Unexpected Jams

Have you ever been on hold and all of a sudden you find yourself dancing to the sweet, sweet hold music? Or maybe a friend sends you a song saying, "Hey, I think you might like this!" And even though you don't think you will... you do? Well, welcome to the unexpected jams episode! We're going to dive into some weird places where the music is unexpected and yet still hits.

SONGS:

Tim Carleton: Opus No. 1 (1989)

Foxygen: Shuggie (2013)

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES:

SaxBoyBilly18 on Instagram

Thundercloud Subs jingle

This American Life: Stuck In The Middle (2014)

The Most Overused Piece of On-Hold Music in History?

Tim Carlton’s Spotify page

Bud Light (Ft. Miles and Keleigh Teller) | Super Bowl 2023 LVII (57) Commercial (YouTube)

‘Everyone knows the Centrelink song’: how we learned to love – and remix – hold music

TikTok creator Lyanna Kea dances to Centrelink's call waiting track

LaLaMilan on TikTok

r/synthrecipes: Tim Carleton’s Opus No. 1 

r/obscuremedia: Tim Carleton and Darrick Deel- "Opus Number 1" (1989)

How to Dress Well: Precious Love

Puppet Regime: Trump in holding pattern -- and not mad at it

Pitchfork Review: Take the Kids off Broadway (2011/12)

Pitchfork Review: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (2013)

Pitchfork Interview with Foxygen (2013)

Foxygen Full Set - Pitchfork Music Festival Paris (2014)

Foxygen Full Set - KEXP (2014)

A Breath of Foxygen (Interview)

Foxygen: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (Video)

Foxygen: No Destruction

Foxygen: Avalon (2017)

Shuggie Otis: Bootie Cooler (1970)

The Rise and Fall of the ‘Hipster Music’ Era, 2000-2014: VICE’s Definitive Timeline

UNSOLICITED ADVICE:

Poets.org

Connect with us on Instagram (to share your song picks or troll us), Spotify (for our ever-growing playlist), and Stereothematica.com (for extra fun)!

If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe, and if you love it, a five-star rating and review would send us into the exosphere of excitement.

And email us at stereothematica@gmail.com! We will write back! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I'm Christine. And I'm Christina. In 2024, I moved to Texas from LA. And to keep in touch, Christine and I started a weekly game where we each pick a song that fits a chosen theme.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

This game deepened our understanding of each other and the songs that shape us, inspiring the podcast you're listening to now. Each week we share our pics, swap stories, and dig into tracks you might love. And a lot of the time have never heard of.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Welcome to Stereo Thematica, your favorite atypical music podcast. Howdy there, Christine. Hey there. How you doing? Hanging in there. Yeah? Nothing out of the ordinary for me today. But I was curious. Uh-huh. Do you ever like expect the unexpected?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

I feel like that's my motto. Really? No, not really. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

God, that would have been funny if I'm just learning this about you.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

No, I I do, I am good with expecting the unexpected. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

So you can like roll with the punches.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah, and I think you kind of have to. I feel like I've shared this quote before, a Marcus Aurelius quote. How ridiculous and unrealistic is it for anyone to be astonished by anything in this world? Wow. I know. Anything that happens. I mean I'm paraphrasing, of course. Okay. But isn't it a perfect quote? I just don't agree. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

No, I mean I love to be astonished.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

See, well, okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

And and this is but you say it's ridiculous or Marcus Aurelius.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Marcus Aurelius, and I kind of agree, but I am also a ridiculous person.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Okay, fair. So but as am I.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah. So we're ridiculous people. And I actually, so even though I live by this, I'm also okay with the fact that I am constantly astonished.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Oh, okay, good. Good, good. Me too.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah. I love I'm contradicting myself all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

No, it's as per usual. I'm glad that you broke it down for me though, because I think I would have felt like you know that I personally identify as a nihilist, but I at the same time I love to just be delighted by things.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah. No, especially the unexpected, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

And it's good to have that like beginner's mindset all the time.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

But but yeah, things will happen, and I'm like initially surprised or like, oh, you know, like we talked about this a little bit in our caught off guard episode, too, where you're again caught off guard, but why are you caught off guard? Shouldn't you like shouldn't nothing catch you? Yeah. But then no, it's good to have that fresh mind frame.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

That's a really good call out because let's talk about today's theme. Okay. Which is unexpected jams and how that might be different than caught off guard.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Because to me, an unexpected jam is a song. At least I didn't I know I didn't explain this to you whenever I shared my theme, but to me it's a song that you wouldn't necessarily have said. Well, I like that. That's something that I would have just obviously thought of as a thing for me. And I'm curious, I know you picked a song and we'll get into it soon, but have you ever encountered any other unexpected jams out in the world?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

I mean, as a kid, does that count?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Because I'm I'm still not sure I got the assignment right.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Well, okay, and I'll say more.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Um tell me about your kid times. The dentist office, the the music they play.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Oh, is it like music?

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Well, so I gotta can I share a little bit about this dentist? Please. He was a hot dentist. You know what his name was?

SPEAKER_00 3:38

What?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Dr. Dick.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

No. I'm not gonna say somebody I knew had a dentist named Dr. Root. I don't like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

No, he chose to do that.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

But Dr.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Dick? Dr. Dick. Richard. I mean, it was the 70s. Dick was a popular name. He had a mustache, he kind of looked like what we imagine a porn star to look like. But like he was a really nice guy. Anyway, I got I was like five or six, I got nitrous oxide.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Fun.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I was feeling giddy, loose. On the the speakers comes Copa, Copa Cabana. And in my head, as a little kid, I'm dancing around like that, and I'm imagining kissing him. Oh yeah. Okay. And so that is unexpected. Does that count as an unexpected experience? 100%.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Okay. The whole thing is perfect because it's an unexpected experience.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

And part of the reason I remember this so vividly is because there is a picture of Dr. Dick. Of Dr. Dick. And I will dig it up. I will dig it up and I will share it with you after we record.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

I know he's not gonna be as hot as I'm imagining, but I'm excited to see it. I don't know. You think it holds, it holds up. I think it holds. Wow. Very tough. That's incredible. Also, playing Coke Copacabana or whatever the name of the song is at the dentist is such an insane move. I mean, it was something that's very like I guess that is sort of relaxing, but it's it is, but it's a jam.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Like when you hear it with nitrous oxide, it's kind of a jam.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Okay. No, it's it's most things with nitrous oxide are probably gonna be a jam. Yeah, unless they're scary. Well, and I'll tell you a little bit about what I was thinking. So my unexpected jam sometimes, like I am somebody, and I feel like I've talked about this in the podcast. I love a jingle.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yes, clearly.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Not all jingles, but a lot of them are very good. There was, I feel like I talked about this, a sandwich shop in Austin called Thundercloud Subs that always had good ones. But there was this one other jingle, it was a PSA about if you think you drank poison, but you don't know. And I'm like, that in itself is gold. Truly love that. Oh my god. People these days are making up like Instagram songs, like songs for their original content. Yeah, there's this guy who like makes a song, and I actually need to look him up because it's it's worth a listen. But he makes songs for every new city that he visits.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

That sounds like something you do.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

It does. And I'm like jealous that I didn't think of it. But he just did one for San Juan, Puerto Rico, and it's like good enough to be a standalone song. So bless him. How about the goddamn washing machine when it finishes its wait, like you know, does yours do a little song when it finishes? Like really?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Like beeping noises?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, like ours is like doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. And so I made up a song to it.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

I did all the laundry, all of your clothes, they are clean now. Oh, that's kind of insane, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

That I love it. But now I'm seeing that I totally did not get the theme right.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. As you know, everything's always open to interpretation.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

But I can tell you a little bit more about what led me to this path. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Oh, I need to know.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

So long before I heard about it on the podcast, This American Life, and don't worry, because I am going to circle back to it and give them their credit since that's one of my first favorite podcasts, and I still listen to it.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Are you a fan?

SPEAKER_01 7:05

I used to be, I don't, I feel like I have so many other podcasts that I'm listening to, it's no longer a priority.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

I see. I get it. But back before I heard it, there was a song I'd always hear when I was waiting on hold on the phone, and it was like super groovy. And my first job out of college was at my alma mater, UT, and I often had to call people or receive calls on a landline. Remember those, Christine?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah. I've had a few. My mom still has one. Yeah. Do you have one in your house?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

God no. Okay. I haven't had a landline no in like I don't know how many years. But at work, you know, if you work in an office, you most likely have a landline. So on that landline, it feels like I was placed on hold for, you know, hours and hours. And probably collectively I was. And sometimes I was lucky enough to get my favorite hold music. Uh it was a little bit spooky, a little bit ethereal, with the perfect amount of synth claps and general funkiness to keep me hooked every time I heard it. Uh, and sometimes I would literally put the headset on a speaker and just get up and dance around my office. Uh-huh. Because I was 23 and I had my own office, and I also didn't really care. Yeah. Don't blame age. You'd still do that today. I would still do it today. It's so true. My students, because I had student workers that reported to me, thought I was insane. And I was like, this is fine. Not everyone who works with you is going to be a normal, like normal. Yeah. So, but the fun thing is, I kind of think almost every listener will recognize this music when I share it. Here we go. It's Tim Carlton's Opus number one. Christine, did you recognize this when I shared it with you?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

I had never heard this.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Wow. That's shocking to me.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

No, I it's shocking to me that it is such a thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Like to you, and that that you're able to dance to it. Oh, but it is a simple thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Thank you. I mean, it's kind of one of those like, you know, sinister, like you're not like doing some kind of special dance, you're just kind of like vibing out, vibing out in the corner, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah. Making the kids uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Making the kids uncomfortable, just like finding some way to make sense of my first kind of boring office job. Loved it, but still. I had no idea you didn't know about this song.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I did not know, and I uh well, I want to hear more about it, but never heard of it, at least that I'm aware of.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Like, I feel like I would have known if I've been on hold. Like so interesting. I can't wait to tell you all about it. Because I never even considered this was anything but like the best hold music in the entire universe until one day when I was listening to that This American Life episode, and they started talking about a man's relentless pursuit to find out about this very song, which it turned out was used by Cisco, aka the number one supplier of corporate phones in the world, on something like they had it installed on like 65 million phones as its standard hold music. And that's why I assumed most listeners would have recognized it if you're calling somebody, you get placed on hold, vice versa, whatever. Yeah, but we do have a decent international office audience, and that's where I'm curious if hold music differs from country to country.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yeah, no, I I wonder, let us know because please write. I don't think I've ever been on hold in another country.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

I was wondering about you know how like the phone rings different even in yes, like so maybe, yeah, probably could be a thing, but please listener write in, especially if it's like something unexpected. I know. But back to that, this American Life episode. It originally aired on January 17th, 2014, and it's episode 516, stuck in the middle. It's all about people being stuck in the middle of something like being on hold, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

I actually do think it's worth a listen because they do a deep dive into the background of this whole music song and its origin, which of course I'll link to it in the show notes. But just in case anyone wants to know early and they don't feel like stopping listening to our podcast to listen to that one, which I appreciate, you might be fascinated to learn that Opus Number One was written by Tim Carlton in 1989 and recorded onto a four-track tape recorder by his friend Derek Deal. And he was just 16 years old when he wrote and recorded it.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Another young'un.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Another youngin'. They're everywhere. So at the time that the podcast came out, Tim was no longer a musician. He was actually an IT guy. And he never got a penny from Cisco for using his song. No, never. Not to my knowledge, at least not at the time of publication of that episode. And then also I did a lot of Googling around and I couldn't find anything.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Okay, Christina, and I know you said you hadn't heard of it and you were surprised it was such a thing. But if you think I'm alone and loving this funky jam, you're quite wrong.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Really?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Yes, it has quite the cult following, and it's popped up in pop culture over and over over the years, including in YouTube videos honoring the best hold music ever made.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Really?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Uh-huh. With many, many, many comments celebrating it. A Bud Light Super Bowl commercial featuring Miles Teller and his wife dancing around their living room while on hold. Multiple. His real wife? His real wife. Yeah. Like, I didn't know who she was, but I guess she's like a personality. A known person. Multiple TikToks and Instagram videos. And as you can imagine, countless Reddit posts and discussions about anything from the types of synths used in its production to whether it's 80s music or they called it 80s, which is like a mix of the 90s and 80s. So I mean, kind of love it because it's 89. It's right on the cusp. It was even remixed into How to Dress Wells song Precious Love. But full disclosure, I don't love this song. So I will throw it in the show notes, but I'm just saying the original is the best. So that's actually my unexpected jam. Uh a song you didn't look for. Yeah. It came to you in a in a very unexpected way. And I've got to give praise, of course, to Tim for making our onhold experience a little bit easier. If you do want to laugh, which you know I love to laugh, I recommend checking out the YouTube comments for the song. My favorite was it's 1989, and you're calling the bank on a wired Garfield phone to make your $63 mortgage payment, and this banger comes on.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Now I'm gonna have to like do my own research on this guy, but I'll start with the the um this American Life episode.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Okay, deal.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

All right. Well, I can't wait to hear what your unexpected jam is.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Okay, so even though I may have misunderstood the assignments a little bit, there are a few reasons why my pick is an unexpected jam, to me at least. Sure. But maybe before I go down the rabbit hole, let's share a clip. The song is Foxygens Shuggy or Shuggy from their 2013 album. We are the 21st century ambassadors of peace and magic.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

I met your daughter the other day. Well that was weird. She had not to shape earrings in her ear. It's on the house.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

I was immediately hooked by that surreal imagery, especially those rhinoceros-shaped earrings in our ear. I feel like you would have rhinoceros shaped earlier.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

I feel like it's not an incorrect assumption. I don't, but you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

It's a cool it that always sticks out to me in the song, too.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

No, like immediately. It was so like, oh, what a what a great image. Now, when I shared this with you, you immediately knew who the band was and you said you loved the song. I'm guessing you actually experienced this in 2013 when the album came out.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

It's funny that you say that because I actually don't remember when this song first came to me. It's been in my like Spotify library for a long time, but probably not 2013. It might have been one of those ones that was put on like a Spotify Discover weekly playlist. Okay. That immediately I was like, yes, this is my vibe and my jam.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

But there's actually only a couple of songs on the album that I actually really like.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Okay. We'll get to some of those other songs a little later. I only learned about Foxy Jen as I actually thought their name was pronounced back in 2024. And I think the reason for that pronunciation is because my friend Jen shared the song. That's how simple my brain works.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

No, that's perfect. She's got a new nickname.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah. So, of course, it's pronounced Foxygen, rhyming with oxygen. And do you know how they got their name?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Oh, good. So there was a 2013 pitchfork interview with the band, and they shared that it was something a friend said about a guy. Quote, she said he was sexy or hot or that he was her Foxygen or something like that. We were probably 13. I don't know why, but it stuck. Anyway, I will get to the band's origin story in a sec, but I I just want to give Jen some credit. When she shared this song via text, she wrote, Alexa does not understand the way I speak and played this instead. The vibe that made me think of you. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Would you have thought I'd dig the song, Knowing Me? No, actually. And that's what's funny is it's unexpected. Yeah. I receive this as unexpected because you liked it.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Yeah. No, that's I'm I'm so glad to hear that because it's it's weird that she would like, you know, she's shared another song with me before that we've talked about. Actually, she introduced me to the band Altengun, the Turkish band from Amsterdam. In our predictable episode, we talked about that. So this is like her the second time she shared a song with me that I end up really loving. So yeah, thanks. Thanks, Jen. Go, Jen. Now, I have to say though, whenever someone shares a song with me, I'm cautiously optimistic. Like I want to like it, but I know that my taste or vibe is really specific. And in this case, the name of the band and the song were just kind of lame, I thought. So I almost dreaded it. But even more than the dreamlike lyrics, the lack of daisical vocals hooked me. And I knew nothing about Foxygen. So I was thinking this was a woman. And then we get like this pretty significant shift in tempo about one minute in. And it keeps getting better throughout until the very end. Yeah, that's it. No, thank you, Christina. That is indeed the end. And this entire album is like a pastiche of all these rock legends that we really love. I think I could speak for the both of them.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Oh, for sure. And I'm glad you say that because there's one. I was listening to this album, not yesterday, but like two days ago, in full. And I was like, oh, Bob Dylan. Yes. Thank you. Yes. There's one song in particular where I'm like, this is just a Dylan ripoff. Or homage.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

I I feel like it's more homage. And you're right. It's it's so Dylan. Yeah. No destruction, I think, is the one you're thinking about. It's even got like the the harmonica solo at the end. Yeah. No, that's the one. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

It was funny.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

The title track, I love. I don't know. It's just like all this like Rolling Stones. We got Bob Dylan, obviously. We got Velvet Underground. Who else?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Neil Young, I feel like a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

I don't remember which song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Okay. I can kind of see that. But like Bowie, although in one of their many interviews out there, they're like, yeah, Bowie, but really more you know. So they're very into the whole glam rock scene. Nice. And T-Rex, I feel like, has a little of that. Todd Rundgren, kind of. Yeah, I can see that. I feel you're right. Yeah. So I don't know. To me though, Shruggy feels the most original. Would you kind of say that?

SPEAKER_00 20:22

I think so. Okay. I love all the kind of variants in the song. Yeah. Like, especially with that crazy singing the bataraz. Like it was. Yeah, it's just like it's a very fun song. And it's so I love the kind of I don't know, lackadaisical way he's singing at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

No, exactly. Well, a few people on Reddit say that this song is an homage stylistically to Suggy Otis. Oh, okay. Though I couldn't find exactly where the band says that themselves. The closest I came was their bandcamp page. With regard to Shugi, it says it manages to fit all the light bounce of the song's namesake and the climbing choruses of ELO into its three minutes. And I definitely see the ELO. Yeah. Right? It's L ELO, I think. Yeah. No, I'm feeling that a lot more than Suggy Otis, but I don't know enough about Suggy Otis. Yeah, me neither. I definitely know booty cooler. It's no booty. It's no booty cooler, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Put that in a quote somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

And we will share that song.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yeah, perfect.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

No, so for our listeners who are new to Foxygen, it's two friends who met in a sixth grade math class in Westlake Village, which is just about 30 minutes outside of like LA. And so it's the multi instrumentalist Jonathan Rado and vocalist Sam France. And they've been playing music together since middle school and they formed Foxygen in 2005 at 14. Oh my God. Yeah. This is like kids.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Like kids part two.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

No, I know. I love it. And so they were both like really obsessed with the Brian Jonestown massacre. That's for everyone, that's a band. Um and even Rado Rado, I'm sorry if I'm saying it wrong. Even Rado talked about how they watched the documentary about that band every day. Wow. And yeah, I don't know, I don't know for how long, but supposedly every day. And they also produced their first album with 30 plus songs in 2007 when they were still in high school. That's crazy. Yeah. And they had like something like over a hundred songs around that time. So they limited to 30 plus. And then their breakthrough album, Take the Kids Off Broadway, came out in 2011 and then was reissued by Jag Jaguar in 2012 when they were like 20 or 21. Yeah, it's insane. And then the pitchfork 7.9 review of that album said, while Broadway touches on territory similar to that previously mined by Ariel Pink and MGMT, Voxygen approach psych pop revivalism with the cram it all enthusiasm of teenagers discovering rock music staples for the first time, which is kind of true. And I mean, have you are you at all familiar with their first album?

SPEAKER_00 23:21

No, I haven't listened to it.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

It's cute, like there, but it does feel more like directly like not copying some of these other artists, but it doesn't as pastiche.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Now Pitchfork gave 21st Century an 8.4 review and wrote having a great record collection and having some idea with what to do with it are two different things. And on We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors, Vauxhall have internalized enough of the music they love to start toying with it. Interesting. And I feel like that's the case.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah. Okay. So a little bit of growth, artistic growth.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

I think so. Yeah. Now aside from Shuggy, I think there are many bangers on this album, and you already kind of well, did you like the No Destruction, the Dylan one?

SPEAKER_00 24:10

You know, I didn't dislike it. Yeah. I think I was so thrown off by the Dylan kind of vibe that it was, I just kind of was just like, this feels like a replica. A Dylan rip-off. I don't know why. Not in an ugly way.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

And I don't see being like as obsessed with Dylan as I am, I actually really appreciated it. And I felt like there was even maybe more Velvet Underground than or is like a mix of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, maybe. I don't know. But I really enjoyed it. And and then the title track, like I said, it's it's a fun song. And which one do you think I like?

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Oh sh I I would say the title track, but I changed my background just so you would go.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Oh wait, wait, what?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Oh, San Francisco, of course.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Listener, I have a Golden Gate Bridge background today on Zoom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Yeah. Okay. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

That one is so funny to me. Like it's very cutesy and like very twee and very tweet. What I like, you know. But I like the little kind of call and response part where they're saying, I love my heart in San Francisco. And the person is going so funny. That's okay. I was born in LA.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah. That's I love there's one lyric in I think it's the no destruction song, the Bob Dylan song, where it's like, you don't have to be mean anymore. We're not in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

It's not that exactly, but I think I remember that now. And it made me laugh out loud then too.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

And I'm like, yes, it's so good. But yeah, so so those I are you giving me this as an unexpected jam.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

100%. I also think it has an unexpected origin story because your friend asked for a song from Alexa. Yeah. Alexa didn't understand it. So they gave her I mean, it's almost like something freaky went on to deliver this song to you.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

No, I like that you caught that too. But I've said this before, I think. One of the things I love most about doing this podcast with you is learning more about like new to me music and these unexpected jams. And I learned a lot about these guys. And thanks to you, I was somewhat familiar with their more indie influences, which I was very proud of. So do you remember back in our favorite bands of 2025 episode when you talked about Van Gogh's? You mentioned the band of Montreal. Yes. Which I was confused. I was like, wait, are they from Montreal? Is that what you're saying? Anyway, but I was curious because it was a cool name. So then I looked them up and now I'm really digging them. But in my research for this very episode, I found an interview in interview magazine with Oxygen. And did you know they opened four of Montreal in 2013?

SPEAKER_00 26:54

No. Yeah, but that makes sense. Yeah. And this is actually wait a minute. So where was it? Was that just like a one-off?

SPEAKER_01 27:00

I think it was a one-off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

I forget the location. It was like a New York thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Yeah. And and Rado said it was the first concert he ever went to. Not that 2013 one, but previously.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

And like hopefully that was in LA, I'm guessing when they were like teens or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Before we segue, do you know? Because I've been wanting to ask you about this, but like this seems like the perfect timing. There's like been this conversation online about hipster music and what was hipster music and how do you define it?

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

And this is like so apt because there have been these conversations about like, you know, what is hipster music? And people are like, oh, it's like the Lumineers and Stomp Clap and whatever. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, wrong. It's stuff like, you know, Beach House and Deer Hunter and Chick Chick Chick and whatever. And they're like, and it ended, I don't remember if it was like 2013 or 2014, but like with Future Islands playing on you know a late night talk show, and that they're like, and that was the end of it. Because it's like no one really talks about indie or hipster or anything anymore, you know. Only on this show with you. It's like it so there's this all this like indie hipster nostalgia that's happening. I'll I'll find like a vice article about it because like of Montreal was very like, you know, of that era. And I'm just wondering if Foxygen was like on the cusp or something.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

I wonder, but of Montreal, they're playing like well, that's why I saw them.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

I saw them a couple of years ago at that. Yeah, I mean, I had seen them in college, but then I saw them when they played at the same festival that Being Dead was playing at. Yeah. And it felt like their time had passed.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Okay. So I'm not so you don't recommend No.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

I mean, like, I think the thing that was so fun about of Montreal was like in two, I think I saw them in 2008.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

They're so zany, like costumes, crazy costumes, dancers, like hundreds of people on stage, like really nutty stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

They still tried to have some of that. It just felt like, oh, everyone's older now.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

You should still go if you want to.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

I mean, there's so many other concerts. I I don't want to be like just worn out by concerts. And I mean, there's a few songs I like. I really like The Party Is Crushing Us. Oh, I love that one. And it's a very clever title.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

That's good. Listen to Oslo in the summertime, too. That's a fun one.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Check that out. But like MGMT, that's another one. I don't have you ever talked about them? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

But they're another one.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

I'm kind of like, oh, this is good.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Did I share an MGMT song with you on this show? We haven't covered it at least, but I I I'll check our archives. I don't know. I think I might have. And it's like it's also an unexpected because it almost doesn't even sound like them to me. Yeah, but I guess I'm like not, I don't know their whole discography. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

So yeah, I I I wonder, I might be entering my um indie era. I don't know. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

I can't wait. I can send you so many obnoxious, like a lot of playlists.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Yeah, I might. I might be. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Might. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

It might be my indie ADHD heiress.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

So whole elastic skip.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Good.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Well, that was fun. Thank you for this, and thank you for your concessions.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

I truly feel like we can't be too much sticklers for the rules, Christine.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

No.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Only if it's a sign appreciate that in a movie. Yeah. But hey, I was just wondering. Yeah. Do you mind if I give you and all of our listeners some unsolicited advice? I always welcome that. Read a poem or five or ten this summer. In a speech delivered in 1930, Robert Frost said, Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, grace metaphors, and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. When's the last time you did some of the profoundest thinking that you have? And don't you want to tap into that again?

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Yes, and maybe don't bother reading The Road Not Taken, because we're pretty sure you already get the gist of that one.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Poetry has the power to make you laugh, cry, imagine a new world, consider a perspective you've never thought of. And this can all be done in a variety of literary devices and writing styles. The possibilities are endless.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

I've literally told Christina one million times that hyperbole is my personal favorite literary device.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah. And if you need a suggestion for where to start, it never hurts to cruise on over to a local bookstore or your public library and see what the librarians have put out as their favorites in the poetry section. And may I also recommend some of my personal favorites? Pablo Neruda wrote 100 Sonnets of Love. Federico Garcia Lorca's poems drip with Duende, just like Christine loves. And Ada Limon reminds us that spring is indeed coming and instructions on not giving up. If you want to peruse thousands of poems from these and many more poets, I recommend visiting poets.org.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Hyperbole aside, I'm bookmarking this website immediately.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Adviceover. And I didn't even rhyme once. Christine, any hints about what next week's theme offers us?

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Next week we are dusting off the crystal ball, sort of.com for more fun.