Speed of Sound Podcast
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Speed of Sound Podcast
EP06: Too Stubborn to Quit
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"People are gonna remember you for that in the garage."
A wild weekend at Texas for Brad and marathon run in Nashville for Bobby - the gang is back and unpacking all sorts of racing meets music news.
From emotional damage at the track and stubbornly refusing to quit - the guys unpack grit, creativity, muscle memory, and Lilith Fair lore. If you’ve ever wondered what connects race cars, synths, and existential burnout... you’re at the right place.
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Welcome to the Speed of Sound Podcast. I'm Allie Roder, and joining me today, of course, is race car driver, DJ, music nerd, Rad Human, Brad Perez, and producer, writer, motorsports historian, and bassist for alt rock band Cloakroom, Bobby Marcos. Speed of Sound, Misfit Toys. That's right. What are we doing, guys? What's going on? How are you guys?
SPEAKER_01Good. I'm all over the place. I feel stable, but that doesn't seem so stable.
SPEAKER_03I am the least stable. I am in Waco, Texas, right now.
SPEAKER_00Waco? Hey.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And my computer is on my lap, and I am in a makeshift studio.
SPEAKER_00Honestly, love the studio vibe. This is great. It's a change. It's like the guitars and everything. I'm loving it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, all that to have this microphone that is not functioning and this interface, which is also not functioning.
SPEAKER_01It looks good. It does. Very official. That it looks very official, you know. A try.
SPEAKER_00It's true. Hey, you know what? This is a week we are we're learning, you know, the journey of grit. We're just we're getting stronger.
SPEAKER_03Sooner than later, we're gonna get an episode where Bobby's inside of a van.
SPEAKER_00That'll be cool.
SPEAKER_01Love that. That stresses me out. I've uh I've recorded podcasts out of the backseat of that van, and it is uh it's a test, it's a test of fortitude to make that happen. So nothing ever nothing sits like if you try to have your laptop in your lap, you you spend so much time like weirdly clenching to try to get it to stay on your lap as you hit every bump on the face of the earth. Like so, yeah. I spend I think most of my concentration is just trying to get my laptop to stay on me and not spill onto the floor of the van. And then you have to worry about actually doing the podcast on top of that.
SPEAKER_00So it could be a fun lesson in multitasking.
SPEAKER_01It is, yeah. I mean, I think that it's probably low-key, like really good for my quads, you know, like all that all that shit.
SPEAKER_00And your core, because you're stabilizing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just very clenched. Yeah, you know, you want to be very clenched, you know.
SPEAKER_03So like you never want to be that, except for in that specific scenario.
SPEAKER_01The only time when being clenched is good, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right on. All right. Well, I'm gonna just jump right into it, you guys. And I want you to catch me up. It's been a while since I talked to both of you. Brad, we'll start with you. I know you had a packed weekend out in Texas. And dude, I saw you had a really heartfelt post on Instagram, tweeted, you know, sharing how you felt after the race on Saturday. It's part of the ups and downs of racing, right? And I think a lot of our listeners, we certainly know how hard you work. What was that emotion Saturday night for you?
SPEAKER_03Um, it was rough because you know, when when things like that happen, um it's kind of hard to put in perspective like what the future holds. And uh I mean I know I have a really good support system, but in times like that, you're like, well, you just made a mistake and cost a day, you know, I cut a day short, a team that really needed a good day, and and I needed a good day to, you know, continue my career and try to show my worth. And when things like that happen, you're kind of like, Well, all of that is completely gone backwards, and it's hard to tell yourself like the next thing is gonna be any what good when in the moment it's just straight up feels like failure. So I had a lot of a lot of people reach out. I had like my phone muted for like two days because I just could not handle it. Yeah. And uh the reflecting was nice, and I I actually had commitments at the racetrack on Sunday, and I ended up doing them, and uh it actually made me feel a lot better. Nice. And uh even watching the cup race and seeing a lot of those guys kind of bust their ass like I did. I uh I went up to the grid on Sunday and I went up to Bubba. I hadn't spoken to him in a while, and uh I didn't watch cup practice or anything, and I go up to him and he the first thing he tells me, he goes, So both of us stepped on our dicks yesterday, huh? And I was like, wait, what? And he goes, I wrecked yesterday and practiced by myself, and I'm like, Oh, you know, you know, you don't feel so alone anymore, and uh you know, Bub is an emotional guy, and I'm pretty emotional person myself, and it's kind of hard for me to put it in check. And um his perspective helped a lot, and a lot of others, man. I just my phone was just an outpour of people in support, and uh it helped me be more realistic about it after, of course, watching other people bust their ass to cup guys who are very, very good. So yeah, it was a lot.
SPEAKER_01I feel like people you know, people that aren't in industries like ours, Brad, you know, like they they underestimate what the big stage is, right? Like when you think of the big stage, you're like, oh wow, competing in the Daytona 500 or Lama, but like for people like you and I, there are points in our career where we're grinding just to get to the stage, any stage. So not only are you dealing with like the pressure of like getting to that, just getting on the freaking stage, whether it's you having a a start in an O'Reilly cart or me like just getting on stage at a show, but then you have the pressure of like performing well once you're there, right? And all the uncertainty, like we talked about we talked about the uncertainty a few episodes back, right? Of like, you know, anything can happen, you can wreck, you know, my amplifier can explode randomly on stage, you know, like things happen, you know. So like the big stage isn't always like the actual big stage, like the big stage is any stage for people like us, you know. So like I really felt for you in that moment. Like I've had I've had those shows, man. Like I have, like, and I didn't want to just add into the landslide of like your inbox and just be like, sucks, man. But like I did want to say to you, like, I really felt for you in that moment just because it's like I get like you until you've been in that where you're like, damn, I really needed that, I really needed that show, you know, I really needed that race, I really needed that. Like, you don't know how low that low is, you know, but ultimately, like for people like us, we're we're measured in how we bounce back, right? On the other end of it. So for you to go to the track Sunday and still work hard, I mean, that's just a testament of your character. So people are gonna remember you for that in the garage. Like the actual people that like matter in your life, they'll remember you for that. They're not gonna just be like, oh yeah, the dude that crashed at Texas. Like, they're gonna be like, no, that dude, he still showed up. You didn't just like pack your bags and go home and be like, I'm over it, forget it. Like, you know, like we we still have to get back on stage the next time and do it again, whether or not like we're still dealing with the collateral emotional damage of that, like we still have to get up and do it again. That's just that's the want in us, right? The perseverance in us, you know. So I was bummed for you, but at the same time, I'm like, yeah, he he's got this, dude. Like it sucks right now, but he's gonna you're gonna be back at it. I know you are, and you'll you'll you'll move past this. Like there, you know, this will just be a funny thing at one point in your life, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I know, and thank you. And I I've I've been saying this like a lot, and even not even in the worst moments, even the best moments, but I'm just I'm too stubborn to quit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I I can't yeah, I can't quit unless I've kind of realized truly what I'm really capable of, and even if it requires me kind of screwing it up ten times, I don't don't really care because I'm gonna keep trying.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I commend you. I'm at the end of 20 years of screwing up, dude, and I'm still still trying to find new ways to screw it up every day, you know. Starting starting new startup screw-ups, you know.
SPEAKER_03So each time more and more comical.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00So got a story now to go with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But I I really I commend you too for just being vulnerable as well. You know, your fans see it. I think other drivers see it, people in the garage see it, you know. Speaking to what Bobby's saying, like you sharing your experience of like you really needing this over the weekend and and what you're going through. And I'm I'm glad you were able to, you know, go on do not disturb and kind of you know, recenter and and try and get right in the mind and all that. And uh even even doing the pod this week with us, like we're here for you, man. And it just it means a lot again that you're I think about the people that are witnessing you, just like Bobby said, your strength of character, and they're learning from you and they're looking up to you. I look up to you. So thank you for being here and and keep going at it. Pulling yourself up by the boot chaps, man, and and doing what you do because you're uh you're living the life, you know, you're living the dream, and and so we're we're here to support you no matter what.
SPEAKER_03Oh I appreciate. Thank you, guys. Please stop talking to me because I'm gonna start crying.
SPEAKER_01There we go. We won't we won't shed any we won't shed any tears, but we'll get close. We'll get very close.
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, Music City for Bobby. I hear you were down uh in Tennessee. What was your weekend like? What you got going on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, after we so after our last show, my wife Lindsay and I drove down to Nashville. We had planned the the Nashville half marathon coincided with her brother being on tour with Anthony Green, their stop in Nashville. So it's like cool, we can knock them both out, you know. So um, so we went down and stopped in Louisville, hit up our usual haunts, like know a bunch of great coffee shops and and good places to eat there, and then made it down to Nashville and uh you know ran ran the half marathon in the morning, which was pretty brutal. A lot of elevation. Um it's hard to train for where I'm from. I live in a very flat terrain. So if I want to do elevation training, I had to like go to some. There's like you have to like run up run up and down sand dunes essentially, which is uh not ideal, you know. So um, so I the the elevation crept up on me, but I you know we both finished and that was good. Like we were both stoked to accomplish that, you know.
SPEAKER_00Congrats, that's huge. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. And then we went to uh the Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, which neither of us had been before. This was like I think it I get the vibe, it's a newer venue, it's like really, really beautiful. Uh it's an actual, there's actually like a bowling alley element to it. So wow, which was cool, you know, like it's kind of like an adult, like you know, like David Bustery, like adult gaming vibe, right? But there's like a bowling alley, but then there's a huge stage and like a balcony and everything, like it's nice, you know.
SPEAKER_03So oh Ashbury Lanes in Jersey.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is, it is very much like it's like a more modern, like intentional version of that. Whereas like Fireside Bowl, Ashbury Lanes, like places like that were just like bowling alleys that were like, oh, we could probably have a show here. This was like a little more like, no, this is gonna be a venue, and there's gonna be a bowling alley over here, you know. So but uh we crashed soundcheck, um, you know, got to rip that song with those dudes again, which was really fun. I I was definitely flying by the seat of my pants. I had not touched, you know, I didn't I hadn't played that song since the last time we did it together, which was you know a couple weeks ago. So I was like, okay, like I I remember how it goes in my brain, so we'll see what happens when I put the guitar on, you know. So but thankfully it was all it was all good, you know. I played Anthony's guitar this time, which was like a chaotic during the actual show, it was a chaotic changeover because he was like, Whoa, he's like, just play my guitar, and he's like, it's tuned to this, and there's all these pro you know, like there's all these like things to remember on top of just remembering the song.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01So I go out there and he he takes his guitar, he's like, Where's Bobby? And I like come on the stage, and he he's like, he like hands me his guitar, but he still had his tuner pedal on, it was like muted. Oh. So like, and they're like clicking the song, and I'm like rolling up the volume now. So I'm like, oh, and I'm looking, I look at his pedal board, I'm like, oh, I see. So I have to like, if you see any videos of it, Lindsay took a really funny video of it from behind me, I'll have to show it to you guys, but like I have to kind of like scoot past them, and like he immediately like realizes what he did, and he's like, Oh my god, I'm so sorry. So, like the whole intro of the song is like him and me like laughing to each other about like, yeah, come play guitar, it's totally turned off, but yeah, come figure it out, you know, like in the moment. So it so it's kind of a chaotic end like beginning, but it it went off without a hitch and it was really awesome. So oh wow, so yeah, we got to spend some QT with those dudes, and then their their tour ended like the next day, so it was cool. We saw them at like all you know, four different points of that tour, which was really awesome, you know.
SPEAKER_00So that's really cool.
SPEAKER_01It was great, yeah. I I I I did not know any of those dudes before, except for my brother-in-law, obviously. But I I've grown to love them. I can't say enough good things about Anthony Green. Like, you know, they say don't meet your heroes, but he is like such a kind-hearted, like true person, like very genuine, hard on his sleeve, like just really awesome person. So um I'm glad I got to stress on QT with them.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Yeah. When you played that song, because you mentioned it had been a few weeks, take me through the mind of, and this is me just geeking out because you are such a talented musician, like you're you're jumping right back in, right? Like you're jumping in the deep end of the pool. Is it just muscle memory? Is it like some chemical reaction that's just like magical that's in the back of your head? Is it just years of repetition because you know kind of like certain patterns? What does that look like for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think for me, the muscle memory, it's hard to explain it, but like I know I know how a song goes, so I know how to pick it with my picking hand, but then then you have to figure out the fretting part of it, the note part, the notation, right? So, like even before I learned what the notes were, I knew what the picking was. So my brain to my right hand was fine, but then it's like figuring, then you're remembering the chord shapes with your left hand. So and that's the same thing for cloakroom songs. Like, I I know how the cloakroom songs go. So I'm like, I'm already picking them with my right hand, but then it's remembering what the notation is with your left hand, you know. So this this correlation is on autopilot, right? But then, but then then the the real part that you're tuned into is the okay, it's A and then it's F sharp, and then it's this, right? So like yeah, I think um, like I said, I I was like thinking, I was running through the chords in my brain before I got on the stage where I'm like, okay, like I know what I gotta do here. Yes, yeah, then then then you're like locking in and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh. Let me ask you one more thing.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Well, so how I played I played uh piano for many, many years. And so my my musician brain, because you're not even looking at sheet music. Like that's I mean, obviously, like it's just a whole other level. How do you in your mind, and this might be a weird question, how do you visualize music? Like, are you visualizing your are you hyperfixating on, like you said, the the chords, and you know the chords, obviously, with with your um left hand, but like what are you is it and this is gonna get crazy in the weeds, but like, are you visualizing like sheet music in your brain? Are you visualizing notes? Are you visualizing color, like sound, picture? Like, what is it for you where you're able to get to that place?
SPEAKER_01So, so for for bass, I've been playing bass primarily, you know, for 20 years or however long it's been. So for bass, I can actually in my brain envision me playing it. Like I can I can see it in my brain, and then I then I just then I'm doing it, you know. Yeah, but with guitar, I'm still like I feel like I'm still learning guitar, even though I've been playing guitar for like 10 years of that. Like I'm still learning the the chords and like learning what that means. So there is a little more like intention there where it's like okay, okay, it's an E, this is what an E chord is, or it's an F sharp, this is what an F sharp chord is. So like there's a little there's like an extra step, you know, involved. But with bass, like yeah, when it when it comes to like you know, if Cloakroom's gonna play a show and we haven't practiced, I'm I'm in my brain, like, yeah, I know how to play that song, like I can see myself playing it. So then you just go and you play it. But there's no I I I'm not classically trained at all, like I have no classical training. Oh wow. I I know roughly some music theory, like I know how scales work, and I know roughly how like some chords work and stuff like that, like the theory behind it, but like I can't read sheet music to save my life. Oh wow. You know, I I learned I learned purely off of getting a bass and listening to other people's songs and figuring out the right notes and playing them, you know. Like so that's where I learned and that's how I've always practiced, you know.
SPEAKER_03That's literally me. That's the just I tough for me. I I learn a song by like I am watching you play it, I hear it, and then I'm gonna try to match it. That's it.
SPEAKER_01Like, I don't yeah, watching watching another person play is super helpful for me too. Because I'm kind of like if I'm if I'm writing a song with somebody, you know, I'm usually watching like where they're at on the fretboard, you know, and I'm like, okay, like you know, I okay, I kind of see where you're at, and I kind of see what you're doing, or like if I'm learning a chord or something, I'm like watching, I'm like, okay, like I saw what he did with his pinky there, like that's how he got into it. Like, you know, so there's just like various things. I will say, I just started jamming with this new outfit, and the guitar player, my friend Trevor, um Trevor DeBall, he plays in the band called Pelican, and his guitar is tuned super, super low, like the to drop B. So for me to for my bass, like I would have to go get my bass set up, the bridge set up on it for it to be able to sustain that tuning, like this. It's it's two steps lower than you normally would play. So I'm playing in a I'm playing a half step ahead of him. So as far as the the the what he's doing on the fretboard, note, number, any correlation, I'm saying low purely, I'm purely flying off of of Sonic off of what I'm hearing. I'm like, oh, that's the right note. I can hear that's the right note, but there's no like he might as well be playing like a trumpet. There's no correlation whatsoever between our two instruments, you know. And he's like, I'm at a three on this. I'm like, cool, that doesn't mean anything. Like, I don't know, that's like a six. Yeah, I'm like, we're two completely different tunings. It's not even close, you know. So that's been a fun exercise for me after 20 something years of playing one way to be like, this is purely off of like just hearing the parts and like trying to make sure there's no dissonance and making sure things line up, you know.
SPEAKER_00I I love hearing your process and kind of everything. So thank you for sharing that. I don't even know if we've ever asked you that, Bobby. If you if I didn't know that you were not classically trained, and yeah, that's just fascinating. I love hearing about that.
SPEAKER_01Purely off just playing in the basement, you know, obsessing. Oh man. So the ultimate. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. That's really cool.
SPEAKER_03Oh, when I used to produce music, I didn't even know how to like read the thing. I would I used to before I even learned the keyboard, I would literally put the notes onto the thing and I would know what is a chord and what is a person on the on the screen.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's I think that you know, mu music theory is brilliant. And I think like now that I'm, you know, I I wish I maybe would have learned classically like how to play, right? Because I think there's a lot of useful when it comes to like composing and things like that, making arrangements and things, like there's a lot of really useful stuff to it. But then, you know, a lot of being a musician is like the doing. And I think musicians have a really bad habit of getting caught up in like technicalities, of being like, oh, like this doesn't work or this doesn't work. Like sometimes you just have to like do it. Like sometimes you just have to like literally pick up a guitar and start picking on it, you know, like or drums or hitting some drums or something, you know. Like that's just sometimes the best way is just to do it, you know.
SPEAKER_00That's really good advice. It is. I was I was I was young when I uh started picking. Up piano. And uh when I started, I was trained classically, as one might say, and uh, you know, was learning how to read sheet music and all that, and it helped me so much in school. Yeah. And yet then I found myself, you know, like I would have homework for piano, and then I would do my own thing. And it was like this whole creative kind of buzz just was really uh sparked. So I was kind of like a weird anomaly, but I know exactly what you're talking about with kind of that dichotomy there. So God, that's so fascinating. I love talking about it. Very cool. All right. Well, I am kind of taking it upon myself, and I'll I'll make this one kind of quick, but uh, when we when we meet and when we record, I wanna, I've been really into documentaries lately. And for those who don't know, I went to film school. I'm a total film nerd. And so I finally watched Lilith Fair on Hulu and Disney Plus. You guys do not walk, run, and go catch this documentary. It is, it's just incredible. It's I literally have goosebumps right now talking about it. Sarah McLachlan's just groundbreaking documentary, but also music festival. And this was in the 90s, and it was this tour of females, women musicians on the road, and just the way in which it broke through the industry and the skepticism of media at that time, it just was shattering. It was shattering glass ceilings, and I do not think it is nearly talked about enough. I am going to tell everyone I know about it and shout it from the rooftops because seriously, like it's it's amazing. Have either of you heard of it?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03You're the one that told me about it, actually. Like I think last week. And I did some research and was like, man, this freaking show is stacked.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I I missed it.
SPEAKER_01My like I think, Allie, before we recorded, I was telling you like my wife was like a huge Sarah McLaughlin fan. So she was like, she was young, like she would have been young when this was happening, right? But like it was on her radar and she knew about it and she wanted to go like so bad. So like, yeah, it was a huge deal, you know. I mean, yeah, like it and the ripple effect of influence it had on the subsequent generations of musicians. I mean, like, you know, look at you know, female females are running the music industry today, you know, they're dominating everything, like they're huge, like the the biggest artist in the world, Taylor Swift, is you know what I mean? Like, so yeah, uh, I think that like people like Sarah McLaughlin kind of took those first steps so that like musicians today can be running, you know.
SPEAKER_00It it opened up so many doors, and to see what what I was so captivated by too was how polarizing at the time it was. And just to get a feeling on that, like I had I just had no idea. I had no idea. And the way in which the women were supporting each other and and the audience that they were reaching of all ages and and you know, diversity, and and uh it was just it was just awesome. So go check it out.
SPEAKER_03Dude, I I thought about like after you tell me it, I was like, man, if they ran that festival back right now, the depth that the lineup would have surpasses even like the most stacked version of that lineup that they ever had in their like whatever four or five year run.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like right now, even like the lowest artists on that list of like current times would be amazing.
SPEAKER_00Like, oh, I know it. I know it. Yeah, and go do yourself a favor and just check up the lineups that they had because and it try it also wasn't just one, it wasn't one week of Lollapalooza or one weekend of Coachella or stagecoach. I mean, they had like like 15 to 20 shows for one year, but it was a festival every single week. You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, it was just it's mind-boggling to learn about it. So, anyways, that's my my geek out of the week on documentaries.
SPEAKER_01Incredible. What did you guys listen to from the last episode, Brad? I know you got some good notes here.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Um, so last last two weeks, I guess the the one that kind of blew my mind entirely um was Skrillex and ISOXO. Uh, they put out their their collaboration song. They've had two collaboration songs, actually three, that they've been playing out in festivals, and Skrillix does this thing where he'll play out a song for like a whole year and does not release it and keeps changing it and changing and changing for every show he does, and then finally sets on whatever he's gonna release on, and we finally got it. It's called Smoke. And uh every time I've listened to it, I just don't understand how the sound can physically get through the speakers and how I can hear it as clearly as it is being presented to my ears. Like, like he is pushing the limits of like what like digital audio can do to your earbuds, and like I don't understand how this like physically, like physical and sound waves is working, that we're getting like crazier and crazier sound design and like the way that it hits from whatever that ends up in that master channel to whatever I'm hearing, because I it's just astonishing. I feel like I don't even know what music is going to sound like from like a mixed down standpoint in like 10 years if we're getting what we have right now. Um and whether you like you know dubstep or hybrid trap or whatever you can even call it, like if you listen to that and just was like, how the hell could that even get from a computer to my ears? Um very crazy. And Skrillex is the type of person that will push the limits of signal, you know, as as far as it can go. Uh so big up to that one. I listened to the failure album. Uh I know we were all all in on the failure album. I I loved it. I I think that is like a really cool, very 90s sounding like alt-rock album.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um that the the dude Ken Andrews, like the lead singer, he is such a production mastermind. Like and that dude can just make such good sounding records. So I know I think in our notes you put that it sounds like uh an arena band, like yeah, he he makes the biggest sounds, like they're huge. The drums sound massive, like everything just sounds, and then they take that and they make it sound exactly like that live. Like they sound insane live, like everything is like to a T. So they're just they know way too much stuff. Like they have like they have like uh the production brain that would work on like a Taylor Swift record, but they're taking that and they're making like alternative rock music with it instead.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and that that confused me because I was not aware of like how big of a band failure was like at all. Like, you know, we had our conversation about it, and like I was putting two and two together, and I'm looking at the tour dates, and I'm like, they're playing at the Masquerade, they're playing like these mid-sized venues, and I'm like, What? Like, how is this not a more popular band?
SPEAKER_01They're just like criminally underknown, like they just like didn't they were at the tail end of like the one-hit wonder era, so like them and hum, right? Like Hum had stars, fail your head stuck on you, but that was like the end of like bands getting ultra famous off just one song. That was when it kind of morphed into what we have today, where it's less like radio rock and there's less like MTVs, there's less major outlets to like propel bands into like massive stardom. They were kind of like lost in the shuffle of the post-grunge movement, you know what I mean? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Whatever happened to MTV? It just went away, went to the wayside.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, they stopped. This can be an entire episode.
SPEAKER_00How is like how would we not have anything that is an equivalent to that nowadays? That's crazy to me now that I really think about that. That's Instagram.
SPEAKER_01We should definitely put a pin in this for next episode because we should definitely dissect that. I that's the thing I ponder myself, and Brad's right, that could be a whole episode in itself. It's pretty there's a lot of contributing factors to it for sure. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00You know I like this. I want to do a deep dive into the history of this, you guys.
SPEAKER_01To to to be continued, to be continuing. Tune in next episode for that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I guess the last little bit I had here was Citizen, which is top five favorite bands in my entire life. Shout out Run for Cover Records again. Um putting out an album. They have a single called Halican Blues, and um it is it is just about as citizen as you can think. They change every album, but they still have that kind of like grungy sounding, sometimes post-hardcore, sometimes Midwesty, sometimes like radio rocky. Um, and I don't think this is a real sure like bet on like what the album's gonna sound like because everything always just sounds different per single for them. Um and they announced a big tour, and um very, very excited to go see it. Um and I think Anxious is opening, a band that I really love. They opened for the Wonder Years uh a couple times, uh I think on their last tour as well. And then Turnover uh did not announce a song yet, but they announced that they are releasing an album and they are touring with Narrowhead, a band that I really love. Um, and they're going to these really weird venues. If you look at the tour poster, all of these venues are weird. They're not your cut and dry regular venues, like they're playing like food halls, gardens, botanical gardens. They're playing playing like very avant-garde venues. Just take a look at it. Go through Google on your way out.
SPEAKER_01Two things, Brad. One, did you happen to notice who is the drummer of Citizen now?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_01He's a drummer from Title Fight.
SPEAKER_03One of the Rosins?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Ben. No way! I don't know. I I I know he had been playing with them, but I don't know if I I don't I I pleading ignorance here. He might have very well been on the last record, but he was like definitely in all the promo pictures for this one and like is definitely seemingly like wrote the record with them and recorded with them, which is awesome, you know.
SPEAKER_03Oh no, I'm extra excited. Oh, that's big news. Yeah, and then two I know he was touring with them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I think he's like fully in the band now, you know. So and then uh in I feel like I have a little insider baseball on that turnover record. I don't want to give too much away.
SPEAKER_03Please, sir.
SPEAKER_01I'm just more I I heard I heard some of this in its inception because uh we happen to share a little personnel behind the scenes, you know. We happen to share the mastermind of Zach Montez. Oh yeah, Zach Montez, who produces and engineers all the cloak room records, is now turnovers. He's been their front of house guy on tour with them for a few years now. But I think uh I don't like I don't want to give too much away. I don't think it's out in the out in the news yet, but he played an integral part in this new turnover record, and I heard some bits and pieces, and I was like, dang, it's uh it's gonna throw people for sure. But that but they've made a career out of that, right? Like they just keep throwing people, so it won't be shocking in that regard, but it's it will still be shocking, but it's great. I think everyone is gonna be in for a real treat with that one.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, they always do a freaking 180. Yeah, they always do it. Every single record they release is like an entire 180 of the last one. And like I just don't know what to expect, but I know it's gonna be somewhat dreamy. That's the only thing that they're continuously doing.
SPEAKER_01I should just I should just call Zach on speakerphone right now. We'll just put him on the spot.
SPEAKER_03I'll scare him. I'm gonna flip shit because I'm a huge turnover fan. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's it. Zach Zach is a is a future guest of the Speed of Sound podcast. He's gonna be an awesome person to bring on and pick his brain, his production brain. Like he's just he is on such a hot streak right now of what he's been working on. He's been working with Werr, obviously, he's done all the cloakroom stuff. He's done he's working with turnover, he's just doing like all these mega records, and he's kind of like very much how Williap has carved out a voice as a producer. Zach is doing very much the same here in the Midwest. So I recommended the Sea Field record to you guys last week, and I and it's so hard. It was super circled on my calendar, and it's it's it's incredible. Um Surfuris record since 2011, so they broke Boards of Canada's uh inactive streak, which is incredible of Radio Silence, you know. So I think Board's last record was 2013, and there's coming out this year. So this band's last record was 2011. So yeah, it's a long time not put out a record, but uh it's very transportive. This record, it's very sci-fi and dark feeling, and like I felt like I was in like the Matrix or something when I was listening to it. Like I was standing outside in Indiana, and when I put my headphones on, all of a sudden I was just transported into like the Ethernet, and it was super weird and bizarre. And you'll hear things on this record, and you'd be like, Oh, that's a human voice, like weird, you know, like okay, you know, like there's a lot of like really intense production, but it's incredible, like super vibey and and awesome for fans of electronic music and like big bass drum and swelllies and and cool synthesizers and stuff. Like, I highly recommend it. So give it a spin.
SPEAKER_00Love it. I did listen to it. I I was like when I was prepping for today, I was like, all right, let me give this a run. And I was like, whoa, Bobby.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, it's vibey.
SPEAKER_00What's going on, dog? Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. Transport is a great way to describe it. Yeah, but it is fun, yeah. Or be like, if you like, if you're like with a buddy, be like, hey, I got something for you. It'd be like kind of a cool experiment to be like, what do you think of this? You rock with it, you know what I mean? Don't crash your car.
SPEAKER_01Don't put it on the car and crash your car. Maybe you sit in the living room. Put it on your living room, you know.
SPEAKER_00That's hilarious. All right, we got this Friday coming up, May 8th. What are we looking out for? New music Friday wise.
SPEAKER_03All right, I'm gonna speedrun mine. Tie Boy Digital and Sweetie M. So Tie Boy Digital, big part of Drain Gang. So if you're familiar with Young Lean, Blade, uh Sherm, uh, longtime producer with Drain Gang, and Sweetie M, who is a frequent collaborator recently with Skrillix, who was all over his FU Skrillix album that came out. Uh, they are releasing a dual album called Paradise. So, really two good, really good producers. Um, Basement. We love Basement in this house. We actually talked about Basement last week. Um, they are putting out an album called Wired. Very excited. They have two singles out, I believe. And Glaive from Asheville, North Carolina, or actually technically Hendersonville, North Carolina, and Curtains, um, electronic producer and singer, putting out an album called God Save the Three. I love joint albums, and I think we're we're getting two really good ones with the Tie Boy Digital Sweet DM and the Glaive and Curtains one. They have two singles out already for that one as well. Um and yeah, just if you're into hyper pop and hyper pop adjacent things, you'll do definitely love those two albums. And obviously, basement is basement, they're legends and are always gonna crank out something good.
SPEAKER_01We've no like some of some of Cloakroom's first shows when Basement had first reunited, and they had us like Alex Henry from Basement, he did a lot of Cloakroom's early music videos. He's a super talented video artist, so they he was like really into early Cloakroom. He's like, Oh, we'll take you guys on tour and everything. So, like they took us to Europe for the first time, and like we went out to the West Coast with them, and like just have like a lot of really awesome memories with them. And that was like to see what they've grown into, now they're like a pillar of like the emo, you know, modern emo like music scene, like and they're playing to thousands of people a night. It's incredible. And I'm I'm immensely proud of them. They're like super hardworking band, and like they go about things in the right way. So I'm happy to see them have all their success. So definitely I mirror Brad's recommendation, definitely give him a spin. I'm sure it'll be uh it'll be a classic album already, you know. I had a few. I'm a big fan of Alvis Harding, like I think she's like a musical chameleon in folk music, indie music, where you're like, Oh, I see you, and then she blends in with the background. You're like, Oh, never mind, I don't. Like, actually, she's gone, you know. Like, she's just kind of like a shape-shifting what she does with her voice is super bizarre. Like, she just writes really, really interesting, kind of like pop folk indie music. But she has a new record coming out called Train on the Island, and uh the first single sounded like Fiona Apple to me, and then the second single sounded like it was produced in 1960, like it was super retro and just like dry, crisp production, and like she just has a great sense of melody. Like she creates these like earworm melodies that just get stuck in your head, and you're like, what is that? Oh, that's right. That's that like weirdo New Zealand person that I was listening to earlier. So uh definitely give that a spin. Lorraine James is a producer from England. Uh, I know her actually from her other project, which is called Whatever the Weather, which is like an ambient project, and she put out one of my favorite records from last year, Whatever the Record 2, or Whatever the Weather 2. This is her main project under her name, Lorraine James. It's a little more like EDM driven, a little more like techno driven, but like still very, very cool beats, like 10 Tricks Point Never influence, Square Pusher influence, kind of like in that realm, you know, like definitely from that side of the pond, you know, but like really, really cool sense of like just awesome, like kind of dance, like get you moving and stuff, and like she does a lot of cool, like vocally based stuff. So, and then Fire Tools, I believe they're from Chicago, but they're another producer that just recently signed the Warp Records, and like Warp Records is the end-all, the end-all be-all for me. Like, they do no wrong, everything they do is brilliant, and they took a chance on this person. And I listened to these songs without knowing this person, and it's like if you set out to make a painting just using every single you took 12 paintbrushes and dipped them in 12 different colors, and you're like, Well, I'm just gonna paint with all these colors, I'm not just gonna like stick to this one, I'm using every color in the rainbow. Like, it's so bright and insane, like almost sensory overload sounding like electronic music. It's very quirky and like kind of you know tone-bending, but it's very bright and like odd. So, like, I dig it. I'm excited to hear what the whole record sounds like from front to back. But their new record or a debut, I don't know if it's their debut, but their debut on warp is called Lavender Networks.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful imagery with that. Yeah, I love it. All the colors of the rainbow.
SPEAKER_01It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's great. All right, May 15th. What do we got there?
SPEAKER_03I got JPEG Mafia. He's back with uh the absolute avant-garde rapper, who those last album was a collab album with uh Danny Brown, um, which is called Scaring the Hose. Remember that one? That was a great one. Uh he's come back with Experimental Rap, which is his first solo, is his own album, first time in like I think two or three years. So um that Daisy Grenade, also a really great pop rock band, if you're familiar with Honey Revenge, you know, you probably like Daisy Grenade. Uh they recently actually opened for Pierce the Vale on the American uh leg of their tour for that last album that really blew up. Um and they're a great, super spunky, um like hard like pop punk kind of pop rock girl band. They're super sick. Um really excited to hear what they got going on. I haven't really heard much from them, but I've always heard great things when I saw them live. I thought they were amazing.
SPEAKER_01Sweet. I've got one, uh Speedy J, who's like a producer from the Netherlands, Rotterdam. He he's kind of like a pioneer in like what what you probably heard us reference on the show before, it's called the intelligent dance music community, which was essentially like in the early club scene in Europe, like people were making music specifically for the club, right? But then artists started making like full albums that were more so to be listened to in a home setting. So music journalists of the late 80s and early 90s kind of calling this as intelligent dance music or IDM, you know. And there was a compilation that came out on Warp Records, by the way, called Artificial Intelligence, and that was kind of the that laid the framework for this genre. And Speedy J dates all the way. He was he had a song on that early comp. So he's putting out his first record in I think quite a while. It's called Walkman, and it's like ambient techno. You know, there's dance beats, but it's not like gonna blow your heart out of your chest. It's very blessed his socks off. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's very, very chill, kind of muted beats, really, really awesome. Like arpeggiators, like this guy's got a ton of like incredible vintage gear, and like he just his DNA for this style of music is huge. So I'm definitely stoked to hear for him. So it's like Sea Feel, then Speedy J and then Boards of Canada all in the same calendar month. Is like, I mean, you know, I think that they must I think the Mayans, I think the Mayans maybe predicted this like on their calendar that this this month was gonna happen, you know. But like we're here, you know, it's happening. So I'm pretty stoked.
SPEAKER_00Well, all of these picks, all of these mentions, we are dropping in our official speed of sound playlist for this episode. So please be sure to check that out as well as on YouTube. We got YouTube playlists going too. Those are super rad. So be sure to watch those too. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Speed of Sound, and we'll catch you guys next time.
unknownYeah.