Category: News

Since 1990, November has been celebrated as Native American Heritage Month. And millions of people enjoyed a day off on Monday to honor Indigenous Peoples Day (even if Donald Trump was demanding to “BRING BACK COLUMBUS DAY!”). As with most things, Rudy Giuliani has his very own way of marking the occasion, which this year included delivering a warped history lesson that lionized Christopher Columbus and seemed to suggest that America’s Indigenous peoples got what they deserved. It was not an episode of Drunk History, but it could have been.

As Raw Story reports, Giuliani was a guest on Steve Bannon’s War Room, where the former New York City mayor delivered an unhinged history of the world as he sees it:

Columbus is probably the first hero and there’s no evidence that he did any of these things. In fact, most of the atrocities they’re talking about occurred 30 years after he left. If anything, he was… benevolent. He tried very, very hard to avoid the wars that went on… I mean, look: The people he brought over with him, they weren’t saints. They were soldiers. But the people there were living in the third world, including a third world of violence where they scalped each other and killed each other and raped each other. This wasn’t a civilization they came to. This was a third-, fourth-world country. They had no idea of what they were facing. Columbus did everything he could to control it. It got out of control forty years later and he’s being blamed for it.

All of this, of course, is untrue. As Raw Story notes, Columbus — in his own diary — wrote about his very real intentions to enslave any Indigenous populations he encountered and then send them back to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I as a kind of souvenir.

“They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion,” Columbus wrote. “Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.”

Yep. Totally benevolent.

(Via Raw Story)

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Netflix’s hit drama series, The Crown, has found itself placed under even more scrutiny than ever. The show, which has been retelling the history of the Royal Family, has already weathered intense criticism from Buckingham Palace during its Season 4 run on Netflix. That season focused on King Charles III’s courtship of Princess Diana, and it ruffled enough feathers that the Royal Family unsuccessfully demanded a disclaimer be placed before each episode.

The upcoming Season 5 of The Crown will focus on Charles and Diana’s well-documented divorce that played out in the tabloids. (Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki will play Charles and Di, respectively.) However, that season isn’t even streaming yet, but again, the Royal Family is already freaking out. Via Deadline:

Prince William is already reported to have expressed consternation because an episode of the fifth season of The Crown, which streams on Netflix from November 9, shows how BBC interviewer Martin Bashir engaged in subterfuge to gain the now infamous Panorama interview with Diana which damned Charles and his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Consort.

With the Royal Family watching their every move, Deadline reports that there’s high anxiety on the Season 6 production as it prepares to film Diana’s final days in the next two weeks. The producers and creative team are reportedly “on edge” as the controversial scenes will examine the moments leading up to Diana’s death. However, The Crown creator Peter Morgan has emphasized that the series will not recreate the infamous Paris car crash.

Will that creative decision stop the Royal Family from blasting the show? Probably not. The main concern from Buckingham Palace is how The Crown portrays King Charles, who is obviously not going to look great during the final years of Diana’s life.

The Crown Season 5 premieres November 9 on Netflix.

(Via Deadline)

There’s a sense among some people that America isn’t old. I’ve heard it over and over again when people are talking about how old Prague or Paris or Rome is. The refrain is often the same, “we just don’t have stuff that old in America,” when referring to places and landmarks built during the Age of Colonialism between the 1500 and 1900s. Part of that is the complete erasure of Indigenous Americans from the wider conversation about the United States. Another part is simple ignorance of the width and breadth of the Indigenous communities/nations in this country.

There were cities all over this continent that were simply wiped out by European and then American colonialism. So a huge part of the reason that America doesn’t “have stuff that old” is that it was taken away and never allowed to grow and become “old” in the first place. Hell, 1,000 years ago, cities like Cahokia were bigger and more population dense than Paris or London. Then the Spanish showed up and now it’s an archaeological site.

Still, you can — right now — go to St. Louis and travel about 30 minutes west of the airport and find a massive expanse of an ancient mound city in nearby Illinois. Traveling there will give you a glimpse into the vastness of the Mississippian Empire which was largely extinguished by the 1600s, thanks to the Spanish spreading canons and viruses throughout the continent the century prior. Today, Cahokia is truly vast. The ancient city covers 2,220 acres with 120 mound structures still remaining. It’s estimated that up to 40,000 people lived there at the peak of the city around 1100/1200, which would have made it a larger metropolitan area than both Paris and London at the time.

For most, walking around a place like Cahokia is a look backward at something lost to time forever. When I went there that tragedy rang true to me too. However, what was more tragic was what could have been and what we/Indigenous people/all of us missed out on. This was a great city in North America with culture — a food scene, sports arenas, nightlife, and all the trappings of a city — all snuffed out before it had a chance to become “stuff that old in America.” I think about how rural places like Japan were up until very late in the 1800s and where that country is today when it comes to advanced cityscapes and preserved historical districts. Had history gone a few different ways a couple of times, maybe that could have happened for the Pacific Northwest Salish world too, or the Lakota in South Dakota, or the Seminole in Florida … or the people of Cahokia.

This leads me to an admission: It’s painful traveling around the U.S. and the wider world as an Indigenous person. In the U.S., you’re constantly reminded of everything you and others lost at every turn. But to say that there’s “nothing left” is also untrue.

Speaking of 1,000 years ago, a quick trip to New Mexico and you can find yourself staying in the longest continuously inhabited town in the United States in Taos Pueblo. The neighborhood is only 16 acres, is home to 4,500 folks today, and is part of the larger Spanish and American colonial city of Taos. That said, this is a place that was first built around 1,000 years ago and has been continuously inhabited by the Tiwa-speaking people since. If you want to talk old world, Berlin didn’t even exist 1,000 years ago and yet I’ve heard people in Berlin say “there’s nothing as old as their city in America…” It’s frustratingly untrue and a very colonial POV of the world. But that’s not the point.

The point is, we’re still here. And yes, there’s old stuff to be enjoyed and experienced in the United States too. And as an Indigenous American who grew up on the classic American road trip, I can tell you from experience that there’s a lot to be experienced in “Indian Country” out there.

I’ve spoken about hitting the Olympic Trail in Western Washington and treating it as a smoked salmon trail that takes you from Indian Reservation to Indian Reservation. I’m not going to rehash that as you can read it right here and then go and do it. I will say that it’s a great place to start your journey into Indian Country, as you’ll be treated to beautiful natural beauty, you’ll eat great Indigenous food, and you’ll get a real sense of the poverty that still reigns supreme over Indigenous life in America.

As mentioned above, you can fly into St. Louis and visit Cahokia or travel to Taos and stay in a pueblo. But there’s still so much more — from New Echota in Georgia where the Cherokee had built entire towns before being ethnically cleansed from the area to Oklahoma (another part of Indian Country that you can visit right now) to ruined cities of Chaco Canyon (also New Mexico) to the Hopewell Mounds in Ohio to Little Big Horn Battlefield in Montana and so much more.

But all of those places are about looking back. Let’s look at “right now” — the goal of our forthcoming “Uproxx Fall Travel Hot List.” You can hit the road and find modern Indian Country in every corner of America as well. And one of the absolute best places to do that is in South Dakota.

Below, I’ve cobbled together an itinerary through the state that hits important stops that’ll illuminate 21st-century Indigenous American life. What makes South Dakota so prominent, in my mind, as the perfect Indigenous road trip destination is that you’re immediately emersed in Indigenous life and communities the moment you step foot in Rapid City. And if you chose the right path, you can go ever deeper into those communities while supporting them with your tourist dollars and, hopefully, learning a little something along the way. After all, isn’t that the whole point of travel?

If this isn’t the road trip for you, well… the nation is rich with options for those who are ready to understand that America has a rich Indigenous history and that we, its Indigenous stewards, are still here right now.

Sample Itinerary Through Indigenous South Dakota:

First stop — Rapid City

Rapid City feels like an Indian city that’s been blended with a very white American colonial one. On Main Street, you’ll find classic dive bars and gun shops next to Indigenous/Lakota galleries, shops, and street art. There are micro-breweries and pizza shops with board games next to protest banners proclaiming “You’re On Stolen Land!” It’s a place of multitudes, folks.

If you’re walking Main Street, stop into Prairie Edge Trading Co. & Galleries. One-half of the store is mostly touristy kitschy items. The other half is a large gallery that mostly features Lakota artists and both tribal and modern art that you can buy — a real souvenir, if you will. In the back, there’s a bead shop where you can get some supplies if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s run by Lakota who are shooting the shit about whatever projects they’re currently working on.

Across the street, you’ll find Art Alley which is a refuge for Indigenous street artists in the city. Near the top of the alley by the vintage Hotel Alex Johnson, you might come across some young Lakota kids freestyling and spray painting on any given day.

Second Stop — Crazy Horse/Black Hills

Heading into the Black Hills is a tough proposition for Indigenous folks. On the one hand, it’s an amazingly important cultural place where great introspection can take place amongst highly sacred mountains. On the other hand, it’s very heavily touristed. And unfortunately, the vast majority of those tourist dollars are not going to the Lakota who were promised their sacred land “as long as the grass grows and the water flows.” It’s frustrating to drive around and see so much money being spent and the Lakota getting none of it.

Rant aside, it’s also nice to do things that are touristy in the Black Hills even if the money isn’t going to the Lakota. Taking a hot air balloon ride at sunrise over the Black Hills is a spectacular way to see the whole region as it’s bathed in the rich morning light. Sometimes you just have to let the beauty of a place wash over you and that’s a great way to do it.

One way to really immerse yourself in Indigenous Black Hills culture is to stop in at the Crazy Horse Memorial and Indian Museum of North America. The memorial is the largest mountain carving in the world, or at least will be when finished. Crazy Horse is memorialized on the back of his horse, pointing back East to his ancestral homelands that the Lakota were pushed away from by the American colonizers. The Black Hills, the historical religious refuge of the Lakota, was where many a last stand took place before the weight of American colonial power crushed the great nations of the Lakota.

The greatness is on display at the Indian Museum of North America. There are rooms and halls full of artifacts from previous centuries alongside modern art from present-day Indigenous artists. Overall, it’s a place where the past and present are celebrated in equal measure.

Oh, and don’t forget to try an Indian Taco from the canteen.

Third Stop — Wounded Knee/Pine Ridge

Further down the road from the Black Hills, you can take a trip through one of the world’s most impoverished places, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There are several stops in Pine Ridge that are worth hitting like the Red Cloud Indian School which was the site of forced assimilation of children and is still a fully operational school to this day.

The most important spot, however, is the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial. The graveyard on a small hill just above the Wounded Knee Creek is surrounded by a seemingly endless sea of green grass, ebbing and flowing in the constant breeze of the Great Plains. There’s no infrastructure in the place, besides a footpath to a small arch with a cross and a cemetery surrounded by a falling-apart cyclone fence. It’s woefully in disrepair.

Still, the memorial honors the people who died on a fateful cold December day in 1890 by a hail of U.S. Army gun fire, rifle butts, horse hooves, and blades. Over 300 unarmed and starving men, women, and children were slaughtered with their corpses left to freeze on the prairie that day for the crime of … basically … dancing and practicing their own religion. 20 U.S. soldiers received the US Army Medal of Honor for that heinous act of genocide. Those medals have never been rescinded.

When you’re there, this history isn’t on display. There’s a small gravestone for the massacred and then the grave markers of the descendants of those who fell at Wounded Knee that day. Daughters, cousins, sons, fathers, and mothers had their remains buried at the site to be closer to the ones they lost in 1890. There’s often a Lakota elder hanging around to tell stories of their family members buried at the cemetery or the ones they lost at the massacre. These elders make their meager income by being quasi-docents for a place the U.S. would prefer you forget about. So please, give any elder there telling stories a large tip (a $20 or $50 is fine).

Last Stop — Akta Lakota Museum

Further east on the banks of the mighty Missouri River at the intersection of the Lower Brule and Crow Creek nations, you’ll find the Akta Lakota Museum. The museum is on the site of the Saint Joseph Indian School, which also has a dark past of forced assimilation of Native kids over the last two centuries; but is reformed now.

The museum is a fascinating and interactive look back at the history of the local Lakota culture. It’s free to enter and only takes about 30 minutes to walk through. It’s kind of an old-school museum with life-size dioramas of “life scenes” from different eras of life on the Plains reaching back millennia to the present day. There’s a gift shop featuring work from contemporary Indigenous artists, including the kids at St. Joseph School. The museum, displays, and history is the work of the local Lakota students and historians and offers an unfiltered and deep look into their vast culture. It’s a must-stop.

Additional Photos from South Dakota:

On Tuesday, faux Democrat — and rumored Russian asset — Tulsi Gabbard officially announced that she was leaving the Democratic party, which was a surprise to only those people who didn’t realize she was a Democrat in the first place. The one-time longshot presidential candidate’s vocal support of Vladimir Putin and habit of pushing Fox News-approved conspiracy theories have long made her an outsider within her own party. Which also made it not-at-all surprising that she spent last night chatting with Tucker Carlson, who could barely compose himself in Tulsi’s presence (and may have freshly tanned his testicles in preparation for the interview).

When the former Hawaii congresswoman beamed in from whatever planet she is on, Tucker immediately transformed into a pubescent boy with a crush on his teacher — weird voice cracks and all. Describing Gabbard as “the future” of her former party, Carlson seemed concerned with how she was feeling after her brave escape from the clutches of those evil Democrats.

Gabbard, feeling pretty good about herself, explained that she has always been “independent-minded” and told Tucker that her main goal has always been to uphold the values of the Constitution, which is something she felt she could not do as a Dem. “If you look at today’s Democratic party, it’s controlled by fanatical ideologues who hate freedom,” Gabbard said, as Tucker nodded in agreement. “They despise the Constitution. They actively find ways to undermine our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution, like freedom of speech.”

Gabbard went on to explain to a clearly enraptured Carlson how immovable the Dems are, claiming that if you don’t agree with them, “they will do all that they can to destroy you.”

Carlson, with his tongue practically hanging out of his mouth, told Tulsi how “inspiring” her words were. And how “I feel like printing out your words and asking every Republican candidate who comes on this show to read them. And if you can’t read them, I’m not voting for you.”

Geez, get a room!

It’s a painful five minutes of pandering and ass-kissing, but if you want to watch it for yourself, you can above. Just be sure to stay for the part where Tulsi shares that one of her former Democratic colleagues texted her three thumbs-up emojis after hearing the news of her parting of the ways with the party.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Ryan Murphy seems to have moved on from making content about high school a high school show choir and has remained focused on what he does best: scaring viewers to their core with real-life crime stories. Murphy’s new project The Watcher will premiere on October 13th, just days after Monster: The Jeffrey Dhamer Story became one of the most streamed Netflix shows on the platform.

Following Murphy’s deep dive into the true crime genre, The Watcher will follow the very real and very horrifying true story of the Broaddus family who move into their dream home and begin receiving chilling letters from a stalker who only goes by The Watcher. Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale lead the cast, alongside Emmy-winner Jennifer Coolidge, Mia Farrow, Noma Dumezweni, Joe Mantello, Richard Kind, and Margo Martindale.

In 2014, the couple purchased a New Jersey home for nearly $1.4 million before being served taunting letters and phone calls from a stalker who would request the children’s blood. The stalker in question claimed they looked over the house for decades. The story was chronicled in a 2018 piece in The Cut, which described the family’s horrifying ordeal.

Spoiler alert: The Watcher was never found, though there are many theories online, so it will be interesting to see which one Murphy ran with. Maybe Murphy knows something that we don’t! The house was sold again years later and, so far, there have not been any more stalking incidents there, as far as we know.

On a lighter note, here is a brilliant tour of the house with Coolidge’s character, a real estate agent. Act now! This house will not last!

The Watcher drops on October 13th on Netflix.

(Via People and The Cut)

Cardi B just celebrated her 30th birthday earlier this week (on Tuesday, October 11) and got one hell of a present to commemorate the occasion, adding another historical milestone to a career that is already chock-full of them. Her 2018 singles “I Like It” and “Bodak Yellow” were recently both certified 11x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making her the first female rapper ever to have two singles sell 11,000,000 each. While a lot of this can be attributed to the advent of streaming, it’s still an impressive accomplishment, considering hip-hop’s well-established gender imbalance.

Cardi, who recently landed another hit on the Hot 100 alongside GloRilla with “Tomorrow 2,” celebrated her birthday Tuesday night with a burlesque-themed party in Los Angeles attended by Chloe X Halle, Jamie Foxx, Tiffany Haddish, and more. Well-wishers included her “Shake It” collaborator Dougie B and fellow rapper Latto.

Cardi was due for some good news after her last couple of weeks. While she should have been celebrating the success of “Tomorrow 2,” she was instead duking it out in wars of words with City Girls’ JT and rising rapper Akbar V. She also recently accepted a plea deal in her 2018 strip club assault case, which she said prompted her to forego a multi-million-dollar deal with Activision for a Call Of Duty endorsement campaign. Here’s hoping her next year will be better than the last.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Stranger Things writers are hard at work on the fifth and final season of the Netflix series (they’ve got the blurry photo to prove it), but they recently took time on Twitter to share the “crazy sh*t” that nearly happened in previous seasons.

“Crazy sh*t that almost happened #1: In season 2, a possessed Will was going to kill Bob,” reads one tweet. The other revelation would’ve had a bigger impact on the overall story: “Crazy sh*t that almost happened #2: In season 2, Eleven was going to mercy kill her mother.” Eleven’s mother, Terry, is still alive in a catatonic state and possesses a number of powers, including telepathy. As for Bob, well, he was too good for this world.

More TV show writers should reveal the “crazy sh*t” that almost happened. Did Don and Peggy from Mad Men go on a road trip to visit the world’s largest peanut? Did Tony Soprano get into Big Buck Hunter? Did Moe’s bar rag on The Simpsons come to life with the voice of Jeremy Irons? We’ll never know (except for the Simpsons one — that actually happened). The Stranger Things writers have opened a world of possibilities.

Stranger Things will return for its final season… eventually.

(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)

Between Kanye West’s interview with Tucker Carlson and L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez’s leaked audio about wanting to give her white colleague’s Black son “a beatdown,” it’s been a big week for racism. And Trevor Noah wanted to talk about all of it — especially Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville’s impressive feat of cramming more racism into 15 seconds of a speech than perhaps any other person before or after him.

On Tuesday night, Noah mockingly feigned surprise that a Republican senator from Alabama, of all places, would dare to say the quiet part out loud — and on TV no less. During a rally over the weekend, a fired-up Tuberville told the crowd that had gathered that Democrats had the power to put an end to crime in America, but that “they want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you’ve got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. They are not owed that. BULLSHIT!”

Noah was surprised, and maybe even a little impressed, by Tuberville daring to throw in that whiplash-inducing mention of reparations:

I’ve heard racists say all kinds of things. I’ve heard them say that Black people are criminals, and I’ve heard them say that reparations are reverse racism. But it takes a true racism innovator to combine both ideas at the same time. This is like the stuffed crust pizza of racism. ‘Cause I knew you could have crust, and I knew that you could have cheese. But I didn’t know that you could put the cheese inside the crust that’s holding the rest of the cheese. Because now the crust is holding the cheese at the same time… It’s genius!!

Noah knew that many of his viewers would be confused by Tuberville’s argument. And to those people, he offered this: “Congratulations. You’re sane.” But Noah did have some questions about just how sound Tuberville’s argument really was:

How does this argument explain Black people who steal things from other Black people? ‘Cause then who’s reparating who? And secondly, how is this man going to stand on stage and imply that all criminals are Black? That is disgusting! Has this senator never watched Netflix? I’m not going to stand here and let Tommy Tuberville erase all these white people’s contributions.

Noah dubbed that double standard “the real racism.”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning at the 1:45 mark.

Since Taylor Swift’s last tour, she has released five new records: Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), and Red (Taylor’s Version). That number will soon be six, as Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights, is dropping next Friday. And with it, many fans had suspected that a new touring announcement was imminent.

While Swift had planned to head out on the road for various scheduled Lover Fest shows in North America, South America, and Europe, the pandemic prompted cancellations that were never rescheduled. Because of this, Swift’s last time touring was the Reputation Stadium Tour. Her fan base has exponentially expanded since the pandemic, particularly following Folklore.

HITS Daily Double (via PopBase) has reported that tickets for Swift’s next tour will go on sale in November. While the site’s reputation doesn’t appear to be the greatest, the news has gone viral online.

Between a panic about being able to purchase tickets, let alone what the setlist will look like with a wide-ranging selection of new songs, the announcement for Swift’s even potential ticket sales has sparked a Swiftie craze.

Tensions have risen between longtime Swifties and new fans online, with the question of whether to gatekeep tips and information on how to secure tickets causing conversations on both Twitter and TikTok. Others have taken to just joking, with the hopes of by pretending not to be a fan, that the newbies or those casually not familiar with “Taylor’s Versions” of albums might give up and stay home.

“taylor swift was misogynistic in 2010 writing a song like better than revenge so you really shouldn’t buy those tour tickets and better leave them for people like me who don’t care,” another user wrote.

Continue scrolling for a few more fan reactions to Taylor Swift (potentially) dropping new tour dates in November.

In his songs, Bill Callahan tackles the big subjects: love, nature, death, the passage of time, how the stillness of everyday life belies constant transformation. But he has a way of approaching these weighty topics in a weightless manner, whether it’s inserting a dryly witty lyrical aside into an existential crisis or approaching his words with a remarkably understated vocal, which over time has come to resemble a cross between Leonard Cohen’s stoicism and Willie Nelson’s nimble emotionalism.

That the 56-year-old indie-rock veteran has produced so much good work so consistently over the course of more than 30 years — both as the man behind the ’90s lo-fi outfit Smog or under his own name — ought to not make his latest album due Friday, Reality, any less special. Described by Callahan as a reaction to the forces (political, cultural, technological) that have undermined the verisimilitude of daily existence, the album leavens philosophical musings with music that melds Townes Van Zandt Texas folk with ethereal jazz splashes and starry-eyed psychedelia. It is, of course, beautiful and moving music.

In conversation, Callahan talks the way he sings — softly, deeply, and with thoughtful contemplation. When asked to place Reality in his overall body of work, he pauses. He thinks. And then he is unsure.

“As a whole, I can’t really wrap my head around my entire back catalog as one thing. When you look back at yourself, there are puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit the way that you think of yourself now. It’s like, “Oh yeah, I was living in this apartment, and why would I ever live in that awful place?” But at the time, you were fine with it. I think the records are kind of the same, especially if you’re covering that much time.”

Ahead of Reality‘s release, I asked him to talk about nine of his albums. I could have asked about twice as many, but for the sake of time I selected most (though certainly not all) of the Bill Callahan/Smog albums that mean a lot to me.

Julius Caesar (1993)

That was a very important and surprising record to me. The arrangements are often quite strange and daring, I would say. But they work and I think the songs are strangely catchy. It’s the first time that I made a record where all the songs are great, in my opinion. I think maybe three-quarters of the record is recorded at home on a four-track, but then there’s a few songs that I did in the studio. That was the first time I’d ever been in a real recording studio. And it’s an important record in that respect, too, because I was growing up.

I needed to work with a four-track because it was baby steps. I wasn’t ready to work in a studio. The nature of the way that I worked would’ve cost billions of dollars. There was a lot of exploring and rule-breaking, in unconventional and not aesthetically pleasing ways. I don’t know how I would’ve even done that in a studio, a real studio. And I need to in complete control, which I wouldn’t really be in a studio.

It was all about the lyrics and the overall feel or sound of a song. The type of things that I was trying to achieve didn’t involve pretty singing or nice guitar work. That just wasn’t on my shopping list.

Red Apple Falls (1997)

That is also a very important record. I’m not going to say that about each one. [Laughs.] It was the first time I worked with an engineer or a producer — Jim O’Rourke — who actually cared about the sessions, who liked the music and was enthusiastic. I’d had a bunch of not-so-great experiences leading up to that with just picking random, “Oh, here’s a studio near my house” places. [1996’s] The Doctor Came At Dawn, that album was recorded mostly in a studio, but just with whoever was there when I showed up.

I had recorded some with a drummer leading up to that, but this was the first record where I’d tracked the whole thing with a band. You realize how much the drummer just adds to a song — to the power of a song — so easily. A friend of mine was listening to “Inspirational” — it’s the second to last song on the record — and she was like, “Were you smiling when you sang this song?” And I was, just because the drums made me so happy.

I had ideas of what instruments I wanted on the record, and for a lot of it, I would just hum something for the player to play. I know definitely on Knock Knock, which was the next one, that I wrote some very basic ideas on keyboards, and then Jim wrote them out and made them more musical. He wrote notation for the players.

As I started playing live more, that made me want to make music that could be played live. Whereas the early records were kind of the opposite goal. I wanted to make something that never be recreated again. I started small with the intention of never playing live. I don’t know why. I probably just knew that I couldn’t handle it, so I made up that little excuse.

I did my first show in about ’91, I think. I realized then how different it was. But back then, at least, it was the only way to get people to your music, to just show up on some bill and play it for them, I think I was hoping that there was some other way, but there isn’t really.

Knock Knock (1999)

That’s a very important record. I’m just kidding.

It is though!

Actually it is, yeah. With Red Apple Falls, I believe we recorded and mixed that in five days. That sounds crazy. At the most, it was seven days, but I think we recorded it and mixed it in five days. So that record is just what happened, basically. There wasn’t a lot of time for working on things. With Knock Knock, it took a little more time, probably 10 days or something. Also, as with Julius Caesar, I was surprised by how many good songs I had.

A lot of times I’ll make records where there might be an introduction-ish song to the rest of the record or to a bigger concept. On Reality, the first couple songs, “First Bird” and “Everyway,” they are fine songs, but they’re also very much playing an introductory role to some more freestanding songs. With Knock Knock — I don’t know what’s on there, 10 songs? — they’re all kind of freestanding and they could all be singles or greatest hits. There’s no bridge or introductory or groundwork type of songs. They’re all hits.

Dongs Of Sevotion (2000)

I tend to look at that as a trilogy: Red Apple Falls, Knock Knock, and then Dongs of Sevotion. That record was more pieced together in different recording sessions. I worked with different people, different drummers, and different people for different tracks. And it has the specter of death. There was a guy, Phil Bonnet, who was the engineer for Red Apple Falls and Knock Knock, and he was a good working pal of Jim O’Rourke’s. It was an intense but short work with this guy, and then he died in a car crash after Knock Knock. But I liked the studio that he had worked at and I did some of it there, and that was kind of spooky because Phil wasn’t there anymore.

“Dress Sexy At My Funeral” was the only poem I’d ever written. I wrote it a few years before all the other songs, and I thought, “There’s no way I can sing this” And I just put it in a drawer. I do find that whenever I get an idea to do something that isn’t music, that is writing, I tend to tell myself, “Oh, you’re not a playwright, you don’t write movie scripts, you’re a songwriter, sorry.” Everything becomes songs because that’s what I know how to do. So, that’s a prime example of that.

I have to ask about the album title, as it’s one of the great titles of all time. How did you come up with it?

I think I was considering calling it Songs Of Devotion, and I saw that Depeche Mode had a record called that. So just to make it unique and make it mine, and I stumbled on that.

A River Ain’t Too Much Love (2005)

I moved out of Chicago to Austin, Texas because I was trying to make some big changes in my life. I suddenly wanted to live in a house instead of an apartment. I wanted a yard, I wanted a driveway to park my car, and all these things that are very hard to achieve in Chicago unless you have lots of money. I also learned to finger-pick for that record, and I switched to nylon string, classical-style guitar. So, that was a big difference — learning a new thing, a new thing I was embracing. When you stop strumming and you start finger-picking, there’s a hole in the middle of the song. Because a guitar strummed is the center of the song, basically. If you take that away, that leaves a big space. I was trying to use my voice in the center instead of a strumming guitar with a voice on top.

I wanted to release A River Ain’t Too Much Love under my own name because of all these big changes. It was like, “What is this stupid name that doesn’t mean anything to me?” Someone goes in a record store and they see something by Smog and that plants something in their head — could be appealing, could be unappealing. I didn’t want to plant this thing that didn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t want to then expect people to be like, “Oh, I’ll ignore that name and I’ll listen to this record,” which no one does.

It was all part of starting over. But my record label — they apologized for this — but they freaked out and got scared when I said I wanted to use my name, for obvious reasons. So I went with Smog for that last record, and then I changed it on the next one. Some people are still confused, but as far as sales go, they stayed the same. It was not like I was starting from scratch in that respect.

Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle (2009)

I was ready to make a record with strings again, like I had done for [1995’s] Wild Love. A lot of strings and horns. I think I was thinking in those terms as I was writing the songs, because with something like “Faith/Void,” the feel of the strings is pretty integral to that song taking off the ground and achieving flight. So, if I remember correctly, I was picturing strings and horns as I wrote the songs.

“Jim Cain” is your most streamed song. Any thoughts on why that track in particular is popular?

Well, I don’t know if a lot of people love it. A lot of people have heard it, maybe at a very low volume as they listen to a playlist. Those numbers can be misleading. I just think that happened to get on a playlist or two that was popular. I do think it’s one of my best songs, so that is why I’m constantly streaming it.

Ha! So you’re the one admiring your own handiwork.

I was reading a lot of James M. Cain. I read a little bit about his life and it seemed like he wasn’t really as embraced as much as I felt he should have been. I think he maybe was an alcoholic and died at a pretty early age, if I remember correctly. So I wanted to write a tribute to him. If you feel someone is under-appreciated, you can’t really control popular opinion. All I can do is make my own celebratory song for someone, and that’s kind of what that is.

Apocalypse (2011)

When I first moved to Texas, I always felt like I was in a Western. Austin was a lot less developed then, so there were a lot more old buildings and things just crumbling and it had a very Western feel. So, I think that just kind of seeped into my perspective. I believe that’s the first record that I worked with Matt Kinsey. Am I right? Do you know? I’m pretty sure that was the first.

It was.

I had done a couple little one-off things for compilations with him, just as I was getting to know him and finding out what he was capable of. He had a key role in Apocalypse, the record’s moving into that direction. Matt is capable of playing anything. He can play on a sheer noise record or a top 40 pop song. Without Matt, I don’t know what these records would’ve sounded like.

That record, like all my records, is basically the band recording live, and then we might add some overdubs or fix a vocal word or two. But everything’s live, including the vocal, which applies its own energy and cohesion. And it’s also much quicker, as I found out recording Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest. That was definitely the longest I’ve spent on any record. And that was partially due to the fact that, for the first time, I went in, recorded my parts, and then I started adding people to it, which for some reason really slows down the process. When you record the band, there might be one part by somebody that’s not their best take, but you have to pick the most good version. And it always turns out fine, because the bass note that I hated but decided to live with is actually the coolest thing on the record.

Do you remember recording “Riding For The Feeling”? The performance on the record always transfixes me.

That was probably really easy, probably first take or something. It’s the kind of song that plays itself, because it’s just kind of slow and easy and it’s very obvious.

It’s my favorite vocal of yours.

Well, if a song plays itself, that takes a big burden off of my mind. Kind of like with “Inspirational,” which I referred to earlier. It’s like this song is just an 18-wheeler cruising down the empty highway and I don’t have to do anything but sing. I’m just relaxed and happy.

Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest (2019)

Is it true you considered quitting music after becoming a father in the mid-2010s?

I couldn’t find a kind of reconciliation point of going down the path of being a father. There didn’t seem to be any stops along the way that involved making music. It felt like a very full path already. Also, I was learning something brand new, which used up all my brain power and my body power. I was not getting enough sleep for a few years and not having time to myself. I started seeing a therapist to try to help me have a life where both things are possible. It was strange, because we lived in Santa Barbara for about 10 months, so my wife would go to grad school. I thought I’d always wanted to live on the ocean or very close to the ocean. I finally got that chance and I found it actually more of a distraction because whenever I was in my house I was like, “I should be at the ocean now.” It was so close. So that was a lot of energy, as time was absorbed. I got out just in time.

Reality (2022)

I watched the world fall apart, as everybody did. I watched the country fall apart. I watched the world fall apart in slow motion. And I saw clearly that we had no leader, at least not one that was going to lead us out of this. I just felt like I wanted a guide — somebody smart to tell me what the fuck is going on, what is real, what is propaganda, what’s really going on here, somebody. So I looked to various philosophers and comedians, but no one really worked. Some people would say some things that made sense to me or rang true, but then they would say something else that negated that. And I eventually decided the important thing was focusing on myself and my family and my neighbors and the neighborhood, and that was the best path for me to carry on. What I learned by going through that was I wanted to turn that into songs, in case anybody needed some guidance or corroboration for their thoughts. Just someone saying the same thing that they may be thinking.

Also, there’s the big mess that social media is, and how we haven’t evolved yet to be able to handle that. Everyone talks about how great this shit is, but no one ever talks about how maybe it’s too powerful, it’s too different, that we can’t actually handle it. It’s addictive, in the same way that we shouldn’t all be taking heroin. It’s not going to work, if we’re all taking heroin. Society is not going to last very long.

This is, in a way, a protest record. But you don’t mention a specific thing you’re protesting, which makes it more universal and timeless.

I think in some way that a lot of good songs are protest songs, because they’re protesting the silence of no song. Usually if someone is writing a traditional protest song, there’s a utopic vision somewhere in there of, “Don’t do this, we should all do this.” I do think that songs are little utopias for people to live in for three or four minutes.

There’s dream imagery that recurs throughout the songs, which is not new for you. Why are you interested in dreams?

We don’t pay enough attention to our dreams. Most people treat them as a novelty. Like, “Oh, listen to this silly, crazy thing that I dreamed last night,” But a dream is a hand of tarot cards — you can read it or try to read it. I wonder what would happen if we focused more on dreams. I’ve always said politicians shouldn’t give those stupid bullshit speeches full of platitudes and lies, they should just talk about what they dreamed about last night and then we could decide if we think they’re the person for the job.

I haven’t been dreaming lately. It’s hard when you don’t remember your dreams.

When you remember your dreams, do you remember good dreams or just bad dreams? Because I feel like I only remember bad dreams.

They’re usually somewhat troubling or so puzzling that they upset you because obviously our brains want to make sense of everything, our conscious brains. But I think I remember good dreams, too.

You said you haven’t remembered a dream in a while?

Yeah. I think it’s because I started taking these CBD gummies before bed and I think that blocks, well, all that stuff. It slows down the sleep cycles. It makes the cycles longer and I think it keeps you in the non-dream state for a lot longer than normal. I’m planning on taking some days off from the sweet, sweet gummies.