Hey guys, this is Kevin Baldus from Lit, and
you're listening to My Weekly Mixtape with Brian
Colburn. This show kicks ass. Welcome to My Weekly
Mixtape, a podcast that takes the classic mixtape
approach to building a modern playlist. I'm your
host, Brian Colburn. One of the things I'm excited
to do on my weekly mixtape is speak with some
of the incredible artists whose music has been
featured on countless mixtapes and playlists
of mine. And in some instances, build the perfect
mixtape for that artist with that artist, which
is exactly what's going down tonight. Joining
me for tonight's collaboration is Kevin Baldess,
bassist for Lit. And tonight we are curating
a mixtape of our favorite Lit. Kevin, thank you
so much for joining me tonight on My Weekly Mixtape.
Absolutely, man. Thanks for having me. It's an
absolute pleasure having you on. Kevin, I'm going
to start tonight's show by asking you the same
question I ask each and every one of my guests.
What does the word mixtape mean to you? Well,
I've made many mixtapes when I was younger. I
think it's just a hybrid of your favorite songs.
But, you know, a mixtape can go in any direction.
You can make a mixtape for a buddy. you know,
maybe they're going to play football and they
need some songs to help them get amped up. So
you make a mixtape of that. Me, I'd make mixtapes
for girlfriends and I'd put, you know, Journey
in Chicago and what have you. Well, tonight's
show will be a first for my weekly mixtape because
not only are we curating a mix of our favorite
lit tunes, like I mentioned at the top of the
show, we'll also be balancing a 50 -50 mix between
my fan perspective and Kevin's, you know, being
in the band and all perspective. Yeah. i've got
my bank of lit tunes that i'm ready to add to
tonight's mixtape and it comes from three different
perspectives songs that i feel are important
to the band's history as a fan underrated songs
from across the band's catalog and my obvious
personal favorites my goal is to hopefully squeeze
in a mix of all of those into the final mixtape
tonight Now, Kevin, as a member of the band and
someone whose creativity was paramount in making
these songs what they are today, where are you
personally coming from with your bank of lit
songs? I'm looking to piss my band off with the
songs I wish we would play live, but we never
do. That being said, I'm going to kind of go
at this with songs that I love from our set and
songs that I wish were in the set. is kind of
where i'm going to come from but i'm also going
to open because when we make a headlining set
it sucks when we have to make like a half an
hour set it's the worst like what do you put
on there there's a shit you have to put on there
that you have to put on there and then there's
the stuff that you wish you could do and the
stuff that you wish you could do never ends up
on there because you gotta you don't have much
time and you gotta put a bunch of stuff on there
that you have to do you know and i just had this
concept the other day and i was talking to somebody
i wish we had about 10 songs that were like way
deep cuts and we put 10 of them in a bag. And
each night we would put our hand in the hat and
we would, or maybe we even let fans pick 10 songs
that are deep cuts, not singles at all, deep
cuts. And then we pick the top 10 of those selections.
And every night we pick it from the hat and we
have to add it. Song number five is the deep
cut. And, you know, and so every night we get
to play an oddball song and it's always different.
I wish that was something we did. But we don't.
And it sucks. Well, now that you've put it out
in the universe, maybe it will become a thing
because I am team deep cut from the band. Yeah.
Yeah. I already know what song I wish we would
open the show with. Well, let's get down to business
then. Tonight, as I mentioned earlier, Kevin
and I will be curating the Songs of Lit mixtape,
and we'll use the old cassette deck approach,
meaning our mixtape will be broken up into two
sides, side A and side B. Kevin, as the special
guest, will begin side A with his first song
choice, and then I'll add a song that I feel
best follows up his choice. We'll then flip -flop
choosing songs until we've mapped out 10 songs
for side A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial
flip and we'll map out side B. Only this time,
I'll kick the side off with Kevin choosing second.
Our overall goal for this episode is to craft
the best lit mixtape possible using only 20 songs.
At the end of the show, you can take our conversation
to the next level by visiting the Songs of Lit
page at myweeklymixtape .com and give our final
mixtape a listen via the embedded playlist. Finally,
if you like what you're hearing on My Weekly
Mixtape, please consider becoming a Patreon mixtaper
at patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape.
Kevin, I'm officially pressing record on the
Songs of Lit mixtape, and the floor is yours.
Why don't you dive into the song you would kick
off Side A with? Dude, it comes off of our first
album, Trip and Life Fantastic. You know, for
years, and we continue to open, we actually changed
it up recently. But the first track off of A
Place in the Sun is called Four. That's been
our opener. And for good reason. We used to write
songs for what we needed for the set and how
we wanted the set to go. So Four was kind of
written as an intro to the set. That's why it's
kind of an aggressive song. It's a bit faster.
It's got a lot of meat on it. But for my mixtape
here, I'm going to start the track listing off
with My World off of Trippin' Like Fantastic.
I brought that baseline to the rehearsal. It's
funny because I'm not far from where that rehearsal
space was that Trippin' Life Fantastic, A Place
in the Sun, and Atomic were written at. I'm only
blocks away from it currently. So I would definitely
put my, I'd open it up with My World because
I just think that's a kick in the balls, man,
that song. I wish we'd play it on our set now.
I'm not going to lie. I do too. I think that
song. is probably my favorite off of tripping
the life fantastic it has that distinct lit sound
but i also feel there's a dare i use the word
because i know some people might take this the
wrong way but i feel like there's a touch of
grunge in that song it's a grungier track and
i absolutely as a bass player i love that opening
it immediately grabs my attention yeah it's a
it's a fun one to play too man it's it's a it's
a fast rhythm you know it sounds like it's just
and it kind of is once your wrist is used to
it, but it's a cool rhythm. The whole song, you
know? And the song is all of a minute and a half.
I mean, it's a short song, but man, it's a kick
in the balls. And it was actually the first video
we ever made was for that song, My World. Well,
following that up, I'm going to go to the other
side of the spectrum here because I was put on
notice by my nine -year -old that my first song
choice had to be her favorite cut. Okay. So I
am going to go with my nine -year -old's favorite
lit song, and you might laugh when you hear what
it is, but it's off your latest album, 2022's
Taste Like Gold, and it's Kicked Off the Plane.
Okay. Now, I don't know if I should be saying
this or not, but when that chorus kicks in, she
is singing along at the top of her lungs, and
she's actually said to me, Dad, why do people
get kicked off planes? And I said, I have no
idea what happened, hon. Maybe it was just a
misunderstanding or something. Right, right.
A misunderstanding, yeah. Yeah, she absolutely
loves that song. It's Soda Why. It's so infectious.
It's so catchy. And it is really the polar other
side of the spectrum from my world. So I wanted
to do something new. I like to bounce around
throughout the catalog. So this one's for you,
sweetie. Not you, sweetie, Kevin, but my daughter,
sweetie. Got it. And I'm going to go with kicked
off the plane. I have to ask, though, without
her listening, I'll pause this part of the podcast
for her. Is that an autobiographical track for
the band? Yes. A .J. Jeremy and our guitar tech
Christian had a little bit too much fun the night
before. And then they kept the fun going the
next morning and they tried to keep the fun going
onto the plane. And then. That's where their
day started. And I don't think they I live in
California. I think we were flying from Texas
home and they were flying from Texas to Tennessee.
And I think I got home way before they got home
because they had to hang out in the airport for
quite a while. But that is a real song that it
really did happen. I blame our guitar tech. I
do not blame my band members because they know
better. They're professionals. All right, Kevin,
what are you going to follow up? Kicked off the
plane. It's funny because I feel like it's more
than a mixtape. I feel like I'm making a set
list. I feel like I'm sitting in a room with
a band member that is OK with me choosing whatever
I want. So I'm going to go ahead and take that
feeling and roll with it. So we started with
the first album we started with and then we went
to the latest album. I'm going to meet somewhere
in the middle now and we're going to go with
our single off our self -titled album. Looks
like they were right. And the reason why I'm
doing that is because I feel I feel like. We
gave them a one -two punch with My World into
Kicked Off the Plane. And then The Way Looks
Like They Were Right starts. It starts out with
bass and drums again, but it's a little bit groovier.
It's not the attack of My World. It settles in
for a second, and then the song kicks off again.
I'm a big fan, when we get to do a headlining
set, I feel like the first four to five songs
need to be on attack mode. And then by six and
seven, we can chill out a little bit, you know,
six and seven, eight, somewhere in there, we
can start introducing newer songs. It's funny
because if you look at our latest set list, it
is kind of a roller coaster ride and everything's
kind of thought out. You know, anybody's got
to kind of think out how they're going to do
their set list, you know, or in this case, a
mixtape. So it looks like they were right. And
we don't currently play that song live. And I
wish we did. And it was a single. We have a video
for it and everything. I'm going to absolutely
echo that. That should be in the playlist. Not
only is the song absolutely infectious and perfect
early in the night, that was on my list of songs
that I was hoping to get in tonight. So you saved
me the heartache of having to cut it. I will
call this easily the band's self -titled album
is the most underrated album in your entire discography.
And I'll go as far as to say. this is the most
underrated single that the band has ever put
out i feel like this should be up there with
the my own worst enemies of the songs i feel
like this is one of the best and i'm so glad
you put it in as a bass player i love the walking
that you're doing underneath the guitar riff
that's very chuggy along with the drums and you're
kind of moving the song into the different progressions
so it's catchy and iconic for me in the catalog
and it's just so upbeat There's no way that this
song should not have been in this list. And if
the rest of the band is listening, please put
it in the set list moving forward. The self -titled
album is so damn good. Thank you, man. We we
hear that a lot. You know, the hardcore fans
that come out. It's funny because they always
we love your new stuff. But man, that black album
is really, you know, they call it the black album
or self -titled or whatever. But the self -titled
album is is a fan favorite for sure. And man,
what do we, I don't even know what we play off
it. I haven't seen anything looking at setlist
.fm recently. God, man, you know, new year, new
setlist. I wish we would really dig deep into
our pocket and grab some new songs to put in
the set. Something just different and out there,
man. We got a lot of really good songs. I really
wish we would utilize those songs in our setlist.
And to be honest with you, I should be the guy
in the band that kind of keeps track of what
we played in what city. Because, you know, certain
big cities, you kind of hit two to three times
a year. You might hit Houston, but you might
hit like Cyprus right outside of Houston. And
then you might hit another city outside of Houston.
But ultimately, it's a lot of the same fans coming
to see you. And you don't want to keep playing
the same thing for them all the time. You want
to give them different songs, you know. So. i
don't know that's just my two cents well coming
out of looks like they were right i want to keep
that energy up and i do want to give the lit
fans something that everybody knows so i am going
to go back to 1999's a place in the sun the band's
iconic album and i am going to go with ziploc
look the video is iconic you got d snyder to
recreate the iconic role that mark metcalf played
in animal house as well as the we're not going
to take it video having him in the song must
have been surreal oh yeah and then in in ahem
blink and you'll miss it cameo the guys from
blink 182 continued their what's my age against
streaking in the music video for this song i'd
love to know how that whole situation came about
We were well, we don't talk to him a whole lot
anymore, but we saw him in Texas and outside
of Dallas. We did a show with them and we ran
into him. And, you know, it's like time hasn't
passed. But as far as like testing them on a
daily basis, you know, none of us really do that.
But when we see him, it's like, you know, hugs
and kisses and how you doing? But when we were
on the Warped Tour, they were on their way up.
Things were breaking for them and things were
breaking for us. So, you know. When you're coming
up with ideas for a video and especially that
video where it's going to be a party scene, you
know, obviously we were buddying with Blink -182
at the time and they had this video where they're
running naked. We were like, hey, what if you
guys ran naked through our video? And obviously
it's a good play for them because now it's even
more MTV time of them being on MTV. Oh, my God,
there's the naked guys running again. So for
its time, it was a really good idea. And, you
know, it's one for the books for sure. It was
cool that they came down and did that. And as
far as the Dee Snider Twisted Sister nod, we
had that idea forever, way before we broke. We
were like, man, if we ever get to do a video,
how cool would it be to continue the whole Twisted
Sister idea, but for ourselves, but have Dee
play him and blah, blah, blah. So it worked out
really well. And then we ended up being asked
to be on the tribute album for Twisted Sisters.
So that led to that as well. And we're still
friends with Dee. when he came out to long island
and came on stage and we did a quits at sister
song with him and it was killer that's where
they're from so imagine that well being a big
cover song nerd myself i absolutely love your
cover of i wanna rock and i'm not gonna lie it
is sitting in my bank but i don't know if we'll
get to it we gotta see all right but i also being
a cover song nerd In 2010, The Wonder Years did
a cover of Ziploc, and I'm curious if you ever
heard it and what you thought of a cover of your
band's song. I think I did hear it. I've heard
a lot of My Worst Enemy covers, ranging from
folk to acapella to metal, like hard, hard, hard
metal. I've heard people do things to the song
that I thought were really unique and kind of
interesting. Like, wow, I didn't even think to
do that, but they did it, you know? And then
I've heard Michelle Branch. I've heard Warrant.
Dude, I've heard Suicidal Tendencies cover My
Worst Enemy. I've heard everybody. Yeah, I've
heard everybody cover that song. All right. I
think coming out of Ziploc, Ziploc was a great
one because we do the bass and drums intro for
a while and it gives AJ a breather. That's something
else you got to think of your singer. You got
to give him moments to kind of catch his breath,
kind of say something to the audience, kind of
chill out for a second. So we do a bass and drum
kind of breakdown. or lead track into that song.
So coming out of that, I think we should bounce
over to, God, we already, let's see. I think
we should grab something off Atomic. And I think
it should be, I'm trying to think of how, let's
go into Everything's Cool. It's funny, Everything's
Cool was never a single, but it was kind of the
unsingled single on Atomic, if that makes any
sense. And a lot of people have been asking for
that and addicted. Off Atomic are kind of the
two requested songs. So I think we should go
into Everything's Cool. Something different,
you know? I think that song, I actually, again,
would like to play that song live myself. AJ
is up for it. I'm not sure where Jeremy stands
on it. And Taylor, our drummer, is literally
up for anything. He comes into the band as a
Lit fan. So true story, Taylor tried out for
Lit and didn't even try out because we needed
him really bad. And we were told he knew everything
by lit. I was like, oh, here we go. One of these
guys thinking he didn't know. Literally, he played
every song perfectly and then said, what else
do you guys want to play? And we had to look
at him and go, we literally don't know any more
of our songs. And he knew he knew more songs
than we did. The guy's a geek, man. He's he's
crazy. He's an amazing drummer. And he definitely
adds a really cool element to the band. And it's
so there you go. Well, we're bouncing around
the catalog and. because we hit atomic i want
to jump out to 2012 and i want to go to the view
from the bottom oh nice okay and i'm going to
pull a song that i feel is again another extremely
underrated song in the band's catalog and it's
a song called you tonight thank you i wrote that
one I know along with a, it says here, Marty
Fredrickson and the brothers pop off. So I would
love to know what it was like working with Marty
Fredrickson because of he's had a lot of tons
of like metal and hard rock stuff. And I feel
like that's an element that between you and him,
because I know you're a hard rock guy as well.
I feel like you tonight has a little bit more
of a hard rock edge and I feel like it sticks
out in a good way for me as a hard rock fan.
amongst other songs in the catalog. So I'd love
to know more about this one. So fun story. I'm
glad you brought that song up. We were in Nashville.
Everybody was writing and AJ and Jeremy had a
co -write that day. And so they left the studio
and I was hanging out with Marty and our then
drummer, Nate Walker. Nate Walker and I were
out front on this like porch in Nashville and
I had an acoustic guitar. And one thing about
me and songwriting. When I write a riff, the
riff is almost percussive. It has a percussive
groove to it. So if you listen to You Tonight,
it's... So I write a lot of riffs like that.
Needle and Thread off the self -titled as well.
Same kind of riff. Throw Away off of... What
album was that off of? Atomic? I don't know.
That was from the self -titled album as well.
Yeah, yeah. Same kind of idea. It's that groovy,
percussive. You know, so I tend to write riffs
like that. So I wrote the riff and the music
and I even came up with a melody line. And I
went inside and I said, Marty, you got to admit
it. He came outside and he heard me play it.
He grabbed his guitar and he had to change the
key because I sing super high. So my brain automatically
goes to high notes and he goes, we got to. AJ's
not going to be able to sing that high you know
and I was like crap I didn't think of that so
he helped me adjust it back down to where it
would be comfortable for AJ to sing which ultimately
I think worked probably better I mean I don't
know that my high tenor voice would be soothing
for the ears you know imagine that so imagine
you the night higher you know right it probably
would be rad people like it the way it is now
so Marty was right in having to lower the key
and uh So we did that and we started demoing
up the song. And to this day, man, I kind of
have demo what they call demo fever. I almost
like the demo better than I like the actual recorded
version of our song. There's a percussive thing
in it that didn't get translate very well over
to the album version. And I was so bummed. I
actually tried to get Poncho Sanchez. He's a
Grammy award winning Latin jazz percussionist
out of Whittier, California. And I've got connections
with him. And I tried to get him to do his his
bongos and tablas on you tonight. And I in my
head, I was like, dude, this will be so epic
if he does this. It would be such a cool tie
in, too. And if we did a video for the song,
it would have been even better having him do
it. He's got this crazy beard, big Latin dude,
but ultimately never happened. So anyways, great
choice. I love it. Thank you very much. And that
song goes in and out of rotation on the set list
currently. So I always I love the vibe of the
man has an STP kind of feel to it. You know,
it bounces back and forth, something like they
would have written. So, OK, so we're coming off
of you tonight. Yes, sir. So I think I think
where are we at? Number five in the set list.
We're at number seven right now. Oh, we are.
OK, time to like my set list writing is going
to go. And so it's time to mellow out a little
bit. And one song I wish we would bring into
the set list would be let's go with the wall
off of a view from the bottom. Great track back
to back from view from the bottom. Yeah. Why
not? Right. Definitely. We got everybody there,
but the wall is it's, it's a personal song. I
didn't actually help write that song, but it
is personal. I think it's an awesome song and
there's more behind the picture than the wall,
you know? That's a cool sentiment to say because
everybody has a picture on the wall and that
picture was taken at a special time. You know,
typically a wedding picture or you and your girlfriend
on the beach or maybe a picture of you on stage
at a special event. You know, you can look at
a picture. I'm a photographer as well. So pictures
are really close to my heart. So I know what
picture they're talking about. I know what the
song was written about. It's a picture. That
was taken on Allen's last Orange County show.
And we were at the edge of the stage taking a
bow. And I got these canvases made for each guy
in the band to have on their wall. And it's it's
that picture. It's a sold out beyond sold out
crowd at the House of Blues Anaheim about 2008
or might have been early 2009. But it's the four
of us taking a bow, you know, packed house. And
I think when they were sitting down to write
that song, they co -wrote it with somebody. And
somebody said, what's that picture all about?
You know, and that's when I went into it, you
know. Well, it's funny you should ask about that
picture because there's a lot behind that picture,
you know. So that's kind of how that song was
written. So I was told, you know, AJ and Jeremy
might be able to shed a little bit more light
on it. But that's what I believe it was about.
I feel like the view from the bottom as a whole
was probably the and this is coming from a fan.
the most personal album for the band because
losing Alan, you know, a year earlier must've
had a profound impact on all of you. And I feel
like that comes through in these songs. Yeah,
you're right. It does. And, and it did. Yeah,
you're right. It's, it's a, it's a, it's crazy
album for sure. Oh, another thought we're talking
about the wall, but the song before that you
tonight, the broken was written the same day
as you tonight at the exact same time. wow fun
fact wow very cool yeah so i have to ask while
we're on the view from the bottom right now butch
walker produced that album he's done a lot of
stuff with you guys throughout the years co -writing
guesting on tracks what did he bring to these
sessions because obviously the band was going
through a lot at that time and this was the first
album from the band in eight years from the self
-titled album yeah we started production on that
album with a guy named Matt something. I forget
his name. I hate that I forget his name, but
it wasn't it wasn't jiving very well. So we jumped
ship and we went with Butch Walker. So a bulk
of the music was kind of there. And we were able
to get in with Butch and he was able to add some
bells and whistles to it. And most specifically.
the what he added to uh god off the top of my
head i remember being in the in the studio with
butch and he brought in a floor tom two floor
toms and some drumsticks and he had our drummer
meet him in the in there i had no idea what the
hell he was doing and he recorded this drum beat
thing like a tribal beat and i was like what
the hell is this for and he and he put it on
um same shit different drink and there's a there's
a tribal beat thing to that and he came up with
that But, you know, he put Butch Walker's touch
on everything and then added his deal to the
whole thing. Butch, he's a sweetheart. We've
known him for years. And we're always happy to...
He's a close friend, so it's really easy to just
bring him in on something. And he's usually,
you know, if he's available, he is a busy guy.
But when we can, it's great. You know, these
are the days he ended up doing a video with us.
We had him out for that. We've done tours with
him. co -writes and all kinds of stuff with him
so it was cool it was an honor to have him on
it because he's a very talented guy if you're
out there and you're scratching your head and
asking yourself who's butch walker just go to
uh go to your favorite platform music platform
and type his name in and uh he's he's got a great
body of work you know and he's produced the biggest
bands in the world So, but even for his stuff,
like the spade to me is such a fantastic album.
And then you go back to the, obviously the stuff
with the marvelous three, when they would tour
with you guys back when, um, uh, place in the
sun was blowing up. They were a frequent opener
on a lot of your shows, at least through my area
in the tri -state area. He, what they were. Yeah.
Yeah. We did a whole tour with them. Yep. Yeah.
I think he had a song called mix. Yes, sir. That
was from the 2004 album letters. Yes. Yes. Fun
fact. All right, so coming out of the wall, I
want to pick it back up again. All right. And
I'm going to go all the way back to the beginning.
I'm going to go back to 1996, and I'm going to
go off of five smoking tracks from. All right.
Hurry Up, Wait Up. I'm going to go with Bitter.
Yeah, man. Another one, man. My guys will not
do it, but I would rock that. I know, dude. I
would rock that in a set in a heartbeat, dude.
It's a banger. Why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't
you bang the crap out of the crowd? Wow. Mind
blown. That would be one that I would just think
because that's the roots. That's where it all
started. The first song on the first EP, like
for the, I guess you'd call it the OGs, the original
fan base. That was everyone's first introduction
to the band. Yeah, I know, man. All right. All
right. So we come off that and then we're going
to go into a life that I got. We're going to
go. We're going to bring them all the way up
to the new album, to the song that we are currently
pushing. We are currently playing our set now
and it's doing very well. People love it. We
just played the rock boat, Sister Hazel's rock
boat. And we had American authors come up on
stage and do Life That I Got With Us because
they co -wrote that song with us. Yes. And dude,
having them up on stage, going back and forth
with AJ on the vocals was killer. It was a lot
of fun. It's a great song. I love the new album.
And I, you know, obviously we haven't of all
the albums we've talked about tonight so far,
we have not talked about, and I don't know if
we will, I have some tracks from it sitting in
my list, but 2017, these are the days I just
haven't found a place that a song will fit yet.
Right. But we still have a whole second side
to go, but coming out of the life I got. i'm
actually gonna do something and go deep again
all right because to me this is a song that closes
a very personal album for the band and to me
it just feels like one of those power pop tracks
that i think would have been a massive hit for
the band had it been released as a single and
i'm gonna go with the closing track for the third
time on side a from the view from the bottom
and i'm gonna go with right this time yeah I
feel like this is the band flexing some power
pop muscles. And this is the kind of song that
I would hear on a road trip in a convertible
with the top down. It's a feel good song. Yeah,
it's very reflective. It just puts you kind of
like in the rear view mirror. And I feel like,
you know, the album was very deep, the view from
the bottom. But I feel like there was this positive
outlook at the end of it that really, you know,
signal the future ahead for the band. after a
really terrible thing happens, obviously. So
to me, that song is a perfect set closer or a
perfect side closer in this instance. And I'm
going to go with Right This Time. Dude, thanks.
Yeah, that's a good one, man. I'm loving that
you're grabbing these songs, you know? This is
fun. It's a fun way to do an interview. Doing
a mixtape is great. Thank you. Well, that just
closed side A. So what I'm going to do now, I'm
going to review side A with our mixtapers. And
we kick things off with My World, Kicked Off
the Plane, Looks Like They Were Right, Ziploc,
Everything's Cool, You Tonight, The Wall, Bitter,
The Life I Got, and Right This Time. Wow. You
could always head over to myweeklymixtape .com
to hear all the songs we've discussed in this
mix. through the lit playlist embedded on the
episode page now before we flip this proverbial
mixtape over to side b kevin 2022 was a busy
year for the band tastes like gold was your first
album in a long while and you also did some tracks
with other musicians that i just wanted to highlight
for a second the first being a song you guys
recorded with diamante called american dream
how did that pairing come together well taylor
our drummer is the boyfriend of diamante so he
came to us and we all kind of just were like
yeah do whatever you want to do you know blah
blah and i'm glad we did that song but in hindsight
i kind of wish we would have done something new
for her new for us basically we just covered
her song you know it was already written it was
her song which i think is neat it shows a different
side of lit you know and maybe a different kind
of sound i guess and it was all in fun it's done
very well we never did a video for it They did
some kind of video for it, but not like a video
video. A lot of rehearsal footage. Yeah. I wish
we would have probably done a cover, but some
kind of deep cut cover and we could have whipped
it up and made it something different. You know,
I don't know what that cover would have been.
You know, I don't know, Pat Benatar, but or maybe
there's a duet out there of a guy and girl and
we rock that out and then they have their parts,
you know. I'm almost hearing. Dare I say it?
Stop dragging my heart around. Oh, yeah. Stevie
Nicks and Tom Petty. I could hear a little bit
of that punk flavor being added to that. Yeah.
Yeah, that could be cool. Maybe I'll bring that
up. If it happens, you could say you heard it
here first. I would love that. That's a good
one. You love the Tom Petty, you know? Oh, of
course, man. Of course. Another track the band
appeared on in 2022 is Chad Tepper's 777. Yeah.
AJ found him online. I don't even know how he
found him. And he brought him to our attention.
And then it started with having him do a show,
a local show. He's from L .A. and we did a hometown
show. Well, hometown for the history of lit goes.
I mean, Jeremy and AJ live in Tennessee now,
but we played House of Blues Anaheim and we just
wanted fresh new blood on the bill. So we picked
all fresh new blood. to be on the bill with us.
And Chad was on the bill with us. And that's
where, you know, leading up to the show, obviously
we were going back and forth with them on, on
helping to promote the show and whatnot. And
then when we did the show, I think that just
led to, Hey, we got to write a song together,
blah, blah, blah. And AJ and Jeremy wrote that
song with him. So, but every day I take my kid
to school, he's listening to that song literally
every day. And it's a great song. It's a great
track. I absolutely love it. Well, with that,
we're going to move on to side B. and i get to
kick off side b okay i want to kick off side
b with some aggression but i want to go old school
but also slightly newer school if you will so
i am going to go with a song that was featured
on five smoking tracks from tripping the life
fantastic as well as the version i picked which
was on a place in the sun i'm gonna kick off
side b with no big thing yep no big thing all
right My question for that is how and why did
the song end up on three subsequent releases?
Was it a song that you guys all felt very strongly
about? Or I mean, the song kicks ass. That's
why I'm putting it on here. Yeah, it just kind
of for its time. It really fit all the different
key ingredients that we loved. The EP was a delicious
vinyls idea. I want to say maybe that the EP
is the demo version. And then we did a trip and
a light fantastic version and that album did
okay. So when it came down time to do the RCA,
we were set, we said, Hey, let's give that song
another chance. You know, let's, let's try and
do it. So we recorded it yet again, you know,
we love that song and it went away for a long
time and it's back in the set now. So it's a
fun, easy song for people to chew on, you know,
and it. There's nothing else like it in the set.
You know, it's kind of our our nod to like face
to face, which is a SoCal punk band that we grew
up. And it's the closest thing we got to a face
to face song. And, you know, now that you mention
it, I hear that big time. Wow. That is that is
awesome. Yeah, definitely. My first punk pit
was face to face. AJ grabbed me by the arm and
threw me in the pit. And all of a sudden there
I was. And it was a big pit. And this is about
94, 95, I guess. I don't know what album they
were on, but it was early. And the venue was
called the Ice House. And it's now, I think,
a Korean church right in Fullerton. But so going
into our next song, it's funny because you kind
of put the carriage before the horse or however
they say that, because we usually do miserable
into no big thing. But you're doing no big thing
and I'm going into miserable. So we got to throw
miserable in there. The bass player for Lit of
me is knowing that we should probably throw some
singles in there. And you already got, looks
like they were right, Bitter, Ziploc in there.
But we need Miserable in there. So I got to plop
that in there. So I'm going to wage a wild guess
here. You've played with the band on a lot of
stages, be it boats, theaters, stadiums. I'm
guessing the stage, quote unquote, that you played
on in that video might be your favorite of all
time. Oh, yeah. For those that don't know, that
would be the video where they played on, I guess
you would just say, Pam Anderson's butt. Yeah,
every part of her body we played on. That was
a very special time, man. The funny thing behind
that video is RCA came to us with a treatment
that we would be performing on a 50 -foot woman's
body, and then she would eat us at the end, and
we were completely against it until we got asked
to do VIP, and then we circled back around and
said, listen, If you can get Pam to be the 50
foot woman, we'll do it. So we'll talk to her
people. And then she came back with the idea.
All right, we'll premiere the video. I'll do
the video, but we're going to premiere it on
my VIP show. And so we were like, all right,
done deal. And so it really, really worked out
in everybody's favor. And it was really special
that she did it. We hated the idea of a 50 foot
woman. We thought it was kind of lame. And all
of a sudden you plop the idea of Pam being the
50 foot woman. And you're like, oh, OK, yeah,
that could be cool. I'm glad that you flipped
the two together because I was at some point
debating if I went with Miserable, if you would
take the nod and go to No Big Thing. But I said,
you know what? We're going a little deeper tonight.
And I like that. And I'm going to go a little
deeper again. But I'm going to go with 2001's
Atomic. And this is something we talked about
earlier in the night. And I'm so glad you mentioned
it because, yeah. Oh, yeah. I think this should
be in every lit set list. It's one of the most
underrated songs in the band's catalog. I'm going
with Addicted. OK, I'll back that. I like that.
And then to follow that up, I'm going to we got
to touch on the new album and I'm going to go
with a single off the new album. I'm going to
go with Mouth Shut. Nice. You worked with Adrian
Young of No Doubt on that song. What was that
like? Yeah, he's an old friend of ours and he
lives in Southern California. I mean, it almost
doesn't matter where anybody lives anymore. Right.
You could just you could send tracks via email.
So he has a studio at his house, so he played
the drums in his basement to that. So when you
listen to Mouth Shut, it's funny. I go into rabbit
holes and I was on a rabbit hole on Spotify the
other day and I went into, you know, if you go
look up a band like Litter, No Doubt, you scroll
down and it says this is No Doubt, right? And
you go into that folder and it'll give you all
kind of like the top songs that you should listen
to to really know who No Doubt is, right? Well,
Mouth Shut is in there. in that folder and i
thought that was pretty cool you know yeah he's
a hell of a drummer he's got a unique style of
his own yeah he's a great guy too man he's he's
the sweetest dude and he's he's off his rocker
but in a really good way you know he he doesn't
take life too seriously but he has fun he knows
how to have fun and we we've got nothing but
great stories and him and alan were really close
and uh he wore a shirt in the video i heart owl
and that was a shirt that was at the uh house
of blues show for alan to raise money for him
when he was sick uh it's also the same show where
we did the bowel that ended up being the photo
that is mentioned in the wall so all that wow
if you back of all that yeah so well full circle
moment there yeah there you go what are you gonna
follow that up with i i gotta go back to the
self -titled album i love that album i'm so so
thankful for that album it's got so many great
songs that i feel are just not represented anymore
and that should be and i'm gonna go with the
album opener too fast for a u -turn this song
is ridiculously heavy it is bombastic i love
the whole i gotta get get get to you it's got
that just it's choppy and it's what a way to
kick off an album and i said it before the band's
most underrated album I wish this album got more
love because it truly has some great music on
it. And coming out of mouth shut, I feel like
you're cranking up the energy a little bit before
we kind of get to the big finish of the mixtape
here. So too fast for a U -turn. Okay. I'll be
curious where this sits in your mind with the
band. I love you. We just call it simply U -turn.
It was on a set list for a long, long, long time.
I like it. It's a different kind of sound for
us. Jeremy's using a special pedal on that that
gives us a unique sound. And oddly enough, I
do a very kind of weird tuning on my bass for
that song. And I love it when bass players come
up to me and go, what are you tuned to on that
to get that song? Because it's not E and it's
not half step down. But in order for me to hit
that low note, I just simply go, I just tune
my bass, the E string just slightly down to the
11th note on the A string. So live, I just slide
my finger down and I hit both strings and I just
tune it down. And then I can play the song that
way. Wild. Because the E wasn't low enough to
hit that low note. So when we wrote the song,
I was like, where is it? It was just one note
down from E, high E, because I was going to have
to hit that high note. And I was like, screw
that. I'm just going to tune the E down to that
note. If you're a guitar player or bass player,
you know what I'm talking about. But I just wanted
that low note for the song. So it was simply
an adjustment on the E string, and I did it.
And then I would just tune right back up at the
end of the song. So it would literally take me
a second to tune down, tune up, you know? All
right. I love it. I get some bass nerd out of
this tonight as well. Yeah. So track six. Oh,
okay. I would definitely have to bring this into
the set. It's I got a couple already in my head
that I know we got to add to the set, but we
have to put four in there. Four is that it's
almost the it's the single that never was. And
every person that went out and bought A Place
in the Sun had to hear this song. It's not a
deep song on the album. It's the first track
off the biggest album. And so four almost is
like its own single. So it's awesome when you
open with that song or even play it in the set,
because it's almost like we can plot for anywhere
in the set. And it's almost as if you're starting
the set now. So currently we open with a kicked
off the plane and then we kick into four. Nice.
Almost like we go out and test the waters with
kicked off the plane. And then the set starts
with four. You know, it's kind of how it feels
right now. It's kind of rad. But I'm going to
add four in there because it's. it's a rocker
you know and it's it's a great song i absolutely
love it obviously it kicks off the band's seminal
album that everybody should know i am going to
follow that up though with track seven i'm going
to bring it down a notch because i feel like
right before the end you want to have that moment
you want to have the lighters up in the air and
i've always been curious about this i'm going
to go off of 2002's mr deeds soundtrack Oh, yeah.
And I'm going to go with happy in the meantime,
but I'm going to go with the remix, which actually
features more drums and bass versus the version
on Atomic, which is just straight up acoustic.
I'm very curious why there were two versions
of that song and, you know, what the reasoning
behind it was going to the soundtrack with kind
of a full band version. Kind of out of our hands,
but we kind of backed it. I'm going to all transparency.
it's a special song and and uh it is you know
the song wasn't written to be a hit it was just
a song written because it was a it was a thought
it was a and it hit close to home for us you
know being happy in the meantime and all that
so but when it came around to having to select
another single off of atomic Lipstick and Bruises
wasn't My Own Worst Enemy. I love Lipstick and
Bruises. And if you're a Lit fan, you love that
song. But it's not My Own Worst Enemy. It's not
meant maybe for the masses, I guess. I don't
know. But RCA wanted to see what they could do
with Happy in the Meantime. And so they were
like, well, let's try and add drums to this.
So we went back in the studio and tried to pepper
it up a little bit and kind of almost turn it
into a different song. I don't know that we ever
went to radio with it. As a matter of fact, where
did you find that song? Is it out there? It's
on the Mr. Deeds soundtrack as well as the platinum
and gold compilation for the band. Got it. Got
it. All right. So I got to look that up and listen
to it. I haven't heard that in years. I mean,
for one, I haven't watched Mr. Deeds since it
actually probably came out. I don't even know
if I finished the whole thing. That's with Adam
Sandler, right? Yeah, we watched it with the
kids because my daughter has, my 14 -year -old
has an affinity for Adam Sandler humor right
now. So we're kind of doing the Adam Sandler,
Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Mr. Deeds kind
of binge with her right now. Okay. Yeah, I got
to check that out. When my kid gets done with
the football year, I'm going to go on Spotify
and see if I can't find that. I'm going to follow
up your Happy in the Meantime. I'm going to throw
another single in there. And I love that we brought
this back. Did I already put Lipstick and Bruises
in this? You did not. It's got to be in there,
man. It's a banger, man. It's a great song. I
love the video. And so I'm dropping that one
on you. So then I have to ask, why hasn't the
band created a Mulletron action figure? Because
I want one. You're not wrong, man. We should.
We really should. I don't know who we would call.
But yeah, we should, man. Well, coming out of
that, I am just going to throw the gauntlet down.
Obviously, we have two songs left, one pick each.
And I am going to go with the obvious pick so
that we could close with something different.
But I am going to go with my own worst enemy
here in track nine, because I feel like for an
encore at the end of the tape, I would like the
band to have kind of a different pick to kind
of close the set out. But I do want to ask, because
we're talking about movies right now, this song
has had a resurgence in the last year because
of the fact it was featured in the trailer for
Clerks 3, which I won't spoil anything because
I hate spoiling movies for people. If you haven't
seen Clerks 3 yet, wow, that's all I'm going
to say. But for you guys, how did it feel hearing
that song back in the soundtrack for a movie
that people kind of waited decades for this trilogy
to finally come to a close? I was honored because
Clerks has obviously got its hardcore following.
So when we found out, obviously, way ahead of
time that it was going to be featured in that.
And so it was an honor for sure. And it felt
good, obviously. You probably don't hear a lot
of the movies that My Worst Enemy is a part of
or commercials or bumper music. Dude, it's almost
weekly, if not daily. It's somebody sending us
something like, hey, I heard your song here.
Did you realize that your song is a part of this
and blah, blah, blah. And you say yes to things.
And then it takes six months to a year for it
to finally come out. And then it hits, you know.
I forget how long Clerks was. I mean, it could
have been six months and then finally it came
out, you know, from us saying yes to it, to it
actually happening. But yeah, dude, it's Jeremy
and AJ's dad said something years ago. He said,
my worst enemy is the smoke on the water of our
generation. And it's crazy because it really
kind of is. It's the riff. It's the song. It's
the sentiment. It's. Everything all rolled into
one. And we've honestly, we've been so blessed
to have a song like that. And it has opened so
many doors for us. And it's really opened a lot
of people's ears to the rest of the music that
has been written. You know, it's not, they open
the door to Enemy and they go, wow, you got a
whole catalog of stuff. Let me dive into all
this. And so we're very fortunate to have something
like that. You know, man, I'm twisted on what
song should be last. But I'm going to go with
my heart. And if I had to write a set list right
now, the last song on this mixtape, I really
feel I'm bummed that I didn't even think to put
over my head on the mixtape because it's a single
and it's my favorite song to play live by far
because the bass playing on it is it's great.
You know, it's fun to play for me. It's got some
cool parts in there that I really am proud of.
But. To close this out, I feel like a closer
song might be cool if it was A Place in the Sun.
The title track off of A Place in the Sun. It's
the last song on the album and it really has
a cool feeling to it. So I'm going to go with
that. Wow. Very cool. I love it. I absolutely
love it. You like how I open the mixtape with
the bass and drum and I'm closing it with bass
and drum? Yeah. See, there's a definite, and
then you know what? The beauty, if this was an
actual cassette, it would just click back over
to side A and go right back into that My World
bass line. Yeah, dude. Well, there you have it,
Mixtapers. Side B consists of No Big Thing, Miserable,
Addicted, Mouth Shut, Too Fast for a U -Turn,
4, Happy in the Meantime Remix, Lipstick and
Bruises, My Own Worst Enemy. and a place in the
sun head over to myweeklymixtape .com right now
and you could hear the entire playlist that kevin
and i just discussed tonight Kevin, I can't thank
you enough for joining me tonight and putting
together this mix. I hope Lit fans take something
away from this. And it's been an absolute pleasure.
I can't wait for the next time the band comes
through New Jersey. I can't wait to see you guys
live again. My nine -year -old will be there
singing Kicked Off the Plane at the top of her
lungs along with me and everybody else. Lucky
for her, we play it first so you can get her
to bed. Thank you so much for the music. Thank
you so much for the memories that the music has
brought me. And most importantly, thank you so
much for being a guest tonight on My Weekly Mixtape.
Dude, I love this show, man. It's a great concept
and it was a lot of fun. Thank you for having
me. You can find My Weekly Mixtape on Facebook,
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at patreon .com forward slash my weekly mixtape.
That's all for this week. Thanks for listening.
And until next time, enjoy the tunes.