On February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart while reentering the earth’s atmosphere. John Roderick, singer and songwriter of The Long Winters, wrote “The Commander Thinks Aloud” about that fateful moment. This episode was made from an interview I did with John Roderick in front of a live audience in Seattle, where we discussed how and why he made this song.

Buy “The Commander Thinks Aloud” on iTunes.

Read the profile of the commander and the six other crew members at NASA’s page dedicated to the Columbia. The seven of them were of seven different religious faiths.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
John Roderick also makes podcasts: Roderick on the Line with Merlin Mann, and Roderick’s Rendezvous.

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The band Blonde Redhead formed in 1993. Twenty-one years later, in 2014, the trio released their 9th album, and in this episode, they deconstruct Penultimo, a song from that record that caused some dissent between the band members. At the heart of the controversy was the Pitchfactor effect pedal by Eventide, a harmonizer that does a lot, or maybe too much. Coming up, you’ll hear how tricky it was to begin this song, as well as to finish it.

Buy “Penultimo” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
Fleetwood Mac – Tusk

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In November 2014, Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan released his 11th album, called 36 Seasons. A lot of people worked on it: soul band The Revelations served as a kind of house backing band for the whole thing. Lil’ Fame from M.O.P. and engineer Daniel Schlett helped produce, and there’s a host of guest vocalists, including the ones on this track: singer Tré Williams, and rappers AZ and Kool G Rap. But the person who put the whole thing together, came up with the idea, and corralled all of these contributors is someone who doesn’t appear on the record. His name is Bob Perry, and his title is A&R, which stands for artist and repertoire. Nowadays, that usually means the person at a record label who acts as a talent scout for new artists, but back in the day, the A&R reps were often responsible for much more. In this episode, Bob Perry talks about how the Ghostface song “The Battlefield” came together, and Revelations guitarist Wes Mingus breaks down how the beat was assembled.

Buy “The Battlefield” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
Other songs in this episode:
The Revelations & Tré Williams – I Forgot to Be Your Lover

M.O.P. – Ante Up

The Revelations – I Love You for All Seasons

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