Episode 82: May Madness, Part 2

About this episode

The episode concludes May Madness with discussions on music albums and a competitive bracket to crown the greatest band with a color in its name.

May Madness reaches its conclusion. But before the bracket chaos resumes, Cort reports back on GOLDSTAR by The Sophs. The album slowly wormed its way into his brain through catchy hooks that took their sweet time arriving, strange charm, and lyrics that demanded he actually pay attention. Brian, meanwhile, continues his campaign to promote emotionally damaged (or damaging) indie bands to the masses. Which brings us to… Noah Kahan’s new album The Great Divide, family dysfunction as musical genre, and Cort’s emerging theory that too many modern albums are hiding their best material in the back half like they expect listeners to complete a homework assignment before earning the payoff. Then there’s the unfortunate return to a certain marriage podcast, which we cannot name because we genuinely do not remember the name even though Brian actually listened to it. And then: the bracket. May Madness Part 2 finally crowns the greatest band with a color in its name. The Sweet 16 becomes the Elite Eight, then the Final Four, as Cort makes a series of deeply subjective rulings that are nevertheless final, binding, and entirely within his sole discretion. Some decisions are carefully reasoned…

People in this episode

Hosts: Cort, Brian

Topics covered

• music
• album reviews
• indie bands
• May Madness
• bracket competition
• family dysfunction
• music history

Keywords

• May Madness
• GOLDSTAR
• The Great Divide
• Noah Kahan
• indie bands
• music history
• bracket competition

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Sophs, The Flying Scrub Jays

Books & works: GOLDSTAR, The Great Divide, Cyrus Oh Cyrus

More episodes of Listeners Like You

• Episode 84: Had Fun? We Hope We Did. · June 12, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Episode 83: Remarkably Mostly About Xfinity · May 29, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Episode 81: May Madness Part 1 · May 1, 2026 · 1h 13m
• Episode 80: Objectively better than Band of Brothers · April 17, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Episode 79: Milking this one beat · April 3, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Episode 78: Making up music on the McFly · March 20, 2026 · 1h 1m