//Music Friends//

Danny Bennett

//Danny Bennett is a writer and when he’s writing and when he’s not he’s anxious//curious//restless//stoked on what he doesn’t know about music//Music Friends chips away at what Danny doesn’t know//Every episode covers two albums//One selected by Danny//One selected by one of his Music Friends//The selection is always recorded live and posted as a teaser for the next episode//Additional segments are posted with additional Music Friends here and there//

  1. 21h ago

    //29//

    //00:00//The Melvins’ A Senile Animal (2006)//On generational pop-cultural hand-me-downing//On Balty Hardcore Turnstile v. Blood Orange Turnstile//The passage of time as genres and artists resurface//On what year is it??//On needed Fontaines D.C. discourse//On any reason to talk about Rosalía//On any reason to talk about the first Arctic Monkeys album//On 20th Anny records//On fuzzy sludge//On double-kit slow-tempo drum flourishes//On rejuvenating rock//On singing & guitaring//On Double-Kit-Doomer-Alice Cooper//On True Detective S1 soundtrack cohesion//On Wizarding in the world of doom//On we used to make things//On top 20 albums//   //(51:14)//Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII//ON WE USED TO MAKE THINGS, CHRIS//ON GO WATCH THIS FILM NOW//On how men used to grow their hair and weigh 160 lbs.//On going full Waters//On the right flavor of dickishness//On Waters Floyd v. Gilmour Floyd Round One//On Syd Barrett cautionary tale//On 70s Floyd//On Dark Side Theory Forever//On Floyd Heads unite//On 23-minute masterpiece//On Echoes as the vocab for Dark Side//On 2001: A Floyd Odyssey//On Italian Countryside Roman Ruin logistics//On Christianity powering secular psych rock//On dog rock//On 35-minute lead-ins//On we’re back to Dad rock//On feeling but it’s complicated//On synthesizing v. deriving emotion//On Heliocentric Nick Mason//On Adrian Maben FTW//On F**k It energy//On Golden Sennheiser Mics SLAPPING//On Roman Ruin Ambiance//On splintering writing credits//On The Wall kinda tough hang//On Auteur Roman Ruin Psych Rock//On all of a piece//On well-off Floyd//On happening in a place and feeling like the place where it happened// //(2:24:08)//Preview of episode//30//

  2. Aug 26

    //28//

    //00:00//The Beatles' Revolver (1966)//On R.I.P. The Bunker*//On Cultural Scripture//On Church v. John Lennon by the numbers//On anthemic cultural shifts//On re-shaping conscious trajectories//On Revolver as the Sonic Moon Landing//On a Billy Elliot quote for the ages//On revolutionary implementation of technology as production//On sneaky Motown vibrations//On Bizarro Rubber Soul//On starting to make music not to be played live//On Pritchy--Mr. Sunshine//On Danny--hating all sunshiny Beatles songs//On Tomorrow Never Knows eternally//On Don Draper thinking Revolver was mid//On Taxman coming up repeatedly//On George levelling up helped to hit their ceiling and would ultimately rip them apart//On Taxman still//On 1 for you, 19 for me//On "You could recreate all of Rock n' Roll with Revolver"//   //(52:43)//The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)//On concept album scripture//On sneaky tidy album//On rock as high art//On Kaleidoscopic Parlor Pop//On rock as theatre//On song or vingette?//On sonically omniverous Sgt. Pepper's//On one's own strength buckling under the power of one's own strength a la Bo Jackson//On A Day in The Life//On Superior-deep metaphor//On an anxious lived-in experience//On Paul leading the way//On Mr. Kite's claustrophobic nature//On Lovely Rita truly being lovely//On the rock vanguard's biggest leap yet//On Within You and Without You as non-duel consciousness scripture//On being 'the one'//   //(1:38:04)//Preview of episode//29// *This episode got put through the ringer and I feel the need to lay it out.  I’d wanted to do Sgt. Pepper’s forever.  I knew I was going to do it with Pritch.  When he and my Mom came to help us with baby #2, we recorded a special teaser colored with a hyper speed backstory of The Beatles leading into their back-to-back albums covered here.  It was the first recording in the completed studio space I’d been chipping away at for 3+ years.  The room flooded two days after we recorded the teaser and I still can’t express my heartbreak to have had to tear it down over the course of a 24-hour period. R.I.P. The Bunker. We recorded the episode a few days after that, on schedule, in an impromptu location, and I blew the dunk on the setup in myriad ways.  The plan the whole way was to embed samples of Beatles songs to amplify the density and importance of tip-toeing on such hallowed ground.  I botched isolating the different tracks.  I botched a sophisticated sound check on my microphone.  The result was my mic sounding awful (Pritch’s sounding good as a consolation) and an inability to properly edit separate channels because I’d combined them improperly. I ran the audio through a lot of AI doctoring and EQ gymnastics and it sounded..ok.  I posted the episode and was proud of it but also distraught at the numerous ways this dream episode didn’t manifest in the way I wanted.  Spotify then pulled the episode from all platforms because I’d apparently used too long or too many Beatles samples.  On replay I can’t actually dispute either claim and perhaps I was distracted which had my mind off of that potential trip-up. The episode here in final form is the doctored version which siphoned off the music samples, enhanced my mic sound (significantly, which I’m happy about), and serves as the final draft of the podcast episode which took, by far, the most effort to complete.  Pritch and I are like Andy Dufresne climbing through football fields of shit to bring you this overwrought, overdramatic, overly thought-out overview of the peak of The Beatles career.  Enjoy.

  3. Apr 26

    //27//

    //00:00//Neil Young’s On The Beach (1974)//On Music Friends via Geese//On the perils and glory of vinyl addiction//On Neil enters the chat//On Neil as we know enters the chat//On American Hero Neil//On cautiously optimistic depression rock//On perfectly imperfect Neil//On Wurlitzer slap slap slap//On No Country For Honey Slides//On Sautéed Marijuana Depression Rock//On going to the radio interview and ending up alone//On 10 million dune buggies coming down the mountain//On Charlie Manson—secret genius??//On hating and secretly loving 80s Neil//On sneaky influential album//On artists left-turning// //(55:07)//Rosalía’s Lux (2025)//On life between your rosary and your cigarette case//On masterpiece obligation//On grappling with the grandeur and totality of this record//On shared shamelessness around Barcelona//On a sneaky breakup record//On the worst part of this album is Rosalía’s hotness//On let’s talk about Yves Tumor on Berghain//On celestially hypnotic Rosalía//On God Bless vinyl goodies//On the 3% being 84 separate entities//On being Mahomes in her pocket// //(2:05:14)//Preview of episode//28// Lux is Latin for light.  Only 18 words of the album’s 3,622 present in Western Civilization’s ancestral mother tongue, but don’t take the bait.  Lux is pursuant of it however it manifests for you.  Don’t take the bait or get distracted and eventually you’ll bask in it.   Maybe the contours of the movements will move you.  A holy and earthly thematic arc tracing the record that could make your favorite Prog band shudder.  Earthly existence juxtaposed with heaven.  Sacred and profane not separate poles to judge from but of a piece in humanhood at large.   Maybe.  Maybe not.  Beneath Spanish spoken or Ukrainian sung or Italian obliterated.  Below God and womanhood and what happens after.  Above the density, brilliance and grandeur is Rosalía’s voice.     With authority absolute and ambition approaching apex, across an album dripping with what is and isn’t divine, it’s her voice that is assuredly celestially hypnotic.

  4. 03/11/2025

    //24//

    //00:00//Kendrick Lamar's GNX (2024)//Recorded 2-18-2025//On commission assembled//On Peakaboo, Coach!//On an immidiate pantheon Los Angeles Album for episode//24//On Kobe 2-4 in July 1-0//On a bit Carter IIIish//On meticulous Kenny//On breezier Kendrick//On Grand Nationals not bein' rational//On exponential Reincarnated rise//On Kendrick's compression socks//On GNX to the summit for Danny//On the great rap war of 2024//On the seven game rap war//On Euphoria as moving Draymond to the 5//On giving Drake his due//On sinister Meet The Grahams//On JF going back to Eminem, again//On Drake taking his eye off the ball//On Luka Booker Game Seven//On R.I.P. shopping rap//On Drake The Appropriator//On "Hey Drake, I hear you like acting"// //(1:17:44)//Kendrick Lamar's ⁠Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (2022)⁠//Recorded 5-17-2022//On grown Kendrick//On shepherd Kendrick//On therapy//On Eckhart Tolle and Kodak Black back-to-back//On the hurt hurting others//On singular Kendrick//On the holy quadology of pop stardom//On not savior Kendrick//On the Kyrie stamp of approval//On Kodak's imperfections as our imperfections?//On humor sprinkles//On early Eminem tracks// //(2:13:03)//Kendrick Lamar's ⁠DAMN. (2017)⁠//Recorded 4-17-2017//On the To Pimp a Butterfly release valve//On the uptempo vs. downtempo ratio//On wickedness vs. weakness//On the depth of Kendrick//On back-to-back-to-back champs//On bedroom rap//On mysterious Kendrick//On not doing it for the gram//On forcing his way into the conversation//On storytelling wizardry//On Kendrick's 2016 Finals' comeback moment//On Mike Will energy//On covering all the bases// //(2:57:41)//Preview of episode//25//

  5. 10/08/2024

    //22//

    //00:00//Peter Gabriel's So (1986)//THE DAD POD//On Daddest-Mommest albums//On Albums as social phenomenon//On Generational Sgt. Pepper's importance//On Art Pop World Rock//On Gabriel out of the closet//On the JF "In Your Eyes" necklace//On "Is That Jimmy Buffet's music??"//On Bumper Cars Bumpin'//On JF on African Love Songs//On JF 2 Beers//On poor Freud and Jung discourse//On JF 3 Beers//On Basketball intermissions//On Graceland Drive-bys//On Gabriel strange-ness//On Lanois and there finally being women at the shows//On Total Mythical Cultural Gabriel Saturation//On The Art vs. Cash tension// //(54:32)//Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV (1971)//On The Daddest album of them all//On Led Zeppelin = departure from rock destination cosmos//On JF 4 Beers//On copping a Stairway to Heaven//On my Mom Going To California//On waiting around for the next Zeppelin record//On the sterling pseudo-un-cancellable LZ brand//On Zeppelin for the brews, Floyd for the joints//On The Avengers of proto-metal//On JF 5 Beers//On all roads leading to Prince//On the 2017 Led Zeppelin Warriors roster//On John Paul Jones Draymond//On Julian wondering if Jimmy Page is actually good?//On JF 6 Beers//On Plant or Page as Leonardo?//On it still being all about Stairway//On JF doing Plant//On JF 7 Beers//On "Haaave a gooood one" lololololololol// //(1:45:29)//The 20th High School Reunion Podcast!!//On it's gotta be Limp Bizkit//On Freakish Saves The Day fandom//On 8 whole minutes before Blink gets mentioned//On Gen Blink//On an early match!//On Danny hero ball//On Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gateway band//On Dashboard Unplugged FTW//On cassettes, burned CDs and VHSs//On getting older and connecting deeper//On ear condoms//On Keith 7.5 folder only//On Tidal Waves of electric violin//On ghosts of Music Friends' past//On explaining to my son what Pepsi Points were//On The Matches ruling always//On all roads leading to Arcade Fire//On essential MySpace references//On Rihanna ref #3// //(3:19:34)//Preview of episode//23//

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

//Danny Bennett is a writer and when he’s writing and when he’s not he’s anxious//curious//restless//stoked on what he doesn’t know about music//Music Friends chips away at what Danny doesn’t know//Every episode covers two albums//One selected by Danny//One selected by one of his Music Friends//The selection is always recorded live and posted as a teaser for the next episode//Additional segments are posted with additional Music Friends here and there//