Sub Titles

This episode has everything: high school chemistry lessons, an appearance by the Podcat, the moon. Tim guides us through that famous, and brilliant, Spike Lee Joint Do the Right Thing and the impact of Tight Quarters. Next he offers The Diary of Anne Frank and Apollo-13 as replacement titles that show how pressurized, terrifying, and even boring tight spaces can be. 

Everyone knows The Smiths are great and that The Queen is Dead is probably their most important work so Matt and Tim try to revel in the smaller things - the genre digressions, the mispronunciations, the"oh God here he goes" moments (you know who) - as they discuss what makes The Smiths so beloved, even while they hate each other so much. Then Matt introduces two often misunderstood albums by other bands who will never reunite despite broad and deep love from fans: The Talking Heads' funk-pop delight Little Creatures and R.E.M.'s crunchy, blaring Monster. 

In our continuation of episode 4, Tim talks through the brilliance and beauty of Blade Runner and the category of Becoming Human Again. He and Matt discuss the casual charm of Beauty and the Beast, a movie that's been with us our whole lives and teaches us the importance of the soul, and the insane charm of Big Trouble in Little China, a movie that informs our humor and wrestles with the relationship between human nature, bodies, and big trucks. 

Join us in part one of episode 4 wherein Matt takes us through his odd relationship with Daft Punk and their Cosplay on Discovery (2001) before introducing the animated front and pop haven that is Gorillaz and Gillian Welch's warm embodiment of Appalachian roots and folk music. 

For various reasons, Tim and Matt need to wait a week before posting the next full episodes. We didn't want to leave listeners hanging, so we've whipped up an episode about a few titles we're sad to not have in our pools of replacement titles. Tune in for talk of the subversive noir of The Phenix City Story, Los Campesinos! vibrant wit on Hold On Now, Youngster, Sally Field's union efforts in Norma Rae, and the eternal appeal of Third Eye Blind.  

Matt begins with talk of Prince's inimitable Sign O' the Times and other artists who shouldn't be made analogies in David Bowie and Joni Mitchell, offering Blackstar and Night Ride Home, as substitutions. Tim explains the brilliance of John Ford and Thermonuclear Jimmy before looking to other prime examples of Playing Against Type in Fort Apache and Milk. 

Tim takes us through Play Time as he makes the cases for Greta Gerwig's wonderful retelling of Little Women (2019) and Stand By Me (part of the glorious Rob Reiner Run) as replacements for the underrated-by-AFI Toy Story. Then for something completely different as Matt discusses the business and musical impact of Wu-Tang Clan's ever powerful debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), suggesting Digital Underground's giddy, funky Sex Packets and D12's irreverent Devil's Night as other models of Rap Collectives. 

First, Matt offers up Alice in Chains' Dirt and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger as potential replacements for Nirvana's game-changing album, Nevermind, in the category of Grunge Forefathers. Then, Tim offers up Johnny Guitar and Morocco as possible subs for Ben-Hur for the theme of Queer Subtext. 

In this intro episode, Matt and Tim explain the concept of Sub Titles. We talk about how each episode will work, why we chose lists from Spin and AFI, respectively, discuss special considerations, and give a short preview of future episodes.