Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Robert Dean: Growing Up in the Hardcore Music Scene
Transcript
- 0:00M m m m m m m m m m m h. Welcome to
- 0:31the Black Sheep Podcast. Today we have a writer, comedian, and extraordinaire
- 0:37Robert Dean. Uh he is, He's an interesting cat. Robert, do
- 0:42you want to introduce yourself as well? How they folks, the great the
- 0:46great land of the Internet. I am Robert Dean, Journalist, writer,
- 0:53racin teer and lightened dumbass. You know that's a that's an interesting thought to
- 0:58start with. Is is the Internet to land? Where is it? Is
- 1:03it like an astral plane of some sort, maybe like a more pornographic fucking
- 1:11hellscape? Well it is? Yeah, Yeah, I've never been to that
- 1:18part of the internet though, so I don't know that's right. Yeah,
- 1:19you were. You were never an evangelical team at any point in your life,
- 1:23so you definitely want Covenant eyes. Never never flagged you for anything.
- 1:32No Triple X Church did once or twice. But it's because I was looking
- 1:37up national geographic stuff. So Roberts, you just pinbadly look up those big
- 1:42naturals, you know, you know, you know, everyone's guilty of looking
- 1:48at some national geographic titties. Yeah, I gotta go, I gotta know
- 1:51what's going on in in Goola? You know? Okay, you do?
- 1:55I want to know what's going on in Goola now. And I've got people
- 1:57that are sharing butt plugs on a screen away. Oh that's uh, that
- 2:06sounds like a blast. So as I think you're on the right track,
- 2:12as I think everyone could tell at this point we are. We're gonna have
- 2:15a lot of fun this episode. So, Robert, we brought you on
- 2:17your hardcore uh aficionado, You're you're a fan, you love, you love
- 2:23a lot of the same music we love. You've you've written some cool stuff.
- 2:25Do you want to do? You want to tell us why we brought
- 2:28you on here? Yeah? I mean I grew up in hardcore. My
- 2:30first hardcore show was in like ninety six on I'm trying to think when when
- 2:39I like when it was I think it was Earth Crisis on Gamorrow season ends
- 2:42at the fire recycle in Chicago. Sh and uh, yeah, I mean
- 2:46I've been into it since we got into it all like right around Victory Style
- 2:50too is when like progression through on learning Goamorro's season ends in this defiance like
- 2:55those three records we were all fucking obsessed with, and then you know,
- 3:00we already listening to punkin metal and then heard that, and then you know
- 3:04that was in ninety six when I was fifteen, so forty two. You
- 3:07know, I just saw Chamber and Creeping Death and Despised Icon the other night,
- 3:14and then I saw Botch last week, and like, I've been just
- 3:16like dealing with a shitty life lately, and I just got fucking hammered and
- 3:21beat the piss out of people. I fucking pit bust like a motherfucker in
- 3:25there. You are a big guy, so like I would not want to
- 3:30get hit too hard by you in the pit. Yeah, yeah, I
- 3:35mean I am. I'm six four, so like es dude, it is
- 3:39what it is, man Like, I'm the never rarely am I the smallest
- 3:44person in the room. What happens when what happens when the immovable object meets
- 3:51the uh unstoppable force and the pit with you? Which one are you first?
- 3:55Are you the immovable object or are you the unstoppable force? I'm the
- 4:00unstoppable force. I'm fucking like in the pit, dude, I just like
- 4:03act goofy, like I just I love breakdowns and I love the rhythm of
- 4:08the music so much that like when you just hear those chug parts, you
- 4:11just start fucking rooster necking it, and I just something like the demon gets
- 4:15in me. And I just like love watching keep I love watching kids go
- 4:19fucking wild and jumping on top of each other and shit, I don't know,
- 4:23it's just something that like I just get I get excited about it,
- 4:26like I was I had to be a dad on a Saturday night at the
- 4:30Chamber show because I would have fucking straight up in the middle of that.
- 4:32Like I love swinging on metal doors. So I don't care, you know,
- 4:38it's just it to me, it's just fun. I don't know,
- 4:39there's just something about hardcore that's still just gets me totally, just fucking just
- 4:44ready to go. All right. So here's a question right away, who
- 4:47has the best the best hardcore fans in your opinion from your experience in terms
- 4:56of a band or a city, in terms of a crowd, Like when
- 5:00the crowd just goes ape, which which which band is it that you're like,
- 5:03holy shit, I did not know they were gonna bring it like that,
- 5:05and I didn't know the crowd was gonna lose it like that. I
- 5:09think that Drain band is really killing it right now with like all the wild
- 5:13fun stuff with like I don't know, like I'm I'm definitely a key hardcore,
- 5:15negative kind of guy, Like I love like full on violence. But
- 5:19I mean I think it's fun, like with the blow up shit and like
- 5:24beach balls and all that, like they make it a party. I think
- 5:27that's real fun. When I saw I was there in California for the California
- 5:32Takeover the first time they redid it in LA and that was like right before
- 5:36Pandemics shut down and strife fucking they were all the old heads were just murdering
- 5:43each other. That was that was fun. It was really weird because I
- 5:47was with one of my friends and she's was a bartender at the Tea Garden.
- 5:53No she's I can't remember the name of the Monty Bar, and like
- 5:56me and her just get fucking blasted and like there's just nerds and straight edge
- 6:00baseball jackets. I was like, what the fuck is going on here?
- 6:05Start dosing their waters with caffeine and stuff. Yeah, I mean, like
- 6:09all the bar centers are just like this is real fun and it's like a
- 6:13bunch of just straight edge dudes. And like meanwhile, we're bar hopping like
- 6:16to every bar because she works next door. So like I we've stepped out
- 6:20of there, just absolutely mangled it up at a hardcore show. That is
- 6:26the nice thing about when straight edge bands play at at clubs that serve alcohol
- 6:30is like there's only gonna be like two people there that are actually gonna drink,
- 6:33so you like never actually have to wait in line to get That's true.
- 6:36Nice. Yeah, that's really not a thing in Austin. This is
- 6:40a really hard partying town. Like even if Earth crisis comes in play here,
- 6:44there's still gonna be people with tall boys like every third person. Well,
- 6:47I think there's only like like fifteen straight edge people left in the world
- 6:50anyway, so that's true. Yeah, I mean straight edge. I was
- 6:55straight edge in high school. But I was gonna ask about that. Yeah
- 7:00what what what caused you to go to the dark side or go dull ledges
- 7:03I like to call it. So, I like, I'm from the working
- 7:08class like southside of Chicago, and I grew up like my parents are like
- 7:11cool rock and roll parents. I didn't have to rebel like Jim cro Man.
- 7:15Yeah, I mean, yeah, I got that. I love that
- 7:18ship, dude, fucking mess around with gyms one of my favorite songs of
- 7:21all time. Hell yeah, that goes hard, especially when it's just someone.
- 7:28Someone needs to turn that into a hardcore song. That was that was
- 7:31made to be a hardcore song. Yeah, I mean, it'd have to
- 7:34be the right kind of band to do it, because you don't you should
- 7:38like that that like label that drips into that corny ship that they were doing
- 7:41in the early two thousands with like hardcore goes rap and all that stuff,
- 7:45and you're no one's gonna no one's gonna come out with hardcore goes folk.
- 7:49I mean, come on, now, brou people are wearing fucking dresses and
- 7:55ship that shows Now I don't even understand anything anymore. So if you said
- 7:59hardcore goes folk, actually, I think I'd I think I'd be here for
- 8:03it. I think I'd be down. I'd like to hear some fleet.
- 8:05I would like to hear some heavy fleet foxes or some ship We're not right,
- 8:11yeah, But the the straight edge thing was like like we my parents
- 8:18like raised my dad writes Harley's and shit, and like he's super cool,
- 8:22and like we grew up like around super like gnarly people like My mom's favorite
- 8:26band is Black Sabbath, and like blues rock and rolling country is what we
- 8:30were raised on. So like I never had to like rebel. So like
- 8:33my parents, the neighborhood I'm from is like super working class, Like you're
- 8:39there, a criminal, a copper, a bricklayer, those are like your
- 8:41three you know, straight up sound like that sounds like a folk song if
- 8:46I ever heard one. Yeah, I mean south Side Chicago. So it
- 8:50is what it is. But we just were never sheltered away from like their
- 8:54friends, bad choices. And my parents. My mom had me when she
- 8:58was eighteen about the nineteen, so like I kind of grew up with them.
- 9:03Like I'm forty two and my mom is sixty one, you know,
- 9:07and so yeah, and like my dad's sixty five, so like I kind
- 9:11of grew up with them. And they never like hid when friends were dying
- 9:15of overdoses and shit, and like people were partying out and like a guy
- 9:18died of cirrhosis of the liver. My dad's best friend was killed in the
- 9:22motorcycle accident, so like we were never shied away from that. It was
- 9:24like this is what happens when you make poor choices. Even though they were
- 9:28partying themselves. And right around that like weird finding out that like I liked,
- 9:35I was into punk rock and liking hardcore and stuff like that, and
- 9:39like I was. I it was for the first time in my life that
- 9:41I'd like somebody could be like, oh, you're intellectual and it could be
- 9:43cool despite my like language and jokes and shit, I actually do have a
- 9:48job. And it was the first time that, like, because I was
- 9:50always the smartest kid in my class, but like nobody in Southside of Chicago,
- 9:54Like when I told people want to be a writer, they were like,
- 9:56what's like, how do you even do that? Like it was just
- 10:00so out of the purview of anything, and so straight edge made a sense
- 10:03to me because I was still trying to figure out like my place in the
- 10:07world and then figuring out like, oh, hey, like I can still
- 10:11be smart and I can still do all this, and this made sense.
- 10:15And by the time I got around twenty and my friend started just twenty one
- 10:16twenty one, we all like went in like a two year wave of like
- 10:22all of us and it's just like you're in the bar and shit, and
- 10:24you're hanging out and everybody's having fun and you're like the one dickhead with his
- 10:28arms crossed. And then finally it was just like we were at a house
- 10:31party and somebody was like, they were like, we will pay you,
- 10:33Like they've like kittied up like three hundred dollars and three hundred dollars to a
- 10:39ninth like a twenty year old. You're like, that's a lot of fucking
- 10:41money. And that's three hundred dollars to a forty two year old is a
- 10:45lot and to a twenty year old and like this is two thousand and one
- 10:50and it can work, yeah, dude. And so I was like,
- 10:54fuck dad, I'm like I'm get past the Miller's doug And you know,
- 11:01I sold out your straight edge. You sold out your strate edge for a
- 11:05for a Miller light Huh yep, about ten of them that night. There's
- 11:09worse ways to go, I suppose, right, Yeah, you know,
- 11:11so you never looked back, No, no, no, I've made playing
- 11:16a poor choices since then, I pretty much made a career of it.
- 11:22Well, that's where I'd like to talk about, you know, existential thirst
- 11:24Trap. Uh, what what inspired you to want to write Existential thirst Trap?
- 11:33I've been writing I did some fiction. I got two fiction books published,
- 11:37and I actually have my first piece of fiction coming out next year for
- 11:41my first thing in like eight years that i'd done. And like I was
- 11:45still doing journalism pieces, and but I never felt like this is the most
- 11:52whack gen z shit I can say, But like, for the first time
- 11:54I felt seen of like who I actually am when I would do like essays
- 11:58and journalism where they kind of ven diagram into one another, and so like
- 12:01I found who I wanted to be because like I was writing these stories,
- 12:07but like I was still way more into like influenced by like Hunter Thompson and
- 12:09Anthony Bourdain and like Dukowski and the Beats. Those were always my influences,
- 12:16and so it was like I just started because everyone be like, you have
- 12:20such wild fucking stories and you're like a wild person, and I was just
- 12:24like, I have points of view, and marrying the two together just made
- 12:28more sense to me. And so I started writing essays than I started having
- 12:31success with essays and first person articles and things like that, and then it
- 12:35just kind of kind of came like the final form, or at least the
- 12:39realized form of like who I was as a writer and So the book was
- 12:43something I was tinkering with before COVID, and then during COVID it got real,
- 12:50and then I finally did it, and then you know, it got
- 12:52put out in May. Wow, that's a that's a pretty quick process.
- 12:58Honest. Yeah, I mean it was so it more or less was one
- 13:05of those things is I went to a couple of publishers and they were like,
- 13:07well, what is And I mean I heard it. I've said it
- 13:11in multiple interviews. I was told straight up like I had a TV production
- 13:13deal before COVID hit, and like I was doing shit in LA to like
- 13:18hopefully have a fuck a TV show. I'm a cartoon character, so people,
- 13:22you know, find it's like interesting to whatever I do. And I
- 13:28got really tired of hearing why does the world need stories from another straight white
- 13:31man? And so I was like that sucks, dude, Like it's not
- 13:35that I didn't spend twenty years to get really good at doing this, and
- 13:39so I just was like fuck it. And I went to Big Laugh,
- 13:41the comedy production company I work with, when we did a whole bunch of
- 13:45different kinds of content. We did videos and podcasts and all kinds of shit,
- 13:48and I was like, what if we just put this out in d
- 13:50I Wyatt? And so then we agree to do that because it's just like
- 13:56this virtual signaling shit. Like I believe everybody has their place. I believe
- 13:58every story is worth being told, but just like mine isn't any less valuable
- 14:03even though the work is good. And so I just was like, fuck
- 14:05it, I'm not gonna play your game and you know, pretend I'm somebody
- 14:09I'm not, or appeal to an audience that is will never care about me.
- 14:13Sure, yeah, that makes sense to me. So the book is
- 14:18obviously filled with like wild stories throughout kind of your life. There must have
- 14:22been like parts of that story that like were cut out or didn't quite make
- 14:28the cut. Was there anything that like if you just like had the time
- 14:33or if you like, you know, I'm sure you had to like meet
- 14:35some sort of kind of word count or whatever, but was was was there
- 14:39any stories that you're like, God, I really wish I could have like
- 14:41kept that in, but just couldn't for whatever reason. No, I mean
- 14:45that book is stands and I'm super proud of it. But I'm writing the
- 14:50follow up right now, which is called Sad Clown and it's gonna have it's
- 14:56gonna have another story, Like I have one about me being in the car
- 15:00with the Russian mafia dude. That shit was fucking wild. Well yeah,
- 15:07not like not the machine. Like, here's the short version of it.
- 15:11This is gonna be in the book. I've told this story before. So
- 15:13I was up. I was still living in New Orleans at the time,
- 15:16and I had come up to Chicago for holiday or something. I don't remember
- 15:20why I was in town, but one of my best friends was tattooing across
- 15:24the street at this bar. He was tattooing at this place called Tattoo Tattoo.
- 15:28No, it's Tattoo Candy. That was the name of it. And
- 15:31across the street was this place called the Teddy Bear Lounge, and it's typical
- 15:35Chicago dive, you know, it's great. We rolled I rolled in there
- 15:39with my other best friend, Brian, and the bartender is a fucking fox
- 15:45and like she is just like totally my type, and so we just start
- 15:48chatting. She's like an immigrant, because Chicago is like a huge Eastern European,
- 15:52Polish, Ukrainian deal. So we rolled over there and like I started
- 15:58chatting up this chicken like we're getting on like a house fire like it was.
- 16:02It was cool. And so we're sitting in there shooting pool, playing
- 16:04punk rock songs on the jukebox and everything, and then she was like,
- 16:10I was like, what are you doing after work? Let's hang out,
- 16:11and so she gave me your number. It was like, I'll be at
- 16:14this far after work. You should come up there. And I was like,
- 16:17okay. She gives me the thing. So I cut out and we're
- 16:22closed because Chicago's at four am town there's basically like forty five minutes where you
- 16:26can't drink in Chicago, and uh, we said, we hop in a
- 16:32cab because this is pre uber days. We hop in a cab and like,
- 16:34we get up all the way up on the northwest side of the city.
- 16:37It was like twenty twenty something minutes from where we were, and we
- 16:41get in there and me and Brian walk in in the record scratches. Dude.
- 16:45It is like dudes in track suits and gold and shit. And she
- 16:48sees me and she's like, what are you doing here? And I go
- 16:52you said to come and hang out. I'm fucking here to hang out.
- 16:55What's up? And you know, I started like ready to start ordering shots,
- 16:57and the dude was like, no, you do not hang out here,
- 17:00and I was like, what the fuck, dude. I look at
- 17:03Brian. I was like, this is wild and so like they didn't even
- 17:06serve us, and She's like, I thought you'd know to not come here
- 17:10by the name of the bar, and I'm like, I haven't lived here
- 17:11in years. I don't exactly hang out in like Russian mafia dens either,
- 17:17and so you know, all all you would have needed to do is squat
- 17:21down and then just start smoking a cigarette and everyone have been like, wait
- 17:26is he Bulgarian and you would have been golden man. Yeah. I mean
- 17:33like being from Canaryville just taught me, like that's the neighborhood I'm from on
- 17:36the South Side is like fuck you, Like it's just we're one hundred percent
- 17:40Irish, fucking working class neighborhood. Like you think you dudes are gonna scare
- 17:44me if you murder me, there's gonna be like thirty bikers wanting to fight
- 17:47you with chains and shit. So like, so we get in there and
- 17:52the fucking guy just starts yelling at this chick in like whatever Russian, Polish,
- 17:56whatever, He's like yelling at her we leaving now, like we should
- 18:00leave, and I was like, where are we going. He's like he's
- 18:02taking us home? And I was like eh, And so I look at
- 18:04Brian because we're like way far from his house and I was staying at his
- 18:08house and uh. So we get in the car and like she's in shotgun,
- 18:15he's in fucking I. We're in the back seat and like the whole
- 18:18time, mind you, I'm hammered, and so I think this is hilarious.
- 18:22And I'm like and he like leans over and he like it goes in
- 18:25the glove compartment. I'm like, you please don't grab gun and kill us.
- 18:29We just were trying to hang out and he's like getting visibly more fucking
- 18:34mad and he just like suddenly screaming at her in Polish and me and Brian.
- 18:40I was looking at Brian. I was like, dude, this is
- 18:41fucked up, man, because this guy, like legit, drove one hundred
- 18:45miles an hour on the streets of Chicago with no regard to stoplights at all,
- 18:51just ripping down like like the city streets with traffic whatever. And this
- 18:55dude just did not even stutter. And I look at Brian. I was
- 18:57like, yo, dude, just starting to get like fucking scared, and
- 19:00it was dude, I am so scared right now. And so I was
- 19:04like, check it out when we get in. Because he lives in a
- 19:07neighborhood called Logan Square. I was like, get out of your place.
- 19:10There's a taco joint called Lazo's. That's twenty four to seven. I was
- 19:12like, when he gets up, I was like, these these doors,
- 19:15I don't have childlocks on him, so he's gonna execute us. We can
- 19:18run like we were talking like that, and so he's we were like right
- 19:23here, We're jumping out of this fucking car as soon as he stops by
- 19:27the house because there's a stop sign, because if you did, like go
- 19:30around the corner to Brian's place, taco shop was right there. And as
- 19:33soon as the car shopped, we were we just jumped out and we ran
- 19:37in the lazos and hit in the bathroom for like forty five minutes, literally
- 19:41the two of us in the fucking stall, just hiding out and they never
- 19:45came back. And so like later on in the night, I text her,
- 19:48I'm like, dude, what the fuck was that? She goes,
- 19:48yeah, I'm married. I didn't think you were actually gonna come and you
- 19:52got me in trouble and I was like, what do you mean your marriage?
- 19:56Because yeah, I didn't want I don't want to be married to him,
- 19:57but you know, it is it is. I was like, you
- 20:00know, I was like, damn, this is some immigrant bride. Shit.
- 20:03Oh my god. So yeah, okay. The thing that everybody wants
- 20:08to know though, what does the Russian mafia listen to when they're in the
- 20:12car. From what I remember, I think it was the dance music stuff.
- 20:18From what I remember, I don't dance. Yeah, if he had
- 20:23it on, that was definitely what was playing in the bar when we walked
- 20:26in there. That was for sure on in there. What's that one Eastern
- 20:30European band? Oh it's gonna kill me. The guy like dresses like a
- 20:36fucking alien and shit and goes, but I know the video for sure.
- 20:41Yeah, I wonder if that's what they're listening to. No, I'm more
- 20:44of a mul chat though, my kind of guy. I don't know what
- 20:48that means. I've never heard of that. It's the They had a song
- 20:52that was really big on like the internet. It's like it sounds like just
- 20:56super gnarly joy Division kind of stuff. And so there was always like these
- 21:00videos of these chicks like dancing and their feet were looked like they were floating.
- 21:04But if you look up mulchat Doman here the first song, you're gonna
- 21:07go, oh, I can't tell you what the first song is because the
- 21:10shit's in Russian. Yeah, okay, I'll take it out. I'm sure,
- 21:14I'm sure I do know it. If you definitely know it, okay,
- 21:18sick, I'm done for that. I one of the things about growing
- 21:23up in South Dakota is I feel like I really have no even like even
- 21:29like understanding or perspective around what the mafia is even like. But you know,
- 21:33obviously, like if you go to the East Coast, especially like New
- 21:36York and New Jersey, you've got like the Italian mob and mafia over there,
- 21:40and then obviously when you're in in Chicago, you've got that, like
- 21:44you've got a number of different like ethnic cities, like or the Russian mafia,
- 21:47and like there's even a little bit of Italian mafia. I just like
- 21:49have no comprehension around what that even would be like to like know that there
- 21:56are these groups of people that are essentially running these towns, and like even
- 21:59in FLA training, like the authorities, it's just like hard to believe that
- 22:03that even exists. But part of me is like, so even though I
- 22:07have like no comprehension around it, I like have this like sense of like
- 22:10nostalgia around it where I'm like, I like, I wish I could have
- 22:14been around New York in like the seventies with like Rocky Balboa and working class
- 22:18kind of New York or Chicago and and like be the kind of person that
- 22:22was like sort of like adjacent to the Mob or whatever. Like I just
- 22:26but I have no like sense of what that even would mean or anything.
- 22:29But I don't know, like whenever I watch like some Mob or Mafia stories
- 22:33or movies, I'm just like this, this looks like this would have been
- 22:36like kind of fun to have like at least grown up adjacent to Oh if
- 22:41I didn't become a writer. I mean there's a very high chance I could
- 22:44have. I've got what it takes to be a criminal to be in the
- 22:47IRA, Yeah, I mean my great grandfather was in the IRA. Yeah,
- 22:52I mean I gotta imagine that a lot of you know, Irish immigrants
- 22:56have family members that were in the IRA. Yeah. I mean my great
- 23:00grandfather on my mother's side was in the IRA, and then my great grandfather
- 23:03and my father's side was a bootlegger for Capone. He died at thirty eight
- 23:08sanitarium. Shit. See, this is what I'm saying. I'm like,
- 23:11you totally have like connections, and I'm like, part of me is like
- 23:15I I don't want to be like one of the people in it, but
- 23:18I'm like, but to at least like kind of like you where it's like
- 23:19I got connections to it. I don't know why, but I'm like I
- 23:22want that so bad. I mean, it's it's a fascinating thing. I
- 23:26just did a piece Like there's there's a certain romance to walking the line of
- 23:30shit that you're not supposed to. Like it's like you feel like you're allowed
- 23:33in the room and you're like, how the fuck did I get in this
- 23:34room? And it's like one of those things is like that's what Mason said
- 23:38when he was talking to Reliant K at Furnas Right. I don't even I
- 23:45don't know. I know the name Reliant K, but I don't know anything
- 23:48about them. They're like a pop punk kind of Yeah, that's what I
- 23:52thought. Okay, that makes sense early in mid two thousands. Yeah,
- 23:56I remember the name for sure. I mean I think I probably came across
- 24:00and listen to one song and was like not for me and kept moving because
- 24:03I like pop punk. So yeah, it just probably just wasn't for me.
- 24:07Yeah. What did you think about when the Queen died as a very
- 24:11Irish person? Well, I don't care fu the monarchy that I mean that
- 24:18sh it's weird. The amount of like Irish people that absolutely despise the British
- 24:26monarchy and specifically the Queen. I just, oh my god when when she
- 24:30died, Irish twitter that day was just rolling. Yeah. I don't really,
- 24:36I don't know. It's just one of those things, is there That
- 24:40entire family is like indicative of some of the world, like atrocities of the
- 24:44world, Like why would we be stoked about like to follow these like inbred,
- 24:47fucking weird people. Like I got a cousin that's like so psyched that
- 24:51she like goes to like when some like dumb British shit is happening, she'll
- 24:55go and like want to be there and I'm like, why why would you
- 24:59want to stand out into like the crowd to watch these people that do not
- 25:03give them They think you're scum. Yeah, like you're a hesitant to them.
- 25:07That shit happens to me too. As a history teacher. I'll have
- 25:11like students or even like like family members that I'll be like, oh my
- 25:14god, so so who is the brother of King Charles. I'm like,
- 25:17I don't give a shit honestly, right, like I don't know and I
- 25:21don't care like it, it does not matter to me whatsoever because these people
- 25:25are just so unimportant to me. But some people they take it like a
- 25:29religion. Oh yeah, it's weird. It's super weird. I'm very like
- 25:33un American, sort of even anti America at times, but nothing makes me
- 25:38feel more American than when there's like British shit going on, like when the
- 25:42when the Queen died, I'm like full on, like wanting to throw tea
- 25:48out into the sea, like I am just like ready to go to defend
- 25:51America in those days. Get yourself a T shirt that says Joe Hamburger,
- 25:56motherfucker. Well, there's there's a thought experiment, what uh if if you
- 26:03could place the Founding Fathers into the heavy music world of today. What do
- 26:10you think they would listen to? What do you think would really like like
- 26:12get their uh you know, their jive going. I don't know, I
- 26:18mean you got it. Like you gotta think from a totally different perspective in
- 26:22the sense that like could you imagine digging one of these guys up and then
- 26:26just being like, hey, check it out, this is Marduke, and
- 26:30like they would just ship their pants like just like drop them in like an
- 26:33immolation show, just like some gnarly death metal ship or like black metal,
- 26:38and like they would literally probably have a heart attack thinking, say, like
- 26:44they believe in such weird shit anyway, and then like, yeah, you
- 26:47got guys like in Spikes and ship Man, I'd see. That's more interesting
- 26:51to me is watching like some old guys just die again from fear totally totally
- 26:59Well. Then the elect city would just be like wait what like what yeah,
- 27:03like that that would probably like blow their mind enough where they might just
- 27:06die from that a little no no, no, like like like they've been,
- 27:07they've they've they've experienced enough to like know what they're doing, they know
- 27:11where they're at. But like what music would they listen to? If it
- 27:15was like heavy music, I'd better be like some like dream theater or some
- 27:18ship. I take Ben Franklin based on like that He's quotes on like sex
- 27:25and beer and ship like that seems like a panteric can of guy. Oh,
- 27:27definitely, definitely, because he uh, he loved he loved throwing down
- 27:33with the French too. He was he was the cow he was the cowboy
- 27:38from hell Over in France when he was the emissary, it makes sense.
- 27:44Yeah, he was up to he was like like brothels and harems and ships.
- 27:49So that was the only time that they ever really did any any real
- 27:53business, you know, which I gotta imagine dime Bag probably do the same
- 27:56thing. So I would definitely say that that's very true. Let's talk more
- 28:06about existential thirst Trap. Yeah, again, like a lot of it is
- 28:10you know, it's all like very kind of memoir ish for you. So
- 28:14you're talking a lot about, you know, all these different stories throughout your
- 28:17life when you were writing the book. Did there was there anything that kind
- 28:22of came up? We were like wow that, like I feel like I'm
- 28:25learning something about myself here, or like, oh I didn't know, like
- 28:27I still like was holding onto this feeling about that story or surrounding that story.
- 28:33Was there anything that kind of came up We were like, wow,
- 28:34that's a I need to unpack that a little bit more for myself, or
- 28:38I like, this is something I'm learning about myself as I'm writing some of
- 28:42these stories. But was there anything kind of around that that came up while
- 28:45you're writing the book? Probably the divorce stuff was like that, you know,
- 28:53talking about my divorce. Me and my ex are super cool. We
- 28:56were together for ten years. We have two boys together, and she's super
- 29:00cool, and you know, I appreciate that we're like friends. Now we're
- 29:03like business partners, but we're you know, her boyfriend's fucking awesome. We
- 29:07went to a show together a couple of weeks ago. You know, he's
- 29:11like the best guy could have asked for her to be with. And so
- 29:15unpacking a lot about because when you get divorced, I don't know if you
- 29:18guys have ever been married or divorced or whatever, when you kind of pledge
- 29:22your life to somebody, and even then when it stops working, it's kind
- 29:26of like a total like it just drilled to your brain and turns everything into
- 29:29cereal, Like you're not the person that, Like, I think everybody who
- 29:33gets divorced should be able to have like a year where you're just like didn't
- 29:37count whatever poor choices and dumb shit you said. You know, because I
- 29:41said a lot of dumb things to people, and uh, you know,
- 29:45like you did you feel like it was like a like an identity thing is
- 29:48that we were trying to to get at, like like like you had no
- 29:52idea like who you are because you were attached to this person and they were
- 29:56so much a part of your life or what do you mean. I don't
- 29:59think it's an ide I mean maybe it's an identity thing. It's like you're
- 30:02you know, like when you're married, Like yeah, people flirt with you
- 30:04and all that other shit, and it's like this slide like, hey,
- 30:07what's up, Rebecca looking great today or whatever. I mean, I get
- 30:11away with saying that shit. Most people are not. Don't do that.
- 30:14It's fucking twenty twenty three. Everyone gets offended about everything, But I get
- 30:18I get away with murder for the shit that I say. But you know,
- 30:22like when you like kind of lose the identity of being married, you're
- 30:26like, oh shit, I can actually try to like kid on Rebecca,
- 30:30and you have to like remember to like how to do that. And then,
- 30:33like you ten years later from when you were in the dating pool,
- 30:37it's a totally different ecosystem of how people communicate, let alone like some carnal
- 30:41desire, you know, and so you got to be cognizant of that,
- 30:45and you gotta be like, it's just not like it was when I was
- 30:49coming up, you know, it's just a totally different animal. Like I've
- 30:52been divorced five years now and I've had two girlfriends and neither of them worked
- 30:56out, and it's like it's just a weird loss of sense of the self
- 31:00and you kind of have to really take stock of like, Okay, I'm
- 31:03like a different person than when I came into this thing, and like now
- 31:07I'm like a different person, but like I have two little dudes that I
- 31:11have to be responsible for. And then like the person that I'm no longer
- 31:15with is like my business partner now and we have to get along and like
- 31:19make choices together that impact boy for there. You know. So it's a
- 31:26lot, man, But that was probably the hardest one to write because there's
- 31:30just so you know. Even in the back of the book it says,
- 31:34you know, it's just thank you to you know, Sarah, and it
- 31:37says, even though we're not together, I meanmore, I'm glad we could
- 31:41still be friends or something like that. And I meant it that the dating
- 31:47piece to that when you're coming out of divorce. I find it would be
- 31:51really interesting because, like you're right that just dating in general changes like over
- 31:56the years, and that reminds me of I've been watching this new show called
- 32:00The Golden Bachelor, which is like this like spinoff series for The Bachelor,
- 32:04but it's this guy who's like seventy years old and his like wife recently died
- 32:07and now is like wanting to get back into like the dating game. And
- 32:10like half of these like you know, seventy six year old people, they're
- 32:14all like starting to date each other. Now. Half of it is like
- 32:16just them learning how to date again. Yeah, they're just like they don't
- 32:22even know how to like navigate dating again after probably like decades of not dating.
- 32:28So I like that seems to be a really interesting piece of dating,
- 32:31is just knowing how to date, and that probably feels way more natural when
- 32:36you're eighteen versus when you're like forty and recently divorced. Yeah, dude,
- 32:40I thought every pretty girl that like and I mean it's like it's just I
- 32:45thought every pretty girl that I knew on Instagram, I could slide into their
- 32:47dms and it was cool. Like I didn't realize there was like a I
- 32:51didn't realize there was like a thing to this. No, I just didn't
- 32:52know. Yeah, and then why would you. You're like, hey,
- 32:57what's going on? They're like nothing, and I'm like cool, and you
- 33:00know, you gotta like to learn that whole lingo and code, and you
- 33:05know, it's still like I still just kind of deal with stuff. You're
- 33:08just like this sucks. Man. The ecosystem for all of this is just
- 33:14really really toxic and bad. Like, I don't think the internet is good
- 33:16for people in the sense that these apps, in the back of people's heads,
- 33:21they like know that there is an endless choice out there that they can
- 33:23just like scrap whatever they're doing my webstop on an app, and you know,
- 33:27I'll meet somebody new. It's like this never ending wheel of fortune wheel,
- 33:31And I think psychologically that's really bad for people. Yeah, it's like
- 33:37a perpetual grass is always greener scenario, right, Like, definitely, sometimes
- 33:42the grass has to be greenest. But if you think that it's not green
- 33:46enough, you'll just miss out on like a great opportunity. And both people
- 33:52have to agree that the grass is the greenest. It's going to get with
- 33:57one another. Otherwise it just isn't gonna work. Some ones one of the
- 34:00two is going to end up blowing the whole thing up. Yeah, I've
- 34:04been there. That's some that's some difficult stuff to deal with. So I
- 34:09haven't I've been with the same person for uh how long time? Thirteen years,
- 34:17and yeah, that was I can't. I can't imagine trying to get
- 34:22back into like dating or anything like that. It's terrible. Yeah. Well,
- 34:28and I think, like from my perspective, everyone's like, oh,
- 34:31look how easy it is. It's easy to date, but as easy to
- 34:35like actually find somebody love. That's that's more of the question, I think.
- 34:39Yeah, I mean it's there's a lot of snares to it. I
- 34:43mean, like I there's they call it the loneliness epidemic because it's real,
- 34:47Like I think truly that people don't know how to communicate the ways that they
- 34:53used to. They don't know how to socialize in the way without this screen
- 34:57in front of them. You know, it's like you can send messages and
- 34:59d and things like that, and people have like reached this like comfort zone
- 35:04with it, and then that endless choices and that all that and then you
- 35:07know, lifestyles and things is just it's a lot, and I think the
- 35:14current way that it's set up is just I don't really know if it's bound
- 35:17for success. It's more just bound for acceptability because we're kind of lost in
- 35:23Hey, I can go out on some dates see what's going on, but
- 35:25then like you don't because you're basing everything on these like profiles of people that
- 35:30you just kind of get a flash or like a snapshot of and you're like,
- 35:34well, she's cute, and then you're like, oh, but there
- 35:37she wants kids, and like those are the good things to get out of
- 35:38the way, because I don't want any more kids. But like you have
- 35:42to like go down the list of like this works for me, this doesn't
- 35:45work. Whereas in before you might be able to like have a conversation and
- 35:47be like, well, you know, like can we communicate different needs and
- 35:53maybe well, stuff that we thought were hard knows. But because I really
- 35:57like you, maybe we can figure this out. But I mediately're like,
- 36:00nope, doesn't check all the boxes, moving on red flag? But bye,
- 36:04you know, that's that's tough. That's tough. I also think it's
- 36:07kind of interesting what you were talking about with like the screens and everything,
- 36:10and how we only really feel comfortable when we're when we're behind the screen,
- 36:15you know, even even doing this podcast. You know, I talk to
- 36:19people all the time, but like, I don't generally talk to what I
- 36:22would consider, you know, people who've been monumental in my life except for
- 36:29on on here on here, I have zero nerves when I talked to them.
- 36:34Talk to Spencer Chamberlain, what was that two weeks ago, Mason,
- 36:37and uh yeah, didn't feel anything. I was like, all right,
- 36:39this is awesome, cool, Spencer Chamberlain. But if I were to talk
- 36:43to Spencer Chamberlain in person, I'd be like awkward, and I'd be probably
- 36:51like a little bit like sweaty and probably fumbling all over my words and saying
- 36:55dumb shit instead of saying what I actually want to say. So there there's
- 36:59there is this weird disconnect that we live with, and I'm not entirely sure
- 37:02what that is or why that exists, but it's there. Yeah. I
- 37:09think that it's become such a the barrier of screen. It's like a bartender.
- 37:14I know people who ten bar that behind the bar, they're a badass,
- 37:17but like the minute you step on the other side, they get real
- 37:21timid, real quick. I think the illusion of a barrier helps some people
- 37:23communicate better. Yeah, it's like a stage right, Yeah for sure.
- 37:29Yeah. I mean I've met some band dudes over the years, and I've
- 37:31met comedians where you're like, it's up, dude, that was awesome,
- 37:35and you're like what okay, Well, like like dude, you were just
- 37:38you were just humping a microphone out there and now you can't talk to me.
- 37:45Yeah. It's just like had some interesting run ins with like musicians and
- 37:51people over the years, and you're just like, this is just bananas.
- 37:53Like everyone says buzz Osbourne's an asshole, and buzz Osbourne was so nice to
- 37:58us when we were kids. Uh, he was so nice. It was
- 38:01like ninety five or ninety six we met him, and like Nirvana was my
- 38:06favorite band. Yeah, And well do people think that Buzz that Buzz is
- 38:10an asshole because of the way like his relationship with Kurt Or is it just
- 38:16because they say he's just said some stuff over the years that has been you
- 38:21know, he's heard about the fact that he's not famous as as famous as
- 38:27Nirvana. I don't think it's really that. I think that they found their
- 38:30niche and they like do what they do and the Melvins just starting to band
- 38:34that is like bitten built to be big, right, you know, well,
- 38:37I totally agree. And so we saw them in like ninety six with
- 38:43helmet and we were kids and like we were all like, you know,
- 38:45I'm in a Nirvana T shirt. And then like Kurt had probably been dead
- 38:49a year and a half, and he was really kind and he was telling
- 38:52us like stories about them and stuff, and like when we were asking,
- 38:57he could tell we were just interested kids at this sh oh and like he
- 39:00was just really nice to us. And Dale Kroger gave me like one of
- 39:04his like drumming he wears garden clubs to drummond and I still have it to
- 39:07this day somewhere and it's the weirdest thing, by the way they have grip
- 39:12on him. So it makes yah know, I get it. It's just
- 39:14goofy yeah, and uh, they were really nice. And then I've met
- 39:19other people and you're like, wow, you're a total jag off. M
- 39:22say, say one Carl from Earth Crisis was an asshole when I met him.
- 39:28God damn it, it was. It was like ninety eight ninety nine,
- 39:34and I was like, I they played the Fireside Bowl. If he
- 39:37ever hears this, He's like, fuck me, what the fuck, dude,
- 39:39I'd like, just get them playing. You asked me, dumb shit.
- 39:43And so like I straight up was like, so I was working.
- 39:45I was like just like getting into the writer thing, and like I was
- 39:49trying to do this piece, like I wrote a piece because they had just
- 39:52toured with VOD and it was like Earth Crisis Vision of Disorder and Vision of
- 39:54Sorder was like this hard partying band that like openly drank and did drugs and
- 40:00ship. And I was like, so, how does it work being friends
- 40:04with them? Because you guys are like militant, straight edge and these guys
- 40:07go absolutely bananas. And like I wrote a paper on this, so like
- 40:09I think I wrote it for a zine or something, and he was like,
- 40:13I fucking love it. He's like it's so cool. He's like I
- 40:15love watching him get fucked up. He's like, it's really really awesome.
- 40:19I was like, cool, Mike, get it. I was like,
- 40:22awesome, dude. So six months, you know, I just wanted to
- 40:29be like yeah, dude, and Slither sucks too. That album blows.
- 40:31I wanted to forty two year old me would definitely say that. Now,
- 40:40you know, I think I think it's time for top five most influence?
- 40:43So what do you think to do it? So are we it? Was
- 40:46it hardcore records or just records? And check anything? Any album if you
- 40:51want to say any or Ainoco flow be our guest. Let me think if
- 40:57we're gonna go top five like most influence records, I'm gonna say one of
- 41:02them was be Nirvana's in Utero. I mean, that is such a fucking
- 41:09incredible album. It's by far my favorite Nirvana album. Oh what what what
- 41:14is about in Utero that that does it for you? I was fourteen when
- 41:19Kurt died and they were No. Thirteen and they were my favorite band,
- 41:22and like I was already listening to like punkin metal and like not hard for
- 41:25yet, but like punkin metal and Grungs like I was prime for all that
- 41:30and like them like I'm from Chicago, Steve Albinie, so like we'd always
- 41:34heard like Chicago guys, Chicago guys recording it, and so that was always
- 41:37super cool. And you know, just it's it's just gnarly. Even the
- 41:42way it opens would serve the servants. It's just like you can hear the
- 41:45feedback and everything and like radio friendly unit shifters. Just like there's just it.
- 41:50It has such a presence to it versus like I love Nevermind like everybody
- 41:54else, but in Uteros just like to me, that's like what Nirvana probably
- 41:59would have. I don't think Nirvana would have stayed the same, but I
- 42:01think that if you ever wanted like a true snapshot of the band that like
- 42:07their most poignant, it was that because would have Dave stepped up and did
- 42:13other stuff. Who knows, because Dave even said, you know, you
- 42:15know, they've all said they didn't know what the next iteration of the band
- 42:19would be. They talked about collaborating with Michael stipeen doing different stuff. So
- 42:24but that I would probably put refuse the shape of punk to come. Oh
- 42:30yeah, that's a very common one. On here, I get. I
- 42:32can't believe how common it is. Yeah, I mean, like if you're
- 42:37of that age in ninety eight when that came out, dude, and that
- 42:40shit was just like mind blowing because it was like these dudes with like beetle
- 42:46hair and like shirts and like as soon as I saw that, I just
- 42:51started wearing like long sleeve like button I started wearing button up shirts and like
- 42:54sweaters and stuff because the Refuse looks so cool. They look just cool.
- 42:59And then like they like that entire thing is like every band was ripping that
- 43:04band off for like twenty years. Like I mean, look at the like
- 43:07one of those yeah, one of those blank Win eighty two records. They
- 43:12like lean into that shit hard, and I remember hearing it being like you
- 43:15guys definitely like Refused, and uh yeah, I mean that would be a
- 43:21big one. I'm trying to think of another, like really big one.
- 43:22Probably Radiohead kid A I don't. I don't think he's a big Radiohead guy.
- 43:27What uh what is it about Radiohead? I love them, like,
- 43:30to be honest with you, dude, I listen to mostly like rock and
- 43:34roll, country, the Blues and like stuff like that and punk, like
- 43:38I still like hardcore obviously, but like Radiohead, Portos Head York, I
- 43:44loved Massive Attack, Tricky, I love all that stuff. Nice, I
- 43:46like it so yeah, I was. That was my first tattoo. You
- 43:51said blues. Who is your guy or gal for for Blues? Elmore?
- 43:57James Elmore, James, Oh, he's great. Jason's little Walter Holland Wolf,
- 44:05Howard Wolf's my jam Mason knows that I I sang Holland Wolf at karaoke
- 44:08every once in a while just because I think it's fun as fuck. Nice.
- 44:13Yeah, it's really fun to get really drug too and try to do
- 44:15a smokestack Lightning or Evil or some shit like that. That's good stuff.
- 44:20Yeah, I mean so good. It's timelessly good and like when you're from
- 44:23Chicago, that's like so beat. No are like, oh dude, I
- 44:25don't even think about that. You gotta you got like Albert King then big
- 44:29time right he Yeah, the big flying V cross cut saw Man. We
- 44:35grew up on all that. That's my dad ship. So like we there
- 44:37was never like a discovery period, is like that's just what I grew up
- 44:40here. Yeah, So I've always I don't mean to keep belaboring blues music.
- 44:46But I just I've always thought that, uh, it hasn't gotten a
- 44:51good enough rap in in in modern music culture. That if you look back
- 44:58at what they were talking about in the time that they were talking about it,
- 45:00they were pushing every single fucking boundary possible all the time with every record,
- 45:07and it was just about every single blues artist was doing that. I
- 45:10just think that it needs more attention. The thing about the blues is they're
- 45:16purists that get it right. Like there's a guy Patrick Sweeney, he has
- 45:22a song called them Shoes. If you're a blues guy to look up Patrick
- 45:23Sweeney. You know Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys and Jack White. They're
- 45:28all stewards of the music. The thing about it is is we need more
- 45:31of them because the blues I say it all the time, guys like Charlie
- 45:37Mussel, White, Buddy Guy, they do not need to be recorded on
- 45:40the blues loses something like it's like country music. I guess certain kinds of
- 45:45country music like yeah, pop country, bullshits whatever, but like music like
- 45:51country, like rock and roll like that shit needs to be analog in a
- 45:54studio, Mike's in a room, no digital trickery, bullshit. That's all
- 46:00just get in there and nail it on tape, do the best you can,
- 46:04and if there's mistakes, we'll probably be more endeared to those mistakes rather
- 46:07than slick recordings like That's the Blues is not meant to sound clean and bright.
- 46:13It's meant to say, like everybody kind of goes back to like those
- 46:15early Johnny Cash records and everything is like simple recording techniques, the Beatles,
- 46:21all those old Stones records. It's all just that's the magic of music,
- 46:25where you know, like you listen to some of those old hardcore records,
- 46:30like you listen to Set It Off by mad Ball, it's got a certain
- 46:32element of darkness to it, versus if you listen to something mad Ball probably
- 46:37puts out next year, it just doesn't sound the same. And like the
- 46:42yeah, like you listen to like Hate Breeds, Satisfactions, the Death of
- 46:45Desire, there's still some like just mistakes all over that record. Yeah,
- 46:49and it's so good, but like you know, you hear it now and
- 46:52it's like super polished, and it's like, I don't know, man,
- 46:54you guys kind of lose something in the process. But people gotta understand people
- 46:58got to understand that that that's what fans want, right if people got to
- 47:01understand that we don't want super polished shit, like none of us give us
- 47:07the flaws, Like I don't know why every band seems to make this make
- 47:14this an issue. I don't know it's I think it's just because we have
- 47:19the tools to make it so polished now that people just like weally polishing things
- 47:23up. I don't know, but I remember I just thought about record number
- 47:29four, which is my favorite album of all time, which will be Smashing
- 47:30Pumpkins Siamese Dream. Oh nice, yeah, great, great, great great.
- 47:37Have you listened to their new stuff? What do you think about their
- 47:38new stuff? I think it's good. It's just kind of like there's there's
- 47:44bands that the best way you can look at it is I would love to
- 47:47see Billy Corgan get in a studio like that with a guy like Steve Albini
- 47:52or Butcher Big and like go back to the roots to do stuff, and
- 47:55then I would take it much more to heart versus like, oh, hey,
- 48:00here's another Pumpkins record, because I just think that they kind of lost
- 48:02something. It's not bad, it's just he's working on a follow up or
- 48:07like a companion to Melancholin The Infinite Sadness, where like I lost the plot
- 48:12by then with that with that band, Like I like about half the songs
- 48:15on that record, but I'm more gish and siame stream those, like,
- 48:22yeah, those are my records with them. And by the time like that
- 48:24that record came out, I just said already, like Zero's fine, that's
- 48:29a good song, Muzzle is a good one, but like, that's not
- 48:31my record. I was already on the door outdoor by that came out.
- 48:36I was already listening to Snapcase. Yeah. So yeah, and I think
- 48:40what would be number five? Because you gotta always think of like there's a
- 48:44million bands I like that. I'm like, oh, because I haven't said
- 48:45the Misfits, but the Misfits are like my other favorite band. But it's
- 48:49like, you know, that's a given with my life of like them,
- 48:53and you know, I probably you know, I probably it's either Weezer is
- 49:00the Blue album, but or probably like a Hank Williams collection, because Hank
- 49:05Williams is my favorite singer of all time. Dam it's good stuff. I
- 49:12love country music, you know, And I haven't even touched on Social Distortion
- 49:15or Lucero or any of those bands that I love too. That's why the
- 49:21list of five is so difficult, right yeah. I mean, for if
- 49:24you're a music person, like what's my favorite singer? What about five?
- 49:29Like I can give you five great jazz records, you know. Yeah,
- 49:32well that's why we tried to narrow it down to the most influential albums that
- 49:36like mean the most to you. They may not your name might not be
- 49:37your favorite mine. I know, my my top five of most influential is
- 49:43very different than my favorite albums. You know, just just depends on depends
- 49:49on the person, you know. Yeah, I mean, like we haven't
- 49:52even doubt, like and then there's like Day Lost Soul and Tribe call Quest
- 49:55and all that stuff that I like too. You know, there's just a
- 49:58million things that like, I here the Fuji is the score, and I
- 50:00immediately think skateboarding in like ninety six, you know, hitting hitting like rails
- 50:06in the streets of Chicago, and you're like, those are those magical concoction
- 50:09that music does for us. Definitely definitely all right, Robert, what would
- 50:15you like to plug man? You've got You've got more than one book.
- 50:19Tell us about all of them? How about that? And where we can
- 50:22get them. You can buy everything at Barnes and Noble. You can get
- 50:25everything at Amazon, whatever bookseller you want to go to the other two it's
- 50:31fine volumes. It's called the Red Seven and the other one is called In
- 50:36the Arms of Nightmares. They're both good. It's I mean good to me
- 50:38because I wrote them, but I they're kind of both in limbo because both
- 50:44of the publishing companies no longer exist, and like both of the people behind
- 50:47those publishing companies are dead. So kind of like, yeah, you can
- 50:52buy it. I'll never see a dime from them. But they have like
- 50:57a ride with a Russian mafia one night when they were like one guy dropped
- 51:02out of a heart attack, and then the other guy and he was like
- 51:05super healthy and was running marathons and stuff. And then the other publisher,
- 51:08the dude had a million health problems, like a million, like just was
- 51:13like he was health challenged to begin with. Beat COVID beat like all these
- 51:19like maladays. And then a fucking drunk bitch hits him and kills him.
- 51:22Oh my god, and that's the worst the rest of peace. Dave,
- 51:29real quick, what happens with with a publisher's I don't I don't know what
- 51:35you call it. Their their assets once someone dies, Like does that does
- 51:38like another publisher like buy their assets if they want them or they could.
- 51:44I've just been like I had in the Arms of Nightmares remitted back to me
- 51:46years ago. I just haven't done anything with it. I've thought about taking
- 51:52it off Amazon, just like just because I'm not really proud of the book.
- 51:54Like, I think the story is good, but how I got that
- 51:59publishing contract at like twenty eight years old and stuff like that. It's just
- 52:02it's filled with errors and bullshit and it goes on too long, and I
- 52:06think it could be better. But Red seven, I just haven't talked to
- 52:10anybody from Dave's state because it came out through Necro Books, and Necro Books
- 52:14was around for like twenty five years, and they were like very they did
- 52:17very well and like horror and crime and underground like you know, genre fiction,
- 52:22and so I should probably do my due diligence on that, but I
- 52:27just haven't. But ex Central thirst Trap, that one is cool. I've
- 52:30got one called the twenty four to seven Nighthawk that comes out I think February
- 52:37twenty twenty five. And then I'm working on the follow up Texas Cential thirst
- 52:42Trap, which is going to be called Sad Clown. And then that's all
- 52:45about your jug That's all about your journal, your journey becoming a juggler,
- 52:50right absolutely. It's the first story. It's gonna be called Whoop, Whoop,
- 52:54there were The final will be called I Fell in Love with the Jugga
- 52:59Hoo. It'll be dedicated to Fago. There will probably be multiple you know,
- 53:07f words and wats of you know, talking about the nedd and game.
- 53:10And maybe I might, you know, I might just fucking go for
- 53:15broken, just dedicated to the great Malenko himself. I don't know, Andy.
- 53:19And every book comes with a free cleaver, right absolutely, and with
- 53:22real blood on it. Is it your blood? Well, it's from somebody
- 53:29that killed Let's go chickens because we're going chicken hunting. I can do this
- 53:35all day, Robert. What else would you like to plug? Have ANUE
- 53:42piece that just came out from Channel Void to magazine in Sydney. It's online.
- 53:46It's called the Economics of sim If you want to see the newest thing
- 53:50I wrote where this goes back to when you were talking about like the mob
- 53:54stuff. I interviewed two drug dealers, I interviewed prostitute and a stripper and
- 54:01kind of like was like, how this economy's garbage, So how's it treating
- 54:07you? Like are you making the money that you were? And people aren't
- 54:09doing really great. So if you want a really dark story about like the
- 54:14like the links, people had to go, Like nobody in America would put
- 54:16this out, so like a company of someone in Australia. I had the
- 54:20guts to like do it because the kids gnarly. These people tell their stories
- 54:22and they tell it with no band aid on there about like what they've gone
- 54:27through. So it's super gnarly. It's called the Economics of Sin. I
- 54:30like that. That's actually I'm super interested in. Yeah, it's it's un
- 54:36channel void. I'll send you guys the link to it. It was I'm
- 54:37really proud of that piece because it's you know, I interviewed these people and
- 54:43they were like, Yo, you gotta do what you gotta do. One
- 54:45dude was just straight up He's like, look, I carry a strap on
- 54:47me. He's like, it's me or you. I got to feed my
- 54:49kids, and you just kind of have to view it like that. When
- 54:53I talked to the prostitute, she was just she was completely honest about where
- 54:57her life is, and it's just it's heartbreaking. Man. It's really hard
- 55:00out there. A lot of people myself including are just struggling right now.
- 55:06Yeah, that's that's that's some good work. That's good. Thank you.
- 55:09I gotta out. Yeah, very very necessary. Well, Robert, thank
- 55:14you so much for chatting about Existential thirst Trap, chatting about your story.
- 55:20Uh, you're you're such a cool dude. We definitely need to get you
- 55:22back on. We can maybe do like a fantasy draft episode or something.
- 55:24But uh, yeah, it just thinks for for hanging out and chatting more
- 55:28about the book. Yeah, no, I'm super psyched. I listened to
- 55:30the podcast all the time. When there's like a band I like, and
- 55:32I'll be sitting in the car just cruising, like fucking like somebody will get
- 55:36something wrong or like something we get. We get a lot of shit wrong.
- 55:39That's something that's one thing we definitely but it's not you guys. It's
- 55:42like people in bands that I like and I'm like that, don't like that.
- 55:45That's a bullshit fuck that I'll be screaming in the car, like just
- 55:50like an asshole. Like one time, I think I was drunk and like
- 55:52something came up and I can't remember who it was. They said something I
- 55:57was. I think I messaged you guys, and I was just yelling at
- 55:59the radio. So my goal has always been to be a piece of media
- 56:08that someone screams into the void about, like my dad screamed at the Vikings
- 56:14growing up. You know, it's a dream of mine and we're getting there.
- 56:20Yeah, I definitely an idiot, guilty of yelling. Like I can't
- 56:24remember what it was, man, but I was just like yelling and I'll
- 56:28listen to it. I was like, you fucking dummy, Like we've had
- 56:37some dummies on that does happen, So I was. I was two of
- 56:40them every time that you get to every single episode. Now, I was
- 56:49super proud that you guys hit up a slow poles me and I'm real proud
- 56:52of them. Yeah, yeah, there's they're great. They're doing really good
- 56:57things. There's another band here called Beyond Reach that's another great band that they
- 57:00play with a lot, and then Designs is another really good hardcore band in
- 57:05Austin and Daniel who sang into singings and designs. His old band, thumb
- 57:12Screw, is getting back together on the tenth to play a show, which
- 57:15is gonna be awesome if you like like super chaotic mid two thousands hardcore.
- 57:22Thumbscrew was awesome. They were way ahead of the curve and like a lot
- 57:25of shit. They're playing a reunion show in the tenth and I'm stoked because
- 57:29I used to They came up to Chicago and I was in a hardcore band
- 57:31and we would play together, and so I've known those dudes for over twenty
- 57:35years and so to see everybody again is gonna be sucking surreal. Yeah,
- 57:39dude, fuck yeah killer. Also, that's a great band name, thumb
- 57:43Screw. Yeah, they were great. Sounds monotonous but also like hardcore at
- 57:50the same time, you know what I mean. Yeah, another good band.
- 57:52I'm just gonna start rattling off all the bands now, but another good
- 57:57one is Rickshaw Billy's Burger Patrol. There. They're great. They sound like
- 58:01if Primus listen the hardcore because Leo the singer guitar player, he's from Boston
- 58:06and so like he's like converge coales like uh not converge coalesce like a lot
- 58:13of that East Coast stuff is like very in his rips and you can hear
- 58:15the cave in and stuff to it. But they're like, yeah they have
- 58:19you know, they're Rickshaw Billy's Burger Patrol. But they're like I said,
- 58:22and take primus and hardcore and put it together. They're great. All right,
- 58:27last uh, last thing that we need you to uh to send us
- 58:30off with. All Right, one band that you think deserves to be huge
- 58:39but it's not, and you want to get their name out there? What
- 58:43band is it? Take a moment to think if you need to do I
- 58:47think deserve Does this have to be a hardcore band? No, it could
- 58:51be any bands. You want a band that you think is just immensely talented
- 58:55and deserves more recognition. What band is that I've always been? So I
- 59:04say this with the preface that the lyrics to this band are very very personal.
- 59:09They're they're they're fucking great. They're a great band, full of good
- 59:13dudes. They're they're big enough, but I think they should be way bigger
- 59:15than they are, and that would be Lucero Sarah. All Right, Sick,
- 59:21there you go. You heard it. There. Robert Dean, thank
- 59:24you so so much. Go check out his book. Everyone, thanks again
- 59:30for coming on the Blacksheet podcast. Thanks soon. I was super stoked on
- 59:34this. I'm seriously super stoked.