Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and Dave and Caleb are celebrating by choosing albums that sound great at one in the morning. What makes an album sound best in the dark, wee hours of the morning? Dave gets into one of his all-time favorites, Portishead’s trip-hop classic Dummy, and Caleb goes all catharsis with M83’s Hurry Up We’re Dreaming. 

Music discussed this week:

Portishead - Dummy

M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Young Thug - Jeffrey

Jamie XX - In Colour

Nine Inch Nails

Radiohead - Kid A / Amnesiac

DJ Koze - Amygdala

Frank Ocean - Blonde

Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher

Big Head - The Worst Is Yet to Come

Sun June - Jaguar

Halloween is upon us, and after a quick stroll through all things traditions and family policies, Dave and Caleb unpack what makes a song spooky? Is it the song itself, or are the images we associate with it doing half the work? Along the way, they give picks for music that is genuinely terrifying and music that hits the more playful side of the season.

Music discussed today:

John Carpenter's Halloween Soundtrack (1978)

Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe

Nine Inch Nails

Fever Ray & The Knife (song featured from Fever Ray's self-titled)

The Misfits

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time

Sufjan Stevens - Javelin

L'Rain - I Killed Your Dog

And then a bunch of stuff that we don't necessarily recommend you listen to. Happy Halloween!

Taylor Swift is a global sensation with legions of devoted fans who call themselves "Swifties." Surprisingly, your hosts Dave and Caleb -- a.k.a. two dads in their 40s -- aren't among them. But in the midst of the year of Taylor, we wanted to find our way in. So we enlisted our friend Sydney Bauer, a self-professed Swiftie to give us three records and three weeks to fully take them in, and then guided us through a proverbial walking tour of what makes Taylor so singular and beloved. We did our homework, and now we're ready to name the best album for becoming a Swiftie!

Hosts: Dave Sandell and Caleb Gardner

Guest: Sydney Bauer

Music discussed in depth today:

Taylor Swift - Red

Taylor Swift - 1989

Taylor Swift - Folklore

Taylor Swift - Evermore

Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps

Miss Americana documentary

Every Single Album podcast from The Ringer

If movies like Roadhouse and Fight Club taught us anything, it’s that every bar fight is accompanied by a catalyzing track. Today, two pacifists  take another trip into their imaginations to determine the album that could come on that would make you want to defend someone’s honor (or at least buy groceries a little harder.) Dave takes us to punk’s roots with Iggy & the Stooges’ Raw Power and Caleb dips into 90s angst with The Offspring’s Smash.

Music featured today:

Iggy & the Stooges - Raw Power (Iggy Pop mix)

The Offspring - Smash

McClusky - new songs

McClusky - McClusky Do Dallas

Death Grips - The Money Store

The Stooges - “I Wanna Be Your Dog”

The Pixies - Doolittle / “Gouge Away”

Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire

Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles

Slowdive - everything is alive

The Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling

Disclosure - Alchemy

Dave and Caleb hop in their DeLorean to travel back to the year 1966 and decide which album they most want to experience in the time of its release. They talk about the frenzy that surrounded every Beatles release and what it must have felt like to experience your favorite band going in new directions like the Beatles' Revolver. And they imagine being in the audience to experience the power and magnitude of Nina Simone in the year she released Wild is the Wind.

Music discussed this week:

The Beatles - Revolver

Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep – Mountain High

The Rolling Stones - Aftermath

13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds...

Otis Redding - The Soul Album

Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade

James Blake - Playing Robots Into Heaven

Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

They say you can’t go home again, but this week Dave and Caleb make an attempt to as they think about hometowns. The good, the bad, the people, what it means to bring your full grown up self to a place where you are perpetually 17 years old, and importantly, the power of music to become containers for all the parts of your life; songs that mean something to you as a kid and grow and mold with you as you get older, so that they feel both present and meaningful and "like home." They dive into the Smashing Pumpkins’ seminal album, Siamese Dream, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary. And then they briefly discuss country music and all of its baggage in light of the album that most sounds "like home," Garth Brooks’ 18-million-selling album, No Fences. 

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness 

Garth Brooks - No Fences

Noname - Sundial

New Pornographers - Continue as a Guest

Sufjan Stevens - “So You Are Tired”

Slowdive - everything is alive

Olivia Rodrigo - “Bad Idea Right?”

Dave and Caleb go deep on how they formed their imagination for high school (spoiler alert: Saved by the Bell shows up) and what types of feelings and memories shaped their mindset as they remember entering high school, with all its misplaced promise and unearned swagger and raging hormones. They turn to two bands who uniquely understood the assignment — Blink 182 and the Beastie Boys — and dive into a classic and a little-less-classic album from each. Grab your trapper keeper and start the countdown to college as they pick the best album for starting high school!

Albums discussed today:

Blink 182 - Blink-182, Enema of the State, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, Dude Ranch

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication, Check Your Head

Ratboys - The Window

Rob Moose - Inflorescence

Dave is joined this week by a special guest, Quentin Coaxum (https://quentincmusic.bandcamp.com). Quentin is a professional trumpeter, composer and teacher in the Chicago area, where he’s performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Pitchfork Music Festival. Dave and Quentin go deep on two very different records they recommend for retreating to woods, including the lush “Sing to the Moon” by Laura Mvula that could accompany you on a walk in nature, and the lovely, dark and deep “No More Shall We Part” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds that is better suited to a cabin in fifteen feet of pure white snow.

Music discussed today:

Quentin Coaxum - You & I

Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part

Blu - Her Favorite Color

Goldman - Sometimes

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire for No Witness

Smog - Rock Bottom Riser

Bill Callahan - Apocalypse

The Black Keys - Chulahoma

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way

Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On?

Whitney - Light Upon the Lake

Al Green - I’m Still in Love With You

Al Green - Let’s Stay Together

Wilco - Kicking Television

Dave and Caleb make one last splash before summer comes to a close by determining the best album for jumping in a lake with your friends, including a surprise album that neither of them like all that much. Can an album be a 'best album for' if it has 5 killer tracks and a ton of filler? They also discuss why rock music production from the last 20+ years all kind of sounds the same, and how that affects the mood of a party as opposed to music from every decade prior to 2000 that transports us back to a specific time and place. Plus, what's the value of interludes and skits on albums and much more.

Music discussed today:

Future Islands - Singles

The Killers - Hot Fuss

Duran Duran - Rio

Taylor Swift - 1989

Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, MAAD City

Restraining Order - Locked in Time

In today’s episode, Dave wants to bring you in on one of his most embarrassing behaviors that began with a brilliant attempt to be cool in high school, and Dave and Caleb attempt to determine what songs you can blast from your car that will, for a brief moment, make sure the high schoolers you are driving by know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are cool. Also, they have an episode-long conversation about 90s hip hop, Kendrick Lamar’s best album and more. Plus, they answer the age-old question: Are the Misfits a band or a very successful t-shirt company?

Music discussed today:

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday

Missy Elliott - Under Construction

The Misfits - Static Age

The Misfits - Walk Among Us

Elijah and Jammz - Make the Ting

De La Soul - Three Feet High and Rising

Too many 90s hip hop acts to count