The Most Argumentative Music Podcast Out There

Every Album Ever with Mike & Alex is the most argumentative music podcast out there. Every episode, we - Mike Mansour and Alex Volz - dissect the entire discography of a different artist, album by album. By the end of each episode, we pick what we think that artist's best and worst albums are, as well as our personal favorites and least favorites. Every episode is a full on deep dive of that artist's history, as well.

We primarily cover artists who have either disbanded or have died so that there is a concrete end to their discography. Some notable bands we've discussed are Creedence Clearwater Revival, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Flag, Slayer, Led Zeppelin, and The Beastie Boys. However, a large number of our listeners come from us covering more underground and underrated artists like Wipers, Isis, Death, Big Black, Cocteau Twins, and The Birthday Party. Because of this, the podcast has truly become a destination for music nerds, which I couldn't be happier for.

While Alex does not have any formal music training, I (Mike) have lifelong experience playing, performing, and composing, in addition to some background in music theory. This makes each episode sort of a back-and-forth between someone who listens to music purely for pleasure and someone who listens to music more scientifically. Every time I think we're going to see eye-to-eye on a band, I'm way off (and vice versa).

I've been a fan of podcasts for years and in my early 20s I started one with another friend of mine. It was a topic-less catastrophe of dick jokes and complaints about community college. Needless to say, it didn't last very long. Fast forward a few years later and I still found myself with the itch to yell obscenities into a microphone. For a while, I'd had this idea to record a podcast covering an entire band every episode, but I knew it would be a ridiculous and time-consuming endeavor. The more I thought about it though, the more I knew I had to do it.

There was still one big problem with the idea though: there was no way I was going to do the podcast alone. There's nothing more obnoxious than some idiot spouting all his worthless opinions at you, so I knew I had to have someone else on to argue with. Alex was the perfect choice for a co-host. He has fantastic taste in music, extensive knowledge on underground music, and quite possibly the heaviest vinyl collection on Earth, which I say only because I just helped him move it the other day.

We've been at it every week for about a year now, which is awesome and surprising. There's a lot of amazing music I've discovered through the show. Let's not talk about the hours of garbage we've subjected ourselves to though cough Van Hagar cough.

Everything about this podcast is DIY. I produce and edit the show myself (as well as the video version) and we typically take one to two weeks to prepare for an episode. Both Alex and I do a fair amount of research on the current artist we're covering, as well as obviously listening to all their music. It's definitely homework, but the second we hit record, all the pressure is off, so it's always fun somehow.

Day jobs have never been a hindrance to me when it comes to my passion projects. I always find time to listen to records, edit and record podcast episodes, write and record my own music, and even stream video games on Twitch with another friend of mine quite often. I'm a busy boy with all this crap, so it better pay off.

Kidding, I would do all this even if I never got paid for it. No doubt all of my creative projects have cost me a ton of time and money, but I have high aspirations and very much believe in the stuff I make.

Anything I've gained from podcasting at this point has entirely been non-financial. I'm sure if this podcast was more formal, less vulgar, and covered more popular artists that it would be easier to find a broader audience and thus more sponsors. However, that's just not my brand of entertainment. I'm a music nerd and I care very much about the art of constructing music more than I do appealing to a mass audience. Also, I have a potty mouth and I yell a lot.

So in other words, I'm extremely hungry and would love to promote your bath towels on the show or whatever.

Without a doubt, I've learned way more from podcasting than I did from going to college. I use Adobe CC for all things podcasting and I learned it all through trial and error producing this show. Having such an extensive background in music and audio editing certainly helped (especially in already having spare microphones to use), but everything else I learned along the way. There are countless YouTube videos that teach you how to get professional-level audio quality, so there's really no excuse not to sound great these days.

Because of the Covid pandemic, we did a ton of episodes over Skype. This was way trickier than I ever expected and there wasn't much help on the internet, but I figured it out while only crashing my PC once. I think that means I'm getting better.

Because our format involves so much homework, guests are extremely infrequent. In over 50 episodes, we've had only two guests. Both were friends (one was actually my brother) and both listened to the full discography of that episode's artist just like we did. It's not easy to ask people to do that much homework just to be on a podcast that won't pay them, so I don't see guests being a common thing in the future.

Ah, the aspect of content creating I'm the worst at: telling people I have content. I post weekly clips of the show on my Instagram to promote that week's episode. I also periodically promote the show through Reddit. That's about it though. Basically, unless it's super easy and super free, I probably haven't tried it.

All of our listeners have either come from word of mouth or from stumbling onto us through Google, YouTube, and Spotify. While I do encourage word of mouth and think it's the most effective way to grow an independent brand, it's nothing short of a miracle we have anyone listening at all.

Learn to forget you're being recorded. In my opinion, the best podcasts are conversations, not performances. The sooner you can get out of performance mode and into talk mode, the more organic your show will be. Listeners can smell when someone isn't being real. Talk to your audience like a friend, not a number - that's the difference between podcasts and television.

Secondly, quality is paramount. Even if you have a unique topic for your podcast, listeners have a million others to choose from if you give them a reason to. Make sure your audio is immaculate and utilize the technology available to you. There's a YouTube tutorial for damn near everything - use them.

The best way to reach me and all the things I do is through my Instagram @popejesseventura. There, I have countless clips of the podcast, my music, and clips from my Twitch streams. You can also follow Alex @motherpuncher.

If you want to contact me regarding the podcast exclusively, you can email me at EveryAlbumEver@gmail.com