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185 Miles South Podcast
This is probably old news to many people since, as of this writing, the podcast has 204 episodes under its belt, but a couple of months ago I discovered the 185 Miles South podcast, and I’ve come to really look forward to seeing new episodes in my feed. Maybe this is arrogant of me to think because 185 is so well-produced, but when I first listened, I felt like their podcast was doing something very similar to the Sorry State newsletter, engaging with punk rock’s past and present in a thoughtful, enthusiastic way.
The first thing I like about 185 Miles South is its format. While there are frequent special episodes devoted to a single topic, the standard format is magazine-style, with each two hour-ish episode featuring a mix of shorter segments. Taking inspiration from the classic punk zine format, typically there’s at least one band interview and a record review segment where the hosts discuss new music. There are also segments that pop up less frequently, some of which are more light-hearted. My favorite one that I’ve heard is 25 Ta Life lyric trivia, where they play a segment of a 25 Ta Life song and the contestants have to guess what the actual lyrics are. They play the clip and it sounds like Rick is spitting incomprehensible gibberish, and then when they reveal the lyrics it’s like “yeah, I guess that is what he’s singing.” It makes me laugh every time. We’ve been too busy to even think about it for several years now, but we spent a lot of time talking about launching a Sorry State podcast. My idea for how we should do the podcast was essentially what 185 Miles South is doing… I imagined it as an audio version of the newsletter, and hearing 185 confirms that format can work well if it’s done properly. I’m sure it’s a crushing amount of work for Zack and the crew, though.
Aside from its format, 185’s other strength is how smart and thoughtful the hosts are. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts about music (including just about every one I can find about punk and hardcore), but I’ve found very few of them that are worth my time. A big part of this is that I’m a tough audience. I’ve been obsessed with punk rock since I was a teenager, and I’m almost 44 years old. I’ve heard a lot of records in that time and I’ve read a lot of books, zines, and other ephemera, so I have little time for intro-level stuff. I hate to say anything bad about them because they did a great job, but a good example of what I don’t like is the punk season of the No Dogs in Space podcast. The podcast is well-produced (by the same team that does the popular podcast Last Podcast on the Left), but it rarely told me anything I didn’t already know, and I often found myself yelling at the podcast when they spouted incorrect information or off-base opinions. Maybe I’m just an asshole? While I can forgive someone for not knowing something, I’ll turn a podcast off and never go back if I feel like it’s intellectually lazy. A lot of podcast hosts are just windbags who don’t take the time to understand what they’re talking about and, well, fuck that. At 185 Miles South, though, they know their shit. Not only are they well versed in punk and hardcore history, but even when they’re approaching something they’re not familiar with, they do it with open, honest, and attentive ears. Just based on the handful of episodes I’ve listened to, they’ve built up a lot of credibility with me, and I respect their knowledge and perspectives. And like we are at Sorry State, the crew at 185 Miles South is passionate about the current scene. They’ve already introduced me to a bunch of cool music I wouldn’t have heard otherwise.
While I love everything about how they produce 185 Miles South, they focus on a different, though overlapping, part of the scene than Sorry State. The hosts come from the more hardcore end of the spectrum; in fact, I think I remember checking out 185 some time ago when they mentioned it on the Revelation Records podcast Where It Went, but when I tuned in, they were going on and on about how great Earth Crisis or something was and I decided it wasn’t for me. While the podcast features plenty of coverage of the 70s and 80s punk I love (the most recent episode has a segment on the No Future Records band Attak, which illustrates how deep they go), the hosts and most of their guests hold straight edge hardcore in high regard. If you look at their Top 100 Records of the 1980s, for instance, you’ll see that Revelation Records released 5 of their top 15 records of the decade. They also find a lot more to like in the 90s punk scene than I do. Honestly, though, I think the problem here is me, not them. I was a teenager in the 90s and the straight edge scene was huge where I grew up in Virginia, so I’m familiar with almost all the music they talk about; in fact, I liked a lot of it in my younger years. However, in the early 2000s, I disavowed straight edge and post-straight edge hardcore and never looked back. For me, that has less to do with the music and more to do with the scene politics in my part of the world. I always found the straight edge scene (and most everything that sprang from it) snobby, cliqueish, and way too clean cut (but also violent and sketchy), whereas the punks more steeped in 80s music tended to be more open and welcoming, just wanting to rage out and party. Like I said, though, that’s just me being an old, closed-minded curmudgeon, and I think most sane people will appreciate 185’s broader focus.
So, yeah, if you’re as much of a fan of the way we talk about music in the Sorry State newsletter as you are of what we cover, I encourage you to give 185 Miles South a listen. I recommend starting with the latest episode, #204, which even features a glowing review of the new Illiterates LP on Sorry State. Enjoy!