101 - Prove Your Worth Through Dance (Spice Girls - Wannabe)

This week it's a ridiculously fun episode on Spice Girls' Wannabe from 1996. Emma laments having to be the Baby Spice in her friend group; I discover the stigma against my childhood crush, Sporty Spice; we reveal the strange and wonderful etymology of "zigazig ha," as well as the sordid pasts that the Girls want you to forget.

Also: charitable and WILDLY uncharitable interpretations of the song’s confusing message, the sociopathic behavior exhibited by the group in a music video with unsettling parallels to A Clockwork Orange, and an extra long, extra perverted comment section.

Music We Like: Gnarwhal's Crucial, Animal Collective's 2009 EP Fall Be Kind, and Ides of Gemini's new album Women

100 - Jesse James Hetfield & The Hot Rod Dads (Metallica - Memory Remains)

It's the 100th Episode Spectacular! We're returning to our roots by covering one of our favorite targets: Metallica and another Load-era, mid-tempo slogger, "The Memory Remains." Possibly more importantly, we're also covering the new Hetfield-narrated, moralizing documentary "Addicted to Porn: Chasing the Cardboard Butterfly." That's a real title, and we don't know what it means.

We find surprisingly competent lyrics (probably not written by James) as well as expectedly cliche lyrics (definitely written by James), all of which tell the story of an aging, washed-up celebrity desperately clinging to the vestiges of her fame, and played by singer Marianne Faithful in the video.

Was it an insult to offer her this gig? Does Metallica realize the irony in the subject matter? Is Faithful the reason that the Rolling Stones pop up so much in this episode? Is Lars' drumming even worse than usual?

Plus: we briefly go over the amazing aforementioned documentary that attempts to protect the "beautiful essence of women," as exhibited in the wife who wants to gouge out her husband's eyes for watching porn. We also discover some of James amazing late-in-life tattoos, and I get Szyslak'd by a listener email.

Thank you so much to everyone for helping me make it to 100 episodes! This is the funnest thing I've ever done, and I hope I can do at least 100 more.

99 - Birthday Shower (Methods of Mayhem - Get Naked)

This week it's a thoroughly disgusting episode of That Awful Sound: we’re revisiting the undiluted raunch in Methods of Mayhem’s “Get Naked.” Tommy Lee flops around naked in a bucket hat. Lil Kim rides a giant mechanical rooster. Fred Durst, George Clinton, and Mixmaster Mike chip away at their varying degrees of dignity by making cameos. 

Also: angry/horny youtube commenters, cgi nipples, plenty of racism, and Anthony Tomato responds to our Mest episode on instagram.

“This music video is bad for you”

“It’s bad. It’s not like junk food, it’s not like a Snickers bar, its like putting gasoline in your body”

98 - Flagellate (Creed - My Own Prison)

This week we're revisiting the unreliable witnesses in Creed and their utterly sour lead single, My Own Prison. 

We're chatting about how they fit into our christian (or non-Christian) backgrounds, the band's absurd claim that they aren't actually a "christian band," and how Scott Stapp’s narcissism seeps through these overtly pious lyrics.

Music we like: The Mountain Goats and Pile's "A Hairshirt of Purpose"

97 - Money Mantra (Bush - Glycerine)

Very simple description for this week's episode on account of me being drunk for Easter, but let it suffice to say that this episode contains: mouth sores, a story about my guest Kat Morales getting her period during a slow dance at her christian school, at least 10 different misinterpretations of this song from the comments section, and listener responses to the Mest episode.

96 - Butthole Gang (Lit - Zip-Lock)

This week we cover the the copyright-respecting second single “Zip-Lock,” from Bowling Rock troubadours, Lit; It’s a song about pockets? 

We have a broader conversation about how musical tropes seem novel when you’re younger, bands deliberately writing stage directions into their lyrics, and this director’s penchant for parodying better ideas from other videos (in this case, Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and in last week’s case, Heavy Metal Parking Lot.)

Also: Another kid president (but this time with more dads), a letter from listener and artist @JDRenaud, and a few words from our new sponsor, Roswell Mutual Insurance.

95 - Dawson's Beek (American Hi-Fi - Flavor of the Weak)

This week we cover Nice Guy Anthem(TM) “Flavor of the Weak” by American Hi-Fi. What kind of dirt does the singer have on this girl? How much does he know about her boyfriend? What does he have against marijuana and Nintendo, two things that are arguably very good?

Also: We dissect the music video, a glamorized, sanitized version of the cult documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” and reminisce about how great the latter is.

Music We Like: Baroness - Purple, Land of Talk - Inner Lover, and Thundercat - Drunk (again)

94 - Nature Ensues (Toto - Africa)

This week we dive back into Angie’s wheelhouse, “80’s songs that a lot of people hate.” We’re revisiting Toto’s Africa: a song about a man who sees “death and suffering” in Africa on TV and then compares the continent to a woman he wants to have sex with.

We have a song with about 5 layers of keyboards pretending to be marimbas, drums dressed up like hand drums but being played with sticks, burning a book titled “Africa,” standing on a book titled “Africa,” and brutally tortured lyrics like, “I know that I must do what's right, as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti”

Music We Like: Chavez’s Cockfighters EP, the new At The Drive In, Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War, The Native Howl, and Soft Kill’s “Choke”

91 - Hard to Hula (Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff)

This week we cover Limp Bizkit’s hyper-aggressive “Break Stuff,” a song and video that literally broke apart my guest’s parents’ marriage. He shares this story, other parental connections to the show, and we remember how badass all these cuss words are when you’re 13.

Also: a possible explanation for Fred Durst’s pitch-perfect portrayal of teenage anger, the worst genius.com annotations we’ve ever had on the show, the coolest number to have facing outward on your dice stud earring, and a listener email involving a disturbing sleepover with a KoЯn doll and an even more disturbing Lit-era wardrobe.

You can now support That Awful Sound at patreon.com/thatawfulsound and paypal.me/thatawfulsound, and remember to check out Emma's work at instagram.com/emmamaatman

90 - Ode to Culture (No Doubt - Spiderwebs)

This week we cover No Doubt’s Spiderwebs and its unthematic video in which the band performs for an unreceptive wedding party. We’re chatting about the pre-sexual camera-humping of Gwen Stefani, Sam Rami-style cinematography, and whether Joan Stefani couldn't have been the one to screen her daughter’s phone calls.

Also: fond memories of the local “steel drum guy,” and my guests relay stories about living in the Sublime house and being kissed by Lit singer AJ Popoff at a No Doubt concert.

Music we like: BossaCucaNova's "Bom dia Rio," Sisters of Mercy's Floodland, and Pile's "Dogs"

“I just broke up with my super hot bassist boyfriend, and I wanna get my crotch out there”

89 - So He Barrie's Them (Rob Zombie - Dragula)

This week we cover “Dragula” by Rob Zombie, a song and video we all loved that holds up surprisingly well. With almost nothing bad to say about the video, we turn to a comment section filled with borderline insane people, including but not limited to: offended/not-offended wiccans, 9 year-old head bangers, and potential school shooters.

Was this song an attempt at marketing the idea of a weekend to our dedicated labor force? Did Zombie just want to write a song about a badass car? (yes) And we come up with a cool name for your penis.

Music we like: Dark Thoughts and Joan of Arc's "He's Got The Whole This Land Is Your Land In His Hands"

88 - Wow That's What I Call Weird (Train - Meet Virginia)

This week we “Meet Virginia,” a monster brought to life by mom rock juggernauts Train in their 1998 single. She’s not like other girls.

Also: rhyming words with themselves… twice, remorseful memories of bullying girls in high school with Nickelback lyrics and flying burritos, and, again, a song that strikes an unlikely chord with am internet commentator.

Music We Like: Watsky - X Infinity, Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition, and Afghan Whigs - Do To The Beast

87 - Nobody Cool Is Still Alive (Green Jelly - Three Little Pigs)

This week we're chatting about “the opposite of jazz fusion”: Green Jelly’s claymation video for “Three Little Pigs." Guest Derek appreciates songs made up of just one riff, we have a healthy discussion on the merits of anthropomorphic pig asses, and an edgy, 90’s update of the Big Bad Wolf gets gunned down by Rambo.

“Is this the longest punk song ever written?”

“This is three minutes longer than the longest punk song ever written.”

Music We Like: Ken Mode's Success LP and Nerve EP, Robert Glasper and Jill Scott's "Calls," and AFI's "Get Hurt"

86 - Lick the Coffin (Backstreet Boys - Backstreet's Back)

This week I'm talking exclusively to Emma Maatman about her single-digit, pre-tween infatuation with Backstreet Boys and the excellent video for the historically complicated "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)".

We cover the most confidently dinky beat in RnB and a fun, very "believable" music video featuring a backflipping werewolf pimp, a hideously scarred phantom of the opera, and a goofy, decidedly un-sexual mummy.

Also: Not wanting to be a home wrecker or a “slut” when choosing your boy band crush, learning grammar through pop songs, and the christian names of these classic monsters

Music we like: Chavez's Cockfighter EP

85 - The Black Obama (Crazy Town - Darkside)

This week we're covering Crazy Town... again? Guest Matt Zeidner explains how, at age 12, this was the perfect blend of hip hop and punk rock (as clearly stated in the song), and how a particularly terrible lyric held a personal meaning for him. 

Also: Crazy Town describes what this song sounds like, namedrops MUCH better bands, hints at even more disturbing fantasies than those we’re aware of, and a listener relates an Awful Sound-related band encounter.

Music we like: Slowdive's new track, Star Roving, and Migos' upcoming C U L T U R E

84 - The Moon Is Flat (Alan Jackson - Chattahoochee)

This week Cahn returns to chat about the INCREDIBLE "Chattahoochee" from 1993. Is this the music video America needs right now? I think so.

On the docket: Alan Jackson's penchant for writing songs based on phrases he hears; the average temperature of "a hoochie coochie"; interesting reactions to frustrated abstinence; the good-natured fun and stunning visuals of the video, which revolve around teenage antics and glorious footage of Jackson himself absolutely shredding on a single ski in the Chattahoochee river.

Music we like: Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and Omar Rodriguez Lopez's Sworn Virgins

Remember to check out Nick Bahula's artwork at instagram.com/bahulashop and throw some business his way!

83 - It's FUNNY (Bloodhound Gang - Fire Water Burn)

This week guest Travis Duscay finally admits musical fallibility as we return to one of his adolescent favorites, The Bloodhound Gang, and their hackneyed, overbearingly ironic "Fire Water Burn."

Does repeating a punchline twice make it three times as funny? As an aging actor, would you risk what might be your final performance on being the butt of Jimmy Pop's sight gags? If you admit to being white frequently enough, do you become a good rapper? Colby Ferrin has an answer for that.

Music We Like: Death Grips - Bottomless Pit, Troller

82 - No [Scrubs] (New Found Glory - Dressed to Kill)

It’s the 2 year anniversary of That Awful Sound! Matt Booth returns for this very special episode and we revisit New Found Glory’s lovesick, middle school anthem “Dressed to Kill” and its cringey video featuring a y2k-era nice-guy stalker lusting after an equally psychotic Rachel Leigh Cook. 

To celebrate the occasion we dive deeper than ever into our horrible fashion choices, including fake piercings made from household items, hot topic socks worn thin, and temporary tattoos purchased FAR too late in life.

We also recap our favorite albums of the year, including Angel Du$t’s “Rock The Fuck On Forever,” Helms Alee’s “Stillicide,” Creative Adult’s “Fear of Life,” Dinosaur Jr’s “Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not,” BADBADNOTGOOD’s “IV,” Nocturnal Habits’ “New Skin For Old Children,” Solange’s “A Seat At The Table,” Field Music’s “Common Time,” Autolux’s “Pussy’s Dead,” and Royal Canoe’s “Something Got Lost Between Here and The Orbit”