Episode 84: Jamflowman
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Transcript
- Time Crisis, 2019.
Enter the 2019 verse.
Today on Time Crisis, Jake and I will be talking about a song
we should have talked about a long time ago.
This time it's not Joker Man, it's Jam Flow Man.
All that, plus a healthy dose of 1999 nostalgia,
plus the top five hits on iTunes today.
Welcome to--
- Time Crisis with Ezra King.
Be-be-be-be-be-be-beast.
One.
[MUSIC - EZRA KING, "TIME CRISIS"]
- They passed me by, all of those great romances.
You were a friend who opened me up my rightful chances.
You made 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.
Leave alone me, babe.
Time Crisis, New Year, New Me, 2019.
- It is a new you.
- That's right.
- You're rocking this sweet brown trench coat.
- I got a haircut.
- Good look.
- I have this kind of formal camel jacket.
I just don't have that many occasions to wear it.
- And you're like, I'm going to head down to TC.
- Well, I was kind of wearing it all day.
I kind of like to stick to a jacket for the whole day.
- Were you doing things around town?
Were you running into spots and sporting the jacket?
- I went to a coffee bean with this look.
- Did you post up for a while or just get a cup to go?
- Just got a cup to go.
I was walking around, I was starting my stuff.
I had lunch.
- Solo?
- Yeah, I had a solo lunch.
- With coat on.
- Yeah.
- That's a tight look.
- Yeah, it's nice that it's finally cool enough in LA
to wear a proper jacket.
- Yep.
- But you still wear just like a t-shirt under it
'cause it's not that cold.
- Yeah.
- Can you believe it's 2019, man?
- Far out, huh?
- Next year's going to be 2020.
- Looking forward to that.
- Maybe that's when things will get back on track.
I've seen somebody make that point before.
Part of the reason that the last 19 years have been so weird
is because we weren't in a real decade.
Once we're back in the 20s, we're like,
"Okay, we have to reset.
Now we're in a decade."
- Yeah, nothing weird ever happens during the 20s
or the turning over of the next century.
- Amen.
- Like 1920 to 2000, like smooth sailing.
(laughing)
- Say what you will about a world war,
but at least people are hashing it out.
Not all this passive aggressive social media bullshit.
No, you're right, things get bad.
- Things can get dicey.
- Things can get dicey, but--
- I'm really looking forward to the 2020 presidential race.
That's just going to be fun.
- Oh yeah, it's already fun.
- It's not going to be draining or anything.
- It's already fun seeing people debate Beto
and Elizabeth Warren.
We got enough time.
We also just don't even learn our lessons, right?
- First episode of TC 2019,
we're going to do a full breakdown
of the Democratic nominees.
- Guys, it's 2019.
That means--
- Election is 18 months away.
- Our election coverage starts now.
- You're listening to Time Crisis on Beat One.
- It's also funny, I feel like every time
you're like the year before primary,
I guess the primaries would be this year.
- No, like a year from now, January.
- The primaries would be in January?
- Yeah, next year.
- So things will get pretty heated
towards the end of this year.
I guess we're not that far from all this nonsense.
- Well, I think we are.
I mean, we're a full year from--
- Yeah, but it's like,
things got to get pretty hot in the fall
before the primary winter.
Oh man.
♪ I was stuck ♪
♪ I was stuck for no reason ♪
♪ Feelings, little life feelings ♪
♪ What I left behind ♪
♪ Just like you and I ♪
♪ Feelings, little life feelings ♪
♪ You don't know this ♪
♪ So I will stay ♪
♪ I will find this ♪
♪ You don't know this ♪
♪ So I will stay ♪
- How you doing, man?
- I'm good, man.
I didn't want to talk about all that stuff.
I didn't, look man, I'll support whoever can win.
- Yeah. - But I'm good.
It's 2019.
- You're turning 35 this year.
- Oh yeah, I'll turn 35 this April.
- I was just noticing it's on the sheet here.
It's time crisis episode 84.
- I mean, I'm an 84 guy.
Do you remember turning 35?
- Yeah, I moved to LA then.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
In fact, I remember moving here at age 35
and staying with my cousin,
and he was like, "How old are you, like 28?"
And I was like, "No, I'm 35."
He's like, "Oh, oh, that's like a real age."
- Right.
- And then I remember like the first few months I was here,
you hit me up, you were in town.
You were staying at this like little hotel above
that place El Chavo, remember that?
- Oh yeah, the super rent, doesn't exist anymore.
- Yeah, that Mexican restaurant that closed.
And then I remember we were like driving
in a car out to the beach, out of Santa Monica.
- Oh, we went to that crazy, fancy beach club?
- Yeah, and you were like, "How old are you?"
And I was like, "35."
And you're like, "You got like five years."
- Yeah.
- And I was like, "What does that mean?"
- And I just like, I just turned the radio up.
(laughing)
You got five.
- Then we just sat there in silence for 20 minutes.
♪ You got five years ♪
♪ Is that all you got, five years ♪
I mean, I understand what you meant.
You're like, you know, get your act together.
- No, I was saying the opposite of your cousin a little bit.
Well, maybe. - Exactly.
- Like some people would say 35, you're five years late.
- Yeah, you should have your act together.
You should have like a stable life
and like a game plan together.
- I would actually say that these days,
the impression that I get from our culture
is that the values of when you're supposed
to do certain things in life shift all the time.
- Sure.
- You know, it used to be you were kinda,
in the Jewish tradition, you're an adult at 13.
(laughing)
Seems very ancient.
And then I think it was like widely accepted
when you're older, 18, you're an adult.
- Yeah.
- And I think now--
- Having kids when you're like 22.
- Yeah, by then your adulthood shifts into like adult prime.
- Yeah.
- Now I think the impression that I get,
and you know, for real reasons, real socioeconomic reasons,
and then also maybe just like some weird,
not so good reasons, I kinda get the impression
that it's like adulthood starts more around 30.
I've noticed like people can get away with playing the like,
I'm not really an adult yet.
- I think for like the college set, that's true.
- Yeah.
- People that go to college.
- That's true.
- 'Cause if you're just like some dude
that's like working at Jiffy Lube and you're 24
and you're married and you have a kid, then it's like--
- Right, yeah, you can--
- That's like some like mid 20th century--
- You can picture like some like upper middle class,
collegiate type who's just kinda living in an apartment
with their friends, they're like 29,
just figuring it all out.
They're at the Jiffy Lube like dealing with like
the hardcore 23 year old with like two kids.
- Yeah.
- And they're just being like--
- I'm sold on this like weird battery.
- Or I was also just picturing them assuming
that the guy's like much older than them
and just being like, oh yeah,
I don't know anything about this stuff.
I've never actually dealt with this before.
Like, you know, I've driven my parents' car for a while
and the guy's like, looks at their driver's license
and he's like, sir, you're six years older than me.
I've been a father for three years.
You pull up here, P to Chip rappers on the floor a year.
Jetta.
But anyway, I think roughly like now people can kinda play
the extended adolescence up until around 30.
- Right.
- And then it's like 30 is like you enter the 36 chambers
and then 40 is like--
- All right, come on, bro.
- Listen, you were a kid until 30.
- You had your time in the sun.
- And then we gave you 10 years to really get
your (beep) together.
Now you're four, I can't help you.
- That ship has sailed.
- It's like a solid 25 years later than it used to be,
which maybe is a good thing, maybe not, I don't know.
- Wouldn't it be crazy if we just kept going?
I mean, I guess like if like people that come
from really wealthy families, like I know some dudes
that live up in like Ventura, like in like Montecito area.
- Yeah.
- They're just like rich dudes that are like 50.
Like the last 25 years has just been like,
oh, I'm dating this chick and like, I don't know.
- Oh, totally.
- Just like surfing.
- Yeah, no, no, there's a lot of people like that.
Who are you?
Like what?
- Yeah, these lines are only gonna get more and more blurred.
- Yeah.
- I think especially with like the environmental apocalypse
and all of this stuff.
I remember my mom, my mom said,
well, that's a whole other story.
- All this stuff.
- I remember my mom said something once to me,
'cause she's from more of like a crunchy hippie generation
or baby boomers who came of age in the 60s.
- Sure.
- We're kind of the first generation to be interested
in health food and things that maybe today
would be called wellness or something.
- How old is your mom?
- She was born in 1949.
So she's--
- Turned 70 this year.
- Yeah, she's 69, she'll turn 70 this year.
And I remember like being at my grandma's nursing home
where you have like people who were born more like
turn of the century or maybe a little bit later.
- Yeah.
- And you know, you can picture like a typical
American nursing home and what the vibe is
and what the food is like and what the look is.
I just remember my mom saying something
that always like stuck with me where she was like,
I wonder what my generation's version of this
is gonna look like.
Because you know, people like my grandma
who were like immigrants from the old world
and then probably like, you know,
grew up in like weird tenement housing
and were just like super happy to move to like a whack suburb.
You know, if they're in like a clean,
antiseptic nursing home, they probably were like--
- Cool.
- This is cool.
- Yeah.
- But then you picture more like the baby boomer generation.
You know, they might even already have too many
negative associations with nursing homes, understandably.
- Right.
- That doesn't exactly have a great reputation.
But pretty soon they're gonna have to start opening
ones that have good, healthy, organic food.
- That aren't so like industrialized.
- Yeah.
- That are like more like boutique.
- Yeah, like where's Bob Weir gonna go?
- That's a great question, man.
- I mean, he's super paid, so he'll probably have--
- Like private in-home stuff.
- Yeah, he could have private, that's kind of,
I don't wanna--
(laughing)
- This is so funny.
- I'm sorry, Bob, I don't wanna,
you're still very young.
But I'm just saying like that type of person,
what's it gonna look like for the middle class?
'Cause remember, there still is a middle class
for that generation.
- Sure.
- What's like the middle class baby boomer generation
nursing home gonna look like?
They're not gonna happily move into what their parents
moved into.
And then you go even one step further,
what's the millennial old age gonna look like?
I think you're gonna have way more people without kids.
- Right.
- I can totally picture the New York Times style article
like in 30 years.
- Oh my God, dude.
- That's just about like aging 70 year old hipsters.
It's like, we're a crew of 10 people, we never had kids,
but like obviously we're not ashamed about that.
Like some, what is this, 100 years ago?
And we travel and we live in a house together in Greece
half the year and the other half of the year,
we live in Brooklyn and you know like--
- Right, and like between that 10 and then they've hired
like four full-time nurses.
- Yeah, maybe they're like 80.
And they'd be like, some of us have like mobility issues
so we can't actually walk to the blue bottle.
But actually on the ground floor, we have like,
somebody's nephew comes and kind of like every morning
he posts up, only for two hours, but he just kind of like
runs like a blue bottle coffee like in the corner.
- Honestly, sounds dope.
- Yeah, I think we just hit on something.
- I mean, and that model would apply for people
that have kids or don't have kids.
- Yeah, because kids are--
- God knows your grown kids are not gonna be
taking care of you.
- Yeah, we should just totally skip whatever.
Baby boomers, they're gonna figure out
their own nursing homes.
But we get in on the ground floor now
with millennial nursing homes.
- I like this.
We've got about a, what, a 40 year head start?
- The nursing home definitely has to have an app.
- I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.
- When you go to sleep at 8 p.m.,
you could use the app to pre-order your coffee
from the temporary blue bottle.
And then you roll down, you see everybody.
I mean, yeah, it could be a good thing.
♪ Healthy jet ♪
♪ One time they were just like you ♪
♪ Drinking, smoking, sex and sniffing glue ♪
♪ Healthy jet ♪
♪ Don't just put them in a hole ♪
♪ Can't have much fun when they're all on their own ♪
♪ Give a hand if you can ♪
♪ Try to help them to unwind ♪
♪ Leave them alone and give them comfort ♪
♪ 'Cause they're running out of time ♪
♪ In the meantime we try ♪
♪ Try to forget that nothing lasts forever ♪
♪ No big deal ♪
♪ So give us all a beat ♪
♪ So we can get on back to work ♪
- But you know, also that was 2019.
We're coming up on the anniversary of a lot of stuff.
'Cause 1999 was kind of a major year.
- I graduated college.
- Oh really? - Yep.
- Wow, was there a lot of talk at your graduation
about like, you are entering the workforce
in a new millennium.
- I'm sure.
- By this time next year, a century will have passed.
It'll be the year 2000.
- The World Wide Web, the superhighway of information
will create unprecedented opportunities for all of you.
But I implore you students to meet the World Wide Web
head on, for you have what it takes.
- There's such a specific cadence for graduation speeches.
I wonder, has anybody ever done like a breakdown
of like the different classic cadences?
They're like slightly different from each other.
Like newscasters like,
early this morning in Brooklyn a fire alarmed.
No, no, no.
And then like graduation speech always like,
but I am done assuring you students to not done,
but to stop, listen and look into the future
with eyes wide open.
For you to blah, blah, blah, wash, rinse, repeat.
It's slower.
I wonder if you'll get asked to do a speech somewhere
in like maybe 10 years.
- Never have, it seems like a--
- I think you're too young.
I can see you in like 10 years being asked by someplace.
- My high school.
- Something.
- College, seems like low reward.
- Yeah.
- Like gotta spend all this time to write a speech
and then what?
- And you have to make sure there's,
it's kind of anodyne.
'Cause everyone's just gonna get pissed off.
- Right, if you tell like--
- Either the students or the teacher,
someone's gonna get.
- Yeah.
But anyways, 1999, a lot happened.
The Sopranos first aired 20 years ago this week.
That's wild.
We were just talking about the Sopranos late last year.
There was also Woodstock '99.
- That's rough.
- Woodstock's in the air
because Woodstock '99 is 20 years ago
and Woodstock, the original is 50 years ago.
- All these anniversaries.
- I remember like, yeah, like 2013,
it was like 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.
We're just kind of like live in the 60s.
2017, it was like summer of love.
- Right.
- And like the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead
and now like this summer in LA,
we'll get like the 50th anniversary
of like the Manson murders.
50th, Woodstock, we'll get 50th of Altamont,
December of--
- Man on the Moon?
- Yeah, that's also, that's July.
So this will be a huge anniversary year.
Obviously, you can't let an anniversary pass
without cashing in a little bit.
So this summer--
- That's fair.
- On the 50th anniversary of Woodstock,
there are currently not one,
but two 50th anniversary festivals in production.
So first you got the Beth El Woods
Music and Culture Festival,
which takes place at the original Woodstock venue
from August 16th to 18th, put on by Live Nation.
I just sent a text to my management,
how come we haven't been invited to any of these?
Not that we'd wanna go.
- Yeah, but you gotta get the invite.
- It'd be nice to be invited.
And then the second is Michael Lang's festival,
which is out in Watkins Glen.
- Oh, the same weekend.
- Exact same weekend.
- Wow, they're going head to head, that's tough.
- So Michael Lang is the co-creator
of the original Woodstock.
- Wow.
- So he says, "While the original site in Beth El
"remains close to our hearts,
"it no longer has the capacity
"to hold a real Woodstock festival.
"I'm delighted that Beth El Woods is doing events
"in the coming year to celebrate
"what we brought to life in 1969."
So he's being kind of like, trying to be polite.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause now there's this kind of like,
cultural heritage center with like,
an amphitheater on the site.
- Oh, really?
- So he's kind of being like, "That's cute.
"You guys do your little thing."
- And it's like, corporate now, too.
- Yeah, and he's being like,
"But you cannot have a real Woodstock festival."
So he's doing maybe something bigger.
He's already booked 40 acts to appear.
And Watkins Glen is kind of famous,
like there's some dead shows out there.
That's where Phish was gonna do their festival
this past summer, Curveball, that got canceled.
So Watkins Glen has a kind of crunchy heritage.
- Okay, but no acts announced yet.
- I guess neither--
- So nothing's been announced.
- Nope, sort of.
- So it's sort of like--
- We don't know which one we should go to.
Well, which one of these sounds more official,
or do we have to wait for the lineup?
- I mean, I'm gonna go with the OG.
- Meaning Michael Lang?
- Yeah, Michael Lang.
But obviously, that's contingent on lineup.
But Michael Lang's like, "We got Foo Fighters,
"Limp Bizkit, we're doing a Cypress Hill reunion."
You know, it's sort of like, well.
- I mean, Cypress Hill reunion would fit in.
- That'd be kinda tight.
- That'd be tight.
I don't think they ever broke up.
- Oh yeah, I don't know where I pulled that out of.
- Cypress Hill's not performing together in over six months.
We're bringing them back together.
Clearly one of these is gonna be like,
try to do a mix of old and new.
- So it's just a grab bag.
- Yeah, I mean, you can totally picture one that's like,
and I mean, we've played at festivals like this
a little bit, that's like, "With your headliners,
"Bob Dylan, Demi Lovato, and Imagine Dragons."
That's like super real.
- That would be just like all over the place.
- That's more or less happened before, but whatever.
I guess for a certain type of person, it's cool.
But it'd be cool if one of them,
and hopefully it's Michael Langs,
was just like, "You know what?
"This moment may have passed.
"People moved on to other types of music.
"It's cool, but you know, that's our moment.
"We're still alive, and we wanna put on something
"that celebrates the music of that era,
"and we're gonna get all the old heads."
And like, we're basically saying, "Call in all old hippies."
So a little bit like a Grateful Dead concert,
but it's just like, if you're an OG hippie,
you're gonna feel right at home here.
There's gonna be fun stuff for you to do.
There's gonna be music that you like.
We're not trying to mix it up too much,
and if anybody younger is interested,
you know, you come through too.
- You're welcome.
- But just like, we're getting as many people
who played the original as possible,
and we're gonna get music that's got a little bit
of a hippie-dippie, crunchy vibe,
and we wanna make 70-year-old plus hippies feel at home.
I would rather go to that one.
- Yeah, it's not gonna be as marquee.
You're gonna get bluegrass bands playing,
and maybe like a Rufus Wainwright or something,
which would be dope.
- Why not?
- You know, no real hard rock or hip hop.
- Are they gonna let any EDM in?
- Oh, hell no.
- What about like, that kind of like--
- Maybe like Moby.
- Psytrance?
Moby, yeah, I don't know.
- Moby's kinda chill.
- Yeah, but now you're opening up the floodgates.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Why's Moby allowed?
- He's like a vegan, he's mellow.
- I mean, he can come as an attendee.
I'm not saying that.
- Oh, he's welcome to purchase a ticket at full price.
- All are welcome.
- He's on me.
Play it.
♪ Well I came upon a child of God ♪
♪ He was walking along the road ♪
♪ And I asked him, "Tell me where are you going?" ♪
♪ This he told me ♪
♪ Said, "I'm going down to Last Us While" ♪
♪ Gonna join in and rock and roll there ♪
♪ Got to get back to the land, said my soul ♪
♪ We are star-crossed, we are cross ♪
♪ We are bound, we are caught ♪
♪ And we've got to get ourselves ♪
♪ Back to the garden ♪
♪ Well, when can I walk beside you? ♪
♪ I have come to lose the smile ♪
♪ And I feel myself being caught ♪
♪ In something turning ♪
♪ And maybe it's the time of the year ♪
♪ Yes, it's maybe it's the time of the year ♪
♪ And I don't know who I am ♪
♪ But my life is for learning ♪
♪ We are star-crossed, we are cross ♪
♪ We are bound, we are caught ♪
♪ And we've got to get ourselves ♪
♪ Back to the garden ♪
- You know who might play, dude?
Twiddle.
- That'd be tight.
Are we finally gonna talk about Twiddle?
- Let's do it.
- I think it's time.
There is a song that Jake and I have been talking about
for a long time.
Have we actually mentioned it on the show before?
- Yeah, I think we've like played part of it once
on the show once and then someone texted me,
like a friend of mine was like, "What is this music?"
- So Jake, you put me onto this song.
And look, we gotta be delicate talking about this
because we first heard about this song
in the context of people being hard on.
- Yeah, I mean, I'm not a Twiddle expert by any stretch.
I heard about it from John Nixon,
who is the other guitarist in Richard Pictures.
And he's much more up like kind of current
with like jam bands.
- The jam world, yeah.
- And so he was up on some boards, like chat rooms
or whatever, reading people's comments
about different jam bands.
And I guess Twiddle is like kind of a constant source
of confrontation on that board
'cause there's obviously a huge devoted fan base,
but they also got a lot of grief
from like some of the jam band community.
- I've seen this as well on some Instagram accounts,
people, you know, I think I showed you one
that came up my Instagram Explorer
that was a pyramid of jam bands
where obviously the Grateful Dead was at the top.
- Sure.
- And then the bottom was in big letters Twiddle.
- Right.
- And just some mean spirited jokes.
- Right.
- Yeah, so like you said,
clearly they have a devoted fan base,
people are into them,
but other jam fans who are maybe into Fish or the Dead
like to take some pot shots at Twiddle.
- As a casual fan, like obviously there's the Dead and Fish
who are like kind of like uncontested the OGs
and like the giants of the genre.
- Right.
- It's like Beatles and Stones.
- Yeah.
- After that, it's just like,
at least from my perception,
it's just like a vast sea.
(laughing)
And like widespread panic,
like I can't split hairs between Twiddle
and widespread panic.
- Okay, I will say this though.
- I will say this, there's somebody listening right now
who just like had a heart attack.
Did this dude really say he can't split hairs
between widespread mother (beep) panic and Twiddle?
- I'll say this.
- Yeah.
- I don't know one widespread original song.
- Oh, I sent you one recently.
- That's true, it did not connect.
(laughing)
You texted me this song and you were like,
dude, what do you think of this?
Like exclamation point, question mark.
And then I listened to it and I was like,
yeah, that's cool, man.
- It's kind of a good song.
I like it.
- We could dive into that too,
but just to finish the point.
- Okay, we'll play that later.
- So I was just like, Twiddle has a song called Jamflow Man
that we started listening to at Richard Pictures practice
and honestly just delighted the room.
I mean, we're laughing at it and with it.
I mean, it's a fun song.
It's like, I think the song is done with a sense of humor.
- I think so too.
- It's like, it's funny.
- I think it's done with a slight sense of humor.
And actually after you sent me a documentary about Twiddle.
- I've not watched the whole thing, but I'm.
- I watched the first 15.
- And first of all, as soon as you watch it,
you can tell these guys are cutups.
They're like razzing on each other.
They're cracking a lot of jokes.
So I think they don't come across
as like dour, hyper serious guys.
- No.
- At all.
They're having fun, which I mean,
as a jam man kind of needs to.
A dour jam band is kind of brutal.
But anyway, this song Jamflow Man,
we've uncovered we're both like interested in the jam scene,
but not like deep.
And I think what we've uncovered is that
within the jam universe, like we said,
Grateful Dead is up top, Fish are one level below,
and then it's a free for all.
But even within that free for all,
Twiddle gets a lot of (beep)
and then within the Twiddle catalog,
the song Jamflow Man gets a lot of (beep).
So in some ways the song Jamflow Man
is like the punching bag for a lot of mean spirited people
in the jam community,
which I can't even believe I'm saying that
because the jam band community should be like chill.
- Maybe it's one of those things where it's like,
think about these songs that kind of like came back,
ironically, like I feel like for my generation,
speaking of Sopranos,
it was a little bit like don't stop believing.
Like people would be like, this song is so kind of corny.
Then after a while people started to be like,
- Song's good.
- It's just a good song.
Maybe even Toto Africa,
like there are all these like millennials being like,
Toto Africa, it's funny, cover Toto Africa.
And then it's like Weezer covers and you're just like,
you know what, if that was a real Weezer song,
it'd be like top five Weezer song.
- Is that where we're at with Jamflow, man?
Or are we just sort of like, you know what,
throw in the towel, it's a good song.
We might be.
- Well, we got a lot to say about this song.
It's 'cause like, I know we probably have some jam head,
I don't know what you call it, just somebody like,
- Jam heads.
- I love jam bands, man.
From Twiddle to the Dead, I just love them all.
But that never happens,
there's old people always draw lines in the sand,
but we probably have some TC heads
who are like pretty familiar with this world,
but a lot of them probably have no idea
what they're about to hear.
So again, just so you understand,
- Strap in.
- We're just reporting the news
that this song gets a lot of grief
from people within the jam community.
- I guess we gotta look at Twiddle's set lists
and see how often they play Jamflow, man.
- Oh, I've looked.
- Did they play it every show?
- They played it once during their New Year's run,
this past New Year's.
- How many shows did they do?
- I think they did three nights in Boston.
No, two nights in Boston, I gotta double check.
- No repeats or?
- I mostly just looked to see if I saw Jamflow, man, period.
- We're going, 'cause they're playing March 1st
at the Troubadour.
- Okay, we might have to.
- We're going.
- If they don't play it a lot, I almost wonder,
and if it's a song that has caused a lot of controversy
in the scene, I wonder if it's almost like Radiohead's
Creep for them.
- Right, where they wanna like disavow it.
- They're a little embarrassed.
- And you know what, I've seen people,
like some mean-spirited Instagram posts
where somebody's taking pot shots at Twiddle,
and I've seen Twiddle fans get in there to defend Twiddle,
and even these fans sometimes will be like,
okay guys, ha ha ha, Jamflow, man,
they have a lot of other songs.
- Okay.
- So anyway, this is Jamflow, man, let's check it out.
- Tasty groove so far, nothing to be mad at.
♪ Have you heard of the Jamflow man's jam ♪
♪ Sing us in the quickest hands in the land ♪
♪ Got that shish down real nice ♪
♪ He'll play his jam and it won't be twice ♪
♪ No, the Jamflow man don't give a damn ♪
♪ Playing shows across the land ♪
♪ Rocking out with his band ♪
♪ Playing a fat old reggae jam ♪
♪ No, the Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
- A little reggae now.
♪ The Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
♪ The Jamflow man, he started young ♪
♪ Writing songs with the catchy strum ♪
♪ First the blues, then with jazz ♪
♪ The Jamflow man blew up real fast ♪
♪ Now the Jamflow man at the age of 10 ♪
♪ Was better at the guitar than most men ♪
♪ He was real good now and he was real good then ♪
♪ Playing in the clubs and picking up more change ♪
♪ The Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
♪ The Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
♪ The Jamflow man liked a real stiff drink ♪
♪ A big old bag and a squifter thing ♪
♪ Went to the bar every day at two ♪
♪ Was drunk by five and had a jam to do ♪
♪ But the Jamflow man didn't give a damn ♪
♪ Got pissed drunk on stage, he was still the man ♪
♪ Didn't ever know and killer never jam ♪
♪ Making everybody see him by the hand ♪
♪ Now the Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
♪ The Jamflow man, won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twisted up and blazing down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round ♪
- I feel like the bassist is doing some interesting stuff.
It's kind of hard to hear.
- Fretless.
- Oh yeah.
- Pissed drunk on stage and still the man.
- We already kind of heard all the lyrics.
Okay, there's a few things about it.
I think the biggest thing that the people
are reacting to, the haters, is the lyrics.
I honestly have a theory that some jam heads
don't like this because it hits a little too close to home.
- Because it's sort of like a frivolous party?
- No, no, I would almost say like,
it's starting to get intense.
No, almost like, okay, I'm putting myself
in the haters' shoes because I'm not a hater
of this song, far from it.
But if I put myself in the haters' shoes for a second,
I think the thing that they might not like about it
is that there's a kind of like, almost dorky earnestness
in the way he talks about this character,
the Jamflow man.
Because basically the whole song is,
have you heard about this guy, the Jamflow man?
And it's kind of like a funny name.
And then the rest of the thing is just like,
he's so good at jamming.
- He's just a shredder.
- He's a shredder, he's so good at jamming,
he's so awesome, he plays shows across the land,
and he kills every jam, and then they tell you more about him.
So basically, there's a kind of dorky enthusiasm
that the singer has for the Jamflow man.
Is that really that different than most jam fans?
What if I told you that the Jamflow man
was Mr. Jerry Garcia?
Now suddenly, is it so dorky that he's so excited
and enthusiastic about the Jamflow man?
What if I tell you the Jamflow man was Trey Anastasia?
- I'm pumped.
- Yeah, suddenly it looks a little different.
- You're getting the origin story,
you're getting the dark, kind of haunting third verse.
- Yeah, this part's getting pretty prog-rock.
(rock music)
- This part I'm not as into.
- Although there's lots of jam that sounds like,
I think also this is like the early work,
it's like, maybe not the best mix.
- Right, rough tones.
- I think if you remix Jamflow man,
you could make it a lot more,
make the palette a little more tasteful.
(rock music)
♪ Jamflow man ♪
- Jamflow man.
- I truly think for some jam fans,
it's almost like, you know it's like
when you're into something, it's like,
you know you're into comic books or something,
and then you go see the Avengers movie,
and there's just like a 45 year old guy
in a Captain America outfit just like sitting there,
and you're just kind of like,
you're looking at him just like,
I'm a fan, but you're a nerd.
- You're depressing me.
So this is gonna be too on the nose.
- It's a little on the nose,
or these people, it like reminds them of,
they like to think that their fandom
and their obsession with the various Jamflow men
that they admire is somehow sophisticated.
And this maybe isn't sophisticated
in the way that they want it to be.
- They did play it more this year in 2018.
They played it nine times.
- Compared to the last couple years?
- Yeah. - Okay.
- But only nine times, so it's not like a staple of the set.
- Although they're jam bands,
they probably pride themselves
on having drastically different sets night to night.
- This part's tight.
Kinder tone.
- Yeah, this is a kinder tone.
They're clearly very talented musicians.
(upbeat jazz music)
- Now I think people that are not jam band aficionados
might take issue with his singing style.
- Right, that's probably part of it.
- And I think, 'cause I've played this song
for a few people that are not jam band fans,
and they're just like, yikes.
Kind of how people react to like Dave Matthews.
- Right.
- But if you're in the jam band scene,
I don't think you're gonna take issue with his voice,
'cause a lot of jam bands have like vocalists like that.
- Right.
- And if you like twiddle, then you're in.
- The jam world, it seems to me,
it's more about like, does the singer have like character
and sense of humor?
It's like, and he clearly does.
Not bad at guitar either.
(upbeat jazz music)
,
- Approaching minute seven.
Yeah, I wonder if this is earlier in their career,
this song.
What year is this song from?
Does anyone know?
- Yeah, it's on the album,
Natural Evolution of Consciousness.
- Great title.
I mean, twiddle's from Burlington, I think.
- Oh, that's cool.
- Same town as Fish.
- Yeah, I wonder.
- So maybe people are like, come on guys,
you're treading a little close.
- That doesn't seem fair.
- No.
If anything, it'd be exciting.
It'd be like, yo, there's something in the water
in Burlington.
- This song was released in 2007.
- Okay, so relatively earlier in their career.
It's like a long time ago.
- Yeah, this is a solid 12 years ago.
I wonder if twiddle's on Fish's radar.
- Oh, I'm sure.
- A little bit aware of it.
- Dimly aware.
- I think.
(laughing)
- I bet they know.
- So I think the reason people maybe
will respond negatively to that song,
I think you're right.
Some people, either you're into the singing style,
you're not, whatever, that's personal preference.
The production, it's their early (beep),
you know, like whatever.
And then I think the narrative hits a little close to home
for some of these guys.
So we've listened to the song a lot together.
- Yeah, we hung out like a few weeks ago.
- Yeah.
- At your house and--
- We were jamming this.
- This was on repeat for a solid hour.
- There was a lot of singing.
And also, we kind of dissected the lyrics,
which is interesting.
'Cause if you really get into the lyrics,
I like where he took it.
It's like, it's not just random.
He's telling a story.
I like these mythical characters.
(laughing)
And I was thinking about this,
that we talked about one quite a bit last year,
and that's Bob Dylan's "Joker Man."
♪ Joker man dance through the night and get ♪
♪ Moved by a high by the light of the moon ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Joker man ♪
- So the Joker man is this mystical,
I mean, my theory is that he's kind of a trickster figure.
We've gotten emails from people who's like,
"No, Joker man, he's everybody, man."
Also thought that the Joker man is half Joker, half Batman.
He's a little bit the duality of man.
Whatever, the Joker man is clearly
this fascinating, mythical figure.
Perhaps he represents all of us.
Perhaps he represents a certain side of humanity.
And maybe Jamflow Man is kind of like this other character.
- It's like a weird update on Johnny B. Goode.
- Yeah.
- In a way.
- Johnny B. Goode and the Jamflow Man,
they're both kind of like modern day tall tales.
- Yeah.
- I wonder if they still teach kids
about tall tales in school.
'Cause I feel like I remember
learning about tall tales a lot.
- Just like Paul Bunyan and stuff.
- Yeah, tall tales are like this way
to kind of teach kids like,
America's a young country.
I can almost picture this in like
a fourth grade history lesson,
just being like, what is American culture?
We're a melting pot.
So we have people from all over the place.
But even in America, we have culture.
Part of a culture is myths, you know?
And then they'd probably tell you
about some Native American myths
or like Rumble Stillskin or something.
- Yeah, some folk heroes.
- And in America, we call these tall tales.
It's like in bold.
It'd be like Paul Bunyan.
And Paul Bunyan was a giant man with an ax.
- Yeah, and a blue ox.
- Oh yeah, and a blue ox named--
- He was a very good forester.
- Named Babe?
- I think so.
That rings a bell.
- Where did that even come from?
Just like 19th century, just like--
- People are trying to tame the West, you know?
- Yeah, I'm sure people have written dissertations about,
how did the tall tale of Paul Bunyan
reflect the sexual anxiety
of 19th century American male homesteaders?
What was going on with these guys
that they needed to imagine?
A 40 foot tall lumberjack with a blue ox.
There's also John Henry.
He was this super strong guy
and he had a hammer that he would use
to like whack a hole in a mountain.
Then some like, you know,
Northeastern industrialists show up with their new machine,
some sort of boring machine.
The Elon Musks of their day.
They have their own boring company
to bore a hole into a mountain.
- And no plain view.
- And John Henry, everybody's like,
well, John Henry's the best at doing this (beep)
with his hammer.
We don't need your new fangled technology.
And then they're like, well, let's have a face-off.
And they do, and he's like beating it
and then he dies, right?
- I don't know that one.
- That's kind of a brutal tall tale.
- You will lose to technology.
- John Henry's heart gives out.
- Due to stress.
- So yeah, I guess--
- He's trying to fight a machine.
- I guess that makes sense.
In the 19th century,
the 19th century Americans needed to believe
in these big men.
- Yeah.
- Whacking around hammers and axes.
Just like in the early 21st century,
we need to believe in a--
- In a gem flow, man.
- Guitar virtuoso.
- Yeah.
- One, two, and.
♪ Well, John Henry was a little baby ♪
♪ Sitting on his daddy's name ♪
♪ He'd pick up a hammer ♪
♪ And a little piece of steel ♪
♪ And cry, the hammer's gonna be the devil to me ♪
♪ Lord, Lord ♪
♪ The hammer's gonna be the devil to me ♪
♪ Now the captain, he said to John Henry ♪
♪ I'm gonna bring that steam drill around ♪
♪ I'm gonna bring that steam drill out on these tracks ♪
♪ I'm gonna knock that steel on down ♪
♪ God, God ♪
♪ I'm gonna knock that steel on down ♪
♪ John Henry told his captain ♪
♪ Lord, man ain't nothing but a man ♪
♪ Before I let that steam drill beat me down ♪
♪ I'm gonna die with a hammer in my hand ♪
♪ Lord, Lord ♪
♪ Die with a hammer in my hand ♪
- Hey, soldier!
- So, everybody needs their mythical hero to believe in.
Especially for men.
Men sometimes need the idea of somebody larger than life.
He's the Ubermensch.
He's the epitome of everything
that the man wishes he could be.
If these 19th century American men
wish that they could be 30 feet tall
and have a blue ox or whatever,
they need to imagine this guy.
And yeah, maybe for the Jamflow community
of the early 21st century, they need to imagine.
Maybe also, Jamflow man was intended to be a unifying figure.
People always debating, like, well, who's the best guitarist?
Is it Jerry Garcia, is it Trey Anastasia,
throwing other names at it?
And maybe it's like, well, you know what?
It's the Jamflow man.
- It's the Jamflow man.
- Yeah, you can picture, like, in the lot
at some, like, jam show, a bunch of guys are like,
well, clearly, you know, Garcia's the best.
And somebody's like, no way, man.
If you really know your (beep),
you know that it's Hendrix, and they're debating.
And then just, like, an old timer speaks up from the back.
Have you ever heard of the Jamflow man?
(laughing)
- Like, takes his hood off slowly.
- Yeah.
- He's got one eye.
- What are you talking about, man?
- Well, there's no recordings of him, but I saw him once.
- Yeah, I saw him once.
And he was better than Garcia and Hendrix combined.
- He was quick as lightning.
- Well, that is--
- Wait, is that actually the first line of the song?
Have you ever heard of the Jamflow man?
- See, here's what I like about this song, too.
He's like an obscure local hero.
- Yeah.
- Like, he never tries to get a record contract.
♪ Have you heard of the Jamflow man's jam ♪
♪ Sickest and the quickest hands in the land ♪
- Okay, sickest and the quickest hands in the land.
- Have you heard of the Jam--
- That is the most sick rhyme.
- That is pretty sick.
Have you heard of the Jamflow man,
jam sickest and the quickest hands in the land?
- Hands, land.
- Even the fact that he keeps using the phrase in the land,
it's very clear that he's trying to position
the Jamflow man as being a tall tale--
- Right.
- American mythological figure.
- Absolutely.
But you know, it's funny, like,
a lot of the rock and roll songs, like Johnny B. Goode,
or that Tom Petty song, Learning to Fly,
which is about, like, a guy moving out to LA
to be a rock star.
- Oh yeah.
- And then there's a Bad Company song called Shooting Star,
which is another similar thing of like--
♪ You know that you are a shooting star ♪
- Good song.
But that's also like a tragic story about, like,
the rise and fall of, like, someone becoming a rock star
and, like, that archetype.
- Right.
- But what I like about Jamflow man is that
he's like a local bar fly.
- Right.
- Who never gigs outside his bar.
Like, that's how I interpret the song.
He's just like a local loser who's just like,
has no ambition.
But he is the true Jedi.
- Right, 'cause it's also like, you know,
maybe in some ways this song,
and the reason that these people react so angrily to it,
is this song is a gentle rebuke of the jam scene,
where you get this kind of stats geek mentality
where people wanna compile every song,
every show you've seen.
You know, I've seen like 30 versions of Fluffhead,
and I'll say, "This one is definitely the best.
"This one's top five.
"This one was dog (beep) because Trey's tone was off."
You know, like--
- Yeah, yeah.
- And maybe this guy's like, "I laugh at you, you fools,
"spending so much time cataloging this ephemeral music,
"debating, questioning, ranking, creating hierarchies.
"The best guitarist and the best jam,
"it wasn't one of the fish shows you went to.
"It wasn't a 77 Dead show.
"It was the Jamflow man."
Well, I've never even heard of the Jamflow man,
so by my calculations, you're right, you never heard him.
You never will. - Listen, son.
Give me quantitative proof.
- Is there a board recording?
Were there any tapers at the show?
No, it was the purest jam of all.
It came and went.
And you know what's funny, man?
Going back to the, this is such a jam-heavy segment.
Going back to like The Grateful Dead,
has anybody watched that great Grateful Dead six-hour doc?
This part really struck me, actually,
in The Grateful Dead doc.
I don't think we ever talked about this.
Somebody's telling the story about the dead played
in the Los Angeles area, and they were down at Watts.
I might be mistelling the story,
but this is how I remember it.
Jerry and Bob are walking around on acid after the show,
and they come across the Watts Towers.
And for anybody who doesn't know,
the Watts Towers are essentially,
I guess you'd call them outsider art,
where some random dude who lived in Watts
built these kind of incredible towers,
just kind of in his backyard, right?
This is not a professional artist.
This is a dude who made these kind of bizarre towers,
and made with bric-a-brac,
whatever he could get his hands on.
And when this guy died, and people came over and saw it,
he built this crazy, they were like,
"What is this guy, a hoarder?"
And like the city tried to take him down.
But they were actually so well-built,
this almost sounds like a tall tale,
they were so well-built that the city
couldn't take him down.
And they were like, "You know, let's leave them up."
And it's an iconic part of Southern California culture,
and certainly Watts, the Watts Towers.
They're these famous things.
So, you know, most of us would look at that
as like a cool story.
And so, in the movie, they're recounting the story
that Jerry and Bob are on acid, or coming off acid,
and they roll up and they see the Watts Towers,
and somebody's talking about it.
You know, just like this dude made this by himself.
And after he died, and they tried to take it down,
they couldn't, 'cause it was so well-built
that they couldn't take it down.
So of course, I'm imagining where the story's gonna go,
and I'm thinking, based on my own, whatever,
ego-based, late capitalist narcissism,
I'm picturing that one of the guys is about to say,
'cause this is early Grateful Deadness,
I'm picturing that one of the guys is about to say,
"You know what, man?
"We're gonna build something that nobody can take down
"with our music."
Like, that's what it would be with like,
U2 or the Rolling Stones or Foo Fighters or something.
And then instead--
- Foo Fighters?
- Yeah, I don't know, I said Foo Fighters.
That's what the typical rock and roll story would be.
But then, as is recounted in the film,
what Jerry says to Bob is like,
I'm not gonna get the words right,
but basically something like,
"What a bummer, man.
"Nothing should last forever."
- Whoa.
- It was some (beep) where he basically was like,
"What we do is we create something that's the opposite.
"Every night we do something together
"that is ephemeral, that comes and goes, it vanishes."
And you could almost picture that.
- Wow.
- If he was on acid and he--
- That is reversed, I love it.
- I know, and I was like, really like,
I've like paused it, and I was like,
"Damn, Jerry."
- I gotta take that one in.
- Especially because--
- Jeez.
- You know, the irony of it is that
now we're at this point of like,
intense Grateful Dead nostalgia, whatever,
and the movie gets into it.
The irony that you're watching a documentary
50 years later that's talking about
the sense of community and the permanence
in American culture of this band,
and then to find out that the leader
in his like, most mystical, open-minded state,
actually, his vibe, that maybe there'd even be
a part of him that if he knew
that there were like a billion people
touring around playing their music,
if he knew what Richard Pictures was up to.
- No, I'm just kidding.
He'd probably appreciate that.
- I think he'd be down with Richard Pictures,
'cause we're--
- Yeah, he might be less into the super pro (beep)
- An ephemeral thing at a bar that--
- Yeah, he'd probably actually be more
into Richard Pictures than into--
- The pro.
- Although, you know, those are his boys,
so I don't wanna get into family business, but--
- He would love Richard Pictures,
but he would hate fish.
But he would love Twiddle.
- He would love Twiddle. - Okay?
- You heard it here.
- And think about it, man.
This is the godfather of jam.
- Think about it, man.
- Jerry Garcia, and of course--
- Wow, bummer.
Nothing should last forever.
- Yeah, and you know, it's funny,
because then, of course, they were open-minded.
They understood that the fans wanted to tape their shows,
and they let them do that,
because they weren't into being cops,
telling people what they can and cannot do.
You know, the fans do what they wanna do,
but the tapes turn these ephemeral moments
of the live show into very permanent things,
and they literally now, there's databases
of these things that were supposed to come and go.
So anyway, I'm not saying that I could ever know
Jerry's full thought process about this stuff,
but just at one moment in the early days, he said this.
And it's kinda like the ultimate, you know,
you're on acid, maybe you're ultimately trying
to get past the ego, and it's like,
I don't wanna do things that last forever.
I wanna live in the now and coast around.
I don't need people to remember me.
I don't need people to treat me like a big deal.
♪ There's mosquitoes on the river ♪
♪ Fish are rising up like birds ♪
♪ It's been hot for seven weeks now ♪
♪ Too hot to even speak now ♪
♪ Did you hear what I just heard ♪
♪ Say it might have been a bit of heat ♪
♪ Or it could have been the wind ♪
♪ But there seems to be a beat now ♪
♪ I can feel it in my feet now ♪
♪ Listen, here it comes again ♪
♪ There's a band out on the highway ♪
♪ Their hearts skipping every time ♪
♪ It's a rainbow full of sound ♪
♪ It's fireworks, it's killer pizza ♪
♪ Miles, little light is dancing ♪
- So anyway, when you think about it that way,
the character of the Jam Flow Man
maybe has a little more in common
with the godfather of jams than we think.
Maybe Twiddle understands a little something
about the real spirit of jam that some of the haters don't.
That the greatest Jam Flow Man
is not the guy who sells the most tickets,
it's not the guy who gets the most props,
it's not the guy who wins the debate on the message board,
it's the Jam Flow Man,
the mystical figure that nobody's ever seen.
- The jam in your mind, dude.
- When we really get deep into the lyrics,
as we go further, like...
♪ Got that shit down real nice ♪
♪ Your play is jammin' it won't be twice ♪
♪ No, the Jam Flow Man don't give a damn ♪
♪ Playin' shows all the time ♪
- Don't give a damn, that's important.
♪ Rockin' out with his band ♪
♪ Playin' a fat old reggae jam ♪
♪ Jam Flow Man won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
- The chorus is basically just saying like,
you're really good.
- Yeah.
♪ Spin it round and round ♪
♪ Jam Flow Man won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twist it up and ♪
♪ Blaze it down, pass it back and forth ♪
♪ Spin it round and round ♪
♪ Jam Flow Man he started young ♪
♪ Writin' songs with the catchiest drums ♪
- So this is--
- He started young, this is the origin story.
- Yeah, this is when he's really getting
into the myth of it.
- Yeah.
- This is Amazing Spider-Man number one,
we meet Peter Parker.
- Yep.
- Unassuming.
(laughing)
We meet Miles Morales.
- This is the Bruce Wayne story, yeah.
- Yeah, so the Jam Flow Man, he started young,
writing songs with the catchiest drum.
♪ First with blues, then with jazz ♪
♪ Jam Flow Man blew up real fast ♪
- Okay.
- First with blues, then with jazz.
- So very versatile player.
- And in some basic ways, I mean,
those are the two key elements of the early dead.
- Early rock and roll.
- Early rock and roll.
- Yeah.
- Well, it's also kind of like early rock and roll
is blues based, and then taking the improvisational
element of jazz, now you're starting to get
something that resembles jam.
♪ Jam Flow Man at the age of 10 ♪
♪ Was better at the guitar than most men ♪
♪ He was real good now and he was real good then ♪
♪ Playing in the cross and bringing up more change ♪
- Okay.
- This is when it truly becomes a tall tale.
Now the Jam Flow Man at the age of 10
was better at the guitar than most men.
Also let--
- 10 year old at some store, just shredding solos.
- Yeah, so now--
- Guitar center, just terrible tone.
- Go back to the lot scene, where just the old timer
with one eye is just schooling the kids.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's like, I saw somebody who could play better
than Garcian Hendrix combined.
Yeah, right.
In fact, he was only 10 years old when I first saw him.
(laughs)
- It's like Luke Skywalker.
- Yes, he's basically Luke Skywalker.
This is that Joseph Campbell (beep)
- This is basically Yoda telling the story.
- Yeah, and then he was real good now
and he was real good then,
playing in the clubs and making a fortune.
- Oh, I guess that kind of pokes a hole in my theory,
but whatever, I like my theory.
- Well he's playing in--
- He was just like a bar band guy.
- Well--
- Didn't make a fortune.
- Although--
- That's the feel I get.
- Okay, well hold on.
- Okay.
- He's playing in the clubs making a fortune.
- Right.
- Now--
- Maybe fortune for him was just like,
you know, paying the rent.
- Yeah, a few drink tickets.
- Yeah man, drunk by five.
- Taking some cold cuts home from the rider.
- That's all I need man.
- Some cold nachos.
- This is my fortune.
It's that Bob Marley (beep)
Now Jamflow man, do you have a fortune?
What do you mean fortune?
I think it's notable that he says,
"Playing in the clubs making a fortune."
'Cause--
- Yeah.
- Anytime you read about the meteoric rise of a band,
they always say, "They went from playing smoky clubs
"to headlining festivals and arenas," or whatever.
- Right.
- Like if you read the story of Phish,
at some point they graduated from clubs to whatever.
- Yeah.
- So the Jamflow man's making a fortune in the clubs.
- Right.
- He's making a local fortune.
- Yeah, okay I love it.
We're back here.
We're back on track with my interpretation.
♪ Jamflow man like a real stiff drink ♪
♪ A big old bag and a spliff to think ♪
- Okay, this is my favorite verse.
- Yeah, Jake loves this verse.
Jamflow man like a real stiff drink,
a big old bag and a spliff to think.
Now check this out.
♪ Went to the bar everyday and was drunk by five ♪
♪ And had a jam to do ♪
- That is like Friday night they'll be dressed to kill
down at Dino's Bar and Grill level
of like rock lyrics right there.
How does it start?
- Jamflow man like a real stiff drink,
a big old bag and a spliff to think.
Who doesn't?
- Yep.
- So far we're just like, all right,
he's a normal rock guy.
He likes to smoke weed and have a stiff drink, cool.
Went to the bar everyday at two.
- Yeah, that's, this level of detail is what I love.
It makes the song.
- Yeah, this is kind of the best line in the story.
- Drunk by five.
- Was drunk by five and had a jam to do.
- No sweat.
- But also, it's obviously--
- He's like a guy that's hammered at five.
He's not going on 'til like 10.
Like it's still another five hours of drinking.
- And there's also--
(laughing)
Well, first of all, we gotta look at the context
of the whole song.
So far there's been nothing negative
about the Jamflow man's story.
He's an incredible guitarist.
- Child prodigy.
- Yeah.
When he plays, he's the best in the land, blah, blah, blah.
And then just out of nowhere, it's this one line.
Sometimes a one line can make or break a song.
- Oh man.
- He went to the bar every day at two,
was drunk by five and had a jam to do.
So then it's kind of like, wait, does he even want a jam?
- Yeah, this guy, it's like if Luke Skywalker
was like a crazy alcoholic.
- Yeah, he's an antihero.
The Jamflow man is an antihero.
And maybe it's also like, there had to be a dark side.
- Yeah, man.
That's real.
- It's like some inside Llewyn Davis thing.
It's like you're the guy right before Bob Dylan.
Maybe the Jamflow man stayed in the clubs
and never made it to be venerated like Jerry or Trey.
Not because he's a humble guy who didn't want the attention,
but like maybe his alcoholism kept him there
or maybe he was driven to drink
by a series of unfortunate events.
So he gets to the bar at two, he's already drunk by five,
and he's gonna be just keep drinking.
And then he has a jam to do.
- He's got a jam, okay.
- So what's gonna happen at the jam?
♪ The Jamflow man didn't give a damn ♪
♪ He's drunk on cigarettes and the rain ♪
(laughing)
- Just using the term piss drunk on stage.
- He was still the man.
- He was so good.
- There's so much more to this song than meets the eye.
If you hear this song and you're just like, it's cheesy.
You know, it's almost like, you know some people,
they like Batman better than Superman
because they're just like Superman, there's no drama.
He's just like a goody two shoes, whatever.
Batman is tortured.
Batman's dark.
Batman is not always sure if he'll do the right thing,
but he does and you know, whatever.
And so maybe at first people think Jamflow man's
like Superman and it's like a little straightforward
and you're like, no, Jamflow man is a dark side.
Jamflow man is Wolverine.
- Yeah, dude.
- Jamflow man is Deadpool.
- He's damaged, dude.
He's piss drunk on stage.
- But he was still the man.
♪ Didn't never know, can't kill or never tell ♪
♪ Making everybody see him clap their hands ♪
- Hitting every note and killing every jam,
making everybody see him clap their hands.
So that's the end of the lyrics really.
- Yeah.
- And then at that point, we're about to kind of just like,
one more chorus.
♪ I'm gonna make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twist it up and blaze it down ♪
♪ Pass it back and forth, spin it round and round ♪
- And then the jam starts.
- Yeah, and then it's like five minutes of jams.
Also kind of a cool format, just like quick verse,
chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus,
and then like we're out.
- Right.
- Then we're into like a five, six minute jam.
- It's almost like, and now we're like experiencing
the Jamflow man on stage kind of.
Piss drunk on stage, he was still the man.
- Yeah, and then you get in this kind of like sensitive,
sad moment.
- Yeah, this part's tight.
- Are you okay, Jamflow man?
- What?
- Like, yeah, this is the moment where Jamflow man's
getting like real sensitive.
Then, you know, at one point last night,
Jamflow man turned his back to the crowd.
Almost seemed like he was crying.
What are you talking about?
He's the best guitarist in Burlington.
What would Jamflow man have to be upset about?
I don't know, I just got this like sad energy from him.
- Now this is Jamflow man drinking his feelings away.
These times are rough.
- This part almost reminds me of the band Boston.
- Totally. - That keyboard tone.
- Oh yeah, yeah, totally.
- It's been such a long time.
You know what I noticed in the,
I was surprised by in the Twiddle doc?
- Yeah.
- Is that there's only four people in the band.
And I think there's only one guitarist.
There's guitar, bass.
- Yeah, the singer plays guitar.
It's the same as Phish.
- I guess so, I guess Phish is only one guitar.
- I was watching some solo stuff from the singer Mahali.
He seems like a-- - Solo?
Like a solo gig?
- He did like a recent solo acoustic tour
with a loop pedal.
- Whoa.
- He was doing like some sublime songs.
Which you know I love.
And I was like, he seems like a (beep) chill dude.
And there's also just a part of me that's like,
look, I can see that there's some like elements
that some people might find silly about Jamflow man.
But you know, there's always been that part of me,
it's like I see people beating up on something
and I just wanna be like, what's really going on here?
I wanna find the positive in it.
And then yeah, like we were talking about
in that documentary that you sent me.
You see the enthusiasm of like the hardcore Twiddle fans.
There's a part where they're interviewing people
outside the club at the show.
And there's one guy who's talking about it.
How he's seen 125 shows.
And then somebody's like, you know what show this is for me?
And the guy's like, what?
And he's like, it's my first.
And then they kind of have this moment
where he's like, well welcome.
You know, welcome to the community.
- The club is open.
- Yeah.
Change the production a little bit.
That song go down a lot easier for certain listeners.
There's a few live versions on Apple Music.
This one's from January, 2017.
It's on the Jam Cruise.
- See if the crowd reacts.
- Whoa, you can really hear the bass in this one.
- Bass coming off.
♪ Have you heard of the Jailbone Man ♪
♪ That was sick as sin and bring his hangs in the lane ♪
♪ Got that shit in town and the night show plays jam ♪
♪ And he won't quit trying ♪
♪ Like the Jailbone Man don't give a damn ♪
♪ Playing shows across the land ♪
♪ Rocking out on Willie's band ♪
♪ Playing a fat poor record ♪
♪ Get him out of the Jailbone Man ♪
- Is this his normal singing voice?
- It sounds pretty similar.
- Yeah.
He's definitely a DMV fan.
That's what I'm getting.
- He is a good singer though.
- Yeah.
- He's not a bad singer at all.
♪ Two suit up and please sit down ♪
♪ Pass the bag and cross the trail ♪
- Here's another version from last year.
- It's a fast song.
♪ Have you heard of the Jailbone Man ♪
♪ That was sick as sin and bring his hangs in the lane ♪
♪ Got that shit in town and the night show plays jam ♪
♪ And he won't quit trying ♪
♪ Like the Jailbone Man don't give a damn ♪
♪ Playing shows across the land ♪
♪ Rocking out on Willie's band ♪
♪ Playing a fat poor record ♪
♪ Get him out of the Jailbone Man ♪
♪ Won't you make that sound ♪
♪ Make my body move all around ♪
♪ Twist it up and please sit down ♪
♪ Pass the bag and cross the trail ♪
- It does really remind me of Thin Lizzy
with the vibe of like,
are these lyrics supposed to be funny?
- Right.
- Like it's like right on the edge
where it's like, I think I'm gonna give them
the benefit of the doubt and be like,
yeah, it's supposed to be funny.
Like, you know that Thin Lizzy song, Cowboy Song?
- Right.
- He's like talking about like--
- I feel like you played that on the TC in the early days.
- Maybe I did, like talking about like writing like--
- What does he say?
Something funny about my lady?
- Yeah. - Or my woman?
- Or like,
♪ Just thinking of a certain female ♪
- Right.
- Like, ♪ The night we spent together ♪
♪ Home along the range ♪
- It just like busts out every cliche of like,
like from Westerns.
- Right.
- And just cobbles them together into this song.
And it's like really funny, great song.
The delivery is so impassioned,
but also kind of deadpan.
- ♪ I'm just a cowboy ♪
♪ Lonesome on the trail ♪
♪ Lord, I'm just thinking about a certain female ♪
♪ I'm just a jam floor man ♪
♪ I like a real stiff drink ♪
- Dude, imagine if Bruce wrote,
like if you gave Bruce the lyrical prompt,
like you played Bruce, Jam Flow Man.
- Yeah.
- You explain the mythology.
- Yeah.
- And you're like, Bruce, write your Jam Flow Man.
- I mean, the funny thing is,
with all this stuff,
it's like the critically acclaimed (beep)
and the made fun of on jam message boards,
they're all kind of operating with the same tools,
you know?
Bruce is a student of American myth as well.
- Yeah, no, absolutely.
- For him, like Thunder Roads,
even like Thunder Roads,
just like imagine if Arcade Fire
came out with a song called Thunder Road.
- Right.
- People would be like, okay.
- Whatever, dudes.
- Right.
- Oh, the screen door slams,
are you trying to be poetic?
- Yeah, Thunder Road, real epic.
Like, (laughs)
I've never heard of a street called Thunder Road.
But you know, Bruce pulled it off
and it's like, I mean, in some ways,
Bruce was kind of like a Jam Flow Man.
He was like the local legend,
like working his way up in the Jersey Shore clubs.
- Yeah, the early part of his memoir,
when he's talking about gigging for years.
- Just working their asses off.
- It's epic.
- Yeah, just to really put on like a fun show
for just like drunk people down the shore.
That's where they learned all their tricks.
How do you get a crowd to react?
Like fun little gimmick type things.
I remember also in the book,
he says something about how at a certain point,
he realized he was pretty good at guitar,
but he's never gonna be the best guitarist around.
- Right, right.
- So essentially he realized
he was never gonna be the Jam Flow Man,
but you know what he could be?
He could be the Joker Man.
He could be the guy who writes these stories
that mix humor and seriousness and stuff.
The Joker Man's in the mind
and the Jam Flow Man's in the hands.
- Body and mind, dude.
- And good music needs a Joker Man and a Jam Flow Man.
Yeah, I feel like the Jam Flow Man--
- So we're really uncovering
some deep universal truths right now.
- In the time crisis mythological universe,
there are two main deities.
You have your Joker Man and you have your Jam Flow Man.
At the feast of the Joker Man,
the Jam Flow Man's ascension was considered
to take place on 7/28/2018,
when Twiddle played Jam Flow Man live at Tumbledown.
- I wonder if Bernie is aware of Twiddle.
- That's a great question.
- That's pushing it, but it might be possible.
- Bernie Sanders says he's from Burlington, Vermont,
but can he even name his favorite Jam Flow Man?
August 14th, that doesn't even exist, Senator.
Now the Jam Flow Man, find anything?
- Wait.
- Any Sanders/Twiddle connections?
- Senator Bernie Sanders introduces Twiddle
at Tumbledown 2018.
- Wait, what?
- So he is very aware of Twiddle.
- Wow.
- What's Tumbledown?
Is that like a jam fest?
- That's something that Vampire Weekend
and Twiddle have in common.
- Wait, there's a YouTube of it.
Pull the YouTube up, we gotta get the audio on that.
Native sons of Burlington, Vermont.
- Now we know Bernie's not that into music.
- He's not?
Remember Bernie's album?
- Oh yeah, legendary.
When I was first introduced to Twiddle,
via this- - I met my good friend,
Trey Anastasio.
- I said, "Trey, you're pretty good,
but are you the best?"
And he said, "No, I'm not the Jam Flow Man, Senator."
- There is a Jam Flow Man within every working family.
- Let me thank Twiddle for saying-
- 2018, I love it. - Saying a few words.
And what I wanna say-
- By the way, this is Twiddle's own festival.
- I wanna say is that your generation
is the most progressive generation
in the history of this country.
- In the history of the Twiddle fan community.
- Your generation is helping to lead the fight
against racism,
sexism,
religious bigotry,
homophobia,
xenophobia,
and all the other phobias that Trump is trying to push out.
- It's like one hardcore Trump/Twiddle fan,
just like, "I'm out." - Oh man, I don't like the politics.
- I came here for Jam Flow Man.
- That dude exists.
- Yeah, totally.
- There's totally a Trump Twiddle.
- That's so brutal.
A Trump Jamhead, that's crazy.
I wonder if Bernie's stuck around for this show.
- Out of there immediately.
- Yeah, oh man.
- I bet he hung side stage for like two.
- Two songs?
- Yeah. - Two hours?
(laughing)
And as you can imagine, this is on Twiddle's account.
It's mostly Twiddle fans, so you gotta imagine intersect.
A Burlington-based jam has gotta intersect
pretty significantly with Bernie.
So we get a lot of Bernie 2020.
I have mixed feelings about, I'm sure you do too.
Love the man, but 2020, yikes.
So a lot of just like everybody,
"Thank you, sir, I salute you."
Do it for a few, so so much positive (beep)
and then just like add a nater.
No, then there's like a few.
Are these Twiddle fans or?
Bernie the Great Con Man.
He's a multi-millionaire congress member
that talks about dreams and delivers nightmares.
Then there's somebody.
- How?
- Did he just come out of a nursing home?
MAGA, Trump 2020.
- Nice, so there are those people.
- Well, one person, washed up 1960s commie loser.
That'd be a hilarious thing for a Twiddle fan to say.
I don't know, yeah, I can't tell.
- I can see it, man, some real confused,
like 17-year-old kid who's just up on the QAnon crap
and into just garbage right-wing stuff on the internet,
but is also like, "Yeah, man, jam bands."
I can see it.
- I'm just really into good guitar playing.
- But like really solid musicianship.
- Right.
- Just looking at it in the lamest way.
- That's brutal.
A Trump/Twiddle fan.
Anyway, Joker Man and Jamflow Man,
now we got two deities in the time crisis canon.
♪ A new way to greet the brand new day ♪
♪ Look up, realize you're late ♪
♪ Shout to make it plain ♪
♪ Can't find your keys again ♪
♪ The rent's been due for weeks ♪
♪ You need this gig to eat ♪
♪ Your car starts to leak ♪
♪ The engine's really weak ♪
♪ It won't start up in time ♪
♪ You try to find a ride ♪
♪ The bills weren't paid on time ♪
♪ Your cell phone's lost the line ♪
♪ Problems won't go away ♪
♪ Piling on your plate ♪
♪ You just want to escape ♪
♪ You need to be awake now ♪
♪ Listen to the words I'm saying in this line ♪
♪ That your life will be just fine ♪
♪ And the struggles do not stay ♪
♪ They get replaced with good times ♪
♪ Now you've got a great life ♪
♪ Smile as you walk by ♪
♪ Think about the day ♪
- All right, you ready for the top five?
- Yes, sir.
(electronic music)
- It's time for the top five.
F-f-f-f-f-five on iTunes.
- Now we've been talking about the year 1999 a lot,
and so we're gonna compare the top five iTunes songs
currently to the top five Billboard hits this week in '99.
Now ironically, the number five song in 1999
was by a band with a 98 in their name.
- 98 Degrees.
- That's right.
Do you remember who 98 Degrees was?
- Boy band?
- 98 Degrees was a boy band.
- I think that's all I know, really.
- You know what's funny that I remember about 98 Degrees
is there were four guys in it.
And I just remember always, and I still feel this way,
I'm like, four guys doesn't work for a boy band.
- You need five.
- Four guys is a rock band.
- Right.
- Boy band's gotta be five minimum.
Even three, you could do some kind of weird trio thing.
- Four is just like, what are you, The Beatles?
- Yeah, four is somebody you gotta have instruments
or something.
- Yeah.
- I just always thought there was something off about it,
and they never achieved the success of N'Sync
or the Backstreet Boys, obviously.
- So this is really like a high watermark for boy bands.
- Yeah, although I'm looking now that obviously
this was January 1999, the charts that we're looking at.
So this song actually did come out in 1998.
So in 1998, 98 Degrees released their album 98 Degrees
and Rising.
- Solid title.
- Solid title.
They're going hard on the 98 thing.
- Short-lived payoff on that.
(laughing)
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ You're my sunshine after the rain ♪
♪ You're the cure against my fear and pain ♪
- Do I remember this one?
I don't really remember this.
It's like vaguely familiar.
♪ You're not around ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on because of you ♪
- Not exactly Jamflow, man, but.
♪ You're my sunshine ♪
♪ Oh yeah ♪
♪ Baby, I really know by now ♪
♪ Since we met that day ♪
♪ You showed me the way ♪
♪ I felt it then you gave me love ♪
♪ I can't describe how much I feel for you ♪
♪ I said baby I should've known by now ♪
- Very late 90s ballad.
- Deeply.
- Acoustic guitar with the programmed drums.
♪ And if only you were here ♪
♪ I'd tell you ♪
♪ Yes I'd tell you ♪
♪ Oh yeah ♪
♪ You're my sunshine after the rain ♪
♪ You're the cure against my fear and my pain ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm losing my mind when you're not around ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on ♪
♪ It's on because of you ♪
- It's all right.
Just sounds like a slightly worse version
of a lot of superior hits from that era.
- Yeah.
- I'm not mad at it.
- Get another member, 98 Degrees, then we'll talk.
The number five song back in our time, 2019.
This is a major hit, Marshmello and Bastille, "Happier".
♪ Lately I've been ♪
♪ I've been thinking ♪
♪ I want you to be happier ♪
♪ I want you to be happier ♪
♪ When the morning comes ♪
♪ And we see what we've become ♪
♪ In the cold light of day ♪
♪ We're a flame in the wind ♪
♪ Not the fire that we begun ♪
♪ Every argument ♪
♪ Every word we can't take back ♪
♪ 'Cause with all that has happened ♪
♪ I think that we've grown ♪
- Is this kind of like the "Because of You" of our day?
- You think so?
I was just gonna say, put one in the column from 2019.
- It's a better song.
- Yeah.
- And it's harder, but it's got a still
a little bit of the same energy.
It's like a little bit of a ballad.
It's almost like a power ballad.
- Yeah.
I know, with the 98 Degrees,
I was trying to put my finger on it.
I was like, is this a ballad?
- Right.
- Sort of in between.
- I don't know.
I just never want to hear this song.
Not mad at it.
- I like the verses of that song,
but then yeah, it gets,
and then it gets into that drop part.
You're just like, I'm,
we're off to a real kind of middling start here.
- Yeah.
The number four song in '99 was "Divine," "Lately."
Wonder if I know this song.
(soft music)
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Oh yeah, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Baby, I've been watching you ♪
♪ Been thinking 'bout you, baby ♪
♪ Everything you do ♪
♪ Just sitting away ♪
♪ Watching the days go by ♪
- What is that guitar moment?
♪ And I know, and I know ♪
- It's got like Pearl Jam guitar, right?
- Wait, that's funny.
I was really noticing the guitar.
I was like, someone actually is playing that.
(soft music)
- Yeah, that, isn't this, that's pretty Pearl Jam.
Yeah, it's "Yellow Lead" better vibe.
- Wait, drums drop in.
♪ Lately, I've been watching you ♪
♪ Been thinking 'bout you, baby ♪
- Yeah, they're really.
♪ And I know, and I know ♪
♪ Watching the days go by ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
- This is cool, it's like R&B Pearl Jam.
- It does have like an anthemic quality to it.
- Yeah.
I like the vibe of this song.
♪ Watching the days go by ♪
♪ Have you ever felt the breeze hit the heart ♪
♪ Like the wind was blowing it apart ♪
♪ I just spin it like a merry-go-round ♪
- Saw that dude the other day in Atwater
with the Vedder vanity plates.
- Oh, right, you post that on Instagram.
- That was tight, that was a highlight.
- That was like a Mini Cooper and the-
- Like a Fiat.
- Oh, Fiat, and the license plate just said Vedder.
- Just, yeah, vanity plates for Vedder.
And I was parking to go into the Box Brothers
in Atwater Village to ship something.
And then, so I'm rolling in,
and then the guy right behind me
comes in with these two framed pictures of Eddie Vedder.
And so it's like the guy that,
'cause we were both looking for parking,
we were both circling the block.
- You'd already seen the plates.
- I'd seen the plates, I was like, okay, mark that,
the guy with the Fiat with the Vedder plates.
And then five minutes later,
we both roll into the store at the same time.
He rolls in with two framed pictures of Eddie Vedder.
And the guy behind the counter is like,
oh, more Pearl Jam?
- He's like shipping out merch or something.
- He's just like a Pearl Jam eBay guy?
- Yeah, for sure.
- That'd be hilarious if you were kind of like,
he comes in the, and you're like, oh, Pearl Jam, cool.
You know, I couldn't help but notice your plates out there
and be like, it's not my car.
- That would've been amazing.
- I Ubered here.
I don't even know what this (beep) is, I'm just.
(laughing)
Okay, good song.
The number four song back in 2019,
this one's been riding strong.
Panic at the Disco with High Hopes.
Oh, wow, going real deep.
This is a big old hit.
♪ Had to have high, high hopes for a living ♪
♪ Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing ♪
♪ Didn't never die, but I always had a vision ♪
♪ Always had high, high hopes ♪
♪ Had to have high, high hopes for a living ♪
♪ Didn't know how, but I always had a feeling ♪
♪ I was gonna be that one in a million ♪
♪ Always had high, high hopes ♪
♪ Mama said ♪
- Dude, we gotta see Bohemian Rhapsody.
Have you seen it?
- Oh, no, I really wanna see that.
- Let's watch it.
Is it in the theater still?
- Yeah, it must be.
Somewhere.
- TC Field Trip?
- I'm down.
♪ Mama said ♪
♪ Burn your biographies, rewrite your history ♪
♪ Light up your wildest dreams, museum victories ♪
♪ Every day we wanted everything ♪
♪ Wanted everything ♪
♪ Mama said ♪
♪ Don't give up ♪
♪ It's a little complicated ♪
♪ All tied up, no more love ♪
♪ And I'd hate to see you waiting ♪
♪ Had to have high, high hopes for a living ♪
♪ Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing ♪
♪ Didn't never die, but I always had a vision ♪
- Not mad at that.
- Yeah, that's really grown on me.
- I mean, it really does hit hard.
- Yeah.
- Even if you don't like it, it's like,
are they playing that in basketball arenas and stuff?
- Oh, hell yeah.
- They gotta be, right?
- Oh, definitely.
It's got real sports energy.
- That'd be a great walk-on song for a baseball hitter.
- Wait, didn't we talk on one episode?
- That just came out.
- About Vampire Weekend walking out to this song?
- Oh yeah, wait, did you?
- I feel like we did, on Time Crisis.
- Did you actually do that, or are you asking if we talked?
- No, I thought we talked about it once on the show.
- Yeah, yeah, that rings a bell.
- Where I said something about,
could Vampire Weekend walk out to this song?
- Was it just too high energy?
- Would it get people pumped up,
or would it make people be like,
band to get the disco, now there's a band.
There's a band that gets people pumped up.
- Yeah, it might.
- Well, clearly I'm still thinking about it
all these weeks later, so.
The number three song in 1999.
Now we're finally hitting, I mean,
I'm sure those first two songs are important to some people,
but now we're hitting one of the biggest songs of all time.
I mean, in some ways, this song changed culture,
paved the way for modern pop.
- Geez.
- This is a major song.
- Wait, okay, hold on.
- Jake's about to be like, never heard it.
- Give me a hint.
- Let's see how quick, I'll give you one second.
- Oh, Britney.
- What's the song called?
- Is this the first single?
- I think this was her first single.
- Is it Hit Me One More Time?
Is that what it's called?
- The song's called--
- Hit Me One More Time, is it?
- That's what she says.
- Yeah.
- The song's called Baby One More Time.
- Oh, Baby, yeah.
- And weirdly, it's dot, dot, dot, baby one more time.
- I like that wah.
- Yeah, I never caught that.
- That was sick.
- It's a funky song.
- Hold that.
- Whoa, sick.
- What?
You never caught that little--
- Is there like an envelope filter on that guitar
or is that just a wah?
- That little, sounds like the Jamflow man
snugging to this session.
- Ghost in the machine, dude.
Jamflow man out of nowhere.
- And they mix it so low.
- Yeah.
- I forgot this is a funky song.
- Yeah.
- I think of her stuff as kind of like a little stiff, but.
- That piano part that kind of leads in
kind of reminds me of like Dre or something.
- Yeah, no, totally.
- This is one of the best selling singles of all time
with over 10 million copies sold.
- I had the cassette single.
- Did you buy it?
- I think someone gave it to me as like a joke.
- Yeah, and you're like, it's pretty good.
- Yeah, we blasted it in the car a lot.
It was like driving up to the Fred Meyer in Portland.
♪ Yeah, stop the way I'm driving ♪
- Listen to this.
Baby One More Time was first offered to TLC
and they turned it down.
TLC's T-Boz told MTV they passed on the song
as they felt it didn't represent the band appropriately.
No disrespect to Britney, it's good for her,
but was I gonna say Hit Me Baby One More Time?
Hell no.
I mean, this song's always had kind of like
mysterious lyrics. - Yeah, so what is this song
about?
- No, we gotta stop for a second.
What are the goddamn lyrics to this song?
♪ My loneliness is killing me ♪
♪ And I must confess ♪
- I mean, maybe we low-key know all the lyrics
and just, they don't really leave much impression.
They're written by Max Martin.
- Okay, like the famous-- - Famous Swedish guy.
Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to?
So again, keep in mind, he's,
Swedish people tend to speak English very well.
It's still the second language.
So they might have interesting insights
into our own language that we can't see
as native speakers.
Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know
that something wasn't right here?
Oh baby, baby, I shouldn't have let you go
and now you're out of sight, yeah.
Show me how you want it to be.
Tell me baby 'cause I need to know now,
oh because.
My loneliness is killing me.
I must confess I still believe
when I'm not with you I lose my mind.
Give me a sign.
Hit me baby one more time.
Is it basically just trying to say hit me up?
- I never interpret it as literally like hit me,
like strike me with your fist.
- Well. - I never thought
that was the meaning. - Apparently,
the record executives were nervous
that it might condone domestic violence.
- Who would listen to that song and be like,
oh, okay, yeah.
- Nick's saying was it a riff on
Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar?
- Right.
- Although that's taking-- - Yeah, exactly,
that kind of thing. - But that's taking
like a pre-existing phrase.
Hit me with your best shot, like.
- I mean, maybe it is like a very dark
kind of masochistic song.
Like, you know, she's upset that they've broken up
and she is so sort of torn up about it
that she's like, yeah, please,
like I'd rather have you punch me than not be with you.
But then again, her image at that time
was of innocent schoolgirls.
- I mean, Nick could also picture
you're Max Martin, you're a Swedish guy,
you speak English excellently,
but maybe the certain colloquial stuff
you don't have mastered, which is fair.
- He's got Pat Benatar in the back of his mind.
- Or even he's just like, you know,
this is a song about a girl who broke up with a guy
and now she's starting to regret it
and she just wishes that he would reach out to her
and that's what the chorus is about.
And they're like, but why hit me?
He's like, you know, she's like saying, you know, hit me.
And they're just like, what?
And he's like, well, yeah, when I was in the States,
I heard somebody say, you know, hit me on my two-way pager.
And they're like-- - Yeah, see,
this is the question though.
- And they're like, that makes sense.
- But in '98, '99, were people saying hit me up?
- Oh, I think so. - Really?
I feel like that's a real cell phone thing.
- Okay, wait, hold on, we found some info.
- Like hit me up on my landline, like what?
- In John-- - No, it'd be like
give me a call.
- You don't think people said hit me up in the '90s?
- I don't know, for some reason,
I'm struggling with this one.
Maybe I'm completely off base,
but I just feel like before cell phones,
you weren't saying hit me up.
But I mean, that's at least my personal experience.
- Interesting.
Okay, in John Seabrook's book of pop music history,
"The Song Machine," he explains that the tracks
Swedish writers Max Martin and Remy Jakub,
I guess there's another person,
believe that hit was American slang for call.
- Okay.
- And so the song about the heartache of a recent breakup
turned to a hit with the public,
perhaps a bit confused, but none the wiser.
See, that makes sense.
Definitely people would have said hit me on my pager
in the '90s. - Sure, sure.
- People had pagers going back to the '80s.
So imagine they come out to LA for a few months
of songwriting and they keep hearing people saying,
yeah, hit me on my pager, and then they come back to,
and then they're talking to each other in Swedish,
be like, oh, that's interesting, I never learned that,
that hit means like reach out to me.
And they're like, cool.
And then they're like, we should make a song
with some cool colloquial American expressions,
like hit me baby, and there's nobody in the room to be like,
hit me baby one more time,
doesn't come across the same way as hit me on my pager.
And the rest is music history.
And nobody even cared really that much one way or the other.
It also goes to show that, you know,
we talked about it with shallow in the shallow.
- Yeah.
- Not every line in a song has to make sense.
- It doesn't have to add up.
- It's, you know--
- To make an airtight logical argument.
- If 90% of it makes sense,
the other 10% is just flavor.
- Yeah.
- You could even make the case,
it's like the kind of, the Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic,
that actually there's more beauty in the cracked object
than in the totally perfect one anyway.
What is perfection?
- I feel that.
- Remember the video--
- That's me, I'm off.
- The video is she's like in high school,
wearing like a Catholic school outfit.
- Right, right.
- That was very provocative at the time.
- Oh yeah, this part.
♪ Love's too low ♪
♪ Oh yeah, baby ♪
♪ I should've never let you go ♪
♪ I must confess ♪
♪ That my loneliness ♪
♪ Is killing me now ♪
♪ Don't you know ♪
- This is like a slightly different chord.
- Oh yeah.
- Progression here.
- I'm slipping it.
♪ And I'll be here ♪
♪ And in the inside ♪
♪ With me baby, put in my time ♪
♪ My loneliness is killing me ♪
♪ I must confess ♪
- I remember when this song first came out.
How old is Britney Spears?
She's 37.
- She's in the Days Between.
- Oh right, she was born in between the two of us.
- TC, Days Between.
- Spears.
♪ I know the melody ♪
♪ Is closing me ♪
♪ Is killing me now ♪
♪ I must confess ♪
- All right.
- It is a classic.
- A true classic.
- Let's see what 2019 has to offer.
- All right.
- Well, we have one of our modern pop stars,
Halsey with "Without Me".
Tasteful opening.
- Welcome to rejuvenation.
(laughing)
♪ Found you when your heart was broke ♪
♪ I filled you up until it overflowed ♪
♪ Took it so far to keep you close ♪
♪ I was afraid to leave you alone ♪
- Oh yeah, we heard this one.
This is the one that interpolates
the pre-chorus of Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River".
♪ And then I got you off your knees ♪
♪ Put you right back on your feet ♪
♪ Just so you can take advantage of me ♪
♪ Tell me how's it feel ♪
- Interpolates?
What does that mean?
- That's what they say when you're referencing something
but not directly sampling it.
- And so they have to pay royalties or whatever to him?
- Yeah.
- So they're just going like above board with it.
- Well, no, interpolation would also be like,
it's like, are you literally using the master recording?
- Right.
- Or are you just like thrown in a tasty nod
to Jamflow Man and your solo?
Either way, yeah, you gotta pay something.
♪ You can't stop me ♪
♪ I'm letting you down on me ♪
♪ Maybe I'm the one who put you up there ♪
♪ I don't know why ♪
- I like this song.
It's cool. - It's tasteful.
- It's cool. - It's a tasteful song.
- Yeah, it's pretty good.
- Back to 1998, Debra Cox.
The song's called "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here".
I feel like I can remember,
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
or something like that. - Debra Cox,
that does not ring a bell.
- But nobody's supposed to be here, doesn't it?
Then you feel like it goes,
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
Let's find out how well I know this song.
Clearly not well at all.
- What is this, number two?
- Oh, she's a Canadian R&B singer.
This is number two.
- Where's Seinfeld when we need him?
- Damn, yeah, Seinfeld's out of town for a while.
We didn't wanna lead with that, but.
- Oh yeah, we gotta update the crew.
- Yeah, just so everybody knows, Seinfeld.
- He was not let go.
- He was not let go,
but he got in a sticky situation
and had to leave the country
with his family for a few months.
He'll be back. - Yeah, oh yeah.
- He'll be back.
- Hopefully some call-ins, maybe.
- Oh yeah, we gotta get him to call in.
- From an undisclosed location.
- From an undisclosed location.
The government shut down.
It was not very helpful for Mr. Seinfeld,
put it that way.
This is Debra Cox.
(gentle music)
- This is dope.
- This is cool.
♪ How did you get here ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
- Oh yeah, yeah, I know this.
♪ I've tried that love thing for the last time ♪
♪ My heart said no, no, no ♪
- Love this.
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
♪ But you came about and changed my mind ♪
♪ I've spent all my life ♪
♪ On a search to find ♪
♪ The love I'll stay for eternity ♪
♪ The heaven sent to fulfill my need ♪
♪ But when I turn around ♪
- I mean, outside of the drums,
it really reminds me of like,
just like something we might catch on like,
top five on like 74.
- Yeah.
It's got a little bit of Benny and the Jets bounce.
- Uh-huh.
♪ I'm so bad to say love wins again ♪
♪ So I place my heart under lacking blue ♪
- Kind of 90s R&B like quadruple tracked vocals.
- Uh-huh.
♪ But I turn around ♪
- Quadruple tracked.
♪ And I'm standing here ♪
♪ How did you get here ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
- That's also just a great line.
Like the song, it kind of explains what's going on.
It's about somebody who's, I think,
somebody said their heart broke
and wasn't ready to love again,
but now somebody came into their life.
It all tracks,
which is funny to open a song with no context.
♪ How did you get here ♪
♪ Physically ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
- That kind of sounds like it's like
from Hamilton or something.
John Adams came over to Hamilton's house.
♪ How did you get here ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
♪ Alexander, I must talk to you ♪
♪ Get out of here, John Adams ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
♪ How did you get here ♪
♪ Nobody's supposed to be here ♪
- In the Superman musical.
Batman, wait, now who has the Fortress of Solitude?
That's Superman, right?
- In like the icebergs or whatever.
- It's when Superman wants to be alone,
he goes to the Fortress of Solitude.
Batman shows up.
How did you get here?
Did you see Jeff Banda's movie, The Little Hours?
- Oh yeah.
- I watched that, it's on Netflix now.
- Great movie.
- Time Crisis, 10 out of 10, recommend.
- Oh yeah.
- Got Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly, great Dave Franco.
It's based on the Decameron, which I always loved.
We had to read that back in college.
I actually watched another movie.
There's a movie from the '70s based on the Decameron too.
So it's really funny.
It's like takes place at a convent.
- Like 1347 or something.
- Yeah, in the middle ages in Italy.
So you could also imagine a guy showing up at a convent.
That would be inappropriate.
How did you get here?
Nobody's supposed to be here.
Oh, that'd be more like no man are supposed to be here.
- No, yeah, that's more of like a why are you here?
It's not how did you get here?
You'd be like, I walked.
How did you get here is such a specific thing.
That's not something you savor.
Like how did you get here, dude?
- Well, it's also a very specific combo
because I can think of a lot of how did you get here's
and I can think of a lot of nobody's supposed to be here's.
I could think of it just like,
well, how'd you get here?
You're seven and we're 30 miles from your parents' house.
Do they know that?
Would you get on the bus?
That's inappropriate.
How'd you get here?
But the nobody's supposed to be here part,
I guess it's a combo of two different vibes.
- How did you get here is like a very horror movie.
- That's what I'm thinking.
It's like you show up to your vacation house
and you're thinking it's gonna be like just you
and your wife and then there's like your old
like college friend who's standing in the living room
waiting for you, who you have like weird bad blood with
and you're like, how did you get here?
- But then even then nobody's supposed to be here.
- Yeah, it's like, this is our lake house, dude.
Like we're rolling in for the weekend.
- Maybe like a-- - Like a stalker film.
- Or maybe it's like a sci-fi horror movie.
- Oh dude, like aliens?
- Oh, okay.
Or it's like, did you see Annihilation?
- Yes.
- And it's kind of reminded me of that old
the Russian movie Stalker.
This was like about these people who enter the zone.
- Right, right.
- You know, so that's like a slight mini genre movies
where people go into this mysterious like toxic place
where a meteor hit or you know, there's radioactive waste
and no humans live there.
So like a group of scientists enter the zone.
- Chernobyl. - Chernobyl, basically.
- In 1986. - Yeah, exactly.
And then they just like go in and they see like
a very like healthy looking--
- Dude, it's just Arnold from T2, just naked.
- Yeah, he looks like he's in great shape.
Doesn't look like, not like some toxic waste victim.
And they're just like, how did you get here?
And he just stares blankly at them.
Nobody's supposed to be here.
That would make sense.
- Yeah, okay, I'm glad we got to the bottom of that.
- The army swept this area for survivors.
They've maintained a strict perimeter.
This group of scientists are the first people
allowed in in three years.
How did you get here?
Nobody's supposed to be, that tracks.
How did you get here?
(laughing)
- And this is the credit song.
(laughing)
Of this movie.
Wildly dissonant emotional palette from the film.
- Picture, it's 1999.
Deborah Cox, Canadian R&B singer,
has this like massive hit and the label's like,
we wanna make a big video.
Can we just like sit down and pitch this?
Deborah, pitch this.
Love the lyrics, we wanna do something big.
We wanna do something cinematic.
'Cause right now you got the number two song
on the Billboard charts.
Picture this, Chernobyl.
Three years after the disaster.
You're leading a highly trained team of scientists.
The number two song, woo, Golden Globe winner.
Number two song in 2019, I should say.
Golden Globe winner, congratulations to Lady Gaga,
Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, and Anthony Rossamando.
- Oh, they won for the song.
- Yep.
- Right, the film did not win, but.
- No, the song won.
- The song, okay great, it's back.
So, okay, so the Golden Globe victory.
- Bittersweet.
- Well, I guess it drove this song back up the charts.
'Cause this, I don't think was on
the last few countdowns we did.
- Yeah, maybe not, but it's still very successful.
- Obviously.
- It's a big drop, yeah.
- But I'm just sort of surprised that people are like,
oh, that won the Golden Globe, I guess I'll buy it.
- Or just remind people that it exists.
- Right.
- Or they're like, you know what,
I'm ready to pull the trigger in the iTunes store.
- That dollar 29, dude, I'm in now.
♪ Is there something else you're searching for ♪
♪ I'm falling ♪
♪ In all the good times I find myself longing for change ♪
♪ And in the bad times I fear myself ♪
- My wife is beginning to teach herself piano.
- Oh, nice.
- And she's been doing these YouTube tutorials
of just basic like left hand, right hand.
- Yeah.
- She was playing Shallow for hours.
- Just a piano rendition of Shallow?
- Yep.
- And were you guys singing the duet together?
- Oh yeah, for hours.
- Oh, you got in?
- Yeah, yeah.
Well, I got in, I was like,
I was like, let me try to play it in the church,
show me how to do it, yeah.
- Can you hold it down on piano?
- No, I can't.
- Oh, really?
I've never seen you play.
- I used to play, but I don't.
- Uh-huh.
♪ I'm falling ♪
♪ In all the good times I find myself longing for change ♪
♪ For change ♪
♪ And in the bad times I fear myself ♪
♪ I'm off the deep end ♪
- I think this is the song of the year for me.
- Wow.
- I mean, in terms of like big pop songs,
I find myself singing a lot.
- Yeah.
- Just to myself, like idly, randomly,
just like in the morning,
like 7.15 in the morning, making coffee.
♪ Now ♪
♪ In the shallow ♪
- I like that pedal steal.
- Yeah.
- Bring that up in the mix.
♪ In the shallow ♪
♪ We're far from the shallow now ♪
- Are you in the shallow, or are you far from the shallow?
- Seinfeld bet.
- What's the deal with Lady Gaga?
- In the shallow.
- We're in the deep end.
We're not in the shallow.
Definitely not in the shallow.
In the shallow.
Far from the shallow.
It's all over the place.
- Well, it's your 90% theory.
- It is my 90% theory.
I actually asked Mark about it.
- Yeah?
- I don't wanna blow up his spot too much,
but I was like, listen, man, I love the song,
but I've been thinking about it.
That part where they go, in the shallow,
it's like, what?
We are in the deep end.
And then he was like, thought about it,
he was like, yeah, maybe it was originally from the shallow.
I don't know.
- Didn't know he's British.
- Yeah, he's half British.
- So he speaks with a mild British accent?
- You met people like that before,
who grew up half, going back and forth a little bit.
Does it amaze, his voice is a little,
it's like, yeah, right on the cusp,
it's like, oh yeah, that's kinda what it sounds like.
But, and then I was thinking about it,
and I was like, okay, let's say the original lyric,
or they thought to, maybe they'd made a,
like, we should change it, and then they forgot.
It could've been, now I'm in the deep end,
watch how I dive in, I'll never hit the ground.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, da, na, na, na,
we're far from the shallows now.
From the shallow, shah-hello, from the shah-hello.
That would make more sense, I couldn't criticize it,
but then, from the shallow,
probably just doesn't sing as well.
- Yeah, it doesn't.
♪ In the shallow ♪
♪ In the shah-hello ♪
- You know what song I also realized,
is kinda works in my, like, 90% theory?
Doe a Deer.
- What's that?
- It's from The Sound of Music.
- Okay.
- 'Cause it's a very witty song.
'Cause it goes through the Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do.
- Right, right.
- You know what's great,
I've never actually seen The Sound of Music,
but I know a lot of the songs.
I know that's a major film.
- I've never seen it either.
- Oh, really?
We should do a double feature of that in Bohemian Rhapsody.
- Tight.
- But on that song, it goes,
♪ Doe a deer, a female deer ♪
♪ Re, a drop of golden sun ♪
♪ Mi, a name I call myself ♪
♪ Fa, a long, long way to run ♪
♪ So, a needle pulling thread ♪
So, so far, it's like very smart.
- Oh yeah, this is great, I love it.
- And this is the Throtters and Hammer scene, right?
Great songwriters.
But so I love this part.
♪ La, a word to follow, so ♪
I was like, wait, you guys are doing so good.
- Yeah, that really sticks out too.
- ♪ So, a needle pulling thread ♪
♪ La, a note to follow, so ♪
♪ Ti, I drink with jam and bread ♪
♪ That will bring us back to Do, Do, Do, Do ♪
Every single one is like perfect.
Ti, a drink with jam and bread.
But then yeah, it's just like,
♪ La, they just couldn't come up with anything ♪
♪ La, a little word to follow, so ♪
But up until then, it's rock solid.
- I wonder if they were just banging their head
against the wall.
- I mean, I could really--
- Like, we gotta think of something.
- These are like, Rogers and Hammer scene,
real old school songwriters.
- Yeah.
- They're wearing like a tie and a vest.
(laughing)
Their shirts tucked in, just sitting at the piano,
like chain smoking.
- Oh yeah.
- Just like, la, la, what does la mean, what does la mean?
And then somebody's just like, honestly dude, (beep) it.
- Dude, it's like three in the morning.
- Bro, we're-- - The song is awesome.
Like, no one's gonna care.
- Bro, we're Rogers and Hammerstein.
We've been paying our dues for years, man.
We don't need to (beep) nail every line
for people to respect us.
We earned this, man.
La, a word to follow, so who gives a (beep)
- I mean, dude, it's self-referential, it's cool.
- It does not make sense.
Just shows that we're chill out bros.
Not everything has to be so (beep) witty.
They were right.
(laughing)
Good for them.
- Yeah, the problem is, la is not a word.
So it's just like--
- It's not a noun.
- But they did good with fa,
'cause they went fa, a long, long way to run.
- Right.
- So what would be la?
- La.
- La, la, la, a place to park your car.
- Oh yeah.
(laughing)
♪ So I need a pulling thread ♪
♪ La, a place to park your car ♪
- If we only had a time machine.
- Guys, we got it.
(laughing)
Okay, I know this is crazy.
(laughing)
- They'd just be like, "You know what?
"We already figured it out."
- We thought about that, actually.
- Yeah, we thought that sucked.
The number one song in '99.
- Yeah.
- Brandy.
Remember Brandy?
- Yeah.
♪ Have you ever loved somebody so much ♪
- Wow.
That was crazy, that fade in on the
♪ You cry ♪
sort of lush grouping of voices.
♪ So sad you're gone ♪
- Song is written by Diane Warren
and produced by David Foster.
You remember David Foster was the kind of
late period Chicago producer.
- Oh yeah.
♪ Come my brother ♪
- And a lot of other stuff.
♪ Have you ever ♪
♪ Have you ever ♪
- Talk about quadruple tracking.
- Lot of R&B.
- Yeah.
- '99 top five.
- This one's a little sleepy.
This was the follow up to her duet with Monica,
The Boy's Mine.
Now that's a song that made a much bigger impression on me.
♪ Have you ever had someone ♪
♪ Steal your heart away ♪
♪ You'd give anything ♪
♪ To make them feel the same ♪
♪ Have you ever searched for words ♪
♪ To get you in the heart ♪
♪ But you don't know what to say ♪
♪ And you don't know where to start ♪
♪ Have you ever loved somebody so much ♪
♪ It makes you cry ♪
♪ Have you ever needed something so bad ♪
- The top three are all like kind of conflicted love songs.
Have you ever loved somebody so much it makes you cry?
How did you get here?
Nobody's supposed to be here.
Hit me baby one more time.
♪ Have you ever ♪
♪ Have you ever ♪
♪ Have you ever found the one ♪
♪ You dreamed of all your life ♪
- Do you think Brandy's still playing shows?
- She's currently starring on Fox's musical drama, Star.
- Oh, okay.
♪ Look into their eyes ♪
- You get the idea.
The number one song right now on iTunes
is a song by our old friend, Post Malone.
- Oh wow, new?
- Yeah, it's from the soundtrack for the new film,
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse.
- Okay.
- It's called Sunflower.
- Cool title.
- Yeah, it is a cool title.
I wasn't very happy when I heard about this song.
- You have a song called Sunflower?
- I'm not saying that, but you know what?
- Can neither confirm nor deny.
- I can neither confirm nor deny,
but you know what, that's just how it is, man.
- There's probably a lot of songs called Sunflower.
- No, I know, I know.
And also, you take your time finishing an album,
take your time waiting to put it out,
you're gonna start to see things out there in the world
where you're like, huh, okay,
maybe I waited a little too long,
but the light's a fire under you.
You know what I'm saying?
Anyway, I actually haven't heard this song.
Let's check it out.
Okay.
It has a little bit of a late '90s vibe.
Swae Lee from Ray Shremmer is singing?
Yeah.
His choruses are always like long, two minutes long.
- Yeah.
- I was ready for the change.
♪ Certain things you just can't refuse ♪
♪ She wanna ride me like a cruise ♪
♪ And I'm not trying to lose ♪
♪ Then you're left in the dust ♪
♪ Unless I stuck by ya ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
♪ I think your love would be too much ♪
♪ Or you'd be left in the dust ♪
♪ Unless I stuck by ya ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
♪ Every time I'm leaving on you ♪
♪ You don't make it easy ♪
- Is that Post?
- Posty.
♪ Wish I could be different ♪
- Sounds kind of different.
- Raspy.
- Yeah, he's exploring new parts of his voice.
- I like the rasp.
- Yeah.
- Pack of cigarettes a day, kind of.
♪ Running from my trust and you won't back down ♪
♪ Even if we gotta risk it all right now ♪
♪ I know you're scared of me, I know ♪
♪ You don't wanna be alone ♪
♪ I know I always come and go ♪
♪ But it's out of my control ♪
♪ And you'll be left in the dust ♪
♪ Unless I stuck by ya ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
♪ I think your love would be too much ♪
♪ Or you'd be left in the dust ♪
♪ Unless I stuck by ya ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
♪ You're the sunflower ♪
- I don't see how the person of his affection
is like a sunflower.
Or doing the kind of airtight logical readings.
You'd be left in the dust.
- You'd be left--
- Unless I stuck by you.
You're a sunflower, your love would be--
- Your love would be too much?
- Sunflowers are chill, man.
- Yeah.
- And they're self-sufficient.
They just grow like weeds on the side of the road.
- Yeah.
- They're doing their thing.
- Gorgeous, gorgeous tall flowers.
Well, maybe it has something to do with the movie.
- Was there a movie called Sunflower?
- No, no, no, but this is from the soundtrack
to Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse.
- Do you know anything about that movie?
- No.
- People have been saying it's great, it's animated.
- I'm out.
I could care less about superhero movies.
I'm so burned out.
- Well, people say this is a different,
because it's animated, it's a different vibe.
- That's even strike three.
I mean, I don't like superhero movies
and I don't like animation.
So it's like, that's tough.
That's a tough sell for me.
- You meet the whole new Spider-Man, Miles Morales,
and you realize that there's all different types
of spider people or something.
- Oh, there's like a universe of Spider-Men?
- There's like a pig spider.
- That sounds terrible.
The whole thing with Spider-Man is he's unique.
You know, he alone has these powers
to do these things on Earth.
- Yeah, that was the 20th century myth.
- Conception, man.
- That's what the 1960s American man needed to believe in.
- Well, I'm a '60s and '70s guy, you know that.
- Sunflowers are known to rapidly deplete
their soil of nutrients.
So that's part of it.
Anyway.
- Yeah, Post was doing a--
- Maybe.
- Remember, we've gone--
- Deeply horticultural analysis of the species.
- Well, I think Swayze wrote that part,
but we've gone deep on some Post lyrics,
and there were a lot of levels.
- Yeah.
- Tony Romo. - It's a cool song.
- It is a cool song.
I like it.
I think you should give Spider-Man
into the Spider-Verse a try.
- Have you seen it?
- No, but I was actually like,
I almost went to see it solo,
because I was like,
this seems like something I'm supposed to see.
- Wow.
- Maybe we should do, what did we say?
- Triple feature?
- Bohemian Rhapsody, Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse,
and Sound of Music.
- Sound of Music.
Okay, what's the order of that?
I think we open with Sound of Music,
'cause that's the sleeper.
- Well, I think Sound of Music
we probably can't see in the theater.
- Oh, well, I have a private theater.
- Okay, we're gonna watch all of these,
and we'll get the screeners,
and watch them all in Jake's home theater?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay.
When are we starting?
Morning?
- Noon.
- You got seven hours of movies ahead of you.
We wanna start at noon?
- Well, once I'm in college,
I did a noon to noon movie fest with my--
- Noon to noon, meaning--
- Dork buddies.
- 24 hours?
- Yeah.
- And you stayed up the whole time?
- Yeah, we watched movies in the lounge of our dorm
for 24 hours, bunch of dorks.
(laughing)
- Who are you?
- Like Evil Dead and all this stuff like that.
- Yeah, so you took down what, like 14 movies?
- Something, I don't even remember.
- What were you doing to stay awake?
You were just young and having--
- Yeah, drinking Mountain Dew.
(laughing)
Being like 19, you know?
- Just drinking Mountain--
- VHS, by the way, this is like 1996 or something.
- That's alternate universe.
- Just like--
- Crushing Dew.
- Bunch of like crappy horror movies.
(laughing)
- I remember telling my friend about it.
He's like, "Wow, that sounds like
"an enormous waste of time."
(laughing)
- I mean, there's something cool about
if you pick the movies wisely.
- Yeah.
- Think about how many people have a list of like movies
that are like, "Wow, yeah, I wanna see these."
You could probably bang out somebody's movie list
in one mega session.
- Noon to noon, okay, so for our triple feature,
the question is when do you wanna end?
Maybe we start at like two or three, end at like 10.
- And I guess we could like eat dinner
during the middle one?
- Okay.
- This is not gonna happen.
(laughing)
- Start with Sound of Music at two.
I feel like that's probably a long movie.
- Yeah, but it's like three hours.
- Then at five, put in the order for Wangs.
- Nice.
- I mean, Wangs.
And then I think start at Spider-Man, Spider-Verse.
I feel like that's probably the shortest one.
- Sound of Music, clock in at 2.54.
- I have three hours.
Okay, so we're watching Sound of Music first, like,
okay.
- Okay, that was boring.
- Now we put in an order for Wangs
and start Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse.
That's probably a short movie.
- It's two hours, dude.
- Really, it's two hours?
Okay.
So then halfway through Spider-Verse, the Wangs come.
We're like chowing down, enjoying that.
And then finally it's like darkness has descended
on the outside world.
- Then we start drinking.
- Nighttime, we crack a brew
and it's time for Bohemian Rhapsody.
- Yeah, you close out with Bohemian.
- And I feel like we're gonna like Bohemian Rhapsody
the most.
Two hours, 13 minutes.
- Damn, this is really a movie fest.
- It's seven, yeah, pushing seven and a half.
- It's about seven hours, damn.
Yeah, so I like that.
♪ Is this the real life ♪
♪ Is this just fantasy ♪
♪ Caught in a landslide ♪
♪ No escape from reality ♪
♪ Open your eyes ♪
♪ Look up to the skies and see ♪
♪ I'm just a poor boy ♪
♪ I need no sympathy ♪
♪ Because I'm easy come, easy go ♪
♪ Little high ♪
♪ Anywhere the wind blows ♪
♪ Doesn't really matter to me ♪
♪ To me ♪
♪ Mama ♪
♪ Just killed a man ♪
♪ Put a gun against his head ♪
♪ Pulled my trigger, now he's dead ♪
♪ Mama ♪
♪ Life had just begun ♪
♪ But now I've gone and thrown it all away ♪
♪ Mama ♪
♪ Didn't mean to make you cry ♪
♪ If I'm not back again this time tomorrow ♪
♪ Carry on, carry on ♪
♪ Nothing really matters ♪
- Okay, so the first food we're doing is Wang's.
That's gonna come midway through Spider-Verse.
- That's pretty deep in, man.
That's like four hours in.
- Okay, so- - So show up fed.
- Belly's full.
We're doing belly- - Show up fed.
- We're doing belly, we're doing a hard 2 p.m.
Belly's full.
- Belly's full?
That's like, that's like if you're planning something
with like your friends like,
okay guys, we're going for a hike.
I don't wanna (beep) get in the car
and have some guy say he's starving
and has to get a breakfast burrito on the way there.
- We do that for Vampire Weekend practice a lot.
- Belly's full?
- Yeah, I mean, I don't know if that comes
from like tour dudes being like-
- I'm so hungry, dude.
- Like yeah, I don't know if it's being on tour
and like tour manager being like,
we're leaving for the airport at 3 p.m.,
belly's full, it's a long ride.
Just to like let you know that there's no time to stop.
- It's like the army or something.
- Belly's full.
Yeah, or just like some military dad,
just like we're leaving for Dave and Buster's
at 1 p.m., belly's full.
I guess that's not a good example.
There's food at Dave and Buster's.
- Oh man.
- Or no, you're just like some really strict dad
just being like, we're seeing a 3 p.m. screening
of Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse.
Your mother and I will buy the tickets, but no concessions.
So I want you, I want you in the living room.
1.30, belly's full.
(laughing)
- 13.30, belly's full.
- We got plenty of snacks at home.
I want you belly's full.
(laughing)
Before we head to the theater.
- We got tuna salad in the fridge, we got PB&J.
(laughing)
- We got a big box of raisins.
- Box of, belly's full, dude.
That's a fun nugget.
I'm gonna start using that.
- The family is hitting a 4 p.m., a star is born.
There will be no red vines, no milk tuts.
Yeah, belly's full, so good.
Those are the two main schedule things that--
- Yeah, that's true.
- We joke, well, there's belly's full
and then the other is like hard versus soft.
- Oh, times.
- Yeah, we're doing a hard 2 p.m., belly's full.
- We got a lobby call at 7 a.m., belly's full, gentlemen.
- I guess also sometimes people say wheels up.
- Okay, yeah.
- Wait, what does that even come from, wheels up?
- Flying?
- That's from flying?
- Yeah, like we have a, there's a strict schedule here, man.
- So that's pretty funny when people apply that
to things other than planes.
- Right.
- We're getting in the minivan, hard 2 p.m., belly's full,
wheels up 2 o' 5, no, actually that wouldn't make sense.
Lobby call, 1 45, wheels up 2.
Wheels up.
- Belly's full, gentlemen.
- Wheels up, we're in a van, man.
- Wheels up is a military term when a plane lifts off
to start a deployment, yeah, man.
- Okay, so I guess it's about starting your deployment.
- Oh, 700.
- I'm gonna do that when I take my family to the movies.
Just be like, tickets to see a movie today cost (beep)
$17 and I'll be damned if I'm throwing those overpriced
concessions on top of it.
We're rolling to the theater, belly's full.
I actually think that'd be a good thing to instill
in the next generation too, 'cause like how many times
have you rolled up to the movie theater hungry,
next thing you know you just ate a big-ass bucket
of popcorn and then you're still kinda hungry after.
Everybody's like, "Should we get food?"
And you're like, "Yeah, I guess," but,
and now you're just, it's just horrible.
- Jeez.
- We should start a campaign, don't eat at the movie theater.
- Yeah, those hot dogs.
- Movies are a time for fasting and silent contemplation.
- I like that.
- You shouldn't be like snacking.
I've done a lot of snacking at the movies.
I'm not trying to be a hypocrite,
but I'm leaving that in 2018.
- New Year's resolution for 2019, no movie concessions.
- I wish I thought of that, 'cause the past week,
sometimes people ask you what your New Year's resolution
is, just be like,
"Uh, no movie concessions."
(laughing)
- Moe, my-- - People are like, "Okay."
(laughing)
- Yeah.
- The lamest thing.
- Do you go to the movies a lot?
Not really.
- About like seven, eight times a year.
(laughing)
- First TC 2019.
- All the books.
- In the can.
Wheels up.
- Wheels up on TC 19.
(laughing)
- We have begun our 2019 deployment.
- A chief lift off.
(laughing)
This is so dorky.
- We're in the Mountain Dew zone now, man.
- Oh yeah, dude.
- We're that 24 hour Mountain Dew.
- Noon to noon, bro.
(laughing)
- All right, guys.
We'll see you in two weeks.
- Time Crisis with Ezra King.
Be-be-be-be-be-be-beats.
One.
(explosion)
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