Less than four weeks away from the greatest weekend of the year, Bonnaroo 2019.

This is the What Podcast, a podcast for you the Bonnaroovians, by us fellow Bonnaroovians.

This is Barry Courter, I'm Brad Steiner.

Welcome back, we had a little bit of a layoff, but I'm glad to see you freshly haircuted there, Barry Courter.

I'm feeling lighter.

Boy, about 20 pounds with that hair of yours.

I was in that chair for four hours.

Wow, I bet every second.

If you don't know, it really is the two best collection of hair in all of podcasts and radio.

Maybe all of media. These two guys.

Completely different.

Totally different looks.

In fact, you know what we should do instead of doing like an episode of like artists, we should do an episode of hair.

We could, that's great.

We could do all kinds of pictures, we could colorize, seep it.

Yes, that would be some episode, us coloring.

We could just, we could have cutouts of our hair and people could put their own faces in.

We could wear their own hair. That's right.

This is a great idea.

I want to keep talking about you and your hair and your beauty as a man because today is all about you.

It's your favorite day of the year.

It is. It is. I love this. I'm very, very excited. Less than a month.

Incredible.

Today, actually there's some Bonnaroo news that came out while we were gone the last couple of weeks.

But the biggest piece of news is that today is nothing but Barry Courter's picks.

And I wonder, because I have not seen your list, I don't know what you've chosen.

This is totally new to me.

I wonder how many doubles we're going to have.

I wonder how many covers we're going to have that I do that you also will go with.

I wanted, yeah, this was different because we've done this now a couple of times.

And, you know, we always discuss how do we pick them?

Are we picking your favorites? Are we picking the new surprises for you?

Are we picking the obvious ones?

I kind of went round and round.

And then I made my list. I built it on Spotify. And you guys can go to it.

It's Barry's 2019 Bonnaroo picks.

You just search Barry Courter. B-A-R-C-O-U-R-T-R. Or you can search Brad Stinks.

Brad Stinks. I did put the What Podcast in the messages.

So you should be able to find it.

But one of the couple of things I discovered, Brad, is, you know, when we do this show,

we usually play, what, 30, 45 seconds, maybe, maybe a full minute if it's really getting into it.

And so I discovered once I went and found the entire songs for some of these bands, I didn't like this whole song.

I was listening to it for that. How does it sound? Does it grab you at the beginning kind of thing?

See, this is the plight of the top 40 radio DJ guy.

So this is what I program. This is the radio station that I run.

I really only listen to the first 60 seconds of a song.

That was what I did. And so, you know, after I built it, I put it all on shuffle

and was listening to it during the morning around the house.

And the other thing I discovered is Casey Musgraves followed by Girl Talk doesn't work.

Is that right?

No, it doesn't work at all.

I'll remember that.

Yeah. Or Childish Gambino in front of Brandi Carlile or Courtney Burnett. It just doesn't work. It's not a good...

That's interesting that you were... I wonder how many people like do that with their playlists and really want the flow to be right.

Because, you know, radio, that's what we're taught.

You know, you try to figure out how to get from one song to the next.

I have always been very anti that that thought.

I get in a lot of fights with the industry because I feel as though rotations and what song goes into another song really doesn't matter.

I don't think we have a format that's bizarre and it's all over the place.

And I feel like that's the way that you do the festival too.

You'll go from Childish Gambino to Grizz.

Right.

So I've never thought that your playlist was ever too flowy.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And that's why I brought it up.

Again, I hit shuffle. So it was, you know, shuffled twice, so to speak, I guess.

What I found... And, you know, it also was the time of day.

I mean, it was early Sunday morning and I'm cleaning the house, whatever.

So all of a sudden I don't need girl talk.

Yeah, it's a little different.

A little different.

It really is such a great song, such a great artist to, I don't know, make a pasta to or have a romantic night with the wife.

Maybe an hour later when I'm running the vacuum.

I'm sorry?

Is that your code word for it? An hour later you're out of the vacuum?

Running the Hoover.

This has gone in such a weird direction today.

From hair to Hoover.

From the hair from Hoover. Oh, Jesus.

But anyway, so the other thing is I did decide that I wasn't going to put or pick some of the headliners,

though I do have a fish song on my list just because it sort of rounded out the schedule.

I kind of did it two ways.

I made my schedule and then went and found songs from those bands and then went and picked for today's show,

more or less the best of the, or my favorites of the favorites.

Well, the way that we did it last year is we went through the schedule and you went through each day

and then the one artist that you are not going to miss that day.

That was pretty much it.

Okay.

And then the other thing, as we talked about a couple of times on the last, or talked about it on the last couple of shows,

is the whole general admission camping area thing has blown up.

Yeah, it throws everything off.

I've got a list four pages long here, notebook pages. I know I'm not going to stick to it.

There's three or four acts on here that are pretty much, I really want to see John Prine.

I missed that occasion too many times to do it again.

Yeah.

Becoming a big fan of The National and some of the others. I really want to go see, I think it's Diva.

I think that's how we say her name, Diva Mahal, the more I listen.

But there are so many, as I actually, and you were right, the app is pretty cool the way it works.

Yeah, they changed the app and finally the grid makes sense.

Before you had to do this funky little turn on the phone and you had to zoom in and zoom out.

It just didn't work. I don't know why it took them so long to fix it.

But the app schedule, the schedule grid is so much better. The user interface is so much better.

Still not. I mean, you still got to know that it'll look blank if you're just looking for favorites

because it's the top and bottom, it's too big for the phone type of thing.

So I went through and made those. And then like I said, I know there are holes in Saturday and Sunday

where I'm thinking that's going to be nappy time.

Yeah, sure.

Or GA or something.

Yeah, I mean, when I look through it, and this is not about me today,

but I'll talk about it when we do my list next week. Saturday might be an entire nap day.

I mean, that's totally okay by me, by the way. I have no problem in the world having nothing to do on a day.

That's almost, those are some of my favorite days of the festival.

Well, and the reality is, and we've joked about it, but when I sat down and really started making it, Thursday is full.

Yeah, Thursday is packed. I mean, Thursday is unbelievably packed.

And you know, they do this for a reason, right? Because they want you to be there an extra day

so that they can make more money.

Sort of.

The fact that they can get you on Thursday, a really great lineup on Thursday,

and a really stacked lineup on Sunday, is so that you won't leave early and you won't get there late.

That's part of it, but that's counter to what they told us a couple of years ago, or last year even,

standing there at the media thing, is they really wish they hadn't created this show-up on Wednesday monster

because it's more work for them.

Well, that's true. That's true. And I do understand their point, but I always notice whenever a lineup comes out,

I think Shaky Knees is a great example of it. Shaky Knees happened in Atlanta over the weekend, this past weekend,

and, or was it last weekend? This was Shaky Beats this weekend, and Shaky Knees was last weekend, my apologies.

But you'll notice the two best days of the festival were Friday and Sunday.

And there's a reason, because they want you to be there all three days, and they don't want you to buy in a single day pass,

they want you to get there the whole weekend so they can, you know.

There was a great thing, by the way, I talked to, I will, okay, I'm not going to tell you who the festival person was,

and I'm not going to tell you what festival it was, but they told me this amazing statistic that once they sold out,

every ticket sold past that, they knew they would make plus $1,000 on it, or plus whatever it was.

It was an astronomical amount of money, so if they could sell 10,000 more tickets, that meant $100,000 more revenue,

or something insane like that. So that extra little bump, every tiny little extra bump that they get per day,

turns into being massive amounts of money when it's all said and done.

In the club venue vernacular, they call that your nut, making your nut.

So yeah, everything over zero or whatever, and it's a lot of money.

They were saying that they averaged a single person in this certain festival would account for at least $100 a day.

And for a four-day festival, you're talking $400 per person.

That's if you sell 10,000 more tickets, what's the math between $400 and 10,000 people?

Yeah, it's a good day.

That's an enormous amount of money to just find yourself in.

So if they can get you an extra day, imagine the difference in money.

They figure that out with the scheduling, and you'll pretty much see that in every music.

Like I saw the Governor's Ball lineup. Guess what day just magically is the weakest?

Saturday.

Saturday. Yeah, it's always Saturday.

The sandwich, the bologna between the bread.

That's right.

Well, I mean, it makes sense. They used to do that with us when my kids were traveling with sports.

We were the out-of-town team, so we had a Friday late or a Saturday early morning.

You came for the hotel room. They know what they're doing.

Yeah, they know what they're doing.

All right, let's start with Thursday.

Thursday, you're obviously going to start early because Thursday's packed, and you could probably find –

you could probably do an entire music festival weekend just on Thursday.

I could go home Thursday for Friday morning, and that would be a good day.

Yeah, I feel like I've done the whole weekend.

Because it goes – I mean, if you look, it goes till 3, 4, 5 in the morning.

I'm going to start with Peach Pit on Thursday afternoon.

A lot of these bands that I've picked are ones that, to be honest, were new to me.

There's a couple like John Prine, obviously, Horteney Burnett.

But a lot of them are, for me, I would call them first time.

I learned about them this year because they're on the Bronerers' Code.

Now, I don't want to fight with you here, Barry Courter,

but you're telling me something that I want to fight – I want to argue with you about.

They're from Canada.

If I'm reading the Wikipedia right, they started in Croatia, I think around 94,

and then went to Canada, Vancouver.

I don't – but where?

You're not seeing that?

No.

All right.

I've always known them as a Canadian band.

Indie pop band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I've always known them as a Canadian band.

I've never heard of anything like Croatia.

Maybe I got it.

Maybe it's not that intel.

Are you?

This would be big news.

We'd be breaking news here.

I don't know.

All right, Judge Judy, what's the verdict?

You're correct.

There are two.

There are two.

One's Vancouver and there is one from Croatia.

I merged the two.

What do you mean?

The two guys?

No, two bands share the same name.

Well, that I didn't know.

I mis – well, obviously I didn't either.

I apologize to everyone out there.

Wait, so there's another Peach Pit?

Yeah.

Well, started in Croatia in 94.

I guess they're still around.

They were actually a pretty hardcore punk band that used to get thrown off the – they

used to get the sound system unplugged a lot.

But see, now I'm absolutely stunned.

There's two bands with the exact same name?

Well, they're – I mean, it's not unusual.

I mean, it's – I don't think I've heard of another Lynyrd Skynyrd.

No, there are.

Okay.

I mean, there are some, but there are bands – because they get sued.

They sue each other all the time.

You have to change their names.

So when did this other Peach Pit start not – when do they – are they still working?

I don't know when they went away.

I don't know that.

I didn't go that deep into the whole background.

Okay.

Yeah, when you said –

But I somehow blended the two.

I thought they started in Croatia and then moved to Canada.

Yeah, boy, I mean, I don't know if you – like, when you said 94, you almost threw me for

a loop, because I don't think these guys are 25 years old.

Probably not.

So I don't know how they could – they formed when they were born as zygotes in the womb.

Like I said, new to me.

All right.

There you go.

New to me.

Well, it's a very good way to start.

I am actually a really, really big fan of Peach Pit, and that is going to be one of

our crossovers, absolutely.

That's going to be a definite member of my list, for sure.

It's such a good way to start the third – officially sort of start the festival.

You know why?

Because it sounds like the space.

Exactly.

It sounds like the space and time that you are in.

And if you are listening to this podcast – thank you, first off – but this is the What Podcast,

and if you're listening to that, you know exactly what feeling we're talking about,

unless you've never been to Bonnaroo.

And if you have not been to Bonnaroo and you're listening to this to get acclimated, let me

just warn you, Peach Pit is exactly what Thursday afternoon should sound like.

I think so, too.

And that's why I picked them to start it out.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Every time I hear a certain song, my mind is in the middle of that field, in either

the tent or the big field or something, but it just has that – I don't even know.

I don't get that from arena shows.

I don't get that from either of our theater shows or a club.

They're different.

There's nothing wrong with those.

There's something about that Bonnaroo festival.

There's something about that air.

Sound and feeling.

That hum in the air.

That general hum.

And it also – it's not just a sound, but it's a mood and a feeling that emits from

the human beings around you, too.

Because the reason why it sounds like a Thursday to me is because literally every single human

being that you see is smiling on Thursday.

Now, they're probably smiling, too, on Sunday, but they've been broken down and beaten a

little bit.

But on Thursday, they're so happy.

Everyone's in such a great mood, and they're so – the space just feels like it's oozing,

oozing happiness and joy.

You know, part of it is we don't – even with us, we talked about that.

You said the other day on the show, once we top the hill, the mountain, and come down

into the valley, the radio – or no radio even, windows open for you, it's just another

universe.

Right.

So imagine those kids that have traveled eight, nine, ten hours.

That is a great question.

That's my moment when I know I'm at Bonnaroo.

Right.

And maybe I've asked this before, but when's your moment?

Yeah.

Because you come from New York.

You come from Alabama.

You come from so many different parts of the planet.

You don't come from Chattanooga, most likely.

The way that we come, we come right down – we take – get off in the interstate, and we

come right down the side road, and we hit the top of that hill.

And as soon as we come down the hill, there's this beautiful open scenery to your left.

And that's when I know.

That's exactly the moment I know.

But it's got to be different for everybody.

Absolutely.

I mean, imagine – New York, you know you got 12, 14 hours in front of you.

You know you're excited when you get in the car with your buddies.

Yeah.

And then reality hits.

You got another 12 hours.

Yeah.

It's never going to be okay.

So – and then you get there.

You know, you got that hassle of unpacking.

Everybody's still happy.

They're usually high-fiving and sharing things and getting to know their neighbors.

But that first show on Thursday is when, theoretically, you're settled in.

Right.

You're comfortable.

You've probably walked around St. Louis twice.

Now, that's a great point.

You're ready to start.

The reason mine starts so early is because I think I've just done it so many times.

Absolutely.

But you're exactly right.

The real moment is the first step inside when you hear a first note or you get that first

pass around the fountain.

That's probably right.

Exactly right.

All right.

So what else is Thursday home for you?

Donna.

Donna Maselle.

Yeah.

One of the – one of the names that you randomly pulled out of the air the very first on – on

schedule day.

Yeah.

Almost like I was – I mean, it – but I listened back to it.

It sounded like I was insulting her.

Yeah.

I was like, who the hell is Donna Maselle?

And now she's like, I know one of my favorites and we've had several people who've written

us notes.

Thanks again for all the notes.

Who said, yeah, I found her because of you guys.

Well, I didn't mean it to be insulting.

No, no.

It was just one of those things.

It was one of those moments where you see a name on a list and you're like, I don't

know who the hell that is.

But because it's on this list, it's probably pretty good.

Well, another tidbit.

You know, from –

Is she from Croatia too?

My crack reading though.

She strangely is from Croatia.

No.

She has a history with McLemore.

OK.

She's on one or two of his more recent songs.

So she's not – she's from New Jersey.

She's not a complete unknown.

But she was to us, which is the point.

And I just like her.

I'm looking forward to seeing her.

Keep lying, keep lying to me.

Just keep lying, keep lying to me.

Don't go fucking with my fantasy.

Keep lying to me.

Feed me your affection.

Give me just one taste to sustain this addiction.

Wishful affection.

I'll swallow your poison till it runs through my veins.

Fill my heart with deception.

Twist my perception.

She's got that air to her where it sounds like I just found her in a Nashville bar.

Yeah.

You know?

Like I stumbled upon some sort of like, what in the world have I found here in this Nashville

bar?

Dona Masol, another Thursday pick.

And then you go where?

Then I'm going to go – well, we've got Drax Project, who's on my list because I

really like the interview we did with those guys.

Yeah, they're good kids.

And they were great at your event, the running of the Chihuahuas, and hoping to have them

at Camp Nut Butter.

Yeah, I don't know about that because they're a bit too dreamy.

Are you threatened?

I don't know if the females at our camp are going to –

They were really nice guys.

One in particular, I think, had a big crush on one of them.

Well, one of our females in particular had a very big crush on one of them.

I bet I can guess which female and which guy.

But they lead right into the Grand Ole Opry, and we don't know what that's going to be.

And I don't care.

No, I don't either.

Yeah.

So we can't play anything for them.

We just know it's going to be good.

We just know it's going to be good.

And another act that you had helped have as a guest on this show, AJR.

And they're one of those that sort of fall into the – well, duh, because they had such

big hits.

Wait, is AJR on Thursday?

No, AJR is on the witch stage.

Yeah, yeah.

So you get them on a totally different day.

Man, I'm all out of whack.

That's okay.

But I love the AJR pick.

And look, they are – it is a pop group.

Don't get anything wrong here.

Make sure you know –

You're right.

They're Friday.

Rolling Blackouts.

Rolling Blackouts is the big headliner for me on Thursday.

AJR is a pop trio.

And they do pop music, man.

And note, when you walk in, I'm just stunned as a guy that has known them since – it

seems like babies – I'm stunned, stunned that they're doing the witch stage.

That is a massive look, a huge look.

And to go from being in my courtyard in front of seven people to the running of the Chihuahua

stage in front of 150 people to the witch stage is unbelievable.

That's how it happens.

And that's the whole point we keep talking about.

That is not how it happens.

No, not – they all had to start somewhere, is my point.

I know.

And this, you know, this don't go on Thursday because you never heard of somebody is a big,

big, big mistake.

That's a big mistake, yeah.

And they fall into the other category of that is because when you hear the song – and,

you know, I've got the wrong day – but when you hear the hit, you'll burn the house

down, you're going to know it.

You've probably heard it a bunch of times.

Maybe if you're like me, you don't always see who's playing on your, you know, shuffle

or whatever.

Yeah, sure.

It's good.

It's a pop song.

They're great.

They're really good pop songwriters.

And when you have somebody like Rivers Cuomo being a big fan of yours – not just a big,

giant industry boost, but it gives you credibility around the country.

And, by the way, you know, I'm telling you, their pop outfit, these kids had a number

one single at Alternative Radio.

So they do sort of check a lot of boxes.

But Rolling Blackouts to me is the star of the lineup.

The entire poster sung when I saw Rolling Blackouts, Coastal Fever, because they're

one of those artists that I've been dying to see since that album came out last year,

which was damn near one of my favorite albums of the entire year.

Yep, they're good.

And that's just, again, another strong act.

A huge one.

And it's going to be one of those like Courtney Barnett level crowds where it's going to be

massive.

Yeah, I mean, I could listen to this all day.

I mean, if you didn't an entire festival just of Rolling Blackouts, I'd probably be there.

Yeah, they could play all day, all night.

It's terrific.

And again, that's what fairly early evening.

Yeah, it's awfully early.

It's surprisingly early because you've still got probably three more acts that you want

to see and campground stuff after that.

And they're not I'm not even going to play any of the other ones that that kind of ends

my Thursday.

Yeah.

As far as like favorites.

So what's your absolute what's your absolute pick must see on Thursday?

Oh, Grand Ole Opry.

Grand Ole Opry.

OK, there you go.

All right.

We'll go into Friday.

Friday is going to start with item A.

Yeah.

You another bar, what podcast find?

Yeah, all of these are pretty much.

Are they?

Yeah, a lot of them, which is probably why I have them all jumbled up coming from Croatia.

You know, the small story about item A?

I don't know that they're British.

They're British guy and girl.

They were in a former band called Kill It Kid.

And I guess this is sort of the second version of Kill It Kid because Kill It Kid dissolves.

I guess they lost a couple of members and now the main guy and girl came together and

became item A.

I do I think I remember reading that and it was completely different sound that they've

got now.

Oh, really?

I don't know.

I have no idea.

I think I remember adding.

Wasn't a big frequenter of Kill It Kid shows back in the day.

No.

See.

And then I.

But that's really early.

You're starting very early on Friday.

Well, isn't that like the first show out of the out of the gate?

And that's what I'm saying.

There's another gap.

I've got Cherry Glazer next sort of favorited tag.

She's in there.

That's that's it's on my Spotify playlist.

Some of these are going to be walk bys.

You sure?

OK, I got you.

They're going to be I want to go check it out.

If it's great, I'm going to stick around.

OK, if it's not, I want to say that.

What time is Cherry Glazer?

Cherry Glazer looks to be two thirty.

How that is early.

That is so early.

That's what I'm saying.

But that's you know, go out, check it out.

Yeah, check it out.

I'm not going to go too deep into Cherry Glazer because because I'll have more thoughts on

it next week.

But yeah, that's that's a that's a damn near can't miss for me.

I that girl has got something.

But but then you leave Cherry Glazer, you get more breaks or you just don't walk by.

So you got another break.

You got Parquet Courts.

I've really turned John to Parquet Courts, haven't I?

Yeah.

And then AJR, which is a don't miss.

But that overlaps the Ava, which I've seen.

Yeah.

Several, several times.

So yeah.

So here's here's what I would say.

And that's an odd conflict for somebody to have.

But I'm sure there are plenty of people that have it.

Ava or AJR.

So you tell me they're on the same time.

OK, here's my.

Here's a Shankar to who I want to go.

Oh, yeah.

Because, you know, I like we did that on the bottom.

Oh, yeah.

You're a big, big fan of her.

Well, you know, Rabby or whatever she is Rabby's daughter.

I don't know.

There's that Beatle connection thing for me.

OK, so, you know.

So here's what I would say.

This is my suggestion.

If you've got an AJR Ava, I can promise you you're going to see the Ava's again.

And I've seen them.

And more likely you've already seen them.

Yeah.

Now, I love them.

You know, but again, that space, they have occupied that space before.

Large crowd, large stage, big stage show.

You're going to see it again.

I'm really excited to see the kids get on a big stage for the first time.

This is the biggest stage they will have ever played.

And I love that idea.

I love watching.

I remember these are 20 something year olds, right?

And they're they're essentially babies.

And to be able to be dropped after all of these years of struggling and then out of nowhere,

Rivers Cuomo gives you a giant hit.

I want to see those kids faces when they get on the big stage.

I can't wait for that eye popping moment of theirs.

And it's I know you don't like the sound there.

I've never had such an issue with it as you have.

But it's such a cool kind of space because you can get up front and feel like it's that

mass mosh pit or you can back up and get under the tree, you know, almost the hill.

And OK, I look I mean, I haven't talked too much about this, but I for the what being

damn near the best sounding stage I've ever heard in my life.

I mean, there is not a space around that stage where is not crystal clear.

The sound on that stage is unbelievably perfect for for that being so good.

I can't for the life of me understand why the witch sounds so bad.

And in comparison, it makes it even worse.

Now, I do think and I'll give them a ton of credit.

I do think the sound has gotten better.

I think they have figured it out much better than they did probably four or five years ago.

But four or five years ago, you couldn't pay me to see a show on the witch.

Now, last year, Bony Vare on the witch sounded amazing.

Now, it does change depending on the artist and it changes via their sound person.

But they have figured it out more often than not on the witch stage more than they did probably five years ago.

Yeah, well, they moved all the tents around.

They moved all kinds of things.

But I mean, was it Muse last year on the what stage?

Yeah, you was amazing.

Yeah, that sounds that sounds actually was the highlight of the show because I couldn't hum you a tune.

Technically, it was brilliant.

Yeah, sonically, it was brilliant.

But yeah, and it it's just I don't know.

It has that different feel to it.

It's big, but it's not so overpoweringly big like the what's the and for a guy like you who loves the walk by.

It's the perfect walk by stage.

Yes, exactly.

Okay.

H.A.R. then into what Courtney is going to be my do not miss again.

Okay, boy, I've got something to say about this.

I really do.

And I love Courtney Barnett and you probably have hit the artist that our camp probably agrees on more often than not.

I mean, that's the one that probably everyone in our camp is going to go to because every single one of us loves Courtney Barnett.

And because of Thursday night at Bonnaroo because the Thursday night two years, three years ago.

Yeah, well, that and she's great.

And she's very good.

Right. But I got the I got the man.

It was felt like an honor.

But I was in the hay bale session when she performed on that Thursday before her show.

And I just sat there with me and legit two other people.

I mean, next to Courtney Barnett playing by herself in the hay bale backstage, recording a session for like Bonnaroo radio or something.

It was unbelievable.

Unbelievable. Those are the moments.

Those were the. Yeah, that was the moment.

And that's that's when I said I'll swear for the rest of my life.

I'll be dedicated to you and only you, Courtney Barnett.

Yeah. Well, she's the one for me that.

I just don't think there's a better songwriter on the planet than Courtney Barnett right now.

She's just so clever, so much fun and just lives in a world where I wish that I was where I just don't give a damn.

Yeah, that's her. I mean, I got a lot of it in me, but I don't have like she has it.

She just seems like somebody you'd know you'd love drinking a beer with. Sure.

Yeah. And she's with the thought that she could punch you in the mouth at any minute.

At any moment. Yeah, which is most of my friends.

Yeah, that's pretty much all of you.

The other I mean, now you've got me all questioning my schedule.

I feel like Bryan Stone with his laminated schedules.

Bryan Stone, who you might have heard on a previous podcast, has a history.

So we all we ask of our campmates is to bring something to camp that's useful to everybody.

I bring carpet and couches.

So Brian, Brian's dad, Brian, every year.

Who you may or may not have heard of.

But Brian every year brings a laminated schedule that we spend hours hours putting together,

much like you do if you're on Reddit and you create your own grid.

Well, he does the same thing and then laminates it.

And he's very, very proud of it. And it's like he's got it on a big ring binder.

Oh, it hangs it in the tent. He's so proud of it, man.

It's like it's like his crown jewel of the year.

It's like he's built a house every year and he shows it off to us.

Well, the big problem with Brian's laminated schedule is that every year it ends up being completely wrong.

Every year. I don't know how he does it, but every year it's always wrong.

And so there have been times over and over.

There's not a time in the festival every year where he does not come back within 20 minutes of leaving and saying,

Well, I screwed up the schedule. Wrong day, wrong day, wrong time, wrong stage.

But so I've also got Pinky Pinky and Ducky on my Friday.

Pinky Pinky Ducky on Friday. Pinky Pinky Ducky to go see.

I'm curious about both. But is that all the same time? Is that the problem?

No, no, no, no. OK, so these are walk bys for you. These are walk bys to go check out.

Especially Pinky Pinky. It's kind of an L.A. punk. It's a trio, female trio.

And I really like the sound. They're on one of the smaller stages.

I think it's the Who stage, right? Yeah, because we talked about them on the Who stage.

The What Podcast? A podcast for you, the Bonnarooians, by us, the Bonnarooians, Barry Courter, Brad Steiner.

Today, a day all dedicated to Barry's picks halfway through Friday.

Well, the other one on Friday is Ducky. Oh, yeah, Ducky. This is San Francisco. She's a DJ.

There's a couple of DJs on my list. Girl Talk, Ducky.

And then on Sunday. Well, no, it's not a DJ. It's a band from Tokyo that I'm excited about.

Tokyo, Croatia. The other DJ that I remember is Balkan Bump.

That was my nickname in jail. Sure. Yeah, we'll get to those.

So, yeah, Friday's a good day. And we jumped ahead a little bit with Courtney, but that's the one that's going to.

That's your pick. That's your can't miss. That's my can't miss.

You're not going to do childish, though. Walk by.

Wow. And also, I'm still trying to I'm trying to factor in some of those wander out to the camps and see what's going on.

I got you. I don't want to plan them because I know I'll walk out there and it'll be the two hours that there's nothing.

Well, yeah, it's hard to plan something like that when, you know, you get told by redacted that there is a secret Cage the Elephant show tonight at eight o'clock or eight thirty.

And then your entire night is totally screwed up. You know, so we heard about that really early.

We started looking at all the things that we'd be missing. Like, oh, my God. Yeah. What do we do?

That's what I mean. That's what I mean. I just I think this is going to be a really complicated.

Yeah, especially when you realize, I don't know, you haven't done it.

I did it for the first time last year. That's a long walk. It is a very long walk out there and back.

Yeah. From where from where we are, that's a little bit of a haul.

I know we'll have to figure out listen to us complaining about our problems.

How dare us. You kids get off the lawn. Babies. All right. Saturday. Good morning. Saturday.

Saturday is going to start out with David Mahal for me. I just really, really like her sound.

And they quit. I will fight for what I believe. Even if I fight alone, I know that I'm going to keep on

Yeah, it's a really great sound.

It's like Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones.

I really, really do like her sound.

I'm interested if I kept going how much I'd like it.

Back to that thing, I don't know, is that going to last three and a half minutes or

30 minutes or 30 seconds?

I don't know.

I want to find out.

She's Taj Mahal's daughter, so another one of our child of.

Yeah, you are such a fan of Taj Mahal.

First of all, it's just a great name.

It's a great name.

It's a little bombastic, don't you think?

Just a touch.

Think highly.

Oh, here's my, I just call myself King Tut.

Yeah, I'm going to be Great Pyramid.

No, I just like that sort of history, I guess, that music history thing.

And like I said, I like that sound.

And that sounds like a pretty good way to start day three or four, depending on, you

know, for us, it'll be day four.

Six, 10, 12.

Yeah, a bunch.

We're leaving tomorrow.

Feels like it.

Start packing tomorrow anyway.

But I'm excited about that one.

Oh man, speaking of like packing tomorrow, oh my God, this is about, we're getting into

that time where like in the next couple of days, we only have a few more weekends left

before the thing.

So this weekend may be the weekend where everybody starts to pull their gear out of the closet

and out of the basement and hosing it down and cleaning it off.

This might be the start of Bonnaroo planning this weekend.

In fact, oh my God, I forgot.

We have a team meeting this Sunday.

We have to have a team meeting.

That's what I'm saying.

That means that podcast is going to be late again.

It means you got to start pulling stuff out to see if the critters have gotten to it,

if it's still there.

Man, that just hit reality to me.

That's real.

It's exciting.

Next up for me is Hippo Campus.

Another one of those, I think a Bonnaroo-let act, right?

It was, it was.

And we did not know who they were and we did not know they had the following that they

had because the second that we said we didn't know who Hippo Campus was, oh my God, did

we get.

How dare you?

How can you be in this business and not know?

Look, sometimes just, I'm a consumption junkie too.

Like I try to pretty much hit play on no matter what comes across, but you know, sometimes

you just miss.

Yeah, you can't know.

Sometimes you just miss.

The biggest, most embarrassing miss of my career will go unnamed, but I found them as

soon as they retired and I was so excited when I found them.

I was like, I can't wait to see this show.

And then last night at Massa Square Garden, I'm like, oh God.

Yeah, well it happens.

There's a bunch on this list.

There's a bunch of acts that you know, you're in a, you know, you're in top 40 radio, which

I no disrespect.

I don't listen to a lot.

Well, nor do I.

It's terrible.

There's a whole lot.

Yeah.

I've been listening to some of the adult contemporary stuff.

You just can't know it all.

You can't, but I will say it's pretty entertaining when I go to some of these functions and some

of these radio things like you're with other radio guys and they're all format specific.

So I'm talking to other like top 40 radio guys, the amount of people that I run into

and they're like, yeah, I really like it.

Oh yeah.

What?

Yeah.

And so when I talk to them about the things that I like and they're, they don't, their

head spins around when I say cherry glazer, they have no idea what I'm talking about.

Well, and there's always that guy in the room that knows every band you bring up, right?

You could make up names.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I know.

I've been into them a long time.

Oh yeah.

I've been in, well, they just had their first album.

Oh, I knew them back when they were, you know, they don't exist.

I just made it up.

The dead stinkies.

They're my favorite.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I love them.

They played at our fraternity house.

That guy.

Yeah.

So hippocampus, I like a lot.

And then, but see, that's a bit of a conflict too, cause they are right before an overlap

Maren Morris.

They're with Maren Morris, huh?

Yep.

Maren Morris is what time on Saturday?

Saturday at around four.

Okay.

I'm such a fan of Maren Morris.

I like her a lot and I'm really, really holding out hope that she gets time for us either

before the festival or during the festival because I've got so many things I want to

ask her because she's one of these artists that's on the cusp of being Taylor Swift.

She could be massive if, you know, some of the things fall the right way for her, but

she's in this weird spot where the country radio people want her so desperately and the

top 40 world wants her so desperately.

So she's got to make this call and which way she goes.

And it could mean like the future of her career.

So that's got to be a ton of pressure for a kid that's in her early twenties and just

now trying to figure this out.

But the fact that there are so many entities wanting, you know, her goes to show you that

she's got major, major, major star potential.

Yep.

Absolutely.

And I want to see her.

So, you know, that's a which stage, what into what stage thing.

So for me, it may be, maybe I'll try to shoot pictures.

Wait, so Maren Morris into fish?

Is that what you're trying to say?

So hippocampus into Maren Morris.

Okay.

Maren Morris is Maren Morris on the what stage?

Wow.

Whoa.

Did not see that coming.

Did I miss that somehow?

First one on the what stage?

All right.

So that's five o'clock or so for four like that three forty five four o'clock.

Man, you've got this.

I thought Saturday was going to be a nap day.

Then there's a long break into Casey Musgraves.

Okay.

Where's Casey?

Which?

Wow.

So they put Casey Musgraves.

See, I would think that at this point, Casey Musgraves is a bigger artist than Maren Morris,

but maybe I'm wrong about this.

I would have flipped the two.

Well, I mean, you know, time of day type of thing.

Yeah, I guess so.

I don't know.

I mean, according to this app, that's that's what it is.

Okay.

And then another gap.

Oh, no, no, excuse me.

Probably what I'll do again, pictures of Casey Musgraves and then the John Prine thing.

Now that just sounded dirty, Barry.

That just sounded like you're doing something very nefarious.

She'll know I'm there.

Will she?

Will she?

I'll be front and center.

But then the John Prine thing and that's that's a that for me really is probably the number

one don't miss.

She don't like her eggs all runny.

She thinks crossing her legs is funny.

She looks down and knows that money.

She gets it on like the Easter bunny.

She's my baby.

I'm her honey.

I'm never gonna let her go.

He ain't got laid in a month, the Sundays caught him once and he was sniffing my undies.

He ain't too sharp, but he gets things done, drinks his beer like it's oxygen.

He's my baby and I'm his honey.

Never gonna let him go.

Now are you a bigger fan of this or Angel in Montgomery?

Which one do you prefer?

Because that's the one that everybody knows.

Yeah, both.

That one just tickles me to death.

That's really funny.

And I'll be honest with you, he is one of those guys that used to come to our free Friday

night.

He's called Nightfall, our Friday night series.

And he was one of those guys that all of my musician friends used to just rave about.

And I'm now more of a lyrics guy than I ever used to be.

I was all about melody.

So for me, it was like, well, I never heard him on the radio kind of thing.

Yeah, sure.

That's what I'm talking about.

And then I think I heard that song of all things and became obsessed.

Just because it was funny.

Maybe Laugh Out Loud.

It's very cute.

Yeah.

And clever.

And then you find out all these other things.

He's actually probably one of the people that sort of hit me in the back of the head with

a two by four and said lyrics are important.

Which is a funny thing for a music journalist to say.

But I've always been more about the groove and the sound of the song, the melody than

what the lyrics meant.

But that's changing and he's a reason why.

You know, there is a there's a thought here for me that I don't I don't want to like overstate

it.

But sometimes I think that the history of the art form, if you care about it, if you

treat music and the art as sort of disposable and, you know, something just to pass the

time or to feed a space in your world, then maybe it doesn't matter to you as much.

But if you really care about the art form, there are certain people and certain things

that you just need to do.

Right.

And seeing somebody like John Prine is sort of like paying your respects to the industry

and paying your respect specs to the art form.

Right.

It's just something that you should probably just do.

Even if you don't like it, you should pay your respects to a guy who absolutely deserves

it ten times through and it will probably be your last and only time to see him.

I totally agree.

And I think it's a little bit that that's the way I felt about Springsteen, by the way.

I felt as though I owed my respects to him to go see that.

I was never a fan of Springsteen.

In fact, I can't I don't know how anybody listens to that on an album.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

But I went and I loved it.

I loved every second.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Those guys blazed the trail.

And it's real quick.

Tom Moreland was here in town at Songbirds and he played with him.

He was with Raging Machine, played guitar with him for several years.

He said they did.

Tom Morello.

Yeah.

Moreland did.

Tom Moreland is from Croatia.

He's a guy who plays here in a bluegrass band.

Morello, yes.

He was just here and we did an interview and he was talking about playing with Springsteen

and what they have the greatest bar brand in the world.

Springsteen would change on a dime.

He had no set list.

He said that I think they did a hundred.

I'm going to get this number wrong.

One hundred and thirty four songs, different songs and thirty two shows.

That's awesome.

That really is awesome.

And that kind of thing.

But to your point, and that's a little bit why the Shankars and the Mayhalls to me, just

that sort of history, just to be able to lay eyes on and know that they touch this one

and that one and blah, blah, blah.

So that kind of is important to me.

Plus a guy like John Prine who's written so many great songs and he's loved and respected

by other songwriters, he's not doing 25,000 seat arenas like Springsteen.

He's been slogging it in the nightclubs.

That's a great point.

He does it for the love of the music.

That's a great point.

It's easy to see Springsteen.

It's difficult to see John Prine.

It's not going to be an easy watch because more often than not, it's probably music is

not going to be in your lane if you're listening to this.

But it is, it is a, it's going to be a hard watch, but you got to go see it.

You got to go see it and you'll be, you'll be stunned at how entertained you are.

I think, I mean, he's, he's older.

It's probably not the same show it was 10 years ago, but the guy's an incredible songwriter.

And then later that night is the one that I'm, I'm probably most excited about is National.

The National, which we opened the show with today.

Yeah.

There are another one of those that you've turned me on to that I'm like, where did that,

where was that my whole life?

Right.

And, and you're, that's like I was saying earlier, you're about six albums deep.

You're six albums late.

Yeah.

I think about artists a lot of times, much like I think of TV shows, I have not watched

one second of Game of Thrones and I'm not going to.

I'm caught up.

So the problem is not because I dislike it so much or I have no interest.

It's that the moment has already passed.

You know, it's like, I'm just now getting into the show lost.

Like I'm way too far in.

It's way too past for me to start now watching.

I feel like that's sometime about music, but six albums.

That's a lot.

That's sort of my feeling with Fish.

I can't get into Fish because I'm, the time has well passed me, you know, there are so

many albums deep and I'll never be able to get to a number of shows that makes me feel

comfortable even talking about it.

You know, I don't know all the songs.

I'm not a set list head like all the fish guys are.

Yeah.

And then one of those that if you pull a song out and say, I really like it, they'd be like,

oh yeah, that was, that was good.

10 years ago.

Yeah.

Sure.

Oh, you like that one.

Now, now the five that they've done since so much, but you know, you mentioned a couple

of shows ago, Billie Eilish, I had heard the name, but didn't know anything about her.

That's probably the most current sort of act that I felt like I want to get up to speed

on.

Yeah.

Well, that won't take long.

She's 12 years old.

Yeah, I know, but she's fascinating.

And the interviews that she's done, the one with the hot sauce, I don't know if you've

seen it is definitely worth looking at.

It's hilarious.

Talk about like, we thought about doing an episode of Bonnaroo Mrs. and just talking

about the artists that we thought were going to be a part of it and didn't, Billie Eilish

is a huge one.

I don't know how in the world they didn't just force themselves to get that Billie Eilish

show because the one I saw Lollapalooza was, oh my God.

I mean, you just watched that and you're like, something's here.

I don't know what it is, but something is here.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Anyway, then the national and then I know you won't, but if I'm still awake, I'm at

least going to walk by lonely Island just to say I saw him.

Okay.

Well, that's cute.

I know you don't like them.

They didn't, they didn't steal my girlfriend or whatever they did to you.

I don't, I just don't want to get into it because it just makes, it comes across as

such a pompous, dopey thing to be upset about it, but I just, I don't like him.

I don't like anything about him.

I got that.

Okay.

I'm not sure on that.

All right.

You know, you have a few of those people in your world, right?

Oh, absolutely.

Bozzy.

Oh yeah.

Which by the way, they, the, the label, so he's on Atlantic records, which I love to

death and I love these people so much, but they specifically don't call me about him

because they know my problems with them.

Yep.

Never forget.

Never forget.

But anyway, so again, that, you know, we'll see what happens, what happens that night.

Cause again, that's, that's a long day.

You might be under a blanket by then.

Could be very well be or wander back out just to see, depends on what's going on.

I got you.

And then Sunday starts up and I don't know if I'm even close to saying this name right,

but kick a got to, kick a got to.

I'm going to bet that you're not.

Yeah, I'm going to bet.

But play it.

I think you'll like it.

I think you'll like it.

Do you want me to go through the entire eight minutes of the song or a, okay.

Good.

It's just a good start of the day.

We're from Tokyo, something different.

Yeah.

Sunday probably.

What, what was it?

Nick said might be a day to just kind of sway.

Yeah.

Sway.

Are you swaying a lot on Sunday?

It might be a go take a blanket.

Okay.

Find it and watch an entire set.

Will you make it through all the way to fish?

That's what I'm saying.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Last year, made it technically ended up listening to, was it the killers?

Yeah.

Backstage.

Okay.

Just in a chair.

I, so if I, I mean, I'm definitely staying on Sunday.

It might be the only time I'll ever witness fish.

I don't know what I'm going to be watching.

I don't know what in the world it is.

See and Gucci Mane is on my list and Childish are the same.

I will definitely walk by and fish.

I could see us there as a group in the back, just kind of hanging out at the end of it

all.

Yeah.

Not because it's fish, just because it would be.

It's the only thing happening.

It's the only thing happening and probably a good wind down.

I tried to find a fish song to put on my list on Spotify.

And if any of you are out there and are big fish fans, you're probably going to hee haw

at whatever I picked.

I just picked one and I didn't like it.

I think I sent you notes that I don't like.

Okay.

But I wasn't going to go digging too, too deep.

I will say there was a time in my life where I got into farmhouse a lot.

I was listening to farmhouse pretty much front to back and that would probably elicit a lot

of insults, you know, because I think that there might be like a like a sect of the fish

community that thinks the farmhouse is the most ridiculous sound they've ever put out.

I would easily step into that bucket.

Yeah, me too.

I had no idea.

Me too.

No idea.

But what's before the fish though?

What are you going to?

Well, Brandi, Carlisle.

That's what I mean.

I can see these being full set types of shows.

Brandi is there obviously.

And I just think that, you know, the story and the joke are two incredible songs that

she's gotten a lot of attention for deservedly so.

A lot of Grammy nominations.

She is really, really great.

And then after her Walk the Moon is on The Witch and then Lumineers on The What, but

at the same time as the Lumineers.

And I don't know, I think the name just struck me as funny.

So I went and listened and I like it.

But Balkan Bump is a DJ at the Christmas Club Barn, which I've never stepped into.

You've never been inside?

Nope, never been inside.

Welcome to the Snake and Jake Barry Courter.

Here you go with Balkan Bump.

Had you

given me a thousand dollars, I would not have bet a penny of it that you would be at the

Christmas Barn listening to that on a Sunday.

I like that.

I'm stunned.

I know you don't.

Because of the way the app is, Little Dicky is right before that.

Oh yeah.

Brandi, Carlisle, Little Dicky and then Balkan Bump.

You know, we got to go see Little Dicky.

Yeah, Little Dicky.

For every reason I dislike Lonely Island, I love Little Dicky.

That's a great point.

Knows exactly who he is.

Yep, and I think Pillow Talk is one of the great R. Kelly like videos to have ever been

put out in this industry.

That's pretty great.

And the thing he does with Snoop Dogg is pretty funny.

So definitely want to go see him.

And you've got to imagine he's going to have some guests show up and pop in.

I have no idea.

And that's part of the interest.

I mean, you know, he's very, very clever.

And like I said, from what I can gather, very aware of who he is and what he does.

So I would think it's going to be a pretty good show.

And then another walk by for me is definitely going to have to go see Cardi B. That's just

to say I did it.

Yeah.

And it could be very, very entertaining.

I'm not being cynical about it.

I expect it will be a blast.

It will be an absolute blast.

And Cardi B is just the zeitgeist of the moment.

You know, aside from Lizzo, I don't think that there is a bigger artist on the planet

than Cardi B that has taken over and captured our attention.

And that is almost a must see for that exact reason.

Yeah.

You can't, you can't, she can't come to Tennessee and you be there and not.

Right.

Well, what am I going to do?

Back and sit in a chair and get nut butter and say, no, I didn't go.

Too lazy.

Which I have done.

Yeah.

Plenty of times.

And will do again.

And then it sort of wraps up with fish and we'll see.

And like I said, I could see us in the back of the field there just hanging out drinking

a beer or whatever.

Well, there you go.

That's it.

All right.

So my goal is write this down.

Okay.

Get back in 35 days and see how many I actually.

That's a great point.

Yeah.

See how many you actually, actually saw.

Be kind of fun.

So that's mine.

How and we'll know when you do yours, but a quick guess.

Many crossovers?

Probably about half a dozen.

Yeah.

Yes and no.

I'm not going to be seeing the Balkan bump.

Gotcha.

Probably won't be doing that.

Gotcha.

I just have this thing about whenever you have to tell me when the base is dropping,

that's probably when you're telling me I need to leave.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, no, it's a fair point.

But yeah, I got about half a dozen on there.

I'm excited.

This has been fun.

I always like Barry's picks because they're always much different, much different than

mine.

So we have plenty of crossovers.

As we have said many times with our camp, we all hang out, we all like each other, but

we never go to the shows.

Hardly ever.

Me and Nicky T spend the most time with each other.

We all have, we might pair up.

Yeah.

Might be a couple, you know, that go here and there.

We might end up in a thing together, but we never plan it.

We never talk about it, which is what I like.

What's the one that you want the entire camp to go to that you absolutely would force them

to go see?

That's a good question.

The entire camp.

Yeah.

Probably the national.

Okay.

Or AJR.

Oh, all right.

But I bet we all end up at Courtney Barnett.

Why don't you join us and give us your picks?

The what podcast.com or the what underscore podcast on Twitter.

My pick next week.

And then we round out and count the days down two more weeks after that to Bonnaroo and

some surprises along the way.

That's Barry.

I'm Brad.

We'll talk to you next week.