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 presidency, rewarding artists who don't "take the pot," and songs we can't get all the way through. Grab a t...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 8 min
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 of Beats Around The Bush. Our intro is the "Straight Up" PSA, and our outro is Tribe Called Quest. To become ...
Dec 05, 2022•50 min
We had so much to say about embarrassing radio hip-hop of the H.W. Bush era, we had to split our convo into two episodes! Here in the first one, we're confronting C+C Music Factory, the Fat/Beach Boys, Gerardo, Kris Kross, and the erstwhile Jesse Jaymes; we're wondering who's getting hit with a brick; we're asking who saw Disorderlies more times, and we're reminiscing about bosses who wear cycling tights to work. Justice for Arsenio, Gerardo's girlfriend's mom, and the corporate speaking circuit...
Nov 28, 2022•58 min
Tone Loc was everywhere; then, he wasn't -- or so it seemed. Did Anthony Terrell Smith really disappear, or did the nineties just make him less visible? What exactly is in a Fuzzy Navel? Why does his work keep stumbling into trans panic? And will MC Hammer ever see chart justice? With a little help from Robert Stack and LL Cool J, we're contemplating the mystery of Tone Loc. Our intro is Kris Kross for Sprite, and our outro is the Unsolved Mysteries Hammer remix. To become a patron of the show, ...
Nov 21, 2022•41 min
Sarah is obsessed with late-'80s Bronx/Central Islip outfit JVC Force! Mark...is also on this podcast! ...But seriously, folks: we're unpacking a handful of tracks from "Doin' Damage," peering into the 1990 divide, and pouring one out for our shortest episode. Wheel that seafood tower on over to our table and listen in. Our intro is J.V.C. F.O.R.C.E., and our outro is the Commodores. To become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas . To buy our book, click here . SHOW NOTES The Blotter P...
Nov 14, 2022•34 min
Salt-N-Pepa's here and they came to out-rap you -- but not in a mean way! Today we're talking about six Salt-N-Pepa hits across a handful of albums, the difference between '80s and '90s SNP, when #smarternotharder comes to hip-hop, and how talking "About Sex" sounded 30 years ago. Nobody's getting on OUR nerves in the third Beats Around The Bush ep of MASTAS... Our intro is the Yo! MTV Raps credits break, and our outro is 702. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTalkAboutSongs.com ...
Nov 07, 2022•44 min
In our second Beats Around The Bush-isode, we're (re-?)introducing the world to the joyous, winking, horny turn-of-the-nineties sound of Jeffrey Fortson, aka Def Jef. We're also remembering Def Leppard , early Law & Order : Mothership , regrettable t-shirts of freshman year, and Gowanus Bob. Grab a lemon-lime bev and prepare to have your vision corrected with an all-new episode of MASTAS! Our intro is Messrs. Kid 'N Play, and our outro is Shaquille O'Neal featuring Def Jef. ("...Psych!!") (....
Oct 31, 2022•28 min
Welcome to our Beats Around The Bush season, in which we investigate the rap and hip-hop that brought us joy during/near the first Bush presidency, 1988-1993ish. After we try to explain our construction of this framework, we dig into our first BATB topic: "hippie hop," the relaxed/baked grooves of the time from artists like De La Soul, PM Dawn, Us3, Digable Planets, and Arrested Development. Who has the sexiest flow? Which group's album sent Sarah tumbling off her dorm futon? Does Mark have midd...
Oct 24, 2022•57 min
Who is the Lilith Fairest of them all? At last, our answer -- but first, we look at last-comers Heather Nova, Jewel, Paula Cole, Des'ree, and Natalie Merchant. And we ask a few more questions, like which sophomore year lyrics belong to, high school or college; whether we feel truly confident in our Lilithosity metrics; who's our favorite liberal scold; and when someone's going to form a lit-mag EIC union. All this, plus a surprise 40th-place finish, a Mark-rage epilogue, and a potato gun loaded ...
Sep 12, 2022•1 hr 9 min
The second-to-last set of 5 songs joins the Lilith fray by zig-zagging all over the map: Ani DiFranco, India.Arie, Natalie Imbruglia, Aimee Mann, and Chantal Kreviazuk take us from a soggy subbasement of the Brill Building, to the desert, to the diner for a celery soda, to the valley of the shadow of WTF. That's where the doctors with butterfly nets found us; where did the Top 35 rankings find YOU? Grab a copy of the CanCon statute and a vegan crunch wrap, because we're almost done with the Lili...
Sep 05, 2022•54 min
The murderers' row of artists joining us for our Top 30 episode -- Joan Osborne, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Shawn Colvin, and Lisa Loeb & 9 Stories -- might actually literally kill us? Primitivism without authenticity, dorm-room BS, a plea to send all the puppies, and the unexpected pleasures of representative democracy all have a moment this week, so while we figure out how the Hooters got in here, grab a pair of tiresome spectacles and listen to our latest ep! Our intro is by Laura Barger...
Aug 29, 2022•56 min
We're in the #LilithFair40 homestretch now with our top 25, joined by Bif Naked, The Juliana Hatfield 3, Jill Scott, Patty Griffin, and the Cardigans. Discovering Toni Morrison, the sophomore-pox that ravaged college radio, commercials for shampoo that contains absinthe, and Wednesday Addams's private moment with Christian Slater -- you won't want to miss this ep, so kick off one shoe and have a listen. Our intro is by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli, and our outro is by Bettie Serveert. Intersti...
Aug 22, 2022•1 hr 2 min
The Lilith Fair 40 reaches the halfway mark -- what better time to confront the contribution of festival founder Sarah McLachlan, along with Macy Gray, Dionne Farris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Dido? We also remember childhood soundtracks, acknowledge "listen boo-boo" energy, blank on Shiri Appleby's name (sorry, lady!), spread German mustard on car singing, and play hacky-sack at the center of the Lilith/WB Venn. Help us separate love and Lilithosity in our Top 20 episode! Our intro is by Laura...
Aug 15, 2022•46 min
Mark gets emotional, Sarah gets confused, and the Lilith/WB Venn gets unpacked: it's the third #LilithFair40 episode, with the Indigo Girls, Letters to Cleo, Alanis, Liz Phair, and Michelle Branch rounding out the top 15. Secular hymns, hidden fists, zines, cool girls, and Dawson Leery (...again!): the quest for the Lilith Fairest of them all continues. Our intro is by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli, and our outro is by Dolly Parton. Interstitial music provided by Etta James. To contact us or bu...
Aug 08, 2022•52 min
The rankings get exponentially tougher in our second episode, with k.d. lang, Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, The Cranberries, and Melissa Etheridge joining the countdown. Raisin girls, genre-defying voices, The Hall Of B-Plus, and when a window is just a window as we introduce the 10 Lilith Fairest songs on our chart. Our intro is by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli, and our outro is by The Ladybugs. Interstitial music provided by k.d. lang via Joni Mitchell. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAnd...
Aug 01, 2022•44 min
It's the first "real" episode of the Lilith Fair 40: Dar Williams, Meredith Brooks, Frente!, Suzanne Vega, and The Corrs inaugurate our chart, with help from the MCSL "listies" mixtape, greasy-haired sad boys, how to sing about a building collapse, incomplete subversion of the male gaze, and sibling bands to fall asleep to. All this, and Mark may have identified his overall #1 song -- in the first five minutes! Put on an extra layer of crystal deodorant, because we're on a journey here, people. ...
Jul 25, 2022•38 min
Welcome to The Lilith Fair 40, in which we put on broomstick-pleated skirts and Pride jewelry, light some Nag Champa, and set off on a journey of discovery: what is the Lilith Fairest song of all time? This season, we're looking at the woman-forward festival of the late '90s; our own musical attitudes from that time; and misogyny in pop music -- and in THIS episode, we're revealing the 40 songs under discussion, and explaining the process. We're very XXcited to get started, so grab a peasant blo...
Jul 18, 2022•29 min
We decided NOT to write a book about all the pop songs that "only" (or..."somehow") hit #11 on the Billboard charts...but you wouldn't know it from our voluminous notes on the 11 Number 11s we did decide to contemplate, including Stevie Nicks, Stephen Bishop, Dead or Alive, Heart, Digital Underground, T. Swift, the Thompson Twins, the KLF (with Tammy Wynette), Gloria Estefan, Crystal Waters, and the Beatles. Surprisingly bad vocals, appealing audacity, Citizen Kane , confused NuRo image systems,...
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 35 min
It's the America's Damp 40 season finale! Dave Mason, Silver, Leo Sayer, Barbra Streisand, and Chicago file onto the big stage, and Shaddo and Peej discuss moist chord structures, running over cassettes in Grimsby parking lots, the return of the "DON'T TOUCH THAT!!" shriek, unmodulated Broadway belting, and the Jordan-almond schmaltz shell that is mid-'80s Peter Cetera. We talk about what we've learned; we share our top 10s, and yours; and we present the entire black-letter-law Damp 40 in all it...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 17 min
There was a "35 moisture-units per hour" joke here but Sarah just couldn't get it to go. YOU should go listen to the second-to-last episode of our America's Damp 40 countdown, as America, Dan Hill, Seals & Crofts, Kenny Loggins, and Foreigner all slosh onto the chart. How did George Martin get in here? Did one of the legion of Dans solve toxic masculinity -- from Canada? Why did the users disagree with us about the dampness of partnered sex on a hot day? And who won the battle for Kenny Logg...
May 16, 2022•45 min
Three quarters of the way through the America's Damp 40 countdown! Wading into the swamp this week are Nicolette Larson, Bread, Barry Manilow, Jim Croce, and the Garden State's own Dr. Hook, and as Mark fondly remembers a bank vestibule and conjures a mating dance involving a drink with grenadine in it, Sarah wonders if the titular Mandy has called the police. Foundational texts of moisture, dramaturgical research on pay phones, the Beverly Hills, 90210 Spring Dance, and the many sins of Shel Si...
May 09, 2022•43 min
It's getting real -- real soggy, that is -- as we wrestle with the next five songs in the America's Damp 40 countdown. William Joel, Kenny Rogers, Randy Vanwarmer, Bertie Higgins, and yet another Dan (Fogelberg) have us talking about emotional-labor issues, when vulnerability is actually wimpiness, songs that sound like karaoke stock videos look, whether the poor man's Jimmy Buffett is in fact Jimmy Buffett, and how to get fired from Hallmark for dysfunctional metaphorizing. How did these songs ...
May 02, 2022•49 min
We've reached the halfway point in our America's Damp 40 countdown, and with Steely Dan, Ambrosia, England Dan and John Ford Coley, Olivia Newton-John, and 10cc entering the chart, it's getting dark AND damp in here. The condescension of older boyfriends, saying the quiet part out loud, sexual grift, calling the Seals family onto the (shag) carpet, vicarious embarrassment, and that time Sandy from Grease had too much tempranillo at the Christmas party and awked out big-time. We're chipping away ...
Apr 25, 2022•52 min
America's Damp 40 countdown "welcomes" another five songs to the fray, including selections from Orleans, Melissa Manchester, James Taylor, Lionel Richie, and Dolly Parton. Is Manchester the girl from "Chevy Van"? How do the paradigm challenges of drag relate to moisture levels? Was JT low-key hateful this whole time? And did Sarah crack the anti-moisture code of country music before the police arrived to arrest her for speculating on Mr. Richie's "alone time"? It's Episode 03, and it is NOT for...
Apr 18, 2022•50 min
The next 5 songs join the America's Damp 40 countdown, so buckle up for Gerry Rafferty, the Eagles, Todd Rundgren, Sammy Johns, and our old friend Paul Davis as we settle our first top 10. Penthouse letters gone feloniously awry, Glenn Frye-colepsy, predicting saxophone sales, the one time Sarah will let herself use the word "iconic," and a side of toasted nuts: it's Episode 02! Our intro is by Andrew Byrne, and our outro is by Stealers Wheel. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTa...
Apr 11, 2022•50 min
America's Damp 40 is now officially underway with our first 5 songs! Art Garfunkel, Juice Newton, Christopher Cross, Styx, and Player form the foundation of our moist pop-chart project. The mystery of Dudley Moore, Michael McDonald's mentholated support, the difference between longing and a boner, sonic butter, the Garfunkel/Midler Venn, and Ridge Forrester -- this episode's got something for everyone. Our intro is by David G. Byrne, and our outro is by Thomas "Fats" Waller. To contact us or buy...
Apr 04, 2022•58 min
Welcome to America's Damp 40, our season dedicated to ranking the moistest soft rock hits of all time. In this episode, we explain the premise, discuss how our rankings will work, reveal the songs in contention, and talk about all the shag carpeting on which a person can make love. Our intro is by Andrew Byrne, and our outro is by The Association. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTalkAboutSongs.com . To become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas . SHOW NOTES The Damp ...
Mar 28, 2022•22 min
In our most meta episode ever, we're ranking 13 songs with the word "song" in the title, which allows us to discuss everything from Weird Al to porpoises to the very best times to sound like Simon and Garfunkel. Our intro is by David Gregory Byrne, Andrew Byrne, Laura Barger, AND Jack Baldelli. (Truly!) Our outro is by Soykus Paynoot. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTalkAboutSongs.com. To become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 250
The ostentatious awesomeness of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” gets us talking about songs you can’t possibly sing along to and the various reasons Freddie Mercury is eternal. Our intro is by Andrew Byrne and our outro is by PJ Harvey. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTalkAboutSongs.com . To become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas .
Nov 29, 2021•19 min•Ep. 249
Our intro is by David Gregory Byrne and our outro is by Patsy Cline. To contact us or buy our books, visit MarkAndSarahTalkAboutSongs.com . To become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas .
Nov 22, 2021•26 min•Ep. 248
