The Chorus

In which Bruce and Stefan are less retentive than usual. Feel the freedom of unclenched sphincters and rejoice! We chat about fake Faust and fantasy philosophy, about a Charlie Parker who doesn't play the saxophone, about the value of albums over singles, about our lust for Suhr guitars, and about accommodating a loss of appreciation for art. Like, share, subscribe and let us know what you want to...

We welcome the lovely Alyssa Harrison - actress, singer, director, and half of theatre marketing hub and events co-ordination platform Plug In Theatre, She adds class and elegance as we rattle on about shadows and monsters, future stage stars and films that killed off actors for no apparent reason. There is also talk of Bruce's new single (a collaboration with Kate Normington), why editors are imp...

Bruce attempts to expand, amplify and explicate his vocabulary while forgetting - or wishing he could - film plots and appreciating a boundary-pushing songwriter. Stefan has forgotten how to read, but explores Vegas, superhero psyches and immigrant shopkeeping before making the most of mandolins and returning to roots music. And we play a live, original song: "Arguing", written by Bruce Dennill an...

Stefan discusses being scared and literal character assassination, while Bruce is less impressed with Greek kings than he is New York nerds. And both go back to the Nineties, to when music involved both musings on eternity and melodies. THE HOOKS: WATCH - Things Heard And Seen / Deadly Class / How To With John Wilson READ - The Fry Chronicles / House Of Names LISTEN - DC Talk / Bill Bryson /...

Stefan and Bruce wax lyrical about a vocal collective before considering animated AI and the kind of all-encompassing drive(r) needed to become the best and most famous sportsman on the planet. We discover that there is arguably not enough to write about Jimi Hendrix and rather too much to write about Istanbul. And we mash up celebrated wordsmithery, call-and-response gospel and ... ukuleles. It's...

We welcome a bald, bearded tattooed man into the studio and live to tell the tale. David Batzofin writes about about travel and ... things ... on his excellent blog, um, Travel & Things (www.travelandthings.co.za). A wide-ranging discussion takes in those themes, the scourge of The Influencer, music both country and Western and what matters when it comes to both parks and recreation. There is...

We prove that, in the same way that two random musicians with reading fetishes can create a sublime podcast, sometimes great actors can appear in entirely average films, and that it's easy to forget what happened in a book we loved . We go back in time on TV and have an author do the same, though he adds a number of extra centuries to his tale (et tu, Matt Haig?), just because he can. We ask if ta...

Bruce sees actual live people perform and lives to tell the story while Stefan admires rolling cheeses and frets about the darkness of Victorian London. Both Saddam Hussein and queer musicians get their moment in the sun (ok, Saddam was kept in a basement, so no sun, but you get the point). America's greatness or lack thereof is filtered through the fascinating filter of Bill Bryson, Bruce Springs...

Stefan appears to have forgotten how to read. But he is making up for it by watching and listening to all manner of intriguing material, including a whole musical about and starring guitar pedals and shows that underline the relative values of your spouse and your space and which introduce him to his own country. Bruce investigates the leftovers of sex education and wishes some Americans had staye...

We harp on about music (ooh - art form-specific pun!) at length, glorying in the multifarious skills of a man named after a bird; noting the importance of mystery in the appeal compositions and musicians have; and being glad that enjoying Faraway George does not require a long-distance relationship. Elsewhere, there is much murder - distastefully so in Utah and accompanied by delicious cuisine in...

In which we give a toss what a listener thinks (he's moved by films about necessary violence in ruined ancient cities, for what it's worth), and notice that a television series set in the future has the same name as a band left in the past by the aforementioned listener and that musicians popping up in literature can be as satisfying as movie icons writing books so well that they annoy comedians....

We consider the merits of being the lesser of two evils, or whether being a good guy makes you invisible or not. We notice, with not a little shame, that changing music models have resulted in us being unaware of the release of new albums by sublime bands like the Hothouse Flowers and Deacon Blue, which is bad. What is good is that those same new models have alerted us to the presence of possible...

In which we note that Tom Hanks makes delivering news an art form - which we like, as for us, art is the best kind of news. There's also sex and beer and secret histories of different kinds - including that which pertains to The Artist Currently Known As A The Subject Of A Biography. In addition, there is dancing, death, a series of apologies, a singer who names his album after himself and the bal...

It's probably harsh to refer to our podcast as sub-cultural - like, don't harsh our vibe, man - but we do find ourselves wandering into, and wondering about, the niches (the subcultures) that artists of every stripe and fans of all those artists, and possibly the stripes - hmm, very slimming - find themselves occupying, by choice or otherwise. Along the way, we meander through the Anglo-Saxon epoc...

Back in the screen saddle (to maim a metaphor), Bruce hunts a terrorist, explodes songs, discovering what Ailes Rodger and noting that making money as a teacher shouldn't include embezzlement. Meanwhile, Stefan feeds Phil, admires French thieves, fans Fran's fire, spends time in The Office and comments on unfortunate events in Fargo. On the page, we go South in the apocalypse and East on the Silk...

Joined in studio by our second guest, actual live rock star Andre Kriel, our three-way (ooh!) cornucopia of confabulation includes boiling cats (there is context, fear not); cocaine in Ibiza; Blake being Lively; secret cities; The Crown and being royal pains in the butt; Ridley Scott raising wolves; a singular Lumineer; Sturgill Simpson not giving a toss; Bill Frisell elegantly Telecasting; Colter...

We delve, literarily, into the complexities of immigration, and just how dark it can get for the displaced. We discover, happily, that everyone does love guitar, and that Richard Bennett, Mike Campbell and Nels Cline give listeners good reason to do so. We join the Indigo Girls in Look(ing) Long, and hitch a ride with mostly white men as they tell jokes and drink coffee. And on TV, we mix up Ray D...

Verily, we spoke of many things this day. Of Billy Gibbons and his fuzzy pedal; of Twin Peaks, 25-year-long cliffhangers and Tubular Bells; and of the Ndlovu Youth Choir and their musical meticulousness. We considered Bill & Ted; the sour taste of cultural appropriation in the kitchen; how guilty pleasures outstrip Hollywood blockbusters; and the passage of a classic tale from book to screen....

Whiskies in hand, we go armchair travelling through Paul Theroux's Mexico (and politics), Bill Bryson's England (and humour), and wherever the animals are (and David Attenborough). We consider the combination of social distancing and singing at Joburg Theatre and whether any film has actually ever been scary, or even Sinister. We come out in favour of Favreau (Jon is the money, baby) and his commi...

We welcome our first in-studio guest in the delightful person of Bronwyn Williams - futurist, trends analyst and catholic reader - who shares her expertise while gamely interrupting as we consider the late Tom Petty's psychological state; senseless brutal acts of kindness; the no-longer-secret lives of peripheral Jane Austen characters; David Lynch peaking viewer interest; the importance of show s...

Wide-ranging musings take us from Tiny Desk Concerts, Jason Isbell's concerns about his daughter's fitness for professional yodelling, Dolly Parton being the ideal homework subject and Jeff McErlaine sharing the musical spotlight to strangely coloured literary wildlife, the skankiness of London in Shakespeare's time and Tom Eaton's reasonable and treatises on Things To Be Concerned About Right Now...

We're back again. Again. We remember how to plug in the talkie-make-louder thing and press the circle button to start the recordering bit. And we can still, it turns out, talk. Quite a lot. And because it's a reunion, we invite friends. Rosie the dog licks things in inappropriate ways throughout, but honestly, she's done that before. Better behaved is shapely newcomer Martin D18 Golden Era, who is...

It's been a while, and we're sorry for the break in transmission. Global crises and all that. Bit of a palaver, what? Lurking in lockdown, our perspectives turn to the nature of making art, sharing art and selling art in a situation where everyone, their auntie, their dog and the President is doing a version of the same thing online. We consider, too, that intellectuals writing for audiences of pe...

Substance over supplication. This is a good thing. Give the people what they need, not what they think they want. It isn't a topic we'd written down, but then we talk about Neil Young's guitar sound and remember exactly how much he doesn't care what you think, and we also notice that he is our hero and incredibly successful anyway. Then we talk about theatre that embraces themes and interpretation...

We go to a concert, and we have some A-ha moments. We appreciate the new. We empathise with the old. Stefan coughs, because he is sick. We bring together two of the most talented singer-songwriters currently working, because that's what you can do in your fantasies. We put melted wax on clothes. On purpose. And we talk about a book in which an author kills off a publisher, retrenches an editor and...