Let the Music Be Your Master

Ever listen to a song and think to yourself, “This song should be a huge hit! Why isn’t everyone else listening to it right now? Am I the only person in the world with good taste?!” Well, you’re not alone. In this episode we share songs/artists that we are positive should be way more popular than they seem to be at the moment.

In celebration of American Independence Day (we recorded this on July 4th), we honor all those who have the courage to resist oppression and injustice, in whatever form it happens to take. For those of you with inclinations towards resistance, we discussed possibilities for a soundtrack/playlist to steel you for the task ahead. Listen to the playlist here: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ0UYcHeKJCQuTitQMyhwJkNGEqWj2sGq&si=wFO9nkNyjmXnqCXj  

After a long hiatus, we’re back, just in time to tease each other about our year end wrapped (or recap, or whatever apple music does) lists. Fun Fact: the only artist to make all four of our wrapped lists: …there wasn’t one. That’s how unique we are, guys! Here’s another fun matching question: Match the artist to the podcaster who listened to them the most: 1. White Zombie 2. Sufjan Stevens 3. Chuck Mangione 4. GZA Answers are found in the pod. Also, who’s list starts out with these tracks? And what’s wrong with “Sensory Alignment II”?! Why is it nowhere to be found in the entire top 100? Tune in to find out. Love you!

Our final (for now) round of Ablum Swap. Can Steve finally appreciate Sufjan Stevens? What is Brian’s reaction to finally hearing Dark Side of the Moon for the first time? Tune in to find out.   Courtesy of thehardtimes.net: Screenshot

Another round of Album Swap, this time featuring Brian Croxall, in which we share our thoughts on  Song of Innocence by David Axelrod, Wrong by Nomeansno, No Blues by Los Campesinos!, The Magnolia Electric Co. by Songs: Ohia, and Teenager of the Year by Frank Black.

Did you know that last episode was the season finale of season 3? Neither did we. What makes a season in a podcast? No clue. But here we are, episode 1 of Season 4. If there was a theme or goal of season 3, it was to get a variety of guests on the pod. And I’d say we were pretty successful. We got a chance to talk with Gentry Densley, Steve Kesler, Pete Baumann, Janell Tuttle, Brian Watts, Michael Hicks, and Brian Croxall (2 or 3 times!). Great stuff. This season we’re planning on focusing on the Album as an art form. For the first episode, each of us was assigned a secret Santa podcast member and we had to choose an album the we loved that they had never listened to and they would give it a serious listen and report back on their thoughts and feelings. After this episode, I think we all came away with the same burning question: Does Steve like New Wave because it’s fun? Or is Steve fun because he likes New Wave? That one won’t be answered today, and probably not tomorrow, but there’s plenty of fun to be had in this episode and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

The original intent of this episode was to establish the 2nd floor of the Metal wing of our Hall of Fame. The 1st floor consists of only bands/music up to 1991. So here we are picking up where we left off, focusing on heavy music from 1990ish onwards. But now in hindsight, let’s say this episode isn’t so much a permanent Hall of Fame addition as it is a current exhibition about the topic. Either way, enjoy!

This time around we’re playing musical connections. Join us in trying to find the commonalities in each others picks.

We’re taking a break from our usual nostalgic tendencies and instead focusing on new music, or at least music that is new to us, as well as discussion of favorite methods for finding new music.

A tribute to David “Trugoy the Dove” Jolicoeur, and Burt Bacharach.

Jason leads us through a discussion of how music triggers and influences our memories.

Will the night last forever? Stay by my side ‘Cause tonight, together Would be divine – Low, “Will the Night”  

Thank you to Steve Kesler for guiding us through some great moments in The Dead’s vast collection of recordings.

Sometimes dreams do come true. With this episode, they came true for us as we got to sit down with Gentry Densley of Iceburn and Eagle Twin. Join us as we dig into some of his musical and literary inspirations, recording techniques, composition philosophies, and tales of debauchery at the University Mall.

This is for those of you that wanted to hear even more of our thoughts regarding Easy Listening tunes. Thank you to our guest, Janell Tuttle.

Jordan guides us on a tour through the mellow sounds of Soft Rock, Yacht Rock, Easy Listening, and other forms of “grown folks” music. With special guest, Janell Tuttle.  

This episode has been a long time coming. In case you can’t tell, we here at Let the Music Be Your Master (most of us, at least) are fans of Neil Percival Young. He is featured on our Tshirts and even our tiny little logo on your web browser tab, and I think embodies a lot of what we are trying to do as music appreciators, educators, and sometime creators. So we are happy to pay tribute to Mr. Young on this episode, and are even happier that we were joined by Brian Watts, a great friend of ours and a true Neil Young evangelist (not apologist). What are your favorite Neil Young songs? What did we miss? Let us know in the comments.

Wherein we wax nostalgic about our favorite themes of TV shows past and present.

In this episode we are joined by Dr. Michael Hicks, professor emeritus of music composition at Brigham Young University, to discuss the idea of musical virtuosos and share some of our favorite examples.

To kick off Season 3 of LTMBYM, we are exploring the geneology of some of our favorite bands. Jordan gave us the challenge to choose an artist from the 60’s or earlier, and then trace their musical influence lineage through the decades.