THE BIG RIFF - 103 - ALEX Thompson - III - It's a Hard Rock Life

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We all want 38. We all want 38.
This. Is Misfits not just Dan Sager,

(00:28):
right? Yeah.
Hard Rock life. And we're in.
We're in with Alex Thompson. What's going on, man?
Not much. Thanks for having me back.
Dude, we love having you here man, it's fun talking to you.
It is fun, yeah. You're like a fucking wealth of
knowledge. On some stuff, yeah.
Yeah, So that we just came in with a 138 by Misfits and aren't

(00:53):
you don't, don't the rocket godslike do a Misfits cover?
Band, yeah, we did 2 gigs a side, like a side gig where we
did all Misfits stuff. For those who don't know, Alex
is the bass player for Rocket Gods.
And I wasn't really familiar with the only Misfit songs.
I was familiar with the ones Metallica covered.

(01:16):
And we didn't know we were goingto do that show maybe until a
week before. So I just locked myself in my
bedroom and learned all those songs.
I think it's funny. It might be like 12 or 15 songs
and then you looked out. It's like, Jesus Christ, it's 30
minutes to 30 minutes set. But we kept, we kept Rocket Gods

(01:43):
did hybrid moments a couple times.
I wanted to do Astro Zombies. I like that one.
But yeah, that was all new to me.
And I was determined to not playwith a pick because I'm not a
pick player. So it was just they're, they're
not difficult songs, but they'refast.
They're really fast and they're fast and it's repetitive.

(02:06):
And you're like, I know there's a change coming up somewhere.
I equated to like, imagine you're like going 100 miles an
hour on the highway in a straight line and you know,
there's an exit coming up and you're like, I got it.
Where's the exit? Where's the exit?
Damn it, I miss the exit. Like, so you got to just got to
hit the spot. There's a lot of, you know, eye
contact and head nodding, like here comes a change.
But yeah, they were they were fun.

(02:26):
Dude for songs that aren't that long there are a lot of changes
in their songs. Like they are really good.
Some of them, yeah. Astro zombies.
It's funny because, you know, I talked about, I talked about
this with a couple of friends that were in the Misfits.
Like I was learning at hybrid moments.
I was like, it's like hurting mybrain because, like, song starts

(02:47):
on a riff that's a verse, and then later in the song, that
same riff is like a bridge. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I was like this. And it was Even so in that Nike
a Go Go, the Misfits tribute band we did.
It was Keith's, our guitarist, Keith Jeddis, his son played

(03:09):
guitar in that project. And he was like, man, this this
song is fucked up. And I was like, yeah, you just
got to just don't think about it.
Then I was talking to my buddy who was a huge fan.
He's like, they didn't know whatlike what they were doing when
they were start writing these songs.
Like they really didn't know what they were doing.
And that's why it's unique. So like the timing and
everything is like the chord changes or just.

(03:30):
Well, I mean, typically a song, you know, your your bridge and
your chorus and your verse aren't the same riff chord,
they're different. But in that it's this, it's
pretty much the same melodicallyduring the whole thing, but he
just changes his vocal approach a little bit.

(03:52):
Melody. Yeah, yeah.
And it's everybody loves that song so.
Dude, yeah, that's a great song.I love bands that do that.
And I know like Fat Mike from NoFX is, you know, a huge Misfits
fan and he does that in his songs too.
People doesn't have a lot of choruses.
A lot of the songs don't have choruses.
People lost their shit that night when we did that first.

(04:12):
Misfits people. All like that other show notes I
have. That I think I watched hybrid
moments I and it sound it sounded awesome because I've
seen I've seen you guys play hybrid moments.
I don't remember if it was in person or something.
We did it it. Started with 138 yeah.
And then? I we, we did 1:30. 8 and then

(04:32):
like fucking 19 more. Yeah, we did bullet.
We did hybrid moments. We did Halloween.
Dude, what year did they come out?
I had to put together. A late 70s didn't they?
78. Yeah, that's what I was kind of
thinking. I've had to put together a
playlist because I had never heard most of the songs.
Yeah, but it was fun. That's awesome that you were

(04:54):
willing, all able and willing tolearn them that fast.
Yeah, I can do that. Yeah.
But literally it's, it's, it's because they're so repetitive.
It's just it from the outside looking in, it's like, oh, that
should be easy. It's like, wow.
It's when something is what a song is, repetitive, but there's

(05:15):
maybe only one or two changes, like you got to hit him spot on
or the whole thing falls apart. There's a lot of close fret
playing, like especially on the guitar, like a lot of the frets
are like close to each other andthere's like quick little things
in between verses. I don't know, it's weird.
Yeah, there. And now I I I made a playlist

(05:36):
for all those songs and I still listen to it.
Nice to this day. We did Hybrid moments at the
last show Rocket Gods did was inOctober with you guys at the
Ceno. That's probably what I'm
thinking. And we did.
We ended the show with that. You guys fucking killed at that
show. That was a great show.

(05:56):
Yeah, you, you reached out to meand Brian reached out to me, and
I know I listen to every. Oh, after the show.
Yeah, you both did. Oh, nice.
He reached out to me like a weeklater.
He was like, dude everybody's talking about.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And you had a guest on the
following week from one of the bands on that show, and you were

(06:19):
like, dude, what do you think about the rocket guns?
I was like, that's cool. Yeah, that.
Was a good that was a good night.
Dude, I've you guys are great musicians.
You don't always sound the same,but that's not because you're
not doing what you do. It's the sound guy.
So like I feel like when you guys played at the C note and

(06:39):
it's Greg, right? We love.
Running sound. We love the sound at the scene.
Dude, he does a great job, but he he does, he does the band
justice, you know, so like you guys with a good sound, guy
sounds fucking great. Yeah, and it sounds.
Here what you're. Doing it sounds good out front
and it sounds good on stage because sometimes, you know,
you're on stage, you can't hear shit.

(06:59):
And, and I don't know what you'dlike For me, I I'll walk around
until I on the stage to find a spot where I can hear
everything. So I remember when we, we did
all those shows at Penn's a few years ago and you were on a
couple of them, those we'd do the sound check and, you know,
and then we'd start playing. I'm like, I can't hear the
guitar. I got to walk over to the other

(07:20):
side of the stage. So, yeah.
So, you know, it is awesome. I wish to go.
I wish that place would just. That's like one of my favorite
places to play. People would go there and pack
it, sell it out because it's such.
Underrated venue Branch Davidians playing there this
month. Really.
Yeah, I saw that, yeah. I Oh yeah, I knew that.
I feel like it wouldn't take much more than just like walk

(07:42):
around Holland, like staple somefires onto some telephone, like
some people know about it. You don't see that like you used
to. And I feel like, yeah, you're
right, man. I think people take advantage of
the social media part but completely neglect to do the
flyer. Thing that's just one of the few
places left on Earth where people still, like, walk around

(08:02):
outside. Yeah, definitely, definitely.
It reminds me of the old living room in Providence.
Yeah, that's it's kind of. Similar.
Kind of a dive. It has a great sound.
Cheap beer, Yeah. Tables, darts, it's got
everything, honestly. Yeah, and the beach is right
outside. Nobody tell.

(08:23):
Like nobody's ever told us to turn down or anything in there.
Yeah, that's like you go to New World Tavern and you plug in the
guys like Jesus Christ turned out.
Dude, I hate that. Yeah, I hate when I get a sound
guy like being a Dick about it, you know what I mean?
And I usually, you know, OK, turn it down and then turn it
back up when we're playing. Yeah, yeah, I if you don't have

(08:46):
monitors or anything, I mean, you have to use your amp as a
fucking monitor. So you have to turn it up so you
can hear yourself turn it up. Yeah.
And it's tricky, especially whenyou sing into that stuff and you
can't hear everything. That's weird.
Since you brought up, you brought up singing, your album

(09:07):
is fucking awesome that you guysput out and you should talk
about that more. And I because I've heard we've
played like, I don't know, 567 shows with the Woods.
So I've heard a lot of these songs before I heard the album,
but the album is fucking awesome.
The album sounds so good. Yeah, the album is different and

(09:27):
your. Voice.
I was listening to to it again. What's the second song on the
album? Is that Thunder?
Yeah, your voice is fucking insane on that.
Thank you. It's you get you.
It gets up there, man. Thanks, dude.
And I know you know, I know I. Sound like a little girl
sometimes. Are the vocals double track?

(09:47):
Because it sounds like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I don't know how you like.Yeah, that's amazing.
Yeah, no auto tune, I will say. No, I know that and the piano
and keys that I hear all the album.
Is that Joe? That's Joe playing, Yeah.
They're parts that I wrote, thathe's much more proficient, yeah,
than I am in time is money when you're in the studio.
So yeah, he played them. And the song?

(10:10):
Except for a Truth Brigade. Well, yeah, we kind of.
I gave him the idea of what I wanted for Truth Brigade.
I wrote the piano part for Tim Song.
So right before I was going to bring that up, that is an
absolutely beautiful trip to your.
Friend, thank you. Thanks.
Man, and you do you play that atevery show.
Yeah, you. So I've seen you play that every
time we've played with you and every time before the song, you

(10:34):
explain what it's about. Yeah.
And it's interesting because it it takes so much courage to get
up on a stage, and I know what that song means to you, and
you're kind of pouring your heart out.
Yeah, that song is special to me.
And then you're like, sometimes it just goes over people's heads
and they don't get it. And but that's a, that's a,

(10:55):
that's a, that's a pretty deep song.
Yeah. So I just wanted to say that the
album is awesome. There was a bunch of songs I
hadn't heard and they're fantastic.
Thanks, man. Yeah, we had a lot of time doing
that album and yeah, I'm pretty,pretty proud of it.
Yeah, sounds great. I just.

(11:16):
Want to keep recording and putting out more music?
It's time, dude. Like, I don't, you know, you
don't have enough time. I just spread out too thin doing
multiple things. And I really want my life to be
about writing and music and recording.
Yeah. And family.
I like to get everything recorded eventually.

(11:37):
Yeah, dude. Well, you guys all at this table
will kind of do your own recordings, don't you?
I know, I know you do, Nick and I know Brian.
Get it? Does it?
Yeah, I mean, I, I don't have kids and I have the same
problem. Like I have no fucking free
time. If if I do a song, I'm doing
guitar, bass, drums and vocals and it takes days.

(11:59):
It takes days to track everything.
It takes weeks to mix everything.
Sure, yeah. It almost doesn't help that I'm
doing it myself. It almost makes it harder.
OK, I could see that. Man.
That's interesting actually. Alex, do you do any like
recordings yourself? No, what I need to, I need to
learn because I have a ton of music and some of it the band

(12:23):
doesn't want to do, and I think it's really good.
Fuck it and it. Would kill me to.
It would kill me to not have it recorded.
It's just something that they don't think fits with the music.
I think so, yeah. Yeah, it makes sense, yeah.
How do they break it to you? Do they do they let you down?
You can like when I'm playing that.
No, sometimes you can just tell no.

(12:44):
Usually. Like if you if I introduce
something and people like it, they jump on it.
If they don't like it, it just never comes up again.
How do you feel when you do whenthat happens?
Well, there's something. There's a couple of things.
That I'm only asking because I've had it happen to me over
the years and it's like really guys?
Well, I just like. This I'm going to.
I'm going to record it someday. Yeah.
Somewhere, yeah, but you know, and then and then you know, if

(13:09):
something doesn't get used, it just goes in the storage bin and
maybe you pull it out somewhere down the road I.
Feel like you probably. We did that.
We we were have a we, yeah, I got a lot of stuff.
We had a song that I showed themthree or four years ago that
nobody was really interested in.And then we started jamming on
it again last year and we were just waiting on lyrics.

(13:33):
It was like a completed song. So I mean, that's an example of
something that first time I introduced it, nice kind of
lukewarm response. And then three years later, I
was like, what about that fucking song?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, what is?
What's it in the vein of? I thought it sounded like a Foo

(13:54):
Manchu, like an A temporary Foo Manchu thing.
Yeah, but I have some stuff that's more sabbathy that I
don't know. Dude, I, I took, how long was
it? I had guitar lessons when I was
a kid. I think it was for like 6
months. I took guitar lessons and I
didn't know until I got older that my guitar teacher Justin

(14:14):
was the guitar player for Fu Manchu.
I found that out fucking years later, like recently actually.
And I'm talking that was over. Like that was probably 30 years
ago. It was probably about 94.
And yeah, he was awesome. Such a good dude who I think I
found out on this show, I think one of our guests, because we
were talking about where we learn guitar and all that shit

(14:37):
and they, yeah, the dude told, Ithink it was here.
I don't know. But yeah, Justin was the guitar
player from Fu Manchu. Fucking amazing dude.
Such a good soul. Just to know him for like the
short time I took the lessons, like lucky.
Lucky to have known and met him.Their live album Go for It Live.
That's one of my favorite albums.

(14:57):
I got to listen to him. More that album is just.
They're like they're proggy, aren't they?
Aren't they like a prog rock band for?
To me they sound like if like Sabbath grew up in Southern
California. Really.
Surfboards and dune boogies. That sounds kind of cool, yeah.
Proggy sounds dirty. That sounds like a Doom named

(15:21):
Doom Buggies instead of Dune. I I think a surfy Sabbath sound
would be pretty cool actually. Yeah, Yeah.
I feel like I would like want tohear that.
I do want to hear that. Yeah, I'll send you something.
Didn't they play recently? They're one of those, yeah.
They play, they tour constantly.They just never Max.

(15:43):
Sabbath played the. Other night who did Max?
Sabbath. You yell at people for not being
near the mic when they talk and you're like a mile away.
Like, do you say Max Sabbath forthose who can't hear Brian?
They just never broke through like to mainstream, but they're
an awesome band. Yeah, it's funny how that works.

(16:05):
There's so many great underground bands, I feel like
it's almost cliche to even talk about it.
I. Heard Max Abbott wasn't that
good of a band. I've never even heard of them.
That's the McDonald's band that how could they dress up like
fucking Gwar, but it's McDonald's.
How could you? Oh, I did see them.
Yeah, they played the other night.
I forget where. And they're not that good from.
What I heard. Shocker, I got asked if I I

(16:27):
wanted to go but I had plans andI was going to say no anyway.
Dude, yeah, you guys are going to think I'm the biggest cunt,
but I'm not like a big Black Sabbath fan.
I like fairies, wear boots. I like some of their songs, so I
know, right? So some of their songs are
fucking great. I do love some of their stuff,
but I'm not like a die hard listen to the album all the way
through. I think Ozzy is a shitty singer.

(16:50):
Yeah. Not not not then not in the
studio. I think he sounds like some sort
of bird. I like him in the songs that I
like. I think everything works in the
songs that I like. But I get what you know?
I mean, they're ahead of their time.
I get it. But I used to, when I was a
teenager, lay on my bed and justlisten to Sabbath.

(17:11):
Bloody Sabbath. You said in my brother from.
From beginning to end, yeah, yeah, it's just so good.
Yeah, my brother Chris is a giant Sabbath.
Fan, you know, like a couple of years the first time I came on
your show and one of you said tome like, you should do your own
podcast talking about me. I think Brian, I think Brian
said. That.
So I thought about it. I thought I thought about it and

(17:32):
I was like, well, Oh yeah, I remember that.
Yeah. So I said I was.
I talked to Rob and I'm like, like I'm going to do on this
podcast with Brian. We just talked about fucking.
Music hit. Yeah, yeah, sorry.
We were going to do fucking music hits.
Yeah, and I was just going to pick a pick a band every week
and talk about it. So I said to Rob, I'm like, you
should I want to do let's do a Sabbath episode, but I need you.

(17:53):
Here's here's the thing. I need you to listen to every
single Black Sabbath album. Me.
No, to Rob to listen to everything because if I want to
ask you about it and get your thoughts, I don't want you to be
like, oh yo, it's cool. It looks like I know.
I want like why? Like what you be and what by the
time I was done with that, I waslike, I can't do like.
That was so much work to listen to like 20 albums and try to

(18:16):
remember them. Sure.
But Rob's like me and Rob were huge Sabbath fans and we would
always talk about how, you know,you have the Aussie years and
then you have the the Dio albums, which I absolutely love.
Yeah. And then I do.
Like some of that you get. Ian Yellen from Deep Purple
comes in and he's and I'm. And it's like, where?

(18:38):
At what point is this not Sabbath anymore?
Yeah, it's just like Spinal Tap.There's like 40 different people
like in the band over the courseof the 80s.
Dude, So what are some of the more?
Oh, go ahead. I didn't mean.
That no, that's it. Like it's and it's like it's and
it's funny, like even Tony Iomminow is like I I wanted to call
those mid those 80s albums. They were supposed to be solo
albums in the record label. He's made me call them Sabbath

(18:59):
albums because they would sell more.
Yeah, I never knew that Geezer Butler was like the main writer.
Lyrics. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's crazy. Yeah, I think he wrote.
I think Ozzie wrote one song. Dude, Tony Iommi is.
I mean, he's fucking amazing. Yeah, you got, you know, it's
funny. So isn't Randy Rhodes, but.
Yeah, it's for every time, you guys.

(19:20):
When I'm, if I'm listening at home to your podcast and you're
talking about bands I like, I'm like, I wish I was there.
Oh, I know. I I think we both wish you were
there in those moments. Too.
Even last week you when you guyscame on you were talking about
Pantera and Sepultura God. Damn it.
No, I'm good. Thanks.
Yeah, you're a big fan. I love Sepultura, I saw Pantera

(19:43):
4 times. I love Sepultura too.
Oh, you saw them live. Some four times, yeah.
Everybody I know that's gone to a Pantera show says it's like
nothing else. So it's funny, I think the first
time I saw them was 93 and Vulgar, Vulgar Display of Power
had just come out. I was not a huge fan of his

(20:04):
voice, and I was a huge metal fan, but I wasn't a fan of just
his voice, really. So I went to that show.
It was at the Rocky Point Palladium.
Sacred Reich opened another bandI was a big fan of when they
came on the stage at the energy level.
Just went through the roof and Iwas like, holy shit.

(20:28):
And kids were jumping up on stage and Phil and Selma was
cool with it. I was like, that's pretty cool.
And, and one point he in betweensongs like chewed his roadies
out for putting the monitors toofar back from the edge of the
stage. I was like, that's cool.
But yeah, they were awesome. Then we saw them a year later at
the Strand, and that was fuckinginsane with Crowbar.

(20:52):
Yeah. And then I did see them on a
show with Sepultura. I think it must have been 94.
That's amazing. And then I saw them, I think in
98. So I saw them in big venues and
small venues, but yeah, they were.
You're always good. You're kind of the only band
waving the flag of metal for a long time.
Yeah. When metal, when all the 80s

(21:16):
metal bands, the thrash bands that I really loved, yeah.
Kind of got tried to become radio friendly.
Yeah. In the 90s, Pantera went the
other direction. Well, like I I didn't like them
at first because like Cemetery Gates is a great song, but that
album, Cowboys from Hell, yeah, I listen to it now and I'm like,
holy fuck, how did I not like this?

(21:38):
But like at first to me it was like a glam metal, but it's not.
But like, you know, just the wayPhil sang, like I didn't like
the vocals. I just thought it.
Was I didn't like cheesy I I wasreally into like bands like Iron
Maiden stuff. Where?
Yeah, same, same. With kind of a clear.
I love diamond. Clear vocalist and his growl.

(22:01):
I didn't. I didn't.
I wanted more of. It I didn't catch up into it
right away. I like when I first heard like
somebody screaming in a song when I was a kid.
I'm like, oh, what is? That I want to hear more of that
for. Sure.
Were you already listening to like Schizophrenia and Beneath
the Remains or What? Where?
Do you know, did you follow? So with Sepultura, it was kind
of the same thing. Like I first heard them when

(22:25):
Chaos AD came out. OK, and I loved the draw, he's
one of my favorite drummers of all time.
But again, like I didn't catch on with the vocals right away.
And it wasn't until I saw them live on that tour with Pantera,
I think it was 94, where I was like, holy shit, like this man.

(22:48):
And then I just became in love with him and and like listen to
everything they did. And then I saw them like 2-3
years later open for Ozzy on theRoots tour.
So yeah, they're they're one of my favorite bands of all time,
so yeah. They're just so inventive, like
they had their own distinct sound and it was awesome.

(23:11):
Yeah. They're playing it now, aren't
they? Are they doing something?
Like the Cavalier brothers are, Yeah, they're playing like
they're playing. They're doing Chaos Eighty 20th,
3rd fucking 40th and 30th anniversary.
Wow, yeah, Woody Igor be playingdrums.
Yeah, he's in that now. Didn't we?
Did we talk about? That, yeah, you did.

(23:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Yeah, they are talking about getting the entire band back
together. There's rumor though.
How? Old.
They don't seem like they've ever been on the same page
though. Like, well, I imagine it was
because of the fucking industry and like Ross Robinson shit.
I didn't hate the the first couple of albums that they did
after Max Cavalier left. I I thought they were pretty

(23:55):
good. They were just different, you
know? So when he went and did soul
fly. Yeah, yeah.
And I saw them at Lupos, I thinkit was 98, and they were
fucking. Awesome, that was a great time
to see him. That's about.
Yeah, it was the first album came.
They were fucking awesome, Yeah.No shit, I.

(24:15):
Fucked it all up. What was I?
What? I want to ask you before I
forget. Oh yeah.
What? What are some of the Black
Sabbath songs with Ian Gillan that I would know like the more
known ones? Does you really have to be a fan
to to know the I? I think the one that I like the
most off that album is called 0 the hero.

(24:37):
It's just got an awesome Tony Iommi ref in it.
But that was a that was AI say popular.
But like I said, you'd have to really be a hardcore fan to know
the zero, the hero trashed, disturbing the priest.
I don't know. I don't love that album.
Rob loves it. Rob loves that album.

(24:59):
And I'm just like, but it's funny when I listen to all the
Sabbath material to do that podcast that never happened.
If you listen to some of these albums that really weren't that
great and then boom, like there's a song with like this
insane riff and you're like, holy shit, this dude is just
like a riff him. He wrote more riffs like maybe

(25:21):
him and Jimmy Page like just wrote more awesome breasts than
anybody. How come that podcast didn't
happen? Or I think it was because after,
after I was done and ready to talk about Black Sabbath.
Yeah. I thought that was so time
consuming. I don't know how often I'd be
able to do this. Yeah.
Yeah. I think you could do it without

(25:41):
a doubt, but you don't have to do it necessarily every week.
Like I definitely couldn't do itevery week.
Quantity over quality over quantity.
Yeah, like so. Come up with an idea, let it
simmer, come in and do it. Yeah, we could.
We could give it a shot. Dude, you'd be fucking amazing
at it, especially if you don't feel rushed, you know what I
mean? Yeah.

(26:02):
And like, yeah, when you're getting into a whole discography
of a band like that, that's, yeah, that's super time
consuming. But you already put in the work.
You should do that episode. There's some, it's funny because
there's there is some decent stuff buried in there.
But you know, most of us that love that band.
It's for the early years. What would you do for the first

(26:25):
couple episodes? What would be a go to bands that
you'd want to talk about? Not so well.
Oh God. I mean, probably, you know, And
the other thing is like, it's not, it's probably bands that
everybody's talked about. Like I I I could talk Kiss all
day. I'm not fucking recording that
episode. I love I love the I love the I

(26:48):
love the soap opera that is KISSis like you could.
Do that on your phone. Those first six albums I love,
but I love the soap opera that is Kiss almost as much as I love
those early albums. No kidding.
This behind the scenes fighting and bickering and just.
Just all of. It ghost musicians, yeah, you
know, bring it in, get like people didn't talk about.

(27:10):
It yeah, they had a lot of them they.
Had a shit ton of them. Yeah, names and names some of
them, because when that came out, it was kind of a big deal.
So the first time, the only, I think the first three studio
albums are the only ones where you absolutely sure that it's
the band members playing the instruments.
Yeah. So on Destroyer, Dick Wagner
came in to play a couple of solos.

(27:31):
What a name. So he was, I think he played
with Alice. I don't know if he he
definitely, I think he played with Lou Reed, but he he was
also a ghost musician on Get Your Wings with Aerosmith.
Oh, really? Yeah, and train kept rolling.
Yeah. Diggy, Waggy, Diggy, Waggy.
He was like the the higher gun that would come in.
I'm gonna edit out all of the KISS talk.

(27:51):
I think it's fascinating stuff. It is fascinating.
I've never been a big Kiss fan again.
My brother Chris is a huge KISS fan.
I'm like, I, I like history, man.
I'll watch. I'll watch biographies on people
that I'm not even into. Like it's interesting.
Paul Stanley did, he did an autobiography where he just did
not pull any punches. And it's like you, if I send it
to you, you will not be Paul. You will not be able to stop

(28:14):
listening to it. It's just the stories are
awesome. I bet.
He says he tells a story like when they were on one of their
early tours. They're up in the hotel room and
Paul and Gene say to Ace like, yeah, we're going to go down to
the, you know, the bar downstairs and get something to
eat. Do you want to come down with
us? He's like, no, I'm just going to

(28:35):
hang up, hang out up here in theroom.
All right, see you. Paul's like we come back up like
2 hours later. Ace is like passed out
underwater in the bathtub. Oh fuck.
And we drag him out of the bathtub, put him in the bed,
revive him, and the next morninghe's like.
Revive. Him, he says that.
So what did you guys do last night?
Holy shit. So yeah.

(28:58):
What was that from boy? What was he?
What drugs? With who?
Knows who knows everything. That's fucking wild.
Yeah, so they like literally saved his life.
Yeah, he's. Yeah, right.
So I mean all those, I mean, I love the 70's rock stuff, you
know, and the metal stuff from the 80s.

(29:19):
Yeah, I started appreciating it more when I got older.
I shit on everything when I was a kid.
Same. I was a little asshole.
I probably felt, yeah, I mean, well, it's funny because like
once I got into metal, I thoughtlike all the, the like LA, what
we call the glam hair stuff. I look down on it.

(29:41):
Yeah. And now when I hear some of it,
I'm like, yeah, it's pretty good.
I know, right? It's pretty good, at least some
of the shreds, definitely. Well, so it's funny, like I
think if you, if you were a guitarist in the 80s and you did
not sound like Eddie Van Halen, I think, man, cheers to you.
Sure. Because, like, everybody sounded
like him, you know? There is something to be said

(30:01):
for just that sort of cock rock drumming style, you know?
Yeah. And it's it's maybe not like the
most technically crazy or whatever, but it's very
theatric. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
But I was, I, it was a couple years ago, I was listening to,
it was a song, Shake Me by Cinderella.
And I was like, you know, if I didn't know, if I didn't know,

(30:22):
like, if I didn't see a picture of this band.
This sounds like ACDC, you know.Yeah, another man, I'm not a
huge fan. Oh, that's.
I love ACD. Oh dude, people want to kill me
for some. Really.
Yeah, I get shit for not like anACDC.
Dude, I don't like, I don't. Like.
Shit, as a metal head, I don't like almost any metal like

(30:44):
classical man I like no. I skipped over all that stuff
and went right into like broken hopes.
Dude, my brother and I used to go back and forth about ACDC all
the time. I think Rob Carroll's giving me
shit about not liking ACDC. Yeah, there's been, yeah,
there's been a handful of peoplethat have given me shit about
that. It's.
Just. Straight up rock'n'roll, man.

(31:04):
Yeah, it is. It is.
No, no one I like about the Razor's edge.
I like some of the stuff with bonds.
Some big albums with them. I really like.
Bonds I love the Powerage album,it's like probably my favorite.
So crazy. It's just.
We talked about, oh, go ahead. No, I was just saying it's just
pure energy like those albums. Yeah.

(31:26):
And then I, I probably was like telling you sometime, like, so
my thing, another thing with ACDC, though, it surprised me is
like, or curious to me is like, it sounds really easy to do from
the outside. Look at it.
Yeah, like this is really easy to do.
So I'm like, it's really easy todo and it's really successful.
And why are more people doing it?

(31:49):
And then I was plus, I don't know, just random.
If I sit down and play guitar for long enough, eventually,
like I'll start playing some ACDC.
Remember I was playing shoot to Thrill.
And I'm like, I'm playing it right.
Like I'm playing the right chords with something's off,
something's just something missing.
Sure. I'm like, what is it?

(32:10):
Is it? Demonic pact.
No, it's I just so this is when I get start going to YouTube and
watching tutorials. These guys are like, this is a
great example of the Malcolm chord.
It's like what? What's the Malcolm chord?
So there's, there's like a really interesting way of
playing chords where he'd mute and leave certain notes out to

(32:33):
give it more high end and more bite and can't really see it
when he's playing, can't tell ifhe's muting.
It's like if he's playing AG major, his hand looks like it's
AG major, but he's actually muting like the A string.
So the all you're getting is like the top end bite.
And I was like, son of a bitch. Yeah, that's interesting for me
as a as somebody who plays a shit ton of guitar.

(32:54):
Maybe other people don't care, but I think it's interesting.
No, that is interesting, man. There, there's a lot of that's
what separates a guitar player from another guitar player.
Well, it's just like they have their own.
So what I equated to is like a asleight of hand magic trick.
You're watching somebody and tryto figure out what they're doing
and you're looking at the wrong thing.
Like you're like, oh, I can do that and you do it.

(33:15):
And it's like something's rough.It's like a missing ingredient,
you know, but. It's amazing when all those
ingredients come together from each member in a band and they
have their own sound. You know, I as, like I said
earlier, like I used to shit on a lot of that stuff.
And I mean, sometimes I still make fun of it, but I appreciate
it more now that I'm older, 'cause I mean a band like ACDC

(33:37):
at that time. I mean, I get, I get all the
hype because like there was nobody else like.
Him, no. And you got to think like that's
mid to late 70s. Like Rock'n'roll is dead at that
point. Rock'n'roll is dead by the late
70s, yeah, I guess. Like it's dead.
Yeah, yeah. Like they went through a whole.
Thing Led Zeppelin. Didn't even exist.
Basically, yes, it's it's disco.It's like The Who?

(34:02):
The drummer dies. Led Zeppelin is like hasn't
toured in a couple of years and the drummer is just about to
die. The Stones are playing funk.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is fucking dead. Kiss.
Kiss is playing disco like Aerosmith.
They're they're falling apart bythe late 70s.
They're all drug addicts. Joe Perry's quit the band.
Brad Woodford, they're fucking dead.

(34:22):
Rock is Dead is. That one pop I.
Don't remember that was I don't even I don't even know I.
Think that was in. The but then like.
That happened in Duxbury I think.
I yeah, you know, the punk thinghappened really fast and like,
rock is dead. It's over.
And then Van Halen kind of comesout and saves it.

(34:46):
Like literally. And.
Yeah, for the main. ACDC.
'Cause there was a punk started emerging.
Punk started, yeah, punk started.
But it was like a quick the punkthing, Like, it was like kind of
a flash in the pan to where it crossed over into mainstream,
you know? Yeah.
Yeah. With the Sex Pistols, yeah.

(35:06):
You know, yeah. Clash, yeah.
New York Dolls. They like let there be one punk
band on rotation for a. While yeah.
Like that's it. Yeah.
A lot of the punk bands, like I don't know that the Dolls ever
had any kind of mainstream success.
Yeah, I don't. Probably not.
But if you, if you listen to like the Ramones or Kiss or any,

(35:27):
all these bands that they were like the New York Dolls were
their heroes. Yeah, yeah.
So the Ramones. Skid Row was still a thing when
I was growing up. Skid Row.
Yeah, like into the 90s. Sebastian Bach, Skid Row.
Yeah. That's a pretty good band, Yeah,
It's got some good stuff, good guitar players, but they kind.

(35:50):
Of I call that metal, right? Yeah, I mean, it's a.
Form slave to the grind. Yeah, that's that album is
definitely heavier than the first one.
There's so many talented guitar players out of that generation
though. Like I feel like all those glam
bands had like fucking great guitar players.
Yeah, there's some of them. They're amazing.
Oh Halloween man, I love. They're fucking awesome.

(36:13):
You talk about the the German. Yeah, yeah.
Speed. I love Halloween.
They're not glam at all. That's that.
But in that time you had. Like, that's one of my favorite
albums ever. The keeper of the seven keys.
Yeah. Part 2.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my.
I got that on my phone. Amazing.
I love that. Yeah, definitely love that.
They will like Germany's versionof Iron Maiden, right?
Which? Is Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

(36:34):
It's so funny because when you they came here last year, the
year before and they played the Palladium.
But then you see them in Germanyand they're playing at a fucking
football stadium, No? Yeah, yeah.
Speaking in German and it soundsscary, Yeah, he says.
He's screaming in German and youhear like 30,000 people, like

(36:55):
roaring. You're like, oh.
This sounds familiar this. Sounds uncomfortable, but I.
Saw this in a history class once.
Yeah, it's fucking wild, man. They are.
They're a great band. I dude, Mr. Torture.
I'm fucking isn't that on that album?
Mr. Torture Man I. Don't Mr. Torture sells pain.

(37:21):
I don't think it's on that one. I'm not familiar with that song
it. Might be later, actually.
Yeah. I don't know.
They're sick. Yeah.
Do you ever listen to them, Nick?
They're sick. Halloween.
Yeah, the guitar playing and thedrummer on that album is
absolutely insane. And I was like, what happened to
this guy? Because he's not in the band
now, and I think he killed himself.

(37:43):
Yeah, really. Yeah, I I know nothing.
Of all the members, yeah, now that I think crazy drumming on
that. Do I think the Scorpions might
be my favorite glam band? I do, I love some of the there a
band too that I made fun of as akid, but I love them now.
So they were a band that I see. I'm always.
We talked about them last. Time.
I'm always looking for somethingI missed so that was right in

(38:03):
front of my face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I've gotten really into Scorpions over the last few
years. Like those albums and it and it
was from it was because of Michael Shanker that I got into
it. But those albums like those late
70s albums up until like the probably 84 when they exploded,

(38:26):
that Love at first Sting album. Were they around in the late
70s? They were around in the early
70s. Oh, really?
Yeah, I didn't know. That yeah, the music was much
more bluesy and and it didn't sound like metal.
No shit. Yeah.
So Michael Shaker, I think is 16on their first album.
Wow. Yeah.

(38:46):
And he sounds, he's got kind of a Clapton, early Clapton vibe to
him. And then he left the band and
joined UFO. They brought in this guy Yuli
John Roth, who is just like, he's ingve before ingve.
That guy is absolutely insane. Yeah, he's he's insane,
absolutely insane. And he stayed with him until I

(39:06):
think like 78. Ingve is, yeah.
He's on another level of guitar playing I get sick of hearing.
I'm not. He's pretty.
Wild, I get bored. Yeah, yeah, I love, I love his
playing. But I agree with you.
You got to have songs. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. But yeah, that dude can show up

(39:27):
at a stadium and pack it and fucking just make a killing just
sitting there doing whatever. I saw him open for DIO, I think
it was like 1990. Really.
That's crazy. Did he, did he have a band with
him or does he just get up, plugin and do like?
He had a band, I couldn't tell you anybody in the band though,
and I remember him just throwingthat Strat like Sky High was at
the Providence Civic Center, just throwing it way the fuck up

(39:49):
in the air. Did he catch?
It yeah. So he's a guy that like, he was
like a, he was a Dick for. Years, I could see.
That he was a like an arrogant asshole.
I could totally see. That and he's like another one
of these guys that has, he's gotten older, he's become like
way more mellow and opens up andit's nice 'cause you know, he
would shit on every guitar player in the 80s and 90s.

(40:11):
So I watch. Who's the guy that does all the
videos? Rick Beto.
He did. He did a sit down with Ingvay
and he was, he was asking Ingvaylike, oh, I gotta watch who the
other guitar player. And he was talking.
He's like, I love Angus Young. I loved Eddie Van Halen.
He was just, yeah, it was like, I didn't expect that from him.
He's like, I love Clapton, You know, it was like, you wouldn't
have heard that stuff like 30 years ago.

(40:32):
Yeah, dude, his his YouTube is awesome.
Yeah. Rick Beto.
Yeah. Is it Beto or Beto?
I'm not sure. Me neither.
Yeah, we know the guy. Yeah, that dude's YouTube is.
I don't know if it's a podcast as well, it probably is.
It's really good though. Yeah, he's got.
He talks to everybody. Yeah, he really does.
Who the fuck did he have in that?
I was like, whoa, I'm not going to be able to think of it right

(40:53):
now, but yeah, he does great interviews.
Yeah, and people just open up tohim like he's he's a great
interviewer. His invade interview was
awesome. I gotta watch that.
Yeah. How long ago did he do that?
Maybe a year within the last year.
I watched it and it's just so cool to see, you know, the side
of Ingvai where he's not like standoffish and just opens up

(41:16):
about whose influences were to get other guitar players that he
liked. Yeah, 'cause it's like,
obviously you did have. Influences.
Yes. Yeah.
I mean, he always talked about Richie Blackmore.
He always, he always praised Richie Blackmore.
Oh, no shit. And I think Richie Blackmore
kind of shit on him. Oh, really?
Yeah. He was like, yeah, he's a good
player. Yeah, he met him and then was.
Like, I think he'd said it. I think he said it in an

(41:38):
interview. Like he's plays a lot of notes,
but they're not always the rightnotes, you know?
He said something I. Think I might have saw.
He's like, no, he that's a guy that's still, he's been a Dick.
Richie Black and I love Deep Purple, but he's a, he's a total
Dick. He's always been a Dick.
Dude I might have seen that interview where he shits awning

(41:59):
day. I heard this so like Eddie Van
Halen was like super private didn't talk much and then few
years before he died, he opened up in an in an interview with it
might have been Esquire. But after he died, stories were
coming out of the woodwork aboutpeople that were tight with him
that he just like everything wasoff the record.

(42:22):
Like don't don't put this in print.
It was 1 journalist. He told this story about Richie
Blackmore and Eddie. He said Eddie was a huge because
for years Eddie was like Clapton.
Like the my only influence is Clapton.
And this guy, this guy who was awriter was like, no, Richie.

(42:42):
Eddie was a huge Richie Blackmore fan, loved Richie
Blackmore. So Rainbow is playing in LA at
some point in the early 80s, andthis writer goes to see Rainbow
with Eddie, and Eddie goes backstage, he meets Richie
Blackmore. And Richie Blackmore is a jerk,
you know, And Eddie's already famous at this point, you know,

(43:05):
But Richie Blackmore was a Dick to him.
So Eddie's way of dealing with that for the rest of his life,
if anybody asked him about like in the press or whatever, asked
him about Richie Blackmore, he'slike, no, I know.
I never listened to him. I don't know much about him.
I thought that was pretty cool. That's pretty.
Fun it is, yeah. Just don't acknowledge the guy.

(43:27):
That's a riot. Dude, yeah.
Yeah, it's amazing magicianship in all those bands.
Magicianship. Musicianship.
Did I say magician? Musician.
I know what you meant. Yeah, well, it is magical.
You're not even drinking tonight.
Yeah, I am. I thought it was a coffee.

(43:48):
Oh it is. It's a super coffee.
I threw 3 mega mark nibs. That'll do it.
In my copy, yeah. Yeah, I like the coffee and
whiskey thing. I never did it before until like
recently. Yeah, it seems.
Sorry, I mean. It's cool you get a try.
It's. Like an after dinner drink.

(44:11):
Well, dude, I'm Irish coffee. I'm so fucking tired during the
week. And like when we come here, it's
like, yeah, I need a coffee. And you know what?
Like we're going to sit down andtalk music.
I'm going to fucking. Need shots.
He needs to deal with me. Kick it up a little bit.
Yeah. And to deal with this guy, No,
no, no. I make them do it.

(44:33):
It's good to cut loose with yourfriends and have a few nibs.
I. Haven't seen you guys since
October. That show, yeah, yeah.
God damn man. That was the last show I did.
Wow, it's cold. 7. That's the last show you did.
Yeah, it's the last Rocket got show.
Wow. We had the one with Robin

(44:54):
booked. It's the place in Weymouth
Cubist. Yeah, yeah, we were supposed to
play that too. Cubist circle, right?
Yeah, the fucking place never told anybody that it like burned
down. So he told me.
He told like, I didn't know. I didn't know what that place
was. I didn't know.
Like, they had a function room. Yeah.
And like, over the years, like, a lot of metal and punk bands

(45:17):
had played there. Yeah.
I had no idea. All I knew was that it was a
Chinese restaurant. I'm like, I'm not playing a
fucking Chinese restaurant, Rob.I've done that before.
I've done that years ago. Where you like bring your
fucking heavy ass band into sometowny bar?
What happened to you? And and I'm like, I'm like, I'm
not dude, like somebody sitting down trying to eat their fucking
chicken parm and you come out and fucking roar and just like

(45:39):
chicken, I'm not fucking, I'm not, not fucking doing that
shit. A.
Chicken parm and a Chinese. No, but I'm just saying like
I'm. Not no.
That was some. Deep.
Shit right there, that was some fucking dark shit.
I'm like, I'm not doing what? Happened.
Are. You OK?
I just wanted to get the fuck out of there.
Oh my God, yeah. It was like, you go like the guy

(45:59):
was like, I remember he's we're going back like.
Chinese police servant Alfredo. Going back to like 2000, I
remember it was AI think it was in Warwick.
It was a place called the Fiddler's.
Group. There's been like 9 red flags in
the past description but yeah. So the guy, the guy was like, I
want to start booking metal bands and all right, cool.
We go, We go in there and set upand just literally like it's

(46:20):
townies like out to eat. And.
I'm like, fuck, we got to play in front of this shit.
Fuck. I think we just played like our
six to seven songs and left. I don't even remember being.
I don't remember who played after us because we didn't.
Stick around. That's where you leave it all
out there and just freak everyone out.
So I was like, I'm not doing that again, dude, if it's not a

(46:42):
music venue. So anyway, like when I found out
this place actually in Weymouth was the music venue, I was like,
set up a show, dude. So it was like a couple of weeks
before the show and we were at practice and he's like, you
know, I drove by there today andthere's a sign on the door.
I got to see what's going on. And I, I went to Facebook and I

(47:02):
looked it up and it's like, we're closed.
We had a fire. And I was like, hey, Rob, I
don't think this show is happening.
Same thing happened to me. Yeah, you were on the, you were
on the bill. Yeah, we were going to play,
too. I drove by it just like that a
couple weeks before the show, and it was being renovated.
And I'm like, oh, I guess maybe we're going to be the first to
play after renovations. And it was like that night or

(47:23):
the next day that Rob had postedabout.
It they didn't even tell us. Like it was just like I
stumbled. I only looked it up because he
mentioned a sign on the door. They never said shit.
I guess that place is pretty radthough.
Good food and they've had good shows there.
I know they had like on Broken Wings and like a bunch of
hardcore bands there. I'd go back before the Fire.
Yeah, they've had some like really cool shows.

(47:45):
There, he also found out after the fact they only allow you to
do music for three hours. Oh, really?
But I was like, fuck it, just book.
Yeah, book 3 bands book for a. Weekend.
That three bands that like from the area that people actually
show up and I don't or 4 or whatI don't know.
Dude, that's a formula that I'vebeen kicking around for the last

(48:05):
few years. Like The One Show that I booked
years ago when we had an EP release party, I just did 3
bands and I said if I'm going tofucking continue booking shows,
I'm going to keep it 3 bands because it sucks for everybody
to be on a bill with like 5 or 6bands.
It's like, and nobody sticks around for the last band
anymore. Like the last band, the

(48:26):
headliner quote UN quote, they're not headliners anymore.
Like the headliner goes on in the middle.
That used to be a badge of honorto go, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It used to be awesome.
And now, now it's like. Dude, I have every show we
played. They're like, yeah, you're going
on last. And I'm like, thanks.
And it's in like I feel like they pumped me up to make me
think it's headlining, but like,and then like, you know, the F

(48:48):
US are going on before us and I'm like, OK, I get it.
Like we're going on last becauseyou know, the place is going to
be like people are going to be walking out and shit.
That's how it wasn't. We just played it.
Kodo. How was that?
It was awesome, actually. It was really cool and I the F
us played with us. Didn't you play with us in that?
Were they on that October show before they left for Japan?

(49:10):
It was like you guys us the F use far above the ground.
Or they were, yeah. I don't know if the F use there
was a band from New Hampshire that came down, but I cannot
remember Presidential disgrace. They were on there.
I thought they were, yeah. That's right.
That's right. Yeah.
I don't know. So like the guy, the dude asked
me if I want to go. The dude is fucking rad.

(49:31):
He was in. I'm such a dickhead.
I can't remember the band they played that night too, and they
were good. I don't know, but he invited us
to play and he's like, yeah, do you do you mind going on last?
And I was like, yeah, sure. Like, you know, I not going to
be like, I do mind, you know. But I was like, OK, well, new
venue, never played there. COB.
Maybe there'll be a lot of people there.

(49:52):
No, wasn't COB. And then then I'm like, you
know, I'm like, who else is playing?
He's like, oh, the F us. And I'm like, OK, now I know why
we're going on last. And.
But yeah, it was awesome. And that view sounded great and
they stuck around for us, you know?
That's cool. Yeah.
I mean, the bands usually stick around.
We we needed, we need to get more input for that like that

(50:17):
all ages idea, venue idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
We were talking about that the other night, right?
Yeah, I think so. Like last night?
Yeah. I really, I really want to get
some skate park shows going. That would be awesome.
If any, yeah, if anybody has an in at a skate park, that would
be such a good place to. Yeah, yeah, there used to be

(50:39):
really good. I mean, I used to play the
Wareham Skate Park with my old band.
We played there with like Smack and Isaiah, Who's the Wilhelm
Scream now? And the Wareham Skate Park had
awesome shows. On the Branch Davidian Cold Days
tour, we played this place called The Warehouse in
Syracuse. It's like an abandoned warehouse

(51:01):
that a bunch of punk rockers built fucking skate park inside
of it had illegal shows. So we're playing on a stage with
a halfpipe behind us. People can like shred the pipe
with. So every we slept there.
There's couches everywhere and they have like a like tables
where they're selling slices of pizza, beers and fireworks.
And in the pit, kids are shooting each other with bottle

(51:22):
rockets while they March. It was unreal.
It was like the best, best spot I ever played I think.
That sounds amazing. Yeah, New York, I like New York
does it different. I kind of hate on some some New
York shit, but like it's really hard to hate on the the like
underground music scene in New York.
Sure. Yeah, you kind of get what it's
all about. Yeah.

(51:43):
I mean that you can't deny the underground scene in New York.
Unbelievable. What do what do you guys think
about playing with less bands? Like I know that the part of the
reason why Booker's book like, you know, 5-6 bands is because
they have to pay, you know, the guy, the the owner needs their
money and all that shit and whatever, whatever.

(52:04):
But like I feel like if there was a way to actually what
you're talking about, maybe thatwould be the way to do a skate
park and just book like 3 bands.It could, yeah.
It could run all day. You don't have to be there all
day. But that's true too.
If you're doing a skate park, you could run it all day.
And nobody would that's they do that at Huntington Beach all the
time. They always have like, like
there will always be some like van shit set up where there's

(52:26):
either like a mobile skate park set up and they're running some
kind of shit like while bands play or like there's like a surf
competition while fucking dance.Like there's so much cool shit.
Everywhere else, I think it's a thing like I mentioned earlier,
like quality over quantity, you know?
And like when you go see a band at a big venue, you're seeing

(52:49):
like 3 bands, yes. You know, you're not usually
there all day unless it's a festival.
I feel like if you could do that, like on a smaller scale,
just three fucking rad bands, everybody would have the
intention, like attention, you know, to be able to be there.
Sometimes in like technical metal you end up with really

(53:11):
short set lists. You end up with a band that just
played like 9 songs in 20 minutes.
That's true. That's a valid point.
A lot of punk bands, too, yeah. So you could crank through like
multiple bands. Kind of.
I told you before, like before Rocket Gods, I hadn't been in a
band in 20 years. Yeah, yeah.

(53:33):
So when I was doing this in the late 90s specifically, like my
band was based on a Providence, there was never more than three
bands on a show We ever unless it was a festival, but there
never, it was always 3. But so when I came back, started

(53:56):
doing shows again, I was like, holy shit.
It's like a lot of bands on these shows.
I guess it depends on like if you have a band that can draw,
you don't need 5 bands. That's that's the big thing.
That's why I was like, dude, if I know where people will go to
see us and where they won't, Yeah, you know, and if it's near

(54:16):
where they live, they'll come out, right.
So I was like, you could do 3 bands at that cubist.
Yeah, you know, as long as it's us in the woods and someone else
from the area. I think it would be more
digestible and people would havethe fucking attention span to
like, stay, Yeah, you know, and it would make headlining cool
again, which means my band wouldprobably either open up or go on

(54:38):
2nd. So we play.
I remember when, when Rob bookedall those shows at pittance that
summer like 4 years ago, we did one show.
It was like right after COVID restrictions lifted.
We did one show was in February,it was packed.
So the guy who was running the place told Rob he wanted to set

(55:00):
up like a summer series music. So he gave Rob four dates.
And Rob juggled like he had all sorts of different bands.
We played all of them, but he had different bands coming and
going and they, like, some of them Drew, some of them didn't.
But the night we played with TheWoods, you like, there was
nobody there for the opening band, and I felt really bad.

(55:23):
The Woods came on and the place filled up and I was like, thank
God. Thank God there's people here.
Oh yeah. You walked off stage and the
fucking crowd walked off with you.
Really. And we went on.
After you and there was nobody there.
Really. Oh, I remember.
I have pins. Yeah, I remember.
This is one of the benefits of Idon't drink at the show, so I

(55:44):
remember every show. What?
Are you trying to say I just can't?
I just can't do it anymore. I can't.
I When I was younger, I'd be blind drunk up there and I
can't. I'll forget.
I'll forget what I'm doing, but I remember that night that you
the woods came on and I was counting the heads in the room
and I was like, oh, thank God, this people here, you guys
finished and we went on. We might have actually gone on

(56:06):
later and we might have gone on last that night and there was
nobody there. And I was playing at midnight in
front of nobody in that huge room, just questioning my life
choices. Like what am I doing right now?
Like done that a million times. Like you're doing it, you know,
we do it for us. Because yeah, exactly.
It's therapy. I had this.

(56:27):
You know, it's funny, I had this.
My brother had a birthday party last week and it's talking to
somebody there and he's like, dude, you should do a wedding
band. You have so much fun and make
money. I'm like, dude, I can't.
I can't go. Dude, Nike, you go, man.
Nike, you go. Go at my wedding.
Please dude, how sick would thistable be in a wedding band like
all four of us? We could do something really

(56:47):
cool. I can't do it either.
Like I. I'd only have to do it.
I'd do it in costume. I would have.
To put a wig on, that'd be awesome.
Like a curly wig. I don't know.
Like, I'm not going to say I can't do it, but I mean I
haven't done it thus far. Just charged tons of fucking
money and only advertise your shit in like West Hollywood or

(57:08):
something, yeah? Yeah.
When I was a teenager, I'd do the covers shows where it'd be
like three sets a night. So he'd be doing like 30 songs a
night. And it was all the the classic
bar room stuff, the Skinner, TheAllman Brothers, the Doors,
yeah, you know, all that shit. And but then it was also, so

(57:29):
this would have been like aroundin the early 9, like 93 and 94.
So it's also the Pearl Jam and Allison Chains and Soundgarden,
stuff like that. But I used to do like for for 30
songs a night and he'd take a break in between sets and stuff
like that. So I that helped me learn how to
play, especially learning all those songs.

(57:51):
This is obviously long before YouTube or anything like that.
But yeah, I don't know that I'd want to do that again just
because like we said earlier, like I have so much I I must
have 50 riffs or songs on my phone.
And they're dying to get out of.Here and I play, I send them to
the guys, like what do you thinkof this?
And you can tell immediately, like, oh, that's cool, let's

(58:12):
work on that, you know? Right, right or or not?
Or no or or no response at all. And then I have stuff that's not
really rocket gods, more stuff that sounds like more like
bluesy Rolling Stone. Just stuff.
Sure. That I that's why I need to
learn how to do this myself. I hear you man.

(58:33):
I have. I, I don't even know how many
songs and parts of songs and songs that I have on my phone.
I can just keep scrolling and scrolling.
And it's. Just yeah.
But you know, it's something that like I do, I part, big part
of me wants to just like do thisthing by myself and like record
shit and do that. But I, you know, I can't, I

(58:54):
don't have time. And it's.
Not with that I love. I love being in a band with
people too. Like it's, you know, yeah,
definitely not with that attitude.
But I, I do love like being in aband with people and doing shit
like that and like this. You meet up with cool people and
hang out and you do the best thing ever.
You fucking put up music. Do you write all the music?

(59:17):
Pretty much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rocker Cards is a split. The difference is like, so when
I Keith will sometimes bring something to practice that he's
been working on, but a lot of times his stuff, the songs Keith
wrote well, the the first few songs we like Zodiac, he had

(59:39):
already written them. That's a good sign in four 4/2.
He had already written those before the band started, but
after that a lot of the songs came from just messing around in
practice and it came together really fast.
I've had a couple of those, yeah.
Yeah, like a song like Son at Your Back came together in like
1 afternoon. Anthem is obviously pretty

(01:00:00):
simple. That came one afternoon.
My stuff I tend to work it out at home and then present it to
them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then like over the last year, I was like, what I need to
write? Like, what can I write that they
will like? Like how do I get in that
headspace? Like, because I know they want
to. They want like, I don't think

(01:00:23):
we're a punk band. I've never thought we're a punk
band out. But people in the Rocket Gods
that think we're a punk band. Sorry, Rob.
So I was like, I'm like, I gotta.
Oh yeah. There's certainly shades of it.
Yeah, yeah. But maybe just me being there.
Makes it. You guys are a rock.
Band exactly. I've always thought we're just a
Hard Rock band, but but I was like how?

(01:00:45):
What do I, I need to write something that they will
immediately be like, yeah dude, that's punk and let's do that.
Then I'll do my own thing after the fact with it.
So we're working on some of thatstuff too.
I don't have to write all the music, it's just that I have a
fuck ton of music and I'm alwayswriting, you know what I mean?
So there's always something to work on.

(01:01:07):
And then, but there are a few, There's a few songs that we came
up with together. The one off the top of my head
is Thunder. Pat and I wrote that together,
the song of Thunder. I don't know dude, we wrote that
song in like 10 minutes. He started playing the opening
drum like the boom boom bapu bapu.
And then literally just we just played it through and played it

(01:01:27):
through again and it was a wholesong.
He's an interesting drummer to if you're writing music because
he thinks melodically. So there's music that I've
brought to the band. Like there's a song we play
called Dirt, which is the first song off that live album from
the District I had that was an up tempo.

(01:01:48):
I had it in my head that was going to be an up tempo number.
He started playing it at like half the time, and immediately
my brain is like, no, it's supposed to be faster.
But like, everybody, everybody else is like, that's cool.
I'm like, come, All right, yeah.Fuck it.
I sacrificed some tempos when Pat and I worked together, just
like, you know, I had a different tempo in mind and he
went a different direction and just went with it and it sounded

(01:02:11):
great. Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes I try to use both, like on the album I'm on now,
like the the first wrote that I,the first riff I wrote is like
really, really quick. But then I slowed it down to
sludge and almost use it as an intro for the album.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know.
That's something cool that comesout of songs that you write to.

(01:02:33):
Like there's different part, like one song can serve so many
different purposes. That's why I like to surf the
metronome a little bit. Like I will just set like kind
of a on my dog, just click the tempo with my mouse four times
and it'll set or whatever. Yeah.
So I'll just, if I change it to a different click, yeah, then I
will just freestyle totally different shit.

(01:02:55):
You know what I mean? I don't know.
Yeah, it's a good writing tool, I think.
Definitely have a tempo. Absolutely, Absolutely.
I think one of the best ways I think to writing songs if, like,
we've talked about this, sometimes the whole song will go
through my mind. Like, I'll just hear it and then
I'll just start, you know, interpreting it.
I'll just put it out, make it, you know.

(01:03:16):
But sometimes I'll sit down on adrum set and write a song in my
head to the drums that I'm playing.
Like, it starts with the beat, it starts with the tempo, and
then my head hears what I want to do to it musically, you know?
And I, yeah, drums fucking are great to write with, you know,
because you could just hear. You can hear riffs and shit
going with whatever you're playing.

(01:03:38):
I don't know. Yeah, Pat's definitely one of
those guys he thinks melodicallyand his when you're working out
stuff for the new time for the first time, the rhythms he's
playing might take the song in adifferent direction than you had
originally thought. And that's definitely happened
with us. A lot of the stuff, like Keith's
one of these guys that'll just be jamming and I'm like, whoa,

(01:04:01):
whoa, like, remember that? Like what you just did there,
Like, and I always remember it because he, he won't.
But. But I'm like, dude, like that.
What right there, What, you knowwhat, like what you were just
doing there, Like play it again.Like that's our new song.
And he's just tuning up and fucking off, you know?
Yeah. Yeah, sometimes, yeah, things
come together. Yeah, He's he's yeah.

(01:04:22):
For. Sure.
We used to have jams when we so we lost our studio.
We had that. All the one in Hanson.
Yeah, that fucked us. What happened I?
Think the town The town was trying to take over the
building. Oh, that's what was going on.
So the owner sold it to the town.
I don't even know if he sold it yet.
They were trying to. It was like trying to like an

(01:04:43):
eminent domain type thing. Yeah, yeah.
And then he wouldn't sell. So they sent the fire department
in there and they're like, I gotthis violation, this.
Violation. Get the fuck out of here.
Really. So we moved out and we had
nowhere to go. There were no openings up here.
Those places are nice too. It was convenient for all of it
was. I live the farthest away.
It was like a little under 1/2 hour drive.

(01:05:05):
Where do you live? Bridgewater.
Oh, you do, but it was all back roads.
It wasn't a bad route drive, butthat was near like Pat, Keith
and Rob. They lived close by, and when we
lost that practice space, like everything kind of changed
because now we got nowhere to go.
So we go to Keith's house, and of course Keith's family lives
there. So you can't just practice

(01:05:26):
whenever you got to build it. Do it around when When.
When the fucking family is. When we can do it there, right?
But sometimes not everybody can get on the same page with that.
And it's, you know, and, and I don't know if it's coincidence,
but we, we didn't introduce any new songs to our set after we

(01:05:46):
left that room, just like cranked out 1415 originals.
And then we never we haven't completed another song since so.
I mean, yeah, that could definitely throw a wrench in
things. For years we practice.
We practice Sunday mornings, believe it or not, which is

(01:06:07):
crazy because I usually, you know, for years wouldn't even be
up till noon with a hangover. Yeah.
So practicing on Sunday morning at like 10 or 11.
Yeah, it was. It was kind of cool, but yeah,
that was a big blow to us losingthat place.
You guys are playing in the white building, right?

(01:06:28):
Like next to the old priority? Or were you in the actual old
priority? I don't know well enough to tell
you no value. Is in.
The white building, OK, Yeah, yeah, those rooms are pretty
decent, yeah. Yeah, it was.
It was cool. I think you guys actually were
played in a room where like Pat and I's old band Chasing
Tomorrow played in cuz Rob sent me a picture of our name Chasing

(01:06:50):
tomorrow like sketched into one of the one of the pillars or
something. We were up on the 3rd floor.
We had a fucking like a loft with a like a pull out couch
bed. We had a shower, her
refrigerator. Yeah, dude, the room's on the
3rd floor there were crazy. Yeah, our room was tight and at
the time it's probably 250 bucks, Yeah.
And I think. I had AI had I had like a club

(01:07:14):
on that floor. Yeah, when I was in Not Enough
Blood and we shared it with likeColin of Arabia and Chasing
Tomorrow. We had like a nightclub.
Like it was shit. Yeah, we had a stage in there.
It had a bar, wrap around couches, a bathroom.
It was unbelievable. God that place was fucking
crazy. Yeah.
Wait, so did you have the one across the hall from that

(01:07:36):
because that was, I think that was probably the one you had.
I think so. The other big room in that.
Place. Yeah, I think there was only two
upstairs rooms. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's that's so funny if you shared that room with Colin
of Arabia, because I mean, I wasin, I was in that room with
Terminally and some other bands and Colin and Devin were not big
fans of each other. They're just hilarious.

(01:07:58):
By chance that they should. Be.
Across the hall from one another.
Yeah, I want to say it was in like the summer of O3 when we
had that, but that was I think before the terminally in COA
shit happened. OK.
OK. Yeah, like a summer before all
that. OK, Yeah, Yeah, I do remember

(01:08:19):
that well, man, Colin did some awesome graffiti art, like on
back on the wall behind the stage.
He like graffiti, you know, did graffiti art of all the
different band names and shit. And so like in it.
He's a great graffiti artist. So looked amazing.
Yeah, our room was way more likean apartment, like white painted
walls. Yeah, you know.
What I mean, there was like an entertainment center with the

(01:08:41):
TV. Yeah, yeah.
And the IT was a stand up shower, wasn't it?
Yeah. Yeah, I think it was tile in
there, like on the wall, you know what I mean?
It was like kind of had no business being a priority
bathroom. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. I remember when terminally was
in there I. Don't know what's going on there
now. A couple of bands moved back in

(01:09:04):
and they were texting us back. Yeah, but I don't know.
I don't want to bring my stuff down and then find a lock on the
door one day. Yeah, sure.
So sure. Well, that's fucking lame
though. You guys had to get out of there
and now bands are back there. Yeah, they've been at war with
the fire department for 100 years.
I feel that's. True, whoever's running that
building is always the town usesthe fire department like fucking

(01:09:31):
like an instrument to a press. Local local music scene.
Dude, they. They do it here too.
Oh, I bet. The only complaints we've ever
had here was from the fire department.
Well, I mean this place. Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's a fire hazard.
Yeah. I remember when, like, Dave was
working on this room in here, like, you know, putting up like

(01:09:53):
drywall and shit. That was, yeah.
The fire department came in a few times and we had to do some
things differently. And.
Yeah, yeah, fucking fire departments, man.
What happened to the pink you? Need them though you need them.
The Strat that was always on thewall.
Eric Cunningham, he well, how, how do I say it?

(01:10:14):
Well, he gave it a he, he tuned it up.
He gave it a tune up. He got married to it.
Yeah, he got married. Yeah, that's true.
It was an awesome guitar. Dude you should hear it now man.
Eric like took it down, took thestickers off, like tuned it up,
like gave it a makeover. The thing sounds fucking great.
Pretty sure is it. That yeah, look at that.
Yeah, he played it at the show in Plymouth.

(01:10:35):
Yes, yeah, he said. He was.
Gonna So those are reissues of these 80s strats, Fender put.
Out. Oh, it's super 80s.
So. The pickups in it.
I think it's, I get, I think this goes back to Eddie Van
Halen. Like everybody was playing like
Eddie, so everybody was looking.We have one over there.
Like the Kramers were really big, the wide flat neck that you

(01:10:56):
could really shred. Fender put out a couple of
lines. That was called their Super
Strat. I like the style of the neck.
I like the way Strat is like written on it, yeah.
Yeah, that was it. Yeah.
And it was only, they only made those for, I don't know, five
years in the 80s or so. No shit that makes.
Sense they brought it back a fewyears ago, they had a couple,
they had a couple of they had a pink and a yellow and a black

(01:11:16):
one. Dude, the pickups in that guitar
are awesome. Yeah.
Like does. Yeah, that guitar sounds great.
I'm a big fan of the just the humbugger single coil in the
neck combo. Yeah, it's just it's so
versatile. Yeah, I'm doing AI, love doing a
lipstick coil in the neck too and they just sing.
What's a lipstick coil? I like the little Chrome they
look. Like the lipstick looking tube

(01:11:38):
thing. OK, that's a lipstick pickup.
That makes sense. Yeah, so they're oftentimes in
the neck position of a telecaster.
Yeah, they just, they really sing.
I would like I would like a telecaster.
I've been wanting to get my hands on a nice telecaster for a
long time. Yeah, I don't think they're
pretty, but they're just lovely sounding.

(01:11:59):
Yeah, like all the Circa tones and Thrice tones and like a lot
of the bands I love, they're, you know, sort of rock tones of
are like almost always a combo of like, like lipstick Coil in a
telly and like a Vox 30. I never noticed that until
recently. Chris Cesarini, he's in like

(01:12:20):
Conservative Military Image and St.
Power. He plays all like hardcore shit,
like with a Telecaster and no shit, dude, it sounds sounds
awesome. And then I started noticing it,
you know, like when you buy a car that you don't think anyone
else has and then you start seeing that car everywhere.
I started noticing like a lot ofbands, like even like older

(01:12:41):
bands, like in harder punk bandsand metal, we're using
Telecasters and I'm like, whoa, I never noticed that until Chris
did it. Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's totally a thing.Yeah, and it sounds great A.
Lot of people even do like a custom take on a Tele Fucking
stuff. Carpenter from Deftones was
playing like an ESP Telecaster forever.

(01:13:02):
No shit. Yeah, really weird.
That doesn't surprise me now, but like, yeah, that's wild.
Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of people that
play some kind of modified telly.
They're dope, they're dope. They're so ugly.
I but yeah, they, I used to think they were ugly.
They kind of Grummy. An ex-girlfriend of mine's uncle

(01:13:23):
who's an amazing musician, had atelecaster, an original like
1967 fucking really expensive telecaster.
And I thought it was ugly, but it sounded great.
And then over the years, I, I don't know, like the look, kind
of just Grummy and I kind of want it now for the look.
I had a semi hollow one that was.
Oh, those are cool. It was a Douglas, yeah.

(01:13:46):
And that was really, really fun.But.
No, she had a Douglas. Yeah, like that purple guitar.
Yeah, Yeah, I've never even. It's one of the Rondo brands
like Agile. Yeah, yeah, same, same people
as. Agile.
I didn't even know Agile until you mentioned it the other
night, But they're out of New Hampshire, you were saying?
Yes. And so they have like a

(01:14:06):
Telecaster style. Guitar.
All a semi hollow body. That's fucking cool.
I mean, they have a lot of telleys.
They probably even have like a 7string metal telly, you know?
Yeah, yeah, they do all kinds ofweird stuff in like short runs.
That's pretty cool. Yeah, they're dope.
They used to do customs. My guitar is a agile custom.
But they don't. They stopped doing them during

(01:14:27):
the pandemic and it never started back up.
It's kind of bullshit, yeah. That's pretty cool that there
are good custom guitar companiesaround.
They're not many, right? They're not a crazy like like
handcrafted American custom guitar company that he orders

(01:14:47):
like imports and will order a custom one off import from like
the the court factory in South Korea I was.
Just going to say Korea. Yeah, it'd be really good
quality. It would be similar to like a an
elite Schechter C1 or like a L2D1000 series Like they're
they're good. Korea pumps out nice guitars,

(01:15:08):
yeah. For sure, but they're not a, you
know, five, $6000 handmade American Neil Mosher, You know,
those are literally not. Those aren't a guitar.
That's a piece, you know. Fuck man, what's that?
PRS that Matt uses down the halland a call to action.

(01:15:32):
It's like a dude that could. It's like a four or $5000 PRS.
Oh wow yeah I had a hollow body NT2 which is what it was.
Kind of pricey. Their guitars get expensive
fucking fast. You start getting nice finishes
and cool looking inlays and likemight as well just get a house.

(01:15:52):
Yeah, yeah, for real. And put like 30 other guitars in
it. They're so expensive or they get
so expensive. They sound great, but like,
yeah, that makes sense. Like a lot of what you're
getting is from the handcrafted paint job or like the inlays and
all that shit, right? Yeah, it's the wood.
Yeah, the wood. So they're clear coat.

(01:16:13):
They brag in particular that they have like the hardest clear
coat in the in the industry. Really.
Yeah. So it allows them to do the
thinnest layer and it keeps the wood as lively as possible.
That that's that may be just some marketing, you know, but
they say it. They say it.

(01:16:35):
They have some of the most gorgeous finishes.
Yeah, they do Denim burst, they do.
They do one called a beach crossfade, where it goes from
like dark blue to light blue to,like, tan.
Just so nice, so nice. That sounds nice.
I would. There's probably something to
that. I I made, I liked it so much I
made one. Really.
Yeah, no shit, man. What are you playing these days,

(01:16:59):
Alex? Like I know you have your like
your your your go to like old faithful base, right?
I have the fretless Fender. Yeah.
Jazz. Yeah, it's a Jocko Pistorius.
Yeah, yeah, you and I were talking about that a while.
I have that one. And then I have a Marcus Miller
Fender Jazz. Marcus.

(01:17:19):
Miller, which I bought probably 98 dude, it's the only two I
ever that's. Probably the only two you need.
Yeah, it's funny, I bought, I had a like a really expensive
and fancy looking Tobias base and I bought, I needed a backup.

(01:17:41):
Tobias is a crap base now, but it used to be like, yeah, it
used to be like really quality stuff.
The company was sold a couple times and now they're they're
cheap, like beginner basis, but I had a good one and I need a
backup for shows. So I bought the Marcus Miller.

(01:18:01):
When I bought it, the guy was like, dude, once you play this
like you're not going to play anything else.
So that I've done hundreds of gigs and every recording we've
ever done, that's the bass I used and that's it for basses.
I feel like the Holy Trinity would be the two bass players
you just named and then like Victor Wooten.

(01:18:22):
Yeah. Marcus Miller, Jacko Victor for
like. I like, it's funny, like anybody
that's a famous bass player, I probably went through a phase or
I was obsessed with him. You could do a whole episode on
Jacko. Yeah, he's pretty.
Complicated guy. For sure, yeah.

(01:18:44):
I, I I'm sure you know way more about it than I do.
I just, I know a little bit and I know about his passing and
that's about as brutal as it gets.
He was one of these guys that was obviously gifted, virtuoso,
but he was cocky, arrogant, could rub people the wrong way.

(01:19:05):
Then you mix in drugs and alcohol with mental illness and
you get with how he died. Right, OK, so talking about how
he died, what the impression I was under?
This is the story I heard. It was at a show, someone else's
show, that he was attending. He tried to get in the club.

(01:19:26):
He was fucked up trying to get in the club.
The bouncer wouldn't let him in.So I don't know if he took a
swing at the bouncer. Oh, that's gorgeous.
The bouncer beat him to death. Yeah, yeah.
See, I heard. I don't.
Yeah. I didn't know that the.
Story I heard might be way more glamorous than that, and it's
not glamorous, but in a way, So what I heard is that he was.

(01:19:49):
At that show, martial arts expert Mark Jacko was like 130
lbs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guy beat him into a coma and he.Is actually did he get on the
stage and say? I think think so.
I heard he got on the stage, grabbed the mic and was like I'm
the greatest bass player alive. And then the bouncer, like they
he got kicked off the stage, gotin a fight with the bouncer in
the. I thought he didn't.

(01:20:10):
I thought he didn't even. Like get in the show.
Yeah, that's what I but I could be.
I read his biography. I could be conflating two
different stories. Maybe he got on a stage and said
I'm the greatest bass player alive.
But. I'm sure he did that.
Yeah, that's totally. I mean.
There's stories like, 'cause he was a, he played with Joni
Mitchell for a long time too. And there's even stories about,
like, him, dude, he was turning up the distortion and doing a

(01:20:32):
bass solo and yeah, like, what the fuck are you doing?
He was a fucking animal, like he.
Was a great player. Decades beyond anybody at that
time. You know, so when I was young
taking lessons and my teacher would talk about him and when I
and then when I heard him, I, itwasn't, my brain wasn't ready.
No, he's on a. He's just send it.
From a brain because if you're listening to doesn't noise if if

(01:20:57):
I'm yeah. Percussion so.
If I'm 1514 taking lessons and I'm listening to at that point,
the guys I'm listening to are Cliff Burton and probably Flea
and John Entwistle, Jack Bruce from Cream and Getty Lee.

(01:21:19):
And then you hear like this fucking Jocko with this jazz
fusion. You know, I'm like I'm, I'm not
my brains not ready for. That, yeah, you probably don't
even. Appreciate it wasn't until I was
in my 20s, probably late, mid tolate mid 20s that I heard, you
know, sometimes every you'll hear people talk about a band or
musician and it just doesn't click with you.

(01:21:40):
And then you hear that one pieceof music and you're like, oh
shit, this is what everybody wastalking about.
And then it's like, oh, now I understand like why everybody
loves this person or this band. That was it.
Like I heard one particular songby the band.
He was in a weather report and Iwas like, oh, this is this is
this is what, this is what they were talking about.

(01:22:02):
K Ultra code code bar. There's so much.
He got activated, yeah. Yeah, he's just special.
He was special. I went.
I also heard when he died, somebody was, you know,
recognized him after, like when he was laying on the ground and
they were like yelling at the bouncer.
Like do you have any idea who you just fucking like killed?

(01:22:25):
He had like I think he was bipolar, which in manic and
yeah, so I forget what it's in the mid 80s, early 80s that he
died. Yeah, I think so.
And those like maybe today he could have got better help.
But I mean, he was homeless for a while, lived on park bench.

(01:22:48):
Oh really? Yeah, his bass, the famous bass
that he always played the fretless so-called the bass of
doom. Like somebody stole it from him
while he was. Oh no.
Like. Sleeping on the park bench.
And it was. And then it was.
Where's that base? Now, so it's, it was, it was
smashed to bits. It was put back together, glued

(01:23:12):
back together by a luthier and then it was stolen and the
family, his family found, found the base, found somebody that
had it. It was Robert Trujillo from
Metallica bought it back from that collector.
Really. And gave it to the Pistorius
family. Oh wow, yeah, that's awesome.

(01:23:33):
It is awesome. Yeah, holy shit.
He did a paid for it out of his own pocket.
I believe he did a a documentaryabout Jaco about 10 years ago.
Oh, he. Did yeah.
No shit. Yeah, And he was talking about
it, and he was like, look, he's like, I don't have the Metallica
Black Money album. He's like, I'm not that kind of
rich. He's like, I paid for this out
of my own pocket. It was a labor of love.

(01:23:54):
Wow, you know, it was, it was pretty cool.
That is pretty. Cool.
But there's so much music. There's so much music you can, I
mean, his solo albums, there's great stuff there.
One of my favorite albums he didwas it's called Bright Size
Life, where it's a Pat Metheny album.
Then he's played with Joni Mitchell and then there's
there's other all these live recordings that came out where

(01:24:17):
he'd be at the clubs in New Yorkplaying with a three piece and
those are pretty badass. I've seen a few of those, Yeah,
yeah. But yeah, I wasn't ready for
that when I was young and learning to play.
It's just can't take a kid listening to heavy metal and be
like, right here's weather report.
Yeah, you don't. Even know what he's playing
like, you don't. Even it just it just it just

(01:24:38):
didn't register with me. Yeah, I probably like, oh, this,
what's my teacher talking about,you know?
That's a lot of people. But honestly, like, some of
those jazz fusion guys are fucking crazy.
Yes. I just recently started
listening more to like Sean Lane.
I don't know if you know Sean Lane.
Nobody does. And the man is just a literally,

(01:24:59):
he's a fucking shred box. It's Yeah.
And. And he's just doing the most
remarkable shit. And it's like, like, where was
this guy my whole life? Because he's been around
forever. He's kind of famous and like,
yeah, I guess jazz circles, wherever those are.
John Wayne. Sean.
Sean Lane. Sean Lane.
No kidding. Absolutely fucking wild Treader.

(01:25:21):
My favorite guitarist ever is a guy named Roy Buchanan.
To me, there's Roy Buchanan and there's everybody else and he's
like Jocko, a guy like insanely talented, doing stuff that, you
know, doing, like he's doing stuff with no effects.
Everything is all his hands, youknow, everything, you know,

(01:25:41):
getting a wah sound just by rolling on the tone knob while
he's chicken picking it, just like fucking insane.
And he did same thing like mentally ill and drugs and
alcohol. And he like got, you know, taken
in for a, you know, a domestic issue where he was hammered and

(01:26:06):
they threw him in the cell and came back and the next morning
and hanged himself. He's just like, he's just like,
again, he's doing like insane, like insanely fast, like
complicated shreds. And it's like, holy fuck, like,
how doesn't the whole world knowabout this guy?
But. Yeah, dude, there's a handful of

(01:26:28):
those dudes. I got obsessed years a few years
ago with Brian Setzer and that'slike, he's like fucking.
It's so amazing. I mean, dude, even when it comes
to like, you know, critics, you know, I mean, for whatever
critics are, but he's consideredone of the great.
Playing SO. I like big giant guitars, yeah.

(01:26:49):
Danny Gatton, another one that Ilike telly, like just insanely
fast but crazy licks suicide, you know, like, yeah, yeah,
just. Setzer's still alive.
Yeah. The stray cats, yeah, his shits
wild. He actually that my ex

(01:27:11):
girlfriend's uncle that I talkedabout earlier, he looked like
Brian Setzer and Paul McCartney,like merged.
Yeah, dude, swing, swing. What the fuck man?
That made like a revival back inlike the late 90s.
It was like a swing revival. We're going to talk about grease

(01:27:34):
the. Gap commercials with like
fucking swing music with Brian Setzer.
Do you know how I got into him? Poodle skirt.
Core poodle core. Do you?
Know how I got into him? Like I knew who he was my whole
life and I knew he was a great guitar player, but I never.
Listened. When we, when we got married, we
got our own house. I was like, I want some

(01:27:55):
Christmas music in the house andI don't want like old, like just
same shit you've always heard. So he had put out a bunch of
Christmas albums. So I bought those and I was
doing something in the house. I wasn't even like I had it
playing and I was doing something and I'm just like,
fucking guy is shredding the shit out of that fucking guitar.
Like what the fuck? And I'm like, I got what's going
on here. And then like, I, I again, like

(01:28:19):
stuff that didn't exist when I was starting out.
You know, I'd go and pull up these YouTube hot licks or star
licks dude instructional videos he did 40 years ago.
And I'm like, I still like, I stole so much from that.
Dude, he's one of those people like you mentioned earlier, you
can think you're close, like youcan hear it, but you have to see
it. You know what he plays
completely like if you if you'relike, if you grew up with rock,

(01:28:43):
metal, whatever. And then you kind of dip your
toes into this water of like chicken picking and like style
guitar. You're like, dude, there's a
whole another world of guitar out there that some of the
players are like equally as impressive and they would just
never come across your radar because you were like a rocker
metal guy. Yeah, man, José Feliciano, he's

(01:29:05):
another one. Unbelievable.
Yeah. Yeah, it's just so many.
It's just go back and listen to old country or the guy, the
guys. Who's the guy?
James Burton. He played with Elvis.
He. Was amazing.
Insane guitar player. Yeah, yeah, you can do some fat.
When you can pick like this man,you can get some fast shit

(01:29:28):
going. For sure, yeah.
All three, four fingers going atonce, Yeah.
Especially YEAH on guitar and bass.
Yeah. Dudes that can do that or yeah,
they're you can do like infiniteamount of things.
Yeah, it's always that. It's it's always the thing
though. Like I'm in a band.
The song has to sound good. Like you don't want to be that

(01:29:50):
guy. Yeah.
Yeah, for sure. You don't want to be angry.
No. Yeah, or maybe you do, but it
was 20 Ferraris. But for me, like the the band
has to sound good, you know? Yeah, I can fall asleep during
being back. I just get bored.
How does he he played? He's got a lot of jewelry.

(01:30:11):
That motherfucker has like a ring on every fingertip.
He's definitely got his own look.
Yeah. He's never changes, no matter
how much weight he puts on. He's still wearing, like, the
tight shirt. All right, dude.
Did you ever, did you ever get into José Feliciano other than
like Feliciano? If, if it wasn't on the radio, I
know his, I've seen him play. He's amazing, yeah.

(01:30:34):
His voice is incredible though. I always got annoyed by Feliz
Navidad growing up, but then I started hearing his other music
and now I appreciate it. But yeah, his what?
His version of the Mamas and thePapas song?
It's a mob. I've heard that.
I know what you're talking about.
Yeah. All leaves all around.
Yeah, dude, his version of that song is unbelievable.

(01:31:01):
Yeah, I just, I, I never knew hewas blind either.
So like watching him play like an unplugged live thing was just
I. Just thought he was being cool.
Yeah. Dark glasses.
Yeah, yeah. We'll still stay in Stevie
Wonder's The Lion. You ever see him play drums?
No Stevie Wonder he's. Amazing, Really amazing.
Musician. I believe it.

(01:31:22):
Oh, he's a great musician, Yeah.I've seen a couple of videos
where he doesn't even like navigate the drum set.
Like they sit him down here. You just fucking no shit shit
crazy. He's so good, so good at drums.
I've. Never seen him play drums.
It's wild. And like his head, like his,
he's like, his head is like up here, you know, He's like not,
not looking. No.

(01:31:46):
Shit, I definitely would do it. It was probably the same time I
was going through the Jocko thing.
I was really in the Stevie Wonder and like Miles Davis and
stuff like that. Yeah.
John Coltrane, Charlie Parker. But yeah, so I definitely went
through, went through the phase with the some of those Stevie

(01:32:09):
Wonder albums. Amazing.
Yeah, that's incredible. It's incredible that he's still
with us. I don't know.
There is fucking legends that are still alive, and when I hear
their names, I wonder, you know?And then you see, oh, no, pun
intended. And then you see that they're
still alive, and it's like, whoa.
That's why I can't believe, likewhen I like we were talking

(01:32:29):
about Sabbath, like I can't believe those guys are alive.
Yeah, I cannot believe. Yeah, can't believe they were
alive. They're still alive.
Yeah, for music, that's like Babe Ruth is still being alive
or fucking Mickey Mantle or someshit.
Demonic contract. It has to be if you, if you
outlived Bruce Willis. I was like.

(01:32:51):
Oh dude, Bruce, he's not doing so hot.
Oh, he tried to break the contract.
Did he die? Not.
Yet he's not. Yet he's his soul is being
ripped. Up.
I made that up. But he has dementia.
Yeah, he's like, not gonna end well.
He kind of like can't even communicate.
He'll not be another Die Hard he's.
Certainly dying. Hard, yeah.

(01:33:13):
They had to. He went to the hospital that
Britney Spears went to. Oh, really?
I don't know. Well, you sound like you do.
Yeah, they went to the same one.Kanye.
Best rapper alive. He he is insanely talented.
He's in. Oh, he is.
He dude, he's hot. Yeah, he's one of the best

(01:33:34):
fucking producers of all time. Yo you know what I think made
him fucking go crazy? What?
You know he tried to pay for hismom to get a fake ass.
What? He, yeah, he like made it, you
know, as like a big time produceand wanted his mom as a gift to
his mom, wanted her to get this BBL surgery or whatever.

(01:33:55):
And she died on the operating table getting a fake.
That's how she died. I always heard conspiracies
about how his mother died and healways blamed like the record
industry and shit. But is that why?
Because it was the money he got from the industry that.
I don't know, man. Interesting.
I don't know. You have you seen the different
like shit about her, like the conspiracies about her death?

(01:34:17):
No. And being murdered by the
industry, people like, yeah, this is a whole bunch of shit
with that, the only sacrifice, the sacrifice.
OK, the only thing I've heard isthe fake ass.
I never heard that. I believe you though.
I just like there was. There's stories out there you
can easily look up about, like her being an industry sacrifice.
OK, That he killed his mother. OK, it's Cosby's.

(01:34:39):
Son. I know it's.
Yeah, yeah. It's easy to die from getting a
fake butt. For his.
Father, I think a lot of people die from getting a fake butt.
That's wild. Yeah, it's a very dangerous
surgery. Seriously.
Like you're like the open heart surgeries, like have like
technically like a lower mortality rate or whatever.

(01:34:59):
Really. If yeah, dude, I'm telling you
if you if you go under the knifeto get a fake ass, you might not
make it. You're pointed on the line.
Hold it. You're putting your ass on the
line. That's what you're doing.
That's fucking wild. I think it's because of the
grade of the anesthesia and the value of your organs.
Yeah, sure. They're like this.

(01:35:20):
We can get a lot for these organs.
I'll just blame it on the implants.
He says his personal trainer waskeeping him on drugs and
delirious on purpose so that he could be controlled.
Yeah, well, I remember that concert where he got carted off
afterwards when he he came out and started speaking out against
like, the record labels and the radio.
And he was like, the fucking radio's lying to you.

(01:35:42):
Your country's lying to you. And he just went on this big,
you know, it's, it's it's one ofthe it's like very famous, the
speech he gave. And then that's the concert.
Like, right after that, his handler came up to him.
Like, they medicated him, threw him in a mental hospital.
And shit has been not the same sense for him.
It's kind of weird. Yeah.

(01:36:04):
I don't know, crazy. There's a lot of that there.
There's a lot of stories like that, man.
Hey, Paul McCartney, man. Like he supposedly he died.
You ever hear that one? Yeah, I think that's been
debunked, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
That's a very old one. That's right.

(01:36:24):
Buy that one. He died in a car accident.
Oh, and this isn't the real one.Yeah.
OK. And then they hint towards it in
certain Beatles songs. No shit.
Yeah. Well, yeah, people will.
Do people decide for anything out of an old Beatles song?
For sure. It's easy to do with enough
drugs. Like Manson.
Yeah. For sure I went to the Museum

(01:36:47):
of. Death.
I like some of Manson's music, by the way.
I. Got to I got to strum his guitar
at the in Hollywood. They have the Museum of Death.
They have a big Charlie Manson exhibit.
Oh yeah, you mentioned that A. While they have his guitar up on
the wall and shit, it's really, I mean, it's, they have a lot of
stuff there, like they have GigiEllen's fucking dirty underwear,
you know what I'm saying? They do, and like more than a

(01:37:09):
pair you know. What I mean go there.
It's. Please send the directions to
Rob Carroll. It's it's a really, really cool
spot there. Oh yeah, he loves Gigi.
Loves. They have, they have like a Gigi
mannequin in a big glass case. He's got the helmet, like
authentic Gigi Ellen's helmet. He's got like fucking shit
stains in the underwear, you know what I'm saying?

(01:37:30):
Like, you know. What his name?
His birth name is. It's Jesus Christ.
Yeah, yeah. And then they, like, named him
Kevin. But yeah, like, yeah.
Peace be a pawn his. Dad named him Jesus Christ.
His dad was an evil motherfucker.
Man, the way that dude grew up, like holy shit.
Yeah, that's what, that's what. His miserable motherfucker.

(01:37:54):
I think his brother's still alive and, you know, give some
insight here and there occasionally.
But he's he might come on the podcast actually.
Yeah, it would be fire if he did, Yeah.
Through. Wait, Charlie Manson?
His brother. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Gigi Allen's brother. Oh yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, he might come on the podcast cuz Bill from Black 13I.

(01:38:18):
Remember he said that. Yeah, Oh my God.
Yeah, he was. He had mentioned that to me.
He's like, you know, I could get.
Well, I forget his fucking name,which I feel like an asshole.
Because I do know his name. Really.
Is it? No, I don't think so.
But he was like, I could get himto come on your podcast and he
was at the time. He has Gigi's whole discography.

(01:38:41):
I think I'm getting this right. He is in possession of his
estate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, if
I remember that correctly. I mean, he has a lot of stuff
that's like only on VHS tapes and that shit.
Degrades overtime. Stuff with his feces on it is
probably worth money. I mean stuff without his feces

(01:39:02):
on it is way more rare. Yeah, for sure.
This. One doesn't even have poop on
it. No one's even going to believe.
Did you ever see the one of the documentaries on him and it had
Dee Dee Ramon? Didi Ramon played with him for a
short time. Yes.
And it was one of the shows where he started hurling the
shit around and Didi Ramon was like, I didn't know he was going

(01:39:25):
to do that. Yeah, dude.
I didn't. I didn't know he was going to do
that. Yeah.
For Didi Ramon to be freaked out.
To take issue a guy. Who's a prostitute?
A guy who's a heroin addict Prostitute to be freaked out.
Yeah, yeah. That's pretty crazy.

(01:39:46):
Like he did like 1 show and he'slike, yeah, this is a little.
This isn't for. Me, this isn't the Ramones.
I believe. I believe they've also got one
of David Koresh's guitars there.Really.
Yeah. Oh shit.
Big big fan of Mr. Koresh. Interesting.

(01:40:06):
Yeah. I mean, that whole story is out
of control. But he he was a hell of a guitar
player, actually. I didn't know that.
I didn't know he played guitar. Probably how we wooed everybody.
That is one of the ways that he brought people in for sure.
Like the people living on the Waco compound, like were were
like drummers, guitar player. A lot of the people were no

(01:40:27):
shit. Yeah, so he probably just jammed
all the time. He literally, yeah.
I mean, that's what I would do. Yeah, fuck hell yeah they.
Shoot guns and rock out. Yeah, dude, that would have been
amazing to live there. Yeah, the only thing they didn't
have is like, nothing. Yeah, they had everything.
That's why the government. Fucking killed them.
That guys playing was fireman, yeah.

(01:40:47):
It really was too soon. Too soon.
Yeah, they, they, I mean, a lot of the, I mean survivors of that
they, they were, they talk abouthow it was an ideal lifestyle.
Very few survivors. Yeah, but they were happy.
He has a son that is alive. I I know the government tried to

(01:41:08):
kill all his kids, but he has a son that's alive that I was
friends with on Facebook for a short time.
No kidding. Whoa, how old is he?
He is a little bit younger than myself, I think he's maybe 30
now. Really.
When did did that happen? In the early 90s. 94. 94 Oh, it
was 94. So that's like even more recent

(01:41:29):
than I thought. Reasonably recent.
Yeah, it was under Clinton. Wow.
Janet Reno. Oh, it was.
Yeah, it had to have been, huh? No shit.
That was like during the normal,like Kosovo conflict and shit.
Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, shit was wild.
Yeah. They burn that man's kids alive.
Dude, yeah, that's everyone talked about that movie that

(01:41:52):
came out about it and a lot of people sympathize, sympathized
with, you know, with David Koresh and for sure community.
I never saw the movie but I heard it did paint it in that
sort of light. Where?
Paramount. It didn't.
It didn't. Favor the government.
Yeah, but it's very, it's very hard to, it's very hard to be on
their side in that situation. Like they did a lot of dirty

(01:42:15):
shit. The Paramount today, like a
series on it. That was pretty good I think.
Really. Is that what I'm thinking of?
Could be, could be. It's like a six part series I
think. Yeah.
Was it just called Waco? Probably.
Yeah, I think that is what I'm thinking of.
I should watch that. Yeah, the man.
The man could shred. He could shred.

(01:42:37):
That's that's awesome. Holy shit, dude.
I like, I like some of Charles Manson's music.
He's got a couple of songs that I actually like.
He has some really confusing weird shit that like makes me
think he channelled it from somewhere I don't want to go.
Yeah, probably. Probably dude.
What the what the the main song that I'm thinking of is what is

(01:43:00):
it? It's baby.
It's not going to come to me right now, but it's just, it's
really catchy and I really like his voice in that song.
And it's it's, it's not bad. It's better than just your
average shit. He was hanging out at that time
with like Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys.
Is that? Dennis.

(01:43:20):
Oh, Dennis Wilson. Right, right, right, right.
Who the fuck is Brian Lab Hoop? Yeah, Dennis Wilson.
Dennis was a drummer. Owen Wilson.
Wow, wow. Yeah.
And didn't he like, wasn't he partly responsible for The Beach
Boys? Like breaking up or something
because Dennis just like, ran off with him.

(01:43:41):
I think they told Dennis you gotto stay away from that guy.
Like ditch this dude. Because I think Dennis was going
to finance his album. Yeah, that's yeah.
Wow. But yeah, he was tight with
Dennis. Probably because he wanted him
to be tight with him to finance his album.
Charlie was a slick motherfucker.

(01:44:03):
He didn't die that long ago. No, Dennis was the party guy in
that band. Was he?
Yeah, it was a pretty good documentary that came out last
year. It didn't go into a lot of the
dark stuff, but The Beach Boys, you know, this kind of image
created about the, you know, theCalifornia surf life and.

(01:44:26):
And Dennis was the only surfer in the band.
The rest of them like weren't like the image like that you
that they were presented as, butDennis was like the real deal.
Dennis was a party animal. Dennis was a surfer.
Did he write a lot of the music too?
No, I think pretty much everything was Brian Wilson.
Yeah. Yeah.

(01:44:47):
What was Dennis's last name? Well, they're brothers.
Oh, they are. Oh, they are.
Yeah, I did not not know. That Yeah, yeah, I.
Say 2 Wilsons. What are they odds like there?
Was 3/3 or 4/3 of them in the band.
Wilsons. Yeah, like Wilson Phillips.
Well. I think their parents were both
in the Mamas and the Papas, right?

(01:45:09):
And then you guys? And then you guys, Wilson
Phillips, yeah. Oh no.
Shit. And then you got fucking Luke
and Owen Wilson, man. And Kevin Bacon.
There you go. All connects.
Damn, I think the Mamas and the Papas didn't.
They do work in Hanson with Fred.
Probably. I think they did.

(01:45:33):
No, no, no, no. No, they probably did something
in the barn. Yeah, in Cortland, where Toys in
the Attic was recorded. Fred Dan and Fred Danner.
Rest in peace. That guy was amazing.
You ever go over there? The red.
No. Do you know what I'm talking
about? No.
I've heard you talk about it before.
Do you know Hanson at all? I know how to get to Keith's
house. Yeah, it's actually not far.

(01:45:55):
It's not far from Keith's house,but yeah, it's a red barn across
the street from the library. The place is fucking awesome.
Movie theater now. Yeah, I don't want to.
I don't want to dox the person that bought the place because
he's a pretty rad dude and people listening to this podcast
probably know the exact house. That's a really rad dude.

(01:46:16):
What's that? That's fine though.
Yeah, movie theater. Play fucking yeah.
Play Eldon Ring on that big thing.
Dude, if you're gonna make a room into a movie theater, that
that record in the studio would be the fucking ultimate theater.
Yeah. Play.
You know what I was picturing? I bet, like, you know, the
control room with the big glass window, just like your classic

(01:46:37):
control room, right? And then you got your fucking
giant mixing board. I bet that's, I bet that's where
he made like the theater, like in the control room, because I
could picture that perfectly. It's like the perfect home
theater right there. Yeah.
That couldn't always see. Yeah, outside of that control

(01:46:58):
room, it's huge. And you can go upstairs.
Yeah, that place is great, man. Fred Dano worked with a lot of
great people. And yeah, he did work with the
Mamas and the Papas and. Social.
Victim. Oh, did you guys record there?
Yeah, I didn't know that. Was Fred working on that or was
that clap? Joe was there.
Oh. OK, Did Fred have his hands on

(01:47:20):
that? Yeah, He was a great guy.
I love that album. I was 17.
Yeah, I want to. I didn't.
I haven't heard that whole albumin years.
I don't think anybody has the whole album.
It's mostly on YouTube I think. Nonsense, I swear to God.
No, that's a different thing. Exit and you.

(01:47:43):
The whole thing, I mean, Alan put.
It up either way. I got your old Angel Fire URL so
I'm still listening to Cemetery Life live.
So you you said rocky gods are practicing what tomorrow?
Tomorrow night, for the first time in many months.

(01:48:05):
Nice. Yeah, well, that's cool.
Yeah, I was thinking this week Ishould probably listen to the
songs. It's going to be rough.
Yeah, yeah, we've had the woods have not been practicing as much
as we normally practiced, but itis what it is.
Sounded good. Sounded OK I, I, dude, I can't

(01:48:27):
we have to practice consistentlyfor me to be able to comfortably
sing the songs because. Yeah, I imagine they're not
different for a singer dude. They're not easy to sing.
Yeah. And I, Yeah, I like I if we
practice twice this week, my voice will be warm next for next
week. As long as we just keep going,
you know? But like last night, I was

(01:48:48):
struggling just to like, make itthrough a whole song.
I think it needs fresh air. Yeah, then there's probably a
little bit of that too. And then we were talking about
playing Freedom Beast because that's like one of the fun songs
to play, but it's like hard to play without another guitar
player too. Fine.
Indra. Like you mentioned the album,
like you listen to the album andwe're we're very raw live and

(01:49:11):
which I'm OK with, but there's some things that I'd want to I
want to increase our live production value.
Do you ever like think about that with Rocky Go well,
actually. Well, you guys, you when you
play live, you sound like the album, but but louder, which is
what you want, which is great. Like, you guys replicate what
you're doing in the studio very well on stage.

(01:49:32):
Yeah, at this point in my life, you're gonna, you're not gonna
get. When I play in the studio, I
just stand there and play. When I play live, I just stand
there and play because I'm old. Yeah, well, you know, a lot
like. It was very, very When I was
younger, it was all over the stage, you know, Now I'm just

(01:49:52):
like. Sure, I.
Fucking won't even be able to get out.
Of bed. You're going to regret jumping
off that speaker. You ever try using a vocal
compressor for like a live situation?
No I've got a it's actually a stomp box.
It's ATC Helicon voice compressor.
You're such a nerd. Fucking.
Job. You say you say all these things

(01:50:13):
that I have no idea about, but. I want that's it's just it's a
pedal. It's a it's a Helix.
TC Helicon is the name of the company.
But yeah, it's just a, it's a vocal compressor.
It's super simple. It slightly raises the volume of
your more quiet stuff. It slightly lowers the volume of
your really loud stuff. And yeah, it just squishes you a

(01:50:33):
tiny bit in the mix and it's just.
Like punches you when it makes. I have to turn up Kevins
compression almost halfway up for the podcast.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, That makes sense.
No shit. Dude, I mean I'll bring it by if
you want a Dick with it. I check it, wait wait.
I don't even know how that works.
Like what? Does it go into the just like a
system? Plug your mic cord.
In plug your mic into it, yeah. Oh, oh, so you go into that and

(01:50:56):
then that into the PA. Just like a distortion pedal, no
shit but for your mic. Oh wow dude I feel like a lot of
metal bands use something like that because there are people
singing live these days where I know.
That is, they go in. Yeah, they'll go in voice.
They'll go in the rack processors they.
Will. OK, that makes sense.
Yeah, some people are going right into a laptop even.
Well, when you hear like a person sound like a demon, like

(01:51:18):
sure, there's like some people that can pull it off, but like
there's a certain sound that's the same sound that I hear in a
lot of live metal bands where itmakes me think they're all using
the same pedal or whatever. You just.
Mentioned sometimes they do likesort of just the same EQ and
technique. One thing you see in a lot of
death cores, they do what's called shelfing.

(01:51:40):
You like take like 4 takes of each track and you like pan too
hard left and too hard right. See a layering?
You put a low pass filter on oneand a high pass filter on the
other and it just makes your like that particular track sound
like very large vertically if that makes.
Sense, but you're playing to a click at that point.

(01:52:01):
Often times, yeah, in deathcore you will, yeah.
But it's just, it's very big sound that that's cool.
It's it's more of a mixing technique though than it is like
a live thing. Yeah, yeah, I got you.
I got you. That's something I'd want to.
Do steps to get. Nowhere.
Well dude, that's like somethingI would like to do live with the
woods is I would like to do something more that like makes

(01:52:24):
our production bigger, you know what I mean?
Like Alkaline Trio, when I used to see them as a kid, they were
very stripped down and they either sounded great or they
sucked. I have seen Alkaline Trio sound
like. OK, got it.
So I'll just you guys can all record live.
No, that's not what I'm saying, but what I've seen Alkaline Trio
sound amazing too, but like now they use they use some backing

(01:52:46):
tracks, right? Like we have some, but for like
Pano, you know what I mean? They're not like cheating.
They're not doing like harmoniesand like vocal backing tracks,
but they're playing to a click. I can see the in airs on the
musicians there. They have the Pano introductions
to the songs like and we have piano and some of our songs.
So I that's why I want to do that live.
They're like, they're probably doing a like what's called like

(01:53:09):
a wet dry, where like they're splitting, they have a signal
going into a live amp and they have a signal going into a
digital interface. And yeah, they're combining both
signals for like the live mix, you know?
A lot of bands are doing that. Kind of, yeah.
There's some bands that rely on it though and they like cancel
tours if shit breaks up and I'm I'm thinking of particularly I

(01:53:31):
think it was Falling In Reverse or one of the Ronnie Raki bands
they cancel it was tour. Was it Falling In Reverse?
I think so. Yeah, they just cancelled the
tour like a year and a half ago because the shit wasn't working.
You shouldn't. Or, or maybe it was just a
night. You really shouldn't need
anything too crazy. You shouldn't have to rely on
it. Yeah, yeah, You got to be punk
rock enough to play it on anything, you know what I mean?

(01:53:55):
Yeah, I know. I mean, and then when you're a
band like that, though, you havelike you, you, the place is
filled to see you. They pay their money to see you
and. Then you I think the laptops
didn't show up. That's what it was.
Gig Yeah. Oh, that, that is what it was.
Yeah, I was missing from the gear.
That should not. Cancel like you said, like a
full house. There's just.
No chance that I don't have thatlaptop on my carry on on my

(01:54:15):
person. There's just no way.
To. Yeah, to be handcuffed to me
like the fucking nuclear codes. Yeah, I don't.
I don't. Yeah, but I, you know, that used
to be a thing like back in the day where people would get shit
for using back in tracks or whatever, but I don't think the
majority of people understood how many bands have been doing

(01:54:37):
that their whole life. People hated the triggered kick
drum. And like people.
Caught so much shit for it. Now every single person live is
having their yeah. Even if they're having their
kick drum miked, they're triggering usually like they're
triggering something else with it.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with that, no.
I mean it's. A dude, if something sounds

(01:54:58):
fucking good, it sounds good. You know for sure.
Yeah, but I, I don't yeah, I don't know, man.
To bring it back to Rocket Gods,though, like you guys do, like
especially at that show we played together at the C note
with the right sound guy. Like there it's you guys are
playing what you always play andyou're really good at doing it.
And if you have the right sound,guy that compliments you like it

(01:55:20):
sounds fucking amazing. The band The band was good that
night. For sure you I didn't never.
I've never seen you guys not good like musicianship wise.
That was a good night. Oh man, I should pull up some
fucking live shit, some Alex shit.
You know what sucked is well, I don't know about for you guys.
You guys played pretty good. I just I don't know, that night
we played, we opened up a trapped like you guys us.

(01:55:44):
Yeah, that was an interesting show.
That was an interesting. Show we opened for.
Trap. Yeah, we opened for trapped.
Damn. Where?
Yeah. Where was.
That the district in Taunton, they had their tour bus parked
so that the exhaust was facing like one of the entrances of the
building and they just ran the bus the whole show.
Wow, that was a weird show for a.

(01:56:04):
Few reasons dude. That was an aggravating show for
a few. Reasons.
Well, yeah, because I brought mygear and and they had all, they
had shit fucking stacked up 10 feet high.
There was no room. They gave the the bands that
went on before Trapped. They gave us all like a little
Kitty corner to work with. Yeah, it was like we can't use
the fucking stage. But I asked the sound guy like,

(01:56:26):
where do I put my gear? And he's like the basement.
I'm like the fucking. Basement.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And he's like, yeah, there's an elevator.
I'm like, OK, because if there'snot, I'm going home.
Like I'm not fucking carrying myshit.
Yeah. But that was a weird show
because. And the singer was like hiding
from everybody because all the online shit that he did.
Yes, I didn't it. Wasn't like the height of that?

(01:56:48):
He caught he because he was fat shaming.
Yes, yes, yes. And he was.
Like that's only that's just onething I read online.
I think he made a remark about or something.
Yeah, he probably, he's probablyjust an Ed floored.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, totally.
And he was like sucking Trump's Dick and.
Saying he's like whack off, thank you, want, whatever he

(01:57:09):
says. That place had great.
Quiles whack on, I'll thank you.They have great sound there.
They did? Yeah.
It sounded good. It did.
So that was a funny one because I'm usually very prepared for
the show and the practice we hadbefore that show, I just had a
brain cramp and was like played really, really bad.

(01:57:29):
Really. And.
It got in my head all week like what the fuck?
It'll do that. Like like, am I going to like it
was? You're the only one that
notices. Well, like when we did like
Rock'n'roll is my religion. It starts with a drum roll and
we all come in at the end of theroll and I I missed it like 3
times in a row at practice and Iwas like fuck fuck what the fuck

(01:57:50):
is like am I getting dementia orsomething like Alzheimer's like
what the fuck's. Happening.
You just think of how terrible trapped is.
So then it was like the whole week it's on my head and I'm
actually practicing the song like in my room.
Like, I'm playing along to my own song that I've played 1000
times because I can't get up on the stage and fuck it up like I
did at practice. And then I was annoyed by the

(01:58:13):
time we got on the stage. I was annoyed because it took
forever for us to actually get rolling because another band
that played after you, and I won't say who it was, took
forever to get that gear off. And that's like, fucking shit,
dude. If you're doing like, that's

(01:58:33):
like, get shit off the fucking stage.
Yeah, grab your shit and get it.The fuck?
Off you should literally people should rehearse that.
Part you don't stand. There, Seriously practice
grabbing the drum set and fucking.
Running. Off the stage.
Yeah, you got to think about theother band.
Every band needs a drill Sergeant.
Well, they were. Yeah, that's true.
And they didn't have one. They're really young, too.
That was like one of their first.

(01:58:54):
Shows yeah, don't. No, no, yeah.
I don't even. Yeah, but so I was kind of
annoyed but that it took 1/2 hour in between bands.
For us to get. And then as soon as Pat started
that drum roll for Rock'n'roll and we fuck, I hit it.
And like it was, I'd never, we didn't get a sound check, so I

(01:59:15):
didn't know what it was going tosound like.
That was like, boom, I was at Hall and it was like, I could.
It's like one of those nights. You could just tell I was like
right away. I was like, oh, this is going to
be a good night. Like just the.
Crowd fucking loved you guys. It was a good show.
And they had us and so it's so weird, like, so they had us
back. They had us back like a month or
two later and we did a full hourset.

(01:59:35):
And that was the night after thelike a week after the show.
Rob was like, yeah, I recorded the whole show.
Here it is. And I we listened to her like,
that's actually pretty good. I was like, fuck, put it up.
Who did you guys play with the second time you went back?
Stone Temple Pilots. Oh, that's right, cover band.
Yeah. Were they good?
Yeah, they were good. That's cool.

(01:59:56):
But I think. I forgot about that, yeah.
And then it's like you get 2 shows.
Did Adam book that? Adam Brandon.
I think so, yeah. He's not there anymore, right?
Shout out Adam Brandon. I don't know.
Cuz no, like they won't return our calls.
Oh really? So people will say to me, why
don't you play the district again?
Like he fucking won't book us. He might not be there.

(02:00:17):
I think he's not. I think it's somebody else,
yeah. Maybe.
Like cuz I can only play where they'll book us.
I feel so bad, we had him on theshow and it was an awesome
episode and we bumbled it like production wise I forget.
Why it was me? It wasn't just.
I fucked it up. It happened.
It was early on in our podcasting, but yeah, I.
Didn't come out of my room for like a month.

(02:00:38):
Yeah, you were. You were pretty bummed about it,
but I mean, whatever, it's fucking that was like in the
early days, which wasn't that long ago.
But yeah, I that dude's cool man.
He's he's a good dude. There's some guy died like about
a year ago I. Heard Ralph.
Yeah, yeah. That's right, he was.

(02:00:59):
He loved us. He was a good dude.
He was like, dude, he's like, he's like you guys are a good
band. He's like it's easy to do sound.
Yeah, especially when you trapped has like, it's like
they're gonna fucking play the garden, the amount of shit they
have and it's like we're up there with just half stacks.
I thought not that hard to mix. I thought the crowd is really
cool to you guys and us like like they were very responsive.

(02:01:21):
I had like some of them were like buying me beers after we
played and. Shit, yeah, Remember you had
some T-shirt? We hung out afterwards in the
parking lot just talking music. Yeah, yeah, that was cool.
And that Ralph dude was a character, man.
And like I remember like being at first I was like kinda iffy.
I was like, I don't know how this is going to work out.
This dude's fucking a horse of adifferent colour ends up being a

(02:01:44):
beautiful color. Like that dude was awesome, God
bless his soul. What is it?
There's been like, people. Oh, the mutant.
Yeah, there's been a couple people who have been podcast
guest potentials. Oh.
Really. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, that the mutant
today. Yeah.
OK, yeah. No, I, I meet a lot of X-Men at

(02:02:05):
Regal and today, yeah. No, the the guy was he was
saying he was like a roadie for Bad Brains.
Bad Brains. Yeah.
Oh, no shit. Yeah, just.
He probably was too. I believe him.
I kind of, I kind of did, yeah, kind of did.
People's dude, people's stories are, you know, crazy.

(02:02:25):
Like you meet people randomly that have wild stories.
Yeah, he was just, he was holding me up like in the Regal
Live and it was like, I don't know, it was just awkward.
It wasn't like, yeah, I don't know.
The guy yesterday, Logan Weapon X.
Yeah, yeah, No, there's a lot ofmutants at Regal.
I mean, I don't know why. It's really weird.

(02:02:50):
It's really weird. Like this dude I think was
straight like tweaking. He was like, I've.
Seen a few of those over there. Yeah, he was like he like slowly
starts walking over to me. He's like I walk out of Regal,
I'm done with getting whatever and he's like slowly making his
way over and he's like he's likeI got an N word pass what I

(02:03:10):
swear to. Holy shit.
I didn't even say anything. I looked back down in my phone
and then he's, he's like, I usedto do contract work for the
government. I'm like a spy, like straight,
like, dude, this is like like some wild shit out of the
movies. And I immediately text Brian.
I'm like, where the fuck are you?

(02:03:32):
Dude, that'd be an interesting series of podcasts to do, just
like randos from Regal. It was so.
Yeah, no, it wouldn't be a good idea.
Try and get them all at once. It'd be a good idea.
It'd be scary to have them up here because you never know.
We'd have to, we'd have to like blindfold the OR black bag them
so they don't know how to get. Here, Yeah, Yelp.

(02:03:53):
Check their pockets, check theirbags.
Blindfold them then. And that's a pain in the ass.
Then inject them with something that knocks them out when they
leave and won't leave them somewhere.
What's the next Logan? Holy shit dude.
We hook them up to Cerebro. So So Ralph, the sound guy from

(02:04:16):
the district, passed away a few weeks ago.
About a year ago, I think. Was it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I thought.
That's crazy. Yeah.
Poor guy. So that venue, it's mostly
tribute bands. Oh, OK.
And just. It's a beautiful venue.
Yeah, it's a good, it's a nice. It's probably it's.
It used to be a courthouse, yeah.

(02:04:38):
It's one of the nicer places, yeah.
Played, yeah. You know the just because it was
clean, it's. Nice sketchy underneath in the
basement. But for sure, you got to check
their schedule because every nowand then, like something big
will. Like about two months ago,
George Lynch played there. Yeah, George Lynch played there.

(02:04:58):
And I was, I didn't. I saw it.
I saw it on Facebook like the day after the show.
I was like, are you fucking kidding me?
You have no idea the capacity ofthat place do.
You somebody told me it was somebody told me it was 300, but
that didn't include the bar area, but that could be wrong.
Yeah, now that I think about it,300 sounds a little, 300 sounds

(02:05:19):
like a lot. I don't know, dude.
I feel like it could be something alike.
OK, wait a minute. So the capacity for the District
Center for Arts and Taunton, Mass 257.
Wow. Yeah, that's very fucking exact.
I mean, you might as well round up to 300.
I was told that show sold out that we played.
That was because somebody was telling me they were trying to

(02:05:41):
get in and they couldn't. 2:57 with an additional 40 people
able to accommod, able to be accommodated at the bar.
So that's like a like 300 people.
Like it's pretty right on the nose, but.
Yeah, I'd love to go back there,man.
We should push that. Should.
I just don't want to do it in a tribute band.

(02:06:01):
If you had to, if you had to play in a tribute band, like a
gun to your head. I wouldn't no but.
There's a gun to your head, Alex.
I wouldn't play music. You want to get shot?
We're dying. Nike, you go.
Go. Gun to your head and you have to
or OK, we're you. Know Nike, You go.
Go. You have 0.

(02:06:23):
Options asking me what band you.Have to do it I.
I I wouldn't play music, just goback to being dad.
Yeah, OK. All right.
Well, there's nothing wrong withthat.
I can't. I can't.
What about you, Nick? I would totally do like a glass
jar or Deftones tribute. That'd be cool, I feel like.

(02:06:45):
Welcome to Moni. Night glass jar I just.
Played with Poison the Well. I feel like that age group is
like, you know, mid 40s area at this point.
Perfect time to did. You go to that show, the poison,
the well show. Yes, you did.
Yep. Did you guys go together?
A bunch of us rowdies went. Who else went?
Eric, our old friend Zach. Zach.

(02:07:08):
From back Beck, Jeffrey I. Don't know, no.
Eric went Cunningham. Kinch.
Oh, Kinch. Oh yeah?
No shit. That's awesome.
Broken doors. Kinch.
That's cool. Yeah, it's awesome.
It was good show. Glass shot played like every.
I fucking love Glass. Shot every song he was.
Fucking amazing. That's so cool.
I wouldn't say every song I wanted to hear because they

(02:07:29):
didn't play. Her middle name was Boom.
That is like, you know. Dude, I love like I do love.
Voice in the. Well, but I think I'd rather
hear Glass Jaw. Like I think there's probably
more Glass Jaw songs that I like.
I've seen Glass Jaw a lot. I've been like, I've been like
the glass number one Glass Jaw fan for a long time.
In fact, when Todd Weinstock wasselling his Dual Rectifier when

(02:07:53):
Glass Jaw kicked him out, he wasselling the the Glass Jaw Dual
Recto with his setting still dialed.
I bought it. Oh really?
Like his actual head. Yeah.
Oh that's funny. How the fuck did you do that?
They listed it and it like it was a eBay auction link.
Buy it now. I bought it now.
Oh wow. How much was?
That I don't remember. Yeah, it was some money.

(02:08:15):
It was a reasonable price for a Mesa Boogie Dual Recto F serial,
which is kind of like if you're looking for a Dual Recto, that's
the one you're trying to sniff out.
Oh OK. Yeah, I had a dual recto.
I don't remember what it. It was a Mesa Boogie.
Oh yeah, Yeah. Well, yeah, that's what it do.
Rectifiers. Yeah.
Yeah, I had one. I don't remember what series.

(02:08:38):
It it would just be like the serial number.
OK, and but you wanted the F. Yeah, like just people say like
all the ones from this year to this year or like the the cream
of the crop. No shit.
Yeah, I wanted a triple, but it was a little much and I got a
Guitar Center card, so I got thedual.
I mean, if in the, I don't know the, the way they build those,

(02:09:00):
just those distortion circuits is with like a dual
rectification circuit jet like so it's there's real, there's
like there's a, there's a reasonthe twin works the best in my
opinion. OK.

(02:09:24):
And just, there's been so many apps trying to duplicate the
twin, you know, Yeah. Yeah, the twins are really nice.
There was one kicking around up here for a while.
Dave had one up here. I'm a huge fan of like the 5150.
TV. Yeah, they sound great.
Even so, to tell you the truth, the most recent iteration of

(02:09:47):
them are the the 5150 version 3.They're like the the modern ones
that you can buy new now. I think they're actually
technically made by Fender. Really.
And. They're great.
They sound. Great Fender amps sound great.
I've never heard of bad Fender amp.
I don't know if they have the best build claw, I think there's

(02:10:09):
like knob problems with them andchip.
They were a cheaper tube head but they fucking shred.
No kidding. I think they're just like their
take on a dual rectifier. Sure, sure.
I like the practice. That's like the oranges, like
the the big orange app is like adual rectifier basically like I
don't know, it's just the most like influential kind of

(02:10:33):
distortion, tube distortion circuit that I can think of.
I like the orange base setups I've I've played a few of those
they sound fucking amazing. He kind of orange rig.
Yeah. I met him years ago.
Yeah, before he uses like his JCM 2000 now, right?
Yeah, he's got. He's got some.
He's got a. Bunch.
Yeah, I don't. Remember what the fuck he has.

(02:10:54):
I've seen him use that 2000. 809hundred is yeah yeah, 50 Watt,
100 Watt, I don't know. Yeah, brings different ones to
different shows. A few of them, a few of the
shows we played with you guys. He brought the 2000.
When I met him, he had a he had an orange rig.
Yeah. And it sounded fucking awesome,

(02:11:16):
but it was the heaviest shit in the world.
It's not. You should have a road crew.
It's tough gear to move around. Yeah, yeah, the what did I play?
It was like an 8. I had like 8 eights.
I think it was like 8 inch, you know, 88 inch speaker cables.
I don't know. That was in Athens and it was

(02:11:37):
like one of the coolest setups I've ever played out of.
It's kind of comparable to like those fucking giant haha.
Remember when everybody had the big the the big What base
company is that with the the Ampeg?
Yes, yes, the fucking 8 eights. Yes, Vt.
Yeah, or the eight 10s or whatever those things.
The heavy as fuck. It was comparable to that.
Jackson had the one with six fucking just as bad.

(02:12:01):
Like how? How is it still the same?
Weight as heavy as fuck it even had like a big bar on it because
like you had to grab that bar I.Think Rob had one of those?
Yeah, I mean, they sounded great, but like I I don't see
them anymore, but that was huge in like the. 90s.
And early 2000s. Did they sound great though?
Like you could I just. I felt like I.

(02:12:24):
Well, it depended on the head, right?
I was getting like a better sound out of a single like 15 I
feel like. Yeah, I got you.
I got you. Yeah, it depended on the head
too. I also didn't think that it
really made sense to Mike those.No, Yeah, right.
I had a heart key for a little while, in retrospect, like, I

(02:12:47):
just wish I didn't. Cab.
Yeah, I was one of the head aluminum drivers.
I had a Harky head years ago. It's like OK playing with
abandoned stuff and then like you, you try to mic it just like
there's it's just mids. It's like guitar mids.
It's not even like Bassy. I get you.

(02:13:10):
All right, Random Brian Gone to your Head tribute band.
What would you do? I had to go around the table.
I had to get this out. I would join a house band at a

(02:13:32):
Chinese restaurant. But that's not a tribute band,
though. No.
No. So if you had to.
Do a tribute the same thing. No, it's not.
If you had to do a tribute band,what would it be?
Come on, Queens. Queens of the Stone Age?
Hell no. I'll answer for you if you
don't. Answer.
That's dumb. You love Queens of the Stone

(02:13:53):
Age. No.
You don't love them anymore. No, you're just like, Brian's
just a fucking contrarian. Just the opposite of whatever I
want to say to you. You'll just disagree to
disagree. No.
You do. You.
I, I, yeah, you would totally doa good.

(02:14:14):
Job wildly inaccurate. Yeah.
I would probably. You're right, it is.
You're right. It is wildly.
Inaccurate. A tribute band.
So something I want to honor. Meatloaf.
Meatloaf. Yeah, that's interesting.
Do you mean it halfway I? Can't pull that off, but I

(02:14:38):
would. That's what I'd do.
And pull. What off that range?
I didn't see you had to sing. I can't well.
That's when meatloaf is. So in your mind, you're like, I
want to sing like meatloaf. In my mind I can.
In my mind, I fucking can. No, that was a pretty honest
answer though. Yeah, well, I just don't have

(02:14:59):
that rock opera range. Fuck has that range?
His name was Robert Paulson. Yeah, right.
His name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson.
Damn. I would I would ask you to be in
like a no effects fucking tribute band.
I'd only play the songs I like though.
That's OK, there's a lot of them.

(02:15:21):
I don't like my name. You like a lot of no effect
songs. You and I have gone over this
many times. All right, you're right.
No, you. Don't, Kevin, I've changed.
I would do it. I would do a no effect thing or
an Alkaline Trio thing if I had to do a tribute.
Pen I'm sure there's something you do like you do like two

(02:15:44):
2000s emo punk maybe, I don't know, Rick saves the day and
should. I wouldn't do a Save the Day
tribute band but. I'm not a band, I just like.
Those hands, yeah, I love a handful of those songs.
Or Rancid. I'd like to do early Rancid
tribute. That's fucking disgusting.

(02:16:07):
They're fun. That's the lowest form of.
I'd have to find a great bass player though, Alex, But you
wouldn't do it. Actually, you're kind of right
about that. I don't know if I would do a
rancid tribute. Band, I'm just thinking of my.
Favorite. Bands, You would have to hit
yourself in the throat with a baseball bat in order to sound

(02:16:28):
like that. How many weeks before you got
tired of? That the probably quick, Yeah.
I'm just thinking of the bands that I fell in love with as a
kid, like real fast. But yeah, no FX is one of them.
I would do a No FX tribute band.That would be fun.
Yeah. I don't know.
Tribute bands, yeah. Wedding band.

(02:16:51):
Wedding band, dude, they make fucking money.
It's. Because you got to charge it,
baby. Yeah, can't do that.
Just charge like fucking like wesaid earlier, just an exorbitant
amount. Yeah, that way you only got to
do it once every 10 years and you make your 600 grand or

(02:17:11):
whatever. And make it the most memorable
performance of your life. Played drums for like a cover
band once out of Quincy. Remember that?
Do you remember that I was driving into Quincy to play
drums with like? These kids with that cat from
Jay Gals. Yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wham a jam a guy. Yeah, he was like the producer

(02:17:33):
of the whole thing and it was like we played at like farmers
markets and shit. But I didn't get paid much
though. I got paid like 50 bucks a gig.
Musicians. But I was playing with all like
Berkeley kids. They were really good at what
they did. Yeah, still broke.
Still broke. Yeah, they're all.
Broke, probably. Or they're playing like, you

(02:17:54):
know, weddings or, you know, cruise ships or something.
Yeah, playing the cardigans. Yeah, loving, loving fucking a
man. So do you miss playing live,
Alex? Yes, you do.
Of course you do. Yeah, last year was weird.

(02:18:18):
We did like four or five shows from a couple of them.
My. Fucking bones.
On Wildly inappropriate. I know usually that's we just.
I'm sorry, Alex. Sorry, I'm sorry.
With the fire at the one venue, another promoter.
She has put out an album too. Yeah, that that was a that took

(02:18:41):
like 2 years. Yeah, but sometimes it does.
That was crazy. We talked about doing it
yourself like that was. Yeah, because you guys went
through like a couple of different audio engineers,
right? When we first recorded Zodiac in
442, what we used Gary Alex out of Rockland and we were very

(02:19:05):
happy with how it came out and we talked to him about a year
later about doing a full length album and he was all about it.
But he said his price went up. So the guys were like, no, no,
no, no, like, And I was just like, OK, let's just pay the
man. Like, like, I don't care.
Like it's, you know. But then we, we used one of

(02:19:28):
Rob's friends to do the recordings, but the mixes took
forever and we weren't super happy with them.
We ended up, we ended up bringing the mix, the mixes, the
recordings back to Gary. Alex, like can you, can you do
anything with these? Yeah, I kind of remember that.
Never trust a man with two first.

(02:19:49):
Can you can you do anything withthese?
Because I was like, I was ready to just say don't even like we
really weren't digging what we were hearing.
And I just think the guy didn't have time to work on it.
And so we ended up bringing him back to Gary and he worked magic

(02:20:10):
with those songs. Like they sound really, really
good and but there's still a whole bunch of stuff not
recorded like that's in the liveshow, other than the live album.
But that's really important to me to get that stuff documented.
Because I always said to the guys, like, I don't know how
long I'm going to do this. You know, I'm not a kid anymore.

(02:20:32):
I don't know that I'll be doing this in 10 years, you know?
So let's, I want it. I'd love to have it all.
I'll teach you how to track. I'm going to teach you how to
track. I, you know, so I purposely like
out of spite or stubbornness didnot change with the times and
adapt to technology and I kind of stepped away from music for a

(02:20:56):
few years, decades and I. Just it got overwhelming.
So when I went back when when I didn't even I don't even know
what I played through when Rocket Gods when I first jammed
with them. I don't even know if I had a
cabinet or I might have had my speaker.
Anyway, I remember that I neededa head and I'm start, I start to

(02:21:18):
shop around for heads and everything is like, Oh, this is
fucking Bluetooth and you can download an app on your phone.
I'm like, does anybody make a fucking base head where I can
just plug my fucking cord in andturn it up?
Like fuck, like everything that ended up going with a with a
with a Harky head. But because I found my sound

(02:21:43):
like 30 years ago and I've neverreally changed it.
It's the Fender Jazz through a Sands amp.
Fucking nothing wrong with that.And I just need a head that's
reliable enough to put out the power.
You know, my, the tone comes from my hands, the bass and that
Sands amp. And that's always been my sound.

(02:22:06):
So I'm not a super gear guy. Some of them best musicians,
guitar players and bass players.That's their, that's what they
use. Yeah, I, well, yeah.
The Sands amp's been popular fora long time.
I got that because it was that was doing a show at the living
room, a band called Knock and their bass player, kid named

(02:22:28):
Brian Keene, who is the bass player.
He's in Rod Iron Hex. He's like one of the best bass
players I've ever seen ever, period.
But we had the same, we had, we,we both had Fender Jazz bases.
We both had the same exact AlienKruger rig, which I wish, I wish
I still had. And I was like, dude, how do you

(02:22:51):
get that sound? What are you doing to that amp?
And he's like, dude, it's the sans amp.
I'm like, what the fuck is the sans amp?
He showed me. I went out and bought 1 the next
day. And I've had it.
It's one of the only pieces of gear that I've kept that in the
bass. Yeah.
So you going you getting into Rocket Gods was like coming back
out of your your fucking years hiatus from playing. 20 years I

(02:23:13):
hadn't played in a band. Wow.
Yeah. Which is funny because remember
I told you I had a funny story with Eric's wife?
Yeah. Just like we were talking before
the podcast and I didn't know itwas his wife.
Oh yeah, yeah. The first show I did with Rocket
Gods was, Do you remember that one?
We did. I think it was Whitman, the VFW,

(02:23:36):
and it was like outside and that.
And you guys played last? Yeah, Meji Gori played and I was
talking to Eric. Yeah, there was a really young,
like hardcore punk band that played that day too, and they
were really. They were awesome.
They were three piece. Yeah, they were good.
I just came home. I bought their shirt.
Yeah, I have their shirt kickingaround.
They were fucking awesome. But yeah.

(02:23:57):
So that that was the first gig Idid in like 20 years.
Oh, wow. So, you know, and I, like I
said, I didn't plan on not beingin a band.
It just happened. Yeah.
Like I my band broke up and thenI got married and had kids.
Yeah, life. And next thing you know, like
the years go by, but it botheredme every single day.

(02:24:20):
And when we finally did that show, I felt like redeemed and
like, you're so happy. Like it was good for me, like
spiritually, like mentally, likeI can like because when the band
started, I was when they called me like you, you want to play
bass, I was like, I don't know if I'm that guy anymore.
I don't know if I can do this. I know I can play.
I never stopped playing while I was playing in my house alone.

(02:24:43):
But I don't know if I'm that guywho can commit to a band and
stand on a stage in front of people.
I don't know if I'm that guy anymore.
And then when we did that show, I felt so I was like, I'm still
that guy. And I was like, on Cloud 9.
I was so fucking happy. And Rob's like, can you go work
the merch table? I'm like, yeah.
And then Eric's wife came over and she was like, I want Rocket

(02:25:06):
God shirts. She's like, Rocket gods are
fucking awesome. And I said, I said, well,
thanks. I was like, this was our first
show. And she's like, you were in the
band probably back down to earth.
And that became that became likea running gag because that
happened at like 3 or 4 shows where I'd see somebody like I, I
would like at one of those pin shows noon and Jay Noonan comes

(02:25:28):
walking in with a girl I went tohigh school with.
And I saw her before old friend of mine I hadn't talked to in
forever. I hadn't.
I saw her before. I we did our set and then I came
off stage and I went over to thetable where Noonan was and I was
talking to her and she's like, what are you doing here?
I was like, I just played. I just like for the last hour.

(02:25:51):
That was me. And that happened a couple of
other times, too. You're just in your own world.
I like watching. It's just funny, just in the
zone. People will keep you humble.
Dude, I well, you know, I can see why they wouldn't recognize
you off stage. Because if they're watching you,
they're watching your hands, dude.
Like watching while watching youplay the bass.
You're like, I own this fucking room.

(02:26:12):
And then they're like, somebody's like.
What are you doing? Yeah, you just show them your
hands. They'll be like, I love watching
you play, man. You're all over the Bay.
So you, you're just, you're a great bass player.
Thank you. They give me the freedom to do
whatever, which is kind of cool.Yeah.
You know. Well, you and Pat are like a a
marriage like you guys really marry each.

(02:26:32):
Other yeah. So you know, when you get, when
you find somebody that you lock in with like I didn't really
like, you don't. It's not a conscious thing that
I think about. It just happened.
And then especially when I started hearing like Rob would,
Rob would record everything. He would record all the
practices and he'd send them to us and that sure like, and I'd

(02:26:59):
listen and I could hear things Pat was doing that I didn't
necessarily pick up on like in the moment.
And I was like, this guy's playing to me.
Like he's a lot of what you findin a, what I find in a lot of
bands, a lot of, and I don't know why.
I don't know a lot of drummers. There's not as many bass players
around, like, right. So it's a lot of times your bass

(02:27:21):
player was a converted guitar player, or maybe not.
But I find in my experience, a lot of drummers are playing with
the guitar player. Pat is playing with me, and it's
awesome. Yeah.
Yeah, he allowed. Like our friend Jamie, he played
bass in the woods for a little while and I feel like.
Yeah, I know him, Yeah. Yeah, you know, Jamie and he

(02:27:43):
yeah. And he can he can play a little
bit of everything. But like I pat made him like a
better bass player. And I think even Jamie would
tell you that like they like he,they really.
He is a good bass. Player.
He is a good bass player. Yeah, yeah.
His dad was a good musician too.So like he kind of, you know,
and he does a lot of walking on the bass and stuff.
But when him and Pat would play together when we were doing the

(02:28:07):
woods, like they, they would play off each other.
And that's what you need, especially in a, you know, trio.
But. We, I don't even think it just
happens. Like if it's like ideally you
want it to just happen and you don't have to think about it,
right. And so we have.
Yeah, you know. Well, he grew up like listening
to a lot of Deftones, too. He is funny because I've known
him for five years and I could not even tell you what type of

(02:28:28):
music he's into. He's like pretty private and.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I don't, I know, Like,
over the years he's mentioned like, he likes Tool, he likes
the Deftones. Yeah.
I Classic rock Deftones. Does he you?
Know like he does. Like like Rob, Keith and I just
talked music. He likes a lot of skate punk

(02:28:49):
too. So I knew all I knew about Pat
was or punk. He was in the woods, and the
Woods is a like a punk band. And he had the nickname Punk
Rock Pat. So before we'd go to practices
and I'd just be jamming, like warming up and he's playing
along with it. And I could be doing like,
bluesy stuff and he's playing. And I was like, I thought you

(02:29:11):
played punk. Yeah, he's like I.
He's versatile. But he said something to me.
He's like, he's like, I played punk because punk.
Like all I knew were punk musicians.
Yeah. Does he have?
Does he have? Like an uncle that plays is a
musician or somebody in his family.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was saying, telling me
like he played, he jammed with I.
Think his dad played drums like think.
He jammed with people for like, other Blues or something, yeah.

(02:29:35):
So yeah, he's pretty versatile. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And like, yeah. And I could totally.
That makes sense that he said that to you, because we did.
We grew up with mostly punk musicians and hardcore
musicians. And he was in Lost and Found,
which was a punk band, but you know, like hardcore punk.
We, we, we were doing, we had a couple of covers.

(02:29:57):
We would do Working Man. I think we only did that this at
one show, maybe 2. We did.
We did a cover of Working Man, Tuned down to Drop D and we did
Hand of Doom by. Hand I almost covered.
That and we did really, really good cover that.
And when it was about a year ago, Pat said something like I

(02:30:22):
fucking hate playing this rush long.
And I was like, why didn't you say something?
Why didn't you say something like when we were talking about
it like we would, I would make it ask you to play something I
don't want to play. I just figured you liked it
because you went along with it and it's like 3 years later.
I fucking hate this song. All right, we don't have to play
it. I think we only did that once or

(02:30:44):
twice. Yeah, I think I might have seen
you guys play it actually. I definitely I pretty confident
as I play Hand to Doom, which isfunny because Pat and I almost
did that. You know that brain damage cover
we did a pink Lloyd. We almost did Hand to Doom.
That was like one of the first songs we talked.
About it's a long ass song. Those two songs were like 15

(02:31:07):
minutes. If you do those two songs and
you set. So it's it's, you know, that led
to a conversation as like, if, what if we can extend our set
and do some covers and maybe we can open ourselves up to more
gigs? And it was like, well, I don't
want to do like these deep tracks.
I want to do like, more popular songs.

(02:31:29):
And it's like, I don't know, like we're, we're not a cover
band. Like we.
Need to just nip that. Do you know the only out of
those misfit song? The only song I didn't like was,
was it Ratfink? Is that the name of the song?
Yeah. That's OK.
That was I was like I fuck it. Why did you pick this one wrong?

(02:31:50):
I don't like this song. He plays that really fast.
He plays like a really fast up and down on the bass.
And I'll play some more Walk among.
Us I just, I just, yeah, locked my arm into kind of locked my
arm in a position to move my whole arm up and down.
Oh, dude, that's another band pack.

(02:32:11):
Grew up listening to Misfits. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Him and his brother, they're both really into the Misfits.
Yeah, I mean, the guys, when they talk to me for the first
time, punk kept coming up. Punk, punk, punk.
And I was like, I just like, I'mnot really a punk player, guys.
Yeah, like, but I think they need that.
But I was like. Let's.

(02:32:32):
I think every band let's. Get in a room and plug in and
see what it sounds like. Yeah, and dress you up all in
denim. Now you dude, you guys are a
rock band. But after the shoot you can hear
all of your influences and I think that's amazing.
Like you can hear you guys definitely have punk sound to
you, but you're definitely a rock band and you bring that to

(02:32:53):
the. Table, I think we talked about
like where we we talked about Motörhead, yeah, like some of
the songs, some of the songs have a Motörhead vibe.
Yeah, definitely. It was a punk flavour, but it's
still like kind of in your face.Yeah, driving, it's very like
driven, yeah. But I told like I didn't.

(02:33:14):
They had, I don't know, 3 or 4 songs written by Keith when we
started, you know, I was like, I'm just going to go with the
flow. And at some point I started
introducing some of my own material and I was like, you
guys tell me. Like, if it's too metal, tell
me. Like, don't be afraid to tell

(02:33:34):
me, you know? And so far so good, you know.
Yeah. But I'd like to work on finish
some new material because we hadseveral things we started and we
didn't finish. How many songs is your live
album? I think it's 12, yeah.
And then there was another song added after that, which brought

(02:33:59):
the live set to 13. It's good, man.
It's mixed really well. So like, we didn't play.
We have that last show was sevenmonths ago and I wasn't sure
what what we were doing moving forward.
And I was saying to Rob was like, it would suck.
Like there's one song we have nolive recording.
We have no recording of it all. Like that would suck if the band

(02:34:19):
doesn't play again that we don'thave that song recorded because
eventually you'll forget it. You know, I've been in bands
like that, good stuff, and it wasn't recorded.
And now I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you how it went.
I just knew at the time it was good.

(02:34:40):
But yeah, we're going to fire the machine back up tomorrow and
see what happens. Oh.
Yeah, man. Yeah.
You guys still at Key Sauce? Yeah, nice.
Yeah, unless something, I don't know where else we could go.
Dude he's a fucking good guitar player.
I love watching him play too. Yeah, he's, he's got.
His own sound, too. So the first, I probably told
the first two practices we had, he there were no guitar solos.

(02:35:03):
He just, and I was thinking I was like, is this going to be
one of these bands with the snowsolos?
And then the third practice he'she ripped out a solo and I was
like, dude, I was like, that wasfucking awesome.
Whatever you just did do that. Like on every fucking song.
He's like, I don't know what I'mdoing, man.
I'm like, that was awesome. He does though.
He he can shred. He's got a really good like
rock. He, he's just, he's just like I

(02:35:27):
told him, like I told, I told him, like he's like, out of all
the bands we play with, like you're the, like everybody's,
we're either playing with metal bands or punk bands.
You are a rock'n'roll guitar player, like you, like, that's
what you are. And you're the only one I see
doing it, you know? And his solos are just basic,

(02:35:49):
you know, old Blues, Blues licksand stuff like that.
But they're just, they're awesome, you know?
He's got a knack for it though. Like to like, especially to your
original. Song I can't play guitar like
him. Yeah, and I.
And I and I, he played a lot of guitar, but he he's, I can't
play like him. He knows how to write a solo
into a song, and he plays it hisway.

(02:36:10):
Yes, so he doesn't just go into the solo blazing No, like it'll
be depending on he does different things to set the mood
and it's it's refreshing Yeah for.
Sure, Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I dude, I hope we, I hope
we play a show together. Like not too far.
We always we always like have talk to Keith, like whenever we

(02:36:34):
see there's a show when we're onthe bill with the woods, we're
like, yes, yeah, we always, always I'm.
Gonna force you guys at a Chinese restaurant.
Dude that that show we played in, was it Maine that like witch
festival wasn't it? Wasn't it pay Pagan?
Festival. I didn't play that.
Oh, you weren't There is. That Rob's other band?

(02:36:56):
Oh, is that? Straight A's.
Probably, yeah. Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, I guess it was. It was.
Yeah. I'm an idiot.
Yeah. That was fun as shit, though.
Yeah, I. Heard I heard all about.
It yeah, that was straight A's. Sorry, I forgot about that.
That was that was fun Pagan festival.
I think they had the last Pagan festival a couple years ago and
they haven't done it since. That was like right in the

(02:37:19):
mountains too. Yeah, I heard.
I heard them talk about it. Yeah, it was fun.
He was still doing when Rocket got started.
He, he still did straight A's for a couple of years.
He did the 2 bands and I think his guitarist left.
His guitarist was doing Oxblood Forge and at the same time, Oh

(02:37:44):
yeah, I think he just moved overto Oxblood.
Yeah, they're busy. Yeah, they're on that C note
show with Branch Davidian. Oh, are they?
And Mark Rizzo, what is that? I think it's.
The 30th, I believe, Yeah, 30th.OK.
They're rad. They're really good.
Yeah, we all played like with them at the AT pens.

(02:38:05):
And they're bass player Greg. He comes, he's come to so many
of our shows. He's a great dude.
Yeah, he's a really nice guy I saw.
Him. Yeah, actually, I see him
walking in Weymouth sometimes. Oh really?
Yeah. But I'm always either like just
getting home from work and it's at like the Intersect busy
intersection, but yeah. Heaven, say hi to your neighbor.
I know I should just scream out to him he it's not near my.
House in a build community. Yeah, well, he's awesome, man.

(02:38:30):
He's a really good bass player. And he is.
He's really in the horror movies.
Yeah. So like.
That's my anime. We'll just talk.
We'll just talk horror movies when you see him.
Yeah, Hell yeah. And he has like, the best story
where he went to see Metallica at the Rat.
And I think it was the oh shit Ride.
The Lightning had just come out.No shit.

(02:38:50):
And he said Cliff, Cliff Burton,bottom of beer.
Wow, yeah. That's that's yeah, I put that
on my resume. Fuck yeah.
Oh, wow. Yeah, that's crazy, man.
Well, I think this is a good place to wrap it up.
OK. Do you got anything else?

(02:39:11):
No, no, we have. I have no shows to.
I have nothing to plug. Yeah, I was just happy to be
here to. Yeah.
Dude, I talk music. Well, I yeah, And come on again,
dude, we'll, we'll have more to talk about.
We always do. Hey, that's me.
You gotta do you do do that podcast, man, do that podcast.
Even if it's like an episode a month or every couple months,

(02:39:33):
you should do it. It would be fun.
I'd like that. What do we got going on here?
This is witch hunt. This is Alex.
Oh yeah. I brought live.

(02:40:39):
None.

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THE BIG RIFF - 103 - ALEX Thompson - III

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}THE BIG RIFF - 103 - ALEX Thompson - III