Discord and Rhyme: An Album Podcast

Here we go, yo! It's been a while since this podcast has covered either a hip-hop album or a jazz album — so this week, we're doing both at once! A Tribe Called Quest formed in the late ‘80s in the New York City neighborhood of St. Albans, Queens, which was home to some of the giants of jazz, blues, and funk, and was a hotbed of musical activity in the years when hip-hop was simmering into existence. On Tribe’s 1991 album The Low End Theory, members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammed pay tribute to this rich musical legacy with an album that charted a new path for hip-hop by exploring its roots in bebop, hard bop, post-bop, all the other bops, and more. This album isn’t just a classic – it’s one of the sacred texts of the hip-hop genre, and it helped Rich get into jazz after years of failed attempts. So if you’re a jazz aficionado who’s on the fence about hip-hop, or vice versa, we invite you to crank up the bass and check the (discord and) rhime with us. Just watch out for the dungeon dragon!

Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, Phil Maddox

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/149-a-tribe-called-quest-the-low-end-theory-1991

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Jeff Beck had shown off his guitar genius with several fiery mid-1960s hit singles by the Yardbirds; he’d even scored some UK top-30 hits as an unlikely singing star. But all that was prologue to Truth, his 1968 solo debut album. Joined by future Rolling Stone Ron Wood and a then-unknown Rod Stewart, Beck laid down a standout batch of electric blues songs - plus a showtune and an olde English folk song to show off his versatility. Truth has always been one of Ben’s favorite albums, and he joins Rich and Dan to talk about it. 

Cohosts: Ben Marlin, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/148-jeff-beck-truth-1968

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Before they were flattened into part of the public’s collective generic memory of the 1960s, and before an astonishing level of in-fighting and tragedy turned the group’s story into one of the best VH1: Behind the Music episodes, The Mamas and the Papas released one of the best debut albums of the 1960s. It produced three massive hits you’ve heard hundreds of times apiece if you listen to oldies radio, but it also produced a handful of worthwhile deeper cuts, with interesting songwriting (most of the time) and top-notch singing throughout. John leads a discussion with Amanda, Phil, and Ben about the collection of musicians who created one of his favorite 1960s albums and one of the most jaw-dropping soap-operas of the decade.

Cohosts: John McFerrin, Ben Marlin, Phil Maddox, Amanda Rodgers

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/147-the-mamas-and-the-papas-if-you-can-believe-your-eyes-and-ears-1966

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Hello, Cleveland! This week, Producer Mike continues his quest to make Discord & Rhyme more metal by turning it up to 11 with an episode on England’s loudest band, Spinal Tap. The fictional Spinal Tap consists of guitarists David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, bassist Derek Smalls, and a series of cursed drummers, whose misadventures are chronicled in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. The real Spinal Tap consists of Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer, three exceptionally gifted comedians who know what makes metal tick and are very smart at playing dumb. And that extends to the movie’s soundtrack, whose songs walk the line between sophisticated songwriting and sounding like they could conceivably have been written by three boneheads. Because why waste good music on a brain?

Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, John McFerrin

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/146-spinal-tap-this-is-spinal-tap-1984

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Pete and the Escapologists - Chronicles of a Dead End: https://peteescapologists.bandcamp.com/album/chronicles-of-a-dead-end

George Harrison was reaching his creative peak in the late 1960s, but famously had a difficult time getting the other Beatles interested in recording his songs. So when they broke up in 1970, George got a massive group of musicians together and recorded his entire backlog to release all at once. All Things Must Pass was the first ever triple album by a single artist, and (apart from Apple Jam) is a tightly focused, intense, cathartic listening experience unmatched in popular music. In this episode, Amanda, Ben, and Mike do their best to dissect this extremely dense album and prove that George Harrison was a brilliant musician and deserves the highest respect.

Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Ben Marlin

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/145-george-harrison-all-things-must-pass-1970

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

In 1994, Green Day introduced a whole new generation to punk rock with their major label debut, Dookie. There has been a lot of discourse over the years about whether or not Green Day are “real” punk rock, but Dookie has endured as a classic of ‘90s rock, containing numerous standards that have long-since been memorized by anyone reasonably fluent in the rock of the era. Phil discovered Green Day when he was 12 years old - the ideal age for absorbing their combination of crude-but-relatable lyrics and hyper-catchy music, and he still loves them to this day, so he’s absolutely thrilled to get a chance to talk to Dan and Rich about how much he loves Dookie. 

Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/144-green-day-dookie-1994

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

It's time for our annual summer break, so we're letting an episode out of the Patreon vault in which Mike, Rich, and Amanda discussed some of our favorite one-hit wonders, as defined in our own heads. (Amanda is not sorry for the extremely corny title of this episode.) Make sure you listen until the end to hear Producer Mike's mashup masterpiece!

The hits include:  

• Pure Prairie League - Amie
• Link Wray - Rumble
• Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
• Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know
• The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire
• Deee-Lite - Groove Is In the Heart
• Climax Blues Band - Couldn't Get it Right
• Argent - Hold Your Head Up
• Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack
• Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers' Dance
• Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
• Ylvis - The Fox
• The Other Leading Brand - Groove Is In a Lonely Heart

(also the intro is from That Thing You Do! but you probably knew that)

Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, Amanda Rodgers

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

In the early 1970s, Jonathan Richman assembled a band that recorded a groundbreaking set of songs fusing garage-rock sensibilities with his own entirely unique worldview. Unfortunately, before The Modern Lovers managed to complete a proper album, Richman’s musical interests drifted into an entirely different direction, ultimately leading to the dissolution of this version of the band. The collection of recordings that finally saw release as 1976’s The Modern Lovers stands as a snapshot of a band at a specific moment in time and has served as an endless source of inspiration for punk and indie artists ever since. Take a spin past the Stop and Shop and join us with the radio on for a chat about this groundbreaking classic.

Cohosts: Dan Watkins, Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/143-the-modern-lovers-the-modern-lovers-1976

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

For our annual Moody Blues episode, we’re traveling back to the beginning (sort of) and finally discussing Days of Future Passed. Although the band themselves dismissed this idea, this album is clearly one of the starting points of progressive rock, and it’s certainly one of the earliest concept albums. It’s unique not just in the Moody Blues’ discography but in all of popular music, and we had a fantastic time discussing all the reasons why it’s still so beautiful, moving, effective, and entertaining 57 years after it was first released.  

Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Mike DeFabio, John McFerrin, Amanda Rodgers

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/142-the-moody-blues-days-of-future-passed-1967

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Get ready for some classic Americana, brought to you by four Canadians (and one American), discussed by four Americans (including one living in Canada). Because Neil Young and Joni Mitchell weren't enough, Ben goes back to the frozen north for the Band's 1968 debut album, Music From Big Pink. Ben discusses why he loves the Band and Music From Big Pink, joined by Amanda, Dan, and Mike. 

Cohosts: Ben Marlin, Mike DeFabio, Amanda Rodgers, Dan Watkins

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/141-the-band-music-from-big-pink-1968

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod