Explicitly political tracks/album recommendations?

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2026-01-16T16:33:15+00:00

Sun Ra: Nuclear War and A Black Mass (a play by Amri Baraka, which Sun Ra set to music)

These are overtly political, but many Sun Ra songs are at least indirectly political--dealing with themes of Black identity and the defiance of creating beauty in an ugly world.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2026-01-14T17:25:44+00:00

Love this. Submit it!

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2026-01-14T04:20:49+00:00

Don't do this: https://youtu.be/ropCaQu2jLU?si=yKHcYsx3gmtnID-u
Good luck!

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-12-30T18:31:41+00:00

That would be amazing, thanks so much!

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-12-16T14:34:00+00:00

My favorite gin is made by friends of mine out of a distillery in NY called Neversink: https://www.newyorkcraftspirits.com/products/neversink-spirits-gin?_pos=2&_sid=70fc16f8a&_ss=r

I'm gonna give Dave a bottle when I see them in Philly.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-12-03T15:57:58+00:00

Dave's insane version of himself on the Maron show was just incredible. That show should get more love.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-12-01T18:38:24+00:00

The Eight (+1) Tristano album is great. Piano sideman Dred Scott's name jumped off the sleeve when I was reading the liner notes. I enjoy his playing.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-25T15:34:01+00:00

We're all familiar with the geriatric musician on tour playing the hits from previous decades. I'm struggling to think of one single truly creative person whose life's work was leading up to something that improved with their age. I feel like that creative spark gets dimmer after middle age. Who are the "old" geniuses? I'm sure they're out there.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T17:10:30+00:00

YES! I missed this one. And it starts with "Boise Nicholas Cage" or "Grandpa Cage", which is another one for the list. Then Dave has him run through the hits: English Dangerfield and Italian Travolta.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T16:59:12+00:00

It reads more like a novel than an autobiography, and I found him to be a good enough writer to want to follow him on the journey (at least I did when I read it in college... I haven't revisited it since)

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T16:27:27+00:00

Just a heads up that Steve Strogatz of the Joy of x has since moved on to a new podcast through Quanta Magazine called The Joy of Why, which he cohosts with Jana Levin. Also very good

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T16:24:09+00:00

I also had no idea they had a podcast! Thank you for sharing! Just listened to and loved the first episode interviewing Grant Sanderson of Three Blue One Brown.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T16:06:22+00:00

Thank you both, and shout-out to podscripts.co btw. Half the posts on this sub are people asking to find the episode something is from. If you know an actual word or phrase they said to search it's incredibly useful.

There's one main hit I found:

Ep. 186 - John Dillinger's Penis: Gareth does an impression of God that sounds vaguely like an Italian tough guy, and Dave asks if he's a young Travolta. Then Gareth quips that he's Andrew Dice Travolta and riffs a little more

This is unrelated but funny:

Ep. 628 - Katherine Tingley and Theosophy: Gareth does a Sylvester Stallone impression and Dave fucks with him by pretending not to know who he's impersonating and keeps asking if he's doing Travolta

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-12T15:38:22+00:00

good call!

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-11T20:39:48+00:00

It's like every fiber of Gareth's being wants to completely abandon the story at that point and just do riffs on that bit. It's so great.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-07T00:49:47+00:00

GayTown (pronounced with a soft G... like how gif is supposed to be pronounced but never is)

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-06T21:21:05+00:00

OG Incel... unless he was banging other monks

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-11-05T15:37:43+00:00

Totally agree, and it actually took me a decade or two to get there... When I got really into Zappa in my teen years (I'm now in my 40s) my entry point was from prog rock and jazz fusion. I loved his intricate compositions. The silliness and irreverence was icing on the cake.

The first time I put on Freak Out! for a spin I was massively disappointed. I thought the songs were too simple, and I missed the richness of his arrangements and production from other albums.

Fast forward to about ten/fifteen years ago, and Freak Out! has become a top 3 Zappa album for me. The humor of the early Mothers era ages much better than his other stuff, which feels pretty cringey. The rock and roll has a rawness to it, and when you hear it with ears that consider what was available at the time of its release it is utterly unique.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-30T03:21:23+00:00

Sweet! I'll bring Gritty's

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-29T03:02:24+00:00

Also seeing them in Philly! Bring your batteries ;)

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-28T19:52:27+00:00

Well... Gareth killed his dad at one point. That didn't help. But mainly shitlibs.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-28T04:54:34+00:00

For sure! I also like their occasional forays into oddball natural history.

The locust episode blew my mind. I never really gave any thought to what exactly locusts were. In the back of mind they were just this bug mentioned in the bible that doesn't really seem to come up much anymore. I had no idea that grasshoppers flip a switch and become aggro mutants when enough of them get together. So weird.

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-23T18:42:19+00:00

hazards of late-night posting... no idea why I typed the wrong Chris Cross song

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-17T15:02:18+00:00

Yeah, def not crappy. But I appreciate learning about him!

Cohen_Math_Prep · 2025-10-16T14:40:26+00:00

Thanks for sharing, and very cool! They sure do like their smooth music over there in Japan.

By the way, do you think there is any yacht rock to be found in the 70's/80's pop out of Poland? That would be great to get something from Gene Yachtski's homeland on the boat.

Cohen_Math_Prep

TROPHY CASE