Before The Stream (Jason Lawrence)

Singer/songwriter Chris McFarland (chrismcfarland.com) joins Jason to discuss The Afghan Whigs' 1993 album Gentlemen. 

The two friends share their memories of finding out about the Whigs and the album and go track by track diving into how the songs struck them back in the 90s and how they sound now. 

They also talk about creative process, songwriting, the very effective use of ugliness on this album, and singer Greg Dulli's persona and career arc. 

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Drummer Brian Kantor (Fruit Bats, Nina Persson, etc) joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to discuss Def Leppard's 1987 hit album Hysteria.

The two friends have a blast discovering that they were children when they last give this cassette a proper spin, reliving childhood memories that the music conjures, and reevaluating the album now as adult musicians in what feels like a very distance, future world. 

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Caithlin De Marrais (caithlindemarrais.com) joins Jason to discuss their memories, lasting impressions, and new revelations about Portishead's debut album Dummy. 

The two friends also discuss Caithlin's new album What Will You Do Then?, what makes albums feel coherent, what makes music sexy, songwriting and inspiration while parenting, and so much more. 

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Friends for over 25 years, host Jason Bemis Lawrence and Travis Smith connect to discuss Smashing Pumpkins' album Siamese Dream. They talk about listening to the record and learning songs from it in high school in the 90s, seeing the band live back then, how they perceived music in culture in high school, and the album's impact on them going forward. 

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We're talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York song by song. John Whitaker joins Jason to talk about Nirvana's cover of The Vaselines' Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam. 

The two old friends and bandmates discuss John's teenage perspective on Nirvana in the 90s, everything that Dave Grohl adds to this performance, what it's like to have lived a song, the gift that Nirvana gave so many people by covering relatively unknown songs, and more.

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Is this the best STP album? Is it the statement with which they stepped out of the shadow of grunge bands like Pearl Jam? Does this album title mean anything? Who would play the band members in a biopic? Did Aerosmith really call a record "Big Ones"?

Host Jason Bemis Lawrence and his guest John Mosloskie (guttersparrow.com) discuss the 3rd STP studio album Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, their memories of listening to it when it came out, and how it holds up for them now. 

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Mike O joins Jason to talk about U2's 1997 album Pop. 

Did the tepid response to this somewhat experimental album lead U2 to make safe music for the rest of their career? 

Is this album sequenced for the CD era, and does it trail off at the end because they didn't quite finish it? 

The two friends discuss their memories of U2, the album, how they're connecting with music these days, and much more. 

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Singer/Songwriter Pascal Balthrop (Balthrop, Alabama) joins Jason to discuss Billy Joel's 1982 album The Nylon Curtain. 

Pascal remembers all the reasons this was an important album for him in his childhood while Jason tries to track down why exactly he never gave a crap about Billy Joel. 

This all leads to an in-depth discussion of every song on the album plus songwriting, production, vocal effects, music videos and much more.

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Before the Stream is currently talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York one song at a time.

Chris Buckridge joined Jason to share his deeply personal connection to this song and to Nirvana. 

The two friends and erstwhile/forever bandmates discuss music theory, mental health, cognitive dissonance and of course, Nirvana. 

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Pizza! Polka! Rock and Roll! Collage! Truth! 

We're doing a brand new album this month on Before the Stream. 

Anthony LaMarca writes, records and performs music as The Building and he has a new album called Indianola Pizza Dough out on April 23rd. 

In this part 1 of 2, Jason and Anthony discuss the inspiration and process behind making the album, where it fits in The Building's catalogue, and how it reflects Anthony's life and family history.

Finally a Radiohead record! Finally another in-person talk!

This part 1 of 2 took place in the control room at The Isokon in Woodstock during the making of Jesse Marchant's 5th studio LP "Antelope Running", which is due out June 25th. 

Jesse, Jason and Dan sat down after a long day of basic tracks to discuss Radiohead, OK Computer, Lars von Trier, Pink Floyd, lyrics, production, and much more. 

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Do we stress you out? Our sweaters are on backwards and inside out. 

Brooklyn singer/songwriter and artist Lauren Smith joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to discuss Alanis Morissette's classic album Jagged Little Pill, including what they remember about listening to it when it came out, and how they hear it now.

The conversation revolves strongly around lyrics, songwriting, production, and Alanis' lasting appeal. 

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Podcasts Actually... are all around. 

In the 2nd of several short December talks, John Mosloskie (guttersparrow.bandcamp.com) joins Jason to talk about his experiences, from childhood and as an adult, with Christmastime and holiday music.

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Guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist Michael Quoma joins Jason to talk about Primus' 1990 debut studio album Frizzle Fry.

What is up with this band? How unique are they? Are they a jam band? How much depth is behind their quirky surface? 

Jason and Mike discuss all these questions, plus their memories of the album and Primus, thoughts on composition and band dynamics, and much more.

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Jason and Brian Kantor continue and conclude their conversation about The Cardigans' 1996 album First Band on the Moon. 

The two friends analyze each song on the record while sharing thoughts on production, arrangement, creativity, Black Sabbath, and more. They even dramatically read a couple of bizarre reviews for this album. 

Brian then shares what he's been up to at The Soundry, and with Sound For and other bands, and more. 

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Before the Stream is currently talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York one song at a time.

Rob Collier returns to the show to talk about Pennyroyal Tea, the 5th song on the album. 

We explore why Rob didn't get into Nirvana in the 90s as much as he did the other major grunge bands, what makes this song and Kurt's performance of it on Unplugged so compelling, a little bit of music theory, and a lot more. 

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We're back! 

We're going to go through Nirvana: MTV Unplugged in New York song by song with different guests over the next couple months. 

Jason introduces the 1993/94 TV performance and album, and talks a bit about what's been going on the last few months.

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Bassist extraordinaire Logan Coale (logancoale.com) joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to discuss Dave Matthews Band's 1998 album Before These Crowded Streets. 

Is this music radio-friendly? Is it overproduced? Underproduced? What's kept DMB together all these years? And is Dave a creep, or is he playing a character? Or is he just a terrible lyricist? 

Jason and Logan try to answer these questions and many more while recounting their past experiences with the music.

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Dan Goodwin (djamesgoodwin.com), the brilliant record-maker behind recent releases from Bob Weir, Kevin Morby, The Hold Steady and so many more, joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to talk about Soundgarden's 1991 album Badmotorfinger. 

Dan talks about the album's impact on him growing up and how it has remained one of his top all-time records, while Jason realizes he never absorbed it the way he thought he had. 

This leads to a wide-ranging discussion of grunge, songwriting, lyrics, production and so much more. 

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Happy 25th Anniversary to Bringing Down The Horse by the Wallflowers!

Dr. Rob Collier returns to the podcast to play some trivia, to debate what's special or important about this album, and to talk about Jakob and Bob Dylan, the album's legacy, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, songwriting, and lyrics lyrics lyrics. 

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We're talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York song by song.

Host Jason Bemis Lawrence did this one by himself. 

It gave Jason a chance to ruminate on the song Something in the Way, play some guitar, sing a little, address some of the common topics about the song and the differences between the Unplugged performance and the version on Nevermind, lyrics, and a lot more. 

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Nina Persson of the Cardigans is interviewed in this episode! 

Brian Kantor returns to talk about The Cardigans' 1996 album First Band On The Moon. 

Brian is friends and erstwhile bandmates with Nina, so they recorded a conversation about the album that we listen to on this episode. 

Jason and Brian talk about drum sounds, bass note choices, dark lyrics wrapped in happy-sounding songs, if "Happy Meal II" is actually a happy song, the differences between this album and other 90s alternative hit records, and much more.

We'll be back soon with Part 2 of the conversation.

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Just a quick little update to let you know that Jason talked about Radiohead's album Kid A on the podcast "You, Me and An Album" with Al Melchior. 

You can listen to the episode here or wherever you listen to podcasts. Al has had a ton of great guests and discussed a lot of great albums if you don't know the podcast. 

Al and Jason also talked a bit about Jason's album The Grand Routine and the history and future of this podcast.

I hope you'll give it a listen. 

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The 2nd single from Jason's forthcoming LP is out now. 

Singer-songwriter/drummer/multi-instrumentalist/producer Anthony LaMarca of The Building and The War on Drugs joined Jason to talk about the song and the album. 

The two friends and longtime cohorts discussed production, tracking at Peppermint Studios in Youngstown, OH, tempos, Anthony's sweet guitar solo on this song, the definition of the term "shralping", why the album took a long time to write and record, whether the demos are better than the album versions, songwriting, and a lot more. 

Plus, there's a bonus post-script detailing another of Jason's awkward interactions with a musician. 

Awesome contributions were made to this song by:

Anthony

Andrew Carlson

Gary Rhamy

D. James Goodwin

Rob Collier

Heather Woods Broderick

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Guys! We're eating junk and watching rubbish. You better come out and stop us! 

Lauren Smith stops by to chat with Jason about her experience with holiday music as a child and as an adult. 

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D. James Goodwin rejoins the pod to discuss Jane's Addiction's 1990 album Ritual de lo Habitual. Jason and Dan discuss Jane's place among rock bands during a time when popularity was switching from Hair and Glam Metal to Alternative. They go through the sounds and production on each instrument, how to get the most out of less technically proficient singers, Navarro's place amongst rock guitarists, and much more. They even share their own personal 'been caught stealing' stories. 

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Was the main allure of Silverchair's debut album the fact that they were 15 years old when they made it? How does the music hold up now that we're all older and even more aware of the music they were influenced by. Should we be listening to the lyrics of a 15 year old? Was their producer listening to the lyrics? 

Host Jason Bemis Lawrence and his guest Peter M. Murray (petermmurray.com/) discuss their memories of listening to Silverchair's debut album Frogstomp when it came out in 1995, and their experience listening to it again 25 years later.

Peter M. Murray is a composer, producer, engineer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He releases a variety of music under his own name and was a founding member of the band John Heart Jackie.

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In part 1 of 2, David Nagler (davidnagler.com) joins Jason to discuss Jeff Buckley's debut studio album Grace. 

David talks about his work in music journalism in the early to mid 90s and how it led to his discovery of Buckley.

The two friends recall how the record sounded when they first heard it and examine how it sounds to them now, the significance of Jeff Buckley then and now, and so much more. 

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The dramatic conclusion of Jason's talk with David Nagler (davidnagler.com) about Jeff Buckley's album Grace. 

Picking up where Part 1 left off, the friends discuss David's interview with Jeff Buckley in the 90s, the 3 times David saw Buckley live, if the album suffers from the trappings of 90s production, and so much more.

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Dean Wareham (Luna, Galaxie 500, Dean & Britta, etc) is on the show! 

Before the Stream is currently talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York one song at a time.

Dean's band Luna was making major label rock albums at the same time Nirvana was, so he has an interesting perspective on the time period. 

Dean and Jason talk about the aesthetics of "Unplugged", vocals, covers, and more. 

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People can get a podcast anywhere, ok? They come to Before the Stream for the atmosphere and the attitude. 

The fantastic Annie Nero (Bonny Light Horseman, Muzz, Craig Finn, Fruit Bats) joins Jason to talk about Shudder to Think's 1994 album Pony Express Record. 

The two friends discuss their first impressions of the record back in the 90s, how it sounds to them now, and all of the memories and ideas it triggers for them as musicians in the world today.

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Before the Stream is currently talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York one song at a time.

Travis Smith returns to the pod to discuss On A Plain and reminisce about Nirvana. Jason and Travis talk about album sequencing, "great little pop songs" vs "great songs", poignant lyrics vs throwaway lyrics, what stands out about this song in this performance and on Nevermind, and more.

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Jason is joined for the 2nd time by one of his oldest and dearest friends Travis Smith, this time to discuss Nirvana's 1989 full length debut Bleach.

Jason and Travis try to remember if the performance of "About a Girl" on MTV Unplugged really was their introduction to this album, they discuss what aspects of the songwriter Kurt Cobain would become were already present on this album, the progression from Bleach (which was produced for around $600) to Nevermind, and much more. 

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It's a jazz extravaganza on Before the Stream. 

Jason met pianist/singer/songwriter Claude Rosen (clauderosen.bandcamp.com) on one of his first days at jazz school in New York City and they have been friends ever since. 

They discuss the album Ugetsu, but also what drew Claude to jazz at a very young age, what music school was like, how the record sounds to them now that they aren't in school or pursuing careers in jazz, and so much more.

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Michael Arthur (@inklines) joins Jason to discuss R.E.M.'s 1996 album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. 

Did everyone grow up in a crappy time for pop music? Does anyone want to be someone's Easter Bunny? What is it about this band? About Michael Stipe? Is this record just too long or too same-y because it's so live? 

Jason and Michael discuss all these things, plus the creative process, how bands keep it fresh on their 10th album and beyond, and much more.

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Before the Stream is currently talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York one song at a time.

We finally had to go out of song order for this one, but you'll be glad to get it sooner.

Singer/Songwriter/cellist/multi-instrumentalist Heather Woods Broderick joins Jason to talk about the penultimate song of the performance All Apologies.

The two friends and sometimes bandmates discuss Heather's memories of Nirvana, grunge music, and Unplugged before moving through a variety of topics like live performance versus recorded performance, how people will get inspired to learn an instrument in the future, songwriting, and more. 

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There's room for everyone on the nice list! 

Rob Collier joins Jason to bash through the snow and through some holiday music talk. Rob shares his memories, associations, favorites, and even takes a little quiz. Jason continues to puzzle over why there's seemingly an endless demand for new Christmas music.

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D. James Goodwin is back on the show. 

We're taking a break from the Nirvana series to ask Dan some questions about his process of learning and engaging with the world via social media, technology, etc, before getting into R.E.M's 1992 album Automatic For The People.

Dan had mentioned his deep emotional connection to the album on his previous appearance so we decided to dig further into it.

As usual, we talk lyrics, production, songwriting, the specific qualities and characteristics of each band member, and more. 

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A Safe Place is out. It's the 3rd single from Jason's forthcoming new album The Grand Routine. 

Great friend of the show Rob Collier joins again to talk about the song, how it was written, songwriting, production, Andrew Carlson's bass playing, music marketing, etc etc. 

The two friends also try to define what type of music Jason's music is, what Soft Rock is, if lyrics matter at all, and more. 

Drummer/percussionist/businessman extraordinaire Dean Anshutz joins Jason to talk about Tom Petty's 1994 album Wildflowers. 

The two friends have a wide-ranging discussion about first impressions of the album, it's place in Tom's body of work, lyrics, production, drumming. 

Is it front-loaded? Is it a little uneven as it goes on? Could some of the newly released tracks from the sessions worked better on the single album? Or is it just perfect?

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The 1st single from Jason's forthcoming 2nd LP is out! 

The song is called In the Quiet Golden Hour, and Jason talked all about it with Andrew Carlson, who played bass and guitar and sang on the track. 

The two friends talk about recording at Peppermint Studios in Youngstown, OH, with Anthony LaMarca and Gary Rhamy. They talk about all the other people that worked on the song and album. They analyze the track and the original demo of the song while sharing lessons they learned on this session and talking about production, arrangement, songwriting, lyrics, etc. 

How cool is Dave Pirner? No seriously, we're trying to figure that out. 

Host Jason Bemis Lawrence and his guest Dr. Rob Collier converse about Soul Asylum's 1992 hit album Grave Dancers Union. They examine their memories of learning about the band, the music videos associated with the album, live shows they attended, Pirner's main lyrical device, and much more. 

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It's a Hootie Extravaganza! 

Andrew Carlson (Names of War, The Building, Heather Woods Broderick) joins Jason to discuss Hootie & The Blowfish's mega hit debut album. 

So many memories, so many questions. The guys do a song by song analysis with thoughts about lyrics, musicianship, songwriting, the 90s, and so much more. 

It's a long episode, but hey, it's a long album, right? 

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Anthony LaMarca of The Building (thebuildingmusic.com) and The War on Drugs joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to discuss Pearl Jam's 1993 classic album Vs. 

Because of their difference in age, they had varying interpretations of the album when it was released but they agree that it was hugely influential and formative for both of them.

They talk about visiting Pearl Jam's tape vault, compare and contrast the band's multiple drummers, discuss the impact of videos and live performances, and much more. 

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December is here, 2020 is ending!

This is the first of several short talks about holiday music and much more with previous guests of the podcast. 

Natasha Alexandra (NLX, Sound Sentiments, PoLe) joins Jason to talk about childhood holiday rituals, favorite holiday music and movies, etc etc. 

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Do ear worms live in peaches? 

Podcaster, musician, and author Mick Sullivan (thepastandthecurious.com) joins host Jason Bemis Lawrence to examine the 1995 self-titled debut album by The Presidents Of The United States Of America, and so much more. 

Is this album children's music? Is it sexually explicit at times? Is it just a good time that doesn't require much analysis? 

The longtime friends discuss a broad array of topics.

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Jason's good friend Megan LaMarca (bravealsatianmakes) had some thoughts about the recent Everclear episode, podcasts, evaluating music, John Mayer, and lots of other things, so they hopped on a zoom call and hashed some things out. 

This is a rare episode that doesn't revolve around one album, but it allowed Megan and Jason to talk about a wide range of artists, from Beethoven to Staind.

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Jason asked drummer/songwriter/bandleader Alex Kirkpatrick to introduce him to music that has been important to Alex. 

Alex chose Chris Weisman and pointed Jason to 6 songs to listen to and discuss. 

Those songs are:

"Double Bill"

"The Fingers of Mars"

"Fa Mi May (Dream Away)"

"Living With Poison "

"The Winning Blues"

and "Changes in the Fourth Dimension"

The two friends talked about how Alex learned about Weisman and what Weisman's music has meant to him, what can be learned from Weisman's approach, how their listening and writing habits have changed over time, and much more.

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Alex chose singer/songwriter Chris Weisman. 

In this preview/primer for the full-length episode, Jason lays out the 6 songs that Alex chose for them to dig into, where to find the songs if you want to hear them in advance, and more.

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We're talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York song by song. Our guest for Come As You Are, the 2nd song of the show, was born the same year Nirvana Unplugged was performed.

Guitarist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Louis Cohen joins Jason to discuss his connection to Nirvana, musical plagarism, 90s guitar sounds and fashion, Judee Sill, and a lot more. 

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Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums! 

Johnny Holiday, aka Anthony LaMarca, shows up to drop some knowledge and drop the mic on these holiday music talks. We talk about Anthony's memories, Anthony's own Christmas song, his favorite holiday albums, how to produce a Christmas album, and so much more. 

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Thanks for listening! 

The thrilling final chapter of our 2-part episode with Anthony LaMarca on Indianola Pizza Dough, the new album by The Building. Anthony and Jason pick up where they left off in part 1 and continue to dive into the songs, the process, the stories and the people behind the album. 

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Finally a Fugazi episode. 

Singer/Songwriter/Multi-instrumentalist Chris Buckridge joins Jason to discuss Fugazi and their 1990 album Repeater.

Was Fugazi preachy? Were they sloppy? Were they an amazing example of creativity, integrity and creating a community? 

The two friends and erstwhile bandmates discuss their memories and updated thoughts about Fugazi and Repeater.

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We are back! 

The grand return of Before the Stream features Jason and Natasha Alexandra talking about Tori Amos' 1994 classic album Under the Pink.

Jason tries to guess Natasha's defining 3 songs from this record before the two friends and musical colleagues dive into the full album, whether spirits help with songwriting, storytelling vs. marketing, 30-year anniversaries, the 90s, production, and so much more.

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The world has turned, and Weezer's still here.

Jesse Marchant (jessemarchant.com) joins Jason to talk about Weezer's 1994 debut album. The two friends discuss their memories of how they were introduced to and influenced by the album, how it sounds to them now, and they try to figure out what the heck happened to Weezer. 

They also discuss Jesse's career, his upcoming 5th studio album and the evolution of his songwriting. 

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The final chapter of Jason's conversation with Jesse Marchant and Dan Goodwin from the control room of The Isokon studio during the making of Jesse Marchant's new LP "Antelope Running". 

They talk about the production on Ok Computer, the contributions of Colin, Phil and Ed, what is the best Radiohead record, lyrics, how a track like "Fitter Happier" fits on the album, and more. 

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Adam Aizer (@AdamAizer), host of the CBS Sports Fantasy Football Today Podcast, joins Jason to talk about Everclear and their hit album So Much for the Afterglow. 

Adam and Jason discuss their memories of first hearing the record and try to track down what made this music special and how it might have stood out from all the other alternative rock bands from the 90s. 

Then they tackle some deeper questions like: is rock and roll dead? If not, where do you find it? And, is this a Christmas album? 

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Yes, we've already done this album but Jason got the chance to talk to Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats, Bonny Light Horseman) about it, and about his full cover of the album so of course we're doing it again!

Jason and Eric talk about the significance of Siamese Dream to Eric when it came out, Eric's process of recording his version of the album, boiling songs down to their essential elements, and so much more.

They also touch on other Fruit Bats music, Bonny Light Horseman, and some of Eric's thoughts on covers in general.

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We're talking about Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York song by song and we start at the beginning with David Nagler

Jason and David discuss the song About a Girl along with David's first impressions of MTV's Unplugged series, the time David saw Nirvana in concert, guitar playing, and much more. 

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Jesse Marchant makes another in-person appearance on the podcast to discuss his new album Antelope Running (released 6/25/21 - AntiFragile). Then Jason calls him back to ask more questions about stories depicted on the album, songwriting, process, etc. 

We started a YouTube channel 

You can see video clips of this conversation with Jesse on the YouTube channel, and there will be more there soon. 

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Jason and Polish guitarist Rafal Sarnecki (rafalsarnecki.com) grew up on different continents but they both had a strong relationship with Metallica's The Black Album in the 90s. 

The two friends, who met and studied jazz together in NYC, revisit the album and talk about the difficulties of purchasing it in Poland, seeing Metallica live in the 90s, the impact it made on them as musicians, and more.

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Chris Towers of CBS joins the podcast to count down our rankings of the full-length albums by the band The National in anticipation of a new National album in April. 

Jason Bemis Lawrence is the host and once had his parody song played on Chris' podcast, as Jason mentions. You can hear Chris and his colleagues listening to it and commenting here at 39:50 into the podcast. (It's a Spotify link, but hey if you can easily find that episode in their extensive backlog elsewhere, please let us know)

Chris and Jason talk through how they got introduced to The National and what the band means to them before discussing the band's catalog and ranking their albums worst to best. 

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Photographer, producer, podcast host, musician Bryan Bruchman (bryanbruchman.com) joins Jason to discuss the 1991 Guns N' Roses releases Use Your Illusion I & II. 

Both Bryan and Jason got these cds before they had cd players, but they did different things about it. They discuss their memories of first hearing the music, the lasting impacts it had on them, how it sounds to them now, and how their listening habits and relationship to music has changed.

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Rob Collier made his first appearance on the show back in episode 4 to talk about Soul Asylum.

Now he's back to talk about their 1995 album, Let Your Dim Light Shine.

It's impossible not to talk about Dave Pirner's lyrics. But Rob and Jason also talked a lot about music production (Butch Vig produced this record), songwriting, arrangement, and much more, going song by song while interspersing games, jokes and anecdotes. 

They finished up with some more games, a dramatic reading of a review (of the complete Soul Asylum lyrics book), and the first ever edition of Dramatic Music Tweets on Before the Stream.

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Jason is welcoming in 2021 by talking to one of his favorite musicians and producers, Josh Kaufman. 

The two friends reflect on Wilco's classic album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, how it influenced them when it came out and how it sounds to them now. 

They also discuss many of Josh's recent projects (Bonny Light Horseman, Muzz, The Hold Steady, etc) and how to approach all the drastically different situations that Josh finds himself in as a producer and performer. 

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Maybe holiday music doesn't come from a store. Maybe holiday music means a little bit more.

Andrew Carlson drops back by the podcast to talk to Jason about how his relationship with the holidays and holiday music has evolved. The two friends try to decipher if they actually know anything about Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and so much more. 

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