Ferguson Update: Week 14 of 2016

Worried that the mainstream media would lose focus of the serious issues highlighted during the Ferguson, Mo., unrest, Soundtrack of the Week has broadcasted a weekly report since August 2014 addressing police violence and other related stories. This is the print edition and will continue until significant change has been realized.

Ferguson Update: Week 13 of 2016

Worried that the mainstream media would lose focus of the serious issues highlighted during the Ferguson, Mo., unrest, Soundtrack of the Week has broadcasted a weekly report since August 2014 addressing police violence and other related stories. This is the print edition and will continue until significant change has been realized.

Room…for a better script

Every year, Soundtrack of the Week does an Academy Award show with TV.com writer Ben Knight. To get you juiced up for the show, Ty reviews each Best Picture nominee to help you decide which movies to not waste your time on and which movies to torrent off the internet instead of paying $40 at the movie theaters. Today’s film review: “Room.”

Mad Max: Fury Road…to boredom

Every year, Soundtrack of the Week does an Academy Award show with TV.com writer Ben Knight. To get you juiced up for the show, Ty reviews each Best Picture nominee to help you decide which movies to not waste your time on and which movies to torrent off the internet instead of paying $40 at the movie theaters. Today’s film review: “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Iowa Caucus Results, Explained

The Iowa Caucus is an event that we arbitrarily deemed important in the presidential election process. A bunch of white people in the Midwest get to shape the narrative of the presidential race. It’s dumb.

With that said, let’s see what information we can glean from this bullshit vote.

The X-Files: Good Television Nostalgia

WARNING: contains some spoilers from the 2016 premiere.    It wasn’t that long ago when proclaiming you were a fan of The X-Files was admitting your nerdiness. It was the show for D&D players with bad acne and terrible clothes, television for people who were into computers before computers mattered. It was sort of a…

Why Increasing the Smoking Age Won’t Do Anything

  New Jersey’s legislature recently passed a bill that would raise the legal smoking age to 21. More specifically, no one under 21 can purchase tobacco products (including e-cigarettes). Many anti-smoking groups believe this will help reduce underage smoking, and therefore, the number of adult regular smokers. It won’t. The idea behind increasing the purchasing…

Sean Penn: Actor. Activist. NOT Journalist.

Actor. Filmmaker. Political activist. According to Wikipedia, those titles are Sean Penn’s occupations. What you won’t find is “journalist”. Why? Because he’s not. Penn is under fire after Rolling Stone published an interview he did with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the world’s most wanted men before this past weekend. The interview was published…

Hall Of Shamed

  I went through the majority of my formative music listening years without ever really knowing who Deep Purple was. In elementary school, I knew Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. When I reached middle school, I got into The Beatles, The Doors and Pink Floyd. By high school, my tastes refined into King Diamond, The Stooges…

Dress Codes Too Much For Millennials

  Millennials are a bunch of whiny, entitled assholes. That’s the narrative all of the “old people” have been shouting across social media and in real life. It is also the same narrative that every generation since the beginning of time has been saying about the younger generation. But this may be the first time…

Saying Goodbye to Late Night

I remember when Conan O’Brien was announced as the successor of Jay Leno, and I sat there thinking that it was the new generation’s turn to take over network television by giving one of their own the biggest throne. Conan represented the goofy alternative that was synonymous with kids growing up through the 1990s. To…

The New Guys

That scene is from the film “The New Guy,” which is about a nerd who becomes the big man on campus by way of becoming a bad ass. He’s the same loveable guy on the inside, but in order for people to take him seriously, drastic measures had to be taken. This is the 2015…

Facebook Fallacies: Obama, Chuck Norris, racism and more

  Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column sponsored by Soundtrack of the Week that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around Satan’s asshole,…

Royals and the Art of War

  camaraderie (ˌkæməˈrɑːdərɪ) n a spirit of familiarity and trust existing between friends   The Royals possess and exhibit camaraderie. The Oakland A’s do as well. So does every single team in baseball or any sport for that matter. More importantly, the fans of a team share the same camaraderie with one another. As the above definitions suggests, camaraderie is a wonderful thing.…

Facebook Fallacies: Week 15 of 2015

  Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column sponsored by Soundtrack of the Week that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around Satan’s asshole,…

SXSW 2015 Review

  1,476 miles $150 in gas 22 hours 42 radio dial changes 8 million construction cones (in Texas alone). Those are some roundtrip stats to Austin, Texas, from Kansas City. For the first time, I made the journey to the hipster capital of the world to attend the one of the largest indie music festivals…

Facebook Fallacies: Week 13 of 2015

  Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column sponsored by Soundtrack of the Week that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around Satan’s asshole,…

Facebook Fallacies: Week 11 of 2015

Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column sponsored by Soundtrack of the Week that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around Satan’s asshole, aka…

Facebook Fallacies: Week 10 of 2015

  Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column sponsored by Soundtrack of the Week that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around…

Facebook Fallacies: Week 9 of 2015

  Facebook is a breeding ground for stupidity, ignorance and subtle (sometimes overt) racism and prejudice. Since shaming is a good way to get people to change, let’s call them out on their BS. Facebook Fallacies is a weekly column that debunks all of the stupid shit floating around Satan’s asshole, aka Facebook. Babies are…

Who Can Replace Jon Stewart?

It was going to happen eventually, just nobody thought it would happen this fast: Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show. Stewart has done more with that franchise than anyone could possibly imagine. Starting way back in the pre-9/11 days, he walked an entire generation through the 21st century and set the tone on how…

Book of Moron

  Last week, I questioned your music choices. This week, I’m questioning your ability to read…for pleasure. While you are listening to your favorite song on the radio or some app (promoted and paid for by a record label) during an intense session of Candy Crush as you wait for a movie to download on…

Musical Tastes and “Freewill”

What’s your favorite radio station?* Turn to it right now and write down what song is playing. Chances are that song will be played – along with a handful of others – ad nauseam throughout the day. There is an equal chance that the record label – not the radio personality – is responsible for…

Clock Strikes Midnight: The Royals Cinderella Reality

WARNING: Harsh realities ahead. SPOILER ALERT: Stick around. Silver linings are also ahead. Only one city gets to celebrate at the end of a season. Twenty-nine others will be disappointed, jaded, heartbroken. San Francisco is used to victory. Kansas City is used to defeat. That’s life. So why does this hurt so much after nearly…

David vs. Goliath

We all know the story of David vs. Goliath: a tale where the underdog defeats the giant. Its message is anyone can overcome the odds, regardless of the opponent in your way. The unlikely heroes, the Kansas City Royals, are literally facing Giants. It’s a story that is making media producers have the biggest hard-on.…

Royals Postseason Only for the Royals

#BringBackSungWoo That’s the hashtag going viral on KC Twitter as of this writing. People in Kansas City love that story, and the people involved with making it happen love it even more. I can be “that guy” and argue the exploitation of a human being as a PR stunt, but honestly, I don’t give a…

The War on Piss

Drug testing began as a means of making sure people in certain highly dangerous jobs weren’t showing up intoxicated. No one wants the mechanic welding while railing PCP. I feel pretty confident in that. But testing, like so many good ideas, has spiraled out of control. Nowadays up to 62% of all jobs require drug…

The Bank of Mom and Dad

Homeownership signifies that you have become a fully functional adult. You’re no longer a child or immature. Also, homeownership indicates that mom and dad have money. A new study reveals that 27 percent of first-time homeowners received money from relatives or friends for their down payment, up 24 percent from last year and likely to…

Radio Flatlines With iHeartMedia Takeover

Let’s say you own a business that sells bellbottoms. It’s the ‘70s and every Pink Floyd fan that’s smoking dank weed is buying them, i.e. everyone is buying your product. Now’s it’s the ‘80s and the youth have switched over to Motley Crue leather pants and whatever the hell the New Wave kids are wearing.…

The SOTW Donate Wisely Challenge

Bucket Challenges, marathons, quirky t-shirts, pub crawls. You name a disease that more than a dozen people have, and there is probably a campaign raising money for it. These shenanigans need to end, and I will tell you why. As our contributor writer Dudebrabroman pointed out in Going Viral Doesn’t Cure Viruses, the ALS Ice…

Fire Goodell

Roger Goodell needs to be fired, because hey, why not? Here’s a list of things we can argue about: Is Ray Rice a bad guy or just made one mistake? Doe Janay Rice deserve for us to stop talking about this? Does the NFL have a bigger responsibility than the law? Is a hotdog a…

Going Viral Doesn’t Cure Viruses

We probably don’t need awareness for the sort of cause you’d want to raise awareness for. We don’t, and even if we did, most people suck at spreading useful awareness.We know breast cancer exists, we know mental health is a thing, we are all aware that ALS exists. We probably do not need the sort…

Opening Up the Culture Club

  Why white people are so angry about everything black. For those of you who listen to the podcast, you’ve probably heard us talk about Crazy Facebook Republican Militia Guy before. This person is exactly who you’d think he would be: white, ex-military, angry, hates Obama more than life itself, loves guns more than he…