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The Ringer

Bandsplain is a show where host Yasi Salek invites experts to explain cult bands and iconic artists - and why people love them - using a curated playlist to help you understand the hype.

Bandsplain

In today’s episode we’re heading back to the Sunset Strip — a leather clad world of teased hair, tight pants, and pure chaos. Guest Molly Lambert helps us remember the golden era of hair metal, when bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Ratt made the Sunset Strip their glitter covered playground. Turn it up, spray it higher and relive the excess and freedom of the 80s with us. 

Episode Playlist:

Listen to Hair Metal Fall of Fame Here

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Molly Lambert

Producer: Rob Sundermann 

Video Editor: Ashleigh Smith

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles, Juliana Ress

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino
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Hair Metal Hall of Fame with Molly Lambert

We love Mötley Crüe. Mötley Crüe loves partying (so so much). In this episode you’ll hear how Nikki, Tommy, Vince, and Mick put on their make-up and pioneered a genre, how they turned their pain, trauma, talent, and ambition into an unstoppable chart-topping force, leaving a trail of sleaze and destruction in their wake. Cruise down the Sunset Strip with Yasi and her iconic guest Mel Ottenberg, next stop the Cathouse (followed by rehab)! 

Episode Playlist:

Listen to the best of the Crüe here

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Mel Ottenberg

Producer: Rob Sundermann 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 

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Mötley Crüe with Mel Ottenberg

Rob Harvilla and Rolling Stone senior writer Kory Grow join Yasi to discuss Ozzy Osbourne’s bodies of work with Black Sabbath as well as solo, his incredible impact on not just music but pop culture at large, and his enduring legacy.

Read Kory’s piece ‘Ozzy and Me: How I Got to Know the Real Ozzy Osbourne’, HERE

CREDITS:Host: Yasi SalekGuest: Kory Grow, Rob HarvillaProducer: Rob SundermannAudio Editor: Adrian BridgesAdditional Production Supervision: Justin SaylesTheme Song: Bethany Cosentino
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Remembering Ozzy Osbourne, with Kory Grow and Rob Harvilla

Yasi chats with New Yorker staff writer, Pulitzer prize–winning author, and known Pavement aficionado Hua Hsu about the 2025 film 'Pavements.' Is it a documentary? Is it a biopic? Is it a secret third thing? Did we like it? All these questions and more are answered. Plus, Yasi has a nice long chat with director Alex Ross Perry about the film and several other things, including but not limited to his take on vocal fry, 'Some Kind Of Monster,' and different approaches to mythmaking.

Host: Yasi SalekGuest: Hua Hsu and Alex Ross PerryAudio Editor: Kevin PoolerAdditional Production Supervision: Justin SaylesTheme Song: Bethany Cosentino
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MOVIE NIGHT: ‘Pavements’ with Hua Hsu, Plus an Interview with Director Alex Ross Perry

Boots on the ground from Notting Hill, Yasi unpacks the inimitable Elastica with music journalist Miranda Sawyer. Thanks to their angular, concise music, incredible style, and unapologetic live chops, they seized charts and stages on both sides of the Atlantic in their short but mighty tenure as a band. Miranda puts it best: “Elastica were everyone’s favorite.”

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Miranda Sawyer @msmirandasawyer 

Producer: Liz Sánchez 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 
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Elastica with Miranda Sawyer

This week, Yasi is joined by Scottish musician and Mogwai frontman Stuart Braithwaite to talk about one of the coolest and most influential bands of all time - The Jesus and Mary Chain. From the chaotic genius of Psychocandy to the velvet-gloved menace of Darklands and through their break up, and make up, JAMC never made a bad album and we posit that most of your favorite bands would never have existed without them.

SKIP AHEAD:

47:58 – First live gig
01:35:13 – Psychocandy (1985)
02:18:52 – Darklands (1987)
03:20:58 – Stoned and Dethroned (1994)

EPISODE PLAYLIST:

Listen to the songs we talk about HERE.

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Stuart Braithwaite IG: @plasmatron and Mogwai Official Site

Producer: Liz Sánchez 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 
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The Jesus and Mary Chain with Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite

Giving new meaning to “this song f*cks,” Super Furry Animals’ 1996 single “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck” is a psychedelic protest anthem built on a looped Steely Dan sample, fifty f-bombs, and a whole lot of righteous chaos. 

In this episode, Yasi is once again joined by Scotswoman and known Super Furry Animals mega fan, Chloë Walsh, to make the case for this song’s perfection (with a bunch of band lore and Welsh history shoehorned in, of course). From its origins as a B-side protest against the UK’s Criminal Justice Act to its transformation into a ravey, 23-minute-long fan favorite gig-closer — “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck” isn’t just a song, it’s a statement. A tanked-up, freaked-out, absolutely uncompromising statement. Let the sample loop. Let the synths soar. The man still don’t give a f*ck.

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek

Guests: Chlöe Walsh

Producer: Liz Sánchez

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino
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Perfect Song: ‘The Man Don’t Give a F*ck’ by Super Furry Animals with Chloë Walsh

So you wanna live like the Common People do? It’s time for part two of the Pulp story in which Yasi and music journalist and Pulpologist Siân Pattenden start back up at the peak of Britpop, tracing how “the great interlopers” of the genre captured the spirit and sound of the time with Different Class, and then soundtracked the comedown with This Is Hardcore — Britpop’s bleary-eyed hangover (or maybe - a conversation with god???). Then it’s into the Weeds: a retreat from fame into nature, the album We Love Life, and the band’s 2000s revival and first new song in over a decade. 

EPISODE PLAYLIST:

Listen to the songs we talk about HERE.

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Siân Pattenden IG: @sian_superman Twitter: @sian_superman Website: Sian Pattenden

Producer: Liz Sánchez 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 
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Pulp: Part 2 (1994 to Forever?) with Siân Pattenden

In today’s episode, we trace Pulp's story, starting from high school talent show stars up through the moment they become Britpop major players. Yasi is joined by British music journalist, author, and former Good Mixer regular Siân Pattenden to help red string board the many iterations of Pulp from 1978 through the moment it really clicked with His N Hers in 1994. 

EPISODE PLAYLIST:

Listen to the songs we talk about HERE.

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Siân Pattenden IG: @sian_superman Twitter: @sian_superman Website: Sian Pattenden

Producer: Liz Sánchez 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 
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Pulp: Part 1 (1978! through 1994) with Siân Pattenden

Today we’re talking about a band who managed to change their sound every single album while still staying absolutely, totally, and utterly themselves: Primal Scream. Bobby Gillespie and co started in the 80s but they most meaningfully bookended the 90s with their two most notable albums – from the hopeful optimism and upbeat acid house that started the decade in Screamadelica to the dark, caustic grit and gunmetal sounds that embodied the end of the dream on XTRMNTR. Join Yasi and guest Chris Ryan as they chart the history and discography of one the most unique bands of our time, Primal Scream. 

EPISODE PLAYLIST:

Listen to the songs we talk about HERE

CREDITS:

Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalek

Guest: Chris Ryan IG: @crashactivated Twitter: @ChrisRyan77 // Listen to the The Watch

Producer: Liz Sánchez 

Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges

Additional Production Supervision: Justin Sayles

Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino 
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Primal Scream with Chris Ryan

For Yasi’s birthday, she can have a two part PJ Harvey episode as a treat. Ann Powers of NPR Music is welcomed back to Bandsplain to dissect the lauded work and cinematic life of Polly Jean Harvey, who Ann calls “the artiest rock star of the late 20th century” and a vector for deep discussions on gender, sexuality, mysticism, mythmaking, and art.

Follow Ann Powers on Twitter at @annkpowers, and find her latest book, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music wherever fine books are sold.
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PJ Harvey: Part 1 with Ann Powers

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