In this episode, Phil takes Discord & Rhyme further down the spiral with an album that is a harrowing descent into one man’s decaying psyche. If that sounds like a blast, you’re in good company with the millions of people who bought Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral in 1994. It’s one of the bleakest, most pitch-dark albums to ever achieve massive commercial success, and it still sounds great in 2025, owing to the coherence of Trent Reznor’s sonic vision and ingenious production by Flood. Reznor has gone on to become an Oscar-winning soundtrack composer in the decades since this album, but it still stands as one of his signature achievements, and Phil has invited Rich and Mike along to talk about an album that, from top to bottom, sets out to make you hurt. Now doesn’t that make you feel better?

Cohosts: Phil Maddox, Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/159-nine-inch-nails-the-downward-spiral-1994

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Rich, Ben, and John answer a super-sized mailbag of listener questions, with subjects including jukebox musicals, James Bond themes, songs that give them the happy chills, sample-based hip-hop producers, the usual suite of Moody Blues questions, and a philosophical discussion on how we all listen to music and how this has changed as we've gotten older. This episode also features an interlude on experimental music from Producer Mike, and a listener-submitted puzzle!

Co-hosts: Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, John McFerrin, Mike DeFabio

Spotify playlist of the songs clipped in this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ew48yCf2JAnroOVFlaLCv?si=yPstIGylTUOanMidd-cPlA

Everyone has an opinion about the Doors - whether you think they’re transgressive and mind-blowing, or you find them silly and overrated, or - like Ben - you just think they made some killer music. With invaluable help from Amanda, Dan, and Mike, Ben makes the case that the Doors’ 1967 self-titled debut album contains more killer music than many people realize. It might even blow your mind a little, too.

Cohosts: Ben Marlin, Amanda Rodgers, Mike DeFabio, Dan Watkins

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/158-the-doors-the-doors-1967

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

It’s taken us nearly seven years, but the time has come. Midnight Oil, one of Australia's quintessential bands, is probably best known for its tireless political activism as expressed through hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine," as well as the on-stage acrobatics of their 6′4″ frontman, Peter Garrett. But behind the sloganeering and agitprop, the Oils are a fiendishly creative and charmingly oddball band, and their 1982 Australian breakout album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, recorded at a make-or-break moment for the group, was when they first really landed on their unmistakable aura. Rich has been an Oils fan literally since he was a teenager, and he’s called in Ben and returning special guest Dave Weigel to deconstruct 10 to 1 and all of the power and the passion that went into these incredible songs.

Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Ben Marlin, Dave Weigel

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/157-midnight-oil-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1982

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Discord & Rhyme continues its slow walk through the world of Post-Rock with an examination of the 1996 album Millions Now Living Will Never Die by the Chicago-based group Tortoise. John has been fascinated by the concept of Post-Rock for many years (even if many of the acts associated with it, Tortoise included, rejected it as a useful descriptor), and a large part of this fascination stems from a love he has had for this album for over 20 years. In this episode, John, Mike, Rich, and Dan try to make sense not only of how one should define one of the most ambiguous genres out there, but also of why an instrumental album in that genre (possibly), mostly lacking clear traditional melodies and traditional song structures (the opening “Djed” is 21 minutes by itself), is clearly one of the best albums any of us have ever heard. Regardless of whether Tortoise is Post-Rock, Prog, both, or neither, this is an album worth learning about, and Discord & Rhyme is up to the challenge.

Cohosts: John McFerrin, Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Dan Watkins

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/156-tortoise-millions-now-living-will-never-die-1996

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

If you only know Talk Talk for their ‘80s night staple “It’s My Life,” you might well wonder what an experimental weirdo like Mike is doing hosting an episode about them. However, if you know a little more about their strange and fascinating career trajectory, it makes perfect sense. The sparse, atmospheric Spirit of Eden couldn’t be more different from Talk Talk’s synth-pop origins or from anything else in the musical landscape of 1988, and it more or less doomed the band’s career when it came out, but the sound of rock music in the 21st century wouldn’t be the same without it. Listening to Spirit of Eden is an experience that’s almost impossible to relate by means of such quotidian devices as “words,” but Mike, Phil, Rich, and John are all going to try anyway.

Cohosts: Mike DeFabio, Rich Bunnell, Phil Maddox, John McFerrin

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/155-talk-talk-spirit-of-eden-1988

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Due to some technical difficulties, we had to push back our Talk Talk episode, so to fix the hole in our schedule we are talking about the Beatles again! We've discussed covers of Beatles songs before, but there are millions of them so there will always be more to talk about. We're covering a lot of sonic ground in this episode, with a few songs we all love and a few that are more polarizing. Also: important information for Apple users regarding Patreon, some information about listening on Spotify, and more!

The covers:

• 801 - TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows)
• The B-52s - Paperback Writer
• Wes Montgomery - A Day in the Life
• Ghost - Here Comes the Sun
• Andre 3000 - All Together Now
• Tony Furtado & Alison Krauss - I Will
• The Melvins - I Want to Hold Your Hand
• Ella Fitzgerald - Savoy Truffle
• Phil Collins - Tomorrow Never Knows
• The Jam - And Your Bird Can Sing
• Peter Serafinowicz - A Full Day in the Life
• Flaming Lips - She's Leaving Home

Other clips:

• George Burns - Fixing a Hole
• The B-52s - Roam
• Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the Knife
• King Crimson - The Sheltering Sky
• Peter Serafinowicz - Ringo Remembers (Christmas)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks - Do You Want to Know a Secret

A Full Day in the Life on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bren-murphy/a-full-day-in-the-life-by-peter-serafinowicz

Ringo Remembers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW1ou7SH3is

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PvhYhqz6gOAKTGW1YnbG4?si=61ee29f8952541b5

Cohosts: Rich Bunnell, Amanda Rodgers, Dan Watkins

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

We all know that Elton John is a top-tier singles artist, but he is also a top-tier albums artist. His run of nine albums from Empty Sky in 1969 through Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy in 1975 may very well be unmatched in modern music history. It was really hard to pick one to talk about on Discord & Rhyme, but we settled on Honky Chateau because it’s the perfect encapsulation of what Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin were best at (and worst at). Full of incredible musicianship, amazing singing, stellar arrangements, and awkward lyrics, this is an album that’s almost guaranteed to win over anyone who is still skeptical of Elton John.

NOTE: Amanda made a mistake. Empty Sky wasn't released in the United States until 1975.

Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Ben Marlin, Rich Bunnell, John McFerrin

Complete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/154-elton-john-honky-chateau-1972

Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpod

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

The Music Of Songs by Jimmy O'Donnell: https://jimmyodonnell.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-of-songs

If You Try Sometimes... by Benjamin Marlin: https://amzn.to/3ZFJCK5