Convince Me To Like This Band
“A podcast featuring extreme fans of polarizing bands”
Fourth Episode Out Today!
Stream now: “Episode 4 – RUSH: Pretentious precisionists or progressive virtuosos?”
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CONVINCE ME TO LIKE THIS BAND, a music-commentary podcast, is launching its fourth episode focused on the Canadian rock band, RUSH, on Friday May 8th, 2020.
“Rush has taken up more time, money and mental energy in my life than anything else – including boyfriends and jobs,” says JILLIAN MARYONOVICH, a former AIDE to BARACK OBAMA and Rush Super Fan who is a guest on Episode Four.
Were Rush the worst of bombastic and bloated Arena-Rock or were they bold pioneers of Progressive Rock and Roll? Were Neil Peart’s lyrics uniquely intellectual and poignant or were they just pretentious and stilted drivel? Was Rush ignored and reviled by music critics for good reason or was the band too complex and ambitious to be justly appreciated?
Rush Hater, Dr. BRIAN COGAN, PhD, weighs in on these central questions to Rush’s legacy and argues that Rush are overrated and pretentious hacks who, with Neil Peart’s lyrics, have provided reckless creedence to offensive political ideologies. Dr. Cogan, who is a professor, writer, editor and co-author of several books on pop culture, including The Encyclopedia of Punk, South Park Deconstructed, and Everything I Ever Needed To Know About ___* I Learned From Monty Python, pulls no punches with his critique of Rush in this latest episode.
However, Rush Super Fan, Jillian Maryonovitch, puts her extreme passion on display when she emphatically defends Canada’s Holy Triumvirate against these charges. Maryonovich is a devout Rush fan who has seen the band perform over ninety times. Additionally, she is the co-organizer of RUSHCON, a convention organized for the fans of Rush to celebrate their favorite band. Jillian’s extreme fandom was featured in the 2015 Rush documentary, TIME STAND STILL. As an interesting aside, Maryonovich has a successful career in politics, working as Creative Director for the Office of Digital Strategy for both the Barack Obama administration and, most recently, the Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign.
Convince Me To Like This Band offers a forum for a musical artist’s “Super Fans” and “Haters” to passionately debate the music. Episode One discussed SLAYER, Episode Two discussed PHISH and Episode Three discussed MORRISSEY. The program will feature some of pop culture’s most polarizing musical artists, spanning many genres over the past fifty years.
The guests who appear on the podcast are the most extreme fanatics to be found. This includes fans like Episode One’s guest, MIKE MEYER, who famously carved “SLAYER” into his arms and then lit them on fire (all of which was officially memorialized Slayer’s, “Divine Intervention” album artwork). Episode Two’s Super Fan guest was BRIAN BAVOSA, a fan of the most obsessive type who has seen PHISH perform live over 454 times. Episode Three’s Super Fan, JOSE MALDONADO, also known as, “The Mexican Morrissey,” has seen Morrissey perform over one-hundred times, has been the singer of Smiths & Morrissey tribute band called “Sweet and Tender Hooligans” since 1992 and, for the past eleven years, hosts a weekly radio show called “Breakfast With the Smiths: The World of Morrissey.”
The “Haters” on this podcast hold similar notoriety and musical pedigree such as Episode One’s Slayer-Hater BRAM TEITELMAN, who is a Napalm Records employee and the co-founder of www.MetalInsider.net. Episode Two’s Phish-Hater and consummate contrarian, TIM HARRINGTON, is the singer of the seminal indie rock band, Les Savy Fav. Lastly, Episode Three’s Morrissey-Hater was the filmmaker and musician, ANDREW NOVICK, who while in the 1980’s brat-punk band, Warlock Pinchers, penned the brutish and comedic song, “Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse.”
Convince Me To Like This Band is created, produced, edited and hosted by ERIC SPECK whose former music business endeavors includes, A&R at labels like Island Def Jam and Warner Music Group, label manager at Knitting Factory Records, talent buyer at Brownies (the legendary but defunct music venue in NYC), and owner of also defunct, indie rock record label, Ace Fu Records (home to Pinback, Man Man, Devotchka, Ted Leo and more). Speck currently works at Pandora Media and hosts the radio show Time To Be Useless, which streams on Radio Free Brooklyn and The Independent FM. He also is the co-owner of the music-centric, rock and roll bar, Pet Shop, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Subscribe and download this podcast to explore the fascinating world of music “Super Fans” and hear their impassioned arguments. Your host Speck will lead listeners down the rabbit hole of musical criticism and commentary while unpacking all the emotion, fun and absurdity that can only be found in the most dedicated and iconic music fandoms.
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