U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME? - Covers Of R.E.M. with Jason Mantzoukas

Episode Date: August 22, 2018

Comedian, actor and co-host of How Did This Get Made? Jason Mantzoukas joins Adam Scott Aukerman to discuss the best covers of R.E.M.’s discography. Jason talks about his journey in and out of the fandom, the importance of lyrics vs. vocals, and his Top 10 R.E.M. songs. Plus, we’ll find out what Adam would have named his band before they get into the best R.E.M. covers out there. This episode is sponsored by Leesa (www.leesa.com/rem).

Hey, thanks for tuning in to Are You Talking REM ReMe? Hey, Adam. Yes, Scott. A quality night's sleep helps you prevent burnout. Fuck you. I'll accept it, but it also helps you make better decisions. Sure does. And it helps you improve your memory, does it not?

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I don't even know how to describe it. Take their word for it. Through their 110 program, they donate one mattress for every 10 they sell, and together with the Arbor Day Foundation, Lisa plants one tree for every mattress sold. That's terrific. Yeah, the whole world is a forest now because of them. We have two Lisa mattresses in our house.

You have two now? No, one. And it is terrific. No, I was thinking of the wrong one. But the one we just got is... Wait, what were you thinking of? Your coffee table? Yep.

I was thinking of my ceiling. Don't miss these summer savings these savings apparently only happen during the summer adam so this is exciting okay get 160 off what a deal elisa get 160 off of elisa mattress at lisa.com slash rem that's lisa.com. From chronic to collapse, town and into now, respectively, is, this is Are You Talking R.E.M. Remy? The comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things R.E.M. This is good rock and roll. Music.

Welcome to the show. Here we are. Here we are. This is going to be a really special show. Good friend of ours. We each, I believe, hang out with him socially, if I'm not mistaken. Great guy. Great hang.

Great guy. I'm talking about myself, of course. Yeah. Thank you very much. I am your host of the show. No, a good friend of ours, Jason Manzoukas, is going to be on a little later. We're going to talk to him about, I mean, I know I must have some questions to ask him about the band that we talk about. Well, I think that, I think, sorry, is it okay if I'm super quiet?

Am I talking too loud? Yeah, could you quiet down? This is really straining my eardrums right now. It just seems like there's like interested parties, if you know what I mean. I don't know what you mean. Like right outside the door. I'm just a little worried about interested parties.

And, you know, like wanting to know uh-huh what we're talking what we're talking okay so you we should be quiet so that people who are these interested party like the paparazzi no no no a bit more kind of uh governmental if you know what i mean like like just you think that the government like let's just let's just say they're interested parties. Okay. Is this some sort of QAnon thing? I'll just say there are 17 of them, and they're right outside the door.

Adam, have you become a crazy conspiracy theorist since our last episode? That's the thing about conspiracies, Scott. Every single one of them are real. Wait, so you are not only a conspiracy theorist, but you think all conspiracy theories are real? Yeah, and it's not theorist. It's realist. Conspiracy realist.

Thank you. Thanks for saying it out loud. Adam, there's no one outside. No one cares about what we're doing. There was, I mean, Ryan's in the room. Is that who you're talking about? No, I was talking about all the people. There's no one outside.

Are you seeing people? I don't see, well, the door is closed. I don't see anything. We had Haley Joel Osment on a while ago. Maybe some of those dead people that used to. Is he still here? Some of those dead people that hung out with him might still be here. They all follow him around?

Okay. If there's no one here. There's no one here. No. Everything's fine. No one cares. No one cares what we do. Great.

No one cares other than our gentle listeners who are listening to us now and are wondering what we're going to talk to Jason Manzuka's about. Yeah. I think I would like to hear when he first heard of REM. I mean, I think that would be it. I don't know that I can ask him that. That's very, very personal. It's up to you.

It is up to me, and I've decided I'm going to pass. Okay. Can I ask? No. Okay. All right. Well, then let's just leave that one. Let's leave that totally.

Maybe we can just whip it out if there's a lull in the interview. I promise you if there's ever even the hint of a lull, even if Robert Altman-style overlapping dialogue doesn't occur and there's just a microsecond of a pause, I will whip it out. Don't worry. Because that's just one you can depend on to just kind of get the party started. Get the party started.

And he is the original party starter, as we've all nicknamed him. Jason Manzoukas will be here. We're going to talk about R.E.M. And we're going to hear, this is our covers episode. Yeah. We're going to hear other going to talk about R.E.M., and we're going to hear—this is our covers episode. Yeah. We're going to hear other bands that have covered R.E.M. songs. So we're going to hear the beautiful music of R.E.M. today, but suddenly you'll be hearing it, and you'll be like, what the blessed fuck is this all about?

Yeah. Michael Stipey. What are you doing? He's nowhere even near— Where are you? Are you doing impressions now? Yeah. Are you doing he's nowhere even near where are you doing impressions now yeah are you doing like uh play it again sham this ain't your voice coming out of my speakers yeah what are you uh uh rich little uh doing an imitation uh rich not so little yeah if you know

huge in my ears yeah no thank you um no thank you, Danky. And then you're going to say, you're going to slap your forehead and be like, what the hell was I just thinking? This is a totally different person. What the good God darn just happened. And you're going to leave this episode very confused and you're going to be like, what just happened? Yeah. And that's what we're going to do with Jason Manzik is coming up. So that'll be fun, right? Super fun. It'll be great to see him. Adam, anything that you want to talk about since our last episode? I have a couple of things, but anything that you, anything been on your mind? Ladies first.

Hold on. You're misgendering me. Sorry, I thought it was. My pronouns are he, him. Okay. Hymns first on the old rugged cross

that's a hymn right are you hot right now in this room I'm a little no actually well I don't know

could we do what do you want to be cooler or you want to be hotter you want to be hot no I want to be cool you want to be cool I want to be cool man

like a I don't know a beat poet. Sure. You ever see West Side Story? Yeah. Boy, boy. Crazy boy.

Just saw it recently. Why? If you can believe it, for the first time. Why? What for? Because at home, we wanted to show it to the kids. Hold on, hold on. Spielberg has been rumored to be doing a remake of it.

Of West Side Story. Are you in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story? Interested parties. I see. I don't think we should be talking about this. Okay, who are you going to play? Are you going to play Maria? I can't say

yes. But the way you're shaking your head is a no. No way. Of course not. Who would you play? You'd be no. No. That is a no. No way. Of course not. No way. Who would you play? You'd be Tony.

The old man at the shop. Pops? Yeah, Pops. Pops at the shops? That's right. And they're going to give you a brand new song? No, and I'll have a broom. You're going to sing a love song to your broom?

Because they have to have a brand new song for the Oscars, right? They have to have a brand new song. Oh, of course. So Pops gets a song. Regarding his broom. And it's all about new song. Oh, of course. So Pops gets a song. Regarding his broom. It's all about, yeah, get out of my store.

Is there a dude named Pops in West Side Story? I don't know if his name's, I'm pretty sure his name is not Pops. Is it the role of? He runs the, like, soda fountain.

Oh, he's the kindly old man who's like, you kids, come on. He's the father in Romeo and Juliet. Oh, yes. I can't believe I'm forgetting. Father McKenzie.

Yeah, Father Richards. No, yeah, who's the dude? Were you ever in Romeo and Juliet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who'd you play? Romeo. Really? Uh-huh.

The immortal bard himself? Indeed. really uh-huh the immortal bard himself indeed let's hear some of those stanzas in iambic pentameter please man i used to know that entire play what about this one banished oh yeah banished oh yeah do it i don't remember any of it you don't remember any of it no what but i remember light through yonder window breaks. Yeah. I remember I could sit there and just recite the entire play because I did so many times. Call me butt love.

Yeah, exactly. That's my favorite part. Call me butt love. Call me butt love. Call me butt love. That's the weirdest line in Romeo and Juliet. Call me butt love. Call me butt love.

God. That's the weirdest line in Romeo and Juliet. Call me but love. Call me but love. God. I probably did at the time because it was a while ago, but I don't remember putting that joke together at the time. Call me but love. I was in Midsummer Night's Dream,

and the director had us, as a prologue to it, he had all of us, no, he had all of the actors. I was Lysander, but he had all of us – no, he had all of the actors. I was Lysander. But he had all of the actors, Bottom and all of the actors, come out rehearsing Romeo and Juliet before the show. And they were doing a really bad version of it. And my friend was reading that part. And he would say it like you always say it, call me but love. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I came up and whispered to him. I said, just say it like call me but love. And he did it. And the director like howled laughing and it stayed in the play. He always got a huge laugh. Yeah, yeah. I got a huge laugh.

It was great. Call me butt love. Call me butt love. And Juliet's like, all right. Hey, butt love. She's like, look, all right. Whatever I got to do. All right,

but love. Get this guy to leave me alone. Was that what Romeo and Juliet is all about? She just wants him to leave her alone. I mean. Stop following me around

and harassing me. In a way, she winds up, no spoilers, but. Spoiler. Spoiler alert, but okay,

so if you wanna see Romeo and Juliet soon, turn off the podcast right now because we're going to talk about we'll give you a minute to give you a minute walk across the room to your don't worry giant radio yeah okay all right All right, that's enough time, right? Julia dies. Now can they turn it back on?

They can turn it back on, yes. You can turn it back on now. Turn it back on! Turn it back on! Turn it back on! turn it back on you can turn it back on turn it back on turn it back on turn it back on turn it back on turn it back on turn it back on

turn it back on turn it back on does Romeo die I don't remember yes oh shit we didn't give oh

we were kidding though just we were kidding does he though die does he die both of them die right yes the star-crossed lovers themselves yes same with west side story wait they both die in west

side story i was in that too uh i thought i thought doesn't uh doesn't she end up with a gun at the end and it's like i had a love and she's like oh god tony you're dead i think she stays alive okay story maybe i I think that by the time West Side Story came out. Maybe I missed the end. Like I had to, I don't know. Just nod, nod.

I did just see the movie. If you, if any of our listeners know if anyone dies in any movie, send it to us. We don't want to be in this position again. This is embarrassing for us.

We actually, it would be great if every single, we're not saying every single one of our listeners, but every other listener. Every other listener. If you could take a single sheet of paper.

Look, if you're watching a movie, just jot down everyone who dies in it. Yeah. That's all we ask. You could even write down one person who died in a movie and put it on a piece of paper and send it to us. Just send it to us, just on a piece of paper, a loose piece of paper.

And we'll read it on the air. We'll read it on the air. We'll read it on the air. This is embarrassing for us to not know who died in what. In any movie. I don't know one person that died in a movie. And look, there's gonna be certain movies that that's gonna be a pretty long list.

This is gonna be like, I'll tell you one movie that it's a long list. Schindler's List. That's gonna be a long ass list. Or, let's say Scarface. a real shoot-'em-up. Yeah. Sorry, is this an episode of I Love Films? I think it is.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to I Love Films. This is Scott. And this is Scott. We're talking about real shoot-'em-ups. Oh, good old-fashioned shoot-'em-ups. Pow, pow. Pow, pow. Like, I just, the aforementioned Scar shoot-em-ups. Oh, good old-fashioned shoot-em-ups. Pow, pow! Like, I just, the aforementioned Scarface.

But which, may I ask, young sir? Yeah. Which version of Scarface? Oh my God, I knew you were going to ask that. That's why I had an answer prepared. An actor prepares. And my answer is, I'm not sure. I know. It's so hard to tell the difference between them. They're exactly the same. They're the same movie. I mean, you got one,

which is like from the 30s, the original where it's like, hey, say hello to my little friend, see? Yeah. And then the 80s, he's like, hey, say hello to my little friends. See? You can't tell them apart. It's exhausting. It is. Anyway, we love films. So much. Bye. Bye. That was good. They're really back on their game. I loved that episode. That was like binge-worthy as far as I'm concerned. You know what? If you could, call me butt love.

Call me butt love. That was binge-worthy is how we say it? That episode was binge-worthy. You ever in any of the other Shakespeare shows? No, that was the only- Where did you do that one? In Berkeley at Cal Shakes Cal Shakes

great great uh production I'm I would imagine it was uh it was it was fun

it was like in the during the summer it was outside it was a lot of fun I saw Twelfth Night up there in Santa Cruz your hometown

Santa Cruz Shakespeare Santa Cruz big deal yep I enjoyed it um so let's see what do I have

that we have to talk about? First of all, you know, there's – okay, this is crazy. Yeah. But we may have to dip into a different show. Okay. Okay, because I believe this is an episode of you talking U2 to me. Oh, okay. Okay.

You Talking U2 to Me. Oh, okay. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, tres. From boy to better than anything in its way. Yeah, love is, that is. This is You Talking U2 to Me, the comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things U2. This is good rock and roll music.

Welcome back. And it's great to be back here with my host. This is Scott. And over here is Scott. Hello. And remember when we went to see U2? Yeah. Recently? Yeah. Recently.

The most recent time. Oh, yeah. We went to – well, if I'm thinking of the same trip and concert you're thinking of. I hope so. We took an airplane. Yeah, that checks out. I remember that. Wait, the big metal bird that is magic? Yeah, with seats in it.

Yeah, with seats in it. Yeah. And they cast a spell on it, and it dances across the sky. Sky dancing, sure. We took that to—we took it across the United States. Okay. And then it landed on a tarmac. Yeah, I do remember that. And then you two played for us on the tarmac. Yeah, I do remember that. And then you two played for us on the tarmac.

On the tarmac, yeah, it was wonderful. Like it was the reverse Beatles situation. Yeah. So remember those shirts that our good man Larry Mullen Sr. son gave us? Sure do. And what did it say? The Larry Mullen Band. Right, okay. Sure do. And what did it say? The Larry Mullen Band. Right.

Okay. So there is an interesting story behind those shirts that I found out. Okay. Let me elucidate exactly what I'm talking about. So I posted the picture of us holding those shirts up that we got at Madison Square Garden. Okay. And someone on Instagram called ontheroadwithyouto writes to me and says, we made these shirts in 2001 on Elevation and gave one to Larry.

And then the band wore them on stage on Vertigo, then everyone started wearing them. Whoa. So, and then I find a picture of Bono and Edge wearing these, too. So this started as an inside joke that this person on the road with U2, whose name is Dina Dietrich, who has been to, she's the author of On the Road with you too whose name is dina dietrich uh-huh uh who has been to she's the author of on the road with you too uh she's now been to 101 you two shows um and she she has the hashtag the larry mullen band anyway she's on instagram uh her profile picture is her and larry

i think she just made these shirts for larry the Larry Mullen band. And then they all started wearing them? And then they wore them during, when they played Vertigo or something like that. Can I see the picture? Of what? I don't know. Whatever you're looking at. Whatever I'm looking at.

I'm looking at her Instagram profile. So she sent you a picture of? She just wrote on, she wrote a comment on my picture saying like, hey, I'm the first person to make these shirts. Yeah. So that's a little backstory. That's cool.

With the shirts that I found interesting that they were sort of the brainchild of her and he is paying them forward and passing them on to us. I just wrote back, this needs discussing on the show, meaning you and I would talk about it as much as we're doing now.

And she writes back, just let me know when. Well, we're just going to talk about it, but I hope you enjoy your shout out. And she has a blog about it, which is ontheroadwithyouto.com, where you can read everything about it. So it's a blog. It's not a book, On the Road with U2. Yeah. She says author of On the Road with U2. Yeah, she says author of On the Road with U2, My Musical Journey.

Yeah, it must be a blog. Yeah. So go ahead to her blog and see the whole story behind that, but I thought that was very interesting. A little bit of backstory

and that's going to do it for us and until next time, we certainly hope that you have found what you're looking for. Bye. Good app. This was a fun episode to listen to as a fan.

As a fan, it ticked all the boxes for me. It had the hosts. It had Talk About You Too. They said words out loud. Sure. Which I always like. In order, or at least in the order they meant to say them in. You know what? I don't even really mind if the order is a little mixed up, actually. Sure.

Sometimes human speech, if it's truly natural and unrehearsed, words come out in jumbled order sometimes. Yeah. The sentences don't quite make sense, but then when you get home and dictate all of the conversations you had that day when you go to your wife and say okay i'm going to say what they said aloud will you take this down as dictation and she writes it down and then you cut up those pieces of paper into word-sized pieces sure and then make them into magnets and mix them up on the refrigerator magnetize them but and how does one do that like you have a well you hopefully you have a manufacturer you're in touch with and you know, and you can take those small pieces of paper and bring them to a magnetizing.

Sure. They get these kind of calls. It sounds a little scary, but they get these kind of calls all the time. All the time. And you can find one that's 24 hours. 24 hours. And they say, oh, you want me to magnetize these tiny strips of paper? Your conversations this day?

Yeah. Done. Done. And then you have to take the time when you're there getting them produced you have to take the time

to write down the conversation you had with the magnetizer yeah and he's and what's great about that though is he's happy then to magnetize those at no extra charge

of course because he likes to be a part of the process he just loves it look the guy look can we be honest his business is not doing well

it's not doing well he needs the work. He needs the dinero. The cashola. The Roberto dinero. Yeah, the scratch. A little lettuce for his tomato. A little walking around money. And you know what? I'm happy to support.

Look, I'm happy to support local artisans. Yeah. And that's what it's all about for me, and I know it is for you. So it's really a great, wonderful opportunity when you hear a podcast like that to then yeah to then go to your local magnetizer yeah and you know i i just like words i just like looking at them i like they are really interesting it is because it's it's kind of i mean to be frank it's how we communicate let me throw a word out at you. Sure.

And you just let me know if you like it or not. Grizzly. I love the word grizzly. It's a favorite of mine. It's weird that you said it. You know what the interesting thing about words is? What's that? Homonyms.

Which version do you think I said? homonyms. Which version do you think I said? Like a grizzly as in a grizzly scene that I stumbled upon? You would think that, wouldn't you, from the way I said it? Yeah. But no, I was talking about da bears. Da bear. Oh, boy. Words are great. Words are wonderful. And there certainly were a lot of them in that episode of U2. Okay, so now I have something else to talk to you about. And I think you're going to hate it.

Are you ready for this? Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Okay, you know how we did the Accelerate episode and we did the Collapse Into Now episode? Yes. We did those two episodes. Yes. And I like those records.

Yeah. But something about – at the end of both of those episodes I was sort of like I like about half of each of them I went home I got obsessed you know how I love re-sequencing and I said

you know what would be great is if I just took the songs I liked out of both of these records and made one record and made one

remember how we said during Accelerate I was like I like these six songs like maybe go back and write six that are that are just as good as these and you said Remember how we said during Accelerate, I was like, I like these six songs. Maybe go back and write six that are just as good as these. And you said, yeah, everyone wants to do that, but how can we? Well, this is the way.

So you're going to hate this sequencing because you think Collapse Into Now is perfect. No, I don't. You don't. So you're willing to listen? I'm willing to listen. I think that albums, just the nature of albums, is that they're going to have imperfections. Sure, but what if this became like a super album? A super album?

That was like everyone who listened to this was like, fuck, if that was the album, that would be one of my top 10 albums of all time. See, for me, Acceler accelerate already is perfect and this is the issue and okay but i'll listen but you'll listen yeah okay so i'll take it with a grain of salt as they say i took as they say six of one half dozen of the other and made 12 songs so a 12 song super album 12 song super album that's about 39 minutes long. Okay. And I'll do the sequencing for you.

Let's hear it. We'll see what you like. Okay, it starts off like this. I hope you didn't break up this four-song sequence here. I did. Already you have an issue, but yeah. No, this is great. Great way to open an album.

Okay, that is Living Well is the Best Revenge. Goes into... That doesn't... See... Why? But I thought one of the things we agreed on... Yes, I love all those four songs, and I put them in the record. But you just don't agree with the order they're in?

It's not that I don't agree. God damn it. Get into the spirit of this. All right. Then. Very strong. Okay, you're getting more into the spirit. I like it.

We're having fun. This is all about having fun. Yeah. All right. And then we go into... Uh-huh. All right. Those two were from Collapse.

Then we go into... That's nice. I like it. I'm drawing you out. I like this. I love this song. So good. You know what I love is when it kicks into high gear, too.

Oh, man. Because it tricks you. It's great because you come off of a fast song, and you're like, oh, cool, they're slowing it down. And then they speed it back up. Oh, man. Love it. Hold on. I want to and then they speed it back up love it hold on

I want to hear when they speed up and it doesn't take long either for this to kick in yeah it's a two minute thirty second song

it's great I saw Mike Mills today said that he had the most fun making this record that's cool alright then we go into huh? I saw Mike Mills today said that he had the most fun making this record. That's cool. All right, then we go into...

See, I'm just trying to mix up the order in order to get variation. The kids have a new take. This is Oh My Heart, and then we go into... Turn on the TV, what do I see? all right and then we go into I would dare eat it, but I know I don't need to. Adam is air guitaring. He loves it. Sounds good. Then we go into... One, two, three, four. Okay.

Until the day is done. Yep. The battle's been lost. The war is not won. And then... Poor Skywater. Poor Skywater. And then we go into...

Didn't you already play this? No. Oh, that was alligator that someone is you and then closing it out with walk it back that's 12 prime cuts. Right there. That's a solid 12 songs. No flaws. No flaws. I think it's absurd, but I'm glad you had fun with it. I mean, you're leaving off the best songs on Collapse Into Now. Oh, the best songs.

Oh, bullshit. And you're leaving. I mean, you left off Discoverer. Yeah. Discoverer. Yeah. Discoverer can suck a D. It's like one of their best songs. Really? It's going to be in your even top 30 R.E.M. songs.

I'm not going to tell you what's in my top thousands. I'm just trying to catch. No, but I think that, I mean, it's great to hear all of those songs together because it's cool that they all sound like they're of a similar period. That's what I mean. Yeah. I was hardline about it. I just said all killer and, quite frankly, no filler.

Yeah. I don't know. What's the second song? Oh, Man-Sized Wreath? Man-Sized Wreath. Man-Sized Wreath. I don't think it works so deep into an album. It's so perfectly designed to be second. I wish the giant pole up your rectum

could be somehow removed by the time we end doing this show. Is it that if I don't love what you've done then I have a giant bullet in my heart no but it's you don't even like the concept of anyone

doing this because these these are sacrosanct precious gems no I I I know that both albums

have their flaws and I I reordered like three R.E.M.L. I did Around the Sun and we never even we never did oh yeah well you know if you bring it in we'll do it

I like the idea of a super album but I think that both of these albums are so strong that it's not necessary okay I just thought you would be maybe you know when you first started this show when you asked me to do this show you were trying to get me into the spirit of R and trying to get me to like REM.

And because I hadn't listened to them since Green, I thought you would be like, oh, cool. Scott's having fun. And he's enjoying these songs. And he found 12 songs, late REM songs that he really likes. And he put them into a cool album and a playlist that he sits around and enjoys. Wow, I've done my job here with the show. I've turned him into a fan of this stuff. But no, instead, you've got to come down on me.

So that's cool. You know what? When you put it like that, it's a point well made and it's a point well taken. Really expertly said, too. Really expertly said, too. I will say that I will 100% approve of your project if you find a place for Discoverer in there. Not the reprise, the first one? Yeah, the first one.

I don't love it. I think that you will, and I think it's an important song. Discoverer! Yeah, that sounded good. It's a bulletproof song. That sounded good. I was about to say, I wanted to, can I look at that list of songs? Yes.

Let me bring it back up. You want to look at it, and I am willing to comply with you. Do you feel like with this playlist that you've made, you will now – is this something you feel like you're going to listen to? I would listen to these 12 in a row a lot, yes. But do you – And have. I played it all week while I was – I was like, hey, these 12 are great. I played it all week while I was like, hey, these 12 are great.

I like that it's getting you in the habit of listening to these records because you're essentially like listening to the last two R.E.M. records because you're like skipping the ones you would skip anyway. Yeah, I would skip them anyway. But you don't have Mr. Richards on there, which is weird too. Well, you know, I picked the six I liked from all of them. And Houston. You took Houston. I mean, look, all I can tell you about my process is I took the songs I liked and the others, I just threw them away.

But what about the ones that are like, hey, Scott, Scott, we're Stone Cold Classics. We're SECs. You got to put, we're SECs. You got to put us on there. I just, I think I have a higher bar for Stone Cold Classic than you do. I think your bar is like ankle high. You can say that same exact thing without insulting my intelligence. How did I insult your intelligence?

You said that your bar for Stone Cold Classics is higher than mine. You're a very smart person. I'm just saying. You said that your bar for Stone Cold Classics is higher than mine. You're a very smart person. I'm just saying. You're insulting my emotional intelligence. I am insulting your emotional intelligence as it relates to R.E.M. Yes, you're right. So you think that I'm a little too quick to pronounce Stone Cold Classics. I think this is one of your favorite things in the world,

and you love everything about almost everything they've ever done, to the point where I would say, how many songs have you not liked by R.E.M.? Where you're like, eh, I don't like this. I think if listeners were to tally it up, it would be 2% of the songs, maybe? Do you really think that?

And 98% of the time, you're like, this is so good. You could be right. So I just think that it's a little difficult for you to hear, when you're in love with something like this, it's a little difficult for you to hear someone going like, oh, well, you know, I'm not that big into, what was it, Houston? Houston. Mr. Richards. It sounded stupid when you said it.

It sounds so stupid when I say it. Houston. Out loud. Oh, my God. But that's what this show is all about. Oh, my God. What has happened? What has happened to me?

Well, look, I had fun. I'm glad that you went on my little adventure. Do you have anything? Now I'm lightheaded from us laughing. Do you have anything else before we have to go to a break? No. You don't have anything? No. I have to re-examine my life. The fact

that you like Mr. Reader. Alright, we're going to go to a break. When we come back, this is great. Jason Manzoukas is our good friend. He will be here with us. We'll be right back with more R.E. Talk at R.A.M. Remy. R.A.M. Remy. Hey, Adam, if you love improv comedy,

and I know you do, it's your favorite thing to watch, isn't it? Yeah, and weirdly my favorite thing to listen to. So you like to watch it with your hands over your ears first. And then later listen to it. And go, I understand it all now. I understand. Well, if you love it like Adam does,

you need to be listening to Improv for Humans. Improv for Humans is one of the longest running shows here on Earwolf and tons, literally 2,000 pounds worth of your favorite comedians have been on it. It's hosted by Matt Besser, who you know as a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade and the world famous improv show, ASCAT. Matt, what he does is he features some of the best improvisers in the world and myself on Improv for Humans. I've done a few episodes. And a lot of comedians got their earwolf start by guesting on the show, like Lauren Lapkus, John Gabrus, Mary Holland, Zach Reno, and Jessica McKenna.

It is a great way to discover your new favorite improviser. Plus, I mean, is that enough? Or probably. Oh, for sure. But there's fucking more. What? Longtime favorites like Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Daly, Jason Mantzoukas, and more are always stopping by. Listen to a new episode of Improv for Humans every Thursday in your favorite podcast app or your least favorite podcast app.

They really don't care where you listen to it. And make sure to subscribe. Make sure to subscribe. Make sure to subscribe. Make sure to subscribe. So you don't miss it. Improv for humans. Welcome back. This is the titular REM from the title. Oh, Adam's

air guitaring again. Well, the guitar is now gone. It was basically one chord. I was was late you were late and you continued it well past it faded out and you have a look of just pain on your face like is playing the guitar does it hurt your fingers if that's pain i'd like to have your life okay i'd like to have your life can Can we switch? Sure. Do you have some sort of... Body switching machine? Body switching? Yes, I do. This sounds like a life swap right here.

Oh, you know that voice. Oh, boy. Oh, boy, indeed. Here he is. Well, well, well. I'm going to introduce him in a second. Coming up, we're going to be talking about R.E.M.'s cover songs, other bands covering R.E.M., and we're also going to talk to our guest about his

favorite songs by the band R.E.M., and you know him from such things as The Dictator, and he plays Ralphie in A Christmas Story, and he has his own podcast, did this get made um on this very network please welcome jason manzoukas well hello gentlemen hi an absolute pleasure i gotta ask you bro bro bro bro bro bro. Bro. What's up? Bruh. Nama. Nama, bruh. Nama.

Nama, bruh. Nama, bruh. Nama, bruh. Nama, bruh. Nama, bruh. Nama, bruh. Guys, nama, bruh. Ah, nama, bruh.

Ah, nama, bruh. We all bowed. I think that's vaguely offensive to various cultures. Who cares? Who cares? Yeah. Not us. Not me too.

Welcome to the show, Jason. That's your new hashtag, right? That's what that whole previous segment was about. You trying to get not me too started. Oh, yeah. I'm going to add an N to it. Men too. Oh, yes.

Hashtag men too. Men too. Men too. I've been trying to get men too going. It's not good. It's not good. What's up, bro? Guys.

People get really pissed off as it turns out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good to see you. We've been trying to get you on the show forever. Thrilled that we made it happen. Yeah, and I have, you know, when I sat down to look at your biography and- My bio? Your bio, of course.

My AP bio? AP bio. You got it out a split second before I could. I'm glad you both got it out. Thank God. It was a winner. I was kind of – I was reading all of your various projects and where you grew up and all that kind of stuff, and it drew me to sort of – and I was thinking about the subject matter of this show,

and I sort of was thinking, okay, the perfect question to ask Jason would be, when did you first hear of REM? That's the perfect question. You know, that's a perfect question for every guest on this podcast, regardless of my personal AP bio. I don't know what you mean by that. But you in particular, after studying your life, I think is what Scott's saying. It's such a good question. It's such a good question. It's such a good question.

And I'll be honest. Yeah. You sent me, because this brings up something interesting, you sent me an invitation to come and be a guest on this podcast. I did. It was an engraved invitation via courier. Via courier, yes. I had my personal signet on there that I dipped my ring in wax.

Your wax seal, yep. It's incredibly expensive. To buy the ring, first of all, just for this one bit. And that was the first time I had been made aware of this band. You did not know who they were. I was not aware of it. I thought it was just a cool podcast, and I love podcasts. Well, you're the perfect guest.

And I was like, let's do it. So I'm unfamiliar with the band entirely. I don't know who Peter Buck is. I don't know with the band entirely. I don't know who Peter Buck is. I don't know who Mike Mills is. I don't know who Bill Barry is. I've never heard of Michael Stipe. Can I talk to you, Adam, for a second? Sidebars.

I have no concept of the idea of the Athens rock scene. Do you know what music is? Pylon is a band I've never heard of. You've never heard of Pylon. So who is he bringing them up? I don't know. Do you know what music is? Tell you what, if I were to do what I call singing, could you tell me if it's music or not?

I'm going to tell you if it's singing or not because I don't even know what that is. All right, here we go. Ready? La, la, la, la, la, la. Is that music? I mean, you can tell by the tears running down my face that I am moved by it. It's incredibly exceptional music. So my presumption can only be that that is not just music, but the greatest song ever

written. And sung. I'd love for you to put lyrics to it, Jason. Oh, wait. The lyrics aren't la la la la la la la. No, no, no. The lyrics, let me tell you what lyrics are. Yeah.

And we talk about this on the show a lot. Oh, great. It's a lot like poetry, but just set to music. It's like, you know rap songs, right? Yes, of course. Rap songs are like, well, I was walking down the street just the other day. I saw a pretty lady. I didn't know what to say.

Great. Okay? Okay. Now, if you set that to a melody- Got it. Like the one that I just did. La, la, la, la, la, la. Exactly.

La, la, la, la, la, la. Oh, so pretty. Again. Let's put the combo of those together. Do it right now. Go for it. Well, I was walking down the street just the other day. I saw a pretty lady and I didn't know what to say.

You know, initially when I heard the melody without lyrics, I was moved. Yes. With lyrics, I feel like that song speaks to me, my life, my life experiences. It says both something about me as an individual, but also something universal about us all. Well, that's the wonderful thing about music is just the melody sometimes can stir something in our souls, but then add the specificity of the personal touch that lyrics bring, and suddenly you got something. Yeah. And I feel like these subtle undertones of white power come through lyrics bring. Yeah. And suddenly you got something. Yeah. And I feel like these subtle undertones

of white power come through. Uh-oh. Okay, well. Not sure that I'm putting that out there. You see it. Right? It's there. Absolutely.

Wait, are you guys going to team up on me this entire show? We would never. Usually it's me and you against the guest. Yeah, but I kind of like this guy over here. Can we all team up together? Against who?

Ryan over here. Yeah, you moron. Yeah, you dumb shit. He turds Ryan. How about we all team up against the snowflakes and the libtards? Yeah! The social justice warriors. Not even as a bit.ards. Yeah. Please. The social justice warriors. Not even as a baby. I know.

Jesus Christ. Jason. Yes. This is a real question, though. Real question. I love R.E.M. I gotta know. I don't care that you love R.E.M.

High school. I gotta know, when did you first hear of R.E.M.? High school. I am 45 years old, and so R.E.M. records started coming out when I was in high school, or probably when I was younger. Murmur probably came out when I was in junior high. Murmur came out in like 82-ish, so you- Oh, so I was only like 10, 11 years old then.

Yeah, yeah. We're exactly the same age, so I feel like we probably- Did you hear- You're exactly the same age? Wait, are you guys twins? We were born in the same second. We were, we were born one minute apart, right? Our moms were right next to each other.

Holding hands. Yep. And then as soon as we came out, we, first thing we did, we graphs, grasped hands. Really? Yeah. And who did the doctor slap? Both of our moms. Across the face.

They said, why did you do this? And we looked up and we're like, right on bro. Across the face. They said, why did you do this? And we looked up and we're like, right on, bro. Yeah, bro. So, so our, Hari,

so you heard about them like when they started breaking? No, heard of them. Heard of them. I heard of them, like, okay, so I grew up in

like suburban Boston and along with great college radio stations, there was a terrific like alternative radio station called WFNX in Boston. Wouldn't that be Phoenix's radio station? The newspaper, The Phoenix? Oh, I don't know.

Is that a newspaper in Boston? Yes. It is. So that's why it's open. I never put those two together, but the Village Voice or the LA Weekly of Boston was called the Boston Phoenix, like the alternative newspaper. I didn't know that.

So maybe it had something to do with it. Maybe at some point they were connected. I'm not sure. But anyway, WFNX used to play. Can you talk so fast? Can you slow it down just a little bit? I've had coffee. We all have coffee, bro.

None of us are talking a million fucking miles an hour. Slow it down, bro. I'm just trying to get out my thoughts on this wonderful band all right go ahead period e period m periods in the name periods yeah man this band is all synced up they're all synced up with their monthly flow talk about sunday bloody sunday heavy flow um heavy flow okay so yeah wfnx is that the next band pearl jam we're definitely Sunday Bloody Sunday. That's not their song. Heavy Flow. Heavy Flow. Okay, so WFNX. Is that the next band?

Pearl Jam? Yeah, we're definitely, and we're calling it Heavy Flow. Heavy Flow. Could you do a Pearl Jam thing where we examine all of Pearl? Because they have so many albums. Well, we would have to do

all of their bootleg live. Live. Just like thousands of them. Yeah. So, and I think, so I'm going to guess, let's see. I probably heard. When did you first start listening to the radio? Like that station?

No, I mean like as a kid. I feel like, I feel like, let's see. What's on like Rich Pat? Like When I Love came out in 87. Well, no, I remember. Don't feed him shit. I want to hear it in 87. Well, no, I remember him shit. I want to hear. I remember very powerfully document coming out.

Document was like a record that I bought, but I feel like I heard, you heard of them before. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like I heard saw like fall on me from record for life's rich pageant is a song that was for sure on the radio. And I know I knew about, but I don't know that I got that record.

I know I got, I remember vividly getting it. You don't remember vividly the very first time like you heard a song by them and went, oh. No, but I remember liking what I heard. Like I remember really, they have a sound that I still continue to really like gravitate towards, like that jangly guitar, that kind of... I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, cool.

Peter Buck's jangly Roger McGuinn-inspired guitar line. Who's Roger McGuinn? We've never brought this up on the show. Who's Roger McGuinn? From the Birds? From the Birds. Oh, yeah, Hey Mr. Tambourine Man. By the way, everyone was making fun of me

from the Stained Glass episode when we played Hey Mr. Tambourine Man. I said, this is a song by the way, everyone was making fun of me from the Stained Glass episode when we played Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man. I said, this is a song by the Byrds, and people are like, uh, Bob Dylan. And it's like, yeah, he wrote it, but the Byrds did the popular version. The version we played was the Byrds version. No, we played William Shatner's version. Oh. But I remember that.

I thought you were doing a bit. I thought you were kidding. No, no, but the Byrds did the number one. Yeah. They went to number one with it. Yeah, but it was a Bob Dylan song. But Bob Dylan wrote it, but can't I say it's a bird song? Well, his version came out before the birds version.

Only if you're playing the birds version. If you're playing Shatner's version, he's singing a Bob Dylan song. Yeah, but no one would have ever sung that song unless the birds took it to number one. But you wouldn't say like here is scott ackerman's cover of all along the watchtower would you say henry would you say would you say last train to clarksville is a monkey song or would you say it's a neil diamond song no it's not like that yes it is no it's not diamond it's a neil diamond song no he wrote it and he came out came out with a version of it before the monkeys, but everyone associates it with the monkeys. Scott,

in all seriousness, in that instance you should say, here's William Shatner singing a Bob Dylan song. By the way, it's not Last Train to Clarksville, I'm a believer. That's fine. Here is William Shatner singing a Bob Dylan song made popular by the birds. Okay, we agree. But I would never say

this song is a bird song. I think that's... But they have the most popular version. Yes, what? The one everyone sings. But it's not their song. Oh, my God. Why are we fighting about this?

You guys are being so pedantic here. But you got... Not really. Not really. You, first of all, stay the fuck out of this, because this is me and Jason. Okay, let me ask you this. If someone referred to a sketch from Comedy Bang Bang,

the TV show... Oh, you're putting it into words i understand as a birthday boy sketch what how would you feel when i'm in rem it feels good look let's get back let's get back to this so uh so you you really like the sound do you remember listening to document more than okay so you put. Document is the first record that I feel like I consumed. Where did you buy it? I probably bought it at. Stop shouting.

Really? You know what? You're preemptively trying to not get bullied by the two of us. I'm just trying to bring the levels down a little bit so that we can like. So it's not just full shouting the entire episode. Did we not start the show with you asking me to talk into the mic yeah yeah okay but i i this is the opposite of it you're the guy who always goes back here and tries to do wait and so you thought that meant you you asked

me to scream into the microphone and you're telling me you've been doing this with him for how many episodes i have no idea this is around this is the first time i've been doing this with him for how many episodes? I have no idea. This is the first time I've actually been this close to the microphone. This is good, though. I love your levels. Well, Scott, here's what I'll say. Is this a good level for you? This is pretty good. Is this a good pace for you?

Well, this is more of a leisurely show than— Okay, I don't know, man. I'm just coming here to talk to you about this band. Talk to me like we're just buddies. I believe that that's what I'm doing. I genuinely think that's what I'm doing here to talk to you about this band. Talk to me like we're just buddies. I believe that that's what I'm doing. I genuinely think that's what I'm doing, man. What Scott's trying to say is he just wants to keep it super chill. Cool, man.

Thank you, Adam. Got it, man. Thank you. All right. Here we go, man. Well, here's the thing. For me. You can't talk like this.

You need to go back to whatever you were doing before. As a young man, I would buy tapes, cassettes. Hey, Adam, this is super boring. See, I made a big mistake. He's got to split the difference somehow. I think that with Jason, you just have to let him go. Just let him go. Okay, I'm taking you off the chain, bro.

Yeah, baby. So you would buy tapes. Yeah, I used to buy tapes At Bradley's At The warehouse maybe At a place No not the warehouse Where's Bradley's

In Boston Bradley's was like A terrible Like local department store Still there or not Was in the mall No no long gone Strawberries

Was like a chain Strawberries I remember that Of music That was specifically All these weird stores Daryl Strawberry started it Yeah

It was It was just stuff he liked yeah so they wouldn't they wouldn't carry they wouldn't carry every record it would just be stuff that he had in his personal and you would buy it document whatever you bought you would go out into the parking lot and he would toss it up into the air and hit it with a bat right into your bag yep what if you bought a blouse yeah yeah oh yeah he'd get it tangled up in that oh my god he would always tell you how far to go out based on the weight and how far he thought he could hit it. But he was 100% accurate.

Can we go back to the blouse just for a second? Sure, sure. So if it was a blouse that he was hitting with a baseball bat, how far would Darryl Strawberry tell you to go? Oh, like 100 yards? Yeah. This is Darryl Strawberry. Hold on. In his prime.

Yeah, no, Darryl Strawberry, incredible baseball player. Unbelievable. He could take a loose blouse. Loose Hold on. In his prime. In his prime. No, Daryl Strawberry. Incredible baseball player. Unbelievable. He could take a loose blouse. Loose blouse. Unfolded. The loosest blouse. No, no, no. He would bunch it up.

Okay. He would bunch it up. All right. All right. Well, that's a different story. And he would try to connect with a hard button or something. Or the tag, maybe. Sure, sure.

Friction on that. Especially if they left one of those alarm tags on it that had a little bit of weight to it. Yeah. That's a no-brainer. What's weird is he would be late to games because of this. Oh, yeah. This was his main gig.

He would show up at the game, and they're like, Daryl, where have you been? He'd be like, hitting blouses. And then they would pitch a ball at him. He'd go, oh, what's that? Because he's so used to blouses. And that became a very popular phrase for hooking up. Yeah, hitting blouses. I'm going to hit the blouse.

Ooh, going to hit some blouses tonight. And they thought it was for hooking up, and they're like, oh, man, Daryl's hooking up tonight. And then they go and visit his store, and he's just literally hitting blouses. He's in the parking lot hitting blouses. Yeah, it's crazy. So you got one there. Yeah, I got one there. And then I also remember when, in high school, when the next record came out, going and getting that cassette.

And that cassette and that cassette had all of the intricate like visual stuff going on. Oh yeah. Green do you mean? Yes. With the four. With the four

and all that stuff and I remember pouring over that like you know Before we continue isn't that the thing where you you stare at it and shut your eyes

because it's orange the cover is orange No. You stare at it and shut your eyes and it looks green the cover is orange no you stare at it and shut your eyes and it looks green what is it i have a copy in my car i can show it to you there's a over all of the r's on the cover no i know i know what you're talking about of their their fours or whatever yeah but but the the literally the cover there's something i read about it where it's it's orange for a reason because i didn I didn't know that. Because if you stare at it or something, then close your eyes, you see it as green. Like when your eyes are closed, the reference of what you've been staring at is green or something like that.

Anyway, go ahead. Oh, because it's like the inverse or something? Something like that. I can't remember what it is. I read that when we did the episode, and I don't think it ever came up. So that's the era in which that I am a big... Era, by the way, Daryl Strawberry's ERA. Incredible.

It was incredible. Have you ever looked up his blouse ERA? Oh, my, 100%. His BRA? Yeah, his BRA. Also known as a bra? Oh, my God. Just get him, just crushing bras.

Oh, man. So you bought those two records, and how did they make you feel? I also, well, at that point, I'm also then a very big fan of the band, and so by the previous record. So I'm at that point all caught up. Sorry, it sounds like Jason and I are on the exact same journey in our 1987-88 selves. Because that document was your first.

And then I got green, and then I was like, okay. Yeah. But then when did you start going backwards? You went backwards and got Dead Letter, and then you went backwards in time. Yeah, but I think Green, I love Document, but Green was the one that cemented it, and that's when I went back and bought everything.

Yeah, I feel like, too, and I don't know, for me, I grew up in suburban Boston, but as I get a little older, I am going into Boston to see rock shows, to go to actual record stores. Where would you park your car? Harvard Yard? Yeah, in Harvard Yard.

Oh, great. I would park my car in Harvard Yard. Oh, no, there's my Boston accent coming out. That's embarrassing. Park your car inord Yord. And so I would go to like Newbery Comics and all these kind of like cool record stores. And that's where I feel like I got a bunch of...

What were your other favorite bands while you were... The other band that for me at this same time was kind of like, to me, there's like a transition. Here's a transition phase in my life that is Husker Du's Candy Apple Gray is a huge important record for me. Oh, wow. That cassette. These records, and then

also Kate Bush's Hounds of Love was another big record. Again, almost all of this is because of this one radio station. Because I am, because I have access to this radio station, and they're playing stuff like this.

Do you know what the song is that hooked you on these records? The reason you bought the, usually it's because you hear one song on a radio and go, I like that sound.

I'm trying to, yeah, it's, Was it Running Up That Hill or something? Oh, it was, for the Kate Bush record, it's 100% Running Up That Hill. Yeah.

100% because they played that, oh, if I only could, I'd make a deal with God and I'd get him to it doesn't matter guys and then Husker Du

what song would they play from that record I'm trying to remember what song they played on the record from well her name is Husker Du

I love that song and you know what what we do we sing about Husker and we sing about Du do do do do do do. We sing about Husker and we sing about do. Do, do, do, do, do, do. How about, how about, how about you? What do you sing about, all you out there?

What do you sing about with your underwear? Can we play songs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How does this work? Where's the dongle? Where's the dongle, bro? What's the dealio? Bro, where's the dongle? We're gonna, no, you gotta get the dongle,gle? Where's the dongle, bro? Where's the dealio? Bro, where's the dongle?

We're going to... No, you got to get the dongle, bro. Give me a dongle, bro? Here you go. Yeah. Here's the... Okay, so for me... Here's the cord.

Yep. Okay. I'll just be off mic if you want to keep doing that. Bro, you fell for it. You got me. That visual bit for your podcast is doing great people love that bit yeah there's nothing better than a visual bit on a podcast oh i love this song this is great great song um now i'm air guitaring and so and similarly to rem these are this is a record that

comes late in the discography late in the early discography of a beloved band. Yes. Yes. That was the thing with R.E.M. that we've talked about is that going back and listening to all these records. I loved my bit. I was just doing it. I joined in.

I was basically playing a guitar whose neck was so long that I was struggling. Yeah. I was like jumping up to try to get beat. And then if I can just jump in here, I took it a step further and put it. You were doing it all the way. Well, that's where I started, but then I thought it was funnier. Yeah, but then I went back to it and it was pretty cool. And I can play one more.

Is this Could You Be The One? No, that's a great song. This is Don't Want To Know If You Are Alone. Don't Want To Know, yes. Great. And then this was the other band slash record slash Now I Will Play song that is kind of concurrent to all of this for me is this, which is a big one.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. By the way, we need to talk about Peter Dollar Bill plays on a Replacements record. Yeah. Which one is it? And there's another collab into now we forgot about. Who cares? But isn't that why you're doing the Peter Buck thing?

Yeah, yeah, but the Replacements made me think of it. He plays guitar on which Replacements song is it? I don't know. I don't know. If only we did research. But he played on All Shook Down, too. Their, like, Scott Lit record. Oh, yeah.

Scott Lit. That's who. We should get Scott Lit in here. Okay. Scott Lit. Call him up. He's pretty lit. Whoa.

Scott is. Yeah. I'm going to look it up while you're talking, Jay. What I was going to say was all the R.E.M. stuff, one of the great things about it, none of it feels dated at all. It doesn't feel of the time. I'll be honest. I'll be honest.

I don't listen to REM a lot now. It is a band that I don't go to a lot. But when you listen to the show every week, we play so much of their music so I don't understand. In preparation for coming here, I did listen to a lot of R.E.M.

And that is one of the things that I was kind of like, oh, not only does none of this sound really dated. Yeah. It doesn't also in the, until it gets much later. Like those first like six records also seem very, they don't seem to me, not much different. But there is like a consistency of sound and point of view that is itself impressive. Not until you start introducing the mandolin does the sound take a real turn. It is weird how he would introduce the mandolin to all the listeners. Mandolin, this is our fan base.

Fan base, mandolin. Yeah. The pre-gap track on Out of Time. Because I remember, I remember, and I don't know if you guys remember this, going to see R.E.M. and lining up to be introduced

to the mandolin before the show started. Very strange. The shows would start at eight in the morning because they had to get through everyone. Everybody had to be introduced

to the mandolin. It was compulsory. You had no choice. This is at a time when it was the original mandolin, Morty. Yes, exactly. You know.

Philip was later not as good. Not as good. Friendly Mandolin. Yes, sure. Great guy. You know, part of the thing was, like, he was sober, and so he was a lot more consistent. Sure, but he just was missing that rock and roll attitude.

The raw energy. The raw energy. Of Morton? Of Morton F. Mandolin. Yeah. MFM. So, Jason, at what point would you say you dipped out of REM fandom then? Let's see. I probably...

What was your level of fandom? Were you like, yeah, this is my band? You went to see them. I went and saw them. I was like, this is one of my bands. This is one of my bands. When you like a lot of bands, you can get obsessive about a band. They were definitely one of my bands, but when they became very popular, I let them become popular.

How gracious of you. In a way that I was like, oh, this is no longer my band. I always was the person who liked the up-and-coming bands. I liked the... There was something new that you could... That progression, I understood to be like, great, you two, very similar progression. And I saw...

That build was the same for me. I saw them very young. I saw them in all those early tours. And then when they got huge, I stopped being as compelled by yeah like losing my religion is where you sort of it's kind of when i lose it go ahead guys have your fun i'm proud of you and i still liked it but i was like you guys always will hold a special place in my heart yeah but i love you but at that point i'm also like

yeah like a college probably what year is that that was 91 yeah so i'm now like, yeah, like a college probably. What year is that? That was 91. Yeah, so I'm now a college kid. What did you like in 91? So like in 1991, two records come out that pretty much kind of boggle my mind. What do we got? My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and Smashing Pumpkins Gish. Oh, yeah. And those are two records that I am all in on big time, you know?

Are you going to the Smashing Pumpkins reunion shows at all? I have not shown any interest, although I would simply because I just think Jimmy Chamberlain is an amazing rock drummer. And so I would go for that. When you think about it, how hard is it? Like you're basically taking a stick and you're hitting it against this thing. Yep. It's not that hard.

I agree. You know what I mean? Yep. I don't get this reverence we have for drummers. Here's what I will say. If you're a drummer out there and you see Scott Aukerman out in the street, you just talk to him about what it means to be a drummer. Sure. Talk to me about it because I don't know.

And bring your sticks with you. What's your Twitter again? Who knows these days? Yeah, who knows? Twitter again? Who knows these days? Yeah, who knows? So, is there a point

when you stopped buying the records or do you have them all? No, oh, yeah, probably, let's see, what's after Out of Time?

Automatic for the people. So that's the last record I buy. Automatic for the people. No, wait, what's the next one? Monster. Monster is the last one I buy.

We don't like to say that word around here. I buy them until that point. The frightening one. Yeah, I buy them throughout, but at that point, I am really just not interested. As a fan, you feel like you have to, but not really listening to it. Yes, because to me, they're still one of my bands. But also, a lot of people returned that record and sold it used back to the store.

Oh, really? Because they love Automatic, and then that one was like, I don't like this anymore. Were you not one of those? You still have the record? Oh, no, I still have the CD somewhere, but I honestly do not. Couldn't tell you. Couldn't even tell, okay.

I couldn't name three songs on that record. And them being as huge as they were, because around the time of Automatic and Monster, they were unbelievably big. Did that surprise you? Were they a band that you thought would actually go to that place? I think that for me, I root for all of my bands to be big.

You know what I mean? Sure. So if it were Husker Du, for instance, and they never got huge, but it wouldn't have surprised me. Same. And not just same, but I also never was mad that a band I liked got big. Because in my mind, that's what they want. They want to be successful. I want them to have what they want.

I never was like, oh, they've changed or whatever, but invariably a lot of times bands that became massively popular took on a more pop sensibility, like U2 took on a more pop sensibility, which I didn't like as much. I mean, they put out a record called Pop.

I know. He knows that, wow. Pretty cool. I'm pretty cool. REM, I think I was most surprised that they got as big as they got simply because I find Michael Stipe's lyrics so obtuse. And to me, bands that get really big like that, there is some sort of

easily accessible lyrical content that people can get on board for but he's not doing that at all he's doing like you're my baby

you're my sweetie I want a smoochy time like that's something that I think a lot of people would be a huge hit yes exactly right huge

do you sing this much in these episodes? It's fun. Although Losing My Religion is like, you can hear what he's saying and it's kind of a universal thing he's saying. And that song is the tipping point. That song is the tipping point because you've got something that is truly a song that has a discernible, like, lyrical storyline to it. Yes. In a way that almost nothing previous has that kind of followable lyrical content in a way that, and that, so that makes total sense to me. A, and it's also stripped down at a point when, like, that is a, that unplugged is a thing.

And acoustic, return to acoustic instruments is a thing. They are like a lot of things are hitting at once. I don't understand the whole unplugged thing. It's like, hey, we're going to do our song shittier. You know? You think it's shittier? It's like demos. Like stop putting demos on your record.

Wait, really? You know, as bonus content. It's more of a bash. I like that. Here's a shitty version of our song. I disagree. I always like the demos. I do too.

And then the live stuff, it's like, hey, here's another shitty version of our song with people going over it. What live records are you listening to? Just give me the song. You might be listening to live records while you're jerking off. It might be you here, Gary. I'm also listening to music as I go through haunted houses. It could be you here, Gary. I'm also listening to music as I go through haunted houses.

I hate this a lot. And there's so many. Frampton comes alive. There's so many chainsaws in that record. So when you listen to old REM songs and you sing along, do you sing along to stuff, by the way? Here's what I'll say. You have such a groggy voice know i don't i'm not a good singer uh as you can imagine but i think you have a lot of character in your voice sure but but it doesn't connect to singing you can't you can barely talk

without it sounding all scratchy yeah yeah and you know yeah so i once lost a voiceover job because i couldn't not have a rasp in my voice. At the tone they wanted. Yeah, they were like, can you give us exactly what you're doing but clear? And I was like, I cannot. And this is where we part company. And they were like, oh, we can't cast you. They usually don't say that to you.

So Monster is the last one you bought. He had to answer my question. Sorry. What was that? When you sing along, what do you do? I do not listen to lyrics. He had to answer my question. Sorry. What was that? Here's what I'll say. When you sing along, what do you do? Here's what I'll say. Here's what I'll say. I do not listen to lyrics. I'm so sorry. Fucking jumping in on my question.

I'm sorry. And now you're jumping in on my answer. No, that's okay. It's between him. Let him speak. I don't listen to lyrics. I don't like lyrics. Not that I don't like.

Vocals, to me, are another instrument. So I like voices more than I listen to lyrical content. I don't look at that stuff. But I will say when I was listening to songs yesterday to put together a list for you, I knew all the words. Oh, wow. And I think partially because a lot of times, maybe this is just me, a lot of Michael Stipe's lyrics are not necessarily, it's not story songs. He's not telling story songs. So they are kind of

just like word salads that I remember as part of the song content. It's not like he puts out songs called like The Ballad of Josh. Yeah. And he talks all about what Josh did that day.

Or buying chips with my mom. I love that song. Oh, me too. Poker chips. Yeah, poker chips in Las Vegas. Yeah. with my mom. I love that song. Oh, me too. Poker chips. Yeah, poker chips in Las Vegas. Yeah. With my mom, the motion odyssey ride from Jordan's Furniture. But some of these lyrics.

That's a local Boston joke. This is a follow-up, by the way. This is a follow-up, so it doesn't count against your question. Okay, but I still have next question. You still have your next question. Adam, don't you worry. Outstanding question coming your way. Thank you.

But a lot of the songs, you can't make out the lyrics. He's an interview bully. He will steamroll you entirely. It's like being in the White House press room with Sarah Sanders. Sorry. Huckabee Sanders, please. Yeah, you're right. A lot of the lyrics, you can't even pick them out necessarily.

So is it just you kind of going, ah? Well, I just remembered a bunch of the, I remembered a lot of words. I was like, oh, I listened to these records so much that I remember the words, even though I don't know what these songs are about. I don't know what's going on. I think we talked about on a previous record that Cuyahoga is not something, I would never really read the titles of the songs because I'd be driving a lot of the time. Well, that's what happened to me.

And so Cuyahoga, I don't even know what it was. It was just like, hey, I'm a sweetheart. I was going through the tracks and I was like, oh, wait, what's this? And Cuyahoga was one of them. I was like, what is this? Oh, I know this song. But I don't know titles a lot of times. I don't know lyrical content a lot.

And this is across all. I feel like I'm a lot like you. Unless there was a certain band whose lyrics were speaking to me so much that I would study the lyric sheet

like the Smiths or whatever or if it's somebody that who is truly like a story like a singer who's telling like a

like a Neil Diamond doing I'm a Believer a stripped down like hard rain's gonna fall like early Bob Dylan like folk music folk music basically

you know what I mean by the way the other part of that episode is I just want you know that was the original Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. Like early Bob Dylan, like folk music. Folk music, basically. Dabirds. By the way, the other part of that episode is I just wanted to... You know that was the original sketch. I just wanted to... Oh, yeah. The original sketch was Dabirds. George Wendt, all those guys. This was what we did on the previous episode, and this is why I said Dabirds.

Grandparts and Dabirds. This is why I said Dabirds in any case is so I could do this Dabirds bit. That's the other part of it. Country rock. Roger McGuinn, 12 string, Da Birds. Your question.

Oh, when you, Monster was the last record you bought. I believe so. So after that, was it, did you hate Monster

or was it like, you know what, these guys are fine without me. Tally ho, my friends. Yeah, basically that was it. And I would like,

and I feel like, Tally ho, gentlemen. I feel like I would check in on them. I would check in on them. I would check in on them because I remember when Bill Barry left the band. Yeah. And I was very curious and I like they replaced him with Joey Waronker, the drummer who I also really like.

So I remember checking. From Beck's band. Yeah. I remember checking that out to be like, oh, what's this band like now without. out to be like, oh, what's this band like now without, because I thought, you know, one of the things that I love about REM is they have like a incredibly identifiable sound that very much is the result of those three guys. Yeah. You know, and Billberry's drums is integral as far as I'm concerned to what that sound

is. Yes. And he's also the best musician, they say. So he's playing a lot of the instruments that are on the records as well. And he's playing piano. He wrote Everybody Hurts. Oh, that's cool.

So when that went away, that's a big part of it, too, that you're maybe not thinking of because you think of him as the drummer. Totally. And I grew up playing drums, so I would prioritize drummers always. So you got really upset when I said that about the beating the sticks. No, no. I thought it was totally fine. Don't you still have a kit? You have a kit in your house, don't you? Yeah. I want to hear you play.

Yeah, man. You've never invited me over to the place. Do you have a recording of you playing with you? No, I do not, for sure not. Okay. I want to hear it. I'd love to rap over it. Mike Mills put it, interestingly, once saying Bill Barry is a compositional drummer. Depending on the song, he doesn't have a discernible style he carries from one song to the other. It's all about composing for the particular song. He's an incredibly musical drummer. He's not just laying down a beat, which he does oftentimes as well, but he's a very musical drummer, which is awesome. What's the easiest beat to play as a drummer?

What's the easiest beat? Easiest, yeah. Like flamenco? Yeah. Probably Tom Sawyer by Rush. Yeah, no, that's easy. Like those kind of like, you know, like anything that's like four. I like this.

Tap on the table more. I like this. So if you're just like, if your bass drum is like. Uh-huh. I love this. This is funky, funky. Jason, you're funky. Come on.

How does it feel? You're funky. I love it. Okay, so Jason, we're funky. Come on. How does it feel? You're funky. I love it. Okay, so Jason, we're going to play. You sent me a list of 16 songs. And play whatever you want from it. If you've talked about some of these songs. I'll play them in order, probably.

They're not in order is what I'm saying. If you've talked about them and you want to skip something. You gave them to me in chronological order. I shall play them in the order that you gave them to me. These are your not even favorite songs, as you described it, more of songs that touch your soul. Yeah, or just like that provoked nostalgia for me.

So no order necessarily. No order really. New order. I just dumped, oh boy. There's some new order songs in here too. I would love if Blue Monday was in here. Oh my God, Ceremony? All right, here we go.

This is the first one. This is Pilgrimage. This is such a great song. I almost feel like this is on most lists we've had so far am i wrong about that i think you might be wrong but it's it is great a lot of the ones i found that i chose were the more kind of atmospheric rem songs like air like that's atmosphere. What do you mean? Like air. H2O, you know? Oh, I thought you meant the band Air. No, no. We breathe it in. We breathe out CO2. Got it.

Worth it. H2O is water. What show are you on? Chasing that down was worth it. We're listening to a great song, Scott. Well, you'd rather just hear the song? And not clever wordplay. It's not clever. Yeah. Shut up.

By the way, Scott is playing this off of an iPod. Oh, we've... He will not move off of this iPod from 2005. Everyone loves the iPod, by the way. Everyone has written to me, and we've talked about this. Everyone. I get so many things saying, like, yeah, Adam has no idea why anyone would use an iPod, but it's the only way to go.

I get it. I'm busting your balls. I get why you have an iPad. Yeah. iPod, you're old. Yeah, zing. Boom. Great song.

Great song. All right, next up. Go. I regret having you on the show. You know what? Can I say something? I'm having a great time. I consider you a dear friend.

Adam, you as well. Thank you for having me. Fuck off. You know, I've had a few of those, and they all got stolen from my car, because I was going to do the same thing. I was like, this is one I'll just keep in my car. It has my entire library on it, and it got stolen three times. I had another break into my car the other night.

Really? Where? In front of my house. This is like the third or fourth time. And your car was locked. And everyone has been writing to me saying, like, what it is is they have a certain thing that they can press, but that's only if you have the keyless ignition. And I don't have keyless ignition.

So I don't know how they're getting in there. Don't you have a bloop bloop? Is it one of those? But it's only if you have the keyless ignition. And I don't have keyless ignition. So I don't know how they're getting in there. Don't you have a bloop bloop? Is it one of those? But it's not keyless. Does that matter? The thing that they're talking about only works with keyless ignition. They have a thing that can open cars? Same thing with garage door openers.

There's like a universal, people will drive around just going click, click, click, waiting to see. Because there's a common frequency that a lot of them use. Oh, man, that sucks. But I don't keep anything in there. So it was another thing where, like, everything was open. But nothing takes. The sunglasses. No, because there's nothing in there.

I take everything out of it. That's wild. At night, yeah. So you think someone had one of those and they opened your car? I don't know what is happening. Because otherwise, would the alarm have gone off, I would assume? I would think so, too. But the door was, like, open.

And it's so unsettling. Yeah, it's creepy. I mean, I'm glad they're not coming into my house. Well, you should invite them in next time. But that is why I won't do like electric locks. Electric locks?

On the house. Like those smart locks? Oh, yeah. Anything that can be hacked. Also, if the power goes out, don't they don't all your doors fly open? Yeah. And a welcome sign falls down.

And spotlights hit anything of value. All right, this is next. This is Catapult. Murmur's making a good showing here. Well, it's chronological. And I loved this. And you know what that means. When I eventually found this record, I loved this record.

Oh, it's incredible. This is such a good record. I'm not going to say where it is on my list. Oh, it's on your list, though? Well, no, I mean this record. Oh, Murmur. Yeah, we're ranking all of the records at the end of this journey. So I will say I love this record, but I don't want to.

This one gets very high for me this would be one or two I think alright next up from the next record from Reckoning we have South Central oh yeah

this is on everyone's list this is crazy like this oh yeah this guitar line stop birds yeah stop birds

there's so many bands right now like Real Estate Beach House no Fossils Beach Fossils oh okay that have Real Estate, Beach. House? No, Fossils, Beach Fossils. Oh, okay. Real Estate's terrific.

That have this same jangly kind of. Is that your favorite type of music? It's stuff that I like. In the indie rock of stuff right now, I like those bands. But I also love that band Hop Along. I like that band Big Thief. I like a lot of stuff alright let's move on to the next one

we have this is on Dave Holm's top 10 listen to that snare it's incredible. As a drummer, do you find yourself tuned into the drums a lot when you listen to music? Are you really? Always. Okay.

Interesting. And when I go to a... I saw that band hop along on Monday night. Yeah. And I'm almost always just watching the drummer. I did not get a call. No, sorry. I remember the first time I saw Aria.

Very available. Yeah. I watched Bill get a call. No, sorry. I remember the first time I saw R.E.M. Very available. Yeah. I watched Bill Barry the whole time. So great. Do you remember the first time you heard of R.E.M. though? Yeah. Didn't we do that like in the first episode? We must have talked about that.

I believe we did. But his drum set on the Green Tour would light up. Oh, cool. On Turn You Inside Out. Do you remember that? I don't remember that. Yeah. All right.

Next up from the same record, Don't Go Back to Rockville. It's just a good song. Just good. So great. I can't believe this is their second album in as many years. This is as close, I feel like, on the early records as you get to what could have been a bigger hit for them.

Oh, yeah. You know, like, this song has song has like an emotional heft to it and a bit of a story to it that could have crossed over. We talked about this on the episode devoted to it. I grew up just thinking it's a beautiful melody and a great song, but listening to it now, it's like kind of a novelty record in a way. Like they're doing a country thing. Yeah.

Yeah, a Crying Your Beer song. Yeah. Yeah. But it's so great and such a wonderful melody that doing a country thing. Yeah. Yeah, a Crying Your Beer song. Yeah. Yeah, but it's so great in such a wonderful melody that it transcended that. Yeah. And here it comes. No, it doesn't.

Nope. All right. Not yet. You're almost there. Next up from Fables. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I love that line. I love that guitar line. I remember that line.

I love that guitar line. I remember these lyrics. Once I sort of was able to decipher what he's saying, the poetry of it was, okay, I'm going to stop talking. I feel like the person that is similar to me later is Stephen Malcomus, whose lyrics were also purposefully obtuse. Yes, yeah. And poetic.

Neil Finn was a lot like that for me. Oh, yeah. He would paint images with his lyrics, but they weren't specific. And so because of songwriters like that that I grew up listening to, I never paid attention to lyrics because I was just like, oh, they don't matter. They're, you know. Take a... All right.

Next up is... because I was just like, oh, they don't matter. They're, you know. Take a... All right, next up is... This was a little bit of a hit, right? Yeah, this is a hit. Like a college rock hit? Yeah, exactly.

Jason is miming the drums, and I am getting a show. And so is Adam, but he doesn't know what he's doing. Alright, let's blaze through some of the rest of these. These are great songs. These are so good. And I know it's nostalgia for us because these are the songs of our teen years.

But these are great songs. These are incredible songs. I mean, when you, like, these guys could play a full night of just hits. Just early hits. Yes. Just early hits. Just IRS hits.

Yeah. All right, next up is a cover song. Speaking of our covers episode. I am. It's them doing a cover. They're most famous of all. Probably. This song originally

was about the Punisher. I didn't know that. Yeah, it was I am, I am the Punisher. The Marvel superhero? Yeah, Frank Castle. I put this on because I felt like

this was also like a big hit that I felt like was And none of us knew it was a cover either. Yeah, and I felt like it was like, this is where I started to be like, okay. Okay, I see what you're doing. This is like got a sound that I don't know that I'm wild about.

All right, but I'm willing to still shell out $6 for a cassette. You mean like these guys, they're reaching a little for a hit? Yeah, this felt like a little bit like purposefully poppy yeah yeah in a way that I didn't love what's weird is they're just fucking around though it's a cover

yeah alright next up but they put it on a record next up it's not like they just played it live oh great

Adam's gonna be upset that I have the different mix oh he puts the the mix that was on the Best Of album, Eponymous, with the horns and the weird vocals, rather than the superior version that's on Document. This guy.

His voice is mixed so weird on this one. I used to, like, these were songs that I would try and play drums along to. We all like the very first thing that we hear, so play drums along to. You know? Oh, I bet. We all like the very first thing that we hear. Yeah. So we never like the second thing, even if it's... Even if it's the superior.

Yeah. I get that. Okay. Next up is... Oh, you're going to love this. Fans of typewriters are very excited. I love the sound of a typewriter. So great.

This is one of my favorites. This is Tom Hanks on typewriter. This is Sit Boo Boo Sit. Good dog. The listeners of the podcast have heard this story way too many times, but in high school I used to walk around with a disc man and walk up to people, put headphones on their head and play this. And play this song.

Especially this part. You have to hear this. And Zach Braff stole that for Garden State? Yeah, this song will change your life. All right, next up. And it's exhuming McCarthy. Here's an interesting choice. Oh, yeah, King of Birds.

Love it. Who do you think is the King of Birds? Who do I think? Probably Big Bird. Yeah, that's true. He's pretty big. Have you seen any of Sam Richardson's tweets about birds? No.

That he does? Tweets? Birds? No. I feel like I'm in the zoo. That's really funny. Or the aviary, maybe. Maybe.

The aviary is a part of the zoo. Not a lot of people put this on their favorites. I love that song. That's great. I don't care for it all right this is that was the song that i was like i know all these lyrics oh really what are the lyrics i couldn't tell you now that's where i got the name of the when i was like fantasizing about being in a band a period of time where i wanted a band, I got the name for my band from the lyrics of King of Burgs. Really? What was it?

It's super embarrassing, but it's funny. Great, say it. The name of my band that I wanted to start was, it would have been called Jeweler's Stone. So that, listeners, that's the thing. Joulerstone. So that's, listeners, that's the thing. You guys, someone in this audience has an unnamed band right now.

Call it Joulerstone. I like the first syllable. A very difficult thing to say quickly. Not easy. Jouler, hi, we're Joulerstone. Hey, we're Joulerstone. Hey, what's up? We're Joulerstone.

Terrible. Next up, really pretentious name for a band. Oh, yeah. I was in a band called Mr. Tough Pants. Oh, wow. That's so much better than Jewelers Stone. It's safe to say you were a pretentious person. Yeah.

Yeah. Extremely safe. When do you think you risk free? When do you think you stopped being one or are you still one? I'm probably still pretty pretentious. So something from out of time. Yeah. It's great.

And I love this song. And this has like, I love the spoken word vocals on this. I really like it. I don't think it's a song. I don't think it's a song. I love this song. But to say it's not a song I don't think it's a song I love this song but to say it's not a song a song has

absurd sung lyrics that's not true not necessarily sorry I disagree sorry I know a lot of people

what about songs with no lyrics is that not a song those aren't songs those are those are beautiful melodies and this might be the last one yeah let's see

here oh yeah come on come on And this might be the last one. Yeah, let's see. Oh, yeah. Come on. Come on. Listeners, listen to this song and save it in your memory because we're going to hear a version of it. This is like, for me, later REM, this is a great song. Pinnacle?

Yeah, I love, you know, this is like, I love, because again, like as we've, these last couple songs, right, all from later stuff. Gone is that jangly guitar. You know, this is like piano. These are songs that have, don't yeah don't have that stripped down bare bones kind of trio of musicians um making you know doing them they're like bigger productions more instruments more players in the studio all this kind of stuff which to me sometimes makes them feel bloated or not as interesting and that's why I like this one because it is very stripped down to just like basically piano.

Yeah, we've said a few times like the later albums from like out of time on start feeling, sounding really expensive. Yes. Yeah, just even that little part before Night Swimming where it's like, oh, big orchestra just warming up. Yeah. Okay, we have to go to a break. When we come back, we are going to be hearing covers, other bands covering REM songs. That's going to be fun,

and neither of you know what I brought. Great. We'll be right back with more Are You Talking REM? Remi. Hey, everyone. New t-shirts are in the store. Are You Talking REM shirts are there. What kind do we have these days? We have stained glass. Hey everyone, new t-shirts are in the store Our Utah Ganarium

shirts are there What kind do we have these days? We have stained glass which are pretty incredible That's Todd Glass, Adam and myself and it looks like a concert t-shirt and a third of the profits

go to Todd Glass so if you love him put a little coin in his pocket. We also have the classics that we started off with, the Monster style and then the Out of Time style. Love them both. Mm-hmm. And so those are in the store. What's your favorite, Scott?

My favorite shirt of these three. I like the stained glass one. Okay. What's your favorite shirt of all time? Of all time three. I like the stained glass one. Okay. What's your favorite shirt of all time? Of all time? And we're not even counting your shirts. Yeah, not even ones I've worn? There was a tank top t-shirt featured in, I believe, the great film, It Happened One Night,

where they pull the curtain in between the man and the woman who are staying in the same room so they can divide the room and have a little privacy. And he was in a tank top t-shirt. Oh, my God. It was the first time ever that a man's arms had been exposed on film. Historic moment. And historic moment. And I loved it. I loved it.

It's great. So that's your top t-shirt? That's my number one with a bullet top t-shirt. What about you? My favorite t-shirt is probably a t-shirt that Andrew McCarthy wore in Pretty in Pink, and he wore it underneath a kind of a blazer, sort of an unstructured blazer, but I think there were some shoulder pads in there. Yeah, it was pretty loose.

There had to be some shoulder pads in there. He had a t-shirt on under there. It was pretty great. Did it have any kind of markings on it, or was it plain? Just plain color. Solid color. I think it was white, maybe. Off-white.

Something like that. Have you tracked down that t-shirt ever? Is it in the Smithsonian or anything? That's the thing. It's in the Smithsonian. Lying on Archie Bunker's chair? Every two days, I have to go to Washington, D.C. to see it. If you want to see our T-shirts, go head over to podswag.com slash REM,

and you can buy those. And we're looking to get new T-shirts in the store, hopefully by the end of the show. So check them out. Yay. Welcome back. Jason, nothing from Chronic Town on your list. No, that was not a big record of mine.

Interesting. Let me look at it right now and see if there's anything that... This is Wolves, Lower. Welcome back. We're here with Jason Manzoukas, and we are about to get into other bands covering rem now adam uh you must know of some bands that have covered rem i wonder if we're going to uh bring up some of them you don't know any of the songs that i brought i know obviously we couldn't

bring every cover of an rem song because there's way too many to play are there yeah oh okay it doesn't seem, they don't seem like a band that tons of people are constantly covering. I should have put Gardening at Night on there. Okay.

That would have been the song from Chronic Town. That would have been the song. I brought 22 songs, but there's probably, you know, over a hundred or whatever. So I brought 22

and I think I have links to some YouTube clips of other ones. So, okay. So this is one that you mentioned the other week when you brought collabs, and we decided we were going to do an entire episode about covers. This is First Aid Kit. Oh, I like that band.

Yeah, they're good, right? They're great. They do a great cover of Tiger Mountain Peasant Song by Fleet Foxes. Yeah, and this is Walk Unafraid. Love this. Swedish band. Have you seen that video of them singing in the back of the cab? Emmylou

for Emmylou Harrell. Down these heavy notions creep around it makes me think long ago. I was brought into this life a little lamb, a little lamb. Courageous, stumbling, fearless was my middle name. I'm glad you're here. narrow path they've laid they claim to walk

unafraid I'll be clumsy instead hold me love me or leave me high I love their voices together.

Beautiful. So great. They harmonize beautifully. I like them. That's from the Wild soundtrack, which... Oh, nice. I've never seen it, but there's a picture. It looks like Reese Witherspoon has a backpack on the cover. It looks like an exciting movie.

Yeah. It's a great movie. I auditioned to play the backpack. You don't have to say that because you're in Big Little Lies. No, no. I love that movie. What's it about? Jean-Marc Vallée directed it.

What's it about? The director of Big Little Lies. That's true. What's it about? Jean-Marc Vallée directed it. What's it about? Very well. The director of Big Little Lies. That's true. What's it about then, if you love it so much? It's about a woman taking a very long hike. Yeah, it's about a woman who's like, you know, her life is a disaster, and she takes a very long hike to kind of get it back on track. All right, this is, do you want to guess who this is, or do you want to?

If you think we can. I don't know if you'd be able to. Let's try it, and then you can tell us. This is a live version. Oh, it might be even harder. They're talking. Todd Glass would be able to get it just from that. Is this Jon Bon Jovi?

That sounds like my guy. That's what he said about David Bowie. All right, here we go. Is this recent or old? Like, when is this from? I think this is the 80s. Oh, okay. The 80s. Oh, okay. The 80s.

Wow. I feel like it's, um... I feel like it's, um, I feel like it's like, um, oh, Bez and, uh, what's the 24- Oh, Happy Mondays? Happy Mondays. No, it's, I believe it's the 80s, and it's released. It was on a, uh, it's on their, uh, Roman Gods Up Front EP.

This is the Fleshtones. Oh, wow. I was never a huge Fleshtones. Oh, wow. I was never a huge Fleshtones fan, but I have a few. That's why I didn't know whether you could guess or not. But it's kind of cool, right? Yeah. It sounds really good. They're having fun, right?

That counts for a lot. That's what it's all about, as far as I'm concerned. Guys, aren't we having fun? Yeah, a lot. This next one is is now i've talked about this on the show before because this is the first time i ever heard the song night swimming i heard this band doing it okay um and fans of previous episodes will be very interested here and i got her permission to talk about this but april richardson who was on our episode talking about the Frightening CD

monster she since she was on that show and we talked I believe we talked about this song on that episode this version of this song

this version of this song since she did that episode she then went to England for a vacation met up with the singer of this song, and now is in a very serious relationship with him.

Oh, funny. Went to a show of theirs and met him afterwards just for the first time. No, I'm asking, is that... Oh, no, she was there for a wedding or something. I can't remember exactly what it was. Did this conversation on the podcast precipitate them meeting or just by happenstance?

I think it was happenstance. They like had a Twitter conversation. I don't know how much I can talk about it, but they had, they were, they were saying, they were just like, Hey,

let's meet up, met up, hit it off in a big way. And so, uh, his name's Martin Rossiter and this is Gene. Can I, Oh,

sorry. Yes, go ahead. How did you hear it? Like on the radio or was it like in something that you saw? It's a B-side. I was very into Gene because they were a Britpop band who was very into Britpop and they also sounded a lot like the Smiths.

Were you into Britpop? Some of it. Yeah. But so this was a B-side to one of their songs. And so I heard it and was like, oh, this is cool. And I looked at the credits and I was like oh Michael Stipe

interesting so you didn't know Night Swimming I didn't know Night Swimming but it made me like it then he didn't know Automatic for the people at all until we did this

oh interesting but sometimes it'll happen where like a band you like like David Bowie was what got me into Bruce Springsteen because I heard his version of

It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City oh that's interesting and I loved his version of that and so I was like that's a Springsteen song? even his version of it's hard to be a saint in the city. That's interesting. And I loved his version of that. And so I was like, is that, that's a Springsteen song, even though I'd heard born in the USA and all that. So I went back and got that record.

Anyway, this is Jean with night swimming. Night swimming Deserves a quiet night Put a graph on the dashboard Taken years ago Turn around backwards so the windshield shows Every street light reveals a picture in reverse Still it's so much clearer Sounds a lot like a Gene song.

That's the, like it sounds. Oh, interesting. Because I was going to say, I like it. It sounds really lovely. It's so similar. It sometimes covers Hugh too close to the original, and this falls into that category. An episode of Hugh talking.

Hugh too. I almost feel like it is fun to hear Night Swimming with, like, some drums and, yeah, coming in. And then his voice has, like, the typical Gene breathiness and a lot of reverb on it, which makes this sound like a Gene song, which is why I liked it. I was like, oh, okay. I mean, it's a very different style in a way than R&M.

Yeah, it's really good. It's lovely. All right. I have two versions of Driver 8, and I want you to guess who they are by. Okay. This is the first one. is the first one. Beat him in B3. Coming in. There's an organ in this song.

Walls are built up stone by stone. Hootie and the Blowfish. Yes. Wow. Hootie and the Blowfish. Yes. Wow. Hootie and the Blowfish. Whoa. Is it really? Yeah.

Wow. He has this B-Sides record, the only Hootie and the Blowfish record I own, but he does a version of the Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want. And so I was like, fuck yeah, I'll buy it. Interesting. And he does driver eight on it kind of interesting right let's hear the sales sales i remember hootie and the blowfish being big rem fans oh really interesting i feel like he I feel like he I'm putting this on him

wanted to be one of those bands he wanted to be an REM he wanted to be but they somehow became Counting Crows instead. Well that's the thing like you want to become whatever it is and your sound is whatever just happens to come out with the people you're playing with and then you become huge

and it's like well now we're that they were huge and and it's like, well, now we're that. And that's what you are now. Now we're that. They were huge. Huge. Yeah. Yeah. And I did not like them. No, me neither. Yeah.

All right. Here's another band. No offense, guys. Here's another band doing Driverade. This is a punk band. No? Oh. Green Day?

No. Yeah, I was leaning in that direction, too. It's not a punk band. No. Yeah, I was leaning in that direction, too. It's not a punk band. No. I will give you a hint. Yeah. Been on Comedy Bang Bang, this entire band, in the Largo scene. Oh.

Jellyfish. No, they weren't on there. We talk about them so much. Why did you call Jellyfish? they weren't on We talk about them so much Why'd you call Jellyfish Largo I feel like Jellyfish Are synonymous with Early Largo

Really I don't think they ever Played early Really Cause they broke up by 92 Okay I just put them In that same kind of world

But maybe not This is the old 97's Oh Rhett Miller Good friend Rhett Miller Oh great Sorry Rhett Miller This is a great cover, right?

Yeah, it is. Pretty good. I like it. Yeah. All right, this is, I'm not going to make you guess on this because I don't think you'd be able to, but do you know Rosie Thomas works with Sufjan Stevens all the time? Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, this is The One I Love by Rosie Thomas.

Cool. One, two, okay, yeah. Yeah, this is The One I Love by Rosie Thomas. Oh. One, two, three, four. Guitar's a little out of tune, I would say. See, I don't even notice that. It's, yeah. It's going da-da-da-da! This one goes out to the one I love. Beautiful. It's going da-da-da-da!

Beautiful. Yeah, her voice is so great. Yeah. Change the lyric a little bit. That's her prerogative. A simple thought To occupy my mind Change the lyric a little bit. That's her prerogative. Sure. I'm not going to take that away from her. This is great.

Yeah, I like that. That's so far my favorite one. Can you hear what? I just wanted to hear fire. Oh, and that's Sufjan Stevens. It is him, yes. That is for sure Sufjan Stevens. Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, great. Love it. All right, this is another version of the one I love. Speaking of Jellyfish, this is one of the multi-instrumentalists in Jellyfish with his side project. I forget who the other person is in this band with him. The Moog Cookbook. Did you ever hear that?

Oh, I remember that. I didn't know that was Jellyfish related. Yeah, they do sort of funny loungy versions of songs. Adam hates it. This, when this stuff

came back, like that loungy kind of Martin Denny sound kind of thing, I did not. I couldn't get into it. I couldn't either. Nope.

Adam hates it. Jason hates it. I think it's funny. That Rosie Thomas one was absolutely amazing. To follow it up with this turd is really annoying. All right. This is one of the more famous, and you'll know this, Jason, one of the more famous covers of an R.E.M. song.

You mentioned them earlier, Pavement. They sing Unseen Power of the Picket Fence about R.E.M., and this is their version of Camera. What's this on? Camera. What record is Camera on? No, what's this this on? Camera, what record is camera on? No, what's this cover on? Oh, it's on the Cut Your Hair single, but also on the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Expanded reissue. I don't know that I've ever heard this.

It's one of those covers that you kind of could buy as a pavement song. Yeah. I a pavement song. Yeah. I love this song. All right. Want to hear more? Yeah, I just want to get to the chorus. Sure. Do you remember my trust lost? Descending from a crowd.

And all the city streets are... What do you think? I like that. But I don't know if what I like about that is what I like about Pavement. Yeah, well, that's, I mean, that's sometimes what I like when I like a cover. Wow, it's just like Gene. It sounds like a Gene song. This sounds like a Pavement song.

Yeah, I feel what I like about that is that it is, to me, a good Pavement song. I feel no allegiance to the REM song that it is. I agree. All right, this is a couple more friends of the show, Comedy Bang Bang. They both have been on it several times actually. This is Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs.

Oh, nice. Oh, wow. With Sitting Still. Love it already. Matthew Sweet is especially one of those people who comes a little later

that has a lot, is indebted to REM a lot. Yeah. God, we all agreed. to R.E.M. a lot. Yeah. Love Susanna Hoffs, too. Yeah, when she comes in on this, it's great. This is from Under the Covers, Volume 3,

their 80s cover record. They did a 60s cover record, a 70s cover record, and then an 80s cover record, a 70s cover record, and then an 80s cover record. Let's gather, throw a fit. Up to buy, Katie buys a kitchen size but not me. Setting trap for the big kill. Waste of time sitting still. Speaking of da birds, her harmonies sound a lot like... Yeah.

Da birds. Da Yeah. Da birds. Da birds. Da birds. All right, I want you to guess who this is, if you can. So far, it's just silence, so it would be amazing if you did guess from that. Oh, they're doing Oddfellows Local 151. Oddfellows Local 151. Oddfellows Local 151 Behind the firehouse

Where Pee-wee sits To prove a sage to teach Pee-wee gathered up his proof Reached up and scratched his head Fell down and hit the ground again I feel like this is like an Orange County band, is it? No, but... I mean, I know why you're thinking that.

Yeah. It's not morphine, is it? No. It's like, it's not President of the United States of America, but it's like in that. I know why you're thinking that, but it's so much bigger than them. Oh. Like, it's a huge band. Oh.

Ah. Want me to give it to you? No. Okay. Tool? Sorry? Tool? No.

Like bigger than that, I would say. It doesn't really sound like Tool. It's not Green Day. It's, but in that sort of in. It's not Op Ivy. No. Blink-182. Bigger, like more in the green day.

Oh. Go, maybe tell us. Weezer. Oh. Oh. Yeah. I knew they covered this, actually. I can see that.

Why don't you guess it, you dumb shit? Because I totally forgot. What was this on? This is on like a pork and beans EP. Uh-huh. Why didn't you guess it, you dumb shit? Because I totally forgot. What was this on? Was this on? This is on like a Pork and Beans EP. Or I guess maybe some of the Red album reissues. Not reissues, but like, you know, extra tracks. All right, Adam, you know this song very well.

This is 10,000 Maniacs. Oh. One, two, three. Jeez, why leave that in? I love Natalie Merchant. God, I would love. Were you as into them as I was? Loved.

Like, 10,000 Maniacs and Cowboy Junkies were like make-out music. Oh, yeah. Trinity Session. Why are you leaning over to make out with me right now? Just let it happen. This is awesome. I don't think I've heard this. Oh, really?

I don't think so. This is off the Candy Everybody Wants single. Oh. Or maybe I did. I don't know. That voice,

her voice is so instantly recognizable. It is, and it's so, again, so evocative of a time in my life that it just pushes an instant nostalgia. It really reminds me of literally one year of my life, 1988.

And that's it. I recently went back to find that duet that she and Michael Stipe do in In Your Tribe and went back through that album and then went back through Our Time in Eden. Oh, yeah. And seriously, it brings you right back to 1992. Yeah.

Cowboy Junkies, I guess, have a new record, and they played a new song of theirs on the radio recently. And just hearing Margot Timmons' voice, even though it was a new song I didn't know, immediately put me back into that era of those records. Speaking of Bruce Springsteen covers, they do Thunder Road. Oh, cool. Yeah, it's pretty good.

They had some great records. Cowboy Junkies had some great. Beautiful. This is, remember when we played R.E.M. singing an editor's song? Oh, yeah. This is why R.E.M. covered the editors, because the editors originally covered R.E.M. This is why REM covered the editors because the editors originally covered REM. This is Orange Crush. Did you do a whole

episode of REM covering other people? We've brought up every time they've covered someone in the chronology we've brought it up. Yeah. they've covered someone in the chronology we've brought it up in the, yeah. I've got my spark I've got my orange cup I like this song, the original.

I know, I mean, I'm just saying this is reminding me of that I like this song. This is cool. And that's the end. British band. and that's the end british band yes very popular in the early 2000s okay i don't know this band yeah in the same era as interpol oh i see yeah yeah yeah franz ferdinand yeah Like those guys. Yeah, Franz Ferdinand is exactly when they were big. Yeah, okay. Okay, this next one is, this is Motion City Soundtrack. Oh, yeah.

Who Tony Thaxton is someone who I believe even listens to this show. And he drums with Don't Stop or We'll Die Now. Oh, nice. This is his old band. This is Popsong now. Oh, nice. This is his old band. This is Popsong 89. Oh, cool. Oh, cool. Hello, I saw you, I know you, I knew you I think I can remember your name

Hello, I'm sorry I lost myself I think I thought you were someone else Should we talk about the weather? What do you think? I love it. I mean, they're not doing anything really new with it. It's just heavy. A little heavier and slightly faster.

It's pretty cool. All right, this is Hem. I don't know a lot about Hem, H-E-M. This is South Central Rain. This is like a delicate... Yeah, I know this band. They had a bunch of records that sounded kind of noodley like this. Yeah, very tasteful.

Yeah, like Coffee House. Yeah, I think I remember making an effort to... I tried to get into them at a certain point. And it was... Maybe this is your end. Yeah, I think this is it get into them at a certain point. And it was, I couldn't. Maybe this is your end. Yeah, I think this is it. It's got a nice voice.

Beautiful. We might have to breeze through some of these. This next one is Cry, Cry, Cry. That's the band?

Yeah, one I'd never heard of, but I saw them on a list of REM covers, so I bought this. This is Fall On Me. I like this. Yeah. Who is this again?

Cry, cry, cry. What year is this? That, I don't know. If you don't have Cry, Cry, Cry. What year is this? That's... If you don't have it, that's okay. I don't know, but Ryan can look it up. I'm just curious. Cry, Cry, Cry. I like the vocal harmonies.

I'm not wild about the instrumentation. It sounds like a Sam Phillips. Oh, yeah. It sounds a lot like Sam Phillips. All right. The next few ones come to us from our good friends at Stereogum, who... Sure.

Wonderful blog. They've interviewed at least me about this show. They love listening to the show. They put together a whole R.E.M. tribute record. Would they like... Of Automatic for the People. Would they like me To be interviewed For the show

Probably This is The Veils What do you think, Adam? Fast forward. There are like three awesome Veil songs that I love. The Tide That Left and Never Came Back is amazing. And then watching the recent Twin Peaks, they have like an amazing song in that. Oh, wow.

This is not my favorite though, I have to say. Yeah. You know what's weird is this Stereo Gum, they did it for, who did they do it for? Bjork maybe too.

When they assign a band to a song and stuff, they hardly any of them work. But there are some good stuff. This next one is our good friends in Rogue Wave, also friends of- I like this band.

Friends of Comedy Bang Bang. They've been on. This is them doing the Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight. What do you think? I like it fine. Yeah, I like it because they're doing something completely new with the song. It's totally different. And it feels very much like a Rogue Wave song, which is nice. Rogue Wave is great.

I like that band. It's not my favorite Rogue Wave song again, but it's interesting. They have some incredible songs. That first Rogue Wave record is great. That last one is great. I haven't checked that out. Yeah, they're great. And then, yeah, nice guys, too.

Really nice guys. This is The Meat Puppets. Oh, cool. With Everybody Hurts. Oh, great. That's nice. You like it, Adam? I do. What do you think?

What do you think, Jay? Can you fast forward? Sure. Yeah, I like it. I like it. I like it. That's interesting. All right, next up is another friend of Comedy Bang Bang. At this point, if you have an R.E.M. cover

and you're not a friend of Comedy Bang Bang, I don't understand what the fuck you're doing. This is Sarah Quinn from Tegan and Sarah. Oh, cool. Featuring Kaki King, who's a wonderful person as well. This is Sweetness Follows. Oh, cool. So far, my favorite song.

Was the Meat Puppets one from the... From the Stereogum thing, yeah. Father and John What did you think when you lost another? I used to wonder why did you bother Distance from one, back to the other. Listen here, I'm not so sure. What do you think?

I like that. Is the whole song like this? I like that. Is the whole song like this? I think so. Or does more stuff come in? Let me fast forward just a little. What about the chorus? It's these little things they can blow you up. You skipped the chorus.

I skipped the chorus? Or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe they're doing it. It might not have come. I like it okay. I don't love it. I don't love it.

Yeah, okay. This is the Shout Out Louds. Do you know them? Yeah. Yeah, from Sweden, right? Or something like that? This is Man on the Moon. This is all the stereo gum.

This is still on the stereo gum, yeah. You've got this and another one on the Moon. This is all the stereo gum. This is still on the stereo gum, yeah. You've got this and another one on the stereo gum and then one last cover and then we'll call it a day and shake hands and part company. Walk away friends. I already don't like this. You don't like it? I like the Shout Out Louds though.

But maybe a bad mix. I found that most of the songs on this were good but not do you feel like they were not great matches songs? Yeah, like whatever was popular in this year that they did it are not good matches for R.E.M.

Yeah. But it's alright. Let's see where this goes. Probably to the chorus. Maybe. Or to the chorus. Maybe. Or to Toledo. Who knows? Shut up.

I feel like this would maybe be better without that beat. Although the beat is the only thing that's sort of interesting. Yeah, I don't know. It's a weird mix of a bunch of stuff that isn't working for me. Does it kick it? Let's see if they do. Let's see if it kicks it. Hold on.

Fast forward a little bit. It's... You skipped the chorus. I don't like this one. Who cares? All right. This is Dr. Dog. This is't like this song. Who cares? All right. This is Dr. Dog. This is not bad, though.

It's infuriating. I'm on some website that's got the 20 best R.E.M. covers. Many of these are on there. Yeah. I bet you looked at it. I did look at it. This is pretty good. I like this.

What song is it? Find the River. Hey now, little speedy head The read on the speed meter says You have to go to task in the city Where people drown and people serve Don't be shy, you just deserve It's only light years away Meet my thoughts of flowers through an ocean

Someday buried I've got to leave to find my way I mean, it's such a bulletproof song that... This sounds like a Dr. Dog song. It does. This is their style, so I... Yeah, I like it, but that song is just so great that I don't know what you could do to fuck that song up.

Well, here's the thing, though. The Shout Out Loud's doing Man on the Moon. That's a bulletproof song, but we didn't like it. Because to me, they're not doing it in the Shout Out Loud style either. This sounds like a Dr. Dog song, but it didn't like it. Because to me, they're not doing it in the Shout Out Loud style either. This sounds like a Dr. Dog song, but it's a good melody. Alright, this is, I want you to guess... And they've also got a good loose

bar band vibe that jibes well with the source material. This is a live version of a song, and I want you to guess who this is. That's great, it starts This is a live version of a song. I want you to guess who this is. Speed it up a notch, speed front, no strength The ladder starts to clatter with fear of fighting down height Wire in a fire, a process of seven games And a gun river for hire in a combat fight Slaughter wasn't coming in a hurry With a fury breathing down your neck

Seen by TV reporters, vessel trumped Tether cropped, look at that low plane Find that, uh-huh Overflow, population come a group, but it'll do Save yourself, serve yourself, world serves its own need Listen to your heart bleed Tell me where the rapture and the reverend is The right, right, you This is Weird Al. It is Weird Al, yeah.

Weird Al Yankovic. I was going to say that because it sounded like him, but I was like, but would he just do a straight cover? Okay, so what this is from is his tour that he did this year of all deep cuts. He would do one cover song a night. Oh, cool. And so this is the REM song that he did. He sent it to me.

That's great. People can hear every show of his on Stitcher Premium, the ridiculously self-indulgent, ill-advised vanity tour. They're all up there on Stitcher Premium. You ridiculously self-indulgent, ill-advised vanity tour. They're all up there on Stitcher Premium. You can hear any performance he did. And he does a U2 song. He does several. He would do just a different song. And some of them were based on whatever town he was in.

So I think this might have been the Georgia track. I like that. I can't find that Dr. Dog cover on... It's probably just on YouTube or something. The Stereogum thing? It was free on Stereogum like it was basically they would let you, I'll send it to you though but then again

you don't have an iPod so you'll never be able to listen to it That's check and fucking mate my friends That is undrue Alright so those are the covers I don't know how you think the iPod technology works. I don't know how every time I've sent you an MP3,

you've said, I don't have a computer. Is the Dr. Dog only available on iPod? Is that song only available for iPod? No, but Adam does it. Anytime I send him anything, he's like, I don't have a computer. I don't know. I can't listen to this. That's not true.

You don't have a computer. I don't know. I can't listen to this. That's not true. You don't have a computer. You sent me some weird files. Weird files? MP3s? No, they weren't MP3s, the last ones you sent me. They were lossless? Were they flak files? They weren't flak files. They were MP3s and he just...

Some of them that you sent me are all in my iTunes library now and some of them were weird are you guys going to do that whole episode where you just have an IT guy go through and work on syncing up your playlists I wouldn't mind it because I'm sick of this

alright Jason guys what is your feeling on REM what do you want to say about them if you could talk to them what would you say you know REM like a lot of Nice. What is your feeling on REM? What do you want to say about them? If you could talk to them, what would you say? You know, REM, like a lot, I've said a lot. I don't know if I could talk to them, but I would say I met Michael Stipe once.

Tell us about that. What show are you on? I just met him in passing. Bury the lead. I just met him in passing. Bill bury the lead. I didn't talk to him really other than to say, hi, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm a big fan, blah, blah, blah. It was really that much.

Who were you with? I was with people at a restaurant. It's not a great story. I wish I hadn't said it because it seems to be more exciting than it is. But like I've said, to me, this band is, you know, obviously this band is the college radio band of that era. You know, it really defines a late 80s, early 90s college rock, you know, college rock radio. The kind of music that I was obsessed with that really, like, started the ball rolling for me to then become obsessed with Guided by Voices and Pavement and Afghan Wigs and all the bands that then were the kind of bedrock of my college years,

I still loved and listened to R.E.M. throughout a lot of that. And I think that sound informs a lot of the music, like I said, that I still like now. Is this sentence ending at any point? You asked me. What do you want? He's answering your question. What do you want? He's answering your question. What do you want right now? Okay, fine.

I'm done. I have a question. Oh, come on, Jason. I have another question. No, continue. You asked me. You literally asked me to sum up. Your question had three questions in it.

I'm answering it. Hey, I'm just breaking your balls. You see what I deal with on a daily basis? Daily. Now I get it. Or a bi- By the way, now I get it. Or a bi-weekly basis. Now I get it. I have a question. Please.

Did you follow the post-Billberry years? Please host that I respect. No, he said he didn't. Not really. Did you follow them much? I'm so angry today. You're really fired up. I'm sorry.

Can I be honest with you guys? Things are not going well at all. Oh, no. You want to talk about it? You want to put on a sad R.E.M. song and talk about it? Yeah. Hold on. Go ahead. I followed them in as much as...

Like you were like Joey Warnaker. Cool. And I would listen to the record when it would come out and I would read whatever profiles came out along with it would and I would read whatever profiles came out along with it but I I never could

they never stuck with me they never stuck with me yeah you okay bud? we're all friends things haven't been going well what's happening? what's going on?

is everything okay? Kulap and I had a fight what about? you don't have to say what it is no it's okay we were in a fight about who loved each other more yeah and i swore that no one could love anything more than the way i love her yeah and she agreed she agreed wait scott to me that doesn't sound like a fight that sounds like a

conversation we let me tell you what happened then okay we just start kissing can i ask you To me, that doesn't sound like a fight. That sounds like a conversation. Let me tell you what happened then. Okay. We just started kissing. Can I ask you a question? Okay, well. Can I ask you a follow-up question? I think perhaps Adam and I are assuming that what you're describing is like an argument between a couple.

Are you saying you got into a physical altercation? Oh, yeah. A fight? I punched her in the vagina. Oh, okay. You punched her in the vagina. Oh, okay. You punched her in the vagina? This interaction involved punching? And I don't mean like, I don't mean outside the vagina.

You gotta cut this. You should cut this out of the vagina. I uppercut right up in there. That's terrible. It was bad. Scott, you should not. This is an admission of guilt into a crime.

She's dead. She's dead. This is a crime. She's dead! She's dead! This is a confession. Well, guys, this is gonna do it for us. Jason, I want to thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. You're my good friend. Oh, the band I was thinking of earlier

is The Babies. The Babies are great. And the album Our House on the Hill. Great. I'll look into it. The Babies are really good. They have a great best of. Oh, good. All right. Jason, thank you. Thank you.

Adam, you did the bare minimum this week, but I appreciate you at least showing up. See? Wow. Lots of fun. Wow. This, the vibe in doing this podcast has been difficult. I would imagine. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but it is fraught

in the room. Look, I gotta admit something. I don't like doing this show with Adam anymore. Adam, be careful. You're about to get a punch in the butthole. I guess. An uppercut in the butthole? A butthercup? A butthercup. My little butthercup has the sweetest smile. My little butler cup.

Has the sweetest smile. All right, we got to go. Jason, thanks so much, buddy. Thanks, buddy. Adam. Thanks, man. Great work. I enjoyed it.

I was kidding. I love you. Oh, stop it. I love you. Backtrack. Stop. We're going to see you next time. And until then, we hope that you have found what you're looking for. Looking for the brotherhood.

Hey, Queeros, it's me, Cami Esposito, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, Queery. You can sit in on hour-long conversations between me, Cameron Esposito, and some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ family. some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ family. Query explores individual stories of identity, personality, and the shifting cultural matrix around gender, sexuality, and civil rights. Plus, it is fun. We have had some incredible guests. Emmy winner Lena Waithe?

Yes, definitely. Congressman Mark Takano? You bet. L Word creator Eileen Shakin? Yes. President and CEO of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis. We definitely have. We've got celebs. People like Trixie Mattel, Evan Rachel Wood,

Tegan and Sarah, the band, and the people, separately, on two different episodes. We also have activists and changemakers in our community. I think it's a one-of-a-kind show full of chats you have never heard before. It's identity, it's I think it's a one-of-a-kind show full of chats you have never heard before. It's identity, it's community,

it's query. You can find Query every Monday on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.