Discord and Rhyme: An Album Podcast

We’re sorry, Miss Jackson. For nearly two decades, Janet Damita Jo Jackson was one of the world’s most reliable hitmakers, but her reign came to a complete halt after the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show and its infamous “wardrobe malfunction.” After a stunning career spent deliberately pushing boundaries, somebody else took it a step too far and she suffered the consequences. However, her legacy of pop masterpieces and powerful feminism was never forgotten. She kept living her life, putting out terrific albums, and never relinquishing control. Janet may have been less visible for a while there, but she never truly went away - and now that she’s been nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the third time, we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure she gets in, including making sure all our listeners know how excellent Control is. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do. Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox, Mike DeFabio, Amanda RodgersComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/009-janet-jackson-control-1986Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Discord & Rhyme is excited to welcome its first guest co-host! David Weigel is a politics reporter for the Washington Post, but more importantly for our nefarious purposes, he is the author of the truly excellent progressive rock history The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock. But this episode is also a reunion: Dave used to geek out about music with your hosts on the teeny-tiny ‘90s music websites we lovingly called the Web Reviewing Community (WRC). And today, he’s geeking out with us all over again by helping us tear apart Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard, a True Star, track by minute-long track.Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Amanda Rodgers, Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, Dave WeigelComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/10/2/008-feat-dave-weigel-todd-rundgren-a-wizard-a-true-star-1973Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

In Prog John’s first go-around as host, the Discord and Rhyme crew (John, Amanda, Mike, and Dan) turn their attention to the debut album of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, an album and band that everyone in this episode agrees is far better than consensus critical opinion would suggest. John offers a spirited defense not only of the band and this album, but also of prog rock in general as well as of one of his favorite classical composers, the 20th-century Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (Mike agrees wholeheartedly with John’s Bartok love, while Amanda is far more ambivalent). This podcast offers deep dives into each of this album’s six tracks (the 12:27 “Take a Pebble” is discussed over six parts), as well as close examination of the band’s roots and influences, collectively and individually. We can practically guarantee that this will be the only podcast you ever hear that contains excerpts from ELP, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, a Bach keyboard suite, and, somehow, the Japanese anime “Cowboy Bebop.”Cohosts: John McFerrin, Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Dan WatkinsComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/9/18/007-emerson-lake-palmer-emerson-lake-palmerSupport the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Do we really need to introduce Aretha Franklin? Undisputedly the best soul singer around — perhaps the best singer, period — her string of massive hits and modern classics is longer than some other artists’ entire careers. Her voice is so recognizable now that it’s easy to take for granted, but when she moved to Atlantic Records in 1967 and released I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, she made gospel-style music blare from American radios at a volume then unheard of, and with a confident feminist swagger.When we recorded this episode, we had absolutely no idea that we were doing it at the end of the Queen of Soul’s reign. We’re all very glad we took the opportunity to delve into her amazing recordings, and we hope we did her justice. The Queen herself may be gone, but she’ll never, ever be forgotten. Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, Amanda RodgersComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/9/4/006-aretha-franklin-i-never-loved-a-man-the-way-i-love-you-1967Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod 

Everybody go put on your sundresses over babydoll t-shirts and turn your baseball caps backward, because this is a mid-’90s party! Amanda took the opportunity to make Phil, Rich, and Will revisit 1994 and Under the Table and Dreaming, Dave Matthews Band’s studio debut. We all enjoyed this album when we were teenagers in the ‘90s, but since then, at least one of us has soured on it considerably. Come for the discord, stay for the rhyme, and then get on Twitter and tell us what you think. If you stick around at the end, you'll find us inadvertently channeling Bart and Lisa and making an accidental crank call.Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, Chris Willie WilliamsComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/8/21/episode-005-dave-matthews-band-under-the-table-and-dreaming-1994Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpodSupport the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

It's Discord & Rhyme's first hip-hop album! In this watershed episode, our producer, Mike, walks Rich, Will, and Phil through hip-hop supergroup Deltron 3030's self-titled 2000 dystopian sci-fi opus. Deltron 3030, a collaboration between emcee Del the Funky Homosapien, turntablist Kid Koala, and producer Dan the Automator, is at once funny, action-packed, thematically dense, and searing in its social commentary. It also boasts an encyclopedic range of samples, both typical of Automator's eclectic taste and of particular interest to Mike as a fellow producer. The album served as a gateway drug to hip-hop for all four hosts this week, and if you're on the fence about the genre, we hope it will do the same for you. Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox, Chris Willie WilliamsComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/8/4/episode-004-deltron-3030-deltron-3030-2000Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

We're talking about Ween today, so listener beware: Here be dragons, also salty language. For his first outing as host, Phil Maddox leads his co-hosts through New Hope, PA, alternative rock duo Ween’s highly idiosyncratic and mildly sophomoric 1997 release The Mollusk. Ween initially gained notoriety in the early ’90s, when major labels were snapping up every weird band under the sun in search of the next Nirvana, and it was awesome. The band is best known for its grating MTV hit “Push th’ Lil’ Daisies,” but The Mollusk is more of a loving homage to progressive rock and sea shanties — with a few jarring doses of Ween humor. Rated R for language. Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins, Chris Willie WilliamsComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/7/22/episode-003-ween-the-mollusk-1997-9smdgSupport the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

In Episode 2, we talk about an album all four of us know by heart and love passionately: On the Threshold of a Dream, the third album by the Moody Blues. We start with our own adaptation of “In the Beginning,” the poem that begins the album, and we couldn’t resist throwing in a Simpsons joke. (You get a bunch of thirtysomethings together, Simpsons jokes are inevitable.) We provide an overview of the Moody Blues' entire career, using this album as an anchor. If you enjoy listening to people talk enthusiastically about stuff they really, really love, this is the episode for you. Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, John McFerrinComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/7/14/episode-002-the-moody-blues-on-the-threshold-of-a-dream-1969Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

For one of the most popular, beloved, and commercially successful bands of the 1970s, Earth, Wind, & Fire have become something of an afterthought by the 2010s. Bandleader Maurice White’s death in February 2016 earned a few loving obituaries, but mostly got lost in the shuffle between Bowie and Prince’s respective passings. More recently, Taylor Swift’s gentrified, tone-deaf cover of their signature hit “September” underscored a sad reality: Earth, Wind, & Fire have passed the Beach Boys “Endless Summer” threshold and become a Greatest Hits band, their songs part of the cultural wallpaper.For the inaugural episode of Discord & Rhyme, host Rich Bunnell uses EWF’s 1977 release All ‘n All to illustrate that EWF were far more than a playlist’s worth of hit singles. All ‘n All is the arguable peak of an incredible run of late-’70s albums, several of which deserve to be viewed as part of the canon alongside Revolver, Songs in the Key of Life, and Dark Side of the Moon. And their influence on hip-hop has been astronomical, their grooves and riffs providing the basis for tracks by Brand Nubian, MF DOOM, A Tribe Called Quest, Organized Konfusion, Big Pun — the list goes on and on and on.Three out of four co-hosts this week had little to no experience with All ‘n All before researching this episode, so this premiere should be educational! Tune in next episode when Amanda dives into the Moody Blues’ On the Threshold of a Dream, an album every one of us knows to a fine grain.Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, Phil Maddox, Amanda RodgersComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/2018/6/26/episode-001-earth-wind-fire-all-n-allDiscord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpodSupport the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod