TuneDig is an in-depth and informed conversation between two lifelong friends about the power of music — one album at a time.
In each episode, we go down the rabbit hole to spend a while in the strange world we discover. We take an honest look at creativity in all its complexity—from writing and production to history and cultural impact.
We promise you’ll learn something new every time, no matter how much you already love the album we explore.
DIG IT.
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Friday Heavy: April 15, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Greyhaven – “The Bright And Beautiful World”
2. Friday Heavy playlist for fans of more choatic + melodic combinations
3. Campaign for Working Families
Each Friday Heavy episode features a new release, a curated playlist, and an organization worth supporting—all in 15-20 minutes.
Hope you dig the new podcast so far! Help us spread the word if you do.
Here's this week's episode as a 🧵 https://t.co/1IGbsIWSyb
— TuneDig (@tunedig) April 15, 2022
Transcript
Note: our transcripts are mostly AI-generated for now.
Cliff: welcome to Friday heavy your guide to the world of aggressive And loud and abrasive music and music related things that are also aggressive and abrasive and loud brought to you by the folks behind TuneDig. I’m Cliff.
Kyle: And I’m Kyle, uh, for those of you just joining us for the first time, welcome just a to quickly run it down. Each episode, we cover three things. First, one brand new heavy release, and why we think it will be worth the spin. One playlist we’ve curated to explore a heavy sub genre or artists or seem. Trying to get cliff cliff, trying to get me to make as many playlists as humanly possible.
Cliff: It’s working,
Kyle: working, it’s working, uh, and thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, one organization doing critical culture impacting work in their community. So you can do something with all that fucking energy. Remember folks punk is more than a genre. It’s a state of mind. Let’s get into it. Item number one, cliff, what new release are we talking about this week?
Cliff: This bright and beautiful world by gray Haven. That’s our featured new release this week?
gray heavy inhales from Louisville, Kentucky. the closer to the, uh, to the center of Atlanta, the closer to
our hearts. these people are, are relatively close
Kyle: Lou has such a killer scene and it’s so it’s so diverse. There’s so many great Kentucky bands. And I would probably have never looked up gray heaven or like looked into them that hard. But then I saw that Isaac from knock loose I guess now formerly of knocked loose was in this band early on. So immediately I was like, oh, I’m a fan of this band.
Let’s go.
Cliff: Yep. Now they rip and they caught a lot of attention back in 2018 with empty black. It had that kind of like just before the wheels fall off sensation kind of
all the way through. and that’s, that’s, that’s a real hard balance.
to strike, uh, especially when you’re kind of making that like angular post hardcore, chaotic,
noisy stuff, and occasionally introducing melody
Kyle: it’s, a lot of time in the jam room. That’s that’s 10,000 hours. Shit. You gotta, get real tight to play that loop.
Cliff: Yup. And there were lots of references at the time, especially in reviews of that record, uh, references to like eat it right. Every time I die, the early, Norma Jean stuff early he is legend, Before each of those three bands really kind of like found their own specific column to fill out like early on
There was this overall sense between a lot of those bands of that chaotic post hardcore. I don’t know what this genre. is going to be yet Type of stuff And grey Haven manages to capture a lot of that.
You know, 20 years on 15 years on, especially.
Kyle: it’s cool. They sound like their own thing. Like you hear not only those bands. I hear a lot of Dylan Jer in for sure. One of these new singles, they are pretty open about their influences and reference points, but it’s clear that they are maybe probably pretty close to our age. I don’t know anything about these toots as people.
Um, but certainly that they were in some of the same pits that we were in over the past 15.
Cliff: Yep. I think that’s a fair bet. So the upcoming release this bright, and beautiful world, or the one that releases.
so again, we always get to talk about a new release. We record this. before the new release comes out. Uh, so in most cases, we just like you listening to this podcast are going to experience it for the first time, but we got some singles in all that.
past information to go on.
Right. So based on what we’ve heard so far This bright and beautiful world sounds like it’ll be pushing pretty directly into what has become a kind of like post grunge movement. Some some serious flirtation with radio rock, but in a way that, doesn’t make me very nervous, which is how we know it’s called post grunge. uh, if it’s radio rock that doesn’t make you nervous as postgraduate, if it does make you
nervous, it’s about rock. And that is how we divide those two
Kyle: I hate all the words. I mean, w what is a
podcast, but just some words, like, I hate all the words stickering around it, but it’s like, all right. One of these guys was really in a, nevermind, you know, had like a formative young person’s I listened to nevermind experience, and that was the gateway drug. And then it just sort of like went punky from there.
Cliff: Yup. The, the hint that you can catch when you’re listening to a band like this is that they always basically maintain a sense of surprise. And every part of the song that really has no business being that creative, right? It’s like structurally, usually a more simplistic song, but every time they rotate into something different, or shift, it’s a little bit different. than you expect.
And like, that’s, that’s the reason we wanted to talk about this band today,
especially.
Kyle: a lot of little left turns. Yeah. I agree with that
completely.
Cliff: so, okay. So to bring this direction. into relief, Let’s first listen to one of the singles that they’ve released. They’ve released three, let’s listen to.
The one that’s closer to the formula that they had on empty black from 2018. So this is for an anchor.
Cliff: And With that in mind, either the first single they released, which was called all candy or the latest release, they, the latest single they released ornaments from the, well, either way you kind of get a taste of the range that I think is going to end up showing up on this record.
so I went ahead and picked ornaments from the well,
Cliff: and definitely check out this entire track because the, you know, we, we’ve already joked on this
particular podcast. We’re only going to give you the first 30 seconds of stuff. Um, maybe we’ll venture into another slice of 30 seconds in the future. But 30 seconds isn’t enough for a band like this. So definitely check out that whole track because The last couple of minutes shift pretty strongly into like, oh, brother
thrice and almost kind of dead poetic territory.
You know, we’ve, we’ve talked about channeling that post hard core vibe you know, especially from the early aughts and like that’s another place where it happens.
again with kind
of like a totally different set of bands and genres.
Kyle: I hear a lot of, he has
legend and
ornaments from the well to some of the later stuff where it’s just it’s good experiment and minor key, clean tone type stuff. That doesn’t sound like all the other bands trying to do it, you know, like pulls in a little bit of bluesy, pulls in a little bit of other type hardcore stuff.
It’s a, it’s not the, I learned how to play this kind of guitar from a YouTube video type of thing. It’s like it’s pushing into its own stylistic territory invoice.
Cliff: absolutely. And just to tack on, you know, we told you on the first Friday heavy episode, that will
Putney is everywhere and here he is
again.
Kyle: insert Snoop dog audio. This mother don’t miss
Cliff: Yup. So we’re already making loops back to previous episodes inside of this podcast, which is barely four episodes old. So that is, this is the way. So check out this bright and beautiful world by gray Haven, which is out today on equal vision. Like we always tell you go listen to it. However you want
Cause your stream pennies don’t matter nearly as much as sending your band actual money.
by going to shows or buying merch or just literally just like cash at them. You know what I’m saying? Just like literally find out where their bank accounts are and send the money. That’s another way to do it.
Kyle: From here, I think we go into a playlist and this one was almost too easy. because when I started poking in on a gray Haven a little, it was like, oh, well, so just basically like your iPod from 2007. A couple of the highlights on here. Bands we’ve already mentioned. He is legend every time I died, Norma Jean Dillinger, escape plan all bands that they.
Either were, or would have been on a bill with relative certainty. You also have some stuff like straight from the path on there. The bled poisoned, the well 18 visions all stuff that if you grew up around it, you know, that orbit very well. You may or may not have been at furnace Fest, seeing a number of those bands, but there’s some deeper stuff in there.
Like the Callisto boys from our hometown of Atlanta. Some up-and-comers that are dope. The threats also from Atlanta, I promise we’re not always trying to just say like secretly slot in Atlanta, but definitely an under underappreciated punk town, for sure. We snuck in because they’re a big system of a down fans and I think you will hear that.
And the tightness of the grooves we snuck in. System of a down track there in the middle a symphony and parallel track that is a wing to cliff and pretty much only cliff and then ended with some snap case there. It’s probably the longest playlist we’ve done so far coming in at 24 tracks. I wish we could’ve added Holly Springs disaster from Canada who were from the like mid two thousands.
We’re spiritually very much in this lineage, but they are not available on streaming. So go look their shit up on YouTube. But I think on here, you’re going to find really like really driving grooves, some cool breakdowns a variety of guitar work. Can’t say enough good things on this podcast or the main tuned dig podcast about the work of guitars like Adam from, he has like.
But good stuff all around. And would it be curious to know please share with us on social media, if this is the kind of thing that you’re into, we had somebody like tweet at us about the Norma Jean episode of tune dig pretty recently, uh, and how they thought that was a band that only they knew about.
And they saw Norma Jean and me without you show back. So if you’re in that very, very small and specific circle of people who saw bans like this, or did not in, are finding them now sometimes posthumously, uh, we would be very interested to talk to you about that because this field, this feels like our little corner of the world.
Cliff: That’s true. My, my favorite from this playlist is the evergreen terrorists call out because if you were playing in any band, anywhere in the world.
in the early aughts, you, you played a show with evergreen terrace. They played more shows than there were days in the
year for like at least five years.
Kyle: and always brought it. I, it was always you could do the roulette and any show that you went to either had evergreen terrorists fear before the March of flames, or I don’t know, throw down or something like that, but certainly those first two, I feel like I accidentally, but pleasantly, so. Before, before another band that I was there to see like dozens of times
Cliff: Yep. Number one band I saw the most
accidentally, despite not being opposed to seeing them on
Kyle: mine was Houma stank. Uh, so that’s pretty, it predates all of this a
Cliff: I guess you found a reason for you to change who you used to
be. Huh? If you were seeing who was thanked that
Kyle: that’s right. I want saw on the same bill JZ three 11 Hoopa, stank, and any RD. It was a tour sponsored by Sprite
20, 20, 20 years ago. This month,
Sprite, liquid mix store, Google that one.
Cliff: that just sounds gross now. I don’t know where to go from
Sprite liquid mix tour. That’s just really gross me out saying that
Kyle: Let’s completely take a hard left and do something important and meaningful. Let’s talk about social justice brought to you by ginger ale.
Cliff: Oh, my God. Ah, so today’s April 15th, which is traditionally known as tax day in America. And yet this segment does tend to lean a little bit more on America that’s because
we’re in it. And it’s fun to talk about the problems more
Kyle: we know it’s bad other places, but we got a lot of our
own.
Cliff: Yup. So today’s traditionally tax day and that day continues to exist in the zeitgeists in its current horrendous and anxiety inducing forum. Thanks. In large part to Intuit. Let’s go ahead and give them a shout out. Thanks Intuit. This episode is sponsored by Intuit, who is lobbying against you. Being able to file your taxes in a reasonable way for about 20 years now.
Thanks so much. So that keeps taxes. ’cause they like to make money off of how difficult it is for poor people to do taxes. Thanks again so much for that. You’re welcome back to sponsor our podcast anytime, but We’re not going to talk about that. actually So much as we’re going to use
the opportunity to talk about.
Something tax day related. We want to use this moment to talk about actually bear with me tax credits.
that are left literally unclaimed every year. This is money that should be in your pocket or your family’s pocket or your friend’s pocket, or your kids. Potentially. so let’s take, for example, like one of the most popular ones or one of the
biggest ones that’s, that’s not being used to its fullest and that’s.
the earned income tax credit.
So actually according to a recent article from Georgia state university so earned income tax credits are an underused tax policy This has been identified,
Effective way to help build economic stability for low income earners which is obviously an important driver.
of health outcomes, right?
Because here you need money to stay alive. Okay. So despite the proven benefits of those tax credits catch this. Okay. More than one in five eligible individuals nationally.
and in Georgia do not claim it. So more than more than 6 million eligible households are leaving approximately $2,500 on the table every year, adding up to $15 billion nationally in money that is already set aside for you and for your family and your friends. okay. We already don’t give anyone enough money. this is money that’s already being given. and we’re still not using it Because
our government fails effectively to do the research
backed in evidence-based work of simply giving people more money. and in the absence of that, even when they do set up programs like this, the programs, are basically impossible to know.
Right. like
if you don’t have a tax advisor, who’s going to advise you about taxes and how are you going to go get a tax advisor? If you don’t have any money, Like they’re all concentric circles of real ridiculousness. And so it can be really impossible for folks to understand that these programs exist And how they can get this money and how to file for it. and how any of that process works. So the organization we want to highlight today is campaign. Campaign for working families. They’re a nonprofit organization committed to helping working families and individuals get economic empowerment by providing free tax preparation.
and resource building an asset development. Okay. So create a back in 2003, the campaign for working families works to increase the Economic viability, of low-income working households, so that they can plan for stable and secure futures. I love the way that they say this and can fully participate in civic.
and community life. Like, yeah, like That’s that’s, what’s behind
financial stability is the ability for individuals to meaningfully and fully participate in civic and community life. And so, um, campaign for working families does this by connecting people. to tax credits, to financial services, to savings options, to building resource wealth building.
resources And public benefits, including that earned income tax credit.
And so we wanted to highlight them because,
they’re helping connect people to the help that they need in filling in the gaps where,
our government really should. Currently isn’t. Um, and so you can learn more about the Philadelphia.
based nonprofit campaign for working [email protected]. So consider making a donation to their mission, or look For similar organizations,
in your community.
That’s always the meta thing. We want you to take away. Go look at an organization, doing awesome work, and then look closer to you and go find the other people who are doing work similar to this so that you can continue to build things up in your committee. And at the very least seriously. Make sure you personally are getting the money that you are owed. Help the folks around you do that as well. Like folks are here.
Okay. Folks are hurting. Inflation is rough. Things are tough right now Everyone needs all the help that they can get. So checking on yourself, checking on your friends and family. And see what you can do to not only get a little bit more for yourself, go get that bag.
But also help connect people to community services that will help them to build wealth over
time
and be able to participate.
Kyle: That’s how we fight the power baby. I just want to raise a glass to you really quick for being the John Oliver and a hardcore shirt said, so thanks for that. I can’t
believe,
Cliff: feminism.
Kyle: I can’t believe we got from is that this is the second time. I think I’ve called you John Oliver, but it’s never not appropriate. Hi. Hello. I’m John Oliver. Let’s talk about dangerous state plan. No, that’s it. Please look out for. Your, your people and try to take care of yourselves. This has been Friday heavy rock over London, rock on Chicago, all power to the people. We’ll be back in two weeks.
Cliff: Peace
go to tunedig.com or follow us on Instagram and Twitter for links to the new release, the playlist and the organization that we talked about today.
Original "Bitches Brew" Art
To celebrate the endless creativity of Bitches Brew—and especially its famous album artwork—TuneDig partnered with two incredible Atlanta-based artists to create one-of-a-kind, handpainted gatefolds.
With the spirit of the original art in mind, each artist brought their own vision to life. These pieces will spark conversation for any jazz fan.
Each piece includes a new vinyl copy of Bitches Brew. 100% of the purchase price goes directly to the artist, so take this opportunity to support the arts in the raddest possible way.
Seriously. There’s literally only one of each. Make it yours. 😎
-
“Bitches Brew” Vinyl with Handpainted Original Gatefold by George F. Baker III
$350.00 Add to cart -
“Bitches Brew” Vinyl with Handpainted Original Gatefold by Sachi Rome (Variant 1 of 2)
$350.00 Add to cart -
“Bitches Brew” Vinyl with Handpainted Original Gatefold by Sachi Rome (Variant 2 of 2)
$350.00 Add to cart
SEASON 6
Season 6—featuring our most eclectic selection of albums yet—concludes July 1, 2022.
TuneDig Episode 50: Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain”
Before uniting one nation under a groove, the lysergic lords of chaos in Funkadelic harnessed wild lightning into an amulet called Maggot Brain, bestowing the bearer with raw, dark power stronger than any force known to man. Between reaching our 50th episode and coping with the “maggots in the mind” of today’s universe, it felt like the right time to free our minds. We hope y’all’s asses will follow.
TuneDig Episode 49: Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda”
The story of Alice Coltrane — an accomplished bebop pianist from Detroit who transcended into something far greater before walking away from public life altogether — is a glimpse into what it means to be truly free. Alice’s masterpiece "Journey in Satchidananda" is a cosmic dance that sparked creation from destruction. And in a time when we’re all desperately searching for a spark of meaning and hope, Journey abides abundantly.
TuneDig Episode 48: Heart’s “Little Queen”
Take a moment to appreciate Ann and Nancy Wilson, who kicked down the doors of rock ‘n’ roll’s boys’ club with their peerless guitar work, soaring soul vocals, and tight songcraft. 1977’s Little Queen — an oft-overlooked gem in the classic rock canon — offers a snapshot of those elements at their most urgent and pure, powered by the Wilsons’ simple motivation (as described by their producer): “It was a war.”
TuneDig Episode 47: Tangerine Dream’s “Phaedra”
When you think of “electronic music,” what comes to mind may not be a genre you deeply love — hip-hop, house, new wave, or even dub reggae — but all of it owes some debt, scientifically or otherwise, to Tangerine Dream. Dig in with us as we study a prime example of the band’s brand of effortful innovation, where they patiently and persistently labored at the cutting edge of electronic technology to open a portal to new worlds in our minds.
TuneDig Episode 46: Olivia Rodrigo’s “SOUR”
Did you catch one of 2021’s biggest albums, or like us, did you almost overlook it? If you have any expectations of pop music, "SOUR" will likely subvert them. Teenage dream this is not; it’s an exquisitely universal portrait of a weird time to be alive.
TuneDig Episode 45: Fela Kuti’s “Expensive Shit”
The story of Fela Kuti — one of the most famous people on an *entire continent* passionately struggling to liberate power to more people — is absolutely one worth deeply knowing, regardless of whether you find yourself drawn to Afrobeat or (cringe) “world music.” But once you know it, it’s almost impossible not to fall in love with Fela and Afrika 70 as their revolutionary grooves rewire your brain in magical and meaningful ways.
TuneDig Episode 44: Meshuggah’s “ObZen”
Meshuggah’s ObZen—an artifact of human creativity pushing the limits of what’s possible—will quite literally make you hear music differently. If you’re looking for a new musical adventure, and especially if you don’t think you like “heavy” or “weird” music, consider this your sign to push past your comfort zone.
TuneDig Episode 43: mewithoutYou’s “Catch For Us the Foxes”
A misunderstood wise man once said “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds.” In our most personal and vulnerable episode yet, we do some seeking through the lens of songs that fill us with the bravery and sincerity to love ourselves and others fully. Dig deep with us as we fish for words about our tiny place in the universe and dance with gratitude for our ability to do so.
TuneDig Episode 42: Erykah Badu’s “Mama’s Gun”
Y’all tryna raise your vibrations? Erykah Badu is here to help. Season 6 kicks off with a meditation on realness and what being on “your own wavelength” really means. (Spoiler: it ain’t a single frequency — it’s a whole spectrum.)
FRIDAY HEAVY
For lifelong headbangers and the musically curious alike, a new podcast from TuneDig is here to push your palette with aggressive, abrasive art. Each short, fast-paced episode offers (1) a new metal, punk, noise, or experimental release we recommend, (2) a related playlist we’ve curated, and (3) a heavy issue to consider and an organization doing something about it. Join us in the void.
Friday Heavy: End of Year Review 2022
It was a great year in heavy music. In this episode, we look back at all the new releases we featured and the curated playlists they spawned.
It was a NOT great year in many other ways. We leave you with a parting message of encouragement to connect your energy and angst to on-the-ground organizations doing the work in your community.
Friday Heavy: November 11, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- He Is Legend – Endless Hallway
- Curated playlist sussing out the depths of He Is Legend’s roots, weirdness, and attitude
- Protect Our Winters (POW)
Friday Heavy: October 28, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- Witch Fever – “Congregation”
- Curated playlist of eclectic, high energy that might get your inner goth stoked on (briefly) going out
- Housing Justice League
Friday Heavy: October 14, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- The Lord † Petra Haden – “Devotional”
- Friday Heavy playlist densely packed with thick, meditative vibrations across the spectrum of drone
- Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
Friday Heavy: September 30, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- Escuela Grind – “Memory Theater”
- Friday Heavy playlist dedicated to the absolutely fucking hostile energy that powerviolence can bring to radical inclusion
- Zealous
Friday Heavy: September 16, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- Holy Fawn – Dimensional Bleed
- Friday Heavy playlist showcasing the incalculably extensive and wildly diverse Shoegaze Cinematic Universe (aka post-rock)
- MTB Atlanta
Friday Heavy: September 2, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- The Callous Daoboys – “Celebrity Therapist”
- Friday Heavy playlist confronting the under-appreciation of Atlanta’s heavy and weird music scene
- Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition – Water Fund
Friday Heavy: August 19, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- Osees – “A Foul Form”
- Friday Heavy playlist fuzzed out on oddball punk that smells like cigarettes just thinking about it
- Women on the Rise GA
Friday Heavy: August 5, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- Chat Pile – “God’s Country”
- Friday Heavy playlist with, uh, a bunch of very pissed off songs directed at christofascist terrorism
- The Grocery Spot
Friday Heavy: July 22, 2022
This week, we discuss:
- WAKE – “Thought Form Descent”
- Friday Heavy playlist that anchors its sound in modern production of sludge, blackened death, and post-metal
- The Planetary Society
Friday Heavy: July 8, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Vomit Forth – “Seething Malevolence”
2. Friday Heavy playlist that’s unsettling in the best way, leaving you feeling a little off your axis
3. Trees Atlanta
Friday Heavy: June 24, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. CANDY – “Heaven is Here”
2. Friday Heavy playlist packed with off-the-beaten-path punk and hardcore from bands that deserve space on your battle jacket
3. Round Rock Black Parents Association
Friday Heavy: June 10, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Sasquatch – “Fever Fantasy”
2. Friday Heavy playlist of heavy grooves for late desert nights and hazy generator parties
3. Feed Buffalo
Friday Heavy: May 27, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Decapitated – “Cancer Culture”
2. Friday Heavy playlist stacked with bands putting their unique and modern spin on (occasionally tech) death metal
3. PropelATL
Friday Heavy: May 13, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Primitive Man – “Insurmountable”
2. Friday Heavy playlist full of SLOW, enveloping, massive and crunchy tone and big feedback
3. National Network of Abortion Funds
Friday Heavy: April 29, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Heriot – “Profound Morality”
2. Friday Heavy playlist packed with mid-tempo, huge guitar tone, big atmosphere and lots of industrial grit and grind
3. Invisible People
Friday Heavy: April 15, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Greyhaven – “The Bright And Beautiful World”
2. Friday Heavy playlist for fans of more choatic + melodic combinations
3. Campaign for Working Families
Friday Heavy: April 1, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Meshuggah – “Immutable”
2. Friday Heavy playlist full of high quality Meshuggah aping that AIN’T “djent”
3. The Bail Project
Friday Heavy: March 18, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Soul Glo – “Diaspora Problems”
2. Friday Heavy playlist with 20+ songs in under 40 minutes, (almost) all under 2 minutes each
3. Equality Texas
Friday Heavy: March 4, 2022
This week, we discuss:
1. Vein.fm – “This World Is Going To Ruin You”
2. Friday Heavy playlist exploring more of Will Putney’s work
3. Books to Prisoners
SEASON 5
TuneDig Episode 41: Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew”
Let’s be clear: "Bitches Brew" is a challenging record, even to some of the best musicians in the world — but all of them say it’s worth the investment. It’s the kind of trip that, even if we *could* draw a map, it wouldn’t take you there. Let go of the need for meaning and enjoy the ride with us. We can promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised where you end up.
TuneDig Episode 40: Fiona Apple’s “Tidal”
On the heels of one of 2020's most acclaimed albums — Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters — we revisited Apple’s debut Tidal and wound up working to extract ourselves from the mostly male gazes that made its reception … much different. We arrive at a question much like writer Jenn Pelly had: “People would constantly prod Fiona on how an 18-year-old could write songs as mature as these ... Why did they not ask instead how she became a genius?”
TuneDig Episode 39: Death Grips’s “The Money Store”
The modern world is accelerating beyond our control, shaping our reality in ways we can’t yet perceive or understand. Enter Death Grips, an art project capturing the chaotic energy and illustrating the absurdity of our hubris in trying to harmonize the surreal and extremely real — never more perfectly than on 2012’s prescient "The Money Store".
TuneDig Episode 38: Augustus Pablo’s “King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown”
Reggae music is easy to take for granted, but its impact is underappreciated and massive — in the case of dub in particular, everyone from Radiohead to Johnny Rotten to Run-DMC owes it a debt. Augustus Pablo and King Tubby together created what’s regarded as “one of the finest examples of dub ever recorded.” Join us as we dive into the culture, history, and unique engineering experiments that made it possible.
TuneDig Episode 37: Rihanna’s “ANTI”
By every measure — sales, awards, chart-toppers, global name recognition — Rihanna is objectively as big as the Beatles ever were. In fact, ANTI is so big it’s still on the charts, a record five full years later. Take a closer look with us at “the record you make when you don’t need to sell records”, and get a taste of the true freedom that comes from focusing on your inner voice when faced with insurmountable expectations.
TuneDig Episode 36: Son House’s “Father of Folk Blues”
All American music traces back to the blues, and deep at the root sits Son House. That the recordings on "Father of Folk Blues" even exist is something of a gray area that cuts to the heart of the great American myth, but wherever you land after hearing these stories, you’ll find that what matters most is what the great Muddy Waters once said of House: “That man was the king.”
TuneDig Episode 35: Melvins’s “Stoner Witch”
The futility of describing the Melvins has stretched critics in the direction of absurd words like “Dadaist” for nearly 40 years now. They’ve belligerently flogged any attempt to pinpoint their essence simply by being themselves, but "Stoner Witch" remains a reliable mall directory for the Melvins’ vast and wild discography. Grab yourself some pretzel bites.
TuneDig Episode 34: Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”
We should talk about Dolly the way we talk about Prince. Her extraordinary kindness and unique kitsch both make her universally loved, but what gets left out of the conversation is the very thing that made her famous: the music. Join in as we focus attention on the sonics and songwriting of the low-key masterpiece "Jolene".
TuneDig Episode 33: The Allman Brothers Band’s “The Allman Brothers Band”
Six enlightened rogues out of Macon, Georgia birthed an entire genre simply by being their soul-powered selves. We have not come to testify, but we’re still hung up on the dream The Allman Brothers Band helped us see. By the end of this episode, you will be, too.
TUNEDIG RADIO
SEASON 4
SEASON 3
SEASON 2
SEASON 1
BONUS TRACK EPISODES
BONUS TRACK: How We Got Here
We got a bunch of interesting listener feedback in our off-season, and it encouraged us to shed some light on why we do things the way we do ‘em. Also, we reflect on our first writeup, which was ... interesting.
WHO WE ARE
We're Cliff (right) and Kyle (left). We’re two dudes born and raised in ATL with day jobs in tech and sustainability, respectively.
We met in middle school, and in one way or another, music’s been the thing that’s kept us close for the two decades since — whether it’s sharing and talking about new music (like this podcast, except in our texts or over beers), going to shows, or working with our favorite record stores to help them survive and thrive.
We started TuneDig as a little art project that connects us more deeply ourselves and to the world through the infinite gift of music. We hope you’ll join us for the conversations, let us know what you think, and share discoveries of your own.
More About TuneDig
TuneDig began as a little something called MusicGrid.me, which we created after realizing there was no place online to directly exchange music recommendations with your friends. Our aim was simple: to make rating albums simple, useful, and social. We got some love from places like Mashable, Wired, Evolver.fm, and Hypebot. We managed to foster conversation between music lovers, get thousands of reviews, and meet great people.
Along the way, we realized that record stores were an essential part of the music lovers’ community. After many a conversation about how we could helpfully connect them to the people who loved them, we began helping them leverage technology to create new revenue streams and embrace streaming services without giving up what’s unique to them: expertise and curation. (Long live the counter clerk who knows exactly which record will be the right introduction to jazz fusion!)
TuneDig is our vision to connect music lovers with the music they love, because no matter how much has changed in the way we discover and enjoy music, recommendations from people you trust and respect will always be the best way to find new music you’ll dig. With this podcast, we’re channeling the spirit of trusted curation pioneered by record stores, and bringing you something to take you deeper into music you can love.