Show notes
jD is back and he's got some questions for Spiral Stairs. Transcript:[0:12] Hey.[0:15] It's JD here and I'm back for another episode of the Meeting Malcomus podcast.How are you doing, motherfuckers? I hope you're doing well on this lovely Monday, December 25th, Christmas for some of you.I hope you are with family and friends regardless and are just enjoying yourself.If you're not, well then what can I do to help you?Maybe a spiral stairs interview? It's a wide-ranging piece.Uh we talk everything from riding lawnmowers to uh well there's a delicious scoop in here that you're going to need to save up for in 2024 so i hope you're ready for that uh i'll let spiraltell that story though uh i i also have a scoop of my own and that is that next week we will be be releasing the trailer for our new Pavement-themed podcast, the countdown, the PavementTop 50 countdown.And in a staggering piece of news that I'm revealing here in the intro, I don't tell Spiral this, I'm actually going to count down the whole 100.I'm going to count down the top 100.On the bonus feed, I'll be counting down from 100 to 51 every week.There will be a new episode in in the bonus feed.[1:42] Three bucks a month to sign up for, 20 bucks for the year. You can't go wrong.It's going to last a year, this whole excursion into the countdown. So there's that.Enough shilling. Let's celebrate. Let's.[2:03] Raise a glass of milk to the end of another day.That's what I have for you and why don't we kick it off with a song first before we head right into that interview this is For Sale, the Preston School of Industry on Meeting Malchmas apavement podcast.[2:27] There it is.Track 5:[5:29] I just remembered. Oh, shit. It's 10.Life of a rock star.Track 4:[5:38] Mowing the lawn on a Saturday.Track 5:[5:40] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It needs a little bit.Need some mowing. It's not a big lawn.It's just, you know, takes about 40 minutes or so.Track 4:[5:54] Gotcha.Track 5:[5:56] I used to have. I used to have a ride-on mower. Last time I lived in Australia, we had like an acre of land, so I had a ride-on mower. That was really fun.Track 4:[6:06] That would be fun. Got pulled around the side.Track 5:[6:10] Yeah, it was great. It was great. That would take like over an hour, maybe even more, to do that long.Yeah, I was pretty bored, so I think I would mow it once a week.So how you doing man yeah good yeah all good excellent all good the kid just graduated her primary school they yesterday so we're all excited here they start they start high school herein seventh grade so oh really yeah so now we've now she's on, she's on vacation now until she starts high school February maybe February 1st.They get quite a long break here.Track 4:[7:04] So they go back February 1st and when are they done?Track 5:[7:12] December 6th or something.Track 4:[7:15] Oh wow. So they go right through.Track 5:[7:19] Yeah yeah it's you know it's different we're opposite here in the southern hemisphere.[7:30] Where are you you're in Portland I'm in Portland right now yeah and I'm disappointed that it's not just indie music playing on all the, street signs or something you know other thanthe coffee and the beer are great yeah it's mostly mostly uh meth heads trying to step out of the way of meth heads, yeah well there's a lot of that too yeah geez.[8:03] So uh talk to me a little bit about touring because it seems like you guys have been on the road for two years now Yeah, sort of.I mean, you know, 2022 was...Were on the road for a lot of, I mean, not really.I mean, it was kind of off and on, you know, I mean, really the only major touring we did was, uh, the U S tour.And then, you know, the kind of the European tour, which kind of just came right after that.And then we just did, you know, the odd festival and, um, and then it just, we just kept getting offers to play, you know, we, And so it kind of got, kind of led us through 2023, you know,to where we could, we did the Iceland thing.And then, you know, we had the Iceland offer. And so we just kind of built some shows around that.And then kind of the same thing with New York in, when was that?Track 4:[9:10] In the fall.Track 5:[9:11] In the fall. We just kind of built some, you know, shows around the festival offers we got.And, and yeah, and then now it's just, you know, we were always planning to do South America, but we were just kind of waiting for the right, the right offers.And so now that's taking us into 2024.And there are a lot of but yeah it feels it feels like we've been on the road for a long time but it's it's actually we've had long breaks in between each each which is kind of cool because,you know kind of we have to get together every time, and rehearse so it's it's it's a nice reunion with everybody because you get together and you You know the songs, but it's just likegoing through them and making sure they're...Track 4:[10:06] Just going through endings and stuff like that.Track 5:[10:09] Yeah, yeah. So it's, yeah, we got to do that again.I don't know. I don't know where that's going to be. We're going to still trying to figure that out, but...[10:21] So that's exciting. I mean, it's in May.And then I don't know. We don't have anything else planned. But, you know, you never know.It's, I mean, Steve kind of said he didn't. He was kind of exhausted by it.But that was just after the New York shows and everything.So, you know, as months go by, I'm not playing. we could always get an offer and get something really fun and cool you know you might see a tweet, oh wow I don't know we'll see thismovie's coming out next year I think so um, maybe there'll be something associated with that not quite sure how much can you talk about that, um Um, I don't know. What, what do youwant to know?I just don't know if it's like embargoed or, you know, well, it's not done yet.It still needs to be edited, but we, we saw, we saw a, um, kind of Alex's, um, version, first kind of edit version and it's like over two hours long.[11:43] So everybody's like that's a little too long but i don't know we'll see what alex thinks, he's it's pretty cool it's pretty cool it's uh everything i've read about it is just like it's gonnachange movies like it's like a different different version of a movie that's what yeah Yeah, that's, I guess, I guess, I mean, it's, yeah, it's different, different.It's, it's, uh, I don't know.I'm just a little too close to it, you know? So it's, I mean, the people that have seen it who, I mean, I don't, I don't know.I guess he's shown it to focus groups and stuff and they seem to like it.So, I mean, I like it.Track 4:[12:31] It's fucking radical.Track 5:[12:33] A payment movie in 2024. I know, right? Hopefully.Track 4:[12:39] If you've ever guessed.Track 5:[12:41] Yeah. So, yeah, we'll see.Track 4:[12:44] Speaking of movies.Track 5:[12:46] My fingers are, you know, they're not quite... The calluses are still kind of there.They're going to go away at some point because...Mowing the lawn, you don't get really any calluses from mowing the lawn.Track 4:[13:05] No, I guess not.Track 5:[13:07] Unless you play good.Track 4:[13:08] Well, then that leads to two. That's two things that I want to ask you. I'll pin one.I don't know why there's balloons. Oh, that's weird. That was weird.The first one is you were doing a lot of stuff with the Gary movie.Track 5:[13:25] Yeah. Yeah.Track 4:[13:26] Are they still releasing it at festivals and things like that?Or now that he's passed, have they...Track 5:[13:34] Yeah, I think they've kind of done their festival run.I'm not quite sure what's going to happen.I mean, I think they were talking about kind of filming an epilogue and kind of trying to fit that in somehow.But I think, you know, I think they still plan on trying to do a real release of the movie at some point this next year.I haven't really talked to the guys much since Gary died. And, um...Or Jerry. I talked to Jerry a bit. Um, Gary's wife kind of around the time that we played New York because Gary's brother came to the show and, and, uh, with his son.And so it was nice to see him.And, um, yeah.Track 4:[14:38] Yeah.Track 5:[14:38] So you have to go through that, man. Oh yeah. It was, it's kind of crazy when I'm, you know, watching the, Alex movie I was watching it just kind of I was like whoa that's rightGary died, very strange very strange to think that he's gone but yeah, legend that guy yes, so there was a question that came in from Twitter or Reddit, I'm not sure which one, but it wasactually asking about the Terror Twilight outtakes with you and Gary.Track 4:[15:26] The tracks from that, they were saying that there's not been a whole lot said about those. So they were curious.Track 5:[15:37] Well, pretty simple. I mean, really, we those kind of came you know after i think when we decided to i think domino wanted to put out, major leagues as a as a single uh like an epand yeah you know they said do you have any, extras and we didn't really have any extras you know i think steve had steve had you know a couple all those um, He had demos for acouple of the songs.[16:17] And I think I had been talking to Gary about it, because I was starting to think about doing my solo record around that time.And yeah, I just went in and had these two kind of songs I had.And Gary's drums were perfect for it.They were really cool.And they kind of felt like Pavement songs with his drumming.And so I just sent them to Steve. And I said, you know, let's.And he's like, fine. That's perfect.Put them on there. And yeah. I don't know.I guess you know because it was an ep or whatever no one really heard them at the time because, they were it was a british seven inch i mean maybe with the terror twilight reissue nowyou know they're on they're on the in the digital world but.[17:27] Yeah yeah they're cool songs you know the the first one um your time to change i think it's in the movie in Alex's movie a little bit so that would be kind of fun to hear that there,yeah but yeah Gary's it was you know we went into his studio, He still pretty much had it together and ripped those out pretty quick.Track 4:[18:02] Cool.Track 5:[18:03] Yeah, like the old days.Track 4:[18:06] Yeah, especially I guess at the same time you were working with Nigel Godrich, right?Track 5:[18:11] Yeah, but that was way before. That had been done at least a year before, really.Track 4:[18:19] Oh, before the Major League's EP came out.Track 5:[18:21] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we recorded that record. I don't know.I don't know when it was. It was just... It was at least a year before we...The record kind of came out. All the singles came out.Track 4:[18:38] Gotcha.Track 5:[18:39] Yeah.It was kind of near the end. Yeah.Track 4:[18:45] What about you after Melody Attacks? Is there any more...Spiral Stairs or Preston School of Industry.You were talking about the Cowlitz.Track 5:[18:57] Yeah, I don't know. That would take care of those. I just did a little solo show at a bar here near me.It's actually called Wowie Zowie.Track 4:[19:08] That's fucking great.Track 5:[19:09] These cool guys have this great bar there. They had a show, and so I did a little solo thing with, I don't know three weeks ago or something like that so I ended up doing I ended upplaying a couple Preston school songs that I've never played in a long time so those are really fun, kind of rehash I did uh Walk of a Girl and Treasure at Silver Bank I think I, And yeah,so it was good to kind of relearn those. And then I did a bunch off the new record.And so I don't know. I mean, I'm playing guitar and making up songs.I just don't really have any material yet to record.But it's all here, ready to go when an idea pops in my head.Track 4:[20:10] Do you have a studio at home?Track 5:[20:12] Not really. just a little computer set up.And then if I go, I'll probably go to LA if I record in my friend's studio there.But maybe in May. Maybe I'll write maybe I'll do some songs in May.I don't know. I'm not really that, worried.Track 4:[20:37] You just chill, man.Track 5:[20:38] It comes when it comes, you know? Yeah.Track 4:[20:43] There's no, this isn't the nineties where it's like you have to have a CD every.[20:49] Year or every year and a half.Track 5:[20:51] No, no. I mean, I did those last three pretty quick, pretty quick in succession.Um, but I don't know.I mean, I've, it's the last, you know, two years being kind of on the, all over the place, you know, California and Australia.I'm on tour, you know, it's been hard to write anything, but I just need to be at home for a while and start complaining about things.Track 4:[21:29] So I guess that means when you guys are doing tours and you're on the road, has there been anything in the way of exchanging ideas for anything that could be construed as newpavement?I don't think I'm in the camp that necessarily wants new pavement, but it's a cool thing to think about.Track 5:[21:56] Yeah yeah i mean there was a time kind of when we were playing some of those shows you know when we were kind of you know we could have we you know there was amoment maybe some moments where we were like you know we maybe we could have thought about doing some new stuff but i don't know, it it's fun playing the old songs you know imean we we yeah we the songs stand up pretty pretty good to where we're not bored by them um maybe if we were bored we'd be like all right let's make up something new but i don'tknow you know you never know i mean we're we're a much better band than we were in the 90s or 2010 um i think you know we're definitely way more confident and their abilities toplay.Track 4:[22:52] That's cool.Track 5:[22:53] But yeah, we're not really, you know, it's not like the old days where, you know, in Soundcheck we're just kind of jamming and making up kind of thing.I mean, in Soundcheck we would just kind of, if we would play other songs besides ours, they'd be just like covers of R.E.M. or Led Zeppelin or something.Track 4:[23:17] A lot of foreign stuff. I would love to hear Pavement covering Led Zeppelin. That is fucked.Track 5:[23:27] And yeah, so, but you never know. I mean, it would be fun.I'd be into it for sure. You know, like it would be, I think it would be interesting to try to try to write a song after 30 years.Track 4:[23:42] Yeah.Track 5:[23:44] What does that even look like?Track 4:[23:45] Right? Yeah.Track 5:[23:46] I don't know. You know, I mean, I write. song.I definitely have written songs where I've thought in the back of my mind this could be a Pavin song.Track 4:[23:55] Right.Track 5:[23:56] Maybe Steve does too.We got the hits.Track 4:[24:07] That's true. I don't know if you know what my next project is.Track 5:[24:11] No.Track 4:[24:13] So on this feed, next year, every week of the year, I'm counting down the top 50 pavement songs as voted by the listeners.Track 5:[24:27] Okay.Track 4:[24:28] So I basically sent out a call for people to submit their top 20 lists.And then I assigned a score to everything and then put it through a spreadsheet and it spit out 50 top songs.But what's really interesti…
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