Back Porch Podcast

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.

Along our musical journey, there are always those songs or even particular bands that have led us on each path we’ve taken. Yeah, that sounds extremely pretentious. However, you know we’re right. And you probably already thought of those bands by the time you’ve reached this sentence.

And that’s why we recorded an episode about it. We wanted to explore and discuss those bands who helped us discover all the other music we listened to.

To do that, we’re joined by our good friend Steve Patrick, drummer of Young Rising Sons. We talk about his band and their new album SWIRL, and we also discuss the music that influenced him.

So take a listen and check out SWIRL. You’re going to like both things.

This week, we’re exploring the one-album wonder. Sure, everyone knows about the one-hit wonders like Blind Melon’s “No Rain” or The Knack’s “My Sharona, but what about the artists who made an entire album that was dynamite and then faded away? 

That’s what we’re diving into. What are some of our favorite albums from artists who found lightning in a bottle one time and why did it never really happen for them again?

We’re joined by our good friend Josh White, former bassist of local band Curse the Mariner and market manager for Unified Beerworks to help navigate the landscape of artists who were outstanding that one time. 

In the episode, Josh, Beam and Corey each nominate three of their personal favorites and then they try to whittle it down to the top five. So come for intelligent breakdowns of emo masterpieces and stay for when they nearly come to blows over nu-metal.

We’re back with our Twin Films series, where we are trying even harder to play into everyone’s nostalgia. We choose the winner of the best 90’s movie about a child who becomes a key figure in a major league baseball franchise.

That’s right, we’re talking Little Big League and Rookie of the Year.

Two movies with highly improbable plot lines, but were childhood favorites of both Corey and Beam.

They are joined by returning guest Sara Senecal, who also happens to be Beam’s wife, to dissect each movie and to determine which film pulled off this theme the best. The winner actually comes as a shock to our judges.

Grab your beer. Grab your hotdogs. But get ready to not be bored with something that involves baseball for once.

While many of us may have huddled around our television last evening to watch the 93rd AcademyAwards, Anthony Hopkins most certainly was not one of them.

Sure, he was nominated for Best Actor for his role in The Father, but he chose to stay in Wales and not pay attention to the awards ceremony whatsoever. He didn't see himself winning.

Well, as we all know now, he actually did win.

This reveal led to a perplexing ending to the Oscars that left a lot of people feeling untethered.

We're joined by our friend Cory Schneider to process everything that happened during last night's ceremony. We really needed it.

In this episode, we reveal the big winner of our very own Academy Awards for Best Sci-Fi film of the 2000s.

It’s a contentious discussion, featuring filmmakers and previous guests Micah Khan and John Yost, but we were able to reach a consensus. And honestly, none of us really saw it coming.

Come for the reveal of the big winner, stay for Micah’s spirited defense of Vin Diesel. Because that’s a thing that happens...

With the Oscars coming up this weekend, we’ve been thinking a lot about what movies get nominated. One genre that seems to always get omitted are science fiction movies. So, we decided to correct that and host our own Academy Awards for Sci-Fi films.

For this go around, we decided to focus on Sci-Fi movies made between the years 2000 to 2009. The one caveat, though, is we focus on the films that didn’t get any recognition from the Oscars. That means no Children of Men, no Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, no Avatar. 

None of that.

For this endeavor, we enlisted Capital Region filmmakers Micah Khan and John Yost, who were both previously guests on this podcast. They’re also two very good friends, which is why this episode becomes a little chaotic.

We’re going to be releasing this awards show in two parts. The first being the nominees and the second being the selection of the winner of the 2000s Sci-Fi Academy Awards, which will be released on Friday.

And we are back! With a pretty timely episode, we might add.

With the Academy Awards less than two weeks away, we’re going to be talking about the best in movies from the past year (and change). While the pandemic put a lot of heavily anticipated movies on the shelf, a lot of truly excellent films were released and widely available for people to view in their homes. While it will never quite live up to the excitement of seeing a movie in the theater, the convenience of home-viewing was a salve in a year full of uncertainty.

We’re joined by our good friend Cory Schneider, an avid cinephile who views the Oscars as his Super Bowl, to breakdown all the nominated films and what it means for movies going forward. From there, we dive into the six major categories (the four acting awards, directing, and best picture) to discuss snubs, who we want to win, and who we ultimately think will be going home with the Golden Statue on April 25th. 

If you’re a fan of movies, join us to hear our takes on the past year in movies and check back in with us after the ceremony to hear our reactions to the big night.