895. - Larry Fitzmaurice

27:41Jason Stewart:it doesn't not turn heads down Bedford it turns heads it turns some heads it's not the flashiest card but you know it does a trick got the card play mileage is vital yeah it's good but the problem is actually and I ended up talking about this with a lot of people on the newsletter because it's just like something i bring up all the time but like there's time there's like there's a real bad rat problem in my area specifically so over the last couple years the rats have like basically lived in the engine of our car and i think it was like a year and a half ago new york sounds so awesome man oh it's sweet i don't know why people are nothing like it best to be in the world it's time for larry it's time for you guys to move to vermont give it up bro who cares sorry sorry i know i don't mean to bad mouth i'm not trying to go gavin newsome mode here okay so too late so you got rat you got rats living in your house you got rats living in an engine block they're not in my house but they're actually um well they're in the walls larry they're in the walls they were they are in the walls we had a problem in our building we actually had a problem in our building where a bunch of rats i'm not saying they sit in your breakfast nook and have toast with you in the morning but you know they're around no no they're no it's no they're they're they're they're in our building They're definitely in the walls.

29:02We've had that issue.

29:03Jason Stewart:How many rats do you kill a year? I don't do a goddamn thing about it. I'm not touching those. I have a 65-year-old neighbor who fashioned a rat-killing instrument and will occasionally message me and be like, it's time to go kill some rats in the backyard. Time to go check out the trash. You with me or are you against me, brother? Kill some rats. I am not doing this, bro. I'm not doing this at all. Can you describe this device, this weapon? Yeah, please. Yeah, it's like a broomstick with some sort of a sharp, pointy instrument attached to it. A jailhouse spear is what he's meant. Yeah, you're saying Gramps created an old school style spear using a broom and maybe a used knife.

29:48Jason Stewart:He's hoping for something a little more. More or less, yeah. It's very rudimentary. This guy's kind of a legend, honestly. You know the video for Mariah Carey's Always Be My Baby, where she's on a tire swing? Of course. Yes, of course. Yeah, he pushed the tire swing. Wow. He's been eating off that fun fact for a few decades now, hasn't he? What a fall from grace. He went from possibly touching Morag Carey's butt to killing rats with a broomstick. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. He's got other things. He actually worked on the lighting for the Wembley scene in Marty's Supreme, too. Okay, so he's keeping it current.

30:27His IMDB is bananas,

30:29Jason Stewart:bro. He's still got it going on. and he's killing rats in our backyard but what are we doing talking to you by the way Larry what are we doing talking to you you gotta get my neighbor out here go knock on his door if you could you can kind of wrap this up no actually the worst thing that happened with the rats was they ate the timing belt in my engine that's bad timing the belt got stuck in the engine I'm dead serious bro Boston's right here like it's close it's super close i would never go look in their defense you shouldn't have smeared peanut butter all over that timing belt that you fucked up there and you will take the hell on that one i told you not to leave the jam in the engine like that now i they like strawberry i'm sorry this was also like this should happen like two days after my car got towed because there was a huge um huge like dominican music festival on my on my block that they didn't put off signage for damn when you say they do you mean dominican people i mean like the cops like the cops put up signs for this stuff they're supposed to at least but you're literally you're literally right now people are listening to this being like you know what maybe new york isn't for me maybe i'll check out tampa hey i all mean by all means whatever keeps them out like honestly i agree yeah i agree i love the idea that like some some like plantains and roasted pork somehow got on the timing belt and the rats you know the rats got in there so so the okay this sounds like a full-time job for you i don't know how you get any work done he likes it yeah i mean you know it's it's one of the rhythms of my daily life you know like it um kind of kind of how picking up dog shit is one of the rhythms of my daily life where are you larry larry where are you from i'm from uh i grew up in new jersey okay so you could also go there is what i'm saying i mean that's close too yeah I don't know.

32:19I honestly feel like if you leave New Jersey for a specific period of time, which I went to school at NYU.

32:27Jason Stewart:Returning to Jersey would be a failure. Well, returning to Jersey would be a decision. It's like you go and you don't leave. Sure. So it's like you leave and you leave for good. I still have family in Jersey. Just like Orange County, nice place to grow up, nice place to retire, everything in between. Yeah, and I got friends who live in Jersey and I got family in Jersey. I go visit all the time. Go see Ish. Go see Ice. It's not for me. I'd rather be in. You load up the fiesta with some Russian daughters and take it out to the suburbs. Show them what the big city is like. That's nice of you. That's nice of you.

33:03Got a devil's game in. That's nice. Yeah, that's real. I'm impressed because you have a great attitude, and I think you get a kick out of this in a way that I wish I could because when the sort of the nuances of New York life and everything being twice as hard as it should be all the time um does great on me occasionally but I need to take a note from your playbook because I feel like you really you find the humor in it more so than

33:29Jason Stewart:the misery so is that is that from SSRIs edibles how are you managing this yeah what do you how much what's your Johnny Walker intake yeah give me your stack there's like a moment in every every every week like living here where you're like i should just kill myself like i think that's i think that's extremely real where like you're just like i'm dealing with stuff in the city that like is driving me nuts then you're like okay the moment passed i can get through this you know like i i assume people in the suburbs have this too or maybe they don't people kill themselves in the suburbs maybe more so than the big city exactly yeah occasionally they kill themselves I'll say this.

34:04I think that the mentality yeah, I think that being here is really hard and you're reminded of that. I think if you're smart, you reap the rewards of going to the world's best stuff all the time. Exactly. I know people that maybe don't do that and then I'm like, what are you doing? Unless you were born here, there's absolutely no reason to live here and deal with this bullshit.

34:26Jason Stewart:Don't go to the arcade if you don't want to play video games, right Chris? I'm literally thinking about I just feel like I take advantage of it as much as I can. I'm sure you do as well. Every time I'm like, if I'm dealing with something like the rats during my engine or something, I'm like, this sucks and I'm bummed out and I hate living here and I want to die and then I'll be like, I can go see a movie in like an hour. Or go to a museum or something. It's fine. Bro, I can go to the MoMA till 8.30 on Friday nights. Are you fucking crazy? This shit rocks. I don't give a fuck about rats. You can get a zin on every corner.

35:03Yeah, but what is your... So how are you dealing with this? How do you get your ya-yas out? Tweeter? Just like, yeah, just like, I don't know, chilling, like seeing movies, you know, like day-to-day routines, you know, like trying to keep it stable.

35:17Jason Stewart:It'd be cool if there was another city in America where you could chill and see movies. I think right now, it's only in Manhattan at the moment. It's only New York. You can do that and nowhere else. Other cities are apparently working on it, but they're still some years out from what I understand. I've got some work to do. No, I mean, I don't know. I leave occasionally. I leave New York occasionally. So you're not smoking hella weed just to stay on top of it? I would say that cannabis functions as a good way to keep your head straight. I like that you're talking to us like we're your doctor. Yeah, you sound like...

35:52Jason Stewart:How much do you say you smoke once a month? Cannabis is really important for my headspace right now. calling it cannabis trying to keep things professional you know trying to keep it sure yeah your boss could be listening right now yeah exactly yeah your boss your boss at ghost.io could be listening right now okay well let's let's talk a little bit about something that uh is not just nyc parking um yeah let's do it there's some stuff going on in the world of music and writing and music writing there's there's the pitchfork announces this is big you can pay five dollars a month and you too can give dr dog 7.9 or whatever it may be that'd be the highest score dr dog ever got a pitch work man that's great that'd be crazy um yeah i thought i actually saw that this morning before we were doing this and i was like oh i'm i'm sure we'll be talking about this yeah yeah you're right this episode of how long gone is brought to you by rocket money jason i like my pockets on swole and thank god for rocket money because i you know when i look at what i'm spending every month and all this stuff all these subscriptions it makes my eyes pop out of my the damn sockets i'm i'm just freaked out like a cartoon and when you use rocket money uh it helps you cut spending in specific categories so dining shopping subscriptions whatever you're overspending on rocket money can help you reel it in yeah i don't want rocket money to know about my matcha habits.

37:24Jason Stewart:So I make sure they don't look at the F and B, but you know, for other things online, maybe, maybe you need a little tool for a graphic design or, you know, a music or video software that you have. And, Oh, here's just one little tool and just sign up for the free trial and you could use it. It's all good. And they're just betting that you're going to be dumb enough to forget about it. And they're going to ding that credit card for another 29, another 49, bing, bam, then it's too late. We got a friend on our side and her name is Rocket Money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unward subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

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38:37Offer valid March 12th through March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers. I guess my thoughts are it's smart overall from a business perspective because I think the audience exists to pay for it and that's good overall. But I think the kind of person who will pay 60 US dollars a year to comment is a person that I don't personally need to associate with.

39:03Jason Stewart:It has a little Ronnie Dangerfield, I don't want to be a member of a club that would have me kind of thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. Do you think the audience exists for paying for the access to music regime. Honestly, I think enough does to, if they feel like they get to add their score to it, then yes. I mean, I think that Stereogum did it, but that's more like, Stereogum has always felt to me more of like a quote unquote community for better or worse. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. That feels a little more bootstrap. Obviously, Pitchfork has always been like the big bad guy, even though I think Pitchfork is cool and funny.

39:39Jason Stewart:I'm going to hold out until the advertisement tier is unlocked. So I can give Dr. Dog the 7.8, but I have to watch a Sky Rizzy commercial for 90 seconds. And then I'll be able to say the new JPEG mafia is trash. Luckily, we have this podcast, so I can say all this stuff whenever I want. And it's a little easier. But I do think the audience exists. I think that it's an interesting test on paywalls because of what the offering is. Usually the offering is you get to look at stuff. Right. And then you get to have a community Discord convo every third month or something like that. But I think it makes sense because in a world where nobody wants to pay for anything and we use our friends at Rocket Money to zap those unwanted subscriptions, but to have the possibility of dating or mating is one of the only reasons or ways that people are willing to pay money.

40:43Jason Stewart:If I go on Pitchfork, I'm trying to pull me an emo baddie or a goth hot guy or whatever it may be, I'm going to use my amazing musical taste. And if you see somebody that looks amazing and like the hottest person of all time to you, you look at their musical taste and they have the same exact thoughts on, you know, that's worth$5 a month. That's a good point. I think like people my age pay for subscriptions like to like content and stuff like that. And people my age very coincidentally kind of like don't really care that much about new music anymore in terms of like what, like the level of discovery that like a place like Pitchfork and like kind of like purport to offer.

41:27So it's like you have like, this could be potentially geared towards like, younger people who already have like rym and like twitter and you know discord so it's like and like i don't know like from my experience younger people are not usually the ones giving money online they're usually the ones asking for money so like i don't know if they're gonna have the five dollars to spare to like look at a score of money especially since like look let's be real like there could be like i don't know how this is gonna work i honestly thought the announcement was kind of like maddeningly vague like i read it like several times and was like i still don't get what the value offered is here which is not a good sign like larry's like look i'm a pretty smart guy and i'm not understanding exactly what the value is here and i know that everyone who works there

42:11Jason Stewart:listens to this podcast so i don't want to be mean but now that you're able to do your own pitchfork score on a zero to 10.0 basis they outlined what their criteria is and surprising to no one 10 is really good and zero is really bad yeah it's also kind of like it's kind of like those like things where it's like you know you go you like you like ghosted on the friend's couch in like a warehouse in midtown or like you know you visit the seinfeld set only it's for like pitchfork scores and like I don't think pitchfork scores carry the same cultural monocultural awareness as the Seinfeld says. Definitely not.

42:53Nothing does. No, nothing does. I will agree with you on that. I just really believe that we're, I think we're underestimating how now more than ever people think that they are an expert and their voice needs to be heard. To me, that's what this is playing on more than anything else. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Because if Letterboxd started charging for all these dorks to write reviews that they're not paid for, they would pay it. Yeah, because they use it to get pussy. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. If Letterboxd was like, hey, bro, hey,$20 a month and you can write and message people, they would pay$50.

43:28They'd pay$100. Well, it's so crazy.

43:29Jason Stewart:You like funny games, too. Right? I think that really is a big – I think everybody thinks that their opinion is important. and this puts sort of like a value on it in a way that maybe social media doesn't because there is, you know, I don't know. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. Do you guys use Letterboxd? Fuck no. No. I don't watch movies. I don't watch movies, so I don't care about it. Oh, wow, okay. But I think that Letterboxd is really valuable too. It's genius. Like, again, it's making people and their opinions and their taste feel important. That's something that will always work. And it's only better for the failing film industry, I think, to create that community.

44:09Jason Stewart:It's an upside. Not joking. I don't think there's any downside to Letterboxd except if I had to read it. No, yeah. You know what I mean? If somebody forced me to read it. Well, that's the thing. I do feel like, and I was explaining this to somebody who doesn't use Letterboxd, because for me, Letterboxd is like a tracking system. I would forget stuff I watched if I didn't log it. Oh. So you're saying when you're really getting it in like you. So the amount of cannabis that you're intaking, you need letterbox or otherwise you'd be like, I don't even, babe, did I see Rush Hour 3? I don't fucking remember, dude.

44:42How old are we going to remember? That's true. Honestly, I think that's the level of film nerd it appeals to as well as now a younger person who's like, Charlie XCX uses this, I should use it. I think it does span that range. And I think the Charlie letterbox thing is like, part of this, I think you see things other people watch and you're like, I haven't seen it. I should watch it. Whenever the reviews escape containment, I don't know. I think Letterboxd is a really good social media platform because you actually don't have to see anybody's reviews if you don't want to. There's nothing pushing you.

45:17The homepage of the app is like, oh, here's one of your friends recently logged. But there's no for you tab. There's not a feed. There's not a wall. Oh, I see. When stuff escapes containment and goes viral on Twitter or whatever. You're just like, oh, this is like somebody really dug deep and found the absolute worst thing on this site and is now exposing it to everybody else, which is kind of like the story of the internet.

45:43Jason Stewart:The cream can organically rise to the top the way it used to versus the algorithm bumping it up. I didn't know that. That's actually quite cool. But think about Goodreads, for example, which has been sort of co-opted by net galleys being sent to fucking Reese Witherspoon book club members all over the world. It's just no one feels qualified in any way, but it's so valuable to the industry and it really sells books. I wonder if Letterboxd could be bastardized in some way eventually where it'll be sort of like a tool. We'll find a way. Another tool for the industry to gamify it and promote something.

46:24Jason Stewart:Okay, well I guess on the opposite spectrum twitter now will pay you a million dollars for the quote-unquote best article or whatever as they're literally giving you a million are you submitting did you submit no i didn't submit i always talk about the destruction of the middle class and and the middle of everything and now we either have i'm on food stamps as a writer or i got paid a million dollars today to write an article about how to you know optimize your morning routine or whatever and then anything in between is just non-existent anymore well it's kind of like the beastification of everything like miss like it's very mr beast to be like i'll offer you a million dollars yeah for an article on twitter like you know like when i see stuff like that you know as like you know like a fully functioning adult i'm like you know like this is this is a scam like this is like i this is like a ripoff like you know like it's a it's a willy wonka's golden ticket yeah and all those kids died in that movie like you know like you know that didn't end well for anybody you want everybody to die that's what you want elon musk i i mean i just don't want to i don't want any part of it like honestly if like i try and think of myself like if willy wonka had offered me a tour of that weird ass factory i probably wouldn't said no because i would have been like What the fuck is this?

47:45I'm not going to do this. And this is a similar... So you're saying if they offer you a million dollars to submit and be the best article ever, you're like something's too fishy. Come on up here. Yeah, I don't know. There's no such thing as a good deal these days.

47:57Jason Stewart:You might be underestimating your ability to resist delicious sweets, Larry. Yeah, I don't have that strength. Actually, last night... As a seven-year-old Larry is going to say no to a waterfall made out of delicious milk chocolate? Yeah. I don't think so, buddy. I don't believe that. Maybe adult Larry would, But child Larry, last night, quickly not to digress, but I did finally try the Dubai chocolate. Oh, wow. Okay. Dubai chocolate. In what form? It was a small square. It was a package of maybe eight small squares that were also packaged. What's her at? And it is unfortunately very delicious.

48:35And I could taste sort of the blood money. Sure. Flamed top notes, but it was worth it. You could taste the SEO washing of it all. I would say this to another friend who lives around here. I feel like overnight, the amount of Dubai chocolate dupes in Bushwick and Bed-Stuy bodegas, it's kind of like the K2 epidemic. There's a very gas station weed feel to it where it's like, I don't trust this stuff. I don't know.

48:59Jason Stewart:The Zaza Arasification of Dubai chocolate. Dubai chocolate, yeah. It feels like a kratom shooter for someone who's sober. Absolutely. Yeah, you're like, this pistachio was farm-raised. I could tell. This is bullshit. Are you using a synthetic pistachio powder in this Timu food? I know where this is coming from. So when did you... Are you writing this newsletter full time? Yeah, I mean as much as one can do. So what do you think about this sort of, the vibe now that everyone believes they're owed a career that is creative? Sort of like the, I should be paid for this because I want to do it. And it's not maybe merit-based the way it once was.

49:44I guess my question to you would be, do you think that that's a sensation that currently emerged? Or is that kind of like a millennial hangover thing? Great question. I think it's a millennial hangover. But I also think I'm acutely aware and exposed to it because I'm too online and that's my world that I live in.

50:05Jason Stewart:And also, we're all of the last generation where there were creative jobs that you could get even if you were a fucking idiot you can intern at a yeah exactly agency and work your way up into an actual you know salaried career position and that doesn't exist anymore i mean especially if you're a fucking idiot but yeah i don't know it's interesting because i feel like there was like this like you know i mean like you know the 2010s trajectory was very much like there's a lot of money but no one's actually making money and then like you know everybody wants to like touch the money. And then like, as soon as people start touching the money, the money disappears.

50:40And then, you know, pandemic happens. And then everyone's like, okay, like the new thing now that like, everything is like breaking, it's like doing things ourselves. And like, hopefully I had somebody say to me, um, a music industry guy who like had a lot of like fake savvy to him. Like I had somebody, this guy said to me in like 2021, he was like, you know, just be prepared because in like a few years, VC companies will start like offering money for newsletters the same way, you know that happened with like gorilla versus bear in the 2000s and i was like yeah i really don't think that's gonna happen this time but like people did think that that was gonna happen i think we're approaching the point in the decade where everyone's like all right i've like put in my work with like doing something for myself like where's the cash like you know like i think that's definitely a sensation that's like kind of occurring and it's kind of that like millennial echo thing where it's like you know this happened once before why can't it happen again but like that's real i think like the existing structures and media like we'll probably have to like disintegrate like a little more we brought it up because jason and i are putting a small fund together to purchase brooklyn vegan so if you want to get in if you want to get in now we've been talking to some guys in the valley about it they're one of the last good they're like one of the last good sites to visit yeah well it's going to be brooklyn keto in 18

51:55Jason Stewart:months if we get all of our seed rounds sorted out brooklyn brooklynprotein.com has already been purchased and we're kind of working on the rebrand. This protein is not legume based either, honey. Well, it's all about fiber now. So it's got to be Brooklyn fiber now. Larry, that's why we're talking to you. Larry, you been fiber maxing over there without letting us know what's going on. I am not fiber maxing. I'm just seeing shit that people say online and I'm just like, all right, I guess that's the next thing now. How many grams of chia seeds do you eat every day, Larry? It's a very important question.

52:24You know, I had some chia seeds yesterday because I got this cookie granola from the uh from the bodega that had like some chia seeds in it i don't think cookie granola

52:33Jason Stewart:that cancels out the chia seeds are you just saying that because granola is just squished up cookies or is this a different this is actually like honestly like i bought it because i was like what the fuck is this because it like literally says cookie cookie granola on the bag and i'm like this seems like kind of like like repetitive like because the granola is like a step away from cookies right okay so so you you had to buy it simply to get to the bottom of this and you would have done the same thing if it said, this is a broccoli vegetable soup. You'd be like, what? Broccoli's already a vegetable.

53:04Jason Stewart:I better buy it. What is this? Yeah, exactly. Babe, can you put a stove on the pan? I'm coming home with something I got to try. So you can just heat it up. It's for science, man. I got to figure this out right fucking now. I'm going to eat the cookie granola for science. I got to get this right fucking now. All right. Well, I'm glad to know that I think that the millennial hangover of all is something maybe I hadn't fully considered, or at least not. It hadn't been articulated to me that way, And I think that's a good point. And also that was sort of the last time when, you know, the unions were really unioning.

53:35Jason Stewart:And now everyone is upset that quote unquote podcasts on Netflix are just talk shows without a union now. Yeah. So now it's just another like. Yeah. I need somebody. I need somebody to advocate for Pete Davidson and Michael Irvin ASAP because those guys, those guys. Well, it's not, it's not, it's not Pete Davidson. he doesn't have but it's you know it's the the third lighting tech on the show or whatever no no no that person is going to get paid 175 for a 12-hour day with no health care no dental no whatever i mean look take it or leave it but honestly when we're talking about scams it's like i think like i think like taking part in a pete davidson project at this point like you guys saw what happened with bupkis you know that show that he had he he was booked actually nobody saw what happened with that he was booked for a second season people were watching that shit somehow he was booked for a second season and he walked off and like the like there was like he's so he's sober now he's gonna be a father he got his tats removed it's different this time he's a different guy he's not he's not out chasing tail all hours of the day he's focused he's locked he's focused he got benny blanco's sloppy seconds too he got a lot of people she's she only dates celebrities He's my favorite.

54:47I love that. But I saw this week on Twitter, actually, that there's someone from the Desus and Miro. After it got announced that Miro got the Hot 97 job, congratulations to him. Perfect choice. Someone that worked on the show was like, these guys are so – basically, fuck these guys. They fucked me. And it's like, dude, you work for – I don't understand. They had personal issues. They didn't want to continue doing the show. They said that they were hoping the show was going to go for 20 years, but it didn't. Yeah, it's like it's not their responsibility. The lack of personal responsibility is what blows my mind in these situations.

55:23Yeah, I think that's, again, a really millennial thing where there's this sense of like, I think because there's so few pathways towards fixing anything that anybody can actually take part in. It's just like, okay, so where do I direct this anger? I'm sympathetic to it I'm mostly just surprised And I say this with full respect For both Desus and Mero But I'm mostly just surprised that they have so many Shooters still in 2026 That's kind of wild to me This is a property that's been dead for years I think that show Especially the Vice version They're the urban cum town When it was really really kicking I just think there hasn't been and probably won't be anything like that on television again.

56:13Well, I worked at Vice when that show was on the air. And it was actually crazy because they would walk. We had an open plan office, of course. And they would walk into the office. Larry, you don't think we haven't been to that office? Come on now.

56:27Jason Stewart:For our listeners at home, he's painting a picture for our listeners at home. I forgot who I was talking to. We got fans in Antarctica, Chris. They don't always know about the open structure format of the Williamsburg office. Sorry, Larry, go ahead. the two of them walk in that office just do a business meeting or something and like it was like i honestly was like a little embarrassed like for my co-workers because they would they would be like going nuts they would go feral for like being in these guys presence it was almost like really yeah it was almost like this race um like you would see guys like get up from their chairs and be like like like a race like so you can pretend to be friends with these two guys first like there was a real cult of personality where i was just kind of like the glazing was through the charts off the charts it was it was honestly it was the glazing was out of control um and i really wish we had that uh lingua franca for back then because i could have correctly uh correctly called it as such but it was shocking i was like i was like y 'all are going to have flipping out over two guys you work with like let's take a beat you know yeah everybody calm down i mean i just think that i do once it got to showtime and they had writers it sort of changed because it didn't feel as much like them you know sure this is why you should never unionize okay let's move on larry one of uh one of chris's favorite musical artists harry styles announced a new record and you said that the new harry styles record is quote-unquote pandemic coded by nature and i would like us to expand on this please yeah i mean that cover is like very much like i took this in my backyard while social distancing okay you know i wasn't with you but now i kind of see your point yeah petra collins came over in a hazmat suit and shot this in my eagle rock backyard i'm with it i'm with it the title has that kind of like future nostalgia junior approach where it's like you know like oh like oh like you know we're in the club but we're not we're together but we're apart like it's like i don't know like it's it's really funny because like i feel like as somebody who really likes dance music i would like if harry styles wanted to make like an actual dance music record like with like full four-spiners like something like no we do not want that larry we do not want that you don't want it but do you want this instead i don't know yet i'm hopeful we'll have to see what i'm hopeful yeah larry guitars are back bro all this little bleep bleep bloop bloop hip-hop it's all it's done bro we're coming back to the charts baby i think he's in the booth with mj lenderman uh i'm plugging i'm plugging in my fucking sg and i'm fucking dropping of the tuning and we're getting to the top of the charts.

58:55Jason Stewart:Are you predicting this realistically or is this simply wishful thinking from a boomer? Wishful thinking from a boomer for sure. I mean, I think, I think, I think. Did you make a new friend or was it just? I think that Larry's probably right, but I don't think he would go. I think it'll still have to sort of say shit. I don't think he would alienate his audience by going too far in any direction, really. It'll be like the same like reheated like Blue Nile thing that we've done for like five years now. really goes back to like the 1975 which i feel like the last harry styles record had like a lot of 1975 in it like the best moments honestly sounded like fake 1975 songs um period and like i don't know if he's gonna continue in that direction because like we have so many fake 1975 bands now that uh it's like almost like too much to keep track of but i don't know like harry style is a very popular guy like those like when you're that popular i feel like you're three or four years behind on everything.

59:53So maybe he's just... Strangely, that might work in his favor. Being behind. You're right.

1:00:00Jason Stewart:Yeah, I mean, you don't... When you're headlining arena tours, you don't want to be first or too early to things. You want Tulsa, Oklahoma to understand what you're talking about, not only Silver Lake and Brooklyn. But Larry, you're right. I also think he could do no wrong, kind of. like if it was absolutely he's too charismatic to fail at anything if it's if it was a total travesty in every way he would still sell out every show and it would still be number which i think is i would say more challenging to an artist than a lot of hurdles like knowing sort of deep down that your fans are so rabid that it doesn't matter what you do they'll probably follow you into the fire could be crippling i i i think yeah i mean he but i feel like his whole thing like i don't know i thought the press press tour behind the last record was interesting because he kind of has this wounded fawn approach to being famous now that I think is very appealing to people.

1:00:53They're like, oh, this guy kind of survived. It's appealing to me, Larry. I'm hard right now. This guy survived fucking his way through Hollywood. Yeah, Larry, you don't want to see Below This Table. I'll tell you what. It's working. It's working. Did you guys see Don't Worry Darling? What? Oh, the movie. I heard maybe it wasn't great. I didn't read your letter,

1:01:15Jason Stewart:review i saw it on the on an airplane maybe twice and i still i mean i don't know if we can call that a movie but it was it was a video yeah yeah it's like yeah it's not a video like there's like no i mean i'm not even saying it was bad but i watched it front to back with undivided attention on an airplane and i was like this was a collection of video images with music and a title sequence there's that bit in the third act where they dress him up like an incel and it's really funny and like yeah that's true like it's really like and you know like it's kind of like self-effacing to like have a guy like him like go through that yeah true you know like there's you felt so you larry you felt seen you finally were like you know what harry styles and i we finally have something in common yeah i was so sick of this guy he's like you're like i don't like sequins whatever i can live with that but this this is a little too much this is too close yeah that's real um yeah i i don't know i don't like i i feel like he's more interesting as a person as a musician to me and he's the most interesting thing about him as a person is that he seems to be playing it extremely safe in terms of being a public figure.

1:02:23Even him winning the Grammy over Beyonce, there was this kind of like, you can play the Curb Your Enthusiasm game over that moment. Well, he deserved that. I mean, come on now. Let's be honest. It's so much like anybody deserves a Grammy.

1:02:37Jason Stewart:What happened exactly with that for those of us who don't recall? Was he very like, I don't deserve this type of energy? No, he didn't go, what was the guy who beat Kendrick? Macklemore. Yeah, he didn't go Macklemore. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't that bad. But I do think, I think it's like when you're that famous and you're beating another person who's maybe the only person who's even more famous than you, you have to be a little bit. you can't it will be if you were gloating you'd be in trouble yeah you can't you don't you can't win like like literally and figuratively yeah no that's a really good point well sorry i forgot about macklemore until right that second i'm sorry to bring that macklemore's cool now is that true i mean i feel like people are cool with macklemore because he's been very politically outspoken dude if it macklemore macklemore punished society for multiple years and all he has to do is be like i'm i'm i'm liberal well because he he dressed up there like all the photos of him wearing like the hasidic costume yeah i think now that we're in such an anti-zionist world they're like damn macklemore is fucking based oh wow i didn't i'm not keeping i guess you guys follow him on instagram i need to start i'm missing out on the action it sounds like i didn't know it was that good no the amount of deep listening i do means that i still check for macklemore records and like there's always like one or two songs in every macklemore record where i'm like i think you came close to like making a good song here but like he but like he's like impossibly earnest like it's like i can't like i can't fall these swag that's you can't be an earnest rapper those things don't work like look what happened to chance the rapper when he talked about divorce like no one it was like bro you get you get in the way of your own success by by being too earnest as a rapper i mean was that chance's problem was that he even if it was i felt like his problem was that he had he was kind of like feeling the new kanye thing a little too hard well the problem was that he sucked but i'm saying that there's an album there's an album that came out where it was like he's got destroyed like not the most recent i think it was like a it was like a divorce yeah it was he got divorced but it was like i love my he it was a whole thing the big day yeah he did like a simping album i'm sad that i know about it i'm sad the big day the big day was his marriage album and it was really rough and it had um it had like death cab for cutie it did a guest spot on it which is like that's never a good show.

1:04:58I got Ben Gibbard in the booth? Yeah. Oh my goodness. Like Ben Gibbard singing a hook. It wasn't just like a Death Cab sample. Like it was like, it was rough. I honestly, I remember listening to it being like, what the fuck is this? Ben Gibbard was like, all right, look, I just ran 150 miles, but I'll come do it for you, Chance. I'll do it for you. I'll do it, bro. Let me just ice my legs. He won't make that mistake twice. He will not make that mistake twice. Do you have any, Larry, do you have any Grammy predictions? Are we going to be surprised by anything that happens in a couple of weeks? Man, I don't even know who's nominated.

1:05:27Same. I got to pull this up right now. This is your job, Larry. I would dispute that. I don't know if people who are checking for me care about the Grammys at this point, but I'll accept it. I'll give you credit, Larry. You're not a pop to miss like the evil New York Times. You're in the trenches. I subscribe to your newsletter. I see what you're talking about. I'm learning about music from you, and I think that is a real service, but you're not dissecting Sabrina Carpenter at a sort of intellectual level like some are.

1:05:58Jason Stewart:What if the Grammys introduced new categories like the Golden Globes did with podcasting, et cetera? Like Biggest Glaze? People just don't care about what a bunch of old executives think is the best metal album, and it's always like an Ozzy Osbourne reissue or an Aerosmith album that we never knew existed always wins. I mean, I love asking people, when I talk to people who have won Grammys, I love asking them how it actually feels like going to the Grammys because they're always like, it sucks. Yeah, everyone hates it. Oh, yeah, yeah. But that's also kind of like what going to any award show is like.

1:06:31But they would all go. Larry, that's what going to anything is like. 99 % of things I go to suck. Yeah, no, that's real. It's extremely real. But if I get to put on a tuxedo and see some hotties, there's worse things out there.

1:06:44Jason Stewart:Yeah, people just go to the Grammys for the photo of them in their cool clothing for social media now. has nothing to do with enjoying the actual show i'm looking at the nominees i see anxiety is nominated for record of the year that's like one of the worst songs ever made like i'm honestly like kind of surprised who said what is anxiety the dochi song oh oh i like i like literally i like dochi but in general but like but like that was like i don't like dochi oh yeah what's your beef with dochi she's like kind of benson booney oh it's like uh it's more like theatrical performance and it's like it's about i think that's true i mean i think that's true it's also similar to like when beyonce was releasing really fast music that you couldn't dance to like it was like damn this music is so good but it's just like pump up music but if it came on the club how do you dance to doji you just don't you know what i mean but i'm a club kid so it's kind of different i think that the problem with what happened with doji's career because like and she's still doing good obviously she's not a bunch of grammys but like uh and geese are kind of experiencing this too honestly like with chapel rhone when chapel ron like blew up all of a sudden um and everyone was like oh like you know you're seeing like these like mass events of everybody doing the hot to go dance to law police or whatever like hot don't chris that was me i was out there i was in the fucking chris was in the pit i was controlling the drone of that i was in the trenches with the they thems don't get it twisted i was out there what she did that was really smart off of that was she was like all right i'm not gonna put out like a record for like four years now so i hope you all are fine with this whereas i feel like um dochi off of like having very similar out of nowhere success where suddenly like everybody was like this is amazing about record that i've been out for nine months you know then like you know people there was like i guess like from my what my understanding was of anxiety there was like people were like oh this is like a soundcloud lucid we'd love to see this as a single and like she put it out as a single she made a video for it the video's awful the song's bad and it became like her biggest hit and it's kind of this like album truss where it's like yeah like now you have this terrible also like the goche song like that song fucking rules like goche is good like he he's a very talented he's a very talented songwriter that one record was fire but like you know you have this song kind of ruining the legacy of the goche song and kind of like you know stalling her career even though she's doing really well it's very it's a very like 2020s issue for like a pop star to have honestly okay well as long as Kendrick Lamar doesn't win anything I'm gonna be happy so that's kind of what we're that's what we're playing he may take a couple Chris last year was his year right I think well I think Clips Clips is gonna win and they might win with him or they might win on their own yeah they'd probably like to get but will Kendrick show up for a feature probably not maybe he likes the awards I feel like he likes going to them well that's all I mean yeah he's He's got such a great personality.

1:09:37I love when it shines through at award shows. It would be sick if Bieber won and he wasn't there. I think that's the best case scenario for the Grammys this year. I kind of agree. I wonder who's going to perform. We'll find out soon on CBS or wherever it is. I'm not exactly sure. I'm not exactly sure.

1:09:53Jason Stewart:Yeah, it's crazy how I'm more knowledgeable and invested in the music world more so than film and television. and the Grammys is the most boring, least enjoyed show because it is personality-based and you're just watching it to see what people wear and what people say. And musicians wear and say bad things. But that's every award show at this point. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Because the Grammys, the Golden Globes, the Emmys, these are people who talk professionally and look hot professionally for a living, not Bruno Mars is going to wear a dumb outfit and say something dumb when he wins the award.

1:10:28Oh, I agree with you, but if you think actors are smarter than musicians or more well-spoken, I don't know if I can go there.

1:10:33Jason Stewart:I didn't say smarter. Yeah. I didn't say smarter. Honestly. I don't know if a guy on He Did Rivalry is going to blow my mind with his acceptance speech more than Bruno Mars. I think it will. No. I think it will be better. I don't think. I think all the award shows are the same, and that's why they're all suffering. Are you guys here for the Bruno Mars comeback? No. Fuck no. Never. Every song he makes sounds the exact same. It's insane that it works. I've never liked Bruno Mars. Oh, really? All right. His co-worker wedding music. I like that he does cocaine and has a gambling problem. That's the coolest thing about him.

1:11:06Those are pretty dope facts about him. I think that has...

1:11:11Jason Stewart:He's probably had somebody killed, so that's cool. The alleged gambling stuff, I think it adds to the allure of him. I feel like he did his early career really rough, a lot of really bad, early 20 times garbage. and I feel like he kind of embraced this greatest showman-esque persona where at first you're like, this is really corny. I don't like this. And then it's like, oh wait, this is what this guy is going to be doing for like 30 years. Yeah, he's like an Elvis impersonator. That's who he is. That's for real. He's a very good Elvis impersonator. People come out for impersonators, man. People show up for it.

1:11:47I can't wait to see the ticket sales reports, not to be a narc, but I'm very interested to see if after that long it can

1:11:53Jason Stewart:really work no no he will he will sell out every single ticket of his tour and it's going to be all nurses and they're all going to be loving the bruno mars lady gaga song was funny to me because it felt like it's like the way lady gaga does like kind of like the fake elder abuse thing with like tony bennett and like lisa minnelli it's not like bruno mars is kind of doing that with lady gaga yeah yeah it all goes it all comes circular uh larry before we let you go what's your geese verdict just while we have you in as a brooklyn resident oh wait how about this Larry if you have to give Geese overall as a phenomenon a pitchfork score what would it be?

1:12:32as a phenomenon? not their album but just Geese I think phenomenon factors in all of the factors all of the factors I feel like as a phenomenon I hit it with like a low 8 best new music I think that's a fair judge of it it's nice to see unbridled enthusiasm for for bands like you know like i know you guys had rowdy bottom on uh the uh podcast i had him on the newsletter and one of the first things he said when we talked he was like he was like man i like fucking love geese so much and i was like kind of like i was like taken aback he brought it up just out of nowhere i asked him what his favorite authors were and you're like but you're cool what's going on but like i don't know it's like it's like one of those things where it's like when Geese started doing their Ascent thing, when people started to get really hyped up about it and bring it full circle, I remember I was driving around doing alternate side parking, and I was thinking about this, and I was like, I wonder if we're going to get to a point here where you're going to have every single aging, cool rock guy come out and be like, Geese gets the Obama's favorite songs with a stamp of approval.

1:13:45It's happening. I feel like you can send your watch to Paul McCartney and Doris and Geese before the end of the year. It's going to happen. I think the enthusiasm, I will agree with you, is both refreshing and you guys chill out. I think everybody should chill out about everything so I'm the wrong guy to talk to. I agree with you.

1:14:05Jason Stewart:If you could have, for Harry Styles' upcoming pandemic-coded tour, who's the ideal opening act for you if you have to go see him? God, I just don't think I'd ever want to go to him. The Rapture? The Rapture. That's not even a real band anymore, man. That's Luke with some guy and his son. Did I read? Did you interview him? And he's a therapist now, right? He's a life coach. Bro, fuck out of here. You can't be a life coach when your band fizzled. I need success. I mean, one of the guys in the band put out a statement after he started the new band. and they were like maddie being a life coach is like the funniest thing i've ever heard in my life and honestly you know like i i hate to say this but like after having talked to him for an hour i also think it's pretty funny like i i i'm not sure it's like you know like the um you guys watch people you guys watch peep show when i'm i'm familiar with it chris not so much all right so there's like so like one of the characters in peep show becomes a life coach because you don't have to get accreditation um i'm like becoming a therapist and like so of course when i interviewed maddie like one of the first things i asked him when he brought the life coach thing i was like so what's the accreditation like for this because i knew he was gonna be like i didn't want to do three years of school so i cut my quarters he's like when you say accreditation what do you mean by that that's really funny he wasn't professionally honest he was like hey look i didn't want to like i'm too dumb for you he literally said to me i'm too dumb for school so i just you know printed myself a life coach certificate or whatever and i was like i know honestly straightforwardness is kind of been let's go i appreciate the honesty um all right larry thank you for joining us stay on how long gone where can people people could find you on twitter and they could subscribe the link is in your bio yeah hell yeah yeah last sound of the night it's right in my bio great all right thanks larry it was a pleasure and um we're gonna record some ads but we'll talk to you soon we'll see you on blue sky bro bye bye bro have a good one man later take care

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