Behind The Grooves

Behind The Grooves, formerly known as "Two Minute Vinyl Reviews" is a webshow distributed by Mockingbird Studios, and entirely produced by Holmesfilm founder, Josh Dezern. It originally was used as the main reason he "retired" from Holmesfilm, but after coming to terms with the fact that most members of Holmesfilm never even met, Dezern kept the series consistently running until a two-year long hiatus that started in early 2018. The first episode aired 9 July 2015, and the show is currently in its fifth season, which began on 12 June 2021.

Early versions and beginnings
In mid-2014, it was announced by Holmesfilm that due to Dezern's recent interest in vinyl, reviews of certain albums would be put out. Three albums were put out, and they were a "horrific failure." After three months, Dezern announced that the reviews would be cancelled. He continued with his regular YouTube content, however in May of 2015, announced the comeback of the vinyl reviews. He had no specific name for the series, which is how it got the name "Two Minute Vinyl Reviews." Starting strong, and ending weak enough to have the season finale not released, Dezern announced his retirement two months later, and stated that the rest of his YouTube life would be devoted to a vinyl review series that is "stronger" than the others on the Holmesfilm channel. On 8 July 2015, the "Behind The Grooves" channel opened. "It was going to be called "The Flip Side," but then copyright came into my mind, and I began to think about the Vinyl Rewind channel, and how the host's ending [statement] is "I'll catch YOU on the flip side." Dezern stated in a Facebook post. On 9 July 2015, a teaser trailer was released on the Holmesfilm channel. Only four hours later, the first episode, "Rubber Soul: U.K. or U.S?" was released. On 17 November 2015, Dezern announced via his Twitter that season two of the show would begin on 21 November. The tweet was released with a promo picture.

Refilming and Vinyl Man Jebb
On 7 January 2016, Dezern announced that he was getting very paranoid about his face on the Internet. He also stated that he knew that the quality of the show was terrible. Dezern then stated, "Behind The Grooves as we know it is coming to an end. However, that doesn't mean that the show is over. I am going to fully refilm, re-edit, and rerelease the first two seasons. The last four episodes of season 2 were shot last night, but will be moved to the vault, as we will have redone episodes released to you for quite awhile." By this, Dezern immediately put all production on hiatus while he worked on re-filming the series. The first reissue Dezern confirmed on the Holmesfilm Facebook page that the show will not be ending, and only the setup would be retired. The original episodes were set to be pulled from the YouTube channel as the reissues would release due to safety reasons, but all are still available on the Original Behind The Grooves YouTube channel. Reissues began releasing on 21 January 2016, with the episode in which Dezern compares two pressings of Rubber Soul. All the rest of the reissues dropped almost daily until the month of February.

Following the end of season 2, a third season began two days later on February 29, due to timing to release a tribute to lead singer of The Monkees' Davy Jones, who passed away 4 years ago that day. On 30 April 2016, Dezern announced that Holmesfilm would no longer distribute Behind The Grooves, but that his "solo studio," Mockingbird, would distribute for the rest of the time the show runs. Months later, it was announced that Holmesfilm would become defunct due to the fact that none of the members worked together on anything anymore.

On 30 July 2016, through Twitter, Dezern confirmed that his Internet friend "Vinyl Man" Jebb Edmond would be co-hosting Behind The Grooves a little bit in season 4, and primarily season 5, if made. His first and only regular review was of Smash Your Head Against The Wall by John Entwistle, and it was released on 12 November 2016. It received a normal amount of views. His second and final review was a Christmas special, and was of an early reissue of The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, which also did well for views.

Departure of Jebb and abrupt hiatus
On 21 January 2017, shortly after finishing writing three of Jebb's future reviews, it was announced on Dezern's official Facebook that "due to a full schedule, Vinyl Man Jebb Edmond has decided to step away from all Behind The Grooves productions." As a result, Behind The Grooves went on a hiatus that lasted 26 days total. It returned on 4 February, along with an update from Dezern stating that he is "not sure if [Jebb will] ever want to release another review, but he is always welcome into the spotlight."

On 27 February 2017, it was confirmed on the official Behind The Grooves Facebook page that a fifth season would most likely happen, and would feature special guests doing album reviews, possibly including Edmond.

On 1 July 2017, season 5 of Behind The Grooves was confirmed on Josh Dezern's official website. The season was scheduled to kick off on 23 September with a review of Pool It! by The Monkees, and its "opening reviews" releasing on 13 and 17 September: Close to the Edge by Yes, made to celebrate its 45th anniversary, and Big Generator by Yes, to celebrate its 30th anniversary. It was also confirmed that a new opening sequence will be revealed, with a new theme song written by Dezern's friend Brendan Boatright, (credited to Dok Zither) and that Vinyl Man Jebb would host at least one review in the fifth season.

On 30 August 2017 via Facebook, Dezern contemplated that there was a possibility that the fifth season "may as well be the last," possibly due to reasons "based on what I really want my future to hold."

Of the two opening reviews, only one aired, as on 16 September 2017, a day following the release of Big Generator, Dezern announced that his laptop suddenly died of motherboard failure. Due to this, Behind The Grooves Season 5 was moved forward to December of the same year, when Dezern bought a new laptop, enabling him to release reviews again. Season 5 was scheduled to begin on December 16, but likely due to Dezern's purchased laptop running far too slowly to properly function Windows Movie Maker, it never released on schedule, nor was anything filmed.

On 15 January 2018, Dezern confirmed that "Behind The Grooves: The Final Reviews" was in development. This was implied to be the final season, and was planned to feature "some old friends." Other than a review of Led Zeppelin's Houses Of The Holy, which released on the album's 45th anniversary, the season never happened, and Dezern walked away from the series altogether for two years.

Comeback
On 29 July 2020, after being encouraged by his friends to do so, Dezern surprise-released his first vinyl review in two years. The subject was Bob Dylan's critically acclaimed album, Rough And Rowdy Ways. On 24 April 2021, another surprise-release review hit Dezern's channel, this time covering Bruce Springsteen's Letter To You. Along with that release came the announcement that a fifth season of Behind The Grooves was officially in the works, and new reviews were set to release in the summertime. An official list of albums to cover was quickly created, but Dezern is currently keeping that list private. He has already expressed interest in producing a sixth season in 2022 "if this season goes over well," as he wrote in the official announcement.

On 12 June 2021, as promised, Lizzo's Cuz I Love You was the subject of the first non-specially released episode of Behind The Grooves in nearly four years. The fifth season's 15 reviews were originally set to be released on a biweekly basis until December of 2021, but due to a busy work schedule getting in the way, Dezern later decided to release each review sporadically throughout season 5. If a sixth season is created, a tighter schedule will most likely be reestablished.

Trivia

 * In the July 2015 teaser trailer, you can see a silhouette and partially lit up face of Josh Dezern. This marks the first time any facial features of Dezern has been seen.
 * In the teaser trailer, a record spins near the end. If you look carefully, you can see that there is a black object on a red label, the same logo to Columbia Records/Family Productions, the label on which Billy Joel released his albums from 1973 until 1986.
 * The first episodes before the reissues show the real, official face of Dezern. This is the first time we see his entire face, after years of stating that he was a LEGO Minifigure.
 * He released 10 episodes in the first season, which highly exceeded 50 views, which meant that at least 2 more seasons were in the works.
 * On 4 November 2015, Behind The Grooves was officially renewed for at least two more seasons.
 * Dezern admitted himself that in the opening titles of the first season, the record that was spinning was Simon & Garfunkel's 1970 album, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Dezern used it because it was the first record that came out of his money, his others before came from immediate family members.
 * The album that spins during the seasons 1-4 intro sequence is an original pressing of The Monkees' Headquarters. For season 5, the record was swapped for The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
 * On 1 April 2016, Dezern announced that he "doesn't know where Behind The Grooves will be going after season 3, but the Queen discography would continue to be reviewed." Exactly one month later, a fourth season was announced.
 * Dezern has traded six albums he's reviewed out of his collection:
 * Aloha From Hawaii via Satellite by Elvis Presley
 * Tug Of War by Paul McCartney
 * Live At The Hollywood Bowl by The Beatles
 * Hello, I Must Be Going! by Phil Collins
 * The River by Bruce Springsteen
 * A Day At The Races by Queen

Season 4

 * In the Sticky Fingers review, Dezern mistook guitarist Mick Taylor for Foreigner's lead guitarist Mick Jones