Unsung Podcast

Many say that alongside Meshuggah, SikTH are one of the forebearers of djent music. A brief listen to this album will suggest that this may be somewhat true, but the influence is probably more apparent on their second album Death of a Dead Day, than this, their debut. The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out, Wait for Something Wilde by SikTH is not a djent album. The elements of the sound are there for sure, but this record incorporates a lot of nu-metal, emo, math and prog. Amongst a lot of other weirdness. It’s a strange record. These guys were clearly thinking outside of the box though. There’s a level of playing here that far surpasses many of the things their contemporaries were doing at the time. Has it aged well? We couldn’t decide, but you have the power to decide if this makes it into our discography. Fans of djent will no doubt be completely aware of this band’s importance. Those less familiar though? It’ll be interesting to see how y’all react.

What do Pearl Jam, Marilyn Manson and Miles Davis have in common? Absolutely nothing at all, except that they’re nominated together for our first live album mixtape. Our three live albums actually showcase some of the different kinds of live record we spoke about on the last episode: Neil Young’s ‘Mirrorball’ is not a concert album, but was recorded entirely live, and you can hear that in the recording as you will often hear them talking before and after takes. Marilyn Manson’s ‘The Last Tour on Earth’ is a live album that essentially serves as a tour retrospective because each song is taken from a different show on a two year long tour (or series of tours). Miles Davis’ ‘Agharta’ is a snapshot of one night, and if legend is to be believed, the best performance of a multi-night stint in Osaka, Japan. So, completely by accident, we all picked wildly different artists and completely different interpretations of what a live album is. As ever, you get to decide which one makes it into our discography. Seems unlikely we’ll return to these artists in future but time will tell.

Ah, the fabled live album. It takes guts to do one, and it takes true talent to choose a single gig as opposed to throwing together a compilation of tracks recorded over the course of a tour. On this episode we put the live album into some distinct categories, and from there each of us talk about some of our favourites. We discuss the history of the live album, what it means, why there are so few and a bunch more stuff. What’s some of your favourite live albums? We reckon we’ll probably cover more of these in future episodes - there’s a lot of great bands with a lot of great live albums - so hit us with your best suggestions!

Our voyage into continuous music comes to a close as we dig into Lubomyr Melnyk’s eighteenth (!) album Corollaries. For the unfamiliar, Melnyk categorises his style as being something almost beyond classical music, yet this release sees him team up with neoclassical composers Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick. This album seemed to give Melnyk a new lease of life; upon getting together with Frahm and Broderick he stated “Where were you in my thirties?”, a statement that stands in stark contrast to his general aversion to playing with other musicians in the years before. There’s a lot to be said about Melnyk’s playing, and I think we cover most of that in the episode. Once again, potato quality audio from Mark but hey, it isn’t terrible. There’s no doubt in our mind that Melnyk is unsung. The question is, do you agree? Vote below.

OH GOOD LORD IT’S ANOTHER TWO PARTER. Maybe we should get better at planning these things… Anyway. Chris has been chomping at the bit to do this Lubomyr Melnyk album for a while. In fact, some may even remember that he brought it up during our Pandemic Mixtape. Well, the time has come to finally tackle this post-classical/minimalist work and in doing so we absolutely had to cover his…interesting thoughts on musical philosophy. Which cascades into his questionable thoughts on the actual science of how sound works. Which takes us down a big old rabbit hole, as I’m sure you can imagine. All of this to say that it takes us a while to get to the album as a result. Also, the dude’s done like 20+ albums (although we don’t cover all of them) so that’s another whole thing we had to deal with. We also talk about continuous music (the genre he reckons he’s in…of which he is the only practitioner), his incredible piano playing speed and a bunch more things. We’ll chat about Corollaries next week. Also, apologies for the bad sound on Mark’s part this week.. Technical error as resulted in proper potato quality sound.

Finally, after the extensive preamble, we’re now down to talking about J Dilla’s third album Donuts. Because of the nature of this record, we didn’t break it down track by track as the whole thing flows as a kind of suite, so we do a little bit of track analysis and talk more extensively about the composition of the album, the techniques and technology used to create it, the samples used, the message of the record and a whole lot more. Is this an unsung classic? Vote on our facebook page. Black lives matter. J Dilla may not have been obviously political in his music very often, but he certainly had things to say about the black experience in America when he was on the mic. Indeed, his song “Fuck the Police” explicitly deals with his own negative experiences with the police, something Ma Dukes would later say often came down to the fact he was a “clean young man” that wasn’t selling drugs and the Detroit PD just couldn’t believe it. J Dilla’s story is, as we are all well aware, not an outlier. It’s time for this to stop. We all have a part to play, and a good place to start is to amplify black voices. So go do it.

Rarely do we go into an episode thinking it’ll be a two parter. It certainly wasn’t the intention with this one. Yet it turns out there’s rather a lot to say about J Dilla. He was a truly gifted producer and musician, who created an incredible amount of music in his short term here on Earth. Donuts was his second (or third) full length album, and was released a mere 3 days before his untimely death at 32 years old from a heart attack. But as a producer and beatmaker, he’d created and contributed to way more than three album’s worth of songs and, as has been demonstrated since his death, composed a lot more tunes alongside. On this episode we really dig deep into his story, talk about some of the career highlights, cover off a bunch of the things he worked on (not all because frankly, there’s a lot) and give you as much of the story of his life as we can. People who know a lot about hip hop may be wondering how this man could possibly be unsung, but the fact remains that his influence is still being felt to this day and not a lot people know about this album and his life. Vote next week!

It’s time for another emergency mixtape, folks! Due to unforeseen circumstances Weaver wasn’t available this week, so as something of a response to what seems like a deluge of people live streaming acoustic gigs from their bedrooms, Mark and Chris decided to rustle up this little number about singer-songwriters. It goes without saying that we’re mostly focusing on solo artists in this episode, and it’s by no means an exhaustive list of the ones we think are good. In fact, we’ll probably revisit this topic a little further down the line, and no doubt some of the artists mentioned will get their own episodes too. So grab a beverage and relax as we talk about some of our favourite singer-songwriters. Next week we’re going to cover Donuts by J Dilla. Promise.

Doing these two Dillinger Escape Plan episodes was a blast. You can hear part one here, where we spoke about the band’s history, live shows, touring and all of the other albums we’re not covering on this episode. It’s a good deep dive into one of metal and hardcore’s most influential acts. On part two we each make that case as to why the DEP album of our choice is the correct one. Chris has backed Calculating Infinity, Weaver’s fighting in the corner of Miss Machine and Mark thinks One of Us is the Killer is the best. Which is it? Well, we couldn’t decide because we obviously all disagreed on which is their best album, but you can help us with that by voting below. Next week we’re going hip hop and instrumental as we cover Donuts by J Dilla.

Aye so at the start of the year we thought we were absolutely capable of make our episodes a bit more concise. We were wrong. Sorta. One of the few good things to come out of lockdown is that we can spend more time researching and then talking about artists. PJ Harvey is a good example of that, and we expand upon that idea with our Dillinger Escape Plan threesome. The idea was to pit three DEP albums against one another, with Christ vouching for Calculating Infinity, Weaver backing Miss Machine and Mark bigging up One of Us is the Killer. With each of us covering a separate era of the band we soon found that we were all rather comfortable chatting about what this band means, what they stood for, and every single aspect of their sound. We figured this out as we were recording (although you’d never be able to tell) and decided to split this episode in half cleanly, so in this part we talk about the band’s history and the albums we didn’t choose. Vote comes next week.

It’s part two of our PJ Harvey episode, and this week we talk about her fourth album Is This Desire? in full. We get into the flow of the album, how it differs from her other work, and do our usual track by track breakdown. Weaver also drops in via voice mail to give us his thoughts. Plus we have the usual nexus shenanigans too as we look to try and connect PJ Harvey with the bloody Peperami mascot, The Animal. So, the question we pose to you is this: Do you think Is This Desire? is the definitive unsung PJ Harvey album? Over the past two episodes we’ve discussed whether or not it’s her best, and if it’s the most well known album (it’s not). You can probably guess which way we float on this, but it’s your call so vote below. Next week: The Dillinger Escape Plan Triple Threat.

Chris has been deliberating on which PJ Harvey to pick since before this whole podcast even started. It was a choice so difficult, that he’s had to call in back up in friend of the pod, and resident PJ Harvey expert, Vicki. Weaver couldn’t join us in full this week due to a myriad of technical issues (seriously, we tried for like half an hour to find a work around), which further proves we’ve yet to come up with a foolproof remote recording method that takes into account women who make tarot cards, phones without headphone jacks, and decent quality mics. We are, however, closer than ever to creating the perfect remote episode. Promise. This week, Vicki picks PJ Harvey’s fourth album Is This Desire? for your consideration. This episode turned into an absolute whopper, so we’ve broken it down into two delightfully bitesized(ish) chunks. We cover the history of PJ Harvey and a bunch of her albums to boot. Voting comes next week. Hopefully you’ll think we’ve made a good case. We’ve also compiled a wee PJ Harvey playlist, which is pretty great if you’re unfamiliar with her work. You can find it over at www.unsungpod.net

Weaver’s taking us back to France this week, as he gives us the lowdown on 90s house music and we give Daft Punk a good analysis. It’s difficult to imagine a time when Daft Punk were not one of the biggest electronic artists in the world. Everyone’s heard them. In fact, there’s a pretty high chance that you’ve heard “Around the World”, which was taken from this very album! The story goes that Daft Punk only wanted to put out singles, but after writing a lot they decided they had enough tunes for a full length, and some 4 years after they arrived in the French house music scene, they released Homework. All of the singles they’d released up to this point are included, and the rest is history. We go on a journey of their discography and Dave tells us about house music too. A good listen, if we do say so ourselves. Is Homework Daft Punk’s unsung classic? You decide.

After last week’s vote ended in 100% of people agreeing that Mule Variations should go into the discography, we thought we’d return to punk and cover Sing Sing Death House by The Distillers. We also welcome back Anna Goldthorp! The Distillers only released 3 albums in their career, and people generally tend to look more favourably on their 3rd (and to date, final) album Coral Fang. But this week Anna and Mark are here to argue Sing Sing Death House is not only unsung but also the band’s best record. On this episode, aside from going into the band’s limited back catalogue, we spend a good chunk of time talking about how influential Brody Dalle is, why The Distillers were an important band in the early 00s, and her legacy. As we’re now recording remotely, we’re still sorting out a few things on the audio side, so this episode may sound a little strange in places. Sing Sing Death House - unsung classic? You decide.

It’s difficult to imagine a world without Tom Waits. You may not be a fan, or even at all familiar with his music, but he’s been such a well known cult musical figure for so long that he’s taken on an almost mythical air. And mystical. And mythological. Basically, anything that starts with m and ends in al. That’s largely because he remains something of an enigma. An intensely private person, fans only really know him through his music, and his music is weird. This week Chris brings his 12th studio album Mule Variations to the table, obstinately proclaiming that it is an unsung classic. We try to give his entire 16 album catalogue a once over and manage to drag this our discussion to a conclusion in just over an hour and half. If you’re not a fan of Waits, it’s unlikely this episode will do much to change your opinion, but hey, you might just learn something in the process. Is Mule Variations an unsung classic? Only you can decide.

We may very well be doubling down on the post-apocalyptic vibes this week, but it’s apt. So sue us. This week, we get back on track with Ausserwelt by French post-metal sextet, Year of No Light. Weaver’s back in the game, although as we’re now in lockdown, we recorded this one remotely. Which seems like it’ll be the story for the foreseeable future. We do a bit of a deep dive on Year of No Light, and touch upon some of the other projects their members have been involved in. An unsung band for sure, are Year of No Light worth of a spot in our discography? You know exactly what to do, folks!

Well, it happened. We knew the day would come. We knew there would inevitably be a point where we wouldn’t be able to get into the same room together and it’s taken a goddamn pandemic to make that happen. So here we are. Our first ever remote episode. And almost certainly not our last. As fans will know, we were originally scheduled to do Ausserwelt by Year of No Light this week. However, Dave was feeling a little poorly so we decided to do something else. Chris and Mark sat down to have a wee chat about their post-apocalyptic anthems. It’s been a rough few weeks for pretty much all of humanity, but we decided we wanted to solider on because hey, it’s not like we’re doing much else at this point in time. To wit; we picked a few songs each, dispensed some thoughts on coronavirus and basically tried to make these bleak times seem a little less bleak. By talking about bleak music. Go figure. We don’t know what the future holds for us in terms of getting together to do this podcast, but we’re committed to keeping this whole sorry affair going remotely for the time being. We’d love it if you chatted to us too, so hit us up on socials or fire us an email. We hope to return to our regularly scheduled programming next week. Funky sound in tow. In the meantime, stay safe, stay at home and wash your hands.

Almost lost to the sands of time (well, in an official sense), Static Age was the first album the Misfits ever recorded, before being ditched save for a few singles and the occasional re-recording of some songs by primary (at the time) songwriter Glenn Danzig. The album lived on though in what seemed like an endless tape copy circle amongst fans. They would later go onto double down on the horror gimmick to record and release a “proper” debut album in 1982 called Walk Among Us, and for years fans clamoured to hear what they recorded all the way back in 1978. Their dreams came true in 1996 when it was released as part of a new boxset, and it seemed to live up to the hype. Indeed, some even say that if this was released as intended it may very well be remembered as one of the most important punk albums ever written, and a highlight from the punk’s first wave. Misifts are almost certainly not an unsung band - their logo and the famous “crimson ghost” image is iconic. But is Static Age unsung? You decide.

The perfect antidote to SHOUTY ANGRY MUSIC is to do something a little more…melodic. And iconic. Which is why we’re doing Pod, the debut album by The Breeders. Something of a supergroup, The Breeders were formed when Kim Deal, feeling unfulfilled by her role in The Pixies, decided to put a band together to showcase the material she’d written. After sending a demo tape to 4AD, the rest is history. Recorded by Steve Albini at Palladium Studios in Edinburgh, it’s a stunningly consisted, and assured, debut. Even Steve thinks this is one of his best records! It is an album that is, by all accounts, pretty bloody good. But is it their unsung classic? You decide.

How do you get as far away from dance music as possible? You choose a powerviolence album. And guess what? Weaver fucking loves Nails and Orbital. The many truly has the widest music taste in all the land. Yes, this week Mark pulls the trigger on powerviolence/crust/grindcore stallions Nails. As far as bands of this ilk go, they are somewhat of an anomaly. After gaining the attention of the mainstream music press shortly before the release of their third album ‘You’ll Never Be One Of Us’, Nails have gone on to create a buzz for themselves. Sometimes for the right reasons, and sometimes for the wrong reasons. We go into both during this episode. Somehow we end up talking about the band for over an hour. Which is actually longer than their entire discography. Go figure. ‘Unsilent Death’ is their first album. It’s quite an angry affair, truth be told. But don’t hold that against it. They’re a band with one emotion and two(ish) speeds. You’ll either love it or hate it. Is this album their unsung classic? Is it even an album? As ever, you decide.

Dance pioneers Orbital are perhaps more influential than you might think. Yes, they’ve headlined Glasto, and yes they’re practically household names to anyone who enjoyed getting a bit squiffy in a warehouse in the 90s, but they never really reached the same popularity as many of their peers. And it appears they liked it that way. Which is fine! This week Weaver brings their fifth album The Middle of Nowhere in for a good going over. Which is exactly what we do. We touch upon the 90s dance scene they came from, their legacy, their peers and more. Is this album unsung? You decide.

The time has come to talk about three albums that we think are good Britpop albums. If you could even call some of them Britpop albums… Chris chose ‘I Should Coco’ by Supergrass, which is definitely a Britpop album. Mark chose ‘Everything Must Go’ by Manic Street Preachers, which is not a Britpop album, but is often considered one, and is even categorised as one in wikipedia. Weaver chose ‘Blur’ by Blur, which is not a Britpop album, but is an album by a leading Britpop act. It’s really where the band shed its skin and went into more lo-fi, indie rock territory. All of these choices prompt some healthy discussion, which we won’t spoil for you hear. Needless to say though, it’s actually quite good natured all round! Which is the best, most Unsung Britpop album? Only you can tell us.

So, Britpop eh? To say that each of us approached this mixtape with trepidation would be an understatement equal in size to how badly the British government fucked up Brexit. That is to say, the fear was big, ugly and all too real. Which is mostly understandable on Chris’ part as he experienced it first hand. Mark and Weaver were still aged in the single digits when the whole sorry mess began. Yet it still somehow permeates their memories like a splinter you just can’t quite get a hold of with a pair of tweezers. Tortured similes aside though, there’s something to be said about researching something you feel indifference to - you have substantially more objectivity. Indeed, just as history is mere narrative arranged by people that swallow facts for a living, we gave this topic a mighty good once over. The result? It could very well be one of our best episodes yet. No bullshit. In fact, we had to split this bugger in two, so exhaustive was our appraisal of this pseudo-nationalist “genre”. On this episode we talk about the history of the genre; how it started, why it started, the marketing, the social context, the impact it had etc. Then we talk about some of the bands and some of the tunes. Look, if you like our schtick you’re gonna love this schtick. And we’re really not that harsh on the “genre” either!

The Melvins have a ton of back catagloue, and in our effort to reduce episode run times this year, we’ve tackled it with an unusual amount of brevity. In places. Not every place. But some places. But that’s easy because some people, including our resident fan of the band Chris, think that they’re a band that has struggled to stay consistent for entire albums. Which, when you realise they’ve released 23 albums (and a bunch of other collaborative stuff) is somewhat understandable. Yet there are occasions when they’ve managed to get their shit together for long enough to focus on an entire album. This is one of those albums. Widely seen as the forefathers of both grunge and sludge (but don’t say the latter to their face), there’s an embarrassment of riches to be found throughout their entire oeuvre. The special moments occasionally last entire albums though, and this one is a prime example. It comes fairly late on in their career - it was released in 2006 - and is their 15th goddamn record. After the departure of bassist Kevin Rutmanis, Buzz and Dale decided that, instead of just borrowing the bassist from Big Business for a bit, that they would just incorporate the entire band into their own. What follows is a quadruple vocal, double drummer affair with a bass tone that matches Buzz’s ferocious guitar tone lick for lick. So this late career hurrah is, we feel, a little overlooked compared to some of their other records. But is it their unsung classic? You know what to do.

Oh lawd, we ain’t messing around this year. Without Flying Lotus, the much vaunted Brainfeeder jazz/hip hop/electronica scene that gave rise to Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, Kamasi Washington and Anderson .Paak, wouldn’t exist. Although those guys had all been in each other’s orbits for a while, it took FlyLo’s record label to really bring attention to all of the good shit that was coming out of LA in the late 00s and early 10s. He’s worked with all of those artists, and yet he’s remained obstinately, steadfastly different. Beginning his career doing instrumental hip-hop a la DJ Shadow, he’s crossed multiple genres on his way to substantial underground success. Bringing his rich heritage of jazz to an entirely new audience by splicing it with IDM, Drum n Bass, hip hop, psychedelia and electronica to absolutely stunning effect. Comsogramma is his third album, and as we will go on to argue, marks the moment when his musical vision grew more cinematic and ambitious. He pours everything he has into this cosmic whirlwind of an album. Every version of FlyLo is heard on this record - from jazz fusion freak outs to lush string laden experimental hip hop and everything in between - has been expanded on ever since. But this, this is where the artist is truly born. Is it his best work? Does it deserve a place in our discography? You decide.

Even though we said last week that our resolution was to keep our episodes to around an hour, it turns out we’re big fat liars. We’ve busted that promise. We didn’t even last one episode. However, this week we’re talking about Kate Bush frankly, we just don’t think it’s possible to do her oeuvre justice in less than an hour. So there. After the roaring success of our Deftones episode (seriously - it was perhaps one of our most popular ever), Weaver is hoping to go two for two this week, as we give him another crack at choosing an album. He chose Aerial, Kate Bush’s eighth album. Released in 2005, it was her first release in 12 years. It was also a double album which (we may be wrong here) make it our first double album that’s been under consideration for our discography. A highly anticipated return for this much loved, somewhat mysterious artist, it comes complete with the usual Kate Bush quirkiness, albeit dialled down significantly. Mostly, it comes across as an artist who has settled into a comfortable middle age. Risk are taken, although they’re perhaps smaller than what they were some 20 years before. She’s released a lot of important, iconic, highly praised work, meaning that Aerial is a prime candidate for our discography. Does it deserve a place in it? You know what to do.

We deliberately didn’t tell you what we were doing next so that you would be somewhat surprised. This week, we’re rolling out one of our big guns. A critically acclaimed, influential, multi-million record selling big band of big dudes. It’s the Deftones’ fourth album, and it’s self titled. This episode is probably the biggest single episode we’ve yet done, but it works. We do an entire career retrospective of the band’s back catalogue. We give each of their albums a once over. Weaver gives his (much anticipated) opinion on why he thinks the band changed and when. We go deep, folks. We think we may have, perhaps, gone a little too deep. To wit; this is a comprehensive run down of Sacramento’s finest sons. Our resolution this year is to never have a single episode go this long again. Will it stick? Who knows. You know the drill: is this the Deftones’ most unsung album? Do the vote thang below.

It’s 2020. And the world has not yet ended. It’s something of a miracle. What is not a miracle, and is frankly a bit tedious if you’ve been somewhat alienated by our previous two episodes, is that our Xmas special is STILL not over. Well, after today it’s over, but it’s annoying that we’re dropping part three damn near two weeks after Christmas. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. This whole sorry thing should have been a two parter. We ran longer than planned though, so here we are, finishing off the Xmas Xtravagansa 2019 trilogy on January 6th. On this episode the beer and the mulled wine really starts to kick in, but we make up for it by doing a quick list of our favourite one hit wonders and cover versions. It’s a good laugh, actually. You can find the playlist of cover versions at the bottom of this post. Thanks for suffering through 2019 with us. It was a pretty big year for our show, and we only have plans to grow even further in 2020. Hopefully you’ll come along with us. We return to our regular programming next week, and boy do we have a doozy for you…

Look, Christmas is a time for giving. And also for drinking. And also also for airing semi-coherent nonsensical opinions. On this episode we some how many to cover all three. No more phone calls from Mark’s dad though. So that’s a thing. We take some more questions, go on some tangents, and then we resurrect Sound as a Pound (we will make this a regular mini-episode at some point in 2020, promise) as we each give the gift of a £1 to album to one another. The results are…well, the range from good to absolute Toploader level trash. Side note: we rambled so much nonsense when recording this that it is now morphed into a 3 parter. Xmas, it seems, really will last until January 6th. In case you missed it, find Part One here: https://www.unsungpod.net/episodes/episode-101-the-2019-xmas-xtravaganza-side-a

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, apparently. As is now tradition we get a drunk, mouthy and a bit fighty. 2019 has been quite the year, so like last year we go through our usual list of questions. Some that we’ve dreamed up, and some that our fans have sent our way. As every year, this is split into two episodes. One drunker than the last. This year’s honour for the drunkest goes ti Mark, incidentally. Spoiler alert. Enjoy your Christmas folks. We’ll see ye in a week!

So folks, it all comes down to this. We’ve discussed the ins and outs of the genre. Given you the history from its pre-punk roots all the way right up to the present day. With all that history, all those artists, all those albums, we try to boil it down to the three best examples of the genre in our eyes. Chris picks Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring. Weaver picks Pump up the Valuum by NOFX. Mark picks New Found Glory by New Found Glory. Three examples of the genre that are completely distinct from one another. We also do our nexus (where we link each of our albums to Murder, She Wrote actress Angela Lansbury) and we take some questions from the audience too. Will it all end in tears? Vote below and let us know what you think is best.

Oh dip, it’s part two of our three part Pop Punk mixtape extravaganza. On this episode we move from the late 90s to the present day and wonder if people actually like pop punk after the mid 00s. The answer to that depends on how much you like fringes, whether or not you’re English, and if your favourite band is Blink 182, New Found Glory or All Time bloody Low. Weaver takes us from 98 to mid 00s, covering the “golden age” of pop punk. And Mark brings us bang up to date with a smattering of good, bad and “meh” songs by bands that we’re all too old to really get. Turns out time is indeed a flat circle, friends, and like zombie Jesus himself, pop punk never dies.

All three of us has done a fair amount of reliving our youth on this podcast, and after Chris had his Grunge mixtape and Weaver had his Nu Metal mixtape, it’s Mark’s turn to do the Pop Punk mixtape. So on November 24th a bunch of folks joined us in Glasgow’s The Flying Duck as we celebrated our 100th goddamn episode with this pop punk nonsense. It turns out this is a three parter, so in the first episode we cover the history of (pop) punk from the 70s until 1998, taking in some of the highlights and dropping some knowledge on the genesis of the genre. I mean, can you still believe pop punk is a thing after all the highs and lows?

You 90s kids probably heard Cable in a Sprite advert. They weren’t particularly fond of their decision to make this move, in retrospect. Which kinda sums up a lot of this band’s story; screwed over by the mechanations of an industry that they thought would help them achieve at least some semblance of success. But when you think about it, given how obtuse a lot of this band’s music is, the fact they even made it as far as getting a song synced to an advert in the first place is no small miracle. Even though they were really only a properly active, touring unit for about four years, their influence on dozens of British post-hardcore bands in the early and mid 00s is legion. When Animals Attack is often seen as the band’s finest hour. Their sound is a confident, often playful mixture of late 80s/early 90s Dischord post-hardcore, with a dollop of grunge for good measure. If you’re unacquainted with this truly unsung band, we suggest you remedy that immediately. Are they good enough to enter our discography though? You decide. Vote below.

Chris was ill this week so we were unable to record. As a result, we thought we'd share with you an episode that, until now, was for subscribers only. This is the first episode of our subscriber’s only series called the Unsung Split 7”. As this is our first episode, we decided that we would pick an album by a band we’ve previously nominated that’s actually terrible. The hope is that after this you guys will ask us some questions or give us some topics to discuss and we’ll do our best to tackle them. Enjoy

It’s hard to see a picture of billy woods’ face. At least, it’s hard to see an “official” one as it’s often censored. It might seem like an odd thing to start with, but we bring it up because his music is so identifiable, so recognisable that it really doesn’t matter if you know what the guy looks like or not; the art speaks for itself. Yes, that is Robert Mugabe on the cover. And the text is stark. The whole aesthetic of this record is confrontational. It’s ironic. It’s a bit dingy. It’s dark. It’s also staggering that billy woods is not more well known because he’s just as vital as many popular hip hop artists today. History Will Absolve Me is woods’ second (possibly third) album, and it came at a time when he was questioning whether a music career was really for him. In this episode we talk about not just his discography, but the man himself. Over the years he’s taken part in many projects, but we focus almost entirely on his solo output. An unusual move for us, but the album is so deep that we thought we’d spend a little more time talking about the content and themes within. For Weaver, it’s a close race between this album and his fourth album Today, I Wrote Nothing. This record is the one that he freely admits helped put him and his record label, Backwoodz Studioz, on the map. Is this his definitive statement? You know what to do.

If you’re not too young, and it’s not too painful, cast your mind back to 2003. The studded belts. The big fringes. The eyeliner. The teen angst. The legions of identikit metalcore bands. It was a different time. It can also be viewed as a most regrettable time. For fashion. For music. For everything, really. The Bled were a little known band from this period who seemed to unleash this album onto this world with no really thought as to what would happen next. Are they a true anomaly of this period? Probably not. Mark and Weaver listened to a bunch of shit like in their youth. Both moved on, but Mark felt it was time to address this period in music history and thus chose The Bled. We go over their career, the weird emo/metalcore scene they were born from, and everything in between. We have no real desire to come back to this genre, or period, of music. But it was important, and this is our stab at an unsung classic from that era. Should it go into our discography? There’s a plot twist at the end of this episode, incidentally…

True to type we return to moody, melancholic indie this week. Only this time it’s a little more diverse, as Sharon Van Etten’s fifth album ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ augment her usual folk-ish indie rock sound with everything from trip-hop to 80s synth pop. This album was released in 2019, which makes it the newest record to be nominated for our discography. Whilst it is a pretty good record, some of our attention turns towards wondering if we can call an album unsung when it is an artist’s latest release. Particularly when that release has been the recipient of its fair share of critical acclaim. Elsewhere, we due the usual due diligence on her back catalogue, and also discuss some of the female artists that sprung up around the same time as Sharon Van Etten. Is ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’ worthy of a place in our discography? Vote below, and if you’re unfamiliar with her work Chris has chucked together a few choice cuts from her back catalogue alongside a raft of influences and influencees.

Hoo boy. This week’s episode is tasty. Some more savvy internet users may vaguely recognise the song ‘Plastic Love’ by Mariya Takeuchi. It’s a song that literally millions of people have heard due to the vast amount of memes that popped up in 2017 after a YouTube user used the the song in one of their videos. Apparently though, that’s not what led Weaver into the arms of the strange 80s J-Pop genre of City Pop. To say that anyone here actually thinks this album is good would be an outright lie, but Weaver brings this to the table to talk about this weird genre, and its even more baffling resurgence. We’re always keen to expand the number of genres we cover on this show, but does that mean this record will get a place in our discography as a result of this?

What’s not to love about three white men prattling on about sad indie music? Wait, didn’t we just do that? Well, we’re at it again. Sorta. Elliott Smith is more singer songwriter/college rock/alt rock but he’s by far and away sadder than Interpol. Which seems to be our MO for the past month. Look, we’re not necessarily saying that Figure 8 is his best album (but it might be), but we’re definitely arguing that it’s his most unsung album. Yes we know, it’s on a major label. He was not as obscure as he was when Either/Or came out, but we reckon that particular record is widely regarded as his best by fans. Mark brings this sad boi music to the table this week. Which, we’re sure you’ll agree, is not entirely unsurprising given some of his past choices. We talk about Elliott’s career, tragic life and as ever, dive into his discography to see what’s what. Some people still consider this man underrated, y’know. But even if he’s not, is this his unsung classic? Vote below.

If there’s one thing you can rely on when it comes to alternative music podcasts is that at some point they will inevitably cover Interpol. There will be some (usually straight, white) men in a room somewhere, huddled round their microphones, discussing the clever intricacies of their music, waxing lyrical about their coolness, and producing a well rounded chat on their influential status. We do some of that here too. Chris believes that this is not only their best work, but that it is one of the most important indie rock albums of the century. The aloofness, the distant nature of the band, their calculated, oddly catchy, interesting, dynamic music is something that he, and their legions of fans, utterly adore. It’s an argument well made about a band who were almost unquestionably one of the most interesting acts to come out of that early 00s NYC, Joy Division/New Order inspired indie scene that spawned, and still spawns, a myriad of imitators. One thing we learned from this episode is that fans of Interpol tend to agree with the idea that they are an important band. But as we also learned, your mileage will inevitably vary given how much you enjoy indie generally. The band left a dent, that much cannot be denied. They exploded into alternative music consciousness with this record, and their profile has only increased in the time since. They are by no means an Unsung band, but this record may very well be their music Unsung collection. Is it worth of a place in our discography? That is, as ever, for you to decide.

You can find part one here: https://www.unsungpod.net/episodes/episode-92-somewhere-along-the-highway-by-cult-of-luna-part-1 Now it’s time for part two. After some lively discussion about their discography we pick things up as Chris talks about how fans generally rank their records, which then moves on to talk about the band’s status within metal music today. Weaver also talks about why he loves this record so much and we give the whole thing a good once over to boot. For many it’s a toss up between Salvation and Somewhere Along the Highway as to which is Cult of Luna’s best work. Do you think this record is the one for our discography? Vote below!" As our first proper foray into post-metal, we’d love to know what other albums of this kind you’d love for us to cover. So do let us know!

Hey, look guys, sometimes we can be relevant to current musical trends! If those trends are simply the result of us covering bands who have just released new albums… This week we cover one of Dave’s all time top 3 favourite bands, a band he reckons haven’t produced a bad record. A band called Cult of Luna. Amongst the die hards, the title of best Cult of Luna album swithers between this and Salvation, the album directly before this one. Salvation marked the band entering new territory, incorporating more dynamics, augmenting their post-metal vibes with elements from post and prog rock. Somewhere Along the Highway those is where they really took it up a gear. In part one, we talk about the band’s history, laying the groundwork for why we think this is the best album from an unsung band. Part two can be found here: https://www.unsungpod.net/episodes/episode-92-part-2-somewhere-along-the-highway-by-cult-of-luna

Earnest, occasionally angry music by straight white men? Sounds like a punk band Mark likes. And so it is, as this week we talk about the gruffest men on earth, Hot Water Music. Ostensible a punk band, their throaty yelling and cathartic choruses have had a huge influence on so many punk bands over the course of the past 15 years. Alternately called things like gruff punk, or beard core, or even gravel core, all of these ridiculous pseudo-genres bring to mind men with beards and plaid shirts. Which is entirely accurate, really. Formed in 1993, they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and have been a hugely inspiration band for punks all around the world. This week Mark picks their fifth album ‘Caution’. Not a fan favourite, and definitely their “most well known” release, it’s their second release for Epitaph, and marks perhaps their most popular period. They landed great tours, the band were on a hot streak and it looked like things might actually be happening for them. From a musical standpoint, fans may well disagree that this album is the correct choice for inclusion in our discography. Do you agree, or is this the right one? Vote below. ANNOUNCEMENT We have launched a Patreon! You can donate here: www.patreon.com/unsungpod This is also the last podcast we will release on a Friday - starting Monday 7th of October we will be moving to a Monday release. Still want to get em on a Friday? Subscribe on Patreon for early access, bonus episodes and much, much more!

The Knife are perhaps one of the most political bands we’ve yet covered on this show. Fiercely independent into the bargain, they’re probably one of the most punk bands we’ve had on this show too. Except they’re not a punk band. They’re anything but. As an electro-pop band, their early stuff was a cool juxtaposition between breezy dancable pop tunes and a strange, subtle darkness. Sometimes both could be felt in the same song, but mostly their albums swung between both. It was only on Shaking the Habitual, their final, and longest album, that things finally came together. Their sound truly evolved, taking in techno, EDM, industrial, drone and noise, all of which culminated in this epic double album. In Chris’ view, it’s as grand an artistic statement as any band have made. It’s challenging, dense, political, beautiful, brutal and absolutely uncompromising. It takes a little effort to get into, but we feel it’s an ultimately rewarding listen. Is this their magnum opus as well as their Unsung classic? You know what to do.

This is it. Time to talk about what records we actually picked and why we picked them. Chris decides to tackle his youthful enjoyment of far left cliches by choosing a record he adores, by a band whose politics he has grown to have serious questions about, in The (International) Noise Conspiracy’s second album ‘A New Morning, Changing Weather’. Whilst Weaver goes for Rage Against the Machines final album ‘Renegades’, because what’s better than a left wing band who paints in broad-strokes to really set the teenage sociopolitical heart ablaze? Mark opts for ‘Pick a Bigger Weapon’ by The Coup, whose sole remaining original member is well known for his activism, outspoken socialism, incisive wit and general love for all things funky. Which is the best? You decide.

Despite our Liberal leanings, we are not a communist podcast. But we do hold some of the same fundamental views on society, politics and people. Which means, surprisingly, that we rarely disagree on politics. So why a Red Meance podcast? Well, due to our leftness, we thought it'd be fun to explore some of the artists who espouse or influence our views. Thus, a mixtape was born. This, and next, week, we are discussing bands that are very left wing. The kind of communist and socialist bands many of us love, as it happens. But also bands we may have grown to find a little problematic. On this episode we talk about some the bands and genres we think fall into this category. As well as those that don't. It's a fun ride. Promise. So enjoy, if you will, a very brief primer on left wing bands.

One listen to Hood’s intriguing fifth album ‘Cold House’ would have you think that they were just another bunch of perennially morose Northern Englishmen. Not so. This week Weaver aims to tell you otherwise. Despite critical acclaim, some tasty tours and lovely festival slots, Hood never did seem to catch the right wave. By the time record came around, they’d been ploughing their trade for ten years, and had recorded and released a ton of songs, exploring many different musical avenues. With this record though, it seems to come together. The second release on Domino, and the backing some indie press, was enough to see them continue for another few years. Then the promptly vanished altogether. One of the brothers who made up the core unit of the band, Richard Adams, moved onto The Declining Winter, whilst Chris now creates music under the name A Remote Viewer, Bracken and runs a label called Home Assembly. Nevertheless, Weaver argues that this is a true unsung classic, and the band’s melancholic magnum opus. A strange mixture of electronica, post-rock, indie and trip hop is what you can expect to find on this album. The trip hop elements bolstered with guest spots by Anticon co-founders Why? and Doseone. In this episode we chat about the album, try to define what it is about some English bands that just screams “dull” and a whole bunch more. Is Cold House worthy of inclusion in our discography? You know what to do.

Before we delve into the funk let’s start by saying that we’re a little out of our depth here because funk, and specifically P-funk, is a mad, mad sci-fi psychedelic world of slap bass, 70s keyboard freak outs, horny horns, gospel-esque backing vocals, R&B melodies, the occasional Hendrix-style guitar freak out and more funk than James Brown could shake a stick at. The mythology behind Parliament’s 10 (!) concept albums is deep, freaky, hilarious and acts as a critique on 70s Black America. It’s also neigh on impenetrable, yet remains a cornerstone of Afrofutrism. It is, in many ways, absolutely fascinating. Your mileage may very. Chris finds funk hard to connect with, whilst Mark and Dave are keen to extol the influence and legacy of Parliament-Funkadelic’s mental freaky funk outs. Along the way we run down Parliament’s discography, talk about the enduring legacy of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell’s contribution to popular music. We’re more than aware that Mothership Connection is Parliament’s biggest, most well known album. One could make the argument that is anything but unsung. Yet in a discography that is overwhelmingly white, we think it’s time we let our audience know about something a bit different. Should we add it to our discography? As ever, you decide.

Surprise! Part two of our Biffy episode is available a few days early, as we look to go ahead with ‘Mothership Connection’ by Parliament this Friday. The gloves are off in this episode as Chris finally gets to the root of his deep seated disdain for the band, we talk about this album, where it sits in the context of their discography, and the weirdness of their fame. We also get a bit philosophical as we ponder how they could have been a big important rock band but instead have become the British version of the Foo Fighters. It’s up to you to decided whether or not that’s a good thing. Most importantly though, it’s time for you guys to finally do the thing you do so well: vote on whether or this album should be included in our discography. Have we managed to make the case for this being or not being added to it? As ever, you decide.