Unsung Podcast

by Unsung Podcast

Episode 137 - Burial by Burial

We seem to say this every time we do an electronic record, but…it’s been a while since we did an electronic record! Lord of Dance (not of the dance, although having seen him cut shapes, we can attest that this may also be somewhat accurate) David Weaver has chosen this seminal dubstep album from the influential UK garage and dubstep artist Burial. If you hear the words “dubstep” and think Skrillex, or hear UK garage and think Craig David then we got news for you folks - this ain’t like any of that. On his debut album, Burial crafts intricate, dystopian soundscapes that paint brief and claustrophobic picture of South London. It’s truly nothing like Skrillex, but that’s what makes it so interesting. Does his debut album warrant a place our discography? Vote below.

Episode 136 - Split 7": Guilty Pleasures (Patreon Bonus Preview)

Chris was ill this week so we decided that we would release of the bonus episodes we recorded for subscribers back at the end of last year. This one was a lot of fun. We talk about some of our favourite guilty pleasures. We hope you enjoy - some truly brilliant and also hideous stuff in here. Next week we return with Burial’s self titled album!1

Episode 135 - Why Love Now by Pissed Jeans (Patreon Request)

Why donate to our Patreon? Well, if you’re made enough to donate a Crag ($50) then we’ll make an episode on an album of your choosing. Then we’ll let folk hear it. That’s exactly what happened here. Well, kind of. Our aim with this episode was to release this to subscribers only but it turned out so damn well that we asked my Rayce Bannon, the man that asked us to talk about this album, if we could release it to the general public but to be honest, we’d already decided we were going to do it anyway. It’s that good. For the first time you will get to hear Chris’ complete noise rock nerdiness on display. It’s…it’s quite something. We also talk about the band, obviously, and more. The nexus in this episode contains a reference to Erin Brockovich, which to those who listened last week, will know that Dave also made the same bloody reference. That’s why were confused and thought we’d done Anneka Rice before. We hadn’t, we’re just idiots. We hope you enjoy this episode. Are we right or wrong here though, does Pissed Jeans’ 4th album deserve to be entered into our discography?

Episode 134 - Saul Williams by Saul Williams

Chris picked a hip hop album. Chris. Chris Cusack. The whitest man in Scotland. He did a good job too. This is Saul Williams’ second album, but it’s the first one where he true voice begins to emerge. It’s a huge clash of styles too, equal parts punk rock, noise, industrial, spoken word and hip hop. His true eclectic style is born on this album, and what a ride it is. Saul would later go on to work with a bunch of acclaimed artists from across a variety of genres, but this album really helped push him into more alt-rock circles, and it’s easy to see why too with Zack De la Rocha, Serj Tankian and Isiah “Ikey” Owens all contributing to this album. The case could easily be made that Saul Williams is himself unsung, so what we want to know is if you think this album is worthy of inclusion in our discography. Vote below.

Episode 133 - The Bad Religion Head to Head with Anna Goldthorp (Side B)

We really did go down the rabbit hole last week, eh? Well, grab your cave diving gear cause we’re going deep on The Gray Race and The Process of Belief. Much to the complete indifference of Anna and Weaver. Anna in particular is on top form here, which results in perhaps the funniest goddamn episode we’ve ever produced. Chris and Mark go head to head on their choice of unsung BR album, and they each make an impassioned case not just for their album, but also as to why this band are important. Again, much to the indifference of Anna and Weaver. C’est la vie. Wank jokes and monkey’s aside, you fine folks need to decide which album is better: The Gray Race or The Process of Belief. So go do it. Do check out Anna’s radio show on Radiocore too, where on the last Friday of every month her and a pal talk about their experiences DJing and spin some cracking rhythm and blues bangers.

Episode 132 - The Bad Religion Head to Head with Anna Goldthorp (Side A)

Chris and Mark have threatened Dave with a Bad Religion episode for years, so we felt it was time to put him out his misery. We decided on a head to head, as the band have so many albums that it’s quite difficult to pick just one unsung record (we fully admit that they have a few sung albums). Dave’s indifference to the band and, well, to a lot of punk music, meant that we had to get a punk in to level the playing field. Enter our good pal and frequent guest Anna Goldthorp. A true punk, but also absolutely not a Bad Religion fan. Thus began our epic quest to cleave through Bad Religion’s back catalogue. Epic is indeed the word cause this fucker ended up taking almost 3 and a half goddamn hours to record. Both parts one and two are pretty heavy on the Bad Religion chat (obv) and trivia (double obv) so unless you’re a fan of the band, this episode may very well be a test of our listerns’ mettle. In part one we talk about all of the band’s albums and toss around facts like they’re going out of style. Note: this episode and next week’s are two of the funniest episodes we’ve ever made, so hopefully you’ll stick around for the whole ride even if you’re not a fan.

Episode 131 - Split 7": Best Closing Tracks (Patreon Bonus Preview)

Hey folks. We’ve been away preparing for a series of really cool episodes we’ve got coming, and we thought we’d take a small break from our regular recording schedule to do some research. But fear not - we’ve decided we’d drop one of our exclusive subscriber bonus episodes for all you non-subscribers. Our Split 7” series is when we take a listener suggested topic and wax lyrical on it. We recorded this back in September last year, and is a great example of the kinda of freewheeling shit we throw together with a near infinite amount of love for our fans. If you like this, we have a bunch more hiding behind out patreon page, which you can access for as little as $2 a month. We regularly ask our patrons for ideas for this content, and you can contribute to this too! On this episode, friend of the pod (and Mark’s flatmate) Craig Brown suggested we talk about our favourite closing tracks. It provided some…interesting discussion, to say the least. Hopefully you fine folk dig it! We return with something a bit special, and a bit different, next week.

Episode 130 - The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out, Wait for Something Wild by SikTh

Many say that alongside Meshuggah, SikTH are one of the forebearers of djent music. A brief listen to this album will suggest that this may be somewhat true, but the influence is probably more apparent on their second album Death of a Dead Day, than this, their debut. The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out, Wait for Something Wilde by SikTH is not a djent album. The elements of the sound are there for sure, but this record incorporates a lot of nu-metal, emo, math and prog. Amongst a lot of other weirdness. It’s a strange record. These guys were clearly thinking outside of the box though. There’s a level of playing here that far surpasses many of the things their contemporaries were doing at the time. Has it aged well? We couldn’t decide, but you have the power to decide if this makes it into our discography. Fans of djent will no doubt be completely aware of this band’s importance. Those less familiar though? It’ll be interesting to see how y’all react.

Episode 129 - The Live and/or Dangerous Mixtape (Side B)

What do Pearl Jam, Marilyn Manson and Miles Davis have in common? Absolutely nothing at all, except that they’re nominated together for our first live album mixtape. Our three live albums actually showcase some of the different kinds of live record we spoke about on the last episode: Neil Young’s ‘Mirrorball’ is not a concert album, but was recorded entirely live, and you can hear that in the recording as you will often hear them talking before and after takes. Marilyn Manson’s ‘The Last Tour on Earth’ is a live album that essentially serves as a tour retrospective because each song is taken from a different show on a two year long tour (or series of tours). Miles Davis’ ‘Agharta’ is a snapshot of one night, and if legend is to be believed, the best performance of a multi-night stint in Osaka, Japan. So, completely by accident, we all picked wildly different artists and completely different interpretations of what a live album is. As ever, you get to decide which one makes it into our discography. Seems unlikely we’ll return to these artists in future but time will tell.

Episode 128 - The Live and/or Dangerous Mixtape (Side A)

Ah, the fabled live album. It takes guts to do one, and it takes true talent to choose a single gig as opposed to throwing together a compilation of tracks recorded over the course of a tour. On this episode we put the live album into some distinct categories, and from there each of us talk about some of our favourites. We discuss the history of the live album, what it means, why there are so few and a bunch more stuff. What’s some of your favourite live albums? We reckon we’ll probably cover more of these in future episodes - there’s a lot of great bands with a lot of great live albums - so hit us with your best suggestions!

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