The Strokes Is This It remains a monumental release as the figurehead of the early 2000s rock revival in NYC. Matt pitches Fever to Tell and Bows + Arrows as equally important to the scene’s narrative.

Matt and Tim talk the visceral joys of Björk’s music before discussing Iceland’s fertile post-rock scene, namely Sigur Ros and mum.

Listen to hear Tim break Matt’s brain in real time as we discuss the marvelously Dense Paul’s Boutique and then tomes by mewithoutYou and Tool. Matt does his very best to not fawn too much.

In this episode we discuss three artists who have a bit of Brian Wilson - reclusive, maybe a bit prickly, genius-level songwriters - to them in The Magnetic Fields, D’Angelo, and Fiona Apple.

Matt introduces Public Enemy’s abrasive Fear of a Black Planet and discusses classics by Ms. Lauryn Hill and The Roots as other approaches to presenting, interrogating, and performing Black Power in music.

Matt explains Shoegaze while discussing the genre’s stone-cold classic Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. Slowdive’s Souvlaki and Ride’s Nowhere, well-regarded classics in their own right, are presented as replacement titles for the soul of Shoegaze.

A mighty triumvirate of hip-hop this episode. We talk Jay-Z, Nas, and Biggie as emblems of Growing Old in hip hop (and as masters of diss tracks).

Matt and Tim look at more recent artists that wield Distortion with a similar verve to Sonic Youth on their stone-cold classic Daydream Nation in Silversun Pickups (Carnavas) and Mitski (Bury Me at Makeout Creek).

D’Angelo’s Voodoo was the culmination and natural end of Neo Soul, a vibrant (if arbitrarily named) genre in the mid to late 90s. Matt introduces other titans of Neo Soul in Maxwell and Erykah Badu.

Who cares if Pavement is cool, join Matt and Tim in rejoicing in the delightful, affirming ridiculousness of Ween and Art Brut, two bands for whom Irony is the last thing to worry about.