Fluxpod

I'm unlocking this Patreon episode of the show to celebrate Rob Sheffield's birthday today! This is part two of an episode in which Rob and I play a game in which I throw two albums back to back on the new Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list at him and he riffs on what they have in common. Discussed: The Modern Lovers, Björk, The Weeknd, Britney Spears, Hole, Allman Brothers Band, Pavement, Sade. You can get part one of this episode and lots of other bonus episodes of the show on the Fluxblog Patreon. 

This week's guest is Chris Wade, the co-host of And Introducing and the producer of Chapo Trap House. We speculate on what will happen with the festivals planned for later in 2021, and eventually get on the topic of artists who get so big they end up mainly competing with themselves – U2 and Eminem as bad examples, and Beyoncé and Radiohead as best case scenarios.

This is a preview of a Patreon exclusive episode featuring Caitlin White, the pop critic for Uproxx and the founder of CNMN. We hit on a lot of different topics in this episode, including Frank Ocean, Rostam, Clairo, Haim, Kacey Musgraves, Fiona Apple, and gaming out what a Kanye West comeback scenario might be like down the road. In this segment we discuss Rina Sawayama, Charli XCX, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and Jack Antonoff. If you'd like to hear the full episode and all the other premium episodes, hit up the Fluxblog Patreon. 

This week’s episode features Jason DeMarco, SVP and Creative Director at Adult Swim. We talk about his very unique career in television, and how shaping the aesthetics of Adult Swim involved exposing artists from labels like Stones Throw, Warp, Brainfeeder, and Ninja Tune to a large basic cable audience, and directly collaborating with hundreds of artists including Flying Lotus, Danger Mouse, MF Doom, and Killer Mike. We also discuss what goes into building a career focused on enabling creativity and giving a platform to artists that can actually get them paid.

This week’s Patreon episode of Fluxpod features the second half of my conversation with Godmode producer Nick Sylvester. Whereas the previous episode focused more on Nick’s career, this episode is more about getting into the details of how music is made and how sounds go in and out of style. This clip goes into detail on snare sounds on rap records and the ubiquity of the Yahama DX7 synthesizer in ‘80s pop.

This episode features Maria Sherman, the author of Larger Than Life: A History Of Boy Bands From NKOTB To BTS. We talk about boy bands and K-pop in the broad sense, and go in a bit deeper on the Backstreet Boys/NSYNC rivalry, BTS, One Direction, and Blackpink, who Maria profiled for Elle last year. We also chat about country music and Iceage, as she just recently wrote about the 10^th anniversary of their debut album for Jezebel.

This week’s premium episode features Caitlin White, the pop critic for Uproxx and the founder of CNMN. We talked enough that I decided to split the conversation into two parts, and in this episode we discuss Ariana Grande, Adele, Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Dua Lipa, Phoebe Bridgers, Guided by Voices, Fiona Apple, Rihanna, SZA, Ingrid Andress, Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and Lee Brice. This preview chunk features that last bit with all the country stars. 

This episode features Nick Sylvester, a producer, musician, and songwriter who co-founded the artist development company Godmode. In this conversation we discuss Nick’s transition from critic for Pitchfork and Village Voice to musician in the band Mr. Dream to the evolution of Godmode. We also get into his apprenticeship with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, how working with Shamir was a turning point in his career, an anecdote about a somewhat disastrous experience being called in to potentially contribute to Beyoncé’s Lemonade album, developing LoveLeo from TikTok fame to viral pop star, how his work process has changed through the pandemic, and how we’re both amazed and confounded by Playboi Carti’s music. We actually recorded a lot for this, so a second episode with Nick that goes deeper into technical music stuff will come out next week as a Patreon exclusive.

This is a snippet from a premium Patreon episode of Fluxpod. This episode is a Q&A in which I answer a series of questions largely dealing with music trends and "irony" in relationship with making and appreciating music. The question presented here is basically "Why didn't Electronica stay big in the US?" If you want to hear the full episode and every other premium episode, you should hit up the Fluxpod Patreon page. 

The guest in this episode is Ilana Kaplan, a prolific freelance writer who has written many features for many major publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Elle, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and GQ. In this episode we talk about how she's gone about writing profiles with major celebrities such as Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Lenny Kravitz during the pandemic, her very positive experiences with Halsey and Phoebe Bridgers, and how Rob Sheffield inspired her to become a writer.

 

Here's a few of the articles that Ilana wrote this year that are mentioned in this episode:

 

• Phoebe Bridgers profile for Vulture • Halsey profile for Vogue • Paris Hilton profile for NY Times • Jessica Simpson profile for LA Times • Hayley Williams profile for LA Times • Die Jim Crow feature for LA Times • Kylie Minogue interview for Elle • How Dance Music Defined a Year When We Couldn’t Dance for Ringer