Episodes

Formed in London in 1980, The Legendary Pink Dots - led by core members Edward Ka-Spel and Phil Knight - are an uncategorizable experimental avant-rock band with over 40 albums to their credit. This week's guests, Oklahoma City husband-and-wife duo Allan and Barb Vest (doubleVee), join us to discuss their 1991 album 'The Maria Dimension', a uniquely compelling collection of neo-psychedelic tunes that sound like they were intercepted from an interplanetary radio broadcast hosted by Syd Barrett an...

Coming up as a teenager playing piano in Washington, D.C. gay bars, Tori Amos has always had a special connection to the LGBTQ community - particularly gay men. For this week's guests, 'Drive All Night - The Songs Of Tori Amos Podcast' co-host Efrain Schunior and Tori super-fan Kenny Franklin, that connection was only deepened with the release of her 1996 tour de force 'Boys For Pele'. Recorded primarily in a church in rural Ireland, the album combines her typically virtuoso piano playing with m...

We discuss 'The Hoople' by Mott the Hoople with Brad Elvis and Chloe Orwell of The Handcuffs

This week we ventured outside the box a bit, as we explored 1994's confounding 'Pomme Fritz' (The Orb's Little Album) by English electronic music group The Orb. When our guest, UK musician Nick Morfitt, first discovered this record he was ALREADY a fan of The Orb's brand of ambient techno, but this release - incorporating more abstract, experimental musique concrète elements - took him years to fully comprehend. Rob might still need a little more time. Music featured in this episode: Two Highla...

"The Man In The Van" himself, Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, The Stooges) joins us for another BONUS "Mixtape Episode", where we invite a special guest to curate a mixtape for our listeners and dig into their musical selections. He did NOT disappoint! Mike's mixtape: 1. Blank Generation - Richard Hell & The Voidoids 2. She's As Beautiful As A Foot - Blue Oyster Cult 3. Another Coke - Alternative Television 4. Dice Man - The Fall 5. Mine Mine Mind - Roky Erickson 6. Up Around The Bend - Creedenc...

This week's guest, writer/drummer S.W. Lauden, first wrote about NY band Fountains Of Wayne in the book 'Go All The Way: A Literary Appreciation of Power Pop'. During that time, he listened to their third - and breakout - album 'Welcome Interstate Managers' for months on repeat, and eventually formulated a theory that it's actually a sly, sophisticated Gen-X concept album. To be clear, this is solely HIS theory. Nonetheless, it lent itself to a really fun conversation, and the pure-pop mastery o...

For this BONUS Patron-curated episode, we asked our Patrons to send in a Duet/Collaboration that got them - metaphorically - high. They did good. Real good. Songs featured in this episode: I Got You, Babe - Sonny and Cher, Marianne Faithful and David Bowie, UB40 with Chrissie Hynde, Joey Ramone and Holly Beth Vincent; Let It Be Me - The Everly Brothers; Whenever I Call You Friend - Stevie Nicks and Kenny Loggins; Angel from Montgomery - Bonnie Raitt and John Prine; Piss Bottle Man - Mike Watt w...

Founded in Wakefield, West Yorkshire UK in 1972 by singer/guitarist Bill Nelson, Be-Bop Deluxe were a band that combined art-rock, glam and prog with a healthy dose of heavy metal guitar heroics. OG BBD fan Bill Burns joins us as we unpack their sonically stunning 1976 album, 'Sunburst Finish'. Songs featured in this episode: Anemone - The Brian Jonestown Massacre; Stay Young - Bill Nelson's Red Noise; Sickle Clowns - The Pretty Things; Axe Victim - Be-Bop Deluxe; Matte Kudasai - King Crimson; ...

Husband-and-wife bandmates Tony Kapel & Maitejosune Urrechaga (Pocket of Lollipops) bring us Harry Nilsson's wonderfully weird 1970 concept album 'The Point!' This strange and endearing collection of songs - which was accompanied by an animated film adaptation that aired a few weeks after the album's release on the ABC-TV network - is an often-overlooked gem that still resonates today. Songs featured in this episode: The Town - Harry Nilsson; Rainbow Swords, Skulls & Muscle Tones - Pocket Of Lo...

When this week's guest, producer/audio engineer Paul Mahern, discovered 'Easter Everywhere' by Texas psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators in the early 80s, he was a punk rock loving musician (Indianapolis Indiana's Zero Boys) looking to expand his musical horizons. He got all that he bargained for and more with this wonderfully dense, expansive and mind-blowing record by a band - led by Tommy Hall and Roky Erickson - that went all-in on their spirituality-through-psychedelics ideals. "You'...

Singer/Artist Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon, Supercluster, Pylon Reenactment Society) joins us for another BONUS "Mixtape Episode", where we invite a special guest to curate a mixtape for our listeners and dig into their musical selections. Vanessa's mixtape: 1. What is Life - George Harrison 2. Space Oddity - David Bowie 3. If There is Something - Roxy Music 4. Dancing Barefoot - Patti Smith 5. Dance This Mess Around - B-52’s 6. I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones 7. Damaged Goods - Gang of Four 8. Plane...

Our 2nd foray into the rock and roll enigma that is Ween, this time diving into their sixth studio album The Mollusk with special guest and super-fan Les Norris. Pegged as a favorite by both Gene and Dean Ween - as well as purportedly being the inspiration for Spongebob Squarepants - it's a dark but surprisingly tuneful multi-genre concept album that flits from psychedelia to sea shanties as only they can. "Bring forth the mollusk, cast unto me Let's be forever, let forever be free" Songs featu...

Canadian documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig (Vinyl, I, Curmudgeon, When Jews Were Funny) brings us an album of understated, fluid funk with a subtle-but-potent message: 'There's No Place Like America Today' by Curtis Mayfield. Released in 1975 on Mayfield's own Curtom Records, it's a stunning, sophisticated - and sadly overlooked - chronicle of austere times by a true master of his craft. Essential listening. *Opening dialogue from the 2000 documentary film 'Vinyl' Songs featured in this episode:...

It's another BONUS Patron-curated episode! For this one, we asked our Patrons to send in their favorite INSTRUMENTAL song. No singers?? No problem!! Songs featured in this episode: Waltzinblack - The Stranglers; Jessica - The Allman Brothers Band; Fun To Be Happy - Love Tractor; Groovy Delivery Boy - Frank DeVol; Fracture (Live) - King Crimson; The Köln Concert, Part IIc - Keith Jarrett; La Femme d'Argent - Air; Brendan #1 - Fugazi; Pacifica - Los Straitjackets; What Does Your Soul Look Like - ...

We put the AA batteries into our Sony Walkman and fired up Berkeley California's The Motels 1982 New Wave classic 'All Four One'. Our special guest, retired drag queen and bon vivant Shelley Novak a.k.a. Tommy Strangie, brings the passion AND the knowledge as we explore the life, songs and stylings of Martha Davis and Co. Along the way we bump into Mark McGrath, Diane Warren and Wink Martindale, among others. Join us, won't you? Songs featured in this episode: You Don't Own Me - Lesley Gore; Ta...

The fourth - and penultimate - studio album by The Police, "Ghost In The Machine", is both the sound of a band ascending to super-stardom and a band tearing apart at the seams. Guitarist extraordinaire Russell Mofsky (Gold Dust Lounge, Quit) joins us as we unpack this at times bleak and at times joyful amalgamation of dazzling hit singles and adventurous musical explorations. Songs featured in this episode: Desperado - Gold Dust Lounge; So Lonely (Live 1980) - The Police; Repeater - Fugazi; Riv...

When British band Scritti Politti originally got together at Leeds Polytechnic in 1977, they were a punk-inspired collective of art students and squatters with a penchant towards Marxism. In the early 1980s leader Green Gartside scrapped all that and pivoted the band to a pop/soul sound that paid homage to American artists Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin among others. This week we're joined by Aylesbury, UK resident Paul Marfleet as we dig into their smash sophomore album 'Cupid & Psyche 85'...

In 1974, the one-of-a-kind chameleon that is David Bowie was poised to shed his Ziggy Stardust persona for the Thin White Duke. Before that transformation, he fired the Spiders from Mars and - using George Orwell and William S. Burroughs as inspiration, crafted his nightmarish apocalyptic opus Diamond Dogs. This week's guest, Oscar Hererra (The Sleep of Reason, Black Tape For A Blue Girl), leads us on a journey through this raw, challenging and ambitious album. "This ain't Rock'n'Roll, This is G...

Our first "Mixtape" episode, where we invite a special guest to curate a mixtape for our listeners and dig into their musical selections. From the mind of Robert Price (Kreamy 'Lectric Santa, Bank O Christ, The Funyuns) we bring you 'Sir Robert's Kreamy-n-Reconstructive Brainmelt Mixtape', featuring: 1. Popcorn - Hot Butter 2. You Cant Kill Me - Gong 3. Germfree Adolescents - X-Ray Spex 4. Lisa Says - Velvet Underground (1969 live album) 5. Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag - Pigbag 6. Communist Rad...

Returning guest John Strohm (Blake Babies, Lemonheads, Antenna) has a strong personal connection to the record he chose to discuss, the stunning 1995 debut of Minneapolis band Polara. As a close friend of the bands founder, beloved musician/producer Ed Ackerson who sadly succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2019 at the age of 54, John was right there during the recording sessions lending a musical hand where needed. He brings deep insight into the creation of this impressive amalgamation of blissfu...

For this BONUS Patron-curated episode, we invited our Patrons to send in their favorite Non-English Language songs. They did NOT disappoint! Songs featured in this episode: Komm gib mir deine Hand - The Beatles; Aguas de Marco - Elis Regina; Ça plane pour moi - Plastic Bertrand; Enamorado - Jay Klineman; Bemen Sebeb Letlash - Mahmoud Ahmed; Detalles - Roberto Carlos; Bomba - Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart; Malagueña Salerosa - The Tubes; Puis Je? - Kevin Ayers; Demolicion - Los Saicos; Jaan...

When Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo - better known by their respective stage names Gene and Dean Ween of the band Ween - were given full reign of a professional recording studio for their 4th studio album, they rose to the occasion and crafted 1994's "Chocolate and Cheese". This week's guest, teacher and poet Josh Medsker, joins us as we attempt to dissect this weirdly wonderful, schizophrenic slab. Songs featured in this episode: What Deaner Was Talking About (Peel Session) - Ween; (For A...

In 1991, teenage Louisville, Kentucky band Slint recorded 'Spiderland', a brooding, sinister record that helped invent post-rock and influenced a generation of musicians. This week's guest Jay Reeve (Muteant Sounds Net Label) joins Rob to dissect this darkly mysterious album. As Steve Albini wrote in a 1991 Melody Maker review: "It's an amazing record, and no one still capable of being moved by rock music should miss it. In 10 years' time, it will be a landmark and you'll have to scramble to buy...

For this week's episode, we climb aboard the rock-and-roll mothership that is Led Zeppelin and their mysteriously untitled fourth album. What more could possibly be said about this ubiquitous classic-rock staple? This week's guest Ralph Cavallaro describes how the record/band went from seminal hard rock touchstone in his youth to bloated, uncool anachronism in his college years to one of his all-time favorites today. Along the way we dig into the sonic artistry and groundbreaking recording techn...