Somebody Likes It

You know what’s cool? When you go out to a bar and some drunk asshole is going on and on about a record, or tv show, or movie they REALLY love and you just have to sit there and take it. Well, imagine 3 drunk assholes doing that, and you’ll be hot on the case of what we are doing the next 3 weeks with a thing we call “I Like It” (really selling it huh)? This week, I’m up and I picked The Smiths-Th...

This is what happens when your studio is in the house you inhabit with your bandmates, you’re bitter (or maybe just tired) about record labels and smarmy A&R guys, and you notice the onset of what has to be middle age, or at least the realization that for all your effort, maybe this thing that you’ve loved all of these years just doesn’t love you back. And then The Meadowlands drops, the found...

Ladies, this week’s edition of Somebody Likes It is brought to you by Mother’s Best cornmeal and flour, with just a dose of mid-twentieth century sexism. I speak, of course, of Hank Williams’ I Saw The Light, a delightful compilation of down-from-the holler hucksterism and genius-level early country music. If you like your biscuits light and fluffy and your country music both heart and ground-brea...

Well, we gone and done it. Got in bed with ole Kenny G. and did us a jazzy record. Sounds like a bunch of fucking Mr. Rogers Going To The Land Of MakeBelieve-ass bullshit if you ask me. Ryan was able to give it his highest approval rating “I didn’t hate it”…you’ll have in to see how the rest of us felt about it. NEXT UP: Ryan found a random Hank Williams record. Tell you more about it next week…Sh...

Human frailty isn’t exactly a novel conceit, nor are we surprised by youthful angst, but then again, those sentiments aren’t always delivered in authentic ways, by burgeoning and sincere anti-ingenues. Such is the dilemma we faced when peering into the tattered world of Julien Baker, a twenty-year-old artist whose solo foray forced the often raucous music world to stop and take note. Is it possibl...

This week’s episode of Somebody Likes It sees us discussing The New Pornographers’ debut record Mass Romantic. I (Ryan) am apparently incapable of restraint when expressing my undying affection for the title track, and am pretty charmed (if less so) by the rest of the record. Shane, on the other hand, is less enthusiastic, and very nearly went swimming with Neko Case once. Turns out, “power pop” i...

Remember last week when i encouraged you guys to go seek out the cover of Night Moves by Bob Seger? Did you do it yet? That was a pretty easy homework assignment…so if you failed that motherfucker, you are officially out of the class… Doesn’t really matter what we think about this album, some of us loved it, some of us…didn’t hate it, but eh, ya know…but that god damned album cover staring back at...

Welp, I kept hearing about this up-start band called the Rolling Stones and I figured since we over here at Somebody Likes It Central Command are nothing if not full of lots of emotions of pity for the “little guy”, I thought I would throw them a bone and pick one of their albums. Exile on Mainstreet ain’t no George Thorogood, that’s for sure, but I feel confident if these guys keep it up, they mi...

As cliched as it sounds, Sadie Dupuis might actually be some sort of tour de force: the chief creative element behind the ascending Speedy Ortiz (which, best I can tell, is neither speedy nor boasts an Ortiz), Dupuis recently knocked out an MFA in poetry, which she wields to hone razor-sharp lyrics on Speedy tracks. This band swims in the same hip kids pond that New England influences Pixies, The...

I just exhausted myself with all the tittering I did coming up with “Jam Puns” writing the previous version of this. Then, when I finished composing it in all of it’s majesty, I sat back to gaze upon my masterpiece…And then it struck me I FUCKING HATE PUNS! There is a burning hatred inside of me for puns. Tell the truth though, I now can see the allure in writing them. Anyway,we reviewed the album...

To paraphrase Ryan, Peepshow by Siouxsie and the Banshees is the only record we’ve talked about that on first listen is disappointing because of how high a bar the opening track sets. Yeah, Peek-a-Boo (the song) is pretty much a home run. That’s all I’m gonna say about this one, because I get in trouble when I open up too much. Siouxsie Sue sure is an interesting name. I wonder if it’s spelled tha...

The band so nice, we reviewed them twice (note to self:you need to coyright that) …we first came across Canadian group Land of Talk last year during Podcast Overlord Chris Cox’s visit to the show when I picked their song “Quarry Hymns” for A Few Minutes With. Well for this go-round Kevin had us listen to the full-length that spawned that song, “Cloak and Cipher”. Let’s just say we didn’t hate it....

Usually when we do these mix-tape shows, there is considerably more fun and frivolity to be had (though there is plenty of that to be found in this episode). By now, you guys know “the drill”…we pick a bunch of Bowie songs, and discuss them. Just felt like this would be a way we could honor his life through the prism of Somebody Likes It.

When Ryan suggested we listen to Clarence Carter’s 1986 ode to sexy time Strokin’ I couldn’t wait! Not only had we never devoted an entire show to just one song, but this song in particular is chockablock with subtlety and context! So I showed up to Mark’s garage with an armful of notes… Imagine my surprise when I discovered that i had misheard Ryan and we were actually going to talk about The Str...

Listen closely (or not that closely if that’s how you prefer to listen) to the beginning of this episode and I clearly state that I expect everyone to stick to a discussion of Workingman’s Dead and to try and stay away from those all too iconic Grateful Dead live show images…What follows is an hour of hackey-sack jokes, sad attempts to noodle dance in the garage, and goofs on the chaos of a Dead l...

Tahiti 80 are nothing if not pleasantly contradictory, or, at least, that’s what we’re more or less led to believe after basking in the warm glow of their debut album, Puzzle. They shared an affinity for indie bands when singer Xavier Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende met at university, and that affection for American stylings led, of course, to a band that sounds, well…completely French. We unearth...

Silver Bells: Steve Martin, Paul Simon & Billy Joel From the moment Martin says that his child asks “Uncle Steve? What’s does Christmas mean to you?,” you’re right to infer that something is about to go very very wrong in this Saturday Night Live rendition of Silver Bells, which featured three artists at the top of their game in the 70s. Pay attention to the eggnog and booze gags, and mind your di...

Remember that shitty song Everything Zen by Bush? Awful awful song. Well this album isn’t that. It’s like the opposite of Bush. Zen Arcade (the seminal 1984 record by Hüsker Dü) landed in our laps this week, and let’s just say it definitely wasn’t what we expected it to be. I (and the rest of those people that talk into mics on this show) had previously only been familiar with Bob Mould’s post Hüs...

late night conversation via text: Ryan: What is this week’s album again? Shane: Sylvan Esso Ryan: I have no idea what that means Shane: It’s a band/album…you sound like somebody’s old uncle Ryan: What does that even mean? This week we listen to the album Sylvan Esso by the band “Sylvan Esso”…well, not exactly a band, but it is two people making music, so not exactly a solo act. I guess I could hav...

Somewhere around the time dinosaurs walked the earth and Prince Charles started wearing Lady Diana’s clothes, I spent a summer working in radio. Those were odd days — or nights rather — plugging in commercials in the middle of the night to avoid the radio tax shows we were running (aka ‘ratings juggernaut’), and I used to take chances, mostly to keep myself awake beyond the darkness. Occasionally,...

If you are sitting at a bar after recording a podcast, and you are trying to explain to someone what your podcast is about, Television quickly becomes a “who’s on first”. It’s really hard to tell someone what you are doing a podcast about when you say Television and you immediately have to say “the band” Television…which is weird cause nobody EVER says “television” when referencing a television, t...

There are a few musical artists that nobody hates. Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, Van Morrison. Marvin Gaye. Jimi Hendrix. Janis Joplin. Billie Holiday. Even if you don’t want to listen to them, you still kind of love them. Even if it’s a begrudging love, you still love them. Admit it. Stevie Wonder is one of those artists. This album should have been a much more challenging album to listen to than it...

Couple of weeks ago I had my first real Early 80’s “After-School Special Teenager Vs. Dad Fight” with Chris Cox! I was like (and I’m paraphrasing, even though it would be so easy for me to pull up those e-mails if I weren’t so damn lazy), ” WHAT THE HELL?! Chris Cox, get out of my room! Maybe I totally got the order of episodes F’d up, but even if Doves is a week away from when I said it would be...

I never found the 3 Stooges very funny, but a few days ago I was up late and caught a few episodes on AMC and they aren’t half bad..wait, what are you whispering to me over the tubes that make up the internet? —rustling of papers— Boy is my face red. Different Stooges I guess? I’m being told I’m not supposed to write about the Moe, Larry, Curley shit, but a band that we listened to? Get it togethe...

I feel like I want to… NEED TO …say something about how I felt about this album…but Chris Cox has told me that when I am doing these write-ups to keep it in my pants…so I won’t say anything about this record…I might have told you that it is the best god-damned thing I’ve heard in years…that it marries Josh Tillman’s incredible gift for melodies, crazy ass lyrics, and brilliantly over the top produ...