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Mark "Frosty" McNeill on Nina Simone's "It Is Finished" (1974)

Release Date: 08/08/2019

Music and Popcorn #4: April Wolfe on "The Bodyguard" soundtrack (1992)

Heat Rocks

We are nearly at the end of our Music and Popcorn miniseries here on Heat Rocks, where we talk about our favorite movie soundtracks with folks from the world of TV and film! This week, April Wolfe of the Switchblade Sisters podcast here on MaxFun joins us to discuss Whitney's showstopping performances, the iconic fits, and how a 2020 version of The Bodyguard might look like. More on April Wolfe Her film podcast Her | More on The Bodyguard (USA Today) (Buzzfeed) Show Tracklisting (all songs from The Bodyguard soundtrack unless otherwise indicated): Run to You I Have Nothing...

Music and Popcorn #3: Sean Fennessey on the "Juice" soundtrack (1992)

Heat Rocks

We are on week three of our Music and Popcorn miniseries and we could not be more excited to have The Ringer's own Sean Fennessey with us to talk about the soundtrack to the Ernest Dickerson classic, Juice. We discuss the importance of New York rap in the film,the unique place Juice has in the lineage of hip-hop movies in the early 90s, and the...let's say questionable portrayal of the art of DJing More on Sean | More on Juice (Shadow and Act) (The Guardian) Show Tracklisting (all songs from the Juice soundtrack unless otherwise indicated): 'Nuff Respect...

Music and Popcorn #2: Renée Bever on the "Us" soundtrack (2019)

Heat Rocks

We are in the middle of our Music and Popcorn series, where we talk to our favorite folks from the world of film and TV about the soundtracks they love. This week, Renée Bever of the podcast Attack of the Queerwolf sits down with us to talk about the "Us" soundtrack and score. We talk about the masterfully creepy Luniz flip, the infamous Ophelia/police scene, and whether Lupita Nyong'o was snapping on beat. More on Renée Renée's podcast | More on Us Jordan Peele's (The Ringer) (Slate) Show Tracklisting (all songs from the Us soundtrack unless otherwise indicated): ...

Music and Popcorn #1: The Medley

Heat Rocks

This is the first of a five episode miniseries we're calling Music and Popcorn, where we talk to guests from the world of film and TV about great soundtracks. This week, it's a special medley episode, featuring our past interviews with Eliza Skinner, Tre'vell Anderson, Luis Xtravaganza, and the folks from Heatbreak Radio discussing their favorite movie OSTs And if you like these snippets, go back and check out the full episodes in our archives! Show Tracklisting: The Psychedelic Furs: Pretty In Pink Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: If You Leave Jesse Johnson: Get To Know Ya...

Josh Kun on Manu Chao's "Clandestino" (1998)

Heat Rocks

When Manu Chao announced he would be releasing his first solo album, fans around the world were both elated and hesitant. Manu's previous albums with his band Mano Negra were both critically and commercially successful, but the band's breakup was ugly and Manu was running around Central/South America, playing bar shows for three years before he started work on the album. Clandestino was initially released to little mainstream success, but eventually found its audience around the world. It tackled issues like social injustice and immigration and spoke to the displaced. It spoke truth to...

Tall Black Guy on D'Angelo's "Voodoo" (2000) redux

Heat Rocks

The Album: D'Angelo (2000) Tall Black Guy, AKA Terrel Wallace, has been making beats and remixing artists like 79.5, Stro Elliot, and Moonchild, for a long time. Listen to any one of his songs and you'll understand why he's one of the best producers out there and why we were so excited to talk to him. It's no surprise that his personal heat rock (and ours) was "Voodoo" by D'Angelo. Making the album was no small feat. D'Angelo took a long break between albums to learn more about playing the guitar, and linked up with the Soulquarians to lay down some of the funkiest, most eclectic,...

Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding on the Nat King Cole Trio's "Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio" (1991)

Heat Rocks

It's easy to think of Nat King Cole as "that Christmas song guy" but his musical output is truly astounding, recording hundreds of songs with over a hundred of them becoming hits on the pop charts. The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio is by far the largest album we've ever discussed on Heat Rocks and we couldn't have asked for better guests to come break it down with us. Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding of the Switched on Pop podcast sit down with us to talk about this enormous anthology, the timbre of Cole's voice, and the ubiquity of the AABA song structure....

Wendy & Lisa on Prince's "Around the World in a Day" (1985)

Heat Rocks

We here at Heat Rocks talk a lot about Prince, and this marks the FIFTH episode where we're discussing an album of his. Around in the World in a Day incorporated more psychedelia and a wider variety of instruments, which made for a much more eclectic and unconventional album. This is also Morgan's favorite episode, so we couldn't be more excited to talk about this magnificent album. Wendy & Lisa of the Revolution come down to the studio to talk about creating this record with Prince, the funkiness of the record, and what life was like working alongside his purpleness for all those...

Our Heat Rocks of the 2010s

Heat Rocks

Oliver's albums Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010) Laura Mvula's Sing to the Moon (2013) Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly (2015) Frank Ocean's Blonde (2016) Tyler, The Creator's Flower Boy (2017) Morgan's albums Thundercat's The Golden Age of the Apocalypse (2011) Robert Glasper Experiment's Black Radio (2012) Beyoncé's Beyoncé (2013) D'Angelo's Black Messiah (2014) Kamasi Washington's The Epic (2015) Oliver and Morgan are kicking off the new decade and talking about their...

Holiday Music Special with Alonso Duralde redux

Heat Rocks

The Albums: Vince Guraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) Andy Williams' The Andy Williams Christmas Album (1963) Stax Records' Christmas in Soulsville (2007) Heat Rocks was hyped to have film critic Alonso Duralde , one of the hosts of Maximum Fun's movie podcast guest with us to talk about our favorite Christmas songs, holiday fare, songs that should play when it's cold outside, baby. We visit the canon of Christmas music over the years (Andy Williams 1963 The Christmas Album, Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas and Stax Record's 2007...

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The Album: Nina Simone It Is Finished (1974)

It Is Finished is an ominous title, least of all given where Nina Simone was in her personal life at the time. Much of the early ‘70s had seen the High Priestess of Soul escaping to Barbados, first to avoid a troubled marriage, then to avoid the IRS. But RCA Records lured her back to New York to tape a live show, much of which would go into It Is Finished alongside a few tracks from an earlier studio session. One of those vault cuts, “Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter” would become an unlikely hit on the funk/soul dance floor circuit but It Is Finished was far more than one-tracker, especially as Simone dipped into Afro-Caribbean spirituality via the (under-credited) participation of Exuma on much of this album. Our guest, Mark “Frosty” McNeill is the co-founder of the long-running Dublab internet (now terrestrial) radio station and together, we got deep into Nina’s public and personal tribulations of that era, how the album reflects a particular moment in black cultural identity and a spirited debate about Tina vs. Nina.

More on Mark McNeill

Dublab: Morning Becomes... Erotic (LA Record)
Dublab Presents: In Conversation
Twitter | Dublab

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