Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Rewind: Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and The Dead Milkmen’s Joe Jack Talcum on Turning Political Anxiety Into Punk, Why Reunions Need New Music, and Being Indie Lifers

Transcript

Rewind: Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan and The Dead Milkmen’s Joe Jack Talcum on Turning Political Anxiety Into Punk, Why Reunions Need New Music, and Being Indie Lifers · Kyle Meredith With...

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with it's the interview series presented by WFPK and WFPK dot org consequence and the consequence podcast network.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for making your way here and check it out, it works if you like what you see what you hear, hit that subscribe button, I put out new interviews just like this when sent your way every single week, you can grab it at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast subscribe.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: to Kyle Meredith with.
• 0:57
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• 1:01
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• 1:02
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• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's me Kyle Meredith today.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be a special rewind episode looking back on my interviews with Superchunks Mac McCon and the dead milkman's Joe Jack Talcom.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: They stretched back to just a 2017-2018 And it's all about you know why music my new music still matters decades into their career, especially at that point
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: a Mac will be looking back at the urgency and anxiety that fueled what a time to be alive during Trump's first run, and Joe Jack Taukam's going to explain why the dead milkman only agreed to reunite if they kept writing.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we're going to start with my 2017 interview with Mac from Superchunk.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: They hadn't planned on recording a new record at that time, but with the 26 election,
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: hitting a nerve with the Chapel Hill Band.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The songs flowed fast and ferocious, as you'll say, leading to that record, what a time to be alive.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about the politics behind the songs, as well as the LPs special guests that included Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchi, Steve Emeritz of the Magnetic Fields and Dave Bazons.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's get into a part one of this special rewind episode.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Emeritz with Mac McCon of Superchunk.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: is this is back before complements right at front what a time to be alive is such a great record as i understand this story basically right after the election it all kind of kickstarted and came quickly right yeah i mean i was i think i just started writing songs and then once i had written a couple and it became kind of clear that uh the energy of the song and the the way that they were turning out they would be really would just make sense of super chunk songs
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: even though we hadn't as a band decided we're going to make a record this year or whatever.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I started sending the demos around to everybody and we kind of just figured out looking at our calendars that we actually could make a record in 2017.
• 3:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we did and it felt like once we started working on it, we should just go ahead and do this and put it out as soon as we can't kind of think.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So at that point, I mean, it had been a few years, right?
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: A handful of years since the last
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think 2013 or something, so by the time this one actually came out, I've been almost five years.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Which wasn't really planned on, you know, we hadn't planned on taking that long or whatever, but just our schedules and John playing with a couple different bands, just kind of, I did a solo record in the meantime, and so everything just kind of conspired to have it be a little bit more of a break, and then we had talked about, but then, like I said, once I started writing songs for this record,
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know that happens with a lot of bands.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you guys have been more or less making music for 30 years or so.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that happens.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: The space kind of gets a little bit longer.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think I hear that from every band.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, well, we didn't mean for it to take that long.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm really does fly by.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: And like I said, especially when everyone's busy with other things.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, it's been awesome having a new record out and playing shows and people seem to be like in the record.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's great gratifying in that way.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now to be, you know, inspired because of what was happening, did you find yourself writing directly towards any specific incident or causes or did you try to steer away from that?
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think that I was certainly inspired or spurred on by certain moments and things, even though I was trying not to be, I mean, I think in general, songwriting, writing the lyrics for songs is a balance between
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: specific enough to have a connection to the real world and, you know, resonate in that way, but then not so specific that it only means something to me or to one person or five people or whatever, you know, brought enough to kind of connect with other people.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, there's definitely moments, I mean, I think that when I wrote, I got cut, I think that the first line of that song, which is all these old men, won't die too soon, was spurred on by seeing this photograph.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Newspaper of Trump and all these old guys standing around and he's hitting at a desk and they're standing around They're all smiling about the fact that they just signed up of a Proclamation that would you know make it harder for women all over the world to get health care basically just think this moment like that You know, which you know you don't want the record to become a series of new stories because that's boring You know, and we want to hear that
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: But at the same time, you can't help but not have certain things kind of, you know, that you're thinking about a certain thing or just certain moments feel emblematic of bad, a bad direction that things are going.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: and it's interesting too because you write a song and it might be one thing and then with everything that's happened with this administration it suddenly becomes repurposed.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had a little chuckle as I was listening to fight me and the entire news cycle that day was all about Biden and Trump.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting thing about a record like this because, you know, it just keeps happening in these things he's happening and your songs keep meeting something different I don't know as a songwriter what that sort of feeling is like when you're like, oh my god That's not what I meant, but now it's sort of what I mean, you know, it's sort of what it is
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, it's strange.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: When we put out here's the setting up, which came out in 2001.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And obviously that record was written and recorded in 2000 and early 2001 and then it came out literally two weeks after 9-11.
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's definitely songs on there that hearing it in light of the tragedy that just happened.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: They took all these other meetings and things that it is just kind of a crazy weird thing because I don't think that I'm or anyone else really.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like it.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just a strange coincidence, but the new record is obviously much more about what's going on in our country and in the world and again without having hopefully feeling like someone's just like reading a newspaper or whatever.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of more about the personal side of that, by which I mean the kind of anxiety that it creates in society.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: we've got a new station under our roof as well over here and there's the joke that's been going on for the past year and a half of I remember when politics used to be boring and yeah sort of look at that title of what a time to be alive you know that sarcastic statement right there yeah I mean when you can think about other things besides the new cycle
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: just to take a quick pause to say that if you if you like what you're hearing right now please do remember to hit that subscribe button that's how we keep this whole thing alive it helps so much and we'll be right back right after this.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle, Mayor of the special rewind episode with Macmon Khan of Superchunk.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, the moment to promise, I follow you online, I see that we're looking at the same stuff and you have like the Parkling kids, you know, that's gotta be this, you know, I don't know, like some of this stuff is making a difference, you know, what you're saying is making a difference.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that if there are a Superchunk fan or not, I don't know, but it's nice to see these bits of light coming through and it's sort of that, you know, that sort of, it's a lazy question by the way,
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are you feeling any bits of optimism in any of this right now?
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I feel optimism in moments where I'm like talking to my kids who know way more about politics and the world than I did when I was 10 and 14 years old.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And when I see kids organizing like this March for our lives that's happening.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Just like that, even though it's coming out of horrible tragedies, I mean the response.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: you know makes makes me optimistic for a minute and then I read that one of our senators Senator Tom Tillis is like a Republican senator who's responsible for the fact that the dream act is not moving forward you know we're being ratified or whatever and then you just go you know like you really up against a bunch of monsters whose main concern is themselves getting reelected or just raising money are again our senators have taken more from the NRA than
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a frustrating situation, but like you can do this kind of move forward, you know.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm not trying to compare for a battle here, but we in Kentucky, you know, um, responsible for my gosh.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's almost nobody worse than Mitch McConnell, so.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you, let me tell you what it's like, because you know, I mean, we're in Louisville, and it's the little blue dot in the big red sea, you know, it's, yeah.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think that's a good example of someone who's just emblematic of this.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: completely crave and approach to politics where he, you know, someone who calls himself a conservative and Republican obviously refuses to stand up to anything that is being done to our country because in his mind he's just protecting his own, you know.
• 10:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think he's like an example of the worst of them for sure, and, you know, again, like when you look at a gather and like with all these young people, they're going to be old enough to vote soon, the ones that already aren't, and you just hope that that's a way to go forward, but, you know, the frightening thing is that it feels like there's a parallel effort that's being undertaken to try to dismantle the actual ways that those people could vote in any change, you know, so that's kind of like two, two wars being fought there.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why maybe I thought I'd call you to feel better about life, but, you know, it's...
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, I don't have the answers for you on that front.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, where I'm sitting here listening to new records, it's no rardists or I've turned in that are going to come out later this year and, you know, there's, there are things every day to look forward to, but it's hard to sometimes focus on those things.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me bring up some artists because you've got guests on this record, Katie Crutchfield, Waxahatchi is on here.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Steve Emeritz is on here, David Bezahn is on here.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're punching your roster, right?
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I said.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hey, you know, you gotta exploit the resources that are around you, right?
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: These artists, by the way, you know, not knocking on the door.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, so do we, and, you know, we're lucky enough to work with a lot of them, or be friends with some of them, like they've been on, and to me, there's a song that has someone besides me singing on it, that song is improved.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was trying to rope in as many people as possible, and I think that it also hopefully gives the, in addition to just improving the way the songs sound when someone like Katie Cretchfield or Sabrina Ellis from a giant dog is singing on them.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I also feel like it hopefully gives the record a little bit of like a community effort feel to it, so that's, that's like the bonus kind of side effect.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, they're all great artists and, you know, who would have thought that we could have gotten Steven Merritt to sing on a super-chunk record, but there he is on the same song with Katy Crutchfield, so that's pretty cool.
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you know Steven Merritt personally, I've only spoken to him once over a phone.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there is, I mean, he's quite a persona, you know, is he as difficult in the studio as he is for an interview?
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I don't, I think, said, I think sometimes, Steven's thoughtfulness is perceived as difficulty.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, he's very measured when he's answering questions and talking and things.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: But we weren't actually in the studio with him.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: We sent him the song and said, Steven, you know, we'd love for you to sing on the song.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think your voice would sound great.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he grate gracefully said, yes.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I can immediately, and then like four days later, send back, you know, four vocal tracks for us to mix in.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that Stephen having a sound studio, obviously, makes it easier for him to do that.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it was still really cool that he agreed to do that.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I do want to say, you know, I do mean all of that really respectfully because I'm such a fan of the magnetic fields.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I sometimes I wonder if the persona of Stephen Merritt is somewhat different than maybe who he really is, you know, and I enjoy that.
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I enjoy that from a lot of artists out there.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think that everyone is performing, you know, and then having to do interviews about the performing,
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: that's guarded in some way, but I think that Stephen is pretty true to himself in terms of how he is on stage and he's certainly a performer he knows how to ham it up in his own way, but I think that he is pretty true to his personality when he's when he's answering questions and talking about his music.
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to ask about one more song on the record, too, because Black Thread closes it out.
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Seriously catchy song, like instantly catchy, but it's quite the different mood from the rest of the record.
• 14:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's the story there?
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is, and that's kind of how it ended up at the end of the record.
• 14:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was one of the few songs that, maybe the only song, if I remember correctly, where the demo was written on the acoustic guitar, where I wrote it on acoustic guitar.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, I think it kind of, you know, sometimes you listen to demo enough times and it gets so stuck in your head that it's hard to get your mind around the song being completely different than that in the end.
• 14:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's good to be able to break away from that when you can, but I think that because that original was on acoustic and it had just a little bit of a different feel to it, we kind of stay true or to that demo feel.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: you know, we left a little bit of acoustic angle in the final song, which again does make it kind of different from the rest of the record and I think that's why it ended up being the last song.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's just, you know, compared to the rest of the songs, maybe just stepping back or to the side or something and thinking about anxiety or depression or something in a less, in less of a, like, I'm in the middle of it kind of way and more like looking
• 15:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: In some way looking forward, you know, like trying to get out of it, like looking forward to the time when you're maybe not thinking about all this stuff that's happening in the world 24 hours a day.
• 15:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a cool way to close the record and, like I said, I liked it.
• 15:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: It sort of reminded me a little bit of, you know, your stuff is, is portestatic, which, um, I was a huge fan of port, but a huge fan of that.
• 15:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I want to know girls, by the way, side note here.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of my all-time favorite songs.
• 15:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Such a great song.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, thank you.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 15:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we were making that song, and we got Skyler, a good ad to sing on that song.
• 15:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's got a beautiful voice.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's singing backups on that.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think the tempo and the harmonies and stuff was making me think of teenage fan club.
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: which is one of my favorite bands, so we did talk about maybe not even having it on the record because it is so different from the rest of it, but I think it's a nice kind of a little breather at the end there.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, in sight notes while we're at it, that teenage fan club record, the most recent one with here, man, that's a great one.
• 16:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's great one, I agree.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for putting that out.
• 16:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's our pleasure, it's amazing to me, the bands that we get to work with, you know.
• 16:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is there anything that you're allowed to that's already been announced what you're looking forward to this year?
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, for so much stuff, it's even just coming out the spring, I mean, speaking of people that we get to work with, that who would have thought, you know, when we started this label, we put out Traci's on record recently, that's incredible.
• 16:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: And as a new Titus and Dronicus, stuff that hasn't come out yet is the Y.O.
• 16:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Grafford is incredible.
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: And just announced the Traci and and Danny album, which you know Traci and from
• 16:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: that we used to work with and this is her new, this is her new band and it's really beautiful if people can't run skin or they'll love that record.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm such a fan of the label.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm such a fan of Superchunk.
• 17:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm always happy when their new is a new album out and the nice thing about this, this record will long outlast this administration and I think that's the important to say.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: You never know, this guy could try to appoint himself president for life any day now wouldn't surprise me.
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's hope not, but I hope not, yeah.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you Mac for the call and for the music.
• 17:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, thank you.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks a lot.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Take care.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a good one.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just to take a quick pause to say that if you if you like what you're hearing right now, please do remember to hit that subscribe button.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's how we keep this whole thing alive.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It helps so much and we'll be right back right after this.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Meredith.
• 17:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to continue this special rewind episode with my 2018 interview with Joe Jack Talcom.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had just stopped in the WFPK studio.
• 17:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is an in-little and we got to talk about reuniting the dead milkman and their EP that they had just done the story of how he ended up with a solo career even in the first place.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Part two of this special rewind episode.
• 18:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Meredith with Joe Jack Talcom of the dead milkman.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's good to have you in here on a solo run at the moment.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Plain tonight at Monkbeer Company.
• 18:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're glad to have you in town, sir.
• 18:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the solo run, you've been doing these forever and ever, but it's a mix of everything.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: You still do the milkman song, too.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yep, I'll do some milk and songs, some of my own songs, some songs that I had performed in the late 90s with the band Butterfly Joe.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So a little bit of everything, a little bit.
• 18:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, nice little mix.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's it, because I guess you don't have like a completely new solo release, right?
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a few years old at home demos.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Correct.
• 18:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's a, there's a from the 80s and the 90s, which we're recently put on vinyl by a record company from Georgia called Happy Happy Birthday to me, although I do have newer solo songs and I do hope to put something new out under the Joe Jack Talkham brand and is that just a dead milkman getting in the way right now?
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I wouldn't say getting in the way because I'm always happy to do anything with the dead Malcolm and before not before doing my own stuff.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was surprised that we all agreed to get back together It's now nine years ago, believe or not
• 19:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: that you've been back together now, the reformed right, and it's been cool because you know, you guys didn't have to make new music.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: There didn't have to be new dead milkman, although I'm sure the fans were really craving it, but I mean after the output, you could have just done the, you know, the crunch on the old stuff, take the paycheck from the festivals and walk on, but it did.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It resulted not only in tours, but that record you did back in 2014.
• 19:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: pretty music for pretty people yeah what why what what drove you to all to say okay let's let's not let's do the new music let's not all song writers we got together just to do a festival in Austin Texas it was called fun fun fun and after we played that show we wondered whether we should stay together or not and we all agreed that we would stay together
• 20:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Create new material and wouldn't be, you know, we would have more stuff to play than just the one then our old catalog.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: What is it for you then because You know, with any of that other than I maybe it is just the enjoyment of playing with your friends because You know, I think when you start a band and especially when you're young and you start a band it really is all about that fire and the new feelings of creativity and
• 20:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody all for one and one for all you jump in the van together and hit the road or whatever, but you know once you're later on down the line I mean, what is a band to you at this point does it have that same that same relationship?
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, band is like, almost like a family or a gang or something, and it sparks creativity in ways you wouldn't expect.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: I enjoy writing completely alone, and I also enjoy writing with other people, and I enjoy playing songs that other people write, right?
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a blessing to be in a band, especially when that you've had for a long, long time.
• 21:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was Joe Jack Talcomo, the dead milkman here on 919WFPK.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You guys are working on new record.
• 21:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to talk about that here in just a few moments, but we should play a song first.
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, Joe Jack Tacom is going to be playing tonight at the Monk Beer Company.
• 21:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You picked a solo and a band track here.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: What should we play first?
• 21:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's do chrono.
• 21:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let's play the solo one first.
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is Madonna's weep, and you said you're playing this on the current through a two, right?
• 21:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I play this one.
• 21:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 21:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: All I had is mine
• 22:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Joe Jack Talcom.
• 22:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's called Madonna's Weep from his 2014 release, Home Recordings 1993 to 1999.
• 22:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've got Joe Jack Talcom here in the studio playing tonight at Monick Beer Company.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: We were talking off mic about your solo career because, of course, the dead milkman started with early 80s.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we played our first show in July 1983.
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and then me and Tyler here both just expected that you'd been doing these solo shows this whole time too, but it's sort of a recent thing for you relatively recent.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: My first solo show was in 2004.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm Philadelphia.
• 22:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: And what's the story behind what made you go solo?
• 22:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, I was in a band at the time called The Low Budgets, a singer named Chris, was promoting a show, a completely acoustic show in Philly, and Headliner was Mike Ubleu Smallden from Maine on his initial solo tour, and he asked me to open up solo.
• 23:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: He twisted my arm a little bit because I was kind of nervous about doing that because I've never done it before.
• 23:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what is the experience like, I mean, because obviously you've got to come up with your set, but once that time you hit the stage, are you able to brush it away?
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Once you get out there, was that whole show really rough for you?
• 23:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was, uh, I was nervous, but then I had the butterflies and all that stuff.
• 23:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: But no, as soon as I pretty much as soon as I song the first line of the first song in my prepared set Everything went away and it was great.
• 23:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, seems so natural to do and because of that show I got asked to play another and I played another and I got asked to play a couple more and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was playing at least a show a month
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a great opportunity, especially when you, you know, that's, that's right before the dead milkman reform and everything.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when you don't have anything that's a given, I mean, suddenly, here's your new outlet and income and all the things that you need to do to survive as a musician, I guess.
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 24:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it's impetus for writing more songs, too.
• 24:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right, which we're very grateful for.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll get around to that, too, because, you know, we're mentioning the dead milkman.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you guys have been working on an album that's called
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I want to call it an album that it's more like an EP.
• 24:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, all right, six on EP.
• 24:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And how long have you guys been working at this one?
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, when did this one start?
• 24:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: We started recording in a couple of weekends ago right before I left for this little journey and we're going to probably finish it up, it's pretty much finished.
• 24:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: We got some polishing or mixing to do.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, unless you've got a surprise story telling me otherwise, that title of the EP sort of says a lot about maybe where you guys are getting your content from this time around.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's a song called that that Rodney wrote.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so it's a title song.
• 24:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: every every now and then we have an album that has a title song.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the pretty much lays out.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, is that what I can expect from this album is sort of whatever is happening going on.
• 25:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right now.
• 25:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We reflect what's going on in our unique way as has been the tradition for punk rock for the entire entire time.
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Although, I mean, I guess I was thinking about it and
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: What I like about you guys because you can have the style of punk rock that's very much direct politics, you know God save the queen whatever it is and you guys is always somewhat and it felt like to me That's been more about social rights, you know more.
• 25:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I don't know the blue collar side of it, right?
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, we are we are of that ilk and you I mean, I don't know you don't have to go far to look for that Just pick up the newspaper
• 25:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: if they if they if they if you still do that sort of thing we're turned turn on your phone yeah i'm looking forward to hearing it uh you know when it comes out uh we're saying fall it it really depends on the pressing vinyl schedule it's coming out on vinyl uh it's not going to come out on our own label we did two albums on our own label uh the king in yellow and pretty music for pretty people
• 26:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: We got approached by a relatively new label in Philadelphia called Giving Groove.
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Their stick is that half the proceeds after costs go to a charity that we help to choose a music-based charity and a non-profit that is in the other half-coast us, the artist.
• 26:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's cool.
• 26:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a great way to do it right there.
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So an easy way to sign up.
• 26:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then you guys are taking pre-orders on your website right now, too, right?
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, we are.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that will help out as well.
• 26:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I saw that on the Dead Mope and Facebook page as well as for any of y'all's out there that's looking and again, talking with Joe Jack Talcom of the Dead Mope man who's going to be doing a solo show tonight, a show, though, both together at a modding fear company.
• 26:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, we we thought we'd go out with a dead milkman song here too.
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You picked the secret of life Correct.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll jump into this one and thank you so much for dropping by all right.
• 27:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for having me It's good.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now be looking forward to the new music not just the dead milkman, but whenever you can get around to that new solo stuff as well Oh great.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not anyone nine WFPK
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: There you go, thanks to a Joe Jack talk of the dead milkman, thanks to Mac McCon of Super Chunk, and thanks to you for checking out the episode.
• 27:25
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• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now to that, you can head over to WFPK.org, where I do a show Monday through Friday.
• 27:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: It starts at 6pm Eastern, it's four hours of classic alternative indie rock Americana, the best in new music, bonus interviews, lots of music news as well.
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, one of my recent shows featured some classics and favorites from Marshall
• 28:09
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• 28:33
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• 28:40
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• 28:43
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• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Please do like, follow along, that does it for another edition.
• 28:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kyle Meredith, I'll see you next time.
• 29:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Consequence Podcast Network.