Song Exploder on Netflix

Dave Merrill

Dave Merrill

Axe-Master
Great show, highly recommended. Interesting discussions with the creators, really wide variety of non-trivial music.

It's new to me, but my understanding is that it was (and maybe still is?) a podcast before it was streaming.

Good stuff. Wish there was more.
 
I had not heard about this. Looking forward to checking out some of those podcasts. Thanks for sharing this.
 
I saw the Dua Lipa song exploder
Then I saw the "classic albums" stuff - on Amazon Prime I believe

Dua Lipa was basically laptop-slinging jingle/hook writers, writing by recipe and doing all the work. Then Lipa comes in, does what they tell her to do, writes the lyrics and then calls it her song. No band playing together, lots of samples and laptops, etc -- very depressing.

The classic albums series are epic soul-searching adventure stories of bands and studios squeezing everything they had, and everything they were onto tape. They are stories of artists bonded by fate, busting ass to forge new ground and make something unlike anything that had come before, something that would remain relevant throughout and beyond their lifetime -- very inspiring.

Examples:
  • Judas Priest were slamming silverware drawers onto the kitchen floor trying to literally get more "metal" in their metal. They banged on guitar cases (and compressed the s*** out of it) trying to get a bull whip sound because their actual bullwhip sounded horrible. And they were doing their album in a big house because the studio they started in was small, dead acoustics, etc. and they wanted arena metal - turns out the secret to arena metal is in the stairway entry room.
  • And then there was Peter Gabriel who is so slow at writing and so prone to distraction his engineer shattered three of his house phones and locked him into a barn to keep him focused and writing.
  • There are trash can lids in one of Steely Dan's epic hits; they isolate them on the board, and their engineer confesses everyone except Fagan and Becker were lost in the forest and unsure if all the stuff they were recording would ever come together or sound good.
  • Who's Next was actually a pivot - it was the third attempt at a second album after the first two attempts were complete disasters 1) doing a follow-up rock opera, followed by 2) doing some bizarre live interaction/performance music evolution thing with live audience participation.
  • On Fleetwood Mac Rumors they wore out the tape and had to MANUALLY sync a backup recording of the drums to the finished takes -- before SMPTE or other sync existed. Yes, some poor schmuck with a golden ear and the dexterity of a brain surgeon had to sit there with headphones and his thumb on the tape flange listening for the slightest phase slip and compensating in real time.
  • The stories go on and on.
Song exploder did not "esplode" much of anything for me, but I'll give it another chance.
 
Last edited:
solo-act said:
I saw the Dua Lipa song exploder
Then I saw the "classic albums" stuff - on Amazon Prime I believe

Dua Lipa was basically laptop-slinging jingle/hook writers, writing by recipe and doing all the work. Then Lipa comes in, does what they tell her to do, writes the lyrics and then calls it her song. No band playing together, lots of samples and laptops, etc -- very depressing.

The classic albums series are epic soul-searching adventure stories of bands and studios squeezing everything they had, and everything they were onto tape. They are stories of artists bonded by fate and busting ass to forge new ground, to make something unlike anything that had come before that would remain relevant throughout and beyond their lifetime -- very inspiring.

Examples:
  • Judas Priest were slamming silverware drawers onto the kitchen floor trying to literally boost "metal" in their metal. They banged on guitar cases (and compressed the s*** out of it) trying to get a bull whip sound because their actual bullwhip sounded horrible. And they were doing their album in a big house because the studio they started in was small, dead acoustics, etc. and they wanted arena metal - turns out the secret to arena metal is in the stairway entry room.
  • And then there was Peter Gabriel who is so slow at writing and so prone to distraction his engineer shattered three of his house phones and locked him into a barn to keep him focused and writing.
  • There are trash can lids in one of Steely Dan's epic hits; they isolate them on the board, and their engineer confesses everyone except except Fagan and Becker were completely lost and clueless if all the stuff they were recording would ever come together or sound good.
  • Who's Next was actually a pivot - the third attempt at doing a second album after the first two attempts were complete disasters 1) doing a follow-up rock opera, and 2) doing some bizarre live interaction/performance music evolution with live audience thing.
  • On Fleetwood Mac Rumors they wore out the tape and had to MANUALLY sync a backup recording of the drums to the finished takes -- before SYMPTE or other sync. Yes, some poor schmuck with a golden ear and the dexterity of brain surgeon had to sit there with headphones and his thumb on the tape flange listening for the slightest phase slip and compensating in real time. The stories go on and on.
Song exploder did not "esplode" much of anything for me, but I'll give it another chance.
Click to expand...
Totally agree, the Classic Album series is freaking AWESOME!
 
I really enjoyed the Dua Lipa Song Exploder. Hadn't heard her before, and couldn't put my finger on what I liked exactly, but there's something about her voice and presence that I dug. Didn't care so much for the rest of the latest Netflix season, too bad.

I like the Classic Albums stuff too, have a few on DVD even. The Grateful Dead one about Anthem Of The Sun and American Beauty is kind of amazing. The Robert Hunter sections are really moving actually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom