Figure Eights (A Music Podcast) - Episode 64 w/Rick Ness & Blake Smith (Fig Dish)

Blake Smith returns to the show and brings along his co-conspirator, Rick Ness. Join us as we talk about coffins, weird shows, unimpressed bartenders, Minneapolis, Oasis and the great yacht rock fall out. 

Fig Dish will reunite for two sold out shows next week in Chicago. They are also putting out their previously unreleased third record, "Feels Like the First Two Times."

Always a pleasure to dish with the dish.

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 2 (01:28):
Today you are listening to the Figure Eights podcast. I'm
your host, Nick Leet from the band High on Stress
of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and today's guest is a Big Dish out.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Of Chicago, Illinois. You may remember Blake Smith was on
the podcast about four years ago. I had a ton
of laughs, really good time, really told the story of
the band and the trajectory major label stuff and it
was a really good time. And so they are having
a reunion to reunion shows at GMN Tavern in Chicago.

(02:10):
As well as they're issuing their third record from years ago.
They're putting that out of the vil now and see
will be a reissuing their major label records as well.
So having them on to chat, a little bit less
of a history, lesson, a little bit more of a
chap and really good stories, really fun, really off the cup.

(02:31):
Good guys, and.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
I hope you enjoy the episode.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
So without further ado, I give you big issues.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
You already missed all that goal.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah there was, yeah, there was. You know I pulled
out all those Garth Brooks records.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
You don't alphabetize those CDs by first?

Speaker 5 (02:53):
You do, actually, because you pulled out I do and
Gary Clark, so you actually like the guy were like,
if you want to Bob Dylan album, you have to
go to the B section.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
That's the beat. I know that's not proper that.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 5 (03:07):
So I could see behind you on top of that
CD case. I see Big Star up there. So are
they under s because it's not a proper name.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
Do you like?

Speaker 5 (03:16):
Flip that around? And then what are the Peppermint Swirl
box sets back there?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Oh? Those are just seven inches?

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Thank you for showing us how big those are.

Speaker 6 (03:26):
So do you do you where do you put os Mutants?

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Is that under oh?

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Or I would say, oh, yeah, the Big Star thing.
I would put Big Star under B. But that's actually uh,
we did a Big Star somebody had a big Star
tribute show here for the number one record and I
was part of that. So that's these cool flyers.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Jody Stevens.

Speaker 5 (03:48):
So like, I live by the old Town school of
folk music here in Chicago, and Jody Stevens came through
and he had like a couple of dudes from Wilco
and he a.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Hour from uh Boss.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
Like they they like did like a legit big start
thing and it was pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
I saw it at First Avenue too, was fantastic.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Oh so they did it there too. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (04:16):
It was like you know, like a six year old
eating a like a churero at a street fast you like.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Good. It was all good. Oh, this is a good jam.

Speaker 6 (04:32):
We we have a we have a history with Jody Stevens.
Uh And and Big Star Alex Chilton was playing solo,
was touring solo. Jody Stevens was his tour manager, and
Jody Stevens he called Blake asked us if he could
borrow some of our gear. They needed, you know, a
couple of amps.

Speaker 7 (04:48):
And because we were opening up for for Alex Chilten
at south By Southwest and it was we weren't sure
whether or not he wanted.

Speaker 6 (04:58):
Uh uh to use one of our ams.

Speaker 7 (05:01):
We weren't sure, but we ended up playing for some reason,
the six minute version of You Can't Have Me, and
I'm still not sure why we did this, but we
show got off the stage and I see Alex Chilton
just sitting there tuning his guitar, and I asked him

(05:21):
if he's you know, if I should leave my gear
on stage, if he wanted to use my amp, and
he was like, no, no, I got a little fender
that I'm using.

Speaker 6 (05:30):
And then I just said, well, I hope we did
justice to your song, and he says, don't worry about it.
That song deserves to be murdered. And I was like,
I didn't know how to respond. I was I kind
of just just like fight or flight instinct took over
and I think I just fled to the nearest bar

(05:53):
and just Blake just happened to be there already, and
so we had to do shots up tequila love pretty quick.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
That's everything you want out of meeting Alex children I guess,
right like.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Part of you is like could be cool if he's like, yeah,
that was really great, and I'm sure it's stung for
the moment but ten minutes later you're like, that's the
perfect response from that guy.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, he is known for being grumpy, you know, right.

Speaker 5 (06:18):
But like you're you know, and I'm familiar with like
ion stress obviously, and like you're you're a Twin Cities guy.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
And.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
Obviously Paul Westerberg wrote a song about Alex Chilton. I've
always wondered I met, well not met. I went to
a this is a dorky I am. I went to
a Paul Westerberg record sign once.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
Uh literally he asked my name and then signed a
different name, like found out make sure he didn't sign it.
Have you had like a similar like have you ever
like he's still in Minneapolis, right, He's in the Twin
Cities somewhere, right. You never see him in like a
fucking parking lot or at the gas station.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
No, but occasionally people will be like, oh, I saw
him riding his bike from his house over to Trader Joe's.
So that seems to be a common occurrence where he's
going over to Trader Joe's.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
Quite frequently see Alex jiltn like semi chopping down backstage.

Speaker 4 (07:21):
I love I don't want to see Paul Westerbird writing
his bike in its own way. It's kind of fucking cool, though.

Speaker 6 (07:29):
Didn't we write a note to Paul Westerberg in high school?

Speaker 4 (07:34):
I did. I wrote the replacements.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
When Letabat came out, I got the cassette and I
absolutely fell in love with them like so many people did,
and wrote like They're like, you can send a twin tone,
you can send a self aggressed to stamp, doenvelope. And so,
being fifteen or whatever, I'm like, what's your favorite beer?
And he tore off a piece of the note that

(07:57):
I've written him and just wrote free beer and sent
it back. It was like six months later, and I
was like, I don't want to see you riding your
bike to trade or two with those like dark chocolate
peanut buttercups.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Do you still have this is the scrap of favor
I don't.

Speaker 5 (08:19):
So I have a box of baseball cards. This is
like not, this is the least rock and roll conversation ever,
And it's somewhere in this box of thousands of baseball cards.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
I'm cheering.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
And I also have my Little League picture in that
fucking long story.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Anyway, a guy that.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
I produced and co wrote a record with is going
through my baseball cards right now, because again a long story,
and it's it's in there somewhere, he's gonna find it.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
He already like pulled up my little League picture.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Which I didn't know was in there, and it was like,
this is the most valuable card of all. It's like
Book two frockled and looking like I did about like
one thirty two.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
I did. Growing up, my son plays Actually he's going
into tenth grade, which is insane. I don't know, uh,
your your kids situations, but yeah, it's weird when they're
little and then all of a sudden they're in tenth
grade and like a blink of an eye, Rick, are
you in I was asking for you cut out earlier.
Are you Are you in Chicago or did you? I

(09:31):
feel like I heard you moved to Wisconsin at some
point in history.

Speaker 8 (09:35):
You I live in Madison, Wisconsin. Oh okay, so Chicago's
a professor up there. I went up and visited him
like two weeks ago, and uh, he's like everybody.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
We walked around Madison and everything campus is like doctor knows.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
He's sort of like, uh in Game of Johns. Wow, Yeah,
that's impressive.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
Yeah, he's like a humanities professor slash archaeologists, slash's very exciting.

Speaker 7 (10:07):
It was actually funny, like, you know, back in the day,
didn't think I would be showing Blake's son around the
campus for a perspective student visit. But it was really
funny because we were we were walking around campus and
then we ended up on the terrace at the Memorial

(10:28):
Union and and we were just kind of reminiscing because
we played a show there at the rat Scaler.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
That's where the rat Scaler is. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (10:38):
Yeah, we played an outdoor show. Our friend Joel Mark
used to book that place back in the nineties and
we got a gig there and we when we were
before we got signed, we got a call from h
A and our persons in PolyGram Publishing and she wanted
to see a slip and she said, well, what shows
do you have coming up? I want to want to

(11:00):
see you guys live.

Speaker 7 (11:01):
And while we're playing uh, you know, Metro in Chicago,
and then we got.

Speaker 6 (11:04):
This weird outdoor gig you know up in Madison.

Speaker 7 (11:08):
Uh, and she was like, oh my god, I'm gonna
you know, I'm a Madison alumnus, Like I want to
come up and see that show and we're.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
Like, no, no, no, no shows.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
We saw bands don't sound good when they play outside.
I don't see that Metro sounds good.

Speaker 7 (11:26):
Right, So she came and then uh, we you know,
we played the show and then we you know, we
got an offer from not long after that, but we
also did our best to try to blow that because
we didn't. We played an aqua ung for eight minutes
or something.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
We wanted to see us at a college because college
lot I think we had. We put out our own sevens.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
At that point were in the top ten. We had
a couple of yeah thanks, and we just.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
Handmailed it out label or anything. It's like, I won't
see you at college.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
Jeff Rotall is like maybe the least college rock band
of all the time.

Speaker 6 (12:12):
We were rebelling against college rock stereotypes.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah, so so my son is there with us. Last
it was like two weeks ago and Richly your dad
at this stage offered a publishing deal and he was
basically like, dad, why didn't you tell me this?

Speaker 4 (12:32):
And also kids are not impressed. I think it cares.
I'm so yeah, it's it's funny.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
It's like we're putting this thing out which I still
we'll talk about it at some point.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
But like people are.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
Like, oh man, you guys are doing this and I
saw you here here here, and they don't well, they
don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
It's yeah, they don't. They really don't care. If they're
into their own things and their own music. And then
sooner or later you look at through music and you're
wondering why they like that, and then you remember that
as the father, you're not supposed.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
To like that.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
It's a it's a strange, strange cycle we all go through.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
I remember my.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
Dad, who like relentlessly painted our house. Would just always
be outside straight and paint.

Speaker 6 (13:21):
I remember relentlessly painting your house with.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
You, Yeah, you and I relentlessly.

Speaker 7 (13:26):
I must have got tired of it after a while, because.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
How many coats of big shell can you put on
this house?

Speaker 5 (13:35):
But I remember my window was open and I bought
New Day Rising.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, I put it on and was really excited to
hear it.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
I've heard about this band that I didn't center on
getting laughter that, but like everyone's talking about them. I
put it on and few Day Rising comes on, and
my dad happened to be scraping outside of my window,
and I just see his head pop up the screen
and goes, what is this bullshit?

Speaker 4 (14:05):
This is not awqual love?

Speaker 5 (14:06):
Yeah exactly, But like I have that feeling with my
kids all the time, Like I've got I've got teenagers,
Oh my god, and like lasting something in the living
room and I walk in, I'll.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Be like what, I turn it to my dad, like
maybe this.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Is what.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
What's the music going on in the house.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
I got a ten year old that loves uh like
full Indie, Like she loves like royal otis uh kid,
I worked with him Indigo. She's into She's like the
Indian she loves back to Marco. She's ten and she's like,
by h Salad days on vinyl so they can. And

(14:49):
then I got a fourteen year old who saw Chapel
rowing at the Victor and all that stuff. Bro, She's
like wave pop and then like by a single song,
it's just serious like he's got his fucking things and.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Great, no my I've got a fifteen year old and
a eleven year old, so kind of in that same range.
The eleven year old girl, she's super into music. The
singing lessons. Everything I was singing, I was dancing NonStop
and it's Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Yeah, now probably Sabrina Carpenter, just.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
A lot of pop stuff. But she likes she's a
big Joe Jet fan, so I took her to that recently.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
He likes Kendrick. He's really into metro Boomen if you
know anything about metro Boomen. Yeah, and uh Polo G
big Polo G fan. Yeah, yeah, I think I I
think he's told me that a time or two. And
then uh then he'll be like next thing that comes
up on a shuffle will be like otis Redding and

(16:05):
uh yeah, so and he loves loves Bill Withers. So
it's just like.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
That's a really good problem to have. Like otis reading. Yeah,
I was in Madison.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
I was like telling my kid, I'm like, this is
the lake that otis reading, like crassed in and died
and it's like that's not the lake. And I felt
like that, like, uh, the scene in Purple Rain I
did not purify.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
Yeah, important distinct. You notice writing died in Lake Monona.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
That's the one right with those You're going over that
bridge and there's water on both sides.

Speaker 6 (16:47):
Exactly John kind On like Mendota.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
So that's the that's the difference.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
What year did you you start and what year did
you end?

Speaker 4 (16:59):
A ridge, I abstained courteously from.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Me when the band wise, and I'm not asking for
your birthdays. I don't buy Hallmark cards.

Speaker 5 (17:12):
And we all went to high school together, and yeah,
we all still talk to each other.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
It's it's, uh, it's a weird thing. Like you'd think
we stopped playing.

Speaker 5 (17:23):
Because there's some this or that, But this wasn't like
we you know, like Rick and I will go a
few months without talking and then like one of us
have texted the other person like two in the morning.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
It's like, it's just that kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
We started in high school and ended after grad school.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Those are the years.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
How well you did some reunion shows there as well
in between when the band ended, and now I think
didn't didn't you do some things to the Metro At
some point.

Speaker 7 (17:59):
We played ten years ago at Metro we were opening
up for local age.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Rick, you went on after fig Dish to do your
own thingness right, that was so if you're putting out
and Blake you did Caviaar were you keeping in touch
during those times as well. You just kind of ended
fig dish and did your own things.

Speaker 5 (18:19):
Or yeah, we never we never didn't get along, just
like this is gone as far as it can go.
And I got interested in Mike, and I got interested
in sampling and things like that, and Rick got interested in.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Songs that were over seven minutes long. That true.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
Yeah, it was like a peanut butter and tuna sandwich
and we just like, yeah, there was never like any
animosity or anything.

Speaker 6 (18:53):
Yeah, well we we had we have recorded the third album,
the album that's coming out now, and uh just kind
of mhm, we you know, label deal didn't materialized. We
kind of just splintered off into different projects. So, yeah,
they started doing sampling stuff. I started doing Froggy stuff.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Tell me a bit about that, tell me about the
Nest stuff a bit. I think I had Tamar Burke
on the podcast at one point, all right right on,
yes and with you on that. Didn't she on the
next project?

Speaker 4 (19:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (19:35):
She she played with us a little bit. She recorded
some vocals on a demo.

Speaker 6 (19:40):
That I did with Chris Holmes, and then she was
she played live with us for a while.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
She was I don't think it's not any of the records.

Speaker 6 (19:50):
But yeah, she played with us for for a year
or so.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
How long did project go?

Speaker 6 (19:57):
How long did ago? I don't know.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
We put our.

Speaker 7 (20:02):
First album on like two thousand and three, and we
only put out two albums, so I think the next
one was like two thousand and eight, so there was
a little bit of a gap between there.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
But yeah, And did you continue to play after that
or have you just been doing the Indiana Jones thing?

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Ah?

Speaker 6 (20:25):
I did play after that. I played in a cover band.

Speaker 7 (20:29):
We were sort of a soft rock slash yacht rock band,
so we played a lot of Seals and Cross in England,
Dan and john Ford, Khley and Hall and Oates. All right,
so we yes, we started this band kind of I
don't know, probably around two thousand and three. We haven't
played in about six years, but we did that for

(20:50):
a while and that really got my chops up because
some of that stuff is hard to play.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
But yeah, so that's what I did musically. So I
haven't played aside from that show we played with Local
Age ten years ago, I haven't played original music.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
I'm always curious. So like, uh Rick and I played
in a like did.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
A show together in the hot rock band and kicked
me out. It was just weird to.

Speaker 6 (21:19):
You overboard, So there was I guess there was a
while and.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
When we didn't when we didn't talk, I mean, that
was brutal, the rock fallout.

Speaker 7 (21:33):
You, I mean, you bring yacht rock into the relationship
and stuff's gonna get rocky.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Yeah, warning soft rocky.

Speaker 5 (21:41):
Ye falling soft rocks and uh, but I always wondered
from that period, like if you're from America and your
name is England, Dan, Like, what.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Did you do in England?

Speaker 7 (21:56):
So if I understand the question, if you were American
and they called you England and what would you have
done in England? I don't know. Maybe he was just
a you know, an anglophile. Maybe he went to school there.
I have no idea.

Speaker 6 (22:11):
An obsession with double double decker buses and phone booths.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, besides yacht rock, what did you grow up listen
listening to over some of your influences like growing up Yeah.

Speaker 7 (22:27):
I mean growing growing up listening to uh Cheap Trick
and and Kiss and the cars and so like, stuff
that a lot of people were listening to. But uh,
I really got obsessed with the cars and also listened
to a lot of Bruce Springsteen, uh, and those were

(22:48):
the bands that sort of like, uh, compelled me to
buy a sheet music at uh, a place called Carns
Music in Not D's.

Speaker 6 (22:58):
Illinois, and then I would learn songs and then yeah,
that kind of evolved.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
When did you start playing guitar?

Speaker 4 (23:08):
When I was thirteen years old?

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Okay, and that was it? The albums led you there?
Or did you meet somebody who played or well.

Speaker 7 (23:18):
I was actually lucky because my older brother was a
musician and he was in bands, and he was about
five years older than I was. So when he was
in high school playing in bands, you know, I was
in you know, sixth grade, you know, junior.

Speaker 6 (23:32):
High and so I was kind of obsessed. I would
sit there and just kind of they were probably sick
of me because I would just kind of sit around
and just watch them rehearse, and I'd be, you know,
really kind of amazed, Oh wow, like this actually sounds
like you know, this sounds like the records. So that
was a big influence on me.

Speaker 7 (23:50):
And then he started playing shows with this high school
band out at live clubs, and so I just that
kind of me and then so I just started obsessively
playing I had played piano since I was.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
About six or seven, so.

Speaker 7 (24:10):
Really yeah, yeah, piano, and then I took up guitar
when I was thirteen and and I.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Just got really obsessed with it.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
See I have an older sibling. But the weird part
is she was taking my records, which is kind of backwards.
But were you rating your brother's record collection at that
time and learning when he was out of the house.

Speaker 6 (24:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, rating the collection. And also I had
a uncle who uh tragically died young, and when he
died has had a really big record collection, so we
sort of inherited that, and so we yeah, and I
remember just being young looking through you know, those records

(24:53):
and just you know, looking at you know, wish you
were here, like oh, you know, my fifth grade self
was like, well the.

Speaker 7 (25:00):
He's on fire cool, cool cover cool, So yeah, you
don't get that on Spotify. And my uncle he had
a Beatle speaking of Japanese pressing, he had a Japanese.

Speaker 9 (25:15):
Beatles box set like before there were box sets, so
it was, uh, it was every Beatles record on these
really super thin, like the final albums.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
I mean they were like way for thin. They were
just like if you hold it up. It would just
sort of bend, almost like a Salvador Dolly clock.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
So I just listened to those.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Uh, it's great. What was your first concert besides your
brother the Cars? Oh, We're at Illinois.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
That was Blake's learning stuff about yourrick. Was that Heartbeat City?

Speaker 3 (25:59):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (26:02):
I think it was Heartbeat City. Yeah, I was at
that show. They were super boring, right, super boring. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (26:08):
I was disappointed they didn't do anything.

Speaker 7 (26:11):
I think Elliott Easton was the only guy that moved
and everybody else just looked like wax dummies.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
I've heard they were pretty boring live in general, like
as a rule, I heard they weren't the best live band,
which is a little disappointing.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
These records are fantastic.

Speaker 6 (26:27):
Yeah, the records are fantastic. They sound good live, They're not.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Just like watching Oasis just standing their hands.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah yeah, Wayne Chun I picked the Cars over Oasis.

Speaker 6 (26:41):
Well, we actually saw Oasis' very first show in the
United States.

Speaker 4 (26:46):
Really, we're met. It was in Atlanta.

Speaker 7 (26:49):
So they kicked off their first American tour in Atlanta
nineteen ninety five, and it was like, I want to say,
it was like March or April or something, because we
were actually recording our first album, Love Songs, That's what
Love Songs up and Do, in Atlanta. It was at
Triclops Studios, and so we went to see them. I

(27:13):
can't remember the name of the venue, but Masquerade and okay,
the Masquerade, and our A and R guy happened to
be hanging out with John Porter, who was the British
producer who produced The Smith's self titled album, which is
an album that I obsessed over as an.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
And he like and this he was the strangest man.

Speaker 7 (27:38):
And he was he was very drunk or high or something,
and uh, and I wanted to ask him all these
questions and uh about the album.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
He wasn't having it.

Speaker 5 (27:48):
It was just like, wow, that was cool. But like
I remember that Oasis show and thinking might these guys
do because in America everyone it's like the Chili Peppers
and he's like sleeping around and crapping. These guys like
stood stock still and just liked the songs like do

(28:08):
to all the talking and it was kind of powerful.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
How was how was the show? I'm sure it was great.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
In a small venue, it was good.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
And I remember they closed with I Am the Walrus
which I thought was like a ballsy move, and they
actually took the song and it slowed it down.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Whoa, like the opposite of what anyone would do with
that song.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
And I just remember thinking, like the buzz was like, uh,
you know, Noel was this genius and name was kind
of an idiot, but like I remember him singing that
song and just me, he's actually really good, both of us,
you know, in his lane, very very good.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, they played and I didn't live here at the time,
but they played the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis here on
that tour as well, and I know a lot of
people went to that, so it was pretty amazing how.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Many people fit me Uptown?

Speaker 3 (28:57):
What's what's the It's gone. It's like a Victoria's Secret
of course, Yeah, right, this legendary rock club tearing it
down and building like a north face and in a
Victoria's Secret over it. So yeah, welcome to America. But
now it have you ever did you ever go to

(29:19):
the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis?

Speaker 4 (29:21):
I'm trying to remember, Like we.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Had a restaurant on one side and then the other
side was like the venue, so it was like First Avenue,
way way smaller. It probably fit a couple hundred and
Tommy Stinton's mom used to work there.

Speaker 6 (29:39):
Didn't we see the Wrens there?

Speaker 4 (29:42):
Now? They were at Seventh Street.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
Oh that's right, Okay, yeah, we were playing to another
playing Seventh Street and they were the coolest guys.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
They were a great band too. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
We'd always play in uh like smart people do. We'd
played Minneapolis in January, which.

Speaker 6 (30:02):
It was always January.

Speaker 4 (30:03):
Why was it always January? I don't know, we're punishings.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
I don't want to rip on our booking agents, but
like I'm like, we're going to go up there, and like,
I don't know, like you live there. It seems like
it snows twenty four to seven that time of year
up there. And I remember, like you went to uh
it's called like Lee's Liquor, and then.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
We went to Place Liquor Lounge.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Yeah, and then we.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
Went to like Liquor Wiles and I'm like, there's everything's
ever the fucking l up here, and involved ye're both now.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Gone, we're both bonded recently.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
Yeah, and then we ship and then we went to
a place called the Nice Polynesian where Rick got.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Also gone recently. Oh man, I remember Nice was a trip,
wasn't it.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, Rick got on the panel there one night. Rick
had a habit of after shows we'd go to a
panel like hits the panel out to get all thrown out.
I remember you got Danny Cunch punched in the face
and he's a like google him very.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
Right, I know that name. How did you get him?
Why are you blaming that on me?

Speaker 8 (31:15):
I remember that was that was because it was your fault.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
And then we were no, these were obsessive. It was
not my fault.

Speaker 7 (31:24):
This, this was the fault of totally obsessive, delusional karaoke
people who thought that there was an A and R
person in the audience and this was their big break
and we were messing up their whole life.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
That's who we that's who should be blamed.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
And then they punched you in the face.

Speaker 5 (31:42):
And you heard Uh I ran into him in London
like ten years later, and he pulled up on his
phone to picture him with the black eye and he's like,
what's what's rick Ness doing now? And then the other time,
you remember we were at uh Snake and Jakes in
New Orleans and you started played Bohemian Rhapsody at like

(32:04):
five in the morning. That was like kind of a
biker bar back then, remember because it was open till
seven am. Yeah, New Orleans people like me parameters, and
they slammed the piano what's it called that goes over
the keys, like the piano shelf or whatever, and they
just said, like, we're close.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Remember that.

Speaker 7 (32:29):
I do, And it's it's sometimes hard to remember things
that happened in New Orleans.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
I'm sure. I'm sure.

Speaker 7 (32:39):
I mean another like, I don't know, passive aggressive move
from our booking agency. I'm like, they keep booking us
in you know, Minneapolis in January, and then we play
New Orleans and they give us like three days off
before the show. And then so we're just like, like,
you can't put us in New Orleans for three days.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
There's there's too much trouble to get in here.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
Now.

Speaker 7 (33:06):
Remember after that now, I remember talking to those people
and they were like, yeah, Houston, we get the worst
shows ever in Houston because every because the city everybody
plays before.

Speaker 6 (33:19):
This is New Orleans and everybody is just hungover.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (33:24):
Yeah, I grew up on stage in Houston. I remember
we used to play that place. Ronney barn it's a
fan of it. They had like chickens in the yard,
and they also degrees like Celsius.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
Also had crickets flying all over I mean just.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
So. So that leads me to the question, what what
is the worst show you've ever played? Was it that one?
Does it come to mind?

Speaker 7 (33:55):
Well, well, one contender is a show we played at
the Lincoln Taproom or was it the Village Tap Lincoln Taproom?

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Oh, yeah, before we were yeah, we were young.

Speaker 6 (34:08):
So yeah, we were we were young.

Speaker 7 (34:11):
We weren't signed yet, but there was this They had
a coffin propped up in the corner, which is where
they kept the pool cues for playing at a pool
table there, and we thought, you know, it would be
a great idea if we just took the pool cues
out of the coffin and put me in the coffin,
and then we'll just start playing Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, and

(34:35):
then you know, we'll open with that and I'll come
out of the coffin and start cackling, and then by
the end of the show, I think we were doing
open arms by Journey.

Speaker 6 (34:46):
That's that's how this progresses. That's what happened to us
back then. And then Blake was I think just decided,
fuck it, I'm getting off stage. I'm going to the
bar to get a shot. And he goes up to
the bar to get a shot and some guy's next
to him. God, can you believe a shitty this band is.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
That's remember like we dropped you in the coffin because
like the thing about coffins, and I'm sure they've got
way better materials now, like you know, Polly Ship, but
like it was heavy and we just kept dropping Rick,
which I think explains like a bunch of ship.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
I mean for sure, Yeah, we played some.

Speaker 5 (35:29):
I mean we played We played so many shows that
were just so awful. And I remember like super Toads
with Cheap Trick, we got like actually heaped out physically
by the sheriff.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
What open to your opening for cheap Trick? Were opening
for cheap Trick? And we did? They weren't opening for us, Nick, Well,
but they threw you.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
Why were you thrown out.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
Because of the moon as you brought the coffin?

Speaker 6 (36:03):
Well we were, so we played the show.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
This had nothing to do with Cheap Trick.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
It was just the management of the of the venue
was really bad and and and dirty and kind of corrupt,
and uh, I was basically trying to get paid after
the show and so just trying to settle up with
with with the manager, and uh, he said, you're the

(36:29):
shittiest band I've ever seen, and I'm not paying.

Speaker 4 (36:31):
You would die.

Speaker 7 (36:33):
And so I said, well, you know, we have a
fully executed contract with I c M that says you're
you're gonna have to pay me a few dimes.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
He didn't really like.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
This, so he just told me to to f off.

Speaker 6 (36:49):
And so I started looking for other people to deal
with in the office and then I told uh Blake
about it, and he started, uh, you know, asking for
somebody to to to settle with.

Speaker 7 (36:59):
And you talk to the sheriff. And the sheriff what
did he do? Did he like pick you up or something?

Speaker 5 (37:04):
It was so like really like Nick, when you have
to get paid, I mean, you come to me, right.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
So, like I walk in there and I'm like to.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
The owner, I was like, you have to pay us,
and the guy's like, I don't have to pay your ship,
and I was like us, so I'm going to.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
Call the police. The guy stands up and goes, I'm
the sheriff.

Speaker 7 (37:29):
Literally line, which was that scene, that scene in Fletch,
Thank God the police. And then finally, at one point
I remember asking, uh, somebody. A guy came up to
me and he was actually trying to be kind of

(37:49):
nice about it, but he was like, listen, man, just
you guys should just get out of here and go
because things are just going to get ugly, like nothing's
going to happen, just like for safety's sake, you should
just leave. And I kind of got the message, and
I think Blake did too after talking to the sheriff.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
I mean, Nick, like, if you have his like last
dress ever just left, like maybe you have a few,
like you know, patch chords on stage, or you left
the pedal or maybe a guitar, and you're like, we
gotta we have to go. Everyone get get in the
vand now like have you ever done that?

Speaker 3 (38:29):
M no, But we've had a situation where the show
kept getting pushed back. This was at Ralph's and Moorehead.
If you remember Ralph's and Moorehead, I bet you probably
played there. It was actually really we played there one time.
It was great. Second time, they kept pushing our set
later and later, and by the time we played they
cut us off. After fifteen minutes and like, okay, well

(38:52):
we're closing, Like so, I think some of the guys
may have walked away with a few chords, and I
don't think we got paid, so I think it was
a little bit mixture of some of the guys self paid.
And then I believe there was a drink that hit
the front window as we were dropping.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
Moorhead. I hope that was in January when you played Morehead.
I think it was.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
I think it was one of the worst shows I've
ever played. Was at Gabes in Iowa.

Speaker 4 (39:20):
Citting the backstairs. Yes in the winter, yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah, so it was icy stairs with a marshall And
then it was one of these shows where there was
no one there but the bartender.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
Carried an Ampeg eight ten bass cab what's like a
twenty great vertical.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
It is so scary, do you remember Rick, It's yeah, terrifying.
And then after aut six songs, the guy came over.
He's like, you don't have to keep playing, So then
we loaded out and then hung out at some weird
jazz club. It was actually pretty sweet, but yeah, that
was that was one of the worst ones right there,

(40:05):
just with that staircase and everybody knows it. Anytime you
mentioned that place, they mentioned the stairs in the back
and how painfully are.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
Now You were halfway to the sentence and I'm like,
I remember games like half stacks and eight ten handtag.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
We're trying to get up those stairs. And I remember
that because that was actually in summer.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
And we went to the airliner in Iowa City, like
pizza place that's you know, fairly well down there.

Speaker 10 (40:32):
And.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
They had some sort of pizza deal.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
We hadn't eaten in like thirty you know, the drill
you have like five dollars a day, so like bought
this massive couple of pizzas ate them. It was like
one hundred degrees. I remember throwing up outside of the airliner.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
Larfed a lot.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
Yeah, there's a lot of vomit that it would carry
that hot rock stage.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
Yeah, like lots of things to make naxious.

Speaker 5 (41:01):
Yeah, but like who was the genius that was like,
you know what we're gonna do. We're gonna make these
guys carry this stuff like someding like Lord of the
Rings like Incline and they're gonna play.

Speaker 4 (41:16):
We're gonna pay him fifty bucks.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, pretty much. I'm pretty sure. We did not get
paid beings. They were like, yeah, you don't have to
keep going, and I'm like, okay, well this show is successful,
but uh yeah that was pretty rough. What was the
best show? Looking back? What was the best show you played?
First thing that comes to mind? You rethink you're rethinking

(41:45):
this reunion right now.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
Personally, I'm like nervous because we haven't been in a
room yet because of like where everyone lives. Yeah, it
was like ten days away, and it's like so like
it is, Yeah, you didn't.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Put it on your calendar, did you?

Speaker 3 (42:04):
Right?

Speaker 4 (42:05):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (42:07):
No, But it's just starting to feel like we're gonna
for the Drama Club and we're gonna stay up all
night and make the homecoming clouds.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
It's starting to you know, and we're gonna be in
the paray tomorrow and it's gonna be great like it.
It's feeling, Yeah, it's starting to feel like that to me.
I'm a bit nervous of.

Speaker 6 (42:28):
All the analogies you had to pick the Drama Club,
pulling it all night.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Look a look at what I'm like actually learning the
songs on right now?

Speaker 6 (42:36):
Whoa, Yeah, that's badass.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
That it is fucking badass.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
That's a uh that's an American flag stratocaster for all
those that can't see what's happening here. Yeah, wow, did
did you buy that alcohol? Hogan? You guys are how
did how did this reunion come back about?

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Now?

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Because you've got your issuing the third record, the unreleased
third record feels like the first two times, which landed
on my porch yesterday very timely too, so uh so, whoever,
whoever you have doing that very timely, you got yours

(43:26):
when today? So you got I got mine first. That's
that's messed up. Man. I didn't expect it for another week.
So you may be the first band that has ever
done things on time. Good work. You're known for vomiting.

(43:47):
So how did how did this uh this album come about?
Like you'd recorded it after when Chef goes back to
push and then just moved on from it? Is that
the idea.

Speaker 7 (44:00):
Kind of we we had? Yeah, we had those songs
we caviar. Mike and Blake repurposed a couple of the
songs for fris Caviar record. I repurposed a couple of
tracks for the first last album on the Rest just
stayed in the vault.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Got it, so you to release that back then? What's that? Oh?

Speaker 7 (44:25):
We we shopped some stuff around in a label deal,
like I said, never never materialized. So we just you know,
Andy Gerber who produced the stuff, he just he just
kept the masters in his vault. Thankfully didn't throw him
out or or or they didn't get burned up in
a fire like probably our our our two Polygon records did.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
Yeah, were they in that? So those are coming out
to reissued right on vinyl? Did I hear that? Yeah?
Later maybe early next year?

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Nice looking forward to that.

Speaker 6 (45:04):
What happened was Justin Wexler from Ford Again Records reached
out to us because he wanted to put out the
two PolyGram records. He wanted to do vinyl reissues of them.

Speaker 7 (45:20):
And we said, sure, but you know, finding somebody in
the legal department at Universal Music Group who actually knows
who we are and like gives a shit like good
you know, good tuck. So that that was that was
proving to be very difficult and it was taking a

(45:41):
long time. And then he was like, yeah, this is
probably gonna take a while. You have anything else to
put out? And we said, well, we've got about twenty
five on unreleased tracks and you know, some more out
takes from from from earlier albums and then some know
then we we had this third album as well, and

(46:05):
he said he wanted to do.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
It and like record labels are all AI and now
and we sent that email, like you know, in big Dish,
we just got a bunch of really bad recipes back.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Hot Dish.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Yeah, that's crazy. So so then that so you got
that put together and this is this is the same
company that did the Triple fast Action stuff, right, yeah, nice,
very cool? Got it? So then you got that coming out.
So he decided to do a couple of shows which
are coming up. Is it g Man Tavern?

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (46:45):
And this is about ten days away, right, is it
the fifth and sixth? What are the what are the
dates on that?

Speaker 6 (46:53):
The poster says, you know, September fifth and sixth, So
I'm going by the poster.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Got it, And it's both shows are sold out, I believe. Yeah,
not to add to the nerves.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
Remind us of the practice.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Make sure you make sure you practice. I wanted to
and then recently I was laid off for my job
and then now the show is sold out. So I'm
kind of like, so but that's I'm hoping you do more.
You think you're gonna do more? Is this going to
be it?

Speaker 7 (47:29):
We'll do some more. We're talking about playing a show
in January.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
It's not for sure. Nice Minnesota January. I love that. Well,
what's the best club up there right now to play?

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Well, First Avenue forever. They own a lot of the
clubs now, so like the entry is still kicking, four
hundred bars gone. If you ever played there? Where did
you play? When you're up here? When you played here,
I know you played first half? Is that it?

Speaker 4 (48:03):
We opened?

Speaker 3 (48:04):
Uh too?

Speaker 7 (48:05):
We opened for Walton mik two sold out Knights in
a row. But we were big fans of Walt Mak
so we were psyched when we got to tour with them.
We did a whole We did a US tour with them,
and they were they were fantastic.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Turf club in Saint Paul's awesome. That's good things there.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Yeah, that's a fantastic place to play. A lot of
people play there. Uh what else? There's a place called
the Amsterdam and say Paul, the people will play. Palmers
is kind of a so they have a very small
stage inside it's a dive bar, but it's cool and
it's been there for like one hundred years. But they
all have an outdoor summer patio that's really kick ass.

(48:45):
So that place is cool.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
Everyone moved across the river or like Minneapolis.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Well it's it's weird. It's just so many places open
and closed. There's this little punk rock place called Mortimers
is fantastic too. That's right in Uh, it's right on Lyndale,
kind of leaving uptown into downtown. That place is super cool.
So you know, there's always stuff opening and closing, but uh,
still a lot of good places to play. But yeah,
you guys should come up here and play. Maybe not

(49:13):
in January because it would have been fine. Last year
it snowed like twice and then melted right away.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
It's so weird he up there, really.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Yeah, we had almost no snow on the ground the
entire winter. I've never seen that for It's really odd.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Not encouraging though in a certain play.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
There's that January show. Is that going to be another
local or are you gonna maybe play some Midwest dates?
What are you just seeing now?

Speaker 4 (49:43):
Probably local? Blake?

Speaker 6 (49:45):
You want to you want to play other cities?

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Yeah, to do a band meeting.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
We'll just turn the play. I'd like to play games
in Iowa and get my hold Marshall back and see
if I can still bring it up the stairs. I
just want to be like I want to, you know,
sysiphus like experience. Just get like like someone explaining to

(50:13):
my kids that your father died carrying for twelve Marshall cab.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Up the back like a damn hero.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
Yeah, like like a mother, like fucking pura.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
He served, He's served, my God, and now he's crushed.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
And and then you get that bartender. Here lies the
worst band I've ever seen or whatever that guy told you.

Speaker 4 (50:46):
That was a lot of.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Well I hope, I certainly hope you do more shows.
It'd be fun if you came up here some time
into PLAYE. That'd be pretty kick ass. But i'd love yeah,
or or even Madison. That's not that's a three four
hour drive.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
All right? Next uh?

Speaker 5 (51:09):
And I know you're like winding down and edit this
in a really really great way. I guess smart go
back to like where don't look, go back to her
like the.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
W X y Z CBS. I just want to know
what's back.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
There, Okay, because we missed this the first time, so
to to scale back. We weren't recording yet. Blake here
wanted me to pull some random CDs off the shelf.

Speaker 4 (51:34):
Yes, XTC and zz top no Zebra.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Oh wow, And I think it's an attempt to embarrass
me and it might work. So let's let's try. All right,
here we go again. Let's do two. This is a
fun game. Let's let's let's make the odds a little
worse than I'm gonna look like a dip ship.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
Hold on, that's gonna be great. Yep, don't look Oh

(52:14):
all right, all right, what do you got this is?

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I don't know. I'm scared. There is some porsh it
on there. It's not all good stuff. So we got
well the who live it leads? All right, I'm winning.
I mean that that's we're starting strong. A couple of
couple of Willie Nelson records all right. Uh, it's like
a it's like a best of and a Redheaded Stranger.

(52:41):
All right, so far not too bad? Uh yeah, White
Zombie h that one hasn't been played in a while. Uh.
And a couple of white stripes.

Speaker 6 (52:58):
Okay, so white snake though no white Snake.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I don't own any White Snake. Okay, I don't, I
I don't. I'm not against them necessarily.

Speaker 6 (53:11):
And but you're talking about the eighties sort of frog
metal band.

Speaker 7 (53:15):
Are you're not talking? Isn't there an indie band called Zebra?
They fell with a seven?

Speaker 4 (53:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (53:23):
I remember from the middle of the Pilots's gone, all right.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
All right, we've got I'm scared of this.

Speaker 6 (53:28):
Allowed to do this podcast.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
It's kind of a fun game, actually, and I think
you should. You two should have to do this as well.
All right, so, uh, all right, this is mostly alright.
There's a couple in here that I'm a little hack.
David Ford pretty decent record. I saw him do it
in store. I think he was like playing with Pete
Yorn or something. So we're respectable again. We've got uh

(53:56):
got some Bowie.

Speaker 7 (53:59):
Wax uh those the old Riicho reissues.

Speaker 4 (54:05):
His last record, which is like not fun, but it's great.

Speaker 7 (54:09):
It's really dark and really cool and like only David
Bowie could sort of plan things so that he actually
dies on the day that his record is released.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
Yeah, and what's that He's got that song? Uh, what
the fuck? Where the fuck did Monday go?

Speaker 4 (54:26):
Or whatever? The lyric he sings and he died on
a Monday. Yeah, he's like, yeah, bizarre.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
And then we've got Earthling and Honkey Dory, which is
my favorite. I'm a Honkey Dory, Ziggy Stardus fan. Those
are my favorite too. Uh.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
We got Dave Perter solo record.

Speaker 6 (54:44):
You're Minneapolis, you can well hear this.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Favorite Bowie record, Hockey Dory. Yeah, yeah, that's your favorite
Bowie record.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
It's my favorite Bowie record. What's your favorite Bowie record?

Speaker 5 (55:01):
For years, like it was Hunky Dory, and now I'm
getting into like the darker corners of the catalog, like
where the roaches kind of scatter. He's like Dylan and
like it's very It's like whatever age you are, what's
going on in your life, you know, like which record

(55:23):
speaks to you. I've been listening to a lot of
Station of Station and Aladdinsane lately. I love Black Star,
like I there there will be a point where people
reassess that record. It got good reviews, but nobody talks
about it or or listens to it.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
I think that's bad.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
It's so remarkably sad, but like someone basing like an
alien facing their own mortality. Like it's an incredibly powerful record,
and I got to play a song off of that
at Empty Bottle for like a Bowie tribute after he died,
and it was like.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
It was something I don't know, rick favorite Bowie record.
That's really hard to say.

Speaker 6 (56:08):
I mean, I love Hunky Dory, loved it for a
long time, but I I really liked a Latin saying.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Nice it sounds great right now, right.

Speaker 6 (56:18):
I went through a scary Monsters phase and you know,
went through uh, you know, an Eno Berlin phase. Uh
you kind of just go I mean that's the great
thing about catalogs like that, you can just go through
phases where you're into one or two records that speak
to you for a while, and then you put them

(56:40):
on the shelf and two years later you go back
and you.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
Know, I like Monsters like love it, love it, love it.
But you can hear the seats of the guitar wankery
if it's going to permit in my machine.

Speaker 6 (56:57):
Lanky, come on, it's really cool guitar.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
It's cool, but it gets it gets a little bit,
you know. Adrian Blue. Adrian Blue, speaking.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
Of aliens, are you Prince fans at all? Speaking of
Minneapolis and large catalogs.

Speaker 7 (57:23):
Yeah, who I think he died a month after David
Bowie or something.

Speaker 3 (57:29):
Right before I actually, yeah, yeah, right by your house,
right thirty minutes for my front tour. I was actually
out there that day. I drove out there as pretty surreal,
like helicopters and ship like I'm a big yeah there
you go, big Prince fan. So yeah, got a favorite

(57:50):
record there. That's another that's a mood one too. You
gotta like they're the obvious, which.

Speaker 6 (57:57):
Is, oh god, I can't remember covered when you were mine?

Speaker 4 (58:06):
Remember that? Yeah? You and I played Purple Rain and Beautiful.

Speaker 5 (58:12):
Ones that Joaquin Phoenix's New Year's party.

Speaker 4 (58:20):
No, for real, Nick, like, I'm actually we did.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
I was just not come up yet.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
It's not a story. It's like not not something that.

Speaker 7 (58:30):
Like in Montezuma, Costa Rica, I really really on the
edge of the earth.

Speaker 6 (58:37):
We had to take like a a ferry and a
train and like.

Speaker 7 (58:42):
A car on a gravel road to get to this place.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
There was one phone in town. It was the why
two k new yor ze and gravel roads.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
You're right.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
I remember being on a bus that had like actual
chickens and oats, and I was like trying to be
cool and my chickens, like the group a lot of
buses and uh getting there, and then somebody in town,
like we got invited to Gavin Dennis, the one of
the guys that sort of Vice magazine, got invited to

(59:17):
like his beach house and this is not like Malibo,
this is like run down the middle of nowhere. And
then from there we got invited to Joaquin Phoenix, like
the house up the hill, and I remember that, like
it was so dark because we were so far away
from any city here town that like we got screamed

(59:38):
at by cows. Were you with me? Or or were
you in the other group? And got colder monkey and
every we like rolled off the gravel road and fell
on ditches and they got up there and they had
some bad cover band and Joaquin Phoenix was like you
guys anything we.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Did purple and beautiful ones. It was a weird night man.
Good versions of them.

Speaker 7 (01:00:07):
Yeah, yeah, I think named our band. But somebody asked
us what we were called.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
ID you I think we're playing with our friend John
san Juan and he from the Hush Drops. I think
he called us rough customer.

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
That happened on the Customer now what happened.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
The next day we were in uh back in San Jose,
and we went to a casino and the casino got
robbed while we were in it at some point, and
then we wandered to what looked like a live music venue,
but it was actually a prophet. They had a live
band in the brothel so you could dance but the

(01:00:50):
workers and then we got out stage. Next funing type
like they're from Chicago. Michael Jordan's capone that was like,
they're called Rough Customer. We played in there. We played place.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
Yeah, there needs to be a Rough Customer reunion.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
He actually did play.

Speaker 7 (01:01:14):
We were So there was this tradition in Chicago at
the Double Door playing Halloween shows where we would sort
of dress up like other bands. We started this with
Triple Fast Action and Local Age back in like in
nineteen ninety six, I think, but I think probably the

(01:01:37):
fourth year we did that, we were Prince and we
had we had Christian Webb from the Web Brothers as
guest vocalists, so he.

Speaker 6 (01:01:46):
Played the role of Prince Nelson Rogers, Jimmy Webb's son
like Jimmy webbeats one of Wichita Lineman fame.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
By the time I get the Phoenix band Galveston.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Anyway, we've only we've only pulled out never take the
place your man. But I had a band years ago
we did when you were mine too. We played this
place in Rochester. We don't do a lot of covers,
but we've done some replacement ship for tribute nights and stuff.
It's on YouTube if you ever want to go down
a weird rabbit hole. But they we played this place

(01:02:24):
in Rochester and they we decided we were going to
play Hair of the Dog by Nazareth, which, honestly musically
because I had like one of those task can recorders
were recording the ship, and musically we did a very
fine job at Nazareth. However, I, I and the rest

(01:02:45):
of the planet, unless your name is Axel Rose, cannot
sing like the dude from Nazareth. So that was kind
of where I went a little bit off the trick.
Yeah yeah, and really Sandpapery can't do that. So next
time the bartender, who absolutely loved us, Gretchen, She's like,
next time, will you play Huey Lewis? So we did,

(01:03:09):
and this reminds me of your bartender story because we
did Power of Love and I played keyboard and sang.
We rehearsed it like twice in the practice space, and
then we got to the show. We're like, are we
gonna do Power of Love? And like, we are doing
Power of Love? So we did it very unrehearsed. I'm
trying to play keyboards and sing a song that I

(01:03:29):
don't really know, and yeah, it was pretty fantastic. And
then after the show, I asked the sound guy, Hey,
what did you think of the Huey Lewis cover? And
He's like, I have to be honest, that was the
worst thing I've ever heard of my life.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
Like Nick like, well, we feel.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
Several times what band rolls into Rochester and the bartender
is like she could play some hebe Lewis, and you
guys are all like, yes, we can't. Oh well we
shouldn't have. I feel like I know every part of
every song on Earth. I don't think I don't. I

(01:04:08):
don't know how to play a single Pey Lewis song. Yeah,
it was pretty good of like well.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
So it was the next time, so we had a
rehearsal between the next time we were there that we
were like, oh, we're going back to play there. Let's
figure it out. So we had the loose bones of it,
but when we got on stage we barely remembered anything
that we had learned, so it was pretty bad.

Speaker 4 (01:04:31):
I feel like it's the same song as it to
B Square, right, it's the same.

Speaker 5 (01:04:35):
Like one two four five or one two three four aggression.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
I'm glad we went to hue Lewis on this. This
is where things really started eating up. My first concert,
by the way, was Huey Lewis Sports Tour. Take that cars?
What was yours?

Speaker 4 (01:05:01):
Asia?

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Oh wow? All right?

Speaker 7 (01:05:06):
Do you see like the stacks of keyboards the keyboard
platform of jeff Downs?

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
I mean, do you remember that period where like people
went from Marshall stacks to just like a Roland in
a bunch of like Roland solid state ship the Forida side.

Speaker 7 (01:05:27):
I remember if that was that was called nineteen eighty three.

Speaker 4 (01:05:31):
But but like I'm sitting there like ship man.

Speaker 5 (01:05:33):
You you got Steve Howe from Yes, pretty good player,
but we're just going to get like a ship ton
of like Jeffrey Downs. The keyboards had like the worst
they were trying to do like a foreign emulation.

Speaker 3 (01:05:47):
Oh my god, I love people who opened do you remember,
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:05:56):
My second show was Billy Idol the same summer on Yell,
and then my third one was Midnight Midnight Oil.

Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
That was a great song, but that's all I really like.
That was a great not even that was a great
chorus within a song.

Speaker 6 (01:06:17):
Where would Midnight Oil have played in the early eighties
pop with Creek really were they over going to Potwood Creek?

Speaker 5 (01:06:27):
They were like, you came back alive the first time.
You can just keep going back.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
Yeah. I think mine was so is Huey Lewis with
Juice Newton opening if you remember Juice, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was a sports tour so and the North Dakota
State Fair where I grew up. Had i an grew
up with the fair, but I grew up in North Dakota.

(01:06:55):
Had booked Huey Lewis before that Elton took off, which
was kind of weird because now they just have like,
you know, kid rock. But the second one was probably
Rio speed Wagon, which you know, there you go.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
Yeah, that was my second one, too nice, And.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
Then the third was either Foreigner or Here's a Blast
from the Past, the Escape Club. Oh yeah, do you
remember that Wild Wild West, which was basically a ripoff
of the Elvis Costello.

Speaker 4 (01:07:28):
Song what is it that's like it Up or something?

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Yeah, it sounds just like pump it Up.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Not good, No, not not great. But I do remember
oddly the album the guy had the guitar player had
the shirt on on the album cover, and it was
the same shirt he was wearing on stage, which I
don't know if that's a really I don't think you
could do that.

Speaker 6 (01:07:49):
Sometimes you gotta stay on brand.

Speaker 4 (01:07:53):
I love that.

Speaker 5 (01:07:54):
Like def Leppard, like Joe Elliott used to wear deaf
Leopard shirt on stage.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
Oh yeah, I'm like fucking respect man.

Speaker 3 (01:08:06):
He also used to wear sex Pistol shirts, which I
just don't understand at all. Like that just blew my mind.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
Yeah, you're the anti sex pistols.

Speaker 5 (01:08:14):
Basically lay down and you're like be a double of
they were.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Def Leppard was here like last night or something, def Leppard,
Journey and Steve Miller band who put that together.

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
I'll save this about Steve Miller eight or nine really
cool songs. Yeah eight nine, Yeah, I have no problem
really down.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Yeah, I actually walked out. I walked out of a
show once because I think Fly like an Eagle had
hit the twenty minute mark. And uh, out of those
eight or nine songs you mentioned, I would not include
Fly Like an Eagle in that bunch.

Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
No great jam. Well, how old were you when you
saw that?

Speaker 10 (01:09:03):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
This was fifteen years ago? Joe, Joe, Joe Cocker and
Steve Miller. Joe Cocker was great, oh wow, right before
he died. Yeah, but Steve Miller was very boring and
he really liked himself a lot. But I do agree.
He's got jet jet Airliner.

Speaker 5 (01:09:23):
Great, great rocking me taking money around like great radio.
So like Joe Cocker. I was actually talking to somebody
in the past couple of weeks about when Joe Cocker died,
and nobody can quite place it. I had this thought that,
like ever since were born, Joe Cocker always looked like

(01:09:43):
he was about like broke, and.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
So no one.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
No look at those videos from Woodstock, I think he
was a hundred.

Speaker 7 (01:09:53):
He's about to he's died, He's been about to die
for forty years.

Speaker 6 (01:09:58):
Well, Belushi, impersonation of Joe Cocker, would suggest, yeah, there
might have been there. It's kind of the Steve Martin
cans on his forehead.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
The Steve Martin's always had that too, where you just
don't really know how old you thought he was fifty
when he was like, you know, twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:10:19):
It's odd and he's still fifty.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Yep, and he's still fifty. It's weird. So well, Jents,
I appreciate you jumping on. I want to keep you
too much later here, but I appreciate you jumping on,
and congrats on the album and look forward to the
other two. Wish I could make it up to your
show here in a couple of weeks, but hopefully you
have some more on the books relatively soon, and I

(01:10:43):
hope you practice.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
So it seems like that might be an issue. Send
up a text in a week to remind us, No,
I gonna be fun for you, like.

Speaker 3 (01:10:56):
Oh yeah, it's yeah, I'm looking forward to it should
be entertaining. But good luck at the show, and and yeah,
let me know if you have any other shows coming
up after that, or if you want to come up
to Minneapolis too. I'm sure I could try to help
set something up for you with some of the clubs here.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
If that's pretty fun, I'd be blasted. I would love
that so love to come back.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
That was big dish right there. That's one of my
favorite bands of all time. I'm anybody who's known me
for a while has had to hear me talk about
my love of Big Dish and it goes back back
to high school. Actually, my friend Mike Sheldon was in
a band of them in the night. It's called Standard
Thompson and he discovered like through like a service where

(01:11:51):
you hear music over the phone and then you can
buy the record. So pretty cool. Great speaking with for
some talking with Rick been uh been connected with Blake
here for a bit and just really enjoyed it. It's
a great conversation. Looking forward to hearing how their shows
go and if they practice, and make sure you pick

(01:12:15):
up that new record of theirs online. So check out
fig Dish. Great band, and thank you for tuning in
to Studio twenty four for the thig Dish episode of
the Figure Eights Podcast.

Speaker 10 (01:12:39):
When you feel fool.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
Can you tell me the sudream?

Speaker 10 (01:13:01):
You don't want to get left behinde you want to
find it's a piece of mine, they say, it.

Speaker 4 (01:13:09):
Takes a lot time when you see it.

Speaker 10 (01:13:11):
There she was in the crowd, whirling alone.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
When everybody wants to ride. Now she's never.

Speaker 10 (01:13:37):
Hope the tainlell side. But everything has changed, so we
all know that you're wicked up to die inside now.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
There's nowhere let to go now, nothing can change it.
When you feel.

Speaker 5 (01:14:02):
Your world.

Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
World strange, they sell these things.

Speaker 5 (01:14:30):
M hm.

Speaker 11 (01:14:41):
You've got questions, O'Reilly. Auto parts as answers need a
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Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
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Speaker 11 (01:14:48):
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Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
Out of alrighting burning auto parts

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
Mhm