Fruitless Pursuits

This week Thoryn is calling the shots so that means lots of topics, and lots of uninformed takes from Jason. We discuss the Alec Baldwin incident, film labor strikes, Steve Gorman and the faultiness of memory. Then, new records from Brandi Carlisle, Jason Isbell and just in time for Halloween, the Mark Lanegan and Joe Cardamone collaboration: Dark Mark Vs. Skeleton Joe. Later, we discuss the ability of music to elicit memories, the irredeemability of Vince Neil, headbanger chicks, Shkreli's Wu-Tang record, DUNE and the trainwreck that is Black Widow. 

Also: Thoryn professes his love for Michael Bolton. That alone make this episode worth a listen.

This week: Jason preaches the virtues of a clean ass, we discuss what Italian fashion magazines and metallic hardcore have in common and take another dump on Vince Neil. This just in: Spiritbox is still terrible but someone in the marketing department at Rise Records REALLY wants them to be famous. Finally we have another installment of "Our Favorite Producers." This week's inductee is none other than Brendan O'Brien. We discuss his early career with the Black Crowes and the Red Hot Chili Peppers under the flag of Rick Rubin all the way through his current work with Mastodon, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen and of course in his role as the primary producer and de facto 6th member of Pearl Jam. 

Fall is in the air and what says Autumn better than blackface Halloween costumes and hunting humans for sport. Then: we talk about the upcoming Baroness all-request tour and look into a story about a river near Glastonbury showing up with monumental traces of drugs after the event.  Later: Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta/ATDI fame made claims that agents of Scientology killed his dogs and we discuss a cool upcoming project from Converge, Chelsea Wolfe and Steven Brodsky. I pity the fool who don't rate this podcast.

This Week: Thoryn tries to quit coffee, Jason has a mental breakdown and we both find out who MGK is (unrelated). Then: Why the Red Hot Chili Peppers were crucial teenage makeout jams and our favorite musicians in acting roles. Finally, we introduce the first installment of our "Florida Stories" series with a few tales about spooky dolls, surviving hurricanes and doing drugs inside a tent in your living room. Chop it up.

This week we talk about waning enthusiasm for the NFL, a Mastodon/Opeth tour and new music from Russian Circles. Also, we debut our new segment highlighting our favorite record producers with an exhaustive look at the career of Terry Date, producer for Deftones, Pantera, Soundgarden and many others. Later, we discuss why Thoryn hates scream vocals, sophomore slumps, great records with terrible cover art and how the parking lot scene was the ruin of the Grateful Dead. Turn on, tune in and drop dead.

This week the boys chat about lateral moves to escape life's riptides and talk new music by Mastodon and Quicksand. Then we talk record anniversaries, subsequent re-releases and Jason recounts the fuckery involved in the rerelease of Ozzy Osbourne classics Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Related: Metallica's Black Album turned 30, released a giant collection of other people covering their tunes and Lars Ulrich finds himself on the path to winning Thoryn's forgiveness. Finally... Who asked for a Scott Weiland biopic? Certainly not us. Seriously...stop it with the biopics already.

Nude selfie scams, Thoryn gets triggered about Steve Albini being Steve Albini and disrespecting Pearl Jam on twitter and Brad Stewart of UNICO joins us to re-cap Psycho Las Vegas 2021.  Highlights include Big Business, Deafheaven, EYEHATEGOD, Pig Destroyer and the almighty Danzig performing Lucifuge in it's entirety. Lowlights include black metal sucking.  Plus - The cancellation of Bonnaroo has fest-heads and artists alike feeling disappointed and the Nirvana baby is still apparently chasing that dollar. Fuck around and find out...

Back from hiatus the boys are fresh and crank out a certified banger right out the gate. What do The Manson Family, Jim Morrison's Dad and Dennis Hopper have in common? Maybe nothing but anything is possible, especially in 1960's Los Angeles. We discuss the book "Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream," and strap on our bullshit detectors.

Also: Jason wonders why no one told him how good the Punisher is, we discuss the debacle that was Woodstock '99 and the HBO documentary about the doomed event, we wonder why males under 25 seem brain damaged.  Finally: We talk Massachusetts metallic hardcore legends Cave In's recent signing to Relapse Records for an upcoming 2022 album as well as the re-release of classics like "Until Your Heart Stops" and "Jupiter."  

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

The boys attempt to bounce back from the worst episode ever and quickly get sucked into the vortex of bad news and politicized nonsense, Jason wonders if he might still be on probation somewhere, Jakob Dylan explains the universe and we reminisce about the Columbia House 10 Cd's-for-a-penny scam and how minors got the last laugh. Also, we talk CCC's (COVID concert cancellations), why streaming shows don't quite scratch the itch, the perils of aging lead singers, Jason claims The Clash sucks but refuses to provide supporting evidence and much more. Drink it in!

I'm gonna level with you, this episode is trash. It's waaaay too long and goes nowhere. I wasn't even going to post but then I figured maybe someone could at least listen to the first half and fall asleep to it or listen to as background noise while you're doing drugs. The analytics don't care so do whatever floats your boat...

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