Episode 195 - The FAB 15 Albums of 2024

Are you at one of those New Year's Eve get-togethers where you might as well pop in your ear buds and listen to a podcast? Well your Uncle Derek and Papa Dave have you covered! Just under the wire, we're counting down our FAB 15 Albums of 2024! So either put down that glass of champagne or make it a double, and enjoy our nonsense for a while!

Email: db@derekbrink.com 
Spotify Playlists: https://open.spotify.com/user/317eypfciiajkyay2kxloz3kreoa?si=f046115ad0514079 
Dave's Blog: http://davidbrink.home.blog  
Music: http://derekbrink.bandcamp.com 

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 6:30 - The topic at hand: Fab 15 Albums of 2024
• 11:38 - Rules for this list
• 12:54 - The FAB 15!
  • 12:54 - #15 - Paul Collins - Stand Back and Take a Good Look / Laura Jane Grace - Hole in My Head
  • 18:17 - #14 - Jesse Welles - Hell's Welles / Jack White - NO NAME
  • 26:15 - #13 - Willie Nelson - The Border / Cage the Elephant - Neon Pill
  • 33:59 - #12 - Old 97s - American Primitive / The Decemberists - As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again
  • 40:28 - #11 - Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project / Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
  • 48:49 - #10 - Japandroids - Fate & Alcohol / Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
  • 54:49 - #9 - The Heavy Heavy - One of a Kind / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
  • 1:00:18 - #8 - Libertines - All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade / J Mascis - What Do We Do Now?
  • 1:07:31 - #7 - Gun - Hombres / The Hesvy Heavy - One of a Kind
  • 1:12:21 - #6 - Beabadoobee - This is How Tomorrow Moves / Nick Lowe - Indoor Safari
  • 1:19:37 - #5 - Soul Asylum - Slowly But Shirley / The Linda Lindas - No Obligation
  • 1:26:29 - #4 - Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came / Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers
  • 1:32:41 - #3 - Judas Priest - Invincible Shield / Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
  • 1:36:44 - #2 - The Linda Lindas - No Obligation / Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
  • 1:41:06 - #1 - Pearl Jam - Dark Matter / The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
• 1:43:21 - Honorable Mentions
• 1:53:43 - Working on a final 15, and the TERRIFIC TEN!
• 1:56:46 - A coin toss! And then adding more stuff...
• 1:59:01 - ANOTHER coin toss! and adding the last pick...
• 1:59:58 - The Final 15.

...and here's your cover photo, for you cover photo collectors!

Episode 194 - Missing the Point of the Movie

This episode is pretty off the cuff and touches on everything from buying new pillows to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Lord of the Rings, a couple Albert Brooks movies, and Van Halen. So...there!

I think the time index might be a little off this week. I had to make some weird corrections that I don't usually have to worry about. So sorry if that's wrong...but there ya' go.

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 8:27 - This Is Your Christmas
• 8:57 - Pillows, Record Store Day, and Van Halen
• 21:38 - O Holy Night
• 22:08 - Recent Watching
  • 22:08 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
  • 29:22 - Lord of the Rings
  • 39:27 - Real Life
  • 43:11 - Mother
• 46:21 - A Promise Worth Keeping
• 46:51 - Outro

Photos:

Here's the cover photo. It's weird that you'd be mad if I didn't post it...but in the sweet way.

Here's my copy of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I got it in a holiday-themed slipcover one year, I think at a Target. I think it's neat.

Albert Brooks' "Mother" was a really fun, slightly dated flick.

"Real Life" was a mostly fun, VERY dated flick...

I haven't really devoted a segment to these movies since 2017! And after this episode, I still don't think I have!

This super-fun Van Halen show from 1991 launched me into a rant about records and Record Store Day and who knows what. Your Uncle Derek got grumpy on this one.

Episode 193 - The Fab 15 Bands of the 1990s

What's that? You're stuck in a house having a meal with people you'd rather avoid and need something to be thankful for? Well bust out those ear buds and be thankful that your Uncle Derek and Papa Dave have a new FAB 15 for you! This week we're counting down our FAB 15 Band of the 1990s! It was a fun talk and I think you'll have a good time either learning about or re-living a really interesting time in music history, and maybe you'll hear a few names you'll want to check out. Dig it on your podcast app of choice or at the link in the comments!

SPOILERS ARE POSTED BELOW!!

If you don't want to know what is on the list before you listen, please click away NOW.

email: db@derekbrink.com
Bandcamp: http://derekbrink.bandcamp.com 
Dave's Blog: http://davidbrink.home.blog
Spotify Playlists: https://open.spotify.com/user/317eypfciiajkyay2kxloz3kreoa?si=f046115ad0514079

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 5:20 - On the Subject of the 1990s
• 15:19 - Rules for the List
• 20:15 - THE LIST
• 20:15 - #15 - Backstreet Boys/Snoop Dogg
• 25:37 - #14 - Spin Doctors/Nine Inch Nails
• 32:20 - #13 - TLC/Green Day
• 42:27 - #12 - Gin Blossoms/Hootie and the Blowfish
• 51:31 - #11 - Stone Temple Pilots/Primus
• 1:05:26 - #10 - Hootie/Gin Blossoms
• 1:05:36 - #9 - Mariah Carey/Soul Asylum
• 1:14:26 - #8 - Green Day/Cranberries
• 1:19:58 - #7 - Shania Twain/Oasis
• 1:28:49 - #6 - Foo Fighters/Soundgarden
• 1:37:03 - #5 - NIN/Live
• 1:41:19 - #4 - Alanis Morissette/STP
• 1:45:53 - #3 - Spice Girls/Alanis
• 1:49:48 - #2/#1 - Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Nirvana/Pearl Jam
• 1:59:01 - Honorable Mentions
• 2:04:09 - Picking a Final 15 and an agreed #1 (Including an excerpt of "Sleepin In" by Blue Tattoo.)

And here's your cover photo!

Episode 192 - When I'm Talking to You, It's LIVE

In this episode, we talk about a ton of music from MC5, The Coward Brothers, The Cure, High on Fire, Iron & Wine, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Kim Deal. I touch on some other stuff, too...but that's most of it. Welcome back to the show being normal, even if other stuff isn't!

Blog: http://emptychecking.blogspot.com
email: db@derekbrink.com

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 10:39 - I Wanna Write Songs for You
• 11:09 - Music Reviews
  • 12:32 - MC5 - Heavy Lifting
  • 16:50 - The Coward Brothers
  • 21:22 - The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
  • 24:46 - High on Fire
  • 29:21 - Iron & Wine - Light Verse
  • 36:01 - The Jesus and Mary Chain - Glasgow Eyes
  • 37:40 - Kim Deal - Nobody Loves You More
• 43:20 - Safari
• 43:50 - Outro

Thanks for your support!

Photos:

Here's the cover photo. Isn't the cat fountain nice? Don't you want to drink from it? Good boy! Or girl! or so on!

The photos are all out of order this week. So what? Shut up. This is the new Kim Deal album. I like Kim Deal. And I like albums. What a fortunate Venn Diagram to be in right now!

New Cure album! And Gen X is all shaken up! For good cause!

New Jesus and Mary Chain. They use a bunch of synths on it for some reason. This is the shortest review I do in the episode. Wanna take a guess at why?

New Iron & Wine record. It's been a minute for me, on Iron & Wine, but this one caught my attention. Hear all about it by clicking the thing!

New High on Fire! I don't know how I went so long without reviewing this one! I genuinely thought I did! Well...I did NOW! So there!

Elvis and T-Bone... What'd I think? You may be surprised! (In advance, I have NOT listened to the Audible show for which this is a companion piece.)

The last testament of Brother Wayne. It's not the 5...but is it worthy of the name? Listen to the fucking show, already!

A NON-EPISODE of Political and Religious Dissent

This IS NOT a standard episode of Empty Checking. If you are unfamiliar with the show, this is not a good starting point. This upload is my reaction to the recent election in America and also includes my thoughts on the Christian Church and its relationship to politics. This is VERY FAR REMOVED from the typical, fun nature of this show. But I felt like it needed to be said and I needed to make my position clear, as the person behind this podcast.

If you want to skip this one, I more than understand. But I think there are probably some of you who really need to hear it.

Also, I've been suffering from walking pneumonia and you can definitely hear that in my voice in this upload. Sorry about all the inhaling that gets more and more pronounced as the talk goes on.

Thanks.

-Uncle Derek

Episode 191 - Put That In Your Pipe and Suck On It

This episode goes a lot of sleep-deprived directions in under an hour. That's fun, right? I definitely talk about the passing of Teri Garr, then music from Matthew Sweet (and his current medical issues), Justin Rutledge, Devin Townsend, Japandroids, and The Pixies. I round it out by talking about the Rocky Horror Show video game and Lost in America. It's kinda nuts, but I think you'll enjoy it!

Blog: http://emptychecking.blogspot.com
Music: http://derekbrink.bandcamp.com
email: db@derekbrink.com

Matthew Sweet's GoFund Me

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro (Including discussion of Teri Garr's passing.)
• 14:13 - I Hope You're Happy
• 14:43 - Music Releases (Including Matthew Sweet, Justin Rutledge, Devin Townsend, Japandroids, and Pixies. Sorry I didn't break the time index down further. I'm tired.)
• 32:13 - Useless
• 32:43 - Lost In America and the Rocky Horror Show video game.
• 39:50 - That Weekend (Blue Tattoo)
• 40:20 - Outro

Photos:

Here's the cover photo for your weird collection of these photos. I know you have it. You know you have it. We've never talked about it. Why won't you talk about it?

Here are a few of the Matthew Sweet CDs I mentioned. Girlfriend is the go-to for most people, but the covers albums with Susanna Hoffs are stellar, too. (As are a bunch of his other albums.)

This album is basically closure for my segment on the Tragically Hip from the other week.

Devin Townsend's "Powernerd" is not near as goofy as the title may suggest. It's actually a great prog-metal album, as you might come to expect from Heavy Devy, if you start digging into his stuff!

Meet the new Japandroids album. Looks a lot like the previous Japandroids albums. Sounds like them too. And that's meant as a compliment.

It's so nice to have another new Pixies album. I'm glad they're still doing things. It's neat.

Deepening my Albert Brooks kick with a sleeper of a great movie. It's a lot of fun, and given it's from 1985, it hasn't aged too terribly. Yay!

Yeah. Okay. I took a photo of my Switch with my phone, rather than screenshotting it. So what?

I would be remiss if I did not include something to represent Teri Garr. Young Frankenstein is probably most people's go-to movie with her in it, but if you listen to the show, you'll get a big ass list of other options! What a career!

Episode 190 - I Didn't Pay Enough Attention to Myself to Have a Title

In this episode, I talk about really old Albert Brooks movies, a new documentary on The Tragically Hip, and (mostly) new music releases from Godspeed You Black Emperor, James and the Shame, Judas Priest, The Linda Lindas, and Pete Townshend. It's a fun one, if you ask me, but I'm the one who recorded it, so who can say? Maybe YOU if you listen to it!

Music: http://derekbrink.bandcamp.com
email: db@derekbrink.com

Time Index:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 6:27 - Live Your Life
• 6:57 - Recent Watching
  • 7:50 - Defending Your Life
  • 14:47 - Broadcast News
  • 20:16 - The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
• 35:12 - Every Day
• 35:42 - Music Releases
  • 35:42 - Godspeed You Black Emperor - No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead
  • 39:50 - Pete Townshend Live Box Set (That's probably not the name of it, but whatever.)
  • 43:10 - James and the Shame - Nothing Left to Love
  • 45:28 - Judas Priest - Invincible Shield
  • 48:22 - The Linda Lindas - No Obligation
• 52:02 - Heaven Knows
• 52:32 - Outro (including talk of Oktoberfest and Ren Faires!)

Photos:

Here's your cover photo for the folder you've got saved to The Cloud... Y'know I've got all of these saved on my laptop. It's 30GB. I really need that space for other shit...but here we are...

A couple Albert Brooks-centric movies. I liked one more than the other. The only way to find out which is to listen to the show. But if you're reading this, you're probably the type of person who will do that anyway. So yay!

This isn't the Tragically Hip documentary I talk about in the show. This is a different Tragically Hip documentary. But it was a substantial part of the show and this band means enough to me that it didn't seem right to just NOT have them in the photos... So here it is. The wrong documentary.  I hope the right one gets a BluRay release and it's in a region my player will read. That'd be keen.

New Godspeed You Black Emperor album! It sounds like them! But...in what way? Listen and learn!

Pete Townshend box set! McGuire took interest while I was taking the picture and tried to eat it. So there he is...but who cares? On this show, we work with cats.

New Linda Lindas album. It fucking slaps.

New Judas Priest album. It would be weird to say it slaps. But it's good!

New James and the Shame EP. Does it slap? I don't use that word in the podcast at all for any release, but you can still listen to find out if I liked this or not!