Here’s a tightened, smoother version:
Once Every Two Weeks heads back to Tampa for part two of its deep dive into Mighty Joe Plum and their cult‑classic album, The Happiest Dogs—this time without guests, but with even more stories, memories, and unapologetic track‑by‑track nerding out.
Mark and Thom start with life updates and live‑show war stories: canceled Bush plans, road trips to Oklahoma, and nights out with Sponge, Local H, Everclear, Counting Crows, and Gaslight Anthem—with plenty of opinions on which aging bands have aged well, and which absolutely have not. That conversation about getting older on stage becomes the framework for the whole episode.
From there, they return to Mighty Joe Plum: Florida kids who turned youth‑group friendships into a major‑label deal and a regional hit, only to end up as one of the ’90s great “almost lost” bands. They trace the band’s path through Orlando station WJRR, producer Justin Niebank, a sound that was “just rock” with a subtle twang, and a history that somehow barely exists online—making this podcast an accidental archive for The Happiest Dogs.
Most of the episode is a deep musical dive. Mark and Thom walk through the record song by song, highlighting Brett Williams’ vivid but economical lyrics, his shifting vocal delivery, and the way the band quietly bends standard verse–chorus structures into something more interesting. From the opener “Irish” through “Borderline,” “I Fell In,” “Miss Hollywood,” “Stupid,” “Go Now,” “Sweet Orange Marmalade,” “Lumberjack,” and “Please Hear Me,” they talk textures, hooks, and the emotional weight behind deceptively simple lines.
They give special focus to the single “Live Through This (Fifteen Stories),” which reached number six on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and turned an unlikely image—an ant’s resilience—into a surprisingly hopeful rock anthem. Along the way they dig up old reviews, stray blog posts, and even a relic of a band website, laughing at odd U2 comparisons while insisting the song has genuinely held up.
In the final stretch, they look at what came after: members moving into new projects, Mark Mercado’s later work in A&R, Brett’s unfinished Peddling Home material, and how one guest vocal with Jeff (as Horace Holloway) now feels like an “unofficial final” Mighty Joe Plum track. They each name their top three songs from The Happiest Dogs (with “Live Through This (Fifteen Stories)” at number one for both) and invite listeners to queue up the whole album, share their own memories, and argue with their picks—because on Once Every Two Weeks, the nostalgia is real, the music matters, and the conversation is the best part.
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