EarWax: An Amoeba Podcast EarWax

We've got the silky smooth Swingin' Sixties coming your way this week!Dusty Springfield was a staple of the era, with hits in both the US and the UK. A fixture on the charts and on TV, Dusty's pop vocal stylings ran perpendicular with the rock zeitgeist. But she had a finger on the pulse, and could sense the tide turning in the late 60s."Dusty in Springfield" is an album that, by many accounts, was tedious (at best) to make. A laundry list of factors played into the sessions in Memphis and Ne...

Make sure your mouthguard is in, because we're trying to kick some teeth in this week!PJ Harvey had risen to fame rapidly, and that had taken its toll. Having taken some time away to get right, she charged back onto the scene with her second record.With Steve Albini behind the boards, Rid of Me packs all of the punch of peak 90s rock, with the added bonus of having PJ Harvey's songwriting to go along with it. PJ Harvey has a catalogue that is the envy of the vast majority of musicians, a...

Get prepped to jump, jive, and wail from start to finish, the EarWax crew is covering The Wildest, Louis Prima!With Keely Smith, Sam Butera, and the Witnesses alongside him, Louis Prima set Las Vegas on fire, five sets a night between 12 AM - 6 AM. The template that Vegas lounge acts would follow, Prima and his crew were going to give you a pro's show every time they hit the stage.This album is the closest they came to recapturing that energy in the studio. Proto-rock and roll, hot jazz, jump...

How many power chords do you have? Because this week we've got plenty to spare!Thin Lizzy had been more or less given one final shot to break big. Despite big creative differences, perhaps a little too much "hydration," and maybe not enough discipline early on, the crew behind Jailbreak all recognized the stakes.Packed with rock radio staples and incredible deep cuts, Jailbreak secured Thin Lizzy's future on the recording front. Driven by Phil Lynott's vision and supported by exquisite drummi...

Hunker down, because we've got a record full of absolute bangers this week.Part electronic, part disco, part hard rock and all teeth, this duo found their footing with a series of remixes, before heading into the basement of an old club and chapel to record what would be their first studio album.Justice's debut album † (Cross) brings the heat. With over 400 albums sampled (and micro-sampled), the influences are as present as the originality. Are you going to be able to catch all 400? Not a ch...

Come on now, you know we got geared up for this one. One of the heaviest hitters in the world music conversation, Buena Vista Social Club's self-titled debut is this week's focus on EarWax!Let's head to Cuba (by way of Mexico, if you're Ry Cooder), find some legendary Cuban musicians, get them in the studio and see what magic unfolds. After their initial idea broke down, this is how Nick Gold and Ry Cooder pivoted, and man did it work out.These are songs that have been around Cuba for decades...