Hello. How are you doing? Are you stuck inside like me, have you been for months? Maybe you’re playing every Kingdom Hearts game in sequence, that’s a hell of a way to spend a 10 weeks or so. Maybe you’re digging into old tv shows, or sneaking out for runs, or starting a podcast. Maybe you’re working on your resume, or writing that novel. I mean, statistically, it’s the podcast one. Let’s not kid ourselves. I hope you’re doing well.

For ages now, I’ve wanted a way to bring music recommendations onto the site in an organic way that married my love of full-length albums with my need to seek out new music, and to do it in a way that didn’t overstay its welcome. I want to find a way to make a listener as excited about this music as I am. What I’m saying is I want to make you a hyper-specific, hour-long mixtape every weekend, until we can go outside again.

…and then every week after that.

My favourite moments, musically, have occurred when I’ve let my imagination run wild, allowing an album to soundtrack a moment in my life, real or imaginary. That collaboration between my brain and my media is the reason I love music so much in the first place; I love the idea of using playlists and curation to try to sculpt a moment into existence, or to tell a story. In that vein, PCDD radio won’t be a best-of, or even a best-new, at least not always. It’s an exercise in creativity, so prepare for over-specific themes and whiplash genre shifts. That’s the idea – like everything else with this site, I want the show to be a celebration of pop culture in and of itself, no rules, no guilt.

After all, all pleasure is guilty pleasure.

So please enjoy, I made this special for you. And pitch me new themes! I’m always on the hunt for new stuff. I’ll try to come through as much as I can. And stay safe out there, astronauts ❤

POP CULTURE DEATH DRIVE RADIO 1: SPACE HATES YOU

May the Fourth is kind of a nothing holiday, but I grew up with Star Wars, and some deep, lizard-brain part of me will always go nuts whenever the opening scroll and the fanfare go off. That was on my mind earlier this week while listening to the fantastic Seattle metal band Hoth, who are themselves Star Wars-themed (duh.), but in a way darker, more ominous way than we’re used to seeing. It isn’t nerdcore: it’s Extended Universe music, dark and brooding, ambitious and wild. This got me thinking about the huge amount of deep-space metal that’s come out in the last couple years, from the blasted, psychotropic wasteland of Vancouver’s The Hallowed Catharsis to the vicious, shocking technicality of Blood Incantation’s latest LP. Space is impossibly vast, totally unknowable, and utterly chaotic. This is extreme metal that looks up at the stars above, and quivers in fear.

And it’s far, far away from the apartments we’re all trapped inside.

Bonus Pick: if you need something a bit less chaotic but still want in on the fun, try out Bespin Moons. Its retro-ambient, 80’s action-figure soundscapes might be just what you need right now. It’s gorgeous. It’s Star Wars.

Up next week: Space Loves You