Hi Brad and Brad, Last week I decided to put on Yield for the first time in a while.  After doing so, I found myself listening to it at least twice a day for the rest of the week.  Yield has been my favorite album of theirs and this may have been spurred on by your announcement of an upcoming date on the album review episode.  I completely nerded out and not only binged on listening to this album, but also dove into the details of it's production and inspiration (I attached the file I created as a Word doc).  Rather than spoil your guys upcoming review of Yield, I am only going to focus on a couple of things from my information overload.  I've never declared a favorite member of the band, however I may be leaning toward Jeff.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first album he contributed lyrics on.  What's even more interesting are the two tracks he wrote, Pilate and Low Light, are both related to another.  He's also responsible for the

Hi Brad and Brad, I am officially completely caught up on the podcast.  I began listening on July 30th and it has taken me about two and a half months to get all 64 episodes in.  All of the awesome stories during PJ story time, the album reviews (except the much-anticipated Yield that I anxiously await), the Deep Thoughts by Brad Blazek and lastly the slide whistle!  On Friday, the album Vs. turned 25, which is exactly 12 years after I was born.  To commemorate what I consider to be the most "flawless" album in the catalog, I decided to give my own track-by-track review.  For the longest time, I had considered this my 2nd favorite to Yield and feel that if I went through and ranked every studio album track, almost every one on Vs. would make my top 50.  Below I ranked my favorites on the album from 1-12 and then give my all-time studio rankings some of which I shared on a previous email.  I include some retrospect from the album review given in Episode 33

Hi Brad and Brad, With everything going on around me, I have been trying my best to find distractions for myself.  My latest distraction comes from the much-anticipated (for me anyway, as I've been catching up) Avocado/Self-Titled track-by-track episode 49.  I'd be more than happy to buy into Blazek's want to re-label this album as "Nothing."  However you want to call it, my motivation came from a few lines quoted by Lyons after going over Severed Hand.  His comments regarding the ordering: "They put all the heavy hitters upfront." "They get you spoiled with these kick-ass, heavier more energetic songs and then it falls off afterward." "Maybe the order of this record was not the best." Right after I finished listening to Episode 49, that last quote stuck out in my head.  I took to Spotify and tried putting together a different order, to see if I can get Lyons to reconsider his #10 ranking.  I'm not

Hi Brad and Brad, I've navigated through 48 episodes to almost get completely caught up on your podcast.  I only have 4 more to go, since I began listening at Episode 53.  One track you guys talk very highly of is You Are throughout both seasons of SPT.  I really hadn't come to fully appreciate this song, until my wife bought me the Madison Square Garden DVD for Christmas about 10 years ago.  This was another example of my perspective on a track being changed after seeing it live.  Several times since then, I would just get the song playing over-and-over in my head, "Love is a tower and you're the key." After listening to the Riot Act episode, I read the lyric much more closely.  For me it represents a loved one being strong for you in a time of need.  "You are a tower of strength to me.  The darkening hour sees light again." "I am the shoreline, but you're the sea.  You are." I find myself in another time of ne

Hi Brad and Brad (and Kate), I wanted to start off my email to you guys this week to give a shout out to Kate Cotton.  She not only rocked in her recap of the Boston shows on Episode 59, but I thought she did a great job going over Drop in the Park with Blazek.  It had me thinking you should consider giving Kate a weekly soundbite with the tag "Single Kate Theory" just to turn around that douche bag's comment on YouTube.  I would welcome Kate on any future episodes.  Another thing I want to say is I think it's incredible how personable you guys are with the listeners, especially the OGs (e.g. Kate, Patrick "Bagel," Jenon, Danny B, John Ferrar, etc.).  I'm not fully caught up with the podcast, but love the fact you guys continue to connect with everyone who was not only there in the beginning, but all of the new listeners and seem to make it a point to read their email to make them feel welcome.  I certainly felt that way after having he