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.

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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

Transcript

Note: our transcripts are mostly AI-generated for now. 

Cliff: Welcome to Friday heavy your guide to the world of aggressive and abrasive and loud, loud, loud music brought to you by the two people behind tune dig. I’m cliff.

Kyle: And I’m Kyle, each episode, we cover three things. for those of you who are just joining us for the first time, first one brand new release in the world of all things heavy and weird, and why we think it’ll be worth a spin. Secondly, probably my favorite part EV every time, cuz it’s an excuse to put a playlist in the world.

one playlist we’ve curated to explore a heavy sub-genre or artist or scene. And we got a banger for you today. And third, and certainly most importantly, one organization doing critical culture impacting work in their community, cuz after all that’s what punk rock is all about. So cliff let’s get into it.

What is our release of the wheat?

Cliff: Whew. we are comfortably back in minimally accessible territory. Uh, it feels like home. Uh, one of those fine moments where you get to be intentionally obtuse and weird to everybody and tell them about a band that you know, that nine out of 10 people are not gonna love, but the one outta 10 are about to slam on this and it’s gonna be awesome.

Kyle: Like play it with the windows down. When you pull up at Walgreens and scare all the people, getting their prescriptions.

Cliff: yep. Just sitting in traffic on Ponce and scaring. The people who drove in from Dunwoody, this week’s feature new release is heaven is here by the band candy. This is their debut record on relapse. And, uh, we are extremely here for this band getting the support of a bigger

Kyle: Yeah. Hell yeah.

Cliff: Yeah. Cuz it . This is noise punk, chaos that has a love for death metal and goes.

Virtually every direction at once, which you’ll see from from 60 seconds of singles alone much less what we anticipate from this album being released. And so this band is still on a tear they’re young. They just came out with their debut LP in the last few years, but let’s take a quote from Candy’s band camp bio, just to give you an idea of how this band, self co conceptualize.

Kyle: As a professional copywriter, these are always fun. Most of like almost unequivocally. I hate it. When people get paid to write about bands, cuz it’s bad and the harder they try to make it good. It’s bad. So without further ado, let’s hear from candy,

Cliff: it’s usually just the basis who within the last two days has Googled. How do I write in the third person?

Kyle: got the furthest in their core curriculum of college classes before they dropped out, they took the most English classes.

Cliff: Yeah, you can throw a rock and hit a band full of English majors. So I’m sure somebody can figure it out. so from this bio they say heaven is here, puts together so many disparate elements with the confidence and care to graft their relativities together. Under what sounds like extreme Dures. That was one sentence, second sentence candy, specifically strives to replicate moments of impact and anxiety, obsessive compulsive thinking, and extreme cynicism, aiming to provide the listener with an oral journey that allows for an outlet for these overwhelming feelings, um, at once.

What and why. And then also that’s really not a bad description.

Kyle: I know I want to be mad at it, but they’re like, do you feel this way? Here’s the answer. Play it extremely loud.

Cliff: I do, I do feel that way. And going back to their debut record from 2018, called good to feel that also pulled no punches and got them some credibility early. Which, leads to them doing their second

Kyle: I, I started playing that record on Spotify specifically because of the album title, because the album cover is so insane looking and I was like having such cognitive dissonance and then you launch into the title track of that record and immediately you’re rewarded. It’s great. if you want to, you could maybe even start with good to feel before heaven is here.

Cliff: Yeah. It’s nine songs in under 18 minutes. And

it’s

it.

Kyle: to speed quick.

Cliff: And but even worse than your usual punk or grind record, that’s under 20 minutes inside of that span. You’re gonna navigate noise and grind and DBE and hardcore and a bunch of other stuff really quickly. Like if you skipped through the album, you’d hit a trap, them riff, then code orange and one of their weird interludes, 30 seconds later, then back to a power trip course.

Kyle: you couldn’t be blamed for thinking you maybe accidentally stumbled onto like a comp record. I mean that in a hugely complimentary way.

Cliff: So, without further ado, let’s just let’s play these singles, cuz they’re gonna quickly illuminate what or we have Sadly tried to approach verbally here. They’ve released three single so far. We’re gonna sample two of them here. First up we’re gonna play human condition above human opinion, and we’re gonna hop in 25 seconds in because well, the first 30 seconds would literally just be noise.

we want you to be able to, to touch on the tunes a bit.

 

Cliff: Okay, you’re welcome. So next is transcend to wet, which will basically attack you from the moment that we hit play. There’s no reason to drag this out.

 

Kyle: You know, it’s become a bit of a motif when we cover younger bands on the podcast that there’s some deliberate and aggressive genre pushing or outright genre rejection at play. And hopefully you’ve heard just now that’s definitely Candy’s Mo and that’s one of the really exciting things I would implore anybody who’ stumbled across this podcast and is, you know, a little older and grumpy and Beat up physically from all those years in the pit.

If you’re in a place where you feel like maybe things aren’t as good as they used to be musically, I would. Strongly implore you. And I think I speak for both of us when I say things are in about as good, a place in heavy music as they’ve possibly ever been. It’s because of bands like candy pushing the boundaries and going places that we’ve never been before.

It’s very exciting. And bands like candy are the reason that we started an offshoot devoted to heavy music, cuz it’s a real good time. it’s a real good time and otherwise bad time. You know what I mean?

Cliff: Totally. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Boundary pushers, like to me, what come to mind as well are bands like carbo pushing boundaries in like technical metal, and just kind of creating this, constellation of, people pushing in really weird directions, even, uh, fond limbs. Like their last record that came out was just kind of art ,

Kyle: Yeah.

Cliff: caught everything off guard.

Kyle: or like chat pile where you don’t, you, straight up don’t know what you’re listening to, which it’s such a thrilling feeling to be all these years and hours of. Enjoyment. And, um, so thank you to candy. Heaven is here is out today on relapse. go listen to it however you want. Uh, and then send this band, your money through shows.

They’re they’re doing some hell some touring over the summer and fall. They’re gonna do a short headline run, and then they’re gonna link up with vein FM whose incredible new record. Speaking of genre pushers, we covered an earlier episode. So we’re gonna be lucky enough. To see ’em twice over the next few months, which is awesome.

So go see him at shows, pick up some merch or DM them, say, what’s your Venmo, can we direct donate to

Cliff: All right. So definitely play that. And then I pretty much guarantee this playlist is about to kick a ton of ass, uh, without really even trying Kyle, you told me that one thing that kind of tipped you off in a direction for this one was that candy kind of feels different. Uh, like it just quite literally, it kind of hits different.

And so you wanted to kind of differentiate the playlist that way. What’d you end up coming.

Kyle: Yeah. You know, there’s something kind of below the surface that makes him smarter than your average bear. I read an interview like I, I was rewarded on the first page of search results with this band. I, read an interview with, uh, their guitarist Michael quick, who apparently is nickname cheddar. Um, which cool, uh, about his love of Brit pop and specifically creation records, which is home to bands like primal scream, Jesus and Mary chain and

Cliff: Two

Kyle: yes.

Oasis. Yeah.

So the, I should have called this playlist anyway, anyway, here’s wonder wall. but that, interview reinforced how artists and heavy music tend to have much broader influences than fans. Of heavy music. And that’s one of the ways that you can start to differentiate one, a cool heavy music fan, but also a cool kind of cut above heavy band, cuz they’re not just drawing from like an inward facing insular type of scene.

Then in another interview with a revolver, they’re a vocalist that queer said of their approach to punk. I thought this was really interesting for the most part. Hardcore has been based off the same four or five bands for 30 years. People were regurgitating the same four songs that youth of today played in the eighties gets pretty old.

Don’t get me wrong. I love youth of today, but I wanna play music. That’s interesting to people who might love youth of today and might also love my bloody Valentine or the stone roses. I think that’s hard to do with the hardcore scene, but we try to do it cuz that’s the shit we like, like there’s no more punk attitude than yeah.

We’re just gonna do exactly what we want. He also said. Uh, when you know, pressing on hardcore a little more, everything goes back to the Crow mags. They were one of the first old hardcore bands. Anyone showed me. I hope people can tell we have some Crow mags influence. I mean, you can’t talk about hardcore without ’em, which is

it’s. Yeah. Sick. cheddar also mentions like a huge primal scream, influence and, and talks extensively in that interview about them. And he talks about how he first heard a primal scream song in a Tony Hawk, pro skater. Game. so I think that’s good con all that’s good contact setting for this playlist, which is basically the goal was just to cut a wide enough S SWAT to make you the coolest kid at the skate park or the scariest kid at the house party.

Um, so there’s some really gnarly shit. On here there’s some old converge, which, you know, we don’t venture into as much, but we just saw them play locus, rain live. And it was, top of mind. there’s some cold cave on here. I can’t believe that I’m getting to put a stone roses song in one of these playlists, and straight up put, uh, Cheddar’s what he self described as his favorite Oasis song on there. There’s a lot of stuff that falls in the range of like, it’s not quite grunge, it’s not quite postpone. It’s not quite shoe gaze. It’s just weird, like kind of gnarly, almost buzz saw. It’s like, uh, if Andy Warhol got an Hm, two, a lot of, a lot of bands like that, there’s a, cows cover that cursed does on here.

Maybe it’s not cows, but it’s one of those, one word bands like that. and then There’s a burning spirits era, Japanese hardcore song on here. So again, this is a playlist that you can just take and absorb, and it’s a good past present and future of like weird. Indescribable uncategorizable stuff that just refuses to be pigeonholed. If you get a shirt from any one of these bands, uh, somebody somebody’s gonna be like, damn that person’s cool.

Cliff: Heck. Yeah. Sorry, I can’t get it outta my head that you still could have made the Oasis connection by doing wonder

Kyle: Well, I’m, I’m changing the playlist name to that right

Cliff: talk about . Let’s talk.

Kyle: As we speak during the recording.

Cliff: so let’s talk about in organization, doing impactful work in their community. As usual, we want to try to take the reality that we’re in and specifically the context of, uh, American and usually Southern politics and use that as a lens to see our communities and, and.

Actually happening and what can actually be done. Sometimes we’ve gotta take, uh, a couple of steps back in order to show how you can get involved and make something happen. So real quickly, we actually want to talk about. On school boards so there is a recent article called quote school boards are becoming the fiercest Battlefront for culture wars.

And while both sizing this shit by calling it culture wars is just like E editorially unacceptable. Um, the underlying premise of all of this is still really critical, nonetheless. Okay. School boards are worth focusing on right now in your community where you live, whether or not you have kids in the public school system.

I don’t. Okay. And so do a lot of other people or who listen to this podcast, right? You may never plan to have kids in a public school system. You still need to pay attention. Cause what’s happening is, and the reason we cite an article, so it’s not just like raw conjecture religious fascists are, are using them as a mechanism to attack an endanger LGBTQ plus youth and their families.

And they’re also, you know, doing that. Fuck shit. You’re aware of where they’re intentionally deploying terms like critical race theory incorrectly. To suppress history and, and threaten minorities in families. Okay. So, uh, just a quick quote from this article to talk about why it’s important in this moment to pay a little bit of attention.

And then we’re gonna show you an example of, some people powered solutions. Okay. So a quote from this article, While there’s nothing new about culture wars bleeding into local politics in schools, experts say this time is different due to coordinated campaigns, fueling these debates and the deeply partisan divide that has emerged on both sides.

And the fights also come at a time when the institution of public education itself struggles to navigate a post COVID world, right. Where a lot of stuff is going on in, and no one handled it well. one more quote, the, the level of coordination and the financing from outside groups, as well as the use of social media to spread a very consistent message is what makes this particular moment so different.

Yes, one answer to this is definitely to consider running for your local school board. And like, we want to encourage you to do so. if that catches your attention, you can work with an organization, like run for something to move in that direction if you want. Uh, but we really wanted to highlight another way to do it, cuz not everyone feels like that’s the way that they can contribute.

And another way that you can though is community based parent organizations. Uh, and so we wanna talk about one in particular and show the impact that they’ve.

Kyle: Yeah. The one that we wanna highlight is round rock black parents association, who describe themselves as a community engagement, empowerment network that unifies mobilizes and uplifts black parents, students, educators, and stakeholders. Cliff found out about this organization through their story of fighting book bands at school libraries in their community.

A story that neither of us can believe is a real thing happening in

the 2020s. Yeah. the organization successfully organized and petitioned their board to keep, uh, some books in question for the good of everyone. So we want to encourage you to read more about round rock black parents association.

Round rock black parents.org. you can learn more about their successes and their struggles and use it to understand how to advocate for youth in your community. Like we’ve said on so many episodes before, uh, there is probably a local equivalent in your community round rock is just is an exemplary example to point to.

and like cliff said, even if you don’t have kids yourself, they are a part of your community and you of theirs. Uh, remember that what happens in schools and what happens to public services for kids, both of them have a direct impact on you and on people that you care about in your community. So consider how you can get involved in creating a better future.

Cliff: And this is even one of those where if the organization doesn’t exist in your community yet, because it’s so hyper local, this is a good example of where you can just see that there, like there is power in organization. Literally go find other people who care about it. Start meeting together. Call yourself something, and then present what you want as a group, use the power of organization and the power of your voices together to make the change you want.

And I just found their story to be so inspirational in the sense of like, it was just an of course thing for them. Of course, we’ve gotta get together and solve this. And then they successfully did without a ton of organization funding or anything like that. So be encouraged to use this mechanism and technique to get your voice into your community and make change as well.

Kyle: All power to the people.

Cliff: Heck. Yeah, this has been Friday heavy. We’ll be back in two weeks.

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. 😎

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.”

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

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.

Read More

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?”

Read More

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".

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.”

Read More

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.

Read More

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".

Read More

TUNEDIG RADIO

SEASON 4

SEASON 3

SEASON 2

SEASON 1

BONUS TRACK EPISODES

Kyle and Cliff

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.

Read More

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 MashableWiredEvolver.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.