"I'll do anything, to make you..."

Recorded 2/18/2022

Every now and then we do a current faves episode to cleanse that palette. For this one we talked about Grave Babies: Holographic Violence, Type-O-Negative: October Rust, and Les Discrets: Predateurs. Along with a bunch of other tangents as per usual

00:00 Intro

1:53 Why it’s taking so long to release the episodes and some podcast editing shop talk

11:29 Dan Olsens “Line Goes Up” video, some breatube love, and other folding ideas vids

34:51 Topic start and intro

40:15 Grave Babies

1:20:23 Tool’s changing stage presence, Rammstein and Foo Fighter’s mid show acoustic sets, love old bands new albums, and christ adler doesn’t get enough credit

1:31:39 October Rust

2:12:29 The Stadium Arcadium Story ie “Richard is dumb and deprives himself of joy”

2:16:37 Les Discrets

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mWW-2Ep65lf5xanv7s6EKhDf4CHp1cl98

Type-O-Negative - October Rust

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lNP0kF67wb3o6plzpuZjMBBpZ6JzARfEY

Les Discrets - Prédateurs

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mfbyyavR79g_suuEI15zs5ZdQIgoD0yWk

Line goes up

https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g

Recorded 1/21/2022

Part 2: 2003

==============

This playlist represents more exploration that occurred while learning/playing jazz in college. Compared to the first playlist this has more music that friends told me about. Things here tend much more toward the fusion side of things. It was interesting to see how some of this hit Robert. We also riff on performance vs composition, hip hop in jazz, cultural appropriation, how this music influenced my improv chops, and challenges in navigating big band charts. 

00:00 Intro

00:52 Social Media affecting the creative process

17:31 Bill Hicks spiritual word salad, health & wellness peeps ruined Ram Das for me, nationalism sucks, and armageddon is pure propaganda

35:58 Critical thinking when consuming info and high school football is a misallocation of resources

1:05:54 Jazz composition vs performance; cuong vu, herbie hancock, candiria, john zorn, and steve coleman

1:47:57 World music, cultural appropriation, leave Lil Wayne alone, and racist aspects of metal culture

2:08:53 more jazz: mccoy tyner, andre 3000, hip hop & jazz, roy hargrove, and max roach

2:42:30 How this music prepared me for extreme non-jazz improv situations in the yoga and ecstatic dance communities

2:51:48 what makes reading a big band drum chart so hard

3:05:15 frustration of finding jazz/classical music that you like, players vs composition, and wrap up. 

Playlist

spreadsheet

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1szoNRmO35WWOubjzK8Afl9I89zVgxk00/view?usp=sharing

Trio Da Paz - Manhattan Style

Manfredo Fest - Guararpes

Miles Davis - Orbits

McCoy Tyner - search for peace

Max Roach - Driva'man

Jeff Tain Watts - JC is the Man

Steve Coleman and the Metrics - Hyped

Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain, Eric Harland

Candiria - Constant Velocity Is As Natural As Being at Rest

Cuong Vu - Bound

Lake Trout - #2, Little Things

Herbie Hancock - kebero pt.1 (ends at 3:10 in video), essence, be still

John Zorn - You Will Be Shot, Latin Quarter

RH Factor - Hardgroove, I'll Stay (Ft. D'Angelo)

Recorded 1/14/2022

==============

This is mostly a reflection of how I immersed myself in Jazz when I started taking formal drum lessons in college. My drum instructor made me join the big band so I had a lot to learn fast. This is not a history of jazz or what I think the most important jazz songs are. This is an attempt at identifying the songs that I came across that greatly affected me in one way or another. Some of these songs are very emotional for me, some are just influential to me as a musician or drummer, and some I just like. I also talk a bit about the difference between subgenres of jazz, the history of the drumset, flaws in the perception of music history, and the nature of striving during a performance. 

Preamble

00:00 Intro

01:24 Old School recording with Roland Vs1680 and some NFT talk

25:46 Frank Turner lyrics and why I respect KISS’s political stances

39:12: my first drum lessons with jazz drummer Joel Fulgham 

47:56 Playlist riffage begins. 

*Note* Big screw up, around the 2 hr 26 min mark, I forgot that Ella Fitzgerald did Solitude not Billie Holiday. Both are amazing but different, listen 

Spreadsheet

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12PXQ5Fz4Q3hIPYgU_H_0HnWpjmcYs69_/view?usp=sharing

Playlist

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1ehcxkRXE4UaBijlEo55mdxe

Buddy Rich - Mercy, Mercy

Miles Davis (trumpet) - So What, Milestones, Seven Steps to Heaven

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - The Opener

Max Roach - For Big Sid

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five - Heebie Jeebies

Duke Ellington - Black Beauty

Count Basie - Jumpin At The Woodside

Sonny Rollins - St. Thomas

Weather report  - Birdland 

Gordon Goodwin - Count Bubba

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

John Coltrane (tenor) - Pt. 1 Acknowledgement 

Roy Hargrove (trumpet) - O My Seh Yeh

Recorded 1/6/2022

00:00 intro

00:59 Preamble

5:03 Don’t look up 

47:16 Type O Negative makes sad man music and October Rust has programmed drums?!?!

57:00 topic start

1:05:10 Undertale

1:29:10 Rando Percussion talk, Shovel Knight, and Retro Game riffage

1:39:32 Nier Automata

1:55:24 Necrodancer and Persona 5

2:12:24 Garth Brooks story and beer rant

2:21:00 What the F*#k kind of game is Inscryption?!

2:31:54 Gravity Rush

2:55:16 bonus

Rob sez:

Why these specific games/tracks:

==============

1. Special to me/nostalgia

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWvzvA9F-7moDf-8u-IItwhxzCezQ9P5D

Part 4: 2014 - 2021

===============

Shovel Knight

- Jake Kaufman, USA, 2014, Retro Platformer, Difficult

Undertale

- Toby Fox, USA, 2015, RPG, Absurdist humor, Sincerity

Gravity Rush 2

- Kohei Tanaka, Japan, 2017, Anti-gravity 3D Platformer, Ghibli-esque world

Nier: Automata

- Various, Japan, 2017, Action RPG, Character-focused, Existential dread, Hope?

Persona 5

- Shoji Meguro, Lyn Inaizumi, etc, Japan, 2016, Modern-day Supernatural Japanese RPG

Crypt of the Necrodancer

- Danny Baranowsky, USA, 2015, Rhythm, Dungeon Crawler, Roguelike

Inscryption

- Jonah Senzel, USA, 2021, Room Escape, Card Battler, Roguelike, Seeecrets

Recorded 11/19/2021

00:00 Intro

01:26 Preamble: Kevin smith aint hurting anybody, Rob Zombie makes trauma films not horror films, what and boys in Live have in common with fauxcest, and more

23:09 When did our tastes diverge and why didn’t Rob go deeper into extreme metal. Includes riffing on Strapping young lad, meshuggah, fear factory, electronic music, black sabbath, our different approaches to our instruments, and nitpicking metal subgenres)

01:02:32 Why this format is so interesting to me

01:07:27 Topic intro

1:12:10 Inmomentum

1:20:44 Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery

1:26:37 Binding of Isaac

1:47:56 Shatter

1:57:39 digression about being consistent when deviating from artistic norms and guitar usage in video game osts

2:10:25 Fez

2:18:45 Nier:Gestalt (“The reason these playlists exist”)

2:38:20 Dustforce

2:40:53 Demon’s souls 

2:50:39 why these games

Rob sez:

Why these specific games/tracks:

==============

1. Special to me/nostalgia

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWvzvA9F-7mpmLmUV5VyyUEweurMEEGlP

Part 3: 2009 - 2013

===============

Demon’s Souls

- Shunsuke Kida, Japan, 2009, Action RPG, Methodical, Masochistic, Weird?

Inmomentum

- Gareth Coker, United Kingdom, 2011, Parkour, Rhythm

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery

- Jim Guthrie, Canada, 2011, Adventure, Atmospheric

The Binding of Isaac

- Danny Baranowsky, USA, 2011, Roguelike, Religious, Gory, Grotesque

Shatter

- Module, New Zealand, 2009, Arcade, Frenetic, Breakout-like

Fez

- Disasterpeace, USA, 2012, Platformer, Puzzle, Mysterious, Fourth-wall

Nier: Gestalt

- Keiichi Okabe & Emi Evans, Japan, 2010, Action RPG, Character-focused, Existential dread

Dustforce

- Lifeformed, Taiwan, 2012, Time/score attack, Precision platformer, Janitorial

The Middle Period and Suffocation 2002-2016

recorded 11/04/2021

00:00 Intro

00:52 Making art, getting distract with business stuff, and my plans for the pod

15:35 Rob’s tiny social battery and socializing in the pando

27:45 Richard joined some online bands and it’s awesome

35:28 Topic overview

38:24 Group 1(opeth, god dethroned, dimmu…)

1:26:49 Gojira

1:35:20 Group 2 (Nile, decapitated, necrophagist…)

1:56:46 Group 3 (Suffocation lovefest, my return to the extreme, and meeting the guys)

Part 2: The Middle Period and Suffocation 2002-2016

==============

This carries on with death metal and death metal inspired music that I was exposed to throughout the 00s, mostly through friends etc… Then in 2016, on a whim, I went to the summer slaughter tour and saw/heard suffocation for the first time and it changed my life. Partly because Suffocation is amazing and I had somehow avoided hearing them until that day and also because of their new drummer at the time, Eric Morotti. I had never heard an extreme metal drummer sound that good live. Ever. Seeing him play live inspired me to get back into this style of drumming. 

Playlists

Youtube playlist: 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1eg6h7mYM8JQObw4uZyNXMRw

Spreadsheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ra9tJPyd2i7AUKmHRR1JfJM8gyA4hkxY/view?usp=sharing

Eric Morotti Links:

Liege of Inveracity (for maximum kick clarity)

https://youtu.be/F0VHIil0nSw

Clarity Through Deprivation Live (start around the 1:54 mark for maximum effect)

https://youtu.be/MoGTOisf9LM

Here is a full show of the lineup that I saw, really good overall sound. Maybe skip around in here. 

https://youtu.be/dpZWrRdpE8s

Songs

==============

Group 1: 2002-2007

Opeth  - Deliverance

God Dethroned  -  Serpent King, Nocturnal, Execution Protocol

Dimmu Borgir  -  Blessing Upon the Throne of Tyranny

Strapping Young Lad  -  Force Fed

Cephalic Carnage  -  Scolopendra Cingulata, Foruitous Oddity, Black Metal Sabbath

Crotchduster  -  Let me into Starfish Land

Bloodbath  -  Eaten

Gojira  -  Backbone

Group 2: 2009-2011

Nile  -  Utterances of the Crawling Dead

Necrophagist  -  Stabwound

Decapitated  -  Day 69

Arch Enemy  -  Enemy Within

Amon Amarth  -  Valhalla Awaits Me

Group 3:  Suffocation (Summer Slaughter 2016)

Suffocation   -  Thrones of Blood, Pierced From Within, Funeral Inception, Entrails of You, As Grace Descends

recorded 10/28/20212

Preamble

00:00 intro

00:41 Pantera is amazing live and metal bands sounded like garbage live in the mid to late 2000s

20:46 Sting, police reunion tour, and learning odd times from Joel

30: 52 Richard’s compass graph for rock drummers (Ringo, Bonham, Neil, and Stewart)

37:52 Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters

Death Metal

50:19 Topic overview

1:01:36 Group 1 (Morbid Angel etc…)

1:55:45 Group 2 (Cradle of Filth, Emperor, etc…)

2:11:27 Slipknot and eeyore shoutout to Cj

2:21:54 Group 3 (Terrorizer, Napalm 

2:39:16 Honorable mentions (slayer, slipknot)

2:49:59 Outro

Part 1: The Early Years 1998-2002

==============

This list is in chronological order of the death metal and grindcore I was exposed to. Not all of these bands are strictly grindcore or death metal but the songs contain elements of these genres. The songs often represent an early exposure to one or more of those elements (guttural vocals, blast beats, grindy D-beats, etc..). 

Ace Ventura clip:

https://youtu.be/8dM_TN7I5m8

Playlist: 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1ehmG7qaMVl5d7EmfwcZUyy1

Spreadsheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ra9tJPyd2i7AUKmHRR1JfJM8gyA4hkxY/view?usp=sharing

Honorable mentions playlist

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1ejXOqB5ZS8d5ZuYjlYzOK89

Group 1: 1998, Early Exploration

Morbid Angel  -  Nothing is Not, Heaving Earth

Fear Factory  -  Scapegoat

Human Remains  -  Weeding out the Thorns, Waste of Time

Arch Enemy  -  Beast of Man

Strapping Young Lad  -  All Hail the New Flesh

Grave  -  Restrained

Nile  -  Barra Edinazzu

At the gates  -  Blinded by Fear

Carcass  -  No Love Lost

Cryptopsy  -  Slit Your Guts

Group 2: 1999-2000

Testament  -  Demonic Refusal

Cradle of Filth  -  Desire in Violent Overture

Emperor  -  Curse you all men

slipknot  -  eeyore

Lock up  -  Submission

Brujeria  -  Pititis Te Invoco, Labratorio Cristalitos

Morbid Angel  -  Summoning Redemption

Group 3: Emusic research

Terrorizer  -  After World Obliteration

Napalm Death  -  Scum

Napalm Death  -  Evolved as One, It's a MANS World

Opeth  -  Demon of the Fall

Group 4: Honorable mentions, not included in main playist

 Slayer  -  Angel of Death (main riff and double bass), Necrophobic

Emperor  -  Ye entrancemperium, loss and curse of reverence 

Slipknot  -  surfacing (palm muted bridge riff), People=shit (intro),  Disasterpiece     (second half)

System of a Down  -  X (verses)

recorded 10/21/2021 with Robert Rabel

Intro: 00:00

Preamble

FD Signifier, Kanye, Kayfabe in metal/rap music, and Kayfabe Kowalcyk: 00:37

Bad Author Friend and virtue signaling: 40:07

Topic Overview: 49:31

Playlist Breakdown (Silent Hill, Eve, & Half-Life): 1:10:24

Synthwave will be the Yacht Rock of our Generation: 1:38:11

Rob’s Top 3 games and cool af grandparents: 1:50:34

More Playlist (splinter cell, persona, & portal): 1:53:28

Rob sez:

Why these specific games/tracks:

==============

1. Special to me/nostalgia

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWvzvA9F-7mpJ07a58uks6PLB_o1qCVXM

Part 2: 2001 - 2008

===============

Silent HIll 2

- Akira Yamaoka, 2001, Supernatural Religious Psychological Survival-horror

Silent HIll 3

- Akira Yamaoka, 2003, Supernatural Religious Psychological Survival-horror

Eve Online

- Jón Hallur Haraldsson, 2003, Lonely Deep Space Ship-building MMO

Half Life 2

- Kelly Bailey, 2004, Story-focused Sci-fi Shooter

Half Life 2: Episode 1

- Kelly Bailey, 2006, Story-focused Sci-fi Shooter

Half Life 2: Episode 2

- Kelly Bailey, 2007, Story-focused Sci-fi Shooter

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

- Amon Tobin, 2005, Globe-trotting Political Stealth

Persona 3

- Shoji Meguro, 2006, Modern-day Supernatural Japanese RPG

Persona 4

- Shoji Meguro, 2008, Modern-day Supernatural Japanese RPG

Portal

- Jonathan Coulton, 2007, Sci-fi Puzzle FPS

recorded 10/14/2021 with Robert Rabel

Rob's favorite Video Game OSTs Pt1

Intro: 00:00

Overview and general impressions: 00:43

Playlist Breakdown: 34:42

Stuck Mojo digression: 1:24:03

Wrap up: 1:31:40

Rob sez:

Why these specific games/tracks:

==============

1. Special to me/nostalgia

Why this is an especially difficult topic:

==============

So much of what music does for a game comes from the context in which it is experienced. This means that without the visuals, control feel, sound effects, story, characters, etc that comprise a game, you're never going to get the full understanding of what the music "means" to the experience.

Also: better to do a more personal retrospective or a more medium-representative one? I went with personal, since you can find any number of Best Gaming OSTs of the 90s/00s/10s out there, and they usually contain the same few games. Or stuff like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Grand Theft Auto which contain primarily or solely licensed music created outside the scope of the game. All of the music I've chosen for these lists was written specifically for these games, often in creative tandem.

Very interested to see how these hit Richard's ear, because despite me still *believing* that I think it's all good music, I can't honestly say that I'm hearing it objectively. For instance, every track on here (to varying extents) calls to mind some part of the game it's from and even some tangentially related memories.

Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWvzvA9F-7moCMAnko3hlnRAzv_FWxjTg

Part 1: 1991-2000

==============

Sonic the Hedgehog 1

- Masato Nakamura, 1991, Mascot platformer, Fast

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

- Masato Nakamura, 1992, Mascot platformer, Fast

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

- Various (and more, incl. Michael Jackson), 1994, Mascot platformer, Fast

Streets of Rage 1

- Yuzo Koshiro, 1991, Beat-em-up

Streets of Rage 2

- Yuzo Koshiro, 1992, Beat-em-up

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

- Michiru Yamane, 1997, Metroidvania (the O.G.)

Final Fantasy VII

- Nobuo Uematsu, 1997, JRPG

Deus Ex

- Alexander Brandon (and more, incl. Reeves Gabrels), 2000, Immersive Sim

Pictionary

- Tim Follin (Tim chill it's just Pictionary), 1990, Board Game

Recorded 10/7/2021 with Robert Rabel

https://youtu.be/dn12l0fGsDs

Here we speculate what exactly Ed Kowalcyk was thinking as his desire to destroy his band’s career migrated from his subconscious to conscious.

I use this as a starting point to reflect on my own experiences concerning the desire to be spiritual while wrestling with my unnamed performative masculinity. I projected much of this onto Ed, sometimes unfairly but sometimes… he really deserves it. 

Preamble “what have we been listening to recently?”

01:34 start

08:47 Mastodon, metal elitists, and breaking Kayfabe in metal

48:05 Kanye’s first few records, different forms of racism, and why Richard doesn’t jump to criticize Kanye’s public shenanigans 

01:12:56 Distance to Here

01:21:36 V… briefly

01:26:03 Birds of Pray

01:36:46 Songs from Black Mountain

01:41:39 Band breakup, solo projects, Gracious Few, and born again BS

01:47:08 the turn  and Jerry “miracle editor” Harrison

01:50:10 “I still have so much to learn from the songs I’ve written”  and other full of sh*t, things Ed says in this interview https://youtu.be/sCqCJGz7-8o

02:09:53 Deep analysis of the lyric Horror that is V 

02:40:32 Eastern philosophy, performative masculinity, and the allure of being born again. Richard reflects on the parallels between Ed’s journey and his. 

Live is a great band

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1ehStiqsl-NmFWGAvJB1UOJj

Live writes terrible songs

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDy9MGihz1egRJAbHpznY0_pQXRqhHiIk