322. - Lance Bangs

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. It's overcast. It's Elliot Smith weather today in Los Angeles, but I'm happy to be back. TJ, how are you feeling? Wait, you're in LA? I didn't know that. That's right, bitch. I came back yesterday. I'm catching flights, not feelings. You know the vibe. Okay. I knew that you caught flights and feelings, not feelings. I just didn't know that you... Caught a flight yesterday. That's right. The world moves fast. Did you have a good flight? Was it on a new Delta airplane or an old one? No, it was on a new one, mercifully. I was tucked into my little pod using my computer and not turning on the entertainment system once. But I did notice quite a lot of my fellow passengers watching the King Richard film. which I feel like is probably seeing a nice little streaming uptick. We call that the Oscar effect. It's been happening for maybe decades, if not centuries. I see, I see. I didn't realize that. Once a movie kills it at the Oscars. Okay, so once you win an Oscar for Best Actor, then people finally watch it? Is that what you're saying? I don't know. I mean, I think a decent amount of people watched that movie when it came out, right? I did not, but I watched it on the airplane, and I did enjoy it. I know. I don't know why. I just can't get myself to watch it. californication reruns or the office on the plane then californication that's an interesting rare pull absolutely fantastic show i was thinking today on my run how that sometimes in my mind's eye when i think about los angeles that's what i that's what i see you know

Like walking through a shitty bodega in West Hollywood, buying some wine and Marlboro Lights, and you turn the corner, and there's just a hot surfer chick in a bikini. That's what L.A. should be like. But that show... The city of Venice plays itself on Californication, so choose your words wisely. No, but it's a good, it's a great, that's a great fucking show. You know, I had a weird moment, because obviously I watched that show when it came out, and there was an episode, or like a little bit of a C storyline, where he was having sex with a girl. I know that was a common trope on the show. No, no, no, bro, are you kidding? Yeah, he would lay down with various women on the show. And one of them was a girl that liked to punch him. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Okay, so the girl that liked to punch him, she is a former child actor. She played the five-year-old girl on television's infamous sitcom, The Nanny. Oh, wow. So The Nanny came out. They're showing it on HBO. And it's one of those shows where, like, they'll sneak in a good actual, you know, actually a good joke into, like, a whatever sitcom. You know, you throw it on, there's crazy outfits and references. But the five-year-old daughter is that child actor. And I was, like, sitting watching The Nanny, you know. baked like an alaska like i know this baked like alaska oh yes i have i've seen her um having a rape uh rape fantasy on showtime network that's how i know this five-year-old i want to be clear jason actors have to act you know what i mean i know sometimes you get confused but but like well it is more of the thing of like i saw you first in you know doing a nude sex scene involving physical violence yeah yeah and now i'm seeing you for a second time in saddle shoes and uh and you're supposed to see it i see you want to see it the reverse way so it makes sense i don't know if i want to see this person as a five-year-old at all i mean don't get me wrong amazing you know great acting chops the whole cast was a rock solid cast but it was it was still a little disturbing to be like how do i

She looks so familiar. And then the source of the familiarity is a little dark, but that's fine. I like the best part of Californication Season 1 is when he has sex with his ex-girlfriend's husband's daughter accidentally. And it's just kind of like, shit. There's no actual consequences except like... she steals some of his creative writing for class because he can't get mad. You know what I mean? I'm like, this is really, this is truly a different time. Nothing says more of a different time. They say like a pilot episode of a TV show. All you have to do is make somebody want to watch the next episode. That's kind of what it is. So it's like, there's a cliffhanger. There's a hook. There's something that reveals itself in the third act where you're like, oh, this is a ride that I want to hop on. And for that show, it was... David Duchovny, legendary stick man. And we have to hang on to see what he's going to do for the next six years. He's no BJ, but he's up there. He tried and he failed. He tried. Yeah, it's good to be back. I mean, this weather is killing me, but it's good to be back. It'll be 90 in a week or less, don't worry. You know the Big Apple takes it out of me, Jason. It looked chilly over there in the hills of Brooklyn, man. It was absolutely... Snow-covered hills of Greenpoint. It was absolutely freezing in Crown Heights is what I heard. heard i didn't make it out there but i did hear that that was the case 72 and sunny over there in the lower east village right i had to use my i had to use my uh custom-made leather gloves uh you know oh yeah you love pulling those out don't you i do i do you're like oops i guess it's cold yeah and if you keep talking like that i'm gonna slap you with them too uh but yeah so i I was happy to be back, and then it was yesterday. I got a little bit of sun. I got a workout in with Hunter, so it wasn't a total wash. Your life was not a total wash. While you were gone, I was facialized. Did you know that? I don't want to talk about your YouPorn search history on this podcast. I think that's false, Chris. I think you kind of do.

Thanks to the good people over at Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills, the good people at Revive. I don't know how it's pronounced. Down South, we call that Needless Markup. I don't know if you've ever heard that before. Needless Markup? That's what we call it, Down South. That's right. So you got a whole paycheck, Needless Markup. I feel like there's got to be one more to kind of have the rule of thirds be completed. There's definitely more, but I haven't lived there in so long. That's a joke trope that doesn't work for you as somebody who likes to pay full price for everything. A needless markup is a welcome sign to you. That's exactly right. I hope they're doing a 60% instead of 50%, you know what I mean? But how do you look? Less like shit or the same? Slightly less like shit, yeah. I felt like a princess, even though I was busy and I didn't have time to go get a facial. Sometimes you have to make time. You squeezed it. I know you told me you were sitting at the... You know, I believe this is funny, because when we had this crazy... uh notary when we dealt with our mortgage and she kept talking about the bar on fifth fourth on fourth the bar on fourth she's like you got to go there I'm like what the fuck are you talking about and then you're tapping in eating chili at the bar on fourth with Lisa Vanderpump is that not what I is that not what I saw and and Lisa Vanderpump's baby daddy whatever his name is the guy who's 116 years old Yeah, look, he's up there in age, but he's kind of swaggy, and he knows he's much like you. What's her name or his name? Oh, why can't I think of his name? You got Lisa Vanderpump. She does, like, fire insurance fraud, I heard. And then you got her husband and then her husband's diaper. Ken. No, Ken's diaper is full, and she will change it. Ken was walking around looking at the McQueen sneaker section, and he did look like he had a little something in there. It's changing time. Did you send a skinny girl over to her, or did you just stare? Obviously, the Vanderpumps drink a diet exclusively of Diet Coke.

That's the only liquid that they put into their body. Limit, lemon, lemon or no lemon. Oh, big fat wedge of lemon. Hell yeah. Yeah, you got to ask for a big spoon. Weiser Farms lemon, I think. It was actually really naturally sourced. Wow. Wow. I didn't send anything over. It was such a strange thing because this was like, it couldn't be at a less busy time for any business, restaurant, retail, whatever it is. This was Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon, Tuesday at 3 p.m. They don't serve dinner. They do like a little lunch business, but almost every seat at bar on 4th was full. Every person was obviously a complete character. You got the rich old grannies, head-to-toe Chanel. You have random scammer dudes. You have me sitting with my laptop, and I'm like, I'll have a nice Gibraltar with whole milk, and I'll just sit here and edit my podcast, and I'll be a happy camper. And then there was a bartender who was like, you're getting a double blood orange margarita, and that's that. Did this bartender give it to you for free, or did he or she... Oh, everything was on the house thanks to my number one dog, Mary-Kate, over at... over at neiman marcus yeah mary mary kate uh yeah i would love to i'm just wondering where my invitation is uh mary kate she's a she's a fan of the pod i don't worry i i brought over i sent her a nice dad hat and she was happy but i think mary kate since she's a big fan of the show she knows that chris hates the fans and and won't respond to the dms you know i don't hate them if she's bringing something to the table that's a very different thing i i only have one room one mary kate in my life right now and um you know this you know that movie our guest today he's into film directing and stuff there's that movie twilight there's like the team edward yeah whatever yeah exactly you know she's team edward there's team there's team black and there's team tj that's just you might have to no you're right and that's a tough pill to swallow i'll take the l on this and i'm more of a biologique richard's chick anyway oh come on that's petty chris the smell of jealousy and placenta is strong in here it's it's coming it's wafting through the sm57 but

Yeah, I got to say, it was, I mean, I definitely plan, I mean, and the best part about Neiman Market, the valet is $3. You go there, you get shithoused at a bar, and then you just slink into your fucking car at the valet, pay the guy three bucks, you give him a fiver, he's like, mama mia, today's going to be a good day. Meanwhile, the valet at horses, I got to take out a reverse mortgage on my house to cover that shit, and the guy parked it across the street. Shout out to the horses, you guys rule. It's a light 15. I want to quickly, I mean, before we introduce our guest, I wanted to talk about our big plans for the weekend. Oh, gosh. We're thinking about getting a driver because we're doing what some in the food industry call a bang-bang. Louis C.K. style bang-bang. We're doing it with live music, ladies and gentlemen. So Jason and I will be catching Evan Dando. who posted a picture of him fishing today, Jason, that I talked about with David Coggins. Fish on. But anyway, the Lemonheads opening for Jawbreaker at the Wiltern on Sunday. I'm going to be the youngest guy at that show. Easily, easily. You're going to catch the Lemonheads, do It's a Shame About Ray all the way through. Jason will wipe the tears from my eyes with a nice bar napkin. We'll jump in the Escalade, zoom right over to the Greek. to catch friend of the show charlie xcx on stage and hopefully i'm going to make it home before midnight what do you think the chances that are and also how zooted are you going to be first make some noise for my angels out there we don't we we have to hire a driver simply for the fact that i think that the timing is going to be of the essence Jason said, I'll bring the Narcan was his response when I said, should we get a driver? Yeah, I mean, it's like, okay, it's Sunday night. Normally on Sunday, I'm like, which gluten-free pasta am I going to make with my life partner and watch Bridgerton? And then now it's like, oh, we're going to go see the Lemonheads, Jawbreaker. I know. Charlie XCX of the Greek. It is a bang-bang all over. We're circumnavigating the City of Angels just like the Chili Peppers would do.

Am I bringing Narcan? The answer is yes. You never know. Fentanyl is a serious drug, and I'll be doing a lot of cocaine to stay awake. Fentanyl is serious. I'm a little upset that I'm missing the Grammy Awards live from Las Vegas, but that's another conversation. Our guest today... Legendary filmmaker, Lance Bangs, who you guys definitely recognize his work from not only the music videos, but MTV's famed jackass program. But I want to talk to him about the series, the director's label series, which if you've ever had taste in your life, you have in your collection. At least one of those. Could you explain to our listeners who might not know about this cool DVD that we've all had? Well, you would get the box set because it had all the... director's work so it'd be chris cunningham michelle gondry uh obviously my number one spike jones mark romanek uh i think jonathan glazer anton corbin there's a there's a there's a at a certain time in the early 2000s it was kind of like the the john waters quote of like if he doesn't have this chris cunningham dvd box set don't fuck him yeah yeah exactly if you if you especially if you lived in la and you went back to an apartment in east hollywood and he had a bunch of dvds and the director's label series wasn't there purchased it colette in pairs of course it was not considered optional viewing it was absolutely required exactly exactly but yeah the new The new Jackass is out, and I didn't see it, but I heard it was great. I still haven't seen it yet. I know. We'll talk to him about it. After we talk to him, we won't even need to see it. We're going to have Lance come on and just kind of describe the film Jackass. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That'd be great. Forever. Frame by frame. Just describe it for us. I think Lance also lives in Portland by choice, which is something we should try to kind of get to the bottom of. For a non-Nike employee, that is. Oh, I'm sure. That is very interesting. Oh, don't worry. I'm sure Big Lance has got cash from Nike checks in his time. We'll get into it. They don't like to talk about that. We'll get into it. All right, yeah, let's give Lance a call. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable.

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is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app. using promo code howlong. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book trusted home help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code howlong with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down. The news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world. And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions. But how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Lance, where are you coming to us live from, bro? I just got back into Portland, Oregon from New York and then head down to L.A. in a day or two. So, yeah, you live in Portland by choice. Is that because you're so tied in to the creative filmmaking of the Nike Corporation or is this a different reason? That's Beaverton you're thinking of. That's not Portland. Look, it's close. Don't do that. It's close enough. Widening Candy, whatever it is. How do you know what Beaverton is? He's going to Marietta, Chris. Oh, don't do that. Don't do that. Yeah, because Lance spent some time in Athens, I believe. Him and Michael. Yep. Building. Mike is one of my dream guests, and he's in my orbit in a few different ways. Yeah. What do you mean by in my orbit, Chris? Does that mean you follow him on Instagram? No, there's just enough people I know that know him well that I feel like it could happen.

But that's, I don't know, I mean, Athens during that time. I feel like, were you in Portland during its heyday, or were you there a little bit after? No, I left home in New Jersey as a teenager, went down to Athens, Georgia, and was there like 1990 onwards. And in 92, I went out to go visit Portland, Oregon, and just was transfixed, and met all these great songwriters and characters, and it was a very inexpensive place to live, there's no sales tax. So it was like Elliot Smith, the band Hazel, the band The Spinains. And sort of taking tapes of what they were doing and passing them back to people in New York and Athens and other music scenes and kind of going back and forth. And at the time, you could rent a room in a group house with people and keep some books and a record player there for like $100 a month. And Athens was amazingly cheap as well. So I was living in those two places and then mostly working in New York or L.A. or London. Like there wasn't much to kind of... earn income in those arts enclaves, but you could live a great lifestyle and then travel and go make things other places. It was a good thing that your rent was $100 a month because you had $100 per month. Well, now look, I mean, Lance was flying to London for some of these corporate clients, but his record collection alone, I mean, I can't even imagine the Kill Rockstar's first presence he's got. You know, just, I mean, the Discog's income alone. That's his Bitcoin. Exactly. He got in early. Exactly. Yeah, Neutral Milk, hotel demo tape is his nft and that's why those are my roommates because i growing up in atlanta like neutral milk hotel obviously something we all listened to and it was like mythical yeah you know because he like disappeared But, like, did he really disappear, or was that kind of like just we didn't have social media and shit? Like, would you still see him at the Grit? You know what I'm saying? No, we were living together. We were roommates during that. Oh, so you saw his ass. So you can confirm. He was maybe disappearing into a good book. That's about it. No, he's a great guy, and he definitely took a break to kind of stay at the house and work on things and then traveled to a few cities where he had friends to go kind of spend some time.

work on what he was going through emotionally and and but yeah it was like intense because like all the other people in the world that wanted him to play live or do events or do things were kind of constantly coming by or asking i know that rem asked them to open up some shows uh around that time and he just kind of kept turning things down and at first it wasn't clear to people outside that like he was going to take a bit of a break and not be playing irving plaza in 2000 or 2001 um but so it And then he kind of started traveling further away and really kind of – it became more apparent to people like he's not available for your phone interviews. Yeah, he's not available for your alternative weekly phone interview, your local – Well, I mean – I feel like a guy like that, did he ever – because I know he played shows in the last 10 years. Did he ever cash in? Like did he ever – because he deserves it is my point. Yeah, that was never his motive, and he was very generous with the money that he did earn with funding a lot of other projects or charities or events or things that he felt needed help or support. And so I believe he's comfortable. Like he was on Merge Records, which is a very friendly, great social label that's like generous with how they divide things with the artists. He lives a lifestyle that suits him well, and he's safely, I think, in a good place. God bless him. I mean, honestly, the man gave us. I love giving you a classic and then just disappearing. There's nothing more legendary than that, and I think that that is also basically going to stop happening. You know, because people are just too thirsty. Yeah. And Instagram's too easy. Well, I think the problem is they give us the classic and then they're like, I think I got another one in me. When they should just be doing 90s stuff, which is disappearing into a forest instead of making Claro's second album. Yeah, no, it's really true. It's really true. Sometimes you think you got it and you don't. You really don't. I mean. How did you take to the South as a guy? Were you comfortable with the manners, the food? I had a weird time coming up. It was like an Air Force family, so we were moving fairly often. And a lot of the bases that we were at were like Valdosta, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama. Oh, man. We hit everywhere. We were in Texas, Colorado, California, upstate New York, Nebraska. So you were a base brat is what it sounds like. Yes.

For whatever reason, I was in different parts of New Jersey during early teenage years, and it was great. You could drive up. There's an amazing venue in Trenton called City Gardens that every band played phenomenal shows at. And then you could make it up to New York City fairly easily, and everything was wild there in the late 80s. There was a riot at Tompkins Square Park one night that we were there to see Pylon play. Damn, you're saying Pylon played in the park next to my apartment and there was a riot? No, yeah. Bro. Tompkins Square, it's like this every night, brother. Yeah, I just happened to be visiting friends in Tompkins Square Park and the police covered up their badges with black electrical tape and just started hitting people with nightclubs. You had the thing on you, though, Lance, right? Yeah. I know Lance had the little thing on him. I think the thing that you're referring to is a superiority burger cookie. He had the 16mm camera on him, actually. So this was before the dog park was installed? Exactly, yeah. And then, you know, you could go to Philly as well. So it was kind of a great landscape to be exploring in at that, like, you know, late 80s weird time period. But then I really felt drawn to get very far away from there. And I've been making sort of personal films on Super 8. And at the time, Michael Fomarium had an organization called C100 Film Corps that was giving grants to underground filmmakers. Essentially, they would make small projects. So they would make those public service announcements that would run on when it was like four TV channels. They had to give a certain amount of time to like these. They had to. No, exactly, yeah. And so you could make a 30-second black-and-white piece about, you know, what does it mean when you throw something away? Where does that actually go? You know, to kind of encourage people to be thoughtful about it. Jason, this guy's been on the front lines of filmmaking, but also the front lines of sustainability. And that's something a lot of people don't know, and I'm glad that the journalists on How Long Gone are able to uncover stuff like that. It kind of makes the show special. We're breaking it wide open. Yeah, we make it a little special around here.

So you were doing PSAs. Yeah. You were doing PSAs, and Michael Stipe was paying for it. Exactly. And so he had a great younger artist named Chris Bilheimer that was designing stuff for RM at the time, and he and Michael kind of helped get me down to Athens and get me set up with like a local address. And, you know, it's like a very inexpensive, great art scene to kind of jump into. Yeah. Give you a little walking around money, some wheels. I get it. Yeah, yeah. Three hots and a cot, as they say. Yeah, I'm sure that's what it was like. No, I mean, I romanticized that time for sure because I didn't get REM until later in life. I was into punk and hardcore and was just like, I don't know. Pylon, too, I'm just like, yeah, this is cool, I guess, but I don't really care about it. And now I listen to R.E.M. like every day, which is unfortunate because I kind of missed. I could have seen a lot of wild shit in my time probably. But do you have a relationship to hardcore? How many times have you seen Converge? Oh, absolutely. I saw every great hardcore band in City Gardens and Philly at the Franklin YMCA and stuff like that all throughout the mid-'80s. A little bit came through Montgomery, Alabama, but not that much. It was more so when I got up to the middle of New Jersey. James Murphy was working the door at City Gardens. Jon Stewart was a bartender. What? Not James. Not James Murphy. Oh, man. Absolutely. Not James Murphy. He was probably skimming off the top then, too, that motherfucker. Oh, no. Damn, that's right. Jon Stewart was a bartender? Comedy's Jon Stewart? Yes, Comedy's Jon Stewart was a bartender at this Trenton, New Jersey bunker that, like, All the New York bands would come down and safely play a show testing out all their new material there, knowing that all the Rolling Stone random notes writers weren't there to see it. So if the Ramones had new material or if Sonic Youth wrote a new record, they could go down there and play it. It's like when Beyonce opens her tour in Albany. You know what I mean? You've got to get warm before you hit Boston's TV Garden. Damn.

I didn't realize that. New Jersey, though, does get a bad rap in the world, and I actually don't subscribe. I think New Jersey can be a beautiful place. Keep the scrubs away. Let only the local mutants know how good it is. No, I mean, I would never live there or want to claim it, but I have been there, and it is nice, and I think that it's funny, though, how places like that, it's like the valley here. We've talked about it on this podcast a few times. The valley had this bad connotation. like from television and movies and now like between haim and paul thomas anderson they've like romanticized it and now it's like considered cool or at least an era of it is considered cool um which is it all it takes is a little you know a little Famous person to turn around. Some good PR. Exactly. Good PR. That's all we all need. Bangs, you spend some time in Los Angeles's Valley ever? Oh, yeah. Quite a bit. I feel like you have, right? I think these places are better off without PR. I think I regret that I made episodes of Portlandia and now there's too many people moving here from outside. Blood on your hands. I've never been to Portland. Really? Never been. I actually like Seattle quite a lot. I love Vancouver. And I've been told, you know, by a few, the way it goes with me, Lance, and you've listened to this podcast. You might know this. They're either like, Chris, you're going to fucking love it, or Chris, you're going to hate it and leave the day you get there. There's no in-between. And I don't know why that is. Why is it so polarizing? Because of your show? Chris, we're all Virgos, right, Lance? So it's your fault, Lance, is what you're saying. The show Portlandia, Fred Armisen himself had ruined the PR of... Oh, yeah, speaking of Portlandia, did you listen to the Brett Easton Ellis episode, Lance? I did, yeah. That was a little shocking when he was talking about... That was shocking to me. Friend of the show, Fred Armisen, right? Yeah. It was also pretty funny, though. I think everyone can agree that Brett Easton Ellis is a... singular, uh, energy that has rubbed a few people the wrong way. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, as a person who rubs people the wrong way, I understand that it can happen. Brett Easton Ellis is a singular energy. Singular energy is that that's Lance has done a lot of interviews in his life, Jason. That's what that said. That's a great phrase and I'm going to steal it because that, that really communicates everything without saying that's a step above, you know, Brett's Brett, you know, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. He's Brett's Brett. Yeah. But do you think Portland, do you think Portland was, uh,

Portlandia did less for it or more for it, or does the city love it because it made a lot of money? I think it did more for it. I think that there are some local people who are grumpy, but to be honest, the existing culture here were primarily descendants of people that had moved out to do tree chopping down, sort of like Northern European Johnson, Spenson. That's who kind of came out here and chopped down trees and made what existed. And so it doesn't have the sort of diversity of personalities. ethnic enclaves that like all the great east coast cities have like there's no italian american neighborhood or place to get a great bagel or anything like that uh and you know sort of like stoic willing to get rained on and willing to just kind of like chop down a tree and be by a campfire was like how do you describe yourself i'm willing to get rained on that's one of my main that's who is here i don't value my life a ton if it does kind of have a torrential rain pour most days out of the year I won't love it, but I won't care enough to do anything about it. Yeah, architecturally everything was sort of like a one or two or at most three-story basic square or rectangle. Nothing was like that lively or inventive, but it had been very thoughtfully laid out. The people that kind of designed the city were thoughtful about setting aside a huge amount of parks and green space. It's a pretty straight grid that makes sense. There's no weird diagonal one-way streets that you don't know how to get out of if you're trapped. Good for drunk driving. That makes sense. And inexpensive. And good for Virgos. Am I right, Lance? Yeah. We have a lot of that OCD mentality as it pertains to map making. And then inexpensive, a lot of items are coming in from containers across the ocean and getting unloaded. And so the basic cost of goods. Oh, that's the jersey coming out in bangs right there. A lot of shipping contained. Importing and exporting going out of... I see you're making a little extra income on the side. I'd hate for something to happen to your next load. There's no sales tax. At the time, housing was inexpensive. You could get a group house with a bunch of painters or poets or musicians or whatever. Great used bookstores, record stores, indoor activities at the time that it was rainier. Great.

satanic vegan strip club restaurants. Sounds like I need to come check it out. I mean, I don't... There's probably more Suicide Girls per capita than any other town in America. And that's a platform that... That means a lot to me. It's crazy because the airport, the TSA workers are actually suicide girls. They've kind of been displaced. So it's great for the airport. It's great for the city in general. I mean, we were going to do a show there, but I don't think we have any listeners there. And we did Seattle instead, and the show was great. So, I mean, I don't know. No, I think next time we'll do Portland and Seattle instead of... san francisco and seattle i think we'll we'll san francisco is being oh penalized they're on timeout and then portland is going to step up okay what's your least what's your least favorite city in the country besides san francisco lance it's actually a good question i have a hard time because i also go do a lot of like heavy journalism stuff and and cities that are difficult because of like the wide sidewalks baking heat so like phoenix arizona oh don't phoenix come on that sounds great it's it's tough to shoot streets that you know the police are rough it's a lot of heavy like weird tangents of extreme conservatism so you're coming for me and my family i see that's not yeah there's a decent amount of that going on in the not portland parts of oregon though right sure but i guess as far as like you know when he asks about a city i'm thinking of like a place with yeah yeah For sure, for sure. I mean, Phoenix is a tough putt. I have a hard time in cities that are not based on a river. I think that for whatever reason, just having a river moving through a place. Edible is kicking in now, Lance. I like it. Yeah, yeah. What did you smoke? Unlike Atlanta, Phoenix, and Houston that are more like rail or train line cities, I think that there's something that happens with weirdos and freakazoids and creativity going on in a city where there's water moving through it. Damn, you know what? I think you might be onto something. On his Murakami shit right now. I like it. Yeah, you're on your shit right now. And, I mean, I think, look, Nashville's got a great river. That's why Louisville, Kentucky has more.

weird great musicians and artists and writers and freakazoids than hey bro indianapolis or whatever i've seen by i've seen by the grace of god i've been to crazy fest okay i know you know louisville louisville is a beautiful place i actually i've sent three dollars to get a doghouse record sticker pack yeah yeah i'll say it on this i'll come clean on the podcast i've actually i've actually never been to phoenix or i've actually i don't think I know. Well, I've never been on – I've luckily never had to go on tour for real. I'm more of a fly-in, fly-out guy. You know what I mean? I hit the major markets. But I feel like you've thrown the cannon in a bunk and really seen this damn country. Yeah. Maybe more times than you would like, especially as you get up there in age. No, I love it. I go back everywhere three more times. I love running into weird people and having conversations and seeing what's changed in the city and is that bookstore still there. what's new and, you know, what's going on now. When's the last time you've hopped on the tour bus, though? Come on. I did it last summer. My wife is in that band, Slater Kinney, and they did a bunch of shows with, like, Wilco, and we'll go back out again coming up this year. And I also kind of jump in with bands. There's a band called White Reaper that I've been traveling and shooting stuff with. They're great. I still do stuff with, like, a lot of characters from the past, and I'll go join recording sessions of things that haven't been announced yet. But some of the people you might like from other 90s bands are doing interesting stuff, and it'll get announced not that long from now. Oh, I think this is a good time for us to kind of propose you shooting our special. We don't have a big concept, but we have some representation now. They've been looking at some options for us as far as distribution goes. Can you throw on a Steadicam and kind of come join us at some point? Or are you going to shoot it on film? What would you imagine for us? I just want to let you know ahead of time we can't secure funding. So do with that information what you will. Lance, I can feel it from Lance already. He's a passion guy. He kind of knows. Yeah, I make things happen. I don't let money stop us from making money. We do it run and gun just like you.

And he knows that if he gets on the ground floor of this thing, he looks up, and all of a sudden, Jason's Chris Pontius, and I'm fucking Johnny Knoxville. Are either of you comfortable with firearms? Can you handle any kind of gun or shotgun or anything? Of course. Look, I'm not comfortable with it, but I'll do anything for money within reason. So here's what we do. We get five drones, and we put them up in the air at the beginning of the conversation. And as it goes along, and you get to different stages of the show, you... shoot them out of the air one by one oh this is good so the number of cameras keeps declining until we're down to just the last one and as you get to the finale and it's the end of the show bam, you take out the final camera. I don't want you to waste this amazing idea on us, I got to say. Did you just pop that one off the dome or is this something you've been kind of stewing on for a while? Yeah, that seemed like a good fit for the two of you. Damn, that's cool. Honestly, that's a great concept. That's a great concept. Unfortunately, I think some of our listeners would not love the gun thing a lot. Make it like a skeet shooting. Yeah, I mean, this is literally what it is. It's just... Skeet shooter. Yeah, what if – yeah, so we could go – okay, so this is going to pump the budget just a little bit, but let's say we go to the Cotswolds. You know what I mean? We get our – we get our – Our wellies on, our barber jackets. Jason has a little hound with him. And we're in conversation, I don't know, let's say with the Gallagher brothers or whatever. And then we're firing the drones, but it's in environment, so it feels a little more natural. It's not like an urban setting. We don't need a fleet of Land Rovers, but six or seven. Are we talking Liam and Noel or Gallagher and Gallagher 2? We're talking Liam and Noel. And also us shooting drones out of the sky. That'll have like a... surveillance state kind of political message, not unlike my good friend's Radiohead. Have you worked with those guys before? Yeah. Yeah, they were on the REM tour in 1995 as traveling with Michael and made the kind of films that were getting projected. Bro. So kind of got to spend time with them like during the Benz era and then have kept in touch since then. 95 was the only time they were good. The Benz era?

R.E.M. and Radiohead doing the bins together? No one's going to agree with you on that one, Chris. Lance and I are both head heads, aren't we? No, I know. I'm just kidding. I like OK Computer are fine. Shut up. Yeah, I think that your willingness to tour is very impressive because even at my low stature but advanced age... I just can't. I don't think I could do it. I'm like John Mayer. I didn't take the PJ from Van Nuys back to L.A. every night. I don't know, Chris. I don't think you have a thirst for curiosity and oddities and meeting strange, interesting people. ...has spent her life touring as well, so you don't have... There's no, like, oh, you're going to go out again. It's like, bitch, you've been out. Just as long as I have, okay? Been out. So you have kids too, right? Yeah, we've got a son who just turned 21 and a daughter who's 14, and they're great. And a lot of time goes into being with them and parenting. sharing their lives so they come on the road and they're like uncle uncle jeff tweety gave me some whiskey last night mom i'm sorry or is it or is it like do they do they are they think you guys like are they your son's old enough but is your 14 year old daughter like you guys are lame or is she in on it she thinks it's cool no she's very in on it in a weird way my son was like sometimes less comfortable like i you know from early on like it truly when he was very young it was like the guys in fugazi were still active and we're always doing stuff and so there's all these photos of him as a toddler with, like, Ian and Guy and going to the Discord house and being on the skateboard that Ian had back at that time and, like, all these great things. And so he responded to that. But later things, like, he helped DJ with me at Frank Ocean's Grammy party one year, and I don't think he felt comfortable or, like, or, you know, like, I think at some point. He wasn't telling all the other kids at his middle school that he was hanging out with Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator and whatever. He was, like, self-conscious about it or something. Really?

I don't know. I could see that. I mean, kids are weird. Your son is a low-key king. I like it. He likes Oregon and Portland more than he likes going to L.A. or whatever. What do you think he's going to do? What kind of guitar did you buy him? He kind of picked out his own guitar. He picked out a Mustang from, like, 67, like, blue. Just a great choice of a guitar. Taught himself, like, without us pressuring him or, like, trying to put it in his hands. He just, like, mostly instrumental Russian music from video games. What? Like, he was, like, finding the stuff that was not an R. listening habit or wheelhouse and you said russian music from video games yeah like something i wouldn't have ever been wherever listening to that he was finding online and teaching himself how to play and he knows what's going on in ukraine and all that and he's still doing this this was years ago and it was a cultural video game okay i understand i just want to check i mean trust me i don't think we should punish the video game makers but It's society's choice, not us. Something to flag, and I just wanted to bring that up. Yeah. I mean, having a 21-year-old son is pretty wild. I love it. Yeah, it's great. What do you think he's going to do with his life? I mean, has he made any decisions yet, or are you just waiting? He's pretty fascinating. He is teaching people mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. What, is he sober? Jesus Christ. Yeah. What the fuck? He learned that himself out of his own interest. So he's teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Portland. No, he's down in another part of Oregon. Oh, okay, okay, okay. What I assume, and I could be wrong, but I think that it's probably guys that listen to Joe Rogan and are enticed by the idea of all those conversations about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and no-gi and all that, that are in their midlife crises looking for someone to teach them how that goes or how to roll or whatever. I could be wrong, but I think he's sort of picking up money training or teaching or instructing some people. He saw a window of opportunity and he's taken it. Yeah. He's also like a full-time college student and all that, but I would not be surprised if he tried to open his own dojo and train people. So if he's training at 21, does that mean he's been doing BJJ since he was in little show-your-roll diapers? No. He kind of got into it later in high school, but he's just very observant and notices.

oh, if your ankle had been slightly to the left, you could have grounded this and gone into this move. He's low-key, quiet, insightful with those sort of things. Last question by your son. At what age was he able to beat you up? Oh, fairly early. Yeah, I'm not trying to be a tough guy around the house. He's taller than me. He's like six feet something and very muscular and well-built and could easily have pinned me probably like 16 years old. Does he call you Lance? Sometimes, like if we're around a bunch of other people who only know me as Lance, like if we're at some jackass or odd future gang of people who'll be like... hey lance you know but it's not in a diminutive like okay i'm no longer your son kind of way he's not trying to punk you out or not like that give me a go get me another monster lance maybe if you were a stepdad not a real dad i'm a dad to him but if it you know if it's like in front of 10 other friends that are all saying lance all day he'll say lance that makes sense you would have never thought in a million years that your boy would grow up to be a master of submissions it's impressive and again i don't think he's like he's not that guy like that whatever stereotype you might be imagining he's like a smart thoughtful soulful person who like i have many many friends who love the sweet science of bjj and they're all just amazing Sweet people. I've never seen them get in a fight a day in their life. But they could. Yeah, they're all sober, and they are in good shape. I mean, the gi is an interesting look. I don't know. How much of the show-yo roll gis, Jason? I feel like they're kind of hot. If you can get your hands on one, they're not that much. A couple hundred bucks or something like that. I think it's more of a scarcity issue. I see. I understand. It's supply chain. Hit up your friends at the undefeated gym, Chris. They'll sort you out. Okay, perfect. Yeah, thanks for that, Jason. We were talking about the Director's Cut series in the intro. Oh, right on. Because Jason made a great joke that it was like the... famous john waters quote you know if you go home with someone they don't have books don't fuck them yeah the director's cut series is similar to that in the in a certain era of the 2000s you know if you went back if you went back to a fella's house and he didn't have the spike jones director's cut dvd nothing's happening that night you know what i mean and i just if i'm not able to watch bjork videos on your dvd player yeah this is not gonna work these dickies are remaining zipped

But I do think that that's an interesting... Because the DVD has, at least for most normal people in society that aren't film nerds, has fully gone away. You know what I mean? It's not really part of the conversation anymore. Unless you're renting DVDs from the machine outside of Walgreens. Yes, of course, of course. But I think that a lot of people I know still have the director's cut. you know, displayed even. Yeah. Friend of the show. You can't let it go. Friend of the show Decatur Dan has it displayed in his crib and I'm like, damn, that's nice because that really, that really telegraphs a certain level of taste, you know? Yeah, it's definitely an indicator in the way that a coffee table book is often used. It's got that function. But I just feel like those things are like kind of mythic. Are they like expensive now? Is there like a resale market for them? Or is it something you can get on eBay? I think it's an eBay thing. It was Palm Pictures, which I don't think is still in operation. No, I'm sure you can get the whole, you know, any of those DVDs on eBay for, For not too much money. I might need to cop just for the flex. Let's do it. I might need to cop just for the flex. But there was something. When those came out, you felt a power that I could play this Funk Soul Brother video whenever I want to. On demand. Yeah. That was power that a lot of people weren't used to wielding. Lance, what do you watch on YouTube? Because I use YouTube strictly for chiropractor videos. like Wilco playing on Letterman in like 1997. That's kind of my zone. Okay. But Jason learns how to fix stuff and maybe some workouts and stuff. But I'm interested to know what a visionary filmmaker uses the medium for. And don't say Joe Rogan clips. No. I think that at different times, like if I'm doing a project where I'm overseeing like an animated series, I'll go deep and like... Czechoslovakian animators from the 60s or electric company intro screens with the pinball machine and see what color sphere was that mostly working in. If I'm doing something that's more politically involved, I'll watch deep interviews with all the subjects or figures that are on the different sides or factions of a political story that I'm chasing down. If I'm going to go explore some part of the country that I haven't spent recent time in, I'll watch what's going on there now culturally, what are the weird footwork places in Chicago,

What's happening in, like, Murder Mountain? Which pavement record is Murder Mountain? I'm not familiar with that one. That's good stuff, Chris. That's good stuff. They're gearing up to give you another chance to see them live. Malcolmus is coming on this podcast, so we're big tennis players. I know he's a big player. Okay, yeah. And it's destiny. I mean, it's destiny for him to come talk to us when he's got something to sell. So I'm ready for it. Right on. So you use YouTube like a damn adult. You use it as like an educational service. Are you hitting the edible, though? Yeah, I mean, there's fun stuff, too. And then also, like, the great thing is that, like, if you get into some current musician who's making things, you know, you have, like, a new thing from Gia Margaret to look forward to six months from now that she's currently cooking up at. You know, this is all sorts of like knowing that the barrier to releasing imagery is so much lower than it used to be in the sort of MTV era that every artist that's making compelling work finds some way to make two or three songs from each record have a visual form. Like Jason said, though, how high are you when you're doing this? I'm just constantly like taking it all in. So you don't need to be on drugs in order to get into these YouTube... wormholes no i don't need to it's also fun like if you're with different social groups like their patterns like if you hang out with white reaper yeah yeah they've got their thing of watching all the mid 90s music videos and it's like i i haven't thought about these in a while or they just you know one after the other they'll play those and then someone will take over and play an episode of survivor and then you're like i haven't thought about survivor in a long time it was a great show survivor hive is strong um actually it's a it's a people no there are there are people that are fucking freaks about it yeah um It was never for me. I mean, that's the beauty of YouTube, though. It's like a deep hole, but I use it strictly. I mean, chiropractor videos aside, I do use it for music almost exclusively, but only old shit. I only want to see live performances of Suede on Jonathan Ross. I've got to stop you and ask you, how much is there to chiropractic? I've experienced it, but it seems like it's the same three moves.

Deeper levels where they're doing more? Great question, Lance. That's what you would think, Lance. But as a storyteller, I'm surprised you wouldn't kind of see that the subject brings their own arc to the video. They've been dealing with immense pain, emotional and physical, of course. Chris likes to get the backstory. I like the backstory. And then sometimes certain characters, don't credit him, don't credit him with that. But some subjects are also, and I've seen this starting to happen, sometimes they get hotties. So it's like a hottie in a sports bra who's had a lot of problems from her time as a gymnast or whatever. Those get more views. I don't watch those. But is it just kind of like rotate the head and neck? I'm more into the emotional. You like the art form. You don't want some clickbait shawty. And also I'm glad that what you said. You had a nice clean audio take for our meme account to capture whatever you just said. No, but I think that that genre of video, and these videos get like millions of views. Oh, yeah? So I know I'm not alone, but it's also because I think if I wasn't doing what I'm doing now, which obviously is incredibly time-consuming and artistic practice that I take very seriously, I would maybe be interested in... being a bodywork expert. A lot of people share that same sentiment, I think. And I think also, Chris, the world of documentary filmmaking and the world of crack addicts like yourself, Chris, there could be some crossover here. We can get a little Hulu deal, six figures, not seven, but something to play around with. Yeah, Lance, there's a popular chiropractor in middle Florida. Okay. It's kind of known for her funky tights that she wears when she's adjusting people. I'm sure you've seen her on your algorithm before. You've probably seen it, but her 15-year-old daughter is her DP, and she's doing okay. Yeah. But, I mean, I think there's some holes for sure. She's not that experienced, but she could learn something from a guy like you that's really been out here doing this for a long time. So it's something to consider. I don't think we've seen the ceiling of chiropractic video. I think we have a lot of room to grow.

have you explored uh well there's there's a lot of like uh acupuncture there's a british guy who does these really really intense kind of just rub downs but he makes these giant mma guys cry by pressing on their feet okay you know stuff like that and so just you kind of figure out the the zone i mean i can only watch them a couple at a time and i do it in private of course because it's embarrassing and also because you're violently masturbating right yeah that that other part yeah i didn't It's just not – it's something that I talk about because I think it's important for the visibility for the other crack addicts that listen to the show. Sure. Comrade. That's really it. I mean, I do that stuff myself in my personal life. So does Jason. So I think that's part of where it stemmed from is that we started seeing this body work guy who destroyed us, and it was like this weird experience. Okay. So I was like, are there other people like this out there, you know? And, of course, there are. Have you ever checked out Reiki or other approaches? No, that's fake. I don't really – I don't – Find the right person. You ain't going to wave your hand over me and it's going to work. I mean, look, I'll try anything. I've heard of Reiki, but I don't know exactly what it is. Could you explain, Lance? Yeah, tell us. It seems to have worked for you. I thought that was something like a mushroom that you put in your smoothie, but that's Reishi. Yes. It's a form of energy work. It exists in a lot of different cultures. The particular one that for shorthand gets used is that term Reiki. But it's essentially like focusing energy and aligning hands or other body parts over certain parts of your body. And you genuinely tend to feel like a genuine song so far, Lance, temperature or energy or something in the physical space between their hand and your body. And then you start to feel something inside. It's it can be surprising if you find the right person to practice it. So how much how much is a session costing and are crystals involved? There don't have to be any crystals involved, but it would be nice if there were a few around. Yeah.

You might just find the right person that had that skill or knowledge, or you could go pay, you know, 60 to... eighty dollars somewhere to get it for an hour so you've done this before and you have experienced positive results is what it sounds like yeah surprisingly positive result if you're in if you're doing you know all these other formats of body work it's worth yeah yeah yeah try a session and see if it works for you or not yeah i'm not i i don't rule anything out there's all kinds of weird stuff going on we like to explore the body yeah what what's your meditation practice over there in p-town lance i kind of like you know Early on, learn to kind of focus and disassociate and go internal and wrestle with things or rethink things and then come out of it and then put on some music and try and work on stuff. That's good. I feel like I kind of do the same thing. But I do use marijuana to achieve that, unfortunately. There you go. Sure. You're okay with that, right? Are you asking me or Chris? You. Chris is sober. Yeah, I know that. I was surprised if it was like, yeah, you're down with that still, right? But you're not a drug abuser, right, Lance? No, I wouldn't say I was a drug abuser. Keep your nose clean. Keep my nose clean. You seem like a straight shooter. But you have to be in your line of work because these guys are all getting crazy, and you've got to be there to document it. He's got a lot of expensive gear to look after. Yeah, but then at the end of the day, at the end of the shoot, it's fine to get on everyone else's wavelength. You have a very diplomatic way of speaking, Lance. Where did you pick this up? Were you ever in politics? And also, I feel like you're wasting these talents behind the lens. Oh, yeah. No, I've chosen to be kind of discreet and hidden as long as I could, and it's... It's a bummer the times that people have noticed or pointed a camera back at me. But I take deep satisfaction in multiple projects that have not been found out yet and that in the deep future people will realize like, whoa, he made this movie or he wrote this book or those records are him. That's my sort of like long plan. Yeah, I think that's something that I've thought about as I've gotten older is sort of like when people have a situation where maybe like a Kanye West or something like that or like...

Who is making art right now that is being constantly ridiculed and then in the future they will kind of remain in infamy forever? All these people who were poo-pooed during their lifetime creating this art kind of painstakingly and achieving a lot of ridicule only to become a legendary person or artist because the world needed time to kind of catch up. with their way of thinking, and you're saying you're the same way as that. I wouldn't claim that for myself. But I've preferred being discreet and low-key and hidden as much as I can and have pulled it off on some projects that I'm happy about. I'm sure you have some legendary cameos over the years. On the old Bang Bus? Yeah, definitely have popped up in the background of things. of a lot of notable things over the years. That's a better way to be. Absolutely, yeah. That's a better way to be. I'm looking for a few cameos as well. Jason's a known music video extra. He's had some featured roles. You're there in that Avril Lavigne video. That's right. That's right. That's right. So if you have any video work... Oh, you've seen that one, Lance? Oh, yeah. Your hair was so much longer. It was. I mean, it's not like long, long, but it's like different from how you've chosen to be. Oh, yeah. That was like early 20s. I had long hair. I feel like they didn't take advantage of your height. You're kind of like seated. on a stool or something, right? Yeah, the problem was it was either we're casting you on this video because you are freakishly tall or we're casting you in this video and we have to hide the fact that you're freakishly tall because if I stood next to Avril Lavigne, all of 411 soaking wet, it would have been... Would you see some of the same faces at casting sessions or shoots in that era? Constantly. Constantly. Really? So it was everybody trying to get their little check? Yeah, there was kind of like the seedy music video extra agency, like talent agencies, and you would kind of see the same people at all the videos and the same, like whoever the funky person that month. um would always be in every video if you kind of paid attention and did you list skills like did you say that you could dance and that you could drive a motorcycle actually not so much i mean they never really asked about that it was pretty much just like all right you stand here and then depending on what the video is nine times out of ten like you said it's just like can you just dance around for like five minutes you know like yeah a slow motion kind of pogoing movement

while the vines play their hit song get free yeah um for 47 times in the sound studio vines are an underrated act i want to say they have some deep cuts i think they really they got billed as that as the nirvana thing and it kind of ruined their career yeah i remember i actually urinated in public during a take on that video because i had to pee so bad but i was i was trapped like a astroworld concert and i had to just let it flow yeah These directors, they make people work too hard. It's 12-hour days. You've got to get the shot, Chris. That's what La Chapelle said when he kept whipping me with that belt. The film is forever. Your discomfort is another three minutes. There was a lot of the same people over and over and over again. Whoever the weirdest, smelliest-looking, crusty people, they would have to make out in a slow motion. That was such a trope. Do you know that... That singer B, it's like B-Bah Doobie. Yeah, sure. Have you heard of her? Yeah, the new, yeah, yeah, yeah. She has this new video that I was watching. I was talking to Snail Mill about it a couple days ago. And the video is basically like a replica of videos that happened, you know, 20 years ago. Right. And it's sort of like art direction, like shot for shot, replica of Papa Roach, my last resort video. Oh. And it reminded me, I was like, oh, wow. Hopefully this fucked up style of music video creation comes back because I haven't seen a video where it's just like, here's just a bunch of like cool 19 year olds jumping around, you know, that hasn't happened. So what is the current state of music videos? It's like Beyonce gets a million bucks, everybody else gets 5,000? It's more like that. I did a thing for George Harrison for that song, My Sweet Lord. Oh, baby. Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For the reissue, right? Yeah. And so we got to have like a proper budget for that. And the people at Universal were kind of saying like, wow, this is... It's been a long time since we've made a video on this scale. You're like, this is great, Lance. Happy to have you back. We haven't seen you since 99. I mean, when Chris said, so Beyonce gets a million dollars, everyone else goes five grand. Back then, a million dollars was low. Yeah, for a hit single off of a major label leading track that they knew that they were going to be working to radio and TRL and all that, they would spend $500,000 to a million on those sort of things. So yeah, those days are largely gone. But for these smaller artists,

If they spend $5,000 to $25,000 to $50,000 making a cool video, they get to monetize it on YouTube, or at least the label it funded it does or whatever. And then it helps them to kind of stand out to get... a billing on a festival or go do a weekend of shows and i think there's still i think they're still quite like use useful yeah you know i think more people see them now than they used to yeah that's no you're absolutely right that's a good point yeah because youtube's free and and spotify and apple music you got to pay you know that's a good point i mean i see so many people that just like by habit make a playlist in youtube of Whatever the video content is, whether it's an actual music video or just a lyric video or a visualization or whatever, and that's how they listen to the songs they want to hear that day. They have a deep relationship with those videos. And then you have the comment section, of course. Yeah, that's the most fun part. That's my favorite part of YouTube. That's my most favorite part. This song sucks. Well, you know, for every terrible comment like that. Sometimes there are these beautifully well-written comments of like, here's why this Coldplay song changed my life or saved my marriage or whatever it could be. You're absolutely right. If you go through YouTube comments on a music video, they're very emotional responses. Often very emotional responses. So what's up with Jackass, bro? It sounds like it popped off. It went great. Can you send us a screener? Yeah, exactly. I should let your listeners know it's now available on digital formats, and it's also available on that Paramount Plus network to stream if you have it. Oh, perfect. Do it cost? I think if you have that platform, you can watch it. Paramount Plus? You know that we don't have Paramount Plus, Lance. Come on. Grown-ass man, Lance Bangs. I don't have Paramount Plus. iTunes or Amazon, it's available digitally for you now. Okay, maybe I'll watch it on Amazon. Yeah, I mean, I kind of have to. I feel like it's my duty as an American. You've got to stay up with the culture. Yeah, exactly. That actually is Jason's culture, though, in a lot of ways. I feel like...

I feel like you're a pretty big jackass head, aren't you, Jason? I mean, I'm a prankster, sure. Our friend Chris Chang, you might know him. He was a legendary jackass fan, but he made himself, he was an extra in the film. Oh, right on. He willed himself to be in there. Yeah, he willed himself into it, which is an impressive... Yeah, I think he used Reiki to get in that film, actually. There you go. Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. Did you guys do all the premieres and shit? Like, it was pretty normal. No. You know, normally we would have gone and done, like, a screening at Babylon in L.A., like the kind of, like, new skate park that our friend Lee is in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out to Lee. And we would have done, like, you know, we would have gone to, like, an old person's home and shown it to them and gone to, like, a paramedic's firehouse and shown it to them. We kind of would tend to do that. We would go to Alcatraz. That's so fun. Alcatraz, yeah. Waffle House. Yeah, that's just part of the good times. Once you have a movie you're proud of and you want to get that group experience of people laughing, that was always a fun aspect of rolling out the movies. And we weren't able to do that because of COVID. And even it was kind of touching about whether we could have a premiere. And so everyone that had worked so hard, it was a struggle to kind of get through all the COVID-ness of everything while we shot. We did some tests in December 2019 to make sure, is this still funny and compelling and, you know, feel good to watch people who are, like, late 40s? You guys went to a parking lot in Ontario, got some fucking shopping carts and said, we're getting the band back together. Or is it going to look kind of, like, sad to see someone hurt their knee when they're 48 years old and not funny? Yeah, I guess that part I just think about, like, more so I was like, oh, are they just talking about, like, will this be? Will I get canceled for doing this compared to, you know, the early days of CKY or something? Since when we started making this back in, like, you know, 99 or 2000 and 2001 when the first stuff was going on, we've all started working with, like, a more diverse group of friends. And so we made that show, Loiter Squad, with the guys from Odd Future. And so we kind of, the people that we felt like could do jackass stunts from that crew, we kind of tried out or brought in. And there's this woman, Natalie Palmitis and Courtney Peruso. There's sort of, like, performance artists in L.A. that are great.

Rachel Wolfson, who's a stand-up comedy that Knoxville was fond of, her comedy on Instagram. We just sort of like wove some of those like people in and it was a great combination and it just kind of added to everything. And that meant like the older guys were trying to like... up their game to like not be replaced by some 27 year old surfer you know i like that i like i like the i like the idea of these guys i like the idea of these guys like we invented this shit but i'm not gonna lose out to a 27 year old it doesn't totally yeah you're like bro your name is the marquee name i don't care i'm not fucking doing i'm jumping off i mean like like you said when you're 48 years old and you're like i don't know if i want to really do all this crazy shit and then a 27 year old hot surfer guy's like i'll do it it's all good totally and then you're like oh fuck i mean you know it is a little bit of a young man's game at the end of the day so the camaraderie is great everyone had a good time but then we got shut down for covid and you know it was that weird week in early march that you know tom hanks has got it in australia and a guy in the nba made a joke and now he has it like where no one knew what was going to go on we thought we would like take a break and be back in like 14 days and start shooting again but it turned into like maybe seven months of us being the guinea pigs of like damn because under paramount or viacom like They don't want to risk Nicole Kidman. and find out that it's spreadable on a movie set, but they could put us in a backyard and see what happens. If we lose Steve-O, we lose Steve-O. I don't know. It's fine. It kind of felt like that. I think we were the first production to resume back up again. We don't actively want him to die, but better him than Nicole because who's going to do those AMC commercials if she goes? What's Wee Man got coming up for 2022? three, because we could probably... After he got passed for Cyrano, it's been a little quiet for him. We were mostly shooting outdoors and in backyards and not interacting with the public as much as we did, so there were fewer pranks on unsuspecting public citizens, because it was riskier to pull that off without having COVID tested them or whatever. But we got through it, and then all the theaters were going to shut down. We thought it would come out in the fall of 2021.

And then the theaters were all kind of going dark when the Delta variant hit New York. And so we kind of pushed it to February, and that's not, like, the best time for people to go see a movie. You know, all these things that, like, weren't the way we would have loved for it to normally happen in a conventional timeline. But it ended up coming out and getting, like, the best reviews of any of the movie or the whole series and critical reevaluation from everyone. And it's, like, you know, certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. And, hey, these guys are actually art. You know, a lot of that. audiences loved it people were happy to go see it it felt great to watch audiences like all laughing together in a public setting and yeah i think so many films really tried to like take a gamble on the timing with like covid's in covid's out theaters are open theaters are closed again and so many releases got chewed up and spit out just like fucked up yeah and i really feel like of all the films it was kind of not funny or ironic but just kind of cool to see like Whoever was in charge of this jackass film. Yeah. And not like, you know, some crazy like five hundred million dollar, you know, epic film. You timed that little double Dutch jump rope perfectly in the right window. And and did I guess keeping that in mind on the editing process, did it make you be like now we really have to make this like an evergreen evergreen film because it really might need to come out in five years from now? That's a great question. That's kind of weird. Like historically. Spike Jones and Jeff Germain and Knoxville are sort of like the main brain trust that, you know, are steering the ship on these things. And they tend to have like a fun hangout vibe at the edit room where like, you know, cast members are dropping in and looking at their footage or pointing out a joke that someone else said from the peanut gallery that might work there. Chris Pontius had this great line as he was walking away, let's find that and put it back in. And then you kind of look at the overall arc and you're like, okay, there's too many things in a row where someone's...

tripping or falling or you know there's like uh too many things that are like vulgar or cute or whatever in a row and you want to kind of like pace it so that people are if you know that people are going to get terrified when there's like a giant spider fang on a macro lens you take a break and go to something lighter with we man in a costume after that of course of course spread it out so kind of finding that that balance and and featuring everyone at their best and you know making sure that someone doesn't disappear for 40 minutes of the movie and then i forgot that steve-o was in it you know like you got to keep them all peppered in in a way that like you feel the camaraderie and the so much more to consider in a jackass film in 2022 versus the first time you made it i'm assuming exactly yeah and i think some of that thoughtfulness is why the reactions and reviews and the the sense from the audience was so positive this time oh yeah what's that what's that phrase that makes cost cost a lot of money or it takes a lot of time to look this yeah a lot of thought goes into making something that looks like it was just shot out by yeah 11 lunatics so i'm proud of how it came out and happy and all the guys are in a good place and we got through it again like no one got like uh severely injured we're always happy to kind of like no one got severely injured so that's great you know i mean like or like you know they did but they got out of it like knoxville got pretty badly uh messed up but like recovered and is doing better and hopefully uh hopefully friend of the show bam is on the mend a little bit things are going all right for him what do you think i believe from what i've heard from friends around him that he's like doing better and and has got some solid people around him and i'm pulling for him and love him and good and hope that at some point you know it'll be good to be around him again and and yeah love the guy what a what a time though man that that era of mtv where it was Bam and the Osbournes and fucking Jason Dill was on the Osbournes. Yeah.

That is a wild-ass period of time to think about. That is just a wild-ass period. Because I think skateboarding is bigger now than it was then, which is kind of crazy to think about. You know what I mean? I feel like that's the first time it was really exposed on every major outlet from television and movies. Lance, since you're such a member of the video format, the visual arts, How's your relationship with the audio format? Have you grown to... Are you kind of sniffing around in the podcasting space? Have you thought about getting into some audio-only projects? I guess I've made things that were audio-based over the years that I've discreetly released under different names that I learned recording technology to do that and have always kind of enjoyed that aspect of things. I think that I'm traveling... When I get wrapped up in a certain project, I'll focus all of my attention there and not be able to book a guest to do a conversational podcast thing. I like the format. I like long car rides with friends and long conversations, but I don't think it's for me to commit that this many days a week I know I'm going to be at a laptop. That's right. That's good. Jason does it three times a week and he fucking hates it. But, you know, this is what we signed up for. So, you know, what are you going to do? Real quick, was that like a super deliberate thing to like be more prolific and get more great guests by doing three a week? Nope. Not at all. But now we're riding this horse off into the sunset. Yeah. You know, it's like it's I mean, at this point, it's like anything else. So you just get into it and that's what you do. And so you just keep doing it. You know, you don't really think about it that much. Like last week. Yeah. Because of like. guest shuffling and shit we recorded four podcasts we did like two days with two podcasts back to back which is like a lot right but it's like it's fine if that's what diplo wants that's what you have to exactly exactly you know the phrase when you a crazy person is somebody who does the same thing over and over again yeah what's that phrase expecting a different result expecting different results that's the definition now so my theory was like oh i'll try

working hard at something. So that's like this project or this podcast has been an experiment in working very hard at something instead of just... Some people in the world might have different definitions of working hard. That is true, but compared to my life before as sort of a DJ layabout where you're just kind of like, well, it's time to go work four hours a week or something. From anthropology to music video extra to DJ, I mean... You've worked hard your whole life. I'm not going to let you slander yourself on this podcast. You're making my point. I wanted to try something different, and I don't want to work hard at something that isn't my own thing. Right, right, right. That is difficult. Lance, thank you for joining us on How Long Gone. It was a pleasure, man. Right on. We've been big fans for a long time, so it was nice to chat. I didn't fully understand the Athens connection, which is pretty interesting. I still get back there all the time. I'm likely to be there in a couple weeks. Nice layer to the cake. All right, man. And a delight to hear that you listen to this show, Lance. Really cool. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we love that. You got anything coming out you want to tell us about, or is it all TBD? No, there's some good stuff. Any mystical? projects that are under a pseudonym that you want to not plug? I think that there's some good things that are emerging that are coming up that seem pretty solid. I did a stand-up special for a performer named Moses Storm that's available on HBO Max right now. Oh, you did that? Yeah, I did that. And then the Jackass movie is out on all these digital and streaming platforms right now. I'm about to go direct a special for a woman named Alyssa Limparis that will be shooting for the Peacock streaming. app and then i think i'm doing stuff for a couple different bands for their records that are coming out that haven't quite been announced but that within i think by may that i'll you know people will notice it'll all be it'll all be popping that's great man lance maybe you inspired me to Hit the bong and watch Jackass forever tonight. That's right. Making a nice short rib ragu. It's in the oven right now, Lance. You can smell it from here, can't you? It's a great ride, and you should see it while it feels like in this moment of everyone excited. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Copy that. That's a good point. Lance, appreciate you, and we will talk soon. Right on. Take care. Thank you.

My sweet Lord, my Lord, my Lord. I really want to see you, really want to be with you. Really want to see you, Lord, but it takes so long, my Lord, my sweet Lord. I really want to know you. I really want to go with you. I really want to know you.