Columbia House Party

How stiff a kitten are we talking here? If that strikes you as a bizarre introduction, well, welcome to Blaqk Audio, the side project of Davey Havok and Jade Puget of AFI. On the tails of this week’s main AFI episode, Jake and Blake explore Havok’s cultural versatility, the more electronic side of (half) the group, and how a seemingly unrelated experiment influenced AFI over the years. Come join t...

We hope you suffer. In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by professional wrestler Jimmy Havoc (@JimmyHavoc) to discuss AFI’s 2000 classic The Art of Drowning. Havoc – and yes, he took that wrestling name in tribute to Davey Havok – fills us in on how AFI and other bands have shaped his wrestling persona, his merchandise, and his life. Find...

Run away from your America is right. In the latest Columbia House Party single, Jake and Blake take a quick dive into the political Atlanta four-piece Algiers and the lead single Dispossession off of their 2020 album There Is No Year. Algiers feel of this time – now and with their 2017 sophomore album The Underside of Power – and the hosts discuss what drew them to Algiers and who they compare to,...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib (@NifMuhammad, abdurraqib.com) to discuss the seminal 1982 Descendents album Milo Goes to College. It’s a wider-ranging chat than usual, thanks to Hanif’s incredible insight and thoughtfulness about how and why we connect with music at different sta...

Mmmwhat’dyousay? That lyric likely brings to mind one of two things: A pivotal scene in The OC or Tik Tok star Jason Derulo. The new Hulu series Normal People, based on the excellent Sally Rooney novel, uses Imogen Heap’s Hide and Seek to even better effect, and so the latest Columbia House Party single explores whether a song can be taken back and get a second act even if it seems inextricable fr...

Isn’t it ironic? In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy go deep on a Canadian classic, Alanis Morissette’s incredible 1995 album Jagged Little Pill. Not only is the album excellent, it’s credited with facilitating important change in the rock scene for the late-90s and beyond. Find out more about Alanis’ roots as a child star in Ottawa, why and how she...

Host fight! Jake and Blake agree on a lot of music, but there are occasional bands – The Wonder Years, The Used, The Twilight Sad, IDLES – on who they strongly disagree. Through the lens of the new IDLES song Mr. Motivator, the latest Columbia House Party single explores the mechanisms of music subjectivity and why certain groups miss the Venn Diagram overlap. Come join the Patreon family for bonu...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by Arkells frontman Max Kerman (@arkellsmusic) to discuss Shine A Light, the 2003 sophomore album from Constantines. The Cons had a huge influence on Max and his bandmates, and this episode allows us to explore how influences make their way into a band’s sound, consciously and subconsciously. Find out mo...

What if Dave Grohl were, himself, a (monkey) wrench in the plans of Sunny Day Real Estate? On the heels of our discussion about Diary, this week’s Columbia House Party “single” mini-episode explores the somewhat bizarre, he-said he-said history between SDRE and Foo Fighters, including Grohl’s replacement drumming on The Colour and The Shape and an alleged fifth SDRE album that one person believes...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy trace the so-called emo tree back up almost all the way to the top, exploring the definitive parent of the Midwest emo branch, Sunny Day Real Estate’s 1994 album Diary. It stands to reason that if you listen to this podcast, a lot of the bands you enjoy (and episodes we’ve done to date) were influenced by Diary, as...

We can be your lighthouse. Or can’t. Bert McCracken, The Used, and Mark Hoppus have left us a little unclear. The latest Columbia House Party “single” mini-episode takes a look at “The Lighthouse,” the most recent single off of The Used’s new album Heartwork. On paper, pairing The Used with their original producer and Hoppus should have been an easy victory. So why doesn’t it work as well as the r...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by NBA writer James Herbert (@outsidethenba) to discuss At The Drive-In’s 2000 album Relationship of Command. It’s just too bad we recorded this before Cedric Bixler-Zavala dropped the best Instagram comment of the current election cycle. Even acknowledging that exclusion, this is a fun revisiting of a v...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by Sasha Kalra (@sashakalra) to discuss Lil Peep’s 2017 album Come Over When You’re Sober, Pt. 1. While Lil Peep is admittedly outside of the podcast’s normal genre wheelhouse, his influences are so similar to the podcast’s and to the artists that the podcast covers that he represents a unique look into...

The OC Month at Columbia House Party wraps up with our latest “single” mini-episode, discussing the iconic theme of the hit teen drama, Phantom Planet’s California. The shorter format takes a quick look at Phantom Planet’s place as a missed-opportunity early-2000s indie rock boom band, their earlier history with podcast favourite Jason Schwartzman, and how and why a song and band can become so ine...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy break down Modest Mouse’s 2004 breakthrough Good News for People Who Like Bad News. Unlike some of the other bands to perform at The Bait Shop, Modest Mouse were already quite well-established, but The OC rub and an enormous hit in Float On helped push them into the mainstream consciousness. That didn’t mean Good N...

Welcome to the first Columbia House Party “Single,” a new, shorter episode to supplement the regular weekly Monday drop. The podcast’s first single follows up on our discussion of 2004’s Hot Fuss by taking a look at how The Killers sound here in 2020. Their new single, Caution, off their upcoming album Imploding the Mirage, offers a spiritual midway point between Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town that the h...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by culture writer Sarah MacDonald (@sarahsmacdonald, sarahsmacdonald.com) to discuss The Killers’ 2004 debut Hot Fuss. Another Meet Me In The Bathroom-era breakthrough sees our hosts bring Sarah back as the first two-time guest because The Killers require a certain level of cool they can’t reach alone. T...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy break down The Walkmen’s 2004 album Bows + Arrows. As The OC Month continues, The Walkmen represent an interesting and often self-defeating secondary character in the indie rock boom and an unlikely Bait Shop performer. They’re also emblematic of the Meet Me In The Bathroom-era New York rock scene, dripping in cool...

Welcome to The OC, listener. In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by comedian Lauren Mitchell (host of the @cavernofsecrets podcast) to discuss Death Cab For Cutie’s enormous 2003 hit Transatlanticism. This kicks off The OC Month, where the podcast will explore bands that performed at The Bait Shop on the hit show, which served as a snapsho...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are just two boys talking about Just A Girl as they dive deep on No Doubt’s 1995 classic Tragic Kingdom. They’re also joined briefly by Cassie Leigh Clancy (@cassleigh, co-host of the @restingonpod podcast) to discuss the fashion side of Gwen Stefani’s legacy. Find out more about some of the controversy around Stef...

We’re that band, Radiohead. In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by music and culture writer Josh Terry (@JoshhTerry) to break down Radiohead’s 2007 album In Rainbows. With a handful of interesting Radiohead options, the guys go the In Rainbows route out of deep appreciation, but maybe not because it’s their No. 1 Radiohead album. You, too,...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy close out their blink-182 arc by circling back to another of the band’s most prominent influences, The Cure’s 1989 masterpiece, Disintegration. Part two, as Robert Smith tells it, of a three-part trilogy that spans 18 years and eight of their 13 records, Disintegration is The Cure at their best, with Smith’s songwr...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy are joined by basketball and culture writer Alex Wong (@steven_lebron, stevenlebron.com) to break down Lil Wayne’s 2008 smash hit, Tha Carter III. At the very peak of his power as the self-proclaimed Best Rapper Alive, Lil Wayne goes way outside of the usual rap album construct to push himself and the listener crea...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy realize that blink-182 month has focused too much on Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge. It was time for them to Give The Drummer Some by diving deep on Travis Barker’s solo album of that name. Yes, Barker had a solo album. Yes, it kind of rules. No, rap-rock will never die. Find out more about Barker’s sad and arduous ro...

In the latest episode of Columbia House Party, hosts Jake Goldsbie and Blake Murphy continue blink-182 month (is there a name for a six-week stretch?) by diving into one of a handful of blink side-projects, +44’s lone album, When Your Heart Stops Beating. The unofficial follow-up to blink’s untitled album, +44 sees Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker continue down that same road, with Hoppus trying to e...