Buckle up and run a systems diagnostic, because this is a long one. Where do you go after revolutionizing electronic dance music twice in a row? Daft Punk’s albums Homework and Discovery spawned a whole generation of imitators, way too many of whom were content to just copy their source code. The duo’s response was to load up Random Access Memories, an album that looks back to the sounds of the great synth and disco pioneers while envisioning a bold future for music that mixes the analog and digital. The music industry chose not to pursue this future, in part because this album was just too damn expensive, but it resulted in some great music, and one of the most Discord & Rhyme-ready albums we’ve covered. So get ready to get lucky and lose yourself to dance, as Daft Punk give life back to music.
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Born in the USA isn't Ben's favorite Bruce Springsteen album. In fact, it's not even his favorite Bruce Springsteen album whose name begins with Born. So why the heck are we covering it here? Well, despite selling 30 million copies in the last 37 years, it's sometimes unfairly dismissed as Bruce's vapid radio album. But there's real depth on Born in the USA: politics, heartbreak, angst, humor, and creative frustration, all snuck into the Top Ten by virtue of being attached to catchy melodies and muscular rock and roll. So join Ben, who gets to be the Boss — for two hours, at least — and the awesomely insightful Employees Amanda, Rich, and Phil, as they discuss a huge hit album that's way more interesting than you might remember.
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As we’ve discussed on this show before, rock critics are sometimes terribly, terribly wrong. When Paul and Linda McCartney released Ram in 1971, not only was everyone still mad about the Beatles breaking up, but the album was just innovative and groundbreaking enough that plenty of the tastemakers of the time just didn’t get it. Fortunately, the general public has known for quite a long time that Ram is amazing, and there’s recently been a big critical re-assessment of it. We’re here to help that process along. It’s an excellent album, containing some of McCartney’s best work, and we’re doing our best to convince anyone who is still in doubt.
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Mahavishnu Orchestra, the brainchild of guitarist and prominent Miles Davis sideman John McLaughlin, spent roughly two years (1971-73) playing an incredibly intense brand of cutting-edge jazz-rock fusion and became bonafide rock stars in the process, before their comet-like rise to fame led to the group members hating each other and going their separate ways. In this episode, John (host), Phil (moderator), and Mike tackle The Inner Mounting Flame, the band’s 1971 debut album, and an album that John once found intimidating but now merely finds challenging and extremely enjoyable. Instrumental music and jazz fusion may not be for everybody, but if you’re skeptical, this episode may convince you that it’s more up your alley than you might have thought.
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The Magnetic Fields, during its early-’90s heyday, consisted mainly of introverted wordplay enthusiast Stephin Merritt, his collection of abused, dinky electronics, and Claudia Gonson, his drummer, cheerleader, and buffer to the outside world. Other collaborators came and went through astonishingly catchy, brainy, and weird albums like Holiday and The Charm of the Highway Strip (not to mention the creme-de-la-creme indie-rock ball of the 6ths’ Wasps’ Nests, which we covered like eight years ago). But nothing prepared the rock-geek world for 69 Love Songs: Merritt’s three-disc 1999 opus that was no longer lo-fi (unless he wanted it to be), no longer willfully obscure (unless that was the point), and no longer inaccessible (unless it was “Love Is Like Jazz,” which … ecch). Instead, it was a seemingly impossible romp through dozens of musical styles that could be hilarious, heartbreaking, mocking, sincere, or all of the above in one big clump. Will and Rich stick this whole thing out over three episodes which we’ll be releasing over three joyous nights, joined variously by John, Amanda, and recurring D&R guest hosts Libby Cudmore and B. Heard.
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One day in September 1976, fueled by cocaine, peppers, and milk, David Bowie entered a Los Angeles recording studio, and then emerged a couple months later remembering nothing about what had just happened. Discord & Rhyme is here to fill in the blanks for you: He spent those two months recording Station to Station, a transitional album between his funk and experimental art rock periods that may be his all-time greatest work. The only album from Bowie’s Thin White Duke persona is only six songs long, but they’re so colorful and dense that Producer Mike and co-hosts John, Rich, and Ben spend nearly two hours talking about them. There’s so much going on in this music that it could fill a movie or book (and Ben even wrote one about him), but for today, a really enthusiastic podcast episode will suffice. And unlike your television set, there is no evidence that your podcatcher of choice will try to eat you!
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This week, Dan, Mike, and Rich take a break from the usual state-of-the-art Discord & Rhyme studio, dust off the four-track, and head down to the basement with a case of beer for a no-frills chat about Guided by Voices. After percolating as 37-year-old school teacher Robert Pollard’s side hustle for over a decade, GBV (as we refer to them for 99% of the episode) suddenly found themselves on the radar of hip indie-rock tastemakers. 1994’s Bee Thousand captures this turning point for the band with a gloriously messy patchwork of 20 home-recorded songs that incorporate influences of what Pollard calls the Four P’s of Rock: prog, psych, pop, and punk. Jam along with us to these lo-fi anthems, and try to not pull a muscle while imitating Pollard’s signature stage kicks.
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Frank Zappa is an awfully difficult man to summarize. He recorded dozens of dozens of albums with numerous different bands in countless different genres. He was a relentless innovator, never sticking with one style for long and always pushing forward into completely new musical territory, whether he thought his audience would be willing to follow him or not. Where do you even start discussing a man whose work consistently defies categorization and lacks a single album that stands as a “representative” work? Well, when all else fails, start at the beginning! On this episode, Phil is leading the Frank Zappa superfan contingent of Discord And Rhyme (consisting of John, Dan, and Mike) through a discussion of Frank Zappa’s wildly innovative 1966 debut double album, Freak Out!. Come for the doo-wop, stay for the musique concrète.
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Can you hear those towering walls of amped-up guitars in our latest episode, accompanied by aching lyrics you can barely hear? That’s because we’ve loaded it with Sugar! After pioneering alternative rock in the hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü, frontman and guitarist Bob Mould briefly went solo, then formed a new power trio named after a stray packet of sugar that caught his eye while eating at a Waffle House. (This naming convention would not be repeated until the 2000 Hootie & the Blowfish covers album Scattered, Smothered and Covered.) Sugar’s high-decibel, disarmingly sincere brand of power pop has always made the band Will’s preferred branch of the Mouldverse, and this week he’s joined by Ben, Will, and special guest Scott Floman to discuss their 1992 masterpiece Copper Blue.
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Elle King is a tough, scrappy, incredibly talented musician who doesn’t get nearly as much attention as she should. Rather than being dismissed as a “one-hit wonder,” which has unfairly (and inaccurately) already happened, she should be appreciated as a versatile artist who can rock your face off with enormous guitars and drums one minute, then turn around and break your heart with a banjo ballad the next. Today we’re here to tell you why her enormous voice, her gift for both melody and lyrics, and her love of really loud percussion are very much worth your time.
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