Episodes

For this BONUS 'Mixtape Episode', we invited drummer Sam Fogarino (Interpol) to curate a mixtape and dug into his selections. Sam's mixtape: 1.Auf Wiedersehen - Cheap Trick 2.Smash It Up - The Damned 3.Panorama - The Cars 4.Mustopha Dance - The Clash 5.Chessboards - Killing Joke 6.Disappearer - Sonic Youth 7.Carry The Zero - Built To Spill 8.Lullaby - Low 9.Dos Galaxias - El Mato a Un Policia Motorizado 10.Rock Music - Pixies 11.Only The Strong - Midnight Oil 12.Girl Loves Me - David Bowie *Oth...

This week's guest Larry Smith brings us a record by the critically acclaimed, highly influential but criminally unheralded 80s Austin TX band Glass Eye. 'Bent By Nature' is a melodic-yet-quirky, highly intelligent collection of post-punk tunes with nods to kooky neighbors, invasive lizards and Daniel Johnston, among others. Songs featured in this episode: I Am A Baby In My Universe - Kathy McCarty; Introduction - Chicago; Walking The Cow - Daniel Johnston; Don't Worry About The Government - Tal...

Strap-in for this one, XTC fans: Record/Hot Sauce purveyor Kevin Chanel (Grooves Inspiralled Vinyl/El Enojado Hot Sauce) brings us a curious musical oddity called 'Take Away / The Lure of Salvage', the 1980 debut record by XTC frontman Andy Partridge a.k.a. Mr Partridge! Consisting basically of dub remixes/rewrites of tracks originally recorded by Partridge's band XTC - and Co-produced with John Leckie - it's a weirdly confounding, highly experimental slab that challenges at every turn. Songs f...

Returning guest Steve Michener (Big Dipper, Volcano Suns, Dumptruck) brings in Ground Zero for British punk, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols, the one and only studio album by the notorious Sex Pistols. "We mean it, man!" Songs featured in this episode:Roadrunner (demo) - Sex Pistols; Roadrunner - Sex Pistols (Live Brixton Academy, 2007); Meet The Witch - Big Dipper; I'll Be Back - The Beatles; Welcome To The Working Week - Elvis Costello; Street Life - Roxy Music; Beat On The Br...

Guitarist/vocalist Chris O'Rourke and drummer/vocalist Rachael McNally - two-thirds of the Boston band Sleepyhead - brings us a double record as intriguingly mysterious and expansive as its name: 'Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You' by Brooklyn indie rock band Big Thief. Anchored by the stunning voice and enigmatic songwriting of singer/guitarist Adrianne Lenker, it's an ambitious and weirdly absorbing collection of songs/sounds guaranteed to get under your skin. Songs featured in this e...

Wilco's fourth studio album, the quirky-yet-beloved 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot', is widely considered to be the band's masterpiece. So of course Rob dismissed it as overhyped alt-rock critic-bait for 20 years. Returning guest Steve Carroll patiently unwraps the storied tropes and mythical symbols of Jeff Tweedy and co., revealing a pretty fantastic rock record underneath. Songs featured in this episode: Jesus, etc. (Live at Sydney Opera House, 2013), Via Chicago - Wilco; After The Gold Rush - Neil Y...

It's hard to discuss British rock band Badfinger and NOT focus on the tragic details of their too-short career. This week's guest, legendary Miami music maven Rich Ulloa (Yesterday & Today Records, Y&T Music), doesn't shy away from the dark parts, but much prefers to focus on the wonderful music these four lads from Swansea gifted the world. Their 1971 release 'Straight Up' is as fine an example of lush, meticulously recorded and thrillingly played power-pop as you're ever likely to find. Songs...

With their third full-length album, 2011's 'The English Riviera', British band Metronomy transitioned from garish electro-pop to a sleek, sophisticated sound that's as much Steely Dan as Daft Punk. Our guest, Scottish singer/songwriter and producer Joshua Mackenzie (The Joshua Hotel, Lional), found inspiration for his own music in leader Joseph Mount's lush-yet-quirky songs about - among other things - his hometown of Torbay in Devon that make up this beguiling record. "You're up, but you'll get...

For this BONUS Patreon episode, we asked our Patrons to send in songs about drinking and/or drugs. Real talk: Alcohol/Drugs in excess can be bad, but songs about them can be awesome! If you'd like to participate in these episodes, please consider becoming a Patron today... Cheers!! Songs featured in this episode: Heroin - Saul Williams and John Cale (Concert at the Philharmonie de Paris, April 3, 2016); Arrested For Driving While Blind - ZZ Top; I Think I'm In Love - Spiritualized; Jane Says - ...

When this week's guest, singer/songwriter Elizabeth McCullough (Alpha Cat), heard the song 'Hoover Dam' by the band Sugar, she broke her 3-song rule (making sure an album has at least 3 good songs before purchasing it) and ran out and bought their 1992 debut 'Copper Blue'. She was not disappointed. The record by Bob Mould's new band, released five years after the dissolution of his previous band - beloved punk titans Hüsker Dü - is an emotionally visceral, sonically fierce collection of songs th...

Listening back to it now, it's hard to believe that Bad Religion's seventh studio album - 1993s 'Recipe For Hate' - was at the time considered a polarizing record that many hardcore fans felt was a sell-out. 30 years later, it's clear this was a band at the top of their game - maturing and expanding musically while still delivering ferociously intelligent songs about class, religion and navigating a treacherous path towards the 21st century. Our guest, personal trainer and Taekwon-Do Studio owne...

Buckle-up listeners! This week's guest, Jeff Kaiser (), brings us a record - and genre - that got his teenage self extremely high: It's the 1995 debut album by Tampa Death Metal supergroup Six Feet Under (featuring members of Cannibal Corpse and...

Record store owner and self-professed 'music geek' David Lewis (Elizabeth's Records - Columbus, OH) thinks we should never stop discovering new (to us) music. He's right. Around 10 years ago he came upon the 1972 debut album by German experimental rock group Agitation Free, 'Malesch'. A mysterious fusion of psychedelia, experimental krautrock and world music, it's a fascinating snapshot of a band working together to create a trippy, ethereal and unique wall of sound. Songs featured in this epis...

Buckle-up haters, because returning guest Bobbie Jo brings us mega-selling pop star Harry Styles' third release, 2022's 'Harry's House'. It's a record engineered to make you feel good. Styles - along with producer/collaborators Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson - pays homage to his R&B, Funk and Indie-Rock heroes with meticulously crafted pop songs delivered with an appealing nice guy earnestness that's hard to resist. I mean, you COULD resist it, but maybe better to slip on a comfy candy-striped on...

For Halloween 2022 we asked our Patrons to send in a song or music that was used in a movie scene that made it MUCH more tense, terrifying...etc. They didn't just stick to horror films - any movie where a song/music was used in a scene to ratchet-up the suspense/anxiety level was fair game - and as usual they did NOT disappoint! Happy Halloween!! Songs featured in this episode: 'Goodbye Horses' - Q Lazzarus; 'Tubular Bells' - Mike Oldfield; 'Needle In The Hay' - Elliott Smith; 'Didn't I (Blow Y...

If you are unfamiliar with British rock band The Bevis Frond and its founder, singer/multi-instrumentalist Nick Saloman, you have some serious catching up to do. Releasing glorious pop/punk/psyche records at a feverish pace since the late 80s, they could quite possibly be England's best kept indie-rock secret. OG fan and Chicago resident Mick Hans brings us their latest release, 2021's 'Little Eden', a psychedelically-hewn panoramic take on brutalism Britain punctuated with pure pop melodies and...

While many fans of British band The The (aka Matt Johnson) might immediately point to earlier albums Soul Mining or Mind Bomb as proof-of-concept, this week's guest Marcia Potts brings us 1993's 'Dusk' to consider. With a crack band - including guitarist/harmonicist Johnny Marr - in tow, Johnson's songs of lust, love and a blacker-than-black worldview hit all the right notes, and it's a lush, provocative ride from start to finish. Songs featured in this episode: True Happiness (this way lies) -...

Our old pal Todd Nolan from Nashville Tennessee brings us a barn-burner of an album this week. The Geraldine Fibbers' sophomore - and final - record, 'Butch', is a weird, wild amalgamation of alt-country, punk, Appalachian fiddle music, speed metal and anything/everything in between. Anchored by the raw, poetic story-songs of Carla Bozulich and stellar musicianship of the band - including guitar-God Nels Cline - it's ultimately Carla's gravely, angelic voice that seals the deal. Songs featured ...

For the official start of our SIXTH season, musician/composer/producer/instrument designer Markus Reuter brings us an album that grabbed onto his psyche as a teenager in Germany and STILL captivates him over 30 years later: 'Thunder and Consolation' by Bradford, Yorkshire band New Model Army. Led by singer/songwriter Justin Sullivan, the band creates hard-to-classify musical soundscapes that perfectly compliment Sullivan's biting lyrics about navigating one's family, finding your tribe and comin...

This week's guest Joe Tunis (Carbon Records, Pengo) once again guides us into the world of post-rock, with Chicago-by-way-of-Kentucky band Gastr del Sol and their 1994 Drag City release 'Crookt, Crackt, or Fly'. Like many of their adjacent bands - Slint, Tortoise, Bastro...etc - the music on this mysterious record is often hard to define. It's a strange, evocative amalgamation of unconventional guitar virtuosity, subtle tape-work and occasional forays into full-on math rock that's definitely not...

For this BONUS 'Mixtape Episode', we invited guitarist Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys, Rocket From the Tombs) to curate a mixtape and dug into his selections. From growing up in Cleveland listening to rock-and-roll radio like CKLW out of Detroit to his mom unwittingly turning him on to The Stooges, it was a super-fun conversation with a true punk rock legend! Cheetah's mixtape: 1. Jumpin Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones 2. I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles 3. 96 Tears - ? & The Mysterians 4. Born...

For Liverpool UK band Echo & The Bunnymen's fourth release, 1984's 'Ocean Rain', they went all-in. Recorded primarily in Paris with a 35-piece orchestra, Ocean Rain is a dazzling collection of songs writ large with sweeping string arrangements and inspired - at times restrained and at times ferocious - playing /singing by band members Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant, Les Pattinson and Pete de Freitas. This week's guest Corey duBrowa went all-in as well, as he joined Rob to unpack this splendidly de...

This week's guest, Tim Hinely (founder of Dagger Zine and editor of 'Where The Wild Gigs Were: A Trip Thru America’s Legendary Underground Music Venues') brings us the debut album by legendary Washington D.C. band Dag Nasty. Originally released in 1986 on Dischord Records, 'Can I Say' is a blistering collection of masterfully-played, intelligent punk tunes about looking inward and moving forward. Turn. It. Up! Songs featured in this episode: Under Your Influence - Dag Nasty; In My Role As A Pro...

For Labor Day 2022 we asked our Patrons to send in their favorite work-related songs. It's an impressively eclectic list, with surprisingly NO Bruce Springsteen songs! (although he IS referenced several times throughout the episode) "There is power in a factory, power in the land Power in the hand of the worker But it all amounts to nothing If together we don't stand There is power in a Union" - Billy Bragg Songs featured in this episode: Career Opportunities - The Clash with Luke and Ben Galla...