Album Infinitum

This week, we continue our discussion of Fountains of Wayne's discography with the absolutely brilliant Utopia Parkway.

Co-hosting this episode (and indeed the rest of the FoW episodes) is the fantastic Mr. Marc Oxborrow of The Haymarket Squares and The Blood Feud Family Singers.

Be sure to check out both of Marc's bands on Bandcamp or at one of their upcoming shows, and follow them on social media:

@marcxist

@haymarketsquare, http://www.haymarketsquares.com/

https://bloodfeudfamilysingers.com/

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Fountains of Wayne is not currently active with regards to playing shows or recording music, but they do have a website where you can get FoW merch, and they're still tweeting at @fountainsofwayn. Chris Collingwood is also active on Twitter at @LookPark, which is his band post-FoW.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

The second artist up for Album Infinitum is a power pop gem. Great, catchy tunes, wry lyrics that teem with irony, but always manage to have such heart and earnestness to them, which put the songs over in a genuine and infectious fashion that avoids novelty or pastiche, and their self-titled debut brings all of that right up front and center with songs such as Radiation Vibe, Leave the Biker, Survival Car, and more.

The co-host for this episode is Jenna Duncan (on Twitter and Instagram at @JennaDuncan2001).

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Fountains of Wayne is not currently active with regards to playing shows or recording music, but they do have a website where you can get FoW merch, and they're still tweeting at @fountainsofwayn. Chris Collingwood is also active on Twitter at @LookPark, which is his band post-FoW.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

This week, we wrap up (for now) our Aimee Mann discussion with her most recent album, Mental Illness. Sitting in on this week's discussion is writer and co-host of the Transmissions podcast from Aquarium Drunkard, Jason Woodbury. Not only does the conversation focus on Mann's album, but the national discourse (or lack thereof) surrounding mental illness in society as a whole and as it pertains to Jason and host Jared Duran in particular. Deep stuff, great conversation.

Check out the Transmissions podcast wherever you get podcasts, and follow Jason @jasonpwoodbury on Twitter.

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, follow @aimeemann on Twitter, and follow her new podcast with Ted Leo, The Art of Process.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

We near the end of journey through the albums of Aimee Mann with her 2012 offering, Charmer.

Sitting in the guest chair for this discussion is the wonderfully gifted songwriter, musician, and all-around great human being, Marc Oxborrow. Marc is a principal member of two great bands (The Haymarket Squares and The Blood Feud Family Singers), both of which have a number of dates coming up, so you should absolutely check them out.

http://www.haymarketsquares.com/

https://bloodfeudfamilysingers.com/

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, follow @aimeemann on Twitter, and follow her new podcast with Ted Leo, The Art of Process.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

Continuing on down the discography of Aimee Mann, we arrive at her wonderful 2008 album, @#%&*! Smilers, which is perhaps the most musically buoyant in her catalog.

This week's guest is the ridiculously gifted singer-songwriter Betsy Ganz. Betsy leads the fantastic band The SunPunchers, and she can be seen regularly as part of the lineup for Toast Tuesdays at The Lost Leaf. Find Betsy on Facebook under The SunPunchers and Betsy Ganz Music, on Twitter at @TheSunPunchers, and check out http://thesunpunchers.com/.

Production note: For the first five minute of the recording, I did not have Betsy's mic turned on. I've done my best to salvage and boost what was said during those opening minutes.

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, follow @aimeemann on Twitter, and follow her new podcast with Ted Leo, The Art of Process.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

We're past the halfway point in our Aimee Mann discussion with her 2005 concept album, The Forgotten Arm.

Our guest for this discussion is writer, musician, comedian, storyteller, DJ, and recovering music snob, Jeff Cardello. Check out Jeff's work over at https://thehardtimes.net/author/jeff-cardello/ and follow him on Twitter at @JCardello.

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, follow @aimeemann on Twitter, and follow her new podcast with Ted Leo, The Art of Process (https://maximumfun.org/shows/art-of-process)

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

The Aimee Mann discussion continues on Album Infinitum with her 2002 album, Lost In Space. This is the deepest lyrical exploration so far for this show, and as you'll hear, we discuss the conceptual nature of this album. All of the individual songs feel part of a whole story, and story is seriously dark. Also, we talk about Buffy a little bit, because Aimee played a couple of these songs on an episode.

Returning for this discussion is writer, professor, unabashed Wheel of Fortune enthusiast, and Hoot N Review co-host, Jenna Duncan. She is a regular contributor to publications such as Java and Echo, and you can follow her at jennaduncan2001 on Twitter and Instagram.

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, follow @aimeemann on Twitter, and follow her new podcast with Ted Leo, The Art of Process (https://maximumfun.org/shows/art-of-process)

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

On this episode, the Aimee Mann discussion continues with her fantastic album, Bachelor No. 2, or the Last Remains of the Dodo, which is impossible to talk about without also discussing its relationship to Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, and the major label consolidation going on in the recording industry. (There's an article that The New York Times ran about Mann's record label run-in which makes for very interesting reading(https://nyti.ms/2sC1kxR).)

My guest is writer and What the Fork? co-host, Jason Keil. Jason is a regular contributor to The Phoenix New Times and PHOENIX Magazine, and you can follow him on Twitter @jasonekeil. Perhaps more importantly, though, he got to see Aimee Mann open for Squeeze back in 2008, something of which I am immensely jealous.

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, and follow @aimeemann on Twitter

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

On this episode, host Jared Duran and guest Chris Ayers continue on down the Aimee Mann rabbit hole with her 2nd solo album, I’m with stupid, and as you’ll hear in the discussion, this is no sophomore slump, but rather an album that stands out as one of her best more than 20 years later.

Special thanks to Chris Ayers for being on the show. Check out his work at http://www.chrisayerscreative.com/, and follow him at @chrisAcreative on Twitter, @chrisayerscreative on Instagram, and check out https://www.phxfilmcollective.com/

As always, I want to stress the importance of supporting the artists that are featured on this series, whether that’s through buying their music and merch, attending one of their concerts, or even simply following them on social media. Visit http://aimeemann.com/, and follow @aimeemann on Twitter

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)

The first artist up for Album Infinitum is one of my very favorites, Aimee Mann. Her debut solo album, Whatever, was released in 1993, a full five years after the last ‘Til Tuesday album, Everything Is Different Now, and there’s a great article that Stereogum put up for 25th anniversary of Whatever where Doug Bleggi talks to Aimee Mann about the whole story behind the reason for that gap, which comes down to, surprise, surprise, record label politics.

Although the album is generally well-regarded--Elvis Costello named it one of his 500 essential albums, it’s in the book 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die, Nick Hornby included the song “I’ve Had It” in his aptly titled Songbook, or 31 Songs for anyone in the UK--this is not my favorite Aimee Mann album. I think this is largely due to how dated the production sounds, which is a shame, because it’s predominantly produced by the great Jon Brion, whose work I love. Whatever does contain two of my favorite Aimee Mann songs, though, “Stupid Thing” and “4th of July.”

Joining me for this discussion is my Hoot n Review co-host, writer, professor, and unabashed Wheel of Fortune enthusiast, Jenna Duncan (@jennaduncan2001).

One of the main points of this podcast is to express not only a love of music, but a love for collecting music as well, and as such, I highly encourage listeners to go out and get copies of the albums discussed on this show. It shouldn’t be terribly hard to go out to your local record store and find a copy of Whatever, so go do it. I also encourage you to support the artists behind the music, so check out aimeemann.com and follow @aimeemann on Twitter.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions: [email protected]

Find us on Twitter and Instagram: @AlbumInfinitum

Please, rate/review/subscribe/share

If you like what we do, please consider supporting us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/hootnwaddle)