We'll edit for the moment that I think Jimmy Buffett's real missed business opportunity could have been something called Jimmy's Buffet (just trays, warmers, cheeseburgers, presumably. Margarita machines).

Admittedly, some of these episodes are excuses for us to take a ball peen hammer to the material, and there's some of that exercise here, but there are undoubtedly aspects to Buffet's ascent that defy logic and encourage chatter. There's a bit of an Austin angle to his gold strike, too.

Indeed, as incredulous as we often seem throughout this episode that we actually listened to it (with the possible exception of Mark, who made a conscious decision not to torture himself), we tend to agree that it's unusual that career rocketships launch cocktail in hand.

If you squint hard enough at sunset, you may see Just Another Island from here.

Listen to the album on Spotify

A Few Minutes With

CW McCall - Convoy

A Current Affair

The Last Dinner Party - Nothing Matters

Let's just get something incredibly obvious out of the way up top about this episode - there was a hiatus in between the time Ryan selected this LP and the time we were actually able to convene and record it, and by contrast, Fontaines DC are actually hyper prolific, meaning, by the time we laid this bad boy down, they had turned out an additional avalanche of tracks.

Nevertheless, there is something refreshing yet acerbic about this band's point of view, and it's not terribly surprising that they've been so beloved by their homeland (and those who appreciate an Irish perspective, perhaps).

They are as Irish as a somewhat damp, extremely heavy cable knit sweater and believe me when I tell you that I did not know the origin point for those sweaters was Irish, but I looked it up and turns out it is. Sometimes the world just lines up right.

And there are so many stories lurking here, from the neighbor kid who stomps through the streets of a 'pregnant city with a catholic mind' to the open question of why punk needs saving, exactly. Conundrums, half-truths, attitudes that pull on longer yarns to come.

Listen to the album on Spotify

A Few Minutes With

Glen Hansard - Lowly Deserter

A Current Affair

Sir Chloe - Know Better

Charlie Martin's pandemic experience has been much like the rest of ours, until it wasn't.

Martin, one half of the having-an-indie-moment act Hovvdy, spent much of the first two COVID years huddled up with his Mrs, tethered to extended family from afar, until they deemed such time safe (or safe enough) to venture out.

Imaginary People, Martin's solo LP, emerges as an exploration of perspective, or should we say, 'perspectives, both real and imagined.' Which is to say that the way Martin navigated the slow passage of the pandemic was to conjure stories of characters, examine his own experience, to wonder and encourage himself to create.

Serendipity plays a role here: it just so happens that an 1870s Steinway grand piano has tenure at Martin's Mother-In-Law's house in Mississippi, and those keys flavor the record often.

Ultimately, it's worth noting that the offending review I note during this show came from KOOP (not KCRW). I wasn't sure how this record would land with Ryan and Mark, how we'd identify with this menagerie of hazy sonic portraits, but one thing's for certain. Charlie Martin can spin a yarn. 

Listen to the album on Spotify

A Few Minutes With

Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue

A Current Affair

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

You know what’s cool? When you go out to a bar and some drunk asshole is going on and on about a record, or tv show, or movie they REALLY love and you just have to sit there and take it. Well, imagine 3 drunk assholes doing that, and you’ll be hot on the case of what we are doing the next 3 weeks with a thing we call “I Like It” (really selling it huh)? This week, I’m up and I picked The Smiths-The Smiths, the debut album by my favorite band The Smiths (duh). A fine time was had by all. Not sure if it makes for good radio, but any time you are talking about the straight up weirdo tortured genius that is Morrissey, interesting tidbits are bound to pop up.

NEXT WEEK ON SOMEBODY LIKES IT: Ryan is up to bat and we take aim at Travis-The Man Who…and Matt Munoz stops by, and so should you. —-Shane

This is what happens when your studio is in the house you inhabit with your bandmates, you’re bitter (or maybe just tired) about record labels and smarmy A&R guys, and you notice the onset of what has to be middle age, or at least the realization that for all your effort, maybe this thing that you’ve loved all of these years just doesn’t love you back.

And then The Meadowlands drops, the founder of Pitchfork loses his collective shizz and writes a glowing review that can’t help but pique the curiosity of the masses. Tune in for the twists and turns that happen next.

Got a question, comment or suggestion for the show? Hit us up at messagesomebody@gmail.com

Ladies, this week’s edition of Somebody Likes It is brought to you by Mother’s Best cornmeal and flour, with just a dose of mid-twentieth century sexism. I speak, of course, of Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light, a delightful compilation of down-from-the holler hucksterism and genius-level early country music. If you like your biscuits light and fluffy and your country music both heart and ground-breaking, then get on out of the kitchen and join us for a little Hank Williams. In the spirit of the proceedings, I showed up a little tipsy, but then, so did Hank.

Also, Shane gave us the gift of Canada’s answer to The Village People, The Skatt Brothers’ Life at the Outpost, which one should experience at least once before one dies, while Kevin enlightened us as to up-and-comer Trapper Schoepp, burgeoning young Milwaukee talent.

Next week: Joisey indie rock band The Wrens, with The Meadowlands, where I hear Jimmy Hoffa is buried.

Questions or comments? Hit us up at messagesomebody@gmail.com

Well, we gone and done it. Got in bed with ole Kenny G. and did us a jazzy record. Sounds like a bunch of fucking Mr. Rogers Going To The Land Of MakeBelieve-ass bullshit if you ask me. Ryan was able to give it his highest approval rating “I didn’t hate it”…you’ll have in to see how the rest of us felt about it.

NEXT UP: Ryan found a random Hank Williams record. Tell you more about it next week…Shane

Human frailty isn’t exactly a novel conceit, nor are we surprised by youthful angst, but then again, those sentiments aren’t always delivered in authentic ways, by burgeoning and sincere anti-ingenues. Such is the dilemma we faced when peering into the tattered world of Julien Baker, a twenty-year-old artist whose solo foray forced the often raucous music world to stop and take note. Is it possible to wax both fragile and rebellious? We’re not sure either.

This week’s episode of Somebody Likes It sees us discussing The New Pornographers’ debut record Mass Romantic. I (Ryan) am apparently incapable of restraint when expressing my undying affection for the title track, and am pretty charmed (if less so) by the rest of the record. Shane, on the other hand, is less enthusiastic, and very nearly went swimming with Neko Case once. Turns out, “power pop” isn’t really Shane’s bag, but it may just be the case of too much of a good thing. Or too many talented cooks in the kitchen. Tune in and decide for yourself. Also, the title track is amazing, and I might have brought that up at least once. Cheers…

Remember last week when i encouraged you guys to go seek out the cover of Night Moves by Bob Seger? Did you do it yet? That was a pretty easy homework assignment…so if you failed that motherfucker, you are officially out of the class…

Doesn’t really matter what we think about this album, some of us loved it, some of us…didn’t hate it, but eh, ya know…but that god damned album cover staring back at you? That’s the shit dreams are made of…bad dreams, bad-ass dreams!

Welp, I kept hearing about this up-start band called the Rolling Stones and I figured since we over here at Somebody Likes It Central Command are nothing if not full of lots of emotions of pity for the “little guy”, I thought I would throw them a bone and pick one of their albums. Exile on Mainstreet ain’t no George Thorogood, that’s for sure, but I feel confident if these guys keep it up, they might just “break on through to the other side” (The Doors) one of these days…

NEXT TIME: Punk Rock Comedian JT Habersaat joins us as we listen to Bob Seeger’s Nightmoves…can’t tell you how to feel about that album, but I can say if you don’t think the album cover is the best ever created, well, you are wrong.

As cliched as it sounds, Sadie Dupuis might actually be some sort of tour de force: the chief creative element behind the ascending Speedy Ortiz (which, best I can tell, is neither speedy nor boasts an Ortiz), Dupuis recently knocked out an MFA in poetry, which she wields to hone razor-sharp lyrics on Speedy tracks. This band swims in the same hip kids pond that New England influences Pixies, The Breeders and Dinosaur Jr. first explored, and it may not be a shock that we have a tendency to think that’s noteworthy.

I just exhausted myself with all the tittering I did coming up with “Jam Puns” writing the previous version of this. Then, when I finished composing it in all of it’s majesty, I sat back to gaze upon my masterpiece…And then it struck me I FUCKING HATE PUNS! There is a burning hatred inside of me for puns. Tell the truth though, I now can see the allure in writing them.

Anyway,we reviewed the album “All Mod Cons” by the Jam. Now I’m getting all nervous that I’m inadvertently dropping puns everywhere. Better get out while I’m ahead.

So let's just start with the obvious: we don't know where the scarf is.

We don't know if the legends about said scarf are real, nor do we have insight from various Gyllenhaals as to the status of the aforementioned scarf, and we don't know with certainty that Taylor Swift, when you break up with her, is contractually obligated or otherwise driven to write ten minute super catchy ditties heavily inferring that she wants her scarf back.

We don't know any of that.

What we do know is that she writes borderline illegally infectious pop ditties that at times make otherwise serious human beings feel like they're...twenty-two. That her popcraft is of such finely hewn nuance that she can reimagine many of her breakout works, layer in a dizzying array of collaborations, and even deftly cede the spotlight from time to time is pretty telling.

It's a memorable party, you just may get emotional at the end.

Also, we take a magnifying glass to 'Bust A Move' -

Find it on Amazon

A Few Minutes With

Young MC - Bust A Move

A Current Affair

fanclubwallet - Car Crash in G Major

To paraphrase Ryan, Peepshow by Siouxsie and the Banshees is the only record we’ve talked about that on first listen is disappointing because of how high a bar the opening track sets. Yeah, Peek-a-Boo (the song) is pretty much a home run. That’s all I’m gonna say about this one, because I get in trouble when I open up too much.

Siouxsie Sue sure is an interesting name. I wonder if it’s spelled that way on her birth certificate.

The band so nice, we reviewed them twice (note to self:you need to coyright that)…we first came across Canadian group Land of Talk last year during Podcast Overlord Chris Cox’s visit to the show when I picked their song “Quarry Hymns” for A Few Minutes With.Well for this go-round Kevin had us listen to the full-length that spawned that song, “Cloak and Cipher”. Let’s just say we didn’t hate it.

Is that enough suspense for you?

Usually when we do these mix-tape shows, there is considerably more fun and frivolity to be had (though there is plenty of that to be found in this episode). By now, you guys know “the drill”…we pick a bunch of Bowie songs, and discuss them. Just felt like this would be a way we could honor his life through the prism of Somebody Likes It.

When Ryan suggested we listen to Clarence Carter’s 1986 ode to sexy time Strokin’ I couldn’t wait! Not only had we never devoted an entire show to just one song, but this song in particular is chockablock with subtlety and context! So I showed up to Mark’s garage with an armful of notes…

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that i had misheard Ryan and we were actually going to talk about The Strokes 2003 sophomore album Room on Fire! Whoops!

Hey, despite all evidence to the contrary, I’m just a human man people. Full of all those foibles that make life such a gas.

Listen closely (or not that closely if that’s how you prefer to listen) to the beginning of this episode and I clearly state that I expect everyone to stick to a discussion of Workingman’s Dead and to try and stay away from those all too iconic Grateful Dead live show images…What follows is an hour of hackey-sack jokes, sad attempts to noodle dance in the garage, and goofs on the chaos of a Dead live show in general (these are all things we assumed happened, cause we never actually attended a Grateful Dead show and hung out in the parking lot making burritos)…

In between, we did get in a little discussion of this album, and how different the studio albums were from the live shows. So yeah, nailed it YET AGAIN!

Tahiti 80 are nothing if not pleasantly contradictory, or, at least, that’s what we’re more or less led to believe after basking in the warm glow of their debut album, Puzzle. They shared an affinity for indie bands when singer Xavier Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende met at university, and that affection for American stylings led, of course, to a band that sounds, well…completely French.

We unearth a few nuggets along the way, from the fact that Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger was (ahem) instrumental in contributing, to the fact that Tore Johansson produced the record in Sweden, and there is a clear kinship that feels Cardiganesque. They’re also rather funny (see Mr. Davies), and a somewhat fey, but these guys know a hook when they find one, apparent on Heartbeat.

We regale you with tales like the time Ryan and I chatted them up after a show at Austin’s late lamented version of Emo’s (the inside room, which never saw a health inspection it could pass…or care to).

Saddle up, and bring a beret.

Silver Bells: Steve Martin, Paul Simon & Billy Joel

From the moment Martin says that his child asks “Uncle Steve? What’s does Christmas mean to you?,” you’re right to infer that something is about to go very very wrong in this Saturday Night Live rendition of Silver Bells, which featured three artists at the top of their game in the 70s. Pay attention to the eggnog and booze gags, and mind your dime store Santa Clauses, they may be “laying a little groundwork for the future.”

Twelve Days of Christmas: Bob & Doug Mackenzie

Way back in the very first episode of this podcast, Bob & Doug came up (pursuant to Geddy Lee and his Canadian-ness): here we note their take on the Twelve Days, which include lots of beer, five golden touks (a Canadian word, look it up), and plenty of back bacon. It’s a hilarious (if sloppy) rendering.

Centro-matic: Fuselage (It’s Starting to Look Like Christmas Once Again)

Producer Mark drops in as we tackle Will Johnson and company’s take on the holidays, in which he coins the phrase “nicefully” (and it kind of works) and talks up strange family traditions. As someone who comes from a house with a few of those, this rang a little true for me.

James Brown: Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto

The Godfather of Soul lays out a laundry list of requests for Santa, specifically the stops he might make in the poorer parts of town, where kids don’t have as much to look forward to. Shane’s surprised by his ability to hear James Brown with fresh ears, while Kevin reminds us that James Brown put out all kinds of Christmas albums. The man was, after all, a cottage industry.

The Pogues: Fairytale of New York

Arguably one of my favorite Christmas tunes, the real fairytale here is that Shane MacGowan’s toothless mug and drunk-tank mumblings could romance Kirsty MacColl into such a beautiful duet about New York City. Our Shane reveals that he has something in common with MacGowan (other than name) in that he spends way too many Christmas days drinking in bars, while Ryan helps us with the pronunciation of Nihilism.

The Pretenders: 2000 Miles

Released as a B-side to Middle of the Road in 1983, this is NOT Chrissie Hynde’s expurgated version of the Proclaimers Scottish hit about walking a tremendous distance, although Hynde does admit “2000 miles, it’s very far.” The guys were clearly expecting something very different going into this one, even questioning why I would list it as a Christmas song. In the end, it all coalesces into agreement that this is a pretty song about Christmas.

Wham: Last Christmas

You know who writes a bad-ass Christmas song? Irving Berlin! His little known (and all forgotten) holiday nugget “White Christmas” seems to be the template upon which George Michael based the 1984 classic Last Christmas…Look I make no apologies for my love of WHAM! Shit, this isn’t just one of my favorite Christmas songs, it’s one of my favorite any-time songs.

Bing Crosby/David Bowie: Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth

Just as fucking weird and uncomfortable as i remembered…Funny or Die has a word for word re-make of it starring Will Farrell and John C. Reilly that highlights how truly odd it was.

Elmo and Patsy: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

Hadn’t heard it since I was 10. Not as funny as it was when I was 10.

The Waitresses: Christmas Wrapping

It’s rare that a novelty Christmas song reaches the ridiculous American cultural zeitgeist, yet proves itself as a tune that I’d like to listen to the other eleven months of the year. This is that song. While it’s undeniable that they’re mining similar territory as their most well-known non-yuletide hit, I Know What Boys Like, it still works. It’s infectious, and I look forward to hearing hit cut through the parade of rote sentimentality surrounding the season every December.

REM: Christmas Griping

What would you get if you crossed the percussion from Fleetwood Mack’s Tusk with a Christmas-themed version of The Beatles’ Revolution #9 and a cranky-pants approach to the holiday season? This. You’d get this. Not as unimpressive as I’m making it sound, this is still mostly notable as a novelty, released to their fan club in 1991.

Lou Reed: Xmas in February

A beautiful, if devastating, song, Xmas in February is barely a Christmas tune. It does contain the word “Christmas,” however, so I’ll take it. It’s Reed at his post-Velvet Underground best, chronicling the hardships of a Vietnam vet. It manages to be both beautiful and heartbreaking, and so evocotive of the gritty worldview he became synonymous with. Merry (post-) Xmas!

Remember that shitty song Everything Zen by Bush? Awful awful song. Well this album isn’t that. It’s like the opposite of Bush. Zen Arcade (the seminal 1984 record by Hüsker Dü) landed in our laps this week, and let’s just say it definitely wasn’t what we expected it to be. I (and the rest of those people that talk into mics on this show) had previously only been familiar with Bob Mould’s post Hüsker Dü output, and that was a world away from THIS weird-ass hardcore punk concept record. Spirited discussion of it ensued.

Hey, remember that time last week where I said I made everybody listened to Heart’s All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You? Oh yeah, that was actually this episode…OOOPS.

Next time on “Somebody Likes It”… I can’t make the show, and the discussion was finally about an album I liked: Tahiti 80’s light as air, sugary French Pop confection from 2000 Puzzle. So tune in, I certainly will, if for no other reason than to see if they talked shit about me. Bon Nuit, Shane

You catch that? I slipped a little France-y talk in at the end there. Sometimes being me is a heavy burden.

late night conversation via text:

Ryan: What is this week’s album again?

Shane: Sylvan Esso

Ryan: I have no idea what that means

Shane: It’s a band/album…you sound like somebody’s old uncle

Ryan: What does that even mean?

This week we listen to the album Sylvan Esso by the band “Sylvan Esso”…well, not exactly a band, but it is two people making music, so not exactly a solo act. I guess I could have said “duo”, but somehow that just doesn’t feel right. We all agree that singer Amelia Meath has a honeyed voice that makes one weak in the knees…but that’s pretty much all we agreed on.

Next time around? We yell about Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü and I might throw in All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You by Heart during the intermission…tune in to see if I actually do that (Spoiler Alert! I do that). Till then,

Somewhere around the time dinosaurs walked the earth and Prince Charles started wearing Lady Diana’s clothes, I spent a summer working in radio.

Those were odd days — or nights rather — plugging in commercials in the middle of the night to avoid the radio tax shows we were running (aka ‘ratings juggernaut’), and I used to take chances, mostly to keep myself awake beyond the darkness. Occasionally, that meant thumbing through a reservoir of old LPs from the station’s previous incarnation as an Album Oriented Rock enclave. Among those ruins lay the quirky sheen of Steely Dan, and from there on, my wee hours took to Fagen and Becker’s brand of jazz-rock urban dystopia.

This week’s show featured a fog machine, a giant Godspell canvas, dissection of the differences between jazz and what’s “jazzy,” and a steady drumbeat of vitriol from one of us (Shane cough cough Shane).

In between, we talk about the band construct that was Bow Wow Wow (and how young that singer was…her mother was not pleased), and Shane leaves us on “An Island.” Tune in to find out what that means.

It's pretty common in our collective rear view to gaze upon the halcyon days of early March 2020 and chuckle about our earnest belief that this COVID thing? We'll be past it in a couple of weeks.

Of course now, in a story that's been beaten into a fine mist, we know the pandemic had other plans.

It is with tongue planted firmly in cheek that I suggest that this development did manage to affect the pursuit of podcasting.  At least it did ours.

We really like to sit down in person as we can—it just makes for a livelier show—and talk music. So we waited. In the time since, Shane's gone back into the studio, so when we did decide to reconvene, Kevin, Ryan & Mark connect for this episode.

We offer you the SLI pandemic recap mixtape, where we consider the tracks we've met since we've not been meeting. From the forlorn to the fanciful, it's a grab bag of what's kept us company throughout as the months piled up.

Like the needle dropped in the groove, you've got to start somewhere -

 

Recorded in October of 2021. To listen to the songs featured in this episode, checkout our Pandemic MixTape Spotify Playlist.

If you are sitting at a bar after recording a podcast, and you are trying to explain to someone what your podcast is about, Television quickly becomes a “who’s on first”. It’s really hard to tell someone what you are doing a podcast about when you say Television and you immediately have to say “the band” Television…which is weird cause nobody EVER says “television” when referencing a television, they say “T.V…"

I’m pretty sure in 1977 that folks were also saying T.V. and that makes Television (the band)’s choice to name the band Television both punk-rock and anachronistic (probably what they were aiming for)…

Anyway, I wish I smoked weed cause that way I could explain that last paragraph away…

So…Kevin last minute had to fly away to some other land, and Ryan and I held it together this time…With the help of Producer Mark we, by the grace of god, did it.

Get "Marquee Moon" yonder there Amazon

Coming Up

Next time on somebody likes it: UGH UGH UGH UGH UGH UGH…bad bad bad nightmare bad…it’s called “Steely Dan”…I can’t even write “somebody likes it” in caps, cause it still hurts me…it…hurts. It…hurts…like the slow spread into your belly after getting kicked in the huevos (that means eggs in espanol, eggs meaning testes)…NEXT STOP: AWFUL TOWN.

There are a few musical artists that nobody hates. Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, Van Morrison. Marvin Gaye. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Billie Holiday. Even if you don’t want to listen to them, you still kind of love them. Even if it’s a begrudging love, you still love them. Admit it.

Stevie Wonder is one of those artists.

This album should have been a much more challenging album to listen to than it was.
We talk all about it this week…

Get "Songs In The Key Of Life" on Amazon"*

Coming Up

Kevin goes on a trip, and the idiots run the asylum again.

Couple of weeks ago I had my first real Early 80’s “After-School Special Teenager Vs. Dad Fight” with Chris Cox! I was like (and I’m paraphrasing, even though it would be so easy for me to pull up those e-mails if I weren’t so damn lazy), ” WHAT THE HELL?! Chris Cox, get out of my room! Maybe I totally got the order of episodes F’d up, but even if Doves is a week away from when I said it would be WHO CARES!” And then Chris Cox was like “No problem. Well just try and fix it if/when you can.” And I was like “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD!” and then I totally forgot to fix it. Which is pretty embarrassing when you consider that I don’t smoke pot..or do sacrifices… or jump out of windows in an attempt to fly, or anything else people were really worried about in those after-school specials…

Fine. Maybe it was my fault this once. Whatever fault that might be…maybe this time I should just own up to it. You win, Chris Cox. We listened to Doves The Last Broadcast this week, and not Iggy and The Stooges Raw Power…you win this time. But you have to admit that I sure do have a tin ear for dialogue. Rest assured I will soon be submitting my “Shitty Re-Enactment Dialogue Resume” to Investigation Discovery…

Buy "The Last Broadcast" Over Yonder Along The Amazon

Coming Up

(for sure this time): Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life.

I never found the 3 Stooges very funny, but a few days ago I was up late and caught a few episodes on AMC and they aren’t half bad..wait, what are you whispering to me over the tubes that make up the internet? —rustling of papers—

Boy is my face red. Different Stooges I guess? I’m being told I’m not supposed to write about the Moe, Larry, Curley shit, but a band that we listened to? Get it together Bartell.

Well it sure seemed to me if you are gonna rub peanut butter all over your chest you might be one step away from doing “The Curly Shuffle”…except the music on this record was a good deal better than “The Curly Shuffle”…and there wasn’t a woo-woo-wooo to be found on it.

"Raw Power" on Amazon

I feel like I want to…NEED TO…say something about how I felt about this album…but Chris Cox has told me that when I am doing these write-ups to keep it in my pants…so I won’t say anything about this record…I might have told you that it is the best god-damned thing I’ve heard in years…that it marries Josh Tillman’s incredible gift for melodies, crazy ass lyrics, and brilliantly over the top production in a way that somehow is even better than his 2012 album “Fear, Fun”. I might have said that listening to it makes me want to run outside, climb on my roof, and yell at the world that the world (at least my neighbors that are probably calling the cops on me already) is seriously losing the heck out if they (the world) haven’t heard this album…but I won’t do that. (Editor’s Note: You have completely failed in your mission, Shane)

Instead, I will say that this week we discuss Father John Misty’s 2015 record “I Love You Honeybear” and we all had opinions.

You Can Get "Honeybear" Here

Coming Up

Doves. The band, not the shit people release at weddings and funerals. Are doves and pigeons like the same thing, just some are white and not homeless? Shut up Shane you are an idiot. See you in a week,

If you had told 17 year old Shane that he would barely even remember who The Darling Buds were 20 years later, I’m sure he would have just tried to get you to buy him beer…

Kevin…or Keving, as I originally wrote (pretty sure that’s his AD&D Paladin character…look, if you people are unhappy with my bullshit “funny-pants” routine then fire me), took the week off because he was busy feeding his family getting a new job and visiting Chicago (that’s the most exciting excuse I could come up with), so we had perennial fave guest Matthew Munoz jump in at the last minute…He suggested we talk about The Darling Buds – Crawdaddy.

It was a solid nostalgic record. Pretty much the consensus was “Oh Yeah! I remember that band!”

Flashback with "Crawdaddy" Over 'Round Amazon

Coming Up

Kevin returns. We listen to music. I try not to get hit in the face cause I act like a 7 year old (Offer still stands, you are welcome to write these things)…To quote Shirley Temple “On the good ship lolly-pop”

“So”, as Kevin Newsum, (and let’s face it, Shane Bartell) is “so” fond of saying, we didn’t record an episode of “Somebody Likes It” last week. Instead Ryan and I recorded this together (not Kevin because he was being a grown-up somewhere, and not Producer Mark because he was…being lazy (I guess?) taking a break from making us idiots sound less like idiots, spending a Tuesday night with his lovely wife and lovely children and not shoved into a garage being a grown-up with “Adult Men” that are, let’s face it, less adult every god-damned week we record this freaking show? Wait, were was I?)

Oh yeah, Ryan and I took a Tuesday night to join Chris and Brian (our podcast overlords) to watch the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton. That was fun. Way more fun than Ryan and I thought the movie wazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….oh wait, just woke up from the nap I was taking during the last hour of this TWO AND A HALF HOUR LONG MOVIE. Can somebody explain to me how you make an AIDS death, the beginning of Gansta Rap, Los Angeles and its crazy racial politics circa 1991, and a jew purportedly stealing money from young black men the snooze fest of the summer? Also, apparently I’m in the wrong here, because in the 2 weeks since we watched Straight Outta Compton it has become the run-away hit of 2015. I guess while I was napping, some other people found time to love this film.

Anyway, our take on this movie is all over at “Highly Suspect Reviews”, and I have to say, after listening to Ryan and I on the show, I truly understand where that title comes from

Now…onto the actual episode…

ASK…and ye shall receive! (borrowed, nay, stolen from Michael Jordan or some other important athlete I’m pretty sure). We finally got around to answering the question, “So, what’s the chance you look up from your collective 4 navels for half a second, and listen to a record that a member of the unwashed masses thinks might be an interesting listen”?

Well what WOULD happen if we hypothetically did that? I’ll tell you what would happen. WE DID IT! Cue the bad-ass music (probably Danger Zone-Kenny Loggins) and insert unrelenting motorcycle revving noises here! We listened to the listener suggested “Stone Roses-Second Coming” with a bona-fide “Stone Roses-Second Coming” fan, and it kicked out the proverbial jams (even if not all of us thought the album kicked out the proverbial jams). So credit where credit is due… Nicholas Collier thanks for poking this particular lazy bear in the ribs. Let’s just say we didn’t all agree on our opinion of it, but we did all agree that Chad Swiatecki is a great guest and we need to get his ass back on our show more often.

Show "Second Coming" Some Love Over on Amazon

Remember the first time you asked yourself “What the fuck is a Wonderwall”? Cause you heard that song by Oasis, and had no idea what the hell Liam Gallagher was yelling about? At one time Wonderwall was a cultural touchstone pretty much on par with the Kennedy Assassination, and the Challenger Explosion, but I feel like we as a country have pretty much forgotten that. And that’s shameful. Shame on us.

Well, as it turns out, Noel Gallagher, the bloke (nailed it) that wrote it, still remembers it. In fact the opening track of Chasing Yesterday the newest release by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, makes sure you know that. Gallagher has never been afraid of “cribbing”, “borrowing” “stealing” melodies and turning them into great new songs, and it’s pretty bad-ass to see him use his proclivities for that type of stuff as he cribs from himself. I’ll spare you my feelings on this record until you listen to this episode (hint:great record) because as Chris Cox (one of the Oneofus.net Godfathers) has told me, if you give the milk away for free, nobody will want to buy the cow. I’m not actually sure that he put it that way, as we were up late drinking at Nomad Bar, but I feel like it was something along those lines. But everybody didn’t agree with my assessment of Chasing Yesterday, so what the hell, have some free milk.

Go Get "Chasing Yesterday" from Amazon Women

A Few Minutes With

Ryan gave us the gift of Aldo Nova’s Fantasy (Life is just a fantasy, can you live this fantasy life?) for our A Few MInutes With segment. It’s an incredibly entertaining mid 80’s video. Let’s just say there are guitars that are also laser guns. AND Aldo Nova is a dude, not a band name?! Also, he co-wrote Blaze of Glory with Jon Bon Jovi.

A Current Affair

Wrapped it up with Kate Tempest rapping about how you can barely get a retail job even with a degree.

Coming Up

We finally do a show based on a listener suggestion! Stone Roses Second Coming. I’ll just suggest that the title’s hubris is just that. Hubris (some more free milk)…See you in 7

I very clearly remember the first time I heard Doo-Wop (That Thing), the single from Lauryn Hill’s break-out solo record from 1999. I was sitting in a car in horrible Portland Oregon rush hour traffic with my room-mate, Mary, and after the song ended we looked at each other, nodding in wordless acknowledgement of how great the song we just heard was. I remember thinking that it sounded like the future of R&B, but as my life was in transition at that time, I never really followed up on exploring that.

16 years later we (by we I mean Me, Ryan and Kevin) sat in a hot garage and discussed why that Lauryn Hill “future of R&B” thing never panned out.

As a side note, can I just say how much more fun it is to do this show in Kevin’s garage when he has a tiny window A/C unit? WOW! Now if we could have kept Ryan from whining about how isn’t the “target market” for this record, it would have been a down-right good time of a night!

Pick Up "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" from Amazon

Coming Up

Mark returns from his New Orleans trip where he was complicit in letting his wife show her students how to create our future robot overlords. Oh, and we talk about Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Till then

The year was 1985. Orwell’s postscript.

Fitting then that a record emerged from a band so maligned originally that they took to stealing sets from opening acts, so full of angst that to this day they try to reposition remnants of tales of violence at early shows, and who then might have known the result. Despite the fact that it kinda sounds like it was recorded in a burned-out warehouse, this record, nevertheless, is the lynchpin between The Velvet Underground and the shoegaze movement of England in the early 90s. Beneath all of the circumstance, buried in the gauzy haze of proto-shoegaze, pop songs and hooks with undeniable charm.

This week we cover a wide variety of topics, like the Brothers Reid, the confluence between bands we can’t seem to separate in our minds, and the stilted, occasionally simplistic takes shared in reviews of records that are, in retrospect, the foundations for entire movements or scenes, not — hey! — unlike this week’s record, The Jesus And Mary Chain offering PsychoCandy.

Buy "PsychoCandy" from Amazon

Also, tune in as we weigh the question of ‘How Deadpan is Deadpan Enough?’ (Answer: we’re not sure), the efficacy of giant drumsticks in our A Few Minutes With segment (starring Hall and Oates), and the hilarious by way of spot-on Mikal Cronin video Turn Around — which lampoons Natalie Imbrulia’s 1997 hit cover of Torn. Confused? Don’t be. Grab the edge of your seat and join us as we wander down (and wonder about) memory lane. Wish that Shane had been able to join us, as I’m certain that he’d have plenty to spill on this one…

This sometimes happens when life intervenes, and if we're being honest there's a lot of that that's been happening lately. Shane's been touring, Mark's been on the road for work (I suppose that's touring too, of sorts), and Ryan and Kevin have been juggling schedules. We figured the perfect antidote to the layoff was a brand new mixtape show, and no better excuse than a re-examination of 2019's best.

Some of the tracks here are to be expected (Billie Eilish is clearly having a moment), and Clairo's more recent work follows her video with 45 million downloads, but we also mixed in some of the Front Bottoms (which gave us occasion to riff on old band names), Soccer Mommy makes an appearance with chops, and who knew The Raconteurs were at it again. Brendon Benson, I suppose.

All in all mixtape shows are a breezy way to get back into things, take the pulse, talk a little current events. And remember why, even if we're lagging, great tracks remain timeless.

So this week Phil came back and we managed not to talk about nasty stuff this time around. In fact, this time around we bandied about the term “Dad-Rock” and whether or not it was a pejorative. Also, we couldn’t remember each other’s names much of the night, making for great confusion.

Oh, I guess I should mention that we talked about Sukierae by Tweedy. The band consists solely of Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) and his son, which is another Dad-rock angle I suppose.

Purchase "Sukierae" on Amazon

Coming Up

Psychocandy by The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Word.

HAHAHAHAHA! Well, don’t get me wrong I had to suffer through it too, but still HAHAHAHAHAHA! This week I picked Styx’s 1983 back-masked classic Kilroy Was Here as my torture device, err, album to listen to. You all remember Killroy Was Here right? It spawned the huge hit Mr. Roboto a song that has aged as well as a yogurt cup left out in the sun. I highly recommend everyone take a listen.

Buy "Kilroy Was Here" on Amazon

A Few Minutes With

This week we did something different for A Few Minutes With. Instead of watching a music video, we watched the 10 minute long mini-movie Styx opened their shows with on the tour supporting Kilroy Was Here. Ok, now obviously I was fucking around when I encouraged you guys to listen to the album, but I AM NOT when I tell you to watch this movie. It is Grade A unintentional humor.

A Current Affair

Ryan picked Do You by Spoon for A Current Affair.

Coming Up

Up Next-We celebrate the return of Dad Kevin with the ultimate Dad album, Sukirae-by father/son duo Tweedy. See you around

“So that’s how it’s gonna be”–Kevin (probably what he is gonna say)

Once upon a time, there were three long time friends that decided to record a very opinionated music oriented podcast. Then one day, “Dad” went on vacation and “Little Brother” and “Other Dude” decided to “fuck shit up”…and “Producer Mark” a.k.a. “The Adult” let them run amok (Thanks Producer Mark, or should I thank your “Cocktails”).

Ok, that is getting tedious. Basically Kevin went on vacation, and Phil Ajjarapu joined Ryan and Mark and myself in a spirited discussion of the Ramone’s third album Rocket to Russia…A fine time was had by all.

Purchase "Rocket To Russia" on Amazon.com

A Few Minutes With & A Current Affair

But then it got a little more “Please tell Mom not to listen to this Episode-y”.

Phil was (kinda) coerced into picking Smell Yo Dick for the video in “A Few Minutes With”…and I had already said I was picking War on Drugs:Suck My Cock by Sun Kil Moon for “A Current Affair”, so all of a sudden it was like taking a corner in a dune buggy and then the dune buggy stalls out and tips over. But just like I would imagine that everyone riding in said buggy would crawl out laughing, so did we (until Chris Cox and Kevin Newsum hear the show).

Coming Up

You will experience the brilliance of Kilroy Was Here by Styx. Do I hear a Mr. Roboto chant building???

Well, that was interesting! Some of you know Kevin took a paternity leave for a few months last winter. After much hand wringing and late night tears, we found an able replacement in the form of one Mark Couvillion. But, after a somewhat truncated vacation from Somebody Likes It (yeah, this show. Same thing), Kevin returned. Ryan and I (and I would like to think Mark) had been having such a fine time together we all wanted to find a way to keep Mark on board without anybody’s toes being stepped on.

See, as good of a job as Kevin had done producing the show prior to his sojourn, Mark not only enjoyed producing the show in his absence, he also didn’t have a new born to contend with. So we asked him to stay on as Producer Mark, and he agreed, and now we all have the finest of times recording the show in Mark’s garage every week. Then he gives us a great show back(at least as far as production values are concerned) and we’re all happy.

The only thing is, even though Mark often has a mic, Ryan, Kevin, and Myself, just completely dominate the conversation and Mark doesn’t get that much time to talk (cause we’re kind of dicks?). So he posited an idea to me a few months ago, and I ran it by “the other guys” and everybody agreed it was a swell plan.

Instead of the way we usually do things, in which we all rotate picking the 3 segments, Mark would take over the show and pick the album, the video in A Few Minutes With and the song for A Current Affair. It was so much fun to just turn it over to him, and be surprised with his ideas. So for your listening pleasure, here is Producer Mark Hijacks the Show…The Who Sell Out is how we start things off.

Purchase "The Who Sell Out" at Amazon

Coming Up

Yeah back to the same old shit after a month and a half of concept ideas. Ryan picked The Ramones Rocket to Russia…If I’m still alive after surviving that Slim Pickens-like ride, I’ll see you in 7.

YEEEHAAAAAAAAAA!!!

“What’s all the fussin’ about Shane?”

-You People

Well, I’ll tell you. We made it. We did it. We didn’t get fired (yet). It’s been a year since we started doing this damn thing, and Ryan even brought in a bottle of bubbly to commemorate the occasion. So in order to celebrate our first 365 days on ONEOFUS.NET we decided to do a supersized mixtape show for you guys.

A mixtape show is pretty much the same as a regular show, only instead of just discussing one album, we all pick videos to surprise each other with, and alternate until no man is left alive. Or something like that.

Also it was supposed to tie in with Memorial Day, but we couldn’t even get our shit together enough to even do that. Regardless, we think it’s a pretty amusing show and we hope you do too.

And now the Players: KEVIN NEWSUM: Bleachers: I Wanna Get Better

Is there anything that Jack Antonoff writes that isn’t anthemic? That
word made a repeat appearance as we discussed this track and its
corresponding video, wherein Antonoff plays an erstwhile therapist who
lives in a terrible apartment building and dates (or did once), a girl
who brought her own lamp over. Whatever happened to toothbrushes?

Old Dirty Bastard: Shimmy Shimmy Ya

One of the miracles of the internet that has since broken out is the
marrying of ODB’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya (also seen in the opening scene of
Knocked Up) to video of Dr. Teeth from The Muppets. It’s remarkable,
and if you’ve not seen it go find the internet (oh, you’re here
already!) and view. Beyond that, this was my take on soundtracking the
Hip Hop Pool Party. Perfect for those who like it raw, whatever that
means.

Fatboy Slim: Weapon Of Choice

You could make the argument that Norman Cook’s Weapon Of Choice here
is a uniquely charismatic Christopher Walken. When this video hit the
airwaves back in the day, seeing Walken’s giant forehead out of
character, instead of reflecting his formal dance training, turned
heads. We also talk about how Norman Cook / Fatboy Slim was once in
the Housemartins, which some found surprising.

## RYAN NEWSUM ## George Clinton: Atomic Dog

Clinton, of Parliament/Funkadelic fame, brought us this genius nugget
of 8-bit (seriously, check out the video) wonder, Atomic Dog. Better
known now for the legions (lesions?) of samples it spawned, this song
nevertheless brought funk to the ‘burbs. Soundtrack to the time I
totally “frenched” a girl next to a Joust video game when I was 11.

Cheap Trick: She’s Tight

This was my jam when I was hitting up my local skating rink as a
fifth-grader. I distinctly recall requesting it from the (probably
17-year-old) DJ, and his reply, “Aren’t you a little young for that?”
Yes, yes I was, because I had absolutely no idea that “She’s Tight”
had a sexual connotation. Not so subtle on the video, though. Proud
that Cheap Trick was my first for-real concert experience, even if it
was at Astroworld.

Gene: Olympian

Ah yes, Gene. Not Morrissey. I repeat, not Morrissey. Totally picked
this song because Shane is such a Smiths/Morrissey geek that I knew
I’d get an intriguing reaction, and sure enough, he didn’t disappoint.
Totally solid song, and this band would so totally not exist were it
not for Morrissey/Marr, et al.

## SHANE BARTELL ## Falco:Rock Me Amadeus

Well I went with a theme this time, starting with a video in the 80’s,
continuing through to the 90’s, and Aughts. First up, I just thought
everybody needed to be reminded of the genius that is(was) Falco.
Well, this is FUCKING genius. However there was never a proper video
releases with English lyrics (or we sure as shit couldn’t find one) so
we bounced around a few. All worth the effort of finding on-line. The
same thing can be said, nay, SHOUTED AT THE TOP OF ONE’S LUNGS about…

Chavez: Break Up Your Band

which is my favorite video of the 90’s. It just can’t be explained.
Much the same as…

Britney Spears:Toxic

Very confusing. Still holds up in the lascivious eye candy department
though.

### Coming Up ### OK! Hope you guys enjoy this show, we certainly enjoyed making it. Next time another curve ball…Mark Couvillion (producer Mark) hijacks our show and picks all the music we have to listen to. Until then…

And now, the end is near.

And so we face the final curtain…

Well we did it. It was daunting at times. It was a (TINY) mountain we climbed, aided by little else but Ryan’s beef jerky supplies and Mark’s generous supply of and generous gift of various whiskies. We set out to achieve a goal and we did it. WE…DID…IT. All the naysayers accusing us of laziness (me) can just go bite a pillow, cause we did it. We finished our 3 week long exploration of albums we hadn’t discussed before that were produced by bands we had. It was pretty damn monumental in the scheme of things.

This week we listened to Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys, and this time there was barely even any discussion about how they were yelling at Ryan…

Check your own head over at Amazon

### Coming Up ### Up next is the very timely EXTRA SUPER AMAZING LARGE BIG-TIME MEMORIAL DAY MIXTAPE SHOW. Next time we do a holiday mixtape show maybe we’ll get our asses in gear in time to record said show close enough to post it even remotely close to said holiday.

Let’s rock out in 7…

WEEEEEEEK TWWWWWOOOOOOO!!! of our super exciting (super lazy?) idea to revisit bands we’ve previously reviewed. This week it’s my pick, Pavement’s Brighten the Corners, proving that I’m extra lazy as I just picked another record off of Matador’s mid-90’s roster. It was fun to compare Pavement and Yo La Tengo! Well, not exactly “compare” as much as not even compare them at all.

Get "Brighten the Corners" on Amazon

### Coming Up ### We’ll do this again next week with Check Your Head; the 1991 Beastie Boys ode to psychedelia. Long time listeners will know that way back when the second album we discussed was Paul’s Boutique. All of which will dump us in the lap of the **SUPER HUGE MEMORIAL DAY MIXTAPE SHOW**. Which will end up on the web like 2 weeks after Memorial Day, so go figure.

Toodles.

Well it’s week one of “Let’s re-visit other albums by bands we’ve discussed before”. Cause you know, we’re are lazy and unimaginative. Or to take the party line, we want to go back and see other sides of bands we’ve talked about before. We’ll do this for a few more weeks, all leading up to our first GIANT MEMORIAL DAY MIXTAPE SHOW.

One thing I’ve discovered is that Yo La Tengo leads to a somewhat sedate show. Let’s see what you guys think.

Buy "Painful" from Amazon

### Coming Up ### We continue our trip down memory lane (as well as Matador Records circa the mid 90’s) with a spin of Brighten The Corners by Pavement.

Kevin keeps getting ideas. This week, he suggested that in honor of The Moontower Comedy Festival, an event here in Austin that draws comedians from all over, we listen to (then discuss) another comedy album. Some of you may remember that when Kevin wrapped up his paternity leave a few months ago, for his comeback record he chose a Dimitri Martin record, which while fun, was a little challenging to discuss.

This time around he picked Whiskey Icarus by Kyle Kinane and we had REAL LIFE COMEDIAN(and friend of Kyle’s) JT Habersaat on the show to help us out. That proved to be a great idea and I think you guys will agree.

For A Few Minutes With I chose the R&B classic Everyready Man (“just call me 24 hour Dan”) from Lakeside, and then Ryan had us watch a video in which a cute high woman wanders around in search of an Egg Mcmuffin which pretty much sums up the video for Stoned and Starving by Parquet Courts.

All right then. What’s up next? Oh yeah, the next 3 weeks we are gonna re-visit bands we’ve talked about before, each one of us picking a different album to discuss. Next time it’ll be Painful by Yo La Tengo (that’s a Spanish word, that’s why it sounds weird). Catch you later,

This week we crack the 50’s with Frank Sinatra’s ode to lost love In the Wee Small Hours. As I suspected going in, it was way too easy to get caught up in the myth of Frank Sinatra, and it took a lot of concentration to stay on task and discuss the actual album. But let me tell you, we did it. We got it done. I think you would have expected nothing less than the literal and minimal accomplishment of what we are supposed to do.

### Coming Up ### We steer back into comedy in celebration of The Moontower Comedy Festival, and we have JT Habersaat a REAL LIFE COMEDIAN sit in with us as we discuss Kyle Kinane’s Whiskey Icarus while we drink REAL LIFE WHISKEY. So yeah, should be fun.

It can be difficult to recall on occasion that Willie Nelson is more than just the proverbial Kevin Bacon of country music: true, he's recorded with everyone, true, he's become revered beyond his wildest dreams among a large swath of the American music loving public, and true, he once managed to wrangle his way out of trouble with the IRS, in part, by cutting some Doritos commercials. It's been a weird ride.

 

But there was a time when he found himself at the crossroads to a great enough extent that he laid down in the street in hopes that he might not get up again. This was more than the act of a man who wrote Patsy Cline's breakout hit "Crazy." It was, at the time, an act of desperation.

 

And how delightful it must have felt, then, years later, when he worked his industry position into an album delivered the way that he wanted it, on his terms. He delivered something Nashville brass had no concept might work: a stripped down, road weary tale of a man looking for answers is a world that kept them just out of reach.

 

In the end, the audience had the final say. Let's unspool what all the fuss was about.

This week, we spend some time getting to know chaos. Both in the body of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell, and in Mark’s garage. Both an existential and recorded. But damn, sometimes I think you need to unravel a little bit so you can feel alive! Sometimes you need to stare into a yawning chasm in order to appreciate feeling alive. I should know, cause I felt a little more alive after recording this week’s show.

### A Few Minutes With ### Also, there’s some Blink 182 and Sarah Jaffe. ### Coming Up ### The Chairman stops by. We review “In the Wee Small Hours” by Frank Sinatra. We’ll finally get into the 1950’s. So don’t miss that shit. Laterz…

Courtney Barnett sure is blowing up these days, so of course we had to jump on board, ’cause you know us. Hell, we even listened to a Taylor Swift song during A Current Affair this week. Not that I’m comparing Taylor Swift and Courtney Barnett, Barnett is Australian for goodness sakes! Oh, and they sounds nothing alike. If I were to compare their similarities I would say it’s kind of like comparing Slayer and The Smiths. So, kind of soundalikes, but also not at all. Lots of people throw around Bob Dylan comparisons when they are talking about Courtney Barnett and Ryan is one of those people.

### Coming Up ### Next week Ryan is bringing in a guest and we’ll discuss The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and their first full length, Fever to Tell. We’ll reconvene here so I can tell you all about it.

I’ve been told by Chris Cox to try and stay away from discussing how we felt about any albums when I write these things. But I’m gonna make a slight exception in this case. I got a text from Ryan a few days before I had listened to All The Right Reasons by Canadian powerhouse Nickleback. He informed me he was currently listening to “All The Right Reasons” by Nickleback, and it “wasn’t as bad” as he had expected it to be. So, going in, I was expecting something not as bad as I had feared. Well, let me tell you, I now consider Ryan to be a dirty liar and/or a masochistic sociopath.

But having said that, the record is NOWHERE close to the awfulness that is Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf (I can’t imagine anything that is), and I think we actually have a quite measured and introspective (as introspective as you can get discussing fucking Nickleback) discussion of All the Right Reasons.

### A Few Minutes With ### Ryan brought us a gem from the 90’s. Precision Auto by indie darlings Superchunk, and Kevin told us about the time he saw a band of triangle players, or something along those lines…after which he had us watch Red Rollerskates by The Brunettes, and it is pretty damn great. ### Coming Up ### Next week? We’ll be playing musical garages again, and we’ll talk about current indie darling Courtney Barnett. Until then,