Issue #12 -- Ka-Chow, Indeed

!!! MUZAK !!! Jonah and Lucas discuss brain melt, sleeping upright, and calculators before getting into a couple of great albums released in May of this year! Thanks for listening!

Next week: Who knows?

Art by Maddy Asma

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Well, hello there. This is Wesley's Pop Culture Club. My name is Jonah. And my name is Lucas. Hi, Stude. How are we doing? Doing pretty well.

unknown 0:14

Good.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Doing pretty well. Yeah. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Doing pretty well as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Good to hear. Yeah. It's a little uh we were talking today, it's a little hot out today. It's a little hot. I have melt brain. You have melt brain? Yes, that's the medical diagnosis.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Wow, are you okay?

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Yeah, it should form back together once once the uh temperatures normalize, but I can't be held accountable for anything that I say on this particular issue and possibly the next one. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

That's uh well that could be problematic, but let's not overthink it, I think.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

You know, we can let it happen. You know, hopefully the brain melt isn't too uh intense, kind of goopy, kind of wet.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

It's pretty bad, right? It's pretty bad out too. I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, it's pretty bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Is it like coming out of like your ears or your eye holes or something? Yeah, but you if you save it, they'll they can they can put it back. Okay, are you are you like jarring some right now or uh yeah, there I got a little jarring.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

I got a jar. It's pretty jarring to look at.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Ah I could imagine that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

Yeah, it's I could try to imagine that. But I'm definitely losing some like motor skills and stuff. So language comprehension.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

That's gonna be a big problem because that's all we do on the show is just use our language.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Yeah, we move around a lot too. Yeah, we do a lot of moving, yeah. Spinning and jumping and stuff. Right. If you're if you're just listening to us, you should really check out the YouTube. There's some crazy shit happening around. The content is peak.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

It's insane, it's amazing. Um, yeah, it's pretty sweet. But besides Lucas's brain melt, you know, we were limited up here. We made it to another day. Issue 12. Wow. Number one, two of Wesley's Pop Culture Club. One, two. One-two punch. You know what I'm saying right now? I hear you. Yeah, this is like loud and clear. Yeah, get the level set. So we we started this podcast in January of 2026.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

2026.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Just to remind everybody what year it is. Yeah. It's this year. And today is July 15th. Well, that's the day we're recording. Right. This will be out on the 17th. The 17th. Yeah, 1.7.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

1.7.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

But uh, you know, we're we're we're doing it. We appreciate you listening to us. And it gives us an excuse to get together and uh and say our thoughts on different art that we like, which we would probably be doing anyways. We would be.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

That's kind of yeah, I think I think that's kind of why we wanted to do it. Is just because uh why not? Why not? We're doing it anyway. Exactly. Why not put a couple of microphones in front of us, right? And some headphones and subject other people to it.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yes, you know and make like a million dollars every issue, too. Yeah, which would be which is which is cool.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

We're getting there, yeah. Yeah, we're getting there. Yeah, I think we're on record that we couldn't afford our p our printing press. Um but we got a guy now. We have a guy. Yeah. Um we have our our printing press is still going, it should last another couple months at least. So these are I think I heard it in the back room. It's in the back room now, yeah. In the back room. In the back room, okay. Don't go in there. You have to go through a wall, and then it's like a maze. Isn't that is that where you sleep, or is this a different room? No, I sleep in the bedroom. Bedroom, okay. You're thinking of the bedroom. It's a B. A D. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you know the word bed with a with a lowercase B looks like a bed.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

That's super cool. I did know that actually.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

What about an uppercase B though? Is that not a bed? Maybe a bed with a pillow propped up. Yeah, I'm gonna draw it.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Let me know. Yeah, it's like a giant pillow, like when you're sick.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

You need to sit upright kind of to drain fluids from your body. Brain melt. Yeah, that's they did advise me to sleep in like a recliner.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Okay, that's that's probably pretty good. It's hard. Oh, it is hard, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 4:19

It's hard to train yourself to fall asleep like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, it's just like, all right, well, I'm gonna sleep like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

And that, you know, how who knows how long this heat wave is gonna last? I'll probably be getting really good at it right before they are able to fix everything that's going on with my brain. And then it'll be like, what was it all for? Right. It's just the point.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

I was gonna ask you if if they can fix it or is this like a terminal?

SPEAKER_03 4:45

No, no, no. It's completely fixable. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Because you were jarring it.

unknown 4:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

You said you're gonna jar it, so if it wasn't, I wouldn't be. Yeah, you wouldn't have been jarring.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Taking the time to do that, yeah, you're picking it up off the floor. Oh, yeah. Rinsing it off and then putting it in a mason jar.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

How much how much like liquid is there? Like, is this more than you would think. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay. More than you would think. And it's not just the ears that it's coming out of. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

That's pretty uh disgusting, but it's I'm not gonna judge. Thanks. This is a safe space. This is a safe space, yes. We need to have a safe space. So if you're still listening, thank you. Um but this uh this this little ditty we got today is about Jack and Diane.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Starting on Chili Dog. Thanks. Man, I've been waiting to use that one. Gosh, let's go, dude. Jay Mellon. Jay Mellon. Jay Mellon Camp. How you doing? Thanks for listening, Jay. Cougs. The Koogs.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Today, this little Diddy today is music. Musak. Musak. We got some music, we got some albums. We picked out two albums that are smoking. That might be too many. You think I think it's just right. Okay. I think it's like kind of balanced. Two divided by two of us.

unknown 6:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

There's one per that's pretty good. That's like that's like one per person.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Like almost.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Approximately.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Approximately.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Yeah. You know, sometimes if you divide by zero, then it gets really confusing.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

So I don't think you're supposed to do that. Yeah. Is that what what's the what is it equal to? I do I it I don't think you're supposed to do that. Okay. It's equal to error.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Oh God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yeah, isn't that what would happen? Error.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

That what happened with it? Error. Okay, that's that's crazy. And I think sometimes the calculator will start smoking. Calculators get brain melt if you divide by zero. They have brains? Yeah. Little computer brains. Microchips and whatnot. Yeah, that's what that is.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

You know, I think calculators are a little scary if you think about it. Because these they can do so much stuff. Even like the scientific calculators, are you kidding me? There's nothing it can't do.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Like there's like a thousand things.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

Well, think about one of these things that I have in front of me. A computer. One of those things, okay. Right. Which has a calculator as just one of many features. Yeah. So if calculators are scary. I can't even we're not talking about that.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

I don't want to talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Okay. You can. No, I think I will just actively disengage. Okay. No, I don't, I didn't have too much prepared. Okay. It was probably only like five minutes. So it's pretty good. That's it's valuable time that we could do it.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

That we could be getting into the topic. Yeah. But we're gonna push it.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

We're gonna push it. Push it real good. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Okay, so let's so yeah, we got some good albums we picked out. Um we do like the music here on the pod. I like the music. Yeah, I like the music too. We hope that you like the music as the listener here. Oh, yeah, that would be probably helpful.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Yeah. I mean, hopefully to the listening experience. But we're just so you know, we're not gonna play any on this issue. We're just gonna talk about it. So even if you don't like music, you may like listening to people talk about music. In that case, you're good to go, friends. See, that's well well clarified.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I'm glad that you brought up that point.

unknown 8:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Because it gets a little confusing sometimes with what we're doing.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

At some point, we may have a theme song, though. I was thinking about this. Oh, yeah. We may want to get one of those. In that case, people who don't like music, I think they're out. Yeah. Which is that's you know, we can't control what other people do. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

You know, exactly. So, you know, I I don't have a solution to that. But we can make an awesome theme song.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And that that's all we can do.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

I think we might have um we may have gotten some fan mail recently that maybe we should we should listen to in our next episode. Okay. Our next issue. And uh there may be an idea for a theme song in the There may be.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Okay, okay. I am excited for this, maybe. Me too.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

I actually haven't listened to it yet.

unknown 9:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Wow. Yeah. Um let's let's look at that. We'll dive in. We'll listen. We won't have to look, but we can so okay. I forgot to do this earlier, so we're gonna do this for a okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

That this is the official start of the pod. We have started roughly 10 minutes in, we're good to go.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Okay, so um I want to also mention we are our podcast is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, uh, Amazon Music, shout out to Amazon Music, the OGs.

SPEAKER_03 10:09

Um I don't think they are the OGs. They took they took the longest out of any of the directories to uh to let us in. Oh yeah, they were the last one to do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

You're the last one. What the heck is wrong with those guys? They're like one of those guys or one of those people where it's like you love to hate them.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

One of those people. I'm trying not to say guys, like you know, it's guys and girls, right? Guys are not people, okay? Let's just be cool. Let's be upfront about that.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

So um, so but yeah, Amazon Music, you know, we love to hate you. You're kind of like Cruella DeVille, okay? Let's just be honest here. Love to hate you. Sure. That's exactly what you are. But Cruella Deville. So that's what we got.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

So do you want to lead us off with the album that you selected? I'm happy to.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

The album that I've selected for this month is Little Wide Open by Kevin Morby.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

All right.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yes. This album. That's my favorite song on this album. Oh, yeah. It's short. Yeah. Yeah. It's really short. Yeah. This album was released on May 15th of this very year, 2026. 26, which we've established. Yeah. Uh, on Dead Oceans. This uh album is just about an hour long, a few seconds shy of an hour long. And it is produced by Aaron Desner. And I want to note. You've got to be kidding me. I want to note. Okay, yes. This is our third Aaron Desner album. Wow. Yeah. That's a lot. In seven months. Jeez, dude. That's a lot. He's winning. We got Prize Fighter, Mumfrey Sons. Yep. We got The Great Divide, Noah Khan. Oh, nice. We got Little Wide Open, Kevin Morby. Wow. Guys all over. He also plays some instruments on this, on this album. Alright. This is uh Kevin Morby's eighth studio album.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Um Jonah, I know you are you're a Kevin Morby fan to some extent. Yes. I know him like decently. What's your what's your history with him?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Uh I I would say a little. Like I've listened to him a little bit. I've never listened to a full album of his, but I would hear him on like 88.9. Um, and uh that's kind of it. I just like I kind of and I know that you like him a lot as well, so I kind of knew him from that. But that's what I would that's about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Cool. Um yeah, I think I want to say I found him through 88.92, Radio Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Wow, shout out Radio Milwaukee.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

Um I this was probably 2020, I think is when Sundowner came out is his his album that year. Um one of my favorite albums of all time. So good. Wow. We we don't have it in the shot, but our our pod artist Maddie painted me and Rachel this uh well sh I'll I'll put it in at the end of the YouTube fid. Um but this beautiful uh painting with the lyric from um the song Campfire at the bottom of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah, that is beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Um really really good album, really beautiful painting.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Um nice. So yeah, that was kind of my intro to him, and then I kind of got more into him through like uh playing his stuff on guitar, just going through his albums and all of his stuff is like um not as like a a criticism, but like fairly simple to play on guitar. Like there's nothing too complex music theory-wise going on here. Um and it was it's easy enough for me because I, you know, I'm kind of like intermediate moderate level, I'd say, with that kind of stuff. So he's like a really good guy to like jump in and just jam some of his stuff. Um, so then I kind of just made my way through all of his stuff and damned if he's not consistent. It's all pretty good. Oh, all right.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Um, so when I heard he was coming out with another album, you know, I was like, I gotta get on that. So yeah. So here I am. Um I uh I really, really enjoy this album, and I I am gonna flip it over to you at some point. Yeah, totally. So I'm gonna I'm gonna get through uh um just some things that are notable, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Um I like this album because I live in the Midwest. I'm not gonna say whether that's true for you or not. Um you may be making a long commute.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

Yeah, I've never told you about that, I don't think. Yeah, and I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

I'm still not gonna tell you. Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not gonna I don't I don't want to ask.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

So I won't. Um but this album is very Midwest influenced, both lyrically and sonically, I feel like. Um he lives in Overland Park, Kansas, I think. Um for a few years, almost 10 probably now, um, which I think is also near to where he grew up. Uh I may be wrong on that. That's what it said on his Wikipedia page. Okay. Um and I just feel I feel like you can uh you can that's kind of reflected in the in the music. It's very very Midwestern um singer-songwriter-y kind of like contemporary folk sort of um and then um yeah, there's some really good lyrics on this album, um, really quality songwriting. I know he does like poetry and stuff. Cool. Um in his free time. I've seen some videos of him, I feel like, doing like reading some poetry. Um and aside from that, I gotta mention the guests on this album. Sweet. As we know from the previously mentioned two Aaron Desner albums, this guy has a lot of pull. And I'm sure Kevin Morby has a lot of pull on his own. But there are some recurring guests from both of those two albums that appear on this album. Oh, that's fun. For instance, we got Amelia Meath of Sylvanesso fame. Cool. She was on I think she did vocals on Conversation with My Son, uh, Gangsters and Angels from that uh from Prize Fighter. Prizefighter. Okay. Oh yeah, that was a while ago. Yeah. We got some Justin Vernon background vocals on this album. Wow. Yep. Which which track was it? Um, let us see. I think he is on So he's doing electric guitar on Natural Disaster. Um I feel like I did I saw him as a vocalist maybe on an early track. Background vocals on Badlands, which is the first track. Um, and possibly more that I'm not seeing, but there are a lot of credits for this album. Um but yeah, so we got him here. That guy's also everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

He is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Um we have Elliot Cozell, who has worked a lot uh with um oh man, who was I seeing? I was reading about this guy earlier. He has worked with so I think he's from Minneapolis. He's worked with Hot Freaks. Um he produced Indigo de Souza's album Precipice, um has worked with Sizza, um worked alongside Phineas um and Jasper Harris on the third season of Hulu slash FX's Dave. You know anything about that show? No, I don't. So you're not watching everything on Hulu FX. No. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

I'm the Resident FX guy here, and I I I'm sorry that I don't know that.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

There's just not enough time, maybe. Yeah, it's true. So we got him. We have Andrew Barr playing drums. He was also doing drums on Prize Fighter and the Great Divide. We've got Matt Davidson, known as Twain, frequent collaborator with Big Thief.

unknown 18:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Benjamin Lands, who was also on Prize Fighter and the Great Divide. So I'm wondering how many of these people are just kind of like session session musicians that Aaron Desner like knows, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

And is like, hey, I got something for you here. Um Lucinda Williams is on the set. What? Yeah. Which track is that one? That one is, I think that's natural disaster. Yes. She does lead vocals for a verse or two and possibly harmonies at some point. Um that's a beautiful song. Beautiful. I love that song a lot. Um, I'm still going too. We got Oliver Hill, who has worked with Kevin before. Meg Duffy has worked with Kevin before, and did slide guitar on a little song called Holding On by a band called The War on Drugs. Whoa, okay. These are the things you learn about people. And then we got um the last person I was able to like make a connection with is Katie Gavin of Moona, LA pop band Moona. Okay. Is doing some vocals on the track Dandelion. Wow. Yeah. That's quite an eclectic mix of people. Bangers all. Yes. A lot of good bangers. A lot of very talented people on here. Um, yeah, I really I don't have really anything negative to say about this album. I think it's very solid front to back. Um, there's some very uplifting messages to be had. Um really good um instrumentation too. Um I've been playing along with some of these songs on the guitar, and they're very fun to play. Um the production is amazing. Aaron Desner shout-out, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

I feel like anything that guy touches is going to sound good, you know. Um that's pretty much the tall and short of it for me. But Jonah, I wanna I wanna I wanna take the egg, okay, the omelet, and I want to flip it in the pan, and I want to give it to you.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Oh, okay. Yeah. I caught it. Yeah, I'm gonna catch this really quick here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Starving, dude. Starved. Yeah. That's some tasty, tasty omelet you got there. Thanks.

unknown 21:04

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Um, dude, yes, I okay, so I over I like this overall. Okay. Um, I didn't like love this, okay, but I I still liked it a lot for a lot of the reasons that you mentioned. Um I think, dude, lyrics, like you mentioned, beautiful lyrics. I didn't know that he did poetry, but that totally makes sense. Um I liked in the song Cowtown. Cowtown. Which I liked, that was one of my faves. He wrote, uh, yeah, I feel like crying, but I'm all out of tears. Come on, bro.

unknown 21:43

Kevin.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

You can't do that to us right now. Come on. You can't do that. I thought that was awesome. Um it was relaxing, like different certain like different songs. Certain songs were very relaxing. Um, another one I like was June Bug. That one. And and very thought-provoking in general.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Like a lot of the lyrics are um I didn't write down more lyrics, but there was definitely times where I was like, wow, like this is very deep and very interesting. Um, like just just really like it's kind of like a s like a what's the word, like a smart man's like folk rock is kind of what it feels like. Um it's intellectual. Sure. And um, so what was I gonna say with that? So yeah, I I really liked I liked that part. It was like really cool. Um I think like why when I remember listening to him a little bit in the past, it was like I think it's like his voice sometimes for me. I don't love. Oh, okay. Um, and I noticed in this album again, like it kind of seems like some of the songs to me were a little repetitive sounding with his like vocals. Sure. And so I was kind of like, ah, and so um, so that's like my one thing where I guess like I don't think I like loved it.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

Was that I noticed like a kind of like I don't know if it's a me thing or something, but yeah, it's like sometimes the some of the vocals I they sound a little repetitive to me.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Um but I mean, yeah, the instrumentation was beautiful. It's still like a very like high quality sounding album.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Yeah. Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

So yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

You were you reminded me of a uh a lyric in the song, I think it's in Badlands. He um this is a heavy hitter too. He uh he's he sings Heaven is a place on earth, and then he says, and I know that it's going to hurt if I get there first.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

And I'm like Oh my gosh, dude.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

As a person with uh loved ones, you know, that uh as many of us are. Okay, yeah. That one um that one hit me when I first heard it. Um but yeah, I do think he sometimes has almost like a Bob Dylan thing going on.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

That's what I was thinking, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

Um in I think it's in Javelin. He starts a verse and he said his delivery, the line is like, How long's forever, babe? And he definitely does like a how long's forever, babe. Yes, yes, exactly. It's exactly like Bob Dylan. It's really Dylan, but um there were I was I was happy, I guess, with the uh I think as the album goes on, the vocal dynamics get lesser, I think. I will say there's a couple like Badlands and 100,000, which I I think is like one of his best songs. Um he does have a couple lines in those songs where he's like kind of belting a little bit, which is like sorry. Something I've I've like heard him do, and I've heard that his shows, I've never seen him live. I've heard that his shows are like pretty high energy compared to what you hear on the record, which is cool. But um, I'd be interested to see how like this, because this does seem kind of toned down from like his earlier stuff. Okay, um, which was a little bit more of that rocky side of the smart man's folk rock. Um but yeah, I would be I would be interested to see how he translates these into a live performance.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah, that's cool to hear that it's more high energy.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

And because I wouldn't have thought that because this one seems pretty chill, this album. Um I remember thinking that 100,000 song, the lyrics on that were pretty insanely cool too. Yeah, they're very like deep in and uh I wanted to touch on you mentioned like the Midwest aspect. Oh, yeah. That was really cool because I actually am from Midwest, I'll just say it. You are? Yeah, okay. I am, but um, I'm just gonna leave it at that. Okay. Yeah. Um I'm not gonna ask. Okay. You're not gonna get me to ask. You won't twist my arm. I won't twist your arm. No arms have been twisted. Leave my arm where it is, sir. I will. Um, so yeah, we I like the Midwest part of it. Um, that natural disaster song that you mentioned, uh, which has some awesome cameos. That one, I remember there's a cool lyric in there that I I don't remember what it was exactly, but um oh, I think it was or what it was that one, or it was another song earlier on that talks about which might be Badlands actually, which talks about like the tornado sirens. Oh, yeah, that's Badlands. That's Badlands, yeah. And it was funny because when I was listening to it, I think it was like right around the time there was like that bad storm.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

Yeah, we've had some tornado scares recently around here.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yes, like a lot. So there was that song kind of hit home, and there was another one too, where it was like talking about the Midwest, talking about the weather in the Midwest. And um Yeah, there's like one lyric where he's like my private Idaho and then my private Oklahoma. Yeah, which I think that's a movie. My private Idaho is a movie. I think you are right. Yeah, which I've not seen, but heard it's very good. And then I was thinking if he was from Oklahoma, but then you said he's from Kansas. So I think he is.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

I think he just likes singing about Oklahoma and American states.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Yes. Well, that even the album cover is a really cool cover where it's like dan are those like sunflowers, like they're in a field. It to me, I looked at the album cover and I was like, this dude, it seems like he went on a road trip and you know, like they like parked in like a field, yeah, probably to sleep for the night, which maybe the farmer was a little upset about that, but you know what? We gotta do what we gotta do. Farmers are better watch what you're gonna say. Man, we got a lot of farmer listeners.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

I'll hold my tongue on that one.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

That's probably smart.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Um, yeah, no, I I didn't comment on the album art, but it is very cool. It's just a hand pointing out the back of a van at some sunflowers at what appears to be the golden hour. I also love that. I also meant to talk about the this morning I found the music video for Javelin. Oh yes. Have you seen this? I've seen a clip of it on Spotify. It's so good. It's funny. It's just Caleb Heron driving him around on an ATV. Yes. Caleb Heron of Devil Wears Prada 2 fame. Wait, which dude is he in that one? He is like a receptionist.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

Yes. Okay, he's the comedian people that they were talking about. Okay. Yeah. Or comedian guy. Super funny. That's cool. Okay, I didn't know it was him driving. Yeah. I saw like a little clip of it, and it looks like they're like doing are they doing like a selfie or something like that?

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Yeah, he has like a 360 camera, and I think he's like moving it around from the back as he's singing along. That's pretty cool. It's a very cute video. Cool. Well, I'm ready to wrap that one up. What do you think? Let's wrap it, dude. Wrap it. It's gone.

SPEAKER_02 29:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Oh my god. Oh, I threw it right out the window.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Oh, dude, why did you do that?

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Someone hit it.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Oh my gosh. Sorry about just sorry about that. Just turn around, please. We'll talk to you, we'll talk to that guy later.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Yeah, we'll get his info.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Yeah. We'll get you. We'll talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yeah. Um all right. You ready? I think I'm ready. Yeah. All right. I'm gonna I'm gonna do the album that I picked. Jonah's gonna do the album that he picked. All right, what do you got? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

I got Philadelphia's Been Good to Me by Kurt Weil.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Oh my god. Wow! Gosh, we gotta stop doing that. There's a pile up happening outside.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Oh gosh. I can't look out there. Yeah, I'm gonna maybe I should close the blinds. Yeah, it might be. That's alright. Yeah. I'll worry about it later. Okay, we'll get later. Um This was released on May 29th, 2026. Via Verve Records. Okay. Via Verve Records, 12 songs, an hour and four minutes. Okay, so that's if you guys got a little chunk of time, I'd recommend slapping this album on.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Yeah. If you got about 63 to 65 minutes to kill, or somewhere in between there. Somewhere in between. This one's the perfect album for you.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:07

Throw it on. Give it a listen.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah, just like throw it in there, throw it on. And send us some fan mail about what you thought. Please. Let us send us some fan mail.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

Please.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Please. Um all right. So I'll kind of go into it a little bit. Get it. I really liked this album. I dug it. I will say, so I I do have some Kurtville history, not with personally with the man, but um with listening to him. I remember when I worked at a radio station, which I think this is the first time I'm telling Lucas that I've worked at a radio station.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

I yeah, I don't.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Is this news to you?

SPEAKER_03 31:47

This is news to I think this might be the negative first time. Like I think I'm gonna forget it. You're gonna have to tell me again for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

I can do that. Yeah, I will have no problem.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

This might be the zeroeth time. Zeroeth, okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

That doesn't make any sense to me, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Don't divide by that. Oh no. Don't. There's enough going on outside. Yeah, I can see it over there. There's like 20 cars. I'm seeing some emergency vehicles though, so I think they're gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Okay, good. The car is flipping you off. I see him. The car is. Yeah, he is putting up his middle finger right now. Oh, yeah, look at that.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Yeah, see, like he's honking at you. Hey, is that is that lightning McQueen?

SPEAKER_02 32:33

It is, yeah. And now he's never gonna be a fan of our show. And there goes our dream for that. Cachow. Ca-chau, indeed. Nice, nice. Um, yeah, I I really like this album. Oh, yeah. So I when I used to DJ at the radio station in college, I remember they had the album Believe I'm Goin Down. Nice. Yeah, but that was like 2015. That was like 11 years ago, okay? That's like 20 years ago. That's nonsense. Three days. That's tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Oh, that's awesome. So, yes, I um funny enough, I'm just gonna say this. So sometimes I remember on that album there was like a 10-minute song or like a 12-minute song. Every now and then Kurt Weil has like a banger like that.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

And so when we were at this at the station, we would have what was called the dump track. Okay. So dump track is when you worked well, you if you would do an early DJ set, which I would do, it was like I think it was six to eight on a Monday, I think. Yes, which was like, why did I do that? And I just did it. But you threw on a dump track that was really long when you had to go to the bathroom. And that way, because there's no one in there. Oh, sorry. That's okay. I think I lost you there. Whoa, whoa. There's no one in there like with you, so you gotta put on a on a long track if you gotta go to the bathroom. That way everything's set because you have to go in there manually, like, put on the next album, so or next song. So I remember doing I definitely did a song from that album as one of my dumb tracks. Nice. So that was just a little memory that came back to me. I love that. Um, so I hope that you did. When you gotta go, you gotta go. You can just, yeah, you gotta go. So uh Chance to Bleed is the single from this album. This song is one of my favorite songs of the moment. Nice. I'm just gonna talk about this moment right here. It's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Uh, it's freaking awesome. I remember you had said that you had read in an interview that Kurt likes that song because it's like just the chorus. Yeah. And I think that's why I like it too. It's like very chill and it's like the same words, and it's funny, and he does like some like a low pitch and like a higher pitch, and it's just funny because he's kind of a goofy dude.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

That song is zesty. Um, the next song I liked was Zoom 97. Nice. Which is very catchy. I think there's like some like a mandolin or some sort of high-pitched string instrument.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Which I was digging that. Oh, yeah. Um, I think there's like a violin too, like some like I guess other stringed instruments. Sure. Um but I I thought that was cool. And I wrote down jangly relaxed folk rock. Nice. So that's what it that's what it feels like. This is just a good time. Yeah. Um and it was cool too. Like I kind of want to mention the Kevin Morby album. You had said, like, you know, as the album progresses, the his voice dynamics are a little like different. Kind of like there's a little bit more, which I felt that. I kind of feel that in this album too. Like at the end, there's a song towards the end, there's a song called Piano for Sarah.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Really like that one, and that's like just piano at the start, which I don't remember there being a lot of that earlier in the album. I could be mistaken. But then there's he kicks in some guitar like halfway through the song or a little bit through the song. And that was kind of a nice change of pace. Because also I think that that one is just an instrumental too. I don't think that there's lyrics. Um, if I'm I could be wrong, but I don't remember there being lyrics. Uh, and then the last song, Avalanche, I think it's like Avalanche's of snow. Yeah. That one's kind of a cool one too. It's like it's kind of a like that the picture, a mental picture of that is kind of cool. Like, um, I don't know, it just kind of made me think about winter, and right now it's you know the polar opposite of that. Yeah. Um, no pun intended there. Oh. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

But what did you think about this one, man? I really like this one. Um this was my uh I was going back and forth kind of between the Kevin Morby album and this one. So then when you were you kind of made my choice for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Nice, yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Um, yeah, this is this is really good. I love Kurt. Um I discovered him from that same album, actually. Believe I'm going down. Nice. I think I was in class in high school one day, and I've somehow came across pretty pimpen and I was probably supposed to be doing schoolwork that I wasn't doing, and I listened to that just over and over again instead. I was like, This is so good. This guy's funny. Yes, he is funny. And uh yeah, since then I've taken like a pretty deep dive into his stuff, and I have seen him a few times. We saw him open for Wilco back in the day in Minnesota.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yes, that was really cool. I was thinking I was gonna mention that and then I and I didn't, but that was like 2016, I think.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

I think you're right. Yeah, that was a good time. It was short because he was opening, but he played some really good stuff, and then I saw him with Courtney Barnett when they did their lot of sea lice. Oh, that's sick. How was that? It was really cool. Nice. Um, that was a good time, and they I remember they played like some of his stuff and some of her stuff, so it was cool to see. And then I saw him at the riverside in Milwaukee, I think later on, like a couple years after that one, and Jessica Pratt opened for him. She's also really good. Nice, yeah, she's cool, and that was a really cool, cool show. And uh he's coming back around. He was just in Chicago a couple weeks ago, and I think he'll be back in Milwaukee in November. Yes. So I might be trying to go to that, dude.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

I was looking at it, it's on a Sunday night. Sign me up, it's like fudge, and so I was like, I don't know, but uh that is cool though.

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. So yeah, I I am fairly familiar with all of his stuff. Um, and I he's another one of those guys who's just super consistent. He has evolved over time for sure. Like I think he even mentions in that interview, which I should send to you um because it's really good. He talks about how um I think it was Chance to Bleed, he was saying is like a higher BPM than anything he's worked on in like years. Interesting. Because I think he's just you know he's he's aging as people do, and I think naturally there's a kind of uh certain songs from his discography don't necessarily like gel with him as much anymore. So he's got but he's got a lot of new stuff too. Like he he hasn't put out like an album album in a few years, but he's done a couple EPs, I think, in that time. Um but yeah, and it's it definitely feels more laid back these days, I would say. Excuse me. Oh again.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

There is I wanted to kind of say there's a there's a lyric towards the end, I don't remember which song it is, but he's like he's like talking about how slow he moves. Yeah. And he's like, watch how slow, or he's like, he's like slow. Just talking about how slow he moves, and I think that that kind of encapsulated the tone of the album for me. You know, and it was very, yeah, like he's he's just he's always been a chill guy from what I remember. Yeah. But he's like he like is self like self-aware of it, it seems. Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

So yeah. He I I love too like his lyrics. I feel like he he used to do more like he would do like love songs and stuff, and I think he still does, but you know, like it seems like now he's mostly concerned with what's around him in the immediate vicinity, and like specifically his guitar and his gear and stuff, like like um the what is the song? 99th song, which is the long one from this album. It is, yep. Um, he is the I think the first line is this is the 99th song on my red looper. Okay, and he starts talking about how it's like the last song before the software explodes. Because I in that interview he was talking about how he has this looper, he can record 99 different loops on it, and that's as far as it can go. So he has to either like kill some darlings or go get a new one, you know. Which I thought was really funny.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

I I really liked that lyric the first time I heard it, because then he's like, I think I've worked myself into a stupor. It's like it's so funny, yeah. Yeah, that I didn't quite know the history on that. I was like wondering if it was his 99th song that he had ever wrote. Oh, and I was like taking it as that. Oh, yeah. But I think is that a song where he's like, and I I didn't like do my research on this, but like it seems like there's a lot of lyrics. There's not really is there like a chorus, or is it like mostly like it feels like he's telling like a long, like there's a lot of lyrics, like a long story.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Yeah, um, that's a good question. I don't really I don't know for sure on that. I know he comes back to the this is the 99th song on my red looper.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

So maybe that is maybe he opens with the chorus or something. But it does that one's definitely like it's kind of like a uh like Bass Ackwards kind of song. Oh, I forgot about that song. Yeah, that one. That's a good one. That one is just kind of it's just like vibes, you know, like it's a really good song, but it's not going anywhere insane. Like it's fun to it's like really easy listening, which I feel like is kind of his thing right now. Um, which I really like. I saw this guy on maybe it was a comment on YouTube or something where um he was like, I can always count on new Kurt to make me feel like I'm chilling in the backyard with a hot dog and a beer. That is so true. That's like perfectly encapsulated.

SPEAKER_02 43:17

Yeah, that's like all of his music sounds like that.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

But it's cool that he can still find a fresh spin.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Like Chance to Bleed is like like because that was lead single. I remember Bass Ackwards was a lead single. Was that from his EP, like a previous EP?

SPEAKER_03 43:33

That is from oh, bottle it in. That was uh an LP. That was an LP, okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Yeah. Um because they have and there's I remember Loading Zones was another one he had that I really liked. That's the first track on that album. Yeah. But yeah, it's like a it's it's cool. It's like a similar, like you can tell you can tell that it's him, but it's just like a newer take.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, I love me. And Kirk. He is a uh very fun guy.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

He is quite a fun guy.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

And he has written some of my favorite songs. So this was a pretty pretty good month, I feel like.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Yeah, I think that these albums are kindred spirits.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

They're both really good folk rock albums by two dudes who are really talented doing I feel like they're probably both kind of at like a like they're accelerating in their career, it feels like. Um especially Kevin Morby. Like it feels like he's really accelerating. So yeah, I mean these two are good and very good, both are pretty like laid back albums.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Yeah. So I actually I was watching. Have you ever heard of Trackstar on YouTube? They will um grab a person, a celebrity of some sort, put the headphones on them, play them music, and make them guess who it is. Okay. And they've gotten some really cool guests on there. There was a Kurt Vile episode, and they played him the Kevin Morby song, Beautiful Stranger. Okay. And uh he it took him a minute. He was like, Is it Kevin Morby? And I don't think he had heard the song, but he he said he said something like, I've known Kevin since he was a child.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

It's just like you can't tell if he's like joking or like what the heck. He's a very goofy guy. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 45:27

Um well, what do you think, man? I think we're good. I think we gave the people what they wanted. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Yeah, I think we did.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

And I hope that for those of you who don't like music, we didn't drift too close. I feel like maybe we were singing a little bit here and there.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Um mention about not singing. Right. No music. No music in the music episode. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're gonna do what we gotta do. It's the heat of the moment. Yes, right? Like that's what music's all about.

SPEAKER_03 45:57

Yeah, it wasn't a premeditated thing. Yeah. Sorry that I did a Bob Dylan impression.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Yeah, yeah. It's I think that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah. Um, but you know what? I think it's gonna work out. I think it'll probably be okay. I think we're gonna be okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

Yeah, it'll be yeah, we'll be alright. Alright. Well, uh a little note before we close here. We're gonna be switching things up, sort of. We've only done one month of uh weekly episodes so far. And this is our well, technically by now we've done like a month and a half. Because we started them in June. But um this is our first month that has five Fridays. Wow. So I'm pumped. Here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna do the next episode. You may be thinking comics, right? Because this is what these guys do.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

Thinking about that, right? I may have been.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

We're gonna pull a uh uh audible. I didn't think of the word.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

We're gonna You're a big football guy. I know you are huge cheese head.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Yep. Cheese head, Wisconsinite Beckards. I love him. Brett Favre. Yes, that's how you say it. Aaron Rodgers. Jordan. Jordan Love. Yeah, uh, you know, uh Greg. Greg? Greg. Greg. Um we're gonna pull an audible on you. Okay. I don't know that I'm using that right, but I've heard it used like that. Yeah, I think um our next episode is gonna be kind of a loose, almost no format, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Whoa. Yeah. I did not get the memo on this. Did you send it in an email? No.

SPEAKER_03 47:50

It's not in the budget. Your email is not in the budget. I'm running out of storage space on my email. If I have to start putting stuff in the cloud, it's like $2.99 a month. It's not in the budget.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

That's my Amazon email.com.com.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

So I neither of us really know what's gonna happen with this next issue, but it's gonna be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

And we will probably be wearing the same outfits. Probably. Maybe you'll have to see to find out, but I'm just gonna say maybe. Probably. So don't at us for that. If you at us, I'm gonna at you right back. Whoa. Yeah. I'm serious about that, okay? Okay. So don't even think about it. That person who's listening right now. Well, there's only one listener, I think, but the other one that's the behind them somewhere, don't do that. Right. Okay. Don't do it. Again, though, I I I always try to control people. I gotta work on that. Sorry about that. Well, so we're gonna try to stop that. Yeah, we can stop.

SPEAKER_03 49:06

But yeah. Good on you. But seriously. Well, I think we're gonna wrap this one up. It uh the cops are coming up from downstairs uh at the accident. I think they have some questions for us about the projectile I threw out the window.

SPEAKER_02 49:19

So I think we threw two out there. I think there was there was a second one.

SPEAKER_03 49:23

Uh-oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

It was remember it was a little bit after it.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

Oh, that was a bomb.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Oh that was a bomb that went off. Oh. Was that did you throw it outside though, or was that just kind of right in your room? I didn't throw it. Living room. I don't have bombs. Where where was it then? I think it fell. Oh, in the same spot out there?

SPEAKER_03 49:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

That I feel like the odds of that are pretty low. Pretty unlucky for those people, right?

SPEAKER_03 49:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Wow. So there's nobody, nobody, nobody surviving. Nobody's surviving, no.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

I think we gotta go. Okay. Police are here. All right.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. We love you. Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye.