No Filler Music Podcast - Panda Bear - Person Pitch (with guest Josh Stewart)

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

With our buddy Josh joining us once again, we gush over Panda Bear's 2007 touchstone indie record Person Pitch. Trading in the usual guitar for a Roland sampler, Noah Lennox created a record made up almost entirely of samples ranging from Cat Stevens to a hooting owl. His reverb-drenched vocals, often densely layered to create harmonies on par with Beach Boys, paired perfectly with his introspective lyrical themes focused on his marriage, his newfound fatherhood, and even deeply personal stories like his reliance on anti-depressants. Person Pitch laid the foundation for countless indie bedroom poppers in the decade to come, and a sound that became the stepping stone for the chillwave movement. Tracklist: Comfy In Nautica Take Pills Bros I'm Not Gothic Voices - Rose, Liz, Printemps, Verdure Ponytail Visit tiestatea.com and use promo code NOFILLER15 for 15% off at checkout. A bold tea for a bold you. This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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. 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. And welcome 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 Quentin. I've got my brother Travis with me as old. always, and we've got Josh Stewart joining us again today to talk about Panda Bear's album from 2007 person pitch. This is one of those albums that we have. It's probably on our definitive episode list that we've had gone since we started this thing. It was inevitable we were going to

cover this album, and I'm pretty excited to have you on, Josh, because I know this album for you is probably as important as it is for me. One of my favorite albums probably top 10 for sure, always and forever. So yeah, welcome. Welcome back. Yeah, glad to be here. You know, it's going to be a regular thing. I may have to quit my day job.

But, yeah, I mean, this record, I think for a lot of people, was very formative. Last time I was on, we talked a lot about, you know, the kind of era of like, 2007, 2008, 2009. But I think this record, and the animal collective records around it, kind of define that kind of, you know, end of that decade, you know, I think,

especially in terms of indie music. Obviously, there's other stuff going on with pop music, but in terms of indie music, I don't know. This is definitely a touchstone, right? I mean, this album I would put above any animal collective album, really. And I feel like it, like, influenced how they approached their albums from that point on.

To give some of those numbers, you were saying top 10, top 20, Pitchfork put it as number one on their top 50 albums of 2007, which is pretty, I mean, pretty big deal, right? Top out of 50. And then they put it as number nine on the top 200 albums of the 2000s, the entire decade. So yeah. Now that's just pitchfork. I mean, Gorilla versus Bear, we talked about them last week, put them as number one for the decade as well. So yeah, this was a, like you said, this was a touchdown record.

And we hit on this last week that, you know, it was kind of considered a big influencer on the chill wave genre and a bunch of other indie indie subgenres from the next decade, right, the 2010s. Yeah, I mean, in the vocals, you can hear bands that took the kind of harmonies and the hook. hooks, the loops, bands took that, and there was so much. And I think it's like, it really kind of expanded on like what can one, what's the kind of music, one person and their computer and their sampler can do, as opposed to maybe, I don't know, it was electronic music, you know, like other things. Like this like sounds kind of like a band. Yeah, it is crazy.

The way it's looped, you know, and everything. everything. And it has those roots in psychedelic pop and psychedelic rock and Beach Boys harmonies and all that stuff. And it really like, that's another thing that drew me to it was just like, this was one person, just kind of throwing every musical influence that they have like at kind of a record. Well, here's something that I read that, I mean, this kind of stuff I just love. Like, maybe one of the reasons why it sounds different is because, so he was living in. Portugal at the time. Just moved, right?

Yeah, he just moved to Portugal and his guitar got held up at customs. But his Roland's SP303 sampler made it through just fine. So he didn't have his guitar, but he had a sampler. So he started just kind of messing around on his sampler, creating samples and loops and just it built on from there. That's really cool. those are the kind of stories that I love where it's just like

circumstances that lead to I mean it's like the butterfly effect happy accidents or whatever yeah what do they say necessity is the mother of invention right something like yeah exactly yeah there you go that's why we have you on here Josh you got the you got the quotes

the smart quotes yeah learned I'm a dad now I've got the dad wisdom I can just dole it out it just happened all right so this album actually has So it's a seven song album. Five out of the seven are singles. And this is no filler.

Usually, you know, our whole deal is we don't play the singles, right? That's the whole thing. But we're playing singles today. It's going to be fun because we have to. Well, none of these were on the Hot 100, so I don't think folks have to worry. Exactly. Exactly. This is one of those albums where they might as well all be non-singles, right?

because as critically acclaimed as it was, it didn't really get a lot of love in the mainstream. Which is understandable. It's an odd record, I think. And what I mean by that is like the barrier to entry is kind of high. Like you're kind of hearing this drone sound and then you have to unpack it and get to the gems, which, well, the first time I listen to this, I was like, this is fine. And then the second time, you're like, wow, there's some stuff in here. And then the third time, you're like, I think this guy's a gene.

And then the fourth time you're like, I'm not going to listen to anything else for the rest of the year. Yes, yeah, exactly, exactly. That's right. And if you're a fan of Animal Collective, this is pretty tame, right? Especially like after hearing sung tongs and feels like this is way more melodic, which is weird to say when you hear this stuff. But this is tame compared to Animal Collective's catalog before this. Yeah, there's no, like, in Animal Collective Records, there's some sense of like, I mean, that's why they called some of it, like, the freakfolk. I mean, it was like, there's like an element of punk to it.

Like, they screamed and, you know, they were like banging on, like, symbols really aggressively. And it had, like, a really kind of punk rock feel. And then this is, like, sugarcoated, you know, harmonies. He's layering his vocals, just, like, huge reverb. Yeah, and I think it's like the 60s psychedelic pop kind of vibe that it has that really makes it like it really, it brings you in. Like a lot of Animal Collective songs didn't necessarily do. Like you had to work for it if you were going to get into Animal Collective. Like you had to really like sit down and think about it.

Yeah. Until later, to your point, right? It's like like kind of after this, they incorporated, and I say they, I mean, Panda Bear obviously was a key songwriter and elect Animal Collective, right? So he clearly took his success here and his growth here and applied it to Animal Collective, which I think was a huge plus for the band, like him doing this and then going back. But we're not going to talk about them. But it's still interesting to think about it in the context. Yeah, well I will say here, just for those who don't know, Panda Bear is Noah Lennox, and he is one-fourth of Animal Collective,

alongside Avey Tare, Geographer, I don't know his real name. No geologists. Geologist, my bad. And then Deakin, who is another member of the band. So, yeah, this is his solo stuff. He had dropped a few solo records before this one. The intro that we played was Comfy and Nautica, which was the opening track on the record, one of the singles.

And yeah, let's just, let's jump into it and just dive into a song. So the first song that we're going to play, and I got two clips for this one, one of my favorites of his for sure. This one is called Take Pills. I have never read the lyrics before to this, and I was reading the lyrics, and like, I'm shook over here, dude. He says, surely there's no substitute for company. My mom's ripping off her hands one flake at a time.

All her children left the house and left her all alone. But like she'd tell me, it gets better. Just wait and you'll see. So I'm reading the genius notes here, you know, genius.com, the lyric website. And somebody says that the song is about his mother and how she would deal with, or how his mother dealt with his father dying. The focus seems to have been on prescription medicine. So, yeah, I think this song is about antidepressants is what I'm also reading.

But yeah, what are like haunting. And I know that's a, we say that word a lot, but like this is actually, this is truly haunting, you know, the lyrics here and like what he's talking about. And like the way that it's so like soft his delivery and stuff, you know. And I mean, I think that's like, how do I say this? stepping on like the next part but i mean it isn't this is act one right and it is a somber kind of movement right and i do think like as we as you know we get through it this we'll become more evident to folks that are just now listening to this or like really listening to it critically

but you know it it's not like a concept album but he definitely like throughout the window the idea of what a song is or can be because you know it's like this song take pills is like two songs and then like there's i think carrots is like three or four songs kind of in one you know it's it's really quite remarkable that he takes these basic fundamental things about songs and harmonies and things but he kind of throws out the idea of what a song is and i think it really rewards the listener that gets invested. And, you know, I think it's a stream two, you read the lyrics because I'm not sure they're all this serious.

I think it really bounces around in terms of levity and, you know, introspection. Very straightforward. Yes. But like when you hear the way it's delivered, like I said, I've never read the lyrics before. Like it's a very kind of beautiful kind of mel. Like very soft like lyrics and like or vocals. And it seems kind of like you're floating through a cloud or something like that.

that's the feeling you get on any depressants, I don't know. But like, it doesn't sound like what the lyrics are about, you know what I mean? Like, if you didn't know the lyrics, you just heard the song, it's a very pretty song, you know. I mean, I think the song matches the emotion, right, that he's trying to convey, which is like a disconnect and like he's kind of watching, you know, and I think floating's right. And a lot of his songs have that kind of like the disconnected observer that's just Yeah, you're kind of above it looking at it. Yeah, but also like empathizing and sympathizing like deeply, right? But like you're not really participating, at least in this first part.

Yeah. All right, so here's clip two of take pills. I like that he's like trying to make sure that his mom knows that like it's not bad. They're taking pills. Well, there's a quote here about the song, and he's saying, the song is about appreciating what antidepressants did for me at the time, but wanting to get off them and to try not to rely on them if I could. And then he goes on and say,

and that's not to say that I think nobody should be on them. Like I said, they really helped me out for a while. But for me, personally, I just wanted to try to get on with it. And it's kind of me talking to my mom about trying to get her off of them too. Wow. Which is such a personal thing to put on a record. Yeah. And it's such a playful little, like, melody that kind of happens, you know?

It's, yeah. There's something profound, right, with it. And also just sort of like a childlike simplicity. Yeah. Right? And I'm, I kind of lack the vocabulary for like another choice of words. Dude, join the club. Welcome to the podcast, dude.

It's just a simple, just so simple in how he describes it. And, you know, it's just like that. you know, like, I don't want us to take pills anymore, not that it's bad. I don't want us for to take pills because we're stronger and we don't need them. And it's just like so, I don't know, I don't even know what I'm trying to say, but there's, like, if there's something like hopefully innocent too, because he's just like. This is almost like a, like a Disney song, you know what I mean? Well, that's, and then that's why it's like, I can see some Disney characters singing this.

But it's like such a heavy, it's such a heavy topic. and then it's surrounded by this kind of like, and then the way that the harmonies come in, like, and it's like stronger, but, and then those like harmonies like hit, it's kind of like, it's like two different things are happening at once, which I always think makes for great songwriting

where it's like, oh, the song's about like antidepressants and like loss, but here, let's hit you with like a wall of like, just like sugary harmonies, you know? Yeah. You know, it's not like, I don't know, It's something unique about him and the way he execute his art. It's clear that Animal Collective and all those guys were unique. But you dig into a song like this and it's like really this guy is very unique.

And not only how he looks at the world, but how he's like, again, what's the idea of a song? Oh, a song can be anything. You know, here you go. And that transition you were playing is like very, it's almost bad. I love the transition. It's like, because it's just like, he's basically just like slow fading in to another song, but they fit together perfectly. But it works. Yes, and it works.

Yeah. I think, I think it works. It does sound like it's not right. And that's what I mean. There's like a high barrier to entry. Like, you play that for someone. Then you're like, what's wrong with the song? Like, what's wrong with that?

Let me listen to it again. I feel lightweight about so many animal collective songs. Like, most people are like, what is, what is happening? That's exactly what I said on the episode. Yeah. We did cover sung tongues a few years back, and Travis was like, why? I had never heard the record before. My first question is why.

And my second question is, what did I just hear? Yeah. And that's, I guess that's it, right? I mean, and if I were to go back and listen to it again and again, I'd probably be like, oh, I see. Now I get it. Yeah, sung tongues took me a while. Yeah.

The first time I heard, I was like, this is bad. That's my favorite one. That's my favorite album of theirs. Anyway. So, yeah, let me just quote something. from this interview that he did with tiny mixtapes. I don't know the date, but it was around the time this came out. Wow. Is tiny mixtapes still around? I used to read them all the time.

I mean, it's still a valid URL. I'm like, uh, new dust. They got that going for them. They were asking about the lyrics and how they're like so direct and like to the point. He says, the words I write always tend to be very straightforward. And I don't get much into metaphor or poetry. I can't help but talk about things that I'm thinking about or problems that I'm having. Typically all the stuff I write concerns my relationships with various people, usually my closest friends and family. So yeah, and you know what? I mean, we're going to cover this album next, but one of my favorite songs on Maryweather Post Pavilion,

the Animal Collective album that came out right after this is girls or my girls. I was going to say all of his songs are very... Very personal. Yeah, it's about his, his, his, literally like his kid, you know? Yeah. And his daily routine, which is the name of the song. All right. So let's jump into the next pick. We're going to play. This one's a three-parter because it's 12 minutes long. Oh, it's nearly 13 minutes. That makes this a progressive album, doesn't that? You know, isn't that the template of a prog rocker? A prog rock song. Yep. And he didn't list yes on his influences. Cairns on there though. Even better than yes, in my opinion. opinion. All right, this is track three off the album. This song is called Bros.

It's such a blast to listen to that. It's just so fun, man. Like, that's a song you can just, you can just scream at the top of your lungs with him, you know, just sing along. Yeah, it's just such a fun song, man. Yeah. And again, the lyrics are very simple. Like he said, like he's not, there's no metaphors in his lyrics and stuff like that, you know. Yeah, I mean, it's literally about like needing like a time out from like needing some space yeah I never really thought about until I'm reading them like how much like he just repeats

like and like I love the little vocal trick like and you may you may you may you may you may you may you may you may you may you may find that we're all right like you just never dawned on me just like how like simple of a trick that is but it's very like clever and it gives it that again that playful yeah I was going to talk about that Like, that's kind of a staple of animal collective too, right? Like, they're, like, really good at... Repetition.

Yeah, and, like, the way that they just craft words together and, like, the way they, they, they, uh, the cadence and stuff. And, like, it's, it's all very much like they're, I think we talk about this on songtong. It's like they're, they use their vocals as like, percussive and like instrument instruments and stuff like that, right? You know, like the way that they kind of do stuff. It's very tribal. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, Pinaver builds, it's like he creates a foundation. he builds the sample and then he builds this kind of like sort of symphony out of these various samples and the vocals are just another part of that. They're not like, they're not like trying to cut through.

They're not trying to, like, they're like a part of it. And also, maybe this was intentional, but it's like in the mix, it's not that hot. Like it's not that high. Right?

You know, it's like, you do have to like carefully listen and it's like drenched in reverb. And like sometimes it's the same like volume is a guitar or a sample or whatever else. And it's unique. I don't know who else did music like that, you know, or repeated it.

Yeah, Animal Collective has always, I mean, their music is just so, like, hypnotic. Yeah. I mean, and we're talking about Animal Collective because Panna Bear is a huge part of them. Yeah. They put you in a trance almost. Yeah, I'm going to quote, drowned in sound here. I love this. They say, these psychedelic kids.

hymns and schizophrenic nursery rhymes sound unreal, otherworldly, yet it sounds so human, so real, and in touch. I mean, that's it, man. To call it a, what do you say, a nursery rhyme? Schizophrenic nursery rhymes. Yeah, like we were trying to talk about, like I said, it sounded like a Disney song or whatever. Yeah, I used the word, I used the word, like, kind of childlike hope, you know, and that's, that the nursery rhyme is it.

It is like, yeah. And that's like, take pills has that too, where it is like this sad thing. And then he's like, ending with this hope. He's like, but we're stronger. We don't need them. Exactly. Yeah. Honestly, it's like most kind of musicians like this are cynical or like they have like

whatever baggage they're dealing with, which often drives their music and makes them like interesting, you know, but this just kind of like, I guess it's just such a, his unique personality comes through and it's almost like, you know, if maybe if he never formed animal collective, you know, or whatever would, would any kind of music like this have come out? Because like these kinds of personalities often don't make music, right? Like, it's very, he's clearly a very sensitive, very like. Introspective. Yeah, like introspective guy. And I don't know, maybe I just listen to the wrong kinds of music and I don't read enough poetry. But like, This is unique.

Well, maybe, and maybe it's unique because, like, you know, so many musicians write using metaphors and stuff like that, you know, they don't just come right out with it. Are they right about love in the superficial way? Not the, like, the real, the real shit. Everyone loves the, like, I like the girl, the girl likes me kind of songs. Like, those are awesome, right? But, like, this is, like, real, like, much more real stuff. Let's take a quick break. So, um, the little, I know we got.

How many more, two more clips? We got two more clips. I was just going to say the main guitar riff that you hear is actually a sample of a tornadoes song called Red Roses and a Sky of Blue. And then he also, later on in the song, he samples Kat Stevens and the equals. So that long list of like influences on the Wikipedia page, some of them are just the people that he sampled on this record. But obviously, there ain't no Metallica song on this record.

I'll tell you that right now. So this is obviously influences and people he sampled. But anyway. You can do a whole podcast on what he samples, I'm sure. Totally. And this is a really great list. It's a massive list of fans. Well, and he makes it his own.

Yeah. You know, it's not like he might as well be making this out of found sounds, you know, or something or like, like, you know, some kind of library of Congress archive, you know, because he's just taking these like obscure things or like uneventful chords. yeah and just making something interesting almost like a collage artist yeah collage I saw that word pop up quite a bit just like his album art my friends

we did it we're gonna jump ahead a couple minutes here is clip two from bros there's those like found sounds you're talking about Josh can hear like all kinds of stuff sounds like people on a roller coaster yeah all kinds of stuff I love that man

yeah and the term collage collage shows up all over the place with reviews. And so yeah, that's the right, that is the right word to use here. Yeah, so Pitchfork in 2019 described the album as a collogist classic of sidelong beachboysisms and kitchen sink sonics, classic pitchfork, right, that sits firmly in sample delic canon. I was about to bring that up. Sample Delia. That's a thing.

Yeah, sample delia. sample-based music, which uses samplers or similar technology to expand upon the recording methods of 1960s psychedalia. Yeah, well, this is it right here. I think what really, like, if I'm remembering, like, you listen this album or you're trying to convince someone to listen to it, and it's just like, it's, you're trying to explain it. It's like, it's not like anything you've ever heard. He samples stuff, and people are like, like, like hip-hop, and you're like, no, nothing like that. But like also like the opposite of that. Yeah, but it's like it was just really hard to explain to people.

And like I just can't maybe this is how narrow my like music like intake was at the time and how much animal collective and panda bear broadened those horizons. But like I had really like didn't know it was possible to make music like this. And like using these kinds of technology, I didn't even know you could make. this kinds of music. Like, they didn't even, like, dawn, like, on me. I knew there was, like, found sound bands. I knew there was, like, ambient. I knew there was, like, lo-fi groups.

But, like, doing it all in one, like, from a sampler, just really, like, and that gets to his story. It's, like, how he did it. He did it living in Portugal. It was just, like, also, like, so fascinating. Like, I can't imagine sitting there over a sampler hours and hours and hours just, like, pouring over this stuff. and then be like, all right, now I'm going to record like six layers of my vocals to this, like, what's the one line?

I know I'm being way too hard, but I know that I'm trying. It's just like, we've all felt like that before. And then when he like hits those high notes, that's when it kind of like brings you back to like pop. It's like, oh, this is just a pop song. Yeah, dude. Like at the end of the day, you know? Hits me in the fields, man. I just, just something special about this album, dude.

What would you say to like somebody, like, how would you recommend this album to people? Like, I feel like you need to know some, a little bit about the person's music interest, like on a scale of one to ten, how adventurous they are, right? Like, if there are a seven or an eight, it's like, all right, why don't you check this out? You know, because it is like, it takes a lot to get into this record. I'm even listening to it now, and I'm just like, this is so weird. and I love every second of it. Yeah.

You know. And we're not playing the weird, the weird ones tonight. I mean, it gets weirder, you know, it gets way weirder. Yeah. On this record? Yeah. And not animal collective weird. But it gets weird.

What's the song? You can kill a rabbit. What's that song on some tongues? Yeah. I think we played that one too. I love that song. Yeah. That song's insane.

Their little, I guess this is the. kitchen sink sonics that pitchfork was talking about but like the little sample of like the man crying or whatever the sobbing in the beginning of the second clip he played like that that's weird you know it works yeah but it's like it's like so over the top you know it's just yeah it's just there's so much stuff you know that he's just hitting you with a bunch of stuff you know and you're like what am i what am i hearing it's like funny but then you read the lyrics and it's like well he's clearly like illustrating some kind of like frustration with being too hard on himself and not having enough space yeah um and he's saying like grow up grow up you know yeah can't you just grow up

like that's one of the lyrics they repeat over so it's like there's a overgrown like an adult man crying in the background of the song you know and he's telling himself to grow up which is funny because i think i think he just had a kid so there may be some like what's what's happening in my life which you know as a new dad i do like space growing up that there's a lot of those feelings. Yeah. But you know, I didn't have that when I was in my 20s and I was listening to this because I think he's, again,

he's illustrating something very simple that everyone feels. Speaking of growing up, I didn't know when I was going to quote this from him, but this is a good time to do it. Ponytail is the last song on the album. We're going to outro out the episode of Ponytail. But I like what he says here. He says, Ponytail sounds like a care bearer, song to me.

And I was embarrassed to put it on there. But then I thought that it would be sweet to put out a song that made me feel so naked and so square and uncool, especially since the first song is about not wanting to be cool, at least not in the traditional sense. So yeah, Care Bear song. Nursery rhyme. Grow up. It's very vulnerable.

Yeah. Admitting that, or like that little tidbit, kind of, sums it up better than what I was trying to say earlier. I mean, the childlike wonder he has and how he brought that to his music. And he almost didn't even put it on the record. And no one knows what we're talking about because we haven't played that song yet. But it goes, you know, along with most of the songs on this record, I think. Let's play the outro of Bros.

So this episode is called Bros. And here's clip three. It's just this classic sample delia, you know what I'm saying? You don't have to have metaphorical fireworks when you just sample fireworks at the end of your song going off. In case you need to know how to feel. I don't think I've ever noticed the fireworks at the end before. But it's like interesting when you're listening to this and you're trying to be like objective. It's normally I listen to it and I'm just like kind of grooving, right?

Or I'm like making up my own silly words to the lyrics or to the song. you know, or whatever. And yeah, I've heard it, you've heard it so many times, you know, you can kind of miss some things. But yeah, I mean,

the layers of like different stuff he's got going on. That could have taken a wrong turn at any point. You know, it was probably a little, probably a little bit of luck and a lot of trying stuff out. I mean,

there could be a lot of people that are saying right now, like, it took a lot of wrong turns. What are you talking about? Well, like, this is where he reveals it like, yeah,

I'm an animal collective. Like here's just Right This You know In case you For God In case you

I'm an animal I didn't realize it I'm I'm part of animal collector But like Greek folk is still there Yeah

The delay The I No no No no Like that stuff It's like It's like disorienting

But like It's jarring He doesn't take it Too far Because it The song It's still going And that's probably

When Avey Tair would have been like Let's just Keep doing that For a little bit Longer And really Fuck with people

Let's make that A song If But it's not a coincidence that he had an actual baby crying in the end because he had a grown man sobbing and then he had a baby crying. Yeah, I mean, again, it's like there's no, he says what he means. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, he wanted to end on fireworks. So he just threw in some fireworks, you know.

So speaking to like samples, I just read this just popped out of me. He says Linux estimates that it's like 96% samples, 10% of which I actually played. That's crazy to me. Yeah. It doesn't sound like it's 96% samples. I think I knew that or if you've ever seen any iteration of Panda Bear or Animal Collective Live. Besides the drums, there really isn't a ton of instruments. It's mostly samplers, some synth and keyboard, and then they do like add percussion to it to get. give it some oomph live. But here's something interesting about that that I just found out recently.

And the first time I saw Animal Collective... It was House of Blues. House of Blues. Part of the sound of Meriwether and how it sounds kind of different from Strawberry Jams and everything before that was Deacon took a step back from the band. Deacon wasn't there and he's a guitar player in the band. Maryweather was heavily sampled as well. and they took influence from what Noah did on this album.

I'm wondering how much of their older stuff is just as heavily sampled because Deakin contributed with his guitar playing. And again, he wasn't there for Meriwether. So anyways, I'm just like, I didn't see them early on, you know? Like, I wonder how much more of it was. I mean, I'm sure they used loops, like loop pedals and stuff, but I wonder how much of it was actual live recordings. There sound changed, you know.

So like both because he left and both. both like it was changing already, right? Right. Like sung tongs to feels, to strawberry jam. Yeah, those three albums are so different. And then he did this. And then Maryweather's a combination of this and the natural evolution from strawberry jam. Because strawberry jam has some of those those kinds of sounds that you get.

It does. I love strawberry jams. I just revisited that album for the first time in a long time. And it holds up. I mean, also too, I forget, like, they work. getting bigger and like they're all from kind of the Baltimore Maryland area and like Merry Weather is like the venue right Maryweather Post Pavilion and from what I recall reading at the time is like the record they wanted a record to kind of like fit into that bigger sound right and

it's like so interesting that like we're listening to a person pitch and it feels so small and like they kind of took like these ideas and like had a sample and like the hooks and like they really blew it up on that that record it's really interesting how like it goes from this like little bedroom pop thing to this like enormous album yeah but those moments are on here too there's those like high harmonies those moments where you like can sing the lyrics along but they're not prominent and you have to wait eight minutes into bros or whatever you know, to get it, which is, as a fan, as like a music nerd, I love that. I love it when artists make you, like, work. We talk about that a lot. I like the buildup. It's all about the buildup. All right, so we got one more song here.

This is track four on the album. This one's called I'm not. I mean, that's like the whole song. You know, I talk about repetition. That's it, man. It's so hypnotic, right? That one's like a hymn. Not a hymn.

What's the word? It kind of sounds like a... It's like a chant, like a, not gregarian chant, but like that. Yes, like a monastic kind of like, you know, like, this is another one. I don't think I've ever really listened to critically. I love this song. So this is interesting because I wanted to find out what, if that was him in the beginning, the monastic chant thing that we're hearing, it's this group called the Gothic voices,

just so we can hear this, because this is just, I always love doing this. Yeah, so the sample that we're hearing. Here it is. I mean, it's actually just that beginning part just sampled. But like this kind of stuff always blows my mind. It's like... Yeah, me too. That means he has this in his record collection.

And he was like, oh yeah, I can use that. And it's like two minutes and 39 seconds into this song. It's just like awesome. I love that stuff. Yeah. But yeah. That's cool. I would have assumed that it was him because, you know, he can do all this kind of stuff with his voice too.

Like I could totally see him just dubbing over himself and kind of making that sound. But no, he sampled it from this record that came out in 1983. Yeah, quite the deep cut. Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, this was the first single, apparently, off the record. And the B-side was Confiannautica. So this song is about fatherhood. So Josh, as I knew father, does this song mean something to you now that it didn't mean when you first heard it?

Because I said, I'm not ready for it. But, you know, could I ever be? That's what every father thinks, right? this just goes back to like he's such a simple lyricist but i gotta say though this song some of the other songs like take pills like you're sort of like the lyrics are kind of hitting you and you're like oh you know but this song i have never thought about the lyric once me neither like those kind of chance hit you and then it's kind of like more chanting and then the song's over and this is the first time i've ever really thought about the lyrics but it's almost comforting to know

that it's like consistent. It's like going back to like, you know, he's trying to figure out if it's going to be okay. Like he's in it, is he going to be a good dad? Like there's a very basic like kind of like feelings. But like that is not the first step forward in the song. The first step forward is like, you're in the sonic whirlwind and it's like, am I in a medieval castle that's getting like acid washed? You know, what's happening? Yeah. You know, it's truly, you know, a song that's like not it's more than his others. This one's like the disconnect between what the song is conveying and then the sounds you're hearing. That's one of my favorites on the record.

Really? I just love it, man. I don't want to say it's filler. No, but like this is like one that was always in the background for me. So I think it's interesting. It's your favorite. I think the chanting makes it interesting. That's what I like about it.

I mean, there's no, there can't be a favorite on person pitch. you know yeah it's to me it's a record right exactly songs i did think about like which songs were what names before we recorded today because like to me i think of it as like it's the whole record it does start with comfy and nautica but like that's more just getting your attention with the beat that's like kind of like the the marching beat but really it's like it's like it's an album like many many many other great albums this is something that it's like oh you got to listen to a front to back yep That's what we preach on this podcast.

Well, that's it, Josh. If you need to bounce, we can let you go, sir. All right. And we can wrap this up. What are you going to play for the outro? Are you going to do Care Bears? Outro's ponytail. Yep, outro's the Care Bear song.

I threw ponytail onto one of like the early, uh, new dust mixtapes. Me too, Trave. What? We both have that song on one of our mixtapes. Whoops. Twins. Well, anyway, I transitioned from it. it into a man-man song, which is funny because we're going to do man-man in a couple weeks.

After Animal Collective. Yeah. Anyway. All right, guys. It's been real. It has been real. Thank you for joining us. Always a pleasure.

All right. So Josh had to leave. He's got dad stuff to do, you know, stuff like that. But, um, yeah, man. What a record, dude. It's been years since I've listened to some of these songs. And, like, it just puts a smile on my face, you know? Yeah.

This music just, like, warms your soul. And like, you know, I didn't actually get a chance to read this quote when Josh was on. But it sounds like he was very much influenced by his surroundings in Portugal. Yes. He says the quality of light in Lisbon, this is an interview he did with this website called believer mag.com. He says, the quality of light in Lisbon in the evening time when I hear music is a deep orange light. there's that sense in the music because of sunlight. And it does feel like a warm kind of sun-kissed record.

You know what I mean? Yeah, I didn't save the quote, but, you know, I read a few articles preparing for this. They said some along the lines of like, you know, this album, it's like being outside in the sun, your eyes are closed and you can feel the warmth of the sun, just that warm glow. That's person pitch, dude.

Yeah. And here's another quote. to wrap that up with a nice bow on top. He says, while writing these songs, air was flowing through my studio, the windows would often be rattling with wind, and the sunlight in the evening would flood into the room.

I feel that when I listen to the music. Awesome. There you go. Yeah, dude. That's from Panda Bear himself. We wanted to cover this album first, before we do Mary Weather Post Pavilion, which is an Animal Collective album that came out

right after this one, and this is what we talked about earlier in the episode, because Deakin, one of the members of Animal Collective stepped out of the band briefly, they lost a guitar player. And so Maryweather is very, it's a very heavily sampled album. And they kind of used person pitch as a blueprint for, kind of what he learned. For Maryweather. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, yeah, that's what we're going to cover next week is Animal Collective's Maryweather Postpavilion.

I, dude, I can't wait. I can't wait. Another huge album from that era. Yeah, really. Also, dude, what have you been sipping on tonight? Q, I'm glad you asked me about that. Yeah. So today, Q, I'm actually drinking.

Chai Love. Chai Love by T-S-to-T. That's the name of their chai flavor. It's called chai love. Dude, I thought you were a coffee guy. I'm a huge coffee guy, but I love a good tea in the fall. And chai is like the perfect, like, fall. you know, aroma and stuff like that. And that's what I love about this, this teastat tea. Like,

it's the, it's the loose leaf kind. You know what I mean? There's just something about the experience of like loose leaf tea, you know, like you. Oh, yeah, dude. You can see all the ingredients. Like, it's very aromatic and stuff like that. It's just great, man. You're not just plopping a tea bag into your cup. Dude, it's exactly, let me tell you something. As a coffee lover, there is such thing as like, you know, instant coffee, you know, or like the little teaback coffee. Have you ever tried any of those? Yes, I have and they're all terrible. Disgusting. Instant coffee is the worst.

But like, you know, when you start with like the actual bean, you know, and you grind it up and you go through the whole ritual, that's the way you do it, right? Oh, yeah. I feel like, you know, if you're going to drink tea, do it with like some loose leaf tea because you're actually seeing the like with this chai love, like you're seeing the ginger and the cardamom and the clothes and stuff that you're about to drink and you get the whole experience. It's great. Delightful. So we are actually partnering with Tia. a brand that I'm like that I'm jazzed about because I've actually purchased this brand before like you know what I mean so like I I know for a fact that it's that it's high quality stuff so they sent us

this thing that you can actually buy yourself called the sampler dry flight comes with these little sample packs of eight of their of their flavors right the top sellers basically so yeah if you go to tsat com use promo code no filler 15 you'll get 15% off try that sampler pack if you want like I can vouch for it and yeah dude I can tell you right now this this try is really good I can't wait to try the other flavors

so yeah again that's teesta like fiesta but with a tea Testa Testa T a bold tea for a bold U all right man that's it so next week we're going to be coming at you with Animal Collective's

Merry Weather Post Pavilion and Trevor can you find us we would love for you to follow us on Instagram. So, yeah, just search, search our name, No Fulner Podcast. You know, you'll see weekly posts at the very least. Sometimes, you know, we try to do it as often as we can. But, you know, you can at least get updates through Instagram for when an episode goes up with a little write-up on it.

Nice little image. But, you know, we're trying to use Instagram to, you know, share more things than just, you know, hey, the new episode's up, right? So follow us there. You can reach out to us on Instagram too, send us a message. We've actually connected with a few listeners that way. And that's always awesome. That's what we love. So yeah, Instagram.

And we're also proud members of the Pantheon Podcast Network family. That's Pantheonpodcast.com. That is the podcast network that is all music podcasts all the time. So if you'd like no filler, guaranteed you'll find a few more shows. under the Pantheon podcast umbrella that you will also love. So again, go to pantheonpodcast.com. And yeah, that's it. Like you said, Q, we're going to talk about Maryweather Postpivillion by Animal Collective next week.

I can't wait. It's, you know, since the moment that we said, hey, let's do a podcast about music. Like this record was bound to happen. I'm surprised it took us this long, honestly, to get around to it. Same, dude. But you know what? I'm glad that person pitch took as long as it did because that gave us a situation. chance to have Josh on to chat about it with us. Yep. Thank you, Josh, for joining us tonight.

It was awesome to have you on. Yeah, we'll try to get, we'll try to get Josh on, uh, anytime he wants to be on. We'll get him on because he's, he's awesome. He's one of the OG new dust boys, you know? Yeah. If you don't care about that, like most of you. He's just, he's just a great guy. Yeah. Um, fun to talk with. And, uh, we know, we basically, uh, as you can tell by, by listening to our conversations, we very much grew up on the same music. So it's just another, you know, he just, he fits in so perfectly with, with everything that no fillers all about. So anyway, all right, we're closing out with ponytail, which is another one of my favorites off of person pitch. This is the song that closes out the record. It's the last track on the album. And yeah, that's going to do it

for us today. Thank you, as always, for listening. My name's Quentin. My name is Travis. You'll take care. It was the night before the gathering and all through the house. The host rapid cozy cashmere throw from Home Sense for their spouse. Kids toys for $6.99 under the tree. And crystal glasses for just $14.99 for their brother Lee. A baking dish made in Portugal for Tom and Sue. And a nice $599 candle.

Perfectly priced just for you. Happy holidays to all. And to all a good price. Home Sense, endless presents, perfectly priced.