Discologist

Eight years ago, before To Pimp A Butterfly , before The Epic , the West Coast Get Down was a rising force in the Los Angelas jazz scene...who recorded their epic work in Kamasi Washington's garage. On The Optimist , WCGD trombonist Ryan Porter is unleashing some of the group's early work as scrappy young jazz savants and in the process revealing the heart of what drives its member's dominance of...

Every great band starts somewhere and for Radiohead, their introduction to the world was the biggest hit of their career wrapped in an album of loud, forward-thinking, guitar rock. And for some reason their fans hate it.  We're holding court to defend this classic album and show why it's not just so much more than "Creep", it's one of the best albums of their career. BUT FIRST: We need #GunCo...

All it took was an off-the-cuff show back in 2014, and the trio of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O'Donovan knew they had something special. Formalizing this new union under the name I'm With Her, the three powerhouses have spent the past few years sporadically touring the group around, releasing an EP, and now they are releasing their much-anticipated debut full-length,  See You Aroun...

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we thought it was high time to explore the dumber side of love. Throughout history, men have been writing songs about love in a quest to continually pitch their woo, but sometimes - pretty much every time - it just comes out wrong. Join Kevin, Carrie, Marcus, and Ian as they embark on a journey into the heart of derpness and laugh their way through som...

In the late 70's on the Sunset Strip an, ahem, eruption of pure rock-and-roll was about to occur, and it was to be led by four dudes by the name of Eddie, Alex, David, and Michael. Van Halen didn't just bring "ass-rock" into the 80's, the guitar wizardry of Edward Van Halen revolutionized the electric guitar in every way, from how it was played, to the gear that was used to keep it dialed up...

Washington, DC's The North Country has changed a lot in its seven years of making music. One thing that has remained consistent is front-man Andrew Grossman's commitment to creating electric and innovative pop and folk music pushes artistic boundaries as much as it honors them. On our latest episode, we're sitting down with Grossman to talk about the past and future of the band...

Before they were country music's most "controversial" superstars, the Dixie Chicks ruled the charts with their savvy mix of bluegrass, country, and pop. On our latest episode, we're digging into the trios finest hour and the record that jump-started their career, 1998's iconic Wide Open Spaces.  What was the legacy of this monster crossover hit on not just country music, but pop and rock? Why...

Known to most of the world as a political playground, Washington, D.C. is a city where decisions that shape the course of, not just American, but HUMAN history, are made every day. More than that though, D.C. is a city where cultures collide resulting in a creative class that produces some of the most compelling and diverse art in the world. Built on the legacy of jazz and go-go, D.C. is on the cu...

Legendary drummer and bandleader Chris Dave has made a career out of playing with the best of the best. Featured on tracks by artists as diverse as D'Angelo, Justin Bieber, Adele, and Dolly Parton, Dave is a musical omnivore of the highest order. On his debut album with the Drumhedz, he's throwing everything into the mix (including the kitchen sink) to craft a potent stew of funk, jazz, pop, rock,...

From the beginning, it was clear that Merril Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) is a force of nature. Over the course of now four albums, she has reshaped the pop landscape into a much more meaningful, and blissfully weirder, place.  i can feel you creep into my private life, her most straightforward work to date (and now a duo featuring longtime collaborator Nate Brenner) isn't just a record that...

In 2008, Klara and Johanna Söderberg were just two Swedish kids with powerful voices and an undeniable love for American country and folk music. That same year, a video of them performing the Fleet Foxes track " Tiger Mountain Peasant" rocketed them into the spotlight, and they've never really left. On their fourth album Ruins,  the duo moves beyond merely celebrating the American folk c...

Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died for holding the simple belief that ALL people were equal, regardless of religion, race or creed, racism still plagues the human condition. On our latest episode we’re taking time to honor his legacy, exploring the music that surrounded, shaped, and carries forward, his mission of equality for all, regardless of race or creed. Special guest Timothy...

Before they were the mega-hit makers of the 80's, Daryl Hall & John Oates were just a couple of doods in love with soul and R&B on a mission to share it with the world. On their 1973 masterpiece Abandoned Luncheonette , their second album for Atlantic records, the duo were coming of off an underperforming debut ( Whole Oates)  and were desperately searching for their identity. SPOILER...

With 2017 behind us, happy days are here again (?), but that doesn't mean we all don't have work to do. Kevin , Marcus , and Eduardo blast-off into the new year with a sometimes tough, but always honest, discussion about what we're looking forward to in 2018, for fans, musicians, scenes, the music industry, and more, naming names and taking a good look at ourselves in the process. It's 2018, and w...

It's likely that we'll look back at 2017 as the year almost everything fell apart, downerism ruled the land, and we came very close to being broken as a people.  But we didn't break. We made it. And on this final installment of ChunkyGlasses: The Podcast for 2017, we're discussing the music that lifted us up, dropped us down, and sometimes even showed us the way, but never, ever let us down....

It's likely that we'll look back at 2017 as the year almost everything fell apart, downerism ruled the land, and we came very close to being broken as a people.  But we didn't break. We made it. And on this final installment of ChunkyGlasses: The Podcast for 2017, we're discussing the music that lifted us up, dropped us down, and sometimes even showed us the way, but never, ever let us down....

In 2017, Country was king, and there was no more significant player than Chris Stapleton. For the follow up to his Grammy-winning 2015 album  Traveller , Stapleton teamed up again with producer Dave Cobb - the new proprietor of the historic Studio A in Nashville - to craft a record that was worthy of that room's history.  The result was a two-part LP that represents the scope of Stapleto...

Over the course of nine LP's Langhorne Slim (real name Sean Scolnick) has been crafting folk-pop gems that have taken him from small, backroom shows to the stages of the legendary Newport Folk Festival. On his latest effort,  Lost At Last, Vol. 1 , having grown weary of the usual recording cycle and the daily pressures of always being connected, the singer/songwriter and his band "...hol...

Mavis Staples, one of the greatest voices of this generation, or any, is back with a powerful new LP If All I Was Was Black.  Continuing in her collaboration with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy in the production chair, the civil-rights icon is going back to her Chicago blues roots and delivering a powerful statement on racism in America in 2017. PLUS! Robert Ellis and Courtney Hartman have teamed up for...

After the surprise success of their thoroughly weird and seismic shift in their sound on their 1992 Grammy-winning LP Out Of Time , Athens, Georgia's R.E.M., promised a loud, raucous follow up. What they delivered instead was a monument to the joys of melancholy, loss, and the never-ending quest for beauty in the world. 1994's Automatic For The People,  seen by many as the high point of the b...

With six albums under her belt, Taylor Swift has built a career that has made her one of the biggest pop-stars in the world. So how is it that her latest album,  Reputation is such a complete, million unit selling failure? Kevin and Marcus K. Dowling - both avowed Swift fans - are taking one for the team and attempting to navigate the depths the most narcissistic, cultural appropriating, and,...

Atlanta's Curtis Harding has been steeped in soul music his entire life. From singing in church with his family in Michigan as a child to being one of Cee Lo Green's star backup singers, Harding is a true veteran of the scene. On his second full length  Face Your Fear,  he's playing with is self-proclaimed "garage soul" formula again, this time enlisting the help of uber-producer Danger...

To say Julien Baker wears her heart on her sleeve would be an understatement. On Turn Out The Lights , the Memphis, Tennessee native (now based in Nashville) turns up the feels on an emotional roller coaster of an album that drags the listener down to the bottom and doesn't offer a clear way back from the depths. Kevin, Eduardo, and Marcus are spending some time with this elegiac powerhouse of an...

With Control, Janet Jackson became a household name, but it wasn't until her 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814 that she ascended to the status of music legend.  Buttressed by pop hits and jam-packed with hooks set loose from some future utopia, Nation was a not-so-subtle exploration of racism, sexism, love, and social responsibility that sought to elevate our humanity by any means necessary....

Washington, DC native, and second-generation Ethiopian American Kelela Mizanekristos spent years honing her musical chops in the underground scene of the nation's capital before moving to Las Angeles, dropping her last name and beginning her ascension to one of the most essential voices in R&B today. On her acclaimed 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me and 2015's Hallucinogen,  the singer/producer made...