Unsung Podcast

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Episode 147 - Pink Flag by Wire (Side A) with Ferruccio Quercetti

We hope you like Wire. Or, at the very least we hope you’re interested to hear about Wire because we have a lot to get through with this. David couldn’t join us this week, but we were able to get a post-punk expert to join us for this mammoth two parter, so say hello to Ferruccio Quercetti of the Italian punk band Cut. He is a true font of knowledge and he provides a ton of context here, which frankly is worth the price of admission alone. Anyway, Chris has been talking about nominating Pink Flag for years. Literally years. He made it known that he was thinking of pulling the trigger on this a few weeks back, which is just as well as this band have a lot of albums. That’s why this ends up as a two parter. We cover about half of their career in this episode. The crux of Chris’s argument here is that Pink Flag is one of the most important and under recognised punk albums ever written. Coming out at the height of punk in 1977, it’s clear from the outset that their approach was different from many of their contemporaries, looking to psychedelia and America instead of what was going on over on these fair shores at the time. On this episode we talk about their history, chat about the Ramones influence (and more), and cover about half of their discography. It’s a great episode, and the second part is also a doozy so come back for part two next week! DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 146 - Apocalypse Neu! Covid vs Music Special with Vicki

This week we welcome back our good friend Vicki as we finally get with the programme and talk about the impact covid-19 and the ongoing global pandemic are having on music and the arts right now. It is Unsung vs the Coronavirus and by god are we coming out swinging. A word of warning though, there are some slight audio issues. Still working out some of the kinks that are inevitable parts of our guest’s setups. Looking forward to being able to get back in a room together so that the only issues we need to worry about are when someone farts. Anyway, to wit - this week we’re chatting about how arts funding and the careers of many artists are in jeopardy given the current state of that world. It’s something that not only opens us up to the possibility of many venues closing, labels going bus and bands ceasing to exist, but it also calls into question the very nature of arts funding (as well as who gets and why), as well as the general sustainability of being an “artist”, whatever that means. It’s clear that there are certain kinds of artists out there whose livelihoods are at risk in the midst of the ongoing global bastard. We go deep into who the affected are, why they are affected, and ponder more generally on the notion of art as a commodity. We go deep in this one folks. Things get philosophical. And ranty. But it’s fun! We’re hoping to do some more of this kind of content in future (not about covid but more probing content in general) so do let us know what you think! DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 145 - Mitch's Movie Mixtape (Side B) featuring Mitch Bain from the Strong Language & Violent Scenes Podcast (Copy)

Welcome back friends to our first ever podcast crossover as we welcome back Mitch Bain from the excellent Strong Language & Violent Scenes podcast. If you missed it, part one is here. Just a wee reminder to everyone, Strong Language & Violent Scenes is is about giving genre films a second chance which, as they put it, may or may not deserve it. They’ve produced well over 200 episodes on this point, and have managed to build a lovely community by regularly bringing guests on to talk about films and by doing live shows at Frightfest. Since we do music and they do films, we felt an acceptable crossover was to combine do the mixtape format with a movie bent, and as such we asked Mitch to pick 8 of his favourite movie needle drops, as well as two songs he thinks would make perfect needle drops but haven’t (to our knowledge) yet been used in film. We then picked 3 songs of our own, as well as a wild card. In part two we continue to go through each other’s lists, and cover some real good films (and film theory) as a results. Some cracking songs in here, ranging from films such as sweet indie drama It’s Kind of a Funny Story, to the brutal You’re Next, and even down to bloody Bill & Ted’s Bogus Adventure. We cover a wide range of genres on this ep and it’s a right good laugh into the bargain. As is customary, we also do the nexus whereby we need to link David St. Hubbins from Spinal Tap with one of our wildcard artists. A fun, fun time indee. So please, enjoy part two of Mitch’s Movie Mixtape, and then go check out his podcast too! DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 144 - Mitch's Movie Mixtape (Side A) featuring Mitch Bain from the Strong Language & Violent Scenes Podcast

Welcome friends, one and all, to our first every podcast crossover as we welcome Mitch Bain from the excellent Strong Language & Violent Scenes podcast. Put simply, his show is about giving genre films a second chance which, as they put it, may or may not deserve it. They’ve produced well over 200 episodes on this point, and have managed to build a lovely community by regularly bringing guests on to talk about films and by doing live shows at Frightfest. In recent times Mitch has also scored a couple of feature films too, which mean that it absolutely made sense to have him come on and talk about some of his favourite needle drops. Therein, dear friends, lies the crossover – we’re talking about music from films. As if that somehow wasn’t obvious by this point. We asked Mitch to put together a list of his 8 favourite musical moments from films, then asked him to also pick a couple “wildcard” songs that had not yet been featured in a film but would make for excellent needle drops. The also picked three of their favourite songs and one wildcard each. With so many tunes chosen between us (and many more aside) we felt it was only right to make this a two parter. So please, enjoy part one of Mitch’s Movie Mixtape, and then go check out his podcast too! DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 143 - Songs III: Bird on the Water by Marissa Nadler

Released to critical acclaim, Marissa Nadler’s third album, Songs III: Bird on the Water, is a record which sees the her begin to expand her sonic palette. Joined by folk-cum-psychedelic rock outfit Espers on a few of the tracks (the album was produced by founding member Greg Weeks), her sound is augmented with hints of synth, electric guitar, cello, percussion and harp. For the first time she really begins to truly channel the American gothic vibes that she’d be tagged with for years, and the results are pretty interesting. As it turns out, her back catalogue was much bigger than Mark initially realised, so with that in mind we give as much of discography a going over as we can, bar the odd bandcamp only release. The results are mixed, with split opinion amongst the troops about Nadler’s oeuvre. So what do you think? Is this an unsung classic or is it just a wee bit meh? Vote on Twitter below. DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 142 - Deep Politics by Grails

Deep Politics is Grails’ 8th album, and is it turns out it’s one that proves to be particularly divisive on this episode! Chris and David both found this band at different points, with Chris being a fan from the early days and David joining a bit later. What results is a pretty cool discussion around this band’s discography, the highlights and lowlights, as well as providing insight into how people’s views of bands changes over the course of their lives. Grails do a pretty good job of splicing arcane psychedelia and krautrock with large swathes of Constellation style/Spiderland-era Slint post rock. Something they do to (mostly) good effect. Depending on who you ask, of course… This album - actually scratch that - this band has received their fair share of critical acclaim over the years. Despite the fact all three of us don’t quite agree with the critics, some illuminating conversation does follow! So what do you think? Vote on Twitter below. DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 141 - The Eraser by Thom Yorke

Rumour has it that Thom Yorke plays in another band called Radiohead, but we found it increasingly difficult to find out about this band. Has anyone ever heard their music? Apparently they’ve released a few records. Yes, this is probably stretching the concept of this very show to breaking point, but the argument here is that this is perhaps the least well known thing that Thom Yorke has done. It also wasn’t met with the same kind of critical praise that greets most Radiohead albums, or indeed the two (three) albums that followed this. So we’re gonna talk about it, alright? The Eraser is probably the most “human” sounding solo album by Thom Yorke. A nice marriage of electronica and (subtle) art rock weirdness, it feels a lot more organic and played than the albums he’s released since. The result is something just as paranoid as you would expect from a man whose music often reeks of it, and that’s a very good thing indeed. Is it unsung? Should it be added to the discography of classics? That’s up to you. NOTE: FACEBOOK have removed their polling feature. It’s gone. Kaput. Erased. So please vote below. Or on Twitter.

Episode 140 - The Ugly Organ by Cursive

It’s kinda crazy to think it’s taken us this long to touch a Saddle Creek band, but we got there in the end. This week Mark has picked Cursive’s seminal fourth album The Ugly Organ for inclusion in our discography. A weird mashup of emo, alt-rock, cabaret and more, it’s an album that the band themselves thought might be a bit too weird for a label that had spent many years releasing classic emo records from the likes of Bright Eyes et al. But no. It went on to sell 170,000 copies and it received serious critical acclaim. Yet, despite this, Cursive remain a band’s band. One that never went on to reach the heights of some of their contemporaries and in the end, they seem quite alright with that fact. To those in the know, this might not seem like an unsung classic but if you’re the kind of person that likes emo, or the kinda of indie emo stuff that the American midwest seems to churn out by the dozen, it’s probably somewhat baffling that this band aren’t huge. Or not, as some will argue. Not a contentious episode by any means, this one, but good chat nonetheless. What say, dear listeners: unsung or not?

Episode 139 - The Wrestling Mixtape (Side B)

Part one can be found here. Whatcha gonna do when Double Glazing run wild on you? Polish up those pythons and take your vitamins pod fans, cause we’re dropping part 2 in the same week as part 1 because we’re just that goddamn crazy. On this ep we talk a little more about wrestling entrance music, WWE Studios, WWE music in general and more. We also pick our top five favourite entrance songs and also pick three songs each that we think would make excellent ring music. We also do our own create a wrestler type thing for those songs and the results are…wild. Also, this week’s nexus is a monster so do stick around for that. DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

Episode 138 - The Wrestling Mixtape (Side A)

David ended up in jail last week, so Mark and Chris had to concoct an entirely different episode at short notice. The result? An episode on wrestling entrance themes. Long time fans of the show have probably heard Mark and Chris talk about wrestling from time to time on the show. Turns out that they’re actually pretty big fans of Vince McMahon’s house of big sweaty men and women. However, instead of just chatting about the world of wrestling for ages, because there’s already plenty of great podcasts that do this, they did what they do best and focused on the music. What transpired was two episodes about the history of music in wrestling that segue very nicely into them talking about the purpose of music in wrestling, and chatting about some of the more notable theme tunes. Which is to say that even you’re not a wrestling fan you should definitely stick with this one because it’s really entertaining and will be time well spent. Part two will follow later this week (we’re not gonna spread this one over two weeks like we normally do with our two parters). ENJOY. DON’T FORGET - You can subscribe for $2 a month to access to our episodes a few days earlier, as well as regular bonus content and access to our AAA backstage Facebook group. Head on over to our Patreon to learn more: www.patreon.com/unsungpod

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