Transcript created by otter.ai for Finding Favorites podcast
Kevin T Porter 0:00
Hi, my name is Kevin T Porter. And my favorite thing is Bruce Springsteen. He’s a, he’s a singer songwriter. And he’s kind of old now. But he has some good songs and I like him a lot.
Announcer 0:14
Welcome to the finding favorites podcast where we explore your favorite things without using an algorithm. here’s your host, Leah Jones. Hello, and
Leah Jones 0:26
Welcome to finding favorites. I’m your host, Leah Jones. And this is a very special Valentine’s Day edition of finding favorite. I don’t know every couple months that I’ve been doing this podcast, I sent it. I make a big swing. Make a big ask. And right before New Year’s, I got very brave. And I sent an email to Kevin T. Porter, who’s the host of Christian good Christian fun, and Gilmore guys. And I asked him if he would come on finding favorites. And he said yes. If you remember the mind map that I posted to Twitter that became the origin story of this podcast, Gilmore guys is central to my finding, like every podcast they listen to now. I listened to West Wing weekly, the Gilmore Girls reboot was announced. And then I’d heard Oh, there’s this podcast, or these two guys are rewatching the Gilmore Girls, you should listen to it.
So I started listening to the Gilmore guys. Through that I was introduced to Jason Mantzoukas. I listened to a couple episodes of his I found out about How did this get made? I found out about Nicole Byer about Jon Gabrus, about the dough boys. Gilmore guys truly opened the door to like all of my podcast friends. And so when Kevin agreed to come on finding favorites, and talk about something that wasn’t Gilmore Girls or Christian pop culture or baking, I was so excited. And you will hear that in this interview that I am nervous. I am keyed up I am high on adrenaline. I was high on adrenaline for a solid 24 hours after this interview. So I literally shout at him. Yeah, right. Oh my god. Cool. Yeah, love it approximately 8000 times during this interview, and I tried to take out probably 70% of my random exclamations of adrenaline, but it’s okay. We’re all learning together. And I’m, I don’t work in PR anymore. So I feel like it’s okay to be excited about a guest. And I was
Kevin is someone that I have a parasocial relationship with, which means it’s a one way relationship because I have listened to hundreds of hours of his podcasts, and 1000s of hours of other podcasts that I got to kind of through that door, that hobby door of listening to his podcast. And I was excited. And he was as nice as kind as interesting as I hoped he would be based on the time I’ve spent with him in my ears, especially during quarantine. So we talk about Bruce Springsteen. And during the Edit of this, I went and found a bunch of YouTube clips of Bruce. So the show notes for this one are chock full of Bruce Springsteen clips, and I’m going to use a couple instead of my normal music bumpers. I use a couple clips from different Bruce songs, short enough clips, that I don’t get dinged by the copyright police. I hope I hope wherever you are celebrating Valentine’s Day or Palentine’s Day with your pals or Presidents Day that you continue to stay safe. So stay safe, stay home just a little bit longer. wear a mask and wash your hands. And enjoy this conversation about Bruce Springsteen.
Leah Jones, cont
Hello, and welcome to finding favorites. I’m your host, Leah Jones. And this is the podcast where we talk to people about their favorite things and we get recommendations without using an algorithm. To say I’m excited this week is an understatement. So we’re gonna jump into it. I am. In my interview with my with Jason Mathis. We talked about this mind map this thing that I posted to Twitter. I was tracing the podcast I listened to and trying to understand the comedy listen to today and the relationships I have with podcasts. And the first stop was West Wing weekly. The second stop was Gilmore guys, and then from Gilmore guys can literally everything else I put in my ears. And I am so excited to have on my podcast this evening, Kevin t Porter from Gilmore guys, which became bonehead bros, which became maizel Gois. Currently the host of good Christian fun, and one of my COVID favorites inside voices. Kevin T. Porter, welcome to fighting favorites. How are you?
Kevin T Porter 5:32
Oh, I’m so good. I love the qualifier of a COVID favorite. It may not be an all time favorite but it is a COVID favorite because I know what you’re saying cuz I’ve COVID favorites myself where it’s like this is why I discovered during the old Demi yeah it will pan Demi and I will remember enjoying this thing during this 16 months or whatever ends up being Brian yeah 18 months Well, I
Leah Jones 5:55
guess I the only reason it gets the qualifier of COVID favorite is I I found it during I mean did you release I know you recorded some episodes of inside voices before but did were any released before COVID Yes,
Kevin T Porter 6:09
we did. I think we started in January. Okay, I don’t know I don’t remember January 2020. Because I’ll always remember it because I went to New York in Washington DC specifically to record which sounds so dumb now like I went out of town to record a podcast because how else would you How would you would you record a podcast unless you know where the person is? So I remember recording the last few episodes of that season with those people and I’m remember our my last in Person guests for that Glen Weldon from NPR is pop culture happy hour. When we met he elbow bumped me. It was March 5, six. I was like, okay, weird. Like, why is he elbow bumping me Who cares? And I remember defiantly shaking the engineer’s hand the woman who was running the board at the studio, I was like, I’m not gonna elbow but you know, I love Glen, a friend of mine, but I was like this strange and turns out hashtag Glenn new Glenn knew all along and how dare I doubt him in that sense.
Leah Jones 7:14
I listened to that episode just maybe two weeks ago and you and you really apologize for the sound at the beginning. You’re like there’s all this sound of a cafe and the studio was not quiet. I mean, it really sounds like you guys are just sitting. Are you just in the middle of a restaurant?
Kevin T Porter 7:29
No, but but it certainly sounds like it we were right next to a restaurant in a cafe. At a I won’t I won’t blow up the the the hotel name or anything like that. But it was like it’s a recording studio. So I assumed it was recording studio and truly what it is, is we have microphones set up and there’s a glass enclosure. Is there soundproofing? No, can you get split audio tracks? No, you cannot. Okay. It was so it was just a lot of stuff. I’m like, Well, alright, I mean, we might as well have just met at Glenn’s bedroom, you know, like, it was just a funny thing. But it was the thing listening back to it of I’m not gonna hear this sound again for a long time, in terms of the audience of strangers enjoying themselves in dining. I mean, I’m, I’m personally not going to hear that for a long time.
Leah Jones 8:17
No, it’s gonna be ages. And I. And you did a big setup to the episode. And I was like, surely it won’t. And I was I would, I wanted to replay it immediately because I miss sitting alone in a cafe or a bar and just having
Kevin T Porter 8:33
noise. It was not funny, though. That may be a new, it’ll be interesting to see how this generational trauma works itself out. But you know if some of our audience stuff that we listen to going to sleep now is like rain forests and stormy weather or like even the wind or something. Maybe in 15 years, it’s gonna be cafes, like crowded sports surgery. Right? That will be what is comforting to us as we experienced those things. Again,
Leah Jones 9:00
I think it will be in grad school, I took a production class, and I forget what it’s called. But there’s a type of sound that you can buy. That’s chit chat. That’s like that room noise, okay, that you that you buy it, like, if you if you shot some video and it’s too quiet, or you’re doing an audio book, and you need the ambience, and it’s got like a really cute name that I’m not going to remember.
Kevin T Porter 9:26
It’s a cute name, but it’s not a memorable, it’s not a memorable name.
Leah Jones 9:30
And after I listened to that episode, I was like, maybe I just want to go and get buy some audio of a coffee shop.
Kevin T Porter 9:36
Might as well. I know I do miss that sound so much. Now the sound of a crowded place is scary to me. It’s like a war zone or gunfire is going off in the distance, you know? Yeah. So anyway, what a great note to start the show. I mean, it’s good though, because we’re talking about Yeah, we’re talking about what our favorite things are to listen to. I remember when I was a kid, I would listen to episodes of The West Wing the aforementioned West Wing weekly. Yep, falling asleep. I ripped the DVDs I owned and I made them mp3 and put them on my iPod and listen to those and would kind of internalize and memorize those episodes. Yes, as I fell asleep as a 14 year old boy,
Leah Jones 10:17
I fell asleep to a lot of love line when Adam Carolla was still on it. Okay, so 90s in the late 90s, and I listened to and I got to meet Dr. Drew once he came to the college where I work to do an event, and I took a picture of us and then that was my Christmas card that year. Was but yeah, it was before. It was kind of before Dr. Drew super went off the deep end.
Kevin T Porter 10:46
Yeah, he’s far from the shallow now. Let’s all say that.
Leah Jones 10:48
Yeah, he is. He is what that song is about. Then when I worked like a swing shift. I then would listen to Art Bell. Did you ever listen to Art Bell? I don’t know our bell. Probably better that you don’t. He does. A lot of he’s passed now. But his show was a lot of conspiracies and like shadow people and very spooky things, which, when it’s like three in the morning, and you can’t sleep it is not helpful to listen to an am talk show about shadow people. nonlin.
Kevin T Porter 11:19
Man, he would have loved the past three years in this country. Hmm.
Leah Jones 11:22
He would have been the king of it. This would have been his
Kevin T Porter 11:26
It was his time. His Yes, I know. Yeah. Wow. Well, sad. He couldn’t see this today. Cuz we’re coupon ladies. We’re in Congress or whatever.
Leah Jones 11:35
It’s a well, it’s so awful.
Kevin T Porter 11:39
Who’s your favorite congressperson listener right into the show? Finding your favorite congressional conspiracy theorist? let Leah
Leah Jones 11:48
know. Yeah. We talked about it a little bit before I hit record. So my COVID hobbyist podcasting, and you started baking. And so how is that going?
Kevin T Porter 12:03
Well, I had made a little bit before COVID hit like the last couple of years, I would like to try out different cookie recipes. And I always stuck with really safe little staples like snickerdoodles, or just like a regular peanut butter cookie. And then moving into this new place where I finally live alone. And then just having free rein of the kitchen felt like such a luxury where it’s like, I don’t have to be considerate of anyone besides myself. And so I started experimenting a little bit before COVID started. And then it was a thing where it absolutely plummeted when, right when it started because there was nowhere for the for the food to go. Yeah, this is before we knew a lot about surfaces and how transmission really works. And so after understanding that data and getting that information, it felt like a nice excuse to see people or to give people something and to maintain a connection with them where it’s like I just left something on your doorstep and ran away contact list friendship is what I’m in the business of now. So so that was kind of the aim and goal of that and it became a nice little rhythm and ritual to get into everyday of just getting up exercising maybe a little bit and then coming back home in baking in the morning and trying out new recipes and stuff. And then it ramped up eventually to I started a little teeny, weeny, Itsy Bitsy Little Big shop here in Los Angeles where people can order online and I’ll deliver it within Los Angeles County. It’s a it’s a bad business model, even though it’s we’ve had some success, we use me and my puppets here in this room. They’re all my personal assistants. But it’s been really it’s that’s actually been a nice way when it hasn’t like overload. There was one week where I got like 60 orders and I was like, This isn’t fun, though. But now it’s like now it’s at the regular like maybe seven to 12 orders in a week. And it’s like okay, this is this Yes, feels good to go out and like do three drop offs in a day. Yeah, I think it’s a nice way to see Los Angeles County because I would have no other reason otherwise and to just get out my car with a mask on drop something on people’s doorstep ring the doorbell runaway, you know, yeah, but still like going to places in LA. I haven’t really made myself acquainted with the places I don’t even know technically we’re in Los Angeles County, places like Palace varities and La Mirada and places like that, that you definitely don’t think of when you think of La proper, you know,
Leah Jones 14:35
right, because I got a car during COVID I haven’t had a car in 18 years. I’ve been in Chicago for a long time. I’m like, I ride my bike. I take the bus to take the train. And I was not willing to do that during once COVID started. And so I finally got a car. And then I’m like, Well, I guess I’ll go to Culver is in the suburbs, or I’ve gone to where I go go for a drive thru is not in the city anymore. Just because I’ve got to go somewhere.
Kevin T Porter 15:07
You have a destination, you need a destination
Leah Jones 15:09
of you. Yes, yeah, I
Kevin T Porter 15:11
fully understand that. And it’s all invented stuff now. You’re inventing all of your structure in some ways outside of the actual, physical and like work obligations. Everything else is just I guess I’ll make myself do this for fun and force myself to do this for no other reason, then I’m forcing myself to do it. So yeah, I think the baking I think the baking was a part of that, that invented structure. And it feels nice to have like, a little bit of baking homework every day, even ya know, and it’s fun. It’s so fun to do. I’ll stuff when it’s not fun anymore.
Leah Jones 15:45
That’s, that’s a good plan. My there was a Christmas once when my mom, what were they called Cabbage Patch Kids before like, the year before, they got really big as manufactured, there was a pattern that people could buy and make their own. Okay. And they got really popular in my hometown, and my mom spent like one Christmas making those for other families. And that was where I kind of saw like, oh, if you do a home business around a product, like a homemade product, and you don’t control it, it can just balloon so fast. So that sounds like they are 60. Cookie week, or 60. Delivery week? Yeah,
Kevin T Porter 16:23
yeah. 60 orders it was. I think it was upwards of 600 cookies. It was a lot. It was a lot. I mean, yeah. Usually it doesn’t sometimes a couple dozen. Yeah, it was a lot. It got to the point where it’s like, do I hate cookies? But the answer is no. It’s just that anything in a certain context, for even as much as you enjoy, it can become toil, if you allow it. So that was a good example of that. But I’m getting my groove back, I’m experimenting with recipes again. But that was one of those things where it’s like, I’ve made the same for cookies, so many times. And when I want to do something for fun with a little bit of free time, my instinct now isn’t, well, what about a funfetti recipe, you know, but now now I’m kind of getting back into that groove with it. Fortunately,
Leah Jones 17:07
the concept of my podcast is how did people find their favorite thing? And when we were talking about what what the topic might be today? You you do tend to make whole podcasts about your favorite thing about Yeah, that are your favorites.
Kevin T Porter 17:25
Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, cuz I’m thinking back on like, are these my favorite things? I think I would I would even amend that just a little bit to say, I I do make shows about things that I think are the most interesting that I like. But I think both in the case of Gilmore Girls, and the Christian pop culture stuff, it’s stuff I have affection for. That isn’t necessarily my favorite, but I think it’s interesting that I like it, dude. I mean, like, I think it’s interesting that I that I so upset, like the context of me enjoying it, for some reason, is interesting to me. Maybe it’s not maybe the least interesting thing in the world. But it’s not like if I made a list of my top 10 Shows of All Time Gilmore Girls would be number one with a bullet. But yes, yeah, it is a trend. In this medium. That happens a lot where people do that, where it’s like, I love whatever. I love Dawson’s Creek, that’s my favorite show. I’m doing rice Creek, rewatch podcast, I love football. I’m creating a football podcast where I talk about my favorite players, blah, blah, blah. And it does, just like I said about the baking stuff. Anything can become toil in the right context. That’s definitely that definitely can become the case. If you’re not careful with how you interact with that content in that like that source material, that substance. And that’s, that’s Yeah, that’s one reason where I’m like, where I have thought, like, would it be fun to do a podcast about the thing we’re gonna talk about, right? And I’m like, Maybe, maybe not. Maybe that’s my version of blasphemy where it’s like, No, well, you can’t do that. That would. That’s just i’m not i’m not enough of a scholar. And I feel like I might say something offensive. And I’m, like, I go, I go in those spirals and rabbit holes.
Leah Jones 19:18
That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I also I, I know the inside voices was whatever. Like, I do want to acknowledge the incredible parasocial imbalance, which is like you have spent hundreds of hours in my apartment. Mm hmm. In my ears, yes.
Kevin T Porter 19:34
Which I’ve never been to but now
Leah Jones 19:36
I see every Yes, I see a little bit and my cats are coming over to say hello. It’s about useful plants. Love The Godfather up on the top shelf.
Kevin T Porter 19:44
Thank ya. a terrific choice. Is that a VHS?
Leah Jones 19:48
It is? Haha. Yes.
Kevin T Porter 19:51
I love it.
Leah Jones 19:53
I think I still have a VCR and a box somewhere I’m not sure.
Kevin T Porter 19:57
Well, those are coming back after the You know, the physical media apocalypse rains down upon us and all the apple servers go down, you’re gonna want to you’re gonna want to keep on those, those VCRs if you
Leah Jones 20:08
have a few, yeah. But it did seem like inside voices was what I loved about how you manage those interviews, you understand podcasting at a level that I don’t think a lot of people do. You You didn’t go into those interviews cold, you knew like a lot about their people’s careers. And you were also a fan. But I thought that was a really interesting thing, way that you took something that you had been doing professionally or something that you’d been doing professionally for so many years and turning it upside down as a conversation, and I really appreciated them.
Kevin T Porter 20:45
No, thanks. So it’s really nice to say that it was such a natural overflow into something that I think a lot of people in this industry. And I think another similar industries where people work alone are kind of in their little hobbit holes kind of apart from people are not in a communal environment, where there is this sort of collective yearning for a break room conversation to go and make small talk or to gossip with someone while they’re microwaving their hot pocket or something. Yeah, and that would happen so much before and after recording episodes of shows I was already doing it, right, you would just talk, whatever, you would just talk about some annoying thing that happened or some weird thing or some listener thing or like, some gossip thing. And, and so it was fun to like, yeah, put it in a nice package where it became, it became the text of the show. And it was Yeah, it was mostly just an effort of like, we all work here, but none of us are talking to each other. Yeah, even people on my network where it’s like, I didn’t really like sat down and and just in had it out had it out. Right. I need to solve some some conflict with them. But like, you know, it was it was kind of a, it was out of a desire to do that. So hopefully we did that. We did that a little bit on the show. Well, I’m
Leah Jones 22:07
hoping I’m hopeful that it comes back.
Kevin T Porter 22:09
Yeah, me too. We’ll see. We’ll see if head GM wants it ever again. But I hope so maybe one day,
Leah Jones 22:16
cuz I also thought it was good as a as a new podcaster. There, there were times where just in the conversation. For example, in your interview with Rishi, when he talked about editing on paper, I was like, Oh, that’s how you pass off your audio to someone else. him just describing how he edited West Wing weekly. I was like, Ooh, okay, I’m locking that away. Yeah, for a future. So I also thought that was great for like the skills, there was some skills transfer in there that I really appreciated.
Kevin T Porter 22:46
I know in interviews with people like Rishi are where I’m learning because his skill set is so fundamentally, probably better, but also so different from mine in the sense of the kind of shows that he makes. Yeah, because there’s such a necessity, from the content he puts out that doesn’t exist in almost everything that I do where most of is sit down and talk with soundboard and some preparation and some long form interview stuff. But yeah, but in terms of sound design, and yes, the Edit of that sort of stuff. And also, just in general the aesthetic of East Coast, podcasting, like your gimlets. Your nprs is so different from West Coast, comedy podcasting. Yeah. And I feel a little bit versed in the West Coast stuff a little bit.
Leah Jones 23:55
Here to talk about podcasting. We’re not here to talk about Amy Sherman Palladino, or Christian pop culture. What are we here to talk about today?
Kevin T Porter 24:09
We’re here to talk about a singer songwriter hailing from New Jersey and his name is Bruce Frederick Springsteen.
Leah Jones 24:19
I did not know that was his middle name.
Kevin T Porter 24:21
That’s his middle name. Yes. Bruce Frederick. I believe he was named after his father or his grandfather. I forget. Yeah. hailing from Monmouth County, born in Monmouth County Hospital September 23 1949. What a loser. This happened I’ve memorized a Wikipedia but the case it’s in there for some reason. So yes, we’re here to talk about this gentleman today. Right, Bruce, which listeners may remember from his work with such companies as Jeep a couple days ago as of recording this and the Superbowl ad time
Leah Jones 24:55
I did. When he said Bruce Springsteen, I was like, I guess I gotta watch that. Commercial now.
Kevin T Porter 25:02
I know that is. Yeah, I have a lot of kind of weird thoughts about that commercial. It made me feel weird. It made me feel weird watching that
Leah Jones 25:12
it was real Christian. It was real Christian, right? When they’re like in the middle and they just show a cross. I was like, Okay, all right, because I saw that my like Jewish feeds, so I converted and so I have like a really a very Jewish Twitter feed. And when that commercial came up, people were like, whoo, that’s, that’s a weird one. Yeah, it’s not just the cross
Kevin T Porter 25:39
once they keep No, it’s a couple of times. And it’s a couple of different crosses. Well, especially because the commercial does take place. Like the big set piece centerpiece of It is him going to a tiny chapel in Kansas, which is reported to be the literal center of the country. And there’s a cross over a silhouette of the continental United States that has an American flag on it and then a cross over that which is just truly looks like Christian nationalism in a way that so I was Yeah, I felt very complicated about the whole thing on on two levels, maybe three levels. One He’s never done a commercial before ever. He’s never lent his music his image to any commercial anything ever. The most he’s done is like political campaigns and then putting a song and trailers or Yeah, you know, intros for movies hero song for so there’s that where it’s like, Okay, first commercial, you’re 71 it’s for Jeep, which of course it’s a car commercial, to the the Christian nationalist imagery that is so subtle in a way that that feels even worse upon reflection. And then three, the sort of the false dichotomy rhetoric of, we need unity, we’re so divided, we just need to listen to each other, like that sort of thing. And it’s like, your first commercial is a quasi white nationalist, a PSA for like, Oh, we need to be nice to the people trying to kill us. It felt it felt a little disappointing. Yeah. And that’s why he’s my favorite. I feel like I’m coming out so negative, but this is it. It’s like It’s like watching a family member make bad decisions where I’m like, buddy, just call me You could have run this by me. We could have had it out.
Leah Jones 27:38
I love it felt like it belonged in Handmaid’s Tale. Like when Oh yeah, I guess comes out of exile in Canada. Like it I was like, oh, that the, the reunited American or the United States with the star in the middle. I was just like, Okay, so that’s going in Season Five of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Kevin T Porter 28:02
It’s so I know it’s so bleak. Yeah, you know, I find this to be a common theme. With all the Superbowl commercials this year. We’re like, this is the year we all finally felt especially after this, like brutal traumatic year. Everyone’s had. Yeah, it’s like, oh, you growing up as a kid, if you were bored by football, the commercials were the fun part. Maybe something interesting or silly would happen. Maybe you would get the Budweiser frogs. Maybe it was up, maybe you’d get whatever. And now it’s like, okay, Elmo and Grover, I’m going to be shilling for the evil company. doordash, which is, you know, robbing drivers blind because of Prop 22 passing in the state of California. So stuff like that. And then yes, like,
Leah Jones 28:47
and then it was Devi Diggs, who is like a pretty, like, what do you think of the things he’s done outside of Hamilton? They’re very like, I think of him as being someone that would be on the side of labor and of the people and so for him to be doing doordash Oh, since that first Street, which is now an HBO?
Kevin T Porter 29:06
Yes. No, it feels dystopian. This is the year that we’ve realized, like all the people that we admired for so long, also, our very fault in their own ways for not being a certain kind of progressive, where it’s like, yeah, Bruce was like singing pro union songs and working with local labor unions in 1981. He was a veteran’s activist in 1984 he was thinking about police brutality in 1999 and in 2021 he’s saying you know what, everyone needs to be nice to each other. It just feels odd. It feels odd It was weird to me Yes.
Leah Jones 29:39
But um, let’s let’s time travel a little bit.
Kevin T Porter 29:43
Oh, let’s go back in the past
Leah Jones 29:45
go backs.
Kevin T Porter 29:46
Yes.
Leah Jones 29:46
Tell me about the first time you can remember loving Bruce Springsteen, was it did you buy a first CD was there a music video that caught you off guard was he in the air you breathe growing up like everybody listening to Bruce so there’s not like a moment.
Kevin T Porter 30:03
You know, I think I think because of the generational gap, people assumed that my parents would have gotten me into it. But my first memory of it, I found out later that my dad was super into him. Yeah. And he just never shared it with me. And it came like five or six years into me been a huge fan and listener and go wherever, who’s conscious before my dad was like, Yeah, I love him. And I’m like, What? You don’t verbally communicate, Papa, come on. Come, but my first memory of it, I will remember this for ever. This is my version of love at first sight. And I’ll remember it forever. I was in our home in kingwood, Texas, the suburbs a little bit north of Houston, Texas. And there was a huge cross on the wall. I’m just kidding. But I remember I it must have been, I believe is the year 2000. And there was a telethon playing on PBS. And it was like a pledge drive thing. And in between the segments where the people said, like sending your money to PBS, we need it. They were playing excerpts from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live in New York City, which, okay, so it must have been 2001 because it was in 2000, that that concert occurred. So it’s in 2001. And they played a song from it. And the song was out in the street. And I remember watching it, and for the first time, I didn’t know that I didn’t know what this band was called. I didn’t know what this song was. I didn’t know who Bruce Springsteen was. I was just experiencing the visual with the audio of this band with this, you know, with this kind of average, but very handsome looking. Yeah, Italian Irish man, this redheaded woman, this insanely happy looking the African American saxophone player, this drum, this drummer that look like somebody who’s accountant. Oh, I think I must have known because of Conan O’Brien cuz it was max Weinberg. And just like, and then a side guitar guy that looked like a pirate, like a mobster. Right, which is, of course, and, and I remember being so taken in a way where it’s like, it was almost it wasn’t, it wasn’t sexual, but it was something where it’s like a feeling that you don’t you didn’t have words for but you had this innate attraction in draw to this energy at first that I really remember Patty in that song for some reason that like her playing and the kind of the kind of contagious infectious joy of that and I remember watching that video and then loving it, and then never thinking or listening to Bruce Springsteen for four years. So that was 2001 and I didn’t start listening to him until 2005 that’s how I got into him is because I got an iPod a 60 gigabyte iPod with one of the Yeah, leave the one of the white ones with the click wheel.
Leah Jones 32:58
They I believe were only white the first year like I don’t think there were colors
Kevin T Porter 33:04
were there. Well, they were they were only white the first year and then they started out rolling different kinds of colors in Gen four of it because you could get the metallic like the steel. You get a black iPod you could get the black and red you to iPod with all of YouTube’s music, write it up on it. And I got this iPod and at the time my tastes was only I love me movie soundtracks. I love score in songs like pop songs from from movie soundtracks. Yeah, I was coming out of, I guess, listening to Christian music, but it was at the point where it’s like this is getting less and less relevant and more in the movie scores. But then there was just you know, 58 free gigabytes on the iPod. So I was like, Okay, well, what is music and I remember just googling like Top Albums, and I got to Rolling Stones list of the Top 500 songs of all time, which is a list put together by this boomer generation of like straight white guys, that all probably look like me. It’s very tragic. It’s like number one Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely. What was the number one song I think at the time was like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan.
Leah Jones 34:06
And yeah, like, Beatles wrote literally Rolling Stones. Yes.
Kevin T Porter 34:13
So I remember, I believe Born to Run in that incarnation of the top 500 songs was number 14 and so have downloaded it. I think from some Russian mp3 website where it’s like you paid for it, but you paid in Russian money. So it was like it was like 10 cents a song or something like that. I remember listening that I was like, kind of into it. And then 2005 is when his album devils and dust came out. So I listened to that. And that was just like a solo acoustic record like not typical more of like a side project. Yeah, and not a street band stuff. But then I remember listening to the song The opening track on Born to Run Thunder Road on the way to theater rehearsal and The year 2005 in listening to that song on the way to the school, and I was like, What is this song? What is this music and that was 11 first listen again. And it was it wasn’t like, you know, math lady mean where I was like piecing all together like the song from my childhood, but it was like that slowly coalesced and snowballed into loving Bruce right but but it was like a slow burn in a way, although I do remember to because I know we’re talking about like the maps of how we get into favorites. I was really into Bob Dylan before I was really into Bruce Springsteen. So I guess when I was when I was getting into that Rolling Stone list, I really I got I got legitimately into Dylan watch the documentaries, read the books got you know all those first albums on compact disc and listen to those. And I really really liked it, but I didn’t love it on a bone level. But I was just like, super, I super enjoyed it. You know, it’s like a movie I’d love to watch. But it wasn’t my favorite of all time. But it was it was the exact right bridge to get to Bruce Yes, because I feel like maybe someone even wrote this as criticism about Bruce but but it’s like if Dylan was for your mind and Elvis was for your body Bruce combine those things to be for both. And so there was like no intellectual or visceral compromise in the sense of experiencing his his music, which I really appreciate about it. So there was like a little dylanesque poetry but it did not come at the cost of any excitement in any way. And stinkle bone deep fun that you would have something like Elvis?
Leah Jones 36:33
Wow, it’s such a different color. So I’m 44 so I grew up on radio, and, and CDs, but I had one of my earlier interviews was there was on Sunday nights in Terre Haute, Indiana. There was alternative Sunday and it was the alternative music show. And for six hours once a week we got alternative music. That was how I learned how I learned that They Might Be Giants is in weird out or not alternative was like ha ha. And like, got into Jane’s Addiction is like burned in my brain as the first alternative CD I bought on my own, and then buying a ton of CDs, but also just like recording hours of the show onto tapes and listening to that. And then somehow I missed. I just kind of missed Napster because I didn’t have a computer or an iPod in the time when that first wave of digital downloads.
Kevin T Porter 37:37
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Leah Jones 37:39
But I also had a big soundtrack movie score. Jazz, like I had a big a lot of years where that’s why I listened to you because a soundtrack gets you such it’s such an economical way to get a variety of music.
Kevin T Porter 37:56
Mm hmm.
Leah Jones 37:57
If the director is good at picking music.
Kevin T Porter 37:59
Yeah, it was like Quinn, Tarantino made me a mixtape Yeah, it’s called Jackie Brown from 1990. So you know, like yeah, it was great for before Spotify playlist like a personal curation of sorts.
Leah Jones 38:12
Yeah. So it’s really interesting to hear you talk about you know, seeing him hit you saw him on TV. But you’re at your reaction wasn’t Mom Dad? Can we make a donation and get this VHS? Like, can we get the DVD that they’re trying to like they’re trying to wound more donations with Bruce? Mm hmm. That it just lodged in there and was waiting to be rehydrated when you found it
Kevin T Porter 38:36
is I find that I find that so interesting. I just like I can I remember so little about my childhood and I guess I was 11 or 12 at the time that I watched it, but I’ll just remember it forever because of the feeling that it created if it feels like I don’t know and I don’t get woowoo with religious stuff or or anything else but it did feel as close to cosmic or or Destin as I’ve ever felt in in the sense of enjoying something where I’m like, I’m not in control of this. I feel like something is choosing me in this moment. And that’s a very strange and humbling thing to feel. I think. Yeah.
Leah Jones 39:14
That’s amazing. So then you you hear through the Rolling Stones list, you get to Born to Run Yeah. Which is probably like a more traditional way in. Oh, yeah.
Kevin T Porter 39:26
It’s not like Hey, Mom, I listened to devils and dust. I love Bruce Nauman. Yeah, it’s usually like, yeah, it’s because born in Iran is one of his biggest hits, obviously. Yeah. And then but it was still like a, it was a slow burn, because what was that? That was 2005. And then 2006. I mean, I could literally go year by year so much of high school and college is just marked of like, what was Bruce doing then? And then sorry, like Mark time? Yeah. And he’s just been with me since I’ve been 14 years old, you know. But the next year, he pulled out the secret sessions band record, which is like, not And if his original music It was a bunch of covers of folk songs with a huge folk band that he he put together of like two fiddle players a banjo player five horn players and it was all Wow, very interesting. Americana, bluegrass, country western sometimes Cajun sometimes swings sometimes gospel music. Yeah. And those concerts are the best he’s ever done in the 21st century. I still feel that way. But that was my first like, I didn’t get to go that okay, I get to go to those concerts. But that’s why they kind of retain mythic status in my head because it’s like, I didn’t even I didn’t get to see the sessions been. But those Yeah, live in Dublin. That was a live release them in a lot to me. And then my first concert I saw was when him in the band, the eastery band toured together. Yeah, in for the magic tour for that album in 2007. I flew out to Philadelphia, on in October 5 2007, was my first concert that I saw of him. And that was one of the last ones ever featuring the entire eastery band before their organ player. Danny Federici passed away the following year. So it’s like I got to see the whole whole Clarence pathway before Danny passed away. And yeah, I got to see like in the flesh in Philadelphia on the east coast. Yeah. You know, how did you privileged to see
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
A Romantic Comedy set in Chicago’s comedy scene. Kumail telling jokes that I’d heard him tell at open mics. A movie that plunged me deep into nostalgia for the Lyon’s Den and doing stand-up comedy.
Accidentally Jewish 