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: 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
Transcript
Note: our transcripts are mostly AI-generated for now.
Cliff: Welcome to Friday Heavy, your guide to the world of aggressive, abrasive, and loud music. Brought to you by the two modern voices behind the movement, known as the podcast, known as TuneDig. I’m Cliff.
Kyle: And I am Kyle and I. Hope that Cliff you practice those in the mirror, , before we record every time each episode. For those of you who have never joined us for this delightful little get together, we concisely cover three things. First one, brand new release in the world of heavy music, which we love and we hope you do too.
And more importantly, why we think it’ll be worth a. got a banger today. One playlist we’ve curated to help you explore a heavy sub genre or artist or scene. Often related to the new release in some way. And that’s definitely the case today. Thirdly, and most importantly, by far, one organization tackling a heavy issue by doing critical culture impacting work in their community.
Cuz we punk rockers are all we got in this crazy world. And we cover all that in 15 or 20 minutes. NPR morning commute style. So you can get up, get out and get something. Cliff, let’s get into.
Cliff: We will from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, we’re gonna talk about Aqua of Grind I believe that is Spanish for School of Grind. They have already been on the scene for only a few years, but they’ve already got two EPS and a full length out and they are all super good. I don’t know how to verbally communicate the naming convention of the eps.
But there’s one about power violence. There’s one about grind core, and there is rumor to be one already recorded about death metal. They are spelled in a way that I don’t know
Kyle: Power by once.
Cliff: your eyebrows just really sold it. Uh, I hope that we can tell some people about that. they’re one of these bands that. They’re starting to click really quickly, like you, you can see and hear and feel the progression release over release that’s coming along really fast. Like one of those crews that seem like they actually have fun and we’re sort of probably meant to do this together in some capacity,
Kyle: I’m an adventure to say there’s a strong correlation between those two things. How much fun they’re having and how much better they’re getting really quickly.
Cliff: Yep. So this looks like that. So out today, is there new full length called Memory Theater, uh, yet another release that we’ve recently covered off of Monarch Records who is crushing it at the moment? The reason we’re stoked about this release, First of all, uh, AMA Grind, Grind Fan in general. Songwriting is a loose convention in this territory there is at once. No real rule. And then also a set of very important rules, that you must know about in order to even be considered a band in this genre. But the songwriting, specifically from Aqu Grind here is getting, it’s really sharp. And they’re doing that in a way where not every song has to only be 10 seconds, although that seems to be an option if they need to.
They’ve actually got multiple songs over three minutes which is, you know, by grind court standards, a Yes album. Basically it’s, uh, Peter Gabriel Rejoins Genesis with the Symphony Orchestra level length. on top of their songwriting, getting really good. The other reason. Uh, this was recorded and produced by Klu at God City Studio,
Kyle: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before on our podcast.
Cliff: This is basically a paid podcast for like two or three producers at this point.
Kyle: Kurt Blue and and, and on tune Dick Juicy J.
Cliff: So Kurt is really, or seems at least really good at channeling extremely aggressive bands into honed album length sounds at like almost exactly this point in their career. , right? Like they are accelerating, they’re growing, they’re getting really good, They’re honing the craft. And this is, this seems to be a really cool moment to let God’s city kind of figure out how to take a really chaotic, noisy sound that you may have developed live and try to make it sound the same way, for like, Eight, 10 songs, and so there is some, like on top of all those reasons, we can already hear from the singles, there is some real depth here and that’s really refreshing in a sub genre that is so visceral and kind of like on its own sleeve all the time. So that album title. Memory theater references a spec specific historical concept of constructing a space from your own internal ideas and knowledge and perception, right?
Like memory palace and all that stuff. That’s definitely something that I think comes up in neuro divergent circles in things like that in a really interesting concept in general. But also in, uh, Kyle, I think you threw us a quote in here, but according to the site, Brave Words who gave an interview here, quote, An architect by trade vocalist, Catarina Economo explores philosophy, politics, and experiential experimentation, building a kind of structure, amids the band’s musical cacophony.
That is a sentence.
Kyle: An architect by trade. Uh, there have been like three or four instances when we decided we were. pick this record where one of us messaged the other and we were like, Yo, I’m becoming a big fan of this band all the way around musically and otherwise in real time. So the headline is, This band is punk as fuck, and we are 100% here for it.
I think this is a thing that they wrote their PR people wrote. It’s like from their website. The music might be terrifying, but the overwhelming spirit behind Esquela Grind is a message of empowerment as they destroying musical boundaries. The quart attacks the idea of gate keeping with equal ferocity.
In fact, they already serve as a gateway drug to newcomers fighting against the snobbery. Too often inherent and extreme counterculture as they gleefully deliver their brutal death grind. I’m gonna assume, a thread one slash x. I’m gonna assume that they’re younger than us from the look of them and I’m, I maybe mis, mis generational.
but I’m gonna ascribe them to Gen Z and if so, it reinforces my theory that Gen Z. As cool as fuck. And young people are, are great and are the true greatest generation
Cliff: sorry, mis generalizing
Kyle: It’s my, I accidentally did a Charles Barkley impression.
Cliff: Are you a Gen Xer who’s been accidentally labeled an elder millennial? We’re here for you.
Kyle: Only
Cliff: Do do you not care? But not in that way. We understand.
Kyle: So reinforcing that was a, a cool bit from another interview that they did with Ka back in 2021 to three EPS ago. They said one of our goals as a band has always been to promote inclusion and acceptance. Sometimes in this modern grind scene, there can be so much gate keeping and validation and dismissal of unique members.
We just wanna help destroy that. We’ve played some of the craziest mix bills shows with OG rappers, bedroom, Pop Gore, harsh noise, Afrofuturist, electronic metal core bands, you name it. To be honest, these shows have been some of our most memorable, and we’ve made so many friends. Grand Core is surprisingly universal in our experience, so we would like to see more mixed bills.
Hell yeah. Right on. That’s sick. Friday heavy is not a podcast for gate keeping, mouth breather reviewer type dudes. Those are the, that’s the only thing we’re trying to gate keep this podcast from is gatekeepers.
Cliff: So we are very into that. So let us also then show you the music itself, because we’ve pitched you on the people behind it who seem great, although we’ve never met them in person. Maybe that’ll change one day. In fact, that’s sort of a general rule. We try to only talk about people that seem like they’d probably be all right if we met them in person.
Uh, it seemed like we are doing pretty well on that front in general, but the music. As an entry point, it’s definitely unpretentious grind core that is, like we said, kind of almost academically respectful of power, violence, and death metal. So there are lots of and especially for the older death metal fans, I think this will connect with you.
Like they write a whole lot of rifts that feel like they were written in the late nineties, but only now. Fully stood up into a song and recorded like lots of that real old stuff that you hear where you’re like, I wish this riff had bass in at all. just a ton of those for like three seconds at a time.
And then they’ll move on to something different and it’s awesome. So that’s my kind of best intro to the first one we’ll play called Cliff Hanger. Please don’t remind me that my name is included in that. I’m saying that to everyone within the sound of my voice here is that single,
Cliff: the second one will play introduces a little bit of a different way of approaching the same sort of type of thing. But again, I think you’ll keep Circling the right airport, just thinking of it as grind core, that is extremely respectful of other like adjacent sub genres and does it really intentionally, uh, and then brings it back to whatever they’re doing.
So this is forced collective introspection.
Kyle: If you dig those plenty more where that came from, check out Memory Theater out today on Monarch spelled m n r k. Go listen to it however you want, and then send the span your money through shows, merch and or direct donation. I think one of them has like a cannabis business, so feel free to explore and support that as well.
Cliff: They definitely have a cool shirt that has a monster made out of weed buds, so I highly recommend that one. I think they were doing tie dye versions there for a minute, so,
Kyle: That’s tight.
Cliff: Yes, 100%. So Kyle let’s see over and over again in the idea of this podcast, we say just because we pick a certain new release doesn’t mean that you have to build a playlist off of that.
We wouldn’t want to make things that difficult because that could really pigeonhole and I think what happens time after time, That is that we totally end up getting a playlist that’s sort of based on the original release because if I can get you rolling like two or three artists deep, if even that you need from me, then we end up with some sick, like extremely niche genre of specific playlist and I’m into all of them.
So what did you do this time?
Kyle: This one. It the direction was energy, but wound up being like very sound adjacent. There’s another quote in that same curing article where they said to us, it’s of the utmost importance to see members of the transgender and non-binary community, people of color, females queer is another, underrepresented people with a platform.
So we try to make the most of what we’ve been given. We also implement crowd work elements from rap shows. We’ve played like call and response methods. It’s almost in the same way that rap shows include punk elements into their world. Now they create mosh pens and convinces, they create mosh pits and convince the audience to do walls of death.
And we’re with it even if it’s simple. People look forward to being able to participate. Unifying moments like chanting, Fuck, ice. Or grind his love with the crowd, even gets bystanders who aren’t aing to let out some pent up energy. It’d be awesome to see more bands do that. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we make extreme music as an outlet for the realities that we are all dealt with.
So this playlist is called Fucking Hostile and ostensibly it’s a grind, core and power violence playlist. But around the title are puppy rainbow and flower emoji Just. A celebration of the inherent tensions that this band has already mastered, right? If you’ve been in one of these scenes for any amount of time, there is an air of positivity or at least release, or certainly supportiveness.
And it’s something that we’ve hinted at again and again and again when we’ve had conversations about this kind of music and why we loved it enough to, to do a podcast about it in the first place. So, whereas, , one of the more recent ones, like the Holy F Dimensional Bleed. One was short in number of tracks and long and length.
This one has a ton of songs that is only like, A, a cdr and a half basically. So this one is entitled in, intended to make you feel like you’re getting out and pushing on a skateboard or doing some yard work or getting pumped to go hang out with your friends, like. The tones and the songs are gnarly and the subject matter is kind of gnarly in a lot of cases.
But the one common thread throughout is it’s energizing. It is, it is meant to get you energized and, and raise your vibrations in a way.
Cliff: As usual, I’m just gonna pick a run that pumped me up a lot. Starting around track 13, we had a vermin womb song into a null song, which is. Tennessee Grind core band. We are gonna keep bringing up and then into a gel song, which feels like they kind of like snuck in the back door a little bit to this one.
But I just got to see gel on Monday in a parking lot and everything was just, yeah. Just, Yes. Uh, everything worked about it. And to your point about, uh, you know, flower emojis and, uh, being counterintuitive with the scene in general for, I don’t know if it’s timing or intent or whatever, but like me and you have been on like, scowl, gel, qua grind, like a whole bunch of like not just female fronted.
Female driven bands. And like you you get a lot of flower emoji as you like, kind of sit in that awkwardness cuz like they confront it directly. All of them obviously
Kyle: I love the Scowl logo so much. I love all of those bands. I am so happy to see women and gender nonconforming people, like really, really representing and crushing in the scene right now. It’s fun. Like the energy in scenes like this are so fun and supportive and like I, it makes me feel like we haven’t aged out of it.
Things are going really well there, like it just, In a wor in a world with so few things to be hopeful about it, just things like this things like this are not one of them. Thank you to as Squala Grind and many of the dope bands on this playlist.
Cliff: Hell yeah. Last thing we always cover in this podcast is one organization doing heavy work in their community, doing things that matter and bringing your attention to them so that you can be aware of it, so that you can contribute and oftentimes so that you can find the equivalent in your local area to have the same type of impact and get involved.
One thing that sort of has risen up recently, but also kind of was prompted from, Kyle, you brought up the title of the record, We talked about me, Memory, theater, This kind of idea of what do we know and how do we keep that information and how do we know that we know it later? And then how do we actually know that we know the things that we know versus the things that we think that we know that we might not know.
And just like all of this, One of the more, I think like counterintuitive truths of our very weird 2022 modern times is. idea that like we have unprecedented access to information through the internet it literally unprecedented. We’ve never had this level of access to data, to information, to thoughts, to opinions and experts.
And yet this has not made us more truthful, nor more patient, nor better informed because as it turns out, people. 100% exploit the complexity that comes along with access to all that information at once. Because access to everything the fire hose is itself a complexity that has to be worked through.
And so more than ever, what we’re noticing is that people in power will look us directly in the eye and lie really clearly without reservation, and they will not apologize later, even if the thing that they’re saying to you is verifiably untrue in that exact. Using all the information that’s available using publicly agreed upon ways to dispute it.
And so what we find ourselves kind of stuck here, and one of the endless examples of this that’s popped up lately is about bail reform. In places like New York and Chicago especially city and state leaders are pretty actively trying to blame fluctuations in crime rates on bail reform. And what they’re doing is they’re exploiting the complexity of the topic of things like bail reform and other.
Form ideas and how they impact crime data. But that’s all wrapped up right in like, how was crime data actually collected? Is this the right way to figure out whether crime itself is going up or down? Is the data itself being collected well? Is the data itself being cleaned? Is it being understood appropriately?
Like leaders are exploiting the complexity of all of this in order to deflect blame, and they’re simply. Fusing to honestly use data that their own departments are collecting. And so this came up to mind because we did talk about bail funds back in our April 1st Friday heavy episode, uh, which was really awesome.
And we spoke briefly then about the pretty obvious injustice of keeping people in jail because they can’t afford to pay a government sanction bribe to live their lives until their trial, So that was about dealing with the sort of reality of the situation. We want it to be different, but, but bail funds are designed to help people out of that reality.
Now and today though, what we wanna do is highlight an organization that’s working to change the situation itself over the long term. Cuz as we talk about really often, sometimes it’s when within one organization or sometimes it’s a coalition of organizations, but there’s always meeting the needs now.
and making the change happen long term. Both those things have to be taken care of or else we don’t take care of each other actually today. And so we wanna bring zealous to your attention. Zealous is a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization, and they support and train public defenders and advocates, and then even others with direct experience.
In order to shift the narrative around mass CRI criminalization, which bail reform is certainly wrapped up into Zeus’s team and their advisory council are made up of some truly great folks. Like I’m betting. If you pay attention in these spaces, you’ll recognize some people who are joined up with them, and that should in.
That should give you confidence when you’re looking at an organization, right? If people on the team are on the board of advisors or people that you recognize as people able to tell the truth, represent things correctly, speak up, like that’s cool. That’s a cool way to look into an organization and learn how to support it.
And I see a lot of people on that team page that I also see out in public pushing back on lies and false narratives around incarceration and bail reform and all that stuff. And speaking of that, the reason I was reminded about zealous the organization was I had recently read an op-ed by its founder in which he uses public data.
From New York to directly refute assertions from New York’s mayor about fluctuations in violent crime being caused by bail reform. And so this op-ed is just a really simple, like, this is literally. Not true. Here’s how you can know it’s not true. Here are like, here are all the links to all the ways to see that it’s not true.
Here are all the sub bullets about why it’s not true. And it’s all kind of linked up to stuff that certainly the mayor would have access to. But it’s otherwise being collected and just needs to be understood and interpreted so that folks actually understand when reforms are helping them and how they can expect to see a reform make an impact once it’s actually been.
Implemented. And so that all came back to me really quickly and thought this was a really cool opportunity to bring attention back again, not only to someone solving problems in the moment, but actually trying to change that narrative over time with data.
Kyle: I mean, as a professional communicator, it is. Wild to me to see this phenomenon play out over and over again where there’s very little accountability from the media, from the supposed fourth estate when politicians make these kinds of causal statements and do so pretty flippantly. You know, we, we see it in our home city of Atlanta.
About public transit and city jails and police facilities and, and, and, uh, we see it in San Francisco and LA around homelessness and housing. And we’re sure that you’ve seen some version of it in your city or small town as well. And a fact basis is, is the only way to continue to try to push back against the unthreading of reality.
So to create change, we must fund access to information. And the training of those who can understand and interpret that data and those who can take those facts to the public. Which, you know, a generation or two ago was just good journalism. But modern times require modern tools. So to learn more about one such institution, zealous and support their work, go to zello.us, Z A l o.us.
Clever short link. Hard to say out loud. So thank you to Zes. If you know any public defenders, friends of the podcast out there, please get them involved.
Cliff: Yep. Because those are the wow. I hate this phrase, but those are the boots on the ground. That’s the outcome of this organization that’s driving the narrative change is they understand that they must train and deploy public defenders at that level to go in and advocate for people in every instance that they can, and then use those same people to spread the word that, hey taking care of each other.
Actually helps us take care of each other. And doesn’t magically cause the crime rate to rise? Um, it turns out that’s actually negative, magical thinking.
Kyle: boots are for cops. Cliff, they’re the casual shoes on the ground.
Cliff: I know. But then, like Doc Martins, you know, are also boots and
Kyle: Cowboy Boots. Or boots. Yeah. Yeah. I feel you.
Cliff: 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. 😎
-
“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.