Post-Fame Plus 1.1

s1.1 Post Fame Plus

[00:00:00]

Glen Erickson: Hello and welcome

to Post Fame Plus; Post Fame Plus is our season one bonus episode series between Alexi and myself, Glen Erickson, your host of Almost Famous Enough, and this is Alexi. Say hi, Alexi. Say hi. I’m just kidding. that was so forced, Post Fame Plus is, uh, something we wanted to do as sort of a carryover of our, our tag bits to every episode in season one of Almost Famous Enough where we got together, uh, and we talked about the episode, but then we also like to talk about. Well, lots of things, but [00:01:00] particularly what music was relevant in our life right now, or things that we were referencing or discovering pulling out of the past, all those things, right? So, I think that it would be a lot of fun for us to have a little series, with a specific. Premise and theme, right?

So, premise and theme is we are going to do, uh, a four part series where one person shows up with an album that they think is to listen, to, start to finish as an album, and the backstory behind why they think that and feel that way. And then the other person is going to share a single a song, uh, that is impressing. Uh, upon them either now or whatever. There’s no rule to it. It’s just you’re bringing a song. I’m bringing an album. So, song versus album, and that’s, uh, well it’s not a battle, but song, an album. And we’re, we’re coming, first episode here, Alexi, you are [00:02:00] doing.

alexi: Song.

Glen Erickson: you’re doing

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I’m doing album.

So,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: we’re gonna have a little bit of an exchange. Again, this is, um, this is what we kinda wanted to do while we prepped for season two and all the things that are coming for that. But, uh, we kind of missed our pod time together, and I

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: this is gonna be fun and we want to keep sharing music to people.

So without further ado. A Post Fame Plus Alexi, why don’t you start us off with, uh, a song that you’re here to share.

alexi: Okay. I’ll start present. I was excited to do song first because I think this is a band that you don’t know and haven’t heard of.

Glen Erickson: What

alexi: And I always think it’s quite exciting when I have a band or a song up my sleeve, um, that you won’t know.

Glen Erickson: You know

alexi: And so

Glen Erickson: that is, and you know

alexi: I know,

Glen Erickson: because you even got a little red in the face as you were

alexi: I know,

Glen Erickson: which is [00:03:00] a very sweet and also a big swing. So I love it. So I’m looking forward to this.

alexi: but if you know them, you can’t be a liar. You gotta tell me. But, uh, okay. I’ll start by saying it’s. By the band called The Backfires.

Glen Erickson: Uh, winner, winner right there. I

alexi: Okay. Okay. Um, so they, oh, I don’t even have my phone, so I can’t see, but they don’t have a lot of music out at all. Um, but they have a, their most recent album that came out, um, full of really good songs. But, there’s one on there that the first time listening. It’s just one of those songs where it finishes and you’re like, oh, I think I need to play that one more time before I like move past it.

and so the song I chose is called Dressed for a Funeral by The Backfires.

Glen Erickson: I am looking it up right now.

alexi: yeah, you’re looking Yeah.

Glen Erickson: about, did you already talked about this band to me, [00:04:00] Lexi.

alexi: didn’t.

Glen Erickson: Oh, the album cover

alexi: Oh, maybe

Glen Erickson: looks a little familiar, but I can’t place it. Okay. Continue Dressed For A Funeral The Backfires.

alexi: Chance I might’ve popped it in the car, but yeah, Dressed For A Funeral by the Backfires. Um, when I discovered it, I, it was one of my many, like, I need this on repeat. or it goes in like the file in my brain of like the good mood song. In the way that it’s like if I’m in a really good mood, I’m playing this song, or if like, I need to get in a really good mood, mood, I’m playing this song.

it’s like very punchy indie rock and I was trying to, it is,

Glen Erickson: on. You, you describe it as punchy, indie rock. And how long have

alexi: yeah,

Glen Erickson: out From me.

alexi: like too long. Because you told me we were gonna do this series and I was like,

Glen Erickson: You’re

alexi: this is such good ammo. Um, yeah, no, it’s so good. The album’s really, really good for this [00:05:00] song. Um, yeah, and so I was trying to describe it to a friend and the way I described it, as soon as it came up my mouth, we were like dying laughing.

And we wrote it in my notes. And what I had said when I was trying to describe it was I said, imagine The Strokes meets The Arctic Monkeys. But they have a kid and it’s a two thousands garage rock band. And that was me trying to describe this album. And I don’t know if it does it justice, um, but it’s really good.

It has like, and this is why I saved it for you too, it has like really sharp guitar riffs in there, um, that are just like delightful to listen to,

Glen Erickson: you mean by sharp.

alexi: like. Sharp, like their whole sound. It’s like they have like good production, but their guitar riff all of a sudden just kinda like breaks through and they’re like crisp and they have a little edge to them.

Glen Erickson: Okay,

alexi: You know what I mean?

Glen Erickson: mean, well, I’m trying to find out what you mean. [00:06:00] So do you mean sharp, like versus. Fuzzy like guitar naturally when it’s can be very crunchy in indie rock. Right. Or it can be the fuzz tone, um,

alexi: It’s not the fuzz tone.

Glen Erickson: like tight, like I almost would use terms sometimes as tight. Like there’s not a lot of extra anything.

Like, like Vampire Weekend is sharp to me, like in the way

alexi: Yeah. Yes. Then I’d stick with sharp.

Glen Erickson: Okay.

alexi: You’ll know when you listen. Um, but yeah, like it’s. Like, I was like saying like, it’s like heightened production, but it’s like that raw edge that I like as well. Um, and then, uh, I was, oh, it’s a two minute, 13 second song,

Glen Erickson: A little punk. It’s a little punk rock of them.

alexi: it’s a little punk. It, it’s a little hard. My heart.

Glen Erickson: I’m looking and it’s like two 14 and then the [00:07:00] other songs are 2 59, 3 minutes. So like they don’t,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: they don’t waste a lot of time.

alexi: They don’t waste a lot of time, but that’s their, I think, shortest one on there,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: which is, it’s hard. I, I literally, I just want it to be like eight minutes long. Um, always. And I’ll, I’ll finish off with like my favorite lyric from it, um, which kind of encaptures their whole thing. there, there. It’s a really sharp one too, but it’s like waking up drunk is tomorrow’s conditional and the whole song is just like, I don’t know.

It’s a little, it’s a little like punky and I really like it. It’s

Glen Erickson: Okay.

alexi: good.

Glen Erickson: I love that. I can’t remember already ’cause I might have been already going down a different. Uh, place in my mind. But did you say how you found the song?

alexi: I don’t know how I found it. I.

Glen Erickson: Was it

alexi: No, it was not, it was a rabbit hole for sure. I, [00:08:00] yeah, it was definitely a rabbit hole. It was like when I was finishing finals and I was like thinking about the fact that I was coming into summer and I always come into summer, have like a playlist of kind of the music that I have been finding and I’m getting into for the summer, and it ends up flourishing into this beautiful like.

Summer of that year, playlist. and I didn’t have one and so I was adding some songs I had found recently and like we’re enjoying to a playlist. And I think I was going into the artist profiles on Spotify, scrolling all the way down and going to the, like, if you like this artist, you’ll like dah, dah, dah, dah da.

And there’s a couple smaller artists, um, on there. And then I was scrolling down. Going through that. And these were one of them because they’re still pretty, pretty small.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

alexi: and yeah, they were kind of in that, in that grouping. Um, and I judged a book by its cover and I looked at it and I was like, Hmm. [00:09:00] And then I gave it a chance, and I’m very, very grateful for that because it’s so good.

Glen Erickson: I love that. You know what it makes me think of is like literally since we’re a generational conversation here is when I was 19. Yeah, that would’ve been my summer mixtape on a literal cassette was what I would’ve had, and I would’ve had record from like one cassette to another on a machine that I was very fortunate my parents had, and that had the two cassette things right, built in anyhow. And I would’ve only found out. All of these new bands by going down to the record store, the more indie record store, not the mainstream one, and just flipping and looking for like album cover art that looked cool and I would hope that the music matched it like.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: it’s a whole different world now. Uh, okay, I love that. So, Dressed For A Funeral, The Backfires, um, [00:10:00] first, uh, single share by Lexi. So, I’m glad that you were sitting on one ’cause. Um, it makes me feel more justified that I’m sitting on one and have chosen not to talk to you about for my single on the next episode.

alexi: That’s okay. Okay. Whatever.

Glen Erickson: I love it.

alexi: I won’t, I won’t have my feelings hurt.

Glen Erickson: Okay. album. So

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: obviously I was telling you in the car the other day, this one’s hard because there’s so many places and ways I could go.

alexi: Oh

Glen Erickson: Um, so I had to sort of try to rein it in. And then I just thought, if we’re gonna do this share series thematically, I should really start with, to me, what is one of the most important. to cover albums that I’ve

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: in recent memory that probably also has a, a story worthy go with it. So to

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: no surprise to anyone. [00:11:00] think the album everyone should listen to is The War on Drugs Lost in the Dream. But here’s the catch is, there’s like three. There’s like a bunch of War on Drugs album I could choose.

So how do I choose one? Well, this

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: to me. Uh, lost In The Dream was released in 2014, so quite a while ago. Uh, American Rock Band, that really, when it comes down to it, is Adam Granduciel, the guitar player and lead singer, like he is the band, even though he’s had the same guys forever, but

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Uh, a modern kind of guitar hero guy, very distinct. So obviously that caught me and I had discovered them kind of before this record, but

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: before this record out. And what I didn’t even realize at the time, there’s like this indie super cred guy called Kurt Vile. He’s been around forever.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: know at first that they actually formed this band together [00:12:00] way before, in like 2008. And then Kurt Vile went solo and they. Adam did his thing. Anyhow, so the band had caught my attention, but it’s the backstory for me on this album. And then I’ll talk about the album a little bit itself about why the songs are, but 2015, September, 2015, I, I don’t recall if it was a person or a friend who tipped me off,

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: remember how I discovered it. But when I did it, it didn’t hit me like a brick right away, but it started kind of, I started going back to it and listening to it more, but I was kind of, you know, like think about, this is like 10 years ago, so

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I’m like in my forties. really hard to impress me. With anything at that point it felt like. So I don’t think anything really hit me like a brick, but this one kind of got through barriers. the funny part [00:13:00] of the story is I just kind of needed a horrific accident to kind of like really rip the barriers down and let the record in.

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I know you’ve heard all kinds of parts of this story and you were around for it, but. 2015, I had been away at bootcamp for Project Wild. come

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: excited to get back into my regular hockey program with my regular Shin hockey Club guys that play weekly. I step out on the ice for my very first shift back on and race down the ice first shift loose puck battle, full speed at it, I come at it. And apparently I scored an absolute glorious goal winning the loose puck battle and taking a, a wild swipe at the puck. I remember absolutely none of it ’cause I lost an edge in the process and slammed [00:14:00] feet first into the boards. At top speed and subsequently breaking my leg in two places. So fib, tib, break and that was terrible. So I end up, um, waiting five days to get admitted to the hospital and then when I was in the hospital, 48 more hours before they could schedule me in for surgery. So

alexi: Yep.

Glen Erickson: that was a long time to be trying to tough it through. You know, the codeine pills or the T threes or whatever they were trying to give me make it manage.

But the worst part was actually the 48 hours of waiting in that hospital room because I had been placed with this like lady that shared the room with me. You’re already laughing at you. I’m glad you remember the story. So 48 hours where it’s hard enough for me to sleep or rest because of the pain and trying to manage the pain, and it had been already five [00:15:00] days

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: going outta my mind when I realized that the lady beside me, suffers from flesh eating disease. Most of one of her legs was gone among other disorders. And she had people coming in and out all the time. ’cause she had so many things she needed. She was incredibly obese so she could do nothing. It seemed for herself and it meant the room was busy all the time. She was loud and complaining. I couldn’t tell if someone was behind the curtain or there was nobody there and she was just complaining out loud all the time. I, in those 48 hours, I didn’t know what was morning. Or night, like all the hours seemed the same with her. would be on the telephone talking to her daughter who apparently was trying to leave a horrible, horrible man and trying, and she would be yelling at her. And, and anyhow, the, [00:16:00] you’d hear these loud cuss battles between the two and then slamming the phone down and then crying. But the worst, this isn’t even the worst of it, the worst of it was that in order to sleep, she had what would be like into like a sleep apnea CPAP machine. So she had some assistance going on and it created most incredible fart sounds when she was trying to breathe through this. And I have recordings of it somewhere.

I think hopefully still I voice memoed. ’cause I thought nobody would believe me. I thought nobody possibly, I could not describe well enough how fart soundy, uh, all these sounds were coming out from this other side of this curtain. And I, was getting no sleep whatsoever. So, anyhow, so I thought I was either being pranked. something, or I had had done [00:17:00] some horrible karma thing to deserve this. It was becoming the worst 48 hours and the only, the only way I escaped that with my sanity was for some reason I. out the headphones and I put in this album, the War on Drugs Lost in the Dream, and I would listen to it on repeat for the whole 48 hours.

I didn’t, I, for some reason, I wouldn’t listen to their old records. I wouldn’t listen to any other record.

alexi: Just that.

Glen Erickson: that one and I was fascinated. I never do this. But that record literally saved my life through those moments, like, and I got so lost in it. It was incredible. I mean, I love all their albums and, uh, start to finish.

This one though feels impeccable in the sense that I think a lot of it is still 10 years later, what people would introduce the band to [00:18:00] others with. Like

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: off this record, right? They, before that, they felt to me like a jam band ’cause of his guitar playing and it was filled with all these rich textures. But all of that took a, a front seat to like the vocals or the melody or the story,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: it felt more jam band. And then this album is when that sort of turned the corner it felt like for them.

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: So I absolutely loved that part of it. Obviously he had these incredible guitar solos that were incredibly signature, uh, for Adam Granduciel.

And, but the songs felt really fully realized and

alexi: Hmm.

Glen Erickson: just maybe ’cause it was like emergence for them when you’re discovering somebody the time that they’re emerging into what they’re really gonna become. I think that’s when you hear people tell the stories of a song or an album become the [00:19:00] thing that stick with them the rest of their life.

Right.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: I think so often that gets associated with classic rock or the song. So when we were really young and then we, you know, you see people and they’re like, they listen to ACDC when they were 15 and now they listen to.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: That’s the best band for the rest of their life as far

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: But I ha I think it has something to do with this synergy of emergence where a point in your life that you are relating to it that way, and it’s happening for the band in real time, in their way

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I think that’s what happened to me, but I just think it’s interesting that like 10 years later some of these songs are still timeless.

So, it

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: of the greatest songs. Like there’s a song on it called Burning and Red Eyes, which still get played a lot. I think Burning is a song that a lot of people still introduce the band

alexi: Two.

Glen Erickson: Um, they have kind of a similar feel. They have these little signature hook solos and. [00:20:00] favorite when he does like a little woo or a woo-hoo of some sort, like as if it’s live,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: the studio. But there’s a song on it the Opening Track called Under the Pressure,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: me is still as if not the most important track maybe they’ve ever recorded. And I’ll, I’ll qualify it this way. So, I actually, I’m gonna read a little bit what I wrote so I get it right, but. It’s the opening song and it’s has this YouTube live performance at Lowlands Festival

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: 2018. I’m gonna include the links in our show notes and everything so people can go right to it because this. It might be the most viewed YouTube video of theirs, and it became an absolute signature to one commenter on it said it might be the greatest version of any song. So it was interesting completely due to capturing this like [00:21:00] mesmerizing breakdown and this ecstatic, beautiful, crazy eyes expressive drummer. And he, he stands up to even, it’s like stand up to make it count. so this moment in this breakdown and when this fill of the drummer is so incredible, and I just saw them with the guys back in October in Vancouver, 2024, and this song that moment of this extended breakdown, it’s still the signature moment of their live show. 10 years later, and it’s captured most perfectly in this one live performance on YouTube, from Lowlands Festival in 2018. It’s this incredible outdoor ish venue under this huge, uh, it looks like a barn type of top. And now we’ll post the link to the video. breakdown starts at six minute 44 seconds. This is the important stuff to me about

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: but it’s not even the album, it’s the [00:22:00] video. But breakdown starts at 6:44, his incredible face, and it’s like literally the cover of the youtube clips everywhere is at 9:08. So already, yes, that’s a two and a half minute breakdown happening in this song where they just take it right down. It’s incredible. And. Pure ecstasy is at nine 17 and I still get chills. I went and looked it up yesterday. I got chills again when I watched it at nine 17 when the whole band comes back in from this thing. And it’s all built around the drummer and his face and, and the whole thing. So all of that to say, uh, yeah.

Um, on the album, hands down. Yeah. Hands

alexi: it. Okay.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, so I mean I’ve, for the most part in my life completely forgotten about Fart mouth, but I haven’t forgotten like a single beat about that song. So the best [00:23:00] takeaway that not only did that album save me through that incredible time,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: But now it’s like literally woven into the fabric of who I am and the broken leg and fart mouth mostly forgotten in my daily life.

alexi: Love,

Glen Erickson: yeah, so that’s album I would always want to share with somebody and always love telling this story about

alexi: adore it.

Glen Erickson: to me.

alexi: It’s a classic

Glen Erickson: it’s a classic now it’s my classic rock dad rock, all of that.

alexi: Dad rock.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, dad rock. So,

alexi: You could put that on a T-shirt.

Glen Erickson: I think a lot of people have, I thought about putting, we were gonna make when we, okay. Well when,

alexi: yeah. You were gonna, yeah.

Glen Erickson: the guys

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: so they were five of us and meeting a

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: there was six of us in total. Uh, made the pilgrimage to Vancouver for, it was The [00:24:00] National and The War On Drugs, which.

alexi: Right.

Glen Erickson: It’s essentially like the two tablets of the

alexi: The best.

Glen Erickson: sacred to me. Um, those two together and we were thinking of making shirts, something along the lines of like this SAD Dads or this SAD Bastard Club, or it some version of SAD Dads, which has been kind of tagged to The National. But, I think two of the guys aren’t dads, I think.

And then we were like of ’em being Rob Angus from, from the band The Wheat Pool that my buddy,

alexi: He could pretend.

Glen Erickson: my band mate brother. I’m like, ah, I didn’t know if I wanted to make him wear a sad Dad shirt, but alright. all right. yeah, so that’s my album. That’s your

alexi: Gorgeous. Okay. Well, I’m glad yours was a little bit predictable to me because mine is gonna be a lot predictable to you. So

Glen Erickson: Next episode, when we flip

alexi: next episode. Yeah, so the fact that I, I gate kept from you and you’re gonna gate keep from me, and that there’s also some predictability. I think we’re on [00:25:00] the same page.

Glen Erickson: already, we’re already in a groove. That’s pretty fantastic.

alexi: it.

Glen Erickson: Okay. So, thank you for

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Um, we are going to make sure that, again, just to remind anybody listening, links to things that we post will be in our show notes to this, uh, which are available wherever you’re getting and downloading, listening to your podcast.

Or it’ll be on our website, almost famous enough.com. And, What was the other thing I was gonna say about that? oh, the, the Spotify playlist. We will add

alexi: Sure.

Glen Erickson: to

alexi: We will add.

Glen Erickson: Spotify playlist and the links for that are also in the same place we put all the other links, so hopefully you’ll be able to find it and

alexi: Yes.

Glen Erickson: looking forward to episode two already.

alexi: Yep.

Glen Erickson: Okay.

alexi: Okay.

Glen Erickson: Okay. Thank you.

alexi: Yes. Okay. See you. [00:26:00]