The Fairly KickAss Podcast

Ass-Kickers! We're back with our second Coverlutions episode, where we take an oft-covered song - this episode was the epic, sweeping, beautiful masterpiece of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. We go back and forth, throwing out covers to one another until we run out. Or we throw out ten of the covers. You'll get both of those, because - and y'all should take a seat now for what I'm about to say - we we...

First off - Happy Thanksgiving to all our American homies! As we set off on travel across the country, or cook 100 lbs. of food for those who are traveling to us, we do the thing where we give thanks for people and things that have been good to us. Sources of joy and happiness. Rays of light in our lives. Music can certainly qualify, and there aren't many that have provided as many great albums an...

Ass-Kickers! Typically, the only time we talk about full albums is during the monthly reviews; otherwise, it's all songs. Well lemme tell ya - if you love albums, then this is the episode for you. It's a patent-pending Top 5 episode, and this time we cover our Top 5 No-Skip Albums. Not necessarily our favorite albums; not necessarily what we would consider the best albums either (although there ma...

Well, well, well. Sorry, was just finishing up watching three episodes of Lassie at the same time. What did I miss? Oh! 2014! Hello. Music was a bit different 10 years ago. But, as different as it was, it was still pretty much the same. And it was also entirely different. It was a very interesting stroll down Memory Lane, but - believe it or not - it was not the most recent year that we've done! W...

Ass-Kickers! The time has come for us to provide our October 2024 reviews. You know the drill by now: J and Zack give their top three albums (and some HM's, which is short for "Honorable Mentions", because we're fans of brevity [editor's note: LOLOLOL]). Dan then comes in with the newly-charting singles in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. It's a good list. Or is it? You'll have to listen to fi...

Ass-Kickers! As mentioned in the first few minutes, what you're hearing is our second go-round with the Top 5 Halloween Songs list, as the first one was never released on Spotify - or, of course, wherever you get your podcasts now. It was such a great episode (and we're suckers for being able to reuse content to bring to more of your earballs) that we decided to run it back. So here! It's Top 5 Ha...

Whew. This one was a JOURNEY. The plan was simple: we have talked quite a bit over the [checks calendar] nearly five years? Really?? That can't be right... well, then the nearly five years of this podcast, about the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Many different episodes, most notably including our Monthly Reviews and our Billboard Reranks, leaned heavily on this chart - and many more will in the future....

Kickers of Thine Ass! Had to use the royalty-speak because we are in the presence of royalty on this episode of the Fairly KickAss Podcast. Hip hop royalty. Critically acclaimed. Revolutionary. Hall of Fame members. We couldn't pass up a chance to wax poetic about Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White, and the late-great Phife Dawg, comprising the legendary group A Tribe Called Quest. And as t...

Hello. Hey. Hi. We say goodbye to the warm times this month, as summer's baking breath gives way to the cool chill of autumn. We also inch closer and closer to the end of the year, that time of year when things start to slow down a bit. Not us though! We have a full slate lined up for 'all y'all, with episodes planned as far out as February 2025. So fear not - no matter the time of year, no matter...

It's another Rewind episode, y'all! For the uninitiated: we moved in May 2024 to be available "wherever you get your podcasts". Before then, all episodes were Spotify-exclusive (and still available there if you wanted to peruse!) But we've been moving those over periodically, making sure that anyone on any platform can hear that good-good without going back to Spotify. Today's episode is no except...

I'm gonna level with y'all. I (Zack!! Hi.) am going on like 3 hrs. of sleep. So to avoid a weird typo, or falling asleep at my laptop in the middle of writing this description, I'm gonna keep it short. You're welcome. This is one of our patented Unsung episodes, where we look at those important individuals in the music industry that you may not be familiar with. This episode covers the genesis of...

Welcome to a new Fairly KickAss Original! We're calling this one Were We Too Hard On... and for once, it doesn't need a book's worth of explanation! Lemme explain. We take a thing that we (and many others) were too hard on, and we figure out if that was fair. Were we jaded by certain factors? Did we not appreciate the thing as much then as we do now? Maybe we had a bad sandwich that day. It happen...

Ass-Kickers! We did the usual monthly deal, serving up a heaping helping of albums and charting singles for yas. It was a month chock-full of stuff, and we bring you all the best of that stuff for your listening pleasure. "But FKA!" you exclaim. "How can we listen?" That's a great question, Audience Member That We Definitely Didn't Plant. This episode's ride-along playlist - and playlists for all...

As we were discussing this episode, Producer Nikki made a great point: "how can you talk about songs if you've forgotten about them?" which led to the official title of this episode: Top 5 Songs You Forgot About For A Longish Period Of Time, And Then Remembered In The Last Few Weeks, In Enough Time To Add Them To A List To Discuss During A Podcast Episode. Chumbawamba had The Boy Bands Have Won......

Kind of like a "rerank", but since there's no definitive ranking, we get to do it. See? WeRank. Right? Like, because of the words in the term. You see the vision. And what we saw in our vision was a ton of great, great tracks. Because, Ass-Kickers, if you remember the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game series, you also remember the amazing soundtracks - and that, my friends, is what We are Ranking....

Ass-Kickers! We have a new-ish episode type to share with you, called the Unsung. Our Unsung episodes cover folks in the music industry - artists and otherwise - that are just that... unsung. Ones that haven't gotten the visibility and recognition that they should for the contributions that they made toward shaping the music industry. Today's episode covers a very polarizing figure, in the late re...

The Wayback Machine has been fired up again, and this time it's hopping across the pond! For those who are new, let me give you a quick history lesson: up until May of 2024, we were a Spotify exclusive joint. Most of those episodes are still within the Spotify exclusivity window, and we would like for them to not be - so that we can share them with all of you, whether you use Spotify for your podc...

Ass-Kickers! Another month in the books, and - dare we say - a fine month of music! Dan and Zack take you through the particulars, as always: Dan with the newly-charting Billboard Hot 100 tracks, and Zack with the newly-released albums of the month. J is still taking a powder, but we promise it won't be long before he's back in the saddle... but never fear! You can still reach him (and any of us!)...

Welcome back in, Ass-Kickers! On offer for your podcast feed today is a little something we'd like to call our One Song episode. What's the catch? I mean, I wouldn't call it a "catch" - more like an "entertaining and exhilarating stipulation". But do you y'know, we can't stop you. We take an artist's full discography, go through each and every song with a fine-toothed comb, and decide on the very...

Ass-Kickers! We come to you with a... breakfast podcast, I guess? We're talking about our Top 5 Concept/Theme Albums on this episode. Those albums that tell a story from beginning to end, or maybe center on a common motif, or where the tracks have enough similarity that they can be grouped together in a logical way, or... you get the gist. (I hope). If you don't get the gist, then the episode will...

Ass-Kickers! We have another one that might be a bit heavy for some of you - and for good reason - but we felt it was an interesting conversation to have. Dan and Zack (still minus a J) are here with this Vibes episode, where we just... vibe. Good vibes, bad vibes, WTF vibes - all the vibes. It's more conversational and less structured than our other episodes, and as such we use these episodes to...

Oh hello there! Yes you, you who are wanting to talk about the new albums and charting singles from June of 2024. Well let me tell you that... that this is the thing that you want. Yeah. This thing. Our friendly neighborhood J is still on break, and certainly living the dream. Dan and Zack (it me) held down the fort for the reviews this month, and they did... C+ work, maybe? C-? All credit to Prod...

We're back with Pt. 2 of the Deep Dive into Cleveland's own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony! In Pt. 1, our crew discussed the other crew's history and discography, leading up to BNTHResurrection. In Pt. 2, we pick up at Thug World Order, covering the moving and shaking that lead to the final (for now) album, New Waves. There's still a lot of meat on this... well, you know... so please join us for the conclus...

Why hello there! Fairly KickAss here, with our first of many REWIND episodes. These episodes were originally posted back when we were a Spotify-exclusive podcast, and we're pulling them out to allow all of you to listen, no matter where you get your podcasts. (For you Spotify faithful, we will be deleting the original episode so it doesn't show up for you twice!) Also keep in mind that some of the...

We went to the well again! This week's episode of the Fairly KickAss Podcast is our very first Coverlutions episode. "What's Coverlutions", you ask, well lemme tell ya all about it. Each of your hosts listen to, and compile, a list of a whole litany of covers of a certain song. We started at the top for this episode, with - from what I could gather - the most covered song of all time, that being Y...