Who Else is Listening?

This episode is an episode of firsts. It’s our first biweekly episode. It’s our first advertisement-free episode (RIP Smithfield Hams [Rest in Peepee]). It’s our first rawdog. It features our first Twitter Tight Ten segment. For the first time, Lachlan assumes the role of Australian correspondent. It’s our first eighth episode. And it’s our first episode on hometown songs. 

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This week, we put some hometown classics into a pot, let them steep, then sip slowly and discuss Tetris marriages, dissect the perfect joke structure, and dabble in ASMR. By examining (to some extent) the songs ‘We Built this City’ by Starship; ‘Palo Alto’ and ‘Fitter, Happier’ by Radiohead; ‘Wagon Wheel’ by both Old Crow Medicine Show and Darius Tucker; ‘More Than a Woman’ by the Bee Gees; and ‘Candy Girl’ by Kiwi, we reflect (to a lesser extent) on our hometowns: San Francisco CA, Todd NC, and Sandgate QLD. Warning! Contains jaw harp.

In this episode, our first double doctor, your well-cooked but still runny team take Eurovision into the crook of their arm to gives its hair a good-natured ruffling. Our official European correspondent Jon Rasmus Nyquist drops by to offer his local perspective, and together we insult Swedish people, compare meal sizes, and set our watches to DIARRHEA. Along the way, we swim in the deep end of Eurovision, discussing Alexander Rybak's "Fairytale", Dschinghis Khan's "Dschinghis Khan", Buranovskiye Babushki's "Party For Everybody", Herrey's' "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley", Sylvia Night's "Congratulations", and Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah" and maybe some more i can't remember. The presence of our official European correspondent compels us to introduce ourselves and the show in a more substantial way than normal, though we fight valiantly against it.  

This episode is not brought to you by Smithfield Hams, which, despite our vocal and unsolicited support, is not even fit for dogs. Instead, this episode is brought to you by Hillshire Hams, the Lamborghini of ham.

This week your dazzling and electric team close one eye and squint to examine drinking songs: "Too Drunk to Fuck", by Dead  Kennedys, "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink", by Merle Haggard, and "You're the Voice", by John Farnham. Throughout our discussion, we discuss how artists control the position of their art in history, take a truly international approach to how well penises work, hunt the fabled Walmart Leprachaun, and finally get to the bottom of why Bob Seger is killing everyone's dads. Jess and Kip also bravely decided that they would record their side of the chat from inside a fishbowl. Will their risky decision pay off in terms of sound quality? You decide!

We celebrate Labour Day on the date chosen by corporations with an episode about work and labour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we find out that most of the team has been very legitimately fired during our working careers. But, demonstrating the worker's backbone, your tastefully minimalist friends pull it back together to record a US Labour Day special by digging through major songs about work and labour: "Workin' 9 to 5", by Dolly Parton; "Career Opportunities", by the Clash; and  "They'll Never Keep Us Down", by Hazel Dinkins. And that’s what makes it a Smithfield.

In this week's episode, your lithe friends use their combined 50 years experience of being online to cast a refined gaze over posts about Coronavirus, quarantine, and the apocalypse. To whet your appetite, we carefully explore a world systems theory of urination and examine whether or not turkey salad is possible, and we wrap the show up with a business opportunity. In between, we "pony up" on the songs "The End of  the World" by Skeeter Davis, "It's the End of the World" by R.E.M.,  "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult, and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna  Fall" by Bob Dylan, and discuss how the end times is manifesting online. Once again, your friends steadfastly refuse to explain the show or its concept, but we hope that it's becoming clearer.

This week, your principled and athletic friends change their lazer setting from stun to kill and train their sights on three songs: Night Moves by Bob Seger, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, and Signs by The Five Man Electrical Band. After an expansive and eye-opening discussion of Ohio's climate, the team tackle nostalgia handjobs and whether or not LSD existed in the 90s. We also powerfully commit ourselves to not introducing the show or its concept in any substantial way.