Herb Sundays 16 : Yasi Salek

[Sept 19th, 2021] Yasi Salek is a writer, MFA dropout, and host of the show Bandsplain on Spotify. Mantra: "I am cringe but I am free."

Herb Sundays playlist 16: Yasi Salek Apple / Spotify. Art by Cina.

[Sept 19th, 2021]

Herb Sundays 16: Yasi Salek. @yasisalek is, in her own words, a writer, MFA dropout, and host of the show Bandsplain. Her mantra: I am cringe but I am free. Here are 5 hours of chunky herbs and spices (same length as the longest Bandsplain episode, at the time of this original post). Let’s begin. 

When I first heard Yasi’s Bandsplain podcast on Spotify I was struck by the humility and generosity on display. The show is a two-person set-up between her and a chosen music journalist (punctuated by real-time Slack quips from her producer, Dylan), all based around a conversation over one iconic band/artist.

You can sense Yasi is in the driver’s seat when covering her faves (David Matthews, RHCP) and more often, when she’s reserving her judgment when being bandsplained herself about Phish or Dire Straits. Yasi knows a lot about music, but the joy of the series is that it realizes that admitting what you don’t know is the first step to transcendence. It’s both perfectly highbrow and sublimely dorky and I knew we had to have her take on ‘Sundays.

You may see the tracklist and think "another 90's revival" but Yasi lives and breathes this stuff. Heaps of PJ Harvey, both an original plus a cover version of Gin Blossoms, AND the nearly ill-fated Madonna/Prince collab? This is most herbaceous.