That's the Ron Preshins theme. Carl Hofstetter. Mm. We are here in Indianapolis, Indiana.
At the headquarters. At the headquarters of Joyful Noise, recording. Yeah. And there's a truck driving school right next door.
I know it's. Oh, is that what that is? Yes. A group of people going into the building.
Learning. All, learning how to drive semis. Yeah. Hopefully well.
Because that's a big problem out there, is that they're weaving all over the roads. Well, it's a lot to be responsible for. I feel for them. Ah, those are huge vehicles.
Have you ever driven? What's the largest vehicle you've ever driven, Carl? I once had to parallel park a large SUV with a U-Haul trailer on the back in Manhattan. Yeah.
That was the most challenging challenge. Was this a job that you, is this something you were doing as the president of Joyful Noise, right? Oh, well, well, this is how I was like 20 years old. That was on tour.
You were on tour? I think it was after the first, you know, the quote unquote first Joyful Noise release came out. So you were as the president of the record. You began parallel parking an SUV with a trailer in Manhattan.
Yeah. That's amazing. That's some serious dedication. You've actually probably never done that.
I've never done that. Yeah. No. I hate trailers.
I don't think trailers. Yeah. They're tricky. They're tricky.
Yeah. Well, we're so excited to be here today. We're in the spot. This place is not just a random record label.
It's personally connected to us. So you were parallel parking SUVs with trailers at the age of 20 as the quote unquote president of a record label. That's OK. To be clear, Joyful Noise was not anything that would resemble a record label for another five to seven years.
But you had financed it. You had put out a record. What was the record? It was my own band.
No way. Yeah. It was my own like no one else. It was a fake record label name.
So just to put out my own bands. Because nobody would put it. What was it? Man.
Because it's a noise. OK. It's the most ridiculous band name in the world. That's hard to believe.
Trust me. Late on. I mean, we but it was called Melk the G649. Milk?
M-E-L-K. Melk. Oh, I like that. Melk.
The G649. There's a dash between G6 and. That was your band's name. That's the band's name.
And you actually got J&R01. That's the first one. Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness.
In order to make a record of your band's music, you were like, I need a record label then. And so that's what started this. Well, it was more like a ween. I wanted to print CDs of this record.
Yeah. And I thought we would look more legitimate. Yeah. If we had a record label name on the back.
OK. So you're saying that your first record was a CD? Yes. Ah.
This is ironic. I know. It was as Carl Hofs' better is right now this day, 2023. You're not the biggest fan of CDs.
I'm not. I've been working on them trying to get them to CDs. He just won't go. He won't budge.
He's stuck with his whole vinyl and cassettes. So do you primarily sell to the people that are part of the clubs? Is that kind of the thing? Is that sort of what the heart of what supports the label?
Is it the subscription thing? I mean, I would say it's kind of 50-50 more or less. Well, it's about 50-50 between people that I would say are fans of the label versus people that are fans of a particular band. What are some of the names of the bands you guys put out?
You just throw it out there in case people are curious. There's hundreds. Besides Lou Barlow. Hundreds.
I mean, well, I'm looking on the wall and I'm seeing a lot of really cool records. Yeah. You just look around the wall, I guess. I guess.
Tropical Fox Storm. Tropical Fox Storm. Why? Oh, night, Elton 11, Dilkrover.
Yeah. We're looking at this. We're looking around right now at the front of the wall. The wall.
Inel Trump. Inel Trump. We released a lot of Rob Crowe. Projects.
Rob Crowe. Explain to me. Rob Crowe is an amazing, diverse songwriter. Most people know him from his band, Pinback.
Oh, Pinback. Oh, he's the Pinback guy? He's the Pinback guy. He told me for years, like you got to meet the Pinback guy.
He's fucking amazing, dude. Oh, man. You guys did it off. You know what?
So you said Inel Trump. That's when Lou and I are driving, he told me a fun little game to play on the road that was shared to you by what, Mark Peretta? Mark Peretta. Former Citizen of Muncie, Indiana.
Yeah. Just recently moved from Muncie after living there for quite a while. Well, and also contributor right to the deluxe. The deluxe vault of pollution.
Yep. The deluxe vault of garage offshoot of the vault of pollution. He was a guitar player for that. Deluxe vault of pollution only happened on Kid Central.
Daddy never understood. Thought I was up to no good. Storming at me in his sweatpants. Make me dance, Daddy.
Dance, Daddy. Dance. Is that a song from the record? Yes, I'm just like there.
Did you write that for the movie? No. We actually did a session. We were this fun band offshoot of vault of compulsion.
It was John Davis playing guitar. Mark Peretta playing guitar. Bob Faye then of Sabado playing drums and me just singing. It's like the best.
Oh, wow. It was like a party day in the studio. I drank like a 12-pack in the studio. We got super duper sewn on marijuana, and we played this set of songs that we had learned very short, like sort of absurdist punk rock or ouch songs, one of which was Daddy Never Understood, which we then rerecorded for the Kid Central.
Did you write those lyrics to Daddy Never Understood? I did, of course. Not after 12 years. Yeah.
Sticky sweet between my fingers. Peanut butter on my pants. I'm going to do myself good because Daddy Never Understood. Can't wait to listen to that.
Wait, you've never heard the song? No, I haven't. I know. I know.
Oh, really? Did it end up in the movie? Oh, yeah. It opens the movie.
It's amazing. It's like it's truly one of my best moments. I watched that movie and then I kind of like tried to scrub my brain afterward because it was so disturbing. It's horrifying.
It's literally horrifying. I was like, what? Am I damaged now? It was pretty funny when John Davis and I, it was the big premiere at a theater in Boston, so we brought our whole family there.
And it opens with like two 13-year-olds making out. Yeah. Oh, no. I was like, wow.
The movie is so brutal. It's, I know. It's one of those that where you're like, I know intellectually that that is an amazing film, but I never, ever want to see it again. Yeah.
I know that about so many movies. I'll circle back to that. Actually, I find that topic very interesting, but I just wanted to give our shout out to Marc Paretta for telling you then to tell me to, then whenever we see like an RV or a camper van. Oh, yeah.
Speaking of RVs and camper vans. Yeah. Whenever you, because I always have a name on the back like, like, Raptor. Yeah, Raptor.
Raptor. Raptor. Raptor. Raptor.
You know, are people named? No, no, they're like the brands. They come to the brand. They come to the RV.
You'll see it. Like Raptor is one I say quite a bit. Yeah. So, anal round one after?
Yeah, anal, yeah. Yeah, anal void, Voyager. Yeah. And it gives me the gingels.
It does. It makes long trips, you know. Yeah. Just puts a little.
Yeah, sometimes I'll even know like, you know, add those to like a semi when I see something like, you know, there's like, that's fun. It's swift. Semi is like anal swift. Yes.
Anyway, so, you know, just bring it back. So, you know, anal sets, it makes most humans laugh. Well, like bringing it back to Rob Crowe's project, it was so, this was his like sort of parody of the, of the Grand Corps band, anal cunt. Oh, yeah, anal cunt.
You know, where they, you know, had just, they were just the most offensive band of all time. Yeah. Other than maybe GGL and or something. And, and they had like, you know, 10 second songs.
Oh, yeah. Boston. Wow. Boston proud right there.
Oh, yeah. And so basically like he, when Trump got elected, or maybe when he was even, you know, still in the primary. It was pretty early. I remember anal Trump being kind of an early, you know.
It was like, it was like Rob's therapy. I went to see anal cunt with the Melvins with Buzz and Dale at a space land. And LA. And we stood right up front and they were amazing.
I loved it. I was like, wow, anal cunt are great. And I'd heard about them for years, but I was like, they were, it was a really fun show. And afterwards, Buzz bought me an absolutely enormous anal cunt t-shirt.
They're like, we want you to have this shirt Lou, because I think, you know, I'm, I'm kind of known as a pre-wholesome guy, I think. And they thought it would be funny if I had an anal cunt shirt. But I was very honored with the Melvins purchased. Yeah.
So, purchased me an anal cunt shirt. Did you wear it? Yeah, I wore it around the house. I wore it to bed.
It was kind of one of those good big sleep shirts. Oh, what's the shittiest job you ever had, Lou? He's had my own. I'll tell you mine too.
Backing groceries. I can beat you. I'm not sure you can't. You don't know my shitties job.
But, you know, I did have a job of, I mean, I was, I worked in nursing homes where I was literally doing, you know, was wiping people's butts and. But you like that. I love you. That's not a thing.
You know what? I'm just saying that maybe that is really important job. Right. I got groceries and my mom wanted me to go work in a nenvelope factory and then I was like, and then I just did the emotional math and I'm like, well, if I'm going to work and I got to get a job because I needed to start buying musical equipment and whatnot and paying for gas, I was like, I'm going to nursing home because that's, that seems like it's something good to do.
Did you do that intention? I get that age. Yeah. I mean, I was 19, 20.
So that's awesome. Yeah. I don't know if I would. He would be a nurse if he wasn't interested.
I don't know if I would have been that conscientious. So, well, I just knew that it would be interesting. I mean, that people are interesting and old people are really interesting. Yeah.
So that was my logic to it. And also the pay was like superior to bag and groceries. So. What was your worst job, Carl?
Okay. So I won't even say this is my. Okay. Your least favorite.
Not necessarily like the worst. It's not even like, I actually, it's the most horrifying to describe. Oh, okay. It was at a barbecue restaurant.
I would get there at 8 a.m. Unload the carcasses. Yeah, the carcasses of animals. Okay.
Put on these huge rubber gloves. There are these big plastic bins that I would load them into. Sort of off the fat, take out the bones, mash it all together into what you call pulled pork. And then I would load in chickens.
Those would cook for I think four hours or something. Then when those came out, I would put on like sort of surgical gloves, unload those and debone the chickens. And I worked there for years. I did the math once and there was something like 60 chickens a day.
And so I was like, man, I've dismantled hundreds of thousands of chickens with my bare hands. That's trigger warning. You're a vegetarian. Oh my God.
Yeah. Well, I've never had to do that. Where's place to be with the hangover? Oh.
You know, because I was like 20, you know, I was like going out and getting 20 years old. I don't have hangovers. I did. I did.
I was like, I just like have a steam. Oh my God. I'm not really. Just hitting you in the face.
A little meat steaming bath. A little meat steaming. Yeah. And then you're probably like chain smoking too right at the time.
You rip off your glove, go outside, have a cigarette, go back in. Okay. We should probably wrap it up. Anyway.
I don't know. It seems like your job now is much better, like way better. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I... Not we're not saying it's challenge free. I stumbled into my dream job.
It is extremely challenging though. Yeah. Every day. Yeah.
That's kind of the dream job, right? It's got to be really challenging. Wait, before we go, I wanted you to quickly say two new artists or two artists you have that got stuff that got help. Two new artists that are coming up.
That are coming up on grateful noise. Okay. So the new monotonics record. They're back together.
Wait, is that who saw the State Fair? I wish. Oh my God. That would be amazing.
Sorry. That was pentatonic. That was amazing. Well, there's a co-lab waiting to happen.
I don't know. I guess I'll go monotonics. Well, they're this incredible Israeli band. I've told you about them.
Oh, sorry. They're leads singer and guitarist in the drummer and it's just they... When they play it's absolute chaos. They are lifted up by the audience.
They play on a stage. They will play in the middle of... Oh, you have to believe that. Yes.
And I saw them play in Israel where he... it was an incredible... That show was nuts. Amazing.
So they're coming out on joyful noise. Yes. So they're back together. I thought that they had split.
They had split. This is their first record in, I think, 12 years. I actually flew to Israel with the Onitin and Ryan Olson to co-produce the thing in Israel. Nice.
I think you had done it since then. It's fucking wild here. What's interesting about this record is that when monotonics was a big touring band, I think of them in that era more as a performance art group where their songs were actually written to give them time to move the drum set around the venue. Yes.
And they were the most insane live band I've ever seen. I'll possibly only rival by certain Japanese bands. That would... I would...
It's the only time I've ever seen a band where I made sure I had a clear line of sight to the door because I was pretty sure everyone was going to die. And it's truly... They truly bring that energy. It's just really unbridled.
It's like an early hard course shows could have that feel to it. It's also the only time I've ever seen a drummer crowd surf, not like with his body but the entire drum kit being held up by the crowd and he's still playing the song. It's truly extraordinary. It's not an arms hurt.
But my point was when you listened to those songs on record, you didn't get that sense of fear. That might be hard to capture. Yeah. Well, like many of them...
I mean, they're easily one of the best live bands I've ever seen. But I found that there was amazing, really dynamic, incredible live bands from the 80s and 90s whose records I was listening to. I mean, including Jesus's lizard where I'd be like, I don't know. It's not bringing me to where I was when I saw this band play.
Right. Right. And that's... And they would agree that that's what...
Their audio recordings previously have been... They were sort of a vehicle for their performance art. But with this record, we wanted to make it sound... Yeah.
Not make it sound like you're at the show and make it sound... Dynamic? Just off-putting enough or something. Make it sound scary.
Like people should be... I don't know, evoke the emotions that you might feel at a monotonic show. Oh, I'm intrigued. And so it's the most...
Production-wise, it's the most fucked up record I've ever been involved in. Is it eerie? It's all over the map. Okay.
And so my mind told me that it sounds like it's at once both underwater and in outer space. That's a really good... That's a really interesting discussion. I want to make music that sounds underwater in outer space at the same time.
We can listen to the best press thing after we're done with this. Wow. You guys got time. We gotta get on the road.
We gotta get a date in Ohio. It's a shade of date in Ohio. So then who's the second one? Oh, Marnie Stern.
Marnie Stern. Yeah, we just signed Marnie Stern. It's not public yet. Oh.
I mean, it'll be public in a couple of weeks. You guys can put them in the news if you want. Okay. She's in a really dynamic guitar player.
Nice. She's got an amazing... Where is she? She's New York.
Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. That's cool.
Yeah. She's a songwriter, singer, and she was on Killrock Stars. She played in Seth Meyers Band for a long time, when he started his show. Really?
Yeah. Then she had two kids. Oh, yeah. She kind of went away for a while.
It's been ten years. Yeah, I had stumbled on one of her songs recently. I was like, damn, she was good. I'm like, where'd she go?
She's a Marnie Stern. But she's a shredder on the guitar. Really, really inventive guitar player. Really, really cool.
I've got a really funny story about my daughter, listening to Marnie Stern. Okay. So, feel free to edit this out, but I need to say it. Tell us.
Okay. Maybe like six months ago, I picked my daughter up from school. I'm listening to Marnie Stern's, her record, Chronicles of Marnia. And my daughter, Olive, is just kind of like, pensive in the backseat, just like, looking out the window.
Not really saying a whole lot. And then we get back home and, you know, it's a normal night. The next morning, I'm driving her to school and she starts yelling at me, I want to listen to Power Girl. I want to listen to Power Girl.
And I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? In that preschool, by the way. We've been in that position. Yeah.
She was like three and a half or four. So, how did you figure out? I was just like, well, during the drive somewhere, I was like, oh, I played her Marnie. She has to be talking about Marnie Stern.
Marnie Stern is Power Girl. She is Power Girl. That's true. It actually kind of chokes me out.
That's amazing. That's so cool. She just said that? Yeah.
I love that. See? Like you need any convincing that music is vital. Right.
Wow. Yeah. And she still calls her Power Girl. I mean, she thinks of Marnie Stern as like a superhero.
She kind of is. Guys. When you hear Marnie Stern from the first time, what is this? What a raw insight.
You know, it's just like completely, it's like an organic response. Yeah. That's so cool. I love that.
Thank you for that story. We might have to keep that in, I think. Thank you so much, Carl. Thank you so much, Carl.
We love you so much. We love J&R. Yeah. We're happy to work with you guys.
Thank you for coming by.