Highway Hi-Fi Podcast

The discussion dives into how musicians grapple with past success and identity, particularly focusing on Talk Talk's dramatic evolution from synth-pop to avant-garde post-rock. They explore the radical departure of 'Laughingstock,' highlighting Mark Hollis’ unique studio methods and use of improvisation. The album's concept as mutable moments rather than fixed songs is examined, alongside its mixed reception and impact on post-rock. The hosts reflect on their personal experiences and recommend related music, illustrating the album's legacy and influence.

For being studied from philosophical, sociological, psychological, and biological perspectives for centuries, there is no one unified theory on the meaning of laughter. A common condition of all cultures, every person is susceptible to these involuntary responses. As Aristotle put it, “Humans are laughing animals”. One factor that most Gelotological philosophers and scientists agree upon is that laughter is an essential social tool. Laughter creates connection, expresses emotion, adds conversational context, signals acceptance, creates positive feedback loops, acts as a defense mechanism, and helps to ferret out the weak and embarrass them. In short, laughter is how we bond. It’s how we tell others and ourselves that things are going to be okay. Social, emotional, and cognitive regulation. A primitive means to deal with our unpredictable, inconsistent, and intense existence. 1900s French Philosopher Henri Bergson wrote that laughter was a collective apparatus that causes a separation from logic and emotion which allows society to intellectually adapt to situations, balance moral quandaries, and correct eccentric behavior. Of course, not too many people are worried about where laughter comes from or what it does, we just know that videos of men sustaining testicular injuries is never not funny. All this begs the question...what do you get when you cross a joke and a rhetorical question? In the 1920s, an answer to that might have been the laughing record fad. 78s featuring uncontrollable cackling took hold of the culture causing a sort of mass hysteria in the sitting rooms around the world. It was a regular pole-sitter laughageddon. Inexplicably, millions of people could not get enough of songs that were interrupted with the wild pre-recorded howls and snorts flatulating from their Victrola phonograph machines. The bizarre novelty record phenomenon had a long lasting impact in both humanizing the nascent technology and laying the groundwork for embedded laugh tracks to assist audiences with remembering the hilarity they were witnessing. On this episode, we chuckle, chortle, snicker, titter, giggle, and guffaw our way through the bust-your-gut history of laughing records. Primary sources for this episode:Ian Nagoski of Canary RecordsCary O'Dell - Library of CongressVocal Tracks by Jacob SmithHighway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dive into the fascinating world of private press records, an isolated form of music creation often driven by pure self-belief. Discover the eccentric journey of Bobb Trimble, the enigmatic figure hailed as the king of this genre, featuring bizarre cover art and lo-fi sounds. Explore the intricacies of his distinctive vocal delivery and unique guitar tones, and hear the stories behind tracks like 'One Mile From Heaven.' From early influences to unexpected collaborations, this journey reveals the beauty of outsider artistry and its cult resurgence.

The Paisley Underground might be the first mix-tape scene. Not really a genre at all, but a collective of people who had similar interests and influences who all happened to be in bands. The music was defined more by what it wasn’t...not punk, not singer-songwriter, not hard rock, not New Romantic. It was entirely synthesized by openly combining parts of beloved sounds of the past into a fresh and forward-thinking way. The bands were composed of musicians who wore their hearts on their technicolor dreamcoat sleeves with regards to their love and devotion of 60s music. However, the sounds of the individual bands varied greatly, so it makes little sense to call it a true genre. More a scene that captured shared ideals and fashion sense. As Dream Syndicate main man Steve Wynn aptly put it: “We had enough in common with each other and almost nothing in common with anybody else.”It involved a wave of kids who became tired of the punk scene which had become what it initially railed against: stagnant music that was too concerned with maintaining status quo uniformity as the kids were getting too violent. Scores of kids who had initially fallen in love with the thrill and DIY mindset of punk, who'd grown bored and felt disenfranchised and left behind. Many of the Paisley Undergroundlings described themselves as bad punks, making music just for the sake of belonging rather than for the sake of the songs. It was the spirit of punk but with a more expansive sound. They started looking inward and backward to the more gentle and pretty sounds of the 1960s. But this wasn’t a neo-hippy movement with romanticized political ideals and stereotypical retro wear. In fact, all the bands gleaned what they liked most about the 60s without any concern for being true to their heroes or dedicated to the sound and fashion. Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Mountain Goats released Coroner’s Gambit in 2000, three years after their previous album, Full Force Galesburg. This might not sound like an incredibly long break between records, but some perspective might help explain why this time was important. In 1991, the Mountain Goats released their first album, a cassette-only release titled Taboo VI: The Homecoming. From that album through 1997, they had 21 releases of various types, cassette-only, CD only, 7” singles, split singles, 12” EPs, and full-length albums. In those 21 releases were 188 songs. In 1998, there were only 4 songs on one 12”. In 1999, zero. What caused this period of seeming inactivity?Research we used in this episode came from the below and we hope we didn't leave anyone out:Mountain Goats Website Annotated Mountain GoatsThe Mountain Goats WikiPopMatters Interview with John DarnielleRozzNet: The Official Rozz Williams WebsiteTurned Out Punk Podcast, Episode 209Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you collect vinyl, you understand the power of tangible, physical media. You know the thrill of finding a new record, staring at the cover art, pouring through the liner notes, and, of course, the disc itself. Holding sound. Looking at the grooves, the labels, the wax. The record is truly a piece of art far beyond the music contained within. There is perhaps no one who practices this craft with more skill and dedication than Michael Dixon. Based out of Tucson, Arizona, Mike expands the boundaries of vinyl art through creativity, collaboration, and innovation. He views a vinyl record as a blank canvas which will hold unique one-of-a-kind artifacts that are both beautiful and will play music for perpetuity. Drawing from lifelong loves of education, records, outsider art, and re-purposing junk, Mike uses 1940s record cutting lathe machines to handcraft sonic objects. He has made records out of up-cycled plexiglass, laser discs, picnic plates, cd-rs (playable on both turntable and standard CD player), mirrors, place mats, x-rays, and even 90% cacao chocolate. He has made records that use multiple sides, holes, groove patterns, locked grooves, and overlapping or concentric circles. He has made records that are absurdly entertaining and visually stunning. On top of this, he runs a record label called People In a Position to Know that focuses on putting out records by artists that he believes in and records that are as individual as the bands. He has made ultra-limited releases for a huge range of big name indie artists like The Flaming Lips, Dr Dog, Ariel Pink, Mike Watt, the Microphones, and Grandaddy as well as making essential music available to fans from bands that you should know like The Graves, Sugar Candy Mountain, and Golden Boots. He has also put out music by several of this podcast’s favorite artists including Wooden Wand, Simon Joyner, and Luna. Oh and when he’s not doing that, he does short run lathe cuts for bands, fixes lathe machines, is a DJ specializing in private press and bizarro honky tonk, and, coolest of all, educates kids at schools and libraries about the science behind sound and the evolution of sound recording.   We were fortunate enough to spend some time with Mike talking about his passion and his art as well as some mutual interests. We strongly encourage you to check out his process and his products by visiting his websites, michaeldixonvinylart.com and piaptk.com. We guarantee you will find incredible unique music and records that you cannot find anywhere else.Now, it is another chapter in our continuing series of interviewing people who are truly vital to the vinyl record industry and the fans of vinyl records all over the world. Here’s our conversation with lathe master, label owner, and vinyl artist Michael Dixon.People in a Position to Know Vinyl Recordings (PIAPTK)Michael Dixon ArtHighway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faced with the prospect of an untimely death, 25-year-old Mary Lambert Swale drew up an unusually specific last will and testament. The daughter of the wealthy English family, Swale anonymously bequeathed to the Anglican Church of Toronto 5000 sterling, an astronomical sum in 1845, to erect a new church. This gift came with stipulations, however. The building must be constructed in the Gothic Style in a cruciform structure. The congregation must be named Church of the Holy Trinity. And, most importantly, that all people be welcome in the church and that its pews be “free and unappropriated forever.” This was a radical request as a common practice among Anglican churches of the time was charging pew reservations as a way to allow the more affluent to worship undisturbed by the pathetic prayer riff-raff. The Church of the Holy Trinity was dedicated in October 1847 and its doors have ever more been open to all.It is fitting that this deference to the past, insistence on beauty, and the requirement for openness would be built into a church that 140 years later would play host to a recording session that would make the environment a critical aspect of its music. The Cowboy Junkies would hole up in the Trinity Church and quietly play their haunting Shoegaze Americana into a single microphone nestled in the midst of the five-story Cathedral. The hushed beauty that was committed to tape in that sacred place on the “The Trinity Session” is a commentary against the increasingly digital and frantic world surrounding them.  If you'd like to hear why Lou Reed's "Take No Prisoners" is our favorite live album of all-time, listen to the Love That Album Podcast.Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supergroups are kind of lazy. It’s a lazy term for bands that consist of musicians who have already found success elsewhere. It’s a lazy move for musicians who too often want to become relevant again or make some easy money. It’s a lazy means of promotion for record labels who can just plaster the faces of the band members on the cover. It’s a lazy expectation for fans who are happy enough with artists resting on their collective laurels. However, in this laziness, intentions and expectations are in a strange dichotomy of being very low and being very high, a lot of weird and fun stuff can happen. Raging egos, combined with expensive chemicals can generate a lot of damage.The rise of many of the most well-known supergroups has been documented to a narcoleptic degree; your Creams, Audioslaves, CSNYs, Blind Faiths, Traveling Wilburys, and Bad Englishes, for example. We are not going to bore you with those stories that you probably know already and we don’t have any interest in in the first place. We are going to take a different highway like the podcasting highwaymen we are. In this episode, we look at the other end of the spectrum, covering the importance of groups that were supergroups except that no one knew it yet. Groups with multiple members who would go on to greatness, but in the nascent stage were still unknowns. Bands that are sometimes called “Reverse Supergroups”. Totally opposite of the serendipitous accidents or the blatant money grabs of the typical supergroups; proto-supergroups are full of drive, creativity, and unchecked enthusiasm. The powers that the members yield may not be known, but it is a lot of fun to see collaborations between up and comers. Making the case that sometimes the music is more important and more lasting when it was created before anyone was paying attention rather than when it was made after people quit caring.Great places to visit that we mention in the episode:Chris Sand AKA Sandman the Rappin' CowboyPeople in a Position to Know Vinyl Recordings (PIAPTK)Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jandek’s first album, like most of his career, was made with aggressive alienation. Heralded as a master of American DIY, at no point during the first 25 years of his career did he seek attention, press, or notoriety outside his homemade music. No press kits. No live performances. No ambition or self-awareness. All interviews are summarily denied. Prolific in both his obscurity and output, Jandek would release 45 records (always 12’ full albums until CDs were available) between 1978 and 2006 under the Corwood Industries label. These would all be sold only via mail order from a Houston PO box. In that quarter century, there are only a handful of supposed interviews, which might be a misnomer because interview implies some transmission of pertinent information. He may have worked as a machinist. He may have had formal musical training. The unidentified man, who was Jandek, but only identified himself as representative of Corwood Industries. If Tom Waits’ song “What’s He Building in There” was non-fiction, it would’ve been about Jandek.Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bruce Springsteen was totally spent after finishing a grueling year long 140 date tour for his massively successful double record The River. Needing a rest, he rented a house by a reservoir in Colt’s Neck, New Jersey. His time spent there allowed him a little bit of respite from life on the road and time apart from the fans. He was able to fully take in and embrace his musical and literary influences, past and present. And while the quiet allowed him to take some time to reflect, he was dealing with insecurity, depression, and the immense pressure that he felt from all sides. And in the silence, he fell prey to a subconscious nagging about the unconnected dots from his youth. Like so many other times in his career, he turned to work and music to escape. However, in a rented room with nothing but his demons, the sound that sprang forth from the man was very different.This is part two of our isolation albums: Nebraska by Bruce SpringsteenHighway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices