King Princess is the project of Mikaela Straus, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn. She’s a platinum-selling artist, and she put out her second album in July, 2022. The last track on the album is the song "Let Us Die." Rolling Stone called it "the banger of the year."
In this episode, Mikaela breaks down the song, along with two of her collaborators on it: co-producer and co-writer Ethan Gruska, and multi-Grammy winning producer Mark Ronson. You’ll hear the original voice memo that Mikaela recorded, and the demo she made with Ethan. And you’ll hear the drums recorded by the late Taylor Hawkins, the legendary drummer of Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette, who passed away earlier this year.
This week the boys are joined by the hilarious Tina Dybal (Slop City podcast, @tinadybal) to discuss Brandi Carlile, and specifically her acclaimed song "The Joke." Tina chats with Tyler and Danny about Carlile's incredible vocal and songwriting abilities, the joy of crying at a concert, and just what the hell is Americana?
Get bonus episodes, blog posts, and more by supporting us on Patreon HERE! (The more patrons we have, the more bonus episodes we release! Thanks for your support!)
If you're new to Brandi Carlile and would like some more recommended songs, this oughtta get you started:
Hi. We're still on a skip week, the main podcast will be back next week, but as we've now reached a point in the podcast where more of the people discussed are living than dead, I'd just like to say something, and make a request.
I've seen several people asking people mentioned in the podcast if they're listeners, on Twitter and other social media, and I would very much rather people stop doing that. Please don't tag any living subjects of my podcast episodes into tweets about those episodes. I can't stop you, of course, and I'm not meaning to shame anyone who has, as they've done it for the best of reasons, but it makes me extremely uncomfortable.
I've had people take offence before at things I've written about their work which I didn't intend to be offensive. Creative people will often focus on a single negative aside in what is otherwise a wall of praise, and it can cause them real upset.
I can't stop any subjects of podcast episodes from listening to them, but the podcast is not ultimately for them.
The very best case scenario is that knowing those people are going to hear the podcast makes me uncomfortable and restricts what I say, making the podcast less good. The worst-case scenario is someone takes legal action because of something I've said, and the podcast has to end altogether.
But mostly, I just know that if someone I've talked about is going to listen to my podcast, there's a good chance that they'll pick up on one casual remark I didn't even think about and ruminate about it all day. And I don't want to make people I admire have bad days.
So please, do keep telling your friends about the podcast, but don't tell the stars I talk about. I know you all mean well when you do it, but it can cause far more harm than good.
Tayari Jones is the author of four novels. She won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus. Her novel An American Marriage was an Oprah's Book Club Selection, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction.
An American Marriage tells the story of Celestial and Roy, a Black middle-class couple living in Atlanta. Their lives are torn apart after Roy is wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit, and the middle of the book takes the form of letters they send each other while he’s in prison. In her discussion with Susan, Tayari discusses the letter Celestial sends to Roy to tell him she is leaving him.
This week we talk to country singer Chris Canterbury (new album Quaalude Lullabies out now!) about one of his major musical influences, the late great Townes Van Zandt! In addition to adding the storytelling classic "Pancho & Lefty" to our Ultimate Country Playlist, we discuss Van Zandt's growing legacy, using sparse production to best serve a song, and the power and attraction of sad songs.
Get bonus episodes, blog posts, and more by supporting us on Patreon HERE! (The more patrons we have, the more bonus episodes we release! Thanks for your support!)
Chris Canterbury, our first-non comedian guest, is a singer-songwriter in Nashville by way of his native Louisiana. Canterbury's new album is Quaalude Lullabies, a nine track collection of mostly sad songs that offers on-the-nose lyrical phrasing, subtlety loose production, and an honest insight into razor-edge topics like addiction, depression, and loneliness. Danny and Tyler both highly recommend this new album!
We also have some recommendations for Townes Van Zandt songs, for anyone who is new to Townes and would like a place to start:
Panic! At the Disco is the Grammy-nominated project of Brendon Urie, who originally started it as a band with his high school friends from Las Vegas in 2004. In the eighteen years since, Panic! At the Disco has won American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, iHeartRadio Music awards, and more. In August 2022, Brendon released the seventh Panic! at the Disco album, Viva Las Vengeance. The title track hit #1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. In this episode, Brendon tells the story of how he, Grammy-nominated producer Jake Sinclair and Oscar-nominated songwriter Mike Viola all got together to make the song "Viva Las Vengeance."
Episode one hundred and fifty-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs is the last of our four-part mini-series on LA sunshine pop and folk-rock in summer 1967. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
After 35 Smothered and Covered segments, we have finally begun a playlist of our favorite cover versions of the songs we've added to our Ultimate Country Playlist. On this episode Danny and Tyler share what covers make up the first five songs of the NEW playlist. Some covers are iconic, some obscure, some are punk, and some are by the original artist.
Get bonus episodes, blog posts, and more by supporting us on Patreon HERE!(The more patrons we have, the more bonus episodes we release!)
Carmen Maria Machado is the award-winning author of In the Dream House, a memoir where each chapter has its own vivid style of storytelling. It won the Folio Prize in 2021, and was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The New Yorker, and NPR.
In the Dream House depicts Carmen’s experiences in an abusive relationship, and in this episode, she spoke to Susan about a pivotal passage from the chapter “Dream House as House in Florida.”
Episode one hundred and fifty-three of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Heroes and Villains” by the Beach Boys, and the collapse of the Smile album. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.
