Bandsplain - Our Favorite Music of 2026 So Far, With Chris Ryan. Plus, an Interview With Angel Du$t’s Justice Tripp.

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Yasi is joined by Chris Ryan for a quick trip into the mailbag before they each reveal their favorite new music from the first three months of 2026.Next, Yasi talks with Justice Tripp of Angel Du$t and Trapped Under Ice about Angel Du$t’s latest album, 'Cold 2 The Touch,' and the road that brought him there. Episode PlaylistListen to Our Favorite Music of 2026 So Far playlist here CREDITS:Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalekGuests: Chris Ryan (@chrisryan77) and Justice Tripp (@jurtice)Producer: Rob SundermannEditor: Adrian BridgesVideo Production: Jamie Yukich and Donald LoBiancoAdditional Production Supervision: Justin SaylesTheme Song: Bethany Cosentino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's with this band anyway? I don't get it. Can you please explain? Wait, like, Bansplaine? Hello and welcome to Bansplane. I am your host, Yossi Salick. This is usually a show where I invite an expert guest on to help me explain a cult band or iconic artist. Today's episode is about our favorite new music of 2026 so far. Also, please stick around afterward for a great conversation between myself and

Justice Trip of the band Angel Dust. The band I think is probably on both of our little lists. Is that right? My guest today, Chris Ryan? It is right. Who does not like it when I say Q1? I'm trying to bring the energy. I feel like in 1980s soundtrack draft does a little bit reserved. Well, you just wanted to like fight me over Ferris Bueller soundtrack, which was like, what a weird hill to die on. It's great to me back on Bansplain, though. It's been one week. Did you miss it? Yeah. Yeah. It's just kind of. Kind of like a new gig for me.

You know, I feel the people deserve. The gig economy. Yeah, I just feel the people get a lot of you in a lot of different areas. But one of your greatest life passions is music, and they don't get as much of you on that. So I'm here to offer an opportunity. I really like, I think this is going to be a fun one because this music year, it's still in its baby steps. It's still feeling around trying to be like, mama, data, whatever. I feel like when people are like already, like three months, and I'm like, no, but it's such a good practice because it's like doing a gratitude list because you realize you're like, wow, actually like some fucking heaters have already come out.

That's right. We're only March 31st. Last day of CR month. And speaking of the last day of CR month, I brought you a gift to commemorate. Did the gift come with this red ribbon or did you? No. Thanks. I really appreciate it. You can't give a gift without a little pizzazz.

That's almost it's a drug shirt shirt. Yeah. That's awesome. This is also the drug church shirt design that I have wanted for a while. So thanks pretty much, Yossi. It's just we're so close now, Chris, you didn't even have to tell me that because that's how best friendship works. I just knew. You see a kid holding a gun and you're like, I bet Chris would like this. It's Chloe 70. But I get why it looks like a kid. Yes, I was at the drug church show the other night. And even also before you answered me on your shirt size, I had purchased the shirt. Awesome. So I knew that you were a medium. Yeah, I like a little bit of a bag these days.

Yeah. I don't want to be all, you know, hemmed in. Smedium. Yeah. Smedium. The emo shirt. Man, that was one of my favorite parts of my chat with Alex Ross Perry is when we both talked about how weird it is that the emo band shirts of the 2000s all of a sudden, like, they

discovered they could print on colors. And every band shirt from then is like yellow or maroon or like baby blue. We used to back in the late 90s, mid to late 90s. the big move would be to go to Garment District in Boston, where it was not technically in Boston. It was in Kendall Square. And then you would get, you know, 50 shirts for $10. Yeah.

And then you'd screen the band logo onto the side of the thrift store t-shirt that wasn't already a logo. Right. So you'd have like Girl Softball and then the band on the back. Yeah. That's sick. Yeah. We got to bring those ways back. You know who did that?

The last one I remember was Warpaint. Orpaint had these really sick t-shirts that were all from like, thrifted blanks or like kind of like not really then we just turned into a nation of drop shippers yeah we that's there's a lot of merch hello merch happening out there no free ads for hello merch but that's the only one i could think of right now how are you feeling good chris good you made it about music just in general i'm feeling fine um this was a fun exercise to go through how do you usually catalog or you know basically mark i like this like do you put it in a 2026 playlist Do you just have all your 20-26 stuff?

How do you kind of keep dry on stuff? I've embarked on a new path, which is front-facing camera videos, as you might have noticed. Yes. And so not every week because I'm a busy woman, girl bossing, in the Google Doc. But whenever I can, I put a little video out with my five favorite songs. And I keep a little playlist there. So that's a good little reminder for me. But otherwise, you know what I do?

I'm a big user of the liked songs function on our employer Spotify, or Swedish employers. And a lot of good stuff in there. As opposed to the domestic Spotify? Well, I have to assume a Swedish person came up with that. I can't explain why. It's a good move. So I go back there to be like, what was I? You know, sometimes you're just in a hurry and you're just like, I don't like that's long.

I want to go investigate that artist further. But I'm on a walk or whatever. on time to look into this? I just have a rolling 2026 playlist now. Mostly because... You thought you were going to have to come back here. Because, no, I mean, usually

it's more of like a crash-it-in in in December going back through hundreds of blog posts and pages of message boards and trying to find stuff. But I think things fall through the cracks that way. Sure do. But that's the world we live in where there's no monoculture. Or specifically, there's no everyday, like, hey, this record came out. It's a pretty good kind of

media. I mean, there are sites that do that, but they're fewer and farther in between. How did you feel about Bansplains March bandness? About like the actual results or just the act of you engaging with college basketball, it's big dance. I thought that there was some really interesting matchups. Well, it was almost weird that like your like the brackets, like the matchups, revealed deep-seated fandoms and like hatreds among people I know. Yeah.

And we had like a very extensive conversation. with Bill Simmons about the replacements in REM, and he's so pro REM, and is, like, trying to tell us that, like, the replacements pulled the wool over our eyes and only have, like, five good songs or something. He was really upset that anyone

would even... Yeah. Purport. He's a huge R.M. fan. Which, listen, R.m. is a great band. It actually... I thought it was really funny, because that just worked out... Well, I guess it makes sense, because we just... It was all based on votes. So, even where people fell

in the bracket was based on the seating, the seating, which was based on how many votes they initially got when I just put out an open call for what we should redo and what we should do. Yeah. So that's how it ended up that way. Would you say that the voter pool was large? There was quite a, like, several hundred votes.

That's good? Yeah, I think so. Because sometimes you get like those surveys where it's like, we asked 11 people. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it was limited to one answer each, so you couldn't like come vote 100 times

to the place. BAM R-E-M, yeah. I thought Hull would certainly beat Sonic Youth, but... What do you chalk that up to? Maybe Sonic Youth has more iconic albums than Hull, if not? I think more men listen to Bandsworth, if I'm going to be honest. And here you are, in the paradise you built. That's so true.

And listen, it's kind of like when you look at your feed, algorithmic feed, and you're like, what, why is this is my... And then you're like, because this is a reflection of myself. Yeah. I've created it. I built this algorithm brick by brick. I built this fan base brick by brick. Exactly. Man by man.

Speaking of the fan base, I wanted to do a little fan service. Okay. I like how you guys don't do it as often. You do whole episodes around it on the watch, right? Every once in a while you'll do like a mailback episode. Yeah, we've been trying to incorporate them a little bit more frequently because I've tried to like move the communications to email. Yeah. So like it's not like DMs or like.

Like on Twitter, ask us a question or whatever. So it's like if you have like a thoughtful question, I think the downside of is we get rather long. Like I have a question, but really here's like four paragraphs about it. Yeah. Which is, that's okay. But we've been trying to incorporate them more into the watch. Yeah, and I love that. And I know prestige TV does that.

And I was just like, it doesn't really make sense for normal bands playing episodes. Just be like, hey, we're going to talk about the history of XYZ band. But first, here's your mailback questions. But it works, I think, here. So I called a few. We got a lot, actually, but I'm going to limit it. Okay. The first one is, hello there.

What's your breakdown of listening to old music and new music? As an elder millennial, I keep up with new music, okay. But then I'll find myself listening to REM's entire – Bill, you're not an elder millennial. Come on. Anyways, I keep up with listening to R&M's entire catalog for a month straight because I just read their latest biography. So no matter how much I enjoy new music and try to stay afloat, it ends up being like 75-25 at best. Just tell me it's okay, thanks. J.C. in Knoxville.

What's up, J.C.? Well, it's okay. You can do whatever you want. It's free country for now. I would probably put a little bit of like my own wrinkle on J.C.'s question. I'll answer J.C.'s question as well. But the thing that's been the biggest divide or the binary in my music listening now has become functional versus exploratory. Functional, like you're learning to put.

prep or something? No, it's like functional, like, what is a pleasant thing to listen to or a appropriate thing to listen to in a traffic jam or on a night walk or while cooking? So there's not as much like, oh, cool, a new blank record. That goes on while I'm chopping veg. We came up against us when you recommended the band Mandy Indiana to me, which I did like, but I tried to put on while I was cleaning my room maxing, and I was like, absolutely it's not.

Yeah, it's not room cleaning music. Unless you're, like, destroying your room in the process of cleaning. Unless you're, like, on meth. Yeah. So I do, I would say that, like, taking this last three months as, like, a sample size, I would probably go 65, 70% older music. And when I say older music, I would say 80% of that 70% is, like, listening to the wipers or a very long Japanese jazz playlist I found on Superchunks' artist profile page.

You know what's so crazy. we're just speaking about colonoscopy's off make. There is also an age that men hit that all of a sudden they start listening to Japanese jazz music. What is that? It's like there's like a built in year. Well, I'm 48. It just happened. So I guess it's 48. But in general, like, I've noticed

that I'm not going into jazz the way I thought I would when I was in my 20s, which is like, I am going to learn every single thing about this. It's more just like I will put the blue note box set on. and just leave it on for three hours. Yeah. I mean, that's really good chopping vegetables music. Sure, and it's just really good being a live music.

When I was cooking, even though I don't know dick about jazz. Yeah. So I do that, and I've just been really, really, really into the wipers recently. I know, you've talked about it multiple times. I think it's so cool. It's like a really cool thing to get re-into. It's not even re-into. I was, I never...

You never left. Like, no, I actually missed whatever like my wipers phase is supposed to be. And then I put it on one day, and I was like, oh, this is where hot snakes got. All of it. Phenomenal. Yeah. Also, like, some of the catchiest songs.

Awesome. Yeah. I knew, like, a couple of songs, but I don't think I ever was, like, time to listen to three wipers records, and I have been doing so. They're quite short.

Okay, I love that. What about you? Do you mostly listen to old stuff? Do you mostly, because I think the reason I said functional versus exploratory is for you, I imagine,

it's like two to four week blocks of Manchester in order to pot about it. Right. And then when you're not, listening to that. You're probably listening to like room tone, right? Like, well, I got Lofi study beats. It's sleep playlist. Yeah, I do have to listen to music for the pod a lot. So that takes up a great deal of my listening time. I've switched to listening to music on walks. I made a very public declaration around the new year that I was going to try to do raw dog walks and have not succeeded yet.

I'm just like not there, but I'm still working towards that. But I was like, okay, that's enough. Do you have a raw dog drive? Sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. I just like can't listen to podcasts anymore. It's also I was like telling my roommate Bree, hi Bree, that I was like, it's extra bizarre that I'm like, okay, off to walk and listen to like people I know talk to each other. I'm sure as you experience this as well.

So I just needed a break from podcasts. So I've been listening to music when I walk. walk and I've been trying to pepper in new stuff. Good. I'll give a shout right now because it's not going to make it on to my list because the music came out in 2025. It was like so cool. I was in Boise, Idaho. A town that I deeply loved got this Adidas, cool Adidas shirt from a vintage store there. But this band while I was there DM'd me and was like, please come to our show.

And I couldn't because it was only there for 36 hours. But I was like, I'll listen to this band called Deep Heaven. and they're amazing and I fucking love it and this first song I heard was like echo in the bunny men and I was like Do you wish you had gone to the show now?

I couldn't have They played on like the days I was only there for 36 hours so I wasn't there They came to my live show You guys, cuties So that was really fun

I do really love discovering new music Like still to this day It's the best It hasn't lost its like Sheen I also like There's something about that charge

Because like I think because if you have a streaming like a streaming music account like your kind of barrier to entry for music has now disappeared right so we obviously come from an era where there was a lot of consternation over like you had

20 bucks you had these five CDs kind of like laid out in front of you and like all right it's going to get like one or two of these which one you're trading in and out you're selling you CDs to buy new CDs etc by you're hitting up the dollar and now you can just kind of like check out everything

and I think It's probably worse for your relationship for music, but better for your exposure to more music. Well, I think it's like anything. Like, you have to have, you have to have rigor and discipline around. I know that's not a cool thing to say about music listening habits, but, like, you have to, like, give a song a chance. Sure. And, like, listen to it a couple of times and listen to an album if you're actually interested in seeing if you like it or not. You can't just, like, eh, you know, next.

So, I mean, like, I've listened to a bunch of things. stuff from this year, I think the stuff that wind up making it on my list of, and we're not even ranking this, it's not like best of, it's just like great new music or whatever, but the stuff that we wind up making it is the stuff that kind of separated out of, well, it's pretty cool.

I'll like it, you know, I like it. This is stuff that I just feel like I've now started to return to, gravitate back towards, play like constantly. So that it almost now, it's like, even though it came out two weeks ago, it feels like it's part of my life. Totally. Okay, well, I hope that helped, J.C. You have to develop a spiritual

practice around new music, rigor, discipline. Okay, next one. Dearest Yossian-C.R. My question about new music, I'm in my late 20s and in my lifetime, the modes of discovering new music have changed a lot, from burning each other's CDs in high school to the Spotify and Instagram algorithms today. Although I do find stuff on social media, I find myself clinging to the ways I used to discover new music, college radio, pestering trusted friends, local openers, et cetera. Because you guys have been privy to so many different routes for new music in your lives, what are the ones you've remained attached to? Do you still find them effective? How do you hear about new bands from scenes you aren't close to?

Great question. Because, you know, as we were alluding to, this is getting a little bit harder. And this is the thing I think with age probably becomes a little bit more difficult is if you're not going to see bands like once or twice a week and you don't see the openers and you don't see somebody wearing a t-shirt and you're like, what's that band? like that kind of thing. Like we went and saw Angel Dust two weeks ago and we missed a bunch of the openers but like what we heard was awesome.

And I got so into that band. Midrift is the band. I realized I was a little late to that party. And that was like a really big way to find out about bands. It's just like, you know, for as much as people roll their eyes of like, oh my God, there's five openers.

But like that's how you would find out about like an up-and-coming group. For me, I pretty much lurk on some message boards in our Reddit. I really love a, podcast called Axe Grind. Which features Patrick from Trurch and our boy's Bob and Tom.

And when they do new music recommendations, I find them to be really good. Honestly, also, like, there are just some labels that I really like, like, run for cover and convulse. Julius War. Julius War. That, like, I just give a shot to whatever

they put out. So old school, right? Because that used to be totally a thing where, like, a label had, like, an identity, and now it's not as much, you know? Or at least it was, like, I trust their taste. So if Madador, or touch and go or merge or whatever youth attack. Like put this out. I'll check it out.

So yeah, that's basically the way I find it. And then I am a big believer in, if they do them, the playlist that artists make that they attach to their like streaming music profile. So even if it's not always new stuff, I'm always finding new music to me from those things. And they're also like really fascinating. I always find it like this is my new way of interacting with an artist. Like rather than read a review, I'd rather see what they like.

Yeah, totally. And then I'm like, oh, I really like that stuff too, or I've never heard this before, and this is really cool. So that's my sort of practice. I think I echo almost all of those things if I don't do message boards really. Oh, I have one more thing. Yeah. NTS. Oh, NTS Radio.

Which is the online radio app, which has like hundreds of different radio shows you can listen to. Why has NTS Radio not ask me any of you to come in? a best friend set. We're available at NTS Radio. Let us do one in London. Oh, yeah. But that's like, I will listen to that all, like, for most of my driving. I'll just, like, let NTS rip.

Like college radio, basically. It's like kind of taking that place. Yeah. Love that. Yeah, I feel like I'm on board with almost everything you said. Shout out to Instagram. We also met in Boise, Idaho. That was fun.

Big Link. Big Link. That's right. I'm also going to say the uncool things. going on the artist's Spotify profile and then scrolling down to... Like, related artists or... Recommended if you like. Yeah, and like skip like the first five because those are the obvious ones and then just like get deep in there.

And then also pick their song that you like and go to the radio function. Lots of great stuff buried in that radio function. Because as much as like we can hate on the algorithm, sometimes it gets it right, you know? I also like, there's a couple sites out there. There's obviously like stereo gum and stuff like that. like stalwarts, and then there's post-trash, and there's a substack called Hex that I really like, and they do like monthly roundups of stuff that's come out. So you love that.

Then you check out Hex. And also still listen to your friends. I just want to mention that there's a whole other paragraph of this where she talks about how our last episode about new music, which was the year-end one, came out the day before her best friend introduced her to ketamine. and she was anxious, but our podcast helped put her at ease. Nice. And they listened to, we will annihilate our enemies. Cade the fuck out.

Let's go. We don't support drug use on in fanzline. No. Okay. By the way, like two of the, or three of these people were from Philly. Nice. That's right. And one from Boston.

Okay, number four. Hey, I recently moved to Philly. That's number three. Go Birds. Yeah. And was super stoked for the music scene here. Maybe I just haven't made enough connections or found enough things going on, but I'm a little underwhelmed. I'm curious where you guys think the hotspot for new music is at this current moment.

Here's the thing. I have never been to Philadelphia. I'm almost 50 and I live in L.A. So, I mean, I would say like the first Unitarian church, but I don't even know. You know what I would recommend. I don't know what this person likes to listen to. Get on Manikin Pissies Instagram. Lerk down and see the places that they've played and done things at.

Maybe even shoot them a DM they might answer because Philly Legends and I think definitely would point towards the cooler places there. Yeah. I think you probably do the same thing for they're getting a body of water. Yeah. I think that's a good, just like maybe look up a couple of cool Philly bands and just see. Yeah, follow Philly artists and then just reverse engineer it basically. This last one was really just for me. But if you have thoughts, you're welcome to weigh in.

No, I don't think it's just directed at me, but I just don't. I don't think you're going to. I was driving the other day when a Matchbox 20 song came on the radio, and I thought, I wonder what, I guess it's kind of as exclusively for me. I wonder what Yossi thinks of Matchbox 20. I'm a relatively new listener. So apologies to this has already been covered. But do you have Matchbox 20 thoughts? I'm not crazy. I'm just a little unwell. I love Matchbox 20. I think that's like like. Big link. Big link. Me and Big Rob Thomas. I totally would forgive you for not knowing that if you're kind of a newish listener. Matchbox 20 rips. And I think they deserve a re-evaluation a la Gougu dolls, counting crows. They've all kind of third eyeblind. Everyone's kind of had this so far, but people have not really spent time putting respect on Rob Thomas' name. I never really spent much time with them. But this question wasn't addressed to me. It's three.

Oh, that song's okay. How do you want to do this? Should we say our first shared one? Yeah, should we talk about some shared ones first and then we can go off on our own? Okay. I brought that because I have it and also because Justice is on this. It's Angel Dust's Cold to the Touch album. Cold to the number two, the touch, shit rules.

Fucking rips. It goes crazy. I love it. It's a increasingly rare occurrence for a band to just continue to evolve and perhaps even get better on what is this album number of like six. I think so. And if you get a chance to see them live, they are now a two guitar monster. It's one of the best shows you can go see. And this record has elements of all the stuff that they've been kind of messing with for the last couple of records where you still get.

Something like the beat, which is just like a fucking awesome hardcore song. But then really beautiful, tuneful pop rock songs, garage. Yeah, man. Yeah, sexy. Pain is a must. really makes me want to have a band because, like, how fun must it be to just get to yell your band name? Yeah. Pain is, Angel Dost!

It's fun. I love this album. I think it's really cool how much, I don't know how much diversity there is throughout the album, but how it still feels of, like, one piece. Like, nothing feels like out of place or, like, you're getting jerked around. The coolest thing about seeing them live is that, like, they can, like, they'll play something that absolutely levels the whole, the whole. space and like people are flying all over the place and then they'll play like kind of like a tuneful 60s r&B style song and you're like this this goes hand in hand yeah it works perfect yeah um yeah i feel like justice trip also like the president of hardcore um running unopposed term after term

yes yeah um it's really we can't say enough running unopposed yeah we can't say enough nice things about it yeah get get into it as i like to say And then we also really love the, so we've heard one new song from the band, How Much Art. Oh, yeah. So this is. Secondly two, because one came out last year. Last year. Yeah.

And then they, I believe, we'll have an EP coming soon. So for people who don't know, this is Pat Flynn and Sean Costa, Sean Costa from Fiddlehead. Yes. Their buddy Darren plays guitar. Maddie from Jell is in this band. And it is a rageful but hopeful. new wave punk rock man. People are always talking about like the return of indie slees.

Stay with me. Okay. And I'm like, this to me almost sounds like I'm in like the house of jealous lovers, but in the best way possible. Do you know what I'm saying? Sure. Like there's like there's like a real 2000s feeling to it. Interesting.

But for me in like a really positive way. I think I mean like for me it's like. Maybe it's just the sense. Yeah, I was like these guys really sincerely like Depeche Mode. The Cure Psychicillic First Lemon Rockets kind of thing. And then I think they also are experimenting with, I mean, we saw them live. Pat referenced Atari Teenage Riot up on stage. But it's really like this song XO is my favorite of the batch so far.

And it's like the anthem of this year for me. It's really great. And also another band that I really enjoyed seeing live. Yeah. That was like so good. And I feel like maybe a third one. one is another, I guess we have four that we overlap. Another one that's just one song, first song in five years, from Ice Age.

Yeah. What a fucking band, man. Another band, I guess, kind of like we were just saying with Angel Dust, while Angel Dust is pretty consistently released records, like, over and over again, Elias from Ice Age, has done some solo stuff, he's done a record with Dean Blunt. But every Ice Age album is pretty different than the previous one. but they all sound like Ice Age, which is kind of the, I think, a mark of a pretty great band. And this is, like, how would you describe this?

Like, kind of... It's a little power poppy. A little Manchester, too. Yeah, I don't... Like, yeah, yeah. It's so catchy. I feel like that's, like, the first word that comes to mine. Yeah, but a little Britpoppy, for sure.

Like, there's, like, a Britpop put through a weird... I can't know if they're Dutch or Danish because I would have to do it. They're Danish. Thank you so much. No, like, it's not that I don't know where they're from. It's that I don't know where they're from. that I don't know where they're from is called Dutch or Danish, but it's Danish. Where are Dutch people from?

They're the Netherlands. Got it. Yeah. That was Yossi's Geography Corner. Like the Edmary, Lushana, Lushana, Lushana. I love it. It's Louisiana. That's how they say Louisiana.

The, uh, do you have a favorite Ice Age era or sound so far in the course of their career? I really loved, like, God, what was the album that came out in, like, 20? The Sewing the Seeds? Yeah, plowing into the field of love. Is that the one you were thinking of? A little Nakey. I really liked that one a lot. Also, I might be like a little biased

because I saw them play a lot during that time. I really liked it. But also the one before is really good, too. I mean, I still love those first two albums are fucking perfect to me. Those are like some of the best punk rock, I think of recent memory over this era. But Sonic Boom produced Seek Shelter

And it has Gospelie, Stonesy Spatian 3E vibes They're just a really A fucking good band Like an old school Good rock band

With like a cool singer And just It's giving And Star is just fun Yeah It's oddly long But like it never feels long You know

Like Project Hail Mary Like I did not think that was too long I don't know what everyone was talking about it Did you like that movie? Yeah, I loved it. Yeah? I was delighted at every turn. I just like that kind of movie.

I like when they make a movie that is filled with jokes and about a person. A cute alien. A person who's trying to, like, stretch the edges of how good they can be. I know it's like a little corny or whatever, but they just don't really make movies like that anymore. It's crowd-pleasing. It's wonderful. Why can't we just go feel good? Do you have a feel-good thing next, a feel-good piece of music?

Yeah, nothing, a short history of decay. The song Cannibal World Should have played over the end There are some Like really Beautiful As you would say tuneful

Like kind of like Romantic songs on here That are like Not Drowned as much In Shugay's Gitcher You know what I'm saying It's like

Purple strings Um The Rain Don't Care Those are like really Lovely moments Obviously never come Never Morning It's kind of in a weird way reminded me of the last deaf heaven record in so much as it took their sound and kind of like it feels like they put like premium gasoline in it for this record and it's like really $9 a gallon right now.

Yeah. Thank you, DJT. I didn't need to drive anywhere. It's not overly polished. It's like they have explored like the fullest of their sound. Like that's on Cannibal World that I was talking about. like has like just insane drum and bass breaks playing underneath like absolutely gorgeous shoegays guitar and it's it's a lot of my favorite things coming together at once it's so good

shout out bob bruno um who joined nothing recently i i told you this before but this is my first real tapping into the world of nothing even though i've probably been to like 28 nothing shows in my life i was always just really fucked up and not really pain to socialize and i apologize to nothing. This is really good. Okay, I feel like that's... Those are our shared passions. And then now do what would you like to bring to the table? Yeah. So, yeah, those are like four.

I got like four or five more. I can throw out there. I'll start by shouting out probably one of the songs I've played the most in last three months, which is this song rolling by by the band Antenna, which is Tim Shogun's new band after Royal Headache, which is obviously like huge. I always kind of thought of them as soul garage punk, but he's obviously like a stalwart of the Australian hardcore scene. Australia is a really big country. But Sydney... It is big, but I'm sure the hardcore scene is quite small. And this just picks me up, man.

When I put this song on, I feel 2% better than I did before. This is one of several things that I've noticed that the boys internationally... A lot. They're in a guided by voices era. And I feel like they're processing the catalog of GodiBuy I don't know if Tim Shogun likes Godi Boy voices. Who doesn't like that by Byte. But there's an element to his voice

that sounds very Robert Pauldy on this song rolling by. And it's just a really cool evolution from Royal Headache. It's still, if you like Royal Headache, you'll like antenna. But it's like got more and more hooks on top of it rather than just that relentless drive that Royal Headache had. There's so much music that I forgot Antenna existed with love and respect. And then I was like, oh yeah, I loved cubes. Yeah.

So much. I listened to it so much that year that it came out and then just didn't remember them at all. They're awesome. So good. I hope they have an LP coming soon. I think Ian Shelton from Military Gun maybe showed me them. Really good stuff. Yeah.

Great choice. Thank you. Chris Ryan. That's why you're here. My first one, do you know this band Cola? I've heard of them And I think I've listened to like a record a couple years ago They've put out two records

An album in 2023 called Deep in View And one in 2024 called The Gloss I think I listened to The Gloss I didn't know about them It was another one of those like Random Clicking Adventures that got me here But they put out two singles This year

One called conflagration Is that you say that? Conflagration mindset And one called hedge sitting they're both so fucking good and so I kind of went backwards listening but I was like this band is amazing apparently they used to be another band called Ot

and then I learned Oh yeah do you know that band? I do know O'Otti. They're Montreal-based post-punk outfit Okay I did a little googling and learned that Tim Darcy of this band

also lost his home in the Los Angeles area fires tiny man and he wrote conflagration mindset a little like based on that displacement and feeling out of control of the world.

And then I was like, no wonder. That's interesting. You were drawn to it, yeah. Shit hit. I really like it. And I went back and listened to the other albums, and it's really good. I'm not as good at describing music as you are,

but I will say that... I'm pretty rusty. I don't know. You're kind of nailing it. Do you miss being a music journalist? No. Never. Because writing is hard.

It's also I really, really like having music as just like... Ray, a pleasure. My passion. And not having to worry about, like, does my advocacy for this band, can I get, like, published by advocating for this? Like, all that stuff was really hard. Right. Yeah.

Their album coming out is also called Cola, Cost of Living Adjustment. Let's switch it up a little bit. Yes, please. Let me tell you about. Throw me a curveball. Puma Blue. So, I didn't even remember how I found this. It might have been some.

That's my first question is. My message board spanking. How did you find this? This is a definite, like, 12, 30 a.m. put it in a playlist and then go back and be like, who did that? And so there's a bunch of different ways

to describe this group. What's not a group? It's really a guy from South London named Jacob Allen. He's put out a couple of records. I would describe his earlier stuff as jazzier. But as in honor of like talking about artist playlists,

like artists making their own playlist on their pages sometimes, I'm just going to read a bunch of bands or artists that he had that, that Puma Blue had on a list of influences for an early record Swam Baby. Okay. And when I say these bands, you're just going to be like, shoot this pure uncut black tar into my jugular. We don't support drug use on this podcast. Dilla, deaf tones, portis head, SAMHSAFA, broken social scene.

That's fucking go. Joey Mitchell. Jeff Buckley. Jeff Buckley is actually the thing I heard. Like when I was listening, I was like, oh, it's giving. is giving if Jeff Buckley fronted Portishead. That's like, that was like my thought Come on, dog. You don't want this?

Also, I was a little bit like, is this what would happen if Prince came out? If like you were to be a Prince type figure now, would your music kind of sound like this? Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think, I mean, his, so the record's called Croke Dream, that's the name the LP. So vibe. And it's

my it's my headphone record of the year so far. The textures of the beats that they come up with or he comes up with And just like the way that he like layers sounds and then there's like a crescendo like it'll be the crescendo in your headphones, but it's not necessarily like a hugely cathartic emotional moment in the song. But like he's just so good at building tracks. And I love it. It doesn't it's not dissimilar from Realize in terms of my relationship to it. Like I, I it just transports me. You know, and this is real dawn breaking music. or like Sunday Scary's music. It's really, really beautiful.

And he's a poet I learned. Which makes a lot of sense because I feel like the lyrics are pretty poetic. So shout out. Like this is really cool stuff that he's doing. This is probably my favorite of all of your discoveries that we pre-shared with each other. Because I was like, who the fuck did this come from? This is incredible. Love.

It makes me kind of sad thinking about how meticulously some artist layer sounds and stuff. And then I think I told you previously that recently I got the chance to go to Bost has this like house of sound in New York. It's like basically a showroom for their high-end sound preamps and Italian speakers and stuff. And I was like, this is what music sounds like. Apparently laptop speakers is not the intended, the way that God intended you to hear

music. Like, I think I asked for, like, they let you pick songs, and I was like, can you put on Bjork's hyper ballad? And I was like, oh, I can hear every single part of this all at the same time. Yeah. And I was like, Matt, just like, and then these people spend all this time, then you just fucking put like little white dots. Little, like, wireless. Hell. All right. That was a good one. Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to go with Power Snatch. Power Snatch. Power Snatch is the new three-song EP. It's Haley Williams' new project.

Paramour, Haley Williams. Paramore, Haley Williams. Okay. So she did this with her producer, Daniel James, who, it's the two of them. It's like a little band. He had helped write and produce a bunch of tracks off her solo album, Ego Death of the Bachelor of Party, which I also really liked. But that's, like, really pop.

This is so cool. It's three songs. D.M. One, does, the other, and hole in the ceiling. It's, I just love Haley Williams and I think she has really good taste. And I feel like she clearly like has wanted to make so many different kinds of music for so long. And it's coming out in every way. And this one's like zero belt.

You know, like obviously she has this like phenomenal insane instrument in her voice. But it's not here. This is like, I don't know. It's like really like I was kept being reminded of like Tom's diner. It has like a really kind of 90. Oh. Like, it's just, it was really unexpected for what I thought I was going to hear, and I really, I just love it. And the lyrics are so great.

There's a lyric that's like, I think about Wainsworld the way some people think about the godfather. Also, I think about menopause and my sex life. Same, sister. A sex life. I love her. I really dig it when big artists are like, I am going to experiment with, like, doing other new bands or new friends. projects and stuff like that. And I wish there was more of that. I think obviously, like, there was like a production line element to a lot of our life where it would be like,

you make this record, but then it has to get pressed and then it has to get like ready for distro and PR and stuff like that. And now I think, especially for somebody like Haley Williams, like she can just be like, I'm putting up a fucking Instagram. This thing is auto platinum. Well, famously, she also recently got freed from her Atlantic contract. So I think like, while obviously I don't think that she doesn't love Paramour, you know, and those many great Paramore records, but it does feel like someone who is doing the same, not the same, those Paramar albums are very different.

You know, they have a lot of growth, but starting at like 13 years old, and then, but this whole time loves American football and, like, hardcore and all these other things and is kind of able now to, like, experiment. It's just, I really like it. So that's my Power Snatch EP1. I'm going to go back to Australia with mine.

This has just been a mind-blowing LP for me, the station model violence self-titled, which is I believe the singer from the punk band, Total Control, and a member, or maybe the main guy from RMFC, which is another Australian kind of garage pop group. When I tell you that Total Control is one of the best bands

that's ever existed, and that I mourn every day that they are not putting out music. anymore. They're awesome. And this is post-punk, but via Crout Rock and, and this is the crucial shit for me. And. The first Roxy Music record.

Let the sax fly. I love when you just, or you're like, it's post-punk, but we do have horn. It's post-punk. We have a little bit of glam rock, and we have a little bit of, like, pure, noy, crout-rock stuff. Well, that's what I feel like I loved that. I, like, totally forgot about this because I've been closely following tabs on. It's total control. So knowing what's happening.

And I totally forgot about this. Actually, even though I talked about it was Shod DeSouza earlier in the year because we were talking about total control. And he told me he had heard that there's going to be a new total control this year. But I've not heard one word about that. But it's like this is post-punk, but it's not like steely cold industrial because it has, like you said, that glam rock. And it's just propulsive and joyful. Yeah. Yes.

And it makes it okay that they're Australian. It's like these bursts of drone that also sound kind of glammy. You know what I mean? Like that's the thing that Eno and Broxy kind of like their collision was like so powerful when they did that. This is fucking sick record. So I've been listening to this a lot. And if you are a fan of like various post punk or post punk revival waves, like you would definitely dig this. Yeah, there's no way you wouldn't like that is.

Yeah, like, I mean, like, if you like, I'd say like if you like Satisfact or whatever, but if you like Interpol or something, you would dig this. Or do a division. Yeah. Yeah, it's a great pick. Thanks, bud. You're welcome. This is, again, it's never a dull moment with you.

I will go fly on over to Ireland. Irish Zionism. Just kidding. Blanket ride. A blanket ride. Way more blanket. ride right on over to Cork, Ireland. I lived there for six months.

You lived in Cork? Doing what? Was this your abroad? Yeah. Did you like it? I loved it. Were you like, I'm home? I wasn't like I'm home.

I think in my experience as a teenager or a late teenager in Ireland, like the Irish, while very lovable, were like kind of like a closed loop, you know? They were like, oh, a homie from Boston is here. Let's hang out, you know? So it was a little tough, but I was there with... You mean they weren't, like, enamored with Americans? It was just like a hard... That part of it was hard, but I loved Cork,

and I loved the Irish people, and I loved being there. And you love Guinness? I did. I also really liked Morfis, which was Brewing Cork. Okay, so this band is called Cardinals. I've been following them for a little while. I really, really like what they do. The album that they put out this year is called Masquerade.

Kind of hard to describe, because they have a lot going on. A little post-punk, but a little, like, folky. I hear a little power pop, but as much as I don't trust my self to describe music, and everything I read, no one said power pop. But it is definitely catchy. They have an accordion player. Hell yeah. It's... I did not know that. I like this Cardinals record, but I didn't... Yeah. Because it's giving that extra, kind of like you were talking about the saxophone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it gives this, like, unusual

flavor to it. The album seems... I mean, you listen to it. It goes between kind of like, a few two polarities, maybe like more intense sort of like post-punkky stuff. The stuff that I kind of like better is like the really ear-worthy poppy stuff. That's like love songs, you know. They are Gran Chatton from Fontaine's D.C.'s favorite band, apparently. Can I tell you somebody else who likes them a lot? Who? Killian Murphy loves Cardinals.

And so if you don't want to take Yassie's word for it, take Jay Robert Oppenheimer's word for it. There's like a couple actors where I'm like, oh, I didn't know you knew Ball, like, this. Do you know what I mean? Killian Murphy's one. Right now my top one is American Psycho. Christian Bale. Christian fucking bail. Did you just see that interview he did where he was like, oh, I think my favorite album is bummed by the Happy Mondays. And I was like, okay, sis. Like, what? Like, okay. I was like, and then my beloved Dr. Abbott of the television program, The Pit. Look at this, The Watch Band's Crossover. Sean Hadassie.

Sean Hadassie. As we've maybe talked about off-mic, I recently learned that he was himself in several bands in the early 90s, although even with my FBI skills, I could not find any recordings. If you guys were in a band with Sean Hadassie in the early 90s that sounded like 20 or late 80s. Maybe he spent a lot of time and money suppressing this information if you thought about that. Doesn't mean I won't get it. But what if that like is the deal breaker of him joining you on Bansplain? I don't know him, but he feels like I am cringe, but I am free. I'm joyful in the world and this is who I am. And I don't think he would hide it. Okay. But he posted, I don't know if you saw this. It was actually last year, but it just got surfaced in my algorithm. He posted a playlist that he made of what he imagined Dr. Abbott would listen to.

And what is it? You really need to come on my enslave. Doll parts by a hole, pretty in pink by the psychedelic furs, only you by Yaz, drowned by the Smashing Pumpkins. My favorite smashing pumpkin song, bit of a deep cut. Not a deep cut, but it's the single soundtrack one. Yeah, it's the cool girl pick. Waiting Room by Fugazi. Uh-huh.

The Fear by Pulp. The Fear. Thinking about you, Radiohead. He has a lush song on here. A morphine song. So Dr. Abbott was just college rocked out. Yeah, I mean, I guess Dr. Abbott has some darkness. Sure.

And likes to listen to Fugazi. And doll parts by whole because he's an ally. Is it your favorite doctor on the pit? Hmm. I love them all so much. I think probably my core wounding is that I would still take a bullet for Dr. Robbie. Like, this is why, like, I need years of therapy because I'm like, I can fix him. Yeah.

I'm still like, oh, I can fix him. Sure. Yeah. Anyways, I don't know. Would you let him ride a motorcycle without a helmet? Let him. He's a grown man. Sure.

You're kind of falling behind on the fixing him part then. I know, it's true. Okay, well that's been the pit corner here on Bandsplay Also, we should shout out Nurse Jessie Yeah What do you think Dana listens to? Fleetwood Mac? Early 80s Madonna.

Oh, hell yeah. I think we were only thinking about that because we're doing Madonna Month. I feel like Dana listens to like heart. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like she's...

Magic Man. Magic Man. Belinda Carlyle solo records. Sure. Yeah, yeah. But Nurse Jesse has a album called Blossi. Bloodwork. Why, it's so rude that I can't remember his name right now. It's been interesting to come across a couple.

Ned Brower. It's here. I'm sorry, you're always nurse Jessie in my heart. Bloodwork is his album. Please go on. I just found out that Luke Grimes, who plays Casey in the extended Yellowstone universe, has an album called Luke Grimes. Wasn't he a country artist first? Yeah. Yeah. I knew that because of like osmosis. I've never listened to it. Have you ever watched Yellowstone? No. I'm still, I still haven't even finished Landman. I'm still like, mid-season two because now we had to stop you got us on paradise yeah we did get you on paradise which bro now we're at the part where i'm like oh now we got time travel oh did you get season two yeah we're in season two and it hasn't like fully came out yet but me and brie were sitting there and i was like these nose please he said quantum physics it's gonna be it's gonna be time

because she was like why did he see that person that he's never met i was like we're not to get in the time travel yeah so plot but i'm there i'm i'm i'm in all right I think it's your turn. It is my turn. I got to be me, and I got to say that the Zach Bryant record is just really good. Speaking of Yellowstone. With Heaven on Top is the name of his most recent album came out, I believe, in February. This guy never stopped putting out music even before this.

So with Heaven on Top is him in collaboration with a NYC indie rock band that I personally had not. What are they called? Heaven on Top. Oh, okay. And you wouldn't really. I think they add some nice flourishes, but it sounds like a Zach Bryan record for the most part. This is a real breakup jam, real collection of breakup songs. Breakup from Brown and Chicken Fry.

He's had some public romantic fallouts. But this is like, it feels tighter than the last couple of records. I'm not like a completist or like I don't have any Zach Bryan lyrics tattooed on my body. Do you have any lyrics tattooed on your body? I have the cranky record. logo on my arm. Okay. And I have a book cover of all the solid melts into air.

It's just a book about modernity. And I have that book cover on my other arm. Do you know, I have a tattoo of a heart that has says books in it? Like mom, like a sailor. Wait, this is books? Yeah. Nice. Is it a little connection.

Will you be getting any Zach Bryan lyrics tattooed on you? I think I'm all lyric tattooed out. I have a pavement one and a replacements one. And I should probably just call it a day. Plastic cigarette on this album is fucking anthem. You played it a little for me before we start recording, and I was like, God fucking damn it. Gets me every time this guy.

Whenever I think I've quit you. Yeah. He just names a street or a road, talks about smoking cigarettes, and talks about regret. It's just like so mournful, but in my exact flavor of mournful. So let me go. I saw you on a list of sick. But I don't support

Breaking up with women? His treatment of Brianna and Chicken Frye. Okay. That's nice? I support women. Yeah. I don't know the details. I don't either, actually.

I just like Brianna Chicken Fry's TikToks. Do you want to rattle off a couple more? Yes. Some honorable mentions? Well, I have a couple more real ones. Okay. You already finish your real ones? No, I have two more.

Yeah, I have two or three more. Two of these are I've talked about, so I won't go into detail. But one, you guys already know, I'm a Joyce Manor, Stan. Those are my boys. That's my Toren's Brethren. I used to go to this bar as a really good album. Produced by Breast. That's not you say it.

Brett Gerowitz, of bad religion, heard of him. And there are many great bangers on here. I'm really partial to all my friends are so depressed because it's kind of twangy. And the album closer, great guitar is just kind of a God-tier song.

It's just catchy and hooky and kind of sad and has a weird... I think Brett Gerowitz called it. called him like the Bikowski of punk rock because of the way he writes lyrics. Yeah. And this gray guitar is kind of that short story thing. We're doing a lot to support bands in their middle age, their mid-career. Do you think it's because we're in our middle age?

Well, I think it's because it's something that we appreciate is like a band that can be like 10 years, 12 years, 15 years deep and still making cool, interesting music is really awesome. Well, just to counteract that, I'm going to tell you about Lytris. Okay. This song I'm fucking living for called Updown, shown to me by Carrie Batan, the queen. And you said this is smooth brain music? Absolute brain music. It's lobotomy music.

I kind of coined this term when I started getting really into Blade. Do you listen to Blade? Yes. I do. I love Blade. But for that exact reason. I put that on, brain off. Do you know what I mean?

And it's like so wonderful. It's just like a little switch. It's a Wisconsin. He's a rapper. from a Wisconsin collective called Run Along Forever. The other guys are Ayululie,

Killed on 414 Big Frank. Just incredible. Mano Sunderson, a pitchfork, put it this way, so I'm going to use his... I think it's a man. Their words. The internet is still occasionally truly beautiful because how else would we end up

with a white kid from Madison, Wisconsin, doing drangangangue vocal flutters over Milwaukee Lowen beats? It's what I does up, down, down, up down. It's just brain off. When I really want to turn my brain off, do you know what I listen to? Japanese jazz. An eight-hour white noise playlist of spaceship sounds.

It's sick. That's so scary. That's like you might as well. It sounds like you're in hyperspace. You might as well put the grippy socks. Just put the grippy socks on and go full because that's like, that's like commitment level. I'm going to shout out to Philly bands or two. Philly artists.

I want to say what's up to the, no, say what's up. Say what's up, brother. Big Link. Nix, Nix, habitual relax EP. This is NYX, NYX for people playing at home

and who are looking this up. These are like, I believe the, I believe they are getting a body of water described Nix, Nix, as your favorite band's

favorite band. And there are like, there's like a legacy of bands from Philly like that. Bartow Pond or whatever. He was shouting out some of those other bands as well, some kind of stealing that take.

But Knicks Nix is fucking gauzy. Neil Young via Kevin Shields just like piled out anthems of depression. And I really love it when Madeline from Midwife sings in this band, but these are just awesome, awesome tracks.

My favorite on the Habitual Relax EP is a song called Nervoir. It's called... I love it. I love a little lelting shoeggazy. I like running from the cops because it's giving Buffalo Tom.

And I'm not just saying that because we earlier spoke about Buffalo Tom. I talk about Buffalo Tom almost every day. But it was giving me that warm Buffalo Palm.

This is the other example of like I feel like the GBV influence is really appearing. The other Philly artist I wanted to shout out was Greg Mendez who is a singer-songwriter

from Philadelphia that I love. He has a songwriter. from a couple years ago called bike just the fucking goat saddest KMS song I have but he has a new single out called

I want to feel pretty and there's an album coming in about two months that I can't wait for and if you like Elliot Smith or like Quiet Big Star or if you're so sad yeah just fucking yeah cry it out and then put on light dress so then smooth brain it's like when you take a Xana

Xana line um okay those were great ringing is a band that is also on Julia's War that I found via PR email roulette which I like to play sometimes

do you still get PR emails sometimes but you just like open one up and be like I'll give it a chance yeah I get a lot so like I'm love and respect to my publicist but like I don't open them all Do you have a publicist? Me personally?

Yeah no do you? No Really? No. The CR month happened just by on the strength It's a word of mouth. On these streets. It's just word of mouth.

I'm dead. Word of mouth. It's really good. It's just word of mouth, brother. Yeah, I loved, I just opened. I think I just liked the name. I was like, that's a cool name, ringing. It's a weird band name.

And it's really good. I don't know how to describe it. It's just, if you like Julia's War type music, get involved. They're an actual New York band, which is like kind of rare. Increasingly rare. these days. And Mom Donny's Big Apple? Well, in Mom Donny, I think, is trying to bring back.

Did you see one of the ladies who's running for mayor here? Yes. Not Nithia. Mm-hmm. But somebody was like, I'm bringing nightlife back to L.A. And is that nightlife in the room with us right now? They just closed takes. What are we doing?

I don't know. But I'm just like, staying open, having shows, I guess. I don't know. Going to the hills for after parties? I'm like, that's not, that's been available. No? I don't know. I don't crack down that you can't go to after.

After parties. Yeah, it's not, it's not. At a guy called Angel's house. Like in Nichols-Canon. You know? Yeah. And drink wellness shots, doesn't. Oh, I think I need a mayor to run on the platform of like, we're going to clean up the influencers.

Clean them up, do a wet with them. Like criminals. Oh, criminalize it. Like, let's like, we need to lower the rate of influencers. Yeah. I think we should also maybe ban lines for stores and. I'm so glad you brought this up. I'm actively trying.

to re-fall in love with my hometown of Los Angeles. I mean, I'm from Torrance, but you go what I'm saying. And I've been, like, having some good luck with it. You know, I've been researching these L.A. bands, the germs, the runaways, it's giving me this warm feeling of the old L.A. I'm like, okay, there's still here. There's still pockets. I'm back.

And then I'm trying to go to yoga, drive down Melrose on Saturday, a town of lines. It's just three blocks of lines. And, of course, they're always lining out for some dumb-ass shit, right? Yeah. And it's fine. but the last one I saw broke me and I was like

this line's really long what is it for oh I see a Shien pop up Oh god I'm sorry do they not just like mass produce that shit

like there is no shortage of Shien product Why do you have to line Was it like a Nathan Fielder like fake pop up I hope so okay and I hope when each of them rolled up

they got punched in the fucking face I'm done I want to love it here And you're making it really hard when you line up for Shien pop-up. Yes. The fucked-up ones I see are when, and this happens in New York, too, people line up for, like, pop-ups restaurant, like, food stores that have the graphic design sensibility of Repo Man,

where it just says, like, bagels. Yeah. And then there's, like, a line two avenues long of people. And I'm like, but there's another bagel place. There's three bagel places. in the line that is waiting to get this, like, influencer Instagram pop up? I don't understand that part. One of my most hated things, broadly speaking, is hotspot.

Like a hotspot restaurant. Miss me with that shit. I don't care how good the food is. I'm not going. It's too hard. Leave me alone. I'm upset. You've upset me now.

And I need to get back on track. That's how we got to put your smooth brain music back on. You're right. Up down, up down. Okay, just a few honorable menjies. Tiger's Jail record, honestly, not even Arbamundi, probably in the main list. It's really fucking good. I'm late to them, too.

Like, I'm so late to things like their fourth wave emo. I don't even know. Fourth Wave Emo? I don't know. But we saw them play in something in the way and just incredible stuff. Good, two singers, have a woman and a man. Really nice stuff. And then I got a shout out my new discovery that everyone apparently already knew about,

but I'm 43 and late, which was a big-ass truck. I.E. You did not respond when I sent you a big-ass truck IE's song pushed beyond the brink. Tell me all about it. I'll do you one better. Let's fucking go, bro. I just, you know. Now you're back up. Yeah, I think. You forgot all about the lines for bagels. I want to be so respectful to big-ass truck I.E., who I don't know anything about, but that's also kind of smooth-brain. Smooth-brain hardcore, and I'm so there for it.

Oh, I like the rap boys album a lot, too. Singing to an empty chair. Have you listened to that? I have not. It's really good. I'll check it out. It's really good. We'll put a link to a playlist with all the music we mentioned in the show notes so you guys can go revisit. Christopher Ryan, it's always a pleasure and delight to podcast with you.

The feeling is mutual. And thank you so much for the T-shirt. Thanks so much for having me on Bandsplains so frequently. Thank you so much for making the time. What is the future hold for us? What's the next show on the horizon? That's kind of really up to you, I guess. Do I have to wait for the bandness results?

Do I, what's the, what do I? The results are in, babe. Okay. Do you want to do R.E.M.? No. Would you like to do Sonic Youth? Maybe. Okay.

I feel like maybe the next. That seems like a lot of work. Welcome to hell, babe. Welcome to my life. I was like, whole, whole. My pleasure zone is Jimmy World. You know what I mean? Like, where it's like, let's be real.

We're going to do these four albums. Right. But then like, Sonic Youth is going to lie about it. No. Okay. No, I'm in here with the fucking Jim O'Rourke experimental EP's just getting me. You might have to do it because you're like a truther. Like you actually believe it's all good.

They, their performance of the sprawl from that the basement YouTube show or like, do you remember you ever see that? It's like the single greatest rocker roll performance I've ever seen my life. It's funny because everyone thinks I don't like them. That's not really true. It's just I've never like delved deep. Like I really love washing machine. I know that's random, but it was just that was the album. I think they're out when I was 12.

Better than the Grateful Dead. Well, fine, I can say that without even listening to one single more song. Yes, they are bravely. They are better than the Grateful Dead. And I obviously love stuff off sister and Evol and like whatever. I would just think, isn't your entire personality based on

the song, schizophrenia? Grippy socks. What'd you say? Grippy socks. But yeah, I just, I haven't, it's like something I haven't dove that deep into. So that's why And just so you guys know, one of the best shows I've ever seen in my whole life was Sonic Youth,

even without having the deep love and knowledge, because they headlined the Lollapalooza I went to. And it was incredible. Still a show that I feel like might have been a dream was Sonic Youth, The Roots in Parliament, Funkadelic, for the Roots Springfling. Stop it. Like in 95 or 96. Stop. Also The Roots, man. Yeah.

Recently, for no reason, I don't know who put it on. Leave me a one with Eric Boudoussin. And I was just like, the fucking God tear song. You know what else? Jay's playing The Roots Picnic in the Summer. Jay Z. You're a good friend. Yeah, I think maybe the next thing you'll come on is hopefully my new best friend, William Simmons, will join us and we'll do something.

I'm not getting in the way of that. That's just going to be you too, pure and unadulterated. Uncut. just me and Bill Simmons' best friend time? Yeah, but what's the, what are you going to have him come on for? I was thinking like a draft of a prime 80 year. He's really, really knowledgeable about all music, honestly, it seems, but that specific. You should do college rock draft with him.

But how do you define it? 87 to 92. Please now, stick around for my interview with Justice Trip of Angel Dust. You guys, what a fucking treat. What a pleasure to be joined by it. just the justice trip of the band's Angel Dust and Trapped Under Ice, most notably, but also several projects at any given time. This man stays booked and busy. He's not resting, his not sleeping, his girl bossing at all hours. Justice, welcome to the program.

Thank you for having me. It's such an honor. I'm such a huge fan. I know you're very busy. Like I said, you're always doing like 19 things at once. What you got on the burner right now? We got on the back burner now that while you're on tour for your new Angel Dust All them. I feel like life's been coming at me so fast. I don't even have time to process the backburner so much. You know, it's like always kind of like what's immediate, you know, but. That's a good way to be. It's a real be here now vibe. Yeah. And we've like established more of a team with Angel Dust in the last couple of years that helped me to facilitate that for better or worse. I feel like my brain's just like so focused on being creative and being a performer that again, I said, I don't know what city. I'm

going to be in tomorrow most days. I don't know what city I'm in right now. We're in Los Angeles. Welcome. We're so happy to have you. I'm so into cold to the touch. It's such a good album. Just you guys, for the record, I'm obviously not a scholar of hardcore music. So give me a wide berth here, but I want to ask some questions. So I really got into the last album as well, which brand new soul. Yeah. I always want to call it Love Slime because that's a lot. I always want to call it Love Slime, because that's the song I like off of my bed as brand new song. I like all the songs. So I've just been listening to the arc of angel dust

and in general just sort of like monitoring the situation with hardcore, if you will, as is my job. And correct me if I'm like missing some like historical strain of this that I just haven't picked up on. But I feel like something I really respond to in Angel Dust. And I feel some other bands are doing this too. but like to me traditionally hardcore music

like very traditional hardcore music isn't very libidinal right it's not what it's not like fucking it's not about fucking it's not about fucking it there's not sexual there's not like a group like and I'm not talking about like it

lyrically or like thematically just like in the music there's like a sexual element you know what I mean like the difference between like a good example is emo music emo music is not sexual yeah I feel I know you're going with this And I like, I like where you're going with it.

But I feel like I hear that a lot in Angels. I hear it in Turnstile, obviously. And there's other bands that are like in and around the genre that have sort of like incorporated this strain. And you can, if I was smarter, I could tie it musically. But it's like, but it is. It's like a groove, right? It's like how I hear 311 and Red Hot Chili Peppers when I hear some Angel Dust songs and some Derns songs. I don't know if you take that as a compliment or not.

I do for sure. Yeah, because that's shit I really fuck with. But obviously there's also traditional hardcore elements. Do you, is that something that you are aware of or that you set out to do in the music? Never thought of it like the sexual elements of it. What's the word used? Libidinal. Libidinal.

Yeah. I will never use that word again. It's like having to do with the libido. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I'll watch this back and I'll be like, make a note. But that's a cool word. Sorry.

Sorry for a big word hour over here, big nerd. I think like the thing that kind of separated my camp from heart. hardcore music. And just to be fully transparent, like, I love and we embrace the hardcore title. You know, it's like so much of who every member of Angel Dust is, we all come from that, you know. But I think like a thing that separated our team and the bands that we kind of came up with is like acknowledgement of pop music within what we're doing, you know? And I think for Angel Dust specifically, so much of that comes from Prince and David Bowie

and E-pop and I would never say that Angel does sounds like Prince but like Brand New Soul Yeah You know since we just referenced that The song Brand New Soul is a reference of A Prince song I believe is called Sister

About fucking his sister Yeah sure well okay listen we didn't say it was a good topic When it's a good song I mean Our song is not about fucking a sister or anything, but just the energy of the music and the sexual, sexuality, I guess. I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, but when you're doing pop music, there's a sexual nature to it, I guess.

I saw you guys play, I guess this is like a month or two ago at something in the Wayfest, and the way you can dance to it, and you do dance to it. That's something that there's like an element into it that lends itself to that kind of expression. Yeah, absolutely. And this is like no shots at terror. I love terror. But it's like, I don't think you could dance like that to terror. Do you know what I mean?

Definitely you're a dance, but it's a different type of dance. It's a different type of dance. Very violent way of dancing. Maybe more staccato. Like, I read you mentioned Prince in a couple of interviews. Like, that's like your number one guy. I always see is my number one. He's like just hugely important in, I think, all of culture and where we are in modern time.

Iggy's my number one guy. Okay. Interesting. That's my special intro. I guess. How do you feel about the doors? Oh, I love the doors. Okay, sure.

That's the correct. LA woman is my favorite. Yeah, that's the correct. I feel like there's people that will be like, oh, I love Iggy Pop. And then you'll be like, oh, you like the doors. And they'll be like, oh, that shit's trash. And you're like, then you don't like it. Yeah, so much cool things that came out of punk rock music, I think are directly influenced by.

This is my greatest theory is that the first punk band was the doors. Wow. I've never heard that. Spiritually. Because, like, they were so inspirational. First of all, Jim Morrison was, like, so punk in his, like, statured and the way he like approached the world but also they directly influenced Iggy to start the stooges like he saw the doors was like I want to make the stooges so it's

like you got to give them that credit you know absolutely do you think um danzig this might be like I don't know the frame of reference but I always assumed that was a doors thing you know I think Elvis too Elvis yeah yeah but I think I know what I know what you're saying though like because of the like kind of crooner vibey element. I don't know, that's a good question. We did the Misfits episode a long time ago so I haven't retained all of the information,

but I don't recall coming across much doors stuff, but I know what you're saying and I can hear it. Yeah. There's some moments that I speculated, you know? Yeah, yeah. Tell me about the guest vocalists on the album. Like, were you just kind of like these songs would benefit from an additional voice?

Did you just want to include more people that you like respect and love? What was kind of the impetus behind having guest vocalists? Such a fan of music. Yeah. And everybody who appears on the record is somebody that I'm a big fan of. And, you know, when you make music, you're always kind of doing an impression of somebody on some level, you know? Totally. And it's like, you need to have the self-awareness to say, okay, this is where this is coming from.

And this is where I'm going to take it. So you're not recreating the same. thing. You know, I think that's something everybody could benefit from more in making art is like more self-awareness. Totally. But I'm referencing a lot of my friends. Yeah. And like for example, like Scott Vogel and

like doing pain as a must and like what that song's about. And like, I just like hear I was like hearing his voice the whole time I was, you know what I mean? I'm like all I got to deliver this message and I can only hear it in Scott's voice. So it's like that kind of needs you to do this thing. It'd be really cool if you could. And he lent himself to

it and Taylor Young is like the coolest evil. I think he's like, to me he's like the embodiment of like where hardcore meets metal in an authentic way to both genres. But like that's like the most metallic angel dust song, I would say, the beat with Taylor. And like just for me and my favorite reference when I'm doing something metallic when the hardcore song, it's like there's. I can hear him in the song, you know. I think that's really cool that you are willing and open about, like, giving credit to, like, those kinds of inspirations.

Because what you just said is one of my favorite Jim Jarmish quotes, you kind of paraphrased it, maybe intentionally or by accident. But it's like he said it's not where you take it from. It's where you take it to. Oh, wow. Because it's basically what you just said almost verbatim. It's just there's no making art in a vaticated. vacuum, right? Like, everyone is kind of, like, we just talked about Iggy in the doors. Like, Iggy was taking Jim Morrison, but you can never copy someone. It's impossible because

it's coming through the prism of you and you're a different person. And I think it's a lot of people bristle. Like, I can't help it. I always describe music using other music. That's my only language for it usually. And I feel sometimes people get a little like, sensitive about it. But it's like, it's a great compliment, I think, and it's not like, oh, you ripped them. It's more. Yeah. I mean, some people compare us to things all the time that are like not what I had in mind. Yeah.

But it's like, I think genuinely, most music that people get to hear has value. Just if you don't get that value, it doesn't make it bad. It just means you missed it. 100% agree. It doesn't, it's like, I think to be the guy that's like, my taste is built on what I don't like. You're just saying that I keep missing it. I keep missing it. I keep not getting it.

I'm calling myself a musician, but all I do is lose. You're a loser. That's like, if you just don't like anything and you say that you're uninspired, you're going to make trash music. Yeah, you have to have a love and a passion for things outside of yourself in order to like have the inputs to make an output. Yeah, I have so much that I can say. And there's so much that needs to be said that I don't have to offer.

And like there needs to be, I've referenced sublime all the time where it's like a band It's like so far from what I do, but there's good at what they do. And like, it's a polarizing band. There's people who like really want to make sure that you know that they don't like or they do like sublime. Yeah. It's like, yeah, they have a lot of value. And like, I couldn't, I couldn't do that, but I'd love to, I love what it gives to people. And it's awesome to listen to.

It's funny. I talk about sublime so much just because of this. This exact topic. Yeah. But it's significant. It's cool. Sublime truth. So, I mean.

You got produced by fucking Paul Leary from the butthole surfers you guys put some respect like you think sublime's not cool you have not done your homework it's okay if you don't like it but like don't

misunderstand I think it's not okay to not like it I think you're wrong I think people are absolutely allowed to not like things my fucking beef is when people presume to have the correct opinion

there is no fucking correct opinion you know I think the only time that I'm like, this rubs me the wrong way is when you can tell that it's inauthentic. Yeah, absolutely. Like when you're trying to grift me because you just wanted to like get it on a trend

or like whatever, okay, then I'm probably like, yeah, this sucks, you know? But if someone, that's what we always talk about our band's playing, and I'm like, I love doing every episode because every artist pretty much is so interesting because they set out to like, do make something and they, you know, like, it's all like, it's fascinating.

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree with the authenticity thing. I talk a lot about that as somebody who represents hardcore to a lot of people. And it's like what defines hardcore. I think it's the same thing to defines rock and roll, punk rock, metal. It's like this chain.

But it's all the moments that we really care about and are substantial and keep the thing moving are begin with authenticity. Yeah. And it's like, if you do it authentically, and you add something to it, you're given longevity to the genre. Totally. You're the mayor of hardcore. To some people, yeah. Like, I don't know if I'm the best representative, but I do love it.

I would say I probably love it more than most people do. And part of loving it is, to me, is contributing to it and not just reliving it. And to some people, like hardcore purists, some people have a mentality of like, this is a tradition. and this is how it has to be explored, and I don't believe in that. I think that's the opposite of the values of hardcore music. And I'm just, I know I'm correct about that. All the bands that last and mean something, they all bring something new to it and do it authentically. Yeah, I mean, genre is not a prison, right?

It's like, it's a mutating organism if it's done right, and it should continue to, like, grow and change. But I guess you must come up against that a lot, right? People being like, this is not hardcore. Sometimes, like, times are changing. You know what I mean? It's like there was, the generation before me was very strict, very rigid about what hardcore is. And, like, now it's like on this tour we're playing with to a lot of really young people who are really open to be like, we love this thing. What is hardcore show us?

And it's my job. and the job of artists everywhere to fill them in, I guess. Yeah, I think that is one cool thing. Although by and large, I do like to be an old man shaking my fists at the sky about the present and as it relates to the past. But one good thing that I do like is that even when I was growing up, it was like you couldn't really be more than one thing. Like you just weren't allowed.

Like it's like, oh, you like rap music? You like rap music then. oh okay you like you're a raver then you can't listen to rock music it was like really like segmented like that and they would call you a poser if you stepped out of line or whatever and now it's really cool because I think you're right these this younger generation doesn't have that mentality all they take from everything and they can enjoy everything which is really cool yeah I mean there was something fun about that

sure being a kid and being like the term was when I was in middle school you were you're headbanger I think some areas called it a grit. Yeah. Which funny. Grit? A grit. Yeah, I think that was like the rocker terminology in maybe like, you know, the year 2000.

Oh my God, you were in middle school in the year 2000. I don't know if I was in middle school, I guess it would have been, no, I'd have been in high school then. But it's like, it's not that time anymore. It's not Dungeons and Dragons. You don't pick the character. No. It's like we all are human and feel a lot of different things and relate to a lot of things. Yeah.

I think you should incorporate all of your story and what you're making with art or what you're experiencing. Yeah. This leads me to actually my next question kind of perfectly. So I did phone a friend a couple of times to get some, like, help on this interview. We'll start with Ian Shelton of Military Gun, my son. Love him. He's the best. What a little angel.

He said, I think it's interesting to talk to Jesses about how he's been around consistently for a long time. and seen a lot of phases while always doing his own thing. He always consigns with a wave. Sometimes he's going opposite, but he's always releasing something and being really supportive of younger artists. Sorry, that's not a question, but this was his backstory. And I was like, oh, that's such a fucking cool thing to be known for.

I guess my question is, how do you, because you are seem like such a sponge and you are inspired by so much of what goes on around you, how are you able to, still when there's like certain waves going one way and that's not your wave, make something different. I have a drive in me. I don't know. It's not like just to find something, you know, and I think I get that from hardcore. It's like I always reference bad brains as being the first hardcore band. Totally. You know, different people have different opinions about that. Bad brains, libidinal music.

See, inpatient zero, it's there, right? But then it kind of goes away a little bit. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think like their story. is so based in exploration. And that's like always been my thing. It's like trying to find what's new. And like I've done some things that have influenced people and I've seen younger people take something that I was doing

and make it theirs so much to the point where I'm like, is this mine? Right. And I used to kind of struggle with that where it's like the second somebody was doing something that felt relative to what I was doing, I was like, I gotta get away from this. And only I think cold to the touch is like the first time

maybe ever in my life. where I was like, I did all these things and they're all authentic and they feel real and I can do these things in one place. And it's, you know, I don't have to run from the things that make me who I am as an artist or things that define my friends as artists. So maybe a little more organic of a process than like a, I don't know, like a goal to like rewrite or to reinvent the wheel. you know again you can't everything's referenced to something right nobody's reinventing the wheel but no but it's I'm so glad you said this because this was like totally something I was thinking about and theorizing well listening to cold the touch and I was like I feel like all your albums are successful but I feel like this one's just like a kick up for that exact reason because listening back to the discography I'm like oh I can hear in all these ones like I can hear you trying new things right I mean like oh I want to try this now or I want to try that now or this is going to sound like a replacement song. I don't know if you were thinking about that. Oh, for sure. Yeah. But and then it feels like this album is like you brought all your toys home yeah and put it in one box and you're like, okay, the like kind of more traditional

hardcore element is there, but all the other toys are there too. And it just like makes it so textually rich and interesting and also probably that authenticity. It's like it makes it so good. Sorry, I'm just like I'm just like I'm just here to gas. I appreciate that. It's good to hear that. It's like I'll say with a brand new soul. That was kind of the first time I had that goal. in mind being like, I want to bring all these things together. But our team wasn't entirely established in the capacity that it is now. And it's like my story has so much to do with exactly the line of people that I'm playing with, an angel dust.

That's where it's like Jim played in a lot of like the influential bands, just a couple of years. You know, me and Jim both got into playing and touring. Jim Carrell. One of the only men on earth who can wear pigtails and look hot. You just like, no other man can pull that off. He's great. But a great musician, too, not just. Not just handsome.

Handsome Jim, as he's known in Massachusetts. Makes a lot of sense. It's funny. He's got a different nickname in every city. And when you talk to people, or every state maybe, he's got regional nicknames. Like a criminal. And if I'm talking to my Massachusetts, they'll be like, Jim Hill, be like Jim Carroll. And they're like, handsome Jim.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not saying that. But, no, he's great. But I've been referencing music that he's made since I was a kid. And that's an important part of everything I've done musically. And Zek and Steve have been a part of our team for a long time. They've been touring with Angel Dust in different capacities. And they come from a lot of what I come from musically.

Steve's bands have been influential to me. Nick, I met when he was a kid and he like came up. He's the youngest. He's the baby in the band. Yeah. But he like came up in this world that I've been a part of. And it's like, it's very intentional. Yeah.

I don't feel like anything on this album was my mistake. It's exhilarating. It's a really, especially the live show, you guys. You've got to check it out. It's like, it's really exciting, you know? And I know that I think not every band or musicians' intention or thing is to exhilarate or excite. That's like, you know, of course, like you don't go to like a cat power show. to be like exhilarated.

Like it's something else incredible, right? And you feel very many things. But what you guys do was like electric. And this is not even a question. This is just me telling you guys, you need to see Angel Dust Live. And this line of musicians is like so tight. I mean, again, I haven't,

I didn't see the last iteration. So I don't know. I can only speak to this one. But I appreciate it. That's awesome. And that's, I think, a very definitive quality of hardcore music. It's made to be,

digested live and to be interacted with. Yeah. And again, not to just, not trying to like pat myself on the back. You know, it's like pat the team. It's like, but I think we made a record that we're like playing almost the whole record every night and it works.

Yeah. People are giving you the feedback that you so desire. And it's like, I don't know, that's what got me into music at all. It's like seeing Mosh pits on TV on MTV when I was a little kid. Yeah. And then experiencing your first mosh pits when I was, for me, I was like 11, 12 years old and being like, oh, I just want to do this for rest of my life. Yeah.

And that's it. That's all I've done. I think about that a lot with like why there's been a new draw towards hardcore in the last, like, what would you say? Like five-ish seven years. I don't know. I feel like I felt it creeping up pre-COVID. And then COVID gave it a kick an ass and turnstile gave a kick an ass. Yeah, exactly.

Turnstall gave it a kick in the ass. I felt that same way when I saw Turnstile. And I hadn't felt that for a long time. I mean, obviously, I stopped going to as many shows as I was before. But I wonder if it's about the aspect of physicality and community, right? Absolutely. You're touching other people, like literally physically touching other people if you're doing it, right? You know?

And like, while genre-wise, I think hardcore has obviously expanded all its, like, boundaries musically, one through line that hasn't left it is it's so pro-community right it's so much about being in community with other people and like that's these are two things we've severely lost in the internet age is physical presence with others and community yeah i love i love the idea of um we plan a tour yeah we announce it the main place where you're going to find out about that is on instagram Yeah. And it's like, I'm on Instagram. Everybody's doing it and we're scrolling and you see the thing and you're like,

oh, I'll buy the ticket. When I was a kid, we'd go wait outside of wherever tickets for sale. Virgin Megastore, Tower Records. You'd stand in line. Camping out overnight sometimes. Yeah, 100%. I camped out for Bush tickets. You guys weren't there.

Scary. Like, you know, you're in the middle of the city. It's like throughout the night there's questionable things happening and you get a ticket for the show. And it's like you can cut that out of the equation. And there's all these ways now you can bypass the physical realm. Yeah. But then for the people who need that, which I think we all need that. I think we all need that.

Yeah. What a better way than to squish into a little, you know, whatever, depending on the show you're going to. Yeah. You might be in a bar. You might be in a warehouse. In a warehouse. And with we're hardcoreers now, you might be in a stadium. Yeah.

You know, but you're packed in tight. It's going to be a lot of shirtless, sweaty beef. all over your body, smelling people. Yeah. Like, I missed smelling human bodies when I was in Highland Park, locked in COVID years, you know? And just longing to smell terrible men in the mosh pit. And you can get that. And you can get the microphone.

You can sing along. Yeah. You can give me your cold. I will carry your cold for an entire tour. That's beautiful. I'll take your germs. I'll take your germs. Super spread.

I don't know. It's like we're here to live and we do need the phone for a lot of stuff. We need the internet for a lot of stuff. But I need the reminder sometimes. You know, it's like I've gotten pretty beat up on this tour. I like dislocated a finger and had my front teeth, not on this tour, thank God, but I've had my front teeth kicked out seven times. Is that why those are gold?

Yeah. Got a couple other fake ones in the back. Thanks really good, though. But like the physicality. It's like, yeah, it's like, I don't know. You know, being a little kid's hard. being a human on earth, especially right now is hard. And I can just look at my phone all day and be terrified of, you know, war.

War. Just, yeah, it's dark. I could go on pretty deep. Billionaires, the Illuminati. I like to not like, you know, I don't like to, again, we can all see this stuff on our phone. We know what's going on in the world. I try to. As an artist, I don't want my imprint to be, hey, here's how awful the world is.

Totally. I do sing about it. As experience through the phone primarily. Yeah. Yeah. But here's the alternative is get into this room of people who are afraid and maybe don't feel empowered and jump off the stage and catch each other and make a new friend and fuck it. Get your front teeth kicked out of your head. You know what I mean? It's like it's better than the alternative, you know? I'm glad. I'm glad that's happened to me. I don't want to get my teeth kicked out tomorrow.

Right. Seven times I think is probably enough. Yeah. I'm at the, I'm approaching. what we call a mosh retirement you know my body's pretty battered i retired i skinned my knees in a less than jake pit when i was 12 of you guys though so don't think i wasn't a real one okay i was in there i've been in less than jake pit too hell yeah that's good i was just i could not stop thinking about not that we respect kid rock on this this program but get in the pit and try to love one another is really an iconic line yeah he's he went off this deep end a little bit in a way that i can't condone but even the broken clock is wrong twice

Exactly, twice a day, exactly. Yeah, I really like that. I feel one of my more enduring theories these days is that a lot of problems we have psychologically are because we don't have enough friction in our lives anymore. Like, it's too easy. Like you can just door dash food to your door that they leave it. You don't even see them. You don't just talk to anybody. Amazon will bring you anything. You don't have to, you work from home, whatever. Like, you literally don't have to be uncomfortable for one second of your life. If you don't. I don't want to, I mean, not everybody. Obviously, it's a privileged position, but I feel like it's, it's more and more easy. And, like, going to a show is hard. You know, it's not hard, but it's like, it's an effort. You have to go to a place. You have to be sweaty. You have to be uncomfortable.

You have to be looked at by people. You have to look at other people. You might have to have a conversation. It's very terrifying. But it's good. Yeah, the venue tomorrow, I've gotten so many people, they love to remind me. You know, it's like, I know what L.A. is, you know, but a lot of people to remind me, like, oh, it's like a questionable neighborhood or whatever.

Right. It's like, maybe. I'm from Baltimore. Yeah. And it's like, more like, I don't know. It's like, we could all use a little bit of danger. You know what I mean? Just pull up with your friends.

Yeah. Community. This thing's all about community. Go make some friends and make sure nobody fucks with you on your way to the show. Yeah. We could all use a little bit danger. I posted a story of me eating a kiwi with the skin on it, which is how I eat in Kiwi.

And I'm sorry, you should also become ungovernable. But I got all these messages from men. being like, ew, oh, the mouth feel. And I was like, men used to go to war. Oh, you're, oh, the mouthfeel of a kiwi. You got to get outside. You got a good touch grass. Okay, you brought up turnstile.

I have a question regarding, obviously, they've had incredible success. Grammy winners, Turnstile. Yeah. Do you aspire to a similar career arc? No. I mean, I guess I'm not mad at success in my life. You know what I mean? With them, I'm super proud of them.

Yeah, yeah. It's something that I believe that a Grammy was in the cards, never, you know? But. What, how cool, though? It's like they're like, some of my best friends in the world and they've, like, done such a good job of just flipping my sense of reality and what's possible. Yeah. And like, giving, literally giving me what hardcore gives people. You know what I mean?

They're effective at that. So I've never had that goal. And there was, like, moments of what I'm going to be. touring with them, like filled in on guitar for them a little bit at one point. And just being with them and moments of me being like, man, I don't want this. Like they really have to give so much of themselves. Yeah. And it's easy to see success.

I don't know if people always see how much of themselves they've given to get there. I've like heard young band say like, oh, I want it like turnstile where it's like we just do something. We blow up right away. And it's like, I just don't know a band that's sacrificed more. Yeah, also, first of all, that's not what I'm wondering. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think just, like, as a fan, like, you would see it. But then being closer to the picture, like, I just, I don't know anybody who's given that much.

Right. And so, like, because of that, there was, like, a point where I was, like, seeing them sacrificing a lot of themselves. And I was like, I don't have that to give, you know? And so it was never, I was never aspiring to what they were aspiring to. but true to the nature of hardcore music, they put in front of you what's possible. And it's like, you know, my aspiration is not a Grammy. It's never been that.

But I'm like, I can do anything with this. You know, it's like the little kids that I met when they were all babies. And at one point I would have said, that's my little brothers. And now it's like, what's my younger big brothers, I guess? You know what I mean? Like they set the tone for what's possible. And I don't know. I'm like open to whatever that means for Angel Dust.

Yeah. What is, what does your version, what would your version of great success look like? I kind of touch on it. Pain is a must, the song with Scott Vogel. It's like success is always, it's always been about sacrifice. It might sound stupid, but it's like just giving myself entirely. That's what, that's the goal. That's it. I want to be used up.

I want to like, I want to be on my seventh set of gold front teeth. Right. Used up by the art. Yeah. I want to die on stage. That's it. And there's been moments where I thought it was. going to happen. You know, it's like, I'm beat up. I'm like really physically more beat up than

maybe I allow people to know. We're going to get on some peptides. Yeah, that size would be great. Just honestly, a lot of growth hormone is probably in my future. I sing a lot about this stuff and it's just, it's, it might sound silly in the moment, but it's just, it's all that I've ever loved and, you know what, my bills are paid. Yeah. I don't need a bigger house. Yeah. I got some little dogs and little family type situation going on. And it's like, everybody's safe. So it's like my goal has just been like

connection. I guess it's important to include that. It's like we get into music because we feel misunderstood and you want to reach out and have people understand you and every night of this tour I've talked to people who've expressed something to me that I don't even if they realize they're like expressing my life to me exactly.

And it's like it's very emotional sometimes and just got to be like cool about it. You're touching them like you're giving them such a gift as well because they're also So that's, I mean, that's the greatest gift. I feel like art can give you is like you feel less alone because you feel seen within the art. Yeah, I wanna be heard and I want people who are listening

to be heard and if I can connect with people and if I can keep doing this and now don't be wrong. Somebody's like, hey, do you want the Taco Bell commercial? Do you want lots of money? Do you want the huge sold-out show? It's like, oh, it's just connecting with more people. Sure. You know, it's like, yeah, of course.

That's great. But I'm not like killing myself for the purpose of, I guess, for the purpose of success in the traditional sense. It's more about just like, you know, we're doing what we set out to do. And it's, I feel whole and happy. Yeah. If Taco Ball commercial is offered along the way, you'll take it a gorgeous side quest. Also, me too, Taco Bell, if you're listening, I'm a huge fan. I'm happy to do whatever you need me to do.

We'll take any free talk about Brain Dead. I got a new jacket from Brain Dead to me. We love Brain Dead. Madison, if you guys are listening, big fans over here. Still miss my sweater. We don't have to talk about it. Okay, you name check a man on this album a lot. His name is Jesus Christ.

And my question is, do you have a spiritual practice? I mean, not a practice. My spiritual practice is eating mushrooms and going crazy a little bit. That's a spiritual practice. It is. It is. It's like a therapeutic. Yeah. I definitely, I don't do it in a party context.

I think psychedelics have a lot of spiritual properties that allow you to connect with something greater than yourself, you know? My family was very Catholic, Polish Catholic type people. And I grew up with a lot of that stuff in it. You know, I don't think the average Christian would identify me as a Christian. Right. I don't think, I think we have different ideas about that. But I like Jesus. I like, yeah.

He was a cool guy. Yeah, like the cool guy who like. I'm really down with what he was all about. Yeah. I mean, I could get into like a really annoying non-musical conversation about. I like at a period where I was like, I need to read holy books. Oh, yeah, babe. This is like, now you're like, now I'm in music.

I don't care. Let's talk about this. You say that and like, you'll be over it so fast. No, no, babe. I'll be the last one, standing. One time, okay, this is a great story, actually. I'm just going to tell it for you guys. One time during COVID, I got a call, like a, it was like a, almost like a sales call,

but from a church, like trying to kind of like recruit. Tell me why this woman had to get off the phone with me, how she had to be like, okay, well, I have to go. That's how much I was talking to her. Okay, so I can, if I can out talk the Christian recruiter from the church, trust me, I can out talk you on this. It's impressive. I don't know if I could do that exactly, but my friends are for sure are over it, you know.

You were into holy book, so you were reading the Bible and stuff? Yeah, but full transparency. I don't know what the hell I'm reading half the time. You know what I mean? That's okay. But I think, you know, obviously, like the Bible is like there's people who like spend their whole lives studying the Bible. Scholars. But, you know, it's like there's a lot of good information in there.

There's contradictions in there. Sure. But there's good information and you should read that. I agree. Bhagavadavah Gita, it's like, there's like, good information, you know. But, yeah, not really just on a, I don't think there's any Christian who would identify me as a Christian, if that makes sense. Yeah, I know what you're saying. I think the, like, distinction is between, like, organized religion and being religious, which I kind of identify as two different things, because organized religion is really dogmatic and sort of about rules, right?

Yeah. as much as it is about revering and celebrating their God or whatever. Whereas I think like some people, myself included, I'm like, I'm sorry, like what I think doesn't fit into those rules, but doesn't mean I'm not religion. It doesn't mean I don't believe, you know. I believe in hell. Sure. You know?

And I don't know if it's necessarily something you have to wait for. You know, it's like I think some people choose hell every day. Yeah. You know? You can live hell on earth. Yeah. Definitely no people who do. name name

I'm just kidding call them out yeah I just I just clocked it because I have a I don't know I just have a sensitivity to it

because I so many people will not say God or Jesus ever in art or music anymore because we're really secular society and also I think maybe they're afraid

of being misinterpreted or whatever and so like you know it's in it's you have it song titles, let alone, like, mentioned. So it just piqued my interest. You know, it's like we think a lot about Jesus in the context of mortality. Yeah. Like within the story of Jesus.

And then what Jesus represents from the spiritual side as a Christian, as the gateway, it's a salvation, you know? And I don't think it's too literal within the songs. It's more about what Jesus represents. But, yeah, I don't think I was aware of that. It's kind of like maybe just being raised. raised Catholic and... Yeah. I'm sure you have

some deep rooted associations there that kind of of probably came out when you're thinking about certain themes and you're writing lyrics about them.

I feel like somebody's asking about it almost every night and I think a lot of people were expecting me to be like oh like, you know, born again and... Right. You're like, I can teach you

about Jesus Christ. I'm like, I got some mushrooms that we can go talk about. I think Jesus would have been down. This is always, I have a shout out the beautiful Catholic monk

that listen. to this podcast. We love you. I love emailing with him. I just, I love, I'm like really deeply fascinated by spirituality and religion and I, I like talking about it because I think people don't talk about it enough anymore. And I also kind of feel like much like we're talking about having lack of community and lack of friction. We also have lack of spirituality. And it's totally okay, and you don't have to have spirituality. It's not what I'm saying. But I do feel going too far secular has created some pretty big holes in people that they're filling in. And it's a lot of, and in kind of like not ideal ways.

Yeah. Like looks maxing, for example. That's, God is not about that bad babe. God doesn't want you to look smacks. God made you privy. So yeah, I just like,

I think that's part of like what caught my ear when I was listening. I was like, oh. In reference to patient zero where hardcore comes from, the bad brains. Oh my God.

Bye. Maybe 50% of discography. Yeah. It's about God. Of course. They were deeply, deeply religious sometimes to a, to a fault,

you know? Yeah. But yeah, you know, I mean, don't let me start sounding crazy, but I always say that. I think I think all art is about God, whether or not people know it, you know, like. Music is the sonic representation of God. Yeah, I could 100% could not more completely agree. Even kid rock, man. I feel like I've been seeing this theme come up so much.

And there's like something I theorize when I was young and I would tell my friends about it. And you'd be like, shut up, dude. But like the idea. We're just having Taco Bowl. but I feel like I've like seen it a lot like a couple different artists saying basically the same idea where it's like I don't think music is something that you're like my brain I'm like such a genius and I sat down and it's like I think like culture like energy it like makes its way to you and I think that's what God is it's the energy you know God is isn't a person with a staff or something no everything is God yeah and God puts influence and energy and There's a song that's there and it's just up to you to find it. Yeah, can you? Yeah, we talk about this all the time, especially with like really insane songs that are like really iconic.

You often hear the person say like, I don't know, just like all came to me at once. Like we had Barry Johnson here and he was talking about constant headache. And he was like, it all came to me in one swoop on the bus. It was like on the first. And I was like, yeah, that's gone. Those are always the best songs too. Yeah. Yeah, it's got just cherry picked and gave you the nice little.

And it's like, can you be a vessel? or can you not be? Are you closed off or are you open? You know? So many people have been like, we've turned this podcast off. I believe that. And then there's moments where I'm like,

was my little cherry pick moment. Angel dust punch you in the fucking face. You know what I mean? But it's like serves a purpose. You know what I mean? It's like it's community. It's bringing people together. Having a good time forgetting about what's going on in the world, you know?

Also, even past that like, it's not up to us to understand what, why. You know, like that's like so beyond our. human brains. You know? So it's like, yeah, like what God is thinking? Yeah. Who the fuck? Impossible for us to comprehend.

Okay, I got one more question from you from a fellow musician. Nice. This is from Missy, from Manicin Pussy. Oh, nice. She said, before I even met Justice, I was inspired by his output. I think he's quite prolific

and always seems to be working on something. I'm kind of interested if he has any secret projects or collaborations with people that haven't seen the light. She's also very grateful to you for letting Manicin Pussy use all your gear when theirs got stolen on tour. Yeah. What a terrible. God, a nightmare.

The thing that happened to know. She's lovely. Their band is so cool. So cool. Great people. Yeah. Really inspiring band. Also, Ian, too.

You phoned in two really important creative people in my life. Those are the ones I'm friends with because they're as they would say about you, these are lights. You know, like I feel like very drawn to them because they're just like easily to connect with. I don't know if I have anything in the bakery. I had a couple moments where it's like, you know, I've like jammed with a lot of really cool and trusting people. And you have a moment where you're like, we're going to do this thing. And some of those have been impressive. but I think it would be misleading to mention any of them.

I guess Tim Armstrong plays on, he sings on an angel dust song. Incredible. Big fan. There was a moment where, like, he's like the reason that, like, my first ever band when I was a little kid, I joined a band, it was called Destination Unknown after the Ransettison song. Yes.

And it's like wouldn't, like, absolutely. We let people throw that out there. Like, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. Yeah. Truly wouldn't. Who knows? Without, you know, and got the opportunity to, like, play with him and write music a little bit. Cool.

And we were throwing on the idea of doing an EP called Tim Injustice. Yes. Which. I say yes. I would do anything to make that happen one day, you know? S. Yes. Do it.

Yeah. I definitely, again, worked a lot of really cool people. It's not to underplay anybody. Just, like, nothing that's ever been, like, came to fruition and would be fair to to say but maybe there's a Missy I'm gonna say I'm so down

can I play like a keys or something You can contribute whatever you have to offer Okay gorgeous I'm not musical But I think I bring a lot to the table Words I'm really good with those A bit of a wordsmith

Although I have a fantasy of learning to play guitar At this age and I'm like Wouldn't that be kind of Cool Or would it be really lame. Yeah, you say that because you can play it. There's like little tricks, you know? Yeah. This will be, this is my year

for real. It's age 43. We'll get you set up. Fender would get you a nice Fender guitar. Oh my God, Fender are you listening? I feel like, what a Chason. Gorgeous, we can have an inspirational journey of it's never too late. That's the new Fender campaign. It's never too late

with podcast or Yossi Sala. You have to display the guitar here when you're not playing it? Yeah, I mean, no problem. And then we'll set you up with drop D tuning, which I think is a great The grunge tuning, babe. Justice, this has been just a real delight, I have to say. I was so excited to talk to you. I love this album.

You have a really interesting way of looking at the world. Thank you. Of course. I wish that more artists had your stance on things. I think we'd get more interesting art. I appreciate it. That's a very nice thing to say. Of course.

You guys, check out Cold to the Touch, stream, and or. purchase physically and check out Angel Dust on tour and come back next week for a new episode of Bandsplaine. If you liked what you heard today, subscribe for more episodes of Bansplaine. Our guest today was Chris Ryan. Happy end of Sierra Month. This episode is produced by Rob Sunderman and edited by Adrian Bridges with help from Justin Sales, video production by Jamie Ucukuk.

Executive producers for Banspland are Gina Dalvac and me, Yasi Salik. Our gorgeous and catchy theme song was composed and performed by Bethany Kocentino and Jennifer Claven and graciously recorded by Carlos Delaguerza in Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to our producer emeritus, producer Dylan, aka Dylan Tupper Rupert, and also the Lincoln lawyer. Come back every Thursday for a new episode of Bansplain on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. I would love to like just start doing like executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

And Don Simpson, the dead one.