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Primer is a music podcast about translation and illumination. Host Christian Dueñas is joined by a different co-host each season to explore a genre of music from outside the English-speaking world. In its debut season, music writer Yosuke Kitazawa (PBS SoCal, Light in the Attic) joins Christian and special guests to explore Japanese City Pop. They celebrate the lives of its artists, explore the cultural and historical context of the songs, and reflect on the impact that music had on listeners everywhere - including personally, as fans. Primer invites both newcomers and crate diggers alike to find their next favorite album and learn more about the music they already love.
Christian, Producer Richard Robey and Senior Producer Kevin Ferguson all sit down to talk a bit more about the process of making Primer and get into a few artists we didn't get to cover during the regular season.
This is a teaser for our bonus content! If you want the rest of the episode, please head on over to maximumfun.org/primer and make a one-time contribution! And you can get some more cool gifts there too. :)
Next week everyone who’s made a $10 or more contribution will be getting a special email with information on how to access the full episode!
Check out our Spotify mega playlist of every song featured on Primer! We also have the playlist on YouTube
Thanks for your support!
C & Y sit down in the studio one more time to discuss some of their favorite moments, songs the wish they covered, and finally take a crack at the question "what is city pop?" Featuring brand new clips from past episodes!
Thanks for rockin' with us, listener! We really appreciate you! <3
Check out our Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and help us reach our goal so we can produce a second season!
A special announcement from Christian Dueñas!
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and help us reach our goal so we can produce a second season!
A few songs from Pacific, the album we're discussing today, have made it onto city pop playlists and algorithms on all types of streaming services. It might sound a little loungier, a little jazzier than what you might expect from a city pop album, but the names in the credits should be familiar to any city pop fan. Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita are responsible for this record and it would go on to influence the sound of city pop and genre beyond for years to come.
We sit down with indie-pop duo Pearl & the Oysters to talk about the plentiful homages and quotes on this album, the influence of this record on their sound, and the incredible musicianship on display.
Check out our Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and help us reach our goal so we can produce a second season!
Tome Kitagawa, accomplished percussionist and session musician, created an alter ego for only one album, Yuwaku. Alter ego Tome Asagami was sensual, poppy, and loved hot sake. Although Yuwaku never really garnered much critical or commercial success, the single Hot Sake made it into DJ crates all around the world. But there is so much more to Yuwaku than just the single.
Writer and comedian Wyatt Cenac sits down with us to talk about the art of sampling, music transporting us to different places, and the variety of influences on this record.
Check out our Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and help us reach our goal of creating a season 2!
Tome Kitagawa, accomplished percussionist and session musician, created an alter ego for only one album, Yuwaku. Alter ego Tome Asagami was sensual, poppy, and loved hot sake. Although Yuwaku never really garnered much critical or commercial success, the single Hot Sake made it into DJ crates all around the world. But there is so much more to Yuwaku than just the single.
Writer and comedian Wyatt Cenac sits down with us to talk about the art of sampling, music transporting us to different places, and the variety of influences on this record.
Check out our Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and help us reach our goal of creating a season 2!
In the late 1970s a young Tatsuro Yamashita was making a name for himself as a prolific session musician and songwriter. He launched his solo career, but didn't see big commercial success at first. Yamashita took a trip down to the US and learned some tips from Western producers and began building up his solo work back when he returned to Japan. This would include some of his most iconic songs, like Ride on Time and Loveland Island, both of which are included in this Greatest Hits comp we're talking about today.
Dr. Jayson Chun, Japanese and Korean pop culture professor, sits down with us to talk about why city pop resonates with Western listeners, CM songs, and Tatsuro's work with Charles Calello.
Check out our Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and get some cool gifts too!
Follow Jayson: Pop Pacific
We're covering a banger of an album today, folks. Timely!! is the sixth studio album from singer Anri and has a couple of her signature songs, Cat's Eye and I Can't Stop the Loneliness. Cat's Eye was the opening for the 1983 anime of the same name and would go on to become one of the highest selling singles of the year. The album soared up the albums charts and was reissued in 2008. This version had remastered versions of every track, but also included Remember Summer Days, which at that point had only been available as a B-side to the single I Can't Stop the Loneliness. The remaster is the version most widely available now and Remember Summer Days has gone on to become a city pop classic.
Oscar Montoya, actor and host of the MaxFun podcast Eurovangelists, joins us to talk about the anime-to-city-pop pipeline, Anri's chances in Eurovision, and that iconic artwork for Timely!!
Check out our Spotify playlist for this episode! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and get some cool gifts too!
Follow Oscar: Instagram | Eurovangelists
We're doing a feed swap today! We would like to introduce you to Lost Notes from KCRW. A music documentary podcast that we feel is in conversation with Primer. This episode focuses on Fela Kuti's time in LA and the creation of his legendary Afrobeat sound. If you like the show, subscribe and tell em Primer sent you!
Find more info on KCRW
New Romantic: A subculture movement that originated in the UK in the 1970s and early 80s that focused on a more androgynous and glamorous style. Artists and bands like Boy George and Roxy Music popularized the look and feel of the New Romantic style.
Neuromantic: Yukihiro Takahashi's 1981 solo album. A pun on New Romantic and a reference to Takahashi's own neurosis.
Neuromantic may have all three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, but this was Takahashi's chance to showcase his incredible musicianship. He collaborated with Andy McKay and Phil Manzera of the aforementioned Roxy Music to create a masterpiece that wasn't afraid to challenge the listener with its futuristic cyberpunk-esque sound.
DJ/Curator/Producer Mark "Frosty" McNeill joins us to talk about the European influence in Neuromantic, the process of creating the Pacific Breeze compilations, and how the boom of city pop has affected record labels and artists today.
Check out our Spotify playlist for this episode! We also have the playlist on YouTube
If you enjoy Primer please support the show and get some cool gifts too!
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
