May 30, 2019
The Album: Ani DiFranco: Little
Plastic Castle (1998)
Ani DiFranco has never been a pop star by conventional measure
but Little Plastic Castle was her dealing with
the costs of stardom within her niche of alternative pop/rock
world. The result is what's considered one of her best albums ever
— it ended up being her best-selling at the very least — one where
she tries to work through what happens when public scrutiny and fan
indignity begin to feel invasive and you wonder what it's all for.
For DiFranco though, she reminds us: she's got better things to do
than survive.
Little Plastic Castle was the pick of our guest,
comedian Guy Branum who, until very recently, was the host of the
Maximum Fun pop culture panel podcast Pop
Rocket (alas, recently
cancelled, RIP!). Pre-Heat Rocks, Oliver was on Pop Rocket for
two years and got to see, first hand, Guy's pop polymath skills in
action. Taped earlier in the spring, live in front of an audience
as part of the Voyager Institute series,
the three of us discussed DiFranco's album within the context of
Lilith Fair-era female artists, the politics of queer authenticity
and how her invocation of cherry bombs probably doesn't refer to
firecrackers.
More on Guy Branum
More on Little Plastic Castle
Show Tracklisting (all songs from Little Plastic Castle unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify
playlist of as many songs as we can find there
If you're not already subscribed to Heat Rocks in Apple
Podcasts, do
it here!