What’s up, everybody! This week we have a very special episode of The EZPZ Podcast with co-host Ian Dunshee! You have probably heard about Ian before in some of #StealthModeDan’s stories. Ian is Dan’s best friend and brings a level-headed viewpoint to the table of lemon heads. The episode dives right into how Dan and Ian met, which included a really funny and sweet story of despising one another in study hall to sharing a stage in a high school pop-punk band. After discussing their small band, Shaun asked the table what they thought about Des Moines’ own, House of Bricks, shutting down somewhat recently. Some shared how they were happy and some shared that they will miss seeing small acts before they explode into big acts.
Ian is Dan’s best friend but until this summer, they had not see each other in over a year. Ian shared that he had been in Martinique, which is part of the Caribbean, studying archaeology. On the island of Martinique, he shared about how he was the reason people “tchip” in the streets. Ian discussed other things that were different about the culture in Martinique. He said that the music and party scene could not be more different than in the states.
Music Interlude: “It’s Carnival” by Destra
Dan gave us the mathematical lowdown on how biking is faster than walking. He started using the Des Moines Bcycle when out and about downtown which is a bicycle rental service. He gave the service two thumbs up and thinks people in Des Moines should use it more often. Ian just got back from RAGBRAI this last week and discussed how awesome of an experience it was for him. He got to see Cheap Trick and hang out with a bunch of fellow cyclists across the country. Ian wanted to make sure listeners do not think that to be a part of RABGRAI, you have to be a master cyclist.
Music Interlude: “Surrender” by Cheap Trick
Dan had another anxiety attack this past week. The anxiety/panic attack lead to a freaky occurrence at work between him and a customer. The lemon heads start talking about their own ghost stories. Dan goofed on Shaun for “not believing” in ghosts or paranormal activity. The stories shared by the lemon heads included a weirdo that claimed he “smelled something” while Ian was cooking in the community kitchen, stories about a high school friend of Ian and Dan’s who always had ghostly experiences and and Nick seeing a white figure standing at the door across the hall as a kid.
Music Interlude: “Ghostbusters” (Theme Song) by Ray Parker, Jr.
The Meek Mill and Drake drama really beefed up this week with Drake finally retaliating on OVO Sound Radio. The lemon heads discussed how they were happy Drake finally had a response after staying silent all week. Drake’s response was in the form of a track called “Charged Up”. All three hosts of the show thought Drake completely demolished Meek with this track. Ian thought the whole situation was about as mature as schoolyard fights, which the co-hosts could not exactly deny.
Music Interlude: “Charged Up” by Drake
Shaun wanted to discuss the incident at a concert in New Zealand, Earl Sweatshirt punched a fan that stormed the stage, tried to hug him and possibly take his mic. He wanted to ask the other lemon heads and Ian if he boys discussed how they think that it is pretty dumb that fans think they can storm the stage. It is one thing if the fan wants to crowd surf and stage dive, but that was not the case at an Earl Sweatshirt show in New Zealand. The lemon heads and Ian came to a consensus that they believe fan should not be storming the stage, period. This can create an unsafe environment for not only the artist and security but also fans. Security needs to be upped for certain acts and in this case security dropped the ball.
Music Interlude: “Wool” by Earl Sweatshirt
That’s a wrap! This was a very fun episode to record. What did you agree or disagree with in the show? Is there a host that you love, hate or love to hate? Shoot them all your love/hate mail to their email, Twitter and Instagram accounts below. Thank you so much for listening. We love doing the show and appreciate all of your support.
The EZPZ Podcast is back with episode 006 after taking a week off. The podcast took a week off for Memorial Day so the lemon heads could visit with family and friends. Which is what Shaun and special guest co-host, Shelby Johnson did. Shelby is sitting in this week for Nick Gandy since he is on vacation.
The show started off with introducing our guest co-host: Shelby Johnson! She was quick to tell the listeners that her favorite band is Balance and Composure. Shelby and Shaun discussed their family trip to Buffalo Center and Scarville in northern Iowa for Memorial Day.
Dan dove into the Food Truck Throwdown that was held in Des Moines, IA at The Social Club on Saturday, May 31st. Shaun mentioned he wanted to check it out but was unable to since he was at his friend’s wedding. Dan said that the wait for just getting wristbands wrapped around the block. He and his friend dipped and checked out Tacopocalypse in Des Moines, IA. He and Shelby dropped bombs about Tasty Tacos when Shaun asked if he liked Tacopocalypse or Tasty Tacos more.
Dan spoke about the new wine bar in Des Moines, too. He checked out Della Viti Des Moines, which is a self-serve wine bar. The lemon heads believe it is the first of its kind in Des Moines. The place was packed, which is what we want to hear for a new business in Des Moines doing dope shit! Dan mentioned he liked the idea, ambience and the price point of Della Viti and recommends people check it out.
Music Interlude: “Reflection” by Balance and Composure
Shaun and Shelby spoke about why they were a tad late to recording the podcast. They said it was because Shaun had to stay back and chat with a Des Moines police officer with his girlfriend Lydia. On Saturday morning, Lydia’s car was broken into and her iPod was stolen! The lemon heads discussed car theft and how it is affecting many people in Des Moines including guest co-host, Shelby Johnson.
Music Interlude: “Quas” by Sam Gallaitry
Shaun moved the conversation onto the shows they were watching. Shaun said that he was passively watching Jersey Shore with his girlfriend Lydia. Lets bring back #GTL, people! Nah, never mind. Then the crew moved onto Adventure Time and discussed how wonderful the show is for people of all ages. Shelby made sure to flex her Adventure Time knowledge by naming a specific episode that features Lemon Grab for people to watch.
Going off of butts exploding, Dan showed us a weird video he found on World Star. The video was showing just how weird San Francisco can be with the World’s Biggest Human Puppet Show. It was truly insane. The show was held at the Summer Salt Festival. Check it out below if you want to be truly disturbed.
Music Interlude: 5 South (Braeden Bailey Remix) by Mark Johns
Dan and Shaun gushed about how awesome the PantsOff! Podcast LIVE recording that was held at The Lift in Des Moines, IA on Tuesday, May 26th. The host of the PantsOff! podcast, Brian Campos, even gave The EZPZ a shoutout at the LIVE recording. The podcast format was really cool. Brian Campos would do his thing on stage and then he would let Des Moines’ The Maytags play a couple tunes. Then he would return to the stage to chat with the band and even asked them some questions regarding their show at 80/35 this year, recording their new album in Nashville this coming August and whatever else they have set for the future. The entire experience was truly magical and got Shaun and Dan fired up. We have a lot of love and respect for Brian Campos and hope to have a live recording of our own one day!
Music Interlude: “Pushing Up Rivers” by The Maytags
To round out the episode, the lemon heads chatted about some music news this week including A$AP Rocky dropping At.Long.Last.A$AP. Shaun and Shelby discussed their mutual love for Turnover’s Peripheral Vision. The lemon heads chatted about the controversy that was brought to the Twitter-verse with the official announcement of the disbanding of OFWGKTA.
Dan got heated and announced The EZPZ’s official #FuckYou for the week. The #FuckYou award was given to Des Moines’ Juice Magazine. The magazine published a photo of Dan Brown in an article titled “Day Drinking”. Since Juice is owned by the Gannett Company, the photo was also put into the Des Moines Register. Check out the photo below.
Music Interlude: “Most of the Time” by Turnover
And that wraps up episode 006! We appreciate your continued support! It means the world to us.
The lemon heads are back this with episode 003 this week! Your co-hosts Shaun Johnson, Nick Gandy and Dan Brown start off by gushing about how awesome the Brand New, Circa Survive were at 7 Flags Event Center. Then they chat about the issues with the venue and the problems with “will call” attendees. *Interlude: “Welcome to Bangkok” by Brand New The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was Saturday, May 2nd. The only lemon head that watched it, #StealthModeDan, found it online for free. We chat about the some of the attendees, the celebrity that wagered and lost $250,000 and how Mayweather is a smart, skillful, piece of shit. *Interlude: “Hot Jazzybelle” by Kaytranada After the discussion about the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, we realized we were recording the podcast on #StealthModeDan’s MacBook Pro mic instead of our Snowball mic. Dan put his sound engineering skills to good use and cleaned it up to make it sound pretty good. We apologize, but hey, who said we were pros? Then we dove into a discussion about the Avengers and the new movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Shaun went to see it with Lydia and thought it was pretty solid. Nick told us about how much he loves big, muscular superheroes and Mortal Kombat fighters. *Interlude: “Bombay” by Damn Kids The lemon heads then discussed the awesome technology that Tesla announced at their keynote in Los Angeles, California. The dudes discussed what they thought about the Powerwall and how Elon Musk is the baddest mother fucker walking the face of the Earth. *Interlude: “Rain” by Singularis Make sure you all keep the #StealthModeDan hashtag going! It’s going to be our little thing for a while. We let the listeners know about how we actually recorded our third episode on April 25th, but trashed it since it wasn’t up to par with episode 002. The Story So Far, Four Year Strong and Terror show is on Saturday, May 9th at Wooly’s in Des Moines, Iowa. Shaun and Nick are going to the show, so we discussed the bands on the bill. We also get a little nostalgic and chatted about August Burns Red and Bring Me the Horizon. *Interlude: “I Don’t Fuck With You” ft. E-40 by Big Sean That wraps up episode 003! Thank you for all of your support. We are working hard to iron out any kinks. We are learning as we go, but we are always happy to hear how we can improve our show. You can send us your letters at TheEZPZPodcast@gmail.com The EZPZ: Website: TheEZPZ.com Twitter and Instagram: @TheEZPZ Spotify playlists that Nick makes for every episode can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/user/ncgsxe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theezpz Shaun’s Twitter and Instagram: @ShaunSJohnson Nick’s Twitter and Instagram: @bazookaxnick Make sure to post our hashtag on every tweet and Instagram photo: #StealthModeDan
Every month since January 2011, Shaun Johnson has been making monthly playlists of his favorite music. As soon as the last couple days of the month roll around, Shaun starts a new playlist for the next month with whatever music he is jamming out to at that time. These playlists include any music that Shaun loves and are not confined to any specific genre or release date. The playlists usually include new music, but they can also include tracks from bands that Shaun is planning on seeing live that particular month.
These write-ups are solely for Shaun to promote the music he loves and to give him an outlet to write about music in a consistent manner! Don’t be afraid to send him your thoughts on his write-up or playlists on Twitter: @ShaunSJohnson
Shaun is EZPZ
With the start of March and how February started, I think I have come to the realization that each month is going to start with the end of last month’s playlist leaking into it. March’s first chunk of tracks were songs sampled on Miguel’s “Do You…” seems like a track that was written with the thought that it would be sampled. The same goes for AlunaGeorge’s opening track to Body Music, “Outlines”. That track is simply unreal, it’s the first week of April and I find myself putting it on repeat while cruising on the interstate. AlunaGeorge’s “You Know You Like It” seems to have been overshadowed by their more popular single “Attracting Flies”. Both are really great tracks, I just enjoy “You Know You Like It” a lot more.
OSHI and Sam Gellaitry both made it back onto my monthly playlists again this month. These dudes are the future of music. They are going to be emperors of SoundCloud in the coming years. Gellaitry has already signed to Soulection Records based out of Los Angeles. I hope they sign OSHI soon. My friend and co-host of The EZPZ Podcast, Dan Brown, is confident that he will be on their eclectic roster soon enough. OSHI just made an appearance on Soulection’s Love is King compilation. The compilation is pretty solid, although only a few artists truly standout. Love is King was released as a celebration for Soulection reaching over 200,000 followers on SoundCloud. Gellaitry’s EP, Short Stories, is going to be one of my favorite releases of the year without a doubt. I hope he comes stateside soon. I would travel to Chicago, a 6-hour drive, just to see Sam Gellaitry perform. His performance in Paris at the beginning of March was put on YouTube and I have clocked a bunch of miles on the treadmill watching it. I suggest you check it out, Gellaitry is the future of music.
The boys in black and white (and floral green) have returned to my monthly playlists for the third month in a row. Their album, Hyperview, still gives me the chills. I absolutely love everything about Title Fight and how they are metamorphosing into something truly brilliant. The album didn’t receive nearly the amount of praise as their second album, Floral Green, but it did with me. I got to see them live on March 8th in Lawrence, Kansas with my friend and co-host, Nick Gandy. I needed to see them live, especially after their album, Hyperview, dropped. These dudes know how to put on a performance. I am bummed that I am missing their co-headlining tour with La Dispute due to class and work. It also didn’t help that the closest show to Des Moines, Iowa was in Chicago on Easter Sunday. I’m far from a religious man, but familial duties come with Easter Sunday. The same thing happened when Title Fight toured in support of Circa Survive, too! Such a shame, both those tours were monumental.
Okay, I am not giving credit where credit is due—the openers for the Title Fight show I caught in Lawrence, Kansas were phenomenal. Power Trip, a hardcore band, and Merchandise, manic pixie dream world indie pop. I loved the intensity and thrills that Power Trip brought to the stage. Kids were flying everywhere and going completely nuts. Merchandise wooed those same kids into a trance. The people that just watched Power Trip tear apart the stage stayed and watched Merchandise create something truly wonderful. The band ‘s music sounds like it should be played in front of English royalty. I can see why Title Fight wanted to tour with both bands. Loyal Title Fight fans love both their fast-paced, punk songs, usually led by Ned Russin and their soothing, whammy-bar abused songs, usually led by Jamie Rhoden. Both the opening bands brought a side of Title Fight to the show. I loved Merchandise’s set so much that I was kicking myself after the show for not buying any of their merch or material. I got their EP, Totale Nite, and threw the track “Anxiety’s Door” on my playlist.
I guarantee I will be getting the album’s logo tattooed soon enough. Title Fight is just one of those bands that makes songs that you take with you throughout your entire life.
Passion Pit released their first two singles off of Kindred mid-March. The singles are wonderful and I found myself listening to them non-stop for a week or so.
A Big Sean album would have never have been on one of my monthly playlists just a year or two ago but hey, we all change and grow as music fans. Dark Sky Paradise had some really fun songs. Although he is a strong rap/hip-hop artist on his own, Big Sean’s tracks where he collaborating with some of the biggest artists out right now are where he really shines. I especially enjoyed tracks like “All Your Fault” feat. Kanye West, “I Don’t Fuck With You” feat. E-40, “Play No Games” feat. Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign, and one of the catchier tracks released this year, “Research” feat. Arian Grande.
We have the radio on at work 24/7. Although the radio gives me twelve times more headaches than pleasure, sometimes I hear a song play on the radio that is really good. Throughout the last decade or so Cage the Elephant has released a lot of good albums. I never really gave them the time of day because I would hear them on the radio enough the way it. I really like their latest sing’e, “Cigarette Daydreams”, though.
Kanye West is one of two artists that I know has the ability to release an album that can make my top three albums of the year. The other being Radiohead. Kanye West released his first single off his new album, which just got a name change to Swish, was released in late March. “All Day” is a strong track but it isn’t really anything remarkable and will probably go down as one of West’s good tracks instead of great.
Kendrick Lamar released To Pimp a Butterfly on March 23rd. After one listen I was convinced that nothing could come close to topping it for my album of the year. After listening to the album from beginning to end, listeners are sure to be exhausted, but it’s the kind of exhaustion that one gets from completing the Boston Marathon. After an active listen, you know you experienced something that made you a better person. That same thing that made you a better person makes you contemplate how you think of the world around you. The tracks are stories in themselves and at the end of each song is a separate story that is told as a spoken-word poem by Lamar. The culmination and pay-off is at the end of “Mortal Man”, the last track on the album, where Kendrick Lamar pseudo-interviews the late rapper, Tupac. Judging from the conversation Lamar has with Tupac, he is one of the few rap/hip-hop artists to admit he doesn’t have all the answers and doesn’t know everything.
CHON released their debut album called Grow in March via Sumerian Records. The release of Grow couldn’t have been a better time for me. I was gearing up to see them open for Circa Survive and Balance and Composure on April 2nd at The Slowdown in Omaha, Nebraska. Just a few days before the show, I tweeted at the lead vocalist/bassist of CHON, Drew Pelisek and asked him if I could interview him for one of my classes. To my surprise, I got a “Yeah, no problem, dude”. I couldn’t believe it. Although many kids in my class gave the professor of my Media Production a lot of shit for never being organized and assigning a ton of projects, I appreciated it because of the fact that it brought me out of my shell. I interviewed Pelisek in the green room of The Slowdown with my sister, Shelby Johnson, manning the GoPro. Before and after the interview we got to watch Circa Survive from the VIP area backstage. It was a dream come true. The experience really opened my eyes and showed me that I can do this for a living! It gave me the confidence that I can do anything. The Saturday after the show I worked on the cutting together a video for the interview. I spent the entire day from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. working on the video. It turned out great and I got an “A”. After seeing CHON in Des Moines open for Animals As Leaders in July of 2014, I was already a fan but with just this one night, I became a lifelong fan of everything Drew Pelisek does with or without CHON.
Vance Joy has been on the radio for a year or so now with his song, “Riptide”. It’s a good song but I never really got into it too much. When I finished Better Call Saul, I was looking for a new show to watch. I had heard a lot about Transparent, an Amazon Prime exclusive, and their continuous push of the award-winning show on their app got me to check out the trailer. The trailer almost brought me to tears with the inclusion of Vance Joy’s “Mess is Mine”. Whoever chooses the music for the show and it’s trailers needs a raise.
In typical fashion, I added songs of bands I was about to see live to my playlist. With the Circa Survive, Balance and Composure and CHON show on April 2nd, I added songs to prep myself for one of the best tours of the year.
At the end of the month, Earl Sweatshirt released his single for his newest album which was due out just a week later. I snagged up the single, “Grief” with a pre-order from iTunes.
Shaun Johnson 