Best Album for Starting a Podcast
It’s launch week, and in the first of three episodes, Dave and Caleb present their picks for the Best Album For Starting a Podcast. They find a not-so-deep cut from 1995 that captures all of their...
View ArticleCratering a Social Network
In the second of three launch week episodes, Dave and Caleb choose their Best Album For a nearly universal human experience — Cratering a Social Network. What kind of music would someone listen to if...
View ArticleApologizing to Your Kids
In the last of the launch week episodes, Dave and Caleb figure out the Best Album For Apologizing to Your Kids. What music would work best in the background of modeling emotional health and doing the...
View ArticleDoing Peyote in the Woods
Two guys who have never done any hard drugs choose the best album for a hallucinogenic drug experience. Why? Because they’ve seen every movie and television depiction of the experience, good and bad,...
View ArticleElevating a Backyard BBQ
Summer is here and along with it comes numerous excuses to gather in someone’s backyard to grill out (or, barbecue / BBQ if you’re from the midwest. We see you, Texas.) What are the most important...
View ArticleBecoming Musically Sentient (Part 1: Caleb)
This week we’re releasing two new episodes on the same theme: the first album you remember where music held the place that is means to you now — what we call ‘becoming musically sentient.’ Caleb takes...
View ArticleBecoming Musically Sentient, Part 2 (Dave)
It’s part two of our superhero origin stories as we unpack Dave’s arrival at becoming ‘musically sentient’ — the first album he remembers where music meant to him what it means now. We journey through...
View ArticleDecompressing After a Long Day
We discover that we have very different ideas about what it means to decompress, from when that process should begin to how it should end. Should decompression be energizing after a long day, or should...
View ArticleListening to Music in the First Half of 2023 (Best of 2023 so far...)
Dave and Caleb present a special episode entirely dedicated to new music from this year as they count down their individual top 5 lists of 2023 music so far, plus a peak at what they’re excited about...
View ArticleSolo Road Trip
Dave and Caleb hit the open road and pick the best album for a road trip by yourself. Along the way, they talk about guilty pleasures, whether one can dance while driving a car, the scourge of hidden...
View ArticleGetting Work Done at a Coffee Shop
Dave and Caleb explore their ideal work settings and choose the album for the inevitable times you’re stuck in a coffee shop with bad reggae covers playing in the background. Along the way, they...
View ArticleWorking Out When You Don't Want To
Dave and Caleb lament how easy it is to lose momentum on work outs and pick their best albums for getting out of bed or out the door to get a work out in when you're really unmotivated. Caleb takes us...
View ArticleBurying a Body with a Friend
You get a call in the middle of the night from your best pal, panicked and determined. Something unthinkable has happened. Things will never be the same. And now you have to pick the best album for...
View ArticleDriving by a Group of Youths
In today’s episode, Dave wants to bring you in on one of his most embarrassing behaviors that began with a brilliant attempt to be cool in high school, and Dave and Caleb attempt to determine what...
View ArticleJumping in a Lake With Your Friends
Dave and Caleb make one last splash before summer comes to a close by determining the best album for jumping in a lake with your friends, including a surprise album that neither of them like all that...
View ArticleRetreating to the Woods (with Quentin Coaxum!)
Dave is joined this week by a special guest, Quentin Coaxum (https://quentincmusic.bandcamp.com). Quentin is a professional trumpeter, composer and teacher in the Chicago area, where he’s performed at...
View ArticleStarting High School
Dave and Caleb go deep on how they formed their imagination for high school (spoiler alert: Saved by the Bell shows up) and what types of feelings and memories shaped their mindset as they remember...
View ArticleGoing Home Again
They say you can’t go home again, but this week Dave and Caleb make an attempt to as they think about hometowns. The good, the bad, the people, what it means to bring your full grown up self to a place...
View ArticleTaking a Time Warp to 1966
Dave and Caleb hop in their DeLorean to travel back to the year 1966 and decide which album they most want to experience in the time of its release. They talk about the frenzy that surrounded every...
View ArticleStarting a Bar Fight
If movies like Roadhouse and Fight Club taught us anything, it’s that every bar fight is accompanied by a catalyzing track. Today, two pacifists take another trip into their imaginations to determine...
View ArticleBecoming a Swiftie (with Sydney Bauer!)
Taylor Swift is a global sensation with legions of devoted fans who call themselves "Swifties." Surprisingly, your hosts Dave and Caleb -- a.k.a. two dads in their 40s -- aren't among them. But in the...
View ArticleSpooky Season
Halloween is upon us, and after a quick stroll through all things traditions and family policies, Dave and Caleb unpack what makes a song spooky? Is it the song itself, or are the images we associate...
View Article2:00 AM Becoming 1:00
Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and Dave and Caleb are celebrating by choosing albums that sound great at one in the morning. What makes an album sound best in the dark, wee hours of the morning?...
View ArticleSweater Weather
The leaves are changing, the hot apple cider is brewing, the bonfires and bonfiring, and Dave and Caleb are ready to crown the best album for autumn. What are the albums that we pull out for just a few...
View ArticleGetting into Caleb & Dave's Favorite Band
Dave and Caleb celebrate their November birthdays by introducing you to one of their favorite bands, the Scottish indie rock legends Frightened Rabbit, and their seminal break-up album, The Midnight...
View ArticleChristmastime
December is here and we’re ready to get in the Christmas spirit! Or Dave is at least. Dave brings Caleb on a magical journey through a season of lights and traditions and a spiritually moving season,...
View ArticleLet's Make a Christmas Mixtape!
This week we're doing something different, a game we call Let's Make a Mixtape. Our friend Hana Kim joins us as we draft 18 Christmas songs that we're publishing as a playlist you can listen to on...
View Article2023 (Our Top Tens Episode!)
Dave and Caleb are wrapping up 2023 with our inaugural top tens of the year, plus loads of honorable mentions and singles. We count it down 10-1 and hopefully introduce you to some of your new favorite...
View ArticleA New Year
Dave and Caleb welcome in 2024 by naming the best albums for starting a new year. What albums best capture that fine line between eternal optimism and existential dread about what could come? Dave...
View ArticleIntroducing Your Kids to Hip Hop
We go deep on a roadmap for getting your kids to rap music, from Sugarhill Gang to whatever is happening in the genre right now. How do you approach conversations about lyrical content, specific life...
View ArticleNot Selling Out (With Vince Brackett!)
Special guest co-host Vince Brackett joins the podcast this week to discuss what it means to “sell out” for a variety of musicians, and the template for popular and highly successful musicians to...
View ArticleA High Speed Chase
What's the right soundtrack for barreling down a highway in pursuit -- or being pursued -- in your very own General Lee? Dave & Caleb lay out the criteria, buckle in, and gun it to 95 with The...
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