Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / The BlackSheep's Top 5 Albums of 2023

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The BlackSheep's Top 5 Albums of 2023 · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:16
What is fine is so dam not so war? Yo got war. Today
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we're gonna do our top five albums of twenty twenty three. What an incredible
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year of music. I feel like I say that every year for the last
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like probably twenty nine years that I've been alive. But what an incredible year
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of music. We're gonna do a little differently than we've we've done in the
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past, you know, Usually, like the last like what five years,
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culling, we've done our top five albums of the year, and it's just
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been you and I. But this year we scheduled it thinking it was just
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gonna be you and I. And then I thought to myself, you know
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what, We've got a few friends that probably have like some music in twenty
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twenty three. Let's invite them on. So we've got our good friend Austin
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Visser, who basically is like a co host of the Blacksheet podcast at this
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point, and our good friend JJ Justin Jones from Idle Threat. I guess
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I didn't even mention that Austin's in the undertaking. Go check them out,
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I guess, undertaking exclamation point yes. And then we also got Justin Jones
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from idle threat, and he graciously decided to get out of bed in the
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evening to hang out with us and talk about his top five albums of the
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twenty twenty three. Justin is basically a co host as well. We're just
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gonna roast my bad head. I took a nap. Okay, adults do
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that sometimes. I took a nap like four hours ago, and I don't
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look like you right now. Can we all just take a moment, though,
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Can we all just take a moment and say we've all got great hairlines?
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That is true, Like that is not something you can say about a
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lot of people. We all have got great hairlines. And Austin, you're
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the old one of the bunch. You have like probably the best one.
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Thank you. Yeah, you're looking good over there, damn thank you.
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Yeah. I mean you're a Padres fan. I can't imagine there's not more
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gray hairs. But still it's slowly, slowly going backwards, but it's still
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pretty good. I just you know, I'm proud of you guys. You
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know, if you are an album album number five like me, The biggest
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thing that they want to like try to dog on people is their bad hairlines.
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It's the funniest thing low blow. Mm hmm. I agree. There
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was a guy that quit last year because people were making fun of his hairline.
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That's so funny it is, But I also feel bad for the dude.
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I don't Ron. Have you ever seen the tweet that's like, it's
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like Lebron's hairline in twenty or sorry in twenty ten, and then you see
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his hairline now and it's like and the tweet is like thirty for thirty voice.
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What if I told you the greatest comeback on a basketball court wasn't actually
3:04
on a basketball court? All right? So my first question, no,
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no, no, why are we still ranking albums in twenty twenty three in
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the day and age where the music industry like actively punishes bands for putting out
3:23
albums? Because I was asking all these questions, like EPs technically don't count.
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We're not talking about just songs and singles. We're talking you guys were
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talking about albums EPs. We're doing EPs as well. Mason's done any the
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last three years. So I gotta I gotta put my my EP at the
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top of the list. Then yes, you do, put you Yeah,
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that's fine, put your music, all right, here's the deal. The
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music industry is broken, and we're going to jump into top five albums of
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twenty twenty three. Yeah. Well, I mean, I feel like the
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reason why we try to keep it as much album centric as possible is because
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every now and then there's an incredible song like Nora Curse that comes out where
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it's like, all right, could put this in our top five, but
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it's just one song, so we won't. We want we don't want to
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do that. Well, thanks for listening to that song. Cool, Yeah,
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you're welcome. I love when the Undertaking decides to be just like a
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post rock band. Yeah. Did you listen to the other one? Think?
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Think about it? Peter Distopia, Yeah, dude, just seems that
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one's like, seriously one of my favorite songs of year already. Oh thank
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you. Well, so we've been we've been sitting on those songs for two
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years. If you look back at like old Instagram posts, I've put that
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as like the background to some songs, and we just like never, we
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just never put them out. And so a couple of weeks ago, I
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was like, guys, like we gotta get songs into the instant, like
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the Spotify, like algorithm again is next thing, next thing. You know
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you're sitting I mean justin you know, like next thing, you know you're
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sitting there for like two years without a new song coming out, and so
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we're just like start again. So we've we've got like a bunch of these
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remixes slash reimaginings coming out and biting time before we have some real songs.
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So we're stoked. I mean, Brent, Brentony them, producer Johnny made
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the lo Fi one, so we can do that in house. So's that's
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sick. It's a good exercise. Let's le le, let's get that out
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of the way really quick. Justin new music right coming yeah, next year,
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next year, twenty four. So timetable, very very fuzzy. I
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would like to have it out by summer of twenty four. But we'll see,
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we'll see any any anything we could expect to hear on it. This
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is by the way, Yeah, yeah, so idle threat LP two.
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We're gonna do it with Michael palm Quist, probably recording in Nashville and Springfield,
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Missouri. But those are really the only details I can give out like
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right now, we're still putting stuff together right now, but we should start
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recording next month, which I don't know when this is gonna come out,
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but in January of twenty four is when we'll start tracking. So sick Man
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awesome. Yeah, I'm really excited, very very excited for it. It's
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gonna be cool. Love it. Are we ready to do top five albums?
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A right? Top five ep? Austin's been ready for forty minutes.
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Yeah, Austin's stealing over here. Just wait, let's go all right,
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let's start out with top five because we are ranking these so that like our
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number one is truly our favorite album of twenty twenty three, and so we're
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we're actually going to rank these despite what Austin would like. But good thing
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he's not in charge of this podcasts. He can, you know, do
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the Undertaking podcast and make his own rules. But these are the rules of
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the Black Sheep podcast. So Austin, as a Black Sheep, I'm just
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gonna say right now, you should buck the trend and just do all singles.
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Just do what you want. You know, I can, I can
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mute him, and I can't take him off the call, so I'll jugst
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aside. I have I have ranked four albums in one ep in numerical order.
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I hate ranking stuff, and so typically when I do favorite movies,
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favorite albums, like I have a group of college friends who we like kind
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of share what we like. I always do these are my favorite things because
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I think objectively, Like I hate that we're saying like your number one was
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better than my number one, because there's like no way to actually rank them
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unless Justin and I both share the same number two. Rank your favorite wife?
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No are you mom? I only have one exactly, justin, what's
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your your fifth favorite album of twenty twenty three? So I gave you creative
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license to do singles and you're all of a sudden taking over the podcast?
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No no, no, no, no, no, Mason, proceed justin,
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what's your fifth favorite album of twenty twenty three? Uh? So I'm
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just gonna go against the grain as well. I'm gonna give you my number
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four first. So my fourth, my fourth favorite record that came out this
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year was Fallout Boys Return Well return quote unquote record so much for start us
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because they kind of got back to their you know, pop punk sounds.
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I don't know, did you guys listen to it at all? Are y'all?
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Fall Boy fans. No, I I haven't been a teenage girl for
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probably low blow. That's justin justin. You and I have not spent like
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a ton of time together, but based on like our online personalities, I
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feel like we have a lot of music like crossover and movie crossover. So
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yes, despite the two people that are above us in this video, Grid,
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Uh yeah, I am familiar with the fallout Boy album and it was
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good. Like what did you like about it, Austin? I think it
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was more closer to the early fallout Boy stuff than it was their newer where
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it got more pop, but it got more pop centric and now it's a
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little bit more of the I don't know if you'd classify them as emo,
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but yeah, they they played like actual instruments again, like that was nice.
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So yeah, And like I mean, I I've always been a massive
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fall up Boy fan. I kind of fell off after Save rock and Roll,
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so I've been waiting for this record to come out for like years.
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But like, I wouldn't even be playing drums if it wasn't for Andy Hurley
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and I just you know, I love Patrick Stump's voice. Their their lyrical
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work has always been fun. I'll try not to gush too much about this
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record since you guys and listen to it. Question though, you know,
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what is what the meme of everyone's saying they can't understand what he's saying in
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the lyrics. I mean sometimes I don't know. Maybe it's something with like
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I'm not a vocalist. I don't I don't know, like the you know,
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actual turns or whatever, but it does sound like he like kind of
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mush mouths some things. I've never I've always been able to understand what he's
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saying. I've never understood why people like dog on him about that because I
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don't understand him. It's way better than like ninety of the music that I
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listened to, at least right where some people just yelling where you can't understand
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anything at all, you know, like I would rather have Patrick Stumpy and
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like, oh, you know the whole time, But you know that's just
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me. Yeah, I don't know. Like if y'all haven't heard that record
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or anybody listening, go check it out. You might not like it,
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But I don't know. It's kind of getting getting back to the old days
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of foul Boy playing actual pop punk music, and I don't know, I
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really enjoyed it. Sick man, all right, love it, I dig
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it. That was your number four? All right? Yeah, number four.
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I mean this is gonna screw me up. But yeah, what's your
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numbers start at number four? Well I'm not I want to know why Justin
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started at number four and not number five, because because he is a black
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sheep. Yeah, we are playing by our own rules. This is the
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Undertaking Podcast. Okay, welcome to episode one of the Undertaking Podcasts. My
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name is Austin and that you're joining me today is Justin from Idol Threads.
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You gotta have you gotta have a model. This is the Undertaking Podcast,
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putting the fun back into funeral. That's right, my number five. I
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have a hard time ranking stuff, like I said, so my what I
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what I categorize with all the stuff I listened to Because if something comes out
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and like Red Herring posts about it and stay with the scene post about it,
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you guys post about something, I try to listen to it. So
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I'm consuming like a lot of music, but a lot of what I try
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to put on my list is stuff that I listened to on repeat, or
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an album when it ended and it started over again, like I was okay,
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just like letting it play. And so that's kind of where I'm at
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on my list, is like at the end of an at an end of
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an album, because I'm I'm thirty six, so I still prefer to listen
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to an album one through ten or one through eleven, like that's just the
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experience that I like. And so yeah, if an album ends, an
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album ends, and it starts over again, and I'm like, oh,
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that's like, I'll like keep going. So my number five was a band
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called mouth Breather. It's an album called self Tape. You'll see from my
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two heavy bands that I have on here, like I want more distortion and
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I want I'm always chasing a little bit of like the Chariot. I want
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that feeling again. And I think there's a lot of music that I don't
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like that I've listened to this year, and so I'm under the opinion that
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metalcore has gotten a little bit too produced again and a little bit too polished
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and a little too clean, and so mouth Breather is one of those bands
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where they turned the gain up. They turned everything just step to like eleven,
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and so if you check them out, they're very chaotic, they're very
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noisy. They have two singers or they have they're vocalists and then a vocalist
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on guitar, and they're always kind of pinging back and forth. And this
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is a good album, so super. I think they're a newer band like
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the last couple of years. I'm not super familiar with them, but mouth
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breather great are they Are they American? I have not heard them before.
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Yeah, I don't know where they're from, but they're from I think the
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East Coast somewhere or Midwest. They're on Fourth Right. They're with Fourth Right
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Booking, and they yeah, they're sick. They too, are all over
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the place, but cool. Check them out. Yeah, I remember when
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you mentioned in our group text that this was a band that you're going to
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have on your list. I was. I looked them up really quick,
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and I was like, oh, this kind of reminds me of Jesus Peace
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in terms of the like just kee energy, but but also like yeah that
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like they've kind of got their own style to it as well, which their
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vocalists sound. It's like they found sound similar. I checked out the Jesus
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Piece album spoiler Alert. Yeah. Yeah, but their vocalists kind of have
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that same tone. I love that. Yeah, I dig it. I
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mean it was like I could totally see why at certain points in Undertaking's music
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you would also hear some mouth breathing stuff because like, yeah, the chaos,
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the the the rawness of it was great. Whenever I hear the word
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mouth breather, all I can think of is uh uh the movie Deliverance.
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You guys ever seen that, you know, like doing bands or whatever.
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One of the guys like that you had a bird in mouth. I don't
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know what it is. It reminds me of Justin Jones, like wanting you
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to squeal like a pig. Oh boy, here we go. All right,
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are you ready for our top five color? Do you want me to
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go first? I'll go first. You can always go last. That's that's
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a good way to do. It's fine last, She'll be first. Mine
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is Omni Part one from Project eighty six. They're They're great. I kind
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of fell off the Project eighty six bandwagon a while ago. This record is
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a massive departure from the earlier stuff, way way way heavier, super thematic.
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It has a lot of really interesting themes that I think are pertinent to
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today and tomorrow and the future and everything like that. Andrew Schraub definitely like
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goes to the next level in terms of like a vocalist as well as a
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songwriter. I think it's it's definitely something to look for to look for and
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listen to if you haven't yet this year, and then part two is coming
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out soon, so not to mention it's like a whole like multimedia experience,
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which is definitely something to check out as well. Loved it, great stuff
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it was. I mean it's it's got to be their best album for the
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last fifteen years. I think it's I would argue it's been would I would
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argue it's their best album so far. I mean, there's an argument to
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be made about that, but certainly at least like the last fifteen years,
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it's got to be easy their best. It's so so heavy. It probably
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their heaviest album that they've ever done. And you know a lot of people
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start, you know, thinking about like drying black Lines and you know,
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like there's songs that Burned Bridges too or whatever it was called Spy Hunter,
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like some of the heavier stuff from there that timeframe, and it's so good.
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But the riffs and just the heaviness of this album is uncanny. And
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also, can we just mention I was just watching furnace Fest kind of like
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moments and so I was watching the Project eighty six furnace Fest show and he
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was just Andrew was literally in the crowd, like crowdsurfing the entire time.
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Yeah, you look, you look possessed up there too. It was awesome.
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It was great. I don't know if you guys know they've played two
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bands after us on the main they did. Yeah, that's right. That
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might be part of the reason that I love the experience so much is because
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I gotta see the undertaking beforehand. It was like a wonderful appetizer, great
17:04
main course, you know, I was. I was really happy to see.
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I was really happy to see that you guys put Project eighty six on
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your list because this album is sick, co written by a lot of the
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guys in Norma Jean and you can hear those impouns is like crazy. So
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it kind of came through the under chat of like the undertaking text thread was
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like, have you guys listened to this new Project eighty six album? Like
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it's heavy and that's like that's so cool. You can get it all right.
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My fifth favorite album of the year was Silent Planets Super Bloom, a
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band that you know has been a friend of the podcast that you know we
17:44
all love. Garrett. Just Silent Planet's such a sick band. They just
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keep figuring out ways to like make their sound a little different and also make
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incredibly catchy but heavy shit. I mean just there are moments in this album
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where it's like some of the popular stuff you would ever hear from Silent Planet,
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but also there's moments where it's like, this is literally the heaviest thing
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I've ever heard Silent Planet ever do, and they're just able to figure that
18:07
out in such interesting ways. The whole album is basically like Conspiracy Theories,
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which I love as well. So I just everything about it is like so
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Silent Planet. It's so good. I feel like they're just one of those
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bands that keeps getting better and better with each album, and yeah, super
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Boom is another step in the right direction for them. Yeah, I agree,
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Yeah. I So what's really funny about that is I think the first
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time I got to sit down and like listen to it, I was like
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working. I put it on the background, and there was there was like
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and you guys will know what I'm talking about. There was a couple songs
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I'm like, am I listening today? Seeker? And then like I would
18:47
like, you know, kind of be doing something and then I'm like,
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did I put my suga on? Like what? Like what is going on?
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But dude, Silent Planet has always been one of my favorite bands,
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and like especially Alex's drum. I think that guy is just an absolute unit
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behind the drum set and I wish to be a fraction of talented as he
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is. But this record is absolutely killer. I know, like a lot
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of people on the internet have been like kind of back and forth on all
19:18
that, but this record is maybe my favorite from them so far. Yeah,
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I think Mason and I would agree because we've we've always liked son Planet,
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but we've never been like at that like super fandom where we're like,
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oh my gosh, this is this is like a seminal record. This one
19:37
is that in my opinion, I think Mason will probably agree with that as
19:40
well. Yeah, it's it's again. I think it's their best in their
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discography, and I would have thought about that in their last album too,
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like they just seem to get better with every album. They're so good,
19:52
sweet right, top five there or the fifth one? Now, let's get
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to four or maybe five for you justin where were you going? So here
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here on the Undertaking podcast, I'm gonna do my number one written I'm just
20:08
kidding, I'll do my number five. So my my number five is actually
20:14
Miley cyruses uh in lists of her vacation and she's the most talented pop artists
20:21
out there right now, dog, I don't get me started, but she
20:26
I think she absolutely gives people a run for their money. Miley can sing
20:33
her ass off and then I don't know, like, I just think her
20:38
whole circle is so like talented. I would love to argue about this later
20:44
for anybody who hears this, and it's like Miley sorry sucks, but like
20:48
Endless Summer Vacation is phenomenal. I'm assuming that you guys have at least heard
20:52
the singles on it. Dude, that's the best song that came out this
20:59
year. I'm not kidding, like like dead serious, that was the best
21:02
single that dropped in twenty three. Heard it everywhere that that flower that could
21:07
exactly you can't and like I didn't hate that. Like sometimes I hear pop
21:12
songs and like, you know, you hear it a million times in the
21:15
grocery store and like at work and you know whatever, in your car.
21:19
But like every time I heard Flowers, I'd be like, this song is
21:22
so good. So I don't know, man, Like I think I heard
21:26
that it was the fastest song to a billion streams ever deservedly, so I
21:32
could see I will die on this hill, so so good. The reason
21:37
I left for a moment. My wife loves reminding me of this. Miley
21:42
Cyrus and I are birthday buddies. We have really nice and so like the
21:48
same day, like that born on the same day, same day, within
21:52
an hour of each other. So my wife loves reminding me of this,
21:57
and she knows that I'm not like the biggest minds IRUs man. She uh.
22:02
She got me this birthday card, oh my god. But the problem
22:08
was that you forgot to like customize it so it says happy Birthday, Ashley.
22:18
So this comes in the mail, I'm like, who the fuck is
22:21
Ashley? Oh my gosh, it's Miley Cyrus. Yeah, I know,
22:29
you just gave me the best idea, and you're gonna get a text from
22:32
me later where I'm gonna take that rolling Stone like pin upset that Miley did
22:37
earlier this year, and I'm gonna photoshop your face on her naked body.
22:44
Yes, justin this is this is the time to tell you I am Miley
22:49
Cyrus. I knew it. I knew it, like the whole hand of
22:52
Montana thing. I knew it was you. What would that pose? That
23:03
was? Right? This is my Miley Cyrus post. Yeah, it's great
23:07
that it is great. It's basically her right. No, you know,
23:12
I'm with you on that. I didn't get super into that album, but
23:15
I'm just so impressed that she can do like the rock and roll stuff that
23:18
she can, she can be a pop artist. I feel like, I
23:21
feel like coming from her background is like a child star, Like there's so
23:25
many opportunities for her to fail and for her to kind of like slowly morphed
23:29
into this like Dolly Parton, like the next Dolly Parton. They they made
23:34
music together and stuff like. I just think that's so cool, especially in
23:38
like the pop world. That's got to be so hard to navigate success and
23:42
to stay at that level for so long, because I feel like every force
23:48
is like trying to crush her. Yeah right, you know. She actually
23:52
she gained a lot of street crewd with me when she started doing like a
23:56
whole bunch of like songs and stuff like that with the Flaming Lips, which
24:00
I thought was super cool. I don't know. She was friends with like
24:06
Wayne Coin through a mutual friend, and they ended up doing like some collaboration.
24:10
That part was like really really sick music together. That's what I'm saying,
24:15
right Like I So, the only like Miley story that I have was
24:19
there was one time my friend Cole and I we went to eighth and Roaston,
24:23
Nashville, and this was when Idol had gotten our last round of masters
24:30
from Blurred Visions, and he I took him to my car and I was
24:33
like showing him our new music and we ended up just you know, having
24:37
a little like CarJam or whatever. And Miley and whoever was with her got
24:42
out of a tesla like next to us. What yeah, And I got
24:47
like a you know, and I was like, dude, this is the
24:51
this is the coolest thing. Did you get out and tell her to like
24:53
to listen to Idle threat? You know? That could have changed the course
24:59
of our career, and I didn't do it, So missed opportunity. Miss
25:06
missed opportunity there, dude, you miss all the shots you don't take,
25:10
that's for sure. Yeah, Jesus, Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott, all
25:15
right, Austin number four. My number four album this year was The Sin
25:21
of Human Frailty by End then A big fan of that supergroup for a bit,
25:27
and it's just one of those albums, Like I said that when I
25:30
would put it on, I'd end up listening to it like two or three
25:33
times on repeat because you kind of just get into the zone. They experimented
25:38
a little bit with their sound where there are a couple songs like a little
25:41
bit more like a nine inch nail type of industrial five, which I wasn't
25:45
as big of a fan of when that single dropped, but I think in
25:48
the context of an album it fit really well, and I'm just a big
25:52
fan of like their sloppy somehow sloppy yet tight breakdowns that they can like hit
25:59
such like a heavy heavy note general note, not like specific note, but
26:06
also have something that's like concise and tight, like it's not it doesn't go
26:10
like off the rails. And then I'm just like mind blown by the fact
26:14
that is it Brandan the counterpart singer and singer is the same guy, and
26:19
he can make his voice sound so differently. It's really cool. I like
26:23
that album a lot. The vinyl record is so sick to have you guys
26:26
seen it? No, oh, it's it's die cut. So when you
26:33
pull it out, it's like a guy with like his open chest cavity,
26:36
and when you pull it out, like each let layer is like another layer
26:40
of his body. It's it's just so they like put effort into the packaging.
26:45
Yeah, so I am totally on board with that. Yeah. I
26:49
wonder if Jason's net has has seen that yet. I bet he has.
26:55
If yeah, he would, he would lose his mind over it. My
27:03
number four is mirror Land by Rada, which is Peter Espibal's side project.
27:11
I guess you could say because now he's back an X toll again, which
27:14
is badass. But Krata is it is atmospheric and beautiful and just really really
27:22
comforting. I listened to it way more often than I thought I would.
27:29
Initially, Like when he first started coming out with some music, I was
27:32
like, this is good, but I wasn't like blown away by it,
27:36
and then as time went on, I was like, this is definitely in
27:40
my heavy rotation. It is so just lush and gorgeous and beautiful, and
27:45
I just I want to listen to it all the time, especially like when
27:48
I'm when I'm reading, I'll have it on in the background, or if
27:52
I'm driving at night, I'll listen to it. I love it. It's
27:56
great for that that album, it's so unique, you know, you know,
28:00
yeah, I've never heard anything like it. Yeah, you don't really
28:03
get anything quite like it. And also Peter is just like the coolest guy,
28:07
like the next guy ever. I want him to be to be my
28:11
dad. That's great. Yeah, I'm thinking about our interview with him where
28:18
it's like literally the fjord in the background. Yeah, he's just hanging out
28:21
on his deck. He's like showing us all of his like smoking, like
28:25
it's like brisket smoking set up and everything. He's gotta gone hold on,
28:29
hold on. So this is my new best friend, is what I'm hearing.
28:33
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Not only was he a legendary extle,
28:37
but he also is like a Norwegian gentleman who lives along the banks of
28:41
a fjord and smokes meats on his deck. It's great, it's wonderful living
28:48
right, Yeah, you know it. He can do it because he's got
28:52
free healthcare out there. I don't know what that is anything to do with
28:56
smoking meats. I think the best bookers of meats in the entire world have
29:02
never seen the inside of a hospital, so that might be the case,
29:07
all right. My number four is an artist that like, I never really
29:12
got into before, and then I heard this album and I was like,
29:17
oh, like, I get it now. And they've been a big metal,
29:19
kind of big heavy artist for a few years, but I never really
29:23
quite got them until this album. But that is Code Oranges the Above.
29:30
Such a sick album. There are so many moments in that album where you're
29:33
like, this is Lincoln Park new metal stuff, and then you hear some
29:37
breakdowns where it's like, this is one of the heaviest breakdowns I've ever heard
29:41
in my life, and you get all of it. You get Billy Corgan
29:45
on this album, and then you also get just like literally face melting kind
29:49
of breakdowns and you just get all of it. It's so well done.
29:53
I can see why, Like they're one of those bands where I'm like,
29:56
I don't understand why they are so big in that world, like why they're
30:02
able to get some of the biggest shows in the heavy music world. Now
30:04
I get it. It makes sense to me now and this album solidified that
30:08
for me. So that's my number four dude. So Code Orange Kids and
30:14
then when they change their name to Code Orange, Love is Love, Return
30:18
to Dust and then I'm king are two of my favorite like heavy records of
30:22
all time. And then after they did Underneath, like they kind of fell
30:27
off for me, but they're just out there killing it. And I admittedly
30:32
I as of right now while we're recording this, I haven't listened to the
30:34
new record yet, but I've only heard good things and I think you just
30:38
sold me on it. So I'm gonna check it out after this and get
30:41
back with you. Yeah, I think again. I don't listen to a
30:45
lot of the earlier stuff. I know, like how heavy it was.
30:48
Do you get that? And you get some of these like really interesting kind
30:52
of new metal kind of iterations of what Code Orange can do. It's really
30:57
fascinating how they're able to meld it all together. I love it. It's
31:02
so good. Justin you were actually the one that kind of solidified it for
31:06
me, because I so for me, band names is a big thing where
31:08
I won't listen to a band if their band name sucks. It's like it's
31:12
like the first like barrier of entry, right. You and I hate the
31:17
name code Orange. I think it's terrible. And you you were telling me
31:21
about cod Orange and I was like, all right, I'll give it a
31:22
look, and I was like, oh shit, this is actually really fucking
31:26
good. So thank you for uh for turning me onto them justin that's all
31:30
you, baby, I turn you on in many ways, not just album
31:37
multiple not just yeah that's right, all right, justin number three? Yeah,
31:44
oh careful with the with lifting your sleeve there. Oh sorry, Oh
31:48
I'm still in my underwear by the way, show it, but prove it,
31:52
prove it. No balls, none, I mean none. So you
32:06
and me both duddy my number three record and this one, I will say
32:14
my top three has been kind of interchangeable. But as of right now,
32:17
number three for me is uh, Citizens calling the Dogs. And I don't
32:23
know if you guys fuck with Citizen or if anybody listening is, but just
32:28
absolutely love that band. Matt Correki's is one of my favorite like frontman and
32:35
lyricists and vocalists. You're talking about Adam's band, No so Citizen, Yeah,
32:46
we'll skip over that. So their new record, it's just like there's
32:53
like some pop influence there and like, to me, like you can tell
32:58
that they just with bands like Ceremony and like Ceremony is one of my very
33:04
favorite bands. But there's like some poppy stuff on this new Citizen record.
33:07
There's like I don't know, like there's some songs like this could have been
33:12
straight out of the seventies, you know, but Matt just like went off
33:17
on vocals and it's just like super fun and like I don't know, there's
33:22
like slower songs, there's sad songs, there's upbeat songs. Like there's there
33:25
anything a Citizens fan would want, it's in there. But then also like
33:30
I got to see them on their ten year anniversary of Youth and they were
33:36
playing some of these new songs before they came out, and I remember I
33:39
was up in Boston with my partner and we saw these shows. We heard
33:44
those new songs for the first time, and I was like, this record
33:46
is either gonna be like their best or it's gonna be just like completely out
33:52
in left field. And before it came out, I saw a couple of
33:54
interviews where Matt was just like, Yeah, this record is meant to be
33:58
heard like in a live set. I hope it translates. So like listening
34:01
to the record, I understand why some people are like, oh, it's
34:05
fine, but like they just toured on it, and like the songs are
34:09
just so fun. Like I've seen a lot of bands like put out killer
34:14
records and then you see them live and like they're just not having fun on
34:17
stage or like you can tell they're just like a recorded band, and like
34:22
that's not how I'm wired. I'm much more of a live music person.
34:25
So like seeing this record live and like really getting to experience those songs.
34:30
The way that they wrote them was just so much fun. And I do
34:34
think it. I think it's their best record. It's not my favorite from
34:37
them, but it's their best. So check out the new Citizen record calling
34:43
the Dogs awesome. What's your number three album of the year. Well,
34:46
again, I have a hard time with list and I hate that I'm always
34:50
like a well actually and so well, actually, I just watched the thing
34:59
with Will Forte that Will Forte can't do a Christopher walk In impersonation. Funny
35:05
story side notes. So this is these are kind of tangentially connected. The
35:08
National put out two albums this year which were great, and so I don't
35:14
have room for both of those, but they had like Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor
35:17
Swift sang on it. Bon and Vert was on those and I am just
35:21
such a huge fan of The National. And so I've talked on this podcast
35:23
before, and I've talked before that two of my biggest influences in my songwriting
35:28
and how I approach lyrics are The National and Soupion Stevens. And so this
35:31
year my number three, probably my number one, I'm not really sure,
35:36
Like I feel like in the future it'll be like my favorite album of the
35:37
year is I had Soufion Stevens javelin which Garrion Lowell is my favorite album probably
35:45
of all time. It came out at like the right time my wife and
35:47
I My wife and I saw him at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego.
35:52
So it was one of those like transcendent experiences. I'm pretty sure I've talked
35:54
about this on this podcast specifically because I think we've had this conversation. So
35:59
when Soupyon do his like kind of more pulled back and scaled back songwriting,
36:04
that just like strikes me in an emotional core that few things kind of can.
36:08
And so you get this album, which I think is great. So
36:14
anyways, I'm a huge Soup Beyond fan, ben a fan of his since
36:16
he started doing his state albums and all that kind of stuff, And yeah,
36:20
when you get this type of Soupyan, that's like, that's like a
36:24
direct hit to my my being. Yeah, which then, on that note,
36:32
is an interesting year even for like movies, because this year in movies,
36:36
you had a Christopher Nolan film, you had a Scorsese's film, you
36:39
had like a Sophia Coppola film, like all these like amazing You had a
36:43
Wes Anderson film, Like all these amazing directors came out with their movies this
36:46
year, which I think is a product of COVID kind of pushing things back.
36:50
And then all of this year there you go, yeah, Ridley Scott,
36:53
like I'm saying, like all these great actor directors came out with stuff,
36:58
and I think the same thing a little bit happened with music where you
37:00
ended up with just a ton of great albums. And I don't know if
37:04
that's because of COVID it kind of pushed things back, but it just seemed
37:07
like this year, a lot of bands that I love like put out music
37:13
or put out something and so yeah, anyways, Sufion Stevens like the crossair
37:16
of what cuts to my heart. I'm a massive Sufyon fan that hit this
37:22
album narrowly like it would be in my honorable mentions. It's it's just an
37:28
incredible album. What I love about this album is it feels so like it
37:32
was released in such a Sufian way because he announced that the album was coming
37:37
out and then also announced that he almost died this last year, and then
37:44
like the week that the album comes out, his partner died. Yeah,
37:49
And not only did he announce that, like his partner died, it basically
37:52
like meant that he came out of the closet, which a lot of people
37:55
had been speculating for years. It was just like all of this felt like
37:59
the most Soufyon way of all of this to happen. And Uh, anyway,
38:04
unbelievable album and also just came out in like such a weirdly Soufyon way
38:07
for it to come out. I wasn't gonna get into that kind of stuff,
38:10
but I yeah, Mason, I appreciate you mentioned that because that like
38:14
informs a lot of like the context behind the album and it's such a good
38:17
storyteller. Yeah, for sure. One of the things I love about him
38:22
is that he's like an enigma, right he uh he. He doesn't do
38:24
interviews, he doesn't like talk to people. Really, he doesn't like put
38:29
himself out there. He doesn't have a big social media presence. He's just
38:31
Soufian. He's aim still uses Tumblr. He's just a personality that shows through
38:39
the music and pretty much the music only. And I love that. Yeah,
38:43
that's that's him through and through. Yeah, he's Yeah, he's an
38:45
interesting figure. But yeah, yeah, unbelievable album. Yeah, Javelin's in
38:49
my Honorable Mentions as well. So, uh my number three is Ugly Pretty.
38:55
It is an EP. It's the only EP I've ever put on a
39:00
top five list. Now. The Undertaking has an EP this year that was
39:04
on my Honorable Mentions. It just narrowly missed it. But bad Christian Comma
39:09
music is the EP name. Ugly Pretty is the band. This is an
39:14
up and coming band. This is It's ten minutes of music, but it's
39:17
ten minutes of some of the best music I've ever heard in my life.
39:22
If it was an album, I guarantee you it'd be my number one of
39:24
this year. It is. It's everything that we all love about music.
39:30
It's hardcore at times, it's emo at times, it's it's it's like singer
39:37
songwriter beautiful at times like it's it's everything wrapped in ten minutes. I don't
39:44
know how it's possible, but this guy did it. It's the most surprising
39:46
piece of music I have heard in a long long time. It's just I'm
39:52
really glad that he's making music. So that's that's my number three. Mason
39:58
disappeared. Probably want to go get a drink. Neither of you guys have
40:02
heard Ugly Pretty yet. Yeah, I've gotta listened to him today. You'd
40:07
listen to him to what do you think? First listen? I thought it
40:10
was cool. Like I said, I asked for your guys this top five
40:14
so I could like at least just hear a couple of songs and it was
40:15
sure. It was sure like it was it was a lot like like I
40:19
was surprised at how short the songs were and it was just like, oh,
40:22
this is this is cool? Yeah, uh Mason, your number three.
40:27
My number three is a band that I think was in my top five
40:32
a couple of years ago. They had an EP, so it was one
40:36
of those EP's that somehow snuck in, but they had an EP that was
40:39
like immediately like this is incredible. It's like emo, there's scream o,
40:44
there's like pop punk. It just kind of has all these really cool elements.
40:47
But the band is called Home Is Where, and they had their first
40:50
full length called The Whaler. It just again it does pop punk, scream
40:54
o, emo, all of those things combined in such an incredible way.
41:00
I love it. I mean I just everything about it. There's catchy parts
41:02
to it, there's the heavy stuff to it. Just everything about it is
41:06
incredible. And they're also one of those bands that are so good at like
41:09
the marketing in terms of like being kind of a meme band, and they
41:14
just nail that so well. So anyway, Home Is Where so good.
41:17
I can't I can't recommend enough Home Is Aware to anyone that's interested in any
41:22
of that kind of music. Absolutely, I one hundred percent agree with you,
41:27
Mason. So anyway, that's my number three, justin you're number one,
41:32
let's go number one. Why not number one now right? I don't
41:36
like that number two. You have been heavily vetoed here on the Undertaking podcast.
41:44
So my number two is probably my number one. But I just I
41:53
keep flip flopping, like I said, like my top three are just interchangeable.
41:58
But my number two as of right now is Rustin Kelly's the Weakness.
42:02
And I could probably talk about this record for a long time, but I'll
42:07
spare you. But I think this record is by far his best, but
42:13
I don't know, like there's just something so special about it. Like my
42:16
second favorite song that came out this year was Holy Shit, But like I
42:22
don't know, this record is just very passionate. Like obviously it's about his
42:25
breakup with Casey Musgraves, but like it's just very real, Like a lot
42:30
of breakup records are just like, you know, kind of like a you
42:32
know, oh I'm so sad, like you know, I'm gonna, you
42:36
know, deal with this this way, blah blah blah. It's just like
42:38
very surface level. But this one is just like it gets into the nitty
42:43
gritty of like breaking up with somebody that you love. And I don't know
42:46
if you guys, or if anybody that has or is listening to this or
42:52
whatever has heard this record, but you absolutely should go check it out.
42:55
There's slow songs in it, there's more poppy songs in it, songs that
43:00
make me feel like I'm watching a movie from the nineties. I'm just a
43:04
really, really big fan of Rustin Kelly's songwriting and his voice, and I
43:07
think that the passion really bleeds through the audio interiors on this one. So
43:15
yeah, so something that's interesting. But I've never heard of Rustin Kelly but
43:19
the fact that he was dating Casey Musgraves is enough for me. I'm interested.
43:24
I'm gonna go listen. So they were they were married. Yeah,
43:30
And this is probably not true and it's a hot take, but I loved
43:37
Casey Musgrave's Golden Hour and I beautiful record. I have such a speculation that
43:45
Rustin I don't know if it's true. I haven't looked at the liner notes
43:47
or anything, but I feel like he heavily influenced her ghost wrote that record
43:52
because when she did Starcross or whatever, it just like did not hold a
43:58
Candle to Golden Hour and Rustin Kelly is just such a great songwriter and storyteller,
44:05
and like, you know, this record's so raw. I know somebody
44:07
else in this is gonna carry carry this, but I don't know. It's
44:12
just like he just like really laid it all out for everybody to hear,
44:16
like his side of everything, and I just fucking loved it, sick man.
44:21
All right, I'm gonna check it out. I'm right there with you,
44:23
justin. I think it's probably my favorite album of this year because I
44:27
went back and I listened to it just a bunch, And so my number
44:31
two album on my list is rust and Kelly The Weakness, right, And
44:35
so it's the closest I feel like we've gotten to, like an old dashboard
44:39
confessional album that's a good comparison, masked with a little bit more folk influence.
44:49
And so that was the artist, the Tiniest Man Alive. I'm trying,
44:52
I can't remember what he was called. It was a Tiniest Man Alive.
44:57
I think it was the artist. And there's some songs where it's just
44:59
Rusting Kelly on his like banjo doing stuff that's like real broken down. If
45:02
you are listening to this, just pull up the song. First song on
45:07
the album is called The Weakness, and it's got one of my favorite lines
45:09
on the pod and like the whole year that I've heard. And then the
45:14
song Michael Keaton probably has the best chorus. Yes, so wait wait wait
45:19
wait wait wait, Michael Keaton is on the album. No, the song
45:23
title is Michael Keaton. Although you have to hear this record, it's so
45:30
good. All right, I'm checking it out. You guys have sold me
45:34
earlier. That's what I was saying, justin in my music taste, I
45:36
think I'm I'm a little bit more pop driven than I appear to be.
45:39
But this album just like so so Brent the drummer and the undertaking will send
45:44
me The Weakness when it came out as a single, and we're like freaking
45:46
out about this song. And I've talked about this guy before, but it
45:50
turns out like our good childhood friend Nate merco produced and co wrote this album.
45:57
That's so pull up. It's one of those things where like we look
46:00
at the credit of something and you're like, wow, this, like Lizzo's
46:02
song is so sick. It's like, oh, Nate wrote it. Wow,
46:07
that's a surprise, and so it happens warm Nate. Nate was the
46:10
guitarist on the Andre three thousand Fluid album that just oh really wow. Yeah,
46:16
and so he is like he used to be in like very early two
46:21
thousand and five Undertaking, he was a guitarist in the band, and obviously
46:24
he's like surpassed us in every way. But like, aside from that,
46:29
from our connection to the album, like it was one of those we fell
46:30
in love with first and then we were like, oh, our friend helped
46:34
write this song, which is so bizarre. But yeah, it's great,
46:37
that's cool. I could go on forever about it, but that's really it's
46:40
the closest it's the closest I've found to the old Dashboard Confessional Vibe that I
46:45
grew up in like two thousand and four, two thousand and five listening to.
46:51
So what only question we can move on? You said your favorite line
46:54
is from that first song? Is it fuck that guy he's just a piece
46:58
of shit. Yes, it's so good. It's so good. It's just
47:05
such a it's a real feeling, man, Like I know that you guys
47:09
all, y'all have been through breakups and stuff before. I'm assuming it's like
47:14
you see that person that you used to love and they're with somebody else or
47:16
whatever. You might not even care. You might be with somebody else and
47:20
you're happy, but you see that other person, you're like, fuck that
47:22
dude. It just encapsulates it perfectly. Like this record is so good.
47:29
I get that. I get that from Lona del Rey Records. I'm an
47:34
unabashed Lona del Rey fan, and every once in a while she throws on
47:38
a line like, goddamn, man, child, you fuck me so good.
47:43
I almost said I love you, Like that's like you, that's fucking
47:45
brilliant. That's brilliant. It reminds me of that for some reason. Awesome.
47:51
You only have a couple of minutes left, So do you want to
47:52
do your two and number one? Uh? Yeah, sure one. Justin
48:00
says, this is a hard hour. Were like going for like one hour,
48:02
and like we started recording like twenty minutes later than the start time because
48:07
we're just jatting. So I know, because we love each other, we're
48:10
bro No I need I need to schedule like three hours next. Yeah,
48:16
that's right. My Number one of the year was better lovers. God made
48:22
me an animal. I love everything involved in their like everything involved in this
48:30
band. Dyllinger is great. Every Time I Die is great, and what
48:32
they've created now is great. This is the second time that Will Putney has
48:37
popped up on my list as well, so obviously a huge influence on me.
48:43
But yeah, I I this album is phenomenal. My kids are trying
48:46
to break into the room right now, by the way. Oh yeah,
48:50
yeah, come here, come here, come here, come here. Let's
48:54
ask what's their favorite album? Was my daughter needs a costume? This?
49:00
This is ivy. What's your favorite album of the year? Baby Shark or
49:07
Blue bab Baby Shark, Baby Shark? Okay, going mama. It's like
49:17
they're scaremys on the internet. Scamy. Uh, that hasn't happened. That's
49:31
not on my list. Wish is great. But I got to see them
49:37
at Furnace Fast. I missed them when they came to Southern California, but
49:40
that was amazing. I love what those guys do creatively. It's a huge,
49:45
huge fan of that album or EP. And then they came out with
49:49
another single that is phenomenal. So just again one of those things that like
49:52
cut straight to my core. That was definitely one of the big surprises of
49:55
the year, and I was super ecstatic about it. I'm just waiting for
50:00
an album I'm so stoked for. Yeah, I cannot wait. I'll be
50:07
right there on the pre order. Yep. My song of the year was
50:13
What Was I Made For? By Billie Eilish. By the way, is
50:15
this your number one? Is this your number one album? Is the song?
50:20
No? No, I'm just telling you my favorite song of the year.
50:22
I love it, I love My number one album was Better Lovers.
50:27
But the best song that I heard this year was what Was I Made For?
50:30
And she just performed it on What Was Your Number? Two? Oh,
50:36
okay, okay, just checking. I was yeah, I just I
50:38
just went straight into with Justin. But my song of the year was what
50:43
Was I Made For? She just performed it on SNL and her and Phineas
50:46
crushed it, and yeah, big, big, big pop guy. So
50:50
just a huge fan of that kind of stuff. I was having this conversation
50:52
with a friend the other night. We were talking about artists that are going
50:58
to last into the next couple of generations, and like, there's there's a
51:01
lot of artists right now that aren't going to last in the next couple of
51:05
generations. But like you hear about like the nineties, or you think about
51:07
the nineties for a second and you think about like as a bass as a
51:09
base not last into today, like no one remembers asa base and be like
51:14
that was a great band, but they were big sellers. But then Mariah
51:17
Carey was right today, who is the band or who is the artist that
51:22
is going to last into generations to come? Do you think it's Billy i
51:27
Eilish, Miley Cyrus, Okay Mayas Cyrus, I said Taylor Swift for sure?
51:34
For sure? Paramore. I think Paramore will. I think so really
51:39
feel like they won't. I feel like they won't. I think they have
51:42
like enough diversity in their music and like but still like a lot of catchiness
51:46
in each In all of that diversity, I think they're going to have some
51:50
staying power, that's fair. I think I think the one that we've already
51:53
missed who has already done that is justin Timberlake. Oh, he's already been
52:00
with us as as a culture since two thousand and one or two maybe before.
52:04
That's the last big record. The suit and Tie was last thing I
52:07
can think of. That was like, have you not watched the Troll movies?
52:13
Yeah, about to say like that song was the biggest move, like
52:15
the biggest songs forever in like twenty seventeen. What song is that? I
52:21
can't stop the feeling? Yeah, and then they just did the in sync
52:24
one with the newest Troll movie that just came out. I just think that
52:29
he's going to continue to adapt. I think Justin Timberlake will be with us
52:32
until he's I think he'll be with us until we are all like seventy or
52:37
dead. Like That's how I feel about Kendrick Lamar. He's also like one
52:43
of my mount rushmer artists. I think I think Kendrick will continue to adapt
52:49
with the times or whatever, and he's just a genius. He said he's
52:53
doing one more record and he's done. Damn. He said, I heard
52:58
that from you. He said he hanging I'm a big Kendrick fan, but
53:00
he said he was hanging it up. No. Yeah, he said he
53:05
wants Austin. You gotta get out. I gotta go, dude. Yeah,
53:08
I gotta god be a dad forever, but yeah, I gotta be.
53:13
My wife's actually headed out. I did not properly allocate three hours to
53:15
this podcast. I love you guys. I hope you have a merry Christmas,
53:21
and I hope you have a happy New Year. Justin Let's tour next
53:23
year. We talked about that, Mason Colon. Love you guys. I
53:30
have nothing to plug except for to listen to the undertaking and idle threat.
53:34
Yeah you got a new AP, you got new merch. There you go.
53:38
I love you guys. Thanks for having be good, be safe?
53:45
All right, we should roast him now that he's gone. Right. What
53:51
a great guy, great great, too good, he's too good, so
53:54
nice, great vocalist, my number two dot dot dot so unknown, Jesus
54:06
Peace. Great record. I have been waiting for this record for a while.
54:10
I like Jesus Peace for a while. This record made me love him.
54:15
I would agree with that dude. I can't remember the lead singer's name
54:21
right now, but his scream is the most terrifying thing I've ever witnessed.
54:30
It's just it's it's like pure aggression. Yes, that's it his his his
54:38
screams is pure aggression. And like vocally, I just I can't get over
54:45
just how it makes me terrified. But also like gets my adrenaline going like
54:52
fight or flight response and I want to fight, you know. Yeah,
54:58
there's stage stage presence. Incredible. Their Hate five six videos are some of
55:01
my favorite things to watch over and over again. The record is incredible.
55:06
I think the art is incredible that goes with the record. Although I think
55:09
it is of the time. I just I think that they're a band that's
55:14
going to become a mainstay in the heavy music world, that is going to
55:17
completely and utterly change the scene for the better. Dude, I totally agree
55:23
that. Like I so, I've always liked Jesus Feast. They they put
55:30
on a hell of a live show, and then I've always loved their graphic
55:32
work, and then I've never really loved them until this record. And I'm
55:38
like, it's just so, it's just brutal. Like, I think it
55:42
does a great job of translating their live show to tape. And if you
55:47
haven't been a Jesus Piece fan before, I think you will be now,
55:53
So check it out if you haven't. I think the record is incredible.
55:59
I I want everyone to listen to it and make it their Jesus Your Turn
56:07
number two, number two. This is a band again, a couple of
56:12
years ago was in my top five with their their album, and they got
56:15
a new album this year and the band is called The Armed and the album
56:20
is called Perfect Saviors. Think of like post hardcore in the best way,
56:24
and also like they have so many fun pop elements to it, I mean,
56:29
just everything about it. And also there's like a million people on the
56:31
album. They're just they have like this constant rotation of different musicians that contribute.
56:37
It's just such an interesting band. I can't really quite get a grasp
56:42
of like what they're trying to do or who they are or whatever. But
56:45
they're just incredible and every album, everything that they make musically is just some
56:50
of my favorite music. And so yeah, they mix in these like really
56:53
interesting pop in electronic elements with like some really heavy, fun post hardcore hardcore
57:00
breakdown stuff. It's just really well done, so good. So anyway,
57:05
I highly recommend The Armed Perfect Saviors. Yeah, that's definitely a record everyone
57:08
needs to check out. It is. Mason showed me The Armed a number
57:13
of years ago, and since then they've been constant rotation for sure. Yeah,
57:19
I often think of them as like imagine if The Chariot had like made
57:22
pop music, yeah, or like folky folky pop music. Yeah, yeah,
57:28
just that's how I think of the Armed, you know, just that
57:30
chaotic nature, but they have these electronic and pop elements to it that are
57:35
just oh that totally works for them. It just really makes sense. I
57:37
think like folk songwriting, pop structure, heavy music all at the same time.
57:45
It's it's a weird combo, but man, they pull it off well,
57:49
it's well done. So that's my number two, justin justin number one,
57:53
baby favorite album of twenty twenty three, let's hear it. So,
57:59
just to build the suspense, I'll go ahead and do my honorable mentions.
58:02
But unless i'll beato that too. Do y'all want to know? We're gonna
58:06
do honorable mentions here in a bit, Okay, I'll save that then I
58:08
didn't know. So my favorite, my favorite record of this year as of
58:15
right now is my most listened to record. That's how I decided this,
58:21
and that's post Malone's often I think this record does a very good job of
58:28
showing people who like post Malone really is as a performer. I think a
58:32
lot of times people just kind of like, oh, like he's like this,
58:36
like funny like kind of grungy white guy doing R and B music and
58:40
like that kind of thing, and I don't know, like that the songwriting
58:45
on this is great. A lot of it, even though it is kind
58:49
of like you know, like lighthearted or whatever, really tackles some like heavy
58:55
situations and like I don't know, like it's it's always so weird but also
59:00
comforting in a way to hear like really sad topics, but like with happy
59:07
music. So and I won't like dive too deep into that, but Post
59:12
Malone really showed his balls on this one because he can sing his ass off
59:15
and it's just like fun to like listen to in the car or at home
59:20
or you know, while you're working or anything like that. So I'm really
59:23
glad that this is a record that has carried his career even a little bit
59:29
further in some ways, because like he even recently he did like an acoustic
59:35
performance of some of these songs that like the Grand ol Opry in Nashville,
59:39
and like, I just I love Post as a performer and I know that
59:44
like he's a big like rock fan and stuff too, but he's one of
59:46
those like pop icons that I hope that he transcends this generation as well,
59:52
because he just he's so talented, and he's so down to earth and just
59:57
I don't know, like he's he's dealing with some shit, but and it's
1:00:00
it's out in the open, and I just have a lot of respect for
1:00:02
that. So yeah, Post One's Austin. It's my favorite record this year.
1:00:08
I would say that this record is definitely on my honorable mentions. I've
1:00:12
never been like a massive Post Wall fan, but I've always respected him,
1:00:15
and I've always liked a few songs here and there. This this record's amazing
1:00:21
through through a lot more instrumentation, like real instrumentation than you otherwise have heard
1:00:25
in the past, and that I really really appreciate. I don't think he
1:00:30
can really do anything wrong. He recently did a cover of Them Bones by
1:00:35
Allison Chains, which is one of the greatest cover That's a hard song to
1:00:39
cover, really a hard song to cover, and he did it beautifully.
1:00:44
Big fan, big fan. I want him to do a country record so
1:00:47
bad. And he has done some covers of country songs, right, yeah,
1:00:53
so he has, but I want him to do like an original country
1:01:00
record because I have a feeling he would just like Johnny Cash that ship and
1:01:05
it would be awesome. I think he should David Bowie trajectory his career where
1:01:10
he just does something different on every album becomes album. He's the kind of
1:01:16
guy I can do it. He could pull it off, and he would
1:01:19
pull so many people into new genres that they've never even thought about trying out,
1:01:23
you know, totally. Like I know he's like he's he's teased to
1:01:28
doing the country record, but he's also like like did y'all see where like
1:01:32
him? And like doja cat and like some people were like joking about starting
1:01:36
like a hardcore band and stuff, and I was like, dude, I
1:01:38
would love that, Like do it, let me, let me see it.
1:01:43
Put put all of that like in the mainstream, and like I don't
1:01:45
know, like just play around with stuff and have fun. That's what music's
1:01:49
for, you know, love post alone. But yeah, yeah, yeah,
1:01:54
yeah, what's your number one? My number one is Life on to
1:02:00
the Gun by Military Gun. This this band is sick man. Like they
1:02:07
they popped on the scene all of a sudden, and they're total professionals.
1:02:14
I mean, like it's it's pop punk, but it's like also just like
1:02:20
straight up punk, but also has like some like post hardcore elements. Every
1:02:23
single song I found myself like listening to and like singing along and enjoying every
1:02:29
single aspect of it. I got to see him live at Furnace Fast and
1:02:31
I was absolutely blown away. I had a lot of fun with that.
1:02:35
They're They're They're a band that I think is only going to continue to get
1:02:37
better and better and better. So I don't think this is going to be
1:02:40
their best album, but I think that this is the jumping off point where
1:02:45
they just continue to get better. Also, Post Malone apparently is like a
1:02:50
huge fan of military gun, Like he popped in on one of their on
1:02:55
one of their sessions or something like that, and was like hanging out with
1:02:59
them, and he's like, this is my favorite fucking song. He starts
1:03:01
playing one of their own songs to them, which is awesome. That's super
1:03:06
cool, super cool. I would I would feel so honored to have that
1:03:13
happen, you know, clearly, like what a what a connection? Anyways,
1:03:20
Mason number one, My number one is from a band that has been
1:03:25
around for a while. I think they've been around since two thousand and five,
1:03:29
so they've been around for almost twenty years, but they haven't released an
1:03:31
album in eight years, so this is their first album in eight years.
1:03:36
And I remember a few years ago listening to him for the first time.
1:03:39
I had never heard of them before and started listening to them. I think
1:03:42
they were on like death Wish, which is Jacob Bannons, you know,
1:03:45
from Converge, his record label, so they've been I think, in fact,
1:03:47
I think this new album is probably even on death Wish as well.
1:03:52
But they haven't done anything for quite some time, and I've been just kind
1:03:54
of waiting, and then I found out that they were releasing this new album
1:03:58
and certainly checked it out in immediate it was like wow, just as an
1:04:00
album, as a complete album, they nailed it. But the band is
1:04:05
called Loma Prida and the album is called Last If You Have, and they're
1:04:11
probably one of the lesser popular bands probably on any of our lists, but
1:04:15
if you have not heard of Loma Prida, you absolutely need to. Probably
1:04:19
some of the best post hardcore you'll ever listen to. They've got just this
1:04:26
really interesting, really raw sound, but also this kind of indie vibe as
1:04:32
well. To them, there's just really such an interesting band. To me.
1:04:36
They kind of feel a lot like Birds in Row. If anyone knows
1:04:40
Birds in a Row, they kind of have that vibe. But my goodness,
1:04:43
just an unbelievable band. This album was fascinating. Probably my favorite song
1:04:48
of the year, and I don't even remember what it was called, but
1:04:54
I just remember listening to on this album quite a few times. But it's
1:04:57
like this song where it's like a lot of like PM no work and then
1:05:00
you just get into this like like post hardcore sound and it's just like they
1:05:03
make it work so well. So they're just able to do all these elements
1:05:08
of music that I love, where you get these indie elements, you get
1:05:11
this like hardcore element, and they just do it all really well. And
1:05:14
so anyway, Loma Prida's last best album of the year that I've heard.
1:05:18
I love it. Great choice. Yeah, everyone needs to listen to Loma
1:05:23
Prida for sure. So uh, let's talk about honorable mentions. I've got
1:05:29
like a million bands or a million albums I can think of, but yeah,
1:05:31
honorable mentions that we want to throw out there justin you first, man,
1:05:36
I'll just wrap mine up nice and neat in a little bow. But
1:05:41
kind of what I mentioned before we started was you know, I am just
1:05:46
this like dumb hardcore guy, but this year was the year for pop for
1:05:50
me. So I would love to sit over here and you know we you
1:05:55
talked about Silent Planet and uh and end and you know we over some really
1:06:00
good heavy records. But for me, it was really a lot of like
1:06:04
poppier stuff. But you know there were like I really would love to sit
1:06:10
here and be like, yeah, like my top records were like you know,
1:06:14
uh Muchilga and all that, but they didn't drop stuff. But like
1:06:17
Dying Wish dropped a really good record this year, so good. I like
1:06:26
them better live for sure, but like this record is killer, and then
1:06:30
like Periphery dropped a new record, loved them, and then more on the
1:06:34
punk side, Fiddlehead. Fiddle Head was probably my number six record, and
1:06:40
then the rest of them like just off the top of my head, now
1:06:43
like are pop records like and y'all thought you were gonna go a whole interview
1:06:47
with me without hearing about Carly red Jepson, But Carly Ray dropped the B
1:06:54
side uh the loveliest time this year and it was pretty solid. It's probably
1:06:59
my least favorite record from her, but it's great. Kesha did Gag Order.
1:07:03
I loved it. I liked Travis Scott's new record, Boy Genius.
1:07:08
They dropped their new record, It's great. Teenage Risk had a great record.
1:07:13
There's just so much that we could go through, but lots of lots
1:07:16
of honorable mentions for me, But what did you guys have? Yeah?
1:07:21
For me, I felt like twenty twenty three was a shotgun blast, Like
1:07:26
there was so much stuff that came out right so good, a lot of
1:07:30
it like it's gonna take a couple of years to get into, like my
1:07:33
heaviest rotation, because like there was just so much stuff. One in particular
1:07:40
was Meopholis album. I don't know if you've justin have you heard Meopholic before?
1:07:45
I haven't you? Darling write this down right now. She's a popet
1:07:51
goddess in my opinion. Now she's also got like this like super like edgy
1:07:56
aspect to her. M I Y A is how spill her first name folick
1:08:00
f O L I c K. But she has an album. She has
1:08:03
an album called Roach, which is fucking incredible. She is one of the
1:08:11
I would say, in my list of top five vocalists. She's She's there.
1:08:18
She's that good. Like I mean, she can hit every single range,
1:08:24
she can meld her voice to be whatever she wants it to be,
1:08:29
and she's a fantastic songwriter, taking on some very deep dark issues at times.
1:08:34
Other albums I really liked was Relaxed by White Denim. That's a great
1:08:39
like blues rock out record. If you've ever listened to White Denim at all,
1:08:45
you know what I mean. But if you haven't, just go check
1:08:48
out. If you've never listened to White Denham, go go watch their Austin
1:08:53
City Limits show. It's it's one of the greatest shows I've ever seen.
1:08:58
I don't know if anyone's ever listened to Nowher, but they're kind of like
1:09:00
this like funk band. They came off with an album called Nowhere Forever,
1:09:04
which is absolutely incredible. And then, by the way, Louis Cole,
1:09:09
who plays drums on that on that record, he also sings and stuff like
1:09:13
that as well. Every once in a while. He is probably this generation's
1:09:16
greatest drummer. Him and usef Days are in that that that conversation, But
1:09:23
I think that Louis Cole probably takes that cake. Also. Uh, He's
1:09:28
been referenced in songs by people like Thundercat and stuff like that. So he's
1:09:33
he's Yeah, if you haven't heard Louis cole justin, you're missing out,
1:09:39
especially as a drummer. His music videos are really fun too. Oh my
1:09:42
god. Yes, his music videos are so much fun. The last or
1:09:45
there's a couple other ones that I talk about Covet, which is a math
1:09:48
rock band. They came off with an album called Uh Catharsis, which is
1:09:53
a fantastic record. It's probably my like sixth most listened to album this year,
1:10:00
just because it's really really easy to listen to while I'm doing other work
1:10:03
and stuff like that. Fantastic record. And the last one I want to
1:10:06
say is rap rock Jesus by Silly Goose. That's a fun record. When
1:10:13
I wanna, when I want to just turn up and just have a good
1:10:15
time, that's what I throw on at least. It's such a fun show
1:10:18
at furnace Fest. Gosh it shows at furnace Fest. That was easily one
1:10:23
of the most underrated shows that fest. Since furnace Fest has been a show
1:10:28
or a festival, I should say, Uh, that's that's my honorable mentions.
1:10:31
Mason good turn, Yeah, so a few of them have already been
1:10:35
mentioned, but Boy Genius's album just barely missed the cut for me. I
1:10:40
think it's an incredible album. Shout out to buy Girls Everywhere. National was
1:10:45
mentioned a couple of times that you know they've you know, The National had
1:10:48
two albums. In fact, one of them was a surprise album. I
1:10:50
got to see them back in August. So much fun. They're as good
1:10:55
as they have always been. I still think I like, I'm easy to
1:10:59
find more than these these albums currently, these newer albums, but still an
1:11:04
unbelievable band. It's really fascinating to watch a band that, you know,
1:11:09
I remember you introducing The National to me Cullen over ten years ago, and
1:11:14
to think where they're at now is maybe one of the most influential bands in
1:11:17
the world, you know, basically influencing bands like Boy Genius and Taylor Swift
1:11:25
and you know, they've got the collaborations with Bonaver and they just have become
1:11:28
such an influential band. And it's really cool to see where they were at
1:11:30
just ten years ago as kind of this like indie rock Darling, and now
1:11:33
they're one of the bigger bands in the world. So that was one of
1:11:38
my couple of favorite albums. Fiddlehead. Justin you mentioned Fiddlehead. Great album,
1:11:43
exactly what I sort of expect from them is so good. I would
1:11:46
love to see Fiddlehead again at some point. You guys haven't mentioned it,
1:11:50
but Josh Gogan released an album this year. I think this album, the
1:11:55
sixty eight album, was better than the last one, but I still think
1:12:00
hold up, you'd said that you thought it was worse than the last one
1:12:04
initially when it came out. That's what I have a text somewhere I'll find
1:12:09
it, But well, I agree better than the last one. I think
1:12:14
it's better than the last one. There there are moments of it where I'm
1:12:17
like, Okay, this feels like what I've always loved from sixty eight,
1:12:20
and then there's a lot of what feels like kind of like filler. But
1:12:24
it's a solid album I think overall. Yeah. And then the last one
1:12:27
I was gonna mention that that Austin mentioned was Javelin by Sufion. I love
1:12:32
that album. It gets back to like what I love about Sufion. So
1:12:35
yeah, those are my other honorable mentions love it. There's just so many,
1:12:41
and I'm sure, we could, you know, talk for hours.
1:12:45
Yeah, well that's why, Like that's why where I say like it was
1:12:46
like a shotgun blast this year. Like in past it's been like a sniper
1:12:49
right. You know, There's been like a few here and there and it's
1:12:53
like, wow, these are really really good, but this year was like,
1:12:55
holy shit, I can't keep up. I can't there's too many to
1:13:00
count in the realm that I just I don't have enough time in the day
1:13:03
to listen, right, you know, well, and there's so many albums
1:13:06
And I felt like this the last few years where it's like, all right,
1:13:10
I don't have an album in my whatever album of the year, and
1:13:13
then like the next year after I listened to that album and I'm like,
1:13:16
holy shit. So there's a few of those albums from this year where I'm
1:13:20
like, oh my god, that's an incredible album. Y. I texted
1:13:24
you the other day calling about Fleshwater. They had an album last year where
1:13:27
one hundred percent that would have been in my top five last year, but
1:13:30
just didn't know about it until just now for sure. So there's albums like
1:13:35
that too. But basically the think about think about it as like a working
1:13:40
list. These are the working definition or the working list of our top five
1:13:43
albums for this year, But it very well could have changed. You know,
1:13:46
Let's say we go back ten years from now and we look back to
1:13:49
twenty twenty three, our albums could be very different, you know, given
1:13:54
on the fact that there's new albums that we've discovered, or there's albums that
1:13:57
grow on us a little bit more. You never don't, Yeah, yeah,
1:14:00
yeah, So what a great year of music. Super Stoked for next
1:14:03
year, we could expect new undertaking music. We can expect new idle threat
1:14:09
music. I would imagine there's a bunch of other albums that we can expect
1:14:13
from some of our favorite artists. But looking forward to twenty twenty four,
1:14:16
I just feel like we're just kind of in this golden age of music.
1:14:19
Maybe it's just because I run this Dame podcast now, but I just feel
1:14:24
like there was a moment in time where there was a few years where I'm
1:14:27
like, I just don't really like a lot of what's coming out. But
1:14:30
I love everything that's coming out right now. I mean, there's just so
1:14:32
many great heavy bands, indie bands, emo bands, doesn't matter. All
1:14:36
the music that I love. There's so much of it coming out right now
1:14:39
and new bands, just so many new bands too, So I'm looking forward
1:14:44
to twenty twenty four. Yeah, we're in a very good spot. I'd
1:14:48
agree, I would agree, love it. Thank you Justin obviously, Thank
1:14:54
you Austin, even though he's not here anymore, but he's no longer with
1:14:57
us in the world. But thank you Justin for hanging out chatting about your
1:15:01
top five albums of the year. And we look forward to twenty twenty four.
1:15:06
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for having me, guys, always a pleasure, No,