Arkansasdomy (Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication)

This week Shaina and Michael join me to revisit Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication," a mournfully chill song about how Californian culture is copulating with the rest of the world--to mixed results.

How did Anthony Kiedis's "cleansing trip to Thailand" factor into the creation of this song? Do we have the strength of will to analyze all five verses? Can anyone but Californians enjoy this band responsibly? 

Plus: a music video featuring an RHCP-themed video game that doesn't exist and shouldn't, candid moments where we admit to liking parts of this song, and as usual, utterly deranged youtube comments.

Subscribe at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for over an hour of bonus content from this episode

Lie Back & Think of Nebraska (Uncle Kracker - Follow Me)

Lie Back & Think of Nebraska (Uncle Kracker - Follow Me)

Following in Kid Rock’s carpetbagging cowboy boot steps, Uncle Kracker released his debut album featuring this banal, confusingly confident single about:

  1. Heroin (duh you stupid idiot)

  2. Adultery

  3. Being Secretly Gay

  4. Being Openly Very Cool

Also: a music video featuring characters fantasizing about better music, a Cracker with a stage performance like a tired sock, and an older woman in the comments section who tries to teach young boys the art of seduction.

Noice Noice (Offspring - Original Prankster)

This week Michael Munoz brings his gringo expertise, and Leigh harnesses her SaNdLeR background to discuss a godawful song and video from The Offspring.

It's a wretched reboot of Pretty Fly For A White Guy featuring a cringeworthy pastiche of latino culture (mostly women) and a prominent, nauseating Rob Schneider soundbite.

Oh, the video also features high school Lolitas being molested by their principle... as a prank?

Get bonus content including music we still like and tons of youtube comments at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound

Solo Show: John Popper is Poly (Blues Traveler, JC Chasez, and 3OH!3 - Blow Up The Moon)

Solo Show: John Popper is Poly (Blues Traveler, JC Chasez, and 3OH!3 - Blow Up The Moon)

3, 2, 1, Kaboom. This week I blow up the moon, and this podcast, by doing my first ever official solo episode. (I think I had a solo Grammys show like 3 years back, but we all know the Grammys don't actually matter)

I'm here to dissect one of the more bizarre entries into That Awful Sound cannon: a collaboration between Blues Traveler, JC Chasez, and 3OH!3.

Blow Up The Moon is the titular track from an album full of unwanted collaborations including Jewel, Rome without Sublime, and a guy from American Pie.

Not bizarre enough, you claim? Well, the music video was generated using Grand Theft Auto V rendering software.

Music I Actually Like: Talking Heads - '77, and Captain Beefheart - Shiny Beast

PS3 Owner (Eighteen Visions - Victim)

PS3 Owner (Eighteen Visions - Victim)

This week we revisit early 2000's metalcore, and then flash-forward 6 years to when it got extremely bad, with Eighteen Visions' "Victim."

We discuss the band's transformation over their career, from interesting and good to opening for Hinder.

Music We Like: Touche Amore's Green, Daughters' Satan in the Wait, R'n'R, Doomriders, and Suicide File.


Western Waxing (Paula Cole - Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?)

Western Waxing (Paula Cole - Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?)

This week Leigh joins me to talk about not being allowed to listen to Alanis, not wanting to shave her armpits, and a song we both still kind of like: Paula Cole's "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?


We go over the song's amazingly misinterpreted, including anti-feminists misreadings by Spin Magazine, Rush Limbaugh, and former congressman Allen West.


Music we still like: Swirlies - They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days in the Glittering World of the Salons and Lisa Loeb's Silly Sing-along

FILM (Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated)

FILM (Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated)

Welcome back to the show! This week we're returning to mid-00's radio demo with Dashboard Confessional.

We cover the history of this song, including the fact that it was written in 10 minutes by an inspired Chris Carraba after a screening of Spider-Man 2.

We also suss out the creepiness of these lyrics, one listener's overtly creepy interpretation of these lyrics, and Cohost Tony reminisces about carrying around a watercolor portrait of Chris Carraba in his three-ring binder.

Music We Like: Thrice - The Grey, Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth, Zeta - L'antiteoria Del Todo

Cypher Soul Patch (Willa Ford - I Wanna Be Bad - With rap and with vocorder ALSO ALBUM VERSION)

Cypher Soul Patch (Willa Ford - I Wanna Be Bad - With rap and with vocorder ALSO ALBUM VERSION)

This week we talk about Willa Ford, an aspiring bad girl whose career was cut short by a tragic event in 2001. Returning guest Laura Mee recalls this song helping hone her edge during the transition from  Utah to California, and from pop to pop punk.

We talk about the precedent set by the song with likely paved the way for the “dirty” eras of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera; A weird, Eminem-based rap verse by someone who is not Eminem; And an outfit featuring what we all agree to be a diaper.

Music We Like: Zaytoven - Get Back Right, Gatecreeper - Sonoran Deprivation, and Gay Witch Abortion - Maverick

Going on vacation for two weeks! Get bonus content in the meantime at Patreon.com/thatawfulsound

Brad's Memorial (Sublime - Date Rape)

Brad's Memorial (Sublime - Date Rape)

This week on a very special episode of That Awful Sound, we take a self-guided Sublime tour around Long Beach, visiting important historical markers such as the Sublime mural, ONS liquor store, Cal State Long Beach (where 40 oz to Freedom was recorded), Bradley Nowell’s gravesite, and a random head shop in order to bring you a jam-packed episode on the band’s breakout single, Date Rape.

How did this song exist? Why? Do Sublime fans invalidate whatever good intentions this song might’ve originally had?

Also: Dr. Drew whole-heartedly supports the song, Lou Dog gives the actor in this video 30 stitches, and Ron Jeremy produces and gives a dual-role performance.

Music We Actually Like: Karl Blau - Zebra, Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel, Death of a Nation - Self-Titled

Subscribe to patreon.com/thatawfulsound to hear bonus content from this episode including audio recorded along our tour.

Sustained (Enrique Iglesias - Bailamos)

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This week Michael "Matchbox" Muñoz joins me to talk Enrique and his massive hit "Bailamos" and it's weird relationship with Wild Wild West, including a music video tie-in and a gushing review from Will Smith himself.

Plus: old online news copy and all the cringe-y wordplay that entails, lyrics about defiant, life-threatening dancing, and some of the most bizarre youtube comments we've ever had

go to Patreon.com/thatawfulsound for hours of bonus content 

Follow The Leader (Unwritten Law - Seein Red)

Follow The Leader (Unwritten Law - Seein Red)

This week I talk “Seein Red’” with Nick Guenzler (@TerminalRadness) by Unwritten Law and not Chevelle

We remember how the vast majority of us were tricked into thinking this band was punk, the various physical altercations between the lead singer and his bandmates, and the lazy-yet-bizarre music video featuring 5 clones of the singer making out with 5 clones of his girlfriend.

Music We Like: BAMBARA - Shadow on Everything, and Iceage - Beyondless

Dust In Piece (Megadeth - Train of Consequences)

This week Cahn rejoins me to FINALLY cover another member of the Big Four: Megadeth, and their ultra-literal "Train of Consequences."

How much of this song is about horse racing? Did their drummer ever figure out how the rotating room effect works? Did Paul Schaffer ever get to shred on harmonica with another metal band? I'm afraid this episode raises more questions than it answers.

Music We Like: Sleep - The Sciences, J Cole - KOD, Goastsnake - Flower of Disease, DJ Dione - Pain Till I Die, and Megadeth

147 - Sh*tsten Beybor (Busta Rhymes & Janet Jackson - What's It Gonna Be)

147 - Sh*tsten Beybor (Busta Rhymes & Janet Jackson - What's It Gonna Be)

We cover the amazing, $2.4 million video featuring oceans of goo, Janet Jackson in a dominatrix outfit, and Busta Rhymes as a shape-shifting lion dragon sperm.

Music We Like: Coltrane - A Few of My Favorite Things, Ghastly Sound, - The Bottom, Tweak Bird, Lightning Bolt, Torche - Restarter, and Sammus - Pieces in Space

Hoobastank - Crawling in the Dark

Hoobastank - Crawling in the Dark

This week Ray Harkens of Taken joins the show to talk about his affinity for early 2000’s post grunge and butt rock, through the lens of Hoobastank’s “Crawling in the Dark”

Taken also has a new EP, their first recordings in over a decade, and you can hear the title track now on Spotify or other streaming services.

“If we weren’t a hardcore band, I think we would probably sound a little bit like Trust Company or Hoobastank”

In This Episode: FOUR different interpretations of the totally straightforward lyrics, one involving an animated mole prince, and another involving adolescent masturbation. Also we have Michael seeing the band on the “Sprite Liquid Mix” tour in 2002, a totally sick Mountain Dew commercial featuring Hoobastank and a pre-fame Channing Tatum, and a song meanings comment about one young man’s potential to save the world.

Music We Like: Hot Water Music - A Flight And A Crash, Slow Meadow - Costero, At The Gates - A Stare Bound In Stone, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Shiggy

Chill Ass Girl (Dido - Thank You)

Chill Ass Girl (Dido - Thank You)

This week we cover my love/hate relationship with Dido's "Thank You," a seemingly melancholy song that is actually just about a cool boyfriend.

You better believe we cover the song's intersection with Eminem's "Stan," how the movie "Up" ripped off Dido's spite house in this music video, and plenty of bizarre youtube comments.

Music We Like: Thundercat - Drank (Chopped & Skewed), Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue, and Hot Snakes - Jericho Sirens

Luke Bryan - That's My Kind of Night

This week Aimee-Beth wants to talk about ironic (?) country (?) club anthem (?) "That's My Kind of Night" by Luke Bryan

Is this song making fun of hip hop or desperately trying to crib from it? Both? Are the static shots of cowboy boots a joke? Is this music video a rejected Monday Night Football promo? Who knows?

Music We Like: Greater Pyrenees - Self-Titled, Frodus - And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea, Depeche Mode - Violator 

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