**Somehow this episode became increasingly relevant since the release of Eminem’s freestyle rap targeting President Donald Trump. We recorded this episode on October 7th and this discussion is really well tied into the conversation that Eminem is bringing up with political songs.

On this week’s episode, we’re excited to announce a higher audio quality going forward and regular releases on YouTube! Raleigh opens up with a discussion on The Killers’ Wonderful Wonderful and how it will be remembered in the history of band.

The co-hosts pay tributes to the recently passed Tom Petty and Charles Bradley and their contributions to music while Spags talks about the importance of Tom Petty to his own love of music.

The main topic of this episode is centered around political songs in America and how artists can contribute to the bigger political picture. Spags centers on the 1970s and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s Ohio which directly targeted Richard Nixon and police brutality toward college youth.

Spags also draws connections to the 2004 release of American Idiot by Green Day which contrasted the pro-war country music that was prevalent at the start of the second Iraq war.

Matt brings up another list with the biggest stand-outs in political songs keying in on Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. Raleigh expands on it as well and how that song brought up the themes of the civil rights movement two decades before the actual civil rights movement.

The co-hosts open up discussing some of the best post-rock, instrumental artists including Spags’ continuing to call attention to El Ten Eleven. (SERIOUSLY. GO LISTEN TO THEM. BEST INSTRUMENTALIST ROCK DUO EVER.)

The discussion moves on to punk rock and exactly what punk rock is. How has the world moved from The Clash and The Ramones defining punk rock to Blink 182 and The Offspring being the most recognized punk artists?

We get more abstract with how we define any genres as a culture and why there are implicit meanings of the content of music in conjunction with the genre.

*Sadly due to technical issues with both Raleigh’s and Spag’s recording the audio codec this week is lower and therefore a lower quality.

This week Matt blows Spags and Raleigh away by revealing he doesn’t like live music. His musical soul lives almost purely in vinyl. Spags discuss the media effects theory and the evolution of music videos starting with MTV in 1981 to OK Go’s “Here it Goes Again” and The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With A Girl.”

Raleigh explores what makes music original or if music can be original at all in contemporary society in a discussion about Taylor Swift’s recently released “Look What You Made Me Do” and why it got as popular as it did.

Matt ages himself listening to Randy Newman while Spags brings the discussion to the deeper meaning of songs and how they evolve based on your life circumstances — making the same songs exude everything from feelings of hate to sadness to love.

Raleigh dives into copyright infringement cases and how  does copyright infringement go to far and how has it helped/hurt music?

The group ends with a discussion of the best covers of all time. Check out the full write-up on our favorite covers here!

Matt and the B Flats are back again for episode 2! It’s a thing now! We’re official. Get to know the hosts a bit more and listen to the artists and specifically the albums that were most influential in informing our music dichotomy.

Listen to our discussion of how voices in music can be — and very often are — the most important “instrument” in a song. Also hear how the climate of pop music can both give opportunities for pop artists to expand to more genres for some artists while restricting some artists to more defined boxes of what they “can” do.

Banana on!

Artists in discussion
The Killers, The Clash, The Beach Boys, Jack’s Mannequin, The Wayward Strangers, Kanye West, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Shawn Mendes

Welcome to the show! In our very first pilot episode get to learn who Matt is and who the B flats are! –that’s Brian Spagnoli and Brian Raleigh! Learn how Raleigh and Matt developed their passions through deep meaningful stories while Spags explains he just kinda… liked his parents’ music.

And what better place for this show to start then with a bit of jazz history and appreciation for The Beatles and 1960s rock and roll.