Heat Rocks

When Amy Winehouse released her debut studio album Frank back in 2003, it made waves in her native UK, but it didn't quite make it across the pond. Those who heard it, loved her contralto vocals, relatable lyrics, and blending of musical genres. A few years later, she would go on to release her second and final album, Back to Black, to both critical and commercial success, earning the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album and selling over 16 million copies worldwide. Unfortunately, the success was short-lived; Winehouse struggled with substance abuse and mental illness and died of alcohol poisoning in 2011, at just 27 years old.

R&B sister duo VanJess sits down with us to discuss Amy's influence on artists today, blue-eyed soul, and what direction her next album would have gone if she were still here with us.

More on VanJess

• Check out VanJess' new single Slow Down
• VanJess Are The Sister Two-Piece Cultivating Their Own Strand Of R&B (Vogue)
• Twitter | Instagram

More on Back to Black

• Salaam Remi on producing the album
• ‘Back To Black’: How Amy Winehouse Crossed The Atlantic (uDiscoverMusic)
• ‘Back to Black’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know (Rolling Stone)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Back to Black unless otherwise indicated):

• Rehab
• VanJess: Touch the Floor
• Addicted
• Jazmine Sullivan: Round Midnight
• Amy Winehouse: In My Bed
• Tears Dry on Their Own
• Back to Black
• Tears Dry on Their Own
• Waking Up Alone
• Love Is A Losing Game
• Rehab
• Amy Winehouse: Valerie
• He Can Only Hold Her
• The Icemen: (My Girl) She's A Fox
• Love Is A Losing Game
• Just Friends
• Back To Black
• Amy Winehouse: Mr. Magic (Through the Smoke)
• Me and Mr. Jones
• Back to Black
• Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: Let Them Knock
• Amy Winehouse: Amy, Amy, Amy
• Corinne Bailey Rae: Till It Happens to You
• Sade: Tar Baby
• Snoh Aalegra: Fool For You

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
If you’re not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!

The Emotions started out singing gospel as The Hutchinson Sunbeams, but when they signed a deal with Stax/Volt, they changed their name and switched to soul/R&B. They enjoyed modest success during those years, charting on the Hot 100, but Stax was going bankrupt, and The Emotions were left stranded.

The group moved to Columbia Records and met Maurice White, who helped produce the biggest hits in their careers. "The Best of My Love" rocketed up the charts and reached the top spot on Billboard Pop and R&B and their album Rejoice went Platinum.

Critic and professor Tisa Bryant talks to Oliver and guest co-host Ernest Hardy about the change in sound between the Stax/Volt and Columbia Records years, the role Maurice and Charles Stepney played in the production of this album, and The Emotions' place in the vast world of girl groups.

More on Tisa

• Tisa's book, Unexplained Presence
• The Hybridized Writings of Tisa Bryant (KCET)
• Twitter

More on The Emotions

• The Emotions on Stax Records
• Wattstax trailer
• An 'Emotional' Success Story (The New York Times)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Rejoice unless indicated otherwise):

• Best of My Love
• The Emotions: Peace Be Still
• The Emotions: Flowers
• A Long Way to Go
• Bebe and Cece Winans: Heaven
• Blessed
• Deniece Williams: Free
• Blessed
• Key to My Heart
• Don't Ask My Neighbors
• A Feeling Is
• Best of My Love
• Don't Ask My Neighbors
• Best of My Love
• Don't Ask My Neighbors
• A Long Way to Go
• Rejoice
• The Emotions: Blind Alley
• The Emotions: Show Me How
• The Emotions: Peace Be Still (Live at Wattstax)
• The Emotions: We Go Through Changes
• Love Unlimited: If You Want Me, Say It

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find there.

If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!

The Album: Drakeo the Ruler: Cold Devil (2017)

When we invited L.A. music writer Jeff Weiss to join us, he was adamant that there was only one release he wanted to talk about: Cold Devil, the full-length, acclaimed mixtape that the upstart Los Angeles rapper, Drakeo the Ruler, dropped nearly a year ago. Drakeo is part of the Stinc Team and is helping lead a wave of emergent talents that also includes 03 Greedo, Ketchy the Great and Ralfy the Plug.

The longtime writer behind The Passion of the Weiss music blog, Jeff has been championing Drakeo for several years now and in particular, he's written extensively on the rapper's tumultuous legal challenges, including first interviewing Drakeo when he was locked up. Our conversation touched on Drakeo's legal situation, the rapper's gift of slanguistic gab and the current state of West Coast rap music.

More on Jeff Weiss

• Interviews with Drakeo: 1 & 2
• Shots Fired Podcast
• Website | Twitter

More on Cold Devil

• "L.A. rapper Drakeo the Ruler is a man in demand" (LA Times)
• Album review (Pitchfork)
• "Drakeo The Ruler Is Different, And Different Is Good" (Stereogum)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Cold Devil unless indicated otherwise):

• Out the Slums
• Drakeo the Ruler: Mr. Get Dough
• Big Banc Uchies
• Flu Flamming
• Ion Rap Beef
• Red Tape, Yellow Tape
• Neiman and Marcus Don't Know You
• Flu Flamming
• Out the Slums
• Blamped

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there

If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!

The Album: Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer (2018)

To close out our Women Behaving Boldly mini-series, we brought things all the way up to the present by tackling a 2018 album. Our guest, music writer and journalism professor Evelyn McDonnell wanted to talk about Atlanta's Janelle Monae and her recent LP, Dirty Computer.

Between her various alter egos and concept-driven albums, Monae's been a critic's darling since she first broke out ten years ago and the intervening decade hasn't dimmed her creative appeal a bit. Dirty Computer, and its accompany mini-movie of music videos, touches on many of Monae's favorite themes: sci-fi futures (some good, some not so good), fluid identities (including her own evolving sexuality), and some of the most soul/funk/rock/pop concoctions you can imagine.

If Monae's recent gem was a perfect capstone to our six weeks of Women Behaving Boldly, it was perfectly matched by the guest who chose it. McDonnell is one of the most accomplished music journalists of her generation, having previously written the books Queens of Noise, about the Runaways, Army of She, which is about Bjork, and Mamarama, which is about Evelyn herself. Her latest is the massive anthology, Women Who Rock, a 400 page edited anthology that focuses on over 100 of the most important women in pop music history, written by many of our favorite writers including both Lynnee Denise and Ann Powers, both of whom also contributed to our Women Behaving Boldly series.

More on Evelyn McDonnell

• Evelyn McDonnell on Bullseye.
• More on Women Who Rock
• Blog | Twitter

More on Dirty Computer

• The album's "emotion picture" mini-movie.
• Album review (Pitchfork)
• "Janelle Monáe On Owning Her Queer Identity With 'Dirty Computer'" (Billboard)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Dirty Computer unless indicated otherwise):

• Make Me Feel
• Janelle Monae - Sincerely, Jane
• Janelle Monae - Tightrope
• Pynk
• I Like That
• So Afraid
• I Like That
• Pynk
• Aerosmith - Pink
• Django Jane
• Screwed
• Make Me Feel
• Americans
• Don't Judge Me
• The RH Factory - Poetry

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there

If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!

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 Attack of the Queerwolf
• Instagram | Twitter

More on Us

• Jordan Peele's Spotify Takeover
• Straight From the Underground: The Frighteningly Good Music of ‘Us’ (The Ringer)
• Interview with Michael Abels, composer for Us (Slate)

Show Tracklisting (all songs from the Us soundtrack unless otherwise indicated):

• I Got 5 On It (Tethered Mix)
• Q Lazzarus: Goodbye Horses
• Bette Davis: I've Written A Letter to Daddy
• Queen: Don't Stop Me Now
• Low Shoulder: Through The Trees
• I Like That
• Bay All-Stars: I Got 5 On It
• Fuck Tha Police
• Les Fleurs
• Henry Mancini: Lujon
• Femme Fatale
• I Got 5 On It

Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple Podcasts, do it here!