For the first time in show history, Cort reports back on two assignments: Hot Fuss by The Killers and Is This It by The Strokes. Spoiler: in the battle of early-2000s skinny-tie rock, Julian Casablancas and company take the win. While Brandon Flowers receives everything he is due, Is This It ultimately proves to be the better debut. Come see if the guys' argument is compelling.

From there, we dig into possible early similarities between the bands and then track the sharply different directions they took after those first albums. We also compare Casablancas and Flowers themselves: two charismatic frontmen who could not be more different once you look past the eyeliner.

Naturally, the conversation veers into the Super Bowl halftime show, Brian’s Texas travel adventures (including ride-share logistics that apparently require a flowchart), and there's an irresistible return to The Traitors specifically because of one “twist” that might qualify as self-sabotage.

We (almost) close with Brian’s experience seeing Jagged Little Pill, because nothing says seamless podcast structure like pivoting from indie rock revivalism to Alanis Morissette’s Broadway adaptation.

It’s music criticism, travel complaints, reality TV grievances, and musical theater — all in one tidy hour. You’re welcome.

🎧 Is This It - The Strokes https://open.spotify.com/album/2k8KgmDp9oHrmu0MIj4XDE?si=A84nrhe2TE-GdJTVvjQKTA

🎧 Hot Fuss - The Killers https://open.spotify.com/album/4piJq7R3gjUOxnYs6lDCTg?si=qL5lt7zURbuILwd6M6kGXA

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus - The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Brian doesn't love the honk of Geese? The guys have some corrections to share. It's also episode 75, so there's the "episode 75" game that must be played. We hit a TON of pop culture. Brian is asking the questions, sir! Not Cort! Join us!

Geese - Getting Killed - https://open.spotify.com/album/0eeXb23yMW6EaIgm63xxPC?si=8kgyTiU6T8ixTlsapHwNrQ

Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus - The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Cort returns with a review of Dove Ellis's Blizzard, a debut album that came out of nowhere. Dove gained notoriety opening for Geese, and Blizzard may have (briefly) consumed Brian's world. The consensus favorite song is “love is,” which sparks the important question: great song… or perfect song?

From there, we do a quick and dirty psychological profile of Dove through his rise to fame, a lecture from Cort on the value of introverts, and authenticity and the “is this a gimmick?” debate. Without much warning there's a hard pivot into Brian’s New Year trip to Spain, complete with a tale of the Catalan log that allegedly poops presents, Caga Tió. Did Caga Tió inspire an American Christmas legend?

We also hit the Counting Crows documentary, the Golden Globes (including the rage-baiting podcasts award category), a little Traitors/Amazing Race reality-TV tangent, and a brief Stranger Things Season 5 postmortem.

Everything old is new again when Cort assigns Brian something a little more musical to listen to for next Ep. What could it be?

And finally, the random podcast generator tries to ruin everyone’s day.

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

💿 Dove Ellis — Blizzard https://open.spotify.com/album/3Brw2Xdmo6VRPWwOBNye0i?si=etQ5NE9nSbmHwOzhgoJuMA

Brian reports back on his latest assignment from Cort: chapters 6–16 of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. Somewhere along the way, Brian may have warmed up to the previously disparaged Owen Teale. The conversation expands to Jones’s broader body of work and why empathy, once activated, can be deeply inconvenient.

From there, things go where they always do. Clare Danes gets a brief nod. The guys half-commit to an end-of-year wrap-up, tie off a few loose threads, and wander through college football, fluoridated water, and the strange realization that talking trash about other podcasters might actually work.

Eddie Murphy enters the chat. Politics follow, because it’s the end of the year and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Brian delivers his latest movie-listening report (The Strangers: Part 2 and Wake Up Dead Man), and the episode closes with a fresh assignment for Cort because the cycle must continue.

Brian’s Assignment from Cort: 📖 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Narrated by Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teale https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Buffalo-Hunter-Hunter-Audiobook/B0DD52VDNL

📖 Explore Stephen Graham Jones’ work: https://www.demontheory.net

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Brian assigned Cort some holiday spirit with Holiday Rules, a Christmas compilation by various artists, and some nostalgia with The Grand Archives by Grand Archives. Feelings were had. Some stronger than others. No one is claiming a seasonal awakening, but we listened and we showed up.

From there, the conversation predictably veers off course into night swimming, because apparently that was inevitable.

Brian runs through recent movie watching, including The Black Phone 2 (written by Stephen King’s son) and Jay Kelly, and then he brings up another little nugget, Ella McKay starring Emma Mackey alongside Jamie Lee Curtis. This leads us to Brian’s theory about why movies like Ella McKay don’t get made often enough, but there is some cruel irony related to his theory and his feelings about Jay Kelly.

Cort reiterates his puzzlement about Pluribus detractors (boo, hiss), and Brian attempts to help Cort understand what exactly the “Durian Gap” is. We wrap things up with a report from a Nate Bargatze concert. Was Nate funny? Was the show good? What ultimate podcast sin could Nate possibly have committed that would get Brian and Cort riled up?

The episode is Christmas-adjacent and mildly festive.

Albums discussed:

• The Grand Archives — Grand Archives https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ya4unJBIYZFYs42Ebyf4t?si=9G3W3kJRS42Xewb_w4SXVQ

• Holidays Rule — Various Artists https://open.spotify.com/album/6WYKqCoezPOWXD9UxbXyGZ?si=RS_SZCc2SOiUDgKJirLZeA

Theme song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

This week, Brian reports back on his assignment: the first five chapters of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (Cort’s new literary obsession and Brian’s long-standing one). Turns out, loving Jones on the page may or may not mean loving his work performed directly into your ears. Brian’s early take? Cautiously optimistic.

Marin Ireland does fine. Owen Teale … well, Brian isn’t convinced he wants an entire book read to him by "Welsh Gravel Goliath." But then enters Shane Ghostkeeper, voicing Goodstab, and suddenly Brian is handing out two thumbs up like he’s Roger Ebert at a Fellini festival.

From there, the conversation drifts into Stranger Things Season 5, where opinions are shared, and Brian demonstrates that even confident opinions can be wrong. Cort finally gets a chance to see Leslie Odom, Jr. return as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, and he absolutely did not throw away his shot. Both hosts also caught & Juliet at the Orpheum, resulting in a predictable difference of opinion between a guy who's a theater geek and a guy with a massive intellect firing on all cylinders (whether necessary or not)..

They close things out by taking Rolling Stone firmly to task over its end-of-year lists, which somehow manage to be wrong in every possible direction at once ... an achievement that deserves recognition, if not praise.

Settle in. It’s a ride. A slightly combative, extremely opinionated ride.

Brian’s Assignment from Cort: 📖 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Narrated by Shane Ghostkeeper, Marin Ireland, and Owen Teale https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Buffalo-Hunter-Hunter-Audiobook/B0DD52VDNL

📖 Explore Stephen Graham Jones’ work: https://www.demontheory.net

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Brian assigned Cort An Awesome Wave by Alt-J… and Cort actually loved it. The album’s layered production and a unique approach to the rhythm section landed squarely in his wheelhouse, especially since the lyrics mattered approximately not at all. Brian had thoughts too, of course, and they compare notes on how the album hits two very different listeners.

Brian also reports back from seeing Nuremberg, and the guys generally discuss their recent watching habits. Cort assigns the first five chapters of the audiobook The Buffalo Hunter Hunter to Brian. There is other stuff too (I'm pretty sure opinions were shared. Probably.)

🎧 An Awesome Wave — Alt-J https://open.spotify.com/album/6k3vC8nep1BfqAIJ81L6OL?si=CC7wU3IqSICZTlBkOwwsFg

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=1b5008d6d0a14170https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Brian and Cort are at it again in Episode 69 of Listeners Like You, the podcast for listeners by listeners, in which Brian and Cort pretend sharing their extremely ordinary media consumption habits are a public service.

In this episode, Brian and Cort heroically attempt to discuss the end of Chuck Wendig’s latest book, Staircase in the Woods, without sounding like literary snobs holding Wendig to some unattainable standard of storytelling. Brian picks apart the plot, the narrators, and his own fan-casting of the yet-to-be-made movie version of the book.

Cort covers The Mash Up, a whiskey podcast. Brian unveils his “Battle of the Birthdays” game.

We also detour into Stephen King adaptations, again, cult documentaries, and the philosophical question of how long two 52-year-old men can walk without dying.

Finally, ask yourself this question: Does Brian contain multitudes? Listen and find out!