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Episode 4: Throw it Away, But Tell Me Where You Live, First
125 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Amplified Nonsense, hosts Chris Benson of Benson Amps, Bryan Sours of Soursound Audio Works, and Charles Henry of Silktone Amplifiers chat about the podcast launch, their latest design projects (“never finalize anything”), and managing their businesses. They help a listener decide whether to repair or toss old amps, offer first date cooking ideas, and give hot takes on Broadway musicals and public singing.
If you'd like Bryan, Charles, and Chris to answer your question on an episode of Amplified Nonsense, call (513) 334-3803 and leave a voicemail.
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Transcript
Introducing the 'Amplify Nonsense' Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
so
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome to Amplify Nonsense, the podcast about Amps, life, love and laughter featuring Brian Sowers from Sour Sound, Chris Benson from Benson Amps and Charles Henry from Silk Tones.
00:00:32
Speaker
My name is Emily. I'm the producer. I'm here to keep these guys on track and I'm going to turn it over to them. Thanks, Emily. Thanks, Emily. Silk tones.
00:00:44
Speaker
Silk tones. There's two of them. No thanks from Brian. Yeah. No thanks from Brian. Not ungrateful. No, I'm sorry. Still no thanks.
Launching the Podcast and Overcoming Doubts
00:00:55
Speaker
What are you end up to? We launched our ah we launched our the podcast yesterday. We got a few episodes out there now.
00:01:01
Speaker
I hear people are loving it. Yeah, me too. That's what I hear. it feels real now. I don't know. There's so many times where it was just us yapping to each other in microphones. and Now i it's like a realization that people will actually be listening to this despite our warnings.
00:01:19
Speaker
Does that add pressure or like challenge? or I'm nervous. little bit. And my nerves kick in. I get chatty. so Perfect. and you And a bunch of cold brew too, right? I was just telling Emily, it's it's worn off. I'm exhausted again.
00:01:34
Speaker
Oh, geez. It really does feel different. It does. Yeah. That wasn't a joke. How long were we were like, it was over a year, I think.
Acknowledging Emily's Crucial Role
00:01:44
Speaker
We were like trying to get this thing together between one of us trying to produce it and then that not working and then finding your producer and recording episodes and dumping them and then finally getting together what we have now. I, I like it. I like the way it turned out.
00:01:58
Speaker
I like our team. What you're saying is that we couldn't do it ourselves. We had to have Emily to make it happen. Oh yeah. This would not be on there if not for Emily for sure. I guess that counts as a thank you.
00:02:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome. And thank you for having me. What have you guys been
Chris's Pedal Design Progress
00:02:15
Speaker
up to other than that? yeah Designing a bunch of stuff again. Sweet. I finalized the pedal design today. it's I'm just waiting on enclosure prints, and we're going to get it rolling, and it'll probably be out in, like, I don't know.
00:02:27
Speaker
I want to say a month, but you know how these things go. Rippin' man. Congrats. I think I finalized something today, but I finalized something almost every day. And then I realized that it sucks, and then I have to go finalize again tomorrow.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah. The trick is never finalize anything. Just finalized for the day. Yeah. They all go out in an unfinished state and they just get tweaked over time.
Brian Sowers Joins the Team
00:02:52
Speaker
Don't tell people that. No, just kidding. Yeah. Speak for yourself there, bud. Okay. Monarch plus. yeah a oh I'm sorry. I invented two power scaling and then I had to put it in the other one.
00:03:04
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. I hired Brian Sowers. That's awesome. Now we need to add that to the end of Brian's moniker on the intro.
00:03:17
Speaker
No. and Okay, whatever. Okay, whatever. Yeah, that's rad. I'm i'm happy for you guys. That's super fun. like I can't wait to see the stuff you guys ah come up with. I told ah Ryan, who's the administrator over at Benson, i said I asked him a bunch of stupid questions, and he was just kind of like, why are you asking like basic job stuff? And I said...
00:03:38
Speaker
Oh, well, the last job I had was like 25 years ago. urban outfitters okay So, you know, this is a step up, right? Where's the break room? I actually, i hired my 15 year old Leo.
00:03:55
Speaker
He's now on payroll as well. And it was really similar to when I hired Brian Sowers because both of them were like, what do I do? So how does this work? no I got an email about a 401k and I was like, the hell is this? What the hell is happening?
00:04:12
Speaker
So yeah, we we have a successful podcast. I have a side gig. I feel like an adult. What's your job title? What'd you hire him for? Is it really just to like take our garbage and stuff like we talked about before?
00:04:23
Speaker
i thought it was social media. Oh yeah, social media. He's actually just cleaning the kitchen, click kitchens and bathrooms to start because we just needed someone for that. You'll work your way up to the mailroom soon, bud.
00:04:36
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's an important job. but No, he's designing. Basically, he's an extension of my brain, or I'm an extension of his brain.
00:04:47
Speaker
We're mind-melding. Your brain farts. I'm getting paid to mind-meld. It's pretty cool. Yeah, our our brain farts are mixing. No, that's awesome. Yeah, the design stuff, that sounds super exciting. Yeah, it's a pro audio stuff. We're going to be dipping our...
00:05:03
Speaker
Well, more than dipping our toes. I already did pro audio. we did like the Studio Tallbird, like rack reverb. But Brian is a recording engineer. I'm a recording engineer and we both really like Upward Gear. So we're going to be designing some Upward Gear.
00:05:19
Speaker
Grammy award winning. No, I don't have a Grammy yet. The band won the award. Come on. I don't have a gramophone sitting next to my bed or anything. But I should.
00:05:30
Speaker
i should go buy one. Do you have? You don't? No. You got a sweet plaque, I thought. Didn't you get a plaque? Yeah, I got i got two. Well, they're not plaques. They're like paper. i had to put them in a frame. it's just kind of cheap frame from Ikea.
00:05:45
Speaker
At least you framed them. Yeah. I didn't put them up anywhere. They just just sit there. but Was it a special trip to Ikea to get that? Or were just like buying a toilet brush or something and just saw some frames?
00:05:59
Speaker
I didn't even go. It was just an old frame that was just sitting in a corner. You you already had the frames. Yeah. You were waiting. You were anticipating. You knew you were going to win. Had Grammy written on them.
00:06:10
Speaker
yeah What have you been up to, you Charles? I'm just, I'm trying to wrap a bunch of designs right now. i'm I've been heavily considering moving to Japan, like at the beginning of the year.
00:06:24
Speaker
So I'm really trying to wrap a bunch of stuff here so that it will help me move there because I'll be going back and forth a lot.
Charles's Remote Business Plans
00:06:31
Speaker
I'll be running the business remotely and doing all the...
00:06:35
Speaker
i think all the pedal stuff over there and then also all the design work and then um coming back to my shop every couple months to like help manage and all that so i'm just trying to see if that's realistic and i've been tying up loose ends and just designing like crazy lately yeah breaking into a lot of new amp stuff few new amps almost done couple pedals and uh just cleaning up around here, trying to organize more so that it's it's it can run itself while I'm gone. And that's,
00:07:06
Speaker
That's a weird hat to wear. Just like I'm not the most efficient business manager. So it's weird to like try to discipline myself on that. It's weird. ye That's like so much harder than building amps.
00:07:19
Speaker
It's so much harder. All I wanted to do was build amps. And then it's like it's just everything else that comes with the business. How much different did your business look like in the first few years of starting it versus now?
00:07:33
Speaker
It started with me just in bare feet, smoking cigarettes in my garage alone. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds familiar. And now I have, you know, it's, you guys have seen the operation. It's like, yeah.
00:07:49
Speaker
And so that means it had to change like so much every single year. And you had to change with it. Right. And I had to change with it. Yeah. um Which was very uncomfortable. Actually. i basically had to like,
00:08:03
Speaker
become a different person in order to like run a business or you know be someone that my employees wouldn't like openly make fun of or something
00:08:16
Speaker
you had to earn the respect that you wanted as a manager I never wanted the respect or, or the responsibility. Yeah.
Balancing Business Management and Design
00:08:25
Speaker
Dude, if I could just find a cool business manager and just design in a dark room and not ever leave, uh, I w I would do that.
00:08:36
Speaker
I think that's my goal for the company is to have someone else manage. And I just design, design, design. That's, that would be the most ideal. That's the work I do for Chris. Yep. Yeah. yeah On top of running your own business, which is yeah sounds... I mean, they're complimentary. stressful as any of them, yeah. Yeah, it's it's complimentary. you know Everything I'm designing is going to be utilizing Transformers that I design here and produce.
00:09:00
Speaker
It works together. That's a pretty sweet loophole you found there. yeah This one has 23 Transformers. Yeah, that's kind of how it started. We have...
00:09:12
Speaker
Yes. grace is a conversation this is yeah Chris has done a little bit of editing on what I've done. Yeah. yeah Yeah. But also the design sort of looks like Brian works for TI as well.
00:09:24
Speaker
Just looks like a, ah looks like a spec sheet PDF or something. Just all the crazy stuff. I mean, okay, so we're making something with vacuum tubes currently. and Shocker.
00:09:35
Speaker
I just kind of feel like, you know, in the pro audio world, it's people have kind of just rested on what's been done before. You know, and one thing, ah like, I just don't want to do like a clone of something. I want to do something new and and different. But, you know, modern recording standards are totally different than things were, you know, even...
00:09:54
Speaker
30 years ago. So noise floors and things like that. Like, so I'm just way into um active filtering, capacitance multipliers, voltage regulation circuits.
Innovating Audio Gear with Advanced Features
00:10:05
Speaker
And if we're doing this, I'm going to go kind of all out with it. I'm going to throw everything that, you know, I've ever wanted to do at it. And Chris is going to say, oh, this is too much. And, you know, yeah he'll be right and kind of cut it back. But.
00:10:16
Speaker
Oh, come on. That makes me sound like some sort of. No, I don't mean it that way. but i mean, i I need some. what i've heard What I've heard privately is that Chris has been very, very, very open and to all of your insane designs more than you thought he would.
00:10:32
Speaker
That's true. But there needs some some like realistic expectations. Yeah. after you need to be and You need to be reeled in You need to be reeled in a little bit. Yeah. It can't fit into 13 tall rack unit or anything.
00:10:46
Speaker
i You're like the crazy artist and I'm like the producer. And I'm like, Brian, this doesn't need another tambourine track.
00:10:55
Speaker
Flip the tape backwards, reverse tambourine on everything. That's my design specialty. I mean, they call me the BOM killer. Like people really do. It's because anytime anyone ever asks for my help, the cost on what they're going to make goes up.
00:11:09
Speaker
What's BOM? BOM killer. Oh, Bill of Material. That's me. we are I sometimes forget that people don't call it a bomb. Yeah, bomb. I say bomb. Like I do. So we we I got some weird looks in the shop every once in while about I'm building a bomb.
00:11:25
Speaker
I didn't even think of that. I'm going to bring the bomb in.
Engaging Listeners with Voicemails
00:11:31
Speaker
We're going to get into our first call right now, but if you want these guys to answer your question, call and leave a voicemail at 513-334-3803. That's 513-334-3803. number will also be the show notes. what up? It's Steve from 65 Ohio.
00:11:43
Speaker
have...
00:11:47
Speaker
but number will also be in the show notes you know what up ah the um i home i have three amps that are like in various states are broken actually one of them is pretty much just a chassis the other one buddy mine gave it to me and was like i replaced the fuse and it still doesn't work and then another one that needs like two pots replaced at what point should just be like ah throw all this stuff in the garbage i should just do that right it's been 10 years it's been 10 years at some point when something's broken
00:12:24
Speaker
and it's not working like you should just throw it in the garbage. That's a thing, right? Throw it in the garbage. Let me know. Let me know. I don't think I've ever thrown anything in the garbage. i'm I'm surrounded by broken things and I take stuff out of the garbage.
00:12:43
Speaker
ah yeah Me too. might Might be the wrong crowd for this. something cool america Yeah. But so yeah, throw it away, but tell me where you live first. I mean, is there really a point where it becomes, there has to be a point where it's not viable, but the thing is, it's like, if you get to that point with something where you don't have the time or it's not worth your time, there's always someone else who's going to be wanting to do that project.
00:13:08
Speaker
Yeah, so give it away before you throw it away. first Yeah, exactly. Like, I don't have a lot of free time. I'm not going to... I've got broken stuff in the corner I'll probably never be able to deal with.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah, because I spaced on what he said the issues were on those. I know he listed them, but I can't remember them now. One of them was like Bad Pots... it's funny because like for some people that would be such an easy thing i would never throw that away just replace the pot you're done but if you don't already work on amps or something it's like oh this is never gonna get done i don't know what to do with it so yeah but changing a pot that's a great first step into getting your hands in there and not getting executed you know you gotta start somewhere yeah i absolutely wouldn't throw that away that's really easy to fix and the other one was was oh the fuse blows or my friend changed the fuse is that what he my friend changed the fuse and it's still broke
00:13:58
Speaker
which i mean that's you know usually the point where someone would take it to a professional or open it up see what's going yeah those things usually blow for a reason so yeah yeah for sure um i i mean brian and i both i don't charles did you ever do repair work yeah repaired for all the all the guitar centers in the bay area uh me and my friend had like a little repair shop in the bay before i moved up here Cool. we all We are all intimately familiar with the calculus.
00:14:29
Speaker
That is, how much is are we going to have to charge a customer to fix this thing? And ah is that worth more than it would be if it were fixed?
00:14:43
Speaker
So like take a Hot Rod Deluxe, for instance. And that would be, you know say have to replace all the power tubes and a few plate resistors because those always go bad and input jacks and all that stuff that usually goes wrong with those. And depending on like where you are in the country and your overhead as a shop, like you might have to charge more than that Hot Rod Deluxe is even worth.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah. So we're all... really familiar with like making that calculation for a customer and being able to tell them hey you might not want to uh to get this fixed like maybe give it away to someone who wants to learn how to work on it or take it to the dump or whatever don't never take stuff to the dump but like maybe just divest from it the dump is your buddy who says that he can fix it and won't charge for it yeah exactly lot of in portland like that
00:15:43
Speaker
If it needs anything beyond like new tubes and some biasing, like some, most things that go wrong with those amps that are like under 500 bucks, it's like, God, do you even, why would you even put the money into this unless there's like sentimental value attached to it?
00:16:00
Speaker
I used to get so many jobs from Guitar Center. Like those little funder Mustang amps would come in all the time. And it was like, dude, these are like a hundred bucks. I'm going to charge you a hundred to replace the input jack. Like quit sending me these. You don't want to foot the bill. Yeah. That's really tough. Like, I don't know. blame manufacturers for stuff like that, where it's like, you know, you've, you've,
00:16:23
Speaker
outsourced or cheapened something so much, you know, that you can produce it and sell it for, you know, such little money that it has no intrinsic value if it does break.
00:16:35
Speaker
you know Right. It has a life. It has a, ah it has a, yeah. Yeah. It's,
Commitment to Sustainable Product Design
00:16:40
Speaker
What is that called? Planned obsolescence? i don't know if that's really a form of planned obsolescence. It's just like it's too much capitalism is what it is.
00:16:47
Speaker
It all becomes e-waste at a certain point. If it's got us if got if it's got a printed circuit board in it, cheap transformers, any form of particle board, cheap components in general, like it it has... It's just going to fall apart.
00:17:01
Speaker
You might put $300 into but... now to get it fixed, 10 years later, you might actually just be throwing it out. Not to shoot my horn or you know the the boutique industry as a whole is interested in a not contributing to that. like Anything that I make, anything that Charles makes, anything that Brian made or is designing, all that stuff is meant to be repaired for forever hopefully some someday it's going to fall apart but well after you know we're dead and gone i mean that i kind of see that as like it's just like ecologically responsible to to do it that way we always get people in the dms or whatever is saying oh i you know i can get this uh whatever for
00:17:54
Speaker
half Half the price of what you guys are selling it for. And I'm like, well, yeah, but you know that's going to be in a dump someday. And mine isn't. And it won't sound as good.
00:18:04
Speaker
You can pass this on to multiple generations. Yeah. if you wanted to yeah that's part of the benefit of designing as someone who did so much repair it's like you know what's gonna go wrong so you can design that in and fix that stuff you don't i don't want people to ever see the inside of my amps because they need to they shouldn't break so yeah they should stay out of repair shops as much as possible yep that's the goal yeah Even for biasing. That's why I like cathode biasing so much. One, I like it.
00:18:36
Speaker
ah It sounds way better. But I know so many people that they play have played guitar for years, but they're not comfortable biasing an amp. And they go pay way too much money to have it biased at a tech.
00:18:47
Speaker
Yep. That's actually why I do cathode bias as well. I just yeah don't want anyone fiddling with the stuff. What is that? That cathode biasing? You want to take it, Brian? Why me? He looks like he wants to take it.
00:19:00
Speaker
You haven't talked for a while. Yeah, look at him. Cathode bias, right. It's a method of biasing a tube where you insert a resistor in between the cathode and ground versus, say, fixed bias when you take the cathode and fix it to ground.
00:19:16
Speaker
Basically, just turns the tube on. ah It's kind of like bumping up the idle on a car. From a DC perspective, it's kind of like you yeah bump the idle in the car up and you have a shorter window between...
00:19:30
Speaker
uh, where are the idle's at and maximum. So the tube is just turned on much more. And this is, up this is, uh, indirect from the audio that's happening. This is just ah happening at DC, not AC.
00:19:44
Speaker
But the point is, is it's, uh, easier method of turning on a tube but where, uh, when utilized in a pair, they they don't have to be biased.
00:19:57
Speaker
You know, like, you know, some amps have like a bias control when it's fixed bias. That's adjusting voltage going into a grid. I'm trying to not make this super technical. You should make it super technical. Yeah, put a resistor in the cathode instead of fixing it to ground.
00:20:11
Speaker
In ample and guitar amplifier world, it usually means that you don't have to adjust bias when you change tubes. Yeah. And so for these guys, it's beneficial in that an end user can just buy a pair of match tubes throw them, assuming it's a pair, throw them in, done.
00:20:26
Speaker
It's done.
Simplifying Tube Replacement with Cathode Biasing
00:20:27
Speaker
Now don't have to take it to a tech. They don't have to measure anything. you don't have to turn any trim pots until, you know, the meter says whatever. It just means put a match pair in. and go play the show.
00:20:38
Speaker
So yeah, tubes want to be biased or tubes need to be biased to kind of set the character of the distortion. What bias does is takes the range of what a tube but can, the voltage a tube can swing and whether you bias it hot or cold or in the middle,
00:20:55
Speaker
It will change how the positive or negative swing of the AC ac signal will distort. Typically, or I might have this backwards. Hotter will typically like clip the positive ah half before the negative half, and colder will tip we'll clip the negative half.
00:21:13
Speaker
And that changes the sound of the distortion and stuff like that. Biasing is done... in all tubes and there's many ways to do it but the most common in a tube amp in a guitar tube amp are yeah fixed bias where you actually set a voltage you take a voltage off of the power transformer or or a higher voltage line and you you knock it down to a smaller voltage that the tubes want to see and you feed it straight to the grid of the tube and then self-biasing like cathode biasing the tube biases itself based on whatever cathode resistor the designer throws in there.
00:21:48
Speaker
And then the end user can just swap tubes out and they all bias up. They should bias up the same way instead of having to adjust stuff based on the current the tube is drawing and stuff like that.
00:21:59
Speaker
I love the fact that Chris is just sitting there, is that popcorn, eating popcorn out of a bag? it's like Man, i'm I'm eating sunflower seeds and thinking about like fishing. No, i' I'm joking. That was a good explanation, Charles.
00:22:14
Speaker
I thought maybe I would give like an even like more basic explanation, and we can have a competition, but I don't think I'll do that. Yeah, i don't want I'm not trying to do that. the I mean, your whole point with the comment was just that an end user can change tubes, right?
00:22:29
Speaker
Well, yeah, totally. But I feel like you answered like you were asked, you know, like like we had in place, like what's cathode biasing versus fixed biasing. But I feel like that won't be understood without talking about just what is biased.
00:22:43
Speaker
I always use the idle in a car analogy. Yeah, that's a good analogy. yes Yeah. I mean, it's technically it's backwards, but you don't have to explain that to people. We all nodded our heads. You can't see us on video. But when when you said that, yeah, we were all, oh, yeah, nodding. Yeah.
00:22:57
Speaker
I use a garden hose analogy every once in a while, but yeah, mostly idle in a car is a great one. Did we figure out if this guy should dump all his amps? and I mean, obviously he shouldn't dump anything, but like...
00:23:08
Speaker
What's the last thing you guys threw away and how long did it take you? I have some stuff here that I've been looking at like, yeah, I should really get rid of this. I just threw away some really old cheap selection speakers that I'm, I'm, I was always like, I'm going to use these. I'm going to use these. I'm going to use these.
00:23:23
Speaker
And then they finally were just like in the way too much again. And I just, I just gave, I gave them away. I gave them away. I've never thrown out a piece of gear. Or given away though, like given away to get out of the way, like not thrown away in the garbage, but like, okay, get this out of here.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I've given stuff away here and there. Not that much though. Usually i try to fix it or it's still in my possession somewhere. Yeah. I mean, in Portland, you just put something on the sidewalk if you want to get rid of it. You don't throw things in the garbage can.
00:23:53
Speaker
No, not in the garbage can. Oh, here's a good tip. I mean, when I worked at Old Town, people always used to bring extremely broken stuff in, and they would just put, you know, a note on it, $10 or free, and then it would disappear within five minutes.
00:24:08
Speaker
Someone would take it home and either pull the knobs off of it or smoke it or whatever they were going to do. Trade it for a guitar strap or something. Some people want something broken to fiddle around with and try and learn the stuff that, you know, I mean, I get a lot of joy out of just being someone that fixes something, you know, it's rewarding.
00:24:27
Speaker
So I think, uh, you know some of the people tuning into this podcast probably like feel the same way. So, yeah, I mean, that guy should take that amp. That's just a chassis and find a nice person who, you know, will do something with it and just give it away. But that guy also should change some pots.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, change some pots. Come on, watch it YouTube. It'll be great. We're going to get another question next week. How do I change pots in this guitar? And we're going to have to end put in another disclaimer. Do not work on amps unless you are comfortable around high voltages.
00:25:00
Speaker
Or just don't work on amps. That's true. Don't work on amps. I'm realizing that ah i've I've changed my tune inadvertently. We'll just simplify it. We'll just don't amps. There you go. cheaper you them Just Yeah, don't amps.
00:25:20
Speaker
we have more Do we have more questions? Hey, do we want to try and tackle another one? Yeah, so I don't know how you all are going to feel about this one, but i quite liked it. Hey, I was wondering what your favorite Broadway musical is and why. Book of Mormon.
00:25:38
Speaker
I never saw that. What? I never saw it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good one. It's smart and it's funny. That's all I look for. but Smart and funny. i never I've never seen a Broadway, like actual Broadway. Well, not in New York, but like, have you seen ah Broadway show off Broadway?
00:25:56
Speaker
What's the definition for a Broadway show? Okay. So if it's off Broadway, that means it was at some point on Broadway. Yeah. If it's been on Broadway, that's a Broadway show. Even if you see it in like in Ohio or wherever you're from.
00:26:09
Speaker
or Or like the in a movie version. oh like Wicked or something? Yeah, totally. I think Wicked counts. I think West Side Story counts. i thinks I think it's about the book and the music and not about necessarily seeing it on stage.
00:26:24
Speaker
I think she's just asking what your favorite musical that might be well known is. Hey, do you all remember this fad like in the 90s with these shows like Stomp?
00:26:36
Speaker
You remember this? Like, this is like pre-Blue Man group, but like when people would like take garbage can lids and do drums and sh** on them. Yeah. So my dad took me to Stomp when I was a kid. didn't even say he did it.
00:26:52
Speaker
It was rad. I had just started playing drums and it was so f**king cool. So cool. that's rad that's so sweet oh i i if not book of mormon then evil dead to the musical i'm not sure that was on broadway but evil dead to the musical i saw and that was also hilarious oh you're a man of the theater but the theater better than better than the the movie i think
00:27:26
Speaker
it was hilarious better than the movie well maybe not better than the movie that movie that movie rocks no i don't know what i'm talking about that's definitely not you're so culture yeah man i've seen jersey boys uh wait what hell yeah that was pretty good too four c that's all about the four seasons you saw jersey boys on broadway not on yeah i saw in san francisco off broadway I saw in, like, the Tenderloin.
00:27:56
Speaker
The... What else have I seen? Hamilton? Yeah, I've gone to some shows. They're all pretty good, but Book of Mormon, Evil Dead 2. West Side Story's pretty good, too, I guess.
00:28:09
Speaker
I'm more of a Romeo and Juliet fan. Chris? I don't really like musicals. Really? Yep. I mean, they're awful. They're terrible. Thank you, Brent.
00:28:19
Speaker
I just I cringe whenever they just break out in song and I'm just like I can't wait for the song to be over. I'm so bored. And, you know, usually the music's pretty good, but like, yeah, it has to be good. i feel like just the interrupting a story to sing a song rattles my cage every time.
00:28:37
Speaker
I can't handle TV shows. Like I've seen some musical TV shows and I'm like, what the is happening? Yeah. I think just through South Park, I became a huge fan of musicals.
00:28:48
Speaker
I love all their music episodes. I'll just ah admit this publicly. I have like a, ah I deep down psychologically abhor public singing. Like, you know, there's a band and someone's singing, okay.
00:29:04
Speaker
But, like acapella singing or someone that's just like singing in a place that's not on a stage. It is, uh, it's beyond cringe. It's not cringe. It's like worse than nails on a chalkboard sort of thing.
00:29:20
Speaker
Like I can't stand it. It's, it rattles me to like a level, to a depth that I can't even explain. And we used to have, you know, uh, Chris used to work at the guitar shop that I did repair work at like long ago.
00:29:35
Speaker
And at the old Old Town location, we actually had signage up that said no singing allowed. Because people would come in and they'd grab an acoustic and they'd sit down and they'd start singing like some Tom Petty song or something or some Bob Dylan crap.
00:29:49
Speaker
that And oh my God, I'd be there working and I would just like, boil inside yeah man and yeah it's i can't i cannot stand public singing it's so awful oh i'm there with you on public singing if there's a stage and it's good cool i when i went to the um when i went up to that mountain lake a few weeks ago i was sitting there minding my own goddamn business one day working on my laptop in front of the lake drinking beers hanging out with family and uh
00:30:21
Speaker
Someone at the beach decided to bring an acoustic guitar and start singing journey covers and stuff. Oh, rude. Yeah, that's terrible. I was very rude and loud in like my like commentary on what was happening.
00:30:35
Speaker
And it was it was hard not to get up and take it from him. Why you gonna do that in front of a beach full of people? It's like a who's a John Belushi breaking the ah guitar in an animal house.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah. you like that charles It was about to be like that. Yeah. If I was sober, it probably would have been like that. But when I drink beers, I'm like super non-confrontational. I'm just super like, oh, I love everyone.
00:31:02
Speaker
But even then I was like, this sucks. Did you guys see the Barbie movie? Yeah. did man when ryan gosling whips out that guitar on the beach that's pretty funny though he starts singing um what song was push by matchbox 20 just the chorus of ken's ah that's pretty awesome uh it was good that movie shocked me that movie was so good i think that's my favorite musical my My aunt paid for me and took me to go to see Miss Saigon in London when I was like 15. Wow.
00:31:43
Speaker
And I'm sad to say that I fell asleep. I thought it was a really nice gesture, but I wasn't able to enjoy it. Wait, were you already in London or you... you Yeah, i was just visiting family in London. My my two uncles and and aunt live live there. Oh, okay, okay.
00:32:02
Speaker
So you weren't like flown out to go see... No, no, no, no. Sorry. yeah no No, she just wanted to to take a... And how old were you again 15 16. Oh, yeah. yeah I mean, expecting a teenager to stay awake and something like that. Like, yeah, she messed up.
00:32:20
Speaker
That's what I'm saying. It's not your fault. I basically didn't see it. I was like out like a light in like 10 minutes. Okay. You were put in an impossible situation. no one should have had that expectation of you.
00:32:32
Speaker
No, you're fine. Thank you. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep at a movie or or a play or on an airplane. On an airplane? I can't do it, man. I can't fall asleep sitting up.
00:32:46
Speaker
Huh. I can. Even when I want to, I can't. I can't do it. that's ah That's tour skill number one. You need to be able to sleep sitting up or on a plane or in a van or in the trunk of a car.
00:32:59
Speaker
And drive all night if you need to. Yeah, that too. At the same time. i should to say both. I think we have time for one more question. These are kind of short, potentially.
00:33:12
Speaker
Hi, this is Kat from Vermont, and I have a question about first date food. So if you are at your place and cooking dinner for a new paramour for the first time, what would be the best food to make?
00:33:28
Speaker
Keeping in mind, there may be fooling around. Keeping in mind, you'll want to impress them, but you don't necessarily want to stress yourself out by cooking something huge and elaborate. and what if they're really lame and they don't appreciate your food? That's a lot of effort wasted.
00:33:46
Speaker
But if they really like your food, that's extra points. That's a hard call. Let know what you think. I love this question so much.
00:33:58
Speaker
but i just I had to keep imagining Brian Sowers on a first date.
First Date Cooking Stories
00:34:05
Speaker
ah So what do I do? I've cooked for people before. one Dating anyone who doesn't care about food just it doesn't compute.
00:34:18
Speaker
like It seems. It doesn't make any sense. not no judgments whatsoever here but it it seems i would feel if i invited someone to a first date at my home that would that that would be a little um presumptuous and and not what word am i looking for not claustrophobic but kind of terrifying kind of terrifying me yeah uh i've done it No.
00:34:47
Speaker
And cooked. And cooked. And it went great. Did you get? Oh, it did. You got you. What did she say? You got. Oh, slow slow down here. um Oh, bud.
00:34:59
Speaker
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So this was a very long time ago. And my cooking skills were fledgling. But I lived in this house in Florida with some guys that they ran a catering company out of it.
00:35:10
Speaker
So they were kind of trying to teach me how to cook. Solid. And ah one of my roommates, Alex, he taught me how to make a just basic pasta sauce with like a $5 bottle of like 7-Eleven wine.
00:35:26
Speaker
And it wasn't bad. it was pretty good. Good trick, I guess, huh? Carlo Rossi. That was his secret. That's, yeah. Disgusting. But you don't drink it, but it worked really great in the sauce.
00:35:37
Speaker
I probably make tacos. Who don't like tacos? Yeah, but remember the last part of the question that keep in mind. Oh, you might get you might get busy. Yeah, you might get busy. Something might happen later with your paramour.
00:35:49
Speaker
Definitely not if you make tacos because here you just want to keep eating tacos. I think pasta is like the go-to date food, right? I feel like the easiest like impressive date dish to do would be, yeah, like a nice pasta with...
00:36:06
Speaker
with some wine or any roasted vegetables that's super easy yeah you know olive oil salt and pepper i did a uh not for a date but just pasta recently what's it called it's a super simple sauce you just use the pasta water and like ah a little bit of pecorino cheese and black pepper and you kind of like muddle that together chris what about you you got a recipe for sunflower seeds and cheap bourbon
00:36:33
Speaker
I'm trying to put myself in this situation. I've been married for so long, like 22 years, that and i I have not had to prepare for a date in a very long time.
00:36:45
Speaker
That being said, ah think I would just make a dessert. Like I'd probably make baklava or something like that. Oh, damn. You know, it's got cloves and stuff.
00:36:56
Speaker
That settles your stomach. And then you're like... I mean, i i don't I've never used a pickup line, and I don't think about them very often. because say But I would say, are you now ready for the main meal?
00:37:14
Speaker
Afterwards? Yeah. Yeah. yeah Ready for dessert? Afterwards? That's awful. Wow.
00:37:25
Speaker
Wow. You can cook anything and follow it up with that, and you're a winner, dude. You know you got two people from Ohio here, so we can taste the corn from a mile away. Yeah.
00:37:37
Speaker
It's you. You're corny is what I'm saying. Oh, I ah happily admit to being corny. I can do one last question that actually relates really well to what Brian just said. is Ohio part of the Midwest?
00:37:54
Speaker
what What is Ohio part of the mid? Was that the question? That's the question. That's the whole question. Oh, is that you, Emily? No.
00:38:06
Speaker
I mean, the answer is yes, but it depends on like who and when you ask the question, I feel like. I've definitely done the like, you know, being out here, you say Ohio and you kind of think East Coast, some people.
00:38:24
Speaker
But I mean, I identify as a Midwestern. Same. Same. As a lifelong Californian, any state that isn't California or New York is the Midwest.
00:38:36
Speaker
That's an interesting way to put it.
00:38:41
Speaker
but but What about the Southeast? Yeah. Or the Southwest. Close enough. Or the Pacific Northwest. Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
I kind of classify Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and like Indiana as like Rust Belt. like I think of it as distinct from the Midwest, personally. I would consider where Emily's from as being kind of touching the Rust Belt, russbell but where I'm from in Columbus, i wouldn't I wouldn't say that.
00:39:10
Speaker
What do you think, Emily? I think parts of Ohio are Appalachia. i think parts of Ohio could be considered the Rust Belt, but I think most of Ohio is the Midwest. Yeah. And it's in the accents.
00:39:23
Speaker
Yeah. Do you have any family from from Northern Ohio? No. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm i'm joking. No, most of my family is from Dayton. They're from Dayton? Yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
I'm sorry to say. Yeah, i'm I apologize. Good pizza, though. Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplified Nonsense. Our goal is to release a new episode every other week, so please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:39:49
Speaker
If you have a question for Brian, Charles, and Chris about amps, pop culture, relationships, or whatever, please call five one three three three four three eight zero three and leave a voicemail. That's 334-3803. And if you feel so inclined, please leave a rating and review.
00:40:08
Speaker
It really helps the show find new listeners and is a free and easy way to support the guys. Thanks again and we'll see you soon.