Introducing the Band:
Your hosts Scot Bertram (@ScotBertram) and Jeff Blehar (@EsotericCD) are joined by guest Dave Weigel. Dave is a founding reporter at Semafor, where he covers the 2024 campaign and writes the Americana newsletter. Check his work out here and find him on Twitter at @daveweigel.
Dave’s Music Pick: Pet Shop Boys
Opportunities are knocking: I've got the brains, and you've got the looks, so let's make lots of money as we use the post–July 4 week to celebrate the United Kingdom's most famous '80s/'90s synthpop dance-music duo! Of course, Pet Shop Boys -- a two-man collaboration that began in 1981 when rock critic Neil Tennant ran into bedsit-room synths-and-sequencers muso Chris Lowe at a record shop -- are much more than that besides. They managed the trick of being one of the United Kingdom's most commercially dominant chart acts while also being one of its cleverest and most tasteful, the result being that their classic run of albums beginning with Please (1986) have not dated even as they helped create and define the sound of '80s and '90s pop, club, and dance music. Neil Tennant's knack for melody and endlessly clever lyrics relating stories of heartbreak, ennui, and urban adventure from a then still-hidden subculture (gay London of the '80s and '90s) matched perfectly with Lowe's preternatural ability to layer keyboards hooks and sequenced percussion into compulsive radio fodder: The Pet Shop Boys scored 22 top-ten singles in the U.K. and ten over here in the United States, and you'll be surprised how many of them you knew without realizing you did. So press play, get ready to dance, enjoy a real treat. By the end you may be asking yourself: "What have I done to deserve this?"
Episode 133: Joshua Treviño / Matthew Sweet
Episode 132: Tom Nichols / Boston
Episode 131: Jay Cost / The Kinks [Part 2]
Episode 130: Jay Cost / The Kinks [Part 1]
Episode 129: Mike Long / Joe Jackson
Episode 128: Hannah Rowan / Blondie
Episode 127: Eric Kohn / Huey Lewis & the News
Episode 126: Rory Cooper / Simon & Garfunkel
Episode 125: Matt Murray / Nick Lowe
Episode 123: Dominic Green / The Jam
Episode 122: Eric Garcia / Black Sabbath
Episode 121: Adam Wollner / My Morning Jacket
Episode 120: Mark Hemingway / Big Star
Episode 119: Noam Blum / Tool
Episode 118: Phil Wegmann / The National
Episode 117: Andrew Fink / Otis Redding
Episode 116: Noah Weinrich / Weezer
Episode 115: Jesse Walker / Willie Nelson [Part 2]
Episode 115: Jesse Walker / Willie Nelson [Part 1]
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