Best Midwestern

We bring you our favorite Midwest albums of the year, our favorite new Midwest bands of the year, and our favorite shows we went to in the Midwest this year.

We review records by Signals Midwest (Cleveland), KP & Me (Bloomington, IN) and Sump Pumps (Bloomington, IN). Also discussed: the joys of throwing up and Jim Neighbors, in unrelated tangents.

We review records by The Faint (Omaha, NE), Berwanger (Lawrence, KS), and Busman's Holiday (Bloomington, IN). We also talk about Will Smith for some reason.

Midwest-based label Polyvinyl Records celebrates 20 years so we honor it by reviewing their anniversary comp, Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl. We also talk about our favorite Polyvinyl releases past and present.

Greg and Scott review albums from three Chicago artists: American Football, Ryley Walker and The Cell Phones. We also discover that the only adjective that Scott knows is "cool".

We talk with Davey Von Bohlen of The Promise Ring, Maritime and Cap'n Jazz about all sorts of things, from coaching youth sports to the horrors of opening for Bad Religion.

We chat with Marc Paffi, lead singer of Bear Vs. Shark, and discuss their reunion shows and record reissues. We also delve into Jugglos and Weird Al singing about underpants.

We discuss the touchstone emo album Something to Write Home About by Kansas City, MO's The Get Up Kids. We also review the new record by Lydia Loveless (Columbus, OH).

We review new releases by Owen, Death Spells, and Masked Intruder.

We chat about the classic movie High Fidelity which takes place in Chicago and play lots of clips and songs from the movie.