Incredibad Part 1

Pop-ups (42 · 2 fan picks from YouTube comments)

1. Greg Chun's jingles waiting in the wings

   0:08

   Greg Chun makes the podcast's little jingles. Akiva says he had sent several that had gone unused for about a month, which is why they were being held for his return.

   Greg Chun, who makes all our little jingles, sent me a few, and I was delighted.

2. Akiva's full Christian name in the title

   1:44

   The hosts joke about Akiva's name in the podcast title, since it uses his real name rather than the band name. It is a recurring bit about who gets to be distinguished.

   When you've got your full Christian name in the title of the podcast as opposed to your made-up band name

3. Fans point here

   2:38

   1 YouTube comment timestamps this moment, 3 likes.

   We're back, guys. I'm so excited to be on the Zoom with the three of you. A quick shout out to Mike O'Brien, who joined us last week.

4. Mike O'Brien's name switch at SNL

   3:45

   Mike O'Brien moved to Chicago and started going by Pat O'Brien. When he joined SNL as a writer he switched back to Mike, without telling Seth beforehand, so Seth introduced him by the wrong name.

   he decided he was going to switch back in New York, but forgot to tell me, the head writer who hired him

5. Mike O'Brien's tattoos

   4:42

   Mike O'Brien got a tattoo on purpose because he feared a bad one, then added Calvin peeing on it. The hosts treat it as a running bit about his firm decisions.

   he got, I think it was a bucket of chicken that was a Kurt Vonnegut drawing.

6. Album decided during the writers' strike

   6:22

   The Incredibad album came together in summer 2008, around the time of the writers' strike. Akiva recalls the idea taking shape then, though Jorma is unsure of the timeline.

   One detail here is not in the transcript.

   I think it was during the strike. Okay. But I don't know if that's true.

7. Universal Republic pushes the album

   6:39

   Monty Lipman of Universal Republic kept pushing the group to release an album, telling them they had to do it. They initially said no.

   He was hounding us. He was like, I love this. You guys got to release an album.

8. Label courting after Lazy Sunday

   6:54

   After Lazy Sunday and Natalie Rap, several labels pursued the group. Atlantic was one, and the deal ended up under UMG's Republic Records, which has artists like The Weeknd and Taylor Swift.

   After Lazy Sunday and maybe Natalie Rap, somewhere in that first year

9. The Playboy Mansion trip

   7:16

   Atlantic Records once hosted the group at the Playboy Mansion. Jorma skipped it, reportedly because his wife objected to the place being sexist.

   I believe we already told the story of one night at the Playboy Mansion, courtesy of Atlantic Records.

10. English tea and little sandwiches

    7:42

    Akiva's main memory of the Playboy Mansion event was a room set up with English tea and small sandwiches and cookies, which he found classy.

    there was a whole room that was English tea, like little sandwiches and cookies and proper English tea set up.

11. T and A means tea and apricot scones

    8:13

    Seth jokes that for the hosts, T and A stands for tea and apricot scones rather than the usual phrase, and Jorma plays along.

    So to you guys, T and A is tea and apricot scones.

12. The 2.5-acre Encino house

    9:11

    The group rented a huge Encino, California house on about 2.5 acres to record Incredibad. It had a track for running, a basketball and tennis court, a horse corral, a pool and a hot tub.

    huge, I believe 2.5 acres, the property was.

13. BB gun range in the corral

    9:27

    Jorma and Keith used the old horse corral in the back of the Encino house as a BB gun shooting range, popping cans off with cowboy hats on.

    we basically turned into a shooting range for BB guns

14. The shabby recording room

    9:59

    Despite the grand house, the group recorded in the worst room, which looked like a cheap LA apartment. It was carpeted and far from the kitchen, and the portable AC kept cutting out.

    But then sadly, the room that we chose to spend all of our time in recording looked like just a shitty LA apartment.

15. Engineering the album themselves

    10:42

    The group had no hired engineer and engineered the record in-house, as they usually do, so nobody sat idle on the clock waiting for them to come up with ideas.

    We just engineered everything ourselves as we continue to do

16. A fold-out table for a studio

    10:55

    Akiva jokes that the home studio was just a fold-out table with a single computer monitor and a mic beside it, the same rig they still use at their office.

    it was a fold-out table with one computer monitor and then a mic standing next to that computer.

17. What a record advance really is

    13:23

    A record deal gives an advance, which is a budget that must be repaid through album sales. Unlike a movie budget, it is money the artist owes back.

    That's what people call an advance because they are going to take that money back.

18. Why the house, not studio space

    13:51

    Renting real studio space would have burned through the advance in a summer, so the group rented a house where they could all live and record together.

    we knew we would burn through almost all of it in a summer.

19. House used as a shooting location

    13:56

    The Encino house had been used as a film location, so it looked impressive but wasn't fully lived-in or perfectly working. It was later seen in The Office.

    So the house, even though it looked very expensive, it was a house that had been used as a shooting location.

20. A McMansion as joke

    14:49

    Andy argues that renting the big tacky McMansion captured the group's humor: a dumb, extravagant move they wanted to pull off while they could.

    I would argue that renting that house was like the perfect encapsulation of our joke

21. Fans point here

    17:30

    3 YouTube comments timestamp this moment, 55 likes.

    I thought you were going to say we don't count because in your eyes we're not real human beings. Kind of. We're just fucking dollar signs floating in a zoo. This job is going to crash and it's going to get so mellow on… — Andy

22. Album sessions were far more relaxed than SNL

    22:30

    Andy calls the album process much more pleasant than SNL writing. The group had dreamed of making an album while roommates, so the work felt like wish fulfillment.

    It was just way more relaxed.

23. Beats were sourced from real rap producers

    23:13

    Their label and manager Steve Barnett arranged real beats from rap producers. The group would flip through them, star favorites, and sketch ideas.

    And our label and our manager, Steve Barnett, procured tons of real beats from real rap producers for us.

24. Making the album didn't feel like work

    24:16

    Jorma recalls anxiety about not working, which his partner pointed out was odd since they were making an album. He says it didn't feel like work because they enjoyed it.

    I was like, I know, but it doesn't feel like work. Because we like it so much.

25. Freedom to throw away bad ideas

    24:48

    Akiva notes that the freedom to discard a weak idea with no one knowing was a major contrast with the pressure of SNL.

    if the thing you're working on sucks, you'll just throw it away and no one will know.

26. Kmart supplied pool toys and shirts

    25:24

    The group bought pool toys at Kmart and later shot the whole We Like Sports video there, which Akiva calls a goldmine of amazing T-shirts.

    Kmart's where we did the entire We Like Sports video. It was just a goldmine of amazing T-shirts.

27. Friends came by the house during the sessions

    27:17

    Rudd, Hater, Danny Bride, Tim and Eric, Janeane Garofalo, and Danger Mouse were among the visitors. Seth calls it a snapshot of the late-aughts comedy scene.

    it was a real snapshot of the sort of late aughts comedy scene.

28. Flight of the Conchords praise the directness

    27:59

    Jermaine and Brett heard the songs and said the group goes straight at the joke, while Flight of the Conchords walk around it. The hosts found the comparison amusing.

    wow, you guys really just go straight at the joke.

29. Tim and Eric shoot a tennis-court sketch

    28:50

    After a barbecue visit, Tim and Eric returned two days later with a camera to shoot a sketch on the group's tennis court for their show.

    it was like two days later that they showed up with a camera.

30. The house was rented again two years later

    29:57

    Akiva says they rented the same house for Turtleneck and Chains and repeated the summer. He notes most of his memories of the house are actually from 2010.

    could we rent the same house? And we did.

31. Seth's friends in the house photos

    30:51

    Photos from the summer included Seth's friends Speedman and Neil Brennan, as well as Josh, Seth's brother. Akiva jokes they were Seth's homies.

    And I was like, yeah, this is all Seth's. These are Seth's homies.

32. Album runs 19 songs and 42 minutes

    31:18

    Seth notes the album has 19 tracks across about 42 minutes. He plans to cover the non-SNL songs, since the digital shorts will be covered separately.

    It's 19 songs, 42 minutes.

33. Who Said We're Whack opens the album

    31:40

    The track opens the album as a statement of intent, with Chester Bennington in the intro. Seth points out the song's insecurity and its running joke about being called whack.

    Who said we're whack? Who said we're whack?

34. Jorma's producer credits on the album

    31:57

    Jorma is credited as producer on several tracks, including the We Like Sports beats. Akiva and Andy joke about his role.

    And then I was relegated to only things like We Like Sports Guys.

35. Tenacious D festival live debut

    33:24

    Akiva recalls the group's first live performance in front of a real audience at Tenacious D's Santa Monica Pier festival. Jack Black heckled them on stage before they played.

    the very first time we ever performed live in front of an actual real audience was Tenacious D was doing a festival

36. Jack Black insisted on the song choice

    34:19

    Andy recalls that Jack insisted they open with 'Who Said We're Whack' rather than songs the audience already knew, and the hosts agreed it was a strong choice.

    Do you remember, Keev, that we started with that song because Jack insisted

37. Performing for 10,000 people was nerve-wracking

    34:46

    Akiva recalls the crowd was about 10,000 people, which felt huge for their first live set. Seth jokes the group had never done this before.

    I remember being so nervous. We were shitting our pants.

38. Who Said We're Whack's rhyme scheme

    34:51

    Seth praises the track's rhyme scheme, in which almost everything rhymes with whack, and highlights the lyric about babies reaching their dreams.

    The rhyme scheme is everything rhymes with whack.

39. We catch the person, we're detectives

    35:38

    At the song's end, everyone is asked to raise their hands if they called them whack and put them down. Jorma jokes that they caught the culprit.

    We catch the person. We're detectives.

40. Non-SNL songs were meant to be a real album

    36:06

    Akiva explains they wanted Incredibad to stand on its own rather than feel like a compilation of SNL hits, and that using their names separated it from the show.

    this was a real album. Meaning, like, not just something that felt like, hey, they had some hits on the show

41. Santana DVX is the second track

    ~36:31

    Santana DVX is introduced as the second song on the album, which Seth calls a more granular and weird follow-up to the opening statement.

    Santana DVX.

42. Semicolon in Japan is a wished-for video

    36:58

    Akiva says that when fans ask which video they wish they had made, the answer is always Semicolon in Japan, which he places in their top three.

    it's always semicolon in Japan. But this should be actually in that top three of wished videos.

43. Andy names Santana DVX a personal favorite

    37:07

    Andy says the group considers Santana DVX one of their personal favorite songs they ever got to make.

    it's one of our personal favorite songs that we ever got to make.

44. Episode split into two parts

    37:13

    Seth announces the Incredibad breakdown is being split in two, with part one ending here and part two arriving a week later.

    We are going to split up our Incredibad episode into two parts.