Somebody Likes It

Generally speaking, most super groups aren’t that Super. They tend to trend toward a collective of famous parts that almost never eclipse the sum of the whole. As a result, most of these efforts come off looking like what they are, vanity projects that draft off of the disparate fog of fame. Not so with boygenius , the clever by way of earnest moniker that is Lucy Dacus , Phoebe Bridgers and Julie...

After a time there is a conventional wisdom that Bands become Brands, and all too often (we'd wager most of the time), if you think critically about what a band is called, it's typically a total disconnect against the name (no one really expects, for example, Arcade Fire to canvass precisely that). Which brings us to Superorganism , an originally far flung collection of musicians who bonded in per...

All three members of Flasher grew up in the Washington, DC area, a metro recently referenced in one review as both 'beautiful' and a 'clattering hellscape' pretty much in the same paragraph. It's safe to say that it's a complicated place to come of age, and as of recently, they still hadn't actually quit their day jobs, all three of them continuing to wait tables in addition to being label mates w...

In this episode, we discuss one of several eponymous albums by the Velvet Underground. This is the one with them sitting on a dingy couch. There's some solid tunes on here and then, there's not. Definitely a departure from 1968's White Light/White Heat with John Cale being replaced by Doug Yule and several songs that could use further editing. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground A Few...

After a 2 month hiatus from the show, we decided to kick things back into gear with another mixtape. This go around, Kevin suggested we select songs that we love from motion picture or theatre soundtracks. It's always fun to share songs that we're familiar with and hold a special place in our catalog. ##In This Episode:## Survivor - Eye of the Tiger from Rocky 3 Echo and the Bunnymen - Bring On Th...

Being the grandson of the progenitor of 20th Century Country doesn't give you a free pass to the music hall of fame–unless we're talking about the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum in Nashville, it probably gets you a couple of free tickets there–but one thing it apparently give you is an incredible genetic tendency toward extreme musical talent. We were a little divided on how well we think that...

It's difficult to really compare Ariana Grande to other female pop and R&B starlets of recent history; part Mariah, part Brittney, part Christina, part Pete Davidson, but none of these at the same time. It's safe to say the past couple of years haven't been necessarily smooth sailing for the 25 year old. Still, she sings. And walks and breathes like a living actual ingenue. She's typically fra...

We had limited purview. Bandwagonesque was the record we knew, framed by the apparently unforgivable historical fact that any band with any album might edge Nirvana's Nevermind for an Album of the Year designation. That happened. Some still haven't gotten past it. Voting on things brings controversy. But this isn't that album. It's not even that argument. Here we canvass Grand Prix , widely regard...

If enigmatic, sprite-like-delivered vocals, with a layered, hypnotic musical bed is your bag, then we've we over here at Somebody Likes It have got you hooked up this week. We took a turn at Beach House 's 2015 release Thank Your Lucky Stars, a kinda-easy shot for all of us over at podcast-central. Without giving away too much, I'll just add that naps and trans-continental one night hook-ups could...

Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding may have written some of the best songs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s that most people have never heard. They teetered on commercial superstardom for years and potentially could have gotten there had it not been for Partridge's crippling stage fright that caused the band to stop touring in the early 80s. Heading to the studio with a new-found freedom to create music wi...

"She's my...Vertical Smile!...oh, wait let's change that to Cherry Pie". Yeah, that's right. Because of stupid Corporate Overlords not respecting the free speech rights of Warrant, we will never get to hear the genius they originally had in mind when they set music to tape back in 1989. They originally wanted this album to be called "Vertical Smile". Get it? That is a true stor...

Oh Matador Records, you of your indie darlings and slack ingenues and legends scrawled upon the walls of rancid LA apartments...Matador, you're at it again. Welcome to the Hype Machine. With the release of Snail Mail's Lush, we teeter headfirst into the prodigious mind of Lindsay Jordan, who writes dually about love as social triviality and distant curiosity. Jordan, who cut her musical teeth in p...

This episode, while Producer Mark was away in Barcelona, we tackled Parliament's Watership Down Mothership Connection. Parliament - Mothership Connection A Few Minutes With [Journey - Separate Ways][2] A Current Affair [George Clinton - I'm Gon Make U Sick O'Me][3]

It's difficult to gaze back upon Elliot Smith's career and not see all of it, even the highlights, through a lens tinted with melancholy. Such may be the way that it goes with turbulent exits from this mortal coil, but Smith always let rays of sunshine filter through his musical tumult, and so goes From A Basement On The Hill, one of those great album titles that none of us can quite recall correc...

All too often the influences passed down from one musician to another are apparent only as distant melodies, those shadows of nostalgia that revive against the dying of some musical light. A distilled fraction of what made the original influence so notable. But what do we make of two mammoth personalities, massive musical evangelists in their day, who only shared a stage a couple of times, three t...

Before Ozzy Osbourne was a stammering reality show punchline, he really underwhelmed Lester Bangs, and there's something to be said for that, historically speaking. Black Sabbath's eponymous initial record was recorded almost in one sitting on its way to defining a new genre, one minted, in part, by the fact that one of the members' metal shop accidents necessitated a wholesale change in his play,...

It's been noted that perhaps Willis Alan Ramsey was Lyle Lovett...before Lyle Lovett was Lyle Lovett, mostly, come to think of it, by Lyle Lovett. That's what happens when your debut album mines the intricate details of the emotional barriers we often erect to stave off matters of the heart, and when you do so from stages where a young future troubadour might connect with your style to the point o...

As far as it goes with hand claps and cowbells, the majority of people are 2/3 of the way there. With Shane rejoining the podcast after a brief sabbatical, we felt it was a good time for another mixtape episode. But don't fear the reaper, we've collected 12 great tunes that showcase (or don't) the percussive beauty of skin on skin and wood on metal bovine accessory. Enjoy! Round 1 ###[Close To Me]...

As monikers go, Starcrawler might be more a more literal band name than you think: this act, punctuated by art school kids and fronted by the daughter of one of LA's premier rock shutterbugs, slinks and shrieks through their initial release. It seems they were destined for stardom, well, since they were crawling. Yes, that's Beck's daughter on the album cover. Yes, that was the back of lead singer...

Dear listeners-- If you've been waiting patiently, all your waking life, to immerse yourself in Aussie-bred hard rock featuring a grown-ass-man wearing a Catholic schoolboy uniform with an astonishing level of longevity, well, this is your week. We tackled AC/DC 's 1979 record "Highway to Hell" this week, and I'll be damned if I didn't find this record endlessly entertaining. Take early-...

Working on this podcast as I have for a couple of years, I am often taken aback at albums that completely flew under my radar and yet still had enough buzz around them as to create a massive following. This parallel project for Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen is a fine example of a creative endeavor straight up my alley and yet I would not come to hear it until nearly 10 years after its release. Depa...

We all know the country music songwriter's recipe: start with a stretch of hardscrabble backstory, mix in some bad luck with the ladies, stir the bottom of the bottle around, maybe sprinkle in a stint in the pokey for good measure. Rinse. Repeat. Your typical country artist could sing the blues, but somehow this feels heavier. More wrought with shame. Still, scenarios can wax trite. Not so for Tra...

Years after crafting a sound so unique that a fledgling movement spun up around it, Portishead walked away from notoriety and their Trip hop roots that influenced so many. Away from the dark corners and come hither beats, punctuated by Beth Gibbons' pained yarns of yearning and regret, away from all of it. Until they didn't. Borne to some degree out of the threads they continued to explore after t...

It's a safe to say that if you have been pushing out music for the past 51 years, you've probably got a little something for everyone. It's also a pretty good chance that not everything in your catalog is going to elicit the same enthusiasm from all audiences. For those of you who appreciate early Prog Rock, you probably like Genesis 1972 release Foxtrot a hell of a lot more than 3/4 of us did. La...

It's hard not to wax a certain amount of nostalgic about the year you're born: it is, after all, what lights the candle of your days. That's not lost on Josh Rouse, who reminds us that much is revealed by the concept albums an artist releases. Rouse has long revealed a wandering attention span, but when it comes to the AM gold of the early 1970s, he lets his gaze linger. But does it land? Pick up...