The JAM Yearbook

Shaking off their holiday hangovers, Matt and Jim return with another round of album anniversaries. There were a couple of pleasant surprises from the poll that they were ready to dig into. It's not often they get to chat about Led Zeppelin so they take full advantage. The Pretenders debut, Bob Seger delivers classics, and Phil Collins begins his reign over the charts and award ceremonies. Jim sha...

It might have been a mistake for two old guys to try to dive into emo music, but Matt and Jim decide to go for it. From it's post hardcore roots in the 80s and the underground Midwest emo scene in the 90s to the explosive pop (punk) emo sounds that overtake the airwaves in the 2000s, Matt and Jim try to decipher why they felt like they had been yelling at kids to get off their lawn. Rites of S...

New Year: same 'ol Matt and Jim. The guys come back to the original format to wrap up the best of 2024. There were a lot of surprises to be found. Jim discovered country music and Matt discovers The Cure! Women dominated the music scene once again in almost every genre and rightly so. While the year had some great new releases, they found that the beginning of the year was heavily weighted with th...

Two for the price of one you say? Everything love a good deal around Christmas. Unfortunately, not everyone likes to release new music. Who wants to compete with Mariah for the Number One spot? Matt and Jim combine the months of November and December and still manage to salvage some amazing music. Pink Floyd builds The Wall, Wham Makes It Big and London Calls The Clash. They also share a little TL...

What really goes behind making an album? Does all of the magic belong to the artist? Absolutely not. In this episode, Matt and Jim explore the few producers who are behind some of the biggest albums recorded in the past 50 years. They discuss style and sound. Names like Quincy Jones, Rick Rubin and Mutt Lange are closely related to Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Shania Twain, Def Leppard and so man...

The days are getting shorter as stick season approaches, but there are still a lot of great albums celebrating anniversaries in October for Matt and Jim to discuss. They revisit well-known classics along with a few surprises chosen for the show by the audience. Billy Joel's sun is setting on the horizon, Tom Petty is hitting his stride, and U2 is a step away from worldwide domination. Matt brings...

When an artist achieves the number one position on the charts, it can be the pinnacle of their career. But is every number one deserving of that sacred chart position? Or are some songs on the charts for so long, they overstay their welcome. Matt and Jim polled the audience to see what they thought were the least deserving number one songs of all time and the choices were surprising. From Elton Jo...

Fresh from their Hair Metal episode, Matt and Jim turn to the month of September. Matt is still trying to establish a Part 2 of the previous episode, but Jim tries to shift his focus. Some big albums reach new milestones. Jim questions if they are the best that could have been chosen for the show. Matt and Jim both are pushed outside their comfort zone and find themselves at odds with a couple of...

Welcome to the Hair Metal special! This is also known as Jim's Day Off and Matt's Dream Episode. Originally intended to be a derogatory reference, "Hair Metal" has been a label embraced by loyal fans for over 3 decades. On this episode, Matt and Jim dive into the history and influences of hair metal. They discuss when they think it peaked and what else besides the rise of grunge...

It's time to move on to August, but this time Matt and Jim celebrate album anniversaries with a twist. Instead of imposing their own picks of best albums celebrating this month, they polled the audience to let them decide. That's not to say it stops them from sharing their opinions about the audience choices. They take the top 5 and count them down like the old days. They jump from funk to hair me...

July has come and gone, but not without some great (and not so great) albums celebrating anniversaries. Some lesser known but personal favorite bands like Reverend Horton Heat and 311 get their due praise. The Beastie Boys have a sophomore slump in sales with Paul's Boutique, but the album went on to huge critical acclaim. The birth of Jim Jams arrive with hits from New Edition. Matt finally g...

Welcome to the new format...based on the old format. Once a month Matt and Jim will dive into albums celebrating anniversaries of 25 years or more. They'll cover albums that have impacted their personal musical journey as well as ones that were just making a big splash in the moment. What was celebrated in June 2024? Some seminal albums from Prince and the Boss. Pop punk began it's chart d...

The past six months of exploring new music has at times been an arduous task for Matt and Jim. Hours have been spent combing through new music playlists each week, but songs were still missed. Either they slow burned and arrived on their radar late or sometimes it was just simply forgetting to bring a song to the show. The guys play a little catch-up in this episode going back to the start of the...

It's that time we wrap up the month of May and as always, Matt and Jim have found plenty of new music to talk about. Slash releases a collaboration of classics. AI revives the amazing voice of Randy Travis. Is the return of Slim Shady all nostalgic hype? For the first time in months, the ranting cools off. Maybe it's because of the smooth jazz they found when they stopped prejudging bands...

It's finally summertime and what is synonymous with summer? The music festival! Matt and Jim have been asked by a listener to create their very own music festival. Before they do though, they run through the history of the music festival and share some pretty entertaining stories about some of the craziest things moments that have occurred. Then they each get three stages with eight bands and...

April is playing fools of us all with the weather and music. Matt and Jim find their love for Pearl Jam again. 80s rockers celebrate classic reissues. Neil Young limps back to Spotify. Has Jim taken the ranting hat from Matt officially? You might think so when you hear what he thinks of the new Taylor Swift album. Summer is approaching and the new releases are starting to appear in droves along th...

When talented people come together, great things can often come of it. Popular music has a rich history of duets, production collaborations and supergroups. Matt and Jim dig into some of the greatest of these but quickly realize they could create an entire new podcast around this theme. So they decide to have some fun in this episode and each build a dream supergroup they would love to see collabo...

As the darkness of winter lifts and signs of spring begin to show, it's time for Matt and Jim to discuss the music they were listening to in March. Old favorites like The Black Crowes and the Kaiser Chiefs return. Bleachers and Judas Priest finally release their albums after 6 months of singles. It's EPIC rant time! Jim has some feelings about the Beyonce album and doesn't hold back. Matt anticipa...

Music and comedy have had a relationship throughout history. Serving as satirical social commentary or simply designed as a play on words, there have always been songs designed to make us laugh. Matt and Jim grew up in the golden era of Spinal Tap, Weird Al, and Saturday Night Live. Some of the biggest names in stand-up comedy also took a chance with music. Whether it was aiming for shock value (2...

It's time to wrap up all of the great new music again and the month of February left Matt and Jim with plenty of love hearts to hand out. There is a very early 80s feel from many older bands making triumphant returns to younger artists picking up the torch of that sound. Rant alert! Jim has something to say about Beyonce creating country music and it may surprise you. Pearl Jam returns in stro...

Everyone loves a good list. We live in a world where film, television, performance, and most of all music, have been constantly ranked according to popularity. Music charts have interesting beginnings . On this episode, Matt and Jim explore the charts from their origin to the questionable relevance they have today. The guys reminisce about the golden age of the charts and find a reasonable point t...

Another year begins and enters the fray of "greatest year in music of all time." Matt and Jim will leave that for future generations to discuss, but there was a lot of new music to talk about. Old rockers are still rocking and hair metal was spotted peeking out of the shadows of rock music. Indie and punk were solidly represented. Jim laments over new music from bands that he's raved...

The days are getting longer. New Year's resolutions are being broken. What else do Matt and Jim have to look forward to this winter? The Super Bowl of course! Along with the biggest sporting event of the year in the USA always comes the controversy of the performers. In fact, music is prevalent in almost all sport stadiums around the world. In this episode Matt and Jim discuss how music plays...

We've all heard someone say it. Maybe you're even guilty of it yourself. Matt and Jim are not among the innocent. Most people are passionate about music from an era. For some it's a decade like the 80s. For others it can be a specific genre. One thing is certain, at some point most people choose where the best music in their lifetime comes from. Most often people refer back to their formative year...

You've guessed it, Matt and Jim are jumping on the 'wrapped' bandwagon. This doesn't mean their happy with all of their own wrapped results. How did the year rate? It depends on how to define a 1-10. The beginning and end of the year seemed to lack, but there were some great songs and albums that will be listened to for years to come in those middle months. Australia may have saved the year. Pop r...