Of all the genre-flouting “alternative” bands scooped up by major labels in the mid-‘90s, Soul Coughing boasted arguably the most enduring listening power. Their second of three perfect albums, Irresistible Bliss, landed an unexpected hit with the aggressively funky depth charge “Super Bon Bon.” In this episode, Will enlists the help of Phil, Rich, and Amanda in figuring out whether there’s some manner of locomotion that will get us to the mezzanine.

The Magnetic Fields, during its early-’90s heyday, consisted mainly of introverted wordplay enthusiast Stephin Merritt, his collection of abused, dinky electronics, and Claudia Gonson, his drummer, cheerleader, and buffer to the outside world. Other collaborators came and went through astonishingly catchy, brainy, and weird albums like Holiday and The Charm of the Highway Strip (not to mention the creme-de-la-creme indie-rock ball of the 6ths’ Wasps’ Nests, which we covered like eight years ago). But nothing prepared the rock-geek world for 69 Love Songs: Merritt’s three-disc 1999 opus that was no longer lo-fi (unless he wanted it to be), no longer willfully obscure (unless that was the point), and no longer inaccessible (unless it was “Love Is Like Jazz,” which … ecch). Instead, it was a seemingly impossible romp through dozens of musical styles that could be hilarious, heartbreaking, mocking, sincere, or all of the above in one big clump. Will and Rich stick this whole thing out over three episodes which we’ll be releasing over three joyous nights, joined variously by John, Amanda, and recurring D&R guest hosts Libby Cudmore and B. Heard.

Can you hear those towering walls of amped-up guitars in our latest episode, accompanied by aching lyrics you can barely hear? That’s because we’ve loaded it with Sugar! After pioneering alternative rock in the hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü, frontman and guitarist Bob Mould briefly went solo, then formed a new power trio named after a stray packet of sugar that caught his eye while eating at a Waffle House. (This naming convention would not be repeated until the 2000 Hootie & the Blowfish covers album Scattered, Smothered and Covered.) Sugar’s high-decibel, disarmingly sincere brand of power pop has always made the band Will’s preferred branch of the Mouldverse, and this week he’s joined by Ben, Will, and special guest Scott Floman to discuss their 1992 masterpiece Copper Blue.

After spending the last couple of decades converting all of his friends into Camper Van Beethoven fans, Will is now doing the same for all of you - with the help of one of the band members! Victor Krummenacher, CVB bassist and swell guy, was kind enough to talk to Will about the making of Key Lime Pie and some general band history, and you can hear that interview in this episode before we start our usual discussion. Key Lime Pie is a terrific album full of unconventional song structures, clever lyrics, and interesting sounds, and we hope you all like it as much as we do.

Far from any road, husband-and-wife duo The Handsome Family create beautiful indie folk/country that uses centuries-old musical traditions as a vehicle to explore, mourn, embrace, or giggle at human nature (and folly) from a perspective all their own. On this episode, Will enlists Amanda, Dan, and Rich to discuss the Handsome Family's sixth and oddest album, Singing Bones. Join us as we examine the way these songs shimmer and simmer, and attempt to determine if that's a result of heat rising from the boiling Albuquerque terrain or because we're listening through the murk of disconsolate ghosts.

Arguably the rock-geekiest band of all time, Hoboken indie-rockers Yo La Tengo have internalized seemingly every album they've ever heard, and they mix these diverse influences into distinctive and tasty musical stir-fries. Sometimes they're noisy and deliberately sloppy, sometimes they're gorgeous and pensive, but they're almost always engaging, and I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One is simultaneously their most accessible and their most eclectic album to date. It also happens to be Will's favorite album ever, so get ready for a heapin' helpin' of superlatives as he hosts this in-depth look at its 16 songs, along with fellow YLT fans Dan, Mike, and Rich.

Tribute albums are generally mighty rough terrain. Admittedly, you will every so often come across a gem of an interpretation like the Cowboy Junkies' killer version of "Ooh Las Vegas" (on Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons), but these collections generally require you to paw through a disproportionate amount of oyster gunk to get to their pearls. Lucky for us, the Magnetic Fields' fastidious idea-geyser Stephin Merritt decided to preempt anyone else's attempts to pay tribute to his music by doing it himself. The result was 1995's indie-pop classic Wasps' Nests, recorded under the tongue-punishing name the 6ths, for which Merritt wrote and recorded all original songs, but recruited the cream of the who's-who of mid-'90s indie-rock to sing each of the tracks.

MEAT!!! Chris Willie Williams is the eighth and final Discord & Rhyme host to take the helm — and, ever the prankster and hopeless hipster, he has chosen an album that is out of print. 1991’s Forbidden Places was the major-label debut for Meat Puppets, a critically adored 1980s Phoenix alternative rock band known for its mixture of country and psychedelia, as well as vocalist Curt Kirkwood’s only vague regard for a song’s meter. Forbidden Places was meant to give the Puppets a Traveling Wilburys-style spitshine for the airwaves — then, three months later, Nirvana’s Nevermind came along and changed the face of music. Acknowledging the Puppets as an influence, Kurt Cobain invited Curt and brother Cris to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged sessions to play on covers of three songs from Meat Puppets II (1983), but by that point, the band’s momentum had been interrupted. So with today’s episode, Will hopes to do justice to a fine, sturdy power pop album that, in an alternate universe, would have made the Kirkwoods & Co. huge.