All the Things w/ Joelone

Tristan is back on the pod this week, we're talking a little SummerSlam 2020!

We recap the event, talk about the highs and lows and how it fits in historically. The highlights and the lowlights, what we wanted to see and what we were happy with.

For anyone who witnessed SummerSlam 2020 inside the thunder dome, this will be a fun listen. 

Check out more from Tristan on his website www.aretiredgamer.com

Sneaky phone conversation with the young Christian Reynolds. Christian is a relatively new basketball fan who jumped on the Sixers bandwagon when they were the worst team in the league a few years ago. They have since come up to some prominence, but tonight they fell hard to the Boston Celtics in the playoffs, game 2.

We talk about the potential end of the Sixers season, as well as a little bit about the rest of the league, including some potential trade scenarios for the Warriors. It was fun, Christian was lively and full of spunk and energy. He's got a ton of basketball opinions, and he really has become a student of the game, as we discuss on this episode. 

More epic video game talk with long time friend of the show, Tristan Cline. Tristan has launched a new website called A Retired Game. (www.aretiredgamer.com)

In celebration of his launch, we count down our favorite gaming systems. We have been around almost as long as in home gaming systems have existed, so we have a long history worth of experience and systems to choose from! Where does the NES rank? What about more modern systems like Xbox or PS4? Do they even make the cut??! Check it out on this episode!

Also take a look at Tristan's site, where he does reviews and blogs, as well as his YouTube channel with other great mostly retro gaming content. 

It's the 10 year anniversary of the classic album, "The Suburbs", by the amazing band Arcade Fire. In honor of this tremendous record, I brought my friend Thomas Fine on to discuss the greatness of the album, and pick our favorite tracks. 

Thomas Fine is an old band mate of mine, we spent many years traveling up and down the state and inside practice rooms making music in The Iron Heart & Once Over. It was great to catch up with him and talk about one of our mutually favorite albums. 

Arcade Fire are a Canadian band who have conquered the music industry critically and artistically, and perhaps peaked on this album, "The Suburbs". It is a semi-conceptual and themed record, and it's musically dense but also catchy and easy to digest. In my opinion, I think their best album is "Everything Now", but on "The Suburbs" they hit at something that was unique, and ended up winning them the Album of the Year Grammy. 

Check out this episode, it was a lot of fun chatting with Tom and discussing this wonderful record. 

One of my favorite bands, Neon Trees, just released their brand new record. It's called "I Can Feel You Forgetting Me", and it's fantastic! In honor of that, I decided to do a quick solo pod counting down my top 5 favorite Neon Trees songs from their catalog. 

Neon Trees are an indie pop band with a punk like speed and 80s new wave/pop style, and are pretty much what I would consider the perfect band. Not heavy, but fast and sometimes intense lyrically, they blend the rock and pop and make wonderful music.

Singer Tyler Glenn is one of my favorites, he's great to sing along with because his melodies are so damn catchy! If you're not familiar with Neon Trees, go check out their new album (or anything on this list!). You won't regret it. 

We all have those artists ... We all have those songs that we love but we're embarrassed to admit it. Although I would say I'm not embarrassed, I fully support these artists with all my heart - but maybe I should be embarrassed? Should I show shame for music I think is awesome?

The real question I suppose is, just because I think it's awesome, is it ACTUALLY awesome? Well, as I've said before - music is subjective! My version of awesome can be your version of guilty pleasure, and that's why these lists are great. Some of Jamie's picks are picks that I don't feel any guilt at all about liking, but Jamie is a metal guy and his perspective is different. 

Check out this episode - it's really great. I say that every week, but this one I feel more than the others. There was very little editing of the conversation needed, we are just two buddies talking music and stuff we think is funny to like. Good times!

I've mentioned the musical Hamilton many times on the podcast - and due to its recent release on Disney Plus, a lot of my inner circle have been talking and dreaming about Hamilton too! 

I can't even do justice to how awesome it is. I picked 3 songs like we all did, but I easily could have picked 3 other songs, or any of the songs my guests picked. The songs are just that damn good (like Triple H) and my favorites change from listen to listen. 

Not only is the play now available on Disney plus, but the album (on all streaming services) features every song, so you can relive the play over and over again. The whole thing is long, but it is definitely worth a deep dive.

On this episode, I brought on returning guests Erin Brock & Zack Fennie as well as first time guest Christine Brock, and we had a great discussion about the history of the play, the production and some fun facts about the performances, as well as of course our top 3 favorite songs.

Take a listen, hear a preview of some of the great music from a wonderful play!

Last weekend, non-related to it being the 4th of July - I watched a few movies that got me feeling patriotic. They weren't necessarily patriotic movies, just some movies that presented a little slice of Americana, a little taste of what America feels like to me. That got me wondering about other movies like that, movies that make me feel and love being American. 

This is not a definitive list, this is just 5 movies I thought of and decided fit into this category. Five movies I really like, five movies that have distinctive American feeling and might make you feel proud to be American, even among the current tumultuous political environment. 

To be clear - I hate talking politics, and I want my podcast to be a place where people can go and don't have to discuss politics. That's perhaps a polarizing thing and I may be alienating the audience. But this is entertainment. Any side leaning film is not my leaning. I just love movies, and I love being entertained and getting lost in stories. 

Hope you enjoy the episode! 

On Classic Album Breakdown I will choose a record that I have deemed worthy to be dubbed a "classic", and I will bring on some friends to break it down. We'll discuss the history and significance of the record, as well as where the artist was at during that period of their career. 

The first album I decided to break down is a newly 20-year old classic, "White Pony" by the Deftones. This record just turned 20, and it is especially important to me, as Deftones has always been one of my favorite bands, and this was arguably their pinnacle record. 

"White Pony" not only took Deftones in a whole new direction, it went on to inspire many bands that came after them. It broke barriers of what heavy music could do, and it established Deftones as a career band, not just another fluff nu-metal band. Mixing elements of trip hop and shoegaze with their brand of heavy rock, Deftones added an incredible addition to their catalog that includes the bands biggest commercial hit.

Join Zack and I as we discuss this album, and give it the proper love-fest that it deserves! 

Solo pod today! One of my favorite bands, New Found Glory, released their 10th album last week, so it inspired me to dive back into their catalog and I've come up with my top 5 list. 

NFG is one of the most fun bands around, with anthemic songs that are easily sung and shouted along too. Fast, fun, exciting music. They always put on a great live show and their fans are loyal and diehard.

Their new album, "Forever + Ever x Infinity" is out now, go pick it up! And dive back into their catalog with me as I bring you samples and stories from my favorites of their albums. 

I won't give my list away, I want you to listen - but the entire list is basically from 2000-2009 (with one minor exception), but don't let that deter you. Their whole catalog, including the newest record, is full of fun! This band is FUN!

Another trip to the 1980s, this time talking a little hoops. I brought on two of my oldest and dearest friends, Brendon Freeman & Josh Fleisch, to discuss all things 80s NBA. While none of us were really around to see these teams in person - with the help of YouTube, DVDs, NBA TV & basketball-reference, we've been able to experience quite a bit of these great teams.

We talk Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, Pistons - as well as Mavericks, Nuggets, Bucks & Warriors. It was a fun romp through time, chatting about and seeing the stats of some of the all time NBA greats. Names like Kareem, Dr. J, Issel, Bird, Isaiah, Magic, Moses, Aguirre, Mullin, Lanier and many more. 

The three of us have known each other practically since birth, and thus there was some fun rapport between us. I like to say that this is Josh's world and we're just living in it. You'll see why, just take a listen! 

The year 2000! That was a whole 20 years ago, which is insanity! 2000 was a peak year for music in my life, it was a key year to developing my tastes and there were some really profound records that came out that year. 

I brought in my friends Bianca & Michael to talk about the year that was in music of 2000, and to count down our top 5 records that were released in that year. The lists are definitely pretty rangy, just like music was in general back then, and it was a fun countdown.

From Outkast to Deftones, White Stripes to Nsync, Common to Craig David - lots of great choices, lots of nostalgia and a fun trip down memory lane. If you were a music fan around back then, or if you are a youngster looking for some cool recommendations from 20 years ago, definitely check out this episode!

Today's episode is a new idea for All the Things. I brought back friend of the pod Erin Brock to breakdown and discuss a movie (or in this case, movies). This was a ton of fun and definitely something we will do again. Erin and I love movies, and our specific tastes are pretty different which I can only imagine will lead to fun banter.

This episode is focused on two movies, Disney's 2014 film "Maleficent" and the 2019 followup "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil". 

We go in depth on the highs and lows of the plot, and ask some fun questions about various elements of the films. Breaking down Angelina Jolie, Michelle Pfeifer and the rest of the cast and characters. 

Is Maleficent emotionally stable? Are these movies good? Why are the fairies so inept at babysitting? Find out in the latest episode of All the Things w/ Joelone!

Kicking it old school as the true children of the late 80s early 90s that we are! 

Tristan comes back on the pod to discuss a subject dear to our hearts: classic Nintendo games! We're both the same age, and we both grew up with similar stories about getting and playing the classic NES system. 

Our lists are a little similar, which is interesting considering the mass amount of produced NES games - but all that means is that the best games were clear. We did discuss about how hard it was to come up with just 5, and that maybe down the line we'll do another similar list about under appreciated NES games. 

Super Mario - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Battletoads - Mega Man - Ducktales - it's all here. Check out a fun, nostalgic conversation about the classic Nintendo Entertainment System!

My first interview with an actual professional wrestler! "Timeless" Levi Shapiro is tearing it up on the indie scene right now, currently the APW Internet Champion, and he stopped by the pod to talk about the state of indie wrestling and to count down our top 5 wrestlers from the 1980s. 

Levi is actually an old friend. We came up together in the same music scene of the early aughts, he was a constant at the great old L3 shows. We spent some time sharing memories from that period of our lives, reminiscing about some of our old friends and bands. 

We also talked a lot of wrestling in general. It was fascinating hearing from an actual worker from the business, a little "inside baseball" if you will. Hear about how Covid is affecting the wrestling industry, and about how Levi broke into the business, and a little history between him and his manager Brian Zane.

Then we got to our list. I really enjoyed talking 1980s horror movies, so I decided to make that an ongoing theme for awhile. Let's talk 80s! Levi's character is that of an old school wrestler, like a throwback to the 80s, so he was the perfect guy to have on for this list.

Check out "Timeless" Levi Shapiro on Twitter (@LeviShapiro) & Instagram (@levishapiro), and his webstore (https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/wrestler-t-shirts/theloop.html).

A new type of list - 3 music recommendations from 2 of my good friends and myself. All of these acts are mostly of the rock or rock adjace genres, but they're fairly eclectic picks. 

Zak is a singer-songwriter from Napa, who works in the acoustic genre and makes electronic music, as well as occasionally playing with a full rock band. His picks include 2 other singer-songwriters and a prog rock band.

Jamie Reynolds is a sound engineer based in Napa, who has worked with on stage and in the studio with a myriad of different artists and genres - but his personal favorite is definitely metal. 

I am one of those lame people who claim they "listen to everything", but I do feel like it's kind of true...Even though all of my picks had their heyday in the early-mid 2000s rock scene! I will pick different genres next time, I swear!

A fun episode - check it out!

Back for round 2 of our discussion about horror movies from the 80s! Bianca and Ethan join me to conclude our top 5 lists on this episode, and it's a lot of fun. 

Picks include foreign films, classic and campy films. A lot of great options, if you haven't see any of them I would definitely advise to stream or rent or buy them, they're all great options for movie nights during shelter in place!

Discussed on this episode: The Shining, Halloween Pt 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street among others - some great info and fun facts about the films too. Movie fans rejoice!

The 1980s was a defining decade for the horror genre. We picked it because of that, and because of the plethora of great horror movies to choose from in that decade! From Freddie to Jason to the Thing to Jack Torrance to Angela from Sleepaway Camp, we've got you covered for great 80s nostalgic horror goodness.

I brought on my friends Ethan Bradley Rogers & Bianca Rumbaugh - two new guests to the pod - because they're full of pop culture knowledge and we always have great conversations. This episode was a fun chat between 3 movie fans, reminiscing about some rad films. 

This is only part 1! We had such a good back and forth going that it was too much for just one episode. Check back next week for the conclusion of our list, but for now sit back and enjoy part 1 of our top 5 horror movies from the 80s!

Missing basketball during this social distancing/shelter in place era? Yeah, me too! 

I brought my dear, dear friend Brendon Freeman back on the pod to count down our top 5 Golden State Warriors. We're local Bay Area boys, and the Warriors are our team. Without current hoops, it was a lot of fun to talk about some of our favorite players in the history of the franchise.

Ranging from the 1950s up until today's current era - we break down and discuss who we picked and why. We also share a little bit of our history with the Warriors, why and how we became fans. 

Talkin a little HOOPS on All the Things w/ Joelone - Episode 20!!

Back to MUSIC CORNER, this time with a dear old friend of mine - Pete Davies from the electronic duo KOWA.

Pete and I have known each other for a very long time, and we actually were in each other's first band. We had a fun conversation catching up and hashing out some old times. Pete's a tremendous talent, he has had a very eclectic music career and is a multi-instrumentalist.

His current project KOWA - paired with his longtime collaborator Robinson Kuntz - is releasing their new EP "Play it Again" on April 24th through their bandcamp page (www.kowa.bandcamp.com). KOWA is really cool - they're a synthy dream-indie-pop band with a head-bobbing sound. If you like to groove, like to boogie down, like some sweet percussion then they're the group for you. 

Other than sharing old stories about growing up in music - Pete and I talk about his history  and how we've both spent the better part of 2 decades in the Napa music scene. We also break down our love for LCD Soundsystem and the art of putting together the perfect lineups, lots of great music discussion. I also play a little KOWA at the top and the end of the episode - so you can sample a little bit of what they're all about.

It was a really fun episode, I hope to have Pete on again in the future. We had a great conversation! Check out Episode 19: Music Corner w/ Pete Davies!