It's September, so it's time for the second and final Now Playing episode of 2025! This time we've all picked our current favourite concept albums. Colin has picked his favourite album of 2024, Magdalena Bay's altpop masterpiece Imaginal Disk, Ian has picked Crippling Alcoholism's With Love From A Padded Room, a dark Jazz inspired noise rock record detailing the stories of different convicts in solitary confinement, and Tracey has picked Ethel Cain's Preachers Daughter, a beautiful but harrowing record of dark americana with a compellingly tragic story of religious trauma, cyclical abuse, and eventually murder and cannibalism.

You can find the Magdalena Bay album on Spotify here.
The Crippling Alcoholism record can be found on Spotify here,
and the Ethel Cain album can be found on Spotify here.

As always, if you enjoy the music please consider supporting the artists by buying their records etc.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

This month head back to Colin & Ian's teenage years and Tracey's not quite as teenage years to discuss the emergence of post rock, jangly indie rock, noisy glitchy electronica, stompy nu-metal & Vic Reeves with a cold.

We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.

Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year.

Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - A, Aphex Twin, The Beta Band, Bjork, David Bowie, Deftones, Depeche Mode, Tanya Donelly, Mark Eitzel, Faith No More, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Kenickie, Low, Lullaby For The Working Class, Machine Head, Billy Mackenzie, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mogwai, Nine Inch Nails, Paradise Lost, Pavement, The Prodigy, Radiohead, Rammstein, Samiam, Snot, Strapping Young Lad, Teenage Fanclub, Tindersticks, & Yo La Tengo.

Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xtkvukpolmGURUNJTQc5n?si=efff4c4045d84620

Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQ

If you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes (which need updating but I plan on doing them over the next few months or so), you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg
Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA
and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw

The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -

1st place - 20 points
2nd place - 18 points
3rd place – 16 points
4th place – 14 points
5th place – 12 points
6th place – 9 points
7th place – 7 points
8th place – 5 points
9th place – 3 points
10th place -1 point

Hosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey B
Guest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.
Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-Brown
Recorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig Podcasts
Thanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

This month we appear to be teleporting between CBGB's, Studio 54, The 100 Club, The Berlin Wall and some kind of prog gig in a field in Cambridgeshire as we battle over our favourite songs of 1977!

We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.

Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year.

Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - David Bowie, Chic, Commodores, Elvis Costello, The Damned, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Dean Friedman, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, Heldon, Richard Hell, Billy Joel, Kiss, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Anthony Phillips, Pink Floyd, Plastic Bertrand, Iggy Pop, Queen, Ramones, Suicide, Talking Heads, Television, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers, John Williams & The London Symphony Orchestra, Wire, Bill Withers, & X-Ray Spex

Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Gh83sLsD9mCpQAIliafVB?si=49b9628e338d4c77

Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQ

If you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes (which need updating but I plan on doing them over the next few months or so), you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg
Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA
and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw

The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -

1st place - 20 points
2nd place - 18 points
3rd place – 16 points
4th place – 14 points
5th place – 12 points
6th place – 9 points
7th place – 7 points
8th place – 5 points
9th place – 3 points
10th place -1 point

Hosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey B
Guest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.
Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-Brown
Recorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig Podcasts
Thanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

It's summertime, and what better to talk about for music nerds in the summer than our favourite music festival stories from almost 40 years of festival going between the three of us, from Reading 1988 through to modern festivals like ArcTanGent & All Points East. There's tales of goth acrobatics, melted portaloos, terrifying french umbrella sharers, and lots of instances of Tracey having no recollection of seeing legendary bands, plus we program our fantasy festival lineup!

You can find a link to a spotify playlist featuring most of the music in the episode here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6NYGVympNj7A97zN7JGAaM?si=c339bdec9221496f
As always, if you enjoy the music please consider supporting the artists by buying their records etc.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

This month we've gone back further than ever before to 1967 a time when none of us existed yet and everything was psychedelic and groovy. There's proto prog, primeval punk, pop masterpieces, and whatever you'd categorise Zabadak as...

We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.

Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year.

Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Tim Buckley, Calico Wall, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, Country Joe & The Fish, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, The Electric Prunes, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, Jefferson Airplane, The LEft Banke, Love, The Lovin' Spoonful, Pink Floyd, Louis Prima & Phil Harris, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition, Sam & Dave, The Seeds, Nina Simone, Stone Poneys, The Third Bardo, Vanilla Fudge, The Velvet Underground, Scott Walker, The Who, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band

Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5AZHbpp2zaOQoCQwI2QjDN?si=9838e165b6d94229

Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQ

If you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes (which need updating but I plan on doing them over the next few months or so), you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg
Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA
and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw

The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -

1st place - 20 points
2nd place - 18 points
3rd place – 16 points
4th place – 14 points
5th place – 12 points
6th place – 9 points
7th place – 7 points
8th place – 5 points
9th place – 3 points
10th place -1 point

Hosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey B
Guest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.
Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-Brown
Recorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig Podcasts
Thanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

This month we're back to the mid 80s to talk about our favourite songs of 1986, including thrash metal classics, proto-industrial stompers, enormous pop bangers, massive cheesy 80s soundtrack rock and loads more.

We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.

Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year.

Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - a-ha, The Art Of Noise ft Max Headroom, Big Black, The Bolshoi, Bon Jovi, Billy Bragg, Stan Bush, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Crowded House, Cutting Crew, Europe, The Go-Betweens, Bruce Hornsby & The Range, The Housemartins, Hüsker Dü, In The Nursery, Iron Maiden, KMFDM, Kenny Loggins, Merzbow, Metallica, New Order, Public Image Ltd, R.E.M., Lionel Richie, Shub Niggurath, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Slayer, The Smiths, & They Might Be Giants.

Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2SmV87RMDnpidlUpn4m7lU?si=Ssrrhy8iRtCgFXSP9-QXug&pi=p67BZNXETwqB5

Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQ

If you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes (which need updating but I plan on doing them over the next few months or so), you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg
Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA
and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw

The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -

1st place - 20 points
2nd place - 18 points
3rd place – 16 points
4th place – 14 points
5th place – 12 points
6th place – 9 points
7th place – 7 points
8th place – 5 points
9th place – 3 points
10th place -1 point

Hosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey B
Guest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.
Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-Brown
Recorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig Podcasts
Thanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com

It's March, so it's time for the first Now Playing episode of 2025! This time Tracey and Ian have both chosen records they somehow overlooked from their best of 2024 lists with Tracey going for Scottish indie pop melodymongers Wojtek The Bear's Shaking Hands With The NME, and Ian picking the alos massively melodic Danish prog metal band Vola's Friend Of A Phantom, while Colin goes back 20 years earlier to pick the Texan psychedelic indieprog behemoth The Polyphonic Spree and their 2004 album Together We're Heavy.

You can find the Wojtek The Bear album on Spotify here.
The Vola record can be found on Spotify here,
and the Polyphonic Spree album can be found on Spotify here.

The live Polyphonic spree gig Colin discusses in the episode can be found here.

As always, if you enjoy the music please consider supporting the artists by buying their records etc.

Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/
Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com