Bonnaroo really does change lives, and today's talk with Caleb Arias, aka The Bonnaroo Yearbook Guy, proves it once again. From being too nervous to talk to strangers at his first festival to becoming one of the most recognized creators in the festival community, Caleb walks us through the moment everything shifted. He explains how a simple journal turned into the Bonnaroo Yearbook, how that idea exploded across Hulaween and Okeechobee, and how documenting festival culture helped him find confidence, connection, and purpose.
We also dive into the massive growth of the Yearbook project, the behind-the-scenes work that goes into each book, the emotional fallout of Bonnaroo 2025, what we're looking forward to at Bonnaroo 2026, and Caleb's new collaboration with the festival itself. Finally, Caleb sticks around for a little bit of vinyl talk, where we show off some of our most valuable records from our collections.
Get your very own copy of The Bonnaroo Yearbook at 50% using coupon code THEWHATPODCAST: bonnarooyearbook.com
Listen to this week's episode here or watch it on YouTube. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news!
Listen Via:
Bonnaroo Changed My Life: The Yearbook Guy's Story
We talk about how Bonnarooo changes lives and I can't think of anybody
to better tell that story than you. So I was so nervous and intimidated to go talk to
new people at the festival. Oh my gosh, I found the secret life hack to meeting new people.
And the energy shift was immediate. Like you could just see people light up anytime I would ask a
question. Welcome back to the What Podcast. We are T minus what, 93 days when this comes out on
Wednesday, Russ, is that right? If you listen on Wednesday, yeah, I think it's 93 days. We're
well under 100 days, which is amazing, which is well, don't ask me because I don't get anything
right. As probably had a more clip than Barry gets a theme. It's a theme. It's a theme of the show.
Just go with it. Under 100 days anyway, under 100. Yeah, yeah, it's under a thousand days.
I'm confident in saying that. That is true. All right. I'm Barry. That's Brian. That's Russ. And
with us, friend of the show, Caleb, how are you, man? I'm doing very well. Yeah. Hearing you say it
out loud that it's what 93 days away. Oh my gosh. It's coming up. It's gonna be here. It's getting
there. It's getting very close. I'm very excited. I cannot move forward without mentioning because
anybody who's watching online is thinking the same thing I am. Man, you gotta show us that outfit.
Show us that. Oh, you saw this? You're peeping this right here. Come on now. The fit check. Hold
on. Wait, let me back it up for you a little second here. Wait, it's the whole matching robe set.
I mean, come on. Are you kidding me? The Bonnarooo robe matching fit? I'd be wearing my wizard hat
too if it weren't for my headphones right now. Maybe I can't do both. But that's really the real
combo right there. But yeah, the little robe with the Bonnarooo iconography on there, it's just too
good. I saw it on the internet on their website and I was like, I can't not have that. I'm sorry,
guys. I've gotta be walking around Rue with this on at night time. I feel so underdressed.
I wonder if it comes in extra big. I gotta have that. Well, we got Rue. I see the arch.
What else? Yeah, it's got a whole bunch of stuff on there. So it's got the arch, it's got some
smiley faces, some little mushroom guys. And it's got some tents on there. I'm blocking the light.
It's got some tents and stuff on there, little music notes, the disco ball, the little Bonnarooo
guy, little flower eyeballs, this kind of trippy pattern. It's got all kinds of stuff on there.
But it's very cozy. The fabric's very soft and like, hmm. Maybe not during the day
or maybe waking up in the tent early morning. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm wearing much time.
Well done. That's very fun. Good for you. All right. For those of you who have been around
for a minute and know you've been listening to the show, as I would hope all of you have been
since the beginning, Caleb is the, what would you say, publisher? I guess, yeah, publisher, creator,
Bonnarooo yearbook guy or I don't know. I make books for Bonnarooo. So whatever title that is,
I wear many hats when it comes to it. You said books. So what do you mean by books? It's not just
one. What all you got going on? So the yearbook project is actually kind of expanded outside of
Bonnarooo now. Like when I started this back in 2023 officially and like actually wanted to start
making printed books for the community, I had no idea how big the project was going to get. I
honestly was really surprised at the response from the community over this project. And so now
I have Hulaween that I just went to and am now creating an iSpy book for, which is really cool.
And then Okeechobee just recently invited me to bring the project to their festival. So I'm
actually going to be getting a staff wristband and bringing the Bonnarooo yearbook project to
Okeechobee and doing the same thing for them. So that's super cool just to like have that recognition
from the festival scene officially and be like, hey, we want you to come do that for us. And it's
like, okay, sure. So yeah, so I've got the Bonnarooo yearbook, I've got the Hulaween iSpy,
and then I've got the Okeechobee yearbook, and then I'm doing the Bonnarooo yearbook for my fourth
time this year. So it's like, what? Like how did I say all these books?
It's really cool. Forgive my ignorance, Caleb. The Bonnarooo yearbook and then you talked the
Hulaween iSpy book. Help me remember what iSpy is exactly. Yeah. So I don't know if you remember
growing up, probably as a kid, you saw those old iSpy books that had lots of like crazy little
trinkets and all puzzles and Pearl Jam and all that stuff. Yeah, Brian was never a kid.
Well, I was gonna say also, we weren't kids anywhere near the same time. So then there's that.
But I made one for Bonnarooo as my three-year anniversary for doing the yearbook project
where all the trinkets everyone gave me from Bonnarooo, I went in and turned it into like a
printed iSpy book with rhyming puzzles and full on like set up scenes, kind of a thing. So
anytime anyone left me a trinket, it got collected and saved with me. And then I
took photos of all of them and put in these little rhyming puzzles. So I did this project for
Hulaween. But y'all, I kid you not, I was walking around with a magnifying glass totem around
Hulaween. Probably anywhere from like five to seven hundred people came up to me and gave me
a trinket for one of these books for Hulaween. And it blew my mind the recognition I was getting
around the festival. I mean, at Hulaween, there's maybe only 20, 30,000 people max.
And it felt like I couldn't walk more than five feet with my totem without someone coming up and
being like, oh my gosh, are you the iSpy guy? It's a pretty cool feeling, right?
It's a wild feeling. And in part, I love it because it's just being seen and recognized for
this project that I'm putting so much work into. But at the same time,
Hulaween, I wasn't expecting it. Like, you know, like with Bonnarooo, I expect a certain level of
like, oh, you're the yearbook guy, right? But with Hula, it was my first time ever going to Hula.
I just happened to make this one video that went very viral, I guess, in the festival space.
And it got like 110,000 views in the first couple of days right before Hula. And so like,
the majority of Hulaween saw this video and was like looking for me, trying to give me a trinket,
it felt like. And so I've just completed the first two photos. The first photo I needed to
complete was the big group shot. Yeah, I saw this on your stories. That was a pretty
elaborate photo shoot you put together. I was like, what is this guy doing? I wasn't sure at all what
you were doing other than it looked kind of neat and very, very exhaustive. Oh my gosh. It took me
two days just for the first group shot, just to style everything and like get the space
set up to shoot the thing. Cause it's like, it was me and this big roll of six foot by probably
10 feet of paper. And then I had my laptop, my camera, all the lights, and probably anywhere from,
I have not done a full count of the trinkets yet, but I would guess anywhere from like 600 to 800
trinkets, like individual little trinkets. And I had my laptop displaying what my camera could see
from like way up here behind me. And I was just on the floor up and down, just making sure every
trinket was somewhat visible in this picture. And oh my gosh, the amount of time we just like moving
things a little tiny bit, or just like trying to make sure something isn't covering something else
or, you know, trying to make sure everything is visible and then repacking up all those trinkets
back into their bags, nice and safe and carefully. And then taking out specific ones we want for the
next photo. And then once that one has been shot, then I need to make sure the same trinkets aren't
getting photographed all the time. So then that's a new group that stays on its own. And then I shoot
the rest of them for the new photos. So I just did the group shot and the gradient photo where I took
all the trinkets and made like a big gradient of color with all the trinkets. And the next one I'm
working on is like a little poker scene with some stuffed animals and they're using the trinkets as
like trading materials, like trick-or-trap a little bit. So now I'm working on finishing the hula,
iSpy book, and then getting ready for Okeechobee, which is in like a few days, it feels like,
like a little over a week, maybe close to two weeks.
And what are you going to do there? What is it? Which more like the yearbook or more like iSpy
or what are you going to do there? Yeah, so I actually have some breaking news for anyone
watching the podcast right now. I have not even said anything on my story because this just came
in yesterday. But this is going to give you a good idea of what the Okeechobee is going to be like.
Okay, so ready?
Yeah, you guys might recognize this lineup right here.
RIP to the final days. Yeah. I haven't taken this sticker off. That's the first copy, right? The
first first. Yeah, this is the first copy. And the thing I learned with making my two previous books,
both the first Bonnaroo of Yearbook and the 2024 version, was I never just ordered one copy to see
what it looked like in print first. I just ordered all the copies all at once. Rookie mistake.
Rookie mistake. Don't do that. Y'all never try that. Never try. And it's not even like that I did
anything wrong those first few times that I, you know, was so horrendous that it ruined the whole
thing. But there are definitely things that I wish I would have done different and before I printed
50 of them. You know what I mean? You can always tweak them. There's always little tweaks and stuff.
Like see this little space here. I want it to be more touching the sides. And so I want that to be
kind of filled in a little closer to the edge there. And there's like a couple pages in here
with some of the photos that are maybe a little bit darker. Then I would have liked them to come
out to have been. But yeah, so it's basically for the Okeechobee Yearbook, it's going to be scans
of all the pages of whatever people write or leave inside of this source material book.
So this is going to be the origin for the Okeechobee Yearbook. So whatever gets put in here
will be printed, preserved in here. And then in addition to that, I have, you know, photos of
people as they're with the book, right? So it's like people as they're signing it or posing with
it or just like random moments from around the farm. But for Okeechobee, of course. And then
in addition to that, of course, every good yearbook needs superlatives, right? So like best drawing,
best handwriting, best photo, best quote, things like that. I see a Bryan Stone in there. Oh yeah.
Right? All the best stuff. And then I put iSpy pages at the back. So any trinkets anyone gives
me, it's also going to have a few iSpy photos kind of in the back of the book as well, with some
rhyming puzzles. And then, you know, things like fun facts, all the names printed out, limited
edition number. And I haven't put the number in yet because they're all done by hand.
All right. I need to get the first one and the third one and probably the islands one. Yeah!
You want the full collection now. I gotta have it. Absolutely. Where can people get it?
Shout out to Tim Myers, who is the only person I know of who has the full collection right now.
He's the only one who's bought all of them. There's going to be two by the end of the day.
Yeah, but the website is Bonnaroooyearbook.com. That's easy. And since I'm technically,
I told everyone the pre-sale was going to end as soon as the book was done. And so now that the book
is done and I have the first copy in my hand, pre-sale is over. But for what podcast listeners,
use promo code the what podcast and you'll get 50% off if you want to buy a copy of this book
in particular. So just for the 2025 Bonnarooo yearbook, you get 50% off using code the what
podcast and you can get yourself a copy for ever. Any challenges other than the ones that are obvious
that there's just less days, but any challenges to doing a one day of Roo 2025 as opposed to the
other two that were full weekends and then some? They look about the same size. They're pretty close.
They're pretty close in terms of thickness to each other, which is honestly really incredible.
And to be fair, the original book that everyone signed for the 2025 year, like there's a lot more
signatures than you would think for only having one full official day. I think I counted around,
oh, I have it in here in the fun facts, actually. Oh, geez. I already counted it. Here we go. I have
600 with that page and something signatures. Oh, it's at the end. It's a correlatives. Yeah,
here we go. There it is. So how many is that? 658 contributors. Yeah. 658 contributors compared to
last year, I had a grand total of I think like a thousand in something.
Do you ever see any music about? Yeah, barely. You know what I do? Here's the 2024 stats for reference.
1,190. Yeah. So definitely a lot fewer signatures, that's for sure, but a lot more photos.
Like I compensated for the pages with just like adding way more pictures of people as they were
signing it. But yeah, in terms of like the main challenges and stuff, the biggest one was just the
gut punch to like our emotional state. Like, because we were just so hyped and so ready. And so when
that came in, it was like, you gotta go. It was like, like, okay. So we ended up packing up that night.
And me and my girlfriend, we just got a whole campsite minus our tent and easy up,
all packed up, all ready to go. And we were out of there by like, 830 AM or something. There was no
cars, no traffic, no nothing. But we were also like three or four rows in from the arch.
Sounds like you got lucky. Yeah. So we got really lucky with our spot and like three spots down from
us. They were completely flooded in a ditch. Whereas we were just like so lucky. We were just
on that slightly little bit higher up in elevation. So we got really lucky with getting out of Bonnarooo
this year. But then it was coming back home and just like the defeat of having so many empty pages,
especially towards the back of the book. Like this hurts my heart. Never have I done a Bonnarooo
yearbook and there's empty pages by the end of it. So that was really hard for me personally,
just as like doing this project. Like going through and photographing all the pages again.
Just like seeing all the people who wrote, first drew, best drew in the book. And I'm just like,
man. I feel so bad for all the people who went for the first time and that was their experience.
I'm just like, no, you gotta come back. That's not rude. That's not supposed to be what you're
supposed to experience. Where are you located, Caleb? Where do you live? I'm in Atlanta, Georgia.
So it's maybe like three to four hours for us to get over there. It's not huge. But our camping
neighbors, they flew in from Canada. They had to deal with the whole hotel situation and
flight changes. They were in a logistical nightmare. And so it just felt so sad just
packing up all our stuff here and them just trying to game plan and figure out what are we gonna
do to get out of this. And to be fair though, that's the only reason we sent Huluween this year.
I would have never gone to Huluween and done that project had it not been for what happened at Route
25. Because Sydney was just like, man, we need more festivals. So we're gonna book it right now.
It just booked it right then and there. Just because it's one of my favorite, favorite stories
related to Bonnarooo. Let's go back for a minute and tell your sort of origin story, right? Because
anybody watching this is gonna see this unbelievably gregarious
open guy who's doing such a cool, cool thing thinking, man, he's always been this way. But
that's not the case, right? No, not at all. We talk about how Bonnarooo changes lives and I can't think
of anybody to better tell that story than you. So give us a quick, how the hell did Caleb get to
hear? Were you wearing, you know, you have Bonnarooo pajamas? On a podcast about Bonnarooo? Like,
who is this guy? So I traditionally had always walked around, especially like in my early youth,
um, I'd always walked around with a journal and I just would take notes and draw things. And I
would say I'm artistically inclined overall, uh, something, something like one of these kind of
thing. And usually I'll just have a little pen and just write down whatever comes to mind. And I went
to my first ever music festival, which just happened to be, I got invited to go to Coachella
with a group of people and I was like, sure, let's go do that. And I was walking around the
festival and my group decided to go do one thing and I went off to go do my own thing. But I was
so nervous and intimidated to go talk to new people at the festival. Like there were so many
groups of people just depth to the nines and these gorgeous outfits and like just, you can see a group
of people and go, they're cool. Like I want to be a part of whatever you got going on.
But I was intimidated. Like I didn't have the social skill set to be able to just walk up and
say, Hey, how's it going guys? Like, what y'all up to? I just didn't have that in me. That wasn't
part of my repertoire at all. Um, but then someone handed me a little party favor and then it kind of
made it to where like this urge to go and talk to people was just overwhelming. Like I just add to
it, but I still didn't have that icebreaker. So I had my journal and I went up to people and I was
like, Hey, would you like to write something in my book? But I got lots of mixed feedback on that
question. Some people were like, what's it for? Or like, what are you going to do with this? Or
like, am I signing? Is this a contract? Yeah. Like, is this a death note style situation? Like,
what is this? Um, and so there was, I was often met with questions and rejections a lot of times,
and I just wanted to like talk to people. Um, but they were confused on what the heck was going on.
And so I went out to one person eventually, and I was like, Hey, would you like to write something
in my book? And she opened it up and she was like, Oh, this is so cute. It's kind of like your yearbook.
She started drawing like hags or something in the book and gave it back to me. And I was like,
Oh, that's genius. I think he asked the Coachella yearbook. That's so genius. Let me write that
down. So I wrote down Coachella yearbook in big letters, and then I changed my question. So I went
from, do you want to write something in my book to do you want to sign the Coachella yearbook?
And the energy shift was immediate. Like you could just see people write up anytime I would ask the
question. And like 98% of the time, 99% of the time, they were down to participate and like be a
part of it. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, I found the secret life hack to meeting new people.
Music festival name and yearbook. Do you want to sign the festival name?
Isn't it fair to say every generation all shares a little bit of sign in the yearbook and the
excitement of it. I mean, from Barry to us to you. Like, Oh my God, yes, I can't wait to do that.
Like you're, you're, you're one of the cool kids if you're in that kind of yearbook. Yeah. So that's
neat. Yeah. So it's, it's a little bit of nostalgia. It's a little bit of, you get to leave your mark.
It's a little bit of just social interaction at a festival. That's not super committed. You know,
it's not like I'm saying, Hey, let's hang out together for the rest of the festival.
It's like, Hey, let's sit down on this moon map together and you sign some pages of a book,
write down whatever you want to. You guys look amazing. Can I take a picture of click?
I have a great day and I go to another group of people and it's the same thing.
It is overstating it, but I mean to it's, it's, it's in the now it's in the present,
but it's also something that you know, will be there forever. Yeah. Which makes it special.
Right. That's why you sign a yearbook. Yeah. It's like, okay, we've just gone through these,
this event together, but we'll revisit this next year, next year, next year. It was really cool.
It was really cool seeing like alumni from people who had signed previous books. Oh yeah. There you
go. You know, like at Bonnaroo 2025, we got there on Tuesday. So we were there from Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and we left Friday morning. So we still had like a good amount of time at Rue.
I got there Tuesday. Yeah. RIP Tuesday entry though. Yeah. But like even in the parking lot
before we got into the line to line up to get into Rue, right? Like just in the waiting around,
I was running into people who had signed the previous year and it was like, oh my gosh,
I already ran into yearbook alumni. Like that's so sick. Like it was, it was so cool running into
those reoccurring characters over and over again and just seeing kind of how those relationships
evolve over time. And yeah, it's just so fun going back and looking through and like, oh my gosh,
there's my page, you know, or wow, like here's mine, you know, and then like taking a picture
with their signature from the last year. Like, wow. Yeah. There you go. You know, like there I am.
So yeah, to see your own work in a printed format alongside all of your festival peers is just like,
ah, it's so cool. That's what I mean by the history thing. It's there forever.
Well, we wanted to get to the, so your thoughts on things of this year's lineup, the lineup in
particular, but the festival in general, but before we do that, let's not bury the lead completely
here, or at least one of the leads, if that's a way to put it, you're going to be working
in some roundabout or maybe more direct than I understand way with the festival themselves
this year, correct? And I am correct. What, what, what is that? We'll call it collaboration line.
Yeah. So I was like, you know, I've been doing this project for three years now. This will be
my fourth year going into this year. Um, I was like, Bonnarooo needs to get me on board.
Yeah, we're trying to sell this podcast to them. So yeah, yeah.
Yeah. So I was like, I want to be on media and, or I want to get in with Bonnarooo official.
And I reached out to them last year to try and get in and things just kind of didn't pan out.
And so it's not that easy. Three years. It's not. No. So for the past three years,
I've paid my ticket in full a hundred percent plus everything that goes into it to just be at the
festival. So this year I applied for social media and several other, like a vendor and a artist
application. Like I felt that several applications to just get tickets. Um, and they accepted me for
the Instagram social media. So you're an influencer. So I'm an influencer.
And the kind of videos they want me to make are the ones where it's just me walking around with
my friends, just like 15 to 22nd clips of just like moments that I think are really cool from around
Bonnarooo. Um, so that was like the kind of guidance they gave me. And there's a few other things in
there. Like I have to make XYZ posts before the festival, during the festival, and after the
festival. I also can't talk any smack about Bonnarooo. Like I'm not allowed to talk any trash
without honor. Well, you have danced on that line a time or two. Yeah, I guess I have. That's true.
Sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. No, good for you. Good for you. Good for you to not censor yourself,
but also be measured enough to know where your bread is buttered. So now you're doing it. You're
doing this well. I'm trying to walk the tightrope, you know, I gotta, I gotta do it as best I can.
I'm trying not to fall off any high places. You posted a video after we came out with an episode
that had Cory and Brad on, right? Yeah. And kind of explained some of the stuff you were complaining
about. And I think you actually like said, okay, I got this wrong. So, you know. Yeah, yeah, I do
remember that. That was funny. I think they shared it. Yeah, but they definitely commented. I remember
that. They're like, now it's all good. Well, Brad Parker was obsessed with the comment section. So
he is going to listen and hear every single thing. Hey, Brad. Well, maybe not as much anymore.
He fell off out of the phone book, a phone booth, I should say, dressed up as the festival for his
next, his next. Right. Caleb, how much time is now involved? I mean, this was a, you know, a hobby,
I assume four years ago. Yeah. But I mean, you just talked about how much time you spent to take one
picture, which I understand. People don't understand, you know, it looks simple. It's not. So how much
time are you putting into these projects? In terms of like, working hours. And what do you do for a living?
What do you do? Yeah. How do you sustain yourself? Right. So I'm a professional photographer by trade.
That's what I do for a living. So I mainly focus in portrait photography, e-commerce photography,
food photography. I work with businesses like Stitch Fix, DoorDash. And then I do a lot of
just like personal portraiture. So this isn't too far afield at all. No. So photography is my main,
this is what I know, the best of all of my bookmaking things. Like making a printed book is not
my main skill set. Taking pictures is my main skill set. Well, that helps explain why you're
worried about the margin. Yeah. So I'm very detail oriented in the work that I do too. Like I want
things to be as clean and crisp and sharp and nice as they can get without it feeling like sterile or
gross. And so with the book, in terms of like working hours, it's the time it takes to get the
website prepared and ready for people to pre-order it. So like there needs to be a place where people
can actually go and get that ready. That takes me anywhere from like five to six hours over the
course of getting ready for the festival, you know, spread out over a good amount of time.
Then we have the actual collection of the signatures, which from until I get to Rue,
till when I leave Rue, I am gathering signatures pretty much 90% of the time. Like there are certain
moments where I'm like, okay, bro, I need to chill out. Like I'm done for a second. I'm going to go
just watch something or go lay in a hammock and like, I'm done with the book right now.
So Brian kind of half joked earlier about, do you see music? You probably don't see a lot, do you?
Well, so how my yearbook project works, generally speaking, and it's changed as the project has
gotten more popular and like more people recognize me. But generally speaking, what I'll do is like,
let's say there's something I want to go see at the other stage at 6 30. I go to the other stage
at 6 30 and then I watch the thing and just pass the book around to people or like people come up
to me and ask to sign it. So the book is constantly getting signatures while I'm watching the thing.
And then it's like, oh, thank you so much. Like, yeah, check out the website and then,
hey, would you like to sign the monitor of your book? And then they take their time with it.
I'm dancing. I got my flow star or whatever, and you know, hanging out. And then once I've seen my
thing, then I will bunny trail through the festival, getting signatures of people that I
think are really interesting. I'm like, oh my God, I need their signature. Like this is a good photo
opportunity. Let me see if I can get some signatures in this area so I can get a really cool picture
with that in the background kind of a thing. So it's like, I look for people who want to be a part
or wait for people to recognize and say, hey, can I sign the thing? And then I slowly but surely make
my way to whatever the next thing is. And oftentimes I miss stuff I want to see because
I get involved with someone who is drawing the coolest thing I've ever seen. And it's like,
okay, well, I'm not just going to tell them, hey, give me the book back in. I got to go.
Like, you do your thing, boo. Take your time. I can miss it. Like, it's okay. So I try not to have
too harsh of a schedule on myself and not beat myself up for missing things because I know
I'm always in the right place at the right time because the project needs to get done. It needs
to be finished and filled out. And so the more signatures and the more space people take in the
book, the cooler the end result is. Well, speaking of seeing music, are you team this lineup kind of
sucks or team this lineup works for me or in between? Talk to us about the line-up.
So I'm contractually obligated. I was Gary as in. You should have asked him that 10 minutes ago,
Brian. As I said it, I was like, I know the answer here. No, I'll tell you this. Last year's lineup
was peak. I wanted to see Tyler, the creator on the mount. I bought VIP tickets because I wanted
to see Tyler from the mount specifically. Like for that moment, I bought the whole ticket.
Anyways, so not getting to see that plus the other three days of artists. I was really excited to
see from last year. I would say this lineup is really good. But for me, I'm kind of biased. The
lineup is this important to me, whereas the project is this important to me. So the lineup is kind of
secondary to the Bonnarooo experience overall. But I did write down my favorites I'm excited for.
All right, let's go. Let's hear it. So Thursday, Skrillex and Fortet, number one opening party.
Everyone's going to be there. Friday, I have in order Grizz. I'm very excited for we just went
and saw Grizz at Eternal New Year's Eve in Florida. And that was so good. I missed Grizz in 2023,
because I was yearbooking and I just didn't see it. But I will not be missing that again. The
Strokes, Major Lazer, Wetleg and Zack Fox. That's what I have for my Friday. No,
I'm not going to be putting down. He's a no-geek guy. Okay. Sorry, y'all. I haven't gotten into
geese yet. Everyone and their mom talks about geese, but it ain't that good. I don't know
too many moms talking about geese. But if you say so, it's fine. We've already gone over this
for two episodes. I want to meet her if she is. Introduce me if you have a mom that's into geese.
Yeah, exactly. I'll send you your number. Saturday, I'm doing Rufus de Sol, The Neighborhood,
which is very nostalgic for me. That is peak ages 8 to 12 or 13 is The Neighborhood for me.
Alabama Shakes, very excited for. Chasen's Status, very excited for. Sarah Landry, Rainbow
Kitten Surprise, God willing. I feel like every time I've tried to see that something has happened.
Something happens every time. I know the feeling. I'm apprehensive, but hopeful.
I'm not putting too much money into it, but we're going to see what happens.
Flip Turn and Nikita the Wicked are my Saturday. Ending it on Sunday, we have Kesha, LSZ, Daily
Bread, Modest Mouse, Japanese Breakfast, and San Holo. That's who I have for my
artists that I definitely want to go see. Otherwise, I'm just going to be yearbooking
and just walking around with that book. Yeah, no kidding. This is a lot of fun,
Caleb. Thank you so much for giving up a Sunday morning to do this.
Yeah, of course. I love talking to you. Let's real quick, coming out of, as Brian would say,
in radio parlance, a reset, I guess. Where again can people find your products and what is that
promo code? I just tried to sign it in and I don't know if you've activated it yet, but it
wouldn't let me because I was going to. No, I will. I will. Good. I'll wait.
I'll make sure I send it to you as soon as it's live. The Instagram is at BonnarooYearbook.com.
The website is Bonnarooyearbook.com and the promo code is the whatpodcast.
These are very limited. They're beautiful books, by the way, folks. These are not.
They're beautiful. I have the one and I want to get the other two. They're gorgeous
and again, going back to the history of it, I look forward to pulling it out in five years
and 10 years and whatever and being like, yeah, that was, I did that. I was there for that. So
you only, you do a limited number and I got to be crass. Are you making any money? Are you breaking
even? I mean, yeah, and basically, I'm basically making no money off of these. Join the club.
Trying to and the reason is because the cost of production to make these books, I'm making these
like one off to print. I'm not working with like a big publishing house. I'm not working in like
massive quantities where I can get them at $15 a book or whatever. Like these are, like, for example,
this first one that I made, this big 12 by 12 coffee table book, the first year that I made,
it's cost me $175 to produce one. And it's like, not many people can buy a $200 book.
No. And so I changed the formatting a little bit for these ones to be a little more affordable.
So these ones still cost me around $70 or so a book plus shipping. And when I do pre-orders,
it's $100. So really it's like with shipping materials to and packaging and like ticket and
food and time spent at the festival, just working on this project and all my time
shooting the photos, scanning the pages, editing, calling, like the whole design process of this,
you know, also takes me weeks, if not months, in terms of like actually finishing the thing.
And so all of the time spent is kind of like could be working on other stuff. So really at the end
of the day, I am losing money on this. But as the project grows and it gets bigger, like I sold
like I sold nine copies of this my first year I did this. Then for 2024,
for 2024, I think I sold like 40 something like 45 or 46 copies of this. And for Bonnarooo 25,
I sold almost 50 copies, but I had three less days in my schedule. So as I do this, my goal is I want
to get the first ones that I have. These are limited edition. So only a hundred of these will
ever be printed and made and shipped out and sent off to people, which is why I made it $200. So
that way I can try and make money off of it to some degree for my time and effort. And if you
didn't buy it within the first nine months of me making it, how big a fan of this project are you
really? If you waited nine months to buy it, yeah, you could pay extra because you saw how cool it is
now that it's done. You didn't trust the vision and the pre-order for a hundred dollars. So that's my
goal. But I think you're following the formula. You're following the formula for Okeechobee. I'm
battling if I should do and for this upcoming year, if I should do non-limited edition. So then I
don't have to individually sign and number each book and I could potentially have it sent straight
from the producer of the books to the person without me having to be a middleman for the
shipping. So I'm trying to figure that out now. But it kind of takes away some of that,
you know, that something to it. I think the limited edition nature and knowing only so many
will ever exist, just like a regular yearbook would be limited edition. I can't go buy my
yearbook from... Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's not a catalog out there. So why do you do it? And I'm
asking, well, I kind of know I'm leading you. I think it's because of why we all feel about
this festival. But I'm going to ask, why do you, I mean, that's a lot of time. That's a lot of money.
It's a lot of time. It's a lot of energy. It's a lot of resources. And I do it for the legacy,
I think. I think to look back in, I don't know, five, six, seven, 10 years from now and have a
series of all of the different books together and to be able to go through and like see a whole
collection over time. Even looking now seeing I have three printed books plus the I Spy book.
I'm like, how have I made four books? I've just been living life and now it's just come before me.
But really it's the community. Doing this allows me to interact with the community on such a
personal level. And it's so easy now. And I almost feel like not expected, but it'd be a bummer if I
didn't show to do it at a certain point. And I love the process. The thing I don't love is shooting
pictures of the pages and editing each one individually in Photoshop for several days.
Oh yeah. All the post-production is what makes this stuff a drag. The post-production is,
it's a real drag. It's a real drag. But then people send in really cute 3D printed things like this.
Someone sent me these the other day. Oh my God. You know, like it's a little Fonaru yearbook.
It's so cute. Let me ask you this, Caleb, to the trinkets and all that, because I meant to
already get there. The trinkets of Bonnarooo, the lore, it's other festivals. Coachella might have
done it first. I don't know. As far as on the mass scale, there's been a slow, the slow burn over the
last couple of decades where it's really kind of creeped its way in. I've always been a trinket guy,
a collector guy, you know, save every, you know, church boners thing right here. I mean,
every little thing I get, you know, a coaster Miller Lite from like 1975. I've always been that way.
Have you been that way in the collector, give me all the cool little stuff everywhere I go guy,
a magnet, a sticker, or did that grow out of this or did it become bigger out of this?
Yeah. So I've always been into trinkets and little chakras, little tiny doodads, little figurines.
So this is easy. You got this licked. You know how to do it.
I love this kind of stuff. And with Bonnarooo, that introduced me to the trinket gifting culture,
because I had been to Lollapalooza. I had been to Coachella. I had, you know, gone to some other
like chicky knees before I went to Bonnarooo. Yeah. Are they sprouting people at Lollapalooza?
Are they sprouting people at the? Not near, maybe a 100 percentage point of what Bonnarooo is at.
And Hulaween was like Bonnarooo on crack. Oh, I bet.
Everyone was trying to give me the coolest trinkets for the book. Like they knew that that's what I was
up to. What was that whole thing, the costume thing, right? Like that the whole everybody's costume.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's and it's not even that it's just it's during Halloween. It's colder.
Like there were some nights where I got down to like the like mid thirties to like high or low
forties in terms of temperature. So it got cold, but it was very small. The thing I liked about it
is the campgrounds are open area so you can pick anywhere and wherever you have enough space for
your stuff. You can just set up wherever. It's not like Rue where it's grated off,
which is really sick. Like that was really cool. You can have fires.
Yeah, Hulaween was really cool festival. I really enjoyed Hula, but for Bonnarooo, I'm really excited
because I get to come back and see the community again and do another one of these.
Well, you just mentioned you just mentioned or to me last night when we were just chit chatting
and our little mini pre show meeting that you just moved.
Like, yeah, I did. You're living quarters. And so my how big of a digs is in a new spot.
How big of a pain is it to move all this what some people would call junk that you've got?
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. The logistical nightmare. I have an entire backpack, like a 30 liter backpack
plus a whole nother thing full of trinkets anywhere ranging from like someone gave me a
it's about this tall and about maybe this thick or so it's a corn on the cob candle.
And she had been carrying it around the entire festival waiting to give it to me.
And finally found me on the last day at like the end of the night. She was like,
Oh, my gosh, I found you here. Take this. I've been carrying this around all day. So that mixed
in with like a turtle smaller than your fingernail. You know what I mean? So the scale of trinkets
varies greatly. And you want to make sure nothing gets crushed or nothing gets smushed. So you got
to keep all the flat things together. And then you got to make sure all the clips don't get like
intertwined with anything that's, you know, real spirally. And so the logistical nightmare of
keeping up with all these trinkets is tough. So what I'm doing is I'm giving away several trinkets
to anyone that pre-orders something of mine. So if the project is finished and it's done,
no trinket. But if you're on the pre-order side of things, you're going to get trinkets from
whatever that festival was. So if it's the yearbook, you get a Bonnarooo trinket. If it's
from Huluween, you get a Huluween trinket. If it's from Okie, it's going to be Okie trinket.
So yeah, we did the same thing. We tried to give away junk from Barry's basement.
Yep. I understand.
Yeah. But I got some of the coolest trinkets this year from Huluween. Oh, my gosh, there's some
crazy trinkets that I got.
So nice. People go to the trouble to get on like a 3D printer and print out something
specific for you. That's pretty cool. That's beyond cool.
Yeah. Someone made me a painting. Like they painted me and my totem with the eye spy on it
and had like a little easel. Like what? That's so cool. So sick. Yeah. So it's been really eye
opening to just...
Well, a couple of pieces of Bonnarooo news just in the last week. I mean, just a little bit that's
here and there in the as we were 93 days, but it's still a little ways to go. So there's not
a ton of news, but a couple of things. Well, one in particular, I was curious about your thoughts,
the raging debate on Reddit or any other comment section about one day tickets and two day tickets.
Bonnarooo this year or this week, I should say last week, announced that they're now doing two
days. Two days. Yeah. And they've done one in the past and there's always online a lot of opinions
on this. I think we're all in agreement on here. We either A, like it that there's single days or
additional buying options or we just plain don't care. What is your thoughts on that as a
festival goer and considering how many people you interact with, what are your feelings on
there? There are different options of one day, two day, things like that. Yeah. I met tons of
people at Bonnarooo who were there for just a single day. And I think it's really a great
option for people who want to dip their toes into the festival world. They didn't ruin your time.
No, not at all. Not at all. No. And I can understand why people could have that feeling of
if you're not locking in for the whole thing, then you're not really a big, yeah, you're a poser.
You're not really a part of the community, which I think that's not very clear to exclude someone
for not being able to come and do the full thing. Like for me, I'm very fortunate. I get to go and
do the whole thing and have the full run and like do this really cool project. And I've
worked a lot to get to the point now where I can come to Bonnarooo and be like, hey, can I shoot
videos for you guys and you give me free tickets? And they're like, sure. Right. So
it takes a while to kind of get to that point. But for me, if someone wants to go for a day and
just have a blast and then dip out, like power to them. So I think it maybe feels like they're
really trying to sell as many tickets as possible and give as many options to get feet through the
door, so to speak, just to like get boots on the ground. I'm sure Bonnarooo has data on this.
I happen to know a few people that have bought single day tickets one year and next year they
go for the full weekend. So it's almost like it's a pretty much guaranteed thing. If you go one day,
well, the next year you're not going to want to just do one day. You're going to do the whole
thing. So, you know, like, for example, I really want my dad to come down and see Bonnarooo because
he's never like really been to like a big major music festival like that. And so if he could just
come down for a day, that would be much more, you know, easy for him to do as opposed to committing
to the full week. Yeah. And I think, Ryan, you made the point and I was thinking about it all
morning. You made the point a week or so or two weeks ago that we need Bonnarooo to be successful.
We need people to buy tickets. So if they're buying one day or four or a 30 minute, I don't,
we need people to buy tickets and be there. Here's your half day pass. Yeah, come on.
Sure. Yeah. An hour block. Yeah. I hadn't thought about it in that way.
It's a one show pass. You're 100% right.
And how small can you get it? Yeah.
Well, I mean, Caleb, I'm not asking you this and you're not going to say it, but I will. I mean,
to me, and I think anybody who has a reasonable mind to understand how these kinds of big events
go, these additional coming more and more down the road from the lineup announcement to June
is an indication that tickets aren't selling as well as they would like. If they were selling
right out the window and we're killing it, we got no problems. They wouldn't add one and two days.
You wouldn't see all this. They wouldn't do that. I think they should do it anyway. I really do. I
mean, back in the day, for 15 years, 17 years, maybe even, there was no one days ever. That was
never a thing. And then you would talk to people out, you know, in the off season who go to festivals
and they're used to different arrangements and be like, yeah, yeah, one day Banh Ru tickets.
They'll just talk about it like it's a reality. And like, no, there's never been one day. You
might've gone for one day and jumped the fence. You might've been there for one day. Or somebody
took their band off and gave it to you. Which early on would get you banned. I mean, yeah.
But they never had one days. I don't know what, that was a philosophical thing with Ashley Caps
and the big four, you know, all the guys that were involved in putting that together.
But they slowly worked it in. And I think it's a good idea. But also I do feel like we're looking
at a festival that maybe not selling as well. And we all are really hoping that it does. That's
something to point on that. And look, things change. Everything changes. Banh Ru today is not what it
was in 2002. Nothing. Not what it was in 2019. Correct. Nothing. And it's not what it will be in
2028. Thank you. Adapt and grow. The ticket buyers are not the same. I mean, they're just not the
same people. So speaking of which on those two day, just for listeners out there who are maybe
don't haven't looked at this, if you are interested in that two day, 50% layaway also right now is
where they're at as we get closer. So if you do want to do a payment plan, you still can,
which leads me to my thought here. What about you, Caleb and your camping situation? How do
you do camping? Do you have your own always go to Moon Colony or whatever it might be? Or how do you
do camping? Yeah. So the first year I went, I went solo camping. That was my first time going
and camping by myself for six days at a music festival. And I was not prepared. Like I had
most of the stuff I thought I needed. And then I got there and I realized I don't have majority
of the things I actually need. So I learned a lot my first year going solo, but then I went again,
my second year with my girlfriend, Sydney. And I learned a lot more about, you know,
best time to get into the festival. Like the earlier, the better, because the closer you can
be to the arch and be set up and like just a quick little hop in a skip into the festival,
it makes a world of difference in my opinion for especially what I'm doing with the amount of,
you know, traversing I'm doing. Yep. So no group for you or anything like that. You don't do like,
you don't get involved. You just, you do your own little kind of stake your own little land.
And yeah, so we, we do, we try and get in as early as possible. What we did for this year,
we had the best setup. It was so bad. So we have, we do a big easy up canopy. We have a six person
tent, which is more than enough space for the two of us. We have like a little blow up mattress. We
have a little folding table inside of our tent. We've got a whole bunch of plushies and blankets
and pillows be like all super nice and cozy. Then we have another table outside, a little thing
hanging from the easy up to just like have storage and access to random stuff, like little cubbies
kind of, and then an outdoor rug and some led lights. But when we go to Huluween or when we
went to Huluween, we did it a little bit different. We did like a big living room set up with a bunch
of other friends of ours. So we had like four canopies. We had two couches. We had a kitchen
area. We had a put stuff down area. We had a, like it was this whole little living room we built
basically in the middle of Huluween. Sounds like peanut butter back in the day. Yeah, it was sick.
It does sound like it. I mean, if you've got the infrastructure to do that, that's the play.
That's the move. The problem is getting that many people to cooperate. And we used to have that. We
used to have a utopia. Caleb, oh my God, you would have been, it would have been the most amazing
place for you. Those days are long gone. We still have a nice setup. We're still good. We're still
good. We used to have something that was quite, it was enchanting. It was enchanting. It was.
But for me, I'll tell you guys this, the thing that I learned about the yearbook project that I loved
doing when I was solo especially was you guys know there's other people with like way better setups
than I think you've ever seen. Yeah, come on in. And you know they're the coolest people ever, right?
Like you can just go hang out and talk with people with big fans in their RVs and just have a good
time hanging and talking with them. Yeah. Like you can do that. So what I did for most of 2023,
when I got too hot or I was hungry, I'd just walk around like all the cool campsites see like, oh,
those guys look like having a good time. Hey, y'all want to sign the yearbook? And just people will
be like, oh, we got some burgers. You want a drink? We got a full cooler full of anything you could
think of. Yep. I was like, what is going on here? Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. Not to be like in a
weird, oh, give me something away. But like it just happened. It kept happening. And I was like,
oh my gosh, like the community here is so cool and so giving. And that's what really made me like,
this is a small thing I do for the community that has given so much to me every time I've needed
something at Bonnarooo or been in a tricky spot with something camping wise or I'm hungry and
someone's cooking up some food. Like it always just kind of comes around. Like everything works
out. Everyone tries to work together to make sure everyone's okay and taken care of. And there's
like very little hierarchy in the camping grounds. Like everyone's on the same page. Like, I think
those moments are my favorites. The one where I happened to have something that I hadn't planned
on that somebody needed. Like I remember one year a couple came up like on a Saturday afternoon and
I don't remember what happened, but they lost everything. And I'm like, oh, do you need a tent?
I happen to have one. It's not great. It's my third choice. I just threw everything in when I
had one and they were like, are you kidding? I'm like, no, here. No, here's a tent. Have it. Yeah.
That's a great moment. You know, all the time, all the time. Yeah. And it's amazing how
quickly it happens. Like literally within the first couple of hours getting camp set up and
going around and just talking with the neighbors and introducing ourselves. And then we end up like
becoming great friends by the end of it. And it's just that something about that experience,
I could understand why someone would be like, oh, if you're doing two day, you don't get that.
Right. Right. You're not going to be a part of it. So you don't really understand. Like you don't
really know. That's true. Well, and to Russ's point, we've talked about on here many times is
that, you know, that one or two day person gets in there and realizes there's limitations to that
ticket buying purchase. And then it might be like, why the hell am I not here? You know, having a
big party like everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. Like I don't, I gotta leave now. I don't want to do that.
So that's an interesting thing there, but real quick and feel free to say this is classified
information or whatever, but in, we started doing our admission into Bonnaroo was through
traditional media outlets. And that looks a lot different than new media outlets. Like what we
do here and more specifically to newer kind of things like influencers that you're doing.
You mentioned briefly about the things they want you to do. Is there like a crash course?
Did they tell you exactly how many it is? And this needs to be checked off list and, and,
you know, or else kind of thing is a little, is a little fluid is a little get wiggle room. What
do you expect out of that? Do you think it'll make it a lot harder for you or maybe even easier?
Yeah. So with the application process, so I think it was for social media, influencer application
or something along those lines was the thing that I filled out. And I basically just put in my
Instagram handle, what kind of content I was trying to make, blah, blah, blah, a couple of things.
And they reached back out to me and they're like, Hey, like we love your application. We're going
to send you some more details about kind of what it is that we want you to do. And if that all
sounds good to you, we'll get a contract put together and have you sign it. So they're like,
okay, cool. So, uh, they sent me a little briefing over the kind of content that they would like for
me to produce while I'm at the festival. Like, uh, they sent some links to some of my previous
videos that I had shot for Huluween and they're like, we wanted to do this kind of style. I was
like, okay, cool. Um, and then they sent over a contract for me to sign and attached to that was
the, uh, basically it has like a list of deliverables that you need to hit by certain
deadlines. So it's like by this date, you need to have a video saying that you're going to be
going to the festival. You need to have, uh, like a post of the lineup. You need to have,
so it's not very vague. It's not very vague. It's, it's pretty, it's pretty, it's pretty laid out.
Like it doesn't have, here's the script of what you need to say, you know, but it has like,
here's the content, here's the date. And then in exchange for that, I'm getting two GA tickets,
but I still had to pay for my camping accommodation. Um, so I bought the camping pass,
but they're giving me two GA tickets. Uh, and then I have to post, I think like I'd have to look at
the contract exactly, but it's a certain amount of stories and a certain amount of posts during
the festival and then, uh, a certain amount of post host festival. So there's like a pre and during
in a post that I need to kind of hit those beats on, I guess, staying good faith. But the other
thing that was attached to the contract that I thought was really funny, uh, was I can't talk
any, anything. I can't bash Bonnarooo publicly. I just thought it was really funny. Like, okay,
I hear you. I would, I would have that writing in there as well. Yeah.
That's pretty common. I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna turn the contract down in two, three tickets
over that. So I was like, you know what? You guys got it. I love Bonnarooo. It makes perfect sense.
When I started, uh, the, the, um, what's the word, the contract or the demand, if you will,
if you were going to be a photographer, you had to have a, an SLR, you had to have a,
an actual camera that the lens could, you know, you couldn't just show up with your phone. You
couldn't show up with a, you know, the pole, the Kodak that you bought at the right. You can't
have an instax. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was how they find between professional and,
and so to come this far, it makes sense because I mean, we get emails from people saying, hey,
can you get me a free ticket? You know, a photo pass. I'll take pictures for you guys type of
thing. I mean, everybody's trying to get in. I get it. So, and now with the internet, everybody
is a, you know, a podcaster, a journalist, an influencer. Yeah. That's frustrating.
Not a professional like us who's getting paid cents on the dollar. This really is on the,
this buttoned up tight ship that this thing is sailing through the festival seas haphazardly
getting information wrong every week. Seemingly they don't get mad at us for getting the
information wrong. What was that? We never even talked about what I got wrong last week. The,
the, I thought I said the ticket prices got pushed to the middle of March for their next
incremental increase. Oh, like the tier. Yeah. Totally wrong. That's not true at all. Not true
at all. It's, it's camping passes. Camping passes are not going up until March. So yeah,
I mean, clearly, you know, they don't, they haven't come after me with Pitchforked yet, but.
Yeah. Yeah. And I think Bonnarooo overall is pretty chill. Oh, they are. They are. We've been doing
this for two decades, two and a half decades. And I'm actually surprised you had to go to them
because they've been really good about identifying people like you doing cool stuff and reaching out
like our friend David Bruce and some others. But they have, there are a lot of people doing
cool things. So I think it's a little more complicated than it was, you know, a decade or
so ago. Right. And I'm, I'm relatively still small in the, I would say overall like Instagram
marketplace. Like I think I have slightly over 6,000 followers as of right now. That doesn't
sound small to me. It's still a lot. But I guess you're right. But if you talk about like, you know,
some of the people out there with like 90,000 followers or something like that, you know what
I mean? So yeah, they are looking closer from six to 60, right? Like 60 is like, that's not,
it's wild to talk about, right? Like numbers that we think like, oh, 50,000, that's huge.
Someone else is looking at them and like, God damn, it's only 6,000, 55, what am I doing? You know,
I'm paid for all this optimization and I'm not, you know, so it's, it's a, it's a scale, you know,
it depends on, on, on who you ask kind of situation. Which is why I was so excited to be
invited personally by the creative director of Okeechobee to bring this project to Okeechobee.
I was like, where's Bonnarooo? You guys need to be asking me to do something.
Different scales, just a little bit. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. 80,000 people,
15,000. Yeah. We, as we always do, I thought maybe, you know, half hour, 40 minutes, we're at an hour.
We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk briefly about the homework
assignment that Russ gave Brian and I. The early, just the early little portions, because I barely,
I failed the assignment so far, but we will definitely, we will start it coming up next.
And Caleb, you said you might have something to add to this. Yeah. You're going to stick around?
Yeah. I got you. All right. Let's take a break. And we'll be right back.
All right. And we're back. Last week, as we were signing off, Russ, as he often does,
give, gave us a surprise bit of, what would it, I don't know what a challenge that you don't often
do that. But anyway, right at the end of the show last week, homework, homework, homework. Yeah. I
don't think I've ever given you homework before. No, I don't think so. But you always kind of at
the end have that last minute, oh, by the way, kind of thing that catches me by surprise.
But last week, your homework assignment was, I'll let you explain. What was it?
You go through your record collection and, you know, I put it all in Discogs and then I sorted by
most valuable based on median price. Discogs gives you like the low end, the high end,
and then the median. What is your most valuable records? I did top 10, but, you know, based on
median price, which is what they're selling for. And, you know, I was quite surprised with some of
my collection was what it was valued at. So what's your most valuable record? Yeah. Yeah. I love it.
Real quick. It is a little more complicated than one might think, which is why Brian and I have not
completed the homework assignment. That's it. That's why. It was too hard. It was too hard. Yeah.
Dog ate it. No, it takes a little more. You got to get, you got to sign in. It's free, but you need
to enter not only the album, but you need to get like the actual serial numbers because there are
different, you know, issued, there are additional. Yeah. This thing's industry standard. Like this
thing is, I already knew that it's, it's, it's very layered. Yeah. You can get very granular,
like the actual release, the actual pressing of, you know, what it is that you own. And in the last
30 years, 20 years, especially, there's been so many reissues. Like almost everything is reissued
and it's hard to know the difference as a casual music buyer buying Nirvana Bleach, you know,
chances are that's a 1989 record. The chances are you're buying a reprint probably at a,
at a run of the mill record store. So this would decipher out whether it was a original copy from
1989 or from 1999. Yeah. And for me, I started cataloging everything that I have because I was
getting in a situation where I would go out to a record store or something, see an album that I
liked. And I was like, Oh, I got to have that. I would buy it, take it home. And then it's already
there on the shelf. So now before I buy anything, I have to check, okay, do I have this? Yes. Okay.
I'm not buying it again. So yeah, condition matters. Like I, I look, I'm looking over at my
mother-in-law's collection and there's a ton of Elvis records in there. She's written hearts and
I loves, you know, to my grandson, to my granny, you know, granny loves whatever. And they're
worthless. They're not worth 50 cents. Yeah. But this is just for fun. We're not actually trying
to, you know, sell these. This is just, you know, that's always a conversation about
speaking of trinkets to the collectible stuff. Like, well, what's it worth? I mean, I don't really
know. I mean, Oh, it's worth a hundred and million, 10 cents, whatever. It's not for sale.
It doesn't really matter. But if you want some, you know, maybe I'll give you my Vinmo. I don't
know. I mean, I collect the baseball, I collect the baseball cards for my first, you know, 15
years of life. So, yeah, for me it was Pokemon cards. That's a big starting point. Which has a
lot of value or can, but where you want to start Barry, what you don't know. I will go first because
when he first said that, so that Monday, I guess I quickly got online. I thought, well, I just wonder,
cause I was like, what do I have? Because I've been collecting, I'm 62. I worked at Record Bar
when I was in my late teens. I worked for the paper. So I've got a ton of promo vinyl CDs. I
have a large collection, all that stuff. If you think this is green screen, it's not. Those are
actual CDs. Compact it, baby. Some of them still have the cellophane on them. So, you know, you
think that what, so I started looking like I have an original Pretenders, their debut album. It's
worth $12. I was surprised. I have, for example, and I just grabbed real quick. I was given this
when I was 13 years old, my birthday, we had a slumber party, Kiss the Originals. It's a three
record set with Hotter Than Hell, Strutter, or no, Dress to Kill, Hotter Than Hell and Kiss.
You can tell it's beat to hell. The condition is terrible. I have the booklet that came with it,
but I don't have the sticker and I don't have the cards, the trading cards.
Dough, that ruins it.
If I did, I think it's worth $800, something like that.
Oh my God.
Wow.
Real quick. I do have Elvis Moon River 78 on RCA Victor. It's worth $270.
Hey, look at that.
It's in good condition. Some of the things, Brian, I know you like the colored vinyl. I do too.
Some of that stuff's new. So what you got, Brian? What was your first thought that you think are
your most valuable?
Well, of course it's in a case because everything I display, the Litter-Skinner Street Survivors.
Caleb, any understanding of this record at all?
No.
So what happened was this was released in what, Barry, 76, 77?
77, I think was the crash.
And the plane that killed that guy and that guy.
And her.
Cassie Gaines, yeah, wherever Cassie is.
The plane went down, what, three or four days after this record was released, engulfed in flames.
They immediately recalled all of these and then re-released it with the exact same
line of people standing there with this up here in a black backdrop, which I have that one too.
First concert ticket I ever bought, $7.50 was-
To the Street Survivors Tour.
To that show at Memorial Auditorium.
Oh my God.
The plane went down.
So I didn't look, this has got some real scarcity value and also in not good shape at all.
And then one more I'll just show you that I know it's got some value because on eBay it
sells for $150 to $200. It's a very limited release. The Flaming Lips from 1993.
Oh nice.
Oh, look at that, that case and everything. Look at that.
This was in 1993, Chad's records, just down the road from you and your connections with all that.
Chad bought it from my brother Bob.
That's right, that's right. And this was before these kinds of things were happening all the
time. This was a very limited run. I'm not even a big Flaming Lips fan, I like them, but that's my
own, those are my two records that might hold value, almost nothing else I don't think would.
By the way, if that Elvis Blue Moon record that I have on 78, if it was a Sun record label,
it's $1,700.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
That's so crazy. That's actually so crazy.
Sun records was a big deal back in the day.
Yeah.
Taco, what about you?
Well, let's go Caleb.
Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So most of my personal vinyls that I've collected and had been gifted over
the years are in a storage unit right now. But my girlfriend does have some and the one I pulled
that I thought might be worth some, I don't know if it is or not, this Incubus.
Make yourself one.
Potentially so. There's also a Portals one by Melanie Martinez that she loves listening to.
There's a Harry Styles one and then a Beatles one, but I'd have to go pull the Beatles one to know
exactly which album to talk about.
The Beatles ones, I can tell you, are especially tricky because they're, like Brian said,
there's so many reissues.
It depends on, yeah, I'd have to go and do the Discog serial numbers and all that stuff. So I
was bad and I didn't do my homework properly.
No, no, you didn't. This is fun.
But my favorite vinyl I own is Acid Rap by Kates the Rapper. That's probably like my favorite one
to listen to. That and Igor. Those are like probably my two.
All right. I mentioned this one last week, but this is the Ween album.
Chocolate and Cheese.
Yeah. This is a double record, $200 median price on Discogs.
Oh, wow. Median price.
And mine is kind of still in the plastic. It's got like the sticker
and on the high end that says this is worth $450.
I was like 13 when that album came out.
That was a tough album cover to look at regularly without being a little too
medmarined.
I know. You felt a little like I shouldn't be looking at this.
I love Dween all of a sudden.
That's so funny. Is this TOS appropriate?
There's an original price tag of $9 when it was sold.
So the shrink wrap, they count the shrink wrap that's part of the value?
Yeah. I don't know if it is or not.
And I have no idea what condition this would be in, but it's pretty good.
And it's one of their most popular albums too.
I don't have anything with the shrink wrap still on it.
I peel that off and throw it away.
It's opened.
It's the classic slit right there.
Your thumbnail.
I cultivated that thumbnail.
All right. Here's another one.
This is a 7-inch 45 from Green Day.
And this is an original pressing from 1989.
Dukie came out.
So this is before they blew up.
$120 median price for just a little single.
I would have guessed that or at least somewhere around that.
There was a Kerplunk album too.
A couple other.
Yeah. I think I had that exact one because they had all those old...
What's the record label it was on?
It was some old punk label.
Lookout Records.
Doesn't have anything to do with Lookout here where we live.
But it's an old school punk label.
I had a couple of those back in the 90s.
They have a Volkswagen bus on the B-Five.
The little ones are so cool.
I love the little ones.
Especially with the LP spindle hole instead of the 45.
It's got the small hole in the middle.
My number one and this is a seven-year bitch.
This is a...
Brian, you might know this.
They're a Seattle band.
I'm very familiar with the band.
I would not guess they have any vinyl that has value.
See, there you go.
$211 on the median price.
Is it because it's in the packet?
I don't know.
That's just the median price.
The high end is $500.
And then the sticker on here says it was sold for $5.
There you go.
I've been holding this one for a while.
This is Jerome's Dream in Orchid, which is apparently a couple of Screamo bands.
It's a skull.
It's a one-sided vinyl.
So you play it on the back.
You can see it's curved out.
That's actually the vinyl.
That's insane.
This glows in the dark and it's limited to a thousand pressings.
See, limited stuff is cool.
$100.
It's so cool.
That one's only $100.
This little card here.
So yeah, I'm not really familiar with either of these, but there's that one.
Let's see.
That's a cool vinyl.
That's awesome.
What kind of package did it come in?
It just came in this.
I don't know if there's supposed to be another sleeve to it,
but it just kind of lives in a plastic thing.
Wow.
Yeah, that's a cool one.
One of mine that's King Crimson Red from 1974.
This is an original UK pressing and it is $88 is the median price.
267 on the high end.
I mean, Russ is just a few more away from starting a gallery wall of high end records here.
Except you can't play them once they're on the wall.
You get Japanese pressings.
You get what is it?
100 grams and all.
I've got some that are 180 grams.
And then this one I thought was interesting.
This is Agalock and this album is a reissue and it's on clear vinyl.
It's a double album.
And according to Discogs, this might be a bootleg
because the band kind of claims that whoever published this didn't have the license to do so.
They say they did.
So it's kind of contested.
That brings a whole new layer of evaluation.
Right.
100 bucks on Discord.
I think I paid like 30.
Or on the high end, 168.
So quite a bit of range between the high end and the median and the low end.
Yeah, for sure.
Again, who will pay what?
There's a few of mine.
We'll probably do more with records as we lead up to Record Store Day,
which is coming up next month.
Is it on 420 or is it which day?
It's right around there.
I can't remember how the weeks fall, but it's the third week-ish of April.
There you go.
Please, guys, Russ, tell them how they can share their most valuable vinyl.
What are the comments and phone number and all that stuff?
Let us know what you have.
Your most valuable.
Let us know what you have.
Leave a comment on the video.
You can call us.
Our voicemail line is still open.
423-667-7877.
If you want to just describe what you got, we've got Discord.
You can join the Discord.
The what.co.
Get you in and you can post pictures and video there if you want.
And yeah, just let us know what you got.
Yeah, I got a few more records.
I'm not banning this idea.
I like the idea.
I just...
Yeah, save some for later.
Yeah, it's a big conversation.
Caleb, man, you're a great guy.
Thank you.
We kept you way longer than I thought we would be keeping ourselves.
But it was a lot of fun.
It was a lot of fun.
It was awesome.
It was fun.
I love you, Edwin.
All right.
Thanks.
Peace.
Love you, Caleb.
Till next time.
I'll see you at Roo 26.
Also on The What Podcast
Next episode
86 Days to Bonnaroo, Start Your Prep Now
