412. - Whitney

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. Last night we were DJing in the Lower East Side. What's up? How Long Gone is here? DJing in the LES. That's right. We'll talk about that later at our show tonight in Williamsburg, but not on this show because I'm going to say stuff that will hurt people's feelings. Oh, I didn't know. Wait. That's a good tease. 40 tickets left for tonight. So you feel crazy. If you want to hear Jason talk shit on people that you know and love, apparently you've got to pay $25 large to see that and take the L to Brooklyn. metaphorically end. Oh, wow, that's good. Take the L to Brooklyn. I took the L to Brooklyn. No, I'm not talking shit on people that you know and love. I'm talking shit on strangers. Strangers that are stinky bitches. But I woke up and had some Nespresso in the hotel and a banana. A couple Advil nursed my hangover. I also just recently learned today. My hotel room has a mini fridge in it. It was almost a trap door vibe, so unfortunately I let some good hummus die. I could have been chilling it this whole time. It's tough over here. We love a hummus. Yeah, I got home last night at probably 12.30. Then I had to get my shit together. We're looking at 1 a.m. The alarm.

Went off at 5 a.m. I'm looking at four hours straight to it. But, you know, the silver lining here is that I got to visit the all-new, beautiful LaGuardia Airport in New York City. I have to say, it is nice as hell. Are we calling LaGuardia New York City? I mean, it's Queens, so yeah. I mean, it's very nice. And then I flew to Atlanta. What time was your flight, your departure this morning? Like 7. Okay, so you took a later one. Yes, because I knew I would be out. After a Them Jeans DJ set, we all have to sleep in as much as possible. Ply's voice smelled like pussy in here. I'm taking the 7 a.m. Ply. Damn, Chris, I didn't know you were a pussy. Yeah, I'm not super happy with it. I know there's a six, but I just think that would have been OD. You're good. I didn't need to be here. So I touched down at Hartsfield Jackson. Seamless transition to the Enterprise rental car where they had a car waiting for me. I have a four-door. uh dodge charger and silver leather interior so i'm i'm i'm back on my fucking bullshit i'm about to do burnouts in the parking lot and um and i made my way just an hour a short hour and [redacted address] nothing that a joe budden podcast you know doesn't help fly by and i'm now coming to you live from the higher regency in beautiful downtown athens georgia and let me just say go dogs jason okay what does that mean for people who are not Straight white guys. That means the football team at the University of Georgia is the Georgia Bulldogs. And when you're encouraging them and hoping for a victory, you would exclaim, go dogs. Okay, what is football? You keep saying that word. So you're there because you're doing like a book reading, posting thingy? Yeah, my friend Christy Bush is a photographer. She had a book come out with Bitter Southerner called Familiar. I'm talking to in conversation with her tonight for 200 students at the University of Georgia on campus. Do you think we're going to have any dog goners in the crowd? I believe so. I'm going to assume so. It's probably not our strongest market. But that being said, it's going to be fine. And then I'm back on the blue eye tomorrow.

to make it back to money-making Manhattan so I can hit a Barry's in the afternoon and then go straight to Williamsburg for our show with Hari. I got to say, it's so crazy that you're just leaving New York for one day and doing this and then coming back for our very important show, All for Books. Well, I would like to say this, Jason, and I know you couldn't understand as a person who doesn't read, but also it's not a book you read necessarily in this case, but I just think this is more of a testament. It's still got pages and shit. It's more of a testament to how great of a friend I am, Jason, and when somebody asks me to do something, I show up. Hey, could you do our show in Williamsburg? There's me asking. I'm going to be there. There's no problem. There's no question. I have all kinds of time. Well, what if? There's a lot of, you know. Things could happen. We could get a little weather. There's no weather. I've already, of course, checked the forecast. Your plane could crash. That's true. If I die on a Delta flight from Atlanta to New York, I would rather die in Delta 1, but this is kind of how God served me my papers. But no, so I'm down here in Athens. I'm feeling like I got hit by a fucking truck. I'm going to check out our boys at Maypole. for a little nutritious meal. Then I'll do my little talking, and then hopefully I'll be able to get five hours of sleep, and then we do it all over again, baby. And then Saturday night, we got Coscarelli's wedding. The movie doesn't stop, bro. This is a 190-minute James Cameron flick. So Chris Black... The mouth of the south is circumnavigating the eastern seaboard up and down, left and right, while I'm just sitting around eating my nanners. I mean, you had to perform on the deck. Well, yeah, I mean, I had to perform last night. I'm a cereal bag chaser. I had to go collect. And you have to do the same, right? I'm sure they're paying you a nice little sum, right? No, this is unfortunately more of a break-even thing, but I'm not coming out of pocket, so that is a positive. Okay, moving on up in the world, Playboy.

I think I want to, you know, when it comes to molding young minds in the arts. It's called grooming. Called grooming. When you're grooming young photographers, you can't really put a price on that. You know what I mean? You can't really put a price on that. How are you feeling today? Because we did, we hit Corner Bar last night for dinner. Yeah. Which was a motion picture. The amount of people I knew at Corner Bar last night at 8 p.m. seemed extravagant even for me. For everyone, it's kind of like, it felt like. I was, you, you go to dime square and then you go to nine orchard corner bar to let it's like sitting at the, the adults table. Yeah. No, a hundred percent dimes. And then like everywhere else is like the kid's table. What's the place that lay bar or whatever, lay dive. Yeah. I'm not going to sit out. I'm not going to sit on it. Like the fact that people sit on the street must have me fucked up in that nasty ass neighborhood. Like that's crazy, bro. Having your little aperitivo on the block while, uh, You know, a guy with no pants on is shitting on the sidewalk. It is pretty cool. Pretending like it's not happening. I said this to you last night, but it's pretty cool that that place is fucking rammed eight days a week because they face the tables out instead of in. There's another place in L.A. in Eagle Rock that does that called the Capri Club. And it's like, what if we sat outside? And we all face the street and across the street, there's like a tire, like auto body center. And then like on the other side of it is like an old person's home where like, if you can sit outside, maybe you'll see one of the grannies getting hauled out on a stretcher or something. You know, watch the world go by. It's not like being in Paris where it's just like hot chicks smoking cigs. You know, it's not the same experience. It's literally like I'm looking at dirty rainwater or a person has just died and we have to kind of take them to the bus. But yeah, Corner Bar was good. I mean, usually those types of restaurants where it's very overpriced kind of restaurant basics, you know, shrimp cocktail.

steak-free tartare kind of shit. I couldn't fault any of the food, other than the time where they didn't bring out the fries. But, you know, what are you going to do? I mean, I was impressed because, as you know, I go to restaurants for the scene, not for the food. The food is good, and unfortunately we didn't have time for dessert because we had to rush off to your gig. But we did see literally ten people we knew, which made the experience even better. Yeah, shout-out to How Long Gone alumni, Nate Freeman, who, I caught on multiple occasions, I don't know if you will like me saying this, but he's a member of Clouds Nation. He was busting fat fucking milky clouds in Corner Bar, you know, a table full of guys wearing suits, art critics, and... You know, wealthy to-do type folks just blasting milky clouds. And blasting clouds. No, the clouds were milky as hell. That's what happens when you have a kid. You start vaping, you know? No, you have to. You have to. You got to protect the lungs. And we saw a friend of the show, Beverly, who broke her foot partying. So we're just going to pray for her. Been there. Yeah, we're going to pray for her. She says she's spraying both ankles partying. Damn, bro. Damn, that's... Pretty cool. We saw Emile again. I just feel like it was just a non-stop murderer's row of friends of the program. Well, we were able to reunite with Bren Trill and Jeff Henney, who you haven't seen in a while, but it was nice to have Bren back in the mix. I just feel like she was off the grid. She was in Switzerland for three weeks doing whatever she does over there with her little watch movements. It was nice to have her back stateside. She was at Rolex Burning Man for three weeks. And it was also shout-outs to a friend of the show, Charlie, for rocking up to the DJ as well. Charlie XCX came to Ludlow House to watch Jason play his 15-minute RIP takeoff set.

She was sipping some, of course, well-made cocktails with her team. I love sipping cocktails with my team. It was good to build with her. She looked great. I was going to get a mic, but she said she didn't feel like it. That's true. I didn't want to pop that on you. She said, Chris, it's $25 for a walkthrough. And I said, I don't have that right now. 1,000 or 25 drink tokens? I believe. I tried drink tokens, and she said, no, 1,000. So that's when I kind of hung it up. I know the British pound is suffering right now. The recession is really having a tough time over there. So maybe 25 large. Yeah, it goes far. We could have swung it. She's going to South America to do some shows after, I think, like Monday or something. So I'm glad that we got to catch and build IRL. She's on her come to Brazil shit. She's on her come to Brazil shit. But yeah, look, it was a classic New York night. And I do feel like things are turnt up in New York right now. I don't know. I feel like there's three things to do every fucking night. Well, I'll tell you what happened. There's a few factors. First of all, TJ's in town. Okay, sure. That affects me greatly, of course. Lock up your aunties. Yeah. TJ's in town. And then also, you know, LA is 20 degrees colder than New York right now, which is an unprecedented thing in November. You know, it's fucking... All day long yesterday, I had the windows open in my hotel, fresh air flown, wearing shorts and shit. It was beautiful. It was city bike boys all across the city. I rode from Ludlow over to Central Park. Jason said, I'm good in any neighborhood below 125th. Yeah, and shout out to all the listeners of How Long Gone who were lurking me in the lobby of the... Penguin house. Penguin random house. You would say penguin house. Penguin house? I was over at penguin house, bro. The chicken fingers there are not bad. Oh, come on. Random house penguin? Is that what it is? Penguin random house. Yes, Jason. Penguin random house. Can you spell any of those words? I can spell all those words, bro. I invented house. So, penguin random house. I was up in there checking out all the books. I invented house. Bro, you're dumb as fuck.

God damn it. I did a podcast with Matt Rodbard, who did How Long Gone? A While Ago. He has a podcast called The Taste Cooking Podcast, something like that. But it's a food podcast. I'll repost it when it goes live, probably in like a month or something. Okay, thank you. The gears over there at Random House be moving slow, you know what I'm saying? But I was in the lobby, and we were looking at all the books they have there. And he was like, oh, here's a section of all the books that we published that won some awards. And then right in the middle was Body Keeps the Score. And I was like, oh, hell yeah, my chick got that one on the shelf for sure. And he's like, yeah, mine too, brother. Mine too. But, yeah, that was really good. But I got some intel from some Instagram followers saying, like, multiple people who work in the office spotted you in the lobby. And it was, I don't know, it wasn't causing. rumbles on the company slack i'm assuming but yeah but those who know had eyes on it it was a doom walk kind of sighting yeah a lot of people were like going to the kitchen to get a diet coke at the same time to kind of catch a glimpse of big bird in his not natural habitat but shout out there was one one nice man who had the cojones to come up and say hi and pay his respects. I think his name was Yvonne. Oh, he was also over 50, so that's good to hear. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, he wasn't. He was an executive pimp. He was looking good. Okay, so you can be a CEO over there and be under 50. That's good to know. We do have a guest today all the way from beautiful Chicago, Illinois, Whitney. uh you know them as max and julian uh they have a new record that came out that has i think two cell phones in the cover it's called spark it's in stores now wherever you stream music um let's uh let's go to the windy city and see you know what's up with these guys because they had to unload some gear you know so i just want to make sure their backs are okay let's ping whitney and see how they're back doing oh this is huge for me personally this episode of how long gone

It was 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 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. 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. 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, sort of 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 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, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. You know, 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. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down. The news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world. And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions. But how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcast. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. And I also want to point out that since this photo of me was taken, I have gotten LASIK eye surgery. So if that's something you guys are interested in, I could kind of walk you through what that's like and how it feels. So you never wear glasses anymore? Or do you wear fashion glasses? Okay, first of all, I take offense to that. And no, I don't. I would say I don't see perfectly. I would say that would be an overstatement, but I see better than I ever have before. But it does cause some dryness in the mornings.

which I've spent upwards of $200 in the last year on drops, probably. So it's something to kind of think about before you make the jump. What's your brand? Real Tears? Yeah. That's what I made your chick cry. No, that is, yeah. That was Whitney's second album? Yeah, that was, yeah. I thought you guys, wasn't that an EP you guys made? Yeah, Real Tears. How bad was your vision before? My vision was bad, and I've worn glasses since fifth grade. I had a break, and then my friend put me on to the influencer Newport Beach eye surgeon. He works with a lot of high-profile models and influencers like myself, so it was kind of a no-brainer. I can't even tell if this is a real conversation. Is that right? Do you guys do a lot of podcasts, Whitney? First one. First one? No, come on. It's not your first. Is it really? Not true. We did one with Fader with our buddy Alex, but we had no idea. No one at Pitch Perfect, no one at Fader let us know that it was a podcast. So we thought that we were speaking in order to read. You thought it was just an interview that was being transcribed for print at some point. Exactly. So if you knew that it was a podcast, then you may have been a little more... everything i'm assuming that kind of sucks it was a weird feeling because i was like i don't know if we really would have changed anything i just i just would have no it gets you spiraling because you're like damn i guess this is just how i talk yeah do you guys listen do you guys listen to podcasts at all sometimes i feel like when my basketball team is doing well i'll like listen to those podcasts and be like oh come on you guys oh you i said we got some basketball freaks on our hands and Can you explain to me why podcasting and basketball are so closely intertwined? Because I cannot figure it out for the life of me. I can't really either. I don't know. I think basketball heads are like just true heads and they want to listen to something about basketball all day. Yeah, but I would say a true head and a true fan will listen to your team's podcasts even when they're not.

doing well, you know, you got to support, is it the Bulls? Yeah. Oh, he's Blazers and the Bulls. Yeah. We got to support those Blazers and the Bulls even if they're not on a winning streak, guys, okay? Make sure you buy stuff from their subscription ads as well. Does that ever cause problems internally with you guys because you're kind of rooting for separate entities? No, not really. It's kind of boring. We, like, we root for each other's teams too. Oh, that's cute. I like that, guys. That's nice because it's, you know, it's like a two-man operation. We're in a similar boat as you guys, you know. But neither Jason or I is interested in sports, unfortunately. So we don't really have that problem. We like playing them more than watching them, I guess. I heard y'all were into tennis. That's true. Yeah, we're tennis players. You play? I did. It's like two relationships ago, I would play with them. And that was fun. So you're saying you're XX. was a tennis player yeah she like grew up she like played in high school it's really honestly i think it's like an incredible uh activity to do with a partner i don't no no no bro uh no but he said that his church if your girl was playing like competitively in school and stuff then she's you know and then she's good as long as it's evenly matched then it's a great thing to play with the partner But if one person sucks ass and you're over there at the Four Seasons hitting around, it's not going to be so fun. Yeah, you have to be evenly matched. And you have to root for the opponent. I like your take on competition. You've got to root for the opponent. You know what I mean? Yeah, you guys do a lot of rooting for each other, for partners, for all this stuff. You guys seem like nice, kind, sweet, well-balanced young men. Is that safe to say? Where do you let the steam out? When does the hate start flowing? That's a good question. I don't know. Call of Duty? We just follow that. Oh, no. Max has been playing FIFA. Yeah, I play FIFA. He's like a 16-year-old angsty teen boy. Are you meeting any friends through your gaming? No, no. I'm not a very social gamer. I'm there. I'm not a social gamer.

I'm not here to make friends, brother. I'm here to break hearts. Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing. This is really putting me on blast as a gamer. No, no, no. FIFA, it's the beautiful sport of games. It's fine. It's a sweet science. And I'm sure whenever you finish all of your homework, your mom lets you play, what, two, three hours a day, right? And you can kind of start dominating. I remember that Drake was a big FIFA guy. I think he got so into it they ended up hiring him to kind of promote the game. So you're in good company. No, FIFA's sick. I think it's a good, respectful game to play versus, like, shooting aliens until 5 in the morning, you know, while people scream racial slurs at you. Do you guys do any gambling? On the sports, or are you just fans? Let's be honest here. Never has. We got a bookie down in Miami. If you need any action, just let us know, all right? I just feel like that's genuinely such a sad – well, we have friends who do it. Are you saying that degenerate sports game? It's a sad road. I kind of agree with you, but also I talk to my friends who are into it, and then they tell me about it, and it's – first of all, I cannot comprehend it. It's a lot of data required to understand it. But also, they throw out these numbers. I'm like, bro, you're talking about 300 bucks. Like, who gives a shit? I want some high stakes. Like, 300 bucks, like, that's dinner. Like, what are you talking about? But also, that's the thing. It's like, if you keep it at, you know, I lost 300 today. You know, that sucks. But I'll, you know, I'm not going to have to sell my house type of thing. But, like, it's a slippery slope, I'm assuming. And once you get to a certain point and you can't say no, you can't put the. You can't put the whatever Drake app uses. Steak. Drake uses app. Yeah, you can't put the steak app down, and next thing you know, your family's leaving you. No, for sure. Your kids are asking you, why don't we have Christmas this year? Because Daddy fucking thought Ole Miss was going to take it. Daddy really loves his trailblazers, sweetie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm lucky that gambling just doesn't appeal to me in any way. I've never even played cards in Vegas. I don't know how to do any of it. It's because you're a loser. Dude, playing cards in Vegas is fucking pimp as hell.

I mean, I'm sure it's fun, but I just don't. I feel like it requires learning, and I feel like that's a waste of my time. It's like a board game. Why would I do that? I'm an adult. You've seen the Drake videos of him betting a mill on roulette. On virtual roulette. On video game roulette. I've heard that he might have a problem, but luckily it's a sponsorship. So I wonder... I guess the question is, is that his real money or is that steak giving him the money to gamble so he can show people on his Instagram? That's the real question. I feel like there's some legalities going on with what you can do in that world. I feel like it has to be some real shit. Yeah. But I just feel bad. I imagine all of his baby mamas watching that just like, so you're just going to – I could really use that million dollars. for diapers in college. He's only got one baby, and I'm sure she's well taken care of. No, no, no. One baby that we know of. Yeah, that's a good point. Drake got bodies all over the place. That's true. Did you guys just get back from tour? Because we were trying to reschedule this to push you up this week, and I was told that you guys were unloading gear today. and couldn't make it. And I was like, how long does that actually take? Are you guys using a lot of heavy electronics these days? The day that we were supposed to, or what, that was two days ago. Yeah. Shade I've ever, damn. No, I was just like. I really appreciate it because I was like, damn, that's some shit I would say. I'm like, oh, I really have to do a very specific thing. I'm not going to bullshit you. I'm going to give you the real stuff. I'll tell you the truth. We have a really depressing storage facility. How depressing is it, Whitney? We have to go home and lay down for a while. You need a break. You need a little break. You just drink a glass of milk and stare at a wall for a few hours after you move in there? It walks out the whole day. But our sound person, Charles, he's entering a chili cook-off.

He had to test that. It was like a whole event. He was making his chili at our house. Oh, don't tell that to Chris. Yeah, so we have to reschedule. We're doing the chili cook-off tasting. Round one, of course, and then we'll go to semis. so we won't be able to reschedule. No, we don't mind you guys rescheduling or not being able to reschedule. It's totally fine. Yeah, it was a joke. Chris just hates chili that much, which is why I'm enjoying this a lot. I do hate chili. Whereas I am a chili lover. Chili is poor people food, and that's just not something I'm interested in. But what kind of – is there a specialty, or is this something you just like to warm yourself with as the temperatures drop in Chicago? I want to know what your sound person chili has going on. How many alarms are – Is there a sweet heat? Chipotle? What's going on? I think we should let that first pass be private. Okay. First one's private. Yeah, okay. It wasn't necessarily a success, but we didn't tell him that. It wasn't necessarily a success. Do you remember maybe one of the critiques that you gave him that was constructive? I mean, obviously, you're a sound person. You guys are close friends. and you guys are sweet boys, you're not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, so you probably let them down easy. How do you say, like, more me in the monitors when it comes to chili? Just take the ketchup away from... Oh, not the ketchup. Is that something... Wait, is that... And I excuse my ignorance as a non-chili liker, but is ketchup an ingredient that is often used, or is he getting experimental with it? I think it's in, like... classic sweet chili. It's just a bunch of sugar. It's like low-key Republican chili. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I hate to say it. You said his name was Kevin? Charles. Charles. Charles. It is giving baked beans more than chili. I hate to be the fair of bad news. No beans. No beans, but ketchup. So he's making meat ketchup soup. Yeah, a deacon soup. So which...

Which low-security penitentiary is Charles in right now? Because this is kind of a jailhouse chili. This feels like it's from a jailhouse chili cookbook. It's like squirrel meat that's been lightly braised in ketchup packets that I've sort of gathered for the last few months. I steamed them over a toilet paper roll, and it came out pretty good. Did you guys ever spend time on Tumblr? No, I don't think so. The website? I remember being like... Already enamored with Instagram back then. And now I just hate it all. You hate it all? The internet? Do you think social media is like a necessary evil that you have to use as a band, but you don't like it? Yeah. Okay. What do you mean? What the fuck, dude? You don't scroll. What do you do when you're in a bus for six hours? What are you doing if you're not scrolling? Don't say reading the greats. Do not say reading. FIFA? I mean, to be fair, lots of people game on the bus. Yo, I've played lots of games. Don't worry. This is a safe space, my friend. I like that. So if you think social media is for brain-dead idiots like me, I just want to know how you're spending your time, you know? To be honest, we're both in long-distance relationships. I don't know. My phone time is usually spent like... Oh, bro. Hell no. You got to FaceTime with your chick when you don't want to. I know exactly what you're talking about. You're FaceTiming with bae? I know exactly what you're talking about. The fellas are out back smoking a little something. You're in the back lounge on the damn phone. I can't hear you, honey, but I miss you so much. Yeah, pretty much. You guys are a little too nice. What's going on here, guys? Both of our girlfriends. His girlfriend's name is Loren. My girlfriend's name is Lauren. Damn. Hell yeah, Canadian chicks rule, bro. That's my shit, too. Oh, really? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, what province? She lives in Montreal, but she's from BC. Bro, not Montreal. You know, I had to go to Montreal for years. One of the worst cities in North America. I'm praying for you. I don't like her. So this is actually something I was talking to my partner about because Chris and I are both in relationships, and we both...

uh, both of our partners are friends with each other. And we were talking about, or I was asking her, like, do you ever feel a pressure to be friends with your partner's partner, you know, like your bandmates partner or your podcast mates partner? Do, do you think that they like Lauren and Lauren? get along swimmingly? Did it take some time? Do you think they feel that pressure to become besties? Or do they just hate each other? Yeah, they've never met. They've never met. So sick. Really? That's very cool. We both just kind of have virtual girlfriends. They exist on our phones. Okay, but have you guys met them? Yeah, every once in a while. Lauren goes to a different school, but she's hot as fuck. Yeah, exactly. Bro, I've heard she's really hot, but yeah, she goes to a school. It's in this town next to ours. Well, do you guys have a date on the calendar where you guys can all meet? I don't know. Probably New Year's Eve, honestly. Because you're on the road and touring in December. Probably. Well, they're both like... successful artists in their own right. Oh, okay. So you're saying they ain't got time for your little music bullshit. They're busy making money. It's turning into that. Kind of. It's turning into that. Well, hopefully after you guys appear on How Long Gone, that will sort of raise your stake a little bit and you might get a few more months out of the relationship before they do leave you. This might make us more popular with the bros, right? Yeah. I know that's probably what you heard, but this podcast actually boasts a very strong female listenership as well. I don't want to get into Spotify details. You guys do that for a living. I won't bore you, but we have the data to back it up. Yeah, our ratio is better than you'd think, Whitney. What is it? It's 69% male. 30% female, 1% non-binary. That's not that bad. We're like 50-50. Yeah, I could see you guys being 50-50. So you guys do numbers on Spotify. You're doing good on Spotify. You're getting on all the playlists. You're getting a little check every month. We do okay. Okay. I think there's always room for growth, you know? That's right. That's the attitude. That's how I feel as well. But I just think that people, like, when I've realized that, like, you know,

basically a human being just picks what goes on these playlists and that can make or break your career to an extent. I, my mind was blown. Like the fact that the most powerful person in music is probably like some fucking, you know, guy that looks like he works at urban outfitters and lives in Bushwick makes me insane. That's not how it should be. That's unfair to us. We got to get Tina Shay's new song on this. What's it going to take to get Tina Shea on there? All right, this Whitney record just came out. I think this guy wants to take his family to the Bahamas for Christmas. Let's go ahead and get that kind of sorted. He needs to be on Rap Caviar. Actually, speaking of you guys playing live, have you dabbled with the no cell phones allowed policy at your concerts? Is that a thing that I read correctly? Yeah, we did it last year, and it was fucking tight. I don't know. Like, really, it worked. Was it with the Yonder bags, or did you just ask people nicely not to do it? It was the Yonder thing. All right, quick question, quick question. Did Yonder cut you a check for this, or was this just you had to cut them a check? We heard that if we had more lead-up time, we could have made money off of it. But it was like a lot. So it cost us like a tiny bit. So what were the major takeaways from... From that, I mean, obviously the mind goes to, you know, everyone was more present with the show and not taking videos the entire time. But was there something that you didn't expect to see or that happened without cell phones being allowed? It was generally a success and it was great. And whenever I mentioned it from stage, everyone was like cheering, like, thanks for taking our phones away. But then... Played a show in Aspen, Colorado. Okay. I think it was like a combination. It was like half the room was like Whitney fans. It was packed. And the other half of the room was like just rich Aspen white people. And taking the phones away just like drove them to like insane levels of chatter. So they wanted to get back at you for taking their phones by talking all through this motherfucking show. Oh, yeah. And there was definitely like.

don't take away my property, fucking right wing vibes. Yeah, I mean, like, I think people on the internet, we got called communists at some point. I guess it would be communist if you were, like, forcing Hunter and Bryce to go to your show, but, you know, you can just not go inside the concert if you don't want to, guys. Yeah. That sucks. We walked off stage at that show. Damn, you guys had to bounce because the white guys in lizard cowboy boots couldn't stop talking? Yeah. I was just like, yo, if y'all want to chat, you can go outside. And then this dude was like, fuck you. Popped off. And then I like... Took a deep breath and then was silent for a moment and then was like, your town fucking sucks. Bro, Colorado, because we had a bat, we did a show in Denver and it sucked. And I think Colorado might just be cursed. It's a little bit of a, it's not as humorless of a town as San Francisco, but there is something going on where I think musically and. The only arts that seem to do well there are kind of white guy stand-up and dubstep. That's kind of what Colorado runs on. No, let's not forget some of the dark arts like mushroom taking and hiking and stuff like that. Yeah, those are dubstep things. Oh, okay. Get some White Dreads vibes. Yeah, White Dreads vibes. Everybody says it's so nice. I mean, Aspen is my speed for sure because I can hit Kith. and, like, the Four Seasons, and I can see Whitney. It's a pretty good weekend for me, but, like, I understand how maybe you guys, like, salt-of-the-earth guys don't like that as much. Do you guys ever have the opportunity to do, like, corporate gigs for a brand for a large sum of money? It's been a minute, but last year we did, like, a thing with, like, music supervisors in Chicago were big boy headlined, and we went up and played two songs to a bunch of people, and there was a lady in a martini glass.

Oh, like literally, like a sheet and martini glass. All right, was she like sexy or was she just dressed normal? It was like a burlesque kind of situation. We saw her walk up the ladder to get into the martini glass before the crowd came. Broke the fourth wall. Then like right before Big Boy in the crowd, they made her get out of the martini glass in front of everyone, which I think wasn't. was also kind of strange. And trust me, there's no easy way to get out of a martini glass filled with water from a backstage bathroom. Actually, a long time ago, it just reminded me of a friend of mine was, there was a burlesque person named Dita Von Tess, who's like pretty famous. And she does that show where she's inside of a martini glass and does like a striptease. And a friend of mine was like working back of house production for it. and they had to fill up. There was an emergency, and they had to fill the martini glass up with water from the toilet before she went inside. I shouldn't have said that. Dita, if you listen, it was a long time ago, baby. You're all good. You've taken a lot of showers since then, Dita. You're fine. You're all good. You would know if it was bad by now. You know what I mean? So why do you guys live in Chicago? Oh, man. Yeah, you could live anywhere in the world, guys. I wish we could, like, talk shit about LA right now. Why can't you? You can, bro, but I'll just bop you on the nose virtually. I mean, it's up to you, bro. You want the smoke? No, please. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, please. This is an open forum. I would like to go in, but Max's girlfriend lives there now, and I can kind of see him. foresee him moving there in the next couple years so i just want to i want to who cares visit i visit la and for the first two days i'm like this is cool i just like my soul feels like it's sucked out of my body and i'm like what happened okay look okay look you're right you're right la has nothing going on there's no culture there's nothing to do but chicago i'm searching for that culture and the food is a little heavier you know so that's a

deep dish hot dog that's just not my vibe you know surface level as hell well i mean i do like the ralph lauren restaurant in chicago that's one of my favorite spots for kind of a lunch i'm sure you guys might go there with your moms or something but i don't know if the i don't know I guess, is there a side of Chicago that maybe Jason and I are missing that you could turn us on to and we would fall in love? There's the Viagra Triangle. I'm listening. What is the Viagra Triangle? Yeah, all right, I'm in. It's where Barnes used to be. Someone knows it's gone now, but it's that zone. Someone was trying to explain that zone to me and was like, that's the only place you see magazines anymore. Like someone just sits in a fucking magazine. Why do they call it the Viagra Triangle? It has to do with kind of older rich men being a little wild and out over there. Oh, okay. Okay, so you're saying, first of all, you're calling me old, which I'm probably a little older than you, so that's fine. And white. And white, which I can't. I mean, you know, whatever. I am who I am, okay? Whatever. So that's where, like, all the old boys of Chicago will go and enjoy sausage and peppers and... talking about locker room stuff. Nothing I want to do more than hit Chicago, have some sausage and peppers, pop a couple Viagra, and get a prostitute over there. That sounds... That's a weekend in Chicago. Yeah. All right. Do you guys... Well, we can... There's a couple segments that we do, and we have... bands or musicians on one of them i feel like you guys won't want to play did the pill is there a pill one how do you guys know what the fuck let's start with the pill one then if you're already if you're if you're pumped up. I've listened to a few of these and I met up with my writer buddy last night to prep me on what to expect. Who is your buddy? His name is Josh Terry. Okay, does he listen to this? I don't think I know Josh. He's got a good Twitter. He's had a couple really hilarious tweets. Okay, so Josh has a couple banger tweets under his belt. I see. I love that Josh has probably written a book. Yeah, but he's got a couple sick tweets that you might be familiar with.

I love my Twitter friend with a couple tweets. I mean, in 2022, it's a more impressive accolade than writing a book. He did get his MFA at Harvard, but the Twitter is kind of where he shines. Yeah, the pill conversation is one of our favorites. If you guys want to go ahead. You guys, I mean, hopefully I'm wrong, but you guys don't strike me as... drug abusers. What's the pill question? Just your top three prescription pills. Recreational or not, but they do have to be prescription. No over-the-counter. Yeah, don't hit us with Motrin. We had a tramadol period in 2014. It was the only time where I felt myself legit susceptible to like, damn, I want to do this all the time. You said tramadol? Tramadol. Like a muscle relaxer. Yeah. Muscle relaxers are pretty special. If you mix them with other stuff, I would recommend it. It's more powerful with a friend, if you know what I'm saying. You know what I mean? From the painkiller community. I don't know what you mean by that. You mean like you and a sexual partner do a muscle relaxer and they feel good together? No, no, no. You want to do it with a friend in case you like... fall down the stairs on accident. I mean, I have fallen down before because if you take too many, your legs will give out. I don't know if you guys experienced that. You're probably sitting down when you did it. You're smarter than me. We had a buddy who was living abroad for a while and they would party with muscle relaxers all the time over there and he said there were parties where everyone would just walk around dropping their beers the whole time. That's so stupid to me. That's exactly what it's like. It probably requires dozens of complicated muscle actions to hold a Heineken and You take enough of those trammies and oops-a-daisy? I dropped it again. You guys seem like study drug guys. You've never dabbled in the Adderall space? Adderall works too well for me, and it gives me the worst hangover imaginable. Really? I've got to say I'm pleasantly surprised that you guys are drug abusers. It's glad to hear, because you are such sweeties.

So it's nice to see that you're sweet and sour. Yeah, there's not much we have. You name it, I've snorted it. You guys were in a band when it was still okay to do drugs. Now it's like everybody's got a yoga instructor and having a green juice before their meditation set. But you guys were there when it was still okay to party. And that's something that we appreciate here. But I think that the... I think Adderall, I didn't know Adderall. What's an Adderall hangover like? Is it like Coke or worse? It's worse. It's like both mental, like emotional and physical. It fires on all cylinders. Damn, I honestly, I've never, I don't think I've ever done Adderall, which is kind of weird, but it was kind of after my time. But the thought of that hangover being that bad, I guess that's why you've got to take it every day when you're cramming. The come down is too much. Yeah, you've just got to take it every day, guys. Okay, so muscle relaxer. Adderall works too good, so we stay away from it. Anything else in the medicine cabinet? Any other pills you want to give a shout-out to? Like ecstasy pill that we've done twice in Europe. that was like the greatest, like the first time we did it was like the greatest drug experience of my whole life. It was great. Do you know the name of this pill? Is it a Euro? Is it a Euro exclusive? What's the stamp? It has to be. I mean, there's just no, like I've done that same drug or whatever, like a couple of times in the States. It just didn't, I don't know. It hit me so hard and it hit, it hit so hard. And literally this is going to come full circle to the video game shit. Cause I took it. It was someone's birthday. Whose birthday? Was it your birthday? I don't remember. It was someone's birthday in the van. We took the ecstasy and then immediately hopped in the van and we were driving for like five hours to another family. What? We thought we were all high in the van. And kind of like... We had some mood lighting, some music going on. But at one point I was... Was I playing video games or watching TV? Max was straight up playing video games again. And like... I took a photo. I can send you the photo of his...

But, like, his pupil highlighted that it's, like, it looks like cartoon shit. It's, like, fucking crazy. Bro, hold on. So, you guys, you're telling me you planned it this way that, you know what, we're going to take a couple pressed e-pills and then hop in the van for five hours. That was the plan. That wasn't an accident. It was just kind of like, whatever. We don't really drive better. They're on the go. There was some speed involved, too. There's some speed involved. Okay, you guys do more drugs than any other band we've talked to. This is very cool. I think that, I just, I think, well, yeah, I guess so, Jason. I mean, the pill question started with rapper 5eo4n, and he got really excited about it and, like, was giggling through his list. So we made it a reoccurring, you know, his list, of course, was just, like, Percocet three times. Yeah. I think if I can. if i can remember correctly molly percocet i think i think 5e has been in the news lately because he's been revealed to be a very bad speller have you seen that real yeah yeah he he he he did like an instagram post well he spells father with an r in it like farther and then he but he recently he um did like a tweet or like an instagram story post kanye west related sort of saying like i support You know, the Jewish people, Fabio is rocking with the Jewish people, but... He spelled Jewish like J-U-E-E, like W-E-S-H. It was like harder to spell it the way he did it than it is to spell it the right way. It was like, how did you get here? Yeah, Jason, I think it was J-U-W-E-S-H. Yeah, Jewish. Kind of reminds me of like a nice sandwich, you know? It was so funny. That's really funny. I forgot about that. So the other question that we like to talk about is... syncs, you know, licensing. And, you know, what's the biggest check you got for one of the songs being used in the Audi commercial? You know what I mean?

It's kind of boring. We got really lucky. We had a big Jameson sink in the very beginning. Did you get some free bottles as well or just the commercial and the money? I think we did get some free Jameson too, but it was before our first record even came out and we were recouped immediately. Wait, what? Did the publisher just have it already? How did they find it? They did. We were in London. Yeah, see Chris, this is why we play those weird Weird music supervisor mixer parties with people inside martini glasses. You never know when it's going to come full circle. That's pretty good. All right, Jameson, that early, but there's had to be another one deeper in the career. You got a little Petco in there? What's going on? I don't know. We're on like Ozark. We are on like TV shows. Yeah, for sure. The music in Ozark is pretty well respected. So that's a good one. There was a show. like based in Chicago called Easy on Netflix. I remember that. Oh, is that, what's his name? Was that Swanberg? Swanberg. I watched that. Unfortunately, there was an episode that Marc Maron was in and he had sex in it. Yeah. Nobody wants to see Marc Maron having sex. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. They licensed one of our songs, but they also cast two members of our band to like act in it. What? But not you two? You were the guys in the band. They got the help to be in the show? It wasn't – like, they were just closer. I've never even, like, really hung out with Joe, which is shocking because I feel like he's always around. But he cast Malcolm and Zeon, and Malcolm had, like, a panic attack because he had never – and couldn't stop sweating, apparently, and they had to, like, keep wiping his face off. Oh, no. Yeah. Damn. So he got the call to the big leagues, and he just couldn't – he could not handle it. He couldn't really hang, I don't think, but – Dion took like a like a lorazepam before going. I think that when you do that, usually it does. It calms you down too much. Even if you're lit up, it might cause problems. But that's that's cool. They got that's cool. They got cast. That's a nice little bonus. Yeah, I I was I was really nervous my first time to Jason. Jason has a lot of background in music video work. So he he's been a lot of videos you've seen before. Britney Spears.

Avril Lavigne. I could go on, but I don't want to make you guys jealous. That would be rude to the guest. You guys haven't done a lot of on-camera stuff except for your own music videos, I'm going to guess. Are you serious? As a dancer? No. Just as a background extra cool young person. Since I'm really tall, I got cast as the tall guy to balance out the crowd. But those were long ago days. What was your fit like? Like, what kind of era? Like, what are you wearing? Great question. This was, like, early 2000s era, probably. So I was very, like, trying to dress like Julian Casablanca. So I had long hair and I wore, like, vintage blazers and stuff like that. So it was, like... You know, just like kind of generic indie bro. I don't know why vintage blazer is making us all laugh, but it really is. It's so... You know, just like pick up like a cream-colored blazer for $4 at Goodwill and, you know, put like a brooch on it. Were you ever a hat, like a fedora guy? Did you make that jump? No, never, never. But I did do like blazer with like a fitted, like new era. flat brimmed hat like supreme hat with like a gold dollar sign on it god damn yeah god damn is right times were tough back then bro look at least i was on supreme flow team it was different i had i had a hundred dollars in my pocket did you but i mean you got You guys have been around long enough where there's got to be some pictures that pop up online where you're like, ooh, god damn, that was not mine. Yeah, you guys have an indie sleaze era, I'm sure. In the early Smith Westerns, I wore, like, pants that were basically painted on. They were, like, the tightest jeans I've ever had. Yeah. And did, like, the crab walk while playing. Yeah, I just looked, you know, I was 18 or 19. Those Smith Westerns were crab walking. You're saying that your Levi's were so tight that it affected the way you...

you like looked and performed on stage. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of, it's called being a rock star, Chris. You dress for the job you want. Did you ever have like a Lenny Kravitz style kind of taint blow out in those? No, I was, but I didn't fully take a spill on stage. We were, we were opening up for passion pit at a massive venue in Chicago that we had this Congress theater. And it was like, you know, we had no business even being on the show. And I just like completely ate shit on stage in front of like the biggest audience I'd ever played to. I'm trying to get to the point where I take my shirt off to exercise in public. Like when I'm running through the streets of New York, I want to be jacked enough where that like looks cool. Do you guys take your shirts off on stage? Maybe we're doing a festival in Australia. Do you see the shirt coming off? Or did you do that when you were younger and stopped? Or would you still do that now? We did it one time when we played Market Hotels. Yeah, Market Hotels. They, like, didn't... It was, like, middle of the summer. Our record had... No AC. No AC, and, like, the whole band took their shirts off, and I didn't get it. Not that we look bad. It's just, like, a whack fucking line. So you played Moth Club in London as an underplay, like, after a bigger show, and... It was a really hot one on it, and we just turned around, and our guitar player just popped off his shirt. Print. But that was a cool move, yeah. He looks great. He can do it, because he's got the body for it, is what you're saying. His name is Print, you know? I mean, everything. Hold on, his name is Print, like, not Prince, P-R-I-N-T? P-R-I-N-T. P-R-I-N-T. Hold on, that ain't a name. Did he give himself that name, or did his mom give it to him? It's some Southern shit. We were hanging out with... Some people in Oxford, Mississippi, there was three people in the same room. One named Print. One named Dent. One named Dag. Damn. That's crazy. It's so funny because when you hear that, when I hear the name Print, my mind goes somewhere else. And when you said it's like a southern name, I'm like, oh, yeah, of course. Like we've, you know, Print and all those names that you just said.

It has a Southern feel, but at first it was reminding me of that meme of the Bushwick people of print wanting to know if he could have a bump of ketamine because he did the dishes. It could be a Bushwick non-binary name or just a Southern guy who is really into college football. I've never been to Oxford, but it seems like a place I need to visit. Because, I mean, we're friends with the Fat Possum family, but also I just think it just sounds twisted down there. Shorty got a Fat Possum. Like, what goes on? Were you playing a show or just partying? We've done some recording down there, played shows, blah, blah, blah. You see Morgan Freeman just, like, walking around sometimes. Got Morgan over there at Panera Bread getting a two-piece. I mean, I guess he probably gets left alone in Oxford, Mississippi. I mean, Morgan Freeman is pretty fucking famous. Like, I bet he still has to deal with some shit at Walmart, but it ain't L.A. Are you guys familiar with the Morgan Freeman internet lore that he has one wooden hand or one hand that doesn't work? No, no. What is that, Jason? Yeah, just give it a Google on your own spare time, Whitney. But, yeah, just Google Morgan Freeman hand. one of his hands like just it doesn't work like the nerve endings died or something like that and it's just like a dead hand so he just wears like a weird kind of prosthetic glove thing all the time i believe that i mean it's like do you guys believe that stevie wonder can see i do i do you do i kind of do i don't know well i haven't done i can't say i do i haven't like done enough research so confidently i was like well You want to believe. I hope so. I don't know. Seeing is pretty cool. Great point. I mean, bro, this guy's sitting courtside of the Lakers game, and his head moves when chicks walk by. If a cheerleader walks by and this guy's head's on swivel, he's looking, bro. He's looking. Do you think that on Stevie Wonder's deathbed, he's going to bring those fucking kazals down off of his eyes and give a little wink and be like, gotcha, bitch.

I've been looking at titties since the 1960s. Suck my dick. I just think it would be so cool. It would be so cool. That's what I call performance art. Not any of this Andy Warhol bullshit. You know what I'm saying? You don't have to hurt people. Yeah, it's a victimless crime, faking your blindness your whole life, I say. But it really is. I guess he's the face of blindness, but there's got to be a newer, cooler blind person. He's a blindfluencer that's sort of gone out to pasture. We need some new blind blood. Blindfluencer? Blindfluencers, they're able to sort of influence with the freedom of never having the knowledge of how many likes they're getting, you know? They can't see their engagement at all. That's why they're so free to kind of post and be who they are. To dance like nobody's watching, stuff like that. Who's going to carry the torch, though? Who is the next? Who's the freshman XL top next up blinds? I don't know, bro. We got to look into this because we should make a top 10 list because I want to know who's up next. Yeah, I need the 40 under 40 and they also don't have 20 20. There's something there, guys. There's something there. We can workshop this. All right, fellas. We really appreciate you joining us here on How Long Gone Today. The album is in stores now. Everywhere you stream music. Yeah, baby. It's called Spock. Spock. I'm going to go pick up Spock after I hit Duncan. Now, how is the vinyl selling? Because Taylor Swift did half a million on vinyl. What are you guys looking at? I have no idea. I'd say just under that, somewhere around there. Somewhere just under that. I mean, it might be over, it might be under. I don't know. I don't want to get specific. No, that's great. But there is vinyl available. I'm sure it's on a cool color. Too many. There's too many cool colors.

Honestly. What about cassette colors? You got some fucked up cassette colors? No. Okay. But it is on cassette. Yes. Oh, thank God. All right, Whitney. Well, thank you guys so much. We appreciate you guys taking the time, being open, honest, and vulnerable with us involving your drug use as well as your video game play. And I want to give a personal shout-out to Lauren and Loren. We're going to check out how well they're doing. It sounds like they should be guests, actually, if they're really bubbling in the underground like you claim. Yeah, if you have an in for them, just have them email us or something. Cool, we'll be in touch. And you guys can discuss internally who's going to blow up first. I'll let you guys kind of sort that out, and then we'll go from there. We don't want to meddle.