Duran Duran, Fountains of Wayne: The Starter Kit

On this very special episode of Past Tens, your beloved hosts — one recovering from surgery, the other recovering from life — roll out something brand new: The Starter Kit. Think of it as the musical tasting menu nobody asked for but absolutely needed.

We each pick a band.
We give you the essentials.
You pretend to take notes.
Everybody wins.

Dave kicks things off with Duran Duran, because nothing says “starter kit” like a band that basically invented the MTV era and then refused to leave. Yes, we hit Hungry Like the Wolf — the song that launched a thousand hair products — but we also dig into the weird, wonderful, and criminally underrated corners of their catalog.

Then Milt, bless him, grabs his power-pop heart and heads straight into Fountains of Wayne, a band that somehow packed more storytelling into three-minute pop songs than most novelists manage in 400 pages. And yes, we go far beyond Stacy’s Mom. (If you know what I mean. And I think you do.)

It’s all here: music geekery, nostalgia, sideways humor, and the occasional moment where we accidentally sound like we know what we’re talking about.

Episode Breakdown (aka: Pretending This Is a Real Show With Structure)

00:00 – Welcome!
00:43 – Health updates and the Past Tens community proving once again they’re nicer than we deserve
01:25 – Surgery stories — because nothing pairs with pop music like anesthesia flashbacks
05:27 – Listener shout-outs and general podcast tomfoolery
09:15 – Introducing The Starter Kit (trademark pending, MFers!)
14:19 – Dave’s Duran Duran Starter Kit: hits, deep cuts, Bond themes, oh my
45:16 – Surprise: Public Enemy’s “911 Is a Joke” enters the chat
46:12 – Best pop-culture use: The James Bond theme that actually slaps
49:24 – Milt opens the Fountains of Wayne vault
56:36 – The hits, the almost-hits, and the “why didn’t anyone listen to this?” tracks
58:13 – Hidden gems and critic candy
01:01:23 – The comedy, the lyrics, the stories — this band was funny on purpose
01:13:56 – Live performances and unexpected covers
01:20:41 – The legacy and why they still matter
01:28:00 – Wrap-up, listener love, and an open invitation to argue with us online