Eric Slick on The Big Lebowski

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to Movie Crush. Charles W Chuck Bryant
here in the home studio Pont City Market into an
outro guests recorded by Jerry. A exciting is that everyone,
first time she's been involved in this show because she
didn't really doesn't care about it, otherwise it's not true.
So this week, everyone, I had another drummer in which
was great. I had Mr Eric Slick of the great

(00:47):
band Doctor Dog, Philly's Own Doctor Dog, one of my
favorite groups, and this is one of those where I
was like, Hey, I love Dr Dog. They're coming to Atlanta.
Wonder if anyone from the band would want to be
on the show. And as it turns out, Eric Slick
is a big movie fan and is a big Big
Lebowski fan, and I got back in touch and said
I'd love to come on and talk Big Lebowski and

(01:09):
we did that. What a great, great movie and I
know a lot of you are very excited about this.
So Eric and I sat down and talked about music
about Dr Dog, very interesting story how he got involved,
and he's just a really cool, interesting guy overall. And
then we dive in deep on The Big Lebowski and
it was a lot of fun. So, without any delay,
here we go with Eric Slick on The Big Lebowski. Yeah.

(01:38):
I do a formal intro before and after, so I
checked in yesterday. I wanted to make sure that I
wasn't gonna be totally unprepared. Also, ASO rewatched The Big Lebowski. Yeah,
well that always helps. I had, um, do you know
The Walking Dead the TV show? I had you know
the guy who plays Aaron rossmar kwand had him in
yesterday and uh for die Hard and we've both seen it.

(02:02):
We were kind of laughing. We've both seen it dozens
of times. But there's something different about watching it analytically
for something like this and taking notes. And he did
the same thing. He came in with notes and those
are always the best ones. So, yeah, thanks for watching Lebowski.
Well it's not like that's a chore, but it's not
a chore. And it's one of those movies I could
watch over and over again and it's like a tattoo

(02:23):
on my forehead, it really is. So you were from
Philly originally, I'm from Philadelphia. Nice, Yeah, and r a
great town. Oh man, Philly is the best. It's changed
a lot much like Atlanta has changed a lot. Sure, Um,
but Philly is amazing and uh it's a huge part
of my cultural and just my DNA. I can't I

(02:46):
can't take the Philly out of me. It's one of
those towns I think too. There's a lot of pride.
Yeah for a city, yea, some would argue and then
in uh pride in excess. Uh, we're you know, we're
a town that really thrives on the pride of its

(03:06):
sports teams, even when it's sports teams have been utter failures.
I've got a couple of really good Philly friends that
are you know, lifers lifers. Are you into the sports
at all? Or I too? I'm a fair weather fan. Unfortunately,
Well you're doing pretty well then lately. Yeah, well this
year is a great year for us. You know, my
dad was like crying tears of joy when the Super

(03:29):
Bowl happened. Um, but you know it was like the
first Super Bowl I watched in full, probably in like
five years, and I was like jumping around my house.
I mean I was excited. Well, you had the same,
well not the same experience as me as a Falcons fan.
But uh, up until it all went bad, we had
the same experience where I feel like the whole world
was on your side, the whole world was on our side.

(03:51):
Unless you're a New England fan, nobody wants to see
them win, unless you are literally a New England person,
like everybody wanted Philly went. We are. Yeah, we we
have a reputation for being underdogs and we also just
seem to have a lot of curses against us. I mean,
we haven't won a Stanley Cup since nineteen seventy four.
The Eagles have never won a Super Bowl. I don't

(04:12):
even know. I don't think the Sixers have ever won
a championship to my knowledge. The Phillies, obviously we had
nineteen eight. We got really close. Ironically, I was in Vilnius,
Lithuania when we won and I was so bummed. And
actually the rest of the Doctor Dog dudes were in
Australia when the Phillies won, and we were all just
like pretty heartbroken. Yeah, well the Phillies are looking good again.

(04:36):
Sixers are better than they've been in forever forever. Yeah,
but the Sixers, we we got close, but we didn't
make it. Yeah, that was that was a disappointing playoff run.
But it's the first of what would be many, So
I hope. So yeah, I mean as a you know,
as a Philadelphia but I'm I'm an expat, Like I
don't live in Philly anymore. I live in Virginia now,
but as a Philadelphia and I want us to succeed

(04:58):
in every possible way. Like I grew up with Billy
being like working class. You know, it's different now it's
very European or something. I don't know even how to
describe it. There's like five coffee shops per block, right, um,
But I grew up with it being of course, I
grew up being a very working class place. Like, so
whenever any victory has happened, we are just like, oh yeah, yeah,

(05:21):
you know, we would burn the city down right in
a good way. In a good way. We burned the
city down. Yeah. Where is um? Where's the band spread out?
It sounds like everyone lives in different places? Yeah, so
are Scott mcknickin, our singer songwriter, lives in Tucson, Arizona. Now. Uh, Frank,
our guitar player, lives in Jersey. Um, and hopefully I'm

(05:44):
not blowing up anybody's spot. Toby lives in Delaware, Zach
is the only one left in Philadelphia because he's the
old dude hanging on to Philly. It seems some of
my favorite bands are spread out bands and don't like
all live in the same town together. Absence makes the
heart grow fond got the payment shirt on that you
were marked about. They very famously didn't ever live together. No, no,

(06:06):
over the place. They are all over the place. And
and you know what, the more I tour and the
more I hang out with bands that, like, it's just
becoming a thing. You know, like people want to feel
comfortable and maybe like their hometown doesn't make them feel
super comfortable. Um, Philly eventually for me became a place
where I was a drummer in thirteen or fourteen different bands. Seriously, Yeah,
that's such a drummer troupe, such a drummer trope. But

(06:29):
but good drummers are in short supply, yeah, exactly. So
I was like in an absurd amount of bands, and
one day, you know, I realized that my tour life
and my home life were the same thing, and it
just was exhausting. You're always out with somebody I was
always out with. I mean, I'm still always on tour
but like I wanted my home life to feel distinctly

(06:49):
different than my tour life, because tour is insanity and
when you come home and then you're like, all right.
I remember I came home from vacation. I was on
vacation in the Virgin Islands, came home and I played
a gig like you had to cut it short or
you know, like like I was on vacation for a
week and then we landed in JFK and then I

(07:09):
drove down from JFK to Philly and then immediately played
a show. I can even like go home and have
that unwind experience nothing, you know. I remember at the time,
I was like I should turn my phone off during
this vacation, but then the better half of me was like, no,
what if there's a call. What if there's a call,
you might need to take the call. Um. I think
that So, speaking of Philly being working class, I think

(07:31):
that working class attitude is instilled in the people who
are really and like, you know, it's like you, I
don't know, it's not like fake it till you make it,
but it's just like you just have to keep working
and working and working. What. Um, So you guys h
how did you How did you come to be in
the band, because we we talked a little bit of
that about on the elevator, but I want to hear

(07:52):
that story because I've been with Dr Dog as a
fan from the beginning. My friend Ryan shout out to
Ryan turned me onto them when I lived in l A.
And I guess like two thousand one ish too, maybe yeah,
um early, yeah, you were on board early. Well he
was on board early. Oh sure, sure, but you both

(08:12):
were ye yeah, give yourself some credit. That's amazing. So
the I joined the band in two thousand and ten,
but I had been a fan of the band for
a long time. Yes. Uh. My friend Dan uh uh
was like, you got to hear this band, Doctor Dog
or West Billy Band, And I was like, alright, great.
I listened to it totally blew my mind and then

(08:34):
I was on This is how long ago it was.
I was like eighteen years old. I was on vacation
with my family and Dr Dog happened to be playing
in the in Atlantic City. I was in Ocean City,
New Jersey, and they were opening for the rock on
on tours, Jack White's side project band, and uh, I
was like, oh, great, this band I just heard about
is playing a show. We should all go. So we

(08:55):
like got a huge group of friends together and we
saw Dr Dog play in the House of Blues in
Atlantic City and it was I mean it was like
transcendent yea and those early Doctor Dog shows. Like then
I would go see them play locally like forty people,
twenty people, and at the end it was like every
time I saw them, I'm like, man, that's the best. Yeah.

(09:17):
My whole thing early on was like, man, why aren't
these guys bigger? Like why am I in a room
WITHO right now? Um? Yeah, and and and then the
selfish part of me was like, yeah, don't tell anyone,
you know. The sudden the selfish part of me was like,
don't tell anyone, And the other selfish party was like,
I want to play drums in that. So I became
fast friends with them, and uh, you know, we were
playing a couple of different shows together, and uh, the

(09:40):
big one was I was playing with a belly dance
troupe and a boom had somehow got roped into this,
like because you always answered the phone, because I always
answered the phone, I got roped into this belly dance
group gig where I'm playing like a doom back, like
a belly dance drum. Yeah. And it was at the
soul Or stage at Baru and it was like this

(10:01):
Knox Bill belly dance band. Yeah, they're not even a
Philly band, but I somehow got connected with these guys
and U I Uh, we pull up to the park,
the camping area, the parking area for camping, and uh,
a big van pulls up next to us and it
was dr Dog and they were like, oh slick like

(10:22):
Philly and We're like, uh, you know, it was this
big moment. And ended up hanging out with them all
weekend and uh just became really close with them and
the drummer and I poisoned their drummer and spiritually, No, no,
it wasn't like that. It was more just like I
had so much respect for them and I loved that
band with all of my heart. You know. I listened

(10:43):
to their first record, Easy Beat to Death, and then
they had Takers and leaver z Ep and then we
all belonged came out and it was like a game
changer in Philadelphia. Man, such a great record, such a
great record. So uh, then they took me out for
my twenty one birthday. Um, Zach the keyboardists had this
like little piece of paper with a bunch of numbers

(11:04):
and chicken scratch and uh at Boro, he was like,
give me your phone number. He didn't have a cell phone.
He's like, give me your phone number, and on your
twenty one birthday, I'm gonna give you a call. We're
going to hang out no matter what the situation is.
And I was like, Okay, writes my number and like
the tiniest handwriting I've ever seen on this crappy little
card that looks like it's from but in his wallet.

(11:26):
And then a day before my twenty one birthday, I
get a call from Zach. He's like, hey, Black Keys
are playing tomorrow. We're all going. You're you're with us,
coming with us. And that was my twenty one birthday.
So it's just like a lot of like they kept
just being so generous and then uh, their drummer quit
in two thousand nine, and Um, I ran into Zack

(11:48):
on the street because Zack is a big figure in
this story. But I ran him down the street and
I was so I had been on tour playing like
progressive rock music. I don't know if you know this,
but like I was, I was like deep frogue. I
was playing with Adrian Blue from Crimson. Yeah, that was
my gig. I was playing with Adrian Blue, and then

(12:09):
I was playing in a Zappa band with all the
Zappa Xappa musicians. So I was doing some nerdy drumming,
like very like intense, like your whole life is consumed
by Zappa music and Crimson music. Yeah. Stuff, It's really tough,
and when you're in that world it can get kind
of like claustrophobic. And then eventually like the you know,

(12:31):
I I just had desires deeper than playing complicated music.
I wanted to play like song like song songs, you know.
And that's no shade to Zappa. He has plenty of songs,
but it's just like no Zeppa Zeppa everyone could set. Yeah,
it's not like put it on at the party music,
you know. It's like I'm a headcase. A lot of

(12:52):
people listen to Zeppa alone in a room. And I
love Zappa. Zappa will always be one of my favorite musicians,
but it's just I had yearnings the fer than that.
So I quit all those bands and then I was like,
you know, what I'm gonna quit drumming. I had to
sit in my head that I wasn't cut out to
be a drummer, and I sold all of my drums
for DJ equipment. Oh my god, it's not even thinking

(13:15):
about it. I'm like, what was I thinking? But so
I ran into Zack on the street and he's like, hey,
what do you order? Life crisis? Quarter life crisis. He's
like he's like, hey, what are you up to? And
I was like, nothing, I'm doing nothing. You didn't say
I'm DJ slick. I was just like, I'm gonna DJ
in New York. And he like chuckled and he was like, oh, well,
you know, it's a good running into you. And then
I like said goodbye, and as I walked away, I

(13:36):
walked directly into a poll like as hard as I could.
And Zach was just like like we had that like
movie moment when he was like, are you okay? And
I was like yeah, man, fine, see you later. Uh so,
but again, uh this is another weird coincidence. Like as
I was buying the DJ equipment from a Craigslist dude,

(13:57):
he was like, yeah, you hear dr drugs, drummer quit?
And I was like so out of it. I was
just like, oh, cool, whatever, Like I didn't even think
of it. And then the day after Christmas, I got
a call from Zach and he was like, hey, I
ran into you. You're not doing anything. Do you want
to join the band? And I was like just just
straight up in right now, just a straight up like
you want an audition? Okay. But I've later found out

(14:20):
that I got to the studio and they didn't. Nobody
else was there. They were really banking on this thing working.
It's great, but I think there was an inherent trust
because we had built up a friendship over the course
of like four years. It just all kind of worked.
It all kind of worked, and I mean it was cute.
You know. It's like they're like learned five songs and
in the back of my mind, I'm like, I know
your whole catalog the back, and I'm like, I'll put

(14:43):
some time into it, you know, just yeah, like actuality.
It's like, oh, I know your whole catalog back there.
So we played you know, four or five songs. I
think we ran through like Alaska. So and uh they're
like okay, this is good. They're like, can play anything else?
And I was like, let's run all the records down,
and they were like real and we went from easy
beat all the way up until Shame Shame, and we

(15:03):
we played every record and it was so fun. Yeah
that might that still might be like my favorite rehearsal
I've ever been a part of. Bet man. Oh. So
it was a dream and it felt so natural because
I already knew the songs. I knew them as people,
I knew they were I knew that they were sweet,
and there wasn't any of that awkwardness when you're like
approaching a gig and you're like, man, I doing what

(15:26):
you are? So uh yeah, it was amazing. And then
of course like yeah, you have that like first thought,
best thought practice, and then I had to like go through,
you know, three years of getting to really know everybody
and really know what the personalities are and how to
work with them, and like the honeymoon periods over and

(15:47):
well yeah, I remember after the fourth show we played
together in Syracus, Toby took a look at me and
he was like, yeah, man, I don't know, I don't
know it's gonna work. And I was like really, I
was like I thought I'm doing Okay, it's like yeah,
but you know, like you come from a then provisational
progressive rock world like and we need everything to be
like solid. Yeah. I was like, oh, so they really

(16:08):
I mean, you know, like I appreciate them for giving
me a chance, but it was hard, and of course
you know, they had another drummer before I did. And
then the big secret is that Scott is a monster drummer.
And Scott plays drums on Shadow People. Uh, he plays
all the drums on We All Belong. Yeah, Scott Um,

(16:28):
he's a He's a phenomenal drummer in a very like
Jangkie way. He's very like um, a lot of character
his drumming. Um, I wouldn't call him like a guy
with like a lot of technical prowess, but his tone
is really good and his ear for drums is like incredible. Um.
Some of the drums he did on Easy Beat were

(16:50):
recorded one drum at a time, likely Yeah, like super
cool approach, very kitchen sink approach to recording. So I
learned a lot from them, and I also had to
be like respect for the old drummer Justin and Scott
drumming while also trying to add something different through the conversation.

(17:10):
So when we made be the Void the first record, uh,
that was my first record with the band, it was
sort of like listening back to it, I'm like, oh, yeah,
you could totally hear me like shaking off the progue.
Really yeah, there's a lot of there's some complicated drumming
on that record. But like sometimes I'm like, I listened back,
I'm like, was that unnecessarily complicated? You know? It was

(17:32):
a bit of a mental shift, I guess well, and
you know, talking about payment, like those guys Toby and
Scott in particular, grew up obsessive with payment, obsessive to
the point where if like I start playing Shady Lane
right now, they'll be like, Okay, let's play all of
you know. Or I played range Life the other night
on our bus, and uh then it was like, okay,

(17:53):
can we go into all can we just play all
of Wawie's Awe? Like we play or what what that's
not on whow He's Awe? But you know, um, those
guys like that's the world they're coming from. And Pavement
had some there's some shared influences like Can and Um,
like the more crowd rock stuff like when you start
going back with the Pavement, it's like, oh, there's like Us,

(18:14):
Maple and all these bands that influenced them, and that
then I got really into those bands and recognized that
there was common ground, and so I could be like, oh,
like Pavement, I could take the things I love about
payment and the things I level about progressive rock and
like kind of smashing smashing together in a way that
could be really a different um. But yes, Scott and
Toby are like huge Pavement dudes. Same here man and

(18:35):
I'm in an old man band. Uh. I got in
my first band when I was thirty eight years old,
and it's just old friends from high school and college
that we all lived in within two miles of each other.
And it was like, wait a minute, you play guitar
and I play guitar, and saying you played drums, you
play bass, Like why don't we just get together and
it's the most fun thing in my life? And we do.
We do. We only do cover songs. We don't we

(18:57):
don't have time to write. We've all got kids and
we're all z but uh, we played like one or
two shows a year out when a friend calls and says, hey,
we need some money to do thirty minutes and uh
my buddy was doing U and he's in a Weezer
tribute band and he said, hey, we're doing a nineties
night and we have us and uh, I think that
was like a primus thing. He was like, would you

(19:18):
guys be up for learning like twelve Pavement songs? Oh man, yes, yeah.
So we did that and we played like our Pavement
dream set two drummers. Uh no, we didn't have in
the stand of it. I tried to, and I actually
have gotten an obob a little bit because of the podcast,
and so that's kind of like it was one of
my like big moments in life. I was like, wait

(19:39):
a minute, you listen to this thing. You gotta get
Malchimus on here. I and emailed him actually because Bob
getting his email, and uh, I've never heard back. His
new record came out today Hard. Yeah, I know it
sounds great. I haven't listened to you. Oh it sounds
great after I'm a Malchemist for I'm a life right now,
you know. I just read uh his Uh there's a
New York Times interview and a uh Washington The Washington

(20:01):
Post interview is really good and I can relate to
him in a lot of ways, like we're kind of
you know, He's like, I feel really awkward. I feel
like I don't have a good voice, but like, yeah,
I cracked myself up with my music and like hopefully
that's enough. You know, he's one of my favorite guitar
players of all time. YEP, there was a moment at
the I saw them quite a few times back in
the day, but then I went to the reunion gig

(20:24):
at the Tabernacle actually where you guys here tonight, and
there was a moment uh after the first right before
the first uh inn or not intermission, but encore, when
everyone walked off stage mountainous waff off stage, but we
were sitting kind of to the side on the upstairs
of the balcony, and he was he never took his

(20:44):
guitar off, and he was sitting in the wings on
a box, noodling. And if you were out in the
audience and you weren't on the side like we were,
you couldn't see that. You just heard this stuff. He
never took his guitar off, And that three minutes was
one of my favorite parts of the show because he
was just sitting there in the dark in the wings
doing his malcolmus noodling and it was fucking gorgeous. And

(21:06):
that's the thing about him too, is like he uh
in this Washington Post interview, and I can relate to
this because I get like I get performance anxiety as well.
And he's like, you know, when we were on Late
Night in the nineties doing cut your Hair, He's like,
I closed my eyes for half of the performance, and
he's like, because I didn't feel like I just I
was like, when is this going to be over? Even

(21:27):
when payment was playing coach, He's like, I closed my
eyes and I was like, when is this going to
be over? And I understand that because, like, you know,
you can when you're at home writing, you can just
live in your own world and like, yeah, you can
crack yourself up with your music, like play all kinds
of hilarious stuff. And right, I mean some of the
Pavement lyrics are so funny. Rattled by the rush caught

(21:50):
my dad crying. I mean I think about that line
all the time, and then the way that it's juxtaposed
where it's like, uh, you know, brush your teeth, shirt smell,
you know, it's like like caught my dad crying. That's
such a vulnerable thing to say. And then like the
rest of that song is like we call her Barbara
Larva Larva. Barbara rhymes like, oh yeah, I'm sure a

(22:11):
lot of times he's his tongue is firmly in cheek,
so that rhymes rhymes yeah. And the actually the rattle
by the rest story I love the most is that
it's like I can't believe when we went back to
relearn it, like how like how slow that song is
because of how high we were really like that songs
like seventy beats per minute, just like slow. You know,

(22:36):
it's slow, man. We don't want to listen to that now,
I know, right. Yeah. So we were talking a little
bit on the elevator on the way up here about um,
the organic growth of Dr Dog And I've seen it
with my eyeballs as a fan going to see uh
from like the vinyl at the center stage to the

(22:56):
masquerade to the bucket theater to shaking knees and uh,
which obviously that's a festival, but I feel like those
festivals earn a lot of fans that way. Is that
is that a strategy or is it? I mean, the
growth has been so organic and natural, it seems like
because it was not like, oh, we played this hundred

(23:17):
seat venue and then the next year we were doing
hundred seat theater. No, it's not like that. And actually,
like the more I see bands like immediately go from
playing a hundred capacity rooms to playing eighteen hundred capacity rooms,
I'm always wary because I'm like, you're not gonna be
able to deal with this. Uh, the slow growth is
so much truer, and uh, yeah, you're right. It's like

(23:40):
when even when I first joined the band, around the
time that Shame Shame was being finished, Um, we were
only playing a hundred to three hundred capacity rooms on
that first tour, and you know, somewhere sellouts, somewheren't even sellouts.
And this was that like Dr Dog was doing well, um,
and people were a aware of us. But you know,

(24:02):
then the next time we play like Iowa City or whatever,
it's like, yeah, you play the hundred and fifty capacity
your room for three years, and then the next time
you play the three hundred, and then the next time
you play the five hundred, and then like you play
the five hundred for what seems like forever, and then
you're at the thousand, and it's like and it feels
like such a tangible like like we can all breathe

(24:22):
a side of really like we did it, you know,
by working hard. Like I always got the sense that
you some bands give up when they don't hit that
certain level. And Dr Dog always seem maybe it's at
Philly work ethic. Seemed like you guys are gonna go
out and fucking earn each show. You're gonna earn that
fan to tell ten more people, and and it never

(24:45):
goes away. Yeah, And I would so much rather be
in a position where it never goes away instead of
the you know, instant like boom, we're done. And I've
I've seen it happen with friends bands where they just
comes so jaded. Uh. Now that's not to say that
we're not like you know, we we have a sense
of like okay, like playing this room again, but um,

(25:09):
when we go on to play the show, we we
never lose a sense of a love for the thing.
And I totally agree with you. I think, yeah, it's
it is our Philly work ethic, and it is our
relentlessness and even um, you know, last night we were
starting to have kind of a weird show and then
we like have little tricks that help us get out

(25:29):
of it, and then like humor can be one of
those tricks. So like we're in the middle of playing
the show and uh, Toby looks at me and he
looks like kind of crazy, Like you know, he's like,
we're all we're both just exhausted because we've been on
tour since April. Well I've been on tours since January,
but I get that later. I've been touring with two bands.
So he looks at me and he says, hey, if

(25:50):
you think if we leave now, do you think we
can beat the traffic? And it just killed it killed me.
He has a lot of one liners like that. He
like my deep secret is like he's he's my guy.
That's okay. Everyone has the secret weapon, everyone has their guy.
His voice is amazing. But Toby looks at me and
just goes so dead pan, and I like lost it

(26:12):
because because I knew he wreck. He saw in me
that I was tired, and I saw in him that
he was tired, and we were just you know, we're
playing fate or you know, it's called the Beach on
the record, but we call it fate. We're playing through
this song and we're all we're we're all just like
hanging by a threat. Tours over in two days. We're
all ready to go home and see our significant others
and our friends. So it's just like just that little

(26:35):
moment of like, I know, like I'm aware of what
you're going through. Let's let's laugh about it. And then
the rest of the show was so funny, and then
we walked down stage like all like, you know, arm
in arm, and that's how that's how we get over
those things. Um, so you would be a good feeling,
you know, because you worked through something together. It yeah,
it is, and uh yeah, I would tell any young

(26:58):
musician like, if you're on a slow route, just like
don't give up even you know, even if you like
aren't making a living yet doing it like it's so
much better. And someone who's like I'm famous immediately, you know.
I've heard stories of people who are like Instagram celebrities
who are like sixteen years old with like a million

(27:20):
followers doing like cart wheels when they find out that
they've had a million followers. And I'm such a thing
now to the expectation of not having to wait for stuff,
whether success or the download of a film, and and
there's merit to uh certain things, you know, certain things
becoming more efficient and uh communication getting more efficient. But

(27:44):
when I see somebody like celebrating over getting a million
Instagram followers, I'm just like, oh man, it's all downhill,
you know, like if that, if that's if that's the
high if you're considering that the high water mark of
your success, and like the rest of your life is
going to be disappointing because there's so much about life
to celebrate. Um. I often tell people like Dr Dog,

(28:06):
we like try to be like a life celebration band,
you know, like that's what the show is like, that's
what the shows are like, and that's what we're trying
to convey, Like we're and and and humbly. It's not
like we think that we are like yeah, we're here
to help you celebrate life. It's more just like no,
I mean, like our lyrics are about view viewing negativity

(28:27):
in a positive fight and try and trying as hard
as you can to be like yeah, life is suffering,
but like yeah, well we'll make it through. It's always um,
I mean, you get something out of every band that
you see live. But Doctor Dog shows are always fun awesome,
like it's just and I saw it at Shaking Knees.
You know, when you play a big festival with a
lot of people who don't know who you are. I

(28:48):
was walking around and literally hearing people like who the
funk are these guys? Like this is great? Who are
these guys? Who are these guys? It still happens, although
the the polar opposite of that. As we played jay
Z's festival in l A, The Made American Festival, We're
one of two rock bands on the bill. We had
a noon flot Who is the other rock band Weezer?
Who I uh yeah, I mean we can have the

(29:09):
Weezer conversation, but like you know, blue Out and Picker Tinner,
Masterpieces and the rest I can you know, I'll take
or leave. But we uh were with the other rock band.
But they have a following and they also have like
a rock radio, Like people are aware of Weezer. But
we go on stage at noon and like the curtain

(29:31):
dropped and the crowd is just like bewildered, like what
they had no idea what to do? They I just
remember like staring at people in they're like they're like
looking at the guitars, like, what's a guitar? What's that? Guy?
Are they in the wrong place? Well, and you know
it's not, because I mean, it's just the festival is
so E D M heavy. So the changeover between sets

(29:53):
fifteen minutes, which if any musicians are listening, like, is
a nightmare. You need at least like a half an
hour if you have a lot of gear, and we
have a lot of gear. Uh. So we had a
fifteen minute changeover and it was televised like worldwide broadcast,
and we're like we didn't even have our monitors on,

(30:14):
Like we're like, okay, and then you have our set
was a half hour. We played like six songs and
then we were done. Like I just remember like it
sounded as if you know, there's like that zen trope
of like the one hand clapping. It sounded like one
hand was clapping. I thought, this is gonna end in
a victorious and we want them all over. No, no, no,

(30:36):
So much of playing live is falling flat up, flat
on your face. Uh. And it's knowing that tomorrow will
be might be better, you know, um, but it's it's true.
We go out there and we try and I would
hate it if I went up and played a set passively,
and I think the rest of the band feels that way.
You always get a sense that you guys are working

(30:56):
your asses off up there to like deliver a fun experience,
and we tried to make it easier, and I don't
think it's ever gonna happen. Even with our new record. Um,
we tried to pair things down and even simplify further,
and it's still like, it's not a walk in the park.
I love the new record. Um, it's so chill and

(31:18):
so um. It's like because I kind of know Dr
Dog is sort of the rollicking bar band thing and
there are a couple of tunes on there like that
for sure, but I really like the vibe of this one.
Thank you. Yeah. It was a conscious choice, Yeah, trying
to be a little bit more ethereal with the last
two records because we've done the rock record a last

(31:41):
two meaning because you guys have put out a couple
of interesting things lately. Yeah, to talk about that, I
mean it's like we've got so we recorded a band
of Mansions first, so that was two thousand fourteen, and
then that project got shelved for a while, got shelved
until the end of two thousand sixteen because an opportunity
came along. We got a grant to finally put on

(32:03):
a stage show for a record called The Psychedelic Swamp,
which just like the first thing ever, right, it's the
first thing that Scott and Toby recorded as Dr Dog.
They had another band called Raccoon that was like more
popular around Philadelphia, but Dr Dog was like their home
recording project, and they made this crazy like actually a

(32:24):
Zappa reference. It's almost like the Zappa record Uncle Meat,
like it's really Collagi And they made this weird tape record,
like there's like twenty five copies of it out there.
There's some of it's on YouTube, like a dilapidated tape.
And then, uh, we got this opportunity to do a
stage show with the Pig Iron Theater Company in Philly,

(32:46):
and The Swamp was just the right thing and had
a full concept. It almost had like a full libretto.
So we got money to do that, and then we
did a stage show in Philly for four nights with
a full theater troupe, and it was one of the
most creatively satisfying things like I've ever been a part
of which is great. But we had this great record
I like, I love a band of Mansions, and I

(33:08):
was like, man, when does the band of Mansions that
we're going to come out? Swamp took the precedence. We
made a companion record to the theater show, and so
when we released it, our fans were like, what is this?
Like you real wait, you re recorded an album? So
I think it was confusing for people. And then we
toured it but we didn't really like play any of
the songs from it. And then at the end of

(33:30):
two thousand and sixteen, we lost the member that year
he quit and it's all good. He It was just
like he was a really important member and fan and
uh then uh Trump got elected and we were like, uh,
like we had plans to release a band of Mansions,
and then we were like, well, it doesn't feel right

(33:51):
to do anything now, it doesn't feel right to live.
Like I were just like, yeah, you know, like some
of the band members have kids, and they're just like,
what's our future looking like? So we decided to put
out Mansions and it was already set in stone, but
then we made the decision to make it um all
we donated all the money to the Southern Property Law

(34:13):
Center and a sort of a great, Okay, we can't
take money from people right now, there's so much suffering happening.
Let's donate it to a cause that could hopefully help people.
And then we took a year off from doring, which
we haven't done since I joined the band. UM. So
that's where that's kind of where we got to critical

(34:33):
equation UM. And then taking that year off, it's uh
you sort of realized like, Okay, maybe the band could
be functioning a lot better, UM, and the band could
be communicating a lot better. So the whole emphasis behind
this record was to uh find a way to get

(34:54):
better at being a band. Uh. I hesitate to say
in some kind of Monster your Metallica documentary way, because
we didn't we didn't hire a therapist, but we've been
acting as our own therapists for this for this record,
which you made a concerted effort. It was a concerted
effort to do something uh more more in the ethereal

(35:17):
zone because abandon Mansions had started to touch on that,
and then The Swamp had had some elements of that,
but it was still very much like a really like
abstract and brash record. Yeah. I listened to that this morning.
Actually it's weird. Yeah, it's a weird record. Every song
has the lyric Swamp in it. Uh notice that. Yeah,
we'll go back and listen to it. It's weird. Um,

(35:37):
but it's also trying to tell this story. Like if
we had done the Swamp again, if if I could
George lucas the situation, I would uh, I would have
like included a full, like forty page libretto with that record,
explaining why we did it. But instead it's like you
get the vinyl and then you're like, what is the

(35:57):
song about? Whose phrases? And what is the swamp? Like
there's all these characters that I mentioned in the lyric,
but there's nothing in the book the booklet would describe that.
So to anyone who's listening who's a doctor doc fan,
I'm sorry, and uh, if you ever want to know
this story, um, just ask me and I try to

(36:17):
tell you, but you might have to be real high
to understand it. Right. Well, it might not be a wrong. Well,
I love the new record. It's really great. It's it's
got such a cool jill vibe and it. It feels
like a record made with a bunch of guys in
a room. That's it. That's what we're trying to go for.
We did, and we did. We were in a very

(36:38):
small room with a guy named gust Staffert. Okay, I
was gonna I saw that video that your folks sat
that kind of just short making of I wondered who
that guy was, Gust Staffert. He uh. I first became
aware of him. I went to go see back and
there was a good dude place. I saw him like
two weeks ago, man at the Tabernacle. Man Back. He's
I see back every time I can. Do you know

(36:59):
the what Torres did she open? We didn't uh go
for the opener? It's okay, busy people. Yeah. Um Beck
is phenomenal. I saw him a couple of years ago
at the Rheman and it's like you could focus on
any member of the band and be like, oh my god,
oh my god, oh my god. Smokey Hormel a guitar player.
Well they're also nimble, like like, okay, are we gonna

(37:22):
be the bluegrass band? The James Brown Band or the
and like weird p FU. Yeah, yeah, totally so like
you know, I'm what you could focus on just the
metal Johnson the bass player, Joey Warrenker the drummer. Um,
oh is that Joey. I didn't know that Joey or
not on the not the gig you saw it was
named Chris Coleman. Jelley Warnker is bex dude whenever he

(37:43):
can because he's he's been around forever. Oh my god, yeah,
totally so. And then Gus was playing auxiliary and he
was like playing cello at one point. I mean, he's
just like an all around he can do everything guy.
And so that's how I became aware of him. I
didn't know that he was like a production guy rum
and then I became even more aware of him. My

(38:03):
my girlfriend Natalie Prass recorded some tracks with him in
l a UM and she used Becks Band as the
backup band for some of the tracks. And I just
kept hearing about him, you know. Um. And then he
got the gate with Roger Waters, so now he plays
really so now he plays bass with Roger Waters and
Joey Warnker is the drummer, and uh, Roger Waters not

(38:25):
playing bass. Roger Waters likes like he does on some songs.
But he also likes to play acoustic guitar, and then
there's also parts where he's got like a headset microphone.
He's acting out the wall. He's doing the Roger Water
He's doing the Roger Waters thing. He's like a wall.
So it was cool because we started working with Gus
like in the in a break of Roger Waters touring.

(38:47):
So like, I feel like this record is kind of floety. Yeah. Man,
there's some like realte to say trippy because it's such
a it is trippy, though it's okay to sage trippy
because it's one of those like I do with my Uh.
I had my regular listening at home on the so
nose of course, But anytime one of my bands comes
out with a new record since I was in high school,

(39:08):
I do a serious headphone listen by myself in a
room hopefully dark with the headphones on. And that's really
where you get the full experience with the ship. Yeah,
and I did that with this one, and I was like, man,
there's a lot a lot of trippy ship going on
in this one. It's a trippy record and uh we
you know, we recorded it and it's like his his

(39:28):
like a converted home studio that has like you know
that there's a Portland a joke about like this is
the microphone from pet Sounds. So the first day of recording,
like there's this Celeste or Celeste. It's a like a
very specific instrument. Um that's like it's almost like a
it's like a unplugged Fender rhodor something. Yeah. Or it

(39:51):
has like a kind of like belt like tone. And
I go to play it and Gus it's like, oh,
that's the Celeste from pet Sounds. And I'm like, ha
ha Portland, right. He's like, no, that's that's the one.
I was like, did you take your hands off of it?
I was just like and then I look at it.
I'm like, oh, yeah, this totally has to be I
mean it's just like, yeah, beat the crap. He's like yeah,

(40:12):
He's like Roger Water's money. That's great. This Roger Waters
when he went and bought this the less from pet
Sounds great. I could never even imagine being in that position.
I've always gotten a bit of a beach boise vibe
from Dr Dog too. Oh it's beach boys worship. Yeah,
and um yeah, totally every time I see you know
that you described as a psychedelic rock band. Ago, They're

(40:33):
not a psychedelic rock band. But then when I was
listening to the headphones at sea and I was like, oh,
they are kind of a psychedelic rock band. Yeah, because
I think of something different when I hear that. No,
that's a stude. I like we you know, everyone tries
to define Dr Dog by some something. Yeah, we just
say we're a rock and roll band. Yeah, like I
think of Black Mountain. When I think of a psychedelic

(40:54):
rock band, I think of something much heavier. Yeah, Sleep Yeah,
Sleep is a is a psychedelic band, yeah, exactly. Uh.
But we we your Doctor Dog. That's how I describe
you as. Like, you know, you always reminded me of
the Beach Boys meets the band uh, with some little
Beetles thrown in. We get we get the Three Bees
a lot Beach Boys band, Beatles. Oh yeah, and and

(41:14):
and rightfully so, I mean like those are all bands
that we've grown to love and and and uh last
night we were playing through like I mean, we were
playing through Beatles songs last night. We had like a
big campfire type vibe after the show Birmingham, and we
were playing through like but we're also playing like will Berries,

(41:35):
we were playing a lot of stuff last night. Uh,
we're playing some All things must Pass Like yeah, um,
but you know we get those three be's a lot
and Beach Boys are obviously a a point of fascination
for all of us. But Steely Dan, I would I
would actually say, if you listen to Toby songs, really
try and catch the Steely Dan influence. I'm not joking,

(41:56):
like I love Steele. We have and I and I'm
I'm a Steely Dan look obsessive. So I really feel
like we're at a point now where we're in a
little bit of a Dan zone, Like especially working with Gus. Um,
Gus is so hot. He's like constantly talking about high
fi gear and like you know, like this board was

(42:16):
used for this classic recording. Like we're we're starting to
enter this like our Steely Dan phase and I'm like
so psychic. Great. So it's like, oh man, well I
could do this all day, but we need to talk

(42:39):
about the big Lebowski we do. Um, I can't wait.
I appreciate you indulging me. It's funny. My my lead
guitarist Eddie is coming tonight. We're both very excited and
out of the corner, and I saw him texting me
right now are you talking to him? So, oh yeah,
you're talking to me, and we're about to get into
my favorite uh you know, I would love to say
like eight and a half or like, uh two One

(43:02):
of Space obviously is my favorite movie. But this show
is let's let's put all of our pretensions aside and
talk about The Big Lebowski because movies that have been
picked for this have been like die Hard, Tron Tron,
Big Lebowski, Billy Madisvengerson. Billy Madison is the only other
one I could talk about with the same kind of
really well, just because I've seen it. Next year, when

(43:24):
you guys come back around, yeah, back in So I
watched this again last night. I'm a Cohen Brothers um
fanatic um. The only other film I've covered so far
on this has been Miller's Crossing with a with a
comedian named Ben Acker, a good friend of mine, and
um Surprice. I't din't Fargo yet. Someone will pick that
at some point, But Big Lebowski I think followed up

(43:48):
far Ago if I'm not mistaken, which uh you know
they make this Oscar winning UM crime caper followed up
by this crime caper, Like they do crime papers better
than anyone if they didn't kind of convoluted crime capers. Yes,
but Lebowski had such a different tone, and they established
it right off the bat with the drifting, tumbling tumbleweed

(44:11):
song and the literal tumbleweed tumbling towards Los Angeles. You
get Anglis, Yeah, you get Sam's beautiful, rich baritone doing
this sometimes there's a man. Man. It just sets that
tone right up the bat. Oh, and uh, you know
you've got the tumbleweed. But then you're at Ralph's. Yeah,

(44:31):
it's such a jarring juxtaposition. And then you're at Ralph's
fluorescent lighting of her else and like why is this
guy in the dairy section? Yeah? And like why is
he in the dairy section? And why is he writing
a check for sixty some cents or whatever? Yeah? Uh,
and he's like trying, obviously trying to flirt with the

(44:52):
cashier and she's not having it. And um, that opening scene,
you know, it's funny. I remember when The Big Labass
he came out, and I remember reading a review of
it in the Philadelphia Inquirer that was sort of like
why did the Coen Brothers make this film? It's enjoyable,
but why did they make this film? What is this film?

(45:15):
And um, you know, uh, I think about weird Al
Yankovic actually because he's like, he's like, for me, it's
every other record that seems to be the one that
touches people. He's like, he's like, I'll have a huge
record that does really well, and then the next one
will be one that's very personal to me and the
and the public might not understand it. So he had
like Running with Scissors, which was like a huge record

(45:37):
for him, and then it's like Poodle Hat and you're like,
what's poodle had? You know, it's like a really weird record. Um,
he's like, but he loves that record. And that's kind
of the way of view Lebowski because Lebowski is in
between Fargo and Oh Brother were out though, two massively
successful Coen Brothers films, and then you have this like
what is this weird child that they've created, Like it's

(45:58):
uh oh. So the first time I watched The Big Lebowski,
I was on a my first tour because seventeen years old,
and uh, I was on a tour with a bunch
of other seventeen year olds playing playing rock and roll
music for this thing called the School of Rock. It
wasn't had nothing to do with the movie School of Rock.
It was a program in Philadelphia and we were like

(46:20):
doing a summer tour playing like classic rock songs, and
somebody was like, we should watch The Big Lebowski. Remember
watching it and be like, I don't get it. I
don't get it. I don't understand what this movie is about.
And then two thousand and thirteen came along and I
was on a Doctor Dog tour and I was going
through kind of a hard time, like I was, I

(46:40):
was moving away from Philadelphia and uh, I wasn't kind
of in a relationship, but it wasn't really going that
well and I needed something to put my mind off
of things. And we had a copy of The Big
Lebowski on DVD on the tour bus, and I just
put it in one day and I watched it every
day for six weeks. Yes, it was. It has become

(47:01):
such an important movie to me, as like it's there's
like a zen books written about Lebowski. Uh, there's even
a book like that's like co authored by Jeff Bridges.
Like the Dude and the Dude in the Zen Masters
It's called which I've read It's fantastic book. Um, and
the movie became part of my zen training. I also

(47:21):
practiced meditation twice a day, so like watching this movie
and meditating, like it all became the same thing. And
I got so immersed in The Big Lebowski, like to
the point where by the end of week six, like
I'm watching the movie and saying lines along with it,
and it's like I know the script now. Yeah, so okay,
I drifted for a second, but back to the movie.
No, no no, no, that's that is That is the drift

(47:44):
you know of The Big Lebowski. It will do that.
It is more than a movie. I mean, clearly they're
in there. I believe this is gonna be the seventeenth
year of Lebowski Fest. Have you ever been by the
way Dr Doc has played Lebowski Fest? What Dr Dog
played the Louisville Lebowski. No shit. And we had to learn, uh,
we had to learn. Just dropped in to see what
you know? The can you under Roger? As we learned, Uh,

(48:06):
the Captain Beefheart song from the movie where he's where
he's lying on the floor and uh, Smokey calls him
and he leaves in the voicemail. Ye, the song that's
playing there, we learned that song and Smokey is uh
what's his name to gi? Yeah, yeah, one of my
one of the I mean, see, that's the thing I
could say, Like, it's one of my favorite scenes in
the movie when when he says market zero or you know,

(48:28):
market eight, market zero marketing and then you're ending a
smoky yer and entering a world of pain. Uh. You know,
such an intense scene. My wife last night was like,
oh my god, but there's something it's so intense. But
there's something about Smokey's uh one over one over, like
he's so his character is so believable. Yeah, uh in

(48:50):
a in a situation where so many characters are unbelievable,
like uh, to turo as the Jesus, like like, who
does that guy exist? Or uh, I mean Walter definitely exists,
which is he's based on the filmmaker John Millius. Oh
I didn't know that. Yeah, And actually the dude is
based on a guy named Jeff Doud, So they were

(49:11):
both based on two dudes in reality. And John Millius
is a there's a great documentary about him actually, but
he's the guy who wrote did he write Apocalypse? Now?
It's something to do? He wrote and directed Red Dawn.
He was very right wing, but very I mean he
was Walter Subjeck. You know. He would he was famous

(49:32):
for going into offices and like pulling a gun on
a studio exec and he would wear those aviator like
shooter glasses and touch of Phil Specter in there. Yeah. Yeah,
just a guy who's paranoid but like has does have
a big heart, but doesn't quite know how to express
himself and it comes out in rage. Um. Such an

(49:52):
interesting character. But something I say to every fellow Lebowskiite
is like, there's a little bit of their character in
you too. Like when I watched the movie, I'm like, yeah,
there's times where I'm irrational like Walter. There's times where
I'm like totally passive and like Donnie and like I'm
just like positive, but it's you're like why is he

(50:14):
so positive? And then sometimes you're like the dude where
you're like passive aggressive, where you're like this aggression will
not stand man. You're like you're like you know, you
just like don't you don't quite um know how to
express yourself or something. I don't know. Actually, I don't
know if I could ever relate to the night. That

(50:34):
could be a little nihilist sometimes, but and and Lincoln
Berry pancakes do sound good right now. One thing I
noticed last night that I've never noticed before, and I've
seen this movie quite a few times too, um, is
that dude, the dude has so many funny one liners.
He's as a person. If you just forget about you're

(50:55):
watching movie. Let's say you know this guy, he's fucking hysterical,
but no one ever laughs at him. He throws out
all these funny one liners, like genuinely, like clever wit,
and no one ever laughs at these jokes in the movie.
And the Last Night is like, that's kind of funny, man.
These are great lines. Oh, I mean the line where
clearly you're not a golfer, like, of course they're not

(51:16):
gonna laugh because of the situation, but at least some
house training. Of course you know you can. Also, that's
something I've noticed, like the second time I watched the movies.
He never calls anybody else dude. He always says man. Yeah,
I think he said man like two hundred times he says,
he says man, but he's the dude, so no one
else has ever dude. Yea, yeah, he says man. Yeah.
So that was something I noticed early on. But he

(51:38):
does have a lot of funny one liners. There's that
great line when they're you know, the classical music is
playing and Lebowski is at the fireplace and he's like,
what makes him man? Yeah? And he says, you know
that in the parataesticals exactly, and he just goes, perhaps,
you're right, he's great. Uh what's his name? Shout out

(51:58):
to David Huddleston and well, he is the Big Lebowski.
He's the Big Lebowski, which is funny. I think a
lot of people think that's the dude, but no, he's
he's the deadbeat Lebowski or or or is the dude
the big Lebowski you know, philosophically or is it him? Uh? Yeah,
I think that. I think at times the Big Lebowski, uh,

(52:20):
you know, the real Jeffrey Lebowski or the famous Jeffrey
Lebowski is the Big Lebowski. And then there's other time
when the other times when the dude really tries to
transcend himself and he's trying he's trying to be a
big he's trying to be a big person. Well, he
always The other thing I noticed too, is he's always
on the path to doing the right thing and he

(52:40):
has figured it out. Walter is the one that sucks
everything up constantly. You fucked it up. But but Jeff,
but the dude is is kind of way ahead. He's
he's one step ahead of everybody. Despite his stoner slackness,
he's kind of right the whole time. Yeah, especially when
he cracks. The whole case is just going on. He

(53:01):
does know what's going on, but he's just there's the idiot. Yeah,
Walter is an idiot, and uh, you know only hammered
him by everything that he tries to. You know, the
briefcase full of his undis just the whites. You know,
it's like the ring whole, the whole ring, your angle.
And then of course, like h you know, this is

(53:21):
what happens when you stranger in the ass and he's
yea with the kid with the with they're chasing that
kid down, and then there's the guy in the iron
iron lung, Oh my god, and that whole that whole
side story is so fascinating to me, and like that
movie in the movie is about an hour, it's almost

(53:41):
two hours long. So sometimes when I get into the
third act of the movie, especially when he's getting chased
by the scissors with the scissors, sometimes I feel like
I'm lost in the lost in the dream a little bit. Um.
It's kind of how I feel when I watch Inherent Vice.
Like I've watched Inherent Vice a couple of times now,
and I can't necessarily tell you anything about it because

(54:03):
it's so druggy. Yeah, and I feel like Paul Thomas
Anderson was trying to make you feel that, And I
feel like the Coen Brothers are like, you're you're getting
in the dudes headspace. Yeah, and they had never done
these weird fantasy sequences and stuff like they did with
uh gutter Balls, the dream sequence after he gets drugged

(54:23):
by Jackie Treehorn Jackie Treehorn and the great Kenny Roger
song of course, of course, but I didn't realize this.
I looked at the trivia that in that sequence is
when he's helping Maud bowl. Uh, that's the only time
you see the dude bowl actually, Oh yeah, he's always
sitting around you never actually see him throw a ball
down the lane, which I never noticed until I read

(54:45):
that this morning. It's like, holy shit, it's a movie
sort of about bowling. Yeah, there's tons of stuff like
that in the movie that, like, I mean, there's more
obvious things the more you watch it, like the whole Chinaman, Like, yeah,
there's the first chinaman and then Walter says you shouldn't
say that, but then he says it's not to prefer nomenclature.
But then Lebowski says, a chinaman took my legs in Vietnam,

(55:09):
and you're like, did why they Like that must have
been some inside joke because that went too far. Also
in that same sequence, um, when Philip Seymour Hoppin is
showing him around the place needs such a great scene,
he goes yes, yes, and then uh, but then Lebowski
says yes yes and the next scene so like they
like mirror each other. And I don't know, I wonder

(55:30):
if like the Coen Brothers were like cracking up over
like when people go yes, yes, I bet. I mean,
they're they're very famous for, uh, their movies being very
heavily scripted and like you don't improv they wrote every
yeah sure in Fargo, like it was all on the page.
Same with Lebowski. There's no there's no improvisation. They said.
The biggest or the closest they got to improvisation was

(55:51):
allowing John t Turo to just be that character because
that character was his character, Like like he I think
he like owns the copy right, He's making a movie
as Jesus. That's I heard that, um because it's his,
it's his thing. It feels like a non sequitur in
the grand scheme of the movie, but like, I'm so

(56:12):
glad that they included it, and that especially because you
don't realize that the song that's about to play as
Hotel California. And I feel like it gets me every
time too. It's like that beautiful like classical guitar comes
out comes in and you're like, ah, like this is
the perfect setup for the scene, and they're like, oh, yeah,
it's Hotel California, which also ties into the yeah well.

(56:35):
Another great part is the fucking cab driver is so
aggressive and angry that he wouldn't like like rips his
ass out of the cab. Is so funny, do you
know they do you know that piece of trivia. The Eagles,
the fucking Eagles part so uh. The Coen Brothers approached
the Rolling Stones about using Dead Flowers in the movie

(56:56):
Dead Flowers is in the closing crowd. They approached the
Rolling Stones manager, who was like the biggest hard ass
of all time, and he's like, give me half a
million dollars and I'll let you use dead Flowers in
the movie. And they're like, oh, well, let's just like
invite him over and we'll show him a rough cut
of the film. They show him a rough cut cut
of the film. The Eagles line happened and he burst

(57:19):
burst out loud laughing, And at the end of the
screening he goes up to me. It's like, you can
take the song for free, and he's like, us, but
you have to use a cover. He's like, he's like
that Eagles line. He's like, that's the truest thing in
the movie. Like he was just like that was amazing.
I think I saw where it was either. I think
it was Glenn Fry was a little salty about that.

(57:41):
I think the Eagles are a little salty. I mean
in the song a person steely Dan Nursery trivia in Hotel, California.
There's a lyric they can stab us with their steely knives,
but they just can't kill. It's a reference to the
Steely Dan record that came out a year before. There's
a there's a derogatory line about the Eagles, so they're yeah,
they're they're a little defensive. Well, yeah, Don Henley sort

(58:04):
of a well known tick. Yeah, I know, let's get
into it. Yeah, well, I know where heard it was
Jeff Bridges interviewed and he knew Glenn Fry and he
said that he always kind of gave him a hard time,
and you could tell it sort of bugged him a
little bit, like he didn't want to appear as though
he was taking it too seriously. But he was like, yeah,
he kinda. He kind of didn't love that, you know what.

(58:26):
I look, I have a problem with humorist people. So yeah,
if you can't have a sense if if that line
was like fucking doctor dog, I would be like honored, Yeah,
for sure, for sure. Uh. And of course, making Jesus
say a pedophile was such a weird Cohen Brothers thing
to do. Yeah, peders, there's no reason to whatsoever, But

(58:48):
you get that funny as Hell's shot of him knocking
on the door and that big dude just comes and
it's such a Cohen Brother's cut to like not show
what happens, Oh, you just show that uncomfortable moment he's
wearing those horrible short like those daisy dudes. Like, oh
my god, that scene is so real. Apparently he stuffed
his his crutch with a bag of bird seed for

(59:11):
that for that shot. That's such a good thing to learn. Yeah, yeah,
I can't wait to tell everyone that that's amazing. Uh.
Julianne Moore and David Sulis. One of the funniest scenes
in her entrance, that crazy entrance when she goes flying
through the air with that Banshee screen painting. Uh yeah,

(59:35):
they put on log jam and then of course with
Dina Cobbosa Cobbol and then there's like that Kraftwerk reference
that the base the band's called auto bottom one. Uh. Well,
that's another funny line though, speaking of his clever one liners,
when she says, you know, you can imagine what happened

(59:55):
after that and he goes he fixes her cable and
like no one laughs, and man, that's hysterical. Yeah, it's
a good he's a good man. Yeah, and then there's
that whole ridiculous conversation happening, the phone conversation where he's
just like, yeah, you're speaking in a different language in
front of me, you know, Like he's always left out

(01:00:17):
in some way. Yeah, and he's always being forced to
just be like it's it's almost like an old Bunuel
film where you're, um, yeah. The song the band song
the Weight is actually based on a Bunuel film, and
the common trope in Bunuel films was like you're like,
you're just trying to do your best and people just
keep putting weights on your back, you know. And I

(01:00:40):
think about the dude in that way a lot, where
it's just like, man, this guy just can't get a break.
But like it's a it's a testament to his dudeness. Yeah,
you're being very undoe. Yeah, you kind of wonder what
his I mean, this is a week in the guy's life,
and you kind of wonder what the rest of his
life is usually like, because you get the picture that
nothing ever happens to him and he's all caught up

(01:01:02):
in this thing and his poor car is just getting
abuse to the whole movie that piece of ship car.
You know, we gotta we go to the line. We've
got a team of people working night and day. They're
working in shifts, so you got any leads leads. But yeah,
there's that aspect to it, and there's also the there's
the part of it. There's like he is a dead beat.

(01:01:24):
I mean, he's not paying rent on time, he's writing
a check for for landlord's you know, he's he's writing
these checks for under a dollar so you can make
white Russians. You know. It's like his life doesn't seem
that remarkable. And he also he's also laziest, which would
put him in the running for laziest worldwide. Yeah, well,

(01:01:44):
and he's a very Um you haven't lived in l A,
have you? I will. I don't think I could ever
live in l A. But do you feel like you
know l A? Oh? I know. We were just recorded
our new record there, so yes, I do. It's uh,
I lived there for like five years and I lived,
like I said, on the street from Lebowski Lanes in
a little apartment kind of like that. And there that
character is a very l a kind of guy, like

(01:02:07):
these dudes that uh just burn out in the sixties
and stayed there, paying five hundred bucks a month in rent,
wearing his housecoat to Ralph's Like I saw those people.
Oh I bet you did, especially if you were you
were living there in the late nineties early yea. So
now I mean now l A is like, yeah, it's
a little shiny man. Yeah. For the listeners, I'm like

(01:02:30):
pretending to boat talks my face right now. Um there.
So there's that aspect of l A. Then there's also
like the the health nuts of l A. Um, but yeah,
that old bohemian like, yeah, man, I moved out here,
actually moved up to Frisco for the dead and that
we've never seen kind of driving up, moved down to
l A. And absolutely, man, they're those dudes are out there.

(01:02:52):
Yeah they're fried. Yeah, I call I call it sunburnt brain. Yeah,
the l A like the old l A dude brain.
It's like you're just you're you're mind is soaked by sunlight. Yeah,
and too much melatonin. Too much melatonin. Good for a bit.
But yeah, but I'm an East coaster, so I'm in
l A. I'm like, you know, I always see the
difference between East Coast and West coast people was like

(01:03:14):
and on the East Coast, if I ever said like, hey,
I really think I should go to therapy and be
like what the fuck is wrong with you? Why are
you going to therapy? And then I'm like I'm going
to therapy, Like that's just so great. Yeah, you just
do that, right, you just be you just do that,
Like your dog goes to therapy in l A. Your
dog gets your cat gets massages in l A. It's
such a weird place and it's so not real and

(01:03:36):
it is weird out there now, like Hollywood is. It's
not like I want everything to remain a piece of ship,
Like I'm all for cleaning things up, but it's weird
at being in Hollywood now, Well there isn't. There is
like a mad Max vibe happening in l A. Now
that's a little like a tense city. There's like a
sub city to l A that's like just people on

(01:03:57):
the streets. Yeah, it's very it's weird that it's weird.
It's very like post apocalyptic and and it just goes
to show you like the infrastructure, they're like the money
is not going to the right places. You know, it's
like them you have like this immaculate Church of scientology,
and then you have like these tent people you know,
and like there should be more of an effort to
to help. Yeah, I don't know if there is. It's

(01:04:20):
it's l a, it's a weird place. It's brutal. Um,
we should talk really quickly about the Chief of Police
of Malibu scene. One of the great scenes because at
one point it's someone like the dude would have been
welcome in Malibu, like in the sixties probably definitely, but
now it's you knows, out of my beach community, out
of my beach community. He's so aggressive and angry. Oh man,

(01:04:43):
when he when he whacks them, it's like, oh, it's
so good again. It's it's totally boone. Well, it's totally
like the Coen Brothers referencing this like classic filmmaking, but
through the lens of like slapstick. But you do feel
for Himulre like he's only four of identification is a
Ralph's card. He's got no idea this guy's and that's

(01:05:06):
always been good enough. Um yeah, yeah, yes, that that
scene is unbelievable. He's already been through so much he
thinks he's figured it out. He's in the Belly of
the Beast, you know he's at the house and then
going over to the post it pad Jackie coll Like,

(01:05:30):
how did they do that? What were they thinking? How
could they think on that level? It's perfect. He's like,
I'm gonna bust the crime now. Oh what And the
only time you see him move quickly in the movie too,
and he like runs back over and sits down. Oh
it's such a funny juxtaposition to his usual gait. It's
it's brilliant. Um Man, there's so many, so many sections

(01:05:53):
of the movie I want to get a handle on.
I mean the fact that his landlord is doing a
cycle and and it's Strivine key, Yeah, I saw. I'm
a composer, um when I'm not playing drums, I like,
right for I just for a string quartet. So that
scene like got me, like the first time I said,
I'm like, there's no way they're referencing Stravinsky right now, Like,

(01:06:15):
there's no way. How is how are they getting away
with this? Like, uh, you know, the music in that
movie is already incredible. I mean opening with man in me.
Tebon Burnett's music supervisional on the movie is like it's
very soundtrack heavy for Cohen's it's soundtrack heavy, but it
never it always feels an integral to what's happening. In

(01:06:35):
the fact they used The Man in Me as like
the theme for the movie, such a great music cue,
oh my God, it's so good. And but then you
have like you have the Man in Me and then
you have this like you know, forgotten about Kenny Rogers,
but for by people don't even know that that's Kenny
Rogers song. You know, like he does this song live now.
I bet he does. I don't. I don't know if

(01:06:56):
he took it back out, but I get the feeling
he probably did that he does. I mean, it's such
an outlier for him, becau when you think Penny Rodgers,
you're like, oh, chicken then right right, a general like well,
Kerry Rogers, it's like an icon. But he wrote this
great psychedelic song. Um but the Stravinsky que like when
he's on top of the chair and there's and there's

(01:07:18):
like there's like four people there. That's such an l
a thing to to well. And the dude is so
sweet when he asked him, you know about the ranch
or whatever, and he says, you know, I get the
performance or whatever. And he's such a sweetheart. He goes,
I'll be there, man, and he's there, and he's there.
He showed up. Yeah you know, aren't they talking about
burgers in that scene too, like let's do let's go

(01:07:39):
get a burger or let's go or yeah, I think so.
And he's a good guy. He's a good guy. He
just wanted that rug. He just really just wanted that rug. Um. Yeah,
all right, what else you got for me? Well, I'm
looking to see what else we should cover, of course,
have log jam in on here. Oh well, some of

(01:08:00):
my favorite lines, hell, I can get your toe by
three o'clock this afternoon with nail polish when they're talking
about in the diner with the toe that I have
completely Oh yeah, I can get you to by three
like to do that was the the evidence, like, no, man,
there was a toe and while just like, yeah, oh

(01:08:24):
my god, that is a funny line. But that's what
you know, you um, you you. I've seen this movie
so many times now and there's always a line that
gets me. Last night, the line that got me was
the aggression will not stand because because you see the
beginning of the movie and there's George Bush on the
TV says this aggression against Kuwait will not stand. And
so it's like the dude will often repeat things that

(01:08:47):
he's heard later. Um, he does it again later in
the movie when they're in a limo and he's like, uh,
she's a trophy wife, you know, like he he he
heard somebody else say that and is now using it
as his statement. He does that a lot. And I

(01:09:08):
love that little detail because he's like he is still
kind of aloof and like he does he's like still
like I don't know what who I am. So like
he hears these things and then uses them, like tries
to confidently use them, but in the limo it's not working,
and he's just stumbling through the whole scene. He says
trophy wife in the parlance of our time, well, which
is another line that Walter used. Walter, he steals it

(01:09:30):
from Walter and the parlance of our time. It's so funny.
I didn't really notice that. Yeah, he repeats a lot
of things that he's heard, and Uh, it's it's great.
It's a it's a subtle detail. Yeah. Well, and that's
so Cohen's too. They're so precise, like there are no accidents,
no accident in their movies. No. The only line I

(01:09:51):
read that was literally the only line that was improvised
that they allowed was human paraquat human paraquat, which I
hadn't even looked up. I didn't even know what it was.
That paraquat was a was an herbicide that was used
to spray like marijuana fields. Very controversially that was banned

(01:10:11):
and outlawed. Human baraquad is such a funny thing. I
want to say something about Lebowski and the Coen Brothers
in in general that like I kind of feel as
a lost art and you're you're you're mentioning this to me,
and I feel like Paul Thomas interesting is sort of
like the next generation of this, but like just deep
references like a movie, like a movie becomes infinite jest

(01:10:33):
or something like I love I love stuff like that
where you're like, um, you're just digging, You're like what's
now You're like, what's a paraquat and how does that
relate to it? Or like uh, you know, or even
in like Kids in the Whole Brain Candy, like the
polidamide reference. Yeah, there's a certain innocence to that sense
of humor. Uh and and it's brilliant but like it

(01:10:56):
reminds me of like Jack Handy's writing for SNL, like
the golden era of SNL. And there's all these deep
references like low Thor of the Hill people. You're like
and then you're like you find yourself like going back
You're like unfrozen caveman lawyer, you know, like this stuff
like that where you're like, what is this based off of?
Like what how if I'm gonna like go back in time?

(01:11:17):
Like how do I connect the dots? And the Cohen
Brothers are like masters of that um and they're in
uh oh, the if you Will It is No Dream?
The line that Walter walks in. Uh, he's like Theodore Hurtzel,
the is the Israeli Leader. You're like, I have found
myself Wikipedia and Hurtzel about that line if you Will

(01:11:40):
it Is No Dream? And then Cohen brothers are Jewish.
I'm like, I'm wondering, like is that something that? Is
that a quote that they liked? Why does Walter say that?
And then you're like, oh, Walter has become Jewish. He
probably studied up. He's he's like studying up and he's
like trying. He's like trying his best to be like
I'm practicing shamashabas, like I don't I don't roll. I

(01:12:01):
sure as ship don't roll. You know. It's like it's uh,
I just love that. And of course, like there's a
theme of Jewish culture throughout all the Cohen Brothers movies
like Barton fink Um this sort of like, uh, the
the insecurities and the anxiety. I'm I'm also Jewish, so

(01:12:21):
I can totally like certainly a simple man, Oh I
got a simple Man's Like that's the whole movie. The
whole movie is like these the anxiety, the post Holocaust
anxiety of being Jewish, Like I see these themes running
throughout the homes and even like it's in The Big Lebowski,
which like for some people is just like a frat
guy movie, Yeah, which is a it sells it so short,
it sells it so short, and I and I do

(01:12:44):
it bums me out that it has acquired that sort
of superficial like call like dorm room. There's a lot
more going on there. There's so much going on the movie.
The movie is a work of art. I fully believe
it's one of their masterpieces. And like again, you could
books and books upon on, like the minutia that movie,

(01:13:04):
and people have done it, and people have done it.
I finish up here. I mean we could do this
for three hours. I feel like I finish up here
with a couple of segments, one called what Ebert said
and then five questions and uh, I always like to

(01:13:25):
go back and see what Roger Ebert thought about these films.
This movie is a complete disappointment. And he loved Lebowski.
He gave it four stars and said The Big Lebowski
is about an attitude, not a story. It's easy to
miss that because the story is so urgently pursued. This

(01:13:46):
is a plot and dialogue that perhaps only the Cohen
brothers could have devised. I'm thinking less of their clarity
and Fargo and No Country for Old Men than of
almost hallucinatary logic of raising Arizona and the Hudsucker Proxy.
Only a steady hand in the midst of madness allows
them to hold it together. That and the delirious richness
of their visual approach. Beautiful, Yeah, very cool. Thank you

(01:14:10):
Roger for believing in this movie. It's always disappointing when
he hates the movie that this movie was was a
pretty big commercial clunker for them, right, Like it wasn't
I just didn't really do it didn't do Fargo numbers
and it did definitely didn't do uh uh. The next movie,
Brother or Brother didn't do a Brother numbers at all.
You know those are like claimed, Yeah, it's it's lived

(01:14:33):
on more than any other films probably do it do
I I've I've gotten so deep with Lebaska. I'm like,
you know, it's kind of like my it's kind of
like doctor Dog, Like yeah, it's like underappreciated when it
came out, and then it's just like the Slow Bill, right,
you know, like DSKI is just like a slow Bill.
You're the doctor Dog of or White. It's the doctor

(01:14:55):
Dog of movies, alright. And then five questions with Eric Slick.
Here we go. First movie you remember seeing in the
movie theater? Oh, that would be Home Alone. Okay. I
saw Home Alone with my family and it was like
an iconic moment. And I was three years old, so
I was cognizant and I was aware that the theater
was erupting in pandemonium. I still stand by that movie

(01:15:16):
Home Alone. Oh yeah, I love Home Alone, fun movie.
It's it's pretty brutal. They those two guys would have
been dead after the first paint bucket hit their faces.
Their skulls would have been collapsed. But I remember laughing
so hard at that sequence to break in sequence, it's
car it's cartoony. And then you got Home Alone Too,
which is is the same movie. I don't even know
if I saw that one. Home Alone Too is the

(01:15:38):
same film. Watching again, it's the same film. They just
farted that one out. They're like, and then He'll be
a friend. Another lonely old person in the movie, and
this one at this time she likes pigeons instead of
salting the sidewalks. First R rated movie you saw? The
first R rated movie I saw. It was called The
Groove Tube. My family. My family was very liberal, uh,

(01:16:02):
to an extreme degree where they didn't believe in censorship,
and I I really appreciate that about them, and they
my parents bonded over this movie called The Groove two,
which was like a sketch comedy movie. It's Chevy Chase's
first yeah yeah uh, and it's pretty raunchy. And I
saw it when I was four, and it became like

(01:16:23):
a family class that they fast forward through some parts
of the movie, like some gratuitous nudity scenes, but there
was a lot of f bombs and a lot of
uh you know, there's a whole like stoner heroin sequence
in that movie. It's like, I can't believe my parents
showed me that film. Awesome. Uh And then they showed
me Paining Floyd's the Wall was five wow with the

(01:16:45):
meat grinders, and like I was into that in high school.
Oh yeah, who wasn't? Um, I was into it in
high school also, Uh yeah that Those were the first
two r A movies I saw, and I was like
four and five. That's good. My parents are cool, very
cool people. Will you walk out of a bad movie? Oh,
I've I've walked out of one movie. And then I

(01:17:05):
went back the next day and saw it again. Whoa.
I was on a date and I saw the movie
Funny Games, which is a brutal, brutal film, the original
foreign film or the remake, the remake that was produced
by the David Lynch actress. Um, I'll remember something. Naomi Watts, right,
Jaomi Watts like produced it with the original director. It's

(01:17:27):
a shot for shot remake. Yeah, but it is so
violently brutal. But I but I like loved it, and
my date did not love it, and she was got
out of there for her got out of there after
about a half hour and she was like, you know,
we're not watching this film, and I was like, yeah, cool.
But then the next day I was like, that film
ruled uh. And of course it's like soundtrack by John Zorne,

(01:17:49):
so I was like, this is this is my bread
and butter, you know, like murder movie with John Zorn soundtrack,
Sign me up. And I also knew that the movie
was a statement piece. So it's fine. But that's only
time I've ever walked out a movie movie that's good,
that's it, And it was to be a gentleman of sorts.
It was trying. I was trying. But the sick part

(01:18:09):
of it is that I went back the next day
and loved it and then bought it on DVD. Yeah.
I mean, it's a tough movie, but it's I did
like the movie and I saw both Yeah you got it. Um.
So this one I usually will tailor to the guest
who is your favorite drummer of all time? Well, you
can name a couple, you know, No, my gut reaction

(01:18:31):
has to be a Ringo only because he was the
first drummer I saw on a television and I think
a lot of people had this experience with Ringo where
you see him and you can immediately relate. And I
saw him and he was goofy, but he was beating
the crap out of the drums and he was like smiling,
and there was just something about that. And I was
already interested in the drums, but he was like my

(01:18:53):
first icon, you know. And uh, even when I drum now,
people will be like, oh, you're doing your Ringo thing,
and it's like it's like I was saying, how things
can be a part of your DNA, Like Ringo is
a part of my DNA. I can do. I can
play Ringo all day. Uh. And then as time we're on,
I got you know, you go through the laundry list
of classic rock drummers, and then I got really into

(01:19:14):
like seventies soul drummers. Um. So my twenties and now
thirties like has been dedicated to studying classic soul drummers
like Bernard Party and Al Jackson Jr. Uh. When I
was but prior to that, I was also in a
huge jazz phase. So I was like studying Tony Williams,
and I was studying Max Roach and uh, just all

(01:19:38):
Gernardo Coleman, just like all these drummers who are like
super important to me. But if if there's an origin,
Ringo ringoes the origin, but so much has spread out
from that, and nowadays I would probably say either Bernard
Party is my favorite, Oregoniam James Gadson, who played on
all the Bill Wither stuff, just because like there's such

(01:19:59):
a refined the quality war Party will also tell you
that he played on all the Beatles recordings. He has
this really outlandish thing, like when I Party played on
ten thousand records, but he still wants to say that
he played on all the Beatles records may or may
not be true. I've always heard so much ship talking
about Ringo not playing on the records and that Paul
was even a better drummer. I just I don't know,

(01:20:21):
I don't I don't believe it. I don't want to
believe it. I'll tell you why you shouldn't believe it,
because when you watch Let it Be the whatever rough
cut is out online, Ringo is playing all those drums
and it sounds like ringo. Yeah, ringo is that is
his touch and feel. It is sloshy. It's weird. He's
left handed playing a right handed kit, so he always

(01:20:42):
leads with his left hand. Interesting, so his fills always
start on a rack tom or or something that's kind
of unconventional. It's not the drummer like the classic like
linear way of doing something like it's always yeah, you
had that little that simpol sweep thing. But if he
would do he was like it never looked like he

(01:21:04):
was working hard because he was such a laid back
kind of guy. But when you watch those early Beatles performances,
those drums are about to shake off the fucking riser.
Oh it's the most punk rock thing. It's uh that
there's a but he's wearing a suit and he's like,
you know, there's that DC performance. I think I know
what you're talking about, where like or it got remastered

(01:21:25):
a couple of years ago for the Ron Howard movie
that was so good Eight Days a Week show. I mean,
he's just like, they didn't have sound systems back then.
There a system, so he's like, is trying to be
heard on the back row. He's trying to be heard. Well,
people are screaming at a louder decibel level and the
band is being heard at um. But Ringo, yeah, Ringo

(01:21:45):
is so great and uh yeah. I mean then when
I was like eight years old, I heard John Bonham
and like then I just tried to do John Bonham, like,
I studied that stuff so deeply. And then when I
was fourteen, I got really into prog rock, and so
I studied all the Neil Pert and Bill Bruford, you know,
like you just go through the line and you leave
on Helm in there totally. So when I was seventeen,

(01:22:08):
I heard the band, and then actually from my eighteenth birthday,
my mom bought me tickets for levon Helm's ramble It
has How did you go? I went on my on
my eighteen birthday. That's one of my life regrets. Dude.
I went on my eighteen birthday and my mom just
bought me a ticket. And this is how cool my
parents are. They're like, yeah, I just figure out a
way to go up there. I'm eighteen. I have no
idea what I'm doing. I took a great hound up

(01:22:30):
to Woodstock, didn't get a hotel. I didn't realize that
I needed a hotel. And after the show's over, I'm
hanging out with Levan and he's I'm like, hey, man,
you're my favorite one of my favorite drummers. Like, do
you know any hotels around here? Do you stay there? No?
Levan was like I'd offer He was like, I'd offer
it up, but we already got guest day and but normally, yeah,

(01:22:53):
I would let you stay here, you know, Like he
was like, I'll give you the shirt off my back. Yeah.
A sweetheart, very Southern gentlemen kind of guy. I was
able to see him my buddy, uh that is coming tonight,
Eddie and I saw him on that last tour that
he did in Atlanta, UM, which was just like bucket

(01:23:13):
list ship. But we we always wanted to get to
a ramble and we thought we had time and we didn't.
The band that I got to see was really good too.
It was like lev On and Um Jimmy Vavino from
the band was playing guitar back when Conan was still
in New York. This is a long time ago. UM
and Uh, Hubert Sumlin, who was helen Wolf's guitar player,

(01:23:36):
I was playing guitar and then his daughter came out
Amy and it was just a it was just a
great night. Like they didn't play they played Evangeline and
they didn't do any band songs like yeah, they did
like a bunch of Dylan Saw stuff they did, don't
you tell Henry. They did a lot of basement tape stuff. Um,
but it was just a riot. Man, it was so

(01:23:57):
fun and I had a blast. Man, he was amazing
to watch. I wish you like. This was before iPhone,
so I was just there. Yeah, man, I was just
present watching Masters. Yeah you know, and there's like a
picture of Richard Manual and a picture of Tan above
the stage. But yeah, just you know, I went through

(01:24:19):
a heavy Helm phase. Man. Sure, for sure. They're probably
my favorite band. Good call a altho. Although as the
time wears on with their stuff, they the records get
a little bit spottier, but well through their career, the career, yeah,
whether you get you know, with Northern Light Southern Cross,
you get it makes no difference. Which I just like,

(01:24:41):
one of the most heartbreaking, beautiful songs of all time.
So well, that's why Dr Dog always kind of reminded
me a little bit of the band was not even
so much the music, but the the juxtaposition of the
two voices of Scott and Toby Uh in the band had,
you know, like Richard Manual Man, like the maybe the
most soulful white dude, yeah, and then the southern hill

(01:25:02):
billy with leave On and then Rick Danko and like
your permanently nervous voice. Yeah, what's my favorite one, crazy chick.
He's just always so nervous. Oh man, I just hate
that those we lost all those guys. I know me too,
man uh, and we're left with Robbie. But he was

(01:25:22):
a genius, but he probably kind of likes to hear
himself talk. Check this out. My first concert ever, which
I don't remember, My first concert ever was Ringo Star
and his all star band. He always has great people,
but the first year he did it was I went.
My parents took me. That was my first show, and
the band was leave On, Rick Danko and Jim Kiltner,

(01:25:45):
who is a famous uh He's like played on all
the George Harrison record, phenomenal drummer. But that was my
first concert, so it was Ringo and the band. So
it makes a lot of sense that I would gravitate
towards a band like dr dog. That's great, that's just
in there. You know. The band was always famous for
other people wanting to be in the band, Like Air

(01:26:05):
Clapton wanted to be in the band, and that's why
he made a blind faith. Yeah, like every time one
of them they were like, well, that's that's the group
I wanted to be in. Oh yeah they were a
musicians band, yeah, because they were really planned and then
they came up with the Hawks and they were like
they had their chops, they were players, they could do
it um. But the Clapton story is that he broke
up cream when he heard the first band record music

(01:26:27):
from Big Bike because he was like, this is what
I want to do. This is pointless. They were doing
something so different for the time too. I mean that
was the band was making that kind of music when
like Jimi Hendrix was making his kind of music. They're
kind of like the first hipster band in a way
because they were doing everything that was antithetical to what
was happening. So you have this like, you know, there

(01:26:47):
was that the line from The Last Walls. He's like,
they're always bands like Marshmallow over um um Strawberry Alarm,
Marshmallow And then you have the band and it's just
so pure and so acoustic sounding. In a time when
everything was like wow, everything was a wash, you had

(01:27:09):
this band. It's like real, like there's no picture of
them on the album cover. The famous thing was was
the photographer for the band, Elliott Landy. Um. The label
Capital was like, we want to get you the best
photographers because you're gonna be the best band. You're the band,
and Abbie Robertson was like, can you find the worst photographer?

(01:27:30):
And somebody at the label was like what They're like, well,
there's this guy, Elliott Landy who writes for Cream magazine,
who this is the worst photographer I've ever seen. And
he ended up doing the band's photos and he doesn't
the those iconic photos there on the farm, all those
photos are Elliot land there, all those iconic photos and
Nashville Skyline, which is one of the most incredible album covers.

(01:27:53):
Uh So it just goes to show you what like
uh yeah, I mean you just gotta gut, you go
against the grain as much as you can. And right
like did you ever see Festival Express Oh yeah, yeah,
uh I shall be released from the Festival Expresses, like
top top Notch and you know funny you should mention

(01:28:13):
it like every year in New York at the Capitol
Theater in Westchester. I'm I do ah, I'm part of
a Last Waltz. We do the complete Last Waltz, all
four hours of it. Yeah, Toby's done it, Scott's done it.
Um My girlfriend Natalie's done it. Um Man, I'm gonna
have to go to that. We're doing it again this year.
When when is it? It's like a week before Thanksgiving? Okay,

(01:28:35):
because they do a similar thing in Atlanta at this
place Smissile Bar, they do the Last yeahs a bunch.
Yeah that's awesome. Uh. The complete Last Waltz is fun though,
because you do all the stuff that's not in the movie. Yeah. Yeah.
So you're doing like, uh these weird Neil Young like
sea sides, like uh four strong winds, and then you

(01:28:57):
do Joni Mitchell's Coyote, which is the movie. Then you
do like what Fairy sings the Blues, which is like
uh court and spark song that's like super long and weird. Uh,
and then there's a lot of blues jams you gotta do.
He just biding their time waiting for Neil young to
finish up is like cocaine, cocaine. He's so twitchy in

(01:29:21):
that movie. They you know the well, I feel like
before you've asked me this last question, you know that
they edited out his coke Bogger. That's like the Yeah,
I've heard that he had a like a you could
see it on film, right or Casey edited it out
and it did it. Yeah, it's gone coke Booger. That's
a good band name. Um all right. And finally, boy,

(01:29:43):
we just went down the band rabbit holder. No I will.
That's easy for me to do, so yeah, and I
brought it up. Yeah. Movie going one on one with
Eric's like, here we go, what's your what's your ritual?
Like at the movie theater? Where do you sit? What
do you get at the concession stand? Oh man, this
I feel like this is such a indicative of my personality.
But I walk right up the stairs and I go
directly in the middle. I go right in the middle

(01:30:05):
because I like to be at eye level with the
screen I've been in. I've had so many situations where
I showed up late to the theater and I gotta
sit all the way up front, and I'm like squinting
to see borat or you know, like or like I've
been all the way in the back and I can't
hear everything, so I try to go early enough to
sit really close. And then you know, if I'm alone,

(01:30:25):
I get Reese's pieces. If I'm with easy don't want
to share, I'm alone, I'm just like I get the
king size Reese's pieces, and like indulge. I indulge. And
maybe that's like an e t like a subconscious connection
to movies and what candy I should be eating it movies. Um,
but if I'm with Natalie, uh, we either get uh

(01:30:48):
popcorn or sometimes we'll even like sneak snacks in our purse. Um,
but yeah, we there's a that we we live two
blocks away from the Criterion Cinema and and yes, so
we're like we're loving it. Reserve seating there, Uh, there's
no reserve seating, but it's Virginia. And then like like

(01:31:08):
not a lot of people are going to the Criterion part.
Usually they're going to the main cinema and the Criteria
I started, you know, I'm start house. It's the art
house one. So like when there's a new Woody Allen
movie or something we'll go or you know, if there's
some movie we need to see, we check it out
and nice. That's our little that's that's about as much
of a ritual as we can do. It's usually a
movie is like, well it looks like crap outside, so

(01:31:29):
we should go see a movie. Yeah, good stuff. Yea man, alright, dude,
this is great, so fun. What if I'm talking? Oh absolutely,
I feel like I could have gone for another four hours.
I'll have you back in any year. Oh please, I
would love to come back for sure. Yeah. Man, all right,
thanks a lot, thank you. All right, everybody, another one

(01:31:54):
in the can. That was a good one. Just to
follow up, Eric was kind enough to put me and
my buddy Eddie I'm a guest list for Dr Dog
that night with backstage passes. We went down to the
Tabernacle and saw the band and they were awesome, went backstage,
hung out with the boys, and uh, it was a
lot of fun. One of one of the great nights.
And he you know, we talked a little bit about

(01:32:15):
music and privately, like, you know, what's it like out
there playing all these shows day after day and don't
you get bored and sick of it? And they were.
They were pumped after the show and he came back
and he was like, dudes, he went, you just saw
a perfect Doctor Dog show. And he was like, good
for you. We hit on all cylinders. Everyone had a
great time. Because I always wonder, you know, when I'm

(01:32:37):
seeing a band, you know, it looks like they're enjoying
it most times. But he was like, you read it right,
this is a good one. So support that band. They're awesome.
Go out and get their new album, Critical Equation that
was out this year, or any of their records are
all great. Uh, just really really good dudes. So thanks
to Eric, and thanks to Dr Dog for helping to
hook this up, and uh, thanks for listening. And until

(01:33:00):
next time. I've said it before and I'll say it again,
why don't you get yourself a musical instrument, learn to
play it, and go out and make some noise. Movie
Crush is produced, engineered, edited, and soundtracked by Noel Brown

(01:33:24):
and Ramsay Hunt at How Stuff Work Studios, Pot City Market, Atlanta, Georgia.

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