

Bandsplain
Bandsplain is a show where host Yasi Salek invites experts to explain cult bands and iconic artists—and why people love them.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 20, 2022 • 3h 23min
The Offspring with Daniel Kohn
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.
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Oct 13, 2022 • 3h 23min
Third Eye Blind with Chris Black
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
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Oct 6, 2022 • 3h 12min
Smashing Pumpkins with Rob Harvilla, Part 2
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.
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Sep 29, 2022 • 3h 11min
Smashing Pumpkins with Rob Harvilla, Part 1
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.
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Sep 22, 2022 • 30sec
Bandsplain Returns September 29th
Bandsplain is back babe and we are now part of The Ringer Podcast Network. New episodes start Thursday September 29th.
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Jun 2, 2022 • 2h 52min
Bad Brains with Atiba Jefferson
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.
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May 26, 2022 • 3h 1min
PJ Harvey with Ann Powers, Part 2
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.
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May 19, 2022 • 3h 44min
PJ Harvey with Ann Powers, Part 1
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.
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May 12, 2022 • 3h 36min
Neutral Milk Hotel with Mark Richardson
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.
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May 5, 2022 • 4h 25min
The Slits with Zoë Howe
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.
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