The Watch - Ep. 43: Memorial Day Playlist

Episode Date: May 30, 2016

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald put together their playlist of must-listen-to music for your Memorial Day BBQ. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I need sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan and I am an editor at the ringer.com. And with me live at the barbecue, it's Andy Freewall! Yo, not only am I next to you, we're recording this podcast on the set of After the Thrones. It's a television show that I highly recommend on HBO. We just got done filming our big death scene.

Yeah, and this is how we decided to mourn ourselves. I stabbed you with a little. with Long Claw, and you're dead. Chris, it sounds like you're joking, but when people see the next episode of After the Thrones, which this episode is coming up Memorial Day. Yeah, so it'll be the same day.

So you can watch that episode now on various HBO platforms. You will see that you actually did almost kill me with a large Valerian prop from the show. But we're not here to talk about death. We're here talking about life. We're here to talk about what makes life worth living and that's music.

Music and summer barbecues. We've been talking a lot about music these last few months. It's been such a huge time with all the major releases. But you and I are still digging in the crates. we're still finding stuff that we like that's off the beaten path. As a great Chicago in one said, Chris, music is all we got.

And then the children's choir came up behind him. Andy, this is supposed to be, so we put together a Spotify playlist that we'll share. That is basically the songs to play at the barbecue. Should we say how we'll share it? We'll tweet it out. And you can find it by looking for hopefully either of us on Spotify. I'm Andy Greenwald on Spotify like I am on Twitter. You are Chris Ryan 77 like you are on Twitter.

That's year I was born. Class of 77, yeah. Yeah, not me. Not me. You're a millennial. I'm going to start being a millennial now. I think it's a good look for me. And then we will also try to make an I Apple Music playlist as well.

Oh, I'll try. I'll try. Good luck with that. So we can do that. Okay, so let's start with this playlist. Let's talk a little bit about the idea behind it. Yeah, can we set the scene here? Set it up, man. We're putting this podcast up on Memorial Day on Monday because we're not working today,

nor should anyone, really. It is a great. I definitely have a lot of work to do today. Do you really? I know, I'm just trying to just imagine. Imagine what it would be like. And imagine that it won't be 60 degrees in raining in New York right now when you people are listening to this. Yeah.

But to start the summer season, it's officially when Sean Puffy Combs says you can wear white. So obviously, I'm wearing my bridal dress right now. But it is a great opportunity to get together with some friends, sit outside, cook some meat, and force them to listen to music that you like. Yeah, or even a vegetarian, like a veggie burger. No, they're not welcome. But the whole point is to enforce your taste on them. Oh, yeah. So you abide by your party, your ox cord.

Yes. Yeah, look, I feel like the days of grabbing the ox cord at other people's parties are behind me. Like, that was definitely a thing that young men, sorry ladies, but you know it's true, like to do in their 20s. Yes. That's not always the coolest thing. Is we run the stereo at public gatherings. Just be like, you guys got to hear this. Yeah, right.

I have very fond memories of going to a dinner party of a friend at college who, I believe you were dating at the time. And there was very nice, like, who throws dinner parties in college. It was very classy. I think they hauled out some peppers and stuffed them with some stuff. And at one point, I think the hostess looked up and was like, where, where's everyone at the party? And you had shown up. You're being very, you're soft stealing this.

This is one of my low points as a boyfriend. And I apologize to this woman now in front of God and everyone else. Yeah. When I say that I got to her birthday party and then was like, I'm pretty sure. Oh, yeah, it was. Yeah. And then I was like, that's cool. but I have this advanced cassette of the new Afghan Whigs album.

Everybody needs to come into this other room and listen to it. It was like you had pulled the dude fire alarm and all two said to get up from the table. I was just learning. To be fair. I was learning. That album, 1965, is a really good album. It's really good. And it sounded great, great on advanced cassette.

But the point being, if those days are behind you of, like, hijacking other people's events, Memorial Day is a great time to just throw down your own gauntlet. So we made it. We made a playlist. technically Spotify calls it a collaborative playlist, but the goal was kind of like a best of both worlds thing. Sound clash. Yeah.

I'm Jay-Z. You're R. Kelly. And it's best of both worlds. So we each contributed, I believe, seven songs to it. Thanks for making me R. Kelly. Look, he has terrific life. So can we go through it a little bit? Yeah, man, let's do it.

Because I think this is also going to be a way for us to talk about things that we like. Maybe there'll be tangents. Yeah. Have there ever been tangents on this podcast? You go first. All right. First track is. called In Heaven by Japanese Breakfast. Can I say something? I love Japanese breakfast.

I didn't mean to go on this tandem. Tell me a little bit about this band. Oh, I meant I really love Japanese breakfast. Oh, what is that? Is it like a soup kind of usually? Yeah, this is what the wife and I did for my birthday. It was a great place in Williamsburg. It does set Japanese breakfast. It's like a little piece of like maybe like salt grilled fish. Okay. Miso soup. Maybe a little small cake of omelet, some pickled vegetables. Did your wife and you do that for your birthday because that was like her gift to you because she finds that repulsive? otherwise? No, we enjoy savory breakfast in our household. We're not averse to that. Okay. But anyway, so I was predisposed to like this band, much as I am predisposed to like, you know,

halfway raw eggs stirred into hot rice. But I, this is a one-woman project from the Pacific Northwest. And I believe she wrote this record in mourning, actually, because her mother passed away. But it's this very beautiful, like, synthy pop record in the song, in heaven. There's a great video for it. I suggest checking it out. But it's a very, very beautiful, like, dreamy wash of a song. But it has feelings like me. It's feelings like me is I spoon... Can I just be completely honest? Spoon the egg omelet.

This barbecue is really dark so far. No, no, it's an intro track. It's like you standing in a gristle crying. She's like, her mom passed away. I'm making Japanese breakfast. Happy Memorial Day. Here's some salty cod. Is it too late to bury the lead and say,

I didn't think I would have a good barbecue? But I love this song. Andy, the next song we have here is something that we've talked a lot about. It's Angels by Chance the rapper from his incredible record coloring book. A.K.A. the only song by Chance. Do we have anything else to say about Chance? about Chance at this point.

It's the only song by Chance available on Spotify. It's true. I do want to say this. We can't necessarily legally tell you where to find these things, but I suggest just taking some looks around the internet because Chance was on beats one last week. Did it like a 60 minute area. And he shared some demos that he made for Kanye's life of Pablo.

Yeah. Including his version of waves where he samples Enigma's Return to Innocence. You were all the way turned up about this. Yo, that made me, that made my chest heart fly open, like the door in the back of the wherewood tree. Like, that is crazy. And his verse on, on famous, too. I mean, this guy is having a moment right now.

Obviously, we love, love, love this record. And I wouldn't want to have a party without it. Yeah, my next to the song that I put on first is this track, then again, by Pine Grove. I've talked about them before in the podcast. I think barbecue music's always good to have a little, little twang to it. You know, you're going to be outside in America. Like a little hickory. sauce put on his ribs?

Yeah, I just think that it's nice to have like a little bit of, this isn't like new country or anything or no depression. It's the got like elements of death cab and emo stuff, but it's also like, like, you were going to say jump in there? I just wanted to jump in. This is the visual cues we can do when we're in person. First line of this song is that he was totally nervous to go to Japan. Was it the breakfast that we're freaking out?

I know because he was just like this salt cot is all over the place. He's like, I really don't want sea urchin before the sun comes up. The next song you want to talk about is Mercury Girls. all that heaven allows. Oh, yes. I feel like we updated this playlist more than I could see it. But can I go crazy about Mercury Girls? Yeah, man.

Mercury Girls from Philly, right? Where are they from? Philadelphia. What's up with Philly right now? There's some good stuff coming out of Philadelphia, because it's like an affordable place to live with a lot of colleges and a lot of like spaces that you can practice and play. Art colleges and stuff.

But still, I just feel like when we were there in the 90s, it was like people were really psyched on like strapping field hands. Like there weren't bands that see. People didn't want to physically strap field hands. Just, you know, 20 years later, got what the name of the band meant. No, but I feel like there weren't bands that were part of the national conversation

in the same way there are now. Because right now you have modern baseball. We're going to get to them. Beach slang. Hop along. These guys, Mercury Girls. Kurt Vile. Yeah.

These are great, great bands that actually seem to be forming some sort of epicenter of indie music. And Mercury Girls, They've only released two songs. All that Heaven allows is my favorite of the two, but the other one's dope, too. And they're on Slumberland. And they just sound like they understand everything that I really liked best about indie music in the 90s, but also shoegaze music.

And fun fact, I sent this track to my oldest friend, my friend from kindergarten, Lara, who lives in Philly, loves this kind of music. And I was like, oh, the dude in this band teaches that my daughter's preschool, which is the most... That's crazy. That is the most Philly, most late 30s thing I can ever imagine. If you were a millennial. I mean, I am. No, but if you were getting out of college or maybe you were taking a gap year or something. Oh, you know who does gap years, presidential kids?

Would you move to Philly? You mean if I was from, if I was me? Yeah, but more so, like, knowing what you know about Philly now, would you want to live there as like a younger person? I just feel like the city changed so much. I mean, obviously the version of a city you can know when you were under 18 is different than the version you can. know after you are 18 or when you're not living at home. But I feel like people who live there now don't, maybe can't even appreciate it, that growing up, the city just shut down.

Like, there was no nightlife. There weren't, like, restaurants and things. It was a pretty quiet city up until, I think, the 90s when some places are opening up. But now when we go back, I feel like... Right now there's a guy in South Philly who has been at a bar for 19 years. And when I say that, I mean, he has not left. And he doesn't know what you're talking about it when it comes to the city shuts down. And he's like, does trapping field hands break up?

No, I just mean that like, we just, this happens to a lot of people, I think, that the city you grew up in, you rediscover it a little bit later when you can go to bars legally. And so we fell back in love with our city. But would I move there? I don't, it's a nice place to live. Would you? You didn't answer. Oh, absolutely, no heartbeat. Where would you go?

If I didn't, if I didn't have a job in Los Angeles and I hadn't spent the first 20 years of my life in Philadelphia. Yeah. And you know, whenever you're there, like, at the end of high school, I feel like you spend that last year or two of high school dreaming of getting out of wherever you are. So I, but now when I go back to Philadelphia, I love it. Like, I love it. Um, we skipped Fat Joe's all the way up. That's what I thought we did. I was so psyched to say that I was all the way up. This is an interesting bit of like, of East Coast revivalism. I just feel like, how do you feel about Jay-Z on this song? Well, he's not on this. version.

Oh, this is the not the remix. This is the non-jazy version, but we could talk about that. But what I wanted to say about this, though, if you had to pick, this would be a very strange game or situation, but if you had to pick the career of a rapper to have, you could do a lot worse than picking Fat Joe, because this is a dude who seems to have a very good life. He seems to have made money. Maybe he's invested well, I don't know. Every four to five years, he just comes back with a banger that dominates New York radio.

He's like, he's having a terror squad reunion that's like, has. headlining's summer jam this year. And he's fine. So, like, I missed him when he was gone, but I didn't think about him much. When he comes back, he has some stuff to say on this track. And Remy Ma, who's been in the big house. She has. She destroys this track.

I love this track. It makes me happy. It's very, very, very old-fashioned East Coast rap. So with Jay coming back on the remix? Yeah, he quotes Gangstar, right? I thought that I was kind of thinking for a minute it might be amazing if Jay never said another public thing. Just never rapped again. Seriously.

Like went straight Salinger and just was like, catch me in Maine at the general store. Send me my letters. Just eating lobster and blueberry pie? Yeah, but it's like after lemonade and after everything that happened, but also especially just like the sum total of his contributions to rap music,

after that Simpson's gift of an appearance of on Drake's, on Drake's song. Tell the people about it. Well, there's a, there's pop style on on Drake's views. Well, he's not on that version, but the version they leaked. Yeah, but when the first version of leaked,

it was just basically, my name is Jay, spelled J-A-Y. That's not actually what he says, but he might as well of, and then his verse is over. He only has half a bar for Drake. It was old man yells at cloud. Yeah. And I was thinking that it might be good if Jay just never rapped again. But he quits himself okay on the remix.

He's always going to be good at rapping. Like, that's not the issue. The issue that he has that's much harder than it is for other types of musicians is that he has to reframe the narrative every time. and he's in very much uncharted waters because the really smart thing about the Blueprint 3 and afterwards was that he basically created a new lane

as the classic rock version, the rap version of classic rock. He had a band, he had the greatest hits, he was going for widescreen you know like Empire State of Mind, he was going for a pop hit, but then he was touring. He was going to be you too where he could put out a record every three

or four years and tour stadiums off of that. And tore stadiums off of it with a band and he had the catalog to support that. That's never been done before and there's no real proof that that is a thing because the lifeblood of hip hop is relevance right yeah and having something to say now and where he is in his career he's not nearly as nimble as his wife is who can basically take a personal even if it's a rumor and craft an entirely new and pretty fascinating um public narrative and performance around it his wife is is much more nimble than him because he was paralyzed by her last album he cannot literally walk or move his pelvis

anymore since she had it extracted like fucking alien jaws. But I guess the thing is I'm happier to hear him just pop on a Fat Joe track than I am about this potential collaborative album they're going to release to address things. Because do you think that's real? I hope not. Like the last thing that they really collaborated on was like Lift Off on Watch the Throne, which is the song that America and the world has agreed just didn't happen. Everyone just skipped it.

Everyone just assumes it goes straight to ends in Paris. really forgive Beyonce or musical trespasses if there are any. Like, if it happens, like, nobody's like, damn, that Beyonce's song sucked. Yeah, I don't think we really need them doing an album like Islands in the Stream of duets. Right. I think the narrative is better for her to do this thing and then just continue to do the next thing. But that puts him in a very strange place. Before we keep going with this playlist, this barbecue playlist, I want to tell you a little bit about our sponsor today.

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Do it. I thought maybe we could take a couple of songs and group them together here. Oh. Thematically. You're really excelling at these transitions. Well, I was looking at our list and I was saying, saw radio heads burn the witch, Iggy Pop Sunday. Yeah. And Paul Simon's cool pop a bell.

Oh, God, I love that song. So let's just talk about older white men. Finally. Finally, they can have a voice in today's society. On podcast. Or on this podcast. It's a bad time someone stood up. for the big guy.

I remain a fan of this Radiohead record. We haven't done a podcast on it because I'm struggling, man. Are you struggling or are you trying? Because struggle implies engagement. Yeah, struggle is like, I'm still walking up the hill. I think that that's a very good call. And I am at the top of the hill and I'm listening to True Love Waits. That's nice.

I like that song. I've always liked that song. I think, to be honest with you, I've been a little gun shy around this album because I was so hype for them to come back. And I was like, they're going to come back in a way that makes perfect sense because they're going to come back more organically minded with their music. They're going to, you know, King of Limbs was such a chilly disappointment that they're going to bring warmth in and that's going to be an interesting thing for them to do. Burn the Witch suggested that they might. I like this track. But I have not continued to listen to the album or put in the work because the more I listen to it, the more I'll remember what it sounds like.

And it's not, I'm almost enjoying it still being vague in my mind. It's also partly because most of your music listening takes place 20. 35,000 feet above the ground. Listen, 35,000 feet. And you just don't really want to be, like, thinking about burning the witch when you're up there. Or not trapped in a metal box hurtling over a dystopian present? Yeah.

I don't want that. I really like the radio record. And one of the, a record that really is almost overlooked, and it was, it was one of these, it wasn't a surprise release, but it was something that, like Chance, like Kanye with title, a couple of these other things, was somewhat tied to a music service. So this Iggy Pop, Josh Hami record, post-pop depression, they did a big long Zane Low interview. It was out on Apple.

Josh Hami's got a radio show on beats. And this record came and went, but I think it's really, really good. I mean, Iggy Pop is somebody whose reputation, I think, went through a little bit of a, not a revival or anything, like anybody disliked him. But because of David Bowie's passing, I think people revisited The Idiot and Lust for Life, there's two records that David Bowie worked on with Iggy Pop. And this record post-pop depression is considered an extension of those. Yeah. And it's just really, really cool.

It's really nice to hear Iggy Pop playing with such like a dynamic, fun, kind of slithery, funky band. But that's the thing about Iggy Pop is that unlike a lot of great artists from that era who wore themselves chameleons like Bowie. Yeah. Iggy Pop has always been kind of a blunt object, blunt tool. And, like, I mean that all praise is possible. He's the best and bluntest there ever was. But he needs to be put in the right context before he's revved up and let go. And that's what Josh Hami did on this record.

I really like it too. Yeah. Had not spent enough time with it so that when you were playing a little snippet of it just before, I thought it was old. I thought it was from the 70s. I thought this was a post-punk record or like the new Radio 4 album where they're trying to like reclaim that sound. Yeah. But I, you know, it's not, it can get into tricky waters with just like rockism or revivalism. but I think that it's,

you can't really go wrong putting someone in their best positions to succeed. No. That's how we want to hear him. So I haven't listened to the new Paul Simon stuff. Dude, first of all, is it a big dude? Have you heard that new Simon?

You copped that new Simon? Yo, is it going to blow people's minds? I'm a big Paul Simon fan? No, not at all. Big Simon solo head. Love that stuff. Hearts and Bones, that's my jam. Okay.

I don't respect Paul Simon for, for uh, stealing from Los Lobos. That's a great song. You should have credited them. You know, there's a lot of issues with Graceland.

But you can't front on the music, man. Here's the thing about this record. You're like, speaking for Los Lobos, it's water under the bridge. You're like, look, I'm going to step up here.

If Los Lobos are big enough to forgive Paul Simon, I'm going to fucking do it. Chris, who is going to speak up for the rich white man on this podcast? It's going to be me. I love Paul Simon, but I also really, really love, and I'm fascinated by these artists who were enormously successful, seminal artists, who continue to age, but age in a way where they're engaging with their art.

And this record that he just put out Stranger to Stranger, and he's still experimenting with sounds. And the song, Cool Papa Bell, I think is very beautiful, very funny. Plus, I'm thrilled to hear a 75-year-old man say motherfucker on her record. I know. You usually only hear that on podcasts. What are some other songs we can talk about? I want to talk a little bit about this thing, the range. It's not quite like a chill-wave revival.

And I think if you say Chil-Lay of Revival three times, somebody comes up and stabs you in the heart. But, uh, chill-way revival. Oh, no. Do you think the range? What is the range? I love the range. I feel like Bruce Hornsby is not a part of it.

First of all, great call back to a season two togetherness joke because... Do they make that joke? Season two, they were like, there was some flirting and, and, and, One of the Duplas was just like, I like the range better than Bruce Hornsby. Okay. This is a dude who makes electronic music, but the record is called Potential. I absolutely love it. Sometimes people are like, what should you listen to when you're writing?

Because music with a lot of words can be distracting. Yeah. This is a good record. I usually listen to rain sounds. Do you really? Yeah. Ambient like rain sounds. Is that true?

Yeah, there's a couple of Spotify playlists where they have like Miami rain. And it'll be like far off thunder with the rain hitting like... The Chill Wave Revival should come and like... brown bag you throw you in the back of a van and beat you with soap that's insane is it was this like filling a void in your life since the nature company no i just can't even i can't have any emotional engagement with what's happening in your life are you confessing something are you okay yeah do you miss your putomayo compilations that no i can't i can't i just can't listen i can't have like a musical i can't have emotional cues in my music so i can't listen

like spaghetti western soundtracks can't listen to like i can listen to like something classical. Okay. Yeah. But it's certainly not podcasts. You can't listen to someone talking. What a podcast? They're overrated.

But this record is, it's called Potential and a lot of the samples come from YouTube clips. Oh yeah. I read about this. And so there's this one of the amazing songs. Yeah, he wrote really well about it. I mean, unsurprisingly. But there's a track in there called Florida, which is just like the greatest name for a song

about potential and people striving. And it samples someone covering Ariana Grande on YouTube. So there's this real pathos and all of the. clips of people trying, trying, trying, and maybe not quite being the actual deal, the real deal. I love this album. I really recommend listening to all of it. So for rap stuff, we've talked about Chance, and we've talked about Jay and Fat Joe. We have two other tracks on here, one by YG and one by ASEP FERG.

They're almost prematurely old guys. That's a great point. Ferg has like, Ferg is just like the avid, like he is the way station for all like New York rap styles. of rap styles, but just when I listen to Furg, I feel like I'm spinning the dial on like a greatest hits compilation of East Coast hip hop. There is like obviously Atlanta stuff, but I love Hungry Ham off his last record, always strive and prosper. I just laugh at that name. I mean, this is the same dude who named the best song in his last album, Hood Pope. I feel like, I feel like,

I feel like this dude has a good sense of humor. He does. But to your point, he's operating in a, in a, in a field that is basically fallow for the most part. You know, the occasional Fat Joe with Jay-Z track aside, like classic, or at least classic in our definition of 90s to early 2000s New York rap is not really popping off right now. You forgot that he also has a song called Cocaine Castle. I love this dude.

And it's a beautiful song because, you know, I think that's in the Riverlands, isn't it? Yeah. And to pair him with YG, who's doing something very, very similar with G-Funk, basically, with West Coast rap. This new track has Drake on it, but it sounds like it's from a Rap and Forte album

from like 1991. It's pretty interesting that both these guys are young and are marketing themselves as new artists, but in many ways, the pleasures they're giving us are not too dissimilar from those throwback rap radio stations that have started to pop up. Yeah. Which, if you have one in your city,

you should make that your preset number one because it is just pure pleasure. Yeah. Backspin radio is just real good stuff. But it's not like, quote unquote, cool. And this brings us back to the Jay-Z conversation we were having. But it's, it's, there's no shame in liking that stuff. It's just funny.

It's basically a detour from the main thrust of hip, the hip-hop conversation, which is always about what's new and what's next. Speaking of what's new and what's next. Paul Simon again? Do you want, do you want to do that? Because I'll talk hearts and bones for a minute. Is Colleen Green new? Do you know he was married to Carrie Fisher when he made that album?

It was about their divorce? Yes, Carrie Fisher seems like she's, she has a lot of warm feelings for Paul's-Intyman. imagine being married to Carrie Fisher in 1981 or Paul Simon? And Paul Simon's like, let's go, let's go Jack Los Lobos. Just let's just go treat Los Lobos like, all right. Colleen Green. The Myth of Fingerprints. That's the Los Lobos song. Sorry about that, dudes. I'm sorry. What can I tell you? It's not your place to apologize. I feel like Paul Simon and I have more in common than Los Lobos and I. Do you think that's fair? We've both been married to Carrie Fisher. We were both five foot two. Colleen Green is new. She's

There's a young lady who lives in your city, the city we're in right now, Los Lobos. The city of Los Lobos. I'm going to have to go to the airport under armed guard today. The city response takes care of its own. Do you think YG likes Los Lobos? I'm sure. I hope so. Yeah.

Look, she has this EP out that's called Colleen Green. She had a record out a year or two ago. It's on Spotify, obviously. She reminds me of, there's a singer called Helen Love from England in the 90s who basically made Ramones albums alone with like a drum machine and like a fuzzbox and would just write 30 songs that sounded exactly as bubble gum and as fun as the Ramones. That's sort of what Colleen Green does too. There's just hooks for days, choruses forever, but there's no evidence there's anyone else involved with any of it other than her. Yeah. And she seems to, her Twitter handles

like Colleen 420 Green. So I feel like she's earning her last name. She's no no stranger to dispensary. My song that's sort of a corollary here, it's not really that related to Colleen green at all. But it's James Blake. You got a little ahead of yourself with the segways. I got to say, this week's After the Thrones, Chris was just killing it with the segues. And maybe, you know, they're limits. I know. So James Blake's got a new record.

It's called The Color in Anything. Ironic, because there's no color on this record. It's gorgeous. It's so beautiful. It's too long, but it is a gorgeous, gorgeous record. And this song Points is the kind of thing that it's like, basically like this record is slow release. You have to pay for it a little bit, but when it comes, it really comes. Since

points is a perfect example of, like, your face while I talk about this is incredible. You sell me on this. But it's just got like, it's got this like really cool R&B production tricks that he uses on these really ethereal, droney. Go on. Keyboard-driven pop songs that are then dropped and, like, they almost feel screwed and chopped to like the way that they're, the production sounds. Look, I appreciate that many people whose taste I respect like this dude, like Chance was going to make a record with him,

right? I think the music was used to good effect in season one of the leftovers. Although, to be clear, I was not a fan of season one. Wasn't that a Johnny Mitchell song that they were using? It's been so long since I watched television. I think he collaborated with Beyonce on the new record, and I like that. I like what he brings to other artists,

but there's something about his music that just drives me insane. It's like, it's like, there's matter and anti-matter, and this is like anti-sex. I feel like if you listen to this record, what did you say? It turns you into like Martin, it turns you into Bill Havrichuk from freaks and geeks. There's something about this record that is so chilly and terrified of human contact that just makes me worried about the future of our species. I don't understand your ideology now with music is purely only like, like, like, it's just energy and sunny. Yeah.

Yeah, like, but you don't, not just. There's so many different colors in the spectrum. But why do you have, why do we have to wallow in them, you know? I mean, we're all going to be 74 years old and five foot two one day like Paul Simon. But the album is like two and a half hours long. Yeah, that's not the only thing I do with my time.

I just am so curious about this. You listen to rain sounds alone in a room. Like, let's be clear who the narrator is. While you're blogging, I think something is broken inside. Just set the, like, when do you play that? In the car. In the car.

time we talked about this. While I'm sitting in traffic. And you don't go full Michael Douglas and falling down. This is what I'm saying. So when we talked about this last time, you made a point, which I think is interesting, that you are living here in verdant sunshine with farmers markets and bounteous produce. And so you don't mind, you feel a little nippy sometimes, feeling a little chill. Yeah, I have to paint, like I have to get the shades of gray where I can get them. I do have to say that one thing I've noticed with my, let's just be honest, weekly trips here is that there's not. There's not. much shade. Like, there are patches

of the city out here where it's just like a hot box. Yeah. And it's flat. Yeah. And the light is intense. Yep. And so I can understand the desire. I just feel like there are other ways to... Also, like, just generally the demeanor in this city is very like, hey, guy, how's it going? Yeah. Except for

me and Los Lobos, keep it real. Yeah. And we listen to James Blake. And he just throw darts here, Paul Simon board. Let's agree on something. Yes. Let's talk about modern baseball. Yes. First. of all, thank you to you and to Mallory Rubin for having me on the MLB podcast that you

are doing for the ringer. Is that what you mean by modern baseball? I'm not participating in it. Are we going to do a Phillies podcast? I don't think that I am equipped to do that. I'm trying to, it's like the secret. I'm putting something out into the world. I want to be on the baseball podcast.

You're going to be on the baseball podcast. Fingers crossed. So Andy, we want to talk about modern baseball who've put out this new record, Holy Ghost. It's production-wise a step forward from their last record, which was called you're going to miss it all. These guys are from Philly. A couple of them went to Drexel. Let the Drexel Dragons roar. And this is just like a record where you remember when Weaves had an album a couple of years ago

and everybody was like, oh, it's like throwback to Weaser and Green Day. It's Child of the 90s reflecting. That was, I got that. But the thing that modern baseball has, and they also have elements of Green Day and Weaser to there. There's a song at the end of the album that reminds me very much of Tired of Sex from Pickerton. But musically, but they just have. The thing that reminds me of tired of sex just as an idea is James Blake. Sorry.

Go on. Dick on. They have songs. Like they just have, this songwriting is really, really good. The track we put on this playlist is called Apple Cider,

I don't mind. And it sounds, like it opens up like has almost like a cure echo and the bunnyman sweep to it. Yeah. I don't know. It's just a great record.

This is the best Get Up Kids record since Get Up Kids record in 2006. Yeah. I kind of was dubious of these kids. kids because, probably because they are kids. Yeah. You know, me and Paul Simon were just having little cups of coffee on the corner,

upper west side. No, like, they were grouped into this emo revival. And, you know, you, I wrote a book about the first time that emo stuff happened in the 90s and you lived it. And I kind of wasn't sure what they were bringing because they were, the thing is, what I love you with a cigar like, what are you bringing? I am, no, dude, I am Dugie Houser's friend from vinyl. I was like, why don't you play something that kicks?

Yeah, right. Why don't you cover the... This isn't your key. That is, but I was about to... I was about to say, like, I was being very impatient because they were a band that was just forming and figuring stuff out. And this album came out of a period of tumult in the band. There are two songwriters in the band,

and one of the songwriters went to recovery for some issues that you've been having and showed up and, like, had to write his songs in a hurry. And what's amazing and exciting about this record is that the songs, though coming from different voices and from different perspectives seem to speak to each other. Yeah, I love it when there's two songwriters

in a band and there's like a little bit of energy like in that in the right and there's like Uncle Tupelo kind of thing right and there's like a because you love them so much remember remember when we were like I fucking love Uncle Tupelo remember there was a minute in the 90s we were like man Sunvolt's really got it I feel bad for Tweedy that is that was hilarious when that should happen when the trace came out the first song on the first Sunvolt record was basically like bring the curtain down yeah on Jeff Tweety's career no it was like when the spurs beat the Thunder by 40 in game one and you were like, maybe Kevin Durant just shouldn't play basketball anymore.

And now it's like... And then one day, like, in the rain, you shut up at my dorm room, banging on the door, with tears running down your face, holding up, Willco's being there. Like the boombox and say anything. We were wrong. And Kevin Durant, apparently, not bad at hooping. Yeah. I love this because there is a, there's a generosity to the songwriting.

You know, it is not the myopia that usually gets associated... It's fun. It's fun without being screeching weasel. I do like screeching. but like it's not goofy but it is fun it's not goofy exactly but it is also emotional but it is not that sort of self-pitying myopia that can sometimes come with bands that are lumped into the emo scene and i feel like is good for your in your regard like it would be like that would be castrated dark music that needs to be put in a coffin buried i think buried for a long time and definitely like

in the desert near here in los angeles but look i think um that's just go chella the thing that speaks most highly of this band for being fully honest. This record speaks for itself. We are super high on it. But you sent me a YouTube clip of modern baseball performing a Halloween set as the killers. Now, long time listeners of this podcast know how we feel about the killers. But this was sort of, you were talking about how you were sort of distrustful of this record because of how young these guys are. They were playing Mr. Brightside. Despite being a millennial, I was distrustful. When we were young or when you were young. those kids they were kids when those records came out those were those were we were like when the killers came out we were like the killers are kind of phonies but we like them a lot they're the best kind of phonies because they are genuinely assimilating all this great radio rock from the 80s and 90s and then and then like so the idea that these guys are like this is our classic rock but honestly I watched that clip of them the them playing the show playing the show and playing killer songs and they're not kidding that's what I really appreciate it

I'm not kidding. I love the killers. No, I know, but I mean, it matters that they're not kidding. And they're like, if we keep writing songs in the way that it's natural to us, we might be able to come up with a baseline like this. We can do this. All these things that I've done. And you can tell it's like they can't wait to have a song like this. And they're moving in that direction.

That's another fun thing about a band is when you find a band ready to make that next leap. And then in the middle of the video, someone in the crowd is just like, play a modern baseball cover. Yeah, that was funny. I was like, you get in the coffin with James Blake. So ends our barbecue. Where's our bar. barbecue. It's sexless. It's full of a lot of tension between Los Lobos and Paul Simon.

It's full of elderly liberals from the upper west side. And it's got Aesep Ferg saying, Hungry Ham. This has been The Watch. I hope you guys all have a lovely Memorial Day. Andy, it's great to have you in person. We will be back soon to talk more about television and pop culture. Until then, man. And watch our TV show. Yeah. Watch After the Thrones on HBO. Please do. HBO platforms. Yeah. What are you serving at the barbecue? Hungry ham? Great job, Branski! Great bar. Barankew Baranski. Thanks to our sponsor, The Black Tucks.

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