I'm just going to get this out here the day before I start the show so that there's a little bit of existing material here about what the show is all about and how it got its name.
So there's this guy on Youtube - Pat Finnerty. He is a profound influence on my musical vocabulary and this show's humor. He has a series called "What Makes This Song Stink", and some years ago, he and some other people had a podcast called "What's Up Woodstock" where they watched full-length taped sets of bands from Woodstock '99. You know, the festival where all those people got killed and SAed. It was a festival full of the music of the time, which was nu-metal and post-grunge. Think Creed, Korn, Staind, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, Limp Bizkit, Sevendust, etc. Finnerty refers to this kind of music in " What Makes This Song Stink" and "What's Up Woodstock" as "scumbag music", and ever since I heard that terminology used in that way, I have thought "there's no other better term for it". What do you think of when you think of nu-metal and post-grunge? You think of empty headed gym rats. You think of tribal tattoos. You think of white people with dreadlocks. You think of divorced dads who probably have a couple restraining orders against them. You think of frat bros. It all boils down to one word: SCUMBAG. It's the kind of music that makes you think about putting on Adidas apparel and swilling a Monster Energy drink. And it's what my show is named for.
So how do you determine if music is scumbag? Well, what a lot of people call "butt rock" is likely to be at least scumbag-adjacent. Look out for jaded and/or aggressively angsty lyrics, Eddie Vedder-derived singing, guitar riffs that sound like they're the first riffs you ever write, and "scumbag tone". Scumbag tone is a guitar sound common in nu-metal and post-grunge. It is usually provided by a Mesa Rectifier (see the top of this post) and is scooped, oversaturated, and muddy. It's the tone you first dial in when you discover distortion. It's almost an anti-tone. This song is an excellent example.
Due to my fascination with all things 90s, we're gonna be talking about scumbag music a lot on the show. Most of it is not particularly good, and we're gonna be breaking down why, but it's often unintentionally funny and even when it's not, it still provides limitless entertainment value. We're gonna talk about other music-related stuff too: actually good music, listening to and reviewing full albums, producing and recording at home, and musings about whatever is on my mind that particular day. This isn't a guided tour of Spotify. I'm gonna talk a lot. It's gonna be a very selfish show. But I'm gonna try to offer all of you something that another show can't. The format is going to be more similar to a comedy podcast than a traditional radio show. And we're all in this together, too, so if you have any thoughts on the show or ideas of stuff I could cover, I would welcome it.
Happy listening, everybody.
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