We're Here to Help - 204: 50mg of Nuge & Phish Burial (with Pelle Almqvist)

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Gareth is joined by special guest helper Pelle Almqvist, lead singer of The Hives, for this musical bonus episode. First, they help a caller whose boyfriend listens to Soviet-era marches in the car. Then, they brainstorm how to scatter a mysterious vial of ashes.Check out The Hives' new album: The Hives Forever Forever The HivesCast your vote and pick who Jake and Gareth will help to find a friend: https://weneedtopick.com/friendshipcasting1See caller images here: http://www.heretohelppod.com/post/episode-204Want to call in? Email your question to [e-mail]: https://patreon.com/heretohelppodMERCH: heretohelppod.comINSTAGRAM: @HereToHelpPodIf you’re enjoying the show, make sure to rate We’re Here to Help 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.Advertise on We’re Here to Help via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. episode of we're here to help. It's myself and a guest helper. We have the great Pele Almkavist, who is the lead singer of the Hives. Yeah, yeah, I am. Pele, you're here. Here to help, coincidentally. You are, absolutely. And we just did a couple calls. It went great. Before we get into it, you have a new album coming out called The Hives Forever, Forever, the Hives, out August 29th, which is a great title for an album. As usual, your title, your album titles are always pretty self-referential and great. Yeah, we got good title game. Yeah, you've got strong title game. I'm like putting the Dan's name in there a lot. I know, but it's good, it's become a

thing now. It's good marketing. People, how did you come up with the name the Hives? How did that even start? What is that like? I think it was like, we were children, because it's the only band I've ever been in. I mean, even since I was 13. And at the time, I think they were, Chris, our drummer, and vigilante, our guitar player were flipping through a dictionary. And it said hives, a condition you can get from eating, for instance, lobster or strawberries. And something about that they thought was funny. So it's the skin condition and not the beehives. And we figured like, well, you know, it's kind of like, oh, good names. It's a shit name. and then you just kind of kind of have to conquer it, like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones.

I'm not sure those are such great names either, but after a while, you just get into this thing where we're the first thing you think of, hopefully. Yeah, it doesn't even matter. Or Led Zeppelin, even that. Yeah, I mean, that's like, yeah, that was Keith Moon telling them, though, that he thought they sounded terrible, like they were going to sink like a lead Zeppelin and then just... Yeah, right. Yeah.

I think all great bands have terrible names, like The Beach Boys. I don't think that's a great name. Terrible name. I agree. But then sometimes the name doesn't, I mean, it is lofty to sort of decide you're going to have a weird name because you want to be that good. Because sometimes obviously. But we were also 13th. I think we thought that was good.

So you were, you guys were playing together since you were 13 years old. And in Sweden, obviously. Wow. And then what was it like when you guys started to kind of hit on a global scale? because when I was probably about that age is when I think I first heard, I hate to say I told you so, which was a huge hit.

Yeah. That was unfair, the big, big hit. What was that like? I mean, all of a sudden you're going from like, because Sweden is a beautiful little kind of chill country, and then all of a sudden you're rocketed probably to just this whole new stratosphere of existence. Is that difficult?

Well, I think it was a big deal, like very confusing and startling. But I think what helped us was that we had toured for maybe a couple of years, five years before that, and played like squats and punk venues in Germany and stuff. And you kind of seen it all after that. And since we've been a band already for seven years, like we just were very skeptical of success. Like we were unsuccessful a while, now we're going to be successful a while, then we're going to be unsuccessful again. That's how we saw it.

I think a bit of self-protection in that, like not trusting the hype. And now it kind of stayed up. Now you have to believe. Well, that's imposter syndrome, which is, I think, a thing that, like, in entertainment in general you go through where you go, like,

because even in my small bubble, I'm like, always like, it's fleeting, it's going to go away, it's going to end. It's good for the work ethic, but it also still does drive, you to total madness, but now you are like, I mean, now you're putting out an album about forever, forever, the hive, so. Yeah, yeah, well, I think that's, this is the first time we feel like we, you know,

this is, you know, after 30 years, like, I guess we've there to start trusting this. Now you finally believe your own hype a little bit. We've done the hives longer than most people I know have brushed their teeth. Yeah. We should start trusting it at some point. But, yeah, I think that, I think it's that feeling. I'm like, I just made it up. Why do you like it?

Yeah. There's no reason. There's no intrinsic value. It's not like we made something out of gold and the gold still has value. It's just an idea. Like Sam, with your thing, it's like, I'm just sitting here making stuff up. Everybody's doing it. Why am I better at it?

You know, I don't know. But for some reason, people like me making stuff up. That must also be like, because I feel like that, because I do a lot of stand-up. And it's like, by the time you record something, you are so, It's no longer for you. You're kind of sick of the material. You're kind of fed up of the process and all that. And you want other people to enjoy it, obviously.

But you personally are kind of like, I don't give a shit about this anymore, to be quite honest. Do you feel like that when you're recording music? Or do you still feel like, I'm sure there are certain songs you love, and then there are certain songs like you just don't even want to play because you're just like, you know, this is more for the audience than it is for me. Do you feel that at this point with such a huge catalog? like, yeah, but I'm kind of fine with that because like the stuff people really want to hear like the big hits.

And I think that it's so fun to see the reaction to them that I kind of don't care if I necessarily like it's not my favorite song. You feel like I owe those songs a lot like my living and all that stuff. Yeah. Well, with the stand-up thing, it's like when you worked on it for so long and you worked so hard and you kind of fiddle with the details so much that you don't care anymore. I think that's usually when it's at its best. I agree. I'm the special then. Like, you don't care, but everything, your whole thing is so dialed in that that's when everybody loves it, you know. I think that is the truth.

It's like, I mean, it's such a different thing, but it's like if you're training for like a boxing match or something, it's like you're tired, you're in your best shape, you want to win the match. But you're also probably just like you can't wait to eat when it's over and just be fucking done with it at that point. Like, our drummer for a while dated an Olympic skiing champion. Like, she won an Olympic gold and stuff. And she had this thing where somehow it applied to this for me, where she said, like, if I don't feel like I'm going too fast and I'm going to die at any second, I'm not going to win. That's crazy.

Like, you've got to, like, she skied all right. If I don't feel like I might die at any second, then I know I'm too slow and I got to go faster. And I think it's, yeah, it's the same thing, like the boxing match and the stand-up. Stand-up is, like, I think, more difficult. Like, I think we're making a record where, like, I can't listen to this one more time.

And that's when you've done your best. Like, then you put it out. And then you got a few months to, like, and then it takes like six months. And then you listen to it again, like, I actually really like this. This is really good. Because then you don't just hear details anymore. Then you can kind of zoom out a little bit. That is the difference between music and stand-up, because the stand-up,

it is like, once you're done, you don't really want to hear it again. whereas, and you know what, the other thing is that people don't want to hear it again. Like, if people have heard your joke one time, sometimes they'll tolerate twice, whereas your songs, like people will listen to endlessly and still enjoy it.

It's a pretty different thing. I mean, the stand-up thing is so brutal. And I guess that's where the yonder, like, pouch thing, because we used to think it was such a bummer that we'd play songs that we were quite finished with live, and people put it on YouTube and it would like ruin the surprise from when the song came out.

And we really liked playing songs that were like half-finished to people and then like changing a few details and like, oh, this is way too long. I know that now because I saw the people react to it. Or like whatever I felt when people, you know, when we played it to people. Because it's so much different

playing it to an audience than hearing it in your head than in the studio. So I really miss that element of like trying stuff out, but you really can't do it anymore. I think that's the same thing with like a stand-up like if the stuff is up

on YouTube the first day why even do the rest of the tour like it's so brutal like you gotta come up with some new material like it takes like a year oh it's brutal well that's why like a lot of like I'll post just clips of me

talking to the audience and comedians you know are some comedians are very fed up with that but you know in the world now where you've got to kind of feed this algorithmic bullshit it's like well you're You can't just be putting up hilarious bits every 10 days.

You know, that's not possible. And it's something for the people that pay. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of how it is. You were a great helper on the show, probably because A, you're Swedish. I believe that probably makes you pretty empathetic. But also, you've got such, like, probably lived experience through touring the world, meeting so many different cultures and things like that.

I could definitely talk to you endlessly. A question I do have. is what is like the song tick tick boom has is in so many movie previews is that weird to you that that kind of like because I think that like a lot of times with like seven nation army like jack does jack white ever go like I made a stadium chanting song that's so weird

but like that I send himself all the time like I sent him when he first went off in like European soccer yeah kind of thing he was not quite aware of that and I sent him these like full stadiums like chanting it and then I sent him some tugboat that played it on the

like huge cruise tip or something like it becomes such a cool thing like we were even joking about it we're making it like yeah this sounds like an action movie song or like we thought it sounded like one of these songs that you use for the montage and like NHL with all the tackles and stuff yeah right

that's cool and then that actually happened. Like, it was very prophetic. We talked about it in rehearsed and then, and then, like, I grew up in the 80s. I loved action movies. Like, I thought that was fun, you know, like, whatever, the hard rock music they were playing during the explosions and stuff. It was kind of, we always, we thought it was kind of cool to, like, contribute to drop to that kind of thing. It's so awesome because it's like, there's like Thunderstruck, there are just these songs that just, they really, I mean.

It's also like Blitzcrieg, Bop by the Remem? Because I was saying I'm self-conscious about it, but they're like, what are these songs? Like the passenger with Digi Pop, Biscreeti Bok by the Monce, Thunderstruck, and there's that Gary Glitter, rocker roll, too. And I'm like, those are basically

my favorite songs. Like, why am I bummed out by being a part of that? Like, that's amazing. Well, I think it's one of those things. It's great too, you know. And it's one of those things, or it's like it maybe defines your music in some way to an enormous mass population.

but then there's also so many people. Damn, there's so many people who know so much other stuff and recognize that you, you know, I mean, that's kind of best case scenario. I'm totally fine with it. You know, you've got to realize that there's only so much people can remember about a band or a person. Like, it becomes character and people sell pretty quickly, like, you know, like Velvet Underground, Black Leather Jacket, Heroin.

You know, there's a few things about each artist. and, you know, just the fact that people know about us at all. Like, I feel like that's pretty cool. Because when we were growing up and we started men and stuff, we always thought that no good music was popular. Yeah, right. Snobbs. And then when we got popular, it was a bit of a like, oh, does that mean we're bad?

And now, you know, us being popular is really cool to us. We've grown into it. It took us 30 years to accept. Well, I also think that you guys are, have not changed. It's still the same style of music, even though it evolves. It still got all those. It really is. So it was a pleasure to have you. And by the way, get ready to see a huge bump in your career after this podcast comes out, obviously. We saw some great problems. And again, if you have not heard The Hives, obviously you go listen to them. But remember,

the new album, which is called The Hives, Forever, Forever, the Hives is out August, Pele, it was a real pleasure. Thank you for joining us. And for everybody listening, get ready to solve some huge problems without further ado. Hey, we're herdos. This is Sweet Jesse here to remind you to cast your vote in the friendship game. If you haven't listened to Episode 202, get in there and meet the contestants. Polls are still open. And I got to tell you, it's neck and This episode of We're Here to Help is brought to you by the great Hulu, specifically New Girl.

Make it a New Girl summer on Hulu and Hulu on Disney. Plus, guys, if you're listening to this show, you know New Girl. Well, look, it's all on Hulu right now. Hulu's looking for people to watch it. You've probably already seen the show. You've probably binged it. If you got Hulu, throw it on. Put it on in the background.

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strawberry like this. Go to kachava.com and use code here to help for 15% off your next order. That's Chava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A-D-com code, here to help for 15% off. Hello. Hi. Hi. Who are we talking with? Hi. Hi, this is Abby.

Hi, Abby. Well, you sound, are you nervous, Abby? Yeah, yeah. You honestly, you honestly, you should be because we actually have a guest helper today. So you have me, Gareth, and you actually have the great lead singer of The Hives, one of the greatest bands of all times. Pelle Almkavist is joining us, and he's promoting the Hives' new album, which is The Hives Forever, Forever, the Hives coming out soon in August 29th. So Peli is joining us, so we are going to solve your problem. Can we get your name first?

What's your name? I'm Abby. Okay, Abby, and how old are you, Abby? I'm 26. And where are you calling from? Portland, Oregon area. Beautiful. I'm sure you guys have played a lot out there, right, Paley?

Yeah, I've been there a couple of times. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. It is beautiful. Well, I'm very confident we're going to solve this problem. So what are you dealing with Abby? What can we help you with? This is actually pretty ironic that we have a musician on here for this one.

So I've been seeing this guy for a couple months And it's going really well He's really sweet But the only thing that's thrown me so far Is his music taste He listens to Soviet era military music Like the stuff armies march to And space race propaganda songs

Which I didn't know what the thing Until we started dating And sometimes to like play it in the car And I don't want to listen to it But also I don't want to hurt his feelings So I don't know what to do here Haley, what do you think of this? This is an interesting...

I actually grew up in this kind of environment. Not so much as I'm from Sweden and it's close to the Soviet Union and this was the 80s and 90s. It's not so much that, but my dad would listen really loudly to African burial chants. Wow.

Which is a type of music I kind of didn't know existed as in recordings. It's basically a bunch of women screaming their sorrow and pain out to drum. That's an interesting childhood soundtrack. Yeah, it's a tough listen. I just want to say that I think that I don't think it has a lot to do with who he is as a person. But I don't know. I don't know if there's a solution.

Like that's pretty deep end, like Soviet propaganda. Do you think it has anything to do with his political leanings? Or is it just, I think this song is really good. Is he Akami? It happens. Yeah, you know. You have to tell us if he is, Abby. I think this white power van has really good riffs or something.

Does he wear? It's going to have passed the Sovietness of it. Well, it's a good question. Does it bleed into other parts of his life? Does he wear sort of Soviet-era military uniforms? Oh, okay, kind of. Oh, seriously. Is it like post-may or kind of serious?

Is he KGB? It might be worth asking. I don't know. So I know he was really into like Russian history and all that. And like he, because we might not have dating out because that's how everything happens anymore. But he had on his profile that his first,

my first birthday, he got a shot glass with a hammer and a sickle on it. And he's got like a Soviet-era like bomb hat. It's just like a black day. And then he'll use up for Halloween costumes and stuff. So, yeah, he's How long have you been dating? The overinterest in history, that's how it starts, isn't it?

Yeah, right. Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, those who don't learn history are doomed to wear it and listen to it. Yeah. Like, it's been a couple months. Okay, so two months, have you asked him? Have you been like, hey? Like, you'll be driving in the car and he'll be like, hey, he'll be, you mind? Yeah, yeah, so the way I've gotten around this so far is I insist on driving everywhere, so I can play my music.

And that's worked so far, but I feel like we're going to run out of that soon. You're not going to want to drive forever. Yeah. Yeah. Does he also have like, when he listened to it, does his eyes kind of pan across the horizon in a heroic way? Yeah, is there a lot of that sort of wistful glares? Does he get a different, does he carry himself differently? listening to it.

Yeah. A little, yeah, because he's a writer. So it's like, it's, I feel like this is like his movie soundtrack. He's, he's a writer, you said? Yeah. What does he write? It's fiction, science fiction. Science fiction.

I know. I mean, honest, like, I'm not even, I'm not even communist shaming because there's a lot, but I, I think, I mean, this is honestly, like, this is like if you're trying to, if you find out your dating a, like you find hair like in the drain that looks like that of a dog. You notice that there are like claw shavings in your bathroom. His clothes are always ripped. I'd say you're dating a werewolf. I mean, you're dating a guy who has a hammer sickle shock.

There's more than commercial evidence, yeah. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of evidence piling up that you might be dating a communist and you just haven't had the conversation yet. Yeah, that's very possible. I'm not mad about that. No. It's a little strange, though, that it's one of the times when, I mean, I'm not sure communism has worked perfectly that many times, but I'm not sure Russia is like my pick

for the one that worked best. Yeah. It's in theory, wonderful. I get that. Everyone has the same amount of stuff. I agree. There's something very, sounds very good. Yeah, the positive.

In work exactly. What are we calling this boyfriend of yours? What should we call him? What's your comrade called? Call him what? The boy comrade. What's he called? Yeah, let's just call him comrade.

Comrade, okay. Conrad, the comrade. Have you said anything to, have you, have you, have you, Have you inquired lightly? Yeah, in two months have you been like, hey, there's a lot of marks around the place. Has any of that come up or anything like that? Yeah, yeah, a bit. And like I knew, so I think it was our first or second date when we talked about music for the first time.

Music case, and he didn't want to tell me what he listened to. And so the second time I brought it up, I said, okay, you evaded the question the first time. You need to tell me now. And he told me, and I was like, okay, cool. yeah and that's kind of where we left it and like he'll drop like I don't know much about Russian history but he knows a lot about it and like the space race especially and everything and he'll like he went to an aerospace museum and there was a lot I didn't retain a lot of the information but like he was going on about all of that so I think he's definitely

at least sympathetic to the cause but the main problem is I don't want to listen to the music I don't know what to do about that. But I think it's, yeah, I don't know. That seems like it's pretty easy. I'm sure a lot of couples have differing music tastes. I think, does he have any input on your music taste? Like, what do you like? I like mostly rock music, modern rock, old, some heavier stuff.

And he'll, because I'll play music in the car and he likes what I listen to. So that might Or if he does That's a pretty good angle I think Pele might have Maybe knocked into a little Because maybe I mean look we're talking

It's it might be time for a little bit of a war It might be time for once again America and the Soviet Union To have a little bit of an arms race Maybe the problem here Is that you don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to compromising. Now, my one pitch would be get him into the hives

because they are one of the best bands of all time and Pellé is joining us today. But what if you start playing some really obscure, terrible shit that makes him want to kind of reject your picks? And then you say, well, I don't like yours. You don't like mine. Let's meet in the middle and actually start maybe going through some iTunes

or something like that, and maybe we can come up with a couple's playlist that we both sign off of, because it's not wrong to, like, have different likes in your relationship, obviously. I think that's probably a strength. The problem is when you're sharing the space and you're listening to this kind of like

dark marching music or whatever. So maybe the move is to just kind of come up with some really, some obscure shit that he's not going to like, which opens up the conversation which leads to a couple's playlist. What do you think of that, Pele? I think this is good,

but I really like the idea of reframing it by picking something that you think he's going to absolutely hate in order to meet in the middle then, which is actually going to be kind of where you want it to be. Yeah, it's... You've got to kind of figure out where the ends are, and one end is his thing. And you can just say, you know,

I respect your decision to like this music, but keep it in the headphones. and then I agree keep it in the headphones there's actually one Soviet era military song that I liked

too I think it's called March of the Cossacks or something like that and see if you recognize it I actually think I know I do think that must be a pretty famous one

I feel like I know that it goes like no na na na na no yeah yeah she's like Oh, yeah, I've heard that a hundred times.

She's like, that's my hell. So maybe it's maybe something, like, maybe some really kind of light classical stringy music. Because that feels like it kind of will be a little bit on the other end of the spectrum. You could do, like, just maybe some Shikovsky, some stuff like, just some stuff that's... That's actually a rockman, though. Oh, it is. Yeah, right. You got to like that.

I think maybe you should... what's the most, what's the least common music there is? It's like Ted Nugent or something. Then you can kind of like, you can test out how political his interests are. But like, here's some Ted Nugent. It's America forever. And then you can, that's like kind of testing the waters as to how much political. Maybe it just like the music or maybe it is political.

And then I think the nude is going to bring it out of it. Abby, Dr. Pele just wrote you a prescription for 50 milligrams of Nuge. But maybe that's like, maybe that's a breakup move, though. It's like Kid Rock and Ted Nuddin, like that's as, you know. I really, it's so good that we have Pele on for this episode because those picks, in my opinion, are perfect. Now, obviously, you're going to have to run through the Nuzer Kid Rock fire to make this happen. But I would put out there a noog kid rock playlist. And I think with no irony, the next time he gets in the car, have some cat scratch fever playing.

And just it will chemically imbalance him to the point where you're going to have to have the conversation. Yeah. Okay. And that's how you blow him out. Yeah. Right. So I'm going full outside my music case and wait for him to bring it up?

Well, I mean, if you keep it light-hearted, like, oh, you want to listen to some comedy music, this is what I'm going to listen to now. You know, if you keep it kind of with a wink and smile, you don't have to be like aggressively pushing nudge down his throat. He's the only way to play nudge. You might as well just break up with him at that point. Yeah.

I would keep it, because if he can have a sense of humor about his, is, you know, other side of the wall music, you know, I think that's kind of fine. If he has no sense of humor about it, I think that might be a red flag. Well, his favorite kind of flag, by the way, though, Pele, so we got to be careful. He's into that. I would do it. I would say dealer's choice on it a little bit, Abby. If you want to put it on and sit there straight-faced and let him kind of process it to bring it up,

that could work. I also think to what Pele is suggesting, maybe you put it on. And when he's kind of giving you like the, what the fuck are you doing? Look, you say, so sometimes this is how your music sounds to me. And I love you. And I love everything that makes you who you are or what I'm sure. It's only two months. So maybe I don't want to say love him. But I really like you. I like a lot about who you are, but this to me is the one thing where in our shared space, it's music that makes us both feel good. Do you think we can find somewhere in the middle? And again, I'm not trying, I'm not saying this just because Bailey's here, but you might want to put on some hives. Because it's like, it's, it's rock, but we are geographically really close to

Russia. You're right there. You're right. He's right. I mean, really, you could not have a better pitched you're like look if we just go a little bit ease or west we're right there so yeah and also like i grew up in a socially democratic society which is like kind of the middle ground between american kid rock capitalism and you know his uh red army communism i i really think that you can also you can you can play some of their uh the hives enormous catalog you can also play the hives forever forever the hives uh starting august 29th But until then, I don't know. How do you feel about that, Abby?

How does that sit with you? I like that because I feel like this is going to like shake them enough and then start the conversation of, okay, let's make a playlist together that we can listen to when we're in shared space. I like that a lot. Is there a way that me and Garrett could get that playlist when you're done with it? Is that possible? Yeah. Yeah, do you want me to follow up?

Yes. Yeah, we'll definitely do a follow up. You can wear this lands. Like, what's the ground between your music then? But you know what, it is in all seriousness, it is kind of a great bellwether for a relationship to be like, hey, we don't see eye to eye. What is our couples compromise on this? So it's probably a pretty good indicator to get it out there in the first couple months to see how do you guys compromise? Yeah.

You don't both have to love playing tennis. Nope. To have a relationship. But the beauty of that is one of you can go away and play tennis and you don't have to do it up on the apart. apartment wall while the other person sitting there trying to like read or something like that. I will say our producer Wabi Wob pitched that just played the Star Spangled Banner on a loop. But I think we got there without that. So, well, Abby, if you feel good about that, we feel good about that.

So let us know how that goes and keep us posted. Okay. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, Abby. Thank you for coming. Hello. Hey there. Hi, how are you? Doing good.

How are you? Good. Good. Can we get your name, your age, where you're calling from, please? Sure. My name is Matt. I am 33, and I'm from Denver, Colorado. Beautiful Denver. Denver, a great city in America, where our guest, the great Pele Almkvist, lead singer of one of the greatest bands, of all time, I'll say it. The Hives is your guest helper today, Matt. Very cool. Awesome. Awesome. So we're on a roll, Matt. We just really crushed our last problem. So we're excited for this.

Yeah. What's going on, Matt? What can Pelley and I help you with today? All right. So I got a little bit of a backstory, so bear with me here. Sure. We went to Mexico back in February with. Who's? We is you and your significant other? Yeah, a couple of her brothers and some friends slash co-workers too and a bunch of us play music so we brought our instruments with us and the last night we were there

we wanted to go to the beach find a spot to play on the beach and maybe get a couple drinks and stuff so we roam around we found an awesome spot these people set up a campfire for us on the beach which was awesome playing music in Mexico and then there was this couple

few tourists and stuff stopped by and listened to us too and we were talking with them and they were uh they actually met at the parking lot at the fish at dix concert in denver so we'll start there pretty kind of granoli cool people though wait what did you just call it what was it no fish at dix at sporting goods they was deep at okay i didn't i'm not familiar the band p i thought you and i thought you're i thought you're i thought you're a jam band guy me are you talking about what is it a fish cover band at the sporting good store with them. No.

I didn't fish the band. But they weren't at Dix. No, no, no. They met at the parking lot of Dix. I'm just setting a backstory for these folks. Okay. They're kind of hippie, cool people. They are a jam-down fans. Yeah, yeah. And Matt, you were saying you thought I was a big jam-band guy, just to be clear. I don't want to get it. Okay. So you're just telling me I've got that jam-band

energy. I don't know. I'm just guessing maybe. You know, I'm like cool guys. So, you know. Well, it's a compliment. Thank you. Yeah. So anyways, so we're saying by at the end of the night here. And I'm not going to lie. It's last night in Mexico. So kind of drunk, having a fun time. And I'm talking with this woman. And she tells me about how her mom passed away or something. And she said something about $100 bills. And I was kind of, you know, sidetracked. Someone else was talking. Like I said, a little drunk, unfocused. And then she says, so we give a little piece to Frankie or something about Frankie. And she hands me this small little vise. And she hands me this small little vi. And I just kind of slipping in my pocket, and I'm like, she either handed me drugs or her dead mom's ashes. I don't know. I'm thinking it's ashes. So I'm kind of freaking out a little bit. It's kind of weird.

I just gave her a hug. The one way to know is always to do a bump. That's the only way to find out if it's mom or Coke. Apparently, Keith Richards snort is then. Actually, I've heard that as well. So you survive snorting a disease. The afterlife, right? We've got a picture here.

So, it's a nice little bottle. It looks very classy. It's got a cork, a string, a small $100 bill, and in it is some powder. Yeah. And it looks like gashes. What's funny about that, Gareth, though. Oh, sorry, go ahead. What's with a small $100 bill?

Or maybe you don't know. They're just tiny little prints. it out things is what I'm assuming. But what I was going to say was before I found out that the answer is in there, I just flipped it in my pocket. And I just went back to the house. I was telling my friend, like, you've got to go back and spread this in the ocean or something. I can't go back to the states with this in my pocket.

And I pull it out and I just see the many four, the four mini $100 bills. And I just start laughing. I'm like, oh, it's not that. So I go back home to Denver and I tell my friend about it. And he's like, buddy, I think there's something in there. And that's when we realize that we have some ashes in there. So I guess my question is, one, what do I do with these? I got them still.

I don't know what to do. It's been hanging out, kind of at my house around. And then two, is there a way to try to find this person or connect if someone else has gotten the same thing from these people? Like, I'd love to know the backstory because I don't really remember exactly what she said. Well, you know? I think, yeah, wow is right, obviously. If you find everyone that has the little vile, could you like reconstruct her? That's a movie, by the way.

A movie is finding all the people who have the actions, and together you bring Frank back. And that's the title. It was Frankie. Sorry, no disrespect. It was a disrespect to dead, you know. Yeah, no. It's a... I'm assuming they're doing it to spread her as far and why.

as possible. I'm assuming that's the idea. Maybe there's something cosmically beautiful in that, to these people at least. I actually, yeah. As far and wide as possible, like, why else would you, like, obviously she knew you were, you weren't from Mexico or like you weren't going to stay there. So she knew this would end up somewhere else, potentially. I definitely agree that I kind of do like that idea just on its own of we're going to, you know, try to spread our friend around as much as possible.

There is a bit, it seems a bit indiscriminate to just kind of be on the beach and be like, hey, take Frankie. Yeah, exactly. It was a little shocking at first because, you know, let's just say, if it was 10 years, I'd go ahead and been like, what the F is this? Like, no, thank you. But like I said, I just let it in my pocket and moved on. It was kind of sweet.

You know, she's a very nice, they're very nice people, you know. So I didn't want to be disrespectful, you know. It's, yeah, it's a little, but like, I mean, I wonder what kind of reactions they usually get, like, are people, like, you got to assume that pretty few out of a hundred are going to be really into the idea of tearing a bit of your mom with her pocket. She probably just finds the drunkest person around. It is very personal, isn't it? Well, I'd like to think that I was not that person, because we had another person in our group that was wandering back alleys trying to find pallets of wood and kind of cut himself a little. came back, we found them, but you know, he went off for a bit.

Have that person call the show at some point, because it sounds like there's some help needed there. Paley, I would imagine people have given you over the years some crazy shit. Sometimes with deep... Blood and things like that. You've gotten blood? Yeah, all sorts of things.

We both hand it to me and like in the mail. I mean, yeah, people send weird things. What do you do if someone gives you blood? What's your next? I avoid it. I think I don't tasting it

yeah you don't drink it yeah not anymore at least yeah a biohazard line I think

like ashes is probably a cleaner option then but I agree I really I mean

I find a nice spot in Denver and maybe spread it and then you got to assume that this Frankie person is like everywhere it's hard to know I think they wanted you

to keep her in the bottle like at your house but and what's with Or do you bury the bottle or do we do a send-off or something, you know? I mean, that's kind of a, as far as I've gone with that, I don't get the $100 bills, though. It is a puzzling edition.

Yeah, and that's what I'm trying to figure out. Like, it would be, it would be cool if anyone who is listening, if they've had either had this happen, know of someone that this has happened to this exact kind of thing and would reach out to you guys on the show because I'd love to connect the dots and get the story, you know? Listen to Matt. Do you see what he's doing? and he's trying to use our platform Paley for his own benefit. What happens to that is we don't call the damn thing. Yeah, right. Really, the reason I called was like, what do I do with it?

I thought about the connection thing a few days ago, and, you know, I just thought I'd throw that out there. But, yeah, like, you know, do we have a ceremony? Do we just put them away? I mean, it's better than sitting on top of my microwave, I'll tell you that. Jesus Christ. There's better places. I don't wonder what if the $400 bill.

It's like, what's with the $400? Maybe it's like, I'm from the country of Vikings. Our barriers were like, you cut the head off a horse and put the horse in and you put some slaves in that you killed and you put some gold in, all the stuff you need in there after like, maybe Frankie needs like 400 bucks. You're like to go to line up, you're out of the whole calendar room. I don't know what it is. I mean, when you compare anything to the way the Vikings did it, it seems shittier, obviously.

I mean, that was, is it the Viking funeral? How many vials there are? It might be like a million dollars. Well, there didn't look like a lot of, it didn't look like a lot of ash. It didn't look like there was a lot of ash in there. So my guess is that. There's like hundreds of those things. There's got to be hundreds, which maybe makes you feel a little less burdened in the fact that there's, you know, they're probably not.

They're probably handing out a lot. of these because God knows if you think you have a problem in ashes that was definitely not quite a full body

yeah they've got a pretty small while but not that small it's cash and ash yeah I actually Matt I'll be honest I don't hate the idea

of one of two things us maybe using the show to see if anybody not necessarily has gotten this I mean, that we could float out there. But maybe the thing is to say, if someone has pitches on what would be a good send-off for Frankie,

it can almost be like we can run a win Frankie's Ashes contest. And if someone wants them, we can get them. I'm telling you, I'm out of the running. Pele, I'm assuming you don't want Frankie's Ashes. But I also feel like there's something in the woman handing it to you specifically. Yeah, maybe. You out of a bunch of people. And I think that there's, in your future,

there might be, I did like a nice hike up to a mountain and then where, you know, it's beautiful there. You can just kind of, you know, to be like that scene in the big Lebowski. The big Lobowski. She can't hit with many $100 bills in the face. I don't hate it either. I think there is maybe something kind of, what Tepela was saying,

something kind of cosmic about the idea of maybe just, taking, like having it with you for a little bit and seeing if somewhere jumps out as a good place to do it. It's kind of a lot of pressure and also really no pressure because you don't know who this person is. But Denver is a beautiful place. I love Denver. Yeah. I mean, I also think that the more I think of it, and if I use my prejudice a little bit, this sounds like a jam band idea to me. Yes, very much. I think I'd agree with you on that. This is a fish burial.

You talk about a Viking funeral. Maybe this is how they always do it. You know, I... Just have a thought of the fish gig that gig, you know. They're not doing that gig again. I was going to say, they're not doing that gig again, but they're actually playing in Boulder this weekend, but I'm not going to be up there.

Like, I could have gone up there and put it somewhere, but I don't know. I'll think that advice. I'll sit on it and I'll think about maybe like yeah like maybe a spreading somewhere nice would be the proper thing to do but I might just hold on to it for a bit and see if there's any

other ideas. Yeah you might story pounce out and grows you know maybe this is or maybe go to like a jam band forum and see if this is a thing in their culture. Actually that's not a bad idea. Maybe they're on a forum and I could put that up there and maybe find them that way or something. That's not a bad idea. I like that idea.

Anybody else got some Frankie here? Yeah. Well, what's going to be funny is walking around a concert trying to, like, talk to strangers. If there's any undercover cops, they're going to be like, this person's dealing something. And really, you've just got to, but it's not going to look great when you have some sort of powder with bills in a vial. Yeah. I do like that idea. I just go around, game.

Is this your mom? Yeah, or could like, hard to recognize. But maybe the bills are. LSD. Have you licked the bills? That's the first thing we thought about, too. No, I'm trying to avoid licking the bills or snorting the ashes or anything like that, you know? Yeah, I see that.

Well, I like the idea of dipping into a forum. I think you could do that. What I would do is, how long have you had them? How long ago did this start? Oh, this is back in February. Okay, so you've had them for a while. Have you been walking around, like, with a little bit of a little bit of a start? intention to be like what would be a thing or have you just been like frankie lives on my

microwave well no okay now just to clarify i took for that was only a week or so but i i had it in my guitar case for a minute i just put it on the tape it's just it's it's it's i brought it with me here um or at home with me here i'm down in philiter right now but uh i brought with me here just in case you know i needed to examine it for any reason but uh but you mean on the show yeah yeah i mean i forgot i had sent you guys the photos before so no we're not going to ask you to examine the ashes are there any bones in there matt um no no bones yeah i'm assuming it's a big sign of respect in their culture i think you should be very flattered yeah the jam band oh yeah i think so giving you their dead to keep i think i i really

do like the idea if i mean you are in you are in jam band Central. I think maybe the cleanest move might be to go to a jam band show. And if you don't have a willing taker there, I would maybe just let the ashes go at a jam band show. Unless something else jumps out at you as the kind of beautiful situation where you think you're going to punctuate Frankie's existence, that to me feels good. Do you feel good about something like that, Paley? Yeah, I do. I think that if it's a damn band fact, I think being blown around by the air from the soundways from the speaker during a particular guitar solo would be a way to go.

Yeah, maybe take a mushroom cap and let the moment catch here. What do you think of that, man? That's pretty good. I think that's a good start to get me moving in the right direction, yeah. Get you moving in that way. I like that it's like that you're treating the... with respect, you know. I agree.

Yeah, for sure. A lot of more terrible people would have just, you know, thrown it away. At the airport, put it in the trash. You're really trying to do the right thing by Frankie, which I appreciate. Yeah, of course. I mean, I just imagine I would like the same thing if I was crazy enough to hand someone, some of my relative's desk. I'll be honest.

I really don't hate that idea for like a death. like if I were to die like I wouldn't mind being like put my ashes in 50 vials and over a month find willing strangers and hand me out let's just see what happens I mean you're playing with drunk as person and hand him something you know yeah that was a little strange obviously um yeah well Matt I think that sounds pretty good I think you I think Paley really knocked it out of the park I think you want to go to the jam band and um you know and who better to know than one of the lead singers of one of the greatest bands that I can remember. So you've got a great musical influence.

I think you've got Frankie. You're in Colorado. There's a lot of kismat nature to this. Go to the jam band and let the solos carry you. Yeah. Well, sounds good. Well, thanks, guys. And I'll keep you updated if we find out any information about Frankie and them.

So thank you. And don't forget that August 29th, we've got the hives forever forever the hives the new album coming out so pick that up okay do you understand are you going to do it you got it all right good i understand i got to go do it all right matt thanks guys all right buddy welcome good man hi guys uh this is abby i am in portland oregon and i called earlier about the new boyfriend who listens to soviet era military music you guys gave me the advice to play a ultra

American playlist. I believe, oh my God, who's the guy? The dude who sends cat scratch fever? Ted Nugent. You recommended that I put Ted Nugent like Kid Rock in there and play that and wait for him to say, hey, what the hell's going on and then make a playlist together. And I did 90% of that. I had a playlist already made with like 90s-era country music that I grew up listening to that I listened to when I'm homesick. And I had that on in the car. And when we got in, I just let it play. And I was like, okay, well, this might work.

Because I had the American playlist on standby, but I was worried about playing it because I didn't want to make them feel bad. But anyway, so I just let that play. And then after, I was like, oh, I'm sorry. You don't like country music. And he was like, yeah, it's not my favorite. And I was like, well, here's a crazy idea. How about we make a playlist together? And he was like, yeah, I like that idea.

And he has a playlist that he called Normie music of, like, actual normal songs. A lot of his classic rock, like there was some Billy Idol and Billy Joel. And I'm trying to think of something that's not a Billy. But, you know, like white snake and stuff. So normal music. And we made a playlist with stuff he likes, stuff I like. and we've been listen to that in the car. So it's been good.

Your advice worked. So thank you. You can ring the bell. We're Here to Help is hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds. If you'd like to be on the show, please email us your question at HelpfulPod at gmail.com. And if you want to watch video episodes of We're Here to Help, you can go to our Patreon at patreon.com slash here to help pod.

to see our entire catalog. We're Here to Help is produced by Rabbit Grimm Productions, executive producers Rob Hollis, Jeff Porter, and Natalie Hollis, associate producer Jesse Thurston, editing mix and master by Chris Fowler. The theme song by Oliver Raleigh. The cover artwork is by James Fostike,

animations by Andrew Strelecki. And if you'd like to see Gareth, you stand up on the road, go to Garethreth Reynolds.com. Remember all of the advice, given on we're here to help, is for entertainment purposes only, and all listeners should be adults and make their own decisions.

all video episodes of season one are available now on patreon and season two video episodes will be available every Monday starting January 20th go to patreon.com forward slash here to help pod what's up everybody? I'm Kyle Mooney and what's up everybody I'm back by and man oh I got we got something to tell yeah we definitely do yes it's a brand new podcast on headgum that's right and it's called what's our podcast yep and that's because we don't have a single idea what our podcast you'd be about. Yeah, we don't. So we actually have guests come on and they tell us what

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