In this episode, we dive into American Symphony — the powerful documentary that follows Jon Batiste through a year of creative triumph and personal heartbreak. We talk about the pressure of composing a genre-defying symphony, the vulnerability of fame, and how Batiste navigates love, loss, and legacy in real time. This isn’t just a music doc — it’s a portrait of an artist learning how to stay whole when everything is shifting. From jazz clubs to Carnegie Hall, from hospital rooms to standing ova...
Jul 03, 2025•37 min•Season 4Ep. 5
We explore One to One: John & Yoko, the intimate documentary capturing John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a pivotal moment of activism, artistry, and personal transformation. From the 1972 Madison Square Garden concerts to behind-the-scenes moments of political passion and creative vision, we trace how the couple reshaped public perception—and each other.
Jun 01, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 4
We’re diving into The Stones & Brian Jones — a documentary that pulls back the curtain on the early chaos, genius, and tragedy at the heart of The Rolling Stones. We talk about Brian’s outsized influence, the cracks that formed inside the band, and how the myth of the Stones was built on both brilliance and betrayal. Was Brian the true architect of the band’s sound? And what really led to his fall? We break it all down.
Apr 30, 2025•50 min
An affectionate celebration of Sly & the Family Stone that's all the more powerful for recognizing its subject's flaws, SLY LIVES! is a sterling sophomore documentary feature from Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson.
Mar 31, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 2
The documentary presents the origins of Led Zeppelin, this doc isn’t the definitive document on the band but blows the roof off with its killer soundtrack.
Mar 01, 2025•47 min•Season 4Ep. 1
An exploration of the life of Anita Pallenberg, European actress and rock ’n’ roll muse. Told in Anita’s own words, from her unpublished memoir, and in the words of her family, this bittersweet film is a never-seen-before look at life with The Rolling Stones.
Nov 01, 2024•45 min
We discuss Oasis - Supersonic. From award-winning director Mat Whitecross and featuring extensive unseen archive footage, Supersonic charts the meteoric rise of Oasis from the council estates of Manchester to some of the biggest concerts of all time in just three short years. This palpable, raw and moving film shines a light on one of the most genre and generation-defining British bands that has ever existed, and features candid new interviews with Noel and Liam Gallagher, their mother, and memb...
Sep 30, 2024•48 min•Season 3Ep. 8
The Velvet Underground takes a fittingly idiosyncratic approach to delivering a rock documentary that captures the band as well as its era.
Aug 31, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 7
MOONAGE DAYDREAM: a cinematic odyssey exploring Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey. From the visionary mind of Brett Morgen, Moonage Daydream features captivating, never-before-seen footage and performances spanning David Bowie's 54-year career. The film includes 40 exclusively remastered Bowie songs and is the first film ever sanctioned by the Bowie Estate, with local access to the artists' archives.
Jul 31, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 6
After the alternative music boom of the early 1990s, two bands choose very different paths to fame. Portland, Oregon's the Dandy Warhols, led by the self-conscious and career-minded Courtney Taylor-Taylor, sign with a major label and score a radio hit. San Francisco's Brian Jonestown Massacre, fronted by the abrasive and unpredictable Anton Newcombe, seemingly go out of their way to impede their own rise to fame with a series of increasingly bizarre incidents, including onstage fistfights.
Jun 30, 2024•44 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Entertaining for longtime fans as well as casually interested viewers, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool brings to life the legacy of a brilliant artist.
May 31, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 4
A history of Jim Morrison and The Doors When You’re Strange uncovers historic and previously unseen footage of the illustrious rock quartet and provides insight into the revolutionary impact of their music and legacy. Hear the RBR.Music team get to grips with the documentary.
Apr 30, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 3
ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke gets put under the microscope of the RBR.Music team. The incredible power of Cooke’s life is discussed front and center. While Sam Cooke rose to stardom as a soul singer, his outspoken views on civil rights drew attention that may have contributed to his death at age 33.
Apr 14, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Louis Theroux meets controversial rockstar Pete Doherty, spending time with him at his home in Normandy and on the road with his notorious band, The Libertines. Infamous for his tumultuous relationship with drugs as well as a high-profile relationship with Kate Moss, Doherty has been a figure both celebrated and scorned in the British media. In a candid encounter, Louis joins Doherty at a transformative juncture in his life. Having turned his back on crack and heroin, Pete is embracing a new cha...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 1
We discuss Beware of Mr Baker; Filmmaker Jay Bulger interviews Ginger Baker, the legendary and often volatile drummer of the rock groups Cream and Blind Faith. The documentary is free of the hagiographic overtones that dog many documentary profiles, Beware of Mr. Baker presents a clear-eyed, thoroughly gripping look at one of rock's greatest -- and most personally problematic -- musicians.
Oct 11, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 16
We discuss this fiery 2022 documentary about the fearless singer’s rise and fall in the US a brilliant and timely reminder of Sinéad O’Connors defiant, courageous spirit, the angelic skinhead for whom love, intelligence and madness were inseparable.
Aug 31, 2023•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 15
We take a deep dive into the authorized documentary on the late musician Kurt Cobain, from his early days in Aberdeen, Washington to his success and downfall with the grunge band Nirvana.
Jul 31, 2023•49 min•Season 2Ep. 14
We discuss a documentary about lost Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez – once touted as the new Dylan – opens an unexpected window on the secret history of white South Africa
Jun 30, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Hear the RBR Team discuss the Shane MacGowan documentary, the tortured vocalist best known as the lead singer and songwriter of the Pogues, who famously combined traditional Irish music with the visceral energy of punk rock.
Jun 08, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Matt Berninger's murmured musings are placed at the forefront, yet the band follow his every pause and sigh, giving the music the impression of riding a wave; things surge forward, then recede.
May 25, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Petty's roots rock becomes clean and glossy, layered with shimmering vocal harmonies, keyboards, and acoustic guitars. It's a friendly, radio-ready sound, and if it has dated somewhat over the years, the craft is still admirable and appealing. Newsly app http://newsly.me promo code RBRMUS
May 11, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Born out of chance encounters by three young musicians on uncommon but similar paths, indie supergroup Boygenius collects the talents of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus and results in an exciting and inspired chemistry. Already respectively successful when the idea to collaborate came up, each artist had fine-tuned her own distinctive approach to introspective and often sad-hearted songwriting. These variant approaches come to define the charm of Boygenius. Newsly app http://newsly...
Apr 13, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Personal tensions fueled nearly every song on Rumours, which makes listening to the album a nearly voyeuristic experience. You're eavesdropping on the bandmates singing painful truths about each other, spreading nasty lies and rumors and wallowing in their grief, all in the presence of the person who caused the heartache. Newsly app http://newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Mar 30, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Cracker Island marks something of a retreat for Gorillaz, moving the virtual group away from the excess of The Song Machine, a multi-part series of collaborations that sometimes threatened to collapse upon its own weight. Guests are still featured on Cracker Island -- collaboration is one of the chief reasons Damon Albarn launched the group at the dawn of the millennium -- But how does it hold up with the RBR.Music team? Newsly app http://newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Mar 08, 2023•40 min•Season 2Ep. 7
gospel, soul, folk, dub, and hip-hop recombined with punk energy -- and reaffirm that deeply physical music can have a psychedelic quality. Hear the RBR team try to break this wall of sound record down. Newsly app http://Newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Feb 20, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Blessed and cursed with an enormous amount of hype from the press at the time, The Strokes may or may not be completely arty and calculated, but that doesn't prevent Is This It from being an exciting, compulsively listenable debut. Newsly app http://Newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Feb 01, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The final album with Jim Morrison in the lineup is by far their most blues-oriented, and the singer's poetic ardor is undiminished, with cuts that rate among their finest and most disturbing work. The seven-minute title track was a car-cruising classic that celebrated both the glamour and seediness of Los Angeles; the other long cut, the brooding, jazzy "Riders on the Storm," was the group at its most melodic and ominous. A worthy finale from the original quartet. Newsly app http://Newsly.me pro...
Jan 17, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Only the Strong Survive may be the first time Bruce Springsteen has recorded an album dedicated to soul and R&B, yet those styles have always been present in his music, welling up in the rhythms and outlook of the E Street Band at their most jubilant. Here Springsteen goes it alone - with varying results. Newsly app http://Newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Dec 20, 2022•34 min•Season 2Ep. 4
The soul at the heart of Bloodline Maintenance functions as the music that bonds generations, allowing the singer/songwriter to delve into blues, doo wop, and hip-hop, all in a manner that feels heartfelt, not flashy. The result is one of Harper's richer records: it's impossible to separate the music from the message, which makes it all the more resonant. Newsly app http://newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Dec 06, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Weather Alive nestles into a comparatively hushed, atmospheric blend of acoustic and electronic timbres that's meticulous and indistinct at once. Newsly app http://newsly.me promo code: RBRMUS
Nov 18, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 2
