Beyond Radio Presents

Wow this episode has a lot of stuff going on in it. We first explore the world of the song of the summer and an emerging trend associated with it. It is certainly adding an interesting wrinkle to the Pop universe. A viral video becomes part of that conversation, as does a wee bit of political commentary. Next up, an artist up for Best New Artist at next year's Grammys who has been plugging away fo...

This episode is nostalgia centric though it does stem from a fun summer story. There are lots of movie and television references in the episode as well. From the title, the Maureen McGovern song The Morning After leads us down a movie path and towards one of my favorite shows of all-time. Plus a group with a cheesy '70s instrumental has ties to the early days of hip hop. We move to the Carpenters...

This is the first of 3 episodes focusing on a few music-oriented stories from this past summer. The first episode talks about things from my 40th annual music party (the Castlist 002 episodes from the fall of 2018 talk about the #1's at the parties). It was a great party, the weather cooperated and there were a few key moments that I talked about in the episode. Here I am posting the top 50 songs...

This is the inaugural episode of our artist interview podcast (a two-parter). The title, 8Trax, harkens back to the era of the 8 Track tapes and indicates that 8 main songs will be discussed. The interview style is set up as follows. The artist brings 3 of their lesser-known songs that they love to the table and I do the same. The conversation moves through the stories of these songs and of course...

This is the inaugural episode of our artist interview podcast (a two-parter). The title, 8Trax, harkens back to the era of the 8 Track tapes and indicates that 8 main songs will be discussed. The interview style is set up as follows. The artist brings 3 of their lesser-known songs that they love to the table and I do the same. The conversation moves through the stories of these songs and of course...

This is a non-music related episode that was the beginning of a conversation that will be out later this summer. It's a bit of a therapy session with my new friends from Manic Bloom (though they feel like old friends). It was just what I needed today to get me back in the game.

We continue to explore the bridges in songs and start in a really fun place. Jeff's memory of the first song leads to a find in my music studio just to the left of where I was sitting. As we move along a number of my all-time favorites are explored, to varying affects on Jeff. As it should be. 

This is a slightly updated version of the podcast originally posted in April 2020. One of my faves. Lots of laugh and definitely emotional for me. We start by exploring Guster, past and present (and some meows for good measure) and then move into some of my favorite songs of all time. One of those I only discovered this past fall and I tear up also every time I hear it.   And what episode would be...

This is the full conversation that portions were taken from for Castlist 10, Ep 4. The song certainly was impactful on David, Jeff, and Andy.

As the title suggests we start to explore the bridges in songs and this leads to a '70s band popping up again, a ghost singer (?), a '90s music magazine trend, and 2 of my favorite albums of all-time. I test Jeff's memory (some things click, others don't) and we end with an intense vocalist whose legacy is tragic on more than one level. Oh and a guest appearance by a couple of members of Manic Blo...

This was the most gorgeous conversation with one of my favorite bands. If you haven't listened to the 2 part episode featuring the band ( episodes 5 and 6 of Castlist 009) this is a great introduction. It is a wonderful music therapy session filled with talk of the struggles bands go through, the triumph of brotherhood, and how spirituality and humanity bond us together. A truly special Moment and...

This episode starts with the flow-through between Queen's "Death On Two Legs" and Manic Bloom's "Push Off The Ground", a bit of a recap of the prior Manic Bloom songs we spoke about and the reveal of the connection to Wilder Woods from the last episode.   We talk about the upcoming interview and Jeff had a great line "and it's not their fault they make great music".   The jump to the next artist l...

The next 3 episodes are inter-related and create an arc that has become something I had not necessarily intended. The original premise and core of the episodes is to take songs from one of my favorite lesser known bands of the last 15 years and revealing what I feel are influences on the band. These influences include some of the biggest bands in the last 50 years.   This episode starts with a pro...

This is a long episode but has 3 sections so easy to take a break between sections. The first section is a followup to our Hopeful Boy Pop episode where we re-visit previous artists and songs discussed while bringing in some new stuff as well. Through it we stumble upon a new trend, the sped up or slowed down versions of songs.   Section 2 highlights  a number of songs from 1972 that have had grea...

In this episode I compare one of the biggest songs on my personal chart this year to the original version that was out in 2021. The contrast between the 2 versions is sharp. The discussion goes to songs that could take over at the top spot, some previous chart toppers and songs that missed because of the impact of that song. We had a lot of fun with the song that ends up dethroning the 8 week cham...

In this episode I present new songs to Jeff from artists he has enjoyed in the past, hoping they click with him. In the process it becomes evident that there is connective tissue between the selections that comes about through the research and the music angels that are always watching over me.

We veer out of Castlist 008 for a handful of episodes that hinge on recent developments. In this first episode I follow up on the concert that Jeff was going to see the last time we talked. Initailly I was going to I relate 2 other songs to the band Superorganism and we end up on a tangent right away, talking about the Swedish band Ghost. As is typical,  unexpected narratives develop and a project...

In this episode we look back at my 39th Annual Music Party that happened at the end of June. It had been a long time since Jeff & his wife Jen were both at the party. We look back at the best songs of 21/22 and 1982 according to the participants. They did choose songs for the 1982 list but not the current year so I let Jeff know how the songs I know he liked from the past year might have affected...

This episode is the full interview I had with Daniel Blair and his production partner Jackson Harbour. We had a blast.

This was such a fun episode. It was supposed to be the beginning of an episode that recaps this summer's music party but it became an entity unto itself.   I present a number of songs that have impacted Pop radio in the States in recent months to Jeff, exploring a trend that I am seeing develop. Inadvertently, as is often the case, I am led to an artist that I did not know would fit the narrative,...

This is an artist-centric episode though as has been typical lately, I have a song for Jeff to hear for the first time before we get into things, Stories about my Mom and my Dad fit nicely into the narrative. A couple of perennial favorites from past episodes show up in the discussion and we get an idea of 2 artists Jeff is not quite fond of.

In the final discussion of our boy band arc of episodes there is actually a lot to unpack. New music from 5 Seconds of Summer and Harry Styles. How All Time Low found their biggest success 15 years into their career (and a wonderful coincidence that follows it). A boy band that has a connection to Kanye West and finally how the Jonas Brothers tie into a lot of nostalgia about Billboard's Hot 100....

After a 2 month hiatus the cliffhanger is finally revealed. We really only focus on 2 bands in this episode but talk about influences, paying homage and sampling. We try to pinpoint the origin of something Jeff can't get out of his head, talk about college and in the end have to push off the continuation of the discussion to the next episode. This time, however, the follow up episode will come out...

As the boy band discussion continues we talk about a popular pop punk band of the aughts, an obscure band from Southern California and Boys who like Girls from Massachusetts.  The mood shifts towards the end of the episode and we get a little '80s nostalgia thrown in.

In this episode, we explore 2 bands of the second British Invasion, Duran Duran and Wham which leads into a great story about "I'm Too Sexy". I torture Jeff with a Pop-Gospel-ish song that segues into a discussion about svengali boy band producers (well at least one of them was) and the R&B style of the late '80s and early '90s, New Jack Swing. The episode ends with a call and an unlikely source o...