CrossFade: The Dueling Album Review Show

My Chemical Romance’s breakthrough “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” and Deerhoof’s “Apple O’” don’t sound anything alike, but they both represent outsider music in their own ways. In today’s episode, Matt explains why Deerhoof tickles his earhoof and Blake tries to explain what it was like to hear MCR for the first time as a churchgoing 10-year-old. Our community also asked Matt and Blake great questions about touring stories, beating your favorite song to death, and what emo music did for millennial perceptions of masculinity. Thanks for listening!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

13:36 - My Chemical Romance’s “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge”

20:37 - “Helena”

24:38 - “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid”

28:19 - “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison”

34:01 - “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”

41:40 - “The Ghost of You”

43:42 - “The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You”

48:06 - “Hang ‘Em High”

51:11 - “It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Fucking Deathwish”

56:53 - Deerhoof’s “Apple O’”

1:00:03 - “Dummy Discards a Heart”

1:04:38 - “My Diamond Star Car”

1:07:34 - “Panda Panda Panda”

1:10:28 - “Sealed With a Kiss”

1:14:36 - “Apple Bomb”

1:18:27 - “Adam+Eve Connection”

1:21:54 - “L’Amour Stories”

1:25:33 - “Flower”

1:28:24 - Community Questions

2:01:13 - Community Song (“Toy Soldier” by The Menzingers, suggested by MinnMax supporter Sincerely, Eric)

Follow Blake at https://twitter.com/metallicaisrad and read his work in Game Informer and on https://www.gameinformer.com/

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

The MinnMax community has such interesting music tastes. Listeners send us songs for every single episode, so we thought, “Why not make a whole episode out of that?” So that’s what we did! We hit shuffle on almost a playlist of almost 100 songs(!) suggested by our supporters and came up with 18 we could fit into an episode. We ended up with such a crazy set of songs, from punk to pop to Japanese thrash fusion to R&B to CB radio-themed outlaw country. It gets pretty wild and wonderful, and we love how it turned out.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who sent songs our way!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

10:06 - Green Day - “Jesus of Suburbia” (suggested by Mike Sweet)

20:11 - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - “Gamma Knife” (suggested by Noah Stewart)

23:11 - Plini - “Impulse Voices” (suggested by Richard Herron)

28:12 - MAXIMUM THE HORMONE - “Yoshu Fukushu” (suggested by Fredrik Fjordell Vinsa)

35:12 - Taylor Swift - “Cruel Summer” (suggested by Michael Moran)

40:56 - Butch Walker - “Going Back/Going Home” (suggested by Chris Logan)

45:45 - Phoebe Bridgers - “Garden Song” (suggested by Kevin Frey)

49:00 - Annabella Lwin - “Super Boom” (suggested by Gabriel Cleveland)

52:38 - Animals As Leaders - “Tooth and Claw” (suggested by Carter Hanson)

56:33 - Liturgy - “SIHEYMN’s Lament” (suggested by crunchmonkey)

1:00:03 - The Comet Is Coming feat. Kate Tempest - “Blood Of The Past” (suggested by Keaton Johnson)

1:04:48 - NGHTMRE, ZHU feat. Kidd Keem - “Man’s First Inhibition” (suggested by Jake Zielsdorf)

1:09:32 - Caifanes - “Viento” (suggested by whitemex)

1:12:28 - C.W. McCall - “Convoy” (suggested by Aegis of the Grail)

1:16:54 - Juice WRLD - “Righteous” (suggested by Christopher Reardon)

1:21:10 - NNAMDÏ - “Wasted” (suggested by Scott McRae)

1:25:13 - Bob Lind - “City Scenes” (suggested by Adam Wagner)

1:30:27 - Yes - “Heart of the Sunrise” (suggested by Josh Karmel)

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

John T. Drake (VP Biz Dev and Licensing for Games at Disney, fmr. PlayStation and Harmonix) joins Matt and Jason for a crazy specific episode of CrossFade! Where vocalist Travis Morrison looks inward on The Dismemberment Plan’s “Change,” Ziggy St--erm, David Bowie looks to the skies on “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” – but both tell their own specific stories. John regales us with some positively wild tales from his Harmonix days (warning: discussions of blood, T. Pain, Pete Wentz, and a disappointed Beatle) and more in our community questions segment before Brittany Howard’s “13th Century Metal” takes us out, courtesy of MinnMax supporter James Burkett. Thanks to James and everyone who asked questions and threw songs our way!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

16:55 - “Sentimental Man”

20:19 - “Come Home”

23:38 - “Superpowers”

29:30 - “The Face of the Earth”

32:53 - “Automatic”

34:38 - “Time Bomb”

41:35 - “Ellen and Ben”

47:13 - David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

54:32 - “Ziggy Stardust”

58:35 - “Five Years”

1:03:37 - “Moonage Daydream”

1:07:45 - “Starman”

1:10:10 - “Star”

1:13:29 - “Hang on to Yourself”

1:16:16 - “Lady Stardust”

1:20:11 - “Suffragette City”

1:29:22 - “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”

1:35:41 - Community questions

1:59:29 - John’s wildest stories from his time at Harmonix

2:18:33 - Community song (“13th Century Metal” by Brittany Howard, suggested by MinnMax

Sign the petition to pass legislation protecting live performance venues during COVID-19 at https://www.saveourstages.com/

Follow John on Twitter at https://twitter.com/johntdrake

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

Is it ‘90s in here or is it just me? Jeff Cork (BetterQuest, Game Informer) brings his beloved Beulah record, “When Your Heartstrings Break,” to CrossFade’s doorstep and Matt responds with The Afghan Whigs’s “Black Love.” Both albums are appropriately fueled by angst – sometimes about masculinity, sometimes about insecurity, and sometimes about the Civil War – and they’re full of incredible moments we couldn’t wait to dig into. Community questions get us talkin’ Foreigner, bad album covers, written album reviews, and more before we head down a paranoid path with crooner Tom Waits for our outro song (thanks, MinnMax supporter Michael Lynch!).

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

9:30 - “Score From Augusta”

14:50 - “Sunday Under Glass”

20:05 - “Matter vs. Space”

22:40 - “Calm Go the Wild Seas”

26:25 - “Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand”

30:30 - “Warmer”

34:15 - “If We Can Land a Man on the Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart”

40:55 - “Aristocratic Swells”

57:27 - “My Enemy”

1:00:40 - “Double Day”

1:05:06 - “Step into the Light”

1:09:20 - “Blame, Etc.”

1:13:40 - “Night by Candlelight”

1:15:15 - “Summer’s Kiss”

1:20:40 - “Honky’s Ladder”

1:25:35 - “Faded”

1:41:35 - Community questions

1:51:54 - Foreigner - “Urgent”

1:54:17 - Foreigner - “Hot Blooded”

2:03:17 - Community song (“What’s He Building?” by Tom Waits, suggested by MinnMax supporter Michael Lynch)

Follow Jeff at https://twitter.com/gijeff

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Eddie Van Halen was it: the guitarist who helped drag hard rock into the pop age, leaving contemporaries in both performing and composition in the dust. On the occasion of his passing in October 2020, we’re joined by Greg Renoff (https://twitter.com/gregrenoff), author of “Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal” and “Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer's Life in Music” to look back at Van Halen’s 1978 debut album and their groundbreaking synth-led “1984” – the ones that best exemplify the group’s talent, charisma, and staying power. Questions from our Patreon supporters lead us to talk about Van Halen’s music videos, artists whose passing hit hard, bands we only liked as we aged, and more!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

14:55 - “Eruption”

22:29 - “Runnin’ with the Devil”

29:46 - “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”

42:12 - “Jamie’s Cryin’”

50:23 - “Feel Your Love Tonight”

58:23 - “On Fire”

1:07:56 - “Jump”

1:14:14 - “Panama”

1:25:31 - “Top Jimmy”

1:30:32 - “Hot for Teacher”

1:37:40 - “I’ll Wait”

1:45:14 - “House of Pain”

1:49:47 - Community questions

2:14:17 - Community song (“Topanga Lawrence” by Charmer, suggested by MinnMax supporter Dan Willey)

Follow Greg at https://twitter.com/GregRenoff

Find Greg’s book about Van Halen, “Van Halen Rising,” at http://vanhalenrising.com/ and wherever you get books

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Understanding Eddie Van Halen's Teen-Idol Appeal (NPR) https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/921756326/eddie-van-halen-teen-idol

On this episode of CrossFade, we’re joined by Ana Diaz (@pokachee), host of Refreshed, for a little refreshment of our own: She reintroduces Matt to Frank Ocean's 2016 opus “Blonde” and Matt returns the R&B favor with Minneapolis-born trio We Are KING’s self-titled from the same year. We discuss Frank Ocean’s penchant for ‘universally personal’ storytelling, We Are KING’s lush songwriting and self-starter mindset, and great questions from the MinnMax community (our favorite bassists, music we’re completely certain you’d like, artists who keep playing with their formula, and where Three Six Mafia belongs in the hip-hop pantheon [don’t miss Jason’s stupid joke about that one]). We close with the funky brass groove stylings of Too Many Zooz courtesy of our supporter-picked song!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

12:19 - “Nikes”

19:23 - “Ivy”

25:27 - “Pink + White”

27:54 - “Solo”

31:21 - “Skyline To”

34:28 - “Solo (Reprise)”

39:04 - “Nights”

44:17 - “Futura Free”

49:08 - “White Ferrari”

53:10 - “Facebook Story”

1:03:08 - “The Greatest”

1:06:31 - “Carry On”

1:09:50 - “Hey - Extended Mix”

1:12:57 - “In the Meantime”

1:18:28 - “Native Land”

1:23:31 - Community questions

1:37:53 - Community song (“Car Alarm” by Too Many Zooz, suggested by MinnMax supporter Harrison Cook)

Follow Ana at https://twitter.com/pokachee

Catch Refreshed live at https://www.twitch.tv/minnmaxshow every other Thursday, watch the archives at https://www.youtube.com/minnmaxshow, and listen to the Patreon-exclusive podcast version by becoming a supporter

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

“Frank Ocean Remembers Prince as ‘a Vanguard and Genius’” - New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/live/prince-in-memoriam/frank-ocean-remembers-prince-as/

“Frank Ocean Is Finally Free, Mystery Intact” - New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/arts/music/frank-ocean-blonde-interview.html

“Detangling Frank Ocean's 'Blonde': What It Is And Isn't” - NPR https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2016/08/22/490918270/detangling-frank-oceans-blonde-what-it-is-and-isnt

“How Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' Inspired A Wave Of Raw Sincerity in Hip-Hop” - Cool Accidents

The producer has become the product! Jason hops in the guest seat for a lesson in shreddin’ with Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” while Matt sinks into Lucy Dacus’s introspective “Historian”. It’s one of the more out-of-whack pairings we’ve heard on CrossFade, but it’s worth it to learn what you miss when you risk writing off an entire artist based on their genre. How would Metallica have been different if Cliff Burton hadn’t passed suddenly? What’s the worst we’ve been hurt at a show? Just how important is speaker quality when listening to music? All that AND a patron-picked song in our community segment!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

10:11 - “Night Shift”

17:26 - “Addictions”

24:56 - “Nonbeliever”

32:07 - “The Shell”

37:22 - “Timefighter”

42:40 - “Pillar of Truth”

59:20 - “Battery”

1:08:14 - “Master of Puppets”

1:16:47 - “The Thing That Should Not Be”

1:20:55 - “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”

1:24:40 - “Disposable Heroes”

1:26:42 - “Orion”

1:31:33 - “Damage, Inc.”

1:38:02 - Community questions

2:01:55 - Community song (“Golden” by berhana, suggested by MinnMax supporter Thom Blackburn)

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Couldn’t have planned this episode any better! With guest Emily Reese (Level With Emily, Jazz88, Scores & Pours), we ring in our show’s new name with entries from two of the most original artists of any generation: Björk’s 2017 electronic fantasy “Utopia” and Kate Bush’s untouchable “Hounds of Love”. In both, we find forward-thinking musicians at the peak of their craft with creative freedom and the technical skill to bring storytelling, emotional soundscapes, and grand ideas to life. Our community questions get us talking about how hearing game soundtracks before playing the game made us think differently of the music, the weirdest stuff in our music collection, and more – then it’s time for our community song, which takes us behind the Iron Curtain for some more experimental pop by European women...

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

14:29 - “Arisen My Senses”

19:58 - “Blissing Me”

23:47 - “The Gate”

31:54 - “Utopia”

35:28 - “Claimstaker”

39:12 - “Losss”

41:59 - “Tabula Rasa”

44:33 - “Paradisia”

49:33 - “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”

54:19 - “Hounds of Love”

57:03 - “Mother Stands for Comfort”

1:00:19 - “Cloudbusting”

1:07:13 - “Under Ice”

1:09:41 - “Watching You Without Me”

1:14:16 - “Jig of Life”

1:17:13 - “Hello Earth”

1:22:27 - “The Morning Fog”

1:26:58 - Community questions

1:41:07 - Community song (“Не рядом” by Колибри, suggested by MinnMax supporter Jason Wojnar)

Follow Emily Reese on Twitter at @LevelWithEmily, listen to Level with Emily Reese and Scores & Pours wherever you get podcasts, and listen to Jazz88 at jazz88.fm

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

CrossFade Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

CrossFade Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox (edited)

So here we are, doing everything we can… and chatting THPS music with the pros! We’re so excited to have Ralph D’Amato (producer of the Tony Hawk series through Project 8 and also a new documentary about the series) and Blake Hester (writer, musician, and THUG lover) join MinnTrax to talk about the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater soundtracks, how Neversoft picked such great songs, how they were shaped by skate culture, and the impact they had on games and music tastes for generations to come. Then, with questions from the MinnTrax community, we learn about a song that didn’t make it onto the THPS soundtracks and why, who’d be perfect for one of those soundtracks today, and what each of our wrestling themes would be (because why not?). Thanks for listening!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

14:30 - Dead Kennedys - “Police Truck”

17:30 - Suicidal Tendencies - “Cyco Vision”

24:15 - Goldfinger - “Superman”

36:55 - Rage Against the Machine - “Guerrilla Radio”

41:00 - Bad Religion - “You”

43:47 - Millencolin - “No Cigar”

48:00 - The High & Mighty - “B-Boy Document ’99”

52:25 - Anthrax & Public Enemy - “Bring the Noise”

55:47 - Lagwagon - “May 16”

1:02:12 - Community questions

1:27:04 - Community song (“Kick, Push” by Lupe Fiasco, suggested by MinnMax supporter Cade Mead)

Follow Blake at twitter.com/metallicaisrad and read his oral history of THUG

(https://bit.ly/2ExQen7) and his profile of Neversoft cofounder Joel Jewett (https://bit.ly/2QtsXVT)

Watch Leo and Blake rank all 31 Tony Hawk games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNmaVDrKJ08

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

One of Matt’s formative college records versus a 2020 release? Only on MinnTrax! Special guest Paul Charchian (Guillotine Leagues, Video Games Weekly, and more) almost didn’t bring Other Lives’s “For Their Love” to the table, but we’re glad he did – it’s a densely-arranged indie pop classic at only six months old (and maybe also a subliminal message about the band being a group of vampires). Yo La Tengo’s “I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One,” on the other hand, was a shoo-in for Matt, who used to wander the UMN campus to its understated rock vibes. After the discussion, we field a few questions from the MinnMax community, touching on albums we think would make good game concepts, our favorite concert films, and music that defined the cultures we grew up in. Thanks for the great questions and song suggestions, everyone!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

7:15 - “We Wait”

11:30 - “Sound of Violence”

16:20 - “Lost Day”

22:25 - “All Eyes - For Their Love”

32:40 - “Dead Language”

36:13 - “Nites Out”

40:25 - “Hey Hey I”

53:45 - “Moby Octopad”

58:30 - “Little Honda”

1:01:50 - “Sugarcube”

1:06:10 - “Autumn Sweater”

1:11:55 - “Green Arrow”

1:13:43 - “One PM Again”

1:14:34 - “The Lie and How We Told It”

1:18:35 - “Center of Gravity”

1:20:50 - “Return to Hot Chicken”

1:22:50 - “Stockholm Syndrome”

1:30:25 - “Spec Bebop”

1:33:49 - Community questions

1:39:09 - Anna von Hausswolff - “Ugly and Vengeful”

1:47:40 - Community song (“Leaving Eden” by Carolina Chocolate Drops, suggested by MinnMax supporter Tim Lorow)

Follow Paul Charchain on Twitter at @PaulCharchian and GuillotineLeagues.com

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox