Modern Strangers Bonus Episode!

W-N-C, W-N-C, original music. The Modern Stringers Edition. Ah, I said duh, fuck. One more time.

All right, this is the special bonus edition of the Modern Strangers episode. This doesn't have much music in it, except for what you just heard, the wonderful rendition of the W-N-C original music theme song. But this is just a extension of the discussion we have, specifically the part where we took fan questions that we got ahead of time, and the guys answered those. I wanted to add these separately because first they were so entertaining, and it just stands on its own.

And also because the other episode was just so long, it was almost two hours. And here it is now, the Modern Strangers bonus episode. All right, so fan questions. Bring it on.

Kate? No, no, Kate. So, I cannot get over. Okay, Heather Burdett.

Burdett, Burdett. Do you guys know? You're home to listen, man. Well, I mean, we'll say Burdett.

You can narrow it down. She's a great fan of Burdett. That's Burdett. She's a great fan of Burdett.

What is her question, bro? Heather Burdett wants to know, will we play a show in track, will you guys play a show in track suits on roller skates that Heather Burdett can photograph? The first part of the question is yes, we will play a show in track suits, I'm sure. We have matching track suits that we love.

It would be problematic, I think, for most of us to wear roller skates based on pedals. So we'd need to get our engineering team on that. I think Alex might be the only one who could pull it off because he doesn't have any pedals. I'm also famously un-athletic and coordinated though.

So I feel like that. And I jump a lot. So cherry on top. I don't think that I could jump in roller skates.

I do feel like we could incorporate some roller skates at some point just because Heather was really awesome. I would like to do, I would like to shoot a music video of us in the track suits on roller skates. That would be an excellent thing to do. So I appreciate this idea.

I really did. I have roller skates in my car right now. And the last time we played the Grey Eagle, I regret not getting them out because we were sound checking and it has the whole big open wood floor. I think I could have done some serious roller skating.

I don't know if I would have gone over well. It would have been empty. If I had been empty. I was afraid I would have hurt myself.

The owners maybe. I feel like the staff might have had it wrong. That's why I didn't do it. Yeah, I'm a rule follower.

Oh, right. You guys know Heather Burdett. Yeah, she took great pictures of us at Sligram. Oh.

Your nemesis band, the pitching fits, wants to know, are those official space force spacesuits? They are not. And I can explicitly say this because it existed before the space force. Yes.

And the very first time we wore them, it was for love, not war. We wore them at Pride Fest, downtown in Asheville, which was awesome. We know we, it was the second year of playing it. We really had a top.

First year we wore colors and fun wigs and stuff. And we really decided we needed to top it and do something really special because it's just such an awesome event. So no. I would say we were the anti-spaced.

Oh, come on. No, actually it's a great idea because it's actually a great idea. I'm looking at that. I think that there's a local spaceworse recruitment office in Asheville, right?

It's at the mall. At the mall. OK. So we probably need to skate on down there and look into getting some.

Yeah. Where you're trying to bring your ID in your social security garden. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they probably give us some spacesuits. See, the problem with the spacesuits is that you can't wash them.

I mean, I wash mine too. I wash mine too, Troy. Hold on. It makes me think that you try to wash the tracksuit.

Do you wash that? I feel like the magic is in the special sauce. The magic is in the show. Yeah, exactly.

The magic is in the phone. You don't wash. I don't wash those places. That's why James and James and never once changed his strings.

That's got to be false. It's true. It's totally true. He never cleaned his base or changed his strings.

He just bought it. He said the funk is in the gunk. Google that. OK.

Siri is the funk really in the gunk. Next question is the funk in the gunk. Cool. I covered that one.

I'm not going to do this real. Let's see. Oh, here's one from David Rogers. Uh, Detroit Crossley passed on playing the Facebook doppelganger game because he looks like Vladimir Lenin.

He does look like Vladimir Lenin. I've heard this so many times. Really? My favorite beetle.

A lot of people like Paul McCartney. I like Lenin. Hot take. Lenin had a remarkably small mouth though.

I don't think you have. No, Troy's got a great big mouth. Yeah. I do have a big mouth.

Yeah. It's mostly like you got to look like the whole shape of the head. Like, oh, yeah. The viewers can really drink it.

For everybody at home, Troy took his hat off. I did. And then it was like the leader of the Communist Party in Russia. It was like you had to show it up.

You have to have a mat furor. But you do that just then. I think it was your movements. I think it was your movements.

Back to the room guy. Sorry, Ron. I'm older. David, how do you write those good songs from Courtney Cahill?

Is it Cahill or Cahill? Cahill. I thought it was Cahill. What was Cahill?

Cahill. David, how do you write such good songs? Talent. Talent.

Next. Perspiration and inspiration. What's the percentage? Not right now.

David does sweat a lot. I do sweat a lot. He does. Probably mostly perspiration.

I've seen him just completely ruin his petals so many times just with a sweat from his forehead. Josh Levy. Levy. Levy.

Levy. Josh Levy. Will Modern Strangers. Is it Modern Strangers?

No, though. No, though. Will Modern Strangers be putting out one of those shirtless haul calendars for the holidays this year? It'll be hard to talk the one from last year.

I feel like we all just put on so much weight over this last year. I think it was a misstep last year when we all posed with fire hoses. Yeah. Every month.

I think what we should do is we should all buy some booty shorts and wear only them while on skates and then Heather Burd can come and photograph us skating around. But could I wear the existing booty shorts already? Or would I have to get new ones? No, those ones are not good for this purpose.

I call them on the shorts that say juice on the booty. Mine will say it. Mine will say it. It's the calendar that Western North Carolina never needed.

What about those pictures? If you guys did a picture like sometimes the babies but they'll be in a bunch of fruit. And Getty's? For some reason I can see Alex in one of those pictures.

Josh, Josh. Josh, we are going to do this and we're going to do it to raise money to prevent people from tripping over their feet. That's right. Because I don't know Josh.

He was always very concerned that people tripped too much. Too trippy. As a matter of fact I was just out at the park and people tripping all over the place. I'm like man this place is too trippy.

It seems like Asheville is like, man it's so easy to trip. I think it's where we don't have a lot of money to fix the roads in the sidewalks. There's a lot of potholes. It's an epidemic.

Quick tangent just because you asked if it was the modern strangers or modern strangers. So when my group pronounced heroes that are album release show, we played our first song. Is it pronounced strangers or the pronounced strangers? Pronounced heroes.

When we played our album release show, we played our first song and I immediately went to the mic and said thank you. We are modern strangers. And so then I mean that would be the perfect opportunity to say we are the modern strangers. But I made that mistake too.

It's less funny. And legally we can't say we are the modern strangers. They seriously scold me for it. No there's another band called the audience.

You guys are hard to talk to. We were around before them. I'm surprised you can say modern strangers. Oh you were around before them.

They're technically more popular than us but you know. You shouldn't be a good person. They are a British like since pop duo or something. I mean I don't think you guys could prove me wrong but I don't think any successful band has come out of England.

So I'm not really worried. Not as in pop duo. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm crazy.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You know.

What? Yeah. Yeah. You know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Nice thing. Yeah. They wrote very encouraging mustard notes.

That was like the highlight of our musical career. I think. Yeah. That was a really nice song.

You amazingly talented beast of a man if you're listening. That's a wonderful, wonderful idea. Everybody likes good food. Oh, no raising?

Is that what you're raising, cookies? No, you're ruining the moment. Maybe he's a chocolate chip, man. Could you get a T-shirt gun and load the cookies up and shoot it out in the ground?

I'm with you. I've actually looked into a T-shirt. Oh, nobody's got that idea. No, I was just thinking.

I was just thinking, right? No, actually, I was thinking, like, I'm going to go in, and like, what's the word for it? There's a word for it. Pat.

I'm going to pat on the cookie gun. Cookie gun. Cookie gun. Nice.

Totally never been thought of. It's like a potato kind of a tastier. Unless it's oatmeal raisin. He's sick person.

That is weird. That's the first cookie that comes. I was actually trying to think of the most nefarious. Hated cookie, I would think.

I was really listening. Potato cookies? What? Is it true, again, from Josh Levi?

Nope, still Levi. Levi. What's that? Levi.

Joe Chue. All right. You said Levi or Levi? It's Levi.

It's Levi. Josh Levi. Like when the Levi breaks. Like a pair of Levi's.

Yeah, it's OK. Is it true that Troy Crossley is the son of George Carling? I can say no for a fact because I met your father. Yeah, it's just my dad does kind of look like George Carling a little bit.

You know my father. What do you mean, really? Yeah, I wouldn't really see him. This looking like George Carling.

I'm sorry, Troy. When I see your father, I see his dope hat and his awesome suspenders. Yes, that is immediately when I think I'm going to look at that. And awesome suspenders have skulls on them.

My dad wears some pretty bang and suspenders. Your dad's a cool dude. Your dad Gallagher loves my shoulder. No, he's already still out on that one.

Oh, OK. I've never seen Troy's father and Gallagher in the same room. So also there's two Gallagher's. There are two Gallagher's.

But this is a really, really deep rabbit hole because there are lots of men out there who could be Troy's father. So really? Yeah, take that Troy's mom. Wow.

Edit, now. Edit point. You're getting at it. You get at it.

I thought you said that accidentally, but you really were cracking on his mom. Which is. I mean, I say things sometimes. I don't know.

To be clear. All right. It's OK. David's my mom's least favorite member of the band.

That's OK. I believe David's father is mom's least favorite member of the band. She's not your my mom's favorite member of the band. So it works itself out.

I'm my mom's favorite. She tweets about it every day. When will modern strangers get rid of David? They only went to Detroit's mom.

Yeah. I think my mom has actually said, wow, you're finally in a band that sounds like music. Her and my aunt are on the same page there, I guess. I thought you just forgot you tell that story.

My mom was also very supportive. Alice, do you have anything to say about the song, Your Bones? All right. Is Courtney Cahill?

Cahill. Cahill's right hand permanently stuck in a thumbs up. It is not? I have not seen you do a thumbs up all night.

No, I say the last question. But you're almost restraining yourself. I am from doing it. I do.

Ron, I'm here to tell you it is. It is. It's a condition. I've tried to in the IT business.

And we try to talk about that. It's not a flaw. It's a feature. So I've tried to take my frozen thumbs up issue and turn it into kind of my brand.

I would like to know how the permanent thumbs up effects are drumming. It's difficult. He never sticks. What fun?

He solders through. This is from Tim Roof. Eccles. It's actually our friend Joe Hooten who played.

Tim Roof, solo under Tim Roof. He messaged us on our Facebook page. All right. And he said.

Do you want to use all these? I want to do it. We already talked about the spacesuits. So I'm going to say from Tim Roof Echo, do you use.

He's also you can find him at at Tim Roof Echo on Instagram. I'm sure. Do you use Google Sheets? How was your spreadsheet formatted?

That was a children's book. How was your spreadsheet formatted? Yeah. I'm also a fan of everybody's spreadsheets.

Dear God, it's me. Everybody's spreadsheets. Dear God, it's me, Microsoft Excel. So I believe what our friend Joe Hooten is asking is, he's looking for some tips on our organizational techniques.

And I actually have a new podcast starting called Administrative Tools for Rock Bands. Oh, yeah. And in it, I do detail my whole suite of spreadsheets that I use, the practice schedule, the breakdown of monies. But yeah, we like to be organized.

We had a meeting the other day. We had several different maps going. We had Word Docs. We do not use Google Docs.

I'm anti-Google. All Microsoft. I like to root for the little guy. And it's all about Word Docs.

And we like to keep it organized. Bullet points. Joe, what you want to do is take practice only at rehearsal. And just don't ever think about it like the rest of the week.

And just let your drummer like you know you later. So if I could chime in here, what you need is a good bandad. Like every good band has a good bandad. So for example, first one that comes to mind.

Keith Richards. Really star. Really, of course. Yeah.

Courtney. Who'd he end of Glowfish? Mike Brady? Yep.

Alan Partridge, is that his name? There isn't Alan Partridge. I don't think it's the name of the dad from the Partridge family. He didn't have a dad.

Have you ever seen the show? From Beren Stain Bears. That's the whole point of the show. But they didn't have a manager who acted as a bandad sort of.

Ron, you and I are a similar age. He's doing something like that. I've been on Nick at night back in the day. Apparently not well in a long time.

I mean, even Flight of the Concords says Murray. Murray. Oh. Courtney is very much our Murray.

Yeah. Yeah. I think he was going to start everything. He says band beating.

I tell that you went from Lars Olgers to Murray. I don't think he's a compliment. Maybe. They're really not that dissimilar though.

That's true. David, I like to go back to your compliment though. Every band needs a bandad. Yeah.

And I'm that. And Courtney is that. Okay. That's a little thirsty there.

Like here's the thing. Like you had to hear that compliment again please. People out there think they want to like, you know, like write and record and mix and master and like all that. Like that's cool.

That's your thing if you're like Brian Wilson do it. But what you really need is like somebody that can do all that stuff for you. And that's what Courtney is. I did show up.

I was says come over to Rick's house. We're going to practice. And I'm like, I'm there. I was very excited after our last band meeting.

When I left and I told David that I would send him his action items and he needed to work on it. Yeah. He pointed out that it's a very rock and roll thing to have action items. We finalized our mission and vision statements at that meeting.

Yeah. Action makes a rock and roll. Yeah. Also we played.

They were no guitar. No, no, no. What kind of rock and roll meeting would it be with guitars? We did a run in blowing rock and boom and we all we shared an Airbnb and Courtney talked to Sal in at night.

It was really, really, you know, he really swaddled me. It made me feel very safe and warm. Yeah. Stuff like a baby.

Yeah. Dress like a baby too. It's true. Courtney even changed my diaper in the morning.

That's the episode title. Episode title. Changing. Oh, just changing diapers.

Changing diapers. It's changing diapers. Lowing minds. Yeah.

My. Well, you guys already kind of thought what does your three year plan look like probably just finished that album right there. As a matter of fact, have you been looking at our spreadsheet two years, 11 months? What is our three year?

We actually, it's funny. We in our meeting, the aforementioned meeting, that was so successful and fun. We actually only got about a year and a half out. So I would say our three year plan is yet to be.

That's phase eight. We're currently on phase five. So we're not quite there yet. But listen, we should add anything else.

Everyone knows that artists don't get truly like, you know, popular and legendary until they're dead. So it's like, you know, our album will come out. Right before we die. And it comes out, which will be like, you know, well, it comes out.

Unfortunately, you're all over 27. So you've missed that magic cut off. Yeah. Actually, it's 27.

I don't know if you do. I was also told that I was also told that 47 is the new 27. So I can still die. Yeah.

Just in. Courtney, Courtney, I do not believe that will ever happen. Really? Cool.

You live forever. I plan on joining the Matrix if possible. I'm not going to say who this is from because it might be from a local band. I don't want to be afraid.

I'll just sing these questions from what is everyone's favorite local band. Hard rocket. Everyone's favorite. Troy's coming out with Hard rocket.

Actually, that's not true. If I'm totally honest, my favorite band is Carpetoll. I think it's pronounced Hard Rock it. Carpetoller?

Let's start to take on that. That's what I call it. I'll say Carpetoller. Carpetoller.

I don't think you can't most do people say the same one. No, you can't. No, no, no. Okay.

When that case, you should have said them all at the same time. All right, guys. I'm three. I'm three.

So your favorite local band. One, two, three. And we're not a changer. Thank you.

I'm not a right band. Get right band. You said Troy's Carpetoller. I love Hard Rock it.

I love Hard Rock it. And I'd have to go with Jiggling Sparrows. For the record, I would say all four of those answers could be any of our answers. And there are other bands we also love very much.

Who's a local band that you love, that you do not know? That you only know them through their music, or their reputation? We are fortunate to know a lot of... Yeah, that's actually one of the nice things about the local scene here is that even people who play very disparate styles of music are all appreciate and like each other's music and come out to support one another.

So, yeah, I mean, it's actually pretty awesome. Everybody's pretty tight knit and friendly. Who's the band that you've never heard of, that you like? No, that's not...

I don't really like to get to know natural born leaders. They're really cool. I've never met them. They moved me.

Literally. I just recently played a show with my other group. We shared a bill with the MOUTH Reathers, who I'd never heard until just a few days ago. And I actually really, really enjoyed them.

That was my first time seeing them. I'm really excited we have a show, I guess it's not upcoming because it's podcast later, but they're from the region, they're from Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. All three of them are from kind of like right where they all meet. But they are excellent.

Kind of sound like placements, the super awesome band. They are one of my favorite, not super big bands right now. I'd say how fun that show was. Super fun show.

I was surprised how many people came. Yeah. It was packed. In the fire?

Yeah. They broke out. Yeah. They're breathing fire.

Yeah. Yeah. We can talk about this now that it's over, but we played that show under a pseudonym which was kind of fun too. What's going on?

Two three months, probably. Two. Oh my gosh. That was such a great show.

Yeah. Opening band. What were they called? I don't remember, but they were really.

David, those improv classes are really panhopper. I like that question, Ron. There's a local band. We don't know.

I was thinking about that. David was using the old improv technique of yes and hold on. Wait, what was that? Hold on a second.

Yes. And repeat that. I got something. I lost it.

I lost it. I lost it a lot of my answers. I gave my answer. Can you tell us who asked that question?

Oh, it's Courtney. It was me. Yeah. I know.

We've been talking about it. David Earl texted a question. Oh, okay. From David Earl asked, what is it like having so many songwriters in a band?

I know. It's like frustrating. Wow. I mean, not really.

Honestly, the only part that gets difficult is when usually it's me, when I'll write a song that's outside the genre that we're sort of going for. Like cutting wallpaper from the album or something like that just because it's just stylistically a turn. Yeah. Even within your own songs, you guys have different styles.

So to bring that together, we have such a varying style of all of our time. I kind of like that though because it's fun to play a lot of different styles. It makes it super interesting. It's really not a flaw at all.

It doesn't feel that stark when we're actually playing live. It doesn't feel like that's right. I only use this one of those things that people think is true because it has a literary in it. Or no, that's not the one I don't like.

If you can't fix it, feature it. No. Okay. If it's not a flaw, it's a totally different.

Yeah. If you can't fix it, feature it. Yeah. Yeah.

I think our new band motto. We're not going to feature it or fix it. Live with it. I think when we play live, it's not very, it's not so stark or jarring or whatever it is.

You know, wallpaper from any of the other songs really. You get anything. I mean, we have a little bit of everything. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's just because we all love music so much. I mean, just different kinds of music. I mean, it's not the way that we do it.

So even with the covers that we play is like, we somehow make it work where we can play and play the full, some prison blues and then turn around and play the Ramones or the Pixies or something like that. And we get away with it. I don't know what it sounds like to everybody else, but we get away with it. Yeah.

I mean, I think there's some bands that have like wider sounds and others that have narrower sounds and you know, like kind of the desert island question, like if I had a pick between the Beatles and the Stones, both amazing to my very favorite bands. But even though the Beatles catalog is much shorter, I'd have to go with them because their sounds more diverse. They have more variability whereas like the Stones is so much narrower and a lot of their stuff sounds really similar, even though it's great. I think that like the Beatles, even with having many fewer songs keeps me much more entertained.

That is probably my number one beef when going to see a show if it's just a lot of the same. Yeah. You kind of see three or four songs like I kind of get what they're doing. I've actually seen that with, I've talked about that and seen that with people at our shows where they just happen to be at a place and we start playing and they just get drawn into it because they're like, you know, they want to see like what's going to happen next because we're all over the place.

Well, we literally insert, jump around into a cover of Fulsive Prison blues. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the reasons why I say that Carpal Tuller is like one of my favorite local band is just because of how diverse and that's just one songwriter.

But just how diverse like each song is from the next, you know. Super interesting songs. Yeah. So to really get to the root of the question, it's really, I think it's more of a plus to have more plus on writers because yeah.

So what it's like is it's great. You get a little bit more flavor in everything else. I'm cutting everything out of that. That's great.

That's great. Not only that, but you end up like learning from another writer. Yeah. Yeah.

It broadens your horizon. Yeah. And I've actually tried to implement some subtle things here and there, you know, that kind of mimic some of the things I've learned from Troy. Likewise, particularly with your, with your lyric, your approach to lyrics.

Random questions. I ask everybody for different reasons. I've got to pick a superpower that does not already exist in like pop culture, comic books or something. That was a great question.

Thank you. And don't say love in my husband is my super power. No, I almost thought asking this question because we were doing like, oh, being a teacher is my super power. I mean, caring too much.

Yeah. Being too good at sex. I think Courtney's super power is spreadsheets. That's so obvious.

Super organized. I kind of like this better. I think we should choose each other. All right.

You can't assign your own nickname or super power. Right. It's true. Even super powers.

Big sloppy wet kisses on the cheek. Does that make you very uncomfortable? I mean, they make you uncomfortable. They do.

That's David's true super powers making me very uncomfortable. Of course. He's a power standing in the ocean. Yeah, it is.

Alex's super power is being super reliable. That's actually a serious one. Alex, you never have to worry about. He's always in.

He's always there. He's always on time. Ready to go. Also he's down to clown boys.

And he learned the songs. Super good for that thing. That phrase did not go with. I'm sorry.

How do you know that phrase? He's dependable. He's there. I'm down to clown.

Is that what it means? I've been reading the internet and understanding from DTF. I'm DTF. I'm dog tired.

Wherever. Is that what it means? That's what someone told me. My niece told me.

She said, why the face? And I said, DTF, baby. I'm surprised. I mean, it was a perfect place.

I don't know what it's done. Super thumbs. That's true. Actually, I'd say Courtney's super power.

That's an existing super power. Courtney's super power is making former bandmates so uncomfortable they don't come back to practice. Super creepy. You don't want a lot of former...

He's prising. Super creepy. That's not your easy day all the time. He doesn't know when there.

I mean, like, you're right. You're wives are good friends. That's true. Yeah.

It's true. Everything you say feels like you mean something to hell. You're a what? He probably does.

He probably does. Well, that's real dumb. If you don't like anything. Dogtown.

For the wives. That might be my super power. Super confusing. Yeah.

Saucy Inuendos. Mixed Inuendos. Oh, that's an absurd title. Saucy Inuendos.

What's up? This sounds terrible. He has a super power. Did you say that?