Tonight in Los Angeles, Hollywood is buzzing ahead of the biggest night in television, as stars of the small screen storm the Emmys. But across the country, a different crowd is preparing for a new awards show, one with performances from indie cult heroes like Nirosta Steel and categories like Ally of the Year “For the Gay Guy Who’s Rockin With Us the Most.” Live from New York, it’s the Goneies, the inaugural fete from the pop culture podcast “How Long Gone,” whose hosts Chris Black and Jason Stewart have become icons to a certain bicoastal creative class. While Black and Stewart have anchored red carpets and toured the podcast around the world, the Goneies, taking place Tuesday at the Manhattan venue Racket NYC, is their most ambitious live event yet.
Sitting in a Lower East Side hotel bar, the duo tells Variety the idea originated as a joke. Once Ian Wheeler, co-founder of the podcast distribution hub Talkhouse, floated the name (and ridiculous spelling) of the Goneies, it was a done deal. It had to become a reality.
They had only one requirement, which was that winners could drink out of a Goneie à la the Stanley Cup. Black: “All those can do is sit in your bathroom in Brentwood.” The Goneie is, however, a little bigger than Black and Stewart imagined. The awards format proved to be attractive to corporate sponsors, with companies like Meta’s Threads and amp maker Marshall backing the event.
On raising awareness of the podcast within the corporate world, Black says, “There’s always someone somewhere that listens to us. Maybe it’s not the boss, but it’s the cool person in the office who tells the boss.” “I think it’s a hard audience to have credibility with and to be actually authentic with,” Wheeler says of the discerning culturati who make up the “How Long Gone” listenership. According to the co-hosts, the best thing about awards shows is making fun of people in the room, so there will be plenty of jokes at the expense of Black and Stewart’s celebrity friends.
The second best thing about awards shows is the music. The house band of the Goneies will be led by Grammy-winning producer Brad Cook, with live performances from Blondshell, Kevin Morby, J. Black is comforted by the fact that indie rock fans who hate the podcast could still enjoy themselves at the awards show. (About half of the room will be “friends of the show,” and the other half those who bought tickets.) While not all categories have been revealed, Variety can exclusively reveal that Rachel Sennott, Audrey Hobert, Ch’lita Collins, Veronika Slowikowska, Mary Beth Barone, Ivy Wolk and Jake Shane will compete for It Girl of the Year.
And in the Album of the Year race, pop behemoths Drake and Charli xcx are nominated alongside indie icons Kevin Morby and Kurt Vile. The Goneies voting body consists of just Black and Stewart, and the winners have not been notified ahead of time. However, Stewart says nominees who will be in attendance at the event have a sizable advantage.
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