Among the celebratory moments of Comedy Bang Bang’s 3rd year anniversary podcast, it goes without saying that the most interesting guest appearance was a mini performance from none other than Annie Clark. She performed three of her St. Vincent tracks, “Surgeon”, “Cruel”, and, of course, “Cheerleader”. Check all three out below.

BPMcast: Better Late than Never edition. Our special guest Matt joins the BPM squad to tackle last weeks glut of news including a fresh Lollapalooza line up, a new record from POP ETC (formally The Morning Benders), drama between Prodigy and Havoc of Mobb Deep, and a Justin Vernon hip-hop record. New releases we’ve been listening to this week include Screaming Females, Orbital, Voices From The Lake, Nicki Manaj, Hip Hatchet, M. Ward, Weird Dreams, Mars Volta, and Death and Vanilla. Sadly, no music this week.

MP3: BPMcast Episode #18

A strange episode this week as the majority of the crew couldn’t attend the recording, but stalwarts Erik Burg and Rob Hakimian were determined to put one out anyway. Starting off by discussing some small news stories this week, they then went on to talk about what they’d been listening to (which unfortunately somehow didn’t get recorded). Then, with the energy flagging a little, a plea was sent out on the Beats Per Minute twitter for people to join, and we got some interesting characters in on the act including BPMer and Aim To Misbehave podcaster Chris Bosman, Middle Class White Noise’s Sam Rutherford and Erik’s friend Jon. A lot of what was discussed will stay between the guys as it was a little NSFW and had to be removed, but there’s still plenty here to enjoy.
(more…)

Chase McMullen and Colin Joyce join Erik, Rob, and Will to talk about an officially announced Sigur Ros album, The Morning Bender’s name change, more announcements from The Tallest Man On Earth and Japandroids, more Third Man Records activity, Air France’s untimely breakup, and Curren$y and The Weeknd controversies. Newly released albums from Odd Future, Zammuto, Bear In Heaven, Quakers, and Chromatics also get picked apart.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – “Blastit”
Interlude: The Weeknd – “The Party & The After Party”
Odd Future – “Rella”
Zammuto – “The Shape of Things to Come”
Bear In Heaven – “The Reflection of You”
Quakers – “Big Cat”
Chromatics – “Kill For Love”

BPMcast Episode #16

We’re back from SXSW with many a tale to tell. We also found Phil and begged him to return to the show. And he did! Listen as we cruise through this week’s news including promises made by Jack White, newly announced albums from Hot Chip and Neil Young, and the lineup at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival. New albums from The Shins, Future Unlimited, THEESatisfaction, Daniel Rossen, Lost In The Trees, and Willis Earl Beal also get a mention.

MP3: BPMcast Episode #15

We’re down to a four man podcast after our week long break. We bring you up to the minute news on Limp Bizket’s signing to Young Money as well as the rundown on Pitchfork and Forecastle festivals. Erik can’t wrap his head around Beach House’s popularity and Bradford Cox’s recent appearance in the news is quickly touched upon. We also get to new albums from The Men, The Magnetic Fields, WZRD, Andrew Bird, Cage & Aviary, Julia Holter, Monolake, and Pallbearer. And there’s also a brief, incomplete rundown of South by Southwest, which you’ll find us at next week.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – “Blastit”
The Men – “Open Your Heart”
WZRD – “Brake”
Andrew Bird – “Dense Carribe”
Julia Holter – “In The Same Room”

BPMcast Episode #14

A peculiarly short podcast this week as BPMer Colin Joyce joins us and We Listen For You‘s Zach Hart returns to discuss the world of music criticism. We get around to new Mount Eerie albums, Christopher Reimer, Forecastle Festival, and Pitchfork.tv as well as new albums from Grimes, Lambchop, Pop. 1280, Ital, and Perfume Genius.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – Blastit
Grimes- “Skin”
Lambchop – “If Not I’ll Just Die”
Pop. 1280 – “New Electronix”
Perfume Genius – “Hood”

BPMcast Episode #13

Crowd around as the podcast crew condemns most things happening in the second week of February including the Grammys and 2012 Bonnaroo lineup announcements. The slew of 2/12 releases continues with a discussion of new albums from Young Magic, Islands, Tennis, Burial, and Sleigh Bells. Also, Rob still really doesn’t like that Black Bananas album and Erik tells us about the time he touched MF Doom’s mask.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – “Blastit”
Young Magic – “You With Air”
Islands – “Never Go Solo”
Tennis – “Origin”
Burial – “Loner”
Sleigh Bells – “Comeback Kid”
Interlude:: Madvillain – “Figaro”

MP3: BPMcast Episode #12

Original photo by Ture Lillegraven

The podcast crew assembles for the 11th episode of the BPMcast to discuss Super Bowl drama, Grammy drama, and Earl Sweatshirt drama as well as albums from Air, Lindstrom, Van Halen, Sharon Van Etten, and John Talabot. The guys also reveal how they got to be music critics with our first official user question.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – “Blastit”
Interlude: Earl Sweatshirt – “Home”
Air – “Sonic Armada”
Lindstrom – “Deja Vu”
Van Halen – “She’s The Woman”
Sharon Van Etten – “Warsaw”
John Talabot – “When The Past Was Present”

BPMcast Episode #11

It’s a marathon podcast this week as We Listen For You‘s Zach Hart joins the crew to discuss anything and everything. The two and a quarter hour cast – our longest by a good hour or so – touches on Spiritualized’s album delay, The Books breakup, Jack White’s solo album as well as a good long discussion on the process of review scores. So if you ever wanted to know the difference between a 73% and 74%, this is where you’ll find out. New albums from Schoolboy Q, of Montreal, Bro. Stephen, Black Bananas, and, of course, Lana Del Rey are also discussed – the latter, at length. Strap in.

Tracklist

Intro/Outro: Shabazz Palaces – “Blastit”
Schoolboy Q – “Raymond 1969″
of Montreal – “Wintered Debts”
Bro. Stephen – “Tears On Tape”
Interlude: The White Stripes – “Little Room”
Black Bananas – “My House”
Lana Del Rey – “Radio”

MP3: BPMcast Episode #10