Welcome to Crossed Channels — a new monthly podcast on which a Yank and a Brit clash and connect over music from across the pond.
Join Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) as they debate and discuss the different ways that certain major bands and artists from their respective homelands have been received on the other side of the pond. In the process, Dan and Tony compare and contrast their own experiences as obsessive music fans growing up in the US and the UK.
Ep 1 - SETTING SONS: THE FLIPPED SCRIPT
Did you know that the US release of The Jam’s brilliant album from 1979, Setting Sons, album had a radically different track order than in the rest of the world? On the inaugural episode of Crossed Channels — which debuts in full on Tuesday, December 12 — Dan and Tony discuss this forgotten discrepancy, and Dan makes a solid case for the superiority of the US version. But does Tony, who was in the studio with The Jam during the recording sessions, agree? You will need to listen to find out.
In Episode 2 of Crossed Channels, Dan and Tony head to the other side of the Atlantic to consider the case of The Replacements, a band widely revered in the US during the 1980s — and perhaps even more so now — but which barely made a dent in the British consciousness. The recent remix/remaster of Tim, the band’s 1985 major-label debut, will provide the springboard for their discussion.
And in Episode 3, Dan and Tony will take on The Sex Pistols’ landmark 1977 album Never Mind The Bollocks. A major event at the time of its release in the UK, where it was an immediate #1, the album never made it higher than #106 on the Billboard charts in the US, where it — and punk rock in general — was widely considered a novelty or worse…
Crossed Channels is available to all paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. A paid subscription to either Substack will automatically allow you to hear our monthly podcast in full, but we’d obviously love it if you’d consider supporting both of our newsletters with a paid subscription. Cheers!
Dan Epstein is an award-winning journalist and author who has written about music, film, sports and other strands of pop culture for a dozens of outlets, including Rolling Stone, Revolver, FLOOD and The Forward. Born in New York City and raised in the Midwest, he currently lives in New York’s Hudson Valley, where he’s working on a book about the American band Redd Kross, which will be published by Omnibus Press in Fall 2024. He writes several times a week about his latest musical obsessions at his Substack, Jagged Time Lapse. He also makes music as The Corinthian Columns.
Tony Fletcher is the author of a dozen books, including biographies of Keith Moon, R.E.M., Wilson Pickett, and the Smiths, plus a memoir, Boy About Town. He hosts The Fanzine Podcast and the One Step Beyond podcast, and writes twice a week about music and culture at his Substack, Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith. He also makes music as a member of The Dear Boys and Hudson Palace.
Crossed Channels’ theme song is “Blue Diamond Fire” by The Corinthian Columns. Podcast artwork is courtesy of Plastic Crimewave a.k.a. Steven Krakow.
The debut episode of Crossed Channels will drop on Tuesday December 12. If you haven’t already, upgrade your subscription to ensure you don’t miss out.
Introducing CROSSED CHANNELS: A New Podcast