Season 1.5 Episode 2 Jul 20, 2016

Engaging Vagueness

Wherein you hear our never-before-heard demo/pilot episode ("Episode Zero") which was used to convince the People Who Control Sub Pop to green light the podcast project. In Episode Zero we hear from Dave Hernandez (formerly The Shins; presently The Intelligence and Little Cuts), Derek Erdman (Sub Pop), and Corey J. Brewer (Corey J. Brewer).

You will not be surprised to hear that Episode 2 of Summer Season Oh-Sixteen is produced and hosted by Alissa Atkins and Arwen Nicks from Sub Pop's own three-legged podcast studio.

Engaging Vagueness by John Atkins — Illustration by John Atkins

Illustration by John Atkins

Show Notes

Yes and! Hello from summer vacation! This episode is a real treat. It’s the first episode of the Sub Pop Podcast that is mostly about the Sub Pop Podcast: an episode inside an episode. The bulk of this show is us presenting our “demo” episode that we used to get the Sub Pop brass to approve the podcast project. (It worked… I think?)

But before we get to that, a few pointers.

MaxFunCon is the (afore)mentioned podcast convention/conference in LA that Alissa and Arwen roadtripped to, and Maximum Fun is the podcast network to which MaxFunCon is dedicated.

Solomon Georgio is the comedian who we do not advocate that you stalk IRL(*) (despite what Arwen says in this episode…). Riley Silverman is another comedian Arwen and Alissa saw at MaxFunCon (and you also should not stalk Riley Silverman IRL, even though this is not explicitly pointed out in the show).

(*: InRealLife)

Let’s do a little horn toot, yeah? Alissa mentions especially liking the King Tuff / Kyle Thomas interview from Season One Episode Four. If you haven’t heard that episode, treat yourself and go ahead and listen to it!

Okay, into the mythical Episode Zero. Let’s upfront say a huge thanks to Dave Hernandez, Derek Erdman, and Corey J. Brewer for agreeing to be in our demo episode (without even knowing what we were really doing… probably). You could not have three nicer folks willing to help you out. Thanks Dave, Derek, and Corey!

So… you know how Alissa mentions that we somehow managed to lose all the unedited audio from Episode Zero? Well, we (errr, I) also managed to misplace and/or lose all of the pieces of the original “demo shownotes” from Episode Zero. Among those things, there was a photograph illustrating Dave Hernandez’s story: a photograph of Jed dancing (naked) to (and among) The Shins. To be honest, losing the image is a mixed blessing.

Dave is currently the guitarist in The Intelligence, and is also in Seattle’s Little Cuts.

On to Sub Pop’s (self-described, when it’s convenient to describe it this way) concierge (a/k/a, receptionist, s/k/a “office manager”), Derek Erdman.

During the segment, Derek takes a call from David Dickenson, proprietor of Suicide Squeeze Records, which is celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2016. If you’re reading this before the end of August 2016 and you can get to Seattle before August 25th, maybe you should think about attending the 2 nights of shows commemorating their 20th! (Oh yeah, we talked to David in season one, too!)

A couple of instances of Derek appearing in the media: a story (our (currently) own) Arwen Nicks produced for KPLU about a hoax involving Singles (the movie). Just listen to it. Or at least follow the link to see what it’s about.

And a good, old-fashioned craigslist hoax featuring Kurt Cobain’s skis.

See what Derek is up to on instagram.

Next up, the personable and charming Corey J. Brewer, former merchbot for The Murder City Devils (the merchbot days were quite a while ago).

Hear his music, review his tweets.

So there you have it: the audio that propelled the Sub Pop Podcast into orbit – or at least got it off the ground.

For the 13th time, we’re very pleased to have episode art from the talented John Atkins. Here are two of his illustrations we didn’t pick for the main illustration.