Let's Make a Christmas Mixtape!

Dave and Caleb have a close encounter of the third kind as they choose the best album for seeing aliens. Is music a universal enough language to avoid world domination? Do aliens even exist? Is it better to give them the best music the world has to offer, or the music that most stirs your soul? Caleb presents our unidentified anomalous phenomena friends with Marvin Gaye's classic What's Going On?, and confesses something that leaves Dave stunned. And Dave finally presents DJ Koze and attempts to find words to explain why he is so spellbound. Plus, what song nearly ruined the total solar eclipse? Discussed today: Marvin Gaye - What's Going On? DJ Koze - Amygdala Bad Bad Hats - Bad Bad Hats Nia Arhives - Silence is Loud Hosts: Dave Sandell & Caleb Gardner

What's the right soundtrack for barreling down a highway in pursuit -- or being pursued -- in your very own General Lee? Dave & Caleb lay out the criteria, buckle in, and gun it to 95 with The Prodigy's Fat of the Land and The Reverend Horton Heat's It's Martini Time! Two albums from a golden era of the 90s when, for one shining moment, electronica and swing music improbably had its grips around our collective imagination. Plus, the single scariest moment of young Dave's life. Also, what we're listening to this week, including a band we love with the most unfortunate name. Discussed today: The Prodigy - Fat of the Land Reverend Horton Heat - It's Martini Time The 90s swing era (including Brian Setzer Orchestra, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Royal Crown Revue and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy) DMX The Yeah Yeah Yeahs Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven Waxahatchee - Tiger's Blood Alice Coltrane - The Carnegie Hall Concert Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda Check out our new playlist on Apple Music, Best Music For 2024. (Spotify coming soon.)

Special guest co-host Vince Brackett joins the podcast this week to discuss what it means to “sell out” for a variety of musicians, and the template for popular and highly successful musicians to “reverse sell out” with an album cycle (or more) marked by attempts to be taken more seriously as an artist. Along the way, they unpack the careers of the strangest bands to have ever momentarily hit it big (Primus, Butthole Surfers), artists who made giant left turns to restart their career (Rebecca Black!), aging rock stars who pump out albums that seem wholly disconnected from their vital days (The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder), bands that “real” fans never forgive (Green Day) and bands that everyone embraced despite doing all the things that sell-out bands do (Blink 182). Plus, Vince looks at a band who could have sold out but chose to forget their own path, The Roots, and their 1996 opus, Illadelph Halflife. And Dave unpacks Rihanna’s seminal Anti, and how she seemingly threw hit making to the wind and bet on her own taste.  Discussed today: The Roots Rihanna Butthole Surfers Primus Rebecca Black Coldplay Green Day Lorde The Black Keys Blink 182 Stevie Wonder The Rolling Stones David Bowie David Byrne The Wailin’ Jennys The Smile

We go deep on a roadmap for getting your kids to rap music, from Sugarhill Gang to whatever is happening in the genre right now. How do you approach conversations about lyrical content, specific life experiences that aren’t our own, and answer questions you never thought you’d have to answer (yikes.) Along the way we talk about A Tribe Called Quest’s timeless masterpiece, The Low End Theory, and Jurassic 5’s rap primer for white people, Quality Control. Plus, we build our rap album and artist hall of fame. Plus, what are we listening to this week? A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory Jurassic 5 - Quality Control Outkast - ATLiens, Aquemini, Stankonia Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly, Good Kid MAAD City Jay-Z - The Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime Vol 2 (Hard Knock Life), The Black Album Tupac - All Eyez on Me Notorious BIG - Ready to Die Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) Madvillain - Madvillainy  Nas - Illmatic Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, College Dropout, Yeezus Kali Uchis - ORQUIDEAS Sampha - Lahai

Dave and Caleb welcome in 2024 by naming the best albums for starting a new year. What albums best capture that fine line between eternal optimism and existential dread about what could come? Dave suggests Prince’s 1999, a party album preoccupied with nuclear proliferation in the early 80s, and Caleb brings Jamie xx’s dance party in a jewel case, In Colour. Along the way, they unpack what it was like to first be exposed to Prince as kids in largely conservative environments, and the daunting task that is working through Prince’s catalog. Before that, they talk through the things from 2023 that consistently brought them joy, and cap everything off with what they’re listening to this week.  Albums discussed at length this week: Prince - 1999 Jamie xx - In Colour

Dave and Caleb are wrapping up 2023 with our inaugural top tens of the year, plus loads of honorable mentions and singles. We count it down 10-1 and hopefully introduce you to some of your new favorite music! Our favorite albums of 2023: Alex Lahey - The Answer is Always Yes Boygenius - the record Bully - Lucky for You Danny Brown - Quaranta Jamie Branch - Fly of Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) Jamila Woods - Water Made Us Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun Noname - Sundial Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade Sampha - Lahai Slowdive - Everything is Alive Slow Pulp - Yard Sufjan Stevens - Javelin There Will Be Fireworks - Summer Moon Wednesday - Rat Saw God Yazmin Lacey - Voice Notes Youth Lagoon - Heaven is a Junkyard Yves Tumor - Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume

This week we're doing something different, a game we call Let's Make a Mixtape. Our friend Hana Kim joins us as we draft 18 Christmas songs that we're publishing as a playlist you can listen to on Spotify or Apple Music. But there's a twist -- when it's someone's turn, they get to not only draft a song and performer, but also they get to draft where on the mixtape it goes. Merry Christmas! Hosts: Dave Sandell & Caleb Gardner Spotify playlist Apple playlist

December is here and we’re ready to get in the Christmas spirit! Or Dave is at least. Dave brings Caleb on a magical journey through a season of lights and traditions and a spiritually moving season, while Caleb keeps us grounded in the stress and consumerism of the holiday. But, one thing they can both agree on is that the nostalgia of 1987’s A Very Special Christmas with artists like Run DMC, Whitney Houston, Madonna and U2 can immediately get you in the spirit of the season. Meanwhile, Dave suggests an album that may be new to many listeners, the Will Scruggs Jazz Orchestra’s Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey, which tries to bridge the gap between religious sentimentality and holiday pop that most Christmas music falls into. Grab some egg nog and a candy cane and join us for our first Christmas episode. Discussed today: A Very Special Christmas, Volume One (Various Artists) Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift for You Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship - Song of Simeon: A Christmas Journey The Sufjan Stevens Christmas EPs Danny Brown - Quaranta Aesop Rock - Integrated Tech Solutions The Smile - “Wall of Eyes”

Dave and Caleb celebrate their November birthdays by introducing you to one of their favorite bands, the Scottish indie rock legends Frightened Rabbit, and their seminal break-up album, The Midnight Organ Fight.  Discussed today: Frightened Rabbit’s catalog Spiritual Cramp - Spiritual Cramp Jamie Branch - Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) 

The leaves are changing, the hot apple cider is brewing, the bonfires and bonfiring, and Dave and Caleb are ready to crown the best album for autumn. What are the albums that we pull out for just a few months each year that are elevated by the invigoratingly crisp air and the cozy trappings of fall? Throw on your favorite cardigan and re-discover Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One, plus many, many more recommendations (but no Nick Drake, apparently. How did we forget about Nick Drake?) Music discussed today: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago Bon Iver - Bon Iver Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One Big Thief - UFOF Neko Case - Blacklisted Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes James Blake - Overgrown The Cure - Disintegration Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour Slowdive - Slowdive Feist - Metals O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B Slow Pulp - Yard Thanks For Coming - What Is My Capacity to Love Cleo Sol - Gold Cleo Sol - Heaven Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool