R&B singer/songwriter Mariah Carey enjoyed a prolonged period of critical and commercial success throughout the 90s, during which she enjoyed multiple Billboard Hot 100 hits and sold millions upon millions of records. The 00s on the other hand were a brief stumbling point for the legendary performer; her involvement in the 2001 box office bomb Glitter and its subsequent soundtrack made her a polarizing and controversial figure, and coupled with the media's reaction to a public mental breakdown she had been going through, it nearly destroyed her career if not for 2005's mega-comeback The Emancipation of Mimi. Though she would recover her reputation, the failure of Glitter continued to be a yoke around her neck years later.

On a new season of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick welcome Scott Kurland back to the podcast to talk about the soundtrack to Glitter, and Mariah Carey in general. Join them for some frank discussion about retrospective guilt, mental health awareness, reckoning with behaviors back during the 00s, and Mystikal's weird pride in soiling his under-drawers.

#weresadnow

Local Music Feature: Christina Jones - Free, Completely Free

On this very special(?) episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick with special return guest Aimee Hauthaway have opted to close out season 5 by listening to Sex And Violins by Rednex.

You know, Rednex?

The "Cotton Eye Joe" guys?

Why are they doing this?

Isn't that the question of the day.

#AreWeNormalNow?
#GoinTrunky
#SeeYouNextSeason


New England Music Feature: Christians & Lions - "Is To As Are To"

Christian Rock. A phenomenon in which the iconically American genre of music is used as a tool for evangelizing, preaching, or otherwise sharing christian religious beliefs. Though christianity had long opposed the "devil music" that was rock and roll, sometime around the late 1960s and early 1970s, former hippies who had turned to Christ discovered that they could use rock music as a means of spreading their gospel. Though many old guard christians considered it abhorrent, and conflicting to their values, christian rock gradually spread among the faithful, and even enjoyed a surge of mainstream commercial success in the 1990s via acts like Creed, Relient K, P.O.D., DC Talk, Jars of Clay, and many more.

It's a phenomenon that many millennials and gen Z'ers grew up with, largely through the influence of religious parents or peers. Some embraced religion whole-heartedly through it, but for many among us...we still don't get it.

With that level of ill-preparedness in mind, on this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick welcome Ashley Rogers and Shane Smith to the pod. Both return guests had grown up with christian rock as an everpresent force in their youth, and are glad to educate Lilz and Patrick in the ways of excessively earnest guys rocking out for Jeebus. Join them for a round-table discussion of random christian rock songs and artists, to exorcise some long dormant demons of their childhood, and make fun of Doug TenNapel.

Seriously, fuck that guy.

#werenormalnow

Local Music Feature: The Revenants - "Why Is God A Goddamn Jerk"

Fresh after the release of Pink Floyd's mega-selling concept record The Wall, Roger Waters had plans to release a companion piece record to accompany the film adaptation of the famed album. The project was to be titled Spare Bricks, and consist of songs written for The Wall that didn't make the final draft, but Waters abruptly switched directions with the arrival of the Falkland Islands conflict. Waters already was no fan of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, but this latest development lit an even bigger anti-war fire in his belly, and he set to work on new, more political material.

Pink Floyd had already been experiencing internal tensions since Waters assumed total creative control over the group, and those simmering tensions finally boiled over with the production of the record, now named The Final Cut. Upon its release, most critical outlets would offer up mixed to negative reviews, while the band's guitarist David Gilmour would state that the songs on the record weren't good enough for their own release. Not long after The Final Cut, Waters would exit the band amidst a ruinous lawsuit.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick are joined by return guest Nate Nemitz to discuss The Final Cut, an album that would subsequently be the final Pink Floyd record to feature Roger Waters. Join them for a frank discussion on solo projects, the politics of the 1980s, and absolutely no comparisons to modern events whatsoever.

#werenormalnow

Local Music Feature: Matt Drohan - "Thirteen"

Meet Ronnie Radke. Formerly the lead singer of the legendary metalcore act Escape The Fate, his tenure in the group was cut short after assault charges landed him in prison, and expelled from the band. Undaunted, Radke would form his own project upon leaving jail, known as Falling In Reverse, which followed a similar metalcore style as Escape had, but the central creative process was entirely Radke's. Though he would go on to attract a sizeable audience of metalcore fans with his music, he would become infamous for some truly scummy behavior, having been accused of sexual assault multiple times, consistently getting into fights with fans and critics, and more recently becoming an outspoken denouncer of cancel culture.

And wouldn't you know it? In all this time, a truly detestable record came out of it too. In 2013, coming off of the success of Falling In Reverse's 2011 debut The Drug In Me Is You, Radke followed things up with Fashionably Late, a record that he declared to be the best music he'd ever written, with a heavy focus on uplifting and inspirational material. What critics and fans saw it as however, was an uncoordinated mess filled with questionable genre fusion, un-dynamic production, lyrics too misogynistic even for a stereotypically misogynistic genre as metalcore, and a disgusting amount of Radke's own inflated sense of ego.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, we're joined by Jacob Russell of the Let's Play crew TheStrawhatNO!, for a frank and distressing listen to Fashionably Late. In which some metalcore demons of indiscretion are exorcised, closet skeletons are unearthed, and Lilz and Patrick wonder if they've somehow stumbled onto an album worse than the Steven Seagal one.

#MowTheSausages

Local Music Feature - Lockette - "The Mess"

In 2001 several revolutionary albums stood nominated for Album Of The Year at that year's Grammy Awards. Important records by Radiohead (Kid A), Eminem (The Marshall Mathers LP), and Beck (Midnite Vultures), all of which would go on to great acclaim and influence to new generations of musicians who discovered them. The conventional wisdom was that one of these three albums would take home the grand prize of the evening, but events played out very differently, and would contribute to increasingly disdainful public opinion towards the award.

The Grammies already had a long and storied history of nominating "wrong" artists and albums for "Best Of The Year" awards that would earn widespread criticism among fans and critics. It happened when Jethro Tull took "Best Hard Rock/Metal Recording" by Metallica, it happened when Eric Clapton took "Best Rock Song" from Nirvana, and it happened once again when cerebral jazz-rockers and boomer institution Steely Dan took "Album Of The Year" with their 8th studio recording "Two Against Nature".

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, songwriter and synth-wizard Steve Borek of Telelectrix joins Lilz and Patrick to discuss the controversy and listen to the yacht rock staple's 2000 record. Join us for frank discussions on timelessness, old guard thinking, and be thoroughly skeeved out by the various songs about underage girls.

#wearenormalnow

Local Music Feature: The Heartsleeves - "Simple Machine"

In 1998, legendary heavy metal act Guns N' Roses would enter the studio to produce a new studio album; their first record of original material since 1991's Use Your Illusion I & II, and their first studio release ever since 1993's cover record The Spaghetti Incident?. This record, which would be dubbed Chinese Democracy, was intended for a 1999 release date.

It would not see release until about 9 years later.

The stories behind Chinese Democracy's numerous release date foibles are varied and many, ranging from lineup changes, legal issues, frontman Axl Rose's own obsessive sense of perfectionism, and even an incident involving the soda company Dr. Pepper. But amidst all the hype and comparisons to vaporware, it's easy to forget there's still an album to be heard. An album full of confusing fusions with industrial music and nu-metal, confusingly overblown songwriting from Rose himself, and a confusing man named Buckethead.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick are joined by David Rosen of the Piecing It Together podcast to dig into Chinese Democracy; a record whose protracted production time is the stuff of legends, and is still to this day the most expensive rock record ever produced.

...wait, didn't we already do this one?

#WeAreNormalNow

Local Music Feature: Mt. Metal - "I'll Never Forget (Heavy Metal)"

Before famed musician Steven Seagal committed his musical genius upon the world, you may be surprised to learn that he also was an actor in action films like Under Siege, Hard To Kill, Above The Law, and On Deadly Ground. You may also learn that he was formerly a Navy SEAL, a CIA agent, and an Aikido master. (You will likely know this because he's made mention of it any and all chances he gets.)

It's shocking, but all true! Before the subject of reality TV show Steven Seagal: Lawman decided he had blues he needed to let free, he had a long and storied career in direct-to-home-video show business, but thank goodness he settled into music. Otherwise we might have been denied his opus, 2005's Songs From The Crystal Cave. A mish-mash of middling white guy blues, confusing spiritual themes, and some of the clumsiest takes on world fusion you may ever hear in your life.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Pat are joined by Mario Boiardi of Horsehands and The Band Dennis for a deep dive into the dojo, and a tortured listening of Songs From The Crystal Cave in its entirety.

#WeAreNormalNow
#LookIntoMyEyes

The 1995 motion picture Batman Forever marked the 3rd entry in the first cinematic universe of the titular DC Comics superhero. While previous entries had been directed by Tim Burton, Forever found Burton in a producing role instead, with directorial duties falling to Joel Schumacher. In contrast to the dark and macabre direction Burton took the film series, Schumacher found inspiration in the camp 1960s Batman TV show, to mixed critical reviews, but major commercial success.

The film would go down as a blemish on the Batman franchise among fans, who along with its ill-fated sequel Batman & Robin did not appreciate the more light-hearted takes on the caped crusader. Nowadays it's best remembered as a low point for the comic book franchise, but also for its unassuming soundtrack, which just so happened to contain two of the most enduring pop songs of the 1990s: "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2, and "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal.

For two songs iconic to the decade to be connected to an otherwise mediocre soundtrack for an objectively bad superhero movie is a novelty in and of itself. That's why we're digging into this OST anomaly on a new episode of Jukebox Zeroes. Joining Lilz and Pat is streamer and author Danesha Artis, as the trio are swallowed up into 90s oblivion, and a never-ending chasm filled with Nick Cave saying "Daddy-O" way too much.

#WeAreNormalNow

Local Music Feature: Collapser - "A Ghost & The Sea"

In 1967, The Beatles released their 8th studio album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a record that has been considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Heavily influenced by The Beach Boys' record Pet Sounds a year earlier, Sgt. Pepper was renowned for its' innovative style of production, adept fusion of multiple styles of music, and has been credited with bridging the gap between contemporary pop/rock and high art. It has gone down as a highly influential album, and routinely reaches the top 10 of retrospective "Greatest Of All Time" lists by music magazines.

Fast-forward to 1978; The Beatles had been broken up for a decade, and producer Robert Stigwood (Who had also produced Grease and Saturday Night Fever) decided that modern audiences needed to be re-introduced to the band. He went about this by teaming up with Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees to adapt an off-Broadway stage musical that utilized Beatles music for the silver screen. This film was titled Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, featured Frampton and the Bee Gees in starring roles, and cameos from the likes of George Burns, Alice Cooper, Steve Martin, and many more.

And it was a complete and total clusterfuck.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick (Joined by special guest Franco Micale) decide there's no way to fully understand the thoroughly awful insanity that is the 1978 soundtrack to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film without watching the film itself. Join them for a bewildered and befuddled recap filled with soft-rock covers of Beatles songs, insipid settings, and acting ranging from wooden to intensely hammy.

#WeAreNormalNow

Local Music Feature: Forhill - "Luna"