Shows
Vroom Vroom Veer with Jeff SmithJeff Giles – Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the MundaneJeff Giles is an experienced culture writer and editor who's been featured in a long list of publications including Paste Magazine, the Village Voice, American Songwriter, Ultimate Classic Rock, and Rotten Tomatoes. Jeff Giles makes his debut as a novelist with Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the Mundane.
What would you do if the belief you'd dedicated your life to turned out to be completely, hilariously wrong?And what if you only found out just how wrong you'd been after you died in one of the most humiliating ways possible?These are the questions facing Langley Po...2024-12-0247 min
The Experience: Conversations with CreativesThe Evolution of the Music Industry, the Reality of Fame, and Rediscovering Writing with Author Jeff Giles Culture writer, author, and podcaster Jeff Giles visits the podcast to discuss his early influences, the evolution of the music industry, the dangers of fame, his experiences in graphic design, how he rediscovered his passion for writing, the balance between creativity and commerce, and the inspiration behind his humorous fiction novel, Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the Mundane. Buy "Langley Powell and the Society for the Defense of the Mundane" now!* Find out more about Jeff Giles: LangleyPowell.com Jefitoblog.com Th...2024-12-021h 11
The Record PlayerAl Jarreau - Breakin' Away (1981)Send us a textYou might know Brian Wecht as Ninja Brian. Or maybe you know him as Trey Magnifique. Perhaps, you just know him as Brian and that's fine too. Matt and Jeff were just thrilled to have him on the podcast to talk about Al Jarreau's mighty fine Breakin' Away album. But there were conditions. First, an impromptu 20 minute discussion about Kenny G. You'll see. Is there a Chicago reference followed by some scathing condemnation? You know there is.As it happens, Brian, er, Trey Magnifique has a new holiday EP, Let it...2024-11-1559 minThe Record PlayerToo $hort - Life is...Too $hort (1988)Send us a textProfessor Louis Moore joins Matt and Jeff to discuss his essential new book, The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans and the Making of the Black Quarterback. Our engaging discussion with Lou took us deep into the history of Black quarterbacks and athletes in general in the NFL and he talks about the journey he took as he was writing the book. However much progress you might think has been made in the NFL (and beyond), this discussion -- and Lou's book -- will remind you that there's a lot that still...2024-11-011h 19The Record PlayerCassingle: The Fast Food EditionSend us a textThe guys end summer break with a completely random "accidental Cassingle," as Jeff tagged it. There are discussions of Funyuns (which still exist!), Taco Bell, concept albums, Jeff's new book, asbestos, kids who swear a lot, new music from Jon Anderson of Yes, the upcoming solo album from Warren Haynes and other subjects that are probably being forgotten. We got together to record a simple introduction for our next podcast episode....and this happened. Anyway, it's been a good summer away, but we've all missed you!P.S. Don't play this...2024-10-1050 minThe Record PlayerJesse Colin Young - The Perfect Stranger (1982)Send us a textJeff and Matt love nothing more than coming across obscure AOR gems. Jesse Colin Young's 1982 album, The Perfect Stranger, fits into that category. Featuring guest appearances by Carly Simon, Michael McDonald, Bill Payne and Fred Tackett of Little Feat and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles, The Perfect Stranger also finds Jesse surrounded by an unbelievable cast of many of the era's best session players.Jesse tells the guys how he came to work with producer Michael James Jackson on The Perfect Stranger, which he describes as an album he'd never...2024-08-0754 minThe Record PlayerChicago - Chicago 17 (1984)Send us a textPodcasting pioneer Jimmy Pardo hosts the award-winning podcast, Never Not Funny. But he also puts his name behind a lot of good things. Witness his annual Pardcast-a-Thon, which provided nine hours of laughs from Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Dave Holmes, Jon Cryer and numerous others -- INCLUDING DAVID FOSTER -- raising over $125 thousand dollars for charity in the process. For $25 you can purchase an archive of this year's performances and if you like to laugh, we highly recommend that.Jimmy is also a big fan of '80s AOR music and...2024-07-141h 12The Record PlayerForeigner - Unusual Heat (1991)Send us a textThis is a flashback moment to our previous podcast, 1991: The Year AOR Ate Itself. For those of you who didn't hear that podcast series, you'll be interested to hear this episode, which aired July 5, 2021. In my memory (note: I'm making this up), we decided to celebrate Independence Day by talking about Foreigner's first album without Lou Gramm, Unusual Heat.Even though that's not true, we did have a lot of fun discussing Unusual Heat with our friend Ben Arthur, who brought a really interesting perspective as a fellow artist to this...2024-07-071h 17
The Filmmakers PodcastThe Bikeriders : Producing & Directing masterclass with Sarah Green and Jeff NicholsToday on the show, we welcome producer Sarah Green and one of Dom's favourite writer-directors, Jeff Nichols. Both have had an amazing career so far. Sarah has worked with legendary director Terrence Malick on films such as The Tree of Life (2011) or Knight of Cups (2015) and also produced most of Jeff's films, including Mud (2012), Midnight Special (2016), and now, The Bikeriders (2024), starring Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, only to name a few. Hosts Giles Alderson and Dom Lenoir sat down with Sarah and Jeff to talk all about
the difficulties of producing The Bikeriders
the difference...2024-06-251h 02The Record PlayerThe 1974 Project: Harry Nilsson - Pussy CatsSend us a textThe 1974 Project continues as we welcome back our friend and A&R man Peter Lubin to discuss Pussy Cats by Harry Nilsson. Produced by John Lennon, Pussy Cats is an interesting and at times, unfortunate mile marker in Nilsson's career -- and the guys discuss why that is.There is once again a great tribute album at the heart of all of this Nilsson stuff for Jeff and Matt, 1995's For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson. Jeff describes the doors that opened for him as a music fan after...2024-06-221h 10The Record PlayerThe Music of the Olympics (1984-1992)Send us a textIn 1984, Christopher Cross added a unique new entry to his discography. "A Chance For Heaven" was selected as the official swimming theme for the Olympics. I bet you didn't even know there was an official swimming theme that year, did you? Neither did we. Discovering that factoid during our episode about Christopher's 1985 album, Every Turn of the World, was enough to send us out on an important quest.What if we were to discuss the Olympics soundtrack albums for 1984, 1988 and 1992? That's the task that Jeff and Matt decided to tackle on...2024-06-0759 minThe Record PlayerThe 1974 Project: Suzi Quatro: QuatroSend us a textThe magnificent Davia Schendel joins Jeff and Matt to discuss Suzi Quatro's second album, Quatro.Today's conversation definitely goes deep into "music nerd" territory. We talk about record stores of the past, making playlists devoted to things like gated reverb and snare hits. Should we talk about the underrated power player in music that is known as the saxophone? You're darn right, we should. How much does the bass rule? We've got thoughts.There are stray conversations about movie soundtracks, AOR soundtrack rarities , Roxy Music and Duran Duran. We discuss some n...2024-05-311h 37