Tape Spaghetti

What does your favorite song look like? In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake tumble down the rabbit hole where hearing and vision meet. From unforgettable album art to the kaleidoscopic effects of chromesthesia to the full sensory spectrum of synesthesia, sometimes you can experience music with your entire brain…. in good ways and weird.

What do you do when you’re the biggest pop star alive and your record label can’t keep up? If you’re Prince, you declare war on your own name.

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake trace how the hitmaker behind Purple Rain became an unpronounceable symbol in 1993. After signing a massive $100 million deal with Warner Bros. Records, Prince chafed at their glacially slow release schedule.

Sitting on a mountain of unreleased music, he decided to engage in a legendary act of defiance. He abandoned the name Prince for an unpronounceable glyph—the Love Symbol #2—and wrote “slave” on his cheek at public appearances.

The media, baffled, dubbed him “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” Warner had to send out floppy disks so journalists could even type the symbol.

Meanwhile, Prince by carpet-bombed them with albums until he fulfilled his deal, then released Emancipation on his own label. By 2000, he’d reclaimed his name and his masters.

Did Prince carve his name in music history by deleting it altogether? This is one of pop’s wildest branding stunts—and one of its boldest victories.

What do you get when you combine when rock ’n’ roll, destiny, and total dysfunction? The Shaggs.

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott & Blake share the bizarre tale of three reluctant sisters from New Hampshire who unwittingly became cult idols of the pop scene.

Driven by a domineering father determined to fulfill a prophecy that his daughters would become famous, the Wiggins sisters had no training, no exposure to pop music, and no particular desire to be in a band to begin with.

Their seminal work, Philosophy of the World, is an album defined by erratic rhythms, jangly guitar nonsense, and clashing vocals that somehow amounts to something…totally endearing. Frank Zappa praised it, Kurt Cobain loved it, and it now stands as a cornerstone of "Outsider Music" that challenges our very conception of pop.

Tune in to untangle the strange, sad, and ultimately joyful story of The Shaggs.

Picture this: mid-70s Los Angeles, Sunset Strip glowing, Rainbow Bar & Grill buzzing. Upstairs, hidden from the paparazzi, Alice Cooper presides over a drinking club comprised of the world’s biggest rock stars.

Members included Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Mickey Dolenz, and regular guests like John Lennon, and Iggy Pop.

Their creed? Drink until someone literally drops.

From Lennon’s meltdown at the Troubadour to Keith Moon’s nightly costume reveals, the antics were as unhinged as the alcohol was endless.

Yet beneath the fun lurked the darker truth of rock’s excesses: careers derailed, friendships tested, and lives cut short. Alice Cooper barely escaped by embracing sobriety, while others weren’t so lucky.

Listen in as Scott and Blake unravel the myths, mayhem, and aftermath of a group that embodied both the heights and hangovers of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.

What does it take to break free from your father’s shadow? For Hank Williams Jr., it was just about every bone in his body.

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake trace Hank Jr.’s journey from teen imitator of his iconic dad to one of country’s fiercest originals. Sparked by a mighty tumble off the Smoky Mountains that nearly killed him, Hank Jr. relearned how to walk, talk, and make music — and, miraculously, was all the better for it.

With “Family Tradition” and “Whiskey Bent and Hellbound,” he embraced southern rock swagger, celebrated his vices, and created music that was unapologetically his own.

Along the way, he reshaped country music itself, proving that second-generation stars could blaze trails, not just imitate them.

Tune in and hear the story of how one brutal fall gave rise to a legend.

What do Bob Marley, U2, Grace Jones, and James Bond have in common? The name’s Blackwell — Chris Blackwell.

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake dive into the unexpected story of the Island Records founder who reshaped global music.

Raised among Jamaica’s colonial elites, Blackwell was rescued from a near-death experience by Rastafarian fishermen who gave him a new lease on life and a newfound devotion to reggae.

From there, Blackwell founded Island Records and launched Jamaican music into the mainstream.

And that wasn’t all—he gave Nick Drake freedom to fail, signed Roxy Music for their style alone, and gambled on a scrappy Irish band named U2.

Was Blackwell a visionary who elevated voices from the margins, or a clever colonizer who repackaged them?

Does 15 years plus $14 million equal perfection? Axl Rose was willing to ditch his Gun N' Roses bandmates to find out.

On this week’s Tape Spaghetti, Blake & Scott unravel the unwieldy tale of Chinese Democracy, the album born of Axl’s unrelenting vision… but at what cost??

With endless lineup changes and a vicious cycle of revisions, this Slash/Izzy/Duff-less GNR record looms large as a passion project pit against some extremely lofty expectations. Did Axl pull it off?

Was Chinese Democracy doomed by its own hype, or is it somehow a massively overlooked gem of ambition?

Tune in for a cautionary tale about chasing perfection with a bucket on your head. (And a chicken coop in your studio?)

You’ve got your entire life to write your debut… and 6 months to top it!

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Blake and Scott explore the dreaded sophomore slump, breaking down why second records are so difficult to perfect and why our perceptions of them often change with the added context of time.

Whether it’s a Hootie, a Beastie, Alanis, or U2  this one’s a celebration of overreach, awkward pivots, and the impossible expectations we put on artists.

Are these sequels genuine disappointments, or is this the way we punish artists who dare to evolve?

Frank Ocean pulled off one of the greatest artistic jailbreaks in modern music—and did it in style.

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Blake and Scott explore how Ocean dropped the hauntingly beautiful visual album Endless to fulfill his contract with Def Jam… only to self-release Blonde the very next day, fully independent and with total creative control.

Ocean not only beat the system, he reshaped how the system works, cementing his status as one of hip-hop’s modern masters and brilliant escape artists.

Whether you’re a Frank fan or just curious about the most baller bait-and-switch in recent music history, this one’s worth the listen.

Post-hardcore… or purely paranormal?

In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Blake and Scott are joined by Guitar Nerds host and certified Mars Volta superfan Joe Branton to dive into the tangled sonic séance of an album known as The Bedlam in Goliath.

At the center of the chaos is The Soothsayer, a Ouija board that channeled the beyond, inspired the album’s otherworldly themes, and may have triggered a series of bizarre, destructive events.

Joe helps unravel the ghostly chaos from studio meltdowns and mysteriously vanishing tracks, to injuries and nervous breakdowns that nearly tore the band apart. Was this record haunted, genius, or both?