This week, we're talking about two things we think are quite interesting. First off, we chat about the early mathcore/metalcore band Drowningman and reflect on why they never quite reached the heights of their peers, such as Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan—bands they often found themselves touring with in the late 90s and early 00s.

While that story is compelling in itself, Drowningman can also count themselves among the artists who tried to sabotage a contractual obligation to a record label. As the story goes, they hit the studio with Kurt Ballou (Converge, God City Studios) to record a very weird album, tentatively titled Best Album Ever. The record was never officially released; it was allegedly created with the sole intention of being purposefully bad in order to satisfy, and terminate, their two-album contract with Revelation Records. In the end it never saw the light of day.

This got us thinking about other artists who have tried to escape their contractual obligations. We use this lens to take a wee sojourn into the annals of music history, unearthing stories of several big-name artists who tried, and sometimes succeeded, in doing something similar.

We hope you enjoy! Highlights:

00:00 Intro

01:27 Skipping the Discourse

01:56 Viral Bands Debate

02:59 Patreon Pitch

05:37 Awkward Party Exits

06:17 Meet Drowningman

08:19 Origins and Scene

12:00 Early Releases Breakdown

16:07 Rock and Roll Killing Machine Era

21:07 Later Records and Fadeout

24:47 Did They Deserve Bigger

27:05 Contractual Obligation Albums

35:38 Ozzy Contract Loophole

36:25 Speak of the Devil Drama

38:05 Ozzy Album Aftermath

38:57 Neil Young vs Geffen

39:49 Beach Boys Owed Album

40:55 More Contract Escapes

42:40 Sisters of Mercy SSV

45:46 More Obligation Oddities

47:43 Rolling Stones Provocation

50:31 Zappa Lather Bootleg

51:25 Prince vs Warner Saga

57:42 Drowning Man Review

59:32 Track Highlights Breakdown

01:02:56 Final Verdict and Wrap

01:06:21 Outro and Thanks

You may be shocked to hear that Lift to Experience made one album. One. A ninety-minute double CD concept record about the apocalypse, set entirely in Texas, written by three boys from Pentecostal and Baptist backgrounds who genuinely believed they had something to say to God. And then, more or less, they vanished.

In this episode we cover the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads in full — the vision behind it, the religious fervour that powered it, and the question of whether you need to share any of that fervour to find the record genuinely moving. We'd argue you don't, and the band themselves seemed fairly relaxed about that.

We also get into the wider story, which turns out to be just as compelling as the music. The album that couldn't be bought in its home country for years. The label that mixed it without the band present and broke their hearts. The tour that never happened. The beard competition. The sandwich grill.

Along the way we ask a question that feels increasingly relevant right now — what does it actually mean when Americans start singing about Texas as the site of the final battle between good and evil? In 2001 it seemed like a grand artistic conceit. In 2025 it feels a little different.

Is the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads the unsung post rock record with actual things to say? We think so. But it's a ninety-minute album, so you've got time to make up your own mind.

Highlights:

00:00 Intro and Whether We’re Actually Living in the End Times

03:11 Album Introduction

04:46 Millennium Anxiety

09:17 Band Origins

11:19 Sound and Influences

12:22 Post Rock With Vocals?!

17:33 Name and Release

19:48 Religion and Meaning

25:46 Art Versus Belief

29:46 Lyrics and Apocalypse

32:00 Track Highlights

33:51 Shoegaze Favourite Track

34:50 Dynamics of Cloud Nine

36:27 Maximalist Texas Vibes

37:03 Album Art Joke Explained

38:56 Religion and Tech Rants

40:53 UK Success US Absence

44:22 Recording Struggles and SXSW Myth

49:19 Bad Mix and Band Fallout

53:17 Aftermath and Cult Legacy

56:02 Reunion and 2017 Reissue

59:41 Remix Reviews and Changes

01:02:42 Apocalypse Talk and Final Thoughts

01:07:45 Outro

You may be shocked to hear that musicians sometimes lie about who they are. Some may say this is not shocking at all - it's almost a tradition. But there's a meaningful difference between Ziggy Stardust and a band from North Dakota claiming to be a Chinese black metal act to game the press.

In this episode we try to map that difference. We spend a healthy portion of time on what we're not talking about - aliases, concept bands, anonymity for anonymity's sake - before getting into the genuinely murky territory of bands that have used fabricated identities for commercial advantage. We cover the fake Zombies that toured America simultaneously in 1969, The Masked Marauders and the elaborate Rolling Stone prank that accidentally became a real album, Silibil n Brains, Dundee rappers who got signed to Island Records on the strength of their American accents, before discussing Ghost Bath, the project that brought this whole phenomenon into focus for us.

Along the way we also get into AI-generated music, Milli Vanilli (and why what they did is arguably less dishonest than what plenty of current pop stars do routinely, and a genuinely unresolved case involving a supposedly Iraqi black metal band that may or may not have put its members in real danger.

The question running through all of it: does context change how we hear music? And if it does — what does that say about us?

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:24 Catfish and Hoax Bands Explained

02:11 Patreon

05:10 Famous Death Hoaxes

05:42 Mystique Versus Scams

09:02 Not Aliases or Roleplay

10:43 Anonymity and Masks

13:23 Fake Touring Lineups

19:03 Concept Bands and Bits

24:28 AI Bands and Deception

27:54 Outright Music Scams

30:13 Milli Vanilli Then and Now

30:53 Pop Star Fraud Culture

33:39 Mask Marauders Hoax

35:20 Orion Elvis Impostor

38:50 Platinum Weird Backstory

40:25 Syllable American Rap Ruse

43:38 Jana Mystery Metal Band

46:06 Velvet Cocoon Troll Scam

48:36 Ghost Bath Identity Debate

54:40 Context and Cultural Relativism

58:10 Ghost Bath Fallout and Ethics

01:02:53 Outro