Ultimate Catalogue Clash

“Give me my Romeo, and, when I shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night, anyway, what you gonna do about it….?” This is part of Juliet’s monologue in act 3, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which premiered in 1597, as abridged by Mark Knopfler, 383 years later, in 1980. Will Corey dig the...

The pace finally picks up for Corey as we're reminded of the Sultans. We head back to London for a walk down the market streets and we get to use the word "circumnavigation". Will Kev have any issues with cake mixture? Will Corey have heard of the Cutty Sark and will he care at all about it if he hasn't? The only way to find out is to turn on, tune in, and turn up for the boots now... Songs c...

Shit's about to get weird! Like, Buffalo Bill weird. Not "Hmm, that's a little strange". I mean, just look at the title of track three! Knopfler's journalist trilogy is broken up by one the most menacing songs ever recorded, but what will Corey think of it? This is an album that Kev knows the least from the first five records, so will he be as keen on it as he was the debut? Will Corey conoquer hi...

This week's episode kicks off with a tent pole song in the history of rock n roll. One of two such songs in this catalogue! When an awkward looking fella wearing a headband gets up and starts playing Chet Atkins style guitar in the era of punk and heavy metal, how in the green shit is that going to be received? Only four songs in this week's episode and it's the London quadrilogy. Will Kev be take...

What is a Knopfler? How does one Knopfle? Does one need any special equipment to do it? Are there any qualifications required??? Look, this is an avenue of inquiry that needs to be explored, but perhaps now is not the time. We're kicking off this season with plenty of guitar brililance and some low-key vocal performances. We're also getting a little shit-kicky and twangy here and there. Kev brough...

All the late night bargains have been struck Between the satin beaus and their belles Prehistoric garbage trucks Have the city to themselves Year Two, Season Four. It's time to take side step from the heavier stuff and get into the colours and shapes that Mark Knopfler and the rest of Dire Straits bring to the musical landscape. Five albums in seven years and then a six year gap until their final...

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” - Thus spake the Bard, William Shakespeare, but I wouldn’t pay too much attention to old Bill, he couldn’t even spell his own name properly, so quite why we should listen to any of his opinions about Foo Fighters’ 2006 Live album Skin and Bones is quite beyond me! For this final, bonus, episode in Season Three, we'...

The late great Stephen Hawking once said “I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.” Well Steve, some say that it’s yet to appear on this podcast, but tonight, we have a third party who might bring the intelligence quotient up. We're joined once again by our good pal; author, songwriter, musician, and...

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once ruminated that "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." Also, no Foo Fighter ever steps foot in the same studio twice during the making of their eighth studio album, Sonic Highways, for they are not in the same city and it is not the same song! This week we're off to Joshua Tree, New Orleans, S...

“He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD. A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.” And that’s according to mythical nutcase Moses who had a very famous temper and a pretty good knack for portage! The Foos are hitting t...

The brilliant Stephen Hawking once said “The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.” So essentially, what he is saying is that the long an artist’s career goes on, the more it degrades until finally, you find yourself recording country albums and doing duets with someone called Jellyroll. Good point that Steve. Great observation!...

Legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas once opined that “When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.” And maybe this was the inspiration for the lead off track from 2011’s Wasting Light, which I’m sure Corey has researched extensively before tonight’s recording, given his love of Welsh poetry and Welsh culture in general… We get shouty Dave, melodic Dave, and wistful Dave, all on the...

It's plenty of firsts this week. The first Foo Fighters' instrumental, Dave's first piano song, and the first time we hear accordion on a Foo's song! We also get guitar solos on half the songs as Shifty takes centre stage. Is Dave finally stepping away from his habit of repeating a single line? Will side two live up to side one for Kev? Will Corey get tangled up in the clarity of Dave's lyrics? Th...

In Stranger Things, Jonathan Byers posits “You shouldn't like things because people tell you you're supposed to.” Well, I tend to agree, unless it’s your mom telling you you’re really gonna like this new song by the Foo Fighters that she’s been listening to… This is the album that was Kev's introduction to the Foo Fighters and Corey only knows three songs from it. Is the balance of acoustic and ro...

14th-century English philosopher and theologian William of Ockham’s famous philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both theories have equal explanatory power one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions. But what hypothesis would Big Bad Bill have about why Kevin is so crap at our Ultimate Catalogue Clash si...

The late, great Audrey Hepburn once said “I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles. Especially when they’re included on rock n roll albums from the m...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of In Your Honor. We're including the UK/Japan/Vinyl/iTunes bonus track for this episode, so we're not ending with End Over End. So, despite all our complaining about natural end points, we're blowing right on by this one, but hey, we saw the sign! It opened up .... Corey's already told me off for using that lyric so I won't repeat it. Will Kevin be a...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side A of In Your Honor. A double album? Two sides of charged up heavy rock and two sides of acoustic numbers? What the hell is this? A reverse Bob Dylan? Joking aside, this monumentally ambitious project could have been a disaster of epic proportions, but In Your Honor comes blistering out of the blocks with six songs that tear along at a breakneck pace. Wil...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of One By One. The writing and recording of this album was a train wreck and it's been largely disavowed by everyone involved in the years since, but then again, Dave Grohl once said that Learn to Fly was his least favourite song on an album that also contains Live-In Skin, so what the hell does that guy know? Will Brian May's presence on the opening t...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side A of One By One. "Hey Dave, the opening track from the last album was a bit of a banger, I bet you can't write anything as strong to open this record..." "Hold my beer and bring me a FRESH POTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!" This week's album side explodes out of the gate and contains two of the biggest live tracks in the Foos catalogue. Could this one be Kev's highest-r...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of There is Nothing Left To Lose. You know what makes a good meal? A variety of flavours. A little sweet, a little savoury, perhaps a little sour, and dare we say, a little umami? Yes, we dare; "umami". We get into the weeds a little about sequencing and whether or not Dave's decision to move to a basement in Virginia impacted side two of the album mor...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side one of There is Nothing Left To Lose. How to follow up a massive album like The Colour and the Shape? Well, you could hire the best hotshot producer in the world and head over to the best recording studio money can rent. Or maybe, just maybe, you could buy a house in Virginia and convert the basement into a studio and hang out with your two bandmates and cr...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side two of “The Colour and the Shape”, the record that established them as a band to pay attention to. We get another one of the giants of the Foos catalogue, possibly the biggest of them all. We talk about bouncing crowds, whether songs that sound like they belong on the debut album, and how long is long enough! Will Kevin give any song on this record a perfec...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side one of the Foo Fighters breakout 1997 album, “The Colour and the Shape”! In comes Nate Mendel and Pat Smear, out go all the cows! Although there is a dearth of bovine activity, there are monkeys, dolls, and manimals! So there’s that to look forward to! What will Kevin make of the sequencing of this album and will Corey have enough fresh pots to get him thro...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side two of the debut Foo Fighters album featuring a Whole Lotta Grohl! After an uninspiring start to the season, Corey is starting to worry about what the rest of the season might hold on the albums he’s less familiar with. Kevin is much more concerned about the state of his moat but that just shows how focussed he is on the show! Will the boys be more ecstatic...