CrossFade: The Dueling Album Review Show

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Latest Episodes:

Help Rebuild Minneapolis/Solidarity with the George Floyd Protests Jun 05, 2020

Show notes

With today’s episode, we wanted to express our sympathy for the family of George Floyd, repeat our solidarity with everyone speaking out against the system that murdered him, and share a song from another time that feels relevant to our own.

Donate to the Help Rebuild Minneapolis GoFundMe to support North Minneapolis here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/minnmax-rebuilding-minneapolis

Song: John Coltrane – Alabama (from Live at Birdland, 1963)

The Kraftwerk Special (feat. Jeff Green) May 22, 2020

Show notes

In a slight tweak of the MinnTrax format this week, we’ve enlisted Jeff Green (1up.com, CGW, Min/Max Consulting) to commemorate the passing of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider by taking a look at two of their most iconic albums: 1974’s Autobahn and 1981’s Computer World. We discuss what Kraftwerk’s breakout must’ve sounded like to an audience conditioned on slow jams, folk, and pop hits; the group’s surprisingly organic origins; how you even begin to track Kraftwerk’s influence on modern music; and what kept them from being just a novelty act. Then we turn to community questions to talk music movies, what’s the difference between repetitive and annoying music, and which artists our host and guest just can’t stand as people!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

4:35 - Comparing Kraftwerk to 1974’s radio hits

6:40 - “Autobahn”

9:50 - The Beach Boys connection

17:30 - “Ruckzuck”

26:50 - “Kometenmelodie 2”

30:50 - “Morgenspaziergang”

33:20 - “Mitternacht”

38:15 - “Computer World”

44:00 - “Pocket Calculator”

48:00 - “Computer Love”

54:20 - “Home Computer”

56:30 - “It’s More Fun to Compute”

1:12:20 - Community questions

1:31:55 - Community song (“Last Ones on the Dance Floor” by 3d Blast feat Maggie.wav & Father Glamor, suggested by RAWPARTEE)

Links

Follow Jeff on Twitter and twitch at @Greenspeak and find Min/Max Consulting at https://min-max.net/

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox (edited)

Jeff Buckley vs. Big Thief (feat. Kirk Hamilton) May 08, 2020

Show notes

It’s hard to overestimate the influence of Jeff Buckley on popular music, which is part of why guest Kirk Hamilton chose his 1994 album “Grace” for this episode of MinnTrax. Opting for a more recent challenge, Matt assigned Kirk to listen to “Two Hands,” the OTHER 2019 album from indie rock group Big Thief. With Kirk’s music theory knowledge and Matt’s indie rock experience, this episode’s for the close listeners. Just what is Jeff Buckley doing with his song structures? What does trust sound like? What do musicians gain – and lose – from polished production? And that’s all before we get to our community-driven portion, where we discuss great samples in great songs, our “desert island” albums, whether or not Kenny G. deserves the hate, and underrated one-hit wonders!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

4:35 - Jeff Buckley’s Grace

7:05 - Why Kirk picked Grace

9:45 - “Last Goodbye”

15:00 - “Grace”

19:10 - “Mojo Pin”

24:45 - “Hallelujah”

35:10 - “Eternal Life”

40:00 - “So Real”

42:00 - “Dream Brother”

45:15 - “Corpus Christi Carol”

53:15 - Big Thief’s “Two Hands”

58:15 - “Forgotten Eyes”

1:11:00 - “Not”

1:19:35 - “Wolf”

1:29:05 - “Shoulders”

1:34:30 - Community questions

1:38:30 - “Daytona 500” by Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon & Cappadonna

1:39:30 - “Get By” by Talib Kweli

1:42:15 - “Runnin’ (Dying To Live)” by 2Pac feat. Notorious BIG

2:02:15 - Community song (“A Grave Inversed” by Ihsahn, suggested by SwankyOrc)

Links

Follow Kirk on Twitter at @kirkhamilton, listen to his podcast, Strong Songs, and support the show at patreon.com/strongsongs; listen to Triple Click and follow them at @tripleclickpod

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Antônio Carlos Jobim’s Águas de Março (Waters of March) performed by Elis Regina and Tom Jobim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEesrdaRog

Thanks to the following Patreon supporters for their generous support of MinnMax at the $50 tier! Get your name on the list right here - https://www.patreon.com/minnmax

Captainstubs1

Iam8bit

Jawarhello

Rob Hudak

Zachary Pligge

BeatenDownBrian

TheSmak

Mark Seliga

Andrew Vala

Mirko Arico-Torreno

Jesse Vitelli

Yarrow

Michael Jacques

Adam Walker

Ludwig Roque

Andrew Sanford

Matthew Paxton

James Smith

David Lacolucci

Weird Al vs. Steely Dan (feat. Mike Drucker) Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

It’s [adjective + male name] versus [adjective + male name] on this episode of MinnTrax! Mike Drucker (Nintendo, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Saturday Night Live, Bill Nye Saves the World) brings the first cassette he ever bought, Weird Al Yankovic’s “Bad Hair Day,” to Matt’s door. Matt returns the favor with Steely Dan’s “The Royal Scam,” which Matt calls “the most ‘Steely Dan’ Steely Dan record.” Both artists are hugely influential in their fields, and their skills go far beyond schtick – but what do our host and guest think of their assignments? Then we address some great questions from our community on songs that used to annoy us that we now love, if “Amish Paradise” is inappropriate, and whether or not Weird Al should be in the hall of fame. Stick around for our community song pick, which turned Mike into an instant fan!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below…

2:40 - Weird Al’s “Bad Hair Day”

4:00 - Why Mike connected with Weird Al as a kid

9:15 - How Weird Al’s parodies have aged

14:15 - How Weird Al’s understanding of music affects his songwriting

19:40 - Discussing Weird Al’s original music

25:10 - Weird Al and polka

28:30 - Discovering mainstream music through Weird Al parodies

31:30 - Looking for the “funny” in non-comedy music

35:25 - Steely Dan’s “The Royal Scam”

37:45 - What doesn’t work for Mike about Steely Dan

38:30 - What’s the funniest song on “The Royal Scam”?

46:40 - Weird Al and Steely Dan’s shared musicianship

55:45 - Community questions

1:09:55 - Community song (“Back Pocket” by Vulfpeck, suggested by Joe Robert)

Links

Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDrucker

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox (edited)

Blink-182 vs. Van Morrison (feat. Kyle Hilliard) Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

On this episode, we welcome guest Kyle Hilliard (MinnMax and the Gaming Ride Home podcast) and one of his favorite albums, Blink-182’s breakout Enema of the State, to go head-to-head with Van Morrison’s cult hit Astral Weeks. Kyle’s love for Blink-182’s immature, do-what-we-want 1999 pop-punk smash contrasts sharply with the freeform folk-jazz storytelling that brought Matt to Van Morrison – and yet, somewhere in the mix, they find common ground in their tastes for a well-realized sound. Then in the community portion, we discuss the most important music videos, covers versus live versions, what musicals we listen to outside of the stage show, and more before heading to an old-fashioned bluegrass hoedown with a song suggested by the MinnTrax community!

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below...

3:20 - Kyle’s history with Blink-182

6:40 - Enema of the State

7:10 - How Blink-182 influenced Kyle as a drummer

11:35 - Travis Barker’s drumming

21:10 - Why What’s My Age Again? is better than All the Small Things

29:30 - Bands that take themselves too seriously

37:20 - Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks

41:40 - Astral Weeks’ jazz roots

59:20 - Two dads talking about music

1:05:00 - Community questions

1:19:30 - Community song (‘Big Country’ by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones)

Links

Listen to Gaming Ride Home wherever you get podcasts and follow the show on Twitter @GamingRideHome

Follow Kyle on Twitter at @kylemhilliard

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag

Karate - Sever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOKhm98kjKQ

Opeth vs. Future of the Left (feat. Bianca Ryckert) Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

Guest Bianca Ryckert of the Panning the Stream podcast joins Matt Helgeson to talk about heavy music through the lens of one of Matt’s favorite albums, Travels With Myself and Another by Future of the Left, while Matt tackles an album by one of Bianca’s favorite bands: Orchid, the 1995 debut album Swedish band Opeth! Along the way, they talk about how first impressions can mean a lot for how you remember your favorite bands, how much doom is too much doom, the first music they found by themselves and loved, the new genres they’re into and what hooked them, and Bianca’s brother’s band (check out Thank You Scientist wherever you get music).

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below...

1:59- Bianca’s work in games

3:46 - Bianca’s podcast, Panning the Stream

4:48 - Bianca’s brother’s band, Thank You Scientist

10:53 - Why it’s hard to call Orchid “metal”

17:37 - An abridged history of Swedish metal

31:28 - The excess of Orchid vs. the leanness of Future of the Left

53:30 - Matt and Bianca’s favorite eras of music

57:54 - Community questions - 00:57:54 1:12:00 - Community song (‘The Great Chinggis Khan’ by The HU)

Links

Support Panning the Stream on Patreon, listen wherever you get podcasts, and follow them on Twitter at @PanTheStream

Follow Bianca on Twitter at @weirdbonk

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax/

MinnTrax Episode Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2vgqfvK

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Skatt Bros. - Life At the Outpost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g81HoQ6PuR0

James Brown vs. Nas (feat. Ben Hanson) Mar 13, 2020

Show notes

A rap classic meets a piece of soul history in the inaugural episode of MinnTrax! Host Matt Helgeson and guest Ben Hanson discuss the music they chose for each other – Ben chose James Brown’s 1971 live album Love, Power, Peace for Helgeson, while Helgeson chose Nas’ inimitable Illmatic for non rap-listener Ben – to see if they can find middle ground between the music they love and the music they’ve never heard. Then we go through some great community questions to learn more about Helgeson and Ben’s music tastes, the songs that defined their childhoods, and what streaming services mean for the future of the music industry before diving headlong into this episode’s community-suggested track. MinnTrax is produced by Jason Dafnis.

To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below...

13:02 - Why Hanson loves James Brown and Love, Power, Peace

16:25 - Why Helgeson’s loves rap and Illmatic

24:36 - The longevity of Love, Power, Peace

48:39 - The influence of Illmatic

1:07:10 - Comparing Illmatic and Love, Power, Peace head-to-head

1:21:18 - MinnTrax community questions

1:39:14 - The Community Song Of The Week - STFU! by Rina Sawayama

Support MinnMax on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/minnmax

Illmatic on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1?si=NbExJMfhRm6SHz5gRgOOpg

Love, Power, Peace on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/17CzII6yMCKvKupQtq7zbW?si=P-9NJ7s_QSqekNZ4lT2m3g

MinnTrax Community Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3aRRgox

Live at the Boston Garden: April 5, 1968: https://bit.ly/2IEQJKD

James Brown’s Please, Please cape bit: https://youtu.be/vruy2GRUsV8?t=45

Rocky IV robot introducing James Brown - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbBYM3wvnrI

James Brown's I Feel All Right from Live at the Apollo II - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_QJxMorRc

Thanks to the following Patreon supporters for their generous support of MinnMax at the $50 tier!

Iam8bit

Seth Walker

BeatenDownBrian

The Smak

Jawarhello

Mark Seliga

Jesse Vitelli

Zachary Pligge

Mirko Arico-Torreno

Rob Hudak (aka Rook)

David Lacolucci

MinnTrax - Introducing Matt Helgeson's Dueling Album Review Podcast Mar 02, 2020

Show notes

On this introductory episode, Matt Helgeson (former host of The Game Informer Show podcast) introduces listeners to his new music review podcast on the MinnMax network alongside MinnTrax's producer Jason Dafnis. To support the podcast and leave questions and comments for future episodes, please consider supporting MinnMax on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/minnmax

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