Episodes

  • Tax Scam Record Labels (Episode 98)

    Tax Scam Record Labels (Episode 98)
    Mar 20 2024
    Today, we look at the albums and labels that were born to lose money. The artifacts of music industry mischief and copyright chicanery. So, go ahead and file an extension on your common sense. Declare the next hour or three a total loss and adjust your gross. Put your dependents to bed and audit yourself for a stiff drink. This is going to get taxing. Get ready for the write-off records. In this episode, tax scam labels. Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 47 mins
  • Non-Human Music, Part 1: Animal Bands (Episode 97)

    Non-Human Music, Part 1: Animal Bands (Episode 97)
    Dec 20 2023
    Animals and robots might seem like strange bedfellows for rock albums, but once you know what you’re looking for, they are hard to miss. There are hundreds of examples of bands who have piped in animal noises for any number of reasons: to provide atmosphere, as a story-song plot device, just to add some insanity, or possibly even something unseemly. Think of all the new-age fodder that relies on birdsongs, crickets, frogs, and tortured pig wails. Hasil Adkins, Lux Interior, Ray Stevens, and Raffi would all be out of work if they couldn’t sing animal noises - and were still alive. And of course, artist as robot is almost commonplace now, what with the non-humanoid success of acts like Kraftwerk, Devo, Man or Astroman, Servotron, Daft Punk, and Michael McDonald. Fauna and automatons in popular music surround us like we’re all riding our Tron motorcycles to Coachella during some post-apocalyptic doomscape.  But what lies beyond this casual relationship? What happens when bands relinquish some control of their aesthetic sound to orangutans and toasters or dugongs and doomsday devices? Are we breaking new ground or just finding yet another source of novelty? Or both. Over two episodes we will explore the merger of non-human caterwauling and popular music. How much of this is simply a gimmick and how much is a sincere exploration of music outside the influence of mankind? We will be returning to this topic in a later episode, where we tackle robot musicians, from player pianos to Terminators. But today, we will devolve to dance among the beasts.  So, tell Marlin Perkins to dust off that keytar, St Francis to open the cages, and David Attenborough to tickle himself some ivories. Get ready for thrillin’ reptilian. Amplified amphibians. Ambles of Mammals. When this ark gets to rockin’, be wary of knockin’. This petting zoo is going to get heavy. Today, non-human bands, part 1: the animal kingdom.  Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 49 mins
  • Underwater Music (Episode 96)

    Underwater Music (Episode 96)
    Nov 16 2023
    On today’s episode, we’re casting our line out as far as we can to reel in a history of a music style that is as expansive, deep, majestic, and mysterious as the oceans themselves. Be ready for thrills to your gills and grins to your fins! It’s time to get your snorkel and flippers out of storage and your lures and bobbers out of the tackle box and join us as we flush ourselves into the fresh and damp world of underwater music. Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 14 mins
  • It's Another Gourd-jus Halloween Mix (Episode 95)

    It's Another Gourd-jus Halloween Mix (Episode 95)
    Oct 30 2023
    We hope to be back with a fresh batch of episodes very soon! Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Blob Dylan: Halloween Sounds (Episode 94)

    Blob Dylan: Halloween Sounds (Episode 94)
    Oct 30 2021
    In today's episode, we take a break from taking breaks and present a mix of sounds and music to unnerve you. Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Ringo Tribute Songs (Episode 93)

    Ringo Tribute Songs (Episode 93)
    May 12 2021
    From 1963 to 1967 hundreds of songs about the Beatles, but not by the Beatles, were issued by no-name artists on tiny fly-by-night labels. An unimaginable amount of these mop top dedications were simply trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel of Beatlemania Bucks. And while the whole band received an unending amount of adulation from the masses of music makers, one member had an almost metaphysical magnetism for bad musicians: Mr. Ringo Starr. In this episode, we are going to explore America’s Jingoism for Ringoism. The ladies who love the goofball percussionist and the men who love to hate him. Odes to the drummer who is better than the best. Or at least better than Pete Best. And the scores of singers who can’t possibly imagine a better subject matter than those shaggy locks and that Gomer Pyle grin. Listening to this music...it don't come easy. But we’re going to brave the bewildering and backbreaking Beatlemania Bacchanalia to bring you a bounty of the best bedeviling Beatle bauble by bewitched Beatle buffs. In this episode, Ringo Songs.  Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 56 mins
  • The Music of Spaghetti Westerns (Episode 92)

    The Music of Spaghetti Westerns (Episode 92)
    Apr 25 2021
    In this episode, we track the legacy of the music of the grittiest of film styles. Scores of scores that are riddled with bullet holes, whiskey bottles, scattered cards, wanted posters, and bloodstains. Tunes that put a bounty on your mind and will ride you down in the desert. So, saddle up your pony and load your six-gun. Down that bottle and kiss your senoritas farewell, Prepare yourself for double-crosses, and double-double-crosses. Get another coffin ready. Today, we’re gunning down the history of Spaghetti Western Music.  Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 26 mins
  • Famously Bad Musicians (Episode 91)

    Famously Bad Musicians (Episode 91)
    Feb 27 2021
    Nobody intentionally builds cathedrals to mediocrity. Music criticism, and really society in general, is often preoccupied with defining, declaring, and debating superlatives by using any means at their disposal, subjective to scientific. Look at the vast array of books, articles, lists, blog posts, and podcasts dedicated to rock’s most important bands or the world’s greatest albums, or the first true trip-hop song, or even the musician with the most substantial mustache. We seemingly have a compulsive need to declare a winner. To pin an imaginary medal for a make-believe achievement of unquantifiable greatness.  What we rarely do is look to the opposite side of the bell curve. To the outliers at the bottom, that is equally rare as their counterpoints at the apex, but not nearly given as much consideration for how unique they truly are. Those who stand out because of their outstanding failure and shortcomings. The best of the worst. The dregs of the entertainment community. In this episode, we are going to explore the pop stars who found fans in spite of (or perhaps because of) their gross musical incompetence and who were demonstratively aesthetically just plain bad. The small handful of musicians who would be, under all circumstances, considered conventionally terrible at music yet manage to attain success. Those who through sheer will or perhaps complete ignorance managed to make a name for themselves. And those who were exploited, mocked, and enjoyed ironically but still fought to the top. We seek to understand first what the motive is behind their drive? Were they sincere? Delusional? We’re they okay being a novelty and laughing along with their hecklers? Did they even know it was happening? Or did they just want to cash in by any means at their disposal? And secondly, we explore the motive of their audience. Did these people truly enjoy these exhibitions of atrocity much like watching a train wreck? Or did they get off on holding this secret over an oblivious performer? And finally what sort of unhealthy dynamic is formed from the strange relationship of the two. Highway Hi-Fi is a proud member of the Pantheon Music Podcast Network - Home of the Finest Music Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 55 mins