Unsung Podcast

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Episode 107 - A Senile Animal by The Melvins

The Melvins have a ton of back catagloue, and in our effort to reduce episode run times this year, we’ve tackled it with an unusual amount of brevity. In places. Not every place. But some places. But that’s easy because some people, including our resident fan of the band Chris, think that they’re a band that has struggled to stay consistent for entire albums. Which, when you realise they’ve released 23 albums (and a bunch of other collaborative stuff) is somewhat understandable. Yet there are occasions when they’ve managed to get their shit together for long enough to focus on an entire album. This is one of those albums. Widely seen as the forefathers of both grunge and sludge (but don’t say the latter to their face), there’s an embarrassment of riches to be found throughout their entire oeuvre. The special moments occasionally last entire albums though, and this one is a prime example. It comes fairly late on in their career - it was released in 2006 - and is their 15th goddamn record. After the departure of bassist Kevin Rutmanis, Buzz and Dale decided that, instead of just borrowing the bassist from Big Business for a bit, that they would just incorporate the entire band into their own. What follows is a quadruple vocal, double drummer affair with a bass tone that matches Buzz’s ferocious guitar tone lick for lick. So this late career hurrah is, we feel, a little overlooked compared to some of their other records. But is it their unsung classic? You know what to do.

Episode 106 - Cosmogramma by Flying Lotus

Oh lawd, we ain’t messing around this year. Without Flying Lotus, the much vaunted Brainfeeder jazz/hip hop/electronica scene that gave rise to Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington and Anderson .Paak, wouldn’t exist. Although those guys had all been in each other’s orbits for a while, it took FlyLo’s record label to really bring attention to all of the good shit that was coming out of LA in the late 00s and early 10s. He’s worked with all of those artists, and yet he’s remained obstinately, steadfastly different. Beginning his career doing instrumental hip-hop a la DJ Shadow, he’s crossed multiple genres on his way to substantial underground success. Bringing his rich heritage of jazz to an entirely new audience by splicing it with IDM, Drum n Bass, hip hop, psychedelia and electronica to absolutely stunning effect. Comsogramma is his third album, and as we will go on to argue, marks the moment when his musical vision grew more cinematic and ambitious. He pours everything he has into this cosmic whirlwind of an album. Every version of FlyLo is heard on this record - from jazz fusion freak outs to lush string laden experimental hip hop and everything in between - has been expanded on ever since. But this, this is where the artist is truly born. Is it his best work? Does it deserve a place in our discography? You decide.

Episode 105 - Aerial by Kate Bush

Even though we said last week that our resolution was to keep our episodes to around an hour, it turns out we’re big fat liars. We’ve busted that promise. We didn’t even last one episode. However, this week we’re talking about Kate Bush frankly, we just don’t think it’s possible to do her oeuvre justice in less than an hour. So there. After the roaring success of our Deftones episode (seriously - it was perhaps one of our most popular ever), Weaver is hoping to go two for two this week, as we give him another crack at choosing an album. He chose Aerial, Kate Bush’s eighth album. Released in 2005, it was her first release in 12 years. It was also a double album which (we may be wrong here) make it our first double album that’s been under consideration for our discography. A highly anticipated return for this much loved, somewhat mysterious artist, it comes complete with the usual Kate Bush quirkiness, albeit dialled down significantly. Mostly, it comes across as an artist who has settled into a comfortable middle age. Risk are taken, although they’re perhaps smaller than what they were some 20 years before. She’s released a lot of important, iconic, highly praised work, meaning that Aerial is a prime candidate for our discography. Does it deserve a place in it? You know what to do.

Episode 104 - Deftones by Deftones

We deliberately didn’t tell you what we were doing next so that you would be somewhat surprised. This week, we’re rolling out one of our big guns. A critically acclaimed, influential, multi-million record selling big band of big dudes. It’s the Deftones’ fourth album, and it’s self titled. This episode is probably the biggest single episode we’ve yet done, but it works. We do an entire career retrospective of the band’s back catalogue. We give each of their albums a once over. Weaver gives his (much anticipated) opinion on why he thinks the band changed and when. We go deep, folks. We think we may have, perhaps, gone a little too deep. To wit; this is a comprehensive run down of Sacramento’s finest sons. Our resolution this year is to never have a single episode go this long again. Will it stick? Who knows. You know the drill: is this the Deftones’ most unsung album? Do the vote thang below.

Episode 103 - The 2019 Xmas Xtravaganza (Side C)

It’s 2020. And the world has not yet ended. It’s something of a miracle. What is not a miracle, and is frankly a bit tedious if you’ve been somewhat alienated by our previous two episodes, is that our Xmas special is STILL not over. Well, after today it’s over, but it’s annoying that we’re dropping part three damn near two weeks after Christmas. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This whole sorry thing should have been a two parter. We ran longer than planned though, so here we are, finishing off the Xmas Xtravagansa 2019 trilogy on January 6th. On this episode the beer and the mulled wine really starts to kick in, but we make up for it by doing a quick list of our favourite one hit wonders and cover versions. It’s a good laugh, actually. You can find the playlist of cover versions at the bottom of this post. Thanks for suffering through 2019 with us. It was a pretty big year for our show, and we only have plans to grow even further in 2020. Hopefully you’ll come along with us. We return to our regular programming next week, and boy do we have a doozy for you…

Episode 102 - The 2019 Xmas Xtravaganza (Side B)

Look, Christmas is a time for giving. And also for drinking. And also also for airing semi-coherent nonsensical opinions. On this episode we some how many to cover all three. No more phone calls from Mark’s dad though. So that’s a thing. We take some more questions, go on some tangents, and then we resurrect Sound as a Pound (we will make this a regular mini-episode at some point in 2020, promise) as we each give the gift of a £1 to album to one another. The results are…well, the range from good to absolute Toploader level trash. Side note: we rambled so much nonsense when recording this that it is now morphed into a 3 parter. Xmas, it seems, really will last until January 6th. In case you missed it, find Part One here: https://www.unsungpod.net/episodes/episode-101-the-2019-xmas-xtravaganza-side-a

Episode 101 - The 2019 Xmas Xtravaganza (Side A)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, apparently. As is now tradition we get a drunk, mouthy and a bit fighty. 2019 has been quite the year, so like last year we go through our usual list of questions. Some that we’ve dreamed up, and some that our fans have sent our way. As every year, this is split into two episodes. One drunker than the last. This year’s honour for the drunkest goes ti Mark, incidentally. Spoiler alert. Enjoy your Christmas folks. We’ll see ye in a week!

Episode 100 - The Pop Punk Mixtape LIVE (Side C)

So folks, it all comes down to this. We’ve discussed the ins and outs of the genre. Given you the history from its pre-punk roots all the way right up to the present day. With all that history, all those artists, all those albums, we try to boil it down to the three best examples of the genre in our eyes. Chris picks Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring. Weaver picks Pump up the Valuum by NOFX. Mark picks New Found Glory by New Found Glory. Three examples of the genre that are completely distinct from one another. We also do our nexus (where we link each of our albums to Murder, She Wrote actress Angela Lansbury) and we take some questions from the audience too. Will it all end in tears? Vote below and let us know what you think is best.

Episode 100 - The Pop Punk Mixtape LIVE (Side B)

Oh dip, it’s part two of our three part Pop Punk mixtape extravaganza. On this episode we move from the late 90s to the present day and wonder if people actually like pop punk after the mid 00s. The answer to that depends on how much you like fringes, whether or not you’re English, and if your favourite band is Blink 182, New Found Glory or All Time bloody Low. Weaver takes us from 98 to mid 00s, covering the “golden age” of pop punk. And Mark brings us bang up to date with a smattering of good, bad and “meh” songs by bands that we’re all too old to really get. Turns out time is indeed a flat circle, friends, and like zombie Jesus himself, pop punk never dies.

Episode 100 - The Pop Punk Mixtape LIVE (Side A)

All three of us has done a fair amount of reliving our youth on this podcast, and after Chris had his Grunge mixtape and Weaver had his Nu Metal mixtape, it’s Mark’s turn to do the Pop Punk mixtape. So on November 24th a bunch of folks joined us in Glasgow’s The Flying Duck as we celebrated our 100th goddamn episode with this pop punk nonsense. It turns out this is a three parter, so in the first episode we cover the history of (pop) punk from the 70s until 1998, taking in some of the highlights and dropping some knowledge on the genesis of the genre. I mean, can you still believe pop punk is a thing after all the highs and lows?

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