Somebody Likes It

By now, we're familiar with the Blackalicious mojo: Gift of Gab throwing obsessive, complicated rhymes over the steady propulsive backbeat dropped by one Chief Xcel, a formula that's earned the pair accolades. But all rocket ships launch from somewhere, and it's clear word spread about the duo during production...how else might we factor the parade of guest turns on their first full-length from Cut Chemist to Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha to, well, Harry Nilsson? Okay, maybe Nillson didn't 'actively' participate, but that doesn't mean Blazing Arrow is less than a tempting stew of influences and co-conspirators, stirring intrigue and a quickened pulse. Friend of the show and music journalist Chad Swiatecki drops by as we try to unpack where the head bobs begin, exactly. Buy This Week's Vinyl on Amazon A Few Minutes With [**Bjork** - It's Oh So Quiet][2] A Current Affair [**Bhad Bhabie** - These Heaux][3]

Join us this week, as we discuss Band of Horses' 2006 (turns out, debut LP, after an EP), "Everything All the Time." If you love $29,000 refrigerators, majestic arpeggios, bizarre Gene Simmons infomercials, and mid-aughts sweet-sounding (if not-quite profound) proper debut for Ben Bridwell's personal majesty, you should definitely tune in. Shane believes that this band deserves a greatest hits collection, and he could be right. But here, in my estimation, is the genesis of that. Buy This Week's Vinyl on Amazon A Few Minutes With [**Arrested Development** - Tennessee][2] A Current Affair [**Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile** - Over Everything][3]

Let's be honest: Hug Of Thunder, for all of its good intentions, kind of sounds like something made by Hasbro: perhaps a giant, fluffy, crime-fighting machine—the likes of which, for all we know, could actually be one of the members of Broken Social Scene, the Toronto-based and terribly talented music collective that burst on the scene with an iconoclastic by way of shamelessly celebratory catalogue years ago, until momentum finally waned with a substandard release in 2010. The good news is that they're back, and inspired to move listeners to action (or at least empathy) in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris, they reconvened to knit together a stripped-down by way of purposeful collection of tracks. Many of the usual players are here, your Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist, Emily Haines and so on. It's an all hands on deck setting, and while Hug Of Thunder may not pack the unique punch of their best early work, this is the sound of musicians (however many multitudes) on the same page, enlightened and embolden

Whatever you think of Cracker -- they've been the subject of chart busting platitudes and some indie derision alike -- it's hard to understate the importance of David Lowery's contribution to popular music. That's a fact. Beyond his role in crafting earworms that burrowed their way into car stereos in the 90s, his determination to alter the landscape of musical compensation is fundamentally altering the way Spotify and others do business. But this being a music review show, let's start with some crusading guitars. Buy it like some junkie cosmonaut. A Few Minutes With [**Breeders** - Cannonball][2] A Current Affair [**BNQT** - Restart][3]

SON! Pioneer of "trucker country," Jerry Reed, turns out, falls in my sweet spot. The man was rapping (albeit with a country twang) before that was a thing, could finger-pick his way out of a wet burlap sack, and was pretty damn funny while doing so. I generally don't care for my music and humor intertwined (see:Tenacious D), but apparently if the songs deliver, caution to the wind. He is probably best remembered for playing second-fiddle to Burt Reynolds in the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies these days, but the man could deliver a hook. Can't promise that my good buddies (breaker 1-9) on the show will rise to my level of enthusiasm, but that's their loss. Tune in and figger' out why Jerry Reed's "Essential" compilation earns its moniker. That's a good 10-4, Ryan SON! You best be gettin' on down to Amazon to pick this one up! A Few Minutes With [**Ray Stevens** - The Streak][2] A Current Affair [**Portugal. The Man** - Feel It Still][3]

I can sum up the way a lot of people feel about The Everly Brothers by telling you the props Ryan brought in to our show when we discussed It's Everly Time by (wait for it) The Everly Brothers. Ryan shows up carrying a paper bag from which he subsequently removed a loaf of Wonder Bread and a bottle of Cream Soda. And I get it. That's how a lot of people feel when they think about the Everly Brothers. Malt shops and shit. American Graffiti. I, however, am not one of those people. I, for the most part, hate the music of the 50's and very early 60's that isn't Jazz. But there is an ethereal shimmering mournful quality to their harmonies that to my ears removes any of the usual parodies. Now don't get me wrong, some of the songs on Its Everly Time skirt that line, but the harmonies always suck me in. Of course the dudes couldn't stand each other. So sit back, make yourself a Mayonnaise sandwich on Wonder Bread and wash it down with a cold Ice Cream Phosphate (whatever the fuck those were), and enjoy It's Everly T

In this case, buzz begat buzz when Oakland's Melina Duterte drunkenly uploaded a batch of hastily recorded tracks to Bandcamp, and launched a sensation. Better known as Jay Som, her pop-up indie darling status seems only cemented since its home baked inception, an arrival marked by her legit label debut, Everybody Works. Duterte's ascent, begged by some clear experimentation and sleeve-worn influences, lands to varying degrees, but know this: occasionally bedroom pop can register as both confessional and self-assured, and it's that intimate confidence that makes this release intriguing, and the touchpoint of this week's conversation. Curl up and listen in. Pick up a copy of Jay Som's Everybody Works at Amazon A Few Minutes With **Godley & Creme** - [Cry][2] A Current Affair **Washed Out** - [Get Lost][3]

Somehow I've managed to find myself concurrently watching the second installment of The Decline of Western Civilization (The Metal Years) whilst writing this up, which is pretty much apropos of nothing, other than if you haven't seen this brilliant documentary, you definitely should. Another work worth investigating is Uncle Tupelo's debut record, No Depression. Few bands can claim to have at least in some part founded a genre (in this case, alt-country, a.k.a. "y'all-ternative"), but in this instance it's apt. I've heard so many bands with lineage from this it's hard to quantify. These guys are now better known for the bands they directly spawned, namely Son Volt and Wilco. Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy co-quarterbacked a fantastic band that burned brightly and, ultimately, wasn't big enough for the two of them. So strap in, grab a load o' chaw (and maybe listen to a little Minutemen interspersed with Hank Williams if you need to warm up),and join us. You can pick up Uncle Tupelo's debut No Depression

What a fucking tragedy. I'm not talking about when they took Surge soda off the market, or the final season of the A-Team, or even how all the eagles died because of all the DDT and shit. No, I am referring to Billie Holiday's life. Essentially birth to death it was non-stop sadness. For no reason other than she was a proud, independent, other-worldly talented woman of color, with a heroin and alcohol addiction that would ultimately claim her life at age 44. She was handcuffed to her death bed while suffering from end-point liver disease but (!) she still found time in her life to become, if not the finest female vocalist of the 20th century, someone very much in that discussion. I highly urge anyone remotely interested in the history of 20th century music (with a strong stomach) to read up on her. So I picked this record "Lady in Satin", the last album recorded while she was alive, for a reason. It's not the sassy, meter-bending, I don't give a shit Billie Holiday that recorded Strange Fruit in 193

We've been spending lots of time in the 70s, it seems, almost to the point of pricing shag carpeting. Oddly, Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak, their undisputed US breakthrough record and the peak of their notoriety, takes me back...to 2009, when 'Jailbreak' became my antidote to (or respite from) the endless cycle of Michael Jackson tracks on jukeboxes immediately following his passing. "Jailbreak" (the song) always seem to cleanse the palate of the room, if only for the moment, then, and it's perhaps at least a little ironic that Thin Lizzy also featured a shooting star frontman (an unfortunate double entendre) -- Phil Lynott, himself gone too soon. There are some chunks of the Lizzy catalog that are certainly less memorable, and who could blame modern day listeners who have been oversaturated by the prominence of the tracks they know too well. What we cannot hear with fresh ears, might we still appreciate for its immediacy? Only one way to find out. Plan your own Jailbreak on Amazon A Few Minutes With Ryan

Hi. Are you ready to be confused? Yes? Good, because I sure am. On this week's Somebody Likes It, we cover The Yardbirds' 1966 LP "Roger the Engineer." Also known as "Over Under Sideways Down." Oh, and also known as "The Yardbirds." If that weren't confusing enough, about half of this record is sixties ground-breaking psychedelia, and the rest is Chicago-style mid-twentieth century blues. This band spawned the careers of Jeff Beck (on this record), Eric Clapton (not on this record), and Jimmy Page (also not on this record). Should be monumental, right? In fits and starts it is, but we don't all agree on this. Before I give away the store, just know that there's a lot of "there there," except where there isn't. Feel free to be as annoyed/intrigued/entertained as I am. Get your own lead guitarist and your own copy of The Yardbirds over at the Amazon. A Few Minutes With You're so vain, you probably think this [**Santigold** song *I Can't Get Enough Of Myself"][2] is about

Lot's of people go through a hippie phase. Usually in High School, or maybe Freshman year of college. Maybe you decide to drop out of college for a year, buy some kind of old van, and follow String Cheese Incident around the country selling burritos in the parking lots of their shows. I'm saying it happens. Now, imagine going throw your hippie phase in the ACTUAL 60's. Yeah, that's some deep ass shit. Well, looks like that's what Van Morrison decided to do with his 1968 record "Astral Weeks". An almost stream of consciousness, jazzy-folk song cycle, it tells the story of me getting an imminent nap. One thing I regret is being up-able to find any pictures of what the band was wearing during the recording sessions. I imagine fringe. Pick up Van Morrison's Astral Weeks over at Amazon. A Few Minutes With The Folk Implosion - "Natural One" A Current Affair Sweet Spirit - "The Power"

If you peer into the festival hero shot of Michael D’Addario leaping through the roof of The Lemon Twigs' SXSW showcase, you'll note the giant X on his hand: despite the fawning praise, D'Addario, brother Brian and company might be primed to break big this year (they won SXSW's Grulke Prize for Best New Act) -- but they're still not old enough to drink. The D'Addarios, 17 and 19 at the time of the album's recent release -- spread their wings from a musical household in Long Island, fired up a couple of power mullets, and began sculpting the type of clever, influence-on-your-sleeve indie craft that turns heads and sets a band up to play undercards on the summer festival circuit. They're young, they're undaunted. But do they stick the landing? Pull up a chair as we unpack their kickoff LP and sort out just what happens when a couple of upstarts Do Hollywood. Pick up The Lemon Twigs' Do Hollywood on Amazon. A Few Minutes With Jake Bugg's Lightning Bolt could have been written 50 years ago. But it wasn't. A Curre

For as prolific and talented an artist as he was, this was an inscrutable man. We find him here, at the top of his talent (arguably, see also Jackson 5), and nailing it on every track. Also, this is super disco, which can play out however your mind leads you, given your leanings. Brilliant record, and let's all give a "hee hee" and "sh'mon" in his memory. If you aren't one of the 20 million people that already own this album, pick it up on Amazon. A Few Minutes With The Motels - Only The Lonely A Current Affair Girlpool - It Gets More Blue

At this point, it can be difficult to separate the legend of Joy Division from an honest account of either of their (intentional) releases, but here is what we know: on the eve of their first American tour with The Buzzcocks, frontman Ian Curtis hung himself in his kitchen. Technically, that's where Joy Division ends. The rest of the band, in the intervening years since, have gone on to great fame as New Order, but that hasn't extinguished the fervor over the band they were -- the twitchy, angular, frenetic gyrations of Curtis, set to increasingly haunted lyrics, and seasoned with the jaunty bass lines of Peter Hook, the buzzing syncopated guitar riffs of Bernard Sumner, the precise beats of drummer Stephen Morris. Their ascent from kids at a Manchester show, blown away by the first Sex Pistols gig -- to seasoned, genre-defining post-punk outfit, is well documented. Of the two records, the final one, Closer, foretold looming clouds on the horizon. But how does it hold up, beyond the Manchester scene, the kid

Long time listeners may recall Matt Muñoz. He keeps popping up on the show, and is the person that first showed us our unofficial theme song "Pink Pannies". Well ole Matt dropped on by the show this week, and took the whole damn thing over. First he picked "Louder Than Bombs" by the Smiths as the record of the week (giving me a backdoor into getting another Smiths album on). For " A Few Minutes With", we watched Childish Gambino ride a roller coaster with a giant stuffed bear on "3005" and finally on "A Current Affair" we all watched Khalid get someone's location on "Location"... All 3 were great fun, so I think we will let him drop back by...

By any measure, mixtapes are always an exercise in nostalgia. In fact, whenever one of these milestone shows pop up and we start paddling the raft to Mixtape Island, we can't help but share stories about the time when we made a mix for someone, and all the ensuing nuances: the sequencing, those tracks that you'd since forgotten that stopped you cold in the moment, and lastly (but not unimportantly), how it went over. It’s probably best that we’re not eighteen forever. Evidence to that effect: the simple mixtape doesn’t quite cut it for us anymore. For this show, we each picked a track from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s to get to know a little bit better, with curious results. If you think you know someone -- really know them – imagine what they’d add to a mixtape made especially for you. I guarantee the real thing will throw you curveballs. Here’s to our first 100 episodes. And eye openers we can't yet fathom - Round 1 - The 1970's Hall & Oates - ”She's Gone” So these dudes didn't want to do it like the

I'm not a sadist. Really. Just because every so often I bring out something like "Slippery When Wet" or "Open Up and Say Ahhhh!" that doesn't mean I enjoy torturing the other show hosts, it just means I enjoy a lively discussion (after all, I have to listen to those albums too). But if you were to just listen to Kevin and Ryan you would think I stuck them in a closet with a Ray Stevens album on repeat (hmmm, note to self: Ray Stevens). So in the spirit of peace, I brought something to the table I was pretty sure Ryan was gonna eat up and go back for seconds! The Gotobeds' "Poor People Are Revolting" did the trick. All the late 70's post punk/mid-90's indie rock you could ever want to find in one album. So please enjoy. And don't start bitching next time I show up with that Ray Stevens record (they call him the streak...) Pick up this week's album from The Gotobeds on their Bandcamp page. Also this week, we spend A Few Minutes With Ultimate Fakebook's Tell Me What You Want. For A

Once you get past the intrigue of her backstory (PS Eliot drummer with her now Waxahatchee-fronting sister Katie, collaborator with her ex in the apostrophe sporting band Swearin'), Allison Crutchfield -- freshly minted solo artist -- weaves a tangled-by-way-of-intriguing tale on her first full length LP, 'Tourist In This Town.' She may be angsty, but she isn't without something relevant to impart, and what's with so much interesting music coming out of Philly these days? Join us as we break it down (just the one time). Grab Tourist In This Town on Amazon A Few Minutes With "Fish Heads" by Barnes & Barnes; a strange song with an even stranger art film/video directed by and staring the late Bill Paxton. A Current Affair Grandaddy's "Last Place", their first output in 11 years, includes Evermore. The video is chock-full of the stuff of psychological group studies. Have an album you want us to cover? Shoot us a note at messagesomebody@gmail.com

Otis. In addition to being one of those artists that one can cite by first-name only, can be included in the great pantheon of those that nobody doesn't like. Possessing arguably the best voice of his generation (if not claiming the mantle "voice of his generation"), Otis Redding, tragically, left us way too soon. Somehow, however, I had managed to never listen to an entire Otis Redding record from start to finish. Ladies and gentlemen, I have rectified this egregious oversight. Laid down in one 24-hour recording session like the man knew he was on borrowed time, Otis Redding Blue sounds as immediate and timeless as it did in its heyday. Found within, an artist at once in command of and comfortable with his own moment, with both arresting and even humorous results (like when he riffed his own lyrics to the Stones’ “Satisfaction"..and the band used his version years later). One could claim unrealized potential from most any artist (even bold ones) who die tragically at 26, but even that’s not a