October 8, 2025 • 37 mins
We're slowly making our way through gaps in our musical knowledge, and this time around it's The Velvet Underground & Nico. With almost no context, how does this almost 60 year-old album hold up? We also discuss our ten favorite instrumentals, and, as always, give you a playlist of five songs that will help renew your passion for music.
What do you think of "The Velvet Underground and Nico?" What great instrumentals should we have included? Let us know in the comments!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today we're going to talk about the Velvet Underground and Nico,
we're going to talk about some great instrumentals, and we are
going to deliver to you, steaming hot on a platter, the
extended playlist. Right now, an extended play.
(00:22):
It's extended play, renewing your passion 5 songs at a time.
I'm E, I'm Tank, and we are hereto talk about an album.
We're here to give you a list, but before we do that, yeah,
we're going to shoot the shit about things that are going on.
Yes. And yeah, yeah, and.
Shit is going on right now. Shit is going.
On So we are fresh on the heels of what we'll say is the Jimmy
(00:42):
Kimmel incident and maybe it's ramifications for music, yes,
and how it can how it's going toget caught up in this.
So I mean we didn't really need to give you the background.
I don't think. So if you're watching this, you
certainly consume enough media to know right what is happening
in terms of basically governmentcensorship and and 1st Amendment
(01:03):
right cancellation. Yes, essentially.
And the frustrating thing, too, is it wasn't even what they said
it was, right? Right.
It was. It wasn't.
They were framing it as, oh, he said these terrible things about
Charlie Kirk. He did not.
He said they're using his death for political gain, which they
very much work. And then ironically, double
down. Right.
By banning them, yeah. But yeah, if you just skim the
(01:25):
headlines, basically your local television networks are owned by
a mega company, which are almostall right leaning, and they're
also trying to get a merger approved, which really the root
of all evil on media seems to betrying to get mergers approved.
Absolutely. So that there's a bigger
monopoly. So it's even more fucked when
they're done. Yes.
But it's it's that sort of deal,you know, Trump tells the FCC,
(01:46):
you know, threaten them. They threaten them.
And ABC, unfortunately, and Disney kind of coward under the
threat and pulled Jimmy Kennell from the Airways.
Yeah. Only shortly, though.
And and the the silver lining here, yes.
Is that the action that people again badly underestimate their
ability to do something about it.
And you get a lot of naysayers and doom scrollers like, oh, you
can do whatever you want. It won't fucking matter.
(02:06):
Yeah, well, it mattered because a lot of people cancelled Hulu
and Disney Plus. I would have cancelled if I had
it, but they got the message andthey panicked and they got him
back on by Tuesday. Yeah, yeah.
Only off for a few days, right? Really only end up missing
probably 3 or 4 maybe 4 episodesright?
And he had a spectacular monologue about coming.
Back you. Know still getting his shots in
without making it all about vengeance and pettiness and no
(02:30):
now we're going to see where it goes from here.
His ratings are, you know, Streisand effect predictably
high right now. Well, this isn't going to be the
end of it, unfortunately. We've got at least a few more
years of this, and it is a little interesting and worrying
to think about. And today, as of taping,
Springsteen is openly saying this guy needs to be impeached.
This is an American. So I mean, our artists, music
(02:54):
artists gonna push back. What's gonna happen to them if
they? Do right?
Do they have the power that theyonce did?
I wonder? Clearly television stars do
right because he pushed back against it and people took up
for him right for demo. This is probably the last stand
of broadcast television. Sure, right.
And a lot of people said that the outcome of this might be
that it kills broadcast because the people that who wanted to
(03:15):
see Kimmel, if they're a local affiliate, they're going to go
look at it on YouTube and they'll be like, why should I
ever go back to watch? It on TV, right?
Good point. That's one of the first things I
wrote about a good point about Springsteen is that where are
the musicians and all this? Where are they?
Why aren't they? Speaking disappointingly quiet.
I agree. I agree.
I don't know if that's out of fear.
I mean, because you got to thinkabout, OK, like, which artist
(03:35):
would have the biggest impact? It's like the Spotify situation,
right, where Daniel Eck is giving $700 million to AI drone
technology, and a bunch of bandsare taking their music off
Spotify. But it's not Bruce Springsteen
and it's not Taylor Swift, right?
It's bands that are way down lowin the pecking order that don't
have a big voice. And so you wonder what the
impact is. Not that they're doing it for
(03:57):
the impact. They're doing it for the
principals, but what we need in order to prevent this stuff from
happening and for the public to say we're not taking this shit
anymore, is for these people to speak up for us, right?
Here's how I think it's going togo down and I'm getting this in
in writing so I can say I calledit later.
If it happens. It's going to start with a
Springsteen type. OK, respected veteran.
(04:20):
OK, OK. It's going to be someone who not
only has the fuck you money, they have the fuck you lifespan
left. Oh, sure, right.
What are you going to do right? You know right.
You're not going to scare me if I mean.
Jail. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, all. Right.
So it's going to start there. Then Trump, because he's a
fucking idiot, yeah, is going toarrest jail.
He's going to do something stupid and inflammatory.
That will be the Rubicon, OK? That the other artists will be
(04:44):
like, now we need to do something.
So I think there's going to be someone that everyone respects.
Yeah. And then there's going to be the
peer pressure aspect. Mm Hmm.
Of, you know, all you need is a few major artists and then it's
like, are you for free speech ornot?
You sort of have to get on that.Yes.
But here's the disappointing thing, you know, and I, I
Metallica is famously apolitical.
(05:06):
They, they go so far out of their way to make sure that
nothing gets which in a way, from a concert standpoint, I
appreciate. Yeah, sure.
And in the last few tours, Jamescomes out and basically says,
look, you're here to celebrate the Metallica family.
And that's it. He sort of addresses it
obliquely, but it's not much of A secret.
James is probably conservative and Kirk is very much liberal,
and the other two are probably in between.
But I'm disappointed in the sense that, like Metallica,
(05:30):
people could call Taylor Swift people and call Ed Sheeran
people a few country people go, guys, if we just all agree to no
longer perform until this gets addressed, Yeah.
Instant change, yeah. For sure.
Like think of how many jobs fromthe people that are on tour and
went from every city they go to,how much money is wrapped up and
all that. But the biggest thing is it's
the problem with America has always been the people don't
(05:50):
vote and they don't do anything because it doesn't affect them.
And I'm not even saying that in a way, I mean, I'm guilty.
We're all guilty of it too. I haven't voted in a primary and
fucking ever. We none of us do.
So we're all guilty to some extent.
Sure, we at least managed to getout and vote for presidential
elections, but right, everyone is somewhere on the spectrum of
activity when it comes to politics.
(06:11):
The reason why most people aren't is America by and large,
is a comfortable country. People are comfortable, they're
getting what they need, they understand vaguely there's
something bad happening in an abstract.
Way, but it's not to them. But it's not to me and I got
shit to do and I'm late for my shift and I want to listen to
Taylor Swift. That is a very American rugged
individualism part of thing, pulling your own self up by your
(06:31):
bootstraps. Yeah.
But when those convenient thingsthat they like go away.
For sure. Again, it's like that old
Churchill quote. Americans will always do the
right thing after they've tried everything else.
That's the powder keg that the Trump admin.
Is playing with. Yeah, I can see that.
Is once people get uncomfortable, yeah, they're a
rowdy bunch. They are.
(06:52):
And they have guns. And there's about $330 million.
That's right. So no, one of the things that
made me think of was like, if nothing else, I'm glad when they
when they these abuses of power happened, particularly when they
are reversed pretty quickly because it gets the wheel
spinning for me and gets me out of my little echo chamber, like,
(07:12):
you know what I mean? And thinking about like, yeah,
it was like the Apple Disney people that ended up, you know,
just bending the knee to Trump and a million people, not a
million people, but tons of people got online immediately
were like, I'm canceling all of that shit.
And then it made me start to think, OK, how much do I want to
look at where my money's going? And, and that's a slippery slope
(07:33):
for me. That could be a, a whole therapy
session for me, probably becauselike, I still have the iPhone
and I still have right when I've, so I've been convinced I
played into the game of you needthese things, you need these
streaming networks, you need this particular kind of phone,
things will be so much less convenient.
(07:54):
You can't cancel Spotify. You have too many playlists on
there already. I don't know if this gets people
talking about those sorts of things a little bit more.
Putting your money where your mouth is.
I think it's it's a net positive.
Right. In a way, the sad reality of
late stage capitalism like we'rein is that votes don't matter
anymore, only money matters, right?
So your vote in an election every year 2 or 4, it actually
(08:16):
means a lot less than what you choose to spend your money on.
That's true. That's true because.
If the money dries up, things change quickly.
That's true. If we're not buying Apple
products and they're have a super PAC for Trump, right, All
of us. Yeah, that's true.
Good point. So.
So I mean, you know, leave a note in the comments.
I mean, obviously we can make a 10 hour episode about this.
But what do you think is going to happen with how how the,
(08:37):
let's say, censorship from an administration, either perceived
or actual, regardless of where you are on the spectrum, how
might it affect music? What do you think is going to
happen and what are you going todo about it, if anything?
That's right, it's time for an album review.
We listened for the first time Yep, to the Velvet Underground
and Eco from 1967. And I do want to add a caveat on
to this for people joining us for the first time.
(08:58):
And if this it makes it onto social, we've never listened to
this album before. No.
OK, so let's be clear and you can say whatever you want to say
about that. We just haven't.
And that's because of what our parents listen to.
It's what we listen to as kids. Should we, as people that have a
music podcast, have listened to this before?
Maybe, Yeah. We're getting to it, but.
(09:18):
We didn't. And so all that we're going to
say right now is a reaction to imagine you are almost 50 years
old having our particular experience.
We've got over 120 episodes. What's in the our back catalog?
You can feel free to watch them.I'll link down below to, I don't
know, there. There's all our videos.
Yeah, you're us. What would you think about this
(09:39):
album? Really.
Not because you wanted to sound cool.
Exactly. Right.
What would you what would you really make of it?
And that's what we're going to get into.
So this is the Velvet Underground in Nico from 1967.
Eleven songs, 48 minutes. Their debut album Co produced by
someone named Tom Wilson and Andy Warhol, which is a large
part of it. Yeah.
Yeah, so and. You know, and as always, when
(10:00):
we're done discussing it, we're going to give you a rating.
And because our goal here isn't to give it a one through 10
rating, it's to kind of curate and inform should you check it
out? And we give our opinion that
everyone should only fans of this particular genre, should
only fans of the artist or no one.
So for this one I did and didn'tknow what to expect.
My my Lou Reed experience is minimal and very specific in the
(10:25):
form of the Lulu collaboration with Metallica.
So the idea of a blabbering poetwith with odd music choices was
not completely foreign. I had read about the infamous
like Metal Machine Music, which was like he needed to go out of
his contract, so he put the worst possible album together
and it's on a lot of lists. It's like the worst album of all
time. Amazing.
So I get it what they're about, Yes.
(10:47):
So I was surprised when I hit play on the album and the first
song Sunday morning. That was not what I was
expecting. Exactly the exact same reaction.
It was like, OK, it's poppy, it's simple, it's accessible,
but it it definitely became a trend throughout the album that
when Nico was involved, I didn'tmind it.
(11:07):
Same here, I wrote down the samething somewhere.
Yeah, but like when she wasn't, I'm like, OK, now you're you're
going to lose me here pretty quick.
Which is funny because if you doa little bit of research into
this, they kind of didn't want her involved.
Like Andy Warhol kind of like shoehorned her in.
After that, it gets divergent inin in a way that is, I mean,
impressive in the sense that, yeah, I felt like after the
(11:29):
first four or five songs, I'm like, I feel like this is satire
of The Beach Boys and The Beatles.
Sure. I feel like it was taking what
was popular and distorting it a little bit, yes, in a way that
was commenting on it. I don't know how or what.
I just feel like that's what washappening.
Well, I think by like turning itinto slice of life and not
pretty, this is, I mean this is not.
(11:52):
Whereas the Nikko songs have pretty melodies, the rest often
don't. It's often very abrasive guitar
sounds or there's like this electric Viola that plays
throughout that's super harsh onthe ears and the lyrical
content. It's certainly not about cars,
school, surfing. I mean, it's about heroin.
Yeah. I mean, literally so many.
(12:12):
Like obviously the the probably most known song on on the album
is heroin, but over and over again.
I mean, the second song. OK, so you get Sunday morning
right away with Nico Dreamy, sort of like Mamas and Papas
almost vibe. I really enjoyed it.
I'm like, oh, I this is not whatI was expecting.
And then I'm waiting for the man.
I'm waiting for the man is his guy's drug dealer.
So I mean, it's like immediatelywe get dark.
(12:34):
So I think that's kind of what'sgoing on.
Like we can't like this music iseasy to make, so we're going to
be dark and gritty with it and kind of turn it on its head a
little bit. Yeah, which it's fine.
It's fine. It starts off, you know, easily
digestible. It starts to get a little bit
more difficult and a little bit past halfway way in you hit a
stretch of heroin, which is I think just annoying to listen
(12:55):
to. Yeah, and not great.
And and then when you combine that with All Tomorrow's
Parties, that's it's a rough 1-2punch right there.
Like I really wanted to stop listening and I ultimately did.
By the time the last song, like Son of Europe or I forgot the
exact name of it, but it's like 8 minutes long and I got 3-4
minutes and I'm like, I'm good. I know what you're doing.
From here, Yeah. European son.
It's almost 8 minutes long, yeah.
(13:17):
Yeah, no thanks. Pass and you know, I over.
I mean the overall I get what they're trying to do, but I
don't want to listen to it again.
No and I don't. Really know who would To be
honest, you'd. Have to have a connection to the
era. Era I would think.
Or done a lot of drugs. But I could see myself putting
(13:40):
Sunday morning Femme fatale on playlists, Right.
For vibes, Just for vibes. The.
The production's really cool. There's.
I don't know if I if this was originally recorded like this or
if I was listening to a remastered version.
They were using the channels a lot.
Yeah, OK, OK. And they used it to good effect
in a lot of instances, right? Like you're hearing just piano
tinkling through a whole song, tinkling.
(14:02):
Yeah, tinkling tinkle. Tinkle's a good word.
Really used in two very different ways.
It is, yeah. The songs that were more
successful to me were the Nico song songs and the ones that had
like an Eastern vibe to them where he was like, I don't know
if you're hearing sitar or whatever instrumentation it is
where they're getting a little. And I looked it up.
(14:22):
Revolver comes out in 66. This is 67.
So you can see they're they're going down that same path, which
was just a pop culture thing. People are getting into
meditation and Eastern. Yeah.
So those songs worked for me. The jangly, sort of really harsh
sounds on your ears. Obviously, I did not go for
those songs. It made me re exam.
(14:44):
Like Lou Reed's vocals. I think you either love them or
you hate them. Yeah, for the most part.
Like, this is that genre. Let's think about other people
like this, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, people like that.
Have this spoken. Tom Waits.
Tom Waits sort of delivery that you you kind of either vibe with
it or you don't. And this is real rough.
And I can do it. And it's like certain artists,
(15:04):
but I, I. Don't know, but here's the
thing. Those other ones don't also
challenge you. Music that's true here you're
being challenged vocally and music that's true and that's.
That's can be too much. It can be too much.
Overwhelming. Yeah.
Yeah. So I mean, I as a rating, I, I
give it fans of the genre, but barely.
It comes to the caveat, fans of the genre, which is technically
(15:25):
our second highest recommendation, but only once.
Yes. I I think you you should listen
to it as an exercise in creativity.
And it's something different than what you're used to.
Yeah. But then you'll probably be
like, OK, I got it. Yeah, Yeah, I did it.
I'm super glad I listened to it.Yeah, right.
But I will not. Like Tank said.
I will not be playing the whole album ever again.
Yeah. Maybe a cut or two on a playlist
(15:47):
like you said, but that's about it, yeah.
All right, what do you think of the Velvet Underground and Nico?
If you've listened to it before,come at us.
I'm sure if you've listened to it before, you probably listen
to it 100 times and you think we're idiots, that's fine.
Yeah, let us know and what way we're idiots.
Yes, be specific. I wanna know what kind of idiot
I am. Get granular with it.
Yeah, I don't mind. But not personal but.
(16:09):
Not personal, right? I got a kid.
I got a kid. Right.
We have family. We're that kid.
All right, so now we're going toslap you upside the face with
the EP 10. That is a list that we do on a
weekly basis. Sometimes a countdown, sometimes
just a hodgepodge stuff. Today we have chosen
instrumentals. Yeah, and.
These are ten of our favorite instrumentals.
(16:29):
Yep, Yep. And the only real rule is like
always, you know, unless otherwise specified, we sort of
cut it off at 1980 ish. We don't need to be going back
and re legislating the greatest hits of fucking Elvis Presley.
So, right, so we are these days,we're chopping it up into five
and five, and we're going to hityou with what we think are the
best instrumentals you can go out and listen to right now.
(16:50):
Yep. The very first one I thought of
was a little left of Center for me and I think that's why I
chose it as one of my favorites because I don't listen to any of
other music like this. It is a song by Alison Krauss
and Union Station, believe it ornot, called a tribute to Pedor
O'Donnell Slash Monkey. Let the Hogs out the live
version. Why would you need a slash on an
(17:13):
instrumental? They're 2 songs, I think they're
two separate instrumentals essentially blended into one, I
guess. Yeah, it is a song.
And Alison Krauss gives this intro.
It's essentially her, the dobro dobro player, which is that
guitar instrument with a silver thing in it, right?
Sort of like a slide in between a slide guitar or whatever and a
(17:33):
steel guitar. Jerry Douglas is considered the
best ever player of the dobro. OK, so this is an instrumental
and it's absolutely beautiful. It's what you know, if you like
bluegrass at all for that picking that really the speed.
It's just a beautiful I guess 2 songs.
I highly recommend checking it out.
I don't know why I bought that album.
(17:55):
Me neither. I think I got into the old
brother wear out. Though, OK, yeah, yeah, I, you
know, I'm listening to your songs, most of which I hadn't
heard before it it's very clear that we have two very different
paths of the type of instrumental.
Yes, right. There's like the basically the,
I must say, simple and complex. That's kind of what it is.
It's like there's the the more straightforward and the more
convoluted. Like whichever way you look at
(18:16):
it, it definitely two different vibes.
So my first on the list here is a song called Rhubarb by a FX
twin. It's not called Rhubarb
actually. So he he's one of those artists
that will name, he has like 10 songs that are named Trek or
some shit. It's like it's this convoluted.
(18:37):
What song are you talking about?So the fans basically have to
come up with their. Own and name all the.
Songs, I'm gonna fuck up the detail, but it was something
along the lines of like maybe onthe album or something, there
were pictures associated with itand rhubarb.
Beautiful calm song to fall asleep to.
Electronic dreamy dream core. I'm sure it would be called if
(18:59):
that was the thing it is now it.Is now.
No beautiful song and I listenedto it to chill out quite.
How did you find that song? I think it was just an algorithm
based thing because I listened to things like this to fall.
Same here. And it came up and I and I have
two or three of his albums now, OK.
And I kind of went down a littlebit of a rabbit.
Hole this is on that ambient selected ambient works volume to
(19:20):
this is 1 where it's very dreamyand just fall asleep dude.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great choice.
Check it out. The next instrumental I want to
talk about is by Explosions in the Sky, which Tank and I just
saw maybe a couple years ago now, believe it or not, it's a
song called Your Hand in Mine. And, and funny enough, Tank
actually also one. I did this, Yeah.
When we compared notes I did have it so I dropped it off mine
because it was kind of more his idea than mine.
(19:41):
He introduced me to it so he gets first steps but but I did
include it as my suggestion for the playlist so you'll see it
pop up later. Yeah, if you know, explosions in
the sky or if you don't, it's this guitar quartet essentially
for guitar players, right? In one drum 3-4 whatever and
it's this dreamy, noisy instrumental rock and it's.
If you ever watch Friday Night Lights, your hand and mine is
(20:03):
the song that is featured throughout.
I think it's the theme. It might even be the theme song
to Friday Night Lights, the TV show.
Beautiful song. When my daughter turned 1, I
created a video of. Photos of her throughout her
entire first year. And I timed it to every beat in
your hand of mine. You listened like, that video?
Like, I'm getting goosebumps. Yeah.
(20:24):
Sobbing. I mean like, especially now when
she's 12, it's very hard to watch, but in a good way.
You should you should offer to do that for parents.
Like have them send you picturesthen you do it.
You can just do it in cap cut now and it automatically time
it. They don't know that.
They don't know that that's true.
Forget I said that. Cut coming to you soon, Yeah.
Next up on my list was Ryze by Herb Alpert, late 1979.
(20:48):
I looked OK so. It's well, let it count, yeah.
Yeah, I'm gonna sneak it in there.
Just God I love this song. This is such AU pick it is but.
But it but it is super iconic, right.
So that the the samples that came from it, yes, you know, the
hypnotize is the by far the biggest, but I mean everyone,
(21:09):
you know, I think it'd be fun toplay Rise for younger people
just to wait for their reaction when that part comes up.
I had it. I don't remember this song,
really. So at first I'm like, well, what
the fuck this. I know this bass line.
What is this bass line? And I I actually didn't get it
right away. But then when it gets to the
part, I'm like, oh, OK, that's what this is, Yeah.
Just. A great bass and the bass is
(21:30):
crazy on this Yes yeah, no. Fun song and a ton of nostalgia
obviously, but this is like riding in the back of Dance
Cadillac. Like he's rocking out to this
so. Yeah.
Definitely personal pick. It does make you remember what a
piece of shit producer did. He was, yeah.
He just lifted entire right, just entire songs, right.
(21:50):
Anyway, yeah. He chose the right ones, I
guess, yeah. I mean that's he had that going
for him. The next instrumental on that I
chose was Steve Gunn and David Moore Rhododendron.
I've mentioned this album before, I think it's called
Reflections Volume One. It is a completely improvised
piece between a piano player andan acoustic guitar player.
I could have chose any song fromthis album.
(22:11):
I like this one in particular, but maybe not even just a little
bit more than the rest. Highly recommend this album.
It is a I listen to instrumentals when I read.
I think this is a very chill have a beer, have a cup of
coffee, sit back, read a good book, read a magazine.
Just listen to the vibes. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
And along those same lines, my third choice is a warm place by
(22:32):
9 Inch Nails. It's on the downward spiral and
just, you know, probably I thinkthe peak of his relaxing choices
which which there are not many, there aren't many.
Until you get into the soundtrack work, that's true,
yeah. But maybe kind of a glimpse of
what would become, you know, future work.
That's exactly what I thought, Yeah.
It's like you can hear the Social network soundtrack in
(22:53):
that song. But yeah, it's just kind of.
It's peaceful and haunting at the same time, but another great
song to fall asleep. Too.
Yeah, Yeah, That's, yeah, true. Yeah.
Next instrumental that I really love is by Poppy Ackroyd, who I
know nothing about. I am.
I think she's related to Dan Hackroy.
Probably not. It's a song called Hanover
Birds. It's a piano song.
(23:15):
This came across. I was reading the music blogs
and there was this huge compilation a couple years ago.
Like 10 albums worth the material of songs related to
birds. It was like a National Audubon
Society or some organization like that basically commissioned
all these artists to do songs either about birds or featuring
birds. So a lot of these songs have
field recordings so you can hearthe birds actually in the and
(23:37):
this is one of those songs, I think just think it's beautiful.
It's another chill out song, piano song.
But every time it comes on my wife or my daughter in the car,
they'll go, what is this again? I really like this song.
My second to last choice is YYZ my Brush because they're
Canadian at Zed. Everyone in the whole, I guess
Prague community to some extent,rock and metal community knows
(24:00):
of this song infamously starts off with the Morse code of YYZ.
Fun little trivia there like that.
The inspiration was when they they would always return home to
Toronto after a tour or whateverand they're kind of aviation
geek. So they would go up in the
cockpit and they would hear the Morse code of of the airport and
they thought it had this like rhythmic quality to it.
So that's what they open the thesong with.
(24:23):
One of the more famous instrumentals ever.
There's that classic video of them in Rio where the crowd is
singing along with an instrumental, right?
I mean, technically amazing you could geek out on if you listen
to each individual stem, right? Pretty amazing.
But yeah, sounds kind of dated. Sounds like Rush it's it's it's
(24:43):
an acquired taste, but it's pretty damn good.
It's by. Acquired by a lot of people.
Yeah, just not my Co host, right?
Yeah, yeah, I was. I listened to it.
It was a rough listen. Yeah.
No, it's it's it's. But I get it.
But I get it. Also my last choice because I
disqualified myself by picking something before of 1980 they
called me out for appropriately.I'm service.
(25:03):
Man, that's right. My last pick is a song called
Continuum One by Nalis and Nefro, and the album is called
Continuum and the tracks are just Continuum one through 9.
I think it's like a free jazz. I mean, you listen to it,
ambient kind. It's great work music.
Put it on the background. When you've got some like
spreadsheets to fill out, you'redoing some like very menial,
(25:25):
monotonous stuff. It's it's very soothing.
But enough interest, right, withthe different sounds that are
going on that you're like, it's not completely forgettable.
I really dug this album. I'm trying to get it on vinyl.
Check. It out or just start.
You can't buy it anywhere, so I'd have to order it.
Which, that's fine. I should order it directly from
the artist. Yeah.
Give her the money. That's true.
(25:45):
Yeah, you should. Yeah.
I also don't listen to a lot of female jazz.
That's a problem. OK, This helps me tick off that
box. There's a few of them I went
through that I was going to choose for this, but yeah.
Knowledge and Nefro Continuum 1.They should call female jazz
FAZZ trademark that before it's too late for my final one, which
(26:07):
is my #1 because it's a bit. Because it's the best
instrumental of all time. Oh geez.
Wow, Yeah, I'm putting it out there.
No surprise to anyone who's watches for a while, it's Orion
by Metallica. Isn't that pronounced Orion?
Well, if, if. Where you're living is a
vacation. Yes, you know Cliff Burton's
masterpiece. You know, the I think most
(26:28):
people listen to it would not realize that's a bass guitar
that they're hearing most of thetime.
James does leads that you would think were Kirk just a lot going
on. And like someone pointed out
once and discussing it like their favorite aspect of it is
that it fades in and fades out almost as if there's this
eternal awesome jam going on andyou're just like peeking into it
and then. Coming back out.
But you know, the breakdown in the middle and the only regret
(26:50):
here, and it's really of all of Metallica's earlier work pre
Black album is like, how amazingwould this be if it wasn't
produced like shit? Yes, you know, like there is so
much going on that I wish it wasa high quality, rich, deep, but
it's just kind of tinny and AM radio sounding and.
They can't go back and. Fix that they probably can.
James is very much they've and Justice for All is the the gold
(27:13):
standard of shouldn't you have remixed?
That right? And they're like, Nope, moment
in time, we did it, that's it, it's done.
No, maybe who knows, Before it'sall over, they'll go back and
say fuck it, sure. But beautiful song and you know,
probably a lot would argue them at their musical peak, right,
that it's like of, you know, Cliff was a classic, classically
trained, a fan of classical music and it showed in the way
(27:33):
they built songs so. And really, the only excuse for
a song to fade out is something like this.
Yeah, that's true. Otherwise, fading out sucks.
Yes, yes. Shout out Libby.
We've had an offline conversation about this the
other day. Fading out sucks.
Fun fact that for metallic offense if you're watching, but
My Friend of Misery on the BlackElm was supposed to be the
(27:54):
instrumental, okay? So Jason Newstead wrote, which
is a side note within a side note.
Those four base notes, I think convey A tremendous amount of
emotion in the original version.Okay, which I won't try to
emulate with my voice right now,but he wrote My Friend of Misery
with the intention it would be the instrumental on the Black
Album. Cut had one on every album to
that. Okay, I don't know if it was Bob
(28:14):
Rock, whoever they said, no, we're going to make a song out
of this. And they kept most of it intact.
But a lot of people, myself include, wonder what would it
have been like had that been theinstrumental?
And it probably would have been another great one.
Yeah, sure. Oh well.
But that's it. That is the EP 1010
instrumentals. I should make a playlist out of
it. Maybe I will, I just gave myself
fucking homework like I don't have enough to do.
I will make a playlist of the songs.
(28:35):
And we're going to put a chinchilla on the screen right
here. God damn it.
And a peanut. Damn it it.
Could have been worse. Yes and also I could cut that
cuz I also do the video editing,but I won't.
What gamesmanship right Game recognizes game.
That's right. Got me.
Yeah. So that's probably a huge penis
(28:57):
in my forehead right now. What are some of your favorite
instrumentals? We'd love to know.
Yes, yeah, I would. Yeah, and if they're super poppy
and we've heard them before, great if and if it's something
weird. Great too.
Even better. Let us know, hit us up in the
comments. It's that time again, the
extended playlist where we give you 5 songs to renew your
passion for music. We always pick at least one song
(29:21):
from the album we just reviewed,which this time around was The
Velvet Underground and Nico. We pick a couple wild cards,
just songs that we think fit thevibe.
And then we also pick one or twosongs from the top ten list that
we just did. So let's get into it.
Sunday Morning is the song from the Velvet Underground and Eco,
which is not a surprise. I think it's the easiest to
listen to. They probably put it first on
the album for just that reason, yeah.
(29:53):
Sunday morning. It's just the wasted years so
close behind. The world's behind you.
There's always someone around you who will cover.
It's nothing at all. And, you know, for the vast
(30:26):
majority of people, probably they will find the Best Song of
that out. Yeah, yeah.
Definitely the most accessible for sure.
Yeah. From right into that is my wild
card, which I forgot. I actually I'm calling an
audible right now because I'll tell the story on air.
I initially picked a Talking Head song because I thought, oh,
Velvet Underground art rock, David David Byrne, Talking Heads
(30:46):
art rock, post punk, whatever you want to call it, new wave,
that's what they sound like. The Velvet Underground and
Talking Heads do not sound anything alike.
I learned pretty quickly. So instead I chose I Fought in a
War by Bell and Sebastian. Fought in a warm and I left my
friends behind me to go looking for the enemy and it wasn't very
(31:13):
far before I found out that the sickness there right of me went
beyond the bedsit infamy of a decade gone before I reminded
myself of the word you said we were hung getting up and I bet
(31:38):
you're making shell sparkle. Or is that e-mail to wear and
it's that quality. I love to think of you as if
you're all waiting for this letter to.
I'm right because I'll be here quite a while.
(32:09):
Belle and Sebastian, it's an entire career of songs like
Sunday Morning that it's just this.
And if you remember the the clipfrom High Fidelity where where
John Cusack's character says, I just want something I can listen
to, something I can ignore. It's kind of that breezy, right?
Like very seventies, 60s reminiscent beautiful song.
But if you've heard one Belle and Sebastian song, you've
(32:30):
literally heard every single oneof them.
I fought in a war. And then I think a nice flow
from that would be my wild card pick, which is Retro Vertigo by
Mr. Bungle. Music.
(33:51):
Mr. Bungle's weird intentionallyintentionally weird.
The ever changing, ever ever wacky Mike Patton leading it
vocally. But retro.
Vertigo's a beautiful song, but it combines beautiful and weird
and loud and quiet and I think it's actually pretty good Mix of
the first two on there, but alsoteasing a little bit at the
(34:13):
impending darkness to come. Or at least size and noise.
Sure. What do we have next?
We have your pick as your favorite instrumental or the
best instrumental of all time. All time, right, Which is Orion.
Which is Orion, which you know, I already talked about at
length. But if you haven't already, for
(35:39):
the love of God, listen to it. Yes, yes, please do.
And let's end it with your hand in mind, because we both picked
it by explosions in the sky. I was just saying this completes
(36:59):
like this is a journey, a littlefive song journey and it's a
really good like I will like I make these playlists and I will
link down below on Spotify and YouTube.
I will actually listen to this playlist again cuz I just.
Might do the same. Yeah, it's just a cool vibe.
Let us know what you think aboutthis playlist, about the album
review we did, about our top tenlist.
Just tell us how you're doing. How are you?
(37:20):
We'll listen. Yeah.
Are you OK? Yeah, yeah, I'm not.
I'm not doing very well. No, no, we're struggling.
We're happy to be here. We are happy to be here.
Please tell a friend about extended play.
Please like and subscribe, join our Patreon where you can get
A10 song overextended playlist, which we're going to have to
figure out. There's so many great songs we
talked about today. This one will be easy so and
(37:42):
then join us again. Next time we'll have another
album review, another top ten list and another 5 songs to
renew your passion. All right, see you later.
Bye, guys.
Today we're going to talk about the Velvet Underground and Nico,
we're going to talk about some great instrumentals, and we are
going to deliver to you, steaming hot on a platter, the
extended playlist. Right now, an extended play.
(00:22):
It's extended play, renewing your passion 5 songs at a time.
I'm E, I'm Tank, and we are hereto talk about an album.
We're here to give you a list, but before we do that, yeah,
we're going to shoot the shit about things that are going on.
Yes. And yeah, yeah, and.
Shit is going on right now. Shit is going.
On So we are fresh on the heels of what we'll say is the Jimmy
(00:42):
Kimmel incident and maybe it's ramifications for music, yes,
and how it can how it's going toget caught up in this.
So I mean we didn't really need to give you the background.
I don't think. So if you're watching this, you
certainly consume enough media to know right what is happening
in terms of basically governmentcensorship and and 1st Amendment
(01:03):
right cancellation. Yes, essentially.
And the frustrating thing, too, is it wasn't even what they said
it was, right? Right.
It was. It wasn't.
They were framing it as, oh, he said these terrible things about
Charlie Kirk. He did not.
He said they're using his death for political gain, which they
very much work. And then ironically, double
down. Right.
By banning them, yeah. But yeah, if you just skim the
(01:25):
headlines, basically your local television networks are owned by
a mega company, which are almostall right leaning, and they're
also trying to get a merger approved, which really the root
of all evil on media seems to betrying to get mergers approved.
Absolutely. So that there's a bigger
monopoly. So it's even more fucked when
they're done. Yes.
But it's it's that sort of deal,you know, Trump tells the FCC,
(01:46):
you know, threaten them. They threaten them.
And ABC, unfortunately, and Disney kind of coward under the
threat and pulled Jimmy Kennell from the Airways.
Yeah. Only shortly, though.
And and the the silver lining here, yes.
Is that the action that people again badly underestimate their
ability to do something about it.
And you get a lot of naysayers and doom scrollers like, oh, you
can do whatever you want. It won't fucking matter.
(02:06):
Yeah, well, it mattered because a lot of people cancelled Hulu
and Disney Plus. I would have cancelled if I had
it, but they got the message andthey panicked and they got him
back on by Tuesday. Yeah, yeah.
Only off for a few days, right? Really only end up missing
probably 3 or 4 maybe 4 episodesright?
And he had a spectacular monologue about coming.
Back you. Know still getting his shots in
without making it all about vengeance and pettiness and no
(02:30):
now we're going to see where it goes from here.
His ratings are, you know, Streisand effect predictably
high right now. Well, this isn't going to be the
end of it, unfortunately. We've got at least a few more
years of this, and it is a little interesting and worrying
to think about. And today, as of taping,
Springsteen is openly saying this guy needs to be impeached.
This is an American. So I mean, our artists, music
(02:54):
artists gonna push back. What's gonna happen to them if
they? Do right?
Do they have the power that theyonce did?
I wonder? Clearly television stars do
right because he pushed back against it and people took up
for him right for demo. This is probably the last stand
of broadcast television. Sure, right.
And a lot of people said that the outcome of this might be
that it kills broadcast because the people that who wanted to
(03:15):
see Kimmel, if they're a local affiliate, they're going to go
look at it on YouTube and they'll be like, why should I
ever go back to watch? It on TV, right?
Good point. That's one of the first things I
wrote about a good point about Springsteen is that where are
the musicians and all this? Where are they?
Why aren't they? Speaking disappointingly quiet.
I agree. I agree.
I don't know if that's out of fear.
I mean, because you got to thinkabout, OK, like, which artist
(03:35):
would have the biggest impact? It's like the Spotify situation,
right, where Daniel Eck is giving $700 million to AI drone
technology, and a bunch of bandsare taking their music off
Spotify. But it's not Bruce Springsteen
and it's not Taylor Swift, right?
It's bands that are way down lowin the pecking order that don't
have a big voice. And so you wonder what the
impact is. Not that they're doing it for
(03:57):
the impact. They're doing it for the
principals, but what we need in order to prevent this stuff from
happening and for the public to say we're not taking this shit
anymore, is for these people to speak up for us, right?
Here's how I think it's going togo down and I'm getting this in
in writing so I can say I calledit later.
If it happens. It's going to start with a
Springsteen type. OK, respected veteran.
(04:20):
OK, OK. It's going to be someone who not
only has the fuck you money, they have the fuck you lifespan
left. Oh, sure, right.
What are you going to do right? You know right.
You're not going to scare me if I mean.
Jail. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, all. Right.
So it's going to start there. Then Trump, because he's a
fucking idiot, yeah, is going toarrest jail.
He's going to do something stupid and inflammatory.
That will be the Rubicon, OK? That the other artists will be
(04:44):
like, now we need to do something.
So I think there's going to be someone that everyone respects.
Yeah. And then there's going to be the
peer pressure aspect. Mm Hmm.
Of, you know, all you need is a few major artists and then it's
like, are you for free speech ornot?
You sort of have to get on that.Yes.
But here's the disappointing thing, you know, and I, I
Metallica is famously apolitical.
(05:06):
They, they go so far out of their way to make sure that
nothing gets which in a way, from a concert standpoint, I
appreciate. Yeah, sure.
And in the last few tours, Jamescomes out and basically says,
look, you're here to celebrate the Metallica family.
And that's it. He sort of addresses it
obliquely, but it's not much of A secret.
James is probably conservative and Kirk is very much liberal,
and the other two are probably in between.
But I'm disappointed in the sense that, like Metallica,
(05:30):
people could call Taylor Swift people and call Ed Sheeran
people a few country people go, guys, if we just all agree to no
longer perform until this gets addressed, Yeah.
Instant change, yeah. For sure.
Like think of how many jobs fromthe people that are on tour and
went from every city they go to,how much money is wrapped up and
all that. But the biggest thing is it's
the problem with America has always been the people don't
(05:50):
vote and they don't do anything because it doesn't affect them.
And I'm not even saying that in a way, I mean, I'm guilty.
We're all guilty of it too. I haven't voted in a primary and
fucking ever. We none of us do.
So we're all guilty to some extent.
Sure, we at least managed to getout and vote for presidential
elections, but right, everyone is somewhere on the spectrum of
activity when it comes to politics.
(06:11):
The reason why most people aren't is America by and large,
is a comfortable country. People are comfortable, they're
getting what they need, they understand vaguely there's
something bad happening in an abstract.
Way, but it's not to them. But it's not to me and I got
shit to do and I'm late for my shift and I want to listen to
Taylor Swift. That is a very American rugged
individualism part of thing, pulling your own self up by your
(06:31):
bootstraps. Yeah.
But when those convenient thingsthat they like go away.
For sure. Again, it's like that old
Churchill quote. Americans will always do the
right thing after they've tried everything else.
That's the powder keg that the Trump admin.
Is playing with. Yeah, I can see that.
Is once people get uncomfortable, yeah, they're a
rowdy bunch. They are.
(06:52):
And they have guns. And there's about $330 million.
That's right. So no, one of the things that
made me think of was like, if nothing else, I'm glad when they
when they these abuses of power happened, particularly when they
are reversed pretty quickly because it gets the wheel
spinning for me and gets me out of my little echo chamber, like,
(07:12):
you know what I mean? And thinking about like, yeah,
it was like the Apple Disney people that ended up, you know,
just bending the knee to Trump and a million people, not a
million people, but tons of people got online immediately
were like, I'm canceling all of that shit.
And then it made me start to think, OK, how much do I want to
look at where my money's going? And, and that's a slippery slope
(07:33):
for me. That could be a, a whole therapy
session for me, probably becauselike, I still have the iPhone
and I still have right when I've, so I've been convinced I
played into the game of you needthese things, you need these
streaming networks, you need this particular kind of phone,
things will be so much less convenient.
(07:54):
You can't cancel Spotify. You have too many playlists on
there already. I don't know if this gets people
talking about those sorts of things a little bit more.
Putting your money where your mouth is.
I think it's it's a net positive.
Right. In a way, the sad reality of
late stage capitalism like we'rein is that votes don't matter
anymore, only money matters, right?
So your vote in an election every year 2 or 4, it actually
(08:16):
means a lot less than what you choose to spend your money on.
That's true. That's true because.
If the money dries up, things change quickly.
That's true. If we're not buying Apple
products and they're have a super PAC for Trump, right, All
of us. Yeah, that's true.
Good point. So.
So I mean, you know, leave a note in the comments.
I mean, obviously we can make a 10 hour episode about this.
But what do you think is going to happen with how how the,
(08:37):
let's say, censorship from an administration, either perceived
or actual, regardless of where you are on the spectrum, how
might it affect music? What do you think is going to
happen and what are you going todo about it, if anything?
That's right, it's time for an album review.
We listened for the first time Yep, to the Velvet Underground
and Eco from 1967. And I do want to add a caveat on
to this for people joining us for the first time.
(08:58):
And if this it makes it onto social, we've never listened to
this album before. No.
OK, so let's be clear and you can say whatever you want to say
about that. We just haven't.
And that's because of what our parents listen to.
It's what we listen to as kids. Should we, as people that have a
music podcast, have listened to this before?
Maybe, Yeah. We're getting to it, but.
(09:18):
We didn't. And so all that we're going to
say right now is a reaction to imagine you are almost 50 years
old having our particular experience.
We've got over 120 episodes. What's in the our back catalog?
You can feel free to watch them.I'll link down below to, I don't
know, there. There's all our videos.
Yeah, you're us. What would you think about this
(09:39):
album? Really.
Not because you wanted to sound cool.
Exactly. Right.
What would you what would you really make of it?
And that's what we're going to get into.
So this is the Velvet Underground in Nico from 1967.
Eleven songs, 48 minutes. Their debut album Co produced by
someone named Tom Wilson and Andy Warhol, which is a large
part of it. Yeah.
Yeah, so and. You know, and as always, when
(10:00):
we're done discussing it, we're going to give you a rating.
And because our goal here isn't to give it a one through 10
rating, it's to kind of curate and inform should you check it
out? And we give our opinion that
everyone should only fans of this particular genre, should
only fans of the artist or no one.
So for this one I did and didn'tknow what to expect.
My my Lou Reed experience is minimal and very specific in the
(10:25):
form of the Lulu collaboration with Metallica.
So the idea of a blabbering poetwith with odd music choices was
not completely foreign. I had read about the infamous
like Metal Machine Music, which was like he needed to go out of
his contract, so he put the worst possible album together
and it's on a lot of lists. It's like the worst album of all
time. Amazing.
So I get it what they're about, Yes.
(10:47):
So I was surprised when I hit play on the album and the first
song Sunday morning. That was not what I was
expecting. Exactly the exact same reaction.
It was like, OK, it's poppy, it's simple, it's accessible,
but it it definitely became a trend throughout the album that
when Nico was involved, I didn'tmind it.
(11:07):
Same here, I wrote down the samething somewhere.
Yeah, but like when she wasn't, I'm like, OK, now you're you're
going to lose me here pretty quick.
Which is funny because if you doa little bit of research into
this, they kind of didn't want her involved.
Like Andy Warhol kind of like shoehorned her in.
After that, it gets divergent inin in a way that is, I mean,
impressive in the sense that, yeah, I felt like after the
(11:29):
first four or five songs, I'm like, I feel like this is satire
of The Beach Boys and The Beatles.
Sure. I feel like it was taking what
was popular and distorting it a little bit, yes, in a way that
was commenting on it. I don't know how or what.
I just feel like that's what washappening.
Well, I think by like turning itinto slice of life and not
pretty, this is, I mean this is not.
(11:52):
Whereas the Nikko songs have pretty melodies, the rest often
don't. It's often very abrasive guitar
sounds or there's like this electric Viola that plays
throughout that's super harsh onthe ears and the lyrical
content. It's certainly not about cars,
school, surfing. I mean, it's about heroin.
Yeah. I mean, literally so many.
(12:12):
Like obviously the the probably most known song on on the album
is heroin, but over and over again.
I mean, the second song. OK, so you get Sunday morning
right away with Nico Dreamy, sort of like Mamas and Papas
almost vibe. I really enjoyed it.
I'm like, oh, I this is not whatI was expecting.
And then I'm waiting for the man.
I'm waiting for the man is his guy's drug dealer.
So I mean, it's like immediatelywe get dark.
(12:34):
So I think that's kind of what'sgoing on.
Like we can't like this music iseasy to make, so we're going to
be dark and gritty with it and kind of turn it on its head a
little bit. Yeah, which it's fine.
It's fine. It starts off, you know, easily
digestible. It starts to get a little bit
more difficult and a little bit past halfway way in you hit a
stretch of heroin, which is I think just annoying to listen
(12:55):
to. Yeah, and not great.
And and then when you combine that with All Tomorrow's
Parties, that's it's a rough 1-2punch right there.
Like I really wanted to stop listening and I ultimately did.
By the time the last song, like Son of Europe or I forgot the
exact name of it, but it's like 8 minutes long and I got 3-4
minutes and I'm like, I'm good. I know what you're doing.
From here, Yeah. European son.
It's almost 8 minutes long, yeah.
(13:17):
Yeah, no thanks. Pass and you know, I over.
I mean the overall I get what they're trying to do, but I
don't want to listen to it again.
No and I don't. Really know who would To be
honest, you'd. Have to have a connection to the
era. Era I would think.
Or done a lot of drugs. But I could see myself putting
(13:40):
Sunday morning Femme fatale on playlists, Right.
For vibes, Just for vibes. The.
The production's really cool. There's.
I don't know if I if this was originally recorded like this or
if I was listening to a remastered version.
They were using the channels a lot.
Yeah, OK, OK. And they used it to good effect
in a lot of instances, right? Like you're hearing just piano
tinkling through a whole song, tinkling.
(14:02):
Yeah, tinkling tinkle. Tinkle's a good word.
Really used in two very different ways.
It is, yeah. The songs that were more
successful to me were the Nico song songs and the ones that had
like an Eastern vibe to them where he was like, I don't know
if you're hearing sitar or whatever instrumentation it is
where they're getting a little. And I looked it up.
(14:22):
Revolver comes out in 66. This is 67.
So you can see they're they're going down that same path, which
was just a pop culture thing. People are getting into
meditation and Eastern. Yeah.
So those songs worked for me. The jangly, sort of really harsh
sounds on your ears. Obviously, I did not go for
those songs. It made me re exam.
(14:44):
Like Lou Reed's vocals. I think you either love them or
you hate them. Yeah, for the most part.
Like, this is that genre. Let's think about other people
like this, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, people like that.
Have this spoken. Tom Waits.
Tom Waits sort of delivery that you you kind of either vibe with
it or you don't. And this is real rough.
And I can do it. And it's like certain artists,
(15:04):
but I, I. Don't know, but here's the
thing. Those other ones don't also
challenge you. Music that's true here you're
being challenged vocally and music that's true and that's.
That's can be too much. It can be too much.
Overwhelming. Yeah.
Yeah. So I mean, I as a rating, I, I
give it fans of the genre, but barely.
It comes to the caveat, fans of the genre, which is technically
(15:25):
our second highest recommendation, but only once.
Yes. I I think you you should listen
to it as an exercise in creativity.
And it's something different than what you're used to.
Yeah. But then you'll probably be
like, OK, I got it. Yeah, Yeah, I did it.
I'm super glad I listened to it.Yeah, right.
But I will not. Like Tank said.
I will not be playing the whole album ever again.
Yeah. Maybe a cut or two on a playlist
(15:47):
like you said, but that's about it, yeah.
All right, what do you think of the Velvet Underground and Nico?
If you've listened to it before,come at us.
I'm sure if you've listened to it before, you probably listen
to it 100 times and you think we're idiots, that's fine.
Yeah, let us know and what way we're idiots.
Yes, be specific. I wanna know what kind of idiot
I am. Get granular with it.
Yeah, I don't mind. But not personal but.
(16:09):
Not personal, right? I got a kid.
I got a kid. Right.
We have family. We're that kid.
All right, so now we're going toslap you upside the face with
the EP 10. That is a list that we do on a
weekly basis. Sometimes a countdown, sometimes
just a hodgepodge stuff. Today we have chosen
instrumentals. Yeah, and.
These are ten of our favorite instrumentals.
(16:29):
Yep, Yep. And the only real rule is like
always, you know, unless otherwise specified, we sort of
cut it off at 1980 ish. We don't need to be going back
and re legislating the greatest hits of fucking Elvis Presley.
So, right, so we are these days,we're chopping it up into five
and five, and we're going to hityou with what we think are the
best instrumentals you can go out and listen to right now.
(16:50):
Yep. The very first one I thought of
was a little left of Center for me and I think that's why I
chose it as one of my favorites because I don't listen to any of
other music like this. It is a song by Alison Krauss
and Union Station, believe it ornot, called a tribute to Pedor
O'Donnell Slash Monkey. Let the Hogs out the live
version. Why would you need a slash on an
(17:13):
instrumental? They're 2 songs, I think they're
two separate instrumentals essentially blended into one, I
guess. Yeah, it is a song.
And Alison Krauss gives this intro.
It's essentially her, the dobro dobro player, which is that
guitar instrument with a silver thing in it, right?
Sort of like a slide in between a slide guitar or whatever and a
(17:33):
steel guitar. Jerry Douglas is considered the
best ever player of the dobro. OK, so this is an instrumental
and it's absolutely beautiful. It's what you know, if you like
bluegrass at all for that picking that really the speed.
It's just a beautiful I guess 2 songs.
I highly recommend checking it out.
I don't know why I bought that album.
(17:55):
Me neither. I think I got into the old
brother wear out. Though, OK, yeah, yeah, I, you
know, I'm listening to your songs, most of which I hadn't
heard before it it's very clear that we have two very different
paths of the type of instrumental.
Yes, right. There's like the basically the,
I must say, simple and complex. That's kind of what it is.
It's like there's the the more straightforward and the more
convoluted. Like whichever way you look at
(18:16):
it, it definitely two different vibes.
So my first on the list here is a song called Rhubarb by a FX
twin. It's not called Rhubarb
actually. So he he's one of those artists
that will name, he has like 10 songs that are named Trek or
some shit. It's like it's this convoluted.
(18:37):
What song are you talking about?So the fans basically have to
come up with their. Own and name all the.
Songs, I'm gonna fuck up the detail, but it was something
along the lines of like maybe onthe album or something, there
were pictures associated with itand rhubarb.
Beautiful calm song to fall asleep to.
Electronic dreamy dream core. I'm sure it would be called if
(18:59):
that was the thing it is now it.Is now.
No beautiful song and I listenedto it to chill out quite.
How did you find that song? I think it was just an algorithm
based thing because I listened to things like this to fall.
Same here. And it came up and I and I have
two or three of his albums now, OK.
And I kind of went down a littlebit of a rabbit.
Hole this is on that ambient selected ambient works volume to
(19:20):
this is 1 where it's very dreamyand just fall asleep dude.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great choice.
Check it out. The next instrumental I want to
talk about is by Explosions in the Sky, which Tank and I just
saw maybe a couple years ago now, believe it or not, it's a
song called Your Hand in Mine. And, and funny enough, Tank
actually also one. I did this, Yeah.
When we compared notes I did have it so I dropped it off mine
because it was kind of more his idea than mine.
(19:41):
He introduced me to it so he gets first steps but but I did
include it as my suggestion for the playlist so you'll see it
pop up later. Yeah, if you know, explosions in
the sky or if you don't, it's this guitar quartet essentially
for guitar players, right? In one drum 3-4 whatever and
it's this dreamy, noisy instrumental rock and it's.
If you ever watch Friday Night Lights, your hand and mine is
(20:03):
the song that is featured throughout.
I think it's the theme. It might even be the theme song
to Friday Night Lights, the TV show.
Beautiful song. When my daughter turned 1, I
created a video of. Photos of her throughout her
entire first year. And I timed it to every beat in
your hand of mine. You listened like, that video?
Like, I'm getting goosebumps. Yeah.
(20:24):
Sobbing. I mean like, especially now when
she's 12, it's very hard to watch, but in a good way.
You should you should offer to do that for parents.
Like have them send you picturesthen you do it.
You can just do it in cap cut now and it automatically time
it. They don't know that.
They don't know that that's true.
Forget I said that. Cut coming to you soon, Yeah.
Next up on my list was Ryze by Herb Alpert, late 1979.
(20:48):
I looked OK so. It's well, let it count, yeah.
Yeah, I'm gonna sneak it in there.
Just God I love this song. This is such AU pick it is but.
But it but it is super iconic, right.
So that the the samples that came from it, yes, you know, the
hypnotize is the by far the biggest, but I mean everyone,
(21:09):
you know, I think it'd be fun toplay Rise for younger people
just to wait for their reaction when that part comes up.
I had it. I don't remember this song,
really. So at first I'm like, well, what
the fuck this. I know this bass line.
What is this bass line? And I I actually didn't get it
right away. But then when it gets to the
part, I'm like, oh, OK, that's what this is, Yeah.
Just. A great bass and the bass is
(21:30):
crazy on this Yes yeah, no. Fun song and a ton of nostalgia
obviously, but this is like riding in the back of Dance
Cadillac. Like he's rocking out to this
so. Yeah.
Definitely personal pick. It does make you remember what a
piece of shit producer did. He was, yeah.
He just lifted entire right, just entire songs, right.
(21:50):
Anyway, yeah. He chose the right ones, I
guess, yeah. I mean that's he had that going
for him. The next instrumental on that I
chose was Steve Gunn and David Moore Rhododendron.
I've mentioned this album before, I think it's called
Reflections Volume One. It is a completely improvised
piece between a piano player andan acoustic guitar player.
I could have chose any song fromthis album.
(22:11):
I like this one in particular, but maybe not even just a little
bit more than the rest. Highly recommend this album.
It is a I listen to instrumentals when I read.
I think this is a very chill have a beer, have a cup of
coffee, sit back, read a good book, read a magazine.
Just listen to the vibes. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
And along those same lines, my third choice is a warm place by
(22:32):
9 Inch Nails. It's on the downward spiral and
just, you know, probably I thinkthe peak of his relaxing choices
which which there are not many, there aren't many.
Until you get into the soundtrack work, that's true,
yeah. But maybe kind of a glimpse of
what would become, you know, future work.
That's exactly what I thought, Yeah.
It's like you can hear the Social network soundtrack in
(22:53):
that song. But yeah, it's just kind of.
It's peaceful and haunting at the same time, but another great
song to fall asleep. Too.
Yeah, Yeah, That's, yeah, true. Yeah.
Next instrumental that I really love is by Poppy Ackroyd, who I
know nothing about. I am.
I think she's related to Dan Hackroy.
Probably not. It's a song called Hanover
Birds. It's a piano song.
(23:15):
This came across. I was reading the music blogs
and there was this huge compilation a couple years ago.
Like 10 albums worth the material of songs related to
birds. It was like a National Audubon
Society or some organization like that basically commissioned
all these artists to do songs either about birds or featuring
birds. So a lot of these songs have
field recordings so you can hearthe birds actually in the and
(23:37):
this is one of those songs, I think just think it's beautiful.
It's another chill out song, piano song.
But every time it comes on my wife or my daughter in the car,
they'll go, what is this again? I really like this song.
My second to last choice is YYZ my Brush because they're
Canadian at Zed. Everyone in the whole, I guess
Prague community to some extent,rock and metal community knows
(24:00):
of this song infamously starts off with the Morse code of YYZ.
Fun little trivia there like that.
The inspiration was when they they would always return home to
Toronto after a tour or whateverand they're kind of aviation
geek. So they would go up in the
cockpit and they would hear the Morse code of of the airport and
they thought it had this like rhythmic quality to it.
So that's what they open the thesong with.
(24:23):
One of the more famous instrumentals ever.
There's that classic video of them in Rio where the crowd is
singing along with an instrumental, right?
I mean, technically amazing you could geek out on if you listen
to each individual stem, right? Pretty amazing.
But yeah, sounds kind of dated. Sounds like Rush it's it's it's
(24:43):
an acquired taste, but it's pretty damn good.
It's by. Acquired by a lot of people.
Yeah, just not my Co host, right?
Yeah, yeah, I was. I listened to it.
It was a rough listen. Yeah.
No, it's it's it's. But I get it.
But I get it. Also my last choice because I
disqualified myself by picking something before of 1980 they
called me out for appropriately.I'm service.
(25:03):
Man, that's right. My last pick is a song called
Continuum One by Nalis and Nefro, and the album is called
Continuum and the tracks are just Continuum one through 9.
I think it's like a free jazz. I mean, you listen to it,
ambient kind. It's great work music.
Put it on the background. When you've got some like
spreadsheets to fill out, you'redoing some like very menial,
(25:25):
monotonous stuff. It's it's very soothing.
But enough interest, right, withthe different sounds that are
going on that you're like, it's not completely forgettable.
I really dug this album. I'm trying to get it on vinyl.
Check. It out or just start.
You can't buy it anywhere, so I'd have to order it.
Which, that's fine. I should order it directly from
the artist. Yeah.
Give her the money. That's true.
(25:45):
Yeah, you should. Yeah.
I also don't listen to a lot of female jazz.
That's a problem. OK, This helps me tick off that
box. There's a few of them I went
through that I was going to choose for this, but yeah.
Knowledge and Nefro Continuum 1.They should call female jazz
FAZZ trademark that before it's too late for my final one, which
(26:07):
is my #1 because it's a bit. Because it's the best
instrumental of all time. Oh geez.
Wow, Yeah, I'm putting it out there.
No surprise to anyone who's watches for a while, it's Orion
by Metallica. Isn't that pronounced Orion?
Well, if, if. Where you're living is a
vacation. Yes, you know Cliff Burton's
masterpiece. You know, the I think most
(26:28):
people listen to it would not realize that's a bass guitar
that they're hearing most of thetime.
James does leads that you would think were Kirk just a lot going
on. And like someone pointed out
once and discussing it like their favorite aspect of it is
that it fades in and fades out almost as if there's this
eternal awesome jam going on andyou're just like peeking into it
and then. Coming back out.
But you know, the breakdown in the middle and the only regret
(26:50):
here, and it's really of all of Metallica's earlier work pre
Black album is like, how amazingwould this be if it wasn't
produced like shit? Yes, you know, like there is so
much going on that I wish it wasa high quality, rich, deep, but
it's just kind of tinny and AM radio sounding and.
They can't go back and. Fix that they probably can.
James is very much they've and Justice for All is the the gold
(27:13):
standard of shouldn't you have remixed?
That right? And they're like, Nope, moment
in time, we did it, that's it, it's done.
No, maybe who knows, Before it'sall over, they'll go back and
say fuck it, sure. But beautiful song and you know,
probably a lot would argue them at their musical peak, right,
that it's like of, you know, Cliff was a classic, classically
trained, a fan of classical music and it showed in the way
(27:33):
they built songs so. And really, the only excuse for
a song to fade out is something like this.
Yeah, that's true. Otherwise, fading out sucks.
Yes, yes. Shout out Libby.
We've had an offline conversation about this the
other day. Fading out sucks.
Fun fact that for metallic offense if you're watching, but
My Friend of Misery on the BlackElm was supposed to be the
(27:54):
instrumental, okay? So Jason Newstead wrote, which
is a side note within a side note.
Those four base notes, I think convey A tremendous amount of
emotion in the original version.Okay, which I won't try to
emulate with my voice right now,but he wrote My Friend of Misery
with the intention it would be the instrumental on the Black
Album. Cut had one on every album to
that. Okay, I don't know if it was Bob
(28:14):
Rock, whoever they said, no, we're going to make a song out
of this. And they kept most of it intact.
But a lot of people, myself include, wonder what would it
have been like had that been theinstrumental?
And it probably would have been another great one.
Yeah, sure. Oh well.
But that's it. That is the EP 1010
instrumentals. I should make a playlist out of
it. Maybe I will, I just gave myself
fucking homework like I don't have enough to do.
I will make a playlist of the songs.
(28:35):
And we're going to put a chinchilla on the screen right
here. God damn it.
And a peanut. Damn it it.
Could have been worse. Yes and also I could cut that
cuz I also do the video editing,but I won't.
What gamesmanship right Game recognizes game.
That's right. Got me.
Yeah. So that's probably a huge penis
(28:57):
in my forehead right now. What are some of your favorite
instrumentals? We'd love to know.
Yes, yeah, I would. Yeah, and if they're super poppy
and we've heard them before, great if and if it's something
weird. Great too.
Even better. Let us know, hit us up in the
comments. It's that time again, the
extended playlist where we give you 5 songs to renew your
passion for music. We always pick at least one song
(29:21):
from the album we just reviewed,which this time around was The
Velvet Underground and Nico. We pick a couple wild cards,
just songs that we think fit thevibe.
And then we also pick one or twosongs from the top ten list that
we just did. So let's get into it.
Sunday Morning is the song from the Velvet Underground and Eco,
which is not a surprise. I think it's the easiest to
listen to. They probably put it first on
the album for just that reason, yeah.
(29:53):
Sunday morning. It's just the wasted years so
close behind. The world's behind you.
There's always someone around you who will cover.
It's nothing at all. And, you know, for the vast
(30:26):
majority of people, probably they will find the Best Song of
that out. Yeah, yeah.
Definitely the most accessible for sure.
Yeah. From right into that is my wild
card, which I forgot. I actually I'm calling an
audible right now because I'll tell the story on air.
I initially picked a Talking Head song because I thought, oh,
Velvet Underground art rock, David David Byrne, Talking Heads
(30:46):
art rock, post punk, whatever you want to call it, new wave,
that's what they sound like. The Velvet Underground and
Talking Heads do not sound anything alike.
I learned pretty quickly. So instead I chose I Fought in a
War by Bell and Sebastian. Fought in a warm and I left my
friends behind me to go looking for the enemy and it wasn't very
(31:13):
far before I found out that the sickness there right of me went
beyond the bedsit infamy of a decade gone before I reminded
myself of the word you said we were hung getting up and I bet
(31:38):
you're making shell sparkle. Or is that e-mail to wear and
it's that quality. I love to think of you as if
you're all waiting for this letter to.
I'm right because I'll be here quite a while.
(32:09):
Belle and Sebastian, it's an entire career of songs like
Sunday Morning that it's just this.
And if you remember the the clipfrom High Fidelity where where
John Cusack's character says, I just want something I can listen
to, something I can ignore. It's kind of that breezy, right?
Like very seventies, 60s reminiscent beautiful song.
But if you've heard one Belle and Sebastian song, you've
(32:30):
literally heard every single oneof them.
I fought in a war. And then I think a nice flow
from that would be my wild card pick, which is Retro Vertigo by
Mr. Bungle. Music.
(33:51):
Mr. Bungle's weird intentionallyintentionally weird.
The ever changing, ever ever wacky Mike Patton leading it
vocally. But retro.
Vertigo's a beautiful song, but it combines beautiful and weird
and loud and quiet and I think it's actually pretty good Mix of
the first two on there, but alsoteasing a little bit at the
(34:13):
impending darkness to come. Or at least size and noise.
Sure. What do we have next?
We have your pick as your favorite instrumental or the
best instrumental of all time. All time, right, Which is Orion.
Which is Orion, which you know, I already talked about at
length. But if you haven't already, for
(35:39):
the love of God, listen to it. Yes, yes, please do.
And let's end it with your hand in mind, because we both picked
it by explosions in the sky. I was just saying this completes
(36:59):
like this is a journey, a littlefive song journey and it's a
really good like I will like I make these playlists and I will
link down below on Spotify and YouTube.
I will actually listen to this playlist again cuz I just.
Might do the same. Yeah, it's just a cool vibe.
Let us know what you think aboutthis playlist, about the album
review we did, about our top tenlist.
Just tell us how you're doing. How are you?
(37:20):
We'll listen. Yeah.
Are you OK? Yeah, yeah, I'm not.
I'm not doing very well. No, no, we're struggling.
We're happy to be here. We are happy to be here.
Please tell a friend about extended play.
Please like and subscribe, join our Patreon where you can get
A10 song overextended playlist, which we're going to have to
figure out. There's so many great songs we
talked about today. This one will be easy so and
(37:42):
then join us again. Next time we'll have another
album review, another top ten list and another 5 songs to
renew your passion. All right, see you later.
Bye, guys.
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