That slick hook and spot-on beat playing over the PA in Target, at Cumberland Farms, in the venue before the headliner takes the stage: WHO IS THAT? WHAT'S THAT SONG? We all have the Shazam app loaded on our phones, and it's wild to think that for more than half our lives (speaking for the Diarists), we did without it. Here are four songs Bob, Brad…

It's never too late for a 2024 recap, right? In today's super-sized episode, Bob, Mark, Carla and Brad discuss their favorite new songs of 2024 and songs they rediscovered last year. Well...three of the four of us followed this plan. One of us interpreted this theme a bit differently. Will there be controversy over Pearl Jam? Will Mark recover afte…

We go waaaaaaaaay back (four decades?) with our dear friend Alli. And whatever we got up to back in the day—tooling around town in her Chevette, rocking out in downtown Youngstown, or just chilling in any of our respective basements—music was involved. No surprise that Alli was firmly at the top of our guest list. Here's hoping this is the first of…

Join us on the "Autobahn" as we take a ride to Los Angeles to discuss two nights of Kraftwerk's nine-show residency earlier this summer where Mark and Brad got to see Autobahn and Radio-Activity performed in their entirety. While this episode may seem more suited for Carla and Brad Talk about Krautrock, find out if Carla and Brad won Mark over with…

Today Carla, Mark, and Brad talk about some recent concerts they've seen and offer some choice cuts from the bands. Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter and Instagram. And if you like what you hear, please share, rate and review us! Credits: Intro/ Outro — the Februarys, "Does Your Father Know"/ "... In a Letter."…

In which your Fab Four Diarists Bob, Brad, Carla, and Mark reconvene, kinda sorta, to talk about some of their favorite remixed tracks. This next episode was a long time coming, but as comebacks go, it'll absolutely serve. Beastie Boys, Happy Mondays, Björk, and Depeche Mode? Yes, please! Find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras o…

.There’s an old Irish benediction that goes, “May you be in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you’re dead.” By our best guess, Shane MacGowan arrived three hours late, drank the Devil under the table, and jimmied the lock on the Pearly Gates. Come raise a glass, or six, or seven with us, as we celebrate our dear, departed Shane: the Last of the…

It's been a while, listeners, but we've mustered a quorum. Bob's back with us today (alas, Mark is not), as we talk about some recent shows we've seen and generally ham it up. First Bob waxes rhapsodic about Nashville band Bully. Then Brad swaps out a vowel and steers the conversation toward Belly. And we wrap it all up with Carla's trip to Vegas t…

Attached hereto is the final episode of the Carla, Brad and Mark Sessions. We kept it Stateside for this one, with picks from The Hold Steady, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Car Seat Headrest. Carla could've used Bob's alliance for her pick. (He'll be back soon!) Brad shared his disdain for new music from old bands. And Mark delivered our favorite pick of th…

Here's another bite-sized episode from the Carla, Brad, and Mark Sessions. Three-quarters capacity means just three songs, but we made 'em count. Brad asked for cover songs by punk and post-punk bands, and the Skeleton Crew responded with Wire, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and the Slits. Turn on, tune in, and rock out with the Mixtape Diaries, as we, u…

Last month we lost Sinéad O'Connor. This one really hurts. 35 years ago, Sinéad's first LP was melting the cassette decks in our cars. Through the years, we moved with her music, and it never got old. Songs of heartbreak, defiance, freedom, vindication: Sinéad sang her life and her truth. If her music doesn't move you ... well, unsubscribe. Sister,…

Mark, Carla, and Brad are back in short order to add three more songs to the Playlist. (Bob's lazing in his hammock on summer vacay.) Speaking of summer vacation, we logged some mileage on this one. Our itinerary took us first to Oklahoma City to hang with the Flaming Lips, then to Halifax, Nova Scotia for some time with Plumtree, and finally to De…

Your Diarists are back! But it's summer break and we're down a man, so we've opted for a themeless episode. What once was a Grab Bag is now the Wild Card: Carla, Brad and Mark picked three songs that are in their rotation right now, and it seems we're all hanging out in the late 1970s with picks from Suicide, Joy Division and Buzzcocks. Find the Pl…

Picking up where we left off with selections from six more Scottish artists, as Carla and Brad take their turns. Things get just a bit feisty as Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, CHVRCHES, One Dove, the Pastels, and Trash Can Sinatras join the playlist, and the question we're all asking is ... WHERE THE HELL IS PRIMAL SCREAM? We wanna get loaded,…

The MTD gang is *alive and kicking*! Join us as we *head on* out north of Hadrian's Wall, into the land of Nessie and haggis, Kidnapped and Trainspotting. *Say what you want*, but we love us some Caledonian tunes here at The Mixtape Diaries. *In a big country* like Scotland, you're gonna find tons of options, and we struggled to keep to our per-per…

The Diarists have recovered from Carla's inclusion of a 18+ minute Can song in Part 1 of this episode, so now we're back with Part 2. Brad and Mark give us their picks for songs featured in rock critic Robert Dimery's list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. We cross genres and decades here with picks from David Bowie, Love, Neu!, Arrested…

There's no shortage of terrific songs on rock critic Robert Dimery's list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. For this and the next episode, Mark challenges us to choose some of our favorites. Note the new format: six songs from Bob and Carla in this episode — The Clash! Jamiroquai? Spiritualized! The Waterboys! Sugar! Can!)— with six more…

In this Grab Bag episode, Mark, Brad, Bob, and Carla serve up tracks from Gustaf, the Waitresses, Death Cab for Cutie, and Royal Blood. Get back in the saddle with The Mixtape Diaries! There's more where this came from! As always, find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter. And if you like what you hear, please share, rat…

Your Diarists are back on the mic, cold chillin' in effect. Today's assignment? Serve up examples of fly tracks with *samples*. Riffs and bass lines, beats and lawsuits: sampling is the story of the 80s, the 90s, the 00s ... of the last 40 years, really. All kinds of surprises in this episode: Carla makes The Case for Portishead, rattling Mark in t…

Your Diarists are back with another Grab Bag episode. No theme, just four songs they've been wanting to add to the playlist. Get ready! These are four great additions from King Krule, Dressy Bessy, The Darling Buds and Liz Cooper. As always, find the Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music and your Extras on Twitter. If you like what you're hearing, plea…

St. Patrick's Day may be a foggy memory, but not for your Diarists. We couldn't let the holiday go by without sharing four of our favorite Irish tunes. Joining our Playlist today is a classic from the Chieftains and a few brawlers from the Pogues, Flogging Molly and Enter the Haggis. Fair warning: (1) poor Irish accents abound in this episode, (2) …

The Diarists' assignment for this episode is to come up with three songs with non-English lyrics — "But wait," Bob asks, "do *all* the lyrics need to be in a foreign language?" "Not necessarily," says Brad, who chose the theme. Enter the Talking Heads ... and with them, Nena, Juliana Hatfield (!), Plastic Bertrand, Falco, Grauzone (Krautrock, from …

In this new mini episode, your Diarists each discuss a song they've had on heavy rotation lately. No theme today, although we do dance through the decades with bands like Big Brother & Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Orange Juice, Corey Flood and Scary Pockets. Mmm....these songs are real bops. Stay tuned for more B-Sides in between our themed e…

In today's super-sized (!) episode the Diarists remember Meat Loaf, then go on to consider twelve bands that also could have stuck with us a bit longer -- including the United States of America, Television, the Teardrop Explodes, the La's, Lush, Joy Division, the Sex Pistols, Jane's Addiction, the Verve, the Unicorns, the Seahorses, and the Organ. …

In today's episode the Mixtape Diaries crew calls out some of their favorite songs by female solo artists. Join us as we work through our feelings about folk rock, the 90s vs. the 70s, and fake American accents. Today we welcome Nina, Chaka, Donna, Courtney, Dusty, Maya, Kay, Björk, Sharleen, Holly, Cat, and Ani into The Mix. No one on the corner h…

Wait — what? Two episodes in two weeks?!? It's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, with your Festive Foursome back in a hurry to talk about some of their favorite (and not-so-favorite) Christmas songs. Joining us on The Nice List are the Pogues, Bowie and Bing, Weezer, Ella, Jose Feliciano, She & Him, the Kinks, the Vince Guaraldi Trio, John and Yoko, Darlene Lov…

Big changes happening here, as we add a *fourth* Diarist (!) and spin *twelve* classic tunes into the mix. In this episode we reach back before 1975 for our selections, and we find Billy Preston, Elton John, David Bowie, Blue Cheer, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jesus Christ Superstar, Led Zeppelin, Rod Stewart, Van Morrison, Fela Kuti, the MC5, an…

The Mixtape Diaries kicks off Season 2 with a "scenes" episode, wherein each of your three hosts calls out a particular rock scene for discussion, then selects three songs from that scene. Join us as we explore grunge (Mark), shoegaze (Bob), and the New Romantics (Brad)! Tracked in this episode: Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, Cath…

As promised, here's the remainder of our looooooooong-running episode name-checking Nine Great Albums. Side B features INXS's Kick, Between You and Me by San Cisco, REM's Murmur, Everyone Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? by the Cranberries, and Radiohead's In Rainbows. Playlist on Spotify + Apple Music/ Extras on Twitter. Credits: Intro/ Outro — …

The Mixtape Diaries is back from hiatus with a double-length episode ... and here's the first installment. We went long for this one, because we're talking about some of our favorite LPs, and once we get going, time gets away from us. On this Side A we talk about Dazzle Ships by Orchestral ... [Brad pauses to check spelling] Manoeuvres in the Dark,…

We were told we needed help, and we went out and got it. This podcast's first ever guest is Nashville tastemaker and longtime friend Carla. Think Indiana Jones, but for music. Today Carla challenges us to get with the times: the theme is "new" (that is, post-2006) music. Joining the Playlist are Maggie Rogers, Sylvan Esso, the War on Drugs, Beach H…

Covers, this time. It should have been easy. But now Mark gets squirrely, Brad chokes on ice, and Bob wants it made clear that he's just fine with Black Sabbath ... they're just not a favorite. Crisis averted? For now, maybe ... Our Ep 8 adds are Sinead O'Connor, Amy Winehouse, Club Nouveau, Patti Smith, Devo, Manic Street Preachers, Charles Bradle…

Your Three Hosts have been homebodies lately — let's hope that changes soon. In the meantime, we thought we'd look to local growers for our playlist produce. That means Ohio artists for Bob, the SoCal market for Mark, and the Boston scene for Brad. In this episode's harvest: the Breeders, the Pretenders, Tracy Chapman, Pinback, Slightly Stoopid, To…

The King in the North (i.e., Mark) takes charge of this one, and his edict is that the Yanks join him in raising a glass to Canadian musicians. So over the border we happily go. We'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Saga, Broken Social Scene, the New Pornographers, Men Without Hats, Alanis Morissette, the Cowboy Junkies, the Tragically Hip, G…

It's not how you finish — it's how you start ... right? In today's episode Bob, Brad, and Mark go fishing for songs with notable intros. Or at least that was the instruction. (sigh) In any case, here's what we pulled into the boat: Death Cab for Cutie, the Joy Formidable, the Who, the Stooges, Franz Ferdinand, the B-52s, the Cure, Oasis, and M83. H…

Just you try and stop us talking about music in the movies (and on TV, for that matter). No adds to the playlist today, as this is the first of our "B-side" tweener drops. We talk about Kenny Loggins, Mad Men, "Tiny Dancer," Queen (Flash Gordon *and* Wayne's World), Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Radio Rahim, Dr. Strangelove, The LEGO M…

In which Your Three Hosts go to the movies ... well, as much as one can these days. This one took a while to get to you, Dear Listeners, so we're paying down that debt with interest. Today's super-deluxe (hour-plus!) episode features INXS + Jimmy Barnes, the Replacements, the Rave-Ups, Stealers Wheel, the Faces, the Beatles, the Doors, the Crystals…

Anything goes for our three hosts in this no-theme episode. Naturally, chaos ensues as, among other things, Brad refuses to play a clip, Bob gets choked up, and Mark stumps Spotify. Covered Today: the Muffs, Sly & the Family Stone, the Sugarcubes, Gorillaz, Mumford & Sons, Foo Fighters, Ride, Radiohead, Blake Babies. Play the songs on Spotify/ Foll…

There's nothing like live music, and Your Three Mixtapeers can't wait to get back to it, post-pandemic. In the meantime, Bob, Brad, and Mark look back on three decades of gigs they've attended and call out especially memorable performances for The Playlist. This Episode's Adds: James LCD Soundsystem Arcade Fire (again) Lush the White Stripes Sleate…

Cued by the challenge of this pilot episode — pick three songs: one for yourself and one for the other two — Bob, Brad, and Mark walk listeners through their formative years as music lovers. On tap today: Talking Heads Teenage Fanclub They Might Be Giants P.S. Eliot the Smiths the Stone Roses Arcade Fire Depeche Mode the Cure Play the songs on our …