Unsung Podcast

Unsung Podcast

by Unsung Podcast
Music

Episode 270 - Festival Fever Town Hall

You may have noticed but England’s biggest festival, Glastonbury, took place recently. You know the score already - for a weekend a bunch of farmland in Somerset gets turned into a pseudo-city where people pay an crazy amount of money for a ticket to go and see some good, and some shit, bands. This year was the biggest (and probably most expensive) yet, with Guns n Roses, Elton John and Arctic Monkeys headlining. Naturally it sold out almost instantly when it went on sale last year. For the most part, the festival was a success. You can see that if you watch the hours and hours of footage that are available on the BBC iPlayer (fi you’re in the UK) and on YouTube. Chris watched a bunch of it and he has some opinions. Not just on Glasto, but on festivals more generally. Mark missed the entire thing cause he was in Krakow spoiling his liver on a stag doo. He was also able to conjure up some thought the the haze of a four day hangover though. All this activity led us to decide to do a very special festival focused town hall. We hope you dig.
E270
Jul 3, 2023
1:30:28

Episode 269 - Unsong: Your Woman by White Town

This week we're doing another UNSONG because Chris has very much wanted to talk about this song for a while. You're no doubt familiar with it, but the story around it is fascinating. A one hit wonder for sure, White Town - the long running project of Jyoti Prakash Mishra - has reflected a lot on his brief stint on a major label, whilst also being thankful of the fact he had a one hit wonder. A truly compelling story, there's a lot to get into with this one so we ended up with an double length unsong-er. Hope you dig it as much as we did!
E269
Jun 26, 2023
55:18

Episode 268 - The Livelong Day by Lankum (Side B)

In part two of our Lankum special we dedicate some time to talking about the band’s entire back catalogue before getting torn into their 2019 album The Livelong Day. Up until this record, the band had only really toyed with taking their sound in a darker, more extreme direction. Of course, both of those adjectives are relative - Lankum are not Pig Destroyer - but in the context of traditional music, or folk music, the band make a devilish, challenging noise that is certainly indebted to noise and drone in less than subtle ways. The band have since gone on to create an even more challenging record in False Lankum, their latest album. It’s clear that they remain committed to treading their own path, and whilst we both admit to having not have had enough time to truly digest False Lankum, it’s heartening to know their vision remains uncompromised. But really it comes down to the age old question - is The Livelong Day an Unsung classic? Listen and find out, and chip in with your thoughts on our socials!
E268
Jun 19, 2023
1:46:12

BONUS CONTENT PREVIEW: Unsong - Episode 2: Come Undone by Duran Duran

After the EPIC Nina Nastasia two parter we decided take a wee week off. So this week so we’ve gone deep into our catalogue of bonus content and unearthed the next episode in a series that we’re calling Unsong. If you like what you hear, consider subscribing AND joining our record club here. It’s basically THE UNSUNG SINGLES CLUB. In it, we breakdown a single song to talk about why it works so well. On this episode, Chris has chosen Come Undone by Duran Duran. Let us know what you think of this episode. We’re doing more of these in future and we enjoyed the hell out of this! We're welcome to lots of feedback on this. Wanna see more of it? Can we do it differently? What can we improve? Bring on your comments!
E268
Sep 19, 2022
17:24

Episode 267 - The Livelong Day by Lankum (Side A) featuring An Interview with Lankum and With Simon Thoumire

This week we've decided to tackle a genre we've yet to tackle - folk. Or traditional. Or traditional folk? Irish folk music? Irish folk drone? Who knows what to label it, really. All we know is that it's traditional music and it's folk music. Yes, we're talking about Lankum. We've been trying to get this episode in the bag for freaking ages but after interviewing the band, we struggled to land a guest to guide us through the world of folk music. So we decided just to plough on through anyway, so please forgive our ignorance around this genres, as we're not steeped in it like we are many other genres we cover. Ostentisbly this is a two parter about the album The Livelong Day by Lankum, however this week we actually have an interview with Lankum and with Scottish folk legend Simon Thoumire. In this episode we'll mainly be tackling trad music scene in Scotland, how it may seem inaccessible to some, the class divide, the instituations that train and develop trad musicians, and comparing that somewhat to the scene in Ireland. Hope you dig it!
E267
Jun 12, 2023
1:42:39

Episode 266 - Heartwork by Carcass w/ Joe McGlynn from Man Must Die, Shit You May Not Have Seen and In the Lap of the Pods (Side B)

We’re back with Joe McGlynn from Man Must Die (as well as In the Lap of the Pods Queen Podcast and Shit You May Not Have Seen Podcast) for part two of our two-parter on “Heartwork” by Carcass. As Carcass plough their way across the UK this week on what seems like a fairly extensive tour, we pick up where we left off last week as Joe opens by telling us his story about the band, before we dive headlong into their two latest releases. There was a lot of noise made around their return in 2007, but at the time the band said that no new music was on the horizon. It took them a good five years to backtrack on that decision though, and in 2013 they unleashed “Surgical Steel” on the world. It’s an album which very much sounds like the band that did the album “Heartwork”. Indeed, no sonic trace of “Swansong” could be found, which pleased a lot of fans, including our very own Joe here. A going concern once again, they’ve since fallen back into the cycle of performing and writing music. 2021’s “Torn Arteries” was met with reasonable acclaim in the press, landing on many end of year lists. Which brings us to the present day, and part two of today’s episode. It may seem odd to some for Joe to have picked why “Heartwork” is an unsung classic, but this week we dive into the album and give it a thorough going over before deciding if it does indeed deserve to be called “unsung”.
E266
May 29, 2023
1:12:01

Episode 265 - Heartwork by Carcass w/ Joe McGlynn from Man Must Die, Shit You May Not Have Seen and In the Lap of the Pods (Side A)

This week we’re revisiting a genre we haven’t covered in a while - melodic death metal. Ok, that’s kind of not true cause did Gojira not that long ago but they’re not THIS kind of death metal. Joe McGlynn from Man Must Die (as well as In the Lap of the Pods Queen Podcast and Shit You May Not Have Seen Podcast) nominates Heartwork, the fourth album by Carcass. Originally a “goregrind” band, whatever that means, the Liverpudlian trio (at the time) were often mentioned in the same breath as Napalm Death, but after releasing their first album Reek of Putrefaction they would soon begin to explore their death metal leanings further. Each subsequent album would double down on the metal whilst slowly bringing in more classic rock elements. This endeavour would culminate on their critically lauded album Heartwork, and would cement them as pioneers of melodic death metal, making them somewhat legendary in the process. On this episode we cover everything from their first album right up until their 17 year hiatus after the release of their fifth album, Swansong. So come on this journey with us, and let’s get nasty.
E265
May 22, 2023
1:05:47

Episode 264 - Split 7": Gone Too Soon

We all meet the reaper at some point in our lives. Most folks make it to a fair old age before they meet their end, but some, well, they depart the world a little too soon. This episode is dedicated to those that passed too early. We chat about some of our favourite artists, both obscure and well known, before we pay tribute to them by picking 7 songs each that we feel represent their lives and their work. Which means the trigger warning goes like this - we discuss not just death, but also suicide in this episode, and although we handle it fairly tactfully, you may want to skip this if you feel it’s not for you. We’ve pulled together a wee playlist with our choices in it too, so you can check this out below.
E264
May 15, 2023
1:57:31

Episode 263 - UNSONG SPECIAL: Real American by Rick Derringer

Explicit
You may have realised by now that UNSONG is a feature that we usually reserve for our Patreon subscribers. Occasionally we’ll release an episode to general public to give y’all a flavour of what you’re missing over in the Unsung Record Club. Put simply Unsong is basically Unsung but with one song. This week we’re gonna chat about the song Real American by Rick Derringer, a tune best known for being Hul Hogan’s entrance music. “Why have you dropped this on us in lieu of a regular episode"?” we hear you ask. It’s quite simple, really: after we recorded this we felt it was just so much fun that we wanted the whole world to hear it at the same time. This song became well known because of Hulk Hogan, but the journey to how it even came into the purview of WWF, how it became Hulk Hogan’s theme song and why is actually really interesting. In fact, it even replaced a song that was written specifically for the Hulkster by Jim Steinman. Aye, that Jim Steinman. The one that wrote Bat Out of Hell. The 80s was a weird time. In the WWF, Vince McMahon wanted his wrestlers to be rock stars, which meant he pulled shit like having Cyndi Lauper on the first Wrestlemania, and create this whole MTV crossover style thing with the Rock and Wrestling connection. What should have been a 20 minute episode for us turned into a 40 minute banger so please, come with us into the world of 80s wrestling and Rick Derringer in this special episode of Unsong.
E263
May 1, 2023
40:27

Episode 262 - Placebo by Placebo (Side B)

Things went pretty well last week as we delved into the formative years of Placebo. The era that many fans consider to be the band’s peak. This week we discuss everything post Meds and our views are…well, let’s just say they are decidedly less rosy. With 2009s Battle for the Sun Brian made a lot of noise in the press about how this was a band searching for, and finding, a new identity. That much is true as the band’s sound is a lot more open, optimistic and less melancholic. Perhaps getting sober played a big part in that? Either way, things sound less nihilistic. Which is somewhat divisive for us because we felt that perhaps they should have continued to plunder on what their signature sound. Or, perhaps, maybe taken other measures… We do end the episode on a thrilling high though as we discuss the band’s self titled debut album at length and folks, it might be 27 years but it still does the business.
E262
Apr 24, 2023
1:18:45
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