Episode 21: Top 5 Songs Featuring Dave Grohl

There aren’t many rock icons that have made waves as regularly over the last 20 years as Dave Grohl. From the drummer of Nirvana to the frontman of the Foo Fighters and many more, Grohl has left an enormous mark on rock history in a way that few people have. As we close out our show’s first year, we pay tribute to Mr. Grohl the only way we know how – with a top 5 list. We also feature two songs by the truly excellent Lymbyc System, whose new album is one of our favorites of the year. You can read our top 5 Grohl songs after the break and can download the full episode below.

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Erik’s Music Taste Timeline

Inspired by an excellent discussion from elsewhere on the internet, I’ve compiled my ‘music taste timeline’ for your enjoyment. Basically, it’s chronicling key moments in the development of my musical taste from youth until now. I had a ton of fun making this. If you’re anything like me and have loved music for a long time, you may want to consider making one of these for yourself…it’s a fun trip down memory lane. You can read the full thing after the break.

Episode 20: Top 10 Albums of the 2000’s

It’s a historic day at the Musical Moron Twins, as we’ve reached twenty episodes! To celebrate, we’ve decided to count down the best albums of the entire decade. A list this big, however, deserves more than just the top five treatment. Therefore, we’ve decided to share our top TEN albums of the last ten years, and the result is our biggest episode yet. If you simply want to read our top ten picks, you can read them after the break. If you want to hear the episode in all its glory, you can follow the links below.

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Episode 19: Top 5 Album Openers

In a loving nod to the inspiration to the show’s name and format, we spend this episode counting down the top five album openers (or, as High Fidelity put it, the top five “side one, track ones”). We also introduce a very unknown band that we’re featuring because we can’t find anything else about them – Minnesota’s The Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria. Erik thinks he might’ve seen them live once but just can’t remember. If you’ve ever heard of this band or know anything about them, we’d love to hear from you. They’re a seriously excellent band. Either way, you can read our top 5 picks after the break and can download the episode from the links below.

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Episode 18: Top 5 Songs By Musicians With Epic Beards

While The Musical Moron Twins are first and foremost connoisseurs of great music, epic beards are not far behind. In this episode, we each count down 5 incredible songs by artists whose beards are so great they nearly eclipse the music itself. But not quite. We also talk about another great band you need to know, Los Angeles’ Great Northern. As usual, the link to download the episode is below, as well as that other one where you can download or subscribe to our other episodes on iTunes. You can also read our top 5 choices after the break.

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Episode 17: Top 5 Debut Albums

Most artists take a few albums to really hit their groove. A chosen few, however, release a debut recording that stands out as the best in their catalog. In this episode, we count down the greatest debuts and discuss plenty of others that didn’t quite make the cut. We also talk about two bands from the excellent Broken Electric Records – The Wooden Idols Remixes and The Sidewalk Regrets. As always, you can read our picks after the jump and can subscribe to the show (or download this episode by itself) using the links below.

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Episode 16: Top 5 Songs About Body Parts

The human body is the subject of fascination for many musicians, and there’s a multitude of songs dedicated to the subject. In this episode, we count down our five favorite tracks about body parts, metaphorically or otherwise. We also welcome back a couple of bands we’ve featured in previous episodes for our artist spotlight: Nashville’s Paper Route and Norway’s The Samuel Jackson Five. As always, you can read our picks after the break and download the new episode with the links below:

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Intriguing and Awesome Genius Playlist

I wouldn’t quite call this an “epic” playlist that Genius has created for me here, but man is it sure awesome. The reason I say it is intriguing, and the inspiration to blog about it, will probably only be obvious to people familiar with the album “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel (the one Graham thought should have been on our top 5 of the second half of the ’90’s lists, and Graham, had I knew of it when it came out, I would agree).  The album is an indie classic, and this playlist is based on my favorite from it, “Two Headed Boy.” This song is epic in itself, with Jeff Mangum’s powerful, genuine and quite endearing vocals sang and sometimes just flat out yelled over an equally passionate and often frantic accoustic guitar. The intriguing part is that the list closes with part 2 of this song (the closer on the album), which I’m not sure if Itunes is capable of reasoning out for itself or if it just coincidentally happened that way.

The lyrics in both parts of this song, although I believe the first to be better musically, are not only intriguing but are almost distractingly deep. I listened and listened to this song when I first heard this album, and upon reading the lyrics could only really decide that the artist was talking about some kind of a relationship and the good and bad parts he held on to dearly in its aftermath. Well, after a few years of occasional contemplation, I’m really no more savvy to the subject than before, but holy crap is this a great song. If you’re as interested as I was in the lyrics you hear in this song, check out the link before the list. Its a pretty sweet site I found called Song Meanings.net, and the community has had some outstandingly well stated interperatations of this song in the comments, all starting around 2004. If you just skip around to the long ones, they’re usually worth the read. Enjoy the list, because I certainly do

Genius Playlist: Death Cab For Cutie – “The New Year”

A new but nonetheless important tradition that I’ve developed in the past half-decade or so is ringing in of every new year not with Auld Lang Syne, but with “The New Year”, a wonderful and poignant take on new beginnings by Death Cab For Cutie. I like to believe that doing so has brought me good fortune, or at the very least a bit of fleeting indie cred. Sadly, this tradition did not carry over to this year, where I found myself at an abysmal party that happened to be booming “Fergalicious” at the moment the clock struck midnight. I have and will continue to contribute every bad thing that happens to me this year to this unfortunate event, and hope and pray that next year begins the correct way.

Fortunately, the redemptive qualities of “The New Year” are not limited to January 1st, as this iTunes Genius playlist got me through an otherwise difficult morning. Filled with semi-obscure tracks from some of my favorite artists, it was a real treat. In the spirit of Epic Genius Playlists, I just can’t keep this one to myself.

Episode 15: Top 5 Metal Albums

The Musical Moron Twins are great and all, but there just hasn’t been enough FACE MELTING. In this episode, we bring an extra dose of rock goodness by counting down our top 5 heavy metal albums along with our newest guest star, Jay (who is a 100% certified metal fanatic). We also discuss Pitchfork’s recent Top 500 songs of the decade list and read a few of our favorite comments from this very blog! We also take a step back from metal for a bit and feature the incredible Bat For Lashes in our “Bands You Need To Know…Or Else!” segment.

As before, you can read our picks after the break and download the new episode with the links below:

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