Rob Harvilla's 60 Songs that Explain the 90s

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.

Not that I want to belabour the point. DON’T GET INVOLVED

RUDE

Discouraging words!

not my favorite ep of this great show, but to call it "shit" is... well, RUDE

4 Non Blondes episode going well so far. but the Secret Samadhi shout-out has psyched me out cause I've been editing down a shortlist of wtf lyrics for a poll, and now it'll look like I'm just jumping on the bandwagon.

timing of the puff daddy episode (one day before the allegations came out) was kinda hilarious

not my favorite ep of this great show, but to call it "shit" is... well, RUDE

love is
what I got

I actually found Rob's defense of Sublime pretty effective. But then, I was a Sublime-liker in my bygone days of youthful naivete, before I learned to hate them. I was actually kind of annoyed that he spent most of the episode talking about songs besides the one the episode was ostensibly about. I know relentless digression is the house style, and I'm there for it most of the time, but it felt like he'd rather talk about any song besides Santeria, which made the whole thing feel sort of perfunctory.

I enjoyed the 4 Non Blondes ep, it gave me some context for a song that I've never liked, but I can at least now appreciate in some sense.

yeah i liked it too
i never hated the song tho and i do kinda like Linda Perry

leslie is a good guest too, i like when she’s on

Agreed. Hate What’s Up w/a passion (much more than most of the songs on the RS list or the ones his straw poll unearthed) but the episode delivered.

mr veg lived in SF back in the late 80’s-early 90’s and remembers Perry from when she waitressed at a bfast place on Market in the Castro, I think Squat & Gobble maybe? - she would call out the names for the waiting-to-be-seated list for breakfast & he said you could hear her 5 blocks away

Enjoyed the "What's Up" episode a lot but wow, the excerpts of other songs from that 4 Non Blondes record were just ghastly.

haven't heard the episode, but the first track on the 4 non blondes LP ("Train") is easily the best thing on there

-"pendantic"
-"Zola Neale Hurston"

Sorry, just had to put that somewhere.

being a bit pendantic with that second one

the Zola Neale Hurston thing must be killing him... he just went through an exercise of documenting and atoning for past mispronunciation/misnomers, in the recent book-launch live show ep.

lol right? poor rob

Zola? Jesus.

lol

4 Non Blondes episode going well so far. but the Secret Samadhi shout-out has psyched me out cause I've been editing down a shortlist of wtf lyrics for a poll, and now it'll look like I'm just jumping on the bandwagon.

― not the one who's tryin' to dub your anime (Doctor Casino), Saturday, December 16, 2023 8:08 AM bookmarkflaglink

cleaning out my notes document, figured it was time: Secret Samadhi by Live: its bathetic and grotesque lyrics

the last few episodes have all been really great imo - Lenny Kravitz, Cher, Goo Goo Dolls & especially the George Michael one last week, loved that one

The discussion w Wesley Morris on MJ, Black & White & everything after it is one of the best conversations he’s had recently imo.

Harvilla & Morris both mention the “Think Twice” podcast a few times - I highly recommend it if you are at all curious, it’s really good.

The Jay-Z one was another rare ep where the guest portion outshined the main bit.

(also speaks Jay's catalog that every clip he played had me saying "that's the one you chose?!", when there could have been five other classics from most of the records)

The discussion w Wesley Morris on MJ, Black & White & everything after it is one of the best conversations he’s had recently imo.

Harvilla & Morris both mention the “Think Twice” podcast a few times - I highly recommend it if you are at all curious, it’s really good.

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 9 February 2024 02:41 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks, I binged this last week and agree that it was excellent (except the ads which were truly horrible but that's almost everything these days)

Agreed, the Jay-Z conversation with Wosny Lambre is great, it provides so much context for what it was like to encounter Jay-Z in the overall stream of '90s New York rap. Really enjoyed it.

yeah it was def one of the best conversations of the series, no question

Glory Box intro rant about the whooping crowd is very good.

RIP

I’ve gone back to listen to the ones I hadn’t already heard before I listen to the final ones. Quite odd listening to the earlier episodes that feel more “scripted”, less conversational I guess.

sigh i will miss this show
excited for whatever he does next

he def gets a legit lol or two out of me every episode. like the jay z one where he was reading the ten commandments to funk flex bombs sound fx

'lets go mount sinai'

so funny

i want a playlist of all the songs he played at open mic nights — when he said he did Hallelujah i screamed ROB NO

So Rob’s next project is hosting a BBC podcast series (i think) with Courtney Love! starting in April

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2024/bbc-radio-6-music-and-bbc-sounds-announce-courtney-loves-women

Oh man - I had to stop halfway through the Smells Like Teen Spirit episode because I couldn't stand Love's ramblings. Rob basically just smiled and nodded while she jumped around all over the place and talked more about herself than Nirvana.

Hopefully he's got something better lined up after this.

i loved that episode so as always, mileage varies!

I'm in favor of this Odd Couple remake, but he strongly implied that he'll be doing another podcast for the same company with the same team, so I assume this is in addition to that.

yeah, my reax to that news was "ugh, that sucks, and it seems like it would be painful for Rob." (i'm sure he doesn't feel that way and is excited.)

his half of that episode is approximately 10 times better than listening to her ramble.

https://preview.redd.it/i-need-a-broom-to-clean-up-all-those-names-courtney-dropped-v0-0yu54zouej9a1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=0606713ad03d45ad5afb3d2323a5c22f7c12bacd

I enjoyed her rambling. Anyway it's not like he has to edit the podcast, that's whose doing the real work here.