Brian reports back on Gigi Perez's At the Beach, In Every Life, and the verdict lands somewhere between appreciation and exhaustion. Which songs are keepers? Which songs leave Brian and Cort wondering whether they've accidentally wandered into an entirely different album. Along the way they discuss what is possibly Spotify's most baffling artist bio, and Brian develops a strange guilt complex for the most Brian of reasons.

There's also a discussion of music fans. Has fandom become a soulless, bullying soufflé of entitlement?

Cort gives a genuinely heartfelt tribute to the late Anthony Stewart Head (yes, Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and that leads to an unexpected detour through Chess, "One Night in Bangkok," and the surprisingly musical Head family.

The conversation wraps with World Cup fever, hydration breaks, the foreign team receiving the most American experience while visiting America, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bonnaroo, and a new assignment from Brian that he boldly declares to be a genuine masterpiece. Oh! And the Random Podcast Generator bit may have finally paid off.

Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus - The Flying Scrub Jays https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Gigi Perez's At the Beach, In Every Life - https://open.spotify.com/album/4fULdU3VoqC0M1IHhVTAQ4?si=qooSV-rTRoKrU1M-xdcDgA

Brian's Assignment to Cort: Goodbye Jumbo - World Party https://open.spotify.com/album/2V2L3lPqjL9L2bS3tqvZ4S

Cort reports back on his assignment, Hope We Have Fun by Mt. Joy, and, thankfully, the answer appears to be yes. The album sends the guys down a rabbit hole of favorite tracks, genre-hopping bands, Nathaniel Rateliff connections, and the increasingly rare experience of finding an album that simply makes life a little more enjoyable.

From there, things proceed exactly as they always do.

Mt. Joy leads to Winnie the Pooh, which leads to copyright infringement which leads to setting aside Jerry Rafferty somehow, and that of course leads to an extended detour into profanity, and whether some words are more useful than others.

Meanwhile, Brian gives us the skinny on Chelsea's latest footballing misery, which of course just leads the guys back to one of their favorite topics, the ongoing reality television arms race between Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Traitors, and whatever fresh nonsense producers are cooking up next.

Along the way: turkey burger recipes, soccer jerseys, Huey's burgers, emotional intelligence podcasts, Russian folklore, and the unsettling realization that these two guys can spend nearly an hour talking without ever once staying on topic.

In the end, Cort assigns Brian At the Beach, In Every Life by Gigi Perez, proving once again that no matter where the conversation wanders, the assignments must go on.

🎶 Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus — The Flying Scrub Jays

https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492

Last assignment: Hope We Have Fun by Mount Joy https://open.spotify.com/album/3r5ik8QohUa56zacmEyAdb?si=bqneLkeVQl-7lxMzEloJ-Q

Cort's Next Assignment to Brian: At the Beach, In Every Life by Gigi Perez https://open.spotify.com/album/4fULdU3VoqC0M1IHhVTAQ4?si=oOOhuqGrQLWRKBsU_wEeuw

The assignment was American Football’s LP4. The episode is, somehow, four days of Brian having no internet, a severed wire, a locked neighbor’s gate, and a customer satisfaction survey that would not let him rate the one person who actually helped.

We promise we talk about the album too. Briefly. Before the rant takes the wheel. Somewhere beneath the Comcast fury lies a real, perhaps even earnest, conversation about Midwest emo, math rock, the Kinsella brothers, and whether Morrissey accidentally possessed an Ohio band’s lead singer.

Also somewhere in there we cover: Memphis movie geography, King Sorrow, Scream 7, Send Help, the Dennis Miller-to-Bill Maher pipeline, and a randomly generated podcast Apple has apparently classified as “cricket.”

Last Assignment: American Football (LP4) https://open.spotify.com/album/3fhKJU3nUfduKj9YhEAoGf?si=ATD7kNzIQ5e6N1p4intVXw

New assignment: Mount Joy, Hope We Have Fun. https://open.spotify.com/album/3r5ik8QohUa56zacmEyAdb?si=bqneLkeVQl-7lxMzEloJ-Q

Theme Song: Cyrus Oh Cyrus, The Flying Scrub Jays. https://open.spotify.com/track/3S9T5HUS4cwky1922WhF1J?si=6fcad8771f724492