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The spectacle, the magnificence, the sh*t show that was the 2015 Academy Awards. Why did Neil Patrick Harris miss the mark as host? What was with all those political speeches? And John Travolta… Plus everyone’s first gigs and music recommendations.
With Guy Branum, Wynter Mitchell, Oliver Wang and Margaret Wappler.
That’s My Jam:
Wynter Mitchell - Gnarls Barkley Who’s Gonna Save My Soul
Oliver Wang - Just Blaze Moleskine Conclusion
Margaret Wappler - Courtney Barnett’s Pedestrian at Best
Guy Branum - A joke from the latest Fresh Off The Boat
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams to this handy Spotify playlist.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
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This week we’re all about 50 Shades, Jupiter Ascending and SNL at 40. We’ll have a conversation about social media in which Guy explains how it can tickle the “witch-hunty part of your brain” and finish up with a selection of everyone’s jams of the moment.
With Guy Branum, Wynter Mitchell, Oliver Wang and Margaret Wappler.
That’s My Jam:
Wynter Mitchell - Know Yourself by Drake
Oliver Wang - Dedicated to the One I Love by The Shirelles
Margaret Wappler - You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore
Guy Branum - The return of Girl Scout Cookies.
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams to this handy Spotify playlist.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
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The team unpack last weekend’s Super Bowl, argue the merits of original, animated and re-booted Ghostbusting and call out a sports themed batch of #ThatCism.
With Wynter Mitchell, Jesse Thorn and host Guy Branum.
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams to this handy Spotify playlist.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
Oliver Wang and Margaret Wappler will be back next week.
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The New England Patriots “deflate-gate” scandal, privilege in the arts and whether the latest music sales stats signal the end of the album. Wynter’s been to see The Boy Next Door and guy’s jam is a podcast about Canadian politics.
With Guy Branum, Wynter Mitchell, Oliver Wang and Margaret Wappler.
That’s My Jam:
Wynter Mitchell - Dots and Lines by Lupe Fiasco
Oliver Wang - Shake You Off by Charlie Belle
Margaret Wappler - Family by Bjork (Margaret also recommends this Pitchfork review)
Guy Branum - CBC’s Power and Politics podcast.
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams (unless they’re Canadian political podcasts) to this handy Spotify playlist.
Other useful links this week…
Oliver thought Derek Thompson’s music sales trends article in The Atlantic was worth talking about. Margaret referenced Ann Baer’s “Sponsored” by my husband: Why it’s a problem that writers never talk about where their money comes from which appeared in Salon.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
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HBO’s Looking has been billed as the gay, male, Sex and the City or Girls. We ask why TV can’t do gay right. Plus MaxFun boss Jesse Thorn drops in for his new signature segment.
With Guy Branum, Wynter Mitchell, Oliver Wang and Margaret Wappler.
That’s My Jam:
Wynter Mitchell - I Wanna Be Where the Boys Are by The Runaways.
Oliver Wang - You Are Luuh 2015 by Frank Ocean.
Margaret Wappler - Answer by Ghost Culture.
Guy Branum want you to follow the team on Twitter: @GuyBranum, Wynter’s @kweeneverything, @MargaretWappler and Oliver’s @SoulSidesCom.
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams to this handy Spotify playlist.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
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The team thrash out the winners, losers and takeaways from last weekend’s Golden Globes.
With Guy Branum, Wynter Mitchell, Santina Muha, Oliver Wang, Margaret Wappler.
That’s My Jam:
Wynter Mitchell - Doja Cat – No Police
Santina Muha - Fiona Apple - Container
Oliver Wang - N.E.R.D. – Squeeze Me/a> (from SpongeBob SquarePants)
Margaret Wappler - Sleater-Kinney – Price Tag
Guy Branum - Four Jews In a Room Bitching from William Finn’s musical, “March of the Falsettos”
Each week we’ll add everyone’s jams to this handy Spotify playlist.
You can let us know what you think of Pop Rocket and suggest topics on the MaxFun forum, our Facebook group or via @PRPod on Twitter.
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We're joined again this week by guest co-host Julie Klausner.
Associate National Editor Tasha Robinson and Film Editor Scott Tobias of the AV Club recommend Imagination Illustrated, which journals the various creative efforts of Jim Henson, and a modern, dark adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
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Inspired by the sounds of Jackie Wilson, Little Walter, and Muddy Waters, Syl Johnson set out to make his own mark in music in the 1950s. His own gritty, bluesy voice and funk rhythms earned him a place in the Chicago soul and blues scene. Over the course of a career on Chicago's Twinight and Memphis' Hi Records, Johnson released several singles that climbed their way up the pop and R&B charts ("Different Strokes", "Come On Sock It To Me", "Is It Because I'm Black?") and but never attained the smash success of contemporaries like Al Green or James Brown.
He found ubiquity later in life, when dozens of hip hop artists from Run-DMC to Kanye West dug into his catalog to sample his sounds (perhaps foremost his signature scream on "Different Strokes"). Johnson found himself in the spotlight again last year when the archival label Numero Group assembled a Grammy-nominated boxset of his early cuts, titled Syl Johnson: The Mythology.
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Matt Berninger, lead singer of The National, recalls being pelted by golf balls and listening to the song which changed his life, The Boy with a Thorn in His Side by The Smiths.
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Armed with childhood memories of watching Psycho and Alien and an insatiable appetite for true crime stories, Gillian Flynn began writing her first thriller, Sharp Objects. The book's success took Flynn from magazine journalist to full-time author. Her newest book, the bestselling Gone Girl, is a twisted and wry look at a marriage gone horribly wrong.
Flynn offers insights on the twisted and damaged psyches of her characters, cherishing the unease that comes with following an unreliable narrator, and how she combats the trope of the female victim.
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This week, Jesse lauds the commitment and direction of Key & Peele's sketch comedy.
For more, check out our interview with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele from earlier this year.
(Embed or share The Outshot: Key & Peele)
What’s your favorite sketch comedy show? Jump over to the MaxFun forum and pick your own Outshot.
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Our comic book experts return with new graphic bounty! Alex Zalben recommends the new series Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt, who spins a tale of a plane crash, memory loss and psychic spies. The second issue in the series is out now. Brian Heater suggests you check out Angelman by Nicholas Mahler, which is a story of a man who has superpowers that might be milder or meeker than those of most heroes -- fighting figurative fire with qualities like being a "good listener".
You can find Alex Zalben writing for MTV Geek or co-hosting NYC's Comic Book Club Live. Brian Heater is a journalist and the Editor-In-Chief of The Daily Crosshatch, which highlights alternative comics.
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Elvis Mitchell is a critic who's brought his insights on film to the pages of the New York Times and the L.A. Weekly; he's also interviewed scores of film industry writers, actors and directors over fifteen years of hosting the LA-based public radio show The Treatment. He's even ventured into filmmaking himself, producing a series of documentaries about race and success called The Black List.
But while he's been in the business of film criticism a long time, his manner or tastes can't be called conventional. Mitchell talks about his wide-ranging cultural appetite (which has room for well-executed films like Pootie Tang), the interplay between television and film, and how he got into the business of analyzing pop culture.
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The brothers McElroy -- Travis, Griffin and Justin -- are in the business of giving advice, though they don't suggest you take it. This week, they answer listeners' queries about the collision of pop culture and personal relationships. The McElroy brothers host a weekly podcast called My Brother, My Brother, and Me.
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Kevin Barnes founded the experimental pop group of Montreal over fifteen years ago, and the band's sound has morphed as often as (and alongside) Barnes' various stage personae and personal ups and downs. Of Montreal's original twee pop sensibility gave way to new sounds and increasingly complicated arrangements over the years, as the band experimented with electronic, R&B, funk, disco and psychedelic music within a pop framework.
Barnes discusses why he writes so much of the band's music on his own, the theatricality of the band's live performances (from elaborate costumes and skits, to a live horse), and more.
The band's latest release, Paralytic Stalks, is out now.
(Embed or share this interview with Kevin Barnes)
Jesse explains what makes David Letterman such an especially gifted late night host in a world of very good late night hosts.
Got a cultural gem of your own? Pick your own Outshot on the MaxFun Forum.>
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On this edition of The Sound of Young America, Kyle Ryan and Genevieve Koski from The AV Club meet with Jesse to talk about some of the "hip and happening" things going on in pop culture at the moment.
Film wise, Kyle and Jesse discuss the documentary Winnebago Man about... well the Winnebago Man. Next, Genevieve talks with Jesse about the direction of the Starz show Party Down.
On the musical front, Jesse and Kyle find relief in the latest release from the Roots, How I Got Over. And lastly, Genevieve chimes in about the new Robyn album, Body Talk Pt. 1.
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