Episode 1 transcript

Note: this transcript is AI-generated, and as such, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.

Chad (00:00.75)
Hello and welcome to the inaugural episode of Aural Mess, which is just a music podcast about anything and everything music and whatever else I feel like talking about. So I'm joined tonight by Mr. Lou Lamonte, who is my first official guest. Thank you, Lou. If you wanna introduce yourself, say a few words. Ha ha ha.

Lou LaMonte (00:18.583)
It's an honor and privilege to be here. I am a man from the internet, with some common interests, and I appreciate you taking the gamble. I don't know if you made an assessment on me, or if you're just taking your chances, but thank you either way.

Chad (00:27.991)
apps.

Chad (00:34.366)
I'm just taking my chances and I'm sure so are you. So we'll see what happens, man. So yeah, I mean, I think we connected on Instagram.

Lou LaMonte (00:37.455)
Hahaha

Chad (00:43.662)
so and Twitter too, but you know I started out just maybe a year or so ago making really stupid or so I thought Steely Dan memes because you know somebody had to do more of them right I mean you have some of those classic accounts on Twitter and Instagram people that were doing it but they just weren't putting a lot out it was like few and far between and they were doing other content so I was just like full of ideas for you know all different sort of

Chad (01:14.077)
I started posting everything on Twitter and I got such a good response that I was like, let me just create a stupid meme account on Instagram and see what happens over there because you know, there's a whole Steely Dan community there as well. So I think you're one of my first followers.

Lou LaMonte (01:26.923)
Really? Oh, well, it's an honor. I thought it was funny when I ran into you because I don't use Twitter that often outside of for work. So I thought it was also pretty funny that I happened to find you on Twitter because, again, if I don't use Twitter very often, one of the very few things that the algorithm is going to be programmed to, for me, is probably going to be stealing time. So I guess it's no surprise that I found your content, but I had no idea it was you until we had that one interaction, which, you know.

I would say small world, but since all 30 of us know each other. Steely Tank community in our age group is not too big.

Chad (02:05.994)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think I'm a little bit older than the average Steely Dan meme person online, so it's kind of funny, because I'm really enjoying the sort of danisence, the rebirth of Steely Dan and it being in everybody's consciousness.

Lou LaMonte (02:21.075)
It's great. Some of the Steely Dan chats that I'm in, like, some of the kids are like 17, 18 years old making banger Steely Dan memes. I'm like, this is cool. It gives me hope.

Chad (02:34.922)
Yeah, me too. Hope for the future. The kids are gonna be okay. So I guess my question for you, since we're on Steely Dan already, we can sort of go off on that tangent. How did you get into them? Like, you know, what was your first experience or your first memory of hearing Steely Dan and you know, how big of a fan are you?

Lou LaMonte (02:52.971)
Um, yeah, that's actually... I got into them unlike a lot of the other music that I was exposed to in my formative years. I actually kind of delved into them at a deeper level on my own. As a kid...

I used to burn a lot of CDs and then like put them in my Walkman. So like there are certain songs that I to this day I hear and I used to use the fading like the blending things so the last three seconds of one song blends into the first of another. So like to this day I'll hear like

Brandy by what is it spiral staircase or whatever it is and I'll be expecting to hear the James Bond theme because like that's what My weird 12 year old brain like put together on because I had just found both at the same time and I'm like, oh boy So one of those CDs had like dirty work on it and I remember my dad showing me do it again

You hear Real and In the Years just on FM radio anywhere you go. But those were the only three songs I really knew by them for a long time. And then believe it or not, I actually got very into Kanye West's graduation album in 2007. And like that's a very good album from start to finish. And I kept listening to Champion and my mom, you know, I was in the car with my mom and I was like, whose voice is this? Because I can tell he's sampling something. And she listened. It's like very clearly Donald Fagen's voice. But if the only, you know, three

songs that you know and one of them that is dirty work like I didn't really know what Donald's voice sounded like she got it right away and was like oh that's Steely Dan so I was like oh well this sounds like a cool metal it was just a piece of Kid Charlemagne

Lou LaMonte (04:32.003)
And then I went and found Kid Charlemagne and I found all this other stuff. And, you know, I guess I started with the first couple albums and a song or two from like whatever else and then just delve deeper and started going to see them every year. I've probably seen them like a dozen times or something like that at this point. And I don't know, it just spiraled out of control real quick.

Lou LaMonte (05:02.657)
and I'm not even exaggerating like that's like not a colloquially to get the point across like that's actually what happened so I don't know I've been listening to them at this depth and level for like maybe a Yeah, seven or eight years at this point So not as long as some people but I have already caught up probably in spending thousands of hours Sitting and listening like way more than anybody should

Chad (05:29.546)
Yeah, well, same. And I feel like there's always something new, even on the 8,000th listen of some of these songs. Like I'll just still pick up on something that I didn't really pick up on before, or I'll read something that triggers me to go back and listen to something that I wanna dig deeper into, and then I hear it and I'm like, oh wow. You know, it's just, it's that unique discography that they have, I think, that a lot of artists just don't have that depth. It's crazy.

Lou LaMonte (05:56.643)
It's also interesting that each album has like a very different aesthetic from like you could tell which songs are from which albums more or less if they're like maybe 70% of it, but um, I left a few gems that I knew that I

You know, I wanted to be able to still discover new stuff later outside of like outtakes. So like I intentionally never listened to the entirety of Pretzel Logic and left like four or five songs that I never heard. And then like earlier, maybe like three, four months ago, I found Monkey in Your Soul. And this is probably one of the four or five songs that I don't know or haven't listened to hundreds of times. And I was just so excited to find it because it's so good. Such an amazing song. Immediately, I heard that.

like the E sharp seven add nine chord like it's the basically the taxman like it's almost the hendrix chord but it's very clearly influenced by taxman it um in my opinion and the like the grunginess of the bass also and the bass line it's like i hear a lot of Beatles influence and monkey and your soul in my personal opinion but um

Chad (07:03.286)
Yeah, no, I agree, totally agree. So you play guitar, and what else?

Lou LaMonte (07:08.167)
Uh, yeah. Um, I started with piano at like age eight and, um, just then taught, like I took lessons from some guy from France who like had a couple of CDs and was really good classical, you know, player. Uh, and he used to transcribe.

music for me. So like I would ask him like, Hey, I want to learn how to play Bohemian Rhapsody. And he would, he had some computer program, like whatever you have in the year 2000 and transcribe this stuff and would bring it back and would like actually teach me so I wouldn't have to learn like Mary had a little M.

which really helps with the enthusiasm of learning because when you're learning something and you really don't understand a lot about the methodology of how to play it or even just the chords or notes themselves like one of the things that helps me push through is imagining how much fun it will be to play the finished product because the only thing better than listening to your favorite music is playing it. It's a lot of fun. So I keep thinking about that when I'm learning if I'm having a hard time. So I don't know, him transcribing stuff really helped a lot. Anyway, then I picked up guitar when I was

12 and kind of taught myself that and probably have played more of that in the past few years than piano I also had a Teacher this woman from Ukraine who was my middle school music teacher taught us how to sing and she assembled some of her favorite kids from the middle school and By the time we got into high school like created this Vocal ensemble and actually got us somehow into Carnegie Hall and we sang at Carnegie Hall. It's like a six piece Which was pretty cool

that I would want to listen to like in the car. But it's still a fun experience. So that's the gist. I guess I also play like harmonica and bass and whatever. Like I can get my hands on, but there's some stuff that you can't figure out. And that's like, I don't have a lot of hours spent on those things. I'm just like proficient, you know? But I want to know how to play sax and violin, but never took the time to figure it out.

Chad (09:04.784)
Right.

Chad (09:10.258)
Yeah, I used to play sax, but I stopped after junior high. It was just like guitar became my thing and I was into that for years and then I just sort of stopped for a long time. Life got in the way, wife, kid, mortgage, the whole nine yards. And a couple years ago I dug out my...

Lou LaMonte (09:21.508)
Yes.

Lou LaMonte (09:24.939)
it does.

Chad (09:27.874)
can't see I'm pointing to nothing but dug out my guitars and I bought myself a bass because I had played bass on and off over the years too and I'm just still struggling to make the time to take them off the wall and play I mean you know every couple weeks or so I'll do something but it's fun I'm not even gonna attempt trying to play like any Steely Dan solos stuff maybe some of the easier solos I'll tackle at some point but

Lou LaMonte (09:51.095)
You could do it. I mean, I, first of all, I identify with like not having the time. Things get carried, you know, I get carried away with life real quick, but, uh, returning to it always, always feels.

really great. But yeah, I honestly I didn't think that I could play Steely Dan songs and then I started to learn them and some of them are simpler than others. Like I would start if you want, Green Earrings is a lot of fun to play and it's actually not that difficult, surprisingly. I would recommend giving that one a shot. It's a lot of fun.

Chad (10:15.787)
Yeah.

Chad (10:23.522)
Yeah, if I can cop that pinch harmonic going into the bridge. Hahaha!

Lou LaMonte (10:28.829)
Oh, I wasn't talking about the solo by the way that I that I have not figured out do not let me fool you That's not something I'll ever know how to do

Chad (10:33.342)
Yeah.

Chad (10:37.334)
Denny Diaz, man, like I didn't even know that was him, you know, until, I don't know, a couple years ago, I guess I started digging into like who was playing what on what songs and stuff and it's just unreal.

Lou LaMonte (10:48.943)
He did another one on I think Katie Lye also, right? Yes, yeah.

Chad (10:51.834)
Oh, You're Gold Teeth 2? Yeah, I think that's one of my favorite solos ever recorded. Yeah.

Lou LaMonte (10:56.419)
It's crazy. It's crazy. How does he do what he does? Nobody knows.

Chad (11:01.439)
Just natural talent, you know? So what other music are you into besides the Dan? I mean, you know, we can talk about that for an hour, I'm sure, but, you know, I'm trying not to make this a Steely Dan podcast. Despite the shirt. And I got the shirt.

Lou LaMonte (11:14.651)
Good luck! Yeah, we're starting out strong. I got the SDU hat from Gordon at Double Wonderful. Um. Yep, yeah. The neighbors are li- That's all it's good for, just drowning out domestic arguments.

Chad (11:29.413)
Ha ha!

Lou LaMonte (11:30.979)
Um, let's see. I made a playlist today or yesterday rather for a couple of friends that I played music with usually improv, but sometimes like we all bring a, a riff either that we made up or somebody else. And we, and sometimes the other guys are not familiar with what it is.

build upon it. So I put a few on here that I wanted to learn with them. Bopcorn by Kung Fu, which is a strange song, Ferris Gallery by A La Lass, Big Night In by this guy Troy Roberts that I happened to see at a jazz club in Miami and became a big fan. I made it a collaborative playlist at which point my friend Jesse satirically added I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys. I don't

Lou LaMonte (12:16.617)
hose anyway just kiss my baby by the meters one and seven by soul live you know one and seven by so live too they

Chad (12:26.938)
soul alive and I think the only tune I know by them is when is it them backing as Dave Matthews in that band or did he just do the Ani DeFranco cover with them oh yeah so Joyful Girl by Ani DeFranco great song you should get into her she's fabulous but

Lou LaMonte (12:37.623)
I'm out of my depth, I have no clue.

Chad (12:47.954)
It's basically Soul Live covering that song with horns and just like this kickass bass part. And it's Dave Matthews singing and I'm guessing he's playing guitar on it too. I didn't know if he was part of that group from time to time or if he was just on that one track, but no.

Lou LaMonte (13:02.819)
Yeah, I think he's on the one track, but that's pretty cool. I like that. I'd like to hear that. Thanks for the heads up.

Chad (13:08.522)
And I love the meter saw, man. That's one of my favorites.

Lou LaMonte (13:11.003)
That's such a good song. Honestly, I think that I like it better than Sissy Strut. Sissy Strut is just like such a classic riff, but if I want to listen to the meters, it's probably going to be Just Kiss My Baby.

Chad (13:15.281)
Yeah.

Chad (13:21.518)
If you look up pocket in the dictionary, there's just a picture of the meters playing Just Kiss My Baby, right?

Lou LaMonte (13:23.983)
That's...

Lou LaMonte (13:27.803)
Definition, textbook definition. I got Minor Swingin' Here by Django Reinhardt, old, you know, 1930s gypsy jazz. Flashlight by Parliament, Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf, which brought me to Green Earrings by Stilly Dan, Ghetto Life by Rick James, and a lot of these are like...

Chad (13:38.669)
Yeah.

Yes.

Chad (13:44.6)
Love it.

Lou LaMonte (13:53.739)
riff based songs that have a strange time signature that was like the theme here at least in my weird brain and then finally This is a song that i've been listening to on repeat for at least two days Uh pinball number count by the pointer sisters from sesame street I 11 12 I can't I can't stop now. I found a cover of it. That's that's even better or like at least

Chad (14:12.671)
Ha ha

Lou LaMonte (14:21.899)
mastered better and recorded better and I've been listening to that version and I definitely want to learn how to play that because that's just such a cool little riff that's like an ear, total earworm. But other than that a lot of Mideski, Martin and Wood going on. Chester, I'm sorry what's his name? Cyrus Chestnut, Roy Hargrove, Oscar Peterson, Rio Fukui, Art Farmer, Kenny Burrell.

Chad (14:37.079)
Hmm.

Lou LaMonte (14:50.307)
uh... Joshua Redmond Elastic Band Sonny Rollins Kenny Drew uh... Grant Green and uh... I don't know, I've just been listening clearly to a lot of jam jazz mostly yeah, what about you?

Chad (15:03.862)
Yeah, sounds like it.

Let me see, let me pull up my latest. I have like this just ephemeral playlist that I just keep for, you know, I drive into New York a couple days a week for work, so I always want something different to listen to, and invariably on the way home, it's always Steely Dan like on, you know, shuffle, but.

Lou LaMonte (15:23.194)
Of course.

Chad (15:26.218)
Let's see what's on this. I have a couple tracks. I'm a big R.E.M. fan and I never got into the New Adventures in Hi-Fi album. That was sort of the end of them for me. I think it was the first album without Bill Barry or maybe it was the last one with him, I forget. But it never really hit me and then for some reason I just popped it on. I think I read an article about it or something like it had an anniversary and the song Bittersweet Me is just fantastic. So that's on my playlist.

Lou LaMonte (15:31.653)
Yeah.

Chad (15:56.994)
Dead of Winter by The Eels, because I was just reading again about how when Walter Becker died, Donald Fagen put up a, I guess a snippet of the lyrics from that song as sort of part of his tribute to Walter. So I was like, I don't think I know that tune, so I went and dug it up and put it on the playlist. Beginnings by Chicago.

Lou LaMonte (16:17.543)
Good call. Okay, easy, 100%.

Chad (16:23.154)
see Excursions by Tribe Called Quest, Things We Do For Love by 10cc, total bubblegum bullshit pop from the 70s but it's catchy.

Lou LaMonte (16:26.128)
Awesome.

Lou LaMonte (16:32.707)
Yeah, but still good. I heard that yesterday at the... I don't remember where I was. Somewhere in public, but heard it yesterday. Yeah, probably, right? Yeah, literally.

Chad (16:38.11)
The dentist. Supermarket. Stormy Monday. The Fillmore East version from the Almonds. That's just one of my favorite blues jams ever. Let's see. Enjoy the silence by Depeche Mode. Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult. Gotta have that cowbell. Really? Yeah.

Lou LaMonte (16:48.039)
Cool.

Lou LaMonte (16:51.542)
It's great.

Lou LaMonte (17:00.727)
Oh for sure. I saw them for free one time in like in Copac over here. Because I get I think they're from Long Island so they played like a free show and all the dads between age 45 and 70 brought cowbells like they they don't know they didn't know each other either they were just like different people with different crowds of like they all came alone and as soon as uh not Godzilla Don't Fear the Reaper came on

Chad (17:13.504)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (17:29.723)
they're all standing up doing this and like moving their hips and shit I was just like this is very Long Island let me just... Yeah oh totally yeah they're probably like yeah we get it dance monkey dance do the thing I know yeah of course I felt secondhand pain from it to be honest

Chad (17:36.862)
And I bet the band's like, ugh. Ha ha ha.

Chad (17:48.11)
actually, oh, I can't even imagine. Or they just smile and roll with it, and they're like, well, I'm just glad we're here. I think some bands just have that, like, I don't care. Dance Monkey, I'll play the music, I'll play the hits, I don't give a shit. I'm getting paid, so I think it goes both ways. Fly Like an Eagle, Steve Miller band, and the reason why, I mean, that's an evergreen song for me, but I was reading how...

there's this guy on TikTok and he basically does breakdowns of songs. So like, you know, kind of like a Rick Beato kind of thing, but he just does like little, no, I can't think of his name.

Lou LaMonte (18:27.111)
It's not Charles Bennett, is it?

Chad (18:31.39)
I could probably find him, but he's a recording engineer and he'll just do like a one to two minute video and just give you like a quick overview of like, okay, you know, check this out. This is why this is such a great recording and this is how this track was recorded and this is what it sounds like, you know, soloed and that sort of stuff. And he did just the rhythm section for Fly Like an Eagle. And it, not that you can't hear it with the rest of the song around it, but it just.

swings like on its own. It's weird. So I just was like, alright, I got a list of that song a few times. So I did.

Lou LaMonte (19:03.275)
Yeah, you don't notice when it's layered and everything, and then it becomes more obvious when it's isolated. I know.

Chad (19:08.178)
Yeah, like Green Earrings, you know, that's the thing. It's Green Earrings is like the funkiest track, I think, they ever record at Steely Dan, but if you go on YouTube, there's a couple different versions of like, you know, alternate takes that were just rehearsals with no vocals and no leads and somebody did like a seven minute remix of just the rhythm section. And it's, maybe I'll post it in the show notes. It's crazier, I'll just text it to you after too. It's awesome.

Lou LaMonte (19:26.528)
I would love to hear that.

Lou LaMonte (19:33.936)
Yeah.

Chad (19:36.738)
Super Rich Kids by Frank Ocean, one of my all-time favorite songs. Ah, he's awesome. New one to me, Ben to Canaan by Carole King. I know all the Carole King all-time hits, but I've never heard that song before and I forgot where I stumbled across it, but I was like, ah, I'm digging this, so I threw it on my playlist. And Buffalo Tom. I'm a huge Buffalo Tom fan. I don't know if you're familiar.

Lou LaMonte (19:40.591)
He's great.

Lou LaMonte (20:00.951)
Now you're gonna have to enlighten me.

Chad (20:03.006)
Yeah, they're a trio out of Boston. They started in the early 80s and, you know, they kind of came up through the late 80s alternative rock era and sort of lasted pretty much through the beginning of grunge and then they kind of fell off the radar.

great bands and they're still making music. So they actually just put out a new single and their album's supposed to come out sometime, I think in the spring. So I'm really excited about that. Yeah. Sure, absolutely.

Lou LaMonte (20:33.511)
Cool, sweet, I'll check that out, thank you.

Chad (20:40.066)
So what else? Memes. I think we should talk about memes. Yeah. Sure.

Lou LaMonte (20:41.115)
Oh. Oh, before we do that, I wanted to make a recommendation. There's this band called the Silver Seas. And I think they're probably their biggest claim to fame was...

Lou LaMonte (20:56.935)
I think Catch Your Own Train, which appeared in Breaking Bad. But they made an album called Chateau Revenge in like 2011 or 12. And it for some reason never blew up, but there's a couple songs on there that like totally deserve to be on the radio. And I would be surprised if anybody disliked them. They're like that kind of songs. I'm gonna send them over to you. One of them is called...

Lou LaMonte (21:25.027)
What's the drawback and the others called best things in life? And they're just two absolute bops that I, you know, I still to this day, absolutely amazed that there's only like 10 or 12,000 plays on YouTube. And I think they took it off a streaming. They probably just like, weren't getting enough streams on it where they didn't want to pay to keep it up anymore. But when you get a chance, look those two up there, you'll, you'll I have a feeling you'll like them very much. Yeah, of course. Memes.

Chad (21:47.434)
Yeah. Oh, definitely, thank you.

Chad (21:53.93)
Memes, yeah. So you've got some, it is, but you've got some experience in the shitposting arena, right? So.

Lou LaMonte (21:58.159)
It's a lot less funny to say out loud.

Lou LaMonte (22:05.635)
little bit yeah no I'll do it I guess you know I'm 30 and I've probably been on the internet for at least 20 of those years 22 probably so I'm like I did have a childhood that was not like super formative with the internet and like phones and stuff but also found stuff way too early like I found I found the

Chad (22:08.238)
I don't know if you want to talk about it. It's fine. It's fine if you don't.

Lou LaMonte (22:34.671)
the F for Gently Tenacious D music video, which is I think illustrated by John Crick Felucci for Brennan Stimpy, who was a sick and is to this day a pretty sick guy. So you can imagine that the things in that I was like not really fit for an eight year old. But you know, I stuck with it. I didn't get discouraged. I kept going and I became a fully shaped man of the internet. But I pretty much watched memes.

go from like their conception around like 4chan-ish and then watch them like get past to Reddit and then watch them get past from there to Facebook and then just spread to everywhere and then like have people figure out how to make them and I've just kind of watched the way that they evolved over time and it's a beautiful thing and I think that it's a miracle that they ever ended up

as the that's the deep levels of satire that are in memes today ever ended up being mainstream um in 2011 when they reached facebook and there were like a lot of wine moms making like minions memes i not that i am not shitting on them or their existence and i don't mean to sound like an elitist but it was it was hard to watch it get watered down to that extent and um and i'm pleased that to this day uh

They're as satirical as they are to the point where like, you might not have any idea what the hell the joke is. But that stuff, I guess, turned out to be a job for me.

I would never think that, you know, spending all that time looking at the dumbest shit you've ever seen on the internet would be training for anything. But I made friends with a bunch of meme page admins from Instagram from like the early days of when that became popular, like 2016, 2017, 18 kind of thing. And one of those guys named heck off supreme ended up getting hired by Slim Jim to help create content for their social media pages.

Lou LaMonte (24:44.605)
successful they grew they grew the page to like 700,000 followers or something and when they expanded the budget they hired me and I came on and continued to shitpost and leave very annoying comments all over the internet that were either witty or insightful or funny or just annoying and to the point where like you know their reputation spread and it becomes like a an attrition game a funnel like you're getting a certain amount of impressions as the original

those people, you know, certain amount of people see you, certain amount of people like it, then a certain, much smaller percentage, feeds at the page, and if they like what they see when they get there, they follow you. So I did that until the page grew from like 700,000 followers to like 1.4 million. And then I did it again for Mountain Dew Gaming, on Twitter mostly I handled. But, you know, I was grateful for the opportunity to make culturally authentic content.

that was like stupid enough and not too watered down by brands. I did this constant, you know, battle with, not battle, like we had a very nice relationship with their legal department and their brand managers or whatever. But some of, I wish I could show you some of the stuff that got turned down. Because they let me do quite a bit. So as you can imagine, the stuff that they turned down was probably the funniest stuff. I will share it with you.

Chad (26:02.626)
Ha ha ha!

Lou LaMonte (26:14.035)
If there's a way to maybe link a copy of it in the in the footnotes of the of the episode I'll upload it to Google Drive or something and you can lay your eyes upon The holy meat sock which you can figure out what that is later

Chad (26:27.246)
Ha ha!

Chad (26:33.388)
That's amazing. That's really impressive. It's basically doubling their following.

Lou LaMonte (26:39.491)
Well, they passed a torch to me, I just knew how to carry it. But, you know, what they did was particularly impressive. But yeah, definitely never thought that I would leave... I have a finance degree. I never thought that I would leave banking to... ..I mean, banking to do marketing maybe, but when you look at it under that specific lens, it's like, wow. You know, I walked away from banking to do... ..very stupid internet pictures, and I haven't regretted it a single day since.

Chad (26:43.255)
Right.

Chad (27:05.016)
Ha ha.

Chad (27:09.334)
That's my dream, they get paid to make memes, man. Like, you know, how sweet of a gig would that be? Without all the corporate pressure and the lawyers and the marketing people getting pissy, but yeah. Ha ha ha.

Lou LaMonte (27:18.719)
Yeah, that's most of it to be honest with you. It's a lot of... I know I make it sound like fun, but a lot of it is no different from any other work. It's work. A lot of strategy, a lot of deck building, a lot of hand holding, a lot of selling in ideas. And you become more well-rounded from all those interpersonal interactions and the politics involved.

The one thing I think about it that keeps me sane is getting to make stupid shit.

Chad (27:55.97)
Great.

Lou LaMonte (27:56.592)
Yeah.

Chad (27:59.326)
sometimes if you know I know there are a few people in the in the Steely Dan universe that see my stuff and have liked it or made comments and it just blows me away like Elliot Randall I think followed my account. Leneese Bent do you know who she is?

Lou LaMonte (28:11.355)
Yes.

Lou LaMonte (28:15.335)
Mm-hmm. I feel like I recognize your name, but no I don't

Chad (28:19.458)
She was one of the assistant engineers that worked on, I think it was Just Asia. She might've been around for Galcho too. She tells a really funny story and you gotta find it. I can't remember if it was on a podcast or on YouTube, but again, I'll try to remember to link it. She was in the studio when they were recording Home at Last.

And famously, Donald wanted to keep recording the words well the over and over again, until it sounded the way that he wanted to. In like the thousands of times where he was like, nope, rewind it, let's do it again. Well the, I don't like that one. The well it didn't sound, like you know, you get the idea. So for like hours upon days apparently, they were trying to nail that well the.

And she said I was about to pull my hair out. You know, she's like, went to my boss and I just said, I went off this job, I can't do it anymore. If I hear a whale about one more time, I'm gonna lose it. So anyway, she seems like she's really cool and she followed my meme page and she's actually liked a few things that I posted. So that to me is like, you know, it just makes me really happy.

Lou LaMonte (29:24.931)
It's super exciting and it's nice to see you know what it is, too. I think that there's so many people in the The cinematic Dan verse because of how many people that they've had in and out of the studio and in an on tour

that like, you know, there are a lot of them floating around and some of them are very personable and cool and want to connect and like, Elliot Randall also, I don't know, I think I must have like collaboratively posted a cover or something with dealing Stan, the other main page and I then Elliot ended up following me too and I was like, Oh, wow, like, I'm sure for him, he's just like very flat. Greg Rowley, like also is very, like if you talk to him, he's just like, he'll answer any he'll answer you five times in a row on the same thread until you

Chad (30:10.562)
Oh well.

Lou LaMonte (30:11.105)
Until you stop like he's like a really he's like I really appreciate my fans, you know It's cool. I think I got to talk to a Latonya Hall once she's in the Danettes right now Because somebody like made it somebody was trying to impersonate her so I just like gave her a heads up and she was like Thanks, you know But I think probably the coolest one is I actually met Michael Leonhard a couple times

Yeah, the first time that I spoke to him, I guess, you know how you're not supposed to record Steely Dan shows? Judd Apatow, the director.

I guess must have and of course anytime somebody posts about Steely Dan we hear about it right so like this happened to be on one of the pages that I follow they've they like reposted Judd Apatow's picture of him at a Steely Dan concert and the caption was like I know that you're not supposed to record Steely Dan but like I'm you know this is the most memorable moment of one of the most memorable moments of my life I'm of you know sue me whatever.

Lou LaMonte (31:22.025)
shows you the comments of people that you follow, like it prioritizes it toward the top. So Michael's comment is at the top with like no interaction. It's just because I follow him and it says like, Hey, Judd, like we forgive you. Was this the North Carolina show? You know, um, and I replied to him and I said, um, this is Judd's secretary.

Like, yes, this was the North Carolina show, and thank you so much for a wonderful show or whatever. And then I went to just like, do whatever, and I came back to my phone 20 minutes later and I have... DMs from Michael. He's like, he's like, hey, like, you know, send me an address to send some merch to you and Judd. And then, and like, I guess he didn't know about the unsend button, because I messaged him like, you know, when I got back to my phone and I was like, Hey, Mike, like...

I'm actually just a super fan. I am totally not Judd's secretary that he brought to his Tilly Tan concert. And he was like, yeah, I figured that out pretty quickly. And I felt bad. But later, like six months later, I ran into him outside of Central Park. I had just went and saw three shows, the last three shows of their most recent tour before they were

Was it the Absolutely Normal tour? Or the one after that? It was the one after that, before they started opening for Eagles. I saw the last three of that with Gordon from Double Wonderful. And the next day after the last show, I ran into him on 72nd Street outside of Central Park and was just like... Like a straight soyjack pointed at him like, just, ohhhhh. He was like, he was like, ohhhhh.

Chad (33:00.386)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (33:08.98)
Cause no, he probably doesn't get stopped on the street all the time. You know, I think he's a legend, but like his, he's not like his face is all over magazines. So he stops and I think he assumed that he, that I knew that like he knew me and he's like trying to place me. And I was like,

I was like, I'm just like, I'm just a super fan of the tour I know who you are, and he was- and he chatted with me for like 30 seconds, I was like, I also have a confession. And he's like, what's that? And I was like, I'm Judd Apatow's secretary. And he was like, oh, get the fuck out of here. I was like, get out of here. He's like, I'm- get out of here. He's like, oh. He wasn't like actually pissed, like, but like, and Chumlee was like, oh, psh, and like, and then like left. And then, uh.

Okay, now fast forward like another nine months and I went and saw his brass band at lunatic Oh and in Brooklyn and After the show I went up to him and I told him like let me I want to buy a couple of your 45s and he was like looking at me and by the way

For some reason, is it a Man Ain't Supposed to Cry or Phantom Raiders? One of the songs that they play when they open concerts or in between was playing on the radio and I was like, did you do this? And he was like, no, I didn't do this, the house did this. He was like, isn't that weird though? I'm like, when do you ever hear that? It just happened to be on. But he's like staring at me and he's like...

What's your name? And I was like, Louis. And he's like, I thought you were Louis. He was like, I ran into you in Central Park. Like, and I was like, how the fuck do you remember that? And my name, I guess the Judd Apatow thing stuck with him. So he signed my shit and I told him, you know, I'll go get cash if you want cash or I could Venmo you. And he's like, I'll let you Venmo me. So he's flipping through looking for his username. And I...

Chad (34:46.578)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (34:59.875)
By the way, once I found it, I saw that he had not Venmo'd anybody in two years. So I was like, it was very nice of you to let me send you something that you probably don't use. But he couldn't find his username for like five minutes. I'm not even exaggerating, like five whole minutes that we're standing there. And he's like scrolling through his notes, looking for it. So do you know on Donald Fagen's Sunken Condos record that Michael Linhardt produced?

He also played drums, I think on every track, under the pseudonym Earl Cook Jr. And I think he assumes that nobody knows that. So he searched in for his username and I was like, you having a hard time there? And he was like, he's like, yeah, I'm just looking for the name. I was like, if I search Earl Cook Jr., it'll come up. Right. And he was like.

Chad (35:30.314)
Yeah. Every single track. Yeah.

Chad (35:46.722)
Ha ha

Lou LaMonte (35:49.295)
He like did the full like double triple take he's like what the fuck did you just say? And I was like if I search Earl Cook Jr. it'll come up and I pay you and he's like how the fuck do you know that?

Chad (36:01.95)
They don't realize that like the fan base man like we know all this trivia Yeah

Lou LaMonte (36:06.727)
I'm like, yeah dude, I'm like, I'm autistic bro, what do you think? Like, so I have a long, he's a very good sport. I have a long history of, of busting chops with him and he, and he's taken it very well and still sometimes to this day, if he ever replies to me in his comments, refers to me as Joe D'Apetow secretary. Pretty ridiculous.

Chad (36:29.731)
Ha ha.

hilarious. I love it. Yeah it's funny you mentioned like you know not being recognized and I feel like yeah the average music fan even the average Steely Dan fan wouldn't know who the hell he was if they bumped into him on the street and you know Fagen and Becker said they never got recognized because you know before the internet right I mean nobody knew who the hell they were and he was just walking around Manhattan doing this thing anonymous and you know not many people knew who he was yeah.

Lou LaMonte (36:57.627)
pretty good deal. Yeah, I mean if you didn't see him in a magazine you probably didn't see him. There's that clip from Walter where he's like, you know what I like? When people come up to me and they say, you're that guy from Steely Dan, aren't you? And I say, well yeah, yeah I am. And then they go, now you're not. Now you're not. That's what I like.

Chad (37:09.494)
You're that guy.

Chad (37:17.514)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (37:22.395)
And who else can get away with that, you know after their caliber of like what they've done, you know It's pretty funny so good

Chad (37:24.479)
Yeah.

Chad (37:29.382)
Yeah, that whole documentary is just, I mean, it's so quotable and it's so memeable. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that.

Lou LaMonte (37:39.279)
The Plushtv Jazz Rock Party also has some funny moments too. Like when they're talking about cousin Dupree. It's like, yeah, it's a traditional country tune. It's like a funk, it's like weird funk jazz shit. It's just about incest. It has nothing to do with... Obviously that's the joke about the traditional country shit. But just they're so tongue in cheek.

Chad (37:42.689)
Yeah.

Chad (38:00.274)
Yeah. Yeah, they have so many just, this is dry, and that's what I love, it's my kind of humor. And they have so many inside jokes, I guess, even among the two of them, you know, that nobody else, even in the band, like, knew, and they would just crack each other up all the time, which, you know, I think that's, yeah, I think that's lovely.

Lou LaMonte (38:18.391)
It is.

Lou LaMonte (38:23.235)
Yeah, man.

Chad (38:25.666)
So what else? Ha ha ha.

Lou LaMonte (38:30.403)
I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Let's uh, what kind of guitars you got?

Chad (38:37.058)
Oh hey, good question. I was gonna ask you about your telly, so let me start. Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't want to take it off the wall because it's, you know, long story, but I have a 93, made in Japan, yeah I bought it in 93, I'm old, I'm 52. I have, oh thank you, it's good to hear. I don't feel it, you know, I feel like I'm firmly, you know, in my 30s somehow.

Lou LaMonte (38:40.128)
Oh, I'll show you. Go ahead though.

Lou LaMonte (38:54.403)
Well, you don't look it.

Yeah, honest truth.

Lou LaMonte (39:06.922)
That's what I'm picking up, so you're doing it right.

Chad (39:09.966)
Thank you, I appreciate that. So yeah, I bought it new and it's Pink Paisley, Made in Japan reissue from the 1968 or 69, I forget what the original one was. And I just wanted something different, you know, and back when I...

I was 21 at that point. I was really into Led Zeppelin, really into classic rock and, you know, 60s British stuff and just, you know, looking at all the different, you know, the Eric Clapton's The Fool guitar and Jimmy Page had all these cool hand-painted guitars and shit and I was like, I want something different. So I went to Sam Ash, I think in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and walking around looking for something to cut my eye and I see this thing and I'm like, oh

Lou LaMonte (39:31.919)
Mm-hmm.

Lou LaMonte (39:53.767)
Hehehehe

Chad (39:54.03)
so cool and I'm like can I pull off a pink guitar and I'm like fuck it yes I can so I yeah absolutely and at the time I didn't care so you know bought it got into a band a few years later and played and besides that I've got a guild acoustic my daughter who's 17 I bought her guitar a few years ago and she plays once in a very blue moon but

Lou LaMonte (39:58.911)
Exactly. That's all it takes to pull anything off is fuck it yes I can.

Chad (40:22.798)
She's got a Yamaha Dreadnought, and I have a Squier Jazz Bass.

Lou LaMonte (40:29.603)
That's cool. Oh, I love playing those things.

Chad (40:31.39)
Yeah. And then the guitars I got rid of, which I'm still kicking myself, you know, 20 years later, but you know, shit happens and you do stupid stuff and then you regret it. But I used to have a guild. I can't think of the name of it. It was like a thin line, electric acoustic. It was like a, almost like a short scale guitar. Um, thin, real thin body, but you could play it unplugged and it sounded fine. Um, but

Lou LaMonte (40:56.263)
That's cool.

Chad (40:56.414)
It had a neck that felt like an electric, so you could really, it was easy to play, you know, it was a lot of fun. Sold it. Had a Marshall stack at one point with all the effects stuff in a rack and sold that. Because when we started gigging with the band I was in, I was like, yeah, I'm not doing this every night. It's too much. Exactly. So I switched over back in the day to a Line 6, the Mod.

Lou LaMonte (41:14.975)
yeah it's too much you know do you want your marshal stack or your neck not thrown out

Chad (41:26.326)
first generation one that was fun that was a lot of fun I spent way too much time in my bedroom dialing in different patches to try to sound like you know whatever song we were playing I mean like I was always a little bit obsessive with it so like if we were doing you know I don't know Alice in Chains I would try to get a distortion patch to sound like Alice in Chains like I wanted to sound like what we were doing yeah but you know I spent just hours upon hours upon hours I'll never get back but it was so worth it and now I kept since college

Lou LaMonte (41:34.311)
Whoever.

Lou LaMonte (41:43.911)
Yeah, of course.

Chad (41:56.75)
I think it's like an 87. I gotta look and see. I'm pretty sure it's an 87. I have a Mesa Boogie Studio 22 little tube amp. It's the coolest thing ever. And that's what I'm playing through nowadays. Yeah, I will.

Lou LaMonte (42:06.855)
That's cool.

that's cool you gotta show that to me yeah good yeah I don't know what I got here I mean I'm just using an electric amp with like presets that I could like edit I guess

It's not, it's certainly not kosher, but I just do it because it's easier. I do have pedals and stuff, but I never got too technical with like gear to be honest with you. I know it's a hole that I would probably spend a lot of time and money in, um, that I've been meaning to get around to doing, but haven't yet, which my, while it's probably pretty happy about, um, but it's a, it's a Fender Mustang GT hundred watt amp. Um, so, you know, that's, that's.

Chad (42:43.866)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (42:50.971)
keeps me entertained enough and it gets loud enough so I'm just like you know that's fine for now I have a really cool um sky brand I don't know what sky is but it's this acoustic bass it's like very smooth to play it's like just looks like an acoustic guitar but it's a bass and then my uncle who I guess is on

some sort of political kick is to get rid of all of his Chinese gear sent me which find by me a Chinese telecaster which I have here actually all over the place. Bang bang. Oh there you go right on the ceiling. It was the it was the peg don't worry but yeah pretty cool set up there it's like a bridge it looks

but which I hope the string doesn't move if I hit it too hard but yeah a humbucker and what is that? I don't know P90 single coil don't even know what I'm talking about I just play the thing and then you know I have like another one that's a Squier and I have another Squier

Chad (43:52.042)
Yeah, that's a single coil.

Lou LaMonte (44:07.215)
but there's two that actually if you don't mind I'll grab them and I'll show them to you that's actually pretty cool. Upstairs I have a 12 string 1976 Ovation and nylon string Cordoba which you know

Chad (44:10.462)
Yeah, no, please, that'd be cool. Yeah.

Chad (44:17.432)
Well.

Lou LaMonte (44:23.847)
I learned like when I was like 12 I learned like classical gas by Mason Williams is that his name? Whatever it is and the unforgiven by Metallica was just like Obviously, you know But yeah, hang on one second. I'll show you these other two

Chad (44:34.286)
Of course. Ha ha ha.

Chad (44:40.453)
Yeah, sure, cool.

Lou LaMonte (45:57.255)
I have returned.

Chad (45:58.766)
Let's see. Sounds exciting.

Lou LaMonte (46:00.543)
so yeah lots of zippers and clanking so this one um i wanted a guitar that kind of sounded you know that was like more fitting for like a lead um for like if i want to learn you know riffs or solos or whatever so this is a fender um 66 um so it's like a 1960 jazz bass body but

Chad (46:04.959)
Hahaha

Lou LaMonte (46:29.975)
it's a six string so yeah it's got a c-neck and then the strat headstock but and although it looks like a strat it's actually a jazz bass but you could see the angle on it you know and the end the yeah and the plate and everything but it's got the two lipstick boys in the humbucker and it sounds pretty cool I think it has five it has five settings

Chad (46:31.594)
Oh wow.

Chad (46:44.663)
Oh yeah, sure, and the knobs and the pickguard too.

Lou LaMonte (46:57.567)
But I like that the knob is also nowhere near where I would strum because a lot of times I strum on the Stratocaster and change the knob because I'm not a professional You know, so this is like nice and out of the way But yeah, it's a it's a pretty neat design. I was pretty excited to get my hands on this Um, I think it's from a from a product line called Alternate reality

Chad (47:06.252)
I'm out.

Chad (47:13.538)
I've never seen one of those, that's cool.

Lou LaMonte (47:24.495)
That's what I think it's called alternate reality. So, you know, that's the premise is like they took the techs there, took all their favorite features from multiple different guitars and like, and just put it into one kind of, and there were, yeah, there were a few of them. The one I all wanted actually was, was natural body. Like it was like that wood, you know, which looked really cool, but unfortunately the guy that was trying to sell it was on Mercury, which is like, in my experience,

Chad (47:37.347)
up.

Lou LaMonte (47:54.409)
notoriously unscrupulous Site like they don't do a great job regulating like fraud and scamming or like dishonest Tactics on there. So yeah, so this guy not to talk about you know bad about it But the few times I interacted with sellers on there like it was just like something was something wasn't quite right And this guy was trying to sell it through like full price

Lou LaMonte (48:24.919)
I don't know, I ended up paying full like the listing price for this next one. Um, which is the, I guess that's another strat headstock, but a different color wood. Um, but yeah, the Telecaster Troublemaker Deluxe. Um, so this, look at you. Um, yeah, ice metallic blue or whatever it's called.

Chad (48:43.926)
That's pretty.

Lou LaMonte (48:51.227)
Three-way switch two humbuckers. These are actually the guy that sold it to me put these on there. They're from creamery in the UK and Four knobs and this like, you know, this pretty cool trim in this

background wood this is probably like this thing never goes out of tune like you could you could pick it up after like a year with like oxidized strings and like it's still intonated and just is still in tune i don't know how but you know i love this thing and i think people on the internet the other one was the alternate reality this is parallel universe so people on the internet joke and they call this the fender less pull as you can see obviously so if you know this

Chad (49:26.171)
Oh, okay.

Chad (49:32.625)
Right. Yep.

Lou LaMonte (49:35.817)
like instead of a Les Paul because I have scoliosis and I can't carry a 20-pound guitar for two hours I have this one at eight pounds and it's not really the same thing but I have a lot of fun on it but yeah the premise there I guess is the other one's alternate reality this parallel universe so in a parallel universe where Fender invented the Les Paul this might be what it looks like kind of idea I guess

Chad (49:46.25)
Yeah, no, it sounds good too.

Chad (49:59.744)
Right, right. Nice.

Lou LaMonte (50:01.571)
But yeah, that's lots of fun. And then my piano upstairs. You gotta show me. Show me. Yes you do. See? This is what I was looking for.

Chad (50:04.31)
Alright, now I gotta show you the telly. I gotta show you. Yeah, hold on, let me grab it. Ha ha ha.

Chad (50:13.966)
Here's my baby. Yeah, it's got the maple neck, standard Tele headstock. It looks like a ding on there, but it's just the light reflecting. There's no ding on the headstock. I've got a couple on the body from just playing out, but I also ripped out the old single coil stock pickup and threw in a DiMarzio stacked humbucker because some of the stuff we were playing, it was in the mid-90s. We were doing alternative and grunge and, you know.

Lou LaMonte (50:15.048)
Oh yeah baby, there it is.

Lou LaMonte (50:30.555)
That is so cool.

Lou LaMonte (50:45.835)
Right, right. I love tele-pickups but it's not for that.

Chad (50:45.85)
pickups just didn't do it. I wanted that ffff. Yeah, so that made it a little more versatile. The guy that I took it, the guitar shop that took it to, the guy that was working on it, was like this older dude who was like a jazz guy and he was like, damn kids and your freaking humbuckers. You know. It's like, why would you ruin such a nice guitar and put this freaking pick up in it, you know, you should just play it stock. It's funny, he was busting my chops. But then...

for a brief time I bought used, I forgot where I got it, probably the same music shop, I used to go there all the time. I got a Mexican Strat and it was cherry red with a maple neck and it was a Strat special. So it was two single coils and a humbucker, but it was a stock fender humbucker and it wasn't great, so I ripped that out, there was Seymour Duncan.

stacked humbucker and that thing and it had a five-way switch and a coil tab so I could take the humbucker off which I never did of course and that thing was just awesome and then it was it was a casualty of you know getting married and combining stuff into a small apartment you know she was like you don't need two guitarists I'm like but I do she's like yeah well you know you don't so yeah

Lou LaMonte (51:54.999)
Yeah, I know. You got gas, man. That's what I was struggling with for a minute there. I don't want to catch a bad case of guitar acquisition syndrome. I came real close. I got those two that I just showed you last, like, within nine months of each other. Totally unnecessary. But that's just how it happens. That Paisley is sick, dude. I've never seen a guitar with Paisley on the front like that before. Yeah, I'm not.

Chad (52:07.676)
Ha ha

Chad (52:22.114)
Really? It's funny because the weirdest people actually have the same guitar. Melissa Etheridge had it and I was like, ooh, I know how I feel about that. Brad Paisley, of course, has a Paisley Tele. I think he has a pink one. I forgot who else. Somebody recently that I saw playing one and I was like, oh wow, they have my guitar. I forgot who it was, but yeah, it's...

Lou LaMonte (52:40.727)
Well, do you remember how it made you feel when you found out? That'll help us narrow it down.

Chad (52:45.998)
I think I was okay with it. I think I've gotten past the whole, you know, I don't care. I've had this thing, you know, I've known it longer than my wife, you know what I mean at this point. So, it's got exactly, yeah, I don't care. And I try to keep it, you know, maintained. I don't, like I said, I don't play it that frequently, but you know, I just changed the strings a few months ago and gave it a good once over and.

Lou LaMonte (52:59.591)
It's got a special place in your heart that can't be moved.

Chad (53:12.99)
some point I gotta take it into the shop because I think the neck needs a little bit of adjustment and I don't want to do it myself. I'm always afraid to mess with the truss rod especially on such an old guitar. I'm afraid I'm going to crack something or tweak something the wrong way.

Lou LaMonte (53:25.456)
Yeah, it's not worth it. It's better to just take it as somebody that's got a good reputation with that kind of thing. Always.

Chad (53:29.918)
Yeah, for sure. All right, well, show and tell's over. We're just about at an hour. Is there anything else you wanna talk about? Otherwise, I feel like we covered a lot of good ground, man.

Lou LaMonte (53:41.515)
I think we did. I think we did. I don't know if there's anything else left.

Chad (53:48.874)
Well, I'm sure we could go on for hours, but yeah, we'll have to do another episode at some point maybe. All right, good. Well, Lou, thanks again. This has been great. I've really appreciated having you on and it was a pleasure talking to you. And stay on for a minute after I stop recording if you don't mind because there's some housekeeping.

Lou LaMonte (53:51.387)
Probably.

Lou LaMonte (53:56.067)
Down the line, down the line, anytime.

Lou LaMonte (54:08.451)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. This has been nothing short of an honor and a pleasure. And it's a great way to meet you. Thanks again, man.

Chad (54:13.11)
Well, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm hoping to post this in the next few days or so. I'm trying to get into a groove with recording and editing and publishing and all that. So.

most likely, you know, I have all the audio only channel set up so I have it publishing where it's gonna go to Spotify and Apple Podcasts and all the usual places. But I really think since I'm recording with video, I think I'm gonna do the video version on YouTube and just have a YouTube channel with all the same episodes. That way if somebody wants to see our beautiful faces, they can, you know.

Lou LaMonte (54:45.927)
That's...

Very sensible. I often do the same thing. I listen to a lot of podcasts then every now and then I want to listen while i'm just walking around and sometimes i'll just put on the tv instead So, you know, yeah, definitely cool. What do you use? Use Buzzsprout or for uploading to the streaming services? Cool

Chad (55:04.722)
A-cast for now. It was the one that was pretty much free and had a lot of good features. So, you know, as the show progresses, if this thing actually takes off and then, you know, it's getting any anybody watching it besides, you know, my mom. Yeah, that's two. I like that's two, two built in. You know, if it goes, there you go. Metrix, baby.

Lou LaMonte (55:10.599)
Cool, good to know.

Lou LaMonte (55:20.322)
and mine, and mine, that's two viewers.

That's a hundred percent increase.

Chad (55:30.782)
And we'll see what happens and maybe I'll move over to something a little more fancy. But for now, I think this is going to be fine. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. I'm going to stop recording and hang on one sec.

Lou LaMonte (55:36.359)
Cool, cool. Well, this was fun, man. Thanks again.