Attack of the Killer Soundtrack: Ookla the Mok

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It's time for Movie Meltdown's Attack of the Killers soundtrack. Live transmission has begun, and we're into the final. Hour of hell. What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown's Attack of the Killers soundtrack. I'm Brian and this week we're coming to you live via digital recording from Conglomeration here in Louisville.

And this time around we have two special guest co-hosts. And I'm going to let them build our soundtrack this episode. But first I thought I would give you a little introduction to them. They are Rand and Adam, otherwise known as the band Ookla the Mock, and they bill themselves as rock music for nerds, and that they definitely deliver. And while listening to them play their music laced with geeky pop culture references, I thought they would more than likely fit in perfectly on our show.

So to give you an example of their dedication to geeky themes and references, I'm going to play you Song of Kong from their rock opera about monkeys. Yes, you heard me right. The album's called Smell No Evil, and it's awesome. I own it, and I encourage you to pick it up yourself. But in the meantime, here's a song from that album filled with giant movie monsters.

Don't say you didn't mean to piss me off. You put cat hair in my applesauce. Don't say you didn't mean to cause me pain. You pushed me in front of a train. And you trashed my house.

And you smashed my mouth. And you smashed my tires. And you ashed me. And you set my hair on fire. Why do we still hang out together?

Maybe it's just because we. Whatever your odds are, I'm gonna take your key card. That isn't necessary Can't get along. But you're wrong Come on I'm King Kong. You didn't clean out the drain of the tub, even though I asked you at least three times.

I'm not the one who left it there, I do the one with all the hair. Besides, you jumped up in the air and broke my spine. And we don't care where you ignite my hair. I swear to my judgment there. Why do we still hang out together?

I always said to someone, maybe it's my depression, but whatever. Your Godzilla, I'm King Kong. I'm Godzilla, you're King Kong. Whatever you say, we can't get along. But you're wrong.

I think you're coming, I'm too strong. Come on, I'm King Kong. I suppose the obvious question. Is why we even hang out at all. Maybe it's karma or fate or the fact that you're.

The only other one I know who's free. used to feel like a million. Bucks riding around in a monster truck grab some dinner maybe taking a show a cup of beers. Crash trophy oh that was fun but it hasn't been the same ever since they put the. Word versus between our names you're. Probably wondering why we can't just both agree to disagree.

Maybe it's due. To the fact that I can't even once commit a sentence without you interrupting. Whatever your gods and lords, I'm King Kong. You said that we could still get. Along, but you're wrong.

Yeah, you're wrong. You're never too strong. Come on. I'm King. I'm the King.

I'm the king. And I'm God. King Kong ain't got shit on me. Tweaked Audio, your source for high-performance, noise-reducing earbuds. Available in three styles and seven colors, durable and designed to sound great for both music and those chatty podcasts, like the one you're listening to now.

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Alright, well now you've gotten a little taste of what Ookla the Mock sounds like, but now we're going to head over and get to know the guys themselves and find out how all this came together. all right so we're here with rand and adam uh i guess otherwise you guys are sort of known as ukla the mock uh do you want to give people a heads up i think it's been quite a while now since this came together in some. Yeah well we've been uh uh we have been the band called ukla the mock for well geez it's an embarrassingly long time at this point over 20 years and uh We play at science fiction and comic book conventions primarily, and a lot of our songs are media-based. They're about science fiction and comic books and so forth, and that's what we do.

Yes. Probably if any of you that don't regularly attend science fiction or comic book conventions, the way you may have heard of us is there was a Disney cartoon called Fillmore that aired initially on ABC TV on Saturday mornings. and we wrote the theme, wrote and performed the theme song for Disney's Fillmore. You could also hear us performing, Adam on the keyboards and me vocally, on the Gym Class Heroes hit song, Cupid's Chokehold. In fact, the first thing you hear in that song is my voice. God help me.

Look it up. It's true. That's me. Bite Me Fanboy, there's a good time. Oh, Bite Me Fanboy.

Yeah, that's right. That was... Oh, geez, that's good. You know, 10, 15 years ago, there was a fan film. Fun little indie film.

Yeah, a little indie film called Bite Me, Fanboy, that we'd, the entire soundtrack was made up of our songs, and we actually composed a new piece that was the theme for that movie as well. Matt Nastos is the writer and director of that. When he contacted us and said he wanted to use 13 Ookla songs in it, we thought he was crazy, and it turns out he was, I believe. Most people with their geek interests get pretty crazy. Eventually.

So I guess with everybody, I try to kind of touch base with where the geeky. Interests come into play. So I guess for you guys, which one took hold first? Was it music or comics or movies or games or how did all of it come together? Probably different for both of us.

I mean, for me, I certainly was always really passionate about pop music. I had I'm one of those, my mother has a really, comes from a very large family, so I had a lot of uncles that were, you know, five and ten years older than me, so like just old enough to still be, yeah, well, old enough to like, you know, to get you in trouble. Yeah, exactly, to play me Frank Zappa albums when I was four years old, you know, and so I was like introduced to a lot of like really fantastic pop music, the 60s and 70s when I was a really little kid, and I also loved comic books, and it wasn't really until I started writing songs that that I thought to marry those two ideas. Adam tells a different story. Well, I was from a musical family.

My dad is a music teacher and a multi-instrumentalist, and so I was taking music lessons on several instruments from a very young age. But unlike Rand, I actually never really– we weren't allowed to listen. To the radio in my house when I was a. Kid except for classical Because. It was the devil music?

Well, I don't even know if it was a religious thing as much as a taste thing. My father imposing his taste on us or whatever. But I actually am appallingly ignorant of the canon of music. That's one of the reasons why Rand and I are such good collaborators is– We're kind of, you know, our weaknesses and strengths are complementary. But I definitely don't remember a time when I wasn't a nerd.

I don't remember a time when I didn't love science fiction more than anything else and superheroes and so forth. And so I would say our very first songs that Rand and I wrote together were Uh, I would, yeah, I would say they were pretty much all media really, you know, you know, you don't only need to make a jump or two to get to. Yeah. Well, cause you know, they say you should write about what you know, and you know, we were college students and you know, what the hell did we know? You know?

So, so, you know, we tended to just write, you know, like a lot of our writing was, uh, you know, and it's a very Gen X thing too. It was, you know, it was referential, you know, like the song would reference, you know, a certain thing that we thought was interesting or funny. It's definitely of the time there. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Well, and boy, has that not stopped. I mean, now it's... And the thing is, we were doing that and then playing in bars around. We're from Buffalo, New York, and we were playing kind of the bar and club scene, too. Not a positive reaction.

And we were about ready to kind of give up and move on with our lives. And then a mutual friend of ours kind of took us to a science fiction convention and said, you know what? You know, you sit here in this room and play your songs and you will have found your tribe. And he was absolutely right. Like within, you know, within a month of us playing at that first con, we had been invited to come to other cons to perform.

And, you know, and it just, it was so great to play in front of a room full of people that actually, you know. Got it. Yeah. And so. And it's, I also, yeah.

I believe that that filk community, filk is the music of science fiction fandom, and it happens at science fiction conventions, filking. And they're a very demanding audience. We right away realized not only are these people listening, you know, as opposed to, you know, we were playing at bars in Buffalo, and people, you know, the music is just the thing that makes you shout to be heard over, you know, nobody's listening to the music. And then we'd go to these science fiction conventions. play in a filk circle and if I dropped a lyric in the second verse, as soon as I was done playing, everybody wanted to know, okay, now in the second verse, what was that lyric right before this, but right after that, you know?

And, um, as a result, we right away started taking our craft very seriously and, and not cheating any lyrics, you know, not kind of like say, ah, that lyric is good enough or that melody is good enough. We were very, very exacting about our music right from the beginning and, Well, you kind of. Have to be with that crowd. Well, exactly. Nerds are very demanding.

Being one of them, you know, we're a hardcore group. So it's, yeah. Absolutely. And fat. You can't fake being in it.

Well, that too. But you can't fake being a nerd, you know. It's like you, well, unless you're on Big Bang Theory. But otherwise. Only the first season.

The writers of that, they hired, you know, definitely bona fide nerds to write it now. Their nerd facts are 100% now. They're trying. But they still feel a little forced. But anyway, that's a different.

We've had that conversation a lot lately. Well, now, the theme song for Big Bang is by Barenaked Ladies, and we've been told for years that we sound like Barenaked Ladies. And they're actually from Toronto, which is right near Buffalo, and we started out right around the same time. Barenaked Ladies was one of only a couple of bands that kind of gave Rand and I permission to write the kind of songs that we were writing and to be in a band with the format that we have today. you know, both Rand and I were, before we met, were in progressive bands, really pretentious progressive bands. Indie rock at the time.

Well, no, but I'm talking like the kind of prog rock where like, you know, my band would hit the stage and play three songs and it was a 90 minute set. You know what I mean? Nice. That is prog rock. Mine was more pretentious.

We would sit in my basement and talk about playing that show, you know. But we had, you know, massive plans for, you know, double length concept albums and, you know. Yeah, fans of Ookla can see the remnants of that. There's, you know, people who, even though our music, you know, is not at all prog rock, but, you know, once in a while a fan will come up to us after a show and, you know, point out they can see the influence of, you know, Marillion or, you know, like they'll hear like a certain moment. And we did indulge ourselves.

One of our albums is a rock opera. About monkeys. Yeah, so we have indulged that a little bit. Well, but that's the thing. When we first encountered bands, and this would be in the early 90s just after Rand and I got out of college, we started encountering bands like They Might Be Giants and Bare Naked Ladies that were, not only were they kind of funny, but also they were two front men, you know, that kind of neither one was the lead singer, you know, And that was an idea that was fairly alien.

I mean, it's, I mean, obviously the Beatles and so. Forth, but you know, we really both, we had, I had considered being in a band with Rand, but I remember thinking, well, I'm not going to not be the lead singer, you know? There's an ego thing. Well, absolutely. You know, we definitely, when we really first started writing together, we were actually living in different States.

Yeah. And every time we'd, you know, we'd call on the phone and play the songs to each other, but every time we'd, see each other, you know, it was like a contest, you know, and it was, well, I'll just say, you know, here's my, I wrote these three songs. I wrote these three songs and it was, I wrote four songs. Yeah, that was exactly what it was. And we decided very early on to kind of, to all of our music would be published kind of like Lennon and McCartney to both of us.

Best decision we ever made. Because what we didn't want to do was have a situation where Adam wrote this really great song, and I had an idea that would improve it, but I held back because I didn't want his song to be better than mine. Or I didn't want to accept the idea because then you'd get the credit. We both, and I was thinking about that just earlier today, the fact that I don't really think anymore about, you know, when we were, well, even who sings what, you know. Well, you're right.

Now we kind of, we just write the song and then, you know, later decide, you know, after it's arranged, you know, who's ideally suited to sing that based on the key or whatever. Really, the only thing we watch out for is, you know, to make sure that one of us doesn't become John Oates-ized or whatever, you know, like that. Art fungalized. Yeah, like, you know, so, you know, what I mean is that, you know, when we look at an album, we make sure... Yeah, we look at the album and say, okay, if there's 12 songs, we need to make sure that we're each, you know, getting a piece of six of them so that, you know, there isn't a sense of...

So there's that. We try to create egalitarianism in that way. Well, and especially writing-wise, you don't want to get into the police situation. Have you heard. How that breaks down?

Recently they went into this statistic-wise. A lot of those songs, especially in the beginning, Sting was just kind of taking credit for things that they were all working on, but the other two didn't argue with him. And now that they've all kind of hit, every breath you take brings him. I think they broke it down to about $ 2, 000 a day comes in just for every breath you take. A good portion of it still comes from.

That bad P. Diddy sampled version, which he did not get the rights for. So now all the royalties from that one also goes to Sting. And if you listen to it, the only thing he samples is the little Andy Summers part. Yeah, which was clearly not written by Sting.

Yeah, which he said, he's like, that wasn't mine. You came up with it. They were arguing over that, and Andy fought him on. How to do this that way to keep that in the song. And now he gets no credit for that thing.

I don't know if you're aware, we actually wrote a song about Sting called, Oh, Sting, Where Is Thy Death? And that's one of the things we touch on is that, you know, we used to think he was so cool when he was getting punched in the face, you know. These days he doesn't seem so cool anymore. Oh, no, no. He's still cooler than me, you know.

Only because he's making $ 2, 000 a day. Exactly. One song. It's someone else's work, yeah. Yeah, not even counting them fighting.

Over the truth. Yeah, and that's a great example of, like, the other band I would think of is The Who, where it's like, you know, even if Sting wrote every lyric and wrote every melody, you know, the fact that when you listen to Sting's solo work and listen to The Police or listen to Pete Townsend's solo work and listen to The Who, it's obvious that the other band members are doing writing. You know what I mean? Like, you know, it's like, you know, and it's, like I said, listen to Message in a Bottle. You know that, okay, even if Sting wrote that, You know, when he presented that song to the police, he was strumming it on an acoustic guitar.

And like a big, huge part of what sells Mustard on a Bottle is that insane guitar part that Eddie Summers is playing. If you've ever tried to play it, like my fingers don't stretch wide enough to play the gap that he's doing. And what I know about Copeland is he loves to argue. So I can't imagine him ever not fighting. With him on that.

Oh, yeah, that's it. He's the one that just constantly, he was like, keep your money until somebody punched you in the face. Every couple weeks. Yeah, that's all he wanted. That makes Stuart Copeland happy. it was cute when they were on, uh, when the police were on Elvis Costello's spectacle talk show and they, he asked Elvis asked each one of them what their favorite police song was.

And when it got to sting, he like very diplomatically said, it's a tie between, um, mother and migrant and ms grudenko which are like mother was the song on synchronicity that eddie summers wrote and ms grudenko was the song on synchronicity that stewart copeland wrote so yeah exactly but but i mean 20 years ago sting never would. Have you know what i mean he's trying a little bit not much but He's trying to not get punched in the face. The dental bills are starting to pile up. So, all right, well, yeah, we can stop talking about the police. But, um, well, that's, that's what I was going to ask is just, you guys have always, or at least now have found your home at these conventions.

And when you started doing this, there really wasn't the market that there is now. Like had it not continued to grow, do you think you would have found a place? Like it was a very different market. You, you, the, The two that you referenced, like, you know, They Might Be Giants is one of those bands that didn't take themselves seriously. That was one of those moments when they were like, we're really good, but we also don't have to be pretentious.

You know, we can make a joke and we can still be a serious band. Yeah. Well, the music is serious even if the content is funny. And that's, yeah, something that, again, that Adam and I talked about in the early 90s is that, you know, we obviously wanted, you know, the lyrics are very important to us. We want people to hear the lyrics.

But at the same time, we want someone who doesn't speak English to be able to enjoy our music. You know, like we want, we take the music seriously enough that hopefully there's something there as well. And, but yeah, I mean, one of the things that's weird is that as the, as you said, as that scene has grown and as it's become certainly much more, you know, accepted into the mainstream and it's gotten bigger, something that's happened to even that out though is at that same, like, you know, if you were looking at a graph and you see that rising at a 45 degree angle, What's sinking at a 45-degree angle is the amount of music that is actually purchased versus the amount of music that is illegally downloaded.

And so really, as far as sales, the increase of interest, like in other words, while the number of humans on Earth that listen to Ugo the Mock has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, the number of sales has not increased to track that. Um, like most bands, I guess at that point you just bank on t-shirts. You just, it's hard to download a t-shirt. And the thing, and that's also why, you know, again, bands like Barenaked Ladies and The Maybe Giants, you know, most of their money is coming from television. You know, The Maybe Giants obviously had the muck in the middle.

Also, the Daily Show theme is by The Maybe Giants. Well, that's a lot of money they're getting. That show airs, you know, five times a day, five days a week. You know what I mean? And that's, we, you know, um, We still do get royalty checks for our Disney...

For our. Fillmore, yeah. For Fillmore, but boy, they sure aren't much anymore. But it was nice money when that was playing on network TV once a week, and that's once a week on Saturday morning, and you make more royalties for prime time. The show ran two seasons.

If it would have run one more season, it would have gone into syndication. That's when you continue for the. Rest of your life. My favorite thing about the... You can parenthetically talk about the the contract that we had to sign from Disney for film.

Well, yeah, but my favorite thing about it, there was a clause that said, in signing this contract, Adam and I had to give up our likeness rights. And that means that if the cartoon Fillmore became so popular that they decided to make an action figure of the guys that wrote the theme song, we wouldn't get any of that money. That's a pretty popular show right there. And there was a clause that said, if the show is so popular that it becomes a ride... and they use our theme song to attract people to the ride, we get X percent of, you know. Well, it was interesting.

It's out of everything. Some of the stuff that we gave up rights for, like if they ever put out a DVD, we don't get anything. You know, it's an interesting world, and we, you know. Which, going back to They Might Be Giants, that's why, like, you'll never, you notice you don't see Malcolm in the Middle on DVD? Yeah.

Part of the reason is because, you know, that was a show that those contracts were signed before DVD was. Yeah. A thing and now like bands like the movie giants and all the other musicians that sold songs to them they don't want to give up you know and the people that make malcolm in the middle don't want to pay them and so you just never see it it's going to stream forever but it'll never come out on dvd because they can stream it and get away. With that pain because again that wasn't in existence right either so they found a loophole yeah there's a lot of those like all those old mtv shows that they used to just run whatever was popular A few of them, like Daria and stuff, they had to go back and replace the music with generic, whatever they could come up with.

WKRP in Cincinnati is unwatchable at DVD because they used all these popular songs. And normally, like you said, they'd swap it out with generic rock and roll. But because the show was about a radio station. It's ambient. Telling you who it is, yeah.

No, what's not to say he's telling you. They recorded the songs ambiently live with the dialogue. So when they cut the song, they just cut the whole scene. So like each 22-minute episode is actually 16 minutes on DVD because they've cut, you know, like a whole, and they put out the first season and they said, well, we're not going to put out any more seasons because no one bought it. It's like, well, no, no one bought it because you didn't, you know, they're like, we're not going to pony up and pay with music rights because no one will buy it, but it's, you know, the snake eating itself, you know.

They must have always been worried about that kind of, cause actually I just saw one they were playing recently and he, um, I think it's Venus fly traps wearing the Cincinnati jacket. It's like a red jacket. I mean, it's a very iconic, it's got the, you know, Cincinnati and the O or the I at the end is changed to an O like with duct tape or something, because I guess that's a specific licensed image to the baseball team. So I'm like, either that far back they were planning ahead or they, did they digitally. Go in and change it?

Like it looked, yeah. Licensing rights are, I, I'll, you know, all of that trademarks of it's, it's very baffling to the layman. Um, I thought, I think one of the most interesting, um, things about the way the Disney deal happened for us was before we ever heard about this, here's how it went. Uh, actually Rand, um, had made me aware that, now this was back in the days when someone ordered one of our CDs. We used to take the CD and put it in an envelope and write their name on it and send it to them in the mail.

And Rand had made me aware that there was a person that had bought, that was buying all of our CDs, whose name Rand had recognized because on account of he's a freak for memory and other things too, but memory freakness is what we're, you know, Specifically addressing now. But the guy was– he had edited the Simpsons episode guides and his name was Scott M. Gimple and he was buying our CDs. Well, one day we get a call from Disney. And they're interested in talking about purchasing a piece of our music for, it turns out, Scott is, I believe he was like the youngest executive producer in the history of Disney.

Yeah, because he created the show. And he had this new show and he wanted to use a piece of our music for the theme song. And that little boy that no one loves grew up to be. Yeah, Scott M. Gimple is currently the showrunner for The Walking Dead.

But I keep telling him. Like someone needs to be devoured to one of our songs. You know what I mean? Yeah. Come on.

But the really interesting thing about that is before we ever knew anything about it, here's how the story went. Scott, the show that they were doing was kind of a spoof of a 70s cop show. And so he wanted like some chase music. And it so happens that we had done a piece of like spoofy 70s cop music chase music. And he wanted to use that as the theme.

So when the producers at Disney said, or the executives at Disney said, so what do you want to use for your theme song? He said, well, I have this piece of music by a band I like, and I'd like to use that. And they said, okay, we'll hire someone to rip that off. And they actually had a. They probably didn't use those words.

Well, but this is how this is done in this industry. It's not Disney. It's everybody, you know. So what they did was they brought in a musician who, you know, did a version of the song that was, you know, if I had heard that piece of music, I've heard it because they actually use it as, like, background music on there. If I had heard it, I would have been like, huh, that's a little bit like that.

But it would never have occurred to me that they actually heard that and stole it, you know. But Scott, when they presented him with the, you know, legally un- legally distinguishable version of it. He was like, well, you know, I really like the version by those Ookla guys better. You'd already cut, like, you'd cut, like, a piece of the opening to our music so we could show them, you know. Right.

And they said. Is that just so they could not get away with not paying you guys? Well, yes and no. Yeah, I mean, Disney, you know, they... with the, you know, the way they work is they want to own the music. Oh yeah.

You know what I mean? Everything. Right. They've learned their lessons over the years. And the problem is, the problem was that the piece that Scott wanted to use was from a song that was already in an album that we had released.

And so they were reluctant to work with us because that meant that they not only had to pay us everything they would have to pay someone, they would also have to pay to purchase the copyright so it would cost more money than they wanted. Yeah, and Disney likes to do things, not just, again, not just Disney, this is. But they like to produce their music in-house where it's work for hire where someone creates the music for them while they're being paid a salary to do so. And then it belongs to Disney. Totally right.

Disney. It's smart, I'm sure, from their perspective. But I just think it's crazy that if Scott had said, oh, that sounds great, we would never have even known that we essentially, in essence, wrote a theme song for a Disney cartoon. But they called us up, and it turns out we were, you know, cheap. We were available.

Disney is hurting for cash. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, and it was nice because we ended up, you know, we actually made it out, you know, doing several trips to the West Coast to, like, kind of seal the deal. But, you know, and we, you know, we certainly weren't, you know, it wasn't, like, quit your job money, but it was don't worry about your car payments for a while money. And, you know, we were able to use it to hire, you know, a real producer to work on our next record and, And it really just, we learned a lot about the music industry just taking that money and we kind of bought a lot of knowledge, if you will.

And so now we're able to, our last couple of records we've done on our own, and we never would have had the confidence to really, you know, do that kind of level of production on our own if we hadn't paid to work with a real, you know, legitimate producer. So all because of Disney. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, that was a once in a lifetime, well, I hope not, but that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Yeah, we've had a couple of close calls.

We've done music for a couple of VH1 pilots that never got chosen. So we've had a couple of things like that. And we've done a lot of indie films have used, what was the movie called, Because You Demanded It? That was a little, I don't know if you've ever seen that. It's a short.

It's really a well-done short, and it won a couple of, kind of small film festival awards, and it used pretty much the riff from a song of ours called Superpowers is used incessantly throughout the short film. It's like the only piece of music is this eight-bar riff just used over and over again. You're the theme. Yeah, absolutely. They pretty much turned it into a score, which was interesting.

Yeah, and that's always fun. Actually, on our newest record, we took out a Creative Commons license recently, so that, you know, just, you know, anyone that wants to use, you know, if you want to make a video for our song, that's great. If you want to use the music. Explain for listeners that don't know how Creative Commons works. Yeah, I mean, you know, I certainly encourage you to look it up on the Internet to, you know, to learn more.

But, yeah, in a nutshell, a Creative Commons license means that anyone, you know, the license we've taken out means anyone that wants to use our music in any way, you know, either to sample it or to, like I said, make a video for it, or to use it in their film soundtracks, is welcome to do so as long as two things occur. One is that we get full credit, that it's clear that we own the piece, that it's credited to us, and that they are free to do whatever they want with it until the moment that the piece of art that they've created makes money. A Creative Commons license does not supersede a copyright. What it means is that you don't need to ask our permission to use it, But if you use it and then suddenly someone comes to you and gives you a big heap of money for that movie, then you need to talk to us and renegotiate before you can.

So as long as we get credit and you're not making any money off it, have at it. And the big proponent of this who is an acquaintance of ours is Jonathan Colton, who you've probably heard of. And he says that everything good that's happened to him is because you know, he allowed his fans to make videos of his stuff, and that's what promoted him on YouTube, and that really got him out there, so. No, actually, I'm, you know, Rand is the librarian in the group, and I mean that literally. He is a librarian for his profession, and so you're the one who knows more about it than I do.

Can.... You know, we released our new album under Creative Commons. Is our old catalog also under Creative Commons, or do we have. To specifically license it? I mean, if I just announce it right now and say all of our catalog is on Creative Commons, it is.

Can we do that? Yeah. Well, no, we just did. That's an official announcement. Yeah, well, you know, or we can just put it on our website and say that.

I mean, in the same way that you don't need to do anything, all you need to do to have something copywritten is. create it. Yeah, create it. There's nothing you legally need to do to copyright it. It's only when you get into the fight later. Well, that's funny because our first quote album, end quote, was a 16-song demo tape, essentially.

We had written our first songs and we were scared we'd die in a car accident before anybody got to hear them, so we recorded a very primitive recording of the two of us playing the songs live. And We called the album Poor Man's Copyright, which was somebody had told us that if we took our album, put it on our songs, recorded them, and put them on tape and mailed them to ourselves in a sealed envelope. You have to have it like, what's the word? Notarized. Notarized, yeah.

All of those. And so we did that. And didn't we, like, auction off the original? No, I think it's still, like, it's probably still, like, you know, at my parents' house because I mailed it to them. It's probably still in a vault somewhere.

That would be funny to take that. Yeah, it's probably still sealed in its envelope. Because I think, you know, the concept is it's like most things with copyright and fair use that, you know, it's all up to debate. But, you know, the idea is that if you have something that's obviously, you know, notarized and stamped with a specific date, then obviously anyone that claims to have created it after that date is going to have a harder time proving it. And that's the idea, but it's not really binding in any magic way.

Well, no, but it does. As you say, all you have to do is create something, but you have to be able to prove you created it before somebody else steals it. We've had a couple of interesting little, like, and, you know, it's, like I say, with the Disney thing, we would never have known, so it makes you think. And we had. Like we had written a song many, many years ago called Medieval Evil Knievel.

And we used to perform it at science fiction conventions and there were, you know, people had videotaped it and it was online back in the very early days of the internet. We also did it on TV, if you remember. Oh, that's right. We did it on. We performed it with Lyle in costume.

That's right, on a public access show. But we used to do a show. We had a friend of ours, we made a costume for the character Medieval Evil Knievel and We used to do this Medieval Evel Knievel stunt show, and it was just fun and silly. But then years later, there was a, I believe it was a Diet Dr. Pepper, or Diet Mountain Dew was one of those two, commercial that had Medieval Knievel, and they had the exact costume that we had made.

And they did a very elaborate, big-budget version of the video that we did, and it was That was distressing to see, but I'll tell you something. It could be that somebody saw it and just stole it. It could also be that a lot of these ideas, they're kind of low-hanging fruit. They're ideas that are kind of hanging around in the zeitgeist waiting for somebody to... The costume that we did was medieval Evel Knievel, so it's a suit of armor, and the guy's wearing a white tunic that's the Evel Knievel...

And then he wears the Evel Knievel motorcycle helmet, but with a big plume out of the top and a shield that says Medieval Evel Knievel. And that is exactly what the costume. Was in the commercial. And I think we don't realize sometimes how much of pop culture just seeps into our brains. Because there is stuff that I'll be like, oh, that's a great idea.

And then later I'll see, oh, wait, that's where I knew that was a great idea from. And luckily I didn't do anything with it. Well, it's kind of like when we did a show at a pretty big comic con And we put posters all over the con announcing our, you know, the concert. And that year. And we said, well, and we, you know, we put across the front of the full frontal nerdity.

That year we called our tour the full frontal nerdity tour. And, you know, there's a fairly popular comic book creator named Eric Larson who was at that, you know, at that particular show. And like six months later, he released a new comic called Full Frontal Nerdy. And I'm not saying that he saw that and said, I'm going to steal that. It may have occurred to him in his sleep three days later because he saw the poster.

Or, I mean, it may be like someone was at your show and saw it and then mentioned it to their friend and then mentioned it to their. Friend and then made its way into the background. We know that he saw that because he was at the convention where we had this. So we know for sure he saw that. Because those posters were all over the convention.

And then six or eight months later or something like that, out comes this comic book. Maybe he just sat at home with the flyer going, this is a great idea. Well, and that's the thing. A lot of times you'll see something and you'll be like, well, I can steal that because those guys– who are those guys? You know what I mean?

I can– like people will– decide to steal something because they don't think you're a big enough deal that they'll ever get caught. No one will have ever heard of that. Well, but we read comic books and we, you know, we're fans of his, you know, sort of, of his comics. And, you know, so of course we were going to see it. But what are you going to do?

I don't think that's getting harder and harder to do today. Because now everybody's like YouTube videoing everything. So it's like you could almost be like, well, this has a time stamp on it from three years ago. So obviously these. Guys were doing it before.

Well, this happened like in the 90s. I think if it happened today, there would be a snarky nerd on a, you know, go to Newsarama.com and say, can you believe that they, you know what I mean? Lame. Yeah, so. Lame.

Want some music for your ears? Doo-Wop Shop makes it easy to rent for any event, business meeting, or special occasion. From PA systems to karaoke machines to just about anything that makes noise, you can rent it from the Doo-Wop Shop. In Louisville, find them either at their Highland store at 1587 Bardstown Road or in the East End at 2915 South Hurstburn Parkway. And look for them online at DooWopShop.com.

Doo-Wop Shop. We're serious about music. All games considered. With news. Now we have a press release.

Views. The fiction I know is not everyone's cup of tea. But this one is pretty creepy. I like it. Reviews.

It doesn't bother me as much because you're not worried about the weapons tables because there aren't any. And interviews. Sean Patrick Fannin. Greg Paline from Microtactics Incorporated. I'm Andy Chambers with Games Workshop.

On tabletop games, visit us at agcpodcast.info. That's agcpodcast.info. He was the wizard of a thousand kings. And I chanced to meet him one night wandering. So as I said, we've been to the Chicago Wizard World before, so they've got quite a few.

They've got a lot. They're all over the country. That's what I was going to say. Since they're inviting us to hang around here, I thought we would go ahead and give the rundown. That's the difference with this one is it's not just in one city.

It's something they've done kind of everywhere now. They've sort of taken over, so... You can go to wizardworld.com and find out where they are in the near future. The rundown of the upcoming ones, St. Louis will be in April, Minneapolis in May.

The end of May into June is Atlanta. You've got Philadelphia after that, San Antonio, back to Chicago, Richmond. So it's like anywhere in this general part of the country, you know, the United States. Are you stopping at Richmond because we've got more to go? Oh, there's plenty.

That's what I'm saying. Nashville, Austin, Ohio. Like how Ohio was just generalized. You know, that state. But anyway, yes, you can go to wizardworld.com and find out where the next show will be near you.

You should definitely go. Come hang out. That's what we're doing. Definitely check out wizardworld.com for all of your wizard world type needs. Hey there, this is John Doe.

You're listening to Movie Meltdown. Glad you are, because otherwise you'd be wasting your time playing some stupid video game. 96 tears through 24 hours. Sex once every hour. So we've gotten to know the guys a little bit, and we've heard some fascinating stories about their experiences in the industry.

But now we're going to get into the song picks for this week. And we're going to bust out a double barrel blast of the Killer Five. So we're actually going to bounce back and forth between the two of them to get all their picks. I wasn't going to say anything, but it was like crazy energy flying back and forth between you guys. It was like, whoa, look out.

So this time we're going to double up on the five and, as usual, put together an interesting and eclectic soundtrack. It's time for the Killer Five. But yeah, we can go ahead and get into. We do the Killer Five, so we let our guests pick five songs that were from a soundtrack or just featured in a movie that you either really like or had an effect on you when you were a kid or however you came to find them. Why don't we do it in this way, Rand?

Why don't you list... Your first pick? No, list one of your picks and then I'll do it. Back to fighting over stuff. Well, yeah, I'm going to talk just because I'm a nerd and I like to have things organized.

It's easier to just think like that, so I'm just going to talk about Wes Anderson films. One of the things, real quick, one of the things, I've been a Wes Anderson fan since Bottle Rocket came out, and around right at the moment that he released Rushmore, there was an article, I think it was an Esquire, and they asked like six different movie critics, who's the 21st century Martin Scorsese? And they, you know, Kevin Smith, David O. Russell, you know, P.T. Anderson, the Machowski brothers, all these different critics said that.

And then they asked Martin Scorsese, who's the next Martin Scorsese? And he said, Wes Anderson. And only having seen Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, and What he talked about, the two things he talked about that I really respond to, one is the idea that he doesn't make movies with villains. Even the people that behave badly are still given a degree of empathy and a degree of humanity. And he said that's very much like me.

And he also said, you know, he essentially said no one, you know, he's the first film director who sends me to incorporate popular music into the films as well as I do it. I think he's absolutely correct about that. That's high praise. And exactly. It's funny.

At the end of the article, it was like Roger Ebert is the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. And, you know, Jay Holberman is the film critic for The New Yorker. And it was like Martin Scorsese is Martin Scorsese. I remember it said that at the end of the– Martin Scorsese. But to start, like, yeah, to me, he uses pop songs, you know, in key moments in the movie that just– like, for instance, in Rushmore– I'll talk about two quick moments.

One is when Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman's characters are trying to kill each other. And during that whole sequence, he uses the lengthy passage from the end of The Who's A Quick One While He's Away, where it's just all four members of The Who singing You Are Forgiven. Your speed, your crying is a well-known sound. Your speed is very well known throughout your town. Your town is very famous for the little girl.

Her crying can be heard all around the world. . . . . . La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. We have a remedy, fa-la-la-la-la-la We have a remedy, fa-la-la-la-la-la We have a remedy, fa-la-la-la-la-la We have a remedy, fa-la-la-la-la-la We have.

A remedy, fa-la-la-la-la-la. Little girl, why don't you stop your crying? I'm gonna make you feel all right. My name is Ivar. My name is Ivor, I'm an engine.

Driver I know him well, I know. Why you feel blue Just cause he's late, don't mean he'll never get through He told me. He loves to eat no lye in Tyra. So let's have a smile for an old engine driver. So let's have a smile for an old engine driver.

Me take a sweet take a sweet come take. A walk with me you'll sock it out sock it out back at my place maybe you'll come right you ain't. No fool I ain't either so why not be nice to an old engine driver better be nice to. An old engine driver. Better be nice.

To an old engine. Driver We'll soon be home We'll soon be home. We'll soon, we'll soon, soon, soon be home. We'll soon be home. We'll soon be home.

We'll soon, soon, soon, soon be home. Come on home. Soon we'll be home. Soon we'll be home. Soon, soon, soon, soon we'll be home.

We'll soon, soon, soon, soon be home. . . . . I can't believe. That I'm with you. Baby I missed you and I must admit I kissed a few and once did sit On either the engine driver's lap . . . You are forgiven You are forgiven You are forgiven.

It's just such an interesting thing because it's clearly, you know, like they're trying to kill, like literally kill each other. You know, like piping in bees in his room and running over his bicycle and all this horrible stuff. And it's the having that you are forgiven. And the other moment is when they're like running through the, there's a quick shot of them running in tandem, you know, through the factory to Oh Yoko by John Lennon. It always makes me happy.

I'll shut up and let Adam talk now. Well, actually, it's interesting that you picked that one. My first pick is very similar. It's I'm Going to Go Back There Someday that Gonzo sings in the first Muppet movie. Oh, yes.

It's very emotional in the way that he chooses. Yeah, because he's singing with longing and yearning about the unknown place of his origin. This looks familiar. Vaguely Almost unreal yet It's too soon to feel yet Close to my soul and. Yet so far away I'm going.

To go back there someday Sun rises, night falls Sometimes the sky calls Is that a song there? Do I belong there? I've never been there But I know the way I'm going. To go back. There someday Come and go with me.

It's more fun to share. We'll both be. Completely at home in midair. We're flying, not walking on featherless wings. We can hold on to love.

Like invisible strings. There's not a word yet For old friends who've just met Part heaven, part space. Or have I found my place? You can just visit But I plan to stay. I'm going to go back there someday.

I'm going to go back there someday. You seem to be pretty excited about the Olympics. Is it a long-running thing? Because I am too. Who doesn't like the Muppets?

I know. It's been suggested that my love for the Muppets might be, you. Know, pathological. I may or may not have puppets at my house right now waiting to film them. Anyway, go ahead.

I've said too much. Yeah, other key moments. And I can't explain this, but The moment in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou when the main character finds out that he's a father and he has an adult child that he didn't know about. And it's toward the beginning of the film and the music of Life on Mars has been bubbling under the surface. But just like the chords and you don't really hear any of the text.

And he just kind of turns to everyone he's with and he says, I need a few moments alone. And he just walks the entire length of his ship And as he's walking, the moment he starts walking, the lyrics burst in, and it's sailors fighting in the dance halls. For some reason, it's just an oddly emotional moment in the midst of that movie. Sailors fighting in the dance halls. Oh man, look at those game and go.

It's the freakiest show. Take a look at the lowdown. Feeding off the wrong guy. Oh, man, wonder if you'll ever know. Who's in the best.

Of the show? Is there life on Mars? It's on America's tortured brow. That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow. Now the workers have struck for fame.

Because Lennon's on sale again See the mice in their million hoards From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads Blue Britannia is out of bounds To my mother, my dog. And clowns But the film is a sad thing for Cause I wrote it ten times or more It's about to be written again. As I ask her to vote for. Some sailors fighting in the dance hall. Oh man, look at those cavemen go.

It's the creepiest show. Take a look at the long man cleaning up the wrong guy Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know. Is there no best-selling show? Is there life on. Mars?

Is there life on Mars? And a similar moment in Royal Tenenbaums is after Alec Baldwin does the whole introductory monologue, he's the character that's played by Luke Wilson. Yeah. And as a kid, he's got the falcon on his wrist and he just says, go Mordecai. And then the choir comes up on Hey Jude.

And again, just weirdly, the perfect musical moments in these films are just astonishing to me. See, you had pointed out that the emotion from that really has nothing. To do with the lyrics because it's. All about the music. I would argue that most great score or soundtrack moments it's the music that gives you the emotion.

It's very rarely the lyrics that people are. Well, I think that's true when some things are scored, but I'm saying usually when you're using an existing song, I guess what I'm saying, you know what I mean? Usually at that point, if it's a pop song, it's usually about the text. But I would point out, the chorus comes up on Hey Jude, and they're singing, the lyric they're singing is, na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Right.

Which brings me to my next pick, ma-na, ma-na. from The Muppet Show, which also achieves its appeal without specific lyrics. Aha, so I bet you're thinking we're straying off into. TV music again. You might think that. But the more you find out about that song, the more interesting it gets.

Yes, it is mostly identified with Jim Henson and has reappeared throughout his Muppet history. This is a narrative of very heavy-duty proportions. Now, it was first performed in a Henson production on Sesame Street. But the most famous Muppet rendition of it was that same year in 1969 when it debuted on the Ed Sullivan Show. Now considering they only had a couple of TV channels to choose from and most of America watched Ed Sullivan every week, there's a good chance that that is the main way it began to weave its way into pop culture.

So a version of that skit was restaged many times on different variety shows over the years, and was still so beloved by Henson and his fans that it was actually featured as the opening number in the premiere episode of The Muppet Show. But long before that, in fact the year before it began appearing on these family-friendly shows here in America, the song made its initial appearance in a movie entitled Sweden, Heaven and Hell. It was styled as a documentary about Scandinavian sexuality, which they would delve into topics like lesbian nightclubs, porn films, swinging married couples, and educating teenagers in the ways of sex. Plus some fun additions like drug addiction, alcoholism, and suicide.

All that seems like a perfect segue into The Muppets, right? Okay, maybe not. But however Jim came across it, it. Was originally written by Piero Emiliani, an Italian composer known for his film scores, specifically many exploitation. Films of the 60s and 70s.

So to stick with our movie music, we're actually going to listen to the version from the original film's soundtrack. Which surprisingly. is. Very similar to the version we've all come to know and love. Thank you. . . . . . Thank you.

I always thought that should have been the theme song to that John Travolta movie. Phenomenon. Phenomenon. They did bring that one back. Did you see the attempted reboot that they did?

It was what? Of the John Travolta movie? No, no, no. Thank God they haven't done that. No, when they brought that Muppet show back again, before the movie, it was somewhere like early 2000s, it seems like.

They attempted to do it, and it only made it about four episodes or so. But one of those four, their guest star, they worked in Sandra Bullock doing a version of Menomina, which I thought is kind of fun. You've got to kind of love Sandra Bullock. She's America's sweetheart still, right? So it was interesting watching her with Muppets because she does seem kind of fun, so she got it.

And she sort of worked with them really well. But watching her do, I can't hear it normally now without watching her do Monopoly. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to take you to a psychiatrist's office in a sketch we called The Psychiatrist's Office. Man, who wrote this stuff? Please come in, Mr.

Frog. That'll be $ 100. But I haven't said anything yet. Yes, you did, just now. Okay, well, I'll pay on the way out.

Then it'll be $ 150. Please, have a seat. Here? Yes. So what seems to be the problem?

Well, Doctor, I see these strange creatures every time I say the word phenomena. Phenomena. Phenomena. Phenomena. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Do you mind if I try it? Sure. Phenomena. Phenomena. Phenomena. . . . . . . . phenomena.

Phenomena phenomena phenomena. Boy, you sure are crazy. I know. You should see what happens when I say shave and a haircut. Two bits.

Wow, that was worth a hundred bucks. 150. Actually, America's new sweetheart is Lady Gaga. Now I have to leave him here. I need a fifth one, don't I?

I thought you were on number three. I've been doubling up. What? Yeah, I'll double up each time. Okay, this time we'll do two moments from Royal Tenenbaums and then I'll be done.

Gwyneth Paltrow walking in slow motion to that Nico song, whose name I can't remember, and the lengthy passage of when Luke Wilson was contemplating suicide to Elliot Smith's Needle in the Hay. It's pretty iconic. Your hand on his arm A stacked charm. Around your neck. Strung out and thin Calling some friend Trying to cash some check He's acting dumb That's what you've come to expect Needle in.

The hay Needle in the hay Needle in the hay. Needle in the hay. He's wearing your clothes, head down to toes, a reaction to you. You say you know. What he did, but you idiot kid, you don't have a clue.

Sometimes they just get caught in the eye, you're pulling them through. Needle in the hay, needle in the hay, needle in the hay, needle in the hay. Thank you. Down the bus, nearly touching this dirty retreat. Falling out, six-hand pallet, dead sweat in my teeth.

Gonna walk, walk, walk, four more blocks, plus the one in my brain. Down, downstairs, to the man, he's gonna make it all okay. I can't be myself, I can't be myself, and I don't wanna talk. Taking the cure so I can be quiet wherever I want. So leave me alone.

You ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks. You're in the haze. You have no idea what I'm. Talking about, Dan. I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.

What are you talking about? Yeah, okay, keep going. I can do more, so keep going. No, I'll just lump my last three together. My last three picks would be Manor Muppet from The Muppets.

I reflect on my reflection And I ask myself the question What's the right direction to go? I don't know. Am I a man Or am I a muppet Am I a muppet If I'm a muppet Then I'm a very manly. Muppet Very manly muppet Am I a muppet. Muppet Or am I a man Am I a man.

If I'm a man That makes me a muppet of a man A. Muppet of a man I look into these eyes. And I don't recognize The one I see inside. It's time for me to decide. Am I a.

Man Or am I a puppet. If I'm a muppet, well I'm a very manly. Muppet Am I a muppet? Or am I a man? If I'm a man, that makes me a muppet of a man.

Here I go again, I'm always running out of time I think I've made up my mind. Now I understand who I am. I'm a man. I'm a man. I'm a man.

I'm a man. I'm a man. That's what. I am. It would be I Can Get You What You Want from the new, from the Muppets.

Muppets Most Wanted. Muppets Take Hostages. Yeah, Muppets Most Wanted. And, you know, in justification, I would say, like, in the Muppets Most Wanted, for those of you that haven't seen it, go see it immediately. It's just fantastic.

And I have a new favorite. Muppet after all these years they have and you know they keep introducing these new characters in the muppets that are kind of baffling to me the little like shrimp character like. What the hell i have to say i i was confused by him but after a while i was like he does get most of the good lines now. Yeah and um but uh constantine the world's most dangerous frog is my new favorite muppet uh and i love that i love that he's like you know Like, he's sexy, you know? Like, Kermit was always kind of sexless, you know?

And Miss Piggy's trying. To get with him, and he's always, oh, Piggy. And he's, like, trying to get away from her. But not Constantine. Like, Constantine's got game, you know?

He's, like, you know, a serious player, you know? Stupid frog! Stupid train! I don't want to talk to you, Kermit. I said I want you out!

I don't think you know what you want. Yeah, I do. I just told you. Shh! You're my lady, and I'm your man, baby.

And that's why, if you stick with me, I can give you what you want. Baby, stop right there. Let me clear the air. Baby, look into these eyes. Let me.

I apologize. I know what you're thinking of. You're thinking where's the love? Baby, love ain't gone. It's here where it belongs.

I know what you're waiting for. You don't need to wait no more I'll give you anything you want Give you anything you need I'll make your dreams come true Give you anything you want Fulfill your fantasies I'll make your dreams come true want a thingy thing? I'll give it to you. Cause I know what you're waiting for. Girl, you don't need to wait no more.

I'll give you anything you want. Give you anything you need. I'll make your dreams come true. Give you anything you want. Fulfill your fantasies.

I'll make your dreams come true. You want a taste of fame? I'll give it to you. You want a little cupcake? I'll give it to you.

You want a cockatoo? I'll give it to you. You want a kangaroo? I'll give it to you. You want a brand new car?

I'll give it to you. You want a Hollywood star? I'll give it to you. You want to go to the moon? I'll see what I can do.

Cause I know what you're waiting for. Girl, you don't need to wait no more. I'll give you anything you want I'll give you anything you need I'll make your dreams come true Give you anything you want Fulfill your fantasies I'll make your dreams. Come true. And, of course, the Rainbow Connection.

Paul Williams from the first Muppet movie. Very nice. Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side? Rainbows are visions, but only illusions. And rainbows have nothing to hide.

So we've been told and some choose to. Believe it. I know they're wrong, wait and see. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection The lovers, the dreamers, and me Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished. On the morning star?

Somebody thought of that and someone believed it. Look what it's done so far. What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing? And what do we think we might see? Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lover's The dreamer and me All of us under its spell We know that it's probably.

Magic Have you been half asleep? And have you heard voices? I've heard them calling my name. Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailor? The voice might be one and the same.

I've heard it too many times to ignore it. It's something that I'm supposed to be. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me. Ba-da-da-dee-da-da-doo, ba-da-da-da-da-dee-da-doo. Can I sneak in one more thing?

My favorite one-two punch of one song played immediately by another song in a movie is at the end of Keith Gordon's Waking the Dead. I don't know if you've ever seen that. They play Laurie Carson's Snow Come Down almost in its entirety and then immediately segue into Peter Gabriel's Mercy Street almost in its entirety. Piano plays. The way I feel Though you don't want to say I think you feel The way I feel Though it's not the easy way Wouldn't you like to be with me Watching the snow come down Watching the snow come down Watching the snow I don't wanna cause you any pain I just wanna love you I don't wanna fuck up anything I just wanna love you and I know you think I'm kinda strange I just wanna love you I just wanna love you I just wanna love you I just wanna love you Every time I see your face I can hardly breathe Every time I see your face I feel stupid and happy Wouldn't you like to be with me?

Watching the snow come down Watching the snow come down Watching the snow I don't wanna cause you any pain I just wanna love you I don't wanna fuck up anything I just wanna love you And I know you think I'm kinda strange I just wanna love you I just wanna love you Just wanna love you Just wanna love you I'd sure like to be with you Watching the snow come down Watching the snow come down Watching the snow I don't wanna cause you any pain I'd like to give you the world I don't wanna fuck up anything I wanna be your girl And I know you think. I'm kinda strange I just wanna. Love you, I just wanna love you you, I just want to love you, I just want to. Love you. Watching the snow come down, watching the snow come down.

Watching the snow come. Looking down on empty streets All she can see. Are the dreams all made so. The dreams made real. All of the buildings.

All of the cars. Were once just a dream. In somebody's head. She pictures the broken glass. Pictures the steam.

She pictures the soul. Slowly cut the seams Take the boat out Wait until darkness Let's take the boat out Wait until darkness comes. Nowhere in the corridors Of pale green and grey Nowhere. In the summers In the cold light of day There in the midst of. It, so alive and alone Words support my bone Dreaming of Mercy Street Where you're inside out Dreaming of Mercy In your daddy's arms again Mercy Street Swear they groomed that sign Dreaming of.

Mercy In your daddy's arms. Pulling out the papers. Drawers that slide smooth Tugging at the darkness Word on word Fessing all those secret things in a warm velvet box. To the priest, he's the doctor, he can handle the shocks. Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips.

Of kissing Mary's lips. Dreaming of mercy streams. Prayer inside out, dreaming of mercy. In your daddy's arms. Again, dreaming of birthday street.

Swear they moved that sign. In your heart that is all. Okay. Okay. I'm with the.

Father, he's out in the boat Riding the water, riding the waves on. The sea It takes up this huge ten minute chunk of the movie There's dialogue going on between it But two insanely sad songs that really communicate what's. Going on in the movie at that moment But that's what I like. And that's what I found trying to piece these together, is how much movies and music, it all just kind of gets lumped together, and it is this big emotional journey. And it's like, you've got the.

Story doing one thing, but the music definitely plays such a heavy part that separating the two, you're going to come out kind of lesser on both ends. I think it's this great mixture when you can bring it all together. Rand, isn't it Wes Anderson that... Which director is it that always says that he. He puts together the soundtrack for his movie before he writes it.

Oh, that's P.T. Anderson. P.T. Anderson. Yeah, that's...

Well, you know, another director that said he did that was Lawrence Kasdan. He said he knew what songs were going to be in the Big Chill before he knew what characters. Were going to be in the Big Chill. Yeah, I mean, you're right. And, like, Scorsese doesn't necessarily do that, but what he'll do is he'll have music.

You know, he... even though he doesn't take a credit for it, he's in the editing room every minute that the films are being edited, and he and Thelma Schumacher have worked together forever, and literally since he was in college. So stupid that he knows the freaking editor of these movies. She's won like three Oscars, come on. Oh, well. But at any rate.

Walk down the street and grab anybody and ask them to name one editor, even if they have won an Oscar. You named an Oscar-winning song along the way. There you go, yeah. Man, you're up it tonight. Yeah, that's true.

But at any rate. No, but when they're working together, kind of editing the film, they're cutting it with, you know, he's playing the songs that inspired him when he was shooting. And then, you know, he'll decide, okay, we need to get the rights to, you know, to what's the Rolling Stones song that's in every Scorsese film? Oh, no, there's one specific one. I can't remember the name of it, though.

Give me a lyric. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, baby, yeah, yeah. Pretty much, yeah. Street fighting man.

No, that's not it. But I'll, like, yell it out as you're saying, well, that's it for the movie. Give me Shelter. There it is. Oh, give me Shelter.

Yeah, that's in, like, every Scorsese film. Yeah. You can't blame him. No. That era of Stones, you kind of can't go wrong.

Yeah. Now. Oh, yeah. It's a different story. I was like, Brian Jones died, and they had about, like, a three-year grace period after Brian Jones died, you know, right until Exile Main Street, and then it was like.

It's all downhill. Yeah. Slaloming downhill. But more power to him, man. If people still pay for their tickets, you know.

Some people tell them to stop. I'm like, what are they going to do, get a job? I mean, Keith handing out baskets at Walmart. You know, like, just let them play their music if that's what they. Want to do.

I don't want to say they're good anymore, but people are still paying $ 100 a ticket. Again, they, you know, they could all be playing from wheelchairs and they'd still be better than us, and we're not bad. You know what I mean? They're awesome, man. That's true.

That's what I would say. I'm like, don't take it away from them. That's all they have, man. It's been their whole life. Well, that's like when the Who did the Super Bowl a couple years ago and everyone was like, oh, they're so terrible.

I'm like, you know, they're like 80 years old. I mean, they're jumping around better than I do. You know what I mean? I know. By the end of like a one-hour set, I'm like stooped over with a sore back from like standing with a guitar on that long.

You know what I mean? You've got to hand it to those guys. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know. On their worst day, they're better than we'll ever be. And like I say, we're not bad.

It's that they're great. Well, is there anything that you've seen? Usually we'll try to throw in stuff that we've done lately. Have you guys seen any movies lately or are listening to any band? Just sort of a geek activity of your own.

I'm very much looking forward to the new Eels album, which comes out next week. It's something that hasn't happened, but I'm very excited. I'm really looking forward to eating dinner at Dairy Queen next door. I'm really looking forward to having some unagi, which is eel. You see all that?

High quality stuff. Yes. No Captain America? Well, yeah. I have not.

I've had actually a ridiculously busy last couple of weeks, so I haven't seen a movie in the last two weeks. Blah, blah, blah. I see all superhero movies the day they come out. Actually, Adam likes to sit in the front row so that the light beams hit his eyes before they hit anyone else's. Nobody's seen that movie before my eyes.

Winter Soldier, fantastic. It's an A +, but all of these new Marvel movies have my such thorough stamp of approval. Did I like it as well as Captain America the First Avenger? No. Captain America the First Avenger was a period piece.

You know, it's a World War II, 40s, you know, romp, and it was so much fun for that reason. The new movie is, you know, it's like the Avengers. It's a really, really big budget movie. action-adventure movie with great characters and great dialogue, and it's fantastic. You know, I didn't like it as well as the first one, nor did I like it. You know, people are saying it's better than The Avengers, which is a ridiculous statement.

Nothing's ever going to be better than The Avengers. It's no man thing. Well, I mean, even out of that run of your first batch of Marvel movies, I'd still kind of put Captain America in its own category because. The period piece thing. Because it's a period piece, yeah.

It separates in such a specific way, and he's doing a very distinctively different. Style than all the rest of them. The rest of them feel like they're kind of going for the same universe, because they are, but that one, he really went out of his way to sort of distance it, literally, in time from those, and then it's only... now, as you get into the Avengers, that we kind of see him sort of shoved into the modern day. I will say, I'm hugely looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy, just because I've been a James Gunn fan since the Troma days. I can just tell that this is a guy that's doing something way better than Troma deserves.

His novel, The Toy Collector, I mean, it's a bit, it's definitely, it's very risque, it's not for the weak of heart, but one of my favorite novels of all time. And again, like super, you know what I mean? Again, not for everyone. Definitely not for everyone. But man, oh man, it's so much heart and so much...

Pain. Yeah, but it's so real and it's so like, there's a beauty to what he does. I've just been a huge fan and I love that from what I've seen that Marvel's letting James Gunn be James Gunn. Like they know who they hired. And they're letting him do his thing.

I always, you know, we used to do an event at my house. We haven't done one in a while, but we used to do them a couple or three times a year, and we called them Sea Flash Nights. Sea Flash is an acronym standing for Chinese food, live action superheroes. And we would choose a theme for the evening, like we'd do, oh, you know, superhero teams, or we'd do, if there was, you know, something, you know, when the first couple of Spider-Man movies would come out, we showed the pilot of this Spider-Man live-action television series. The Japanese Spider-Man.

Yes, we did. The old ones. Yeah, the Japanese. The ones with rope webs. Right, yeah.

And Nicholas Hammond as Spider-Man. But we did one of those one night where we showed back-to-back, we showed the specials with Mystery Men, which was a much bigger budget, kind of take on the same idea. Yeah. For my money, Specials is a much better film. Yeah, I love the Specials.

For those of you that... I'm sure none of you have heard of that. It's an early James Gunn script. He directed that as well, didn't he? He did not direct it.

Oh, is that right? Actually, he doesn't have a lot good to say about the direction. They put out a special edition a couple years ago which had a new a commentary track with him and the female lead in it. What's her name? I can't remember.

At any rate, and they both were having fun on the commentary track, but they made it clear that they weren't real pleased with the director. So the director's commentary didn't have the director in it? No, no, I just had to... You don't say anything about it. What killed me about the specials was how James Gunn was the best actor in that film.

His performance is so hilarious. And, you know, he's the only one that's not a real actor. And, you know, I mean, he certainly doesn't purport to be. Have you seen Lollilove? Oh, I know.

Check out. Was that just the game or did he do? No, no, that's Lollipop Chainsaw. Okay. There's a movie called Lollilove that is directed by Jenna Fisher.

But it's kind of written by the two of them. And it's kind of like a mockumentary. And it's definitely worth your time. It's a lot of fun. Well, he's just one of those, and I think that's why the new movie is working so well.

It's because they gave it to. Somebody who wasn't just a director but a fan of that universe and that title. And I feel like you're getting somebody who's putting their heart in it every step of the way and who gets the humor of it and kind of gets everything that's going to. Make it potentially a good movie. So I think that's why I have a little more faith going in than a lot of other– big properties that they just kind of throw at, you know, whoever was next on the list.

I agree. Well, and I know that, you know, I mean, Joss Whedon, you know, kind of that same thing. But I mean, you know, because, you know, certainly I talked to him beforehand and so, you know, kind of handpicked him and, but yeah, and it's his shot at the big time. I mean, again, I thought Slither was fantastic. Yeah.

And no one saw it. You know what I mean? And it's like, and you just, you know, Hollywood's not going to give you that many chances. It doesn't matter how good your product is. If no one sees it, then, so yeah, but.

Well, Well, I guess tell people where to find you on the internet or where to look for you on upcoming shows. Sure, yeah. The easiest place to find us. Fire once in the air. Yeah.

Some of the invisible swordsmen. The easiest place to find us is at our website, which is ooklathemock.com. That's O-O-K-L-A the M-O-K dot com. We also have a Facebook page, which you can find by searching for Ookla Mock on Facebook, and... We keep that fairly updated.

And, yeah, we do have pretty much, like, we're off. After this weekend, we're off for a week. And then, like, the next, like, four weekends, we're going to be doing shows. We're from Buffalo. We've got a couple local shows in Buffalo.

Then we're going to be in Columbus, Ohio. Marcon. At Marcon. That's May. That's going to be the 9th through the 11th.

Yes. And then we're actually, you know, I think it's in. What is it that we're going to be in? We're going to be in September. Yeah, I guess in September, we just booked a fairly impressive show.

Yeah, it's a FENCON in Dallas, Texas. That's pretty far for us. So we're excited to hopefully get to play in front of a whole new crowd. A whole crowd of Texans. Yeah, that should be pretty great.

We have a lot of listeners in Texas. Well, there you go. And obviously, like I said, you can go to the Facebook page or our website to get updates. We're adding gigs all the time, of course. All right, well, we're sort of rounding things out here, so I did want to say thank you to everyone at Conglomeration for letting me hang around here and put this episode together with the guys.

For more on what they've got planned next time around, go to conglomeration.info and see what they've. Got in the works. Now with that, let's get back into the music one more time, and we're actually going to let the guys round things out with. A song of their own. Well, do you guys want to play one of yours?

Would you like to pick a song and actually work it into this? Yeah, sure. I can round things out with one of yours. Yeah, sure. What do you think is the way to go?

Yeah, what do you think? You know, we've been talking a bunch about the emotional impact of some of the... Let's play Amora Adores Thor off of Versus Evil. Okay. Nice.

Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you for talking to me. All right. Thank you.

All right. That about does it for this episode. With that, I will remind you, Get a Life will provide the soundtrack. According to the Ohaku, there's a mystic Norse dimension, whereby. The world tree, dwell the.

Warriors three, and other things. To Uru dimension. And the prettiest girl in the whole world is an enchantress named Amora. And though she's quite polite. Her little appetite would.

Rival Sodom and Gomorrah. Climbed off And draw She's known them all, she's done them all Under a drizzle, she's had her fill But. She gets no thrill from Bay. To Rayville Cause there's only. One man in all the land Amora can adore.

She'll sleep with Hercules Or any jerk you please But she loves the mighty. Thor Amora Adorzea Those guys before y'all are left immoral. The skinny-nagin' baby's scared to dress. The bod is got his name enchantress. Immoral, it does, yeah.

More of schemes. And fiendish dreams. All her armies and her henchmen. All her evil plans to rule the world of man. Maybe five or ten.

We'll help extinguish her desire Balder, Balder With inspired desire She gave tire and trite Seems as if Thor gets stiff Only four ladies sit Jane Foster. Brunhilde, and Lorelai But maybe someday you'll see They were meant to be. A love that no one can ignore. She'll finally be his girl. He'll rock her world And she'll.

Be his girl She'll be feeling mighty far. Gamora can't ignore you anymore. She's gonna floor you. She'll do it for you. Of course.

Cause you're a. Thorn in the enchantress. I'm gonna wind up sore and pantsless. Gamora adores you. . . . . You can't guess no one's a sadist the enchantress cause.

We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. You know, it's, you know, so weird to hear a pop song used, you know, that effectively, emotionally, where it has nothing to do with the lyrics. Hmm.

You know, that's what's unusual to me. And I'll never be able to say that as well as I just said it. This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and edited by The Oddity Studios. For more on how to sponsor or support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com. Aloha!

Aloha! Talk hard!