The Spoon

The Spoon is always a bit of a high-wire act, and we've bragged in the past of episodes that test the limits of the human attention span, but this week...whoah. Follow, if you will, our fair trio and their special guest Bill Holmes, as they plunge headlong down a rabbit hole of tumultuous, confrontational comedy, laced with a potent dose of What Is This I Don't Even. Any continuity of conversation...

Quinton Flynn sits in as things get meta in the Spooniverse, with 2% jokes as the order of the day, MST3k and Frank Zappa being checked as influences, and suggestions of performing the show solely through subtext and/or song being taken at least semi-seriously. Also, the mainstreaming of pr0n, the pretentiousness of the extra U, the emotional minefield of zoological work, and what were the last na...

Travis Randall's journey from football player to junkie to bassist to audio technician to gastronomic entrepreneur is a impressive one, and in that true renaissance spirit, his presence brings the show's tone from its usual simmering ADHD tendencies to a white-hot boil of topic-hopping psychosis. Also, two unrelated decrees: food is over, and Betty White must be destroyed. Music by Tramps & Thieve...

It's The Spoon's one year anniversary, but in typical dude (and, let's face it, typical Spoon) fashion, our fair trio gloss over commemoration of this important date to focus on different concerns, such as the misadventures of Paul Reubens, the misuse of place name acronyms, misaimed fandom of chick-flicks, and the misery of recently-single guest Quinton Flynn. Also, someone seems to have misplace...

No guest? No show prep? No problem! The men of The Spoon kick into old-skool gear for a rollicking discussion of tall hugs, phone bricks, cult followings, the nomenclature of The Netherlands, the inevitability of techno-fatigue, the dysfunctional evolution of country music, and the true arrival of summer. Also, a moment of silence please for poor Alyssa, who lies...akimbo. Music by Michael Shelley...

Things are a smidge off-balance this week: both an extreme lack of prep time and the truth-to-power presence of James Monosmith of LTD Art Gallery weave their spells, causing world views to collide in a scatter shot, haphazard conversation where every answer only leads to another question. But, amid the chaos, a champion rises to save us all: Zombie Pat Morita! (and his sidekick, MacCulkin...or is...

Linda Horwatt has car stories on her mind -- understandable, since she's just driven cross-country for 53 hours (or 4 days, if you're a DJ) -- and she's happy to share them, along with other bits of wit, wisdom, and the sexy-joyful sounds of her band The Orion Experience. Other topics include funereal culture, the subjectivity of beauty, fun with accents, and the secret world of the ladies' room....

The men of The Spoon are feeling especially feisty and demonstrative this week. Whether expressing outrage, glee, frustration, amusement, or even exhaustion, the message is clear: go BIG, or go home. Special guest Seth Gordon of The Mockers and a few very brave callers hold on for dear life through the deluge of crazed, topic-hopping glory launched from the show's verbal fire hose, and emerge on t...

Which is your favorite conflict: Man vs Nature? Man vs Man? Man vs Himself? We've got all the classics covered in this week's wildlife-wary, alpha-manly, cannibal-happy, politically nihilistic dose of righteous indignation, leavened with a goodly helping of Douglas Adams references, and color commentary by Johnny Dam (aka The Thundertaker.) Music by Steve Barton, Sparkle*Jets UK, and The Orion Exp...

Singer-songwriter, digital musical impresario, and self-described "corporate motherfucker" Tim Quirk braves Los Angeles traffic to stop by and extol the virtues of both attention-based economy and passive-aggressive public relations. Johnny Dam joins us again, this time to inaugurate the new studio. And Rob's recent venture into cautious optimism seems to be paying off, if recent setbacks for Rupe...

On the eve of their final broadcast from the old studio space, the men of The Spoon manage to wrangle executive producer and New Dissident Radio overlord Johnny Dam for a conversation chock full of raucous, rambling ruminations. No ball is left un-busted as we prepare to leave our radio chrysalis and step into the bright shiny future of NDR. Color commentary by David Lee Roth.

Rob, Chris, Thom, and Andru tackle childhood obsessions, gastronomical taboos, and the age old conundrum of whether it's better to be cautiously optimistic or completely miserable, while the art of the Anthony Weiner joke reaches a blazing apotheosis in this week's SAL. Tune in to Episode 14 of The Geek Agenda for the thrilling conclusion! Music by The Piper Downs, The Pills, and The King Bees.

Who else but the men of The Spoon can bring you the death of Ryan Dunn, the genius of Sparks, reactions to AMC's The Killing, the price of a Cosby sweater, religion as political capital, movie theaters as quasi-churches, the safety (?) of nuclear power, the future of celebrity sex tapes, the cannibalistic nature of rock, the personification of chaos, and the ancient art of cuckold-costuming, all i...

The men of The Spoon are interested in the future, for that is where they are going to spend the rest of their lives. Sure, all the great themes may have been used up and turned into theme parks, but one can still make hay out of commenting on that realization... right? Patrick McGrath sits in for a discussion of the many wonderful disappointments that await us all. Plus, Arnold Schwarzenegger get...

It's a Brady mini-reunion with Susan Olsen stopping by for a discussion that ranges from animal rescues to alien encounters, while covering the highs, the lows, the just plain weirdness of a life in the arts. Also, the Valley is an underrated musical wellspring, there aren't enough songs about dead cats, turtle sex is adorable, someone needs to make an Easy Rider porn parody, and we all miss Andre...

The men of The Spoon go guerrilla with this special remote podcast from Rob's studio, as the NDR premises are closed for Memorial Day. Audio wizard Scott Peets sits in for a discussion largely centered on problems of varying sizes, shapes, colors, textures, smells, sounds, tastes, and levels of surrealism, and how one might go about assessing &/or addressing them. We'll be back live next week, Jun...

Rob is absent this week, so you may thrill to the sounds of panic masquerading as comedy, as Chris and Thom gear up to generate a show's worth of entertainment in the absence of their beloved Overhost. Many a topic of conversation meets with our duo's aggressive ambivalence, including but not limited to: birthday celebrations, online communications, pirates, muppets, break-ups of all shapes and si...

Rob would like to apologize for his being under the weather, making him slightly less effervescent and topic-laden than usual. Thom would like to apologize for mangling the lyrics to the Boondocks Theme, thus hurling the show into karmic vapor lock. Chris would like to apologize for the other two maroons getting in the way of his comedic golden-godhood. But nobody, and we mean nobody, would like t...

It's a mistake to think you can solve all major problems with pop culture, but the men of The Spoon give it a bloody good try, using their love of movies as a lens (so to speak) through which to view issues personal, professional, and political. If your life is a bit like a rainy Saturday afternoon right now, think of this episode as a Thriller Theater double feature with a pack of Red Vines on th...

The times, they are a' fractious, but the men of The Spoon are here to soothe your woes with tales of their own suckitude and misery. Chris is in a post-breakup haze, Rob is lamenting his legacy, Thom is in permanent techno-fail mode, and we're all strangely ambivalent about the reaction to that guy getting killed yesterday, but there is ample comedic catharsis under our banner for all who seek it...

Quinton Flynn returns to the show to fill Chris's big floppy clown shoes as Guest Underhost for the week, and does not disappoint. With tales of Robbie's semi-sordid past combined with his own recent foray into the world of the paranormal, he leads the show into a spiral of madness which results in torrents of upset girlfriend calls, rampant throwing of friends under buses, and perhaps most heinou...

Writer Dan Epstein stops by for an all-too-brief discussion of the freak flag glory that was 70s baseball, Robbie laments that the wrong people keep dying, Thom shares a tale of bus-bound Hollywoodism, Cousin Frankie (who we've always known about!) calls in with suggestions for a Regis replacement, and Chris wins the show with a paradigm-shattering SAL for the ages. Of course, none of this will ma...

The occasion of Robert's 47th birthday prompts the men of The Spoon to reflect on the meaning of life, the futility of death, and the importance of using time travel to retroactively change one's fashion choices. Also, the show is deluged with phone calls for the birthday boy from friends, well-wishers, and a surprising number of celebrity impressionists. Aflac! Music by The Knack, Material Issue,...

In psychoanalysis, it's called "transference" -- the unconscious redirection of feelings from one subject to another. Such a phenomenon has gripped The Spoon in spades this week, as the Honey Badger meme awakens Thom's mammalian loyalties, Chris gets some extra venom out of his system with a scathing, Deustch-y SAL, and Robbie takes out his general frustrations with the world and its gas prices on...

It may be true that "nothing lasts, nothing is complete, and nothing is perfect," but after six weeks apart, the dramaturgical triad of Rob, Chris, and Thom are back in the same room together and all seems right with the world again... at least for the next 50 minutes or so. In addition to an extended meditation on the existential empowerment of everyone's favorite 1920's cartoon sailor, our fair...