Bandsplain

To wrap out the year and our first season at The Ringer, we thought it would be fun to do our own cute little draft. So here it is, The 1992 Music Draft, in which Rob Harvilla and Chris Ryan join Yasi to decide what the best albums, rap songs, rock songs, pop songs, wild cards and music videos of 1992 were. The choices herein may shock even the most passionate of heads. You can follow Rob Harvilla on Twitter @harvilla and Chris Ryan on Twitter @ChrisRyan77 Thanks for listening this year, we’ll see you all back here in 2023 for more episodes of Bandsplain! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teenage Fanclub emerged from the fertile Scottish rock scene of the late 80s as a fully formed power pop band and went on to lead a long, prolific, and often surprising career; from beating out Nirvana to land the top spot on SPIN's best albums of 1991 list to teaming up with De La Soul for a song on the legendary Judgment Night soundtrack to being anointed Liam Gallagher's second favorite band (after Oasis of course) and so much more. Joining Yasi to discuss his number ONE favorite band is Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard You can follow Death Cab For Cutie on Twitter @DCFC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emerging from Seattle’s early 90s grunge landscape, Sunny Day Real Estate became legends of an emerging midwestern emo sound that began to redefine the boundaries of the genre. Meeting us there in the blue where the words are not is writer and podcaster Ian Cohen. Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @en_cohen and listen to his podcast Indiecast @Indiecast1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rolling Stone writer and author Rob Sheffield joins us to dissect the long, storied history of the legendary Big Star, a band with a handful of records and an indelible legacy that reaches beyond the decades of their origin.   Follow Rob Sheffield on Twitter @robsheff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Offspring were one in a wave of southern California bands that ushered in a renewed interest in punk rock to the ears of the masses, becoming one of the best-selling punk rock bands of all time and here to help us come out and play is SPIN Editorial Director, Daniel Kohn. Follow Daniel Kohn on Twitter at @danielkohn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Third Eye Blind may have doot-doot-dooted their way to late 90s radio ubiquity, but there’s so much more to the story. Chris Black returns for a reconsideration of the earworm songwriting and complex lore of the singular Stephen Jenkins. Follow Chris Black on Twitter at @donetodeath. Subscribe to How Long Gone on Spotify  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bad Brains were one of the most influential hardcore bands of all time, from inventing moshing to being groundbreaking black punks who injected hardcore with a Rastafarian philosophy and reggae influence. Though they were “banned in DC,” they built the foundation for hardcore and the history of punk to come. Photographer and unofficial mayor of LA Atiba Jefferson brings his lifelong fandom to the table as he and Yasi chart the history of Bad Brains. Follow Atiba Jefferson on Instagram at @atibaphoto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neutral Milk Hotel released only two studio albums in the mid-to-late 90s, On Avery Island and In An Aeroplane Over the Sea, but they’ve since been consecrated as quintessential indie rock classics. Emerging from the Elephant 6 musical collective, bandleader Jeff Mangum led this eccentric musical experiment that left much mystery, and a large cult following, in its wake. This week, Wall Street Journal’s rock and pop music critic and former editor-in-chief of Pitchfork Mark Richardson joins Yasi to explain Neutral Milk Hotel. Follow Mark Richardson on Twitter at @markrichardson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the mid-70s, four not-so-typical teenage girls came barreling into the nascent UK punk scene. The Slits split in the early 80s, but their impact on punk was profound and foundational. Zoë Howe, author of Typical Girls, the Story of the Slits, joins Yasi to talk about the revolution of the Slits. Follow Zoë Howe on Twitter @ladyzoe2dots, and check out her book, Typical Girls, the Story of the Slits, on her website, zoehowe.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Primus, led by bass-slappin’ virtuoso Les Claypool, emerged from the Bay Area’s funk-punk-metal hybrid scene of the late 80s and 90s, to become a textbook cult band—you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Music journalist Christopher Weingarten makes the case for the true cult fandom of Primus and the oddball, arty genius of Les Claypool. Follow Christopher Weingarten on Twitter @1000TimesYes and pick up his 33 ⅓ book on Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pitchfork’s Quinn Moreland joins us to explain the reverberations of Jenny Lewis’s reign as the queen of 2000s indie rock with her band of Los Angeles darlings, Rilo Kiley. Follow Quinn Moreland on Twitter at @quinnmoreland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once again, Yasi and Producer Dylan take a little breather from the 60 page Google Docs and 5 hour episodes to answer your burning questions, including: the making of Bandsplain, what bands we’re listening to now, and why we haven’t done Guided By Voices yet. Special shout out to our Gen Z listeners who called in, you are very cool. Check out the artists Yasi and Dylan recommended in this episode: Turnstile Enumclaw Big Thief Soccer Mommy Snail Mail SASAMI Girlpool Wednesday OVLOV Young Guv Fucked Up Niis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In honor of 3/11 day, we present to you: 311. Purveyors of positivity as well as amber-colored energies, 311’s extensive career gets a thorough and loving look from writer and known Excitable, Marty Sartini Garner. Follow Marty Sartini Garner at @mrrrty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Songwriter laureate of Los Angeles Randy Newman gets explained by the Valley’s own Molly Lambert. Infinitely more prolific, and controversial, than his common image suggests as the “I Love LA” and Toy Story theme song guy, Molly takes Yasi on a tour of his extensive and complex oeuvre as Hollywood songman. Follow Molly Lambert at @mollylambert. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sublime, the ultimate legacy band for stoner kids everywhere, get explained by return guest Jeff Weiss. Jeff joins Yasi to make the case on how Sublime’s Long Beach heritage and their of-its-time infusions of ska, punk, rock, and reggae made them a ubiquitous Southern Californian musical export, even after singer Bradley Newell’s passing in 1996. Follow Jeff Weiss at @passionweiss and check out The LAnd magazine at @theLAndmagazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan joins us for a long-awaited Bandsplain on one of Yasi’s all-time favorite bands: Pavement. Steeped in Californian suburban ennui, the casual, scruffy brilliance of Pavement pierced through the indie rock heyday of the post-grunge 90s to make them one of the most enduring rock bands from that moment. Follow Chris Ryan on Twitter at @ChrisRyan77 and check out his Ringer podcasts The Watch, The Rewatchables, Music Exists, and The Ringer NBA Show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Minutemen from San Pedro, CA were a band of childhood soulmates whose experimental sound, working class roots, and lucid politics made them all-timers in the history of punk. Joe Gross returns to highlight Minutemen’s DIY ethos of “jamming econo,” and the timeless influence they had on the whole of independent music that came after them. Follow Joe Gross on Twitter at @joegross and pick up his 33 ⅓ book on Fugazi’s In On the Killtaker wherever fine books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our Red Hot Chili Peppers Gen X-pert Joseph Patel, producer of Summer of Soul, returns to Bandsplain one of the Pep’s most influential, yet underappreciated, LA scene contemporaries: Fishbone. Their eclectic fusions of punk, funk, ska, metal, and soul earned these childhood friends from South Central a true cult following in the late 80s and early 90s, despite the industry racism and internal dysfunction that fumbled their mainstream potential. Follow Joseph Patel on Twitter at @jazzbeezy and watch his documentary Summer of Soul. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barry Johnson of Joyce Manor joins Yasi for a thorough investigation into Weezer, the early nineties major label breakouts who have served as a gateway rock band for many a preteen since. Barry and Yasi plumb the depths of one idiosyncratic frontman, Rivers Cuomo, while examining the transmutations of alt-rock from the nineties to the aughts, and Weezer’s robustly maintained fandom community who’ve stayed with them to this day. Follow Barry Johnson on Twitter at @joycemanor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bob Mehr returns to Bandsplain for an in-depth look at oft overlooked stalwarts of the 90s rock charts, Gin Blossoms. Looking at the history before a slew of hit singles brought the band into the realm of grocery store soundtrack ubiquity (Hey Jealousy, Found Out About You, Follow You Down), Bob leads us through their origins in Tempe, Arizona’s fruitful scene of the late 80s and the tragic story of songwriter Doug Hopkins to the admirable longevity of some of their best-crafted rock songs. Content warning: this episode addresses suicide and substance abuse. Follow Bob Mehr on Twitter at @BobMehr and find Trouble Boys: the True Story of the Replacements wherever books are sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices