Jukebox Zeroes Zero Science

R&B singer/songwriter Mariah Carey enjoyed a prolonged period of critical and commercial success throughout the 90s, during which she enjoyed multiple Billboard Hot 100 hits and sold millions upon millions of records. The 00s on the other hand were a brief stumbling point for the legendary performer; her involvement in the 2001 box office bomb Glitter and its subsequent soundtrack made her a polarizing and controversial figure, and coupled with the media's reaction to a public mental breakdown she had been going through, it nearly destroyed her career if not for 2005's mega-comeback The Emancipation of Mimi. Though she would recover her reputation, the failure of Glitter continued to be a yoke around her neck years later.

On a new season of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick welcome Scott Kurland back to the podcast to talk about the soundtrack to Glitter, and Mariah Carey in general. Join them for some frank discussion about retrospective guilt, mental health awareness, reckoning with behaviors back during the 00s, and Mystikal's weird pride in soiling his under-drawers.

#weresadnow

Local Music Feature: Christina Jones - Free, Completely Free

On this very special(?) episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick with special return guest Aimee Hauthaway have opted to close out season 5 by listening to Sex And Violins by Rednex.

You know, Rednex?

The "Cotton Eye Joe" guys?

Why are they doing this?

Isn't that the question of the day.

#AreWeNormalNow?
#GoinTrunky
#SeeYouNextSeason


New England Music Feature: Christians & Lions - "Is To As Are To"

Christian Rock. A phenomenon in which the iconically American genre of music is used as a tool for evangelizing, preaching, or otherwise sharing christian religious beliefs. Though christianity had long opposed the "devil music" that was rock and roll, sometime around the late 1960s and early 1970s, former hippies who had turned to Christ discovered that they could use rock music as a means of spreading their gospel. Though many old guard christians considered it abhorrent, and conflicting to their values, christian rock gradually spread among the faithful, and even enjoyed a surge of mainstream commercial success in the 1990s via acts like Creed, Relient K, P.O.D., DC Talk, Jars of Clay, and many more.

It's a phenomenon that many millennials and gen Z'ers grew up with, largely through the influence of religious parents or peers. Some embraced religion whole-heartedly through it, but for many among us...we still don't get it.

With that level of ill-preparedness in mind, on this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick welcome Ashley Rogers and Shane Smith to the pod. Both return guests had grown up with christian rock as an everpresent force in their youth, and are glad to educate Lilz and Patrick in the ways of excessively earnest guys rocking out for Jeebus. Join them for a round-table discussion of random christian rock songs and artists, to exorcise some long dormant demons of their childhood, and make fun of Doug TenNapel.

Seriously, fuck that guy.

#werenormalnow

Local Music Feature: The Revenants - "Why Is God A Goddamn Jerk"

Fresh after the release of Pink Floyd's mega-selling concept record The Wall, Roger Waters had plans to release a companion piece record to accompany the film adaptation of the famed album. The project was to be titled Spare Bricks, and consist of songs written for The Wall that didn't make the final draft, but Waters abruptly switched directions with the arrival of the Falkland Islands conflict. Waters already was no fan of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, but this latest development lit an even bigger anti-war fire in his belly, and he set to work on new, more political material.

Pink Floyd had already been experiencing internal tensions since Waters assumed total creative control over the group, and those simmering tensions finally boiled over with the production of the record, now named The Final Cut. Upon its release, most critical outlets would offer up mixed to negative reviews, while the band's guitarist David Gilmour would state that the songs on the record weren't good enough for their own release. Not long after The Final Cut, Waters would exit the band amidst a ruinous lawsuit.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, Lilz and Patrick are joined by return guest Nate Nemitz to discuss The Final Cut, an album that would subsequently be the final Pink Floyd record to feature Roger Waters. Join them for a frank discussion on solo projects, the politics of the 1980s, and absolutely no comparisons to modern events whatsoever.

#werenormalnow

Local Music Feature: Matt Drohan - "Thirteen"

Meet Ronnie Radke. Formerly the lead singer of the legendary metalcore act Escape The Fate, his tenure in the group was cut short after assault charges landed him in prison, and expelled from the band. Undaunted, Radke would form his own project upon leaving jail, known as Falling In Reverse, which followed a similar metalcore style as Escape had, but the central creative process was entirely Radke's. Though he would go on to attract a sizeable audience of metalcore fans with his music, he would become infamous for some truly scummy behavior, having been accused of sexual assault multiple times, consistently getting into fights with fans and critics, and more recently becoming an outspoken denouncer of cancel culture.

And wouldn't you know it? In all this time, a truly detestable record came out of it too. In 2013, coming off of the success of Falling In Reverse's 2011 debut The Drug In Me Is You, Radke followed things up with Fashionably Late, a record that he declared to be the best music he'd ever written, with a heavy focus on uplifting and inspirational material. What critics and fans saw it as however, was an uncoordinated mess filled with questionable genre fusion, un-dynamic production, lyrics too misogynistic even for a stereotypically misogynistic genre as metalcore, and a disgusting amount of Radke's own inflated sense of ego.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, we're joined by Jacob Russell of the Let's Play crew TheStrawhatNO!, for a frank and distressing listen to Fashionably Late. In which some metalcore demons of indiscretion are exorcised, closet skeletons are unearthed, and Lilz and Patrick wonder if they've somehow stumbled onto an album worse than the Steven Seagal one.

#MowTheSausages

Local Music Feature - Lockette - "The Mess"

In 2001 several revolutionary albums stood nominated for Album Of The Year at that year's Grammy Awards. Important records by Radiohead (Kid A), Eminem (The Marshall Mathers LP), and Beck (Midnite Vultures), all of which would go on to great acclaim and influence to new generations of musicians who discovered them. The conventional wisdom was that one of these three albums would take home the grand prize of the evening, but events played out very differently, and would contribute to increasingly disdainful public opinion towards the award.

The Grammies already had a long and storied history of nominating "wrong" artists and albums for "Best Of The Year" awards that would earn widespread criticism among fans and critics. It happened when Jethro Tull took "Best Hard Rock/Metal Recording" by Metallica, it happened when Eric Clapton took "Best Rock Song" from Nirvana, and it happened once again when cerebral jazz-rockers and boomer institution Steely Dan took "Album Of The Year" with their 8th studio recording "Two Against Nature".

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes, songwriter and synth-wizard Steve Borek of Telelectrix joins Lilz and Patrick to discuss the controversy and listen to the yacht rock staple's 2000 record. Join us for frank discussions on timelessness, old guard thinking, and be thoroughly skeeved out by the various songs about underage girls.

#wearenormalnow

Local Music Feature: The Heartsleeves - "Simple Machine"