I am really into listening to podcasts at the moment. In fact, in the last week I have listened to barely any music but have enjoyed hours and hours of podcasts. I’m an editorial designer – currently working from home – and podcasts are great to listen to whilst typestyling or laying out pages of a book. (I do have to pause when it comes to reading and replying to emails or for video meetings, of course.) Podcasts keep me amused, entertained and educated on a daily basis and, I think particularly due to being in a room by myself for most of the day, they also help me to feel less isolated.
This is going to be a two-part series – first looking at music-based podcasts and then I’ll share some of my favourite non-music podcasts next week.
101 Part Time Jobs
Hosted by Giles Bidder of Dangers Of Love (and formerly Great Cynics) fame, this podcast features interviews with both established and independent artists. As you can probably guess from the title of this pod, 101 Part Time Jobs focuses on the jobs that people have done off stage in order to support their musical career on the side. It definitely shows another side of being in a band that music fans don’t really consider. The recent episode with Jamie from Aerial Salad is very, very good.
This podcast, hosted by Amanda Starling, is centred on women, LGBTQIA+ and people of colour within punk rock and indie music. Each episode of Angry Grrrl Music Of The Indie Rock Persuasion is around an hour long and tends to feature a discussion with a particular musician. It’s in depth but also feels like a relaxed conversation between friends. Episodes over the past couple of months have featured Bad Moves, Pity Party, Mint Green and Worriers. Also be sure to check out @angrygrrrlmusic on Twitter.
One good thing to come from COVID-19 and lockdown has been brand new podcasts. Phil Morton, Glasgow-based promoter behind Dammit Presents, released the first episode of A(nother) Podcast with Graham and Sean of Goodbye Blue Monday in April which was a lot of fun. The latest episode, number five, is a conversation with Rich and Phoebe from Happy Accidents discussing their new album Sprawling. Also, there’s a punk cat as the podcast’s logo so…
A CPRW favourite, Desert Island Punks is a podcast hosted by Jake McAllister of Sunliner. Each episode sees Jake ask a particular punk which five albums, one book and one ‘luxury’ item they would take to a hypothetical desert island. Obviously the desert island discs concept isn’t a new one but it’s interesting to hear what punk musicians have to say on the subject – often their album choices aren’t typical ‘punk’ either. It’s worth checking out episode 20 where Jake’s sister Ellie asks Jake about his own list, as well as episodes with Kay of Specialist Subject Records and Emmett of Pkew Pkew Pkew.
Originally started way back in 2012 by Jonah Bayer, Steven Smith and producer Brad Worrell, Going Off Track is a weekly podcast that is currently hosted by Benny Horowitz of The Gaslight Anthem alongside Worrell. I cannot claim to have listened to even a fraction of the Going Off Track back catalogue but would recommend the episodes recorded and released during lockdown as being top listens. Episode 310 with Jeff Rosenstock is the first of these lockdown episodes and they discuss the initial realisation that COVID-19 was (and is) a big deal.
This is the least ‘punk rock’ podcast on this list but it’s James Acaster and love James Acaster. In case you don’t know, he is a comedian who has recently documented his 2017 mental health ‘breakdown’ and the 2016 albums that helped him to get better in the form of a book – Perfect Sound Whatever (yes, that is a Jeff Rosenstock reference). The podcast features one of these albums per episode and James is joined by fellow comedians to discuss the album. It’s great to hear how passionate he is about music, regardless of genre.
If you’re a big fan of The Lawrence Arms then you’ll probably be hyped for their forthcoming album, Skeleton Coast. In preparation for the release, Brendan Kelly has been sitting down with Tim Crisp to talk about the records that came before it. And that’s not limited to The Lawrence Arms – three recent episodes were all about Slapstick. These are not quick listens as almost all episodes are well over 2 hours long but if you’re a big fan of Brendon Kelly then Road To The Skeleton Coast is essential listening.
You probably know Shout Louder as being an excellent punk rock blog but did you know that they have some thoroughly entertaining podcasts up on Soundcloud as well? The podcast is, of course, hosted by Shout Louder mastermind and our good pal Sarah. Since 2018, she’s been in conversation with, among many others, Faintest Idea, A Wilhelm Scream, Goodbye Blue Monday and Eat Defeat, as well as doing several festival special episodes. There’s only been a couple of new episodes this year but the back catalogue is well worth delving into.
This is a relatively new one for me as it was actually Colin who was recently listening to this podcast – but I was in the room and paid attention too. Talking Records is hosted by Jed Dion and features a selection of re-occurring guests who join Jed to talk in great detail about a particular album. They talk about the history and context of the album and analyse it track by track. The episode we listened to was about Operation Ivy’s Energy with special guest Mike Park of Asian Man Records.
Like Desert Island Punks, The Wasting Time Podcast is a CPRW favourite. Hosted by Chris and Nick, this podcast features interviews with a variety of musicians in the alternative music world, particularly those that fall into the pop punk sub-genre. Each episode usually starts with Chris and Nick discussing new releases that they’ve been enjoying or any gigs that they’ve recently been to (not so relevant for lockdown episodes), before they interview their guest. Personally I enjoyed the episode with Craig Shay of Cold Wrecks from January this year and past episodes – note: plural – with Burnt Tapes have been great.
Listen on Spotify here.
Bonus: Since I initially wrote this top ten a couple of weeks ago, those wonderful folks at Specialist Subject Records have launched a new podcast of their own. Titled Flick Through, they released their second episode yesterday and I’ll most likely be checking it out today.
Listen on Spotify here.
Do you have any favourite music-based podcasts yourself that I’ve not mentioned and should check out? Let us know!
Bonus: Since I initially wrote this top ten a couple of weeks ago, those wonderful folks at Specialist Subject Records have launched a new podcast of their own. Titled Flick Through, they released their second episode yesterday and I’ll most likely be checking it out today.
Listen on Spotify here.
Do you have any favourite music-based podcasts yourself that I’ve not mentioned and should check out? Let us know!
This top ten was written by Emma Prew.
No comments:
Post a Comment