Slow States Podcast #36: A Ghost Is Born (Contains No Wilco)

After a six month break to do footballish stuff -- and then no footballish stuff -- we return to talk football, beer and music, just like the universe intended for us to do.

Slow States Podcast #35: B1G Wrap, Beer & Music

Brace yourself for:

The difference between NY hipsters and West Des Moines hipsters (hit, dairy related).
Wilco, the heartland and cowbells.
Evaluation of Michigan State - Just Penn State with a quarterback, right?
Zook Or Be Zooked: The End of an Era.
Conference surprises & duds.
A half-hearted attempt at the conference championship game, and why Orson is a modern day Sherlock Holmes.
Beer & music, per Slow States rules.

Slow States Podcast #34: A Sub-BSD Podcast, Troll, Troll Again

To celebrate the move of our Slow States project to Tumblr and to troll the everloving hell out of Iowa, Patrick from Black Heart Gold Pants rejoins us to break down Penn State vs. Iowa. Along the way, we examine the toxic train wreck at Minnesota, explain why Bret Bielema is really Deebo from "Friday", and giggle like idiots at Nebraska and Ohio State.

True to Slow States form, we give out some beer and new music suggestions at the end. True to clueless and detached new parent form, I select something from an album that came out in April and get justifiably ridiculed.

Music breaks include "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism" by The New Pornographers, "October" by Broken Bells, "Summerteeth" (Wilco cover) by Pezzittino and Allan Cote (album info), "Jardin Du Luxembourg" by The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, and "Codeine" by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

Here's a link to the Fruit Bats, as mentioned by Kevin, and here's the link to the Ryan Adams show in Denver that I mentioned. Download away, kids.

Slow States Podcast #33: Wait You Guys Are Doing What?

Some might love it, we know at least one person is going to hate it. After getting through some light Big Ten news we announce our Great Summer Project which involves a list of 93 songs, a massive Excel spread sheet, and a guy at least one member of the Slow States immediate family thinks is scum on a good day. We end on a transitional whimper: the #1 song on our bottom ten.

Slow States Podcast #32: INSERT VEST PUN HERE.

WARNING: THIS CONTAINS THIRTEEN MINUTES OF POINTLESS PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING NEWS AND NOSTALGIA. We’re sorry. It wasn’t planned. If you want to get right to the Tressel stuff, click at the 12:55 mark. If you want to revel in the glorious nights Chris Jericho debuted in the WWF and declared himself The Man Of 1,004 Holds, just sit back and enjoy.

Regarding Tressel, the real crime is the lie, and the real news is the inevitable acknowledgement by Ohio State and The Senator himself. No reasonable person has ever bought the excuses about the cars, but forgive us if we’re not appalled that college players are trading memorabilia and spare equipment for weed or tattoos. Violations by stupid players? Yes. Chronic willful ignorance by Jim Tressel? Definitely. This is not, however, the scalp Sports Illustrated portrayed it to be. Shame, too.

Slow States Podcast 31: Midwest Bouillabaisse

We wrap up spring practice at Penn State and Iowa. And by "wrap up", I mean "aimlessly speculate". And by "spring practice", I mean "just about everything besides spring practice". The money quote of the entire podcast? Has to be Patrick referring to "Iowa 6, Penn State 4" as "the Rebecca Black 'Friday' of football". Oh, and this episode's cliffhanger: which Slow Stater paid a dive bar band to play "Rocky Top" every hour on the hour to annoy his Tennessee-hating friend?

Slow States Podcast 30: Spring Football, Tressel's Lies, And Wilbon's America

Is there anything more uselessly awesome than spring football? Or anything more awesomely useless as a Fiesta Bowl executive? We discuss these topics, take a few swings at the Sweatervest Piñata, and...whose father once dressed up as an Orange Bowl rep in order to sneak into a game? CLIFFHANGER.

Slow States Podcast #29: Crime Rules Everything Around Me

Slow States writers are not required to disclose their juvenile rap sheets during the application process. The result is massive street credibility and for Kevin, a second chance at life after he stole a street sign with his last name on it during the seventh grade. Jeff Benedict assures you that it was utterly ridiculous that Kevin wasn't relegated to Cuyahoga Community College for his transgressions. Or worse!

Our podcast can most accurately be described as the antithesis of this shameless plug from CNN's homepage:

But most fans, school officials and coaches have no idea about the extent of college football’s biggest problem these days: crime.

CRIME. And I thought college football's biggest problem was Jesse Palmer's continued employment.

Slow States Podcast #28: We Know What You Did Last Month

Okay, so it's been a while since the last podcast. We know. And no, we're not going to recap the horrific end to the Big Ten bowl season. It's a more friendly, more casual podcast featuring Patrick's unabated excitement for the return of The Rock to WWE and the tragic death of his Honda Accord during his aborted Super Bowl trip from Des Moines to Dallas. Scattered among the wreckage are tales from my newfound parenthood, Kevin's Mad Scientist brewing operation which has produced an IPA with a bitterness that makes Bell's Hopslam taste like tap water, and much more.

And of course, what would a Slow States podcast be without music tips, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Decemberists, Joanna Newsom, and Angus & Julia Stone. This week's beer tips: Victory's Golden Monkey, Highland Black Mocha Stout, Backpocket Slingshot Dunkel, and Bell's Two Hearted Ale.

Slow States Podcast #27: Football Ends, Things Get Interesting

It's been a weird week. Momentum that Iowa and Illinois built was crushed on January 1st in a way I didn't know was possible. Penn State avoided staff turnover when Tom Bradley was turned down for multiple HC jobs, and is now a guy that didn't get an interview from Pitt but somehow new lead candidate after the man they picked the first time around went to jail. But he doesn't have the job yet, and in combination with the on-again, off-again firing of RichRod at Michigan, we've seen the rebirth of the #KOK4Pitt and #JayPa4Michigan hashtags.

Patrick comes along for a bowl wrap before the Internet breaks in Iowa, leaving Chris and I to try and make sense of what in the world is going on at Penn State, where things are getting hairy.

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Music: It's a little mellow this week but I swear that's not on purpose. Bright Eyes has a new album on the way, more on that later, and your intro'd by the new Delta Spirit EP. Also, most creative use of a Delta Spirit song goes to Wolverine Liberation Army.

Slow States Podcast #26: Bowl Previews And Our Albums Of The Year

Podcasts this big only come around but once a year. We touch on all the Big Ten bowl games (the first of which kicks off tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern) and then switch gears and hit all of our favorite albums of 2010.

Can anyone from the Slow States reasonably expect to win their bowl game? Is the Kanye West album really as good it sounded the first time through? What is the best variety in the Robitussin Christmas Variety Pack? (Spoiler: all of them.)

Slow States Podcast #25: We Is Legend

Another potential bowl preview turned into a discussion of the happenings. Namely and most obviously: Big Ten logos (your EDSBS deconstruction), division names and annual trophies (of which this one is my favorite).

We also play out what Al Golden to Miami means for the KOK’s chances at Pitt, and who else is keeping a drug house in Iowa, anyway?

Slow States Podcast #24: When The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Perhaps this won't be another boring off-season, after all. We planned on blasting through the various Big Ten bowl matchups -- only Ohio State is favored by the oddsmakers, by the way -- but decided to postpone that discussion due to a variety of breaking news stories. Indiana made a stunningly good hire for their football program. Minnesota's Athletic Director went Full Frontal Dipshit in an interview with a local newspaper. Dave Wannstedt was fired yesterday in Pittsburgh (although his iconic mustache will receive a dandy golden parachute package), and about 10 minutes before we recorded, the DJK story filtered out of Iowa.

How to cope? If you're Patrick, it's Templeton Rye every time.

Slow States Podcast #23: Dadgummed

As we were kicking around ideas for off-season (yes, it's kind of here) podcasts, Kevin came up with the bright idea to talk with the Bud Elliott, founder of SBNation's incredibly popular Florida State blog, Tomahawk Nation. We talk about -- what else? -- life with an 80+ year old coach in a young coach's world. Could the scenario in Happy Valley play out the same was as it did in Tallahassee? Yeah, probably not, but we look at the situation from all angles -- recruiting, political power plays, manipulation of the press, and much more.

Slow States Podcast #22: Cause And Effect

Well, this one got a little out of hand. We recap the last week of Big Ten action, and find our Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions crawling to the finish line with identical 7-5 (4-4) records. We also take a look at the Rich Rodriguez situation, Bill Lynch’s firing, the apparent joy of playing for Jeff Horton, bowl projections, and the recently released All Big Ten teams.

And there’s music and beer, of course. No matter the failure on the field, there’s music and beer.

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Listening Links: Nada Surf, Bingo Trappers, and get the Ryan Adams show over at Captains Dead.

Brew: Terrapin Brewing, Troegs Mad Elf Ale, Crooked Tree IPA.

Slow States Podcast #21: We Have No Intentions Of Going Anywhere

It’s been a rough year for your humble podcasters but we’re still dangerously close to the end of it. Luckily for you this site is young and we have no intentions of doing one damn thing differently. It’s Patrick in poor health, Kevin explaining his Farve comment and Chris impatiently waiting to hear a soul Wilco cover.

Slow States Podcast #20: The Great Sell Out

Two neutral-site conference games this week. First, there's the END ZONE OF DOOM at Wrigley.

Then there is Indiana's home game in Washington D.C. against Penn State, which netted the Hoosiers a tidy $3,000,000 -- essentially equal to a full home slate at Indiana's Memorial Stadium. Get paid, Hoosiers. Get paid.

Slow States Podcast #19: The Smoking Crater

We've had our good Saturdays here at Slow States Consolidated Industries -- this was not one of them. Kevin and Patrick bring their tales of road misery from Columbus and Evanston, and we cover the rest of an extremely odd week of Big Ten action. That includes whatever that thing was in Madison, football-like activity between Purdue and Michigan, and Minnesota picking up their first win since September 2.

Music Links: The new, free Girl Talk album, Delta Spirit on MySpace and a link to that new EP as soon as I find one.

Slow States Podcast #18: Lawya Up

Kevin was unavoidably detained, so we welcomed our very first guest to the Slow States Podcast: Graham Filler from Big Ten superblog Off Tackle Empire. He talks about what it's like to live as a Michigan fan in these turbulent, high-scoring times, and we collective span the conference with the depth of knowledge you've come to expect from Slow States. Oh, and Chris may have forgotten who Penn State played five days ago.

Slow States Podcast #17: Where The Goal Posts Keep Moving

And Wolverine games keep getting weirder. Michigan and Illinois combined for 49 points in one quarter, Penn State overcame a 21-point deficit, and Iowa flirted with Death By Hoosier all afternoon before having a miracle dropped into their hands. Fun weekend. Oh, and Michigan State and Wisconsin won games, we guess.

Hype Machine Links: Deerhunter, Damien Jurado, The Pack A.D.

Beer: Troegs’ Mad Elf Ale, 5 Day IPA, and Flying Dog Raging Youknowwhat complete with your Virginia-approved label.