Teenage Fanclub & Opinions on Kanye West

Kurt Cobain called them the the best band in the world. Now Teenage Fanclub joins Jim and Greg in the studio for a conversation and live performance. Then they review the new album from Kanye West and Jim drops a quarter into the Desert Island Jukebox.

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The wait is over...The Beatles have come to iTunes. The famous holdout between Apple Corp. and Apple has come to an end, and the Fab Four's entire catalog will be available for digital download. As Greg explains, both singles and albums will be available, but for premium prices. Because of this, Amazon immediately brought their album prices down. This marks the sixth incarnation of The Beatles catalog being reissued, not including their first foray into the digital world: the videogame Rock Band. Perhaps because of this, Greg thought the announcement was rather anticlimactic. Jim's response is outrage. He can't believe The Beatles estate is asking fans to re-purchase their music yet again. And he notes that the list of artists still not on iTunes is pretty small: AC/DC, Kid Rock and Garth Brooks.

Teenage Fanclub

Few bands from the early ‘90s are still going strong. But Teenage Fanclub is an exception. The Scottish power pop band formed in 1989, and, for most of its existence, has maintained the same lineup: guitarists and songwriters Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley, Gerard Love and Francis McDonald. Now they're also joined by keyboardist Dave McGowan. Jim and Greg talk to the band about their roots, their longevity, and the rarity of a band having three chief songwriters. They also ask them about the recording and reception of Bandwagonesque, the band's third record and the one that brought Teenage Fanclub its first taste of success in the States. In fact, Spin Magazine voted Bandwagonesque the #1 album of 1991 - favoring it over Nirvana's Nevermind, R.E.M.'s Out of Time and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. While in the Sound Opinions studio, Teenage Fanclub performs songs from its new album Shadows, plus an oldie from 1995's Grand Prix.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Kanye West

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Deluxe Edition)

Kanye West knows how to get into the headlines. He's bumped heads with everyone from Matt Lauer to Taylor Swift to President Bush. But, it's important not to forget: he also knows how to make music. Jim says, OK he's a jerk...John Lennon could also have been a jerk. But what Kanye West achieves on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is nothing short of amazing. He combines Iron Maiden with King Crimson; robotic humming and what Greg calls "classical opulence." Greg compares West to ambitious artists like Brian Wilson and Marvin Gaye, but notes that what separates him is his inability to censor himself. That gives his music both bravado and vulnerability. Both Jim and Greg give My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy an enthusiastic double Buy It.

Jim

The life and death of John Lennon has been on a lot of our minds these days, Jim included. He recently watched the film Nowhere Boy, which depicts Lennon in his teen years. One of the scenes shows Lennon first discovering a vinyl record by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. As Jim explains, Hawkins was one of the first people to bring "fear and loathing" to rock ‘n’ roll. His 1956 track "I Put a Spell on You" is a classic. It was banned from a number of radio stations at the time, but if it was good enough for John Lennon, it's certainly good enough to add to the Desert Island Jukebox.

Dear Listeners,

For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!

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