Love listening to this with my sweetie baby!

irreverent and insightful discussion of music that deserves more attention than it’s gotten, highlighted by evan’s spot on impressions and ian’s pitch perfect radio/podcaster voice. plus just a fun hangout vibe. highly recommended!

These guys give me life. Such a generous approach to music history and analysis. Love it. It’s good music (podcast).

Thank you, thank you Amen.

These guys are smart, engaging, and committed to their craft and chosen artists. As a 64 y/o who’s been listening to Dylan for many, many years, I appreciate the Jokermen’s knowledge , sincerity, and unique insights.

the jokermen are teaching us how to love. don’t you dare miss it.

Literally one of the only good podcasts

I was feeling let down and frankly cheated, but then they perfectly ranked Lou Reed’s 50 best songs.

i want to start honkin down the gosh darn highway already

Great project, deep diving one artists work, one album at a time. Love the close reading of the music. The tangents and detours are satisfying and color the broader story. Learned a lot about Bob, Lou, John, Van, Mark, Don, Walt, Scott. Looking forward to The Beach Boys odyssey and all the left turns that includes. Everyone knows the classic records, but these are classic *artists* and looking at their projects holistically is excellent.

Title says it all.

That’s all you need to know

Theirs is a greatness to behold. These guys are the last surviving progeny, the last of the late-era-loving world of Bob and Lou.

I do love the Jokerman mindset. Five stars because I always look forward to the show. The fellas do a fine job contextualizing and deeply listening to under-appreciated records from geniuses. Always fun and interesting. The show seems like an exercise in rock genius fundamentalist apologetics at times (some songs defended/celebrated, particularly some Lou songs, are inexcusably bad!) but I thank the Jokermen for inspiring me to revisit some records I previously paid scant attention to. Fine work! Looking forward to Wilson/Beach Boys.

If you think you like Bob Dylan or Lou Reed, there’s a good chance you’ve only heard about 15% of their music. The Jokermen mindset is about what is popular isn’t always the best and makes the case that an artist is an artist for life, not just 5 years in 60s. As two guys who grew up in the Pitchfork era, it’s refreshing to hear new ears go through these discographies without the preconditioned views of Rolling Stone (or even pitchfork, thank god). I got two of my boomer uncles into it and one left me a voicemail of signing Jokerman to me for my birthday. Great stuff. Three stars!

Interesting points guys

It’s great! Three stars.

My five is equivalent to the jokermen 3 system best music podcast be aware the bad reviews are from the same hater some weirdo with hurt feelings from Twitter Exceptional talk on Steely Dan Bob Dylan’s deep catalog VU and more The Never Ending podcast with Steven Hyden is even better!

I do recommend Jokermen and enjoyed the full Dylan discography binge, but this is by far the most I’ve had to mentally negotiate with hosts on any podcast. Just be aware, the random ice clinking and lip smacking do not go away, and it’s safest to fact check anything you hear worth repeating. Again, would recommend and 3 stars by their own rules.

Live by the three-star system, die by the three-star system.

Made me cry at work.

why would people pay for this content? Ill-informed pretentious hipster snobs. just walk into any record store and you could overhear the same trite obnixious blather.

I enjoyed this pod for the last three years until they brought on an unapologetic fascist supporter (Ariel Pink) to talk about Steely Dan…it’s 2023 folks where are your heads? I’m over separating the art from the artist, the critic from the critique. If you keep company with pro-fascists, well… I burned all of my Ariel Pink records (which I’d been collecting since 2005) in a barrel fire after I heard him in an interview with “all gas no brakes” in 2020 when he said “things aren’t that bad right now.” Anyone associating with with someone like this during a fascist uprising, and a country reckoning with its racist tendencies is only enabling this kind of problematic behavior. Hold your friends and family accountable. Goodbye, I’ve unsubscribed.

I’ve gotten through the Desire episodes. If the mouth smacking noises before the start of nearly every sentence reduces as they progress, this will become 4/5 stars.

Great pod if you wanna go deep on Lou, Bob, the VU or just good music. They dig deep and keep it light. Real great stuff. For real heads.

I walk in eternity.

What a rip off to have half the content behind a paywall

The two men who host this podcast broadcasted (on Twitter) my struggle with addiction and then outed my HIV+ status. They laughed at the fact that I have AIDS complications. I don’t like slag people but I feel the need to be public with this so as to protect other queer folx and poz people. I get it. Most podcasters aren’t journalists. They aren’t held to the same rigorous standards as a major metro. But they are broadcasting to significantly large audiences that they have a responsibility to protect. Lou Reed’s audience largely consists of extremely socially marginalized folx. Evan and Ian have an even bigger responsibility given the close relationships they often form with their listeners. As podcasting matures brands expand, podcasters should be expected to use their voice to advocate for the very audience and the content who/which gave them a platform. And making jokes about AIDS, trans people, autistic people, gay people, literal musicians responsible for their podcast's existence, etc, is not advocacy. This is what the Jokermen have done. They outed my illness, they made a joke that John Cale has autism because he wore a striped shirt (?) and they have just beat Doug Yule to a pulp. Another thing that's so ridiculous is how they tease Mr. Yule for being earnest, or as they fall - “dorky.” He was 20 years old when he joined VU and 23 when he made Squeeze. 23. So not that much older than when Evan made a campy movie at 19. And that "movie" is pretty earnest—and very dorky. And then there's this. Music he was making at 20, on KEXP, thinking it was okay to glare at a woman while wearing gas station sunglasses and giving minimal commentary when interviewed. While his band embodies BOYS WILL BE BOYS!!! behavior talking over women and behaving as if being inconsiderate is somehow cool, let alone okay, especially to women. 😐 Again, it's astounding that he assumes he can professionally critique others' work when his artistic outputs are clearly derivative and borrow heavily from everything he's listened to.

Woman... Woe-man... Whoooa-man! She was a thief You gotta belief She stole my heart and my cat. Betty’s Judy, Josie and those hot Pussycats... Saturday morny... Girls of cartoo-ins... Won't leave me in ruins... I want to to be Betty's Barney. Hey Jane... Get me off this crazy thing... Called love.

I've been a huge Dylan fan since the early 90s, and own everything released under Dylan's name, but these guys got me to listen more closely and thoughtfully to a lot of Dylan stuff that I'd written off after an initial negative impression. I've been a huge Velvet Underground fan since 2000 but never ventured into Cale and Reed solo stuff for similar reasons, and Ian and Even have revealed some real gems in those catalogs for me. The humor and positivity they bring to every episode makes the journey fun even when the music maybe doesn't grab you. If you want pure magic start with the Purple Mountains episode.

I listened only to the Christopher Owens interview. Hey, to the guy doing the interview: your interviews could be much improved if you could try to check yourself and refrain from saying, "sure" and "right" after everything the subject says. It could be out of nervousness, or a desire to affirm Chris/keep him going with what he's saying, or just habit, but I found that it made the conversation very stilted. And it also made *me* feel a little anxious, to be honest, like you were rushing him or trying coax conversation out of him. I hope you don't take this too harshly; a lot of people have this habit! I interview people a lot for my job (qualitative researcher) and have to stay on top of myself so I don't do it!

Talks about “Zionism”, lauds Kanye. Edit :also, their merch is overpriced and just copies/pastes album titles. So unoriginal and boring; hard pass. They beg for good reviews also. They blast user comments that they dont agree with. Part of me pitties them, they are only like 20 years old. It’s evident from their inane patter. Maybe they’ll grow up one day, doubtful though. The Jokermen are a joke.

It is fun and funny to listen to those true Dylan fans discuss his oeuvre. You must tolerate the hosts’ lack of background Dylan knowledge (or Cale knowledge; uh, yeah, he plays the viola, which is pronounced…) and apparent allergy to deep research. Also, I regret to say that Evan can be intolerably pleased with his own cleverness and/or contrarian views. This show can sometimes sound like an only child, who’s been told by everyone how funny he is, pontificating at his younger, agreeable cousin.

I’m not into Dylan (no disrespect), so I jumped into this show for the John, Lou, VU stuff. But I can’t get into it. I tried. I think some of the pretentious affectations turn me off too much, but that’s what I get for trying to listen to a podcast about this kind of music. Bonus point for giving a spotlight on Girls/Chris Owens/Chet “JR” White.

My favorite music discovery service. They are as funny as they think they are

A very very great podcast about the best American songwriter has ever lived, I think Abraham Lincoln said that. Great dudes who really are funny that shine a light on unappreciated works of Bob, Lou, and John (hopefully Neil soon). I said that

What began as a massively fun and insightful survey of the GOAT Bobby D has now morphed into a greater investigation of the myriad musical mystery men riding Bob’s illustrious wake. There’s an intangible but mystical line drawn between Steely, Zevon, Cale/Reed, Van, Bejar and the other artists in this kingdom - these intelligent ciphers and shadow poets with deep catalogs full of endless room for debate. This podcast makes an effort to sanctify their purported “lesser” works, and to shine new lights on records long left for dead. Definitely one of the best music podcasts out there - a joy for true lovers of this loose “Dylanesque” genre. It would get 6 stars and a little gold record if they weren’t so mean to Zappa on Twitter.

I’m a huge Velvet & John & Lou fan and I appreciate that my voice feels heard every time the Jokermen say “I love rock songs” it’s just about all you need.

I love rock songs. If you love rocks songs, you’ll like this podcast.

these guys are so funny and they have the same music taste as me, very dope

I love rock songs

the best and least antisemitic bob dylan/steely dan/van morrison/david berman/warren zevon/lou reed/john cale/velvet underground/GIRLS podcast there is!

Just here ringing’ them bells for the best bobcast in the game. Love them Jokermen :-)

Remember when Serial came out and there were like 100 stories of people saying that they had taken some weird curio and turned it into a real format finally? Well they shoulda saved that and said it about Jokermen, because this is actually what podcasting has always been building to. Jokermen mindset also has the makings of a new self help craze if someone wants to do the leg work on that one, it’s a free idea.

Great show, solid points all around.

Wonderful show. I started at the beginning, it was a little rough at first but the fellows came it to form pretty quickly. I’m at “Real Live” now and plan on sticking it all the way out. I’ve got the Jokerman mindset now.

The affable hosts Ian and Evan are making something special for the heads here: it has been powerful and vivifying to know there’s other folks out there who can say, unequivocally, “I love rock music.” Great guests put it in 2 the stratosphere.

Saw these guys tweeted at the War on Drugs to cover a Bob Dylan song at the show in SF and the band played Born in Time, and now Born in Time is one of my favorite songs! What a jokerman mindset!

jokermen 👍

Love the Zappa slander