Political Beats

Introducing the Band:

Eli’s Music Pick: Steely Dan

There may not be a more unlikely story in rock history than Steely Dan, more specifically the braintrust of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Michael McDonald, who provided backing vocals for the band later in its career, wrote that Fagen had the "physique of an 80-year-old woman" and Becker gave off the distinct vibe of a "lab technician working on some nefarious government experiment." These two guys, who famously didn't even like the idea of being in a conventional rock band, somehow became one of the most distinctive and enduring acts of the 1970s. They took the sounds of jazz, R&B, soul, blues, pop, and rock, ran them through a filter of studio perfectionism and darkly funny songwriting, and came out with something that sounded like nobody else. And somehow, against all odds, some of the most musically complicated songs of their era became radio staples. 

The Steely Dan story is also a story of constant reinvention. From the sly pop-rock of Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy, through the increasingly ambitious Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, and The Royal Scam, Becker and Fagen gradually turned the recording studio into their own musical laboratory. Then came Aja, the masterpiece that may be the ultimate expression of their obsession with precision, groove, and impeccable musicianship. The term “Yacht Rock” might as well have been born right then and there. Gaucho pushed that approach even further, even as the band's perfectionism and internal tensions reached a breaking point. 

We dig into the music, the personalities, the bizarre characters, the legendary studio sessions, and the songs that make Steely Dan so endlessly rewarding. Because beneath all the perfectionism and complexity, Steely Dan always understood one fundamental thing: A great song still needs a great groove.

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Scot and Jeff discuss Sleater-Kinney with Nic Rowan.

Introducing the Band:

Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Nic Rowan. Nic is managing editor of The Lamp, a Catholic literary journal. You can follow him on Twitter/x @NicXTempore. 

Nic’s Music Pick: Sleater-Kinney

When people talk about the greatest American rock bands of the past 30 years, the conversation usually starts in familiar places (we might say Spoon around these parts). But sooner or later, it ought to arrive at a discussion of Sleater-Kinney. The band, named after Sleater Kinney Road in Washington near Interstate 5, formed in the Pacific Northwest during the explosion of the riot grrrl movement. Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker, and, eventually, Janet Weiss built a sound that was fiercely intelligent without being pretentious and musically adventurous without ever losing sight of the hook. Their records are packed with jagged guitars, knotty rhythms, and thrilling vocal interplay, all delivered with an urgency that never feels manufactured. 

Part of what makes Sleater-Kinney such a compelling subject is that they're difficult to pigeonhole. They're often introduced first as an important feminist band, or a cornerstone of riot grrrl, or a political band, and all of those descriptions contain some truth. But they can also obscure the bigger picture. Strip away the labels, and what's left is an extraordinary rock band, one with a distinctive musical language and an uncanny ability to make tension sound exhilarating. 

Over the course of a remarkable run, the band continually reinvented itself without abandoning its identity. Dig Me Out and One Beat get universal praise on this show, while there's great debate over the generally well-regarded The Woods. And what to make of the comeback after a decade away? We trace that entire journey and discuss why Sleater-Kinney remains one of the essential bands of modern American rock.

If you know them, you know why they matter. If you don’t, you’re about to find out. Join us for a deep look at the music and career of Sleater-Kinney.

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Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of XTC’s career (1984-2000) with Andrew Gretes.

Introducing the Band:

Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Andrew Gretes. Andrew is a fiction writer teaching creative rhetoric at Georgetown and George Washington University. You can find his work at andrewgretes.com.

Andrew’s Music Pick: XTC, Pt. 2

Awaken you dreamers! A month after we took you through the first part of XTC’s career – an Argonaut-like journey across the world of postpunk and pop during the end of the Seventies and the start of the Eighties – we return to pick up the story where we left off in 1984: with a psychologically landlocked band (songwriters Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding as well as guitarist Dave Gregory), now forever off the road and consigned to a studio, forced to make the most of their remaining careers without fears of an audience to either drag them down or lift them up.

And aside from the Beatles, it is little exaggeration to say that no studio-bound act ever made quite as much out of such a fate as XTC – though they didn’t make much money, naturally. Instead they made great art, with a series of increasingly ambitious pop albums (including 1986’s Skylarking, which you might even have heard of) that reflected the expanding musical palates and melodic ambitions of Partridge and Moulding. 

The first episode of this two-part series proudly featured some of the weirdest, most clashingly irregular sounds of the Seventies. This second features some of the most awe-striking beauty you’ve probably never heard. From their mainstream career (which rarely if ever sold) to their moonlight lark as the Dukes of Stratosphear (which sold gangbusters until people realized they were buying XTC music) Partridge, Moulding and Gregory never quit stuffing every single song they recorded with meaning and melody, and the results are an overwhelming trove of musical riches to discover – one you might only be vaguely aware even exists

Political Beats has been building up to its XTC episodes ever since the day the podcast was founded. The second part of their story is every bit as impressive – and different – as the first. Settle in and listen to us sing a happy-sad ballad about the greatest band in popular music to never quite make it. Oh my, oh my, don’t it make you wanna cry?

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Scot and Jeff discuss the first part of XTC’s career (1977-1983) with Andrew Gretes.

Introducing the Band:

Andrew’s Music Pick: XTC

But the story of this band is best told by their music -- and it’s practically criminal that it isn’t universally celebrated this world over. A decades-long career filled with nothing but one sparklingly intelligent post-punk and pop gem after another, XTC was always out of step with their times, always resolutely unassimilable to the true mainstream, always just a bit too self-consciously thoughtful. 

And eventually they made their grudging peace with it, resigned to always be that “great” group that might have scored a hit or two, might have bubbled around the Top 20 every few years or so during the 1980s, but whose impact was heard in the countless subsequent groups they influenced. The story of XTC is a musical tale that will inspire anyone who cares about true songcraft, one filled with immense optimism and joy as well as some of the bitterest sociological observations to be put into British song. 

Political Beats has been building up to its XTC episodes (this is the first of two) ever since the day the podcast was founded. The second part of their story is every bit as impressive -- and different -- as the first. All hail the amazing crash-boom-band.

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Scot and Jeff discuss The Apples in Stereo with Jack Butler.

Introducing the Band:

Jack’s Music Pick: The Apples in Stereo

We travel from the lo-fi charm of Fun Trick Noisemaker to the "space disco" feel of Travellers in Space and Time. Along the way, Scot takes the proper time to pay tribute to an all-time favorite album, New Magnetic Wonder, and we discuss the unorthodox ways the band found its way into children’s programming. Plus Hilarie Sidney gets her due as an excellent and underrated singer, songwriter, and drummer. 

Schneider’s interest in science, space, and sound influenced the band’s later work specifically, with conceptual elements and unconventional recording approaches shaping their music. New Magnetic Wonder even touts Schneider's invention of a new musical scale: the "Non-Pythagorean scale" (he’s now a mathematics professor at Michigan Tech University, so it all makes sense in the end). 

Throughout the years, the band kept pushing forward without losing a sense of wonder and experimentation that defined their earliest work and refined their ability to create hooks and melodies that lodge inside your brain for weeks at a time. And you can’t tell the story of The Apples in Stereo without diving into the world of the Elephant 6 Recording Company, the loose collective of like-minded musicians that helped spark an indie-pop movement in the ’90s. Jack takes the lead in describing this element of the show.

This episode is a celebration of melody, creativity, and the joy of making something delightfully strange. It’ll fill you with energy. Can you feel it?

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Scot and Jeff discuss Deep Purple with Ivan Pongracic.

Introducing the Band:

Ivan’s Music Pick: Deep Purple

The gang -- Ivan and Jeff especially -- argue that Deep Purple was in fact the platonic ideal of whatever it is we’ve come to apply the broad label of “hard rock” to over the past half-century: compulsively driven, secretly smart music that combined steady beats and metallic shredding with formal (and often British-inspired) commitment to structure and hooks. Deep Purple may have gone through a goofy -- and shockingly interesting -- embryonic phase as Vanilla Fudge-like pop crooners, but when they finally emerged with Deep Purple in Rock (1970) they created a template that legions of bands would slavishly dedicate themselves to imitating (not least of all Spinal Tap, whose story is largely theirs, remixed). 

You know them from “Smoke on the Water.” Maybe you’ve heard that song about space truckin’ ‘round the stars. What we’re here to prove to you today is that Deep Purple is so much more than what you might have casually heard. In their unpretentious, hard-driving way, they provided the matrix of countless bands that followed after them, and all for the better. Click play and become the speed king you always wanted to be.

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Scot and Jeff discuss The Strokes with Christopher Scalia.

Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Christopher Scalia. Chris is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven't Read), a perfect Christmas gift for your favorite person. Find him on X at @CJScalia.

Christopher’s Music Pick: The Strokes

The Strokes emerged at the beginning of the 2000s with a sound that felt both familiar and bracingly new. Drawing on punk, garage rock, and even classic new wave, they stripped things down to tight guitars, propulsive rhythms, and songs that valued economy over excess (at least for a time). Is This It quickly became a defining album of its era, with tracks like “Last Nite,” “Someday,” and “Hard to Explain” setting a template that would influence an entire wave of bands that followed.

In this episode, we walk through the band’s discography from start to finish, looking closely at how their sound and approach evolved over time. We move from the focused urgency of Room on Fire to the more expansive ambitions of First Impressions of Earth, the occasional experiments on Angles and Comedown Machine, and the late-career recalibration that arrived with The New Abnormal. Along the way, we also talk about the personalities and dynamics that shaped the band’s output, from Julian Casablancas’s distorted vocal style to the tight, interlocking guitar work of Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr. 

You'll better understand how The Strokes’s career actually unfolded. Why some records landed immediately, why others took longer to be reassessed, and how the band managed to remain relevant without simply repeating themselves. In the end, this is less about hype or revival and more about what remains when you line the records up and actually listen.

The Strokes’s story is also about timing and context: arriving when rock music was bloated, polished, and often self-serious, and offering something leaner and more immediate in response. That initial impact cast a long shadow over everything that followed. This episode tries to sort out how much of their legacy rests on that first run of songs, and how much comes from the quieter, sometimes messier work of sticking around and continuing to make records on their own terms.

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Scot and Jeff discuss Van Halen with Sean Trende.

Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) with guest Sean Trende. Sean is senior elections analyst at Real Clear Politics and visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His new podcast with co-host (and fellow Political Beats guest) Jay Cost, is Stubborn Things. Find him on X at @SeanTrende.

Sean’s Music Pick: Van Halen

Wait, haven’t we covered Van Halen before? Indeed, we have. Way back when on Episode One. This is a complete re-recording of that show, giving these guys the coverage they deserve. At the beginning, frankly, we weren't exactly sure how the show was going to sound. Now that we’ve figured things out, Van Halen gets its due.

Few bands rewired rock ‘n’ roll the way these guys did, and fewer still made it look so fun. From the moment Eddie unleashed the lightning bolt that is “Eruption,” the landscape of guitar playing, and rock music itself, changed forever. In this episode, we set the stage for the band’s rise, the L.A. club days, and the swagger that defined their early sound.

We start with the raw, unstoppable energy of Van Halen and Van Halen II. Then it’s into the darker edge of Fair Warning and the pop-metal perfection of 1984, complete with “Panama,” “Hot for Teacher,” and the synthesizer-powered “Jump.” Then David Lee Roth leaves and ends our story.

No, of course not! We explore the band’s bold reinvention during the Sammy Hagar years, when albums like 5150, OU812, and For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge pushed Van Halen into new sonic territory and to the top of the charts again. Songs like “Best of Both Worlds,” “Love Walks In,” and “Right Now” proved the band could evolve while still keeping that unmistakable Van Halen spark.

Along the way, we dig into the stories behind the music  some of these are big fun) and examine how the band’s combustible chemistry created not just drama, but brilliance. And we talk about the lineup changes, tours, reunions, breakups, and makeups. Gary Cherone even gets a mention.

Join us as we explore the thunderous riffs, the outrageous personalities, and the sheer fun that made Van Halen one of rock’s most iconic bands.

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Scot and Jeff discuss Iggy Pop & the Stooges with Dominic Green.

Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Dominic Green. Dom is a historian and columnist, and he used to be a musician. He is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal and a columnist for the Washington Examiner and Jewish Chronicle. Check him out on Twitter at @DrDominicGreen.

Dominic’s Music Pick: Iggy Pop & the Stooges
Looooooooooord! When Dominic last joined us on Political Beats, to discuss the great U.K. band The Jam, we declared it to be in some ways one of the most necessary episodes of the show ever. (It was.) He has chosen to return to us this month with another one of the most necessary shows we have recorded, a deep dive into the true foundations of punk.

Did "punk" music begin with the Sex Pistols in 1976? With the Velvet Underground in 1966? No. Whatever else you may think punk should be, or whatever else it evolved into, the true musical spirit of punk begins with the Stooges' 1969 debut album, a record of such throbbingly feral loudness, rage, and inarticulate energy that it seemed like the sound of cavemen bashing upon logs. 

And yet the Stooges -- led by Ypsilanti, Michigan's own James Osterberg, better known to the world as Iggy Pop -- were both primitive and neo-primitivist simultaneously: maybe the first band whose garage-rock aesthetics were both authentic and also an intentional artistic proposition. Iggy Pop -- working with the Ashton brothers and later James Williamson -- sought to strip rock and roll to its rawest, most inchoate essentials, and succeeded so wildly that an entire subgenre of music reveres him as their founding father.

And then, of course, there's his work with David Bowie in the late Seventies, where both men creatively resurrected themselves. Buckle up for a brisk roller-coaster of an episode, folks -- embrace your lust for life.

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Scot and Jeff discuss the second part of Tom Waits’ career (1983-2011) with Damon Linker.

Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Damon Linker. Damon is a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and publishes a Substack newsletter titled “Notes from the Middleground.” Follow him at @DamonLinker on Twitter.

Damon’s Music Pick: Tom Waits
We sail tonight for Singapore and we’re all as mad as hatters here. Yes, Political Beats finishes its two-part celebration of the career of Tom Waits, rejoined by doughty boatswain Damon Linker as we pilot our way to unknown musical seas. 

Tom Waits had a fine career up through the year 1982, when he finished work on the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s One from the Heart. But we're talking about the man primarily because of what happened afterwards, when he became more than just a down-and-out jazz pianist with the voice of a Babadook. Waits met script supervisor Kathleen Brennan on the set of the film and fell in love, marrying a year later. (They remain married to this day.) 

Proving herself the anti-Yoko Ono, Brennan then alchemically helped to raise Waits’s music to an entirely new level of excitement and experimentation. His lyrics ideas become weirder, and more vivid. His ballads become infinitely more heartfelt (most of them are secretly addressed to Brennan). And his arrangements become a world of their own: Tom Waits begins, in 1983, to create glorious junk sculptures out of sound, using uncharacteristic (often minimalistic) instrumentation to create music that nobody has heard before.

Through such landmarks of the 1980s and 1990s as Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Bone Machine, and The Mule Variations, Tom Waits transcended his balladeering origin -- without ever leaving it entirely behind -- and created a body of work famous for its eccentric, compelling, and deeply influential series. Once you get past the fact that he has a voice like the sawblades of a lumber mill, entire worlds will open up to you. Click play and clap hands!

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