Brother Brother Brother

It’s day two of the tournament. Let the games begin. Here are the Region 3 matchups of the Round of 64. The Byrds vs. Queens of the Stone Age The Replacements vs. Devo Big Star vs. Motley Crue The Doors vs. Pavement Van Halen vs. Interpol The Cars vs. Red Hot Chili Peppers The Stooges vs. My Morning Jacket Blondie vs. Yo La Tengo As you watch your bracket slowly get destroyed, here are a few songs...

The play-ins are over. The bracket is set. Let the Greatest American Band Bracket begin. In the first round, anything can happen. Here are the Region 2 matchups of the Round of 64. Lynyrd Skynyrd vs. Jefferson Airplane X vs. Sonic Youth Earth Wind & Fire vs. Weezer REM vs. Green Day Grateful Dead vs. Wilco Sublime vs. Flaming Lips The Strokes vs. Spoon Journey vs. Pixies As you watch your bracket...

https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod/playlist/2vYa4LiXg62UmjuAeXVw46

Welcome to the play-in matchups of the Greatest American Band Bracket, the first round of competition in which eight American bands compete for four coveted slots in the bracket. The winners of these matchups will square off against the #1 seeds of the tournament: The Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Byrds, and The Velvet Underground. The matchups are as follows: Titus Andronicus vs. New York Dolls...

Let the games begin. For basketball fans, today marks the beginning of the NCAA Tournament. For music fans, it’s the beginning of the Greatest American Band Bracket, a month-long competition where we pit America’s best bands against each other in a March Madness style tournament to decide once and for all... the best American band of all time. Ever. In this Selection Sunday bonus episode, we’re br...

In this episode, Wyndham and Christian pay tribute to their roots, discussing the musical mosaic that came from two places they once called home. It’s a wide-ranging analysis that spans hardcore punk, hip hop, country, bluegrass, jam rock, and whatever genre you would use to label Gwar, a conversation that could really only be had about one place: Washington, D.C. and Virginia. If you like what yo...

Introducing the Greatest American Band Bracket, a month-long competition to crown the greatest American band of all time. Running in tandem with March Madness, we’re launching a tournament-style competition where we pit America’s greatest bands against each other through a hard-fought slate of matchups. To learn more about the tournament, fill out your bracket, and potentially win some prizes, vis...

In this Monday morning bonus episode, Jeremy interviews an old friend, Anthony Cozzi of the up-and-coming LA-based rock band Radar Eyes. Cozzi takes us through his lifelong musical journey, from the moment a Tom Petty song blew his mind in the backseat of his parents’ car to the release of his rip-roaring sophomore album Radiant Remains, and all the gigs in between. Give Radiant Remains a spin on...

In this episode, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian discuss perfect albums. Not good albums. Not even great albums will suffice. These are the perfect albums, those rare gems that don’t contain a single song you would want to skip, from the Wu-Tang Clan to Prince to Pavement. Let us know which albums you consider perfect on Twitter and get a taste of our favorites by checking out our custom Spotify pl...

Three brothers. Three generations. One shared obsession: music. For our 20th episode, we’re telling the story of how we got here, a journey that spans three generations of musical discovery and obsession. In part, it’s the story of a nontraditional family forged at Pitchfork Fest and kept together by a decades-long conversation that is nonstop, neverending, and now in podcast form. It’s also the s...

In this bonus interview, Christian sits down with Gareth Thomas and Dan Holloway of the London-based post-punk band USA Nails. The two members discuss their favorite albums from the year they were born, what it was like growing up in a cultural black hole, and give us a taste of the different music scenes of the U.K. USA Nails’s most recent album, No Pleasure, is currently available on Bandcamp an...

In this episode, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian introduce a new segment: Battle of the Bands. We’re pitting two seemingly mismatched, yet classic albums against each other to see which one comes out on top. This week, it’s Nothing’s Shocking by Jane’s Addiction versus Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins. Vote for your favorite on Twitter by tweeting @thebrotherpod and if you need a refresher (o...

In this episode, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian discuss “Second Fiddles.” The Keith Songs. It should be a simple concept: a great song that is sung by someone other than the frontman. But as examples are considered and tossed, formulas are written and rewritten, and specific songs by the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and early Husker Du are annotated and recategorized, we find that the definition isn’t...

In this bonus episode, Wyndham and Christian review Supersonic, the recent rock doc on Oasis, by A24 Films. We dig into Oasis’s history, explore their relatable brotherly feuds, and pose the question: Where were you while we were getting high? If you someday find yourself caught beneath a landslide, check out our Oasis playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod/playlist/4u8wZ...

In the first in-house interview of the podcast, Wyndham and Christian sit down with up-and-comer Will Kraus, of the one-man-band Kraus. Will shares his stories of growing up without a music scene to call his own, recording his first album in his bedroom, and how the background music of a YouTube video changed his life. Kraus is the story of a digital native discovering music and expanding on it, f...

In this episode the elder brothers, Wyndham and Jeremy, discuss their ultimate weakness: power pop. It’s the guitar songs with the catchy hooks and the crisp melodies you can’t help but sing (or scream) along to. The songs that make you wonder, “why wasn’t this a hit?” We discuss how this subgenre came to be, the songs and artists that best exemplify it, and who’s carrying the power pop torch into...

Just in time for Inauguration Day, Wyndham and Christian bring you a collection of songs, albums, and artists that all say one thing: fuck you. Fuck you friend. Fuck you boyfriend. Fuck you girlfriend, spouse, record label, bandmate, or just an all-encompassing fuck you to no one in particular. With middle fingers raised, we’re discussing some of the best and most vile F.U. tracks from Bob Dylan,...

In this episode, we’re making a podcast tribute to the radio, through three lifetimes that span AM, FM, MTV, college radio, mp3-sharing, Napster, Limewire, Apple, Pandora, and Spotify. We discuss what the “radio” meant to us growing up, what it means today, and whether or not our musical expertise is being outsourced by algorithms. You won’t find us on a radio station, but if you want to listen to...

The air is cold. The sky is gray. The trees are bare. It’s winter. And it deserves a soundtrack. In this episode, Wyndham and Christian discuss winter songs: songs about winter and songs that are bleak enough to make you feel like winter, from the sludgy rock of Led Zeppelin and The Sword to the bare, sparse melodies of Elliott Smith. If you need a soundtrack for shoveling, scraping, or hibernatin...

For music fans, 2016 was a rough year, one that robbed us of more talent than it left us. In this episode, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian bid a not-so-fond farewell to 2016 by discussing the music legends we lost this year, from David Bowie, to Prince, to George Martin, to the recently-deceased George Michael. Then, we set our sights on the year ahead with an early review of the new album from Run...

Just in time for the end of 2016, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian finish up their list of the year’s best albums with their collective top 10. Let us know your favorites and give some of ours a spin at: https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod/playlist/0gmJ8vtRiTsTg00Y5T59ei

Wyndham and Luke O’Neil (of Esquire’s “20 Worst Christmas Songs Ever Written”) discuss the worst Christmas songs ever recorded. The ones that crawl out of the gutters of Black Friday and seep into your consciousness in an over-produced, symphonic, multi-instrumental orgy of nothingness. Plus jingle bells. For a holiday playlist actually worth listening to, check out: https://open.spotify.com/user/...

It’s that time of year again, the season of the “best of” lists. In this episode, Wyndham, Jeremy, and Christian use some questionable math to aggregate their collective top 20 albums of the year. This is Part 1 of their list, with their top 10 dropping next Thursday. Check out our custom Spotify playlist for the episode at: https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod

What is New Wave? Where does post-punk end and new wave begin? Is there overlap between them? Is the difference really just a synthesizer? In this episode, Wyndham answers Christian's questions about the genre and gives his take on the genre as a whole. Check out our custom New Wave playlist at: https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod/playlist/6iHfGusoeJqGscxk1phhyC

Wyndham and Jeremy are going back to one of the many places they've called home. New Jersey. In this episode, they're breaking down the great music that's come out of the Garden State, from Titus Andronicus, to Yo La Tengo, to the Boss. Check out our custom New Jersey Spotify playlist at https://open.spotify.com/user/thebrotherpod