349. - Spoon

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcasts. or watch on YouTube let's go baby how long gone we're back oh another beautiful week in Los Angeles California another beautiful Nissan ad thank you for your hard work on that Jason And thank you to all our sponsors, even the ones that aren't advertising on this podcast. Yeah, and thank you to our listeners for using the fast-forward button if they want to and listening to the ads if they want to as well. I know that ads are a bummer, but, you know. I disagree. I think ads make the world go round, and if you don't, watch the Super Bowl for the ads. I don't understand you. I agree. I think we're in a world where Patreon and patronizing and crowdfunding and GoFunding, it's one way. But I think both of us love advertising in general so much. We like products so much. And I see commercials all the time on television that are just bad. And I remember watching commercials and being like, oh, that was cool. That was interesting. That was fun. I liked it. I might even be endeared to a brand so much because I like their ad that I'll support the product, and I think that can still happen. That's right. Every commercial you see doesn't make any sense. It's just like a quirky, irrelevant thing. Hey, man, it's called creativity. You should try it sometime. That's not a problem for me, Christopher. Unfortunately, sometimes when you take big swings, you can also take a whiff, and that's kind of what the advertising industry is built on.

Regardless of that, thank you to Nissan. Speaking of advertising, Jason, it sounds like you fell victim to some advertising and went to see the Scientologist promotional vehicle Memorial Day weekend behemoth known as Top Gun 2, or is there another deck for that headline? I think it's Top Gun Maverick. Okay, okay. So you went and saw a classic dum-dum, big weekend blockbuster movie where there's a throwaway Lady Gaga song that was on a hard drive in Mark Ronson's storage locker. Tom, there's Tom Cruise wearing his heeled boots to make sure he looks over five foot three, even when he's flying a plane. Can you explain to me what compelled? Did you just want popcorn or were you actually interested in the movie? Brother, I asked myself the question as soon as my ass touched the seat at the AMC Glendale Theater. I think it was a little bit of like, hey. We're all ready to go see a movie in the theaters, but there haven't really been non-Marvel movies that felt theatrical worthy, theater worthy. And, you know, just the right amount of people had said publicly, like, hey, this is one to see. This is it. They've done it. They captured the spirit that we miss from being a kid. They actually nailed this one. It's a home run. I bet they did. And guess what, Chris? It was not a home run. Of course it wasn't a home run. You're telling me that you read somewhere that something was good, and then you went and paid your hard-earned U.S. dollars to see it to support this country on Memorial Day, and you were, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but disappointed? You were disappointed? I should have known better, of course. We all should have known better. We all saw this coming from a mile away. That's right. But I guess a little bit. Sometimes you just want to go to a mall and buy popcorn and a Coke and sit with everyone.

And experience group emotions together. And going to the movies and watching a film with a hundred strangers is actually a special cool thing that should be preserved. I thought your group emotions were experienced more often at the sauna, at the equinox. But I guess this is a different sort of emotion. Yeah, that is one of my favorite group emotions to have. And it's a group you can actually see there. their face you know that's that's yeah well they did finally replace the light bulb at the glendale one but oh that's nice it was nice to be in the theater to be you know like we all watch movies at home on the couch while we look at our instagram and zillow and the real real and that's just what it is so it was nice to like watch a a stupid trailer and have you know like three guys behind you like laugh at it like that's that's kind of nice to see like a group Not a hatred, but a group realization that what we're doing is stupid, but we're still doing it. At the beginning of the film, before the opening credits run, it looks like a State of the Union thing where Tom Cruise is in his trailer somewhere, and he's pre-recorded a thank you message. to the audience watching it, basically saying like, hey. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Before the movie starts, he's thanking you because he knows that the money has been deposited and it doesn't matter anymore what you think about this garbage that he's about to put onto the big screen. That's genius. That's genius. It's a little bit of that sort of guised as, hey, I think we're out of the COVID woods now and we're ready to go back and see blockbuster movies and have a fun time. And you're all getting to do that because I'm Tom Cruise and who's the doctor they told you to go see. Yes, of course. So it's him kind of thanking everybody like, hey, thanks. We got to remember that us rich movie stars, we don't do it for the check. We don't do it for Xenu. We don't do it for Sea. Of course not. What's the boat, the Scientology boat called? Sea something? Sea Ranch? But we're doing it for the...

The movie fans, and this is, remember why we do it and why we sacrifice our lives for you people. Yeah, for the letterboxd power users, for Siskel and Ebert, may he rest in peace. But it had the feeling and vibe. Remember at the beginning of COVID when Tom Hanks did that thing when COVID first came out and did that kind of creepy self-shot video? It kind of had that feel, and I'm like, you guys were on a... a bruckheimer movie set for a year and a half like you couldn't have filmed it doing that it had to be on like We instead shot it on Ricky's iPhone in the hair and makeup trailer. Well, they wanted to feel real and authentic, which I think is important for these kind of movie stars that live in the clouds. Do a little something. It's a TikTok style. Exactly. We're doing everything in a TikTok style. Jesus Christ. Overall, I would say Top Gun. It is worth seeing it in the theater. They kind of tied it all up in a nice bow. The writing was made for children. Let me guess. It's three and a half hours long. What are we looking at? It actually wasn't that bad. Is it two? It may have been two. It may have been two. A movie like that should not even come close to two. That should not touch two. That should be an hour and 25, and I would say you could even slim it down after that. I don't want to enter into the shorts category, of course, but I think we could trim it down. two hours of shit blowing up is, I mean, I guess I said this last night to Al. I was like, I just don't smoke weed anymore. That's really what it comes down to. Like this, this would never even cross my mind to go see this. Not because I'm smart. Cause I'm obviously not, but it's more that I just can't, I don't have the capacity. to just take an L to the head and just let this thing take over my life. I just can't do it. I don't know what the larger message of that is, but I know exactly what you're saying. I was not able to see that film.

Stone Cold Sober at 3 p.m. on a Monday. I definitely had to inebriate myself. You had a couple of Sapporos in you, some rose edibles. You maybe hit a pre-roll. I know how you operate, TJ. I've seen your... No, I just hit the bong before we got in the car. The parking structure was a little tricky. Oh, man. There's nothing cooler. You know how many blunts I've smoked in a fucking rental car in a parking structure? I remember going to see... Vanessa Carlton was playing somewhere at the... No, no, at the Beverly Center. I don't remember this at all. It probably paid her a lot of money. And I just remember sitting in the rental car getting absolutely ripped in the fucking parking structure. And, of course, I did have some difficulties finding my car when I left. I did. I didn't have to pull out a flashlight or anything, but I was a little bit confused. And the drive home, I was putting others at risk. There's no question there. A little tough keeping it between the lines down Wilshire. That's right. Well, it's a little bit like which lines are which. Oh, like what are lines? Exactly. Are you telling me that society is trying to fucking box me in? That's fucked, bro. Speaking of... You know, smoking weed. We do have a guest today. We have the Cheech and Chong of 90s indie rock. I don't know if he chiefs, but legendary frontman of the band Spoon, Britt Daniels, joining us today on the podcast. The new record Lucifer on the Sofa from our friends at Matador is in stores now. I want to ask Britt about his beautiful head of hair and also about the time I saw him at Sweetgreen and see if he's going to deny that. You know what I mean? Kind of see what the dressing story is for him. Interesting story. Well, he looks so great for his age. I kind of want to know what the secrets are, Jason. He does. I can't play guitar, and obviously my head is shaved, so all I can do is hopefully eat salads to keep my waistline trim. He plays as many blues rock riffs as Marc Maron, and he looks, I don't know.

11,000 times better than him. 11 times? Oh, easily, easily, easily. So, yeah, we have a lot to get into what salad dressing he's having as Sweetgreen. I also, full disclosure, I think in 2007, which was unfortunately 15 years ago, I did book Spoon for a live concert at CineSpace back in the day. So I'm sure he doesn't remember that. And if he does remember it, the memories won't be fond. So let's give Britt. A Zoom, and we'll talk about all of this and more. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, so do our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world, writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly, a website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could, you know, have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools so those future graduates can find me. And, you know, I'm able to accept, quote, unquote, donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. Show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early. And we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional as your competition, if not more. So head to squarespace.com slash howlong for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code howlong to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable.

And they're just easy, but, you know, still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. You know, they focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics, but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated. but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada. That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking... Something put together, a cabinet. Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf. TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. And, I mean, how it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture. repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a Tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because Taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive, and that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world,

is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app. using promo code HOWLONG. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book Trusted Home Help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code HOWLONG with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. There we go. Britt, thank you for joining us. How are you? Good. Is Alex on? I'm here, yeah. Alex is on. What's happening, man? Is Alex security or just press? Both. Alex, how's it going today? It's going pretty well. Did you get out of your video game K-hole? Yeah, I got out of the video game K-hole. Right? Is that what you were doing? Last night, yeah. I had a feeling. We were all band texting about what we were going to do on our day off, and the only person that wasn't responding was Alex. Because he had the headset on. He was kind of in the zone. I was in the zone, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so we're recording with Alex and Brent, just to clarify. Yes. So you guys were just in San Francisco. You got L.A. in a couple of days. So now we're just cruising down the Cali Coast. Yeah. So, Alex, what video game are you currently addicted to? There we go. It's called Elden Ring. Elden Ring. I have heard of that. It sounds like a bad movie, but I'm guessing that it does it have. What is the vibe? Like, what are you doing in this game to get points? You're basically trying to. Save the world from itself. Oh, I don't know, Chris. This game's about saving the world from itself. It's not like Sonic the Hedgehog where you've got to get a bunch of rings. Okay, so you're virtually saving the world, and what are we looking at on an hour count? Are we looking at you can do this six, seven hours, or are you limiting yourself? The sad and frustrating thing is when you go to quit, it tells you how many hours you've played. Oh, shit. Elden Ring is doing you dirty by doing that. Do you know why they would do that?

Other than shaming? It might be a source of pride for some people because this game is like notoriously difficult. Like the makers have made other games that have been impossible to beat. I quit playing one of them because I got to a point where I couldn't return. Now I'd have to start over. Okay. So it's kind of like the infinite jest of video gaming. Basically, yes. But yeah, if you can beat it real quick, it'll be a source of pride for you. You can show I beat it in this amount of time. Okay, okay. My time counter is not great. Jason, this is like when I screenshot my screen time on my iPhone being much, much higher than a normal person's and being happy about it. Yes. It's what it sounds like to me when I kind of shoot you the eight hours this week. It's a point of pride that shouldn't be a point of pride in terms of... mental health no exactly does this require alex's does this game require like any yeah brit if you want you can just pick up a book we're just going to kind of talk about i understand you guys make music or something but yeah i'm not we're a video game podcast now we just decided sorry honestly i'm intrigued because alex is always playing this game but i don't know a thing about it i just see him but brit didn't take the time to ask about his interests did he I see you back there in the back, but I never thought to ask. I kind of thought it was a personal thing. Well, hopefully we'll beat Elden Ring one day. The really sad part is I did beat it, but there's two alternate endings. Oh, no, no. You went back to the well because you had to see the second one? Yeah. I like that so far that every time you've... said something about this video game you preface it with here's the sad part and then when you said something again you said right here's the even sadder part and i kind of need that you know there's i'm a rule of threes kind of guy so i'm hoping for one last You know, I did have to kind of kill my family to win this game. That's the real sad part about it. Well, I'm glad that you – what do you play this on? Is this a computer or is this like a video gaming system? On a PlayStation 4. Is that a point? Is that an issue for you? They got to up your salary or what's the problem? I can't find one. They sell out real quick. Oh, really? Really? Really? Okay. Yeah. Well, you know, Santa Claus listens to this pod. Maybe someone will bring something by at the end of this year. Yeah, maybe.

I think it's time for you to just bite the bullet and overpay to a laughable amount. That would be the even sadder part. I can't bring myself to do that. Well, we have a good listenership of people in the gaming world. I'm sure that a lot of these creative directors and people that work at different startup companies might have an in. So, listeners, if you're a spoonhead. and you want to help Alex out with a brand new PS5, send me a DM and I'll set it up. I won't tax you too hard. Well, Britt, what did you do on the day off if you weren't gaming? I rode my bike around. I went to the beach and walked along the beach. That's about it. I had a margarita with Gerardo and Jim. This is a real dichotomy. That's like a real normal person's day off. This is a view of every band on tour, though. I think this is a very common kind of, you know, everybody has their way of decompressing when there's some time. But I would say that a walk on the beach alone is the exact opposite of playing a video game. Yeah. I don't get to get out in nature very often on these days off because usually there's something else going on, press or travel, you know, or else we'll be in the bus all day. But, yeah, it was a really genuine, full-on, relaxing day off. I like, you know, you can kind of take the boy out of Austin, but not the Austin out of the boy. Even on tour, we're still having some margs and cruising in a JK living, McConaughey kind of style. Yeah. And I applaud that about you. Yeah. Well, it's important. I agree. Where are you guys today? We're in L.A. It's beautiful. Both in L.A. It's great cycling weather. I'll send you some routes if you'd like, Brett. All right. What kind of cyclist? Are we doing distance in like the spandex, the singlet? we more of a casual rider uh i've got one of those fold-out bikes yeah he's on the road yeah i throw it underneath the bus and um I don't know. I love it. It just helps me get places fast. That's right. And your other option is the bird scooter, so you chose wisely. Yeah. I've never been on one of those. Alex will do it. I love throwing stuff under the bus too, but it's usually just Chris. So I'll check out the holding back. I have to say something, and this is embarrassing to me, and I want to help Alex. I'll shoulder some of the burden. But I have also ridden a bird scooter, and in Europe, I find it exciting.

acceptable but in america i won't touch it you've got yeah you've got a reputation stateside where you can kind of exactly go under the radar sorry i watched hubgun yesterday so i've got radar on the mind but i actually i don't know if you remember this i said on the intro but booked spoon or spoon played at a party that i threw in hollywood in 2007 oh yeah kanye was there Yeah, that's right. We had an over-under on if you remember it, and I see that there was luckily a reason for you to remember it. Well, that's cool. I didn't know that you were involved with that. I mean, I don't remember how it got put together, but, yeah, I remember that show well. I remember, and that was, I think, with the Watson twins as well. Yeah. You know, it seemed like Spoon was an odd choice, but that happened a lot, and I always liked doing that. because it was just full of people who were on ecstasy who wanted to hear rave music. I remember one time we booked Lou Barlow, and he was like, what in the flying fuck am I doing here? Eleven people watched him, and they were all guys who worked at Amoeba. But you guys had a line around the corner. It was a great party. Yeah, I remember it going down well. I met Rick Rubin that day. That's the other thing I remember about that. Really? Not at the party, obviously. Off-site. Not at the party. He wasn't at the party. We went to his house. This is before he decamped to Malibu. There was like a Hills house, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it was pretty amazing. You know, just like exactly what you would. I'm sure it was zen as all get out. Was this for a purpose or was this just a general meet and greet? It was. There was some consideration of signing us and we. We went through this phase. This was right after Gimme Fiction came out and right before Ga Ga Ga came out. And we sort of went through our second feeding frenzy with labels. We love a feeding frenzy. There's at least a few good dinners in it. I know. Rick Rubin took you guys to Katsuya. It was great. Big night for you. Yeah, I mean, I think meeting Rick Rubin or getting invited up to the house is kind of like a little...

A rite of passage. Britt, this is the American recordings phase. I think he was just about to start working with Columbia. Okay, okay. And in the end, we just stuck with Merge. We didn't switch labels at all. You said, that don't impress me much, Ruben. That's exactly what we did the first time with Ruben. We went with Matador instead of Interscope, Geffen, or Warner Brothers. Smart. I don't know. We either were very smart or we didn't learn a thing. Either way. I mean, look, you're still doing it. It could be worse. You know what I'm saying? You know, the history ended up being on your side as we've sort of learned that we don't necessarily need the major label machine to find success. Right. That moment, yeah, it was a good moment for rock and roll and for... I guess you'd call it independent bands or something. Did Rick kind of impart any wisdom on you? We didn't get that far. What I remember is that the house was just like this, exactly what you would picture, like an old mansion, Spanish-style mansion with all kinds of amazing just gadgets everywhere, and it was kind of dark. Like where he was seated was underneath this actual taxidermy of a huge polar bear standing up. Yeah, I believe that polar bear is featured in the Jay-Z documentary. Okay, yeah. Or maybe the video. But I've seen that before and I've never been to that house. So he's kind of – it's an imposing figure. And he knows exactly what he's doing. So he's sitting right underneath his – Like, Cordoba's kind of on a throne, but well underneath this polar bear. Yeah, if you Google Rick Rubin and then the letter P, you know, polar bear follows right after. Oh, is that right? It's like a 10-footer. It's like a big bastard, yeah? Yeah, I guess my story checks out. Oh, it checks out. There's a photo of Rick Rubin sitting next or standing next to the polar bear. And he's kind of wearing all white and you can't really tell who's who. The best thing is he didn't acknowledge it whatsoever. You know, he just kind of let us let us into this room. He goes and sits underneath the polar bear. And we had these, you know, we probably were in one of those a little smaller, like a little lower, a little bit lower. He didn't acknowledge the bear whatsoever. It was just like, this is casual. You know, like he happened to get that chair kind of seems like his vibe. I saw him once.

At a smoothie shop in Malibu. Oh, you're talking about Sun Life Organics, I'm sure. One of the best smoothies in LA. I'm waiting for my smoothie, and a man walks in, and it's Rick Rubin. He doesn't say a word to anybody, and just walks to the counter, and they hand him a fresh coconut, and he's eating. There was no conversation. There was also no money exchange. No money, no conversation. Rick walked in, and left. That was it. When you're at a little neighborhood coffee shop and a dog walks by and they know to give him a treat every time kind of thing. Exactly. Get his coconut ready. But yeah, I was just standing there with my friends like, what the fuck? Malibu is its own kind of planet in some ways, where stuff like that I feel like happens more often there than anywhere in the metro Los Angeles area. Probably, yeah. But part of the draw to signing with Rick Rubin is that he would at least consider producing your album, or did that not? Did he not even offer that at this stage? We didn't get that far with it. Yeah, I bet no matter what happens, he'll give you advice. I'm sure you've had a lot of those conversations, as many as he has. I bet I remember more about it than he does. Okay, look, you might be right. You might be right. But I don't know if the – I'm always – the interesting part about him producing the album to me is the whole guru approach to production, which I feel like maybe – Could be my calling later in life because I don't really have any technical. Since you don't know what any of the knobs do? Exactly. I don't have any technical abilities, but I know when something feels good. I think that's exactly what he does, yeah. Exactly. So I could have a guy that knows how to touch the stuff, and I'm just kind of feeling it out. You want to walk into the studio and be like, all right. Fire your bass player. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so one thing, you know, when I was talking about before about booking you in 2007 and I was making a remark of like, fuck, I feel old kind of thing. A lot of musicians, not even, you know, ones that have been around for a long time, have been complaining lately about labels and everyone telling them, you guys got to get on TikTok. You guys got to get on TikTok. It's not about the songs. It's not about the blah, blah, blah.

Have you guys felt any pressure to do that? Is that something that your label is trying to push you to, or do they just know better to not even breach that topic? Not TikTok specifically. I mean, we certainly are encouraged to play the game, but Alex, do you remember, have they pushed us into TikTok? I think they made one. They made one for us? I mean, we haven't personally done anything with it, but I think I was told that there is one. And what's the visual concept? I have no idea. I haven't looked. It depends on which one of you guys is the best dancer, and that's kind of where you start. I guess maybe a better question for you, since you mentioned playing the game, is through the years, have you noticed that there's always something like this that's just been repurposed? Now it's TikTok, but... You've gone through multiple iterations of, quote-unquote, the game that you have to play that nobody really wants to play? Yeah. There is always a game. You're right. Have you liked any of the games, or have they all been? Because sometimes the game is like, oh, you got to do this. And you're like, oh, that's not bad. I get a little check. It could be worse. Some people really hate the entity of radio. I like radio. Yeah, you don't mind getting up at 5.30 a.m. to go talk to Boneyard and do a couple acoustic songs. That's what I don't like. You know, when you got to play like a radio, like a big radio show in an arena. It may be strange, but I don't really mind that. And I just love being on. the radio. I listen to the radio a lot. So you, yeah, I read that you have a room in your house where there's always the radio playing 24 hours a day. That's true. Yeah. Does the station rotate or is it just one station? I try to rotate it a little bit, but in Austin, it's usually KUTX. So what is it about radio that you find yourself drawn to? Other than the commercials. Well, sometimes I like being in charge. And then sometimes I like it just being an experience where it's not an algorithm. It's actually chosen by people. I like that. And I like some of the personalities. It does feel very personal. I mean, I think that that is something that we have lost. I mean, Jason, have you heard of NTS? Maybe I have. I don't know. What's NTS? NTS is like an internet radio thing that you pick a genre, but it's hand-selected.

So it's kind of like the best of both worlds a little bit, and Jason swears by this for some of his little ambient music that he likes. But it's a little bit of a combo because it's picked by a human, but it's seamless in a way. Yeah, you can either listen to a live feed where there's always live DJs playing music, or you can kind of go back and stream past shows. But instead of just like, here's a song, and here's a song, here's a commercial, people will make, a playlist and have it kind of mixed together. And it's like a whole, I mean, I like the breaks where they tell you what the artist was and, you know, have the whole thing going. I like that too. I think I found out about, I find out a lot of, about a lot more music that way, you know? And also we have, we have a lot of decision fatigue going on in our lives with, you know, what to choose all the time. And it really is nice to just. Just put the fucking radio on. I don't want to think about it. Even if it's something bad, I'd rather listen to a bad thing than pick a good thing. I picked a bad thing last night, Jason. We watched a show about a cult leader. named Teal that I had never heard of, and it was completely caused by decision fatigue. And I'm going to check myself in soon. It's a shame how much it can really stress you out. No, it's crazy. Which Elder Scroll mission you're going to go that day. Yeah, exactly, exactly. The constant flipping around is, it is, I mean. Yeah, I know what you mean. I've subscribed to Disney Plus ever since Thanksgiving just so I can watch that Beatles. thing i mean if i could buy it once i would but i can't so i keep thinking for you forgot to unsubscribe we've all been there no i just want to i don't want to not have access to it it's like a fun thing to hit up oh so you're saying you're going back to it you watch it all the way through but then you want to go back to it sometimes yeah i go back i've heard a major takeaway from that were the looks There was a lot of inspiring clothing going on that I think was a hot topic of conversation in my world along with the music, of course. Well, speaking of the question I was asking you before, I was recently reading an article that was talking about kind of the TikTok-y algorithms changing how we're listening to music and a lot of people are listening to old music.

More so than current contemporary music, like modern music sort of shapes the culture and the zeitgeist and everything, but people are actually listening to older music more often, craving music that's not like a synth loop algorithm kind of thing, but actually has musicianship going on. So do you guys feel like some of your back catalog or just your catalog in general of music that's actually real? Has experienced a little uptick lately? I mean, that's what we wanted to do with this record was make something that was completely real. You know, not that our last record wasn't real, but there were a few loops and there were some drum machines. And it was a very pieced together record. And yeah, we wanted to make one this time that was much more like an analog record made in the 70s was. Right, right. And also a spoon loop is different than a Billie Eilish loop. Probably. But is that true that people are listening more to older music? Is that something you can... Yeah, no, it's real. And it's not even like music that's like 60 years old or whatever, but, you know, even just music like five years ago, it's a huge difference from what's being made now. And I think a big part about TikTok is people are taking old songs, speeding them up or slowing them down, washing them out in reverb and kind of creating these new sound bites, essentially, or whatever, you know, five seconds worth of audio. that they can then do a stupid fucking dance to or something, you know? And then that will then take the original and that song will be number one. The biggest, the example that's being used right now is Kate Bush. Yeah. Like it's number one on, on, I believe it was number one on iTunes because it was in stranger things. Yeah, I think a lot of the time that has to do with music getting placed like that, too. Britt and I talked about this, I think, in a different interview a while back, but it feels like whenever there's a climax in a TV series or an important scene, they're never using something that was recorded recently. There's more emotion in that, always, because they're actually playing it.

at their keyboard, you know, like typing away. You're right. We often, we talk with musicians on this podcast a lot and we love to talk about syncs. and maybe a life-changing sink that you've had monetarily or one that you turn down that you deeply regret? We prefer life-ruining sink stories, but if you have a positive one that you'd like to brag about as well, that works. I want to know how you were able to afford that Swiss chalet, and hopefully that was from a McDonald's commercial or something. If you guys have anything you could offer, that'd be great. Honestly, I can't think of one that I regret. Alex, have we done any bad ones, Alex? I don't think so. At this point, it's kind of like it's just like an essential form of income because the streaming shit is so bad. If you get a sink, take it. Take the money and run. So it used to be a nice little icing on the cake that you didn't expect, and now it's a revenue stream that a lot of people really depend on. Even further back, it was like any kind of sink or placement was frowned upon as selling out. But at this point, the way that the whole financial system works, it's just brutal. Maybe the reason I don't have any I regret is because we've turned down the bad ones. And I remember when we were editing the video before I turned my camera on, me and Autumn DeWild, who was the director, were in this big editing facility in L.A. And we were there for, I think, a couple days. And, you know, well into our stay working on this video, I heard coming down the hall another one of my songs. Small stakes. And so I go down the hall and the door was... I say, hey, guys, what's happening? It's me. And they were cutting a Hummer commercial to Small Stakes. Oh, shit. Small Stakes, big car. And you're like, hey, I wrote this song, guys. I'm like, yeah, yeah, can you close the door, please? We're kind of busy. Yeah, exactly. They seemed a little embarrassed, honestly. And the sync did eventually come to us, and that's one of the ones we turned down because I just didn't want.

It wasn't the right time to do a Hummer commercial. Sure, sure. Luckily for you, there still is not a right time to do a Hummer commercial. Yeah, that didn't age. That wouldn't have aged well. I've seen many emotional Ford F-150 commercials in my short lifetime. That's a good point. Most of them were scored by Bob Seger, and that was recorded on tape a long time ago. Damn, you're right. Seger's making a lot of money off truck commercials. That's a good point. Like a rock, brother. Right. This shit wasn't on Logic, goddammit. Exactly. The only Pro Tools I got is Craftsman. So did Antonov produce your whole record? No, he didn't produce any of the record. Or he was just helping out. But he just came over to my house one day in 2015. We came up with this track. But we didn't have words for it. And then for years I would go back to it and sing a little of this, sing a little of that, and I didn't really ever love it. But finally in 2020 when the pandemic came, I said, okay, I'm going to sit down today and I'm going to make it happen. It's going to be good. That's what you said. You know what? If I do one thing during this damn lockdown, I'm going to finish this song. Right. And it finally came together. Did you guys have a tough time during your COVID break or did you make the best of it? Who got buff? Who got fat? You know, stuff like that. Dentally, it was a tough time for a second there, yeah. Yeah? We were in Austin, and then we couldn't get together for a while, so Alex went back to L.A. in one drive. What? In one day. Yeah, I went home. Alex, were you pissing in the Gatorade bottle? No pee-pee breaks? No, I stopped to pee, but, you know, it was like, it was so early in the whole thing, nobody knew. how it all worked yet oh yeah you know i don't know if i want to stop by the hotel like every time getting gas you know i was putting on gloves i mean this was still when people were like wiping down their groceries coming back from jason's still doing that um but early days i'm still bleaching my bleach we don't we don't like to talk about it so you did a so you did a solo drive and you're saying what what is the hour count on that 15 no i was like i think it was like 22 ish oh shit

So you did 22 solo? Yeah, I did, yeah. Right through. Sorry, cool. I mean, that's kind of what COVID was for, to do some crazy shit like that, because, like, what else are you going to do, you know? And also, the roads are just clear, you know? Yeah, there was something really nice about, like, after being stuck in a room for, like, you know, a few weeks at that point. It had only been a few weeks. um just getting out into like very open space like that yeah you you took the you opened the tesla up i i can imagine you're on [redacted address] i can see it right now and you get to hit the road with just you and your whatever you want to listen to and do instead of a bunch of these fucking bandmates you didn't yeah you didn't have a dog or anything with you right this is true solo yeah just true solo free solo i did I did that from New York to Atlanta, and I made a lot of stops in hotels, but this was further along in the process. Right. And I can't really handle it. I like to be alone with my thoughts, but something about the open road makes it more emotional. Don't run away from your emotions, Chris. I kind of like that. Lean into it, brother. Were you listening to books on tape? What was going on? You know, I can't remember what I was listening to, but I was definitely listening to a lot of music. Probably, most likely, texting and driving. Thank you for your honesty, Alex. I appreciate this. That's a good share. The cops don't listen to this, but I know that you're felt and you're seen here. It was just like, I had to. It was too long. No, no, no. I got it. By the time I got to Palm Springs, it was really windy. And that was like at the peak of my tiredness. So I was like real white knuckled. Oh, yeah, yeah. Over there with the windmills, you really got to kind of keep your hands on that wheel gripping. Yeah, it was getting rough over there. Especially when the Molly's wearing off after Coachella. I don't know. Now, was it trucker speed, Red Bull, classic cocaine? What was kind of keeping you fueled? You know, so like the truck stop coffee seems to be extra jacked up. You know, there's like normal coffee, normal coffee, normal coffee, and then there's...

one that's like extreme coffee. And I would always get that one. And Adderall. Thank you for the dramatic pause on that one, Alex. I appreciate that. Well, I mean, as people who have driven across this country and the world for decades now, through the years, we've talked about the evolution of TikTok and music marketing. But what about... Amphetamines that we use to stay awake on the road for hours on end. How has that changed over the years? Are we in a good period? Are we in a bad period? Do you miss something that is not legally available to be sold anymore back in the day, something like that? Alex. Britt's like, you've already opened up about your drug use. Maybe you can drive this one home. You take this one? I go pretty clean when I'm on the road, honestly. So you guys are talking about... The beauties of analog radio, listening to some classic rock while you're driving across the country. I'm saying all this sounds like prime podcasting time. Pro podcast? Are we anti-podcast? What are your thoughts on this? Not anti-podcast, no. Okay. It's okay if you are. Chris has a podcast and he's adamantly anti. Are there people that aren't anti-podcast? Is that a thing? This is my co-host, Chris. Waste of time. No, no. I used to. Listened to a lot. When it first really hit me, I would listen to four or five. I was also, to be completely transparent, addicted to OxyContin. So I would kind of just zone out and listen to five hours of podcasts. And now I can listen to 30 minutes here and there. But it reignited my love for music in a way that I didn't see coming. You didn't know what you had until it was gone. Exactly. It had taken over my listening. And now I literally only listen to music, really. You were edging music. I was edging music, yeah. But, I mean, I don't know. I just can't. I think when you do something, I don't know. It's not the same with music, but when you do something all the time, it's tough to listen to it in your off time.

That's what I was going to say. It seems like now that you do podcasts all the time, you want nothing to do with it. Well, because you hear all these bozos trying to do it, and you're like, this sucks. You know how it is, guys. It's like when you walk into a record store. You're like, this shit sucks. There's a new Spoon record. You guys buy this. This other shit's bad. Well, but you also have to know what the rest of the market is doing, what your competition on the shelves at Amoeba are sounding like, so you've got to know your enemy. But I think you bring up an interesting... point that um like i listen to a lot of howard stern the god and there's times where i'll have to force myself to stop at this point because you know especially if i'm working on a record i'll get to where i'm just listening to howard stern and i need the it's just you know it's weird that these podcasts and the availability of this talk radio or talk you know content that you didn't used to have it can take over so to the point where i'm Not listening to as much music, you know, and I need to hear that music. It makes me feel good. And it's especially, you know, it kind of informs your inspiration a lot of times when you're. making music it helps to hear great music and i was gonna ask you that so it helps you versus like hindering you to listen to music while you're making your own yeah it helped yeah i'm not one of those people that's like i'm not gonna listen to anything other than my own music i just i think that's bullshit i mean that's insane yeah that's why you go tripping it's like what you think you're gonna reinvent music it's you know i i think that if i listen to um something that's you know one of the greats you know, a Stevie Wonder record or a Beatles record or a Prince record, or that will fill my mind with thoughts, you know, whether they're lyric, lyrical or, you know, form, form wise or instrument wise, you know, or even just jealousy of like, fuck. Oh yeah. But that, I mean, that's the kind of stuff that, that pushes you to create some excellence on your own. If you're just listening to Howard Stern.

That counts, too. It's good to hear somebody's record and be like, God damn it. That is so good. I need to try to do that. For sure. Totally. Have you done Howard Stern before? I've done the wrap-up show a couple times, and we were played. We recorded a session, and he played some of it, and he even talked about me. In a positive way or negative? In a positive way. He had watched our performance, and I guess he liked the look of me. And he told the way that his, he talked about, he talked about how we played these songs. One of the songs we played was a John Lennon song. He loves John Lennon. I knew this. You're pandering to your audience. A little stern bait. Yeah, exactly. It was great. You know what you're doing, Brett. And he was telling Robin, you know, his sidekick. Yes. He's always telling her that she, he's going to hook. grew up with someone to get married and i was the person that day he looks like a nice guy good looking guy you know i think this is who you need to get hooked up with this is this is the one you really need to settle down with damn that's a great that's great that's like that's got to be big for you as a listener i mean that's like it was Totally bizarre. You should have called in. I didn't hear it live. I would recommend this to you, but you probably already have it, but the book that they publish of all of his interviews where he kind of gives you the insight before reading the transcript. Howard Stern comes again. I haven't read it yet. It's great. I didn't read it all the way through. I kind of go back to it from time to time because it's a pretty thick tome. Yeah, I got to read it. That sounds awesome. His taste in music is very interesting, though. I feel like he would have Stone Temple Pilots play every day still. Yeah, he's exactly right. Really? Yeah, dude. He loves rock. You know what I mean? Selective and interesting taste of music. There's certain things that he... His favorite Prince record is the Batman soundtrack. And he brings that up all the time. I thought I was setting my way. But he also loves the Beatles and also loves Led Zeppelin. The classics. He loves Train. He loves Train. Yes, he does. And there was a birthday party. He had like a crazy birthday party.

And he had wild bands play the birthday party. I think Third Eye Blind, which is one of my favorites, played during a good era. And he was really amped on that. He was really psyched. But he was sitting at a table like an American Idol judge. while bands played for him at his own birthday. It must be so cool to be so beloved and legendary like Howard Stern that you could publicly admit that you like Train and nobody talks shit on you for it. You know what I mean? He likes what he likes and he has integrity. That's cool. I agree. Yeah, I think the honesty is what gets him by because he doesn't waver in that. He doesn't waver in that. But yeah, in the book, it's like his breakdown of how he became, he went from being like, the shock jock like i'm gonna ask you about sex to being more of like an introspective and and uh different style of interviewer i you know i don't listen i don't listen enough to like notice a shift well there's there's been a huge shift i mean i i wonder how much of that was a reaction of his own design and how much is just like oh I will get canceled if I throw baloney at this girl's asshole again, you know? Yeah. All of that is true, probably. I think luckily for him, he came to that realization kind of before that had to happen. Smart guy. But yeah, that mention is great. That's a Hall of Fame mention, Brett. It was unreal. It was unreal. So that means that you're not only listening to terrestrial radio, but you are paying that premium for the SiriusXM subscription. Yeah. And you get a little outlaw country in the truck, too. I do a lot of listening. You guys have trucks? Come on, be honest. No, I don't have a truck. I'd like a truck. Yeah, we were in a truck the other day, and we were talking about this. It's actually kind of nice. Yeah, I think trucks are having it. Jason drives a truck, and he obviously thinks it makes him like a real man. What kind of truck you got? It's a Nissan truck. It's not American. Uh-huh. Hold for applause. It's a Nissan Frontier. Nissan, full disclosure, is one of our sponsors, but that did not influence my decision. There is something about a truck, obviously, besides the utilitarian use of it and the kind of inherent value that it has above a standard car. People look at you in a way that I wasn't used to being looked at as like a man, you know? Right.

It's a positive thing. No, it's all positive, but it was an experience that I'd never felt before, and I liked how it felt. I don't know who this guy is, but he's useful. I'm afraid that if I pulled up in the 350 dually, people could still look at me and tell I'm a pussy. The 350 dually is too big. You're trying too hard. That's little dick energy. You need a nice, normal truck. If you live in Texas, though, I guess a truck has a different connotation than L.A. It doesn't stand out as much. Yeah, exactly. It's fun to be in a truck for some reason. It's more fun than a van. It's more fun than a car. It's not for you, Chris. It seems like it's a little bit of still. I see a lot of guys hopping out of the yellow pickup with a matching sweatsuit on, and I don't think those guys are able to do anything with their hands. I've hauled. Oh, last question. You guys canceled on us twice. And I would like – I'm not looking for an apology, guys, but just maybe an explanation. Is that true? Yeah, that's right. And this is what these guys always do. You're going to blame it on the PR, and I get it. I would too. I am completely unaware of us having had an interview set up. That's why you're the star, baby. And that's why we're the lowly media. I have no idea what you're talking about, bro. I mean, I knew that they were trying to schedule it for a while, but I didn't know that one was scheduled. It's okay. Well, I apologize. I apologize. No, no, it's fine. It's a good hang. No, no, no. Don't worry. Don't worry. The other question, Britt, just quickly, is I believe that I saw you once at a sweet green. A sweet green. You're familiar with the salad restaurant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if that was you, I would just love to confirm what your kind of go-to dressing is. You know, just like a balsamic vinaigrette is pretty good, you know. Okay, you're keeping it light. A ranch. Oh, okay. Now we're talking. Now we're cooking with gas. Which one was it? The sweet green that's over by – This was in New York. This was Kinmare. I don't know. Well, I could recognize that beautiful head of hair anywhere, you know. And then, you know, even – this is pre-mass, though. So, you know, I didn't want to interrupt by asking if you like the cashew. But, you know, I'm glad to know now that you're a vinaigrette guy. Yeah, afterwards we'll contact your PR and we'll get your email addresses.

Put some sweet green bucks into your account. Don't worry, it's a little gift from us. Fuck yeah. All right, Spooned, thank you for joining us. And you guys are in L.A. this week. Yeah, L.A., go see him at the Palladium on Thursday. The new album is Rouse. And we appreciate you taking the time, guys. Yeah, man, good to talk to you guys. I recall.