Episode 194: Modern Vampires of the Decade
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Transcript
Time Crisis, back again.
On this week's Time Crisis, we talk about the new Dolly Parton album.
We talk about a Vampire Weekend album that just turned 10.
We also listen to music by Madonna, Prince, and All For One.
This is the show you love and trust.
I swear it's--
Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig.
[MUSIC - EZRA KOENIG, "TIME CRISIS"]
They passed me by, all of those great romances.
They were a felt from beneath all my rightful chances.
My picture clear, everything seemed so easy.
And so I dealt you the blow.
One of us had to go.
Now it's different.
I want you to know.
One of us is crying.
One of us is lying.
Keep the lonely man.
Time Crisis, back again.
How's everybody doing?
Frazzled.
Jake is frazzled, sitting in traffic.
As someone who's lived in this city for a long time now,
I shouldn't get frazzled.
But man, I just got hammered with the traffic coming down here.
Took an hour and a half.
Can't you just positively frame that?
Just like more time to listen to tunes and internet radio shows.
I like that zen outlook.
I should have taken that outlook.
But I was late.
Felt guilty about that.
But everyone was late.
And I just-- man.
Just that thing when you're watching a left turn arrow
cycle through three full cycles.
And you're moving up like eight feet per cycle again.
It's just like--
Not a good feeling.
So I'm frazzled, man.
Well, this ought to cheer you up.
Country icon and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
inductee Dolly Parton has delivered the track list
for her first ever rock album, which is set for release
on November 17.
Hell yeah.
We're about six months out, but it's never too
soon to get excited about this.
The upcoming LP is set to include nine original songs.
Rock songs.
Yeah, nine original rock songs.
But it's a 30 song project, so that also means 21 covers.
Double record.
Yes, a double record.
And nearly 40 special guests.
Does the album have a title?
I think the album's called Rockstar.
OK, this is the cover we're looking at here?
Yeah, Dolly with a guitar.
Seems kind of like a strange project.
I wonder if this is because she was inducted into the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, and she found that to be--
Didn't she say, don't induct me?
I think she said something about, yeah, I'm not a rocker,
but--
I'm a country musician.
Yeah.
Yeah, maybe actually--
Why was she inducted into the--
now I'm getting annoyed at the rock.
You're going to induct Dolly Parton, but not Guided
by Voices?
Not Warren Zeevon?
True.
Well, yeah, what did Dolly Parton actually say
when she was inducted?
Is it possible that just the guilt of taking Warren Zeevon's
spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
has weighed on her so heavily that she felt compelled
to make a rock album?
I actually think it might be.
Not going to cover his material.
Maybe she is.
I don't know.
Is there actually a track listing, or does it--
It's very interesting the way they're rolling this album out,
just to drop the whole track list six months early.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, there's so many guests.
Track one, song's called Rockstar,
featuring Richie Sambora.
He's going to rip a solo.
Track two, World on Fire.
That's an original.
Track three, I love this, Every Breath You Take,
featuring Sting.
Wow.
I think there's a lot of stuff like that, where you're
kind of like covering a song and getting
the original artist on it.
Everybody's on this.
You've got John Fogerty, Kid Rock, Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks.
Track 11, Baby I Love Your Way, featuring--
Peter Frampton.
Peter Frampton.
Ooh, baby, I love you.
What song is Kid Rock on?
It's called Either/Or.
It's an Elliott Smith song.
[LAUGHTER]
I think-- well, let's find out.
On the one hand, it's so random.
Country and rock music are so closely linked.
Doesn't seem like a big deal to induct a country artist
into the hall.
Dolly did feel bad, though.
So what did she say?
She said, quote, "I felt like I was taking votes away
from somebody that had spent a career trying to be in the hall.
And I thought, what am I doing here?
I felt like I was out of place.
Like I was betraying somebody else."
Whoa.
OK, so this is serious.
Are you happy, Hall?
You guilted country legend Dolly Parton so hard.
You put her in a situation she did not want to be in,
she did not ask for, and you made her feel so bad.
She had recorded a 30s song rock album.
Now she's collaborating with Kid Rock and Richie Sambora.
[LAUGHS]
This woman had lived a long, amazing life
with a beautiful career.
She almost made it to the end without recording a rock album.
And now her pristine country career
will have this weird smudge on it.
It's also funny.
Tarnished.
She did continue.
I mean, obviously, she's such a classy lady.
But she said, "Then they explained
why they gave it to me.
And they said I was going to get it anyway."
So I thought, "Well, I'll accept it graciously."
Wait, so they didn't vote on her?
It was like not--
because usually, people are nominated.
And then the rock writers of the world--
Stephen Hyden covered this in an article.
So I think there were like--
this past year, I think there were 14 or 15 nominees.
And then if you're a voter, you can only choose five.
So it's not yay or nay for each one.
You just have to choose your five.
And then they just like tally it up.
Isn't the rule that you pay $40,000 and you get in?
I thought that was--
I think it's more than that.
It's part of that, maybe.
I think it added zero.
Oh, OK.
No, but--
so but this makes it sound like this
was sort of an honorary award that you're just getting there.
No, no, but also--
We're not even voting on you.
Probably people voted for her.
But I could imagine she calls up the president of the rock hall
and says, "There has to be some kind of mistake."
I bet he took the time and got on Zoom with her
and said, "Well, Dolly, first of all,
the roots of country and rock are so interrelated."
And he probably listed a bunch of artists
we think of as country-ish who are already in the hall.
Johnny Cash recorded for Sun Records, Carl Perkins.
You know, you're part of the same lineage as all this stuff.
And he probably made a strong case for it.
And she probably was like, "OK, I see what you mean."
And then also the most important part is he said,
"And either way, you're getting in the hall.
You got two choices.
Come willingly."
(both laughing)
Are we throwing you in the car
and take you down to the station?
And--
It can get pretty ugly.
It can get pretty ugly.
Well, I'm a nice guy,
but some of the other boys down at the hall, not so nice.
Was it a friend of the show, Jerry Garcia,
who didn't attend?
He didn't attend when the dead, yeah.
The rest of the dead.
They had a cardboard cutout of Jerry.
Right, right.
They couldn't drag him down there.
I just love this image of Dolly in her mansion
tossing and turning all night.
Just like, "How can I be in the rock hall of fame?
I haven't made a single star-studded double rock album."
There are so many deserving candidates.
It's just like, yeah.
From Rage Against the Machine to Warren Zeevon
that deserve to be in there before me.
I mean, golly, even Pavement's eligible at this point.
Gonna put a little country girl like me in the hall?
Oh.
They really need to start acknowledging
the '90s Matador catalog.
From Liz Phair to GB Vita Pavement.
Hell, Yola Tango.
I mean, Yola Tango's been around since the '80s.
They're eligible.
Oh, before Yola Tango.
I bet she was talking with her manager
and he was like, "Dolly, just record a rock album.
Get Yola Tango.
Get Ira Kaplan to rip a solo."
♪ Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen ♪
♪ Pour myself a cup of ambition ♪
♪ And yawn and stretch and try to come to life ♪
♪ Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumping ♪
♪ Out on the streets the traffic starts jumping ♪
♪ With folks like me on the job from nine to five ♪
♪ Working nine to five ♪
♪ What a way to make a living ♪
♪ Yeah, they're getting by ♪
♪ It's all taken and no giving ♪
♪ They just use your mind ♪
♪ And they never give you credit ♪
♪ It's the love that drives you ♪
♪ Crazy and you let it ♪
Dolly's a legend, and if,
hopefully there was no guilt here.
Hopefully it was just her,
maybe just being, finding it as a kind of sweet surprise
that she was inducted.
And she said, "Maybe just for fun, I'll make a rock album."
I'm dying to hear these rock originals.
Yeah, we're gonna have to wait a minute.
I wonder what kind of style it is.
Like what kind of rock?
She might actually be doing a kind of a postmodern,
interesting takedown of the whole concept of rock.
'Cause when you look through some of these songs,
you get like a "Purple Rain"
by the famously multi-genre Prince.
A song like "Purple Rain,"
there's elements of R&B and gospel in that song as well.
Then you get like "Every Breath You Take" by Sting.
Kind of like a beautiful ballad,
famously sampled in hip hop.
She got track 14, "Wrecking Ball,"
featuring Miley Cyrus, of course.
Most people say "Wrecking Ball" is a pop song.
It's sort of interesting to see if she made it rock.
- Rock arrangement.
- It's not hard to picture that song
in kind of like goth metal vein.
"Heart of Glass" featuring Debbie Harry.
"Stairway to Heaven" featuring Lizzo and Sasha Flute.
- Wow, that's a big swing.
Wait, who's Sasha Flute?
- I think that's Lizzo's flute, right?
- Oh, I didn't, does she play flute?
- Of course. - Yeah.
- There's like recorder on "Stairway to Heaven," right?
You think she did those? - Yeah, good call.
- She probably re-recorded that on flute.
(gentle guitar music)
- Oh yeah, you're right, it is a flute.
I didn't know her flute had a name.
- Are these recorders that come in?
- Do you think that it's, that might be, are those flutes?
- I think that's harmonized recorders.
- That's cool.
- That'll sound great with Lizzo and Sasha Flute doing it.
(gentle piano music)
♪ There's a lady ♪
- Yeah, Dolly's voice will sound great on this.
All right, that's what I'm looking forward to the most.
Okay, this one you know is gonna be hard.
Track 22, "Bygones," featuring Rob Halford
with special guests Nikki Sixx and John Five.
Wait, is Nikki Sixx's bass called John Five?
Maybe it's a five-string bass?
- Like, people's instruments start becoming featured.
- John William Lowry, best known by his stage name,
John Five is an American guitarist.
- Okay.
- What bands was he in?
- Stage name was bestowed on him in '88,
when he left David Lee Ross' solo band
and joined Marilyn Manson.
- In '88?
- Not familiar with John Five.
- He's played for Rob Zombie.
He's got a look.
- Oh, you see, that's gonna be the hard song.
- Yeah.
- Oh, sorry, 1998.
- Track 24, "What's Up," featuring Linda Perry.
Great classic four-non-blonde song.
- Straight up.
- I've never heard of something like this
where there's so many covers featuring the original artist.
- That's gonna be interesting.
And then of course, closing it all out,
track 30, "Free Bird," featuring Ronnie Van Zant
with special guests Gary Rossington, Artemis Pyle,
and the Artemis Pyle Band.
Wow.
- That's gonna be beautiful.
- All right, six months to go.
- We'll have to do a full app on the Dolly Rock album.
- Oh yeah, very excited for that.
I wonder if track one, "Rockstar,"
is a cover of the N.E.R.D. song.
- Wait, which song?
- You know that one, Jake?
Do you know who N.E.R.D. is?
Nerd?
- Oh, no, I don't.
But I mean, I've seen that name, that acronym, but.
- Do you know whose project that is?
- No.
- Pharrell?
- Okay, yep, that rings a bell.
Was it a rock band?
- Kind of.
They famously recorded like two versions
of their first album.
Do you guys remember this?
So N.E.R.D., it was, at this point,
the Neptunes were probably the biggest producers
in the world coming into like the early 2000s.
But they, you know, Pharrell and Chad,
and you know, they were kind of like skateboarding.
They're probably somewhat familiar with like punk music.
Or at least, you know, they talk.
- There's also like a lot,
I mean, this is more live instrumentation.
There's also a lot of soul
and sort of more chord melody stuff.
I mean, it's not all, yeah.
- It's not all like hard.
It's actually a very interesting, important album,
the first one, at this kind of like,
some might say brutal moment of rap rock.
And them doing something that you could call rap rock,
but really was kind of like the best of,
like true alternative hip hop soul rock.
Definitely like paved the way for like Odd Future and Tyler.
But they recorded a rock version of the album
with like live drums.
Is that the one that came out?
And then there was also like another version
that was all drum machine.
♪ Poses ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Poses ♪
♪ It's all over now ♪
♪ It's all over now ♪
- There really is a lot of music in the past 20 years
that kind of comes out of this.
Machine Gun Kelly,
the kind of like Travis Parker universe.
♪ You think the way you live's okay ♪
♪ You think your losing will save your day ♪
♪ You think we don't see that you're running ♪
♪ Better call your boy, Chris Tucker ♪
♪ You can't beat me, I'm a rock star ♪
♪ I'm rhyming on the top of a cop car ♪
♪ From a rebel in my 4-4 pops ♪
♪ So it's almost over now, almost over now ♪
♪ Guess you ain't heard that we swallowed God ♪
♪ It's too damn late to apologize ♪
- I'm picturing Dolly singing this.
♪ It's almost over now, almost over now ♪
♪ You think that you're an athlete ♪
- It could be great.
- Did he mention Let It Be?
- Oh yeah, there's also Let It Be.
- The Beatles are reuniting.
- Wait, how many of the Beatles did she get?
- She get Ringo?
- Let It Be featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr
with special guests Peter Frampton and Mick Fleetwood.
It'd be the greatest album.
- Two drummers?
(laughing)
- Maybe Ringo's gonna sing?
This album's gonna be bananas.
There's always been an interesting rumor about Dolly Parton,
which might have something to do
with her interest in rock music,
but I've heard people say that she always wears long sleeves,
which you will find.
You look through pictures of her, you can see a lot,
very consistently wearing long sleeves,
because, I don't know why she wants to hide this,
but because each arm is fully tatted out,
like full sleeves.
- Really?
- I think it was being kind of rock.
It's not exclusively rock, I guess.
- From what era though?
I mean, not like, she didn't have that in the 70s.
- No idea.
- People weren't sleeved out in the 70s,
the way they are now.
- Yeah, that feels like a 90s look.
- I would say even twos.
Like, I would say that started becoming commonplace
in mid twos.
- It's also just an interesting concept.
You're a beloved, iconic country singer,
and you just want to get full tattoo sleeves,
and you're like, "This is just for me.
I'll go to the trouble of wearing long sleeves
in public for the rest of my life."
- Like if she's on stage,
she's like hiding it from the audience.
- Can we get any confirmation?
- Yeah, well, she does have tattoos.
So according to her,
and there's also a lot of people
trying to get to the bottom of this.
Country Living Magazine seems pretty invested.
But here's the quote from Dolly.
"Most of my tattoos, when I first started,
I was covering up some scars that I had
'cause I have a tendency to have,
is it keloid scar tissue?
Keloid scar tissue? - Keloid, yeah.
- Keloid scar tissue.
And I have a tendency where if I have
any kind of scars anywhere,
then they kind of have a purple tinge
and I can never get rid of them," she added.
"So mine are pastel, what few that I have.
And they're meant to cover some scars.
I'm not trying to make some big, bold statement."
- I do not have full sleeves.
- I do not have full sleeves.
- I repeat, I do not have full sleeves.
All right, she has a few tattoos.
- Okay.
- She's conscious about the keloid scars.
All right, regardless, can't wait.
- She also says, "I do have some tattoos, that's true,
but they're tasteful.
I'm not a tattoo girl."
- These conversations are so weird.
Just like, now I actually don't know what to think anymore.
Dolly, we already have a lot of tattoos.
I have some.
- Pushing back a little too hard.
- What do you think, I'm some kind of tattoo girl?
What do you think, got full sleeves?
Do I look like the type of person who had full sleeves?
Absolutely not.
- I'm 85 years old.
- Dude, not at full sleeves.
- How old is Dolly Parton, by the way?
- I think she's 80.
- Willie Nelson just turned 90.
- Oh yeah, there was a thing at the Hollywood Bowl, right?
- Yeah.
- She's 77.
- Okay.
We love you either way, Dolly.
Full sleeves, a few tasteful tattoos, you're a legend.
Well, today's a unique day.
It happens to be a time crisis on the 10th anniversary
of modern vampires of the city.
- Hey-oh!
I can't believe it's been 10 years.
I mean, I kind of can.
- Feels like eight years to me.
- Yeah, all right, so it's not that weird.
Eight and a half years.
(laughing)
18 months can't account for, but,
and I guess also like when an album came out,
you know, for me it goes back further
'cause of course we're working on this for about two years.
- Yeah.
- Some of the songs have even deeper roots than that.
So, you know, you gotta add to it.
Now you're talking about 12 years, you know.
- Were you kind of living out here
when that record came out?
'Cause I remember kind of hanging out with you a bunch
around that, so it was 2013.
- Yeah, although I also have a memory
of hanging out in New York too.
As I've told you before,
I remember playing you the song "Unbelievers."
You seemed a little bit underwhelmed.
- Where were we?
- I think we were in my apartment in Manhattan.
- Okay.
- Not negative, I just kind of remember you being like,
"All right."
- Cool, man.
- You're like, "Okay."
- I get it.
It's always tough when people play you music
'cause you know me, I'm also kind of like a straight shooter
and I'm not super effusive.
So if I'm like--
- No, but that makes you a great person to play.
- If I'm just like, "Dude, I'm blown away right now."
(laughing)
Like, that would not ring true.
Although I do remember when you played me,
why am I blanking on the song?
The second song on "Father of the Bride."
- Oh, "Harmony Hall."
- "Harmony Hall."
- I was like, "Damn, boys, you hit it out of the park."
- Maybe that one was more in your wheelhouse.
And I guess there's something also like,
"Unbelievers" is kind of like a straightforward song.
Also, before we get into "Modern Vampires,"
also have to say thank you to you, Jake,
because we sent you your plaque for this life.
- You're welcome?
- From "Father of the Bride."
I mean, that's our thank you to you
because this life is officially a gold single.
That means it's sold the equivalent.
(laughing)
- Not actual.
- Yeah, I mean, in the streaming age, it's different.
It's done 500,000 units in the US or more.
And for people who don't remember,
Jake plays a short, tasteful solo.
- When I got it, I was so excited.
I mean, I don't have any-
- Is that your first gold plaque?
- I don't have any awards.
This was an exciting moment for me.
I texted you and Arielle.
I said, "Where would that song have been without my solo?"
- Let's listen to that real quick
before we get into "Modern Vampires."
Where's Jake's solo?
- Around the three-minute mark probably.
- Yeah.
♪ Probably hasn't happened yet ♪
♪ 'Cause I don't remember living life before this ♪
♪ And darling, our disease is the same one as the trees ♪
♪ Unaware that they've been living in a forest ♪
♪ Hoo hoo ♪
♪ Hoo hoo ♪
- There it is. - There it is, folks.
Mastery on my instrument right there.
(imitating guitar)
- Jake, what do you remember about playing that solo?
- I remember I'd never heard the song before,
and they said, "Just play along, man."
- Wow.
- And I was like, "What key is it?"
And they're like, "They just started," you know, and just.
I kind of like noodled aimlessly over the song once.
- That's classic Arielle.
He wants people's first thought, best thought.
- Yeah, and then somehow that made it in the edit.
- In one take?
- One take Jake over here, dude.
- That's right, one take Jake.
- And when we saw you play in the park, Jake played.
And is that the only time you've ever played this live?
- Wait, what park?
- Do you remember there was an early?
(imitating guitar)
You don't even remember.
Do you remember there was an early?
- I remember that.
- Oh, there's also a very classic Seinfeld tea,
Earth Day tea from this. - Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, in Griffith Park. - Over 20 days.
- I don't think I played.
- You did, I have a video of it.
- I played along with a band?
- Maybe you jumped in for a second.
- I'm gonna find this video. - It was so loose.
- I don't remember. - It was a loose
acoustic concert, no.
- I certainly didn't recreate that solo.
- No amplification.
- So where is it hanging?
Where's the gold plaque hanging?
- It's hanging in. (imitating guitar)
- In your baby's room?
- It's hanging in my studio bathroom.
- Mine's in the bathroom too.
- I feel great about it, 'cause I see it, you know,
I see it three, four times a day.
- It really is a tradition.
The first time I really saw a lot of gold
and platinum records was at XL offices in London.
It's on like a muse in Ladbroke Grove,
you know, like a, we would call it like an alley,
but like a really tasteful, cozy little house lined alley.
So they have like a house, and then you like go in,
and there's like cool wallpaper and stuff
all over the place, like such a great feeling,
like to go in there, and it was like 23,
London signing to a label, amazing vibe.
And then you go, there's like two bathrooms,
and they're just like wall to wall, loaded with dozens,
basement jacks, the Prodigy, White Stripes,
MIA, all that stuff.
And then I realized, oh, okay,
that's what you're supposed to do,
you put it in the bathroom.
You give it too much pride of place,
you're being-- - It's weird.
- Weird energy, and then also stuff it in the basement,
have some pride, there's only one place you could put it.
- Bathroom.
- Or of course, I guess some, of course,
if you actually like have your own studio, sure,
you put it in like the waiting room at the studio.
- That seems a little-- - Yeah, that seems much.
- You're flexing a little hard there.
- That's true.
- Well, I'm glad that I'm following
in the footsteps of the tradition,
'cause I didn't even know that.
I just, I got it delivered to my studio,
and I unwrapped it.
- Did you know it was coming?
- Yes, this was arranged over email
I heard from Ezra's management.
- Oh, okay, I should've surprised you.
- And it was dropped off, and I unwrapped it immediately,
put a nail in the wall, and hung it.
- When the album goes gold,
I'll be sending some to the Crisis Crew.
- Great.
- Can cast a wider net for the album.
- So we're all on the album.
- So working at Seinfeld, and I feel like it's even
hanging it in our bathroom is a bit much,
considering, I mean, I understand, it's a nice gift,
but because we're not actually involved in its production.
- I've seen them all, like, I remember back in the day
at the Other Music record store in New York,
they would have a bunch hanging behind the cash register,
because they'd be like, or sometimes you go to a radio
person's office, and there's a DJ who'll break a song.
You don't always have to be--
- So you can gift them, I didn't realize this.
- I think you can gift them to anybody.
It's actually interesting, there's a handful of these places
that make them, but you do need that RIAA certification.
So you might think, oh, I could go start making
some gag ones, congratulations on this and that,
go in 10 times platinum or something,
but these places are official, and they get a lot of work
from the biz, and they'll say, let me stop you right there.
If you don't have that RIAA certification,
you can get the hell out of here.
We're not doing dad of the year trophies over here.
This is a serious business.
- That Diamond Mountain Brews album I've been trying to
get made for Jake for Christmas.
- But how do they check the certification?
'Cause could you not get that counterfeited
and then bring it to the other place?
- Like, is there a place, are they in direct communication
with the RIAA?
- Yeah, and they must be using some type
of quantum computing, I think, to check in with the RIAA.
Yeah, they must be directly in contact with them.
- They got a direct line.
- You probably have to wait until the RIAA
puts it on their website.
- Okay.
- I was gonna say really quickly too,
this also opened up a can of worms that we touched on
in a previous episode regarding my royalties.
- Oh yeah, 'cause last time we talked about your royalties,
we were talking about the fact that Vampire Weekend
had performed your classic song, "Mountain Brews"
at Red Rocks.
And I know that there is, you hand in the set list
and we talked about this.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Live performance, there is a performance royalty
that somehow ASCAP divvies up.
But what we didn't think about is that you did perform
on a gold single.
That might actually be, I don't know,
a few thousand bucks or something.
- Gotta track this down.
- Yeah, we gotta get you registered.
- With ASCAP or BMI?
- I think you gotta meet with some representatives
of each organization and decide who you want.
- Okay.
- Collecting on your behalf.
Well, then it gets weird too, because for all we know,
and this is real, with this life, it's actually possible
because "Mountain Brews" you played once in the US,
this life theoretically been played here and there
in other places, you might have five bucks on the table
in Romania, you might have $2 in the Philippines,
that kind of stuff.
- Let's track that down.
- This stuff all adds up.
That actually would be interesting.
I'll get somebody on it.
- But back to the album with the 10 years,
there is a "Modern Vampires" gold record
that's in my parents' house.
- Where is it hanging up in your parents' house?
- They have the three gold records
from the first three albums in this,
basically the living room.
There's a little nook where the piano is.
So it makes sense in like a music room.
And they look good together.
When I'm at my parents' house, see them,
feel like, yeah, this is where these belong.
- Now, 10 years ago, what did gold mean?
As opposed to now when it's the equivalent
of 500,000 sold, was it?
- My memory is that "Modern Vampires" was the era
when streaming was just kind of starting.
- Yeah.
- So, you know, even then there was like digital sales
and digital single sales that they would add up
into a formula and stuff like that.
- What year was the first record?
- 2008.
- Okay, so picture this,
there's a band puts out a record in '68.
- Yeah.
- And then the next one was the next year.
- No, the next one was 2010.
- Okay, so '68.
- '68, '70.
- '73. - '73.
- And then.
- '79.
- That's where it gets weird.
- That's basically.
- It's like post-punk, post-disco.
- You're basically talking about "Shakedown Street"
or "Go to Heaven" if we're talking about "The Grateful Dead."
Yeah, you start in like '67, '68.
By the time you're releasing
the "Father of the Bride" type album,
you're fully in the punk disco.
You're basically in the hip hop era.
- Yeah, it's weird.
- "Rapper's Delight" has been released at that point.
- Yeah, there's a coherence in those first five years,
whether it's '68 to '73 or '08 to '13.
- Yeah, I think that's true for everybody.
I mean, I've always been so interested
in the numerology of careers
and kind of felt like everybody's got their first five years.
- Yep.
- There's exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking,
it's like you come out, got five years, make a mark.
Try to release more than one album if you can.
Three, hell, some people do four.
But yeah, you come out,
that's when you build the crux of your career.
Then you have the next five years,
which if you've done okay,
there's still kind of heat and stuff.
But I've always felt like once you're in the second decade,
which for us started, I guess, in 2018,
you're in the twilight zone.
Have some fun with it, but you're in the twilight zone.
- I remember in that Pearl Jam doc,
I think it was called "PJ20."
- Mm-hmm.
- And camera crew asked Eddie Vedder,
I mean, yeah, he sets it up in a similar way.
He's like, "In the first 10 years of this band,
"how did the second 10 years happen?"
And Eddie Vedder just has the most blank smile.
(laughing)
And then it just cuts.
And I was like, "What?
"Like, (beep) damn, if you're gonna ask that question
"and he has no answer, then cut it out of the movie."
But he's just sort of like,
(laughing)
"Yeah, man, I don't know.
"I have no idea."
- I mean, Pearl Jam had definitely,
they were thriving as a live act in the second 10,
and they did their thing.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- I think from a Pearl Jam fan's perspective,
there's some very solid material in the second 10 years.
But yeah, I think the second 10 is a,
I don't wanna say difficult time,
I'm definitely not complaining,
but I think the second 10, it's just funny.
It's just a fully different energy.
And anyway, yeah, your expectations have to be different,
but I think it could also be a very positive thing.
- Now, Ezra, in terms of this album
coming at the dawn of streaming,
let me ask you this.
Was "Modern Vampires" on Turntable.fm?
And did you see any royalties from that?
- Was Turntable.fm where people have Scrabbles?
- Yeah, I don't know about the Scrabbles.
What's a Scrabble?
- I have a memory, for all I know,
this is a huge thing.
There was a time when, I'm digging deep into my memory,
where people would have Scrabbles.
They would, a Scrabble would be like--
- On Last.fm.
- Oh, that's Last.fm.
- Oh, Last, track the music you listen to by Scrabble.
- Okay, I've never heard of a Scrabble.
So what's a Scrabble?
- I think a Scrabble is,
I think basically you just post
what you've been listening to on Last.fm,
which maybe is not as necessary in the streaming era.
- Now, Turntable.fm was where you could
sort of have a virtual DJ room.
You could enter and you could play your tracks
for other listeners.
- Seinfeld, was that pizza too spicy?
You all right?
- I feel like I'm coming down with something
and I apologize, but I'm saying,
it was almost like a precursor to the metaverse,
which I know we're all on.
And you could go in there and you had an avatar
and you could DJ a set for a group of others.
- Whoa.
- In the chat room.
Do you remember this, Jake, were you on Turntable.fm?
- This is all new to me.
- I sound crazy, but this is a real--
- Okay, yeah, maybe, I mean, maybe, I don't remember.
Maybe there's some cool DJs spinning modern vampires
in the Turntable.fm club.
And maybe that Turntable.fm love
turned into a few scrabbles for us on Last.fm.
- I would hope so.
- Scrabbles.
- I don't care about sales.
I don't care about money.
I care about scrabbles.
And modern vampires in the city was getting scrabbled.
In 2013, we were getting scrabbled.
- The fans were scrabbling it up.
It was the dawn of a new era.
- Have you listened to the record recently?
- No, but you know, I hear songs around.
- Sure.
- It's funny, 'cause you know, when we go on tour
and we're playing all the songs,
I have this feeling that I'm hearing them all the time,
but of course I'm not hearing the recordings.
I'm hearing the live versions.
So I'm thinking about the songs.
No, I haven't thrown it on front to back in a long time.
But also, I just feel like I know it inside and out.
Maybe I'd be surprised.
But I don't know, should we like,
do you guys have any questions?
Should we skip around through the album?
- I was gonna say, this album yielded one of the true,
late set staple, real banger, "Ya Hey."
I feel like that's a classic, deep in the set,
like, core, or like, yeah.
- We've closed with "Ya Hey."
- Yeah.
- And one fun fact is, we never performed "Worship You"
in the modern Vampires era.
I remember we rehearsed it a bit,
and it just felt a little too sloppy.
That this song, you know, it's fine.
- Throw it on.
Oh yeah, this one.
Hard.
♪ Only in the way you want it ♪
♪ Only on the day you want it ♪
♪ Only with you understanding ♪
♪ Every single day you want it ♪
♪ You, you ♪
♪ City in the way, city in the way ♪
♪ Only in the way you want it ♪
♪ Only on the day you want it ♪
♪ Only with you understanding ♪
♪ Every single day you want it ♪
♪ You, you ♪
♪ City in the way, city in the way ♪
♪ Only city in the way ♪
- I mean, as I listen to it right now,
it doesn't seem that hard,
but I just think at the time,
the idea of just like,
- Yeah.
- Dun-ga-ga-dun-ga-ga-dun.
- So, - And like, the fast vocals.
- So, you and Brian doing the crazy strumming.
- When we started doing it on the last tour,
Brian would just go dun-ga-ga-dun,
and I would just sing.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Which is vocals only.
- Yeah.
♪ Once again ♪
♪ In fallen song ♪
♪ In fallen love ♪
- That goes very nicely into "Yahe" on the record,
and also live.
- Yeah, that stretch of "Everlasting Arms" through "Yahe"
is probably my favorite stretch of the album.
- "Everlasting Arms," I think,
it's so hard to sometimes classify stuff,
and you do press,
and people ask like,
"What are your favorite songs?" or something.
They're all in different categories.
- Yeah.
- I don't know how to describe this category,
but "Everlasting Arms" is my favorite song
in a certain category.
You know, when it gets down to brass tacks,
and somebody say,
"Do you think 'Everlasting Arms' is a better song
than 'Step' or 'Hannah Hunt'?"
No, I don't put it in the same category.
Those songs, I feel,
may be more proud of the songwriting or something,
but "Everlasting Arms," just the way it turned out,
it just felt very, very special.
But yeah, we could just skip through the album real quick,
and just think, see what comes to mind.
- By the way, have we ever talked
about the "Step" remix on here?
- I don't know, with "Friend of the Show,"
- With "Friend of the Show." - "Jet Spot,"
- We have, right? - "Hemes," and "Danny Brown?"
- Yeah.
- I think so.
- I remember very well.
- Do you remember it, Jake?
- No.
(laughing)
It's a great remix.
- Thank you.
We should listen to that later.
But track one, "Obvious Bicycle."
I'll just try to say a little something about every song.
♪ Mornings come, you watch the red sunrise ♪
♪ The LED still flickers in your eyes ♪
- I was thinking about this
last time I talked to our friend Morgan.
He's a guy, at the time, he was working at Domino Records.
Domino's doing all sorts of interesting stuff.
He's working with everybody from "Arctic Monkeys,"
"Dirty Projectors," whatever.
And I remember at the time,
feeling very nervous as we worked on this record,
that there were too many slow songs.
♪ You can't control ♪
♪ All you are to spare ♪
♪ You face the razor ♪
♪ Because no one's gonna spare the time for you ♪
- I knew this was a cool track one.
Sometimes, you know, you have those instincts.
This song started with a piece of music
that Rostam made, the piano.
The drums are very different at the time.
It's kind of chaotic, but it was cool.
And I just would just listen to this.
♪ So let's slide on ♪
- Listen to that piano part
that he wrote over and over again.
I remember being on a plane
and just like starting to come up with the lyrics
and just having this feeling, this has to be track one.
I just knew it felt like that was the beginning of it.
But then later, I got in my head and self-conscious
about how to start off with a slow song.
And you know, I just gotta remember,
we were known for A-Punk.
- Right.
- Still are, but you know,
we've kind of built a larger thing.
So I remember sitting with Morg and telling him,
he was like, "Oh, how's the new record going?"
And I was like, "Well, I am a little self-conscious.
"I just feel like it's a lot of slow, mid-tempo songs."
And I remember him saying, "You know what?
"You guys have made two successful albums.
"If you wanna have this album of no fast songs,
"all ballads, you earned that right.
"And I think you should do it."
I just remember thinking like, "Terrible advice."
I told him that when I talked to him last week.
I said, "You gave me terrible advice, man."
He's like, "Oh, come on."
I was being supportive.
But anyway, I did have this feeling like--
- That's hilarious.
- Is this album so slow?
And now I hear "Obvious Bicycle."
I'm like, "Even that song's not slow."
But at the time, this song felt glacial.
- It reads as ballad, though.
It doesn't read as like, "Here we go, fun time at the beach."
- Yes, it's somewhere in between,
but it's not full acoustic whispery.
- No, no, no. - It's got a groove.
And that was--
- I can't picture a vampire going full acoustic whispery.
- Well, but there's moments on this record.
I mean, a full album like that, I don't know.
Anyway, so what's interesting about this song.
So yeah, it started with this beautiful Rost and Piano part,
but then we got stuck on the drums for a long time,
and a big breakthrough is when Ariel entered the picture,
Ariel Rekshide.
Rost and I had done quite a bit of work on the record first,
you know, a lot of ideas,
some songs pretty close to done,
some songs a little bit stuck on.
And anyway, he came in right at the right moment.
And he and I remember talking about Nyabingy drums,
which is a Nyabingy type of Jamaican music
that's like a classic rhythm,
and he had just been in Jamaica,
I think working on the Snoop Lion album with Diplo.
And he'd actually spent time with Nyabingy drummers,
and some conversation I played him this song
that had those drums in it.
And he was like, "Let's just sample it."
And the next, now,
♪ Bum bum, dum dum, dum dum ♪
And that's more or less how that song came together.
♪ Don't wait ♪
♪ Don't wait ♪
- "Unbelievers."
You like the song now, Jake?
- Love it.
- You love it? - Yeah, it's a banger.
♪ Got a little soul ♪
♪ The world is a cold, cold place to be ♪
♪ Want a little warmth ♪
♪ But who's gonna save a little warmth for me ♪
- Is there a song you enjoy most
or prefer to perform from here?
- You know what?
There's a part of me that still just likes
playing the fast songs.
Get the crowd moving.
We're rock and roll, man.
♪ You and I will die ♪
♪ Unbelievers bound to the tracks of the train ♪
- I do like playing this song
and I like to have a moment where
you play the chords of "Sky."
♪ The world is a green ♪
- I like doing that.
♪ Want a little graceful ♪
- This is like a great early in the set type song.
You know, song two, song three,
just like high energy, feels good.
Remember when we were working on this,
this came together very quickly
in Ross's apartment.
He sat down, playing the first chorus,
started thinking of something.
I did that kind of pre-chorus chords.
He did this with a major three chord,
which I love.
♪ Is this the fate that half of the world's ♪
♪ Planned for me ♪
♪ I know I love you ♪
♪ And you love to see ♪
♪ The world on a roll and we're dancing in the trap ♪
♪ In the trap for me ♪
- I just kind of remember we were like sitting,
I think I wrote the lyrics very quickly,
just us sitting there together.
It never happened like that.
I've always found stuff takes forever.
I just remember thinking that
that was one of our best choruses.
- It was a great chorus.
- Yeah.
- I haven't heard this in a long time
and I was just like, oh yeah, this chorus.
- And again, there was something about this song too,
at the time, it felt like very different territory.
Now I look back and it's like,
first three albums all flow into each other.
But at the time, this had like a little twang,
a little Americana, feeling like it was very different.
- See, I don't hear that at all.
Interesting.
- So like with the organ and that.
♪ Dun dun dun dun dun ♪
- This one has a great solo too.
♪ Dun dun dun dun dun ♪
- Oh yeah.
♪ Dun dun dun dun dun ♪
- Yeah, I love that.
With the penny whistle.
- Oh, is that what that is?
- Yeah.
♪ Is this the fate that half of the world's planned for me ♪
♪ I know I love you ♪
♪ You love the fear ♪
♪ But what I live on ♪
♪ Is a little doubt, a little doubt for me ♪
- I think to me also, the twang was like,
♪ I know I love you and you love the sea ♪
- Maybe Dolly should cover this on her follow-up to Rockstar.
- This would be a good cover.
♪ Every time I see you in the world ♪
♪ You always step to my girl ♪
- Step.
I mean, I've said this before.
I kind of feel like this is like
the greatest achievement of this album.
This is inspired by the legendary Souls of Mischief,
their song "Step to My Girl."
We talked about that years ago on the show.
'Cause their song sampled a cover of Bread,
which is why the '70s band Bread
has publishing on this song.
- What?
Okay, that's so deep.
♪ Back, back, way back I used to front ♪
♪ Lock and grew up, mechanics, bug and gooch ♪
♪ Darcella ♪
- This is one of the older songs on this album
'cause I was like holding onto this song for a long time.
I think at some point I had some kooky idea
for like a solo album
where it was a lot of like sample-based songs.
I don't know, maybe at the time
I thought the song was like different.
I didn't realize it'd be so perfect for Vampire Weekend.
♪ Back then ♪
♪ The gloves are off, the wisdom teeth are off ♪
- Wisdom teeth.
♪ I feel it in my bones ♪
- Some kooky lyrics.
- Do I remember this right?
- This, I think it was from American Express that--
- Oh, we did the thing with Steve Buscemi?
- Yeah, that Steve Buscemi interviewed you
and I remember him specifically calling out
the lyrics to this and him saying how,
like basically how you guys are so young,
how do you understand?
Is that in this?
- The feeling of the wisdom teeth being out?
- No, just even just--
- Oh, he was actually, was he being like earnest?
- No, he was being very earnest.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah, there's a moment,
I don't know if it's in this song,
but Buscemi's interviewing you
and he's really moved by your understanding of aging.
- Oh, that's interesting.
It's funny, I thought more about aging
in my late 20s than I do now, in my late 30s.
Late 20s is a difficult time.
- I was so much older then.
- Yeah, truly.
- I'm younger than that now.
- I was so much older then.
♪ The wisdom teeth are off, watch you on the bounce ♪
- This one almost gave me an ELO vibe.
- Oh, that's interesting.
♪ I'm breathing my bones ♪
- Like Victor Jeffery, you're gonna sing in that?
♪ Oh, I'm ready for the house ♪
♪ Such a modest love, I can't do it alone ♪
- For me, this song is like, I've said this before,
all Vampire Weekend lyrics have deep meaning to me.
- All of them?
- 92%.
- Okay.
- Let's say 92%.
But when the first record came out,
yeah, there's some random lyrics,
but I still felt, I was like,
this is painting a picture for me.
I'm not being random for the hell of it.
But that was a classic early criticism.
And I did have this feeling where,
I see a man's through the trees, that kind of song.
It's impressionistic or M79,
very weird song about a bus with these weird images.
And it's like the haters would be like,
this dude just lists off stuff, it sucks,
got nothing to say, whatever.
We had a few haters.
- You had a couple on the first record.
- Yeah, we had a couple.
- Just a few.
- And on the second, third and fourth as well.
But I just remember feeling like,
lyrically on this song, I did feel like this is when
the randomness of the words truly told a story.
It really is about something.
It's like, this song's impressionistic too,
but I felt like whatever lyrical
Mansard Roof M79 type stuff had started,
this is where it blossomed.
- I mean, we've talked about this before with songwriting.
I mean, if it's too straightforward,
it can be kind of flat.
So, you know, or we've talked about songs
that kind of tell a story and then they kind of veer off
on the third verse and become--
- Yeah, or the perspective shifts.
Suddenly there's like a, it was all about you
and then it's about I.
- Right.
- You're kind of like, why did that happen?
And sometimes there's real reason for it.
(slow music)
- Can you play Jake the remix?
I want to get his impression of it.
And you don't believe you've ever heard this.
- Oh no, I'm sure I've heard it.
I just don't remember us doing it
on the show five years ago.
♪ Every time I see you in the world ♪
♪ You always step to my girl ♪
(slow music)
♪ Back, back, way back ♪
♪ I used to front like I was on one ♪
♪ Cut and saddle down ♪
♪ Cut and find a girl to hold down ♪
♪ Used to get my words loud ♪
- That's Despot.
No, that's Danny Brown.
Okay.
♪ Now I found one with a handle like the hoe down ♪
♪ Every time I'm with her dudes always want to stare ♪
♪ I be staring back like dude I want to go there ♪
♪ Used to didn't care ♪
♪ Now I hit you with a chair ♪
♪ If that's just so happens I just rain go to hair ♪
♪ Now me and shorty what spending more and more time ♪
♪ So since she got my heart then I gotta have her spine ♪
♪ And if any fool try to come for what's mine ♪
♪ A pair of size 9's with a sun don't shine ♪
♪ That's second and my cool lane ♪
♪ Boom get me through days ♪
♪ Swear to God when they done made ♪
♪ Watch I throw a little taste ♪
- Were you present for any of these sessions
or did they just email you?
- No, I mean, I feel like everybody sent them in.
It's possible Rostam recorded everybody at his studio
but I feel like it was just kind of emailed.
I'm not sure.
♪ And she scoffed at Vassar ♪
♪ I met her at a wine and cheese ♪
♪ I looked right past her apparently ♪
- Frank Wichella.
- No, I think this is him.
- Oh, this was in Despot?
- Yeah.
- You're talking about a wine and cheese event at Vassar.
I figured.
(laughing)
- Could be.
- I figured it was Despot.
- But I think the truth is I always felt like
right on the line about like kind of indie band
getting the rap remix.
It's like right on the cusp of being like,
could be cool but also like kind of gave me a funny feeling.
But with this song, because the song was inspired
by a rap song, it felt like very natural and appropriate.
Whereas like there's other, any vampire weekend song
you could have somebody start rapping over it.
♪ But ain't no higher place than alongside her ♪
♪ By the fireplace ♪
♪ Act like you ain't even seen me standing next to her ♪
♪ I'll tell you kicks together ♪
- That's friend of the show, Despot.
♪ If you ever try and step to her ♪
♪ Must be why you trippin' ♪
♪ When I ask you why you stressin' her ♪
♪ Passin' on to textin' her ♪
♪ About to shoot the messenger ♪
♪ Used to smash, slap 'em on the ass ♪
♪ And go away the ass ♪
♪ When I'm a call 'em and I hit 'em with a poker face ♪
♪ Coldest shoulder known to blow a load ♪
♪ Then leave 'em frozen, skate ♪
♪ Magnum wrapper in the trash ♪
♪ I told 'em nothin' gold can stay ♪
♪ Who's she ♪
♪ Guess I turn over a new leaf ♪
♪ Now I'm choosing groups A through D over group E's ♪
♪ Lose sleep lately only countin' on these two sheep ♪
♪ You and me baby, skippin' town up on these coupe seats ♪
♪ Must've broke the mold when they made you ♪
♪ Probably broke a nail or two ♪
♪ Flippin' off these lame dudes ♪
♪ Hollerin' in plain view ♪
♪ Ask 'em what's your name, boo ♪
♪ Barely had a dollar and a dream ♪
♪ But it came true ♪
♪ Love's a love ♪
- Well done, solid.
Some good lines I forgot about.
- That was like the "Down for So Long" remix
you did with Despot.
- Oh, and Makonnen.
- Makonnen.
That was, in terms of remix, it was that.
- Oh yeah, that was fun.
♪ The house is such a nice place ♪
♪ I can't do it alone ♪
♪ Can't do it alone ♪
♪ Love's a love ♪
♪ The wisdom teeth that I ♪
♪ Put you on about ♪
♪ I feel it in my bones ♪
♪ I feel it in my bones ♪
♪ Shunk a knife ♪
♪ I'm ready for the house ♪
♪ Such a nice life ♪
♪ I can't do it alone ♪
♪ I can't do it alone ♪
♪ Every time I see you in the mirror ♪
♪ You always step to my mirror ♪
- Diane Young.
♪ You talk sad like a bad ♪
- Great song.
♪ I've got to find some better ways ♪
- This was the first single, right?
- This came out with Steph.
♪ I may just surround you again ♪
♪ If Diane Young won't change your mind ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby ♪
- I love a lot of things about this song.
Not in my top five on this album.
- Okay.
- Sounds great, though.
♪ You think you can go to the 18th floor ♪
♪ When you've been past the day of the championship ♪
- I probably also just have a lot of negative associations
with it.
It's normally hitting a real wall.
There's a good time when the lyrics weren't as good
and it just felt boring.
We didn't have the formant shifting yet.
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby, ride on me ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby, ride on me ♪
- I mean, Ari always makes fun of me
for being so dramatic 'cause he remembers us sitting around.
I'm sure this part didn't sound that different
other than it just being my normal voice.
But me just sitting around and being like,
I don't know, man, I don't know if this belongs on the album.
And then you think you put the formant shift on.
You know, the rest of the song is the same.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause we'd been working on it
before we even got in with him.
And then I started to be like,
okay, now it's getting interesting.
But I really felt that at the time.
- Sure.
- Dramatically like, I don't know about this.
- When you're deep in.
♪ Baby, baby, baby, ride on me ♪
- That's what I'm saying.
♪ I wish you'd probably be naturally ♪
♪ But you got the look of a canopy ♪
- Does that mean like bad luck?
- Oh yeah.
- Okay.
- Very bad luck.
It's also funny too.
I think that's another thing.
I mean, whatever, we're all emotional artists.
That was another thing.
I remember like until that line was written,
also feeling very on the fence about the song or something.
And that is kind of like, it's not the chorus,
but I do think that is the line
that like sells the song to me.
I do think that.
- The Kennedy one.
- Yeah.
- That's the only one that I like.
- Remember?
- Well, yeah, started like.
- Yeah, fair enough.
- As I heard it, I was like, oh yeah, this part.
This is the part where it's,
you've got the look of a Kennedy.
- Yeah, I think I just always thought that the,
that one all started with like
a piece of music Rostam made, just the A section.
And it just sounded cool.
I remember thinking, this is cool.
And then just having this feeling about like,
but is the chorus cool enough?
Is the, are the lyrics cool enough?
And just feeling like kind of stuck.
♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby, right on time ♪
Don't lie.
Love this song.
This was one of the last ones that came together.
Me and Rostam went out to Martha's Vineyard
for like a four day writing session.
- Tiny.
♪ Bring these to the ground ♪
♪ Young bloods can't be settling down ♪
♪ Your hearts need the pressure to pound ♪
♪ So hold me close, my baby ♪
♪ Don't lie, I want 'em to know ♪
♪ God's love's dying ♪
♪ Is it ready to go ♪
- Are these drums all like chopped up
and arranged in Pro Tools?
So it's a weird drum part.
- Yes.
I mean, a lot of this record would have started
with me and Rostam in the studio and like a song like this.
I feel like it came together on Martha's Vineyard.
So probably he would have been chopping up some drums
and then we re-recorded it with CT
and probably even chopped up CT a bit.
That's my memory about like roughly.
So even if it is him playing,
it was probably started as chopped up drums or re-
So that's just like the feel this record is supposed to have.
- You kind of made up the part and then, yeah.
♪ Young Turks, young Saturday nights ♪
♪ Young hips shining black on the ice ♪
♪ Old flames that can't warm you tonight ♪
♪ So keep it cool, my baby ♪
♪ Don't lie, I wanna know ♪
♪ Dial up three rings and return 'em as gold ♪
♪ It's the last time running through snow ♪
♪ Where the boats are full and the fire's small ♪
♪ I wanna know, does it bother you ♪
♪ The long click of ticking clock ♪
♪ There's a head start right in front of you ♪
♪ And everyone I know ♪
- Hannah Hunt.
This is, I was thinking about this recently
because I found this huge trove of like old high school
and recording and college recordings,
which maybe in the summer we'll do a Banked Up about.
- Oh yeah.
- This is one of the oldest Vampire Weekend songs.
- Really?
- 'Cause before Vampire Weekend was a band,
kind of like wrote this song on acoustic guitar
as like a country song and kind of like sat on it
for a while.
And I always thought this was a good song.
And we tried working on it on Contra
because you know, at that point, like Contra,
we were working on Contra,
it was only out of college for three years.
You know, let's say I'd written that song five years earlier.
I wrote the demo of it five years earlier.
I was still like writing for it.
And we kind of just like, I remember being in a room,
like we just like played it as a band,
you know, just like live everything.
Just remember feeling like really disheartened,
like, all right, forget it.
But then this record being like the most studio based
started to feel like maybe it was worth a try again.
I do remember there being a lot of naysayers
about the song in the orbit.
I think because it was a quiet song.
And I think like people would be listening back
to the recordings or be playing it for people.
And people be like, sometimes feel like,
all right, another song.
And also this one starts so mellow.
So unless you're super dialed in,
you're like in the right mood,
it doesn't get to the big part until deep into the song.
So I just kind of remember like,
this is a song I can remember the most.
Nobody coming in like hot, just being like,
the song sucks.
But I just remember like some very notable people
being kind of, ah, you sure about that one?
Remember like a significant number of people saying that
and kind of being like, I don't know.
Like, cause we were trying to like figure out the balance.
Is it too many ballads?
♪ I'm a crazy bitch ♪
♪ I walked into town ♪
♪ To buy some kind and for the fine ♪
- Well, we know that Morgan had your back on this one.
- Yeah, Morgan had my back.
- And this is Matt.
- He wanted nothing but this.
- This is Matt's favorite VW song.
- I know, that was very rewarding to me that.
- Who?
- Matt.
- Oh, Matt Baldwin.
- It's a lot of people's favorite.
- It's our Matt.
- It's a lot of people's favorite VW song.
- DC's own Matt.
This is your favorite vampire song, Matt?
Wow, he's giving me the thumbs up.
- You may not know this, Jake.
This is like a very significant fan favorite.
- I didn't know that.
That's awesome.
- It's like...
- You guys play it, right?
- Oh yeah, we play it all the time.
But it's like one of the most requested VW songs.
It's like...
- This part is so sick.
- Yeah.
So I feel like because it takes a while to get to this,
maybe people, when they hear it for the first time
or when we were working on it
and you're just thinking about what's going on in the album.
- Great piano part there.
- Did you tell anybody I told you so?
Or are you bigger than that?
- I haven't told anybody I told you so.
- You're singing so high there.
- I know, it's hard to sing that high.
♪ There's no answer ♪
♪ To remember who you were to start ♪
♪ You and me, we got our own sense of time ♪
- That's a very special moment,
that Rossin's pentatonic piano part,
the energy kicking up,
singing as high as I possibly can.
It's a unique moment.
- Are those guitars?
No, what is that?
(imitates guitar)
- That's voice and guitar.
I'm singing high as hell.
- You do that?
- Yeah.
- I can't even do it.
- That slide guitar.
- Double it.
- I don't know if I can do it right now.
(imitates guitar)
Isn't it octave up from there?
- I think it's higher.
- I'm not gonna do that right now.
I even remember though,
even when we toured this album,
maybe I was in my head,
I still felt like the new material
wasn't going down amazingly.
It was a good tour, but I don't know.
Yeah, I remember sometimes we'd be playing Hannah Hunt
and we had a famous joke about,
we played a festival in Korea
and we played Hannah Hunt in the set,
kind of like a daytime slot at an indie festival.
CT said that he would close his eyes during that song
'cause it's like a ballad.
And he said when he opened his eyes,
half the crowd was gone.
And at the time we'd watch--
- I'm gonna go get a beer.
- Yeah, at the time we'd,
on the bus or something,
we'd watched the underrated magician comedy
called "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone"
with Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey.
And who else was in that?
- Steve Carell.
- Steve Carell.
And there's a running joke in that movie
about that the ultimate trick a magician can do
is to make the audience disappear.
It's this running gag.
And I feel like at the end, Steve Carell finally does it.
He makes the audience disappear.
And I don't even know what happens,
but it's like they wake up
and they're in a different place.
Like, "He did it!
"He made the audience disappear!"
'Cause I think the joke is like,
"Anybody can make a cat disappear.
"Anybody can make themselves disappear.
"Can you make the audience disappear?"
So anyway, that was this joke.
So that became some laughs we had about that
that we pulled a Burt Wonderstone
and at the festival in Korea,
CD opened his eyes and the crowd had disappeared.
But yeah, that's always meant a lot to me
that that song resonated with people.
"Everlasting Arms," as I said,
also, I love this song.
- Yeah, this one's sick.
- And this one also had a dramatic transformation.
We should have recorded it.
When we first started working on this,
it was also in that Martha's Vineyard session.
♪ I took your counsel and came to ruin ♪
♪ Leave me to myself ♪
♪ Leave me to myself ♪
- There's also a part of me that feels like
this album is the first time my voice sounded good.
I was really figuring it out on the first two records.
This is the first time I'd hear my voice,
partially my singing and partially the production,
where I started to be like, "Okay."
This is how I wanted it to sound in my head.
Like this song, I was like,
"That's what I want it to sound like."
But the earliest version is
Rostam playing like a synth part and me singing over it.
So it was just like an electro song.
(imitates electro music)
Which was cool.
It just wasn't the modern vampire sound.
♪ Looked up for the fear trap ♪
♪ And it's shadowless going down ♪
- RL kind of had his tapest congas and stuff like that.
This is when it really kind of came together.
- It's a weird, warbly synth.
- Yeah.
Yeah, there's still that synth.
- The guitar is pretty crushed there.
- Yeah.
♪ I fought it over and drew the curtain ♪
♪ Leave me to myself ♪
♪ Leave me to myself ♪
- That synth version,
synth, drum machine, very cool.
It just, it wouldn't have fit on this album.
And like, suddenly this was like the organic version.
♪ If you'd been made servant master ♪
♪ We'd be fighting by the opener ♪
♪ Fighting by the hand ♪
♪ Could I be made to serve a master ♪
♪ Well I'm never gonna understand ♪
♪ Never understand ♪
♪ Hold me in your everlasting arms ♪
♪ Looked up for the fears trap ♪
♪ And it's shadowless going down ♪
♪ Hold me in your everlasting arms ♪
♪ Looked up for the fears trap ♪
♪ And it's shadowless going down ♪
- Finger back, fun rocker.
This is also like,
this is like an old part.
I just had the,
I had this part, the bend my finger back.
My finger back snap, back of it in a paper towel.
Just had been carrying that around for a while.
I think we busted it out.
Just kind of towards the end.
♪ Bend my finger back, snap back of it in a paper towel ♪
♪ Like a tree that hasn't set straight ♪
♪ Hit me with a wood bat ♪
♪ Hit me with a can of slush powder ♪
♪ I'd so much have a way ♪
♪ Bend my finger back, snap ♪
♪ Hit for days ♪
♪ Hit me with a wood bat ♪
♪ Hit me like a Yankee ♪
♪ Like a Santa Fe ♪
♪ Don't need my sleigh ♪
♪ You said you really used to tie me out of line ♪
♪ You said we did it early with a song I never shined ♪
♪ Everybody wants you but baby you're mine ♪
♪ Baby you're not anybody's ♪
♪ Hit me with a heart attack ♪
♪ Hit me with a crease ♪
♪ Cut me off and tear me with a fine-suit snipe ♪
♪ Visit every night ♪
♪ Crack a table ♪
♪ Do my punishment ♪
♪ The punishment I needed all my life ♪
♪ Bend my finger back, snap ♪
♪ Hit me with a knife ♪
♪ Mess up with my bone rock ♪
♪ Listen to the evidence ♪
♪ You started hating me for being white ♪
♪ You said you really used to tie me out of line ♪
♪ You said we did it early with a song I never shined ♪
♪ Everybody wants you but baby you're mine ♪
♪ Baby you're not anybody's ♪
♪ I know that I'm a wicked in the road that is wide ♪
♪ 'Cause you did it, I said you're next on the side ♪
♪ Everyone's shined when we took it for a ride ♪
♪ Baby you're not anybody's ♪
- Sounding good.
Where should we be?
We talked about. - Yeah.
- Yahe.
- Oh.
- This is probably my favorite on the record.
- When we play this one live
and I'm just like thinking about it,
I do feel like it's kind of aged the best because.
- I feel like you closed one of the Ohi shows with this.
And it was pretty electric.
♪ Oh you saint ♪
♪ America don't love you ♪
- I remember you guys closed the daytime Ohi show
with Campus.
'Cause me and John were out there playing with you.
- Yeah.
No, no, not 'cause we played,
didn't we play the whole first album in a row?
- Did you?
- Was it not Walcott?
- Oh, that's what I'm thinking of.
My bad.
- Both from the first album.
- Walcott, yeah.
- No, we played Campus too,
but I think we did it,
I think we did that album in order or something.
♪ I'm a broken machine ♪
♪ And I can't help but feel ♪
♪ That I made some mistake ♪
♪ But I let it go ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
- I'll say that's a song that when we play it live,
I actually start thinking about it.
Some of the other ones, you know,
it's like some of these like dying young or something,
it reminds me of being 27
or whenever that song got started being written.
But like Yahe, I don't know, continue to grow.
- It's a good one.
- Grow with it, think about it differently
every year that goes by.
♪ I'm through the flames ♪
♪ You won't even say your name ♪
♪ Only I'm that I am ♪
♪ Who could ever live that way ♪
♪ What we are ♪
♪ That's what we are ♪
♪ Hudson died in Hudson Bay ♪
♪ The water took its victim's name ♪
- I love this song too, but--
- You guys played this one?
- I think we played it like twice.
(soft music)
- It's too spooky.
- It'd be cool if he started busting out Hudson next year.
- Maybe we need like a different arrangement
'cause it's also so like quiet and moody.
♪ A stranger walked in through the door ♪
♪ Said all apartments are pretty well ♪
♪ We laughed and asked him for his name ♪
- These lyrics are great.
- Yeah, I like these lyrics.
♪ He watched the Germans play the Greeks ♪
♪ He mocked the 99 year lease our father signed ♪
♪ Which I declined to try and comprehend ♪
- Yeah, this is like a very specific vein of--
- If you're just doing like,
kind of like Q-tron, like,
(imitates Q-tron)
Just kind of solo over this part.
- Yeah, maybe we should do like a kind of like noisy
like shoegaze version.
- Lose the like, in the live version
if you don't do the military drums.
(imitates military drums)
Yeah.
(imitates military drums)
♪ Over and over again ♪
♪ All these never ending visions ♪
♪ Over and over again ♪
- I remember Ariel added in the clock sound on this.
And you know, over this whole period,
I was still kind of getting to know him.
I was very thankful he came in at a crucial moment,
I think helped save the band.
But I was still getting to know him.
I didn't know him as well, obviously, as Rostam.
And I remember he added in that,
the kind of clock ticking on that.
I just remember being like,
all right, I like this guy.
Kind of funny.
- Goofy as hell.
- He's got the right mix of like,
funny and serious and weird.
'Cause I was like, that's the type of idea I was like,
I might've crossed my mind, might not have done,
but I was like,
and he was like, what?
Sounds cool.
And I was like, I feel you.
♪ This pleasant land ♪
♪ Over and over again ♪
♪ All these never ending visions ♪
- This is a great song.
We should play it more.
I had it in my head that this was our least popular song.
I feel like I'd said,
somebody asked me a question once.
What's your least popular song?
And I always said, Hudson.
But you know, with time,
every song gets its,
at least a small moment in the song.
- I think if you start busting out Hudson,
every like, fourth show,
on the next tour.
- I'm down.
You gotta come in.
- It's gonna gain steam.
- You gotta come in and help us arrange it.
- All right, would love to.
- It'd be an eight minute Hudson.
- Eight minute, yeah.
- The long, on Halloween.
The longest Hudson of all time.
(slow music)
Young Lion, lovely.
I mean, I've told this story before,
but basically,
this was before we were working on this record,
but we were working on Contra.
I was very stressed out,
living in Orem Hill, Brooklyn,
going to meet Rostam at the studio.
And I walked into Dunkin' Donuts
to get my iced coffee.
- Strong.
- And I did think I had like, stressed out energy,
and there's kind of a long line,
I got in the back of the line, like.
And out of nowhere,
this older Rasta dude said to me,
in a Jamaican accent,
which I won't do,
you take your time, Young Lion.
He just said that to me.
People don't say stuff like that,
that often to me.
I went to the studio,
told Rasta, this guy said it,
I was like, song lyrics or something.
He sat down, started playing these chords,
sang it,
thought that sounded great.
And then we probably put it away for a long time.
And then started talking about it again with this album.
Rostam said, well, if that's on the album,
I'd like to sing it.
And I said, you know what,
that makes a lot of sense.
You should sing it.
Especially 'cause for me,
not only did he write it,
I had this feeling,
I was like, well,
when I think of these words
and what they meant to me,
I remember somebody saying it to me.
There's something really cool about it
on the end of this album.
He comes in singing it,
this kind of like stinger.
And the truth is,
shout out to that Rasta dude.
But this album does have a lot of like low key,
you know, bit of Jamaican imagery
'cause the title comes from a dance hall song.
We talked about this on the show, right?
- Maybe, maybe five years ago.
- Wait, what's the song called?
- Sorry, dude.
- Wait, can you look up,
what's the song where the guy goes,
modern vampires in the city.
- Jake just clocks in and clocks out of this.
- No, I take this show,
it's a big part of my life.
I don't remember the episode.
- I don't, and I do,
I tend to remember this.
I don't remember it.
- We've done almost 200 episodes of this show.
What's the song where the lyrics are,
modern vampires of the city hunting blood?
- Have we done a--
- I don't believe you've ever said this.
- A top to bottom listen of this album before?
- We did Father of the Bride.
- No.
- I don't remember ever doing like--
- We did a deep dive on Step,
'cause we did an episode talking about like samples
and stuff.
- You talking about One Blood Under W by--
- No, it's what they sampled.
- Oh, I see that it's a Junior Reed, One Blood.
- This is where the title comes from.
♪ Modern vampires of the city ♪
- Oh, wow.
That's tight.
♪ Blood ♪
♪ Blood ♪
♪ You coulda come from Rima or you come from jungle ♪
♪ Coulda come from fire or sire ♪
- We hear this song.
- It's like 90s.
♪ One blood ♪
♪ One blood ♪
- That's tight.
- This is an album where I knew
it had to be called Modern Vampires of the City
from the jump.
Although at the end, I remember again,
like classic getting cold feet,
being like, "It's too weird, it's too weird."
Coming up with some other kind of bad titles.
But yeah, I think the fact that it was like
a rasta dude who said it,
and also at the time I was really interested in,
because of this song and others,
there's a ton of vampire imagery in a lot of like reggae.
Peter Tosh song called Vampire, you know,
talking about Babylon is the vampire of the empire.
And just like, yeah, thinking about,
I was thinking about biblical imagery a lot.
And so of course there's resonance there.
So anyway, I was thinking a lot about
the Modern Vampires of the City.
And I guess when I think, look back on it,
you take your time, young lion, it's like the opposite.
You know, it makes sense to like end the album
on the positive note.
You're surrounded by the Modern Vampires of the City
hunting blood, kind of harsh.
You take your time, young lion, the flip side.
- I love that that guy dropped that knowledge on you
in a Dunkin.
- It's deep, it's on Atlantic Avenue.
I wonder if it's still there.
If anybody wants to go to that one.
- You must have really looked hairy.
- I bet I just looked sweaty.
If I think back on it.
- I bet I was just--
- 12 people deep, it takes like 10, 15 minutes
to get through.
- Maybe I was just like disheveled.
Maybe I was sweaty.
It's hard to picture me like busting a Dunkin Donuts
and going like, "Oh, for God's sakes."
And then a guy clocking in and just be like,
"Hey, you take your time, young lion."
- No, I could see you though,
and you're just looking over people's shoulders.
You keep moving, you're saying,
"Is this line moving any faster?"
The guy's going, "Take your time."
- You know, next time I'm sitting in gridlock traffic,
getting down to Culver City to record this (beep) show.
- You gotta remember that.
- I'm gonna go just to myself.
Take your time, middle-aged lion.
- Just to put a button to that,
I'm counting five Dunkin Donuts
on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.
Which one, do you know which one yours was?
Do you know what the cross street was?
- It was near like 3rd Street.
Hold on, I'll tell you right now.
- Is Atlantic the one that goes under the F train?
Or is that Broadway?
Or is it, you know what I'm talking about?
That one that goes diagonal and it's like under a train?
I don't remember.
There's a lot of Dunkins on that one.
- This part of Atlantic, the train is not crossing it.
Atlantic's a very long street.
That makes sense, it'd be a lot.
Okay, the Dunkin that I'm talking about,
it appears to still be there.
It's between 3rd, it's really at,
it's at Atlantic and 4th Avenue.
Near the P.C. Richard and Sons.
Okay, it says closed, but it opens up.
It'll be open tomorrow.
Yeah, it's at 578 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.
- So when people are doing their
New York City Vampire Weekend tour,
they can add that to the itinerary.
- It's very close walking distance
to also a Jay-Z landmark, 560 State Street.
- Oh, is that his staff spot?
- That's what he shouts out.
Is that in the Alicia Keys song?
- Yes.
- Were you just straight up, yeah, he's talking about it,
the staff spot, he just goes,
"560 State Street."
It's very close.
- Is that in New York?
♪ New York ♪
- Yeah, yeah, it's in Brooklyn.
I think that's about a two minute walk
from the Dunkin Donuts.
- I hate that song passionately.
- Oh, really?
It's anthetic. - Oh dear.
- You don't like it?
- I was living in New York when that song came out.
It was not a great time of my life.
I remember working at an art gallery,
doing an installation.
I mean, you know, I was working as an employee,
installing another artist's work.
And this guy had that song on repeat for hours.
And he was like feeling himself
and we were hanging his crappy art.
- Oh, the artist himself was playing that song?
- Yes.
- Oh, you're thinking, I can paint better than this bozo.
- It was like bad kind of video,
sculptural installation stuff.
Not my thing.
And I'm up on a ladder with a level
and an impact driver trying to put this bracket
into the wall or whatever.
And I'm just like--
- Just blasting this?
- And I hated New York when I lived there.
It was really not a good time of my life.
And I was just like--
- Not a fan.
- And this was basically a PSA for New York.
You know, like your dreams will come true.
- Yes.
- And I was like, man, I'm not feeling this at all.
- Wow.
Oh, it wasn't reflective of your reality at the time.
- Wait, this is it.
- Jay-Z and Alicia Keys soaring.
- I'm soaring.
- And you're down to the dubs.
- You know, I'm hitting that Chipotle on the way home,
getting a burrito, getting on the subway,
eating that by myself.
- Damn.
- Pretty sad, dude.
- Damn.
- Yeah, whereas Jay-Z, he was down in Tribeca
right next to De Niro.
- Yeah, he's killing it.
- He's killing it.
- Yeah, but he'll be hood forever.
♪ Tell by my attitude that I'm most definitely from ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ I'm speaking to you with dreams of NATO ♪
♪ There's nothing you can't do ♪
♪ Now you're in New York ♪
- Let me ask you, when you were at that Dunkin',
was it a Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin'?
- I think so.
- Okay, 'cause it still is.
- I feel like a lot of them were.
- I feel like it's been like that for like 20 years.
- Many, yeah, many are combined.
- I didn't know about--
- Two brands with a synergy.
- But to me, when they're combined,
it feels like a Dunkin' Donuts
that has ice cream if you want it.
You know what I mean?
It doesn't feel like some massive--
- I feel like it's a little bit more West Coast to do that,
just 'cause Dunkin' didn't have a huge presence out here
and like, for instance, in Portland, Oregon,
you'd see a Dunkin'-Baskin combo in a strip mall.
- I didn't know this was a thing.
I only knew about the combination Pizza Hut, Taco Bell.
I feel like Wendy's-Tim Hortons is the Canadian thing.
That was the thing.
- They have a combo of Wendy's and Timmy's.
- That's a frequent thing.
I don't know so much anymore.
I haven't seen it in a bit.
♪ Wendy and Timmy live down the road ♪
- So any, yeah, that Dunkin',
what did I say the address was?
- Five, no, that's the--
- 578 Atlantic Ave.
Catch me at that Dunkin', 578 Atlantic.
Wait, actually, hold on.
I'm gonna do it on, I'm gonna do Google Maps.
- What was your order at that Dunkin'?
Like an iced coffee?
- I remember it was warm.
That's why I can picture this dude.
Oh my God, it's so close.
It's a two-minute walk.
- From the staff spot?
- Yeah, look, it's one block.
It's one block away.
My order, I think, was like a big iced coffee.
- Black?
- Yeah, black iced coffee.
- Light and sweet.
- I mean, I'm kinda getting back into light and sweet.
I think it just got in my head, like,
oh, don't have extra sugar, but on ice.
Yeah, and I would trudge up to the studio.
This is, again, the Contra era.
We worked in the studio, not quite Dumbo, near Dumbo,
and I would walk there from Boreham Hill.
Yeah, I remember it being hot.
That's why I bet I looked kinda like weird.
I bet I was like a little sweaty, a little disheveled.
Anyway, "Modern Vampires" wooden album.
- It's a classic.
Congrats.
Here's to 10 more years of that album.
I hope that album can last another 10 years.
I hope they don't delete it by accident.
- I hope they don't remove it from the street.
- Yeah, I hope they don't remove it.
- To many more scrongles.
- Way more.
I hope we keep racking up the scrongles.
And of course, shout out everybody who worked on that album,
especially Rostam.
Beautiful work, and also a special moment
that Arielle entered our lives.
A pleasure to, some fond memories
of just being in the room with those two.
A very special time.
Should we get in the top five?
- It's time for the top five on iTunes.
- Okay, this week on the top five, we're doing 1994.
Why?
As discussed, this is episode 194.
So we're doing 1994.
- Tight.
- We're working our way through the 90s.
Now, sometimes when we do, we did 1992,
can kinda feel like still in the 80s basically.
'93, starting to feel more 90s.
'94, we're deeply in the 90s.
Let's see what we got.
The number five song this week, 1994,
Big Mountain, reggae group,
with Baby I Love Your Way cover of Peter Frampton.
Wow, a lot of Peter Frampton talk today.
♪ Ooh baby I love your way ♪
♪ Every day, yeah yeah ♪
♪ Ooh baby I love your way ♪
♪ Every day ♪
♪ Shadows grow so long before my eyes ♪
♪ And they're moving ♪
- Yeah, last time we heard Snow and Former.
I guess there's like a decent amount of dance on reggae
crossing over.
♪ Turns into night ♪
♪ Far away ♪
- This is from the soundtrack of Reality Bites.
- Interesting.
- I wouldn't have guessed that.
♪ But no, oh no ♪
- I feel like I haven't seen that movie in decades,
but I thought of that as sort of adjacent to Singles,
which was sort of like a grungy kind of alt rock.
- I think Reality Bites is like Ben Stiller.
- I think he directed it.
It's like Ethan Hawke, right?
- Yeah. - Is that a writer?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
♪ Every day, yeah yeah ♪
♪ I wanna tell you I love your way ♪
♪ Every day, yeah yeah ♪
- Do you have any memories of hearing this?
- Oh yeah, totally.
I might've even known this version first.
- It says Lisa Bonet sings this song in the movie.
♪ I love the sky ♪
♪ With the hail ♪
♪ Of some fireflies ♪
- Ooh, nice. - Nice.
- Tasty, tasty flute.
♪ Shine, shine, shine ♪
♪ Well I can see them ♪
- I guess the funny thing about this is like,
this is a big song.
I'm just trying to picture who was listening to this, 1994.
Gen X, like 25 year olds.
I mean, the song was only 19 years old.
- Yeah.
- Which is a really funny, awkward amount of time
to be doing like a cover of something.
Maybe people who loved it in the '70s
were like, you know what, I like this new.
- Or maybe just everybody.
Just a crowd pleaser across the board.
- The Reality Bytes soundtrack is an eclectic mix
featuring U2, has a song, "All I Want Is You Is On There."
- Oh yeah, it's a good song.
- Dino Jr.
- What Dino Jr.?
- Turdip Farb.
- Don't know if I know that.
- Go on, Turdip Farb real fast.
- It doesn't have a blue link under it for Wikipedia,
so it might be a little obscure.
And Ethan Hawke sings an original song called "I'm Nothin'."
(rock music)
- This is probably original for the soundtrack.
- Well, it's also on the album "Where You Been."
- It is?
- Yeah.
- I know that record very well.
I don't think this is on that.
Maybe it's like a bonus track.
- Probably from the "Where You Been" sessions.
They had it left over.
- Right.
- Throw it on that Reality Bytes soundtrack.
(imitates guitar)
- What was that noise?
- Trying to do a mask-ist.
- Oh, got it.
- I've never heard this in my life.
- First Impressions?
- Wait, is it?
- I'm loving it.
His vocals are so low in the mix.
- Can we turn that guitar down a little?
- No.
(laughing)
- You gotta sing a little louder, Jay.
(rock music)
- I love this mode of mask-ist
when he's doing the kind of weak falsetto.
(rock music)
- This is like that full Neil Young, Dino J mode.
- Yeah.
(rock music)
- Yeah, it's like, "Turn Up Farm."
- There's like some 14-year-old listening to this, then--
♪ Ooh, baby, I love you, yeah ♪
♪ Every day, yeah, yeah ♪
- Definitely a 14-year-old was driven to coconuts
to buy this on CD.
Just like listening to "Turn Up Farm,"
"Baby, I Love You."
The number four song this week in 1994.
Okay.
(rock music)
♪ Could you be ♪
♪ The most beautiful girl in the world ♪
♪ It's plain to see ♪
♪ You're the reason that God made a girl ♪
♪ When the day turns into ♪
- What's your relationship like with Prince, Jake?
You ever gotten deep on a Prince album, or?
- Not a fan.
- Straight up not a fan?
- Straight up not a fan.
Wildly overrated, in my opinion.
- Whoa. - Yeah.
- I just don't like his songs that much.
- I like "Raspberry Beret" and "On Purple Rain,"
I like some of the hits, but I just,
like this, this is pretty thin soup.
- I think a lot of Prince fans would also not rate this as,
what about "Kiss"?
That's pretty undeniable.
- How's that, I don't even remember that one.
♪ Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na ♪
♪ Kiss ♪
(imitates fart noise)
♪ Do his dance ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Ooh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Could you be ♪
- What about you?
- You're going deep on "Sign of the Times."
- My Prince knowledge is like spotty,
but I have gotten obsessed with like,
some deep cuts before and stuff.
You know this "Kiss."
- Oh yeah, yeah, not a fan.
- Straight up not a fan?
- Nope.
- You know my theory on Prince?
- Young Jake's just 12 years old hearing this, like,
no sir.
- Yeah, you know my theory on Prince,
if he had been recording in the early '70s,
he would have made some classics.
- Well, this is not your aesthetic.
His stuff is so stiff to me.
It's not, recording in the '80s and the early '90s,
it's just, like, it doesn't do well with like,
I don't know, I feel like he's coming out of like,
kind of '70s kind of soul and funk.
- Yeah.
- And then doing it in '80s and '90s,
and it's just, I don't know, it's just awkward to me.
It's very...
- Yeah, well, I can imagine for you,
you love the tasteful palette of the '70s,
so this era of introducing drum machines,
and I would say like, at times, purposeful stiffness.
- Yeah, no, I understand it's deliberate, it just doesn't...
- Well, he did make music in the '70s, like this classic.
- Right.
Yeah, I like this way more.
- When you hear this at a wedding, you get out of your chair?
- Absolutely.
- But you're pro MJ's material during the same time span.
- In the '80s, no, I don't like his...
- You don't like it? - Michael's...
I like, like, human nature, I like some of the ballads,
but I don't...
- You're an off-the-wall guy?
- I'm really a Jackson 5 guy.
If I have to choose my era of Michael Jackson,
it's really when he was 12,
and doing like, "I want you back," or whatever.
- Okay, but what about when we start getting
to the early '90s, I'm talking black or white?
- No, no, no, no, "Man in the Mirror," no.
- What about his rock material, "Beat It"?
- Oh, terrible.
- Not a fan of "Beat It"?
- No, not a fan of "Beat It."
- Wow.
- I mean, I love some of the songs on "Thriller."
- There's a lot of people who would not rank "Beat It"
as their favorite off "Thriller."
That's not...
- I think we talked about Eddie Van Halen
coming into the studio once.
I think we did like a, maybe when Eddie Van Halen died
or something, we did like a recap on him
kind of showing up and ripping that solo.
- Yes.
Well, look, at the end of the day,
your aesthetic, I can see why Prince is not your guy.
The same way, you know, I feel like I've known you
for a long time, I have some insight into your taste.
The same way that other people I know who love Prince,
I'm gonna throw on "Turnip Farm" by Dino J.
- Oh, yeah.
- It's gonna be a non-starter.
- But I'm just saying, like, I like "Sugar Yodas,"
and I like the Delphonics.
I just like, I like the stuff that probably influenced him
more than I like him.
- In other words, the tasteful palette of the 1970s.
- Yeah, and I just feel like I don't understand,
I don't feel like you like kick the can down the road
in an interesting way for me.
- Fair enough.
- Yep.
- But that raises the question,
what is the most '80s-sounding stuff that you like?
'Cause of course there was guitar rock in the '80s
that was kind of no-frills, like "Dinosaur Jr."
or "Sonic Youth" or whatever, but for you,
is there some '80s stuff, drum machines
and synths that you really ride for?
- I love "Born in the USA."
- Okay.
- The Bruce record.
- Yeah, but still rock-coded.
- Yeah, but very '80s.
- Yeah, very '80s rock album.
Do you like Duran Duran and like--
- No, I mean, you know--
- Like "Human League"?
- I like, yeah, wait, what's that?
♪ I'm only human ♪
Is that "Human League"?
- Yes. - That song rips.
- And then before that, the,
♪ You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar ♪
- Yeah, it's okay.
I mean, I'm not gonna--
- Do you like "New Order"?
- Yeah, I like the, yeah, "Bizarre Love Triangle."
Yeah, it's cool. - You're down for that?
- It's cool.
- "Take On Me" by A-Ha.
- Yeah, I mean, I like some of those,
your workday mix, like--
- Okay, fine. - I like that stuff.
- Oh, hey, your workday mix, what?
- You know, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
I mean, yeah.
- It's a great song. - It's great.
- Yeah. - It's great, okay.
- Does the palette really hit me in the gut?
No.
- What about Devo?
- No, I like the concept of Devo.
Am I gonna actually listen to it?
No. - Damn, okay.
- You know. - Shots fired.
- Not really, it just,
trying to think of like other real '80s, like '80s rock.
- You like Eurythmics?
- No.
- What? - Don't like this.
- What about Eddie Lettick's solo?
- 'Cause you consider this stiff?
- Kind of.
- It is stiff in the most basic sense,
but it's also, it is still is like, it's funny.
You know, like, I know people, for instance,
R.E.L., the way you feel about the '70s,
he feels about the '80s.
- Yeah, that's his stuff.
- He'll say the '80s is the greatest moment
for recorded music.
He'll be going so deep, trying to like track down
the specific synths and drum machines
and like reverb units that they used on this kind of music.
He'll be like, he went to go see
the British '80s band China Crisis live
when they came through, like,
for their like, like last year in LA.
You know, he's going to the China Crisis show.
- That's tight.
Is this China Crisis? - Yeah.
- I'm feeling this.
I like that this is like--
- Yeah, you can get down with China Crisis.
- There's some of like emotion in those synths.
It kind of reminds me of like, that like Moody Blues song.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
They had beautiful--
♪ Once upon a time ♪
- In your wildest dreams.
- Yeah.
♪ There's no such thing as a happy ending ♪
- Oh yeah, this is, dude, I love this.
- Okay.
- China, this is new to me.
I gotta check out China Crisis.
- You should go with him to see the China Crisis show
next time they come through town.
What about like, who else is huge in the '80s?
Madonna?
- You know me, dude.
Madonna head over here.
- Oh, you are a Madonna head?
- Oh yeah, we've talked about this in the show.
I'm trying to think of like '80s rockers.
I had to just, I just thought of a--
- Bob Jovi.
- Not a fan.
- Okay.
- So you like hear this, and you don't think this is cool?
- Not really.
Who is this?
- This is Prince, and this is like a B-side
that became kind of like a hit in its own way.
Called Erotic City.
- Hate the title, and I just, I don't like these drums.
- Here I really hear his influence on Ween.
- Oh yeah, totally.
- Ween loves Prince, I can totally, this is totally.
- I mean, he is a legend.
I'm not saying he's not a legend.
- No, no, it's just interesting,
because I don't know that many people who are not,
I just know so many people who are like massive,
and for them, Prince is their pavement.
- Totally.
♪ Prince is your pavement ♪
- Talking heads?
- Not a fan.
- You're not a fan of talking heads?
- I'm not.
I mean, I like some of their songs, but like--
- That's why you're you.
- I just, it doesn't move me.
I just, it's too up in its own head,
and it's just, I just don't think they're like,
I just, it's not beautiful enough for me.
I don't know, I just--
- Even the song everybody loves?
- Yeah, the Brag Carry, the one that--
♪ Da da da da da da da da da ♪
Oh, I thought you were talking about the--
- Oh, the ♪ Da da ♪
♪ Tom Tom Club ♪
- Oh, that's a different, yeah.
- Well, it's funny, because I was gonna say,
you said you hate the title, "Erotic City,"
even though I think that's a pretty sick title,
and I love the lyrics, but I could totally see
how for some people who maybe are not comfortable
with the overt sexuality of Prince,
they might take refuge in the kinda weirdo--
- Cerebral?
- Weirdo, asexual, cerebral sound of Talking Heads.
Jake's not having either.
I could totally picture some huge Talking Heads fan
who'd hear some Prince and the sex stuff,
and just be like, "Um."
Even though they like the funk,
and they like the mix of synths and guitars,
they'd just be like, "Uh, how about burning down the house?"
But Jake's not.
- Interesting.
- My favorite Talking Heads stuff,
and I haven't heard it in years,
but I remember really liking a lot of the songs,
is the "True Stories" soundtrack.
- Oh, yeah, which is--
- There's some really beautiful,
kinda more straightforward songs on there.
- Definitely not, that is not one the fans rank top.
- That's where I go with Talking Heads.
- Jake's takes, man.
Love it.
- Jake's takes on time crisis.
- This is sort of an '80s record,
and it's sort of a '70s record,
but we've talked about this before.
"Side B" of "Tattoo You," 1981.
- Yeah.
- It sort of straddles both eras.
- I know, but it's the Rolling Stones.
They're like in their 40s.
- I'm saying it's '80s, you know, it's '81.
It doesn't sound like '70s music.
- Yeah, I know what you mean.
What about like "Culture Club?"
You put that counts as like the best hits of the '80s?
- Sure, "Karma Chameleon," I mean, great.
- Yeah.
- Do I know their catalog?
No.
- Okay, I'll just play you one Prince song.
But you're right, I would think if you like "Ween,"
you could find a way in with "Prince."
I mean, I think I've played this before.
Okay, these are two like deep Prince cuts.
I mean, I think the heads, these are well-known.
(piano music)
This is in 280s, just basically vocals and piano,
but it's from the '80s.
(piano music)
♪ Oh, hey ♪
- And of course he wrote the Sinead O'Connor song.
♪ I keep your picture beside my bed ♪
♪ And I still remember everything you said ♪
♪ I always thought our love was so right ♪
♪ I'll give those wrongs ♪
♪ I always thought you'd be by my side, mama ♪
♪ Now you're gone ♪
♪ What a one-oh, baby ♪
♪ What we had was good ♪
♪ How come you don't call me anymore ♪
- Doing anything for you?
- It's okay.
- '70s throwback.
Sophisticated, jazzy chords.
- Yeah, I mean, I think the song is just kind of just okay,
but there's a lot of kind of vocal bluster to kind of...
- Have you ever heard this Christmas song?
- I feel like I've talked about this before.
I love this song.
Another Lonely Christmas.
♪ Darling, darling ♪
♪ You should have been there ♪
♪ 'Cause all the ones I dream about ♪
♪ You are the one that makes me not shy to see ♪
♪ You are the only one I care about ♪
- I do like this palette for Prince,
when he has the slap back on the vocal.
♪ Remember the time we swam naked ♪
♪ In your father's pool ♪
- Remember the time we swam naked in your father's pool?
♪ Boy, he was upset that night ♪
♪ Boy, was that ever kind of a good night ♪
♪ Remember that night we played bikini for money ♪
♪ And you robbed me blind ♪
♪ Remember how you used to scream so loud ♪
♪ 'Cause you, you hated that number nine ♪
♪ Hey, I saw your sister skating on the lake ♪
- This is my favorite of all the Prince we've listened to.
- Oh, really? - So far.
- I also love that,
"Hey, I saw your sister skating on the lake."
Just so that he's actually from Minnesota.
He did see your sister skating on the lake.
♪ But oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Your father's children ♪
- All your father's children.
♪ All your father's children, baby ♪
♪ Baby, you ♪
♪ You are the finest of them all ♪
♪ You are brighter than a northern star ♪
♪ And I ♪
♪ Last night I spent another lonely Christmas ♪
♪ And I ♪
♪ Darling, darling, you ♪
♪ You shake me now ♪
♪ You're the one I dream about ♪
♪ You are the one that makes my love shine ♪
♪ You are the only one I care ♪
- So much good stuff
from just kind of like a random Christmas throwaway.
♪ My mommy used to say ♪
♪ Always trust your lover ♪
♪ Well, I guess that all applies to her ♪
- I like how random the guitar playing is in the verse.
- It's so loose.
- Yeah.
That's kind of interesting.
♪ You never leave me ♪
♪ And then you died on the 25th day of December ♪
- She died on the 25th day of December.
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ See you tonight ♪
- The drums going off.
♪ Another lonely, lonely Christmas ♪
♪ Darling, baby, hey ♪
- Such an impassioned vocal.
This is a real gem.
- What year is this?
- Sanfocacek.
- Is this like Purple Rain era?
It has that kind of feel.
- Yeah, another lonely Christmas, perhaps.
♪ You are the only one I care for, yeah ♪
♪ Your father said it was pneumonia ♪
- B-side to "I Would Die For You."
- Oh yeah, that's...
- November 1984.
- That's Purple Rain, right?
- Yeah.
- Love this part.
♪ Have a Christmas night for seven years now ♪
♪ I drink banana daiquiris 'til I'm blind ♪
♪ As long as I can hear you smiling, baby ♪
♪ You won't hear my tears ♪
♪ Another lonely Christmas is mine ♪
- I mean, it's just amazing story.
Now it's like, this song just builds and builds
and you're like, this dude's girlfriend died
in Minnesota seven Christmases ago.
And just, I could like totally picture it,
like depressed dude, freezing Minnesota,
December 25th, goes to some like tropical themed bar
and just slamming banana daiquiris,
just like three feet of snow outside.
- Oh my.
You know what's funny?
I went to a wedding in Minneapolis a couple years ago,
or several years ago,
and we went to this like very famous Tiki bar
in Minneapolis that like the locals were like,
"We gotta go to this," like whatever the name was.
- Right.
- Islands, whatever. - Oh, there you go.
It's like that major dissonance.
- I bet that, I bet he, like obviously he knew about spot.
- Right.
- It seemed like one of those places
that had been there for decades.
It was really like, and you can picture it in the winter.
Exactly, this is kind of like Fargo style.
Like funny like disconnect of like,
dudes like waiters wearing like,
bartenders wearing like tropical shirts
and you're getting a bright like engine coolant blue.
- Yeah, not every time the door opens,
it's like, (blowing)
people step in. - Close the door.
- Close the door.
People come in just like hitting the snow
off their shoulders and wearing those like,
a big hat with the flaps.
You can't even scarf up to their eyeballs.
- Coat check.
In a real Fargo situation.
- No, yeah, truly.
- You're not talking about psycho Susie's Motor Lounge,
are you?
- I don't remember the name.
It might be, I mean, it was really like an archive of like,
or a sort of a specimen from like the 60s.
It really felt like it had been there for decades.
♪ Every Christmas I go down to psycho Susie's ♪
♪ Drink banana daiquiris till I'm blind ♪
- Drink banana daiquiris till I'm blind is, that's great.
It almost kind of was giving me a little bit
of Brownsville girl energy.
- Oh, totally.
- That feel like the vocal delivery
and sort of just like the,
♪ Cramming the syllables into the verse ♪
♪ To get the story through ♪
♪ Now that was the best damn acting I've ever seen ♪
- You could totally see, I mean, it would make sense.
Bob definitely would be keeping up
with the big stars of the day.
- For sure.
- He knows about Prince.
I Would Die For You, great song.
Maybe he goes into a record shop, grabs a single.
Oh, that's a pretty good one.
I like this guy.
And then he flips it over and his mind is blown.
Writes Brownsville girl that night.
Calls up Sam Shepard.
Writes Brownsville girl that night.
I think, like I said, I barely have a handle
on the massive amount of Prince material.
But I feel like, I'm glad you liked that song.
I think you could find your way in.
- There's no way you couldn't put together
at least a couple albums worth of Prince material
that you would love, I think.
- Yeah, you're probably right.
I mean, you know.
- If there is anybody listening at home,
I mean, I can think of a few in my own life,
but if there's anybody listening at home
who's a massive Prince head and listens to TC,
you know our dear friend, Jake Sensibility.
Send Prince songs that you think Jake might like.
- Make a Prince playlist.
- Make a Prince playlist for Jake.
- Don't go crazy, make it 10 songs.
- Don't go crazy.
- Yeah, 10 songs of the Prince material
that's gonna resonate with Jake.
We don't wanna see Purple Rains there.
- Yeah, I know that song.
I love Purple Rain.
- We definitely don't wanna see them.
Oh, you do?
- Oh yeah, I love Purple Rain.
I love Raspberry Beret.
- Little Red Corvette?
- No, not so hot.
- Okay, so, okay, everybody, you hear that?
You're starting to piece together the equation.
We like Raspberry Beret, Little Red Corvette, eh.
- And the Christmas song.
- And then the Christmas song.
Find a way in.
- The number three song this week,
Madonna from the film With Honors, I'll Remember.
♪ And I'll remember ♪
The film With Honors stars Brendan Fraser
as a Harvard student whose thesis is stolen
by a homeless man played by Joe Pesci.
- What, stolen?
Oh, it's before there's computers.
So I was like, what do you mean?
- He's had one hard copy and it got stolen.
♪ I did not know it meant the truth ♪
- So what is this movie really about, though?
So Joe Pesci steals Brendan Fraser's thesis
and the rest of the film is just like,
kind of like a cat and mouse game around greater Boston
as Brendan Fraser tries to hunt down and kill Joe Pesci.
- I'm sure they like, you know, hug it out in the end.
- The film was released April 29th, '94
and received generally negative reviews from critics
and grossed $20 million.
- You know what another '80s artist whose recordings I love,
at least her first record, Cyndi Lauper.
- Oh. - Time After Time.
- Oh yeah. - Amazing, amazing recordings.
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
- I mean, of course.
- I mean, she covered Prince on that album.
- Yeah, you're right.
You're right.
- Have you played for Lizzie, Cyndi Lauper,
the Sesame Street parody, Girls Just Wanna Have,
I can't remember what it was called.
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?
Numbers?
- You know what, I'm blanking on it.
There's a Sesame Street, Cyndi Lauper.
- Girls Just Wanna Have.
- I'll just play the original.
- Maybe it's, oh, I'm gonna guess.
Is it Girls Just Wanna Have Ones?
- Maybe it is.
- And they're walking around a city just grabbing like,
want the number one in different places?
- Yeah, it could be.
♪ Standing on my own ♪
♪ I'll remember ♪
♪ The way that you just ♪
- It's a pretty good song, eh?
- It's mild, but it's pretty good.
♪ I'll remember ♪
♪ I love you ♪
- Think Madonna sat down and watched the movie
and came up with this?
- No.
- I just wonder what the tone of the film is.
Joe Pesci, funny guy. - I think it's like
a serious movie.
- Seriously.
- And why did you steal my thesis?
- Brendan Fraser's gonna be a funny guy too.
- It's a dramedy.
- It's a dramedy?
- It's an early dramedy, yeah.
It's got, contains multitudes.
♪ I'll remember ♪
- I'd like to see it.
- Patrick Dempsey.
- A shout out to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser.
- Haven't seen The Whale yet.
Have you seen it?
- I've seen a few minutes of it.
- And you dipped.
- And I dipped.
It was, I threw it on like some morning when I hadn't,
I was home.
- That's a pretty funny morning.
- Yeah, it wasn't a morning movie.
I remember, I think I was home, maybe I was sick.
I can't remember why, but I was kind of catching up
on movies towards the end of the year or something.
Like including Oscar movies or something.
And it was the morning, I think I just slammed a coffee.
Maybe I was home alone.
Started watching The Whale.
It's heavy.
Not saying it's bad, but it's heavy, intense.
This is the wrong time to be watching it.
And then I was thinking about what other movies
have I missed this year?
And then one came to mind, Top Gun.
- Okay.
- And that was the perfect movie to watch that morning.
Charged me up.
It was a celebration of the indomitable human spirit.
Maybe The Whale is too, but I didn't have time
for all that subtext analysis.
- I don't think it is.
- It's not a celebration of the indomitable human spirit.
- I haven't seen it, but I don't get the sense that it is.
- Also Darren Aronofsky, not known for his
uplifting view of humanity.
- Although we both saw Noah in the theaters.
That was uplifting. - That was true.
Not together. - Not at the same time, no.
Did you see, so you watched Top Gun at home, Ezra?
- Yeah, unfortunately I watched it at home,
but it still had me on my feet.
I was psyched.
- Can I ask you? - Yeah.
- Does the movie kick off as it did in theaters
with Tom Cruise thanking you, the viewer,
for watching the movie?
Or is that a theater exclusive?
- That did not happen for me.
- Okay, interesting.
It was just a little bonus for the--
- Hey dude, you missed it in theaters,
but I still thank you for watching it at home.
You're a pretty cool guy.
I totally get why you didn't feel like
watching The Whale right now.
Anyway, you're a friend.
- It's like one of those horror movies
where they start talking to you directly.
- You're a friend, Tom.
- Kind of funny that both Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
had sort of a semi-viral pre-movie--
- It's true.
- Direct-to-audience monologues this year.
- I mean, things didn't work out for them as a couple,
but there's a reason they were together,
if only for a short period of time.
- Oh man, if they did another one--
- Together? - Where they were together,
oh, that would break.
I mean, that would just break the internet.
That would break culture.
- Hey, Nicole, been a while.
Hello, Tom.
(laughing)
- Hello.
- Hello, Tom.
- I think that would make Keith Urban very uncomfortable.
(laughing)
- Well, he could be in it too.
Hi.
- Yeah, why not?
- The number two song this week in '94,
this is an all-timer.
- Oh yeah.
- Ace of Base, "The Sign."
Also, dance hall reggae.
Lot of reggae happening in this part of the '90s.
- True.
(laughing)
- He's like, "Woof, woof."
- Going for it.
♪ I got a new life ♪
♪ You would hardly recognize me ♪
♪ I'm so glad I met you 'cause ♪
♪ Like me, it can't be ♪
♪ Why do I bother when you're not the one for me ♪
♪ There's enough in love ♪
♪ Eyes for the sign ♪
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
- I guess this was the number one single of '94.
- That makes sense.
It just happened to be number two this week.
- Yeah.
- This song was huge.
- Yeah.
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
♪ Eyes for the sign ♪
♪ No one's gonna drag you up ♪
♪ To get into the life where you belong ♪
♪ Where do you belong ♪
- Also, just like, such a great example.
People wrote this song.
English is not their first language,
and yet they do hit on some sort of eternal truth
with clarity and precision.
♪ So many years I've wondered who you are ♪
♪ How could a person like you ♪
♪ Bring me joy ♪
♪ Under the painted roof ♪
♪ Where I see a lot of stars ♪
♪ There's enough in love ♪
♪ Eyes for the sign ♪
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
♪ Eyes for the sign ♪
- So this really is that kind of best type
of like straightforward yet ambiguous songwriting.
- Yeah, it's like, now I'm thinking about it.
- Yeah, I saw the sign.
- It opened up my eyes.
It could be religious.
It could be, it could be literally commercial.
Like you saw the sign.
- Right.
- For the, at the Costco.
And it's sort of like,
do you want the 48-pack on toilet paper?
Yes, I do.
- We know something big changed.
There was a big shift.
This is my favorite part coming up,
when she does the melody slightly differently.
♪ I saw the sign ♪
I would say this is one of the most sublime moments
of mid-90s pop music.
- Here we go.
♪ I saw the sign ♪
- Oh, love it.
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
♪ And I am happy now living without you ♪
♪ I've left you, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
- I also just love that,
that it's definitely something
that an American person would never write,
and yet it's so good.
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes
and I am happy now living without you.
I've left you, oh, oh, oh.
(laughing)
Just also like using the past tense.
It's so good.
I've left you.
So straightforward, so Euro, and yet so perfect.
So I guess whatever the sign was,
it led to the end of this relationship.
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
♪ And I saw the sign ♪
- One more time, I love that part.
♪ I saw the sign ♪
♪ And it opened up my eyes ♪
- She experienced like a decisive moment
in the relationship that she took as a sign.
Like she knew it was over at that moment.
- It could be God, it could be anything.
- It could be the way he was like chewing the sandwich.
It just drove her crazy.
- Yeah, you know--
- And she just eventually got to the point
where you're like, I can't deal with this.
Like I'm out of here.
- You know, it does remind me of the work
of a celebrated current day Swedish filmmaker,
Ruben Ostlund, also zeroing in on small moments.
You know, the film "Force Majeure" is all about
the way one small moment changes everything
for a relationship and for a family.
- Definitely, when the guy fleed from the avalanche
and then didn't cop to it, that was the sign.
- She saw the sign.
- It was over.
- I also like songs too where,
you know, maybe when I was a kid,
I might've thought about this more.
I was like, well, you keep talking about the sign.
What is the sign?
It's like, you tell me.
What are the signs in your life that opened up your eyes?
- What are the signs in your life?
- What are the signs in your life
that opened up in your eyes?
And also, I know this might not be their intention,
but I also like this idea.
They keep talking about the sign.
In a way, it's a MacGuffin.
- Right.
- The briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
Dude, well, what's in it?
And it's like, man.
- Is that what I think it is?
It's beautiful.
- It's beautiful.
Sometimes, and some people are very anti-MacGuffin.
You know what a MacGuffin is, Seinfeld?
- What is that again?
- Can you read the definition of MacGuffin
for the listeners?
- MacGuffin, an object, event, or character
in a film or story that serves to set up
and keep a plot in motion despite usually
lacking intrinsic importance.
Oh, it's waiting for a good 'o.
- And there's a very small-brained interpretation,
which I may have even shared at times in my life
where a MacGuffin would seem like cheating, right?
A tight storytelling, tight songwriting,
you show us what's at the center of it.
You tell us what the sign is.
Show us what's in the briefcase.
Otherwise, you're telling us that there's
this central mystery.
You're not giving it to us in all,
you're using that to create forward momentum
and change in people's lives,
and you're not gonna tell us the central mystery,
and we're just gonna watch all these other things happen
because of it, and you're not gonna tell us
the central mystery of it?
You know what that sounds like to me?
Life.
- Damn, dude.
Oh, you got a problem with just watching
a series of changing events with no final answer
for why any of it's happening
or why it exists in the first place?
Well, welcome to reality.
- Life is chaos and meaningless.
- Whether or not you think it's meaningless,
there is a central mystery.
Why is anything here?
What started all this?
You guys know?
- You asking me for a number crutch?
- Yeah, number crutch.
- Meaning of life?
- No, what started it?
- Oh, the big bang.
- Yeah, well, before that, who started the big bang?
Are you so confident in the big bang?
Anyway.
- Why is there anything, man?
- But also, I like in the song
that they keep talking about the sign,
and you start to think, well, yeah, what is the sign?
And then they say, "No one's gonna drag you up
"to get into the light where you belong."
They might be talking to their ex-boyfriend,
but they're also kind of--
- No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light
where you belong.
- But they're also talking to you, the listener.
We were saying, "Guys, can you please explain this to me?
"No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light
"where you belong."
Almost saying, "Shut up.
"You create your own meaning in life.
"You create your own sign."
This song is written by Jonas Berggren.
Jonas Berggren had his sign.
You wanna know the sign?
Find the sign in your life.
- Jonas Berggren, welcome to Time Crisis.
- So first question is, what's the sign, man?
Come clean.
Bro, come clean, what's the sign?
Okay, I haven't told
anybody in a while.
- I like how they're not concealing their accents.
I feel like sometimes you hear this Euro pop,
but they're trying to sound American.
And this, the accent really shines through.
- No, they're proud Swedes.
Actually, I vaguely remember reading on the darker side,
was somebody in the band a neo-Nazi?
- Oh, dear. - That's not ringing a bell.
- Let me get a number crunch.
- Oh, no.
- Asa-based neo-Nazi, that's a cool Google.
- Okay, well, apparently, Ulf Erberg
did have alleged Nazi ties.
- Alleged, allegedly. - Look at the picture
of him there.
- What did Ulf do in the band?
- Ulf, he's a musician in the band.
- Oh, he's a musician?
- I'm not sure what his role was.
Did they all have equal--
- Very talented bass player,
made up my whole string bass.
- Okay, maybe. - A musician under fire.
- What was his alleged Nazi ties?
Was it like when he was young,
he got mixed up with the wrong crowd kind of thing?
- A report surfaced claiming he was a member
of a pro-Nazi band before he helped form
the hit-making Swedish pop group.
Let's see, he said he admits he's regretful
about quote, "Some of my thoughts from those days,"
which he calls nauseating, so he's distanced himself.
Oh, he insists the band, in question,
the band's name is Commit Suicide,
is the name of the band. - What's the name of the band?
- Name of the band.
He did not, he insists--
- Probably not on Apple Music.
- Maybe not, yeah.
He insists that he did not write the controversial songs
attributed to them, which popped up in a demo tape
that's been reportedly making the rounds for some time now.
And Ulf, to your question,
oh, he's gone on to great success.
He's a musician, businessman, television and film producer,
and it still doesn't say, he was a keyboardist,
songwriter, singer in the band, he did it all.
- Ulf was, he was playing some keys in the band,
down in the practice room, here's this guy yelling,
what's he saying?
Later on, the demo tape's floating around,
guys, I didn't write the lyrics, come on.
The number one song this week in 1994
will play you out on All For One with "I Swear,"
which has come up a bunch on this show.
We've talked about how there's also
a country version of this.
♪ I swear ♪
♪ By the moon and the stars in the skies ♪
♪ And I swear ♪
♪ Like the shadow that's by your side ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ I see the question ♪
- Oh yeah, John Michael Montgomery recorded this in '93.
♪ I know what's weighing on your mind ♪
♪ You can be sure I know my part ♪
♪ 'Cause I'll stand beside you through the night ♪
- It's a lovely song.
- Yep.
♪ You'll only cry those happy tears ♪
♪ And though I make mistakes ♪
♪ I'll never break your heart ♪
♪ And I swear ♪
♪ By the moon and the stars in the skies ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ Like the shadow that's by your side ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ For better or worse ♪
♪ Till death do us part ♪
♪ I'll love you with every beat of my heart ♪
♪ And I swear ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ I'll give you everything ♪
- Just listening to it.
- Yeah.
- It's really, it's--
♪ I'll build your dreams ♪
- Absorbing.
- It's hitting right today.
♪ Two hands ♪
♪ We'll hang some memories on the walls ♪
♪ And when ♪
♪ And when ♪
♪ Just the two of us are there ♪
♪ You won't have to ask if I still care ♪
♪ 'Cause as the time turns to pain ♪
- See you in two weeks.
- Yeah, slow ending.
- This has been Time Crisis.
- We're still here.
- We're just--
- We're just fading out over here, dude.
- No, I'm just floored by the beauty of this song.
I didn't appreciate it last time we heard it.
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ Like the shadow that's by your side ♪
- To all our listeners on this weekend,
if there's somebody in your life that you love
you haven't reached out to in a while,
maybe they're doubting if you still love them.
Maybe they're just a friend who wants to know
that you're there for them when they're in a tough time.
I want you to listen to this song
and then give 'em a call, give 'em a FaceTime,
send 'em a text, an email saying, "I'm there for you.
"Like the shadow by your side, I'm there for you,
"and I swear it."
Let 'em know.
My name's Ezra, joined by Jake and Seinfeld.
Nick had to leave.
We'll all be back in two weeks again
with more Time Crisis.
Good afternoon.
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ Like the shadow that's by your side ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪ For better or worse ♪
♪ For better or worse ♪
♪ Oh no ♪
♪ I'll love you with every single beat of my heart ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ Oh, I swear ♪
♪ I swear ♪
♪ Swear ♪
(dramatic music)
(music fades)
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