Astute Nerdologues fans might have noticed a new podcast pop up on the site this morning -- a podcast that's not one of ours. 

This, my friends, is The Ketchup: The Last Music Podcast on Earth, and it is a fantastic show that the group is proud to re-present for your listening pleasure.

Some background -- as you might have picked up from Your Stories, I'm a big, big, big music fan. I also like podcasts a little bit. So a few years ago I went looking for a music podcast to listen to and some friend recommendations led me to Never Not Funny Presents: Rock Solid, a comedy/music discovery show co-hosted by Gary Lucy and Pat Francis. The two hosts' musical tastes spoke to me in very specific ways -- Pat was high-school me, mostly hitting classic rock/'80s staples like Styx, Journey, etc. Gary was college me, pushing the show into an indie realm with bands I'd never even heard of; the show had a running joke that any time a basically unknown band came up, Gary would call them "regional favorites." I picked up a lot of good music from Rock Solid, but Gary was often the one taking me into territory I hadn't encountered before. For anyone who's even had a musical guide, you know how cool this is.

So when Gary eventually left Rock Solid to pursue his own projects, I was both happy and sad -- happy that someone whose musical knowledge and comedy chops I loved would be doing his own thing, but sad to lose the chemistry that made Rock Solid one of my favorite shows. But then, my friends, I heard The Ketchup.

The Ketchup was Gary's successor to Rock Solid, and holy shit. I don't want to explain too much away and ruin the experience for you, but in essence, it mixes musical discovery with serialized storytelling, something my life-long love of comic books has made me obsessed with. The Ketchup's set in a post-apocalyptic California; seemingly, the world's population (or at least most of it) has been wiped out by some unknown disaster. We're left with a lone narrator, Del, who awakens in a bomb shelter with little memory of how or why he's there but a hard drive full of music. Looking to pass the time and hopefully jog his memory, Del resurrects a high-school passion -- the mock radio show. This is a brilliant vehicle that lets us uncover bits and pieces of the show's overarching mystery week after week while also introducing us to some amazing music.

And we can't downplay the music! Friend of the Nerdologues Kevin Budnik, who provided some wonderful art for our re-presentation of the show, said what I think is my favorite comment on the show I've heard (paraphrased because I can't find where we had this conversation; sorry Kevin!): "I feel like podcasts take me away from music, so it's really nice to have both here." Bottom line, in the Ketchup you will hear a lot of good tunes. And if you like them, we're putting together a Spotify playlist for every episode so you can keep enjoying!

But none of this, I guess, answers the big question -- why? Why put The Ketchup on the Nerdologues site? Well, the show pretty clearly fits into our mission statement, right? It's an expression of something its creator loves (music) filtered through a very specifically crafted lens (the post-apocalyptic radio show); this is Nerdologues through-and-through. But, more importantly, Gary is someone whose work we really admire. He came out to our Your Stories in Los Angeles earlier this year and delivered a killer piece, and he's just a great dude who makes really cool stuff. Earlier this year he told me that he was planning on taking The Ketchup offline due to hosting costs, and I didn't want that to happen. So just like we did with Mark Colomb's Poor Choices, we gave The Ketchup a new home. But because this is a serial podcast, instead of dumping it all on you at once, we're going to rerelease the show weekly with bonuses like the aforementioned art and Spotify playlists. We're even planning a Ketchup concert for some point in the next year!

So now you know all about The Ketchup -- what it is, why it's here, why you should listen. What are you waiting for? It's time to follow Del on his journey of self-discovery... ah, I mean, rock and roll.