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How would you describe Bandsplain to the uninitiated?
Bandsplain is a show where I invite an expert guest on to help explain a cult band or iconic artist (these two terms cover every artist on Earth, leave me alone) in absolute bone-chilling detail using their discography as a guide. It's really just a place for me to indulge what a friend has described as my "tendency to become fixated on things."
How does Bandsplain compare to other music podcasts?
Well, I don't listen to that many other music podcasts (apologies to the music-podcaster community). But the main differences are that it's like two to three times as long as others (episodes run between three and five hours). We have the room we need to talk about what is often the 30- to 50-year history of a given artist. The other difference is that it’s hosted by a woman with extreme vocal fry and brain-dead diction.
Why open the season with Smashing Pumpkins?
I wanted to open the season with my absolute best friend in the whole world, Robert L. Harvilla. I also wanted to open with a fairly big band that we both loved, and since we're both around the same age and the ’90s is our sweet spot, it seemed like the best (and funniest) choice.
We have a recurring thing on the show about the post–“Smells Like Teen Spirit” and pre–“Smells Like Teen Spirit” world, and Smashing Pumpkins was particularly fascinating in that regard. Gish came out just a few months before Nevermind, and it really musically had very few of the same reference points, but it was swept up in what became known as "grunge." Also I'm just obsessed with Billy Corgan. I think he gets a bad rap because he is brutally honest in a way that makes people have to confront their own shadows. That makes him super interesting, both as an artist and as a public figure that is supposed to be "cool."
What else can we expect out of this season?
Without giving too much away: the band that maybe literally created indie rock, some pretty fly white guys, one-half of the brocast How Long Gone, and continued egregious abuse of the word "babe."
Last question: What’s the deal with the Reply Guy?
This is an existential question best posed to the Reply Guy himself. I am simply a vessel.
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