Make It Stop: A Bad Music Podcast

This week our hearts are beating right out of our untrimmed chests as we take a ride on the monorail of monotony. Train drizzled onto the scene in 1998 with their humble hit "Meet Virginia" and followed that up with milquetoast smash "Drops of Jupiter" in 2001, but it wasn't until "Hey Soul Sister" that they truly wormed their way into every human being's hearts and minds as the corniest soft rockers on the planet. Comedian and returning guest Emily Ruskowski and Boston area burlesque performer Jane Doe join Heather and Mike to discuss the album that birthed "Hey Soul Sister", 2009's Save Me, San Francisco. Can they withstand this ultimate test of their aural fortitude against the unending torrent of ukulele riffs, dad jokes and tepid arrangements? Will they reveal the conspiracy that allowed Train to flourish as our mom's flip phone ring tones and made lead singer Pat Monahan run for a Senate seat in New Hampshire? You won't want to miss a single thing we do... tonight. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi

I was working in the lab late one night When my ears beheld a dreadful blight For Bobby "Boris" Pickett began to write An album which, to no surprise Was really wack -- he made the monsters wack The "Monster Mash", it was the only good track The rest is wack -- the rest is really wack He made it wack -- just stick to "Monster Mash" From our laboratory in Everett Mass We reviewed The Original Monster Mash Andrew Wiley came from his humble abode To join us in tearing down this load Of monster crap -- he made the monsters wack The "Monster Mash", it was the only good track The rest is wack -- the rest is really wack He made it wack -- just stick to "Monster Mash" This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you like trying different things? Or do you prefer smoking funny things? This week we're talking about Robbie Ritchie, Bobby Shazam, his name is Kid Rock, that is his name, and if you ask him again, he'll probably call you a slur. He's a conservative flip flopper, a confederate flag loving yankee, a Detroit-repping white rapper who grew up on a princely estate in the 'burbs. In 2007 he recorded an album called Rock N Roll Jesus, with which he purported to be resurrecting the long dormant and nearly forgotten genre of rock. What it is is a bunch of songs where he says racist garbage in the only two notes he can manage while his band does a half hearted Bob Seger impression. It goes on for 57 minutes. Returning guests Squallie Greenthumb and Alli Thresher have to suffer through it all too. It's just a big ol' bummer is what it is. Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After helping mold and define the counter-culture of the late sixties and early 70s, Neil Young pulled an about face in the 80s, throwing his support behind Ronald Reagan, the war on drugs, and welfare reform. Tired of being pigeonholed, he shifted away from the socially conscious folk rock he was known for, releasing a series of headscratching albums that saw him experimenting with rockabilly, banjos and vocoders. Geffen Records became so fed up with his new direction that they sued him for 3.2 million dollars. On the Season 4 premiere of Make It Stop, we discuss the album that came on the heels of that court case's settlement -- 1986's Landing On Water. A bizarre amalgamation of all the worst that the 80s had to offer, the album explodes with ear splitting drums and tinny synths. There is nary a bass player to be found. Neil eschews both the personal and the political in most of his lyrics, instead settling into a banal sort of opacity. Joining the fray to try to make sense of it all are fellow Pantheon pod

We're back, back back again for another season of ruthlessly skewering the most miserable musical monstrosities imaginable, as we take on Kid Rock, Train, LMFAO, Billy Idol, and more. Here's a sneak peek of what sinister stuff we have in store for you for our 4th season, dropping September 29th on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Part 2 of 2).. Alright Stoppies, you sick fucks. You know what time it is, because you assholes voted for it - and we couldn't be prouder/more disgusted. That's right baby, it's time for a Core-tastrophe of epic proportions - a nightmarish plunge into the twisted mind of the "Skrillex you bought on Wish" aka Corey Feldman, best known for starring in classic 80s movies like Stand By Me and the Lost Boys, but almost equally notorious for his serious drug addiction, history of severe mental illness, and of course ludicrously terrible musical forays. However nothing could prepare the public consciousness for 2016's dubstep-nu-metal-ragtime?!-nightmare "Angelic 2 The Core", where no longer Yung Corey debuted on The Today Show with a badly autotuned cigarette skwawk, skintight pleather jeggings, and a harem of dead eyed fembot "Angels" whose backstory is more fucked up than perhaps anything we've EVER discussed on this show. We somehow convince Boston area comedians Tooky Kavanagh and Dicky Stock to "Go 4 It" with

Alright Stoppies, you sick fucks. You know what time it is, because you assholes voted for it - and we couldn't be prouder/more disgusted. That's right baby, it's time for a Core-tastrophe of epic proportions - a nightmarish plunge into the twisted mind of the "Skrillex you bought on Wish" aka Corey Feldman, best known for starring in classic 80s movies like Stand By Me and the Lost Boys, but almost equally notorious for his serious drug addiction, history of severe mental illness, and of course ludicrously terrible musical forays. However nothing could prepare the public consciousness for 2016's dubstep-nu-metal-ragtime?!-nightmare "Angelic 2 The Core", where no longer Yung Corey debuted on The Today Show with a badly autotuned cigarette skwawk, skintight pleather jeggings, and a harem of dead eyed fembot "Angels" whose backstory is more fucked up than perhaps anything we've EVER discussed on this show. We somehow convince Boston area comedians Tooky Kavanagh and Dicky Stock to "Go 4 It" with us, and after 3

In 2007 there was perhaps no one on earth more notorious than DeAndre Way, better known as Soulja Boy. His signature style of simplified, self-produced snap music swept the world as lead single "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" quickly rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he made himself a multimillionaire at age 17, no small feat for a young black teenager from Georgia making beats in his bedroom. As his star rose, snarky critics pounced, decrying his success as the final nail in the coffin of both human intellect and music as an art form. Even as oldheads and crotchety critics collectively attempted to boo him out of existence, Soulja Boy kept racking up the Ws, and today boasts a net worth of over $30 million. On Make it Stop's penultimate episode of the season Heather and Mike do their best to reckon with the outrageous context in which Soulja Boy's debut album Souljaboytellem.com wormed its way into the public consciousness, and we try to suss out some meaning, some sort of pithy lesson, from its utterly v

Oh, Liz Phair. An indie darling and feminist rock icon who DIY-ed herself into underground superstardom with her classic 1993 album "Exile in Guyville", Phair had gone through some ups and downs musically and personally after her breakout album, putting out a few quietly mediocre albums in the late 90s and getting married, having a child, and divorcing. So why did, at the age of 36, Liz "Fuck and Run" Phair team up with bubblegum pop wizards The Matrix, known for their songcrafting for teen pop ingenues Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears, to write aggressively bland midtempo cougar pablum? No one knows for sure, and certainly nobody wanted it - not her loyal fans, not the young girls the Matrixified monstrosities on the album were seemingly marketed to, and certainly not rock critics, who famously derided the album, with Pitchfork giving it a legendary 0.0 rating. Liz Phair's 2003 self-titled album is a mainstay on numerous Worst Albums of All Time list. But is it really all that terrible? Mostly, yes. Parsing

Aerosmith are regarded as true legends in the classic rock pantheon. As famous for their backstage escapades and interpersonal drama as for their meticulously layered production, bar rock bangers, and multi-platinum power ballads, the band managed to stay in the spotlight for at least four decades, no small feat indeed. Does that mean they've earned the respect of this podcast's intrepid hosts? Dream on. Seasoned rock author and interviewer Martin Popoff joins the fray to take on Aeroesmith's most recent and least successful album, 2012's Music From Another Dimension. This 70 minute slog garnered extremely poor reviews and sold a paltry 63,000 copies, a far cry from their previous platinum selling album Just Push Play. What led to this fall from grace? Was it the fact that it took six years to make? Was it the fact that the band members hated each other so much that they wouldn't even visit a hideously injured Steven Tyler in traction? Or is it just that Aerosmith sucks, has always sucked, and they're finally

There can be no denying that we here at Make It Stop are headstrong, and that we will, of course, take on anyone. This week we've set our sights on early aughts nu-emo bruisers Trapt. A flash in the pan that came and went from the public consciousness about as quickly as a band possibly can with their debut 2002 self titled album, nonetheless singer Chris Taylor Brown persisted, reemerging as a cultural force over the past several months as he used the band's Twitter account to tweet non-stop galaxy brain dumbshit high school dropout takes for weeks straight. Heather and Mike revisit that 2002 debut to analyze its place in the butt rock pantheon, joined by music aficionado and friend of the pod Stefan Perrier. This is not where we belong. Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's episode of Make it Stop we continue to rail against insufferable, self-important celebrities who take themselves way too seriously, this time taking aim at U2 and their 2014 album Songs of Innocence, which was famously auto-downloaded to every iPod in America without consent. That being said, it's not too terrible of an album, with some really standout songs along the way, lots of Bono falsetto, some cool storytelling, and the Edge's trademark echoey guitar sounds. There's also the many, many songs that sound like U2 from the 80s fed through an Imagine Dragons filter, which predictably blow. Helping us dig through the manure to find the diamonds are our dear friends Maggie and Ashleigh of the Rock Candy Podcast, our sister show (and fellow Pantheon fam) with the common stated goal of "making fun of assholes". We do the best we can and have a blast with lots of laughs and unnecessary rambles about Bono's sex life (and his canon relationship with Enya). Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Lear

It's been a weird couple of week/month/years, hasn't it #stoppies? While time is beginning to turn in on itself like a surreal nightmarish fractal this podcast is seemingly one of the last things tethering your hosts to any sort of regular schedule or sense of 'normalcy'. Unfortunately, this week's deep dive into the absolutely fucking insane world of Tonetta just took the nightmare fractal and shat on it, ate it up, and spit it back in our faces. Truly devoted uber-stoppie and ultimate Tonetta stan Matthew wrote in with the tip on ol' Tone, offering this tantalizing description:"Tonetta combines the filthy sex lyrics and Canadian trashiness of Chuggo with the chauvinism and chest-thumping of every weekend warrior band you've seen on open mic night at Dad's favorite pub. And there's often a dash of Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs tossed in for a little spice." If that won't get your blood pumping, what will? Part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Tonetta got you feeling some type of way in your extremit

On today's Make It Stop Heather and Mike take aim at the uniting cultural event that has brought a quarantined America together: Tiger King. Specifically, the music of the King himself, Joe Exotic. Or rather, the music he commissioned someone with a much better (and clearly wildly different) voice to make. Your intrepid hosts react live to no less than 16 of the deposed exotic animal monarch's bizarre music videos, and they have it all -- outrageous outfits, unsubstantiated murder accusations, and six minutes straight of uncut ape death. It was a scarring experience and we're happy to share it with you. Stay safe out there, #Stoppies. Part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Visit our sponsor Adam & Eve for 50% off almost any item AND receive FREE shipping. Just go to adamandeve.com and type BADMUSIC at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the Worst, Least-Wonderfulest time of the year. March was always a brutal month, but this one is definitely the Baddest on record - with a global pandemic forcing entire cities on lockdown, hospitals desperate for gowns, masks and ventilators, and scary spiky death graphs getting ever more urgently plotted. This is a Bad Time, #stoppies, but what are we to do in a crisis besides doubling down on this, our deepest dive so far into the most despicable, soulless, self-indulgent rock music ever made? As we stand here, dangling on the precipice of total destruction, our precious time on this planet is more important than ever. So relax, grab a tasty quarantine edible or two, and spend the next hour and 45 minutes with us as we argue over whether Nickelback or Imagine Dragons is more bad than the other one. Just like our toes dancing on that cliff's edge, it's a razor thin margin and a heckuva ride, #stoppies. Won't you join us from the safety of your own homes as we settle this, once and for all? Part of the

Just when you thought March couldn't get any badder, it goes ahead and gets way, way worse. Seriously, what the fuck? With a nation in turmoil, a pandemic growing exponentially more serious by the hour, and all of us confined to our houses in order to attempt to stave off an even more nightmarish dystopian timeline that seems more inevitable each day, what the fuck is a #stoppie to do? What we always do: eviscerate the most miserable audio excrement the industry has to offer. The second March Badness Semifinal round heats up with a head to head battle between horny late stage Warped Tour trashboys Hollywood Undead vs. the audio equivalent of a Crate and Barrel catalog, Imagine Dragons. Distract yourself from the sense of impending doom by deep diving with us and returning guest, dear friend of the pod Ben Stein to decide which stupid band is stupider. It's not like you have anything better to do. Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Visit our sponsor Adam & Eve for 50% off almost any item AND receive FREE s

As podcasters we are the first line of defense against boredom in these unbearably trying times. As such we here at Make It Stop are *pleased* to bring you Part One of the March Badness Semi-Finals. This round pits Nickelback's 2014 post-butt experiment No Fixed Address against #1 seed Pitbull's 2014 album, which is literally called Globalization. Make It Stop mainstay Brandon Vallee jumps into the fray with Heather and Mike to tackle the nearly impossible task of determining which of these albums is worse. It's the closest match of the tournament thus far. Who will reign supreme!? Tune in to find out! Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Round 1 of the 2020 MARCH BADNESS TOURNAMENT continues, this time pitting butt rock legends Nickelback and their 2005 "classic" All the Right Reasons against radio pop stalwarts Maroon 5 and their 2015 album V. Heather and Mike are joined by Make It Stop returnee and extraordinarily funny comedian Katie McCarthy. Together they endure 22 terrible tracks and must make the dreaded decision of which artist has earned a ticket to the semi-finals to take on the first seed, Mr. Worldwide himself, Pitbull. What style of trash will win the day? The sleazy blowjob anthems of Nickelback or the tepid white boy dance pop of Adam Levine and his supposed "band"? Part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to our nightmare, Stoppies! It's our first episode of the 2020 MARCH BADNESS TOURNAMENT, where the lowest rated artists from the past decade duke it out to be crowned the worst of the worst. Today's showdown begins with a familiar foe, bane of the pod Eminem and the 2009 edition of his perpetual tired ass comeback routine, Relapse. Facing off against Marshall is the milquetoast mason jar wedding band Imagine Dragons and their 2014 record Smoke + Mirrors, an album distinguished only by the fact that every song featured on it has probably washed over you in a dentist's waiting room at some point. Helping us navigate this miserable matchup are fellow bad music experts Patrick and Lilz of Jukebox Zeroes, who do their best to provide objective critique while we slowly descend into madness. Who will win (or in this case, lose) - the self deprecating, over compensating musical masochism of Eminem or the literal nothingness of Imagine Dragons? All we know is that no matter who wins in March Badness, we all lo

In the 1950s, wholesome whitebread protestants were terrified by the so-called "Race Records" of the likes of Little Richard, Charles Singleton and Nat King Cole. Enter Pat Boone, a palatable alternative to both black musicians and the gyrating hips of Elvis Presley. With his milquetoast covers of black artists' original compositions, Pat Boone quickly surged to superstardom, amassing millions of dollars, jumpstarting a career in film and television, and spreading the good word to his avowedly Christian Conservative audience. In 1997, at age 63, Boone decided to try his hand at an entirely new form of cultural appropriation by shedding his cardigan for a leather vest and choker, and recording In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, an album of cover songs by the likes of Alice Cooper, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica, and his neighbor and friend Ozzy Osbourne. Mike D'Angelo and Ginny Nightshade of Old School Game Show join Heather and Mike to discuss this anomaly and its place in Boone's milieu. What exactly compel