F.a.l.l.o.u.t.p.o.d.c.a.s.t.

Behind the Counter vs Blindness Pine Leaves vs Janet, Johnny & James Four extraordinary Fall songs. Two utterly ridiculous contests. One increasingly futile attempt to establish which Fall song is the greatest of them all! Db, B and PEM Walker return to the battlefield for a particularly peculiar pair of encounters. First up, it's the propulsive, keyboard-driven, 1990s rock swagger of Behind the Counter against the monstrous, relentless, bass-powered minimalism of Blindness. A concise little rocker versus a great lumbering beast that refuses to stop. Can a counter possibly withstand that much Blindness? Then things get considerably quieter, stranger and more unsettling as Pine Leaves takes on Janet, Johnny & James. Ghostly whispers, sinister radio announcements, synthetic horns, pastoral nightmares, hypnotic guitars and mysterious journeys through the English countryside. Two of The Fall's most delicate and disturbing creations go head-to-head. Plus! A speed run of Hex Enduction Hour vs This Nation's Saving Grace, revisiting two monumental Fall albums and their many peculiar treasures. All 525 songs going H2H! Breathing really hard and stuttering since 2021! A work in progress. Due about 2027. Probably. In a POST-PRE-POSTSCRIPT WORLD, all bets and gloves are off! BIG LOVE TO ALL THEM WHAT FALL! Phoenix re-annotating! #TheFall #MarkESmith #FALLOUTPODCAST #FallShowdown #HexEnductionHour #ThisNationsSavingGrace $$$$ 4 QQQQQs https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238  

BSIDE THE BSIDES — EPISODE 4: THE GREAT ESCAPE! THE WHEELS HAVE COME RIGHT OFF! It's 1995! Blur are the biggest band in Britain, Parklife has gone triple platinum, and the Britpop circus is reaching peak absurdity. Melody Maker awards The Great Escape a whopping 12/10, Blur win the Battle of Britpop, and then somehow everything starts going horribly wrong! Is The Great Escape an overlooked masterpiece bursting with ideas, humour and tragedy, or a bloated, cheesy parody of Parklife without the brains or the balls? Ian and Brendan return to rummage through the B-sides, outtakes and assorted oddities from Blur's fourth album. Ten tracks go head-to-head in our increasingly questionable ranking system! THE SONGS: Tame, A Song, Ultranol, No Monsters in Me, St Louis, The Man Who Left Himself, The Horrors, Ludwig, Eine Kleine Lift Musik, One Born Every Minute. We've got sneaky synths, French cinema, theremins, Yummy Fur homages, jaunty instrumentals and the lingering ghost of Ray Davies. Has the magic gone? Are the B-sides better than the album? And just how far have the wheels come off? Ten songs. Two blokes. One Great Escape. BSIDE THE BSIDES! #Blur #TheGreatEscape #Britpop #BSideTheBSides #GrahamCoxon #DamonAlbarn

SHAGGOFF! — THE LONG-THREATENED SHAGGS SPECIAL!! It's finally happened! After years of threats, promises and increasingly worrying conversations, Al, DB and B assemble for the long-threatened SHAGGOFF! We're ranking EVERYTHING THE SHAGGS EVER RECORDED! From their extraordinary 1969 masterpiece Philosophy of the World to the equally wonderful recordings collected on Shaggs' Own Thing, plus the rarities and bonus tracks. Nothing escapes the SHAGGOFF! Three sisters from Fremont, New Hampshire. Dorothy, Betty and Helen Wiggin. Three extraordinary musical minds who created something unlike anything else in the history of recorded music. And as three blokes from Wigan, we feel a particular kinship with the Wiggins. Wigan loves the Wiggins! The Wiggins would probably be baffled by Wigan! THE FULL SHAGGOFF SONG LIST — IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER! Sweet Maria, My Pal Foot Foot, Gimme Dat Ding, Things I Wonder, Who Are Parents?, Painful Memories, That Little Sports Car, Yesterday Once More, My Cutie, Philosophy of the World, Missouri Waltz, I'm So Happy When You're Near, Shaggs' Own Thing, It's Halloween, Wheels, What Should I Do?, Paper Roses, My Companion, Love at First Sight, Why Do I Feel?, You're Somethin' Special to Me, Sweet Thing, I Love, We Have a Savior...and maybe Wipeout! Songs about parents, pets, friendship, heartbreak, Halloween and the everyday mysteries of existence. Rhythms that refuse to behave, guitars operating in different dimensions and melodies that follow their own peculiar logic. But what makes The Shaggs so special isn't simply how unusual their music sounds. It's the absolute sincerity, innocence, honesty and integrity running through every single recording. There is something profoundly moving about three sisters making music entirely their own, with no pretence, no calculation and no desire to be anything other than themselves. We love The Shaggs wholeheartedly. Their music is funny, touching, bewildering, beautiful and utterly human. It's a little universe of its own, and we wouldn't change a single note. So which songs will emerge victorious? Which will break our hearts? And can three grown men from Wigan possibly agree on the greatest Wiggin recording? WEIRD! WILD! WONDERFUL! WE LOVE THE SHAGGS! WE LOVE THE WIGGINS! Join in here... express your opinions for cash dollars... change the outcome of the world!!! https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 Big love to all them what Shagg! #TheShaggs #SHAGGOFF #PhilosophyOfTheWorld #ShaggsOwnThing #OutsiderMusic #FALLOUTPODCAST

🎃 F.A.L.L.O.U.T. PODCAST — EPISODE 186: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL! 🎃 THE OTHERWISE — PERFORMED IN FULL FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!! This Halloween, F.A.L.L.O.U.T. proudly presents the first-ever complete dramatic performance of The Otherwise, the extraordinary, bizarre and frequently disturbing horror screenplay co-written in 2015 by Mark E. Smith and Graham Duff. Subtitled The Screenplay for a Horror Film That Never Was, this long-lost project follows members of The Fall as they head to a recording studio near Pendle Hill to make an EP, only to find themselves entangled with satanic biker gangs, time-travelling Jacobites and all manner of supernatural unpleasantness. Drawing on the weird fiction of Arthur Machen, M. R. James, Philip K. Dick and H. P. Lovecraft, alongside northern folklore, working-class occultism and Smith's own peculiar worldview, it's a gloriously unhinged collision of folk horror, science fiction and Fall mythology. Originally rejected by film production companies, the screenplay eventually found its way into print courtesy of Strange Attractor Press. But now, for the first time ever, the entire thing is brought to life, from beginning to end, by the F.A.L.L.O.U.T. players! Joining the usual gang of B, DB and Al are our extraordinary guest performers Emma, MES (not that one!), Harry, Steve Titley and Froze! An ensemble of questionable theatrical pedigree, united in the noble pursuit of bringing this magnificent oddity to life. Expect satanic bikers, strange encounters, sinister goings-on, grotesque humour and the unmistakable imagination of MES and Graham Duff. ⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This production contains elements of sexual threat and violence. Listener discretion is advised. 📖 READ ALONG! Get your own copy of the original screenplay here: https://www.strangeattractor.co.uk/publications/the-otherwise Happy Halloween, you horrible lot! Big love to all them what fall. #TheFall #MarkESmith #GrahamDuff #TheOtherwise #FALLOUTPODCAST #HalloweenSpecial

Ian and Brendan are back, and this time it's Parklife — Blur's great leap from the melancholy of Modern Life Is Rubbish into music hall, seaside postcards, suburban absurdity and the increasingly peculiar corners of British life. But what was happening on the other sides of those singles? We're rummaging through a wonderfully eccentric collection of theatrical waltzes, acid jazz, country pastiche, literary borrowings, Scott Walker worship and the occasional bit of complete dogs******t. We also get into the making of Parklife, the band's growing confidence, Phil Daniels and whether some of these discarded curiosities deserved a place on the album. All 11 tracks under the microscope: Magpie, Anniversary Waltz, People in Europe, Peter Panic, Got Yer!, Threadneedle Street, Beard, Supa Shoppa, Theme from an Imaginary Film, Rednecks and Alex's Song. Eleven tracks. Plenty of peculiarities. One increasingly difficult ranking. Which are the hidden gems, and which should have stayed hidden? #Blur #BsideTheBsides #Parklife #Britpop #BlurBsides #DamonAlbarn #GrahamCoxon

M5 vs Brillo De Facto      and.        New Puritan vs Hard Life in the Country “I curse your preoccupation / With your record collection!” (With apologies to Savage Pencil) It's a post-postscript world. All bets and gloves are off! Big love to all them what fall. Four (Three?) extraordinary Fall songs, two heavyweight contests and a shared obsession with false authenticity, social pretension and manufactured authority. M5 tackles rural nostalgia, commuter misery and crusty brown bread, while Brillo De Facto takes a peculiar swipe at rock mythology and self-important little men via the Feelgoods New Puritan declares war on decadence, record collectors and cultural gatekeepers, while Hard Life in the Country delivers a folk-horror nightmare of Bowie impersonators, ice-cream vans and villagers surrounding the bloody house. Snare joins the battle, and special guest Iain Key drops in to discuss his forthcoming book, A People's History of The Fall. https://www.spenwoodbooks.com/forthcoming-releases/a-peoples-history-of-the-fall If you have any stories or gems of wisdom you would like to contribute to the book, mail him here. ...but don't dilly dally!!!    [email protected]  Cash for questions! Here!! https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 #TheFall #MarkESmith #FALLOUTPODCAST #IainKey #FallShowdown

The Horror in Clay vs Slow Down Ronnie // Serious Brainskin vs Heads of Dead Surfers // I Want You vs Cancelled // Glitter Freeze vs Enigmatic Dream // Not Clean vs Inch It's a futile Fall showdown! We're back in the strange, squelchy world of Mark E. Smith's extracurricular activities for Semi-Final 2 of our MES Solo & Collaborations bracket. Five more head-to-head battles featuring literary horror, electroclash, indie-disco anthems, Icelandic cod, rejected art proposals and industrial clanking. Feat; The Inspiral Carpets, Mouse on Mars, Einar's Ghostdigital, Long Fin Killie and the Inch boys! The usual suspects ask the important questions. Is MES better as a duet partner or an unsolicited interruption? Can a snooker commentary beat Lovecraft? Is a Fall remix really a solo project? And just how dirty can a cod get? From the magnificent pop absurdity of I Want You to the avant-garde shithousing of The Horror in Clay, we're sorting the collaborations from the curiosities and the genuine masterpieces from the things that probably didn't need recording. Five contests. Four opinions. One increasingly unreasonable competition. The dirtiest cod is the cod we want! Big love to all those who fall. Cash for questions! https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 #TheFall #MarkESmith #FALLOUTPODCAST #MES #LongFinKillie #MESShowdown

Ian & Brendan are back for round two of our Blur b-side excavation, and this time it's Modern Life Is Rubbish — the album where Blur stopped chasing the baggy bandwagon and started building their own peculiar little England. Goodbye Leisure, hello British eccentricity, character studies, suburban misery, future anxiety and the beginnings of something rather magnificent. We're digging into the singles, the forgotten flipsides, the Food Records drama and the songs that didn't quite make the album. Then we're ranking the bloody lot. For the ranking, there's a much bigger pile this time including : Mace, Badgeman Brown, I'm Fine, Garden Central, Into Another, Peach, Bone Bag, Hanging Over, When the Cows Come Home, Beachcoma, Es Schmecht, Young and Lovely, Maggie May, My Ark, Daisy Bell and Let's All Go Down the Strand... and Popscene?!     Arguably the period when Blur's discarded material is better than most of what was coming out in '93. Cash for questions over at Patreon https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 #blur #indie #britpop #90s

N.O.T.F.A.L.L. — AN ARID AL SPECIAL We're back in the garage! Al and B rummage through a filthy heap of garage rock, primitive racket, forgotten nuggets and assorted musical misdemeanours, lovingly curated by Al and interrupted by some deep, dark cuts from the Martin Rev, Alan Vega and Suicide catalogue from B. From fuzzed-up delinquency to malfunctioning electronics, cheap thrills, expensive mistakes and the occasional genuine masterpiece. No grand theme, no particular purpose, no educational value. Just a couple of blokes playing records for fun, shits and giggles. Garage rock! Suicide! Vega! Rev! A thoroughly unnecessary excursion into the good stuff. Cash for questions! https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 #NOTFALL #FALLOUTPODCAST #GarageRock #Suicide #AlanVega #MartinRev #PunkRock #ObscureMusic

The lads, joined by Dannyno jump back into Dave Simpson’s The Fallen — and there’s plenty to celebrate: cheeky barking anecodes, bizarre showbiz  characters, and all the tiny bits of Fall archaeology that make this book such a rabbit hole. However as we hit the second half of the book, we unreasonalby quetstion Simpson’s methods, his judgements and his take on The Fall, offering our own perky,and pungent criticism from our podcast ivory tower...where our book eh!! It's not as easy as it looks..or is it? And all the while we ask the bigger questions: Should journalists write books? Do journalists have to write books? And should we have a lie down?  There are gems everywhere, but we’re not letting Simpson...or Smith off the hook. Deep dive. Brutal critique. Perky, pungent, poltergeist. Cash for questions! https://www.patreon.com/c/FALLOUTPODCAST238 #TheFall #FALLOUTPODCAST #TheFallen #DaveSimpson #MarkESmith #FallPodcast #CashForQuestions