Back Porch Podcast

This week, we are returning to our exploration of some of the best songs in hip-hop music by looking at the year 2012. It was a year where streaming music became more of a thing, everyone was putting out mixtapes and we got to see the beginnings of hip-hop artists who are now considered some of the best in the game (we’re looking at you, Kendrick Lamar).

We are joined again by Steve Tyson, a.k.a. Ellect, to discuss this year in hip-hop. We discuss everything from how this seemed to be the year of posse tracks to the amazing talent that is 2 Chainz.

Make sure to check out Ellect’s debut album, Intellectual Property, on all streaming platforms, and make sure to follow him @ellect217 for the release of his new music video “Make It Happen,” due out on 7/31.

Also, follow his podcast, Style Free Podcast, on Instagram @stylefreepodcast, YouTube, or visit stylefreepodcast.com

Also, slight editor’s note, Andrew accidentally said we covered 1998 hip-hop music in the intro. We didn’t. It was 1988, but you probably don’t care about that, do you?

Flash mobs.

Remember those? If not, let us bring you back to 2011 when they were apparently a thing. Same for Rom-Coms about two people trying to hook up without ever developing feelings for each other.

That’s why we watched both No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits, and put them up against each other to discuss the merits of each and decide which did a better job with their subject matter

Noted Rom-Com fan, lover of love, and previous guest Zac Howes joins us for this episode to figure out which movie was more convincing that it is too hard for two lovesick fools to hook up and stay friends when there is obvious chemistry between them.

And why we’re all happy flash mobs are no longer a thing. We hope.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is full of so many different characters. Powerful ones, smart ones, funny ones and straight up volatile ones. It’s why watching them when they all come together to form The Avengers can feel unpredictable but a thrilling adventure all the same.

That’s why we decided to do a draft of our Top 5 Avengers to see if we could form our ideal team to fight against the evil in the world.

For this one, we needed a Marvel super fan. That’s why we enlisted Gotham Podcast Studio and Tandem co-founder Mike Ortiz for this exercise.

And with the release of Black Widow this past weekend, we also get into a short, spoiler-free discussion about the film. Unfortunately, can’t say that about the rest of the discussion.

So let us know what you think of our teams, and maybe give us your own Top 5? We’d love to hear it.

In this episode, we give some shine to another film genre that is grossly overlooked. We award our very Oscars award to the top 2000s Horror film.

It’s an episode where we explore the various sub genres that exist within the horror film classification, and maybe even try and bend the definition of what a horror film truly is. Maybe even a little bit too much?

We don’t know, you can decide on that.

For this, we are joined by filmmaker Joe Gietl, who just so happens to be debuting his film A VOID at Madison Theater in Albany  this weekend (July 10th and 11th). We discuss the film and how it ties into the theme of our episode.

You know… great horror movies.

Give it a listen and let us know which one should have won. And check out Joe’s film!

F9, the 10th installment of the ever-evolving Fast Saga came out this past weekend. You know what that means?

We’re getting the family back together.

We are joined by filmmaker and devoted Vin Diesel stan Micah Khan to discuss the Fast franchise as a whole, pick out some of our favorite car and fight scenes, and give our immediate reactions to the latest addition to the Fast universe.

This is a mostly spoiler-free episode regarding F9, but can’t promise the same for any of the other movies. Which is really more your fault than ours, at this point.

So, strap in your seatbelts and grab yourself some Corona, and lets celebrate one of the greatest film franchises to ever grace the silver screen.

And make sure to check out Micah’s short film, Meetcute on Danceworld here: https://vimeo.com/386763212

And follow Micah on Instagram @micahazamkhan.

You know that show where celebrities are interviewed while eating increasingly hotter and hotter wings? Massively popular show on YouTube?

Nah, neither do we.

But let’s say there was such a show and we decided to put ourselves through the hot wing gauntlet while discussing movies that take place in the cold to distract ourselves from the searing pain caused by said wings.

Because that’s exactly what we did. And to do so, we were joined by podcast alum John Yost, Micah Khan, as well as Victoria Diana, Jim Powers, John Stegemann and Joe Gietl. They all make up the APB Film Collective, based here in the Capital District.

We all picked our favorite big budget and independent movies set in the cold, then pitted them against each other and picked the best one. All while eating some supremely spicy wings.

It goes just fine for most of us.

So listen to the episode and give us your thoughts on the selections. Then head on over to APBfilm.com to get the low down on films such as Micah’s Meetcute on Danceworld, Diana’s upcoming Devour, and Joe’s soon to be released A Void.

Well, la-tee-fuckin’-da, we’re talking Boston movies here on the Back Porch Podcast. That’s right, we talk about 12 movies ranging from The Departed to even Fever Pitch and pick the five movies we believe should make up the Boston Movie Hall of Fame.

To do this, we couldn’t just have two guys from Upstate New York to construct this list. We are joined by Rich McPhee and Ray Langevin, two of the three hosts of the Boston-based Simple Minds Sports Show, to put together this list.

This will be the most Boston we’ll ever get, aside from Corey constantly yelling at Beam, “Are you a fuckin’ cop?!?!” in his own form of a Boston accent that borders on a Hannibal Lecter impression.

Beam, thankfully, doesn’t attempt an accent at all. So, you’re welcome.

Strap in because this one gets a little wild. Shout out to Ray for drinking a triple IPA at 10 a.m.

You’re lying to yourself if you don’t love the music movies and, hell, even the fashion of the 90s. Some of us may even wish we still lived in that decade. It was a simpler time.

There were quite a lot of great movies that came from the 90s, and with them, came some pretty awesome movie soundtracks. These soundtracks either fit perfectly with various scenes in a movie, accurately captured the music of the time or they contained a bangin’ playlist that acted as additional promotion for the film.

There were so many of these that we needed some help sifting through them (Who are we kidding? We always need help).

That’s why we are joined this week by our friends, or dare we say… Super Friends?...  Vince Stampoulos and Alex Bianchini from the Super Friends Sitdown podcast!

They love the 90s just as much, if not more, than we do. So listen as we pick our favorite soundtracks, make fun of Beam for thinking Vanilla Sky was released in the 90s and listen to Corey try and pronounce Alex’s last name.

Let’s be honest, not every competitor in a tournament can be the number 1 seed. Sometimes, like in the NCAA March Madness tournament, there’s going to be a number 16 seed. What you don’t always see is two number 16 seeds going up against each other.

It’s an incredibly rare moment.

Well, today, we are providing you what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That’s right, our episode is featuring what could be considered two number 16 seeds going up against each other as part of our Twin Films series.

It’s Paul Blart: Mall Cop vs Observe and Report.

We are joined by our friends Sara Senecal and Eric Roberts on this strange journey to figure out which of these 2009 films about a depressingly pathetic mall security guard. It’s really something.

I think we sold that well.

Remember spring? Nah, no one does.

But the existential dread of the impending doom brought on by climate change aside, summer is basically here. That means some of you might be underprepared and are quickly trying to cobble together a summertime playlist.

Well, let us, along with Mike Pellegrino of Latewaves, give you a start.

Mike brought his Top 5 summer jams and we brought ours. We think they will provide the perfect soundtrack for whatever you want to get into this summer.

Give it a listen. Let us know what you think. And let us know what we need to be adding to our summer playlist.

And make sure to pick up Latewaves’ upcoming record Hell To Pay, due out on June 4th on Know Hope Records. It’s sure to be on rotation through the summer, and probably even during the winter. Hell, just keep it going into next summer.

Give it a little respect.