Flashback : Chris Armes - Agent 51

rewinding to a chat with Chris Armes from the band Agent 51

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

My name is Sulo, and I am one of the lovely hosts here, along with a germ and chair. And today we have the honor of sitting down with Chris Arms of Agent 51. Chris, how are you? Exceptional, sir.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

This Crown Royal is amazing. It sure is.

SPEAKER_05 0:20

You gotta have the Crown Royal to open it up because you know every podcast starts off with a little buzz. I feel like a king.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

And you and you're hanging out with a king who has his own custom Converse that says that.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

You have your own shoes? That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

We're gonna have to get uh some Union and Metro podcast swag eventually, but we will, and uh Chris said he would help us design that, you know.

unknown 0:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:50

Alright, so let's uh so Chris, uh what band were you in back in the day, and still are you in the that same band now? I think I am. I'm pretty sure well yeah, yeah, I am.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Do we need to call him and and ask them? You guys is Chris still in the band?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

According to Mikey Levinson and Eric.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

We get together, uh we've had several lineup changes over the years, but the reunion shows basically it's like whoever was in the band can show up and play. You know, it's kind of one of the we don't have any beef with past members, so it kind of becomes this circus of um just show up and see what happens.

SPEAKER_05 1:29

Have you ever had like everyone show up to something?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

I was just gonna say that the last reunion show that he did was actually in Poway, it was really cool. Uh, what was the name of it? You had a catchy name, it was like right before Thanksgiving. And you designed a turkey. It was like a satirical version of the circle jerks logo. Yeah, exactly. It was really washing turkey. All right, cool. And uh he had like everybody, Chris Lewis even got up and played some songs with you guys.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Yeah. Yeah. Um I think one time uh at Belly Up, we we had Sean our our main uh bass player. He he just plugged into an amp and started playing. So it was like six people on stage.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

And Sean used to be in the classified, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:15

That's right, we we uh stole him. Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Oh are you talking about Scarra? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Cool.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Yeah, he had the he had to do double duties when you guys played the Casbox. That's right. That's right, he did.

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:28

That was the last that was the last time I seen you guys, and that was the first time I seen Jeremy in years.

SPEAKER_05 2:32

So that's when we actually started, like, you know, for one, just going there was gonna be weird, anyways, because it's right down the street from my house. You were at that show? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah. You know, every band called me out. I was over there in Otis's spot, you know. Oh. Oh, yeah, fluff, yeah. And um shout out to Fluff. And V and I were just sitting there, and yeah, it was it was crazy because of the uh the whole concept and everything that it was done. I was kind of nervous about going because you know I hadn't been anywhere in frickin' forever. So going and knowing that all the bands that were playing, you guys and classified and swindle is like, alright, if I'm gonna go out to anything, yeah, and Rob's doing the show, right? It was Rob's show. Yeah, we have we have even bought a couple t-shirts.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

So and the Rob he's referencing is Rob from Alphabet Records, who was uh one of the few that actually did a DIY label here in San Diego and as a kid in high school. Yeah, yeah. And put out Agent 51's, what is it, your first record?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah, yeah. He funded the first record. Um gosh. I think it cost us maybe we did it in two days. Cost us maybe a couple grand. Uh no, no uh metronome, no nothing. Just like press record, and here we go.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

And that's the Red Alert album. Yeah. And Don Lithgau did that album, right? Yep, yeah. R.I.P. Shout out to Don Lithgau. He just passed away a few months ago. And uh Don Lithgow also did uh Blink 182's first two albums. Oh really? Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch. He recorded it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Yeah, because I know O produced the first Blink album. Shit, I didn't even know that. Which was Cheshire Cat.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

I was just not in the loop. He was the engineer, yeah. I was hiding out backstage telling people to get out of my backstage.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

And then, you know, if we're gonna throw Blink history down, Jerry Fenn um was the guy that produced um the Dude Ranch, and then I think the the last not the last ones, but like two other ones, and he passed away. Oh and Jerry Jerry's from my neighborhood, um Oxnard. He was actually in a Nardcore band called False Confessions. Just some little trivia.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Nardcore or hardcore? Nardcore. Nardcore. Nardcore. What is Nardcore?

SPEAKER_04 4:55

Well, Nardcore is uh bands from the late 70s, early 80s, punk bands like Aggression, Stalak 13, Ill Repute, Dr. No, um RKL.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So basically all the stickers and the ads you'd see in the back of a Thrasher magazine growing up, right? Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

And actually, one of Jerome's first shows that he booked at Soma Downtown was with Tony from Ill Repute.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

So Tony hooked me up with that show.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

And also Gri the Grim, which is also from Oxnard, Nardcore Band. Nice. And the brought in the Offspring.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Isn't Seven Seconds considered a Nardcore band? Or are they more hardcore?

SPEAKER_05 5:34

I consider more like an OC band back then. Nardcore was kind of everything, all the lines back then were kind of blurry.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

So let's let's get this straight. Nardcore, Nard is Oxnard.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Ah, gotcha. Okay. I never knew where that definition really came from, but now that makes a lot more sense.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

So the bands that were uh coming from Oxnard, which were mo mainly signed to Mystic Records, a guy named Doug Moody. Um and then also the uh BYO, Better Youth Organization, which is the Stern Brothers. They put out some of the narcore bands as well. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

It was a lot of division back then. So, you know, even like to this day, I consider San Diego, and as far as the music scenes considered, you know, we're like the bastard child of LA because we didn't we didn't have all well, we had all the same things. We had all the punk bands. We had all the glam bands, we had all the rock bands and everything, but we were never considered we were always like second to them. You know, bands would go to LA and then they would skip and then we go down to Tijuana. And even back when I was, you know, I was doing Metro. I mean not Metro, when I was doing Union, they would skip over us. So you still do that to this day. I know, it's it's well now for good reason, but you know, the Nardcore bands, you know, Oxnard and up in that area of the Bay Area, and then you got LA bands, and then OC was its own thing, you know, DI and there's a bunch of other bands out of there, and then you got San Diego bands, and they're just we never really got a good label, you know, until the during the days of Metro when Powway was like just fire freaking kicking out bands.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Well, you guys all know you guys all know Lagwagon, right? Oh, yeah, of course. From Galita. Um, they were actually well that band is um mainly consisting of members of RKL, Rich Kids on on LSD. Oh, really? So which was an R core band as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

I love RKL. Such a band.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Such a and then you had it came from Slimy Valley, which is Simi Valley. You had uh you had Tenfoot uh Tenfoot Pole. Or actually they were originally scared straight, and then it was Tenfoot Pole, and then it became pulley, and that's what you know Scott Rodensky is. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 7:45

I didn't know that that was uh pulley was an offshoot of ten foot pole. Oh, yeah. I never knew that.

SPEAKER_04 7:48

Yep.

unknown 7:49

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

We played with pulley a few times.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Here we're we're talking about all these narcore bands, and we're supposed to be talking about the San Diego scene. Well and we're here with Chris from Agent 51, so we gotta get back to that.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Yeah, we're still referencing San Diego left and right, regardless. Yeah, but this whole music industry is literally like one small circle. You know, uh everyone kind of knows each other, and there's a sixth degree of separation either which way.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

But I think I think it everybody knew each other more back in the day um than because of Soma, and and I don't think there's that same like because we did an episode with No Noel from Classified, yeah, and he was talking about how when Metro closed down, it kind of changed everything. It did. So the scene was not the same. There was there wasn't this camaraderie with bands anymore, like where everybody would come and watch the shows.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

And I stopped going to all ages shows, and that's how I found Kangs and got my job there. That's because you wanted the drink. Oh no, I didn't really care about that. I care more about the music, and I still do this day.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

I hear you.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

That's just a nice added bonus to enjoy a cocktail or a beer when you're watching a band.

SPEAKER_05 8:58

Yeah. But uh I find it it's funny the one time that I did drink, because as anyone that knows, you know, I got my 12-pack of Corsite as soon as we're starting to, you know, close down the club. And plenty of people have been to my old place, and you know, I can I can put them down. One time I did drink and it was a Buck09 show. I forget what reason it was, and it was at Metro. I I cannot do that ever again, even to this day. I cannot drink. I was so out of it, I just want to hang out and have fun, and I I took off my getting work done face and I put on the oh, we're at my house, let's party, let's you know, let's fuck some shit up. So it's so bad.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

It is, and I guess it just reminded me of when I was running Jumping Turtle. So my era, um I you know, I was a Soma kid, and I I just want to tell everybody, for all those that don't know, is that's when I discovered what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to not only be in a band, first memorable band I really saw was your band, Chris. I remember seeing you guys take the main stage in your suits and glasses, and that drum roll and intro riff to red alert. Just I was like, this is the rattest shit I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

And we ripped that off from Nirvana.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

But things well everything's everyone's ripping off of each other. I think uh Tom Patty said it the best, everyone has their heroes.

SPEAKER_04 10:24

But I don't remember uh Nirvana wearing suits other than one of the music videos. That's true, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:29

Yeah. Oh, you talk about the suits. I thought you meant the riff. The drum roll we ripped off from Nirvana.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

That too. So what what made you guys uh figure you guys wanted to be in uh like a stage costume?

SPEAKER_01 10:41

You know, that was really Greg's idea. Greg was the kind of uh visual guy for the band. He was into Star Wars, he was into um, you know, what's the other movie? Um Men in Black? Yeah, yeah. And it was The Untouchables. Yeah, like he came up with the name Age. Right before Dawn.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

Yeah, yeah, because I don't think the first Men in Black could come out when you guys formed Agent 51 in that concept.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, it was it was basically to give him credit, it was it was his idea to call the man Agent 51. Before that, we were Area 51 after the the famous Agent Race out in Nevada.

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

But we knew that there was gonna be some kind of copyright issue eventually.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Or the actual real men in black would come hunt you down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Well we figured, you know what, this the the the second wave of uh punk rock was hitting, and we we we knew we had to find some way to stand out without looking too gimmicky. Right. And um to the extent, you know, maybe it worked, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Honestly, it it made a lasting impression on myself, and I've never seen another band other than maybe the creepy creeps do some kind of theme thing consistently.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

Well, Jerome and I were talking about uh how many at least in San Diego, how many bands that wore suits that played Metro? And we could only come up with maybe four bands. Yeah. But yeah, you guys were the only local band that did that.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

That's what I I'm I mean.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Yeah, I think Hagfish wore suits, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:02

Yeah, yes, the Bostones. Yeah. Um we were actually pop and daddies. Yeah, yeah. And you know, with the ska bands, it would have more of the you know, suit and tie the proper rude boy. Yeah. But as far as you know, coming out of Palway and at that time of of movers and shakers, it it worked well for you guys because it it was a distinguishing mark. I mean it to to stand alone in a crowd of you know, you know, few at that time there's a lot of fucking bands. So you see the name, and then you guys went through the name changes and and grew as a band, but you had that, so they kind of knew. And um if you guys wouldn't have gone up there without wearing suits, everyone would have probably wondered what the hell was going on. But it just worked. And you put the thing is, if you don't pull something off and you're just trying to hag it along and you know drag it along, people are gonna know. And they're gonna call you on it, especially in our scene. They're gonna call bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, you can't go up there 98%. You you definitely gotta go up there all the way, even if you hit a wrong note or something. You have to make it look like that was a note you meant to hit, right? Yeah. And you get you guys pulled it off. Thank you. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

So you remember your first show at Metro?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Um Yeah, actually I do.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Who was on that bill?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Um maybe even Kill Me Kate was on the bill. I don't remember who exactly was on the bill. I think they were. Yeah, we were I remember we were opening, we got maybe a 20-minute set. Yeah. We showed up early because if you pissed off Jerome, like that's it. Like our whole thing was like, don't piss off Jeremy, get there on time, show up for soundcheck.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Gee, I've never heard anyone reference that before.

SPEAKER_05 13:45

Don't uh Hey, I'm you know, I'm a nice guy, I'm very mellow, easy going.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

No, you you were always mellow, but we knew like you were with a lit the litmus test of like does a band have what it takes to to play this venue? And can they be relied upon to show up on time, go to soundcheck and like play a rad show, maybe bring in some people, and so we always kept that in mind when we when we showed up is to make sure that um you know we had our integrity in check.

SPEAKER_05 14:15

Yeah, I mean if you're gonna go up there and you're gonna put yourself out in front of all those people. The whole idea is you know, you gotta start from somewhere, but if you start without any direction and you just you know flying by the seat of your pants like a lot of these other clubs do, I was invested in everyone. You know, I put in all the work, I put my name on the line each time, each show. A lot of it might have been self-induced, but then some of it was from the powers from above that made sure if I fucked up, I heard about it. And anyone else around me would hear about it. Anyone in neighboring towns would probably hear about it because the voice was very loud and um but you know that was the way that we were establishing a scene. I mean, we could just have a bunch of shows and you know, just have people come and play, but if it's if it's all fucked up and then the cops are showing up and things are getting broken up. So I just had my formula that worked, and you guys did your part, and that's you know, that's how we grew the scene.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah. In fact, our our second show, our drummer, love you, Eric. Got he thought the show was on a date that was the next day.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Oh, I know the scene.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Oh, going to Disneyland. So within an eight within an eight-hour time span, we found another drummer to learn all our songs, and we're like, we're not letting Jeremy down. We're gonna show up for the show and play it. That's probably what I'm saying. But we did, and it the show is alright.

SPEAKER_05 15:37

You know, I'm not sure how good we did, but you know, did I do my speech about, you know, you gotta at least show up. Yeah, let your people know. And you whipped us.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

You whipped us good.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

So you guys you guys played SummerSlam um Saturday, June 13th.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

This guy's got all the flyers on his phone. Look at them.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

With uh with Pivot was the headliner, and actually you were talking about Kimley Kate. Kimley Kate was on that as well. We have uh Dogwood on there, Against the Wall, and Fat Chance. And what the crazy thing was, I'm trying to remember what year, I think it was 96, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Sounds about right.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Because I know the following day we had the famous uh Cherry Pop and Daddy show where the vice showed up and shut us, tried to shut us down. You remember that?

SPEAKER_03 16:22

Were they wearing Hawaiian shirts when they came out?

SPEAKER_04 16:23

They were wearing Hawaiian shirts.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

That's happened to me a brick by brick before too.

SPEAKER_04 16:27

Yep. Wow, because of because the kids were dancing.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Oh my god. Was it over a licensing issue? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Yeah, but don't dance licensing.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

It's basically someone wasn't paid off.

SPEAKER_05 16:41

Someone's kid couldn't get in, you know. It was still it was still a bit incestuous back then. You know, the the early days of Union Street was complete chaos. I mean, you never knew when you were gonna get broken up or who was gonna complain or anything, but yeah. I thought you were gonna bring up Smashing Pumpkins, and I'm gonna say I was never fired by them, just for the record. I was never fired for working with the Smashing Pumpkins.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Well, you only did two shows with them, so what were they like? What were they like too?

SPEAKER_05 17:11

To be honest, I don't really remember. I just know that we've we have a few people that have worked for them, and it's usually ended up with being a big thing.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Billy Corgan, amazing musician, but not the easiest guy to work for, and let's just say that.

SPEAKER_04 17:23

In the words of Mike the Claw, he's an asshole.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Well, I was gonna say that, but I'm trying to be diplomatic here. You know what I mean? I only encountered the the guy during the Zwan days, and I know the guy didn't leave a tip, and one of my coworkers was infuriated because he racked up like a six hundred dollar bill or some shit like that. Oh Jesus. Yeah, you don't even leave a fucking tip. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

You know, you got you also got to look at the time and what it's going through. I mean, it's I'll I'll give anyone because I know I I haven't been the nicest of person over the years, and the you know, we talked about it in the earlier episodes, but uh you know, there's been some rumors going around, and some of them I was thinking, damn, I had quite the life after I left Soma. And um a lot of them I was like, damn, I'm really living the life as I'm a clerk at 7 Eleven. But you know, the rumor mill, when it once it gets going, it's it's really let's just put it that way, it's really interesting. Let's make this a clean show for the kids.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Chris, did you guys ever get on a New Year's Eve show?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I don't think we did.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

That sucks. I thought for some reason we would have had you guys on one of those shows.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

You know, I don't think we really drew more than 50 people during the Soma era. We were just kind of getting started.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

And here's one question that speaking of the New Year's Eve shows, uh someone was just recently asking me how many total uh New Year's Eve shows has there been over the years, including like it started present times, because I know they don't do them anymore.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

It started in ninety-four. Because the first one I did was ninety-five. Is that the sports arena? Yeah, sports arena.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

They were always at sports arena, right?

SPEAKER_04 19:10

Yeah. Because you guys you guys weren't doing New Year's Eve shows until you got to Metro.

SPEAKER_05 19:15

Yeah, see that that I'm really gonna rely on.

SPEAKER_04 19:18

Because somebody somebody told me um there was a lineup and it was the I I guess 93 to 94. Because I the first one I did, no, I take it back. 94 to 95. I I first one I did was 95 to 96. And then the last one I did was in uh oh three to 04, and after that there was no more New Year's Eve shows. Yeah, so I did the last when I left the New Year's Eve show stopped.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Do you know why?

SPEAKER_04 19:45

Um I don't have a clue. Maybe budgeting. Because again, I was gone, I was gone. You were you you heard you were over there the weekend I quit.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

So I was actually working production for Pennywise. Uh I think this was what was it, House of Blues or Live? Was it before Live Nation?

SPEAKER_04 20:02

It was before Live Nation.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Yeah. So House of Blues hired me to work Pennywise, which was the easiest gig ever, because Pennywise keeps it real with our back line. It's just like an amp and a drum set, you know what I mean? And uh I uh I'll never forget that day. I was horrified with what happened, and I gotta give you a lot of kudos and respect to you, Jerry. You took it very maturely, you handled it very well, and you worked the rest of your shift, and then you left, and then you put in your notice.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Well, actually, I think Raw was the following day, and then and then there was uh because Raw was a metal band. Yeah, and then I think it was Leader Kenny. Um is that when you officially left? So I officially left on the we had a show, we had three shows lined up that weekend. So I did two of them, and I just got tired of everything. And then I was working every day. So I drive to San Diego from Oxnard. Oh wow and shows every day. So for two years straight, I was working every day, no days off. And I just got enough had enough. I I don't need people throwing stress at me, and that as everybody knows, some certain person is a stress case. I'm surprised hasn't had a massive heart attack.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

But uh stress kills people.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

That's one thing I wanted to ask you guys, just about all you've been through, all the experiences you've been through, like um when you weigh, like you said, the stress versus like the stories. Like, I'm sure there's lots of really high highs and maybe some low lows. Oh, yeah, there's when you really weigh it out in the end, like what where do you where do you end up at?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Oh, I I wouldn't do anything over, to be honest with you. Yeah, same here. I'm glad that that was a big chunk of my life, you know. It was like good times, and it led to other things, you know. I was out on the road with a couple other big bands and did Ozfest, was hanging out with Ozzie Osborne. That's cool. If it wasn't for if it wasn't for Jerome, who actually was the original person that hired me, and actually Jay Edwards from Spazboy is the guy that. Brought me down to Soma to meet Jerem. Of course, I was a patron. I was going over there and seeing shows. I saw several shows at Union, and uh he was like, Yeah, we could use help. And and I started could always use help. And for me, it was like I didn't even care if I got paid, it was just to be backstage hanging with the bands that I love. You know, who would have thought? You know, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

That's good to hear. Can we talk about the stoma bathroom?

SPEAKER_03 22:28

We've talked about it. Oh boy. I'm sorry, we they have talked about it before a little bit on a previous episode, but uh well, but you have to clean the bathroom.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

What is what was your guys' thoughts on Soma bathroom?

SPEAKER_03 22:40

A patron, I will never toilet in Scotland. Uh well, I've been in some real shitholes before, but uh that definitely is one of the worst bathrooms I've ever been in for a public facility. Probably the worst. And I remember what the night it flooded.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

The whole show.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

I was pretty lucky.

SPEAKER_04 23:01

Never been to uh C BGB.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

I can't remember exactly what show it was because I happened to get pretty stunned that night. But that's the worst.

SPEAKER_05 23:08

Yeah, there's um well, just to clarify, I'm the one that had to paint them. Um I would I would you know replace toilets. Um they were really fucking clean before the show. Really fucking clean. Because I would throw disinfectant around like it was like I was champaigning a victory.

SPEAKER_03 23:32

And here's the thing, I know exactly what he's talking about. Uh, because when we'd start to show up brick by brick, completely cleaning, and here is the kicker. You would think the men's would be more thrashed. It's the women's. Oh, it's the women's fucking tampons down the toilet, and that's creating liquor bottles, liquor bottles, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:52

So the the whole show their panties, um fucking in the bathtub. Um no, so the whole show is the one where you would hear me coming, you know, you know what you guys remember where I was. I'm in the back, I'm trying to make sure everything's going good. I'm dealing with all the bands and blah blah blah. So that's supposed to be my my mellow time of the evening, is when I'm just running the backstage and running the back part of the club. So there'd be a problem in the bathroom. So I'm the one yelling, you know, coming through with the mop, yelling freaking bomb scare or something, just yelling anything to get people to move, and they would just look at me like, oh, it's just germ. And they wouldn't move, and I'm coming through with a fucking mop, and they're in two inches of water, and it's coming out of the female bathroom. So I'd come in and I'd yell, God knows what, and I'd just start mopping up the bathroom, find out where the problem is, deal with it, go back out in my, you know, soak and wet, piss stained frickin' docks, and you know, hopefully I didn't wear creepers that night, and just you know, deal with the show, get an earful at the end of the night, start cleaning it up a little bit, enough to get by so the next day, because you know, I would have to open the club, I would close the club, I would clean the club, I would fly her. It was a seven-day a week thing. I didn't, you know, no wonder why I drank so much.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Somebody had to do that kind of work.

SPEAKER_05 25:13

Yeah. But again, you know, going back to what Chris was talking about, I I wouldn't change anything because it's all it's it's our scene, and if I wasn't doing it, then you know, someone else most undoubtedly would have stepped up to do it, but it's part of my past, and that's the whole reason having the podcast to talk about it, because you know, for me personally, Chris, I'm not done. When I left, by the time we went to Metro, I was like, okay, this is different. It felt a little bit more, it went from Thunderdome to to me, it felt a little bit more corporate, but it was a nice building. It the conditions were a lot different. I had to deal with the neighborhood, I had to be a little bit more of a public face. I had to do the interview and I was on the cover of the Union Tribune and all that. I didn't want to be that. You know, I just wanted to flip people off and then book really good shit and support local bands. So when I end up leaving for my own sanity, I just I felt bad. And it's still to this day, Jerry and I have talked about it, Sulan and I have talked about it. We've all talked about it. It's there's some unfinished business. What we started then, or what I started in '89 by coming into the mix and actually booking local bands. I'm I'm not done yet. So I wouldn't change anything because all that was a learning experience.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Yeah. And and we had a really rad conversation just a few weeks ago about that, and we haven't even started talking to Jerry about that yet. Yeah, you know what's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

What's amazing is how much work you guys put into it. I mean, the last time that we were all in a room talking together, you could not text somebody. Right. You could not post a Facebook. So like you guys put in like all this, I call them the analog days, right? Right. You had to go out and fly her. You had you had to call someone to figure out which bands were playing. I know I sound like the old guy, and I am, but we are old, you know.

SPEAKER_05 27:03

And um I gotta go feed my dinosaur. Hold on, I'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 27:08

I mean, literally, go feed my sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

But that's why this show is so important, so like people who were there at that time, uh, they can look back and get reminded all these stories.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Yeah, and start digging up for the things. Well, that's the beauty part about this podcast show, and especially you know uh what captivated me about listening to it when it first started was you had this whole generation after generation after generation, and then now there's me who is directly inspired by someone to go off and do my own thing in the industry. I wanted to be in a band like Chris. Right. I wanted not just be in a band, I wanted to open up for my heroes, right, like Chris, but I wanted more, I wanted to throw not just DIY shows, I wanted to do what you did and what you did, Jerry. And I started working at Keynes, driving a golf cart, and within two years at age 22, I was running the booking for brick by brick, and the rest is all history.

SPEAKER_05 28:06

Yeah, because I started late 2021. I was probably had just turned 21 when I first did my first couple shows in '89, because it was in November, so I'd yeah, I would have just turned twenty-one, but I the footwork had started in my twenties, but by the time I actually booked the first shows, and you know, I didn't get paid for those shows.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Oh, you got to take a lot of sacrifice. I didn't even have a car.

SPEAKER_05 28:32

I I was doing Soma for a while, and one of the reasons why, you know, I'm just riding around on a skateboard, and Len's like, you know, the fuck dude, you need to get a fucking car. We need to expand our flyer route. So getting back to that, I my flyer route was from the coast out to uh East County, and it was about a hundred miles. Len's was from South Bay to North County, and that was about a hundred miles.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Wait, so Len actually went and did flyers on his own?

SPEAKER_05 28:59

Oh, yeah. Wow. In the beginning, I mean, because again, just to remind people, in the beginning, no one had really done all this. It was a dance club, right? So there was, you know, the clubs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Yeah, it was dance, and then the dungeon was where the shows were.

SPEAKER_05 29:13

Yeah. And there was they had done a few shows, but when I came in, because I had brought up again, shout out to the ninth, and well, because of that, we get into short-lived and struggle and missing children and psychic dykes. And then we get into Deadbolt Cowpunks, and that that's m my whole origin in about '88. So by the time I was doing this, it's because you know, I said, Well, I can get the ninth. So then it just expanded, and we had to do everything because no one was doing it. You know, what we were doing. Um, Tim was doing his shows, Harlan was doing shows. Um, there was another Tim. Um, so you got um Tim Mays, obviously, um Tim Hall. Tim Hall, yeah. And then uh Bill Silva. Yeah, Bill Silva. But you know, I was in a complete you know, here's here's me, 2021, yeah. I mean full of piss and vinegar, just this little punk rocker. And so we had to kind of create the whole thing of Soma from scratch. I didn't have any template, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I just knew I won it started with local bands, and that's always been my emphasis. But I wanted to bring in the bigger bands so that we could help establish bands. As it grew, I started to learn more and more and started to figure things out. But yeah, I mean Len and I I had to get a fucking car, so I ended up moving um when the times I moved trying to remember. Oh, okay, so I had my own place, but then I I moved to Ocean Beach. By that time I was doing Soma and I was living with a friend of mine, Sid, and his girlfriend Kelly, and rightfully so, they booted me because I wasn't paying any rent, and you know, we were eating bologna sandwiches, and if we can get bread, and so I was homeless, but then Silas, luckily his mom took me in, and then Silas and I helped, you know, we created this the way that I started booking bands. We'll have him in as Silas?

SPEAKER_04 31:09

I don't know if these guys know who Silas is.

SPEAKER_05 31:11

Silas is um so I ended up living with him and his mom. Silas is the guy that worked the door at Union Street, and he would have the cane. He ended up having a bum knee, so he cane, and then it was just part of his his shtick for a long time. Guy with the long ponytail.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

And who replaced him?

SPEAKER_05 31:28

Um you ended up replacing him once we got to Metro. Um his girlfriend Elise also worked at Soma, was one of the soda girls in the early days. Um we can go through all the lineage, but then there's Owen who is one of our sound guys, and then Will was one of our sound guys, and that's where my life comes in.

SPEAKER_04 31:46

Owen and Cy were brothers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

So I mean we'll go down that that whole rabbit hole at some other point because it's the whole creation of it, it was so organic. I think that's why it worked. And that's I think that's why it was so honest what we were doing. And I kind of you know, yes, Lem was there, but realistically anyone that knows me, I kind of had my own thing and I took direction, but you know, my middle fingers are twitching right now thinking about it. I just I had to do things my way because I I had a certain focus and it just it worked for a long time, I guess. I mean the name's still around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

But it did work. If you if you say the word Soma in reference to like a music scene, am I talking to the case? If you say that if you say that's what people instantly think of the club. If you if you're talking to bands, you say the word Soma, that's what they think of. Soma is iconic. International touring bands. It's like it's world renowned. Yeah, it's like you you hear podcasts of bands uh even today talking about Soma. So that's crazy. Yeah, in case you missed that. But you know, no, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 33:02

You know, it was all about the low smoke. Can I get a read?

SPEAKER_03 33:07

No, absolutely. In case you missed what what Chris Arms just said, uh, because we had some slight mic issues, is that Soma became a household name. And it still is to this day. It's still world renowned. I've heard it mentioned in documentaries before, which is really cool. Um but honestly, like for me being a teenage punk, starting to go there when I was 14 years old to uh to Metro. Yeah, I'm 41 now. Um my father being very supportive of dropping me off there every week, and because he's like, I found a place for you. This place is special. And it was. Yeah. I mean, you could write on the wall, and the next week it'll get painted over, and then you can write something else. I I mean I think I started writing songs on the wall at one point, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you could smoke cigarettes in there when as a teenager, you know, as a cigarette smoker, that was like a big deal. You didn't have to sneak away from your parents, and you never see parents there really, you know what I mean? Occasionally, but I mean it was people your age for the most part. Yeah. And uh some of the best times of my life were spent in the side stage, in the halls, uh, main stage.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Who dealt with all the parents?

SPEAKER_05 34:23

Well here we go. Oh god. Well, booking the shows, yeah. But I mean, yeah, I'm I'm trying to not really me. I try to stay as far away. And that see, that's another great thing is when when you surround yourself by people that that can handle all the situations. By the time you get to the back and you have to deal with me, you know, that's that's gonna be a different level. But up in the front, Jerry up in the front, just still still to this day, as my partner with the podcast and and the other projects we're working on, I rely on them so much because there's certain aspects that I just you know, and my mind's not in that mind frame and I can't I can't deal with it. I still remember calling up people and have to ask their parents if, you know, if so and so is home, can I talk to them? Oh, this is germ from Soma. Oh, when you're booking? Yeah. Yeah. You know, so that's about as much as I really want to deal with. I didn't like doing any of that pressure stuff or anything, because in the back of my head always got the you know, my fucking punk rocker. Right. You know, and I I was. I mean I had more metal in my frickin' body than than a frickin' thirty-pound catfish that's been caught seven hundred times. You know, and even like now I you know I have my mohawk, and speaking of, we can't see right now. Well, I I did take a picture and I'll take more, but I'm wearing the same beanie that I used to wear at Union. I wore that I've had this thing since I was like 19 or 20 years old. It's got some miles on it.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Hey, you know what? People I watched it though, so it doesn't fabricate beanies like that now to look cool. Yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

It's I've never been that cool.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

So it's just it's but but the fact that you still have a beanie, I've been through a million beanies. Oh yeah. I can't say I've had a beanie that long. So it's that's that's awesome. I noticed that too, and it uh it looked weird. Not like like when I said meant fabricated, like they do you know, they make the faded shirts and hot topics. Yeah, all the hot topic shit. And uh I did a really cool screen of um Punk's Not Dead, this documentary that came out like back in like 08 and had like channel three headline, and uh I ran the movie there, and there's a whole segment speaking on a hot topic about like the buyers would go to warp tour and see what all the kids were wearing, and you know, that's a whole nother conversation from another time. But uh that is really cool to see something that OG, you know what I mean, and then the fact that you still have it and it's that symbolic to you.

SPEAKER_05 36:47

Oh, it's well Wadi has been a huge just huge influence. That's exploited, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so I probably had this patch since I was about 18, maybe even younger. Yeah. Um I believe yeah, I have one of my um exploited shirts sewn in to one of my leather jackets. I have my leather jacket from when I was nineteen, twenty years old. I still have that. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

So when you guys are bringing up OG, um kind of hey Chris, well what age were you when you first started going to Metro?

SPEAKER_01 37:21

God, this would have been nineteen. This would have been ninety-five? Well, actually, no, that'd be Metro Union, my first show was face to face, Belco9, Green Day? Green Day. I think uh was Unwritten Law on that show? They might have been. Probably. I remember I was in the Mosh pit and there was an unwritten law. I guess they'd thrown thrown out stickers during their set. It was stuck to the cement. I picked up the sticker, I crowd surfed over the front and like did this sky hook Michael Jordan thing onto the onto the the monitor in front of Billy Joe and like slapped it on the monitor and he picked the he picked the sticker up and put it on his guitar, and I'm like, yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

That is rad. Yeah. It's kind of full circle for you there. Kind of full circle, yeah. I had no idea what would what would transpire after that.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Actually, that's a good segue. So why don't we talk a little bit about that for a second? Um so you actually dropped the whole suit thing, uh wearing suits in the band and that whole thing, and then that's about the era when uh Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day contacted you and signed you to Adeline.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Yeah, in the parking lot at Metro, Green Day, I think this was the Nimrod tour. I Billy Joe was walking out in the parking lot. In that parking lot, I gave him a demo tape, tape, a cassette tape. Uh I had broken my wrist at the time and recorded the whole record with a broken wrist, and I remember handing him back the cassette tape and not thinking that I'd ever hear back.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

But um And they called you broken arms because of that. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

And he had called, but the week before he called one of my friends decided to prank me as an AR guy from Atlantic Records, like, oh, we want to sign you guys and all this stuff. And it turns out it was just a prank. And so I hear Billy Joe's voice on my answering machine. I'm like, yeah, right, who the hell is this?

SPEAKER_03 39:30

And he still has the recording. I thought the recording. You have it on your phone by Andrew. I got it somewhere, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Okay, I was gonna say, but I thought that was a pretty funny. Yeah. But it turned out to actually be him.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

I'm like, is that what did he say when he when he called you?

SPEAKER_01 39:44

He left a message, he's like, you know, just hey, we like your record, give us a call. And then I called him and he's like, Are you guys touring? And I lied and said that we were touring, which we weren't, you know, because I want him to think that we were out there doing finding DIY.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

And back then you couldn't even track it, really. So unless unless you called venue to venue.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

We made it easy for them to say yes. The record was recorded, all the artwork artwork was done. They just said, Hey, can you can you put two extra songs on this? And we'll put it out. We'll give you, you know, um, we'll pay you back the three grand you made for the record. And we were like, Cool, let's do it. We did it.

SPEAKER_05 40:18

I had no idea about any of that ever. Did they take you on tour?

SPEAKER_01 40:24

No, they made it real clear in the beginning. They said, Look, you gotta go out there and prove your uh your worth first that you can put uh people in seats. And I I respected that, to be perfectly honest.

SPEAKER_05 40:34

You had already dealt with me, so it's should have been.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

No, you were you were fine. I mean, we we just knew that we had to we had to start booking our own shirt uh own shows, so we we got the book your own fucking life book.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

Right, we started calling some rock and roll, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Yeah, and for a hundred bucks a night, we we booked two national tours, had a time of our lives, didn't get any sleep, and came back and didn't make a lot of money. No, we came back three hundred bucks in the hole after three months, and I laid down in my bed and I felt like I was on a train that was still moving. And what year I just want to get back out there.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

What years was this?

SPEAKER_01 41:12

We got signed in uh 2000. We made the record in 99, we got signed in 2000.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

And how long uh were you on the label for? Two years? Okay. Yeah. So what ended that whole relationship?

SPEAKER_01 41:30

The relationship never really ended. I mean they they offered us a specific budget for the third record, and the surf dog said we're gonna triple quadruple that.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Oh, so you had another offer on the table.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

So we had another offer on the table, which leads into a whole another story, but they weren't they weren't heard about it or anything. They understand. You know, we just wanted to make you know, a record that had some sonic um.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

And when I first got to know you, I remember I was working at Keynes, and I had already heard that you had been signed. This is back in 2000. And I remember you walked right past my golf cart and I stopped you and I was like, Chris, congratulations, you I heard you gotta sign a Billy Joe Armstrong's label. And you were so stoked. I'll never forget that image of of like how happy you were. It's like you that that moment, like, hey, I I I I fucking made it.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Yeah, on a crazy kind of kind of uh philosophical kind of pseudo-level. Like I had I had a dream that it was gonna happen. I had a dream I was at the metro location and we were all hanging out, and I couldn't explain it at the time, but it did it did actually happen. I don't know how, you know. Dream is it's just a cool story to tell. I got nothing really to show for it, but I mean we all have these stories, right?

SPEAKER_04 42:49

You got history, that's the thing, you know.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Dreams were born at Soma. It's like I tell you seriously, dreams were born at Soma. Tell a lot of my friends stories we're telling right now. Yeah, and we're still sitting here telling stories about it.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

I tell I tell a lot of my friends that are and actually pretty well-known national act, you know, bands. And you know, sometimes they complain, and you know, everybody has their problems in life, and it's like, dude, how many people would want to be in your position? Right. You know, you're out touring, you're doing what you wanted to do. The whole reason you started a band, you're out playing and you're meeting all these people and you're experiencing things that most of us don't.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

So yeah, it's crazy. Like we were talking earlier about how you have this image in mind of the people that you idolize, and then you meet them, and you get, like we said, you come full circle from slapping the sticker on a guy's guitar. Next thing you know, you're getting sign by the guy that put the sticker on the guitar, and then you're in his living room as the first plane hits the World Trade Center. That's crazy. That was a surreal moment.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

And me, man. I looked up to you back then. And I can't even imagine how many kids looked up to you guys. You guys were, and to this day, still one of the most iconic bands to ever come out of San Diego for the whole punk scene in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

I appreciate that. I mean, we we were a little late to the party, you know, but we we did our best.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Hey, but you showed up.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

You showed up. We showed up on time.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Hey, you showed up and you made a very like lasting impression.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

And for people to have your logo tattooed on them, that's pretty big. That is crazy. I don't have a single tattoo on my body. I'm not against tattoos at all.

SPEAKER_03 44:34

Oh, that's right. I remember you posting that in the Facebook group. So that's a huge step. If anyone wants to share their Soma stories, they can log on to the Union and Metro Facebook group.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

Feel free if you have any old posters or a CD or a video you want to upload, uh, you know, just click join and one of us will approve or one of the other members.

SPEAKER_05 44:56

Yeah, there's actually the I'm still trying to get I have an old video pour that I have to get formatted to where I know how to deal with it, but I've also resolved to the fact that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. So I don't but there's you know a lot of old footage out there that people have. I remember doing any of my bands, you know, Cockroach, Meat, Tribe of Fallen Dreams to pour the list is so fucking long that it I can't even remember them all. But I always remember, you know, a lot of photos being taken and video being taken back then for those younger, they have these giant frickin' camera things that wasn't just a phone. So you know who's filming when someone's filming. You can see this big frickin' box on someone's shoulder and then a light bulb shining in your eyeballs. The the video boom box. Yeah. But those things, you know, that's that's the whole thing. I'd I'd love to see all that documented because this is the thing of the podcast, is no one's really documented our scene around Soma.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

Then why don't we do it?

SPEAKER_05 45:55

That's that's the whole reason why we're doing it.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

No, I mean, why don't we do a video documentary? Who says we can't do that too? That in a book. Did you guys keep a channel? I think a book is a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Did you guys keep a journal at all? Like you beat the book. Both of us have journals. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

This guy is like the historian. He's got all this archive stuff, and same with you, too.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

I haven't I think it's in the attic, but but we we need to get somebody to get out to the reader to pull all the union and metro um all of our adverts so we can find out the years.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

My old reader rep has been working there like almost probably like 30 years now.

SPEAKER_04 46:28

Get in contact with him, get him the I will.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

I'll reach out to Todd.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

Okay. Patrick was supposed to do that. Haley.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

Shout out to uh Todd Westfall. Love you, dude.

SPEAKER_04 46:38

Yeah, so I was gonna I was gonna ask Chris um two questions here. So, what was the most memorable show you played, and what was the most memorable show you went to at either Union or Metro? Of course you didn't play at Union, right? You just played at Metro.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

The most memorable show, for some reason, the first show that pops into my mind a band called Brainiac was playing Metro.

SPEAKER_00 47:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

And I think it was with Buck09 or maybe a sorted jelly, one of those bands.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

Oh wait, you were gonna say assorted jelly beans?

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Yeah, yeah, and I I don't know if Buck09 opened, but they were throwing like jolly ranch and stuff out, and just candy and stuff, and Brainiac was like so hated. Oh, yeah, that people took the candy off the floor and they just bombarded them like the tsunami wave of candy just endless.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

Why do you think they were so hated? Was it the people think they suck or that wasn't what they wanted to hear?

SPEAKER_04 47:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Yeah, I guess maybe it wasn't a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Mismatch booking or yeah, that's for some of the things.

SPEAKER_05 47:40

That was a problem with some of those shows that would come through because it'd be a package deal. Yeah, yeah. You know, I tried to when we get back into talking about how Silas and I used to sit there and we would listen to demo tapes, and we would try to there was a whole science to booking shows. But um some of those billings that came through, if an outsider did it especially, they would just, you know, throw a bunch of people together. They would usually put the the not so um formulated well band, putting a nice the band that doesn't fit the fucking bill, let's just call it what it is. They would put him as the opener, but sometimes you know the crowd just did not like them. Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

And you know, because it would you have to do a formula to make these shows work. I played shows like that in LA. That's why the pay-to-play promoters, when they try to invade San Diego, I'd only work with one promoter, and it was Sean Healy. He always did good business because he actually cared and thought about like what music he's putting on the same build together. He's not just slapping together a jazz band with a freaking punk rock band that does not make any sense.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

That's why I never booked Jewel, because I'm like, what the hell am I gonna book her with?

SPEAKER_03 48:47

Yeah. So you didn't answer all the other questions. Oh, yeah, we kind of sidestepped that.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

Sorry, Chris. So the most memorable show, the first one that sticks out in my mind, was the very, very first show I ever played at Soma. And I got thrown into the fire. It was my first band called Open Fast. And we knew Unwritten Law, and Rob Brewer hooked us up somehow and said uh a kind word to either you or Len. And um our first show was a main stage show. Really? So, you know, we're we're six months into being a band, and they're like, okay, we're you're gonna open the main stage.

unknown 49:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

And we got put on the bill, we opened, then directly after us was a band called Corn from Bakersfield. Some band, some band called Corn from Bakersfield. That's weird. I've never heard of that band. A band called Stand Black Church from Boston. Oh, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 49:45

I've okay, sorry. And clutch was headlining. Yeah, clutch.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

We had no business being on that bill at all. And uh no one seemed to mind. I mean, we were we were like this fast punk rock band, garage punk punk rock band, and I think we screwed up a couple times. Um we we threw some uh we we played a song called uh I hate hippies, and through some hippie dummy in the crowd. Uh I think someone died of a heron overdose that night. Oh shit. Um John uh Davis puked on the side of the stage after his bagpipe solo. We didn't know who corn was, they were just another band on the bill. But what year was this? Well, nobody knew who they were. This would have been 95, 96. It was sold out, wasn't it? I think it was 94. Maybe 94.

SPEAKER_03 50:29

I remember that show. I went to that show and and it was sold out and I couldn't get in. Oh yeah, and so I had to lie to my dad. It's funny because they got I went off and didn't something else, but anyway.

SPEAKER_04 50:44

I think that was the only show that Clutch ever headlined at Soma. Yeah, because after that they opened for bands.

SPEAKER_03 50:49

Right.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Because I know they opened for Slayer, and I think they opened for Tool once.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

You know, funny thing about Clutch is Lee, who runs the sound and tour managers clutch, started off at Brick by Brick as a sound guy. It was his favorite band ever. Really? And then when Clutch first came through Brick by Brick, the first time with Lee working there, right? He, you know, tried to do everything he could to impress him, and it worked. And he's still working with them to this day. It's been like 20 something years. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. One second while uh Germ answers the doorbell. That might be our next guest. And sure enough, it is.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

So is uh do we need to cash more stuff out on here?

SPEAKER_01 51:37

Or is everybody good? Chris? I'm I'm I'm down to talk as long as you want or as little as you want.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

Where are we at time wise?

SPEAKER_04 51:45

We're uh 51 minutes and 50 seconds.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

Yeah, we should probably cut it.

SPEAKER_04 51:49

Yeah, we can get back into it. So this would be episode sixteen with Chris Arms from Agent 51. Uh, thank you for coming out.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

Thanks for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

And it's always good to rehash these stories. So um long live music. Absolutely, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

Long live music, guys. I'd love to come back someday.

SPEAKER_04 52:09

Absolutely. Sooner than later. Hell yeah. Yeah, we could go another.