So... Alright - Books to bands and your emails

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

Geoff pulls a thread, then answers your emails. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Find an agent today at Desjardins.com slash business coverage. So it is now officially June. I am recording this on Tuesday, June 3rd, which means I'm about two weeks away from my birthday, where I will turn 50 years old and I will thank you and me not to bring that up again. Thank you very much. Starting to get hot in Austin. Been riding my bike a lot, getting ready for the NBA finals. Everybody keeps asking me who is going to win the NBA finals. They want like everybody like I'm walking down the street

and people like, excuse me, sir, who's going to who's going to who you got in the NBA Finals? I am getting asked it a bunch. And so not that my fucking get over yourself, Jeff. Not that my opinion matters, but I have one of it's going to go one of two ways. I think either Oklahoma wins it in five, which I think is. Probably what's going to happen. I feel pretty confident in that if they don't, I think Indiana wins it in seven.

I think if Oklahoma doesn't shut it down early, Indiana wins the long game. But I think there's a really good chance Oklahoma ends this thing in a gentleman's sweep. So either way, congratulations to both teams, because one of these guys is going to win a NBA title for the first time. I mean, I guess technically you could say Oklahoma has had. A title before because the Supersonics won in the 70s, but not really right. This will be the first OKC title or the first Indiana title.

Regardless, I'm supposed to be doing emails today, and we're going to do that. I will say I stumbled onto something kind of funny this morning. I was riding my bike and listening to music and the song Turnstile by Hot Water Music came on. Hot Water Music is one of my all time favorite bands. And I got to thinking, I wonder if the band Turnstile named themselves after the song Turnstile by Hot Water Music, because the band Turnstile, who I like quite a lot actually,

it's one of the few current bands, like hardcore bands I'm into, although I wouldn't even say they're really that hardcore anymore, their new stuff is almost like shoegazy, you know? But they definitely, especially the earlier stuff, seemed heavily influenced by Hot Water Music, and why wouldn't it be?

They're a tremendous band. So I looked it up and sure enough, they named themselves after that song as Hot Water Music was a big inspiration of them as budding musicians. But what's really what's more interesting about that to me is the band Hot Water Music got their name from a Charles Bukowski book or book of short stories called Hot Water Music. Kind of crazy, you know, it goes from from a Charles Bukowski book be called Hot Water Music. Kind of crazy, you know? It goes from a Charles Bukowski book begets Hot Water Music the band,

which begets Turnstile the band. Hopefully someday the band Turnstile will then influence some other young band or writer or something else who will name some sort of significant release or project after them, and the cycle will continue forever. But anyway, on to email. Hey, Jeff, I've been a longtime listener.

Don't know if this will break my streak of becoming a comment leaver. It does. But just listen to the recent episode of the regulation podcast and how you guys were talking about if Eric would change his name to Zarek. It made my day to the fact that my first name being Z and my middle name is Eric. Are you serious? But for a short time when I was born, I was Eric due to a nurse not understanding my father's sense of humor of naming me Z. Wow. So your name is Z and your middle name is Eric.

And for the longest time, I did not know Eric was my middle name. So I would write with a dash Z dash Eric. I only go by Z now, but I thought it was funny when Gavin said, would you rename your name to Zarek? Sorry for rambling on this email. Anyway, Z. That's really funny. There is literally a Zarek out there right now. Oh, man. That email delighted me. Thank you, Zarek.

Can't believe I'm losing my regulation listener status for this. You absolutely are, Leland. I thought you'd be interested to know that the regulation podcast is absolutely wrecking Amazon metrics. Every product item or random thing talked about on the pod ends up being ordered in massive amounts from Amazon. I work for an Amazon fulfillment center and every week after listening to the newest episode, I see a huge influx of what was talked about. And thanks to the regulations listeners going crazy, I'm tired of these damn cereals. It's absolutely hilarious how your podcast skews Amazon's metrics and watching Amazon purchase huge amounts of these things thinking they're hot right now, only for it to die off after about two weeks, leaving us with huge amounts of inventory that ends up going on sale

the next month just to get rid of it. This got me thinking, how far could you push it? How confused could you make everyone tracking the metrics? What would a most obscure item draft do to Amazon's warehouse inventory? Love you all, except Nick. Nah, love you too, Nick, but you got to pay for it. Leland, regretfully, a comment leaver. You definitely are 38 hot dogs.

That's a solid number under your belt. Thirty eight hot dogs. Oh, my God. Leland, I don't know if I if I can believe this email. It sounds too ridiculous to be true and possible. But. But what if it was? I don't know. I'm going to have to mention this to the guys. I'm not trying to fuck with Amazon's metrics or anybody else's metrics, for that matter, but the idea that our dumb podcast would somehow affect

any kind of change on that level is is it's a bit heady. It's a bit heady for sure. Thanks. Thanks for the email, Leland. Assuming it's true. Wild to learn. Grady says, Hey, Jeff, just finished listening to the latest episode. And my answer to the question, what are some of the best feelings in the world came to me so quickly, I had to learn. Grady says, Hey, Jeff, just finished listening to the latest episode and my answer to the question, what are some of the best feelings in the world came to me so quickly

I had to share? Oh, there we go. I'm excited about that. My daughter, currently my only child just turned one a month ago and she is the center of my world. Oh my God, of course. That's absolutely without a doubt. The best feeling I've ever experienced is hearing her laugh. I know exactly what you mean, Grady. Seeing her smile at me when I wake her up in the morning and just sharing everything that's new to her. That is one of the best parts about, maybe the best part about that time in a kid's life when you're the parent is just watching them discover stuff

for the first time and watching them like stuff and then get into stuff. It is every day of a one-year-old's life, they discover something new about the world that blows their fucking minds and you get to see it happen. Every milestone makes me more and more proud, especially because she was born with a bit of a handicap, but meeting her needs is so rewarding.

There truly is nothing else like it. Ah, what a beautiful sentiment and statement, Grady, and I could not agree with you more. There is nothing quite like the joy of seeing joy on your child's face. The next best thing I actually remember talking to my in-laws about over breakfast one morning. My father-in-law asked me what I get out of typing all day. No mal intent. He's a carpenter and I'm a software engineer, so he was genuinely curious. I explained how writing code and having a work first try makes me feel smart and happy that I'm making something useful.

He immediately understood and related it to him, burying a nail in one swing of a hammer. When you love what you do, moments when you're good at it are just so satisfying. And I hope everyone feels that with the work they do. That's a fucking man, Grady. You're like a philosopher. You know that you're a pretty smart individual. That is a that is a really, really insightful and great example. Great example of a best feeling. Thanks for all the entertainment you've provided over the years. And I hope you can continue to enjoy it from anywhere to come.

Thank you so much, Grady. Hey, Jeff, hope you're doing well. I'm a rock climber and my cousin and his husband are rock climbers and they travel the world rock climbing and they if this is about to be a best feeling related to rock climbing, I hear you because it is like they live. I've never seen anybody like something as much as they like rock climbing. I'm a rock climber and one of my best feelings in my opinion is taking the first deep breath at the top of a route while I take in the view.

I put so much of myself into trying these big climbing projects and something about the first breath after finishing a climb, sweaty, tired, sore, maybe even in pain that just feels so free. Wow, that's a great one. I hope you also continue to feel free and have a great day, Quinn. Oh, thank you so much, Quinn. I definitely feel free.

I get that, you know, in my limited way, in my old ass, creaky body way, riding bikes and stuff, but that's a really awesome one and probably something that I'll never feel. I'll have to live vicariously through you and my cousin and his husband. But man, it sounds awesome. All right. Here's another one. Hey, Jeff, I have spent a large portion. That sounds weird. Hey, let me try that again.

Hey, Jeff. Now I'm in my head about hi, Jeff. All right. I'm going to try one more time. Hi, Jeff. Now that sounds too impersonal. All right, Leo, I don't know why I'm having trouble with your intro. Hi, Jeff. I hope I've one more time. Hi, Jeff. I have spent we're just going to go with the next one. Hi, Jeff. I have spent a large portion of my life as a regulation listener, having consumed your content for well over 10 years now. Despite this, I have never directly interacted with yourself or the community

until very recently. I'm loving the work you're doing now with so all right and regulation, so felt worth it to make the switch to comment. Leave her. Oh, well, I'm so glad you did. Thank you. I was catching up with episodes of so all right yesterday and was interested to hear you mention Gibraltar as somewhere

you'd love to visit one day. It absolutely is. I was surprised and you may have received similar offers already. But seeing as I live in Gibraltar, I wanted to say if you do ever visit and would like any advice on where to go, what to do and see, or how best to make the most of your trip, I would recommend taking advantage of the proximity to Spain, the Algarve in Portugal and Morocco and making a proper adventure out of it.

I'd love to help if I can. I would love to take you up on that, Leo. I hope I hope I hope I get the opportunity to take you up on that. I am. There has been some discussion about going to Gibraltar sometime I would love to take you up on that, Leo. I hope, I hope, I hope I get the opportunity to take you up on that. There has been some discussion about going to Gibraltar sometime in the nearish future with my family, and so who knows? I hope at some point in the future

to be sending you an email asking you for those suggestions, and thank you for offering them. This one's from Max. Howdy, Jeff. I heard you talking about wanting to live near a working dock in Michigan. In my childhood, I grew up visiting my grandmother in Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota, two beautiful towns on the shore of Lake Superior. It is definitely worth a visit sometime where you can watch

the thousand foot long ships hauling taconite, tassanite grain and even windmill blades from as close as Thunder Bay, Canada to as far as Denmark and even beyond. The Duluth aerial lift bridge is a large bridge that lifts up and out of the way for all incoming ships. And it's just a beautiful town with a very large water based economy around it. Oh, my God. That sounds awesome. If you ever find your way around Minnesota, I hope to see you there or be lucky enough to show you around.

It's an amazing town. I still try to visit every single year obligatory. Thank you for everything you mean to the world and all of us. So sweet, Max. Thank you so much. Man, Duluth, huh? That's where the Duluth trading company is, right, where they make underwear. Interesting. Maybe I want to check it.

Maybe Duluth is where my future lies. I'm easily swayed, at least momentarily. I'm going to look into Duluth, Max. Whether it's a family member, friend, or furry companion joining your summer road trip, enjoy the peace of mind that comes with Volvo's legendary safety. During Volvo Discover Days, enjoy limited time savings

as you make plans to cruise through Muscogee or down Toronto's bustling streets. From now until June 30th, lease a 2025 Volvo XC60 from 1.74 percent and save up to four thousand dollars. Condition supply. Visit your GTA Volvo retailer or go to Volvo cars.ca for full details. Hey, Jeff, how's it going? I was going back through some older episodes of regulation the other day, and while listening to the playlist of 98 episode, you mentioned being a roadie for the band Catch 22. It's something I kind of sort of remembered from years ago that you were a roadie for a band way back when it's only until we listening to this episode in particular that I recognized that Catch Me Too had been the band that I knew was Streetlight Manifesto when I was a teenager.

So it was kind of crazy to see how these two worlds collided. Yeah, two different bands. Catch 22 is the original band. Streetlight Manifesto is the band that Thomas Kalnocki started with I guess Jamie and Josh maybe were part of that as well that Rerecorded the first catch 22 album KSB nights and they kind of just like

Rerecorded it in its entirety like their version of it very similar and then they went on to do other stuff as well But yeah, there's a lot of crossover between the two bands, for sure, including with songs. If I remember rightly, this was down to some kind of label dispute. And if I remember rightly again, the lead singer described a torrent of ways people could get a hold of the re-recorded album, KZB Nights, without paying for it. I have no memory of that. I don't remember there being a label dispute or anything, which then

there's a sped up sound bite at the end of one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. And I don't know. I don't know anything about that, unfortunately. I've recently started thinking about and almost romanticizing the idea of life on the road as a young punk band after reading about Dave Grohl's experience with the band Scream and was wondering if there were any stories you could share in regards to your experience with Catch 22, maybe on a Saul Wright episode, if you think that's a good idea. Unrelated not to get too parasocial about it, but as someone who grew up listening and watching you,

Gavin and the rest of the HQ, I wanted to add that I'm very proud to see you guys have managed to pick everything up and carry on and I'm incredibly excited to follow along for the rest of the journey. Oh, thank you so much, TJ. I really appreciate that. Anyway, wet bread, eat the pencil, all that good stuff. I probably do have a million stories about my days with Catch 22. Million stories about my days with Catch 22. Here's OK. OK, here's a story to kind of explain what it was like to be a part of that. And I guess I'll take it back a step just to explain how I got there. So I was doing a punk scene in New Jersey at the time, an online punk scene, and I reached out to them

and interviewed them because I was getting pretty steady releases from Victory Records. They were really cool, and they sent me tons of music to review, and so KZMe Nights blew me away. I was living in Eaton Town. They were not that far down the road, and I was like, holy shit, these guys are like, essentially local to me.

I should go interview them, so I reached out to them through the label, they guys are like essentially local to me. I should go interview them. So I reached out to them through the label. They agreed to do an interview with me at their practice space, which was one of their basements. I can't remember whose. And so I drove out and then I just sat in their basement on the steps, like leading down to the basement, and I watched their entire practice. They practiced for, I don't know, however long a band practices for.

And then I, which was also, by the way, fucking awesome. This was awesome. KZB Knights had been out for a couple of months at that point. And this was just like it was wild to get to see them in their basement playing his first time I'd seen them, I think. And after they were done, they were just I remember thinking how funny they were. They were joking around and making fun of each other.

And they just had this chemistry together and I thought that they were hilarious and I instantly liked them. And I warmed up to them very quickly and they warmed up to me very quickly as well. The interview went really well. I had a great time asking them questions and stuff. I put it up on my website.

And I just stayed in touch with them and it wasn't too much longer that they reached out to me and asked if I had any interest in being a roadie and I was like, I fucking hell yeah, I do. And so they, they had me come out and roadie a few local shows, just see how it went. And it went really well. And I started to develop a real kinship and friendship with them, especially Kevin and then Pat Kalpin, who was very new to the band. And then of course, Jamie, because we were similar in a, you know, I, I like all of all of them. I loved every single one of them.

But pretty quickly after that, we went on tour. I think that they were in the process of looking for somebody to go on tour with them. And I just fell into their laps and I was like right place, right time. And because we got along, they offered it to me. So I went out on the nationwide tour with them after only knowing them for maybe a month. And so I didn't know them super well. I think I'd hung out with them or roadied for them at local shows maybe four or five times in that month.

So I really didn't know what to expect. And I was really, really excited and really scared, honestly. And I was about to get into a van with seven other dudes who I didn't know and travel the country, which at 23 years old is the most exciting thing on Earth. Was I 23? Maybe 22. I think I might have been 22, which is the most exciting thing on Earth. But also if you don't know those kids very well, it's also a little scary too, right? And so I remember we were at a gas station and we were getting ready and they were just really loud and boisterous and funny and making a scene and very like very much

as you'd expect a bunch of 20 year old punk rock kids to be right. We got in the van and we take off and I think I wasn't driving. I think either I was driving or I was sitting behind the driver's seat in a like in the next row of the van. I genuinely can't remember. But no. Yeah. No, I got it. I remember now I was driving and someone else was sitting in the passenger seat. I wanted to start the, yeah, I was driving because I'm the roadie, right? So I was like first shift.

And one of the other band members was in the passenger seat and somebody was tailgating me on, I can't remember if we were on, I guess we must have been on the Jersey turnpike, honestly. And I was like bitching about it. I was like, this guy won't get off my fucking ass. And the band member sitting in the passenger seat goes, I'll take care of it. And he just took the, I laugh about this now. This is terrible. This is terrible.

The world is different. We don't do these things now. But he took the cigarette compartment that was just full of change, right, full of like pennies and shit like it is in most cars. And he just rolled down the window and chucked it behind him. And it just went all over the road and the car behind slowed down and, you know, hit the brakes real fast.

And we're like, and I was like, holy fucking shit. I'm going to if there's a cop around, I'm about to go to jail or I'm about to get beat to death by somebody of the Jersey Turnpike. And then we just kept driving. And that was my introduction to what being on tour with a punk rock band in the 90s was going to be like a lot of that, a lot of brazen, childish fun and irresponsibility and somehow nobody got hurt.

Here's another one. Good morning, Jeff. I hope this email finds you well. I've been a massive fan for years and I'm currently making my way through So Alright and just finished the robots episode. I felt I have some insight into how automation may change our world in the future,

so I figured I'd reach out. I currently work for a remote security monitoring firm and I'm part of the video team. Our basic function is to monitor feeds from security cams across the North American continent and determine if activity needs to have police sent. You would be shocked and probably disgusted by what I have seen on a graveyard shift.

Homeless people have some interesting habits. I personally specialize in drone security monitoring. You know, I'm just going to say this right now. About a decade or so ago, I went and spent a summer living in Portland. My family at the time and Gavin, we all went together and we spent like five or six weeks living in Portland, just to get a different, I don't know, just to get a different vibe for the summer. We're in this house, I want to say on Mississippi Street, and it was up on a hill and it was like in the middle of like in the kind of like the Albina area.

There was a ton of restaurants and bars and clothing shops and boutiques and stuff. It's kind of like in Austin, it was very similar to what we call South Congress, but like a vibrant area full of life and drinking and stuff. And the house was situated up on this hill pretty high up. And I could sit in the picture, had a huge picture window. We just Airbnb'd this for like a month and a half or whatever. And I could sit there and just kind of see the whole of that scene, or at least part of it, you know, within my view.

And I was dealing with some pretty serious insomnia at that time. I don't remember why, but I could not fucking sleep. And so most nights I would get up at about three a.m. and I would just go sit in front of that picture window because a whole show would unfurl in front of me of crazy drunk people and people pushing shopping carts. And there was this entire world, this theatrical insane wild world

of crazy people doing weird shit. And I could just kind of see it all from this picture window and And it was fascinating. And it got to the point where I didn't wanna sleep at night because I wanted to see what was going on outside. It was a wild time. Anyway, I digress. Back to your email,

which means every two hours a drone launches at one of our sites and I fly it remotely around the, holy shit, and I fly it remotely around the facility and correspond with security teams on site. If I see anything out of the ordinary, gee, that really? I recently learned that one of our drone sites also employs the Boston electric dogs

to patrol around the ground. And I wouldn't be surprised to see that becoming more of a thing rather than static cameras in the near future as the tech becomes more affordable. Yeah, yeah. That's the thing too, it's like once it starts, it's gonna happen fast and heavy. It's just once it starts, it's gonna happen fast and heavy. It's just gonna be overwhelming.

It's gonna be everywhere all at once. I don't think there'll be a slow ramp up, you know? On a more, or rather if there is, you won't see it. Like this is the slow ramp up right now and you're gonna turn around and it's just gonna be everywhere. On a more personal note, just wanted to thank you for all that you do.

Oh, and said some very sweet things as well on top of that. Thank you so much, Austin, for a wild email. Back in the old days when I was drinking heavy, I always thought it would be cool to be the guy who tastes whiskey in a distillery, you know, and is like, now it's not that it's not ready yet. I thought that was the best job in the world. But now I think the best job in the world might be being a professional drone operator. I'm going to live vicariously through you, Austin.

Thank you so much. All right, let's do one more email and then we'll call it. Hello. First time comment. I nailed that one. That was a good hello. First time comment. Leave her here. I absolutely love the episodes where you do deep dives about bands or songs like Jawbreaker or the episode where you talked about Grace Kelly with Wings, which is one of my favorite songs now. That's great. Pibalt song. Great song.

If you like that, if you like Grace Kelly with wings, if you like Pibald, check out Fear and Loathing on Cape Cod. If I didn't break that song down in that episode or recommend it, I should have. That's a really fantastic song as well. But it's about doing drugs and riding bikes. So I would love to see more music based episodes. Also, I would like to share a band that I really love called Midori that are Japanese punk jazz fusion band from the early 2000s.

They're one of my favorite bands. The main vocalist and the keyboard player have great screams. Oh, well, I'm in. If I had to recommend one song, it would be Yakuku-san on the album Aritamata Shite. Give it a listen. If you have time, I'd love to see what you think of it. I'm going to add it to my playlist today, James. Thank you so much.

And thank you for the email. And now that you have given a song of the episode by that band, Midori, I'm going to give one as well. Let's make it turn style by Hotwater Music. It would be a cop out if it wasn't such a great fucking song. And it was such a funny little thing to pull a string this morning and discover that little nesting doll of bands named after books and bands. It was a lot of fun. Listen to Turnstyle. Listen to... Really, you can't go wrong with any Hot Water music.

There's... I should do a Hot... I should absolutely do a Hot Water music episode at some point. And I will. But not today. Today you just get Turnstyle. Also, I have so many more emails to get to. I apologize. I will get to more soon. Maybe not next week, but soon. Thanks for listening to another episode of the So Alright podcast. Don't forget to check me out on Twitch if gaming is your thing at fake Jeff. If you ever need a cameo for a birthday announcement or whatever, I am at Jeff L.

Ramsey. I always appreciate when you guys include me in the good parts of your lives. Makes me feel a little announcement or whatever. I am at Jeff L. Ramsey. I always appreciate when you guys include me in the good parts of your lives. Makes me feel a little special too. And above all else, listen to the Regulation podcast if you don't mind. It's the most important thing in the world to me next to my family. And it would mean the world to me if you checked it out

if you haven't already. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but I gotta preach to somebody, right? All right.