Ep. #143 – The Return Of Mega Ran

In this episode, Matt welcomes back the incredible and prolific nerdcore rap legend, Mega Ran! Together they chat about Ran’s collaboration with MC Lars on their album, “The Dewey Decibel System”, the inspiration for his podcast, going from being a wrestling fan to being in the ring, playing live, creating in a time of social distancing, his latest EP “Ages Vol. 1” and finding time to enjoy pop culture without the need to always create from it.

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Stormageddon Recommends… Week #4

For this week’s recommendation I’m recommending a band. That band is Flobots. They are a band that seamlessly mixes some of my favorite genres of music from hip hop to folk to rock to pop to indie and more. I highly recommend all of their albums but my favorite is The Circle In The Square which was released in 2012. My favorite song by them however and the one I’m putting the playlist is from their 2010 release called Survival Story and is called “If I.” They flow with a rebel energy and are incredibly diverse. Definitely worth checking out.

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Stormageddon Recommends… Week #3

This week’s recommendation starts with a thank you. Thank you to Bunny Buxom and Schaffer the Darklord for introducing me to this artist. The song I picked this week is “Run For Your Life” by the incredible K.Flay from the upcoming Tomb Raider movie. I love this track for so many reasons. Her seamless shift from singing to rapping. The instrumental progression is killer and keeps it interesting. The verses are about the lyrics but the chorus is about a feeling and the sound. The instrumental bridge is stunning.

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CCP Ep. #243: Noenemies by Flobots

Where were you in September 2012? We were fumbling through the Flobots’ last album, The Circle in the Square. And now, after many moons, we’re tackling them again, hopefully with steadier hands and heads. Jonny 5, Brer Rabbit, KennyO, and company are back at it, releasing their first album in that timespan, Noenemies. We’ll discuss the current state of Flobots, the new album and its content, while touching briefly on “having your back against the wall” so to speak—confronting the ‘thens’ and ‘nows’ of critical consideration.

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CCP Ep. #241: Humanz by Gorillaz

It’s time for everyone’s favorite (and perhaps only) virtual band! Although we’ve inspected the work of Damon Albarn before, this is our first chance to take on the Gorillaz, an unrelated ensemble of animated musicians — 2-D, Mudoc, Noodle, and Russel — who, as far as we’re concerned, are behind the music we’re hearing. On their latest album, Humanz, the Gorillaz introduce a bevy of artists, both old and new, to help with the project and take on its variety of subjects. Let’s follow along! And save room for a brief discussion on the subjectivity and flexibility of rating criteria where art is concerned.

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Ep. #52 – Feat. Hops

Today, Matt welcomes back another “crossover guest” — that is to say, a guest who made an appearance on our other series, the Crash Chords Podcast, in Episode #77. That guest would be the rapper, writer, director, producer, and video editor hailing from New York City, known as Hops. Given the opportunity for a second interview, Hops updates Crash Chords on his latest exploits. Having stepped away from rap temporarily to work on a dance record, Hops discusses his current job doing video editing for Fortune.com as well as a short film he’s directed called Take Me With You. Seeing as there’s plenty afoot for the talented producer, the two also discuss the current state of the film industry and media’s effects on modern-day society.

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CCP Ep. #198: The Impossible Kid by Aesop Rock

Ready to take on the impossible, kid? Help us take on The Impossible Kid, the 7th studio release by veteran wordsmith Aesop Rock. You can thank listener Alex StarF Alverson for today’s pick as we hope you’ll join us in peeling back the layers of this complex self-assessment of an album: one of both the artist and the person. As wordsmithing will be of critical importance to today’s episode, we decided to conduct our own self-assessment in our topic [at 1:48:18] as we take a brief look at the importance of word choice in critical analysis, as well as in the art itself.

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CCP Ep. #173: Surf by Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment

To close out this review season, we bring you the debut album by the most ambitious collaborators we’ve ever looked at… Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment. Although they began with a core of five members, the band’s debut album Surf certainly lives up to their name, The Social Experiment, by introducing MANY more musical minds to the table. Offering the album up for free (exclusively on iTunes), the band appears to be as magnanimous as they are community-driven. Enjoy this thorough analysis along with, lastly, some quick thoughts on contemporary music trends — verily on our minds as we fast approach the 2015 year in review.

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Ep. #36 – Feat. Bag of Tricks Cat

Today Matt welcomes Arizona rapper Bag of Tricks Cat. Curious about the name? Behind it is a sentimental story of how the rapper owes his deep love of music to his grandmother, Ann Bennett, who sang the “Felix the Cat” theme song in 1959. Although Bag of Tricks Cat has taken his music career in different directions, the love of music remains and is currently firing the production of an LP called Cat’s Out of the Bag, which will feature his already-released singles “Never Sober” and “Dream Girl”. The full album will be released in Summer 2016. With Matt, Bag of Tricks Cat discusses his biggest influences; his writing process; and close collaborator, touring mate, and former Autographs guest Mega Ran. He also chats about the video shoot for the “Dream Girl” single and about how the new record will differ from his previous, The Cat That Never Came Down.

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CCP Ep. #168: Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots

Today’s album, Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots, explores the many ugly heads of ‘insecurity’. Fun times! But there’s a catch… The artist (the author and musician) is very much a part of the tale, which leads to a rather — wait for it — “meta” plot-structure. Yes, that label, “meta” (as groan-worthy as it has become in pseudo-academic culture), adds a strong dimension to Blurryface. That being the case, starting at 1:34:55 we take some time to explore the use of “meta” elements in other pieces of music, as well as some common fallacies that have erupted from the word itself.

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