Oscar and Dylan talk about the 2025 Bruce Springsteen biopic, centered around the making of his home-recorded album "Nebraska". This isn't really a movie you can spoil, but we do talk about the general plot of the movie and give our honest thoughts about it, as well as discuss our history with Springsteen and his legacy.
Dylan interviews Robert and Oscar about their respective creative writing projects – one using A.I. and the other not. This turns into a deep dive on the root impulses of human creativity, and whether A.I. is a threat to art or merely another tool to boost productivity. Note to listeners: Unfortunately Oscar's audio was glitched out and we needed to use phone camera audio to supplement his speech. Thank god we record in video format, but there is a noticeably shift in quality when he speaks. We ...
In celebration of recording a new episode this week (our first of 2025!), we're uploading the forgotten last episode of 2024, which never made it to platforms outside of Youtube. Follow us there on the ODcast Arts channel (@odarting) for more content outside of podcasting. As for this, our 30th episode, it's an introspective one. Buckle up for a ride into the depths of our souls.
We're keeping the spooky season vibes rolling with this examination of life, education, and career arcs in the funeral business. Our special guest Tania worked for several years as a funeral director (just like Oscar!) but has since left the industry. Find out why, and what she misses about it. We also shares laughs about RuPaul's Drag Race and other less morbid topics.
Episode 26 is finally here and it's a banger! We have Dafne in the studio to discuss all things spiritual, paranormal, and astrological. Find out about Dafne's ancestral ties to Mexican/indigenous witches, her childhood ghost encounters with her siblings, and lifelong fascination with Santa Muerte. A video version of this podcast can be seen on our Youtube Channel, ODcast Arts (@odarting)
We were deeply saddened to hear the news of Steve Albini's passing earlier this month, both as fans of the albums he recorded and of his legendary status in our native Chicago's music scene. In digging into his life and work for this tribute, we uncovered some unsavory aspects of his biography that we felt compelled to discuss in an open and honest way. R.I.P. Steve Albini
This week we are joined by special guest Brooke, who assigned us to listen to her favorite band, Ireland's Fontaines D.C. We give our thoughts on their current discography of three albums and the new single from their upcoming 2024 release. Other tangents include Oscar's improvisational novel in progress and Dylan's annoyance at bald villains in film and TV.
It's an epic showdown between two iconic thrash metal albums of the 1980s. Dylan defends his choice of the controversial and much maligned mix of "And Justice For All", while Oscar passionately explains why he thinks Slayer beats Metallica any day of the week. This one gets heated, folks! A video version of this podcast is available on our YouTube channel, ODcast Arts.
For our belated return to podcasting in 2024, we discussed two of our favorite hip-hop albums of the 90s, Jay-Z's debut album "Reasonable Doubt" and A Tribe Called Quest's sophomore effort "The Low End Theory." Due to the large file size of our video episodes, we will no longer be posting the video versions on Spotify. Instead, please find video versions of this podcast on our YouTube channel, ODcast Arts.
For this episode, we listened to the entire discography of legendary Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor, much of which was new to both of us. Hear what we thought of her lengthy catalog, along with our cover of her 1990 protest anthem "Black Boys on Mopeds", featuring special guest Brooke on bass and vocals.
Sorry for the poor audio quality in this episode. Dylan took Oscar to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the Remedios Varo painting show that recently closed, and this was recorded in a small room connected to the museum. A review of the exhibition turns into a discussion of feminist art, surrealism, and whether the art market is just a giant pyramid scheme.
This was originally recorded and aired on our Youtube channel (ODcast Arts / @odarting) for Halloween 2023, hence the spooky sound effects and topic. Now finally on podcast platforms, learn all about Oscar's former career in the funeral industry. It's a morbid topic, but we tried to approach it with humor and respect. If you missed this one before, it's well worth the listen!
We are joined by special guest Kevin Guzman to discuss the discography of the Strokes.
We finally finished listening to Black Sabbath's later years, starting after Dio's (first) departure in 1983, and ending with their most recent studio album, "13" (2013). We reflect on the effects of having a rotating cast of lead singers, and basically look for any excuse to go off topic. Oscar also gives Zakk Wylde branding advice.
Oscar and Dylan have their most vehement disagreement yet about the merits of the band Steely Dan.
Umraan Syed is a Chicago-based musician in the progressive hip-hop genre. We interviewed to him about his music and listened to one of his most recent singles, BE OKAY. This interview was recorded a couple months ago, but Umraan is about to headline his first show of the year at the Golden Dagger in Chicago, this Saturday, September 2nd, 2023.
It was Oscar's pick to tackle the complete discography of the behemoth fore-fathers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath. After a couple weeks of exhaustive prep, we decided to split the catalog into two parts. This episode covers the main Ozzy years of the 1970s and the first two albums Dio did with the band. Part two coming in two weeks!
Inspired by a Youtube comment on our Top 5 guitarists episode (Thank you to Neutrogena!), Oscar and Dylan count down their Top 5 singers. Youtube blocked the audio on some of these songs when it was originally posted, so now you get to hear our reactions to all the vocalists in their uncut glory.
We review Kendrick Lamar's 2017 album DAMN and its mirror-image track listing NMAD, and as per Oscar's request, compare it to a little known band called Pink Floyd and their 1973 release The Dark Side of the Moon. Halfway through, we segue into a discussion of classical music, reviewing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's recent performances of Shostakovich's Symphony no. 8 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25.
Dylan and Oscar visit the 2023 Salvador Dalì exhibition, "The Image Disappears" at the Art Institute of Chicago. They then return to the ODcast studio to discuss what they saw, and talk about Dalì and surrealist painting in general.
Oscar and Dylan sit down with three of the members of Chicago hardcore/metal band Through N Through. They discuss what it was like growing up in the Little Village neighborhood, going from playing backyard shows to touring across the country. Dylan asks some recording and songwriting questions, while Oscar grills the band about AC/DC connections (or lack thereof) and their go-to foods to eat while on the road.
Oscar and Dylan get back to their roots with a good old fashioned album review episode. This month, we listened to Brazilian singer Liniker and Mexican singer and violinist La Bruja de Texcoco – two trans artists pushing the boundaries of songwriting and performance in their respective genres. As always, we attempted to cover one song by each artist, which was quite a challenge this time! Oscar is embarrassed by his Bruja cover but Dylan thinks it's not bad! You be the judge.
The topic for this episode was discussing our five favorite guitar players, along with playing a little bit and listening to recordings of the stuff we're not good enough to play. Our selections run the gamut from nylon string Latin players to modern fuzzy shredders and some folky artists in between. Along the way, Oscar and Dylan reflect on what made them pick up the guitar in the first place.
The first movie ODcast was born when Oscar challenged Dylan to choose a "non-horror horror film" that impacted his life in some way. Oscar did the same, resulting in this rare comparison of Luis Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel" and Shunji Iwai's "All About Lily Chou-Chou". Strap in, because it's a long one. Movie talk starts at 37:13 (I know, we're sorry) because we spend half an hour answering a listener's questions and dissecting the creative process.
This is a very musical episode! We cover Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" AND sing a Swiftie ODcast theme song within the first four minutes, so if you have an irrational fear of our singing voices, be warned. Our review of "Midnights" is a bit more rambling than usual and I'll blame the fact that we were both kind of sick when this was recorded, but the sleepy vibe might make a good ASMR. Or you can just listen at 1.25x speed.
Oscar's pick for this episode was comparing Björk's first solo album, Debut (1993), to her most recent album, Fossora (2022). We examine what makes Björk such a unique and compelling artist, along with some detours into French literature, our thoughts on heavy music, and a heartfelt story about vinyl.
The topic for our third episode was chosen just days before Kanye's anti-Semitic tweets shocked the world and effectively cancelled him. Recorded in the wake of that, we had no choice but to address his comments, but the intended focus of the episode was on Ye the musician, comparing his 2004 debut The College Dropout to his most recent album inspired by his late mother, Donda (2021). This episode also marks the start of a grand ODcast tradition of covering a song by the topic artist, as we clos...
It's episode two, so what more pressing subject could there be than comparing Bob Dylan's 2020 album "Rough and Rowdy Ways" to our respective favorite Dylan albums. You'll also witness the birth of the first ODcast musical theme, which was improvised impromptu at the end of the episode.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The audio gets better after the first 30 seconds. This was our very first episode (recorded back in September 2022), so things got off to a laid back and loosey-goosey start. We eventually talk about every album in the Smashing Pumpkins discography, but first we talk about podcasts we like, the problem with social media for teachers, and Danny Trejo?
