No Filler Music Podcast - Mae: Destination: Beautiful

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

As we've covered heavily over the past few weeks, emo bands were a dime a dozen in the early aughts. Mae's debut record, Destination: Beautiful, was the exception to the rule. Dave Elkin's beautiful vocals layered over textures of acoustic guitar and lush piano make this record beautifully varied through its 11 tracks, with lyrics that flirt with emo cliches yet feel refreshing and sincere. If you missed it the first time around, Destination: Beautiful is a must-listen for fans of emo music from this era. Tracklist Mae - Embers and Envelopes Mae - All Deliberate Speed Mae - This Time Is The Last Time Mae - Sun Tigers Jaw - Warn Me Gleemer - Gauze Schematic - Outside This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And I remember I was in a lot of alternative, more like, fuzz guitar, rock and roll bands before May. And May has a lot of rock and roll guitar vibe to us. But Embers was really soft and a lot of music. soft and melodic and didn't have a lot of the energy that I'd been used to. So I think it was really cool to see that we tried to write songs based on like a story being told and a hook being conveyed and kind of, you know, a melody that would make you just sing along maybe by the time you heard the first chorus for the first time. And welcome back to No Filler.

The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. Got my brother Quentin with me today as always. Key, we got a lot of shoutouts to give here. Are we doing that right off the bat? Yeah, I think we should do that right off the bat, dude. Let's just line them up and just knock him out of the park.

All right. So through the magic of the internet and something. called Instagram Q. One of our, our dear friends from the past, a ghost from my past, reach out and said she listened to our Emory episode and wanted to call me out for being an email a poser, basically. She didn't say that exactly, but the funny thing, okay, so here's shoutout number one. Actually, it's going to be number one and two combined into one. Karen, Mary, if you're listening. What's up? How's it going? Is it, hang on now? Is it Mary or is it Marie?

Well, I couldn't tell you. I think it's, I think it's Marie. Mary? Sorry. We're so sorry. This is terrible. But you know who, who you are out there. Anyway, I was super stoked to hear that. I'm always, I'm always really happy and excited to hear that, you know, people from our past stumbled upon our podcast and listen to it. Yeah, I love it, man. You know, it's awesome. I love that shit. This is why we do this, right?

To connect with people and share music with people and it makes it more special when it's people that you've, you know, lost touch with, like connections that, you know, have just gotten lost over the years, you know. It's cool to reconnect with people. Oh, and it's great, too, because we're still on that school bus, man. Yes. So this is great. It makes perfect sense.

The funny thing is these last few weeks of episodes have been devoted to music that we listened to in high school. And these two friends of ours. Karen reaching out to us from our past. From our high school years, dude. All right. Well, hold on. Let me just finish saying, give my shout out here. Basically, here's the thing.

We were talking about email music, basically. And I said, this is actually, I'm going to call myself out. I don't know how many times I need to learn this less. listen to queue. But I feel like we didn't even acknowledge it in the Emory episode, how wide-ranging emo music is and how to this day I still have it penciled in as screamo. Screamo to me for some reason, I can't shake that shit. So we kept talking about how we don't listen to email music that much. And like, you remember in the Emory episode, that's what we kept saying over and over again. We kept saying that we don't listen to email music very often. And it's just not.

not the case. So like, you know, like we've mentioned before, Jimmy World is an emo band. I think that's the perfect example in my mind because I never thought that they were emo, but they are definitely emo, right? Yeah. And it turns out over the last few weeks, dude, we listened to nothing but emo back then. So anyway, she was talking about how, you know, I said, yeah, I don't consider myself like, I don't have any emo cred. And then she shot back, which is so funny that she said this. She goes, oh, well, I would consider May to be pretty emo. And here we are, dude. We're doing an Emo. Sorry. We're doing a May episode right now, dude. So yes. Yeah, that's crazy. Absolutely. May is Emo. And we listened to the shit out of this record, dude. This was one of our

favorite records. Hang on now. Let's backtrack again because you can't, you can't say that Karen reached out to you without me making fun of you a little bit, brother. I mean, what's the point of having a podcast with your twin brother if you don't make fun of them every now and then. I don't know where this is headed to you, but I'm, I'm strapped in and I'm ready. Okay. So on our Emory episode, dude, you mentioned not liking Fallout Boy or taking back Sunday for a certain somebody that it reminds you of.

Now, this isn't news to anyone, any parties listening, but Karen, you know Travis was crushing on you. Hored in high school, dude. Horrid. Okay, so let me just finish the sentence before you embarrass me anymore, Q. Okay. Yes, the person that I was referring to that Fallout Boy reminds me of, which is why I didn't like them. Jordan Pipsqueak?

Don't say his name. That's not his real last. I know that. It was her current boyfriend at the time. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I was hanging out with him, dude. I worked with him at PetSmart. Did he actually listen to Fallow Boy?

Or was that all bullshit? I don't fucking now, dude. That's his thing. I don't even know if he actually. listen to fallout boy but for whatever reason you know i think i most have equated fallout boy with with that guy and so like in my little high school mind i was like well fuck that band did anyway um all right one last thing on this particular shout up before we move to the next one i'm going to say a code word karen's going to know exactly what i'm talking about puppy chow

that's all i got to say newspaper nerds no no no and and if you need to know, like, if you're curious how to make puppy chow. Yeah. Karen can tell you exactly how. That's all I got to say, dude. Awesome. Okay. Shoutout number two, technically number three.

Our good buddy Tyler, Mr. Spoon himself. That's what I'm going to call him from now on. Our resident Spoon nerd is about to launch his Spoon podcast. Actually, it's going to be launched already. by the time this episode goes out. So we can't call him our resident anymore because he's left. He has his own podcast now. Like he's not, we don't get to claim him anymore.

He was never on our show or anything. No. From now on, anytime we have a episode devoted to Spoon, I want Tyler on the show. Yes, absolutely. And we've talked about circling back to them at some point. And we definitely will. So Tyler's got a podcast that he is launching called I Turn My Podcast on. if you don't know the reference, then you're not a spoon fan.

And he has already, he already got an interview with Britt Daniel, which is awesome to me. It's amazing. And there's going to be clips of that interview with him on his first episode, which came out last Wednesday. So hop on. His first episode is going to be about telephono. And man, I'm just so excited for this podcast. Yeah, basically he's going album by album. I think so.

Yeah. I understand. And there's going to be a lot of history. So if you're a spoon fan, check him out. So again, this podcast is called I Turn My Podcasts on. We're really excited for you, dude. Well done, sir. I'm excited to hear more of it.

Yes, exactly. Okay. All right, man, we've got to move on. This is sloppy. We're not used to doing shoutouts like this. So anyway. Okay, so today, I kind of mentioned it earlier. I don't think I mentioned the album.

So we're talking about a band called May. also on tooth and nail records, just like Emory, just like me without you, just like some other band that we did, right? So, yeah, we were all over this record label for some reason. The name of the record is called Destination Beautiful. It is their debut record, and it came out. Hold on that. I'm looking at it up going on. Spotify can just suck it sometimes, man.

2003. It came out in 2003. And yeah, there was something about this record that just made it stand out, I think, that made it really... Which is what we have been saying. I know. About the last few records that we talked about. But I mean, yeah.

And maybe that was just something to say about this particular record label, is that they were looking for acts that were doing something a little bit different than the rest of the pack, you know? I mean, don't you think that every record label is going to say that that's what they're all about? Yeah, but obviously, they don't all deliver the goods, you know. So anyway, May. Okay, so when did this come out again? 2003. Okay, so how old were we?

16. And we were, dude. We were right there. It's not like we came onto this record later. Like we were, we must have got this record right when it came out. And I remember having a shirt that said, May is for lovers. I remember that shirt. Yeah, because they're from Virginia.

Virginia is for lovers, right? Yeah. So anyway, dude, here's another fucking juicy little tidbit from high school. I remember wearing that shirt. And this guy named Craig. I'm not going to say your last name. But you know who you are if you're listening. pretty sure he made fun

in that shirt and I never wore it again, dude that's how... Oh no. Yeah, man. Dude. And that's just that goes to show you

how... Wait a second. Hang on. The Craig that played drums? Yeah, the drummer. Oh my God. Dude, he was... Who cares about...

Dude, you can't insert any logic into the brain of a high school kid. Yeah, you're right. But, yeah. Now that you mentioned Craig and we're on this nostalgia trip. Yes. Let's make fun of the band name that he,

the band that he was in and their name was just terrible. Dude, I don't know to remember. Forte premises. What is the fuck out of? What kind of band name is that? Yeah, no wonder they didn't go anywhere. Anyways, that guy was kind of a punk, so we're allowed to poke fun at it.

Yes, he was. Anyway, so yeah, I wish I still had that shirt, man, because I'd rock the shit out of it right now. Yeah. Anyway. So, yeah, so these guys are from Virginia. They formed in 2001. And May is actually an acronym for multisensory aesthetic experience. Did you know that?

What? No, dude, I had no idea. Yeah, so basically the drummer. His name is Jacob Marshall. Are we going to mention the time I caught his drumstick and freaked the fuck out at that concert too. Yeah, we'll get to that later. So yeah, Jacob Marshall, he's the drummer. He heard that term, studied that concept of multisensory

experiences in like some course that he took in college and that's what stuck with the group. And for me in particular, it's not just a name. Like beyond, especially beyond this first first, record, they have sort of made a point to, in a way that really reminds me of Kiln, that group Kiln that we did an episode on where it is about exploring, you know, these concepts of like sound and how that can sometimes trigger other senses, right? You know, because like with Kiln, we talked about it on the,

episode where you're listening to the music that you're hearing and sometimes it might sound like bubbling or something like that or some sort of other yeah or like a natural occurrence or something like that yeah yeah yeah so may has as has tried to do some of that most recently this sounds really dope dude they did a so this was back in see if I can find out what it was you want to insert some of that on hold music maybe give me a fucking date okay back in back in 2016 they were um they performed at the Forbes 30 under 30 summit which is a pretty big deal right and what they did was they had this this experience that they called it that they named light and what they did was

passed out basically these virtual reality headsets made out of cardboard. You might have seen this back. Oh, I've seen those. Yeah, and you slide your phone into it. And then that allowed them to do this 360. The audience could then view this 360 degree animation of the creation of the universe while the band played in time to that video. How dope is that?

Cool. So that song, Light, was on their latest record. at the time. I think it still is their latest record. Came out in 20, yeah, 2017 called, so basically they took a hiatus. They took like a three-year hiatus. They came back in 2017 and put out a self-titled record called

Multicencery Assetic Experience, right? Oh, nice. And that song, Light was on that record. And anyway, so here's what's even cooler about that. It was a collaboration with May, a artist slash animator named David Lopser, and neuroscientist David Eagleman. Now, hang on, dude. Did you say David Lobster? No, I said Lobster.

Almost. Could be, could be lobeser, you know? Anyway, the reason I wanted to bring all of that up was that, like, this is a, what you're going to hear, the band that you hear on the songs we're playing today has essentially taken that concept of like, connecting sound with with other things, other senses like visuals and whatnot. And they've sort of ran with it over their career. The record that we fell in love with,

the record that we're talking about today is their very first record. These guys were super young. And as he mentioned in that intro, that interview clip, that was actually Dave Elkins, who used the lead singer. He mentioned in that interview clip

that introed us in that, like, he was more used. used to the heavier rock and roll sound. And for whatever reason, they decided as a group to do more melodic stuff, focus on hooks, you know, focus on lines that you're going to, you know, that you're going to start singing the first time you hear it kind of thing. Reading, you know, catchy tunes.

So this is their pop record. But it's funny because I just wonder what made them decide to not be a heavy rock band, because that's what he was used to. What, it also makes me wonder, um, so that, so that means that they were making music together as a band pre-destination beautiful.

I would like to know what that sounded like. I bet you there's demos out there that you could find. Let's find him. Um, so hey, dude, I feel like we need to play a song. Yes,

yes, yes, yes, uh, okay, so yeah, let's, let's play the first song.

So, um, anyway, I just wanted to, you know, I like to paint pictures cute. Yeah, you love to paint him.

You know, you got to set the stage before you take the stage. Yeah, it was beautiful. Well, that's the destination today. Well done, sir. All right, what are we playing first? All right. So usually we like to play our song choices in order of the appearance on the record. But I'm going to mix it up a little bit today because I wanted to play this song first in

particular because I think it encapsulates the band better than the other song that we were going to play that would have been first, right? The song is called All Deliberate Speed. And we're going to have two clips for this because one of my favorite parts of the song, and I know you like it too, is the outro, this thing that happens in the outro. So we'll play that next. But here's the first clip. So again, the song is called All Deliberate Speed. One of my favorite drum beats. Yeah, it is a really interesting drum beat. You're right.

And let me tell. I got to say this, man. So I still dabble behind the kit. Usually I'm just dicking around by myself at home. And that is my warm-up drum beat. That's awesome. Yeah, because it's a, it really, it's good for like limb independence practice because all limbs are involved in that beat.

I fucking love that drum beat. Isn't that the name of a, like a Beyonce song, limb dependence or something? I said, what? I said limb independence. Isn't that like a Beyonce song or something like that? I don't fucking, dude, I'm not a, not a Beyonce fan. That was a, I teed that joke up. Hang on a second, hang on. Let me think about it. What, all the single limbs? I don't get the joke, dude. Oh, man. Oh, dude. Number one, this, okay, this is why we focus mainly on rock and roll on this podcast. Let me guess. You didn't mean Beyonce. I didn't get the artist right.

It was actually Kelly Clarkson. Kelly Clarks. Kelly Clarkson. Miss Independent. You get it? Limb dependent. Oh, all right. Whatever.

You missed the mark on that, Jeff. Sorry. But yeah, see, now let's talk about, and now it makes more sense. Maybe that's why you got so, you lost your mind in the audience when you caught the drumstick. So we went and saw May a long time ago. It was probably trees, right? It was trees for sure. There's definitely trees.

And this band called... Probably my favorite venue in Dallas and Deep Ellen. I mean, yeah, it's back. Or the Gypsy Tea Room. That's a cool place, too. Anyways, man, no one fucking knows what we're talking about. There's the, you remember the ballroom too? The Gypsy Ball.

Yeah. I prefer the tea room too because it was more intimate. But yeah, we saw May years ago. It was probably 20, 2003, 2004. They may have been, yeah, they were definitely touring for this album. too, it was 2003. Yeah. So, and yeah, the guy threw the, the, the drumstick into the crowd.

May was not the headliner, so there weren't that many people in the crowd at the time. So, you were, the headliner? I don't remember, but it was some really gimmicky band that didn't last. Oh. It wasn't good Charlotte, but it was a band that was very, very similar to good Charlotte. I remember that. Okay. Anyway, no, but yeah, and I caught his drumstick, and I, fucking.

You lost your mind, dude. lost my shit. He started screaming like at the drumstick like you were yelling into it. Like you were excited and like exclaiming your excitement. I could feel the power. Into the drumstick or something like that. As if the drumstick had any clue what was going on. But anyway.

Did you know it was up? Did you get him to autograph that? Yes, I did. Do you still have it? No. Man, I don't have anything for my, for my youth, dude. It's a real bummer. That's a shame.

But no, they were all. hanging out behind the venue you know classic band stuff and we were hopping into Mitchell's mom's van

because she took us to the show it was me you Mitch and Andrew shout out to Mitchell we know he's listening shout out to Mitch

yeah and I saw them I saw dude I was like fearless back then when it came to like chatting it up with bands I just didn't care

and I just ran over there and I asked me if you could sign And I remember asking Mitchell's mom if she had a pin or something. She didn't, but Dave had a Sharpie in his pocket. Of course you did. Yeah. That's cool.

Anyways. Yeah. Let's name the rest of the roster here. So we have Jacob Marshall on drums. We mentioned that. Dave Elkins is the lead singer-songwriter. He also plays guitar. Zach Gehring, Jering.

also plays guitar. Is it Jerry, Larry, or Gary? Who knows, man? Oh, that's a Parks and Rec reference right there. Yeah. I'm not going to let that slip by me. Sorry. I'm trying to see who the members were at the time here.

Now, the real question is, do anyone listening, do they care? All right. Well, I mean, you got at least know, you got at least know the lead singer. His name is Dave Elkins. Yeah. He is the main kind of creative force

behind the music itself. But it is important to note that on this record and the following two records, there is a keyboardist and a additional guitar player. So that's important to know because you can, the piano plays a pretty important part on this record, right? And much like some of the other bands we've talked about over the years of doing this podcast, they signed with. a major record label, capital records, and they got burned by that experience.

And, I mean, that's a broken record. Yes, it just, it almost goes without saying, right? And one of the main reasons was because they, they felt that they lost too much control. So that's it. That is what, I mean, it, yeah, it is a cliche, but it's just what happens, right? So anyway, after the major label release, two other members dropped off the band. So now it's just been a three piece from here on out, right? So anyway, you're going to play clip two?

Yeah, let's play the next clip. And then I think this is what we'll kind of showcase what makes these guys special. It shows you how these guys do really well with building up these layers, these textures of sound, right? And yeah, so you're about to hear that right now. This is a second clip for all deliberate speed. That's one of my favorite moments on the record, hands down. Oh, absolutely. Hands down.

And like, I respect and appreciate bands that are willing to explore something like that and keep it on the record, right? Because to me, that's probably just something that came out of like an organic jam session or something like that, right? In the studio or in the rehearsal space or whatever. Yeah. And that's the kind of thing that gets cut on capital records, right? I guarantee you they wouldn't leave some like that end. I mean, yeah, I think the main thing is just how long it drags on. Exactly, because it almost...

I don't mean that in a negative way, but it's very, it's a repetition. Yes. You know, it's a... But it's repetition with like, with a very clear intent, you know what I mean, of building up this moment. Because, like, it's not necessarily the same thing over and over again. They're adding different textures to it and whatnot, right? I like how he has his, he's using his voice as another instrument. Yeah. And, you know, we could, we could very well be wrong on that. It might not have come out of a jam session. It could be

very much a calculated thing. But I mean, well, here's the funny thing, dude. We could be so wrong. What if this was the producer's idea? Yeah, but they produced it themselves, dude. I didn't tell you. Oh, cool. So, yeah, they self-produced this record. They had their collection of songs before they got signed to tooth a nail. That's what I was about to. They recorded it themselves. So they had these songs already. And they actually had a licensing deal with tooth and nail that allowed them to retain the masters themselves, which I thought was kind of smart. Now, that sounds very much like Spoon.

I think it was a series of sneaks. They had the entire album just completely recorded and done. Tyler, please correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm pretty sure that they struck up a similar deal with, I think, Matador Records. man, I'm probably so off. Thank God that sounds about right, dude. Thank God there's a spoon podcast coming out that I can double check my facts on these. Yes.

But yeah, that's cool. Dude, I didn't know that. Yeah. So anyway, I got a quote here, Q, I got a really, this is one of the best interview questions I've ever read. And I love the phrasing of this. And I wish more interviews would ask musicians this question. But this is a good. Can we give a shout out to the interview?

Yeah, we can. or at least I can, I can, yeah, I'll cite the source at least. Talk nerdywithus.com. Oh, okay. An interview with Dave Elkins back in 2019. So last year, pretty fucking recent. And the question is, I'm always genuinely curious about what artists want to convey with their music. How would you describe your sound without using genre names?

What kind of music do you produce? That's a badass question, man, because so many people... I mean, that's one of those questions where I would be like, hmm, shit, dude, let me think on that for a little bit. Yeah, because you're so used to being like, what would you guys call your... Are you guys more of an emo band or what? You know what I mean?

Like, put the genres aside. How would you describe your sound, right? That's a great question. And Dave says, the music that we aim to create and are most inspired by tends to be both emotionally and technically capable of holding some facet of, of the human experience.

We love building worlds and taking people on journeys. And man, all deliberate speed, that outro takes you on a journey. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like this interview question was in 2019. And like I was saying, they have definitely been building toward that, that idea of building worlds and taking people on journeys with that multi-sensory concept. Yeah, virtual reality taking you through the creation of the universe during their performance, right? So they're doing it especially today in current times, but even back on their first record with this song in particular, they're doing it with an outro without any special effects or anything, right?

So anyway, it's part of who they are, right? So anyway, all right, let's move on to the next track here. And this is also one of my favorite tracks. It's almost like we only play our favorite tracks on this podcast queue. Um, but there is something, I mean, isn't that in our tagline did? Probably. Our favorite records is what we say. And there, yeah.

Um, but this song, I like the song because it is a, it's a melody and like a guitar sound that you don't often hear in an emo song. It almost sounds like, almost like a, uh, like a nod to the police or something like that. That, um, the guitar chords and the way that, that, and the way that, they strut if I was more technically proficient. I would tell you exactly what he's doing, but I can't do that. That's all right, brother. I forgive you. I can only use words like sounds like police.

Anyway, so this song. We all forgive you. Yeah. The song is dope. I wish we could play the whole song, Q. I mean. Let's do it. Which song are we talking about?

Are we jumping back ahead? We're talking about this time is the last time. And the ending of the song is you're going to get goosebumps if you're paying attention. Okay. I like to call them goosebumps. Goosebumbleys. So we're playing the whole song. Is that what's happening?

Well, no, no, it's not. But we got to play the outro at least. So let's just play the whole fucking song. Come at me, May recording company. Come at me, Dave. They've got their own. Seriously, though, I would love to chat with Dave. Dude, I reached out to him on Twitter and asked him if you wanted to be interviewed on this podcast, and I got, I heard the sound of crickets.

Yeah, you're striking out lately with that. I'm sorry. What are you going to say, dude? I'm not, not everybody can be Tyler Darling and get an interview with Brett Daniel right out the gate. Yeah, Tyler, how the hell did you pull that off, man? All right, here is track two from Destination Beautiful. This song is called This Time is the last time. So, the only thing that matters that you get away from the pain and the thought losing your mind.

Don't blame yourself. It was everyone around that made you like this way. There's a stage and a chance to watch it go down. So many great moments, dude. Yeah, I know, dude. It's just so perfectly executed, like everything about it. And the reason I said the police is the, you know, the rhythm of that guitar, the stabbing of those guitar chords. It's basically Roxanne.

It's Roxanne, right? Yeah. It is that same exact almost down to like the tempo and everything. But anyway, yeah. So the reason I wanted to play the whole song is you can hear how effectively. Number one. And you just slightly change that chorus. at the end.

Yeah, the way that they, that he is more, he is more exasperated at the very end of it. Yeah. The way that he is almost screaming. It's the most screaming that, that happens on this record, I think. I don't think he ever yells quite like that any, any other time on the record. But I love how, and they did this a couple times, especially the very last thing that he yells, somehow make it through. And then it almost cuts. It goes right to this quiet part.

Yeah. goes back to that really basic. Yeah. It's just such a badass song, man. I love it. And hey, so you mentioned that they've got a keyboard player. Yeah. On this song.

I mean, I'm sorry. On this album. On the record, yeah. Yeah. So I like the little part. It pops up in the second verse in the background, a little keyboard ditty. It's like, boody do do do. Do do de do.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yes, it's very subtle. It's a little subtle. subtle addition. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that the use of the keyboardist definitely contributes to the impact of these songs, right?

Yeah. It's very well done, the keyboard parts. So, Q, I'm going to cite what seems to be my favorite source lately. Punknews. Punknews.org, man. This guy reviewed every record that we've talked about for the last few weeks. punknews.org and he reviewed these reviews are from the time that these records came out so this is well 2004 so around the same time um so this guy named andy on punknews.org this is a pretty big

compliment right here he says the last time i heard a cd which is funny right that sounded this good and blew me away as much as this album did was jimmy eat world's masterpiece clarity. And that is a compliment and a half right there. And I've actually heard the comparison before. It may have been in this same article,

but... Yeah, now that I think about it, it has got some old school Jimmy vibes. And that's probably why we love this record so much. His vocal range is very similar to Jim Atkins of Jimmy World. The higher pitch

and the emotion, I hate to throw the word emotion around when talking about emo music. You've already done it once, dude. I know, I know. But anyway, yeah, that's a great comparison. And I think this record has as many, like, different sounds as the Jimmy

World, in particular clarity, and then obviously Bleed American, too, right? It bounces around quite a bit. Jimmy World also did much more in the vein of, like, heavier with some distortion, right? Especially on clarity. Yeah. And Bleed American. The song Bleeding American, right?

that intro at the beginning. What a great fucking guitar riff. We need to do that. We need to do an episode on that record because we did clarity. Go back and listen to our clarity episode. We kind of touch on the history of Emo. And that's when we had our epiphany. They're like, oh, email music is much broader than we thought.

And then we still haven't learned that lesson, dude. I keep forgetting. I just having to remind myself to listen to my own words. Yeah. All right. So we got one more song to play. We got one more song. And this is, I.

This might be my favorite track, period. Same. We're the same person, you and me. Real quick, dude. Before we do that, let's take a quick break. All right. So we're playing son, right? We're playing a song called sun.

And I think one of the reasons I like this song, and again, the three songs that we're playing today, they all have so very different sounds in between them, right? And the intro to this song, the main like melody in the background of the verse, at least, it's almost got like a jazz. It's got a jazzy kind of vibe to it almost. Yeah. The baseline is amazing. Shout out to the bass player. Sorry, I don't know what your name is because I can't tell if you're Rob, Mark, William, or Jacob, because I can't see a freaking person.

Here we go. I got to, don't worry about it. Got to figure it out here. I was worried for a little bit. It's either Mark or William. I guess it's Mark. Because they got dates next to him. So that's funny, dude.

Sucks to be William Clark. He was a bass player from 2001 to 2002, so he didn't even get to make it on a record. He missed out. Yeah, it sucks to suck. He missed out on that destination. Yep, he did not make it to the destination. To that beautiful destination.

All right, let's play it. Yeah, dude. Baseline, the really cool effect that Dave has on his voice during the verse. It's such a great verse to chorus. There's such a change between the verse and the chorus. I'm going to shut up and we're going to listen to it. Here it is. The song is called Son.

Yeah, man, that is absolutely my favorite song. It's such a great song. His like melodic timing and the lyrics are so great. Yeah. And the lyrics themselves are great, dude. I'm going to read it. I get to read it, not you, me. Well, no, no, no.

Let's wait on the lyrics because I actually have a video clip, an interview of him explaining the meaning behind the song. Oh, awesome. All right. So, yeah, let's play that. This is the same interview that we pulled for the intro. He did it a few years back with this publication called BeliefNet or something like that. He's talking about, and in particular, never mind.

Just play the damn fucking day. The son is about a relationship that was very important to me when I was younger that didn't pan out. And it's like the story of the unraveling of that relationship. And it's really interesting because it's sort of like a darker and almost sort of hopeless song in what I meant it to be. But there have been a lot of people that have found hope in that song. My stepdad and I, we weren't very close when I was growing up. And I remember we played a show at a venue called The Jewish Mother, which is actually the same venue that we, reunited and played just last week.

And his mother had just passed away like a couple days before that show, or maybe the night before that show. And he came out to the show, and I sang Son Acoustic, and he was just standing there, like, bawling. And I don't know what it was that I was singing about, but he was having a connection with his mother through that song. And that was, like, the very beginning of my stepdad becoming my best friend. And to grow up around someone that you don't know.

and then pursue your dream of playing music and then have that be the connection, you know, with my father, really, if anything. I mean, he's my dad. Like, you just don't expect those things to happen. I mean, he's like that kind of businessman that you only see, like, you know, at 7 o'clock when he comes home from work exhausted.

And that's all I knew when I was a kid. But as an adult, especially through son, we really connected. And you just can't plan for those things. It's like what music does that you just have no control over. That's beautiful. I love that. Yeah. Such a great story.

And I love that last line. The things that music does that you have no control over. Man, almost every time I listen to music, I lose control over something, man. Yeah. Well, there was my What You Heard pick for today gave me a moment that I had no control over Q. Dude, I got quite the What You heard as well, dude. I'm pumped. All right.

So anyway, I love that story about his step. dad, right? It's awesome. I like how he also said, I don't know what words I was singing. Yeah. He was connecting with the song. In other words, saying like, obviously to Dave, this song is very much about this relationship that didn't work out from back of the day. And then his stepdad heard it and those lyrics made him think of his mother. Is that what he said? Yeah, or he was just having an emotional connection to do music, right? Yeah. And anyway, so like, he mentioned, he said he played son acoustic. And I have a clip of him playing son acoustic during that same interview that we're going to play for the second clip of this of this song. And I want

you to pay attention to how he changes the delivery of the chorus and stuff a little bit. It has kind of a whole new vibe to it, which is so real quick. Before that, I want to read my favorite line in this record. Okay. first verse he says the confidence you held in us is the rope

we almost hung ourselves with damn that's just man yeah I know that there were better days but to see the light

and to feel the rays life was always back and forth and we were idling or making useless ruckus I fucking love it dude that's good stuff

man I love it man very good all right all right so here is here's an acoustic version we don't do this very often, but I like it when we do.

We play live, live clips. So this is... It's been a minute since we've done that, do you? Yeah. So this is the outro here. Destination seems that I'm still... Beautiful. Love it.

Can't get enough of it. What a voice on that guy, man. Yeah, it's great to hear it. So this concert, or it wasn't a concert, it was a very intimate interview, and he did these acoustic songs, was 2013. So that was the 10-year anniversary of the record.

And they had done some shows where they did the whole record, right? So anyway, yeah, I love the different feeling that that song has when it's done acoustically. And that's the version of the song that his stepdad heard in the audience and connected with. Anyway, I just, yeah, like you said, his voice, man, it's great. It's incredible. And, yeah, to me, when I heard that acoustic version, it just took on a different, a different life. you know totally yeah man i'm gonna listen to more of these tunes from this set he does a you know a few a few things from from other records beyond destination beautiful but he plays embers and envelopes live

um and then i think the rest of it is all post destination beautiful but anyway cool really cool interview uh we'll post the videos on our our website uh so you can dig in deeper uh if you if you care to that's it man that is that is our look at at may and one of our favorite records, dude, to this day. Yeah, one of the most important records, I think, of my youth. Yeah, you know, and I was wondering, like, why do you think we latched on to this record so much? I think it does have to do with the musical prowess, if you will. Yeah, the drummer is phenomenal, and the guitar riffs, you know, are unique, and I like, I don't know, I like the acoustic part of it.

You know, I mean, even on the actual record, there's a lot of acoustic bits. And it's just really unique guitar structures and song structures. And his voice is just so great, man, and different. Yeah. It's a higher pitch. Now, you mentioned last week that you think he's a little more in the whiny category. I guess what I meant to say was not whiny. I guess whiny is the wrong word to use.

You know who's whiny? Fucking Mark Kopp is from Blinkwainty to you. That guy whines. Yeah. I guess what I meant was compared to whoever the lead singer is of Emery, if we want to go back to Emory. He has, Dave of May seems to have more of that, that flare that happens sometimes with, with emo singers where it sounds, I don't know how to, it's not nasally, you know what I mean. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Especially when you listen to a May song.

Yeah, and I think... Yeah, I know what you mean. I think the reason I probably last on it this record, maybe you as well as well, Q, is yeah, they do sound like Jimmy World, but they have some more complexities and layers to them that sometimes more so than Jimmy goes, right? Bleak American came out two years earlier to this,

so we were all over Jimmy at that time. All right, so yeah, Q, that was Destination Beautiful. I know we say this every time, but you gotta listen to the whole record. Do we even have to, we should just record ourselves saying that and just push play every episode. So we don't have to say it over and over again.

But yeah, this is one of those records. I also say that every time. But anyway. Yeah, man. That's what we preach on, hey, that's the whole, that's what we preach, dude. If we're covering an album on this podcast,

it's an album that is deserving of a listen all the way through from track one. Or at least we think so, you know. Yeah. You might not like any of this stuff. But if you're a fan of Jimmy Eat World in that era of emo music, this record is a must-listen, I would say. If you're not familiar with them,

you have to give this album a shot. So yeah, this is Destination Beautiful by May, and that's how you put a nice little bow on top of Vecue. So, all right, now we're going to segue into our weekly segment called What You heard, where we both bring a track to the table that we listened to since we last spoke. You know, just another way to share more tunes with the world, you know. And by the world, I mean, I don't know, 10, 20 people who listen. We at least know, dude, let's at least say that we know one, two, three, four people that listen.

Five or six. Five or six, you're right. Got Alex from Russia who chimes in. That's true. Alex, if you're listening. Yeah. Cool. So.

All right, Q, what you got? What did you got for us? Yeah, so this is one of those magical moments in music listening that happens from time to time. So, and speaking of Jimmy, these guys fall into that era of emo music and they're still around today making tunes. This is a band that I just discovered. The magic part of this is how I found them because it's super random. I've been on a Fleetwood Mac bander for the last few days. And I decided to just see if I could find some good covers, Fleetwood Mac covers, because there's a lot of bands that cover Fleetwood Mac. So I just searched for a random playlist. And when I hit Shuffle, the first song that popped up was a cover of the song Gypsy,

which I fucking love. It's one of my favorite songs of theirs. And this is a band called Tiger's Jaw. ever heard of them? I have not heard of these guys or ladies. So it's actually, well, right now, it's actually just one guy and one girl. Okay. The rest of the band, I just read somewhere. I forgot how long ago this was, but the rest of the band split. Like three other members quit the band. I don't know about the history of it. So right now it's just two people, but they're still going on as Tiger's jaw. They have other band members or other musicians that come on to help them tour.

So they cover Gypsy for a single of theirs, and this is back in 2010. Not going to play that song. But anyways, I was just like, okay, well, I know how they sound when they're covering Fleetwood Mac. I wonder how they actually sound. So they've been around since 2006. So that's the year we graduated high school. And they've been doing this, you know, what is it, third wave email? They've been doing it ever since, man.

And it sounds like old school Jimmy World. You know, it's like a good mix of clarity in Bleed American. They remind me of, hey, Mercedes. It's crazy, dude. They're like a perfect blend of all the bands we've been listening to over the last few weeks. It's nutty. Except for the Screamo stuff. Minus the Screamo stuff.

They're more in the emo pop category. And they just released a single five days ago. And that's where we're going to play today. It's like the stars are lining. Dude, you're going to fucking love this man. All right, so this is a band called Tiger's Jaw. This is their brand new single. It's called Warnamee.

Yeah, dude. So you said that that is a brand new track? Brand new song. And they've been doing this since 2006? Yeah, dude. So yeah, they're not just like doing this genre. Like they are the genre, right? Like they came from the era.

Yep. That's cool, man. Yeah. I fucking, man, I must have played that song like six times today. Dude, I can just see your ass. prancing around your house. Getting stoked to listen into this. It's just one of those things, man.

I'm like, holy shit, this sounds like May. You know, I can use some Mae? I can hear some Jimmy Whirl. Yeah, his voice sounds very much like Dave and or Jim. So again, this artist is called Tiger's Jaw, and this is their brand new single, Warn Me. Nice. All right, Travis, what's you been heard lately, brother?

All right, cute. I think it's safe to say that new shoegays, has been something that I've been kind of drawn to you lately, right? New gaze? Yeah, dude. Has that caught on yet? Because if not, I don't know, dude. We got to trademark that.

So I think I've said this before. Like I like to bounce from, I find an artist and then I, I, you know, jump to similar artists, right? I found these guys through, you know, probably from either the narrowhead fans also like or maybe dive, right? So same vein. This is like shoe gaze mixed with, it's funny because they're classified as dream pop and shoe gaze, but you and I are smarter than that's the same. We know that's we know better now. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, this band is called Gleemer, G-L-E-E-M-E-R. and we're going to play the first track off of their record moving away came out in 2015

the song is called gauze i'm all about them jams dude yeah did tasty tasty number um so you remember i said earlier that like there was a moment in the song where something happened to me that i had no control over yeah did you pee your pants dude i didn't piss myself um not no not quite but what i did do I've talked about moments in songs, right? We have to kind of stop. Yeah. And be like, what did I just hear?

Yeah. This was one of those moments. When that guitar riff comes in in the chorus, that hook that I wasn't expecting and came out of nowhere, I had to like sit back and put my hand on my mouth and be like, oh, my goodness, gracious, what did I just hear? And I had to rewind the tape back, dude. You know what I'm saying? Like, well, you have to go back and hear it again because you're like, I wasn't fully prepared

for that. and it happened and I was, you know, I was so impressed with it. I have to go back and hear it again so I can get the full impact of it. It's spoken like a true music lover. I mean, I hope that's where I am. That's what I pretend to be at least. Oh, you are. Yeah.

Anyway, it's a great track. The rest of the record is similar. But yeah, I just, I love that kind of stuff. Right now I'm all about it because what I like about shoe gaze. You're talking about shoe gaze or dream pop? I like shoegaze better, dude. Yeah, I like shoe gaze. is better to...

I'm sticking with the term shoegaze. I don't know why. To refer to this sound, I'm all about shoe gaze. Dream pop, get the fuck out of it. There's just too many pops,

dude. There's too many pops. What I will say is when you listen to old school, okay, all the dream pop that was coming out in the 2010s that we were covered on New Dust.

Yeah, that is dream pop. That is dream pop. That is dream pop to me. Yeah, I feel like the bands that are coming out with music like this now are borrowing more

from the shoegates from the 90s. As in like the My Bloody Valentine. Yes, from My Bloody Valentine. Yeah. The more grungy stuff. Exactly. And that's what I like about it is it's very, very close to the 90s rock sound.

Absolutely. You know, and that's what I like about it. It's the amount of distortion that they put in a guitar. It's the fuzzy. Yeah, dude. It's the wall sound. Exactly. I can't get enough of it.

And I like the way that it's juxtapose with the usually soft vocal delivery, right? Yeah. All right. Anyway. So, yeah, this is probably. going to be a long episode. So we're going to wrap it up. Me, brother. Next week, I'm pumped about this record, man, because this is, me too. This hasn't been on the, on the, on the, on the roadmap, if you will. I think we decided to do this like within the last few weeks. Yeah, dude, we penciled in this detour,

like, you know, on the map. Yeah, all these other records that we've talked about the last few weeks, we've planned on talking about them since the inception of the podcast, right? This one, we're sneaking in. And like, it is right there. Were you in high school when you discover these guys? Or were you in college at that point? No, I was in high school. Dude, I've got a whole store to tell, man. Okay.

Don't spill beans then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, this was back in my drumming days with Days Old Dream. It's the first time I've shouted out the name of my old band. Oh, surely you've said it before. Maybe. So this band is called Ethan Durel, and we're talking about this record called White Knuckles on.

turned wheels. So these guys are local to didn't, right? Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, this is super obscure. If you don't live in Texas, this is how obscure they are. You know how many monthly listeners they have?

Based on Spotify, at least. I don't know, dude. 120. Oh, my God. Now, I would love to get that many listeners if I had a little band per month. But in retrospect, like, or if you want some comparison,

May, let me push the big. back button enough to get there. May has 108,000 monthly listeners. If you want to go, if you want to keep scaling up from there. So Ethan Rill is just pocket

change. Jimmy World has four million plus. So yeah, this is small potatoes and they don't make music anymore. So there's nobody new coming onto this band, right? You're not pulling in new listeners. They released one album after White Knuckles and then then they released a live album. Yeah.

And that's it. But this, this, yeah, this record has got some really cool moments in it. And we're going to play. It's really, it's really different,

dude. You know what, dude? Something about it. There's just something about this record, man. Every week. Hey, you know what?

And that's the thing. Every time we say that, I want somebody to tweet at us and say, you know, and it's not that special. It sounds like this or it sounds like that. Yes. I want to hear more music that sounds like the music that we talk about on the show.

Yeah. And that's a great. way of travel. Why don't you talk about our tweeters. Yeah, so you can follow us on Twitter at No Filler podcast. Yeah, we like to chat

with people. If you reach out to us, we'll probably talk at you. Yeah, and we'll give you a shout-out like we did for Karen and Mary or Marie. Karen and Mary Marie. Oh, God. However you pronounce her name. I'm sorry. Yeah, Marie. Or Mary. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am probably

butchering your name. But anyway, Yeah, shout out to us on Twitter And we'll likely talk about you You're going to talk about you behind your back Yeah, if you got If you're going to talk trash We still might talk about you

Because that's even more fun I think there was a There was somebody that got onto us about Pearl Jam or Stone Temple pilots Not being a grunge band I think it was Stone Temple pilots Yeah Or whatever

His name escapes me I think it was Stone Temple pilots Yeah Dan former I think his name was Yep Yeah dude he took us to school man And it was before we were not going to school. He took us to school.

I still stand by my guns here. Yeah. But that's the thing. And that he was for, you know, he was more of the age group when, when Grunger's hitting the scene to where he actually had a dog in the fight, if you will. Right. You and I, we were like, you know. Little babies.

We little babes. Yeah. So like to me, to me, like probably for a small amount of time in my life, any rock music from the 90s was considered grunge. But that's like what we want, right? We want engagement with listeners and we want a back and forth dialogue about music. That's what it's all about. Yes, exactly. So please reach out to us. That's what this podcast is about. Tell us how we're a bunch of chuckleheads. Yes, exactly. That's what this podcast is about. And it's finally starting to happen. People are actually starting to reach out to us. So why don't you keep that going, you know, talk to us, tell us what you like,

tell us what you don't like, tell us what you want to hear us talk about. And we'll try to make it happen. So you can, where can you hear us, Q? Well, you're listening to us right now. Yeah, that is funny that we say all this and like, you've already found us. You're listening to us now. Right. But we are part of a really awesome music network called the Pantheon podcast network. We're part of a huge music podcast family. So if you search for Pantheon podcasts, you can find us within the group,

lots of different, sometimes quite random music podcasts. Everything from Kiss to, there's a podcast that goes minute by minute in the movie, almost famous. There's a bunch of middle-aged dudes that talk about rap, the Dad Bod Rap Pod. I could just go on and on. Anyways, lots of great music podcasts in the network. That's Pantheon Podcasts. and you can find their website, Pantheon Podcasts.com.

You can find us on there. You can stream our show from the network or you can find us on our own. Nofilierpodcast.com is our website. Let me help you out Q. Thank you, Janice. And there you can find our show notes for each episode.

You can stream the episodes from the website if you're that kind of person. And each show note page has track lists So every song that we talked about, every song that we played a clip from, including our What You Heard's, you'll find them on the show notes page. And any sources that we cited, we'll put a link to that article so you can read more if you care. So for example, for this episode, I'll have the YouTube links for that acoustic concert and some of the interviews that we pulled clips from. So, yeah, check us out on all of those different places. And follow us on Twitter at No Filler Podcast.

And that'll do it for this week. So our outro song today is a side project of Mr. Dave Elkins. Oh, called Schematic. This particular record is called color in. It's kind of funny the way that they, I see what they did. Color inside in, I don't know, I don't know how to say that out loud. I don't know how phonetically. It's called color inside the lines.

There we go. But there's like a parentheses in. Like a noun, I guess. Yeah. Who knows? They're trying to be clever. But this is Dave Elkins' side project. This record came out in 2013. So the same year that he did those interviews and that live performance that we played a clip from, he was also pimping this record. So that's one of the reasons he was out there doing interviews.

So we're going to play the first track off of this record. It's called Outside. And that'll do it for us this week. My name is Travis. And my name's Quentin. Talk at you guys next week.