Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs
Mark Blankenship and Sarah D. Bunting are journalists, friends, and music fans who love talking about pop music of all stripes.
Episodes
Billy Joel's "Storm Front," Ranked (with Dan Rogge!)
We're joined by the C-side by MASTAS's William Joel third chair Dan Rogge to rank "Storm Front," Joel's melodramatic 1989 paean to fish, weather, marriage to a model, and Boomer guilt. As we make our way through the ten tracks, we're also talking about the Eisenhower vaccine, capital-A Album Openers, covers that expose structural problems, SNL's '80s line-up, making the best of bad tatto
Summer Of Soundtrack Episode 3: Almost Famous
The days are getting short, but we're wrapping up the Summer Of Soundtrack at MASTAS with the longest ep of the three -- on the 17 non-score soundtrack cuts of Almost Famous. Along the way, we talk about the lost America of dressing up for bus rides, liking The Who except when we hate them, if midcentury rock reviews said more about the reviewers than the rock, lyrically exhausting surf-band track
Summer Of Soundtrack Episode 2: City Of Angels
The MASTAS Summer Of Soundtrack swelters on with a look at the soundtrack for City Of Angels, a reimagining of Wings Of Desire that did fairly well at the box office, and even better at Tower Records...and then kind of disappeared? As we join our Patreon supporters in ranking the ten non-instrumental tracks, we're talking about the days when radio wielded power, the 1889 sound of 1969 Hendrix, and
Summer Of Soundtrack Episode 1: Hughes Highlights
We're declaring 2026 the Summer Of Soundtrack, contemplating film soundtracks across the decades -- and we're starting with 10 selections from the 1980s John Hughes teen oeuvre, some you'll remember and some you'll forget...or regret. As we contemplate the definitive Hughes tunes (or, for one of us, speak truth to Thompson-Twins power), we're also discussing NuRo wallpaper, post-prom fire hazards,
Billy Joel's "An Innocent Man," Ranked (with Dan Rogge!)
Dan Rogge returns -- with our new friends L.V. Beethoven and Phyllis Domain -- to discuss his least favorite William Joel album, 1983's "An Innocent Man." The recurring Diane character, elegant internal rhymes, car-tape-deck privilege, protecting the children from doo-wop, wedding-band improv exercises, and how big a pop star you have to be to get away with pairing Uggs and a tux: keep t
The Dolly 64 E10: The Championship
The moment has arrived: the selection of the Dolliest Dolly Parton song of them all. As we investigate whether all Parton-narration roads pass through "Jolene," we're also discussing insightful user comments, the perils of a glass and a half of Chablis, the ugly weakness of love, audition songs, and The Aeneid. Pause that Starsky & Hutch rerun and listen now!
Intro and outro by Andre
The Dolly 64 E09: Final 4
And you think about it, don't you? ...As much as we'd like every one of these Dolly Parton songs to get a participation tiara, we will forge ahead with choosing the championship pair. Along the way, we hear medleys of two of the finalists, contemplate the difference between a "bad" song and a "correct" one, and speculate on Mr. Jolene's double album.
Intro and outro by David Gr
The Dolly 64 E08: Elite 8
Today we select our Final 4 in the Dolly 64, after struggling with self-imposed rules that don't serve us, identifying the Dolly songs that won't end up in a commercial for floor polish, and speculating on that waterboy's future coot prospects. Why did it take us this long to come up with the phrase "the Fortress of Dollitude"? Maybe because we inhaled too much pink Partonclave smoke...y
The Dolly 64 E07: Sweet 16
It's the hardest round in every bracket season in some ways, and the Dolly 64's Sweet 16 ep is no different. How many different lists did Sarah have? Is Mark's "Dolly didn't write it" rule going to last? These questions and many more -- which one old coot shall rule them all; whether every "typical" Dolly is good; how to embody "kuntree" without making it a moral posi
The Dolly 64 E06: Round Of 32
The second half of our Dolly 64 Round Of 32 is still confronting the question of which Dolly Parton narrative voice is the most typical and/or dominant. It's also confronting hashtag coot songs, clarified Miracle Whip, the fine gradations of Tennessee mountain-home ownership, and identifying as kuntree without defensiveness. How many aprons does feminism wear? Listen and find out!
Intro and outro
The Dolly 64 E05: Round Of 32
"What a way to make a living," indeed -- the Dolly 64 Round Of 32 raises a lot of tough questions. Which Dolly are we talking about when we ask which song is the Dolliest? Which tracks unite the coffee shop, or go in a college syllabus? We've really got some feelings about pitiless Southern stories, meeting the old-coot brief, the importance of conveying tumescence in pop music, overrate
The Dolly 64 E04: Round Of 64
We're wrapping up the Dolly 64 opening round this week with songs that work better in theory than in practice, the difference between "not for me" and "not good," countrymaxxing without slagging "coastal elites," and Vrbo text art in song form. Is it weird that this is the section in which a Dolly Parton song finally bats a thousand points-wise? Maybe...but not really
The Dolly 64 E03: Round Of 64
The Dolly 64 season has reached perhaps the strongest bracket section in our third ep, with the joyful chaos of mis-alphabetizing, growers and showers in the holler, songs about things men don't want to hear, and multiple hauntings by Little Andy and the narrator of "The Bridge." Find out which Dolly Parton track got ranked "Richard Bachman," how to take control of a cover, and
The Dolly 64 E02: Round Of 64
The Dolly 64 season continues with our second set of first-round contenders, including overplayed classics, underrated '80s gems, toothless platitudes, tempo no-man's lands, brand ambassadors to the Lord, and things Dolly Parton does well that might not make the first paragraph of her musicianship wiki. Here WE come again, and we hope you'll have a listen!
Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne. V
The Dolly 64 E01: Round Of 64
Welcome to our Dolly 64 season -- in which we use a highly scientific*, legally binding* March Madness-style bracket to determine the most quintessential Dolly Parton track of all time! In our first episode, we make Final Four predictions, scheme in the style of Tammany Hall, wonder why Mark's parents aren't president, distinguish between country and kuntree, and honor the "old coot at the ed
Madonna's Studio Albums, Ranked Episode 2 (1998-2019)
It's Part 2 of our ranking of Madonna's studio albums! When did Madonna stop dictating the culture and start chasing it? When should listeners write to their Congressional reps over our heatmaps, and when are heatmap "yellows" actually "reds" but they're too boring to skip? We're not sure we can answer these questions...but we're pretty sure we know when it's time for the endea
Madonna's Studio Albums, Ranked Episode 1 (1983-1994)
Welcome to Part 1 of our ranking of all 15 of Madonna's studio albums! The Material Girl's woeful underrepresentation on our podcast continues, as we start with the eponymous Madonna and continue through Bedtime Stories. Along the way, we explain the ranking and heatmapping processes we used, and discuss MTV imprinting, the "dust bunnies" of otherwise-solid albums, how The Immaculate Col
Billy Joel's "The Stranger," Ranked (with Dan Rogge!)
Dan Rogge is back (-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack) to help us discuss and rank William's 1979 breakthrough release, "The Stranger" -- complete with derogatory Lost In Translation references, mediocre parental reviews of jukebox musicals, coherent statements on alienation, Mrs. Dash sponcon, the sound of the Fortunoff elevator, and why Mark needed a looseleaf notebook at the gym. Grab some stale bo
Billy Joel's "Glass Houses," Ranked (with Dan Rogge!)
Don't ask us why* we decided to hurl a rock at William Joel's 1980 release, "Glass Houses" -- but we're ranking that album with the help of Ambassador To Long Island Pop Culture Dan Rogge. Along the way, we met a shark named Leyna, contemplated essential Billy-ness and Blondie cosplay, added to the list of songs Mark can't retain, and went behind the scenes of an ill-advised French mash
Grammys 2025: Underdogs and Roller Rinks
We end the Best New Artist season where it all began for the podcast: the Grammys. We're talking today about the 67th Grammy Awards' "big 4" categories, plus a couple of wildcards -- and along the way, the American need for underdogs, nominations of encouragement, Mark's "Folkmore" playlist, Uncanny George Valley nightmares, couples skate, and a purse dog named Aristotle. Grab
Best New Artist Breakdown 08: 2017-2024
It's the Best New Artist Breakdown season finale, featuring a MASTAS greatest-hits line-up, the return of sprung rhythm, grand unifying complaints about breakthrough categories, Elt Zeppelin, and how to evolve past Wolfman Jack in pop-music discovery. Do we agree with the Grammys' most recent BNA choices? Have we decided how to tackle the 2025 nominees? Should jerks win awards? Come spook the Reco
Best New Artist Breakdown 07: 2009-2016
Our penultimate Best New Artist Breakdown moves into the teens; we're talking about Amy Clonehouses, lost anthems of lady rage, gold-watch nominations, the Overton window of band-name ludicrosity, and much more. Grab those Kendrick Lamar seminar syllabi and have a listen!
Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.
SHOW NOTES
Best New Artist Breakdown 06: 2001-2008
As the Best New Artist Breakdown season rounds the millennium turn, we're talking about which band is playing when Jennifer Love Hewitt flees a serial killer, artists we should like on paper but fall asleep to in practice, the music of shampoo ads, and the basic room in each of our hearts. If Kanye West will make room, join us on the line between genius and madness for our latest episode!
Intro an
Best New Artist Breakdown 05: 1993-2000
We're closing out the twentieth century in our fifth episode, and there are fewer howling embarrassments among our Best New Artist winners this time...but just as much anal-retentive insanity in our prep, plus diversity of sound, nothingburger arrangements saved by a Braxton, convincing Patsy Cline drag, effortful album titles, and the memory-holing of a multi-platinum act. Your dinner-party table
Best New Artist Breakdown 04: 1985-1992
Confusing band names, the MTV aura, and what happens if the comedy/tragedy masks and a keyboard mate: it's the 4th episode of our Best New Artist season, which brings us great winners, indefensible losers, and tracks that are more branding exercise than song. Does Mariah tie a whole Reagan-era room together? Listen now and find out!
Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; for more information/to become a
Best New Artist Breakdown 03: 1977-1984
Disco, NuRo, and not knowing where to look during "Afternoon Delight" -- it's all part of our third episode, when we're also talking about Starman's dinner party, the mayonnaise filter, the Michael McDonald industrial complex, and Mark's request to dump all the geography-named bands into one planetary supergroup. There's only one way to lift the Best New Artist curse, and that's to liste
Best New Artist Breakdown 02: 1969-1976
We're wading into the '70s in our second ep, which includes ruminations on inessential classic rock; how Karen Carpenter and Judy Garland can take you whenever they are; holding your nose and throwing your vote at the nomination dartboard; and more. We've only just beguuuuuun / to taaaaaaalk -- and to hear your comments! -- so listen now.
Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne. For more informatio
Best New Artist Breakdown 01: 1960-1968
The Best New Artist Breakdown season has begun! Instead of pitting the 64 winners of the Grammys' Best New Artist category against each other, we're talking about each year's nominees and winner in the context of their time...and in today's sixties-spanning ep, we're trying to make sense of the 20th century's monocultures, how far in the past most votes had gotten stuck, the weird dominance of the
Pop Goes The Actor 5: Operation Enduring Pop Star
Our finale finds us talking about actor/musicians with lasting pop careers: Oscar-winners (Jamie Foxx), Grammy-winners (Childish Gambino), former child stars (Hailee Steinfeld), and Jokers (Jared Leto). After discussing contemporary stank, the competent/memorable axis, music for coffee shops, and the R&B version of that Top Chef challenge where they have to elevate gas-station snacks, we talk
Pop Goes The Actor 4: '80s Movie Gents
This week's crop of actor-musician hyphenates got their thespian starts in films of the 1980s: Corey Feldman, Keanu Reeves (Dogstar), Kevin Bacon (the Bacon Brothers), and Kiefer Sutherland. Copyright-compliant Gin Blossoms tracks and workout-cooldown music prompted thoughts about perfectly good outdoor-restaurant entertainment, the artistic practice that capitalism tries to stifle, and whether pr
Pop Goes The Actor 3: Comedians
Do you love to laugh? Then fall down the ha-ha hole that is Pop Goes The Actor's third episode! This week, we're looking at comedians who tested the pop waters, including a Blues Brother, Eddie Murphy, Tracey Ullman, and Jack Black. Acting range, the cult of mid-'70s SNL, finding unexpected IQ points in a song you've heard a dozen times, and which instrument is the creme fraiche of blues tracks --
Pop Goes The Actor 2: Ladies of the Small Screen
Oh yes it's ladies' night on the second episode of Pop Goes The Actor...but IS the feeling right? Sometimes! We wend our way through copyright-compliant bugle boys of Company Wonder Woman, the adorkable Zooey Deschanel, Shelley Fabares's evident terror, Marla Gibbs's appealing blood-thinner ad, and a track from Cybill Shepherd that puts the "no" back in "bossa nova." Throw that
Pop Goes The Actor 1: '70s Sitcoms
Pop Goes The Actor: a mini-season about thespians who tried (and sometimes succeeded at!) being pop musicians. In our premiere episode, we're talking about Jeff Conaway (Taxi), Donny Most (Happy Days), Esther Rolle (Good Times), Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and Lawrence Hilton Jacobs (Welcome Back, Kotter) -- as well as smorgasbords of grunting, when a stew has all the right ingredients
'90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 04: Romeo + Juliet
1996's Romeo + Juliet seemed like a slam-dunk ending to our soundtrack mini-season...but we have regrets! Epcot industrial music, lazy versions of Shakespeare, the psychotic hormonal jangling of youth, Scandinavian cultural crimes, and the returns of Teddy Ruxpin AND No Middle Ground with Paul Quinn accompany our struggling to remember the Wallflowers, and to decide whether it's possible for a son
'90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 03: Forrest Gump
This episode is, we suppose, like a box of chocolates, because technically you don't know what you're going to get, but we can tell you we're talking about the ubiquitous Forrest Gump soundtrack. Remembering top-loader VCRs, #justiceforJenn, powering through overplay, how long sixties soul acts gave themselves to get drawers on the floor, and songs Muppets sing at you. What does it sound like when
'90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 02: Pulp Fiction
The '90s Soundtrack Flashback season is bustin' surfboards with Pulp Fiction, 1994's omnipresent Quentin Tarantino joint. After talking about how the movie itself holds up (spoiler: really well!), we move on to fights with the Ventures, QT's trademark alternate timelines, how epic moments are inevitably punctuated by frump, at-the-bank audio wallpaper, and Peanuts-apron guy's moment of glory. C'es
'90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 01: Singles
Welcome to our '90s Soundtrack Flashback mini-season! We're ranking the soundtrack albums from four legendary 1990s movies, starting with grunge-adjacent rom-com Singles. We waded into the great plaid middle of this disc to talk about the insouciance of Cameron Crowe stories, when it's okay for grunge gods to laugh, the conversation between this genre and punk (and Zep), and "hard rock for th
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 23: "Word Crimes"
"Blurred Lines," the sound of the summer of 2013, is compared (unfavorably) with a cold sore in today's episode, which pits Robin Thicke, TI, and Pharrell against Weird Al's screed against bad grammar and usage errors. Despairing of Shazam, continuing to die on the hill of "irregardless," and the tyranny of younger siblings over the #oldladywalk playlist...we're working through
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 21: "Smells Like Nirvana"
Thirty years after the death of frontman Kurt Cobain, Nirvana and their music still feel very close. Does that have anything to do with Weird Al's equally "defining" parody, a track that let Al "sell out" again after the disastrous UHF experience...with a band at the bleeding edge of the sell-out conversation? The shroud of tragedy, the performance of self, rebellious chaos, an
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 19: "Rye Or The Kaiser"
It's an all-time training-montage banger vs. Weird Al's vision for Rocky XIII in today's episode, as we drop Wiki factoids, contemplate an all-depressing-follow-up-hits season, digress at length on Live's legal battles, and wonder when in Reagan's presidency the Me Decade became sentient. Greetings from the Sly Stallone industrial complex; get that sammich to go and listen to an all-new episode!
O
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 17: "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies"
You can't always control what people do with your art once it's out in the world -- something Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits may have learned the hard way with both the original "Money For Nothing" AND Weird Al's re-imagining of the song via a dream sequence in UHF. Essential references versus essential songs, 20th-century TV's preoccupation with yokels, and resting Don Henley face...they
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 15: "Lasagna"
It's that Airbnb pasta-taxonomy poster in pop-song form: "Lasagna," Weird Al's take on Los Lobos's take on Ritchie Valens's take on the Mexican folk song Sarah and her classmates dutifully droned during first-period Spanish. Before we cast our votes (and yours!), we talk about the restaurant from Big, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dr. Melfi's ex-husband, Sophia Petrillo, forgetting the word &
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 13: "Jurassic Park"
Late-sixties melodrama meets early-nineties blockbuster in today's episode, as we contemplate who left the Barney cake out in the rain while comparing Richard Harris's "MacArthur Park" and Weird Al's "Jurassic Park." Claymation, foiled cantatae, The Odyssey, Godspell, and songs for when the coffee's kickin' in, plus the YouTube-comments bingo card and an "un-preciation&quo
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 11: "I Think I'm A Clone Now"
The unique legacy of Tommy James and the Shondells adds another chapter today, as Weird Al contends with Tiffany's smash cover of "I Think We're Alone Now." We're discussing Jersey-girl aspirational fashion, budge sound that's a feature and not a bug, and that person you could know becoming that person everyone does know. Take a break from sewing patches on your jean jacket and have a li
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 9: "I Lost On Jeopardy"
Can Weird Al inch ahead in the season standings with "I Lost On Jeopardy," his parody of the Greg Kihn Band's "Jeopardy"? We're talking early adopters, terrible album-title puns we admire, second careers, cheap-but-creepy videos, and how MB's personal Jeopardy! journey deepens his appreciation of this Yankovic joint. Tell 'em what they've won, Don Pardo! (It's either an all-new
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 7: "Gump"
This week's match-up pits The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump" against Weird Al's "Gump"...but is it really a face-off if the original is two thirds of the way towards being the parody? What is the age of Al-wakening? What's the difference between "unserious" and "unpretentious"? Are butt-adjacent references the Yankovic equivalent of a Hi
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 5: "Fat"
"What if we just........didn't." That's one of the questions confronting us as WE confront an out-of-character entry in the Weird Al songbook: "Fat." The problems don't start there; there's the cheap-sounding and turgidly self-serious original, "Bad"; by problematic artist Michael Jackson; the risible video by MJ, and the shortcutsy cruelty from WA...there's even an i
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 3: "Bedrock Anthem"
Grab a tube sock for your privates: it's time to pit the Red Hot Chili Peppers against Weird Al! Before Mark makes the pun that drives our listenership numbers off a cliff, we're discussing the omnipresent Chilis hits "Under The Bridge" and "Give It Away"; how many songs Weird Al might have tried to fit his Flintstones joke set into before settling on these; the five items '90s
Weird Al vs. Everybody Episode 1: "Amish Paradise"
Welcome to the Weird Al vs. Everybody season of MASTAS! We're looking at a couple dozen Weird Al Yankovic songs and the originals that inspired him, and choosing a winner in each match-up -- starting with Coolio homage "Amish Paradise"! Before we get into self-serious videos for movies we think might be fake, cultural appropriation of pre-tech societies, and how Stevie Wonder feels about
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 12: Answer Songs
The competition is over, but the discussion of comeback songs isn't -- and today's is about comebacks in the answer/clapback sense. Seven "answer" songs come under the MASTAScope, as well as the frequency with which Neil Young is told to shut it, Bavaria's unexpected move to Ireland, the Judy Cycle opera we need to see, and pop songs that have become microplastics in their ubiquity. Vase
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 11: The Championship
It's time to declare a winner -- the definitive pop-music comeback song -- but the road to the final result is a twisty one. "Believe" and "Walk This Way" each crystallize the concept of the comeback, but in different ways, so to help us choose, we're watching videos, discussing the synecdoche of Cher, rummaging through a bin of PhD-thesis topics, and resisting arithmetic. Is t
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 10: The Final 4
The semifinal round is, while somewhat predictable, still full of ups and downs, including Spelling Bee's interest in our works and days, the way Adam Lambert takes and gives meaning, how far is far enough for a song we actively dislike, Latin-phrase drag names, scary puppets, and reader comments! Sorry about the sweaty-Reagan reference; distract yourself with our penultimate DCIAC episode.
Our in
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 9: The Elite 8
We're down to eight great comeback songs; which ones will join the Do Call It A Comeback season's Final Four? We're quoting Wayne's World, we're putting things in plaid place out of eight, we're remembering upsetting Beatles gifts, we're adding salt to temp tracks, and we're wondering why it so often seemed like nobody cared about Laura Branigan's reputation. Transmitting live-to-tape from the flo
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 8: The Sweet 16
The Sweet 16 is here, along with the return to numbered rankings...and the unkindest cuts of all, plus another Auto-Tune justice conversation, myriad matrices, Tracy Chapman's post-nineties Flintstones car, 92.5% of Cher's butt, unpleasant flashbacks to the sophomore dance, and the long wait for a muffin basket from Nick Rhodes. Quick, before another UHF quote-fight breaks out -- walk THIS way to
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 7: Footnotes and Odd Lots
We're taking a quick break before the emotional press of the Sweet 16 to talk about a handful of "off-label" comebacks: award-winners, kids' songs, comebacks only we noticed, and more. We wonder whether it's possible to have been too big to truly come all the way back; we contemplate a truly catastrophic remix of self-loathing; and we bemoan sad computers, unfortunate spiritual-title phr
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 6: Round Of 32 B
Mark's spreadsheet of history has spoken: we're choosing the rest of the Do Call It A Comeback season's Sweet 16 this week! From the top of the pallet of improbable late-'80s comeback songs, we're surveying the joyful geeky dance of Robin Gibb, the 20 percent of our income we owe to Duran Duran, the most tiresomely groovy Ben & Jerry's flavors, Canadian spellings, and what's playing when we're
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 5: Round Of 32 A
The Round Of 32 is underway! After a brief chat about our head-vs.-heart processes in this round, we descend into the valley of the shadow of twos: struggling to come up with the word "metamorphosis," confronting the history of Auto-Tune, measuring levels of exposure to Britpop, and planning a community-college class on interpretive dance. Everybody's got their Limburger, we also learn -
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 4: The Last 15
The last 15 songs have entered the comeback fray, along with Nickelodeon dominance, stinky vocals in classic songs, what Clive Davis is drinking while he waits for artists at a crossroads, perfect blends of horniness and intelligence, and what happens when you drop John Belushi's Joe Cocker imitation in a vat of AI. Should Bob Dylan live in a saguaro in Joshua Tree and other questions for the ages
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 3: The NEXT Next 15
It's the second half of the first round, and some of our toughest choices yet, as we struggle with how comebacks used to look in a monoculture; human Razzie Awards; the comeback-osity of an "X featuring Y" track; why J. Lo never seems to be having fun; weird H.W. Bush presidency detritus; returns from '70s banishment; and what exactly we have to do to get fake fade-outs in pop songs outl
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 2: The Next 15
The next 15 songs in our definitive-comeback-song season storm the booth! Sometimes the song is coming back to the podcast from a previous season; sometimes our lunch is coming back on us thanks to cynical bongo glurge; and sometimes we're wondering if there's a portrait of Jeff Lynne in an attic somewhere? Execrable album-only tracks, the supergroup conundrum, market forces' inability to control
Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 1: The First 15
What is the most representative comeback song in pop history? Our Do Call It A Comeback season will find out...and we have been here for years, thinking about the philosophical definition of a comeback, great creative leaps forward, when B-plus vocals lead to A-plus artistry, the middle-school melodrama of '70s supergroups, savvy collaborations, and how MTV brought the '60s into the Reagan era. Pu
First-Name Basis, Single No. 2: Jock Jams
It was a winding road from our #FirstNameBasis finale to our favorite jock jams, but we hope y'all ARE ready for this contemplation of sporty hype tracks -- as well as county fairs, Snuffy Smith, Yankee Stadium's unpredictable PA loyalties, which song is the ur-JJ, the apparent international exchange program at work in early JJ albums, early-'90s rappers who are both ignorant of and apathetic towa
First-Name Basis, Episode 7: The Top 10
Whoooo's number ooooone? (BA BA BAAAAAA!) That's not a spoiler, by the way, so you'll have to listen to our First-Name Basis finale to find out which name song is the most iconic of all time -- and also what SDB's grandma called farts, differing sources of iconicity, listener testimony from an Eileen, which song has a reliable narrator, and when the "M" in "MILF" stands for &qu
First-Name Basis, Episode 6: The Top 20
The rankings only get more challenging as the First-Name Basis season confronts its Top 20 -- as well as iconic pop numbers, Jersey "law," unholy mash-ups of finalist songs, the cease-and-desist letter SDB should expect any moment now from Laura Branigan's estate, and your co-hosts ranking themselves 21st at remembering to play all the clips. Liza, Yoda, "Cocaine," and avant-ga
First-Name Basis, Episode 5: Multi-Name Songs
Welcome to the intermission of our First-Name Basis season -- in which we're contemplating important songs with more than one name in them, and ranking them, too! And while this ep is dropping in the middle of the season, we actually recorded it first, so if it seems like we're working through our metrics for what's iconic when it comes to name songs...we are! Time is a flat pop chart! We're also
First-Name Basis, Episode 4: The Last 10
We're finishing out the Top 40 in our First-Name Basis season with an all-timer set of 10 songs: all three of the songs your co-hosts and their husbands picked to win the whole season, and the diabetic garbage that's been torturing SDB for decades. We're also discussing mall anchor restaurants, the peak period of cinema-storyline videos, enduring bobby-soxer cuteness, startlingly low chart perform
First-Name Basis, Episode 3: The Third 10
"Mark and Sarah: why ya buggin'?" Why aren't we buggin' in the third ep of our First-Name Basis season: the weird fade-out during Barry Manilow's "Mandy"-ending glory note, "Mary"-song vote-splitting, SEO retitling, cheerleader moxie, the all-killer-no-filler pop charts of 1984, and Reality Bites as a crystal ball into adulthood. We're also craving Girl Scout cookies
First-Name Basis, Episode 2: The Next 10
The second batch of 10 songs is raising tough questions for our First-Name Basis season, like: Does difficult subject matter preclude a song from moving on? How can you tell if a songwriter has never lived in NYC...and how drunk WERE the Kingsmen? Would Rick Springfield REALLY just pine for some lady? We also fondly remember You Can't Do That On Television, pay tribute to Weird Al Yankovic, and sa
First-Name Basis, Episode 1: The First 10
Our First-Name Basis season is underway! Our mission: to identify the most iconic song associated with a first name. But how? It starts right here, as we look at the first 10 in our FNB Top 40 and decide which songs/names move on to the next round. Along the way, we make predictions, remember Just One Of The Guys and American Crime Story, stand too close to you with Chardonnay breath, re-scan upst
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 10: The Championship
The Record Of The Year Showdown comes down to this...and there's not a ton of surprises here, probably, but there IS the wall of history, the wisdom of (drunk, stoned New York City) crowds, shared musical language, the "Somebody" multiverse, and Sarah's zombie mom. So, you know: Monday. Everyone's a winner in the battle of head vs. heart as we crown a ROTY champion in our season finale.
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 9: The Final 4
Mark's shenanigans aside, we had an easier time ranking our semifinal group than we'd expected -- but we didn't necessarily expect to go on a sentimental journey with TLC, Sarah Palin's nephew LARP Jr., cutesy Aretha, braided beards, and an open invitation to Gotye to come on/edit the podcast. But a full moon and Sarah's all-covers clip choices put us on the emotional road to our season finale. Do
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 8: The Elite 8
"This'll be cinchy! [cut to: sobbing]" We thought we'd have a more straightforward time of our quarterfinal rankings, but alas, no. We did have a Whitney-koan reader mail, a visit from Katharine Hepburn, the aural equivalent of a sped-up Bob Ross episode, and music-minister shout-outs before Julio got the stretch and carted off four more beloved songs. Grab a fine-tooth comb and join us
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 7: The Sweet 16
More like the BITTER-sweet 16, the episode that forces hosts and listeners alike to make terrible choices, as well as rank things politically, salute album-cover pets of yore, choose which Adele hills to die on, pit Henry Mancini against Leonard Nimoy, mourn the consensus "blech," and dodge the ire of John Ramos whilst deploying Emilio Estevez fist-pumps. Is today a "Beat It" d
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 6: Round Of 32, '91-'22
The Round Of 32 is a plot-heavy affair: Coldplay premonitions, beautiful German cheese, learning to love advisedly off-putting pop, and songs that grab you by the nip. As the decisions get more agonizing, Aunt Doreen punches Grampy Blankenship in the face, and we discover that the ghost in the machine is -- and will continue to be -- Whitney. Get ready to scramble a goose egg; it's the second half
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 5: Round Of 32, '59-'90
The Round Of 32: where the choices get tougher and the cheeses get lonelier. We're writing Back To The Future/Babybel fan-fic, analyzing palimpsest layers, appreciating Bobby Darin's interpretive skills (and apologizing to Jerry Orbach), and wondering who's going to do a better job of seducing Sarah, Mrs. Robinson or Toto. What song is a red-wine drunk? Who burned off their eyelashes in seventh gr
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 4: 2007-2022
It's the final section of our Record Of The Year Showdown Round Of 64! The Grammys get more of a clue, albeit seemingly by accident, here in the 21st century, and we're talking about that, plus the late Shows Of Note, editorial thrills in dinosaur/country-fiddle pairings, farts over a xylophone, our favorite generic bands, the schmaltz hinge point, songs that need their videos in order to work, an
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 3: 1991-2006
We're heading -- somewhat angrily! -- into the 21st century in our third Record Of The Year Showdown episode. Spanning 1991-2006 at the Grammys, our discussion also looks at early-nineties quality control lapses, celebrations of the dusty past, nestling in the Swiss-y holes of pop cheese, seventh-grade-dance melodrama, special categories for Whitneying and Mariahing, "psyyyyych!" noms, a
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 2: 1975-1990
The Record Of The Year Showdown enters the second "bracket" section with winners from 1975-1990, which means a lot of flashbacks to our America's Damp 40 season; theories about Billy Joel and Rufus Wainwright; Eagles/color-blindness test metaphors; underappreciated dad-bod pop stars; how a cult implicated Steve Winwood; and the necessity of special categories to contain nuclear waste lik
Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 1: 1959-1974
Welcome to our Record Of The Year Showdown season! With listeners' help, we're going to find out which Grammy-winner for ROTY is the best of the 64 winners to date...or maybe just the least baffling and unconscionable. How are we doing this? It's sort of a bracket; we'll explain up top, and then we'll talk about cobwebby rocking chairs, how anyone managed to get laid during the Eisenhower presiden
Beats Around The Bush, Episode 07: Cringe-Hop Is Too Legit To Quit
We're wrapping up our second "embarrassing radio hip-hop" ep with Marky Mark, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, and two by Young MC. Different Wahlbergs for different times in one's bunk, Myra Cormier truthering, rap conceived by dudes named Kev to sell plastic toys, the drums you find in the dumpster behind KMart, and cheekbones that could cut ham -- it's all here in the lucky (?) seventh episode
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