{"id":7356,"date":"2026-09-20T21:27:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=7356"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:27:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:27:03","slug":"no-dogs-in-space-is-back-punk-2-0-music-history-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=7356","title":{"rendered":"No Dogs in Space is back to feed your need for obsessive music history"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In August, I wrote about my love<\/a> of the music history podcast No Dogs in Space<\/a><\/em>, but mourned the fact that there hadn\u2019t been a new episode in over two years. Little did I know that hosts Carolina Hidalgo and Marcus Parks were gearing up to announce the show\u2019s return with season four, Punk 2.0. The first episode<\/a> premiered this week, part one of a series on the New York Dolls<\/a>, a band near and dear to my heart as a native Staten Islander, home of frontman David Johansen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For the new season, Hidalgo and Parks decided it was time to get back to basics. Part of that was that they felt punk rock was where their passion and expertise were strongest. Parks said that they \u201cwanted to go all over. I wanted to do Beethoven at one point,\u201d but that \u201cwe realize like what we do best is tell a punk story, right? Not the<\/em> punk story, but a<\/em> punk story.\u201c But also, they said, that\u2019s just where the most interesting stories are. After spending enormous amounts of time translating German into English for their experimental rock series, they realized that, often, the story behind the bands boils down to \u201dart school kids fucking around.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There were a number of reasons why the new season took so long to come together. But one of the biggest is that the duo made a few false starts. Early on, the plan was to tackle the DC punk scene. Hidalgo told The Verge<\/em> that \u201cwe worked on it for over six months\u201d and that they planned to launch the series with Bad Brains<\/a>. \u201cAnd then we look into them,\u201d Hidalgo said, \u201cand they\u2019re like, incredibly homophobic. Like, fire and brimstone \u2026 A lot of No Dogs bands like, they\u2019re problematic, but that was like a really tough one to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The two then attempted to do a series that covered the DC as a whole \u2014 \u201cnever do that,\u201d Hidalgo warned. Parks said that \u201cit just kept swelling larger,\u201d listing off a number of acts that may not have been part of the DC punk scene, but were important foundational elements, like Chuck Brown<\/a> and go-go. The two even mused that Georgetown University\u2019s WGTB radio might be worthy of a series all on its own. But ultimately, \u201cwhen you try to put all of them together, you can\u2019t. You just can\u2019t put all of these stories together,\u201d Parks said. \u201cAnd after eight months of working on it \u2026 we eventually had to admit defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The effort wasn\u2019t a total waste, however. They did get a two-part series on Link Wray<\/a> out of it that will premiere later this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Carolina<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Obsession is their superpower.<\/figcaption>Image: Marcus Parks \/ Carolina Hidalgo<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Like any season of No Dogs in Space, part of the fun is the weird sidequests and rabbit holes that Parks and Hidalgo go down. During the New York Dolls series, Hidalgo became obsessed with Mott the Hoople. The band is best known for their David Bowie-penned hit \u201cAll the Young Dudes<\/a>,\u201d but their story is a fascinating one. Hidalgo says lead singer Ian Hunter \u201cwas just a guy digging ditches. And then he got a call from a friend who said, \u2018Hey, there\u2019s a band, and like, they\u2019re not very good, and they need a new lead singer,\u2019 and so he just showed up.\u201d Hunter also wrote \u201cCleveland Rocks<\/a>,\u201d which was covered<\/a> by The Presidents of the United States of America and became the theme for The Drew Carey Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Parks says he became obsessed with drag queen Jackie Curtis. \u201cIt could be argued that the punk style that is often credited to Richard Hell probably actually originated with Jackie Curtis,\u201d he said. He also shared a story about how Curtis once \u201cwent out on to [their] windowsill\u2026 like Batman, inching like Batman\u201d to get into the apartment of a recently deceased neighbor to steal her clothes before the coroner came.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s these sorts of tangents that make No Dogs in Space so compelling. \u201cWe live our lives in like a state of obsession,\u201d Parks said. \u201cObsession really is, it is kind of our superpower. And we were both recently diagnosed with autism and discovered that that\u2019s just who we are. That\u2019s the superpower that we get.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you\u2019re wondering where to start, the new series on the New York Dolls is as good as any. The Dolls were a protopunk and glam act that played an important role in building the NYC scene. But I also can\u2019t recommend the series on the Replacements, Dead Kennedys, or Joy Division enough. You can listen to the new season of No Dogs in Space now on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or anywhere else you find fine podcasts. Or, for the first time, the show will be posted on YouTube<\/a> as full video episodes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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