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Louder Is Better with Jim Parker
220 Plays6 months ago
This week, we checked in with our friend for his sequel episode, the Ramblin’ Man himself, Jim Parker. We talked about what’s been going on with his brand, @tazewellclothes, we learn the trials and tribulations of making clothes in the USA, the day-to-day life of a working musician, his signature guitar tone, music gear, the Solar Eclipse, making the perfect OCBD; and also talk a little shit about a certain book. All this, and more, coming at you in this great conversation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Apocalypse Duds
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. You're now listening to Apocalypse Duds.
Introducing Jim Parker: Guitarist and Guest
00:00:11
Speaker
I don't know why it's a spooky one. Yeah, we're not even close to Halloween at this point, but sometimes you gotta get spooky with it. But we're approaching Halloween
00:00:28
Speaker
with our next guest, Jim Parker, who is not a werewolf, but is an amazing guitarist.
Music Chat: Guitar Solos and Oz Fest
00:00:35
Speaker
So we have a lot of we have a lot to
00:00:40
Speaker
Isn't that there's like some guitar songs about howling at the moon. Yeah. Yeah. But bark at the moon by Aussie comes to mind. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. We'll talk about Oz Fest, which I know we have made a habit of talking about. But yeah, you'll be satisfied with the with the discussion. It will surely be satisfied. It was a fun one. We've had Jim on before. He's
00:01:05
Speaker
long time homie of both the show and us and just a overall great dude, supportive.
00:01:14
Speaker
Very supportive, does cool shit, plays guitar. Good taste. Plays guitar like a motherfucking riot. Shout out Sublime. Right. Dude, that's funny. I've had that stuck in my head for the last two days. It's an earworm. No offense, but the guitar in that song is not a quote unquote motherfucking riot, but I'll forgive it.
Debating Drum Solos: Love or Hate?
00:01:42
Speaker
It's a good solo. It's a good solo. It's a good solo. And solos inherently are annoying. I definitely am in the Cobain School of thought with that. Even though he had solos, he was anti-solo. Right, right. Yeah. It all depends. Nothing is worse than a drum solo.
00:02:05
Speaker
I'm a drummer. You can't convince me. It's a 20-minute drum solo. Oh, yeah. A 20-minute drum solo. Fuck off. That's too long. That's too long. The guy from Primus did that, whatever the fuck his name is. I mean, if you're Neil Peart, go for it. I can maybe get down with five minutes. Five is fine. The 20 minutes is not a good amount of time to be listening to percussion.
00:02:34
Speaker
It's true. Yeah. I mean, I come from drum lines, so I'm... That's different though. That's like a lot of drummers. One drummer, it's too indulgent. It's like... Yeah, I can agree.
00:02:50
Speaker
Understand where you're coming from in this one. That's that's about that's about as close as we get to an agreement Yeah, I'll take it. I'll
Dog Sitting Adventures in Atlanta
00:02:58
Speaker
take it. I'll take it too Yeah, I've been dog sitting in Atlanta for the past week and it's been
00:03:05
Speaker
Really nice. Who let the dogs out? Who let the dogs out? It was Matt. They're currently asleep on the couch next to me. It's been fun and the weather's been perfect. Georgia spring is very temperamental, but thankfully, it's been a week of sun and a nice breeze for the most part. Shot a lot of pool and factors.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's been a very social week, which is not my typical one though. Um, but a good one, a good one.
May Day and Global Labor Issues
00:03:41
Speaker
Um, yeah, today, uh, this is coming out post may 1st, but today is may day. We're recording the intro for this show. So solidarity with the workers. Excellent.
00:03:56
Speaker
Always, always. Yeah, and Mayday, yeah, we should have come up in our brainstorming session. It should have, yeah. But it is so important. It's so, so, so important. And it really is the only issue of our time. Yeah, labor is a part of every single fucking thing that our ruling classes foist upon us.
00:04:26
Speaker
So get organized, find your people. Yeah. And in leading up to this, we were talking about how just ridiculous the campus response has been to the fucking siege. Fucking Palestinian encampments. Sorry, Palestinian. I don't know why I mispronounced that.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, the one here last week at Emory, just the police were just... As they love to do. But those are special kind of pigs. Yeah. And I say this from my own experience at a state school with just mean cops. Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker
They are looking to fuck up young people's days and lives. And so they do. And we allow them to do it. Yeah.
Campus Protests and Stop Cop City
00:05:27
Speaker
Part of it here, too, is the stop cop city movements, which, of course, the organizers and activists here always make a point in connecting the struggles because of the
00:05:43
Speaker
Gilead Program, Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, which trains with the Israeli occupation forces. So yeah, it's a lot of personal shit for me being in the city. And it's all connected. It's all fucking connected. All of our struggles doesn't matter.
00:06:06
Speaker
You know, it doesn't matter what it is. If you're a working class person and not part of the ruling class, then your struggle is more connected with the people around you than any fucking thing else. So get involved. Do what you can. But yeah, we have a great show with Jim Parker coming at you.
Podcast Updates: YouTube and Engagement
00:06:29
Speaker
Please rate, like, subscribe, review.
00:06:34
Speaker
on your platform, which was, I did see that we got a YouTube comment. I don't know if we ever said that, but our shows are streaming on YouTube now, even though we're audio only. So check it out if you want to. Yeah. Yeah. People have been watching on YouTube. Nice. Nice. I hate using YouTube because that's basically the only thing you can do while it's going. Well, because you only use your phone. I know.
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's bullshit though. It's all bullshit and YouTube sucks ass because it's all advertisements Yeah, true true which to be clear we get nothing of Yeah, we know we get that shit. We don't advertise yet anyone and if we ever do it will be people that we think are rad and make something that we believe in and
00:07:23
Speaker
the bladder daddy is coming. The bladder daddy possibly is coming. Anyway, hope you enjoy the show. And here's our chat with Jim Parker.
Jim Parker's Humorous Backstory
00:07:37
Speaker
Hello and welcome.
00:07:43
Speaker
On this most suspicious day, the day after the eclipse we were just discussing, off the air, today we bring you a very special guest. His father was a gambler down in Georgia and he wound up on the wrong end of a gun.
00:08:11
Speaker
He was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus, rolling down Highway 41. Our next guest, of course, was born a rambling man. You heard him here about a year ago.
Eclipse Effects and Astrology Anecdotes
00:08:26
Speaker
Here's the modest maestro, the not-so-boisterous buyer, the auburn ace of the armory, the humble hero of the hammer-on, Jim Parker. Welcome.
00:08:39
Speaker
Wow, I wasn't expecting that, y'all. I know you're a huge Alma Brothers fan, and we were trying to come up. Usually the intros are mostly all Connor with maybe a really bad joke that he makes into a good one for me. And I was like, what if we just quote Ramblin' Man lyrics? And he was like, down, down. Yeah, that's great. How's it going? All right, how y'all doing?
00:09:08
Speaker
doing well. It's kind of gross today after post eclipse monsoon, but whatever.
00:09:17
Speaker
Everyone is in there like post eclipse, uh, excitement. Yeah. Cool down. Cool down phase, right? All of my astrology friends are, uh, you know, have, have been my best friend, Eleanor is, is an astrology girlie. And she's been, uh, yeah, been, uh, talking about the changes that the eclipse would bring. And I'm like, cool. Okay.
00:09:40
Speaker
let's let's let's try i mean i welcome it yeah i welcome it and you know in fact i did go get my a bunch of stuff today i did that in a normal fallerian universe would be shit show disaster
00:09:56
Speaker
Like I went and got my blood drawn and it didn't even, it was just fine. Like there was no bullshit. I gotta tell you, I'm impressed cause I hate having my blood drawn. It's terrible. It's terrible. They miss you four times. That's not acceptable.
00:10:13
Speaker
That's butchery. That is, that is, I think because I've had so many, like, like I took allergy shots twice a week for a good majority of my childhood. And so I have also like, I feel like this probably made me not really care about getting tattooed. Like it hurts, but it's not like the worst thing in the world. So yeah, I like, I'll just sit there and watch them and I'm like, okay, yeah, you'll get it. You'll find it eventually.
00:10:43
Speaker
It's just as, it's just as yucky. I mean, I'm used to it. Of course, like the psych ward, they take your blood, as I think I've talked about on this program, they take your blood, they wake you up at four o'clock in the morning and they take your blood every day. Wow. So you can't really get around it. Like you just have to deal with it. And so anyway, suffice it to say, maybe the eclipse did bring on, bring on the fun or whatever it's getting a little bit better.
00:11:13
Speaker
Maybe, maybe. I gotta say, I like, I just got back from vacation and then yesterday with the eclipse and like, basically everybody just fucking off from work from like two o'clock on. Right. It was like a week of no work and then coming back and everybody decided not to work for the afternoon yesterday. Right. And I'm like, do I have to- You had a soft start. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. I was using back in and I opened my inbox this morning and
00:11:41
Speaker
It was not fun, but it's done now. I saw a good tweet earlier that was, yes, it's still Twitter, it's not fucking X. But it was like, the eclipse showed us that Mondays don't actually have to be work days. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:01
Speaker
Also, I guess it could show you that you can just like kind of take time off like kind of whenever you want. It's all made up. It's all made up. Yeah, it's a construct. It's a construct. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I live here in Brooklyn, I live next to Fort Green Park. Yeah, it was like filled up with people.
00:12:24
Speaker
And I was wondering around like, what, where do these people work? And then I was like, wait, you're not at work. Anyway, yeah, it was strange. It was strange, but interesting day yesterday for that. Yeah.
00:12:41
Speaker
I was expecting to see someone riding a motorcycle, staring up at the sun, crashing into some kind of store. I don't know. I was just like, this is bound to be eventful. And it was just fine. Yeah. I mean, I was having thoughts about
00:13:01
Speaker
You can really imagine like a couple thousand years ago, like nobody understanding what an eclipse is and it happens and you're like, Oh, God is really mad. They all go blind. Did they all go blind? I mean, how did you not just stare at it? Connor and I were actually talking about this yesterday. Like, like I, yeah, I, I, I had no answer. Like I, if I was a prime, you know, medieval human being, I would be like, what the fuck is happening? Oh my God. I can't see anymore.
00:13:33
Speaker
We're all about to die and now I'm blind. That's what my roommate said. He was like, no, no, no. I mean, Jebediah would just have lost his sight because of God's wrath.
00:13:51
Speaker
So we were talking about the eclipse. We were saying, Jim, you have to be covered up. You are a sunburner as well. Yeah. So what are you wearing today? What have you been wearing? It's sort of in terms of trends like I don't mean trends in terms of what is fashionable. I mean trends of what you are wearing.
00:14:11
Speaker
Sure. Let's see. Right now, I'm wearing a bunch of Taz and stuff because that's what I own. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Sure.
Challenges of Running Tazwell Clothing
00:14:25
Speaker
Like what I'm wearing specifically or just in general? Well, no. I mean, Taz, well, that's big in your life.
00:14:32
Speaker
That's big in my life. It's been an interesting year to own a clothing brand that's focused on made in the US stuff.
00:14:46
Speaker
some really negative thoughts about it and then some really positive ones. And I'm happy to share both, but I thought what I would, I've kind of thought we might talk about this. So I pulled up this text that I sent to my childhood best friend that I still talk to basically every day. And I listed out some stuff that's happened since I started TASWL, which was in basically early 2021. So in the time that I've been,
00:15:15
Speaker
working on it. Uh, factories closed for, uh, factories closed. factories closed due to injury or death to factories that were lying about making in the United States. One fabric or trim suppliers that closed that's three. So that's additional to the actual factories, making things, uh, just fabric mills that I was working with closed.
00:15:44
Speaker
Factories or suppliers who stop returning calls after verbally agreeing to do work to factories or suppliers who delivered incorrect final production.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have something on here about factories being late, but you know, whatever That's that's a whole other thing and then the final thing that's kind of a that's something I have a tangent of mine Which is factories that had a moq which is by or speak for minimum order quantity over a hundred pieces of skew Which is a lot by the way at least six, right? So yeah, so it's a like a
00:16:23
Speaker
It's a struggle. At the moment what I'm working on is like I said I wouldn't do any tailored clothing and then I kind of am swallowing that and working on some tailored clothing and that's made in my home state in Tennessee. Yeah, so working on that possibly looking at asking people for money. I don't mean like a Kickstarter. I mean like going to the bank and asking for money. I didn't really want to do that either.
00:16:52
Speaker
That's the next step, I think. So it was a tough year to run that business, but also it was really encouraging to see people actually buy things from me. That was cool. So yeah. And then also just this month, this book, American Flannel. Have you guys read this? Do you know about it? I have heard things about it.
00:17:20
Speaker
I don't know the dude. I haven't read it. My first impression is that it is a book that probably shouldn't have been written from the perspective that it seems to be written from. No offense to the writer. Yeah, it just seems like there's a lot of the story left out and it's almost like he got paid by some people to
00:17:47
Speaker
to feature them. I mean, I'm not accusing him of anything. It's just like, you know, man, yeah, this is like, as someone that has worked in the industry for a while, like, there's a lot of the story that ain't being told with this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree with you. I still, I'll say Stephen, I don't know how to say his last name, Koretz, Koretz, Stephen, if you're listening, I'm sorry. Yeah, Stephen, sorry, man, not trying to talk shit.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, I'll give some criticism on the book, but I do want to pronounce your name correctly, so don't call Steven. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of emphasis on, and I understand this because it was like the book is basically just like a compilation of articles that Steven wrote that are mostly about that brand, American Giant, which by the way, I'm not going to crap on any brand that's making stuff in the US because I personally know how difficult it is.
00:18:46
Speaker
I will say it does focus a lot on that brand, but also it does seem like the guy that started that brand really cares. Now, he did also sell the company to one of the co-founders of WeWork, and I don't really know what's happening there. That might give you an idea, I guess, and we can talk about this, of the
00:19:08
Speaker
the money that's necessary to to do this properly yeah yeah at a certain scale there's awesome yeah yeah um he was but it's interesting too i there are so many names in the book of people that i've i know uh and that's not me like trying to brag like i know everybody in the industry it's more a comment on like how small the industry actually is oh yeah
00:19:35
Speaker
know what I mean? Because part of the book is about the gist is the guy that owns American Giant wanted to make a flannel shirt in the United States, like an old Pendleton or something like that. And he was surprised to find out that nobody was making the cloth in the US. So he spent a lot of time and the part they don't say is a lot of money on the
00:19:59
Speaker
I'm figuring that out, and he did it successfully, and the people that helped him, I know. The reason I know them is because they are the people. That's it. Right. I'm kind of removed from the industry at this point, but what factory did he use to make them? Short-tech.
00:20:25
Speaker
Well, he used this, the initial run was done in a place in Philadelphia. I can't remember the, but yeah, but now it says on their website that they're making the flannels in New York. Uh, but then they're using, uh, to actually make the cloth. That was the part that was tough is like he wanted American made cloth and it just didn't exist, which I can attest to. Um, yeah, actually speaking of cloth that doesn't exist anymore, I'm wearing,
00:20:54
Speaker
a tassel shirt that's like wool, gabardine, and I bought it from Pendleton because they do still make some cloth, but they are no longer making this and they were the only people in the country doing it. Wonderful. Rare weave indeed. Yeah, that's right. If you want some of the last of that, I have it, but it's more like,
00:21:22
Speaker
It's interesting when you run into things like that. We literally don't make that stuff anymore. It's strange. A friend of mine and I talk about this in a group chat pretty regular.
00:21:43
Speaker
you know, 100% made in the USA from the cloth to everything else is basically impossible at this point. Or at least not, if not impossible, damn near impossible, because inevitably like something, you know, a trim or a button or whatever is not going to be available because we just don't do that as much anymore.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like the I don't think there probably are button factories in the US, but I haven't been able to find one. Yeah. I don't know that there are there's a small zipper company in Tennessee that I've used.
00:22:27
Speaker
and they make some of their stuff still in Tennessee and some of it is made in Canada. I don't know why, but that's, you know, so like, yeah, it's really interesting that the supply chain just in general is not, it's not there. Yeah, totally, totally.
Recording with The National Reserve
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah. And so I know you and I have talked or taught pretty regular about music and things and I saw you've been going through recording with your band lately.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I play in this band in New York called the National Reserve. And quick shout out to Sean, the band leader. I believe he just became a dad within the last 24 hours. So congratulations, Sean.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, he texted us yesterday saying that it was the day and I haven't heard anything else but also I don't really want to bother him so I figure I'll hear it but congrats Sean and Skye. You're going to be great parents. So yeah, so we've been working on a new record. I don't know the timeline on that yet. That is one of my favorite things to do so whenever I can.
00:23:44
Speaker
Is it a full link? Yeah, full links. Yeah. And I think we're, we're just doing, Sean has a studio and we're doing basically pre-production and demos to start shopping around, which is, yeah, which is kind of,
00:24:02
Speaker
It's kind of cool. It means that we can work on our own time. Sometimes that means that you don't work, but I think it's, for the most part, it means low pressure, but also I'm not the only one.
00:24:15
Speaker
on this call that makes music. And I think you have something that just came out that's more immediate than anything I have. Yeah, we did it all ourselves. And it's actually the first, I might have said this before, but the first 100% DIY thing I've ever done. And part of that is because the technology
00:24:41
Speaker
Like, you know, if I had had a smartphone in like,
00:24:46
Speaker
2000 to 2000, I don't know, eight or nine, whenever I like kind of stopped being in bands like, I would have had so many fucking riffs and songs and shit that just like got lost to the ether. Because, you know, yeah, a four track or whatever was like, expensive, or you could go to Walmart and get like, you know, the little handheld recorder for 20 bucks that like, you can tell anything from actually fucking recording on it and playing it back. So it's like, yeah,
00:25:16
Speaker
But, you know, with GarageBand, which I have a love-hate relationship with, and, you know, interface recording and stuff, and, like, thankfully, Grayson, I'm kind of a Luddite, but, like, Grayson and Eric just really, like, Grayson took, you know, took to the, like, actual recording process and, like, my placement and stuff. I mean, we all did, but, you know, it's just, like, I'm lucky to have had those two
00:25:42
Speaker
working on this as well. Because if it was just me, it certainly would not have gotten gotten done at all. Well, congrats, man. Yeah, I'm very proud of it. And yeah, I think like, you know, because we did it ourselves, and we can just keep making shit, you know, hopefully releases won't take as long as they used to.
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I still know how difficult it is just to get three or four people in a room and record stuff. And everybody agreed that that's what you're going to do. And then also actually write the material and then record it and record it well. It's tough. Oh, totally.
00:26:27
Speaker
Even with the technology that's that we have now like I can make a record in the room I'm sitting in but it's still I have to do it, you know, yeah This this process did make me realize why I've always paid someone to master the fucking thing because mastering. Yeah Holy shit, like I wanted to be an audio engineer like back in the day and I'm reading like I think I would have pulled my hair out If I had to do that shit constantly
Music Mastering: Challenges and Anecdotes
00:26:57
Speaker
I had that realization when I was studying recording engineering right out of high school. That was my major in college for two and a half years. And I was just like, I don't think I can sit and worry about compression ratio all day.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you think something sounds good. You do a test. You do a headphone or a car. Car test is my favorite, even though my band at the moment, the sound system is very tinny. But it's like, oh, cool. Yeah, this sounded great on our monitor speakers. This sounds fucking terrible on everything else. Back to the drawing board.
00:27:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think it's strange that when you're putting music out into the world now, you have to mix it.
00:27:51
Speaker
You have to think about how it's being consumed and usually it's consumed from the bottom of your iPhone. And mixing for that is much different than mixing for your car or whatever. I had a friend tell me that we were talking a few weeks back and his name's Lucky. He just joined an awesome man called Hotline TNT. He does his own project called Onionism.
00:28:16
Speaker
Um, and he was like, dude, I accidentally uploaded an unmastered, uh, like single. I don't remember if it was like an EP or a single or whatever to Spotify. And he was like, basically with all of the compression that Spotify as a platform puts on it, he was like, it sounded just like I had mastered it. Like it probably would have sounded worse if I had already done that. I was like, wow, that's, that's, I don't know how to feel about that one.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah. I had the opportunity a couple of years ago, I made this record with this guy, Gregory Duane, and he had it mastered in Nashville, like he was putting real money into it.
00:28:58
Speaker
He invited me down to the mastering studio while it was happening. And that was really kind of amazing. Because the gear is different than a standard mix studio. The ideas are similar, but you're talking about very subtle variations, right? Like you're mixing or you're adding like a half dB here or a quarter dB there. Yeah. It seems like kind of this black magic thing.
00:29:25
Speaker
But everybody seems to know that they need it, but they don't know exactly why. Yeah, absolutely. It's like the minutia of my aunt always says she deals with the minutia of law. And I think that that's like what mastering is. It's just like the littlest things that are extremely important.
00:29:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, it used to have a technical importance as well because you were mastering to make sure that you didn't have too much bass in the record and in the literal record and that sort of thing. Because otherwise, like you would run off the grooves and stuff like that. But now it becomes, now it's about like trying to get little gains in volume and clarity and
00:30:12
Speaker
And there's still like volume wars which are really interesting because like Spotify says you have to master to I think it's like Minus 14 or something like that But apparently everybody actually masters to like minus eight because they still think that louder better. So yeah Yeah, generally louder is
00:30:38
Speaker
Louder is better, at least it's more exciting, right? And that's, you're supposed to, everyone says to mix at a very low volume, but I can't do it, because I just get bored. Yeah, same here. When we were making a record and doing mixing, mastering and stuff, I was just like, I want it to feel like you're getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer.
00:31:01
Speaker
Like that's how I want it to come off. And hopefully we did that. I don't know. It's weird talking about my own shit, I'm sorry.
00:31:12
Speaker
Oh, no. I understand. I understand. I was just listening. I sent some some tracks off to this ad agency yesterday. And I was listening back to stuff I've done in the last couple of years. And I was like, Oh, I really actually I don't want to send this because I'm embarrassed. But this is what I have. So here you go. It's tough. It's all I think it's Yeah, you are you're always like,
00:31:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You get so in your head while you're doing it, while you're making the thing. At least I do. Like, that's all I can think about. And then once it's done, I most of the time never want to look at it or listen to it again. Right. Yeah. That's how it is at the show. Yeah. Yeah. I have listened to exactly one full episode of the show. And it was torture, if I'm being honest. Like, I don't want to hear myself fucking talk.
00:32:04
Speaker
And that's what all of our audience thinks too. It's torture. Hopefully they feel better about it than I do. But yeah, I'm sure that Connor is one of the handful of people that I send the shit that I'm working on to. And so I'm sure...
00:32:22
Speaker
I'm sure he has heard over the past year, like the songs five fucking bajillion times. And for that, I should apologize, Connor. I'm sorry. But, you know, they rock, honestly. I think it's good. So there you motherfucker.
00:32:42
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, it comes full circle. So we can round out the music discussion.
Jim Parker's Guitar Gear Philosophy
00:32:50
Speaker
We're thinking about your rig, Jim. And I don't mean your genitals. I'm talking about your guitar. Okay. So what are you slaying right now?
00:33:08
Speaker
I'm sitting in a room full of gear so I definitely give a shit. I have a real love-hate relationship with gear because it's like
00:33:19
Speaker
There's part of me sometimes that wants to sell everything and just play through a PV. Good call, good call. But I say that. Yeah, right. Yeah, but I'm also, I say that and I'm sitting in front of like a $4,000 two rock amp, which I'm like is cool, but also embarrassing. And I, yeah. Well, so you don't have to list your expensive shit either. I mean, it's like, we're not trying to be weird here. No, no, no, no, no. I just mean like, what guitar do you play most often?
00:33:47
Speaker
Oh, oh, oh, yeah, sure. So my main guitar, this is funny. My main guitar was actually free. That guy that I mentioned, Gregory Dwayne, after recording that record was like here and gave me this sweet telly. Oh, wow. I think I have seen pictured. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, on my Instagram, if you see me with a red telly, that's the one. I've put the most, probably the most,
00:34:16
Speaker
gigs on that out of anything I own right now.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's just a sweet parts caster, actually, half made by this guy here in Brooklyn, and then also half Nash. So I don't know. I was told recently by someone that I admired, I was kind of talking about gear, and this is where my weirdness about gear is coming lately, where it's coming from. I was talking about gear, and he was like, dude, you're thinking about this too much. Play more, and when you do, the gear will come.
00:34:50
Speaker
And I started thinking about that and like looked around my room and like the gear that I use the most was typically given to me. So I mean, I've been, yeah, it's kind of, I don't know why that, I don't know why that works. It's interesting. Yeah. I mean, I have, I have nice stuff. I'm really fortunate in that, in that way. But some of my favorite things were gifts. So yeah.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, somewhat. I go through a love-hate relationship with pedals too because my main guitar, my teacher for years here in New York was Jim Campolongo and he famously just plays an old Tele, a 59 Tele straight into a Princeton and that's it, no pedals. He doesn't even use a pedal tuner, he just either tunes by ear or uses a headstock tuner.
00:35:45
Speaker
Hell yeah. Are you a pedal person?
00:35:49
Speaker
Oh, wow. So I had, yeah. And he's like, he's pretty, you know, successful. Like he just plays guitar and lived in New York for ages until he moved back to San Fran recently. But yeah, so that's always running in my head. And like a lot of my favorite players like Roy Buchanan are kind of similar, like it was just guitar, usually a telly.
00:36:12
Speaker
into some kind of Fender amp. And that's like a lot of my favorite stuff. But you also like, you can't sound like the smashing pumpkins with just that rig, you know, or whatever. So that's a long way of saying, yeah, I like pedals. And I'm staring at a pedal board right now. So yeah, I like them. What's like your kind of go to pedal setup?
00:36:40
Speaker
Um, here it goes. My, if I have a sound, if I have like a, if there's a Jim Parker tone, it's basically like, um, like slightly overdriven with some slapback on it.
00:36:55
Speaker
And so my main board, I have a couple of pedals that help me get that slightly overdriven sound. If I can't turn up the amp loud enough, the main one that I use is by this company called Brown Amplification. They make a pedal called the Protein. So if you have any nerdy guitar listeners, they probably know what that is. So that's that. But anything that's basically
00:37:20
Speaker
Sorry, I just dropped a capo, literally. Yeah. So that's that. But anything that's slightly overdriven, not too bright, and then a little bit of slapback, that's what I'll go through. One of my favorite pedals is the Strymon flint, which is just like, I play a lot of, I guess, what is called Americana music. And the flint is kind of like Americana in a box. It's like a good reverb and a tremolo.
00:37:50
Speaker
Oh, that sounds awesome. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really good. And all the pedals that I have, I don't really, I like pedals, but I don't like tweaking and I don't like sub menus and stuff like that. Right. So basically my whole philosophy on gear is like, I want to make it sound good. You turn it on and to make it sound better, you turn it up.
00:38:12
Speaker
Like that's how I think about gear. Um, so it's, you know, I do have, I have way more pedals than I probably should have, but, um, in general, they're like pretty simple. Yeah. It can become an addiction for sure. It dude, it's yeah. I went through a phase of like buying a lot of them. Uh, and I've kind of calmed down on that.
00:38:38
Speaker
Uh, I would, yeah, I kind of have what I do. Your acquisition syndrome. Dude, it's, it's the worst. It's the worst. It is real. And it's like, you know, the road, of course, is like the less shit, probably the better. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:38:56
Speaker
For sure, for sure. It's like photo stuff, you know? You always think, oh no, this like thing will make it better. And then you find out it's like, no, it's you. Yeah, yeah, that's the, yes. God's honest truth is like the thing that's going to most likely make you sound better on whatever instrument you're playing is practice, not whatever you can buy.
00:39:17
Speaker
But it's way faster to buy something than it is to put in 10,000 hours on your instrument. Then there's a huge, huge gratification in buying something on the internet and waiting for it and having it arrive and then opening it. All that shit is a brain reward.
00:39:36
Speaker
Oh man, and yeah, you start like the worst is I'm not active on any forums really, but I have been at times a little bit and it's like you buy a new amp or like whatever and post it on a forum and everybody like is giving you like a virtual pad on the back. It feels so good.
00:39:59
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a dopamine hit, for sure. For sure. Yeah, yeah. You're like, yeah, I did make a good decision buying this really expensive thing. And everyone is saying it to me. Everyone's saying the same thing that I'm saying. Everyone is saying the same thing I'm saying. Like, yeah, we must be right. Right? Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Insidious.
00:40:22
Speaker
Yeah, somehow, like, I feel like music forums and like, music, Instagrams and things are, from my perspective, overall, way more positive than any other forum culture that I've ever been a part of. Like, it's like a bunch of a bunch of us nerds that are like, Oh, I want to see the amp that you're playing. I want to see your fucking pedal board. And like, you know, it's just like, overall, I feel like there's less disdain.
00:40:49
Speaker
um that that i picked up on yeah but yeah the disdain is just you don't listen to music that is bad yeah i mean
Guitar Gear Lust and Childhood Dreams
00:41:00
Speaker
It sort of weeds itself out. Right. And I mean, you know, I genuinely enjoy seeing what people are playing. Like, even if it's not, you know, even if it's not a thing that I care about, like, I'm not like, I'm a PV stand, like solid state PV, you know, that's my favorite shit. But if someone posts like a fucking JMP, I'm like, fuck, that's cool.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah. I'm the, I'm the same. Like I, every once in a while I get an itch to buy that fucking Mesa dual rectifier.
00:41:34
Speaker
I have no use for that, so instead, I get on a guitar forum and see people posting that they're like, oh, this is revision F or whatever. I'm like, wow, that's so cool, man. I would never use that. I have no use for it, but I also know how exciting it is to have that piece of gear. I know what it is, even if, for me, it's probably not really going to be a Mesa Rectifier.
00:41:57
Speaker
But yeah, right if you're of a certain generation and you play guitar, I feel like we have all just ruled over a like Mesa at some point. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I still wanted the 120 twin channel orange head. Oh, yeah. Another another great one was like,
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Just like, yeah, that would be nice. But I would never do that, I don't think. Never could do that as a boy. Yeah, there's also that, right? Like, I am a little bit indulging. I was a broke teenager and couldn't buy anything. And now I have many of the things that I wanted. Right. So that's, I guess that's just part of growing up. Oh, if you're lucky.
00:42:46
Speaker
Maybe, yeah, if you're lucky, if you're lucky, if you're lucky you get to do that. I mean, I feel like that's kind of how any like interest or hobby works. It's like, oh, I wanted, you know, even like collecting action figures and things, like there are plenty of, you know, plenty of middle-aged adults that buy the toys that they couldn't afford as a kid. And it's just like, you know, it's like a rite of passage in some weird way.
Nostalgia: Ninja Turtles and Movies
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, man, I almost watched the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie last night. Oh, it's phenomenal. Holds up. Holds up. Man, I haven't, I, yeah, I used to watch that a lot. Like, and I mean that in my twenties as well. I watched that a lot. I like somebody, an old college friend who knows that about me, sent me a video about Ninja Turtles yesterday. And I was like, shit, I should watch it. That's awesome.
00:43:43
Speaker
I'm like, you know, my wife is out of town. So I'm like, you know, I can probably do this, but I forgot. Maybe tonight. Yeah, there's always tonight. It's only five. Ninja turtle evening. Ninja turtle evening, which you and Matt, you and Matt can simultaneously stream it. Yeah, yeah.
00:44:06
Speaker
not for you Connor I would do it if you guys were doing it then I would do it I mean I'm not gonna what I didn't realize in my roommate told me was that the Ninja Turtles are a parody yeah I didn't realize that I just thought like I don't know like someone took acid and decided that the Ninja that the turtles would be ninjas but it's like a parody of
00:44:32
Speaker
Yeah. What's those kind of comics, I guess, from the time. Yeah. What's the who's the the blind superhero? Daredevil. Daredevil. I'm no expert. Daredevil, I think. Yeah. Like the main the antagonist or like whatever evil, evil organization and Daredevil, I think. I think it's Daredevil is called The Hand. So that's why the foot are the foot and Ninja Turtles. Yeah. Interesting. I've never been together.
00:45:03
Speaker
Yeah, they were. Yes, they were kind of making first folks. That's right. And I know about American made clothes and some Ninja Turtles trivia. I'm really fun at parties. They're all named after artists. Like that's a good that's a good way to introduce children to art. I support that. Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:28
Speaker
anyway sorry i'm i'm happy that this this is going this direction oh yes uh we were interrupted by some ninja turtles but now we're back now we're back uh so jim you talked a little bit about um
Isaac Shirt Design for The Armory
00:45:57
Speaker
that we'll call it the trials and tribulations of Tazwell. But what's on the horizon for you? I'm sure you're working on things. I am working on stuff. It's been interesting. Some of it has actually bled over into my work at the Armory as well.
00:46:18
Speaker
Um, I don't think the last time we talked, I don't think we had launched what's called the Isaac shirt. Um, which is our like made in the USA, Oxford cloth button down. Oh, that's cool. Um, yeah. Um, it turned out, it was one of our bestselling products of last year after it was launched, which was really cool. Um, cause I really liked, I worked hard on that. Um, and it,
00:46:44
Speaker
It went beyond just like going to a shirt factory and choosing like collar X and shirt body Y, which is an easy way of developing stuff. I actually, I hired a pattern maker named Jeffrey Diduck, who, do you know him? Is he from RTC? Yes. Yeah, I don't know him personally. I remember him from style forum.
00:47:08
Speaker
Like back in the day. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's like, no, there's like no end to Matt's encyclopedia. Just like, yeah, I know this. Yeah, right. I know. I just, I'm amused by it endlessly. Yeah. Jeffrey, Jeffrey had a really cool blog. I don't know if he's still active with it, but it was called Tuto Tuto Fato Amano. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, exactly. And Connor, do you know that one?
00:47:39
Speaker
like long ago. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So Jeffrey would Jeffrey is a like a technical pattern maker for some American tailored clothing companies. And on his blog, he would like either be donated or like sometimes just purchase really expensive, like sartorial clothes, especially ones that were like really popular on style forum at the time, like, like small Neapolitan makers and stuff like that. And he would take them apart and show you
00:48:08
Speaker
how they were constructed and like kind of debunk some of the myths around hand making and stuff like that. So anyway, I met him years ago, and we got to work together on this project for the army, which is really cool. And I ended up I
00:48:24
Speaker
either purchased or rented, uh, like Oxford clock button down shirts from every decade from like, I think the twenties until the nineties. Uh, and Sean Crowley helped me out with that. Thank you, Sean. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, um, Sean helped me source some, some really good stuff. Um, and I measured a bunch of things and found like small differences throughout the decades, which are there like very nerdy things.
00:48:53
Speaker
and kind of tried to hone in on what I thought was important and kind of made like a kind of a greatest hits package of an Oxford cloth button down. And I had the shirts made here in the States and everything went really well and then stopped me if you've heard this before, the factory closed. So yeah, yeah. So part of what I'm working on right now for the armory side is actually
00:49:21
Speaker
testing with a new factory and trying to get that up and running. So that's what I'm working on there. On the tap. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What about one nerdy detail? I'm curious as a wearer of many OCBDs, where you are with your quest to find those details and also what ended up making the cut.
00:49:51
Speaker
One thing that I...
00:49:53
Speaker
I really wanted to not do was just completely copy a Brooks Brothers shirt. Like obviously those are the, you know, it's like Levi's 501 or like a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster. It's like the basic, like it's the foundation or Jasmine. Don't leave me out of this one. Or especially a Jasmine. You got it. Yeah. Um, I didn't want to copy all of that exactly. Um,
00:50:23
Speaker
But I, so I ended up finding like this sweet shirt made by Chip in the 70s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sean helped me with that. Um, and it was like, man, the thing had lived really hard. Like half the buttons had been changed. Like it was, it was a really great thing. But anyway, the, the collar was just slightly different enough and what it was ever so slightly spread compared to the Brooks brothers ones. And I, I don't know. I just thought that would resonate with the, the armory client and it did. Totally. Um,
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, so that was cool. I got really nerdy about... How big is the collar? Like, what's the collar point like? That's a good question. I don't know. I literally made a spreadsheet for this. And what I found is almost all the collars from the golden era were 8.5 CM. OK.
00:51:24
Speaker
So yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's about where that ended up. They're not as, they're not as big, I think, as people think. And they also like shrink over time in the, in the wash. So yeah. So we ended up, I think it was around eight and a half centimeters. Okay. Yeah. I love a, like a good, like longer point roll on an Oxford cloth button down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's got a pocket.
00:51:54
Speaker
the pocket. Is it pocketed? Yeah, of course. Okay. Because see, there is a brand who we talk about sometimes who have not having the pockets, they don't want them at all. And I don't think that's good. I don't think that's very good. Yeah, I think so too. And frankly, to I guess name drop somebody else that's been on the pod, like
00:52:20
Speaker
I used to work with Dick Carroll, and if I had made an Oxford cloth button-down shirt after working with him, without a pocket, I think he would have disowned me. He would have beat you over the head with a sketchbook or something. Well, he just like- With a Foster's can of beer. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Foster's, I'm sorry, Foster's tin of beer, Dick. No, it would have been a VB, mate. Oh, right.
00:52:49
Speaker
I was a terrible accent, Ricky, I'm sorry. Anyway, I used to do this thing to him, where I would say, Steak and Lobster for a limited toin, and it really drove him insane. Oh, I can only imagine. Yeah, that's also the kind of joke that I would definitely do with an Aussie friend if I had one.
00:53:14
Speaker
Uh, we don't have a lot of, uh, how we introduced him. Yeah, this is true. It's how we introduced him. I consulted with my many Australian friends and they all said.
00:53:26
Speaker
do as many stereotypical things as possible. Yeah, for sure. And so we should. Yeah, give him shit. He likes it. Yeah. So anyway, that Yeah, then the pocket shape kind of went through a few revisions. And I actually had to concede to the factory because the original pocket shape
00:53:45
Speaker
Um, they couldn't make without like training somebody how to do it, which you can imagine would take a lot of time and a lot of money. So, um, I had to do a standard shape there, but there's definitely a pocket and the placket is, uh, is wider than what you would find these days, which I found repeated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:54:06
Speaker
I had to make that also the originally in the in the in the sketches the back box pleat was wider but Jeffrey and his business partner talked me out of that because the shirt does not fit like an old
00:54:22
Speaker
like, you know, heyday shirt, it's kind of slim armory style, because Mr. Marcho requested that, so I had to do it. But anyway, yeah, yeah, that's it. You know, I did what my boss asked. But anyway, it turned out, it turned out really great. I was really proud of it. It's named the Isaac shirt, because I, I was watching this, as I was developing it, I watched this documentary about Isaac, this Rahi. And it's called Unzipped, and it was filmed in like his heyday in the 90s.
00:54:52
Speaker
And he wears all these great, I'm assuming Brooks button-down shirts, but he doesn't wear them in an Ivy style way. He looks like a 90s fashion designer. And it kind of got me thinking about how to wear this, what kind of men's wear nerds think of as just Ivy style piece, how to wear it outside of that.
00:55:19
Speaker
kind of paradigm. So that's why I named it that. I wanted people to think not just like JFK. Right. Right. Yeah. Nice. What's good, because that's kind of the ubiquity of the clothing, is that it doesn't have to be worn in that button down collar way. Yeah. I was thinking, I mean, the whole time I was working on it,
00:55:48
Speaker
I was thinking about a colleague who works at the Armory, Jeff. If you've emailed the Armory in New York or ordered anything online from us in the last little while, I think Jeff's been there four or five years. You've probably talked to Jeff or emailed with him. And he's a really cool dude. He's a great drummer, was in some
00:56:09
Speaker
moderately successful emo bands in the heyday of Northeast emo. Anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jeff works at the Armory and like, especially in the summer, if I imagine what he's wearing, because I guess I think a lot about men and clothes, he was wearing like an usually like 90s era Oxford cloth button down from Brooks or
00:56:37
Speaker
from Ralph, uh, over like a, you know, like a band t-shirt or something and like Chino shorts or like some like full cut pants. Um, and I just, I wanted, I was, so I was thinking about that, you know what I mean? Um, cause I think it's like that, that piece of clothing is so important to American style, but that doesn't have to mean, um, like with a three roll tube sack jacket and like gray flannels. Right.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah. Wow, y'all, that was really nerdy. We live for the nerdiness. We are all nerds in this podcast room right now.
Clothing Appropriation and Optimism for US Manufacturing
00:57:22
Speaker
Well, and that's like, I don't know, I feel like close to the thesis of the show if there is one. Yeah.
00:57:33
Speaker
that there are ways to appropriate clothing that are transgressive and important and good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:57:45
Speaker
So we knew you would be on the team. For sure, man. And I was, I don't know, I'm, I'm talking about this product a lot, but I'm really happy with it because it's like difficult to make stuff in the States. And I, and that's not necessarily like one of the, it's not made in the US is not part of the brand identity of the, the armory, but like,
00:58:09
Speaker
authenticity is to use a 2010s bandied about term. So to me, that product was historically made in the States, and it still can be done, so why not try it? Totally. That part is what I liked about the book we were talking about earlier, American Flannel. I'm just thinking of it because I'm looking at it.
00:58:38
Speaker
Yeah. What I like about it too is like the book is generally optimistic, which is kind of nice because every piece I read of making clothing in the US and I started this whole podcast with me talking about how many factories of clothes just that I've worked with personally. Like in general, the attitude is really
00:59:01
Speaker
negative it's like everybody's just holding on waiting for the like the axe to fall yeah but there are ways to continue to make stuff if you just change the way you think about it totally totally it reminds me like the scene or that that kind of like particular part of the menswear industry like it reminds me of working with a bunch of older dudes that that solely talked about how great ship was from the 80s and 90s like
00:59:30
Speaker
You know, sales were through the roof, like every motherfucker was buying like a hundred suits a year or whatever. And I'm like, guys, it's it's the 21st century. You have to you have to adapt. You have to let go of this like salad days of yesteryear because things are still possible. Yeah. You just have to like figure out how to fucking do them yourself.
00:59:57
Speaker
in a way that you might not have had to 30 years ago? For sure, man. I think about that a lot. A story that I like to tell when people ask about my job as a buyer or whatever is, because it seems kind of glamorous. I do get to travel to cool cities and stuff like that. But one of my first jobs as a buyer was for a store that is, I think, similar to the one that you're talking about.
01:00:27
Speaker
Matt, but only in Nashville. And I would go to the trade show in Chicago. Did you ever go to that? I did not. I actually kind of forgot that they've insisted until very recently. Yeah, well, that's crazy. It seems like a much, much more enjoyable experience than like New York or Vegas. Yeah, exactly. That's what's happened.
01:00:53
Speaker
And what kind of seems to happen is somebody decided, oh, this used to be good, but we can make it good again. But my point in the story is I remember going, that would have been like 2014, so 10 years ago now. And I remember sitting in this beige hall full of brands for people 30 years older than me at the time.
01:01:23
Speaker
Some old store owner came, was like walking in front of me with another guy and was complaining about this new thing called the internet. I'm not joking. He was complaining about like how brands were selling things online and like undercutting them.
01:01:41
Speaker
That point wasn't wrong, but that point wasn't new either. That's something I find a lot in American apparel manufacturing, not the brand, but just in general. It's like people do, like you said, they think about the heyday of not the 80s or 90s in manufacturing because it was already taking a term for the worst, but let's say the mid-70s.
01:02:07
Speaker
um yeah like things were really being cranked out at like a high rate uh part of that is because we were slogging through it like an endless war but like i it that's probably not coming coming back um so you can either like just pull over and and die or you can try to think of new new ways to uh
01:02:30
Speaker
to get business. As an example, in this book, American Flannel, there's a manufacturer that I know.
01:02:40
Speaker
I'm not going to say the name because I'm going to say something a little disparaging here, but the guy that is making stuff says, oh yeah, I'm out there all the time trying to get new business. They don't even have a website. What do you mean you're out there all the time? That might be some of what you were talking about, Matt, in terms of what's left out of this story in this book.
01:03:04
Speaker
There's a lot of complacency and wishing for golden era that's just not happening. I still have friends and know people in the industry. The thing for me that seems to connect all of these people, and myself included, is the DIY mentality. But it's so much harder
01:03:33
Speaker
than just going to a trade show and being like, or, you know, going to a factory and being like, Oh, you've got, you know, these fabrics swatches for spring. We'll take these, but it's like, no, you can't just do that anymore. You have to go and find shit. Like, you know, the people that I respect the most and like you were definitely among them Mark. Um,
01:03:57
Speaker
I feel like the reason why you guys do what you do is because you're not sitting on your ass just waiting for something to come along or letting someone else deal with the sourcing or whatever. It's like, no, we're going to make this, and we're going to make it the way that we want to make it, and we're going to find the shit to make it from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:04:21
Speaker
like nothing is gonna be served to you like completely finished. You have to put it together piecemeal. And I think to be honest, like I've known a lot of people
01:04:30
Speaker
in the menswear industry that are like previous musicians, particularly like DIY musicians.
DIY in Fashion vs. Indie Music
01:04:40
Speaker
And some of that is just like, there are a few reasons for that, but I think part of it is that like you kind of used to just like throwing stuff together because you have to like, if you're dealing with American-made stuff,
01:04:54
Speaker
Yes. Like, you know, Matt Lamberts is pretty good at that. Oh, yeah, Matt. Matt, I would wager is probably one of the best. Yeah, he's great. Yeah. But big. Yeah. Big brother. Big brother for me. He's good. Has he has Matt been on the show? I don't know. We haven't had him on yet. We will eventually. It just hasn't hasn't worked out yet. Do it, Matt. Yeah. Yeah. Did I see you play the show actor?
01:05:22
Speaker
Uh, no, we, we had to postpone like some, some like random shit happened. Um, but, uh, but yeah, like we, uh, yeah, we moved it from that date. Um, I don't remember exactly what it was, but then, uh, yeah, we're, I'm, I'm booking a show right now and like hoping that his, uh, his fan or, well, I'm, I'm not to give anything away, but I'm helping book a fest in the summer and I'm really hoping the saints can play.
01:05:53
Speaker
Hell yeah. Yeah, jumping back in with both of you. That sounds great. Yeah, I love it. I love it. So is there anything you're looking forward to right now, clothing wise?
01:06:11
Speaker
I did actually, so I said earlier, I'm working on a, um, like basically tailored clothing for tassel. I'm looking at the first sample right now and that did not turn out so great. And I was like kind of disappointed. I was like, I don't know how to fix this. And like, I've been around a lot of tailored clothes in my life.
01:06:30
Speaker
And I was like, this sucks. And I don't even know what to do. So I took a break. And then recently, I bought this really cheap tweed Western jacket by Pendleton from the 70s. And it's amazing. It fits better than some stuff that I've had made for me. And I don't know how that happened. Wow.
01:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's really good. It's really good. And also, I want to give a slight little shout out to South Paul Salvage on Instagram. Thanks for finding that and selling it to me for a very reasonable price. I don't remember the guy's name, but he specializes just in Western wear. And he's in the Southwest somewhere. And he's a touring drummer. So he just does it on the side, I think. Or maybe I have that backwards.
01:07:25
Speaker
So anyway, Southpaw Savage is cool and the guy sold me a really sick jacket and they gave me kind of a direction on how to make my own one much better. So that's what I'm excited about. And I'm stoked to see the final fruition of this.
01:07:45
Speaker
I've got a few other ideas. I've got to figure out, like I was saying earlier, some money stuff. But the next collection has a title, kind of has a song already. I don't know why that's my work process, but that's what it is. So yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
i've got to figure that out because i don't think i can if i like to continue tassel as like a full-fledged fashion company i think i'd have to put out a collection every six months and i don't think i can do that and also like put out a single with it every six months right maybe i could but i don't i don't know so anyway uh but the next collection is is coming along at least an ideation stage and the the music part of it too so that's where we're at it'll be there'll be some tailoring uh maybe i
01:08:31
Speaker
I want to push it weirder than the first collection. Hell yeah. Yeah. We support it. Yeah. I just like, there's a, strangely enough, there's a, there's this, uh, this like person, this personality on TikTok
Future Plans for Tazwell and Creative Processes
01:08:46
Speaker
and Instagram named Andy, who, um, she's like a, an Appalachian. Oh yeah. I've seen her. She's fucking hilarious. Yeah. I know her.
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so to talk kind of personally here for a second, when I lived in Nashville, I had a different wife, okay? And I got a divorce, and I think I lost Andy in the divorce, do you know what I mean? Yeah, but anyway, Andy, if you're listening for whatever reason, hi, it's Jim Parker. Used to play in a band with your husband, Brandon.
01:09:30
Speaker
So anyway, she's had this thing that everybody's duetting on TikTok right now where she's like, say the weird thing. And I'm kind of feeling that. And I just want to make the weird clothes. Nice. Dude, you should. You should. You're already really good. Yeah. Yeah. If it was weirder, it would be wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. There's a couple of things that I have to figure out on the
01:10:00
Speaker
Not even the logistics side, basically just the supply chain side. What I would really like is to find a cottage industry of quilters. That's something that I need to dig up. So if anybody out there has any leads of probably little old ladies that live in your neighborhood that quilt, and they happen to live in a southern state,
01:10:27
Speaker
Let me know. I asked my mom and she didn't know anybody. But if anybody's moms or grannies out there or dads too, usually it's going to be some old ladies. I'm looking for some quilters. Next time I'm in the middle of bump up nowhere, hitting yard sales, I'll spread the word around.
01:10:54
Speaker
Please do. Yeah. Cause that's, that I'm, that is exactly what I'm looking for. Do you know, like that? Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't necessarily want precision either. I want like some fucked up quilt. You want soul. You want soul. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's much more interesting. So you want a pity this year?
01:11:21
Speaker
I went, uh, I went, yes, I, I did.
Pitti Uomo and Tailored Clothing Trends
01:11:24
Speaker
I went to pity. Um, it was fine. Yeah. That's what I said. That's what I was. Uh, yeah. Yeah. I didn't really look at much shit this year either. Yeah. Um, well, I mean, I, I lived it. I was there. Right. Yeah. My general feeling on the pity scene is like it,
01:11:49
Speaker
I mean, it peaked. It's obvious that buyers in the press are going elsewhere and they're spending more time there. They're going to Milan more and they're definitely going to Paris more. Little stores about the size of the armory are traveling to Paris for stuff, which is interesting.
01:12:12
Speaker
like poor me, I was like in Florence all week. It was their worst places to be. So yeah, pity is interesting. Matt, you went like once or twice around. I went once in 2013, which I feel like is kind of peak pity. I did go in the summer, which was not enjoyable as far as how hot it was.
01:12:40
Speaker
But yeah dude, Florence is incredible. I would just love to spend time there. You know, just have a couple of days like even outside of the work aspect of it. Like it was just a rancidity to walk around.
01:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I've been making it more of a point to do touristy stuff while I'm there, like going to check out art. And man, it's the city itself and the stuff that's there is really incredible. Like just going to see the day that is, wow, like what? Right, right. But you were there, peak pity I would say is around that time too.
01:13:22
Speaker
and it's been on a slow decline and you can see it even in the like there's no like I there's no I I everybody every not every conversation I had at pity but many conversations I would say the majority of them at some point turned to what do you think is pity still good like do you know like that was a conversation
01:13:46
Speaker
And it has been a while, but it's still like, it's still fun. And it's not like, there's still good things to see. A lot of the good things and the good makers to see are like actually not at the fair. Yeah, so. Because they're like all small makers in the city that are definitely worthwhile.
01:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. It's, you know, it kind of like goes to, um, the state of like tailored clothing and menswear at this point. Like it's, it's all just so up in the air. Um, you know, I feel like there is maybe a resurgence of maybe, maybe not on the same scale that like hashtag menswear or whatever, but you know, there are still people getting into tailored clothing for the first time and like giving a shit about how they look.
01:14:37
Speaker
Which is cool, it's just different. Yeah, yeah.
01:14:40
Speaker
It's just different. And I mean, like, to be real honest, it's not like the if it's the look is probably not the like, soft, like Neapolitan tailoring. Oh, yeah. That was a while ago. Totally. I mean, yeah, I think I feel like, you know, going back to Matt and factors, like, that's kind of it's not I'm all factors. But I think it's amazing. It is not my thing. You know, I will probably forever be stuck in the like,
01:15:10
Speaker
super unstructured, very soft garments. But that's just how I like to wear things. I wear a lot of work wear, which is kind of the same shit, just in a different form. But yeah, it is heartening, I feel like, in some ways, to see things progressing and changing a little bit. And maybe another iteration of that vibe will come back.
01:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean like things there things just like it all swings on a pendulum, right? So like when I'm walking around my neighborhood suddenly I'm the guy with like the slimmest pants and that happened really quickly. Actually, I don't know how that happened. I guess I just got old. I don't know but and it's strange that like
01:16:05
Speaker
slim trousers or the the mark of like an older guy now. Yeah, yeah, then holder, you know, older than like 30. Man, I'll say that the suburban people and like people outside of major cities are definitely keeping the skinny jean thing live to my chagrin.
01:16:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think we've talked about it. Like it's just it's that trickle down. And now that like the super slim thing is mostly just normies. They're not people that actually like have a nerdy sensation or attachment. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, maybe maybe I should say that. Yeah.
01:16:49
Speaker
but it's uh so the thing is like the I don't know if like wide trousers or head peak uh like saturation although I think maybe they have because I mean if J crew puts out a giant chino or puts out anything that's like pretty
01:17:05
Speaker
like indicative of a kind of like almost peak. Yeah, so it was literally just like more like, no, I mean, old, like old Navy, you know? Yeah, exactly. I don't I haven't even looked as old Navy have like a wide leg pant probably. I mean, if they do, I'm sure. Yeah, if you go to like,
01:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, the like a little while ago, I was in Uniqlo trying to buy t shirts and I couldn't find any that weren't like literally called like boxy 90s or oversized, right? Whatever. I was I was like, I just wanted for me, like what is a normal t shirt, but I guess that's like a slim t shirt, which is fine, whatever. So like, yeah, the the mall brands are there. So like, I'm going to get old Navy shit for I'm like on their website right now.
01:17:56
Speaker
I'm gonna get so many old name ads. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The weirdest targeted ad I ever got was not too far from where I live is at Macy's in downtown Brooklyn and I went there one day for something, I don't know. And the next day I was scrolling on my phone and I got an ad from Macy's that said, court is tomorrow, buy a nice blade.
01:18:25
Speaker
What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was I swear to God it said that and I was like what what who do you think I ain't what is this? What? Who the fuck thought about that ad? Like you I don't know this had to go through how many people to get published like what?
01:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I think that Macy's in downtown Brooklyn is near a courthouse. Oh, yeah, definitely. I think there's a courthouse there. So maybe there's some kind of weird geo triangulation kind of thing. I don't know. I bet that they have all that shit. I mean, I'm not saying this in a conspiratorial way. I bet that they have all that shit. Because what we understand, basically, technologically, the government, you've got to figure is at least a few years ahead of us. Yeah, sure.
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, why the corporations are not far behind. They're the same thing, right? So yeah, I anyway, we're targeted at so maybe maybe I get Christian ones on Reddit that are like, disguised as like,
01:19:36
Speaker
Well, you know this guy, I don't know if you've heard of this guy before. He was a socialist. He was like, I really liked poor people. His name was Jesus Christ. Are you interested? And it's like, man, I don't know. You could have gone about this in a different way. Yeah. Sorry, I forgot what we were talking about before targeted ads. Just the state of menswear.
01:20:06
Speaker
Oh, the statement. So yeah, that's right. Thanks. Pants. We're talking about wide pants. So like, of course, like the thing that will happen at some point is younger people will start wearing slim pants again. I think it's already happening. I see like on, I see on TikTok, and I've
01:20:27
Speaker
I've been saying this for like six months or something at least like, um, I've seen like early 2000s retrofits teenagers. Yes. Yeah. Which is like, wow, you're dressing like it's 2012. Oh shit. Like, uh, like saying that in the cap and I'm like, Oh wow. Okay. Yeah, dude. Yeah. The, the youngs, uh, are, are doing all of the things that look terrible at the time that we all wore. So, uh, yeah, well,
01:20:57
Speaker
The cycle of ethical nature is getting shorter and shorter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I am because it benefits capital.
01:21:09
Speaker
I mean, that, of course, is the punchline, right?
Rapid Fashion Trends and Personal Style
01:21:12
Speaker
Like, why are the trend cycles getting shorter so they can sell more shit? Right. Right. That's correct. Correct. That's basically why seasons were like clothing seasons were invented besides the practical matter of like it being cold or hot. Yes, that's correct. I am mentally preparing myself for like the.
01:21:33
Speaker
Like I've seen tons of Y2K and stuff in vintage stores. And like I was a teenager during that time. That's fine. But when like stuff, when I was like a true adult, like out of college adult becomes vintage, that's, I, I'm, I may have to take an extended vacation. Yeah. Yeah. Like
01:21:55
Speaker
Being in the world that I am and selling my discoloring for a living, I try not to be that old man yells at cloud character. Yeah, sure. You know, like, I try it is never that character. I try, I try as I might to like, keep a positive thing. But yeah, you know, I just I remind myself that like, this is what my parents thought when I was wearing the ship they were in high school. You know,
01:22:23
Speaker
When I was in the 70s, I'm far enough removed, generally the same age, so Y2K for me is like the 70s were for them back in the day. I'm just like, okay. Exactly. Just try to keep it positive-ish. I'm a hateful, negative person, but if you're a happy man, you do it.
01:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, I, I guess for me, I don't, I don't mean like, Oh, all it will mean is like, I have aged and that's what I mean. So like, I, I, I totally know how the, like, of course that the, the stuff comes in cycles and I'm just not sure I'm ready for that loop to be closed yet. So, um, yeah, right now, right now, like the stuff that I was wearing in my early twenties is like at the bottom of coolness, like really slim, uh,
01:23:21
Speaker
like selvage genes, that kind of stuff. That's all like nobody really wants that, except like you said earlier, the Nourneys. But it's probably already on its way back up, and it's going to take some time, of course, but it'll be a weird mind trip. Maybe by the time I turn 40 in two years, maybe by the time I'm 40, like some
01:23:45
Speaker
Like whatever the the new influencer thing is that's not tick-tock Whatever the next thing is those people will be talking about this in like a big way right 2010s fashion,
Recent Music Preferences and Local Scene
01:23:56
Speaker
right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I turned 40 in November and it don't get better man. Trust me So to round things out Sure
01:24:12
Speaker
What have you been listening to recently? Anything on repeat? I was listening to a bunch of Freddie King the other day, which is cool. Nice. Yeah. Also some Paul Butterfield, like East West. Ooh, yeah.
01:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That specific song, but also just a general, the record, um, cause I, East West, the song is like a, is like modal music, which is real nerdy, but, um, I was trying to get some inspiration there. So that's, those two are probably most recently played. Okay. Good, good answers. Deep cuts.
01:25:05
Speaker
Yeah. What about y'all? What are y'all listening to? Connor, you go first. Oh, buddy. You don't want to know what I've been listening to. I've been listening to the New Future and Metro Boomin album that was just released. They're releasing, I'm pretty sure, part two of this on Friday. I don't know. It just sounds like older future. It sounds like
01:25:33
Speaker
good, just like trap music basically. That's what I've been up to. Can Soul release a new album? Which I think is pretty good. But you know, more of the same shit. What about you? I've been listening to a lot of hardcore lately.
01:25:56
Speaker
One of my favorite hardcore bands, The Hope Conspiracy, is releasing a new LP, I think in May. They put out a single, and it makes me, I told this to Connor, it makes me want to smash a motherfucker through a plate glass window.
01:26:14
Speaker
I'm not a vibrant person, but it's just angry, justifiably angry and intense. There's a band that my best friend, Eleanor, is friends with the singer and songwriter. They're called Small. We actually went to see them this past Saturday play with another friend's band called Gorgeous Beast.
01:26:39
Speaker
just a fucking incredible show like Sam puts on and the whole band like they just they give me the feeling of hearing like Nirvana or like Cole for the first time. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. They're fucking great, dude. And I think I saw Sam on Sunday after the show. And I think she said that they're like they have some like a record that they're going to put out in the next few months. But yeah, I've really been like
01:27:10
Speaker
diving into Atlanta bands, because there's a ton of really rad shit happening. Hubble is another one, Rich Old Day, my friend Tanner's band. Part of the reason why we're going to do this fest is just showcasing how rad the Atlanta music scene is right now. So listen to a lot of that.
01:27:34
Speaker
this band called No Man. There's also a band called No Man that just put out their new SLP, I think, last week. And there's three of the members from Majority Roll, this screamo, melodic hardcore band from the late 90s, early 2000s with
01:27:57
Speaker
with a girl that sings and it's, dude, I have listened to that record probably 10 times in the past like week since it came out. So yeah, just, I don't know, man. All I love of music again is really fun. And I feel like that's what my past six months have been, which is rad. That's great, man. Yeah. Hell yeah. Well, Jim, what's up? Yeah.
01:28:24
Speaker
I was, what was that last one? Majority. Uh, majority role was the like first band, but then no man and the no has like a slash through it. So maybe I'm pronouncing it wrong. Um, but those, uh, that's the new band majority rule is the original one. They did a, did a few records, like a page 99 split. Um, and I'm blanking on what else they put out, but I think they did like at least one LP. Just good fucking shit. Cool.
01:28:54
Speaker
I just wrote that down. Hell yeah. Yeah. Let me know what you think. But Yemen, before we get out of here. It's very nice of you to take notes. Yeah. Before we get out of here, dude, thank you for coming on again. It's been fun to catch up and see what's been going on since we last chatted. What would you like to plug?
01:29:17
Speaker
Well, I do still own a clothing company called Taswell Clothes, and you can buy stuff on the website, which is taswellclothes.com. Let's see, what else? I play in a bunch of bands in New York, and I have a bunch of gigs coming up, but you can see me basically every Friday at this bar called Skinny Dennis from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. with my band, The National Reserve.
01:29:41
Speaker
Um, yeah, here we go. Hell yeah. Yeah. And give him a follow. Uh, Jim R. Parker is your Instagram, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really bad at plugging that. Jim R. Parker. Yeah. Jim. Jim is as rad as they come. Um, I don't know about that. Yeah. I've done it a few years now. I feel confident in saying that.
01:30:03
Speaker
Thanks. This has been good, guys. Fuck yeah, man. It's been a fun time. Thank you again. Thank you everyone for listening. Please subscribe, rate, or whatever. And we would like you to know that we also hate saying the shit. But for whatever reason... And the whole idea of it. The whole idea of it. But our tech overlords require us to do this dumb shit.
01:30:33
Speaker
Also, if you haven't yet, check out the Mad Men 3 Parts episode special that we did, where the last one we interviewed Brian Bat, aka Salpus Ormano, and fucking email us, you bastards, apocalypseduds at gmail.com at apocalypseduds on Instagram. I am Matt Smith at Rebels Ropes.
01:31:05
Speaker
And I'm Connor Nunez, the real Connor Nunez. And we shall return next week to your dismay. Thanks again.