Tessa 0:00 Andy, How did monkeys get to the arctic? Andy 0:04 Answering that question, Tessa, would spoil the ending and the sequel for Monkey Heist, so I refuse to answer it. Andy 0:30 Welcome to Monkey Off My Backlog the podcast, where we exorcise our pop culture demons by tackling our media to do lists one week at a time. I'm your host, Andy Bowman, and with me are my cohosts Tessa Swehla. Tessa 0:44 Hello! Andy 0:45 and Sam Morris. Sam 0:47 Hello. Andy 0:48 This week, we're joined by James, host of...James, remind me of all the podcasts you're doing these days. James 0:54 I have one that, we're kind of like, is kind of on an indefinite break called Les Bi Honest, and then I'm currently producing two which are like coming out soon-ish, like Archive Admirers, which is a podcast about the Magnus Archives, which like that's going to come out, like in two weeks-ish, and then Hyperfixations, which is where we talk to people about their very specific areas of interest. And the first episode of that came out today, actually, Tessa 1:21 Oh, I'm so excited. Andy 1:23 Yeah, awesome. Awesome. James is back to talk with us about Devs; Tessa goes to Atlanta. Sam purifies himself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka; and [quoting lyrics of Arctic Monkey's songs] "whatever people say about me, that's my favorite worst nightmare. So humbug it and see what I do in the AM while I have a brainstorm during my fluorescent adolescent tranquility, base hotel and casino." Tessa 1:46 That was a really long way of saying you're doing the Arctic Monkeys this week. Andy 1:49 Really long way? Yes. Yes. I'm going to be quite long-winded. But first, we should talk with James. Okay. James, you did Devs. Is that correct? James 1:58 Yes, I did. Andy 1:59 Can you tell me who the creator of that show is? James 2:03 It's Alex Garland. He wrote and created it. Andy 2:07 Okay. And have you had any experience with Alex Garland? Because I have a lot of experience with him. James 2:12 I haven't. But like when I was looking into the thing, they were like, "Oh, yeah, this is a very Alex Garland thing." And I'm like, "I don't know what that vibe is, but I'm here for it." Tessa 2:21 That's a perfect way to describe Alex Garland. James 2:24 I don't know whether this is a good or bad entry point into the Alex Garland-verse. Andy 2:28 He is the person who at least [emphasis] wrote the Judge Dredd movie. He wrote a bunch of Danny Boyle's bigger movies 28 Days Later and Sunshine Tessa 2:37 Ex Machina, which I'm writing about for my dissertation. Andy 2:40 Yeah. And he was also claimed to be the uncredited director of Dredd. So there's that as well. And of course, a fantastic movie that came out a few years ago, Annihilation. This was the... James 2:52 Oh! Andy 2:52 Yeah, this was the big follow up to some rather heady and wonderful movies. If you have not seen Dredd. It is surprisingly good, like really good. If you like action movie, it's... James 3:04 Is that the one with Karl Urban? Andy 3:06 Yeah. Tessa 3:07 And Ex Machina is about androids and has Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander. It's quite good as well. Andy 3:15 Annihilation also has Oscar Isaac and I forgot her name. Oh... Tessa 3:21 Natalie Portman! Andy 3:22 Yeah, I wanted to say Anne Hathaway. But no, it's Natalie Portman. [James laughs]. And it's... Tessa 3:27 Gina Rodriguez. Tessa Thompson, like there's a ton of people in that movie. Andy 3:31 Right? It's a wonderful and terrifying movie. But Dev was the big kind of follow-up. I don't know how it came out for you across the pond. But for us, it was a Hulu original. James 3:42 Yeah, well, it was like Hulu and FX thing. Tessa 3:46 What made you decide to put this on your backlog? James 3:49 So like I think I mentioned it in the episode I was in before when I talked about Mr. Robot where I just look at all of the things that like Rotten Tomatoes and places put out like, "here's the sort of upcoming things that are coming out in whatever month for whatever year you're in." And I like just go for whatever month is upcoming and see what I find interesting. And I'll like watch trailers for some. So I remember like putting this on my list around the time it was coming out. I put it on at the same time as I put AMC's Dispatches from Elsewhere, because I was like, "Yeah, kind of like funky mystery vibes" of that. Like and also because like Devs seemed sort of high concept sci-fi. That's something I want to get into. Andy 4:27 I will...if you want to get into high concept sci-fi, Alex Garland is a great place to start. At least with Annihilation and Ex Machina. I have not seen Devs. And much like you though, I...as soon as I heard about it, I was just like, that sounds cool. Put it on the list. Oh, it's got Nick Offerman in it too. I'm so on board. Have not seen it yet though. James 4:46 Yeah, Nick Offerman and Alison Pill. Andy 4:49 Yeah. And I have a huge crush on Alison Pill. Yeah, yeah, I really wanted to watch this, and then the pandemic happened, and it just killed any desire to watch anything that might be painful. James 5:03 Yeah, I think that's sort of like the motto of the last year and a bit. Just "and then the pandemic happened." Andy 5:08 Give me a high level overview: what is Devs about? James 5:11 So Devs is...it's a, it's a mini series, which is about these people who work for like a tech company. The main, the main character's called Lily Chen. And her and her boyfriend work at this quantum computing tech company called Amaya. And then her boyfriend gets called to work into like the elusive project--like, it's literally in the middle of the woods, this building--and it's called Devs. He gets invited to work there. And then he goes missing. And then he apparently commits suicide, but she doesn't believe that. So then it sets up this whole mystery that she has to look into that. Like that's the starting point of the series. I don't know how in depth I can go because it's only eight episodes. And it's a mini series. And so it's not like Mr. Robot, where it's like, you know, you got your 10 episodes, and that will lead into like, three more seasons. Andy 6:07 Does it have like a definitive end? Or is it like a, "haha, hope we get renewed?" James 6:12 No, no, no. It has a very definitive end. And like, before I had watched the last two episodes, I looked up, "was it renewed?" And they were like, "no, Alex Garland just wants it to be a mini series like of eight episodes," and I can really respect that. Like, as someone who's watched all of Supernatural, I can respect a show knowing when to shut up. Andy 6:37 And I need to go back and finish the last five seasons of Supernatural at some point. James 6:41 Some of them are worth it. Tessa 6:43 Are you saying that Supernatural is the show that won't shut up? James 6:46 Well, it has now for better or worse. So many shows, though, like that have no reason to have supernatural plotlines are just doing them now. Like I guess it's just an effort to jazz things up. But it's like the CW's Nancy Drew. The main thing of that is a supernatural plotline. [Laughter]. And it's literally just like...yeah, yeah, I'm like unironically, addicted to the show. I've been watching it since it came out. It's probably the most productive I've been in terms of pop culture, and it's watching CW Nancy Drew [Laughter]. Andy 7:20 I mean, to be fair, like, Riverdale is a guilty pleasure of mine. And that gets pretty crazy. And soapy and stupid. James 7:28 Yep. My friend Kat just tells me about the...like the latest developments completely out of context. And she'll just send me messages that start off with like, "I don't know how to tell you this. But..." [Laughter]. Andy 7:38 I have more than one friend that that experiences Riverdale that way. That they just hear out of context what happened. So it's wonderful to know that that's the kind of insanity this show has produced. Tessa 7:49 How long are the episodes of Devs? James 7:52 So like the shortest one is about 42 minutes. And the longest one is the premiere one, which is about 55. Tessa 7:59 So it's about like eight hours of content, then. James 8:03 Yeah, about eight hours. Andy 8:05 Going into this and knowing about Annihilation and how heavy that is...is this a heavy show? Is this a feel good show? James 8:12 No, it's definitely not a feel good. Well, parts of it are kind of...so like, I feel when I was considering, like, what I'm actually talking about now and then I was like, "I've been on and talked about Mr. Robot" and did I subconsciously pick another kind of like techie kind of show that raises questions? And I'm like, not intentionally, but I feel like this is a very interesting follow-on to Mr. Robot. Where this one, it's like, instead of sort of the societal aspect of it, it's like really moral questions about like, if you had extremely powerful technology, like, what would you do? Would you become God? Like, that's a really, really intense part of the show. But there's also just extremely intense scenes of violence. They're really intense, but they're not done in kind of an elegant, you know, way. Like Game of Thrones, back in the like, season four kind of era where they'd like... something really brutal would happen. Like they crush Oberyn Martel's head or something. And like, it'd be really, really showy. This one's like, the violence is really, really sparing, I guess. It's shown, and it's meant to be like, this is a horrible thing that's happening, and it just like lingers on. It's definitely not a feel good show. Andy 9:25 Awesome. Okay, so wait for the after the pandemic for me when I'm in a better mental state. Tessa 9:31 How is Nick Offerman? James 9:32 Yeah, although I will say, yeah, that this actually ties into what I was going to say there's like, a brutal murder happens like for an uncomfortably long amount of time in the first episode, and it's still somehow at least for me, not as disturbing as a scene at the start of the episode where Nick Offerman eats kale out of a box. [Laughter]. He just like shoving it in his mouth. He like...he's so...I don't know. It's so uncomfortable to watch. Tessa 10:00 I was just asking because Nick Offerman...like historically for me, I associate him with comedy. And some very, very funny comedy. I've even seen him perform his comedy. And so I you know, it was very odd to me to see him attached to this project. So it works, I guess is what I'm asking? James 10:19 Yeah, actually. So like there's a lot of actors who kind of get typecast in a role or that play themselves in everything like Jack Black does. Nick Offerman in a lot of things that I've seen him in--like Parks and Rec and also, like, as the dad in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl--he's playing kind of the soft spoken, like, secretly funny and like big hearted kind of guy. And he carries that through to Devs, but he's also got the, like, fun added spicy personality trait of being a low level psychopath. So he's got this like haunting sort of presence, which is really weird for Nick Offerman, and he's got like a big bushy beard and long hair. And so he's got that...he's got like, you know, a haunted look in his eyes. But he's also just like, legitimately funny. Tessa 11:04 I like calling psychopaths spicy. I'm going to start using that. Andy 11:08 It sounds really good to me. So overall, are you a recommend? Don't recommend? James 11:13 I'd recommend it. Yeah, like it definitely...like, I know I said it's not a feel good stuff. But like even now in sort of the pandemic, and now like it's gone on for a whole year, there's still some like, quite interesting emotional questions that it raises so I'd recommend it on those alone. Even if I discarded the whole sort of like technological spy mystery thing that was happening. Andy 11:36 Who would you recommend this to? Would people who aren't into sci-fi like it, do you think? James 11:41 I think it would, because...I don't know how in depth I can go into this. So... Andy 11:47 I'm sorry, I'm trying not to make you spoiler things too. This is like a hard thing to talk about because with sci-fi, anything can happen. And it's like, it's usually a big reveal when stuff like that goes weird. James 11:59 Yeah, I'm gonna go with like something very vague. Like, like, it'll appeal to people as well, because I suppose it helps that a lot of the characters that are processing some kind of trauma. And that's reflected through the narrative. And that's like something that really, really spoke to me the way that you process...like so it basically sets up a one stage...it's like in a world where infinite things could happen, and infinite possibilities, where all of your choices can have limitless outcomes, like how do you process the grief of your own actions? Andy 12:33 Yeah, I like that. Sam 12:35 Before we move on past Alex Garland, Alex Garland's been a fixture in my life for over 20 years now. He wrote one of my favorite books of all time. Before all the 28 nonsense and all the sci-fi stuff and the Ex Machina and the Oscar Isaac dancing and all that great stuff, he was a novelist. And he wrote...his very first novel is The Beach [which] came out in 96. It's about a British backpacker who ends up in Bangkok one night, One Night in Bangkok, and finds like this map to this place called Eden, and just all kinds of weird stuff ensues. And it got adapted into a movie that wasn't great. It wasn't terrible, but it had Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his first bigger roles. It has one of my all time favorite quotes from a book. And this is what Alex Garland can do. So here it is: "Game over is my favorite thing about playing video games. Actually, I should qualify that. It's the split second before game over. That's my favorite thing." He talks about Street Fighter II a little bit there. "The split second is the moment you comprehend you're just about to die. Different people react to it in different ways. Some swear in rage, some sigh or gasp. Some scream. I've heard a lot of screams over the 12 years I've been addicted to video games. Personally, I'm a rager. I fling my joypad across the floor, clench my eyes shut, throw back my head, and abuse at anything within abusing distance. A few years ago, I had a game called Alien III. It had a great feature. When you ran out of lives, you'd get a photo realistic picture of the alien with saliva dripping from its jaws and a digitized voice would bleed 'game over, man.' I really used to love that." And like, I don't know, I mean, like I had this very visceral memory of playing Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo, and when you don't hit the A button hard enough and you just kind of blew into the chasm. There's no double jump. There's no...nothing that you millennials have...nothing. No get out of jail. You die. No continues, no nothing. And just seeing a writer being able to capture that feeling was something, man. Alex Garland's got it. I always wish he hadn't gone into films as much as I like some of his stuff. But anyway, that's Alex Garland. Andy 15:04 We're good to move on to something a little different, a little bit of conversation where I want to ask people, have you ever experienced something in pop culture that on paper you should love? And Sam, I don't mean on paper like a book. Sam 15:18 Well, that's too bad because you're going to get it. One of the things that's on paper that I really should have loved was Alex Garland's final novel Coma from 2004. Andy 15:31 Okay, let me... Tessa 15:31 You slipped it right in there. Andy 15:32 I will finish the question, what you should love in theory, but ultimately you did not. Tessa, what about you? Tessa 15:38 I hate to say this, because James just raved so much about how much he loves the show. But actually, CW's Nancy Drew is one of these for me. I think it's just because I was...I mean maybe I should go back and watch it again. I watched the first three episodes, and I stopped watching it partially maybe because I was CW'd out that point. Because I had been watching all of the Crisis material for that... James 16:05 Oh yeah. Tessa 16:05 ...series that Andy and I did. Or Andy and Sam and I did. I think too, I just thought it was going to be another Veronica Mars. And it was so different from what I was expecting. Like, I really wasn't expecting the supernatural element to be like real. And so it was just a very off putting to me in that way. I was expecting it to be more about her. I don't know. James 16:26 I will say that like that, like episode three of season one. Like, even then I was like, "Oh, this is like, this is kind of bad." But I have this thing where it's like if I start something, I have to finish it, which is why I watched both seasons of You. Tessa 16:44 I love You. James 16:45 Yeah. But like it does...no, I hate watched that. But like it [Nancy Drew] really does pick up after episode three. Nancy Drew, not You. I just despise that show. Tessa 16:56 Why do you hate You? I'm actually really curious now,. James 16:59 Why I hate You? [Laughter.] James 17:03 So like, I thought the first season was kind of passable. Where it's like, I couldn't really root for any of the characters. But I was like, you know, it's a reasonably solidly paced kind of thriller, in this stalker narrative. But then, like season two, just like, like absolutely everything about that narrative--bar Robin Lord Taylor, who's now blonde--just really, really annoyed me. And it's like, is this what they're going to do for every successive one? And that's what I'm sort of like curious in a darkly intrigued way, you know, where it's like, I just...I have to see, are they going to keep doing this? Because if they keep doing this ad infinitum, then he's just going to like end up on the moon. Because he's gone to a location going, "I won't kill anybody." And then like, kills someone, things spira,l and he has to take another identity. Joe Goldberg is going to be on the moon. Tessa 17:41 See, my favorite part of the show is the fact that Joe Goldberg thinks that he's like this really smooth, like, great stalker, like almost Hannibal-esque. But he's not; he's really bad at crime. And it is like my favorite part of that show. James 18:14 That bit where he bricks Peaches in Central Park. And then like, "yes, I've gotten away with it!" [Laughter]. Sam 18:22 This is one of Tessa and I's favorite TV tropes over the past year or so: bad at crime. Just watching people just utterly fail at being bad people. By the way, I will take your Nancy Drew, Tessa, and raise you The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? Tessa 18:42 Yeah, that was another one that seemed like it was gonna be great and just kind of fizzled out. Sam 18:48 Turns out you cannot create an Archie-verse. You just have to do every weird thing on the mothership. It won't succeed anywhere else. Andy 18:56 One question for you, James, are you going to watch You season three when it comes out later this year? James 19:01 Exactly. I will. Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to binge it all the day it comes out. And then I will take to Twitter. Sam 19:07 The book, which I believe is called Hidden Bodies, if I remember right. James 19:11 And yeah, that's season two is based on Sam 19:13 Yeah, it ends differently. It has a much more satisfying ending. And the thing that's unsatisfying, I believe that it's...this is a George RR Martin situation. The book for season three does not exist yet. Although she is supposedly writing books three and four simultaneously. James 19:38 I gotta be really brief, and just say, like the book and the series of Normal People, which like really infuriates me because it's like set...all the characters go to the college that I go to. And they all do the, like, scholarship exams that I do, and they get it and I didn't, and that's, like, that's a whole other thing. But then also one of the characters is an English student, and he just infuriates me so much. I hate the book. It's so badly written on everything, and like they made a series of it because it got really big. And like, I watched it, you know, just cause that was another Hulu thing, Hulu and the BBC collaborative. And like they made the best of a bad lot, but you can't really make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Andy 20:22 All right. Tessa, what did you cover this week? Tessa 20:26 I covered Atlanta. The FX show, not the city. Andy 20:29 Okay. [Laughter]. So I guess I have to ask like...Atlanta. I know I've seen season one. But what drew you to Atlanta? Tessa 20:41 What drew me to Atlanta was Donald Glover. Andy 20:43 Who is Donald Glover? I call him by his Twitter "donglover." Tessa 20:53 Who is Donald Glover? Well, some of you may know him from Community. Some of you may know him as Childish Gambino. In fact, he joked...he was on SNL in 2017, which seems so long ago. And he joked... James 21:08 That was like a decade ago. Tessa 21:09 It feels like that. But he joked that for all the white people in the audience, he was in Community and Solo. But if you were Black, he made Atlanta and Redbone, which Redbone is his big song as Childish Gambino. So I thought that was a really funny bit, because I actually do think that most people who are white in the US know him for Community, but Atlanta is definitely a show that a lot of Black people watch and a lot of Black people really, really love. So the draw was Donald Glover for me, because I've known about him for a while. I love his work as Childish Gambino. This is America is a video I still show my students sometimes. And it's just...he is a great artist, producer, musician, man of many talents. So I was drawn to this. I do have to say, I had actually watched part of season one before I started it back up last week. I think I stopped watching it because--if I have my dates correct--I was starting to study for my composition exams around the time that I was watching it. And so I just never got back to it. But I ended up watching the rest of the first season and the first part of the second season for this episode. Andy 22:27 Beyond just the name of a city, what is the show? Tessa 22:30 What is Atlanta? So Atlanta is like a half hour dramady slash surreal comedy on FX. So Donald Glover plays Earn, who is a Princeton dropout. We don't actually get to hear much about why he dropped out from Princeton, we just first see him, you know, kind of crashing on his ex-girlfriend's couch at the beginning. He's looking for a way...he's sort of a dropout, unemployed, you know, doesn't have a lot going for him. He kind of bounces between his ex-girlfriend's couch and his parents couch. But he's looking for a way to support his ex girlfriend Van who's played by Zazie Beetz, who some of you might know from Deadpool as Domino. And they have very small daughter together. So in the very first season, he reconnects with his cousin Alfred, who's played by Brian Tyree Henry, who goes by the name Paper Boi. He has just released like a viral rap video, and he's got, like, this low level celebrity, and he's sort of riding it towards, you know, actually becoming a famous rapper. And Earn offers to manage him, basically. So it's kind of about them, navigating the music scene in Atlanta, and the series...it's actually the opposite of the problem James had in that this series is really hard to spoil, because it's so episodic. It's more like this sort of situational comedy, in some ways, like, each episode is like a different scenario with these characters or a different setting. And it just sort of plays out towards its logical conclusion, which I really like. I think that we've talked about this before on the show, a lot of TV has sort of gotten more towards this, like, eight or nine hour movie model. And this definitely feels like an episodic television show, which I really appreciate. Andy 24:17 Cool. So it's an episodic show. Of course, Donald Glover is famous for Community where that's where I really got to know him. And is this like a show for people who love Community? Tessa 24:32 It depends. I think the humor is very different. So Donald Glover writes most of the episodes of this show, along with his brother, Steven Glover, and most of the episodes are directed by Hiro Murai. Although I really quickly wanted to mention a couple of the episodes in season two are actually directed by Amy Steinmetz, who I wanted to mention because I wanted to promote her work. [Bleep] you Shane Carruth. This series is really Donald Glover's baby. And it has a much more Black sensibility than Community. It is much more situated in the region of Atlanta. In fact, I think it's a very funny show. And I found it hilarious and very enjoyable to watch. I think if you spent time...I find it very, very funny. It's a solid comedic show. But I think it'd probably be funnier if you had actually spent time in Atlanta, especially the Atlanta rap scene, because Atlanta has a huge, you know, music scene especially. And so I think there are definitely some inside jokes; it feels very lived in in some ways. So it's a little bit different from like the Community sense of humor in that way. It won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Television series, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In fact, Glover's Emmy for writing is actually the first one that's ever been given to an African American for that category. So it's kind of a big deal among certain groups of people. Sam 26:05 So one of the big things--and we've talked about a few things over the time that we've been doing the show (Okorafor comes to mind)--there's a big discussion about when you experience things, as...well, I'll just say when you experience things as a white person, the default in popular culture is white person. And so we get very used to just: the default recognizes the default. And a lot of critics and theorists talk about the fact that that is not so for many, many, many people on this planet. And so the the act of watching Atlanta for a white person is to say, "What is happening is not something I'm familiar with. And you can either be uncomfortable with that and enjoy it. And you'll get however many of the jokes you get, however many of the things that you can get, or you can decide to turn it off. But either way, you're experiencing something that many people typically experience when they see and experience and watch and read and listen to things that white people create. And that's that's part of the experience of watching Atlanta from this perspective. Tessa 27:25 And that's actually a big part of the humor of Atlanta. There's a lot in this show about white people trying really hard to appropriate Black culture and how creepy it is and how weird it is that white people like desperately, desperately want to be part of this. And so there's...one of my favorite jokes of the whole series so far, and there's a lot. Like, I laugh out loud every single episode. But there's this great joke in the first...I think it's the first episode...where Donald Glover's character Earn is talking to like an old friend-- like an old producer friend of his who's white--who's just talking about like all this rap like music industry stuff. He like drops the n-word several times. It's like a very uncomfortable situation. But then he's telling this story about how he was at this party, and someone like put on Flo Rida, and can you believe that? Like Flo Rida isn't real, like you know, he [the DJ] put two songs in a row on, Flo Rida, and like all this stuff. And it's just this really uncomfortable situation. But then later in the episode, Earn makes him retell the story to his friends--to Paper Boi and to Paper Boi's entourage. And one of Paper Boi's entourage is just like "I like Flo Rida." [Laughte.] Like it is just like the funniest, funniest joke. And I should mention that that person who says that is Darius, who is played by Lakeith Stanfield, who is one of the best parts of the show. The show gave us LaKeith Stanfield, for those of you following along at home. Andy 28:57 Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no Short Term 12 gave us LaKeith Stanfield. Sam 29:02 Yeah, those of us who haven't heard of Short Term 12. Tessa 29:04 Yes. What I was about to say, Donald Glover made him famous. LaKeith Standfield is like one of the best actors out there right now. I would literally watch him in any movie. Like any movie that you want to put LaKeith Stanfield in I am fine with. If you've seen Knives Out you've seen him in that. Get Out he was in. Which I guess...I haven't seen it yet, but there's an Atlanta episode later that's very like Get Out-like. Sorry to Bother You. Which is just like the most messed up funny movie. It's so good. Andy 29:39 Judas and the Black Messiah. Tessa 29:40 I haven't seen that yet. But yeah, we are planning on watching that soon. But like LaKeith Stanfield is a American treasure. He is great. Sam 29:47 And we have to take care of him. Andy 29:50 But he also in Bojack Horseman. Tessa 29:52 He was in Bojack Horseman as well. He is the funniest character in Atlanta. Like all of these characters are great. Like I hate it when I'm watching a show, and I'm only invested in a handful of characters, and I don't really like the other ones. All of these characters are really, really well done. But Darius is just the funniest character. Like just watch this show. It is excellent, you will laugh. I recommend that if you are not someone who is familiar with some of the Atlanta slang that goes on in here that you watch it with subtitles. That's just like my personal recommendation. I also recommend this show if you really like rap music. Donald Glover is a hip-hop connoisseur as well as being an artist himself. And you will add a lot of stuff to your playlists if you watch the show. He he picks out his songs really, really well. Moving on...Sam, is Purple Rain a song and album or a movie? Sam 30:47 Well, Tessa, it's all three. Because I believe one of the strongest things about this podcast is the fact that Andy's insistence that podcasting is a visual medium, I'm right now...I am holding up our our copy of the album Purple Rain for...yeah...good times. Andy 31:05 Yeah, you can see it's still in its plastic. It's probably never been opened. Sam 31:11 You know, you owe it to yourself. If you're gonna listen to vinyl, you gotta keep it in a plastic case. Andy 31:18 Yeah, Sam's treating it like I would treat a a single issue of a rare magazine or a rare comic book. So I understand. Sam 31:28 The answer to your question is it is in fact all three. Purple Rain is a film from 1984 that stars Prince, his backing band The Revolution, Apollonia, Morris Day and his backing band The Time. Purple Rain is also an album that went 13 times platinum since it came out in 1984. It was the number one album from August of 1984 to January of 1985. It then was replaced by Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. The song Purple Rain depending on whether you're hearing it on the radio or not, is eight minutes long or four minutes long. It was only number two because Wake Me Up before You Go Go is a straight up banger. However, When Doves Cry, and Let's Go Crazy from the album were both number ones. So there you go. Purple Rain, a lot of things to a lot of people. James 32:23 It's an experience. Sam 32:25 That's right! Tessa 32:26 Purple Rain, the experience. And just to clarify, you watch the film as your monkey, right? Like you'd heard the song Purple Rain before? Sam 32:34 Yes. Tessa 32:35 Okay. I just wanted to make sure. What is the best song from Purple Rain? And why is it Purple Rain? Sam 32:43 An actual question that Tessa asked me earlier this week. And by the way, before I answer that, I just want to point out to James's point that Purple Rain is an experience. Prince actually performed the halftime show at the Super Bowl a few years ago. And the most incredible thing happened during Purple Rain. It literally began to rain because Prince controlled the weather, you guys! So the best song from Purple Rain, the film and the album, is not in fact Purple Rain. It is a very good song, do not get me wrong. But When Doves Cry...man...is the best song from that album. And it comes in a really interesting part in the movie, because Purple Rain is basically half plotted film but and half compilation of staged live performances. And When Doves Cry is the only one not performed as a stage performance. It is the "angry with myself, and what do I do, remembering in all the bad things that happened montage." You know how much I love a montage. Tessa 33:51 Now just to check-in: Andy, James, have you seen Purple Rain? James 33:55 No. Andy 33:55 Nope. I don't even think I've heard the song fully from start to finish. James 34:00 Same. Tessa 34:00 Oh, you definitely need to. Oh, gosh, makes me cry. All right, where does Purple Rain fall on a scale of Shanghai Surprise to Desperately Seeking Susan? And what is a Shanghai Surprise? Sam 34:13 Tessa, if I told you that Desperately Deeking Susan was a movie starring Madonna, which you know, what would you then assume that Shanghai Surprise is? Tessa 34:22 Also a movie starring Madonna? Sam 34:24 And it's bad. I mean, can't you tell by the title? So Shanghai Surprise is probably the worst Madonna movie from the 1980s. You know, it does have a pretty decent song from George Harrison. I know you were thinking Madonna did the song for the movie, but no, she decided to switch it up a bit. Right? Yeah, so Desperately Seeking Susan is the best Madonna movie from the 80s. Shanghai Surprise is the worst. Who's that Girl is in the middle, and let's just pretend Dick Tracy came out in the 90s, which I think it might actually have. Purple Rain is definitely the right in the middle. The Who's that Girl of the bunch. As I told you, it's staged live performance and half plot. Here it is. Prince plays The Kid. He is not named. The Kid is a young musician who leads a house band at a club in Minneapolis. He can't share creative control. He has an abusive father. He meets a girl. Highjinks ensue. Morris Day is the antagonist. It's a really fun relationship. It's kind of like a Mozart/Salieri situation. Like Morris Day works hard to create his art, which is good. But Prince is just, you know, the prodigy, right? You know, that's all you need to know. It's really a vehicle for Prince to do his thing. He sketched out the big beats of the film and then wrote the music. Lots of the scenes for this movie were cut and shortened. So a lot of what he imagined didn't end up in the film. If you ever see the music video for When Doves Cry, most of it doesn't seem like it's in the movie. Well, it's not anymore. It used to be. Warner apparently didn't want to release the film. They thought it was outrageous. It had a $7 million budget and made $68 million from the box office. So who's the idiot here? Always the music executives guys: that's always the lesson. It won an Oscar for Best Score back when we really used to do that. It was also nominated for worst new star for Apollonia and worst original song. Tessa, can you guess what the worst original song was? Please tell me you know. Tessa 36:31 Is it the song that Apollonia sings, which is called Sex Shooter? Sam 36:35 That's right. And then the only other thing to know which I did not know... Andy 36:39 Hold on. No, I need to...the song's called the what? Tessa 36:43 Sex shooter. Sam 36:44 And so here's the thing... James 36:45 I'm so confused. Sam 36:47 Okay, okay. But here's...no, no, no...I can tell you one better. Just put this on the top. This is the cherry on top. The band that Apollonia starts. Is it the Apollonia Six? Is that how we call it? Tessa 37:00 Yes. Sam 37:01 It's called the Apollonia Six. But there are only three of them. So I'll leave you to imagine what the six things are. James 37:09 Eyes? Sam 37:10 Nope. So they made a sequel to the movie--I knew this movie existed. I did not know it was the sequel to Purple Rain--in 1990 called....no, not Batman. By the way, do yourself a favor, look up Batdance on YouTube right now. It's a journey. Tessa 37:28 I had actually never seen Batdance. I had obviously I knew about Purple Rain, but the Batdance thing is that it's intense. Prince thought that was art. Sam 37:39 So the really great thing about Graffiti Bridge, which is the sequel--there's an album and a movie, it is a sequel. The Kid has grown up and apparently shares ownership of a club with Morris Day. And they are straight up...The Time are like straight up thieves in this movie. It's supposedly a very terrible movie, but it just sounds awesome. So anyway, Purple Rain was just, you know, a fun experience. James 38:05 I was really expecting you to come out and say the sequel was called, like, Purple Rain II: Purple Harder, where the action all takes place at an airport now. [Laughter]. Sam 38:16 I see what you did. And I like it. Tessa 38:18 You're speaking Sam's language. Sam 38:20 Oh, that means Purple Rain III is set in New York with Bruce Willis. James 38:24 Yeah. Sam 38:24 What a concept. But when does Prince shoot a motorcycle at a helicopter? I want to watch that movie. James 38:32 It's the motorcycle he's riding on the album cover. That's the one he shoots. Tessa 38:36 He actually rides the motorcycle as its shot towards the helicopter. Sam 38:40 Netflix, Hulu, probably not Disney Plus, because you're only doing PG. I don't know. I don't run your life. CBS Plus, you love rebooting things. Call us. [Laughter]. Tessa 38:52 So I before I ask this last question, I have to say Purple Rain...whether you like it as a movie or not...whether or not you think it's ridiculous--which parts of it are parts of it aren't--it is worth watching just because Prince is such a, like, beautiful artist. And the music is very good despite the song Sex Shooter by Apollonia. Like it is worth watching his performances because he is just such...he's such a beautiful person. But I will end this segment by asking: Sam, this is a question I asked you actually after we watched the movie and while we were listening to the vinyl, because we hadn't gotten enough of the music from this movie. If you could go back in time and attend one concert--just one, I know that the right answer here is "why do I have to choose" but I'm making you choose just one concert--would you see a Prince show or a Michael Jackson show? Sam 39:43 And the answer is simple. I would hate to have to choose. I would love to see a Prince show. But you got to go on the Michael Jackson Bad tour. You got to see a show from that. That's the end. That's it. Tessa 39:57 That's your answer. Sam 39:58 That's it. That's the final answer. Andy 40:00 Why would you want to go see the Bad tour? It's not the good one. [Laughter]. James 40:05 Nominative determinism there. Sam 40:07 I see what you did there. So after you finished looking at the Batdance video on YouTube, do yourself a favor and go ahead and watch Michael Jackson's Dirty Diana video. So there you go, fun times. Speaking of music, Andy, there's a note here that says that I am to interrogate Andy about Arctic Monkeys, but here are the sum total of the things I can really say about the Arctic Monkeys. One, as anybody who downloaded music around the Arctic Monkeys hey-day knows, it is in fact Brianstorm not Brainstorm. And two, I am not the target audience for the Arctic Monkeys. There's very clearly a target audience and I am not that. James 40:52 I think it's me. I think I'm the target audience. Sam 40:56 So I may need to turn this segment over to you, James, but I'll just start. Andy, so you listened to the Arctic Monkeys, did ya? Andy 41:07 That's right. I listened to the Arctic Monkeys, and I listened to the following songs: Arabella, Do I Wanna Know?, Fireside, I Want to be Yours, I Want It All, Knee Socks, Mad Sounds, Number One Party Album, One for the Road, Are You Mine, Snap out of It, Why do You Only Call Me When You're High?, 505, Balaclava, Brianstorm (apparently), D is for Dangerous, Do me a Favor, Fluorescent Adolescent, If You Were There, Beware of Yellow Bricks, Only Ones Who Know, Teddy Picker, The Bad Thing, This House is a Circus, Cornerstone, Crying Lightning, Dance Little Liar, Dangerous Animals, Fire and Thud, My Propeller, Potion Approaching, Pretty Visitors, Secret Door, The Jeweler's Hands, All my Own Stunts, Black Treacle, Brick by Brick, Don't Sit Down Because I've Moved Your Chair, Library Pictures, Love is a Laser Quest, Piledriver Waltz, Reckless Serenade, She's Thunderstorm, I Don't Know Either, Suck it and See, That's Where You're Wrong, The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala, American Sports, Batphone, Four out of Five Golden Trunks, One Point Perspective, Science Fiction, She looks like Fun, Star Treatment, The Ultra Cheese, The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, A Certain Romance, Dancing Shoes. Fake Tales of San Francisco, From the Ritz to the Rubble, I Bet You look Good on the Dance Floor, Mardy Bum, Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But..., Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured, Riot Van, Still Take You Home, You Probably Couldn't See Me for the Lights, But You Were Staring Straight At Me, When the Sun Goes Down, and The View from the Afternoon. Sam 42:44 I believe that I have identified the issue here. But before we get into that, you must have an opinion that you're dying to share. Andy 42:54 I definitely definitely do. But first, I thought it would be fun to play a little game, especially with James. James 43:01 Oh no. James 43:01 Is this gonna, like, be me tried to guess the song? Andy 43:05 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You see, I've known Sam and Tessa for years. They should know me well and know my musical tastes well enough. But my own wife couldn't answer these questions. And I think that's this is fair game for a quiz about Andy's taste in music. Tessa 43:22 Whatever it is, the answer is ska. Andy 43:24 Oh, see, that's about as much as my wife knew. But this is gonna be a multiple choice quiz. You are all free to pick your answers. I had a lot of fun making this. So we're going to start with a simple straightforward question, which is, "which ska band does Andy not listen to?" A) Less Than Jake; B) Real Big Fish; C) Mighty Mighty Bosstones; or D) Catch 22. And you can all discuss this as well in trying to come up with the right answer. James 43:58 Is there a band called Catch 22? Because I feel like if there isn't, then that multiple choice answer is a catch 22 in itself. Andy 44:07 No, there actually is a band called Catch 22, and they're a ska band. Sam 44:10 Okay. And one thing that I will say is that if the answer does in fact turn out to be Less than Jake, I will be disappointed in you because they do some dope covers of songs like I Think I Love You by the Partridge Family and just some really fun stuff. However, I do know that you listen to Real Big Fish so we're going to take that one off the board right now. James 44:36 What's C again? Sam 44:38 C was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, which seems like the obvious answer because it is the most mainstream. James 44:45 I'm going to go with that one. Andy 44:46 You are correct. I don't listen to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Sam 44:48 That is a trans-continental high five, James. Woo. Andy 44:54 These are all the bands that have like gotten pretty big from ska, especially to ska standards. I would argue that Real Big Fish and their one hit single on MTV Sell Out, which was about selling out in the... James 45:09 That was literally on the TV the other day. Andy 45:14 Yeah, it's a great fun. Okay, so you got that right. Now, which album does Andy know well enough to sing start to end from heart? Is it Some Nights by Fun; Sam's Town by The Killers; 1989 by Taylor Swift; or I And Love And You by the Avett Brothers? Tessa 45:37 It's clearly 1989 by Taylor Swift. Andy 45:41 No other talking about this ? Sam's Town's right there. James 45:46 See, like, I kind of know Sam's Town, but also like I don't think like there's a lot of songs on it that people would just know off, but maybe you're just built different. So I'm going to go with the rest of the people and say 1989. Sam 46:03 And see, I think the really the only competition in my head for this one is his home state favorite, I And Love And You, but I'm not sure that's gonna get it. Although, who knows? I don't know. I don't listen to the Avett Brothers anyway, so...but it's not about me, it's about you! James 46:19 It could turn out to be Fun, the one like none of us have mentioned up until now. Andy 46:25 It is, in fact, Some Nights by Fun. James 46:27 Oh my god. Tessa 46:28 Really? Andy 46:29 Yes. I also I also need to put a little bit of context in here. I have gone to the to karaoke with Tessa and Sam. I almost called it tari-oke. Tessa 46:38 Yeah, but I don't think you did anything by Fun though. Andy 46:41 No, no, no. No, that's too easy. James 46:44 It's because he knew that this question would come up one day and if he sang it like from start to finish, you's would know. Sam 46:52 This is like the level of when you go back to look at Captain America: The First Avenger and you're like, "[gasp] they put something in there that showed up in Endgame!" James 47:02 Continuity. [Laughter]. Sam 47:05 Gross. Andy 47:06 Every mixtape or burnt CD I've made for the past 15 years, they have all had one track on them. What is that one track? Is it A) Beer by Real Big Fish? B) Time of Your Life by Green Day? C) No Children by the Mountain Goats or D) Undone (the Sweater Song) by Weezer? James 47:29 Oh sorry. I had to let out my obligatory gasp when the Mountain Goats were mentioned. Sam 47:34 Don't ever send me a mixtape. Andy 47:41 I am a fan of the Mountain Goats. People who know me do know this. Tessa 47:45 And of Weezer apparently. James 47:47 John Darnielle signed my book actually. I went to see them in concert. Yeah. Sam 47:51 I just really want to ask Andy. Are you one of those Weezer fans that like thinks that everything they did after Pinkerton is trash except for maybe the Green Album? Andy 48:01 I'm not referencing that Saturday Night Live skit. I refuse to. Sam 48:05 I mean, it's a fair question. Andy 48:08 Yeah, so I am one of the Weezer fans who likes the beginning of Weezer and weird chunks of albums from the rest of their discography. Sam 48:19 I could really do this at this point, and I'll do it. Hey, Andy, do you like any of the songs from Hurley? Andy 48:24 I can't name any songs from Hurley. Sam 48:28 Hey, Tessa, did you know that there's a Weezer album named after a character from Lost? Time for an episode of Has Tessa Seen Lost Yet? [Eerie music effect] Sam 48:50 On this episode of Has Tessa Seen Lost Yet?, Tessa, Have You Seen Lost Yet? Tessa 48:55 Please don't. It's Christmas. Sam 48:59 This has been Has Tessa Seen Lost Yet? [Eerie music effect] Sam 49:10 And I think we've done three layers of meta-humor now. So I feel like we've done good today. Tessa 49:15 All right, now we got to guess the song though. Andy 49:17 And I can reread them all over again. Tessa 49:19 Please do, please read it, read them again. Andy 49:21 Is it Beer by Real Big Fish? Time of your Life--Or Good Riddance parentheses Time of Your Life--by Green Day? No Children by the Mountain Goats or Undone (the Sweater Song) by Weezer? Sam 49:34 I have a follow-up question before I can answer this. When you use Good Riddance (Time of your Life), do you use it in the correct sense of the song? Or do you do it in the high school graduation/wedding incorrect usage of the song? Andy 49:55 The correct usage. Sam 49:56 Okay. All right. James 49:57 I've heard Good Riddance (Time of your life) being played at funerals, which I just think is like... Tessa 50:03 That is soooo disturbing. Sam 50:05 There's a storyline on ER, where this kid dies. This teenager dies. It's like a slow death. And like his favorite song is Good Riddance. And so they play it at his funeral and I'm like, why? Andy 50:18 This is almost like one of the most famous hilarious...one of my also favorite songs, Brick by Ben Folds being played at weddings. That's right a song about teenage abortion being played at weddings. James 50:33 Imagine if they played No Children by the Mountain Goats at your wedding. Tessa 50:39 I'm going to go with the Mountain Goats just because I know you really like the Mountain Goats. James 50:42 I'm going to go with...so I don't think it's Real Big Fish because you just talked about Sell Out earlier on. So I'm gonna go with I think Time of Your Life by Green Day. Sam 50:54 I'm gonna go with Undone. Sam 50:56 Well, you are all wrong. It is Beer by Real Big Fish, which is one of the catchiest boppers I've ever heard. Yeah, I seriously do recommend people who even aren't familiar with ska to listen to Beer by Real Big Fish because it is so much fun, and I am all about it. Anyway. Next question. I prefer bluegrass covers of which of the following bands: blink-182, Modest Mouse, Metallica, or D) A and B. Somehow the Metallica bluegrass covers are worse. Tessa 51:32 I feel like D is the correct answer here because it's such a weird answer. James 51:37 I'm gonna go A. Sam 51:38 Pass. Tessa 51:39 Middle school Tessa is like throwing up right now. Andy 51:43 This one was supposed to be just kind of a gimme. It is it is actually D. Blink-182 and Modest Mouse. There are two bands Honey Wagon and Iron Horse that did covers of their music, and they are amazing. Which is great because I already love the original source material. Metallica is just meh. The bluegrass Metallica covers, at least. James 52:04 Now I'm imagining that...now I'm imagining a bluegrass cover of like with the bells from St. Anger. Andy 52:12 There have been a few bands that have done that. James 52:14 Oh, really? I guess like that's probably the most cursed thing you've ever heard like... Andy 52:20 Metallica is a weird one. Question number six: according to actual stats from my Zune, and every other music service I listen too... Tessa 52:30 You still have a Zune? Andy 52:31 Yes, I still have a Zune. It still works. Yes. Sam 52:39 Tessa had a Zune when she was younger, she's not ragging on you. Tessa 52:42 No, I'm just surprised because I thought they just discontinued support for that. Andy 52:46 They did. You can still have it. I don't use it anymore, but it is workable. I love my Zune. I love it so much. But I have the actual stats from that. And then any other streaming service I've used. What band have I spent the most time listening to? A) Vitamin String Quartet, B) Real Big Fish, C) Bad Religion or D) The Mountain Goats? James 53:11 The Mountain Goats? Tessa 53:11 D) Mountain Goats? Yeah. Sam 53:13 It's Vitamin String Quartet. Andy 53:15 Sam might have picked up on something I've mentioned either on or off mic a few times. Yes, it is the Vitamin String Quartet, because they are my standard go-to study music, listening music, working on anything that I can't have words in the lyrics music. Sam 53:33 And plus, it was really just between them and Real Big Fish, because song links on Bad Religion aren't gonna get you where you need to go. And Mountain Goats don't have that big of a catalog? James 53:44 Yeah, yes, they do. Andy 53:46 Yeah, they do. Yeah. James 53:48 They have a massive catalog. It sucks. Like honestly exhausting trying to find all of them. Like they even have they have a song, it's called The Ultimate Jedi who wastes all the other Jedis and eats their bones. Tessa 54:00 What is this band? Andy 54:03 So Sam, the Mountain Goats have 20 studio albums. James 54:07 Cool. And then probably hundreds of, like, tapes and EPs and stuff. Exactly. Andy 54:15 Okay, okay. Okay. Next question. What genre was number one on Andy's last year in music? Is it A) steampunk quartet, B) electro swing core, C) pirate prog metal, or D) DIY anarcho-punk? James 54:36 E) ska. Sam 54:40 Podcast. Tessa 54:41 I'm gonna go with C. Andy 54:42 Pirate prog metal? James 54:44 Electro swing core. Sam 54:46 Yeah, I'm gonna go with A) vitamin String Quartet. Andy 54:49 Well, it was D ) DIY anarcho-punk. I thought that all those genres were really fun and beautiful and weird. So I had to read them. James 54:59 Spotify once told me my top genre for the year was anti-folk. And I was like, "What is anti-folk?" Tessa 55:07 Is it people being really mad at folk musicians? Andy 55:10 I don't know. Andy 55:11 I discovered my love of ska music from what? Is it A) a time when I got lost on a school field trip to a local college radio station and wound up talking to the DJ for half an hour? B) the time I accidentally stole bowling shoes from the bowling alley and had to go to school the next day wearing them and then a teacher asked me if I was a budding ska fan? C) a mislabeled download from Kazaa Light, which made me think that My Chemical Romance had a horn section? Or D) a CD I found in the parking lot of my town's arcade after a friend's birthday party, which was actually a Less than Jake album. Tessa 55:46 I like the school field trip one. Whether that's true or not, it's a great story. James 55:51 I so desperately want it to be the one with the bowling shoes, because I can just envision that walking in and your teacher being like, "Mmm, so you like ska?" and you're like, "what, no, I'm just..:" and you would die of the embarrassment. [Laughter] So I going to go with that. Andy 56:11 Sam, do you have no opinion? Sam 56:13 I mean, C. Andy 56:14 Let's see. Okay, well, Sam, Sam got that one, right. Yep. It was a misdownload of Kaza Light. Tessa 56:22 But you should write a novel about someone getting into ska. Sam 56:28 It's called The Skawakening. [Laughter]. Andy 56:31 Well, I like I said, I was most proud of this question because it was... Sam 56:36 It's the Skawakening, and it has bowling shoes on the cover. In this segment about the Arctic Monkeys, in which we have not yet discussed the Arctic Monkeys, I have a question for you. You have named all of the songs you listened to. But could you describe the process? How did you listen to all of these? Andy 57:00 Okay, this was the most intensive work I've done for a monkey. And this was not just an excuse to avoid work or other responsibilities. The way I did this was I started from the Arctic Monkeys' first album, which is Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not. I listened to that. And then I kept going throughout all the other albums. Then I kept relistening to them. This discography was my background music for the entire last two weeks. And it has been in my head. I have listened to each album according to the streaming service that I use at least five times. And I did this so I could make a tier list of all the songs. Tessa 57:47 Sam is trying... Sam 57:48 I'm broken. Hold on. I thought I knew what you were gonna say. And then you said you listened to the albums as albums, and I was like, "nope, nope, I guess there is hope for him after all." And then you made a tier list of the songs, and we're right back to where we started. Why did you do that? The rational decision would have made a ranking list of the albums, you know, the art form in which it is intended to be listened to and rank. Tessa 58:16 Sam has real opinions about listening to things and albums, if you can't tell, dear listeners. Sam 58:22 They made albums on purpose. Andy 58:25 So before before I talk about this, I need to get one one word out as any any good podcaster will do. I'm not trying to gaslight my wife. Tessa 58:37 Is that what podcasters usually say?. Andy 58:41 So... Sam 58:42 I am...it's gonna pay off when she watches Lost one day. Just you wait. Andy 58:52 For years and years, everyone that I know who knows my music tastes knows that one of my favorite bands which was not mentioned in the quiz is The Fratellis. James 59:04 Oh yes. Andy 59:05 They have recommended the Arctic Monkeys to me, and my wife has been one of the biggest proponents of the Arctic Monkeys. And I just want to get that out of the way that I'm not trying to gaslight her about my music tastes, but spoiler alert, I really did not like these guys. Tessa 59:24 Why not? Andy, what about your listening experience made you dislike the Arctic Monkeys? Andy 59:31 I need to qualify one thing here: their one hit song that was on the radio everywhere that drove me crazy. That, like seriously, I get sick just kind of thinking about it. Their one hit song "Do I Wanna Know?" Tessa 59:50 Which is a great song. I disagree with you. But continue. Andy 59:53 Are You Mine? is their other really big one from that. So yeah, I just really wanted to get that out. They're...on paper, this is a band that I should love. They have...everything about them musically is something that resonates with me from the way that the vocals are to the music. But ultimately, I could not find it in myself to truly love any of these, any of these songs. I'm considering the Arctic Monkeys what I would call a "part of" band, which is bands that I really dig only part of their songs. Tessa 1:00:30 How would you describe the Arctic Monkeys for people who are still thinking about listening to them? Like, who's still got these bands on their lists? Andy 1:00:38 Right, the Fratellis, but worse? No, I truly, truly think...like I described it to Sarah as it's like the Fratellis had no soul or sense of humor. The Arctic Monkeys just are so self serious and I just could not get into any of them. And, like, I almost thought that I was being gaslit by everyone I've known for the past 10 years who likes music, because they keep telling me, you will love this band. And it's so hard to explain why because on paper, yes, I should really, really dig these guys. But that is not the case. And I have gone to other music professionals--friend of the podcast, Luke--who basically said no, they're pretty good, but their songs don't go anywhere. Sorry, I also thought Sam was a much bigger fan of the Arctic Monkeys for some reason. Sam 1:01:34 What? Why would I be? I mean, they're perfectly okay. Andy 1:01:38 That's ultimately kind of what I came down to. I know, their tier list has only one song that I'll listen to again, and... James 1:01:46 Which is? Andy 1:01:48 Well, we'll get to that. Sam 1:01:49 Is it Fluorescent Adolescent? Is it I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor? James 1:01:54 Is it Pile Driver Waltz? Andy 1:01:58 The fact that Sam just listed off the top two songs on my tier list. Sam 1:02:04 Because they're the best Arctic Monkeys songs. I don't know what the...I feel like I'm being gaslit in this segment. Like you're trying to convince me that this is a weird take. This is the only correct take in my mind on the Arctic Monkeys. It's just they're fine. Andy 1:02:23 I really appreciate that because I've been told so many times. Yeah. Fluorescent Adolescent is the only song that I think I'm going to actively seek out because it's really fun. It's a bopper. And I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor is also a song that I really liked. Tessa 1:02:35 I'm not sure how to wrap up this segment. Andy, what do you want to ask you? Andy 1:02:39 Me either. Sam 1:02:40 That was a good wrap-up. James 1:02:42 Can I say what my favorite piece of Arctic Monkeys related media is? Tessa 1:02:45 Yes. Sam 1:02:45 Please do. James 1:02:45 It's an interview with the band, with Alex Turner. And they asked him what his name is. And he's like, "I'm Alex Turner." And they like, "from?" to prompt him to say what band he is from. He's like, "from Sheffield," and then, "from Sheffield, from London, [bleep], from Arctic Monkeys." Andy 1:03:05 Oh, and I should also say that it's not an Alex Turner thing, because I really loved his soundtrack to the movie Submarine which was a directed by Richard Ayoade. James 1:03:14 Yeah, which had an acoustic cover of Pile Driver Waltz on it, right? Andy 1:03:19 Yeah, yeah. Oh and Pile Driver Waltz was one of the songs that I liked. I'm actually just going to list out the 10 songs that I liked besides Fluoresce Adolescent, I like I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor, Mardy Bum, Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong, From the Rich to the Rubble, Red Light Indicates Doors are Secured, Still Take You Home, When The Sun Goes Down, A Certain Romance, Secret Door, Cornerstone, Black Treacle, and Reckless Serenade. And what these all have in common, for the most part, is they're almost all from the first album from the Arctic Monkeys. Sam 1:03:54 Just listen to the first two albums. That's fine. Andy 1:03:56 That is exactly what I would think. It just feels so so weird to me to be told by many people that I would love them, and then to find out that no, I really did not love them. And I was hoping that there would be some contention here. But those are the ones. I also made a very much smaller list called songs I never want to hear again. Do I Wanna Know, Brick by Brick, Why Do You Only Call Me When You're High?, Are You Mine?, Knee Socks, and Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. If you like late aughts/early teens indie... James 1:04:32 Legacy Brit pop. Andy 1:04:35 Yeah, legacy Brit pop, I would recommend other bands like The Fratellis or The Wombats or Two Door Cinema... James 1:04:43 Clubs. Andy 1:04:45 Oh is it Two Door Cinema Club? Oh, that is the other thing. So my streaming player, when the albums would finish, would start playing other recommended songs. And it was always at that point in time that my ears perked up. I was like, "Oh, is this a good Arctic Monkeys?" And it was always like The Strokes or Two Door Cinema Club or something else. This bit has gone on far too long. I have taken up far too much of everybody's time. James where can people find you? James 1:05:14 They can find me on Twitter @spicynigel, where I'm probably tweeting. That's what I seem to be doing nonstop these days or promoting my many podcasts. So I have one called Archive Admirers where we're doing a relisten and sort of thematic discussion of every episode of The Magnus Archives. You can find that on Twitter @admirersarchive. And then my other podcast is called Hyperfixations, which is basically, each episode we talked to a different guest about what their really niche area of interest or expertise is. And you can find that on twitter @hyperfixationsp or on Instagram @hyperfixationspod. Andy 1:05:52 Sam, where can people find you? Sam 1:05:54 You can find me on Twitter @Sam_Morris9. And on Letterboxd @archieleach9. You might also be able to find me this week in a abandoned lab searching for cake. I'll be talking about that next week. Andy 1:06:10 Tessa, where can people find you? Tessa 1:06:12 You can find me on Twitter @SwehlaTessa and at the same name on Letterboxd. Andy 1:06:21 You can find me on Twitter @andynoted; you can find us on Twitter @monkeybacklog; you can email us at monkeyoffmybacklog@gmail.com. Let us know your thoughts about we talked about today. Whether or not the Arctic Monkeys are actually any good. Anything you'd like to see us talk about in future episodes. I mean, come on. Give us something here, guys. Our theme song Hot Shot by Scott Holmes can be found on ScottHolmesmusic.com, please rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Now, go get that especially chilly monkey off your backlog. Transcribed by https://otter.ai