Headspinning! The sudden LA to London syllable shifts is like playing GeoGuesser.

Very jarring hearing Niven refer to Stevie Nicks as "bitch"

thanks for repping for these episodes. so much fun. i had gotten a bit tired of the pod during the last season but yasi is fantastic here

I had given this podcast a long break, but I listened to most of the first episode of the Mondays/Roses story on a flight and it was a hoot. Maybe it helps that I've never really listened to either of these bands so was not invested in her takes? Anyway, the stories are legendary, the hangout cadence infectious, the slang impenetrable (and her mispronunciations amusing), and I've learned a lot about that scene (not least why some would consider the Mondays touched by genius despite the Roses being objectively "better"). The Mondays story specifically, it's like a glimpse into some strange parallel universe/invented world. So many postal workers!

Possibly a hangover from Mondays/Roses but the Blur ep didnt really hit for me - and i usually love CR & yasi :/

mainly because Yasi is so in the bag for Song 2 era that evertything before it is “chimney sweep” … and i was largely off the bus after Song 2. I guess it’s an age thing.

I did a puzzle at the weekend and binged the two Roses/Mondays episodes. I just finished the last 30 minutes or so, and it was like coming off a long flight — glad to be out of the tube but kind of sorry to lose the comfort of the bubble.

Ironically, I don't think I'll ever finish it until I'm on another long flight.

The Blur/Oasis ranking ep last week was a bit ordinary (the drafts & ranking of things is the curse of listening to many shows on Ringer network), but i’m looking forward to the Oasis standalone series/ep this week

My shit analogy didn't really do much of a job of explaining how much I enjoyed myself.

Yeah, the feud episode seemed a bit of a rehash of things already covered in the previous one. Also raised my eyebrow at Sawyer's downplaying/dismissal of the "Blur should catch AIDS and die" controversy as political correctness gone mad. Overall, though, I've really enjoyed these episodes for the reasons discussed above, even if my own opinion of Oasis is quite a bit lower than Salek's and her guests'.

Also, thanks to the slang episode, I finally understand the "funky little boat race" line in "All the Young Dudes." All these years, I've assumed it was just a bit of nonsense. 

yeah Sawyer was infuriatingly glib over the AIDS comment, tbh i turned it off at that

I'm 5 hours into the Mondays/Roses ones and I'm enjoying it, even though I can't stand most of the music (although if I have to choose, it's definitely the Mondays). Turns out this show works for me a lot better when I don't know the music or the story at all coming into it, I guess.

heh that was my takeaway too.

I did finish this epic, and it was a lot of fun but more than enough. One thing I wish it went into was ... maybe it was the second part, where the Stone Roses album finally comes out? After listening to her guests rhapsody about it, she kind of points out, politely, that the Roses album doesn't exactly sound revolutionary or anything, so why do people talk about it in such awed, revelatory terms? And what she gets back is more or less "you had to be there," which only half explains it. Because just like Yasi, I think the album is good, but it also sounds pretty standard sorta '60s styled guitar rock, not exactly mind blowing or anything.

Related, another helpful thing about this podcast is that I was always confused why so many of these "Madchester" acts struck me similarly, as just more or less standard rock with the occasional nod to dance music, whether one album ("Screamadelica," say) or one track ("Fools Gold"). As opposed to, for example, New Order, who fused guitars and machines more or less from day one. I guess the whole baggy scene was pretty fleeting, and for those couple of years sucked in everything remotely in the periphery, even if the only qualifying feature was the band's footwear.

I did love how both the Roses and Mondays camps were at times either pirating or bootlegging themselves, like a bunch of idiots. Like, the notion of the Roses buying their own laminating machine to print backstage passes to their own shows, that's ... something.

Yeah this Madchester episode is so up my alley, I love it. I do wish she had a proper Mancunian accent in the mix, but the guests are fine. I love the stories. There can never be too many Happy Mondays stories in the world.

their shared story about “seeing” the Roses for that last performance was so fucking funny, truly a top-tier episode for me

xxpost It was of course the Mondays that bought their own laminating machine, my bad. The Roses's shifty manager was the one selling bootleg Roses shirts and pocketing the money.

Yasi writes on Instagram that she lost her house and all her stuff in the Altadena fire. This is so bad.

:(((

oh man, that is awful, awful, awful.

devastating :( poor yasi

oh man, that’s horrible

Oh shit

Oh no, sorry to hear it.

The intro essay for this week’s episode about “uncool bands that seemed like grunge when you were a kid but arent” is delightful and SO in my wheelhouse, am having a blast over here

stuart braithwait guesting on jesus & mary chain?
inject it into my veins (so to speak)

He's making the rounds, Stuart was just on Discograffitti talking about Joy Division

<3

I went to bed very late and very drunk last night & put the episode on to anchor me against the bedspins. It was still playing when I woke up. What the hell!

Looking forward to listening to it while awake.

lmao

VegemiteGrrl to thread, new season seems exactly in your wheelhouse

listening to the hair metal hall of fame and will go back to the Motley Crue episode next, great times!

yes listening to the HOF episode as we speak :)

upset by casual Kiss slander (not really), love that they give Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister their flowers, yelling at Yasi that Taime Down’s name is a stupid play on Tie Me Down and not rhyming with Fame

it’s a rollercoaster of emotions

haha, yeah i have some differences of opinion with Yasi and Molly at some points but it’s a great cataloging of that time.

will def raid my cd and cassette stash when i get home this evening

Molly & Yasi are both a bit younger than me and that def has a lot of bearing on their picks

Like I’d maybe take out Van Halen and Whitesnake and sub in some others like WASP, Dokken and maybe Kix but also I’m deeply hair-band pilled lol

It was a fun convo anyway and imo it’s always enjoyable for me to hear women talk about this genre vs the usual run of older dudez lol

them being baffled over the meaning of Pour Some Sugar On Me was v funny even if it was sincere & not ironic

actual irl lol during that segment, I was a work listening thru an earbud and my colleague in the next cubicle was curious about all the fuss

i’m also old enough to have listened to these bands in real time, the period covered more or less spans my elementary to high school years

Molly had old podcasts that were part of my weekly diet and always enjoy her insights and Yasi is an all timer for me

Yeah Molly rules! I dig pretty much everything she does, always love her as a guest

But I guess this ep put to bed my hopes of ever getting a Kiss bandsplain lol

i have always thought it would be so good to do w someone like Duff or Kim Thayil as a guest, like someone who joined a band because of them. But it would also be only fun through the 70’s (maybe 80’s for some really stupid stuff) and then its just a hellscape from there so i get it

Maybe we’ll get a Dolls episode. That’d be cool

I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed that - after ALL. THAT. BRITPOP. - we got Motley Crue, the Hair Metal Hall of Fame, and thennnnnnn...Alanis Morrisette and Evan Dando's memoir? Not that those episodes wouldn't be interesting to me, but I had been psyching myself up for more 80s madness. Guess we're out of the Theme Zone and back into just random episode topics.