Rhymefest doesn’t wanna talk about Kanye West (his childhood friend and co-producer on Kanye’s Grammy winning single, “Jesus Walks”). He doesn’t wanna talk about Mark Ronson (who signed him to Allido Records in 2005), and he doesn’t wanna talk about Eminem (who he famously defeated in a Scribble Jam battle back in 1997).  “The past is the past,” explained Rhymefest, “I don’t wanna talk about anybody that has already moved on and done what they’re gonna do in their career. I wanna talk about Rhymefest.”

And with good reason. The Chicago based rapper has spent the past 5 years releasing some of the best hip hop you’ve never heard, including his critically acclaimed 2006 debut, Blue Collar, and his cleverly crafted 2008 Michael Jackson tribute mixtape, Man in the Mirror (which came out a year before Jackson’s death). Now gearing up to release his long-awaited studio sophomore, El Che, Fest took some time to talk about the album, a move to Texas, and the death of hip hop.

Where are you right now?
I’m in Chicago right now. I just got back from the DuSable Museum. They have a new exhibit on the Black Panthers, and they have, like, 50 new pictures and articles from the Black Panther era that were never seen or displayed before, so I took my son there to check it out.

How is your Grammy doing?
The Grammy’s doing fine. Sitting collecting dust on somebody’s mantle. You know, I mean, honestly, that’s not the highlight of my life. And I understand it’s an honor, and I’m thankful for the honor. If it came again, I’d be thankful to God and all of that. However, it’s more of an honor for me to help people. The highlight of my life is when people call me or contact me, I’ve had these calls where people say, I was on the edge of committing suicide, and I listened to your song, and, you know, it made me think that maybe another day is possible. Or for my song, “Bullet,” I’ve gotten letters  where people say when they are in Iraq, when they’re in their tanks, that song is what they played when they had to go out and just think about getting home. It just reminded them of home. This is what artistry should be about. The awards and the money and accolades are all bonuses. It comes with the territory of being good, but it doesn’t equate to your worth as an artist. It has a monetary value, but it doesn’t have a worth.

What were your reasons for scrapping the original recordings of El Che?
Well, some of the songs, you know, it’s been 4 years since I released the last album. 3 and a half, 4 years. And, some of the songs I just feel like, didn’t apply anymore, you know what I mean? Or didn’t apply to what I was going through currently in my life. Some of the songs, I felt like I was flat out wrong, but at the time I thought I was right. I had to adjust, and I think that the product that we have now is the best.

I know that you went through a lot around that time. What track on the album has the most meaning for you?
There’s a track on there that I have with a guy named Twone Gabz that I really enjoy called “Truth on You.” Where it’s like, man, you keep telling lies on me, I’m gonna tell the truth on you. And I feel that a lot of rumors and innuendos that I’ve heard people say about me, I just admitted it. Like man, this is what they’re saying, this is what people in the street think. But these are lies, and if these lies persist, then I will tell the truth on the liars, which is much worse. That’s one of my favorite tracks. Another one of my favorite songs is called “City is Fallen,” but honestly, with these joints, it’s like picking your favorite child. You know what I mean?

You’ve spoken before about a lack of respect in hip hop among the new rappers. How do you feel about the future of hip hop?
Hip hop is dead. Hip hop does not exist in the form of how it was originally defined. When we say “hip hop,” and we’re thinking break dancing, DJing, MCing, that doesn’t exist anymore. The new thing that comes out of the death of hip hop is what we have in Soulja Boy and what we have in Drake. You know? The singing and the rapping all mixed together. So, I would say disco is dead. It is dead, but you can pull out a Donna Summers record, like I can pull out a Rakim record. Then out of disco comes what, bass, electro, stuff like that? And out of hip hop comes what? We have to define that, but as far as hip hop in itself, it is dead. It does not exist.

So, Nas was right?
Yeah, Nas was right. People don’t wanna admit it, but yeah, he was right. Now, people still rap. You know what I mean? Rap still exists, but it ain’t hip hop. And you gotta look at it like this too – what do I think about the new slew of artists that are coming up that are rapping? Some of them are dope and some of them are wack, but that’s the way it’s always been in music.

You sampled John Mayer recently on a track called “Letters”. Does your musical inspiration branch outside of rap?
For El Che, my inspiration was basically life. I wanted this to be an album that, like, when you get in a car and it’s the only album that you have, and you’re like, “awe, I forgot the CDs, but we’re already on the highway,” that you could play this CD for your big 4 hour road trip – all the way there and all the way back. And then you can look back 3 years later, when it comes on the radio or whatever, and say, “Man, remember when we heard this song when we went to whatever whatever when I got my brand new car and this song came on?” These songs have to be part of people’s lives. And so, the inspiration for the music is “if I could have one thing to say that could effect somebody’s life, what would it be?” And I want these songs to be theme songs for moments of your life.

You’re considered one of the more lyrical rappers today. When you record, are you freestyling, or do you write things down for the most part?
A little bit of both, but basically, I try not to take credit for the words. I know that I’m a vehicle. God is using me as a vehicle to deliver a message. This is how I separate myself from the music, whether you like it or not. Whether it sells or not, I insist on delivering a message. My method of writing is however God gives it to me. How was Jesus divinely inspired? How were the writers of the bible inspired to write the bible? That’s the same way I write raps.

What’s next for you once this album comes out?
The album comes out in May – May 18th El Che comes out. I’ll be touring with it, you know? That’s my focus for now, and I’ve got some more projects coming up. I did some TV shows, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with shows that I’ve pitched. Just trying to keep it moving. I’m getting ready to move – I’ve decided to move to Texas, so that’ll be a big move for me. Looking forward to it.

Why the move to Texas?
Well, basically, you know, I’ve been reading, and people in warmer climates just live longer lives. They’re outside more, they’re more active. These Chicago winters, they build character, but they’re killing me. You know? They’re killing me slowly. You stay in the house, you eat bad, you hibernate, it’s stressful on your body, your mind, your spirit. I have to be out. I have to be active. I have to be in a community. I gotta walk around. I can’t spend all day hiding from the weather.

That’s very true. I just moved from New York to California, and it’s like night and day.
It is like night and day. And you know, I’m good enough now with warm weather to be able to appreciate everyday. I still keep my Midwestern cold front hustler.

On a trip to Paris, France in 2005 (which I’m still paying for, no thanks to my credit cards), I spent a good portion of the trip sampling albums at the listening stations in different record stores. After hearing them many times over the loudspeakers, I ended up with the debut from a band I had never heard of before called The Servant. I didn’t hear much about them after returning to the states, and, over time, completely forgot about their record buried in my collection.

A few months ago, I come across a track with Kid Cudi called “Symphonies” by an English singer named Dan Black. The voice sounded very familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Turned out it was the same singer from the record I had randomly purchased in Paris years earlier. The point is, I was surprised – even more so by how incredible the track was. Black has recently entered the spotlight in the US thanks to that remix (including covering Billboard), and he took time yesterday out of his first official American tour to answer some questions about Paris, Launchpads, dirty fingers, and wonky pop.

Where are you calling from?
Lower East Side, New York.

What are you wearing?
::Laughs:: What kind of call is this?! I’m wearing a t-shirt with like metal holes in it – like, holes where they put rivets. jeans, and, what do you call them? Sneakers, I guess. Big Airwalk sneakers. And headphones! When I’m not talking, I’m trying to do some work.

I first heard of The Servant in early 2005 while I was in Paris. Where were you guys at during that time? Were you still happy in the band?
Wow. 2005. So, let me have a think…where were we at that time? That was 5 years ago, aye?

I think that was right after the self titled album came out.
Oh, yeah! So, yeah, at that point I was kind of…you know, it wasn’t all bad. Yeah, I was happy at that point. I think, in general. I was happy to tolerate the things that were annoying. The gains outweighed the losses at that point.

Was it a bad break-up?
It got bad, yeah. It got worse ::laughs::

What were your reasons for wanting to go solo?
When I began the band it was me on my own. Like what I’m doing now. It was me on my own with a computer. There were certain things I wanted to explore and do. Then the guys came in to help me play live, and I was very complicit and receptive to it. But we became a band, and it was much more like, “We want to play more instruments and we want to have more creative input.” And I was like “OK, let’s do that.” But it always felt, ultimately, like it was a continual compromise. Like, “What can we four live with,” as opposed to “What do we all four passionately think is brilliant?” It felt pointless. And, also, certain people were extremely negative, and I did the lion’s share of the work – in terms of production, I wrote everything, all the promotion…I was kind of doing most of it alone. They would basically turn up and play shows, yet they would make the creative process very difficult. I tired of spending two weeks on a song, coming in, starting to play and 30 seconds in someone saying, “I don’t like it, do something else.” I got bored of that.

It’s a compromise.
Yeah, and questioning things. Now I get to pursue what I think is good. It’s better for one person to say “I think it’s really good” then to have four people going “Pfft, it’s OK.”

Why did you move to Paris? Was that sort of a symbolic ‘going solo’ type of thing?
::Laughs:: I’m gonna go solo and go to Paris! No, it was more, well, obviously, The Servant spent most of the time touring outside of the UK. All of the places we kind of really kicked off, connected with people, were in other places…I was always away, I was never in my apartment in London. I was spending more and more time in Paris doing that, and I hadn’t been to London for months. It was more me basically accepting. “Hey, look at that, you live in Paris!”

Does a part of you wish you could have kept the Biggie lyrics on “Symphonies,” or are you happy with the lyrics that you wrote?
I particularly like the lyrics I wrote. I’m particularly proud of the process. The intention was to use “HYPNTZ” as a single, and it had gotten to the point where it had gone to radio, radio was about to start playing it, and it was the night before the video shoot when word came through from the Biggie estate saying, “You can’t use these lyrics.” It was a really massive nightmare. Lots of people freaking out.

It was pretty much the last second that they pulled those on you?
Yeah, exactly. The last possible moment. So, I said “Look, I’ll re-record it and write my own lyrics.” So, I wrote about the situation. The song kind of captures how the whole process of making the record was. It was a big black cloud, but the way the lyrics and…the way it turned out was kind of a silver lining. It was horrible at the time, but now I wouldn’t really change it. I prefer it, to be honest.

So, the Kid Cudi remix came about on the internet with you guys exchanging emails?
Yeah, exactly. It was very simple.

When did you guys actually meet for the first time?
When we shot the video. There was a video already for “Symphonies,” and we sort of re-shot parts of it to include him. And the day of the shoot was when I met him. We shot it in New York, came over, and he was free, so it was quite a last second thing. He’s a very cool guy.

I saw the Justintimberlake.com interview that you did recently, and you had mentioned that you were a bit nervous about collaborating with someone after working alone for so long on this record. Are you more open now to collaborating with more people?
Yeah. I haven’t really begun much for the second record, but I’m doing a lot of stuff – partly just production for people and writing for people. Like, when you called me, I was on my laptop finishing up something for a collaboration. So, at the moment, I’m sort of swamped at the other end of the spectrum. I mean, I still find it difficult, partly because I think I’m so scarred from all of the previous projects I was in. But you know, no man’s an island. When it works, it’s really exciting. Now that I’ve indulged me working totally on my own to an extreme, I feel more free to let other people come in and put their dirty fingers all over my stuff.

For the next record, do you have a dream list of people you’d like to work with?
I’m torn. I’m doing lots of collaborating now, but I might end up going to work on my record and going back to being totally selfish. I’m not sure yet. I haven’t really thought…well, I’ve thought a lot about the record, but I haven’t thought about whether I need to be on my own or not. The thing I want to do is to keep…I want to use an analogy of a palette. When I did the first album, I had a palette – like a painter’s palette – with many, many colors in it. There was no limit to what I was letting myself have access to and play with. I was like, “OK, any color I wanna use, I’m gonna let myself use.” Where as now, I’m trying to have fewer things to use to try and make a record work, a very narrow set of colors. Whatever those colors are, whether it’s that drum machine, this synth, and that’s it, to try and build songs within that frame work.

You’re on your first US tour right now, right?
Kind of, yeah.

Are there any differences you notice playing for an American audience?
Yes. Well, the thing that I’m always aware of is that you can’t really generalize countries. Like for example, you play two different venues in Paris, and they’re totally different shows. Totally different crowds come. We did two shows in LA. One at Cinespace, and one at Spaceland, and the shows were so different. And they were one day after the other, and they were like a 20 minute drive from each other. A 10 minute drive. Yet, the vibe and the crowd and the whole thing was so different. The more you get into it, the more you’re like, “Wow.” The things that are common are how much the audience makes the show. That’s true everywhere. If people come and they want it to be a cool show, they’re gonna have to get into it. You can’t just stand in the back with your arms folded and go, “Come on then, impress me.” You’ve gotta let go and get into it. And that’ true of me too. Sometimes it’s hard to get into that state, but yeah. The difference between two different venues in one city is quite big, so the difference between San Diego and…we just played a show in Albany…is really big.

I was watching live footage from SXSW, and was wondering what that piece of equipment is that you were using to start the loops for “Symphonies.”
Ah! It’s called a Launchpad by a company called Ableton. It’s a controller for their software, which is called Live. I brought two laptops with different bits and pieces in them, and these controllers, Launchpads, are just a different way of controlling it. So I can push buttons and it will launch a loop, or I can use a set of lights to control a filter or control an effect. I can drop a sample, loop it, chop it up. Basically it just gives you a way of performing the live electronic music that’s kind of connected for the audience. It’s something that makes it live, as opposed to coming from machines. There’s less randomness. Like, with a guitar, every time you hear it it’s gonna sound slightly different. You’d have to build a very complicated robot to try and reproduce it. With electronic music, there’s a point when you need to bring something random, and you need these controllers to make a connection with the audience. There’s nothing more boring than watching a guy, or guys, just hunched over laptops while music’s going on. The thing that’s wonderful about a live show, on a very basic level, is making a visual connection with what you’re hearing and what you’re seeing. Making a link between what these people are doing and going, “Wow, when that guy hits his guitar, it goes PLANG.” That’s something really deep and simple, and that’s a really satisfying thing to experience; to see it and hear it all at the same time. I try to bring some of that to electronic music using these controllers, because people can make a visual link with what they’re hearing and what I’m doing. That’s partly why live shows are fun.

How do you feel about this “Wonky Pop” category that you’re in?
No one talks about this genre of wonky pop. It’s a nightclub in London. I’ve played there a couple of times, and it’s called Wonky Pop. The artists that have played there are all quite different. It always annoys me to a certain degree when people try to come up with labels of what they are. That’s how humans are. To make sense of the random world around us, we like to put little boxes around stuff. This is shoegaze. And this is whatever…grind. I don’t mind the words “wonky” or “pop.” They don’t sound alien to me. There’s a certain wonky quality to me, and there’s definitely pop in what I do. But is there really a genre of wonky pop? I don’t think so.

What’s next for Dan Black?
On my calendar, lots of continuing collaborations, touring and touring, writing, a lot of exciting things I’m hoping will work out and be released, lots of interesting things with other artists, trying not to go crazy with these ridiculous schedules. But yeah, doing my best to enjoy it. These things can be fleeting, so I’m savoring the mouth fulls.

For a time, I used to work at a record store. We would dig through crates and throw on anything that looked interesting. We’d throw anything good onto one of the 3 main spools of CD’s…or, if it was really good, it would become a permanent fixture on the 5 disc CD changer. The Dears’ 2003 album, No Cities Left, was one of those records. What attracted us to this band was their ability to transcend the bullsh*t; to present beautifully written music as nothing but that. This was evident in the first moment of the album, and continues to be the standard on their fourth full-length, Missiles.

I recently had the pleasure of getting some questions to lead singer and songwriter, Murray Lightburn. I asked about the songwriting process, thoughts on the “indie” scene, and the incessant Morrissey comparisons. His answers transcend the bullsh*t as effectively as his band’s music (and I promise, we did not have sh*t bins at our record store).

First let me start by saying I’m a long time fan and really enjoy the new record.
Thanks. That type of stuff really means a lot to us.

My favorite thing about The Dears is the strength and simplicity of the songwriting. What is the writing process for you when approaching a new record?
The thing is that songs are always coming in. It’s more a matter of accumulation than anything. Every couple of years there is a enough stuff to put on a record and there is somehow a thread through the collection. Anyway when the stuff comes in, sometimes it’s a beat and melody, a couple of words or a phrase. Other times, it’s an explosion of sounds; strings, brass, guitars, drones. There is never a situation where we sit down to write a song. It’s usually, okay we’ve got this much sh*t to plow through, here are the blueprints…

You guys have been through a lot of line-up changes over the years and have played with a lot of touring musicians. What’s the most important thing you learn from working with so many different people?
That’s a little hard to say. I guess we learn from mistakes, mostly. We learn more about co-existing in tight situations.

It seems The Dears are detached from the current “indie” scene, and Natalia mentioned a recent snub by Pitchfork on her blog. Why do you guys think this is and how do you feel about it?
For a while now, the whole concept of “indie” has really gone out the window. The Dears, I suppose, are independent artists who do plenty of stuff on their own with their own money and have approval/control of almost everything that goes out there, from records to newsletters, though some stuff does slip through the cracks…Anyway, now you can be on a major label and spend half a million dollars making a record and have an army of operatives doing all kinds of stuff on behalf of the band and still be called “indie.” It makes no sense. We don’t need to have that identity. We are just The Dears and we’re open to anyone. Not to mention the fact we don’t give a crap about “indie.” It’s just another sh*t bin at the record shop, like “grunge” or “alt-rock.”

“Money Babies” is one of my favorite songs of the year, and it seems it could be interpreted in many ways. What is the inspiration behind this song?
Walking the streets of Holland, late at night, looking for a shop that was open that would sell me milk, not finding it, hearing an explosion of sounds. Literally.

Usually the critic’s favorite track is different from the band’s. What is your favorite song on the new record, and why?
Lately “Lights Off” has become a moment at the gigs. But when it comes to the album itself, it’s a toss up between Berlin Heart and Meltdown. Or Saviour. Or Crisis.

What is your favorite place in the world to pass through on tour?
Montreal, because it means we’re sleeping in our bed.

So, I don’t really hear the Morrissey thing. How do you guys feel about those comparisons and what artists have inspired your sound the most?
Whatever. People need to compartmentalize anything in order to make sense of everything. Like those sh*t bins in record shops. Our influences are mostly things like pain, suffering, fear, anxiety, optimism. We’re also inspired more by film and books than we are music…

The Dears reveal all on the “Gospel According to The Dears” videos on the band’s website. What inspired you to, frankly, be so honest?
It’s only just begun. It’s a bit of a therapeutic thing. We went through so much bullsh*t over the years and still press on regardless of it all. The last lame thing that went down really inspired us to go through the history and attempt to tell a story of this art project. We’ve worked with so many many people over the years that it should be interesting.

Natalia wrote that Elbow’s recent Mercury Prize win made you “optimistic about the future of music.” What other new artists make you guys feel like this?
New artists? Couldn’t tell you… But everyone in our band has myspaces to check out; Pony Up!, Kill The Lights, Jason Kent, Land Of Talk…

*Photo by Kirstiecat

Tabloid magazines are made in hell. Luckily, music blogs are not. Well…some of them anyway.

I recently had the pleasure of getting some interview questions to electronic indie dance punks, The Faint. The Omaha, Nebraska band recently released their fifth full length record, Fasciinatiion (spelled with four i’s, fyi) on their own new label, blank.wav. They are currently supporting the new album with a headlining world tour.

Lead singer Todd Fink, as he admits at the end of this interview, cannot type. So, he sent me an audio recording of his answers. Through-out the clip, there is a soundcheck being conducted in the background, which he mentions periodically as it disrupts his thought process. However, he still managed to answer all questions gracefully and with plenty of detail, going into the stink of his on-stage lab coat and the theoretical significance of long beards (among other *fascinating tidbits).

This is also the first interview ever featured on My Poproks! Hope you enjoy.

What made you guys decide to start up blank.wav?
I guess it just seemed like something we always meant to do and wanted to do. The time was right with digital sounds. I mean, we still had to make vinyl and cds and all that. I think the time for us, it just works, because we can get distribution – we’ve got enough of a name to get distribution – and what a label does can be done. Anyway, we tend to take as much control of our band as we can. No good reason. It just made sense.

Do you have any plans of signing other bands to your label?
Yes. Well, no plans yet. We’d like to at some point. If we can get the loan from this project paid off, and feel like we can continue as a band without having to get jobs, ya know…definitely. We’d like to. We talk about bands we’d like to do something with, and I think we’d like to put our side projects out and that kind of thing as well, and friends’ bands…and maybe bands that we’ve toured with that would consider being on the label. I dunno, yea. We’d like to someday.

This is the first record that you guys have done pretty much entirely on your own. What did you feel you got to do differently from your previous records?
[drum soundcheck starts in the background] Oh gosh, they got the soundcheck goin’. Well I’m gonna keep going. i guess we got to decide when we wanted to start over. If a song wasn’t going in a good direction, we could just throw it away and start a new session…try it again. And that’s something that would be too annoying to someone that was actually engineering with us. We’d feel guilty for doing that, so that’s what we did this time. And we did have time limitations, but at least they were…[drums get louder]. This is hard to talk when the sound is going but…[keyboard soundcheck starts] I think in the future, you’re gonna see the music change some, because we can record one song at a time, instead of waiting for the whole thing – a whole album – to be ready to record

How was recording in the ENAMEL, and how was it different from your previous recording space (which I hear was filled with broken washing machines?)? Oh, and what is the ENAMEL?
It was way different. Recording…i mean, where we’ve recorded before is much, much different. We got to make ENAMEL exactly what we wanted. We picked the paint, we picked the fabric, the wood, the furniture. Everything is just made for all of us to be comfortable in. It’s just nice. We love to be there. I think it’s important to record in an environment you’re comfortable in. It doesn’t have to be nice like this, but it sure makes it sound better. I guess we chose the name ENAMEL as kind of a…it’s a coating you can put on anything…that finishes it; protects it. You can also polish it to…I dunno. No great reason. We have a lot of dental x-rays. We have a stack of ‘em that we’re making curtains out of for the front of it. Maybe it came out of that, self-consciously.

My favorite track off of Fascination is probably “Fish in a Womb.” What’s yours?
I would say…oop you spelled “fascination” wrong, first of all! There’s four i’s! I guess we’re gonna insist on it now cause it’s written on the front of the record. The reason that that happened is just my “i” key was stuck on my computer and that was the name of the demo folder…it just stuck. What’s my favorite song? I like “Machine in the Ghost” a lot. I was excited about that one most probably in the recording process. But it’s also probably ’cause it’s the newest one. I dunno. I do like that one.

Who is the white-bearded old man in the ” Geeks Were Right” video?
That was a choice made by Raster Lord, who is a friend of ours who made that video. He did all the post production work [keyboards still going in the background]. We went to a green screen across the alley from our place, and recorded hours of green screen footage. He used some of that, and he added a few other things, so..the bearded old man is unknown, I suppose. But we did talk about having beards…long beards work with this record. It seemed like…they represent wisdom. Not that the record’s wise, but it kind of praises philosophers and thinkers or anybody who’s thinking about where humans are going and what they’re up to…and predicting the futures, learning from the past…that kind of thing. Also, scientists, alchemists…

The first line on the record is “tabloid magazines are made in hell,” and the last is, “is every bomb we drop in God’s name?” Is the message of Fasciinatiion that we are all fucked? Or is there hope?
‘Tabloid magazines are made in hell’…obviously that’s a tongue-in-cheek line, it’s ridiculous. I don’t think they make anything but superstitious suffering in hell, but how would I know? [a keyboard riff strikes up in the background] Ah, you can hear the samples from “Desperate Guys” in the background. Yup, we use samples! Nobody’s playing that on stage when we play. It was hard enough to get it to happen in the recording room. It’s a pretty difficult line. Is there hope? There’s always hope, until you give up on it.

You guys have an incredible energy on stage. What is your favorite song to play live, and can you explain Todd’s goggles (pictured here)?
If I click on that, I dunno. This recording might end, but I know what goggles you’re talking about ’cause I wear them everyday. The only explanation for the goggles and the lab coat I have is that it makes me feel like a time traveler. Pseudo scientific, dorky, sci-fi time traveler. And man, that lab coat is filthy. It stinks so bad. I couldn’t even stand myself on stage last night. We have to hide it away from the rest of the band. Well, from their noses. We tried to wash it in the sink, but it’s not helping. I dunno what I’m gonna do with it. I guess I could get another one, but it wouldn’t…it doesn’t work with the time-traveler theme. The experience of the lab coat is tough on it. I like to see how it degrades. Which…it doesn’t degrade that fast cause its made of synthetic material, mostly.

So, what is The Faint listening to right now? I’ve noticed things like Justice and The Kills on your myspace blog. Give me more! Guilty pleasures are especially welcomed.
Ahh…I don’t…I don’t know. Jacob and I have been DJ’ing a lot under the name Depressed Buttons. We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of songs we like to play, but to name examples? I just don’t know why, I don’t do it much. I can never think of any! Well, why don’t I say…shit I’m trying to look some things up. Guilty pleasures…well I don’t think it should be a guilty pleasure, but a lot of people think that the band Yello is a silly band. Because of their “Oh yeah, chica chicah” son from Ferris Bueller and that stuff. That’s an excellent band. So I would say maybe some people think that sucks. I think it’s pretty cool though. They’ve got a bunch of good songs. Very strange pair, kind of like a…sparks of electronic music, way ahead of their time. I like Boys Noize. We got to work a little with Boys Noize recently. Check – is this thing still on? [snaps] Shit, I hope so. Um, I like the first song on the new Conor Oberst record a lot. Um, Mr. Oizo we’re fans of. The Switch remixes. Yeah, well anyway, I guess that’s it. I hope this file works. I can’t type. Bye.

*pun