681. - Bright Eyes

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. How long gone? A rare Monday recording because of our upcoming travel schedule. I've had an action-packed day of self-care. Jason, how are you feeling? When you said it was Monday, I was like, you know, I'm sort of at that stage of summer where day of the week doesn't really matter, you know? That's my whole approach to life. Weekends are for pussies, is what I always say. Every day is Tuesday. Every day is Tuesday. It's a way to live life, is what I would say. Okay, I did a little bit of self-care. I did some kettlebells and sauna, and I washed my hair and conditioned it, but otherwise, not a ton. What did you do? Um, I, uh, well, of course I went to the gym. Um, I got my blood taken from my doctor to look at my panels. Uh, I went, I got a haircut. Uh, I got a pedicure. I had a coffee with Sam Jane who was in town. And then I also hit the sauna. All of this before now, you know, I've really got it in today. I had a couple of calls. You go through all this before I even wake up. Don't you? No, no, no. Well, I was in the gym pretty early today, but mercifully. The Soho Equinox, in the last gasps of summer, is pretty quiet. So I only had to wait five minutes for every machine, not ten. Everyone's on Long Island and at Montauk.

Yeah, they're all somewhere. They're at their share houses. They're on Fire Island. Don't douche in the river. That's what I heard. Don't douche in the river water. There's monsters in there. They're in the gay places, the straight places, the rich places, the poor places. I'm sure some of them are at the Jersey Shore. It's anybody's guess. Characters welcome. Characters welcome is right. Okay, yeah, that's cool. I was prepping, it seems like. U.S. Open Fever is pumping through the streets. I watched the Roger Federer doc on Amazon last night. Brought to you by Rolex. It was nice to see when you watch a TV show or movie and it'll say, like, brought to you commercial-free by Tide or whatever. But this time it was Rolex because it was fed. That's right. I felt, I was like, okay, this is a good... This is good branding. I wish there was more of this going on versus brought to you by, you know, Procter & Gamble or brought to you by Skittles or something. Brought to you by Skittles is nice, actually. I like that one. Procter & Gamble. You know, Ben Shelton's a Rolex guy, too. I don't know if you knew that. You mean that he enjoys them or he's sponsored by them? No, he's got a deal. He's sponsored by Rolex. This is good. The synergy is great because I love Rolex as well. We're all tennis players. We're all tall. I was talking to Bryn earlier today, and Bryn was like, sorry, I don't have a plus one, and sends me the screenshot of the Rolex at US Open kind of email invite. And I was like, you didn't have to share that. You could have just kept that to yourself. How sorry are you? Yeah, you're not that sorry, are you, Bryn? You're not very sorry. I know you're not listening to this. I think she knows that you would be proud of her while also being jealous of being flexed upon. It's a proud parent situation. From someone like Brynn, I love being flexed on, actually. That's maybe my preferred method of communication with her, as long as it's in that direction. From her flexing on me is exactly what I want out of that relationship. There's a life lesson in there somewhere. Before we got on this, I was checking out a post from rapper Future.

it seems like US Open fever has caught all the way down to Zone 6 because Future is seemingly on the tennis court, shirt-off, Nike headband, Fed style, with the head racket. Head racket. He's got some funny Nikes on, like some Air Force 2s or some shit with the strap, Nike shorts, polo Ralph Lauren boxers, shirt-off. How do you think Future hit him? Yeah, he's got the kind of the Nike... The mid-tops with the Velcro strap on the front, there's like an early flight model. Yeah, yeah. I like the Polo Ralph Lauren boxers underneath the Nike shorts, but it makes you wonder, does that mean he has his brains blown out in his Nike Pro training shorts, or does he have... screech shorts that don't have the panties and panty line he has he has screech shorts for sure future ain't future ain't imagine future putting on a pair of patagonia baggies and being like what the fuck why you got nah nah nah yeah no ditty but i have to take these tiny trousers off so so other than uh wiz owens are the what rapper do you think wear shorts that have the underwear built into them i think i have great question i think glow up artist gucci He seems to be the type of person who would never do that, but now he low-key would. Big Sean definitely wearing liners. No question. No question, Big Sean's wearing liners. Drake has worn liners before, but I think he likes his shorts so big that it just doesn't make sense. Kendrick Lamar is definitely wearing liners. 100%. You think so? Yeah, you can still pull your... Gambino's we're in line. If we call him a rapper, we can't really call him a rapper. I call him a multidimensional artist, but I guess if you want to kind of diss him, you could say he's a rapper. Yeah, I guess that is a fun game to play, isn't it? It's a very How Long Gone-esque activity to play. It really is a good question, because the answers could be anything. So I'm going to New York tomorrow, flying over there. We have our event with On.

And I'm excited. You and I are going to get some dinner the day I land, tap down. Get some Japanese. And then how's the weather out there? Was there a storm yesterday? How do I need to pack? Am I bringing a coat? What's going on? You're not bringing a coat. It's fucking disgusting. It's humid as fuck. It's actually less humid than it was this weekend, so hopefully it's trending in the right direction. But you don't need a jacket. That's for fucking sure. Okay. You just need your on shorts and dry fit t-shirt, and you'll be good to go, bro. Okay. I don't wear a dry fit on top, but yeah, sure. You should bring some, you know, jeans and stuff. Okay. Regular. Regular gear. Bring some long pants. The weather is, I don't think it'll be, I mean, luckily we're covered, so, you know, even if it does rain, that's not really an issue for us. Well, I'm going to be there for a week, so I plan to go around and do stuff too, you know. I need to stand on a street and drink wine. Well, that's your first mistake. Yeah, we're going to, I think we should finally hit time again after our dinner tomorrow. Don't dox us. Every person in New York is there. They're too busy drinking beers on a street corner to go rob us. I'm not afraid that I'm going to be robbed. I'm afraid that I'm going to be punished. But punished in what way? By punishers. Oh, you're definitely going to – I mean, yeah. If you go out anywhere in New York, you're going to get punished by punishers, especially if you're them jeans. You're a big, tall, dumbass looking around, swirling your wine glass. People want to come confront you. You're a lighthouse in a sea of bozos. I'm the porch light. And they're the mosquito. That's a great way to put it. That's a great way to put it. But yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to have you in the Big Apple. I know you thrive. I think I do thrive. Yeah, I'm staying at the Gansevoort Hotel. Meatpacking. They got a sauna. They got all the shit. So I'm ready to... And they have a pool too, which is rare in NYC. It's probably a roof, hot tub style pool is my guess. It is on the roof. I don't know if it's a tub or not, but we'll see. I can't wait to go to Charleston. I got...

I got all kinds of stuff planned. We're hitting the beach. We got dinners. I'm hanging out with friends. It's just really going to be an action-packed week in the South for me after I escape. Where do you get the time to make plans to make dinner reservations and all that stuff? How do you do it? What do you mean? Well, in this case, I talked to a very nice person who does PR for all of the restaurants. And she took care of it. And then my friend Brooks owns several restaurants. So, you know, I didn't have to do much. Okay, okay. But Shep is unfortunately out of town. I did tap in with Shep, and he's going to be playing in a golf tournament in Ireland. That's going to be so sick. I'm a little upset that I'm not going to get to do a beach walk with him. I think that would change my life, literally. I think that would literally change my life. Hashtag morning beers. Yes, exactly. I think I would see the world differently if I did a one-mile sunset beach walk with Shep and his dog. A one-mile? Yeah. I had a lot of fun, dude. We should totally get up next time. Hey, dude, man, dude, I had a lot of fun, dude. You're all right, Chris. What's your name again? Chris? Yeah, yeah, okay, I know Chris. The talk that we did at the FWB Fest, Earning Man, I think is going to be up on YouTube in the next coming days or so, so keep your eyes peeled for our chat with Trevor McFedrez. It was actually quite enjoyable. We liked it a lot, hopefully. It was fun to do. I don't know if it was as fun to listen to. I think it'll be fun to listen to, especially if you like us as people. They definitely don't like us as people. They like me? No, I think they're liking you less and less. The tide's turning, thank God. No, I'm joking. All right, well, I wanted to say RIP to Phil Donahue, legendary talk show host who I spent hours with after school in my life. So I just want to say RIP to him. He really introduced me to some trash, and I love him for it. So you would come, little fat-ass Chris would come home from school, plop down in front of the boob tube to watch Phil interview some punk rock meth heads who ran away from home. What are you snacking on during this time?

Probably Triscuits and cheese, a black household classic. I mean, a classic in general, but that was a very popular snack in the black household. What kind of cheese? Oh, just a nice cheddar. Cheddar off the block? Oh, yeah, cheddar off the block. My mom had a nice little cheese slicer, so it was kind of thin, which I like. I don't need a thick slice. So I'd be set up. I'd be set up with the Triscuits. I mean, I think about Triscuits all the time. Actually, I'm going to buy a box today. Fuck it. Wow. Fuck it. I'm buying a box, bro. That's it. You do what you want when you pop in. Yeah, you do what you want when you pop in. No, I mean, I bought that Triscuit print. for our apartment. You're not new to this. I see Triscuit every day, but I don't think to buy them. I also feel like... I see Triscuit every day. Like it's your non-binary friend in Bushwick. Exactly. My friend Triscuit makes a mean cappuccino. I think that the best selection of Triscuits, though, is not going to be in New York City. You're going to have to hit... and Atlanta, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina Publix to see kind of the full offering. What are you hoping to get? Flamin' Hot Triscuits? I thought you're a very regular flavor guy. Okay, relax. I just want to check it out. You want to get sriracha? No, there's like a rosemary and black pepper, I believe. It's quite good. But I just want to check it out. I might even fuck around and get a cheddar. Fuck it. I might just go absolutely crazy. Damn, bro. I know. I like this cheat day-ass Chris. I love Triscuits. We have a guest today. I bet he likes Triscuits, too, because he's about the same age as we are. Yeah, he's about the right age to eat a Triscuit. He's about the right age to eat a goddamn Triscuit. You know him as Connor Oberst, a.k.a. Bright Eyes. I mean, I've been listening to this since I was in high school. Fevers and Mirrors is a classic. Lifted. Or the story is in the soil. Keep your ear to the ground is a classic. I'm wide awake. It's morning, but he's back. There's a new record, Five Dice, All Threes, that is out pretty soon, I think. Yeah, it's out in like a month. Let's go chat with Connor about Edendale and Triscuits, and we'll get it all on the table. Beautiful. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince.

Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, and they're just easy but still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated. but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe, go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada. That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking... Something put together, a cabinet. Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf. TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. And, I mean, how it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled.

Over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive, and that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. When life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app using promo code HOWLONG. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book Trusted Home Help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code HOWLONG with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. What did you have for breakfast? What did I have for breakfast? Great question. Black coffee. Black coffee, orange juice only. That's what they always ask you at the radio station. Yeah, we haven't done a lot of morning radio, but I know what you mean. That's a classic sound man question. Yeah. Just quickly. What is your take on Triscuits as a snack? Did you grow up eating that? Do you eat them now? I actually love Triscuits. Hell yeah, my man. I think they're fantastic. I think they're the best of that genre. Crackers. The Bisco Cracker family. They're kind of the leader of the pack. They're shitting on a wheat thing. Okay. Do you go plain? Do you go with cheese? Do you hummus or something crazy? I like them plain. You got to have a lot of beverages, though, because they can get a little. You can choke those down. You know what I'm saying? I'll tell you one thing I hate, though. Big Newton's. What's the beef with figs? I just think they're gross. I like figs. I like figs on their own, but Fig Newtons are, like, disgusting to me. I don't know. Okay. Am I alone in this? No. No, no, no. I don't think Fig Newtons even exist anymore. I think most people kind of— That is not true, Jason. Who's eating a Fig Newton in 2024? To be honest, there's some new kind of DTC Fig Newton ripoffs that I've— It doesn't count. I've seen— No, no, I'm saying the Fig Newton—

style is so popular that it's been ripped off by young people with investment. You can buy them at Cookbook. What did you say? D-D-T? He said DTC, direct to consumer. Oh, okay. He just means like an artisanal Fig Newton that you could buy at Cookbook or someplace on Larchmont for $19 a box. Cookbook is right over there, or there's one of them, right? like behind my house but you you hit and cook book pretty often no are you more of a vons guy like what's the vibe i mean i i i'd probably go to like whole foods sadly okay sure you're a traditionalist yeah the one thing about la is that everything can be delivered and i i have like a shopping phobia because i like new things but I really hate to buy. I hate to shop. Okay. You know what I mean? Okay. Okay. That's a real conundrum. You see all these new products and these new drinks and snacks and foods. Maybe they invent a new fruit or a vegetable and you want to try it, but you want to, thanks to technology, it can be all sent to your house by a delivery person. Exactly. And the only thing that you can't really do that with It's like clothing, but, you know, I've been chugged in many, like, fancy clothing stores by various, you know, friends and partners, etc. And I... Daddy's buying. I want, you know. Yeah, I got my dad's credit card, so everything's paid for. Everything's cool. Everything's cool, but I just love it. But I don't, like, they don't understand that I don't want to try anything on. I'm never going to go into, like, a dressing room and, like, try something on. So I just take it off the shelf, and they're like, that's, like, $500. I'm like, I don't fucking care. Put it in the bag, he said. Put it in the bag.

Amen. And then I get home and it doesn't fit and I never wear it. Okay, important question, important follow-up question. Do you then return that $500 shirt or do you throw it in the corner of your closet, eat the cost, never think about it again? I've never returned anything in my life. Round of applause, Connor. That's, that's sick, bro. Cause I'm, I'm, I aspire to that, but I have unfortunately made some errors in my past. I mean, I do, I have like, I've had girlfriends that insist on like, Oh, if it's not going to, if you're not going to wear it, then like, we got to like, it was like expensive. We had to take it back. I'm like, if you want to do that, you can do that. Go for it. Use the store credit for the Chanel bag, whatever you want to do, baby. I don't care. That's one advantage of being semi-rich. You don't have to care. You don't have to worry about that stuff as much as some of these other people do. Also, I guess, going back to you at Whole Foods. I feel like there's not a Whole Foods in America that you could walk into where you're not going to have somebody be like, oh, my God, you changed my life. Yeah, Whole Foods is bad for you. Whole Foods is bad. You can go to AutoZone all day. No one's going to fuck with you. Whole Foods, someone's going to start snot crying when they see you. No, I usually hang out at, like, Home Depot and stuff. Just to feel normal. I just don't want to leave me alone. I'm just looking for nails. If you guys could just leave me alone. Yeah, Whole Foods. in silver lake is pretty rough in that respect um no shit yeah the one in silver lake yeah and then they and then they you know they open the because you used to have to go to like west hollywood or like the palisades or whatever to go to erewan and now like they got an erewan in silver lake i mean that is like ground zero you can't go you gotta wear a mask dude we like

Me and my old girlfriend, like, during the pandemic, we, like, we were all scared of, like, everyone about all the fruit and all the stuff. And so we would drive to the Palisades to, she kind of had expensive taste, but we would, like, drive to the Palisades at, like, whatever, like, eight at night, like, right before they were going to close. like the last half hour that they were open with our masks on and all terrified. But there was like no one there at that point. And it was like, what's the old game show where you... Supermarket Sweep. Supermarket Sweep. Exactly. It was like... How fast can we get through this supermarket? So you were spending a lot of money and time at Erwan to kind of salve your wounds of COVID. Yeah, but also in L.A. during COVID, you would drive to the Calabasas Erwan just as a field trip because there was nothing else to fucking do. Exactly. Yeah, we used to drive around aimlessly and just like, oh, it's kind of like pretty up here in like the Hollywood Hills. Just stop and, like, you know, look at the fucking stars or whatever because, yeah, there was literally nothing to do. And, like, you know, you can only be inside your house for so long before you lose your mind. There's only so many puzzles you can solve. There's only so many jigsaw puzzles you can do. I thought you were more of a Sudoku guy, but I guess jigsaw works. Yeah, they don't, yeah. And they don't even make ones with enough pieces. I need like 100,000 pieces. Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Call me with the invent a real puzzle. Okay. You said your girlfriend at the time of COVID had expensive taste. Any fucked up COVID purchases right over here? My wife and I got a sauna in our house during COVID. That was pretty fucked up. What about you? Well.

We kind of did the classic. We got like two dogs. Yeah. And they're both puppies. And that was that was a bad idea. That's right. Because even though, you know, all the time in the world, but puppies just like piss and shit everywhere. You know, I can't I can't really. There's a lot of things I can't imagine you doing. Cleaning up shit is one of them for whatever reason. Believe me, I've cleaned up. my own and my friends and my dog oh yeah sometimes i even got gloves it's great yeah your experience i i apologize i didn't mean to sell you i just i just like that that my life and your life is pretty much the exact same yeah yeah yeah yeah so so one of you One of you is in LA and one's in New York. Is that right? Yeah, I'm in New York and Jason's in LA. Okay. I'm in Glendale. Cool. Did you live here at some point? I've lived in both of those cities. Yeah, I've lived in New York for like 13 years, like in the East Village. What era is this? Because I was in the East Village too. I moved there in like... 2002, I guess. Oh, early. Okay, that was a little before my time. So you were at St. Dymphna's and Café Mogador and all the spots then? Yep. Holding it down? St. Dymphna's was like my second home. I'm still like, you know, one of my best friends, this woman, Raquel. When I met her, she was a waitress there. And she's Portuguese and like... you know, beautiful guardian angel. And she would always like, I would go into the bar and she would, she would be, I would like order a drink and she would like bring me a bowl of soup. To keep you alive, kind of. And I was like, I know I ordered like a vodka soda. And she was like, well, you.

If you eat the soup, I will bring you the vodka soda. Wow. Okay. So a bartender with a heart. We love that. Yeah. No. And it wasn't in like a sexual way. It was like, no, no. She just, she just like, you know, more, you know, more maternal vibes. Um, but, uh, and then, and these two Irish dudes, these two Irish brothers own the place at the time. And they were cool, too. But, yeah, eventually, Raquel and her sister, they ended up buying the bar. So then she owned it for a long time. But that was kind of like our... Cheers? Yeah. I mean, at the time, we all kind of had... semi-shitty apartments so it was like it was like our living room anywhere to anywhere outside yeah of course you have to pick a third space is what they call that yeah the third i mean i've never heard that term but third space am i the am i the third space right now you're the third space in this relationship right now yes you are in fact the third space this this was in a time before third i mean i guess like third space is like a barber shop coffee shop you know unfortunately now it's like a we work or uh equinox lobby but it used to be yeah you know a local bar where you get your mail get your coke delivered and now it's just a now it's just a square on a computer screen goddamn square on the computer i okay so did you did you leave new york because you like needed to or were you done um it it was like a lot of reasons like um i got i got um i got married and like 2010. How many times have you been married, Chief? Just once. Okay. And she's still one of my best friends. Did she get you or did you have a good prenup? I know you're best friends, but... There was... Okay. There was a prenup. Okay. Hell yeah. I knew you were a smart guy. That's how you stay semi-rich. That's how you stay semi-rich. Right. No, I...

I met her in Mexico when I was down there making a record. And she's a beautiful Mexican princess from Mexico City. Princesa. And now, weirdly, she still lives in Omaha, Nebraska. So she was like, you know what? You don't work for me, but Omaha does. Yeah. Wow, that's cool. And she's like open. she's open like she's a great chef she's like opened a couple restaurants and yeah she's killing it so that's great we're we're still uh we're still like well you're so i always heard i always heard throughout the years that like omaha like you guys bought a bunch of stuff right like the movie theater like you guys own like a a big portion of like the art spaces let's say is it for for a better like a better term i wouldn't I wouldn't say like we – Look, I'm not trying to call you a landlord. Be cool. It's all good. I'm just saying. No, I personally – I only own one bar. It's called Pace Turner's Lounge. Great name. Okay. Chill out with the plugs, Connor. Okay. I'm sure it's doing fine. You can find it on Instagram. I'm a big X guy. I'm mostly X. Same. I never messed with Twitter, but once Elon got it, I was like, okay, now I'm in. I'm in. I'm back. Now I know the right guy's in charge, so I'm in. Most people are like, I refuse to call it X. It's always been Twitter. I'm always going to call it Twitter. You're the opposite. I don't even know what Twitter was until Elon came around. believe i said the word twitter you're an ex-head yeah you're an ex-head you're you're going off yeah i mean i love blood money you know i love i love like welcome home welcome home brother welcome you know exploitation of poor people to get diamonds out of mines and um become just a complete

uh horrible fucking person so yeah yeah i'm glad i think it's probably best that you were never on twitter i feel like you could have made some mistakes believe me like that i've asked like because we're trying to do like this whatever this like campaign for the new record yeah and uh i've like asked like multiple times to like get the password for our band stuff and they just will not be doing it. That's good management. She was doing her job. You've got to keep you away from the matchbook. You'll burn the whole place down. This dude's going to get drunk and say something crazy. Can I ask why you wanted the Twitter password? You could send the tweet to me and we can take a look at it. That's what I should do. I'm going to send you guys text messages and then you just tweet it out. From the desk of Connor Ober. Exactly. Quotation is my name underneath. You're going to be like Q. He has spoken again. I'm sure you guys have 5 billion followers. We're both verified on X. It's going to go global. I paid for my check mark right off the bat. Like a real American. You pre-ordered it. I paid for my goddamn checkmark. You pre-ordered the checkmark. Cybertruck's in the shop. As soon as I saw it. Yeah, I would love to see you pulling up to the Silver Lake Airwine in your Cybertruck. That's a sight to be seen. Dude, those things are so fucked up. They're so fucked up. But think about how many Telecasters and little Fender twins you could fit in the back. Climbing around. Think about it. In fairness, I've never been in one. But when I see them, I'm like... This is what a stupid six-year-old child would want. It's a toy. It looks like a fucking toy. Jason was in one recently. I've never been in one either, but there's one on Christie Street.

that has an online ceramics bumper sticker on it. And I just really want to see the owner to see what this fucking bozo looks like. You're stocking him with binoculars in the bushes. It's too good. The combination of things is just too alluring for me not yet. The outside looks so awful. It looks like a six-year-old drew it with crayons like me like car. Cargo fast kind of drawing. I've been inside one. It looks just like any other regular Tesla. I was pretty high on Molly at the time, so I don't remember exactly. I remember being very excited to be inside the Cybertron. You were having a great time. I guess if I was on MDMA and someone was like, jump in my... my tesla fucking truck i'd be like absolutely let's go that was the best idea yeah like just bump the music and we're cruising down like you know it seems yeah it's it's it's the right way to experience it yeah i'd have what i would say i'd have like the only way i love elon t-shirt on i'd just be like what are you are you a car guy do you have some vintage whips or you are like a prius guy yeah because your new album and your new video has some car themes going on just saying it's a little vroom vroom and i quit driving a long time ago um actually like when i moved to LA, which is, oh, sorry, when I moved to New York. You quit, you're just like, I don't need this in my life. A lot of people quit when they moved to New York. Yeah. And the thing was, is like, the reason it's weird is because, you know, I grew up, I had like my first car I bought like from my neighbor for $1. He's getting, you know, because he's getting rid of it. He's getting rid of it. And it was actually a really cute little red Honda. uh i don't know i guess civic like hatchback little it was a crv crv what kind of stickers do we put on the back of this you had a fugazi no effects what are we looking at i mean i i didn't have any stickers no stickers what the fuck i know it was a stick shift though okay cool and and i was peeling around omaha but that thing was so light that like if you hit like a patch of ice which there's like always ice in the winter

It was just like, woo, like fly right off the road. It was like, it also was sort of, it was like a toy in a different sort of way. In a dangerous way. And eventually on the passenger side of the front seat, it had just a hole that you could just see the cement through the whole time. Like Fred Flintstone style. Fred Flintstone style. You could see the ground. If you happen to drop something like a. I don't know, a lighter or whatever, like, gone. Just fell through the hole. Have you ever maybe been pursued by a police officer and you needed to dump a little something in that hole before you got pulled over? I never was able to utilize it in that fashion, but I did once, like, run a stop sign at, like, 8 in the morning. I used to work at a, this is going to sound bad. I used to work at a, at a public school in Omaha and like, as like a teacher's assistant. And, um, I just like, I don't, I don't, I don't even smoke weed anymore, but I was like, at the time it's like. It was not unusual to wake up and take a big bong hit. Time to teach the kids. Hold on. You were working at this school, but you were putting out records because you've been putting out records since you were an infant, it feels like. Yeah. This is right before. It's cool because my two favorite singer-songwriters, you and Dashboard Confessional, both taught in schools. I don't know if you guys have ever talked about that. You got to talk about that next time you guys are hanging out. I don't know if Dashboard was doing work and bake the way you were, though, Connor. He was not. No, he was not doing work and bake like Connor. No way. But, yeah, anyway, I blew through this stop sign, got pulled over. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian.

stateside with kai and carter this is covering a lot of our bases jason it's a it's trying to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world and i know you particularly have quite a lot of questions a lot of questions but how often because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot how many times do they do three times a week and i i have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do that's just a guess the guardian is not some billionaire owned They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? You know, especially when it's not, you know, from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, so do all our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world, writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly, a website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could, you know, have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools so those future graduates can find me. And, you know, I'm able to accept, quote, unquote, donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. Show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early. And we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional as your competition, if not more.

So head to squarespace.com slash how long for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code how long to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. It's 7 in the morning, and, yeah, I just talked my way out of it. I was just like, hey. I'm a good guy. I'm a good guy. I teach kids. I'm just on my way to the school where I work as a teacher. And luckily it was like a block away from my house and I showed him my address and stuff and I was like, sorry, no one's ever at this stop sign. I don't even think about it as a stop sign. And so I think of it as a suggestion, officer. Don't hassle me. I'm local. Don't hassle me. I'm local. And then, yeah, we got to do something about these immigrants, you know, do one of those to the cops. All right, Connor, get out of here. All right. Get out of here. Don't let it happen again. Don't let it happen again. OK, so you stop driving when you move to New York, but then now you live in L.A. Car a little more on the necessary side. How are we getting around? Well. I mean, you know, a lot of Uber and a lot of just friends and stuff like that. And, like, so basically at this point, I have a house here in L.A. and I have a house in Omaha where our studio is and that whole thing. Which, you know, Omaha's pretty small. It's definitely not the most walkable town because, like, they... like don't believe in like sidewalks like half the time you know sure but uh you can i mean whatever i can get around there just pretty much with friends and whatever yeah but yeah it was just like it kind of was like a combination of moving to new york and right around the same time that my band got to the point that

We were just in tour buses. But the funny thing is, is that I used to like for years, you know, I started touring when I was like, I don't know, [redacted address] like a 15 passenger van and we'd take turns. But like. I used to drive it, like, all around the country. There's always one guy, though. There's always one guy who'll do the eight-hour shift, though. Yeah. It's like, how does he do this? Yeah, that was not me. And I'm a very safe driver. Like, I don't drive fast. And I'm like, you know, I'm kind of like. Ten and two? Ten and two? Yeah. Not looking at X on the road? Yeah. No, I was, like, super focused. But I still was not. like the other guys in the band were like, you know, they, I wasn't their favorite. I wasn't the favorite driver. You know what I mean? They're just like, no, no one was resting easy when Connor was behind the wheel. Sleeping with one eye open? Yeah. I can't even sleep on this gnarly bunk bed because I'm touching the ceiling of the economy. I'm not even speeding, guys. I'm not even speeding. Historically, though, if the driver gets to choose the music, is that something you subscribe to? I don't know if we had a hard and fast rule about that, but yeah, someone kind of had to... i guess dj but this is you know you gotta remember we're talking like late 90s very early 2000s so yeah the tape yeah the tape that played the cd you know oh you did actually have that yeah that's a classic no there wasn't a lot of like shuffling you know it's just like someone put on a record and you listen to the whole record i mean that's like i don't i don't want to be like the old guy like complaining about like modern stuff but like I do miss that because you just put on a record and you listen to the whole thing and you might like two songs and you might hate the other ones. It's just like reading a book. Not every chapter is going to be a home run. It can't be a page turner the whole way through. Yeah, exactly. But when you finish it, you feel like you finished something. Yeah.

Exactly. And you, like, heard the full, you know, what they were trying to express. And that's, I don't know. I think there's, like, value in that. And, I mean, I think there's, I'm sure there's still people out there that listen to records that way. But, yeah, the whole, like, shuffle, like, someone, you know, sitting with their phone, like, changing the song every song is, like. I mean, I guess it's kind of fun, but it's like... Are you kidding me? I get to the first course and I'm on to the next one. I can judge it. I'm quick. It depends on what kind of drive it is. If it's like we're going from this bar to this bar, then windows are down, we're smoking cigs, then it's one thing. But on mile [redacted address], we want to let rumors play all the way out. Exactly. exactly we got a lot of time especially yeah on long drives it's just like why not let it play you know how long have you been in LA for now um well I got this house I bought this house in 2009 and it has like an apartment attached to it which is like where my like little spot was and then I rented like the the main house which is nice it's a nice house, but, uh, to this guy, Jonathan Wilson, who's like a producer. Yeah. Yeah. So, so he lived here for a long time in the main house and had a, had a studio running out of it. And, um, yeah, a lot of crazy people have like, you know, whatever, like father John Misty made a bunch of records here. Erykah Badu was here one time. So you're coming out in your robe, scratching your nuts, picking up the LA Times, and Erykah Badu is warming up her voice? Is that what you're saying? I mean, yeah. With a bag of dog shit in your pocket?

Yeah, I was just picking up shit in New York. Oh, what's up, Erica? Erica, what's up? How's it going? I mean, well, so hold on. Why didn't you live in your own house? Were you just like, Jonathan will take better care of it? Connor's a bag chaser. You're a bag chaser. It was just that, like, okay, so at the time, I still had my place in New York, and I considered that my main spot. I see, I see. And then... I had another house in Omaha. I mean, I don't, how many houses do people need, you know? And then great question. So I, so I bought the house in LA, just, I guess almost like, I don't want to say like on a whim that I was like, I was like, I have to go to LA a lot. And Jonathan was at the time he had a play. He used to have a place in Laurel Canyon. um a house that he had his studio at and he was getting like evicted from there and i don't know we just like found it worked out found this place and i was like it seemed like you know whatever i guess like a good investment or something like i don't i'm definitely not like it is a good investment connor yeah i'm definitely not like a guy that's like playing the stock market. No, that's crazy. That's really surprising to me. That's really, really surprising to me. So I feel like if you buy things that you think are cool or invest in, I mean, I bought like whatever, I guess three houses over the years. I guess I never bought anything in New York. So I bought two houses. I've started a bunch of record labels that have failed. No, we're talking about something that makes money here, Connor, not the record label. Yeah, we don't want to hear the kind of downside. I'm sure you have some gear that has appreciated in value as well. And that's really the studio, too. I guess in 2006 or something like that,

We had always been, you know, we started our own label, Saddle Creek, like when we were kids. We always put out our own records. And at some point, we signed this, like, XUS deal. XUS meaning, like, we stayed on our label in the States and everywhere else in the world to, like, Universal. And they gave us, like, way too much money. God, they lost so much money. And we're like, who? You know, I mean, at that point, it's like Robin Hood shit. You know what I mean? For sure. For sure. And so that's how we were able to. I mean, I had a little house in Omaha, but that's how we were able to buy Michael Mogas, who's the other guy, one of the other guys in Bright Eyes and I. Our houses are, I guess, like my house faces one way. His house faces the other way. But our backyards connect. And then in between our backyards is like a guest house and our studio. So it's like a little compound. Wow. And it's full of like a lot of, we got one of George Martin's like neat boards. Oh, sure. And we got like, we have like. Fairchild. I mean, this doesn't make sense to people. No, no. There's 17 dudes who are hard as a rock right now. Holy shit, bro. Did you hear what he said about the Fairchild? Yeah. We got U47s. Anyway, by the way, this is none of my ideas. This is just fucking Mogus being like, let's spend all the money we got on all this. bullshit that i don't even know what it does you know can you can you use all of it are you more of like i'll stick over here with the martin acoustic and kind of do my thing i mean i yeah we we use all of it i don't know how to i'm like the opposite of a like gearhead like i don't know i mean i know i know what i basically know what what things are

If they're good, based off of how much I had to pay for that shirt. That's the only reason I know. That's a fair... I think we all do that. That's how I approach wine and coffee, usually. Not mixing boards. If this bag of beans is $100, this is going to be some good-ass coffee. Easy equation. Weren't you pretty... like you were like a four track guy though right like that was the whole thing when i mean when i was a kid um my dad had a uh my dad was kind of like an amateur you know or not i shouldn't say amateur but he was not professional he had a job but he had a band that played like weddings and okay whatever kind of stuff you were born you were born to shred is what you're saying you come by it honestly but he did have this like old t-act four-track quarter-inch tape you know reel-to-reel machine and I did learn to use that very young and I made like I guess my first like quote-unquote records which were just cassette tapes of time and not in the like uh novelty it's cool it was the only way to digest this music it was just like the cheapest way to make and we just like sold shit at the local record store or at shows kind of vibe so yes there was a point where i guess i I engineered those recordings, but if you ever hear them, you'll understand why I got out. Honestly, man, honestly, I feel like I might have had one. I guess I was always fascinated. I guess it was just the time period, but I feel like Bright Eyes played a lot of hardcore shows, and it was like...

okay and like all the cute girls had a bright eyes cd you know what i'm saying so it was fully accepted by all the meatheads and i don't that was that your experience or am i wrong no i mean i think that like weirdly in omaha has changed a lot since i was like a teenager but at the time it was zero interest in art zero interest in any kind of subculture anything So the few places, there was a place called the Cobb Factory, which was just like a little black box, probably fit like 100 people. There was a couple of places in town you could play, but there really wasn't that many places. And so it was like the punk bands played with the metal bands, played with the whatever, and then like the folk singer. guys with acoustic guitar or whatever everyone played the same shows because there wasn't that many shows yeah yeah there was just the show exactly are you going to the show tonight yeah yeah yeah and i actually appreciate that because i think that that is still sort of reflected in the music that i make because i it doesn't it doesn't nothing feels like super categorized or like compartmentalized it's like no miss that this it's like it kind of all whatever i think i think that was kind of true everywhere at that time i think the diy thing was kind of like if you want to play in this kitchen like by all means yeah you know and it's like it doesn't need to be genre agnostic or you know what i mean it doesn't it doesn't matter it doesn't matter yeah um I mean, I'm sure you played a lot of shitty places. I can't even imagine. Still do. We saw you play in Australia last year. Oh, wow. We had a show out there in Melbourne, and you were playing like the night after, I think. No, it was the night before. It was the night before. The night before. Yeah. With Warpaint. It was a great show.

Well, that's dope. Thanks for coming. I feel like I hadn't seen you in like over 15 years maybe. And I was like, oh, this is – Well, what the fuck? Really? I tour every year, man. Dude, look, I'm just being – I'm keeping it real with you. You know what I mean? This is my platform, okay? I can be honest. But I was like, damn, this motherfucker still got it. This sounds good. Yeah. And the Australians seem to really like you. Yeah, you know. they all the toilets flush backwards and shit so i'm sure where you fit in just fine is what you're saying yeah we we've found that we're we're big anywhere they speak english so you know it's essential for a english-speaking podcast but what are you are you is it crazy when you go to like south america or or moscow or anything like that it is like There is a lot of truth to like every time. I mean, we've toured Europe like a bazillion times and been all over it. But like, yeah, the mark are like markets that like actually make money are like, you know, the UK, Germany and like Scandinavia because everyone speaks English. And I think that our. You know, music depends a little bit. You know, it's not like dance music. It depends a little bit on, like, understanding what's being said. But the thing that sucks about it is, like, I don't want to go to those places. Like, I want to go to Portugal and Spain and Italy and, like, the south of France. You're like, oh, we're going to Stuttgart again. Okay, I guess that's fine. Circling back to Frankfurt. Okay, great. Your girlfriend's like, can we go to the Amalfi Coast or something? You're like, no, we're going to Brussels. I only make money in certain places, sweetheart. This is just kind of what it is. We have been to South America and we've been to Japan and shit. It's cool. There's fans, but you know how it's like...

It's just, you know, sadly, it's like it's booking agents wanting fucking money. So it's like they're always going to book you where the money is. And the money is where the money is. And you can't. I can't blame them for that. That's their job, really. Yeah. That's their money is where the money is. Yeah. Poetic. It's true, man. Poetic. Yeah. But I wish I don't know. I wish... Well, if any promoters in Rome are listening right now, just, you know, Bright Eyes is going to tour, so they're open for that. Yeah, absolutely. No, I always like... And we do... We still get to, like, some more far-flung... We played in, like, Poland for the first time. That was cool. That's pretty far. I like Prague and, like, Eastern Europe was... cool south america is awesome like we want to get back there and there's a lot of places in asia i would love to play but we've i mean i've played like japan like a million times but no we did we need to see you in chengdu you know actually actually one time we were there was this this is many many years ago but we were um on a there was this festival in china And they had all these American bands playing. And it was, like, you know, my friends, like, in the Ya Ya Ya's and, like, all these bands were playing. And we were, like, fully booked on the show or the festival. And then it went through the, like, whatever. They looked into you a little more. The censorship thing. And they were just, like, nope. But were you already there? Not this guy. No, no, no. Okay. It was like leading up to it, but they were just like, no, not this guy. All you got to do is just pass this little test and then we'll get you all sorted out with your credentials. And what do you think it was about you that China said, no way, Jose? I think that, I don't know if they read interviews or they like read lyrics. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think it's just, it's, there was, you know, elements.

There's multiple reasons why they would have not approved it. Slightly subversive to what they wanted to present. So, yes, I've never played China, even though I've had many, many, many friends that have played in China. Well, I don't think China's changed their rules much, you know, so you're probably still not welcome. They're not known for kind of modernizing. And I've never been to Russia. I used to really want to go, but, like, now I don't want to go at all. I also don't want to go at all. Oh, I would go. You guys are pussies. I'd go to Moscow right now. Put me on the plane. You would fit in there. Chill out, chill out. Jason and I went to Tbilisi. We went to Georgia, which was pretty interesting. But it felt, Jason, I mean, it felt like pretty modern European city. It didn't feel like that extreme the way that some places can. Are they like, I'm not that familiar, but as far as like the whatever, the Russia, Ukraine. situation is like like what side is like georgia on i think they're on they are not they are not with with russia yeah they're not with russia it's like a problem they're they're in the middle of like an election and they're trying to join the eu and separate themselves from russia okay okay have you got have you gotten the call yet from kamala to kind of step up and play some of your little songs to you know get some dollars rolling in I did donate a bunch of money to her the other day. And, God, oh, man. I hope so badly that she wins. And, yeah, we've, like, offered our support. I think we'll definitely, I mean, we do whatever they want. Definitely have a little, you know, if they come to Nebraska, who else are you going to fucking call? They got Bon Iver in Wisconsin. You know what I mean? You're the Bon Iver of Nebraska, I would say. Well, thank you. That's the greatest compliment I've ever gotten.

You're the body bear of L.A. to me. Of California. Thanks, Jason. Can we just say North America? Slow down, buddy. Slow down. In a lot of states. Even though we're talking about all these far-flung cities. The blue wall. Exactly. Throw over the blue wall. I was looking at you're going on tour later this year, and, you know, L.A. and New York are the first dates to sell out, which I think is a cool and interesting thing because I feel or I think of Bright Eyes as, you know, you're going to sell out in those smaller markets first, you know, the Portland and the Nebraska and the Minneapolis and the Little Rock and all those places. But, boom, L.A., New York, the biggest shows, biggest venues sold out fast. Sold out first. What's up with that? I think that, well, I think it's a population thing, honestly. Just a numbers game, Jason. Yeah, you're probably right. You're probably right. But, no, we've always, those have always been good to us. I can't imagine how many times your asses had to go to Portland, bro. I can't. You're royalty in Portland. Yeah. I'm like the Isaac Brock of Portland, basically. You're the Isaac Brock of Oakland house shows? Oh, man. But I did want to tell you guys a story with the Kamala thing. So back in 2008, I was doing that stuff for Obama. He said, we need the white vote. Call Connor. He's got his finger on the pulse. Michelle told me to check out Bright Eyes. It's good stuff. We followed him around for a few days. This was still during the primaries, actually. He was still... battling that with like Hillary and everybody um and we just we were playing these we would play like three songs at his rallies and then he'd like come out and speak and it was like you know I mean I like everybody or I was in love with the guy obviously and uh but the it was so it was January first it was New Year's Day of

I guess 2008, right? So we'd been following him around, doing all these shows, and it was like, okay, come to this spot, come to this school, grade school, basically, in Iowa, and play at 8 in the morning. And we're like, okay. I guess we're not going out tonight. Oh, my God. No, we did the opposite. We, like, stayed up all night. And, you know, we get there, and, like, we're in this, like, classroom. It was, like, me and, like, Nate Walcott, who's in Bright Eyes, our other friend, Nick Freighton. Anyway, there was, like, a couple of, you know, it was a small little band, and Karina was my girlfriend at the time. Anyway, we're in this little classroom, and, like, he walks in completely by himself no no guards no anything yeah into this little classroom but well i'd like to thank you all for being here um appreciate all the music and everything you've been helping us out with and uh you know i want to thank you um on this uh he's like i know this is the he looked at us and i'm sure we look like you know hammered dog shit. I appreciate you coming out on a day of recovery. On a day of recovery. That's very presidential. It's a very presidential way to say on a hungover Sunday. It's very presidential. And shook everyone's hand. It was obviously incredibly charming. So that's my big Barack Obama story. That's good. It was a good good memory that's amazing on this show we often ask musicians about a sync that they that changed their life monetarily or maybe one that they said no to and fucked up on i i imagine you have a few of those um yes i um you know so we grew up like on like uh make a pun steady diet of nothing no we grew up on like fugazi and discord and

Like we're like too cool for school. And like when we like started Saddle Creek, we're like, fuck everyone. We're going to like, we're just going to do our, you know, fuck major labels, all that, all that stuff that has since evaporated because now everything is just owned by fucking tech bros. So they control everything. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. So we said no to so much shit for so many years. I don't know. I don't, I guess I don't regret it, but I would be a lot richer if we would have said yes to a lot more of things, you know? Sure. So was there one big, was there one whale out of the bunch that you remember? Um, I can't remember like one thing that was like, I mean, we also like, we had like deals offered by like every major label for like of money that we like. at the time we thought like we were like this collective and we were like socialists like fighting the world like ah turns out that was all bullshit but that's a different story that's like the friends and money and just things that are i don't even want to talk about but yep yep yep i think like in response to your question well by far the um first day of my life is by far the song that gets license the most you know and at some point i just like i mean i there's always an email or something of like are you cool with this but at a certain point i was just like started saying yes to fucking everything because i was just like i don't know just like My friend Ben Queller, you know, he calls it mailbox money. It's like the best money you can get. You don't got to do anything for it. That's right. The work is already done. Yeah. So just like have it. But I think that I'm embarrassed to say, I think that we did. I think they they use somehow. I don't even ever think I saw the ad, but I remember being OK with it because I think it was just.

for the uk at the time or europe or something but it was uh i think it was hsbc or something like that and it was a multinational conglomerate bank yeah that are you know obviously horrible like i see the similarities i see why you would do it so we did like yeah they gave us a bunch of money i'll actually i'll never forget like and i'm not talking shit because i i like uh james mercer i like i like the shins but i'll always remember um there was an ad i don't know if you guys remember this there was an ad of like their the first big shins song like the really pretty one it's awesome the one the one from garden state or like pre-garden state i mean it's like is it like is it like new slang or something oh yeah it's like a beautiful song great song great song but uh there's Anyway, I remember that there was, I was, like, watching TV, and there was this. It was in a McDonald's commercial. Exactly, exactly. And it was, like, just, like, it's playing, and it's, like, this, like, literally, like, feed a French fry to a baby. And it's, like, and then it was, like, it was, like, baby's first fry. Damn, that's sick. God bless. Oh, my God. But I, like. I hope that he got paid. I'm sure he did, like a trillion dollars, and I don't judge him at all. No, that's good. That's good. You have to say yes. Sometimes you just got to say yes. Okay, now that you live in L.A. and you're an L.A. local living our lifestyle, you're going to Erewhon, what's our gym flow? Are we doing Pilates? Are we doing hot yoga over at Moto? What's going on? I could see you at the Equinox downtown, maybe. Taking the dogs out to a hike? Yeah, what are we doing? Rowing machine at the studio. I wish I could say. We did buy a treadmill during the pandemic. I was even freaked out to go outside. It's a good place to store your clothes, I'm sure. Yeah, now it's just pushed up against the wall.

No, sadly, boys, I'll be honest with you. I don't have much of a exercise routine. I wish I did. I should. Do you wish that you did, though? I mean. He knows that he should, I think, is what you're saying. I mean, I wish, you know, I could be a lot healthier, but, you know, whatever. It's all good. So to answer your question, no. Although I do, I will say. um i do enjoy i do enjoy like a hike or like a walk like um like you know i'm close to like elysian park and there's a bunch of that's the one nice thing about la for how crazy big city it is it's there are lots of little patches of nature that you can like walk through and i do i do i do enjoy that i usually like I usually need someone to, like, motivate me to do that. But when I... It's, like, so many things in my life I feel like I, like, don't want to do them at all. That includes, like, playing music a lot. But then, like, once I do them, I'm, like, so happy I did. You know? It's that weird conundrum. I don't know what that, if that's just. No, I think that we all suffer from that. We all suffer from that. You got to focus on how good it's going to feel after it's done versus not wanting to do the thing. Yeah. Easier said than done, of course. Yeah, like showering, like brushing your teeth, you know, like a lot of things, you know. Yeah, do favors for your future self tomorrow. today like brushing your teeth do you have that like hanging in your kitchen on like a plaque or something no no actually my my motivation for that stuff is i smoke weed and then i get too like if i get drunk i'll just be like yeah but if i smoke weed i'll brush my teeth for like 20 minutes i wish like i used to like love weed so much um now it just makes me like so paranoid

Like, I can't. Well, you don't leave the house anyway. Who gives a fuck? Yeah, you can't. You can't. You have to call a driver. But who knows who's in the next room, you know? That's true. GPS guy's going to knock. It's going to be all fucked up. People are in and out of that house, I'm sure. I mean, it's a revolving door. What if the phone rings? You know, what am I going to do? What if the phone rings? What earth am I going to do if the phone rings? It's terrifying. Yeah, I know the feeling, but you've got to push through. Okay. You know, if you get paranoid, buy a gun. It's just like that. Yeah, I actually tried. I actually, I bought one during the pandemic. I've never had one. I've never shot one. I've never won. You're getting back to your Nebraska roots with a little nine millimeter. Yeah, but I got my friend. Anyway, I got my friend to buy one. And, you know, to his credit, I was like, yo, can I like. I paid for it. Can I, like, see it or something? And, like, he's just like, nope. Not ever again. So, like, how your management hides your Twitter profile password from you. Your friend hides the gun from you. Exactly. Like, no way you're going to have this thing. You're like, but I paid for it. He's like, I know. I bet you did. And he's like, you're going to. You'll get this when you're ready for this. Yeah. When you pass your test. It's a bad idea, yeah. That's good. You have good friends. When you pass the big rainbow overpass, then and only then will you get to hold your cold hard steel. I know, but that's like the quickest way to get there. That's the problem. Damn. Connor, thank you. Thank you for joining us. Rainbow Overpass Part 2. It was a pleasure. Thank you. It was great talking to you guys. Yeah, I enjoy it. You might have to be a reoccurring. You might have to come back annually, honestly. Hey, you guys need a third fucking thing. Yeah, you need a third square on this thing. You can be our producer who just chimes in occasionally with some facts. They'll be like, you can like...

something comes up and you're like, ask Connor. Exactly. Yeah. And actually, we got Connor from Silver Lake on line two. Connor has a question. Yeah. Aluminum is the cheapest metal in the world. Pull it up. Rogan style. Yeah, we'll hang out. I mean, you know, I think we know friends who have friends and we go to similar places. So maybe we can go grab a bite at Eleni or something like that. Have a martini and some oysters. I love that place. Yeah, man. It's a great place. Great neighborhood restaurant. I love that. Yeah, hit me up. And thank you so much. We'll see you soon, man. Our pleasure, bro. Talk to you. All right. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. I'm so bored of these intrusive thoughts coming after me. Sick of my own voice screaming right beneath my teeth. That old familiar sound with my cell phone hits the ground. When that thing just doesn't sing, it's just something I drag around.