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FROM THE SKAULT - The Reel Big Trilogy
143 Plays11 days ago
For the month of May, Checkered Past is releasing compilations of past episodes From The Skault!
Third week in and we are going way back to deliver a compilation of the entire trilogy of Reel Big Fish episodes tracing back to our first year in podcasting! If it isn't enough for you, go back and listen to Heptember 2024 - The Reel Big Skrim-ish!
Includes:
Reel Big Fish 1 w/ The Third Rates
Reel Big Fish 2 w/ Devon Kay (Devon Kay & The Solutions, Direct Hit)
Reel Big Fish 3 w/ Gary Mastriano (On the Upbeat, Backyard Superheroes)
Don't miss the epic 4 year Anniversary episode coming out June 3rd, 2025!
Hosts: Celine, Rob and Joey
Engineer: Joey
Editor: Cutman
Theme Song: OAO by Mad Bomber Society
Skassociate Producer: Chris Reeves of Ska Punk International
Special Thanks: Keelan, Mega Michi and Adam the Ska Mailman
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Closure Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
What up Checkerheads, CheckeredRob here. you've been following our socials, CPSC is closing its doors for good. In the month of May, we are releasing compilations of back episodes, and will culminate with our four-year anniversary bash on June 3rd, acting as the series finale for Checkered Past.
00:00:16
Speaker
On today's episode, we're giving you the Real Big Fish Trilogy, including our episodes with The Third Wraiths, with Devin Kaye, and with Gary Mastriano. So without further ado, here's the Real Big Marathon.
00:00:31
Speaker
On this episode, everything sucks, and I don't understand why they rock. Just turn the radio off. We're talking about the band a 13-year-old hears when they get mozzarella sticks. It's Real Big Fish, part one on Checkered Past, the SCODcast.
Hosts Introduction
00:01:09
Speaker
Welcome to Check Your Past the Skycast with Celine and Rob, the show where a Dillinger, Eskankplan, and Meshuggska explore the history and impact of a different band each episode and hope to bring in new fans along the way.
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm Rob and this is my sister and co-host, Celine. I'm glad you like you. i do. a big fan. You know, I recycled that joke so many times. i'm like, I'm going to it on the podcast because it's real fucking funny. Yeah. Yeah.
00:01:35
Speaker
yeah Well, whenever we drop a beat, we got to pick it up, pick it up where we left off.
Party Stories and Wildfire Conditions
00:01:47
Speaker
All right, so Lynn, what's going on? What's new? You are hungover. so hungover. I'm like, so my palms are so sweaty. I'm very hungover. Sweaty palms. Mom's spaghetti. And then I like tried to compensate by like drinking so much coffee and now I'm just shaking hungover.
00:02:03
Speaker
That's a good combo. It's not. I'm like sweaty. It's fine. Everything's fine. It's my it's just i didn't have to drink that many White Claws. Oh, it's a White Claw. Yeah. So it's like a different. Is that possible?
00:02:14
Speaker
I drank a White Claw. If you have eight of them. you Yeah. Don't they come in a pack of four? There's none left and we got the multipack multi-pack. I can't speak to how many White Claws were and were not drinking. and we had a We were just going to play video games and then I started putting on YouTube music videos and then we just had a dance party. so it was very fun, but I'm very hungover.
00:02:36
Speaker
Was that like a planned party that you guys had last night or was that like... It was pretty impromptu. Well, no, no, you know, it was like semi planned. I don't know. Aren't you hung over? drank yesterday. is semi planned life. No, I didn't drink last night. We went out to my friend's like going away because he's moving to Cornwall, Ontario, which is like he said six day drive from where he is.
00:02:54
Speaker
And ah we just went to my friend's house. I think we had a glass of rose. Oh, okay. White Claws and Rosé, look how bougie this podcast is all of sudden.
00:03:05
Speaker
Everyone turns it off to these classist motherfuckers. Let me take off my monocle while I drink my fucking White Claw. I need to take the monocle off. It'll fall in my White Claw. My sock garters are cutting off the circulation to my legs.
00:03:17
Speaker
Uh, so we did, but we stayed out until like one. Cause like, you know, I don't see like my group of friends, especially since we're all a bunch of like introverted weirdos and we don't get out as it is. This is the first time I've seen them since Pando and like, you know, Patricia.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. What? but i mis Okay. I get it. That's a joke that I'm missing. I think. Yeah. ah
00:03:42
Speaker
wrong crowd um and we need a tiktok that's supposed to be cool right um so anyway we were just like because we're just shooting the shit until like one in the morning and it was getting cold as fuck because were just outside and uh we biked to their house and so we were gonna bike back because arianne's got that little light that's on the front of her bike where she like pedals and it like turns you know arianne's little light i'm trying to explain what it is Everyone. Arianne, my lovely wife, had podcast.
00:04:14
Speaker
um And we decided that she rides a bicycle and she rides a bicycle. It has a light on it. We know everything we need to know about Arianne. but And they but then we decided that was a real shitty idea. So we absolutely did not do that. So i have the apocalypse here and there's like wildfires going on. So it's like gray and shitty and smoky.
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's fucking crazy. So yeah, there's wildfires in British Columbia and they're like flying over the Rocky Mountains and they're just like blocking the sun out. Like it's like an extinction event is happening above us. Like din like this is what happened to the dinosaurs.
00:04:48
Speaker
i mean, the earth is like, get out. Why won't you die? I've been trying to kill you for so long. there's a There's a bear with like a ranger's hat out there was like, I also meant climate change. Yeah.
00:05:03
Speaker
I hate That's a good one,
Band Interview: The Third Rates
00:05:08
Speaker
right? Well, if there's ever any time to bring on our guests who are waiting very patiently. So we're delighted now to introduce our guests.
00:05:17
Speaker
They're guitarist and drummer for the third rates whose new album, See What Sticks, is available now. We have Dylan Simpson and Lila Vi Moeller are here. Hi, guys. Hey, how's it going?
00:05:28
Speaker
Good. Welcome to the pod. yeah you olds coming off yeah here we go yeah that register we're good um yeah how everyone's good everyone's happy what's new what's new and exciting with uh y'all um not too much we've just been working on the new album we got in the works hopefully it's gonna come 2022 um rad it's pretty much much all that i've been doing with my free time
00:06:02
Speaker
And it's your birthday. Yes, it is my birthday. Yeah, you made the mistake of telling that us that before we started recording. So now it goes on ah goes on the air. Happy, happy birthday from all of us to you. We wish it was your birthday so we can party too. Hey.
00:06:17
Speaker
Sounds like y'all party for him last night.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I like that. It's like your 29th birthday and I'm just like 31 for no reason. Just being so hungover. Okay. That's fine. It's extra.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah. So let's talk about your checkered past. So how did you guys first hear about ska music in the first place? What was your entry point? um Well, for me, i actually found out from playing like video games. So I was playing like, i think it was like Street Skater or something. was like this PlayStation game back when I was, um and I don't know, I probably like 10 or 11 or something like that. And I heard less than Jake come on.
00:07:00
Speaker
And that's kind of like what introduced me to it. At the time i was listening to like NSYNC and stuff like that, whatever was popular back in the day. Sure. um Yeah, I actually can i have some beef to bring up about your interview.
00:07:14
Speaker
ah was on the upbeat. You called Eiffel 65 Eiffel 95? Yeah.
00:07:21
Speaker
Oh, that was Corey. Yeah, he did do that. That was Corey. Pretty choked. I was like, excuse you.
00:07:31
Speaker
do Do you remember what the song was? Yeah. um What song was it? All My Best Friends Are Metalheads. There's actually two songs on there. I think it was also Sugar and My Gas or Sugar and Gas Tank was the other song.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, All My Best Friends Were Metalheads was also on the second or third Pro Skater, Tony Hawk Pro Skater. That was one of my first times listening to them as well. Is that a similar introduction to Ska as you, Rob? Yeah, I mean, 100%. Tony Hawk Pro 1. Oh, wait, what was on Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1? Superman by Goldfinger, New Girl by The Suicide Machines. Yeah, yeah that's the intro song.
00:08:08
Speaker
Yeah. Like, and I just like heard it like that snare rip and it' just like at beginning and I'm like, oh my god, what am I getting myself into? And I was probably about 12, 13 too. But yeah, I feel like video games are probably like a really um common way to get into Scotland, especially just like that, I guess our generation. That's a really common way of getting into it is like skate games.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, skateboard games specifically. That's exactly how I got into it. Oh, awesome. i had older I had a couple older cousins who'd skate and everything. So, like, ah they'd kind of play Rancid and, like, Blink-182 around. But playing Tony Hawk is probably because me, like, I'm a little younger.
00:08:44
Speaker
So, like, underground. I had Pro Skater 2 just from my cousins, like, on Nintendo. And then like I had, i got Tony Hawk Underground, the first one.
00:08:55
Speaker
And that's kind of when it started picking up my Nintendo. yeah And then pick it up yeah and you're like a year or so ago, I realized I'm like, oh, wow.
00:09:07
Speaker
Tony Hawk basically shaped my musical styling. Like as I've grown up, all the stuff I listened to pretty much came straight out of those video games from. totally Rap, country, punk, pop, punk, ska, it all pretty much came out of Tony Hawk games.
00:09:22
Speaker
But I mean, it's skate culture music, which is like, back in the day, like, punk rock culture, skate culture. Yeah, so it all makes like, that makes total sense to me.
Video Games and Ska Music Discovery
00:09:32
Speaker
Yeah, it like, ah I mean, if it wasn't for those kinds of things, like, that isn't really much of something that's around right now.
00:09:41
Speaker
um Like, where, like, now we have to rely on streaming services and and whatnot to kind of ah ah find our music or, like, engage on social media. um Did we lose Dylan?
00:09:53
Speaker
i Looks like it. Dylan! I miss him so much. Where are you? It's cold. Yeah. okay That's okay. this is now the Levi show for a little bit. Yeah, for a little bit. yeah What was it? So you you heard it through Underground. I can't remember what was on I remember that one because you can hop off the skateboard and that was like a trip. Yeah, yeah. yeah But then like, ah I don't know if you remember the songs or like what was the first record you bought? So after listening to it.
00:10:21
Speaker
I don't really remember like any of songs off of it. and It's like, let's see. I'm on Wikipedia. I can pull it over right Let's see.
00:10:30
Speaker
that track list is amazing. Look it up Levi. Look it up. By the time it came out, it went from having 20 songs on the soundtrack to 30 to 50 songs. It was great. And you would tick off the genres you didn't want to listen to and stuff. It got kind of over the top in terms of music.
00:10:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, crazy, but it so good. Oh, that's just Tony Hawk.
00:10:59
Speaker
Was there a new Tony Hawk that came out? No. Well, they just redid they re releasesed yeah they yeah redo the so good. yeah the day it came out ah me too yeah it's amazing it really like tapped into like something from me and then it because it had all yeah because it had all the same songs plus it like added a few um like it had some like really new less than jake songs and like you know it like it really like was marrying the classic like songs you remember like the late 90s stuff with like what's going on and it wasn't just ska obviously it was like lot punk rock and
00:11:32
Speaker
Like it had like Fiddler and all those kind of stuff on there, like something that's more modern, but it really like shows that there's a trajectory of that music, like from then to now, and that it's still a part of the culture.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah, and it's it was so good. Down here in Arkansas, we're not you know supplied with the snow equipment. So back in February, we had a snow and got snowed and iced in for like a week.
00:11:56
Speaker
Holy. Whoa. So I'm just like in my house, and I was playing video games. Of course, that's all I could do is like just write songs and play video games. So I sat there, I was like, you know what? i'm just just I'd already kind of beat all the levels on Tony Hawk, so I went through and started unlocking all the skateboarders and like all their movies and stuff.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah. It was just so much fun. It gave me something to do during like a week of literally nothing. So we had like kind of the polar opposite thing happen here recently. Like I, so we are very equipped for like minus 40 and crazy snow, but we're not equipped for heat waves. So we had this crazy week of like, I don't know Fahrenheit. So plus 37 degrees Celsius. And yeah, we like nobody has AC here because you don't need it. So everybody was like,
00:12:40
Speaker
it was almost like everybody was just like stuck inside in their basements like by fans so it was it was interesting because i'm like oh that must have been how like the southern states felt when they got the snow dump yeah yeah it really was like that's really how it was we're just stuck inside i think we sent like we and mean and i think edmonton had something i think i said this before or you said we said i don't know if this is true Yeah, this is a weird rumor that you brought up on the last episode you that we like sent like snow plows to Texas. I don't know if it's true.
00:13:10
Speaker
I was waiting for Texas to send us some AC units. It sounds real enough, right? I'll trust you. How old are you, Levi? I'm 26. I just think like that's interesting because, yeah that seems like young to be into this style of music.
00:13:26
Speaker
Like said, I just grew up having older cousins always listen to it. And I thought it was so cool to see them out skating and stuff. So it's just like I just kind of kept it going and adapted it. It makes me happy to know that the youngins are listening. ah I mean, there's new... I mean, that's the thing. Like it's a, it's causing an interesting situation where there's like a lot of new crops of bands coming up. Like you guys included, right? Like 20, you formed in 2020 in and around the pandemic, basically. Right. Like, is that what I'm, I'm understanding? Like, but across state lines too.
00:13:58
Speaker
i think you mentioned a little bit on your last interview, but how did, how did that come about? Like to be able to connect with each other, write music, record music and still release it.
Social Media and Ska Community
00:14:09
Speaker
Can you guys hear me, by the way?
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, you're back. Dylan! Yeah, Dylan's My computer, like, blue screen for a second, so had to restart. so so okay but hold I feel safe now.
00:14:22
Speaker
So happy you're back. But to answer your question, basically, I kind of like started recruiting people. I had stopped playing guitar for a long time, like three or four years because it decided to get my degree.
00:14:38
Speaker
So I kind of just like sold all my music equipment. And then once I like graduated and got my job everything, I decided to get back into it. So I kind of like started recording on my own and then I reached out to my childhood friend, which is Corey.
00:14:55
Speaker
um And I sent him a song that I had on SoundCloud and basically he messaged me back. And for people who might not know Corey, he's a pretty like decently well-known animator, so it was like impossible to get in touch with him.
00:15:08
Speaker
So I had to send him messages on Twitter and stuff and hope he would see it. um But yeah, and then after that, we recorded our single, Best of Me, and it was like...
00:15:21
Speaker
we were fine with it because but it was like all midi horns and fake drums and everything else so then i went on reddit and like posted on the drum reddit which levi responded to and then that's cool i think i put on like the trumpet reddit too yeah yeah r slash trumpet yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's how we found austin That's crazy. that's, that's rad. That's, but I mean, I think that's like telling that that's something that can only happen now. Like you, you it's not like you can just like put out flyers, like nobody's gonna look at it, right?
00:15:58
Speaker
Well, and a global reach, right? Like not local. So that's what's, yeah I guess, about like, social media and globalization. Like you, there's no, and being able to like be into something niche and like find a community. and Yeah, it's really awesome. I think it's what's helped the Scott scene as of late is just being able to spread the word through the internet and stuff like that.
00:16:21
Speaker
And before Levi actually reached out, ah we had a ah girl from South Korea that was going to play drums. Badass. Yeah, but then Levi reached out and I was like, well, he's a little closer.
00:16:34
Speaker
Sorry, Levi. I'm just... I got a little too excited about the lady That was fine. Girl drummers are dope. There needs to be more girl drummers promoted.
00:16:48
Speaker
Totally. no Women drummers need to be promoted way more. <unk> Especially like a South Korean woman. and like That's fucking sick. but that's kind of The fact that they were able to reach out in the first place is what's fascinating about that story. yeah You know what I mean? like Otherwise, how how else would they...
00:17:02
Speaker
um Dan from Reddit called me annoying and snotty. Yeah, you're I know. Really, one we read one bad Reddit post and it's like, now he's famous amongst our little podcast group here. Fuck you, Dan from Reddit. He's our biggest fan.
00:17:16
Speaker
ah yeah For sure. Fuck Reddit Dan. Yeah. He's an R-Ska, whatever. The only place I post anything. So you talk about then like the new setup of ska bands that are out there, like yeah super online, um like you know whatever you want to call it, the new tone fourth wave, which I don't know if I subscribe to that. but The fact is, is there's like a huge upcoming of all these groups that are like they can grab an audience and they're selling out records and they're able to get shows booked and tours.
00:17:47
Speaker
It's just wild. So where do you think your ah ah band fits in with like the new crop of bands that are coming up? Oh, man. um I guess from my take is I don't know if we would necessarily would fit in with the bands that are out right now just because we like get classified a lot as they third wave.
00:18:06
Speaker
Sure. um Which, I mean, it's pretty fair, i guess, based on our last album, but I think like we're somewhere in there. I'm just not sure if we would ever be considered new tone, basically. if you want to, or do you want to more keep, i guess, your, you know, do you want to like, is that, do do you have like an intention, I guess, to like move it in it your sound in that direction? Or like, I think you guys, like, I like what you're doing now.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we just kind of like, I guess we're not really going in with songwriting with intention. We're just kind of like writing songs that we like. so Just authentically and whatever that comes like whatever that becomes, that's what becomes. So whatever you probably you guys are like inspired by at the time is probably coming out in your music too.
Trolls and Online Challenges
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Definitely. yeah I think that it's also like a little disingenuous to just like, like paint this brush. Like some of these newer bands, I think like they set ah they're awesome.
00:19:00
Speaker
um But I don't, they're not all super progressive necessarily either, right? Like they could easily just be a ah third wave band if you want to call it that. But really it's just like, hey, we're all playing ska music.
00:19:11
Speaker
Right. Like, I think that's what's yeah rad about the new thing is like, however you interpret that, it doesn't have to be like, oh, we're influenced by all these like indie bands or pop punk or emo bands. Like that's part of it. I get with some of these newer groups and like, if you want to get into like the best of the worst and they're like basically a metalcore band with horns too, like that's.
00:19:29
Speaker
they're They're obviously going in a direction that's way out there. But I mean, I'd say for the most part, these these newer groups are just as influenced by the same bands we all are. And um like, I mean, I don't know about if there has to be so much animosity, like, or you are or are not in this scene.
00:19:45
Speaker
I think that it all can be cohesive, in my opinion. I don't know. but really cant yeah Yeah, I can. I think i what I've interpreted from Newtone in general is I think they want to kind of distance themselves from third wave and make the next wave. And I think that's kind of where it's coming from, which is totally understandable.
00:20:05
Speaker
But like, Scott music to me is Scott music. like I like, I like, like all most of all the new bands. I like at least one song by them. So I think you we can all just like play music without having to have labels on each other.
00:20:20
Speaker
Absolutely. And I mean, it's going be hard enough to get like shows booked and tours done without like, like, you know, gatekeeping who, who is and is not in this sort of like little, little niche area. Right. So yeah.
00:20:32
Speaker
I'm not saying they're all doing that but I you know I think we all know what we're talking about we're saying like you can see a couple people on Twitter or whatever and you're like oh you don't have to be a dick about it like I think there's more of a divide between kind of like two-tone dub reggae like Jamaican style ska versus like to me like third wave and new wave or whatever new tone like that to me is like in the bubble I'd say it's like I feel like people, if they're going to be divisive, it's like usually between like closer to the roots and then third wave and beyond.
00:21:03
Speaker
Or it's like trying to we're also seeing just like a lot of like influences from outside of ska music. Right. It was like kind of part of it, like they all grew up listening to X bands or whatever. And so they they see that being influenced.
00:21:14
Speaker
And not all these groups have our explicitly ska songs all the way through. They're like kind of play back and forth a little bit. um But I think the other other thing is like this is over the last year. Everyone's just online all the time. They're not actually going out and seeing each other and talking.
00:21:28
Speaker
I think now that once like everybody gets fresh air and is like at like like the fest is coming up or like punk rock bowling or whatever. they're like all talking to each other and they have like a third rates shirt on. And the other person has like a cat bite shirt on. Everyone's going just be chill and cool.
00:21:43
Speaker
Um, but just like sitting there, like typing on Twitter is not going to get you. It's not going to really get the point across. Right. Right. Yeah. oh So how do you respond to, to your haters? Like there's not a question to you specifically. We've asked previous people this.
00:22:00
Speaker
So, but it's kind of like a good segue, but like if people come at you, like what's your, what's your take there? Uh, yeah. let leave i take this one oh man as much you say that it's usually dylan having to respond because most everybody else in the band uh is not as professional in their responses as doing if we were to put it in nicely so he always has the he'll send it in the group message and be like hey is this cool and i'm like that's way better than how i would have said it so yeah go ahead you Yeah, yeah exactly.
00:22:33
Speaker
That's why Rob has to deal with it, too, because I'm just like, Dan, I'm fucking ready, piece of fucking shit. What the fuck's wrong with you? Yeah, we're not big enough to get enough people to, like, reach out to us that much, but yeah. Do you guys get a lot of trolls? Like, do you get trolled?
00:22:46
Speaker
We had a little moment there where there was a... there's You got trolled? That's kind of why brought it up, because there was It seemed like something happening. A little fiasco on the Skyreddit there for a couple days or so, you know?
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah. We had Scott Reddit gets kind of like, like it goes in a weird direction. It's fine for the most part. But then once in a while, you'ified the wrong person says something and it just causes like a snowball. When you post things on Reddit, I get nauseous.
00:23:12
Speaker
Because like so many people hate women and I'm just like, i know I'm a fucking loud mouth woman and I know like half of 60% Reddit is going to fucking hate me as it is. fucking white yeah i don't post anything on the the sky reddit because any of the new sky bands usually get just like roasted on there no matter who you are it just seems like you get roasted for no reason yeah it's ah it's always this like you see just like hundreds of posts about like hey did you remember that the money money boss stones were in clueless and
00:23:43
Speaker
And then you guys like it gets like 50 upvotes. But I get it. like it's it's more like There's more of a nostalgia trip on on Reddit as opposed to like like supporting like new music. Instagram and Twitter I find really supportive. yeah and parents oh They're very supportive. but Yeah, I think it's really positive. Instagram has been super positive. I'm on the gram, Rob's on the Twitter. and yeahs We've had nothing but like positivity and niceness.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, for the most part. Other than mo fucking Reddit. I Dylan! He's gone again. So, yeah we have like i mean go to happen oh lost scammer um he' god again so the other The other thing that's cool about what you guys do is I like that you actually, like we talked about social media, you use a lot of like other avenues of social media that not everybody's involved in. Like you do Twitch streams and you have a Discord server.
00:24:39
Speaker
Like like how how do you manage that empire basically of social media and to to get your audience? it's It's a lot of work, but I mean, luckily there's a few of us do have our hands in the
00:24:56
Speaker
media marketing I should say like it's not just Dylan running it and it's I tend to help out a lot it'd be way too much for one person to do like
First Ska Concert Experiences
00:25:05
Speaker
run all of your social media like that's crazy it is a lot of like posting it is a lot of work posting content yeah it takes like five minutes just to post a video on every story you want to post on on all the social media i'm like I know why people get paid to do this because it's a job it legitimately is a job I have to like I own um like a small hair salon and so I get like almost all of my business from Instagram so I like kind of have to be fairly consistent and I like I like resent it so much it is like a lot it takes a lot of energy like to to consistently post I think and I think you guys do a really good job I think your social media presence is is good yeah.
00:25:44
Speaker
Thank you. I feel like we haven't been on as much as we should, but we're also working really, really hard. and i think that's how everyone feels. Like, I think anyone who's trying, like, I could, I'm super shitty at posting regularly on our podcast one, but I mean, know i think we're all doing our fucking best. I post too much, though. worry about it.
00:26:05
Speaker
You engage. The thing, the other thing that's like one of the recent episodes we just did was about five hour and frenzy. And we, one of the things that's interesting about that band is that it's like, there's a delineation of job between each of the band members.
00:26:17
Speaker
So i've I've also kind of noticed that about like, when I go through like your individual members of your band and then go on their Twitters it's like, everybody kind of has like a different job to do outside of just the instrument. So is that like, was that on purpose or do you just be lucky enough that you have somebody who can like draw and then somebody's like got their hands in the social media?
00:26:35
Speaker
Can you guys hear me? Yeah. Dylan!
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah, so it kind of just worked out that way. Corey is kind of, you know, I was mentioned earlier, he's an animator, so it was kind of like a perk at the time to because he was handling all of the album art and stuff like that and then yeah yeah all your yeah and everything like look I was thinking that when you mentioned he was an animator I'm like I'm assuming he does a lot for the band yeah he does and actually Connor our sax player does actually most of the art I would say oh course Cory Cory did uh like the album art itself but Connor's done I'm pretty sure everything else and oh want say you got some talent
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, he's he's really good. and He's got his own little style. So it's kind of cool to have like, Cory's got like this cartoonish style. then Connor's kind of like more of like realistic meets cartoon style. out of So it's kind of a cool mashup. totally He's the one that did like all the like band drawings, like the each of you guys as a yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
yeah those are Yeah, those are cool. Yeah. um So I also so we're also like have sneaky um amazing talent. So every episode i like we Photoshop ourselves into um and an album cover yeah of the band we're doing. And I'm really, really good at it. and It's very professionally done. um This is obviously dripping in sarcasm. i and Please um check our social media. We have really, really shitty fucking Photoshop. It's great.
00:28:10
Speaker
The shittier, the better, too. I agree. I
00:28:15
Speaker
mar slash two Photoshop battles back to Reddit. One question I was meaning to ask before and I didn't get around to. So like you guys ah listen to music through, um through video games. So ah I mean, I game a lot too, but so when you, ah what was the first show then that you went to after? Like, so you really realized that you love ska music. And so what band came around town or what local band did you guys get, end up going to first? So Levi, I guess I'll start with you.
00:28:43
Speaker
All right, well, let's see. Back then, i didn't really go a lot of shows, so I got a little older. There was some cool local bands around. But, like, in all honesty, the first, like, quote-unquote ska show I seen was a probably here a couple years ago.
00:28:58
Speaker
as a Leftover Crack came to one of our of our venues. i Actually, i was at the venue last night. But it it was, like, right before pandemic. So I'm pretty sure it last show I seen before the pandemic was Leftover Crack.
00:29:11
Speaker
but And it was cool. It was it was fun. It was really good. But I was kind of hung over and it was really loud. So I was just like not having as much fun as I should have had. but it was still. And, you know, rest in peace, our bassist committed suicide over the pandemic.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah. So I got to see him before. Sorry. that's awful yeah Yeah, no, I liked him. He's really good. He had a leftover crack and choking victim there. can't remember his name, but yeah, I'd seen that. But I got to see him before, so it's cool to see. there there ah dig those guys. theyre really good.
00:29:48
Speaker
so I do a very offhand stizz impression. ah Nice. Oh, God. Are you going to do it? have to do it. Do it. what is the way it i Do it. Do it.
00:29:58
Speaker
It's like the good, the bad, and the leftover crack. ah Anyway, that's the best you're going to get on this podcast.
00:30:11
Speaker
Dylan, how about yourself? What was the first show that you guys see? my very first show was, if you probably couldn't have guessed, it was Rubik's Fish. Ah! They actually came to my local town, which was, well, one close to my local town, which was really weird.
00:30:26
Speaker
It's Columbia. It's like the where the college is here, Mizzou. So they came there and we were like, oh, they're going to be like sold out. So we showed up like eight hours early.
00:30:38
Speaker
and tried to get frontline we're just sitting there and no one showed up until an hour before the show so we actually got to meet like aaron barrett and uh rabbit their old drummer yep uh beforehand so that was pretty cool right yeah rylan he went to go play with america Yeah, yeah. that's right weird How is Aaron? So I watched that Pick It Up documentary um just recently, actually.
00:31:01
Speaker
And I was like struck that he's ah like his interview was kind of awkward. And like he's got this like gregarious on stage personality. So like, how is he like out off stage without the glasses on?
00:31:12
Speaker
um yeah he's a little i think he's a little socially awkward um and endearing yeah that's actually awesome it makes me feel good about myself yeah yeah he i mean he's like this really witty like quick-witted guy and it's really funny but he's also like really socially awkward at the same time so it's kind of a weird combo relatable yeah Oh, that's rad. ah Yeah, we saw... like Real Big Fish came through here a while back. and they They toured with Streetlight Manifesto, Westbound Train, and Suburban Legends, I want to say was the show. Oh, yeah. Was that at Dinwoody Lounge? That was at Dinwoody Lounge at the University of Alberta. Yeah, it was at... Yeah, that show at calling was unreal. ah too Super small a college bar.
00:31:59
Speaker
It was fucking rad. That was a fun... Those were the best. Yeah. Oh, I remember... this I was really young. How old... How long ago? Oh, because I was, this was before I met Arianne. So this would have been like over decade. This would have been over a decade ago. And I remember like, okay, I swear I'm not shitty alcoholic, but like, I remember bringing in bottle of Jack Daniels and like, I was in the bathroom and someone was, I was like drinking it. And like a girl that was working there was like, I like you, you can't, I'm have to pour that out. And I was like, that's fair. She's like, I'm not going kick you out, but I'm going pour. And I kept like bartering with her. I'm like, Dan, do you have to let me pour it?
00:32:35
Speaker
should have seen on what you could have drank i did i think i want you drank and then gave it to her that's i can't believe she didn't kick me out like little piece of i i remember streetlight um somebody was like moshing like way too much uh and people were getting kind of like pissed and my girlfriend at the time grabbed him by his like shirt collar and just screamed in his face stop fucking moshing it was
00:33:02
Speaker
It's just so funny and because she was super tiny and i was like, oh, this is this is pretty rad. But that's when Suburban Legends was like. That's when you fell in love. don't know. I obviously not because I broke up.
00:33:13
Speaker
But um Suburban Legends, that was when they had the full like four piece um section before they kind of whittled it down. And they would have like the crazy. i don't know if you've ever seen them live, but they had a crazy choreography on the stage.
00:33:27
Speaker
They used to do like disco dancing and stuff like that. Yeah, and they would like all the horn players would be like spinning their horns and then playing like in and out of each other and stuff. It was like, like, they're fun to listen to. Okay, like, I'm like, I like suburban legends, but watching them live is like a trip. Like, it's just so crazy, because they were like the house band at Disneyland, right? Like, yeah, they know how to entertain a crowd. And they were like, this first on the stage.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah. And then we saw him a second time open for the Resignators. It was like an Australian ska band. And ah the crowd was three people, I think, and because they everyone just came to watch a local band's last show, the Utopian Skank. And then when everyone left, I remember they tried to play um Sweet Caroline and they thought they were they just...
00:34:10
Speaker
I think they thought, oh, yeah, we're going win this crowd over. We're going play Sweet Caroline. Everyone's going to do the bop, bop, buzz. and And one of the porn players jumped off the stage and was like trying to like put his arm around people. And they were just like, he's trying to put the microphone in their face. And they're like, oh yeah, we're going to tear the house down.
00:34:29
Speaker
And I'm like, oh, I was like, I felt so bad. I'm like, fuck, Suburban Legends is never coming back to this shit hole. We just chased them out of town, basically. I do hate Sweet Caroline. Yeah, that song blows me. Yeah, I don't do the bop, bop,
00:34:43
Speaker
They do those Disney covers. bet if they did Under the Sea, I think that would have crushed. Edmonton is a big Disney town. You got to know your audience. Play that Under the Sea shit.
Real Big Fish Trivia and History
00:34:54
Speaker
They always...
00:34:55
Speaker
They always play a sweet Carolina baseball games. It depends on how beers I've had. If I do the bump up. Yeah. There's a, there's a time and a place for it. Yeah. And think like second band into a three band show. yeah oh not the right part. not ba up by i Close enough. not close on my energy um So that, that's a good place as any to take a quick break.
00:35:18
Speaker
And when we got, get back, we're going to enter the times. Gosh, Ian.
00:35:33
Speaker
welcome back to checkered past the scodcast we're here with levi and dylan and we're talking uh this week about real big fish so before we get into the time scot sheen we're gonna play everyone's favorite triva scot game show guess that horn section third wave to the tone just give me that sweet trombone trumpet or saxophone it's now time to play get the horn All right, so in this this is a little game we play before we get into it ah where Selene is going to try and guess the makeup of the horn section of Real Big Fish. So they'd had a little bit of change. don't do well at this. So we're just going to go with the the classic lineup, which is the the horn lineup that's on Turn the Radio Off and Why Did They Rock So Hard? So Levi and Dylan are aware.
00:36:20
Speaker
But Selene. they going to guess? No, that's fine. This is for you. They're going to sit and silently judge. Yeah, I don know. I don't like the aspect of having like a the guest to also like.
00:36:32
Speaker
My favorite thing was when we did like Operation Ivy and the answer was less than one. um yeah So real big fish. First, Celine, how many horn players does real big fish have?
00:36:46
Speaker
Two. Hmm. no we just kate we just watched the video okay is this lineup that you're talking about like the same lineup from the cello video we watched the video before i am on swear there was only two oh my god no real big fish has an insane horn section yes yeah four horn players there were four horn players yes their horn players outnumber the rest of the band Okay, so there are... Okay, yeah okay, so we got four. Yep.
00:37:13
Speaker
We got a trombone. Yeah. We got ah saxophone. No. Oh, we got two trombones and two trumpets? Yeah. that They got the two trumpet, two trombone sound. That's why it's so bright, really up there. I swear I'm not a saxophone. They got that, like, there. So later...
00:37:33
Speaker
Eventually they get a sax player, ah really good sax player. And actually on the first one, I was talking about, I just had their um new stuff mixed up. I, I, that was intentional. i I know it was on purpose. I know horns. All right.
00:37:44
Speaker
It was on a porpoise. It's on porpoise. Yeah. All right. That was fun. It's never not fun. I'll do it forever. you My favorite section of the, of this podcast. I just can't believe I can't retain it. I was like, because i we were watching the video and i was like, oh, maybe don't, don't, like, don't pay attention.
00:38:00
Speaker
um Dylan's gone. Dylan's gone. Dylan's Dylan's like, fuck. Levi, you're, you're, you're, you're our, you're our anchor. You're concrete. So. Concrete. Yeah. Thank you, Levi. Sconcrete.
00:38:11
Speaker
Sconcrete. It had to happen. Come along with me. Sconcrete. ah yeah The skanker. I'm so happy. Welcome welcome to Checkered Past the Scottcast where we do puns all day. If you only knew how many of these I have in store. Oh, you you're in the right place.
00:38:28
Speaker
I gotta go. my name My name is Scania West on Twitter. so That's good. right there That is good. ah So we're going to enter the time, Scott Sheen, and we're going to 1991.
00:38:40
Speaker
nineteen hundred and ninety one so So sources for this come from my favorite source of all time, Wikipedia. But also there's a real big fish fan website that has a really good history.
00:38:56
Speaker
um Aaron Barrett did an interview with the Nebraskan where he actually went through quite a bit of their history, which is good. And then, of course, the Pick It Up documentary, highly recommend everyone get that. it's ah It's an independent documentary about the 90s Scott scene, world histories where they just interview bands.
00:39:11
Speaker
And Aaron and Scott are both in there. It's fabulous. um So those are all the things that I use to kind of ah do some research on the band's history. So we start in 1991 in Huntington Beach, California.
00:39:24
Speaker
So the original incarnation of Real Big Fish was that they were a hair metal cover band. Really? Yeah, 100%. That's crazy. Yeah. I didn't know that. It was Aaron, Matt, Aaron Barrett, guitar, vocals, Matt Wong on the bass, and Andrew gar Gonzalez on the drums.
00:39:41
Speaker
There's also Lisa Smith, Ben Guzman, and Zach Giltrap were some other members of the band. um They wrote some originals. I believe there's a demo kicking around out there that you can listen to with some of their hair metal stuff.
00:39:54
Speaker
Is it good? I don't know. Levi Dillon, did you listen to hair metal Real Big Fish ever? Outside of the covers. it It does not shock me like that. They were doing a lot of glam.
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah. It seems a big part of their on brand. Yeah. It's a big part of their like, like ethos. Like even like when you look at like the cover art of like, why did they rock so hard with like the double neck guitar and stuff? You can see that they're like, they're into the image of it.
00:40:21
Speaker
Like in a tongue in cheek kind of way. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. i think Aaron's a big hair metal fan, like metal fan. You can hear it in his guitar playing sometimes. The show must go off. That's the live DVD that they did. He did like an audio commentary and he talked about all like the hair metal he listened to growing up and how you learn to play guitar, like listening to like poison. You watched that DVD so much. I did. I loved it.
00:40:44
Speaker
favorite part. I remember like, I like always going into your room and just it's always on. It is crazy because it's not even that good of a live performance. Like in what like after when you like listen, watch them live or even listen to the live album.
00:40:56
Speaker
It's not even that great, but that commentary track is fabulous. At one point, They, um, what the, the, the, the guy who played the trumpet on cheer up, I can't remember his name, who was in spring heel Jack.
00:41:08
Speaker
He did like a little kind of trumpet solo. And Aaron's just like, Oh, that, Night Trumpet gets a C. It's like, Tavis? That fucker gets an F. like I don't know what what happened with Tavis, but just like, that's pretty So 1992, Ben, Zach, and Lisa quit the band, and the rest of the trio switched to ska because they just kind of got hip to Two-Tone, Op Ivy, and plus, you know, in 1992, the OC scene is picking up. So Knuckle Brothers are pretty much everywhere.
00:41:40
Speaker
say Ferris is starting to get up there too no doubt right so we're getting like it's getting hot in the in OC no pun intended um and there but they obviously have that new wave hair metal sensibility so that was what's kind of like separating them um There's a promotional flyer after this that read, ah ah RBF needs you. Aaron's a bastard and quit.
00:42:02
Speaker
Just joking. But RBF does need a new guitarist. Possibly you. Must be dedicated, talented, or crazy enough to compensate for lack of talent and have an outrageous sex life. If you or any of your friends want a sex, drugs, rock and roll type band, don't call us.
00:42:17
Speaker
If you or your friends want to play in Real Big Fish, call us.
00:42:21
Speaker
great this is like all handwritten it's like it's the tonight so funny so 1993 they start building up that horn section uh they hire a saxophonist and trumpeter so they did have a saxophone at one point i knew that and in the future uh and then aaron takes over the vocals 1994, this new lineup would release the Real Big Fish self-titled demo, also known as Return of the Mullet.
00:42:46
Speaker
They would change up the horn players ah to hire Dan Regan on the trombone, fabulous trombone player, Tavis, the aforementioned Tavis on trumpet, and gentleman by the name of Adam Polikoff on saxophone, and they would release another demo.
00:43:01
Speaker
So this is what Aaron said about the local OC scene at the time. Nowadays, i were to go to a show along alone, I'd be like, hell no. But back then, I'd drive anywhere to go Scott show because everyone I knew and all my friends would be there.
00:43:13
Speaker
It was a big deal for me because I was awkward.
00:43:19
Speaker
um And so in 1995, with the addition of one more trombonist, Robert Quimby, Real Big Fish would self-release and self-produce Everything Sucks. The album cover is Matt Wong as a baby crying with a baby goat's head stuck in his mouth.
00:43:35
Speaker
And along with that, plus an inclusion on the Misfits of Ska, Ska Tanik showed up on there. This would catapult them from local weirdos to an underground sensation. And they eventually get signed with Mojo Records and then the departure of two of their horn players. So um simultaneous to this, Aaron would also release material with the Scholars, um kind of a similar ska band.
00:43:58
Speaker
But this is where he would meet up with Scott Klopfenstein and Grant Berry from the Knuckle Brothers. So it's like all very connected. Like the OCC was very like interconnected with members. And he'd poach them later for real big fish.
00:44:09
Speaker
um yeah so they are so the label that he started was called piss off records and he released all this stuff on there but everything sucks that's what we're going to talk about next so levi dylan how are you how do you guys feel about the album everything sucks by real big fish i'll let levi go first Alright, cool.
00:44:28
Speaker
I was listening to it. I've been listening to a little bit. It's kind of a tough listen just because of the quality. Not necessarily like the instrumentation or any any of that, but it's just the ah the quality is kind of tough. But for it being homemade and self-made, especially back early 90s, the technology isn't as accessible as we have today.
00:44:47
Speaker
It's great. It's fun. You can really feel it bubbling up to becoming, you know, turn the radio off. You can see where they were going.
00:44:59
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. yeah it's ah like It's funny when you go on like Wikipedia or whatever, it says like genre lo-fi. Yeah, it definitely is lo-fi. Yeah, I don't know if I'd say it's a genre of lo-fi, but it is... ah it like I think they were just like... what they I think there's a real don't give a fuck attitude about everything sucks. like They're just like, oh we're writing these dumb songs.
00:45:22
Speaker
And like... Like, I bet you the recording sessions were like, like one or two takes like, you know, classic Operation Ivy. Just yeah i like, I like, the like kind of shitty production. i'm not gonna lie. something endearing about it. Yeah, I actually was impressed when I like, cause I haven't listened to honestly like Real Big Fish in years.
00:45:40
Speaker
Cause I, I think I like equate them with like their newer sound where it is And I feel like Real Big Fish is funny because it is like a triggering, like people who hate ska. I feel like that's what they think of a lot of time, like the mozza sticky. Yeah, the mozzarella stick bands. Yeah.
00:45:55
Speaker
I was like, when listening to this, I was like, oh, this is like punk rock. Like this is like it it actually made me like fall in love with them again because it reminded me like where they came from, I guess. And it's yeah, less.
00:46:06
Speaker
I like that it kind of sounded shitty. Their sense of humor is also like very like front and center. Right. And it's interesting because like the I find that everything sucks doesn't have like there's a swing element to it that you don't hear later. And it might be just because of the horn section they had at the time.
00:46:22
Speaker
But also because in the OC, like the Knuckle Brothers and Sayfair, like we said, we had like a swing element to their music. and I think that was just like what it sounded like at the time. It was kind of interesting. Dylan, how did you feel about everything sucks?
00:46:33
Speaker
um the yeah okay i can relate with levi it's a little hard to listen to but only because for me because i actually didn't listen to the album until like after i listened to all of their other albums which had you their songs that they remade basically the whole album um But it yeah, you can definitely it kind of reminds me of our single in a way because it's just like really crappy quality.
00:46:58
Speaker
The singing like you can tell Aaron was still trying to find his voice a little bit. yeah Yeah, his vocals are so different. yeah like not Yeah, at all. Like that's like the biggest like aside from the production quality, it doesn't sound like Aaron.
00:47:11
Speaker
Like you're like, oh, this could have been a different person. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting, like hearing the songs like sound so different, the like the ones that they've like remade, because you're like I kept like trying to like expecting something and I'm like, oh, that's not like it was almost like weird on my ears because I'm so used to the like redone versions.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's something like three quarters of the album is is redone later on the next four records. like By the time Monkeys for Nothing came out, they had almost redone the entire album, right? Yeah. Which is fair.
00:47:40
Speaker
There's only like, I think it's like Jig and Boyfriend and then Spin the Globe or something. Yeah, Fauxhead. Yeah, that one too. i don't know which ones do I have queued up. So what I queued up a few songs to listen to. wanted to just start with the first one, which is I'm Cool, which they do later and like a more like reggae version later on. But the the Everything Sucks version is so different, and I like to listen to it.
00:48:01
Speaker
You know cool when all the guys want to be
00:48:19
Speaker
I was like, that's a lot of noise. This has like got a disco quality. Okay, this sounded better up. That just not sounds great. I had headphones on listening to it.
00:48:30
Speaker
All right.
00:48:39
Speaker
and then It's not a bad song. its but No, it's like it's interesting. And there's no ska in it at all. like it's like There's no skank, I should say. It's got horns, but it's just like basically like a stop-start punk You can't dance to it. Yeah, you could.
00:48:52
Speaker
can mosh to it. You can mosh to it. Yeah, that's pretty much it. But it it has that energy, which is like, if you were at a show in the early 90s and saw them and they were playing like a song like this, you can kind of see how like people would get like pretty amped. What do pop-punkers do? Do they bounce?
00:49:08
Speaker
There's a lot of yeah Pogo and Sage. Pogo, that's what it is. Thank you. Pogo. Pogo. po Pogo for show. I almost got a roundhouse kick that Vans whooped her one year from some people like doing crazy dance. Hardcore dancing?
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, they're like doing like Kato Kids and something like that. Do you know which band it was? Yeah, I was like, what band? Yeah. I can't, I want to say it was like a screamo like emo band, but I'm not sure which one. What did they call the hardcore dancing?
00:49:42
Speaker
Picking up change. i don't know. Hardcore dancing. It's just called hardcore dancing. and Engineer Joey, is there a name for hardcore dancing? there you go everyone agrees it's hard i know i absolutely saw every time i die one time at warp tour and i was frightened i was so scared everyone i got my class kicked in like the dropkick murphy's pit yeah but that's yeah those are serious pits though the skins the skins are going to show up for dropkick murphy's and they're welcome there and they do not care if you're a 14 year old five foot girl they will throw you to the ground yeah And it's funny if you talk to the skins about Dropkick Murphys, they're like the only album for them is the first one. It's like there's do or die and then they never released music ever.
00:50:22
Speaker
And then like whenever Barroom Hero comes on, they just hit there and they're just like, it's the fists go down. Yeah, it's scary stuff. Anyways. I one time saw from first to last that Skrillex's band. I hated them. yeah Oh, that's Skrillex's band? And I threw a water bottle at him. That's my biggest Skrillex.
00:50:40
Speaker
Nice. Because then I saw it later. I'm like, that guy looks familiar. Oh, yeah. tried to throw a water bottle at him one time. But I was 16, so whatever. Hey, Skrillex, if you're listening to the podcast, I'm sorry for throwing a water bottle at you. Come at us, bro.
00:50:55
Speaker
But yeah, so Back to Everything Sucks, like the and um I really like, the thing is is like when they play those like punk rock songs, that's where I get that Op Ivy kind of feel to it, where it's yeah just like like fast and like kind of sloppy.
00:51:06
Speaker
um I know they redo Why Do All Girls Think They're Fat, but I'm go play up the version that's on here because I really like the sound quality. The answer is the patriarchy. because we're constantly inundated so so how do you feel about like maybe that's a tough thing so how do you feel about kind of their we'll talk about it after but this is a classic girl song that they write know what mean so how does that you're the resident woman on the pod here finally give it a good listen again i mean this song specifically just in general
00:51:40
Speaker
I mean, definitely like of the time. I don't think it like necessarily holds up. And yeah, I think just from my perspective, if you're like, why do all girls think... Like initially, I'm just like, because we're fucking inundated with images of like, we're taught to like hate ourselves at every fucking turn. So yeah, all girls think they're fucking fat because the world fucking sucks. yeah So it's like a little bit reductive. Yeah, okay. I did incite a response. You're right.
00:52:04
Speaker
I didn't like it. I mean, I honestly was just curious. Like, I don't know. Cause like, you know, They do write songs. Like, they're trying to be funny, obviously. They don't have bad intentions, but I'm just kind of like the patriarchy, you piece of shit. yeah We don't want to think we're fat.
00:52:18
Speaker
I don't think aerobic fish is the problem, but they're not helping. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What are you doing about it? You're not like, oh, like, I, you guys are, well, i guess he does say you're beautiful. He does. i guess he says nice. He has life like he have some like genuine love songs. like I think he said like a lot of the songs on... want to say the newest record was like about him being like ah more happy about life and the fact that he got married a second time. right First time? Second time? I can't remember.
00:52:42
Speaker
um so Scott Klopfenstein's not on Everything Sucks. so What's missing for me is the harmonies. right yeah Their interplay of vocals is like a key factor for them. and so You don't hear it here. it's just It's just him.
00:52:54
Speaker
and There's like maybe some gang vocals here and there. um but i mean matt sounds great like the bass sounds awesome um and i don't as a drummer how do you feel about the drumming i know andrew's like drumming on the next record is like fucking outstanding but like how do you feel it's right up my alley i love that quick punk kind of drumming he's really like i wrote some notes down he's on a like on trinity they have a jazz break on here yeah it's a little different than like the uh on the next album and it's just it's a little i like that i like incorporating a bunch of different styles into one song and kind of sharing your versatility on drums yeah it's not just thrashing you you're playing with dynamics and
00:53:38
Speaker
I have Trendy cooed up so we can listen to it. It's interesting because on the last episode we just recorded with Witch Police Radio, we talked about JFK and the Conspirators and their drummer is the singer. So he drums and sings, but he's like very in the pocket with reggae. And so it's like the same.
00:53:53
Speaker
He just wants to do the same thing the whole time. But he's very like deliberate about making sure like it's just got like a a groove the whole time. Um, whereas in this case, like, it's like, there's a little bit more versatility. Like it's like, um, I would say maybe show your, maybe a fair, fair point. Like he wants to show that he's a talented drummer, which he is.
00:54:11
Speaker
Everybody's doing the fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This song is so good. Better. Yeah. And they like start a lot of their.
00:54:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Is that a swing? Right. I just want to do the new one. I have different songs for the new one. But yeah.
00:54:33
Speaker
I shouldn't say the new one. You mean on the radio? The next iteration of it. It is good.
00:54:42
Speaker
It's not so bad. Yeah, it's catchy. Everyone who looks at me is my friend. Please don't hate me because I'm trending. And I'm going to laugh at me. They're having fun.
00:54:52
Speaker
I lied to lot. Yeah, having fun in the studio. They're like, we can do whatever dumb shit we feel like. Why not? We're not popular. Who cares? Everybody does it. Everybody does it.
00:55:03
Speaker
So what are your last? yeah ah last last thoughts on everything sucks. How do you guys feel? um yeah i mean it's it's definitely like a starting out like you can tell they're trying to find their sound a little bit but they also have like that goofiness to them so it's just like classic or big fish which i think when scott came in it got like a little more goofy and it like kind of meshed a little better with like the trade-offs and the vocals and stuff but yeah like the overall it's it's a good album
00:55:35
Speaker
My criticism is going to be about all of their albums is that it's so damn long. Yeah, that's very true. Yeah, that's probably the worst about In one of his interviews, ah Aaron, this ah he says, well, some bands will write 16 songs and pare it down to 12. I write 16 songs and I put 16 songs on the record.
00:55:54
Speaker
I was like, hey man, like that's an interesting way of doing it. All right. So now with the time, Scott, she can go to 1996. This is when Scott is in the fold completely. Scott Klopfenstein, trumpet and vocalist.
00:56:08
Speaker
um Grant Berry plays the trombone. And now we have the classic lineup, the four piece horn section, Aaron on the guitar, Matt Wong on the bass, Andrew Gonzalez on the drums. This is the only these two these next two records are the only time the band has had the same lineup on two records in a row.
00:56:24
Speaker
Otherwise, they've changed it every single time. um So with the help of their new big label, they go into the studio with ah John Avila of Oingo Boingo to record their true debut. They always say everything sucks is more of a demo, but know.
00:56:39
Speaker
Second album. um Turn the radio off. The album would peak at number 57, which is when Tribe Called Quests, Beats, Rhymes, and Life was top of the charts.
00:56:50
Speaker
The album art is a picture of Aaron's girlfriend holding a gun at a K-Rock DJ. yeah And it features saxophone by Efren from Hepcat.
00:57:01
Speaker
And there's some vocals from Monique of Save Ferris. And this is one of the earliest credits of Grammy Award winning keyboard virtuoso Isaiah Owens, who had later guest on The Hippos, Long Beach Dub All-Stars, and Sublime, and would win his Grammy playing for the Mars Volta.
00:57:18
Speaker
That's little nice. That's crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. And this is his first major credit. So he was going to Volta. I shouldn't the Mars Volta. Like, it's everything I don't like, and I just really do like Mars Volta.
00:57:29
Speaker
Why? That's a band I also saw at Warped Tour, and they they did a set where they had no break between songs. God. It was wild. That's a lot of rehearsal. That's a lot.
00:57:40
Speaker
Back when Thomas Pritchett was playing drums for him, it was crazy because dude's an amazing drummer, and it was so cool to see him play with him. Maybe that's why they kind of like, I don't typically like that style of music, but I think the musician, musician, musicianship but of them is kind of what sells it.
00:57:56
Speaker
Yeah. Where it's just bananas. And so then a real big fish would stand out from a fashion standpoint. So whereas all the bands were wearing suits and ties, they were wearing like shorts and Hawaiian shirts.
00:58:07
Speaker
um So Aaron said, i had something to do with the Hawaiian shirts and ska. I'm sorry. Or you're welcome. This from the documentary. documentary I thought it was funny. All right, so we're going to talk about the monster.
00:58:20
Speaker
This is Turn the Radio Off, and it starts with maybe the number two biggest Ska song of all time, least on the radio. It's been in my fucking head. Like, every five minutes, if I, like, take a minute, it's...
00:58:34
Speaker
It's good. It's just so catchy. It's almost maddening. It's unreal. So this is sellout. This is a the big hit from the ninety s as they say. And, like, it starts the album off. It is insane how good this song is.
00:58:47
Speaker
It's just how good, like, if you're like, whoa, this is a different band. And the video, though. Yeah, the video's fantastic. The production is also hot-notch. It sounds good. Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:04
Speaker
There's probably people out there that don't know who this one is. Definitely. My mom. Probably my dad. My first was learning to play bass. I would just watch Matt play the bass playing this song.
00:59:15
Speaker
And I'm like, you're always doing this. That's great.
00:59:33
Speaker
I actually started off on bass guitar. So it was like Matt Wong was a pretty big influence when I was learning bass. It was, and he's part of that generation, and we talked about the Hippos too, the same kind of thing. There's a generation of like ska bassists in the mid nineties there that had a huge funk influence where they was like throwing a lot of slap bass into some of their lines. And don't hear as much now or like maybe before there's a lot of like in the two tone, they did a lot of the disco preggios, but like the actual slap basing that kind of came out in the nineties. Like, Oh, I think skank and pickle had a lot to do with that. Like, cause they were like, yeah. And fishbone.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, probably Fishbone. Now that i'm thinking about it. Do we have to bring Fishbone every fucking podcast? Yes, until we do an episode about it. Boo. I can't wait until we do it. I'm just fucking shitting on Just to be so mad about it. i love that. i was like, the musicianship really does it for me. And then I'm like, bye, hey, Fishbone.
01:00:25
Speaker
I don't care if they're talented. I don't like it. See, with Primus. So Levi, I'll start with you. Turn the radio off. How do you feel about it? um and I like it. It's you know that's kind of their but thiss their biggest album, more or less. I didn't really start listening to Real Big Fish a lot until kind of got in the third rates. always heard of them.
01:00:45
Speaker
So it's kind of like that was the first albums I got into, that and why do they rock so hard. And it's pretty much front to back's good album. like it's There's not really too many skips. Snoop Dogg Baby is probably the only one I'm not a big fan of. It just kind of, I'm like, it's one I'll skip, but the rest is just, it's...
01:01:03
Speaker
Solid man. It's I mean even like sellout I can still listen to sellout and I'm not just like oh this is overplayed and annoying. It's that horn line is ridiculous. It gets stuck in my head every time.
01:01:13
Speaker
Time. ah Absolutely. And it's we know we never had like ska on the radio in Canada all that much like to some degree we did but so like for us we were kind of sheltered from it. So when i let heard sellout for the first time it was just because I was on the internet and they were like oh sellout is like a song that was everywhere.
01:01:31
Speaker
in the mid 90s i'm like i don't know what song this is and and and so i was like it's kind of nice to have that and then you're like well now it's my like it's a classic song and i was never like overexposed to it unless i overexposed myself to it um dylan how about yourself how do you feel about turn the radio off um Yeah, it's a it's an awesome album.
01:01:50
Speaker
i Honestly, for me, I don't think all of Rurik Fisher's albums, I never really skipped a track until maybe Monkeys for Nothing and Chips for Free. That was the first album I had to skip a track. But yeah, the whole album, front to back, is really good. It shows how versatile they are as far as genre, too. They kind of mix together that hair metal style mixed with ska and punk, so it's really cool to hear.
01:02:18
Speaker
Totally. you Yeah, it's and what I like about it, too, is there's like an energy that never lets up like the whole time. um Like that even if they slow down, you still feel like there's like a a heart pounding like energy to it. Right.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yeah. There's no real breath. It's like a breathless record and it's 16 tracks. Like it's like it just runs for like so for 45 minutes of just like relentless ska punk. Right. It's and yeah.
01:02:42
Speaker
It's actually like, i think that it doesn't sound like a radio album, like to me, right? it's It's actually shocking that it made radio play and that people liked it because when you listen back, you're like, well, this this doesn't this is poppy, but this is so like hectic and anarchic. like Like, I can't believe people would just like buy this and like listen to the whole thing. Like, but I can, i like, I love it.
01:03:04
Speaker
yeah um You talk about like their musicianship. I did put the instrumental on here to listen to. I love 241. Oh yeah, that one's great. Because, like, they get kind of, like, shit on a little bit. But I think they people don't, like, appreciate the musicianship, but like, sometimes. But, like, I think they're just, like, solid horn players, solid musicians, right?
01:03:26
Speaker
Yeah, they're all really good. I mean, like, Aaron Barrett's probably the best guitar player heard in the Scotts, like, seen him. As far as talent goes. Yeah, he...
01:03:38
Speaker
Because he also is like a big, like he puts a lot of blues lines into stuff. yeah And then when he's and when he's on stage, he does all the little tricks where he like plays the guitar behind his back and stuff. Like for him, it's a lead instrument. And I think in most guys, like it's a rhythm instrument.
01:03:53
Speaker
But he like takes it seriously. Like I'm a lead guitar player and I play guitar lines. Yeah.
01:04:01
Speaker
not so It's so good. And it's, like, very two-tone influence, right? I love that. It's really... I, like, I stan. That's, like, my sound i like. Speaking of the blues influence, like, the little blues lick at the beginning the year.
01:04:12
Speaker
So, and... You love this song. Everybody does. yeah ah He said he's like Stella got us on the radio, but beer kept people coming to the shows. Like it was never a single.
01:04:24
Speaker
But when we play live, people just lose their mind. Like it was the song that made us an underground sensation. Yeah, then Matt and Trey put it in basketball. That helped it even more.
01:04:36
Speaker
Right? yeah. The South Park creators. The Matt Perk. Yeah, and Trey Stone. Or the other way around. I'll just get the last names in my head. Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Yeah, there we go.
01:04:49
Speaker
Oh, Basketball's great. that's a So that's a Zazz movie, too. I think one of the Zucker Abrams people who did Airplane. did it that's why it has it like wacky parody type feel to it that movie is fucking funny it holds up
01:05:10
Speaker
ah yeah beer's great so good um um but yeah basketball and then hey you know what let's take a little detour there basketball had this this fun jam on it too so the take on me cover I love this cover so much.
01:05:28
Speaker
I love the original song, but this cover is so good, too. They really, like, tapped into the, like, new wave ska cover. Like, you know, like, they figured out the formula. They did Hungry Like a Wolf, too, right? Yeah. Yeah.
01:05:42
Speaker
They did like every popular eighty song. They did Kiss Me Deadly. did two Poison songs on the covers record. Like, they figured it out. They know what they're doing.
01:05:53
Speaker
They're so good at covers. That makes sense that they started as a cover band. Yeah. Yeah. I think they did a few... What was that one band? Boys or Boys Don't Cry. I forgot what band that was. The Cure. The Cure, yeah. They did a few Cure covers, I think.
01:06:10
Speaker
That song is interesting because like in a vacuum, it was like covered by three bands at the same time. So it was like it was them, ah real big so it was Real Big Fish, and then Area 7 in Australia, and then another band.
01:06:23
Speaker
All covered it almost the same, um but like on different sides of the world. and Hey, is this your birthday? No. You get to talk about the cure. and i love the cure. I love the cure.
01:06:35
Speaker
I've got my Aquabats cure shirt on right now. Oh, my God. Oh, did you just become best friends? And that my friends is prestige.
The Third Rates' Talents and Challenges
01:06:47
Speaker
Honestly, answer this is Robert's birthday. It's not Tillie's birthday anymore. It's my birthday?
01:06:52
Speaker
It's always my birthday. Happy, happy birthday, April. All of us to you. All right.
01:06:58
Speaker
ah The other song I have queued up ah is is the Everything Sucks, because this was the second single, um which got nowhere, basically, from a history standpoint. Oh, it didn't do well? The irony is that it's like them, the video, is them going in and like getting like a check to like make a big expensive video and then running out of money because they spent it all on like booze and stuff, and then instead they just like go to the thrift store to buy the rest of the equipment to do the video. That's kind of the plot of it.
01:07:27
Speaker
um But then it's funny because this is also like, a pram rant like it just like was not a follow-up single at all. I wouldn't picked this to be the second single on the album.
01:07:38
Speaker
No. It's great, but it's like, because it has that like, it has like three different horn melodies that it plays in and out of, right? um So it's not it's not as crisp enough to be like a radio single.
01:07:52
Speaker
Yeah. But they start their shows with lot of times, too. Yeah.
01:07:57
Speaker
we are Me and Cory were in a few ska bands when we were kids. We tried to cover this song, and it's really hard to play with a horn section that isn't like doesn't know the song very well.
01:08:08
Speaker
It was like a train wreck when we tried to play this song. The horn section's a little tough. Was it just like band friends that you're like, hey. che yeah Yeah, totally. And they're like, sure.
01:08:22
Speaker
i only play Marietta Little Lamb, but I can figure this out, I think. That's what happened in my band. Yeah, i had ah i had a I had a trumpet for like a month, but which is so funny that like I was like in like band in school. There's no reason I shouldn't be able to like figure out horns. Like I had a trumpet for a month and i i figured out Marietta Little Lamb. And I was like, first of all, I didn't like you can't be cute and play the trumpet.
01:08:45
Speaker
You can't. You can't be cute and play the trumpet. Well, you can, but like you make a dumb face and it was like really hard. It was really hard. Like it's like insane just to get a sound out properly. Anyways, playing music is wild. i don't know how you guys do it. Yeah.
Real Big Fish's Musical Journey
01:08:59
Speaker
um So last thoughts on turn the radio off.
01:09:03
Speaker
ah Dylan, how about you? How do you feel about it? um Yeah, I mean, this was a really great, this is what most people consider their first album, but it's definitely a great like first studio album.
01:09:15
Speaker
um And it was kind of catapulted them into fame. And it was it was just like the perfect timing for everything. So yeah, this is like, to me, it's, this is a 10 out of 10 album.
01:09:28
Speaker
Two out of two tones. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Our original rating system is out of two tones. Two out of two tones. It's my favorite, I think. Yeah. Mine too. I mean, have yeah well if um and maybe the live one, but no, this like studio album is like pretty flawless.
01:09:45
Speaker
and they are a good live band. Oh, I mean, untouchable. incredible live band. Yeah. they would do bits one time I saw them at warp tour and they did a bit where they um every time they finished a song they would pretend to leave the stage and then come back so they would act like somebody told them to go back on stage they'd be like and then they were like go back go back and then they'd come back I love a bit oh it was such a it was such a and they dedicated that they did it like seven times like it was like they dedicated it they were like so good
01:10:16
Speaker
My favorite a bit that they did was they were like, this is our famous hit from the ninety s and they played like third eye blind songs. Oh, that's so good. You know engineered Joey's a big third eye blind fan. I actually saw them a couple years ago in San Francisco.
01:10:31
Speaker
ah yeah, at Clusterfest. It was like a comedy festival, but anyways, I did Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, i it was actually really sweet. Yeah, it was like Lonely Island. and like I wanted to go, but I was like, ah.
01:10:41
Speaker
That's far away. And my family at the time was in like San Diego. and I'm like, that's a long way from San Diego. So I'm just going to stay here. I'm going to pretend I know how far San Diego is from San Francisco. San Diego is like super Southern California, right? Yeah. It's like almost in Mexico.
01:10:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's closer to Mexico than it is to LA basically so. Right. um T-Pain that was there too and he fucking killed it. Oh my, I didn't know. oh my god, I love T-Pain so much. I didn't know and then he's truly incredible. What a good dancer, good singer. He's actually a good singer. cool guy. He won the Masked Singer.
01:11:16
Speaker
I love T-Pain. Yeah, I stand to talk is pretty good. I followed him on TikTok. i have not followed it. Is it my birthday? It's everyone's birthday. Whose birthday is it?
01:11:28
Speaker
I lost track. So many birthdays. um All right. So let's move on to the time scotching to 1997, the summer of ska. So this is actually when they get popular. So it's a year later that their video and a single for Sella would actually peak. And it peaks at number 10 on the on the Billboard charts.
01:11:46
Speaker
It's a year after release, but um it's funny that you say it's Third Eye Blind because the number one song at the time was Semi-Charmed Life. but yeah Nice.
01:11:58
Speaker
And here's what's fun is the album did not... toies's boin I looked over because I knew he'd be bopping and he was. He's still bopping. Sorry.
01:12:08
Speaker
it's a good It's a good jam. part It's hard not to jam. Joey karaoke classic. And honestly, brings the house down. Like, we go to this really shitty dive bar called H2O, and, like, there is a chance he'll get stabbed at any time. And honestly, he brings the house. Everyone's so into it when he sings it.
01:12:23
Speaker
Anyways. It's great one. the other The other albums that were on the chart at that time was Tragic Kingdom, ah but also Smash Mouth's Fushu Mang, an underappreciated ska album as well.
01:12:36
Speaker
um yeah So they they embark on a huge tour as they go national. so And then they release in 1997 a stopgap, which is Keep Your Receipt EP, which is the collection of some songs. um Then Unity, their cover of the Operation Ivy song, shows up on Take Warning. Listen to a past episode if you want to listen to that.
01:12:54
Speaker
um And Aaron says this, there's a reason why in promotional videos we are holding our instrument. It's like if you have three guys in a video, you know it's a cool band. But if there's like 18 guys, you're like, what are all these du dudes doing together?
01:13:08
Speaker
they're holding horns, then you're like, ah it's a ska band. You know. That's funny so funny. So then in 1998, hot off their success, the label brings back in John Avila to produce the rock and metal influenced follow up. Why do they rock so hard with the same lineup?
01:13:26
Speaker
Because the patriarchy, you know. Right. um Something that would ah not be the case in future releases, the album would feature the ska-free and harmless single, The Setup, which we'll listen to in a second.
01:13:41
Speaker
Even though the album features far more cynicism, the album would peak at 67. Decent but not meet label expectations. Jay-Z's volume two was the leading album at the time.
01:13:53
Speaker
And yeah, as we talked about before in 1998, it's when the band appeared in basketball and they'd get the minor hit off of take on me, which we just listened to. And beer would also be on the, uh, on the compilation. Uh, they would also release a suburban rhythm cover uniform of destruction, which is on running naked through the cornfield, which we talked about quite a bit on the safe Ferris episode. Cause that has so many bangers on it.
01:14:16
Speaker
Like support your local Scott band, whatever happened to suburban rhythm. Why did Ed and Scott quit? I mean, we never will find but rhythm So good. Like I can see why they were friends.
01:14:27
Speaker
I remember like the actually I was thinking about this earlier. The origins of our podcast is probably like that song because I was like, Rob, who's Suburban Rhythm? And you're like, well, let me tell it. Let me tell you all about Ed and Scott.
01:14:39
Speaker
Who's Ed and Scott? Why'd they quit? So before we we talk about the album, I just want to finish off my notes for today ah that will end in 1999 when after a huge tour, Andrew Gonzalez leaves the band because he is super burned out from touring.
01:14:56
Speaker
And then Grant Berry also is fired um because he punched a bouncer at a show. ha ha! um Don't know the exact circumstance, but that doesn't sound cool.
01:15:07
Speaker
No. and So let's talk about why do they rock so hard? So I know when we were getting ready to set up for this, you guys were like, this is one we want to talk about. So Dylan, I'll start with you. How do you feel about this record?
01:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, so this was the first Real Link Fish record I actually owned. And yeah, this was to me, this is their best album. I just love like all their songs are really cool. And it's this is when they really started messing with like the genre switching, um especially brand new song like that song.
01:15:39
Speaker
In general, when it starts, it's just like this heavy like metal song. And then it goes into this happy like Nickelodeon sounding song. so um yeah that's like one of my favorite album or songs off the album there's so many songs on there where they do like the metal thing which is kind of they played with it was scottanic on the first one or not the previous record but there's so much more metal on here fuck you bitch i love you i'm not crazy from the yeah i don't want to talk about that one too much but that song is is maybe not doesn't hold up as much um
01:16:14
Speaker
I was like, i do i do love I do love that song. But I was like, oh, I don't love like dudes calling ladies bitches. But like everything is cool is like it's like straight up metal too, right? They're doing that quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:31
Speaker
But like that and then I talked about the setup but it has like that's probably like doing for the solos stuff like this where he's like doing more like the hair metal really into it right?
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah it's like
01:16:48
Speaker
It's not my choice for a single. oh yeah no I definitely wouldn't pick this one. But it's clearly that it's like a thought either from him from from them or from the label that like you can't just
Cooley Ranks and Ska Moshing Culture
01:17:00
Speaker
do it. It's 98. You can't put a ska song like a straight up ska song as a single. It's not going to play right now. Like the right things on the wall. I think that's what the intention was or could be.
01:17:10
Speaker
I think so. i mean, at this time, no doubt would have been doing bathwater. Right. They would have been out of Tragic Kingdom. Right. So, yeah, like I think just based on what they're putting on the radio.
01:17:23
Speaker
I'm picking up ladies. Nothing else about it. do like that. I forgot I like this song so much. And they still play it quite a bit too.
01:17:35
Speaker
Yeah. That's a good one. That is good. I really like that actually. I think one of their one of my favorite songs off their album, ah this album is the very last song because it's like a jazz. It's like this jazz like rock kind of thing the victory over Peter Jones yeah Peter Bones did we ask Levi about the album Oh, no, Levi, how do you feel about why do they rock so hard? I care, Levi. I don't know about what rock. Oh, thank you.
01:18:03
Speaker
This is this actually one of the first ones I listened to, like i said, not knowing of them but not being like super deep into them. Dylan was like, yo, check this album out. And I said, it's good. I still think I do come back and I think I listen to Tron for Radio a little bit more.
01:18:19
Speaker
Me too. I think it's probably – just a little bit more ska for me and like yeah that's kind of what i like about it but this still also this has a song that got me into them for the first time the first song i ever heard from them was uh this one yeah yeah i like this my my friend my friend at uh where i was working had like showed it to me and he was like oh like if you're getting into ska you should check this out was like oh yeah i will be checking this out Yeah, I think the album is really versatile, like Dylan said. It kind of expands. You can see their... Their palette....trying things.
01:18:56
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, as as much as they distance themselves from Cheer Up, the next album, there's... can see the trajectory. Like, it's not that far removed. Like, when you think, like, oh, the guitar... They're playing a lot more guitar, right? Like, it's just, like, the guitar-forward music, right?
01:19:12
Speaker
Yeah. I think a lot of it was the record label too. They were on just making them. want They wanted to back off the horns too. yeah Why was that like a thing at the time of like, because Smashers, Planet Smashers have a song, Jamtefan, I Like Your Girlfriend.
01:19:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, this is like almost the exact same time. Why was that like a weird 90s thing? Yeah, totally. 90s thing, I guess. Stealing girlfriends? Yeah, stealing each other girlfriends. It big in the ska scene.
01:19:41
Speaker
Maybe it was just a ska thing in the 90s. I wasn't there. Scottrician. Scottrician. Nice. Real nice. I almost spit out my smoothie. and ah you talk about like different songs. like ah I've queued up the two Cooley Rank songs. like Song three.
01:19:59
Speaker
um
01:20:03
Speaker
They never really got this down, right? Cooley Ranks is like such a good toaster and it sounds great. Yeah.
01:20:12
Speaker
You guys listen to the Pilfers before? No, I haven't. I've heard him on a few tracks, but I've never heard of him. His band. That's a genre of fuck band. He played a lot metal and punk and rap and stuff. But I mean, he was the house toaster for The Toaster in the early Like on three other records.
01:20:35
Speaker
But yeah, Cooley Ranks is awesome.
01:20:40
Speaker
I think the pilfers also play backing. Don't quote them. Rob said. Rob said that the pilfers are also in Robley. I'm going to quote you. To quote Rob.
01:20:52
Speaker
Well, the vocals sound good. Oh, yeah. Sounds great. um there's also like a trilogy of songs towards the end from like the kids don't like it down in flames and we care.
01:21:05
Speaker
I feel like is like three songs ah that are like the most pissed off by this point. Like he's just like, it's lamenting fame and like, um like getting mad at people for like giving them shit for just being a band. Like it's like themes that they would definitely go with later, but like, this is where they kind of start getting into that stuff where they're just like starting to get a little spicy. Yeah.
01:21:28
Speaker
yeah um but then uh oh yeah the other song i have here is thank you for not moshing um which has the unfortunate f-bomb in it but this this piece of dan regan's
01:21:53
Speaker
you what i respect the don't don't mosh it's gotcha first believe Please, Edmonton mosh. Edmonton gets pretty wild at shows and like everyone's fucking mad caddy.
01:22:07
Speaker
Jesus Christ, and just want to dance and like people just go fucking crazy. See, I love moshing, so it's just like... out I saw a lesson, Jake, that's the first thing they made us do. They're like, everyone start moshing in a giant circle. They do the circle pit, yeah. I love good a good circle pit's hard to beat.
01:22:25
Speaker
As a petite female. like well you know what? I used to always so mosh. I used to do it anyways because I totally have little person syndrome. And yeah, I always have to. was like, I'm cool and tough too.
01:22:37
Speaker
And I'm still going to wear high heels. And it'll be fun. And bill everyone will pick me up. You're supposed to. In a good mosh pit, you'll pick people Honestly, Warped Tour was always pretty good. I'd always, if like, I'd fall, like, 7,000 times, and I'd always just be, instantly. get dust face. Yeah, and then just, like, seven people would lift me up. And they're like, Jesus, get this chick out of here. And I'm like, no!
01:22:58
Speaker
I want to see the band! I love a good press-up. If you get right at the gate, and you just get, like, a really good grip, You can like still see the band and not mosh. You get punched in the head. That's a little person. is still that ist Oh yeah.
01:23:11
Speaker
Get the, get the, hold the gate. Cause I don't block, you know, other people. So I think that's my right. And I can squirm through too. I'll like squirm right up to the gate. I can relate because I'm only 5'4". So I was like my first show, I was like this at the show and like getting smashed.
01:23:28
Speaker
I was probably like 5'2 at the time. So you know you know the you know the move of just get smashed at the gate and hold on for dear life. I like that it was only two extra inches. Yeah. Well, I was like 13 the time. 14 maybe.
01:23:42
Speaker
I'm still waiting on my growth spurt. So I keep being like, I don't know, maybe in my thirties, maybe in my thirties, maybe in your forties. um So yeah. Why do they rock so hard? to It's good. It's like another really solid solid. Yeah. Like what else you want to deal in? This was one of your favorites. What else do you want to talk about it?
01:24:04
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, I think we covered most of it. i The main thing is just like, I think if you listen to kind of like our stuff, it kind of can relate with this kind of style because a lot of our songs are just like all over the place and little chaotic with the genre shifting. And I think we took a lot influences from this.
01:24:24
Speaker
Corey and myself, we did just like when we were writing the songs and stuff like that. So I think that's probably why it's my favorite, just like how versatile it is. Yeah, you make a good point. That is like a really impressive part on this. Like I didn't really think about how different each song really is.
01:24:41
Speaker
yeah Pretty nuts actually. Like it speaks to their skill in in songwriting. Yeah. Levi, how about yourself? Same. it's I love a band who's not afraid to do what they want to do and go from a jazz song to a metal song to a two-tone to reggae. Like ah most of my favorite bands are not afraid to just...
01:25:04
Speaker
That's how you get good. That's how you get better is by pushing yourself and trying different things and doing different things. And it, it shows it's absolutely. and Yeah. No kidding. All right. So that takes us to the end of the time scotching for this, uh, for this go around. So take one more break.
01:25:21
Speaker
And when we get back, just gonna play a few games.
Games and Humor in Ska Music
01:25:34
Speaker
All right. Welcome back to Checkered Past. We're here with Levi and Dylan from The Third Rates. And for our next segment, I've come to do two things, drink beer and sell out. But I have nothing to sell, so I'll just drink the beer.
01:25:46
Speaker
This is Sorry We Are All Sold Out of Beer. In this game, I'll name a ska band and Dylan, Levi, or Selin have to guess if they have a song with a title about drinking, a title about selling out, or both.
01:26:02
Speaker
And it's just the song titles, not the content of the songs. Just in their titles, they have a song about drinking, selling out, or both. So buzz in and say ska or buzz or your name.
01:26:13
Speaker
And whoever has the most correct answers wins. You guys good? Yeah. All right. I'm so nervous already. My heart's hurting. Can you do an example? For example, real big fish. Maybe both.
01:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, Levi gets it. oh youre yeah ah so Levi, you did not say your name or buzz or ska. I'm giving Levi credit for that one anyway. Okay. He's our guest.
01:26:37
Speaker
Okay. The mad caddies. Both? Oh, Céline. Okay, Céline. Both. Nope. No? No. Levi or Dylan? Ska. Yeah, Levi? Beer.
01:26:48
Speaker
That's correct. They have a song called Drinking for Eleven. They don't have anything about that selling out. No, they don't care about that. ah If Chuck cared about that, he he wouldn't write like whatever that new album he's doing is.
01:27:01
Speaker
um and that's a little da That was kind of a dick. I just really don't. know I like the Mad Caddies a lot, but that new they're one of my favorite fans that new Chuck like solo thing that he's doing, it's a little rough.
01:27:12
Speaker
Please come on the show. Yeah, please come on the show and we'll talk about anything you want. And rob a shit all over your new stuff. Oh, okay next next band five iron frenzy uh celine yes we just did that's not even fair right we just did the episode um selling out for sure selling out yes correct handbook for the sellout okay so that's i' two sweating again two for levi one for celine okay levi you're going down come on dylan get in the game jesus christ dylan skank skank and pickle was dylan uh um i'm pretty sure they have a song about drinking
01:27:48
Speaker
Yes. Thick-ass stout is about fear. Guinness. That's right. ah So that's 2-1-1. Okay. Bucko 9.
01:27:59
Speaker
Scossland. Yep. And Buzz. What did you say? Bucko 9? Bucko 9. Drinking. Yes. The Irish drinking song. Misattributed to the Dropkick Murphys. My heart rate. Okay. What is it? we're Me and Levi are tied? That's right. And Dylan's in the dust?
01:28:12
Speaker
All right. The one behind the dust. It's his birthday. Happy birthday, Dylan. Thank you. Less than Jake. ah
01:28:25
Speaker
ah less than jake buzz dylan they have them both that's right liquor store and johnny quest thinks for sellouts oh yeah yeah i'll nod it up oh this getting tight i'm really excited most invested i've been in these stupid games okay so sweaty my palms it's like a hockey game right now it's like a hockey game right now it's like a hockey game right now oh with these three three teams playing just like in hockey i feel like wayne grass like hockey i feel like Wayne Gretzky I feel like don't know Paul coffee like I feel like Tim Lusolani I used to have his hockey car growing up so that's yeah um the pie tasters Scott yeah Levi yes drunken master yeah
01:29:10
Speaker
You just guessed that one. I can i did guess it. Perfect. or Is that it? i No, we're we've got three more. The holophonics. but i Buzz. yep i Yeah, I'm guessing. I'm going to say both.
01:29:23
Speaker
Nope. Damn it. There's not anybody's game. Levi, Dylan. Oh, did we just chime in? Yep. Okay. um just change them Drinking. Oh, nobody gets it. I'm not going to just give us the eyes out. We're absolutely not just giving that to Luis Maia. The Port of Holophonics. thought they were more popular. They have a song called All I Want to Do is Sell Out.
01:29:45
Speaker
ah The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones. Fuzz. Dylan. Drinking. Yeah. A lot. A lot of songs about drinking. ever last say no I to both. I don't know. Mighty Boss Tones. The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones are just singing too many songs about drinking to have a song about selling out. They're too drunk to sell out.
01:30:04
Speaker
Yeah, they're too drunk to sell out. That's our new single name. They're too sold out to drink. All right. Last but not least, the Planet Smashers. Slow as buzz. She got it.
01:30:17
Speaker
yeah You gotta to go. You got it first. um Yeah, okay. Zurg drinking and selling out. Is it drinking, selling out, or both? I didn't. I like should know this ah because because we did two episodes about it. We listened to all of I listened to all of the planet smashers. I'm so sweaty.
01:30:33
Speaker
I feel like I fucked myself over by saying both, but I'm so mad if it's both both. No, damn it. Levi. you You're about drinking. Oh, yeah. so So many songs about drinking.
01:30:43
Speaker
I thought Levi. Yeah. I got out of his seat. um yeah levi got out of his seat yeah made He a wrestling belt
01:30:55
Speaker
He's a new AEW champion. and Man, I was talking about that with some people yesterday. i was like, Scampion? Yeah. how much ah about this crossover between like ska and wrestling right now and i was like like but no issue with wrestling i was just like shocked i was like whoa this is the sport like i thought bowling was the ska sport but i think wrestling might be the ska sport no way bowling's not not by sticking the wrestling but it's weird to see yeah weird to see the two kind of cross you know Okay, so now for our next segment. Ska died in 1999 and Benoit Blanc needs to investigate all these yuppie fucks to see which of these ungratesful kids ah is the murderer.
01:31:35
Speaker
Spoiler alert, it's Captain America. This is Ska Sucks. Ska sucks. He has America's ass. How dare you talk over top of the Ska Sucks.
01:31:50
Speaker
It's a song. we talk over fucking everything. Run it back. Run it Ska sucks. Ska revivalism. Cool you stupid. Hey, that's a Canadian song.
01:32:00
Speaker
Respect. Respect. So i have us I have a review here about Real Big Fish, about why do they rock so hard. And it's from Amazon.com from a ah verified user named Bumhole.
01:32:14
Speaker
Nice. That shouldn't have been that funny. The title is, What a Load of Shite. ah The body says, this has to be their worst owl, and then quotes bum.
01:32:26
Speaker
Yeah. ah That they have ever composed. And I think that they have let themselves down with this album. But you don't care what the hell. I think so. You don't care what the hell I think. So why are you even reading this, you boring little individual?
01:32:39
Speaker
so Reviewed in Canada on February 10th, 2002. Bumhole. 2002? What was going on? Oh, post 9-11. to what was going on oh post nine eleven Yeah, he's hot off 9-11. Five months after 9-11. Very concerned.
01:32:52
Speaker
he Needs to talk about why did they rock so hard, which is four years later. Was he really proud of himself? The jet fuel got to his brain. He's like, it doesn't melt steel girders.
01:33:02
Speaker
Also, why did you should have melted this album? Too soon, Levi. Oh, my God. Should have melted this this album. A genuine snort. in there.
01:33:15
Speaker
Oh, that's genius. That was a real snort. Yeah. This is my applause. Applause emoji. Okay, so for our last segment, we're going to social media for questions.
01:33:27
Speaker
This was a pain in my ass for some reason. i don't know why people weren't as involved. but um Oh, I didn't post. Last last week, I had like five people, ah but I got somebody. Sorry, you're supposed to remind me. um That's my fault.
01:33:39
Speaker
So this is from ah my good pal NPR skanking department at Don Quixote on
Band Babysitting and Episode Wrap-up
01:33:44
Speaker
on Twitter. He asks... You want to have a nice night out, but you have quintuplet toddlers who are conniving and unruly.
01:33:50
Speaker
What five plus person band are you going to hire to babysit? this seems relevant easy my favorite my favorite thing is that it wasn't a ska band you picked a band with like an yeah you think them little kids are gonna fuck up around slipknot no one of the drummers who can stop drumming and then the other ones will go off uh also there's a turntable list i can't remember who's all in slipknot do we remember that Sampler, two percussionists, drummer, DJ, lead singer, two guitars, and a bass player. And that's nine. That's nine people right there. They're like back, eh? Like kids like them. That's like a thing.
01:34:32
Speaker
Kids are wearing like Slipknot shirts. I love Slipknot. I've always loved Slipknot. There's like a certain type, like not, people aren't like tripping over themselves like corn, but like Slipknot for whatever has like transcended the new metal. People love corn. No, people fucking love corn. People love corn, but I prefer Slipknot over, but.
01:34:52
Speaker
So what's here? So but this is actually a good one. New metal, guilty pleasure, let's say. so Disturbed. Disturbed? Yeah, I'm not proud of it. I love a theatrical voice. uh system of a down so good i know we love we system of a down like i'm yeah like yeah i know i don't listen to that much new metal anymore but i'll hear like i don't know like spiders or something i'm like fox that system of a down is good they are uh dylan and you're you're noticeably quiet
01:35:24
Speaker
Oh, for the metal band? um I didn't really listen to lot of metal, but I did listen to System of Down, so I'll go with that. what is What about the ska band? yeah what about your What's your baby's name for the babies? yeah No. um Actually, i'm going to go with Streetlight Manifesto because a lot of people like to think they're like,
01:35:43
Speaker
this like communist band so um i'm just gonna go with that because i feel like they would just like punish them like you know it'd be really strict if i had to pick a ska band it might be the suicide machines because i don't think any kids would fuck around with the suicide machines either if they have five or more members i like that your reasoning is like suicide machines only is four you're like i choose this because the kids won't fuck up Yeah, I can't remember. Now I'm second-guessing myself how many people are in the suicide machines.
01:36:12
Speaker
You can also get like the world's most gigantic band, like the New York Ska Jazz Ensemble. like Why not? Then you have enough people to like look after the toddler for sure. like One of the trombone players. Philharmonic.
01:36:23
Speaker
the Philharth Symphony. Oh yeah, if we're just going talk about a band, like it's not specific, let's get like the Boston Pops Orchestra. Like whatever, John Williams can take a beat for a second. All he does is conduct.
01:36:36
Speaker
What second or third chair flautist can like step down for a second? No, they can't. I've been trying to think of who this entire time. Oh yeah, you still don't have an answer.
01:36:47
Speaker
Did you say something? Yeah, I just said the Boston Pops Orchestra. but I feel good about that answer. And it has to be a ska band? no That's why I'm saying something else.
01:36:59
Speaker
could be whoever you want. um Whoever you overthinking this. Why don't you pick like ah one of those bands that just like has just like dancers? I was thinking about Girls' Generation, like a K-pop band. because they that's like yeah That's what I'm thinking. I just think they'd be nice that to the kids. And there'd be a lot of them. And they're pretty. And they're like...
01:37:15
Speaker
They don't really have any sold because of like their crazy ass fucking contracts in yeah South Korea. So they're like, I like a good dead eyed babysitter. And they sign crazy contracts. So they can't like um date. Like they don't have anything else going on. They can't like lots of time leave their warehouse. So yeah, they can put full attention to my babies. All five them. All five of them. Who are quintuplets.
01:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. Right. So least, you know, they're all in the same room together. Yeah. All right. And I think the quintuplets, are they identical? If they're identical, I feel like they'd be more comfortable because all the South Korean women look. Fraternal quintuplets sounds wild. Is that even possible?
01:37:54
Speaker
We're about to find out. We're about to find out. Maury.
01:38:01
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Checkered Past. Hit us on Instagram and Twitter at CheckerPassPod or send us an email at CheckerPassPod at gmail.com. Ask a question, suggest bands, bring us your ska puns.
01:38:12
Speaker
CheckerPass is the engineered by Joey, produced by Ariane. Our theme song is OAO by Edmonton's own Mad Bomber Society. TTR, what do you have to plug for us? Or where do you want to be found? Oh, um yeah, you can find us on basically any streaming platform. So check us out on Spotify. if you want social media, you can find us on Twitter or Instagram. you can Just the third rates.
01:38:37
Speaker
All one word. Are you Discord? You guys are Discord people? Discord and Twitch too, right? Yeah, we do have. Yeah, we have pretty much everything right now. So yeah, we also have a Discord. you can If you go to any of our social media, just click the link and we have a giant link tree to everything that we have.
01:38:52
Speaker
Linktree. and And what makes you the most money if someone wants to support you guys? The most money would be Bandcamp, probably. Okay. Perfect. Yeah.
01:39:03
Speaker
So check them out on Bandcamp. Support them on Bandcamp. It's good. At the end of the episode, we'll throw one of your tracks on so people can give it a listen. um Until next time, I'm Rob. And I'm Snellan.
01:39:14
Speaker
In the mortal words of RealBigFish, you don't want to be left out. You want to be cool. Hey.
01:39:27
Speaker
On this episode, are you friend or foe? Cheer up, checkerheads, because we're not happy until you're not happy as we continue our discussion on third wave Ska megastars, Real Big Fish, on Checkered Past, the Ska-dcast.
Ska Fashion and Personal Stories
01:40:01
Speaker
What up Checkerheads? Welcome to Checker Pass, the Scottcast with Celine and Rob. The show where ah Dr. Onion Ring Ding and i Chicken Wing explore the history and impact of a different band each episode.
01:40:12
Speaker
Hope to bring in new fans along the way. I'm Rob and this is my sister and co-host, Celine. Hi. I didn't, I like got in my head about something else and i didn't pay attention. That's okay.
01:40:24
Speaker
I was doing nothing important. I was just thinking, did you say? What was your joke? Dr. Onion ring ding. I don't think it like hit I don't know what that means. Onion ring. Ding? And Dr. Ringding.
01:40:34
Speaker
I don't know what Dr. Ringding is Oh, he's this German guy. That's the problem. He's like a German, like, ah he has a lot of fake in Jamaican because he's a big white dude. Okay. Who does the patois. But everyone loves him because he plays the trombone like a fiend.
01:40:47
Speaker
Bombo clap? uh no i don't know about that but he does have he does a lot of yeah it is that's what you're doing uh and then what was the other one oh i did the the scat thing with chicken wing i don't know if i love that when i wrote it down i was really happy scat thing which like you're doing like a scat uh like a like a toast like a okay yeah yeah that's good and no whatever just trying to understand whenever we drop a beat we have to pick it up pick it up where we left off
01:41:20
Speaker
Backed by popular demand. didn't pre-think this at all. but see this is why i dropped it too because i know like every time now that i remember that we're doing it i'll try to come prepared i'm really stuck on a pokemon shining pearl like i'm in the cave and i don't know i always get stuck in the k caves yeah well you just get like tired and it's like all the same but i got a bunch of max repels so hopefully i can just you know keep those gravelers off me and geo dudes and
01:41:52
Speaker
classic find out where i'm going what do you mean you you have to go in with the max repels no don't use max repels you got to fight so that you get those levels man you're i'm leveled up enough thank you there's enough ace trainers in there i'm just i'm just saying it's a jrpg mistake i've already gone through without repelling and now i had to escape because i kind of got myself confused and i'm going back i see yeah okay ah what about you Okay, so i have I want to know your take on this.
01:42:21
Speaker
there's a i have a neighbor.
01:42:25
Speaker
um he like, randomly mowed my lawn. Okay. Because our lawns are connected. Yeah. He kept, like, coming to me and saying, like, oh, I can mow your lawn if you want. Oh, I can mow your lawn if you want.
01:42:36
Speaker
Then he just did it one day while I was mowing the lawn, which is While you were mowing the lawn? was mowing the backyard and then he mowed the front yard. Maybe he just likes it. Yeah. It him feel good. so that's fine. i actually don't mind. i was like, oh, hey, he mowed my lawn. That's nice. Yeah.
01:42:49
Speaker
uh i was like he's cut it shorter than i would mow it but whatever and then uh two days later he comes to my house and he says mowed your lawn can you pay me for that yeah that's not good yeah so i said no yeah like no said no was like i'm not paying you for something you didn't ask and b we didn't agree to terms uh on this um And he walked away, seemed a little bummed about it, but apparently he had done this before.
01:43:17
Speaker
Arianne told me, like, he shoveled our walk. And then, like, three months later, like, after the snow melted, came back and was like, hey, can you pay me for that time I shoveled your walk?
01:43:30
Speaker
She did give him some money, like, I don't know, like five bucks or something to say, like, peace out.
01:43:36
Speaker
No, I think he's got like maybe some development issues. Okay. And he's got like ah like workers that help him. Right. But he, my my wife's theory is that if they're not around, he escapes and to do this because they tell him not to. yeah He still does it. But our other neighbor has done it to us before, like in other neighborhoods. so what's your So that's the situation.
01:43:57
Speaker
Would handle that well? Would you do the same? Um, I don't, I mean, i don't know if my what I would do is like the right thing either. Because like, I'm always the person to like give out money and change anytime someone asks. Because I'm like, well, what am I going to do with this $5? Like, I spend my money on like the worst, dumbest, stupidest shit ever. So like, for somebody who ah potentially needs it more than I do, i also am easily scammed. So, and gullible and naive and a people pleaser. So, yeah.
01:44:27
Speaker
I'm not saying that's right. I think you have just set a boundary. yeah that's how too. And then if you give money, then you're encouraging for it to happen again. Set a I depends if you want it to happen again. I don't. I'd tell them beat it. And also... Yeah.
01:44:40
Speaker
I'd have a harder time. Michael Jackson over here. um um Plug for Songs for... Was it Songs for Moms that Evie Echoes beat it cover?
01:44:51
Speaker
hey this is coming out a few weeks after a release but yeah download songs for moms and songs for dads get it get that money for cancer our engineer joey's on the on the tracks yeah on both of them com plug plugin plug plug plug buy that shit beautiful rat records and sbi doing it do you almost forget skypunk international believe you'd be nothing would love chris nothing chris but head on chris talked to to the person who said it's the year of joey this is the respect he gets yeah it's chris
01:45:31
Speaker
that's worth it see it is worth it to bring it back that was fun i want to hear i'll have a story one day that was a good story uh we're now delighted to introduce our guest he's singer and songwriter devin case here hello hello hi hi how's going i'm devin just great i'm here all right so now we get into our first well real question i guess canada's sub question real big question there's the real big question What is your checkered past?
01:46:03
Speaker
Where did you first hear of Ska and how did you get into it? ooh Okay, so I don't want to... I hope everyone who's listening, i gonna give you a second to sit down. Because this is going to floor you. i was kind of a weirdo when I was a kid. know. I was a theater kid. I was like a music dork. I was just kind of ill-fitting. i was just like an ill-fitting human.
01:46:28
Speaker
Like, just, you know, like people are like, oh, you have that baby weight and stuff. Well, it would I was just like, you know, like a fucking Cronenberg creature as I was in puberty and stuff. It was great.
01:46:39
Speaker
And so, you know, I wasn't well-liked either. I moved a lot. And, like, fucking got to this middle school and the first kind of, like, other dorks that you're running into. And when you get older, you're obviously, like, whatever. Everyone's insecure in fucking middle school. That's just how your brain works.
01:46:55
Speaker
But the ones that I rolled with started listening to, like, street punk and, like, i uh fucking i don't know that just street punk slashed out am inaudible shit sounds great loved it that was kind of like my story that was a little too much got to like the living end which is almost rockabilly oh that's our next trombonist episode yeah i'm doing a living end episode i i fucking love the living end so i'm a billy a dark billy past but i digress
01:47:28
Speaker
have lot jokes about your dark Billy past, but either way. So again, in Rockabilly, for the reason I have those jokes, wasn't really into the Rockabilly scene. And so I'm sitting here trying to carve out my niche.
01:47:40
Speaker
What was that? I said why, but I was just kidding. It's the worst. You know, I was like, i had I had a lot of clothes and all of them were from the time period that I lived in. So I wasn't even welcome in the Rockabilly scene. I didn't know.
01:47:54
Speaker
My hair didn't slick back very well, and they thought that my shoes platforms were just a little too short. And they said, you cannot sing about the bats and the belfry. Either way. I went and was like, well, that's just, ah that's almost not dorky enough for me, Rockabilly. um And then a I saw a man in a...
01:48:14
Speaker
I saw a man in a Hawaiian shirt and stupid sunglasses. Fell in love. And thought, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so admittedly, like, that was kind of, the real gateway was like, my sister listened to a lot of metal and got a less than Jake CD, Hello Rock View.
01:48:34
Speaker
Didn't like discard it, but wasn't as into it. And so I kind of took it and listened to it and it kind of blew my mind. i was already into like Sum 41 lot. And, ah to to you know, say what you will. I love that band. But that first record they did was actually kind of weird and eclectic to another Canadian band.
01:48:50
Speaker
um ae What is it? make has Makes No Difference on it. Half Hour to Power. um And that song that had like a song with horns it and weird shit. So i was already kind of like hearing punk with horns.
01:49:04
Speaker
And then Less Than Jay came and then the Real Big Fish. And then it was every weekend at FYE spending my weird money that I had as a job when I was 13 on just purchasing everything in the realm of ska. And then starting a ska band and putting my my name in it, not unlike today.
01:49:27
Speaker
and we all dressed up in in like k not suits. We were almost being like... We were almost trolling Ska while we liked Ska. We sounded like the hippos. Then I heard the hippos.
01:49:38
Speaker
Then my fucking brain exploded. So, you know, that was like my earliest thing. And then I got all my friends into it. And then... I formulated opinions on Ska bands that broke up in like an hour. Cause I would just be sitting on the early internet scouring Scott Chili's message board or whatever the other message boards were at the time, getting demos somehow of real big fish songs. I remember that was like a thing.
01:50:04
Speaker
i have like a file on a, on a computer. I cannot throw away that has like alternate versions of like recordings of theirs and weird shit. Uh, I have this tendency to like deep dive. And that was my first reel as a kid.
01:50:18
Speaker
Like, I'm going to fixate on something. I'm going to really, really, really like it. And that was, that's how I started with Scott. And that was, yeah, that, that led all the way up until,
01:50:30
Speaker
fuck like college and then joined direct hit and then we started adding horns to that band i don't know i've always liked obviously horns isn't what makes scott scott but the influence of it is is in a lot of what i do and so yes so your entry point was the fashion Yes, it was the it was the man who... Okay, so if you consider... Not two-tone fashion. Like, we often made fun of 90s. Yes. Yeah, and so like right now is... Now is the worst time to really like that that style of stuff.
01:51:07
Speaker
You're like, that looks good. Because I will admit, rockabilly me getting into Psychobilly and Rockabilly absolutely was very fashion-based. I think I may have struck a chord. Yeah. I imagine someone looking like fucking Aaron from Real Big Fish and being like, wow, that guy looks incredible. <unk>al like but yeah what Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:51:30
Speaker
I love the white tank top. I like the Hawaiian shirt. I like the silly glasses. I was just like, could my, I just i went to the barber and I went, can you just give me like an Elvis? And I couldn't grow like sideburns either.
01:51:42
Speaker
So I just had like an Elvis pompadour. You're not wrong. You're not wrong in any of these sentiments. But as a kid, I would turn it on the television and I would watch the music videos and it was like,
01:51:55
Speaker
It was all, like, the pop stuff, which was thing funny. And then there was, like, the Blink-182, which was kind of, like, the bro-y side of it. And then, like, Sum 41 was admittedly also in that world. And so it was like, where is the, like, let's drink too much Mountain Dew and have a LAN party on ah on a Thursday night. Where's the our representation? I've always gone on this, like, huge diatribe about how...
01:52:24
Speaker
Real Big Fish to me is almost like in a way purposefully bad because it's so, it's almost like Aaron doesn't understand like satire almost does it too much to like self-sabotage.
01:52:39
Speaker
And I love that. It's like Kaufman-esque. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. it's like It's almost like trying to make you hate it, and then it has the instrumentation that is like unbelievably thoughtful and cool.
01:52:55
Speaker
So it's Zappa-esque to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's like... I don't like Zappa, but everyone who does is kind of an insufferable idiot like me.
01:53:08
Speaker
So maybe maybe there's something there. i You should know you have an insufferably weird band that sings about ghouls and goblins.
01:53:21
Speaker
That's other good thing. has instrumentation that is so thoughtful and cool that you almost have to listen to the ghostly goblin um singing. it's it fits in... in
01:53:34
Speaker
One of my favorite music videos ever made is by Rush. It's the one where they're just in front of a green screen and they're moving the camera around. And it's like the first like one of the first green screen
Real Big Fish's Style and Lyrics
01:53:44
Speaker
videos. well Unbelievable. It's a beautiful work of art. That band sucks.
01:53:47
Speaker
so And so does Wheelby Fist. Okay, no. Yeah, but so does Wheelby Fist because they fit almost into that weird... you're like being punished for liking it. You have to defend it vehemently, but it does have merit.
01:54:02
Speaker
It does have merit. It is good. That's my opening statement. Thank you. i don't know if it has's merit, but it has Barrett. God damn it. That was good.
01:54:14
Speaker
It sure does. And also, and't it couldn't without Barrett. You need to have Barrett. Otherwise, there's no Real Big Fish. I'll agree with that. Yeah. Otherwise, there's not. Could you imagine any?
01:54:25
Speaker
and There are countless bands that have attempted to do the same fucking bullshit that Real Big Fish does and never pull it off. There's no... I think that's a really good point because I brought up I voted for Kodos recently.
01:54:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Which I think is a band that is legit. Like they even have the song like I wish I was Aaron. right like You're talking my region. And so i don't I don't hate them, but I would say they are absolutely ah trying to go in the same lane as them.
01:54:56
Speaker
A case study, yeah, in in do it trying to do it the same way without, yeah oh god, I don't want say anything, i know those people, but there was a lack of innovation in what they were doing, which made it like, you know, everyone says the Ramones are the best pop punk band, and then there's a million orgcore bands that are great too, but they put a different spin on the old, say, Mashed Intruders is an orgcore band that sings with a gimmick and such, like,
01:55:23
Speaker
it's all just building on and it's like it's hard to build on real big fish because the foundation is so shaky
01:55:32
Speaker
holding in florida like you have to like yeah on a swamp it's a it's a really beautiful swamp and a lot of cool animals live there but i can't build haagen-dazs on it so yeah because you know that attitude no that attitude i don't have a winner's attitude yeah i think that was established super early on
01:55:54
Speaker
so we before like we've we've we've set the stage on real big fish but i just want to talk about your band a little bit about the solution yes sorry i'm i'm a changed channel that's okay the so the new record is fabulous uh near joey was one of the ones that accidentally got the record early Cool. Fuck yeah. yeah yeah Hell yeah. I've seen you play before on Mega Wednesday, an acoustic set.
01:56:20
Speaker
Oh, fun. I'm sorry. I hope that was good. I'm sorry. It was.
01:56:27
Speaker
uh not yes specifically a ska band uh ska influenced maybe right sure absolutely i would say like what like you're your your influences and correct me if i'm wrong you're pulling from these like the songs that we'll talk about today these more like ska adjacent horn punk is kind of the word i use for it like horned punk bands yeah like they're They're more rock sector of their material is what I think makes that band shine. And you heard it coming through in the standout tracks on why do they rock so hard?
01:57:03
Speaker
a Because that that record is just full of these crazy awesome breakdowns and like super rush-esque. It was way better than what we listen that all the stuff we listened to after. So Lynn's really tipping her hat.
01:57:21
Speaker
I don't know. That record has these huge, big parts in it that are really extravagant and cool, and those are the standout parts. Because... album yeah Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, almost arena rock to the sense where it's, like, they can't get... They can't get past writing the corny side of the arena rock music. And that also shines through on Cheer Up. It's like...
01:57:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's almost like not innovating on on a hair metal. Either way, back to what we were talking about with our band. I can talk about Really Fish all fucking day. No one's ever asked. This is the first time in my life someone's like, hey, you should come and talk about this, as opposed to being like, hey, man, can you stop fucking talking about this?
01:58:03
Speaker
that ah so But yeah, so um I guess I was going to ask, too, what other bands are highly influential and how do you merge those sounds together? i like everything I like everything. And I hate that answer, but it's it's true. I just really love music.
01:58:20
Speaker
And really like pop music. I just like something that's made good. And like a song that's written by someone in their bedroom and a pop song can both be equally impactful and good. And so it's almost like I like what I hear.
01:58:33
Speaker
as sometimes. Like right now I'm obsessed with That's Physics Baby by Pool Kids and that song has like guitars that sound like little wasps and then these beautiful vocals and then there's Abacus by i Band-Aid Brigade that just came out and that song is beautiful and crazy and sad and cool.
01:58:53
Speaker
i like Los Camposinos is a band that I reference a lot. The Hippos is a band that I reference a lot. I like hearing stuff I haven't heard before and I think that that like That love for third wave and you know that late, weird, after wave ska is what it's like why I like that. Because they had to try and get out of the rut with of ska going away and not being in fashion anymore. So you either like...
01:59:18
Speaker
stuck true and just fucking kept going in that or you had to like innovate and i really loved a lot of the attempts at innovation to be honest so i pull a lot from that that catch 22 record that permanent revolution and love that fucking record shit's cool yeah with this podcast one of the things that we've been starting to do is like explore a lot of the early 2000s uh and like ah recent episode we did was also on the specials and like how like they pivoted super hard after their first record um but like there's such a sink or swim with like the early 2000s with ska like either you nailed it and you did it right or you fucked up and like yeah slow gherkin was the band where we're just like oh yeah they've they done fucked up or johnny soko johnny soko's really oh man slow gherkin so you don't like i like that b-sides record that's like their best thing that they ever did
02:00:13
Speaker
That one we didn't touch on was like a run screaming where. Yes. Gotcha. Well, if my trombone player was here, he'd be reaching through the camera and wringing your neck. He is a slow, jerkin, jerkin.
02:00:23
Speaker
we talk? don't know. I don't know what their fans are called. ah like Shed some skin is actually good. It's so good. Shed some skin by s Slow Gurkin. Shed some skin is excellent. It's excellent. aye But yeah, that was a, it was like ah it was like they broke up antitrust laws and innovation was allowed to come in and it either worked or it didn't. And that's why I liked the roaring like,
02:00:47
Speaker
You know, it's like weird. Very few bands made it out and they all did it on different like laurels. Like Streetlight stayed exactly the same. Did not change a thing and got out fine. I feel like that you could you could like radiohead those songs and put them in a different order and you could just say they're all on the same record. That's not a dig. They're all good. It's just whatever, you know.
02:01:10
Speaker
They didn't innovate. Am I touching any chords with talking shit about streetlight? I hope not. Recently. We did streetlight. Yeah. With mega wave. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. No, no hate here. I know what they have there.
02:01:21
Speaker
They have their detractors. No, Hey, I love that band. I just also love innovation. band sim the japanese band sim we just did a trombonist on them oh yeah they're like crazy experimenters i don't know that one uh we didn't either to but yeah sim was it silence is mine is mine and they're like sweet 2000s kind of like metal but ska and then like dance hall and then rockabilly but like it's wild and probably played to absolute perfection like down to like we were talking about and it was i love it it was produced by like the best producer you've ever heard like everything is like oh yeah
02:02:05
Speaker
so high quality it's oh it's like yeah it's amazing it's a fucking it's a standard it's so cool it's like yeah yeah everything I do sounds like shit and then like these guys are pumping out these incredible even this like promo photo I'm looking at right now is like unbelievable like yeah I took it like on a smartphone and we're like okay I guess and this is like a hundred dollars had to be spent here ah
02:02:34
Speaker
Well, I think this is a good time to to get into the meat. Hey. Yes. you Go listen to grieving expectation, please. That's all. I don't ever plug. I'm never good at promoting my band.
02:02:44
Speaker
There will be time for plugs. Okay, good. Okay. see I jumped the plugs. I jumped it. No, you can jump it all you want. Yes. throw it Throw it in whenever you need. yeah yeah yeah but there's a whole There's a whole part about the influence of We're Not Happy on Grieving Expectations. So let's get going.
02:03:02
Speaker
Can hear that. So time to take the time, Skoshine, back to 2000 to explore the checkered past of Real Big Fish. Woo!
02:03:14
Speaker
That worked with the time. Yeah.
02:03:18
Speaker
Let's have
02:03:22
Speaker
him. Stop.
02:03:27
Speaker
Doing my own madness shit. I'm so excited. yeah Toast him. One step beyond. Best madness single time we've decided in March. ah Thankfully, it's not hard to get notes about Real Big Fish because they do a lot of interviews. They've been around for a long time. They're very popular.
02:03:47
Speaker
This is not the same as when we did ah Popes of Chili Town and they don't do any interviews. So I pulled from Wikipedia, all music, last FM, and music we trust, powder sound, punk news, an interview with Tavis, and then like a bunch of other stuff with Aaron.
02:04:02
Speaker
So this was, so previously on Checkered Pass, this podcast is a part two. So this is what we covered in part one, just to give the Coles Notes version. Robing Fish started in 1991 as a hair metal cover band.
02:04:16
Speaker
Self-released their 1995 album, Everything Sucks, which became a cult classic and got them featured on Misfits of Ska. The classic lineup was Aaron Barrett, Matt Wong, Andrew Gonzalez, Scott Klopfenstein, Grant Berry, Tavis Wertz, and Dan Regan.
02:04:32
Speaker
Four horn players. Wild shit. Signed to ji or Mojo at the time, Mojo Records, and released Turn the Radio Off in 1996. Produced by Oingo Boingo's John Avila. That's hot.
02:04:44
Speaker
ah The first single sellout took a year to get popular and began charting in 1997. The record company gonna give me a lot of money. Songs of Jam. I know. Songs of Jam.
02:04:56
Speaker
I don't know what to tell you. i know it is. Turn the Radio Off is awesome. i Unfortunately, it's fine. You're like... It's fine. It's fine.
02:05:05
Speaker
It's fine. It's overrated. Have me on again. I got, I got ideas. i He said, I love it. You're not allowed to hate the yuck my yum right now. okay you're right you're right you're right Okay.
02:05:18
Speaker
I don't care. I have, I have no pride. um Went right back to the drawing board to release 1998 arena rock influence. Why do they rock so hard? Failing to meet label expectations. And my last bullet point, they were in basketball.
02:05:32
Speaker
yeah It's great. ah So now the time scotching takes us to 2000. It was time to record the next album, but things would not be easy.
02:05:43
Speaker
Drummer Andrew Gonzalez becomes far too burnt out by touring that he decides to leave the band. Trombonist Grant Berry is fired unceremoniously after punching a bouncer at a club.
02:05:54
Speaker
And while recording the next album, Tavis and Aaron's relationship completely falls apart, culminating in Aaron punching Tavis in the face and Tavis quitting. This was caused by tour tensions, but also the never-ending recording process throughout 2001, made worse by producer Val Garys, who is the producer ah for Linda Ronstadt and Neil Diamond, ah who is constantly interfering in their recording process.
02:06:18
Speaker
In fact, the song Valerie, we can talk about that later, is a not-so-subtle dig at him. It sounds like it's about a girl. It's not. It's about their producer. Both Val and their parent label aggressively wanted the band to push to a power pop sound with as little ska and horns as possible.
02:06:36
Speaker
And here's what Aaron said about that. We've always come up with about 16 songs and put them all on the album. I want to get as many songs on the album as we can because CDs are expensive. A lot of bands record 50 and pare it down to 10, but I put all the songs I record on a record for better for worse. so ah The whole Tavis thing is wild. there I can't remember where I found the interview. It was on a subreddit somewhere.
02:06:58
Speaker
And hearing his side of the story about basically him and Aaron just hating each other. I think Aaron called him a know-it-all. And Tavis said that Aaron's like an ego. yeah, they basically just toured together for forever.
02:07:13
Speaker
really good friends and then you know tour tensions and uh then they quit and on the commentary on their dvd after tyler jones plays kind of a whack trumpet solo that's one of my favorite commentary tracks of all time like scott is like hey aaron what do you give that that horn solo and he's like i give it a c but tavis that fucker gets an f
02:07:39
Speaker
uh there's that whole truth to every joke thing it's like yeah that's not even a joke that's just telling telling how he feels it's a wild dvd because uh like at the time i bought it yeah i don't know about you and i loved it watched it so many times so many times and it was incredible In hindsight, it's really not like the best version of Real Big Fish.
02:08:02
Speaker
Like they were not at their peak powers at that point because then they would release the the live record with the DVD later, which I think is superior. It's much better. As a package, it's it's way better.
02:08:13
Speaker
kind it's It's a product, but you got to see a snapshot of a band that has a pretty tragic story in its own right. like they were Yeah, yeah.
02:08:28
Speaker
That's right. I'm taking it there. don't think that guy saw any fucking money from sellout like because of you know how contracts worked. back then too. So you're already starting off on your biggest thing, which is kind of a shitty song. Yeah.
02:08:43
Speaker
It's kind of a fucking bad representation of that band. And that sucks. But...
02:08:51
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I feel like that whole thing is like you get to see like it sucks being in a band and that is like probably the the peak of it sucking. You've got like six people, like two of them have been there for like a month. There's Carlos De La Garza who they brought in who's like a mastermind drummer but is clearly like a hired gun. And then there's like Aaron and Scott who are the foundation and they're holding it down best that they can and the best that they can is like a...
02:09:19
Speaker
comedy hour it is it's an it's an interesting snapshot of what it's like to be funny he is really funny and matt and matt wong staring at the floor the whole time yes yes this omnipresent being now just in the the the shadows of the but playing like the most incredible bass lines and holding it down And then the bee costume.
02:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's a weird, it's like, they were also clearly at the peak of like, what do we be? What do we be? We have, we have bee man, we have eyewear shirt with tie. Like, it's such a strange.
02:09:57
Speaker
And like, of course, I want to be tie guy. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah I was definitely like a favor to fucking the vandals, right? Because on Kung Fu Records. Kung yeah. Like any of those bands that were on those show must go off, like the matches and Zebra Head and Dance Hall Crashers, they were just like, you know, like they're like doing a favor.
02:10:20
Speaker
They were cool though. They were like low budget. I mean you didn't have and access to to concert footage like we do now. to age myself.
02:10:31
Speaker
So like but those Vans DVDs and all that stuff was literally just like the YouTube that you had. yeah And so like, yeah, you know, YouTube now you see every bad performance. Like we just got lucky.
02:10:43
Speaker
and again, I don't even think it's that bad. I think it's like a lesson in fucking how you keep a show moving like that real big fish DVD. Like they, they've done that room like a fucking like sales floor. Like they get it.
02:10:57
Speaker
John, and they play for an hour and a half. My God. Yeah. It's nuts. It is worth checking out. And the commentary over top of it is is delightful. yeah it is Yeah. I think I listened.
02:11:12
Speaker
I think I like pop it in my old DVD player. every couple of years and only watch the commentary version now because it is it it was such a good idea to to just like create that that fucking commentary and then to shit all over your own band is don't know to me really funny and really great ah So anyway, it would say to continue in the time, Scott Sheen, you did bring Carlos Garza coming on board. He's from Superb Rhythm, a band I've talked to about. Whatever happened to them? Yeah. exhibit yeah
02:11:50
Speaker
Carlos came in with, ah well, not in scott i don't know where they went, but Carlos came in play on the drum band. He's a fantastic drummer. like Amazing. Andrew, awesome drummer.
02:12:02
Speaker
Carlos, also awesome drummer. Andrew was fine. Yeah. They've had... Turn it back on the snare, buddy. Jesus Christ. What is this? Eve 6?
02:12:13
Speaker
well What is it? That got Joey. Aquabats second album with Travis Barker. Oh, my God. The return of so much snare. much snare. Yeah, snare group.
02:12:25
Speaker
They're crazy. yeah So that piccolo snare shit in that arrow is just like, turn it down. Relax. Nope. They'd also bring on Tyler Jones, RIP, of Spring Heel Jack, a band we've talked about recently. That's right. With Hans Gruber.
02:12:43
Speaker
With Hans Gruber. Yeah. ah Not... I mean, I'll talk about I don't think his trumpet playing is all that spectacular on ah when he's on here, but he was amazing in ah Spring Hill Jack, so I'm not surprised why they brought him along.
02:12:56
Speaker
ah Tyler only plays a handful of songs on the record they were recording. Actually, it's mostly Tavis. They kept most of his trumpet playing. The resulting album was titled cheer up with album artwork painted by Aaron's father.
02:13:11
Speaker
And the first single being the entirely hornless. Where have you been future member? Rylan steam plays percussion and Gordy Johnson of big sugar is the DJ sublime cover boss. DJ. Yes. Yes.
02:13:23
Speaker
The album. So I just dropped a Canada thing. What's the song? What's the song that's big? Joey, I'm looking at you, specifically you. Hey, Joey. No, it's like, you're a crazy bitch, but you fuck so good. Is that Big Sugar?
02:13:39
Speaker
Fuck Jerry! Fuck Jerry, yeah. Eagle Eye Cherry. like Big Sugar. Big Sugar is sugar the Canadian like reggae. Oh, are they? but yeah I like Buck Cherry then. Big Sugar is like their blues rock thing. yeah And then they have another band, which name is escaping me right now. And they're like a reggae rock.
02:14:01
Speaker
oh ah yeah i'll have to look at yeah gordy johnson also gordy johnson is like a quick fun side note uh he has the wildest fucking guitar rig he rents guitar stuff from long mcquade everywhere he tours in canada because he has a promotion through them but he uses a little tiny handmade garnet amp which was like a 70s winnipeg amp company that um randy bachman used uh but he real cool joey but he plugs in this one little tiny combo into three like 400 watt bass rigs so he he runs his guitar rig into a tiny little combo amp which then goes out to three four like what's that nine
02:14:45
Speaker
1200 watts worth of base power. It's insane. Grady. Grady. is I got it. the bad Big Sugar's the reggae one. Grady is the rock, is the garage rock, blues rock one. This is all... yeah Ah, Canada. You all just have your own stuff there, huh? This has been a Canada minute. right oh um so yeah i just blew joey's mind by referencing gordy johnson uh the album was minor success it hit 115 it's their lowest ranking uh billboard chart at this point so last thing before we start talking about what a nice way to say that yeah you never know you never know
02:15:26
Speaker
I don't want to say this was a midlife crisis album, but it kind of was because we were trying to do different things and not repeat the exact same thing again. The record label decided this was the single because there was no horns on it and they said horns were over.
02:15:41
Speaker
Luckily, it did pretty well for us, especially in the UK. Horns are over. You hear that, horns? You're over. So apparently, the where have you been? The chord progression is almost the same as Beer ah here backwards. Beer backwards.
02:15:52
Speaker
Yeah, and he is basically trying to write beer again, which he said he to this day has said beer is the best real big fish song. He yeah does not disagree with that. So most accessible. Yeah.
02:16:03
Speaker
So but to jump off with our discussion about cheer up, here is the single version of Where Have You Been with the extended intro.
02:16:16
Speaker
Hi, Aaron. Yeah. ah recordship So I just heard the album. Sounds great. I love it. Except there's not really a modern rock song that we can push the radio.
02:16:30
Speaker
And that's very important for the sales of the album. I don't know if we can get you to record another song, perhaps something with no horns, maybe not so ska sounding.
02:16:42
Speaker
That would be great. I don't want to tell you what to play. you are the artist and it's your album, but just give me a call back at the audience. Yeah. That's fun. And then it gets They're self-aware.
02:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, they did. You called me up last night in tears.
02:17:11
Speaker
This is the first song on the album? No, this is the first song. Oh, you will. This song is fucked. It is a testament for that dude who write a fucking song in any genre and can make it work.
02:17:26
Speaker
Yeah. It is a song. It's a great guitar part. Two rules of guitar, too.
02:17:36
Speaker
I miss the double neck guitar by this point. He retired it by this point. This sounds three doors downy to me. Oh, because of the appraised it.
02:17:47
Speaker
Yeah. Or REM, I'd say. Superman. Let's write it. Don't tell me I'm crazy. world used to call me Superman.
02:17:59
Speaker
Well, I don't hear that. Only in the first. You say you need me more than anyone.
02:18:14
Speaker
that song great song i don't know y'all like it y'all like it that's a tough one that all that's i just like and listen i put this album on first thing this morning because i've been putting it off and i was like i have to i have to do it you're already coming into it with a frame of mind where you're not gonna like it i have to do this oh that's No, you gotta give it an open heart. had to do that bit of mind with our trombonist last time and it was good.
02:18:44
Speaker
Yeah. ah But, so. I just, I literally, when I played it, I was like,
02:18:52
Speaker
I said out loud, God, this sucks. It's the first thing that Joey heard this morning. And then I said, this is not ska. No, it's a decidedly unscathed.
02:19:06
Speaker
Who gives a shit? That is a good take.
02:19:12
Speaker
You want Scott? Go listen to the other fucking Scott records they made. They made like four of them. This is a different song. it's ah it's ah It's a new, fresh sound.
02:19:25
Speaker
it's It's nice. It's not like a fucking story of the year or like a yellow card. It's like its own thing. It sounds it could be like a Fountain's of Wayne song. I love it. I think it's I like me.
02:19:37
Speaker
different music that's fine oh my gosh i know but i i don't i don't think you're wrong are all opinions i definitely don't like love ska anymore like i like it and i'm open but if it's like pretty true like if it's i like two-tone and i like what everyone's doing these days like your band and catbite and everyone with hands gruber like i i like that i struggle to me third wave like this specifically real big fish ends up just being white noise I don't even notice when the song changes like they have they have a skill of taking any song they play every genre is real big fish white noise like could be 80s new wave it can be metal that it comes into like real big fish white noise
02:20:24
Speaker
i want um I want to let anyone listening at home to just pretend that Saloon was talking to me, ah talking to them, excuse me. That is what it's like to be a real Big Fish fan.
02:20:35
Speaker
That is literally what it's like. You just summed it up. You will I like this, and then people will go, I fucking want you to look at yourself in the mirror and question your your your existence, because this man is so brutal to this band. It is.
02:20:52
Speaker
She's an avatar of the average modern stop man. She's, like, here to represent. and ah And so now it's now it's our job to defend Europe.
02:21:07
Speaker
It's so funny because, like, I also like to defend them, but I i totally see their flaws. But damn!
02:21:14
Speaker
Right noise every song? What about the Ramones? It's the same song every fucking eight seconds. I'm not standing up for the Ramones either. Okay, I just, I mean, it's the same. It's samey.
02:21:35
Speaker
that this record sounds drastically different than any of those third wave ska records at the time in fact it's it's cool it is power pop it's it's got these like weird vibes of like dance music i don't know i don't know keep going keep going i'm i'm already i don't know i don't know i respect your opinion i do i respect yours i respect yours you're gonna you're gonna have to keep going but let's play a song yeah don't don't lose energy now you're gonna have to keep yeah like white i'm gonna keep fueling you so this is how i'm gonna be a broken more broken man at the end of this than i already am not my intention but here we are you're gonna snap me like a twig
02:22:25
Speaker
This song is Good Thing. This is the first track off of album. Yeah, fucking rules!
02:23:00
Speaker
I'm going to be right back.
02:23:41
Speaker
I ripped that solo off in our song Keep Dreamin'. Alright, what's that? I like that song. I like Cheer Up. like The song Cheer Up I think is great.
02:23:53
Speaker
um It's a banger. yeah there' are some like my Here's me with Cheer Up. so maybe i'm not so This was my first Real Big Fish album. You want to insult me in this take? Tuck me down? Cheer Up was the first Real Big Fish album that I ever bought, ever heard. i actually heard before any of their more ska-y stuff. so this is your For me, when I was first getting into it, this is just what I thought Real Big Fish sounded like. i like You liked it. it i did i really liked it and i listened to it a lot and um i think over time and actually at the time uh i would say hits real steep cliff towards the end of the album of course no you're absolutely right which with songs like and i think i saw on your notes you said rock and roll is bitchin is kind of good i'm not into that song i said rock and roll is bitchin is kind of good i guess because it's kind of fun but ugh
02:24:48
Speaker
um And apparently it was like they it was a total joke song and like they don't they don't even want to play it live because they hate it. um But like even the backdoor pilot Scott Klopfenstein songs on there. nineteen 19 songs? 19. Well, 16 with like three bonus You could have dropped like six of those songs and put that energy into making the other songs better. Yeah.
02:25:10
Speaker
Okay, i got let's let's change the frame of thinking in here. Let's just say it's a 10 song record. Yeah, okay, but it's a 10 out of 10. It's 10 out of 10. I've never heard a record so good for 10 songs.
02:25:24
Speaker
and in in in And in fashion, like Like Aaron Barrett said, he just dumps the songs on there. it's almost like you It's almost like the extended version came out. It's a crime they didn't put Average Man in those ten, because in the U.S. release, Average Man was cut off and was not in it. It was Drunk Again.
02:25:44
Speaker
Drunk Again is a great song, too, but doesn't need to be on the record. i I don't know. Those first 10 songs are great. Yes. Boss DJ is like, it's really stupid. I think that ah the backend has a couple of good songs. Brand new here. It was fucking cool.
02:25:58
Speaker
It's like an indie song done by them, but it also is, you know, and has that like Sayonara Senorita right before it, which is cool. the That's a cool, that guitar part rules.
02:26:10
Speaker
I don't know. The first 10 is stacked, super stacked. Let's focus on that 10.
02:26:17
Speaker
i guess ah i if I probably would have a much better opinion of this if I did listen to like a cut down version totally agree and and that's a very stupid thing that Aaron Barrett said about putting every song right as a songwriter disagree with that not everybody and you's kind of egotistical to think that everything you do is good and deserves to be on the record kind of a deal it's a value proposition yeah wants you to get your money's worth he's like hey you get 19 songs for 19 bucks yeah it's a dollar a song yeah yeah but then also like 10 good songs for 20 dollars is almost equal you know equal right if it was to 10 and somebody like curated it for me i probably would have a much much better opinion of this listening experience we this this is a win uh what we just yeah that's actually I'm just trying to reshape some thoughts, you know? Good point. and i
02:27:19
Speaker
it's It's not so bad. There's that, ah the the one that's, I got a lot of bad things I wish that I could have never done. That song fucking rules. What are friends for? Suckers is good. They really needed to cut the intros and all the goof of it.
02:27:34
Speaker
good valerie's good those are i like those songs that is a cool song and now that we know valerie's rooted in the fact that they hate the fucker who also think of the record this way imagine if you were making something your fourth studio record you have all this pressure and everything is trying to get changed they're trying to change everything everyone hates each other and you come out with this that's pretty good It's pretty good.
02:27:56
Speaker
you know, I suck at my job when everything blows. They did a pretty good job, you know? professionals and they are good musicians. Goddamn right. um I don't necessarily, might not be for for me, they are professionals and they are good musicians. so And Cheer Up is relatively low on the misogyny, which we'll talk about on later. Yeah. I won't.
02:28:17
Speaker
I would argue... Misogyny meter. or that that is a That's a dark it's a dark part of of Real Big Fish's history, which is is impossible to defend. but I would say the lyrics on this are a little on the trite side, but I think that's just because this was meant to be kind of a happy-go-lucky fun time record, and it wasn't rooted in the same sort of um like satire or whatever. Yeah, it feels like someone was over his shoulder...
02:28:47
Speaker
yeah Being like, oh, you helped me come along and help me sing a song. Put that in there. Like, that's, yeah, that's not like genius writing. That's... two albums, I actually was like shocked and like upset by the lyrics. Like I, I didn't know.
02:29:01
Speaker
On the next. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to have to hear you on the next one. I think you're mostly thinking on the fourth one. Yeah. Okay. Cause good. Fourth of Evil isn't a real big fish record though. It's it was so. yeah Okay. Okay. We'll get into it later. We'll get into it. We're we're almost there.
02:29:15
Speaker
I think we can. I don't think we should wrap up Cheer Up ever. I think we should continue. I think this is their best album. Well, no, this is their second best. Okay. like can be I got one more one more song to play. And it's the most ska song they have on the record.
02:29:31
Speaker
And it's arguably one of their best ska songs that they've ever wrote. So let's play A Little Doubt Goes A Long Way.
02:29:41
Speaker
Oh yeah, I said the only good song so far, only ska song so far when i in my notes. And pretty much. Hey, actually, this song, this song, I don't mind. This song, I don't mind.
02:29:52
Speaker
It seems like you like lot more of this than you actually let on than you skewed me earlier. You put me on a stage. You put me around. Dan Regan on the phone.
02:30:09
Speaker
I love good Stan Regan whale. Oh, that film is so dope! Carlos is so good! So crispy! The father of those fucking cymbals where he is is, he's so good!
02:30:20
Speaker
And those horn lines! They're like, smoke-out influence and like, spicy a little bit. love them, I think they're good. And the harmonies, obviously. The Aaron Scott harmonies are always on point.
02:30:41
Speaker
That song fucks. That timbrene solo is wild.
02:31:06
Speaker
and song fucks thatmbbo
Band Dynamics and Personal Impact
02:31:08
Speaker
alllo is wild I don't like Aaron's voice. Really? Yeah.
02:31:14
Speaker
If someone else sang that song, I'd be like, fuck, yeah. there's You know what? It sounds like dudes I used to date, and I think that's a personal story. he also looks like dudes I used to date. Yeah, he's got Billy. very triggering to me. might need to throw this jury out.
02:31:30
Speaker
You might be too close to it, I feel like. Oh, no, you should listen to the Reese Roper episode. we yeah it got Joey's not Billy.
02:31:43
Speaker
No, Joey's not Billy. Joey's the only nice guy I've ever dated. chill dude Joey gives a real chill dude vibes. Joey's the only nice dude I've ever dated. And the least Billy dude I've ever dated. So I think they're connected.
02:31:55
Speaker
There's correlation for sure. Let's take a break. And when we get back. I like it. We can take a break. When we get back, more timeskoshing.
02:32:19
Speaker
Welcome back to Checkered Pass. We're here with Devin Kay talking about Real Big Fish and things are spicy. And we just finished talking about Cheer Up, their 2002 record.
02:32:31
Speaker
And the overall opinion of that record is mixed. It's not the same microcosm of what it's like to be a Real Big Fish fan. Wow. ah So Aaron, Aaron Barrett, not a fan. He doesn't like it.
02:32:47
Speaker
I think he mostly doesn't like it because it sucked to write it and it sucked to record it. ah He's kind of softened because they play a lot of those songs live. ah But nowadays, if you go and you hear them play it live, they've rearranged them to be a little bit more Scott up.
02:33:02
Speaker
um But they still play a lot of songs like they'll play Band the Tube Top and they'll play Good Thing and they'll play what else? Where have you been for sure? Because it was a big hit. That guy says he hates everything, though. That's like his M.O. Yeah. i He just is pretty, like, if it's not beer, he's pretty sure it's not a good song or a good thing he's done. I like that he's self-deprecating.
02:33:21
Speaker
He doesn't seem to have, like, an ego. No, he's he's also cripplingly shy. Yeah. Yeah, and, like, yeah. He's an oddball. I didn't really get to know him. And did a month.
02:33:33
Speaker
Yeah. So. That's fair. yeah Being an and like get probably like an extroverted introvert kind of thing. Also, how many other rampant theater weirdo nerd kids bother that guy every day of his fucking life? And here I am in the corner being like, I want to ask you every fucking question about every fucking song. I wouldn't want to talk to me either.
02:33:54
Speaker
I'd take one look at me and be like, I'm a fucking out of here. I cannot. I'm at work. ah He was convinced that this album would lose him every fan he had. He was convinced.
02:34:08
Speaker
And so he, um so what he ended up doing was kind of refocusing ah his, his priority, we'll say. um But I will, so that's the thing with this record is it did break the mold. This was one of the albums that actually did break through in terms of being a k not ska, punk, horn, power pop thing that is influential to this day. And like, We Are The Union recently came out and said that this is their favorite, um, uh, Little Big Fish album. If We Are The Union says it, then it's, uh, it's canon. So, yeah.
02:34:44
Speaker
Especially since, you know, the mozzarella stick thing is probably they get it more than anybody else. And they'll still go back to bat for a real big fish on at least one album. On the on the other hand, ah Aaron was kind of right. A lot of hardcore SCA fans really did jump the jump the ship on this one. They got pretty, pretty pissed.
02:35:04
Speaker
um So here's what Aaron had to say. Oh, almost lost it. Okay. It was more of the past few years or the whole history of the band. Sometimes you get down and aren't having fun and hate the people you're living with in a 40 foot long mobile home, or at least you think you do because they're in your face.
02:35:21
Speaker
So after that, um the aforementioned Show Must Go Off DVD came out. um But Aaron started focusing on his side project titled The Forces of Evil.
02:35:32
Speaker
So this band is essentially Aaron Barrett fronting Jeffreys Fan Club. Okay. Almost the entire backing band is Jeffreys Fan Club. Okay. ah What else do I have here? He thought this would end up being his full-time band.
02:35:47
Speaker
So much so that he put like all of his effort into writing and recording for the debut album. Oddly enough, because the band got a lot of heat amongst ska fans, Jive signed them.
02:35:58
Speaker
Jive Records. Aaron was even told by the top brass while recording that they thought that he was recording a new Real Big Fish album and was disappointed that it was a different band. Yeah. um the album ah did well for them. Like it was kind of a cult classic underground classic. Like I remember at the time, if you knew about it, it was kind of this like cool hidden ska gym that was out there that nobody knew about. Cause it was like where we could all get together and hate women together.
02:36:27
Speaker
yeah But it put Aaron at a crossroads as to whether or not to refocus on forces of evil or go back to real big fish, the band that launched his career.
02:36:38
Speaker
When he brought this up to his manager, his manager suggested that rather than quitting real big fish, Aaron, take this energy and write the next album to channel his emotions. um And Aaron said this.
02:36:50
Speaker
that's how i met john christensen when i started forces of evil with a few people from a band called jeffrey's fan club and the trumpet player from safefa the trumpet bla actually ended up quitting to become a jehovah's witness he did not approve of all the bad language luckily right down the block there was a guy who played trumpet who everyone knew and we walked down the street and said hey do you want to be in a band And so that is kind of the start of... Yeah. yeah
02:37:16
Speaker
You know, you could channel your emotions. Just like how the Beatles started. but this is not the channeled emotions album. oh this just But you could put it into therapy instead of... So, yeah, let's, let's, we're not going to spend as much time on this as we will on the real big fish. Because it's not a real big fish record. So I just want to, I want that. We have to come into this really fast before i get my fucking, a knife through my heart here.
02:37:41
Speaker
i have two questions. I have two questions. Wait, wait, wait. Before we get, okay, let's, let's play it. Let's play a song to get us prepped on for, let's get angry. and I just want to know if Aaron, if Aaron Baird is responsible for these lyrics.
02:37:54
Speaker
Wait, wait, wait. you
02:38:21
Speaker
I'd never speak to anyone again. I gotta say, I hate people, I'm so sick of them. I just can't stand the bullshit.
02:38:32
Speaker
Wish I was so far away from it. just stupid and I'm angry. Is there ever trouble for me to say, fuck off?
02:38:51
Speaker
Shit!
02:39:02
Speaker
it's like a straight up ska punk song so is Aaron Barrett ah part of writing the writing process of the lyrics oh yeah he wrote a lot of the songs and would you say that Aaron Barrett is the lead person of Real Big Fish of course okay by a by a wide margin okay so uh uh so that song is just where he says the f-word a lot it's fun I like that song. That song is cool. I could see if you're in a bad mood and you put it on. I re-listened to this album. It would be lethargic. And, you know, I said um how this was- Lethargic?
02:39:35
Speaker
I said how this was like this hidden gem for ska fans at the time. it It holds up a lot less. But again, in 2003, I think I was pretty desperate for new ska music. Because I think at that time, maybe everything went numb, came out, or just was coming out.
02:39:52
Speaker
Because it was like pretty, I think you were pulling at straws for ska music at that time. So it doesn't hold up as well as I kind of thought. But... At the time, it was like, hey, they're doing ska music.
02:40:03
Speaker
It's a part of theirs. So what's the like difference then? with like I know it's Jeffrey's fan club, but it doesn't sound that different from Real Big Fish. No, because Aaron Barrett wrote the songs for the most part, so it sounds similar.
02:40:15
Speaker
Yeah, so it sounds like what a classic, or even like what modern Real Big Fish sounds like. Devin? Devin? oh I can't hear you. no, Mike. I know. I been i was like, why is Devin so quiet? Oh, sorry. made himself.
02:40:27
Speaker
It's still not a movie fish record, so you cannot view it as in the discography, but it is, it's it's a weak entry, i would say. i It's got so many cool little things, but it's so juvenile and stupid, and it's extra stupid.
02:40:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's annoyingly stupid. It's pandering is what it feels like. It feels like because there's like that rampant like kind of women hate on turn the radio off a lot and like that just kind of like flipping bullshit and and it's like dialed up 11 on this one.
02:41:07
Speaker
And then just like the stupidity like hey, woo, yeah. Yeah. It feels like it's almost mocking you. It's like, is this what you want? Is this what you fucking want? Like, I tried to do Cheer Up. Is this what you fucking want? And then it's just like, it's so feverishly, like, over the top that it's like, no, Aaron, this is not what we want.
02:41:28
Speaker
But apparently we did want it back then because we were so desperate, like you said, for for new tunes. And everyone was was hating and trying other things. And Everything Goes Numb, and I think, is a great...
02:41:41
Speaker
jumping point for like what Ska was becoming. it was like, it was the, the, the forces of Eagle way was going away and forces of Eagle record is clearly that happening and jumping to a helicopter as it flies away to try and grab onto doing it and missing and falling to your fucking death. Like it's, it's got some merit in the music and i go to hell is cool.
02:42:07
Speaker
I think that's a suburban rhythm cover. yeah i i think it was cool i liked the way it it was like sounded really big i don't like the the drumming on this record very much either it's uh andrew something i think but the drummer from i believe it's the drummer from uh jeffrey's fan jeffrey's fan club yeah that's right that's right it sounds more to me like a jeffrey's fan club record because that band was like also kind of silly i think i'm not as well versed yeah they had a song about milk and yeah cool so that's silly yeah that's pretty silly um yeah the independent lyrics are unfor unforgivable and unexplicable you like don't it's not that we don't know why can't you let it go i hate i hate that stupid hoe he repeats several times aon doesn't about being independent aaron doesn't even about a woman being independent
02:43:03
Speaker
aaron doesn't sing on that song and i'm trying to remember if he even wrote it i'm actually trying to go through doesn't he sing on that song no no no it's pretty wild so we might have you're saying we may have jeffrey's fan club to blame we might okay we might have okay sorry like to be humble when i when feel like i've gone ahead
02:43:24
Speaker
So it could be more, that's those lyrics and how misogynist they were could be on Jeffrey Smith. But there still is no defense. He wrote off on it and it exists. So it's a stain. And I think it's a stain on Real Big Fish's catalog because everyone lumps it in with Real Big Fish.
02:43:42
Speaker
And it's like, ah no, no, no. This is the first part of Evil. Because the best thing that Real Big Fish is going to make is about to come out in the future. Yeah. So, but real I'll say that real big fish is also not like they have had and continue to have some women problems.
02:44:01
Speaker
I know. I was just like, who hurt you? Like I've just dated so many dudes that had one girlfriend that broke their heart and then they have to punish every woman that comes into their life because one chick broke the heart when they were fucking kind of shitty when they were 19. Yeah.
02:44:14
Speaker
It totally feels like it's like indicative of of his like obsession with 80s hair metal, because all those songs are like just these... Totally....heartbreak, the girl is the worst, i'm um'm umed I hate, i like kind of shit.
02:44:31
Speaker
And yeah, he really he really stuck with it, which is a bad look. I mean, like I don't know, she has a girlfriend now, I still think is a shitty song kind of a deal, and that's like that's one of their runaway successes. Yeah.
02:44:44
Speaker
Featuring and and we've also talked about this before but like they still will like rope in like really talented ladies to sing tracks on them like Monique sang on that song. Yeah. Yeah.
02:44:54
Speaker
And ah the Zoloft and the Rock and Roll Destroyer they do a lot of stuff with and they did the independent song which I was like, oh, that's that bites. and brought a woman on Yeah, it bites.
02:45:06
Speaker
I'm not saying she's a bad person. It was a different time but it sucks to have like a woman sign off on singing that song. It's also like just an unfunny joke that remained unfunny. And it's like, yeah there's like really, i don't know if if I can. Yeah, I don't. I'm not going to say that they are all ill-intentioned bad people for writing a shitty unfunny song. It's just like a fucking Spike TV song.
02:45:29
Speaker
Yeah, just don't know. it's a barstool sports song. but yeah Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's just like, oh, it's not good art. Yeah.
02:45:39
Speaker
It's trash. It was a surprise and it did taint my listening this morning. And that's totally fair. yeah yeah It's like the least funny guy really hammering into a fucking bit. you know Speaking of, you did mention something before that a lot of their songs are really stupid. So I'm going to play the most stupid song I've ever heard.
02:46:08
Speaker
A monster song. When they would play this live, it would tear the roof off. All the stuff we have a high school marching band.
02:46:23
Speaker
Oh, there we go!
02:46:29
Speaker
Like, what the fuck am I listening to right now?
02:46:34
Speaker
He's talking about ska. Yeah, people like that. People like it when you talk about ska. It sounds like a song that would have a message it, but it doesn't. It's just this.
02:47:03
Speaker
goopy so is of evil supposed to be more metal at all for some reason that was my oh like that was my expectation they did uh they did a van halen cover on there but i don't that maybe that's the only i for some reason i was expecting it to be more aaron played with them in the early days he would wear like a wig and stuff to not be aaron barrett is what i remember Okay.
02:47:26
Speaker
And they would like, yeah, they would play with like Real Big Fish and the Littlest Man band and shit. It was a weird time for that band when all this was going. You could tell there's there was sadness going around.
02:47:37
Speaker
Seeing them live. Didn't they have like a meltdown after, like a public meltdown after Cheer Up and like had to like leave the stage or something? Oh, that right. i don't I don't know. That's sad. Yeah.
02:47:48
Speaker
They did go through a lot to be fair. Yeah. Yeah, but it's this this is very disposable. Yes, that's a, yeah, it's it's ah it's a footnote in the in the history of the band that is... I wouldn't talk about it if it didn't mean... Because, like, most of this band would end up playing in Real Big Fish. Like, at this point, Big Fish is, for it like, modern day, has more Forces of Evil members than Real Big Fish members.
02:48:18
Speaker
And to look back on myself personally as a young person who heard this record, I loved this record. I and i wasn't i wasn't thinking about other things. i was being just like, yeah, this is like great. It's more more Scott, like you're saying, and then you know now you look at it with a different lens and it's not so good.
02:48:39
Speaker
but I like ska. This is ska. Woo. Exactly. I think that was. Oh, thank God. Just mainline it. Like, I need it It's like, I haven't had it. It's hard to find. Yeah. and If I type ska into Kaza, it shows up. So.
02:48:53
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, that song we just played is clearly like the LCD, the low like fucking lowest common denominator of like what you needed to do to write ska song at the time. it was just like, fight for your right to skank.
02:49:04
Speaker
high school horn line i don't know like a little make it sound a little punk or something but whatever that was straight lifted from herb albert that was just a herb oh yeah you're right uh ay and That's the, oh God, I can't remember. It's like one of my favorite records.
02:49:24
Speaker
Either way, something surprised. Delight. Yeah, Whipped Cream and Other Delights. That's it. Thank you. Excellent. No, I never made that connection. That's an excellent, excellent catch.
02:49:35
Speaker
Nicely done, Joey. to So I think that's all we're to talk about for the Civil. Let's talk about some, was going to say, we'll talk about some more fun stuff, but this is going to get real dark real fast. I love this record.
02:49:47
Speaker
With Tyler and Carlos leaving amidst all this turmoil, Aaron brought along fellow Forces of Evil members, Little Johnny Christmas on trumpet and Justin Ferrara. on the drums and Justin while not a full member would record for the album and then would leave after recording this next follow up So the producer, obviously, they learned their lesson from Cheer Up and decided that they were going to just take control of the producer chair this time.
02:50:14
Speaker
Self-produced.
Critiquing the Music Industry
02:50:16
Speaker
The result of this is another divisive album. We're not happy till you're not happy. While the return of the ska elements was welcome amongst fans, its tone was incredibly dark and depressing, with much of the lyrics exposed focused on the debilitating atmosphere of being a major label band.
02:50:31
Speaker
and several pot shots taken at the industry culminated in a nihilistic don't start a band advising young groups. That's not worth becoming a musician charted at one 55 big disappointment for the label.
02:50:43
Speaker
Uh, they called the band and, uh, told them that they, uh, can leave basically the labels like, nah, you can, you can piss off. Um, so here's what Aaron said. This is my last bit of notes before we talk about this record.
02:50:56
Speaker
This is the third record in a trilogy. The first one was about being in a band and trying to make it. Turn radio off. Then why do we rock so hard? Was like, we've made it. We're rock stars. Cheer up. We made because we had to.
02:51:08
Speaker
And we're not happy till you're not happy is about us being old and jaded. To be continued on the notes, but we'll talk about we're not happy until you're not happy. Let's start with the aforementioned don't start a band.
02:51:35
Speaker
Okay.
02:51:42
Speaker
I'll be playing with you.
02:52:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
02:52:35
Speaker
And yeah, so this is essentially a concept album. And ah pretty much every song is like that. Is it just yeah oh like pissed off anti music industry? Don't be in a band sucks being in a band worth the the saddest we've ever been in our whole lives.
02:52:50
Speaker
So sick. It is like the it is like the the clown taking the makeup off. and revealing a man underneath and it is so good is so sick i love this record the production is as you said earlier is a huge fucking like point of contention i feel like i think it's awesome it sounds like Yeah, it sounds like a broken man made a broken record. It's it's cruel. It's so sick.
02:53:23
Speaker
but The fire is like... you open the record with this song, like everybody's expecting like, hey, and my girlfriend got a girlfriend. And you get the fire and this pissed off weird counting at the beginning and like was screaming and yelling and like this like choir part in the middle of it. Oh my god, when I first heard that fucking opener...
02:53:46
Speaker
I was like, I'm going to play it. I think I got it leaked. It it was like leaked on the internet. They on MySpace before the album released. They put on MySpace. Yeah, So I was just fucking jamming it in my car constantly. And it, yeah, it was good. I used to hate the song Drinkin', and now I think it's like one of their smartest songs. it's like It's like the opposite of beer. All the other songs are like Celebrate and Drinkin', and then on this one, it's like this kind of...
02:54:14
Speaker
of sad, repetitive nature to it of just like, this is just what I do. this is all I have. It's it's so cool. It's so cool. Even the cover choices are like dark, like yeah cover and Life goes by so fast. Yeah, that was Social D and then Tracy Chapman.
02:54:38
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah, yeah. And yeah, they're all really done in this like dirty kind of like room sound. The the production of it is really cool. It's like the smartest shit.
02:54:50
Speaker
And I feel like everyone got I had to think for a second. And like then got mad because again, it wasn't just like, Hey, I wrote you a song and I want you to sing along.
02:55:02
Speaker
This one is just like, yeah, it's a still haven't seen any paychecks from sellout. You know, think it's just, it's, it's pretty cool. It's all self-referential.
02:55:13
Speaker
Like it's all taking pot shots at themselves and how them just like baloney their career had become at the time. Yeah. It's super cool. It it was good. one hit wonderful literally about themselves yeah yeah exactly and then the playing of the music version of it was like cool and surreal at the end and hearing all the like the radio clips that was the only time that they got like skits right thoughtful on it yeah i i dig it as a record and it's like not a con it's not a common really fish record so how did you feel about it i was just about to ask um like you're making me appreciate it more and i like that they're like jaded and angsty about it um and yeah i did i did think the one hit wonderful it was like clever um but yeah it just it
02:56:04
Speaker
You were really fun up there. Loved the set. You were really fun. That's the equivalent of you were really fun up there. you were having fun. They are talented. they are it i just, i don't know if it's Real Big Fish's fault, to be fair, that it's been so overplayed and that it has become white noise to me.
02:56:27
Speaker
maybe that's Robert's fault. It could be, actually, yeah. ah like
02:56:32
Speaker
You what? We should play the fire. We're going to talk about that. Let's play that. Yes, absolutely play the fire. I respect you. I respect your opinion.
02:56:53
Speaker
It's a departure from Europe.
02:56:59
Speaker
it. I respect it. That was cool shit. That is a y'all song.
02:57:22
Speaker
I like the scream. I like the scream. Okay, this sounds not bad. Okay.
02:57:37
Speaker
i think that okay i like that I like their ska songs. I don't like their rock with horn songs. and i found that
02:57:46
Speaker
That's what splits us. Whenever they play a ska song, I'm like, okay, this isn't bad. I feel like they know how to make a catchy ska song, but I don't find their rock with horn songs very catchy. I see. That's see because it's almost like I could, I can go either way on the traditional real big fish sky and love me the, the weird ass shit that they made.
02:58:06
Speaker
Would I, would I be wrong in assuming like, this is your favorite real big fish album, but I can also feel it in the solutions like that, like happy pop sound mixed with like this, like dark introspection, right? Like this.
02:58:22
Speaker
Yeah. got to be Yeah. This, like, Grieving Expectation was the record I wanted to make forever, and then partly due to this record. Because, like, the way this one hit when it came out was, like, really cool to me. Because, again, i was expecting just Hey, you're the girlfriend, and now you have a girlfriend that fucked up. like Which they definitely refer back to kind of after this, which is like such a bummer because this one was looked at so, so dumbly. But like, there's a lot of like direct...
02:58:55
Speaker
lifting from this record on Grieving Expectation. There are just like moments and and beats and stuff that are just completely taken from this and put into that record because I think that this one is so grossly overlooked and unfortunate.
02:59:10
Speaker
But it's also like a pain in the ass to listen to because it kind of sounds bad. And then it's kind of like also kind of kind of annoying at the same time. Like, I get it. ah get it. It's like a cartoon show, kind of. But it's it's really good. It's like an adult cartoon show.
02:59:23
Speaker
and It's whiny, but I don't think you can see it as any more whiny than like the average like screamo of the time. I would actually say it's probably they have more to say about it because they were in the industry.
02:59:35
Speaker
Yeah, i like that they're not whining about girls and shit. They're talking about what it's like to just be washed up and through the wringer and just completely like tossed aside and say goodbye The Say Goodbye lyrics were misogynist.
02:59:50
Speaker
I have that written down, so I'm assuming I meant it I thought that was about members of the band. I thought that the whole point of this band the whole point of record is like the the band falling apart. To be fair, it's not out there for me to assume it's about women. But I will say, they feel very true. Yeah, yeah.
03:00:07
Speaker
We will frequently use... Your guts. you Women. Okay, is that better? Your guts, hate them. They're using women as examples to complain about their band members and their managers? No, not as
Punk Bands and Album Flops
03:00:18
Speaker
an example. As a scapegoat? No, as an analogy, I guess. An analogy? But that's a shitty... That's a mean, shitty analogy. I don't remember if it's specifically about...
03:00:29
Speaker
now Yeah, i think I think Say Goodbye is about Tavis, and Your Guts I Hate Him is about fans. That I know for sure. Okay. Yeah, Your Guts I Hate Him is about fans. Which is another thing that I love about this, Ali, it's like, fuck you. you didn't You didn't support us, you jerks. Like, go to hell. It's awesome.
03:00:48
Speaker
Couldn't have abandoned us faster. like but Yeah, oh yeah, exactly. You just threw us to the fucking curb. I don't remember reading anything directly about, because it's so conceptual, album. Which is also why this one is so much more better, because, you know, it's it's like, it has like ah ah a beginning it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has an exit, opposed to just being a collection of All right.
03:01:10
Speaker
ah Let's play game. yeah why Oh, ah you will you will learn. Okay. we So here's my little intro. I forgot how to play the song.
03:01:23
Speaker
Are we getting better or just burning out? It's just a matter of time. There is no doubt. Take our deb debut, put it on blast, because I swear the second album might be our last. This game is called Sophomore Slump.
03:01:35
Speaker
In this game, Devin and Celine will be given a clue as to a classic sophomore punk album that tanked when it was released. It's their job to ascertain the name of the band. Bonus points if you can name the album that I'm talking about as well.
03:01:48
Speaker
So, I'll just read the clue, then you buzz in with your name, or Buzz, or Scott. And whoever gets the most points wins. Yes! yeah and Bonus points? like I gotta do bonus points now too. Just an extra point if they get the album right. Okay.
03:02:03
Speaker
This is the first one. This stupidly popular skate punk band followed up their debut with an album that explored prog rock and featured heavy synthesizers. It is their least popular release and frankly sucks.
03:02:15
Speaker
They would apologize and immediately switch back to making punk. What? You want me to name the band? Yeah. That wasn't bad religion. Was it? Boom. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. yeah The process.
03:02:29
Speaker
No, i Oh, fuck. Oh, my God. It's like an infamous record. I can't remember the name. In something? you all you're so close. Going up? Flying Oh, fuck. In the... in the i don't know.
03:02:42
Speaker
I'm sorry. You got a point. You got one point. No bonus point. The album was called Into the Unknown. God damn it. Love that Frozen song. it's ah It's a wild... It's wild listening.
03:02:55
Speaker
didn't know that was their second, though. Yeah. I like that your double point upward meant to into the ASL. That's that way. That's the way to the unknown. I should knew that.
03:03:07
Speaker
yeah All right. Next one. This 77 punk band didn't follow up their classic debut with a sequel. Instead, they released a film and a soundtrack often considered one of the worst punk records of all time.
03:03:19
Speaker
Although it's not without its rabid cult fans. Not Dead Boys, New York Dolls, a movie, a movie and a what? And a soundtrack. You're just like... oh not x-ray Not X-Respects. Not X-Respects' second album came out in the 90s.
03:03:36
Speaker
Isn't that weird? I am completely stumped. The second album was a soundtrack to a movie. Could it have been Ramones? no Okay, Joey, do you want to take a guess?
03:03:49
Speaker
think it's the Sex Pistols. Oh, the Pistols. Oh, fuck. The Great Rock and Roll Swindle is the movie and the soundtrack. ah And yeah, that was when Johnny Rotten quit.
03:04:00
Speaker
And he's a racist. The Great Rock's Day Swindle. All right, here's a third one. You may be surprised to learn that this classic hardcore punk album was criticized upon its release by fans who hated its departure and sound from the debut and critics who are dumbfounded by its stylistic differences between side A and side B that switched from punk to sludge metal.
03:04:22
Speaker
Oh, ah it's not ble Black Flag. Black Flag? Black Flag, and the album is called... The album is called... I don't have muster Hitler.
03:04:33
Speaker
Charlie Chaplin. Mustache Hitler. Mustache Charlie Chaplin Hitler. And that album is called? Mustache Rides for Hitler. Right. Mustache Rides for Hitler. I remember that one.
03:04:44
Speaker
my My War. My War. ah My i War. Mindcom. Right. Mindcom. It's Joey game. Yeah. Black Flag. Blick Flag. oh joe Speaking of Joey games, that's a hint.
03:04:56
Speaker
Okay. Okay. This is the fourth one. This jokey punk band tooled around in the 80s without much national attention, including a second album that was mostly country and Western and was disregarded by fans.
03:05:09
Speaker
The Vandals. Yeah, I was just about to say Vandals. And the album is called? I don't know. i don't know much about that band. It just sounded like the Vandals to me. but slippery when ill which is actually a hilarious name for an album because it's licensed yeah that's right and it's because of the vandals just assume people would think that they're jokey kind of a thing uh yeah they most write joke songs and they're funny but also they rip they do rip their musicianship is cool as fuck All right, here's the fifth one.
03:05:41
Speaker
ah In the same year that this band released their classic 77 punk debut, ah they took to their second record Too Fast and Internal Conflict turned out an album that was quite similar, but way more boring.
03:05:55
Speaker
From the top? it's This band released their second album the same year as their classic 77 debut. ah They're from England. They did it too quickly. And what turned out was super boring.
03:06:09
Speaker
Although people are kind of re-referencing it now. The Clash. Oh, no. But in the same era. um
03:06:19
Speaker
What tip can I give you? Yeah, I'm thinking I keep thinking New York fans, but London. Not Rosillo's. No. No. No, it's not a joke band. It's not a joke band. It's not a joke. It's not a joke.
03:06:31
Speaker
It's not Dead Boys. TCJog is part of joke. It's not Dead Boys. It's not Dead Boys, but Dead Boys is very close. Dave Vanian is Dead Boys. No. Dave Vanian. The Damned. Yes. Thank you. Damn it.
03:06:45
Speaker
The Damned.
Music Taste Evolution
03:06:46
Speaker
Do you know what album was called? Neat, Neat, Neat? No. because That's the first one. Dam, Dam, Damned is the album. Dam, Dam, Damned. Neat, Neat, Neat. But the second album is called Music for Pleasure.
03:06:56
Speaker
ah Nowadays, people are revisiting it to say it's pretty good. But at the time, it really bad. Because the Damned were like huge. Yes. Right? Like gigantically popular when they came out.
03:07:06
Speaker
Yeah. Dave Anion's got Billy energy. He does. Okay. Number six. Now considered a landmark in second wave emo, this album released in the heat of punk signing fever in the 90s was dismissed by critics and fans at the time for abandoning the pop punk sound, ah starting with more strained vocals and bizarre guitar playing. Blink-182.
03:07:29
Speaker
Emo? I miss you. miss you. That was in the 2000s. Where are you? No, that'll be a little bit later. Still the 90s. Still the 90s. Emo, stringy. ninety emo, yeah.
03:07:42
Speaker
What region are we talking? Dashboard professionals. I don't where they're from. I read this from the book Sellout. A dashboard, but you're... In the same region as a dashboard? You're dancing around it.
03:07:55
Speaker
Taking Back Sunday, Thursday. those are little heavy. little bit heavier than this band was. Underwroth.
03:08:04
Speaker
Wait, those bands are heavier than the bands we're talking about? Than this band that I'm talking about. Oh, oh. Um, I don't know. will Huge on the radio. Okay, give it to em me give Modest Mouse?
03:08:16
Speaker
Oh, Jimmy World! That's a good one. Oh, like that. Futures is good. Static Prevail the second line. like Oh, then I don't. Yeah, then it must have sucked.
03:08:28
Speaker
ha ha. okay But now it's considered a classic. People love it now. Revisited. So not all of these are necessarily considered now to be bad. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, here's the next one.
03:08:42
Speaker
Sandwiched between a game-changing debut and a game-changing third album, this sophomore album was essentially the 77 punk band's debut, but shined up. It was way too glossy for people at the time.
03:08:53
Speaker
ah Ripped apart by fans and critics, but in hindsight, might be better than the first one. The only hand-tell game is that we've said this band already. I know you've listed like a million. New York? Clash.
03:09:04
Speaker
The Clash. Damn it. Yeah. correct ah Do you know what the album was called? London is on the line, so you better get it. yeah that so cool But also known at the time as Give Him Enough Rope.
03:09:19
Speaker
Damn it. Yeah. and so I like it. um I think it's better personally than the clash. It's little self-titled, but no, no, that's me. Okay. Last one is for all the marbles. Celine might be able to tie it.
03:09:31
Speaker
So it's not really all for all the marbles. You Canadians and your sports with ties in them. ah It's a hockey joke. All right, keep going. This band was a monster-selling, dance-oriented fallout boy on their debut in the mid-2000s.
03:09:48
Speaker
They decided to follow it up with a Beach Boys-type psychedelic rock. Trying to get the disco. Pretty Odd. Pretty Odd is pretty good. That band sucks, but that record was pretty good.
03:10:05
Speaker
Mayor Pete fan? Was that? Oh, man. No, I mean, I don't know. What a beautiful wedding. He's fine.
03:10:18
Speaker
I was even like trying to do a parody of that song. Didn't he use High Hopes as his like thing for a minute? um Yeah, that song is dog shit too.
03:10:30
Speaker
High apple pie in the sky hopes. That's a much better song. Yeah. So Devin is the winner. the winner. that was a good one. That was good.
03:10:41
Speaker
Now it's time for our last segment. Question the answers. like the boss tones. That's exactly. that the first person who's noticed? That is the first person who's noticed. Wow. It's one of the better records before they went crazy. Yeah.
03:10:57
Speaker
um to back Vax crazy. you Another Barret, you know? there They're really unhinged. They don't have Barret, but they have Barret.
03:11:10
Speaker
So, Skullpunk International, may have heard of him, Chris, asks, what is your favorite Pokemon card you've pulled on stream and is in your collection?
03:11:21
Speaker
oo Oh, my favorite? I'll get over here. Nice. I am in love with this Doug trio that looks, that has hair, like 80s hair.
03:11:33
Speaker
Alolan Doug trio. Alolan Doug. that's right. That one I am in ah madly in love with. yeah there's i like my I like my heavy hitters too. You know, I got my Rayquaza.
03:11:48
Speaker
here pulled that guy i got a couple charzards like this really cute snorlax i love yeah that's a i could be yeah that's yeah so those are some of my favorites um but there's an episode of the show for like because they did like a sun and moon cartoon and yeah yeah uh the alolan doug trio are pop stars and everyone in the audience has wigs like them and it's very good so cool and i want to watch that It's like a really good episode. looked up if it was real and I pulled it. It was from some like older set. And I was just like, this is incredible. like Why does this exist? And now I know.
03:12:26
Speaker
I'm pretty sure it's on Netflix. The Rotom is a big fan. And like the Rotom has a little Dugtrio wig. Amazing. I would like a Dugtrio wig.
03:12:38
Speaker
anyways good question that was a good one um okay so Aaron from Power power up asks how do you measure the length of your tongue I don't ah I've never once been curious to know, and I'll probably die not knowing how long that fucker is. Where would you start measuring it from? It goes all the way down the back. You gotta take the whole thing. ever see, like, a cow's tongue? Those things are fucking huge.
03:13:07
Speaker
uvula to tip uvula to tip if i had a nickel for every time i said uvula to tip i'm a shitload of nickels i'd have 15 cents because i said it what's that what's that meme where it's like i'd have two nickels but that's still way too many nickels ah um i'm trying okay so this is off topic we're talking about like tongue length so you know your animals uh if you have if you have an animal the animal of gene simmons like my cat has has a long ass tongue okay rita has a crazy long lat yeah uh a long ass tongue
03:13:49
Speaker
that lat motherfucker unbelievable don't even want to deal with it giant orange cat uh gary has the tiniest time oh that's so cute it's like the biggest cat ever and then he tries to lick you it's like a little emblem would you call him a mlemmer more of a mlem than a lick you need to explain what that is it's like a mlem like yeah it's just what the cat when the cat does it it's like when drink in milk Lem, lem, lem, lem, lem. Lem, lem, lem, lem.
03:14:16
Speaker
He's the cutest fucking shit in the world. Yeah, emblem is just the ultimate cute emblem. Or if Frida has a little tongue because she has no teeth, that's a emblem. This wasn't really a question, but it did bring up a a conversation I had. So Airsatz, I did mention, ah he said that Force of Evil is his least favorite ska band, period. um And then I said...
03:14:39
Speaker
you've never heard the band a bunch a bunch of believers before which is my least favorite ska band ever bunch of believers yeah they're a christian ska band not a bunch of be believers um a bunch of believers so i guess like a fun band you've had a couple spicy takes so i would be curious to know like where what and maybe this is a better way of asking this but what like ska band or album that everybody says is great just never clicked with you oh i'm just gonna put it I'll put it in two ways. I don't like when you start with like the four bars of just the guitar alone and then like an obscenely wandering horn line, just like, and then it just like falls out into just bass and upstrokes singing about,
03:15:30
Speaker
your girlfriend getting a girlfriend, which I think is like its own genre, as we talked about before, and it with, with some other bands and stuff, that's where you lose me, which is why I feel like I like third wave ska bands, but I don't necessarily love the records that made them what they are. I liked their desperation phase.
03:15:52
Speaker
I think that,
03:15:56
Speaker
I like that. That's fun. Yeah, I'm trying not to like, i don't want a dog on anybody because I don't want to be like negative because i don't think that's nice. but i respect your perspective though like that yeah you like that little bit of like angst and grit and real like you really obviously you're attracted to like the like really authentic stuff when people aren't pandering yeah yeah i felt like for a long i think that's the biggest thing that everyone remembers from that phase is that anytime something gets big you're gonna get people trying to figure out how to monetize it properly and that's what we got in the third wave and i feel like that's
03:16:33
Speaker
what the whole thing was getting people to respect ska again and still is and kind of like a ah deal but like it it still happened it still it still kept going it was just you know you just had to wade through or wait wait or wade essentially through garbage because uh uh ska bands that write songs about getting pulled over by the cops and whining until they let them go Oh, you're talking about the Hippos first record. Okay, so the Hippos first record, that one's not very good.
03:17:04
Speaker
It's funny that I do, it's funny that I love the Hippos Heads Are Gonna Roll so much and it is like literally like the tritest bullshit when it comes to songwriting. That record's not about songwriting. That record's about blending a bunch of cool sounds and making something totally ahead of its time. I feel like if Heads Are Gonna Roll came out like six years later, it probably would have been a huge mainstream success.
03:17:26
Speaker
in like weird hello goodbye weird emo poppy shit that came out it probably wouldn't it wouldn't even be called sky it would be called like emo power pop i feel like at that you know yeah that's my weird a hot take on the hippos i forget about the singer's name but he's doing fine yeah he doesn't ariel is doing great and it was the hame you think that they're making any money I don't think he's concerned about his finances. Yeah, no, there's no way that band's ever getting back together. That's just like, hey, want to come back down to garbage? You want to come back down to dog shit and mucking the mire? Come on.
03:17:57
Speaker
It's so good where you are. You should come back. So i'm I'm a forget the world stan. I love it because and for the exact reason you had mentioned before, no band has ever wrote lyrics about being the most wallflower nerd Yeah. ever yeah that band and so i like really to this day will relate to a song that's just about um how nervous you are getting pulled over by the police youre just yeah just a guy with no real problems talking about his problems that's a that's its own genre like uh it's like the movie bring it on there really is no conflict everything's just gonna be okay but it's a bunch of rich people talking about it
03:18:38
Speaker
problem is that the Clovers should have fucking won. The Clovers should been the main story. It should have been the a story, and instead it was the B story. that's It's dog shit. It's it's dog shit.
03:18:49
Speaker
Gabrielle Union for president. Yeah, absolutely. You got my vote.
Real Big Fish's Music Legacy
03:18:54
Speaker
I don't know i don't know how she does it. Captivating. All right. Well, thanks for listening to Checkered Past.
03:19:00
Speaker
Devin, thanks so much for joining us. I want to say thank you, and I'm sorry. I want to say thank you and I'm sorry. Hey, it was delightful having the moment that I've waited for my whole life and and the sobering reminder of of of what it's like to be a British fan.
03:19:24
Speaker
it's gonna be like when it comes out i'm i'm excited for your defenders to come to you so they're they're not real and honestly honestly if it's still recording don't want you to defend me because you're probably annoying like i i like the real big fish i don't want to be the real big fish fan club that's all i'm a quiet man not standing up for anybody just just talking about how i think that those records are pretty fucking good So I'll give you this platform. Go ahead and plug what you want to plug. Okay. Our record will still be out. So the new Devin K and the Solutions record, Grieving Expectation, is streaming everywhere still unless something horrible has happened since we've recorded this and released.
03:20:15
Speaker
uh and then i do twitch if you want to watch me do twitch twitch.tv slash devon k twitches direct hits a band i play in we're going to europe fucking in august uh so if you're there come see us uh
03:20:34
Speaker
don't know i think that's it i think that's what i do um Solutions will be at Fest, and you'll there'll probably be a tour announcing down to Fest with that soon. So that's that.
03:20:46
Speaker
That's what I do. Send money, buy merchandise, i watch my Twitch, buy Pokemon cards from me, and let me let me like Real Big Fish.
03:20:59
Speaker
And please let me do it in peace. I'm just a simple stupid man, and I just want... I just want to like the horn band that sing funny. From one man to another one, I'm giving you permission.
03:21:20
Speaker
Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok at CheckeredPassPod or send us an email at CheckeredPassPod at gmail.com. To support the pod and get bonus content, including full-length and unedited video of this episode, so sign up for our Checkerhead Patreon at patreon.com slash CheckeredPass.
03:21:36
Speaker
We also have merch available at CheckeredPass.ca. CheckeredPass is edited by Ariane and engineered by Joey. And until next time, I'm Rob. I'm Celine. the immortal words of Real Big Fish, nobody cares what you have to say and nobody is going to listen anyway.
03:21:54
Speaker
Some fucking deep shit.
03:22:04
Speaker
On this episode, life sucks. We finish the band whose chimps are free with candy-coated fury. It's the Real Big Fish finale on Checkered Past, the Skodcast. Oh, hey, oh, what the fuck you do with your life these days?
03:22:18
Speaker
Oh, hey, oh, what the fuck you do with yourself? Oh, hey, oh, what the fuck you do with your life these days?
03:22:28
Speaker
Oh, hey, oh, what the fuck you do with yourself?
03:22:36
Speaker
What up Checkerheads, welcome to Checkered Past, the SCODcast with Selen and Rob. Buckle in. The show where ah naked Gundon calling 33 in a third wave. Didn't fuck it up.
03:22:47
Speaker
And a good times, bad time records, and the ugly times scot sheen explore the history and impact of a different band each episode. Hope to bring in new fans along the way. I'm Rob and my co-host for today is Engineer Joey.
03:22:59
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Movies? Was that it? The third. Oh, the third movie. The third movie. The third movie. Okay. Naked Gun 33 and third. yes, yes. Naked Gun didn't calling. I was very happy about it. Yeah, that's that's very good. And then The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which is the third movie. What are the other two?
03:23:18
Speaker
That was it. no, though of the trilogy. Fistful of Dollars. Fistful of Dollars and... And what is it? few dollars more.
03:23:29
Speaker
A few dollars more. There we go. Okay.
Weird Al and Ska Community
03:23:31
Speaker
now Now the phantom voice will leave for a second. Yeah.
03:23:38
Speaker
uh how's going joey you're not celine no i'm not celine uh celine is busy doing business stuff she's doing her salon uh opening a new location of her salon so she's busy and i just ate some eggs benedict and i'm here and i'm not busy unrelated items i'm just letting you know how the day's going So for eagle-eared listeners, we'll notice that Celine is absent for the last couple records and will be for the next couple ah while she moves her salon. So we're going to have some guest co-hosts.
03:24:10
Speaker
yeah Joey's been on for this one and the previous one. And we'll have some more fun ones. Editor Ariane will be on for a future episode. A debut. Yeah. First time on pod.
03:24:22
Speaker
First time on pod. And then Chris. Chris Rees, our Scott's associate producer, will be on for an episode. That's going to be a very fun episode. Yeah, he will not be here in person. That would be fun. We can make him. He's got to drive. He's got to drive.
03:24:34
Speaker
yeah if We can do it to go to his city. Yeah, he can do it to come to our city. We flew, but he can drive. He can take a boat. I don't give a shit. Doesn't the Bow River turn into the Mississippi? He can figure it out.
03:24:47
Speaker
Oh, in that case, yeah, he's good. Get yourself 15-foot Lund with a little engine on the back there, Chris, and we'll see you in a few weeks. Oh, my. Did you just drop in some, like, small part motor? I
Gary Mastriano's Ska Journey
03:25:00
Speaker
don't know. We don't fucking work at boats. and We don't work on boats at my work. i had I had the thought to one time ask you, like, if you did work on, like, outboard motors.
03:25:08
Speaker
We do. Oh, if you work on outboard motors, do you have to pull, like, spit shells out? um but So usually with boat motors, whether they're outboard or inboard, ah people just bring in their busted shit that they want to get that part fixed. Nobody brings in the whole fucking unfortunately.
03:25:25
Speaker
ah People do that with a sled motor and sometimes with like a side-by-side or whatever. but But not with boats. For some reason, boat people are very specific kind of weird duck.
03:25:37
Speaker
Yeah. And they will take their own boat engine apart and then they'll leave it in their garage for like two years and then they'll bring it in for us to work on. now Now I also feel weird. Is spits... Is that a Canadian thing?
03:25:51
Speaker
ah maybe Yeah, brand. Sunflower seeds. sunflowers sunflower seed Not just someone spitting a spittoon into their boat engine. I just think that like your your aluminum boat comes with like a bag of spits. That's the only time I ever see somebody eating them is sitting on a boat somewhere.
03:26:07
Speaker
That's the only time? Yeah. Well, maybe in a truck. Definitely a truck. Okay. Trucks and out and outboard motor, aluminum boats. but I mean, how are the fish going to be attracted to your boat to come eat your hook and worm or whatever if you're not throwing sunflower seeds off of the boat?
03:26:24
Speaker
Right. You got it. Right. Do want to pick it up where we left off? Sure.
03:26:34
Speaker
We are delighted to introduce our guest. He's the saxophonist for New Jersey, Nerdwave, Ska Band, Backyard Superheroes, and the co-host of Fellow Ska Pod on the upbeat. Gary Mastriano is here. Hi, Gary.
03:26:46
Speaker
Hello, guys. How are you? I'm wonderful. Fantastic. fantastic So we've opened up with the most important question of all. Gary, what is your history with ska music, your checkered past, if you will?
03:26:57
Speaker
It's brand new to me. i don't know anything about ska. Thanks for having me on. um i God, we got to do that one time. Right? Yeah. super Have somebody who doesn't know, like, I don't know who you guys are, what we're talking about. Where am I?
03:27:11
Speaker
What's a ska? Yeah. No, i um I've been listening to and playing in ska bands for a long time. I went to my first ska show when I was 14, which was in the year... 2000. And I saw a band called ah Spit Valves. Have you guys ever heard of the Spit Valves? The Spit Valves.
03:27:27
Speaker
Yeah. Heard of through the pod. That is their song, right? Yes. yeah the fans Us fans call it Ska Boobies because, you know, that was what could... abbreviate that too but i saw them at a firehouse show in new jersey which was a thing that used to happen all the time and i was like whoa this is really cool this band is like you know has marching band instruments and is is pretty neat and i played saxophone so i'm like let's let's get into this and then uh had the actual first ska song i think i ever heard was um still the greatest ska song ever written in your horoscope for today by weird al um we have on the running scissors album yeah
03:28:03
Speaker
Which I got because of Star Wars, of course, because it had the the Saga Begins song on there. And then I listened that album. Yeah, and had your your horoscope for today. And I didn't know at the time that was a Ska song with Real Big Fish playing on it.
03:28:16
Speaker
That's correct. I think I mentioned that on the show, too. believe so. Oh, yeah. Can we put that on the pod at one point? Yeah, we listened to it. We also listened to that song on here. That song riffs. It's great. Yeah, it's awesome. Albuquerque was on that album, too, right? Albuquerque, Grapefruit Diet.
03:28:31
Speaker
Grapefruit Diet's a one, too. That is a good record. It is. I should listen to that one again. In the Weird Al circles, which there's a good Venn diagram with like ska circles as well, right? um People don't really like that album, but I think it's his best album. It's very good.
03:28:47
Speaker
i i I mean, that's when I got into it as well. I was not like the 80s Weird Al I would have missed all because I was too young. So it wasn't until, you know, you're like Amish Paradises of the world came around. Like, so that's that's my era. I was all but was already old school when ah when Amish Paradise came out because i one of my first couple of tapes was UHF.
03:29:12
Speaker
ah No, ah I want to say Greatest Hits Volume 2 two Yeah. And then I went back and got his greatest hits volume one, but that all came out at the same time. Allapalooza came out.
03:29:24
Speaker
So, and I had the Allapalooza tape as well. So that I got into weird out at that point, but I had an older stepbrother who was like into punk rock. Uh, and I think he was the one that was like, you'll like weird Al.
03:29:37
Speaker
And then I was like, Oh yeah, I love weird. Yeah. Also, fun side note, Weird Al would come on to Canada's MTV called Much Music like once a year or something in the 90s.
03:29:49
Speaker
And he would just have Al TV where he just took over programming for the whole day. And he would play really weird music videos and do all these like sketches and bits and stuff. um And so like I would watch that every time it was on and they would rerun it maybe once a year or something like that when they had nothing else to put on.
03:30:06
Speaker
ah But I just found out recently that you can find all of them on YouTube. And people have edited at out all the music videos, so you can just watch all of the bits, like, back to back to back. So thats excellent if you're looking for some Weird Al content that's hilariously 90s, check it out.
03:30:22
Speaker
um So after that show, I was pretty much hooked and started at my first ska band, which is called Get Ready For It, Guys. Beam Me Up Scotty. S-K-A-T-T-Y. Very good. yeah Star Trek instead of Star Wars. Wow. Well, you can like both. That's that's a common misconception. It's okay to like both things. yeah I like both of them too.
03:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then i just I've been playing in ska bands ever since. I've been in Backyard Superheroes now for 11 years. I was one of the founding members. And I played in a bunch of other bands. I think um my band count right now is 25 bands that I played in in 20 years or so.
03:30:56
Speaker
um including Including Inspector 7, who I know you guys talked about with my friends, Jokers Republic, but I played in that band for a while too. so You know, I guess I kind of like Ska. How is hanging out with Inspector 7? Are they intense?
03:31:11
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. I definitely felt out of place there. you get any fistfights? ah So here's a fun story. Love it. You know, I'm a pretty nerdy guy. I didn't really fit in with that crew as much. We played a show down in Baltimore, and my my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, came with me.
03:31:32
Speaker
And... um This is the day after Backyard Superheroes had played a show with the Pie Tasters. like That's for context because that's going to come back in a second. So we're playing the show down in Baltimore. The bass player of the Pie Tasters goes and hits on my girlfriend for the second time in two days because he's notorious for that. He's actually in a Boston song. They talk about that, believe it or not.
03:31:53
Speaker
Um, and, uh, there was a big, uh, skinhead fight in the the pit like that erupted around my girlfriend who was just trying to stand there watching me play. And, uh, she talks about that every single day as one of the scariest experience of her life.
03:32:07
Speaker
Skinheads battling in the pit. Yeah. Yeah. around youve got to kind stuck in the middle yeah Yeah, you've got to run. That's what learned. I was at a show. So there's a ska band in Calgary called the No Reason Boners. They're not around anymore. The NURBS. Do I have one? kind of love that name. It's ridiculous. Yeah, yeah. They're Arianne's Friends Band.
03:32:31
Speaker
Most of them are ah were in X-Ray Cat after. so Okay. okay um And so they had a reunion show down in Calgary that we drove down for. And um definitely a lot of fighting happening. And I'm not sure why, because they were not, wouldn't call them the most like intense ska band ever.
03:32:50
Speaker
They're like Op Ivy adjacent, that kind of like no horn style. um But the the skinhead ladies came out to to fight like big time. Like the pixie cuts were running wild. like And then multiple times there's two of them found their way next to me and would fight through me.
03:33:08
Speaker
Like as if I wasn't actually standing there. And so, like, I would get, like, jostled in between both of them, like, and then I'd be like, okay, I gotta to get out of here. These ladies are gonna kill me. And then I would go to the other side of the pit, and somehow they'd find their way back there and start fighting again, and I'm just like, okay, like i pick a place to fight. I know weird conservative people like to call people NPCs as, like, a derogatory term, but you were, like, literally an NPC in that situation. I'm always an NPC. You were just standing there.
03:33:36
Speaker
What was the name of that band? The No Reason Boners. So I'll tell you my ska obsession. When you said that, the first thing I heard was, i need to find out more about that band. Because like my deal is like I want to listen to every... I don't want to use the word bad because I don't think they're bad. But every just like third wave ska band that started in the late ninety s early 2000s with out-of-tune horns and people who didn't know how to play their instruments, that's my jam.
03:34:00
Speaker
That right there is my type of music. Like ah sky like Scott King Crab. Yeah, that type of stuff. Like that is like the weirder, the worse, for lack of a better term, the ska band.
03:34:11
Speaker
I was in a band called Beam Me Up Scotty. Okay, like that's my channel. Bunch of Believers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my punching bag band. It's not that bad. bad.
03:34:23
Speaker
ah what Which one? Okay, so you go and you listen to these like obscure, kind of like not maybe not for the better word, great bands. though who Who surprised you the most going in and you're like, actually, really good.
03:34:37
Speaker
Have you guys ever heard of the band The Loose Nuts? No. No. So what they're kind of Known for is they have a song on the American Pie soundtrack, the first American Pie soundtrack.
03:34:48
Speaker
Okay. They have the first song on that album. It's called Wishing. It is a this just a fantastic third wave ska song. I would put it up there in like a top 10 third wave ska song. Their stuff not on any streaming service. I have one of their CDs. and You can find it on YouTube. but That's a band like I i revisit a lot because they were just, they're really fun. And that song is really, really good.
03:35:10
Speaker
awesome. I never would have guessed. I don't know if I could name a song off the American pie soundtrack. Goldfinger has a song on there. Blink-182. It's a pretty good soundtrack. Damn it. Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't that? lazy thing i made toos damn it yeah I think it's damn. And I'm pretty sure my own worst enemies on that.
03:35:26
Speaker
wow that that feels 90s but then that movie feels two thousand no that movie was definitely 90 yeah 99 on the cusp on the cusp on the cusp might as well be 2000 am i right yeah right uh so i guess my next question for you would be uh how did you get hooked up with the on the upbeat crew
03:35:47
Speaker
I was kind of looking for Ska podcasts when they very they first started. I saw them post about it and was a fan, kind of messaged those guys, said, hey, i like what you're doing. I knew RJ from, he but did 23 minutes of Ska and he did some backyard superhero stuff there in a interview and didn't interview with him. So they're like, hey, you know, why don't you come on the show?
03:36:08
Speaker
And they, I guess they lied to me and they're like, you're pretty entertaining. And then I do an annual interview Christmas charity compilation album or Christmas charity show. And I asked them if they wanted to help me out with that. And that's kind of how we kind of started working together.
03:36:24
Speaker
That's awesome. And how long have you been with them for? ah Just two years. And I'm not regularly on because sometimes dad duty gets in the way. They're all based in California and I'm based in New Jersey. So it's difficult for us to line schedule sometimes.
03:36:36
Speaker
I feel it. yeah Literally our life. Like nobody is near us. I don't even think anybody's been in Mountain Standard Time ah since we started doing this. Yeah.
Collaborations and New Album
03:36:47
Speaker
Everything is out of out of our out of our wheelhouse. um ah so And with ah with Backyard Superheroes, I know you had ah MC Lars on a track one time.
03:36:59
Speaker
That was a big deal for me. Big Lars fan. ah We actually did an an episode ah sort of about MC Lars at one point. ah He had messaged us a little while ago ah because he thought he promised to be on the podcast, but he he didn't. He just thought he did.
03:37:15
Speaker
Yeah. But we'll track my interactions with him. That tracks. um How was that? How did you get hooked up with ah with Lars and how was that experience? We just asked him.
03:37:28
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah, we just said, hey, you want to like, because we had, we had a, we we like to have some rap parts in some of our songs and we're like, what if we ask MC Lars? but What's the worst that happens? Like, yeah, I'll do it.
03:37:39
Speaker
um So I need to put that a verse down for us on our our song, What If? And we love it. It's really fun. um And then we're like, hey, like we're doing a music video for this, too. Can you like do your part?
03:37:50
Speaker
And he took a long time to do it. And then when he actually did it, you could tell he's just like reading off his phone because he kind of probably forgot that he had to do it. But it's all good. and it was It was fun to have him on there. And it's one of the coolest things that we've done so far.
03:38:04
Speaker
That's What's ah next on the docket for Backyard Superhero, speaking of which? So we are in the process of recording our next album. And there's some really cool content and and details about that album that I can't share yet, of how they we're going to be releasing that and what that's going to look like and who we're working with. But I'm really happy about it. It's 10 tracks and it's going to be super fun.
03:38:29
Speaker
A little bit different style than us than we've done it in the past. I would say... Glam rock sky is probably the theme of the album. And that's ah lines with real big fish, which is what we're going to talk about. it so Yeah.
03:38:42
Speaker
yeah Yeah. or Or we did ah Suburban Legends recently. but Definitely. Yeah. yeah Um, that's awesome. And the, oh, yeah the other thing I was going to say is, uh, when we first started, we did an episode, uh, on the techniques, uh, with, uh, former member Bex was doing it at the time.
03:39:03
Speaker
Uh, I believe you were supposed to be on that episode as well. was Yeah. Yeah. And for whatever, you know, the schedule didn't line up properly. um i think the techniques was your choice is what I remember her saying.
03:39:16
Speaker
it was not at all. I've never heard of that. and today Might have been another member, too. sure Do you have any thought just to, like, close the the chapter on that? What are your thoughts on the techniques?
03:39:29
Speaker
And how do you feel about voodoo spliffs? Voodoo spliffs is the important part. I don't feel about voodoo spliffs and the techniques. Honestly, other than that episode that I listened to with Vex on it, i don't think I've ever listened to them other than that. I'm sorry.
03:39:46
Speaker
I listen to a lot of stuff, but there's still some that I probably haven't heard, I'm sure. I literally never listened to them outside of maybe a a compilation before we did that. I was like, all right, a challenge. A challenge accepted. What a story, though.
03:39:58
Speaker
One of the more fun yeah researched episodes I've ever done. What a wild tale. Holy smokes. That the voodoo spliff story or the whatever, what's his name getting shot five times in his recording studio.
03:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, that was pretty wild. All, all amazing stories. ah Yeah, we got to do more of those again. ah We can tie it all back. So real big fish was the band of choice for this episode. What's the significance with them? And why did you want to talk about them?
Real Big Fish Fandom
03:40:29
Speaker
Well, they're my favorite band. um Just my favorite band ever. I have a Real Big Fish tattoo. I'm wearing a ah Real Big Fish cover band t-shirt today. That tells you how much I like them. know a Real Big Fish cover band and I'm friends with them.
03:40:41
Speaker
I've seen them 40 times. Wow. bunch of times. Yeah, I've seen them in... four different country or three different countries and uh 20 different states so pretty cool experience i really just really like the band you know um one of the first bands i got into when i liked scott when i first learned about scott first song i heard when she has a girlfriend now which was on like a mixtape somebody made me i'm like oh this is fun and i was a teenager so that type of humor appealed to me um and just really really loved the band and and got to know them uh personally and
03:41:12
Speaker
friends with some of the guys in the band, big fan of them. And I don't think a day goes by that I don't listen to a Real Big Fish song to. Were you already a fan before you saw Basketball? And when you saw them, were you really excited?
03:41:25
Speaker
I, um no no, because I think I did see Basketball when it first came out. It was at 97. And I was like, oh there's a band in this, but I didn't know about Scott at the time.
03:41:35
Speaker
So I don't really like Basketball as a movie, honestly. Totally. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of it. That's fair. It's real fucking stupid. Yeah, it's not a movie I really watch. for I watch the real big fish parts. and I'm like, all right, i'm good. That's it.
03:41:51
Speaker
i I think we were talking because Joey was over playing board games last night. And I think we said tray Parker and Matt Stone seem like the kind of guys that'd be upset about PC culture still. Yeah. Yeah.
03:42:03
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I was a South Park fan either, believe it or not. Like I was like everybody else who liked that first season in the movie. And then I was like, right, I'm good. I don't need to watch anymore. Yeah, I think right up to about the movie. Me too. I like it at that point. I just I don't know if I got more into music than into TV or what. But I yeah, I kind of dropped it at that point and never went back.
03:42:24
Speaker
Americans like to talk about the South Park movie like we in Canada know a lot about it because it features Canada.
03:42:31
Speaker
It does. That's what usually my my response is, is like, yeah, Canada's there, I guess. is south parkk not a Is South Park not as big in Canada as it is? Oh, no, it's pretty big. Yeah, I mean, like ah but I'd say like definitely in the last decade or so, it's less so with the merch and stuff and more so with people who have been watching it. Just keep on watching it.
03:42:53
Speaker
You know, like it's. It's not like a phenomenon like it was for a long time. it's like Family Guy. like People who are like really into it are just still really into it. Simpsons, right? Simpsons the same way. yeah Yeah, totally.
03:43:04
Speaker
Although Simpsons feels like the punching bags like a lot of the time. is like people will still want to There's still people watching it, but for the most part, people are like, oh, new stuff's not as good as the old stuff. I haven't seen a new episode in probably 15 years. and yeah It's funny you say new stuff's not as good as the old stuff, because guess what we're talking about today?
03:43:25
Speaker
New Real Big Fish stuff that people do not like. you ah So are you caught up on our Real Big Fish episodes up to this point? so Yeah, I think guys covered through We're Not Happy Till You're Not Happy, right?
03:43:39
Speaker
That's right. And yeah i want I just want to go on record. Cheer Up is my favorite album in any genre of all time. I think Cheer Up is their best album. And... i If I recall correctly, there were some mixed feelings on that album when you guys talked about it.
03:43:52
Speaker
Devin was a big fan. yeahp Yeah. Yeah. Slim was not. Yeah. But I remember, yeah. I was mid. I think I said it drops off a cliff around track 11 or 12. The variety on that album. That's my Desert Island album because you want an acapella song?
03:44:10
Speaker
There you go. you want a hair metal song? There you go. You want a drunk ballad? That's the best song the band ever did? There you go. A little bit of everything. little bit everything. yeah And our first, so I guess this is, a then we might as well just do it. Let's let's hop in the time scotching. We're getting started. Let's do it.
03:44:40
Speaker
All right. So this is it. This is part three of our trilogy of real big fish. We every year we've done a real big fish episode of our existence. Year one, we did the the part one with third rates, which was ah we did. Everything sucks all the way through.
03:44:58
Speaker
ah Why do they rock so hard? And then Devin K of the solutions was on last year for cheer up and we're not happy and forces of evil.
03:45:09
Speaker
right and uh that was one of our ah top five voted episodes on our best of last year i can't remember where it plays but it a lot of yelling yeah it was a lot of yelling it was a yelly episode but apparently that's what people come for not sure there's gonna be as much yelling this time around doesn't feel yeah the energy doesn't feel yelly no i might get a little bit offensive but i don't know where you guys stand on some of these albums so it's That's why we're here. That's why we're here. and know This is going to be Joey's first foray into most of, if not all three of the records we'll talk about today.
03:45:42
Speaker
ah Yeah. Yeah. I had heard bits and pieces throughout, but this is my first time objectively listening to these three albums for sure. And ah I'm old hat. Yeah. I had my opinions going in, so I'm good.
03:45:56
Speaker
ah So I encourage listeners, if you haven't listened to part one and part two, now's a good time to take but hit pause and go back and do your research. um But just to catch you up, here's what we talked about previously on CPSC.
03:46:10
Speaker
So Real Big Fish. Started in 1991 as a hair metal cover band, self-released 1995's Everything Sucks, which became a cult classic and got them featured on The Misfits of Ska.
03:46:23
Speaker
The classic lineup was Aaron Barrett on vocals and guitar, Matt Wong on the bass, Andrew Gonzalez on the drums, Scott Klopfenstein on the trumpet and vocals, Grant Berry on the trombone, Tavis Wertz on the trumpet, and Dan Regan on the trombone.
03:46:37
Speaker
They signed to Jive Records and released Turn the Radio Off in 1996, produced by Oingo Boingo's John Avila. The first single sellout took a year to get popular and began charting in 1997. Went right back to the drawing board to release 1998's Arena Rock Influenced Why Do They Rock So Hard, failing to meet their label expectations.
03:46:56
Speaker
They were in basketball exclamation mark. Andrew Grant and Tavis all leave being replaced by Carlos De La Garza and Tyler Jones. They recorded Cheer Up in 2001 with Val Gary and has mixed feelings about the songs.
03:47:09
Speaker
Aaron found force founded forces of evil believing real big fish was dead in the water and was too far removed from Ska was convinced to come back to real big fish and channel his emotions to a new album.
03:47:21
Speaker
Carlos and Tyler leaving, being replaced by forces of evil members, little Johnny Christmas and Justin Ferreira to record. We're not happy till you're not happy in 2005. And that brings us to 2006 where the episode kicks off today.
Independence and Live Albums
03:47:35
Speaker
It's good that we have ah you on the episode, Gary, because up to this point, there was no saxophones in the band.
03:47:44
Speaker
And then there's a saxophone coming soon, right? Yeah, there's a saxophone coming soon. And you said that you said the classic lineup of Real Big Fish. We won't be talking about any of those people today. Pretty much not. And we we talked about this on our Discord. Every time I bring up Real Big Fish, our Discord has a lot of strong opinions.
03:48:02
Speaker
ah We'll get to it, but the Ben of Mini Vandal, former guest, ah his favorite lineup is coming up, which he believes is the classic lineup for him. So I feel like everybody's got their own kind of like era that they go to. yeah But I mean, you know, if we starting in 2006, if you want to say classic lineup, that's my classic lineup. The live album lineup is probably my classic lineup when you had Scott and Johnny Christmas there.
03:48:28
Speaker
A hundred percent. That's what he said, too. And Dan was still in there on Bone. Yep. Dan. Yep. You always lock, everyone's always locked in on what the horn section was. I find that's like the key. The rest of the band can be whatever, but that horn section is.
03:48:41
Speaker
Well, I mean, Matt Wong is a very beloved bass player. um Although Derek is great too. I don't really have any preferences of the band people, but Matt Wong, I feel like people got really attached to him too. It was such a big deal ah when he... We're getting ahead of ourselves.
03:48:58
Speaker
We're just getting all ah emotional about all the lineup changes. Yeah, stay stay with the the concept of the show, Rob. ah the So, 2006. The band is hot on tour and is in Salt Lake City, Utah.
03:49:10
Speaker
The phone rings and their rep at Jive has some sobering news. They're being dropped. Little did the label know that this was the best news Real Big Fish could ask for. They were currently on a mostly self-curated tour following a lot of work on MySpace to promote their album without any label backing.
03:49:27
Speaker
As Aaron puts it, happiness was instantly in the air. Here's what Dan said. For us, it's a balancing act because as an artist, the natural state is to progress. Try new things and expand.
03:49:37
Speaker
But one of the reasons we have been around for 20 years is that to keep flying this flag of being a ska punk band, we've always felt this affinity that someone needs to be flying this ska band flag as people jump off and on the bandwagon.
03:49:49
Speaker
We feel a real sense of responsibility to keep it going. They've been touring relentlessly and decided to record some material, which they self-released with the help from Rock Ridge Music as the distinctly titled, Our Live Album is Better Than Your Live Album, which we will save to discuss at another time, just because of the sake of time. But we'll, yeah you know what, we'll talk it bit. I just don't have any songs for it.
03:50:09
Speaker
This is the best Real Big Fish album. Hard Stop is the the live album. I mean, it's really hard to disagree with that. It's excellent. it's ah It's the best best of they've done of the 50 best of's that they have.
03:50:22
Speaker
um Everything. There's ah ah one pretty tasteless joke in there. ah But aside from that, everything's pretty good. And it's the best versions of every song that they have.
03:50:34
Speaker
um They get a little bit of the banter in there. I know. And it's two two records long, which is like enough to get through everything. With a DVD. With a DVD with different track listing on the DVD. And two commentaries.
03:50:48
Speaker
ah And that's fun. And Ali from Zebrahead doing their cover of the off Ivy cover. Yeah. unity And that's amazing. That's on the on the DVD.
03:51:00
Speaker
And they do the SR thing where they do all the different types of SR, ah which is yeah a classic time at a real big fish show. Getting it you know put onto a live recording was amazing.
03:51:12
Speaker
ah It's incredible. joe Joey, have you listened to the live record? I didn't give it to you. I have not. I don't think I've ever heard the live record. It's the one to listen to, right? It's what you would give someone and be like, here, who's really fish? That's it, yeah. i If you hate the live record, you hate really fish. I'm real hot and cold on live records, generally speaking. um There are some where I'm like,
03:51:34
Speaker
they they should have just put all their music out like this. And then there are other ones where I'm like, why did they waste their time recording this shit? And I, I'm definitely like really hot or really cold one way or the other. So if you're saying this is a good one, then I'd probably be the one to listen to. It's great. Yeah.
03:51:50
Speaker
It's three years after their live DVD on the, on the Kung Fu DVDs. Those show must go off ones. Yeah. I don't, get his mind I'll be honest. It's, it's, it's, well, we talked about on the previous, it's a famously bad set. Like they did and they, they admit it. And when you listen to the commentary back on that, they talk about what a, what a bad night that was and how poorly they were playing like the whole time, ah which makes the commentary incredible.
03:52:16
Speaker
ah but That's kind of the fun of Real Big Fish, though, is they're very self-aware. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yep. and And that was, and those are good moments. Like that's a good moment in time too, because the, ah you know, the banter between Scott and, and Aaron is always kind of like a classic ah part of their time, you know, before, let's not get him jumping ahead before Scott leaves.
03:52:39
Speaker
But ah ah hearing that is always just like a a real treat. um But yeah, that, like that goes up up there with like, Let's see. My favorite ska live albums would be like the special AKA live, the the specials live EP and the, the boss tones one live in the middle East, which are all excellent ska live records.
03:53:02
Speaker
Might be missing some. What is a live record you like, Joey, you're hot and cold? Fucking Fandango, ZZ Top, my friend. Half of that record is live. And they're there's a song on there called Backdoor Medley.
03:53:14
Speaker
And it's like three or four songs that are all kind of mashed together. but it it goes on for like seven and a half or eight minutes. And it has a whole section where they speed it up and the drumming turns into like the no effects, like heel toe fast, like punk rock beat for probably a solid three minutes.
03:53:37
Speaker
And they just say, but melt down goment like they do that, like along to the beat back and forth. And it's hilarious, but it's the first thing. instance in which I can think of where that beat at that speed is being played even though it's not really well I guess they were a pretty punk rock band for their time but it's not really like up and and ti punk is what you're saying and I'm on board i think so I think so yeah I'm pretty sure yeah that particular beat like the skate punk no effects yeah heel toe beat for sure and this is when they had a drummer right not when they did 808s for the in the 80s they still had him i think he got paid he just didn't do anything i think frank beard the drummer yeah frank beard yeah yeah the only one without a beard that's how you remember his last name is beard exactly yep
03:54:25
Speaker
All right. And then um in true major label, pissant fashion, a few months later, Jive cobbled together a nonsensical greatest hits album titled Greatest Hit and More. im so lazy.
03:54:38
Speaker
Greatest hits and more. Greatest rate hits. hit One. One hit. Right. I mean, I have it, but yeah. Yeah. The the band had nothing to do with it. ah that was That was the label just cobbling together. there was like, oh we have rights to the song, so let's put it all out. Let's put them out.
03:54:55
Speaker
ah So we were trying to play a catch-up game, but we could never catch up. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes we don't get paid. Aaron had to put his house in order to keep the band going when we were making the live record.
03:55:08
Speaker
So in 2007, the band also released a split with Zoloft, the rock and roll destroyer before hitting the studio to record their first official independent full length in over a decade. I like that split. That's a good one.
03:55:19
Speaker
I actually realized I should have put on because I like their cover of ah ah Ugly Bitch, the Fishbone song. You didn't say the name of it, which is duet all night long, which is duet all night long. Chef's kiss. yes kiss pretty ah Pretty solid. And Zoloft the Rock and Roll Destroyer rule.
03:55:34
Speaker
They're really good. They are very, very good, yeah. That's a fun level, easy. Yeah, it's and it's what, six songs? so I think yeah maybe a little bit more. but yeah meets not Three from each band. Three from each, right? Yeah, and one cover each. Yeah. And they were all but like dual vocaling. That's a great format. I love that format for an EP.
03:55:53
Speaker
Six songs, three by each band, one band, and one each band does one cover. and That's a fantastic cover. All six songs are covers. All six songs are covers. Oh, they were all covers, right? yeah And they were doing ah dual vocals on all the songs, which was also fun. that's very, very yeah yeah it's a fun. It's a fun little concept.
03:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, that was when they were really like, they had a hand down, you know, in in the best way possible. Like, they were elevating bands with them. Like, once they left the label, it was more like, hey, like who can we bring with us? It was like, not just their friends, but smaller bands that they wanted to promote and bring with them, which is always a huge positive. Can I make a quick comment on that? Yeah.
03:56:29
Speaker
So real big, like we'll probably talk about it. They get a lot of flack in the ska scene. um But of the bigger ska bands, they're the one I could think of that does that more than anybody else.
03:56:41
Speaker
They take a lot of young bands around ah on the road. um You know, they've been very gracious to even my band, but I can think of so many bands I've seen open for them. i I'm not goingnna name other bands that don't do that, but there's bands that ive I know of, very big ska bands who refuse even play with other ska bands. So, like, we'll be fishing tops to them.
03:56:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah there's there's there's one that we we called out on an episode that we had to take down for a reasons I don't want to get into. Yeah, yeah. There's one from the state that I'm from that is like that, too, so...
03:57:12
Speaker
Yeah, I'm familiar with that band too. yeah They're definitely not listening. so yeah Whereas I found out the other one was. oh wow. But Real Big Fish is great for that. And they get a lot of flack from people, but they they do a lot for the scene for sure.
Album Reviews and Opinions
03:57:25
Speaker
Okay, their first official um independent full length in over a decade is Monkeys for Nothing and the Chimps for Free, which is a pun on the Dire Straits song, Money for Nothing and the Chicks for Free.
03:57:37
Speaker
Did you catch that one, Joey? I did. Okay, how do you feel about Dire Straits? i My dad was a big Mark Knopfler guy. So I actually have listened to quite a lot of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits adjacent things. and he's a good He's a good guitar player. Yeah, if you want some if you're really into listening some boring-ass songs with some insane guitar playing, that's Mark Knopfler for you.
03:58:02
Speaker
it Also Rising Force. Also, yeah, a lot of guitar-heavy music. ah So the album featured two halves. The first was called Monkeys and it's all brand new songs. And the other side was Chimps, which is all re-recordings of some of their songs from before they were famous.
03:58:21
Speaker
Generally well received on release as a return to more silly fare with lyrics about girls and the F word with bigger helping of Ska than before. Also marked the true beginning of Eric Barrett being the sole Aaron Barrett. Maybe I should pronounce things properly. Being the sole producer for the band's releases.
03:58:38
Speaker
Okay, that contextualizes a lot of this album for me. yeah Now i understand it a little bit better. Let's chat about it.
03:58:49
Speaker
Let's play the first track, Party Down. Nothing to do with the TV show. That is actually disappointment. I probably would love this song a lot more if it was about Party Down the TV show.
03:59:03
Speaker
Would have been right around the same time, no? will confirm this while we listen to this with the woohoos. 2009 for the TV show. So they based it on this song.
03:59:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Who's the creator? Rob Thomas, right?
03:59:23
Speaker
thousand nine take go ah tv so so to us would we roll literally so they based it on this song yeah thats dress
03:59:36
Speaker
Yeah, the guy from Matchbox. Matchbox, Sonny? Yeah, that rocks one in Strong Thomas. Yeah, that's gotta be cool too. That's how he got hooked up with the Always Sunny folks, because he had done Party Down.
03:59:54
Speaker
The backing vocals are ridiculous and fun in this song. Like, just falsettos for no reason and stuff. It's good.
04:00:06
Speaker
We just came to party, party, party, party.
04:00:13
Speaker
So this this album came out at ah at a good time for me because I was desperate for more Real Big Fish music because I was in my band. And, ah and you know, the the live record had come out. We all loved it so much.
04:00:27
Speaker
And we're just like, whatever new material comes out is going to be the best Real Big Fish album that's ever come out. And then it's like 10 new songs and then just 10 old songs. And you're like, oh, okay.
04:00:39
Speaker
This is pretty good, but it was like I'll be on a lot of people were really jazzed on it. This one and this one's a whiff for me. That particular song, yeah ah friend and music maker of the pod, Keelan, was listening to it quite a bit at the time.
04:00:55
Speaker
So I remember hearing that first song that has all the little bits from different genres and stuff. And so that CD must have been on. um But when I listened to it objectively this time, um after you explained that it was half old songs and half new songs, yeah it made a lot more sense because one of my biggest issues with this record was that I was like, how fucking old are these guys? And why are they still singing songs about my high school girlfriend?
04:01:26
Speaker
And that was like a good, like half of the songs. And, and we had talked about how some of the subject matter previously was not, doesn't put paint women in the greatest light. yeah And there are some songs on this album that continue that,
04:01:43
Speaker
trend but now I am realizing that it was a boomerang it was going back to that trend yeah yeah and and that was one of my biggest issues with this record I really hated a lot of the a lot of the lyrics to be honest I I was I liked a lot of the songs like the way the songs were put together and the sound but a lot of the lyrical content on this record was not doing it for me personally How does where does where does this record rank for you, Gary? How do you how do you feel about it?
04:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, my story is similar to yours, where Rob, where I was just so hyped for this to come out. um I remember sitting outside the Barnes & Noble by my house and waiting for them to open so I can go buy this. I was in love with it at first, but I don't think it has aged well. And I think that it's probably near the bottom of Real Big Fish records for me. There's a lot of filler you can probably cut out to make a ah much stronger record.
04:02:38
Speaker
I don't think all the old songs are bad. Yeah. I think the the ones I have a problem with are like, everybody's drunk and please don't tell her a girlfriend. Those songs just don't work for me. They don't really do anything for me.
04:02:50
Speaker
And you know, we're, we're talking about the next two albums have a ah much different feel to them because it has all, everything has to do with Aaron's state of mind at the time he writes the album. yeah Because he always says that like, um I write what I know right now. Like he doesn't,
04:03:09
Speaker
it's not forward thinking or backwards thinking is what's the present. Right. Yeah. And he writes everything basically like they all strap their, their, their songwriting to his songs.
04:03:20
Speaker
um And I think at this time it's just, Oh, also he doesn't cut filler. We also talked about that before. All of them are too long. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that this time, you know, coming off of the,
04:03:34
Speaker
past pissed off record that they just did going so going independent doing like like 200 shows a year for like two years straight and there was just um it was all just like tour mode still there wasn't really a lot to talk about i hate to say so like the first song is just about partying and then the next song is about the f word right and it's like okay it's just there's not a lot of connective tissue here to make and really a strong concept I will say you mentioned that everybody's drunk song and I hated that too. though I was like, like, again, if this was, if that song, if I saw that song being played at a dive by one of those bands that you mentioned that has a really terrible name that only put an album out one time in 2008, it would probably be funny and I would laugh about it.
04:04:25
Speaker
But when it's guys that have like been doing this for 30 years at this point, know, It just seemed really silly and juvenile to me. like And I like that type of shit, but it in this situation, it didn't work.
04:04:38
Speaker
However, there's one moment in that song where he says beer in the line and then somebody drunkenly goes, woohoo! And that made me laugh. I liked that.
04:04:51
Speaker
um ah which we all yeah ah yeah The best song on this record is actually not on this record. It's the Bang the Mouse Exploded. Have you guys heard that song? Yeah, isn't that on the iTunes version? on the itunes version yeah It's like a top five Real Big Fish song, in my opinion.
04:05:07
Speaker
I don't know why they cut it, because it's very good. Weird. Would have blown the album up to like 21 songs or something, probably. Could have cut half the song to put that on there. That song is very good. we should We should play another f FU song because that's the one that they still play. To their credit, they barely play any of these songs live. like yeah I mean, I haven't seen them in a few years, but like they don't generally play a lot off. also don't love this song.
04:05:29
Speaker
This song I don't like. It's the one that they... I do hear them still playing. Well, yeah. i There's a feel to it, right? And it's a minute. Yeah. Yeah, it's easy to stick into a set for a quick laugh. You know what I mean? I'm horn player, so as a horn player, it's nice to have a couple minutes of breaks.
04:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, like, I feel like this is a real, like, like a family reunion moment. Like, when you family reunion, it's just such a stupid, quick song. But when you see them also, like, it's awesome. Yeah, right?
04:06:02
Speaker
But it's like, you know, like nothing. I think were trying like, recapture the fun of nothing. Or, like, a song where they swear a lot in the old days. Totally. Yeah. you, fuck you, fuck you.
04:06:21
Speaker
It is nice to have Johnny Christmas. You can hear him in the screamy parts. Fuck yeah, fuck you! Alright, that was fine.
04:06:31
Speaker
I do want to say as goofy and and not great as this album is, again, Scott's like background vocals are just on point. They're so good. yeah you know you You miss, you and like not to like lament it, but you you you start to miss it after this one. I yeah i did not, I wasn't aware of Scott's solo work until we had gone to SBI Fest.
04:06:57
Speaker
and then how these go look man right yeah And then having seen them and and hearing him sing, now his voice is so distinctive to me that going back and listening to these, I can really hear his stuff more. like he He's more of a standout member of the band to me now, which is very fun. like I really enjoyed hearing, like oh, there's Scott doing stuff. like but It was just a group of people singing to me before with Aaron at the front, right? yeah So now it's cool to know more about it.
04:07:26
Speaker
All right. I think this is a good time for us to take a break. And when we get back, we've got more Real Big Fish.
04:07:42
Speaker
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04:07:59
Speaker
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04:10:20
Speaker
All right, welcome back to Checkered Past. We're here with Gary Mastriano and we're talking about real big fish. So we just finished talking about monkeys for nothing chimps for free. And here is what Scott said about this whole thing.
04:10:33
Speaker
Well, oh man, is this, I wonder if this is word for word. I must have, cause it doesn't look like a real sentence. Well, what you do it, you take ropes and tie them to all four limbs. If you have four limbs, because some people don't, and I don't want to exclude them from the festivities.
04:10:47
Speaker
Then you get wild horses to yank as hard as possible until the person is ripped into pieces. That's how we make records.
04:10:55
Speaker
Okay. That's pretty good. That's pretty metal. I don't know if I had anything else. on that That was pretty good. I'm just going leave it there. Did you say brutal? Yeah. Hey, the movie's coming out soon. I'm going to do a big rewatch.
04:11:09
Speaker
Hell yeah. Me and Joey are big Metalocalypse fans. Big Metalocalypse. Yeah. I love it. Uh, just before the album was released, bass phenom Matt Wong quit the band, needing to spend more time with his wife and newborn.
04:11:21
Speaker
After a tearful goodbye, Aaron went back to the friend or foe well, And pulled in Derek Gibbs to fill in on Matt's big five string shoes. Matt would jokingly refer to Derek as Matt Wong approved when asked if he was up to the task.
04:11:35
Speaker
I remember us floating floating that quote along. It was in my space probably. um After a massive 2008 Warped Tour run of which I saw them perform in Edmonton. That was when they would pretend to leave the stage after every song. God, that's a good bit. Yeah.
04:11:51
Speaker
It's like yeah cost a classic bit. ah The band hit the studio to do what they do best, a shitload of covers, mixing up dad rock selections as well as cheeky covers of songs misattributed to them in the early 2000s.
04:12:04
Speaker
The album featured contributions from suburban legends Brian Clem and received pushback as a bit of a cop out. ah Its title was Fame, Fortune and Fornication and hit the shelves in 2009.
04:12:15
Speaker
We don't have any songs queued up for this because we're saving our covers for something special in the future. But yeah. Yeah, cover record. Gary, this seems like it's in your wheelhouse a little bit. How did you feel about it?
04:12:28
Speaker
Or still feel about it? It's a record I go back to a lot. I really, i enjoy it. I think it's pretty fun. I like the covers on it. It gets a little, drops off a little bit towards the end, but I think the the first half of the album is strong. And they cover Veronica Sawyer by Edna's Goldfish, which is just awesome.
04:12:43
Speaker
Yeah, we featured that on a recent episode yeah because they it's part of the jokes where it was there were in the LimeWire days. People would say that that song was a real big fish song because our names are similar. So they put it on the cover record as kind of like, ah well, that no, this is how we would play it.
04:13:03
Speaker
Right. Or Brown Eyed Girl is the best example of that, right? I remember Brown Eyed Girl and it was attributed to, it said like Real Big Fish or Goldfinger or Blink-182. And I don't know, actually, no, I didn't know if I did that cover of it, but.
04:13:16
Speaker
Yeah. and You you you dreded dredged up. this I figured out who it was called and now I can't even remember. it was I don't even know who it was. yeah I dug in. I was digging in the crates for who these originals are. The other song that pops in my mind is the Gin and Juice ska cover.
04:13:31
Speaker
You know yeah we also had that on there. That's the Berlin Project who does that one. I know that one. But it was attributed to Real Big Fish a lot. They just got, you know, painted with the cover brush on any Scott cover that was around Tetris, whatever.
04:13:45
Speaker
But this was a fun album. I mean, they covered Slade and I like Slade a lot. So that's pretty rad. I like their cover of Authority song. That's probably my favorite cover on there. And ah the Monkey Man again.
04:13:57
Speaker
i i will never turn down a cover of Monkey Man. ah Yeah. And when we we saw ah Los Corrados at SPI Fest and when they played Monkey Man, it tore the house down. Literally any band can play Monkey Man. And I'm like, perfect. No notes.
04:14:12
Speaker
ah you know the The cover, the cover, the people on the cover of this album are Brian Clem from Suburban Legends and Aaron's wife at the time of this album. who will come into play very soon in the next album. Definitely. Yeah. Let's, ah let's keep this train going. All right.
04:14:28
Speaker
Aaron says, we've been hearing about Brown eyed girl for about 10 years now. Every day, somebody will say, are you going to play Brown eyed girl? We didn't play Brown eyed girl. That doesn't even sound like us.
04:14:39
Speaker
And now they did it. Since their original songs were still in the band or still in the hands of Jive, Real Big Fish decided they should also cover another band themselves. They did 22 of their old songs with their new lineup, as well as 14 more in an acoustic style.
04:14:53
Speaker
It's got acoustic. This monster of a retrospective titled The Best of Us for the Rest of Us dropped in 2010, then extended even further and reissued in 2011, featuring the song arrangements they were doing live at the time.
04:15:08
Speaker
ah Yeah, I think there's like some 30 or 40 songs altogether on the Best of compilation. the expanded edition is like 60 or something like that. that's It's ridiculous. just Holy smokes. Just so that they can get their rights of their songs kind of back.
04:15:23
Speaker
that They were Taylor Swift before Taylor Swift. Yeah. but Yeah. yeah They were Radiohead before Radiohead. They were like already trying to ditch major labels. If you were my friend in 2010 2011, that's the album I got you for Christmas.
04:15:38
Speaker
No, whether you like Sky or not, I'm like, that's the best for the rest of us. I just went to Best Buy and bought them out. And here you go. Here you go. I wish all of the song titles said Aaron's version afterwards. That would be great. That'd be great.
04:15:50
Speaker
What are they were all versions? Like all like version. That would be even greater. I'd be into that. Just a 60 song retrospection of dubbed versions of the songs.
04:16:02
Speaker
It's like a hundred hours. Yeah. 2011, however, saw the biggest departure yet when Scott Klopfenstein left to be with his family as well. One of the most iconic harmonies in third wave ska was officially broken up.
04:16:14
Speaker
The replacement was Matt Appleton, the Mohawk sax fiend that contributed the horns to Goldfinger's Hello Destiny and would shake up the band's horn arrangement in a big way. In 2012, this lineup released Hunk If You're Horny, which they correctly made this decision to rename Candy Coated Fury and was pseudo concept album about Aaron's divorce.
04:16:36
Speaker
ah It featured Cooley ranks Brian k Clem and Sonic Boom six with covers by the wonder stuff. And when in Rome reviews were mixed, punk news gave it two out of 10. ah You should read that review. It is harsh, but it has since gone on to have a cult following. And here's what Aaron said about it.
04:16:52
Speaker
On this album, we are doing what we do best. Candy Coated Fury pretty much describes ah real big fish. Hateful, mean, sarcastic, and sometimes sad over happy, wacky, silly, joyous, fast music that makes you want to to dance.
04:17:05
Speaker
It's Candy Coated Fury, and it sums our band, our humor, and message up in three words. I definitely was very conscious this time about how danceable the songs were and how they make you move when you listen to them. had been a long time since I really thought about the danceability of our songs.
04:17:18
Speaker
Also, I was very college conscious about the lyrics. I really wanted to recapture the same angry, hateful humor from the first two albums.
Candy Coated Fury Praise
04:17:26
Speaker
And I definitely tried to write some angry, hateful love songs, too, because hadn't written any of those in a long time.
04:17:31
Speaker
And our first two album had a lot of those. So let's start with which one's the first one I have. Everyone else is an asshole. Let's start there. Why don't we? All right.
04:17:42
Speaker
Candy Coded Fury. Joey, let's start with you. Thoughts, feelings? This album fucking rips. It's so good. So fucking good. i yeah Okay, so I disliked that last record.
04:17:59
Speaker
And when I was putting this one on, I realized that there was a longer break in between. and i wanted to learn the history from you, so I waited it out. But I was like, with this big of a break, it has to be a more mature take. That like...
04:18:17
Speaker
we We can't be going back to these more high school I'm Angry My Girlfriend songs. And I was so happy that it wasn't a sure take on a lot of those same themes. And like like you said, like he just said, it's going back to the well of kind of the classic stuff, but it's with a more adult lens.
04:18:39
Speaker
And the songs are even better written than those first couple records. Like, i this is a fantastic record. Yes. Gary? gary Candy Coated Fury.
04:18:50
Speaker
This album fucking rips. that's so I love this album. I got, I remember getting an advanced copy of this because they had it for sale on their tour before the official street date. And i I picked it up and I blasted that in my, my car.
04:19:04
Speaker
And I just have that memory in my head of sitting at this traffic light, listening to everyone else and asshole for the first time ever. I'm like, this album is something different. This sounds really good. You know, by now it's clear. I'm really into the hair metal and the glam rock and stuff like that.
04:19:18
Speaker
This album is like the, It takes that and that theme from we're not not We're Not Happy, Why Do They Rock So Hard. It's almost the spiritual successor to that album. um I love this album.
04:19:28
Speaker
It's right up there with Cheer Up. It's probably my second favorite Real Big Fish album. To the fact where, like, if you go through my Apple music, my top played song for the past six years is I Dare You To Break My Heart, which I think is my favorite Real Big Fish song.
04:19:42
Speaker
So I could gosh but into analytics. It is. oh no, that's why that's why you're here is to gush about this record. I love this album. I think there's not a weak song to be had. ah The song I like the least is probably everyone else is an asshole. Like I don't like when they just are blue or vulgar just for the sake of it. um Yeah.
04:20:01
Speaker
Everything else in here is great. Hiding in my headphones, a lot of real big fish. Holy shit, that's a great song. Yeah, but a lot of people hate on that song. a lot of people hate that song. you know and It's great. It's fantastic.
04:20:13
Speaker
When I heard it, when it it came on, as I was about two minutes away from a gas station, I had to fill up my car. And it came on, and I was like,
04:20:24
Speaker
this is fucking awesome. Like, this is just such a rad jam. yeah Features on it are super cool. It's different from what they normally do, but when the chorus comes around, it still sounds like a real big fish song.
04:20:38
Speaker
i could see how it would be divisive, but I mean, let's honest. I ah don't. I'm not sure why people hate it so much. I don't get it. Because if there's anything that we've learned...
04:20:49
Speaker
People don't like that. You're not allowed to shit on Sonic Boom 6. If there's anything that we've learned ah about talking about Real Big Fish on this show is that there's a certain subsect of particularly real big, like third wave fans who only want it to sound like third wave.
04:21:08
Speaker
And that song is not a third wave song. It is a more... heady song within their umbrella of genres that they play. And I could see how a more closed minded person who just wanted more sellout would not like that song.
04:21:26
Speaker
but there's height thought it was snack record. There's plenty of that on this record, right? 100%, yeah. And the other thing I love about this is the, you know, as a sax player, hearing the tender sax and specifically bari sax on like songs like Don't Stop Skanking and there's a good sax solo on I Think It's Punisher, like it really brings a lot more to the horn section.
04:21:47
Speaker
um it was It was the best decision they made was to bring in are a sax player. yeah Matt Appleton is the unsung hero of modern Real Big Fish, in my opinion. They've always had a great horn section. I think we can all agree on that. Their horn section always sounds good.
04:22:04
Speaker
Sonically, I think this is their best sounding album too. It sounds huge. It's mixed well. It's a really, really great album. um But also it's not overly polished. It's still self-produced. Aaron yeah aon still produced yeah and it like It has a lot of those kind of hair metal elements, but it never goes into that hair metal ah production quality kind of realm, which is great. like It still sounds like a punk rock record.
04:22:31
Speaker
you know The other knock you're going to hear about this record is that the songs are a little long, which is probably true. ah Like, I Dare You To Break My Heart is over five minutes. It doesn't really need to be. That's every record by this man. Yeah, but like, this one I don't think has any filler songs. I just think the songs are a little bit too long.
04:22:47
Speaker
utter I mean, it's still what 14 tracks long. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, 14 is okay. Yeah, it's not 20. It's it's yeah, it's not like even turn the radio. I've had 16 like, I mean, it's still like shorter than their quote unquote classic record, right? Right.
04:23:02
Speaker
But this is easily top three, like it probably bounces around this the live record and turn the radio off my three favorite real big fish records like but bar none. Like that's and this was I what made me excited when this came out, especially was that I had basically thought of Real Big Fish as a live band at this point.
04:23:22
Speaker
Yeah, I was like, i don't know if they're going to put out a record I like anymore. Like, I don't know if they they're capable of doing it. Yeah, they kind of gone into legacy mode for you. I felt that way. I was like, yeah, okay. i'll I'll see them like less than Jake. I'm going to see them every time they come in.
04:23:34
Speaker
I don't know if they're going to release a record that is going to like blow my mind anymore ah because they're not playing to me. You know, they're playing to a different audience. Yeah. And so I'll just go see them live. I'll have a great time and I'll walk away. But then they released this and I was like,
04:23:48
Speaker
fucking still got it man like brought me back and having that linchpin moment for uh the fact that he was going through a ah massive heartache filled breakup like and as much as it's kind of a spiteful record and there's a lot of like toxic like or acidic like moments and in the way he delivers his message that feels so authentic and i think that delivers a lot of cohesiveness to to how this album was written too Him having a cohesive focus for his usual anger. Yeah.
04:24:24
Speaker
And writing around that focus, I think, is the crux of what makes this album really great. As opposed to, I feel like, the angry songs, the angry newer songs from that last record were just like unfocused.
04:24:36
Speaker
Yeah. Angry songs. Generic. yeah Yeah, totally. Like nothing really, there's nothing behind it. Yes. There's a lot behind this one. Yeah. My biggest knock on this record is ah saying that...
04:24:50
Speaker
implying that the movie Sarah or saving Silverman but ah had like a ah but massive impact on his life yeah is just makes no sense, but also makes a lot of sense, but also is like a little upsetting. Like that movie shouldn't have had this much of an impact on you and your friend's life. Well, if you ever hear and Aaron talk about like the type of entertainment he likes, it's right in line with that.
04:25:14
Speaker
He likes like frat boy comedies. Yeah. Raunchy comedies. Yeah. That makes sense. We should listen to don't stop skanking. uh before we get too far because i'll be mad if we don't have time for it so good oh the barry sax is so killer right from the beginning this is my most listened to real big fish song yeah and it doesn't have many words they do instrumental they are They do instrumentals extremely well. 241 is my like baby second favorite. i i love their
04:25:45
Speaker
It's weird that you like their two most Scott songs.
04:25:51
Speaker
a thing I thing. Let me ask you guys a question. Let's live in an alternate reality where Scott sang on this record. Do you think would be even better than it is? I think it would be lateral.
04:26:05
Speaker
I think the next record would be better with Scott. Agreed, but you don't think his presence would have increased his record? You know, I think it could. Like, they just, their vocal harmony is so good, and I feel like Scott's...
04:26:21
Speaker
It's because Scott doesn't do the normal thing with his harmony and and the way he sings. He's a very kind of out there when it comes to his approach to additional stuff.
04:26:32
Speaker
So I think it really could have pushed it. But that being said, it's pretty fantastic regardless. And the covers on this album are well chosen, I'd say.
04:26:47
Speaker
And not chosen to be like a... like Sometimes Real Big Fish will pick a song because they feel like it's it'll get a big bump at their show. on me yeah girl right you're hit You're playing the hits, right?
04:27:00
Speaker
Yeah. yeah yeah ah Whereas the choices here are more thematic to the album as opposed to just to get a woo from the crowd. So much so that I had forgotten that you'd said that they do put covers on every album and I did not even notice them, I don't think.
04:27:16
Speaker
And they fit in really well, yeah. Don't get me don let me down gently and The Promise are the two covers, yeah. Yeah, but what a great I would recommend people should listen to this one I'd go out of my way to say this is a record worth listening 100% Even people who are not big Real Big Fish fans But ah it frequently tops people's lists Like when we were talking on the Discord You saw it up there So for whatever like kind of mixed reception it had at at at launch I think the time has been very kind to this record And people really look fondly back on it
04:27:50
Speaker
is good. And it's a good legacy. They haven't. They only play everyone else as an asshole. They never play anything else in this record, unfortunately. and And that's too bad. I wonder if it's just like, now that he's moved on, it's difficult to... You know, because yeah because a lot of these songs are like...
04:28:08
Speaker
You can really hear the emotion in them a little bit more than some of the other stuff. Like is's a little raw. Yeah, a little little raw. So it might be maybe some of these songs are a little difficult to get into in a live situation
Life Sucks, Let's Dance Reflection
04:28:20
Speaker
for them. Maybe. don't know.
04:28:23
Speaker
All right, let's ah let's move on. In 2013, after a year-long tour, the disco trombonist himself, Dan Regan, resigned from Real Big Fish in order to pivot to home life and start a brewery.
04:28:34
Speaker
He was replaced by Billy Cottage, who was fresh off of recording Big D's Stomp and Stroll double album. In 2014, they hit another major tour, um but drummer Rylan Steen went on to tour with Joey America.
04:28:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I remember we were talking about this at one point. And was replaced by suburban legends, Edward Beach. From a financial standpoint and like a job stability standpoint, and I get it.
04:28:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm sure everybody in there just like stood up and just started clapping like clapping yeah you told them. ah Hey, guys, i ah um tour of I got the America gig. yeah oh man i'm so stoked for you you know like i kept listening to horse with no name for the last two years yeah wanted to get it right do you imagine getting called up like like just like you're you're on the the back bench or whatever you get called up to be on the america tour It's a weird like a weird sell to the America guys though, right? Like, who's our new drummer? Oh, the guy that was in Real Big Fish, right? For like 20 years? No, like the fourth drummer for Real Big Fish at this Oh, right. Like, yeah.
04:29:42
Speaker
It's like, you know the fourth drummer for Real Big Fish? From sellout? No, no, no. From like 15 years after sellout. That drummer, he's going to come join us. I don't know how that happened. It's weird.
04:29:53
Speaker
If it was modern day, though, America would just have Josh Freeze or Travis Barker. ah Travis Barker, one of those two. They seem free. ah They drum for everyone, so I don't see why they would just drum for America, too.
04:30:05
Speaker
oh And so the next four years will be relatively quiet until the current lineup hit the studio to record their next true full length. The album was Life Sucks, Let's Dance, once again featuring Aaron in the producer chair, least on the Rockridge label.
04:30:21
Speaker
The album calmed down a lot of the band's prior rage in favor of melancholy and contentedness, all likely due the band's general settling down in Aaron Barrett's recent marriage. The only covers were Forces of Evil covers that weren't featured on their full length.
04:30:34
Speaker
So here's what Aaron had to say about it. I have an unhealthy obsession with my dog, Walter, and I started singing little songs to him about how cute he was. Then I realized... Then I realized I had written some pretty catchy songs.
04:30:46
Speaker
So I changed all the lyrics because I didn't think anybody would want to hear a rock opera about my dog. Fucking wrong. Incorrect. So wrong. We missed out on a classic album. I'm going to say this right here, right now. If this album was about his dog, I would have been more in on it.
04:31:04
Speaker
100%. is one song. They wrote a High Life song about about his dog. I need the whole concept. I know. That missed opportunity. Missed opportunity. Fucking Suicide Machines first to fuck up. Now Real Big Fish.
04:31:17
Speaker
How come nobody can write songs about their dogs? Puppy Songs needs to put in a Sky album. but We started recording the album in January 2018 and really took our time with it. Our friend and engineer, David Irish, just finished building his new studio, Pot of Gold in Orange County, California.
04:31:31
Speaker
And we loved how everything sounds there. And there's just really good energy, good vibes that there's a really adorable studio kitten named Iggy Fluff. So we have to accidentally make it a positive, happy record instead of a pissed off, hateful record.
04:31:44
Speaker
Oops. Well, there's a little pissed-offness in there and some sarcastic funny lyrics as usual. Also, I just got married, so there might be a few sappy love songs on the album. Yuck. Shortly after, Billy Cottage left the band on tour with The Interrupters and to this day continues to be a gun for hire for large-scale ska projects.
04:31:59
Speaker
So Brian Robertson of Suburban Legends has been touring member. So before... ah Jeffrey's fan club was the band that they kept mining members out of.
04:32:11
Speaker
And now suburban legends is the band that keep mining members of. Yeah. ah So as mentioned in our Spring Heel Jack episode, Tyler Jones, former trumpeter, passed away in 2020.
04:32:22
Speaker
And since then, all has been relatively quiet with Scott Aaron and Ryland providing vocals and drums on Losers track No Hope. For all intents and purposes, the band is still active, but this will wrap up the checkered past. So let's finish by talking about the last record.
04:32:35
Speaker
Life sucks. Let's dance. um Let's play the title track.
04:32:42
Speaker
It's best song on the album, by the way. It is. Yeah. This is a great song. Yeah. When this song popped on, well, no, there the single that You Can't Have All of Me that I've listened to before. Which is the second best song on the album.
04:32:54
Speaker
So when this one came on, I was like, oh, this is going to be good record. Because there's much more keyboards. Yeah, a lot more keyboards. Because Billy Cottage, I believe, also the organ player.
04:33:05
Speaker
The organ player. And they have that a lot on the Christmas TV before that one. Very organ-heavy. Yeah. So that's a nice little touch, because Billy Cottage is very big the organ. love organ. I love, like, organ in a ska band.
04:33:17
Speaker
Very...
04:33:22
Speaker
journeyman with it. I feel like I could have more saxophone. But that's okay. It's there. There's a next one solo in this song. Yeah, I know.
04:33:33
Speaker
I just felt like there more Candy Coat and it made me happy.
04:33:41
Speaker
At this point, Johnny Christmas is their longest tenured horn player. Right. Yeah, because there have been a little bit of turnover over the last record or two. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. Amazon with the amount of turnover they have. Hey! Nice. Welcome to the podcast.
04:34:03
Speaker
ah How do you feel about this record? Oh, Engineer Joy, you so you kick us off. Lukewarm. Lukewarm on it. I i did... yeah I don't know like even in in his description he was kind of like we did this thing and it turned out like this and I feel like that's a pretty apt description like it's it was much better than ah two records ago yeah um not anywhere near as good as Candy Coated it was okay It's a surprisingly pedestrian ska record for Real Big Fish, who've at least had like a lot of personality in their records in this one, I feel like is a little... I think that's it. I think it is just a little more...
04:34:45
Speaker
Even the records I don't like, I can say like there's like there's something happening here that's like above and beyond what the normal ska record would look like. this This feels a little middle of the road, which is like overly disappointing, I think, when it's a real big thing, which I think is unfair. i think what happened is I like like the first like four songs, and then stuff starts to kind of get a little... like I don't know. That's exactly how this record goes. The first four or five tracks are really strong.
04:35:14
Speaker
I will say there are some really great lyrics on here and some really surprising places. I found that there's like that because he's looking a little bit more inward or he's being a little bit more pensive about things like some surprisingly like heartfelt maybe emotional songs on here a little less you know just like songs about girls and uh actually thinking about like the world around us and and stuff which is usually not normal for a real big fish album even if the song around it is a little like not my favorite um it's nice to hear him like expand his lyrical palette a little bit yeah yeah overall this like i wouldn't
04:35:55
Speaker
I wouldn't knock this record, but I wouldn't say that someone who is not already a Real Big Fish fan would love it. You know what i mean? like it's nice It's not going to turn ahead. Yeah. like if if you're If you're already in on Real Big Fish, you'll probably like this record.
04:36:09
Speaker
Yeah. It's pretty good, but it's you know like a 70%, 65%, 70% for me, kind of. It was telling to like that I like hadn't listened to it since it had come out.
04:36:20
Speaker
Yeah. That's come up a few times on the pod. like yeah that I feel like that's a that's telling as to its staying power with me or I was like kind of like lost touch with it. Whereas I've listened to Candy Code of Fury multiple times since this record came out. So you kind of think about it.
04:36:36
Speaker
Anyway, maybe I'm just being a little like overly hard on it. But Gary, how do you feel? Yeah, i like this record fine enough. um I do listen to it a lot just because I listen to a lot of Real League Fish. I'd probably put it right in the middle of their their discography, right? I think there's really good stuff.
04:36:54
Speaker
ah You know, if this is the end of their recording career, I think it's a nice little coda for them, you know? It's swan song. here Yeah, it's a good swan song. It's it's a happy record. Surprising.
04:37:05
Speaker
Specifically, though that last like fourth of the album where you have Goddamn Beautiful Day. i'm looking at the the track listing. Should have known by now, and i' get it I'd rather get it right. Those are just like surprisingly just sappy songs, you know? And I'm like, yeah oh, okay. Aaron...
04:37:19
Speaker
Aaron's happy and and good for him. We should play Goddamn Beautiful Day because it it does have like, and they they kind of play some other, play with their genre a little bit again. It's like Candy Coda is like ska punk. And this has got a few of those like more. This almost sounds sounds like Littlest Man Band. Yeah, actually, was going say this album, of things I did like about this album was that it kind of stretched a little bit musically, yeah like in a good way. I think they were pulling from some different yeah influences that they don't normally pull from, and it worked well. I do want to say this to what you just said, Joey. um
04:37:56
Speaker
Maybe not my favorite lineup, but musically talented, I think this is the best version of the band because Aaron's able to bring in all these people who are just really, really good at the top of the track.
04:38:08
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for sure. When I think about... And I don't want be mean on Pilly Cottage because he's such great trombone player. He's a very jerk, like Josh Freeze.
04:38:19
Speaker
He's like the Josh Freeze of trombone. Yeah, and they're just like, you know, you can pull them into the studio and they're going to like crush. They're going to be on tour, professional.
04:38:32
Speaker
You know, they're just going to do the job really, really well, right? um as But it and obviously comes at the cost of like having like a little bit more like chaos the energy is not there energy isn't the same trumpet player playing on your record is not it's not the same right energy and spark but it's a really just tight tight band and their live show at least as the last time i saw them was in 2019 the last time they toured it it's so tight they're a really really tight live band yeah and he's he's still you know playing the guitar behind his back and like doing like all the little tricks right i was gonna say yeah you've seen them 40 times now
04:39:07
Speaker
So if I know this is not the way the math works out, but if yeah Aaron got $2 for every time you've seen them play,
04:39:19
Speaker
he might have been able to buy the Wawa pedal, which was clearly a new addition to his thing before this last album, because that fucking thing is on every goddamn song. He bought a Wawa pedal, and I know Aaron Barrett's a gear guy, yes he so it much blows my mind that this late in the game, he was like, this is my Wawa pedal record. This is my slash moment.
04:39:45
Speaker
I am going to become... wall-up pedal guy so i figure he either just bought one right before this or he switched to like a helix or something like that and and gained the power of the wall-up pedal another episode of gear in your bedroom yeah let's do that for a second can we nerd out i'm a guitar player like a natural guitar player is the first instrument i played so i still play a lot and barrett's a very good guitar player Yeah, so and he has a really good, has good ear for tone too, so I assume his gear is sick.
04:40:16
Speaker
His tone is one of the best I've heard on record. His ska chop is better than, I put that up against anybody. His his ability to play that ska upbeat is better than anybody. Yeah, he's a fucking killer guitar player. So I'm going to maybe, i think that's my theory. I'm putting it out there. i don't know if this is true. Aaron, you can come on pod and tell us.
04:40:39
Speaker
I think he got, i think he went digital before this last record. I think he got a Helix or a Kemper or something. And he was like, oh shit, now I can do all of the effects.
04:40:51
Speaker
And he did.
04:40:55
Speaker
ah This is great. this is ah I think this cut caps off a ah solid trilogy of episodes. We don't really finish the bands we start. but So it's really nice to finish one. Or at least catch up.
04:41:07
Speaker
Or at least catch up. Yeah, at least catch up to the modern day. Yeah. ah we did so We did Suicide Machines this year. Finished that. Finished this one. i'm feeling good. I feel like this is a good year for us. Scott Parra, here we come.
04:41:18
Speaker
One more thought. No, I might have to go do dad duties and jump off in a second. Okay. Oh, that's fair. That's okay. We might finish our ah the last little bits on our side.
04:41:29
Speaker
We can do that. I have a game. What was the game? I'll see if I'd want to play it. let ah The game is called Sellout, and it's about famous sellouts. That sounds pretty fun.
04:41:41
Speaker
I think I'll jump off. Okay. Well, then it was wonderful having you, Gary. ah How about I throw it over to you to plug and we'll let you get back to your your home life.
04:41:54
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I've been a big fan of the show since you guys started. I listened to your first episode at SayFaris. SayFaris? Yeah. Yeah. I think the day it came now I was anticipating your guys' show. So really happy and on Thank you. And we're sorry. better Yeah, we're better now.
04:42:09
Speaker
things happen. I mean, listen to the Backyard Superheroes early records. Bad. Listen to our our new records. Better. Okay. So, yeah, check out my band Backyard Superheroes.
04:42:20
Speaker
um We're putting out a new record. ah More details to come about that. Listen to On the Upbeat. I contribute there every now and then. um Another great ska podcast. And it's cool that there's so many ska podcasts and everyone seems to be really chill with each other. But, um yeah, thank you guys for having me.
04:42:37
Speaker
Candy Coda Fury is awesome. And there I'll leave it on that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And we'll be talking soon. Well, yeah, I guess it's just joey's Joey. Joey first.
04:42:49
Speaker
ah for Do I need a scorecard? Yeah, I don't think so.
04:42:53
Speaker
Most points wins, Joey. Sweet. Oh, okay. Here we go. Okay. I did do a song. I didn't know if I did a song for this or not, but I did do it. Excellent. And if we have time, we could also do the prize fighters game that I never did. That's true. We could just answer Gary's questions. We'd also answer. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how much like extra content we want to shovel. Bullshit. All right. Here we go.
04:43:17
Speaker
My wall. It's tight on a Saturday night. Nine o'clock. No cash in sight. I hear a bland song to get me through. It's so damn lazy that I know what to do. I got to sell out.
04:43:28
Speaker
It's got to have repetitive beats. Sell out. Have you? and Oh, fuck. I screwed up already. Is this Detroit Rock City? That's why I went and wrote Detroit Rock City. Okay, here we go. The game's called the sellout game.
04:43:43
Speaker
I almost got to the end. he almost I almost got there. I knew what you were like parodying. That's a good. That's a thumbs up. I tried. I tried a little bit this time.
04:43:54
Speaker
In this game, Joey, joey gary andela joe Gary, and will be given the clues to ascertain celebrities considered the biggest sellouts of all time, according to Ranker.
04:44:05
Speaker
The clues will be get progressively easier, and they are all not necessarily musicians. Once you have a guess, buzz in with Ska or Buzz or your name. Most points wins. I guess you just say it, Joey. I like this. This is going fun game.
04:44:18
Speaker
All right. I just called it the sellout game. I should have had a better name. All right. Yeah, you had a whole song. Yeah, I know. Detroit rock sellout. All right. this one This person might be the poster child for sellouts, so much so that the rest of his bandmates can't stand him anymore.
04:44:35
Speaker
The rest of his bandmates can't stand him any anymore. Hmm. Poster boy for selling out. don't know. I need a... All right. So in the next clue. He started his career about politics and making a quick joke now and then in the eighty s and 90s.
04:44:54
Speaker
Band can't stand him. Yeah. Politics and holy he smokes. This is difficult. Okay. The last one. Yeah. Move from the streets of New York to VH1 for his insane reality show.
04:45:07
Speaker
Was it ah Gene Simmons? No. Although that makes sense based on what I just said. right Yeah. that For his insane reality show. Oh, um fucking the guy from Poison.
Celebrity Journeys and Sellouts
04:45:21
Speaker
No, I think you're thinking about rock music. This is not rock music. Oh, no. This is hippie hop. Hippie hop. Flavor Flav. Oh, come on. That wasn't selling out. That was buying in.
04:45:35
Speaker
Flavor Flav. yeah buying in did you know chuck d hates him like that that's hates him uh apparently still will do reunions with him but my favorite thing uh recently is i believe rihanna where or some sort of uh neck like a choker thing that had a ah watch on it okay and someone a news outlet said it's the first time that a timepiece has ever been worn on a neck and flava flave just commented on it and was like what
04:46:07
Speaker
but fuck i just i saw that and that made me laugh very fucking hard that's not real he's not a real person but like he can't be real like i think he's i think he's like a gorilla's have you seen flavor of love i seen public enemy live and i still don't believe flavor play as a real person but All right. All right.
04:46:34
Speaker
Okay. This next person, ah a person so sold out, he refers to himself as a businessman first and a musician second.
04:46:42
Speaker
Okay. um I'll need another. Okay. Started his career helping invent metal in the 70s before hitting arenas in the eighty s
04:46:52
Speaker
ah Oh, it's going to be someone dad, Rocky guy who sucks. Yep. It sucks a lot for sure. If he's more business than music and he started doing. Oh yeah. Oh, this one's going to be really bad, but I'm going to need a clue.
04:47:05
Speaker
Now, you know him as the guy that trademarked a bag of money and makes reality TV about his family jewels. Oh yeah. That's jeans. That's jeans. Yeah. He does suck. fuck that guy i hate that how do you go about paul stanley also piece of shit fuck that guy i made a hepcliffe comic about him getting launched into the sun or something it made some like weird transphobic comment right yeah like made no sense didn't make any sense yeah what's say he really doing he was just one of those idiots who's like jumping on this whole fucking like oh i just don't want people me relating kids bandwagon it's like that's not fucking happening you dumbass
04:47:39
Speaker
yeah Anyways. What about Ace Freely? All of Kiss. Wait, wait, I got one more. Which one? What about Peter Criss? Okay, what about the other ones? I know, nobody ever talks about, it's just like when we talk about ah Black Sabbath.
04:47:55
Speaker
yeah And people always talk about it's like Dio. Classic Sabbath. And Ozzy. Those are your two eras. yeah But there was like fucking Tony Martin. He had all these other guys singing in Black Sabbath.
04:48:05
Speaker
ah we go No one ever gives a shit about them. I think the only... Isn't Tony Iommi the only like... yeah ah because geezer butler is all of sabbath because geezer butler is not there anymore no he left and came back for a while too yeah the same with the drummer and uh yeah whoever the drummer is yeah i should know but i was a big geezer butler fan and a big tony iomi fan i love tony i i mean those first four sabbath records are unfuckwithable they're perfect music and i ah that's my sabbath but yeah i i love an aussie sabbath but i'm also i'm also the d i'm a d-o guy i'm a d-o guy forever like
04:48:39
Speaker
Come on. Circles and rings, dragons and kings, man. That's just the best mob rules. Fuck. First ep of the Rob metal podcast. It will be on there. I have, a I have, I have this deal. Yeah. I, I think that that is proto power metal is like the black Sabbath deal.
04:48:57
Speaker
Yeah. In this essay, I will. All right. We've only done two of these. All right. Here's another one. The classic tortured artist who people just don't get. Kurt Cobain.
04:49:08
Speaker
Oh, so close. He didn't really, I guess he sold out. some People called him a sellout, that's for sure. Okay, okay. It's not the right answer, but I'll give it to you. Started his career as an Oscar bait darling in the 90s, always presenting challenging roles and characters.
04:49:23
Speaker
So not a musician. No. Leo. Oh, so close. So close. After becoming a pirate in the 2000s, he bought an island, then became a giant douchebag.
04:49:36
Speaker
Oh, Johnny Depp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah I was man. Leo was very close. Very close. Yeah. I know. ah Different. I don't know if I would say Leo's a sellout. He always seemed like he was like.
04:49:49
Speaker
Because he he always did like like the beach and shit. Right. Or Titanic. Like, you know what i mean? Like, but they were on the beach. A movie that was a cool movie until it turned into a bad video game. All right. Here's another one.
04:50:03
Speaker
This one might be close to your heart. Beloved by fans everywhere, and they will defend him no matter what decision he makes, including selling out. ah That's a lot of people, I'm sure. Yeah.
04:50:13
Speaker
I know it's very very loose. Very broad. Started out as an auteur filmmaker who was able to transform his somewhat low-budget beginnings to mainstream spectacles. Kevin Smith?
04:50:26
Speaker
Not bad. too Too recent. We've got to go back a lot further. Back further, man. Yeah. So, okay. What's the third? Once the special editions came out, the writing was on the wall and with the prequels Jar Jar Binks and a billion dollar sale to Disney, hard to miss this one. George boy.
04:50:42
Speaker
Yeah.
04:50:44
Speaker
Like, it was like the textbook definition of selling out. yeah. It was like,
04:50:51
Speaker
Gimme, gimme, gimme. You know what, though? He was an innovator in that he went right to the studio and was like, no, you can have the box office dollars.
04:51:02
Speaker
Give me that merchandising money. And they were like, duh, okay. So he he created the industry of making fucking merchandising dollars off of movies, basically, with that one without one decision.
04:51:17
Speaker
And still sold the thing for a billion dollars. yeah On top of the millions and millions, hundreds of millions of dollars he made in merch. I can only assume Skywalker Ranch is like a literal heaven on earth. Anything you could imagine would just be there. Yeah, I think it's its own like country.
04:51:34
Speaker
Practically, yeah. It might even be like its own like cloud city on the ground or something. Probably. Trio of hip hoppers that once claimed that they're the biggest music musical influences were ah were nursery rhymes because they knew what that's what would get stuck in your head.
04:51:51
Speaker
Tom DeLonge says that too, but I'm going to go with ah
04:51:58
Speaker
Beastie Boys. So close. Were they sellouts? Sold out to Rick Rubin. That's true. ah Started out as a New York conscious rap group in the vein of Blackstar and Common.
04:52:10
Speaker
Oh, Black Peas. You got it. I was going to make a joke after that first one and say it was dyslexic speed readers, but that's a stupid true trio of bad rappers.
04:52:22
Speaker
last The last one I had is added the requisite eye candy and Fergie and the hits just wouldn't stop as their message became more and more about partying. Yeah. That's all they rap about these days. that There was one party.
04:52:33
Speaker
the The first non Fergie record they did was like a return to form. And it was fucking awesome. Highly highly recommend. Hey, we're rich now.
04:52:45
Speaker
Let's go back to talking about all that important stuff that we've just been ignoring for the last 20 years. So stupid. Like, fucking Will.i.am is a ah yeah a frustrating person. frustrating person. I just got to design a car.
04:52:59
Speaker
So, I mean, i might as well go back to rapping about how poor people are.
04:53:06
Speaker
right Recently said if he doesn't win an Oscar, he's going back to not trying anymore.
04:53:12
Speaker
Nicolas Cage I don't think he said that No he made a movie He already got an Oscar And also he put out that movie last year Where that was literally just a movie Of him being like yeah I couldn't give a fuck About this industry I just do what I want to Started out as a wild comedian That relied less on impressions And more on over the top character work Songs and gross out humor Oh And sold out I don't know.
04:53:42
Speaker
Post-SNL, the movie deals wouldn't stop and he eventually formed a production company that would just turn and burn for the last few decades. Oh, Adam Sandler. Sold out to netflix then ne Netflix. He sure did. yeah big yeah I don't i like to use the word sellout very much because like I've done creative stuff and not made any money at it for long enough to realize that if you're doing something creative and somebody wants to give you money for it,
04:54:11
Speaker
And you want to do that as your job, you're going to make some sacrifices for sure. So, I mean, everybody's threshold of selling out is a little bit different, I feel like. But yeah, Sandler just calling it in for the last like couple of decades, making shitty Netflix bullshit. is That's right up there, yeah. And the movie he thought he was going win an Oscar for was Uncut Gems.
04:54:35
Speaker
um um That's kind of fair. That movie's fucking insanely good. i never so I've never seen it, but like everything I've read about it like has a very like it, it seems like they were really going for it with making a movie like that. unnote i mean Unreal.
04:54:51
Speaker
good movie like i would i can't believe how good that movie is like me and my wife were like on the edge of our seats watching it like literally it was so intense and and don't know he just said if i don't get an oscar for this i'm just not going to try anymore and so anyway here we are we get huie halloween and whatever else he did that adam sandler networth This is an exciting tent He is in 2020 An estimated net worth of 420 million dollars Nice I think he'll be okay Doing just fine Alright where is this Filmography 440 now In the last 3 years he made 40 mil So I think he'll be okay Good for him good for him don't Don't bother trying for them Oscars Adam You're good
04:55:41
Speaker
uh man what the fuck he does like 50 movies a year there's a lot of ridiculous do you think it's like a like a nine to fivey they just go to the same studio all the time like it's like work work i'm just looking okay so you had hubie halloween ah murder mystery two there was a murder mystery and murder mystery one yeah apparently i thought that was just a fake ah it came out the same year as uncut gems i don't know don't know about this man
04:56:10
Speaker
His movies coming out soon have names like The Outlaws, and You Are so Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. The Outlaws as in, like, the in-laws, but, like, they're cowboy outlaws?
04:56:24
Speaker
no dang that would have been real good but the adam devine and or adam divine and uh pierce brosnan are in it anyway whatever fucking sandler pierce brosnan getting fucking the golden eye in your movies you just saw michelle yo doing so well and he's like me too adam sandler me in your movie And still no ah no like happy G2, hey?
04:56:54
Speaker
but look I don't want to see that. I'd be so sad. if I saw like a Billy Madison 2, I'd be so sad. Billy Madison 20 years later or something. And he still has to go back to school? like That's still the plot? it's It's Adam Sandler.
04:57:10
Speaker
playing him but he has a kid now who's also played by adam sandler who is the right age to have to go back to school but now it's talking about all the modern issues with school and he's got to do like active shooter drills
04:57:33
Speaker
it writes itself it's all right all right come on it does write itself i'm absolutely certain he's got like some kind of like like a player piano but it's like a typewriter that just like types out like garbage scripts man when chat gpt came out adam samler was probably like making adam i was gonna say he's got the highest tier of chat gpt sign up or whatever and he's just like that's how he does a dozen movies a year he just has Chat GPT writes it. They go into the studio nine to five for three weeks. They have it added it over the fourth week of the month, but I want to one month.
04:58:09
Speaker
You pull Rob Schneider down from his tree house or whatever in the parking lot. It's like they pop in from his pile of dirt or some bullshit. I think he's on the outs these days to that guy. oh That guy is saying some wild shit. All right. Here's the next one.
04:58:22
Speaker
If you saw the hip hop movie about him and his band, you know, selling out was always in the cards. Dr. Dre. Fuck, that was close. Real close. Easy E. God damn it. famous Famous sellout, Easy E. Sold out to dying. i don't know.
04:58:44
Speaker
but so Sold out to the AIDS pandemic. I mean... No, not not those three. but the Snoop Dogg. Oh wait, I said Snoop Dogg.
04:58:56
Speaker
One more. The DOC. You're all doing this on purpose now.
04:59:05
Speaker
One more. I can't think of you candding with anybody else in NWA that you haven't mentioned so far. Who am I missing? Not Dr. Dre, not Snoop Dogg, not Eazy-E, not the DOC.
04:59:18
Speaker
I can't think of who the other person is.
04:59:23
Speaker
ah so stupid oh maybe we'll just maybe the next clue will help you originally a guy known for being a racist homophobe who only talked about gang life as a means for escape why is it like escaping me i can't get it on my brain eventually penned the stoner comedy friday and made his way out to hollywood and never looked back oh ice cube ice cube god why couldn't i get that out of my head I've never seen this in my life.
04:59:51
Speaker
Oh my God. That was really stupid. Ice cube. Did you win? Yeah, I won. Oh, awesome. good Big winner. Big fan.
05:00:01
Speaker
Let's play question the answers. But my question is just for Joey, I guess. yeah And me, I guess I can. Yeah, you can answer some questions. All right. Who's your favorite superhero?
05:00:13
Speaker
Oh, man. i
05:00:18
Speaker
Freakzoid. Freakzoid's a good choice. He's second only to The Thing. The Thing's pretty good. The Tick is what I meant. Oh, yeah. I mean, the Thing is also a superhero, is he not?
05:00:32
Speaker
from From the Fantastic Four, but I don't. i don't Yeah, I'm not interested in him. I'm not interested in the Fantastic Four. Yeah, Ben Reilly. Kick rocks. Get out of here. Yeah, he's made of rocks. No, not Ben Reilly. Ben Reilly is the Scarlet Spider.
05:00:46
Speaker
Who's the i don't is the thing? I'm not a Marvel guy. Parking up the wrong tree. We'll find out in the next handful of years when we eventually get a Fantastic Four movie. That's true. Who's mine? I don't know. One Punch Man, I guess.
05:00:59
Speaker
That's good enough. That's a good one, too. yeah The Frog Lady from My Hero Academia. She's great. Is she a superhero? Yeah. My Hero Academia is all about superheroes. Oh, okay. Yeah. didn't know. I guess it says hero, right? Yeah.
05:01:11
Speaker
They're all superheroes. Yeah. Go to school. Pick anatomy. that's That's my my thing. What should the 27th letter of the alphabet be?
05:01:22
Speaker
the That's what Aaron asked of Power Up. the the zero the Like a zero with a slash through it? Well, that's a pretty good one. Yeah. Yeah. What sound does make? lost my case. What sound does it make?
05:01:38
Speaker
thoughtss already zero I like we should just go back to the well. Let's pull out some of those old Greek letters and start using those. Some real squiggles. Yeah, let's get some omegas in there. Let's get some thetas.
05:01:49
Speaker
What would you use them for? You make guttural sounds. like Umlauts? O with umlauts so everything can be like motorhead? I think he nailed it right there. Right there. Oh, with umlaut.
05:02:01
Speaker
Like, I don't even want the U with an umlaut. I just want the with an umlaut. I need that. need things to be metal. Yeah, totally. ah What and a number is Aaron thinking of? 768.4.
05:02:18
Speaker
four Nice. What is your favorite backyard? Mine. That's a good backyard. Solid backyard. Put a lot of work into it. Yeah, yeah. yeah this This year, the last previous year, it's pretty good.
05:02:32
Speaker
Here's backyard it might be my favorite, too. I like it a little bit more than my backyard. yeah My backyard's good. Your backyard. Salina and I have put, like, a lot of effort into our backyard. ah What do you think a bunny hug is?
05:02:45
Speaker
that's for an American. I know what that is. Yeah. What? I'm just putting these questions I'm just, what do you listener? Think, ah think of, yeah, but we're not going to tell you actually listen to our next episode.
05:02:57
Speaker
Cause we have a Canadian coming on. Who is, I would call can con expert. Did he also pose this question? Yes. I believe he did. We'll come back to it. He will have the answer. He'll have the answer more than any of us.
05:03:09
Speaker
Uh, why are Canadians so into boxed macaroni and cheese? i almost want to save that for our next guest as well. I mean, I could brush the surface a little bit. Now with some powdered cheese. And it might be because it's cheap.
05:03:25
Speaker
Because it's cheap. Yeah. and Got it. Weird cheap. It comes in a flat. yep Sometimes I just see people with a like using the flat for other things, and I'm just like, I see you.
05:03:39
Speaker
but I see you buying the flat. 24 boxes of that, okay? Sick. Sick. Sick. That'll do you right. You buy it the grocery store. I don't have to go to Costco.
05:03:50
Speaker
They just have it there. Yeah.
Episode Conclusion
05:03:52
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Checkered Past. Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok at Checkered Past Pod or send us an email at Checkered Past Pod at gmail.com. Support the pod and get bonus content including a full length and unedited video of this episode. Sign up for the Checkerhead Patreon at patreon.com slash Checkered Past.
05:04:07
Speaker
We also have merch available at checkeredpast.ca. Checkered Past is edited by Ariane and engineered by Joey and our Ska associate producer is Chris Reeves of Ska Punk International.
05:04:18
Speaker
And until next time, I'm Rob. And I'm Joey. In the mortal words of RealBigFish, and this is a serious Easter egg for longtime fans. Don't stop skankin'.