From the outset, the “deviate” aspect of my Deviate podcast was meant to give me the occasional pretext to veer away from travel themes and explore my other interests.
My five favorite music-themed Deviate episodes are outlined below. Though later seasons of my podcast have episodes riffing on bands like Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, and Iron Maiden (and I will soon drop an episode about mixtapes) my most memorable music episodes all come from Season One — perhaps because, right from the outset, I wanted to scratch the itch of some longstanding music-themed curiosities.
Punk icon Ian MacKaye on why we should question the official history of rock music
Ian MacKaye has famously been open to grassroots (that is, non-corporate media) interviews since his breakout as a DIY punk pioneer in the early 1980s. Still, I was somewhat surprised (and thrilled) when he personally returned my call in the spring of 2018, agreeing to a podcast interview in the kitchen of the iconic “Dischord house” in Arlington, Virginia.
MacKaye’s band Fugazi changed the way I listened to music (and altered my notion of how the creation of culture is possible) back in the summer of 1990, and a lot of our conversation focuses on the seismic shifts of music-culture in that era. Sending my interest in travel, MacKaye also talks about how the quotidian tasks of touring with a band in Europe are as relevant to the experience of travel as any tourist attraction.
White Zombie guitarist J. Yuenger on music, expat life, and long-term travel
Though the metal band White Zombie didn’t influence my musical tastes in the same way as Fugazi (or Jane’s Addiction), I vividly remember rocking out to songs like “Thunder Kiss ’65” with my expat friends during my first year in Korea in the mid-1990s. Thus my fascination years later, when I realized White Zombie’s guitarist J Yuenger had begun to follow me on Instagram.
Turns out J isn’t just a living counterpoint to the notion that rock stars are fated to burn out; he’s a deeply experienced vagabonder, having wandered the earth and moved to Spain in the years since White Zombie broke up. He’s also a genuinely nice guy whose guitar chops still enjoy a cult following, as evidenced by the glowing comments on the YouTube version of this episode. Our conversation takes place in the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and encompasses J’s travels with — and after — White Zombie.
Satanic backward masking changed 1980s rock (but not in the way you think)
This episode — one of my all-time favorite Deviate conversations on any theme — traces its origin back to 1981, when I came into the possession of a self-published Christian book called Backward Masking Unmasked after my childhood friend J.D. took me an anti-rock youth-sermon at his evangelical church. Backward Masking Unmasked ended up being a kind of handbook for learning more about rock bands (like Led Zeppelin and AC/DC) I actually came to like. This conversation with music nerds Jedd Beaudoin and Michael Carmody digs deep into the idiosyncrasies of what came to be known as the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
The weird and complicated history of America’s national anthem
I recall being startled at how vengeful and violent the lyrics of America’s national anthem were when I first read them in full — and this fascination eventually led to one of my first NPR radio reports from Syria in 2002. My old NPR outtake is included in this episode — and I expand on the topic with musicology professor Mark Clague, who elaborates on the origins and historical backdrop for the writing of “The Star Spangled Banner,” the irony of using a British melody for the United States national anthem, and the evolution of the song in tandem with our national identity.
A Shadow History of Rock Music in the 1980s
This episode is the first to focus fully on music — and its task is to explore the mystery of a set of old 1980s rock albums I found in a thrift-store bin in Kansas in the 2010s. Together with my go-to music experts Jedd Beaudoin and Michael Carmody, I trace the fate of ten rock and pop albums that evoke the quintessential look and sound of 1980s music, even though (for whatever reason) they never made it big back in the day.
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