Super Sonic Chat

What can taint a true fans love for a band? Is there anything? Can an experience ruin a record forever? Or does true fandom triumph? Adrian and Leon chat about how a band's music can be stained, bent, wrecked or ruined by a range of factors.  Some are hilarious. Some are shocking.  What has ruined a band, album or song for you?  Let us know on all the socials: Fb https://www.fa...

There is no other stimulus on earth that simultaneously engages all areas of our brains as widely as music does. We chat with Steven Hunt, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Music Health, a fast-growing Australian tech start up. Music Health builds the tools to empower anyone to manage their mental wellbeing through personalised music intervention. Their first product, Vera, is an easy to u...

This episode is a celebration of the EP. The 'Extended Play'.   That concise collection of songs that often arrives early in an aritst's career, that delivers more than a single but never overstays its welcome.  The best EP leaves you wanting more, a tasting plate that mostly sits outside the cannon of a band's work. This week’s episode explores what makes a great EP, why a band might ch...

I wonder:  do you listen to mostly music by male artists or by female artists? We were inspired by the great Australian band Spiderbait and their recent compilation 'Sounds in the Key Of J' that celebrates all the best songs sung by their female vocalist Janet as opposed to the songs sung by their male vocalist Kram. In a band that has two lead singers, Kram, male, drums and singer AND Janet,...

Recently, we fell down a rabbit hole when discovering the music of Traun. Traun is the artist the algorithm recommends to you after you listen to Mr Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, Fantomas and Estradasphere.    Traun captured our imagination and demanded our attention with its wonderfully dense, multi-genre, and eclectic approach.  We were totally absorbed by both the sounds and the world...

Picture this:  you meet someone for the first time.  Naturally, you ask "What kind of music do you like?" In this situation what do you think would be the most common answer? Is it something like "Oh, I like all kinds of music". Personally, that answer doesn't cut it.  I need specifics. So I always follow up by asking "What have you been listening to lately?". Then we get down to th...

Remember those bands you used to love? Whose albums you'd intensely absorb? In this episode we chat about those bands that once burned bright in our lives but we now no longer love.  What changed? It wasn't the music. It must've been something else.   We dig deep to discover why we fall out of love of bands when once they meant the world to us.  What band did you used to love b...

Nickelback has developed meme status as being one of the worst bands of all time. We dared ourselves to ask the question: is the hatred justified? Could it be just a feedback loop where the rhetoric of hating Nickelback leads to actual hatred leading to more hate-talk? Having never listened to Nickelback, Adrian and Leon put their ears, brains and their precious music streaming algorithm on the li...

Adrian and Leon listen to music deeply; but is there a kind of music that can't be listened to deeply? Is there some music that forces itself into the background?  Today the duo launch into music that is hard to grab onto, the world of ambient and LoFi music as well as the fascinating story of Muzak. Dive into the easy listening goodness of wallpaper music.  Fb https://www.facebook.com/supersonicc...

Adrian and Leon have something to get off their chests, never in their lives have they ever heard the following albums in their entirety - Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express and PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. It is a blight on their listening record which has thankfully now been rectified with repeated, deep listening. Hear what they have to say on two very different record...

Just what is it that makes some songs sound timeless half a century later, and some songs sound dated less than a decade after recording? What is it that makes Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, Adele, (certain) Nirvana songs and Marvin Gaye timeless? Huey Lewis and the News, Depeche mode, Linkin Park and Atlantis by Donovan (just wait for that treat) all date so badly. Why is that?  Leon kicks it...

“Any band that is still together after ten years—Please. Break up. Do your solo albums. Move on”, so said Sufjan Stevens, the acclaimed indie artist. Is he right?  Does he have a point? Does every band have a golden period that is over after ten years? Which bands have gone on too long? Which bands did it well and went out on top? Leon cracks the case with a salient point about why bands end...

Did you know Jim Morrison of The Doors predicted the future of electronic music back in 1969?  We listen in to his prediction and chat about it's accuracy.   We discuss a franchise plan to fund Daft Punk's retirement and debate whether it really is the dynamic pair of Frenchmen on stage when you see Daft Punk live.  We chat about The Chemical Brothers Live at the Big Day Out, wareho...

A new stereo leads to a chat about the joys of deep listening. But first, there's some things you can't unhear!  See if you can pick the mistakes in the three famous song snippets Ade plays for Leon. Then the question is asked: When listening to music are you a researcher?  Or do you refuse to read a single thing and let the music move you?  If you just listen, will you miss somethi...

In this, our 30th and final episode of 2021 , we ask each other ' What have you been listening to this year? ' When I ask people ' What've you been listening to? ', I love it when they reply with specifics.  So in this episode we dive right in with 5 albums each that we've been listening to in 2021. We chat about new albums from new artists, old albums from old artists and other great discove...

Is it possible convey the breadth and depth of everything an artist offers through the careful selection of only 5 songs? This is the fifth instalment in a short series where Super Sonic Chat strives to sum up the sonic palette of an artist to a hypothetical, uninitiated audience.  Listen as Leon is introduced to the psychedelic sounds of Tame Impala , an artist that Adrian is very familiar w...

It's almost an impossible mission!   To sum up one of the most important modern bands in music history in only five songs. In this episode we present to you our tasting plate for the Radiohead novice. Imagine you meet someone who has little to no idea about a band you've loved for a long time. You have a choice to make: Do you launch in with the full backstory?  A deep dive into the memb...

Queens of the Stone Age are Grammy nominated purveyors of some of the most interesting and rewarding hard rock of the last two and a half decades. There’s seven studio albums spanning late the 90s to 2017. Discovering them is a rare joy. Rather than bombard our hapless friends with the onerous depths and fervour of the super fan experience, we have challenged ourselves to capture the essence of th...

In this episode we present to you our tasting plate for the Primus novice. Imagine you're chatting with someone and it becomes apparent they have no idea about a band you've loved for a long time. You have a choice to make: Do you launch in with the full backstory?  A deep dive into the members, the albums, the tours, the songs, the side projects, the role they played in music history and the...

One of the greatest chats you can have with a mate centers on an ultimate showdown: making them choose between two equally loved bands or artists.  There is a special kind of joy in watching someone squirm as they struggle to make a decision and the process is often fascinating.   These kind of conundrums and hypotheticals have been fueling classic music chat for decades. We wanted to ca...

The Top 5. The 10 Greatest. The 500 All Time.  Music commentary is filled with lists.  Fans are fascinated by them. Music media salivate over them. Why? In this very meta and totally experiential episode, Leon and Adrian set out to make their own list containing Ten Super Sonic Music Lists.  By dedicating themselves to this mission they aim to discover the answer to 'why people love...

Some light relief for an uneasy time and current state of isolation. Leon and Adrian recall some of the songs that have given them the most joy through irreverence, biting social commentary, light-hearted whackiness and pure wit.  Does humour belong in music? The chaps at Super Sonic Chat say unequivocally, "Yes!" Some musicians discussed: Weird Al Yankovic, The Lonely Island, Primus, Electri...

How fun is falling down rabbit holes when chasing new music? This chat is about the joy of stumbling down a side alley in a town where you think you know most of the streets. Its about new and interesting scenes that take you by surprise. We chat about four moments in time and space that gave rise to new sounds, new fashions, new movements. It's so fun to see how these moments changed music histor...

A 2 minute slice of Super Sonic Chat.

Leon and Adrian go head to head on the topic of Pop Music. Adrian takes the stance that Pop has a legitimate place as a stylistic expression and Leon asserts that it is empty and predictable. In preparation, Adrian developed a playlist of music that he enjoys thoroughly and that Leon had never heard in his life. Leon weighs in with his opinion and they have at it! Adrian prepares a surprise quiz a...