Uh, play a Norma. The Cobain 50. From listener powered. This is the Cobain 50 from Listener Power KEXP. I'm Martin Douglas. And I'm Dusty Henry. This week, Martin dives into the album Yip Chup Music by Daniel Johnston, which was dropped in 1983. This is the last album. on our list. This is the last album on Kurt's list that we're covering. I don't know about you, but I had a hard time even envisioning this day. We've been working on this podcast for so long that, you know.
I think that cellularly, I kind of thought we were just going to do it forever. You know, like, oh, yeah, this this podcast was always intended to end and we are ending it with one of the. One of the tentpole figures in the, I guess, the lifespan of what you might call outsider music. Yeah. It's truly surreal to be here right now. As finite as a 50 series sounded in the middle there really, really did feel like I might go on forever. I hope it.
was an enjoyable eternal feeling for all of you um yeah I'm a little verklempt thinking about this but I think this is a a great album to end on I think in terms of the The spirit of this series of Kurt evangelizing music, of celebrating a great... Underground artist. I mean, what an amazing figure and spirit is Daniel Johnston. Just really wildly creative. And I mean, we're going to...
We're going to get into themes of mental health on this episode, but I don't want Daniel Johnston's mental health to be the focal point. I think that... You know, people suffer from mental health, whether they're artists or not. And- I don't want to believe that mental health is what... caused daniel johnston to be such a brilliant artist i think there was a brilliant artist already in there and he was suffering from things but we will um get to that in
Wow. Again, our final episode, our final album on the Cobain 50. Wow. Well, I guess we should get into it. Here's our 50th album on the list, Kurt's 50th album. And here's Martin Douglas on Daniel Johnston's Yip Jump music. Hello, I am the ghost of Daniel Johnston. Many years ago, I lived in Austin, Texas, and I worked at McDonald's. It is an honor and a privilege. to speak to you today to tell you about my condition.
And the other world. As we've noted throughout this series, people love to be marketed to. some listeners enjoy having their favorite music in boxes punk alternative grunge country blues soul pop One of the most utterly dubious genre classifications is the term outsider music. What is outsider music? is literally just music made by someone with little or no marketing appeal. Being an outsider artist has nothing to do with their skill as musicians.
nor the way they are able to communicate their deepest. innermost feelings or plunge the depths of their psyche. For better or worse, Daniel Johnston was, is, and will likely forever be the poster child for outsider art. He was just as talented a cartoonist as he was a musician. And he drew just like he wrote songs. Straight from the soul. No filter, no internal editor. From his very first tape, 1981's Songs of Pain, until the end of his life, he recorded 21 full-length projects.
His music collected pop art, singer-songwriter confessionals, and field recordings, some of which featured his mother yelling at him for being a, quote, unproductive member of society. But many of us know how the story ended. When Johnston passed away in September 2019, he died one of the most revered songwriters in the history of underground music. Daniel Dale Johnston was born the youngest of five children on January 22, 1961, in Sacramento, California.
He grew up in the small town of New Cumberland, West Virginia. His mother, Mabel, knew Daniel was quite the character even when he was a small child. Here she is from the Sundance award-winning 2006 documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, describing his early characteristics.
He was different. I noticed that from the start that Dan was different. I had him on a crib in a little bedroom, and I would go in and talk to him, change his diaper, and I would squeal at him, and he would squeal back at me. Small baby communicating, I thought. She also mentioned that her son was intellectually advanced as a youngster.
When he went to school, they tested the kids and Dan was put in the highest group of the highest class. His teacher was really mad at him. It's understandable because Dan doesn't follow directions. Johnston developed an interest in comics, adored the Beatles, and even made short films when he was a kid. His mother noted that by middle school, something was amiss. You know, when he was in junior high, he suddenly lost all his wonderful confidence. And I guess it was the beginning of his illness.
With confidence issues, Johnston dedicated his life to being an artist at a pretty early age. By the time he was going to Oak Glen High School, he was considered a noteworthy talent among the students. Here's one of Johnston's closest friends, Dan Thornberry. talking about hearing about Johnston through word of mouth at school.
A friend of mine told me, this kid, Dan Johnston, he can really draw. He's a musician or something. So he kind of had one up on me. He was a musician. The guy is a natural, an absolute natural. He never even had to learn to draw. He just got better. From great. After graduating from Oak Glen, Johnston enrolled in Abilene Christian University in West Texas. He only spent a few weeks there before dropping out and moving back to West Virginia.
speaking about that period and discovering his son's condition. When the problem became apparent was when he first went to college at Abilene Christian College. And he wasn't getting to his classes. He was totally confused. And we thought, well, this is home. And they sent him to the local doctor to see if he was complaining about pains in his arms, which are symptoms of manic depression.
Johnston ended up attending college at a branch of Kent State University located in East Liverpool, Ohio, where he studied art and recorded his first collection of songs, titled Songs of Pain. When it was clear that Johnston wasn't going to be able to finish college with this condition, he was sent to live with his brother Dale. Certain of his purpose in life, Daniel drew and played music nearly every hour of the day.
When he lived with his parents, he turned the entire basement into a live-in art studio, complete with the family piano, where he recorded dozens of songs. But Dale's house didn't have a piano, so Daniel made the best with what he had, which was a tiny chord organ, two portable cassette recorders, and his older brother's weight bent. Here's Dale talking about Daniel's improvised studio setup.
When he found out that he had to go to Texas and he would be without his piano, that put a wrench in his plans. So he got a hold of this organ and he takes it into my garage and he turned my weight bench into a recording studio. It was at his brother Dale's house where Daniel recorded much of the material that appeared on his masterpieces. Hi, how are you? documents of a musical movement gaining steam in the early 1980s.
Lo-Fi, an abbreviation for low fidelity, came from artists who had the desire to record music but didn't have the money to book time in a studio, nor the resources to build their own. This allowed songwriters like Daniel Johnston to record as much as they possibly could to chase down ideas and develop their craft. On Yip Jump Music, Johnston created a sprawling world through limited means and unlimited imagination.
writing incisive and sympathetic character studies on fictional creations like Casper the Friendly Ghost. and king kong some kind of city With all those skyscrapers. as well as his real-life heroes, the Beatles. Everybody wanted to be like them Everybody wanted to be the Beatles And I really wanted to be like him But he died One of his most Famous obsessions, love, is well represented on Yip Jump music. For love. Johnston even tried his hand out.
rapping on Danny Don't Rap. Danny, you knew what it was like to be on the top. You could rock it. You could bop it. But why did you drop it? One of the most impressive things about the album, which could also be said about Johnston's overall work as an artist, is that it all seems to come from the deepest recesses of his soul without a filter.
He never seemed like one of those artists who wanted to emulate an artist he admired. He just pulled out an instrument and wrote what was on his mind and in his heart. At some point, Johnston decided to take his beloved moped and join a touring carnival. He ran the corndog stand and played the guitar he brought along during the downtime. Daniel didn't tell his sister who he was living with at the time, nor his parents. He made a decision to buy a moped.
And he disappeared on the moped, right, Bill? Yes. And he joined a carnival and went with him. We weren't able to contact him. It's the saddest time in my life not to know where your son is and he might be needing help. During a carnival stop in Austin, Texas, Johnston got into a fight with another carnival worker. Distraught and wandering the streets, he found a church where he found solace. The church helped him find a place to stay, and Austin is where Johnston made his home.
It didn't take him long to join Austin's music scene, which, by the mid-'80s, had established itself as a popular hub in the network of underground music. Here's Louis Black from the Austin Chronicle talking about his first experience with Johnston and his music. And so then he gives you hi how are you and you have chump music.
It's like, you know, imagine meeting, you know, Bob Dylan and he gives you his first six albums and saying, oh, here's some stuff I'm working on. So it's this body of music where you're suddenly hearing 20 amazing songs.
And they're out of nowhere from this weird little guy. I played it for a lot of music writers and some musicians, and he was giving it to other musicians. And gradually, over like a period of weeks, people began to talk a lot about who this crazy kid was, Daniel Johnson, and his really weird music. Johnston worked at McDonald's to make ends meet.
Ask me a question. Ask me a question. Where do you work? I work at McDonald's, and this is my new album, Hi How Are You. It's an old album, but if you get a chance, please listen to it. Okay, thanks. Johnson's popularity in the Austin music scene coincided with MTV converging on the city to document what was happening there. The network had a show called The Cutting Edge in the mid-80s, which documented regional music scenes.
When the cutting edge hit Austin, their coverage of Johnston was spectacularly well-received. Say hi to everyone. My name is Daniel Johnson. This is the name of my tape. It's hi, how are you? And I was having a nervous breakdown when I recorded it. Johnston was still working at McDonald's where... After he appeared on MTV, he was fielding calls from friends, fans, and record label executives.
Here's Louis Black elaborating on how Johnston's art caused issues at his day job. Instantly, McDonald's expands his hours to like... 20 or 30 hours a week. They give him more shifts, not because he's doing anything, but because he's become a star, and whoever the manager is thinks this is entertaining. And then the other weird thing that begins happening is there's all this interest in Daniel.
So you hear record companies are calling McDonald's because that's the only way you can call Daniel. Daniel doesn't have a phone. So Spin's calling McDonald's and music magazines. And so you get all these calls. And in the beginning, I think the McDonald's people were really kind of entertained by this. But after a while, when you'd call to talk to Daniel, they were not happy. They had hamburgers to make. I took my lucky break.
The rise of Johnston as a cult icon in underground music was interrupted numerous times by his declining mental health. If you want the full story, I highly recommend watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston. In fact, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's the culmination of four years of work and a complete document of Johnston's life up to its release in 2006.
Johnson's music career soared again when he gained a famous fan in Kurt Cobain. Kurt was gifted the famous Hi How Are You shirt by notable music journalist Everett True. which he first wore in 1992 at the MTV Video Music Awards and numerous times in press photos until his death. Like many of the Easter eggs Kurt laid out for his fans to discover the world of underground music.
curiosity led many people including yours truly to check out johnston's music Here's Johnston's former manager, Jeff Tartikoff. speaking to the effect Kurt wearing his Hi How Are You shirt had on Johnston's career. Bands were covering his songs left and right. Kurt Cobain of the band Nirvana wore his t-shirt on MTV at the MTV Music Awards show, which was seen by millions of people.
He had had the shirt for a few months. Apparently a writer that I had given the shirt to, a guy named Everett True, had given it to Kurt. And next thing you know, he's wearing it not only on national TV, but everywhere he goes. And over the next several months, every single photo shot he did, he was wearing this shirt. And just a tremendous amount of publicity came Daniel's way due to this. Suddenly, everybody knew who Daniel was.
It was just incredible that a t-shirt could fuel this kind of a frenzy. The t-shirt had many, many thousands of fans that wanted to know more about the t-shirt and wanted to hear the t-shirt and see the t-shirt and get to know the t-shirt. Meanwhile, Daniel's in a hospital and has no idea who Nirvana even is. Because of Kurt's advocacy for Johnston, it led Johnston to sign a major label contract with Atlantic Records.
It was a major leap for Johnston, who not too long before was dubbing his own tapes and passing them out to people. His first and only major label full-length, 1994's Fun, sold less than 3,000 copies. I was living in a devil Didn't know it was a devil. Oh Lord, it really... Even in light of Johnston's lack of commercial success, he became massively influential to multiple generations of the indie rock scene.
In 2004, a two-disc compilation was released titled The Late Great Daniel Johnston, Discovered Covered. The first disc was a covers album featuring a wide range of artists. contemporary stars like Death Cat for Cutie and TV on the radio to legends like Calvin Johnson, founding member of Meet Happening, another Kurt Cobain favorite, and Tom Waits. In 2017, Johnston went on a farewell tour. On each of his 12 dates, his backing band consisted of musicians who were influenced by his music.
Artists such as Jeff Tweedy, Mike Watt, and Built the Spill helped Johnston bring his songs to life in front of crowds who wanted to see him perform one last time. It was a testament to just how much Johnston's songs meant to artists who themselves would become influential in the world of music. On September 11, 2019, Johnston was found deceased in his home in Waller, Texas. He was 58 years old.
Throughout the highs and lows of his career in life, Daniel Johnston always knew he would be a famous, celebrated artist. And miraculously, he made it happen. His influence has been felt deeply over the years. He toured the world and influenced scores of artists. He's had his artwork shown in galleries all over. There's a myth that comes with the idea of quote-unquote outsider music.
that it comes from such a weird, uninhabitable place, that it's only worth is that it's something like an alien artifact. Daniel Johnston might have been an outsider in the circles that create these boxes for all of us to exist in. But to a wide community of music lovers, the themes in his music of pop culture and unrequited love and being haunted touch something deep, deep inside of us. That was Martin Douglas on Daniel Johnston's Yip Jump Music.
Where to start? Yeah, I know. I guess I'll start with initial reactions. I mentioned on the half Japanese episode that like this was I was listening to. I first listened to Daniel Johnston kind of around the same time as half Japanese. into file sharing, like not recently, but. Like Kurt's list was still very much on my mind after discovering it, maybe even like a couple of years. And so.
There was a period where I was very heavy into Daniel Johnston's music. And it just gripped me, the emotion of it. We talked about... quote-unquote amateurism in... In making music on the half Japanese episode. And I think that Daniel Johnston was my first experience of. really connecting with someone's music that, you know, wasn't polished. It wasn't, it wasn't like he was a, you know, classically trained.
musician but these songs really stuck with me yeah he's one of those artists that i feel like Not all the time. Maybe it's different for everybody. For me, he's an artist that kind of comes with the story of who they were. I was a friend of college who told me about it, kind of told me his story and all about it. which does kind of help set it up a little bit. But I think even if you don't have that context, this is really like profoundly beautiful music in a way that's...
the innocence of it, but also just the emotional candor of it. He's really, of course, he had his struggles, certainly. But, like, I think, like, of the best artists of his time, of, like, a Kurt Cobain, like, there's the emotional honesty that you feel in his music. Even more accentuated by the amateurish, quote unquote, like production of it, that this album was made with just a chord organ and recorded on a tape cassette like that.
There's something so raw and pure about that, that when the songs are sad, they feel sadder. When they're happier, they feel happier. It's like you're in the room with him experiencing these really private... Tender moments. Yeah. And like speaking to the DIY nature of this album, like. I have to note that like it's so cool that he passed out his early tapes at a McDonald's that he worked at. Like that's so DIY. That's more DIY than, you know. whatever's going on nowadays, you know? Oh yeah.
My digital album's on sale at Bandcamp for $5. Link in bio. Yeah, the whole link in bio generation. Pass out your tapes. Get a job at McDonald's, first of all, and then pass out your tapes while working there. That's DIY. It's very true. We talked about what catapulted Daniel Johnston to this cult figure status. But I think that it's still so surreal that like... managed to be catapulted to this status like to to think about how Sonic Youth were fans. Like, how Kurt was a fan. It's just so...
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it. It's really cool. And I think it speaks to the raw emotion of his work that... Not just artists, but some of the most celebrated artists of their generation are huge fans of this guy. Yeah. no case where he becomes as big as he does. It doesn't seem possible. It's just this confluence of events and the right person finding his music to get it to that point. It's stuff like this.
Why I got into what we do is I loved bands that no one else knew. I was like, I want you to know about this. You got to know about this. And something like Daniel Johnston makes you think like. how many other brilliant artists are out there just working in total obscurity and you know he made a lot of music like a lot of music and uh It's just astounding. I don't know. I'm fumbling here, but it just feels amazing that...
It's just kind of a freak thing that it never achieved the audience that it did. And now millions of people love Daniel Johnston. Yeah. And it's. It's not just the idea of him making a lot of music and toiling in obscurity. It's the fact that... is the fact that he did that all without this idea of financial reward like that didn't come until later that didn't come until he was you know
signed to a major label, I want to say almost accidentally, it wasn't an accident. But if you heard this music, you would think it was an accident. And I think that... In the early days, you know, 1983, he recorded this album and two other albums and just put them out. I think that speaks to a nature of artistry that doesn't happen today that, you know, couldn't happen today with the... Again, I'm going to talk about the nature of social media and in music communities.
say that like, you know, all these, all these Lincoln bio kids, they couldn't think of writing music, performing music with no financial or social reward, just doing it. for artistic purposes or even sharing it. With members of their immediate community, because like where, you know, where would Daniel Johnston send these tapes? No, I mean, it's, it's convicting, honestly, even like for myself, just to think to, we are so, our society is ingrained on like.
getting engagement, whatever that means, or conversion, like all the marketing terms. But it's become so part of our culture, like I think broadly, like this kind of corporate marketing ideas that the idea of, yeah, just making art. just to express and not expecting anything in return. Kind of rare. I mean, I want to believe that people do that, but it's...
You know, I make something and then I want to tweet about it. Like, why? Like, for what reward for people to... think I'm cool or to pay me for it or like why not just make to make right I recently went to the party to celebrate Friend of the Pod, Evan Minsker's newsletter, Seesaw. And one of my favorite things was banter from the stage. Julie from Judy and the Jerks, she said.
Your band should not have a fucking Instagram. So I just want to just want to shout out Judy and the Jerks, one of the great bands going. And yes. If you have an Instagram, I won't say you're part of the problem. I know you got to do what you got to do. But there are bands out there that are just doing a thing and not worrying about social engagement.
amen on the topic of like real diy scenes i gotta mention kurt's t-shirt kurt's hi how are you t-shirt um It's one of the more iconic images in the world because of Kurt. And I thought it was very interesting that the famous Hi, How Are You shirt was a gift to him from the music journalist Everett True. That's right. Yeah. He comes up a bunch in grunge history and sub-pop history. Oh, yeah.
Actually, it's kind of funny. This morning, I drove past, it's coming down Rainier, and I saw a mural of Jeremiah the Frog from the album cover on a wall. Oh, nice. Here in Seattle. I was just like, knowing we were going to record this today. It's kind of what's strange. Fortuitous. Fortuitous, yes. That's funny because I saw an image of... Jeremiah on like one of those.
One of those power boxes on the street on the corner of Greenwood and 85th. It was a long time ago. It had to have been like at least. at least six, seven, eight years ago. But it left an image in my head. I was like, oh, shit, there's Jeremiah. So I think it's cool that like... I think it's especially cool that
Even though there are people who may have never heard Daniel Johnston's music, they know what that frog looks like. Yes. Exactly. And it's interesting with him, too. Like, we're kind of getting to this, but I... You know, we're talking about how wild it is that he achieved the success, and yet... Like his music, when you play for people, people really resonate.
with at least i split been in my experience um i played we played some down jumps for my daughter the other day yeah um and she so we have we keep a playlist of of songs she likes which is just crazy playlist. It's like, if you want Black Flag, the Ninja Turtles, and Taylor Swift, subscribe to Uno's playlist. Nice.
But we played her a song and she's like, add this to my playlist immediately. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Not to interrupt, but I think that that is such an interesting... piece of culture that we are in the times where A three year old child will tell their parents. Please put this on my playlist. We are living in those times now.
ladies gentlemen and people of all ages yeah it's a different time really crazy when she says add it to the queue that's funny but we played her the song the story of an artist which is one of my wife's favorite. songs uh such a good song such a good song and like we came up on our playlist the other day when we were driving and she was asking so many questions And I was like, oh man, I was not ready for these questions. And she was like, why are people making fun of him?
what do you mean like why are people making fun of him like he's an artist i'm like oh my gosh okay well yeah i'm explaining to her like the how hard it is to be an artist sometimes now people don't always understand you
but also why being an artist is good. And it was a very sweet moment that I was, struggling to like answer those like man the life of an artist I we need a lot more time to talk about this but but I don't know just anyway that was a total diatribe into like the universal appeal that like A little kid can get this music. rock and roll superstar can get this music. I could show this to my mom and she'd probably find something lovely in it.
And the fact that we also all agree that this, in all actuality, should have been lingering in obscurity. Right. And yet it has this wide appeal to it. It's just kind of fascinating. It speaks to the power of music, but it also, I think it speaks to the power of our... our perceptions of culture when we say that, like, It shouldn't be as world renowned as it is. I think that that's a, it's an interesting dichotomy of being a music fan of like.
of especially liking underground music where it's like oh this music is so good oh it resonates with so many different types of people but like How in the world did it reach as many people as it did? I feel like that's only the sort of conversation that could happen in music. Yeah. I mean, the fact that Daniel Johnson and Behold Surfers are both major label artists is amazing. But yeah, you are right. It's like, what are we doing? That we've kind of set up these barriers of love.
Only this should actually be. And it's obscure that this happened. Yeah. So many great songs on this album. So much simplicity and beauty. I love the song God on this record. It's just so like... The lyrics are so straightforward. And part of the thing with Daniel Johnson is his lyrics can be deeply profound and very simplistic. And it's also in the way that he says things and the way that he performs it. that just really just hits you you could be saying like
God is good, and you can read that and, like, okay. But the intonation of his voice, the shakiness of his voice, the clatter of the chord organ, it just... Something about that feels like so deeply spiritual than if another artist had played those same chords and lyrics. Right. And yeah, I agree with you. And I think that there is something to that. I think it's why a lot of
non-Christian people, whether they're Muslim or atheists or whatever, listen to gospel music. I think that, you know, there, there is that connection with, you know, this. higher power that they may not believe in. There's that spiritual connection that resonates in the music that is powerfully felt because the person making the music is having an experience. trying to communicate with their God. And I think that is so powerful and something that, you know, may be lost on people who are...
Too skeptical of religion. It's like this person believes in something enough to where they are. communicating with that person through this this deeply felt music which is amazing to me yeah i agree and i think that's just like One of the things he did best was he could really put... really translate these core emotions and feelings and spirituality. I feel a lot of spirituality in his music in general.
Even like his, you know, maybe his most famous song, like True Love Will Find You in the End. Oh, absolutely. What a like a powerful song. It almost feels like. to me it feels like my like your like inner child like getting the mic for a moment and like just being brutally honest but also sweet all these complicated emotions swirled together in such a simple...
moment or song. Yeah, that's what I love about Speeding Motorcycle, which is, you know, yeah, top three, maybe top two Daniel Johnson songs for me. That almost spiritual feeling, that thing that is so deeply felt. That, yeah, it borders on the spiritual and, you know, that tempo change is also really cool. Yeah.
we talked about like the free spirit of like bands like half japanese or butthole surfers he just kind of goes with it like daniel johnston like it doesn't he's not worrying about getting something precise it's the emotion dictating the music Yeah. Well... This is the end, Martin. As you may not expect from me, In general, but also someone who co-hosts the podcast. I'm kind of at a loss for words right now. We're at the end.
After 16 months of doing this podcast, we've finally made it to the last album. I don't know. I'm kind of having a little... A little postpartum feeling right now. Yeah, man. I've had so much fun doing this. Like, as we've mentioned, like Martin and I are just like, we're just friends. Yeah. So the fact that we get to like just. get in the mic like every week and just talk about.
Music we love or music we're about to love or hate. There's been a couple times I hated albums on here. Oh, yeah. It's been just a beautiful experience that I'm like so glad I got to do this with you, Martin. And I'm so glad that... We've had people listening to us just gab about this, but yeah, man, this has been really special. Yeah, I have to agree. At the beginning of us doing this, we talked to friend of the pod, Megan Sealing at The Stranger about...
how this was a historical project. And I think that in terms of What music journalism is today, I think the historical aspect of it is, you know, the most important part of it at this point. Like we are. In this particular case, we are excavating music that, you know, some of the most famous music in the world, but also... Things that people may have never heard in their lives and like a big percentage of the people listening to my voice right now. And the fact that.
we can plunge into this history, tie it into, in our opinion, one of the greatest musicians who has ever lived. And... have an emotional connection to it, whether it's love or hate or, you know, there have been some albums that we have been sort of apathetic about. Got in trouble a couple times. But the fact of the matter is like we... We listened to 50, more than 50, like pretty much like almost 60 albums. And.
engaged with them, brought out the historical aspects of the artists who made them and made a made a complete body of work and managed to, you know. Sit in this recording booth and shoot the breeze for 16 months. That's almost time to have two kids. Man. Just barely. Oh, man. I would say on your part, yes. I'm holding it down there. Probably child-free uncle over here. But yeah, those 16 months is definitely... enough time for me to see a new nephew in the world.
Yeah, this has been incredible. I feel like I'm stalling to not have it end, but we will have one more episode, actually. Yes. And we are going to be live in front of, I was going to say the world, but obviously the world's not coming to the KEXP gathering space. But, you know, an intimate gathering of an undetermined amount of people will be there to. hear me and Dusty and our good friend, Albina Cabrera, who hosts our companion podcast, El Concionero de Kurt, talk about some of these albums.
I'm not getting the cart too far before the horse, but maybe we can answer some audience questions. I think that would be fun. We're going to have a performance from the great Seattle shoegaze band. I don't know if they consider themselves shoegaze. So, you know, mileage may vary on that description. Some surprises, a great band, regardless of their classification, they will be playing. A few Nirvana songs, maybe some songs from Kurt's List.
Not privy to their set list, but I know it's going to be great. Yeah, so it's all going down April 26th right here at KXP in the gathering space. You can get your tickets now. Go to kxp.org slash events. And we can't wait to see you all. It's been, you know, we get in the booth every week. We produce these stories on our own. It's going to be cool to actually.
see you all and be in the same space together. Yeah. We've been working in a vacuum this entire time. And really the only, the only inklings that we get that people are actually listening are like, audience reports or like feedback from friends or, you know, like... I had the Cairo 7 reporter, L. Thomas, tell me that we're big on Reddit. And also from listener emails like, Our friend and number one fan, Lucas. Shout out to Lucas. Yeah, shout out to Lucas.
I saw him. He was on a tour with the school recently, and I got to say hello to him. I'm as big a fan of him as he is of me. Such a wild, wonderful time because right now we are just flying off the seat of our pants. And I feel like I feel like. At least a third of our episodes have been us, you know, with like very, very, very light notes or planning. us flying by the seats of our pants having a conversation. So we are very much looking forward to doing it in front of whoever shows up.
With that, this piece was produced by Martin Douglas. audio was mixed by matt martin big shout out to roddy nickport want to give roddy his flowers he produced the bulk of this series um incredible audio producer yeah since we're um you know since this is the last album um yeah i want to definitely shout out roddy and I have said this before, but he is definitely
a member of this team. Like he, I mean- When Dusty and I do these intros and outros before he left to have a child, which congratulations again, Roddy. He was the third member of our group, even though you did not hear him. He was here with us. And so I think it is crucial to to honor him by showing him our appreciations. Couldn't do it without you, Roddy. And always a special thank you to Isabel Kalili and Larry Mizell Jr.
And even though this is the last episode of the Cobain 50, your donations are still greatly appreciated. Everything KEXP does is listener supported. It means a lot to me that you decided to listen to this podcast. You could be doing literally anything in the world and you decided to. Listen to me and Dusty talk about 50 plus albums over the course of the 16 months that I keep talking about. And yeah, with that said, for almost the last time, I'm Martin Douglas.
And I'm Dusty Henry. We'll see you one more time next week on the Cobain 50 from listener-powered KEXP, where the music matters. This is it. This is the end.