Category: Episodes

333. The Bee Gees

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(May 2021) Episode 333 is the BEE GEES. I divide their music into four phases: (1) 60s baroque/psychedelic pop, (2) early-70s soft rock, (3) late-70s disco, and (4) 80s-90s pop.  It is unfair to dismiss them as a flash-in-the plan disco outfit because of the breadth of their long recording and performing career, and their songwriting and harmonizing talents.  Plus, they did disco really well. My favorite is the late 60s stuff.

Favorite album: Bee Gees’ 1st

Favorite song: Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You

Best overall album: Odessa

Best soft rock period album: To Whom It May Concern

Best disco period album: Saturday Night Fever soundtrack

Favorite disco period song: Nights on Broadway

Best pop period album: This Is Where I Came In

Compared to expectations: same

332. Corrosion of Conformity

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(May 2021) Episode 332 is CORROSION OF CONFORMITY. They started in the 1980s as a kickin’ hardcore puck band with awesome album covers that crossed over into a kickin’ heavy metal band in the 1990s with forgettable album covers, continuing in the 00s and 10s amidst lineup changes with mixed results. 

Favorite album: Eye for An Eye

Favorite song: Positive Outlook

Favorite metal period album: Wiseblood

Favorite metal period song: Bottom Feeder (El Que Come Abajo)

Compared to expectations: same

331. Kaija Saariaho

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(May 2021) Episode 331 is KAIJA SAARIAHO. Saariaho is kind of a throwback, composing in conventional classical forms with conventional instruments, earning commissions and premiering at esteemed venues, rather than venturing into film soundtracks or cross-genre collaborations.  Her music, though, is very modern, with polyrhythms, dissonance and rich masses of sounds.  

Favorite piece: Circle Map 

Favorite concerto: Graal théâtre

Favorite chamber piece: Neiges

Favorite opera: L’Amour de loin

Compared to expectations: same

330. Sunn O)))

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(April 2021) Episode 330 is SUNN O))). If you prefer melody and beat in your music, avoid this band.  But if you like beautiful noise like I do, I strongly recommend Sunn O))).  It’s drone metal: slow, loud, deep, distorted guitars repeatedly being slow, loud, deep and distorted.  They sometimes add experimental elements, like monk-like chants, percussion, electronics, and are big on collaborations.

Favorite album: Flight of the Behemoth

Favorite song: Black Wedding

Compared to expectations: ↑

329. Hildur Guðnadóttir

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(April 2021) Episode 329 is HILDUR GUÐNADÓTTIR, a contemporary cellist and composer from Iceland.  Her neo-minimalist solo works are my favorite, but she is a frequent collaborator with a wide range of artists from electro-pop to drone metal. Guðnadóttir has focused on soundtracks recently, such as the Chernobyl miniseries and Joker (for which she won an Oscar).  One constant is that most everything in her music seems to resonate off the sober deep tone of a cello.

Favorite solo piece: Leyfðu Ljósinu 

Favorite collaborative album: In Transmediale  (with Angel)

Favorite soundtrack: Chernobyl

Compared to expectations: same

328. Sam Cooke

~ ernopepper ~ 1 Comment

(April 2021) Episode 328 is SAM COOKE. There’s a reason they call him the King of Soul. It starts with that glorious voice, and continues with catchy tunes that bridged appeal across Black and White audiences (not to mention his civil rights activism). It’s a tragedy that we never got to see what he could do as soul music got more gritty, socially-conscious and funky in the later 1960s. 

Favorite album: Night Beat

Favorite song: Lost and Lookin’

Compared to expectations: same

327. Woody Guthrie

~ ernopepper ~ 2 Comments

(April 2021) Episode 327 is WOODY GUTHRIE. It’s hard to overstate his importance and influence, not only musically and politically for the 1960s folk revival, but for country, roots and rock music beyond. The fact that “This Land Is Your Land” subversively became a children’s standard still makes me smile.

Favorite song: Hard Travelin’

Best compilation: the 4-volume Asch recordings

Compared to expectations: same

326. Laurie Spiegel

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(March 2021) Episode 326 is LAURIE SPIEGEL. Combining a music education with computer engineering, she helped design computerized sounds and composed electronic music with them, as well as created a popular algorithmic computer software program.

Favorite album: The Expanding Universe

Favorite song: Patchwork

Compared to expectations: same

325. The Band

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(March 2021) Episode 325 is THE BAND. Nobody doesn’t love The Band. They brought stories of the working man and the downtrodden — long at the heart of the blues, country and folk — into an unadorned rock format, synthesized into what we now call American roots rock (or more accurately North American roots rock, given that 4/5th were Canadian).  Go watch The Last Waltz too.

Favorite album: The Band

Favorite song: Up On Cripple Creek

Favorite Ballad: It Makes No Difference

Compared to expectations: same

324. Erik Satie

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(March 2021) Episode 324 is ERIK SATIE. For his era, he stands out for the simplicity and subdued aesthetic of his works, primarily in piano, his most common medium. His compositions are intimate affairs, both for their brevity and straightforwardness. It’s not hard to see why he’s considered a precursor to minimalism and ambient music.

Favorite piece(s): Gymnopédies

Favorite orchestral work: Parade

Favorite choral work: Socrate

Compared to expectations: same