Listeners Like You

Episode 59: Vampire liars

This episode, Cort reports back on Not Animal by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s and yada, yada, yada, next thing you know Brian is practically giving a TED Talk on the original makeup of the band, its founder Richard Edwards, and the band’s “break-up.” So what actually is Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s? The original members only? Or anyone Richard feels like dragging into the studio? (Shoutout to The Shins' James Mercer.)

We issue a formal apology to Carrie (the 1976 version) for the figurative bucket of pig’s blood we dumped by failing to mention it in our last episode during our roundup of “good” Stephen King adaptations. Our mea culpa leads us into a topic we have tiptoed around in the past: are King’s short stories easier to adapt to the screen than his novels? And if so, does that rule hold for all writers, or just King?

On the TV front, Cort and his wife binged We Were Liars on Amazon Prime, featuring Candice King (aka Caroline from The Vampire Diaries). And when we switch to movies, Brian reflects on the emotional trauma of seeing Jaws as a child, which led to his totally rational adult obsession with shark movies. Cort saw The Materialists recently and … didn’t leave before it ended. So that’s something.

 

PLUS - Next episode, we welcome our next guest: Brian’s son, Whit, who assigned us a Fugazi playlist to listen to and discuss. You can listen along too:

Whit’s Playlist on Spotify
Whit’s Playlist on Amazon Music

 

Theme music: Cyrus Oh Cyrus by The Flying Scrub Jays
Featured Album: Not Animal by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s

Episode 58: Irish Wakeboarding

In this episode, Brian goes on a three-album detour just to reach Cort's recommendation of Strange Ranger’s No Light in Heaven. Cort actually listens to one of his own recs for a change, and his feelings are … mixed. But! His one-time stated, but frequently ascribed "long-standing belief" in the power of tracks in the position of "7th" may finally be justified.

Cort dives into the Irish History Podcast, Brian hits him with a quiz on Rangers, Rovers, and Wanderers (the football kind) with just enough football (ahem, soccer) information to make Cort feel dumb—but not quite enough to qualify this show as a sports podcast. Brian posits that the real cult following of this show won’t bloom until the year 3000 when we’re all living underground and podcasts have replaced history books. We also ask the big questions: Why are Wes Anderson movies so consistently lauded when they're so inconsistent, and why are Stephen King movie adaptations so consistently inconsistent?  There's always room for more.  I didn't even mention our now seemingly regular segment that could be called "Detour into Reality TV."

Theme music is Cyrus Oh Cyrus by the Flying Scribe Jays, from the album Love Beneath the Moonlight. Check it out here

Strange Ranger’s No Light in Heaven

Dive into the Irish History Podcast if you like that sort of thing

Episode 57: Condiment Hypocrisy

This week, Cort gets an assignment that's pure rock and roll gold: Tell Me I’m Pretty by Cage the Elephant. Spoiler LOLZ, he loved it. Brian takes us deeper with his thoughts on the band, trivia about the Shultz brothers who formed it, and the band’s (or at least the brothers') southern origins.

Brian also wanted to gush about the new Counting Crows release, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, but Cort hasn’t listened yet, obvi, so they had to vamp. Is August and Everything After a Top 10 Album of all time?

Then things literally got weird. Brian brings up the syndicated column News of the Weird because he wanted to talk about whether it's reached its end, but Cort zeroes in on the true story Brian cites: Woman Suffers from Fear of Ketchup. This, naturally, unearths Brian’s deep-rooted condiment aversion. Things spiral quickly, and Brian's final word may or may not involve pickle slander.

We also touch on a scientifically indefensible (but alas mostly true) story involving the Town of Collierville and a blooming battle with fluoride.

And to wrap it all up, Cort recommends something for Brian to hate for the next episode. It’s the circle of life, podcast edition.

Listen to the Ep. 57 assignment and judge for yourself: Cage the Elephant – Tell Me I'm Pretty

Theme music: “Cyrus Oh Cyrus” by The Flying Scrub Jays from Love Beneath the Moonlight
Listen here

Episode 56 – Jazz with No Soul

In this episode of Listeners Like You, Cort assigned homework. Brian turns in a meh review, and somehow Gracie Lawrence walks away with a Tony nomination anyway.

Cort made Brian listen to Family Business by Lawrence. In Cort's opinion it's a funky, soulful, horn-infused joyride of an album featuring the Tony-nominated powerhouse Gracie Lawrence (yes, that Gracie, now starring in The Sex Lives of College Girls on MAX and in Just in Time with Jonathan Groff on Broadway). Cort’s a fan. Brian … titled the episode Jazz with No Soul. So, you do the math.

We also salute the phoenix-like rise of Wrexham’s football club (three promotions in three years), lament the ever-worsening indignities of modern air travel, and channel our inner doomsday preppers by predicting what goods might vanish first if Trump’s tariffs tighten the supply chain. (Cort is hoarding soup. Brian ... probably jazz CDs.) Are cat food lines in our future?

🎧 Give Cort's assignment to Brian, Family Business, a listen here: Lawrence – Family Business

🎵 Theme music: “Cyrus Oh Cyrus” by The Flying Scrub Jays from Love Beneath the Moonlight
Check them out here: Love Beneath the Moonlight – The Flying Scrub Jays

 

Episode 55: The One with William (fka Deep Music)

Brian and Cort have a guest, which of course means our listeners should quadruple.  Come listen to us discuss Peach Pit's album Magpie and compare it to one of their earlier works, You and Your Friends.  On a personal note, Brian had a lot of fun recording with Cort's son, who reminds Brian a lot of what Cort was like back when he was young and fun.  On a sad note, this episode may have led directly to Cort's son taking out a restraining order on Cort.  

Magpie by Peach Pit - https://open.spotify.com/album/1LNCdy3xZoibzDh0WllxHY?si=pHBby4tJTdCLXGQPpys-zQ

"Cyrus Oh Cyrus" - The Flying Scrub Jays - https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BD2HJ21S?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_VrTdsVhZSdQbGxiCG13xFkYMk&trackAsin=B0BD3HYRSL

Episode 54: Episode 50 Revisited (feat. F*cktopus)

The boys are at it again. Cort talks the new Hamilton Leithauser album, This Side of the Island. Bon Iver had a new album drop. So did Mumford and Sons. Brian decides it’s time to jettison a “popular” segment and leaves listeners with some sage advice. Also there is so much new TV and there’s a new game to be played.

This Side of the Island - Hamilton Leithauser - https://open.spotify.com/album/06d60TFUm7t91QHcVKq65T?si=iL4Ii2vSQvGc5ojrhTgm3A

"Cyrus Oh Cyrus" - The Flying Scrub Jays - https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BD2HJ21S?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_VrTdsVhZSdQbGxiCG13xFkYMk&trackAsin=B0BD3HYRSL

Episode 53: the frequency waves will hurt the brains

We get a little straight-up saucy in this one.  Brian talks about Finneas' 2024 album, For Cryin' Out Lout. There are rule-changes afoot in Traitors US and UK, and Brian doesn't like it!  Speaking of rule changes, did I mention we're saucy? Our rules are out the window for a little segment we like to call: So You're Thinking of Leaving the US?  There's more.  You know we're just two guys sharing our opinions about the things we've heard, and rumor has it we may have missed some music things back in 2020.  You got funny.  You got some angry.  You'll get some new information too! Or hey, it's new information to us anyway.  

For Cryin' Out Loud - Finneas - https://open.spotify.com/album/7swV2ssDdlKc89h1DxUNh7?si=GKtoOn2uQLeA0jmeToJ11g

"Cyrus Oh Cyrus" - The Flying Scrub Jays - https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BD2HJ21S?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_VrTdsVhZSdQbGxiCG13xFkYMk&trackAsin=B0BD3HYRSL

Episode 52: On a scale of 1 to 100. It's like a 2 out of 3.

The guys discuss their somewhat differing opinions of Michigander's 2025 self-titled album. They discuss which talents such as singing ability should really be considered when determining the winners of acting superlatives in races such as the Oscars. Their ever-increasingly popular segment, So You're Thinking About Leaving the United States, meanders over to Liechtenstein, a doubly landlocked microstate in Central Europe. There's also a discussion about Brian's experience with chemistry.  

"Cyrus Oh Cyrus" - The Flying Scrub Jays - https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0BD2HJ21S?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_VrTdsVhZSdQbGxiCG13xFkYMk&trackAsin=B0BD3HYRSL

Michigander by Michigander - https://open.spotify.com/album/40hEeqidvpcsJrUqYN4jTL?si=FqYh892dRgahhQ0tap7kHA