Sep 16, 2020

Mailbag episode! Kirk tackles your questions on subjects ranging from a Warren Zevon piano part, to the unfortunate prevalence of bad acoustics at live shows, to why Moana is such a good movie.

It's been a rough week; thanks everyone who wrote in.

DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE:

• “Flaming” by Pink Floyd from The Piper at...

Sep 2, 2020

Thunder only happens when it's raining, and Strong Songs only crams two songs into an episode when it's super warranted.

This episode warrants just such a pairing, with a focus on two tunes by the great Fleetwood Mac. First there's the collaboratively written group-sing stomper "The Chain," and then comes Stevie Nicks'...

Aug 19, 2020

Who's gonna lay the wedding table? Who's gonna make the wedding bed? And what about the rings? Funny you should ask.

On this episode, Kirk takes a deep dive into "Wedding Song," one of the signature numbers from Anaïs Mitchell's 2019 musical Hadestown. It's time for some conversational song form, a bunch of key...

Aug 5, 2020

Mailbag! Episode!

We've got questions about Tuvan throat singing (how does it work??), the Unsolved Mysteries theme (why is it so creepy??), the intro to Don McLean's "American "Pie" (how do they count it??), Steely Dan (why do some people hate them??), Andrew Bird's whistling solo from 2011's The Muppets (how did he...

Jul 22, 2020

It's time for a journey of the mind, as Kirk picks apart one of the best hard rock tunes of the early 2000s.

Queens of the Stone Age's "Songs for the Deaf" includes enough bangers that it was tough to pick a single song to focus on, but in the end, "No One Knows" won the day with its combination of grit, groove, and...