AC/DC are undeniable. Their high-energy boogie-pub-rock sound is so infectious that it transcends genre. Owing a significant debt to both the blues and Chuck Berry, but somehow wholly unique, they brought a hard-nosed, working-class sensibility, along with a wry sense of humor, to a hard-partying sound made them one of a kind and cemented them as the greatest hard rock band of all time. If you don't like AC/DC you have shite taste in music.

Perhaps no band better exemplifies the 1970's than the "velvet thunder" of Foghat. Their first three albums, released between 1973 and 1975, along with their 1977 Live album are perfect time capsules of the era and are preserved in sonic ember as representations of the sound that would become known as 70's Arena Rock. Sadly the developing sounds of heavy metal and punk would largely designate Foghat as irrelevant and even later genres of loud music also failed to give the band any due credit while heaping endless praise on their 70's peers including Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Aerosmith. On this episode we offer them some long overdue appreciation.

The youth in West Germany circa the early 1970's had significantly more reason to be pissed off than the British or American punks of the late seventies. They were lacking direction and inspiration in a country that was still in the shadow of its Nazi-led government barely two decades removed. They had no interest in the dominant traditions of German folk or American pop and sought to create something new. What they came up with was a propulsive, groove-laden, hypnotic sound that leaned heavily into repetition, extended improvisation, and early synthesizers, while avoiding hard rock's bombast or progs showy musicianship. Hamburg's Faust were early merchants of the sound and the lead track from their forth album, appropriately titled, Faust iV was named for the genre that they would help create and go on to inspire hundreds of musicians that would give birth to multiple, subsequent genres including ambient, techno, post-punk, new-age, and post-rock.