No Filler Music Podcast - Dad Tunes: Dire Straits (with guest Tyler Darling)

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

In our 4th installment of Dad Tunes, we chat about Dire Straits' self-titled debut record with help from our good friend (and possibly long-lost triplet) Tyler Darling - host of I Turn My Podcast On. We dig into J.J. Cale's blues and rockabilly-infused Tulsa sound that was a huge influence on Mark Knopfler's unique guitar tone and vocal style that made Dire Straits such a unique entry into the rock landscape of the late 70s. Tracklist Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing J.J. Cale - Don't Go To Strangers Dire Straits - Six Blade Knife Dire Straits - Southbound Again Dire Straits - In The Gallery The Natural History - Broken Language OOIOO - kawasemi Ah Miracle Legion - Butterflies This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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friend of the show, host of I Turn My Podcast on, Mr. Tyler Darling. How are you, sir? Hello, guys. Thanks so much for having me. I'm doing well. I'm doing well as well as you can do in 2020, right? I hear you. Yeah, dude.

You know what? We just have to, we just got to put our pants on one look at a time. So true. And our fitted shirt. And our fitted shirt. There we go. Let's see how many spoon references we can sneak in. A series of sneaks, huh?

Okay. Yeah, you're a series of sneaked it in there. So, yes, like we said, you're the host of I Turned My Camera on. And any time we say that, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, fuck. All right, let me say it again. So, yeah, you're the host of I turn my podcast on, which, as we always say on this show, when we talk about your show, that if you don't get the reference, then you're not a spoon fan. that's obviously a reference to the song I turned my camera on, right?

So tell us about your show just to, you know, we'll let you enlighten our audience, even though we've, I mean, we've already talked about your show like we talk about it all the time. But since you're here, why don't you tell our audience about the show? Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, so it is a spoon dedicated podcast. I had been working on it for almost two years just in the background. And finally, during the quarantine type thing, you know, like everybody in the world's putting out a podcast.

But yeah, it gave me some extra time. And then just by chance, I had contacted Britt, Daniel of Spoon, just with some questions, like wrote out some questions. And it's like, hey, it's really hard to find stuff online about this era. Would you mind just answering a couple questions? He said, sure. And then all of a sudden now he's doing interviews with him. me about every single record and it turned into this fan club meets interview meets just celebration

of all the great songs and you know as you guys know you are as spoon fans um the biggest thing greatest thing about them is how consistent they are you know they just every record is different but somehow better than the last one in a way you know it's just like it's a band i don't get tired of talking about and for years was doing things online on the message boards and yeah just kind of turned into this whole thing uh like you said Travis it is a spoon reference but I welcome new fans old fans alike we don't try to exclude anybody it's just a fun time awesome yeah it's it's awesome that uh that you get to chat with with Brett about every single record I mean that's amazing yeah it's it's crazy now it's having a great time though it's been fun and and and yeah

you guys, your show is the reason I discovered it was doing research for it a couple years ago. I'm like, well, I have this idea. I hope nobody else has done it. So I started, you know, searching iTunes for podcasts and I see you guys have a series of Sneaks episode. I see a girls can tell episode. I'm like, oh, no, they've done it. They're going through all the records. But obviously, you know, you did four records, but your unique style of looking at the hidden gems between the singles. And, And I love that. So I love the format how, you know, you can cover more styles of music and types of music, right? Because you're moving through a record each episode, different genres, which is great.

And so, yeah, I'm happy to be on with you guys. And obviously, I do listen to other music besides Spoon. But the show is that, you know. But yeah, I love discovering those episodes. And, yeah, really finding out how close. we are in age based off just like the music, you know, like the Strokes, early Kings of Leon, radio head, Interpol, you know, like something. Yeah.

Well, as we, as we said last week, you're, you're kind of like the triplet, you know. Oh, boy. The long lost, the long lost self-boy. That's our last name. Well, thanks. All right, Q, what are we talking about today? This is our, what is this, our fourth episode on, on Dad Tunes. So what do we have in store for everybody today, Q?

Well, yeah, so last week we talked about Mr. Gino Vanelli, and I figured we got to change it up, get a little more bluesy, a little more rock and roll. We're covering dire straits today, which I'm stoked about. I have not given them a fair shake. How about you guys? Yeah, I mean, I confess I only really know the singles. Yeah, same.

So what about you, Tyler? Did you get into dire straits in an early age? I have specific memories of listening to them with my dad for sure. I mean, money for nothing. MTV was in the 80s. Obviously, it started earlier, but I mean, when I grew up late 80s, early 90s, was huge. So that song was like the first like meta. I mean, I didn't know what meta meant, but I'm like, wait, they're on MTV singing about MTV.

That's weird. But I definitely remember hearing. Solons of Swing, like my dad pointing out, like, listen to this guitar cell. Like, it's so, so awesome. And, you know, him cranking it up. And, yeah, I drove in the car with my dad for hours and hours and hours. So, yeah, he would pick me up in middle of the state, Illinois. And we'd drive three hours home and then the next weekend drive me back.

So, yeah, we would spend like six hours in the car just listening to music, jamming to music. And yeah, I definitely remember, again, though, with Travis, it's just the singles. Yeah, I've never did track by track. I don't think I own, I know I have the greatest hits record like on vinyl. I don't think I have any of the other studio. I might have the Brothers in Arms one. But yeah, not familiar with a lot of the songs. So you were saying that you were driving around Illinois.

Were you driving around Chicago at night? Oh, Travis. Did you put an S on that, Illinois? Travis? Probably. Illinois? Love it. Illinois.

Wow. No, we weren't driving around Chicago at night, but we were listening to the car radio, you know, just. This is just, this is going to be jam packed. You know what we should do? Like, if you're a listener out there and you can, you know, tweet at us and tell us every single spoon reference that we made, you will get something. A prize.

Yeah. I'll give a, I'll, yeah, we'll have to do like a spoon. vinyl giveaway or something. I do have records to give away for my show, but we can, we'll do something. We'll make it fun. I mean, you don't have to tell us. You can always take the fifth, you know? That's always an option.

Always an option. Okay, so, so dire straits, I feel like everyone knows a dire straight song. We say this a lot. Like, this is one of those bands, you know dire straits, even if you don't realize you do. and what's funny, the three, like, huge hits that come to mine for me were all on brothers and arms, which is an album of theirs that came out in 85. Okay, what's the other one? Because for me, it's, for me, it's the three dire straight song are Solans of Swing, Money for Nothing

and Walk of Life. What's the other one you're thinking of? So far away. So far away. Such a good song. I don't know that one. I mean, by title, but like you say, I probably know it. I just don't know that.

It's got a lot. I mean, it's way more slow kind of a, almost like a, you know. I'll have to check it out. It's a great song. But yeah,

that's the thing that's so weird about them. Like you're saying, you probably know them and you don't is to me, my mind, the three biggest singles are Saltons of Swing, walk of life and money for nothing. And they sound like three completely different bands. Like,

totally. It's crazy to think about how, you know, obviously the one was earlier in their career. But Walk of Life sounds like a Bruce Springsteen sound. Like as a kid, I thought it was like, I thought it was Bruce Springsteen as a kid. Yeah, like the synth. And then, yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, you're right. It's definitely has a Bruce Springsteen vibe. As a kid, I always thought it was Bruce Springsteen. I always thought it was actually saying the walk on by. I thought it was like a dance move or do the walk on by. And I thought it was so weird like like he's bobbing his head. walking around. I had no clue. That's the dance that Courtney Cox was doing in the Bruce Springsteen video. She was doing the walk-on by. So today we're going to, we're actually going to jump back

to their self-titled debut record, which came out in 78. So, and that's where Salton, Salton's of Swing pops up on. So let's name off the roster real quick. We've got Mr. Mark Knopfler, and that's a hard last name to say. It's the last time I'm saying it. I made sure that's how you say it. It's got a P and an F. Knopflur. You can't say it fast.

Knopflur. He's the main singer, songwriter, lead vocals, lead guitar. Got his brother David on rhythm guitar, John Ilseley on bass and pick withers on drums. So that was the lineup in 78 or when they first started. And I'm going to talk briefly about an influence on Mark and the band. It's a guy by the name of J.J. Kale. Have you guys heard of this guy?

I feel like he came up when I was doing research for another artist that we covered. I don't remember. Maybe possibly Kings of Leon, actually. That's very possible. So specifically, I'm going to dive a little bit into the Tulsa Sound. talking Tulsa, Oklahoma. This was a kind of like a style of,

it's like a blend of country, folk and blues, a little bit of jazz, rockability kind of stuff. It's this like signature sound that comes straight out of this one little town in Oklahoma around the late 50s.

And J.J. Kale is one of the big names that comes out of Tulsa. and he had a huge influence on how Mark plays guitar and on kind of how he writes songs too. You can definitely hear the influence. I want to play a quick song from Mr. J.J. Kale. So his first album came out in 1971. It's an album called Naturally. So I'm going to play a little bit of a song off of that record.

It is track three. The song is called Don't. go to strangers. If I'm standing in a crowd and call my name, called in love. Man, I could listen to that all day. What dire straight song was that again? Yeah, right, exactly. That intro sounded like it could be off this record.

I mean, besides the vocal. Totally. For sure. Yeah, so he's quoted as having this relaxed groove in like in like his vocal delivery and kind of the way he plays guitar, it's just kind of like, I don't know, like laid back and easy, breezy. It just kind of exuge, like, cool, you know, like, yeah. Yeah, so, so another artist that is, like, heavily tied to the Tulsa sound, who actually isn't from Tulsa, but Eric Clapton. And he actually, so, you know Clapton, the Clapton song after midnight?

Oh, yeah, we're going to let it all hang out. We're going to let it all hang out. That's a JJ Kale song. Oh, wow. really? Okay. Yeah. Another thing that goes hand in hand when you think of Mark Knoppler, God damn it, Knopfler is his his finger style of guitar playing. Right. Yeah. Tyler, I know you play guitar. Do you ever mess around with trying to do finger picking stuff? Yeah, for sure. I mean, mostly on electric, or I mean, on acoustic. Yeah. You know, when I play electric, I'm more of like a,

I don't know, I try to, finger picking is more to me. Like, a lighter acoustic style. And then when I play, I usually play with a pick and I play electric. But yeah, he would, so when I watch some videos and right. Yeah, he's he's finger picks. Same with like even money for nothing. It's a finger picking. Yeah.

Style on the electric guitar. Yeah. It's great. He's like such a unique guitar player. Yeah. So for people out there that are listening that aren't too familiar. with how like that style of guitar playing sounds like. I'm going to let Mark kind of explain it and play some guitar for us.

So I've got a clip from a documentary called Soundbreaking, which I think it was originally aired on PBS a few years back. Really awesome music documentary. He's interviewed on one of the episodes. So Travis, why don't you cue that up? Do you start doing this slow? thumb and finger thing. And you start, you're dribbling about trying to make sense of it.

The breakthrough really comes when you can get your thumb to play four beats to the bar on the bottom strings like this. And then your fingers are supposed to fit in with that. This is a clever trick if you can do it. But once you start to be able to pick a little tune out in a chord, get the rhythm going, and you can just hold a chord with a left hand, like a C chord there. And you can go... Which sounds quite a lot, really.

It's kind of impressive, considering the fact your left hand's not doing anything, it's just holding this chord. And then the idea is that you can go on developing that and then maybe pick out a little bit of a tune at the same time. So you're accompanying yourself. You know, and so pretty soon you're starting to get quite rhythmic and get so that you're playing a little bit more like a barrel house piano player or something. And it's almost like a piano with a left hand and right hand going all at once and it's getting some rhythm to it. Yeah, that's really cool.

So, like, what I wanted to talk about this specifically, like, how he as a guitar player brings so much, like, twang to rock and roll. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Like, especially, like, showcase there, like, it doesn't sound, he's not playing rock at all. No. But that's what makes Dire Straits so cool is that it's undeniably rock and roll, but it's also got this, like, like that folk inspired bluesy kind of stuff, which he lifted from JJ Kale, right?

Totally, yeah. It's cool, man. Yeah, and it's funny how he says, like, you know, it sounds impressive like you're doing a lot, but like I'm not even moving my left hand around. I'm just like holding the cord there. And with that finger style, you can do so much with it. Right.

For sure, yeah, it takes a lot of touch. You know, that's the thing. It dynamically you can do a lot with your right hand when you're doing finger picking that you just you can't do with a pick yeah you can still you know obviously like the solo on sultans a swing is a lot of left hand but he's using the right hand to just do so much more than you know like sweet picking or any kind of picking but yeah that's a that's a talent for sure my speaking of dad tunes i remember for sure listening to my favorite and like classic rock is fleetwood max big love have you guys heard the

Lindsey Buckingham solo where he's just it's all right hand and then he sings have you know that song or no not off the top of my head but but you're saying that he does it all with just one hand the solo or he does some little bit of left hand movement but there's so much to the right hand to that finger picking that's just marvelous you know and it's three chords but it's just it's insane how much yeah yeah like like in that

clip of Mark talking it's his right his thumb is going you know back and forth on the base notes. Yeah, it takes a lot of practice and takes a lot of coordination for sure. Yeah, definitely. All right, let's jump into our first tune. So, again, we're covering their self-titled album from 78. There were two, three singles on this record. The first two tracks down to the waterline and water of love, those are A and B sides on a single. And then, of course, Sultons of Swing, which brings us into side two of the record. We're going to play track four first, This song is called Six Blade Knife. It's kind of like the JJ Kale song.

Like it's just fucking cool. Yeah. I know, man. It's just got this vibe to it. So here's, okay, I've been wanting to bring this up all evening. So here's, so, Q, you sent me this song earlier in the week and said, hey, check out this song that we're going to talk about. That's exactly what I did, dude. And I immediately thought of.

Mark Lanigan. Ooh. Yeah, dude. Am I right about that? Absolutely. So, Tyler, are you a fan of Queens of the Stone Age? Yeah. Are you a fan of screaming trees?

I think I've actually heard you guys talk about it, but I'm not familiar with it. So anyway, so Mark Lanigan, he was a lead singer for screaming trees, which is like a grunge band, psychedelic grunge band from the 80s. but he also sing on a number of tracks that appeared on songs for the Dead, you know, the Queensland's Stone Age record where they blew up, basically. Damn it, I do it every time, dude. I fucking do it every time. Songs for the deaf.

And I think he may have shown up on the record after that, which was Lullabies to Paralyze. Yeah, yeah. We got that one right. Totally. Anyway, but yeah, he's got that really cool, like, baritone. gravelly, scratchy kind of voice, right? And I feel like Mark Lopper has a very similar, similar voice.

But dude, also, just some things I noticed when I was listening. I feel like the way he accentuates the F and knife almost kind of makes you think of getting stabbed, you know? Oh, wow, dude, I felt that, man. When you said that, I felt it. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Boom.

I notice he does that on like S's sometimes, too. He's like, he's like a slithery snake. Yeah, exactly, dude. As far as vocals, though, for me, I sense Bob Dylan as an influence, like the way he sings, which is so funny, right? Because we have his voice talking, he's a British dude. And he's like, they're so influenced by the, like, you know, so many things, right? Jazz, rock.

But the folk, like, for me, I always think of his voice as a younger Bob Dylan. I'm a big fan of like current Bob Dylan voice. Oh, dude, he sounds like a dying goat, man. Wow, it's, I mean, I'm not going to talk bad. He's a great song writer, but I can't imagine going to see him live. I saw him live when I was living in Austin, so this was probably back in like 2006. Not great. I mean, I didn't go to a Bob Dylan concert.

He was just at, I think it was. 14 years ago. Yeah, dude. He was not sounding good 14 years ago. No, he wasn't sounding good 20 years ago. No, I mean, that's crazy. I'm sure there's people that love them, which I mean, I love it 60s and 70s stuff. Same.

He's a living legend. Yeah, for sure. He's great. And, uh, but yeah, that's where like we talked about the guitar influence and the sound. Um, for me, that's what I hear when I hear his vocals is very influenced by that. Totally. And like Mark is just like coming in with this like confidence, you know? And like the way in like his vocal delivery and just like his song, like his story.

storytelling. That's what's so great about this record, especially being a debut record. It's just oozing with cool, you know? Yeah. And I think the, like the sound of that song in particular just makes me think of like, you're sitting around like a campfire at night or something like that. You know what I mean? Yeah. And he's just like telling you this tale. I'm not even sure what the lyrics are about, but that's just the imagery that I get. Yeah, I'm not sure what it is either. For me, knives only have two blades from when I, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Two-sided. double edge. It just tells you how dangerous this particular

is. Yeah. How do you transport it? Like usually a knife. Where do you hold it? I see what's going on here. All right. Let's break the lyrics down. Check this out. Okay. Now it all comes together. He says here. He's talking about, I think he's talking about a lost love or getting his feelings hurt perhaps. He says, your six blade knife

can do anything for you, anything you wanted to, one blade for breaking my heart, one blade for tearing me apart. See, now I don't know if I want to know the lyrics anymore because now that sounds like an emo song. What are the other four? Yeah, what are the other? I don't know if he gets to the other four. He doesn't even get to it. Interesting. So he only tells us about two of the blades. Well, that's all it took, dude. And he was, you know, that's all it took. I guess he kind of infers what it does. He says he takes away my mind like you take away the top of a tin when you come up from behind and lay it down cold on my skin whoa oh what's he talking about you took a stone from my soul now that makes me think of a spoon reference it makes me think that they want my soul somebody somebody wants his soul when i was

lame just so you could make me tame okay so he's talking my love it's a it's a heartache song much like many other rock song that came before it, you know, totally. So like your Van Halen's episode, they were ain't talking about love. And this is all he's talking about is love. This song is talking about is love and heartache. Is Dyer Strait's metal? Is Dyer Strait's metal? Travis?

No. They're not? According to Wikipedia, no. It is not. But, oh, okay, no, mine. I was like, wait a minute, here's the word battle, but I was on the Queens of the Stone Age Wikipedia page. So, never mind.

Anyway. All right, let's play the next song on the record. All right, this song is called Southbound Again. I mean, it's such a different vibe than the previous track we played, you know? Yeah. And you can't help it, but sway a little bit, you know? Hopping and squirming, dude.

Can't help it. hopping and squirming. Yeah, dude. That's a funky one. Yeah. I thought of like a Stevie Wonder almost, like the intro something. It could be like a Stevie Wonder tune or something. But then I can see that.

But then the guitar comes in here like, oh, yeah. We're in a blues. Oh, yeah. It's Markenopler. Yeah, but. Magnop. Markenop. P.F.

Chings. Oh, whatever. Trevice, you disappeared. Yeah, your vocals are gone, brother. They're right there. Are the waves moving on your end? The waves are moving on my end. They're not moving on my end either, but it does say recording in progress.

Okay, cool. Yeah, we've seen that sometimes with Zincaster, just like, you know, and then we freak out, and then they're always there at the end. The opposite of Zen is when you freak out. Yeah, I'm not feeling very Zen right now. Freak out, Caster. But unbeknownst to you, Tyler, we're actually recording this in garage, band as well separately. It's a backup.

Yeah, we do it as a backup. And then our vocals come in much cleaner through our own devices. Yeah, it's basically our way of ensuring that we sound better than our guests. That's right. Of course. I'm also doing a, I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm actually in a professional great studio in downtown L.A. And that's my backup.

So I actually have a guy in the control room right now shaking his head saying my levels are great. and I'm in a $10,000, $10,000 condenser mic, but. Oh, I thought you were going to say that you were in a cubicle, because I think that's what you said earlier, that you're just in the, you know, high quality cube. That's what our producer calls it. He calls it the cube. Oh, yeah.

A big cube. Like, step on into the cube. Hey, Rick, Rick Rubin, he did say hi. He said to say. Oh, Rick? That's okay. Beastie boys. Go ahead.

Sorry. So everything's going to be like in reverse and shit. It's, yeah, he's got the JZ settings on the mic from the JZ record. I can't wait to hear what this is going to sound like. So Southbound again, you know what I love about it? Kind of every now and then throughout the verse, it's almost like he's doing like a little duet with his guitar. You know, he lets his guitar sing every now and then.

That is the mark of a good guitar player. You said Mark, how vocal. That is the mark. Oh boy. is the Mark Knopfler of a good guitar player. Ooh, dude, you said that last name beautifully. Say that again. Are you messing with it?

No, dude, it sounded beautiful. It sounded so natural. Yeah. Knopfler. Whoa. You nailed it. Knocking it out of the park, brother. But speaking of the guitar,

I'm a big fan of Fender guitars. So to me, you'll hear that. Like, you hear it the strat, like, for sure. Like, oh, that's, that's a, that's, that's, that's, Strat right there. I think at this time, the rhythm guitars was playing a telly from the live things that I watch. Nice.

But it sounds like a southern rock like in the America, right? Like in the 70s. Yeah. It sounds like a Southern rock band. I was thinking of like Zizi Top a little bit maybe. Oh, yeah. Totally. Which is a Texas band.

You know, they're out of Houston. So they've mastered that southern blues kind of sound. Right. That was going on in America, you know, despite like in the U.S. K, you know, the sex pistols and like punk was happening, you know, in the late, this era. And they're like, no, we really dig, you know, that southern rock meets jazz and blues. And yeah, so they were in amalgamation of all that. All about that Tulsa sound.

Tulsa, baby. All right, so we got one more song to play. We're going to skip over Soltons of Swing. We're going to play track seven. This might be my favorite. So specifically, I'm going to focus on just the guitar. I've got like a few seconds worth of the verse leading into the chorus just to kind of give you some context. But anyways, this is track seven. It is called In the Gallery.

All the phonies and all of the... While they're dealers, they get together, then they decide who gets the brakes. Are you guys familiar with Guitar Face? Who? No? What? It's not like a name of like just the faces that a guitar player might make. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure, sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah. Like, if you look up John Mayer, guitar face, you'll find some good photos. He does, like, a lip quiver. Yeah, he does also. He's got a legendary guitar face, yeah. Yeah, one of the points I was trying to make was, like, listening to that song,

like, I involuntarily made guitar face, you know what I mean? Like, while I was listening to some of that solo. Let me tell you, brother, I was doing the same thing over here, man. I was making guitar faces left and right. Like, I could feel it, man. I could feel it, man. I could feel it, like, it just, like, comes out of nowhere, and you just, your face starts to contort and you can't help it.

Yeah, I did. At least, maybe I have a problem that I need to go get that check out like that, but. No, I was doing it too, man. Yeah, I'm just amazed at how dirty he can, he can get that clean guitar tone. You know what I mean? Like, it sounds dirty. But it's, and that's what I love about his guitar playing. It's like, he almost never touches that, or at least on this record, he doesn't really

touch that distortion or the gain almost at all. It's such a clean tone, you know? Yeah. But it sounds killer. Right. Yeah, you don't, you don't, he doesn't have a bunch of pedals and effect. I mean, there's some effects, you know, but yeah. Right. Like, it just sounded like midway through the, through the solo, he just flipped from the bridge to the neck pickup to give it a little bit of a different twang, but yeah, a little bit of a spin on it. Nothing crazy. It's all technique, you know. Yeah, but I, you know, it's, it sounds, I mean, it is, it's so clean, but at the same time, it's also like very dirty, if you will. Right. But that's just the way that, that he's, that he's, you know, that's just the way that he. he makes that guitar sing and for me man i the rhythm section in that song is just so awesome dude like the drumming i love that drumbeat um just like the do do do do you know i love that i wasn't

even paying attention but i i don't think i even knew that there was a drummer because i was so busy like focusing on the guitar player how how dare you sir okay have you guys seen them live have you guys or i'm not like in person but have you have you looked up the live so there's like a 10 minute live version of Sultans of Swing. And the drummer is nuts. Like he's, it's crazy. And I'm like, oh, some of the stuff he does in that song is amazing on the on the track. So I can't imagine live what he does. It's like the complete opposite of like a, you know, a just a backbeat drummer. It's like every he's doing so many fills. He's nuts. They're going to. Yeah, I was going to say, there's a particularly drum fill in that song that like blows me away every time I hear it.

Yeah, he's awesome, man. But no, dude. I, I, I love that song, man. And even just listening to just the guitar solo, you can get a good feel for the overall vibe of that song. It's kind of in the same vein of Six Blade Knife. And like, I don't know, just it's almost like you, you know, bust through the swinging doors in a saloon, you know, which is funny because the next song on the record is called Wild West End.

So would you say, like, listen to this full record in context, it's like a pretty chill record, right? I mean, there's some moments where they, like, kind of go to town. It's overall chill. Like, it's kind of a head bobbing. And then, yeah, right, when you hear the guitars break, like, oh, man, this is, okay, wow. And then you just kind of go back to pretty chill. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's definitely.

You know what that is, guys? That's the Tulsa sound. Really? It's that relaxed, like, jazzy rockabilly stuff. Yeah. All right, Q, so that's all you had for us, right? That's it, man. Yeah, that is our.

look at dire straits. I will say dude, I think, like I haven't listened to the record, but I think you picked three really good tracks for us to listen to, because they all sounded slightly different. I think it showcased a good range of the type of

sounds you're going to hear from Mr. Mark Knopler. Ooh, beautiful. Nailed it again. With that last year. I'm on a roll. I'm on a roll. I'm actually just hitting play on the recording of So I'm saying it perfectly.

Like I'm timing it perfectly. So earlier today, you were sitting in front of a mic going, Knop, not, not, not flur, not, nope, didn't get it the time. Knopflare. Yep. It took me like 50 takes, but I got it. That's peeking behind the curtain, dude. The human torch was denied a bank loan.

The, the arsonist has oddly shaped feet. There you go. So the funny thing is our dad, you know, as you know, as you know, if you listen to some of our shows, like he. I love the episode. So the one recent with the cars and your dad, it's awesome. So he has, you know, he was on the radio back of the day. So like when we first had him on the show, like before we hit record, he was legitimately

going through like his vocal exercises from back in the day. And for, and we were, you know, we hit ourselves for not having that recorded because we weren't recording it yet. But yeah, it's lost forever. What did he say, Travis? What was it? I think he was just doing the whole unique New York thing, you know, like all. that kind of stuff.

Unique New York. Yeah, exactly. And he had a couple other ones, but yeah. That's amazing. It's like this isn't, this isn't the radio dad, but we appreciate the evidence. I love that. I love that spirit, you know? He took it as like serious.

Yeah, because I mean, this is kind of the next step after radio. So, I mean, that's our dad. That's our dad. Always, always taking it to the next level. Yeah, you know all about him as the third, third triplet. That's, yeah. The third triplet. Isn't that?

Yeah, it's redundant. It's redundant. So yeah, Dyer Straits, I listen to their next two albums going on the line, Communique, which came out in 79 and making movies in 80. And yeah, a lot of it is that more relaxed, like, kind of chill vibes. That's kind of what they're going for. I didn't get all the way down to Brothers and Arms, but I mean, that's like they're major, major, yeah, and that's mid-80s.

But yeah, they're one of the, actually, so Brothers in Arms, that's one of the best-selling albums of all time. I believe it. Yeah, dude. And they're one of the most successful recording groups of all time. So, again, if you didn't think you knew dire straits, you do. And everybody knows. Yeah, everyone knows dire straits. So that's it, guys.

let's jump into the What You Heard segment. And it's always fun when we have a guest on to, that they can bring their What You Heard to the table. So this is our segment when we bring a song to the table, something that we heard in between recordings. Should we let Tyler go first, Tripp? I think that's the polite way to do it, let the guest go first, you know? Absolutely.

Okay, so. Live from the cubicle. Hey, Rick, I got a little too much snare in my headphones. Can you? Okay. Sorry, Rick Rubin had the... Who's playing the drums? It's famous studio musician Jim Keltner on the drums.

That's not even a big deal. Let me just Google that real quick. He usually hangs out in the studio, but yeah. Okay, I'm sorry. So let's do a clean. Let's do a clean non-nonsense intro. Okay, so from my watch you heard, I am picking a song by the band called The Natural History. I just started listening to some of these songs within the last week.

week or two as I got into the bass player, Julian Tepper wrote a book about making their second record. And as I did a little post about it and lots of people did not know that they were the ones who wrote the song, Don't You Ever. So it is a Spoon related band, but I was obviously not going to come on here and play Spoon. But yeah, so they're an interesting band. They're from New York in the early 2000s. So we think of the strokes. We think of Interpol, you know,

the Walkman, a bunch of bands. Totally. So to me, you can hear it. Like, there's like a New York indie rock, DIY sound. But to me,

out of all those bands, they have a very British invasion vibe, like more than any of those guys. I mean, they don't sound like a band, like the Beatles or anything. But their courses are really hooky. And then their bridges will be something else and their verses are more like post-punk-y.

But it's a great record. I picked a song off their debut. The whole record is 11 songs and 28 minutes long. So it's like a no-nonsense post-punk, you know, rock album. Straight to the point. Yeah. And this one, so the second record they released had the don't you ever on it. But this is a song called Broken Language.

And from what I know, I think you guys will like it. Okay. All righty. Here we go. Broken language by natural history. Did I say that right? Yeah, the natural history. The natural history.

They're nice guys. They're not going to, they're not going to care. Man, that's a great song. Loved it. So that reminded me of the hot, hot, hot, heat singer. Are you familiar with them, Tyler? For sure, for sure. Yeah.

A little bit. Good night. Yeah. How high heat was big in high school, like 2003, 2002, you're right. And also like that guitar, dude, that was very Brit Daniel. Well, I was going to say, like, I was looking at, I was looking up the, kind of like the timeline of these guys. They started in 2001.

So they, so what's the connection between them and Spoon? Did Spoon just hear them and decide to cover Don't You Ever or? So they, they heard them. They liked them. They actually had them on their, started with, I think they were playing in the before shows on like a, you know, Spoon or a lot of bands are like house music, but they always pick the music. Okay. So I think it started with them having them on the playlist. Then they toured with them.

They toured with natural history. They opened for The Spoon. And they did like multiple tours with them. And so what happened was Britt Daniel, lead singer of Spoon. And this guy is named Max Tapper, who's the singer-songwriter. writer. When Brit was writing Gimmie fiction and then they were writing the second record, they were sending demos back and forth

to each other. And like, they were both working on records, so they were communicating, saying, how's this, how's this? You know, and so Britt actually liked the demo of Don't You Ever, and then he recorded stuff on top of it, sent it back to Max. But the natural history

took a really long time to put out this second record. Like one of the guys left the band, they were kind of like slowly breaking up, unfortunately. their record label ended up they wanted to get it better record label basically but um didn't work out and they ended up just self-releasing the album actually right around the time spoon released gag guy guy guy guy so they definitely have a really really interesting connection you know what I mean like there's no other band that I know of where yeah he like covered a song that wasn't

released yet and they said it was cool but they did release it and um it's difficult and um it's different though. I mean, their version has different lyrics because Brits cover was based on like a demo. Okay. Interesting. Oh yeah, there's all kinds of little details. It's pretty neat. Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. I did not know that up until recently. All right. Q, do you want to go first or I should say second? Between the two of us, do you want to go? I'll go. I'll go. I got you. All right. So this is a Japanese experimental. Cigarette case. Ooh, nice. Slick,

Snick into it. This is a band called O-O-I-O. That's how you say it. Two O's and I and two more O's. Q, can you pronounce that for it? Say it again. Yeah, it's O-O-I-O-O. Okay.

So they've been around since the mid-90s, and as soon as I heard it, I was very much reminded of can specifically like tagomago can okay who we talked about i think that was our sidetrack for one of our spoon episodes was yeah was that that record yeah so like the prog rock kind of stuff very like avant-garde um so this is actually they just released a new album and this is the first one they've released since their uh lead singer died back in 2015 so like i said they've been around since the mid-90s and this is an album that just came out earlier this year.

It's called Niji Musi and I, who I'm sure I messed that up, friends. Damn, you should have just picked a different as well. Wow, horrible pronunciation and then a bomber like, oh, the guy's dead. He just died like, wow. You know what, guys? We're trying to have fun here, Q. I'm done. I'm done.

Sorry. Sorry. I'm done teasing you. So with this song that I'm playing, I'm going to actually fade it in like two or three minutes into the song. So it's pretty repetitive. You know, think Prague rock, think can, that kind of stuff, you know, very rhythmic. So we're going to fade it in like two, three minutes into the song.

So this song is called Kawasimia. So Q, what year did that come out? That's a brand new song. Just came out this year. A brand new song. Okay. It totally sounds like a can for sure, like a 70s, yeah, for sure. Totally, yeah.

Well, what I was going to say is like that sound is definitely making a comeback. But I mean, yeah, I mean, I guess if that's a brand new song, like, because, you know, there's psychedelic bands are all the rage right now. So, like, you know, I was reminded of here's another band that we're not going to say the name right, but Kika Gaku, Moiru. Oh, yeah, dude. You know what I mean? Like the same kind of vibe, right? Yeah. And in this band, and they've been around since the mid-90s.

So keep that in mind. Yeah. So, yeah, there you go. Yeah. So they've been doing this for a while. I've been doing it for a while. Good stuff. So that song is eight minutes long.

And it's very repetitive, but it's really cool how they kind of slightly build on each repetition. And then they kind of, and then they break it down with that little, like, jazzy avant-garde stuff with the brass or whatever. What is that like a trumpet? I don't know if I can know. Sure. Anyways. So that was, again, a band called O-O-I-O. And, uh.

That was a song called Kawasamia. All right, Travis, bring us home, friend. What you got for us? What you've been heard in lately. All right. So this is as fresh as it gets as far as like when I heard it. Did it come out today? No, no.

This actually came out in the 80s. But I'm saying as far as me, fresh to me. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. So, you know, I heard this probably around, you know, maybe here we go. I got the exact timestamp to you when I told you about. this 3.34 p.m. today. Wow. But the band, the artist, I should say, at least myself and Quentin

are very familiar with this band. And you might be too, Tyler. So did you ever watch the show Pete and Pete? Oh my God, Travis. I know, I didn't strap in. Pete and Pete. What is that from? So it's a Nickelodeon show. Nickelodeon show called The Adventures of Pete and Pete came out in the 90s, early 90s, early to mid-90s. I would be shocked if you didn't watch this, Tyler. Well, if you didn't watch Nickelodeon, then you probably never watched it. Oh, I watched Nickelodeon, for sure. So these are the two Redhead brothers.

Yes. Yes. So you remember this. Danny Tamborelli, Danny Tamborelli, that little kid. Yeah, that kid. So the band that did the theme song, if you want to call it a theme song, like the song and the intro of that show. Hey, Sandy.

Hey, Sandy is the name of the song. So the band that. name is Polaris. They did a bunch of music for the TV show. And I didn't realize this until today that this is not, Palaris was made specifically for the show. But they have had another band that predates Polaris and they've been putting out music since the 80s. Wait, they've been together ever since. Yeah, they've been together as this band. They're called Miracle Legion. And it's the same lead singer at least and a few other members. So pulling this record up today,

of course I went back to their first record because that's usually what I like to do is go back to the beginning of a band, right? You know, it's just like hearing more Polaris stuff, right? But like more... Yeah, dude, just set your face to happy because you're about to be all smiles. I can't wait, man.

So anyway, this song came out in 1984. So Tyler, you're a huge. huge REM fan, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a fan of art. I love R.M. Yeah. So you're going to get definite REM vibes from this song, and this is, you know, early 80s.

It's kind of the same era. I mean, REM was making their first records right around the same time. Yeah, Murm is like top three R&M records for me. And that's, yeah. I agree with you 100%. Yeah, Murmur is great. The murmur came out in 83, so the year prior to this. So anyway, this is their debut record.

It's been called Miracle Legion. and we're going to play a song called Butterflies. That was really good. My heart. Definitely, R.E.M. That could fit on the first R&M record, man. I love it. Definitely.

I love it. Definitely. So the record is called The Backyard. I definitely recommend that you guys check it out. It's really good. Yeah, and, you know, as a Polaris fan, dude, I'm just like so pumped to know that there's more music to hear. Exactly.

I picked a couple of things out on that. Is that one vocalist or is it like, two, is it like two vocalists harmonizing? I think it is, yeah. It's either, it's either that or he's overdubbing himself, but yeah, it's two vocals. Okay, yeah, because I mean, obviously that stands out because Michael, you know, a lot of the early REM is just Michael's type, but have you heard of a band called Jigolo Ants, Once, Gigolo Ones?

I have, yeah, yeah. They had that one, okay, they had a song on Dumb and Dumber, did. Right, correct, correct, where I find my heaven. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man. So they do, they do that a lot with their vocalists, like, like the it's not like a crazy different harmony you know it's not like a but it's like just a tad different where it's it just sounds really cool so that's what it reminded me of the vocal

stylings of that and then like the music of r em that's really cool so i'm not i'm not familiar with that that band at all so definitely yeah and tyler you should check out uh the palera stuff too they have a whole uh adventures of pete and pete album that's just all the music from i'd rather not I just wanted to come on the show and just, nah. I'm good, I'm good. But here's the funny thing. Like, the music that Polaris wrote was written specifically for the TV show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

It's so weird. Yeah, it is weird. It is weird. But apparently the producers of Pete and Pete were fans of Miracle Legion. Oh, that's so cool. And they were just like, you know, basically they came to the dude. from Miracle Legion were like, hey, you guys want to, you know, be the band on the show or whatever. And they were going to do it as Miracle Legion, but they were having some like legal issues

with their label and like other weird stuff that was preventing them from being Miracle Legion on the show. So they just changed their name to Polaris to make. That's cool. Music just for that show. But yeah, when you look up the record, that's why if you're, if you're a Polaris fan and you know just from that show. That's the only material that's out there

is the stuff for the show. So like unless you do an ounce of research, like I've never done for the last like decade that I've known about this band. Like, yeah, of course they had another band before that. You know what I mean? So it's funny that I'm just not finding out about this. But that's awesome.

You know how that works. This is the kind of stuff that I fucking live for, man. When you just stumble upon something like this where it's like, holy shit. Of course they had another band. Yeah. And of course it's amazing, you know. Oh, so cool.

Anyway, so yeah, Tyler, thank you for being on the show, man. It was a blast. Yeah, seriously. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for having me and having recorded proof that I listen to other music besides Spoon. Although you did bring a spoon, you brought a spoon-related song, though, to the... I tried to sneak it. Yeah, like, tried to, like, a series of sneaks.

You know, I tried to, like, sneak in. You series of sneaked it in. It was just a non-stop series. So, Tyler, I just have a quick question for it. If you wouldn't mind just kind of like, you know, next time you talk to Britt, just kind of like mention their podcast, you know? Yeah, yeah. He's open to, he's open to podcasts added to his feed for sure.

Oh, I was totally joking, but no, that would be amazing. You know, since you guys are on a first name basis and everything. Well, it's, we have a buddy enough to Brit. No, it's a, I mean, he's super friendly, very nice, but it's a very professional, you know, We're working on spoon stuff. It's not like, yeah, we're hanging out. Next time you have him over for dinner, just casually mention no filler. Next time we talk about podcast.

He'd actually mention a podcast to me that he liked a lot. Did he really? What was it? I don't want to plug it. No, I'm just kidding. I think it's called it's about, it's called Cocaine and Rhinestones. It's like a country music, like old, old country music podcast. And I didn't listen to a couple episodes.

So that's cool. But like you're saying, you totally. discover new things just randomly when you make all these connections that's always yeah it's always oh yeah it's the thing i love most about music man yeah and just when it's when it's natural and you just it it's like timing is so important you know like uh yeah because you can love a band and then you're always like kicking yourself like man why didn't i listen to them like 10 years ago when they were out and i can sell them on tour and now they're broke up yeah you know happens all the time right yeah so it's but to the point you're trying to make it like maybe i might not have liked it back then if i listen

right yeah when they were hot you know yeah so it is all about timing exactly all right well um well cue yeah you can find us on no filler podcast dot com that's our website uh that's where we have all of our, all of our episodes going back to episode one. And you can find show notes for each episode where we list out all of the track lists. So any song that you heard on the episode, including our What You Heard's, intros, outros, you can find it all on the website. We also have, and we don't say this every week, but we have a Spotify playlist where every what you heard song gets added to. So if you, if you're like, hey, what was that band that they that I heard on No Filler the other day.

Subscribe to the playlist and you'll get two or three songs, depending on if we have a guest, added that playlist every week. So, yeah, just search No Filler in Spotify and you'll find us. We're also part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. You can find a lot of other great music-related podcasts

over at Pantheon Podcast.com. Do you mind if I mention my little, where to find it, the show? because I do not have a cool website. Sure. Please do. Yeah, where can we find you? So I'm just using kind of social media right now.

It's SoundCloud. It's where the show lives. The show you can find on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google podcast. But if you want to join the social media fan club type thing that I'm trying to do. So on Instagram, it's at I turn my podcast on. And then Twitter, it's at turn my podcast on. No I because the character loves. of Twitter.

But yeah, so I do a little schedule updates when things come out and whatnot. But yeah, the episode's going to drop every month a full album review episode and then interview portion with Britt and then the fan reaction episodes, which have been really fun. So, yeah. Awesome. Yeah, I would say if you're a fan of spoon, it's required listening. Absolutely, yeah. So there you go.

All right. So Q, what are we doing next week? Do we, are we going to Seal yet? Are we doing Seal? Not yet. We're doing Gloria Estefan next to. No, no, I thought we were doing Seal then Gloria Estefan. No, dude.

The rhythm's going to get us next week, French. Okay. Next week, the rhythm's going to get us. We're going to do Gloria Estefine. You want to talk about like a 180. Yeah. But we like to do 180s around here. All right.

So that's that. My name is Travis. And my name's Quentin. Tyler, thanks again. And thank you to everyone for listening. Y'all take care.