On this week’s episode of Encore I am joined by special guest Ryan Gardner. Ryan joins the show to talk about growing up in this music scene and the bands that we first fell in love with. Then we talk a little about starting young with writing online, the lessons learned and why we think it’s important to just try, and how to maybe parlay that into some kind of career in the future. Freelancing, journalism, and how this alternative music scene has changed over the years rounds out the episode.

Thanks for listening!

Read More “Hiding Music From Our Parents (Encore Episode 145)”

On this week’s episode of Encore I am joined by special guest Jesse Cannon. Jesse has credits on albums from The Menzingers, to Man Overboard, to The Cure. He has managed bands, produced bands, and has written multiple books about the music industry and navigating the current realities of being a musician and a songwriter in the internet era. He joins the show to talk about everything from authentic creativity when writing songs, to originality in music, to the biggest mistakes bands make when recording. We talk about sophomore slumps, how being emotionally aware leads to better music, and the entire idea behind bands writing albums for themselves versus for the fans. There’s a lot here, but it’s a fun one.

Read More “Write Better Songs (Encore Episode 144)”

On this week’s episode of Encore I am once again joined by special guest Craig Manning. We talk about who our favorite bands are, what makes them our favorites, how that’s changed over the years and what it means to be a “favorite.” We also discuss what artists have the best chance of jumping into that list in the future. Then there’s some Grammy talk, and a look at Andrew McMahon and his career, all of his different projects, and his new album. There may be some album ranking.

Read More “Favorite Bands (Encore Episode 143)”

On this week’s episode of Encore I am joined once again by special guest Thomas Nassiff. Thomas returns for a deep dive on the new album, After the Party, by The Menzingers. We talk about the band in general, their catalog, and what they mean to us. Then we go through the album and talk about our favorite songs and how we think this album may just be something “special” for the music scene. We end with some chatter about the latest Japandroids’ release, and do a little bit of catching up as well.

Read More “After the Party (Encore Episode 142)”

On this week’s episode of Encore I am joined by special guest Jacob Tender. This week we discuss AbsolutePunk.net, SpinMedia, UnderTheGun and a lot of behind the scenes chaos that plagued the music web community over the past few years. Then we move into a discussion about creating things and the balance between hobbies, work, and everything between. We look at what it’s like to create things, when to know if they’ve failed, and why it is we both feel a need to create and put things out into the world. There’s also talk about the new MacBooks with Touchbar, some thoughts on AirPods, as well as collecting media and how we track what we listen to, read, and watch.

Read More “Hobbies, Work, and Everything Between (Encore Episode 141)”

On this week’s episode of Encore I am joined by special guest Deanna Chapman. The main topic this week is all about our most anticipated albums of 2017. What made the list and what did we decide to leave off? Do we really have to mention Brand New … again? We also talk about movies we are looking forward to, discuss music on TV shows, and nerd out about comic books a little bit.

Read More “Most Anticipated of 2017 (Encore Episode 140)”

This week’s episode of Encore looks at a variety of listener questions, things like: favorite music for road trips, recent albums we think may end up being classics, and music we turn to for the specific moods we may be in. We also talk about new music from Japandroids and The Menzingers and our desire to listen to something “new” versus falling back on old favorites. We’ve also got a contest to win the new book from Laura Jane Grace, and Thomas gives details on that in the middle of this episode.

Thanks for listening!

Read More “Scale of Loneliness (Encore Episode 137)”

On this episode of Encore, Thomas and I break down some of their favorite “fall albums.” What makes an album a fall album? Why did we pick what we did? And what other habits do we have when the weather gets cold? We also talk a little about Yellowcard’s final show, Laura Jane Grace’s upcoming book, and our usual shenanigans. We’d love to hear from you about what albums you listen to as the weather gets cold, so hit the little quote bubble on this post to jump to the forums and discuss!

Read More “Fall Albums (Encore Episode 136)”

It’s been a few weeks since Thomas and I have sat down and talked, so we really enjoyed catching up on this episode of Encore. There’s some talk about new Apple products, AirPods, Apple Watches, and then a lengthy talk about seeing Blink-182 live and all the bands that opened for them on their recent tour. We end with a bunch of really fun listener questions about albums, music, life, an and had a blast trying to decide what band we’d want to see if we could travel anywhere in the world. This is a fun one.

Read More “It’s Been Too Long (Encore Episode 134)”

This week’s episode of Encore is with special guest Deanna Chapman. (Thomas is on vacation and watching football games and stuff.) On this episode we talk about how the music scene has changed over the years and what first drew us to it. I’m always curious about what brought other people into this music scene, how it differs today, and the role technology and social media has played in shaping it. We also talk about Batman: The Animated Series, some of our favorite apps, Apple Music/Spotify/Bandcamp, and other fun stuff.

As always, thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy.

Read More “A Back-Up Thomas (Encore Episode 132)”