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Spike Slawson of Spike and the Gimme Gimmes · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: What happens when punk rock takes on the Beach Boys, Cyndi Lopper, Outcast, and We Are the World?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, apparently you get Spike and the Gimme Gimmies and absolutely no respect for musical boundaries.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: With a brand new album, Shit the Bed, dropping on October 23rd, Frontman Spike Slaussen is here to talk about reinventing the songs we all know, keeping punk rock unpredictable, and why the world might just need more of the gimme gimmies in it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing, my friend?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm well.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm well.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I gotta take issue with reinventing, just call it what it is, stealing is is uh the law just hasn't caught up with us yet, thank goodness.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So uh um we may be prideful um and arrogant, uh, but uh qualities we do not possess are shame or honor.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: As I said, everything is on the table um with uh when it comes to songs that we cover, nothing, there are no sacred cows.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are certainly things that we stay away from, but uh you know, I hate to say it, it's more science than art, but it ain't rocket science.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as should be uh plain, we are not rocket scientists.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I gotta tell you, dude, uh a couple months ago, first weekend in August, I made the trip to Colorado.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: I made the trip to Colorado and I caught you guys at Fiddler's Green, and you guys absolutely slayed.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: That show was so fucking good, dude.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Loved it.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, originality counts for something, but uh not everything, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, man, and it's funny because I got that got the high five all you guys as you guys walked off stage.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So it was it was cool getting to hang out a little bit.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But man, I'm so stoked to talk about uh this album.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: This album drops October 23rd via Fat Records with 11 songs spanning pop, rock, country, and dance floor staples.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the tracks just jumped from Rhinestone Cowboy to Hey Yah to the Backstreet Boys.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: What was the original vision for this record?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you decide that these were the songs that deserved the Gimme Gimme's treatment?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would say Liberation.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we we broke the chains of the theme on this one.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we were able to pick uh whatever songs from whatever genre, but um eminently recognizable to uh people of all generations, um, hopefully.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I mean, they're kind of party songs, I guess.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're all hits, but other than that, there's no real um common thread necessarily through them, not like an era or um like a genre per se.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say that our first record kind of have had some of that quality.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was an AM rock thing, but that wasn't it wasn't really strictly any one thing per se.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then the more we got caught up in themes, as I said, like it's it's science as much as art.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there are things like cadence and tempo and phrasing that just like right off the bat, um, you gotta nix nine songs out of ten.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So then when you're chasing a theme, you can be real you can kind of be scraping the bottom of the barrel by by the uh by the 11th or 12th song.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Which, you know, and we're not above that, certainly.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: We wanted uh we wanted all killer and no filler.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I think that's always been the job of uh a full-length player.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um is but I think uh bands sort of sat on their laurels a little bit and uh were content to release, say, three or four bangers on a full-length LP, um, sort of forgetting that the job of a full-length LP, uh, for the people that spend money to buy it, is to transport them into a different world until you lift the needle, right?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, um, and I feel like that's even more the case now, even though ironically we're making no money off of our recordings.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's good like their importance uh is even more, maybe, than it was at that time, just because it's sort of like your business card, so to speak.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I hate to talk in terminology like that, but um you know, I just like playing music, other people's music.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hell yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, was there a song that seemed like a terrible idea at first, but became one of your favorites once you heard the finished version?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Hey yeah.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, hey yeah.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love that song, and for that reason I was very uh tentative about approaching it and giving it the treatment, you know, because justice is not uh it's got nothing to do with what we're doing to these songs.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, so I try to shy away from things that I like or or have respect for for it for the most part.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um, like, hey, yeah, as well as being a great, like a huge mainstream hit, it was a really great song.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was one of those songs where I would love to know how much time he spent on it.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because it seems like so many of the rest of the songs on his record on that, on that outcast on Andre's side, were like not overwrought, but like like he had spent a lot of time and emotion and heart and soul, blood, sweat, and tears putting into these songs.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then that one just seems like, man, he probably wrote that song in five fucking minutes, and that's the biggest hit on the whole record in in like probably for that whole 10 years.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I, you know, I got a lot of respect for Andre 3000 and Outcast as well.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I was a little tentative about not doing justice to the song, and um, all the way until the time that it was mixed, I had serious doubts about it, and now it's one of my favorites on the record.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Andre has always been kind of like hip-hop punk rock in his own way, shape, or form.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's always done what he's wanted to do, and you gotta love that about the guy.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Atlanta's one of those towns where like all that genre shit doesn't really matter.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's different demos into different genres, and that's why it's one of my favorite cities in the States.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not to look at, because I don't think it's the most beautiful city in the world, but the vibe, I've never had a bad time there.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, and in the song itself, you you kind of made a really good point.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Whenever you hear different interpretations of it, it kind of takes on different meanings.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: There's a singer-songwriter guy by the name of Obadiah Parker that did an acoustic version of it, and it's absolutely beautiful.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I had no idea that this song had that meaning and that like deep of interpretation to it until I'd heard that version.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Man, it's kind of a lament.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the some of the words, at least, like the and it doesn't, it certainly doesn't sound like it.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's not like it sounds like a dance floor hit, you know, but but it it's about relationships and dysfunction and you know.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I could I could see that, although I haven't heard that song, but uh or that version.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in the press release, you quote Kokomo, another cover that you guys did, and you you talked about doing that song, and you talk about your version being an improvement over the original song.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Several orders of magnitude.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, so you take a pretty entertaining shot at the original, and you have a very specific sense of humor about the songs that you choose.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: What was it about Kokomo that made you think, yeah, we can absolutely turn this into a gimme gimme song?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, because it's already a joke.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like this ode to the almost universal uh joys of exploitive tourism, as I've said before.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mean that, of course, ironically, and I mean just the notion of these guys, middle-aged white dudes trolling, malingering around a beach, you know, and and being short and rude with with uh weight staff and stuff like that.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing that makes me and it just I couldn't wait to ridicule it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, there's some real talent in that band, but you know, raw, crude talent, but it took uh real discernment and vision to carry these songs uh to their full potential as as uh as we did.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Kokomo is no exception.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever worried that you might actually make a cover so good that you're gonna ruin the original for somebody?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's that's uh that's our goal every time.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: That that is our goal every time we set out to record is to not just ruin, but to erase the original version from the the the lexicon, from the musical world lexicon is just to erase it.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: We will crush you.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: We will crush the origin.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if um a little a little word for any bands starting out, if you try to start a cover band, we will also crush you.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Love it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, another song you guys cover on the album is We Are the World, and your version uh brings together a large cast of punk and alternative musicians.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: The singles proceeds, benefit, sweet relief, musicians fun, which assists musicians and music industry workers facing financial hardship.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's an enormous song, both musically and culturally, and your version brings that whole community together.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: How did that project come together and when did you realize it could be something more than just an outrageous cover?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, a lot of it is trying to disguise the fact that we were taking the piss.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can you reasonably uh accuse performers of being performative?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you've seen the original video of the song, and it's man, there is some gold in there.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's Stevie Wonder telling Bob Dylan how to be Bob Dylan, and then him just kind of being confused in his leather jacket, you know, just like, what the hell am I doing here?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's Bruce Springsteen, whom I have a lot of respect for.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's the Bob Dylan of people that work standing up, and uh, but he's still just sort of over-emoting in this way that seems really cringe worthy in this day and age.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's this beautiful moment where where Michael looks at uh Huey Lewis doing his part, and I can only imagine what's going through his mind.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, man, do you know what I had to go through to be here?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you're just shitting all over my beautiful expression of love and charity.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Who the fuck do you think you are, man?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just some Marin County, like, you know, open mic bar band.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like that.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking for Michael, obviously, right now.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right, right, right.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: But um, no, it it and we wanted to give sort of a similar um like sort of a similar presentation and vibe in our version, and just sort of get um, you know, punk quote unquote uh celebrities uh luminaries uh to assist and just some people that we really love.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like Elvez is that was an honor and privilege to have him on there, as well as Nikki Corvette, Milo from the Descendants, um, and then Danny from Surfboard with a breakout part.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think hers is my favorite line of the whole song.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's difficult to to pick a favorite, but but hers was hers and Jim from Pennywise were my favorite uh contributions of the whole thing.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you, the discerning listener, may recognize a cover of a spoken word part from uh a particular movie, uh, right before Jim's part comes in.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So what was the biggest headache or funniest moment of coordinating so many distinctive personalities?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Blag.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: What a pain in the ass.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: That guy is.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh no.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh yeah, I can as much as you might expect.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, everybody was pretty because it was actually a charity, whether or not we were just using the charity to disguise the piss take, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was, it is actually a charity, and and the money is actually going to a charity, and that helped people, you know, people were were really prompt and forthcoming, and you know, if people couldn't do it, they were honest about it, and uh, you know.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the hard part was sort of assembling it all after it was done.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I should point out that that's coming out on a seven-inch uh uh vinyl record uh God's format.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh so if if um if you like vinyl and if you like that song, uh listen to it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: The other side is uh happy birthday, which is public domain, so nobody can touch us.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know you guys are gonna dig it, and again, it goes to a great cause.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I love that, man.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking of enigmatic personalities, the band's name now puts yours front and center, and the lineup has evolved while the mission remains recognizable.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: How has taking the reins changed the way you approach the band creatively and personally?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, much more skin in the game, a much bigger stake.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: It just, I don't know.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I like the way it rolls off the tongue, and certainly the way it sounds.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm biased, but uh doesn't it sound great?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh no, um, I don't know.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy with uh it's just truth and advertising and uh ego.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: So uh well, come on, let's not conflate ego with confidence.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Confidence is a good thing, bro.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh ego can be a good thing too.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's I think something happened in in quote unquote punk at some point in the late 80s or 90s, and uh it was this sort of self-seriousness and earnestness and this like need to be the hero of your own story.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we certainly don't share that.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd like I think ego helps you to be something other than yourself.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's this weird, it's all like it was like schoolhouse rock.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like they even when you're performing, be yourself, which is the worst suggestion, the worst advice anybody ever gave.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're supposed to be something different, like you're supposed to dress up, or like maybe it comes from yourself, but it's it's you're not like like the worst thing that happened to the 90s for me was like the flat billed Volcom hat, board shorts, you know what I mean?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just kind of like the way like you shouldn't dress like that on the street, much less under the proscenium arts.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is a sacred bond between you and a paying crowd.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like you got to take them someplace, you know, and not by being the hero.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like you think comedians, you know, Anthony Jesselnik, you know who he is?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's not your friend.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not what you're paying him to be.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, or to be a decent person, or to show you what a decent person he is.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's, you know, the dichotomy between the East Coast and the West Coast, like it's kind of a cliche and it's oversimplified.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: But like they say people back east are kind but not nice, and people out west are nice but not necessarily kind.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like it's something that has to do with that.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'd like if you dig their Larry Sanders show, for example, Gary Chandling, like his genius idea was and courageous, in my mind, was to take and confront and like itemize all of the worst his Gary Chandling's worst qualities that as he saw them, or maybe as other people saw, and just advertise them in a role and in this beautiful show that he made, you know, and and that took real courage, but it also took like he didn't want people to sympathize or empathize with them.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't what was important.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Making an actual statement was important.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And what what's a better statement?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Say, like in the 90s, some middle-class white dude screaming at you about how unfair the world is, or something a little more, you know, like it's always for us for a listener or an audience to reach a point that you want to bring them to, you gotta kind of you can't do it straight.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can't lecture or preach, or you gotta lead people in in because people are smarter than that, you know?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, are you willing to take more risks now, or do you find that you're willing to take more risks now, or is the real challenge been keeping the original spirit alive while also letting this hyperized version of your personality shine through?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: So uh huh.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good that's a good question.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it is definitely a fine line.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are certainly things that with this group of players that we're able to do that that um we wouldn't be able to do.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking like respective skill levels, I'm just talking more like sensibilities and and uh specific disciplines.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I will say that the idea itself, and then something about the chemistry um initially was what like it's a thing, like I said, it's not rocket science, but it's an idea that resonates enough that if you pick the right people, they can walk on and they get what has to be done without being told if that makes any sense.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because it just sort of there's an irony built into it, which has something to do with like I look out and when I see people slam dancing to like Neil Diamond or like Judy Garland or something like that, like they don't cop to the irony in their faces, like they're slam dancing as if it was like you know, an exploited song or something like that, really serious and you know, but it's over the rainbow by Judy Garland, or you know.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny you used that as an example, man, because my wife, who was with me at the the Fiddler's Green show in Colorado, she uh she'd never heard or seen you guys before.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: And when you guys did Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and her music taste is it's it's contemporary normie stuff, man.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like like late 80s, early 90s, contemporary.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: She was smiling from ear to ear when she heard over the somewhere over the rainbow.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad to hear it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad to hear it.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, that that's that's what we set out to do, and I think it's where um, and mind you, like there's not a message, like I have beliefs, you know.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not scared to share them, but the gimmys doesn't seem uh necessarily like the the forum, but um there's there's I think that there's a kind of universal appeal that we have that your average punk band that's just sort of yelling at you about stuff that you already know doesn't.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like people already know this stuff.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's it's streamed to their face all day long.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just half of them are wrong about it, you know.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: But uh obviously, but um like the this that's that's not our job, is uh you know, reminding people how shitty the world is.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we know, I know, like I could talk all about it, but that's it's that's not the forum.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: We want to show people a good time.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because that's important too.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're following the new album with the Merry Shitmas tour, which seems like a perfect excuse to turn holiday cheer into complete musical chaos.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: What can fans expect from this run and how much of the set will be shaped by the new record versus the holiday tradition?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Quite a bit of the set will be uh shaped by our new record.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we're not scared.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, like we're a band that that pushes the crowd to the point of like vocal expressions of displeasure and frustration.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh funny enough, on the nights that we get the loudest booze, we sell the most t-shirts.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not afraid to uh, you know, offend an audience, and we're certainly not afraid to disappoint an audience with the new stuff.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, but however, I will say that there is a curve that we do not like that I believe um we are an exception to.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, most original bands, when they play their new stuff, that's when the you know, certain members of the audience uh take the opportunity to get a beer or to go to the bathroom or have a cigarette or something like that.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Our songs you already know, you know, like you already know these songs.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the only difference is how we play it and maybe what classic punk song we mash it up with.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um, like I don't think that there is the same threshold for us that there would be for other original bands.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh yeah, that we're gonna play quite a few new songs, um, obviously some Christmas songs when we come out in um in uh December.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: The shit cover band doesn't fall far from the shit Christmas tree.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh um yeah, we we love playing new stuff.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love that, man.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And new old stuff.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: We pull new old stuff out all the time.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I was gonna go with next.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a certain song that you're looking the most forward to executing live that maybe you haven't experimented with yet?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Boy, good question.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would have to consult the set list.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, it would probably be one of the songs off of our you know what?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say Kokomo, because that's just really I I I love the way it it turned out.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a piss take, and like it's not an homage, you know?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just for that reason, it's so fun.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, there's not gonna be any Uncle Jesse from Full House walking out on stage to play the drums.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, probably not.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Probably what, but never say never.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: We won't, we won't, we don't rule any anything out, you know.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's kind of get back into your origin story a little bit.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: You were working in the Fat Rec ballroom before, or mail room before you became the voice of one of Punk Rock's most recognizable before you became the voice of one of Punk Rock's most recognizable cover features.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And by work, that's W-E-R-Q.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back, did you have any idea from saying yes to that opportunity that this would turn into such a long career?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, I just knew that I wanted to do something musical and didn't have the druthers to organize it myself, you know, like it it which is yeah, it's a sad comment on me and a lot of other people in their 20s.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, they they came down and propositioned me, and uh out of whoredom, sheer whoredom, I accepted.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh never looked back.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: It you know what?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And their their uh part of the proposition was, and I would agree, um, that like man, most of these bands nowadays, their best song is a cover.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we just want to cut to the chase and do a whole record of those songs.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and I just sort of, you know, sure, let's do it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then like within one practice, we were ready to play a show, and we did.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: What's something about the music business that you learned from the other side of the desk that still shapes how you work today?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the first time I went into a recording studio and was singing, and I sang with what I thought was pure emotion that the listener would receive as pure emotion.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the sound engineer said, Hey, maybe back off the aggression a little bit.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then I did, and then he said, Split the difference now.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it made me realize that like how much of it is pantomime, you know, like the whole, like, so and it goes back to the to the whole notion of like punk bands being real or espousing realness, you know, when when they get up on the stage and they're being real.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no, you're fucking not.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: You are an alternate version of yourself.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: What like whatever you put on is a stylistic choice.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even if the style sucks, it's still a stylistic choice.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it is all pantomime, especially when you've been doing it 30 nights in a row.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know, well, no, or whatever, six nights in a row, let's say, a week and a half in a row, it becomes pantomime.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you can't help it, you know, like your real message and your real vibe should shine through because you know, it is a job.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't the worst job in the world, but you know what I mean?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like it is, it's it's you to pretend that there's not a listener for whom you need to close the circle is like you're not doing yourself or anybody else justice.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's such a great quote, man.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's such a good call out.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, you talk about needing to make sure you have that presentation almost like slipping into a character.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think about it in terms of pro wrestling, right?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like the work versus the shoot.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's famously said, don't work yourself into a shoot, brother, you know.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's such a such a good way of putting it.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they get it.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, comedians get it.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like it it you can't pretend that the other people aren't in the room because then they won't be in the room.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like sell, like the foe, like the wrestling opponent that tells the guy sell, you know, like it it it's all performing arts have some element of that.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And occasionally you get these like once-in-a-century geniuses and visionaries that did it and could do it all by themselves, and they saw exactly what they wanted and they made it exactly that way.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I think history is more crowded with bands like the talking heads.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, man, they're not my favorite band, but I got a lot of respect for them.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what I heard like the the origin myth of the talking heads is that they wanted to sound exactly like a Motown band.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And when they couldn't, that was why they were the Talking Heads.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they became iconic because of how close, but so how far they got from sounding like a Motown band.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: So they became something entirely unique.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like they discovered their sound on accident.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: By trying to do something else, and then having the whatever you the creative or artistic resolve or discipline to understand, like, oh, this is where we're supposed to be.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, after all these years, what separates a song that simply works as a punk cover from one that be genuinely becomes a gimme gimme song?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the melody, lyrics, the absurdity of the choice, or is it something else entirely?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I have no idea.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh John Reese, um, who played guitar on the record, he has referred to like songwriting and song releasing as being like fishing.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's just fishing, you know, like and then variously or alternately like it's shoveling shit or it's fishing, you know?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: And like you, you honestly you never know.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you can believe and you can be right, but you know, I I would guess that the most popular song on this new record would not be my favorite.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah if that makes any sense.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just because once it once uh you release a piece of music, a piece of art, a movie, like it's not entirely yours anymore.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like there were some great filmmakers like Antonioni from Italy that that like his whole uh scene was and his genius was creating these psychologically provocative like scenes and passages that he didn't resolve for you.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that they were triggers meant to have you resolve them in some way, probably wrong.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: But because he left it un unresolved, unanswered, uh he allowed you to do that, and I think that is the essence of what art is supposed to do.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I agree.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a song that you've always wanted to cover but haven't figured out how to make it work for you?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Man, for the longest time, Kokomo was one of those.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like we just kept going back to it, you know, and and it just never, you know, there was uh in the past, there was a tendency to default to that kind of that fast kitty beat, you know, to bip-blit, bl.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it just it was too easy and too lazy, and and I didn't I don't really like that beat.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um the UK 82 version of it, I dig a lot more than than the West Coast version of that beat.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, like subtle differences between the two, but the there there there always seemed to be a tendency to do that, and so um occasionally we would just ditch songs because I didn't want to do it.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, ultimately the singer get gets the last veto.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you know what I mean?
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I gotta sell it, and if I'm not feeling it, I'm not gonna sell it, and I'm not gonna sing it, you know, like that.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, so the mailroom boy, you know, learned to stand up for himself a little bit for his creative prerogatives.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you've spent decades singing songs that people already know by heart, and you built a career out of making them feel new again.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: What still excites you about performing today, and what do you want the next chapter of Spike and the Gimme Gimmies to look like?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Man, what excites me the most is uh people in wheelchairs crowd surfing.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is the best thing.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it is I don't know how to like, because on the one hand, like it's funny.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it even verges on something like ridicule, like kind of funny.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, it is so encouraging and just like it, it I love seeing it, you know, like it's it's like, and they're not afraid to be an object of ridicule, which I would imagine they have been in their lives, but they're just up, and then everybody else is carrying them and not letting them fall.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, it is it is a beautiful sight.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll you would be surprised how many times I've seen that.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it is my favorite thing about performing.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the next chapter is just uh another good record.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a theme, and to like just to keep doing what we're doing.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I um like I still really enjoy going out.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's weird, like I dread it.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's like this weird anticipatory dread, and I get nervous and stressed out, and you know, traveling is the the the more difficult part, you know.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like playing, I already know how to do, but it's the traveling that that's that's the hard part.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um what's that?
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I said I'm with you on that.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like I am like the MVP of making plans and then at the very last minute finding every fucking excuse in the world to cancel them.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, like, you know, and and traveling is one of those for sure.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's uh but um I love getting to where I'm going, right being in exotic uh new localities and um old ones that I've gotten.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like one of the best things about uh having toured and played music out of town as much as I have is to actually to get familiar with places and towns and cities that I like.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like just weird places that I never would have thought that I'd know my way around in, you know.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's a that's kind of a rewarding thing.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, there's you know, I leave it to fate to g decide what specific new thing um that's going to happen that I'm going to love and that's gonna energize me creatively or anything like that.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, so right now all I could say that I really want is just to keep doing what I'm doing.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's ultimately it's really fun and rewarding.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's tough because you tell people that and people already have this, like you scratch a fan and you find somebody that wants to tear you down, like classic reality show TV from from that, you know, from that amazing period of like rock of love and all that kind of stuff.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you kind of see it, like the producer is not in the room, but they're in the room, like a third eye winking at you.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, look at these ridiculous stars, right?
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I forget where I was going with that, but uh yeah.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, yeah, I don't know where I was going with that.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you could have any one artist whose song that you have covered in the past watch you perform it live, who would you choose and would you want their honest feedback on it?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, no.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't meet your don't meet your idols, as they say.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: And um we did hear from the Eagles at one point, actually, and um we asked because we had to ask, you don't have to ask for a recording, um, but you do have to ask uh if you want to do a video.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Mike wanted to do a video for Desperado, so uh we needed to get a so-called sync license.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And um they responded really quickly.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Their management said, first of all, uh no.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Second of all, the band wanted you to know that uh they really hate your version, um, which means that they couldn't do anything about it.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I I think what I would what I was trying to say before is that you you when you scratch a fan and you find somebody that that um wants to tear you down is that um they immediately assume when you say play, they think you're playing.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not fucking playing.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like it um, and the people that think that I am wouldn't last a fucking day.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um so like you know, like it's not work.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look like your work.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm sorry life didn't burn me as as much as you think it burned you.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like it it can be tough as well as rewarding and fulfilling and all those things.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and occasionally something like that happens.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: Occasionally a personal best and a red badge of courage and honor that you can wear to your grave.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Eagles hated our version of the song.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like what, you know, sometimes all the hard work and suffering pays off.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, man.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I gotta tell you, Spike, I really love the band.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: I had such a blast watching you guys play in August.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: I can't wait to see you guys again on the road.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: Meet up in person, high five, whole nine yards.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um Lincoln.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, my closing question that I ask everybody, and I'm really interested in your perspective, my friend, through everything that you've experienced, what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a theme that we just brought up is to not insist that life burn other people the way you think it burned you.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that is a pernicious insistence.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I certainly have my political beliefs, but I don't think it has a political side necessarily.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's very it's a very human, common human trait, you know, and it's understandable, but it's cancerous.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, I totally get that, man.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, brand new album, Shit the Bed.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: A bunch of great covers.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: As always, Kokomo, hey ya, we are the world.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: Spike, thank you so much for doing the show, my friend.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: The world's a much better place with you and it.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Mike.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you taking the time, man.