Bandsplain

Teenage Fanclub emerged from the fertile Scottish rock scene of the late 80s as a fully formed power pop band and went on to lead a long, prolific, and often surprising career; from beating out Nirvana to land the top spot on SPIN's best albums of 1991 list to teaming up with De La Soul for a song on the legendary Judgment Night soundtrack to being anointed Liam Gallagher's second favorite band (after Oasis of course) and so much more. Joining Yasi to discuss his number ONE favorite band is Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard You can follow Death Cab For Cutie on Twitter @DCFC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brian Fallon and Yasi wrap up their journey through the long legacy of The Clash, picking up in 1979 with the release of the iconic London Calling, straight on through Sandinista!, Combat Rock and the end of an era. Follow Brian Fallon on Twitter and Instagram, follow The Gaslight Anthem on Twitter and Instagram Some of the books we consulted while working on this episode, if you want to read along: Redemption Song Passion Is A Fashion A Riot Of Our Own Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Clash were the undeniable breakout stars of the explosive UK punk rock scene. The Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon joins us as we dig deep into the history of the only band that matters. Yasi and Brian discuss the 101ers, Joe Strummer's many name changes, almost Sex Pistol Mick Jones and legendary Clash manager Bernie Rhodes. Follow Brian Fallon on Twitter and Instagram, follow The Gaslight Anthem on Twitter and Instagram Some of the books we consulted while working on this episode, if you want to read along: Redemption Song Passion Is A Fashion A Riot Of Our Own Join us next week for part 2 of The Clash with Brian Fallon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Producer Dylan returns to join Yasi in another dive into the listener mailbag! Questions include guilty pleasures, if we ever hear from the bands we talk about and how we find new music to love. Speaking of, here’s a list of some bands we recommend in this episode: Crushed Luster Narrowhead Temple of Angels Gel Momma Fleshwater Blondshell Gradient AZ Power Fime Wild Pink Soul Blind Teenage Wrist Superbloom Superheaven Money Cloakroom You can subscribe to Producer Dylan’s newsletter HERE and Producer Niko’s HERE No episode next week, but join us back here on December 1st for a new episode of Bandsplain! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emerging from Seattle’s early 90s grunge landscape, Sunny Day Real Estate became legends of an emerging midwestern emo sound that began to redefine the boundaries of the genre. Meeting us there in the blue where the words are not is writer and podcaster Ian Cohen. Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @en_cohen and listen to his podcast Indiecast @Indiecast1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rolling Stone writer and author Rob Sheffield joins us to dissect the long, storied history of the legendary Big Star, a band with a handful of records and an indelible legacy that reaches beyond the decades of their origin. Follow Rob Sheffield on Twitter @robsheff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Offspring were one in a wave of southern California bands that ushered in a renewed interest in punk rock to the ears of the masses, becoming one of the best-selling punk rock bands of all time and here to help us come out and play is SPIN Editorial Director, Daniel Kohn. Follow Daniel Kohn on Twitter at @danielkohn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Third Eye Blind may have doot-doot-dooted their way to late 90s radio ubiquity, but there’s so much more to the story. Chris Black returns for a reconsideration of the earworm songwriting and complex lore of the singular Stephen Jenkins. Follow Chris Black on Twitter at @donetodeath. Subscribe to How Long Gone on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Harvilla and Yasi continue their epic trek through the Smashing Pumpkins story post-1993’s Siamese Dream, in which the Pumpkins transcend 1990s alt rock cultishness into rock phenom status with their opus double-album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Follow Rob Harvilla at @harvilla on Twitter and listen to his The Ringer podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the 90s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Harvilla joins us for the noble effort of explaining The Smashing Pumpkins, one of the most commercially successful and musically impactful rock bands of the 1990s. Yasi and Rob cover the first half of the band’s breakthrough career and comb through the origin story of Billy Corgan’s emergent and unusual celebrity. Follow Rob Harvilla at @harvilla on Twitter and listen to his The Ringer podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the 90s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bandsplain is back babe and we are now part of The Ringer Podcast Network. New episodes start Thursday September 29th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bad Brains were one of the most influential hardcore bands of all time, from inventing moshing to being groundbreaking black punks who injected hardcore with a Rastafarian philosophy and reggae influence. Though they were “banned in DC,” they built the foundation for hardcore and the history of punk to come. Photographer and unofficial mayor of LA Atiba Jefferson brings his lifelong fandom to the table as he and Yasi chart the history of Bad Brains. Follow Atiba Jefferson on Instagram at @atibaphoto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ann Powers returns for part 2 of PJ Harvey, covering the next period of Harvey’s prolific career—from To Bring You My Love on—which was punctuated by confident creative expansions, big-hitting collaborations, flirtations with pop success, and continued artistic investigations into riveting subjects. Follow Ann Powers on Twitter at @annkpowers, and find her latest book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For Yasi’s birthday, she can have a two-part PJ Harvey episode as a treat. Ann Powers of NPR Music is welcomed back to Bandsplain to dissect the lauded work and cinematic life of Polly Jean Harvey, who Ann calls “the artiest rock star of the late 20th century” and a vector for deep discussions on gender, sexuality, mysticism, myth-making, and art. Follow Ann Powers on Twitter at @annkpowers, and find her latest book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neutral Milk Hotel released only two studio albums in the mid-to-late 90s, On Avery Island and In An Aeroplane Over the Sea, but they’ve since been consecrated as quintessential indie rock classics. Emerging from the Elephant 6 musical collective, bandleader Jeff Mangum led this eccentric musical experiment that left much mystery, and a large cult following, in its wake. This week, Wall Street Journal’s rock and pop music critic and former editor-in-chief of Pitchfork Mark Richardson joins Yasi to explain Neutral Milk Hotel. Follow Mark Richardson on Twitter at @markrichardson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the mid-70s, four not-so-typical teenage girls came barreling into the nascent UK punk scene. The Slits split in the early 80s, but their impact on punk was profound and foundational. Zoë Howe, author of Typical Girls, the Story of the Slits, joins Yasi to talk about the revolution of the Slits. Follow Zoë Howe on Twitter @ladyzoe2dots, and check out her book, Typical Girls, the Story of the Slits, on her website, zoehowe.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Primus, led by bass-slappin’ virtuoso Les Claypool, emerged from the Bay Area’s funk-punk-metal hybrid scene of the late 80s and 90s, to become a textbook cult band—you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Music journalist Christopher Weingarten makes the case for the true cult fandom of Primus and the oddball, arty genius of Les Claypool. Follow Christopher Weingarten on Twitter @1000TimesYes and pick up his 33 ⅓ book on Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Operation Ivy was likely your favorite band’s favorite band, and Corbett Redford, director of the documentary Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk, tells us why. These teenage pioneers of ska-inflected punk were a flagship band of Berkeley’s 924 Gilman scene in the mid 1980s, releasing only one full length that galvanized a scene and several generations of future punks. Follow Corbett Redford on Twitter at @CorbettRedford and check out Turn It Around: The Story of East Bay Punk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pitchfork’s Quinn Moreland joins us to explain the reverberations of Jenny Lewis’s reign as the queen of 2000s indie rock with her band of Los Angeles darlings, Rilo Kiley. Follow Quinn Moreland on Twitter at @quinnmoreland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back with Cole Cuchna, host of Dissect and Key Notes, for Part 2 of Radiohead, starting from their revolutionary 2000 album Kid A through their continuing evolution both as a band and as individual artists. Steven Hyden, author of This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s Kid A and the Beginning of the 21st Century, also joins us for an examination of Kid A’s impact on music criticism and the album’s context within rock music history. Follow Cole Cuchna on Twitter at @dissectpodcast and check out his podcasts Dissect and Key Notes, only on Spotify. Follow Steven Hyden on Twitter @Steven_Hyden, and check out his podcasts Indiecast and 36 From the Vault. Find his book This Isn’t Happening: Radiohead’s Kid A and the Beginning of the 21st Century wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cole Cuchna, host of Dissect and Key Notes, brings his keyboard to Bandsplain for Part 1 of our deep dive into the history, music theory, and immense, innovative impact Radiohead has had on music at large. Covering their first era, Cole and Yasi take us through the band’s Oxford origins, to how they grappled with and later defied Creep’s one-hit-wonder status, all the way up to their groundbreaking work on OK Computer. Stay tuned next week for Part 2 of Radiohead. Follow Cole Cuchna on Twitter at @dissectpodcast and check out his podcasts Dissect and Key Notes, only on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once again, Yasi and Producer Dylan take a little breather from the 60 page Google Docs and 5 hour episodes to answer your burning questions, including: the making of Bandsplain, what bands we’re listening to now, and why we haven’t done Guided By Voices yet. Special shout out to our Gen Z listeners who called in, you are very cool. Check out the artists Yasi and Dylan recommended in this episode: Turnstile Enumclaw Big Thief Soccer Mommy Snail Mail SASAMI Girlpool Wednesday OVLOV Young Guv Fucked Up Niis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A major figure in the cool girl canon, Liz Phair broke through Chicago’s indie rock scene (and its politics) with her seminal 1993 debut, Exile in Guyville, setting her off on a fearlessly confessional path of continual, defiant self-reinvention. Writer Niko Stratis talks with Yasi about Liz Phair’s bold songwriting and boundary-pushing across the worlds of provincial indie rock and chart-topping pop. Follow Niko Stratis at @nikostratis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In honor of 3/11 day, we present to you: 311. Purveyors of positivity as well as amber-colored energies, 311’s extensive career gets a thorough and loving look from writer and known Excitable, Marty Sartini Garner. Follow Marty Sartini Garner at @mrrrty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Songwriter laureate of Los Angeles Randy Newman gets explained by the Valley’s own Molly Lambert. Infinitely more prolific, and controversial, than his common image suggests as the “I Love LA” and Toy Story theme song guy, Molly takes Yasi on a tour of his extensive and complex oeuvre as Hollywood songman. Follow Molly Lambert at @mollylambert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sublime, the ultimate legacy band for stoner kids everywhere, get explained by return guest Jeff Weiss. Jeff joins Yasi to make the case on how Sublime’s Long Beach heritage and their of-its-time infusions of ska, punk, rock, and reggae made them a ubiquitous Southern Californian musical export, even after singer Bradley Newell’s passing in 1996. Follow Jeff Weiss at @passionweiss and check out The LAnd magazine at @theLAndmagazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan joins us for a long-awaited Bandsplain on one of Yasi’s all-time favorite bands: Pavement. Steeped in Californian suburban ennui, the casual, scruffy brilliance of Pavement pierced through the indie rock heyday of the post-grunge 90s to make them one of the most enduring rock bands from that moment. Follow Chris Ryan on Twitter at @ChrisRyan77 and check out his Ringer podcasts The Watch, The Rewatchables, Music Exists, and The Ringer NBA Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Minutemen from San Pedro, CA were a band of childhood soulmates whose experimental sound, working class roots, and lucid politics made them all-timers in the history of punk. Joe Gross returns to highlight Minutemen’s DIY ethos of “jamming econo,” and the timeless influence they had on the whole of independent music that came after them. Follow Joe Gross on Twitter at @joegross and pick up his 33 ⅓ book on Fugazi’s In On the Killtaker wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Geoff Rickly from Thursday guides us through the extended universe of Trent Reznor, who took the pulse and grit of industrial music into the mainstream with NIИ’s 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, and became one of rock’s darkest and most impactful innovators of the next few decades. Follow Geoff Rickly on Twitter at @GeoffRickly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our Red Hot Chili Peppers Gen X-pert Joseph Patel, producer of Summer of Soul, returns to Bandsplain one of the Pep’s most influential, yet underappreciated, LA scene contemporaries: Fishbone. Their eclectic fusions of punk, funk, ska, metal, and soul earned these childhood friends from South Central a true cult following in the late 80s and early 90s, despite the industry racism and internal dysfunction that fumbled their mainstream potential. Follow Joseph Patel on Twitter at @jazzbeezy and watch his documentary Summer of Soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barry Johnson of Joyce Manor joins Yasi for a thorough investigation into Weezer, the early nineties major label breakouts who have served as a gateway rock band for many a preteen since. Barry and Yasi plumb the depths of one idiosyncratic frontman, Rivers Cuomo, while examining the transmutations of alt-rock from the nineties to the aughts, and Weezer’s robustly maintained fandom community who’ve stayed with them to this day. Follow Barry Johnson on Twitter at @joycemanor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back! At Bandsplain, all we wanna do is have some fun, and Yasi had the feeling she wasn’t the only one. So this week, friend of the show Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast joins us to make the case for Sheryl Crow. In 1986, Sheryl’s winding road began when she left small town Missouri for Hollywood, where she toured with Michael Jackson, scrapped her own debut album, and survived off trail mix until her breakthrough Tuesday Night Music Club put her on the map. Bethany and Yasi uncover the tragedies and successes of Sheryl’s story as she spent the next few decades navigating the underbelly of celebrity and the mess of music media while becoming one of the quintessential songwriters of her time. Follow Bethany Cosentino on Twitter at @bestcoast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bob Mehr returns to Bandsplain for an in-depth look at oft overlooked stalwarts of the 90s rock charts, Gin Blossoms. Looking at the history before a slew of hit singles brought the band into the realm of grocery store soundtrack ubiquity (Hey Jealousy, Found Out About You, Follow You Down), Bob leads us through their origins in Tempe, Arizona’s fruitful scene of the late 80s and the tragic story of songwriter Doug Hopkins to the admirable longevity of some of their best-crafted rock songs. Content warning: this episode addresses suicide and substance abuse. Follow Bob Mehr on Twitter at @BobMehr and find Trouble Boys: the True Story of the Replacements wherever books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Lifter Puller’s scrappy Minneapolis origins to the Hold Steady’s reign as “America’s best bar band,” Yasi is joined by writer Darcie Wilder of Gawker to unpack this pair of critically beloved and certifiably cult bands who culled as much from Catholic symbolism and Springsteenian character studies as they did from the social milieu of the Brooklyn aughts zeitgeist. Follow Darcie Wilder on Twitter @333333333433333 and pick up her book, “literally show me a healthy person.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re coming at you from Zebulon in Los Angeles with our very first LIVE episode, where we’re blessed by the presence of Max Collins of Eve 6 as he discusses who he thinks is America’s greatest rock n’ roll band: Fountains of Wayne. Follow Max Collins on Twitter at @eve6. We’re off next week for Thanksgiving. See you back here on Thursday, December 2 for an all new episode of Bandsplain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yasi is joined by journalist Natalie Weiner to unpack the four-decade reign of Reba, Queen of Country, from her humble Oklahoma rodeo origins all the way through her world domination as a multiplatinum-selling artist, award-winning star of screen and stage, and intrepid entrepreneur. Follow Natalie Weiner on Twitter @natalieweiner and check out her podcast, Rebawatchables. Check out Reba’s podcast, Living & Learning with Reba McEntire, only on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gina Arnold—author, academic, and architect of Yasi’s youth—graces us with her perspective on Pixies, the seminal cult indie rock band from Boston. Follow Gina Arnold on Twitter at @ginanarchy and check out her books Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana, the 33 ⅓ book on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville, and Kiss This: Punk in the Present Tense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you’re gonna scream, scream with us. Glenn Danzig’s iconic punk outfit The Misfits get the Bandsplain treatment thanks to Mike Gitter, A&R man and progenitor of XXX Fan Zine. Yasi and Mike traverse the spooky landscape of The Misfits, from the history of horrorcore to punks pumping iron on tour, and the countless drummers in between it all. Follow Mike Gitter on Twitter at @TheGitter and pick up his book, “XXX Fanzine 1983-1988: Hardcore & Punk n the Eighties,” wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here is part two of our Metallica episode, because nothing else matters. Journalist Joe Gross takes us through the latter years of Metallica. We investigate the ups and downs of their musical explorations, personnel changes, and famously documented self-help odyssey, all of which follows their 16x platinum blockbuster, the self-titled Black Album. Follow Joe Gross on Twitter at @joegross and pick up his 33 ⅓ book on Fugazi’s In On the Killtaker wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For whom the pod casts: we bring you part one of our mega-episode on Metallica, the biggest heavy metal band of all time. Rolling Stone senior writer Kory Grow has spent years writing about the band, and takes us through the beginning half of their career, from their origins to tragedy to triumph, and off to never never land. Follow Kory Grow on Twitter at @korygrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back with guns blazing. Yasi dons her top hat and talks with storied Guns N’ Roses associate Riki Rachtman, former host of MTV’s Headbangers Ball and original co-owner of the legendary rock n’ roll hangout the Cathouse Hollywood. Follow Riki Rachtman on Twitter at @RikiRachtman. Further reading: “Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction” by Marc Canter “Slash” by Slash “It's So Easy: and other lies” by Duff McKagan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, Yasi and Producer Dylan open up the listener mailbag to dish out flawless and meaningful life advice, as well as compelling answers to your burning questions. We do it for you, Reply Guy Army. We do it for you. We’re taking a week off and Bandsplain will be back on October 7th! In our break, check out our new show, The 33 ⅓ Podcast, hosted by Prince Paul. Each week we dive into one iconic album with a brilliant guest, using the source material of the 33 ⅓ book series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Scottish dreampop progenitors Cocteau Twins have a surprisingly dramatic backstory for being known as the ultimate band of ethereal, cryptic musicians. We get into all of it with Rolling Stone alum Claire Shaffer, who helps us decode their mystique, as well as to champion the “no English, just vibes” lyrical philosophy of one brilliant Elizabeth Fraser. Follow Claire Shaffer on Twitter at @claireeshaffer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cosmic country pioneer, Emmylou Harris collaborator, Keith Richards bestie, and spiritual grandfather of any country-twinged rock of the last half century, the one and only Gram Parsons is celebrated by our new friend John Strohm, president of Rounder Records, founding member of the Blake Babies, and former member of the Lemonheads. Follow John Strohm on Twitter at @johnpstrohm and Rounder Records at @RounderRecords. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer Ann-Derrick Gaillot takes us through the decades-spanning career of Tracy Chapman, whose breakout hit Fast Car propelled her into the canon of singer-songwriters when she was just 24 years old. Follow Ann-Derrick Gaillot at @AnnDerrickG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We strip down the mythical, mysterious layers of foundational band The Doors and the original rock n’ roll martyr, Jim Morrison. Fellow child of LA Jeff Weiss of the LAnd Magazine is our guest. Follow Jeff Weiss at @passionweiss and check out The LAnd magazine at @theLAndmagazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Return guest and best friend Rob Harvilla of The Ringer’s 60 Songs That Explain the 90’s takes us through the humble Irish beginnings to era-defining rock superstardom of U2. Follow Rob Harvilla at @harvilla on Twitter and listen to his The Ringer podcast, 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, only on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the help of writer and DJ Jason P. Woodbury of Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast, we examine the sprawling and experimental output of Jeff Tweedy’s Wilco, from its alt-country roots to the dad rock clichés and their many genre-transcending moments throughout. Follow Jason P. Woodbury on Twitter at @jasonpwoodbury and check out Transmissions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We take an inspired, heartfelt journey into the slacker mythology and enduring albums of iconic 90s rockers the Lemonheads. Friend of the ‘Splain Chris Black returns to travel with us into the extended Evan Dando universe and beyond. Follow Chris Black on Twitter at @donetodeath. Subscribe to How Long Gone on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Issaquah, Washington’s indie rock torchbearers Modest Mouse get ‘splained by The Ringer’s in-house Modest Mouse guy, Justin Sayles. Follow Justin Sayles on Twitter @doxellis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices