Rare rock records, argued with affection.
ROCK AND/OR ROLL follows BJ through rock records that sit just outside the usual canon. The show moves fast through vinyl pulls, obscure EP battles, songs in languages other than English, album anniversaries, and occasional hall-of-shame arguments about who deserves praise or ridicule.
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ROCK AND/OR ROLL is a rock podcast with dust on its sleeves and opinions in the margins. BJ works like a record collector with a microphone, pulling songs from vinyl, remembering band histories, then chasing the next connection before the thought cools off. The show is not built around the obvious greatest-hits pathway. It prefers the single that went nowhere, the four-song EP on a tiny label, the album track that proves a point, or the cover version that makes a familiar song feel slightly off-center again. Vinyl Countdown episodes turn a personal record collection into a guided stack of needle drops. Extended Play puts two rare, out-of-print EPs against each other and lets the audience vote. Album-anniversary episodes give classic records, like Thin Lizzy's Fighting, a reason to come back into focus. Other installments widen the map, moving through Portuguese, Italian, French, Swedish, Danish, and German-language rock without treating English as the default measure of value. The pacing is loose but packed. BJ will name the city, the year, the label, the band members, the later projects, and the half-known detail that makes the record feel found rather than filed. That is the pleasure of it. The show often sounds like a private collection being argued into public usefulness. It has room for Canadian songwriters, Brazilian psychedelic rock, Swedish rock sung in Swedish, Danish hitmakers, New York power pop, Washington state hard rock, and Fleetwood Mac-adjacent demo lore. It also has a taste for comic irritation. The Hall of Lame format turns rock reputation into a roast, especially when the target is treated as overrated or absurd. The jokes can be blunt, but the show’s real currency is attention. It listens closely to obscure records and gives them context without sanding off the weirdness. The best episodes feel less like lessons than like being handed a stack of records with reasons attached. For rock fans tired of the same official museum tour, it is a useful mess in the best sense: opinionated, specific, and always reaching for the next neglected song.
Made for: For rock listeners who like deep cuts, vinyl finds, obscure band histories, and strong taste more than polished music journalism. It especially suits collectors, power-pop obsessives, classic-rock skeptics, and anyone curious about obscure records.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart through its crate-digger formats: Vinyl Countdown, Extended Play, language-focused song sets, album anniversaries, and the Hall of Lame. It treats trivia as evidence for taste, not decoration.
A podcast about rock and/or roll for record collectors, appreciators of the obscure, and anyone curious about lesser known stories and music from the underbelly of rock. Part of Pantheon Podcasts
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
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