Try Again was written in July 2015, after Joe's musical Be More Chill opened amid a wave and hype and received a show-killing review from the Grey Lady. The song deals in the specifics of an artist's life, but the hope is that it is relatable to everyone. It acts as the final song on Album because, like the album itself, it is heartfelt, a bit profane, fuzzy, ragtag, unexpected, and pure. Here's to... survival. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...
Sep 21, 2023•18 min
This group 11 O’Clock number is the centerpiece song from Joe's Bloodsong of Love . The entire original cast of that musical are featured on the track, along with a resplendent choir arranged by the oft-mentioned Joel Waggoner. Listen to find out if the written lyric is “lore” or “lure” and if “soul” is about a fish. This might be the song that best encapsulates the Iconis & Family ethos. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 19, 2023•23 min
Find The Bastard is about being on a mission and is the "theme song" of Iconis' Bloodsong of Love , his spaghetti western musical. Joe and Jenn discuss the style of theatre songs as stand alone songs and how the end of Album's track list becomes more and more like a live album as it wraps up. Performed by Eric William Morris and the original cast of Bloodsong of Love . http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 07, 2023•19 min
Joe Iconis boldly asked the internet, "What does music mean to you?" and got a beautifully sentimental response from a Long Island high school student that inspired the vulnerability expressed in It's All Good. Another track from the musical, The Black Suits, on Album it is performed by the original cast of the SPF workshop: Jason Tam, Nick Blaemire, Lance Rubin, and Jason SweetTooth Williams. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 05, 2023•24 min
From Joe Iconis' musical, The Black Suits, Amphibian is a song about songwriting. It was a surprise hit in the show that audiences responded to with enthusiasm. William Finn advised Joe about not dwelling on the imperfect rhyme between the words amphibian and oblivion. Written in the voice of high school band members, the words fit the vocabulary of the characters singing them. Killer orchestrations by Charlie Rosen and vocal performance by Will Roland. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Lear...
Aug 31, 2023•27 min
"I'm gonna put a party hat on my cat", was an earworm that was stuck in Joe Iconis' mind for a long time until he brought it to fruition in the summer of 2012 for a concert at The Beechman. A woman sings about how she can solve all her problems by putting a party hat on her cat, dressing up, and putting on perfume. After trying a few different ideas, Joe finally landed on the concept of having the cat chime in and share their perspective. On Album, Lauren Marcus is the woman singing about her ca...
Aug 29, 2023•24 min
This song uses technology as a metaphor. A robot's battery dies throughout the song while he dreams of being happy, human, and real. The production on this track is more electronic focused, incorporating synths and computer sounds. Performed on Album by the very human, Jason SweetTooth Williams. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 24, 2023•17 min
Tightrope Walker / Mountain Climber / Me is one of two songs that were written specifically for Album. Joe wanted to write a piece specifically for Molly Hager and remembered a half-finished song from 2012 that he thought might be worth a second look. The resulting song is a three-part story that explores a person's relationship to their drive. Molly Hager recorded this song for Album. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 22, 2023•17 min
The oldest song on the record, "Starting to Forget" was written when Joe was an undergrad at NYU. It's based on source material from Brighton Beach Memoirs and inspired by Joe's own grandfather who passed away a few years before he wrote this song. Joe's longtime, cherished collaborator Badia Farha sings this song on Album and was present the first time Starting to Forget was performed 20 years ago. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...
Aug 11, 2023•18 min
Him Today, Gone Tomorrow is a rock and roll banger created with Shakina Nayfack for her musical, Manifest Pussy, an autobiographical story of Shakina's journey to gender affirming surgery. This song's sentiment speaks to how the middle of a transition is just as valid as the beginning or the end. Performed by the goddess herself. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 10, 2023•18 min
Written for the incomparable and ludicrously talented Liz Lark Brown, Velociraptor is a song about a creature who doesn't fit in. While the specifics involve a dino on the dating scene in modern-day New York City, the tune has become something of a theme song for a wider range of humans. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 04, 2023•16 min
An ode to an unconventional friendship in a whimsical yet ghoulish context. Joe wrote this song using the "my (blank) is a (blank)" format he'd been trying to crack for a while! Originally performed during the annual Beechman Halloween show, this bizarre and hilarious two-hander is performed on Album by genius character men George Salazar and Jeremy Morse. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Aug 02, 2023•19 min
Muthers R Speshel (Wen Yer Sad) is a unique collaboration between Joe Iconis at age 6 and Joe Iconis at age 30. The track is an updated version of the first song Joe ever wrote, interpreted here by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ad-Libs by Lin. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 27, 2023•17 min
This song was born... out of a joke. One of Joe's trashiest songs, this is ironically one of the most suitable for children. Sort of! There was this one time that Lance Rubin made up a fake dance craze called The Slide Whistle. And then Joe was hanging with Jordan Stanley and the rest of the crew. And then there was whiskey. And then there was slide whistle. Come on snakes, let's rattle! http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jul 11, 2023•14 min
The song that inspired the musical LOVE IN HATE NATION. Originally written as a one-off love song paying homage to 50s/60s Girl Gang films, Joe ended up adapting his own standalone into a full-length musical romance. Sung by real-life besties Lauren Marcus and Molly Hager and given a proper wall-of-sound production design that would make Ronnie Spector proud. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jul 05, 2023•28 min
Another song from THE BLACK SUITS, "Social Worker" made the final cut of the musical. Joe regards this as a song that begins to bridge the gap between his early work and later work. There is no "Michael in the Bathroom" without "Social Worker." Sung by Nick Blaemire, this song is also responsible for Sept 18th becoming "Black Suits Day." Next time you win Joe Iconis songwriting trivia, you're welcome. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch...
Jun 28, 2023•21 min
The character of Megan got cut from The Black Suits and along with her went her big number: "Joey is a Punk Rocker." Here, it makes a dramatic return nw, as sung by the incomparable Annie Golden, a woman who truly embodies the ragtagness and youthful energy of rock and roll music. Joe wrote this song during his Senior year of NYU Undergrad, a time when he was less hard on himself in regards to perfect rhyme. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
Jun 21, 2023•25 min
One of the few songs on this album that can also be heard on an OCR, "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" is from Be More Chill , but this is an extra special version meant to live on its own outside of the show. The multi-talented Seth Eliser is the performer and arranger of this rendition. Seth can do literally everything a human being has the ability to do. If the zombie apocalypse happens, Seth is the one you want to in the bunker with you. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about yo...
Jun 14, 2023•19 min
The writing of this song led to one of the last fights that Joe and Jen ever had. Joe waited until the last minute to write this song for a concert Jen was producing, Jen needed the song a week in advance, Joe didn't deliver until hours before the show, and Jen was (rightfully) PTFO. But now it's one of her favorite songs! (If the song sucked, would Joe and Jen still be in a fight?!) Please listen to it while standing on 52nd St in NYC for a truly immersive experience. Sung by Danny Burstein, wh...
Jun 07, 2023•20 min
This is the first full Christmas song that Joe has ever written. He loves New York City, he loves a cocktail, but he REALLY loves Christmas (the holiday garbage, not the religious stuff). Much to Jen's dismay, this song is not secretly about Bernie Madoff. The tune is sung by Grace McLean, who elevates it in an "unreal way" that straddles the line between humility and insanity. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 31, 2023•16 min
This song is one of Joe's absolute favorites he's ever written. It's about feeling stuck, like your ship is waiting to come in and may never arrive. Very autobiographical, the feeling of this song is what Joe was feeling in the exact moment it was written (and even more recently when Joe and Jen recorded this episode). Eric William Morris and Joe Iconis became insta-besties almost immediately when they met during an audition. Katrina Rose Dideriksen and Joe met as NYU Undergrads, both making mus...
May 24, 2023•27 min
This is a song title in parenthesis so it won't spoil the joke. Once you listen, you'll get it. Sung by Jason SweetTooth Williams, who Joe Iconis is simply in love with, was basically born to sing this song. The episode devolved into a SweetTooth lovefest... but the song at the heart of it all is very much about someone with a secret. Can you figure it out? http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 17, 2023•21 min
Inspired by the movie Psycho, this song "Normal" was penned in 2010 and first performed a Halloween gig at The Beechman. The idea was writing a cheesy love song from the point of view of Norman Bates. Sung by Lance Rubin, this song only gets better every time he performs it. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 10, 2022•28 min
Learn how to "pull an Iconis" by listening to this episode. In addition, this song "The Saddest Girl in the World" was written specifically for Kerry Butler, who played a one-legged dancer in a 24-Hour musical Joe wrote with the great Jonathan Marc Sherman. With a lot of fancy people involved, 24 year old Joe felt like the not-so-fancy guy who now wouldn't even think twice about shouting out a lyric if Kerry were to forget the lyrics again. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about ...
Dec 02, 2022•17 min
Initially called "The Buddy Song", this is another tune that Joe renamed to include a slash in the title. As interpreted by Krysta Rodriguez, the song turned into something different from its original intent and Charlie Rosen's period orchestrations provide a reframing that serves the message of the song well. A hidden gem in Joe's massive body of work. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Nov 25, 2022•17 min
Based on Stephen King's Misery this is a song that truly gets under your skin and brings the subtext of King's novel to the forefront. A rumination on the cyclical nature of addiction and how it relates to the life of an artist. Be prepared and scared for a brutal performance by Taylor Trensch. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 19, 2022•19 min
This is a song in which Joe channels the jealousy and envy he feels toward other musical theater writers and filters it through the lens of Robert Zemeckis's 1992 film Death Becomes Her. A personal song that also doubles as a character piece written from the point of view of Goldie Hawn's character in the film, Lorinda Lisitza performs with a level of ferocity that can barely be contained. And look out for her vocal nod to Goldie. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad ch...
Sep 30, 2022•22 min
"Sympathy for the Killer" is a peculiar little 1920's-style number which repurposes the classic horror film killer-victim scenario as a metaphor for a modern relationship. Sung by the fearless Liz Lark Brown, the song aks the question: who is really pursuing who? http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 23, 2022•14 min
Have you ever wondered what a song inspired by the plight of HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers might be like? Well, Joe Iconis sure did. A nod to his love of Halloween (the day and the movie), "Haddonfield, 15 Years Later (For Judith)" tells a simple story of Mike Myers getting out of the hospital, putting his mask back on, and heading back to his hometown. It also tells the story of a person returning to his suburban hometown and feeling like he no longer belongs. This song is sung by madman Jared Weis...
Sep 09, 2022•21 min
As a kid, the disappointment of dropping an ice cream on the ground feels like the end of the world. As an adult, the circumstances of our disappointments change, but the feeling is the same. "Building a Fort" is sung by Harrison Chad, who is always able to embody youth and adulthood. It was originally written for a musical that Joe got fired from. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Sep 03, 2022•15 min
