Today we have our second guest from the Stranded Panda Podcast network and host of the Star Wars Universe Podcast and the Superhero Ethics podcast, Matthew Fox (AKA the ethical panda); and we're discussing a very important album to them, Weezer's 1994 debut album. Originally just untitled, it quickly became known as "Blue Album", as they continued on the untitled mono colored albums thing for a while, and it was a breath of fresh air. Following the popularity of grunge and nihilistic early 90s, everyone was listening to the Nirvanas and Pearl Jams of the day and happy-go-lucky pop tunes were extremely out of fashion. There was definitely pop punk occurring at the same time, but it was not the pop heavy dynamos of the late 90s/00s like Blink 182 and New Found Glory. In 1994 grunge was going through a tough time. In April, Kurt Cobain violently took his own life, and in June, Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff succumbed to a heroin overdose. But in the middle all of this tragedy and chaos (Blue album came out in May) in rock music, grunge was collapsing under its own weight, and there was one band that would take the baton and run with it. The guys in Weezer were anything but grunge. Sure they had some grungy guitar sounds, but they were influenced by Beach Boys more than Pixies... and could make a song like both. They were a group of nerds proud of their nerdiness and up front about how cringey love could be. They had the depth that grunge had, but with more of a sense of humor about themselves, which was incredibly important at the time. It's an amazingly well formed album for their first outing and (mostly) stands the test of time.

Links from ep:

For all Stranded Panda Podcasts: https://strandedpanda.com

Superhero Ethics episode "The Ethics of Thirst": https://open.spotify.com/episode/008tOOeaG2JeWPHb3RvThU?si=6363b303ce684760

What's With These Homies Talking About Weezer podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4SxCwRF7YHGuS8n9P8UAtT?si=hsERjSgCQJia4FAl12M6dA&dl_branch=1

"Only In Dreams" Cowboy Bebop AMV: https://youtu.be/DW7fNAKk6oc

Other Links:

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TACHP Desert Island Discord Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wNErQHfrAYgSsIZlLJ6ym?si=dtrMJCuqQwa1Zt7RtwrXNg

(YouTube Playlist): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4Uk6UBPMYEs3BtK1HwWJMyXlKwPH93Qx

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