Somebody Likes It

Long time listeners may recall Matt Muñoz. He keeps popping up on the show, and is the person that first showed us our unofficial theme song "Pink Pannies". Well ole Matt dropped on by the show this week, and took the whole damn thing over. First he picked "Louder Than Bombs" by the Smiths as the record of the week (giving me a backdoor into getting another Smiths album on). Fo...

By any measure, mixtapes are always an exercise in nostalgia. In fact, whenever one of these milestone shows pop up and we start paddling the raft to Mixtape Island, we can't help but share stories about the time when we made a mix for someone, and all the ensuing nuances: the sequencing, those tracks that you'd since forgotten that stopped you cold in the moment, and lastly (but not unimportantly...

I'm not a sadist. Really. Just because every so often I bring out something like "Slippery When Wet" or "Open Up and Say Ahhhh!" that doesn't mean I enjoy torturing the other show hosts, it just means I enjoy a lively discussion (after all, I have to listen to those albums too). But if you were to just listen to Kevin and Ryan you would think I stuck them in a closet with a Ray...

Once you get past the intrigue of her backstory (PS Eliot drummer with her now Waxahatchee-fronting sister Katie, collaborator with her ex in the apostrophe sporting band Swearin'), Allison Crutchfield -- freshly minted solo artist -- weaves a tangled-by-way-of-intriguing tale on her first full length LP, 'Tourist In This Town.' She may be angsty, but she isn't without something relevant to impart...

Otis. In addition to being one of those artists that one can cite by first-name only, can be included in the great pantheon of those that nobody doesn't like. Possessing arguably the best voice of his generation (if not claiming the mantle "voice of his generation"), Otis Redding, tragically, left us way too soon. Somehow, however, I had managed to never listen to an entire Otis Redding...

What the hell is up with Sweden! Those motherfuckers know their way around a melody. You could spend all day making mix-tapes of Abba or Cardigans songs, but instead let me propose this. You should maybe consider listening to this episode of Somebody Likes It wherein we discuss the album "Passive Agressive" by Swedish band Radio Dept. That record is already a mixtape of sorts, as it is a...

Somewhere, embedded in the occasionally cracked warble of Evan Stephens Hall (which sounds like the name of a room they might play), Montclair, NJ's Pinegrove caught stride with 2016's Cardinal release. They presumably spent much of the rest of the year touring and floating on the accolades of reviewers' laudatory sentiment; and to be certain, there are some high points at play, including one that...

It would be hard to overstate the prolific nature/work ethic/buxom beauty/absolute sweetheart nature of this week's subject of Somebody Likes It, one Ms. Dolly Parton, with her 1973 record "Jolene." If anyone has any doubt as to the grandeur of what they're about to encounter, just take a look at the cover--which if one weren't lucky enough to encounter the over-the-top (literally, this...

Prolific singer-songwriter Jason Molina released 19 albums, more than a dozen EPs, and many more singles between 1997 and his death in 2013. This week, we give a listen to the 7th and final release under the moniker Songs: Ohia; Magnolia Electric Company . For our first podcast of 2017, we welcomed special guest Matty Wishnow and what he affectionately refers to as an anthem for his 40s, Songs: Oh...

Not all artists who grow up under dubious circumstances emerge as groundbreakers on the other side, but essentially, that's at least one dimension of Anderson. Paak's multifaceted rise. Paak — aka the erstwhile Breezy Lovejoy — has come a long way from a bumpy childhood that saw him crafting tracks in his bedroom, to a stunted stint as a marijuana farmer, to a first record that caught the attentio...

Outside of the empirical truism that 'Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas' is an amazing song title (and that's not even arguable), Beach Slang are a study in certain contrasts and other constant consistencies. Lead singer James Alex fronts a punk act chiefly constructed of members half his age, and for all of his lyrical angst, his spins around the block have brought some noted success. There have been se...

Any band that can take a stance against “rubbish” vs. “rubbers” to turn down a slot on “Top of the Pops” has my vote. Dig this record, but do find them very serious. Like Karl Marx on spring break serious. Awesome to find these guys on many best-of lists, but sorta near the bottom of said aforementioned. Listen for yourself, and break into individual discussion groups after. There will be a test.

Hey remember that time Ronald Reagan tried to un-ironically use one of the most ironic songs of the Eighties Born in the USA (copyright Bruce Springsteen) as a campaign song? Well, the palm to forehead that followed for a lot of people 32 years ago became more like a GIF on an endless repeat this year… Springsteen was blue collar when blue collar wasn’t cool. Springsteen put his damn money where h...

What we may lack in sheer volume of listener feedback, we make up for in quality. At least, that’s what we keep telling ourselves: Exhibit A in that regard, a terrific note we received from a listener named Michael, who wrote after lending an ear to the Travis episode, and suggested a record (a few records, actually) that we might consider that he knew — but we might not know — so well. Chief amon...

When I was a small child, I played my A Chipmunks’ Christmas 8-track non-stop until the tape unwound itself all over the living room floor and I could no longer play it. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that, not only was that album extremely annoying, but its demise may have been aided more by the hands of a family member and less from the shelf life of a standard 8 track tape. Th...

Much has been made of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie’s terminal condition, and Canada’s responded by treating the band as something of a national treasure, clear up to the prime minister, including a final concert live broadcast viewed by, if the numbers are correct, a full half of the country. It seems that long ago ‘The Hip’ (again, Canada) achieved critical mass, and it’s with that idea in...

It would seem that I couldn’t rest until we’d covered the other of the mighty triumvirate of proto-punk bands (see also: Iggy and the Stooges, The New York Dolls), and thus unearthed this 1969 classic-to-many. I won’t get into it too much here, but all I can say at this point is…balls. Balls for having your debut album recorded live. Not “in the studio” live first-takes, but a genuine live perform...

Hey ya’ll! Have you heard about this Elvis dude? Me too! Didn’t he shake that “pelvis” on the T.V. that one time? I, of course, had been aware of the myth of Elvis Presley, but I had never actually “listened” to him. To me the whole myth of Elvis (one word) had completely superseded any actually enjoyment of the music Elvis had put out there, other than the parts of hits we all collectively know (...

“I put in work, and watch my status escalate” – Guru You wouldn’t call them a Gang, exactly (as two constitutes a pair), and hard to argue that they were the brightest stars in their own right, at least compared to some of their contemporaries, but if they were anything, Gang Starr were hotly anticipated by those in the know. Guru and DJ Premiere dropped records eagerly gobbled up by scores of the...

As producer Todd Rundgren reportedly put it as he recorded the glam-punk-whatever pioneers that he’d seen at Max’s Kansas City: “Get the glitter out of your asses and play.” It’s up to debate however much glitter ultimately was expelled from various band members’ sphincters, but there’s little debate as to the effect that The New York Dolls had on both punk and (what ultimately became) glam rock/g...

A couple of years ago I used to go to happy hour at a bar where the beautiful Scottish bartender was fond of listening to Poison, Warrant, Ratt and countless other mid-80’s hair metal bands. I never could figure out how that kind of music aroused passions good or bad. Well, after listening to Poison’s Open Up and Say Ahh I still feel that way, but I can’t say the same for Ryan and Kevin…step insid...

The Music Men put together another mixtape for ya, this time in honor of Memorial Day, as they talk about all the songs on their collection… Damn Yankees– High Enough: Where do you go after you see this one? Ted Nugent in animal print kimono deflecting bullets with his guitar solo. Archie Bell and the Drells– The Tighten Up: Ever wondered what it would be like to be conscripted into a dubious fore...

Welcome to another riveting installment of Somebody Likes It. Wherein our heroes brave the beginnings of another endless Texas summer heat wave to bring you beautiful musings on the 2009 inaugural release from London’s Fanfarlo, Reservoir. Ryan spends the first 20 minutes speaking into the wrong end of the microphone. Kevin learns us on how Ted Leo & The Pharmacists went from garage band to mu...

For whatever reason, singer songwriters who write obsessively hook-laden, occasionally Beatlesque pop-rock tracks tend to be overlooked (or outright dismissed) by certain tastemakers. Such seems to have been the case with Brendan Benson, who you may know as the other chief songwriter from The Raconteurs, but who also arguably perfected undeniably catchy ditties of his own craft. Which brings us to...

Serendipity is, apparently, a real thing. Mr. Matt Munoz, longtime friend of the show, had as much (or more so) of a need for this album to show up in his life just when I re-discovered it and just so happened to contact Shane a week before we were already set to cover this record.. A sorely somewhat-forgotten genius record that bridges Radiohead and every misbegotten relationship you’ve ever had....