Author: ernopepper

689. The Manhattans

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(October 2025) Episode 689 is THE MANHATTANS. An R&B outfit distinguished more by its longevity than by its creative contribution, IMO. Their career followed a common path from 60s doo wop-style R&B to 70s smooth soul, some funk and a bit of disco, then 80s synth soul, through to the current decade. To my ear, The Manhattans offer mostly basic and formulaic soul, although I found some enjoyable funky songs in their mid-70s peak. Their biggest hits were “Kiss and Say Goodbye” (1976) and “Shining Star” (1980).

Favorite album: That’s How Much I Love You

Favorite song: Nursery Rhymes

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The four albums from 1972-76 are the best.

688. Iggy Pop

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(October 2025) Episode 688 is IGGY POP. This provides a case study (as with Lou Reed) into whether an extended solo career derives from evolving musical creativity or riding on the fumes of fame earned as frontman with an iconic and seminal group (and image cultivation). With Iggy Pop it’s both. Arguably the strongest are the first two albums done with David Bowie on retreat in Berlin. But that’s followed by a decade and a half of weak offerings including an attempt at new wave. But 1993’s American Caesar was a return to raw power (!) sound that continued through the Stooges reunion in the 2000s. The 21st Century saw experimentation with spoken word and European pop. Overall I’ll say Iggy Pop has proven his stature.

Favorite album: The Idiot

Favorite song: Lust for Life

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Idiot and Lust for Life (Bowie years) and most of the 90s albums

687. Lamb of God

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(October 2025) Episode 687 is LAMB OF GOD. They are considered among the vanguard of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal of the late 1990s and 2000s. As such, their music is an amalgam of thrash, death and hardcore metal that transcends efforts to confine them to a category. Throat-screamed vocals (with relative lyrical clarity), speed and groove are prominent features, with the technical precision of an expert clockmaker. Always powerful, never boring. This episode includes the two albums released as BURN THE PRIEST.

Favorite album: Wrath

Favorite song: Sepsis

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: There’s not a bad album in the lot. Their first album, the eponymously-named Burn the Priest, is a good place to start.

686. Miriam Makeba

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(October 2025) Episode 686 is MIRIAM MAKEBA. For years the only reason I knew her was from ads for her records printed on the sleeves of used LPs I used to buy. Turns out, she was a big deal, nicknamed “Mama Africa” for being among first African singers to achieve global fame. She got famous in the U.S. under the tutelage of Harry Belafonte (with whom she duo’d on a good album). She sang in English as well as her native Xhosa, bringing a click language to wider attention. Makeba was not shy about raising rights and justice in her songs, including against apartheid in her native country. For that she was persecuted and exiled twice, stripped of her passport by the South African government and having her visa revoked by the U.S. government for marrying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

Favorite album: Sangoma

Favorite song: Novema

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Sangoma was a comeback album of traditional South African songs stripped of the chrome and strings added to her 60s albums although those are peak period (including the one with Harry Belafonte).

685. The Chieftans

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Episode 685 is THE CHIEFTANS, important promoters of traditional Irish folk music to a global audience. Getting their start in the 1960s, they put out a series of albums through the 1970s that, to my ear, sound genuinely authentic, augmented by the high musicianship of all the players. I’ve always loved uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes) and leader Paddy Moloney is a master (also of the tin whistle). The Chieftans are a good study of the tension between authenticity and popularity. As they moved into the 1980s and after, to keep people buying records and expand beyond the orthodox confines of traditional music, they brought in other folk music (including Chinese), and collaborated with rock, country and classical artists. The result is a departure from “authenticity” and entry into realms that evoke the cheesiness of New Age “Celtic” stuff. I admit that my choice of favorite song comes from its prominent use in the great film Barry Lyndon.

Favourite album: Chieftans 4

Favourite song: Mná Na hÉireann

Favourite song (with lyrics): Molly Bán (Bawn) (with Alison Krauss)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The albums labelled Chieftans 1-8 all offer consistently good “traditional” music. For a greatest hits I recommend The Essential Chieftans

684. Biohazard

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(October 2025) Episode 684 is BIOHAZARD. A good example of a crossover mix of metal and punk with a healthy dose of rap metal (especially early in their recording career). The attitude and lyrics are more to the punk side, full of anger and defiance. It’s aggressive and intense stuff.

Fun fact: Joining Tame Impala, Biohazard becomes the second artist for which I completed the episode on the same day their most recent album was released.

Favorite album: Means to an End

Favorite song: A Lot to Learn

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: I’m not a big fan of metal/punk fusion, but they’re better than others. Urban Discipline was their breakthrough album and is probably a good place to start.

683. High Tide

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Episode 683 of the “opus project” is HIGH TIDE. Among the bands that adopted a heavy sound in the late 1960s that came to be seen as influences on metal, you can’t do much better than the UK’s High Tide, or at least their first album Sea Shanties. It’s a quality experience, not unlike if Jim Morrison were the lead singer of Iron Butterfly. But they didn’t last long. Their second album was proto-prog aided by a violin as a main instrument. There was a synth-heavy recording in the 1980s and several releases of live performances of extended jams, none of which is interesting.

Favourite album: Sea Shanties

Favourite song: Futilist’s Lament

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Sea Shanties is the only good thing

682. The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

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(September 2025) Episode 682 is THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY. Sometimes I think about repurposing the Project into a completist obsession to listen to every recording released between 1965-69. Doing an episode on The Peanut Butter Conspiracy serves that goal as well. They were a short-lived group from the L.A. scene that gets labelled psychedelic, although in the hippy/groovy California sense. I might call it sunshine pop with a fuzz guitar edge. With male and female vocal leads, they have a Mamas and the Papas sound, with a bit of Jefferson Airplane too. Their first two albums are perfect period pieces, as is having a three-word nonsense name.* Their third album, reflecting both personnel changes and 1968’s big shift in musical attitudes, is forgettable.

Favorite album: The Great Conspiracy

Favorite song: Living, Loving Life

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The first two albums are an enjoyable dip into what’s-happenin’-now groovy tunes.

* Quicksilver Messenger Service, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Chocolate Watchband, 13th Floor Elevators, etc.

681. Los Bravos

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(September 2025) Episode 680 is LOS BRAVOS, one of the few beat groups from a non-English speaking country to have a hit in the U.S.  You’ll recognize “Black is Black” from the radio repertoire of mid-1960s pop songs. They were from Spain, but their lead singer was from Germany and sang largely in English. Their peppy “Going Nowhere” made the Nuggets II box set. At this attenuated stage of the Project, I resort to B-and C-tier acts from the 60s, as Los Bravos shows. The fact that they were from Spain is the most salient feature.

Favorite album: Los chicos con las chicas

Favorite song: Black is Black

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Attention deserved only for completists of 1960s pop and rock music.

680. Andrés Segovia

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(September 2025) Episode 680 is ANDRÉS SEGOVIA. He was far from the first, but he contributed more than anyone to popularizing classical guitar as a lead instrument in its own right, due to his touring and recording in the mid-20th Century. And he was self-taught! While he did compose some (mostly small) pieces on his own, he made a mark as interpreter of works written for other instruments, most prominently of J.S. Bach. The other big area was contemporary works written specifically for him, the most notable (to me) is Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasía para un Gentilhombre, a collaboration that delightfully evokes a pastoral Spanish landscape.

Favorite piece: Fantasia para un Gentilhombre

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Segovia plays Bach is a good one-album length of material. There are a couple collections (of four and nine volumes) that capture a wider scope of work.