Bandsplain

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