It's a two-fer interview week on The What podcast, with both Max Dunn of Gang of Youths and Britt Daniel of Spoon on the show. The two musicians discuss their latest projects -- angel in realtime and Lucifer on the Sofa, respectively -- and what the records might sound like once they get out on tour.
Also on this episode, Brad, Barry, and Lord Taco discuss the new improvements to Bonnaroo's iconic Farm grounds, including the promise of new sewage and drainage systems as well as paved roads! The hosts also update on the Bonnaroo ticket giveaway. (Or just get your own tickets here!)
Review, like, and subscribe to The What at the links above or wherever you get your podcasts. Then make sure you also follow the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our programs, and snag the "Radiate Positivity" T-shirt at the Consequence Shop.
Topics: Gang of Youths, SPOON, Bonnaroo, Shaky Knees
Guests: Max Dunn, Britt Daniel
One of the great festivals in the country, or at least the Southeast is, Shaky Knees. Year after year after year, great lineup after great lineup. This year, no different. Coming out of quarantine with a huge bang, two bands in particular. We talked to today, Gang of Youths and Spoon, Festival Virgin and Festival Veteran. Plus you could win Bonnaroo tickets today on the What Podcast. Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, Lord Taco. It starts right now. How's everyone doing? Having a great day. Great. Having a great time all the time. How are you? Has anyone been linting? Has anyone been linting really hard? No. Okay. I'm no quitter. Yeah, do you survive your first Mardi Gras? Do you do any linting? Nope, I haven't given up anything. Okay. In fact, I have to go twice a day. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go to the gym. I have to go twice as hard now because of all the people giving up, you know, like beer. Yeah. Now I've got to drink more beer. Yeah. So I'm counting on you. It's a hard life. People are counting on you. What other things are you doing to make up for other people's lint? That's about it. Just be it. Okay. Is there anything else I should tune into and pick up? Should I start smoking? You could do that, yeah. Try smoking for a little while. Should I vape? Yeah, just try it. I'm going to try it. Hard to grow is great. But I will say after 10, 14 days of this, I've never wanted to lint so hard in my life. And I'm not Catholic. I'm not religious at all. There's a reason these things were created and continue, right? Now I understand the purpose of being full of lint or being lintful. But it's the word. I don't know even know how to talk about this. Am I linting? Have I linted? I don't know that lint's a verb until you made it one, but it works. I'm going hard. I'm going hard after lint. Going hard after lint. I have successfully, successfully guys, I have gone a whole day so far without drinking. I just started the lint yesterday. Let me see your hands. Okay. Okay. I just started the lint yesterday. Now, granted, I'm about three days late, four days late, but I started yesterday. I feel great. Slept as long as you get there. Yeah. But I know why they're doing it now, Barry. Now I understand your people. I understand why you guys need this so bad because it beat me the hell up. I bet. I bet. How long is the linting going to last? You're going to go to the full 40? I think I'll make it to tomorrow at about 430. 40 hours. Yeah. Pretty good. 40 hours. My people, my people spend the desert for 40 hours. Good for you. Yeah. I'm glad you survived it. Did you see anything crazy? It was so much fun. It was the most... It's crazy that people, especially on Mardi Gras Day, are so emotional. I mean, people are crying on Mardi Gras Day. I think partly it's because of the quarantine and not being able to do this for a little while, but apparently this is a thing where people get very emotional on Mardi Gras Day because of the sheer magnitude and the beauty of the entire moment. I will say I've been talking a lot in the past day or so with professional people, especially in the company, and they're obviously worried about Ukraine and the humanitarian aspect of everything that's happening there. But here, it's almost as if none of that's happening. We have just went through the gauntlet of Mardi Gras and we're just now waking up and saying there's a war? What? What happened? So I do feel a little out of touch and out of it, but it was as fulfilling and as exhilarating of a week and a half as I could have found, I wore a costume. Wow. Whoa. That one piece of the costume was on my head. That's a lot of alcohol. Oh, or the right alcohol. Didn't throw up. The wife threw up once. We didn't. I didn't. I kept one together. Yeah, I kept it together. Well, I mean, New Orleans, like we've said before, is the you guys suffer more than most cities and for to be shut down for two years. I can see we're blowing it out was overdue. And then the best part was on Friday, the Friday after Mardi Gras and the Saturday after Mardi Gras and the Sunday after Mardi Gras, there is crawfish everywhere, everywhere. I must have had 110 pounds of crawfish over the weekend. It was massive. I couldn't drive. You didn't give up crawfish. Why would I do that? Yeah. OK. Well, I, you know, that's the point of Lent. Give up something you love. Barry, it's where I'm here to talk to you about. Are we on a break? We've gone through more breaks than we've been on. Today it's Shaking knees day. So we've got two artists today that we're going to talk to that are appearing at Shaking Knees, which is one of those festivals, sort of like Boston Calling, that if you don't know it and if you don't go to it on a regular basis, it probably is just another afterthought. But Shaking Knees is like I think it's my favorite festival in the South. That's not one of the top ones. Right. It's not it's not the big one. But boy, it's so well done. It's crafted in such a fantastic manner. The lineups are always spot on for me. And you know, year after year, they move spots, they move locations. It just keeps getting better. Really good lineup as we've talked about. I can't wait. If everything falls right, I might have to join you down there for at least one of those days. Yeah, you should. I'm sorry. You're going to what? I think you know which one. Wait, Barry, you have to leave the state. Yeah, I know. I believe that my basement. I know. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't think you're ready for this. It's a big if. But if things fall the way I hope. Yeah, I definitely that that Sunday looks really good to me. All right. Tell me who's on Sunday. Well, my morning jacket, Crumbin, Death Cab, Band of Horses, Coin. That sounds like a what podcast lineup right there. Except for all those bands we haven't talked to. You found one and you're like, you know what? No, we've Crumbin, Coin. Oh, yeah, we did have Crumbin. Yeah, I talk about my morning jacket a lot. I'll be on Sunday. One day. Well, there was going to be a time in a previous lineup that we were going to do a cooking show with my morning jacket, and it did not pan out. But I was so excited when they were in. Were they on the first Bonnaroo lineup? Did it happen the second one? Maybe they're on both. Either way, they pitched me the idea of doing a cooking segment with them. And I thought that was so much fun. So maybe we can do it again. I don't know how we cook. What we cook. You guys want to boil crawfish? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds fun. What else can you do? Maybe a crawfish, maybe a spaghetti. Yeah. Pasta. All right, kids. You like macaroni and cheese? Yeah. You open the can, you pour it in, you heat it up. Yeah. I cook that pasta. The two bands in particular, it's a Shakin' East. One is gangs of youth. Now, if you do not know gangs of youth, they are getting a little bit of heat on radio stations like mine because they've signed a big record deal. I think they're tonally, they're so interesting. I like their new album. They had a song on my radio station for a hot minute. I felt like I was maybe the only guy in the country that was obsessed with the song, Angel of Eighth Avenue. So they've definitely got something. I think they're really, really interesting. I do not know what their live show is like, but that would be one that I would circle because I just like the band and I want to give them the Pine Grove treatment. One band that I saw at Shakin' East, it's one of these festivals that's perfect for exactly this. I heard this one song of them and now I want to see if it translates live. Shakin' East is the best at finding those. That's how I found churches for the first time. I was like, I really like that one church's song. Let me go see them and see if I like it. Obsessed. Sylvanessa was like that for me at Shakin' East. Went to see Pine Grove at Shakin' East and that will be the last time I ever see Pine Grove. But now you know. But now I know I love that song. It's a really good song, but I just can't get past the kid wearing shorts on stage. Can't get past it. I cannot get past a dude that's wearing shorts on stage. I see your cell phone in one pocket, your car keys in the next. It's like, are you here or are you not? Are you going shopping afterwards? Are you going to actually engage? Or were you shopping? And then somebody said, oh, by the way, you've got a show and fire. We need you to come play guitar and sing whiny indie rock. But I so but that's the perfect place for a band like that is Shakin' East is they can expose themselves to, you know, a quality crowd who's really into this sort of stuff and gain, you know, a fan forever. I think Gangs of the Orcas is one of them. I'm sorry. Gangs of Youth is one of them. Circle that. Gang of Youth. It's one gang, many youths. Yeah. Okay. Gang of Youth. No, no. Gang of Youth. Gang of Youth. Yeah. The youths. The youths. It's funny you mentioned the the costuming because Max gets into that with us, which I thought was a lot of fun. I think they got to be pretty good on on stage just just because of the hair. It's a lot of hair. I know we I was I was hoping we'd make it more than 10 minutes before we start talking about hair. We didn't do it. It's close. So that's the first part. Second part is an interview that I did a couple of weeks ago on the debut day of Spoon's new album with my best friend in the world, Brit Daniel. So we are best friends. We are two peas in the pod. We hang out. We chit chat. We call each other all the time. My best friend, Brit Daniel. I love Spoon. I love Brit Daniel. I've got the biggest man crush on Brit Daniel, and I don't know if during the conversation I tried to bring it up the time that we hung out. You know, Laverne and Shirley are way through ACL, but I don't know if you really remembered it. I think that he did. Sure that he did. He returns your calls, right? Oh, yeah. All the time. Why would he return them? He's answering them on the first. He's calling you. Yeah, I got you. Nice. So we talk about the new album, which by the way, if you haven't heard Lucifer on the sofa, I can't stop listening to this and I don't want to get premature and have recency bias because Lord knows there's nothing I hate in this world more than recency bias. But oh, this new spoon album might be my favorite spoon album of all time. It is incredible. Good. There you go. You haven't listened one second of it. Oh, my God. I'm just sitting here and I'm sure Russ is thinking the same. Brad has a lot of best friends. Best friends. Best friends. Best friend. Yeah. Brad and Brits. I can't dispute any of it, but you have a bunch. It's I've got Brits, Brittany and Brad. That's it. Yeah. Oh, the circle is widened then. Yeah. You know, I've always said Brad only likes two people himself and the other is fluid. We widen the circle. No, fluid meaning it's not a liquid. You're not saying I love fluid. No, it could be. It could change. Got it. OK. There's always it's plus one. B plus one. Yeah. Whoever my plus one is for the day. Sure. Yeah. So those are your two shaky knees artists for today. We've had coin on so you can knock them off the list. Gangs of youth. Nope. Gang of youth. OK. And spoons. Very excited for both bands today. OK. We've had Krung band Krung's bands. Yeah. Krung Krung Green been there getting there. I like it. Yeah. So there you go. That's what you get today. And then is there anything else we need to get to? Do we want to talk about the the Monroo stuff? You wanted to go for later? Let's do that. Once we get through these two, let's talk to Max from Gang of Youth. Now on the What Podcast. Really exciting, but yeah, literally just soundchecking. Well, congratulations. Thanks, man. Where are you, bro? Thanks man. Where are you bro? I'm in New Orleans right now. Barry is in Tennessee. And Russ is right outside of Tennessee in Northern Georgia. North Georgia. Holy shit. That's such a cool group of places. I mean, is it? Yes. Are you joking? I'm just making sure. How many trips have you made to the states in the last year or so? Since everything really sort of blew it up. Well dude, I have a huge love for the South, man. And I know that not all of the places listed are hard out the South. I love all that wilderness stuff, man. I did a summer working in the Shenandoah Valley, which is way up further on in the Appalachians up in western Virginia. And whenever I'm in those sorts of places where there's all the trees and the fireflies and the vibe. I want to get down to New Orleans though and check out all the swamps. Oh please do. Let's wrestle some gators together. Let's wrestle some gators. My brother would be useful with that. He used to live in Darwin, which is literally where Crocodile Dundee is set. And he's always in the middle of the wilderness with his bow and arrow. But I'm kind of like, I'm the city slicker, the latte sipper of the family. The latte sipper. What were you doing in the Shenandoah Valley? What the hell was that about? I just did a lot of Kiwi. I'm in New Zealand. Actually not anymore. Two of the band are Aussie. The front man Dave is Aussie. But someone. And then Tom's English and John's from Chicago. But yeah, we... I had a lot of Kiwis when they're like 19, 18, 19, going to work in the states in summer camps. It's just a way to get a visa and then go traveling. So I did that bro. It was awesome. Everyone thought I knew how to start fires and shit because I'm from New Zealand. But I didn't know what to do. I kind of had like I had like more mana than I deserved for sure. But it was fun. So you guys, you go? No, it is remarkable. Like the way that we look at as Americans, we look at other people, especially just like cavemen. That's all you are to us. It's cavemen. You can start fire with your hands and... Yeah, you can take out a large animal with a boomerang or something. Just the stupidest people. In the case of my brother, that's like a weirdly accurate stereotype. But not me so much. But now we love the outdoors, the whole band. That's something about United States, man, that it's just so super underrated. People don't... If I lived in the States, bro, I would have a car for one. I live in London and it makes no sense. But I would have a car and I would just boost all the time to like waterfalls, rivers, you know, mountains. It's just great, bro. But yeah, anyway, I'm sure you don't want to talk about that. What is the perception? What do you think the perception people have of your music based on where you're from? Oh, man. I don't I think it differs to where you are. Like, I feel like in the United States, Australians and New Zealanders are a little bit random, like we're so small that I don't know if there is much preconceived ideas about it, apart from like big acts like Tamon Parlor or, you know, recently and people like Lorde and stuff like, you know, the sum of big sort of Antiphanian acts. But a lot of I don't know if there is much, but I think in England, like there's a lot of Aussies and Kiwis and we're really annoying and like we over drink and like we live together and like massive flats and shit. Like, I think it's like almost works against us in England. Barry, I think I found my people. You know, you do not want to be a London Aussie. Trust me. No, we love we love we are London Aussies. So we can't talk. But yeah, no, like, so I think, yeah, whereas in the States, I think there's a lot more like, like, we're just sort of seen as like being oh that's kind of interesting you're from, you know, the other side of the world. But I don't I never feel judged or anything by Americans. Can I can I stop real quick. Just real quick. What is a Kiwi? A Kiwi is is a a bird, a flightless bird that is the national emblem of New Zealand. OK, just why the word, which is when you say when you buy Kiwi from Whole Foods, like the fruit, it's called a Kiwi because it's from New Zealand. But OK, that's the name is derived from a bird. So to be like calling like the Canadians, if you call them like hockey pucks. Yeah. Yeah. Or like a molten or like, yeah, called you guys. I could say we are dodgy stuff about what you call Americans. Yeah. Yeah. Pick up truck and you know, the I don't know what's the stereotype. Don't offend anyone. Let's get to the real question that I have. How in the world do you guys have the best set of hair of any band that's on the planet right now? You guys all have great hair, which is just it's it's it's it's L'Oreal Paris. No, no, it's it's we just I don't know. Dave's wife's a hairstylist and she does all our hair. My wife actually just got my hair, though. So she so she killed me if I mentioned that. But no, I don't know what it is, man, you just when you're in a band, you're allowed to have long hair, even though you're probably too old to have long hair. So we are. Well, this is a big part of our show, which is why Brad. Yeah, we try to spend five to 10 minutes on hair. Yeah, you know, it's a pair is important to us. Yeah, that's that's great, man. That's pretty much all we got for you. So fantastic. Good night. So so about the band now, I became a fan of you guys because, you know, I work in radio and we get service singles and I had never really heard of you guys. And the minute that I heard the first single off of the new album, I was like, man, this is this has got so much like national in it. And I love the national. So that that was the first, you know, four into into your band. Tell me about the band. Tell me about where you guys came from, how you found each other and, you know, before up until the new album, how it all came to be. It's interesting to say the national man because one of our best mates is a guy, Cate, who made who produced boxer and alligator and high violet. But he produced one song on this record, and he mixed a couple on this album, the new one. And so we obviously have that connection of like a mutual friend. But I do think a lot of the time, because Dave Matt Berninger kind of broke ground on that like, you know, I mean, obviously, Lenny Conn as well. But like in terms of like an indie rock band having a singer with a low voice. So I think sometimes Dave, like even no matter what he does, he would get that comparison. He has that range. But I think I think there's like anyone like, dude, like Box is probably the most one of the most foundational albums to our age group. If you love indie rock music. So like, I don't think you can be a you. I don't think you can be honest and not sort of tip your hat to the national by which fucking love the national. But yeah, like I think on this record, especially like the influences are a lot more random than that. And, you know, it's sort of more, you know, new American minimalism and like Philip Blasey, Steve Reiche instrumentation and UK garage like break beats heavily using samples from the Pacific Islands. Like, I think this record is like a departure from that. But a lot of our older stuff and to an extent, I guess, like Angel of Eighth Avenue, which I think was the first single, still has that feel of like the driven drums. And but it's yeah, it's hopefully lean and gliding, you know, in a way that, yeah, I guess the national can do really well. But is that but is that the is that the sound that you guys started as when you guys first met? No, I think like we've never really had the balls to like attempt what we did on this record. And it's something we've always loved and sort of hoped to do. Like we've always been very string heavy. Dave's amazing arranging strings. And now we have Tom Hobson who joined the band who used to be in Mums and Sons. But before that, not on the whale. So he he kind of has that he's like a genius string arranger. So he's taken us to the next level with that. You're hearing a full orchestra on the record. You went to Porta Pest and recorded with a full section. One of the go ahead. I'm sorry. No, you're right. No, no, please. I was one of the things that Tyrone we talked to Tyrone from Rufus this old couple of weeks ago. And one of the things he said was there was a national radio in Australia and what an influence it was because you got to hear so many different things. Because I think the question I think, Brad, you had asked is, you know, where do you get these influences and, you know, coming from Australia? And he said, being able to hear all these different influences was I don't I'm not I don't mean to put words, but freeing liberating or whatever. You know, it was you could do whatever you wanted to do kind of thing. Did you have that? Did you guys have that as well? I think like Dave, who's like the leader of the band, really. And, you know, this is his story about his dad that he wrote, you know, and I think for him, he's like he was raised by the Internet and television in a lot of ways. He's like one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. He knows everything. It's like the walking Wikipedia page, you know, sometimes Wikipedia search engine. I mean, like he knows everything. And I feel like he kind of grew up loving classical music and listening to a huge array of things, you know, going down to the public library, listening to stuff. I think the rest of us have our own stories with it. Like I I was probably more just like a small town Kiwi kid who listens to whatever I could. And my big brother kind of would like give me a record every now and then like Roach Against the Machine or something. And I would get into it or whatever. But I yeah, I think we just all constantly like Tom's literally a classically trained, you know, went to the Royal College of London to learn violin. So it's like he comes from that world. So it's sort of this disparate. Donnie was like a jazz drummer, you know, so it's like these are all so many different. Yeah, this is so many different experiences. How in the world did you all find each other? We all met at a couple of them. So four of the original members of whom. So like like Dave, myself and John were originally like started the band with two other guys that basically four of them went to church youth group together. So they met through that and I went to high school with Dave. So I met him there. And then so we kind of started in this shared experience in a large evangelical church movement, less so me. But that's kind of how the boys met up. And that's really cool in some ways because you're allowed to play music and you're allowed to be really crap at it, you know, regularly. Like, I'm sure a lot of American listeners can especially in the South can relate to that. Like, I mean, I went I was my dad was a small town pastor in a small city in New Zealand. So I grew up playing different instruments and stuff every single week, you know, from what is about 11 with no choice. I had to. You know what I mean? Someone. You really do get a very long leash when you hate just sounds so good. Drums. Yeah. And it's you're allowed to. But like, you know, it teaches you man, like even if you suck at your instrument, which most people who play in those places don't, they're actually amazing. But even if you do suck, you're learning how to play in a band, how to play with people. Whereas I think a lot of other people like they don't get that till high school where they get a chance to like routinely play like, you know, which we all did as well. You know, we all were all playing like smells like teen spirit on repeat or whatever in high school. But I think yes, we all met like that. But it was very early on that we became a band. But I met the other guys really at the first rehearsal. And we were just like, we kind of had shared experiences, but we all loved music and we were very random. Like, we're very not we're not a very easy band to brand because we don't wear the same shit. We're not all like 70s long hair shtick. I kind of look like that, but I'm kind of like a dorky New Zealand dad. And then like, you know, Dave's someone man who grew up in like, like in a Western inner city suburb of Sydney, Jones from Chicago. He's he's Korean descent. You know, Donnie grew up in another city. So it's like, it's kind of like we don't look like a band. And then we were on stage that we even dressed different, which we're trying to get better at. So we've been doing this for like a decade, but we kind of have this. We probably look like a group with best friends in the whole world. We've lived together for long periods of our lives. We literally just went on a holiday with all of our wives. You know, like we hang out off the clock, but we don't look like we look like we met at like a like a social club and we all come from different places. We don't have like a thread of like a scene that we came from, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Which might be which might be a strength when it comes to instrumentation because it it's not locked into one way of thinking. Well, look, I mean, I do think that there is going to be a resurgence of getting back to the basics at some point. You know, yeah, tick tock has its moments and yeah, it's really easy for you to get a career out of a YouTube page at this point. But there is still something that drives us to especially hardcore music fans drives us to the struggle to the guys that just feel like our buddies. And, you know, there's there's that thing feels like it's going to come back at some point. I would I would suggest coordinating outfits, though. It does drive me a little nuts when a band is not paying any attention to what they're wearing. We think about it now, man. Like, I'm good. OK. We're like we're like, you know, we've got like teams around us now that harass us about the shit. But what I mean is it's not as long as you're not wearing top hats and shorts, you're going to be OK. No, it's just Brad's biggest pet peeve is somebody taking their shirt off. So as long as nobody's not taking a shirt off, you're going to be OK. I reckon I reckon drummers can. I'm going to disagree with you. I reckon drummers can. But anyone else who does is a tool. I agree. I understand. I understand the drummer thing. I'm willing to give you a Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters. They're not trying to get attention, but if you're imagine drags, if you're Dan, who's literally taking your shirt off in the third song, I don't know what you're doing this for. Like, there's no reason for. We can all agree that that's bullshit. It's like it's like it's just like like you just need no, no, no, not to reckon this with any person or musician. But like it's one of those things you just need a good friend in your life. And if you're like, you're like, that's not a good look now. So when a dude's doing that, like the other one was like maroon five lead singer. Oh, God. I know. Like you're way more successful than me and like full respect to you and your songwriting. But like put your shirt on, bro. Like I also think if you're like, I don't know, there's a very small list of people who pull it off and like, it's right. Iggy Pop. I definitely. Yeah. He fucking pulls it off. I certainly don't put myself into that lane. Yeah, I will say the first few. I will say the first few episodes that we did of this podcast, they were all shirtless. And it didn't really work out for us. I was a lot younger than. So so now that the band is really found its its its footing and you're starting to expand into the Americas. You have a string of festival dates, one included shaky knees. Do you guys ever do you guys think of anything not being American? Do you have any sort of opinion about American festivals at all? American shows in general? I have like a super high opinion of the men. I think American crowds are really cool. They tend to listen to music that they didn't intend to see, which I think is the yardstick for a cool place to play at a festival. So like some some countries you play in, like if you're not on their main radio station, like everyone's on their phone when you're playing. You know. And I feel like Americans, it's obviously way, way, way, way, way too diverse place to be general. America. But I think I think on the whole, our experience of playing festivals there is that people are up for it. And if they haven't seen you before, you actually can win a crowd over. It's not like it hasn't been totally ruined by like TikTok and stuff yet. And yeah, so I really respect that. And yeah, we're really excited about shaking knees. I don't know if we're doing any others that I know of this summer because we're doing quite a lot of headline touring. But next year we're going to be trying to 23. We're going to be hopefully there all the time. Like this. I think. Yeah. What's your goal? Yeah, you go. I think that's really cool to hear you say that about the festivals and Americans because that to me, that's been a shift since. Since Bonnaroo started, since the festival thing became a thing. It's really cool to hear you say that because I think that's what we've seen develop. And part of why we do the show is the discovery. The discovery is part of the fun. That's something that we really, that's why we started the show because there was a bunch of that we never heard of. And we thought we need to find out who they are. And it became a game, you know, and then it became I'm not saying we did it, but I'm glad to hear you say that. That's really cool. Well, you've obviously been part of that. You know, you're part of the culture over there. So it's like that's really cool, man. I think anything that can can as a muse or that can make I mean, I can think of a really good example where the band Bahamas, which I think is just staggeringly awesome Canadian guys, which, by the way, very, very found Bahamas on this show on a Sunday morning at Bonnaroo. And because I come my favorite. Yeah, I explained. I explained a couple of picks that I had for Barry to listen to before Bonnaroo. He got into him and all of a sudden that's his, you know, get high and chill out at the house music. Yeah, clean the house. This is going to infuriate you then because we played at a festival and I'm not going to name the country because I just don't want to indict another place. But like it wasn't the states and and yeah, Bahamas is playing and everybody was just on their phone because that Bahamas, I don't think we're on the radio there. And the funniest thing was like our whole band was like lined up like watching at the very front row and people come up and talking to us. But we were just trying to watch Bahamas. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it was just this realization like this so much bigger than most markets. But in this market, it was like a, you know, we were a thing at that festival. And I was like, it was just like so confusing to me. Like, why aren't you watching this band? Like, you're going to watch you might watch us later if you want to or you'll watch where else later. But like, why are you on your phone? Like, why are you here? If you're not here to watch music? I came home and I was obsessed. It's all for a while. That's so musical, man. Like, I really love what they do. Just musical. And I think that's something I'm excited about for this tour is I've been a go lads. But yeah, I gotta go. But I for this tour, like, I just think, you know, our other stuff's been a little bit more direct in terms of the like it's been guitar lead or, you know, more so. And like this this new record, I think, is like way riskier and harder to play. And I tell you, so much so much. It may be hard for you to play, but it's so good. Angel in real time. I'm a big, big fan of it, dude. I think Angel of Eighth Avenue is one of my favorite songs of the year last year. Really, if you're listening to this, give it a try because I really like this band a lot. And I hope when you get over to the states, it's as well received as I think it will be. So all the luck to you. And hopefully we'll see you along the way. Yeah, come on, like reach out or whatever and just get a beer. But I like if you guys you guys do the thing at the festival. I don't know anyone else in Alabama, so I may as well get a bit. But but not not. But I'm really nice to talk to you. And thanks for your, you know, caring about our band enough to talk to us wherever you guys are in TLC in Georgia. And New Orleans, New Orleans. There you go. Thanks, Max. See you, buddy. See you guys. They might be your discovery this year. What day are they on, Barry? Gang of youths. They are on the Saturday. OK, nine inch nails headliner with churches. Not today. Not today. You want to go? That's a good one. I mean, I like the whole lineup, but I'm not going to even pretend and lie to you and say I'm going all three days. I do feel like it's one of the stronger lineups and for a festival, it's only twenty five K or so. I think it is as strong of a lineup as is out there the entire year. Yeah, you could go any of those three days and be happy all night. What's Friday again? Remind me of Fridays. Green Day and Billy Idol, Rainbow Kitten, your guys spoons. Spoons. Yeah, we'll talk to spoons here soon enough. Britt Daniels, my best friend, me and my best friend Britt going to catch up, talk about the new album Lucifer on the sofa here in a second. But what was the Bonnaroo News this week that I missed? Because I'd be honest with you, I've not paid attention to anything. Yeah, go ahead, Paco. They've made some improvements on the farm. Number one, stormwater management, planning and drainage improvements. I know you guys love drainage. I always like to see that way up high on the poster. Well, yeah, first Billy. Yeah. But if if they don't have the sewage improvements, you know it. Yeah, these are these are all filed under only us would be talking about it, but we're glad they did all of them. Can I tell you a band that we've had on this program before came to town and they performed at a venue in town that will stay nameless. And I heard that it got so uncomfortable. It's a packed house. But unfortunately, because it was the first show back into real life, something had happened with the sewage lines. And when everybody would flush, the water was going the opposite direction. So when you walked into the bathroom, you were having to walk around rivers of sewage. So the whole venue smelled like raw sewage. I don't care who's on stage. That's a bad, bad night. Don't care who is it. Yeah. Paul, nice to see you, Mr. McCartney. I'm out. Yep. Got to go. We've all been on the farm when things weren't going well. I try not to talk about it. Like I said, I worked at a funeral home. I don't talk about that. I don't talk about things I've seen in porta bodies on the farm. Yeah, but you really did get a lot of girlfriends from that funeral home. It's a chick magnet. Yes, it is. What's the second line on that improvement poster? Let's see. You got relocation of parking and camping areas to better prepare for weather events. Now, this sounds planning on. Well, you know, that just sounds like fancy words for moving Brad. And I don't run. I don't like it. This doesn't sound good to me. We can read between the lines on that. Yeah. No kidding. This is just fancy words to say we don't like where you're camping, Brad. So we're moving you somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to. That's that's an issue for later. So what point? So explain to me the parts that they would need to move you from and move you to so that it would be weather flexible. I don't know, but they put a little picture of a bus on here, so I like it. Once again, thumbs up for me. Poster management. Yeah. That's all you need. Yeah, it gives a thumbs up from me. Take a lot. The only thing I can think of is remember the big storm from what four or five years ago is they just cleared out center room. Yeah. And they built a bridge kind of on your own. Yeah. Built the bridge. Now, I understand there's low levels of the farm and the storm that rolled through IDA last year that killed the festival. I understand that there was a reason the grounds were destroyed. You probably nailed it right there. I know that. But where are they moving them to? It's they don't have endless space. Yeah, I don't know. Probably higher. I don't know. I would assume they paid attention to higher ground and that sort of thing. Were you just about to say they moved to hell? I was. But I let it go. It probably did move some hills, but not the hill. You're in your Brad always wins in the end. Brad always wins in the end. Not this one. They go ahead. There's three or four more. They've paved roads. There's additions of paved roads across the farm. Paving roads. Would you be OK if they paved the main roads inside center room? That's what I think they did. No. And at first I thought, no, I don't like that. I don't think that's true. I remember that big puddle that forms there leaving VIP going into center room. It'd be cool if that was not there anymore. I know. I know that. But I just paved roads across festival grounds. It doesn't specifically say center room. Now I could see if they paved the main drags around camp. Right. And I just don't know if I would be OK with them paving roads inside center row. Why? Something would feel almost you'd miss the dust and the puddles. You know, it's not just the dust or the puddles. It just feels I don't less connected to the earth. Maybe I had the same thought over the weekend, but then I kept thinking about those puddles that you got to walk. You know, when you go through those wooden gates stepping over and around, there's no fun in that. I understand. I don't know why. I haven't really put a finger on why this would bother me. But it made me feel a little, a little bougie, a little like I feel like I'm at a city festival. All of a sudden, I think the point of being a Bonnaroo is that you get these rough around the edges things. I don't I don't know if I'd love a I'm OK with the flushing toilet. OK, let me make that clear. I'm OK. You're not a rough around the edges guy. I know that. But this makes me feel like I am. Oh, this is OK. They got gravel roads and everything. Yeah. Maybe we need to do a little recon and go down to Manchester and see exactly what they think. That's exactly what we need. Do you think they've already done them or they're just saying that they're going to do them? It makes it sound like it's been done. Why are you going to talk about it? Well, wait a second. We have Kyle lives in Manchester. Oh, yeah, we can get him over there. Why don't we just get Kyle Kyle drive over there and see if you can see any paved roads? Yeah, take video. Yeah, I don't know, man. The last place they need paved roads is in Centro. They already drive too many carts through there to begin with the bumpiness and that actually slows them down. They need to take the service roads behind because the carts drive me nuts driving through there. That's that was sort of part of the plan that was announced two years ago when it didn't happen. Got it. They had come up with ways to move the carts around the perimeter. And I hope so. I do too. That's the most because man, I tell you that the best part of Lollapalooza is how they have organized sort of their transportation in and around that festival. The carts driving through Bonnaroo don't make any sense and they just get in the way. Yeah. Coming up on you all the time. Yeah. And also, and also paving roads would mean that they're planning to continue driving through Centro when it's much more important to get paved roads out and around the premises. Don't you think? Yeah, maybe. Yeah. It's part of the wastewater management, rainwater and all that. All right. What else we got on the poster? New wayfinding system to better help you navigate the farm day and night. Okay, that's just a sign. That's just a sign. Yeah, that's a sign. Here's your sign. This way. And then finally even faster entry to campgrounds due to tow booth and parking efficiencies. This look, I just made it better. There. Oh, there it is. Now I can find my way. Man, I just spent a lot of money on that new sign. Send an email. But yeah, there's it's a sign right we're talking about a sign. We're talking about a sweet line at points. Okay. What else could it be? I mean, yeah, probably a sign. I don't know. That's for those people who have to camp way, way, way out. Do they still own Scorcho? No, they don't. They rented it then they didn't own it. No, they didn't own it. Okay, because if they owned it, it would be kind of cool to take the squarch and drive it around with like announcements on the big screen and you get to see what's going on. You know, do karaoke into it, you know, put it to use. Yeah. Now that would be a pretty good, you know, sign, you know, that'd be a pretty good investment. They bought the squarch and they turn it into, you know, its own character. Now I'll tell you, that would be a great rehab to its, its reputation. Everybody hates the squarch. El Scorcho is back and all of a sudden it's its own character driving around making everybody happy. I agree. Maybe you could wear a Scorcho costume. Mini squarch mini squarch. Hey, Mardi Grasss 345 days away. Gotta have a guest start working on that Austin. That's right. Make it now. Yeah, so that's it. Those are the big ones. They're going to let people in on Tuesday. Something to do on Tuesday and the sooner you get there the closer you are camped to center room. First is pretty big. Yeah. Yeah, that would that I always wondered about that people who, you know, bust their ass to get there early and then get the worst parking. That sounds like that sounds like the lead. That sounds like the biggest piece of information here that the sooner you get there, the closer you get to be. Yep. Because weren't we saying a couple years ago that, you know, you could get there on a Tuesday, but you're still, you know, yeah, yeah, they start from back and move, you know, towards the middle. Well, and that's not new. They've been announcing this for two years. Yeah, there's just been no Bonnaroo to show for it. Actually do it. So that's it. You just keep announcing stuff. Just cares. You know, we've been 5050 at this map happens. Announcement stuff. And the Rolling Stones are headlining. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Good. It's a that's all right. I mean, I think a lot of that's some good PR work finally, but I don't know if much of that is is meat that it feels like the meteor part is is you get to campus close to center as you can, easier, sooner you get there. Yeah, I think Russ and I were talking before you got on any any of these improvements are the kind of things that you know don't normally make the headlines but as we've all said over the years, the little things they add up. That's right. And then the grounds have definitely gotten better and they look so much better and I will, to your point, Barry, I think that the reason why we don't hear about them they announced them plenty, but we don't hear about them because there's other stuff about it that we're talking about, you know, there's so many other things that were, but because we're in this, you know, barren desert of information about, you know, what Bonnaroo is going to be we haven't done it and how long we've been doing this. We haven't done it and how long. Now it feels like every teeny tiny scrap of information feels like a feast. Any news is news. Yeah, for sure. The other shaky knees artist that we wanted to talk to today was an interview I did with Brett Daniel, my best friend, a couple weeks ago when the new album came out if you haven't listened to it yet by the way when we were talking to gang of youths you had plenty of time they're buried listen to Lucifer on the sofa did you listen to any did you get a couple tracks but I promise I will. Did you listen to gang of youths before yes. Oh yeah. Yes, I like it very much. It took me a while. I kept trying to figure out and I hate doing this but I'm like everybody does it every time he always says I never do this and then he does it. He does exactly this. I hate doing it but it finally dawned on me they remind me of the call. If you remember the call the song the walls came down. Yeah, okay. I got nothing. Pulling it jump into that cabinet see if you got any call CDs. Reach on in there and see if you got anything. Anyway, I like it very much. Yeah, I like it a lot. Yeah, I said Max was a lot of fun. He was a lot of fun I get a little bit of national vibes from it so yep yep Lucifer on the sofa is the new spoon album. We talked the day that it came out so I'm sorry we're just now getting to this but other things started coming up like Rufus the soul and coin, but because I love spoon so much, and because Brit Daniel is best friends best friends. Yes, with me. Let's spoon on the what podcast. What's happening Brett Brad how are you doing super duper How are you stranger. I'm good. The last time you and I hung out slash talked, we were backstage at ACL, and I asked you what you were listening to, and you said, getting into the clash. And then it wasn't five minutes later somebody walked up and said, Hey, Brett nice to see you what are you listening to then you said, really getting into the clash these days. That's, well it's a strong recommendation that it's hard to go wrong with the clash. I bet you're still listening to the clash these days. I am, I just admire you so much. I mean you've got my favorite bands of top three favorite bands of all time. And today is got to be a really big day for you. So first off Congrats. I think you guys put out something damn near perfect. Oh wow. Thank you. I have a high praise I appreciate that. Oh, I'm just an idiot on the radio. Oh, do I know. I want to go back to like when you and Jim, since you and Jim are still around from 30 years ago, did you got what was the conversation did you envision 30 years later and 10 albums. No, we didn't. I, the bands that I had been into that I had been in up until that point all lasted about nine months to a year and a half. And so that was kind of what I was picturing. Jim and I were in a band before spoon that lasted nine months, called the alien beats and so it was more, it was, I think the only thing that we commented on was like, let's get some better gigs than that last band had, you know, that was it. Like let's play not play on Monday nights at the back room this metal bar in this metal bar in East Austin that had an alternative night, you know, and that was the gig that was easy to get, but of course no one showed up. So, I remember you telling me though when you were when this was starting you were doing something what was your day to day job at the time. Right when the band started. I guess I was just out of college and I was, I was working at a video game company. Oh, that's right. Yes. Okay. You're thinking of. Yes, I remember this conversation. Yeah. And what were you doing there. I was, I was making sound effects I wasn't even making music for them I was just doing sound effects so like explosion sound effects and spaceship, the door closes you that kind of sound effect spaceship takes off that kind of sound effect. Yeah, it was a cool job. I feel like you could score a movie, if you really wanted to. I could. Yeah. I mean even even even to the sound effect part, it could go from the whole gambit from the movie to the end. Yeah, it was a good gig for sure you know it was it was especially just out of college you know it was a dream job and they were. When I was in college we studied audio but we didn't. There was no digital audio at that school, so I got out of school and there's this video game company says they want to teach me digital audio and pay me $10 an hour and I just thought I was, you know, it was there with, I don't know I thought, was this was this 91 92. Yeah, 93. Yeah, that's pretty good $10 an hour 93 is not bad. Yeah. So when you guys go through, you know, 30 years of this when do you think that like spoon really found its legs so when you think it really got so, because the thing that I feel about this band that I love so much is that from the first moment, I mean even from, you know, Telephono to now. It always feels so comfortable in its own skin. Yeah, thank you. Well, you know, Telephono was was definitely that the band that was trying to get better gigs, you know that was what that those songs were all about. And it wasn't really even about making records and then as as we, of course, making record was a cool, cool deal but that's what that's not what those songs were written for and then later on we figured out, hey someone's actually going to put out our records we started thinking about writing songs in a different way. I think the record, maybe three in called girls can tell is where we really started sort of started figuring it out for ourselves and had some of our own identity pop out more. What was the song on girls can tell everything hits it once you think that was the one or a big one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's the first song on it, and we had definitely never done anything like that before had five bones, it was very stripped back. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I could nerd out about about your own band. You know, pretty much all day and wax poetic about it but the thing that I love, you know, not only because it's so comfortable in its own skin but the relistening ability, if that's a word is so strong because every time I listen I don't care if it's a series of sneaks or whatever, you know, just, and I told you this before, a random tambourine that walks through the room and then you never hear that tambourine ever again. Right, you know, those kind of a random hand clap that never comes back again. That's the kind of stuff that I find to be so interesting that you guys seem to find the perfect spots for those things. Yeah, well that was, I would hear that on a Bowie record, you know, and I'd hear that on a Beatles record. They were particularly big on, you know, really loud percussion elements like that and I, when we started making records if you'd work with a producer they'd say, yeah, you put a little tambourine on there but it's got to be buried in the mix and you don't want to get the stand out, and I said well that's not how the Beatles would do it. So, there was some arguing about that to start but I'm glad you appreciate that vibe. Well I love it, because it seems as though it's something that you know, if I was sitting in the room with you, that would be what I would do, you know, it's like, oh hang on a second when you Brett. Got it. I'm in. I'm on the record. You got a nice, nice reverb on those claps you got going. I appreciate that yeah I've been working on this. Yeah. So, speaking of being in the room with him, the compliment that a buddy of mine we were going back and forth about this new album. And you could probably say this about any spoon album. It feels like we're in the room with them. Right. Is that, there's got to be a purpose for that there you're actually that's got to be something that you're actually designing to do, we specifically worked on that for this record. We felt like we wanted to react a bit against the last one which would the last one was actually more produced than, than some of the other ones it was, it was made very much in the studio we're writing the songs while we're in the studio and figuring out what we were doing with the songs as we're in the studio this time we decided, let's, let's, let's hash all that out as a band playing with each other. Before we hit the record button, you know, sort of an old, maybe a little bit more old fashioned way of making a record but there's something about that you can even if you don't know anything about recording or how records are made I think you can kind of sense it. This is a band playing together. Well what's more comfortable for you. Both ways are good I. You know because I love some some produced music I do. I guess, I guess I like the feel of things happening happening naturally and things happening. Sort of what more live. That's what I was thinking because the live show is such a completely different experience that's not that's not totally true it's not completely different, but it is, it is a much different feel, especially when you get, I'll put it this way. You said to me at ACL, you said, Well, have you seen this show, and it was your latest tour and this was 2018 29 man with a camera was he said you said, Have you seen this show. And I said no I haven't seen this specific one but I've seen you guys live a host of times, and you said, Well, this is the one you need to see. Wow, listen to that kid. Well you were. It was three years ago. But, but it was, it was so specific because I think that you, it had seemed like you had spent so much time making that live show. The best one that you guys had brought to to the stage. I wonder if I wonder if that sort of like found its way into this album. Yeah, I think that was a big part of it you know we we did. We worked on the show, you know, and the way that the show flowed together and the way that the way that the way that the performance is linked together and the way that that hit the audience, and we toured more on that record than we had on any other record before which is saying a lot for us and so we did think like we felt like we were in a really strong place band wise, and so it became a thing where let's make a great rock and roll record that is about the band less about production and more just about how we play naturally with each other. Well I'm not going to lie to you. I mean that kid was right. I mean it was the best spoon show I had ever seen and I think there's partly, you know, there's, you know, hometown element there to it. But it still was the best spoon show I'd ever seen. I wonder if you feel the pressure, the next round of live shows that when the tour starts in April is have you have you, you know, gotten up a notch. I know pleasure. We've done a bunch of shows. We played a bunch in September and October, it started it started yesterday didn't it and then we played right. A show. Was it last know the two two shows this this week in LA. And so, yeah, it's feeling good I, I kind of feel like we're, we're, we're set up and ready to go. It's, it's been, they've been some really good shows. Well, Britt you're the you're the coolest sob and rock music. I, you're, you're, you might, I'm writing that down. Put that on your resume. Yeah, I really do appreciate you and I love spoon with all of my heart, and I'm so glad you're back. I just love this album so much. I appreciate you. Thank you for saying all that and I hope we get to place. I know we're going to play near New Orleans at some point, I hope so. I hope so I will definitely I'll see you plenty of times on this tour and, you know, by then I'll have something for you other than the clash. All right, yeah, come on. Say hello for sure. Let's let's chat again. See you buddy. Thank you. All right guys there you go. Good show today. The what podcast, giving you Bonnaroo tickets one last thing to do before we get out of here. I could not be happier with the submission so far for the Bonnaroo Photoshop contest. Yeah, they're pretty great. Really, really funny. You can tell the, the artists are listeners. That's what makes it cool. It's like, is that what makes it cool or do they make you look better. Well that does help. I'm much thinner in all of these graphics. It's good to try to win confirmation that it is a baby. Yeah, some really good stuff so far I feel like to me the leader in the clubhouse is the hand drawn pictures of Russ Barry and Brad that to me so far is my favorite so even you with no artistic talent can be a front runner for Bonnaroo tickets all you got to do is give us your best graphic interpretation of the what podcast whether it be in Photoshop whether or not you drew it on the back of a napkin. Maybe, maybe just maybe you write the words, the what on a piece of paper and submit it. Hey, anything that gets our attention. Tag us in the what underscore podcast on Twitter, on Instagram, you can email us, what does the email address again, Russ comments at the what podcast. Podcast, I got it. Any sort of artistic interpretation of the what podcast will take you know what I will even say this I'll throw this out to you guys. We could even expand it to if you wrote us a song. There you go. See, any sort of artistic impression interpretation of the show. And we'll take it. There you go. What do you think. I'm in. So, submit those we still have a few weeks left on that. So put your creative cap on and submit it today for Bonnaroo tickets and camping pass anything else, gentlemen. I think that's it. Taco every time we go to Barry's house, it seems as though he's got more what podcast stickers. He's putting up behind him it's like he's just finding gear that he hasn't sent out yet and he's like, I keep pulling equipment out of trash bins everywhere and I got to dress them up with these stickers. I got, I got this really cool rack from a local liquor store they were throwing it away. Yeah, wow. And I know man the wheels alone or was the was there any liquor in it when you got it. Now, not when it was outside. When I got it home there was like, Barry, what are you doing with the liquor rack. You should see it. I'm proud of it. But what for what what are you gonna get all my stuff. I got all my, all my equipment got all my stuff. See I got my treasures here. Place for my stuff. I have a feeling all your stuff is still everywhere. Well, fair enough. Fair enough. I love you maybe. But it's more organized. Would you maybe sell some of that stuff. Maybe, you know what podcast stuff. Yeah, that stuff I need to sell. Anybody need a koozie. I am very worried now all of a sudden that Barry has become a hoarder. You're walking into liquor stores and stealing furniture. You worry about this. I'm not proud. I want you to see this. I love this. Are you bringing home palettes to. I'm not gonna answer that. I might have one or two worried about you. I'm very worried. All right. There you go. All right. Good luck. No wonder you can't leave the basement. You've got too much junk. I can't get out. Yes. You literally locked yourself into the basement based on the stuff you brought home from the liquor store. That's not liquor. Confirmed or not. Love you guys. See you guys. Bye.
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