Speaker 1: 0:14

Welcome back to another super awesome mix. My name is Matt Siddholm, alongside my co-host and co-founder, samer Abusalbi. Samer, how are we doing this week?

Speaker 2: 0:24

Really well. Thank you for asking how about yourself, Matt. I never ask you how you're doing.

Speaker 1: 0:28

You don't? You don't? It's a one way street. I'm only concerned with your well-being, but I'm doing great as well, and we have another great guest on the podcast this week.

Speaker 2: 0:38

Yes, we do. This is actually a pretty cool story. I'll tell you real quick how we got this guest. His name is Tony Smith. He's actually was the lead guitarist and vocalist for a band called Sleeper Agent, which I had seen live something about like 10 years ago. They were touring with Ben Queller amazing concert. I fell in love with the music back then and we connected on Instagram and I just thought this is so cool because, like I you know, got to see this band live and here is the the guitars from that band. So we got to talking and um, and he agreed to be a guest on our show and make us an amazing mix. So, tony, so nice to have you here. Thank you for joining us. Oh, thank you, tell us, um.

Speaker 3: 1:18

So, yeah, tell us about your mix uh, yeah, let me just get into the mix, okay. Um, yeah, it's pretty much just like uh, kind of like my life in song, sort of. You know. Like um, there's some publications that run that with different artists think Pitchfork does one and um, yeah, so, like I thought about, like um, I don't know, it's really tough because 12 songs is a challenge for 34 years, you know but um yes so, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:47

So I just try to like capture the spirit every very period of my life, you know, like childhood, um early elementary school, high school, college, then adulthood, you know, which is a much longer period than the rest of them.

Speaker 3: 2:01

So, um, yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it I um yeah, I gotta say you had a much cooler, I think, music upbringing than I did um so I'm pretty jealous I don't know how cool it was, because I mean like it is interesting, because from my mom's side of things it was very like 70s singer-songwriter, like a a lot of Carpenters and Jim Croce was on the mix. And then John Denver was another big one. More on the Christian side, amy Grant Just like I don't know like Helen Reddy was another big one we listened to all the time. Oh, christopher Cross, that was every Saturday.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:44

She would get up first thing in the morning and put on Ride Like the Wind and I knew it was time to clean the house. It was just like this Saturday ritual.

Speaker 2: 2:55

Just pep-loving response.

Speaker 1: 2:56

For a guy best known as Yacht Rock. I mean, he's got one of the greatest pump-up songs of all time with Ride Like the Wind. Oh yeah, for sure, I totally agree.

Speaker 3: 3:11

Yeah, but she would open the windows and crank that song on, like this tacky blue turntable we had and, uh, people talk about growing up how they got to sleep in on the weekends and I never did. It was um, that song came on at like seven in the morning and it was time to get up and clean the house.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Yeah, that's amazing I'm gonna try that with my kids.

Speaker 3: 3:24

I can't wait but I'll tell you what it helped out in life because, like my house is like spotless all the time, it was just like so, so ingrained in me before.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Yeah, I've got to ask before we get into your mix, if you hear that song just suddenly, you know if you're like at a bar, do you just suddenly feel like you need to start cleaning up? No, but it's.

Speaker 3: 3:42

It's like definitely I don't listen to that song anymore. Like you know, every once in a while I'll throw on like Sailing, because it's kind of like calm.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Right right.

Speaker 3: 3:51

But yeah, I don't know, probably not, probably wouldn't listen to it now, that'd be interesting if you had this like Pavlovian response to that song.

Speaker 1: 4:01

You know I bet I do. Yeah, Bolivian response to that song.

Speaker 3: 4:03

You know, I bet I do, yeah, but it's been years so. But then from my dad's side we had like, well, his favorite band growing up was Kiss and he actually kind of had a when he met my mom they kind of converted to Catholicism and so he actually ended up getting rid of his, like, sold or just donated his entire record collection. Ended up getting rid of his like, sold or just donated his entire record collection Cause I guess like he really wanted to go um deep in the paint, as they call it, with Catholicism.

Speaker 3: 4:30

So he got rid of all of his uh, all of his secular records and as I was a kid he kind of like regretted that and started rebuilding the collection.

Speaker 3: 4:38

But when he did that he kind of got more into cassettes which were big at the time, and so he had like a lot of rush and foreigner and journey, which were big at the time, and so we had like a lot of rush and foreigner and journey and I don't know he's kind of an 80s kid so like or 80s 20 something, so that was his right thing was like the um, I don't know like more, the more kind of like commercial. Um yeah, heavy rock bands and rush was his, probably his favorite. So I grew up listening to rush and I thought it was like the coolest band in the world because I didn't understand it.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Well, that's a pretty good favorite to have. If you're going to have a favorite growing up, I think that's a strong one. But let's get into your mix. Here I mean, speaking of strong ones, you start off with just an absolute classic I Want you Back by the Jackson 5. So what made you kick us off of this one?

Speaker 3: 5:25

Well, that is probably my all-time favorite song. I just think it's a perfect song in every way. There's nothing wrong with it and still to this day, it's just like oh, that's the perfect pop song. And I tried it at karaoke once and it was such a bad idea. My range is all right, but it's not like young Michael's range.

Speaker 2: 5:47

Yeah, that's a bold choice for karaoke that is Golly.

Speaker 3: 5:51

But, yeah, I got worn out like halfway through. I'm like all right, never mind. So I pretty much like chose that because Michael Jackson was my first love as a kid. So when I was growing up, you know, know, like all kind of I'll separate the artist from his later years. But, um, like when I was a kid, like uh, dangerous, had this huge album rollout and man like I, I cut up my gloves, I would try to moonwalk. I just thought like Michael Jackson was the coolest guy and my mom ended up showing me Jackson 5 and like that was even better because I was like, oh, he's like my age, you know. And so, yeah, I don't know, I feel like just I want you back.

Speaker 2: 6:32

It's like the perfect song it's it, and it's just kind of amazing that it's just like one of the most enduring pop songs ever. Right, like it's released in 1969 and here we are, over 50 years later, and I think you could play it to almost anyone. They're going to recognize it, they're going to know like at the very least it's a Jackson five song. You know they might not even get the title, but like it's just amazing that that song is still playing and still has the power that does I agree it's just one of the most perfect songs ever.

Speaker 3: 6:59

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:01

And that baseline. You know my kids are, you know eight and four and they're both. You know I could play this form and they get into it. You know they don't really understand the Jackson Five or who Michael Jackson is, but you know this song gets them on their feet. You know they're into it, so it's timeless.

Speaker 2: 7:18

So then we move on to just another great song Again. These are all great. I'm just going to like gush over every entry here. But, we fast forward a little bit in time 1973, and we've got Bad, bad Leroy Brown by Jim Crose. Tell us about this one.

Speaker 3: 7:33

Yeah, so we had the. We actually had a few different versions, but Jim Crose, I think he passed away in a plane crash.

Speaker 3: 7:40

So he didn't have like a lot of records but we did have like his collections, like photographs and memories and the best of Jim Croce and I just thought that his music was like it was kind of appealed to me because it was like storytelling, almost so Bad Bad Leeway Brown is pretty much a story about like kind of a greaser, you know who was like the badass guy, and at the end of the song he gets his comeuppance scene so you know he gets the. You know shit beat out of him.

Speaker 3: 8:08

So right yeah, but like um, yeah. So how do I like I was trying to personify jim croce in one song because there were so many that I could have chosen I've actually got a jim croce tattoo on my arm, uh, from another song. Uh, from another song called um rapid roy, that stock car boy and pretty much the song. At one point it says like he's got a tattoo on his arm that says baby, another one that just say hey. So I've got a hey tattoo on my arm and like so I was I love that so much?

Speaker 3: 8:39

so I guess jim croce like did have some major impact on me that I kind of like, had to like address in this.

Speaker 2: 8:45

I think you might be our first guest that has a tattoo that matches a song in their mix. That's awesome. That's a great achievement.

Speaker 1: 8:51

We haven't asked every guest. Oh, fair, that's fair, you know, yes, I guess we can go back maybe, but yeah, for now we're the only confirmed. That's the only confirmed occurrence. I also love this song because, like a year, prior he had come out with you don't mess around with jim, which is almost the same song oh yeah, right about a real badass guy who kind of gets his comeuppance at the end and, uh, they both.

Speaker 1: 9:19

It's like he. He got to like I've read up. You got to like number eight on the charts with you, don't mess around with jim. And then I feel like he went back in the charts with you, don't Mess Around with Jim. And then I feel like he went back in the lab and was like all right, let's rework this.

Speaker 3: 9:31

And he hit number one with Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Yeah, it's kind of like the man with no Name trilogy, except there's only two. What was the first one?

Speaker 1: 9:48

Like, if it's full of dollars, then like for a few dollars more, right, that's perfect. Um, okay, so you mentioned rush earlier and here's their appearance on the mix. You pick working man, which you know is an amazing song. Uh was rated one of the greatest guitar solos of all time by guitar world magazine. But uh, I also thought I mean, I didn't realize this was their debut album. So just right out the gate, here's working man.

Speaker 3: 10:04

But talk about why you picked this rush song I feel like the first album is kind of like um overlooked because neil pert's not on it, and I think I almost prefer the first album because it's a little more workman.

Speaker 3: 10:16

You know, no pun intended, but it's like you know, less about like, you know, walking trees and like spirituality, and it's more just about kind of like living in Canada. And working man to me, has this really bad-ass kind of almost T-Rex opening riff. So I just think it's For my money a song that you could just throw on instead of being like, all right, we're going to lay down and listen to 2112. You know, trying to figure out the patterns, so it was either Working man or Fly by Night, and I think Fly by Night to me is just a really good pop song. But I was like probably Working man is where it all started for me, but there's so many like Tom Sawyer and Limelight, um, you know, but the there's so many like tom sawyer and limelight, uh, but yeah, I think working man just kind of like is such a great introduction to like. This is rush minus.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Yes, hippie dippy, it really is just, it's a great rush song, I agree, um, and it's amazing that I got radio time at seven minutes. You know, like I, I think I feel like this was kind of the beginning of of like much longer songs. You know it's starting to be played on the radio, um, yeah, and it was owed to I. It was kind of interesting. It was owed to this, uh, this woman, this dj donna helper, who apparently got introduced to them, put it on the radio and then everyone in cleveland just started wanting more of it. So you know, she was a disc jockey in cleveland.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Um, and it's great, great, because I think the lyrics just, apparently just resonate with people and they're really simple lyrics, right, Literally it's just kind of repeating about how you wake up at 7, go to work at 9, and you work all the time, and so that's why they call me the working man, and it's just like that. It's so basic but it's so universal. As a result, and I just think, combine that with an epic guitar solo plus three minute instrumental break and you're just like you've got rush, like that's rush, rush in a song.

Speaker 3: 12:02

Yeah, in uh 2010 I think it was uh me and my dad went, went to, we came to nashville to go to this theater that's kind of popular here called the bell court and they should kind of show indie movies or more um, I don't know special interest stuff. And we we came to see uh on the beyond the lighted stage, which was a rush documentary, and it was the most surreal experience because it was just dads and sons and so we're waiting in line. I'm looking around, I'm like, oh man, like everybody had the same experience.

Speaker 2: 12:33

That's so great yeah, pretty clear demographic there.

Speaker 1: 12:39

For sure they started playing cats in the cradle before the movie this really resonated with everyone, and I'll tell you what dry eyes dry in the house.

Speaker 3: 12:49

When, like it, talked about neil pertz, like um kind of the tragedy he went through there's a bunch of like you grown man crying around me I was like, oh okay so many feels that is amazing.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Um, all right, so we take, we take a kind of a big leap in years, uh to 1997, to um, actually matt, one of matt's like favorite bands I've learned. Um really, really underrated, I agree, but we've got mbop by hansen. So tell, tell us about this one.

Speaker 3: 13:19

Okay. So Hanson was the first band I kind of found on my own. If a 10 year old could find a band on their own, sure, but it kind of like to me resonated immediately and I've got a kind of interesting story around this song is that I had some kind of like summer flu and my dad had it too. Like for a week in the summer we just kind of like both laid in our underwear sweating in the countryside and this was at a time in the 90s when, like literally when they didn't have other programming on VH1 and MTV, they would just play like videos nonstop and it was kind of like almost like a pop radio playlist where it was like 15 videos over and over and over again, like 15 videos over and over and over again.

Speaker 3: 14:00

And like looking back, paranoid android was another one around the same time that played a bunch which it seems like looking back. It's like that was kind of weird, but like um, but so like I was flipping through the channels and I saw what I thought was melissa, joan hart, clarissa and sabrina from sabrina the teenage witch, yeah, yeah and it turned out to be taylor hansen singing this song called Oom-Bop, and so I stopped immediately and just like watched it and I was like this is the coolest shit I've ever seen.

Speaker 3: 14:27

And I saw that the drummer was like he looked about my age and it kind of like I was like, oh, you can be a kid and do this, and that's kind of like what jumpstarted me into like wanting a guitar and trying to write music and I think you know, for a good, maybe even 10, 15 years. It was so uncool to like Hanson, so it was kind of like a secret like a secret of mine, yes, because prior to that, like literally the only cassettes I owned that were my own were like Michael Jackson's, dangerous and like a shit ton of weird out and so, like, like, I literally thought that, uh, like, give it away was actually yabba dabba, do now.

Speaker 3: 15:09

And, like all these popular alternative artists, I had like the weird out version and you kept going.

Speaker 1: 15:14

Hey, they ripped off weird out every time you turned on the radio chili peppers give it away.

Speaker 3: 15:18

I was like oh, that's a Yabba Dabba Doo song. Oh my God.

Speaker 1: 15:26

That is greatness.

Speaker 2: 15:27

I can't believe. Actually we haven't had a Weird Al song entry yet.

Speaker 1: 15:30

I considered it. He is one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Speaker 2: 15:33

I have to say that's got to come up at some point. It has to yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:43

I was going to say Hanson. We mentioned them as kind of a one-hit wonder a few episodes back and talked about their second single off this album, where's the Love, and I think that song is really good. But the one thing I said at that time is these guys can really play their instruments oh yeah, even at that age.

Speaker 3: 15:55

but especially now if you hear them interviewed and they still play music like they're really good musicians yeah, um, I think that's what was so important to me because, like, I saw people my age doing it and um, but yeah, to me they weren't a one-hit wonder at all. Like, yeah, like, where's the love? That's what I was told that's what I was told.

Speaker 1: 16:15

Yeah, when I brought it up, everyone was like now, if you were of a certain age you know, I think I'm a little older than you are, but yeah, for me in, I was in college at the time and uh, yeah, to me it was like I just kind of knew him as this one hit wonder. But yeah, I talked to younger people who were like, oh no, I know a lot of Hanson's music, like they can go deep on it, so yeah, I mean, even as kind of late as 2005.

Speaker 3: 16:38

They had a song called Penny and Me, which was equally infectious, and it was really good. So if you haven't heard that one, go check it out.

Speaker 1: 16:44

OK, going on to track five. Now we mentioned you toured with this guy at one point in time. I love this song, wasted and Ready by Ben Queller, texas's own Ben Queller. So talk about why you picked this Ben Queller song.

Speaker 3: 16:59

All right, another story. I wasn't sick this time, but I was up at 3 am, as teenagers do, just for no reason, sure, and I saw this scrappy dude climbing a large strawberry and I was like, all right, cool, what is this? And it was Ben Queller, wasted and Ready, and immediately I was like I need that in my life. It's so cool, like, um, like the lyrics are kind of nonsense and it's just like this anthem that kind of goes with the.

Speaker 3: 17:28

You know I love rock and roll and you know the three chord, but like we just uh, teenage dirtbag, just that kind of generic three chord progression. But it was so badass and like this was back in the day where you pretty much had to go to best buy to like hear more, and so right, yes, and that was one of those albums I totally blind, bought and just like listened to religiously, uh, pretty much the next two years until his second album came out.

Speaker 3: 17:56

Um, I don't. The reason why I put it on there is because it was like what shifted away me like from new metal which I was really into until I was about 14, and so this is like my. I was 15 and I heard that and that's what kind of started my rock renaissance. I was like, oh wow, so you can get cooler than you know f Fred Durst and Jonathan Davis and like I think Linkin Park was a big one at the time for me and I think the only cool new metal band I was into still to this day is Deftones. So they kind of like survived that, but everybody else got put to the side when, I found kind of the more indie rock thing.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Yeah, ben Quiller is just amazing. Great performing artist who just like to see live. Um, it was. It was so much fun. It was at the uh at the Granada Theater whenever I saw him and you guys perform, um, it was a great show, all-around great show, start to finish and that was a trip for me because, uh, you know, just wasn't that album and that song.

Speaker 3: 18:54

It was like you know, I bought On my Way and I bought the self-titled. And then, you know, I got changing horses and literally saw him six times on my own just throughout my life, and then we got the offer to open up for him and I was like fuck yes, yes, let's do that.

Speaker 2: 19:10

And the first time.

Speaker 3: 19:12

Uh, you know, to me he was a superstar but so so. But the first time, like um, I watched some soundcheck. I almost had this like weird, like depersonalization feeling. I'm like what the hell is going on. I'm side stage watching ben queller's soundcheck, you know like uh, yeah soundcheck lizzie which is like one of his big ballads to his wife and I was like how the fuck did I get here you? Know am watching MTV to here I am watching him side stage.

Speaker 3: 19:44

And we developed a really good friendship and I still, you know I'll text him every once in a while, which is super bizarre to me, but part of me feels like I willed it into existence somehow.

Speaker 2: 19:54

All right, let's move on to track six, Debaser by the Pixies, which has like a really disturbing backstory to it. Actually, whenever I read about this, it is a great Pixie song. I had actually not heard this particular song by them and it's just like, yeah, it's classic Pixie sound. So tell us about this track in particular.

Speaker 3: 20:12

OK, so there was this period in time where I was convinced I was going to be a filmmaker. Doesn't make any sense if you're a teenager in Bowling Green, kentucky, like literally, with no money is that not a hub for filmmaking, for film?

Speaker 3: 20:27

watching really so um, but you know, I think I remember like being like 15 16 and being like I don't even want a car, I want a digital camera. You know who cares about cars and girls and all this thing. Like I want to be a filmmaker and so, like my entry point was kind of, uh, like you know, kevin smith, of course, and all that stuff like that. But yeah, eventually we got around to fight club and we heard, uh, the end song, which was where's my mind, and my best friend, um, he bought surfer rosa and I thought it was okay. I was like all right, you know, it's fine, it's kind of scrappy, it's whatever, and I like more of the pop side of it, like gigantic, and less of the abrasive stuff.

Speaker 3: 21:10

And I think I just had some extra money from working at a movie theater and was in Best Buy, which, by the way, best Buy was pretty much where you went and bought CDs in Bowling Green. You know we had a, a couple other stores, but they were really expensive and Best Buy you'd get one for like $12 to $15 instead of $25. Anyway, so I bought Doolittle I had no idea what was on it and that was the first song that came on. And Amelia, I was like mind-blown.

Speaker 3: 21:34

I was like this is it, this is what I've been looking for, like, and that kind of set me on a journey for like the next five years, kind of trying to find more music like that and get that same like it was like. It was like somebody shot adrenaline into my heart. I didn't know what he was talking about, but just the fact he was screaming under like these amazing pop hooks. That was just like it, like there's a huge pivot. It's me as, as a person Like I was like, who cares about filmmaking, I want to be a musician now. Like, like, I want to scream like that guy.

Speaker 1: 22:06

I love the sound of this song but yeah, when I got into the lyrics, you know, to Samer's point, like the background of it and the actual lyrics, it's really kind of weird. But but yeah, just the sound of it definitely takes you to a place.

Speaker 3: 22:18

Yeah, and to me the lyrics are mostly nonsense. You know, like I know, he's mainly just talking about that Salvador Dali movie, and I don't know if there's anything more to it than that. I just feel like he's just kind of describing the movie.

Speaker 1: 22:33

So he's like. You know, the movie sounds really weird and it's not on Netflix, so I didn't get a chance to watch it.

Speaker 3: 22:43

You can watch portions of it on YouTube and it's like, okay, it's not as weird as you think, it is like you know there's the line, slicing my eyeballs, and it is just this woman who's like staring, look at the camera. And then this guy comes up behind her with a razor blade and like it cuts to like a close-up of a cow head, but you're not supposed to know it's a cow head and he just like slices the eyeball out and like, yeah, that sounds weird.

Speaker 1: 22:59

But you watch and you're like, oh okay well, our family movie night is friday, so I'll throw that out there yeah, they're gonna love that.

Speaker 2: 23:10

See what the kids think.

Speaker 1: 23:11

Yeah, it's either gonna be that, or high school musical again?

Speaker 3: 23:14

oh no, it's a coin toss so that movie has persisted past generations. It has all three.

Speaker 1: 23:24

We've watched them multiple times. Can I make a side?

Speaker 3: 23:27

note about High School Musical 3 is that I worked at the movie theater when that movie came out and it bugged me to know in that there was only three of them and that one was called Senior Year I was like man, yeah it makes no sense that is true.

Speaker 2: 23:43

That's a missed opportunity and also very confusing.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Well, but now and and this is I know way too much about these movies. The second one is all about just their summer job. It's just focuses on the summer, so that's not even, you know, part of their, their official high school year, but, um, anyway yeah look, I could go.

Speaker 1: 24:04

We could do a good 45 minutes on on the three high school musicals. I've got a lot of issues with those movies but we've got to move on. We're going to focus on the mix. Um number seven. Here you get into a trailerest Mouse. Now, this came out about the same time as Hanson. Now, did you discover them at the same time or was this? I'm guessing this was much later on that you discovered this song? Definitely not.

Speaker 3: 24:27

I was introduced to Modest Mouse by, I feel like you know, 90% of the population was through Float On and very similar to the Pixies. It was like what is this? You know, it was like it was just incredible and me and my friends all just kind of like gravitated towards this new band, quote, unquote. And like then we immediately went backwards and we're like, oh well, dude, that good news stuff is not even good. It's like so and the way we kind of did it as buddies in high school was that not everybody, we couldn't buy the whole discography ourselves. So we would just get like everybody would get one CD from the band and if you were lucky you got the good one or the one you could listen to over and over again, and not like you know, maybe one of Modest Mouse's deep catalog EPs that wasn't very good or something, but and then we would kind of like burn them and trade them or just listen to it in somebody's car when they were driving us around. But like so I got lonesome cry to west and that to me and was immediately just like set my brain on fire. I think it opens up with like um, teeth like god's shoe shine, which is this like riff and then it's just screaming and uh.

Speaker 3: 25:38

So I was kind of at this point in my life, my senior year of high school, I was working two jobs, like one at Taco Bell and then another one at the movie theater, and I felt like all I was doing was working and going to school and I was kind of depressed. I didn't realize it at the time, but that song, trailer Trash, it was kind of like a mantra for me. Like you know the passage of time, and there's a I don't know, it's a toss up between Taylor Trash and Bankrupt on Selling, because in Bankrupt on Selling he says something like so I'll go to college and I'll learn some big words and I'll talk real loud and, goddamn right, I'll be heard. You'll remember the guy who said all those big words he must have learned in college. And I was like, oh yeah, I got to go to college, have learned in college. And I was like, oh yeah, I gotta go to college. So but uh, right now my mind's kind of blanking. There's a just as important lyric in trailer trash.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Um well, he has the. I hope I can pass high school yes.

Speaker 3: 26:36

So that was equally important. But I think at the time also I was kind of like disillusioned about um, you know, maybe like marriage and kind of the basic life, and I was kind of rebellious and I was like you know, I just kind of want to be a rock star and um, and so I think that just really, you know, resonated with me like you know. Short love and a long divorce, a couple of kids of course they don't mean anything, yeah, I don't. I think that's pretty much it just it was kind of this realistic song and, like you know, being from a small town in Kentucky, I didn't feel like Trailer Trash. But I did feel less than because we were in the South and we aren't known for being a cultural mecca of the arts or anything, and I really wanted to be where the arts and music were. I wanted to be a cool kid but I felt like I couldn't be because I was in, you know, bum, fuck, nowhere but you know, looking back, we really weren't that small.

Speaker 3: 27:30

We have this like amazing university with 20 000 students in it, just kind of like. But to me at the time it felt like it felt like you know, the smallest place in the world um, especially nashville was down the street, you know, and yeah, yeah. But a funny little bit about this song is there's this line that he says it's been a long time, which agrees with this watch of mine, but I had the like misheard lyric for years. I thought it was and it's been a long time. Would you grease up this watch of mine, which, which made total sense to me? I'm like, oh yeah, cause the cogs have stopped.

Speaker 1: 28:12

You got to grease them up to keep it going.

Speaker 2: 28:13

Oh, my god, you know way too much about watchmaking. It just occurred to me that we have to do like a mix of just like lyrics where it's commonly misheard, you know um and yeah, because I think there's a lot of songs out there.

Speaker 2: 28:26

I can't tell you the number of times that I I thought for the longest time U2 song um, oh, my goodness, I'm blanking on the title, but all about like seeing the world. You know, see China in front of you and I'm blank. Beautiful day. Yeah, I thought she turns right around in front of you or something it was the longest time. And I looked at the lyrics I was like, oh, oh, I feel sheepish. Now it's completely changed the meaning of this song in my head.

Speaker 3: 28:52

I have a recent one, A good buddy of mine, that song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. That was huge a few years ago. He had no idea it was called Radioactive. He thought it was saying ready to rock you or ready for action.

Speaker 1: 29:05

Ready for action? I could see that.

Speaker 3: 29:08

I was like are you kidding me? It's radioactive, it's in the title. He's like no, it's ready for action. I'm like no man.

Speaker 1: 29:18

Well, and they say it about 30 times, so you think at one point it would be like maybe it's something else.

Speaker 2: 29:24

Let's go to track number eight, Hummingbird by Wilco and I got to say I love the opening line to this song. His goal in life was to be an echo.

Speaker 3: 29:32

Yes, I love that.

Speaker 2: 29:34

I'm just immediately hooked after hearing that.

Speaker 3: 29:35

Me too, yeah, so here's going to be your daily double for new things. I actually have a hummingbird tattoo as well, so like nice.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Wow, I feel like to me that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 29:48

This song kind of hit me at a weird point in college, uh, where I kind of almost like uh, resigned to being an echo, you know, just kind of accepted the fact that maybe I was just going to be, uh, you know, somebody not special, and I think this song kind of helped me like, be okay with that.

Speaker 3: 30:09

Like you know, remember to remember me floating, you know, standing still in your past, floating fast like a hummingbird. I think the song is actually about you know, a man who's in love with somebody that he can't have and so he just kind of climbs the tallest mountain and decides to die alone, which is like incredibly sad, but at the same time the song is so beautiful that you kind of get lost in, like you know, the majesty of it. Like you know it has a kazoo solo in it, which is incredible. But, like you know, more songs.

Speaker 3: 30:36

Need those Exactly and like it's like probably the first time you hear a kazoo and go like, oh, that works, yes, but you know the piano is so happy. But you know the piano is so happy and it's like one of those, like you know, like group love their album was called never trust a happy song and like this song is like one of those like, oh, this isn't happy at all, it's a very, very sad song and, um, yeah, I don't know to this day, like it just kind of like almost takes me away to a different place and I feel like that's why I wanted on my body forever because, like, also, it's a reminder to be humble, you know, and don't you know, don't act like you're the shit.

Speaker 1: 31:09

So no, I think this song. It's really interesting, I think musically, because it does kind of sort of pick up. It has some kind of happy, some happy beats along the way. But but you're right, lyrically it is kind of like oh, this is somewhat of a sad story, but yeah, in the end I think the music kind of picks it back up and makes you, like you said, makes you feel OK, yeah, and it's such a bright spot on a very, very dark album.

Speaker 3: 31:34

You know the whole album which Jeff Tweedy was dealing with the uphill addiction and rehab at the time. The whole album is kind of like one gigantic panic attack. The whole album is kind of like one gigantic panic attack and it's unsettling and it's slow and you have to really put time into it. And if you guys remember, they just came off Yankee Hotel, Foxtrot, which is considered one of the greatest albums of all time, and it's just like banger after banger after banger, it's like, oh my God, this is amazing.

Speaker 3: 32:07

And you put on, a Ghost is Born and it's this slow burn of just like what. And I hated the album for years until, like um, I listened, you know, in college, listened to it again. I was like, oh no, this is their best album to me now, just because, for that same reason, well, that's interesting because you know I I talk about bruce springsteen a lot on this podcast.

Speaker 1: 32:23

But you know Born in the USA was such a massive hit and then he followed that up with the Tunnel of Love album and it was just such a drastic departure from what Born in the USA was that initially it hit number one because people were just so much, you know, there was so much anticipation around it. But then you know it was actually kind of people weren't as big of fans of it. But then looking back, it's actually a really good and complete album from beginning to end. So yeah, similar situation. It's hard to follow up that big, massive album, I think for bands.

Speaker 3: 32:56

I think sometimes it's best not to you know, it's like all right cool.

Speaker 1: 32:59

Tunnel of Love. Yeah, just go in a different direction, right yeah?

Speaker 3: 33:02

Is that the one where he's like wearing a white suit in front of a white car? That's right. Yeah, that's the album cover, so my dad's yeah but but the album.

Speaker 3: 33:09

It's interesting because, like beginning to end, it's sort of like the start and middle and end of a relationship if you listen to it all the way through nice yeah but it's totally different than born in the usa okay, that was one of those albums that my dad had and I always looked at but never listened to, because I remember the album cover. Maybe I should go check it out, that's right, all right.

Speaker 1: 33:29

So track number nine we get into lust for life by girls. Yeah, and you know, when I heard this, I felt like the lead singer. It almost sounded like he was doing an impression of Elvis Costello, like this. The sound of his voice was so, so similar to that I felt, but a little different, um, but but a really cool song yeah, uh, and what's funny is that, uh, he never really uses that voice ever again on any of the other songs.

Speaker 3: 33:55

So maybe you're right. Um, it's kind of like I feel like he's almost making fun of himself because he's being so whiny and know longing and just kind of being I don't know, just kind of asking for at the same time it's too much and not enough, you know, like. You know, because he goes from wanting a boyfriend to a father to all this different stuff, you know a beach house. Then he just kind of wants a pizza and a bottle of wine, which is doable, you know, like.

Speaker 2: 34:20

That is very doable. I had one literally Sunday night.

Speaker 3: 34:22

I can tell you it's great, you know I actually tried that combo after falling in love with this band and that song, and I just couldn't do pizza and wine together. I'm like, no, that's not working for me. But so, yeah, I found this song. I don't remember how, but I saw the video first and it was just this slice of like life snapshot of like a bunch of 20 somethings living in san francisco, and so they're just shooting all of their friends on a film camera just taking baths and running around and just, you know, lip-syncing the lyrics, and it looked like, okay, I need to be there, I want to go do that. I don't know what they're doing, but I want to do that.

Speaker 3: 35:11

Like um, and it was the right time. I think it was like 22 when I heard it, or 23. And I was at the end of my it was a senior in college and that band just did something for me that I was like, okay now, now, this is it just jangly, like jangly pop music's highly emotional, but not in like the, the way that emo was emotional a couple years prior. It was like I don't know vulnerability. And then, like christopher owens was almost like kind of like effeminate in the way he talked about things and I was like this is kind of like refreshing and it's unfortunate that the band only lasts two albums and one ep, because like I went and saw them twice and it was incredible and you know.

Speaker 2: 35:45

Rest in peace well, on the um, on the topic of kind of emo and and punk and all this stuff, you've got uh track 10 here falling in love again by Joyce Maynard.

Speaker 3: 35:54

Yes, yes, so this is more recent and um, so I guess kind of pivoting back to emo is. I was really into emo, uh, but not the, not the mall punk emo, you know, like your fallout boys and stuff like that I was kind of into.

Speaker 3: 36:07

like the get up kids and modest mouse was actually considered emo back in the day but, um, like so get up kids. Page of the lion. Elliot smith um, some people might shoot me for saying he's emo, but he's very emo to me and broad, early, bright Eyes was incredibly emo before he shifted into alt-folk Dylan wannabe territory. But so when I heard Joyce Manor and it was great for me because I actually just gone through a breakup and I was like what I used to do was I would go on like three or four mile walks just to kind of like clear my head and I put listen to music, was I would go on like three or four mile walks just to kind of like clear my head and I put listen to music and I put that on. And it was another one of those immediately like resonating, like oh yes, I want to, like you know, fly on this song forever. It's unfortunate because the album's only 18 minutes long.

Speaker 2: 37:02

So you know one walk.

Speaker 3: 37:03

You can spin the whole record, at least you know, a dozen times um right right but yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:08

So this was the first song I heard and like to me it's almost like it hits that like uh, just the I don't know the dissonance, and just there's only one verse he says twice. It's just like. It's like he liked that verse. Let's you verse. You know, same as the first. It's so nice, let's repeat it. And something about the lyrics are so pedestrian, but they're also so cool. Like you know, it's just after finishing your birthday drugs. Looked at a yearbook, unprepared, you know, it's just kind of like it's some.

Speaker 3: 37:40

I love that line right because I feel like that one is great. It's almost like everybody kind of had that one point in their life where they got fucked up on their birthday.

Speaker 2: 37:51

Right, right, Well, and just the whole concept of opening a yearbook or really going back in time, going through photos or whatever, and then you are unprepared for kind of what you see and it just throws you right back there. So I really love that line a lot no-transcript.

Speaker 3: 38:11

Have to understand, I was a different person, you know. But like um, but funny enough. Uh, one of my senior photos. I'm, uh, wearing a ben queller shirt, but um, oh, um, oh, that's great. And uh, another one I'm posing with my cat.

Speaker 2: 38:29

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:30

The full coverage there. One for two.

Speaker 3: 38:33

That's not bad so but yeah and I feel like, um, I don't know it was so it was heavy in a, heavy like in a in a good way, not like in heavy music, but it just like it kind of appealed to that like longing, interest and emotions I had when I was younger and it kind of struck that chord because I was going through a breakup at the time and, you know, hit the aggressive level and the kind of I don't know it's perfect song. And this is another one of those bands I've got all the records and still frequent but they're not my favorite records to like put on the turntable because I have to flip them five minutes later.

Speaker 1: 39:09

They're just really short. So, speaking of speaking of breakups, track 11, here Something by Julian Baker I wrote down.

Speaker 3: 39:17

she has a beautiful voice, but this is a really sad song, oh yeah, and it's not just that song, it's every Julian Baker song. Yeah, okay, that's good, yeah. So my car exploded on me coming back from Louisville, going to Nashville, and by exploding it means the engine just kind of gave up. So I had to go and go buy a new car and it was away. It was kind of like I bought the car at least an hour and a half away from Nashville because that's where I could find the deal that my parents set up for me. And on the way back it was a Friday and I don't know if they still do this, but Spotify used to just have like New Music Friday playlist and I saw this cover for Julian Baker and the cover was so bland. It was just this girl with like a turquoise overlay on top of it. And the album was also kind of a lame title. It was called sprained ankle and I'm like, what could this be like?

Speaker 2: 40:12

what is this like?

Speaker 3: 40:14

she looked like she was 12 too. I was like, what is this child with the sprained ankle? What is she gonna tell me? And like it was so immediate though the first song, it was so sad and like I don't know I mean 2015 I must have been really sad because, like it was like that album, for for a solid three or four months, was on repeat and something about the song, something just like, broke me every time I listened to it. But it was like, it was like a good breaking, it was like watching a good sad movie or just like, and it's one of those songs I feel like everybody can relate to in some way. You know, just the kind of internal, internal turmoil of like yeah, having somebody and not being reciprocated exactly.

Speaker 2: 41:01

It's funny because, matt, I have very similar notes to you. My opening notes here, like beautiful voice, gut-wrenching story, like being told um no, I was really. It's powerful, I think. Uh, I I actually also wrote. If I go through a breakup again, which I really hope, I don't need to, but this is gonna make that mix like this is a really good breakup song.

Speaker 3: 41:20

Oh, you should check out. There's a song called everybody does on the album and like it's kind of more of one of her. Like it feels almost poppy but it's not, but at the end like she's just talking shit about herself for like a good solid minute and a half.

Speaker 3: 41:35

And then at the end she's like, but you're going to run when you find out who I am and she's like starts like yelling, you're going to run. It's all right, everybody does. It's just like. It's like wow, and what's crazy, she's been really successful. Um, like critically lauded, like I saw her play the rhyme into a packed house and I saw her. I've seen her three times and the first time was that like the exit in it was packed. And then I was like at the rhyming which is called the mother church here, or it's like it's the venue to play and her new album came out recently and it's still sad.

Speaker 3: 42:08

I'm like it's like somebody get this girl like a cup of coffee and a hug because like she's like seen the world and has such great success, like I'm just ready for a julian baker right that's kind of resting on our laurels a little bit, you know yeah, she needs to go to one of those tony rob Robbins seminars but she's an artist, that's.

Speaker 1: 42:27

I think really conflicted.

Speaker 3: 42:29

you know, because she was a really she might still be like a huge Christian and like she was also gay and so that like conflict within her, it seems like it's constantly tearing her apart and she was an addict at a young age and it's just like girl you live so much life in such a short amount of time, I think she's like 23 now or 24.

Speaker 2: 42:51

Oh, wow, wow, Um. So last track here, speaking of of singers that, at least personally I find, give me all the fuels. Um, you've got Naeem by Bon Iver. Yeah, um Naeem by Bon Iver yeah so tell us about this last track taking us home here so Bon Iver I found in 2009, like everybody did with Skinny Love.

Speaker 3: 43:13

Immediately I was like, what is that? I need more of that. And it was funny because I was a huge fan of TV on the radio back in the day and I always had this idea I want to do like folk music with TV on the radio vocals. And then I heard Skinny Love and I was like, oh, that, that was my idea. He's like ma ma, ma, you know, like that.

Speaker 2: 43:33

And I was like right, Well, he took my idea because he had all the falsetto and the like.

Speaker 3: 43:37

You know, the kind of low doo-wop vocals, and I was like well shit, I can't do that idea anymore, but I will listen to this guy do it. And I was like, well shit, I can't do that idea anymore, but I will listen to this guy do it. And in that first album it's like so different than everything else he ended up doing and I remember that being kind of disappointing to me. You know, with Julian Baker she kind of stayed in that realm.

Speaker 3: 43:54

But Justin Vernon was like you know I'm going to go explore, like Witch House and other things, so like when it got to. So his entire discography to me is equally just top tier, like he hasn't done anything bad in my opinion. But the first time I heard Naeem was he did like someone, like a cell phone recording of him doing it live and it was like something he was still working through and it was like this piano version.

Speaker 3: 44:26

And even then it had like the energy and just like transcendent quality where people were just like, like you know, hollering, like yeah, whatever that was, and so I waited for two years to hear a studio version of that song and I went to a record listening party at Grimey's, which is a local record shop here in Nashville, and it was a packed house just so everybody could like get their first listen in of this record. That came out a month later and when that song came on, my body filled with like this strange like chill and warmth at the same time, like almost like I wasn't ready to hear it, like like, oh my god wow it's almost like being on a roller coaster, like, oh, no, no, no, I wasn't ready.

Speaker 3: 45:03

And I just my heart rate elevated and I was like okay, okay, just hold together and because it was so much better than I could have ever imagined.

Speaker 3: 45:12

Like, like it. Just I think Anthony Pantano from the needle drop described it. Like the song is going somewhere and wherever it's going, I want to take it like I'm going to go with it and it does feel that way. It feels like it's constantly building momentum and kind of when it gets the crescendo it's like it's almost like I've had enough, and if I, because if I take any more I'm never coming back and it finally it kind of falls into this, like you know, and I can see I can see crying and it's like then it's over and you like what the fuck was that? Like you go back and listen again and to me, like I don't even think the lyrics mean anything. Like personally, I feel like I feel like Justin Vernon in his later career has just kind of been like eh, whatever, here's some crap. You know it's not really about anything. Like he's like I fell off a bass boat. What does that mean? You know what's a bass boat? What?

Speaker 1: 46:03

does that mean you know what's a bass boat? Right, it's. Yeah, I'm having. Well, no, I was. I I felt the same way, like just musically. I was like I was getting kind of fired up. I was like this is so good, like just the build-up, and then when I dove into the lyrics, it was kind of the same reaction, like what am I? What am I reading here versus what I'm listening to? Yeah, I mean, but I I think it's a great song.

Speaker 3: 46:24

Yeah, and I guess this sort of relates is that I also have a Bon Iver tattoo. But it's the Wow.

Speaker 2: 46:33

Hat trick right there.

Speaker 3: 46:34

That's great, but it's from the album before, so I don't know if it counts. It was from man. It's escaping me right now, which is hilarious, that's awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:48

So huge, escaping me right now, but, which is hilarious, but, um, that's awesome. Yeah, so huge.

Speaker 3: 46:50

Well, three tattoos off a 12 song mix is going to be a tough mark to beat, but that is the mark. It definitely helped me compile the playlist. I was like, well, this is on my body, so this must be important that's a good shortcut for making one of these perfect.

Speaker 1: 47:05

Um well, thank you so much. That was, I mean, an amazing mix, and Samer and I, whenever we get these, we immediately like listen to it and then start texting each other about. You know our thoughts on it, and we both were like this is really good man we can't wait to talk about this. So, yeah, great job.

Speaker 3: 47:23

There were some songs like I wanted to include instead and it just didn't fit the flow. So I had to ax them and be like no, this is more important because it fits the flow. So that was my total intention.

Speaker 1: 47:34

Perfect, All right. Well, Tony, tell the people out there where they can find you, whether it's on social media or whatever you're doing these days.

Speaker 3: 47:43

You know what? I'm not really big on social media. I have nothing to promote anymore, I'm just very happy just being a normal dude in Nashville. I'm a graphic designer and freelance videographer and I'm just kind of enjoying being not out and about. Yes, awesome.

Speaker 1: 48:03

That's it. Well good, so don't follow me. Thank you for taking a break from your uh, from from your life, to uh to join us on the podcast. Yeah, we really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2: 48:12

Um sammer uh, let's talk about uh where the people can find us yes, they can find us at super awesome mix on instagram, facebook, twitter, all the places we're active on Instagram, so give us a follow there if you want to stay up to date with the latest, and you can also help support the show in numerous ways. We've got some awesome merchandise we're selling on superawesommixcom All good things. So, yeah, check us out, tell your friends, give us a review in the Apple Podcast app. If that's how you listen, we really appreciate all those things. It helps us reach even more people to enjoy the podcast. So thank you so much so far for all of your support and everything.

Speaker 1: 48:53

That's right. Yes, without your support, we couldn't keep bringing on great guests like Tony. So there you have it, another super awesome mix in the books. And so for Samer and Tony, this is Matt, and we will see you next time with yet another super awesome mix in the books. And so for sammer and tony um, this is matt, and we will see you next time with yet another super awesome mix. Storyblocks.