Patreon Newsletter #8 (Patreon)

Hey Patreon/Do Go On friends! What a pleasure to be talking to you! We love having this direct line to our biggest supporters (as always, let us know if you want us to talk about anything different in the newsletter, it's pretty loose and we're open to suggestions...)

It's Matt here, your deep voiced bearded mate. This week I was lucky enough to be a guest on The Weekly Planet (the OG podcast in the Planet Broadcasting Network which we are now apart of). Ever since I have had their theme song in my head (the episode is here and the intro theme is somewhere in the first few minutes if you're not familiar).

Aaaaannnyway, that was just a long winded way for me to get into my top 5 for the week which is TOP 5 THEME SONGS (please comment with what your favourite theme songs are, I'd love to hear them!)

MATT’S TOP FIVE 

5. The Perfect Strangers Theme  I was going through old TV themes on youtube to jog my memory, and I hit the jackpot with this one. If you watch the video, you will get the whole set up to the show. NO FURTHER EXPLANATION REQUIRED. They were like the original odd couple (if you don't count the Odd Couple), one of them a nerd and the other a foreigner... COMEDY THAT WRITES ITSELF. Something like that anyway.

4. Entourage Opening Theme  I like the song more than the show probably, I've seen Jane's Addiction live a few times and they've played this song. It's a banger. Here's  the full version.

3. Bojack Horseman Theme There's a cool podcast about the making of this track here which also includes the full track

2. Neighbours Theme (the original from the 80s, before Dave and Jess were born!) Neighbours is a soap opera filmed/set in Melbourne that's been running since the mid 80s. It's really dumb TV, but quite popular. Recently one of the long dead character came back to life. You know the kind of show. The guy who sang the original version is a bit of a comedy legend in Australia, his name (Barry Crocker) is sometimes used as rhyming slang for 'shocker'. Much like I use Clarance Hunt as rhyming slang for that word Dave doesn't let me say on the show any more.

1. The Greatest American Hero Opening Theme (very similar to George Costanza's answering machine message) A feel good hit!

What have I forgotten? There are definitely better ones out there, right?

TALK TO THE TOOSH, with DAVE WARNEKE 

My parents are selling the family home I grew up in and retiring to the beach - so I spent this weekend at their place going through boxes of old things, keeping some and binning most. 

The thing that brought back the most memories (aside from my Game Boy - Pokémon blue is still working and I have all 8 badges) was a box of all the flyers and posters I'd kept of all the gigs I played when I was in bands. Oh yeah, I used to be pretty darn kewl...

I played bass guitar and a bit of keyboard in a heap of bands between 2003 and 2012. Rehearsing every weekend, playing hundreds of gigs, often to very few people. During that whole time it was my dream to one day be able to do that as a job. Either that or play Pokémon Blue professionally. 

Playing in bands was also my social life and lead me to meet so many great people from other schools and areas. So if you don't mind I'd like to reminisce with you about a thing you probably never even knew I did. These are the bands that I played in, in chronological order. 

WEED HORNET 

Yes you read that name right. My first band in year 7 was called Weed Hornet. Everyone thought we were 12 year old stoners but really we named ourselves after a whipper snipper that we found in the garage where we rehearsed. We were such punk rockers that one time one of the neighbours was selling their houses and asked us to not practice that afternoon so people wouldn't be put off by the band next door. So we opened the garage door and played as loud as we could. #Fuckthepolice

END OF THE LINE 

My second band already had a name before I joined. We were called End Of The Line because we practiced in the suburb that was the last train station on the line. I swear not all the bands are named after where we rehearsed. 

JULIET'S END 

Retrospectively this is the most embarrassing band name. Again named before I joined, but no we didn't rehearse where Juliet ended. I think the name comes from Romeo and Juliet as they were studying the play in school at the time. We were an emo band.  Yes I had black hair. No it did not suit my pale complexion. 

BEHIND HINTERLAND 

This was an acoustic project and the only band name that still sounds kind of cool to me. A pity the music sucked. 

GREEN WATER ROBOT 

This was the dreaded solo years. My bands had broken up but I wasn't ready to let the dream die. So onwards and probably downwards is the best way to describe this. I went under the moniker Green Water Robot. Green Water comes from a chapter in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas called 'A flashing of knives and green water.' 

The good that came from this is I discovered I could be funny on stage as at the gigs people responded better to my banter in between the songs than they did to the songs themselves.

RED LETTER DAY 

I thought this was a cool band name... so did 800 other bands. We had to get an obscure MySpace address as many other bands had taken the name. 

PLAYWRITE 

My final band was the most serious and I listen to the music now and think it's genuinely good. 

We did a few insterstate tours and supported some overseas bands and then it got a bit too serious. We had to sign a contract with a manager and by that point  I was having more fun doing  comedy and left to pursue that about 4 years ago. They kept going for a couple of years, released a properly great album and even got to suppprt the U.K. band Elbow at the Sydney Opera House, something I am not jealous of at all (I am). 

You can hear them on Spotify or here: 

https://m.soundcloud.com/playwrite

Looking back it was such a fun thing to do growing up, but I no longer harbour ambitions of being a rock star. I've given up the Sex (haha) drugs (never did 'em) and Rock N' Roll to instead go with the boring safe option of being a comedian and podcaster. They all get paid heaps right? 

THE TURN WITH JESS ‘BOP’ PERKINS

Hello friends! 

I am writing you from my bedroom, where I am currently trapped for an unknown amount of time. 

I live near the beach and there are constantly festivals and events happening near my house. My street is so often closed and blocked off that now when I can actually drive down my street, I think "ooooooo what a treat". 

Today is no exception. It's a Sunday, in Summer time, by the beach. Of course there's something happening. I can hear loud music and people keep walking down my normally quiet street. Oooo there was just a loud cheer! I wonder what happened?

Anyway. It's made me go a little stir crazy. I cleaned out the fridge, vacuumed, mopped, dusted, cleaned the toilet, refilled the hand soap bottle, did two loads of washing and took out the rubbish. 

The only other thing I wanted to do today was buy groceries (especially now that I threw everything out of my fridge). But I can't get my car out of my street. I can't get to the supermarket. I can't feed myself!! 

I've been trying to keep myself entertained (I have watched a lot of Netflix and played a lot of ukulele) but I think I'm going to have to brave the outside just to get SOME sustenance. 

This means ... it's time. It's time for the come back of ... #prayforBop. 

Will I make it? I don't know.... 

Nah probably will.

THE NEARLY THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER BIT

That's just about it! This week's episode is out on Wednesday and it's one of mine (as voted by some of you fine folk!) It's a good one too... I'm not into spoilers, but private message us here and I'll let you know the topic ahead of time if you wanna know.

Any feedback or questions or anything are welcome, and let me know what your favourite theme songs are!

Much Love,

Do Go On