My Favorite Album With Jeremy Dylan

Today, Rock critic, author and podcaster Steven Hyden returns to the show to talk about his fantastic book on Radiohead’s 'Kid A' album, This Isn’t Happening (now available in paperback). We talk about how Radiohead fans will always look for meaning in their lyrics despite Thom Yorke’s best efforts, the context of the early 21st century that the album existed in and how it seemingly presaged the cultural trends of the last 20 years, how the book forms part of a loose potential trilogy with Steven’s previous book Twilight of the Gods and whatever he might write next, whether Radiohead’s career is more like the Beatles or the Stones, the underrated importance of Ed O’Brien in the band, that it’s a miracle any bands stay together and if bands ever really break up in the modern age.

Today actor/musician Jeremiah Craft (Bill & Ted Face the Music, Girls 5Eva) joins me to delve into the newest album we’ve ever covered on the show, Jaden Smith’s 2019 LP ‘Erys’. We talk about the ambition of the record, how it acts as a conceptual sequel to Jaden’s debut ‘Syre’, how Will Smith inspired Jeremiah to start acting, the pressures of living up to famous parents, why this is one of the few albums Jeremiah listens to in full and more. Plus we discuss creating characters and Jeremiah’s process for playing Louis Armstrong, what his dream role would be, the contrasts between stage, film and TV acting and how playing other people can reveal truths about yourself.

Today, Australian broadcasting legend Stan Grant joins me to talk about friend of the show Jonathan Wilson’s quasi-debut ‘Gentle Spirit’. Stan opens up about how he discovered the record while dealing with PTSD and the emotional fall out of years embedded in war zones as a foreign correspondent. We talk about how this album revealed Wilson as a songwriter and artist in his own right, as he was mainly known as a great producer and instrumentalist. We break down the influences on the record, from Neil Young to Pink Floyd to The Beatles and more, and how Wilson stays on the right side of inspiration rather than pastiche. We talk about why Stan never became a musician himself, his memories of seeing Wilson play live in LA and how music has influenced Stan’s writing.

Singer-songwriter and man probably coming out of your car radio right now JP Saxe joins me for a surprising favorite album pick - jazz piano legend Keith Jarrett’s 1975 live album “The Köln Concert”. We talk about the strange backstory behind the album - a dyspeptic artist, a teenage concert promoter, the wrong piano and a show that almost didn’t happen - and more including the time JP met and had a confrontation with Jarrett, how Jarrett improvises and how JP is able to improvise in his own shows, whether anger is productive as creative fuel, building and releasing tension and more. Plus, on the verge of releasing his debut album, JP talks about the albums he measured himself against and the pressure on your first LP.

Today, film journalist, author and Empire podcast geek queen Helen O’Hara joins me to dig into her epic new book, Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film. We talk about how the research and writing process was effected by the pandemic, choosing which topics to cover, the forgotten early female filmmaking pioneers, how the Hayes censorship code led to better roles for women, diversity in superhero and franchise films, the ‘Smurfette’ principle and more.

Today, the great Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings, Lost, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan) joins me for a truly epic deep dive into The Beatles White Album. We get into Dom’s Beatles origin story, his conflicted feelings about John Lennon, how the album is an audition for the Beatles respective solo careers, his Beatles tattoos and whether he has pried an early look at Peter Jackson’s new Beatles documentary out of his old mate. But the real meat of this episode is a track by track exploration of the entire double album, from Back in the USSR to Good Night. It is the considered opinion of this podcast that nothing beats a full spectrum Beatles nerd out, and this is one for the ages.

Fresh off releasing the greatest album of 2021, Middle Kids frontwoman Hannah Joy makes a welcome return to the show to talk about The National’s seminal 2013 album ‘Trouble Will Find Me’. We talk about The National’s reputation as a band who make ‘grower’ albums, how this album represents the culmination of the band’s career to that time, the use of rhythm, space and texture and how that influenced the new Middle Kids album, integrating family dynamics into a band, how to age gracefully as a rock band and the cocktail bar in Portland where the drinks are inspired by National songs. Plus Hannah reveals the most contentions albums each Middle Kids member has tried to play in the band van while on tour.

Today I’m joined by Australian music legend Murray Cook (The Wiggles, The Soul Movers) to discuss David Bowie’s nailed-on glam rock classic ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’. Murray tells the tale of how he traded away a Slade LP for this album, we debate its ‘concept album’ bonafides, we gush over the greatness of Spiders guitarist Mick Ronson, why the record was more successful than Hunky Dory, the unique sequencing of the album, how Bowie stayed cool til the end, his “cut up” method of writing lyrics, why he was such an effective collaborator and more.

Today, the woman being El Perro del Mar, Sarah Assbring, goes from subject of this podcast to a guest, as she joins me in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Spiritualized’s 2001 album ‘Let It Come Down’. We talk about how the album shook up Sarah’s life during a period where she had walked away from performing as a singer-songwriter, how the ambition of the record continues to inspire her, the incredible scope of the album’s orchestrations and emotions, the relationship between the album and religiosity, how Sarah has found her own version of the wall of sound used on this album and how she still harbours ambitions to create a record with a similar scope.

Today spellbinding singer-songwriter-doctor Sophie Payten aka Gordi joins me to dive into the world of Bon Iver’s 2016 game changer ‘22, A Million’. We dig into how Sophie feels about frequent comparisons between her and Bon Iver, how this album upended what people thought of as Bon Iver’s sound, different interpretations of the album’s opening line ‘It might be over soon’, what it was like for Sophie to work with this album’s co-producer and mixer on her latest record, the unpronounceable track names and how she ended up singing with Bon Iver on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Plus, we chat about Sophie’s new single, a duet with friend of the show Alex Lahey about my favorite dive bar, Dinos in East Nashville.

Australian comedy legend Colin Lane (Lano and Woodley) is a self-proclaimed sceptic when it comes to people’s deep emotional connection to pop stars, but he proves a game guest on this week’s podcast, as he and I mark Elton John’s first appearance on the show by talking about ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. We get into the ins and outs of Elton’s partnership with Bernie Taupin, how much the songs reflect Bernie’s point of view over Elton’s, Colin’s own insights on how to keep a creative partnership together over multiple decades, the beautiful ‘naffness’ of Elton’s music, whether it’s becoming more acceptable to sing explicitly about same sex relationships in pop music and a great rollicking chat about the Elton biopic Rocket Man and why we feel like it was far superior than Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Today one Australia’s most compelling artists, Mo’Ju, joins me for a celebration of the love child of Raymond Chandler and the Cookie Monster, Tom Waits, and his classic 1978 album ‘Blue Valentine’. We talk about the Tom Waits musical universe, how Waits uses a clearly defined persona to keep his private life private, the film noir sensibility that pervades Waits’ lyrics, how Mo’Ju chased the sound of Waits’ records in her early music, how Waits made the grotesque and the mundane beautiful, the different definitions of authenticity in art, double standards around lyrical content for different types of artists and much more.

Today music journalist (People, Rolling Stone) and co-host of the Rivals podcast Jordan Runtagh joins me from New York City to finally tackle one of our white whales - The Beach Boys immortal classic ‘Pet Sounds’. Yes, somehow we are in year eight of the show without anyone doing the record. Never fear, we get into it in some detail today, from the background of the record and Brian Wilson’s shift to non-touring creative genius, the intra-family fights between Brian and Mike Love, the contrasts between Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt Pepper, the starkness of the lyrics, the contributions of the Wrecking Crew and Jordan’s experiences interviewing Brian Wilson and how this album helped him connect with his father.

Today we’re bringing you a fascinating conversation with Batwoman’s Nicole Kang on country icon Patsy Cline’s ‘Sentimentally Yours’, the last album the legendary singer recorded before her tragically premature death at age 30. Nicole tells the story of how Cline’s music formed part of the tapestry of her childhood and became an essential shibboleth of her relationship with her taciturn immigrant father and spoke to his relationship with his adopted home country. Nicole tells the story of discovering the album anew as an adult in the midst of heartbreak and how it led her to open a new dialogue with her father about her childhood. We talk about identity, assimilation, direct emotion, the idea of Nicole playing Patsy on Broadway, the mystique around artists who died young and Nicole performs a poem from her one-woman show that speaks to the impact of Patsy Cline’s music on her.

Today New York bred Nashville based singer-songwriter Jillette Johnson joins me on the eve of her new album release, to discuss Patty Griffin’s game-changing genre-defying second album Flaming Red. Like Bob Dylan, Patty shocked a lot of people when she ‘went electric’ on this record, and we get into why this album was different to her folky debut, the reactions upon its release, why it’s impossible to put Patty in a genre box, how Jillette has been inspired to expand and evolve her sound on her new record and more. We dig into seminal songs like ‘One Big Love’, ‘Tony’ and more, the different lyrical modes Patty deploys across the record, and the contributions from producer Jay Joyce and the other stellar musicians who played on the record.

Today, legendary songwriter and Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson joins me to talk about the Joni Mitchell masterpiece that isn’t ‘Blue’ - 1976's ‘Hejira’. We talk about where the title came from, how a teenage infatuation led Dan to Joni, why Jaco Pastorius is like Hannibal Lector, the album’s lyrical themes of groundedness vs freedom, key songs like Amelia and Furry Sings the Blues and how Dan’s relationship with the album changed when he started writing his own songs.

We’re kicking off 2021 with the legendary producer, guitarist and singer/songwriter Daniel Lanois, talking about one of the greatest debut albums of all time, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s 1967 barnstormer ‘Are You Experienced?’ We delve into Daniel’s discovery of the record while he was a teenage record producer in Canada, how the album opened up his imagination, the idiosyncrasies and nuances of Hendrix’s guitar playing technique and how it’s influenced Lanois’ own approach to the instrument, Mitch Mitchell’s jazz influenced drumming and some of the studio innovations that made the album special. Daniel also talks about reimagining ‘May This Be Love’ with Emmylou Harris when they recorded it for her classic album ‘Wrecking Ball’. Plus I pick Daniel’s brain about the making of my favorite Willie Nelson album ‘Teatro’, which he produced and was the subject of a previous episode of this show.