55. Nando Di Fino Discusses Judgment Night: Music from the Motion Picture

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Fantasy sports writer and editor Nando Di Fino (currently The Athletic, previously CBS Sports, ESPN and others) joins Al for what is possibly their first-ever discussion about music, even though they’ve been friends and colleagues for more than decade. Nando chose the soundtrack from the movie, Judgment Night, as the topic for their conversation. Along the way, Nando discusses his mother’s record collection, his love of Christmas music and the extremely cool set of experiences he had when he was a student at Boston College.

I mistakenly said that the album features 22 different artists across 11 tracks, but Cypress Hill appears on two different tracks, so the total number of artists is 21.

Nando talked about a Christmas village in Washington state, and I guessed the location was George, but I think he was referring to Leavenworth.

The R.E.M. song I was trying to think of but inexplicably blanked out on was Radio Song, which featured KRS-One.

Nando made a reference to "Mistadobalina" by Del the Funky Homosapien. I did not realize until researching it that the titular line that is repeated throughout the song was originally recorded by The Monkees for their song, “Zilch.”

It's not too late (or early) to read the latest piece that Nando and Brandon Funston did on Christmas songs for The Athletic. Check it out here: https://theathletic.com/3001436/2021/12/16/top-100-christmas-songs-ranked-sias-instant-classics-ray-charles-at-no-1-plus-holiday-themed-playlists-and-more/

You can find Nando at Twitter at @nandodifino.

Al is on Twitter at @almelchiorBB, and this show has accounts on Twitter and Instagram at @youmealbum. Be sure to follow @youmealbum to find out in advance about upcoming guests and featured albums for this podcast.

1:16 Nando joins the show

2:11 Nando and Al never talked about music…until now

3:31 Nando knows Christmas music

6:49 Nando found a lot of great music in his mom’s old records

9:37 Nando also discovered some great songs by researching samples

10:54 If Nando hears a song he likes, he tries to learn as much as he can about the artist

12:51 Al almost vetoed Nando’s album choice

16:25 Guster gets a shoutout for a second straight episode

17:26 Nando recalls the hype that preceded the release of the Judgment Night soundtrack

18:35 Nando explains why he chose this album for the episode

20:02 Nando’s love of this album is a reflection of his varied musical tastes

Reactions to specific tracks

24:44 Real Thing

27:52 Fallin’

28:33 Just Another Victim

30:21 Fallin’ (again)

31:14 Judgment Night

31:33 Another Body Murdered/Me, Myself & My Microphone

35:03 Al has an idea for the 30th anniversary edition of this soundtrack

36:59 Disorder

42:25 Come and Die

46:27 Freak Momma

48:09 Missing Link

49:44 Al wonders if Real Thing was made the final track for a purpose

52:28 Nando had a backup album (or maybe more)

54:06 Nando talks about his experiences with booking shows in college

1:00:38 Nando talks about his plans for 2022

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