Beard Combs, Bad Necks, and Gin Taxi

We're diving into some juicy updates this week, starting with Sean's epic air conditioning saga that had him sweating bullets and Todd's shed construction woes that are battling Mother Nature. We'll also jam out to some tunes from the band Bliss, whose tunes are as diverse as our podcast chats! It's a mix of laughter, stories, and a sprinkle of nostalgia as we reminisce about our experiences with local music and the good times that come with it. So kick back, grab your favorite drink, and join us for a fun ride full of banter, updates, and some sweet sound bites from Bliss. You'll be glad you did!

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Takeaways:

• Sean provided a hilarious update on his air conditioning saga, making us all laugh at the absurdity of a heatwave without AC.
• Todd shared his ongoing shed project, which has been hilariously hampered by unpredictable weather—classic DIY woes!
• We dived deep into the music of Bliss, exploring how their diverse musical styles kept things fresh and exciting for listeners.
• The discussion about Bliss led to a nostalgic trip down memory lane, showcasing the band's evolution and how it resonated with their fans.
• Sean's heartfelt tribute to his late friend Ray, revealing how his encouragement during tough times helped Sean find his way back to joy and music.
• We wrapped up the episode with a playful banter about the quirks of being a DIY musician, leaving listeners with laughter and inspiration.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Turnstone
• Bliss
• Gin Taxi
• Fastball
• New Meanies
• Paul Rogers
• Studio 21
• Studio 11
• DJ Rain
• DJ Narcotic
• DJ Phosphor

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hit the music.
Drop the needle.
You can talk through this too.
It's me again with a little attitude.
For all you out here in white.
Bread land, you may crunch my ice.
Crunch it, crunch it.

(00:30):
This is what you call cosmic.
The Buddhists call it, let me see.
Reincarnation.
America is complete.
Hey, wait a minute.
Since when is Pismo beachinsider cave?
I wonder.

(00:51):
You know, I just think weshould have trained lift at Albuquerque
and there may be a right timeat La Jola.
Come here to chew bubble gumand kick ass.

(01:15):
Whoa.
I felt like a DJ Mixmaster.
Adding in the extra sound bites.
There I was doing it live, picking.
My spots live, mixing live.
So let's do this like the old days.
Welcome to the Sean geek andfast fret pod.

(01:38):
Yes.
Oh.
So it was a non recordingweek, but I still recorded because
I made a commitment.
I didn't want you to miss outon your birthday.
I was just gonna reschedule.
I'm like, no, you know, I'll just.
It's an author.
You haven't read the book.
Let's do it that way.
But he did.
David Yoan Fuller did wish youa happy birthday on the episode.

(02:01):
Sweet.
Thank you very much.
It was a very interesting guest.
Now, I don't know if our fansare like the literary corner that
we do every once in a while,but I don't care.
You know what?
I want to support if someone'swriting their first book and putting
their book out, and Turnstonereaches out to me and wants me to

(02:21):
showcase the author.
You know what?
We're expanding.
It's important to expand ourhorizons and support local talent.
Support first time authors,support people that are out there
doing something creative,doing their thing.
So, you know what?
If some of you didn't likethat episode, that's fine.
You can tune out, tune intothe next one.
That's fine.
But I'm not gonna not do these episodes.

(02:43):
I think it's critical theminute Josh puts out his solo album.
Josh, you know one of the.
And the podcast will rock.
Guys, I'm gonna promote that.
It's music and I'll promote it.
And yeah, that seems like ourtarget audience, but if someone is
going to put out a new asmr.
Todd, you want to demonstratethe asmr.

(03:05):
Now, you can't quite hearthat, but Todd is combing his beard
with a beard comb.
It's very soothing.
So if Todd's promoting his newasmr, we're gonna.
We're gonna talk about it onthe show.
We're gonna.
We're gonna talk about peoplewho make stuff and promote the.
Promote the fuck out of it.
Like, like Todd's.

(03:25):
Like dad said.
Todd, what did dad say?
If you got something nice tosay about somebody, what are you
waiting.
What are you waiting for?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And for those of you who arewatching the video version of this
podcast, just take a look atSean's face.
And all this time you've.
You've been looking at himgoing, there's just something different

(03:45):
about him.
And I can't really make it out.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, you're doing so wellwith your beard.
What, what, what happened?
Well, look at you, Segway King.
Look at that.
Look at that.
It's well done.
Well done.
So the problem was my airconditioning crapped out and there

(04:11):
was a fiasco.
And I'm wondering how much I'mgoing to share today.
I know Mighty K has.
You know what?
Maybe we can play the MightyClay Mighty K clip.
But I might need you to speakwhile I find it.
Speak while I find it.
Well, just.
Just an update on my, on myshed while he's looking for this.

(04:32):
Yes, the.
The update is there is noupdate only because the weather is
just not cooperating.
It's been raining and thenit's been super hot and raining and
it's been super hot.
So super hot.
I can't do.
No.
In the springtime, when itcame to doing the base, it was cool
out.
I was able to do it.

(04:52):
I was still out of breath.
It just took everything out ofme just, just to spread out this,
this gravel and stuff andstamp it down.
Now that it's this hot andhumid, it's just mowing the lawn
between the rains commandholidays next week.
So it's going to be like,well, depending on the weather, I
might have to get up at 8:00in the morning, maybe do.

(05:17):
Do a little bit of work.
And then by 10 or 12,depending on.
On how hot it is, I'm gonna bekind of calling it quits, so.
Well, you know, we were takingthe dog at first thing in the morning
and he was already too hot.
Just a conversion for theAmericans listening.
That's you, Mighty K. That'syou, Tony.
That's you, Josh.
That's you, Tim Armbruster.

(05:39):
Tom Armbruster.
So it was so the actualtemperature before humidex kicked
in, because Humidex gives youa new temperature based on how humid
it fucking is.
So our temperature beforehumidex was 93.2 degrees.
And I believe with theHumidex, it was listed as 113°F.

(06:02):
So this.
This would be the FahrenheitAmerican conversion.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's the we.
We talked about with Bob and Doug?
You double it, then you.
You add 30 and that's what youget in metric.
Metric.
Metric beers.
So you get like 52 metric beers.
No, it is a case of 12.
Double it at 24.

(06:23):
Yeah, yeah.
And then you add 30.
There you go.
50, 48 and another 30.
Yeah.
So.
So with.
When the air conditioningcrapped out in my house, the holding
temperature in my house beforehumidity was 84.2 degrees.
And with the humidity, it wasprobably closer to 104 degrees in

(06:46):
the house.
Because it was fucking humidin the house.
Yeah, fucking humid.
It was ridiculous.
And that held for five days,maybe almost six days.
No, sorry.
We had one day.
Oh, we had.
We bought two new fans, right?
We had two fans.
We bought two fans.
We had the dehumidifierrunning constantly and they couldn't

(07:07):
keep up.
The kids, actually, when theywere going to sleep, they had the
fan so they'd have like a thinsheet over top of them in bed.
And we put the fan underneaththe sheet so it was blowing underneath
the sheet.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Did they get any sleep that night?
That was every night.
Just the air movement alonewill keep you awake.

(07:29):
Never mind being hot andsweaty and.
And the poor dog.
The dog.
So the, you know.
You know.
You know, Simon's a cuddler.
Like, he's like.
He's just like your boy there.
Yeah.
Super cuddly.
Super cuddly all the time.
Yeah.
And.
But that week he did notcuddle with nobody.

(07:50):
He was in the same room, buthe wasn't cuddling with nobody.
Yeah.
I'll sleep over here.
It's cooler.
Okay.
Well, you know when you have ajunkie, right, and he's shooting
up smack or whatever, right?
Yeah.
And he goes, a week without smack.
What's gonna happen after thatweek without smack when he gets smack
again?
Gonna be all over it.
Oh, yeah.
Face right in there.

(08:10):
Right.
Well, gonna go crazy.
So Simon.
So the first day where itstarted to cool down because it took
like out, like, it took sixhours for the, like, it to really
come down.
Right.
Because it has to suck all thehumidity out first.
Right?
Right.
Simon.
So Simon's, like looking at.
Sorry, take it easy there.

(08:32):
Gets over stimulated and hewants to bite.
So anyway, so he's.
He's in the kitchen andSylvie's in the kitchen and he's
looking at her and he kind ofleans his.
His head in.
Leans his head into the.
To her knee.
It's like, well, what do you want?
What do you want?
He takes a couple stepstowards the living room.

(08:53):
So she takes a couple steps.
She follows him.
She's against her knee again.
And he's looking up at her.
And then he's looking at theliving room, looking up at her, looking
at the living room.
She takes a couple more steps.
So she.
She follows.
And we have.
This is a weird setup, but wehave a mattress in our living room.
Kids like to lie down whilethey're watching tv.

(09:13):
So we have this, like, littlemattress there.
So he was.
Over.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, that's right.
So he's there on the mattress,waiting for her to follow him.
So he.
He.
She follows him.
And then he's leaning againsther knee, like, kind of, like, really
pushing hard.
And he's kind of pawing at her leg.

(09:34):
She's like, sit down.
So she gets down to one knee.
And then he's like.
He's.
He's.
He stands up on his back legs,and he's got both paws hanging, like
Ziggy.
You know Ziggy?
Yeah, the cartoon guy, kind of Kilroy.
He's leaning against her onher leg, kind of like.
So then she goes on both knees.
And then he's like.
Now he's, like, standing up onher stomach and kind of like pushing

(09:57):
his head into her boobs orwhatever, like.
So then she sits down.
Crisscross applesauce.
And he goes right in that.
That nook right there.
Right between both knees andher crotch.
That's what he's waiting for.
To cuddle.
Oh, yeah.
And he goes,.
That was a lot of work.

(10:18):
And he.
He was asleep in, like, 10 seconds.
Oh, yeah.
And just.
And just groaning the wholetime, like, Just so.
Happy.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's what he needed.
That's what he needed.
Like, he just.

(10:38):
So, like, what was thetemperature in the basement?
Because usually it's really cold.
It was about 10 degrees less.
So did you guys figure, well,maybe we'll sleep in the basement?
Well, I slept.
Okay, so here's the other halfof the story.
So I went and slept in thebasement a couple nights, right?
I also slept on the couch inthe main level one night.

(11:01):
Simon wouldn't follow me inthe basement.
The idea is I'll sleep in the basement.
Simon will follow me becausehe's the guy that needs to cool off.
He's got the fur coat on, right?
Right he won't follow me.
So I slept on the main levelone night.
And, I mean, a couch isn'tthat comfortable.
Especially our couches arekind of lumpy and stuff.
So I basically, you know, I was.

(11:22):
I slept in the bedroom.
Like, for the whole week, Islept in the bedroom like, twice,
I think.
Well.
Oh, yeah.
And then.
So, yeah, because I had theone night I slept in the bedroom,
and it was fine.
I opened the window, getting anice breeze from outside.
Wake up the next morning, Thesmoke rolled in from Alberta, so

(11:43):
I couldn't open my windows.
So I couldn't even cool thefucking house off.
Oh, God.
Is it Alberta or Ontario?
Well, Alberta, I think it'sall blowing east or southeast or
whatever.
But Alberta had fires.
BC had fires.
Wow.
So.
So then it's like, okay, good.
It's super hot in the house,and we can't open the windows.
Like, we can't cool off atnight when they, you know, if it

(12:05):
cools down.
So anyway, so I get thisfucking crook in my neck and my shoulder,
specifically.
Mm.
That was so bad.
Like, I couldn't.
I.
So, you know, you move yourarms back, you know, you can do,
like, kind of figure.
Not figure eights, I guess,zeros, backstroke, backstroke, backstroke.

(12:27):
I couldn't.
I couldn't go past.
You can't.
You can't see it in audioland, but I couldn't go.
Like, I couldn't have my armstraight out.
I couldn't go because I guessI leaned in too far.
And then.
So I went to my massagetherapist today to fix me, and she

(12:48):
said.
She says, like, it looks likeyou did 300 bench press, but only
with your left arm.
My chest was so tight that.
And the muscles, like your.
Your.
Your front delt.
Your front deltoid.
Yeah.
Was.

(13:08):
Was super tight interior.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the.
The muscle behind your armpit,kind of the lat, but the upper part
of the lat that connects toyour armpit was super tight.
All of that was pulling myshoulder that I couldn't pull it
backwards.
So you're Latamis Dorsey or something?
I can't remember.
Yes.
That's.
Yeah.
Wow.
Good.
Good on you.

(13:28):
Good on you.
So anyway, she fixed all that, and.
Holy.
I. I swear, like, I. I went to heaven.
Oh, yeah.
Once you're loosened up.
Oh, yeah.
And then, like, the lacticacid starts to, you know, to leave
the muscle, and it's like,holy hell.

(13:49):
I get, like.
I get a head rush.
And where do you go for yourmassage now?
Deep roots.
Still seeing the Same person.
Yeah, I gotta.
Our old bass player worksthere too.
Go see him.
Oh, okay.
He's great.
He's great.
But finding the right massagetherapist is.

(14:09):
Is a science.
Like you have to.
Yeah.
It's not just technique, technique.
Because his technique is fantastic.
Our old bass player.
Mm.
He's the guy that used to subfor dad in our old classic Emperor's
band.
Dick's Dickson.
He fucking fantastic bass player.
Like, phenomenal bass player.
Really good.

(14:31):
But he's there.
I don't know if he's a co owner.
I don't know.
Anyway, great guy.
But I was.
I saw him like for the firsttime because like, hey, shit, he's
here.
I see he's working here.
And I was kind of happy for him.
I wanted to give him the business.
And then I'm like, there's like.
Because for me, massage is notjust like therapeutic in terms of
physical therapy, but it'salso a mental therapy if the massage.

(14:53):
Because I'm.
I'm not good.
Being naked in front ofpeople, like, I get nerve.
I get nervous, right?
Like, I get nervous.
I, you know, I'm not likesomebody like, strip the clothes
like, you know these lothariosout there that can strip their clothes
off at a moment's notice andget wood right away and go, I can't.

(15:14):
I could never.
That, that wasn't me.
I'm, you know, I'm a one womanguy, you know, and it takes like
I, you got to build up to getnaked with somebody.
For me.
I can't just do it on a whim.
Like, I.
For me, I mean, it's.
It's a totally different.

(15:35):
It's not a.
When you're saying, you know,strip off and wood and all.
To me, it's.
It's a whole different.
It's almost like a medical appointment.
I mean, you get there okay.
It's like, okay, get undressed.
Put this thing on backwardswith your ass hanging out type of
thing.
But I just get under the.
The thing.
They get the sheet and.
And they do.

(15:55):
Then they do their business.
And when they.
And when they're massagingyou, it's not.
I want to say pleasurable.
It's.
It's not.
Oh no, it's not at all.
It's not a sensual massage.
No, it's not.
But it is a massage.
And especially I like deep.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
There's a lot of forceinvolved and it's not relaxing.
So like.
No, but I, I just don't likebeing naked.

(16:18):
Okay.
That doesn't matter.
I'm not saying in a sex.
I don't mean in a sexual sense.
I just mean I don't like being naked.
That's just.
It's not my, my thing, youknow, so.
But I allow the.
Myself to be naked if themassage therapist is the right person.
Like it just.
But it's in cuz.
So she's deep tissue.
So I actually have to.

(16:40):
I call it Z. Brace yourself.
Well, no, the opposite.
You can't brace yourself.
You're supposed to do the opposite.
You're supposed to let go.
Well, yeah, yeah, myself.
And I just sink into the painbecause there's certain parts today
that hurt for sure, but it'slike you just got to just, you know,
bite your lip or whatever it is.

(17:01):
But you can't tense up.
You got to do the opposite oftensing up when you're in pain.
Yeah, yeah.
For it to work properly.
Right?
Yeah, I don't tense up.
That's, that's not, thatwasn't the right word, I guess.
But, but.
And then, you know, especiallyif it's deep tissue, the, the, the
ones I don't like is the onesthat work on your hamstrings and

(17:22):
they're almost like they taketheir thumb or whatever.
It feels like a, A hot poker.
Yeah.
And they go, they go from thebottom, the back of your.
You know, and that part for meis very, very sensitive.
Probably because I sit downmost of the day.
Right.
So when you're in office andyou're sitting down.
Those worked out though.

(17:42):
You do need that done.
I need it done.
But not, you know, that hardwhen you're almost, you know, when
the pain is so bad, you almostfeel like you're in a blackout.
It's like, whoa, that's,that's too hard.
And you have to tell themlike, okay.
And you normally wince and youlike, oh my God.
Like just a little.

(18:04):
But, but some other peoplewho, who do it, it's fine.
They, they, they do it properly.
They don't, you know, pinpointit, you know, that, that directly.
It's more of a general in the area.
But it's amazing that.
And if you, I give you, you'vemassaged, you know, your wife, whatever,

(18:27):
and you can tell where theknots are, right?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like you can tell where it'stense and it's, and it would amaze
me because, you know, theywould do my back and I screw up my
back on my left side when Iwas younger and when they hit that
spot, it's like, oh, my God, yes.
It feels so good.
It's.
It's.
It hurts, but it feels so good.

(18:48):
It's like.
And they know exactly where itis because they can feel it, right?
Do you think there's anendorphin release, like, when they
hit that spot?
Is that.
What.
Is that what you call it,like, IND so you actually get, like,
a high?
Who needs animals?
Just go for a massage.
Well, I mean, when you hadyour tattoo done, they usually say
that.
They say, oh, it's okay.

(19:09):
The endorphins will kick in.
They didn't kick in your tattoo.
That was like a monster of a tattoo.
It's like, okay, so.
But you know what?
Because.
So I found a way.
Because I don't know if youknow, but I do meditate and stuff,

(19:30):
so I found a way that when thepain is there, I can actually take
my brain, right, the paincenters in my brain, and disassociate
it.
So I know the pain's there,and I can feel the pain's there,
but I'm disconnecting my brainfrom the pain.
So when I get the massage andshe's doing the thumb.

(19:50):
The thumb on the.
On the hamstring, I'm justlike, fucking.
Just fuck.
And then if I let go, if I'mable to successfully let go by disconnecting
that endorphin rush when sheworks through that knot.
Because I had this big fuckingknot on the back of my leg for years.
And one of my massagetherapists, the one before this one,

(20:12):
she said, look, we can eitherwork out this knot or we can just
massage around it.
Or you want to get rid of theknot and.
Yeah, but.
Or do you want me to just workaround it and then not get rid of
it?
So she said.
I said, okay, so do it.
And I just, like, I just bitmy lip and work through it.

(20:33):
But then I did the.
The Zen thing, right?
And I was able to work throughthe pain.
But the minute I let go and it was.
And let them actually do theirjob and release that one knot I had,
and that's a knot I've hadmost of my life.
And then once it released, nowI don't have that.
That knots gone, and it does not.
It starts to knot up, but itdoesn't hurt anymore now when they

(20:56):
break it out.
So.
But when the tattoo.
I did the same thing is like,okay, this is starting to hurt.
So then I just, like, I just.
I, yeah, you have to get mymeditation thing.
And then it was like.
Then it was like.
It was like, out of, like, anout of body and watching it happen.
Yeah.
It's like, I'm just gonna takethis blade.

(21:16):
I'm gonna graft some skin offyour arm, and you're not gonna wince.
So that's almost like.
I was like, yeah, wow, that is painful.
But you just kind of.
I'm not gonna tense up.
I'm not gonna.
You know, I'm just gonna Zenright out.
That's.
And that's.
So were you able to do thatwith the tattoo?

(21:37):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
I had never had one before, soit was like.
This was like, holy crap.
So they did the outside small either?
No, I mean, well, they.
They did the outline first.
Okay.
And then it waited for that toheal for a couple weeks, and then
it went back and did the rest.
But.
Or did the shading, which was,I want to say worse because they

(22:01):
go over the same spot several times.
Oh, yeah, but over the same hour.
But yeah, it's.
And then, you know, it's likeanything else.
I guess it's like childbirth.
I mean, never.
Oh, it's exactly like childbirth.
No, but.
No, but I mean, like, it'll belike, never again.
Don't you ever touch me again.

(22:24):
And then.
Then they'll be like, geez, weshould have another baby.
It says, what did you mind.
Like, did you have a mind lapse?
Like, what?
That's like, people have thetattoos and they're like, oh, my
God.
But then it.
Some.
For some people, it's an addiction.
Like, I've only had.
I only have one.
But some people, they can'tstop at one.
They just.
It's just continuation.
Continuation.
So.

(22:45):
But I know I haven't foundanything yet that I decided that
I wanted to put on myself.
I thought that was a probateto play.
What is it?
I'll play it again.
One man, one decision.
One desire.

(23:05):
You're describing the tattoo process.
I thought, well, that's appropriate.
Desire.
One man.
We should record.
You know what?
You should record your own spot.
Listen to it.
Never mind using that clip.
Do it right now.
Right now.
One man.
What was it?
One man.
What was the other one?
One man, one.

(23:26):
One man, one decision.
One desire.
Do it.
Do it.
Do it right now.
One man, one decision.
One desire.
Oh, way better than that guy.
Way better than that guy.
No, he's got the.
He's got the effects.
I. I need the.
The whole.

(23:46):
Yeah, yeah.
The ambiance.
Yeah.
Crazy.
I've got so many.
So many new sound clips.
I want to play them all, butI'M going to try to pace it a little
bit.
Play them according to the discussion.
So there's something coming upand we can talk about one of our
patrons.
Before we got to do.

(24:07):
We have a segment we promisedtwo weeks ago that we're going to
do.
Might even be in three weeks ago.
And I reached out to the bandthat we're going to talk about.
So we really have to talkabout it.
We have to, you know, do the thing.
But before I do, I wanna.
I'm working on something forthis guy.

(24:28):
So I'm gonna.
He actually.
So I actually created a themesong for this guy, one of our patrons.
He.
Out of all.
Out of all.
I've met.
We've met a lot of peoplethrough the show.
We've become friends with alot of people.
This is.
This is one of the guys.
I really want to sit down andhave a beer or have a whiskey and

(24:50):
sit around and talk aboutfucking comic books all fucking day.
That's.
I want to go see a superheromovie with this guy.
I want this guy to be myheterosexual life mate.
I love this guy.
This guy's great.
I love you, man.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, He's a good guy.
I love talking to the guy.
So much in common.

(25:10):
So let's play the theme songfor this wonderful gentleman.
And if he doesn't like thetheme song, well, too bad it's not
your show.
Here we go.
This is a song about asuperhero named Tony.
It's called Tony.
So Tony Griggs is one of ourpatrons and that is his theme song
because he is a superhero.

(25:34):
And I was asking him today.
We're gonna go.
I'm gonna go see Spider man on Friday.
The new Spider man movie,Spider Man 4 in this current quadrology
or whatever.
18 different Spider man movies.
Okay.
Well, there was threeoriginally, and then there was another
two with a different actor.
And then there's these fourwith the current actor, Tom Holland.

(25:57):
And we're actually.
This time.
This is a first.
We.
We watched the trilogy withthe kids and they like this Tom Holland
kid.
They like them.
They like this Spider Man.
They like the tone.
The tone.
Is it the.
You haven't watched them, have you?
I don't think so.
So I didn't watch Spiderman movie.

(26:19):
I think I watched Spider Man.
Was it numbered like one and two?
Yeah, yeah, I think those two.
And then I just kind of.
No, haven't watched them.
So the.
The director, his approach tothe movies was treating it like a
John Hughes film when he did them.
So you Know, you know, JohnHughes is like Sixteen Candles and

(26:41):
you know.
Those high school type.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And they treated like a highschool movie.
First, First Love, all thatsort of.
So that's how he treated the movies.
And kind of.
Kind of not comedy, straightup comedy, but like a John Cusack
comedy where it's.
You're.

(27:02):
You're kind of chuckling, butit's not funny, but it's just humorous,
I guess, like that kind of humor.
And he treated the movies thatway and it resonated, which is interesting
because John Hughes is likewhat, fucking 40 years ago.
His movies like 40 years ago.
But it just goes to show thatthat style of comedy and John Hughes
is a fucking genius, that itstill translates now.

(27:25):
Well, if you watch some ofthose movie channels that play repeat
movies, it's all the Cusack.
It's all those type of.
All those Sixteen Candles andstuff like that and.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, say anything or FerrisBueller's Day off or.
Yep.
You know, like all those Uncle Buck.

(27:46):
He wrote Home Alone too.
Like that.
He.
He wrote that movie, right?
No, like fucking talented guy.
I forgot why we're talkingabout Tony, but I just want to give
a shout out to Tony becausehe's a good dude.
One day.
One day we're gonna have.
Have a beer.
But topic at hand that we'regonna talk about today.

(28:09):
So this is kind of on the wheel.
So we're gonna play theSpinning Wheel song because that's.
People have requested it.
Spinning Wheel on our show.
No one else does it.
We are so original.
Get up on Patreon so you canwrite add on all your topics onto

(28:36):
our wheel of Spy.
Oh, I love that dive bomb.
Oh, beautiful.
So this has been on.
This has been on the wheel fora while and I wanted to take it off
the wheel because there's afew reason.
I want a few reasons.
I want to talk about this man.
I don't know if you ever metRay and Hoffer or not.

(28:57):
Have you ever met Ray?
Did we used to work at.
Oh no, no, he's an electrician at.
Our at work Ray and offer Ray over.
Oh, Ray of not half Hoffer.
Sorry.
Okay.
Ettenhofer.
Ettenhofer.
So I worked with him and hehad a band and then I would go.

(29:18):
He said, oh, you got a band?
So I'm like, yeah, I'll go gocheck it out.
You know, not expectinganything but wanting to be supportive.
And you know, what if you knowsomebody and they have a band and
they ask you to Come see them.
You should probably just gosee them.
Good or bad, it doesn't matter.
Supporting bands is important.
As we talked about earlier inthe show, you got to go support.

(29:39):
It's an eight out too.
Yeah.
So I think I might have takenyou to one of their shows at one
point.
This would have been like mid-90s.
I guess I should actually pullout the CD over here.
But anyway, so I went to see him.
I was like, wow, they'reactually really good.
Like, I'm really enjoying it.
They had three differentsingers in the band, which was, which

(30:00):
is cool because each personwas writing and there's a different
dynamic.
And the sound kind of like thesound shifts, Right.
It's not always the same soundall the way through.
It's kind of like Kiss.
How you know, you've got fourdifferent singers, four different
songwriters.
Kind of adds a dynamic to it.
And I always like that, youknow, like from all the way back
from the Beatles too.

(30:21):
Doing the same.
Yeah, or Joe Walsh or Glenn Fry.
Like everyone has their own,you know, when they sing, it gives
it a different taste.
Yeah, it's the same pizza, butdifferent taste.
Well, yeah, but you're more mushrooms.
One's got all of this.
It's four different toppingson the pizza, right.
You've got your Hawaiiancorner of the pizza.

(30:41):
You get your pepperoni, thenyou might have like a spicy.
I love Hawaiian.
I love Hawaiian.
I don't know what the deal is with.
Put pineapple.
With pineapple.
Pineapple and chicken andbacon with ranch.
Phenomenal.
You know what?
One of these days I'm gonnacut out some cherries.
I'm gonna say it.

(31:02):
You know what?
I'm gonna put cherries on the pizza.
Never mind.
Just a pineapple.
I'm gonna open up a goddamncan of fruit cocktail.
I'm gonna drain the out of it,and I'm gonna put on the goddamn
pizza.
I'm gonna put cheese on it andI don't care cheese.
If it goes with whatever,pears or whatever.
I don't care.
It's all gonna go together.
Gonna try it out.

(31:27):
You keep going.
With garlic.
You know what?
Cherries might be interesting.
I like.
I like sweet.
I like sweet paired with salt.
I like that, that pairing.
Sweet and salty.
I mean, you can buy chocolate bar.
Sweet and salty.
Yeah.
Oh, why not?
Oh, that's great.

(31:47):
Yeah, you can have cherrieswith chocolate.
Look at the.
The cherry blossom.
Cherry blossom.
Dad's favorite.
Make up.
Make a pineapple blossom.
Who says you have to dipstrawberries in freaking Chocolate.
You can.
Whatever you want.
You could have a fondue, openup a fruit cocktail.
Oh my God.
Try each one.

(32:08):
Yeah, actually, as a matter offact, I've got a fruit cocktail in
the fridge.
We've had it there for a whilebecause we like it when it's cold.
Usually when they're in thecupboard, they're not that great.
What are you doing?
I was showing you my ass,wasn't I?
I was gonna say.
Oh, you haven't been eatingthat, that, that salad that gives

(32:32):
you explosive diarrhea, have you?
Oh, no.
Okay, so I don't have myglasses here, so I'm trying to see
the year of this cd, okay?
Who the fuck is texting me?
I'm in the middle of apodcast, motherfucker.
Oh yeah, Fucking CoreyMorissette fucking again.
Well, he's not fucking again.
He's doing his podcast again,but okay, shut up, dude.

(32:54):
I'm working here.
So what's he saying, you guys?
Oh, no, he's recording thesame night as us, so I can't go on
his show.
He can't come on our show.
Fucking guy.
You know what, CoreyMorissette, it's okay, enough for
that.

(33:15):
Okay, so this band, so Rayenough for was the guy I worked with.
He was a guitar player and oneof the singers in the band.
I went and go saw them and Iwas like, this is really cool.
It was a.
A guitar player, a keyboardplayer, a bass player and a drummer.
And the drummer was ambidextrous.
So he could play left handedor right handed, which was awesome.

(33:38):
Play upside down.
No, he wasn't.
Omni.
Omnidextrous.
That's the word.
Omnidextrous.
But anyway, so I really enjoyed.
And they played with like alot of like kind of like all kind
of alternative.
Not alternative like Nirvanaand stuff, but alternative, like

(33:58):
mid-90s alternative stuff.
Like.
Well, let's play a song so wecan actually illustrate.
It's not grungish.
No, no, not that grungy.
We kind of.
I wonder mid-90s.
I'm just wondering if they're on.
Hang on.

(34:20):
I don't think they're onstreaming, but we're going to look
if they are.
So you growing your beard back?
I think I will in the fall.
In the fall?
Yeah.
Okay.
I was trying to catch up toyou, but I don't.

(34:41):
I didn't do the sides, I justdid the.
The chin strap.
Oh, yeah, I was trying to see.
They actually have a video forone of the songs.
So when we so we're gonnalisten to a little bit of Bliss for
the first part of the show.
So Bliss is the name of the band.
If my eyes worked, I couldtell you the year it was released.
I think it's 95 recorded byLynn Milne at Bedside Studios.

(35:10):
And the font is a really notgood color so I can't make out the
year.
Bedside Studios.
Bedside Studios.
Yeah.
There's a name of us recording studio.
It's a good name.
I can't find the date on here.
I think it was like mid-90s.
95.

(35:30):
96.
Copyright 1998.
My mistake.
Still, it still exists.
Oh no, it's still there.
I actually follow him in.
4.6 out of us 5.
Holy crap.
Look at that.
Oh, it's in Winnipeg.
It's.
I think they're still doinganalog to.
Their award winning musicrecording and production facility
now.
Len Milney.

(35:53):
I think there's a story withwho Len Milne is.
I don't know, some tie to,.
Let's.
See, over 30 years.
Whatever.
It's fine.
Continue to cite.
So this is where this, whereyou're gonna be playing?
This is where this was recorded?

(36:14):
Yeah, this is where theyrecorded this album.
I think he had ties to a lotof like, like he's been around for
30 years, like doing stuff.
So on Pritchard Avenue.
Anyway, I, I, the, the song,the, the production quality is good.
I don't have an issue with itat all.
It's good, good stuff.

(36:35):
And then.
So what I want is.
I think I dragged you to oneof their shows before and I'm gonna
see if I can provide Bend Winnipeg.
There is a, I think a bit of aWikipedia page here.
I can't find it anywhere.

(36:57):
Oh, whatever.
I'm just gonna wing it.
I can't find.
But, but so, so they, theyplayed a lot of shows, right?
They, they ended up, they dida tour of western usa like up the.
They kind of, I think from LosAngeles up through Oregon, Washington,
bc.
They've done cross Canadatours many, many, many times.

(37:20):
A lot of the times they were.
Some of the bands they wereopening for.
They played with the NewMeanies a lot.
They're friends with the New Meanies.
They played, they opened forPaul Rogers on a show.
You know Paul Rogers from FreeFree Free.
No, bad company, sorry.
And then they also opened upfor a band called Fastball.

(37:41):
Do you remember Fastball?
Nope.
That's the first time I'veheard that name.
Okay, well, they are huge band.
Here's the song.

(38:04):
Yeah, I do.
It's all Mono that goes into stereo.
So they.
They got to open for a lot of.
A lot of bands.
Just.
They're out there justworking, just playing, opening for
whoever they could open for.
They.
They play.
I saw them play a number of times.

(38:25):
They played a lot of shows.
I think they played a lot ofshows with Leader House, which we've
done multiple episodes about.
My.
Which Leader House is theLeader House album hosts the vocals
of my favorite vocalist of alltime, so there, Matt Budoloski.
Anyway, so.

(38:46):
So I go see them like, that'sRay up there.
And Holy.
He's singing.
And he sounds actually pretty good.
Now, the thing to keep in mindwith this, you took a listen to some
of these songs, right?
I. I sent you a whole bunch of them,.
Right?
Sounds like homework.

(39:06):
Well, the homework.
We're gonna do it here, I guess.
They actually got played quite.
Quite a bit on either Power 97or Powder 90 or 92 City FM, one of
the two radio stations separately.
Recognize them?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Well, that song you just played.
Yeah, I've heard it on the radio.
Well, no, that's Fastball.
That song was Fastball.

(39:27):
That's open for.
Oh, okay, okay.
Not the same.
Sorry.
But they also had a musicvideo, which you and I will take
a peek at there in a bit.
Okay, but this is the song.
This is a song that I likeraising in on this one.
I like the song.
I like everything about it.
It's a short little ditty.
It's a lot of fun.
If you want to find it, I'mgonna see about sending links somehow

(39:50):
to their music because they'renot on streaming.
So I wanted to reach out tothe band and talk and try to see
if, like, look, you guyswilling to add your stuff to streaming?
Do you want me to help youwith that?
Do you know how to do it?
Because not everybody knowshow to add their stuff to streaming.
But anyway, this song iscalled the Way It Is.
The band is called Bliss.
And let's take a peek under the.

(40:12):
Hood.
Of course it takes a second now.
Didn't know what time it wasit must be getting late first time

(40:33):
I saw you, man I could havesworn it was fake and that's the
way it appears it was all inmy mind I made it for you it was
all in my mind I made it foryou it's out of my mind I made it
for you Feel the sound of mineand that's the way it is.

(41:01):
So what a story about you youhad your head in the ground so thought
I'D pick it up put it back inthe clouds today and that's the way
it is it was all in my mindNow I made it for you it was all
in my mind Now I made it foryou it was all in my mind Now I made

(41:23):
it for.
It's.

(41:52):
Sam.

(42:18):
If it's out of my mind I madeit for you if it's out of my mind
I made it for you if it's outof my mind that I made it for you
if it's out of my mind andthat's the way it is that's the way
it is.

(42:39):
That's the way it feels andthat's the way it is.
Sorry, I was like.
I was gonna stop it partway through.
Like, I can't.
Was having too much fun.
That sounds very.
Not overproduced, like a minimalist.

(43:00):
It sounds like Abby Rhodes do.
It sounds like Beatles.
Yes.
Even.
Even the groove kind of thing.
And then the bass, then thelines that he's doing it.
And if it would have been likePaul's voice or, you know, John Lennon's
voice with the music, it wouldhave been.

(43:20):
Yeah, that's their stuff.
Yeah.
Because it kind of sounded the same.
So what did you.
What's your.
What's your analysis of this song?
I just told you.
No, no, but I mean, like, didyou like it?
Yeah, it was good.
It was good.
It was a good.
It was a good.
Say, party.
You got a party going on andpeople are talking away and you get

(43:41):
this kind of jamming in the background.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, they used to play thisaround a campfire, if I recall.
They used to.
The members would go campingall the.
Time and like, the drummersall over the place.
He's so good.
He was my favorite drummer in Winnipeg.
Well, my second favoritedrummer in Winnipeg.

(44:03):
For.
For a long time.
Just because he could.
Because he was ambidextrous.
He could.
When his roles would.
Would work differently.
Like, he wouldn't be leadingwith the same hand all the time.
He'd be leading with adifferent hand.
Right.
So does he play jazz style ordoes he play regular?
Like you're rocking.
Sorry, I'm making a beverage.

(44:24):
I try to remember.
I don't remember exactly, but,you know, just phenomenal.
Like, just phenomenal.
Like, all of them talented and that.
A harmonica solo.
Not bad, eh?
Yeah, the harmonica was really good.
That was the keyboard player.
He really fit in nice.
Yeah, he was.
He played harmonica.

(44:45):
Guy played keyboards.
Sorry, keyboard player.
Keyboard guy played harmonica.
Yeah.
So that wasn't even a single.
They had two singles and thatwasn't one of the singles.
Oh, isn't that weird?
One of the singles is one ofthe ones that we would have heard
on the radio.
Correct.
So.
So anyway, so they did thefirst album they did with Len Milne.

(45:10):
They prom.
They promoted the out of it.
The out.
We're gonna go into whathappened afterwards in terms of changes
music style.
But let you.
Let's.
So let's listen to.
Okay, so this was the singlethat got played on the radio.

(45:32):
It's called Telephone Booth.
Ready?
Okay, hit play.
I might have to turn it up here.

(46:17):
My feeling.
I'm nobody so sa.

(46:47):
I knew you.
So what.
What vibe are you getting offof this one?
Black Sabbath sounds like Aussie.

(47:08):
It sounds like Aussie settingsis like.
Yeah, wow.
He's got.
He's got his like the echo ishsound that Ozzy had.
Yeah.
Or has.
He's just kind of modified alittle bit.
But yeah, that's got it.
That's got to be a Lynn Milneproduction there, I'm guessing.
And that's the same guy.
That's Ray again singing onthis one.

(47:29):
Yeah, definitely differentmix, but yeah.
Now, so that was Telephone Booth.
I. I believe that's.
That's one.
That guy.
Some play.
I don't remember hearing thatone at all.
No.
Okay.
92 or 97.
Well, this one I think at play.
So I'm gonna play Ride on,which is.

(47:54):
Now this is Justin on vocals.
Is the keyboardist in theharmonica player.
He was.
This is the only.
I think he was a. I don't knowthe whole story and it could be wrong.
And I apologize if, you know,if the members of Bliss are listening.
I apologize if I'm gettingsome of the information wrong.
This is hearsay.
A lot of it.
And it's stuff I've kind ofcobbled together timeline wise in

(48:15):
my head.
But I believe Justin was alater addition to the band.
And so therefore, like, Ithink his involvement in the album
maybe was latter in it or hewas just.
He joined just as they'regoing the studio.
So Mike was the bass player.
He wrote a lot of the songs.

(48:35):
Ray was the other guy whowrote a lot of the songs.
And then, you know, and thenJustin was coming in, I think later
in the process.
So when they released theirsecond album, there was a more Justin
involvement.
But this is Justin's song Rideon, which is again, so the first
two songs.
Completely different style.
Right.
Musically, completelydifferent styles.
Totally, totally different styles.

(48:56):
Okay, now listen to this one.
Even different again.
And I'm curious what you pickout of this one.
This is Ride on with Justin on vocals.
This is the band Bliss.

(49:32):
I got my bags packed and I'mtaking off with lots to see When
I'm only getting old well,dragging me down is all you seem
to do well, I've got news foryou I don't need you no more Well,
I don't need you no more.
I seem to say this quite a lot.

(49:52):
You say you're telling thetruth and I know you're not.
Why is it a seem to hangaround for this?
I guess I like to dreamNothing won't let.
Right on, right on, right on.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right on, right on, right on.
Oh, yeah.

(50:13):
You should open your eyes tosee that.
That in the end much betteryou'll be.
I'm always thinking about onlymyself when you're.
You're always thinking abouteveryone else.

(50:34):
Okay,.
Comment.
The first thing that poppedinto my head was this sounds like.
Remember when you're playingwith Salty Bear.
Yeah.

(50:55):
It had a lot of remnants ofwhen you were playing the keyboards
for one of the songs.
Yeah.
Either that or I've heard thissong before, but it was like, this
sounds so familiar, but in a different.
So the piano stylings of Sean McGinty.

(51:16):
That's kind of what it sounded like.
Maybe I'm totally wrong.
Maybe I'm totally wrong.
That's pretty interesting.
Maybe it was just.
Maybe it was just this songthat I had heard before.
But yeah, it was weird.
Interesting.
All right, vocally speaking.
So this is Justin.
So this is one of the othersingers in the band.

(51:42):
He's a lot lighter.
He's not a raspy or, you know,out front vocalist on this.
This is kind of like I'm at akeyboard and I'm playing and I'm
singing along.
Like John or Elton John type thing.
Kind of sorta, but more back.

(52:05):
So I don't know if it was theeffects of his voice or just his
voice.
The.
The strength of it isn't likeriding your face.
It's more kind of.
Kind of mellow and more back.
But yeah, definitely adifferent vibe again.
Like, that's another style altogether.

(52:25):
So keyboard heavy oriented.
So this is what this is.
And I'll try to share this inthe show notes because I know I can
at least share this.
This was.
They did a music video.
They got a government grant,like, you know, one of those Manitoba
music grants.
Yeah.
To make a music video.
So they made a music video forthis one when they had to pick what
song they're going to make amusic video for.

(52:45):
This is the song they pickedand they did the music video.
Now, again, if I'm getting theinformation wrong, I apologize, but
I believe it was on the latterend of the, like, touring the album,
going all over the place,touring the album.
Justin has now been in theband for a while.
They're seeing the strength inJustin and I don't know, but I hear

(53:06):
a lot of.
Here's the two things I hearin this song.
The piano playing was veryreminiscent of Burton Cummings.
The way he.
Like that.
Sort of same kind of the way he.
I don't know what the word is.
Not trips over the keys, butthe way Burton would roll through
the notes on the key on the.
On the piano.

(53:26):
Like kind of the.
The runs.
He would do very similar,which is a huge compliment, actually.
I hate Burton Cummings, buthe's a damn good piano player.
And also I hear some super inthere, too, because they're heavily
influenced by Super Tramp.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A little bit of that biggerband sound.

(53:49):
Yeah.
But in a smaller.
Smaller group, I guess.
Yeah.
How many people were in Super Trap?
I don't know.
Twelve.
I don't know.
No wonder it sounded huge justbecause there's so many people in
it, but.
Right.
Right.
You're bloody well right.

(54:11):
Is she trying to give you alcohol?
Ply you with alcohol?
Calling for any of it?
No.
Hello?
Donda.
Did you just say no?
Huh?
Sean just said.
Hi.
Hi.
Did you just say I could have.
A piece of ice?
No.
You can.
Sure.
I just want wine because Icannot drink this.
It tastes terrible.

(54:33):
Took all the ice.
Apparently Todd doesn't knowhow to make a drink.
Is that what's going to drink?
So.
No, I.
We went to Co Op and then CoOp is like, It's.
Was it 10.99 for three thingsof ice?
And I bought some and Ithought it was like a week ago, a
couple weeks ago.
And then I still had an extrabag and then I bought three more

(54:54):
and then I thought I had four bags.
And now today we went to lookand we only had like crumbs, so I
poured some in my glass andthen there was.
Wasn't a whole lot left, so Idumped the rest in the sink.
And then we're.
We don't have any.
So my question for Donda is this.

(55:14):
You can't handle the truth.
Is that the truth, though?
You paid 10.99 for three bags anyway,.
Two bags of ice.
I'm short on ice.
We had to Buy ice.
Okay.
So before we finish thissegment on Bliss.
Okay.
I don't know if we're gonnafinish it.
Yeah.
But I do want to make sure Ishowcase all the vocalists.

(55:35):
We played two Ray tracksbecause Ray was my buddy.
And Ray passed away a numberof years ago.
And I'm kind of bummed that it happened.
He was a good guy to me and hewas actually when I had my.
What do you call it?
Divorce.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's the right word.

(55:56):
But it felt like, you know,when, when someone comes out of the
closet sort of thing, right.
They're like, you know, I'vebeen gay all along and now I'm going
to tell everybody I'm gay.
Right.
Like, it was.
It's a big deal.
It's, it's, it's, hey, tellingeverybody I'm me and this is who
I really am.
That sort of thing.
And in a way it kind of feltthe same.
Not the same way, but in asimilar way.

(56:18):
It was like I was in arelationship that was not good.
I don't.
Borderline abusive, I guess itwas, it wasn't a good relationship.
Right.
Toxic.
Yeah.
So to actually.
So it was my coming out.
I had a coming out party.
It was stupid.
I'm not, I'm not saying I cameout as gay or anything.

(56:40):
I'm just saying I came out as alive.
I came out alive.
Right.
But it was, but they called ita coming out party.
Okay, that, that they had forme and Ray was there and it was interesting.
And look, and if, if, if I waxpoetic here, I apologize.
But that night was a veryimportant moment in my life.
So just, just to frameeverything so I was in a toxic relationship.

(57:06):
It was very.
Not good.
And you know, Todd, you knowthe whole story, it wasn't good.
And I was very fragile.
I was in a really bad place emotionally.
I was also in a very bad placefinancially because when I, the,
the separation happened and Iwas out of the house, I also got

(57:26):
fired from my job and I gotkicked out of my house because I
wasn't going to live therewith my soon to be ex wife.
So I had no home, I had no job.
I had nowhere to be.
So I lived in my car for twoweeks and on couches.
I was couch surfing and livingin my car.

(57:48):
And I never told you because Iwas too fucking embarrassed.
But anyway, so the, theimportant part.
So the important part aboutRay here, and I do want to thank
Ray for.
This is my friend Skelly, whoI've talked about on the show many,
many times.
He said, look, you can sleepon my couch.
You're coming to my houseFriday night, you're gonna come to

(58:09):
my house, and we're gonnatreat you like a human being because
you have not been treated likea human being for the last 10 years.
I'm like, okay, whatever.
I didn't.
I was like.
I was so malleable.
Like, yeah, okay, whatever.
Yeah, whatever.
Whatever.
Whatever, Right?
Yeah.
And so he set up this party,and it was.

(58:31):
It was kind of for me, thisparty, right?
And I, like.
I'm oblivious.
Like, I'm punch drunk.
I can't form a sentence.
I am.
I have no cognitive abilities.
Like, I'm.
I'm pretty fucked up.
Like, you know, the lowest ofthe low, the lowest I've ever been.
So I go to his place, and hesaid, look, there's people coming

(58:53):
later.
But right now, you know.
So anyway, the whole eveningled up to the big party after.
But at first they wanted tomake sure I was okay.
Skelly and his girlfriendslash wife or whatever was there,
and they're just.
They were so kind, so giving.
Sleep here, you know?

(59:15):
Sleep here.
You're going to sleep here tonight.
You're sleep here tomorrow,and then we'll worry about all the
other stuff later.
Later.
He did hire me to work for himas an apprentice until I could get
a job.
Job, right?
And so he let me sleep on hiscouch for a bit.
I also slept in my car.
But anyway, so anyway, so theparty later.

(59:36):
So let's get.
I know I'm slow at getting tothe point, but later that night,
Ray shows up.
And I'd worked with Ray, andwe both knew Skelly, and Ray saw
me, and he's like, wow, you'reactually here.
I'm like, yeah, I guess I'mhere, like.

(59:58):
And he looked at me, he goes,I can't remember exactly the words
he said, but the generalintent was, you are a good human
being.
You deserve to be loved.
And I want you to have themost fun tonight you've had in the
last 10 years because youfucking deserve it.

(01:00:19):
And it's like, I didn't knowthe guy that well.
I worked with him, seen himplay a couple times, but he understood
where I was emotionally and inevery way.
So that night was a night of.
He just.
He was like my brother that night.
You know, I hadn't talked toyou yet.
You didn't know what was going on.

(01:00:40):
I was afraid to tell my familywhat was going on, so.
But he stepped in to tell Me,I was good enough.
So I'm like.
I'm never gonna forget that.
Like, the people that helped me.
You helped me too.
Don't you?
Definitely helped me, but Iwas too fucking proud to tell my
family what had happened.
So I had a few people thathelped me transition to letting you

(01:01:02):
know and letting mom and dadknow and all that sort of stuff to,
you know, what had happened,because I was embarrassed beyond
belief.
This was just before that youmoved in that place that had the
weirdly slanted floor.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
The weirdly slanted floor.
Yep.
In the piano.
You guys had.
And the piano.
Yeah, The.

(01:01:22):
The folk festival.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But anyway, so I kind of.
So I.
When I talk about Ray, I doget a little emotional.
I know there's.
You know what?
I don't want to go into theother stuff, but Rey was good to
me when he needed.
When I needed someone to begood to me.
And he supported me and hegave me a hug and all this sort of

(01:01:45):
stuff and did everything.
So I played two Ray songs.
I played a Justin song.
I don't know Justin at all.
I've met him.
Probably doesn't remember meat all, which is fine.
But I reached out to Mike, andMike was the bass player.
Right.
So we're gonna play a song, abit of a song by Mike.
It's called Joe the Shrink.
Different vocal style again.
Different writing style again.

(01:02:06):
Mike's writing is verydifferent, which is what I.
My.
Kind of like my favorite thingof the band.
So let's play us a second of.
Of Mike.
All right.
Excuse me, friend.
I'm not myself today.
Seems I just love to watchthings fade.

(01:02:34):
Can't enjoy the moments whenthey're here Cause in my tired there's
so much left to fear.

(01:02:57):
Over and under 14 years of pain.
I woke up.
Has turn black.
Who.
Said the stars don't fall fromthe sky?

(01:04:03):
So isn't this kind of interesting?
All these different styles.
One album, one band.
This is like Tesla meets KimMitchell or Bob Dylan.
I don't know.
It's got a different ring.
He's got a different thing toit, definitely.
But, yeah, everything was different.

(01:04:25):
It was like four different albums.
Yeah.
They weren't even related toeach other.
Yeah.
And even the two Ray songsdon't sign this sound the same.
I think that's what I reallyliked about this album was it was
all over the place.
I don't like too much same.
I like.
I like a little bit of everything.
And it was fun because whenyou'd see them live.

(01:04:47):
I don't know.
It was always entertaining.
And then Mike.
Mike was the best.
He was so good because he wassuch a rock star.
Even though he's playing inWinnipeg, he come out, go, hello,
Winnipeg.
You know, devil horns or whatever.
Pretty much every band.

(01:05:08):
Well, but he was.
It was like he was playing tolike 20,000 people at Madison Square
Garden or something.
Every time he played.
Oh, yeah, you got to play.
You got to play it up likeyou're, you know, playing for 50,
000 people.
And so when we played thattime at the Handsome Daughter, was
it the Handsome Daughter onour first show, our first bigger

(01:05:30):
show that we played?
Marlboro?
No, no, no, Portage.
It was a Handsome Daughter.
It was.
It was that little.
Is the back room stage wasn'tquite big enough.
Is that the.
One of the stages on the floor?
Yes or no?
No, no, no.
That was.
That was the.

(01:05:50):
I can't remember the name ofthat place anyway, but when I.
We played that show, I don'tknow if you remember, but the first
thing I said when I came out,hello, Winnipeg.
That was in.
That was an honor to Mike from Bliss.
I was like, copying a micthere, for sure.
So after they did this album,I think, and I don't know if people

(01:06:14):
got in their ear or not, Iwasn't really sure what was going
on, but they went into.
Into the studio to do their.
Their next album, and I thinkthey really had like a.
Like a meeting to say, okay, what.
What are we doing here?
What are we doing this time?
How are we going to approach.

(01:06:35):
How are we going to approach this?
So one thing is they renamedthe band because there's many Blinds
bands called Bliss.
So they renamed the band.
We got to have somethingcatchy that people are gonna remember,
right?
So they rename themselves toGin Taxi.
No idea what the fuck thatmeans, but it is memorable.

(01:06:59):
Yeah, for sure.
Right.
So.
And then the other thing theydid, so they.
I'm trying to remember the studio.
They went into Studio 21.
Let me just look this up.
Brandon.
No, studio.

(01:07:21):
I found some politician guy.
Brandon Friesen, Studio 11.
So they went and recorded there.
I believe Chantel Karavazirecorded there.
And a bunch of people, like,kind of a lot of, you know, Grammy
slash, whatever.
The Canadian one is like.
No, no, he nominated Juno.

(01:07:42):
Sorry.
Yeah, Juno nominated.
He's got a lot of stuff underhis belt, right?
Anyway, so they went andrecorded with him.
They got another grant.
I'm assuming they got a grant.
And.
They go and record.
So I don't know where thedecision making process happened,
but I'm.
I'm gonna air some dirtylaundry here, if I may.

(01:08:05):
So they go into the studiowith Brandon Friesen and at some
point somebody makes adecision somewhere.
Now I really enjoyed Call ofDuty, Modern Warfare pre order now,
apparently I just, I have toknow this right now.
This just popped up on my screen.
Well, I could give two shitsabout Call of Duty.
Anyway.
Was that steam installed?

(01:08:27):
Oh, it's Xbox.
But anyway, so they go intothe studio and they decide to.
Okay, look, I know we gotthree singers, but Justin's going
to take all the vocals.
Justin's a good vocalist.
He's the one that played onthe piano, the pianoish song.
Right.
Good vocalist, it's fine.
But we're going to have one vocalist.
They tailored the guitars back.
The keyboard was a bit moreprominent, like more in the front.

(01:08:50):
And at the time there was alot of bands that kind of had that
they had a sound and it was,it was, you know, anyway, they followed
particular formula.
They changed the formula thatthey had because it was.
I don't, I don't know thereasons, but I can understand.
My perception is, look, it's busy.
We got three singers, we gotthree different songwriters in the

(01:09:13):
band.
The songs are all over the place.
One song sounds like Ozzy, onesong sounds like Pink Floyd, one
song sounds like.
REO Speedwagon or something, Idon't know.
But they, they, they, they'reall over the place now.
Personally, I prefer that.

(01:09:33):
I like that and that's why Ilike the band.
They didn't have a sound andthen stuck to it.
And then after hearing four orfive songs, you kind of get tired
of it.
I like that there was variety.
I like that it was different.
I grew up on Kiss.
There was four differentwriters in the band and every song
didn't sound exactly the same.
I, that's what I like.

(01:09:53):
But they decided to have amore same samey sound.
Right.
And change the sound on thesecond album.
Okay, now who decided this?
The ones?
No, that's what I would liketo know because I actually I, I was
talking to Mike and I wouldlike to get Mike and Justin on the
show.
I can't talk to Ray becauserace not around anymore, obviously,

(01:10:15):
but I thought it might have been.
I'd be interesting to talkabout the whole process of it because
the thing you have tounderstand is when you're in a band
and you're trying to make itas a band, there's a lot of concessions.
You have to make.
There's a lot of choices youhave to make.
Well, like hard in the 80s, right?
Heart as a band, they had the70s sound.

(01:10:36):
Barracuda, all that stuff.
Rocking Ben.
Solid band, solid set of musicians.
And by going into the 80s,they were nobody, no one.
They could, they.
They couldn't catch a cab.
They were so unpopular.
And then the, the labels onthem, you know, hey, you guys, you
know, like we're going to dropyou unless you do something different.

(01:10:59):
So we're going to bring somesongwriters and you're going to sing
their songs.
Desperate, they say, okay, fine.
So they have some of the worstsongs in history ever written, performed
by heart.
A song about a hitchhikergoing to kill, like picking up this
female hitchhiker, picking upa guy on the side of the road so

(01:11:21):
she can kill him.
That was one of their songs,you know, like.
But huge fucking hits.
It saved the band.
They've get top 10 hits again.
You know, it's the 80s wheremusic, music is vapid and doesn't
have a lot of substance, right?
So, you know, it saved them.
So when you're in a band,there's things you have to do for

(01:11:41):
survival.
There's things you have to dofor integrity.
And sometimes you have to takethe survival over the integrity.
Now, I'm not saying theirsecond album called Gin Taxi, Picking
out the Pieces is bad, but Ido prefer the original version better
because I like the dynamics of it.
But from a commercialperspective, the second album is

(01:12:03):
better.
I'm just.
I don't like commercial stuffthat much.
I prefer.
I like listening to demos andyou know, and stuff like that, but
it's not.
You might like it more.
So we're gonna just get aquick sample.
Okay.
We'll take the, the.
The title track, Picking upthe pieces and see what, see what
you think.
Now you, you remember theproduction on the other one.

(01:12:26):
This is with.
Not Len Milney, but this isBrandon Friesen from Studio 11.
You know, Grammy whatevernominated guy.
Let's take a listen.
Ok.

(01:13:12):
Don't you know the charm hascome to life.

(01:13:41):
Riding the car is Swear yousee your life on fruit I'll be killing
John.
Waiting for the momentWherever they lie When I.

(01:14:02):
Think of the precious.
So I, I could be mistaken andI could be mixing up my bands, but
he's got kind of that blackcrows type of sound to it.

(01:14:24):
Okay.
Now you can tell when you'relistening to it, like it's definitely
a different studio.
Everything's separated.
Oh yeah.
Everything's.
You Know, it's a wider sound.
Whereas the other one, theother studio was.
It was a little more quaint inthe middle kind of a thing.

(01:14:47):
More on the floor sounding.
Yeah, more of a. Yeah, more ofa natural sounding where this one
was.
They've added more productionto it, more space, more reverb, more,
you know, some nuances and stuff.
But.
Yeah.
And the singer that theypicked, that's the one I remember

(01:15:07):
more.
Okay.
So that's kind of.
Yeah.
I don't know if I rememberthat particular song, but I do remember
the singer for sure.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, because I've heard it.
Because I've heard of, like,the other songs, whatever he played,
I. I recognize that.
That voice, for sure.
Yeah.

(01:15:27):
Very distinctive.
I mean, he's a.
He's a great vocalist.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
He's probably the best vocalist.
And I understand why they did,you know, they made a decision, like,
we're gonna go.
We're gonna go.
We're gonna stick with him.
Whether it was the, you know,the producer just saying, you know
what?
If you're gonna have a singer,it should be the best vocalist.

(01:15:49):
Now, Mike is dirtier in hisvocals, vocal approach, a bit of
rasp and whatever, and Rey wasa bit more I.
But I like the raw vocal fromI. I mean, I like Tom Waits.
Right.
Tom Waits is a.

(01:16:09):
For.
From a purely.
Purely.
I don't know what the word.
What the fuck.
I can't speak today.
Tom Waits is not a goodvocalist, but I love his voice.
It's just.
It's raw.
It's real.
It's real.
That's.
It's raw.
Real.
It's not polished.

(01:16:30):
And, you know, I've beentaking music lessons for whatever,
just to be able to.
To sound a certain way, dosomething raw.
It's like natural singers,they've had no training at all, but
they sound great out of the game.
So, I mean, that's.
Some have a rasp to them.
Some of them have their ownlittle nuance, but it's.

(01:16:52):
It's like, you know, someonewho's talented, where you give him
a guitar and, like, within 10minutes he's doing stuff.
There's like, I've been tryingto figure this out for three years
type of thing.
It just comes naturally now.
I don't know how much trainingJustin's had as a singer, but I would
suspect probably more than theother two guys.
I mean, he's got.
He's hitting everything rightas a vocalist myself.

(01:17:14):
Like, I'm like, oh, yeah,that's Good.
What you're doing there, definitely.
It's not just singing fromyour gut.
It's actually singing fromyour gut, but also with, like, technique.
Right.
A lot of technique and stuff.
So he is the better singer.
But I do like.
I. I like his vocal, but Ilike hearing.
I like having three differentsingers in the band.
To me, that's great.

(01:17:35):
Having four is even better.
But I really like that aspect.
Like, I like the.
The variety now at the time that.
Doesn't sell on the mainstream.
Like, that would be.
No,.
They made the right choice.
And I'm assuming they hadsuccess with this versus the first

(01:17:56):
album.
I think the success they hadoff the first album was from busting
their ass playing, opening foreverybody, playing every show they
could, doing everything theycould, you know, to get heard.
Well, I mean, the first album,you spend usually 10, 15 years making
it.
Then all of a sudden it'slike, the second album is like, okay,
well, now we're going toscramble and try and put a whole
bunch of songs together.
Especially when, you know, ifa record label takes it, says, okay,

(01:18:18):
we're going to sign you on forso many records.
Like, okay, well, the firstrecord, we had all kinds of time
to do.
Yeah.
Now it's crunch time.
So now it's like, are theygoing to be just as good?
Are they going to be just as dynamic?
Yeah.
Is it gonna feel rushed?
Is it gonna be, like, sterile?
Like, you don't know.
It just depends on your.
How your songwriting is and.

(01:18:39):
And.
And the technique that you usegoing forward, I guess.
Now, I'm gonna be honest.
When the second album cameout, and actually, I actually got
to go to the studio a coupletimes because it was near work where
Ray and I worked, and I coulddrop in.
So Ray brought me in a coupletimes, which was great because I'd
never seen, like, a studiostud studio at that point.
Got to see, you know, howthings work and got to, you know,

(01:19:00):
watch some of the recording.
Like, okay, this is cool.
Like.
And again, Ray didn't need todo any of that, but thank you for,
you know, letting some.
Some guy come in and.
And see how the, you know, thesausage is made.
Right.
And I think at the time, Iliked my stuff heavier.
I mean, this was like the 90s, right?

(01:19:21):
So I was.
I was heavy into my soundgarden at the time and Pantera and
stuff like that.
And I like different stuff.
There was a crunch on thatfirst album that was a bit heavier,
a bit more raw, a bit moreindie, and I wasn't very, like, Keen
on industrial or.
Sorry, Indust.

(01:19:42):
Commercial rock.
I didn't like matchbox 20.
I didn't like any of thosetypes of bands.
Like, at the time, I didn't.
I kind of like those bandsnow, but at the time, like, no, I'm
sticking to my guns, you know, Soundgarden.
Different tastes at the time.
Tool.
Like, I like the shit thatwas, like, Dangerous.

(01:20:03):
I didn't like the stuff thatmade you feel good.
I like the stuff that made youfeel like shit, I guess.
So I think when this albumcame out, I was very, very disappointed
at the time because I'm like,well, fuck.
Like, you guys had the formulaand not realizing that.
Look, if you want to make itas a band, you have to do certain
things to succeed in.

(01:20:24):
In retrospect, now, the secondalbum is better.
They made.
They.
They made calls to.
To focus in a particular direction.
And I don't know what happened.
I know Mike left the band atthat time.
Like, he stayed to record thealbum, I think, and then he left.
So they had another guy comein to play bass, like when they're
promoting the album and stuff.

(01:20:45):
They didn't release a videofor this album, which I thought was
interesting.
So I don't know how well thealbum did for them.
But in retrospect, I do likethe second album.
The production is fantastic.
The guitars are toned down,which I'm not a fan of, but this.
But Ray's playing is still great.
It's got a lot.
It's got a lot of.
A lot of his playing on thatsecond album has a lot of more.

(01:21:10):
It shows his variety of stylesand influences and stuff.
So it is the better album, I'mnot gonna lie.
But at the time, I was madthat they had a formula that worked
for me, but it didn't workfor, you know, commercial success
right now.

(01:21:32):
We've gone too long on this.
I apologize, but I'm gonnaplay one more thing.
So when Ray.
When the band broke up andsplit up and went their ways, they
were still friends andeverything, but they.
You know, it's like theybusted their ass for, I don't know,
it was like 10 years orwhatever the hell it was.
And it's like, okay, well, wegot as far as we probably could,
I guess.
I don't know what theirthinking was, but Ray went off in

(01:21:53):
a different direction.
So at the time, that.
Of that party, of my comingout party, Ray had totally evolved
from being the guitar guy tobeing a dj.
And Ray had one of his songsactually play.
There was a Club in Londonthat played one of his tracks as

(01:22:16):
a dj.
Where did I go?
Was it your place or someone that.
And they had the double DJtype of thing.
That's probably Ray.
That would make sense.
Is that your host?
Yeah.
Someone's house?
Yeah.
Because I think, yeah, you mayhave a party there or something.
Oh, in my house?
Oh, Ray was there?

(01:22:36):
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Because I remember seeing the,the, the turntables.
Yeah.
So I'm gonna play.
So Ray actually asked me to mix.
It's a horrible job, but hehad recorded something and he needed
me to convert it to MP3 so hecould burn it to CDs and have CDs
out.
So this is the CD called DJRain Walks Rocks your world.

(01:23:00):
So Ray N. I don't know whathis middle name is, but his middle
name is N Ettenhofer.
So DJ Rain.
R A Y N E. Great fucking name.
Anyway, so this is.
Now I don't, I don't think youcan get the CD anywhere.
And if anybody wants a copy ofthis, I can probably bring you a

(01:23:21):
copy because I don't thinkit's out there.
But anyway, this is his.
Part of his track one for hisDJ stage.
It.

(01:24:11):
I know this is not your thing.
I'm not going to subject youto too much of this during my, my,
my post divorce coming outparty and all that sort of.
It's great music to have at a party.
Oh yeah, it's great.
I get to see Ray perform a fewtimes, right?

(01:24:32):
And he was just, he was solocked in.
It's like, he's like, okay, Idid the guitar thing, I want to learn
something else.
So he learned the other thing.
He learned how to dj.
He was playing out all the time.
He was going out performingall the time as a dj.
He was mixing his own tracks.
He wasn't using.
He was, he was making his owntracks, he was building his own music.

(01:24:53):
And then he was playing with.
Trying to remember the otherguy's name.
I still have all this musicfrom that, that stage.
Let's see if I can find it here.
Music,.
Music.
I've got so much music on mycomputer it's ridiculous.

(01:25:14):
He was playing with another dj.
See if I can find it here.
Oh, he was friends with DJ Narcotic.
DJ Narcotic was fuckingfantastic trying to find the other
guy who was playing with DJ Phosphor.

(01:25:34):
I don't have any DJ Phosphor.
Anyway, so he was playing withanother DJ later.
He was playing with this otherDJ and what he was doing.
Is the dj, was doing all theDJ stuff, but he was playing guitar
with.
Was fucking great.
It was awesome.
So you went back to guitar andanyway, so I was listening to a lot

(01:25:56):
of that music back then.
It was sort of like, you know, whatever.
Like in terms of autobiographical.
It was me finding myself, mebeing lost, me finding myself, you
know, eventually found my wifeSylvie, who I love so much.
But I had to find my way to her.
So it was me realizing allthis stuff.

(01:26:16):
And even though this guy.
This is a song about asuperhero named Tony, it's called
Tony.
Even though he's gonna hate mefor this.
I do like electronic musicbecause it was the salve I. I had
to get me through that reallyrough period.
And it was going, you know,have going to private raves, meeting

(01:26:40):
people and just not beingafraid, I guess, you know, because
my whole life reading comicbooks and shit, I was always hid
that from people.
I don't know.
I'm not gonna let people knowI read comic books.
I'm not gonna let people knowI read.
No, no.
Go jets, go.
You know, I was always like,lying about who I was because it

(01:27:02):
wasn't cool to be a nerd.
It's cool now, but it wasn'tcool back then.
So, you know, going to theseplaces like, oh, my God, you've read
the lit.
You've read the latest AlanDean Foster, like.
Yeah.
Oh, my God, did you read hisother book?
And so it was like, you could.
You could be.
You could nerd out at theseplaces, right?
Everyone's just nerds at a rave.

(01:27:23):
It was great, great time in my life.
So I do like the electronicmusic and.
And Ray, definitely,Definitely healing time.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
You know.
You know what it's like.
Yeah, been through it too.
Yeah.
But yeah.

(01:27:44):
So anyway, so.
Okay, well, this ended upbeing a Bliss episode.
So thank you, the folks in theband of Bliss.
You guys are great.
I hope I wasn't trying to bedisparaging if anything come off
that way.
I just wanted to offer myhonest opinions of where my head
was at at the time.
I love Gin Taxi now.

(01:28:04):
I didn't like it back then.
I liked Bliss and I wanted myBliss and I didn't like when my Bliss
was taken away.
But now I like Gin Taxi and Iactually listen to Gin Taxi.
I don't listen to Bliss much anymore.
I like the second album more, but.
I listen to the whole thing.
I just.
That's.
That's me.
I'm the man on the street.
Yes.
I get to hear everything fresh.

(01:28:25):
But I would like to extend aninvitation because apparently Justin
and Mike are out thereperforming together as a duo in doing
shows, which is great.
So if you guys ever want tocome on and talk about those days,
because I think it's in termsof Winnipeg music.
It's important to talk about this.
Sure.
It's important to promote Winnipeg.

(01:28:46):
It's important to promote local.
Sorry, I had a lot of garlicfor dinner.
I apologize.
Sylvie made this fucking kickass soup.
So fucking good.
Oh my God.
It's a new Portuguese recipe.
But who heavy.

(01:29:08):
Mm.
Okay, well, let's sign offhere, Todd.
We gotta promote the Patreon,so let's do that thing.
Okay.
Do you want to start?
Do you want it?
Okay, well, I'm gonna thankour people.
But tell us, tell the peopleabout our Patreon, Todd.
Patreon.
Well, a Patreon is kind ofhelps us out a bit.

(01:29:31):
We've got three tiers.
We've got the certified geek,which is $5 a month early access
to episodes, full uneditedvideo up to a month before public
release.
Name mentioned on the show asa supporter.
Tier two, right now, $10 amonth, everything in tier one, exclusive

(01:29:52):
access to the Discord server,behind the scenes content and bloopers.
Tier 3, Supreme Geek 20amonth,everything in Tier 1 and 2, and a
personal video message fromthe host recorded just for you when
you join.
Name handle featured on theshow, social media as a top supporter.
Yeah, look at that.

(01:30:12):
And then there's also some 75tier for those losers at trailer
behind the metal shop.
Like, who's gonna pay for that show?
Well, those guys, they've beenriding on our coattails the whole
time.
We gotta cut them loose.
You know what?
They can go join in Obscuria.
They're on the.
They.

(01:30:32):
They took our prestige to getonto the boneless podcasting network.
You guys.
Those guys.
That's all I gotta say.
Anyway, so I want to thank ourpatrons because that's what we do.
Yes.
So our Patreons are very much.
We have Riggum, Ronald, George Moore.
Yes.
Mattable money shot who justgot married.

(01:30:52):
Todd.
He just got married.
He was in Ireland.
He married the love of his life.
I'm in Ireland.
Yes.
So is he Irish or is she Irish?
He's Irish.
Are they both Irish?
I don't know.
That's a very good question.
I don't know.
I'm curious.
But did they kiss the Bernie Stone?
I found out you got married.
I fucking cried because I lovethis man.

(01:31:14):
Ronald George Moore is aManitoba icon.
He's a good dude.
I'm so happy.
Excellent guy.
So happy for you.
Love to the wife, all that sort.
Of stuff, for sure.
We also have Sam Thompson.
Yes.
From which police radio.
He's also a patron.
Yep.
We also have Ruby from LivingThrough Extinction.

(01:31:35):
Yes.
Ruby.
We've got the aforementionedTony Grace.
Tony Griggs.
Yes.
Corey Morissette.
Corey Morissette.
Yes.
And we have Master of Many Faces.
Yes.
The master of the cmpu.
The Galactus of podcasters.
Yes.
We also have Kevin Brown, theson of a bitch.

(01:31:57):
He's supposed to be my nemesis.
And even though I love theguy, I'm supposed to, like, lie and
say I don't like the guy, butI don't like the guy.
But great guy, but hey, no,you know what?
Fucking go approach those guysfrom metal shop and go be friends
with them.
How about that?
Yeah, sure.
Danny Paps from Mixtapes From Hell.

(01:32:18):
I'm so happy that you finallygot into podcasting.
I love your show, Mixtapesfrom Hell.
Good for you, sir.
And Dwayne, his co host, isalso a patron.
Dwayne, you are the comedictiming, the color commentary in the
wrestling world of MixtapesFrom Hell.
You are the Jesse Ventura tothe Vince McMahon of Dan.

(01:32:46):
And I don't know what Corey is.
Corey is like the.
The machumin, rainy savage.
Yeah, anyway, whatever.
Anyway, that's it.
Great to.
Great to start a podcast.
For sure.
For sure.
Oh, yeah.
So, Sean McGinnity ca s a nmcg I n I t I t y ty com ca com ca.

(01:33:09):
You're right.
Yeah.
Anyway, later.
Bye.
Thank you for listening andwe'll see you next week.
And bye.
Have a good day.