In this episode, we cover the (short) career of a great country singer (maybe?) who made a few albums’ worth of transcendent country music (except for all the little touches that aren’t country music). Gram Parsons was a polarizing figure, but Ben loves his 1974 opus Grievous Angel - made in collaboration with the golden-voiced Emmylou Harris - and Amanda and John dig it plenty. Along the way, they make a case for why country music is worth your attention, and for why Grievous Angel is a classic example of the genre (mostly) (it’s complicated).
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This is Halloween, this is Halloween! But instead of pumpkins screaming in the dead of night, we’re throwing a Dead Man’s Party with the help of Danny Elfman and his punk-new wave-ska-pop-rock band, Oingo Boingo. This classic album from 1985 marks a transition from Oingo Boingo’s earlier yelping weirdness into a more mature and radio-friendly sound, but never fear - they’re still just as creepy and strange as ever. The result is an album that’s intense, catchy, melodic, and fun, and has become a rightful Halloween classic. So leave your body and soul at the door and join us, because there’s always room for maybe just one more.
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Of all the genre-flouting “alternative” bands scooped up by major labels in the mid-‘90s, Soul Coughing boasted arguably the most enduring listening power. Their second of three perfect albums, Irresistible Bliss, landed an unexpected hit with the aggressively funky depth charge “Super Bon Bon.” In this episode, Will enlists the help of Phil, Rich, and Amanda in figuring out whether there’s some manner of locomotion that will get us to the mezzanine.
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At last, we’re talking about the Decemberists, a band that has come up multiple times in other episodes! But instead of going for the more obvious choices like Picaresque or The Crane Wife, we decided on an album that we feel has been underappreciated (even by some of us). What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World may not sound quite like the Decemberists of yore, but their unique identity hasn’t really changed, it’s just been channeled in new directions. Plus, this album contains Amanda’s most AND least favorite Decemberists songs! This is a good one for those of you who like the discord.
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The career of jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis from the late 1940s through his (temporary) retirement in 1975 largely doubles as a tour of every significant stylistic development in the jazz world during this time. By the late 1960s, after taking acoustic jazz as far as he believed it could go, Miles chose to immerse himself in the world of electric jazz fusion, and his 1970 album Bitches Brew remains both one of the most famous jazz fusion albums and one of the most famous Miles Davis albums overall. In this episode, Mike leads a discussion (Phil moderating, John co-hosting) on this monster of a listening experience: an album that that gets labeled as jazz-rock but often sounds nothing like either jazz or rock; an album that got dismissed by many contemporary jazz listeners and critics as a sell-out even though it's some of the least accessible music Davis ever made; and an album where producer Teo Macero proved that extensive tape manipulation could work every bit as well in the jazz world as it could in the rock world.
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In 2009, 25 years into their career, the Oklahoma-based eccentric alt-rock band The Flaming Lips released a dark, terrifying double-album that nobody could have expected when "She Don't Use Jelly" landed them a cameo on Beverly Hills 90210. Embryonic is an album that prompts strong love-it-or-hate-it reactions in listeners, and John (host), Rich, and Mike land among the album's lovers. Join us for a detailed look at an absolutely wild musical and emotional journey, where sheer beauty mingles with overpowering low-end, and where devastating looks at depression mingle with whimsical (yet melancholy) tunes about a woman who imitates a frog.
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You might know Sam Phillips from those lovely "la la la"s on the Gilmore Girls soundtrack, or as Katya, the silent assassin in Die Hard: With a Vengeance. But she's also a fiercely talented songwriter with an encyclopedic knowledge of music and a literary lyrical sense. She first cut her teeth in the contemporary Christian music world (as Leslie Phillips, “the Christian Cyndi Lauper”) before leaving Myrrh Records and forging a creative and personal bond with producer T Bone Burnett. But though her 1994 album Martinis & Bikinis is a secular album on the surface, it’s brimming with a spirituality that makes its point without resorting to dogma, as well as melodies and arrangements that reference the Beatles without slipping into pastiche. So join Rich, Amanda, and John for a Discord & Rhyme that’s one part Beatles study and one part Bible study, with a little bit of XTC and The Brave Little Toaster thrown in for good measure.
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This week, we’re throwing away our hard-earned indie cred and dropping in a few more words from our sponsors than usual. We have some great new products to tell you about, and along the way, we will be discussing the 1967 classic The Who Sell Out. Conceptualized as a tribute to the UK pirate radio culture of the mid-60s, The Who go all-in on the concept (well, at least until they completely drop it about three-quarters of the way in) complete with station IDs and their own fake commercial jingles. It captures the band at their peak as a 60s pop band with instantly catchy melodies and clever, funny lyrics. Crack open another can of Heinz Baked Beans and join Dan, John, Ben, and Rich as we dig into this product placement classic.
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What kind of band was Genesis - strange, artsy prog-rock masters, or catchy, commercial pop stars? In this very special episode of Discord and Rhyme, we’re here to make the case that they did both equally well - and not only that, but the presence or absence of Peter Gabriel was not the main influence on their sound. They never truly lost their prog sensibilities, but they did get better at balancing them with more commercial and accessible sounds. After you get through all three hours of our third double feature, you will be the person at the party who says, “WELL, ACTUALLY” when someone tries to tell you that post-Gabriel Genesis is bad.
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The phrase “so-and-so band needs no introduction” is incredibly overused, but if there’s a single band for whom the phrase holds true... it’s the Beatles. However, if there are two bands that it holds true for, it’s the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Many associate the Stones with “good old-fashioned rock and roll,” but that isn’t really true. Sure, the band has been locked into its trademark style for several decades now, but in the ’60s, they were far more creative than they were often given credit for. And they never ventured further afield than they did on 1967’s Their Satanic Majesties Request, a bizarre, stoned, trippy, psychedelic album, filled top to bottom with strange sounds, experimental song structures, and tons and tons of just-plain-weirdness. Fans and critics hated it and the band quickly moved on, never attempting anything in this style ever again and generally pretending that the album doesn’t exist. Is the album really that bad, though? Phil sure doesn’t think so, and he’s here to make the case to Rich, John, and Dan that it’s a detour in the Stones discography well worth taking.
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