Mastodon-Teardrinker and Other Musings

In this episode, Michael and Sebastian dive into a variety of topics, starting with their frustrations about football and the upcoming Super Bowl. They share personal stories about family bonding during community events, discuss tattoos, and reflect on their gambling experiences. The conversation wraps up with a music recommendation, highlighting the band Mastodon and their song 'Teardrinker.' In this engaging conversation, Sebastian and Michael delve into the musical intricacies of the band Mastodon, exploring their melodic riffs, vocal harmonies, and the unique experience of their live performances. They discuss the collaborative songwriting process within the band, the evolution of their sound over the years, and the thematic depth of their lyrics. The duo also reflects on the significance of album artwork and the impact of music videos, while emphasizing the importance of live music in connecting with audiences. Throughout the discussion, they highlight the artistry and creativity that Mastodon brings to the progressive metal genre, making a case for their relevance and appeal in today's music scene.

Mandatory Music is proudly hosted and produced by Michael Heide and Sebastian Kwapich

Contact Mandatory Music:
email us at mandatorymusicshow@gmail.com
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Thanks for listening and keep on rocking

Chapters

• 0:00 Football Rants and Super Bowl Predictions
• 2:59 Father-Daughter Bonding and Community Events
• 5:58 Tattoo Talks and Personal Reflections
• 8:50 Gambling Insights and Football Analysis
• 11:55 Music Recommendations and Band Discussions
• 18:09 Melodic Riffs and Vocal Harmonies
• 19:11 Mastodon Live Experience
• 20:51 The Art of Music Videos
• 23:58 Collaborative Songwriting in Mastodon
• 25:52 Evolution of Mastodon's Sound
• 27:13 Album Artwork and Themes
• 29:30 Mastodon: A Gateway to New Music
• 31:37 The Live Music Experience
• 32:56 Lyrical Depth and Themes

Transcript

Michael (00:01.026)
Good evening. Welcome back to another exciting episode of mandatory music. The podcast where, you know, two knuckleheads are talking about music and that's just waka waka waka. That's, that's what we do. Mr. Sebastian, my bestie's here with me as always. What's up? I'd like to rant about football for 90 seconds as you told me. Of course, after yesterday's game, I don't know if you watched the Chiefs game or not.

Sebastian (00:09.643)
Waka Waka.

Sebastian (00:18.882)
What's up?

Sebastian (00:24.032)
It's gonna happen.

Sebastian (00:29.536)
As much as I could, I was working during it, but yeah.

Michael (00:30.378)
It's my yeah, you're probably working. So, the chiefs win again. They're going to the Superbowl. It's quite annoying. And we've decided as a family, all four of us, well, my daughter doesn't like football, but the three of us that were watching the game, we're boycotting the Superbowl. We're done. It's over. I will. Nope. Nope. I'm not watching it because I already know. I think I know how it's going to go. The refs are going to side with the chiefs and make them win because you don't think so. I know, man. I hope not. I hope Philly.

Sebastian (00:35.234)
Ha

Sebastian (00:46.975)
you should watch it.

Sebastian (00:54.988)
I don't think so. I don't think it's close.

Michael (01:00.386)
destroys them, but, okay.

Sebastian (01:01.834)
For two reasons, Shaquan Barkley and the Eagles defense. Eagles defense is, I think was the best defense out of all NFL. And then you got the best running back in the league as well. you have a dual like, so they have to answer Barkley first of all, and then they have to answer the defense as well. So.

Michael (01:06.05)
Yes.

Michael (01:11.188)
without a doubt. Yes.

Let's hope. Let's hope, right?

Michael (01:20.332)
Yes, and they can't.

Yeah, because like look what Buffalo did when they actually decided to run the ball. They could run the ball and then they just decided not to and stupid calls and plays, whatever.

Sebastian (01:28.302)
Yeah.

Sebastian (01:32.045)
Dude, the fourth down played near the end of the game where the corner blitzed on Josh Allen. Like he almost caught that for a first down. It was in his hands, man. That would have changed everything.

Michael (01:42.044)
It his hands. It was reminiscent of the game the week before when the Ravens had the two point tie the game and Andrews, okay, well yeah. So the Ravens scored, right? And then Andrews dropped the ball at the goal line. This is sort of the same idea. It would've changed the whole game. I bet you Buffalo probably would've won the game. But.

Sebastian (01:49.1)
I didn't watch that game, so. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he dropped the ball. Yeah, yeah.

Sebastian (01:59.97)
That was an easier catch though, the Andrew's catch. think this was under pressure and he kind of threw it into an area and.

Michael (02:02.336)
It was. absolutely. It was like a hope and a prayer. But anyways, but we're going to still do the snacks. I don't know what we're going to watch instead of the Super Bowl. But no, don't. I'm just so done. just I'm done because even my son's like, so is this what it was like when the Patriots were good? I'm like, no, the Patriots are actually really good and they were better than everybody else. The Chiefs just win magically every single game. And it's getting annoying.

Sebastian (02:14.242)
You're gonna watch the Super Bowl.

Sebastian (02:30.944)
It's... I mean it's arguable. The Chiefs have a good team. They're pretty well-rounded. They don't really have deficiencies in any aspect of their game, really. I don't think...

Michael (02:35.724)
They do. Yes.

Michael (02:43.222)
No, I'd say offensively is their biggest deficiency. They can't score a lot of points. They don't need to. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep.

Sebastian (02:48.376)
But they don't need to they're so clutch. They're like the ultimate clutch team, right? So but I you know, I've said this many times but now I know how people felt in the Patriots Golden era when they were making every freaking Super Bowl and people were like just anyone but the Patriots I feel that with the Chiefs right now. So

Michael (02:59.606)
Yeah,

It's, it's yeah. And like it, especially when, you know, my, my team is in the same, same conference.

Sebastian (03:11.726)
There it is there's the real rub right there Wait, are you back on the Bengals train? Yes, you are. You'll be next year. Don't worry Of course he will I Will tell you what though. I was at lids and there are some pretty sick Bengals hats. I'm gonna tell you they were pretty sick Yeah, they're like black with like an orange lid on it. And then I had like tiger stripes going down like both sides

Michael (03:16.584)
I know, I know the one time we were hell if my team was...

Well, whatever, I'm still a fan, whatever. If they're... Yep. Really? No way. No way.

Really? my God. Cause I'll tell you in the town I live in, ain't no Bengal's hats anywhere. It's just like the one, actually there's this one. It's just the black one with the B. And I'm like, really? I'm like, could you get any more generic? But.

Sebastian (03:49.294)
There was an absolutely sick Miami Dolphins, like gray hat. And it was like the only gray hat in that football thing. And I'm like, this hat is sick. And I turned it around. It was $84. I'm like, I'm not spending $84. Like there's a reason why it looks so sick then, right? Cause yeah, it was like, I can't remember what player it was, but it was like, there's a player's autograph stitched on the side of it too. can't remember what it was. Probably, probably two, I guess, but I.

Michael (04:00.109)
Really.

Michael (04:03.949)
What?

For a hat?

Michael (04:12.92)
Oh, love, it was probably Tyreek. Two are a Tyreek, that'd be the only two, right? Or Jalen Waddle maybe, but still $84 for a hat? Oh, that's insanity, man. This hoodie that I'm wearing was $85, but it all went to charity. Yeah, so yesterday, there was a guy in the town I live in in Kamloops, is Scott Caleb, he was putting on a...

Sebastian (04:20.672)
Yeah, it was a sick hat. I'm like, Whoa, I'm not, I'm not paying that. I'm not paying that.

Hey, well there you go, that's good.

Michael (04:40.568)
charity run at our aquatic center where the indoor track is to raise money for the Canadian Cansure Society. So I met him on New Year's Day during my New Year's Day run. Great guy, awesome guy, told me all about it. yeah, I'm in, I will come. And actually my daughter decided to come. And so Caleb ran for 12 hours around a 200 meter track. It was 86, what'd say? That's a solid 12 hours. So it was like, he walked two.

Sebastian (04:44.429)
nice.

Sebastian (04:59.598)
Boy, like solid 12 hours.

No, like he saw he ran for the entire 12 hours. Well, but he's active for the whole 12 hours.

Michael (05:10.114)
but he was moving for 12 straight hours and it ended up being like 85 or 86 kilometers. Yeah, so he raised a ton of money, lots of door prizes, there was like all sorts of sponsors, it was amazing. That's where I got this hoodie, it's go on, go far, I think it's go on, gofar.com or just look up run Caleb run on Instagram and you can find him there. Great guy, great runner, super, super inspiring. But yeah, so I went, my plan was to run.

Sebastian (05:16.802)
Wow.

Sebastian (05:25.176)
Nice.

Michael (05:38.808)
10K, whatever, I was gonna go for an hour and a bit and my daughter came. So it took me a little longer to get my 10 in, but I did. My daughter, Jolyon does not run. She's not a runner. She says she hates long distance running. Then I sort of made the joke. Remember in Lord of the Rings, the two towers when Gimli was like, I'm not built for long distance, I'm just a sprinter. So I kind of used that. Yeah, right? So I used that line on her. She's like, you compare me to a dwarf from Lord of the Rings? I'm like, come on, it's just funny. But anyways, so.

Sebastian (05:58.274)
Very deadly at short distances.

Sebastian (06:06.796)
if the shoe fit, not just kidding.

Michael (06:07.976)
She almost put in 7K between running and walking and it was amazing. And she's super sore today, which is even better. But she had a good time, we had a good time together, because it was like super father-daughter bonding time. And we went for lunch after all that fun stuff. And then she fell asleep on the way home for the 15 minute drive. She fell asleep. was price. yeah, she was like a zombie. It did, yeah.

Sebastian (06:11.0)
Good for her.

Sebastian (06:16.524)
Yeah, good.

Sebastian (06:26.22)
good for you guys.

Sebastian (06:30.478)
Does that take you back to when she was like a toddler or like a young child?

Michael (06:36.472)
Absolutely, you go out for a couple hours to tire them out, you're five minutes in the car, just heads on the window, they're done. It was cool. And then I won a free pair of running shoes. Yay me. So I'm gonna get a new pair of shoes. And I also won a gift card, or 25 % off for a tattoo at one of our local tattoo shops. So now, I haven't thought of tattoos for the longest time, because I have some, and I've been kind of...

Sebastian (06:42.958)
Good.

Sebastian (06:48.238)
nice.

Sebastian (07:04.674)
Well now there's an incentive to get a new one.

Michael (07:06.968)
Now there's incentives and so I won that raffle, which, know, 25 % off someone that charges you 200 bucks an hour for, you know, depending how big you want, how big you want your tattoo, it's, it could be a lot of money. Yeah. So that was, that was cool. I met the, I met the lady, Chloe. She was awesome. And yeah, so we'll see. Her work is really intricate and I don't know if I want something gigantic or not, but

Sebastian (07:18.349)
significant.

That's significant, yep.

Sebastian (07:34.926)
Do you have any inclination on what you want or?

Michael (07:39.234)
First thing I thought of was a raven, but I don't know. Something in that.

Sebastian (07:43.522)
You should get the Metallica 72 Seasons crib. There ya go! I'm just kidding, don't do that.

Michael (07:49.366)
Yeah, I'll get that and the hardwired on my back. Together, I gotta make 72 on my back. No, no. yeah, so that was a lot of fun. got, what? Absolutely, actually it's gonna be Angus McSix. Terrible news out there. Angus McSix left his own band, Angus McSix. And now they got, what's his name, Angus McSam? I think he got his name as Sam. He's probably just filling in for a while, but Angus had to be frozen.

Sebastian (07:51.918)
there you're talking. Yeah, there you go.

Sebastian (08:01.472)
I got it. Glory hammer.

or even better.

Michael (08:18.658)
Frozen in time.

Sebastian (08:18.848)
Also full disclosure with whoever's listening to this podcast including myself and mike mike is the only one that knows who angus mc6 is Nobody else would be like who that?

Michael (08:26.07)
Yes.

Get Google Angus McSix, because his new single, 6666, is awesome. It's actually good. It's actually a good song. And it's on YouTube. The video is hilarious. The video makes the song. Well, it probably is, but whatever.

Sebastian (08:35.725)
Wow.

Sebastian (08:39.938)
He looks like a Chad.

Dude, the first image is a picture of him with his blue eyes and like five o'clock shadow with golden armor on. No, there's no judging here. We listen and we don't judge.

Michael (08:50.648)
Yes, let's not judge, let's not judge. Come on, man, no judging. We try, well, we try not to judge. We're all judgy, but we try not to. Yeah, so that was sort of my weekend in a nutshell. I'm assuming since it was big football yesterday, you worked all day yesterday. Did you work Saturday as well? Wow.

Sebastian (09:11.34)
Yeah, Sunday was one of the busiest Sundays we've had since Super Bowl. Yeah, it was a very busy one. It helps that the better game is in the afternoon because people come for the first game and then stay through to the second game. Like, I think if it was reversed, if the Bills and Chiefs were on as the early game, more people would have left after the game was over and go, I'll just watch the Philly game at home or whatnot.

Michael (09:14.987)
yeah.

Michael (09:28.32)
Absolutely.

Michael (09:33.762)
Mm-hmm.

Michael (09:39.212)
Yeah, totally, because the Chiefs-Bills game was, that was like the marquee, you know, the giant rivalry between the two, you know. Apparently the only players that play on the field are the two quarterbacks, everybody else is just like whatever. Which, come on. I understand.

Sebastian (09:47.832)
Just one of these years.

Sebastian (09:53.43)
I mean, they're the, the, the, quarterback and the center are the only two players on the offensive are the only two players that always touch the ball. Well, not necessarily. mean, you can do like a wild cat formation and snap directly to the running back or whatever, but that's like a one in a, yeah, it's those two. They're always with the, they always have the ball.

Michael (10:08.824)
Sure, but 99 % of the time it's those two, yeah. Yes, I get the importance of it, but it's mildly annoying that it's just nonstop. The only graphics you see are the two of them, and it's just like, well, honestly, there's 52 other guys on each sideline. Come on, right? No, there isn't, and that's the way it is.

Sebastian (10:17.422)
Yeah.

Sebastian (10:29.75)
Yeah, there's no solution to that either. It's just the way football is designed, right? It's just, you know.

Michael (10:36.556)
Well, it's like two years ago, it like the death of the running back and now Philly has the most crazy running game ever. running, running is back, Derek Henry, Saquon, whoever.

Sebastian (10:43.95)
Yeah, running running running is back

Sebastian (10:49.304)
Yeah, I actually read an article this morning about the fact that Casey may not be able to handle Philadelphia's run game because defenses for the last couple of years have been so diligently trying to protect against the pass because it's been like a passing league for so many years. The fact that like you have Barkley scoring two touchdowns on his first two possessions as a runner and the first one was like a 60 yard run. Like his first of the first offensive play he breaks, he breaks the defensive line and goes in for a touchdown.

Michael (11:11.094)
Yeah. Right.

Sebastian (11:18.39)
I don't know how many yards it was like maybe like 40 or 50 or something

Michael (11:21.112)
It was, I think it was like 60 something. was a, yeah, it was an awful lot. And I didn't, I missed the beginning of that game, cause we were at the thing running, but man, that game just got out of hand. Of course I had my stinking parlays, had.

Sebastian (11:23.65)
Was it 60s? Yeah.

Sure, it's exciting.

Sebastian (11:40.152)
Did you lose it on the first bet? Like I always do on my parlays?

Michael (11:42.488)
Well, I actually, no, was, I had first game, had Philly to win the first half, which, okay, they were up by a little bit. Perfect. know, Washington is going to come back. It's going to be all good. And then had Washington to win the game in my, I had Washington to win the game, which clearly they got absolutely destroyed. But I was like, okay, whatever. I like won, like if my parlay hit, I would have won like $3,000. I ended up winning 56 cents.

Sebastian (11:55.19)
Yeah, that didn't really work out for you, did it?

Sebastian (12:09.23)
But that's kind of like, I mean, if you're gambling with not a lot of money, let's say you're throwing like five, 10 or even 20 bucks into a gamble and you don't even care about it. It's like, what's the point in betting on the obvious bets when you're going to get no return on it. You might as well bet on something that's highly improbable, but can still happen and maybe have some value in that bet, I guess. So.

Michael (12:15.468)
Yeah, yeah, was like $10 over two weeks, it was nothing, right? No.

Michael (12:26.762)
Mm-hmm. without a doubt. Yeah.

Michael (12:34.102)
Yeah, and so I, then I had another one with Sake. yeah, I'm not a gambler, like I've never been on football until last week, so whatever. And I bet, God no. Yeah, well usually the team I bet to win gets killed, and that happened with the Washington, they got killed. So whatever, it is what it is, and then I had the Chiefs to win the first half, which they did, and then I had the Bills to win the game, which they shouldn't have, but whatever.

Sebastian (12:38.166)
or teaching people how to gamble here.

Sebastian (12:44.268)
Yeah, don't take any of our advice because I always lose.

Sebastian (12:53.966)
Man.

Michael (13:04.085)
I digress.

Sebastian (13:04.32)
It was down to the wire there. They were close, but...

Michael (13:06.804)
It is, yeah, whatever, is what it is. Mahomes is the sort of goat, whatever, I don't want to admit it, but he's good. They're just clutch, the whole team is clutch. Like you said, they are a clutch team and they win, they play well when they need to and that's it, right? That's just, that's the game. It's like certain players play better than others in the big spot. Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Mahomes, Joe Burrow, whatever, but others don't.

Sebastian (13:16.13)
Yeah.

Sebastian (13:34.912)
Eli Manning, apparently. Who's not not an elite quarterback, but yet somehow he shows up in the playoffs like.

Michael (13:36.662)
Yeah, well, he still went to Super Bowls.

Michael (13:41.984)
Right? Yeah, absolutely. And Josh Allen, I think, tries a little too hard. I watched that game pretty close and he did some things that, it's like, what are you doing? Yeah, like Tony Romba was like, what are you doing? And for him to say something negative about one of those two guys is pretty much, anyways, that's more than 90 seconds of football talk, I'm done. So moving on, so Seb has no idea. We're gonna listen to another song tonight.

Sebastian (13:45.976)
Tom Brady's Achilles heel basically.

Sebastian (13:54.062)
forcing it a little bit.

Sebastian (14:00.374)
Yeah.

Alright.

Michael (14:11.192)
praying to myself that he has never heard this song before. How much mastodon have you listened to?

Sebastian (14:19.118)
Ooh, not much. I will probably guarantee I have not heard this song. I couldn't name one Macedon song off the top of my head. I have listened to them though.

Michael (14:20.664)
Okay, so, okay. So they release an up.

Perfect, that's even better. They released a double record in 2021, I believe it's 21, and it is an absolutely, it is awesome. Their longtime manager passed away and they sort of wrote the record coming out of sort of the sadness of losing a good friend. And they wrote literally like an hour and a half, hour 45 record and all the songs are good. Like they're amazing and they're deep and they're not.

because you think of a band named Macedon, you're not like thinking, they're deep or they're whatever. They got, yeah, like, or you're thinking of like European fantasy metal, right? Like you think stuff like that. And they are so not that. They have three capable singers. They got two great guitar players. Their drummer, in my opinion, is one of the best drummers in the world. And he's got a fantastic singing voice.

Sebastian (15:01.784)
thinking of a giant animal.

Michael (15:21.644)
So we are going to listen to Teardrinker off of Hush and Grim from 2021. Is this 2020?

Sebastian (15:26.318)
Isn't Macedon like one of Bill Burr's favorite bands or something?

Michael (15:29.118)
probably. I saw Bill Burr speaking to Bill Burr. He was on Jimmy Kimmel. It was pretty funny. Yeah, he's, I love Bill Burr, but yeah. Anyway, so I'm gonna put the song on. We're gonna listen to it together. I've listened to it 58 billion times and I was gonna do something completely different that we both have never heard today, but I'm like, this song came on randomly. I'm like, we have to do this. Cause the song's just better than what I had in mind.

Sebastian (15:33.781)
He's so funny.

Sebastian (15:37.634)
same.

Sebastian (15:42.926)
Okay.

Sebastian (15:55.982)
For those that don't know, Mike probably changed his mind on the song that he was going to do today about 14 times already. well, still. So his initial song changed and then changed again and then changed for a fourth time.

Michael (16:01.332)
No, it was four.

Michael (16:08.752)
Yeah, yeah, so initially it was gonna be a Tremonti song, which then, I listened to 30 seconds, I went like, no, I don't wanna do Tremonti. Then it was gonna be Marilyn Manson, and then it was gonna be Wardruna, and then it was gonna be Tremonti, actually more is more for. And then I was flipping again with Marilyn Manson, you knew it. And then I finally decided on my way home, I'm like, let's do Teardrinker, because the song's awesome. And I apologize if the audio isn't.

Sebastian (16:16.694)
Yeah

Sebastian (16:24.414)
I knew it. It's going to 14.

Sebastian (16:33.622)
Okay, let's do it.

Michael (16:38.484)
as good as I want it to be, but I'm gonna make it possibly, hopefully. Yeah, I'll try and fix it in post. So it's gonna sound great for me. It's gonna sound decent. Yes. Let's do, see if I can hold on. Let me try and find something so we can. Nope, that's not it. I found something earlier that was, pardon me. Nope, here it is right here. Okay, we're professionals.

Sebastian (16:42.03)
We'll try to fix it in post.

Sebastian (16:48.28)
Well, we're using a new platform to record, so we're still trying to figure out how to do it properly. So there may be some kinks in it, but.

Sebastian (17:05.528)
We're professionals, don't worry.

Michael (17:11.65)
There you go. So it's powered by, we're doing riverside.fm tonight just because for me on the post side it has a lot more options. Google Meet is very limited to what I can do and I haven't been happy with the audio since we've been doing it so I'm trying something new. And I literally did that two hours ago and I have no idea what I'm doing, which is even better. Less idea than Google Meet because this is kind of the same but anyways, I'm gonna share my screen with Sebastian.

Sebastian (17:11.682)
There it is.

Sebastian (17:27.491)
we go.

Michael (17:39.904)
and we are going to listen to Teardrinker, because the song is awesome. And it's the official music video. Check out the lyrics as it goes on, because the lyrics actually are quite deep. The song's not a happy song, just by the name Teardrinker. So here we go.

Sebastian (17:44.546)
excited.

Michael (18:05.026)
So standard music video, it is the band. Looks like they're going in.

Sebastian (18:09.41)
I really like that riff.

Michael (18:10.978)
it's amazing, isn't it? Yeah.

Michael (18:16.8)
Like it's, I don't know, these guys are just, awesome. Even my wife likes them.

Sebastian (18:24.46)
It's a very melodic riff line.

Michael (18:24.493)
very, yeah, absolutely.

Michael (18:37.314)
So that's the drummer and the bass player singing right now, Troy and Braun.

Sebastian (18:42.54)
Yeah, that allows you to do a lot of things harmony wise.

Michael (18:44.268)
Yeah, they do a lot of harmonies and stuff like that and their voices fit so well together.

Michael (18:54.464)
adds a bit of a Halo on Fire vibe to it.

Sebastian (18:59.096)
Yeah.

Michael (18:59.628)
Yeah, a little bit.

Michael (19:11.872)
And even to play these, yeah they have, and even to play drums and be able to sing like this while you're still playing and holding the beat and playing it this well and singing it this well, it's a testament, yeah he is, it is, he's an incredible drummer.

Sebastian (19:12.13)
Macedon's been around for a while, haven't they?

Sebastian (19:21.912)
So the drummer's singing right now. That's incredible.

Michael (19:29.29)
And if you've never seen Macedon live, we have to go see Macedon next time they come. Like they're just, they're awesome live, dude. You heard her first. Yeah. Yeah, they're awesome. Absolutely awesome.

Sebastian (19:34.562)
All right. You heard it here first. There's a promise made live in front of everybody.

Sebastian (19:48.024)
I like it.

Michael (19:48.662)
Yeah, and they make like sort of fun mockumentaries for like every album they make and they're just they're goofy dudes They're all in YouTube. If you look on math zone, you can find a couple. They're pretty funny. They're funny guys

despite the material being super serious, like they're pretty funny guys.

Michael (20:15.948)
and they're definitely worth a rabbit hole to go down to listen to. It is, isn't it? Yeah.

Sebastian (20:19.534)
It's an interesting video. It'd be interesting to like dissect what's actually going on in the video. Because you keep pulling out orbs out of a box and then you go to this like celestial being with like a hand in the cosmos basically so.

Michael (20:31.372)
Yeah.

Michael (20:42.604)
And then that's the bass player's voice being front center and Braun is in the background.

Michael (20:51.192)
Such interesting contrast of voices too, right? Like one's super clear and Troy, the bass player, is just a little more of the gravelly style.

Sebastian (20:54.051)
Yeah.

Michael (21:13.964)
Bass solo, baby. Love it. Yeah.

Sebastian (21:15.957)
I love it.

Sebastian (21:20.664)
the uber rare bass solo in the middle of a song.

Michael (21:22.218)
It is, especially nowadays, right? Like it's just...

Michael (21:30.314)
And it's just so melodic and it fits so well.

Michael (21:51.928)
Yeah, it's a very fascinating video. Now it's sort of, yeah, the orbs are all changing colors.

and their life force is being, looks like it's being sucked into a giant orb and.

Michael (22:15.776)
Rippin' guitar solo, yep.

Sebastian (22:26.38)
good tone for the guitars too like they've of course Marshall half stack Les Paul

Michael (22:28.088)
It is. Les Paul, Of course. Why would it be it? I think he plays through orange amps. think. I think. Quote me on that.

Sebastian (22:39.299)
90s every guitarist had a Marshall half stack with a Les Paul that was just, thanks Slash.

Michael (22:43.895)
Right?

What a cool image that was of the sand coming out of the eye into his hand.

Sebastian (22:49.826)
giant statue stone statue with sand pouring out of the eyes yeah significant does it mean something obviously it does

Michael (22:52.266)
Yeah, yeah that was cool.

Michael (22:58.423)
Right?

Sebastian (23:07.586)
Which one is the bassist? one with the beard? Probably. Of course! Why do all bassists have long beards? Well, maybe not all of them,

Michael (23:09.912)
Yes, so there's the two guys. Yeah, so the long beard guy that was that was Macedon Teardrinker from an album that I literally I absolutely just adore. And. It's yeah, it's so good, I guess not. Obviously, it's not. Oh, so I think that riff, the main riff was written by the guy with the handlebar mustache, Bill, Kelleher. He's sort of like the main. He's like the riff guy. He's like sort of the James Hetfield of Macedon. He, you know, puts together a lot of stuff, but.

Sebastian (23:25.014)
Yeah, the riff is amazing.

Michael (23:38.296)
They all contribute tons, they all write, they all sing, they all do it.

Sebastian (23:43.63)
It's nice to find a band that actually contributes everything together. So just doing a bit of research on Mashed Down here as the video was going on, it's like the band only has one former member. And they've been around since 2000, I think, so what, 20, 25 years?

Michael (23:47.896)
Mm-hmm.

Michael (23:59.104)
And I bet you that that guy was a former member probably back then. I'd be willing to bet.

Sebastian (24:04.142)
Yeah, so they were saying Formed in 2000 the band's lineup of Tony Sanders, Brett Hines, Bill Kelleher and Brande Taylor are remained unchanged since 2001 So 24 years these four people have been together so they had another member which I don't really know what his role was in it or who replaced who but Yeah

Michael (24:17.868)
Whoa. Wow. I'm.

Yeah.

But they were just a flinching band back then anyway. Just kids, right?

Sebastian (24:30.914)
So what that means to me is that these four peoples are all on the same page together. There's nothing driven by ego here. There are four people that come together to create music and all share the same vision, which is very rare to find in a band, because usually it's one person's vision, everyone's along for the ride, or two people's visions, as is Megadeth or Metallica or, you know.

Michael (24:34.732)
Yes.

Michael (24:42.858)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.

yeah.

Michael (24:50.998)
Yep. Yeah. Sure. And like some of the documentaries I've watched, it's basically Bill would come up with riffs and then the drummer, Braun, would come over to his house because they all live like within like minutes of each other in Georgia. They all live locally together still. And they sort of put ideas together. Then the other two will come in, put other put our other ideas down. And they all sort of collaboratively work it out like as a band.

And it's, like you said, it's rare to have a band that is...

Sebastian (25:22.9)
Yeah, and the fact that they have three people that can sing just opens up this Pandora's box of possible vocal harmonies that you can do in their music as well. Right. So that's just

Michael (25:27.832)
Ugh. Yeah. Sure.

Like a lot of some of their older music was kind of still on the screamy side, like in a good way, like in a punk way. And they've really evolved into this sort of, what we just heard is more melodies and, you their lyrics have always been deep within the heavy songs, but their music's evolving, it's more mature. Like obviously the bass player's got the big beard, it's all gray, blah, blah. So, you know, people with gray hair are mature.

Sebastian (25:52.685)
Yeah.

Michael (26:01.292)
Not that I'm looking at myself right now saying I have gray hair, because I am not mature. No, but...

Sebastian (26:07.49)
They have some very interesting album artwork. it's like, for lack of better words, it's like psychedelic fantasy.

Michael (26:12.32)
Yes they do.

Michael (26:19.936)
Yeah, you know what, I would agree with that.

Sebastian (26:22.498)
Like a lot of the album covers are, some of them are uber colorful, like once more around the sun, it looks like you're on acid trip when you're watching that, or when you look at the album cover. But then you have like another one, Hushed and Grim, which is all grayscale of a tree with like wolves and there's somebody inside a tree.

Michael (26:26.762)
Mm-hmm. this like it's. Yeah, it's it's a.

Michael (26:36.61)
Yeah, it's all grayscale. Yeah, and there's a tree with a guy with a boat wheel, like a boat steering wheel in the tree, and there's something with scales underneath the tree, and there's wolves behind the tree, weird animals. There's a spider, looks like some sort of weird rabbit looking thing. Yeah, it's...

Sebastian (26:44.652)
Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about. Yeah.

Sebastian (26:57.578)
Yeah, they're most of them are super colorful. But yeah, Macedon, have very limited experience listening to the band. my God, my cat is freaking all over the place right here.

Michael (27:13.091)
That's okay. But they got some great albums. Like this one, Oblivion is amazing. I'd have to pull up the discography. I can't remember what I thought in my head.

But yeah, they're awesome. They are an awesome, awesome band and they're killer live. My wife's like, they're better alive than they are in the studio. Next time they come, it's no ends, ifs buts. I don't care who they're coming with. We're going. I don't care if they're the openers. We're going because it is, sorry, Crack the Sky is the one out, None of Living. That's the song off Crack the Sky. And again, that album was written out of sorrow too. The drummer's sister passed away, her name was Sky. So the album's dedicated to her.

Sebastian (27:33.26)
Yeah, well, we're going next time they're here. Let's do it.

Michael (27:53.858)
You know, once we're on the sun's great.

Sebastian (27:55.224)
Dude, that's a really, that song, the Tear Drinker, that guitar riff is five out of five, man. It's such a good riff.

Michael (27:59.736)
Isn't it so good? Yeah, it's just got this, it just sucks you right in and you can feel the emotion coming out of that riff. It's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. And obviously lyrically, the album's all about loss and the song is kind of in the same vein.

Sebastian (28:09.048)
Yeah.

Sebastian (28:16.47)
And I mean, it has harmony guitars near the end of the song, which you just throw me harmony guitars. I'm going to give you your song. That's going to raise it two points. That's going to go from like a seven and a half to nine and a half just for having harmony guitars in it.

Michael (28:20.088)
Well, that's why. See, look at that.

Michael (28:29.888)
Absolutely. And harmonies are kind of a lost art nowadays. You don't really hear them a lot. They're just not, it is difficult. And most, a lot of bands only have one guitar player. So it doesn't make sense to even do it on the record. So you can do it on the record, but how are you going to repeat that live without tracks or bring another guy out? So, you know, it is just a...

Sebastian (28:34.476)
Well, because they're difficult.

Sebastian (28:39.564)
Yeah, that's true.

Sebastian (28:48.066)
This isn't like, Tearjerker isn't like one of their main songs though, is it? Like it's...

Michael (28:51.818)
No, I don't think so. Like it was a single off this record.

Sebastian (28:55.886)
Okay, it's not one of their five songs when you like look at Macedon. It's not one of their five songs that you see. You know, the five popular songs with the most views. So, oh, it's number eight, I guess. So.

Michael (29:07.928)
It's number eight, yeah, I was gonna say it's one of them. I was gonna put something on super deep cut, but I decided, I'm like, yeah, that's my style, because the second to last track off of Hustle & Grimm is actually my favorite song by them ever. It's so good. The middle part, yes, good. yeah, walk through the door because it's like riffage. They actually, did it, yes.

Sebastian (29:12.982)
Of course, that would be your style.

Sebastian (29:21.336)
Well, you just opened up a door for me that I'm going to have to go through with Mastodon, so that's interesting.

I know of them. Again, I couldn't even tell you a single song that they, that they, that I've listened to.

Michael (29:34.818)
Because I honestly think the name is a little off putting because it conjures up visions of something that's huge and so you're thinking crazy loud vocals and super fast riffs and you know that kind of like sort of metal. it's all the hugeness of what you think a mastodon is. elephant, yeah, yeah.

Sebastian (29:43.064)
huge.

Sebastian (29:58.318)
Well, Macedon is like a woolly mammoth for like a huge ancient elephant, basically.

Michael (30:02.956)
but it's also all the beauty of what that animal was and all the intricate things and all that. I just, yeah, Macedon's cool and I'm glad I brought them to your attention.

Sebastian (30:14.592)
No, they're good. For the one template or song I have to go by, I enjoy it. It's good, they're good.

Michael (30:21.496)
Yep. yeah, the whole album's kind of in the same, you know? I have seen them live. Yeah, they're, they co-headline with Clutch, me and the wife went down, this is God's long time ago.

Sebastian (30:25.742)
So you seen them live? You said you seen them live, yeah. Did they open for someone or did you?

Sebastian (30:33.22)
nice, okay so you went for clutch in the Macedonia and like, they're here.

Michael (30:36.322)
Well, I went for both of them because I was already a fan of Mastodon, but the wife's like, yeah, Clutch, they're awesome, blah, blah. But we stayed downtown, whole thing. Then I'm like, well, Mastodon's opening. So we played, I played some on the way down and she's like, meh. She's like, whatever. But then when, because I think they played first, but they both played headlining sets. So they played for an hour and a half each. And she's like, wow. Like the power live, like we're just like, whoa, they are good. Like that was crazy good.

Sebastian (30:39.182)
Okay.

Michael (31:03.572)
and they're super intense, not a flashy show, they're like clutch, they come out, four dudes wearing jeans and t-shirts, and they blow the doors and the windows and the roof off the building and then they say thank you, see you later. it, yes.

Sebastian (31:09.132)
and boom, they knock your socks off basically. Yeah.

Sebastian (31:18.508)
I find that a lot with Tea Party as well. It's like the difference between seeing Tea Party live and listening to their album work is astronomical. Like seeing them live, you put in a trance almost listening to them. They're so hypnotic live and so connected and so into the music. So I'm glad to hear that Macedon's the same way. Why are they doing music if not to play live? Like that's the end game of a musician is to play live and have that.

Michael (31:24.448)
It's night and day. It's night and day.

Michael (31:29.718)
Yeah. absolutely. Yeah.

Michael (31:37.462)
Yeah, totally.

Michael (31:42.072)
Well, that's the end game, right? Yeah.

Sebastian (31:46.124)
visceral reaction to your with your audience. So yeah. All right. Well, I'm gonna have to keep that on the agenda here.

Michael (31:46.86)
Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, keep it on the plate. And anybody out there, if you've never heard of Mastodon or you like sort of melodic heavy rock, Mastodon, got to hear, yeah. Or do this one too. And we will gladly, I'm always in to exposing Seb to more good music.

Sebastian (32:00.084)
Or if there's a Macedon song that you are like, you should have done this one instead, or this one is better, or listen to this one for this reason, let us know.

Michael (32:16.374)
So, and especially if it's something I haven't heard, I'm in.

Sebastian (32:16.974)
Yeah, there's a bass solo and a guitar solo in it. that's... Dude, that's a trifecta of goodness right here.

Michael (32:21.37)
And harmonies too, man. What more do you need?

the trifecta of goodness. So yeah, so that's, we didn't dive too much in the lyrics, but you know what, it's okay. The lyrics are really good. Yeah, like I don't think we need to break them down because they are not happy lyrics. They're lyrics about loss and you know, what it feels like to lose and stuff like that. And damage and sort of not a dare to think about the damage I've done, stuff like that. It's just destructive behavior and nothing happy.

Sebastian (32:33.506)
Hey, you're drinking tears,

Michael (32:56.275)
and lyric. Yeah.

Sebastian (32:56.718)
It's good lyrics though. They're very proficient as I'm just like reading through the lyrics. It's got a nice flow to it and very poetic in certain styles.

Michael (33:07.864)
Yeah, so they're not what you would expect the book to be once you open the cover. It's like, oh yeah, know, a bunch of...

Sebastian (33:15.342)
Yeah, I guess they're classified as progressive metal probably, so they kind of fall into the same genre as Tool might fall into. So a lot of people listen to Tool, probably also listen to Macedon, I think.

Michael (33:19.948)
Probably.

Michael (33:30.356)
I would think so. I would put them sort of in the same, not the same lane, but on the same highway. Let's say the same highway, right? know, Tool's over here, but Mastodon's over here, but they're still going in that same direction. yeah, Mastodon's amazing.

Sebastian (33:35.082)
umbrella under the same umbrella basically.

Sebastian (33:44.027)
Tools in the HOV lane legally, Macedon is illegally in the HOV lane.

Michael (33:48.836)
Mastodon speeding down the highway. Yeah, exactly. They're illegally in the HOV lane, which if people don't have an HOV lane, it's a lane dedicated to having at least two people in a car and not solo drivers because they're trying to promote. This is a Vancouver thing. They're trying to promote shared driving so you get your own special lane and there's never anybody in it because, well, most of us drive solo.

Sebastian (34:03.214)
chair driving.

Sebastian (34:11.01)
Well, that's not entirely true when you live in Vancouver, man. The HOV lane can be pretty cumbersome at times during peak hours. Yeah. It's still faster than going in the regular lanes because nobody ever carpools ever still. So.

Michael (34:13.548)
That's true. Really? That's good. I guess so. That's good. Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

Michael (34:25.452)
But if you're by yourself and you're like, damn, that lane's moving fast, and you're like, well, I could. But the police will pull you over if they catch you. You could get like a blow up doll, put it in the passenger seat or something.

Sebastian (34:37.762)
Don't even, do not even try going in the AO3V lane during rush hour times because there is a 95 % chance that there's a cop waiting in the AO3V lane at some point in the highway. So don't even try it. Do not even try it. Don't even try it while you don't even need to when it's not rush hour. Like there's no point because all lanes are going the same speed, right? But yeah. So Macedon, I am putting that on my list of things to...

Michael (34:40.504)
God no.

Michael (34:48.894)
Absolutely. Without a doubt. Yeah.

Michael (34:57.962)
No. Yeah. And Macedon. Yeah, absolutely.

Sebastian (35:06.188)
listen to. I think I have them somewhere down the list, but yeah. No, it's a good, it's a good song. I enjoy it.

Michael (35:10.296)
And yeah, it's a good song. I'm glad you like that because I really dig that song and every time I hear it, sort of gives me the feels and I like when songs give me the feels. So all about the feels, baby. So.

Sebastian (35:21.287)
We're all about the feels here. Give me a song that connects, punches me in the heart, in the soul. That's what we want.

Michael (35:27.062)
Yes. And what I have to say about that is this.

Michael (35:34.198)
Yes, thank you. I have buttons to push, because it's fun. And yep, yep, thank you. Yep, we appreciate it. We love you all. And I'm such a nerd. I am such a nerd, sorry. I'm such a nerd. But there's all these buttons here I can push, which is just too much fun.

Sebastian (35:34.392)
We did it. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thanks for listening to us. Thank you. Yep.

Sebastian (35:44.182)
Okay, stop, stop, yeah. All right, here we go.

Sebastian (35:51.416)
We're just stroking the, that's a weird way to say it, but we're just. boy.

Michael (35:54.327)
Whoa, hey, I'm not stroking anything right now. Which would be really weird if I was, because that's just strange. That's wrong. Anyways, that's mandatory music for January, whatever, 27th, 2025. Yes, so thank you. And we will be back next week with, I don't know, it's up to Seb, so boo yah. Goodnight.

Sebastian (36:08.238)
out on the 28th or 29th.

Sebastian (36:13.912)
Thanks.

Sebastian (36:17.944)
something.