Brian assigned Talking Through Tin Cans by The Morning Benders, and what starts as Cort’s simple album review turns into a deep dive on the band’s identity shift, artistic shift, and the fact that the name change apparently changed everything. Cort did his research, people, but Brian came with doctorate-level analysis, as per usual.

Elsewhere, the new Ben Folds Live with the National Symphony Orchestra gets full marks (who’s surprised?), and the first part of HBO’s new two-part Billy Joel documentary sparks conversation, appreciation, and… Cort’s possibly under-examined thing for pianists.

Brian watched more shark movies (it was all for research, of course) while Cort recommends something different to Brian to shake things up for the next episode. And they might’ve made it through an entire episode without talking politics, but no guarantees.

🎧 Talking Through Tin Cans by The Morning Benders 🎶 Theme music: Cyrus Oh Cyrus by The Flying Scrub Jays

We’re back with Brian’s thoughts on Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia, an album recommended by Cort’s daughter. While Brian’s reaction is, let’s say, unsurprising … the conversation actually gets pretty deep into the weeds in a good way. We dig into the fact that what makes a challenging album listenable (or even inspiring) to some, maybe does not to others, and Cort may give a demonstration on how not to defend art that plays with uncomfortable lines (a.k.a. our new podcast in the works Why Some Things Are Better Left to Those Who Know.)

From there, it’s a stop at Chelsea’s FIFA Club World Cup victory, which gives Brian a reason to celebrate and to wade (briefly) into the geopolitical glorious glory (or fiery dumpster fire) surrounding the win. Then it’s capes and cowls time with a check-in on the new Superman movie, before we wrap up with a ChatGPT songwriting experiment that is very on-brand, if not exactly the next Spotify hit.

Theme music: Cyrus Oh Cyrus – The Flying Scrub Jays Featured Album: Chromakopia – Tyler, the Creator Bonus Link: Superman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

This week, we welcome our youngest (and likely most musically gifted) guest ever, Brian’s son, Whit Faughnan, who gave us a playlist of Fugazi tracks because he likes Fugazi and the DC Hardcore scene (you know, the one from before he was born). We go deep on Fugazi's music and history and dig through the legacy of Dischord Records and the Hardcore movement. What more could you want? Also in this episode: A discussion of Whit’s own band, Over Under, based in Blacksburg, VA, check them out if you're ever there. We also talk some Kimberly Akimbo and weather at the FIFA Club World Cup. Finally, Cort assigns Brian a new album and predicts Brian will loathe it.

🎧 Whit’s Fugazi Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6SsTEzPeuDPOOAmkqqK7U5?si=f4ef5a30351e45af 🎧 Whit’s Fugazi Playlist on Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/c39f04327ab44f7c816765df935bbd8dsune?ref=dm_sh_X9pH1TDWvYjL9CO4ZJ88mzEKJ&referrer=dm_sh_messages 🎶 Theme Music – “Cyrus Oh Cyrus” by The Flying Scrub Jays: https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=111345d6cdc04093

This episode, Cort reports back on Not Animal by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s and yada, yada, yada, next thing you know Brian is practically giving a TED Talk on the original makeup of the band, its founder Richard Edwards, and the band’s “break-up.” So what actually is Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s? The original members only? Or anyone Richard feels like dragging into the studio? (Shoutout to The Shins' James Mercer.)

We issue a formal apology to Carrie (the 1976 version) for the figurative bucket of pig’s blood we dumped by failing to mention it in our last episode during our roundup of “good” Stephen King adaptations. Our mea culpa leads us into a topic we have tiptoed around in the past: are King’s short stories easier to adapt to the screen than his novels? And if so, does that rule hold for all writers, or just King?

On the TV front, Cort and his wife binged We Were Liars on Amazon Prime, featuring Candice King (aka Caroline from The Vampire Diaries). And when we switch to movies, Brian reflects on the emotional trauma of seeing Jaws as a child, which led to his totally rational adult obsession with shark movies. Cort saw The Materialists recently and … didn’t leave before it ended. So that’s something.

PLUS - Next episode, we welcome our next guest: Brian’s son, Whit, who assigned us a Fugazi playlist to listen to and discuss. You can listen along too:

Whit’s Playlist on Spotify Whit’s Playlist on Amazon Music

Theme music: Cyrus Oh Cyrus by The Flying Scrub Jays Featured Album: Not Animal by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s

In this episode, Brian goes on a three-album detour just to reach Cort's recommendation of Strange Ranger’s No Light in Heaven. Cort actually listens to one of his own recs for a change, and his feelings are … mixed. But! His one-time stated, but frequently ascribed "long-standing belief" in the power of tracks in the position of "7th" may finally be justified.

Cort dives into the Irish History Podcast, Brian hits him with a quiz on Rangers, Rovers, and Wanderers (the football kind) with just enough football (ahem, soccer) information to make Cort feel dumb—but not quite enough to qualify this show as a sports podcast. Brian posits that the real cult following of this show won’t bloom until the year 3000 when we’re all living underground and podcasts have replaced history books. We also ask the big questions: Why are Wes Anderson movies so consistently lauded when they're so inconsistent, and why are Stephen King movie adaptations so consistently inconsistent? There's always room for more. I didn't even mention our now seemingly regular segment that could be called "Detour into Reality TV."

Theme music is Cyrus Oh Cyrus by the Flying Scribe Jays, from the album Love Beneath the Moonlight. Check it out here

Strange Ranger’s No Light in Heaven

Dive into the Irish History Podcast if you like that sort of thing

This week, Cort gets an assignment that's pure rock and roll gold: Tell Me I’m Pretty by Cage the Elephant. Spoiler LOLZ, he loved it. Brian takes us deeper with his thoughts on the band, trivia about the Shultz brothers who formed it, and the band’s (or at least the brothers') southern origins.

Brian also wanted to gush about the new Counting Crows release, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, but Cort hasn’t listened yet, obvi, so they had to vamp. Is August and Everything After a Top 10 Album of all time?

Then things literally got weird. Brian brings up the syndicated column News of the Weird because he wanted to talk about whether it's reached its end, but Cort zeroes in on the true story Brian cites: Woman Suffers from Fear of Ketchup. This, naturally, unearths Brian’s deep-rooted condiment aversion. Things spiral quickly, and Brian's final word may or may not involve pickle slander.

We also touch on a scientifically indefensible (but alas mostly true) story involving the Town of Collierville and a blooming battle with fluoride.

And to wrap it all up, Cort recommends something for Brian to hate for the next episode. It’s the circle of life, podcast edition.

Listen to the Ep. 57 assignment and judge for yourself: Cage the Elephant – Tell Me I'm Pretty

Theme music: “Cyrus Oh Cyrus” by The Flying Scrub Jays from Love Beneath the Moonlight Listen here

In this episode of Listeners Like You, Cort assigned homework. Brian turns in a meh review, and somehow Gracie Lawrence walks away with a Tony nomination anyway.

Cort made Brian listen to Family Business by Lawrence. In Cort's opinion it's a funky, soulful, horn-infused joyride of an album featuring the Tony-nominated powerhouse Gracie Lawrence (yes, that Gracie, now starring in The Sex Lives of College Girls on MAX and in Just in Time with Jonathan Groff on Broadway). Cort’s a fan. Brian … titled the episode Jazz with No Soul. So, you do the math.

We also salute the phoenix-like rise of Wrexham’s football club (three promotions in three years), lament the ever-worsening indignities of modern air travel, and channel our inner doomsday preppers by predicting what goods might vanish first if Trump’s tariffs tighten the supply chain. (Cort is hoarding soup. Brian ... probably jazz CDs.) Are cat food lines in our future?

🎧 Give Cort's assignment to Brian, Family Business, a listen here: Lawrence – Family Business

🎵 Theme music: “Cyrus Oh Cyrus” by The Flying Scrub Jays from Love Beneath the Moonlight Check them out here: Love Beneath the Moonlight – The Flying Scrub Jays

Brian and Cort have a guest, which of course means our listeners should quadruple. Come listen to us discuss Peach Pit's album Magpie and compare it to one of their earlier works, You and Your Friends. On a personal note, Brian had a lot of fun recording with Cort's son, who reminds Brian a lot of what Cort was like back when he was young and fun. On a sad note, this episode may have led directly to Cort's son taking out a restraining order on Cort.

Magpie by Peach Pit - https://open.spotify.com/album/1LNCdy3xZoibzDh0WllxHY?si=pHBby4tJTdCLXGQPpys-zQ

"Cyrus Oh Cyrus" - The Flying Scrub Jays - https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BD2HJ21S?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_VrTdsVhZSdQbGxiCG13xFkYMk&trackAsin=B0BD3HYRSL