Rob Harvilla's 60 Songs that Explain the 90s

xp yeah the guest for Billy Ray was really great

I have actually found that I like the episodes more for songs I don't like very much compared to songs I do enjoy.

For sure, same for Whoomp! There It Is.

Yeah, using Whoomp to talk about the whole history of Miami bass and 2 Live Crew was really good and interesting.

I have actually found that I like the episodes more for songs I don't like very much compared to songs I do enjoy.

Same, that's why I haven't listened to the Missy, Aaliyah, etc. eps and I'll probably listen to Limp Bizkit before those.

fwiw, the Missy and Aaliyah episodes are both good.

my favorites for either Rob’s telling, the guest’s input, or both

Mary J Blige -Real Love
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Gin Blossoms -Hey Jealousy
Tom Petty - It’s Good To Be King
Hootie - Only Wanna Be w You
Erykah Badu - Tyrone
Bonnie Raitt - I can’t make you love me
Hole - Doll Parts

i’ve missed a bunch but these are the one’s immediately to mind

I said upthread that I really liked the Sinead O'Connor and Tori Amos episodes, can't remember exactly why now though

And Alanis Morrisette

oh yes! Sinead & Tori both A++ episodes

Tori Amos one was great (didn't listen to the interview).

Fiona Apple one is even better, even liked some of the discussion.

Whoa, what a way to come back (have not listened yet).

Wow. I figured he was saving Teen Spirit for the final run, but it worked out because it gave time for Courtney to become a "60 Songs" fan. Looking forward to listening!

So I'm about 20 minutes into the interview, and I'm finding it... rather hard to listen to, in the most literal sense. Love is talking a mile a minute but mumbling like Juliette Lewis on Yellowjackets, and her Skype connection from England isn't the greatest. Nothing really revelatory so far -- more of the conversation so far has been about Billy Corgan than Kurt Cobain -- I think I might have to bail on this one, and maybe I'll come back and listen to the rest in small doses.

INCOHERENT

I went into her interview with Marc Maron a short while ago with the best of intentions, but I lasted less than 10 minutes.

I started to slag her without listening earlier but deleted because I thought that seemed a little shitty. But I wonder if he tried to get Grohl and couldn't. I would much, much, much rather listen to him talk about the song than Courtney Love.

I've made it through a decent chunk of the interview, and I mean, Courtney's is Courtney, but, I mean, Courtney Love is a force of nature and national treasure, right? She's a walking study in demonology! I think it's a good interview. Rob did a decent job trying to keep from getting thrown off this bucking bronco of pontification. I wish he had pulled out his bass when Courtney was trying to get him to accompany her on the Smells Like Teen Spirit draft lyrics. He has made no secret on this podcast of being a bass player in a former life.

"You know that thing, imposter syndrome?"
"Yeah."
"I've never had one day of it."

I would much, much, much rather listen to him talk about the song than Courtney Love.

Borrrrrrring. J/k but not really, I don't know that I've heard Grohl say anything especially interesting in all of his talking head appearances. I wasn't really bothered by rolling with Courtney's stream of consciousness in the WTF interview, at least with her you'll get some surprises.

Incomprehensible. But in the end I’m reasonably glad I stuck with it. I found the endless namedropping and the pinball ricochet from topic to topic — often with no context at all — maddening, but by halfway through I was rolling with it, not trying to follow any of these little sidequests, taking them like random interruptions from a separate feed. I’ve never spent any time “with” Love, so this glimpse of her was sort of illuminating. I don’t 100% buy her re-framing of Kurt and her insistence that he never, ever told anyone the truth, but it adds a colour, a new layer of depth, to the mental image I have of that scene. I feel like Rob threaded the needle about as well as anyone could there — not 100% humouring her, but playing along just right, the goldilocks balance of respect and irreverence/skepticism.

And Rob’s essay/performance was, as always and maybe moreso, excellent.

xp: couldn't disagree more, but so be it!

I usually find Grohl to be interesting and authentic when I hear him speak, especially when he's telling stories from those times, talking about Kurt, admitting to ripping off funk drummers, etc.

Stream-of-consciousness, endless-namedropping, topic-ricocheting Courtney Love sounds like a nightmare to me.

I'll listen, though. Def wanna hear Rob's essay.

The only time I've heard Dave Grohl speak at length was on his episode of WTF which was - holy shit - over ten years ago now. I remember it being a good chat.

He was good on one NPR show or another after his book came out, very engaging dude. I would definitely listen to him. But I love Courtney, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this even if it's a mess. (How could it not be a mess? That's her brand. But a smart mess.)

I'm really enjoying the first 20 mins so far and guessing the Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston dives are more fun than 2 hours with Courtney.

It actually settles down and gets better in the last 45 min or so, with Courtney singing the unused lyrics to Teen Spirit, talking more directly about Kurt, etc.

Interview was a bit wild but absolutely worth it for that section. Asking Rob to play the guitar part and listening to him squirm was surreal and fantastic. Glad show is back.

Here’s the thing:

With this Courtney conversation - and his lovely essay - for 2 hours and 45 minutes, Kurt was alive. He wasn’t past tense, he wasn’t in pain, he wasn’t od’ing. Rob & Courtney kept him alive as a songwriter, as her then-boyfriend, as a person and not a myth and for me it was fucking magic. It made me happy.

Think whatever you want about Courtney but she understood the assignment and I love her for it. And I don’t think she does that with just anyone. I think Rob being genuine & open & unjudgemental made that possible.

the eurypides medea NYT bit was v funny

oh and her brief Jeremy cover lol

god damn Rob's "Teen Spirit" essay was unbelievably good

otm

when he said something like "we can protect Kurt by not leaving this room" i started crying

I really enjoyed the uncharacteristically focused "Regulate" episode (maybe Rob's mind switched into book mood?). When they started talking about how Nate Dogg's delayed solo album impacted his eventual legacy, I was hoping they might mention the "Nate in '08" greatest hits megamix by 1der / DJ Steve1der, which has become for me -- and I'm guessing I'm not the only one -- the go-to Nate Dogg listen.

It looks like the original Mixcloud page (with the extremely 2008 Shepard Fairey parody cover art) is still live, but I can't get the audio to play :/ Fortunately it's been mirrored (remember mirroring??) on every platform you can think of, e.g https://soundcloud.com/littleg818/nate-dogg-the-best-of-nate-dogg-ultimate-compilation-hd-by-1der

I had given up on the podcast after binging many episodes, but actually listened to that one yesterday and it was great.

I'll probably pick it back up at some point, but non-ironically I ran out of steam on this podcast right around episode #60

The "Birdhouse In Your Soul" episode ruuuuuuuuuuules.

it really does, loved it so much.

Yup. Same.

The Mazzy Star one released this week is excellent. It starts with a 20 min tribute to Low, spends some time with Maggot Brain and eventually gets to Mazzy Star. It all works.

yeah it was lovely - tbh i didn’t know much about Low at all so it was quite interesting to me also

That's very surprising!

I wasn't really into the TMBG one, but I don't really like TMBG (I respect it though).

yeah i have a lot of indie-music blindspots tbh lol

The Low tribute was really nice, even if it literally skipped over the middle period with my favorite albums (I know I'm in the minority though). The rest was kinda in one ear out the other, I think I just haven't been in the mood for this lately.

Funny, I'm not a big fan of TMBG, but his personal essay at the start made me laugh more than a couple times. I actually liked a bit of the discussion, too, even if many of its points were made in the essay.

The "Birdhouse in Your Soul" episode is fantastic

Sublime episode was kind of shit, no?

TBF I think Sublime is more than kind of shit. Maybe if you’re tuned into their wavelength you’d have dug it. But Rob’s impassioned defences of the indefensible have swayed me — or at least been interesting — in other cases. But I didn’t take literally anything away from this ep.

yeah i liked his stanning them & enjoyed Yasi guesting but it didn’t sway me

they can’t all be winners

Didn’t it seem like a fake stan? A forced stan? Like his heart was just not in it. And neither was Yasi’s, I don’t think. Altho hers a bit more than his.