Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Ash from USS: Toronto Mike'd #95

Episode Date: November 5, 2014

Mike chats with Ash, lead singer and songwriter for Ubiquitious Synergy Seeker, about the band, the music, Martin Streek and Ash's restless mind.

Welcome to the 95th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a blog about a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is Ash from Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. Welcome Ashley Boo Schultz to the Toronto Mike Studio. How you doing, man? I don't have malaria, so things are going extremely well. Do you have Ebola? Not that I know of.

This is how you get into my basement if you qualify by saying no to those two questions. Absolutely. I did bring some formula ubiquitous potion, however. Hey, I'll take some of that. That sounds good. You know, I know you probably sit down with radio guys and they fake it. They probably read your Wikipedia page and they talk to you like, hey, I hear this, that, and the other. I'm telling you, this is the real deal. I've seen you guys live several times. We have a mutual friend i saw you at that uh i saw you at edge fest way back when right after like uh hollow point sniper hyperbole broke and then i saw you at the

smirnoff thing when the india exchange wow were you the guy with the betamax yeah filming my birth did you see that was that you yeah i'll show you the tapes after it's great you got a great angle it's gross true fun fact this one's gonna be good i know you met the newborn upstairs i got a uh an older son who was going to his first concert friday night in richmond hill you won't believe who he's gonna see andre the giant i wish that makes me sad so you notice mike this is how this mug appeared i had ed the sock in last episode uh you an ed the sock fan uh actually human kebab was on the ed the sock show he dj'd the ed get out of here a couple of times and he was in the hot tub oh with uh in his wife uh well

not ed's wife but ed's like the guy of his hand up ed's ass his wife co-hosted that show i think red anyway that's what i'm told that well back to the sandra the giant mug it is actually big like this would just be like a teacup for him yeah that's that's what's amazing you see those photos where he's got the beer in his hand it's like uh yeah it's it looks like a thimble yeah and he used to say they said you could down like i don't know what it was like five two fours or something we're talking about human kebab or yeah well giant same difference i swear he has one kidney and two livers is that right yes you need got to keep at least one kidney.

I think when you're done with the one, you're done. Yeah, we'll see. Were you a fan of Andre the Giant? I was a very big fan of Andre the Giant. I was also a big fan of Roddy Roddy Piper. My favorite of all time. The Killer Bees, Lanny Popple. Who else did I like? Hillbilly Jim.

Yeah, yeah. He was up there too. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Who was the guy that had the arm cast who was always the villain? Do you remember that guy? Oh, shit. He was terrible.

I'm trying to see my W. Brutus the Barber Beefcake. That was the best. He used to cut your hair, I guess, if he beat you. Was that his thing? Yeah, that was his thing. He was going to do it to Rowdy Roddy Piper.per there was a big rivalry but who was the guy that had the arm cast he come out like three times a you know like three times a uh iron mike sharp that was the

greatest canadian the strongest canadian in the world iron mike shark almost uh there's the iron chic nikolai volkov yeah um there was, who were the two B guys? Who were the Bs? The killer Bs? The killer Bs, Brian and something. I don't know. But the killer Bs who were the last time, I mean, I went to Hulkamania in 87 at Exhibition Stadium

with 70,000 other people, and the killer Bs were on that bill because you see them when you're at it. I don't know if you've been to a live WWF event. Yeah, I went to one. Jake the Snake Roberts was there. Yeah, with Damien. uh damien yep ddt yeah damien deathtrap uh that's a great band name damien deathtrap i'm gonna write that down the uh i know that the killer bees you see the ref gets distracted like the ref is really easily distracted like someone goes hey

ref over here what are you doing for dinner tonight and he goes over and talks to him and then the killer bees come out of the ring and you see them like, I don't know, they're switching because they're, I guess, indistinguishable and they're switching up and cheating. And you see it as a spectator and you're yelling at the ref, like, turn around. They're breaking the rules. The ref is so distracted, never turns around.

Well, now wrestling is all about the boobs. So you know why the refs are clearly distracted. So it all comes full circle, just like Ed the Sock. Ed the Sock is all about the boobs, and so is wrestling. Hey, I have to ask you a question. You're a big-time rock and roll star in this country, but I understand you roof. Is this true?

So tell me, you do it for the money or for some zen purpose? I do it because when you start to understand the nature of how you function, you need to understand, like, if you have an extremely hyperactive dog, you don to build an automatic machine that will throw tennis balls. And the dog brings it back and drops it in the hamper and it throws it and it will run all day. And all it wants to do is bring that tennis ball back. And so my body and my mind are similar that I need to exhaust myself. And that heavy labor is really one of the only ways that I so to clarify you're not doing it for the cash uh I'm doing it mainly so that I can be a functional member of society and you do this uh because he was telling me something oh you're tired because

you're up at 6 a.m roofing I thought he was fucking with me this mutual friend of ours I thought he was fucking with me like ash was up at 6 a.m roofing like I just couldn't visualize it but you're telling me well I wake up at 6 a.m. roofing. I just couldn't visualize it. But you're telling me... Well, I wake up at 4 a.m. every day. So it's nice to have somewhere to go and work really hard. And because also that in my life, no one's really ever told me what to do. I've kind of had this complete free will, free reign on everything. And I like having a boss. I like having someone tell me I have to do something because it really creates some parameters. Could you take a look at my roof after this, man? I need some work done. I just bought this place and the roof needs replacement soon. You'll take a look at this?

I will. Absolutely. I want a quote. I'm serious. We can take a look. I'm serious. How did you come up with the name Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker? I actually dig the name. Most people are calling it USS, I guess, because that's a mouthful ubiquitous synergy seeker uh where did that name come from the name ubiquitous synergy seeker in the most succinct version of this explanation possible um we've all been at a point in our life where we have kind of just stopped shaking our head and said what am i doing? How did I become this? Like some point in your mid-20s or somewhere, maybe in your mid-30s, maybe in your mid-40s. And I got to that point in my 20s and I was chain smoking. I wasn't eating. I was just a mess. And

I said, I'm done with this. Who would I be if I wasn't this? What would that person look like? I'm so disappointed in who I am. What would I look like to look at myself and say, I don't know if I can swear or not. No, you can swear. I fucking love you. I love who I am. What would that person be? And so I wrote it out. And at the top, I wrote ubiquitous synergy seeker. I said, that's what I would be. And the most beautiful full circle is that I'm now sitting before you as that direct manifestation of that piece of paper that I wrote from 2003. It only took me 11 short years, but I'm sitting here inside of that script that I wrote. And were you hooked up with Jason back then? No, this was me on my own. I was ubiquitous synergy seeker by myself.

How does Jason Parsons get hooked into this? Well, I had dropped out of music school and he had graduated from university at Trent as an economics major. And so we both got jobs at a golf course near our house, which is hilarious because... Is this Stouffville? This is Markham.

Markham, okay. Markham. And yeah, we met one fateful day in a beer fridge. We had both heard about each other. There's a guy that's crazier than you. That's what both simultaneous people said to either of us. And yeah, so we met in a beer fridge and we instantly started,

we were loading at cases of Labatt 50 and we started talking about mid-90s hip hop. I love mid-90s hip hop. Which he is an encyclopedia. Get him in here. He was buying mixtapes out of trunks in the mid-90s. Like skipping high school.

Cool. So he still got all those mixtapes. Check him out. Yeah, absolutely. I love the late 80s stuff but it leaks into the 90s. I have a big public... Yeah, right here. I'm a big public enemy guy.

Like, I caught them recently at the... Whatever the place is by the... Portlands. What's that venue called again? The Sound Academy. The Sound Academy. We played with Public Enemy.

Did you? Get out of here. At Wake Stock. Or was that... Is that Collingwood? Yeah, the one they do in Collingwood. Yeah, you know, I guess I got these kids in the way.

Sometimes it's tough to do the Collingwood. It's tough to go bring the fam to Public Enemy. Yeah, I would love to have seen that. So I'm going to play a little, actually, real quick clarification, because I kept reading you guys were from Parkdale, and then I start seeing it's Stouffville or Markham. Like, do you just adopt all three? Is that what you're doing here?

What's the deal there? Where does Parkdale come into the mix? Well, the clarification is that we were both respectively born and raised in Stouffville and Markham in the York Region area north of Toronto. When we moved to Toronto and got the band started

and got into the scene here, we were living in Parkdale. So when our first song, Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole, in 2008 jumped onto the airwaves, Parkdale was our home. And so that's where that address comes from. I was born in Parkdale.

Just a little FYI. I got bedbugs in Parkdale. I bet. I bet. I bet. Who didn't get bedbugs in Parkdale? Yeah, absolutely. And my buddy Jeff Merrick recently moved to Stouffville,

and he's loving it there. He used to live in West Toronto. Now he's a Stouffville guy. They don't have a bowling alley in Stouffville, but that's forgivable. You got to get that fixed. Hey, so we're playing right now. This song blew up on 102.1 here in Toronto.

It just blew up. I was listening quite a bit back then, and this thing was played all the time, and I never got sick of it. This is a fantastic single. And this breaks you guys, right? This was the party popper.

I'll share a story with you about this song. In the song, one of the lyrics is once more I'm flying with Brian, my friend. And Brian in question was a Scottish friend of mine who was a notorious partier in Toronto. Everybody knew Brian.

And he had a boat cruise called Flying with Brian. And it was just a drug-riddled mess of a party. And so I was there, and that's where I kind of functionally met him. So once I kind of had cleaned up my act, like I said, with, you know, giving myself that title and realizing that I was my life was a mess. He dared me to take my best song and give it to everyone I knew in music. And if it didn't take off, that I should quit music and go back to school. Just do it for fun.

Right. So Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole was the song that we recorded. And I took him up on his challenge because I was afraid to succeed. And I was afraid to fail. So I just did what a lot of us do is we don't do anything. And then that song went to number one. And that's the song basically. So that song breaks on 102.1.

To be honest, and I'm sure I'm not alone, that's the first time I heard you guys. But then once you hear that, then you kind of seek out other USS songs. And then you start, from my perspective, you start realizing, hey, this is a great sound. Like, it's sort of a rock, kind of a hip-hop, kind of a, there's even folksy elements.

It's just like a high, I don't know, it's like genre-defying. It's all over the place but it just sounds it's like everybody's ipod these days yeah where you're just getting this incredible like absolute spectrum of the rainbow uh like jukebox playing all the records at the same time type of sensation and we like to think that we're we're kind of the soundtrack for the modern mind which you can quote me and i will quote you on that that's perfect quote and i actually uh tying this all together there was like i was at the casby awards that followed and you guys perform at this casby awards and you win an award i remember and i remember that's the last time I saw Martin Streak.

Was that his Casby Award? He and Strombo stood on the stage. I was there. My buddy bailed on me. I actually went alone, but there were a lot of pretty cool bands performing. I'm glad I went. And Strombo and Martin Streak

were handing out an award together. They're longtime old friends. And I wanted to speak to you because I happen to know about your pilot I want to call it backstage pass or something Martin Streak after he was let go by CFNY he was working on this television project and I've seen the footage of you guys with Martin Streak doing this backstage pass so how please tell me how did you know Martin and how did it feel when you heard the terrible tragic news about Martin Streak? Well, Martin Streak was above and beyond above and beyond everything that had to do with

where he worked. You know, one of the biggest fans of music out there and his, his just passion and enthusiasm for sharing. Like he was a true encyclopedia and just when you would talk to him, the way that it would go from seeing this band in this small, tiny room in this smoky club into, it was just, it was just fascinating. He didn't even need to talk, you know, and, and he wasn't, it wasn't coming out of ego or anything. He was just, just loved music so much. And you know, that that's, you just wish that his, his mind could have been recorded as like an infinite podcast of just absolutely incredible. I would subscribe to that. Yeah. And so when, when, when something like that doesn't exist anymore, it, it really, it's a, it's a serious uppercut to the soul, you know? But when you're, so, uh, for those who don't know Martin Strikas, he's fired from his radio gig, which he's had for, I don't know, 25 years or something. He literally has a tattoo of the

logo on his ass. This is a true a true story uh just quick episode 82 of this podcast i did a five year on the fifth year uh anniversary of his passing i did a remembering martin streak retrospective and i spoke to a whole bunch of people who worked with him people like alan cross and uh people who worked with him and knew him and just to get a feel for him and my question for you is since you uh interacted with him post firing but uh obviously before he took his own life was he in good spirits was he uh did he seem to have his shit together like would anything uh did you witness anything that would make you think maybe he was uh considering suicide anything no not at all. And I mean, you hear that so often in those types of situations

where it's just like, I saw him yesterday, you know, and we hugged each other and had a laugh. And that is just one of those kinds of tragic coincidences is that a lot of people keep their demons hidden from other people. And, you know, we all tend to do that. We just want people to see our sunny side. And unfortunately, sometimes you wish that it wasn't that way because then you could actually hear a cry for help

when you won't let anybody hear your cry. Good point. I'm bringing up, this song has a crescendo, I guess you call it, but there's a slow buildup to this tune I'm playing right now. But I bike to this song, okay? And it has a bicycle, it's got a bell, a bicycle bell in this song. Yeah, it's also got a perfect strike at bowling because that's what a beautiful woman looks like to me,

the sound of a perfect strike. Well, it fucks me up when I bike to this song. I'm always looking over my shoulder and trying to figure out who the hell is ringing the bell at me. I fall for it every time, like Charlie Brown kicking the football. Anyway, I just want you to know it messes me up. I should take it off the biking playlist, but no, I dig it. Ladies and gentlemen. So this is 2-15-16.

And this was your second big hit, I suppose. Because my memory serves me correctly. See if and why he starts playing this sucker after hollow point sniper hyperbole. Yes, I had worked as a stonemason. And my first day on the job, the guy that runs the company just hands me a stone saw and if you've ever used a stone saw it's a very intimidating like you're cutting rock yeah

like rock has been here for millions and millions of years and you are now dominating it so you're you've got your hands on a pretty you know intimidating piece of equipment and he says okay just measure the space and then measure the rock and just cut off the difference so i had had this crush on this girl who was just an angelic weirdo and so i get to uh work that day and he gives me the stone saw and he tells me what to do and so i measure it and i need to cut off two and 15 16ths of an inch off of this piece of stone and i just said to myself in that moment i was thinking about that girl i was trying to cut off two and 15 sixteenths of an inch off of this piece of stone. And I just said to myself in that moment,

I was thinking about that girl. I was trying to concentrate on my job. Cause you know, when you have a crush on someone, you can't. And so I was like, Oh my God, I'm like,

what a weird, strange number. Two and 15 sixteenths. Why isn't it three? Like who gives a shit about this other 16th? And I was like, that's what this girl is like. She's like two and 15, 16.

She's just not quite three. Like everyone's a three. She's just, uh, just that little, that something about that. The one 16th. Yeah. It just makes all the difference in the world. Wow. So is your brain always going like this?

Like, so do you ever, uh, first of all, do you sleep? I'm watching true detective right now and there's a detective on there and he doesn't sleep. Um, I, yeah, it's part of the reason that I roof too. Yeah.

Yeah. It's because I, I don't, my mom even told me as a, she would just come into my room and I'd just be standing in my crib just staring at her every time she walked in. And I personally think that my, my,

um, my creativity comes from the fact that I've barely gotten any REM sleep in my life. I'm kind of living inside of a lucid dream state in my waking life. That's your secret. You're always

dreaming. I'm always lucidly expressing this dream. But you do get three or four hours a night or something? To survive, you've got to shut it down. Two or three. One to three. And you write all the music.

Well, I wrote the first two. And our last two albums was when I really started to collaborate with Human Kebab. Because I wouldn't let anybody in. I needed to have control of everything. And I was like that in school. I would always want to do the group project myself because I knew I could do it perfectly. And so when I finally, I finally opened up

and it took me two albums to open up. You're Chuck D. He's Flavor Flav. Eventually Chuck D. let Flavor Flav carry some tunes. Or at least carry the clock. Yeah. But yeah, so it was beautiful though because it was definitely one of the things that I came to this planet to learn about,

which was how to interact with other beings. Oh, no, that's awesome. And I don't have you for a long time, so I'm going to have to burn through a few questions I have, one of which is laces out. Okay, yeah. So that's an Ace Ventura reference, or is it what I think it is? Scotty Norwood. This is a Scotty Norwood Buffalo Bills reference.

Laces out. Be honest with me. Just to appease your... Oh, no. You're lying to me now. It is an Ace Ventura reference, but it just has more to do with just blaming other people for your entire life and not just taking responsibility for your own actions.

I was sure because you were a GTA guy that this was some kind of a Buffalo Bill, Scotty Norwood, I guess his wide right against the New York Giants that cost the Bills that Super Bowl. They went to four in a row. If they had won that first one, they could have rolled, but they lost all four.

I know, but do you know how much Coors Light they sold? That was the real important part of that whole process. I believe it. It's always the most important part. The me versus us. Basically, there's a line like, and dads don't leave. Do you want to tell me what that's about? Because my dad left, and I'm dying to know what this means.

Yeah, my dad, we left too. You know, our parents do their best with the circumstances that they have to work with and the fact that they maybe didn't get to work out their traumas in life and then they repeat that cycle again with their kids. And all we can hope to do is break those cycles. And I hope that our music is a soundtrack to helping a generation break those cycles and patterns so that you can have,

I basically needed the owner's manual, which was my father's guidance to understand how my brain worked. And it's a beautiful thing in the last 16 months, I've been reunited with my father after 15 to 20 years. Oh, nice. I'm actually like 15 years, 20 years. And I haven't seen my dad since then. And I always wonder if it's too late. It's not too late because even at my age now, I'm learning how to use my

mind just from being around him. And we actually have an apartment together. Get out of here. I went from not seeing him for 20 years. It's like a sitcom, man. Yeah, to now we share a bachelor pad. Like I couldn't be closer to him physically or emotionally. Yeah, that's bizarre. It's beautiful. You got to come back. I got to dive into this stuff. What I wrote, Me Versus Us, it was a sincere here amongst my wildest dreams.

Love it grows on trees. Fall is once a year and dads don't leave. Beautiful song. And that was my, I guess it came true. You know, my wildest dream came true. That's inspirational, man. I love that. This Is The Best was a big radio hit,

and it had a line in it, well, crack house arrest, and it came out just as the Rob Ford shit was flying everywhere. So is there any hilarious coincidence you share? Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. It was that was written like a year before anything to do with Rob Ford came out. And the release was. No, I know.

We knew that was going to happen. I call what I call the crack house arrest was basically being stuck in like a three day coke bender. And so instead of house arrest, you're on crack house arrest. Right. Which I thought was hilarious. And then everyone said it became the soundtrack to the whole Rob Ford saga. Yeah. And so instead of house arrest, you're on crack house arrest. Which I thought was hilarious. And then everyone said it became the soundtrack to the whole Rob Ford saga. Yeah, it came out at the perfect time.

Two summers ago, I was in Edmonton for a wedding. And I guess it was during the... What's this? Sonic has like an edge fest. Sonic Boom. That's it. You're a big fucking deal in Edmonton. You think that's like per capita? It's the most popular place.

Because I thought you guys were a big deal here, but mainly just what I hear in 102.1 and seeing you guys live a few times. And I went to Edmonton, and it was like the Beatles were there. It was a big deal. Yeah, it's absolutely incredible to get caught inside of that vortex of enthusiasm.

It absolutely is just like a magic carpet ride through Chuck E. Cheese. Then you go to your aunt's house who makes the best hamburgers. And then you go to your favorite tree that you ever climbed as a kid. All those things put together is what it feels like to be inside of the energy of that kind of enthusiasm in a place like edmonton cool and is it uh they have the two new do they have two new rock stations there i'm trying to remember they got the sonic they definitely have sonic and actually what's amazing is that and you'll like this um is that i was the one in our band that was into drum and bass in the 90s.

I loved drum and bass. And I wanted to hear Nirvana unplugged at a rave in all the different rooms of a rave, which is why I made this band, because I couldn't hear that music anywhere. Pendulum was sort of doing something like that, Prodigy a little bit. But no one was writing really melodic songs

and using these elements from this music that was so underground, which only became famous through car commercials and sports highlight reels. Right. And so the full circle is that I introduced Human Kebab, Jason Parsons, to drum and bass and what became dubstep. Yeah. And now he produces drum and bass and dubstep. And now he has his own radio show on sonic in edmonton called subsonic i didn't know that's amazing and uh his dreams are coming

true so i love that full circle this that's wicked this sucker here uh let's talk about blowing up i mean i gotta ask you you must have licensed this place all over the place because like if i'm watching i don't know the stan Stanley Cup playoffs, for example. This is Ying Yang. And not only was it a big hit on all the modern rock stations, but this thing was appearing in, like, was it in commercials? Or was it just over the Stanley Cup playoff stuff and everything? CTV promos.

Tell me, did you make a few bucks off this thing or what? Yeah, it's definitely padded the old bank account a little bit. They're playing it at the seventh inning stretch at Blue Jay Games. Yes. Hilarious. That was one of my fantasies in life, I would have to say. So you're a big Jays fan? I'm a big sports fan.

Yeah, me too. I love sports because it's a way that you can use numbers and it's not in this completely subjective realm because my mind is always trying to be creative. But it needs some parameters. It needs some numbers and some statistics and something that isn't in Technicolor, inverted, chaos theory,

butterfly wing, toboggan, instant coffee, while flying a kite. You just wrote a song. You know what I mean, though? It's great to open up the sports page and just check it out. So what were your feelings on George Bell back? This is important to me personally. I thought he was one of the best hitters in Blue Jays history. You know what?

You passed the audition, my friend. Seriously, George Bell, to this day, I can't play a sporting event unless I got 11 on my back for George Bell. Good for you. You know what I love was Whamco. When the Blue Jays won the World Series, they had White Alomar White Alomar Molotov-O'Rourke, Carter

as the five. Close. Because Wham! Co. is White, Alomar, Molotov, Carter, O'Rourke. Oh! That'd be Wham! Off. Were you like me? Because I loved Wham! Co. and then it became

Ham Cow. I thought you were going to say you loved Wham! Like you loved George Michael. Make it big. By the way, I had Make It Big on cassette. And you had faith that the Jays would win the World Series. You know? Yeah, they had the freedom to make it big. By the way, you are the George Michael.

Is the human kebab, is he the Andrew Ridgely? True or fact? True or false? Yeah, he is him, but with George Michael's hair. But not the beard. Not the beard. Did he have a special razor that would shave him so he had a couple of days growth? I'm going to say that he probably had his own troll who could only eat facial hair,

but could only eat like... Like the goats that mow the Google lawn. Exactly. The goats that mow the Google lawn. I. The goats that mow the Google lawn. I swear to you, that's amazing. That's what I heard before the internet. Because I like myself of two days growth, not one day growth, not three days.

I like two days growth. You only get it every third day. That sounds like Three Days Grace, but it's two days growth. Three Days Grace. Yeah, Three Days Grace cover band would be Two Days Growth. I don't have you for too much longer. I need to know what kind of music you...

So you already mentioned you liked some hip-hop. I know you mentioned Nirvana's Unplugged in there. I was a huge Nirvana fan. But what were your primary bands growing up? Well, Pet Shop Boys was was massive influence on me and um yeah that nirvana unplugged had a big influence on me my uncle uh when i was really young absolutely cranked all the all the buddy holly stuff and all the motown stuff and all that beautiful 50s and 60s just sugar pop like i people always ask me they're like what's the secret what's your

secret man what's the big secret and i'm just like will a six-year-old can a six-year-old sing the melody of your song back to you after the first time they hear it because if if they can then that's the secret so just just don't show anybody anything until something comes to you or comes through you or you figure out or whatever it is inspires you that a six-year-old can sing it back to you. That six-year-old comment is great that you said that because I have a, I have a 10 year old daughter and she loves yin yang. Like this is the song she plays it all the time.

I told her you were coming in and she's like, daddy, can I, can I meet him? I'm like, well, you got to go to school. But the fact is she was like excited that the who sings yin-yang was coming over. That is a beautiful thing. She's 10 years old. And she's a virgin 99.9 and 92.5 girl. But this yin-yang has sort of crossed over. Yeah, which is hilarious.

Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's got a melody. And I love that. That's where I came from. And that is a championship melody. That's where I came from, and that is a championship melody. That's what I strive for. You're doing well. Now, just to recap, tonight, I'm going to see you tonight.

I'm at the Horseshoe tonight. You're there for the Humble and Fred 25th anniversary. Yes, sir. It's not a secret, right? No, it's not a secret. No. Will you dedicate a song to Toronto Mike? I'm only doing one song.

And it will be dedicated so you're putting me under the gun here now over the gun around the gun it's fine just wink wink wink and i'll know that or tug your ear like carol burnett well i'll do like a full baseball like i'll do the like the swipe swipe arm yeah like fake bat like al widmar like two pats on the wrist gene tennis spit like two tobacco chew spits oh that's that's awesome and uh so that's tonight i'm seeing you friday night because i'm in richmond hill with my son uh to see you guys and and he's jazzed with that my daughter's first we will say we will come and say hi for sure on friday yeah absolutely you dedicate a song to our mutual friend will be there

and we'll make sure that that, that, that connection. Oh yeah. Yeah. Beautiful. That's sweet. Uh, perfect. Uh,

just so you know, my daughter's first concert was, uh, uh, Selena Gomez, but my son has chosen USS. Wow. I love,

well, the Selena Gomez song, uh, come and get it. Yeah. Come, come, come.

Yeah. Well, I was there and I'm like this, like a four year old guy sitting in the ACC and a bunch of girls going nuts. And we're just kind of like, I'm just watching my daughter love it. So I'm like into it. Like my daughter's loving this shit. Come and get it.

It's a great pop song. Great, great song. Great video. Great song. I just wanted to share with the listeners that after we perform in Richmond Hill this Friday, we will be making 23 stops between Halifax and Victoria, British Columbia. So if you do have the opportunity to come out and enter into the vortex of enthusiasm

and recharge your muse, if you will, then we welcome you to come out and join the Iodine Friendship Club. I highly recommend this because your live gigs are just great fun. Like you said, they rock out, but there's a melody, and you guys are going nuts on stage, and Human Kebab has got blenders, and there's just weird shit going on all over the place. Am I right?

It's just chaotic. Yeah, it's like going out for sushi with the Beatles during Yellow Submarine, but you're on the Gravitron. My words, you took those words right out of my mouth. Perfect description. Yay. So are you glad you came on? I took a few shots to get you.

Tiffany, this woman behind me is a tough sell. She's tough, man. I've been working on this for how long? Like three years? Long time. Here we are now. So entertain, man. I've been working on this for how long? Like three years? A long time. Here we are now. So entertain, Mike. And that brings us to the end of our 95th show.

You can follow me on Twitter at TorontoMike and USS at USS Music. See you all next week. I want to take a streetcar downtown.