Now Hear This

Hope you're ready to join a fan club, because this episode is new and NOT a mistake! Now Hear This welcomes special guest Joe Pierandozzi to walk us through the wild, whacky and otherwise wonderful 1993 Jellyfish LP Spilt Milk. This Sturmer/Manning masterwork came in over-time, over-budget and over-blown, but has evolved into the kind of cult record that would spawn a million indie darlings - and continues to inspire to this day. N...

Lucy Walsh joins us to discuss her 2020 EP When Life Was Figured Out, and this six-track tour de force features a stunning array of talents from our guest this week. Join us as we deep-dive into Lucy's roots as an intensely-trained singer and pianist, and discuss her songwriting evolution over the years alongside some of the biggest talents in the music industry. From touring the world to finding inspiration in unusual places, Lucy...

What's his name? It's RINGO! What's the album we're talking about today? OLD WAVE! The best Ringo album you've likely...never heard? In 1983 when former Beatle Ringo Starr needed a new sound to revitalize his solo career, ol' Ritchie enlisted the help of Eagles rocker Joe Walsh to craft a clean, catchy, up-tempo record that embodied the very best in Starr's capabilities. But a string of flops wrecked label havoc with this collectio...

Prepare yourself for podcasts without frontiers - it's the Now Hear This deep dive into Peter Gabriel's seminal third solo (and third self-titled) studio effort, affectionately dubbed "Peter Gabriel 3" or "Melt". This groundbreaking gem not only cemented the solo hit-making status of the original Genesis frontman, but also established sounds that would permeate popular music throughout the 1980's (and beyond). Joining us on this jo...

Ready to shine a light on the ultimate rock'n'roll band? Well, break out the cheap stuff and get those taxes in order because Now Hear This is taking a journey into the depraved south of France to deep dive into the Rolling Stones atmospheric masterpiece: Exile On Main Street. This torn and frayed offering of drunken stomps and trademark Jagger/Richards balls-out fury is held in high esteem by most...but has it always been that way...

Suit up in your green shirt and prepare for battle! At long last, Now Hear This tackles Elvis Costello with an over-sized examination of 1979's Armed Forces - Elvis's third studio LP and early breakthrough project in a career that now spans nearly five decades. Joining Paul for this discussion is none other than Chris Mercer - cofounder of the hit Take It Away: The Complete Paul McCartney Archive podcast and Declan McManus aficiona...

Annabel Jones joins us to discuss her 2016 debut solo EP Libelle, and this five-track powerhouse is packed with emotional punch. In this career-spanning discussion, we venture from Annabel's musical beginnings in Lady and The Lost Boys, up through the harder-edged Bluebell and straight through to her most recent recordings. This defiant, bemused, truthful, human record is music to our ears. Now hear this: "Happy," "Magnetic," "Spir...

We're loyal, oh-oh, We've got the heart of a pod! And heart is certainly in abundance when we're talking about the rock'n'roll uber-combo of Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart: THE KILLS. This deep-dive into the band's 2016 studio effort Ash and Ice will take Paul and Ryan from London flats to the circus railway to Anthony Bourdain's kitchen and back again...and this raw, raunchy rock is the kind of sonic substance you curl up with on...

Friendship is rare, do you know what i'm saying to you? It's in that spirit of friendship that Paul & Ryan pay tribute to the self-titled debut album of one of the greatest bands to rock your socks since the turn of the millennium: the wonderboys known as Tenacious D. The story goes that tacos and the promise of guitar lessons brought Jack Black and Kyle Gass together to form this fateful duo back in the mid-1990's, and since t...

We're dirty, sweet and we're your pod! For the season sophomore offering of NOW HEAR THIS we bring you the adventures of a man with stars in his beard, whose eye doth shine like an Egyptian ruby... Mr. Boogaloo himself - Marc Bolan! Under the band name T. Rex, Marc and his outfit of like-minded rock and roll jeepsters put some serious boogie in the bottoms of the world with their blockbuster LP Electric Warrior back in '71. Ryan an...

Now Hear This is BACK! Kicking off season 3 of the great album exchange, Ryan brings to the table the high-energy twisted tunes of Chris Ballew, Dave Dederer and Jason Finn on their self-titled debut album The Presidents of the United States of America! This raucous recording captured the hearts, minds and eardrums of the nation when it was released in the spring of 1995, driven by monster singles like "Peaches" and "Lump", coupled...

Hello ... HELLO again! Holy smokes folks, we're riding the new wave with The Cars' 1984 album Heartbeat City. Grab your skinny ties, Fairlight CMI synthesizers, headless Steinberger bass guitars, and best impressions of Ric Ocasek and let's fly. Wait, no ... drive. Paul and Ryan are both big fans of The Cars and this LP represents six months of Ric, Benjamin, Elliot, Greg, and David's painstaking production guided by legend Mutt La...

How do you all feel about that new Cream Soda Dr. Pepper? No matter your answer, and we're not going to wait for you to give one, it doesn't matter because we're back with our regularly scheduled programming. Back with what you ask? Beck's 2008 LP Modern Guilt and we don't feel guilty about it. Ryan definitely missed the memo about this one and Paul smacks him upside the head with it. In a spiritual sense. Beck teams up with Danger...

Trick question. If The Beatles were bigger than Jesus, were they bigger or smaller than Yeezus? Before you answer, consider listening to this high energy episode on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from 2010. No two men should have all that power so the boys brought in Max Perenchio aka The Pelican Boy to chop it up about the writing, recording, and baffling story behind this album. Not interested in rap? Good news, t...

(SNARE DRUM) Baaaadlaaaaands! Do you enjoy jean jackets, well-worn Telecasters, New Jersey, old-fashioned blue collar grit, patriotism, and songs about broken dads or former high school heroes? Welcome back to Now Hear This where we jump - (SNARE DRUM) HUHf! BAAAAAAAAAADLANDS! - woah now, sorry, we cannot help ourselves this episode. Extraordinarily excited to walk you through Bruce Springsteen's 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town, ...