What do stoner-era ZZ Top, a mountain named Billy with a tree girlfriend, and a kid who astral projects into Rasputin's beard all have in common? Concept albums, mate. And not just any old proggy b*llocks – this week we're diving into the oddest concept albums we could find (and a few we just wanted to waffle on about anyway).

Andrew is joined by first-time Beat Motel guest host James Kindred – a fellow Ipswich musician, longtime mate, and possibly the only person who can explain a Mastodon plotline without crying blood. Together, they take you on a journey through the weird, the wonderful, and the "what the hell were they thinking?" of the concept album world.

Expect the following nonsense:

• ZZ Top as proto-stoner gods (with bonus slipper sales)

• Agriculture's queer-core black metal positivity

• Mastodon's astral plane + Rasputin collab (yep)

• Frank Zappa's 40-minute tale about a mountain fighting the US government

• The madness of Mansun's Six – A.A. Milne gone rock

• Mark Lanegan scaring the life out of everyone (including Josh Homme)

• Brian Eno inventing ambient music while still in nappies

• NoFX writing an 18-minute punk symphony just to piss everyone off

Throw in some jazz-metal tangents, disdain for ska-punk, and why John Hopkins makes Andrew need a wee, and you've got a classic Beat Motel episode. Warning: contains opinions. Also, possibly bears.

### Riffs of the week

#### Kindred's Riff

- Precious & Grace - ZZ Top (opening)

#### Andrew's Riff

- Agriculture - Bodhidharma

### Kindred's track choices

1. Mastodon – Crack the Skye (cosmic metal odyssey) - Song - The Czar (1. Usurper, 2. Escape, 3. Martyr, 4. Spiral)

2. QOTSA – Songs for the Deaf (desert-drive fever dream) - Song - Songs for the Dead

3. Pink Floyd – The Wall (psychological rock opera) - Song - Comfortably Numb

4. Brian Eno – Music for Airports (ambient architecture for calm) Song - 1/1

### Andrew's track choices

1. Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention - Billy was a mountain

2. Mansun - Legacy

3. NoFx - The Decline

4. John Hopkins - Tayos Caves, Ecuador i

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

If you've ever flipped a vinyl and thought, "well that was a limp finish," then this episode is your new religion. Andrew and Dr. Sam dive into the fine art of ending Side A—the lost craft of crafting a sonic cliffhanger that makes you want to flip that record like your nan flips a Digestive into her cuppa.

We've got:

• The Clash's perfectly measured chaos

• An R.E.M. song even the R.E.M. boys can't remember

• Richard Dawson punching you in the feelings

• A mystery smackhead guitar hero who wandered into a Funkadelic session and laid down one of the greatest solos of all time

• And very strong feelings about Brett Anderson's 12" misadventure with Suede's "Stay Together" (hint: the band hate it, and Andrew can't stop hearing horn sections)

Throw in some serious digressions about class consciousness, cat whiskers, baked beans in mouths, and Gregg's colonisation of the high street, and you've got yourself a full-fat Beat Motel stew.

• Dave Rowntree of Blur sues PRS over 'black box' royalties

• All creatures will evolve into crabs

• Cats' whiskers = biological gap gauges

• Stripper Vicars: helping painters and decorators since 1995

• Midori – "Yukiko-san"

• Gorillaz ft. Sparks – "The Happy Dictator"

Grab a pint, slap on your headphones, and ask yourself – how does YOUR favourite album end Side A?

Stuff that might be true (but we didn't check):

### Riffs of the week

#### Dr Sam's Riff

- Midori - Yukikosan (0:19)

#### Andrew's Riff

- Gorillaz Ft. Sparks - The Happy Dictator

### Dr Sam's track choices

1. The Clash - Straight to Hell (4.30)

2. Funkadelic - Get Off Your Ass and Jam (1.33)

3. Armstrong & Ellington - Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me (opening)

4. Richard Dawson - Two Halves (0.29)

### Andrew's track choices

1. The Stone Roses - Bye Bye Badman

2. Mansun - Stripper Vicar

3. REM - Can't get there from here

4. Suede - Stay Together

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

Ever watched a music doc and thought, "Cor, this band's story is brilliant!" only to press play on their actual music and feel your soul quietly retreat into your ankles? This week, Andrew and co-host Dr. Sam put the needle on the record and realise some bands should've stayed in the cutting room.

We take a scenic drive through the trainwreck glory of Milli Vanilli, the baffling existential crisis that is Metallica's St. Anger, and the CIA's alleged soft-rock psy-op via The Scorpions. Plus, there's a detour through the fever-dream nonsense of Brian Pern, Joan Jett's bad reputation, and the ongoing mystery of why The Sex Pistols are still interesting despite sounding like a wasp in a tin mug.

Expect spiky opinions, tight trousers, and the occasional descent into lyrical despair. And yes, there's hummus chat. Of course there is.

What's inside:

• Bands who are great… as a subject, not as a sound

• Can AI replace all pop music? (And should it?)

• Was Wind of Change written by the bloody CIA?

• Stretchy testicles and Mob Dad: Your new Cartoon Network faves

Come for the music chat. Stay for the jalapeño hummus.

### Riffs of the week

#### Dr Sam's Riff

- Barbara Dane - I Hate the Capitalist System (opening)

#### Andrew's Riff

- I'll pay you more if you let me watch - Crippling Alcoholism (3:40)

### Dr Sam's track choices

1. Milli Vanilli - Take it as it comes (opening)

2. Scorpions - Loving You Sunday Morning (2.43)

3. Metallica - "Shoot Me Again" (0.35)

4. Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation" (0.30)

### Andrew's track choices

1. Bros - When will I be famous (2:09)

2. Brian Pern

3. Sex Pistols - Silly Thing (0:36)

4. The Lurkers - Ain't got a clue

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

We dig music podcast - https://pod.link/wedigmusic

This is the episode with Crippling Alcoholism on it -

We Dig Music - Series 8 Episode 9 - Now Playing Sept 2025 - Magdalena Bay, Crippling Alcoholism, & Ethel Cain

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-dig-music-series-8-episode-9-now-playing-sept-2025/id1246759934?i=1000728773079

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wBWpR24jRvxRKw7YL1Z8b?si=LbwRnR38RnOhOaC-09MSpg

This week on Beat Motel, Andrew relives his childhood by rolling down Ed Sheeran’s hill into a pile of dog muck, and Dr. Sam reveals he’s spent more time chasing cheese than dignity. Somewhere along the way, they accidentally remember this is supposed to be a music podcast.

The theme? Cats. That’s it. Not subtle. Not deep. Just cats. From SpongeBob’s snail-pet Gary to the purring sleaze of Queen’s “Cool Cat,” we dig into feline-inspired tunes like they’re buried in a litter tray.

Expect:

• A semi-academic breakdown of The Cure’s “Lovecats”

• A loving rant about Citric Dummies reviving Dr. Sam’s faith in punk

• The Stray Cats (who aren’t British, but fooled us all)

• Psychobilly hair, ska that doesn’t suck, and why Jules Holland might secretly be a dog person

• A jazz track from 1931 that the BBC had to rename because it was “too rude” (spoiler: it wasn’t about a cat, but we’re pretending it was)

Andrew’s website gets cyber-attacked mid-show (presumably by a Japanese feline overlord), and we waste far too much time translating song titles through every Nordic and Baltic language available. We also discover the only way to pick a cat from a rehoming café is to let it slap you in the face.

It’s a mess. It’s musical. It’s got Matt Berry rubbing a snail on his face. It’s Beat Motel at its most confusingly brilliant.

### Riffs of the week

#### Dr Sam's Riff

- Citric Dummies - I Am Your Napkin

#### Andrew's Riff

- vildhjarta - + byta ut alla stjärnor på himlen mot plustecken +

### Dr Sam's track choices

1. Spongebob - Gary's Song

2. Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut

3. Queen - Cool Cat

4. Presidents of the United States of America - Kitty

### Andrew's track choices

1. The Cure - Love cats

2. Squeeze - Cool for cats

3. The Slackers - El Gato

4. Harry Roy & His Bat Club Boys - My girl's pussy

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

If you’ve ever wondered what a Finnish man in a bedroom with a broken keyboard sounds like, then you’re weird. But also in the right place. This week, Dr. Sam joins Andrew for a dive headfirst into the murky swamp of obscure music genres, where rules don’t matter and the cats are in charge.

Expect tangents galore: from liturgical black metal to folk electronica via squee (yes, it’s a thing), this episode is a chaotic tour of sounds you probably never asked for. There’s also rants about Winamp, philosophical crises over Adam Buxton’s new album, and an alarming amount of discussion about bodily functions—human and feline.

Other highlights:

• Discover why Primus are their own genre.

• Chatpile vs. Nick Cave (don’t @ us).

• The truth about the Super Mario cartoon theme.

• What happens when cats demand mid-podcast poo patrol.

• Childhood trauma via 70s UK sitcoms and cartoons.

So, whether you’re sickening for a new genre or just want to hear two middle-aged blokes descend into sonic madness, this episode will either enlighten or deeply confuse you. Either way, you’ll come out the other end feeling like you’ve learned something. Probably.

### Riffs of the week

#### Dr Sam's Riff

- Adam Buxton - Doing it Wrong (0.18)

#### Andrew's Riff

- Chatpile - Shame (2:24)

### Dr Sam's track choices

1. Primus - Restin' Bones (2.13)

2. Ana Lua Caiano - Ando Em Círculos (opening)

3. Thomas Ignatius - Sum qui sum (1.00)

4. Super Mario Rap (0.2)

### Andrew's track choices

1. Suicide - Ghost Rider (1:24) - No Wave

2. Eero Johannes - We Could Be Skweeeroes - Skweee

3. Batushka - Yekteniya I - Liturgical Black Metal

4. Phace - Hot Rock - Neurofunk

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

In this nostalgia-drenched episode of Beat Motel, Andrew Culture and voiceover man extraordinaire Martin Whiskin hurl themselves headfirst into the deep, murky swimming pool of school memories—and promptly slip on a Verucca sock.

Expect less of a structured discussion and more of a chaotic ramble through:

• Drinking out of pickle jars, Nutella jars, and possibly things we shouldn’t mention.

• Childhood trauma via public service announcements that were more “accidental snuff film” than “safety first.”

• Rollerskating on dodgem floors, fights over tractors, and smoking on tractors.

• The weird tribal warfare between grunge kids and ravers (spoiler: bomber jackets were tactical gear).

• And yes, a deep dive into why the f**k “Funkytown” played on a school jukebox every single day.

We also spin some musical back-to-school picks, featuring the Replacements, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Martin is very sorry), Despond, and Ganja Kru. There’s even a serious attempt to connect jungle music to GCSE coursework. God help us.

Plus: We try to remember what Grange Hill was called, and forget everything else in the process.

This one’s for the misfits at the back of the classroom. Probably the only podcast episode where you’ll hear the A-Team theme, tales of aristocratic mastering engineers, and the sentence: “Did your mum ever bring home 200 dead man’s harmonicas?”

#### Marf's Riff

- Despondent - Confined

#### Andrew's Riff

- Blackbraid - And he become the burning stars

### Marf's track choices

1. Pop Will Eat Itself - Karmadrome

2. The A-Team TV Theme Tune

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers - They're Red Hot

4. Super Sharp Shooter - The Ganja Kru

### Andrew's track choices

1. The Replacements - Fuck School

2. Ski Sunday theme tune

3. The Ramones - Rock and roll high school

4. Lipps Inc. - Funkytown

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

Ever wondered what it's like to be whipped in the cobblers by a carbon fibre tent pole? No? Well, you’re about to. In this episode, Andrew returns to the studio and brings along Dr. Sam for a high-brow chat about testicular trauma, Trev & Simon, and the absolute best music to make your hips involuntarily wiggle like an over-caffeinated toddler.

The theme this week? Songs to swing your pants to. The result? A genre-skirting playlist filled with funkadelic basslines, ska-punk chaos, and whatever Clipping are doing (which might be witchcraft).

From George Clinton’s Moog-powered madness to the playful brilliance of Little Simz, from Missy Elliott in an inflatable suit to Dexys being much more than “Come On Eileen,” this episode jumps between groin injuries, nostalgia, street crossings turned flags (ffs), and musical elitism that would make a vinyl collector blush.

We also learn about ancient British tribes, the legitimacy of “potholes in lawns,” and how you can use “in Minecraft” to legally dodge confessions. It’s educational. Sort of. Mostly not.

### Riffs of the week

#### Dr Sam's Riff

- Barren Path - The Insufferable Weight

#### Andrew's Riff

- Clipping - Dominator

### Dr Sam's track choices

1. Thumpasaurus - Struttin'

2. Streetlight Manifesto - If and When We Rise

3. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Jackie Wilson Said

4. Little Richard - Keep A Knockin'

### Andrew's track choices

1. Everything Everything - Cough Cough

2. Missy Elliot - WTF (where you from)

3. Funkadelic - One Nation

4. Little Simz - 101fm

Email us - beatmotel@lawsie.com

Elitists https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJwcMyToUUK/?igsh=MTR4dWFnOGR5anV5bw==