Ultimate Catalogue Clash

Legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas once opined that “When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.” And maybe this was the inspiration for the lead off track from 2011’s Wasting Light, which I’m sure Corey has researched extensively before tonight’s recording, given his love of Welsh poetry and Welsh culture in general… We get shouty Dave, melodic Dave, and wistful Dave, all on the...

It's plenty of firsts this week. The first Foo Fighters' instrumental, Dave's first piano song, and the first time we hear accordion on a Foo's song! We also get guitar solos on half the songs as Shifty takes centre stage. Is Dave finally stepping away from his habit of repeating a single line? Will side two live up to side one for Kev? Will Corey get tangled up in the clarity of Dave's lyrics? Th...

In Stranger Things, Jonathan Byers posits “You shouldn't like things because people tell you you're supposed to.” Well, I tend to agree, unless it’s your mom telling you you’re really gonna like this new song by the Foo Fighters that she’s been listening to… This is the album that was Kev's introduction to the Foo Fighters and Corey only knows three songs from it. Is the balance of acoustic and ro...

14th-century English philosopher and theologian William of Ockham’s famous philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction and both theories have equal explanatory power one should prefer the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions. But what hypothesis would Big Bad Bill have about why Kevin is so crap at our Ultimate Catalogue Clash si...

The late, great Audrey Hepburn once said “I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles. Especially when they’re included on rock n roll albums from the m...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of In Your Honor. We're including the UK/Japan/Vinyl/iTunes bonus track for this episode, so we're not ending with End Over End. So, despite all our complaining about natural end points, we're blowing right on by this one, but hey, we saw the sign! It opened up .... Corey's already told me off for using that lyric so I won't repeat it. Will Kevin be a...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side A of In Your Honor. A double album? Two sides of charged up heavy rock and two sides of acoustic numbers? What the hell is this? A reverse Bob Dylan? Joking aside, this monumentally ambitious project could have been a disaster of epic proportions, but In Your Honor comes blistering out of the blocks with six songs that tear along at a breakneck pace. Wil...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of One By One. The writing and recording of this album was a train wreck and it's been largely disavowed by everyone involved in the years since, but then again, Dave Grohl once said that Learn to Fly was his least favourite song on an album that also contains Live-In Skin, so what the hell does that guy know? Will Brian May's presence on the opening t...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side A of One By One. "Hey Dave, the opening track from the last album was a bit of a banger, I bet you can't write anything as strong to open this record..." "Hold my beer and bring me a FRESH POTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!" This week's album side explodes out of the gate and contains two of the biggest live tracks in the Foos catalogue. Could this one be Kev's highest-r...

Corey and Kevin are back to talk about Side B of There is Nothing Left To Lose. You know what makes a good meal? A variety of flavours. A little sweet, a little savoury, perhaps a little sour, and dare we say, a little umami? Yes, we dare; "umami". We get into the weeds a little about sequencing and whether or not Dave's decision to move to a basement in Virginia impacted side two of the album mor...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side one of There is Nothing Left To Lose. How to follow up a massive album like The Colour and the Shape? Well, you could hire the best hotshot producer in the world and head over to the best recording studio money can rent. Or maybe, just maybe, you could buy a house in Virginia and convert the basement into a studio and hang out with your two bandmates and cr...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side two of “The Colour and the Shape”, the record that established them as a band to pay attention to. We get another one of the giants of the Foos catalogue, possibly the biggest of them all. We talk about bouncing crowds, whether songs that sound like they belong on the debut album, and how long is long enough! Will Kevin give any song on this record a perfec...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side one of the Foo Fighters breakout 1997 album, “The Colour and the Shape”! In comes Nate Mendel and Pat Smear, out go all the cows! Although there is a dearth of bovine activity, there are monkeys, dolls, and manimals! So there’s that to look forward to! What will Kevin make of the sequencing of this album and will Corey have enough fresh pots to get him thro...

Corey and Kevin are back to look at side two of the debut Foo Fighters album featuring a Whole Lotta Grohl! After an uninspiring start to the season, Corey is starting to worry about what the rest of the season might hold on the albums he’s less familiar with. Kevin is much more concerned about the state of his moat but that just shows how focussed he is on the show! Will the boys be more ecstatic...

Corey and Kevin are back to kick off Season Three proper by looking that songs on side one of the Foo Fighters’ self-titled debut, which features Dave Grohl on… well, everything! We’re talkin’ mentos, we’re talking production, and we’re definitely talking lyrics. Is Dave good enough to carry an entire record on his own? Will he, they, she, we float away? The only way to find out is to turn on, tun...

Corey and Kevin are back to set up season three of the Ultimate Catalogue Clash, which covers eight albums which cover the first twenty years of the Foo Fighters. The boys talk about why the first twenty years was chosen, songs and albums they already know, live gigs, music videos and chart performance! What kind of game are the boys going to play in the aftermath of Kevin’s dismal performance in...

Corey and Kevin go head to head in a little bit of Metallica trivia, the boys lay out their top tens from this season and also reveal their respective Megaloads (it’s not nearly as dirty as it sounds!) How many songs from Reload will make it onto the boys’ lists? How many songs will appear on both? Will Corey insist on the price is right rule when it comes to deciding who we’ll cover on season thr...

The sexiest man in podcasting is back with us to talk all things 90s Metallica. We dig into the things we’ve learned over the past thirteen episodes, which tracks we loved, which we didn’t, whether the Black Album is truly a 10/10 front to back, whether Load and Reload are a product of or a reaction to the success of the Black Album, and we finally address modern art in all its bloody, seminal, ur...

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, Corey and Kevin are back with a surprise bonus episode that no-one asked for! We figured this season wouldn’t be truly complete without taking a look at (some of) 1998’s Garage Inc. and (most of) 1999’s S&M. Kevin is a huge Michael Kamen fan, but will strings and steel work for him? Will Corey risk Kevin’s ire by championing a Queen...

Corey and Kevin are back to finish up Metallica’s original studio material from the 90s! It’s time for Side D of Reload. Now, we’re not saying that a hurdy gurdy is a funny word and we’re not saying that it doesn’t belong on a Metallica record. But we’re not saying it isn’t and we’re not saying it does. Or are we? Will Kevin love a medieval madrigal and will Corey argue that Fixxxer is the greates...

Corey and Kevin are back to continue their deep dive into 90’s Metallica, covering Side C of “Reoad”. The boys were split on last week’s songs and are heading into the tail end of this season. Will they have enough stamina to get over the line? Will the wild things get them? Will they be charmed by a non-democratically monarch? Or will they choke on a bad seed?  The only way to find out is to...

Corey and Kevin are back to cover Side B of 1997’s “Reoad” as they continue their deep dive into 90’s Metallica. The first side had some challenges for both Corey and Kev, but there was a catalogue highlight for Corey too. How will Side B of Load stack up against the rest of the Metallica catalogue? Is Metallica running out of steam this way or are they still better than you? The only way to find...

Reload - Side One Corey and Kevin are back to talk about the last album in our dive into 90s-era Metallica. It’s time to Reload. Is this collection of songs nothing more than the offcuts and discarded ends of songs that weren’t good enough for Load? Is Unforgiven II a masterpiece or the worst-conceived sequel since Zoolander 2? What will Kevin think of 60s songstress Marianne Faithfull’s contribut...

Corey and Kevin are back to finish up Metallica’s first album in five years; “Load” as they continue their deep dive into 90’s Metallica. It’s been a long one folks. Eleven songs already and three left to go, including the longest song on the album. Thanks for sticking with us even if you didn’t stick with Metallica as they strayed from their thrash metal roots. Quite a long way in some cases! Cor...

Corey and Kevin are back to continue their deep dive into 90’s Metallica, covering Side C of “Load”, the follow up to the gigantic Black Album. Kevin really wasn’t keen on the hero song but what will he make of Metallica dipping their toes into Bluesy waters? Will Corey be on board with trying to headbang to the country stylings of Mama Said or will it send him into a tailspin? The only way to fin...