No Filler Music Podcast - Underneath California: The Hidden Depths of Phantom Planet’s The Guest

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

On this episode we dive into The Guest, the 2002 breakout record from Phantom Planet that proved they were far more than just “the band from The O.C.” While “California” would eventually become unavoidable thanks to television fame, the deeper cuts reveal a band operating at a much higher level than most people realized, blending sun-soaked power pop with vulnerable, emotionally charged songwriting and flashes of restless garage rock energy. Tracklist: California In Our Darkest Hour Turn, Smile, Shift, Repeat Nobody's Fault All Over Again So I Fall Again The Guest This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Wayfair, every style, every home. ...driving in the sun, picking up for number one. California, here we come. Right back where we started from. Well, hustlers grab your guns, your shadow weighs a ton. down the 101, California here we come, right back where we started from. 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's Quentin, with me as always is my brother Travis. We got Mitchell with us again tonight gracing us with his presence. What's up, dude? Yo. Howdy, howdy. His presence is our present. It sure is, man. The presence is a present.

Very Buddhist. We just opened it. Talk about a present of a little piano riff, though. Oh, yeah. Instant time travel, bro. I mean, insane. We were also just talking about Google Street View in our childhood homes, if that's creepy or not, whatever. But hearing that riff, that piano riff, I was right back in my car growing up, dude.

Right back where we started from. Right. I said it. Dude, so, I mean, for people who grew up watching, what, the CW or whatever. Oh, the CW. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right.

Right? I forgot. Is it called that anymore? It was Warner Brothers, but they, like, wasn't it? I thought it was on Fox at one point. Like, the syndicated big network. Wasn't that show? Okay, so CW was the name of the network or the channel.

Yeah, it was like a second tier over the antenna channel, right? It wasn't like as good as Fox or NBC. Yeah, yeah. But what was the guy? What was the show? The O.C. The O.C. The O.

Orange County. That's funny. I typed in Orange County to find details about it. And then I just, I was taken to the movie page for the Jack Black. The Jack Black film. Yeah, because it was kind of a whole. Colin Hanks. Right?

The genre of like, I don't know, there was kind of a push of that California lifestyle back then. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, like, so many people probably associate that song with that show. And that's it. Yeah, totally, totally. Which is cool. What an earworm, dude.

It makes me mad sometimes. We just don't fret into it. And I haven't even mentioned who we're covering tonight. That's right. I mean, do you really have to. I think everybody knows. I don't know, dude. Okay.

If you're our age, you do know. You know the song, but that's the whole point of tonight is to prove that you might not know the name of the band. For sure. Yeah. And they've also got random songs that sound nothing like what that song sounds like. I mean, nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So the band recovering tonight is Phantom Planet.

And of course, we had to intro with California, which is their mega, mega hit from this album. The guest, which came out in, I believe, 2001 is when this album, 2002 is when this album came out. And it was featured as the theme song for the show, The O.C, which I never watched. Not one second of that show. I did not. I did not. Now one second. No, I kind of wanted to, but I knew it wasn't like, what was I going to get?

get out of it. It was like, you know, glorified high school soap opera. It's like Dawson's Creed. Yeah. I'm at rich kids in Orange County or some shit. Yeah. Adrian Brody, right? Was he? No. Not Adrian Brody. It's, I think it's Adam Brody. Adam. Yeah. It's Adam. Yeah. It's Adam. Yeah. Okay. Nice pool, bro. Yeah. Early 2000's fucking hard throb. Yeah. I mean, look, guys, I don't want to brag or anything, but people used to say that I I looked like him back in the day. You did look like him back then, dude. You looked...

That means you look like him too, wouldn't because... Not in high school, dude. Do you remember how I looked like in high school? Yeah, I mean, he could wear your hair long in all this, right, in different shirts, but your faces are identical. Well, Travis was kind of preppy and I was like... And for like a split second, I had like curly hair somehow. Yeah, that was weird, dude.

How'd that happen? But then I, I like got it cut real short, almost like a buzz cut. and it never grew back, it was curly again. I remember Travis put a pearl snap on and then he didn't take it off for probably 10 years. Dude, the pearl snaps are all gone, dude. There's not a trace of pearl or snap, dude. I still got a bunch, dude. So Travis and I got to see them live probably around this time, Trav, because they opened for Flickrstick, which is so funny.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember you all talking about that in your episode. Flickr stick, yeah, there was a... There was like a band on the run type thing. or something. It was called Bands on the Run. It was on VH1, and it was the Battle of the Bands type show.

And you voted for them. They were from Dallas, right? Flick or Stick. Yeah, and they won. They won. It was a one season and done show. Cute. And we caught their tour.

Do you remember the band that opened potentially for them? Ruby Horse? Ruby Horse. Yeah, dude. It was, they had this single called Sparkle. And I listen to it every once in all, but how you spark.

I was hoping. that you wouldn't do that, but yeah, it was pretty bad. So which, another cool thing, we got to see Jason Schwartzman behind the kit. And if nobody knows who that is, that's the hilarious and also very talented actor. Yeah, he got his start on Rushmore, which is the, uh, my personal favorite. I'm not going to derail the episode for discussions that, but that is my favorite Wes Anderson film, hands down. Yeah. Doesn't it go back further, though?

He started on Freaks and Geeks, right? or was Rushmore before that? No, he was... No, he's not in free time. He is. No, he is. He's in one episode. Okay, well, that hardly counts.

I'm just wondering if that predates Rushmore. I think... I don't know. I don't know. But anyways, this isn't an episode about Jason Shorty. No. But he was a founding drummer, the founding drummer. Yes.

Which is really cool. Yeah, yeah. Didn't they say they formed in 94 Q? That's wild. Fucking band's crazy. So they were playing... They were already playing for eight years. Really?

Before this album came out. Yeah. I need to go back and listen. So, Alex, Schwartzman was young. He was a boy. They were all young boys. They were teenagers when they're,

some of them were teenagers when their first album came out, which was called Phantom Planet is missing. Holy fuck. I didn't realize that was a 98 release. That's crazy. Dude, look at the album art and stuff. And even some of the sound.

The Beatles callback. Predates some of that 2000. Yes, dude. And even that California riff, it sounds like a fucking, it sounds like a 2000s updated Beatles song to me, dude. It's so fucking earwormy. Totally.

Yeah. So at the time the band, at the time of the guests release, we had Alex Greenwald. He's still, I mean, he's a founding member. He's a lead singer. Yeah, they're touring. They're actively touring right now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Sam Farrar on bass, Jackie's Brout bar on guitar. Darren Robinson, guitar as well, and Jason Schwartzman on drums. So, you know, of course, Greenwald was a little hesitant when they approached him and said, hey, can we use California as our theme song to this, you know, budding teenage high school show. You know, he said, I thought it would be bad for our integrity as artists. However, I was convinced by my band pretty much by saying, don't be an idiot. This is a great opportunity. And he says he watched the pilot and thought, oh, this is actually pretty decent.

So basically they're like, are you kidding me, dude? Take the exposure. Let's do it. Don't even think twice about it. It's funny. So there's this, I saw this, it was an, I don't know how you say this, I AMA, you know, the Reddit, ask me anything subreddit, where they get famous people to come along. You can literally ask them anything. Yeah, I love those.

I love those. Yeah, yeah. Darren Robinson was the guest of honor on this, I AMA, 14 years ago. And he was asked, how does it feel that the only thing I associate with you and your band is the OC? And he says, I totally get it. That show used California as the theme song, so it makes perfect sense. It's just a shame if people pigeonhole us as not having any substance because we were offered that opportunity and took it. If anything, at least give the other records a chance.

We changed quite a bit. And so on purpose, they try to be different from album to album. But this album, the guest, I mean, they're kind of all overplayed the place and sound. It's kind of like Alex was still kind of. figuring out what they were. I think they nailed it in the next release, which Mitchell, we were just talking about that off, Mike, which is the self-titled, which came out, I think in 2004. And Travis, we've talked about this a lot of times.

When bands release a self-titled later on in their career, it's always like a rebirth almost. It's a rebirth, always. Because they're trying to, they're literally like reintroducing themselves, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we cover that album. That's one of my favorite episodes of this pod was the Phantom Planet self-title. So, but anyways. Yeah. So what Quinn's saying is they're worth outside. Don't fall prey to just during the, oh, they must all sound like California. You would get tired of that. It's as great as that beautiful as that song is. Yeah. Yeah. Their second, the one after this is fucking sweet, dude. It's aggressive. But this, but this album is full of just like, I don't know how to. I mean, just. indie pop gyms and then there's just some really experimental stuff there's some heavy stuff in this one too so anyways this is just going to be a music heavy episode i didn't really do too much research on you know who cares right so let's do it uh so here we go we're going to jump down to going all the down to track six boys so here we go this one's called in our darkest hour oh yeah it started today

in a cloud if i was the same i was the same i was shout. I've got so much shining left before I was a spark, then a flame through the smoke. And if I can breathe, I try not to choke, nowhere to run. Great song, man. It's been a long, long time since I've heard that song, man. Long. Same. Very long time, dude. But I remember driving around the old Chevy Tracker, listening to this record. And the Chevy Tracker, dude. The toss of the cigarette line, that brought it all about. Yeah, I love that line. Just one toss of that faithful cigarette, dude.

You know, started to spark into a flame. We were talking about the voice, the vocals. Let me just put this out there and see what happens. Okay, just throw it out, dude. Just throw it out there. What do you think about a little bit of Tom York? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, dude.

Dude, I love that you said that because one of the songs I'm bringing is very radioheadish. Because it sounds familiar in a way. Like, why do I like this? Because it's familiar. Yeah, dude. It's like a Tom York cut loose at a party in California. I mean, something,

dude, like, let his inhibitions go a little bit. I mean, Tom York is like on the Mount Rushmore vocalists for me. So, like, it's hard to- Tom York's fucking,

he's not even human. He's like an end with a harp, dude. He's like gracing us with his presence. Yeah. You can't even fucking. Yeah, I'm just saying so like it's hard to compare.

Yeah. I do know what you mean. Yeah. Very hard. Yeah. I can see why you were hesitant to cast it out there. But no, that's smart,

dude. That's scratching an inch for me because his voice sounds familiar this Greenwald, bro. When he growls and shit, and he goes back to the... He's a great lyricist too. I mean... He's got just good.

It's like white boy soul, man. I'm telling me. He's like trying, dude. Especially in the self-titled. Especially in the next release, man. Like, you can feel the passion in the songs and the lyrics. A good front man energy, which I dig. Totally.

Totally. So, Mitchell, I remember, I don't know if I, if I brought this up, if I kept it in the last episode we did with you, but their vivid memory of sitting in the, In the G. What was the name of the mall? Willow Bend, I believe. Willow bin Mall.

Willow bin. Right, Traff? Yeah, Willow bin. It's finally getting torn down. It was Brantz-Macon New, though. Yeah, it was. Brasmancing new. Travis and I worked at a Hollister, and my guess is...

In the front, I'll add, because y'all are handsome, much like Adrian Brody. Dude, I think... Let's say Adam Brody. Adrian Brody's a goofiering, motherfucker. No, no, I'm sticking with Adrian Brody. I did not stutter. Well, dude, didn't they have this record on the jukebox? Oh, they did, dude.

But Mitch, I think you, like, I don't know, came by during one of my, like, lunch breaks or it was like after. And we sat in the tracker, got high. And I showed you this album. And you were just like, this is so fucking good, dude. I think we were waiting for Travis to get off work because I thought both of you were there. That makes sense. Because we shared the car. Yeah.

Right. And it was his shift that night. and we'd gone up there and waited. And Travis was, you know, he was always ahead of the curve with being like, no, man, I don't need that to have a, you know, to listen to good music. So we're like, we'll smoke it before. I'll pass on that grass. Yeah.

I did pass on the grass, Boris. Good for you, dude. I still do it to this day. Good for you. I haven't smoked in probably over a decade, dude. I'm pretty sure I'm straight-laced now. But yes, I don't, I mean, I remember it would have been nighttime because I remember sitting in that tracker a lot with you.

It was nighttime, dude. I just chilling. Yeah. I thought it was the other one. Maybe it was both. We had time probably for both, and you're like, now listen to this. You're the same guys that wrote this. B, baba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

Yeah. Like this. And then you showed me the next record. Possibly. Sweet, borderline psychedelic garage shit, dude. Totally. Guys, I'm about to fucking blow here. What's happened?

Think about this. Think about it. Just think about this for a second. You were basically doing this podcast in the Chevy Tracker. That's true. 20 years ago. time is a flat circle and now you're blowing my mind again

I'm going to be a planet I need a Chevy tracker background for my fucking webcam stat dude you know you remember what you called the car right it was called turbo negro oh my god I forgot it was back

so you called it turbo negro like the Swedish rock man dude the Swedish funk man you had to hit turbo on the button when you get on the highway or whatever to make it boosted a little yeah

Um, dude, speaking of bands that I totally forgot about, that for sure was blaring in Hollister. You guys remember Rooney? Oh, yeah, bro. Yeah, didn't y'all see him? Rooney was should have been huge away huger than they were because they had like a trajectory and then they went, p. Rooney, what was that? Blue side. I'll show you the blue side.

Man, yeah, they were. Dude, okay, that was his brother. Are you fucking kidding? What? Yeah. Is Alex Greenwald's brothers? That makes sense. Yeah.

Yeah, Alex Greenwald's brother. That's hilarious. Dude, they had a picture of the California fly. Yeah, yeah. Which came on 2003. Damn. Yeah, right in that pocket. That guy that kind of like, we're going to wear like bell bottoms and smoke cigarettes.

They went hard on that. And grow mustaches and shit. Wait, wait, hold on. I saw, hold on a fucking second. I feel like this whole episode is just us having revelations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on. Dude, he looks just like Alex.

This can't be right. Okay, go ahead. Okay, I was wrong. I was wrong. Rooney is the primary musical project of singer-songer Robert Swartzman. So it's Jason. Oh, he does look like Schwartzman.

He looks just like him. Jesus brother. That's hilarious. That makes it look like it. It might as well be him, dude. Seriously. And this is great for an audio-only format, but yeah. It really does, y'all.

It looks like Jason Schwartzman. Yeah, that's funny. With long hair. We'll just take our word for a moment. Let's go to the next one, guys. So speaking of what I, the song that came to mind when I thought, When you said he's got kind of a Tom York thing going a little bit. This song, I can't say it's my favorite because there's so many good songs on this record.

But this one is fucking different. I love this song. And yeah, he does do some Tom Yorkian kind of stuff on this one. So here we go. This is the next track on the record. This one's turn, smile, shift, repeat. The executives are busy bees They watch the gears turn

And they just turn There's a crowd fuck or suit A new town is said it just turned The song has no business being on this album Because how like different it is Definitely a standout It's just so good dude Fuck

Yeah so radio head for sure I mean in a lot of ways It's like the strain in his voice And like just keeping the impurities of it in there is like front and center. It's like Radiohead Light. Yeah, right. Or diet.

I don't mean that as an insult. I mean that more to be like. Radiohead light because you don't have the rest of Radiohead. But then they had that weird like saxophone sounding like synth line or whatever the fuck. You know that's, I can see Radiohead they're trying to do that or being influenced by Radiohead and be like, man, this sounds cool. What about this? Kind of like groovy shit. And then the fade out.

Yeah, long, long instrumental. Almost jazzy. Yes. With that kind of like, you know, like, like, like, grovey. carefree approach at the end. The lyrics are fucking awesome. Love that shit. This song literally, probably, I don't know, once every few months or less. This song just pops into my head, dude. Just that turn, smile, shift repeat line is just so fucking good. There's definitely some, some Beatles. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, all over their whole

everything. Well, even look at, like, take a look at the cover for Phantom Planet is missing. I mean, It's not like, it's not the exact, but this looks like that one, uh, remember the red and the blue. Definitely, dude. Um, Beatles, there's a Beatles best ofs that they released like a long, like in the 60s, I think. Like after their beetle mania phase, they released those, those best ofs. It looks very much like this. Without a doubt. Yeah.

Without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah. Great lyrics too. Great lyrics too. Awesome lyrics. Foreboding. Yeah.

On point. Point, I mean, beautiful, dude. I don't know for sure if they're singing about like a guy trying to off himself. Because it says, like, there's a crowd forming on Wall Street. Or maybe it's a guy threw himself from a building. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Anyways. He lost everything. Yep. But that, yeah, that play, he's just a placeholder for all of us. Exactly, dude. Yeah, that's how I feel about it when I hear that shit. Yeah. Yeah, the madness sets in with the loss.

That's fucking. Awesome, dude. The Madden sets him at the loss, how much he just lost in stocks or wherever the fuck. That sounds like a metal line, Travis. If you were in a throat saying that, the Madden settles in with the loss. Dude, totally.

Totally, totally. Anyways, boys, let's just keep on, let's keep on grooving. So, um, in our darkest hour, our turn and smile and ship repeat,

those are back to back. And they're, they're a little bit darker. But this album is full of just like, bubble gum pop. I mean, I don't know what you try, you know, like just a feel good indie pop. Yeah, they had that, I mean, they did it differently than most indie pop garage bands from this era.

If you want to call, if you want to classify it as crap, I don't even know if you could. I really don't know. I mean, I think we talked about how on their self-titled, they kind of shifted to that sound. Yes, they did. And that was after the departure of Jason when he just went full-blown, I'm acting now. And, yeah, but. So he's never stopped. I know, yeah, I love that guy.

fucking love shorts me. But yeah, I wanted to bring at least one, at least one, like, lighthearted pop song from these boys on this album. So here we go. Let's jump to the next one. This is nobody's fault. Everything is okay. Everything is fine. I give you everything you ask for. Don't be so unkind. That's too soon to pull out or out. I guess it's never had the time. It's just not fair, bro. So you're telling me you can be a drummer to band that right shit, that catchy and awesome and fun to play, I bet.

Oh, my God. I was just thinking of that. Like, what a blast. Holy shit. The clapping and shit. To play. Oh, man, dude. And Schwartzman was just all over the place on the, and the baseline, dude.

Fuck. Yes, catchy. And there was some weird, like, xylophone, I swear to God, I heard in there. Probably. Like the crescendoing parts when they were changing the song of. Yeah, yeah. Taking it places that weren't expected. It sounded like a, like a, like a Beatles.

rip off in all the right ways. Yes, yes. In all the ways I want to hear, dude. Yeah. And you said in the chat, Mitch, is that what they were called in that thing? The wonders. Yeah, that's why that guy calls him the oh-nighters. He's like, oh, you guys, the on-nighters?

Because they don't know how to spell it. Yeah. And that, was Tom Hanks in that movie? Was he their, uh, he was a man. He was a man here. No, you totally, you fucking called it, man. Yeah, dude. Just cool like that.

So that's that, what, 60s pop. Like the, it's called, it's called a, that thing you do the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much so. You could just like, you just like picture the song and like hear it, hear a version of this on like the Ed Sullivan show. I can see him. I can see Schwarzen in the suit, you know, interview, smiling.

And he had the freaking the Beatles crop top. Crop top. What does you mean? Crop tops. The mop tops. The mop tops. The Beatles and the crop tops, man. Please.

They'd stayed together in the 80s and Lenin didn't get his head blown off. He would have worn a crop top. We all know. like to be naked. Yeah, dude. He really loves showing that dawn. A rip, I guess. You're talking about it.

John. You can make them fall out, dude. Imagine all the peepies. Yeah, that's staying in the air. George Harrison's the best beetle. I'll die on that hill. Yeah, I think so. I agree.

Thanks, probably. I agree. He's the coolest, man. He's the coolest. I agree. While my guitar gently weeps, Bro, come on. Blue Jay Wayne. It's so trippy.

Here comes the sun, was Harrison, right? Here comes the sun. He's got some bangers, dude. That last one, that would have been a Paul McCartney banger for sure. That would have been the proto-Mcartney song. Dude, I still did this day, my favorite impersonations of the Beatles are from that movie, the Johnny Walk Hard. Dewey Cox, Walk Hard. Oh, my God, dude.

I fucking love that movie, dude. That scene is so perfect. Jack Black's McCartney is phenomenal. Yeah, it is great. Jack White is Elvis is awesome. Comes in karate chopping. And Schwartzman is Ringo Star. There it is. There it is.

Dude, we did it. Nice, dude. He tied it with a bow. Did it. You landed it. I want to sing about octopuses. I feel like we just, I mean, he's still alive, dude. I feel like he'd just had him on the show for a second.

Yeah, dude. That was really good. That was. You went in instantly, dude, and came out instantly. Well done, dude. I mean, well done, Mike. That was all straight. wasn't it?

Yeah, I fuck. I fucked it up. Great song, dude. I'm going to have to fucking, I'm going back to that song and putting it on at least like seven playlists after this podcast, dude, straight up. It's going, I cannot believe it's not on my fuck yeah playlist. And here's the thing. My longest running playlist.

Here's the thing. There's like three other songs in that, in that caliber of like. Yeah. Bangers. So always on my mind. Hey now, girl. I would be concerned about the, the trusses under the floor if that's playing at a party because everybody's going to be stomping and clapping and dancing.

The floor better be well made, bro, because it's about to get fucking jumped on. Yeah, there are some fantastic, like, party-party songs. Yeah. Well, shit, dude. So the last one I was playing on playing, maybe we'll play one more, dude, on top of this last one, because we're flying through this episode, man. Is, to me, leans heavier, kind of like where they go in the next one with the self-title. This is a little hint. I think so.

A little hint. Okay. So here we go. is track 10 on the record. This one's all over again. Travis, does Sony ever come after us for playing full songs? Because I want to play that full song. I mean, if they do, I just say, fuck off. Okay. No, there's like a little form that I have to fill out. Spotify flags. Okay. And I just say, we have the right to do this because we're re-review.

Yeah. Okay. Sony is a big one, so they might come after us. I got to play the whole song, right? Guys, fucking awesome. Yeah, that's great. Fantastic, yeah. I mean, think about just of the songs we played, the range. That's what I'm saying, dude. No doubt. Yeah, it's insane.

And knowing what come after, too, it's fucking my head up a little like. Yeah, right. Two years later, dude. Yeah, yeah. They were much closer than I realized those two. I thought they were years apart. It was their very first one because I had all three. Quentin, now you definitely turn me on to him because I'm vividly remembering getting all

three of what they had out at that point because when he showed me that. A fan of planet is missing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, when you show me, I wish I still had that because it probably is worth at least five bucks, dude, that CD in the jewel case. There's a great song. At least one. I don't remember much.

So I fall again. So I fall again. I love that. I'm seeing your screen. Yeah. Fantastic song. Let's play it. Let's play it.

Fuck yeah, dude. Why not? Because that's going to show even more of their early, like, proto, uh, not proto, like a new age Beatles vibe. And this is 98 guys. Rushmore was coming out that year, dude. Yeah. So it's fucking my head up.

So hearing all that stuff off the, uh, the next record and then knowing what's coming after. I'm like, man, if they had stayed, what would they have done? It doesn't really, it doesn't matter because I love all of it. And then I'm like, Schwartzman must still play. He's got to because he's so good. The drum fills are so fun and awesome. It makes me wonder, like, who he jams with it. I know, dude. So I Fall Again was the only single, but fuck it. We're going to play it anyways, boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it. It gets a pass because we're not covering that. Yeah. And you know what's funny? All these years, I thought So I Fall Again was on The Guest,

because I listened to it so often, but I just lumped it in the game. Yeah. Or maybe the, maybe the lime wire. Oh, that's true. That's a good point. Had it on it.

That's a good call. It could have been from, yeah, whatever, whatever I burned on the CD. This isn't stairway to heaven? All right, here we go.

So this is, so this is from Phantom Planet is missing. Came on 98. Their very first record. Very first. Their debut record. Yeah, debut.

This is track two. This one's called, So I Fall Again. I can't tell. Fall again. Love that shit, bro. I just the right amount of nasally twang on his voice. Yeah.

You know, where he's like, emoy kind of. It may have just been that he was still trying to find his voice. There's 98. Yeah. And this is what? Yeah. He's still a young man. Yeah.

He's like 17. Fuck. 19. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. He's only smoked like 100 cigarettes in his life so far. You know.

You're right. Dude, I love those keys, dude. Yes. All that shit. This is very like, I don't know, magical mystery tour. It's sounded like a flute. It's very Beatles. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely Beatles. Awesome. And then the juxtaposition of that beautiful, like, lighthearted fairy tale sound with the lyrical play, you know, awesome. A lot of his lyrics are similar to this. Yeah, it is. I'm noticing that, too.

Like a lot of conflict, you know, with, like, relationships, bullshit that he's dealing with. He writes about that a lot. It is. It's angsty, dude. Especially in the self-titled. It comes out after the guest. Lots of that in that one, dude. Yeah, that, what didn't you tell me it was a breakup record?

I think it may have been. I think it may have been. Well, I remember one of the songs, he was pissed about a comment that someone left in like... Some old chat room or some fucking... Yeah, something. And he wrote about it. I don't remember if I might be, but we talked about it in the episode, but I might be off on that a little bit. But yeah, I was just one of those things.

He just couldn't let it go, so he just wrote a song about it. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. I love that one. I'm going to have to put that first record on repeat tomorrow when I make food or something to revisit some of those. Because they're so polished. Yes.

You know, I love it. Now, that's actually one thing that they said that they wanted to, they purposely didn't do with the guest. Because if you listen to Phantom Planet is missing, it's very polished. So they wanted to kind of be a little bit messier with the guest and kind of be all over the place. It's just like the Beatles did. Yeah, right. How they started from like super clean. True.

Yeah. Well, that's it, boys. That's all I got. We're going to fade out with the title track. the guest. Nice. Which is funny. He says it was actually a demo song that he was sitting on for a long time.

They started playing it at shows, and they were play it slightly different each time, just to make those, each show kind of unique. And they were trying to kick around ideas for the album name. And they said, why don't we just call it the guest? I'll throw the song on there. So they stay stuck with it. And that's an old demo. I guess that makes sense to me.

I was always kind of curious what it meant. I never really got it. And you know, you're telling me they were kind of like not doing concept albums, but trying to be different each album. And the name Phantom Planet and Phantom Planet dot, dot, dot is missing. Yeah. I never really got it. But I guess I get it now. Maybe he's always felt like he's a guest in a planet that he's unknown to or unfamiliar to or some shit.

Apparently Phantom Planet is the name of like a 1960 sci-fi movie. Cool. Yeah. I wonder if it's a direct homage to that. I've seen that. Phantom Planet movie. 61 or something. Oh, I haven't seen.

this, but I'm going to you now. This looks amazing. Yeah, dude. The guest. Slept on. I can't believe I forgot about them. And I had all the CDs. And I'm saying this at the end of the episode where we've already proven to you that if all you know from Phantom Planet is California, you're missing out.

Yeah, that's true. There's so much, you're missing out. Just on this record alone. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're going to do that. Yeah, so we were just talking about, we were just talking. We were just talking about, we were just talking about, we were just talking. We were just talking. We were just talking, we were just talking about, we somehow stumbled into a conversation about, I don't know, I guess we were looking at past episodes. Yeah, trying to figure out who we've covered and who we have. And our latest episode was just removed from Spotify. So we had an episode out a few days ago.

It's been out for a while, actually. A couple weeks, maybe. It's been out for a while, but it was, it was, yeah, so Spotify removed it without notifying me five days ago. I guess some record labels just have like automatic, like we don't give a shit what the podcast is or if they have the right to play the music or not. Like, it's just going to get removed. fucking lazy and just that's just bullshit man yeah it makes sense that a band like food fighters

their label would do that for for them um but it sucks man because we just fucking promoted we just promoted his daughter's fucking music yeah and his new song dude i'm not like saying we have an effect or a pool well that's the whole point a pool on any kind of like purchasing car from anybody but yeah bro right and that's why it cuts the other way just like we don't we also are not making anything from this where you're needing to like take the shit down. So yeah, that's fuck Spotify that way for many other reasons. This is an educational podcast about music. We shouldn't be getting flagged for playing the music that we talk about.

Educational and interpersonal. I find it to be journalistic in a way. And I don't mean that like as a journalist. I mean like I'm pouring my heart out into like how I feel about stuff I listen to. Like my diary or journal, right? not like journalism by any stretch of the term, bro, right? So, yeah, it's kind of sad and then Spotify. They got bigger fish to fry, bro.

What the fuck they're worried about? Yeah, so if you're tuning in for the first time, and we haven't tried re-uploading it, we did cover, we just covered Food Fighters self-titled. And if you're listening to us on Spotify, stop listening to us on Spotify. And find a different podcast streaming app and listen to us somewhere else. That's all I'm going to do. Trust and Quentin have been prolific for years now about it. And at least every other week, if not twice a month, minimum, there's new episodes out

from these lads. And I jump on with them too. And that's stupid that they don't even get a notification of like, hey, this isn't, you aren't just copying the song and getting clicks for playing the song. Yeah, there's one of my, another one of my favorite episodes where we cover Beck's C-Change. That's been gone for a long time. There's a lot of great episodes that- Talk about an interpersonal record for Quentin.

I know that record was deep. Yeah, dude. I know that. So, yeah, it's a shame, dude. Anyways, but hey, hop over to, if Travis just checked on the Apple, Apple podcast or whatever, on iTunes, on iTunes, it's still there. So anyways, Spotify is, is, yeah, removing our podcasts more so than our episodes, more so than any, it seems like any, any of the other podcast platforms. So anyways, just to, yeah, just, we just wanted to put that out there. Listen to us on something else.

That's all I'm going to say. And you know what? And I have a podcast as Spotify subscription. So get fucked, right? Oh, me too. There's a lot of, yeah, there's a, there's a lot of pods or pod players that you can, we can find our stuff. So, um, like I just looked, there's some podchaser.com. There's a lot of, dude.

I used to use different ones too. Pod bean. Yeah. Always still has it. That's great. Yeah. Do a little sleet. If you're a real one and you want to listen to, it was a good episode, man.

Yeah, it was fun. talk, yeah, midnight. It was good. Formative record for a lot of things. Totally, totally. I know David Grohl's not been in a good way for a while. David, David. That record.

That record is fucking fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Totally. Really good. Yeah. And a cool kind of through line from there to, you know, in 1998, fucking Phantom Planet his missing comes out. Yeah.

Two, three years later, I'm trying to imagine them at the same time. That is crazy. That's so ridiculous. dude. Yeah, totally. God, the 90s don't get enough love for like rock music, dude. We talk about all the time on this. Everybody has such a hard-on for the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

But the 90s rocksy. Yeah, I know, dude. We talk about all the time on this podcast. Not just grunge. I'm not talking about just grunt. Oh, totally. Yeah. Or alt.

Like, we just played some tasty 90s shit, dude. Yeah, going back to Phantom Planet for sure. So we figured a good follow-up to this episode and this album. is going to be band called Guster and they had this record that I fell in love with back in the day

Me too, man I still think about it all the time it's called Keep It Together came out in 2003 it is going to be quite the The memory loosener for sure And I will be

I will be true to this I'm not going to listen to any of it Because I do want it to be The reveal When Trav plays the show Although the song Amsterdam just lives Rent-free

Yeah no doubt That's a fucking earworm Dude for sure But there's some other ones On there Keep it together Dude, I can't wait to talk about this record. Well, fellas, it's been great talking to you.

And, you know, you can hear us on, you can not, don't hear us on Spotify, what I was about to say. Subscribe anywhere else besides Spotify. And you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network. It's pantheonpodcast.com. Until next time, we'll come at you with Keep It Together by Guster, 2003. Another gym

from the 2000s. Thanks, as always, for listening. My name's Travis. And I'm Quentin. And fuck Spotify. I mean, I'm Mitchell, y'all. See you later.