Black Band T-Shirt

Got me a ranking, I want you to know! Slicing up albums, I want you to know! Chris and Ollie take on Pixies’ Beneath The Eyrie, Surfer Rosa and Doolittle in this part, no mean feat! We also do our The Nicher The Better Top 5 songs one could have seen at Reading 2005, which is the first time the chaps saw Pixies and Chris’ first festival! We are on Twitter as a podcast @BBTS_pod, let us know how of...

The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back with episode 41, where Chris and Ollie are guestless and covering Boston indie rock titans Pixies! In this part, we cover Bossanova, 2022’s Doggerel, Indie Cindy, Head Carrier and Trompe Le Monde, talking about the key differences between pre- and post- reunion Pixies and how they changed the musical landscape of this (and last) century. All of our favourite t...

How does it feel? The weight of the steel, the rank of the blade. We round off our ranking of Massive Attack alongside Josie Perkins by covering 100th Window and Heligoland, plus more jokes about how 3D is definitely, definitely not Banksy. We are on Twitter as a podcast as @BBTS_pod, come at us with your opinions on Massive Attack, or your opinions on our next subject, as we take on alt-rock tita...

Like an album without a rank, and a poddy without a cast, you’re listening every part. Black Band T-Shirt are back for 2023, and we’re taking on Massive Attack with Josie Perkins in tow! On this part we cover Blue Lines, Protection and Mezzanine - it’s the 90s, Ollie loves it!  All our favourite tracks and our shoutouts will be added to our frankly unwieldy Spotify Rank Bank playlist, alongsi...

Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for - two white men in their mid 30s recounting their favourite albums of the year! We count down our (unranked) 20-11, go through some other 2022 highlights and do the big top 10 - if nothing else, hopefully you’ll come away from this with something new to listen to and enjoy, the entire point of this podcast ☺️ we’re just giving, lovely people like...

Christmas Time, don’t let the ranks end! Merry Christmas everyone, for our festive episode we decided to rank the 7 albums of Suffolk hard rockers The Darkness - we had no idea they had that many either. We go through all of them in less than an hour here, which gives you an idea of the quality level of everything after Permission To Land… All of our top tracks will be added to our Spotify Rank Ba...

Westwards the tide, ranked by the talismen! We (finally) finish off Iron Maiden on this part, going through our thoughts on A Matter of Life and Death, The Final Frontier, The Book of Souls and Senjutsu, rounding off with our overall Iron Maiden ranking and our guest Jack Kirby-Lowe’s top 10 Iron Maiden songs! We also do our The Nicher The Better Top 5 songs featuring elements/chemical symbols and...

Ranking doooown, ranking doooown, ranking do-how-ha-howwwwwn! The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back with Jack Kirby-Lowe to rank the latter days of Iron Maiden! Scream for me, podcasters! On this part we take on the Blaze Bayley era of The X Factor & Virtual XI, and their initial reunion with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith on Brave New World and Dance of Death. All of our favourite tracks, o...

The ranker the berry, the sweeter the pod! We continue our ranking of Ollie’s hip-hop Mount Rushmore member Kendrick Lamar, as in this part we take on Mr Morale and the Big Steppers and To Pimp A Butterfly, and TPAB offcuts record untitled. unmastered. We also do our The Nicher The Better top 5 on our favourite songs performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, and our usual shoutouts at the end. Th...

Good kids enter r. A.A.n.k City as the Black Band T-Shirt chaps take on the almighty Kendrick Lamar! A special treat for our second anniversary as a podcast, in this part Section 80, Damn. and Good Kid, m. A.A.d City go under the microscope, and we also go into his pre-début mixtape Overly Dedicated and the Black Panther soundtrack album. All of our favourite cuts from each album, our The Nicher,...

If that rank gonna go on any longer, gonna wash up on the shore… Isn’t it lovely to say there is a new Mars Volta album in the world? We take on TMV going “pop” on their first album in 10 years, and see where it fits into our ranking that we only established about a month ago! We can be found on Twitter @BBTS_pod. Our personal accounts are @olliexcore (Ollie) and @cmgrumps (Chris). Our band My Eye...

My rankcestress’ clock is ticking… The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back with a double Revisited, taking on Björk’s Fossora first. We talk about Björk’s war on choruses and her (as ever) unique take on familial grief, and see where it fits into our ranking. Our favourite tracks will be added to our Spotify Rank Bank playlist shortly after release, nestling in amongst the same from all our other ep...

Sing my loves, sing sorrows! Sing my enemies, we will all rank together! We’re still with Mr Vallely ranking the albums of Cave In, going from White Silence to 2022’s Heavy Pendulum and Ollie going HAM on our The Nicher The Better top 5 songs with witch-adjacent terms in the title, along with our usual shoutouts. Do come at us on @BBTS_pod on Twitter with your Cave In takes, or your contributions...

True rankings in joy, opposites always is the case, when you only enjoy, ranking all of the albums that surround you! We welcome back Adam Vallely, our partner in ranking for the Queens of the Stone Age episode, to rank the albums of Massachusetts post-hardcore legends Cave In! On this part we go from début full length Until Your Heart Stops through to Perfect Pitch Black, including some super spi...

Sweet dreams of rankingness! The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back with the Canadian post-hardcore legends Alexisonfire, upgrading them from last spring’s top 5 songs episode to a full ranking, following the recent release of their fifth album Otherness! We go through their 2022 effort and see where it fits into our order of the Alexis discog to date, and find a record we may not be talking about...

Someone come and, someone come and rank my life! The Black Band T-Shirt boys round off their City and Colour ranking by covering Bring Me Your Love (not To Bring You My Love Ollie, you idiot) and Little Hell. Our The Nicher The Better on this episode is top 5 songs from albums shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and our usual shoutouts at the end!  Follow the pod on Twitter @BBTS_pod to...

…And my heart, held in your hands, screaming, RANK ME! The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back, ranking the albums of Dallas Green of Alexisonfire’s other band, City and Colour! Hurry and the Harm, Sometimes, A Pill For Loneliness and If I Should Go Before You are covered on this part, along with a quick visit to Dallas’ collaboration record with P!nk, You+Me! All of our top tracks, our The Nicher T...

Can I play with rankings?! The Black Band T-Shirt chaps, alongside Jack Kirby-Lowe, finish off their chat about the early years of Iron Maiden, from Powerslave to Fear of the Dark. Jack also takes us through some of his highlights from Bruce Dickinson’s solo career, and we have a contribution from Chris and Ollie’s pal/Chris’ teenage bandmate, Arkady English! We also have our usual shoutouts at th...

Rank to the hills! (Dum-dada-tiss, dum dada-tiss) Rank for your liiiiiiiiiiives! The Black Band T-Shirt boys have finally got to the epitome of their podcast name - the fans of Iron Maiden bloody love their black band t-shirts! Chris and Ollie are joined by comic book writer and sci-fi novel podcaster Jack Kirby-Lowe, who discusses his love of the early years of Iron Maiden with full heart eyes em...

You won’t rank my soul! A quick turnaround as the Black Band T-Shirt boys return to Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, as we cover her new record Renaissance. We cover the controversies first of all, but ultimately celebrate this excellent and (importantly for Chris) not grotty record. We’ll be back with a full episode next time as we begin our Iron Maiden journey alongside our pal Jack Kirby-Lowe - come at...

Maybe we weren’t made for each other, and I’m just the one you can rank around! Back with another Revisited double bill, the Black Band T-Shirt boys welcome Rob Barbour back onto the pod to cover Coheed and Cambria’s latest opus Vaxis II: Window Of The Waking Mind! We discuss Space Idris, Digitech guitar pedals and Wife Guy Claudio amongst other things, as we see where it fits into our Coheed rank...

The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back from Arctangent 2022 and ready to review it, and oh gosh do we go in hard on our first outdoor festival together in 3 years. We would apologise for length, but you’re probably used to it by now (title of your…) Before that though, we go through our top 5 songs by Watford djent originators (oridjenators?) SikTh. We pick our best from their 3 studio albums and v...

Exoskeletal junction at the ranking delayed! We continue our chat on all things Mars Volta by covering the magnificent Frances The Mute and De-Loused in the Comatorium, plus our The Nicher The Better Top 5 songs from albums with covers by Storm Thorgerson, and our usual shoutouts at the end. Our Spotify Rank Bank playlist will be updated shortly after release with all our favourite cuts; standing...

Maybe I’ll rank down! The Black Band T-Shirt chaps are back, ranking the (at this stage) 6 albums of prog gods The Mars Volta! On this part we get into Noctorniquet, Octahedron, The Bedlam in Goliath & Amputechture, plus some chat on the Tremulant EP and the Scabdates live album! Chris is on Twitter @cmgrumps and Ollie is on @olliexcore. Our band My Eyes Are Old and Bent can be found on Facebo...

Now we’ve come, to the eeend of the raaank! We finally finish off our Manics ranking by covering Journal for Plague Lovers, Rewind The Film, Postcards From A Young Man, Futurology, Resistance is Futile and The Ultra Vivid Lament! Phew! We also do our The Nicher The Better Top 5s on songs with saints in the name and our usual shoutouts at the end. Give us a follow on @BBTS_pod to share any opinions...