Rock ‘n’ Roll Most Foul
Disgraceland, A Music-based True Crime Podcast
Probably the most popular podcasts out there today are in the true crime category. What’s better than hearing authentic, well-researched tales of bad behavior and murder? In our opinion, nothing! This year has seen a plethora of entries into the genre, including our current obsession, the cleverly titled Disgraceland.
Hosted, researched, and written by Boston-based musician Jake Brennan, the concept is, quite simply, brilliant: pick a horrible but popular musician who has committed the worst of the worst crimes, and tell the goddamn story, straight up. Each episode is a 30-minute detailed account about nasty sex, copious amounts of drink and drugs (lots and lots of drugs), knuckle-bruising beatings, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, murder.
The son of a rock musician, Brennan was surrounded by music his entire life—he got to see his dad open for the Ramones when he was 10, so cool!—and grew up fascinated by music and history, especially the sullied sides of both. He is a natural storyteller and is especially deft at describing even the most upsetting and ghastly scenes without turning off his audience. His voice is both enthusiastic—he sounds like a 20-year-old deejaying on his college radio station—and disgusted by what he’s reporting, as he should be. Brennan has researched the hell out of these stories, exposing the darkest of rock ‘n’ roll’s underbelly…and it’s not pretty.
In February, he kicked off Disgraceland with the first episode, Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer and Getting Away With Murder, a detailed account of how Jerry, a mean drunk, pummeled his fifth wife to death, and as the title implies, got away with it. One of PROVOKR’s favorites is Sid Vicious: Love Kills…Even a Mother’s Love, a description of the last days of the Sex Pistol’s bass player, and how Sid’s lovely, thoughtful mum gave him his final, deadly shot of heroin. Other stories in the two 12-episode seasons explore the murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls, the violent life and death of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, the highs and lows of The Who’s bipolar drummer, Keith Moon, and the mysterious drowning of original Rolling Stones founder, Brian Jones.
Already at the end of the second season, Brennen is taking some time preparing Season 3, which begins again early next year, leaving plenty of time for everyone to catch up on the completely awful, terrible, homicidal behavior of some of our favorite rock stars.
Rocka Rolla.
