This week's Sound of Young America is a probing look at all things moustachioed, including but not limited to: Boston Blackie, Zorro, and your television.

Our first guest is Andy Daly. Andy's been a castmember of Mad TV, Crossballs, and he's currently a correspondent on "The Showbiz Show with David Spade." We talked about the strange creative process at Mad TV, and how hard it is to do something about it. Also, Andy's invented something called Moustache TV, which is a parlor game which involves putting moustaches on your television. He really makes and sells it himself.

Richard Montoya is 1/3 of Culture Clash, about whom I blogged last week. They've got a new show coming up at Berkeley Rep called "Zorro in Hell." Besides the stage work, Richard will also be seen in the upcoming Jack Black vehicle "Nacho Libre," from the writer of "School of Rock" and the director of "Napoleon Dynamite."

Also, a sketch from Los Angeles' Diani & Devine, and a plug for our upcoming vidcast of unseen Monty Python footage. Yes, unseen Monty Python footage.

Download this week's show!

Subscribe in iTunes

Contemporary soul singers like Erykah Badu and Bilal consistently cite Omar, along with legends like Al Green and Donnie Hathaway, as a seminal influence in their careers. He's known in the UK as the godfather of "new classic soul," and only now is his music starting to make an impact on American soil. His lilting soul incorporates Carribean influences and the residuals of the Acid Jazz movement, and his classic sound has attracted collaborators like Common and Stevie Wonder.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section & on the forum!

Download This Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Review the show in iTunes
Please Donate to Support the Show

Listen to This Week's Show

This week on The Sound of Young America, a long hard look at science fiction.

Steve Eley, who we hear from briefly in the main program, and of whom there's a more extensive interview below, is the editor of Escape Pod. This science fiction literature podcast is one of the world's most popular.

Michael J. Nelson was the long-time host of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Since that show left the air, he's written several books. Now, he's putting his "mocking bad movies" cap back on to head Rifftrax, where he's recording comic MP3 commentaries for films.

Ron Moore spent ten years working on the Star Trek franchise's many incarnations before leaving frustrated. Three years ago, he co-created the SciFi Network series Battlestar Galactica. It's been hailed by critics as one of the greatest science fiction television programs ever. He and his colleague David Eick were recently awarded the prestigious Peabody Award for their contributions to broadcasting.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Week's Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Donate to the Show

Listen to This Week's Show

Bonus Audio

Steve Eley of the Escape Pod

Download The Interview

Incidental Music by DJW

Extra Credit Double Bonus Audio:
Mike Nelson on TSOYA a couple years ago (MP3)
Jesse reads Cory Doctorow's "Craphound" on Escape Pod

Last month, The Sound of Young America recorded two broadcasts live at the PIT in New York City. This is the second of those programs.

Our first guest, Andres du Bouchet, is an accomplished stand-up comic whose show "Giant Tuesday Night of Amazing Inventions and Also There Is A Game" is a New York City favorite. He's also been on Conan O'Brien and Cheap Seats, and was a featured player on I Love the 30s. He offered our listeners "So You've Been Turned," a guide to acclimating to your new life as a vampire.

Our second guests, Elephant Larry, are a long-time Sound of Young America favorite. Their sketch parodied "8 Mile," and it's worth noting that they all wore funny sea-faring hats.

Then our relatively new friend Jonathan Coulton came through and performed three winning songs. First he played, "The Future Soon," a song written from the perspective of a love-lorn 12-year-old nerd. Then he performed a winning cover of the Sir-Mix-A-Lot classic "Baby Got Back," and closed with a charming song written from the perspective of a zombie businessman. You can download each song in his performance seperately here.

We closed with an interview with Kurt Andersen. Before Kurt became a novelist and the host of Public Radio International's excellent Studio 360, he founded the seminal satirical magazine Spy. The magazine's business was mocking the media, financial and Hollywood elite in an era before such irreverence was ubiquitous.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Week's Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Review the show in iTunes
Please Donate to Support the Show

Listen to This Week's Show

Top Photo by Anya Garrett of SketchArtists.net

Special thanks to The Onion for promotional support

The cast of The Knights of Prosperity

This week, we talk with Jon Beckerman and Rob Burnett, creators of the new ABC series "The Knights of Prosperity." The series follows a crew of working-class heroes as they attempt to rob Mick Jagger's luxurious penthouse. Beckerman and Burnett are veterans of David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company, where they also developed the cult favorite dramedy "Ed." Both got their start writing for The Late Show, and Burnett now runs Worldwide Pants.

The new series premiers Wednesday, January 3rd at 9/8C on ABC.

(Note that by popular demand, we're trying a new format for TSOYA podcasts. Each podcast will be a seperate interview, typically running 20-30 minutes, rather than an hourlong radio broadcast. You should generally 1-3 new podcasts per week. If you have any feedback about this, I'd love to hear it. Oh... and if you're a real nerd like me, you might notice that the files have a new naming convention: tsoyaYYMMDD_Guest.mp3. This is to make it easier for you to sort them on your hard drive, and easier for those without high-tech MP3 players to find the shows they want.)

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Review the show in iTunes
Please Donate to Support the Show

Listen to This Week's Show

Previously on TSOYA:

Knights of Prosperity star Maz Jobrani

This week on The Sound of Young America, we go on the grind.

Grammy-winning rapper Killer Mike is a native of Adamsville, Georgia, outside of Atlanta. Since debuting on the Outkast single "The Whole World" in 2001, he has emerged from the shadow of his legendary mentors, combining a ferocious delivery with lyrical density in a manner reminiscent of Ice Cube in his hey-day. He recently released "I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind," a two-CD "street album" with his crew, Grind Time Rap Gang.

Please note: we had a little phone trouble 2/3 of the way through and Mike had to go on speakerphone, apologies for any audio quality issues.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Week's Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Donate to the Show

Listen to This Week's Show

Incidental Music by DJW

This week on The Sound of Young America, two old friends, both of the show and of each other. We chat with each seperately, and in special blog-only bonus audio (below), we squash a long-simmering feud between them regarding cat care and a series of vicious attack ads.

Jonathan Coulton is a comic singer-songwriter. For the past year, he's written and released (free) a new song every single week. Some, like "Code Monkey," which he performs on the show, have become internet phenomena. Enjoy free downloads of his three musical performances below. He's currently touring with his best pal...

...John Hodgman. Hodgman is the author of "The Areas of My Expertise," a compendium of entirely fabricated facts, history and trivia. For many years, Hodgman was a literary agent, and counted among his clients the B-movie star Bruce Campbell. Today, he's best known for portraying the PC in the Mac-Vs.-PC advertisements for Apple, and for his regular appearances on the Daily Show. See below for special blog-only audio of Hodgman discussing his childhood interest in (but incompetence at) D&D.

If you're coming from an outside link (I see you, boingboing, Coultonblog, etc), be sure to check out our audio archive for past programs (Colbert's head writer, The Flaming Lips, Chuck Klosterman & Dave Foley, etc), and look below for past shows with John H.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Week's Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Please Donate to Support the Show

Download Jonathan Coulton's Musical Performances (Right Click, Save As)

Code Monkey / Lyrics
You Ruined Everything / Lyrics
The Future Soon / Lyrics

Listen to This Week's Show

Bonus: Hodgman Vs. Coulton

Bonus: Hodgman on Dungeons & Dragons

Incidental Music by DJW

Previously on The Sound of Young America:

"All World Knowledge" with John Hodgman and Fred Rees: MP3
"On the Road" with John Hodgman and Henry Rollins: MP3
"ComedyCopia" with a song from Jonathan Coulton
"Joketacular" with a song from Jonathan Coulton

I'm launching a new initiative on The Sound of Young America... The Legacy Collection. Since we were among the first on the podcasting scene, we have a huge backlog of episodes from long ago (wow! two years!) that I'd like to bring out of the museum, dust off, and share with everyone. This week, it's our show from January 20th, 2005.

Paul Fieg co-created the television series Freaks & Geeks, which responded to a rash of absurd teen dramas like Dawson's Creek with realism, humor and humanity. The show has gained a loyal following on DVD, and helped establish Feig as a guru of awkward adolescence. In his two books, "Kick Me" and "Superstud," he told hilarious and touching stories about his own strugglesto become a man.

Please share your thoughts on the show in the comments section!

Download This Week's Show
Subscribe in iTunes
Donate to the Show

Listen to The Show

Jackson Publick is the co-creator of the Cartoon Network [adult swim] series The Venture Brothers. The series is a sometimes bizarre, often surprisingly heartfelt parody of the boys' adventure genre.

Jackson talks about his own roots, including the loss of his mother when he was a child, his aborted college career(s), and his meteoric rise from comic book store clerk to television writer.

I hinted on the forum a week or two ago that there were three big announcements that I was holding under my hat that would change the future of The Sound of Young America. Now they will be heard!

A four-week test run of The Sound of Young America premiers this Sunday on KXOT-FM in Seattle/Tacoma. This is our first ever major city station. I know I already announced this, but still, it's pretty kick-ass.

We're proud to announce our new underwriter, Project Breakout. They're an internet startup -- kind of a cross between YouTube and American Idol. I'm helping them a bit with their comedy section, and they're helping to support the show. You'll hear some tasteful announcements in TSOYA shows (ala public radio underwriting announcements), and some similarly tasteful short discussions on JJGo. Probably we'll put a logo up on the blog here that yu can click on. By the way -- the comedy section will launch soon and they'll be looking for sketch and filmed web comedy, but in the meantime, you can enter the viral video contest they have up already. That's pretty anything-goes.

The Sound of Young America will have an 11-week trial run on WNYC-FM in New York, one of the nation's biggest and best public radio stations, beginning March 4th. The show will air every Sunday at 6PM.

Thank you. Seriously, thank you. The work here is far from done, but this is some exciting shit.