The Spoon

It's a Brady mini-reunion with Susan Olsen stopping by for a discussion that ranges from animal rescues to alien encounters, while covering the highs, the lows, the just plain weirdness of a life in the arts. Also, the Valley is an underrated musical wellspring, there aren't enough songs about dead cats, turtle sex is adorable, someone needs to make an Easy Rider porn parody, and we all miss Andrew Gold. Music by The Dickies and the Cave Dogs.

The men of The Spoon go guerrilla with this special remote podcast from Rob's studio, as the NDR premises are closed for Memorial Day. Audio wizard Scott Peets sits in for a discussion largely centered on problems of varying sizes, shapes, colors, textures, smells, sounds, tastes, and levels of surrealism, and how one might go about assessing &/or addressing them. We'll be back live next week, June 6th! Music by The Orion Experience and Wonderboy.

Rob is absent this week, so you may thrill to the sounds of panic masquerading as comedy, as Chris and Thom gear up to generate a show's worth of entertainment in the absence of their beloved Overhost. Many a topic of conversation meets with our duo's aggressive ambivalence, including but not limited to: birthday celebrations, online communications, pirates, muppets, break-ups of all shapes and sizes, and fallout over the apocalypse that wasn't. Music by D.L. Byron, Cosmo Topper, and Dean Friedman.

Rob would like to apologize for his being under the weather, making him slightly less effervescent and topic-laden than usual. Thom would like to apologize for mangling the lyrics to the Boondocks Theme, thus hurling the show into karmic vapor lock. Chris would like to apologize for the other two maroons getting in the way of his comedic golden-godhood. But nobody, and we mean nobody, would like to apologize to Kevin Costner, the subject of this week's Sodomizing A Legacy. Music by The Rebel Pebbles, Single Bullet Theory, and 20/20.

It's a mistake to think you can solve all major problems with pop culture, but the men of The Spoon give it a bloody good try, using their love of movies as a lens (so to speak) through which to view issues personal, professional, and political. If your life is a bit like a rainy Saturday afternoon right now, think of this episode as a Thriller Theater double feature with a pack of Red Vines on the side, and dig in accordingly. Music by Dash Rip Rock, The Sun Sawed In Half, and The Rubinoos.

The times, they are a' fractious, but the men of The Spoon are here to soothe your woes with tales of their own suckitude and misery. Chris is in a post-breakup haze, Rob is lamenting his legacy, Thom is in permanent techno-fail mode, and we're all strangely ambivalent about the reaction to that guy getting killed yesterday, but there is ample comedic catharsis under our banner for all who seek it. Join us. Music by Mach Five, the Greenberry Woods, and Gameface.

Quinton Flynn returns to the show to fill Chris's big floppy clown shoes as Guest Underhost for the week, and does not disappoint. With tales of Robbie's semi-sordid past combined with his own recent foray into the world of the paranormal, he leads the show into a spiral of madness which results in torrents of upset girlfriend calls, rampant throwing of friends under buses, and perhaps most heinous of all: the return of Ein Gummibar! Music by 3D Picnic and Parthenon Huxley.

Writer Dan Epstein stops by for an all-too-brief discussion of the freak flag glory that was 70s baseball, Robbie laments that the wrong people keep dying, Thom shares a tale of bus-bound Hollywoodism, Cousin Frankie (who we've always known about!) calls in with suggestions for a Regis replacement, and Chris wins the show with a paradigm-shattering SAL for the ages. Of course, none of this will matter much if the apocalypse ends up occurring on May 21. But, uh... try and enjoy the show anyway. Music by Big Hello and The Wondermints.

The occasion of Robert's 47th birthday prompts the men of The Spoon to reflect on the meaning of life, the futility of death, and the importance of using time travel to retroactively change one's fashion choices. Also, the show is deluged with phone calls for the birthday boy from friends, well-wishers, and a surprising number of celebrity impressionists. Aflac! Music by The Knack, Material Issue, and The Little Girls.

In psychoanalysis, it's called "transference" -- the unconscious redirection of feelings from one subject to another. Such a phenomenon has gripped The Spoon in spades this week, as the Honey Badger meme awakens Thom's mammalian loyalties, Chris gets some extra venom out of his system with a scathing, Deustch-y SAL, and Robbie takes out his general frustrations with the world and its gas prices on all manner of pop culture targets, including special guest Quinton Flynn -- who, while admittedly arriving in a tardy fashion, manages to win an extra 5 minutes of showtime for the entire crew by showing up at all. Other topics include: panicky prison populace privatization, ambitiously amorous anime adventures, ham-handed humorous horseplay, and frenzied frightening fan-fiction. Also, math jokes. Music by the aforementioned Mr Flynn, as well as Slow Motorcade.