Disclaimer: Khiem's mic had a systemic problem that we did not notice until after we finished recording. We apologize for the sound quality.

What makes a song "indie", where's the cut-off for being a "hipster", and "how can indie songs end up on the radio"? These are the questions we addressed in this episode alongside the idea of experimental music and what Adarsh calls "The Radiohead Effect" before we got into our Lightning Rounds. Enjoy this shorter than usual episode! 

 

|Indie Music Discussion|

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition

MGMT - Electric Feel

Lord Huron - The Night We Met

Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream

The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You

Maroon 5 - The Sun

SUPERORGANISM - It's All Good

Radiohead - Paranoid Android

 

|Lightning Rounds|

SiR - November

Super Whatevr - Never Nothing

First Aid Kit - Ruins

The Go! Team - Semicircle

Adarsh and I are finally back from our hiatus and boy did we have a lot of things to say. In this first episode, we discuss our theory of how Latin music has been able to gain such immense popularity in the States and how features and collaborations are being strategically used today. Then we each had four Lightning Rounds of albums released between December until now before getting deep into CupcakKe's Ephorize. 

 

|Latin Takeover + Features/Collaborations|

J. Balvin, Willy William, & Beyoncé - Mi Gente

&

Omi - Cheerleader [Felix Jaehn Remix]

Drake - One Dance featuring Wiz Kid & Kyla

Rihanna - Work featuring Drake

Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons - Sucker for Pain with Logic & Ty Dollar Sign featuring X Ambassadors

 

|Lightning Rounds|

Camila Cabello - Camila 

MMODE - S/T

Charli XCX - Pop 2

Roy Blair - Cat Heaven

Sylvan LaCue - Apologies in Advance

Sidney Gish - No Dogs Allowed 

Shame - Songs of Praise

Typhoon - Offerings

 

|Album of the Week|

CupcakKe - Ephorize

&

Missy Elliot - Get Your Freak On

Our Best of 2017 episode is finally here and we've made it as jam-packed as possible with 36 song clips featuring our favorite albums and musical moments of the year. Aside from an objective top 10 list, we also gave our individual subjective top 10's and crowned hand-picked winners for superlatives from Most Overrated Album to Best Shuffle Album. As always, we also gave our thoughts on the year as a whole and what we're looking forward to in 2018. See y'all next year!

|Our Objective Top 10|

1) Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me

2) Lorde - Melodrama

3) Brockhampton - Saturation

4) Dirty Projectors - S/T

5) This is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze

6) Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

7) Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

8) Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy

9) The War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding

10) IDK - I Was Very Bad

 

{Subjective Top 10 ; Khiem | Adarsh}

1) Lorde - Melodrama

2) This is the Kit - Moonshine Freeze | Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me

3) Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory |  Taylor Swift - reputation

4) Muna - About U | Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

5) LANY - S/T | Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life

6) Dirty Projectors - S/T | Bleachers - Gone Now

7) Hundred Waters - Communicating | Poppy - Poppy.Computer

8) Brockhampton - Saturation | Brockhampton - Saturation II

9) Wild Ones - Mirror Touch | Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

10) Betty Who - The Valley | Dirty Projectors - S/T

 

{Superlatives; Khiem | Adarsh}

The "Almost Had It" Album: Jay Som - Everbody Works

Best "New Artist": Charlie Puth

Best New Artist: Petit Biscuit | Poppy

Most Overrated Album: SZA - CTRL

Most Underrated Album: Dirty Projectors - S/T

Biggest Disappointment: Fergie - Double Dutchess

Biggest Surprise: IDK | Bleachers

Worst Album: Father John Misty - Pure Comedy

Best Shuffle Album: Aminé - Good For You | HAIM - Something to Tell You

Gayest Album: Partner - In Search of Lost Time

 

|Other Songs Featured|

Kendrick Lamar - LOVE.

Future Teens - In Love or Whatever

EasyFun - Laplander

GFOTY - Don't Wanna/Let's Do It

SOPHIE - Lemonade

Portugal. The Man - I Feel It Still

Charlie XCX - 3AM (Pull Up)

In our last normal episode of the year, we're discussing movie scores and soundtracks from Star Wars to Juno and even TV shows! Tune in as we ask whether these albums are their own entity, show how they can enhance or ruin a movie, and talk about the music we've discovered from them. Then we give y'all our impression of four new releases, including our first metal feature before jumping into our second album of the week from a Smith, Syre. Stay tuned for our Best of 2017 episode coming soon! 

 

|Scores + Soundtracks|

Barry Louis Polisar - All I Want is You (Juno)

Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams (500 Days of Summer)

Kendrick Lamar - Sing About Me/Dying of Thirst

John Williams - Star Wars, The Imperial March, Duel of the Fates (Star Wars)

Tkay Maidza - Carry On (Dear White People)

 

|Lightning Round Albums|

The Body & Full of Hell - Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light

NSTASIA - New Religion EP

Baths - Romaplasm

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest

 

|Album of the Week|

Jaden Smith - SYRE

With the highly anticipated release of reputation, we've decided to do a Taylor Swift deep dive! We've also brought in a special guest, Molly Schlamp, to speak from the perspective of a long time Swifty to complement our more recent experiences with Taylor's music. Listen as we make a case for why she is more similar to Kanye West than you might think, how she can write simultaneously universal and anthemic but also emotionally specific songs, and who exactly she is now and whether it's really a change from what we've known and love about Taylor. We've been looking forward to recording this episode for a long time and we're so excited to share it with you guys!

|Featured Songs|

1989 - Clean

reputation - Ready For It, I Did Something Bad, Don't Blame Me, Delicate, Gorgeous, Dress, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, New Year's Day

Katy Perry - Roar

We're back with a brand new segment called Song Techniques where we aim to explain the tools songwriters use to convey the messages in their songs. In this episode, we explore the technique when an artist purposely makes their listeners complete a musical idea with examples from MF Doom to The Killers. Then we give y'all our impressions of our favorite new releases before jumping into The First album of the week in a while and our thoughts about music made by young people.

 

|Song Techniques|

Hundred Waters - Fingers

MF Doom, The Killers, Robin Thicke, Jamila Woods, Kanye West, Betty Who, Carly Rae Jepson, Alex De Los Santos 

 

|Lightning Round Albums|

Prince Charlez - Evolution Pt. 1

21 Savage, Offset, & Metro Boomin - Without Warning

Yaeji - EP2

James Holden & The Animal Spirits - Pass Through The Fire

DUCKWRTH - An XTRA UUGLY Mixtape

 

|Album of the Week| 

Willow - The 1st

Kate Bush, Bjork, Solange, Grace VanderWaal

What makes a "good" EDM song? What separates electronic subgenres from one another? Where is EDM in pop heading? These are the questions we addressed with the help of our friend and electronic-head, Zeke Chavez! We learned so much and featured everything from Chillstep to Nu Jazz and Marshmello to Electric Guest. Then, it's on to our Lightning Rounds as usual with a special mention to Gord Downie's Introduce Yourself. It's definitely a jams-packed episode!

|Song of the Week: EDM|

Dream Angel - Heaven With U [Slow Magic Remix]

Marshmello, Blackmill, MACINTOSH PLUS, Odesza, Electric Guest, Marian Hill, Nujabes, GRiZMATiK, Syris, Louis the Child

|Lightning Rounds Albums|

Majid Jordan - The Space Between

Rachel Platten - Waves

Henry Jamison - The Wilds

Julien Baker - Turn Out the Lights

We're tackling a bit of a heavier topic this episode and featuring a heavier song - our first metal song on the podcast! Listen as we discuss how we think music can influence action, increase conscious awareness, and persuade listeners, particularly when it comes to political/social topics. Then, we're featuring 10 new releases this week and doing another first on the show: two albums of the week, one from each of us! It's a longer episode because of that but we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it.

|Song of the Week Discussion|

Stray from the Path - Goodnight Alt-Right

Katy Perry; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Jamila Woods

|Lightning Rounds|

Broen - I

We had quite the experience at a nightclub this past weekend which has inspired this week's discussion to be on DJs! Hear just how frustrated we get when DJs do things that ruin parties plus what we think great DJs do right. Then, we gave our thoughts on new releases, including King Krule and Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile before we crowned St. Vincent’s MASSEDUCTION as our album of the week. Finally, listen to the end for our defense of remixes & covers!

|Song of The Week: DJs|

Cassie - Me & U

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song, The Cardigans - Love Fool, Sage the Gemini - Gas Pedal

|Lightning Rounds|

IDK - I Was Very Bad

King Krule - The Ooz

Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Lotta Sea Lice

|Album of the Week| 

St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION

|In Defense Of: Remixes & Covers|

Santigold - You'll Find a Way [Switch & Sinden Remix]

Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness [Lissie Cover]

The Knife - Heartbeats [José González Cover]/[Royal Teeth Cover]

Wet - No Lie [Noah Breakfast Remix]

JP Cooper - September Song [Gardiner Sisters & Peter Hollens Cover]

Couldn't make it out to ACL this year? No problem cause we got your back! I (Khiem) saw more than 25 bands and in this episode, I'm giving y’all the low down of my favorite acts from Tank and the Bangas to Chance the Rapper as well as my impression of ACL as a whole. Then we’re on to some awesome releases that's perfect for fall weather before diving into the indescribably weird and fascinating Poppy and her debut album!

|Song of the Week|Tank and the Bangas - RollercoastersR.LUM.R, Solange, Chance the Rapper*Additional artists mentioned

|Lightning Rounds|Yumi Zouma - WillowbankWild Ones - Mirror TouchAlex Lahey - I Love You Like a BrotherWeaves - Wide Open

l Album of the Week|Poppy - Poppy.Computer

*James Vincent McMorrow, Vulfpeck, The xx, Jay-Z, Mondo Cozmo, Car Seat Headrest, Thundercat, Angel Olsen, Cut Copy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jamila Woods, Danny Brown, Whitney, DRAM, First Aid Kit, Run the Jewels, Vance Joy