Under British control for decades, in 1911, Zambia was merged in with other South African countries to form Northern Rhodesia. For most of the colonial period, Zambia was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British ...

To celebrate our impending 50th episode, we've created a trivia contest for you, our beloved listeners.  For this quiz, we're playing 8 clips. From these 8 clips, we're looking for a word or phrase, specifically based on the artists, so you don't need to...

Perhaps it’s a fool’s errand to try to define what Cosmic Country is. Like numbering all the stars in the heavens or counting bubbles in your beer. We are those fools though. In the starry fringes of country and western music resides a sound that is powe...

Perhaps it’s a fool’s errand to try to define what Cosmic Country is. Like numbering all the stars in the heavens or counting bubbles in your beer. We are those fools though. In the starry fringes of country and western music resides a sound that is powe...

When 78s were first sold, they were sold individually, with each side lasting between 3 and 5 minutes. The records were relegated to backs of furniture stores as if they were some sort of obscenity. Mostly, the reason for this was the packaging. At that ...

In this special episode, Ryan and Joe duke it out over who is the most essential least essential member of the greatest band of all time, The Velvet Underground: Angus MacLise or Doug Yule. One of them never recorded a single note with the band while the...

As the relevance of rock and roll began to explode, labels and managers wanted to exploit and milk those hits for all they were worth, for fear of it being a fad and dying out quickly. To maximize popularity and exposure, labels in the UK would often pre...

Are you as sick of Fyre documentaries as we are? We thought so. This week's episode is all about a festival that took place over two September days in 1971.  The festival was controversial and featured historic performances from Mexican psychedelic bands...

In this episode, we explore the world of the Butthole Surfers during the 1980s when they were the best live band in the country and one of the most interesting bands ever. Much of the show is spent on stories of debauchery, including feeding excrement to...

For this episode, we look back on stories we spent time researching but couldn't fit into an episode. That, and just plain goofy stories about goofy musicians. Find out what Prince did to make Michael Jackson run screaming from a room. Find out how to pr...

In our previous episode, we discussed the history of the flexi-disc. Today we delve into its pinko commie cousin, Bone Records.  During his post-World War II rule, Joseph Stalin controlled culture in the Soviet Union. Nothing from the west could be allo...

Today, the story of the most utilitarian format of the vinyl record, the flexi-disc. It was embraced by both capitalism and communism. It was disposable enough to be embossed into cereal boxes and mailed as postcards, but valuable enough to create collec...

There may never have been a pop music trend as both enthrallingly vapid and often highly critically praised as glam rock. Glam was a performance of reality as opposed to actually presenting it, the precession of simulacra to quote the philosopher, Jean B...

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was a dealer in terror, showmanship, hyperbole, and shock. Join us as we go through his climb from being a POW in WWII to drunken recordings, getting banned by a casket association, laying in his own fluids, and Jim Jarmusch. Subsc...

This week's episode is about the legacy of John Fahey and how he spawned a new style of music, American Primitive Guitar, by culling from the old, weird American sounds that came before him. Fahey lives on in many young and vital guitarists working today...

This episode is a bit of a continuation of our Library Music episode but we're joined by someone who has legitimate knowledge of the genre.  Paul Elliott, one of the directors of the new documentary, "The Library Music Film", was gracious enough to spend...

Are your poems worthy of becoming a hit song? The George Liberace Songsmiths certainly think they are. And for a nominal fee, they'll record them for you with a real band. For this episode, the following resources were invaluable: The American Song-Poem ...

Today, we try to discover what was truly and utterly lost. Looking for more than just a lost gem of an LP or a record label that never met the masses. Today, we attempt to locate greatness lost. They are out there...maybe. The woman who created the singe...

If you haven’t yet been initiated into the fun that is Library Music, we’re hoping this episode will change that. This isn’t muzak. Well, the part of the industry we go over isn’t, at least. Library Music, also called Production Music and Incidental Musi...

This episode is about the story of the tunes made exclusively of the Waffle House, by the Waffle House, for the Waffle House. Songs about truckers, toast, and testimonials. Songs with grit about grits. Songs that you can listen to smothered, covered, chu...

From 1917 to 1932 a record label in Grafton, Wisconsin may have captured more important American recordings than any other label or person before or since. Not a single one of those recordings feature the accordion or performers wearing lederhosen. Episo...

In this episode, we talk about growing up with the king of the Children’s Music Industry, Peter Pan Records. The weird childhood records that still haunt our memories.  We continue with weird by having a quiz about how Prince spells song titles. Also, wh...

What if we were to tell you that there was a single man, who you may have never heard of, who co-wrote Sgt. Pepper with the Beatles? Was responsible for Dylan going electric? Pushed Brian Wilson over the edge? Borrowed Frank Sinatra’s Lear Jet? Let down ...

In this, the most special of episodes, Ryan & Joe tackle a subject that is near and dear to their hearts: the music of Leonard Nimoy.  Leonard Nimoy produced 5 albums over 3 years and these have, for the most part, fallen by the wayside. They're actually...

A perfect episode for those of you feeling stuck inside of a creative rut. Today, Ryan & Joe learn to "be less critical more often" as they cover the nebulous advice practice that is Eno's Oblique Strategies Cards. Hear stories of artists who "discard a...