Sub Titles

Welcome to the episode with the hardest album to find! De La Soul’s seminal 3 Feet High and Rising is, notoriously, not streaming given the legal mess of its remarkable amount of samples. Matt’s fully in his bag here talking the construction of music and interrogating what music entails. We discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Assemblage as a concept and process, then talk the legacy and impact of 3 Feet High and Rising, the joyous muchness of The Avalanches’ Since I Left You, and the radical franken-music of Amon Tobin’s Foley Room.

It’s a good question! The AFI will have to deal with the 21st century more at some point; Fellowship of the Ring certainly has a case, though. Tim and Matt talk the trilogy in general, then Tim makes the big case for Fellowship, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. (This is Malick’s final appearance in what has been a wonderful running bit.) Tune in to see where we plant our GOAT flags!

One of the earliest albums on the Spin list (January 1985), Husker Du’s New Day Rising proves a fun favorite for both Matt and Tim. We talk the band’s place in the Our Band Could Be Your Life of it all (i.e. 80s punk and early hardcore) and their sonic take on the line “it aggravates and it pacifies.” Matt brings two post-hardcore darlings to the table in Cursive and Thursday and talks abrasive music and catharsis.

Been 10 episodes, which means it’s time for another bonus pod. In this decile, Matt takes inspiration from the discussion of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as an album given particular significance from it’s proximity to 9/11. Rather than looking at the “most” 9/11 albums, though, he instead ranks the actual releases on 9/11, which was banger of an album day including the likes of Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, Mariah Carey, and Nickelback. Tim, meanwhile, looks at the art of the Remake, which includes discussion of The Mummy (1999) and Ben-Hur (1925). We also have a fun time remembering who stars in one of those movies…

Topical! Recorded before Spielberg dropped his but nonetheless weary of the impending discourse. After necessary, and sadly topical, love for Stephen Sondheim and quick rankings from Tim and Matt both, Tim clamors down the fire escape away from the usual West Side Story talking points to talk love in weird places and doomed circumstances with Desert Hearts and They Live by Night.

You know him, you could just as easily love or hate him, and you have to respect his technique. (Technique I say! Not content.) As a bonafide Suburban White Boy Matt has a lot of Eminem thoughts and love. He traipses through how hard it is to like Eminem, why he probably shouldn’t, and then gushes about Em’s craft as well as the mind-bending work of Aesop Rock and MF DOOM.

Tim is getting technical today, looking at vibrant (and lurid) weaponizations of Color Cinematography. Taxi Driver might be gritty in general, but it along with The Hunt for Red October and Niagra show us a different way from the dull, brown, arid cinematography of modern blockbusters.

After awhile of hand-wringing about the importance of Wilco’s magnum opus,  Matt settles in on the deconstructive and experimental bent of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (He’s also sorely tempted by the 9/11 significance of it all, but stay tuned for more on that!) Bonny Light Horseman’s updated folk standards go toe-to-toe with Ben Howard’s moody and destabilizing landscapes in this battle of deeply felt and Impressionistic albums.

Two things of note here. First, our (somehow) first ever play-in Sub Title! Tim pits two versions of Father of the Bride against one another and Matt decides which gets to face The Birdcage. Second, I’m not sure there’s been a bigger tonal shift between entry and Sub Title options before. The violence and despair of The Deer Hunter gives way to the hilarity of Steve Martin, Martin Short, Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Hank Azaria in shoes.

Korn famously (notoriously) insisted that their musical lineage starts with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More. More generally, their history begins in alt rock of the late 80s and early 90s, an era of experimentation, forceful expansion, and quite a bit of weirdness. The Chili Peppers aren’t in this episode, but Matt appreciates the violent ache of Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral before considering how Jane’s Addiction and Faith No More broke the alt rock mold(s) in their own unique ways.