The Album Concept Hour

It the Return of the KING... King Diamond that is!!!! After 28 years... wait, no I think it was 18 years... *checks notes* Oh... After 14 YEARS, King Diamond finally delivered to us one of the greatest concept album sequels of all time... and DEFINITELY the spookiest. .. This is one for the books, we hope you enjoy it!!!!

Show Links:

Eating Hot Wings while listening to Baroness: https://youtu.be/CoDzq-FzOqg

Video Essay about Fascism and the R-Word: https://youtu.be/J6k7N7el160?si=19wr72wYmwSLXZhu

We've covered King Gizzard and King Crimson as well as Freddie King and Carole King... We've discussed Operation Mindcrime (1 and 2!!!)... We followed the life of the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son... We've even discussed throwbacks to 80s speed metal with Lords of the Trident... But nothing could have prepared us for... THE HORROR!!!!!! That's right, today, we're listening to the album equivalent of a haunted house. It's got curses, it's got ghouls, and it's got SCREAMS galore!!!!!!!

Show Links:

Video Essay about Fascism and the R-Word: https://youtu.be/J6k7N7el160?si=19wr72wYmwSLXZhu

We're doing another Artist Spotlight, where we interview an artist about THEIR album, including all our musing, breakdowns, and judgement!

Today we have none other than two time guest and all time Engineer--it's Jordan Duffy!!!! She has a brand new album out all about her experiences of love and loss while dating in LA. It's a raw and real look into the weird dating world we find ourselves in 2025. It's a fun pop experience and has a variety of genres and we'd argue it's even a concept album! Join us today as we get the entire process with Jordan and learn a little about the LA dating scene...

Show Links:

Nights Like These music video: https://youtu.be/ZkQuTCO7If0?si=QCUpduwHTR4Wd2sa

Jordan Duffy's website: https://www.jordanduffymusic.com/

Donna the Dead Presents: Sex Ed for the Undead: https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Ed-Undead-Zombie-Position/dp/1494995077

What's with all this Dominator culture? Are we going to succumb to Electricide or are we going to Feminize? Humanic and technologic revolution is possible. But only if we take the reigns of... DATA DOOM.

Very special guests in the studio today, all three member of Lunar Moth: Mac, Gage, and Amber!!! They suggested this album and we are glad they did! Frankie and the Witch Fingers rules!

Episode Links:

Lunar Moth website: https://lunarmothband.com

Lunar Moth on Bandcamp: https://lunarmothwi.bandcamp.com/album/lamplight

Frankie and the With Fingers on bandcamp: https://frankieandthewitchfingers.bandcamp.com/album/trash-classic

It's 1962. Ray Charles is several albums into his deal with ABC-Paramount. It's one of the greatest deals a musician has ever received from a label, but Ray is not satisfied. You see, he doesn't like the notion that his songs should be segregated into R&B charts and put in a separate category than Country. After all, they both sing from the soul about heart ache and sadness and have a lot in common. Despite some initial opposition from his management, Ray pushed forward to make a crossover record in the midst of a civil rights movement that was in full force. This album took the radio by storm. They were playing it on R&B stations, Country stations, black stations, white stations--and it went straight to number one on the charts, his first album ever to do that.

A night out on the town... A heavy traffic jam... And one. wrong. turn. Don't Move. Don't Whisper. Don't Even Breathe... because its... Judgement Night...

...and it's got the most killer soundtrack.

Links:

Judgement Night trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5p7wq2PcJM

Judgement Night full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW4CFfpX0ps&t=3436s

There comes a time in every boys life... That they must put away childish things... They must set aside their dick and fart jokes and have real observations about the world... They must stop their constant talk of jissom and dog's anus's... And when the boys put away childish things... they are able to create music... for adults...

But all jokes aside, it's an incredible album with an incredible guest appearance from Robert Smith and they did indeed show people that they can be serious... when they want to.

Links:

blink-182 Untitled Album Documentary Reaction Livestream with Mark: https://youtu.be/9XcNlLIiXC4?si=sEPgitxlKOVtRZ4F

Blink 182 - Always Music Video: https://youtu.be/CvtJVku_mJw?si=1ybMRvJq78AoBT4P

Today on the podcast, class is back in session with our professor of new wave, Adam Elk! But today he's lecturing on a different genre with the same attitude: Punk (with a specialty in Costello). Join us as we learn why Elvis Costello is still so highly regarded all these years later and learn about the state of punk before the genre was cast in stone.

Links:

Get "One Eyed Band" on the Mommyheads website: https://www.mommyheads.com/

Buke and Gass: NPR Tiny Desk: https://youtu.be/-wQv60dxAUU?si=Rks0uVjWBRHKOyOd

Scoochie Boochie "Car Butt" music video: https://youtu.be/gvjYP5d7La8?si=V0TNkOS471C8khvx

On today's episode of "Musicians that should be a household name" we're talking about Harry Nilsson!!! Sure, he was talked about plenty in his day, but what if I were to tell you that "One is the loneliest number", "Put the lime in the coconut", and the "Gotta get up" song from the show Russian Doll were all from the same dude! Would you talk about him then?? Nilsson was a songwriter's songwriter and you'll have to listen to this episode to find out why.

Aaaaannd, today we have on another member of the 200 podcast episodes club, with George Heftler of the recently defunct "Best Little Horror Pod In Philly", in which every episode for 200 episodes, he (and his famous guests) tried to determine what the best horror movie ever made was. Round of applause for that!!!!

Links:

George and Brad discuss Holy Mountain: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-best-little-horror-house-i-1000453/episodes/the-holy-mountain-1973-with-br-177009691

Scoochie Boochie "Car Butt" music video: https://youtu.be/gvjYP5d7La8?si=V0TNkOS471C8khvx

snowd4y - "Wah Gwan Delilah" (feat Drake) Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRtyGtjgcNo

When you think of the city Toronto, there are a few names come to mind. Drake... snowd4y................... the rest. But there's one Torontonian that both Drake and snowd4y look up to and respect. One Torontonian that walked, so that Drake could run. One Torontonian that's actually...weirdly connected to Drake... in the sense that his next album is financed by him... That's right. I'm talking about the GOAT of the Toronto Hip Hop scene, K-OS and we're discussing his debut album paradoxically about his EXIT from the music industry. AND we are joined by none other than actual Canadian Kelly from the Canuck is a Slur podcast!!!

Links:

MISSING

Stranger Abduction

Name: Ethel Cain ... Age: 20 ... Sex: Female ... Height: 5'8" ... Weight: 132 lbs ... Hair Color: Brown ... Eyes: Green

Circumstances:

Ethel was last seen Saturday, January 13 (1991) at 3:15 A.M being forced into a black, short-bed pickup truck in the old Winn Dixie parking lot on Abrams Street in Arlington, Texas. A witness said a white man kidnapped her.

Contact: Arlington Police Department (000) 000-0000

Links:

HO HO HO....MEEEERRRRRY CHRISTMASSS..... It's that time of year again where we are good to each other for about a week! Let's make this one count cause it's going to be a bumpy one next year! Let's enjoy this calm before the proverbial storm by loving our neighbors as ourselves, especially the ones that are worrying about being torn from their homes by Christmas next year! Again, MERRRRYYYY CHRIIMMMNSAAAAAS!!!!

I suppose I should have said something about the Muppets and how awesome they are or something.

Links:

The year is 1967. A lot of popular musicians are moving towards psychedelia. It's kind of a buttoned up movement still--on the surface people still look business casual, even if their hair is getting long. The San Francisco hippie scene hasn't yet merged with the British invasion. But all that would change during the "Summer of Love", when they all came together and made a promise to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Jefferson Airplane took center stage as the group most representative of that ethos, with their recent addition of model-turned-singer, Grace Slick on vocals. She brought with her a few songs from her previous group, The Great Society that would come to define the hippie movement as a whole; the pop hit "Somebody to Love" and the moody psychedelic anthem "White Rabbit". The concept behind Surrealistic Pillow...? Acid... It's a lot of acid.

Links:

Join us this week as a mentally unwell man (Brad) attempts to explain the story of The Parallax II to a friend just trying to have a good time (Dave) in this paranoia filled, unaliving obsessed (TW), cosmic horror/power fantasy. Also, it's about isolation and entanglement... and the beginning of everything... or something like that. Idk, we drank a few beers and tried to unravel the story, but I think it just unraveled us.

Links:

The Guide to The Parallax II: Future Sequence: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetweenTheBuriedAndMe/comments/18nsky/the_guide_to_the_parallax_ii_future_sequence/

Ranking Concept Albums Tier List: https://tiermaker.com/create/ranking-concept-albums-17464908

It's the 5th anniversary show... kind of. We're a little late but there were some time travel shenanigans that we had to attend to. Anyway, we love you all and we appreciate listening to our ramblings all these years. Be good to each other out there.

Links:

The Gizzverse Explained playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLluo87o05TIGLPcsQ6ZZj-AZtSqEeHY0n&si=LVplGO-ACZ7XOv2O

Ranking Concept Albums Tier List: https://tiermaker.com/create/ranking-concept-albums-17464908

Full Livestream of the episode: https://youtube.com/live/WE2UB4P5vmk?feature=share

Soooo... Last week we were glazing pretty hard about our boys in The Pink Floyd... but this week... the glazing has come to a hard stop. Maybe it's the weird production choices, maybe it's the awesome album cover for a below average Floyd album, maybe it's the fact that we JUST listened to Meddle, in which they perfect what they were trying to accomplish here with the "Atom Heart Mother" suite. Maybe we've become cynical and jaded. Either way, if you want to hear us be critical about Floyd for once, this is the episode for it! Sorry in advance to all the Atom Heart Mother die hards...

Links:

Pink Floyd Members and the Critics - Atom Heart Mother (documentary): https://youtu.be/HavV_UNOrpI?si=mJtxhLFhz0K1ZL_b

Pink Floyd's Entire Discography But It's Just Body Parts: https://youtu.be/csDwthoiojk?si=H-bWLhlFV8_JNIZs

MELLOW HARSHER: "THIS CAN ONLY BE AS TERRIBLE AS WE ARE" A Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBaW5NYmFE

Full Livestream of the episode: https://youtube.com/live/HxVp_ZyFgDo?feature=share

We're officially in the throes of SEASON 5!!! And you know that means that it's time to talk about another Pink Floyd album in our series going backwards through their discography. Last time we left our heroes, they were throwing together an album that was for a movie, but also wasn't? (i don't remember that feels like a lifetime ago). However, before that, they had achieved what would become their signature sound, with the long-crafted compilation of various "nothings" they had left on the cutting room floor throughout the years. That achievement was called "Echoes" and it takes up the entire B side of Pink Floyd's 4th (or 5th) record, "Meddle". Side A also has some songs that would become Floyd classics, such as "Fearless" and "One of These Days". It's underrated by the casual rock fan, and overrated by Floyd purists. Either way, it's a magical and important piece to the Pink Floyd journey.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Brad was incorrect when he said they didn't perform the whole "Echoes" suite live in Pompeii. He was just looking at a shorter version of it on YouTube, like a chump.

Links:

Pink Floyd - "Echoes" Live in Pompeii: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGwPSPIhohk&t=5s

"It's Three O'Clock, Go To Your Sink, Pour Some Milk, And Start To Think .​.​.​About This Terrific New 'Beach Boys' Tribute From The Sad Milk Collective​!​!​!": https://sadmilkcollective.bandcamp.com/album/its-three-oclock-go-to-your-sink-pour-some-milk-and-start-to-think-about-this-terrific-new-beach-boys-tribute-from-the-sad-milk-collective

MELLOW HARSHER: "THIS CAN ONLY BE AS TERRIBLE AS WE ARE" A Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBaW5NYmFE

Full Livestream of the episode: https://youtube.com/live/y5VCEMS6QeI?feature=share

Everyone that listens to this podcast knows that I ride for Inspector 34. Their debut album, Love My Life was my album of the year when it came out and this is proving to be one of my favorites this year. Seriously, these guys are critically underrated and they deserve to be in your earholes. Also, this ep is fun if you enjoy musicians actually discussing the recording process. This band reps both coasts and everything inbetween and you won't regret listening.

Links:

Inspector 34 - "Squint Your Ears" on bandcamp: https://inspector34.bandcamp.com/album/squint-your-ears"It's Three O'Clock, Go To Your Sink, Pour Some Milk, And Start To Think .​.​.​About This Terrific New 'Beach Boys' Tribute From The Sad Milk Collective​!​!​!": https://sadmilkcollective.bandcamp.com/album/its-three-oclock-go-to-your-sink-pour-some-milk-and-start-to-think-about-this-terrific-new-beach-boys-tribute-from-the-sad-milk-collective

Sad Milk Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sadmilkcollective/posts

MELLOW HARSHER: "THIS CAN ONLY BE AS TERRIBLE AS WE ARE" A Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyBaW5NYmFE

Full Livestream of the episode: https://youtube.com/live/y5VCEMS6QeI?feature=share

We've been doing the podcast for almost 5 years and in that time we've discussed all variety of concept albums. We've discussed brilliantly crafted social commentaries, deeply personal tragedies, space oddities, and brat reinventions. We've followed the rise of King Crimson and the fall of Pink Floyd, the tragedy of Janice Joplin and the triumph of Louryn Hill, and the forerunners of the concept albums we enjoy today. This has been an incredible journey and we couldn't have done it without each and every listener that tunes in. You have let me do a thing I have a passion for and I get to keep doing it because you keep listening! I'll be forever grateful.

And I'm especially grateful for my cohosts, past and present, for giving me their time and energy these past 5 years. John Griffith, Jake "the Snake" Foster, Trevor "The Altered Beast" Kolden, Scott Westley, Nathan Maney, Reis Galvan, and of course, the cohosts with the mo-host Jon Acker and Dave Gallagher. I love you guys and I couldn't be happier with this podcast and the people I make it with.

Links:

Full Livestream of the episode: https://youtube.com/live/GQYjgTod1ZY?feature=share

We have Rockford, IL's own The Bitter Ends and we're wrapping up 199 episodes of the podcast (before starting fresh on 200) with truly one of the greatest concepts to grace this podcast, Frances the Mute! From the beautiful, but tragic story, to the inspiration that created it, to the scorching riffs and prog trumpets (to the decoded version of the album that combines the single Frances the Mute overtop the album Frances the Mute). If you're a concept fan, this is an epic concept.

See The Bitter Ends live in September!!!!

Links:

The Bitter Ends Live - https://www.facebook.com/events/s/local-bands-shred-the-stage/545418984487508/

Bucket List Playlist from Brad's music league: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Fc9xoXop3OXBGqnqBBm53?si=3324903e8fd84ac4

Suicide Prevention Hotline: https://nationaltoolkit.csw.fsu.edu/resource/national-suicide-prevention-lifeline-1-800-273-talk-8255/

In his most personal album yet, Usher took his rocket blasting into the stars and poured some nas in the tank. This album put him on the map for good and solidified him as our generation's R Kelly (without all the weird pdfile/pee stuff). This is the kind of thing that Millenials were bumping and grinding to, and for good reason. Listen along with us to see how many of these tracks really are confessions, and how many are just about fuckin.

We've raved over DAMN. We dick-rided To Pimp a Butterfly. Now it's time to really glaze, because it is the summer of "Not Like Us" and we're going back to long before the beef began. It's time for the origin story for Drake v Kendrick with the album that put them together in a track, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Before Kendrick turned into the literal Boogie Man of Haters, there was a time when he could be in the same studio as him. Although, he phoned it in a little bit in the music video...

Links:

"Poetic Justice (feat. Drake)" Music Video: https://youtu.be/yyr2gEouEMM?si=zkSesxIkoXl8uJ3S

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City short film: https://youtu.be/cGkUpjyL7y8?si=USfOxf772QPQ79Nl

Move over Swifties, it's time for brat girl summer.

We're 194 episodes into this show and as we draw closer to the 200th, we thought we'd get to the ACTUAL first concept album (by most accounts): Woody Guthrie's 1940 song collection called Dust Bowl Ballads. This collection came out in 2-three disc 78 rpm records with one song per side. With autobiographical elements as well as story elements of John Steinbeck's 1939 epic "Grapes of Wrath", this album tells us the tragedy of the Dust Bowl, the forcing of 1000s of families off their farm land, the horrible working conditions of the migrants seeking better life in the "Peach Bowl" of California, and the opposition they found in corrupt business and police-men and their counterparts in vigilantes. Although this came out in 1940, it reflects on a lot of worker's rights issues that we are still facing trying to get fair wages today.

Grapes of Wrath (1940) on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/the-grapes-of-wrath-1940

In 1974, in the wake of the release of their magnum opus, Red, Robert Fripp made the decree "King Crimson is completely over. For ever and ever." And he meant it... for a time. For the next few years, he left the music industry completely to focus on himself and his spirituality, but he wouldn't be out for long. In the late 70s into 1980, Fripp was pulled back into the fold, laying down guitar work for legends such as David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and Daryl Hall. Finally, the need to be in a group resurfaced, and he enlisted Adrien Belew (who had just come off the "Remain in Light" tour) and Tony Levin (a master of the Chapman Stick) to join himself and Bill Bruford in a New Wave band calling itself Discipline. It wasn't very long before it became apparent that this grouping was the next incarnation of King Crimson, and in 1981, they wowed the rock world with a completely new sound for the band. It was New Wave, but still with all the Prog polyrhythms that defined them in the past. Whatever you think of this point in their discography, it's clear they were masters of reinvention.

Today we're joined once again by Adam Elk from The Mommyheads!!! They are finally touring the midwest THIS WEEKEND and you should come out and see them! Tour dates linked belew.

On September 9th, 1999 (or 9-9-99), Thomas Bangalter and and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo became robots. After a night of working on a track, their sampler crashed and exploded. After some quick surgery to treat their injuries, they came out as robots. After realizing their track had been erased from the incident, they started to toil away on "Discovery" to try and regain what humanity they had left...

Returning guest Derick McDuff returns! Look for an episode of his "Underrated" movie podcast next month about Interstella 5555 including Brad LeBaron!

Alrighty y'all, this episode is going to get DARK. We've talked about heroin as a subject matter in many songs for many bands, but today we get INTO it. Coming from an era glorifying the sex, drugs, and rock and roll style, Alice in Chains and their grunge cohorts recontextualized the lifestyle to be more of a cautionary tale than something to aspire to. In Dirt, we get the entire journey of heroin addiction; from the lackadaisical first time, to the brink of death's door, to the harrowing trial of withdrawal. They weren't the first band in the genre to experience the tragedy of heroin addiction and certainly wouldn't be the last, but Dirt remains one of the best examples of that internal conflict.

Last time on the pod we discussed Erykah's left brain album and today we have it's counterpart in her right brain album, New Amerykah Pt. 2, that arrived two years after New Amerykah Pt. 1. While it continues to have mixes from some of the best underground producers in the game, this one gets a little more personal. In "Return of the Ankh", she dissects all of her relationships--with her lovers, with her fans, with money, and with herself; and creates a hip hop classic while doing so.

Today we're talking about none other than the First Lady of Neo Soul. If you've ever wondered how hip hop of the 2010s got so groovy, look no further than New Amerykah. With her eclectic style and taste in music, she brings us everything from 70s funk to 90s R&B and everything in-between. After a several year hiatus due to writer's block, Erykah, with the help of some of hip-hops best producers, she came back strong with this record and remains somewhere near the top of mount hip-hop.

What if Scott Pilgrim's garage rock band Sex Bob-Omb was real...? Well, it might sound like our guests for this episode, The Stinkeyes!!! What if we had that band on our podcast??? Fortunately for you we do! Today we're joined by Emily, Jordan, and Haley from The Stinkeyes to discuss an incredibly influential cult classic, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, and it's garage rock/folk punk/soul/8 bit infused soundtrack. We're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!!!!!!!!!!

Today, the concept... is revenge. Not just any revenge. A revenge that would go on to define the entire Thrash Metal genre. It's Dave Mustaine versus Metallica... Part ONE: Megadeth. With friend and Megadeth superfan, Nate Maney

100 - 300 samples. That's how many songs, give or take, that went into the production of Beastie Boys' sophomore opus, "Paul's Boutique". After getting run through the music industry, sold as frat rap, and having a less than fly time in New York after their brush with success. After a few years, they escaped New York, saved by The Dust Brothers out in LA. The rest, is hip hop history.

Today we have back video game aficionado, musician, and friend of Dave, Moses Wolfenstein!!!

So I didn't mean to release an episode largely about the plight of soldiers on 9/11... but today we have an album that is about just that! Well, specifically, HORSE soldiers... We're talking about Corb Lund's love letter to the profession, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! He's an Alberta boy that has a Texas spirit, coming from a line of country folk and horse wranglers. And we have another Alberta native to tell us his tale!

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