Bandsplain

The Dando episode reminded me of so many conversations I have had with smart people who's brains got battered by drugs.

otm :/

listening is like the verbal version of watching a dog chase butterflies

Yasi’s 24 Questions with Joe Talbot of IDLES is a fuckin all-timer. So good!
Plus he has an A+ accent

Bandsplain fiiiiiinally back with an entire season curated towards me and my tastes that have remained unchanged since 15 years of age :D

Grunge prehistory ep Green River, Mother Love Bone & Temple of the Dog w Patty Schemel

Leading up to next week’s Pearl Jam two parter weeeeeee

I only wish Yasi & Patty were more enthused by Mother Love Bone but it is also unsurprising as few ppl are as into them as say, uh, me lol

otherwise a fun episode & lots of incredible info nuggets like Chris Cornell auditoned to be lead singer of Shadow!

my only note is i think Yasi sometimes gets caught up in her own research & doesn’t always have the in-the-moment ear or knack for picking up something a guest says & diving into that, a few missed opportunities with Patty’s comments imo

but overall a v cool conversation

Ooh! Can’t wait to tune in.

That’s definitely a Yasi thing. I think it’s partly congenital, partly conditioned by limp-ass guests she’s had on the past (cf. Smiths episode)

yeah definitely

about halfway thru, Patty def doing a lot of “yeah” and “uh-huh” but it’s been a good listen so far.

i need to replace my old cd’s of a lot of this music i foolishly traded in many years ago

my only note is i think Yasi sometimes gets caught up in her own research & doesn’t always have the in-the-moment ear or knack for picking up something a guest says & diving into that, a few missed opportunities with Patty’s comments imo

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, April 18, 2024 4:24 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is absolutely the biggest problem with an otherwise great podcast.

sometimes, too, if she's not high on the band, she spends an inordinate amount of time explaining why she's not high on the band, which is weird, because you have to assume most of the people listening are

**5 hour** Pearl Jam episode is up! weeeeeee :D

^ i do feel like it’s some weird kind of karma that the guest os Kevin Ryan who is much more sports bro than I would have wanted as a guest

he’s not terrible just kinda basic i guess, convo is good so far mostly but dude coming out of the gate w a Tom Brady reference was like “oh no i am in hell?” lol

Ha, Kevin is, or was, a total The Ringer sports dude, kinda of funny, but def a football / locker room personality. I will expect copious sports analogies. I’m not a huge Pearl Jam fan, but will listen to this all the same.

he does have a lot of uh fan cred, and is very engaged so it’s not like it’s a wash or BAD in any way … i just am v triggered by sports bros with this band i because in my experience they were the most insufferable fans in the 90’s so there’s like a weariness in my soul for that specific vibe

quietly i wish it was at least someone my age or older who had a bit more context for the early chronology of the band idk hello yes i love looking a gift horse in the mouth

In high school, we had a friend who was a sports bro PJ megafan. A local band wrote a song about him that rhymed "Pearl Jam rare imports" with "Jordan boxer shorts"

lmao

breaking news: the Pearl Jam draft episode is fun & great

i hate drafts as a concept, i always bummed that yasi is seemingly contractually required to do them

BUT this is a great group of did hard fans & the conversation scratches such a deep fangirl alt.music.pearl-jam itch … highly recommend if (like me) you like the band and ordinarily hate drafts of anything

*die hard fans

guests are the great Jill Wilson, Steven Hyden & Brian (Josephine) Fallon of Gaslight Anthem

5-hour Alice in Chains episode with Harvilla...

The Pearl Jam episode makes the classic mistake of confusing Andy Gill the journalist with Andy Gill from Gang of Four

loving the Alice In Chains ep already <3

i suddenly felt quite defensive (and old & unfashionable) when they were laughing about Social Parasite

however i am deeply hair-metal pilled and never really thought much about it other than i liked it?

it does sound like a Ratt song now that i listen with fresh ears lol

Much as I love Rob H, he wasn’t the right guest for the Albini memorial.

I take that back. The last 10 minutes, he pulls it out.

the last 30 minutes of the Alice In Chains bandsplain is just me crying nonstop ;_;

i knew what i was in for but every time it just punches me in the stomach

they were a special band for me as a teen. i had a lot of anger & depression & struggled with selfharm… their music was so different & that angst & anger & fragility just made me feel so much less alone. i never told my friends or anyone about about my dark shit at the time, so AIC were kind of like my fuckedup therapy where i could feel my feelings in a cathartic way. RiP Layne.

I was looking for a heart emoji for that post. Thank god for music.

The Layne stuff in Lanegan's autobiography haunts me. Clearly a total dude, fucked-up and all, but a dude.

The last hour of this is so goddamn sad. Jesus.

i keep trying with this podcast, but ultimately it's a good concept that would be better off in the hands of more competent people: a producer who will tighten things up in general and a host who is charming but also listens to their guests and engages in conversation rather than prioritizing jokes, personal anecdotes and notes from the research. some of that is fine, of course, but not *this* much and not for 4+ hours.

Hunh! I find Salek's insights pretty unique and have helped recontextualize a lot of artists I'd just kinda worn out and discarded. Interview with Kim Thayil might be my favorite thing she's done, 'cause he's been such an opaque figure, really felt Iike I got where his artistic impulses came from.

She’s pretty inconsistent — some episodes definitely better than others for her particular quirks. Seems to track with her general mental well being? Kim Thayil episode was great. Soundgarden episodes were good, altho when you’ve got Hanif Abdurraqib on your podcast, for god’s sake, girlie, let him cook!

i really enjoyed the Soundgarden eps and that Kim Thayil interview was so great.

i had been dreading the end of the Soundgarden final ep surrounding Chris’s death but she seemed to dodge most of the details
which I guess is good but felt a bit odd?. Like I didn’t WANT it but I didn’t want nothing? But I guess it’s complicated & weird so I get it.

new Happy Mondays & Stone Roses ep today :D

guests are John Niven and Chlöe Walsh who are v fun

john & chloe correcting yasi’s pronunciations & giving her needed insight on slang is proving v enjoyable

Yeah that was a good one. I loved the story of the original Happy Mondays berating the original bassist for getting a fry-up by himself.

also this:

John Cale: Tell me about your chords
Mark Day: uh I got them at Marks & Spencer i think
Gaz: He means your guitar chords you tit, not your pants!

I heard there were some stylish chords
That Day had worn and it pleased the Lord
Cause you don’t want them super tight now do ya?
“Where’d you get ‘em?” the Welshman barks
Mark sez “I think at Marks & Sparks”
“Your guitar chords, you tit,” says Gaz, “Ah, screw ya”

lmao

A+

Excellent work

Cause you don’t want them super tight now do ya?

A loose fit, if you will.

You might even say .. resembling a bag

This may be my favorite thing Salek has yet done. This four hour gab about two bands I don't care about is one of the most amusing music discussions I've ever heard. Such great rapport between the three, taking all her deep digging and giving it a context. The year I lived in London was during the rise of these bands, and I didn't get it. I was dedicated to the Blast First/Creation/Earache gig circuits, so the woozy sounds of these bands was just a small enough difference to frustrate. I actually gave the Stone Roses album a listen a few months ago and finally liked it quite a bit, but my cassette of Bummed was hardly ever played through. I still cant hear the funk that moves so many people. The podcast did a better job than even 24-Hour Party People at explaining the charm/exasperation of the personas in and around the Mondays, but I have to accept the the proper combination of drugs and room sound will never line up for me.

Niven & Walsh do some top shelf color commentary, it really feels like story-time down at the pub or something

really looking forward to part 2

omg

I was listening to pt2 of Happy Mondays/Stone Roses .. when Yasi got to the story of how they hired a vocal coach for Ian Brown on the Second Coming tour who pretended to be a friend of a friend? I had to stop & lean against a tree i was laughing so hard.

Truly the funniest, enjoyable series she’s done maybe ever thanks to the craziness of these 2 bands

Niven & Walsh absolutely topshelf guests, such great stuff from them

fascinated by chloe walsh’s globe-spanning accent, which varies between continents even within words, but yeah these episodes are amazing

their final story, Niven & Walsh going to see the Roses together in Sweden is gold, so fucking funny

Really surprised there was no mention of how Baggy was so huge that U2 adopted its sound wholesale for Achtung Baby. Or is that just so obvious that it didn’t even need mentioning?

I think there may be a separate thread but I'm very much enjoying the new season of Sixty Songs That Explain the 90s (The 2000s).

Harvilla thread: Rob Harvilla's 60 Songs that Explain the 90s

> fascinated by chloe walsh’s globe-spanning accent, which varies between continents even within words, but yeah these episodes are amazing

Headspinning! The sudden LA to London syllable shifts is like playing GeoGuesser.