189. Yacht Rock Spectacular!

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Yacht Rock: Recorded In LA

30:55

A secret field that summons lightning. A massive spiral that disappears into a salt lake. A celestial observatory carved into a volcano. Meet the wild—and sometimes explosive—world of land art, where artists craft masterpieces with dynamite and bulldozers. In our Season 2 premiere, guest Dylan Thuras, cofounder of Atlas Obscura, takes us off road and into the minds of the artists who literally reshaped parts of the Southwest. These works aren’t meant to be easy to reach—or to explain—but they just might change how you see the world. Land art you’ll visit in this episode: - Double Negative and City by Michael Heizer (Garden Valley, Nevada) - Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson (Great Salt Lake, Utah) - Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt (Great Basin Desert, Utah) - Lightning Field by Walter De Maria (Catron County, New Mexico) - Roden Crater by James Turrell (Painted Desert, Arizona) Via Podcast is a production of AAA Mountain West Group.…

about a year ago 1:40:06

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It's almost Memorial Day Weekend in the States and that means it's time for Yacht Rock!

The term didn't exist before the 2005 web series of the same name was written, directed, and produced by J. D. Ryznar, David Lyons, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham.

You can revisit their highly specific genius here.

Before that, music of the type we now refer to as 'Yacht Rock' was known as "The West Coast Sound" and that meant it had characteristics such as being recording in Los Angeles between, roughly, 1972 and 1982, or that heavy session musicians played on the tracks, tracks that often featured electric piano, lyrical tales of romantic failure and ennui, layered backing vocals, and light jazz and R&B elements.

In this episode I recount my journey from a Yacht Rock generalist, to someone who now believes there is a pure YR essence, discernible in the tracks I reference in this episode...and there are other songs considered Yacht Rock that don't really belong in the canon. For example, by my analysis, Steely Dan and Hall & Oates: Not Yacht Rock due to a combination of not being recorded in Los Angeles and being outside the scope lyrically and compositionally. But as my friend and YR Guiding Light Rick Brown says: half the fun is debating what belongs and what doesn't.

In preparing the episode I came to believe strongly in the qualitative superiority of the tracks recorded in Los Angeles. I think it's demonstrable upon hearing them. For the sake of your ears, I prepared two Spotify Playlists:

And

Yacht Rock: Nyacht From LA

I also explore a few examples of really fun outlier tunes from unexpected sources and encourage you to suggest additional songs that do or don't fit the criteria.

Thanks for listening, and do me a favor and share this or your favorite episode with one or two friends who you think might enjoy it! Jason

235 episodes

189. Yacht Rock Spectacular!

Full Cast And Crew

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

It's almost Memorial Day Weekend in the States and that means it's time for Yacht Rock!

The term didn't exist before the 2005 web series of the same name was written, directed, and produced by J. D. Ryznar, David Lyons, Hunter D. Stair, and Lane Farnham.

You can revisit their highly specific genius here.

Yacht Rock: Recorded In LA

And

Yacht Rock: Nyacht From LA

I also explore a few examples of really fun outlier tunes from unexpected sources and encourage you to suggest additional songs that do or don't fit the criteria.

Thanks for listening, and do me a favor and share this or your favorite episode with one or two friends who you think might enjoy it! Jason

235 episodes

All episodes

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1
229. 'The Big Picture' (1989) 1:20:22

6 days ago1:20:22

1:20:22

Long before 'Waiting For Guffman', Christopher Guest directed 'The Big Picture', a heartfelt, hilariously incisive movie about making movies. The film was greenlit during British film executive David Puttnam's brief tenure running Columbia Pictures. Co-written by Guest's 'Spinal Tap' co-star Michael McKean, who also turns in an unexpectedly warm and heartfelt performance, 'The Big Picture' is worthy of rediscovery for its impressively spot-on send-up of both Los Angeles and the studio executives who populate the business. The film stars Kevin Bacon, McKean, J.T. Walsh, Emily Longstreth, an uncredited Martin Short, Fran Drescher, Jennifer Jason Leigh. You can watch the film here. I've launched a newsletter that contains recommendations for movies, tv shows, books, podcasts, and music and you can subscribe and check out last week's issue here. Or here: https://mailchi.mp/d32d4f0985fa/indistinct-chatter…

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1
228. 'Sinners' 1:13:56

13 days ago1:13:56

1:13:56

Ryan Coogler's original film 'Sinners' defied the so-called conventional wisdom of Hollywood and dropped only 6% week-to-week in its box office performance. It was also the subject of a fascinating online discourse about how the film's box office performance was written about in industry media. In this episode I recount the online controversy surrounding some of the reporting on the film and give you my own take on having seen the film. Enjoy! The McKinsey Report mentioned in the podcast: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/black-representation-in-film-and-tv-the-challenges-and-impact-of-increasing-diversity…

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227. 'Caddyshack' (1980) 1:15:23

19 days ago1:15:23

1:15:23

'Caddyshack', it turns out, is kind of a miracle of last-minute producer-led stitching together and salvaging, resulting in one of the more quotable films in comedy history. Hard to believe that at the time, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Rodney Dangerfield were not yet the massive film stars they'd become as a result of this movie. This episode delves into the coke-fueled nonstop party that was this film's production, a production that would contribute to the untimely death of co-writer Doug Kenney on a cliff in Hawaii where he'd gone to dry out. Doug's death was one of the first casualties of this scene due to drugs, soon followed by John Belushi's. LINKS: Watch Caddyshack: https://youtu.be/ROfwYphXTC4?feature=shared&t=67 Great Book on Guber and Peters: https://www.amazon.com/Hit-Run-Peters-Peter-Hollywood/dp/0684809311 More on Peters: John Schnepp's The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFNJ-9EVe74 Chris Nashawaty's book Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story https://www.amazon.com/Caddyshack-Making-Hollywood-Cinderella-Story/dp/1250105951…

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1
226. 'A Minecraft Movie' 37:57

5 weeks ago37:57

37:57

Why doesn't anyone believe me when I say I loved going to see this movie??

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1
225. Val Kilmer: I'm Your Huckleberry 1:31:54

6 weeks ago1:31:54

1:31:54

An episode in memoriam of Val Kilmer, who died this week. Mentioned in this episode: 'Val', the excellent, moving, insightful, thoughtful documentary compiled from decades of Val Kilmer's home movies. 'Tombstone' is many people's favorite Kilmer film. 'Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's The Island of Dr. Moreau' is a fantastic making-of-a-trainwreck documentary about one of the most hilariously troubled film sets in Hollywood history. Watch 'Heat' . It's always good for you. Enjoy Val as Gay Perry in Shane Black's 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' . One of the best 80's comedies is 'Real Genius' . Read the Digital Renegade newsletter.…

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224. Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess 1:12:19

6 weeks ago1:12:19

1:12:19

Don Simpson was one-half of one of the most successful production partnerships in Hollywood history. His reality-distortion-field helped bring about films like Flashdance, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, The Rock, Crimson Tide, and Days of Thunder, films that collectively grossed more than $3 billion dollars. Don Simpson's life is a cautionary tale with an ignominious ending forever ensconced in Hollywood history. His appetite for drugs, prostitutes, plastic surgery, black Levi's 501 jeans (worn once and discarded), wrecking Porsches, pharmacology, peanut butter, and pizza got the best of him at age 52. Listen in for the outrageous tale of how a pudgy kid from Alaska talked his way into transforming big-budget Hollywood blockbusters for a new decade. LINKS: Buy my guest Charles Fleming's definitive book about Hollywood in the 80's, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess. Don & Jerry on Charlie Rose , less than a year before Don's death. A pretty good but exploitational multi-part tv documentary about Don Simpson. Now-cancelled Hollywood gadfly James Toback's 'The Big Bang' , starring Don.…

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223. 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (1979 BBC Series) 1:55:35

8 weeks ago1:55:35

1:55:35

What does it say about your favorite podcast host that he considers the 1979 BBC adaptation of John le Carre's seminal espionage novel 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' to be COMFORT VIEWING?? Nonetheless, as Smiley would say, there we are. In this episode, curiously one in which I am still totally unresolved as to how best to approach this series in episodic fashion, I explore the myriad genius aspects of the production.…

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1
222. Gene Hackman Appreciation Episode 1:58:08

10 weeks ago1:58:08

1:58:08

Considering the versatile, endlessly watchable and iconic American actor Gene Hackman.

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1
221. Oscar Recap 2025! 45:26

10 weeks ago45:26

45:26

HERE IT IS! Your most-anticipated episode of the year.

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1
220. OSCAR SPECIAL: Ranking The Best Picture Nominees w/ @vhsrevolution 1:22:56

11 weeks ago1:22:56

1:22:56

I'm joined by David Schumann of the IG and YouTube accounts @vhsrevolution as we each offer up our Top Five out of the 10 Best Picture Nominees ahead of Sunday night's Academy Awards telecast. And yes, I will be doing my Postmortem Recap episode following the broadcast. Follow David on Instagram here. Check out David's YouTube Channel here.…

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219. 'Slap Shot' (1977) 1:34:14

11 weeks ago1:34:14

1:34:14

Here's the third of my episodic trilogy about George Roy Hill's films 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid', 'The Sting', and, now: 1977's 'Slap Shot'.

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218. 'Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid' (1969) 1:38:54

12 weeks ago1:38:54

1:38:54

My deep dive into the films of Director George Roy Hill continues with the most iconic Western ever made: "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid".

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217. 'The Sting' (1973) 1:41:14

13 weeks ago1:41:14

1:41:14

George Roy Hill's 1973 masterpiece 'The Sting' (released December 1974) grossed in 1974 what would be over 900 million dollars today. It's a deceptively simple, stealthily subversive and counter-cultural film wrapped in the meticulous trappings of a 1930's Warner Bros gangster picture, and re-teaming Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid with that film's director. In this episode: How Peter Boyle, Jack Nicholson, Richard Boone, and Warren Beatty almost got cast in 'The Sting', the brilliant Marvin Hamlisch Scott Joplin songs used on the soundtrack, the fantastic supporting cast of instantaneous-read character actors like Jack Kehoe, Dana Elcar, and MORE!…

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216. 'An American Werewolf In London' (1981) 1:42:06

15 weeks ago1:42:06

1:42:06

In Hollywood, the story beats of werewolf movies were codified in 1941 by a German-Jewish emigrant to Hollywood via London named Curt Siodmak, who wrote the seminal film 'The Wolf Man', starring Lon Chaney, Jr. 40 years later, John Landis made the most important and enduring and influential werewolf film ever made in 'An American Werewolf in London'. It was his follow-up to the one-two punch of 'Animal House' and 'The Blues Brothers'. He could make any film he wanted, with anyone he wanted. So he made a script he'd begun when he was 18 years old. A script he'd first discussed with an aspiring special effects and creature-design guy named Rick Baker in 1971. 10 years later, he'd found two unknown leads, hired basically the entire cast of an acclaimed touring production of 'Nicholas Nickleby', and called Baker on the set of another werewolf movie ('The Howling') and convinced him to decamp to England to work on 'An American Werewolf in London'. For his groundbreaking innovations on the film, Baker won the ver first Academy Award ever given for makeup special effects. Featuring a snappy, smart script, Landis' virtuosic comedy/horror chops, and an unexpected soundtrack of moon songs, 'An American Werewolf in London' is in a class by itself and is one of the most important films ever made. Other werewolf films of note and worthy of your time: 'Ginger Snaps' 'Wolfen' 'Wolf' 'Dog Soldiers' 'The Howling' 'The Wolf Man' (1941) 'Werewolf of London' (1935) "Werewolf of London' inspired Zevon's song 'Werewolves of London' . Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers had watched the film and told Zevon jokingly that he should write a song with that title and start a dance craze. And as far as listicles go, this one is well-reasoned by someone who knows their werewolf films: The 25 Best Werewolf Movies…

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215. 'No Country For Old Men' (2007) 1:47:18

17 weeks ago1:47:18