Let's ring in the new year with old content! Everybody wins! Yaaaaaay!!
(Okay, do maybe we just win. That’s how it goes sometimes.)
Here’s the deal: we have a New Year’s episode in the Vault, from waaaaaay back in 2021. It was pretty good! Content-wise, at least. Audio quality? Not so good. We couldn’t use it as-is, so why not repurpose the content? Thus, the Fairly KickAss Redraft™ was born.
We’re taking that old Songs to Ring in the New Year episode, throwing all the songs in a pot, and picking our favorites… including honorable mentions. J’s #3 last time could end up as Dan’s #1 this time! Speaking of Dan, it’s just him and Zack for this shindig, but the New Year will still be rang. Rang? Runged? Ringadingied?? Who knows.
There is one thing I know, though… and that’s that you should let us know what songs you prefer to ring in the new year. You can do that here!
Ass-Kickers! We have another one that might be a bit heavy for some of you – and for good reason – but we felt it was an interesting conversation to have.
Dan and Zack (still minus a J) are here with this Vibes episode, where we just… vibe. Good vibes, bad vibes, WTF vibes – all the vibes. It’s more conversational and less structured than our other episodes, and as such we use these episodes to cover topics that don’t fit neatly into any of the other episode types.
The usage of AI in all walks of life has been very hotly contested, especially over the past several years, and music is no exception. We both discuss the topic best we can. (Spoiler: we’re both dumb as hell and are far from experts on ANYTHING, much less this.)
In other episode types, we absolutely are the authorities; for example, in our Billboard Rerank episodes, each of us is confident that our reranking is correct, and will hear nothing to the contrary! But for this one, there’s none of that going on. There are no answers or conclusions at the end of this one. Just vibes.
As always, we want each and every one of you to participate in the conversation! Let us know what you think in all the usual ways:
The Fairly Kickass website, right here where you’re currently at – that’s https://fairlykickass.com – is where we house all of our ride-along playlists, among other things, so check that out too. No playlist with this ep, but you’ll find the goods for all of our previous episodes for the past couple months – and everything before that is on Spotify with all the music interspersed within the episodes. You have options! Options are cool.
We’ll be hopping in the Wayback Machine next week for two episodes (7/24 and 7/31) that we recorded before J flew the coop, to make sure y’all don’t forget what he sounds like. August reviews after that on 8/7, then… well we can’t give you all the keys to the kingdom, y’know? (editor’s note: We don’t know yet. We don’t plan here. You’re well aware of this already.) You know what else you know? That’s right, you know to Keep. Kicking. Ass.
Oh hello there! Yes you, you who are wanting to talk about the new albums and charting singles from June of 2024. Well let me tell you that… that this is the thing that you want. Yeah. This thing.
Our friendly neighborhood J is still on break, and certainly living the dream. Dan and Zack (it me) held down the fort for the reviews this month, and they did… C+ work, maybe? C-? All credit to Producer Nikki for chopping a TON of crap out of this one, because Dan and I can yap with the best of them. We will strive to do better on the next one!
Dan and I will have an interesting look at the role of AI in the music world next week – it will be all over the place, and we hope you check it out. Until then, we also hope that you Keep. Kicking. Ass.
We’re back with Pt. 2 of the Deep Dive into Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony! In Pt. 1, our crew discussed the other crew’s history and discography, leading up to BNTHResurrection. In Pt. 2, we pick up at Thug World Order, covering the moving and shaking that lead to the final (for now) album, New Waves. There’s still a lot of meat on this… well, you know… so please join us for the conclusion of this fascinating, amazing, wild, and skeletal story.
Make sure to scroll up to get the ride-along playlists for this episode, and check this here website for ride-along playlists for other episodes of the podcast. On top of all that (it’s a lot we know), join us for the discussion in all the usual ways:
June reviews will be coming next week! The format will be a bit different, since our trio will be a duo for a spell. It’s all good stuff though! Don’t worry, because unlike Bone, there is no infighting going on here. (Editor’s Note: there’s no infighting going on yet.) We should get back to the usual three’s company sometime in August! Until then, we hope that you Keep. Kicking. Ass.
Why hello there! Fairly KickAss here, with our first of many REWIND episodes. These episodes were originally posted back when we were a Spotify-exclusive podcast, and we’re pulling them out to allow all of you to listen, no matter where you get your podcasts. (For you Spotify faithful, we will be deleting the original episode so it doesn’t show up for you twice!)
Also keep in mind that some of these are several years old, and may not be quite up to the level of quality that you have come to enjoy from us. Please be patient and enjoy the ride nonetheless!
But enough preamble – let’s talk about the episode, shall we? You may be familiar with them from their big hit Tha Crossroads, or you may have listened to some of their other work. You may even be a huge fan of the crew that hails from E. 99th St. and St. Clair Avenue, in the heart of Cleveland. I am talking about none other than Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, one of the most influential hip hop groups of the 1990s, or truly any decade. Bone revolutionized the game with a unique, melodic, songlike delivery of very quick-paced lyrics, with slang to match. You had to take notes to understand it all, but it was a joy to do so.
But there’s more to the story than just the music – WAY more. This is one of our Deep Dive episodes, where we look at things like the artist’s history, their beginnings in the music industry, and all the various stops they made along the way. And boy oh boy, did the members of Bone have some history. So much so, that we had to split this into two episodes.
I’m gonna stop before I spoil too much! Go listen to the ep, then go listen to the ride-along playlist above (there is one playlist that covers all songs in Parts 1 and 2), and let us know what you think:
This week’s episode of the Fairly KickAss Podcast is our very first Coverlutions episode. “What’s Coverlutions”, you ask, well lemme tell ya all about it.
Each of your hosts listen to, and compile, a list of a whole litany of covers of a certain song. We started at the top for this episode, with – from what I could gather – the most covered song of all time, that being Yesterday by The Beatles.
The hosts then go rapid fire in a round, firing off a cover one after the other. Each cover can only be… well, covered… once. If it’s on your list and someone else says it, then tough luck, you gotta cross it off. If you run out of covers, you’re out. Last host standing wins a set of steak knives, or something.
The other hosts have veto power as well, over a cover that may be too out there, too ridiculous, too far away from the original, or too “hey my neighbor banged out Yesterday on his acoustic last night”. Basically, we had to bring it in order to get it through, and we all did just that.
I won’t tell you who won, but I will tell you that it was exciting to the very end. So check it out, and especially with this being a new concept, let us know how the heck you feel about it!
So back in 2021, I (Zack – yo) did a dumb bit in the podcast description of the May monthly reviews for new albums and charting singles. I talked about how May marks the 5/12ths point of the year. And then I talked about a lot of other 5/12ths of things. It doesn’t make sense yet, I know.
But one of my fatal flaws is that I can’t let go of a bit. So, in that spirit, and in the spirit of this being one of our first few episodes that aren’t Spotify exclusive, let’s go back and refresh some of the best (read: worst) of this stupid-ass bit, and then we can put it to bed and just do a regular thing for May 2025’s reviews. Please.
– 5/12ths of a sandwich: GOOD, but ANNOYING. That likely means that some jerk cut the sandwich juuuuuuust off of right down the middle, and then took the bigger piece. If your cutting skills are bad, you get the smaller piece. It’s incentive to cut better. Please consult the Sandwich Bylaws, Chapter 5, Section 12, for more information on this very important topic.
– 5/12ths of a car: BAD, although it might be workable if it’s the front half. Take that with a grain of salt actually, because I am very much not a CarPerson™ and anything I say about Cars™ is likely false and wrong.
– 5/12ths of a dozen bagels: GOOD if you don’t have to eat them all at once; otherwise BAD. Can you imagine? Downing five bagels in a single sitting? All the water in the Atlantic won’t quench that thirst. Spread ’em out.
– 5/12ths of a million dollars: $416,666.66. You tell me.
– 5/12ths of a company: OOOOOH. I mean, you own a good portion of it – and I’m gonna guess the company makes something worthwhile, like hamburgers or bingo cards or little replicas of Academy Awards, that you can give yourself in the mirror, with no one else within earshot. “Best Podcast, you say? I did NOT expect this at ALL! Let me take out my list of people to thank.” Wait, what the hell was I talking about?
– 5/12ths of Radiohead’s OK Computer: Exit Music (For A Film); Let Down; Karma Police; Electioneering; Lucky. Throw the rest of the album away. (NOTE: this was from my post last year, and I’m gonna admit it: it was a bad take. That album has no skips. Okay, Fitter Happier is a skip, but it’s less a song and more a skit, so we don’t have to count it.)
– 5/12ths of a platter of tater tots: VERY GOOD, always, in May and every other month and in every year. If you wanna be friends, you will bring me a platter of tater tots.
– 5/12ths of The Fairly KickAss Podcast: THE WORST, JUST THE ABSOLUTE WORST. There are choices! There are tons of choices!
…which is why we’re always honored to have you here. Whether you listen to one episode or all of them, y’all are the best, and we love and appreciate you.
Do you consider yourself to be a fan of emo music? Are you not a fan, but willing to reconsider? Are you unfamiliar with the genre altogether? Were you looking for an Earwolf or Headgum podcast, and got lost somehow and ended up here?
Well in order then: you’re in the right place, let us change your mind, we’re looking forward to introducing you to the genre, and we understand if you have to go but hopefully you’ll stick around for a while!
This is our episode type called The Rush, which is short for The Mt. Rushmore. We take a topic – this episode’s topic being Emo Songs – and each of us brings our own personal Rushes to the table. We deliberate, argue, bargain, and eventually come up with a collab Rush that we can all agree (mostly) on.
All of our Rush selections, as well as a whole heap of honorable mentions, can be found on our website, https://fairlykickass.com, in a handy-dandy Spotify playlist. The first four tracks will comprise our FKA Rush, followed by our individual Rush selections, and finally our honorable mentions.
We always like to know what you think though! Did we get the right four tracks? Did we miss anything on our lists? Let us know:
Ass-Kickers! We present to you one of our Rerank episodes, where we take a pre-determined list and sort of… undetermine it. We chop it up, rearrange it, flip it and reverse it, and wright all the rongs of the original list. We then present the highs and lows of our shiny new lists, and give you the rest (along with the appropriate ride-along playlists) over on https://fairlykickass.com.
This episode specifically is around the year 1996. As a kid growing up in 1996, I distinctly remember two things: Bill Clinton playing saxophone (the famous clip from the Arsenio Hall show happened in 1992, so I know nothing), and the Olympics in Atlanta. Oh and the Nintendo 64 launched! I’ve been told that there were games on the console not called “GoldenEye”, but I don’t buy it.
But I digress! Check out the episode, and let us know what you think in all the usual ways:
Ass-Kickers! This is our One Song episode, in which we take an artist’s entire discography, listen to every song, and pick the best of the best of the best. With honors.
We each get two minutes to make our individual cases for our One Song, and then the other hosts discuss their thoughts. Finally, we present our choices you, Dearest Listener, in hopes that you will pick us accordingly.
Check out the episode above, or wherever you get your podcasts. Once you’ve listened to all of our submissions, let us know if we got it right – or very, very wrong – in all the usual ways:
Make sure to follow us on your podcast platform of choice, to be notified of new episodes. We have our schedule… well, scheduled… out through mid-August, and let us tell you that there’s some good stuff on the horizon. Stay tuned for that on your podcast platform of choice.
And if you could just do us one more favor, we would like to request that you Keep. Kicking. Ass.
fairlykickass.com 