That Awful Sound: Recent Episodes
Alexander Edward
The show about the music you liked before you knew any better. Every week Alexander Edward and guests revisit an embarrassing song and music video, mining it for cringeworthy moments and savoring the painful memories they generate. Also, good music if there's time.
Every Episode at ThatAwfulSound.com
Sadly, the show must not go on. I may be back in the future, and you can continue to hear me once a week on Minion Death Cult at miniondeathcult.com, but as of now the show is on hiatus.
Thank you to everyone for listening and for supporting. If you're a Patreon supporter, I will honor whatever rewards you've donated towards, and I'm going to get a small batch of new shirts made.
Thanks again. Hope to see you soon.
Alexander
Welp, it's finally here. The episode where I let Cahn and Aimee yell at me about how good Dave Matthews Band is, while I yell at them about how insane these lyrics are.
Seriously, folks, this episode is rotten with Dave Matthews' sexual scat and spore: Boys, Cum, Bondage, Upskirts, Cunnilingus, and a Bare Bone all make up the song your parents made love to in 1996.
Music We Like: Kali Uchis - Isolation, Jeff Buckley - Grace, and Mass Arrest - The Savage Season Continues
This week Shaina and Michael join me to revisit Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication," a mournfully chill song about how Californian culture is copulating with the rest of the world--to mixed results.
How did Anthony Kiedis's "cleansing trip to Thailand" factor into the creation of this song? Do we have the strength of will to analyze all five verses? Can anyone but Californians enjoy this band responsibly?
Plus: a music video featuring an RHCP-themed video game that doesn't exist and shouldn't, candid moments where we admit to liking parts of this song, and as usual, utterly deranged youtube comments.
Subscribe at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for over an hour of bonus content from this episode
Following in Kid Rock’s carpetbagging cowboy boot steps, Uncle Kracker released his debut album featuring this banal, confusingly confident single about:
- Heroin (duh you stupid idiot)
- Adultery
- Being Secretly Gay
- Being Openly Very Cool
Also: a music video featuring characters fantasizing about better music, a Cracker with a stage performance like a tired sock, and an older woman in the comments section who tries to teach young boys the art of seduction.
This week I take on the sad superman song from 9/11. What more could you possibly need to know. Watch this video right now because it's incredibly dumb.
Music I Like: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Sparkle Hard
This week Michael Munoz brings his gringo expertise, and Leigh harnesses her SaNdLeR background to discuss a godawful song and video from The Offspring.
It's a wretched reboot of Pretty Fly For A White Guy featuring a cringeworthy pastiche of latino culture (mostly women) and a prominent, nauseating Rob Schneider soundbite.
Oh, the video also features high school Lolitas being molested by their principle... as a prank?
Get bonus content including music we still like and tons of youtube comments at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
3, 2, 1, Kaboom. This week I blow up the moon, and this podcast, by doing my first ever official solo episode. (I think I had a solo Grammys show like 3 years back, but we all know the Grammys don't actually matter)
I'm here to dissect one of the more bizarre entries into That Awful Sound cannon: a collaboration between Blues Traveler, JC Chasez, and 3OH!3.
Blow Up The Moon is the titular track from an album full of unwanted collaborations including Jewel, Rome without Sublime, and a guy from American Pie.
Not bizarre enough, you claim? Well, the music video was generated using Grand Theft Auto V rendering software.
Music I Actually Like: Talking Heads - '77, and Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast
This week we revisit early 2000's metalcore, and then flash-forward 6 years to when it got extremely bad, with Eighteen Visions' "Victim."
We discuss the band's transformation over their career, from interesting and good to opening for Hinder.
Music We Like: Touche Amore's Green, Daughters' Satan in the Wait, R'n'R, Doomriders, and Suicide File.
This week Leigh joins me to talk about not being allowed to listen to Alanis, not wanting to shave her armpits, and a song we both still kind of like: Paula Cole's "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?
We go over the amazingly misinterpreted lyrics of this song, including anti-feminists misreadings by Spin Magazine, Rush Limbaugh, and former congressman Allen West.
Music we still like: Swirlies - They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons and Lisa Loeb's Silly Sing-along
Welcome back to the show! This week we're returning to mid-00's radio demo with Dashboard Confessional and Spider-Man 2.
We cover the history of this song, including the fact that it was written in 10 minutes by an inspired Chris Carraba after a screening of Spider-Man 2.
We also suss out the creepiness of these lyrics, one listener's overtly creepy interpretation of these lyrics, and Cohost Tony reminisces about carrying around a watercolor portrait of Chris Carraba in his three-ring binder.
Music We Like: Thrice - The Grey, Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth, Zeta - L'antiteoria Del Todo
We're still on vacation! In the meantime, get bonus content from Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
This week it's bonus clips from our conversation with Joshua Toomey of Primer 55, including:
Primer 55 opening for Limp Bizkit, weird lyrics from folks artists, and lots of stage banter from Paul Stanley.
AND
Bonus clips from our Willa Ford episode, including:
Poo jokes, and a conversation about their place in society, Amanda Bynes' connection with this song, excerpts from a truly amazing Bro Bible article about the song, Urban Dictionary's definition of Willa Ford, and a very wholesome youtube comment.
This week we talk about Willa Ford, an aspiring bad girl whose career was cut short by a tragic event in 2001. Returning guest Laura Mee recalls this song helping hone her edge during the transition from Utah to California, and from pop to pop punk.
We talk about the precedent set by the song with likely paved the way for the “dirty” eras of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera; A weird, Eminem-based rap verse by someone who is not Eminem; And an outfit featuring what we all agree to be a diaper.
Music We Like: Zaytoven - Get Back Right, Gatecreeper - Sonoran Deprivation, and Gay Witch Abortion - Maverick
Going on vacation for two weeks! Get bonus content in the meantime at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
This week on a very special episode of That Awful Sound, we take a self-guided Sublime tour around Long Beach, visiting important historical markers such as the Sublime mural, ONS liquor store, Cal State Long Beach (where 40 oz to Freedom was recorded), Bradley Nowell’s gravesite, and a random head shop in order to bring you a jam-packed episode on the band’s breakout single, Date Rape.
How did this song exist? Why? Do Sublime fans invalidate whatever good intentions this song might’ve originally had?
Also: Dr. Drew whole-heartedly supports the song, Lou Dog gives the actor in this video 30 stitches, and Ron Jeremy produces and gives a dual-role performance.
Music We Actually Like: Karl Blau - Zebra, Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel, Death of a Nation - Self-Titled
Subscribe to patreon.com/thatawfulsound to hear bonus content from this episode including audio recorded along our tour.
This week we talk to Joshua Toomey of the Talk Toomey Podcast about playing in Primer 55, almost playing in Pressure 4-5, and interviewing Wes Borland on his podcast Talk Toomey
Also, we revisit KISS and their 1983 single Lick It Up, their first appearance without makeup and what counterintuitively helped reignite their career.
Music We Like: KISS - Destroyer, Artimus Pyle - Fucked From Birth, Bad Wolves - Disobey, A$AP Rocky - Testing
This week Michael "Matchbox" Muñoz joins me to talk Enrique and his massive hit "Bailamos" and it's weird relationship with Wild Wild West, including a music video tie-in and a gushing review from Will Smith himself.
Plus: old online news copy and all the cringe-y wordplay that entails, lyrics about defiant, life-threatening dancing, and some of the most bizarre youtube comments we've ever had
go to Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for hours of bonus content
This week I talk “Seein Red’” with Nick Guenzler (@TerminalRadness) by Unwritten Law and not Chevelle
We remember how the vast majority of us were tricked into thinking this band was punk, the various physical altercations between the lead singer and his bandmates, and the lazy-yet-bizarre music video featuring 5 clones of the singer making out with 5 clones of his girlfriend.
Music We Like: BAMBARA - Shadow on Everything, and Iceage - Beyondless
This week Cahn rejoins me to FINALLY cover another member of the Big Four: Megadeth, and their ultra-literal "Train of Consequences."
How much of this song is about horse racing? Did their drummer ever figure out how the rotating room effect works? Did Paul Schaffer ever get to shred on harmonica with another metal band? I'm afraid this episode raises more questions than it answers.
Music We Like: Sleep - The Sciences, J Cole - KOD, Goastsnake - Flower of Disease, DJ Dione - Pain Till I Die, and Megadeth
Subscribe at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for weekly bonus content and a monthly bonus episode, including our first-ever Britney Spears episode, Oops I Did It Again!
No Show Notes! It's Late! This Episode is good!
Sorry for the late release, folks! Had family in from out of town at the last minute, and this episode was a LONG one to edit.
We cover the amazing, $2.4 million video featuring oceans of goo, Janet Jackson in a dominatrix outfit, and Busta Rhymes as a shape-shifting lion dragon sperm.
Music We Like: Coltrane - A Few of My Favorite Things, Ghastly Sound, - The Bottom, Tweak Bird, Lightning Bolt, Torche - Restarter, and Sammus - Pieces in Space
This week we cover southern white trash anthem "Ugly" by Bubba Sparxx featuring: more mouth sounds from Timbaland, wild VEVO edits and even wilder intact lyrics, breakdancing in pig sh*t, and Missy Elliot on a goddamn tractor.
Music We Like: Todd Terje - It's Album Time, Invisible Inc. - Fine Print, Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Subscribe at patreon.com/thatawfulsound for a ton of bonus content including a dozen youtube comments cut for time and other cringeworthy ephemera from the Hoobastank era.
This week Ray Harkens of Taken joins the show to talk about his affinity for early 2000’s post grunge and butt rock, through the lens of Hoobastank’s “Crawling in the Dark”
Taken also has a new EP, their first recordings in over a decade, and you can hear the title track now on Spotify or other streaming services.
“If we weren’t a hardcore band, I think we would probably sound a little bit like Trust Company or Hoobastank”
In This Episode: FOUR different interpretations of the totally straightforward lyrics, one involving an animated mole prince, and another involving adolescent masturbation. Also we have Michael seeing the band on the “Sprite Liquid Mix” tour in 2002, a totally sick Mountain Dew commercial featuring Hoobastank and a pre-fame Channing Tatum, and a song meanings comment about one young man’s potential to save the world.
Music We Like: Hot Water Music - A Flight And A Crash, Slow Meadow - Costero, At The Gates - A Stare Bound In Stone, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Shiggy
This week we cover my love/hate relationship with Dido's "Thank You," a seemingly melancholy song that is actually just about a cool boyfriend.
You better believe we cover the song's intersection with Eminem's "Stan," how the movie "Up" ripped off Dido's spite house in this music video, and plenty of bizarre youtube comments.
Music We Like: Thundercat - Drank (Chopped & Skewed), Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue, and Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens
This week we cover the Dandy Warhols' "Bohemian Like You" from 2001 and like 5 car commercials. What exactly is bohemian about this song? How many times could the Rolling Stones successful sue over one song?
Music We Like: Booji Boys - Weekend Rocker, Against Me - Shapeshift With Me, Portugal the Man - Waiter: You Vultures!
This week Aimee-Beth wants to talk about ironic (?) country (?) club anthem (?) "That's My Kind of Night" by Luke Bryan
Is this song making fun of hip hop or desperately trying to crib from it? Both? Are the static shots of cowboy boots a joke? Is this music video a rejected Monday Night Football promo? Who knows?
Music We Like: Greater Pyrenees - Self-Titled, Frodus - And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea, Depeche Mode - Violator
Unique episode title and show notes cancelled due to me being too chill for 3/11 day. This is episode is good though.
I had good show notes but the internet deleted them.
the song Is about mental illness and Rob Thomas thinks “impaired” is a cool word
the video is completely terrible, features early-CGI, and his evil, big-nosed bandmates.
music we like: Courtney Barnett - Nameless Faceless, Cave In - Jupiter, EARTHGANG - Royalty
This week we take on "Cupid's Chokehold" by Cobra Starship / Fallout Boy / Supertramp supergroup: Gym Class Heroes.
Tony tells us about his connection to the track, which consists entirely of white girls wanting to be the Katy Perry to his Travie McCoy.
Lead singer Travis McCoy falls in love with girls, makes them prepare pancakes, and leans into the sloppy manchild role.
Bonus content available every week, and a full bonus episode every month once we hit our goal of $250 at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
Why Can't Music Be Like When I heard It In The Car?
We're only $9 away from our monthly goal of $250! As soon as we hit it, Patreon subscribers will start getting an exclusive, full-format episode every month www.patreon.com/thatawfulsound
This week Michael and I are joined by Josh Hallmark of the Our Americana Podcast Network (our-americana.com) to talk about Shanice’s “I Love Your Smile” and the 6th grade musical performance that resulted in him changing schools.
I'd never heard this song before, but it rules. It's got 250 doo's, expensive Janet Jackson laughter, a video about turning the tables on a stalker-y photographer, and a bout of depression nested in an otherwise feel-good, catchy-as-hell pop jam.
Help us reach our goal of $250/month at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound and we'll start releasing exclusive monthly episodes for Patreon subscribers of $1/month or more. We're so close!
Music We Like: Emily Haines' Choir of the Mind, Sparta's Wiretap Scars, and Snapcase's Progression Through Unlearning
Help us reach our goal of $250 at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound, and I'll start releasing an extra full-length episode for subscribers every month. We're only $55 away!
This episode is a listener request from Jack, who thought he could fake his way into “cool” music with this album. Boy was he wrong.
We cover the way-too-late-but-somehow-successful “Lips of an Angel” by DIY butt-rockers Hinder. With some of the worst vocals and the absolute worst stage presence, the singer spins a tale of talking dirty to an ex while his current girlfriend applies lotion in the next room.
We discover this song’s weird, record-breaking ties to early internet music technology including Myspace autoplays and cellphone ringtones, hear from commenters who definitely shouldn't be using this song as a blueprint for their own relationships, and FINALLY reveal the origin of this show’s chill Cali vibes.
This week we cover, without a doubt, our worst video yet: Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train," which features murdered mee-maws, child prostitutes, and the lead singer sitting on ACTUAL missing children.
Also: what this video has in common with Toto's Africa, what it's like to hear a 25 year-old megahit for the first time, and a comment section featuring some of the most deranged and most sensible comments we've had on the show.
Hear over an hour of deleted material from this wild episode at patreon.com/thatawfulsound. Help support the show and get a bonus episode every week (including past weeks) directly in your podcast player for only $1/month.
Here's the bonus Patreon Cahntent for the last two episodes. Today, everyone's an All-Star.
Aaliyah: Mike Sees The Offspring, Puddle of Mudd, Cold, and Adema / Shaina Gets Whatever Happened to be in Her Car Signed By Andrew WK / A Commenter Has A Theory About The Baby Noise
BPC: Matt Lip-Syncs to Backstreet Boys in 3rd Grade Despite His Mormon Upbringing // The Logical Fallacies found in All In The Family by Korn and Fred Durst // Billy Corgan Gets His Ego Stroked on Alex Jones // Billy Corgan DEFINITELY Saw A Shape-Shifter // Billy Corgan’s Blog Page Is Going To Change the World // The Secret Root Of Cahn’s Antagonism Towards Me, Finally Revealed
To get deleted scenes from this episode, including extra Live Journal entries from Billy Corgan, subscribe at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for as little as $1/month and also get weekly bonus episodes delivered straight to you podcast app, plus free and discounted merch.
This week we take on Billy Corgan, Zwan, and the brutal, public breakup of the early 2000's supergroup.
We find BC/WPC at his most petty and vindictive, raging at the "vile creatures" from Slint, Chavez, and A Perfect Circle on live journal and in the Chicago tribune. All this could be forgiven if he weren't trying so hard to look happy in this music video.
Music we like: Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics (remastered), Yo La Tengo - Shades of Blue, Mournful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma, Mastodon - Blood Mountain
This week Shaina and Michael return to help dissect an amazing, bizarre, and just-plain-great song from 1998: Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody."
Timbaland's mouth sounds. Baby sounds. Music Video Falconry. A four-hour push to write, record, and release this track as the lead single to Eddie Murphy's Dr. Doolittle, who also appears in the video.
Get deleted scenes from this and every episode delivered straight to your podcast app by subscribing at Patreon.com/ThatAwfulSound for as little as $1/month.
Music We Like: Basement - Promise Everything, Dan Auerbach - Waiting on a Song, Hey Colossus - The Guillotine
This week our resident Limp Bizkit expert Aaron Brock returns to help us dissect the good-except-for-Fred-Durst N 2 Gether Now featuring Method Man and a beat from DJ Premier.
We're talking embarrassingly weak bars, poser Limp Bizkit hats from our childhoods, signed Fred Durst photos, and, once again, youtube commenters who don't normally like rap but like this song "for some reason"
Music we like: Marika Hackman - I'm Not Your Man, Turnstile - Real Thing, and The Most Unwanted Song
Subscribe for free merch and bonus weekly episodes at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
A song I hate from 2008, The Killers’ “Human,” dares to ask the question no one understood: are we human or are we dancer?
Not “denser.” Not “dancers.” Dancer.
We cover Brandon Flowers’ battle with the media on behalf of the world’s dumbest lyric, what it means to be “dancer,” and why, in Flowers’ own words, listeners are “idiots” if they don’t get it.
Music We Like: Noname - Telephone, The Jesus Lizard - Liar, Return to Forever - Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
Bonus Weekly Episodes and Seriously Chill Merch available at patreon.com/thatawfulsound starting at only $1/mo
Happy 3rd Anniversary to that Awful Sound! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than by finally talkin' Genie in a Bottle with longtime friends and cohosts: Michael "Mikey Goo" Muñoz and Shaina "One Time" Turian.
I had to cut a ton of great stuff for time, including probably a dozen amazing YouTube comments, and the only way to hear them is at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound. $1/month gets you a private feed of every bonus episode in your podcast player
This was a super fun, super freaky, and super freewheeling episode, so put Baby New Year to bed, keep an eye on that come-count, and enjoy!
Weekly bonus episodes available at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
The Regular Dog is Back! This week we cover The Christmas Shoes, a song so reprehensible it spawned one of our most cynical, most blasphemous episodes yet.
We tackle the subject of Christmas Mom-death the only way we know how: an exploration of Christian foot fetishes, a grown man's obsession with THAT LITTLE BOY, and the purpose this song serves in the American psyche.
Music We Like: Oxbow - Thin Black Duke, Bugg - S/T, and BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION III
Sorry Folks! I worked 6 days, 70hrs last week, while sick, so no new episode. We'll be back next week with a very special Christmas episode! In the meantime, here's one of my favorites.
This week we “Meet Virginia,” a monster brought to life by mom rock juggernauts Train in their 1998 single. She’s not like other girls.
Also: rhyming words with themselves… twice, remorseful memories of bullying girls in high school with Nickelback lyrics and flying burritos, and, again, a song that strikes an unlikely chord with am internet commentator.
Music We Like: Watsky - X Infinity, Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition, and Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast
This week we're covering the semi-woke, semi-forgotten single from Papa Roach's 3x platinum Infest: "Between Angels & Insects."
Inspired by a wild assortment of works (Fight Club, Buddhism, and a 1994 British period drama with the same name), the song tackles the age old conundrum: money sucks, but bedazzled Affliction t-shirts rule.
In this episode: Michael learned these tabs, Tony relates to Papa Roach fans through a friend from a broken home, and I think this song is better than Last Resort
Music We Like: Glassjaw - Material Control, For Against - Echelons, Quicksand - Interiors (again)
Movies I Like: Home
Welcome to our first Nickelback-related video! Spoler alert: it sucks.
This is the song from the Spider-Man soundtrack performed by a butt rock supergroup made up of Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, Saliva Frontman Josey “Joe C” Scott, and the douchebag from Theory of a Deadman
Sure, Nickelback himself is on this track, but the meat of the episode lies with Joe C and his weird antagonistic relationship with The Hives, The Strokes, and Chad Kroeger himself.
Make sure to check out our buddy Oliver on the Video Negative podcast
Music We like: Quicksand - Interiors, Less Art - Strangled Light, and Renounced
Subscribe to the brand new Minion Death Cult on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts
This week we “watch lots of crotch” and paint this episode white as we take on Kid Rock’s eerily prescient, “Cowboy,” which foreshadows Kid Rock’s turn toward bro country and hick hop, and unfortunately inspired many others to do the same.
Also: A video probably directed by McG, the best side-effect of Kid Rock’s career, and of course his “prank” senate run.
This week the podcast gets p o l i t i c a l as we take on a truly awful, literally genocidal, stand-for-the-anthem anthem, "Salute the Brave" by hick-hop artist Hosier and Facebook vlogger Adam Calhoun.
Make sure to subscribe to our brand new podcast, MINION DEATH CULT, a show about the deranged politics of the internet, and partly inspired by this episode.
A video with 2.5 million views, "Salute the Brave" has lyrics about killing liberals, carpet-bombing Afghanistan, and "screaming at America." The music video has plenty of salutes, guns, and cucked protesters.
Music We Like: Bad History Month - Dead and Loving it, No Warning - Torture Culture, Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference, and Christian Scott - The Anthem
We have a dispatch from Travis’s stint at Ozzfest, a pitch for a new #Beardvape-adjacent product, JP’s mom reveals her funeral playlist, MuDvAyNe gets poetic, and a truly wild music video including a CGI iron lung on a beach
Music We Like: Flying Lotus - Post Requisite, Suffocation - ...Of the Dark Light, and Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire / Post Self
“This song reminds me of a long prog song put inside a car crusher.”
On this jam-packed, 48 minute bonus episode we have a live musical performance to commemorate Cahn’s first visit to the show, Alex Jones’ fascination with Danzig, a Danzig-themed county fair, women as ouiji boards, Music We Like, and the climactic ending to our Hot Topic Trek
Cahn Curtis is back and exhausted in his disappointment in Danzig’s masochistic, Disney-released 5th album, Blackacidevil, and its lead single, “Sacrifice.”
We’ve got sub-NIN industrial metal, lyrics possibly written by JB Smoove, Danzig helps with puberty, angry fans sacrifice each other to ensure a better harvest, an update on Tom Delonge's current headspace, and a dispatch from our sPoOkY trip to Hot Topic.
Subscribe for only $1/month at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound to get weekly bonus episodes, including much more from our recent trips to Spencer's and Hot Topic
New T-Shirt, Posters, and Stickers available at thatawfulsound.com/merch & patreon.com/thatawfulsound
Happy Halloween! This week we cover the apparently spooky "I Miss You," from Boxcar Racer + Mark Hoppus supergroup: Blink 182.
We try to figure out whether Blink 182 or My Chemical Romance started this emo/goth/pop punk trend; wade through the deepest, darkest realms of genius annotations; and guest Nick Guenzler struggles between his personal relationship with the band and the overwhelming cringe-iness of the song;
We of course also cover Tom Delonge’s infamous “WHERE ARE YOU” verse, his attempts at sincere-face in the music video, and a youtube comment tailored so specifically to us that it’s scary.
Music We Like: King Krule - OOZ, Fearing - A Life Of None, and Tones on Tail
This week we're joined by Luca Cimarusti to talk about Starting Line's gross video for Three's A Charm featuring a gut-busting joke where an old man has a threesome with highschool students.
We struggle with these turned (the other way) phrases, singer Kenny's budding sexuality, what feels like 30 tongue-takes, and "pathetic" youtube commenters.
Listen to Luca's band Luggage on your preferred streaming platform and buy their new tape at http://www.luggagechicago.bandcamp.com
This week we discuss our love/mock relationship with Red Hot Chili Peppers and their 1993 Coneheads tie-in, "Soul to Squeeze."
This song is totally about d r u g s , we get some of the best scatting we’ve had on the podcast, Emma finds a sentient bass guitar in the comments section, Dana Carvey’s Turtleman character mourns 9/11, and we determine the Suicide Squad equivalents of each band member
Music We Like: John Frusciante - “Niandra LaDes…”, Dot Hacker, The Coneheads, “Conehead Love,” Skeletal Family - “Futile Combat”
If you want to support the show, tell a friend about us! If you want to support the show and get an extra episode every week, subscribe at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for as little as a $1/mo to get a private feed of weekly bonus episode in your podcast player.
(00:00) Rockabye is on 32 album releases, including “World’s Best Dad: Super Tracks for Super Dads” and “American Anthems II”
(11:00) Shawn Mullins creepily whispers a Jack Nicholson impression in the verse of this song that no one seems to remember, but there’s a reason
(19:00) These lyrics are literally about putting a sad audience member to bed
(42:00) Music Video feat. the punk daughter from Face/Off and a looming, leering, Shawn Mullins
(1:09:00) YouTube comments including one from the ACTUAL author of these lyrics
(1:25:00) Music We “Like”: Virgo Rouge, who is single handedly bringing back the “dead” music industry with her eclectic apartment psych rock
This week, against my will, we’re making fun of Actually Good Song “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette. My guest Shaina Turian and I share memories about growing up with Jagged Little Pill, and Cohost Emma scoffs from the sidelines.
We generally try to avoid the tired, “this isn't ironic” observation and focus on what’s truly worth talking about: the disproportionate degrees of misfortune in the lyrics and their occasional similarities to a Mentos commercial, how it’s actually pretty good and cool that Alanis didn't care about the definition of “irony” when writing this song, and whether the characters in the music video are figments of her imagination or degenerative clones.
Also: How Futurama struck back against this song, the “massive amount of scatting” going on in 90’s fem rock, and smoking weed out of Bugles
Music We Like: Jagged Little Pill, Ariel Pink's "Dedicated to Bobby Jameson," and Cass McCombs' "Mangy Love"
Michael has a true story about Mexico, Radiohead is on NOW That’s What I Call Music, Rockabye is a bad song, Michael is Tal Bachman, Giantess fetishists must be brought out of the shadows, Tal Bachman has a weird character named Ian Starglow, Hellenists are being persecuted, and lots of other dumb youtube comments
Subscribe at patreon.com/thatawfulsound to get a private feed with weekly bonus episodes. $1/month gets you every weekly bonus episode, past and present.
This week we take on BTO royalty and totally-real human, Tal Bachman, and the totally-normal story behind his hit single “She’s So High.”
We address the overbearing wholesomeness of 90’s pop rock in general and resolute niceguy-ness in these lyrics, take a dive into Michael Muñoz’s history with NOW Thats What I Call Music, and explain why KIDZ BOP is objectively the superior franchise
We also discover the shocking truth behind the name “Bachman,” dissect a music video that cant quite pull the trigger on its hyper-literal concept, and I present a thoeory about the lyrics that involves neither the drugs, class barriers, or nice-guyism that Tal would have you believe.
Music We Like: The Stills’ “Logic Will Break Your Heart,” Hot Water Music’s “Light It Up," and Metz’ “Strange Peace,”
This week we have a super fun episode about a song you probably don't remember by a band you definitely don’t remember: Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX’s “Loose” by Primer 55.
We analyze the “new style” found in probably the most generic rap metal song in existence, aided and abetted by Incubus’s DJ and hed PE’s Jarod Gomes. What does “get loose” mean in this context? Why doesn't this vocalist sound the least bit loose?
Also: literal nu metal cringe, decoding the sexual messaging behind particular hairstyles in the nu metal community, contracting conjunctivitis in a push pit, an odd amount of singer J-Sin’s personal acquaintances in the comment section.
Music We Like: Lil Uzi Vert’s “Luv Is Rage 2” and Old Baby’s “Love Hangover”
This week we revisit the sick & twisted mind of Jimmy Urine and Mindless Self Indulgence with their 2005 single "Shut Me Up." Is this the most shocking band we've ever covered?
This isn't your daddy or mommy's episode of That Awful Sound, and we get offensive as hell as Emma traces her contamination with the MSI virus back to a single Juggalette on LiveJournal.
We try and fail to censor Mr. Urine's over-the-top lyrics about drinking black coffee and about how music has both bass and treble; question his purported love of black metal; and gasp at totally rAnDoM acts of violence in the music video, which was directed by the creator of Invader Zim, is DEFINITELY on drugs, and helped a youtube commentator finally realize class consciousness and anti-racism.
Music We Like: Mogwai - "Every Country’s Sun", Graham Nash - "Songs For Beginners," Neil Young - "Hitchhiker"
This week we get too drunk and cover NuNuMetal band Orgy and their y2k cybergoth single, “Fiction (Dreams in Digital).”
Our guest Kevan describes the complications of buying an Orgy CD as a minor, we discuss how art in general has a bad track record of portraying comas as “beautiful” (including cultural titans like The Mars Volta and Monkeybone), and we give competing theories about whether this song is about A.I. or a G.G. (Gamer Girlfriend).
Jay Gordon removes his ribs for a different reason, and Emma gives the worldwide debut performance of a parody version of the song I found online, written by someone who hates Bill Clinton.
Music We Like: Racetraitor’s “By The Time I Get To Pennsylvania,” Godflesh’s “Songs of Love and Hate in Dub,” and Vijay Iyer Sextet’s “Far from Over”
This week we’re taking on Hoobastank and their gigantic, sorry-about-the-domestic-violence mega-hit, “The Reason,” whose music video features an inexplicable jewel heist. (probably a good idea in retrospect)
My guest Michael remembers this being the moment his beloved Hoobastank “sold out”, we draw a definitive line between real music and fake music, I remember being forced to sing Christian parodies of popular secular songs (like this one), lead singer DougRobb sings a Sonic the Hedgehog theme about fistbumping, and much more.
Music We Like: Joni Mitchel, The Roches, & Brand New’s “Science Fiction”
Support the show for as little as $1/month and get weekly bonus episodes (including all past bonus episodes) in a private feed on your podcast app: Patreon.com/thatawfulsound
We're back from vacation! This week we're talking about Limp Bizkit's intensely lame stab at the Mission Impossible theme, which, for some reason, is called "Take A Look Around" and almost entirely about hitting back at critics.
I talk about how this song definitely affected me for the worse, John Woo's bizarre entry into the Mission Impossible canon, and the painfully uneventful music video directed by Fred Durst himself. We've got kung-fu nose wheelies, exploding Oakley sunglasses, and intensely suspenseful soup-eating.
Music We Like: Meat Wave's "The Incessant," Chipmunks on 16 speed Tay-K, and Trouble
This week we revisit the song that made my guest rip off his Avenged Sevenfold shirt, peel off his fingerless gloves, and stomp on his leather fedora flat: “Bat Country”
We discuss the Guns N Rose-ification of the band on their third album, the time my high school English teacher made me turn their shirt inside out, and their choice to honor Hunter S Thompson with CGI bat wings and weirdly phallic, reptilian stripper tails.
Also: incessant over-the-top drumming, phrase after boring phrase coined in the lyrics, embarrassing listener comments from the Facebook group and an overly supportive stepdad in the youtube comments
Music We Like: Royal Blood’s “Hook Line and Sinker,” Royal Headache’s “Royal Headache,” Lemonheads “The Lemonheads,” Propagandhi’s “Victory Lap,” and Boris’s “Dear”
This week we return to the abundant well of 311, with the much-too-pleasant lead single from their 1995 self-titled album, “Don’t Stay Home.”
Emma has to create a new ranking system to convey exactly how much she loves this band, we feel pity for whatever stoner Nick Hexum is condescending to in these lyrics, we get latin double-time breaks to rival even those of Led Zeppelin, and the video, while boring, contains two elements crucial to the success of this podcast.
We get one of the wildest metaphors yet in these lyrics, discover the 311 section of youtube commentariat, and introduce what I hope will be a running segment: Archived FAQs from 311.com
Music We Actually Like: Dwarr’s “Animals,” 21 Savage’s “Issa Album,” and Protomartyr’s “A Private Understanding”
This week my guest Leigh tells us about being “indoctrinated” into the world of New Kids On The Block by an over-enthusiastic Blockhead cousin, and we discuss the lyrically reprehensible and musically unreasonable “Give It To You” by Jordan Knight.
We uncover Robin Thicke, Alan Thicke, and Donnie Wahlberg's roles in this supremely creepy “forced anthem,” we get an unreliable, secondhand account from Jordan Knight assuring us that his conquest did indeed “want this,” and how his history with NKOTB might've created the sense entitlement we hear in these lyrics.
Movies(?!) We Like: Baby Drive and One More Time With Feeling
This week we’re revisiting “Barbie Girl,” the anomalous, insanely popular European dance song by Danish band Aqua.
My guest Angie remembers associating this song with “evil” and “pain,” Emma relates her thorough knowledge of Barbie and Ken’s anatomy, and together we explore the overall weirdness of this fairly sexual song built around a children’s toy.
We’ve got courtroom controversy, misheard and misunderstood lyrics, an extremely interesting shaved head, lots of misguided rage in the youtube comments, and plenty of terrible parody videos.
“I don’t think anybody liked this song. It just happened to all of us.”
This week we discuss our second Christian song in two weeks (the first of course being OPM’s seminal hit “Heaven is a Halfpipe”), “Pitiful” by Blindside, Christianity’s answer to Refused.
Emma shares her memories of relating to this song despite her secular upbringing, and guest Michael Muñoz describes not recognizing the religious themes of this song despite his Christian upbringing. We dive into amazing lyrics about nails being driven into “beautiful hands,” and try to figure out how a devout Christian band can be filled with so much angst.
Also: we finally get to see whats going on outside of the “rotating room” music video trope, the uncomfortable master/slave dynamic between singer Christian and his namesake, and the lyrical twist that serves as the crux of these lyrics but also doesn't quite work.
This week we take on seriously chill Cali / stoner / Christian? / skater anthem? “Heaven is a Halfpipe” by goateed punsters OPM. We’ve got a blatant stab at radioplay that is as confusing as it is repetitive, comments from the singer 15 years after the song’s release, and a one-note music video that nonetheless leads to a 10 minute riff on JNCO culture.
Also: the return of terrible band member nicknames & album titles, possible premeditated controversy vs. actual controversy, and tributes to Grandpa in the YouTube comment section.
PLUS: Join the new Facebook group to get advance notice on which episodes we’re doing! Your memories and jokes might make it on the air.
After popping up on the show recently, we’re finally talking about (həd) P.E. and their y2k, Limp Bizkit sound-alike, “Bartender.” Misspelled lyrics, sexy football metaphors, singer Jahred’s unique beliefs, and my guest’s (and his parents') relationship with the band.
Also: Completely improper bar etiquette, a youtube commentator remembers an uncensored version of this video that does not exist, and a strange Jethro Tull sighting
Music We Like: Decapitated, Samla Mammas Manna’s “Måltid,” Mizery’s “Absolute Light,” and Laughing Hyenas' "Merry Go Round"
Guest Matt Zeidner joins the show to talk about Godsmack’s “Voodoo,” his first foray into dark-lite (or XxDaRkLiGhTxX) music. WARNING: this video contains an Actual Wiccan Ceremony conducted by the Official Witch of Massachusetts. (for reals)
Why is Godsmack-related Wikipedia always so good? Why does this song fit so well with last week’s Boyz II Men sex-jam? Is this song part of Kurt Cobain’s true legacy? Why wont we do Mudvayne’s “Dig” on the show? Is this the wildest comments section we’ve ever done?
No Music We Like section this week. We don't like music this week.
This week we're taking on Boyz II Men and their super-literal, shockingly generous song about a man willing to make love to his girl on her special night. It's "Ill Make Love To You."
We also have a weird, wonderful music video about a man brazen enough to threaten a woman with breaking and entering, but tender enough to write her love letter before he does it. What demands do Boys II Men imagine their interest making on her special night?
Plus: awkward mother/daughter singalongs to this song, gnarly youtube comments, and a “theory about blinking.”
Music We Like: The Zombies, Emil Amos, and KEN Mode
This week it’s a super fun episode as Michael Munoz joins us to make fun of Disturbed and their tragic modern take on the story of Job, “Prayer.” We cover the religious and anti-religious lyrical themes, the 9/11 controversy surrounding the video, and the singer’s INSANELY dumb chin piercings. Seriously, these things are bad.
Also: an evangelical in the genius.com annotations, a snide MTV article about the video, eerie similarities between the band and Refused, and INTENSE religious controversy in the comments section.
Music We Like: Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, Kendrick Lamar’s Damn, Land of Talk’s Life After Youth
It's fairly ironic (or is it appropriate?) that I was unable to release this episode yesterday, because Emma Maatman and I are revisiting “Blue Monday,” Orgy’s “aggro-fied-for-the-1990s” version of the New Order classic.
We cover the angst-filled tone-shift in this incarnation of the song, harsh puns in the lyrics, and have an in-depth discussion about the intense makeup situation going on in this pretty-good music video.
Plus: genius.com contributors argue bitterly over who the real victims are in these lyrics, Wikipedia credits Orgy for The Matrix, Buckcherry starts beef with the band, Rihanna releases a covert cover of the cover that we discovered, and of course, plenty of wild comments from youtube and songmeanings.
Music We Like: Kamasi Washington’s “The Epic” and a huge helping of Afghan Whigs, including their new album, “In Spades”
Distinguished burps, political merit badges, shilling for Apple products, egotistical local businessmen, the horrors of modern feminism, an argument about Bono, and plenty more deranged comments about the Spice Girls. Hear the full 28 minutes and every weekly bonus episode at www.patreon.com/thatawfulsound
This week it's a ridiculously fun episode on Spice Girls' Wannabe from 1996. Emma laments having to be the Baby Spice in her friend group; I discover the stigma against my childhood crush, Sporty Spice; we reveal the strange and wonderful etymology of "zigazig ha," as well as the sordid pasts the Girls want you to forget.
Also: charitable and WILDLY uncharitable interpretations of the song’s confusing message, the sociopathic behavior exhibited by the group in a music video with unsettling parallels to A Clockwork Orange, and an extra long, extra perverted comment section.
Music We Like: Gnarwhal's Crucial, Animal Collective's 2009 EP Fall Be Kind, and Ides of Gemini's new album Women
It's the 100th Episode Spectacular! We're returning to our roots by covering one of our favorite targets: Metallica and another Load-era, mid-tempo slogger, "The Memory Remains." Possibly more importantly, we're also covering the new Hetfield-narrated, moralizing documentary "Addicted to Porn: Chasing the Cardboard Butterfly." That's a real title, and we don't know what it means.
We find surprisingly competent lyrics (probably not written by James) as well as expectedly cliche lyrics (definitely written by James), all of which tell the story of an aging, washed-up celebrity desperately clinging to the vestiges of her fame, and played by singer Marianne Faithful in the video.
Was it an insult to offer her this gig? Does Metallica realize the irony in the subject matter? Is Faithful the reason that the Rolling Stones pop up so much in this episode? Is Lars' drumming even worse than usual?
Plus: we briefly go over the amazing aforementioned documentary that attempts to protect the "beautiful essence of women," as exhibited in the wife who wants to gouge out her husband's eyes for watching porn. We also discover some of James amazing late-in-life tattoos, and I get Szyslak'd by a listener email.
Thank you so much to everyone for helping me make it to 100 episodes! This is the funnest thing I've ever done, and I hope I can do at least 100 more.
A quick tease for this week's bonus Patreon episode: nearly an hour discussion of the mind-numbingly hilarious Fyre Fest Fiasco. Emma stops by to help me read from a NYT article about the aftermath that left "upwardly mobile millennial influencers" looking for a "boutique live music experience" stranded on an island for days with no music and only cheese sandwiches to eat.
Subscribe for only $1/month at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound to get a private feed with this episode as well as past and future weekly bonus episodes.
This week it's a thoroughly disgusting episode of That Awful Sound: we’re revisiting the undiluted raunch in Methods of Mayhem’s “Get Naked.” Tommy Lee flops around naked in a bucket hat. Lil Kim rides a giant mechanical rooster. Fred Durst, George Clinton, and Mixmaster Mike chip away at their varying degrees of dignity by making cameos.
Also: angry/horny youtube commenters, cgi nipples, plenty of racism, and Anthony Tomato responds to our Mest episode on instagram.
“This music video is bad for you”
“It’s bad. It’s not like junk food, it’s not like a Snickers bar, its like putting gasoline in your body”
This week we're revisiting the unreliable witnesses in Creed and their utterly sour lead single, My Own Prison.
We're chatting about how they fit into our christian (or non-Christian) backgrounds, the band's absurd claim that they aren't actually a "christian band," and how Scott Stapp’s narcissism seeps through these overtly pious lyrics.
Music we like: The Mountain Goats and Pile's "A Hairshirt of Purpose"
Warning: very simple description for this week's episode on account of me being drunk for Easter, but let it suffice to say that this episode contains: mouth sores, a story about my guest getting her period during a slow dance at her christian school, at least 10 different misinterpretations of this song from the comments section, and listener responses to the Mest episode.
This week we cover the the copyright-respecting second single “Zip-Lock,” from Bowling Rock troubadours, Lit; It’s a song about pockets?
We have a broader conversation about how musical tropes seem novel when you’re younger, bands deliberately writing stage directions into their lyrics, and this director’s penchant for parodying better ideas from other videos (in this case, Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and in last week’s case, Heavy Metal Parking Lot.)
Also: Another kid president (but this time with more dads), a letter from listener and artist @JDRenaud, and a few words from our new sponsor, Roswell Mutual Insurance.
This week we cover Nice Guy Anthem(TM) “Flavor of the Weak” by American Hi-Fi. What kind of dirt does the singer have on this girl? How much does he know about her boyfriend? What does he have against marijuana and Nintendo, two things that are arguably very good?
Also: We dissect the music video, a glamorized, sanitized version of the cult documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” and reminisce about how great the latter is.
Music We Like: Baroness - Purple, Land of Talk - Inner Lover, and Thundercat - Drunk (again)
This week we dive back into Angie’s wheelhouse, “80’s songs that a lot of people hate.” We’re revisiting Toto’s Africa: a song about a man who sees “death and suffering” in Africa on TV and then compares the continent to a woman he wants to have sex with.
We have a song with about 5 layers of keyboards pretending to be marimbas, drums dressed up like hand drums but being played with sticks, burning a book titled “Africa,” standing on a book titled “Africa,” and brutally tortured lyrics like, “I know that I must do what's right, as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti”
Music We Like: Chavez’s Cockfighters EP, the new At The Drive In, Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War, The Native Howl, and Soft Kill’s “Choke”
This week we cover a music video so terrible, we had to do it twice. It’s Mest’s “Cadillac,” an early 2000’s pastiche of pop punk, hip hop, and cali beach vibes that is so unbearable, even those of us who didn't listen to the band are embarrassed.
Guest Nick Guenzler shares a wealth of entertaining stories including the time he ghosted a high school girlfriend for 4 months, catching the singer showing off to Warped Tour bands by doing donuts in his Mest™ brand Cadillac, and a very tumultuous Mest reunion.
Also: the singer’s white power background and other ways in which “knowing right from wrong is what [he] lacks,” a member of the Mest family makes an appearance in the comment section, and a track from my old band with Nick, Shut Eye.
Music We Like: Stove - Is The Meat That Fell Out, Yuck - Self Titled, and Them Crooked Vultures - Self-Titled
Listen to Shut Eye's newest EP at shuteyeband.bandcamp.com
This week we cover “Truly Madly Deeply,” a song my guests and I always knew better than to like and which seems to have caused us to lose our minds.
We mostly skip over the 5 minute video, which contains nothing except turtlenecks, “duster ideas,” and yellow skin, and instead focus on these utterly generic lyrics, which are fantastically trite and may conceal an ulterior motive.
Also: Our guest JP’s sexual history with this track, an extremely disturbing Jude Law movie for which this song is the “love theme,” and some advice on from the comment section on the optimal time to sing this song to your lover.
Music We Like: Jackal Onasis - Big Deal Party, Grandaddy’s new single “Evermore,” and Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
This week we cover Limp Bizkit’s hyper-aggressive “Break Stuff,” a song and video that literally broke apart my guest’s parents’ marriage. He shares this story, other parental connections to the show, and we remember how badass all these cuss words are when you’re 13.
Also: a possible explanation for Fred Durst’s pitch-perfect portrayal of teenage anger, the worst genius.com annotations we’ve ever had on the show, the coolest number to have facing outward on your dice stud earring, and a listener email involving a disturbing sleepover with a KoЯn doll and an even more disturbing Lit-era wardrobe.
You can now support That Awful Sound at patreon.com/thatawfulsound and paypal.me/thatawfulsound, and remember to check out Emma's work at instagram.com/emmamaatman
This week we cover No Doubt’s Spiderwebs and its unthematic video in which the band performs for an unreceptive wedding party. We’re chatting about the pre-sexual camera-humping of Gwen Stefani, Sam Rami-style cinematography, and whether Joan Stefani couldn't have been the one to screen her daughter’s phone calls.
Also: fond memories of the local “steel drum guy,” and my guests relay stories about living in the Sublime house and being kissed by Lit singer AJ Popoff at a No Doubt concert.
Music we like: BossaCucaNova's "Bom dia Rio," Sisters of Mercy's Floodland, and Pile's "Dogs"
“I just broke up with my super hot bassist boyfriend, and I wanna get my crotch out there”
This week we cover “Dragula” by Rob Zombie, a song and video we all loved that holds up surprisingly well. With almost nothing bad to say about the video, we turn to a comment section filled with borderline insane people, including but not limited to: offended/not-offended wiccans, 9 year-old head bangers, and potential school shooters.
Was this song an attempt at marketing the idea of a weekend to our dedicated labor force? Did Zombie just want to write a song about a badass car? (yes) And we come up with a cool name for your penis.
Music we like: Dark Thoughts and Joan of Arc's "He's Got The Whole This Land Is Your Land In His Hands"
This week we “Meet Virginia,” a monster brought to life by mom rock juggernauts Train in their 1998 single. She’s not like other girls.
Also: rhyming words with themselves… twice, remorseful memories of bullying girls in high school with Nickelback lyrics and flying burritos, and, again, a song that strikes an unlikely chord with am internet commentator.
Music We Like: Watsky - X Infinity, Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition, and Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast
This week we talk about “the opposite of jazz fusion”: Green Jelly’s claymation video for “Three Little Pigs."
In this episode: Guest Derek’s appreciation of songs made up of just one riff, a healthy discussion on the merits of anthropomorphic pig asses, and an edgy, 90’s update of the Big Bad Wolf gets gunned down by Rambo.
“Is this the longest punk song ever written?”
“This is three minutes longer than the longest punk song ever written.”
Music We Like: Ken Mode's Success LP and Nerve EP, Robert Glasper and Jill Scott's "Calls," and AFI's "Get Hurt"
This week I'm talking exclusively to Emma Maatman about her single-digit, pre-tween relationship with Backstreet Boys and the excellent video for the historically complicated "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)".
We cover the most confidently dinky beat in RnB and a fun, very "believable" music video featuring a backflipping werewolf "pimp," a hideously scarred phantom of the opera, and a goofy, decidedly un-sexual mummy.
Also: Not wanting to be a homewrecker or a “slut” when choosing your boy band crush, learning grammar through pop songs, and the christian names of these classic monsters
Music we like: Chavez's Cockfighter EP
This week we're covering Crazy Town... again? Guest Matt Zeidner explains how, at age 12, this was the perfect blend of hip hop and punk rock (as clearly stated in the song), and how a particularly terrible lyric held a personal meaning for him.
Also: Crazy Town describes what this song sounds like, namedrops MUCH better bands, hints at even more disturbing fantasies than those we’re aware of, and a listener relates an Awful Sound-related band encounter.
Music we like: Slowdive's new track, Star Roving, and Migos' upcoming C U L T U R E
This week Cahn returns to chat about the INCREDIBLE "Chattahoochee" from 1993. Is this the music video America needs right now? I think so.
On the docket: Alan Jackson's penchant for writing songs based on phrases he hears; the average temperature of "a hoochie coochie"; interesting reactions to frustrated abstinence; the good-natured fun and stunning visuals of the video, which revolve around teenage antics and glorious footage of Jackson himself absolutely shredding on a single ski in the Chattahoochee river.
Music we like: Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Omar Rodriguez Lopez's Sworn Virgins
Remember to check out Nick Bahula's artwork at instagram.com/bahulashop and throw some business his way!
This week guest Travis Duscay finally admits musical fallibility as we return to one of his adolescent favorites, The Bloodhound Gang, and their hackneyed, overbearingly ironic "Fire Water Burn."
Does repeating a punchline twice make it three times as funny? As an aging actor, would you risk what might be your final performance on being the butt of Jimmy Pop's sight gags? If you admit to being white frequently enough, do you become a good rapper? Colby Ferrin has an answer for that.
Music We Like: Death Grips - Bottomless Pit, Troller
It’s the 2 year anniversary of That Awful Sound! For this special episode we revisit New Found Glory’s lovesick, middle school anthem “Dressed to Kill” and its cringey video featuring a y2k-era nice-guy stalker lusting after an equally psychotic Rachel Leigh Cook.
To commemorate the 2-year anniversary we dive deeper than ever into our horrible fashion choices, including fake piercings made from household items, hot topic socks worn thin, and temporary tattoos purchased FAR too late in life.
We also recap our favorite albums of the year, including Angel Du$t’s “Rock The Fuck On Forever,” Helms Alee’s “Stillicide,” Creative Adult’s “Fear of Life,” Dinosaur Jr’s “Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not,” BADBADNOTGOOD’s “IV,” Nocturnal Habits’ “New Skin For Old Children,” Solange’s “A Seat At The Table,” Field Music’s “Common Time,” Autolux’s “Pussy’s Dead,” and Royal Canoe’s “Something Got Lost Between Here and The Orbit”
This week we dive into the women-empowering, yet totally insane video for TLC's Unpretty: forced boob jobs, CGI ladybugs, gang wars (for some reason), and onscreen bulimia.
Music we like: Mariachi El Bronx, Baroness's "Shock Me," and Ty Segall's new band Goggs.
This week we have an emergency broadcast! We’re talking about Lit’s current foray into country music and their new transparent, pandering single, “Fast.”
How many of Real America’s erogenous zones can you tap into with one video? What’s the coolest kind of car to drive to your father’s deathbed? Would this stunt have played differently had the election gone the other way? How offensive are our fake country accents? Find out today!
This week we cover 311’s All Mixed Up and I reveal the various reasons this song stimulates the 311 pleasure center in my brain, recall how these lyrics got me all mixed up as an 8 year-old, and we cringe our way through an extremely unfortunate appearance of the song on American Idol.
Also: We recast Fight Club, have a steamy discussion about outdated units of measurement, and relay more youtube comments than you could ever want.
“I love that album. Transistor’s one of my favorites. Ah. Why did I say that.”
"There’s something about being a 7th grade girl, your sexual awakening is really awkward, but if he looks kind of like an alien, it makes it less awkward."
No show notes due to seasonal, work-related exhaustion. Enjoy the show!
This week Emma reflects on the uncomfortable experience of hearing Offspring’s libertarian protest anthem, Why Don't You Get A Job, as an 11 year-old girl trying to get into punk music.
Also: what this dumb song has in common with the Beatles, The Simpsons, and Pootie Tang; Dexter Holland’s confusion over foreign currency; a sorely missed opportunity for director McG, and a way to use this grating song to your advantage.
Music We Like: Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas - Mariner, Khemmis - Hunted, A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here
It's the long-promised third Awful Sound-Off with Aimee-Beth! You wrote in, we responded. Psychedelic Smash Mouth, sage advice from an older brother, stern mothers, and secret skateboard lessons. Thanks for writing in! Continue to do so at AwfulPodcast@Gmail.com
This week! Aimee-Beth returns to help me dissect the cringe-y music video and bizarrely outdated lyrics for “I Will Buy You A New Life” by desperate-ex-husband-in-band-form Everclear.
Aimee recalls enjoying the emotional honesty (read: oversharing) of lead singer Art, while I remember knowing, even at ten years old, that something was very wrong with the song’s message.
Also: we cry about the US Presidential election and celebrate my victory at the twitter polls, where, coincidentally, I also won with a mere plurality of votes; vent some rage at Maroon 5; and uncover what the band Lit has been up to.
Music We Like: Courtney Barnett (again), Mouse on the Keys, Nocturnal Habits (again), L.A. Witch, The Coathangers, New Ruin, Super Unison
This week my brother-in-law stops by to chat about butt rock/post grunge band Default and their 2001 single, "Wasting My Time."
We discuss the Canadians' unfortunate choices both in this video and their career in general, not least of which would be letting Chad Kroeger write over half the songs on their debut album.
We dive into the ultra literal and hilariously lazy music video and expound on the genre of butt rock in general: What does it mean? What bands does it cover? Where are its roots?
Music We Like: Chevelle's "Saferwaters," The Lemon Twigs' "Do Hollywood," and Creative Adults' "Fear of Life"
This week we take on ska-punk/alternative rock/post grunge/funk metal band Jimmie’s Chicken Shack and their three-minute cringe compilation of a music video for Do Right.
Jimi Haha undermines the victim-playing message of the song with incriminating lyrics and makes a mediocre song much worse by dint of an insufferable music video. Emma introduces a new segment, Michael shakes his head more than in any other episode, and I find a way to make Jimi’s sophisticated artwork more relatable to the everyman.
Stuff We Like: clipping.'s "Air 'Em Out," Post Pink's "Maid in Mexico," and Nocturnal Habit's "Good Grief"
“The easiest way to not need a citation is if you put ‘arguably’ at the beginning”
This is a new mini-episode and segment that rose organically from a surprisingly negative reaction I had listening to Velvet Underground's Heroin. I know this is a bad opinion, and Cahn is here to tell me why.
Make sure to tell me just how wrong I am on Facebook and Twitter
It’s Halloween on That Awful Sound! Former Rob Zombie Superbeast Cahn Curtis joins me to discuss and dissect “Never Gonna Stop,” which, while not being terrible, still represents the end of his obsession with the artist.
We hear about how Cahn sold his prescription meds in order to buy overpriced White Zombie bootlegs, make a revelation or two about these seemingly random lyrics, and wonder aloud at how a horror director could make a such a beautiful, but utterly ultra-nonviolent homage to A Clockwork Orange.
Music We Like: Acid Witch - “Stoned” and Jesu/Sun Kil Moon
This week we're covering the terrible rap metal your older brother wasn't listening to: Suicidal Tendencies side-project, Infectious Groove's "Therapy" featuring Ozzy.
Guest Jerry "Wazzup" Woolbright remembers being introduced to this band in second grade by an older cousin as a way to bridge the gap between hair metal and punk, and we revel in another euphemism for mental illness involving a train and Ozzy Osbourne.
Also in this episode: The band's appearance in Encino Man, this video's ties to adult swim, and multiple songwriting credits on this album attributed to a cartoon character invented by the band (really).
Recommended in this episode: Suicidal Tendencies (obviously), Neurosis' "Fires Within Fires" and the films Murder Party, Blue Ruin, and Green Room
Disclaimer: Slightly spicier language found in this episode
This week: first-time guest Chris Arias shares his memories of Aaron Carter’s Aaron’s Party, second-time guest Jerry Woolbright remembers being too old for this sh*t, and together we dissect this Kid Power throwback to the golden age of funk and hip hop.
In this track: Out of control calls and responses, corny sound fx, anachronistic lyrics obviously written by much older men, and uncomfortable allusions of what was to come for the young artist.
Stuff we like: Charly Bliss - “Urge to Purge,” Dinosaur Jr. - “Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not,” Lush - “Blind Spot EP”
This week Sloane Sache joins me for the first time to talk about Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta, and try to figure out what these misheard lyrics actually are.
Turns out we both still kind of like this song, but there's plenty to make fun of, including run-together lyrical deliveries, eyeroll-inducing hipster kitsch, and bizarre financial decisions made by the band.
Stuff we like this week: Other Harvey Danger songs! Outlaw State of Mind by Chris Stapleton and Mr. Fish by Pile.
This week we’re revisiting the titans of fart rock, Smash Mouth, and their 1999 single, “Then The Morning Comes.” We cover the meme-ification of the band and singer Steve Harwell, the incessant rhyming in the lyrics, fake sleaziness and forced nostalgia of the song, and tediousness of the “humorous” video.
Plus: a painful but necessary mash-up with Steely Dan, the infinitely better songs from which these riffs were stolen, and the incredibly inappropriate lyrics included in actual Alvin & The Chipmunks covers.
Stuff we like: Touche Amore’s "Stage Four," Wildhoney’s "Your Face Sideways," and BADBADNOTGOOD’s "IV"
First Ever Awful Sound Reissue! Wasn't able to get a new episode edited in time, so here's one from the back catalogue that I particularly enjoy. Back to the normal schedule next week.
To celebrate the return of the show, we're dissecting two unlikely songs and videos from the cast of The X-Files: the titular track from David Duchovny's Weather Channel inspired, cliche-ridden debut album, "Hell or Highwater," and Gillian Anderson's hyper-sexual, spoken-word nonsense for Hal's Extremis.
Also: A review of Duchovny's ridiculous children's(?) book, Holy Cow, my guest relays a story about in-laws from Roswell, these two "red-blooded males" find Gillian Anderson attractive enough to acknowledge her personhood, and, as always, a selection of delicious YouTube comments.
This week we’re discussing and dissecting Usher’s inaccurately titled “Nice & Slow,” and returning guest James Hernandez talks about dedicating slow jams on the radio to his middle-school crushes and making the switch from RnB to Slayer.
We’ve got helpful Genius annotations for lyrics that are anything but nice and slow, and a cinematic music video featuring probably-fake sign language, an inefficient kidnapping, and a load-bearing eyepatch.
Stuff We Like: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks and Rochelle Jordan’s “Follow Me”
This week we have an episode that I’m shocked was possible. I’m talking to Kevan Aguilar, who was more than happy to subvert expectations by sharing his summer-long love affair with the incredibly awful Kottonmouth Kings.
We’re dissecting Peace Not Greed from the year 2G featuring Jack Grisham of TSOL and a total lack of perspective on police brutality. Kevan talks about identifying with the anti-authoritarian message of the song, his mom being cool with him hanging a poster of the band holding a giant platter of weed, and how this may relate to him becoming straightedge shortly thereafter.
Also: a quaintly optimistic take on the effects of weed legalization, a weird intersection of fake libertarianism and new age spirituality, and lots of juicy youtube beef.
Stuff We Like: New Ruin, Humanities, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Sworn Virgins
This week we’ve got a scoff-heavy episode as Derek Chacon and James Hernandez help me dissect the goth silliness of Coal Chamber’s “Loco.”
Derek recalls a weird goth kid in his guitar class introducing him to the band, loving their edgy darkness as a kid, and, from his current vantage point, likening it to a stranger’s fart.
Also: Are these nonsensical lyrics doing ANYTHING for unstable kids? Does buying a “vintage” Pantera shirt make you a hipster? And a last-minute epiphany that might mean nothing or everything.
Music we like: Tribulation’s “Strange Gateways Beckon” and Helms Alee’s “Tit to Toe”
This week we’re covering the totally insane video for Livin’ on the Edge by immortal creepsters Aerosmith. My guest, Alexander Shaw, recounts his adolescent love for the band, allowing Stephen Tyler far too much influence over his fashion choices, and trying to reconcile a universe in which they coexist with his juvenile daughter.
In this episode: Bizarre, moralizing lyrics, a non-sensical hodgepodge of music video set pieces, including cartoonish, post-apocalyptic wrecking yards and green-screen train solos, Edward Furlong playing a confused (and confusing) angsty teen, and a possible cameo from Johnny Depp in drag.
Be sure to check out Alexander Shaw's New Century and School of Movies podcasts!
This week we have another anthem from the Post Breakup genre with Fallout Boy’s poppy, idiom-ridden crossover hit, “Sugar We’re Going Down.”
We cover the fairly funny music video and, with help from dozens of overzealous Genius.com contributors, analyze its indecipherable wordiness. Also: “Double” dad jokes, possible Simpsons references, and a three-way mashup.
Music we like: Autolux’s “P*ssy’s Dead” and Field Music’s “Commontime"
This week on That Awful Sound podcast we cover "You're So Last Summer" from early 00s "emo" "boys" Taking Back Sunday, its made-for-MySpace lyrics, and the apex (nadir?) of ironic hip hop in pop punk with a music video featuring Flava Flav for some fake reason.
My guests recall the "hard two weeks" in which they were fans of the band, and I forget that I remembered them altogether. Also: peeing next to the singer at a urinal, wearing girl jeans, and the eccentricities of an aging web design teacher.
See Nick's work on Instagram: @TerminalRadness
This week Aaron Brock and Kenny Geary return to help me cover Price William’s favorite band, Linkin Park, and their blessedly short debut single, “One Step Closer.”
We go over their straight-forward, impossible-to-misinterpret lyrics and the random choices featured in the music video, including clueless teens, parkour, and levitating Monks.
Also: my guests reveal their y2k-era DJ ambitions, a lengthy relationship with spiked hair, and another mysterious design from the 90’s.
Music we like: Nothing's "Eaten By Worms," Dangers' "(D)anger(s)," and Graf Orlock's "Captive of the Thuggee"
This week Aaron Brock and Kenny Geary return to help me cover Crazy Town's infamous RHCP sampling, pet name spewing, single entendre of a song "Butterfly," and we keep a close eye on our drinks amid the greasy energy of the water-color crack-rave happening in its music video.
Also: an entire segment devoted to the tattoos found therein, Shifty Shellshock's time on Celebrity rehab, and the terrifying origin of the album art featuring a character known as "Little Lolita."
On this episode of That Awful Sound podcast, guest Shaina Turian and I revisit the TRL-retired, Todd McFarlane-directed, sentient bullet-featuring video for Korn’s mega-hit “Freak On A Leash.”
We cover why Korn can’t be a Chill Rap Rock band, how frequently the word “r@pe” appears in their lyrics, and analyze the song’s spooky scat.
Also: Head’s born-again Christianity, An acoustic, renaissance-faire-sounding version of this song feat. Amy Lee of Evanescence, and a Nick News special that scared my guest into thinking she had AIDS at the age of 9.
This week Angie Burian and I revisit the incredibly urgent “Separate Ways” by karaoke kings, Journey.
We dissect the infamous music video (named 13th worst by MTV), and its cocaine-fueled, sleeve-adjusting, invisible-intrument-playing stars.
Also: why this feels like stepdad rock, dad-centric mustache phobias, early experiments in music video technology, and strong feelings about Steve Perry’s hair from keyboardist Jonathan Kane
This week we’re revisiting the CD single Michael Muñoz’s estranged grandma gave him as a peace offering: Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca. We’ve got trumpets upon trumpets, deceptively emo lyrics, and a fun drunk driving accident.
Plus: Barbara Walters forcibly outing the singer on TV in 2000, Separate covers of the song performed by two entirely different anthropomorphic mice, and a serious conversation with Dad about Fastball’s “The Way.”
This week, first-time guest Tony Boswell details his childhood love of Cypress Hill’s orchestra-filled crossover hit, “Rock Superstar,” and how rap rock in general was a way to connect with both sides of his multicultural family.
We dissect the song's spooky, goofy music video which seems to be at complete odds with the message of the lyrics, Cypress Hill channeling their superstardom into a lucrative free weed racket, and a plethora of late 90’s artifacts, including evil jacks in the box, jesters, 8 balls, and the mysteriously ubiquitous Stüssy S.
Also: scaring away extended family members and potential stepdads with Van Halen and Slipknot, ghost congas, and monkey grease.
Good Music: Drake's Views and Death Grips' Bottomless Pit
This week Matt Booth and I "back-muse" Teenage Dirtbag, the self-produced, nakedly sensitive, “comfortably pathetic” song I ended up kind of loving. Matt remembers using these lyrics to experiment with cussing, and I remember how weird the song sounded to me as a kid.
We cover the violent DJ scribbling, superfluous (and completely inaudible) percussion instruments, “controversy” over the singer’s middle name, the teen-movie music video, the bizarre wikipedia/history of the band, an archived bio from their y2k webpage, and ironic sex.
Good music: Blink-182's new-ish single (with Matt Skiba) "Bored to Death"
“Were any of these scenes from the movie they’re referencing, or did they have to shoot a shitty movie and then shoot a whole shitty, involved music video too?”
This week Michael Muñoz returns to dissect childhood favorite “Slide” by the Gru Gru Dolls and its long-winded promises, half-assed marriage proposal, and very aggressive statements about abortion. We run down the ultra-literal music video, Johnny Goo’s terrible, “tattooable” quotes, and also just his terrible tattoos.
Plus: Now That’s What I Call Music Vs. Kidz Bop Vs. Jock Jams, more Simpsons references than you could ever want, and Alien Ant Farm renounces the IE.
Good music: O’Brother’s “Endless Light” and Autolux’s “P*ssy’s Dead”
Warning! Explicit Adam Sandler content!
This week we have a first for the show: a song by fart-comedy legend Adam Sandler called “Steve Polychronopolous.” My guest Leigh shares her storied personal history with the comedian, including the time his jokes grounded her for a year.
We also discuss a few of the eight-minute, one-note sketches found on this album, the merits of Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, and the inexplicable hold he has on talented actors and comedians. How was there a clean version of this song? How is Will Forte in Ridiculous 6? Why do sharks exist?
Good music: Flight of the Conchords’ “Hurt Feelings” and Mastodon/Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s “Linoleum Knife”
This week Travis Duscay returns for our “spiritual” sequel to the Woodstock ’94 episode: Woodstock ’99!
We revisit the festival that qualified as an EPA Superfund site and was described by Kurt Loder as a “concentration camp” to analyze Creed and Robby Krieger's butt-rocking interpretation of "Riders on the Storm," as well as the band's christ-channeling, sex-shaming, mid-tempo slog, "What's This Life For."
Also: An Adam Baldwin/Mel Gibson/Simpsons Conspiracy Theory, Travis’ dad buying him a Phish album for his birthday, and misunderstandings of satirical news articles.
This week we have a very special episode: our unofficial Awful Band Spotlight on AFI. Devyn Trujillo (voted “most goth” by the AFI message boards) and Travis Duscay (voted “most frequent guest” by me) help turn what was supposed to be an episode on “Love Like Winter” into something much bigger.
We discuss the band’s interesting career arc, from classic albums like Shut Your Mouth, All Hallow’s EP, and Black Sails in the Sunset to the random electronic elements of the homophobe trolling(?), “post-goth,” nu-wave anthem in question.
We cover the many voices of Davey Havok, the Duchovny-esque lyrics on this track, and Devyn remembers knowing, even at 12, that the band’s credibility had been damaged by Sing The Sorrow. Also: insufferable AFI fans, making life-long friends on their message board, camping out overnight to see the band, Sing The Sorrow-era press releases, and Warped Tour stories from both sides of the railing.
Good Music: Daughn Gibson’s “The Pisgee Nest,” All Human’s “And So Peter Dances,” and Frank Sinatra Jr.’s “Black Night.”
This week we're working through Anney, aka Booty Rising's complicated relationship with the Avril Lavinge song by the same name.
She recounts living a double life, calling Avril a poser in AOL chatrooms but listening to her in secret, and we examine the mean-natured pranks in this video. (possibly directed at America herself??)
Also: a throat-clogging secret regarding Alien Ant Farm, a digital necronomicon, and "unflattering" butt pix.
Episode 50! Two brand new guests join me to confess their middle school love of edgy pop punk(?) band Good Charlotte and the very 80's "Girls & Boys." One remembers this being her perception of "hardcore" music, while the other grew too cool for the mainstream popularity that the group achieved.
Also: celebrity crush protocol, unsuccessfully trying to spike your luscious hair with egg yolks, and tales of the bro-smashing chair of my philosophy department.
This week Aimee-Beth returns to dissect “Take A Picture” from Definite Industrial Rock band Filter. Are these the most soaring and pretentious lyrics ever written about a naked alcoholic terrorizing an airplane? Would this video be better with our modern mermaid-tail technology? What does Patrick’s dad think about his son now?
Also: Our twee-est Kimya Dawson impressions, #PolingRock, and a youtube comment takes us on an oddly specific tour through the 90’s
Good music in this episode: NIN’s “Perfect Drug” and Filter’s “Nice Shot”
This week Aimee-Beth Diamond returns to revisit the inexplicably well-known band Alien Ant Farm and their single "Movies." We bask in the glory of living adjacent to these guys and argue about whether the singer's annoying stage presence and persistent vocal tic are a result of an overabundance or extreme lack of confidence.
Also: We do a tight 15 minutes on the singer's hair, fat bass guitar impressions, and Aimee remembers getting felt-up by a future christian.
Good music: The Strokes' Is This It
Today we’re dissecting Ozzy’s “Dreamer,” a bland rehash of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which somehow manages to be even cornier than the original. Add 11 year-olds in Maxim Magazine makeup, and you get this truly cringeworthy video.
I also vent the issues I have with Ozzy in general, including his Prince of Darkness moniker, his terrible ballads, and being the weakest link by default in one of my favorite bands: Black Sabbath.
Good music in this episode: the new Faith No More and Sumac's The Deal
Cahn returns to talk about witnessing the “atrocity” that was Metallica’s 1996 album, Load. We focus on the grunge-era chugger “Until It Sleeps,” the limitless GIF potential in its music video, and Cahn reveals far too much about his dad.
Is this what James meant when he said Lars and Kirk were “pretending to be gay”? Did Napster and Some Kind of Monster ruin the goodwill necessary to tolerate the stylistic choices on this album? Should Metallica be allowed to experiment with their sound? (No)
Next week: Ozzy's Dreamer
Today we're revisiting the triple-produced, lyrically incoherent, y2k teen movie staple "Right Now" by aging pop-punkers SR-71. Is the subject of this song clingy or controlling? Is the singer super cool or super pathetic? And did he ever recover from the PC Feminism of the 90's?
Also: The too-big-to-fail hair and makeup industry of the era, our favorite "Megedeath" albums, and another ridiculous HS newspaper story, but this time I'm the victim.
Good music in this episode: The Offspring's "All I Want" and Drug Church's "Bagged"
Today we’re revisiting the sex jokes, cool-guy one-liners, and the anti-psychology crusade of Dexter Holland in The Offspring’s She’s Got Issues. Zooey Deschanel has a completely different take on her character in the music video, we remember confrontations at Thrice and Mars Volta shows, and we reminisce about the issue of our high school newspaper that got Albert “311” Albanez and myself fired from the staff.
Awful Spotlight #4! We’re covering three videos from Scott Weiland’s eclectic career, hand-picked by my guest, a feral human raised by a family of Wildmen. We dance the Musty Queer to Weiland’s Bowie-inspired single “Barbarella,” feel confused on behalf of titular “Sour Girl” Sarah Michelle Gellar for her part in the Stone Temple Pilots video, and we “Slither” down a toilet in Prague to watch Velvet Revolver perform the same riff for 3+ minutes.
Today we enter new territory as we revisit two mesmerizing videos from late 90’s/early 2000's rap giants Birdman and Lil John. We’re talking platinum football fields, custom PT cruisers, 3/4 of the Kings of Comedy, ridiculously graphic lyrics, and I reassess my adolescent hatred of the Lil John club banger. Stuff we like: Kanye West’s Life of Pablo and Kendrick Lamar’s Untitled Unmastered.
You can find Michael Tesauro's piece about the terrorist attack in our hometown of San Bernardino at http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/12/16/my-hometown-crisis-before-terror-san-bernardino-attacks-column/77429758/
Listener response time! It’s a special episode today as I respond to the huge reaction you guys had to our Lit episode (still kind of surprised people remembered them). I’m reading emails, Instagram and Facebook comments with stories of angry letters to the Guitar World editor, Lit’s MTV Cribs episode, the band’s 2000 Spring Break performance, and Jeremy Popoff freaking out about negative Yelp reviews for The Slidebar.
Thanks for writing in! Continue to do so at AwfulPodcast@Gmail.com, Instagram & Twitter (@AwfulPodcast), and the Facebook page (facebook.com/AwfulPodcast)
Today I'm talking with Nick and Matt about another "truly Californian" band from Orange County (sorry). Mark McGrath knocks his four front teeth out and breakdances on broken glass, we examine the band's secret funk metal past, and co-writer and director McG is probably Eurotrash.
Good music dicussed on this episode: Royal Canoe's "Button Fumbla," David Bazan's "Wolves at the Door," Lee Ranaldo's "Ambulancer," and Thundercat's "Song for the Dead."
This week we're revisiting "My Own Worst Enemy" by 90's #bowlingrock stalwarts Lit. We chat about how unfortunately influential this video was to our younger selves, touch on their evolution from hair metal act Razzle to grunge band Stain to the band that America briefly fell in like with, and remember their horrible connection to the Kelly Thomas incident.
Also in this episode: a hard stance against Journey's Kids and vodka, an embarrassing story about covering this song in a middle school band, an edgy bowling ball named "Headhunter," being too chubby/old to do the worm, and we somehow manage to talk about Friends, Married with Children, Clarissa Explains it All, Dharma and Greg, and Frasier.
This week, my guest and I dissect Real Slim Shady, perhaps the goofiest of sound fx wizard Eminem’s interchangeable shock-rap tracks, and Get Back by Zebrahead, a rap-metal song which, much like Real Slim Shady, is a nonsensical mishmash of pop culture references.
My guest discusses being a closet Eminem fan, his father being an outspoken Eminem fan, and somehow growing up to be a halfway decent human being after listening to this in middle school. I argue that being a dorky version of Limp Bizkit is worse than the real thing and discover a line-for-line christian parody of our Eminem track.
Good music discussed on this episode: Savages, Death Grips, and some of Eminem’s better material
Today we return to the metalcore/fashioncore/brocore scene of the early 2000's with Atreyu's Ain't Love Grand and Bleeding Through's On Wings of Lead. We remember the strange phenomenon of tough guys in eyeliner and bleach-streaked mohawks busting MMA moves and singing melodramatic lyrics about being drowned in blood by ex-girlfriends.
We also discuss merch-buying protocol, listening to these bands while far superior bands were playing at the same venues, how terrifying a mosh pit was to a fourteen year-old first timer, and getting a snarky email from Jacob Bannon of Converge.
Good bands discussed on this episode: Converge, Integrity, Disembodied, Cave-In, and many more
To celebrate the return of the show, we're dissecting two unlikely songs and videos from the cast of The X-Files: the titular track from David Duchovny's Weather Channel inspired, cliche-ridden debut album, "Hell or Highwater," and Gillian Anderson's hyper-sexual, spoken-word nonsense for Hal's Extremis.
Also: A review of Duchovny's ridiculous children's(?) book, Holy Cow, my guest relays a story about in-laws from Roswell, these two "red-blooded males" find Gillian Anderson attractive enough to acknowledge her personhood, and, as always, a selection of delicious YouTube comments.
Today we're revisiting the corporate circus of Woodstock '94 as Travis Duscay and I analyze performances by Green Day and Live. Could something like this ever happen at a modern festival like Coachella? Was their mudfight the precursor to Billie Joe's iHeartRadio "meltdown"? Will Live get lucky again and release a single to coincide with an attack on American soil? Find out today!
Good music: Woodstock performances of NIN's "Reptile" and and Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls"
Today I'm joined by Albert "311" Albanez to talk about two bizarre novelties from the 90's: Scatman John's "Scatman," and Lou Bega's "Mambo #5." We explore the Scatland utopia described in the Scatman's 1995 hit concept album, Scatman's World; try to decide if Mambo #5 is a failed attempt at a Macarena-style dance craze, and examine Lou Bega's stunningly rich assortment of terrible covers.
We also remember David Bowie and share a story of a drunken scat-along to Under Pressure. Lots of scat.
Aimee-Beth returns to talk about Breakfast at Tiffany’s—a song by that band whose name you don’t know. We dissect their on-the-nose, breakfast-filled music video, fashion styles lost to the ages, and with the help of a few YouTube commenters, take Beethoven down a notch.
We also discuss Good Songs by Broken Social Scene, Garbage, Save Ferris, and Polaris (yes, it’s that one)
Guest Aimee-Beth details her love/hate relationship with Reel Big Fish, and I argue that this cover might be the superior version of the song. We also discuss how the overbearing dorkiness of the two frontmen would have appealed to middle-school kids, and how the trumpet player reminds Aimee of a Nightmare Theater Boyfriend she had in high school.
Aaron Brock returns to help me dissect Dad Jam Anthems, Two Princes and Blues Traveler's Run-Around. Why are these supposed hippies in Spin Doctors writing lyrics about medieval courtship rituals? Is the fake band in Run-Around a deliberate parody of Counting Crows' Adam Duritz? Are either of these groups actual jam bands?
Aaron also tells me about seeing Soul Asylum and Jimmy Buffet in concert as a kid, we discuss the Dad Rave known as the HORDE Festival, and discuss a couple "Adult Alternative" songs we actually like: Weezer's El Scorcho and Ben Folds Five's Do It Anyway.
Season 2! I talk to returning guest Cahn Curtis about swing revivalists Cherry Poppin' Daddies' "Zoot Suit Riot" and Brian Setzer's Stray Cats' "Rock This Town." We discuss the swing revival of the 90's, whether or not Stray Cats are punk (they're not), and argue about the merits of revisionist Americana. Happy New Year!
Today Nick Guenzler and Matt Booth return to talk about the disappointing career trajectory of Tom DeLonge. We're dissecting Blink 182's "All the Small Things," Box Car Racer's "I Feel So," and the incredibly masturbatory and highly entertaining Angels & Airwaves documentary, "Start the Machine."
We discuss Blink songs we actually like, Tom's transformation into a high school goth, and posit a possible connection between his grandiose, generically ambitious space operas and Scientology.
Leigh Ann Diefendorf and I are talking about nonsense words as we dissect Crash Test Dummies' Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm and Kid Rock's Bawitdaba.
My guest opens up about her embarassing taste in showtunes, watching VH1 instead of MTV, and we also discuss Brad Roberts' bad poetry(?) and Kid Rock's dad owning a dealership(s).
Continuing with our theme of "Vaguely Folkish Alterna-Emo," I chat with Cahn about the bane of our 2006: Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's.
Cahn reminisces about being subjected to the song while on the clock, and I reminisce about hearing the song while buying alcohol in bulk. There's a story about an unusual phone-in request to the local radio station, Cahn adds a new bit to his routine, and we spend much more time than usual on music we actually like.
Discussed on this episode: Jethro Tull, David Kauffman and Eric Caboor, Neil Young, My Morning Jacket, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, James Taylor Swift, Nirvana, and Iron & Wine
Cahn returns to the show and we debate how tolerable Bright Eyes' First Day of My Life is, while we generally agree that Dashboard Confessional's Screaming Infidelities is at best a "cool alternative" to traditional worship music.
Today I talk to friend Kenny about two Cool music videos directed by Cool Hollywood Director McG: The Offspring's Pretty Fly for a White Guy and Korn's Got the Life. No further description. It's midnight. I'm tired. Goodnight.
This week we tackle Monster Magnet's Space Lord--allegedly the first video broadcast on TRL. We delve into the world of self-appointed "sex-symbol" status, space breasts, and Marilyn Manson and Hole's co-headlining tour. I also read some listener email and give shoutouts to commenters on the site.
On today's episode I'm joined by Shaina to talk about our middle school years and dissect Marilyn Manson' Dope Show and Hole's Celebrity Skin.
My guest talks about her transformation fom Xena superfan into goth kid, being called a poser at the mall, and her dispute with Montel Williams (or possibly Montel Jordan). We also talk about one of my weirder ex-girlfriends and solve the murder of Kurt Cobain with the help of some plucky YouTube commenters.
Today, Kevan returns to help me hone in on the infamously terrible 90's hit "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba.
We dissect the painfully awkward video, remember our adolescent impressions of the song, discuss the band's anarcho-punk background, talk about finding hardcore and punk music in the age before YouTube and Spotify, and try to figure out why YouTube commenters have such a hard time finding good music nowadays.
Today I talk to friend and musician Kevan Aguilar about the semi-alt rock of the late 90's, including The Wallflowers' odd contribution to the Godzilla soundtrack and Third Eye Blind's meth and sex-laden hit Semi-Charmed Life.
I try to figure out the video for Heroes, Kevan also discusses being introduced to bands by his older sisters, and we both realize what a loser Stephen Jenkins is.
We're finishing our Nu-Metal conversation today by remembering and dissecting Korn's "Falling Away From Me."
We talk about how amazing it is that a music video about child abuse made it onto TRL, the crazy stories from their recording sessions, and growing up latino and listening to "white" music. We also talk extensively about navigating the early days of internet pornography, Nu-Metal we still actually like, and James's and my old hardcore band Life Tyrant.
In this episode I'm joined by two friends from the hardcore scene, James Hernandez and Derek Chacon, to make fun of the nu-metal we liked as kids, but also to talk about how it possibly led us to hardcore music.
We're remembering and dissecting Static-X's "Black and White," their hilariously awkward collaboration with DMC, and Pantera's "Revolution Is My Name."
Are Adidas responsible for this weird collab? Are moms everywhere responsible for preventing horrible adolescent fashion choices? Is Peter Criss responsible for Vinnie Paul's terrible facial hair? Find out on today's episode.
Movie Themes! I talk to Alex Shaw of the Digital Drift podcast about two ridiculous movie themes: Wild Wild West from the film Wild Wild West and Deepest Bluest from the film Deep Blue Sea.
We've got fake beatboxing, lots of nipples, cute cowboy outfits, and LL Cool J literally morphing into a shark.
We also discuss two movie themes we actually like, including Fiona Apple's cover of Across the Universe from the film Pleasantville and Aimee Mann's Wise Up from the film Magnolia.
In this very special episode, Alex Shaw of the Digital Drift podcast joins me to discuss the Goo Goo Dolls' Iris as well as the film for which the song was written, City of Angels.
The first half of the episode is spent on sandpaper vocals and unnecessary guitar solos, while we spend the second half tying the song's creepy lyrics to an even creepier film.
Does anyone really believe the singer is looking at film footage through all those telescopes? Where was God while Nic Cage was camping out in Meg Ryan's bathroom? Does this song hold the record for having the greatest number of terrible covers? Listen to find out!
Continuing our conversation from last week, Albert and I tackle two videos from turn-of-the-century chill rap rock acts: Incubus's "Pardon Me" and Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Around The World."
We discuss the plausibilty of spontaneous combustication, ghost cunnilinggus, and which beach Sublime reminds us of.
In this episode, friend and fellow recovering 311 fan Albert Albanez visits the show to discuss and help dissect their 1999 music video, "Come Original."
We decry the band's craven decision to sell out by releasing albums, try to decide which song is their chillest, and Albert shares the story of his first time hearing the band.
Come surf these "serious California beach vibes" with That Awful Sound today! Also, please surf the "iTunes and Stitcher review vibes" if you have the chance.
Travis and Macky return (sort of) to help dissect three songs and music videos from iconic butt rockers Creed, Godsmack, and Puddle of Mudd.
We discuss the rampant persecution fantasies found in this theme, talk about the random slam dunks in the video for "What If," process Sully Erna's face accessories in "I Stand Alone," and wade through the bro tears in the comments section for "She Hates Me."
We also talk grunge-influenced songs we actually like, including Cracker's "Low," Silverchair's "Slave," Milk Music's "Illegal and Free," and Courtney Barnett's "History Eraser."
Nick Guenzler (@TerminalRadness) returns for our most embarrassing episode yet!
We dissect the mallcore phenomenon of the early 2000's by revisiting The Used's "Box of Sharp Objects", Senses Fail's "Bloody Romance", and Story of the Year's "Anthem of Our Dying Day." Is Mormonism directly responsible for the success of The Used? Just how Buddhist are Senses Fail? Was Story of the Year merely a clever marketing strategy for selling strap locks? These questions and more answered on today's episode.
Also discussed: At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, Thursday, Killswitch Engage, Paramore, and many more.
In today's episode we dissect three music videos from 90's third wave ska revival: No Doubt's "Just A Girl," Reel Big Fish's "Sell Out," and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' "Impression That I Get."
We also discuss Gwen Stefani's unfortunate descent into rap and kawaii (I still don't quite know what that is), the surprisingly adult theme behind the Reel Big Fish track, and The Bosstones' ties to 80's hardcore.
Finally, we spend the last segment honoring winners from last month's half-baked PR campaign.
Fantasy Metal! Our dorkiest, niche-iest episode yet. Today Angie (as heard on Episode 04) rejoins me to talk about a genre so deliciously ridiculous it has to be heard to be believed.
We dissect Rhapsody's "Magic of the Wizard's Dream," featuring ACTUAL WIZARD Christopher Lee (RIP), Blind Guardian in drag covering "Mr Sandman", and Demons & Wizards' "Terror Train," a story told from the point of view of an evil, sentient train. We also cover a song from Rick Wakeman's son about Alice In Wonderland that's too dinky even for us.
Also mentioned in this episode: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Sword, and Mastodon.
Part 2 of our unfortunately-titled episode, Second Chance Symphony! We continue our discussion on 90's musicians who went on to have successful careers writing songs for other artists.
We dissect two songs and videos from 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry: "what's Up, and Get This Party Started as performed by Pink) and two songs and videos from Semisonic frontman Dan Wilson, including "Closing Time" and the massive hit he co-wrote with Adele, "Someone Like You."
What are those floppy top hats actually called? Is "Closing Time" the most technically complex video ever made about nothing? How effective are lyric-specific, conversion-therapy-espousing YouTube comments? All this and more on today's episode.
Today I'm joined by my "good acquaintance" Cahn Curtis to talk about videos from artists who had a hit or two in the 90's, then went on to have successful careers writing songs for other artists.
This episode is the first half of that theme, and we talk specifically about Greg Alexander and his hit with New Radicals, "You Get What You Give," as well as the song he wrote for 2014's Begin Again, which recently lost the Oscar for Best Song.
Also in this episode: Bill Hicks-inspired guidelines for when it's OK to sell out, Cahn critiques previous episodes, and we try to decide who lost their virginity to the worse set of songs.
Mini Episode 01! I give my less-than-hot, fiercely-indifferent take on the 2015 Grammys and share my picks for Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, and Best Metal Album.
Also: a cringe-worthy Jack White interview and an argument in favor of complaining about awards shows.
Mentioned in this episode: Beyonce, Beck, Sam Smith, Swans, Owls, Beige Eagle Boys, Creepoid, St. Vincent, Arcade Fire, Godflesh, Behemoth, YOB, Pallbearer.
Cheesy 90's Acts With Numbers in Their Names! This week Travis and Michael help me dissect three music videos: Eve 6's "Inside Out," Matchbox 20's "Real World," and 3 Doors Down's "Kryptonite."
We also talk about be-numbered bands we still like and touch on a modern band (Maroon 5) whose music video is officially the worst this show has covered!
Also in this episode: Third Eye Blind, 18 Visions, and 311.
90's Boy Bands! In this episode I'm joined by two grizzled vets from the Boy Band Wars of the 1990s to dissect three ridiculous music videos from the era: NSYNC's "I want You Back" and "Bye Bye Bye," and Backstreet Boys' "Larger Than Life."
We also talk about being a secret Backstreet Boys fan among NSYNC diehards, obscure memorabilia, and an especially dark episode of House of Carters. Stick around until the end to hear a suprise guest MC lay down a few bars
In our second Awful Band Spotlight, Travis returns and Matt Booth makes his debut to talk with me about a good-band-gone-bad of epic proportions, Green Day. We talk about why the band is important to us, 3 music videos that illustrate just how bad they've gotten, and the Broadway musical based on their album, American Idiot.
Also in the episode: Travis has b33f with the title of "Good Riddance," Matt has tips for millionaires on writing punk songs, and I reveal why I was kicked out of my graduation ceremony (It wasnt for anything cool). Videos discussed in this episode: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Minority, Wake Me Up When September Ends, "Billie Joe Freakout."
90's Pop Rock! Counting Crows' "Mr. Jones," Smashmouth's "Walkin' On The Sun," and Jewel's "I was Meant For You."
In this episode we talk about the dark secret Smashmouth's singer has hidden in his garage (in a segment I probably should've cut out), and discuss what an extraordinarily boring slob Jewel apparently is.
We also have a Counting Crows/Blue Oyster Cult mash-up, and The Chipmunks sing about smoking crack (really). If you like the show, please rate and review!
In this episode, Devyn Trujillo joins us to dissect Atreyu's "Lipgloss and Black," HIM's "Wings of A Butterfly," and Aiden's "One Love." We talk to her about her gothy upbringing, and how a brief but memorable stint of listening to Atreyu led her to long-time friends and much "spookier" bands.
Macky and I argue about the root of HIM's success in America. We all cringe at the "artistic" "representations" in an Aiden video, and, as ususal, we save the worst band for last. Other bands discussed in this episode: AFI, Nick Cave, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
The 90's R&B Episode! We bring in our good friend Angela to talk about her personal relationship with 90's R&B and to tell her story about meeting a flash-in-the-pan 90's R&B group after winning a radio contest.
I grasp for 90's R&B songs I actually know (and come up mostly with songs from Space Jam). We talk about Kiss from a Rose, The Boy Is Mine, and Twisted by Keith Sweat. We discuss the importance of Big Ass Denim Jackets, laugh at Jim Carey's dumb face, and wonder whether or not Keith Sweat would've made a better detective than singer.