Finding Hidden Gems on the Bonnaroo 2024 Lineup

Music Festival fans know, is it about the lineup?

Is it about the vibe?

Is it about the experience?

If it's about the lineup, do you know how deep do you go?

Is it the headline?

Is it the second level?

How deep do you go?

We're going to talk about that and more on this week's What Podcast, but we're also

going to do it the way we started back in the day with a little Bonerulet.

Let's go.

Don't miss it.

And we're back on the What Podcast.

I'm Barry.

That's Lord Taco.

And with us, Bryan Stone.

How are you guys doing?

Well, doing good.

I'm so excited.

I'm so happy about this.

We're having, we're going to have a lot of fun today.

We're going to bring back one of my favorite bits on the show.

Bonnarooulette.

We're going to play that in a little bit.

Brian, it's going to be a little bit new to you, but it helps kind of ground this whole

show.

We started this show back in 2018.

We didn't think the lineup was full of a lot of bands that we were familiar with.

So we thought, how can we make ourselves familiar with acts that are on the lineup and have

some fun with it?

And my cohost at the time, Brad Steiner came up with Bonnarooulette.

We spin the wheel, we land on an act that we've never heard of, and then we go do a

little research.

So that's what we're going to do today.

Yeah.

It's a lot of fun, right?

So the first 10 years of this festival or so, maybe closer to 10 and a decade and a

half, I knew so much of every lineup.

And then that's probably about the timeframe for 17, 16, or well, maybe 16, 17, 18 is like,

okay, now I'm getting older.

Now I don't know what all this stuff is.

And it's gotten more and more that way.

That's just the evolution of the music industry and where the festival is.

So it has been fun to take a little bit of a, I won't say deep dive, but a little bit

of a shallow end wading pool, wading in the waters.

Yeah.

And to me, that's been the transition probably at the core of why we like this festival and

festivals in general.

And I'm old.

We're going to get into that in a minute.

But to me, it's the discovery.

That's the thing that this festival has changed, changed about music is used to be, you know,

if you didn't know who the band was, you didn't go, you wouldn't buy a ticket, you wouldn't

spend the money.

And now it's like, man, I want to go come, I want to go find somebody I've never heard

of.

Right.

And that's the big thing.

So just real quick, a little bit about all of us, part of the fun.

Because if you're new to this show and you're new to the festival, I assume you have no

clue why you should care.

And you guys correct me if I'm wrong.

Russ, Russ with the bus, he will park his VW West Falia anywhere, anytime, anyhow, doesn't

care.

That's right.

Russ is the easiest going guy.

I'm in it right now.

Shows up on Tuesday.

Yeah.

Shows up on a Tuesday on the farm in Manchester.

He records the damn podcast in it.

Doesn't care who's on the lineup.

Right.

No, really don't.

And I think one year maybe I've always thought about this.

How long can you really physically stay there on the farm?

At what point do they just come up to you like, it's time to leave.

Because, you know, we always stay till Monday or at least I do.

What if you stayed till Tuesday?

What if you don't know the answer to this?

Nobody I don't.

But I kind of want to find out.

Like just maybe hit the stopwatch and then just wait and see how long until somebody,

you know, picking up trash or something comes by and is like, dude, what are you doing here?

You know, it's time to leave.

Like we joked, we joked last year.

You're like, uh, I'll lock it up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'll close the gate.

I'll turn the lights out.

Don't worry.

I got it.

I'll turn the lights out.

Russ is an easy get along guy.

Brian is the guy that if Eddie Vetter isn't playing, he ain't going.

He will also sit in the car and listen to Pearl Jam while Paul McCartney's playing.

Well that's a little bit of hyperbole, but you're not far off.

There was the year that I sat in the car, listened to the shins for like five hours

a day.

And then once the shin show was there on Sunday, I was like, yeah, I'm done.

Brian will go on a walkabout and miss the, miss the music.

I'm the guy that'll be like, I'm going to go see it and walk by and then think, uh,

I've got a comfortable chair back in camp.

So I'm going to go sit in camp.

So, but we're all veterans of Bonnarooo.

I've been there.

I've been there since the beginning, missed three or four years.

Brian, you've been there every year.

Russ, you started in 2018.

So we're big time fans of this festival.

We have different tastes.

And that's part of the fun, but we love everything about it.

Right.

I mean, yeah.

And what I like about this idea for the show today, which again, I know you guys have done

in the past, I've, I've always been a semi contributor and lurker to the show.

So I'm familiar with it, but what I like about it is, is that Bonnarooo has always been known

for since the jump of, of the music discovery.

And I'm not that big on going to see music that I've never heard before.

I'm just, I'm just not that I'm maybe call that stubborn, whatever the word would be.

Hey, you got to go see this band.

They're great.

And I'm like, okay, sure.

Great.

I'm sure you can say that about everybody here right now.

If I'm not familiar with it, then I'm not generally going to be as interested in seeing

it.

I mean, it's true in every single instance of my life, but most of the time, but give

me a taste, give me a dose, and then you might've hooked me.

And that's what something like this really helps with.

Yeah.

And I think that's a great point.

And that's, again, it goes back to what I'm saying that, that there are different types

of fans.

Do you go because so, and your favorite band is on the lineup or do you go because like,

I've said it a hundred times, my new favorite band on Sunday morning when we're cleaning

the house is Bahamas.

I had no clue who Bahamas was.

I wouldn't know the name if it wasn't for Bono.

I know walked up on that, literally walked up and just fell in love with his music and

came home and that's what I listened to on Sunday morning.

It's mellow.

It's nice.

Had no clue.

Right.

What are you laughing at, Russ?

Just, you know, you remember the...

I don't know.

I don't know the band, but just to your point, you know, even if you're not familiar with

who they are, you might just walk up, you know, you know, that there's some reason that

somebody decided to put them on a stage at Bono and whether it's your taste or not, you

know, that there's, there's a reason, you know.

Yeah.

Warren treaty.

I mean, there's so many that I can reel off bands that I'd never heard of, no clue that

are now, you know, go tos for me.

And that's, that to me is the value of this festival and any festival.

I mean, I want to see the bands that I'm familiar with.

I want to see my favorites.

The, you know, I mentioned Paul McCartney, obviously, you know, that was the seminal,

seminal moment in my life.

But I love the Bahamas, the show just as much because I didn't see that coming, you know,

and it's become a go to.

So, so that's kind of the point of this, this show, this Bonnarooulette, which again, give

full credit to Brad Steiner for coming up with it.

I think it's a great title and a great bit, whatever.

So just to explain, we don't have copyright, so we can't play the music.

So we're going to spin a wheel and we're going to land on, we, we all sort of picked a bunch

of names of acts that we'd never heard of, right?

On purpose.

That's the whole point.

I mean, I'm no point in doing red hot chili peppers.

We know what red hot chili peppers are and whoever.

So we picked a bunch of names that we'd never heard of.

And we're going to land on it.

There's a lot to choose from this year.

A lot.

That's a great point.

That's why we wanted to bring this back.

That's why we started this in 2018.

Brad and I were sitting in a, in a restaurant at lunch and like, I don't know 80% of the

bands on this lineup.

And this year is probably the same.

So I think we're going to do it a couple of times, right?

Not just today.

We may do it again a couple of weeks from now or whatever.

Cause there's so much that we have to pick from.

All right.

So here we go.

Russ, you're going to spin the wheel and we're going to see where it lands.

And then we're going to, in theory, go away and listen to this music and then we're going

to come back and talk about it.

I don't know any other way to do it.

Do you?

Best way to do it.

Yeah.

Spin the wheel.

Spin it.

Spin the wheel.

All right.

And landed on geese.

What do you guys know about geese?

Oh, what a great place to start.

So you're telling me this is not goose.

No.

And the funny thing about that, there's, there are two different bands called goose.

And I know this because I tried to get them, if you guys will remember back during the

pandemic when Bonnarooo did the, uh, digital show goose crushed.

Yeah, that was a standout act.

Absolutely crushed.

And I reached out to get them on our show.

Well, there's a band in Europe called goose, not the same.

Wow.

I got an email back.

Where?

Where we're starting there with, with goose.

I'm glad we, or geese, um, and then bringing up goose to begin with is cause my first thought

was well, there's already a ridiculously stupid band named goose.

Do we really need to have a band called the poor?

Um, clearly somebody thought that was a good idea.

Experimental rock out of orange County.

Um, first impressions are solid.

Uh, I don't know where they are in the lineup, but it's gotta be, uh, yeah, they're on Thursday

818,000 listens on a monthly listens on a Spotify, which if you didn't know any better,

you think that sounds like a lot, not compared to most anybody we're going to be potentially

talking about today.

Um, so they are still a very up and coming band and, uh, roll and Barry, you'll appreciate

this.

This is why I was hoping we would eventually get to this.

Rolling stone is quoted as saying you can hear New York city guitar zone out Zen masters,

like television and then, and then had like three or four other 80s, seventies, eighties

and a few punk inspired bands.

Yep.

You know, rolling stone said that, you know, not me or I'm glad you, I'm glad you mentioned

that and, uh, cause it's a, it's a great opportunity for me to completely name drop.

See the poster behind me, Frank Zappa that was given to me by none other than Richard

Lloyd, the guitar player for television.

Oh wow.

Who now lives here in our fair city in Chattanooga.

So I'm glad you, I'm glad you brought that up.

Yeah, that, uh, that should draw attention to a lot of people.

I mean, anybody that gets compared to television draws my attention.

Yeah.

I mean, not, not, not a many people of certain younger ages are going to have heard of that

band, but anybody who is, you know, middle age and above that has any interest in, in,

in experimental punk, transitional rock punk, they're familiar with the band television

and so that's a, that, that's pretty cool.

They played Coachella last year, uh, geese did.

And so they are orange County.

So that's easy pickings for Coachella to choose from.

But so they're there.

That resume is slowly building and with a Thursday slot, that's what that's for.

And you never know maybe geese and goose will be the headline, uh, co-bill act of 2026.

You know, we'll see,

You know, when you're, when you're saying that so television, Markey Moon is I think

coming up on an anniversary.

I know Rhino is going to re-release that's television's album.

Um, that's, you know, literally changed music a bit.

Um, the point being, I think you said it earlier, Brian, we kind of have to trust Brian and

Steven who book Bonnarooo.

They know what they're doing, right?

That's again, goes back to, you know, I've never heard of them, but these guys have,

so you know, maybe not my taste, maybe not my thing.

And we're going to get into that again, as we go through this.

Well, and I think the festival as a whole and, and it's, you know, over all the years

and all the shows recently, we've talked about the changes.

One thing that's never really changed is that if you paid attention at all, if you were

regular, if you're just wearing a one-off or, um, industry types, like, like we all

have been, the trust factor was the biggest thing from the jump, from the jump point.

And it, they gained it so quickly.

And then when they, when they went away from the jam thing and transitioned, a lot of people

lost a lot of trust, a lot of those originals.

And, but they quickly built that right back up in a different way.

And trust has always been a factor.

And, and if, if you don't trust what they're doing, you just don't like this kind of stuff,

right?

Like, so they, they layer it right.

You guys have done shows discussing the entire philosophy for how this is done.

Um, if you miss that episode, that's a great, uh, rundown look at how this is strategically

done and if they think it's a good idea, it probably is.

Yeah, that's my point.

And Brian and Steven, uh, just to bring it around, those are the guys with, uh, AC entertainment

now C3 presents live nation.

They've been booking this band, this festival forever.

And, uh, it's not an accident.

Um, it, they, they don't book bands and you can go back to our episodes and, and taco,

you can put the link in if not an accident, they work year round, they were years in advance.

You know, they're already thinking about who they might book two years from now.

So yeah, it's really pretty fascinating process.

I think it's amazing that they're good at it.

That Coachella I'm sure has the same formula to a certain degree, other long-term festivals

worldwide like Glastonbury and places like that.

I think they probably have similar philosophies and, um, to find these bands, which we, a

lot of us would consider niche that are not, they're a little bit more than niche.

It's just cause you haven't heard of them.

You think, Oh, that's just some niche band that, you know, only a select few like.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Let's look at the numbers on Spotify.

It's shows.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It's not just cause they got 55 bazillion.

It's how does it fit in the lane as we talk about, how does this band fit with the, with

the ones before them and the one after the one after Brian Benson, Steve Green, are the

two that we're talking about.

All right.

So let's go.

We ready to spin the wheel again?

Half moon run.

Never heard of.

Sounds like a trail race, uh, coming up this week on lookout mountain, right?

Uh, yeah.

What's the benefit?

It's some kind of road, some kind of road race, uh, downtown, a lot of runners around

here for those of you who aren't local, but I gotta be honest with this.

When I listened to, uh, I listened to them and immediately hated it.

I don't know if I'm going to go so far to say hate, but, uh, it didn't jump off the

page of anything that I was going to be probably enamored with for any length of time.

The only, I've quick thoughts when I did just a quick, who is this band?

There are three piece, uh, Canadians they're out of Montreal.

And you know, you always wonder just cause you have a three piece band.

Where does all this come?

Where do all these sounds come from?

Sometimes, especially Nashville, you know, the Nashville based music scene, you got a

three piece band, but you got like 15 people behind you, studio musicians playing to make

all those sounds.

So I'm not sure how half moon run does it, but there's a lot of sound and I don't mean

noise in a bad way.

There's a lot of noise.

It's, it's, it's very blended and with only three guys doing it, excuse me if there's

a, if there might be a female member in the band, but a lot of sounds from just three

people from Montreal.

Well, my, I've got notes.

Um, my first thought was they take themselves way too seriously.

It was just too precious.

And so much so that precious.

I like that.

I know.

Right.

That goes back.

Uh, I did an interview with, uh, um, Glenn Tilbert from squeeze and I was like, what happened

after you guys, you know, wrote those hits and he said, every word became too precious.

And I've never forgotten that.

So that was my immediate reaction.

And so I felt bad at my reaction.

So I went back and I listened again.

I don't hate it.

It's good.

It's not my thing.

And maybe it was just, um, that initial reaction, um, well, it's good stuff, but I get what

you're, uh, you're, you're, I get what you're saying.

That's a lot of know a lot of stuff going on.

Yeah, exactly.

Music that's not designed and curated for the general public is complicated and it's

not a listen to it once or twice.

And like, Oh, I got it.

I get this.

Yeah.

You've, you've got to give it a few spins.

Sometimes that's what annoys me with a lot of indie stuff.

And that's just, that's what makes it great to, to the people who love it is that it's

not that.

And that's why I like a lot of that stuff too, but it's really easy to be like, all

right, yeah, man, I don't know about this one.

Um, but my first thought was, I don't love it either.

Uh, one, one, 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

So, um, somebody likes it.

That's yeah.

I mean, that's a pretty good number for a band who is on a Friday all the way down in

the bottom line of Friday.

So you know, they're going to be on this or that tent at like noon or something like that

on a Friday.

Um, well, you know, you know, sometimes, uh, bands that you listen to their studio stuff,

they sound completely different live.

And if it's just the three piece, maybe it's just three of them on stage.

Maybe it's, maybe it's a different, uh, maybe it's a different outcome when it's just played

live and they might loop some of that stuff with the bands and loop so much these days,

which I am a fan of, I think the looping technology of which is not like a new way of making music,

but it's still only done by a select few.

It's a very difficult thing to do.

Maybe they loop some stuff too.

So it, I do believe based on the way that it sounds that watching it live could bring

out a completely different thought process very well could be.

And you know, I've said this many, many times, I'm, I'm only recently a lyrics guy.

I was always about the hook.

I mean my whole, Oh God, just recently, huh?

Six seven years.

Yeah.

And I've, I've always been, that's been a big part with me.

And I think part of it is because I'm such a bad poet, like I songwriting, which I believe

is just a version of poetry.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not good at it.

And when I find, when I hear it, when I see it, it really, it, it's always been something

big for me.

My whole life.

I could, I could, I could probably go through my whole life and tell you the songs that

I love and could never, could not tell you what they're about.

I mean, yeah, it's weird.

It's all about it.

I'm not trying to be pretentious about it.

Like I've got the meaning of life out of every song.

So Van Halen's jump.

Did you like it at first and then realize it was the worst lyrics ever?

Yeah.

The better example is Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters, I think a whole new way of loving

you.

I recommended my daughter when she was in high school that she should play that as part

of her soccer team's warmup music.

And she was like, good God, do you know what that's about?

There's some good TikTok account.

Oh, Jesus Christ.

There's some good TikTok accounts where it's like somebody or listening to some songs like,

Hey, I want to show you kids my, what I used to listen to.

And then they play the lyrics and he's like, Oh no, turn it off.

I can't give you a good example, but it's like a song about suicide or something.

And it's like the whole time he's been humming along, like, you know, he's going to a family

picture.

So I get, I get that.

I totally get that.

It is remarkable to me too though, Mary to speak to the lyrics and whether they mean

something or not.

It's like afternoon to life.

I still listen.

I'll still listen.

I'll listen to songs that I've known for 30 years.

And then for some reason run across the lyrics while I'm looking, I'm like, Oh yeah, that's

what they're saying.

And I don't mean like, excuse me while I kiss this guy kind of stuff.

I mean, it's like, I thought they were saying something totally different for 30 years.

And so anyway.

Yeah, no.

So my point being, I, I did not dive deep enough into this, their music to know that,

you know, maybe why it resonates with so many millions of people.

I just know when I first heard it, I thought, Oh, that's just a little too precious.

And then I went back and I liked it.

So I get it.

So all right, what's the next one?

Let's do it one.

Let's do it a couple more times.

Spin the wheel.

This is baby.

One of my favorite band names and God glove bands.

I can't imagine the challenge of trying to come up with a band name, but cigarettes after

sex.

I was hoping that's where we were landing next.

That's pretty funny.

That's a great, great band.

And I, on, on my podcast, um, over the years, I haven't done it a while.

It's not really a bit bit, but a, a, I can't remember what I call it.

The Bryan Stone, uh, band naming Institute of technology.

Like come to me.

I will help you make a better band name than geese, you know, or something like that.

It's all a joke.

I can't come up with a better band name, but there are so many stupid, bad band names.

And in my experience into, into the last 15, 20 years of technology innovation, if you

don't have an easily searchable band name, I don't know who your artist management is.

I don't know who's advising you, but like, man, that's just a recipe to never be found

as the, the, the ocean that the internet is.

And cigarettes after sex, I mean, it's a little, it's a little provocative.

It's a, it's a little like, what is that?

You know, the 1980s moms would be like, Oh, Oh no.

But it, I think about the sex part of the cigarette.

I don't, they don't know.

They don't know what they're mad about.

Um, I think it's a brilliant brand name.

I think it's hilarious, but we've talked about this before we've had bands like, you know,

they picked a name and, and we're like, are you happy with that?

And they're like, we thought it was a one-off, you know, and it's stuck.

I can't think of who Russ, I've talked to so many bands that have that same story.

That is a very typical story is like, it's not what we planned on, but eventually that's

just what happened.

And once, once you get any recognition at all, you don't really want to change it unless

you've got like diarrhea plan at Nashville pussy.

You can never put that in the paper.

You can't put that.

I know.

Right.

What are you doing?

Exactly.

And diarrhea plan.

It had a big, a good career.

They had a, the reunion at Bonnarooo, I believe just last year, they had a remarkable run

and they would play Chattanooga here in little rinky dinky shows 15 years ago.

And I, and I never got to meet the guys and I didn't want to insult them as just some

guy at the show, but I'm like, what the hell is a matter with you?

And you also don't want to pick a name that you have to explain over and over and over.

Like even my morning jacket.

I've seen interviews with those guys where, you know, dumb doofuses like me in the media,

like, where'd you get that name?

And I really, again, we got, I mean, if you're going to name yourself something, especially

the three word thing, which started in the, probably in the night.

Well, I don't know, three dog night.

It probably started in the fifties, whenever it started that three name thing.

Sometimes it's like, if you're going to name yourself something a little bit mysterious,

you're going to get asked dumb questions.

Like what is my morning jacket?

Did you have a jacket?

Did you wear it in the morning?

I mean, did you, was it ironic cause you wore it in the evening?

Yeah.

Are you the Beatles because of the crickets buddy Holly?

You know, it's funny and beat, you know, B B E A T. So yeah, you got to be very careful

about picking, but, yeah, you know, we'll get back to cigarettes after sex.

They're good monsters.

Yeah.

They are really popular.

I had no clue of anybody.

We've even threw out there as suggestions to look at for, for, for today, as we continue

to dig towards the bottom of the list, they're not towards the bottom, but none of us had

heard of them or at least weren't familiar other than maybe heard that name.

They've got six, seven times more, the monthly listeners on Spotify than anybody else would,

we'll be talking about on the show in this capacity, almost 25 million monthly listeners,

which is nothing.

Yeah.

I mean, that'd be that, I mean, that, excuse me.

That is everything.

That is huge.

It's a lot of cigarettes, a lot of sex, a lot of sex and cigarettes.

That's what I was getting ready to ask.

What do you, what did the, what are the fans call them?

I mean, do you say we're going to go see cigarettes after sex?

Like you got, like what's the way they are?

Yeah.

What's the short, I got, I'm, I got nothing.

Sigs.

Who knows?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You go into the SIG show.

I got, I don't know.

I don't know.

It's very sleepy.

Um, it's very trance inducing, almost a, um, I was, I was thinking of this last night

and I wondered if it would go over well, depending on, on the demographic of the listeners, but

it's, it's almost like a cross between war on drugs and old Mazzie star from the, from

the 1990s.

It's got that kind of just sway.

We're just listening to the, you know, I mean, it doesn't, I don't mean bad, good.

I'm just saying it's a Tran Tranquility, all everywhere, dreamlike sequence style stuff.

Um, I first heard one of their songs on Tik TOK.

Heavenly is the name of it and it is since on my Spotify list.

I love it.

I love, love, love it, but I could totally see someone saying, man, did I come here to

take a nap?

I mean, is this, is this the field where I have enough room to lay down and snooze for?

And I literally don't mean that joking like, cause oftentimes people find times to take

naps.

Kind of the first three bands that we talked about her a little bit that way.

Is that, is that a thing this year?

Or is, are the sleepy bands a thing?

I know there's some, a bunch of EDM.

I mean, it's, am I reading too much, but maybe not.

Maybe not.

I mean, I'm on, you know, I talk about it a lot here locally that pains my soul rock

and roll.

Oh, a hundred percent.

It's dead.

I mean, just good old fashioned rock and roll is, is still got its niche.

That's where we're at.

It's niche.

I love good rock and roll.

Well, then you're in, you know, you're in that corner over there, buddy.

And that sucks.

So maybe cause like the war on drugs are not, I mean, they're a rock band barely.

I mean, they, they really are a sleepy band that I happen to love, but yeah, I think that

might be a little bit of a trend.

We'll see as we, I I'm a long ways away from knowing for sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's spin it again.

All right.

Another one that I've never heard of.

And I hope I'm saying it right.

Tiso touchdown.

Yeah, that's how I read it.

Y'all have a clue about this?

I thought it was a typo at first.

I think the whole lineup looks like that.

I know who's typing this thing out.

I re I think I remember in 20, it's funny you say that 2018 Brad and I, we, we, we did

this show.

I was like, I was so afraid to say names because I was going to get them wrong.

Yeah.

I do that all the, all the time.

I'm terrible at that.

And this is a little more, uh, urban.

I wouldn't say EDM it's rap.

It's rap.

But, uh, he's, if I remember right, I didn't, um, I was just glancing a minute ago, 23,

24, 25 young guy has been featured on Tyler, the creator, uh, music with Tyler, the creator.

He's been featured with Travis Scott, um, who I think is some of the worst rap ever,

but most people disagree.

And then he's been featured with Drake and that's not, I mean, that's, that's, that's

not a top of the list of that kind of stuff.

That's huge.

Um, it is four, almost five.

Million listeners a month on Spotify.

A quick like categorization was alt hip hop, rap rock.

I didn't hear that when I did a quick listen, I, I would not have thought alt hip hop.

Well maybe I would think alt hit up hip hop, but rap rock.

I'm not sure.

I liked, I liked what I heard.

I think it modern, modern man, um, modern jam.

Um, but I also looked up some of the lyrics and it's kind of one of those I've wondered

when this was going to start happening.

Like the lyrics, baby, please get off the gram.

I like you better in the stands.

I upgrade my only fan.

It do or don't need a cam.

I wondered when things like that we're going to start finding their way into lyrics like

Instagram and all this stuff.

Is it unfair to say that the popularity of like the Megan, the stallions and those types

might be bringing a lot of that out.

Um, it seems like I've heard that in some of her music that resonates with children.

When I say children, I mean like 21 year olds, you know, I mean like really young people

that when you're singing their universe, when you're singing about the Graham, it used to

be the Insta, you know, I think that's like old people.

Now, whatever.

I mean, Instagram, is it that difficult to say just what it is?

But, or IG, um, I think that stuff resonates because you don't have to think about it.

You know, we don't, we're not going to have a podcast talking about, I wonder what that

song is about.

Right.

Uh, no, it's there.

It's, it's, it's their universe and, and knowing full well, this is you kids get off my lawn

conversation.

Well, that's this whole show.

We're a show hosted by middle-aged men who are a little bit cooler than the normal middle-aged

men.

We'll just at least say that.

That's my point.

And I'm not trying to, I mean, it is what it is.

And I like, I like the music.

I could listen to his stuff.

It's just, again, it goes back to the thing we talked about a minute ago with the half

moon run, you know?

It doesn't have to connect with me, you know?

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

In fact, it'd be odd if it did.

Correct.

Good point.

Good point.

So I liked it.

I liked it.

Um, will I go see it?

You know, maybe, um, just because I'd like kind of checking out what's going on, you

know, I have no problem walking up on something and saying that ain't for me, but I get it.

Sure.

Uh, when I used, we know when I used to have to review shows for the paper, I only asked

two questions.

What's the artist trying to do and are they doing it well?

And then I was okay.

So you had to understand the basis of where you're coming from.

I get that.

Yeah.

It doesn't have to be for me.

Um, yeah.

And of course, but I like the schedules.

Some of this may to be dependent on schedule.

If there's a conflict, you know, somebody else may went out.

But if it's a slot where, yeah, it's midday and you're, you know, you've got nothing else

to do.

Yeah.

We could walk over there and check it out.

I'm all about it.

I'm all about it.

And, um, like I've told this story many times, um, our friend Mike Dewar and Denson in Camp

Nut Butter, you know, when EDM and the other, when they really switched over to EDM, Mike

was like, I don't get it, man.

What's with the EDM?

Does it have a beginning, a middle and an end?

And I'm like, that's a great question.

Doesn't feel like it.

The answer is no.

Doesn't feel like it.

So it was like two in the morning.

He said, I said, come on, we got to go listen.

We walked over and you know, kids are in their rabbit suits and running around and I'm listening.

I like it.

And they're looking, the kids are looking over their shoulder at us.

I thought, what?

They think we're cool.

And then I realized they thought we were not.

I think you're here to cause trouble.

Old guys.

Yeah.

I mean, the EDM evolution has been such an interesting thing to watch because it's been

happening since the nineties.

Rave culture became big then.

Um, I never really was involved with any of that.

I wanted to be when I was quite young because I wanted to be rebellious and that's what

people were doing.

And, uh, I had parental supervision just enough not to let me do those things.

And then by the time I got old enough to make those decisions for myself, I had long realized

my life for the thrill kill cult kids out there.

If you're probably not familiar with that band, but they, I would bet would be, uh,

many EDM acts would say that thrill kill cult would be, you know, probably top of their

legendary list of that kind of music.

Drugs and wild noise.

I mean, I hate to be so simplistic about it and, and, and try to corner.

I don't want, you know, EDM fans, uh, jam band fans don't like being cornered as just

stoner drug users who go listen to not cause I'm a jam band guy.

So I don't mean to do that, but sorry, that's kind of what a lot of it is.

And also jam band community.

Sorry.

That's what a lot of it is, but boy, it's popular.

So no, I, I, I think I remember telling doer.

Mike at that time, you know, their parents hate it.

So it's, it's their thing.

I mean, their parents really hate it.

Right.

And that's the reason.

So, all right, one more time.

Let's do one more spin it.

Oh, this'll be fun.

Neil Francis, which one, which one, which one?

This is pretty wild.

Yeah.

Isn't this fun?

I don't know.

I have to believe Stephen again, going back to Brian Benson and Stephen, God love him.

This is genius.

They had to know, you know, it didn't accidentally fall this way.

This is no mistake.

There are two Neil Francis is I'm not even going to try to write it.

So we're going to talk about both of them, but kudos to those guys for booking Neil Francis

and Neil Francis.

So what do we think?

Well, I'll start with, um, first of all, I quickly did a search cause I was trying to

figure out the most popular, like famous Neils, how they spelled their names.

And it quickly from Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Neil Armstrong to Neil Young, they all spell

it in E I L. Uh, the first one that I I'm going to, to reference is Neil in E a L. And

I didn't quickly see a famous name that spelled his name that way.

Not that I, that looks odd to me or anything, but in E a L Francis with the, it says outside

that that's a Thursday performance night.

It says Neil Francis in an apostrophe.

So a possessive of Francis comes alive, which is pretty, that's pretty neat.

I like that play on our Frampton Francis.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And when I quickly did a listen, and this was a very quick listen, I love it.

I love the Neil Francis.

The first two songs, I was like, can't stop the rain.

Uh, yeah, stop the rain, not the Ann Peoples, not the David Ruffin.

I can't stop the rain, Tom.

Cause I had to, when I saw that title, I was like, uh, I'm familiar.

Yeah.

Can't stop the rain, uh, this time and then changes parts one and two were the first,

the most popular listens.

And that's where I started.

And I was just immediately hooked because it did have that rock and roll boom, just

kind of get you.

I, I, man, third, if I didn't have plans on Thursday, which this year I will be there

Thursday cause I want to see what pretty lights on the main stage is just to see what that

looks like.

That's like the, I've skipped Thursday in the last couple of years.

I won't be skipping Thursday because of pretty lights in particular, but Neil Francis, Francis

comes alive in two minutes.

You got a new, you got a new fan, but he's still very much on the up and comer 152,000

listeners a month.

That's not a whole lot again relative, but to a lot of these that we're talking about,

I'll just start there.

I love Neil Francis in EAL.

I'm with you a hundred percent, a hundred percent.

And that's, that's what we love about Thursday.

And that's what we love about Bonnarooulette.

Well that's where I found Courtney Barnett in 2015.

Speaking of our buddy, Brad, uh, founder of the show.

He, uh, he told me and, and you know, Brad for anybody who's not around bounce around

and getting all the inside joke stuff.

I mean, just, just murders me on a regular basis for all this stuff that he doesn't even

believe half of it.

It's just, it's just funny to him, but he knows my taste.

He knows what I like and he doesn't steer me in a direction.

Um, unless he knows that it's going to be something and he, and he told me that in 2015.

Yeah.

It was, that show was amazing.

It was Thursday.

It was go to Courtney Barnett.

That was, that was, and I usually roll my eye, whatever, Brad, back then is my, I didn't,

you know, not as much these days and, uh, boy, I've, I've been, I mean, she's the love

of my life.

Jade bird and Courtney love are the loves of my life.

Um, but anyway, I'm getting a sidetracked.

No, no, because I think it's important because that's the point of this show.

And that's the point of the festival.

Yeah.

I mean, you would have never found Courtney Barnett.

I'm the same that that show was, was epic.

No, just some, you know, um, young lady playing guitar.

That's a little noisy at times with kind of a bad haircut.

Um, you know, I don't, I probably wouldn't have stopped and listened, um, depending on

the situation, but it was one of my favorite shows of the last 10 years.

And it was a Thursday list.

You're like, I don't care.

I don't have anybody on this title.

I've been drinking all day.

I'm here.

It's Bonnarooo.

I've already been here for two days.

She didn't even have blue hair.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Didn't even have blue hair, not green or orange either.

We talk about it to this day and I, I'm glad you, I'm, I'm with you with Neil Francis.

I think it's, uh, my reaction, uh, you know, um, what's the same as yours?

I love, uh, I love this.

So we're talking about Francis with an I, I, and the last name Francis, any a L Francis,

but now the other Neil is a DJ.

Yeah.

I wasn't nearly as impressed, cared at all about that.

It's not my thing as much, but let's again, using Spotify as the barometer, 4 million

monthly listeners.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So there you go.

I mean, back to what we're talking about, how, uh, what's popular and what works.

And I don't know where this Neil falls.

I'll look at it as we talk about it here on the list, but he has not Thursday.

It's a no, I think it's later.

It's Saturday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They should have put them on probably a tent, probably a tent stage.

Many, maybe any AL shows up on Saturday and plays with any, but I doubt it.

See, I don't know.

I saw this billboard piece about it last week and it was, it was a really more about just

the fact that the names are that similar, not as much about the bands having any connection.

I don't really think they hardly even know people like us trying to make something out

of, but I hope I have to believe Steven and Brian knew cause I'm going to give them credit

cause I think it's hilarious.

I do too.

There's nothing else.

Yeah.

I mean, it's something to talk about and that's, that's, that's half the, uh, half the battle

sometimes in the same, in the same concept.

There's two mics this year.

There's a mic and there's a mic with a period.

And I don't think they ended up on the wheel.

I wondered what you were talking about on the thread.

We were talking mics.

Uh, I didn't see that.

Mike with a period.

I see Mike on, on Saturday and you're telling, and there's Mike period on Friday.

What is going on?

What are we doing?

I mean, this, and this article actually, some stuff I already knew they'd start talking

about how David Bowie changed his name because of the Davy Jones from the monkeys and all

that stuff.

And most people who know rocket history are aware of that.

I did not know that in the sixties, there was a band, uh, in, uh, somewhere in England

called Nirvana that didn't have any real career, but they did initially use that name.

And there was, there was a little bit of struggle on that.

Initially.

I'm sure they worked it out legally.

I didn't, I just skim through it, but so they were going through and naming over the years,

people who had conflicts and the conflict usually was resolved by let's completely change

the name of what we're doing to not confuse.

And it appears we've changed.

Speaking of all the change we've, we've moved on into the first quarter of the 21st century

into let's not change the name.

Let's make it damn near exactly the same, except change one tiny thing that saves us

from copyright and trademark and let's confuse them on purpose.

It's almost what it's almost a bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mike put an ampersand or something in there.

Mike or Mike period.

I got to listen to that later on today.

It's not on the wheel, but I'll have to listen to it.

All right.

So good show.

That's a lot of fun.

We've got tickets to give away.

What I think we want to do is use Bonnarooo let as a method.

So let me find it again real quick.

We're going to do similar to what we did last year.

We actually taco who's the, our, our resident nerd sets all this kind of stuff up.

And I mean that with love set us up with a phone number, four, two, three, six, six,

seven, seven, eight, seven, seven, four, two, three, six, six, seven, seven, eight, seven,

seven, call and tell us which band you think we should check out.

Kind of similar to this Bonnarooo.

The whole idea is discovery.

We're going to do it again because there's a bunch of bands on this.

I actually, um, when you first mentioned even on the show earlier and as was brought up

because I'm, I'm still new with you guys on a regular basis and we just, I mean, we don't

make it up as we go, but we kind of do.

And um, I was thinking, I want to do this again.

I mean, I'm not sure we want to do this again.

And the more I, I look at this and the more I spent on it, just it wasn't even that long

yesterday.

I, I, and I made my playlist.

I started my playlist.

I'm going to add to it as time goes on.

And I started listening to it yesterday and the cigarettes after sex would pop up.

The beaches were one that, um, I was already a little familiar with the name and I knew

that it was music that I'd kind of like.

I threw some of that on the playlist and I had it rolling yesterday and I was like, man,

I kind of can't wait for June all of a sudden.

The day I didn't really care.

That's the, that's the whole point of the show.

And I'd like to keep that, keep that going.

And until someone makes me do it, probably not going to do it.

No.

So that's the point.

So if you're listening and you want to win two tickets with GA, uh, plus passes.

And that comes with camping, right?

So call that number four, two, three, six, six, seven, seven, eight, seven, seven.

Tell us which band we should check out.

We're not interested.

Well, I mean, it's, that's so random.

I started to say, we're not interested in the one we should know about because who should

already know about discovery.

Yeah, it's the discovery.

So tell us about somebody we've maybe never heard of and we'll put you on the, on the

wheel, so to speak.

And some weeks from now we'll spin the wheel and maybe your name will pop up and you can

win two tickets.

So, um, that's how we're going to give them away.

And if you've already got tickets, if you know somebody who wants to go, you know, send

this episode to them, share, and, uh, maybe get them on on board, you know?

Yeah.

We'll get that phone number out there too.

I love, I love incorporating the, uh, the phone calls.

I love incorporating into this kind of medium, into this kind of, uh, show idea, other people's

voices, other people's thoughts.

And that's, again, I do want to quickly thank, um, and I went through it and, and, and made

a few comments on our last video about the, uh, uh, the vibe of the festival potentially

changing with the new ticket options of one in two days.

And I had asked people to respond and it looks like you more than normal did.

And thank you for that.

Cause I mean, it was a legitimate question.

I mean, it's, it's nice to have interaction.

It helps for the show, but it was less about that or wasn't at all about that for me.

I was curious and I still am to know more and more about what you guys think changes

for better or worse, not the, what stage that this, we all know what those are like.

We all get the, the only question every year is, is the, which stage going to be bad at

this year or not?

Like everywhere else, we know what we're getting ourselves into.

Right.

So I appreciate anybody who took time out of that.

Yeah.

I'm glad you mentioned that.

Cause speaking of, you know, comments and interacting, maybe we ought to, uh, do another

live show one day and just take questions and answer in real time, you know, and, and

then have that kind of interaction as far as like a live show would go.

That'd be fun.

That'd be fun.

Absolutely.

So we're going to do that.

Uh, what other business Russ?

I know we had a bunch of things that we talked about.

I think we're going to link a Spotify playlist in the description and the show notes of all

these bands that we just went through with Bonnarooulette.

So you know, if you want to jump on the discovery with us, you know, you can listen to the playlist

and kind of get familiar yourself.

I think what we will do along those lines is add to it.

Maybe yes.

Cause we could certainly, we've done it in the past where all three of us have created

our own playlist and we can do that and we'll add to it.

So it's an ongoing thing as we just, yeah, as people call in with recommendations, I

mean, we can, we can definitely add them to the playlist too.

For sure.

But what I like too is, uh, and Brian, I think you get it.

It's not just listening to the sounds, it's doing the research and, and finding out, Oh,

these guys are from Canada or these guys are connected to television or whatever.

It just gives a, it gives a little bit more layer to it to me.

I mean, um, I've got to be talked into some things a lot of the time.

And I mean, I'm, you know, we've all dealt with this and bury you the most.

Cause you've been in this industry longer than, than any of us.

Hey, you got to check this out.

Hey, you got to listen to my friend's band.

Yeah.

Hey, you got to watch this YouTube.

How many times have we all been here?

Hey, check this.

Look at, look at this on my phone.

Look at this on my phone.

No God, you know, like, like that, that gets old, but when you start to learn more and

you understand more and you layer it more and you know that this band might be from

an area you're familiar with or they're compared to a band that you recognize.

Okay.

Ding.

Yes.

I'll, I'll take an extra little glance at that.

Yeah, sure.

Not just that, but I've said it over and over.

Everybody started somewhere.

The Beatles, you know, the Beatles were nobody at some point.

Um, so, you know, don't wait, you don't have to wait until, you know, they're suddenly

huge to discover a really good band.

And that's that, that's the point to me.

Um, to me, the, to me, the fun part is being like, you know, God dang, I saw those guys

when there were 10 of us.

And that's what Bonnar has been great at over the years.

Um, what I find interesting though, this is a quick side note before we get out of here

is, um, and I did put them on my recommendations playlist cause I liked them, the band Milky

Chance they first played and I think they were pretty brand new around 17, if I remember.

And they were on the main, they were on what?

And it was an early day.

And I, my favorite place in the world is the what stage at four o'clock.

I mean, the, the, the sun killing you, take that variable out.

Cause that's obviously sucks.

But I mean, just for in the music experience, cause it's not too crowded.

It's the best sounding stage in the world.

I always say that I true.

I may have it in every stage in the world, but I believe it.

And they played a four or five o'clock set.

It was awesome.

And now I see them like on this year's for a Sunday second from the bottom.

So rather than working their way up the set, they've, they've kind of fallen down.

Um, I don't know what that means.

I just means it, it's just another way of, you know, the evolution of ebbs and flows

of the music industry.

So yeah.

All right, guys, thank you.

This has been a lot of fun, uh, worked out, uh, better than I hoped.

And we're going to do it again.

Thank you guys for listening.

Thanks to consequence like, and subscribe and do all that stuff.

Call, call our number and, uh, please call that number.

423-667-777.

Peace.