Giving EDM at Bonnaroo Its Due

Hey everybody, welcome back to the What Podcast.

I'm very with me is Lord Taco.

You'll notice again, missing is Brad.

Brad is still moving into his new place in New York City for his new job.

They moved from New Orleans to New York.

And I understand just a couple of days ago, the furniture actually arrived.

I think you got that word too, didn't you, Taco?

That's correct.

It looks like they got everything they needed.

Yeah, I got a FaceTime from them the other day and they were sitting on a cushion on

a wooden floor in an empty house.

So we try not to pick on him, as we said, pick on him, but Brad's not with us today.

But we've got another great show.

I'm very excited about it.

We have talked about doing this for years and definitely this year, but that's to have

somebody on who can speak to EDM music, electronic dance music.

We have admitted, freely admit, will continue to admit it's just not our lane.

I don't think either one of us has a dislike or any opinions like that.

It's just not something that we listen to a lot, right?

Yeah.

And like you said, that's what we do.

We go to the source when we want to talk about something and that's what we did this week.

Yeah.

And we'll get into that.

And I want to thank Kyle for joining us.

He's a friend of yours and you'll hear about how we got Kyle and why we got Kyle and all

that in a second.

But I wanted to go back to something that we talked about two weeks ago when Brad was

here in Chattanooga as they were moving and actually came by the world headquarters here

and we recorded down in studio one.

And today I'm in studio two because I've had a little medical thing and not going up and

downstairs.

So I've adapted till I'm upstairs if you're wondering why there's a strange background

behind me.

But we talked about a couple of things and a couple of things that happened since that

I wanted to kind of to bring up.

And I've really thought about it.

If you remember, TACO two weeks ago, we kind of were asking the question because we're

hearing rumors that ticket sales are not great for Bonnarooo or for not.

That's not right.

They're not selling out.

Let's put it that way.

I don't know.

They may be close.

They may be 90 percent.

They may be 80.

I don't think Bonnarooo is.

But as we have said and you had on your t-shirt two weeks ago, never not great.

That's where that whole expression came from.

That's right.

The 2016 festival was the lowest attended number.

And we all agree, at least Brad and I agree, I don't think you were there that year.

It was one of our favorite ones.

Yeah, I wasn't there.

But I've heard that from a lot of people and a lot of people say they would love a return

to that level of 2016 where it's just less people and less crowds and just easier to

get around.

Exactly.

And I guess what I wanted to say is while we were talking about that, I think it was

I just want to point out my point was it just feels like a reset here.

It feels like a lot of people, fans, the people going, the people putting it on, everything

are just trying to figure out where we are.

And I think that's normal.

But I was listening to well, Kyle is a longtime goer, been going since 2012.

He's a friend of yours.

You met there at Bonnarooo.

Brad and I have been friends since camping together.

We were not friends before we knew each other.

So it's Bonnarooo that has connected us.

You and I are connected because of this podcast and Bonnarooo.

I didn't know you before.

You just spent the weekend down in Huntsville with Daniel and Sharla, hosts of the Real

Roobus podcast.

That podcast didn't exist a couple of years ago.

We have become internet friends with Jake and Parker, the RooHamm guys, a third podcast

that is dedicated primarily to Bonnarooo.

We're all friendly, like each other very much.

You hang out with Daniel and Sharla quite a bit.

Yeah, I was just down there this weekend.

That's right.

We met with Pondo, our guest last week.

We communicate with through Reddit and Discord and whatever else.

I was listening to Daniel and Sharla's podcast last week and they were talking about what

we were talking about.

And Sharla, as she has said many, many times, I go for the community, the lineup and the

music are secondary.

I just wanted to point that out.

I think that's so real and it's amazing to me that this whole community exists and it

goes way deeper than just casual, hey, I'll see you in a year.

We all talk year round.

I think that's really cool is the point I guess I'm trying to make.

While this may indeed be a reset year, I think it will be a good year and I think it will

reset and will come out stronger.

It's not a doom and gloom.

I don't see that at all.

I think it's just figuring out what the next step is.

Yeah, it needs to happen.

Look, the last two years you talked about we go for the community.

Well, there's been no Bonnaroooz for two years, but we still threw together Minaroos.

We still had our own gatherings because that's what we missed was the community.

We missed the people.

So yeah, the lineup is great and all the other activities are fun, but that's what keeps

us coming back.

It's a shared thing and it's a shared attitude.

We talked about it with Pondo, this idea of why can't it be like this year round.

I mean, that's very real to me.

Like I said, you, me and Brad are friends.

We talk regularly because of this show.

We have some things in common, but not everything.

And it's all because of this, not the show, the festival.

We talk because of this show, but it's the festival that brought us together and continues

to keep us together.

It's the festival that inspired all of this.

And our first guest is another great example of that.

And we get into it with him, the EDM thing surprised some of us that we had been going

for years.

Why would Bonnaroooz take a tire, one of their larger stages, one of their larger tents and

dedicate it entirely to one genre of music?

It wasn't our genre, our favorite, but it made perfect sense to me.

And the more we all thought about it, it continued to make sense and it still does.

And Kyle, I think does a great job of addressing that.

So I guess that's it.

Anything else before we bring him on?

I don't think so.

Let's just get into it.

Let's do it.

All right.

Here's Kyle.

And he's going to tell us, he's going to give us some of his picks for some EDM acts,

some of his most famous acts, dubstep acts, all the different genres within EDM, some

acts to not miss.

So here we go.

Here's Kyle.

Kyle, thanks for joining us so much on the What Podcast.

Absolutely.

All right.

So I want to do several things with this episode today.

We promised, Taco, you and I and Brad, we have talked about for years about doing this

and we just never have.

Not for any good reason.

We just never have.

I want to establish a couple of things.

A lot of people are probably wondering why Kyle?

How did we get Kyle on the show?

It's a fair question.

I was wondering that this morning myself.

How was I going to answer that?

It reminded me, Taco, you remember, I think this was the occasion when we were in Knoxville

in the offices there at AC Entertainment talking to Steven and Brian about how they booked

the shows.

I think it was Jack Johnson.

Was that when we asked about how Jack Johnson got on the lineup?

Do you remember that?

Yeah.

And the answer was he answered the phone.

There it is.

We sent out our crack research team, our producers, all those people.

Who can we get to talk about EDM on an episode of the podcast?

Because Brad, Taco and I admit freely that that's just not our lane.

And I want to be very careful.

I'm sorry, why?

I said not at all.

And that's, you know, if we've gotten any criticism, it's because of, you know, we just

don't have any expertise there.

Yeah.

And it's fair.

I think it's very fair.

And because of that, I want to what I also don't want to be, you know, is the old guy,

you know, you kids get off my lawn.

I don't have anything against EDM.

I like of the three of us, I probably listen to the most of it or used to.

I was always a big fan of the DJ or the guy that we, you know, whose name we no longer

mention because he's such a horrible person.

But I loved his music.

Girl talk I love.

So, I mean, of the three, like I said, I think I probably listen to the most, but I don't

claim to understand it.

And I've told the story many times when they converted the other tent to the other stage

and brought in EDM.

I was sitting in our camp with our good friend, Mike Dewar at two in the morning.

He said, man, we got to go see this.

And we wandered over and the three of us, I mean, Mike's older than I am.

I'm 58.

Denson went with us.

He's I don't even know how old Denson is.

He's one of those guys.

He could be 20.

He could be 120.

But the three of us are standing there and all these kids are running around in rabbit

costumes and, you know, glitter and whatever, having a great time.

And they kept looking over their shoulders.

And at one point I thought, man, we're pretty cool to be here.

And then I realized, no, they just think we're narcs.

It's the truth.

Hello, fellow kids.

Hello, kids.

Don't pay attention to us.

We're standing here staring at you three old guys and they were having a great time.

It didn't bother me.

So what I want to do is I want to let Kyle do way more talking than me about this because

this is something you love and I want to know why.

And I think Taco does too.

But I also want to make sure to understand that we're not coming at it.

We don't dislike it.

It's just not something that we listen to a lot.

Yeah.

And I guess to set the stage, Kyle is one of my friends, known him for years.

And 2018 was my first Monterey and I went with Kyle because we were in pod two together.

He's got a van again.

I've got the bus.

So, you know, we parked right next to each other, looked great, got a lot of people come

by and see everything.

So we get out and set up camp and get situated.

And then we pull out our schedules to compare.

No, it's like, what are you going to see?

What are you going to see?

I don't think we saw a single show together because everything Kyle was interested in,

there was no crossover with what we were interested in.

So it was like I for the rest of the weekend, I just saw him.

He was coming back to camp.

We were leaving or vice versa.

So yeah.

That's awesome.

That's terrific.

He is exactly who I thought of when we started talking about we should get somebody on who

knows a little bit about EDM.

Yeah.

All right.

So Kyle, to help even further set the stage, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Where are you from and how long you've been going to Bonnarooo?

From South Florida, grew up in Colorado, raised in Atlanta.

First Bonnarooo was 2012 as a high school graduation gift.

And then didn't go again until 2016 when I got the van in 2015.

And then from 2016 on, I haven't missed a single one.

So it's what five years, six years now, something like that.

So OK.

So it wasn't EDM that originally brought you.

No, no.

I grew up going to all the different festivals.

My dad took me to concerts since I was like, he's sling me up on his shoulders and walked

through the pit with me.

And like, you know, here we go.

Like just part of life.

So once Bonnarooo came around, I'd never even been to like an electronic show ever.

And all it took was that one, that 2012, I think like Subtract played that year.

Really when I think of 2012, like all it sticks out my head is like Ludacris, the chili peppers

and like Subtract.

And I remember being at the Subtract show.

It was in one of the tents and the bass was so low, the sand was like coming off the ground,

like up to your calf.

And like you couldn't breathe and your shirts vibrating against you.

And I just knew like, oh, this this is a more immersive experience in my opinion.

It's just like you're feeling it.

You can't help but feel it.

Just everyone's so excited.

Great time.

So yeah.

So yeah.

Go ahead.

No, yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's it.

It is.

That's a great way to put it.

It is as much a feel thing as it is anything else thing.

Right.

I mean, you just yeah, yeah, you're feeling it.

You're hearing it.

The visuals, you know, and then, you know, of course, all the people in the crowd through

all their light up toys and they're doing their flow art.

This guy's got fire.

They've got LEDs and you got the glove people and all that.

It's just it's just so much fun.

And everyone's so excited.

I mean, that's festival life in general, is everyone so excited to talk to you and, you

know, share stories.

But in those crowds, I mean, everyone's just so such a tight knit community because they're

all there for the same thing, you know.

So that's one of the things that I mean, I again, that show that we went to at two o'clock

in the morning.

I mean, I get it again.

It's not for me in some ways, but I get it.

To me, it's like the perfect festival thing.

I mean, that's the whole idea is to just sort of let yourself go and be who you want to

be and and lose yourself, I guess.

I mean, right.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Over last summer, I went to a couple.

I went to Infrasound Family Reunion Festival up in Minnesota, which is all bass music,

all EDM.

And I went to Sound Haven in Tennessee, which is not too far from Manchester.

I forgot where in Tennessee it was.

You know, there's three days of a whole festival just dedicated towards EDM, bass music, dubstep,

house, D&B, all that kind of stuff.

And that was just a whole different experience.

I'm used to going to Bonnarooo where it's like it's such a, you know, such a mixture of everything

and there's people from all walks of life.

And these festivals, still all walks of life, but just kind of narrowed down a little bit

more.

There's people with pashminas around their necks and the harem pants and it's like, you

know, everyone's got the toys and all that.

It was such an interesting experience comparing those to Bonnarooo.

And honestly, I mean, even after going to those, I would still prefer Bonnarooo just

because of the how different it is.

I mean, you know, like Russ said, we went to the same festival, saw none of the same

people.

Like he's showing me these names.

I'm like, is this the same lineup?

Like where did you get this copy of the schedule?

Yeah, it's like we were talking two different languages, trying to communicate.

Seriously, seriously.

Wow.

You've raised so many things that I want to get into.

And just to let people know, one of the things that you did, and I very much appreciated,

I'd ask TACO to ask you to send some names and you put together some playlists so that

I would have a clue what we were talking about.

And I wanted to hear it.

And you did that.

Thank you very much.

And I think we can link those on our as part of this show.

We sure can.

So people can listen to it.

People will be surprised at the diversity.

I mean, this is definitely I was thinking about this this morning.

All genres have their perceptions.

You know, I mean, going back to when I was a little kid, my parents were even raising

us.

My brothers are older than me.

You know, the big knock on the Beatles was it all sounds the same.

The big knock on Elvis was it all sounds the same.

You know, it's too wild.

It's whatever.

All of the same criticisms of EDM.

There's nothing new.

It's the same stuff.

So when you hear these playlists, you're going to hear a lot of diversity.

You're going to hear a lot of talent.

The one question that I will say and it took me back going back to that that night when

the three of us wandered over at two o'clock and watched Mike ask a question about some

EDM music.

Is there a beginning, a middle and an end?

And I got no answer for that one.

But I mean, does there have to be, you know, right?

Again, we, you know, we came up with songs that had a middle beginning and an end.

But you know, maybe there doesn't have to be.

But the knock like, you know, it's the same song for 20 minutes or whatever.

I mean, we've heard that about the Grateful Dead and Umphrey's McGee, you know.

Fish.

Fish.

My gosh.

Yeah.

So I mean, I'm not going to go there.

What was it?

Going back to my point, we're going to ask you in a little bit to name, you know, give

us your picks of the bands that don't go see.

And I'll go ahead and ask you now so you could be thinking about it.

You know, maybe one or what are the entry level?

You know, what are the acts that people that are going to Baru who know nothing about,

you know, who are the ones to go see that that maybe are good entry level, good examples,

whatever.

And then, you know, what are your picks?

We'll get into that.

But I'm curious and I'm so glad to hear all the other things you said.

The fact that you and Taco would compare schedules and be like, you know, what festival are you

seeing is exactly right.

That's a great thing about Bonnarooo and a great thing about festivals in general.

But you also mentioned that you've gone to some of these here recently that are more

fine tuned.

They're more, you know, the lanes are are pretty defined.

What do you like about those and what do you maybe don't like about those?

How are they different?

I liked about them.

You find so much.

I mean, you find new music every festival you go to.

Bonnarooo is known for that.

You know, you walk on across, you'll hear something crazy.

You go check them out.

Now you're a fan for life.

But for these more fine tune like the EDM festivals and stuff, it's more like from your

neighbor's perspective, they start turning you on to stuff like they'll be playing music

out of their car or whatever.

You know, man, like, what is that?

And they tell you and all of a sudden you've got a whole new person to die.

They might be at the festival.

They might not even be there.

But it's a whole new person to dive deep into.

Me personally, you know, I love deep bass and like walking through the campgrounds and

it's just constantly just wubs coming from everyone's different little spot, let alone

the main stage down the hill and all that.

It's just like it's like your music almost like to me, you know, that's what the genre

I prefer.

It was just so cool.

Like walk around and be like, wow, like everybody here is in tune to the same thing, but everyone

has different tastes.

You know, like I said, it's like there might be the kids over here playing house music

where they're just, you know, they're just partying.

You got the dudes over here playing the real grimy, nasty dubstep where people are just

like, you know, head banging to the floor.

You know, you never know what you're going to what you're going to hear.

It's you know, it's it's really cool.

Really, other than that, I mean, it's just the music is the main difference, but the

community is still there.

I mean, it's a festival.

Everyone's still there to hang out and help each other out.

Still a camping festival.

You know, everyone's still trying to like lift each other up and show each other new

stuff and all that kind of stuff.

So as far as like, you know, things I dislike compared to Bonnarooo, I really I don't really

I can't really think of anything smaller stages, you know, smaller festivals have, you know,

one stage smaller stage.

They have renegade sets usually, you know, out in the campgrounds and all that.

So you go find those.

But I mean, Bonnarooo kills it as far as you'll have in the multiple stages and the tents

and all the different acts and all that.

I mean, you can't nobody beats that, you know, in my opinion.

So so yeah.

If you can, what's the difference between house, dub, EDM?

That's an old man question.

I get it.

I mean, I can hear I can hear the eye.

Maybe I'm not.

I was expecting this question.

I knew this question was coming.

All right.

So you got, you know, EDM is the umbrella, right?

You know, it's the electric dance music that's, you know, that just covers the whole the whole

realm.

You've got house music, which is, you know, kind of what you hear more like bars and,

you know, kind of just more upbeat, you know, to know that type thing.

You know, you've got dubstep, which is a real, you know, more deep, little darker, grimier.

You've got you got drum and bass, which is the more upbeat kind of house where, you know,

it's a little bit more European inspired.

But now it's starting to make a big wave here in America, which is cool.

It's been trying to do that for a while.

You know, you've got the pop EDM stuff like like on this year's lineup.

You've got like said this guy, Elenium, Griffin, Closie, like people like that.

They're a little bit more, you know, a little bit more slower.

You know, they ramp it up.

They bring it back down.

You've got trance.

You've got I mean, there's so many different sub genres of EDM in quotes that, you know,

it just it just breaks down so far.

And that's just like the top.

Those are like the ones that I listen to.

I mean, if you could ask somebody else, they'll tell you seven different ones.

So you know, you never know.

But but I mean, looking at this year's Bonnarooo lineup, you know, this I made a list here

on my phone.

I keep looking down at and I also have a list of 2020 and 2021 lineup on here as well.

And I will honestly say that this year for Bonnarooo, I refer to it as House of Roo this

year.

This is House of Roo.

I mean, you've got we've got 16 house acts, got 16 house acts.

We've got like nine like bass acts and then you got like some poppy stuff.

And you know, the years before that we didn't get to go to, I mean, it was like 17 hard

acts of like real, you know, real talented, not say no one's talented or nothing, but

like real dark type of stuff, which is what I like.

And this year just kind of became House of Roo.

I mean, I don't know if house artists were easier to book or what happened, but we've

got so many house artists and which is cool.

You know, that's fine.

I mean, you know, it's just to me, it's like, yeah, it's whatever.

Let's get into that first of all, Taco, anything you want to ask before I, I mean, I'm dog

dominating here.

No, go right ahead.

Okay.

So I'm glad to hear you've been there since 2012.

So you've seen the development for us.

We've been going Brad and I anyway, since 2007.

I think he was either eight or six.

I can't remember if he was a year before or a year after, but we were a little bit surprised

when they converted the other tent to the other stage and dedicated it to EDM.

Were you at all?

Okay.

No, I thought it was a great move.

I mean, and now that we don't have Collie.

Thank you for saying it correctly.

I'm glad you pronounced it correctly.

Oh, you have to pray.

I know people say it wrong all the time.

It drives me crazy.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, now that Collie, the Collie P is gone, it's like, it kind of left a hole.

And now we have where in the woods, which they're trying to fill that hole.

I feel like with where in the woods, because there's DJs on this year's lineup that aren't

even playing inside of center.

They're just playing where in the woods, big names like nightmare and stuff like that.

So yeah, losing Collie P, that was like a huge hole that opened up.

So then them making the other become the other instead of the other tent, just the other

made a lot of sense.

And I think they can definitely expand it a little bit more as well.

Kind of hoping this year they've added a little bit more sound to it.

I think it might need to be a little bit louder, but maybe that's just me.

Wow.

I don't know, man.

I could feel that bass all the way into my tent when I'm sleeping at five in the morning.

But it's still not enough.

It wasn't EDM, but I'll never forget.

I was in the pit shooting photography for my morning jacket and they opened with, oh,

shoot, the, is it victory dance?

From the one to anyway, it was just one of those bass notes in my whole chest felt like

it was exploding.

And I looked at the guy next to me and he said, he said photographer next to me.

He said, I think I just peed myself.

So I know that bass feeling that you're talking about and I like it.

I like it a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you, so you thought making that transition was a good idea?

And I have to agree.

It certainly worked.

I mean, they went from 20, was it 16 where the audience, the numbers were way down.

And then the last couple, obviously up until the pandemic were sellouts and they were on

their way to sell out.

They obviously knew what they were doing.

Do you back to the whole, your schedule versus taco schedule, do you just go to there or

you see, okay, you do see other shows?

No.

Yeah.

I mean, the one thing I don't listen to a lot of country, I just wasn't raised that

way.

It's not really my thing.

But I mean, I cover the whole spectrum usually.

I'll find myself gravitating back towards the bass stuff just because I know a lot more

of the artists.

But I mean, I was raised on rock and roll and hip hop and hell, even my dad back in

the day used to bump techno music and take me to the techno tents that the vans work

towards and the buzz bake sales and all that back in Florida.

So I'm pretty well versed.

Just the country is not really my stick.

I mean, everybody has their thing, man.

I'm not a big fan of New Country and I'm good for about three bluegrass songs.

Right, right.

Unless it's at Helms, then I listen to a little bit more.

It's the same song, just fast, faster and fastest.

And people can say the same about EDM or whatever.

When you do go, is it one set?

A couple?

I mean, are you there all night?

It depends on what else is going on other stages.

I mean, if there's nothing else that's going to pull me away from that, then I mean, it's

fun to stay there for three hours, four hours, however long, you know, sunrise sets or whatever

and just get lost in that whole world.

And of course, the longer you stay, the work, the harder it is to walk the next day because

your legs are just shot from, you know, your neck, your back, your legs.

It's like you feel like you just got hit by a truck.

But it's fun.

That's why we got the rest of your life to recover.

But Monday's fun.

Yeah, exactly.

You're right.

That drive home Monday.

I get it.

I've joked about it for years.

I mean, I'm the, they make fun of me.

I'm the go to bed early.

I don't go to bed early as they think, but I'm the guy that gets up with the sun.

And I can't tell you how many times I've been walking to get my coffee.

And you know, the, the EDM show is just ending and everybody's got that zombie look.

And I'm like, it's just going to get worse for you.

Your day is about to go real bad.

It took a lot of people.

Great time.

You know, cool.

Good for them.

Yeah.

You like this year's lineup?

I do.

It's Bonnarooo.

You know, I like the lineup no matter what.

Compared to the last two years that we didn't get compared to, I'll be honest.

I mean, all the lineups I've been to, this one's the worst in my opinion.

You know, not even just from an EDM standpoint, but just, you know, overall, I like going

through the lineup.

Like I said, there's 16 house artists and like, again, not bag on house.

There's house guys out there.

I love house.

It's, it's got its place.

But I mean, to me, I don't know.

It just seemed like, but from what they gave us the past two years, it didn't happen.

And now what we have now, it's like, I don't know what happened.

Again, going back to, because you go to other festivals.

Do you think it's because the others have pulled?

Is it because there are other options?

I consider that.

I considered that.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I have no idea.

I mean, maybe, maybe that the, you know, the more experimental and the darker, the deeper

artists and stuff have been pulled over to more niche festivals.

That's totally possible.

I mean, yeah, but just like looking back, you know, at the last year, you know, we had

people, we had like a tipper, tipper's massive.

I mean, he does these crazy visual shows.

People like LS dream.

Same thing.

We had dead mouse, subtronics, which, you know, heavy rhythm stuff, trip street, not

low at aliens.

I mean, sudden death is going to be a tipper.

Tipper was on my list.

That was the one when I did my, okay.

My dive was like, okay, that's the one I'm going to go to for sure.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Tipper.

I mean, Tipper will have the tipper and friends.

I believe it's in Sawani and they'll do the tipper and friends festival.

And it's just like, you know, he hosts it type thing and he's got a bunch of other people

that play it.

I'd love to go.

I haven't been yet, but he's a cool dude.

I mean, I love his sound and he's very, very artistic guy.

And then his visuals alone.

I mean, my God, it's, I don't know how he does it.

So yeah.

I'm glad to hear all this because I think some perception, I know there were some person

and again, it's perception, but there was a perception among some that Bonnaroo had become

the other and then the rest of the festival.

You had a large group of people that were just doing EDM.

And there may have been some of that.

I mean, who knows what this year is going to be like.

I don't know if that was fair or not.

I mean, I don't know too many people that just dedicate themselves to one thing.

It's kind of anti the whole purpose of Bonnaroo or the beauty of Bonnaroo.

But I know there were some people.

But sometimes the lineup on the, I mean, like I said last year, when I was looking at the

lineup, I said to myself, oh my God, like I might spend the entire weekend at the other.

Like it was just such a stacked lineup.

I was like, these are people I want to see so bad that I like, I was like, wow, I'm going

to spend the entire time at the other stage, which would be okay.

But you're also missing out on the rest of everything else that's going on.

What's weird this year too is if you go day by day, there's no, and I say heavy base.

That's why I refer to dubstep and stuff like that, just like experimental heavy kind of

stuff.

We don't get any of that until what?

Sunday?

Saturday, halfway through Saturday.

So you got Thursday, Friday, and halfway through Saturday until any of that stuff even plays.

I don't understand how that lineup happened.

I guess they're filling in the rest of it with house music, which is, house music's

great for like day stuff.

You know, you're dancing around, everyone's having a good time.

You can dance with a hot dog to house music.

You can eat your food while you're dancing.

Totally cool.

No head banging, no nothing like that, which is fine.

But halfway through Saturday until you get something that's really heavy, that's really

going to shake you, besides Reckno.

Reckno plays Thursday.

So we got one heavy guy the first day, nothing, nothing, nothing, and then from Saturday on,

you have the rest of them.

And even then it's like seven artists.

So I don't know, it's just weird.

I'd love to sit down at the Bonnaroo folks and just-

Maybe we need to revisit Taco.

We need to get Brian and Steven back on.

We do.

We need to make another trip to Knoxville and ask them those questions.

When you guys talk to them, that's what I was like, man, I wish I could be in the room

right now just so I could speak up and be like, hey, quick question.

Well, I think it goes to the question too about, have the other festivals influenced?

Have they taken from, have they, I don't want to say given up, but acknowledged maybe that

there are boutique festivals for just that?

Is the demographic so defined now that that's what they have to do?

I have no idea.

It wouldn't be just for that genre.

I'm wondering about a lot of it, to be honest.

We talked about that two weeks ago and don't know the answer.

We won't know until it's all over, said and done and everybody evaluates.

But all right.

Exactly.

Either way, we're all going to have a blast.

It's never not great, man.

It's never not great.

Like I said, it can be the same artist the whole weekend and I'm still going to go.

It's never not great.

It's just amazing.

All right.

So who are the EDM acts that when Taco and I and Brad are making our list and Brad ain't

going to go, let's be honest, he isn't going to get anywhere near the other stage unless

he's walking past it to something.

But who do I need to definitely don't miss?

Definitely don't miss.

Yeah.

Who's the don't miss act on the other?

I'm going to say and again, these are just in my opinion of the trees, you know, a great

experimental artist.

I mean, real, just real funky vibe.

G Jones is a classic.

These are more kind of like experimental dubstep type situation.

Black Tiger Sex Machine.

I remember when you guys were going through the lineup and I think one of you guys were

like, what is a Black Tiger Sex Machine?

I have to know what that is.

I'm like in the car just laughing like you guys, you're missing out on so much.

You know, for house music, you've got like Domberski and Habstract and Shipwreck.

You know, they're pretty solid house artists that are more on the industrial side, which

is what I kind of lean more towards to versus the poppy side.

You've got Closie and Flume and Griffin on the more, the more like middle ground, you

know, Flume, Flume gets kind of hard sometimes, you know.

So yeah, I guess those are like three from each subgenre that I've got listed here.

You've also got who we got like Still Woozy.

You've got Raven Schoon for the people who want something heavy.

A hundred drums.

That girl kills it.

I mean her, it's amazing.

Lucy, same thing.

What else we got here?

I guess Mark Ribollet doesn't really count.

He's doesn't, he's not really in the EDM thing, but I mean if nobody should miss Mark, I don't,

I know you guys are probably going to see Mark.

I agree.

Russ, you saw Mark when he played Chattanooga.

I'm so jealous.

Last minute concert they threw together and it was just like, yeah, we got to go.

It was great.

It was great.

I mean his live streams got me through the pandemic.

Seriously, I mean, just so much fun to watch that guy.

I got a kimono just for it.

Fair enough.

And I said the acts that are just on the other, there are EDM acts throughout the festival.

So I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have limited it that way.

There'll be some on the witch.

Right.

And like I said too, Flume will probably be on the witch.

Big name, probably on the witch.

Like I said, they've got Nightmare out on the We're in the Wood stage, which will be

crazy because I mean he's not even playing inside of Centauru.

He's just strictly playing out there.

And so a massive name, like I remember one time me and my dad went to Monterey a while

back and that was his favorite show.

And he still to this day talks about the visuals that Nightmare had in the background.

I mean he compares that show, he compares every show to that show.

And so very, very talented artists and all that.

And it's just weird, it's going to be cool to see how that works where he's just going

to stay outside and everyone else is going to be inside.

So I don't know.

It's interesting.

I think you guys spoke about it last time, how there will be, I think Pondo was talking

about the different acts that are going to be on the campgrounds and on the different

plazas.

So it's interesting.

It's a great breakdown.

And what are the acts that have you interested?

What are the discovery acts for you on the list?

I mean, like I said, the people I just said, like all the trees, G-Jones, all them, other

than that, I mean we still have the whole hip hop side of Bonnarooo.

You've got Isaiah Rashad.

Chattanooga guy.

Chattanooga guy.

Since his first mixtape.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You've got people like Japanese Breakfast, everything.

You've got Lane 8, which will be great.

Fimikuti, which is more of the like earth type stuff.

Sons of Kemet, which is The Comet is Coming.

That's two of the guys, two of the guys or one of the guys from The Comet is Coming.

And so that's just going to be like saxophones and drums and just like having a great, great

dance time.

You've got Mark Riblet, you've got Ludacris, you've got Lettuce, you've got all these,

such a wide variety.

So I mean my list is just all over the place.

So the couple of people I told you earlier as far as the EDM stuff, that's who I'm excited

to see.

Rez, G. Jones, Off the Tree, Ravens Coons, 100 Drums, stuff like that.

Not again, for the house people I'm not ignoring the house music.

We've got Chris Lorenzo, we've got Phantoms, we've got Shipwreck, we've got all these people,

I love them.

And then I would just, the pop stuff, like I said, Griffin, Closie, Alenium, Porter Robinson,

said this guy, if it's lunchtime and they're playing, I'll go check them out.

Just to say I've seen them, but I'm not really going to go seek them out because that's not

really my thing.

So yeah.

And then as far as hip hop as well, we've got, Jay Cole is going to be massive.

I can't wait to see Jay Cole.

I'm a huge fan.

You guys talked about him on one of your last podcasts saying that you weren't too impressed,

if I remember right, they weren't too impressed with the show that he put on back then.

So I'm hoping that now he's, that was however many years ago, he's gained a lot of notoriety

since then.

I'm hoping he puts on a great show.

We've got Boss playing.

Boss is part of his label, so I'm sure they'll come out together and do something.

Yeah.

And then really there's not a lot of hip hop this year either, which is something else

I was interested in kind of lacking there as well.

Are you a solo guy or you got a crowd when you go?

50-50, sometimes I'm solo and sometimes I've got, I think this year I'll have a group,

but like the festivals I went to over the summer, the Tennessee one and the Minnesota

one took the van by myself and just made a little road trip out of it and decided to

go make friends, which is, I mean, it was my first time doing it and it was nerve wracking.

Absolutely.

You know, cause, but I was also going into it knowing how camping festivals are.

And like, you know, once you hear that first beer can pop open from your neighbors and

then you walk over with your beer can and now it's like, Hey, you ever tried this?

No, I'm glad you said your beer can.

I was like, what do you mean neighbors beer can?

I was confused there for a second.

Yeah.

Kyle's a weirdo like me because we both actually enjoy camping year round, you know, outside

of festivals too.

Right.

Yeah.

The reason I ask is you mentioned the show and I'm not going to get too deep into this

is where I definitely get into the weeds of, you know, it's one of those perception things

with like a DJ show.

The show is what lights and you know, a guy standing at a turntable kind of thing.

But once you see it and hear it and you're part of the crowd and you're with friends,

you get it.

It's a little bit different than, than going to a concert and sitting in a chair and watching.

So it's an experience.

I mean, I do know that.

Like I said, I get it.

I have no, you know, it's not necessarily my thing, but I like it for a bit.

So I'm anxious to go by and see what they've done and see some of these acts.

And I very much appreciate you putting together those, those playlists.

I've been listening to them for a week.

Yeah.

It's good stuff.

I mean, you know, that to me, the whole, not the whole, to me, one of the great things

about Bonnarooo is discovery.

I mean, that's been the absolute driver from the beginning and community and everything

else, but discovery is a huge part of it.

And I would say like when the lineup comes out and I don't recognize a whole lot of people,

that's more exciting to me.

Cause that means I'm about to discover way more people than I knew before.

That's why this whole show is rabbit hole.

I mean, there's no question about it.

So yeah, I don't want to go see the same thing I've seen and heard over and over and over.

I want to leave there with a new favorite act.

If I leave there with a new favorite act, it's been a great festival.

That's my, and if you can turn me on to somebody, you know, or I can turn you onto somebody,

it's an even greater festival.

So that's the...

Exactly.

And that happens all the time.

Like the girl I mentioned earlier, a hundred drums, when I went up to the festival up in

Minnesota, I was talking to my camp neighbors.

They drove there from Colorado and I was asking them who they're excited to see.

And she was there strictly for a hundred drums.

And I didn't even know who that was at the time.

You know, like I listened to the Spotify playlist that the festival had put together beforehand.

I had everybody in it, but you know, there's so many artists on there.

I didn't get a chance to really like listen to everybody.

And you know, she demanded that I go with them to the hundred drum show and I mean,

instant fan.

I mean, when I saw her on this year's lineup, I was so excited because she's just, she kills

it.

And then there's stuff like that where your neighbor might convince you to, you know,

you already seen that person eight times, go check out who I'm going to go see.

And then you go see them and it's totally worth it.

So all right.

Taco, any other questions?

I think, I think that about covers it.

Yeah.

I don't have too much to add.

I hope we'll do this again.

Maybe with some more experts to help fill in the blanks for the, you know, our obvious

things we don't know about, but Kyle, very, very helpful.

I'm so glad you did this.

And I especially appreciate the fact that you've been there, you know, for many years and have

that perspective.

So this has been very, very helpful and some great names.

And again, the Spotify playlists are great.

And we'll link them.

Hopefully we can all, yeah, we'll link them.

Hopefully we can all meet up for a show or two.

Absolutely.

All right.

And Barry, who on those Spotify playlists do we stick out to you out of curiosity?

The main ones that you said, Grizz, Floon, Griffin.

Yeah.

I mean, there was, I can't remember, there was one or two others because as I was, I

wasn't matching name for song.

You know what I mean?

I was just listening.

So there were a few that I would go back and say, all right, who is this?

And yeah, that's why, at least for you guys, I tried to, you know, I made three different

playlists.

Yeah, I'm glad you did.

The darker stuff instead of kind of give you like a brain.

That's part of why I asked that question, the difference.

They are different.

And I mean, I knew that and I, but not everybody does.

Like I said, you hear EDM in some people's mind and their perception is whatever it is.

And it's like everything else.

It's way deeper and more nuanced than you're given credit for.

So, all right, man.

Thank you so much.

Right.

Yeah.

Hey, do you want to shout out your Instagram?

Where can people find you?

And all right, cool.

Cool.

I've got two.

I've got the Kyle Gonzalez, which is just me on Instagram.

Then I've got my van who's way cooler than me.

That's the Steely van.

So he's got his own page.

I got my own page.

I also want to give a shout out to Bonnarooo.

Give a shout out to you guys.

So Bonnarooo, please add one more mushroom fountain.

Just like one more fountain.

Like please, like it gets hot out there.

Like I remember like I was, we watched like 2018.

It was the internet playing in a tent.

Middle of the day, middle of the crowd.

Even the internet's up there like freaking out on how hot it is.

And I mean, people were passing out and you know, passing out, but they're taking care

of everything.

And the whole time you look over your shoulder and there's that fountain just flowing in

the background and everyone's like, God, I don't want to leave this, but look at the

fountain.

So more mist tents, another fountain will be awesome.

Other than that, Bonnarooo, you're beautiful.

You're perfect.

Love it.

All right.

So there you go.

I thought that was great.

I thought Kyle, I was so glad that he'd been there, been going for years.

So it wasn't like a one-off, not that there's anything wrong, you know, but he was able

to give us some history and some nuance and some background.

And he also goes to a lot of other festivals.

I just thought that was really cool.

Yeah, it was great.

Yeah.

And if you're like us and you look at some of these names or genres and you're like,

I don't know what this, you know, hopefully I definitely got some pointers and some ideas.

So there's definitely some shows I want to check out now after talking to him.

Yeah, it's funny.

And Brad and I have talked about this.

I think we've talked about it on the show, you know, Brad's a radio programming guy and

I've written entertainment for a newspaper for 33 years.

And one of the big hurdles that I had to overcome and he has too is this notion that when somebody

says, hey, have you ever heard of, you know, whatever your inclination is to say, yeah,

sure, of course.

Yeah.

You know, you get burned a lot on that.

And one of the, I finally realized, no, I've never heard of them and I'm not going to apologize

for it.

There's just no way that you can know everybody.

No.

You know, it's funny to hear people look at you like, well, how can you claim to know

this or that if you've never heard of it?

You can't know everybody.

So I'm not even going to try.

Yeah.

And on this show, we've never claimed to know a lot about this.

So yeah, not this particular genre.

Not this genre.

Yeah.

It's been a huge help for me.

I'm glad we had them on.

Yeah, it was great.

I hope to get somebody else on with maybe some other opinions and maybe someone within

the industry, you know, maybe some artists and acts.

We need to do that.

But all right.

Well, this isn't the only festival going.

You've got one coming up this weekend, right?

Coming up this weekend will be Shaky Knees, Downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

And this will be my second one.

I went last year and, you know, it's a city festival, so it's different than Bonnarooo.

The camping is really like what gets me into Bonnarooo.

So having to, you know, ride the train and Uber and go back and forth, it's it's not

as fun, I don't think.

But I looked, you know, I left last year.

You all asked, well, would you go back?

And I said, it really depends.

The lineup would have to be really good.

Well guess what?

The lineup is really good.

So here I am.

I'm going back.

Yeah, it's good.

I, as I've said, I've had a couple of medical things that I'm recovering from very well.

Not complaining.

I'm lucky, very, very lucky, but not going to be able to make it.

But this, I'm with you, man.

This is a great lineup.

Are you going all every day?

Every day?

Yeah.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Friday's green day, Saturday's nine inch nails and Sunday is my morning jacket.

Yeah, there it is.

That's the one that kills me.

That hurts me.

Sunday's a really good, I think they're all three great lineups.

I would go all three days.

If I had to pick Sunday would be it for me.

But I'm happy for you.

You've got family friends that are close, right?

I do.

It turns out they sold their house and moved out to Woodstock.

So they're a bit further out of the city than, you know, to stay.

But I've got another friend lined up that actually, Kyle, that we just talked to, he

and I and Christo, that's who I'm staying with.

Christo's also got a bus.

So we're all friends.

So he said he's got a house just down the road from the festival.

He said, come crash.

I said, OK.

There you go.

Didn't you go last year and take like a three hour walk to go 10 minutes?

Yes, that was.

Yeah, so Kelsey that I went with after after the festival got out, this was like Saturday

night.

One of her friends was there and he said, all right, y'all, we're going to this bar.

I know this great bar.

It's just a couple of blocks down the road.

So we start walking and we're walking and we're walking and like an hour goes by and

I'm like, where?

How?

And he's like, no, I think it's just further up here.

And you know, we eventually just stop and sit down because he can't figure it out.

We look up where it is and it's still like a couple of miles away.

So we're like, we're going to Uber from here.

Wow.

So but that that exhausted me.

I mean, that was far too much walking just for just to go to a bar.

Yeah.

I got a beer just about anywhere.

I know we passed so many places.

I'm like, this place looks cool.

Can we stop here?

They got beer.

Can we go here?

Wow.

Well, there I mean, again, you're going with people you've met because of these these

festivals, right?

Exactly.

I don't think, you know, I think we're past it.

I know four or five, six years ago, whenever I would tell people I was going to Bonnarooo,

the first thing was always you can't.

And we're so far past that now it's there's just this whole community thing and it's it's

countrywide.

It's not just, you know, within our little universe.

So that's really cool.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it.

And what are we up to for Bonnarooo?

Like 50 something days?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's right on top of us.

Yeah.

It'll be here before we know it.

And we've got more shows planned.

We've got I'm very excited.

I don't know how I hate saying what we've got planned because so many things can happen.

But I will say this.

We've got a guest lined up in the next couple of weeks who was was there at the beginning

Bonnarooo was created and is very much involved in the festival industry.

And I can't wait to have him on as a guest coming up very soon.

And then we need to get more people like Pondo and Kyle and and anybody else we can think

of.

I agree.

I mean, this has been great.

We've reached out to, you know, some friends of ours and said, hey, you want to be on the

show?

And they said, yeah.

So it worked out great.

Like we've said, the vetting process.

There's my cat.

The vetting process is pretty stringent.

You know, they answer the phone call that usually puts you at the top of the list.

All right.

Well, taco, unless there's anything else, I want to say thanks to everybody.

And I can't wait to see everyone.

And thanks so much for listening.

And hit you know, we never say this, but hit that subscribe button and tell your friends.

That's right.

We never push it very much.

Yeah.

And it really goes a long way to help with growth of the show and to to get us out to

other people that might not have heard of it.

So we really appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thanks to Consequence for pushing us.

And that helps a lot.

And if you want one of those Never Not Great t-shirts, go to that merch, the What Podcast

dot com.

It's on there.

Buy a t-shirt and I'll send you something from the basement.

I promise.

Maybe I'll send you that cat.

I'm if the package is moving the cat's in it.

I better go before she bites my leg off.

Yeah.

I'll let you tend to that.

Thanks, guys, so much.