For those who haven’t heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock.
Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
This week Danny and Tyler catch up by talking about hot dogs and hot news (see: gossip). They discuss the Zach Bryan and Walker Hayes situation, Elle King's drunken performance at the Dolly Parton tribute, and play IS IT COUNTRY? featuring songs by Metallica and more.
The first episode of Song Exploder, about The Postal Service song "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight," came out 10 years ago, in January 2014. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the podcast, we're doing what bands do, and putting out a deluxe, expanded edition of our very first release: this version features a new interview, new insights, and new pieces of the song and demo.
The Postal Service formed in 2001. Their debut album came out in 2003, and it was a game changer. Their combination of electronic music and indie rock not only sold over a million copies; their songs were everywhere on TV and in film, and influenced a generation of artists. Last year, they played sold-out concerts across the US in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the album, and there are more shows to come in 2024. A few weeks ago, I spoke to Ben Gibbard, and I combined that with my original interview from 2013 with Jimmy Tamborello. And here, together, the two of them tell the story of how they made their song “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.”
This week on the pod we add song #70 to our Ultimate Playlist: "Sour Mash" by Cory Branan, a killer guitar player who Tyler Childers calls a "songwriting machine." Branan is a critically acclaimed songwriter who has never hit the mainstream, but today we're here to sing his praises and spread the good word of the country/folk/rock/punk troubadour.
For just $5 a month you can help keep the lights on and get access to bonus episodes! Consider supporting us on Patreon HERE!
For those who haven’t heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the first part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock.
Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
This is just a brief announcement. The fact that I’ve released stuff so inconsistently over the last year, along with the last episode being so long that it actually caused problems for Tilt’s editing softwaere has caused me to reconsider how I’m breaking these episodes up.
I have had very good reasons for making the episodes longer rather than doing multiple parts — we would have had episodes titled “White Light/White Heat”, “Eight Miles High”, and “Good Vibrations” which literally didn’t mention at all the bands they were ostensibly about, and people would have got very annoyed at listening to an episode supposedly about the Beach Boys and finding it was entirely about a Soviet inventor in the 1920s. But the balance has tipped the other way now. Things have got a bit ridiculous.
So what I’m doing npw is I’m still writing the scripts the same way I always do, as one long narrative, but then once a script is finished I will break it into sections of about 5-10,000 words (somewhere in the 45-minute to ninety minute range) depending on where natural cliffhangers come, and I will release those parts fortnightly. There still might be gaps between the last part of the previous song and the first part of the next, but probably nothing like as long as they have been.
The actual content will still be the same — just for example the Velvet Underground episode would have been split into three or four parts, with the first part ending with John Cale joining the story, and me saying “join us in two weeks time”. But it’ll be broken up into more manageable parts which hopefully won’t cause Tilt’s editing software to explode, and if you like listening to it all in one go you can just wait until the final part of that story and then listen to it all.
So today you’re going to get, not ‘Episode 172, “Hickory Wind” by the Byrds’, but ‘SONG 172: “Hickory Wind” by the Byrds: Part 1, Ushering in a New Dimension”, and then Song 172 part two two weeks later.
I want to emphasise that this will still be *exactly the same content* as it would otherwise be. The stories will go on as long as they need to. Some will be a single episode, some will be three or four. But breaking it up like this should mean you get more consistent releases and I can get ahead. Indeed, it *might* mean I could go back to weekly episodes — I’ve averaged somewhere in the region of thirty thousand words per month last year on the main podcast, which would be four seven-thousand-word episodes — but I won’t even think about that unless I start to actually build up a backlog.
The stories should be getting shorter anyway as we finally move out of the late sixties, so the rate of storytelling *should* get faster, but this way at least you’re going to get regular episodes.
So listen to today’s episode, and then join me again in precisely two weeks as Gram Parsons joins the story.
Tommy McNamara (new special SMOLDERING now on YouTube) joins Danny and Tyler once again, this time to talk about legendary songwriter and Queen of Americana, Lucinda Williams. We add her infinitely catchy "I Just Wanted To See You So Bad" to our Official Playlist, and discuss her seminal and untouchable LP Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
For just $5 a month you can help keep the lights on and get access to bonus episodes! Consider supporting us on Patreon HERE!
Follow the link below to keep up with which songs are being added to our Ultimate Country Playlist on Spotify, now including "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad," by Lucinda Williams: https://tinyurl.com/takethispodplaylist And on TIDAL! https://t.co/MHEvOz2DOA
Want to dive into Lucinda's catalog but don't know where to start? Here are some recs from Tommy and the boys:
For the first episode of the new year we take a moment to reflect on our favorite albums of 2023. Danny, Tyler, and comedian Stephen Taylor each mention their five country albums released last year. Listen to hear the results and find out when the boys' opinions overlap!
For the last episode of the year, I got the chance to drive up to Northridge, California, and have a conversation with Dave Grohl. We talked about the Foo Fighters song “The Teacher,” which is an epic, 10-minute-long song. Dave told me it’s the most important piece of music he’s ever written, because it’s dedicated to his mother, Virginia, who passed away in 2022.
Dave Grohl started Foo Fighters in 1994, after Nirvana ended. This year, Foo Fighters set a record for having the most Top 10 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts. They’ve won 15 Grammy awards, including winning the Grammy for Best Rock album five times — more than anyone else.
“The Teacher” is from their 11th album, But Here We Are, which came out in June 2023. I sat with Dave in the Foo Fighters practice space, and he told me the whole story of the song. Coming up, you’ll hear the two voice memos he originally recorded on acoustic guitar, plus the two demos he made on his way to figuring the song out.
Last week we lost comedian and friend, Kenny DeForest. We wanted to say some words about our amazing friend, though we could never say enough to do him justice. If you're a comedy fan, we encourage you to check out his comedy, which is available all over the internet. We'll post some links below as well. He'll be dearly missed.
We're taking the rest of 2023 off, and will see you in 2024. Happy holidays, take care and see ya soon. -Tyler & Danny
