Sub Titles

Public Enemy’s incendiary and essential Fear of a Black Planet prompts Matt to think about and present different ways of presenting and embodying black power in music. Still to his and Tim’s befuddlement, Ms. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a viable replacement option and squares off here against scrappy underdog Things Fall Apart, The Roots’ jazz-hop classic.

In which Tim and Matt do a really good job of not just quoting Tevye and heaping praise on Topol. AFI gives Tim 12 Angry Men to work with, which he turns into the afore-referenced Fiddler on the Roof and Ratatouille. What connects a fourth-wall-breaking traditionalist and a rat-chef? Persuasion, of course! Come for the favorite Tevye moments, stay for an actually genuine discussion of rhetoric and elements of persuasion.

In this episode Matt explains a subgenre you might have heard of but remains mysterious, much like the swells and swirls of the music it produces. We talk Shoegaze in all its gauzy and aqueous goodness via My Bloody Valentine’s still gorgeous Loveless, and Matt presents two other Shoegaze heavyweights to illustrate the different spirits of the genre and to determine which is the best representative.

The 1938 screwball classic Bringing Up Baby is the AFI entry for this episode, and man is the leopard cute. Tim talks through the zany...everything of the film before casting it as an example of Patrician Romance. With that theme Ernst Lubitsch makes his second appearance on the podcast in Heaven Can Wait, which goes against Dorothy Arzner's Craig's Wife in a battle of rich folk being various degrees of unfaithful and romantic and showing us the nuanced contours of what it means to be together. 

A battle of hip-hop heavyweights this week. Jay Z's The Blueprint is the Spin entry, an album that functions as both a statement of success and as a model for how to Grow Old in hip-hop, a genre notorious (in 2001) for not having many artists with long careers (or even lives). Matt talks through Nas' Stillmatic and The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death as other examples of how rappers deal with wealth, fame, and relevance as they mature. And boy howdy the rap beefs we get to talk about in this episode. Here's to "Ether," forever the best diss track. 

With the Philadelphia of it all as his guide, Tim remarks on the importance of Pennsylvania to The Sixth Sense and then to The Irishman and Witness. We talk about the twist, marvel at the performances in The Irishman, giggle about Al Pacino devouring scenes as Jimmy Hoffa, discuss the sight of peak Harrison Ford in Amish country, consider the stark differences between parts of PA not but an hour away from each other, and Matt just generally geeks about his home state and Tim about his adopted city.

Sonic Youth were part of a vanguard of bands in the late 80s redefining what guitar music and American rock could sound like. In this episode, we look at more recent artists that wield Distortion with a similar verve to Sonic Youth: Silversun Pickups and Mitski. We discuss how such heavy, fuzzy effects can increase emotional impact. We also realize that Rock Band II has to be the subject of a future Deci’s Midnight Runners.

Swing Time is really a showcase for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in all their grace and beauty. In this episode, Tim brings for consideration two other films that are showcases of talent. One is a powerhouse, and inimitable, solo performance by Judy Garland in A Star is Born (‘54); the other may be the most beloved ensemble in history. Listen to see if and how Matt might talk himself out of the Muppets.

D’Angelo’s simply incredible Voodoo kick-started a truly impressive year for albums in 2000 with its concoctions of soul, R&B, hip-hop, funk, blues, and damn near everything else. Heady arrangements with visceral kick is basically the D’Angelo brand, which Matt discusses in this episode before introducing two other vitally important Neo-Soul albums that came before the crest that was Voodoo: Maxwell’s Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite and Erykah Badu’s Baduizm.

Full as they are with Content, Sub Titles episodes don't always allow Tim and Matt to slow down on niche topics, as is their wont. We'll be doing just that after every tenth episode, dedicating a bonus episode to topics we want to discuss further, and differently. On deck for this inaugural episode is Tim trying to convince you all that he does actually like Meryl Streep, with a ranking of her performances naturally, and Matt trying to convince you to stop throwing things at the stage for just a second and hear why nu-metal isn't all bad. Welcome to Deci's Midnight Runners.