The Best New Artist Breakdown season has begun! Instead of pitting the 64 winners of the Grammys' Best New Artist category against each other, we're talking about each year's nominees and winner in the context of their time...and in today's sixties-spanning ep, we're trying to make sense of the 20th century's monocultures, how far in the past most votes had gotten stuck, the weird dominance of the ukelele in the Kennedy years, and the weird ambitions of Mr. Swingle. Ready to go Bach to the future? Listen now!

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• The list of Best New Artist recipients, and nominees
• The Record Of The Year Showdown season premiere
• Episode 145: Bobby Darin, "Mack The Knife"
• The Beat Generation box-set playlist on Spotify
• The Lost Songs Project on Timi Yuro
• Episode 62: "Ode To Billie Joe" And "Harper Valley PTA"
• The Lost Songs Project on Harpers Bizarre
• Life Magazine's cover story on the non-golden era of hijacking

Our finale finds us talking about actor/musicians with lasting pop careers: Oscar-winners (Jamie Foxx), Grammy-winners (Childish Gambino), former child stars (Hailee Steinfeld), and Jokers (Jared Leto). After discussing contemporary stank, the competent/memorable axis, music for coffee shops, and the R&B version of that Top Chef challenge where they have to elevate gas-station snacks, we talk about what we've learned about the drive to create art. Grab Ludacris and have a listen.

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; special thanks to Amanda. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 4: 2007-2022
• Episode 68: "Stay" Title Bout
• SDB's review of House of Gucci at Best Evidence
• Episode 73: Jamie Foxx feat. Guru & Common, "Any Given Sunday"
• MB on "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" at The Lost Songs Project

This week's crop of actor-musician hyphenates got their thespian starts in films of the 1980s: Corey Feldman, Keanu Reeves (Dogstar), Kevin Bacon (the Bacon Brothers), and Kiefer Sutherland. Copyright-compliant Gin Blossoms tracks and workout-cooldown music prompted thoughts about perfectly good outdoor-restaurant entertainment, the artistic practice that capitalism tries to stifle, and whether pretty boys want to be told they're smart (and vice versa). Strange things are afoot at the Circle MASTAS, so grab one of Kiefer's hats and have a listen.

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; special thanks to Amanda. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Harsh but fair, Discogs commenter TwoOneFive
• "Comeback King" by Corey Feldman
• '90s Soundtrack Flashback, Episode 04: Romeo + Juliet
• River's Edge

Do you love to laugh? Then fall down the ha-ha hole that is Pop Goes The Actor's third episode! This week, we're looking at comedians who tested the pop waters, including a Blues Brother, Eddie Murphy, Tracey Ullman, and Jack Black. Acting range, the cult of mid-'70s SNL, finding unexpected IQ points in a song you've heard a dozen times, and which instrument is the creme fraiche of blues tracks -- and much more. Someone here is from Jersey, so order your minimum two drinks and listen!

Intro and outro by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli; special thanks to Amanda, and to Terri. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• The "limberjack dolls" SDB was trying to think of the name for
• unfairest-of-them-all.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU4.kdB2.16UgMrTPSeLc&smid=url-share">Daphne Merkin goes deep for the Times on "jolie-laide" (gift link)
• unfairest-of-them-all.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU4.kdB2.16UgMrTPSeLc&smid=url-share">The Dragnet rap, a staple of morning drive-time radio at that time
• This Had Oscar Buzz on Bernie
• Our Weird Al vs. Everybody season
• "Whatzupwitu"'s Wikipedia page

Oh yes it's ladies' night on the second episode of Pop Goes The Actor...but IS the feeling right? Sometimes! We wend our way through copyright-compliant bugle boys of Company Wonder Woman, the adorkable Zooey Deschanel, Shelley Fabares's evident terror, Marla Gibbs's appealing blood-thinner ad, and a track from Cybill Shepherd that puts the "no" back in "bossa nova." Throw that sax in a dumpster and join us for legitimate fun vs. snarky fun, the sexual politics of Camelot-era pop, and the timeline where Rosemary Clooney is good.

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne, and special thanks to Amanda. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Pop Goes The Actor 1: '70s Sitcoms
• Extra Extra Hot Great on Fallout
• More on the Relatives
• Colleen Stan, aka "the girl in the box"

Pop Goes The Actor: a mini-season about thespians who tried (and sometimes succeeded at!) being pop musicians. In our premiere episode, we're talking about Jeff Conaway (Taxi), Donny Most (Happy Days), Esther Rolle (Good Times), Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), and Lawrence Hilton Jacobs (Welcome Back, Kotter) -- as well as smorgasbords of grunting, when a stew has all the right ingredients and yet no taste, how long vaudeville literacy persisted, perceptions of the primetime monoculture, and all the places pop songs think we should be boinking. Grab a Tab and rotary-dial into our latest ep!

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne, and special thanks to Amanda. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Episode 27: Patrick Swayze feat. Wendy Fraser, "She's Like The Wind"
• Episode 111: Bruce Willis And Don Johnson (with special guests Dan and Tracie!)
• Beats Around The Bush Single: The Hip-Hop-to-Acting Pipeline
• Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 7: Footnotes and Odd Lots

1996's Romeo + Juliet seemed like a slam-dunk ending to our soundtrack mini-season...but we have regrets! Epcot industrial music, lazy versions of Shakespeare, the psychotic hormonal jangling of youth, Scandinavian cultural crimes, and the returns of Teddy Ruxpin AND No Middle Ground with Paul Quinn accompany our struggling to remember the Wallflowers, and to decide whether it's possible for a song to be disgusting. Sidle up to an aquarium and have a listen!

Intro and outro by Laura Barger and Jack Baldelli. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas!

SHOW NOTES

• Where to watch Romeo + Juliet (though we don't advise it)
• The short, sad life of Quindon Tarver

This episode is, we suppose, like a box of chocolates, because technically you don't know what you're going to get, but we can tell you we're talking about the ubiquitous Forrest Gump soundtrack. Remembering top-loader VCRs, #justiceforJenn, powering through overplay, how long sixties soul acts gave themselves to get drawers on the floor, and songs Muppets sing at you. What does it sound like when the Beach Boys sing a New Yorker article about pirates? Find out with our latest episode!

Intro and outro by Andrew Byrne; interstitial music by Classics IV. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas!

SHOW NOTES

• Where to watch Forrest Gump
• Record Of The Year Showdown, Episode 1: 1959-1974
• John Fogerty not about certain pols' use of "Fortunate Son"
• Episode 45: Gladys Knight And The Pips, "Midnight Train To Georgia"
• Episode 195: Dolly Parton's Underrated Hits

The '90s Soundtrack Flashback season is bustin' surfboards with Pulp Fiction, 1994's omnipresent Quentin Tarantino joint. After talking about how the movie itself holds up (spoiler: really well!), we move on to fights with the Ventures, QT's trademark alternate timelines, how epic moments are inevitably punctuated by frump, at-the-bank audio wallpaper, and Peanuts-apron guy's moment of glory. C'est la vie, say the rankings, so have a listen!

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; for more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Where to watch Pulp Fiction
• SDB's review of Lonely Hearts at Best Evidence
• SDB's piece for Slant Magazine on "Void movies"
• The teen-idol bracket
• Do Call It A Comeback, Episode 4: The Last 15
• Episode 43: The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, Ranked

Welcome to our '90s Soundtrack Flashback mini-season! We're ranking the soundtrack albums from four legendary 1990s movies, starting with grunge-adjacent rom-com Singles. We waded into the great plaid middle of this disc to talk about the insouciance of Cameron Crowe stories, when it's okay for grunge gods to laugh, the conversation between this genre and punk (and Zep), and "hard rock for the school bus." Grab a Crystal Pepsi and a flannel buttondown and join us!

Intro and outro by David Gregory Byrne; interstitial music by Alice In Chains. For more information/to become a patron of the show, visit patreon.com/mastas.

SHOW NOTES

• Where to watch Singles
• This one didn't make the Poppy-Fields Couch of Fame...but Almost Famous did
• Episode 239: The Replacements, "Alex Chilton" (with Taylor Cole)
• "The hell are cross tops?"
• MB and SDB talk Mark Yarm
• too-sweet.html">Mark Yarm talks Hozier for the New York Times
• N...ot the Melrose soundtrack MB meant