The Bill Simmons Thread

ifmanis5

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Just listening to the music part now. Bill is completely clueless. Trying to equate REM’s independence to the discussion about Fugazi. He didn’t understand why there is no comparison. Any chance he knows a Fugazi song besides, maybe, Waiting Room (which I love)?
Great point, I was practically shouting back at my iPhone at that take. I guess all the indie guitar bands from that period are the same to him?
He has some glaring and frankly unforgivable pop culture blind spots (Simpson's, Lebowski to name a few) yet ironically his mixture of pop culture and sports is the thing that made him famous.
 

DLew On Roids

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Wait what? How?

The band with $5 concerts and no merchandise that turned down $10 million record deals? How does that argument even look?
Simmons clearly thought “independent” meant “whatever college kids were listening to in 1988.”

No one can claim they know about late-80s alternative music and then not understand the chasm between Fugazi and the REM/PIL types. And for Simmons to pretend to get it and try to lecture about it is poseurism of the highest order.
 

ElUno20

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Simmons, and the ringer's coverage, of Kobe's passing and legacy has been very ESPN-y. Their right, just a little disappointed no besides the Press Box had half the balls to have a real conversation.

I know he doesnt want the internet trolls tanking his spotify sale but still. Come on.
 

ElUno20

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The amount of big city, lakers and Knicks, handjobs bill gives out over the NBA is tiring, uncreative and lacks any kind of intellectual analysis.

He's devolved into an espn head who cant handle any nuance or complex thoughts about the league. It's sad.
 

PedroKsBambino

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I find the basketball coverage from anyone other than KOC on the Ringer to be pretty lame, personally. There's a lot of it and I find it often superficial....so if that's the refernence I'm with you.

I don't think the criticism of Simmons is a reasonable description of what he says personally, which these days is just in his podcast. He's pretty much same as ever on basketball, a lot of deep thought often expressed through silly-ish descriptions about "championship belt" and things like that. So curious which podcasts/comments make you land there.

I don't listen to his music stuff but find it incredinly easy to believe its as bad as several of you describe---and now will be sure to skip it all for sure!
 
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Hoya81

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The Bob Iger interview was interesting, never realized that he and Simmons has such a friendly relationship. They didn’t get into much detail but it definitely seemed kind like Iger felt a bit burned by getting involved in the Rams/Chargers/Raiders to LA shuffle (it sounds like either Davis or the Spanos’ offered him a piece of their team if they were successful getting to LA).
 

Kliq

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Getting canned by ESPN, starting to your own website/podcasting network, selling it for $250 million and then having the CEO of the company that fired you on your podcast is quite the flex.
 

The Social Chair

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The Iger interview was good but was hoping he'd ask some of the following.

- plans for Fox
- what was it like working with the Murdoch family? Does Iger watch Succession?
- The Marvel Fiege / Perlmutter power struggle
- Disney's Star Wars plans after a shaky start (director issues, star wars land underperforming, success of mandalorian)
- what is their park strategy for pandemics post coronavirus?
 

luckiestman

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Joe House saying it was ok he lost $500 betting the over for the 76ers was ok because his “longtime friend just sold a company for a lot of money” was very funny
 

Leskanic's Thread

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I was gonna say that my reaction to the Spotify headline was "man, Simmons is going to be making a bunch of hilariously reckless bets in the near future."
 

ifmanis5

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Dave Grohl is the perfect podcast guest. Plenty of stories that can go on for a while, great talker, very good sense of humor, tons of legitimacy since he's a damn legend. I'll guess that Bill got that contact from Zane. Anyway, I could listen to Dave forever. His hanging out with Robert Smith story was hilarious.
And of course Bill blaming Pauline Kael for bad movie taste broke the irony detector. He should have run that take by QT and see what happens.
 

CantKeepmedown

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Agreed, I really enjoyed that conversation. And I knew the story, but hearing Dave talk in detail about the lag he hit with the Foo Fighters, and then going to record an album with QOTSA (an amazing album to boot) and the feelings around that was pretty cool.
 

Shelterdog

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This is why Bill is a great podcaster, I skipped this one because it didn't interest me but here you guys are talking it up and Bill is going to get that Casper Mattress money cause now I'm going to listen.

Pizza, Sex, and the BS Podcast even when it's bad, it's good*

*I have had some truly awful......pizza, but I like this saying.
As a female friend said, "that saying isn't even right about pizza."
 

moondog80

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For those of a certain age, The Rewatchables on The Breakfast Club was excellent.
 

Vandalman

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For those of a certain age, The Rewatchables on The Breakfast Club was excellent.
I liked it, too. I did find it strange that none of them knew what time of year the movie took place (they thought it early autumn). I thought it was pretty well known that it was in March (Saturday, March 24, 1984, to be exact). It's all over Twitter on the anniversary day.
 

bosockboy

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I liked it, too. I did find it strange that none of them knew what time of year the movie took place (they thought it early autumn). I thought it was pretty well known that it was in March (Saturday, March 24, 1984, to be exact). It's all over Twitter on the anniversary day.
Yep, little lazy on the details.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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Yep, little lazy on the details.
This should be the tagline for the Rewatchables. I will check it out from time to time, and I get that the "half-assed" nature of the discussion is meant to be part of the fun. But when it's clear that no one in the conversation cares about obvious details (like the Jaws episode where Simmons kept referring to the Memorial Day shark attack), it just feels like a voice in my head saying "you are wasting your time listening to this."

Which is sort of the point of podcasts, but...man, just the tiniest bit of extra effort from the people involved would make it a lot more enjoyable for me.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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This should be the tagline for the Rewatchables. I will check it out from time to time, and I get that the "half-assed" nature of the discussion is meant to be part of the fun. But when it's clear that no one in the conversation cares about obvious details (like the Jaws episode where Simmons kept referring to the Memorial Day shark attack), it just feels like a voice in my head saying "you are wasting your time listening to this."

Which is sort of the point of podcasts, but...man, just the tiniest bit of extra effort from the people involved would make it a lot more enjoyable for me.
They should get a young Tony Reali-type to do the Stat Boy schtick and point out everything they got wrong at the end of each pod; Simmons is a big PTI fan, he’d be down with it. Make it a new category, “The ‘Where is the Corleone Compound Located?’ Award for Things We Didn’t Get Despite Seeing this Movie A Hundred Times.”
 

moondog80

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Did I hear it right that they were questioning why Brian had brought the gun to school, suggesting maybe a school shooting? I thought the movie made it very clear that he was considering suicide over a bad grade in shop class.
 

Hoya81

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The Iger interview was good but was hoping he'd ask some of the following.

- plans for Fox
- what was it like working with the Murdoch family? Does Iger watch Succession?
- The Marvel Fiege / Perlmutter power struggle
- Disney's Star Wars plans after a shaky start (director issues, star wars land underperforming, success of mandalorian)
- what is their park strategy for pandemics post coronavirus?
The Marvel/Star Wars stuff would have been a reach as a subject for Bill because he has a casual knowledge of those at best. I picked up Iger’s book after cashing in some Amazon credits and he doesn’t really go into a ton of detail on the Feige/Perlmutter stuff, essentially just saying the dynamic wasn’t working and he made a change. The Star Wars stuff is a little more in depth but really focuses on the sale of Lucasfilm itself. The book itself is an interesting read, especially with regards to the internal power struggles at Disney in the Eisner era and Iger’s relationship with Steve Jobs re: Pixar. Relatively light on gossipy stuff, but I got the sense that Iger wasn’t interested in settling scores or burning bridges while he is still CEO.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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They should get a young Tony Reali-type to do the Stat Boy schtick and point out everything they got wrong at the end of each pod; Simmons is a big PTI fan, he’d be down with it. Make it a new category, “The ‘Where is the Corleone Compound Located?’ Award for Things We Didn’t Get Despite Seeing this Movie A Hundred Times.”
Great idea. I'm going to try to secret this into existence now.
 

Dummy Hoy

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This should be the tagline for the Rewatchables. I will check it out from time to time, and I get that the "half-assed" nature of the discussion is meant to be part of the fun. But when it's clear that no one in the conversation cares about obvious details (like the Jaws episode where Simmons kept referring to the Memorial Day shark attack), it just feels like a voice in my head saying "you are wasting your time listening to this."

Which is sort of the point of podcasts, but...man, just the tiniest bit of extra effort from the people involved would make it a lot more enjoyable for me.
That should be the tag line for everything Simmons does.
 

Just a bit outside

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I liked it, too. I did find it strange that none of them knew what time of year the movie took place (they thought it early autumn). I thought it was pretty well known that it was in March (Saturday, March 24, 1984, to be exact). It's all over Twitter on the anniversary day.
It is particularly odd because they played the audio of Brian reading his essay and he gives the date at the start of the reading.
 

JCizzle

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Russillo closing out Sunday's podcast was great: 'if I couldn't go to the gym, I'd rather just die'. They're a really good combo.
 

ElUno20

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Although I'm a way bigger NBA fan (by multiples of like a million) than any other sport, i find myself checking out of Bill's pod post superbowl. His nba takes and RR (not a fan at all) are awful. Wish he found a way to work Sal in more during the offseason.
 

Vandalman

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Simmons goes solo for the Cast Away Rewatchable and delivers. It was strange not hearing others chime in, but Bill does a great job of breaking the movie down and explaining what the "crossroads" ending really means.
 

SidelineCameras

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15 minutes into the "Karate Kid" Rewatchables and I am going to need to turn this off, I can't listen to this during work hours and be productive. Russillo coming out hot defending Johnny Lawrence and openly questioning how Mr. Miyagi could afford all of those cars. I am laughing so hard that I am annoying my covid-coworker, Ms. Sideline Cameras, and will return to this later.
 

thebtskink

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What a great podcast episode. Bill had a few great questions that were off the normal path, but you could tell he was just ecstatic to have the interview in the first place as a fan.
 

DontTauntOrtizMe

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Loving the podcast so far. I’m going to count how many cigarettes Eddie fires up during the interview. I’ll report back later.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Loving the podcast so far. I’m going to count how many cigarettes Eddie fires up during the interview. I’ll report back later.
Thought it was just me. I seemingly heard two lighter clicks like 5 minutes apart, I'm like "did this guy really fire through his last cigarette that fast?!"
 

CantKeepmedown

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He smoked at least 5 I think. I feel like I read somewhere that he goes on and off with them. There are tours where he is smoking regularly through some shows, and other tours where you don't see him smoking at all.

I liked Eddie's "George, get me a beer!" before his last Rodman story.
 

TomBrunansky23

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As a huge PJ fan it was incredible. No one in the band to my knowledge has ever spoken to any interviewer for that length of time, most especially Ed who would rather have a root canal than deal with the media. Great stories - from Rodman to Harry Caray to Mookie.
 

johnmd20

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He smoked at least 5 I think. I feel like I read somewhere that he goes on and off with them. There are tours where he is smoking regularly through some shows, and other tours where you don't see him smoking at all.

I liked Eddie's "George, get me a beer!" before his last Rodman story.
John, not George.

And I am not sure it was cigs he was smoking.
 

CantKeepmedown

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You're right. And I did have that thought as well, maybe he just kept re-lighting up a J.

It was nice to hear him say that as of now, Europe is still on. What's the chances concerts are happening anywhere in 3 months? Is that realistic?
 

Foxy42

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Before this happened, I would have preferred an interview w Maron or Stern, but Simmons turns out to have been a better option. He’s a softer interview who will not keep rounding back to, ‘so tell me about your dad’, and his mix of sports kept it light. Also, Ed clearly knowing Simmons’ work and last conversations was cool and must of been awesome for Bill.

Ed saying he liked his writing was funny...Bill hasn’t written in years.
 

johnmd20

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Before this happened, I would have preferred an interview w Maron or Stern, but Simmons turns out to have been a better option. He’s a softer interview who will not keep rounding back to, ‘so tell me about your dad’, and his mix of sports kept it light. Also, Ed clearly knowing Simmons’ work and last conversations was cool and must of been awesome for Bill.

Ed saying he liked his writing was funny...Bill hasn’t written in years.
People still like Mark Twain's writing.
 

CantKeepmedown

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I really don't know the layout of LA other than heinous traffic but that seems to suggest he has 4 homes within 25 miles of each other? I understand the beach house and normal house. I suppose being worth 9 figures makes that tenable. Good for him.