A Look at Eric Speck’s Excellent New Music-Centric Podcast, “Convince Me To Like This Band”

As a music obsessive for decades, I’ve been known to take music a little too seriously. By that, I mean that I tend to view entertainment as more than just entertainment. In turn, I can admit guilt when it comes to causing friction within friendships, relationships and workplaces as a results of criticizing the favorite artists of others. Jimmy Buffett probably being the most recent example of that.

Normally this is something that I would feel embarassed about, but when I heard of Eric Speck’s new podcast Convince Me To Like This Band, I had a change of heart. A sort of “a-ha” moment, where I realized that there were other people who were exactly doing what I have yet on a larger scale. Within Speck’s podcast — four episodes can currently be checked out via your major podcast provider of choice — “super fans” and “haters” explain why they feel the way they do about particular artists.

Already highlighted so far via Convince Me To Like This Band have been Slayer (defended by Mike Meyer who famously carved “Slayer” into his arms and then lit them on fire, as memoralized by the Slayer within album artwork), Phish (defended by Brian Bavosa, who has seen the band live 450+ times), Morrissey (defended by Jose Maldonado, who has not only seen Morrissey live 100+ times but also sung in a related tribute band) and Rush (defended by Jillian Maryonovich, a former aide to Barack Obama). Per the haters, one example is Les Savy Fav singer Tim Harrington, hilariously so.

Convince Me To Like This Band host Eric Speck is essentially a music business lifer. He was involved in A&R at labels like Island Def Jam and Warner Music Group, a label manager at Knitting Factory Records, a talent buyer at legendary but defunct New York City music venue Brownies, and owner of now-defunct indie-rock record label Ace Fu Records. These days, Speck currently works at Pandora Media and hosts the radio show Time To Be Useless — which streams on Radio Free Brooklyn and The Independent FM — beyond co-owning the rock bar Pet Shop in Jersey City, New Jersey.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Eric Speck via Zoom on June 2, 2020 but as luck would have it… The recording of that call did not come through. Entirely missing. Why? No idea. It’s (weirdly) happened a few times over the last two months and is very inconvenient, to say the very least. But what I can tell you is that Speck was nice as can be during our 15-minute chat, has plenty of great episodes in the works, and continues to keep busy with a variety of interesting projects. In lieu of the interview, below you’ll find embedded content related to Speck, Convince Me To Like This Band and the Pet Shop bar.

More on the podcast can be found online by visiting www.convincemetolikethisband.com, www.instagram.com/convincemetolikethisband and www.facebook.com/convincemepodcast.

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Tags: Convince Me To Like This Band, Eric Speck, New Jersey, Phish, Podcasts, Rush, Slayer

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."