Episodes
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In this episode, Phil takes Discord & Rhyme further down the spiral with an album that is a harrowing descent into one man’s decaying psyche. If that sounds like a blast, you’re in good company with the millions of people who bought Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral in 1994. It’s one of the bleakest, most pitch-dark albums to ever achieve massive commercial success, and it still sounds great in 2025, owing to the coherence of Trent Reznor’s sonic vision and ingenious production by Flood. Reznor has gone on to become an Oscar-winning soundtrack composer in the decades since this album, but it still stands as one of his signature achievements, and Phil has invited Rich and Mike along to talk about an album that, from top to bottom, sets out to make you hurt. Now doesn’t that make you feel better?
Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/159-nine-inch-nails-the-downward-spiral-1994
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Rich, Ben, and John answer a super-sized mailbag of listener questions, with subjects including jukebox musicals, James Bond themes, songs that give them the happy chills, sample-based hip-hop producers, the usual suite of Moody Blues questions, and a philosophical discussion on how we all listen to music and how this has changed as we've gotten older. This episode also features an interlude on experimental music from Producer Mike, and a listener-submitted puzzle!
Co-hosts: Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, John McFerrin, Mike DeFabio
Spotify playlist of the songs clipped in this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ew48yCf2JAnroOVFlaLCv?si=yPstIGylTUOanMidd-cPlA
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Missing episodes?
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Everyone has an opinion about the Doors - whether you think they’re transgressive and mind-blowing, or you find them silly and overrated, or - like Ben - you just think they made some killer music. With invaluable help from Amanda, Dan, and Mike, Ben makes the case that the Doors’ 1967 self-titled debut album contains more killer music than many people realize. It might even blow your mind a little, too.
Cohosts: Ben Marlin, Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Dan Watkins
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/158-the-doors-the-doors-1967
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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It’s taken us nearly seven years, but the time has come. Midnight Oil, one of Australia's quintessential bands, is probably best known for its tireless political activism as expressed through hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine," as well as the on-stage acrobatics of their 6′4″ frontman, Peter Garrett. But behind the sloganeering and agitprop, the Oils are a fiendishly creative and charmingly oddball band, and their 1982 Australian breakout album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, recorded at a make-or-break moment for the group, was when they first really landed on their unmistakable aura. Rich has been an Oils fan literally since he was a teenager, and he’s called in Ben and returning special guest Dave Weigel to deconstruct 10 to 1 and all of the power and the passion that went into these incredible songs.
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, Dave Weigel
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/157-midnight-oil-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1982
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Discord & Rhyme continues its slow walk through the world of Post-Rock with an examination of the 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die by the Chicago-based group Tortoise. John has been fascinated by the concept of Post-Rock for many years (even if many of the acts associated with it, Tortoise included, rejected it as a useful descriptor), and a large part of this fascination stems from a love he has had for this album for over 20 years. In this episode, John, Mike, Rich, and Dan try to make sense not only of how one should define one of the most ambiguous genres out there, but also of why an instrumental album in that genre (possibly), mostly lacking clear traditional melodies and traditional song structures (the opening “Djed” is 21 minutes by itself), is clearly one of the best albums any of us have ever heard. Regardless of whether Tortoise is Post-Rock, Prog, both, or neither, this is an album worth learning about, and Discord & Rhyme is up to the challenge.
Cohosts: John McFerrin, Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/156-tortoise-millions-now-living-will-never-die-1996
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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If you only know Talk Talk for their ‘80s night staple “It’s My Life,” you might well wonder what an experimental weirdo like Mike is doing hosting an episode about them. However, if you know a little more about their strange and fascinating career trajectory, it makes perfect sense. The sparse, atmospheric Spirit of Eden couldn’t be more different from Talk Talk’s synth-pop origins or from anything else in the musical landscape of 1988, and it more or less doomed the band’s career when it came out, but the sound of rock music in the 21st century wouldn’t be the same without it. Listening to Spirit of Eden is an experience that’s almost impossible to relate by means of such quotidian devices as “words,” but Mike, Phil, Rich, and John are all going to try anyway.
Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox, John McFerrin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/155-talk-talk-spirit-of-eden-1988
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Due to some technical difficulties, we had to push back our Talk Talk episode, so to fix the hole in our schedule we are talking about the Beatles again! We've discussed covers of Beatles songs before, but there are millions of them so there will always be more to talk about. We're covering a lot of sonic ground in this episode, with a few songs we all love and a few that are more polarizing. Also: important information for Apple users regarding Patreon, some information about listening on Spotify, and more!
The covers:
801 - TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows)The B-52s - Paperback WriterWes Montgomery - A Day in the LifeGhost - Here Comes the SunAndre 3000 - All Together NowTony Furtado & Alison Krauss - I WillThe Melvins - I Want to Hold Your HandElla Fitzgerald - Savoy TrufflePhil Collins - Tomorrow Never KnowsThe Jam - And Your Bird Can SingPeter Serafinowicz - A Full Day in the LifeFlaming Lips - She's Leaving HomeOther clips:
George Burns - Fixing a HoleThe B-52s - RoamElla Fitzgerald - Mack the KnifeKing Crimson - The Sheltering SkyPeter Serafinowicz - Ringo Remembers (Christmas)Alvin and the Chipmunks - Do You Want to Know a SecretA Full Day in the Life on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bren-murphy/a-full-day-in-the-life-by-peter-serafinowicz
Ringo Remembers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW1ou7SH3is
Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PvhYhqz6gOAKTGW1YnbG4?si=61ee29f8952541b5
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Amanda Rodgers, Dan Watkins
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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We all know that Elton John is a top-tier singles artist, but he is also a top-tier albums artist. His run of nine albums from Empty Sky in 1969 through Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 1975 may very well be unmatched in modern music history. It was really hard to pick one to talk about on Discord & Rhyme, but we settled on Honky Chateau because it’s the perfect encapsulation of what Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin were best at (and worst at). Full of incredible musicianship, amazing singing, stellar arrangements, and awkward lyrics, this is an album that’s almost guaranteed to win over anyone who is still skeptical of Elton John.
NOTE: Amanda made a mistake. Empty Sky wasn't released in the United States until 1975.
Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Ben Marlin, Rich Bunnell, John McFerrin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/154-elton-john-honky-chateau-1972
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
The Music Of Songs by Jimmy O'Donnell: https://jimmyodonnell.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-songs
If You Try Sometimes... by Benjamin Marlin: https://amzn.to/3ZFJCK5
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Well, sit right down, my wicked son, and let us tell you a story, about the subject of this year’s Discord & Rhyme holiday episode: the Pixies! (Or technically, just Pixies.) Hailing from Boston, the alternative rock quartet dealt with mounting intra-band tension with little to nothing to show for it financially, leading bandleader Charles Thompson (alias Black Francis) to break up the band via fax in 1991. But the band’s critical stature gradually grew to gigantic proportions in the ‘90s, as their albums influenced bands like Pavement, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Weezer, and especially Nirvana, who built an entire movement out of the classic Pixies “quiet-loud” formula. When they reunited for a reunion tour in 2004, they found, much to their shock and awe, that their songs had grown into anthems. Their 1989 album Doolittle is arguably the peak of their original run, featuring songs that could plausibly fill an arena without sacrificing their scrappy indie energy, so join Rich, John, and Dan as they sail away on a (festive) wave of mutilation.
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, John McFerrin, Dan Watkins
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/153-pixies-doolittle-1989
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit by Josh Noel: https://www.joshnoel.net/malort-book
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Discord & Rhyme are taking a trip to Canterbury, England - UNESCO World Heritage Site, home of the Canterbury Cathedral, and birthplace of prog-rock legends Caravan. Springing forth from the rich Canterbury scene, Caravan created a style of progressive rock that managed to be complex while retaining a real sense of warmth. The group is not particularly well known outside of progressive rock circles, but Phil has loved them for a long time, and he’s excited to talk about the group’s most famous album, In the Land of Grey and Pink.
Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Mike DeFabio, John McFerrin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/152-caravan-in-the-land-of-grey-and-pink-1971
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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We're departing from our usual format for this episode. Everybody needed a pick-me-up, so instead of discussing an album, we're talking about songs: specifically, the ones that make us love music. Some of these are the songs we loved as little kids that built our musical foundations, and some of them are illustrations of specific things we adore. We went all over the map for this one and had a great time, so please enjoy the episode and tell us the songs that make you love music.
The songs:
Simon and Garfunkel - Kathy's Song (Live)Claude Debussy - Prelude To the Afternoon of a FaunFrank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention - King KongThe Beatles - I Am the WalrusThe Beatles - Golden Slumbers/Carry That WeightJustin Hayward - Heart of SteelJethro Tull - Living in the PastThey Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in Your SoulMadonna - Live To TellSteve Hackett - Spectral MorningsYes - AwakenJames Horner - The Wrath of Khan (Main Theme)ABBA - Thank You for the MusicCohosts: Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox, John McFerrin, Amanda Rodgers
All of these songs in a Spotify playlist (turns out "Heart of Steel" is on there in Canada): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/31dDmAhSYpFCXRBCcnSHLD?si=1b85117917524b32
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Discord & Rhyme goes to the movies! This Halloween we're ringing in spooky season by exploring the work of filmmaker and musician John Carpenter. Best known for introducing the world to Michael Myers with the horror classic Halloween, Carpenter has built a solid filmography as a director while also providing his own distinctive musical vision with his scores. The 2017 career-spanning collection Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998 features fresh recordings of some of his most recognizable and beloved soundtrack work. Join Dan, Mike, and Rich as they slightly drift from the usual Discord & Rhyme format to indulge their movie nerd obsessions.
Cohosts: Dan Watkins, Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/151-john-carpenter-anthology-movie-themes-1974-1998-2017
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Mike’s ongoing quest to make Discord & Rhyme more metal inevitably meant we would have to tackle the band so synonymous with metal they put it in their name, and Metallica’s incredible mid-80s prime inevitably meant we would need to tackle two of their albums in the same episode. Ride the Lightning of 1984 and Master of Puppets of 1986 are largely the same album in terms of overall flow, but the differences are every bit as important as the similarities, and the best material from these albums ranks among the best rock music (not just metal) ever created. Join with Mike, Phil, and John as they make the case for why Metallica, despite a career with its fair share of ups and downs (and baffling documentaries), should be remembered as one of the greatest bands of its time.
Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Phil Maddox, John McFerrin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/150-metallica-ride-the-lightning-1984-and-master-of-puppets-1986
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Here we go, yo! It's been a while since this podcast has covered either a hip-hop album or a jazz album — so this week, we're doing both at once! A Tribe Called Quest formed in the late ‘80s in the New York City neighborhood of St. Albans, Queens, which was home to some of the giants of jazz, blues, and funk, and was a hotbed of musical activity in the years when hip-hop was simmering into existence. On Tribe’s 1991 album The Low End Theory, members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammed pay tribute to this rich musical legacy with an album that charted a new path for hip-hop by exploring its roots in bebop, hard bop, post-bop, all the other bops, and more. This album isn’t just a classic – it’s one of the sacred texts of the hip-hop genre, and it helped Rich get into jazz after years of failed attempts. So if you’re a jazz aficionado who’s on the fence about hip-hop, or vice versa, we invite you to crank up the bass and check the (discord and) rhime with us. Just watch out for the dungeon dragon!
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, Phil Maddox
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/149-a-tribe-called-quest-the-low-end-theory-1991
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Jeff Beck had shown off his guitar genius with several fiery mid-1960s hit singles by the Yardbirds; he’d even scored some UK top-30 hits as an unlikely singing star. But all that was prologue to Truth, his 1968 solo debut album. Joined by future Rolling Stone Ron Wood and a then-unknown Rod Stewart, Beck laid down a standout batch of electric blues songs - plus a showtune and an olde English folk song to show off his versatility. Truth has always been one of Ben’s favorite albums, and he joins Rich and Dan to talk about it.
Cohosts: Ben Marlin, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/148-jeff-beck-truth-1968
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Before they were flattened into part of the public’s collective generic memory of the 1960s, and before an astonishing level of in-fighting and tragedy turned the group’s story into one of the best VH1: Behind the Music episodes, The Mamas and the Papas released one of the best debut albums of the 1960s. It produced three massive hits you’ve heard hundreds of times apiece if you listen to oldies radio, but it also produced a handful of worthwhile deeper cuts, with interesting songwriting (most of the time) and top-notch singing throughout. John leads a discussion with Amanda, Phil, and Ben about the collection of musicians who created one of his favorite 1960s albums and one of the most jaw-dropping soap-operas of the decade.
Cohosts: John McFerrin, Ben Marlin, Phil Maddox, Amanda Rodgers
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/147-the-mamas-and-the-papas-if-you-can-believe-your-eyes-and-ears-1966
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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Hello, Cleveland! This week, Producer Mike continues his quest to make Discord & Rhyme more metal by turning it up to 11 with an episode on England’s loudest band, Spinal Tap. The fictional Spinal Tap consists of guitarists David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, bassist Derek Smalls, and a series of cursed drummers, whose misadventures are chronicled in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. The real Spinal Tap consists of Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer, three exceptionally gifted comedians who know what makes metal tick and are very smart at playing dumb. And that extends to the movie’s soundtrack, whose songs walk the line between sophisticated songwriting and sounding like they could conceivably have been written by three boneheads. Because why waste good music on a brain?
Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, John McFerrin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/146-spinal-tap-this-is-spinal-tap-1984
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
Pete and the Escapologists - Chronicles of a Dead End: https://peteescapologists.bandcamp.com/album/chronicles-of-a-dead-end
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George Harrison was reaching his creative peak in the late 1960s, but famously had a difficult time getting the other Beatles interested in recording his songs. So when they broke up in 1970, George got a massive group of musicians together and recorded his entire backlog to release all at once. All Things Must Pass was the first ever triple album by a single artist, and (apart from Apple Jam) is a tightly focused, intense, cathartic listening experience unmatched in popular music. In this episode, Amanda, Ben, and Mike do their best to dissect this extremely dense album and prove that George Harrison was a brilliant musician and deserves the highest respect.
Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Ben Marlin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/145-george-harrison-all-things-must-pass-1970
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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In 1994, Green Day introduced a whole new generation to punk rock with their major label debut, Dookie. There has been a lot of discourse over the years about whether or not Green Day are “real” punk rock, but Dookie has endured as a classic of ‘90s rock, containing numerous standards that have long-since been memorized by anyone reasonably fluent in the rock of the era. Phil discovered Green Day when he was 12 years old - the ideal age for absorbing their combination of crude-but-relatable lyrics and hyper-catchy music, and he still loves them to this day, so he’s absolutely thrilled to get a chance to talk to Dan and Rich about how much he loves Dookie.
Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/144-green-day-dookie-1994
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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It's time for our annual summer break, so we're letting an episode out of the Patreon vault in which Mike, Rich, and Amanda discussed some of our favorite one-hit wonders, as defined in our own heads. (Amanda is not sorry for the extremely corny title of this episode.) Make sure you listen until the end to hear Producer Mike's mashup masterpiece!
The hits include:
Pure Prairie League - AmieLink Wray - RumbleNu Shooz - I Can't WaitGotye - Somebody That I Used to KnowThe Crazy World of Arthur Brown - FireDeee-Lite - Groove Is In the HeartClimax Blues Band - Couldn't Get it RightArgent - Hold Your Head UpMark Morrison - Return of the MackLoreena McKennitt - The Mummers' DanceWall of Voodoo - Mexican RadioYlvis - The FoxThe Other Leading Brand - Groove Is In a Lonely Heart(also the intro is from That Thing You Do! but you probably knew that)
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, Amanda Rodgers
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod
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