Music Nerds Unite

Music Nerds Unite

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Music Nerds Unite episodes

  • Episode 7: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (Sweet Sixteen)

    Episode 7 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. This episode covers the Sweet Sixteen.


    '60s match ups for this episode:

    (1) The Beatles vs. (4) The Rolling Stones

    (3) Bob Dylan vs. (7) The Who


    '70s match ups for this episode:

    (1) Led Zeppelin vs. (4) Neil Young

    (2) Pink Floyd vs. (14) Van Morrison


    '80s match ups for this episode:

    (1) U2 vs. (13) Iron Maiden

    (2) R.E.M. vs. (14) Rush


    '90s match ups for this episode:

    (4) Soundgarden vs. (9) Smashing Pumpkins

    (2) Radiohead vs. (3) Pearl Jam


    Notes for this episode:


    Keith Richards was great at the riffs and the rhythm guitar...the album referenced where Keith was (mostly) the only guitar player was Let It Bleed (last word wasn't clear). And it was Merry Clayton who sang "Gimme Shelter" with Mick (not Mary in case it sounded more like Mary).


    The Rolling Stones (not The Beatles) had Nicky Hopkins playing piano. Also, the Stones did kinda try to become Pink Floyd, however briefly, on Their Satanic Majesties Request (really a poor man's Sgt. Pepper's).


    Pearl Jam had a problem with CD-era over-length with their albums at times but have gotten better with that in recent years (some words were missing there in the  podcast).

    1 hr
  • Episode 6: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’80s & '90s Second Round)

    Episode 6 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. This episode covers second round match ups from the  '80s and '90s. 


    '80s match ups for this episode:

    (1) U2 vs. (8) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

    (2) R.E.M. vs. (7) AC/DC

    (5) Metallica vs. (13) Iron Maiden

    (6) Genesis vs. (14) Rush


    '90s match ups for this episode:

    (1) Nirvana vs. (9) Smashing Pumpkins

    (2) Radiohead vs. (7) Alice In Chains

    (3) Pearl Jam vs. (6) Wilco

    (4) Soundgarden vs. (5) Oasis


    Notes for this episode:


    Scott will amend calling U2’s “Boy” “great” to “very good” instead. “War” was indeed the first truly great U2 album. Also, you couldn't ignore 2014's Songs Of Innocence either but that was mostly due to the iTunes fiasco.


    Metallica’s initial 10 year run is as good a run as any band has had - in heavy metal (the last part got cut off)


    Matt meant to say that Iron Maiden and Metallica were NOT party bands, unlike KISS


    Scott meant to single out the Soundgarden song “Loud Love” which is on the album “Louder Than Love” (also home of the excellent “Hands All Over”)


    The Smashing Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was kicked out of the band for Adore, but he did return for the Machina albums. 


    Wilco covered “Bob Dylans 115th Dream” (title was incorrectly stated)


    1 hr 13 min
  • Episode 5: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’60s & '70s Second Round)

    Episode 5 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. This episode covers second round match ups from the  '60s and '70s.


    '60s match ups for this episode:

    (1) The Beatles vs. (8) The Kinks

    (2) Elvis Presley. vs. (7) The Who

    (3) Bob Dylan vs. (6) The Beach Boys

    (4) The Rolling Stones vs. (5) Jimi Hendrix


    '70s match ups for this episode:

    (1) Led Zeppelin vs. (9) Black Sabbath

    (2) Pink Floyd vs. (7) Bruce Springsteen

    (4) Neil Young vs. (6) David Bowie

    (11) Van Halen vs. (14) Van Morrison


    Notes for this episode:


    The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies was released in 1971, not 1972. However, The Kink Kronikles, an excellent compilation that contains many great non-album singles, was released in 1972.


    As Matt pointed out, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, not the Pulitzer Prize.


    When saying The Beach Boys last truly essential album was 1973's Holland, that doesn't include the belatedly released Smile album, whose origins were from the mid-'60s even though it wasn't officially released until 2011.

    44 min
  • Episode 4: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’90s First Round)

    Episode 4 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. Having already discussed the '60s,  '70s, and '80s matchups, here we continue with the '90s.


    Matchups for this episode:

    (1) Nirvana vs. (16) Foo Fighters

    (2) Radiohead vs. (15) Dave Matthews Band

    (3) Pearl Jam vs. (14) Green Day

    (4) Soundgarden vs. (13) Red Hot Chili Peppers

    (5) Oasis vs. (12) Blur

    (6) Wilco vs. (11) Beck

    (7) Alice In Chains vs. (10) Pavement

    (8) Nine Inch Nails  vs. (9) The Smashing Pumpkins


    Notes for this episode:


    The key moment of the “seismic shift” mentioned was probably when Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerousas the #1 album in the U.S.


    On second thought, Phil Collins is a guy who went from being “just the drummer” in Genesis (albeit a very good drummer) to become a major leading man (both with Genesis and as a solo artist), but even then it wasn’t quite the same because people already knew he could sing and he didn’t change instruments from drums to guitar.


    The Foo Fighters documentary Back and Forth is highly recommended.


    Dave Matthews has released several live albums with Tim Reynolds, but Reynolds was not at The Central Park Concert and none of their live albums took place there either.


    Scott mistakenly referred to the 2015 Blur album The Magic Whip as Whip-Smart(which was a 1994 album by Liz Phair).


    Below is a slightly edited version of a letter Scott's brother wrote to Howard Stern regarding their Woodstock ’94 experience that Howard read over the air:

    Howard, you have been promoting Woodstock '99 like it's the greatest thing ever. I just wanted to share with you my Woodstock '94 experience. Here's the setup. Me and three friends (one flew in from Atlanta). With our tickets ($130) we were given parking passes. Our parking lot was like 30 miles from the concert. We get there at around 9pm Friday. The lot is full, we have to go to another lot around 20 miles away. We get there and that lot is full. We have to go to a parking lot in SUNY Albany. We get to SUNY Albany. We get to that lot around 11 and there are thousands of other people. There we wait for a bus to take us 1/2 mile away where we will get another bus to take us to the concert. After waiting fruitlessly for a couple hours to get on the bus, we walk the 1/2 mile with our backpacks and bags to the next lot where we will get a bus to get to the concert. We get there and find thousands of other people. It's about 2am. At about 4am the worst monsoon I was ever outside for struck. 4 buses were coming about every 45 minutes. They felt like the buses that were taking us out of concentration camps. Finally, after fighting to the death, get on the bus at 6am, at the concert by 7am. All my stuff for the weekend soaking wet. Defeated. Exhausted. We pitch our tent about 1 mile from the stages, on a hill. Try sleeping for about an hour when Joe Cocker starts singing. Nightmare continues. Port-o-potties are overflowing, food unbearable, so sick can't even drink. Try to watch the music. Go back to our tent by like 2pm (it takes like 3 hours to get across the park because of the mass of people). Tent is under piles of mud. Everything ruined. Raining again. Had enough. On bus back to Albany by 3pm. Woodstock '94. 


    1 hr 18 min
  • Episode 3: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’80s First Round)

    Episode 3 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. Having already discussed the '60s and '70s matchups, here we continue with the '80s.


    Matchups for this episode:

    (1) U2 vs. (16) Def Leppard

    (2) R.E.M. vs. (15) Aerosmith

    (3) Guns n' Roses vs. (14) Rush

    (4) Talking Heads vs. (13) Iron Maiden

    (5) Metallica vs. (12) Billy Joel

    (6) The Smiths vs. (11) Genesis

    (7) AC/DC vs. (10) The Police

    (8) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers vs. (9) The Cure


    Notes for this episode:


    Metallica's Load (79 minutes) and Reload (76 minutes) are even longer than we remembered!


    Busta "Cherry" Jones was the second Talking Heads bass player in their expanded lineup

    1 hr 26 min
  • Episode 2: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’70s First Round)
    Episode 2 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. Episode 1 discussed the '60s matchups, so here we continue with the '70s. 
    Matchups for this episode:
    (1) Led Zeppelin vs. (16) The Allman Brothers Band
    (2) Pink Floyd vs. (15) The Ramones
    (3) Elton John vs. (14) Van Morrison
    (4) Neil Young vs. (13) The Eagles
    (5) David Bowie vs. (12) Yes
    (6) Queen vs. (11) Van Halen
    (7) Bruce Springsteen vs. (10) The Clash
    (8) Fleetwood Mac vs. (9) Black Sabbath
    Notes for this episode:
    Apologies for all the dog barking/whining in the latter part of this episode. Scott promises he takes very good care of his dogs! 
    The Ramones: Scott meant to talk about "Chuck Berry, surf rock, and girl groups" to define their sound but he merged some of the words together
    Van Morrison: 1968-1979 - Astral Weeks through Into The Music (the latter part broke up a bit)
    When speaking about the E Street Band we certainly should've mentioned "Little Steven" Van Zandt as well (and probably Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa too)
    Christine McVie married the bass player not the drummer (doh!)
    Actually, though 1995's Outside was a good album, David Bowie's comeback really began in earnest in the '00s with albums like Heathen and Reality, and then later The Next Day and especially Blackstar. We also failed to mention a pretty darn good guitarist who played on Bowie's Let's Dance album: Stevie Ray Vaughan!
    Scott laments the fact that he forgot to mention that The Clash's Topper Headon emailed him to complain that he wasn't on the 100 greatest drummers list that he had on his old (now defunct) website.
    1 hr 25 min
  • Episode 1: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’60s First Round)

    Punk singer Matthew Brennan (currently in Deep Pockets) and fellow music nerd Scott Floman (author of The Story Of Rock and Soul Music: Album Reviews and Lists and Greatest Underrated Guitar Solos) have joined forces to talk about music.


    The first several episodes will feature NCAA Tournament type brackets  (one each for the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s) that will attempt to  determine the greatest rock band/solo artist of all-time. We spent a  fair amount of time on choosing which of the 64 bands/solo artists  should be entered, the seedings/match ups, and of course the winners,  but the actual conversations about the match ups was 100% spontaneous,  and we did minimal editing afterwards (Matt did all the technical work there so thanks Matt!). In other words, what you hear is what you get,  but we’ll try to correct some obvious mistakes we made via the Notes section below.


    Matchups for this episode:

    (1) The Beatles vs. (16) Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Sometimes Young)

    (2) Elvis Presley vs. (15) Cream

    (3) Bob Dylan vs. (14) The Byrds

    (4) The Rolling Stones vs. (13) The Doors

    (5) Jimi Hendrix vs. (12) The Band

    (6) The Beach Boys vs. (11) The Velvet Underground

    (7) The Who vs. (10) Simon & Garfunkel

    (8) The Kinks vs. (9) Creedence Clearwater Revival 


    Notes for this episode:

    To be clear, we slotted bands in particular decades based on when they peaked artistically (though we made some exceptions for the '80s which you'll see later). However, the winner of each match up is based on their entire career, not just that decade. 


    Scott completely botches the word “coronavirus”! 


    Scott incorrectly contradicts Matt about how the winners of each  match up are chosen. Ignore that part! The winners were somewhat  objectively picked, though obviously our personal preferences will inevitably come into play as well.


    Scott incorrectly called Elvis’ “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by the  title “Can’t Stop Falling In Love” – same sentiment but wrong word.


    Scott completely botches trying to say “sadomasochism” – should’ve just stuck with S&M!


    Scott incorrectly said that David Crosby left The Byrds during the  recording of the fourth album. He was thinking of the right album, but The Notorious Byrd Brothers was actually the fifth Byrds album, not fourth (that was Younger Than Yesterday – both of these are Scott’s favorite Byrds albums, BTW).


    Most of Cream’s studio songs were 3-4+ minutes, not 2 minutes. And by pioneering live improvisation, we meant specifically for rock bands;  that practice was already common for jazz bands. Cream was also one of the first power trios which we failed to mention. 


    When talking about The Band-Dylan connection, we should’ve mentioned The Basement Tapes as well (though maybe we do so in a later episode). Also, although The Band peaked early on the first two albums, they did have other high-quality albums thereafter as well. 


    Nico was only on the first Velvet Underground album (not “albums”) called The Velvet Underground & Nico.


    The original “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was actually by  Gladys Knight & The Pips, the more classic version everyone is familiar with by Marvin Gaye came after that.


    When discussing The Who's live prowess we should've also mentioned Live At Leeds, considered by many to be the greatest live album ever. 

    57 min

About Music Nerds Unite

From the publisher's feed

Scott Floman (author of the amazon ebook The Story Of Rock and Soul Music: Album Reviews and Lists), twin brother Keith Floman, and their buddy Larry Waldman have joined forces to talk about music.…