Unsung Podcast

by Unsung Podcast

Sound is a Pound - Episode 1

SURPRISE! Here’s a brand new thing that we hope to make into a new thing. Inspired by random nonsense found in Poundland, we’ve decided it could be entertaining to see what music we can get for exactly One Great British Pound. We will then do a slightly humorous super fast Unsung-lite review of the album in question before deciding if it’s worth keeping or heading straight for the nearest rubbish bin. In Poundland, you sometimes get something good (if you dig hard enough you can actually find something decent in there!) or something not so good (we found a lot of Athlete). As it turns out, the media you find in Poundland is all second hand and is provided courtesy of MusicMagpie. So the quality can…vary wildly. Other stores are available. Chris decided to take the first shot at this and sauntered into Poundland, proudly returning with…well, we won’t spoil it here but it’s worth a listen trust us. If you like this let us know! Our plan is to do these super short episodes on a regular basis and if you want to submit your own £1 album, get in touch and we’ll tell you where to send it. We’d genuinely love it if you did that!

The Black Metal Mixtape (Side B)

Last week we gave you the history. This week we give you the music. Specifically, our own unsung black metal albums. We run the gaumt from OG trve kvlt Black Circle made Norwegian Black Metal, to the more recent third wave hipster fare. Along the way we touch on other stuff from different periods too. It’s quite a journey. Look, we can’t pretend the albums we picked aren’t problematic. There are of course many musicians involved in black metal and it’s myriad of subgenres who are not problematic. Yet somehow the lore around this music means that people who like the tunes are often drawn to the more outlandish figures. You can make up your own mind of course - and we’d forgive you if you think talking about records from guys who have done some fucked up stuff is a bit too much for you. All we ask is that you take some time to listen to the music for music’s sake. At least then you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ve given it a bash, even if separating art and artist is more difficult for some than it is for others. In the end, as ever, only you can decide. Vote below. And do tell/tag a friend. Thank you.

The Black Metal Mixtape (Side A)

Praise be to The Dark Lord himself, for this week we take on the most unholiest of unholy music, and we do it in the only way we know how - with our now patented combination of cynicism, amazement and mild disdain. We’ve promised this for a while and a few people have been asking us for it, so here it is. It’s dark. Super dark. But it’s also fun. Maybe? This is going to offend people. Not because we say anything offensive, but mostly because black metal music is aurally and sometimes (but not always) ideologically offensive. We’ll be talking about some of the worst people we’ve ever discussed on this podcast (there’s a whole lot of murder and neo-Nazism) but it’s all absolutely pertinent to the topic at hand. But hey, the music often good, which leads us to really discuss boundaries of where one draws the line between art and artist. So strap in and come with us on this darkest, heaviest, dirtiest and longest of journeys. Next week: we pick our three albums and you guys get to vote!

The Riot Grrl Mixtape - Part 2 (w/ Anna Goldthorp and Breagha Cuinn)

Usually we like to wait a few days before dropping another part of an episode, but this one is proving so hot that we decided to drop it earlier. On this episode we chat with Breagha Cuinn from the band Bratakus, as she gives us a slightly different take on riot grrl compared to Anna. Then we talk about our individual choices for the discography. Chris chooses 'Fontanelle' by Babes in Toyland; David goes for 'Bricks are Heavy' by L7 and Mark decides on 'Dig me Out' by Sleater-Kinney. We also have a Foo Fighters Nexus that ties two out of our three albums together in one fell swoop, and we get to grips with how technically both Babes and Toyland and L7 aren't really riot grrl bands at all in many people's eyes. You can vote on our website.

The Riot Grrl Mixtape - Part 1 (w/ Anna Goldthorp and Breagha Cuinn)

In a change to our regularly scheduled programming, here is the first part of our Riot Grrl Mixtape. That's right, three straight white man are going to pontificate about Riot Grrl because we're utterly confident that has NEVER happened on a podcast before. In all seriousness, we'd been trying to get this episode off the ground for a while but we found it very difficult to get women to come on and talk about it. In the end, we managed to record two interviews with two different stances on the movement. Joining us on this episodeise DJ Anna Goldthorp, giving us her opinion on the politics and music of the scene. We hope this inspires other women to want to come and chat to us about this because we know that, as men, there's only so much that we can understand about riot grrl and the politics of if. As a feminist movement, and one we agree with, we know it's important to get a pluarlity of opinions on this scene. So if you'd like to add your voice to this dialogue, drop us an email or a message via Facebook. In part one we discuss the origins of the movement, how it played out and talk about some of its key bands and individuals.

The Grunge Mixtape - LIVE (Part 2)

We highly recommend checking out part one before you get into this episode. It provides some much-needed context to grunge as a musical and cultural phenomenon. On part two of the Grunge Mixtape Chris, David and Mark pick their three albums and make each their case as to why it’s the best representation of grunge music. David goes first and explains why Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden is not just his favourite grunge record, but the best one out there. From Cornell’s wail to the signature Soundgarden heavy weirdness, this is perhaps one of the heaviest grunge records this side of Alice in Chains and Melvins. Mark picks Superfuzz Bigmuff by Mudhoney, breaking down how it’s the most important grunge album not only because it was one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite albums ever, but how its sound is perhaps the purest sonic representation of grunge. Chris goes all in on Live Through This by Hole. Courtney Love has garnered a lot of hate and conspiracy theories over the years but the songwriting on this record is simply brilliant, and Chris tells us why this should be nominated above all the others. There’s laughs, there’s spirited debate, there’s a cliff Mark falls of when the painkillers kick in, and there’s more poor banter around the Mark Yarm/Mark Arm issue. This episode has it all. Due to the nature of Facebook you can’t vote over there this week, but you can vote using the handy poll below, so get to it!

The Grunge Mixtape - LIVE (Part 1)

It's the moment you've all be waiting for. Well, that some of you have been waiting for. Maybe only a few of you, now that we think about it. That's right, it's time for our Grunge Mixtape. This is part one, where we dive deep into the history of grunge, its formation in the Aberdeen and Seattle, the key players, and how it change, evolved and became more corporate. We talk about some of the most influential artists of the time, and we even talk about the fashion and how it took on a largely different from in the second and third wave. We recorded this live at The Flying Duck in Glasgow and a great time was had by all. There were laughs. There were painkillers. There was some messed up synth versions of grunge classics and there was, of course, a bit of banter.

BONUS - The Nu Metal Mixtape

If you’re expecting us to wax lyrical on how rubbish nu metal was then you’re going to be a little disappointed. The key thing we learned from doing this episode is that yes, while there was indeed a crazy amount of garbage music floating around at the time (and honestly, what makes that any different to any other era of music?), nu metal represents alternative music’s last great mainstream hurrah. It was a time when major labels would throw money at bands with downtuned guitars, melodic choruses and screaming. It was a moment in history where literally millions of people thought it was acceptable to fuse hip hop with metal music in the most dull-headed fashion. Yet, despite all that, it could also be seen as the biggest swindle rock ever pulled on mainstream music. Nu metal was responsible for so much good and bad that we felt it was probably time to separate the wheat and chaff. Much of it has not aged well, and you might be surprised at some of the things we say in this episode, but make no mistake about it – for Mark and Weaver, nu metal is responsible for their love of metal music. Both reflect on this a lot, and actually talk about the stuff they liked from that period. Chris was in a touring band at the time nu metal had reached its zenith, so he offers a grassroots perspective on just how popular it was in scenes up and down the country. He also finds time to drop some sick Slipknot and Linkin Park knowledge on us, which is nice. There’s so much to cover – it was popular for about a decade – and we only really scratch the surface. We’ve chosen three albums that we think are the most important nu metal records. Go listen and vote and tell us which one makes it into our discography.

In Session 1 - Jonah Matranga (Part 3)

It's part three of our chat with Jonah Matranga. We felt bad for taking up like three hours of his day to do this, but we found out some fascinating things. Like how Chris Cusack likes Kiss. And how Jonah, Mark and Weaver don't. We try to get to the bottom of this baffling facet of Chris' music taste and along the way we talk about power dynamics in the music industry, the Bay City Rollers, sexual abuse in the music industry and much more. Chris also claims that the best Kiss album is 'Greatest Kiss' and the rest of the boys argue that they simply don't have as many popular songs as people, and Chris, thinks.

In Session 1 - Jonah Matranga (Part 2)

Our second "In Session" episode is with post-hardcore legend Jonah Matranga. In part two we asked him to pick three records he thinks are unsung classics and we got into an interesting discussion about Neil Young, not giving a fuck about how popular you are, and how KRS-One may very well be some kind of modern day prophet.

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