Shannon Cooke and I finish our conversation on the Factory Showroom track "How Can I Sing Like a Girl." We check out live versions from throughout the decades, hear a handful of awesome covers, and score this TMBG classic. 

Shannon Cooke returns to the show to talk about the Factory Showroom cut "How Can I Sing Like a Girl?" On part 1, I get an oracle card reading from Shannon's custom TMBG-themed deck, we talk about demo and get techie with studio gear used on Factory Showroom, and give a tribute to our friend Mari Morton. 

Hooray for meeting podcast friends! Noah Daniel visited all the way from friggin' Germany to record this episode live in-studio at Velour Underground. We talk about the Here Come the 123s story-song "Nine Bowls of Soup" and debut our cover, featuring the guest "woahs" of my girls Zinnia and Ramona. 

Andee Fischer and I have even more to say about "Quit the Circus," time signatures and the band's amazing horn section. Then we hear some covers from the Crüe, and give the ever-important scores to the song. 

Andee Fischer makes her debut appearance on the show to talk about the Book deep cut "Quit the Circus." In part one, she tells us about her dancing and circus-adjacent skills, we dream up our ideal TMBG setlists, and we discuss the toxic family dynamics in this great track.

Here John Walker and I continue our discussion on this classic b-side. We check out one of the few live versions, and enjoy a bunch of cover versions and debut our very own collaborative cover! 

John Walker returns after many a year to talk about the classic TMBG b-side "When It Rains It Snows." With John being a fellow podcaster (FYIz), we get pretty chatty about music nerd stuff, so join us on this musical adventure as we dissect "When It Rains It Snows" and talk time signatures and lyrics, and next week in part 2 you'll get the remainder of the discussion, live versions, covers and scoring.

Jonathan Leonard returns to the show for a record-setting 6th time to talk about the Phone Power banger "Shape Shifter". We discuss robot vocals and Autotune, all sort of ways to read this song including hearing some interpretations from some other TMBP friends, and rock three covers from the Crüe, including one from me! 

Jacikat returns to the show for the umpteenth time to chat about "Sleepwalkers" off of No!, which began its life as an "adult" song called "What Is Everyone Staring At," which never made it past Dial-a-Song before it transformed. We discuss both versions, check out the live versions and gather covers of both songs, including Jacikat covering BOTH!  *We dedicate this episode to Mari Morton, our friend and valued member of our TMBP community. I hope they have found peace, and I hope they know that they were loved and will be missed. You'll hear us mention Mari, and  we were unaware of Mari's tragic passing when we recorded this episode. Go listen to the episodes Mari was on - "Take Out the Trash", "Social Media" and "I Broke My Own Rule" as well as Patreon episodes "Miscellaneous Trans" parts 1 and 2, and "Accordion Team Assemble!" RIP, Mari. <3

Guests Kelilah Miller and Rose Anderson team up to take on this lovely Phone Power track. The pair tell us about becoming transatlantic friends through TMBG fandom, and then we all dissect the song and hear them do their own cover version. ***Hear this episode ad-free here!***

Creative writing teacher and contributor to The Onion, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere, Jean-Luc Bouchard returns to the show to talk about the Book deep cut "Wait Actually Yeah No". We attempt to make sense of the lyrics, hear some explanations straight from a Linnell podcast appearance on Full Album Fridays, and make a pitch  for this and more Book songs to be played live. Visit Jean-Luc's website here. Follow him on X, which shall always be called Twitter! 

Ian Reynard returns to the show to talk about the Apollo 18 classic "Narrow Your Eyes." We dive into a bunch of live versions that span over 30 years, hear a bunch of custom covers, and try to decide just how "baroque" TMBG are.

Returning to talk about the TMBG cover of The Rose Garden's sole hit, Dawn Eden Goldstein shares her thoughts on it plus a few more fun and informative stories.  Find Dawn's song "Alone With You" performed by Juniper here! Here a version of it performed by The Anderson Council here! Read her 2018 interview with TMBG for Angelus here!

TMBG's cover of The Rose Garden's one hit song, "Next Plane to London," was one of the earliest tunes to hit the brand-new Dial-a-Song service in 1984. Dawn Eden Goldstein, a canon lawyer and theologist who was formerly a rock music historian, regales us with personal stories about her history as a TMBG fan. She got hip to the band prior to even their demo tape, and once had John Flansburgh visit her dorm room and play her guitar.  Her newest book: Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.'s Spiritual Sponsor     

Erin Rose O'Brien returns to the show to talk about "They Got Lost," with its different versions from Severe Tire Damage and Long Tall Weekend. We debate which is the superior version, discuss melody vs. story in songs, and dig into the background of our covers artists. 

Tara Trate returns to the show to talk about an early TMBG b-side, "The Biggest One." We discuss the song's importance in the band's early history, dirty diners, and songs with beats missing. 

Alex Nemeroff makes his debut on the show to talk about the chill cut "Your Own Worst Enemy" off of Factory Showroom. We discuss 70s soft rock bands, Friedrich Nietzsche, and weird old midi hardware. 

Ben Byrd returns to the show to debate the merits of the Mink Car song "Finished With Lies." We explore a few different interpretations of ours, follow the song's journey from demo to album track, and hear a new We Are Number Three cover, which includes Ben himself. 

Podcaster and author Rob Harvilla of 60 Songs That Explain the 90s: The 2000s, is here to talk about the Apollo 18 classic "Spider". We attempt to deconstruct the song to guess the origins of its parts, comment on live versions from a 30 year span, and jam out to 4 amazing covers from our Covers Crüe.    60 Songs That Explain the 90s: https://open.spotify.com/show/0njxeKJKFtoJhCRF1ShmL4?si=445ec35ace54452d

Jaya Crites returns to the show to talk about "No!" from...well, No! She gives us insight of what she thought of the song hearing it as a child, and how it has evolved to hearing it as an adult. Also learn how to sing the song in several languages thanks to a cover by Noah Daniel.