The Album: Depeche Mode: Violator (1990)
By the time Depeche Mode released Violator in 1990, they had already become one of the giants of the modern rock world but Violator took the group to new heights of global success. Dark and moody yet intimately dance-able, the group and their album marked a height of synth-pop’s growth across the 1980s, a zenith that would soon be eclipsed by the on-rush of grunge and competing forms of so-called “alternative” rock.
Violator was the pick of guest Hua Hsu, staff writer at the New Yorker and English professor at Vassar College. For him, Violator was part of a soundscape of growing up in the Bay Area, least of all as an Asian American. As he and Oliver (flying solo this week) discuss, modern rock became a soundtrack for a generation of Asian American youth, at least those growing up in West Coast suburbs for whom songs centered on alienation and otherness felt all too familiar. Besides, as Hsu notes, we all had piano lessons so a music built around synthesizers was an easy sell.
More on Hua Hsu

• Hua on the the Long Form podcast
• "The Moon Represents My Heart: Music, Memory and Belonging" (Museum of Chinese in America)
• Twitter | Website | New Yorker Archive

More on Violator

• "Depeche Mode's 'Violator' at 25: Classic Track-by-Track Review" (Billboard)
• "Black Celebration: Depeche Mode Look Back on ‘Violator’ 25 Years Later" (Rolling Stone)
• "Q+A / DEPECHE MODE / VIOLATOR" (Recoil)

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

• Clean
• Depeche Mode: Blasphemous Rumours
• Clean
• New Order: Bizarre Love Triangle
• Personal Jesus
• Policy of Truth
• Halo
• Blue Dress
• Somebody
• Personal Jesus
• Depeche Mode: Route 66
• Depeche Mode: Behind the Wheel
• Enjoy the Silence
• Depeche Mode: Just Can't Get Enough
• Johnny Cash: Personal Jesus
• Tori Amos: Enjoy the Silence
• Jazzystics: Personal Jesus
• St. Petersburg Ska Jazz Review: Policy of Truth

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: Pretty In Pink Soundtrack (1986)

Actress and comedian Eliza Skinner is part of the brand new Maximum Fun scripted comedy show, Bubble, and hosts her own music podcast, Cool Playlist. For her guest spot on Heat Rocks, she wanted to revisit one of the iconic soundtracks of the 1980s: Pretty in Pink. The film is a key part of the John Hughes pantheon, alongside The Breakfast Club, 16 Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off and arguably boasts the most storied soundtrack of all of them, including now-classics that were written expressly for the film such as OMD's "If You Leave" and Echo and Bunnymen's "Bring On the Dancing Horses," and of course, the reworked, sax-ified version of the Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty In Pink."

Eliza and us discussed how soundtracks can create an invented nostalgia for a time we never knew, what lesser known tracks off this album still bump, and why Ducky really didn't deserve to belong with Andie.

(That said, Ducky did kill it during his "Try a Little Tenderness" scene)

More on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack: 

• "Neon Nostalgia: The Pretty In Pink Soundtrack 30 Years Later" (Stereogum)
• "30 Years Ago: Pretty In Pink Gives an Official Soundtrack to Teen Angst" (Diffuser)

More on Eliza Skinner:

• Interview (Raleigh & Company)
• Cool Playlist podcast
• Bubble podcast
• Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Show Tracklisting (all songs from Pretty In Pink unless indicated otherwise):

• Pretty in Pink
• If You Leave
• Left of Center
• Simple Minds: Don't You (Forget About Me)
• The Barden Bellas: Bellas Finals: Price Tag/ Don't You (Forget About Me)
• Get to Know Ya
• Prince: Kiss
• Prince: Purple Rain
• Deniece Williams: Let's Hear it for the Boy
• Modern English: I Melt with You
• Pretty in Pink
• Wouldn't it be Good
• Otis Redding: Try a Little Tenderness
• New Order: Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)
• If You Leave
• Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
• Wouldn't it be Good

Here's the Spotify playlist of as many of the songs above as we can find on there.

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

The album: Kraftwerk: Computer World (1981)

When we invited L.A.'s own Nite Jewel to join us, it probably shouldn't have been a surprise that she picked Kraftwerk's Computer World; after all, she's toured the world performing the album. In sitting down with us, NJ (aka Ramona Gonzalez) broke down how she first became obsessed with the album, walking the streets of Berkeley, thinking about German philosophy (no, really!) and why the LP is such a masterpiece of fusing a variety of musical elements all colliding in the early 1980s.

More on Computer World

• How the album invented "computer funk" (Rolling Stone)
• The "sampling legacy" of the album (The Vinyl Factory)
• DJ Food's appreciation (Clash Music)

More on Nite Jewel

• Nite Jewel on performing Computer World (Pitchfork)
• 2017 interview (Bandcamp)
• Interview with KALX (aka the best college radio station out there, according to O.W.)
• Website | Facebook | Twitter

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

• ”Computer Love”
• Nite Jewel: Real High “2 Good 2 Be True”
• Roger Troutman: The New Zapp IV U “Computer Love”
• ”The Dance”
• Derrick May: “The Dance”
• Moodyman: Forevernevermore “(logo)”
• The Egyptian Lover: Electro Pharaoh “Electro Pharaoh“
• 20 Fingers: 20 Fingers “Short Dick Man”
• Afro-Rican: “Give It All You Got”
• ”It’s More Fun To Compute”
• ”Numbers”
• ”Artificial Intelligence”
• ”Home Computer”
• ”Pocket Calculator”

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

New to Bullseye? Subscribe to the show in iTunes or via the RSS feed, or check out our SoundCloud page to share any or all of these interviews or recommendations!

Andrew Noz joins us this week to share a couple of his current favorite rap tracks. His first pick is Mouse On Tha Track's smooth and mellow "Get High Get Loaded," featuring Fiend. His second recommendation is Mystikal's incredible new song "Hit Me."

Andrew Noz is the proprietor of the blog Cocaine Blunts, and he writes about hip hop for Pitchfork, the Fader, and Hip Hop Pit Stop.

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Aimee Mann rose to prominence in the 80s with the success of her new wave band 'Til Tuesday's single, "Voices Carry," but she found the limelight uncomfortable. Tired of contending with record companies' attempts to pigeonhole her and her work, Aimee struck out on her own. She joins us this week to discuss that transition from frontwoman to solo artist, the stresses of fame, and coping with uncertainty at a time in her life when she thought she would have had everything figured out.

Aimee's new album, Charmer, is available now.

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2013 is a whole new year chock full of things that want ranking -- who has the time to tackle that task? Fortunately, we have Jordan Morris to tell us what's what!

Jordan Morris co-hosts the podcast Jordan, Jesse, Go!, stars in the YouTube series Game Shop, and tweets at @Jordan_Morris.

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Seth Godin is best known as a marketing guru, but he brings far more compassion and genuine insight to his work than the title might lead you to expect. And his observations aren't just valuable for CEOs. He makes his work for content creators operating on every scale. He joins us this week to delve into the "assets that matter" -- the qualities and values critical to creating great, meaningful work.

Seth Godin's new books are V Is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?, and Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?.

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Trickery and deception are featured prominently in some of Orson Welles's finest works, so it is fitting that the existence of an objective truth and its relative importance is most thoroughly explored in Welles's final major film, F for Fake. Part documentary, part film essay, F for Fake features tricks and truths layered atop each other, creating a mesmerizing narrative.

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