Discord and Rhyme: An Album Podcast

It … is happening … again! This week, Producer Mike rings in 2026 with NorCal producer DJ Shadow’s 1996 masterpiece Endtroducing….., whose release was a watershed moment for the art of instrumental hip-hop. It’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the first album to be composed entirely out of sampled sounds, but focusing on the technical achievement seriously undersells the depths of Shadow’s artistry. This is lively, organic music, with compositions that feel like sculptures crafted from the clay of music history, and the entire 21st-century DJing movement stands on the foundation of what Shadow accomplished here. Mike himself is a composer of sample-based music (including our awesome theme song) and a long-time admirer of Shadow’s work, and he’s invited Rich and returning special guest Shivam Bhatt to deconstruct an album that builds a mighty head of steam out of a grain of salt.
Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Shivam Bhatt
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/170-dj-shadow-endtroducing-1996
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

It feels like there shouldn't be anything left to say about The Dark Side of the Moon. It's one of the best-selling albums of all time, and it's consistently rated as one of the greatest albums of all time by critics. If you tune into a classic rock station for more than a couple of hours, chances are better than 50/50 that you'll hear a track or three from it get played. It's so common to hear tracks from here out of context that it's become easy to forget that these tracks, when heard in order from start to finish, constitute one of the most stunningly coherent artistic statements of the album era, and that makes it an album that Discord & Rhyme had to cover in depth at some point. Join Amanda, Mike, Rich, and John as they discuss the 1973 classic that transformed Pink Floyd from a niche-famous British prog-adjacent band into one of the most famous bands in the world. 
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, John McFerrin, Amanda Rodgers
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/169-pink-floyd-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-1973
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

The gang sits down by the fire to discuss a second round of the songs that made them love music. This year's batch covers an astonishing amount of ground, including movie soundtracks, jazz, funk, girl groups, folk, prog (of course), hip-hop, musicals, dub reggae, power pop — and even a hymn! 
Trevor Jones - Main Title (from The Last of the Mohicans) 
Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder 
James Brown - Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (Parts 1 & 2) 
The Flirtations - Nothing But a Heartache 
Sufjan Stevens - Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing 
The Byrds - Gunga Din 
Yes - Close to the Edge 
Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.) 
Antonio Banderas & Madonna - Oh, What a Circus (from Evita) 
Van Der Graaf Generator - Childlike Faith in Childhood's End 
King Tubby - Invasion 
Sloan - Penpals 
Spotify playlist of the songs in this episode: open.spotify.com/playlist/1YDBKhf61tJ0d8Xdj3jiJ1
Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabio, John McFerrin, Amanda Rodgers
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Of all the casualties of the Beatles’ Apple label, Badfinger is the most tragic. They had a very promising start, helped along by the Beatles and their associates, but a combination of bad management and personal tragedy stopped them from being as successful as they should have been. However, for a brief period everything worked out exactly right, and Badfinger came up with an album that deserves to be ranked among the all-time classics. From power pop to boogie rock and various points in between, Straight Up is a no-skips album that deserves your attention, so listen up. 
Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Ben Marlin
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/168-badfinger-straight-up-1971
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Buenas tardes, amigos, and happy Hallo-Ween, my good friends. It took us way, way too long to get the bright idea to devote our annual All Hallow’s Eve episode to the Brothers Ween, but now that we have, it seems appropriate to discuss 1994’s Chocolate and Cheese, an album where Deaner and Gener try on a whole bunch of different musical costumes. While C&C isn’t their major-label debut, it’s the first album they produced in a major-label fashion, and the songs cover a lot of stylistic ground, including Tom Jones Vegas rockabilly lounge, kaleidoscopic Prince psychedelia, a sweeping Morricone murder ballad, smooth Philly soul, and a few songs that completely defy categorization. While this album is often ranked behind powerhouse Ween classics like The Mollusk and Quebec, many of its songs have gone on to become live standards, and there’s an argument to be made that it formed the bedrock of the band’s musical legacy. So join John, Mike, Phil, and Rich as they make a return pilgrimage to the shrine of the mighty Boognish, and remember: don’t believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free.
Cohosts: 
Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/167-ween-chocolate-and-cheese-1995
Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod
Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod