No Filler Music Podcast - Foals - Math Rock's Mainstream Darlings

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

We revisit Foals for the first time in over 7 years, with their debut record Antidotes being one of the very first albums we covered on this record. Picking up where we left off we cover their next 2 records, Total Life Forever and Holy Fire and explore the slow evolution from complex math rock to stadium-worthy anthems, always with a pop-forward lean tinged with a punk attitude. Tracklist Foals - Inhaler Foals - Two Steps, Twice Foals - Black Gold Foals - After Glow Foals - What Remains Foals - Everytime Foals - Providence This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visitcomex-X Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats.

Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice, yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes, because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hi, I'm Mike Judge, and you're listening to the Pantheon Network. And welcome to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often Ophitheon. overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name's Quentin. With me, as always, is my brother Travis. And today we are diving into Foles, two albums of theirs, Total Life Forever from 2010 and Holy Fire from 2013. So, Trav,

this is another one of those bands, dude, where, I mean, honestly, I'm kind of shocked it took us so long to cover another one of their albums. We covered their debut record, antidotes, a long time ago, man. No, I looked back at it. It was episode, so the title was episode eight. If you're counting episodes, it was technically episode 15. Yeah. Because that's back when we were doing full, yeah, full episodes.

And then, no, they were called sidetracks. That's right, dude. We weren't even doing what you heard back then. Or maybe we were baking it into the, to the episode itself, like the flips. But yeah, yeah. Yeah. So this is one of our very first few episodes that we did. And yeah, that just tells you how important foals is to us because, you know, when we were like, all right, we have a music podcast.

What should we do? Right. You know, what should we cover first? Like, this was one of the albums that we wanted to do. And yeah, I mean, it's really, these guys are real, their trajectory is so interesting, dude, because especially when you go from anecdotes to this very next record and then to the one after the, yeah. So, like, we're, like, we're looking at a really interesting progression from them. Because from here on, dude, like, they're just like, they've gotten up there in terms of, like, broad appeal and stuff like that, which is really interesting. Yeah.

And that's, so first off, let me just say, that intro song was Inhaler, one of the singles on Holy Fire. So that's five years removed from antidotes. But, yeah, let's step back, dude, because. Well, no, no, more than that removed from antidotes. What's 13 minus 8, Traff? That's five years, Kear. You're right. Yeah, because, okay, so here's the appeal.

And Anadose was my first intro to Foles. It must have been not too long after it came out, dude, because I was introduced to it by this guy we used to go to high school with, and he showed it to me when I moved back to Texas, when I moved back to Carrollton, from Austin. So that was like around that time, dude. So it was like fresh, you know. It was probably the single off of Anadot. What was the single? I think it was balloons. No, no, Cassius. At least that's the one that I remember. Okay. If you think about it,

this might have been our first exposure to Mathrock, or at least in a band that's like labeling themselves as Math Rock. Yeah. If you listen to like some of the early emo and stuff, you get hints of Math Rock here and there and like the guitar stylings of some. early emo bands. But, I mean, that's the one thing I remember really liking about Foles was like, the guitar. The guitar work was just so cool, man. It's the dual guitar, like interlaced, you know, complicated finger-picking stylings, whatever else.

Very, yeah, staccato type stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That was the first kind of, yeah, the first record that was, I guess, labeled, Matt, rock for sure that we that we got into. Other genres that they fall under dance punk, I think that works a lot kind of along with the math. More 100% yeah. Post punk revival indie rock. Definitely dancing man. Dancy is hell, dude. Oh yeah. If you listen to my number. I love my number, man. That's one of my favorite singles. That is their most popular song, at least according to Spotify. That's off of

Holy Fire. I can see that for sure. Dancing for days when that song comes on. Yeah, dude. I know. So who are these guys, man? Let's talk about the, let's talk about the man, dude, the man behind the mic. So actually, let's just first say this. So we don't have to, so we don't spend too much time getting the weeds here. I guarantee you we did a lot more homework back when we first started this podcast. Dude, I could probably find the notes, dude. And you know what's funny?

Whatever we're about to say was probably covered in that first episode. I know for a fact we talked about Janus, the lead singer, and sort of like his background and what made him kind of interesting. So, you know what we could just, what's funny is we should just drop in a clip from that episode. Hey, that's not a bad idea, dude. Seriously. Okay. And maybe we'll do that right now.

Let's go back and hear what we had to say. Yeah, let's see how good our recordings were back then and when we were, you know, fresh-faced. How long ago was that, dude? When did that episode air? I mean, this would have been March 18th of 2018. Okay. So let's jump into the Wayback Machine. So we've got Janus Philopakis.

And forgive us, we don't know for sure if this is how to pronounce these names. We're just going to fucking roll with it. Janus Philopacus is on vocals. He's lead vocals, lead guitar. We've got Edwin Congreave plays keyboards. Walter Gervers plays bass. Jimmy Smith plays, I guess, rhythm guitar. I don't know.

They may go back and forth as far as lead, depending on the song. And Jack Bevin, one of my favorite drummers of all time. So Travis, tell me a little bit more about Jan is something that you read about him that I thought was pretty interesting. So he's Greek, right? And he grew up on this island called Carpathos. And sort of like he talks about some of his early memory. of music is watching his father

and other local men from the island perform a traditional Greek ritual that is called mandinades and again probably pronouncing that wrong but basically

it's recounting the history of their village by improvising songs in iambic pentameter and iambic pentameter is a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short or unstressed syllable, followed by one long or stressed syllable. And I guess we can get to this when we play two steps.

But it's kind of, you know, you can definitely see how this played into, like, his approach to songwriting, you know what I mean? But we'll save that for when we get to that song, because I think it has a definite tie-in to that little story there. But, you know, you know, you Yeah, so it's interesting because, you know, he goes on to say that, you know, a lot of indie bands at the time that they were, that they were kind of up and coming would have been listening to or brought up listening to, you know, British punk rock bands like the jam or something like that. Whereas he and some of the other bandmates were brought up listening to, you know, that kind of folk music or world music. And then getting into the post-rock stuff after that. So, like, it all kind of goes into like what makes, particularly what makes. Yon is interesting as like that background, you know.

Yeah, and so members of Foles all met in different ways. Some of them through school, they all grew up or went to school in Oxford. A few of them have known each other since around age 14, 15. And we won't get into too much here, but a few of them were in other bands together. I have a little clip I want to play. It kind of talks about the music scene in Oxford at the time. I guess there were quite a few bands in this genre in Oxford, the Math Rock scene.

And this clip kind of talks about, so it's Yanna speaking. It kind of talks about, I guess, what they wanted to do differently with Mathrock, you know, like the origins of Mathrock and kind of how they, approached it a little bit differently. So this is a clip from, I guess, a radio. It was a radio interview that they did at a music festival back in 2008. In Oxford, like, the kind of, the kind of scene that we were part of, became kind of, it became quite self-absorbed in many ways.

And, like, often the fun in making, like, technical, you know, being in a technical band, like, or a math rock band or whatever, it is it's the challenge of trying to create something that is difficult and it becomes boring and so now the challenge i just i enjoy trying to write hooks and trying to write stuff that communicates to me there's more of a challenge and trying to write something that is accessible than something that only a few like beard-stroking elitists will like you know so Travis when you listened to this math rock playlist did you get that kind of vibe where a lot of the music kind of seemed more for beard stroking elitists.

I mean, that's a good way to put it. Like, was it approachable songs for the most part? I mean, yeah. I don't think it was kind of, as he said, like, boring. Like, I guess the bands that made, made its way under this playlist in particular were more, they weren't, like, strictly math rock, you know what I mean? Sounds like, I guess the band, that they came from

was the Edmund Fitzgerald, right? The band that the Foles guys were in. A bit heavier. Yeah. These are like your six, seven plus minute songs. Yeah, it was more... Very complex. Right, like that's what they were going for, right?

Right. Versus kind of like I said earlier, like the math rock style of guitar playing sort of found its way into a bunch of different genres. So I think that's maybe why if you listen to a math rock playlist, you're going to get a wide range of like singing and songwriting styles, but they're all going to have that more complex guitar playing.

So, but yeah, you know, I think that's kind of what makes it interesting is that because they were in this other group together and they were trying, they were approaching it like seriously and like trying to make more serious math rock, it caused Janus to like grow bored with that type of math rock and so they wanted to do something different with Foles which you know probably is why Foles is so like interesting because like he didn't want to do like the boring math rock like really super like serious type type math rock he wanted to still do like the really like technical stuff but like do the spin on it.

Yeah he said it felt too pretentious. and he wanted to shy away from that. Man, we were smart. I mean, dude, spot on. Yeah. We covered everything you need to know. And now we can just jump right in to fracture. That's the first time we've ever done this, dude.

Dude, if you think about it, it's pretty smart. That's called working smarter, you know what I mean? Not harder. No. Okay, so let's jump right into total life forever, dude. This is awesome. Dude, we didn't have to do nothing. We just showed up and started playing tunes.

This is great. Do you want to play a song real quick from Anadotes? That's actually a great idea, dude, because then we can kind of hear the progression. And we got to pick a track from Antidotes that is a little bit more math rocky, which, you know, I think of like... Two steps twice, man. Yeah, that's a good one. And I bet you we played this on that episode, too. But I just love this song so much.

I just wouldn't have an excuse to play it again. All right, cool. Yeah, two steps twice. Yeah, so let's jump back to Anadotes. Here's what they sounded on their debut. Here go, this is two steps twice. All right, so here's what that song does, man. First off, it gives me the gooslies and the, and the goose pimplees.

Yeah, number two. Every time. I mean, repetition in the lyrics just becomes part of the melody. And I think there were, yeah, do they, I mean, they weren't, I don't think they were looking for broad appeal on their first record. I mean, it sure is appealing to me. Sure. And it's, yeah, and that showcases the math rock element. that they do so well with that drummer who's just,

I don't think the drummer's in the band anymore, unfortunately. We're going to have to get to the bottom of that. But, yeah, dude, I mean, the rhythm section, him and the bass player, I mean, it's just fun to watch them play. And yeah, the way Janus and rhythm guitar, the way they bounce back and forth together. And it's just, yeah, it's just fucking, it's just fun, dude. Yeah, I mean, you know that you're in the presence of a math rocker when they wear their guitar, like almost up to their.

like up to their chest basically like whenever you hits dude if yeah if you see if you see these guys live yeah and his i mean he might as well have it like he might as well be he can rest his chin on it if you only stick a little break you know yeah like he's up there and that's that's that's always a sign of like a i don't know a high performance player what does that help with like like fast wrist action or something i think it just helps if you're doing really like i mean this is this goes against to what I'm about to say, because I feel like heavy metal guitar players are up there shredding, have it down to their fucking knees sometimes, you know what I mean? But I think it helps with like, I don't know, it's just a style.

I actually, back when I played, I wouldn't wear it that high, but I would wear it a little bit higher than most people. So, I don't know. It's probably just the way you learn. But like, I do think it helps with like performance players, you know. Yeah, for sure. I don't fucking know, dude. I don't know. I don't play guitar.

Me neither, dude. I'm just speculating here. But there's probably a good reason. Yeah. All right, let's jump to Total Life Forever. So this is only two years later. Let's see and see where they've gone. And, Trave, I know you wanted to play a Total Life Forever, but I got three songs I want to play. So we're going to skip. We're going to do three songs from Total Life Forever, three songs from Holy Fire. So, and we're, hey, in case you don't know, I don't think we mentioned this. I guess we did it in our proper podcast intro. We don't play

singles here, okay? Except for our intro tracks and outroes. That's the whole point in no filler. we're not going to play any singles. So here we go. We're going to play track four off of Total Life Forever. Songs called Black Gold. Do it, man. Yeah, and this is still, you know, we're still in math rock territory for sure with that guitar.

Yeah, dude. So, yeah, let me quote this pitchfork review. To sum it up perfectly, dude. So this, so they're talking about antidotes what they were before Total Life Forever. Their songs were fussy, calculating, and impenetrable, despite a ton of hooks. They could knock you down and they could make you glitch out, but finding an emotional connection was a challenge.

In Total Life Forever, the Oxford Quintet have not only opened up themselves and their sound, they've done so without abandoning the path that put them on the tips of tongues from the beginning. I think that speaks true all the way up to today. And that's what's so cool about Foles, dude. They never abandoned their math rock origins and like, that's right. It's just, it's been such a cool progression from antidotes. Yeah, because I mean, how many math rock bands mixed in the pop and the dance, the dancey pop and punk as successfully as they have? Because that's why what, in such a compelling way. Yeah, and that's what makes them stand out. It's, it's, it's, very pop-oriented, but you're hearing this cool math rock flavor that you don't typically hear

with other equally poppy rock groups. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. So, dude, I really, I really like that lyric right at the beginning, top of the world, bottom of the ocean. Apparently, that's taken from a Mike Tyson quote. What? according to this person's interpretation on genius.com.

So apparently in this documentary that Mike Tyson put out, or he was featured in, he talks about how like, so apparently Tyson blew through his wealth, basically, I guess at some point. He says people who could never understand how a guy like me could blow $300 or $400 million. It's as if I have to live at the top of the world or I have to live at the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how to live in the middle of life. Hey, now. That's a great quote, man. That's a great quote, dude. I've been like, you know, people who you have to, you know, sort of live on the extremes of life, right?

Yeah. I mean, I hope that's where they took out of the room. That would be kind of cool. Yeah. To think about it. Yeah, but it's just the imagery of that is really cool. Just, yeah. Just good stuff, dude.

you know what we're just we're just getting started bro we got two more songs to play from total life forever we're going to jump down to track eight the song's called afterglow you know these guys always know how to do a proper breakdown and a buildup man a build up in it yeah build up and yeah totally yeah i mean the lyrics were pretty repetitive right i mean i mean they they changed but it was pretty much the same lines and i mean the intensity and like you know the cracking in his voice and like the you know I mean just how like yeah that well there's like a slow buildup yeah and they're adding in things very slowly too yeah with the instruments as well yeah yeah yeah because like one thing you notice is I think verse two there's this uh this low yeah fuzzy kind of base yeah that they

introduced that just sort of like punctuates the end of like every second yeah line I think yeah that's that's the, that's them starting to like sneak in a little bit of like a, uh, uh, you know, you're like, hey, this is getting intense, right? Yeah, exactly. And then, and then you get that by the third time, he's like just screaming. Yeah, you get that release with that breakdown where it's like, and now like here, we're going to bring more of that fuzz and a little bit of that distortion and stuff and do a proper release of all of this, you know, tension that we've been building up.

But yeah, one thing that's cool about them and why it's really effective when they do stuff like this is that like with math rock most of the time the guitar is the tone of the guitar is as clean as it gets dude like it's super clean guitar maybe some reverb maybe a little bit of delay but like there's almost no fuzz or distortion or anything with math rock guitar playing and so the song started like that and so when you hear that fuzzy like bass note you're gonna pay attention to it because, like, it's so different from the rest of the guitar tone or the bass tone even. And the instrumental, like, jam out at the end was all distorted and fuzzy. Exactly.

I mean, same with, like, Inhaler, the song we introed in with from Holy Fire, dude, that's straight up, like, heavy distortion. I mean, like, almost, like, not metal. Travis, I don't think, I don't think it's metal, but, you know, like, it's more, it's more like, you know, I guess. You just good old-fashioned distortion, cute. You know, there you go. You know what does not equal metal?

Yeah. All right. I never really, I'm sure, I'm sure this is something that has come to mind before. But like, especially in this song, he sounded very much like Robert Smith. Hmm. Dick here. I know that. Maybe for the people listening out there who don't know, yeah.

Yeah, I can see that. So, yeah, I'm getting some new wave in there too. All right. So we're going to jump down to the last. track on the record. This song's called What Remains. So yeah, if it's not obvious by the songs we've played so far, this is one of those groups that you've got to see live if you get the chance to do so.

Oh, you know what I mean? Yeah, I've seen them, I think, three times. I think we saw them together twice, Trev. I've definitely seen them once. I don't remember seeing them twice, but I wouldn't be surprised, yeah. Because I just remember the live performance just being blown away, especially the way that Janus, I mean, the dude's got,

he knows how to how to have some stage presence. He was climbing up on the speakers, on the PAs. On like the tower. Yeah, the huge speakers. Yeah, and he was getting crowd surfed around the freaking,

you know, the whole room. Oh yeah. While playing his guitar. Yeah, dude. He was awesome. Yeah, so once again, like a really cool breakdown. Even from antidotes, dude, these guys know how to craft a song structure

where it's going to have some sort of a instrumental little ditty in the metal, dude. You know what I mean? Yeah. And building on intensity and just, it just, it holds you, dude.

Like it holds you there. It takes you for a ride. I hate to say that. But you're there, dude. You're in the cockpit with the onus. Or the ship, maybe? on the ship, according to the I like that.

A lot of the imagery they are using in this record, even the freaking album art has to do with the water and storms and rain and stuff. I like this line here, dude. You, my dear, shouldn't fear what lies below. It's just bones. I mean, he's not wrong. It really makes you think.

It's not wrong. If you think about all the people that have been buried on this planet, it's just bones, too. It's just bones, man. We've all seen, we've all seen Poultergeist. you know they're bones in that i'm not going to explain it to you kia i haven't seen that you've never

seen pulter i've seen it uh but you know it's i'm not being to spilber corner i'm not a horror stephen spillberg did poltergeist yeah i'm sorry dude i was i was waiting for you to well you remember like the whole idea is like you know it's the classic like you you built this house, this neighborhood on top of an ancient Indian burial ground. Oh, that's right. And so like there's a scene where like, you know, these bones are coming up out of the ground in the swimming pool and shit. That's right. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Since I'm not like a bona fide horror fan, you know, I've only seen that like once. Did you say bonafide? It's just bones. All right, dude. So you want to jump to Holy Fire? Let's jump right over Turkey.

Let's do it. So this is three years later. And we're not really, I didn't really have time to research this one, Traff. So I'm not going to tell you like what the difference was between the recording process between the three albums, you know? This is the album that produced their most popular single to date, which is my number. Which is nice because it also happens to be one of my favorite songs of theirs. Exactly. And that nice when that happens to?

They sure, they sure have my number when it comes to that track. I sure would give them my number if they asked me for it. So we played Inhaler. That was our intro. So we have played a track from this record. Yeah. And we played a good chunk of that for the intro. So you got to hear a good, good message.

So like technically we kind of snuck in an additional track. Usually the intro we don't play that. No, yeah. Had to get through that first part. Three tracks from each record here, Q, because you see you got two more? I, no, I got three. You got three more? Yeah.

All right, let's strap in here. All right, dude. So we're going to jump to track five. This song's called Every Time. Q, I'm going to give you a hot take here. Okay. Hot, dude. I wanted to be hot and steamy.

I don't know if you're going to like this. But I'm, you know, I'm going to be honest here. Okay. I don't know that I like this very much. Hold on a second. Here's what I want to say. Okay. All right.

Then, hey, Lou, let's keep this in. Yeah, we don't always have to agree. Yeah. But here's the thing. Okay, go ahead. I think the reason, I feel like Foles is grandfathered in for me because of how much I like antidotes. Okay.

And because of how, maybe my, maybe my love for Math Rock and how they do it better than most. But I typically don't gravitate to this type of music. Maybe that's how I should have phrased it. There you. Yeah. But at the same time, this album has some bangers on it. But this particular song, it makes me just, I'll say no more.

But let me say this. No, yeah, because, okay, with a band like Spoon, right? Mm-hmm. You want to talk about getting grandfathered in. And they, I mean, they... And they're another band that's all over them. But with grandfathered name, what I'm saying is like, I'm not going to maybe be as, turn my nose up to foals.

You're not going to be as critical. I'm not going to like a. immediately like ignore them. And that's what I'm saying with with a band like Spoon as well. But Spoon is consistently great though. So like it's not like, not all their albums too. Okay, not all of them.

But dude, let's give them some credit, man. Most of their records are fucking amazing. And that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Like there's, what I'm saying is I'm more willing to maybe dip my toes in some music that I

wouldn't listen to if it wasn't Spoon. Yeah. I hear you. And that's what I'm saying I think about Foles. Is that like, yeah. I have a respect for these guys. and I've had some, you know, incredible live music experiences seeing these guys.

And so, like, you know, I'm going to, it's like watching the fucking fifth installment of final destination, which I'll be seeing in the theater. And I'm actually pretty pumped about it. That's right. I saw it. It looks pretty great. But I'm just saying like sometimes you just go along for the right because of your affection for the. medium and for for the for the for the franchise or whatever you know what I'm saying wasn't it now because you're going to go back and listen to our antidotes episode traffic I'm not going to listen

the whole thing but yeah well you're going to go back and listen to it um doesn't yonis isn't i think it was yonis who had that awesome quote about like yes yeah okay let me see if i get it right let me see if i get it right um with like you know people saying like man what i wish my favorite band didn't have to change yeah and and you know evolve in their sound that's like, you know, looking at a picture from 10 years ago of a friend of yours and going like, the fuck his hair looks nothing like that now. Yes, it's definitely, yes, that's exactly. That's pretty much paraphrased the quote.

But yeah, it's basically, yeah, the idea that like you wouldn't expect to run into somebody that you went to high school with 10 years later. And they look and are the exact same person. And they're still wearing, you know, that same style of clothes from the early O's. It would be silly to. It would be weird. And it's such a great quote. And I think we've actually, we've actually talked about that. We've used it.

We've used it for Kings of Leon. Yes, we've used it for a lot of opinions, dude. Because it's such a great point, man. That's like, people change. Why should we expect musicians to be, like, fixed? You know what I mean? Of course they're going to evolve. And their likes and dislikes are going to change.

And the type of art that they want to produce is going to change. So, yeah, it's a great quote, dude. But yeah, by the time you get to this record, you know, these guys are starting to change, man. They're starting to get a little bit poppier. The math rock is starting to, it's still there. It's what makes them foals. But it's not, it's definitely not front and center like it wasn't anecdotes. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. I think that pitchfork, uh, quote still rings true, you know? Yeah, they still haven't abandoned the path that put them on the tips of tongues from the beginning. Because that's what they know how to do best, man. Yeah. All right, so we're going to jump down to track 9. The song is called Providence.

That follows the tried and true Full's formula right there. Yeah, and you know what's great, dude? I'm going to say this now. The next album, What Went Down, apart from the singles, it's kind of a snoozer for me. But then they come back in 2019 with everything not saved will be lost. Part one and two, man. they're both awesome and they're different but it's still there dude yeah yeah they have not strayed

from the path so this song going back to providence and we're going to play two parts we're we're going to play the rest of the song yeah the way that ends is really cool so there's a tweet from yannis or at least we're attributing it to yannis from the foals twitter account back in 2020 this was during a uh twitter listening party because i guess that happened in 2020 i think this was like During the pandemic lockdowns and show, this is May. And he says, this banger came out of a jam based on a 7-8 groove that Jack wanted to try. It used to be called Cleaver. I wanted to tap into a deranged gospel preacher vibe.

Yeah, dude, I was getting that with those lyrics. Jack looked like he was going to explode doing the mental drum solo thingy. Yeah, this came out of a jam session, which, you know, we always talk about and we always talk about and wonder about, oh, you know, this song sounds like it could have just been a cool jam that they, that they turned into a song. That's exactly what this is. Yeah. Let me tell you something, dude.

I feel lucky that I have enough chops as a drummer that I've been able to sit, sit and play through some really cool jam sessions in my life. I don't know. Why don't you just do a little humble brag there, Q? I don't know. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm not a good, I'm good enough that I can play with musicians. And I've had a chance to do it. with a few that are noteworthy.

It's really fun, man. Really, really fun. And yeah, some really cool stuff can come out of jam sessions. And this is one of those things, Q. So, dude, wow, I paused it right at the two-minute mark. We got just about two minutes to go, right at the halfway mark. Perfect. Let's fade back in and play the rest of this song.

I think we just closed the sandwich, man. Between two steps, twice and close the sandwich. We closed it, man. We got the last piece of the bread. Yeah. Because that really, to me, gave me antidotes vibes. It's a bookend key. We bookended it.

We bookended the sandwich, you know. It's definitely similar vibes, yeah, for sure. And yeah, dude, that's a song I definitely remember from the live show. Well, there you go, man. That means you for sure have seen them twice because the first time we saw them was way before Holy Fire. Okay, okay. But yeah, I remember hearing my number live and Providence Live. Yeah.

So, yeah, you and me sell them twice together. I saw them again with Sarah in 2019. So the last time they did this song live, according to setlist. DotFM, which is pretty damn accurate. Yeah. It was August of 2023. So they've paused playing that song live. So that was for a, uh, some, some show.

France where they did Providence was around the middle of the set and then two steps twice was the closing track. I think they closed with two steps every time dude. I honestly did think that. Not every time, man. They stopped doing it according to two steps. I thought you were saying Providence was less. But I'm just saying two steps as well. Last time they played that was 2024 January. So I don't know, dude. You know what? To your point though, man, if you look at the roster, isn't it like three dudes now? Maybe they don't, maybe they've changed the way they play and just can't do some of those songs anymore. Well, I mean, back when I was in 2019, which for the love of God was six years ago somehow.

Yeah. They had a bit. They had more, I think they had more people up there than I've ever seen, you know. So I think they tore with people. All right. All right. Well, anyway. Yeah, man.

What a great track, dude. And that, that is just a straight up jam, dude. You can see how that's, you know, that's born from just jamming out. Especially when you, when you, when you, you're repeating lyrics over and over because you don't necessarily. But that's that formula, dude. That's that false formula. Yeah, right.

That's the two steps. Yeah. But like, you know, when, when you're jamming, and especially as the, as the singer, you don't have the lyrics in your head yet. You're jamming. It's off the top of the dome. You might just be kind of making them up as you go along. Yeah.

Yeah. I've actually heard a lot of, a lot of lyricists. I've heard that methodology before where, uh, Sometimes the music comes first. Yeah, the music comes first. And then sometimes the words just are there purely to like what fits in with the song. Yeah, the music. Yeah, the instrumentation and stuff.

So yeah, maybe that's what this was. But it sounds like he was also inspired by gospel preachers, you know what I mean. Holy Rollers. Yeah. He's got another description here. Janus says it's about being carnal, being bass. There's a lot of self-delusion that goes along. with being a human being where you believe that you are above your instinctual presets and you're

above your genetics, you're evolved microbes and that's what we are. It's meant to be carnal, lustful, and wrong and penitent at the same time. Well, there you go, dude. You got to drop that ego, you know. Yeah, he's like, we're just a bunch of fuck, sacks of meat, dude. We're apes. Microbes just floating through the, through fucking space, dude. I'm an animal just like you. you go. Well, I think that's a great track to end this, in this episode on, man. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, man, great episode. Great band. Still one of my, one of my all-time favorite bands. You know, even though I've sort of, you know, even though my, you know, I haven't really kept up with them and, you know, kind of just have an affinity for their first couple of records,

they're still just one of those foundational bands to me. And I think it's because a lot of times the first band that I associate with, like, for example, Tosca, we always talk about our love for Tosca, which is this down tempo duo. And I think the reason I'll never stop loving them is because it's the first band that I think about when I, when I think back to like first getting into down tempo. You know what I mean? It's like it opened up. A whole new world to me. Absolutely. I feel like Foles did that in a little way because this was kind of the first math rock band that I was turned onto.

Because it's a gateway, you know? Because then you're like, all right, well, let me check out some more math rock bands. Let me check out some more downtimbo groups. You know what? So yeah, for sure. You know what this kind of makes me want to do, Jeff? What does it make you want to do, Kim? I feel like we should cover aha shake heartbreak and because of the times by Kings of Leon.

Yeah, we can do that. And do that for the next deep. dive. Okay. Because I think we only, we've, I think we've only done youth in young manhood, right? And I feel like Kingsel. That's actually a great idea.

Good. And there's some fucking, bangers on. AHA shake heartbreak is so, it's such a great opportunity. It is such a great. Dude, we're going to have a blast because those two records are amazing.

Hell yeah. Amazing. So that's, uh, so you said, yeah, aha shaken because of the times? Yep. Oh yeah, dude. We're in for treats, man. I think that'll be a good back to back, you know,

what, what, what had, you know, what did Foles do the next two albums after Anadotes? What did Kings of Leon do the next two albums after Youth and Young Manhood? I mean, it's kind of a similar trajectory. I think so too, man. Now, Kings of Leon, dude, that was episode five. So that was that episode, Youth Young and Manhood episode that we did came out before the Foles one did. So this is like, both of these bands were among the first. artists that we talked about when we launched this podcast

seven years ago. Well, I got to look up to see what the what were the singles, I wonder. Those records, man. Because they're, dude, you want to talk about a band that exploded. I think it was right after a hot shake. Dude, sex on fire.

Oh, yeah, that's what, that was only about the night, I think. They were fucking huge by then. Yeah, you somebody. Yeah, all those songs. Huge. Yeah, dude, I remember we got to see them. First time we saw them was opening for the trucks. And this is a sidetrack, dude.

This isn't even the Kingsley on episode. Yeah, maybe we wait, man. Maybe wait. But I just remember them going from playing tiny little venues in Deep Ellum to opening for you two. And it's just like, well, that's it, man. We're never going to see them in like a tiny little venue ever again. All right. So here are the singles on AHA Shake Heart Big.

The bucket. Four kick. and King of the Rodeo. Okay, dude, that gives us so... Plenty of great... So many good songs. Exactly. And then,

because of the times, on call, fans, and Charmer. So again, we got some great tracks. Dude, I haven't listened to this stuff

in forever, man. All right. Yeah. Dude, this is great. It's just a very similar trajectory, and it'll be fun to listen to it. This is good to, to revisit

the bands from around the same time, dude. We were listening to both of these bands around the same time. Like, we were introduced to Kings of Leon and Foles around the same time in our lives, which is pretty interesting if you think about it. Yeah, dude.

Hey, let's talk about this more on the next deep dive. Oh, yeah, let's save that for the next episode. The next deep dive. Well, yeah, we'll bring a Whatcha heard to you next. But yeah, that's fine, dude. I actually had a band lined up for the next Whatcha, or for the next Deep dive, but this is better. So we'll do this.

And if I decide to, if I'm still in the mood and, you know, I've got a pretty good deep dive in store for us at some point. So, all right. Well, sweet. So, of course, as always, you can find us on Instagram if you want to reach out to us. I was having a little chat with one of our listeners who interfaces with us on Instagram. I actually reached out to her and asked her what she thought about the new bleed record, which we're going to talk about in our next what you heard, Q, because I knew she was a fan. Fucking a phenomenal record, dude.

Do I know Bleed? You know of Bleed, yes, for sure. It's made up, I don't know why we're talking about this right now. Well, we'll save it for when I, because that's going to be probably maybe our intro track for the next what you heard. But, you know, just go listen to the, to Bleed. self-titled record, you'll thank me for it. If you don't want to, you're going to hear it on the next episode for sure. But yeah, anyway, I'm just saying, if you want to reach out to us on Instagram, just in terms of like, you know, send us a quick note or something, that's the best

way to do it. You know, tell us what bands you've been listening to, all that good stuff. And then, you know what? Hey, why don't you rate us and review us on iTunes or Spotify? I think you can leave comments on Spotify now, which is interesting. You can actually leave a comment on an episode, which is pretty sweet. Hey. So yeah, you know, we'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening out there, give us a review, you know, reach out to us on the show. You can comment. Look at that. That's obscene, man. Look at this. So yeah. And then of course, you can, you can listen to us on the Pantheon podcast network. So if you're listening to us now and you just subscribe to our no-filler feed on wherever you listen to your podcasts,

you could also listen to us through our podcast network that we're a part of. Pantheon podcasts. So if you subscribe to the Pantheon podcast, feed, you will get our episodes and you will also get

every other episode under the network. So it's a music podcast network. So every show on the network talks about music. So that's another way to consume our content, pantheonpodcast.com, if you want more info about the network. And that's it. So I think we're going to close. We're going to pick up where we left off on two steps twice because it's an amazing outro and a good companion to Providence. So it's going to keep the,

you know, keep the energy at the same, at the same exact level. And yeah, we'll come at you guys in a couple weeks with our next what you heard until then thanks as always for listening my name is Travis and i'm quitting y'all take care