"We'll never consent." (Just watch.) [00:00:00]

We'll never consent. No

Introductions and attempting to pronounce Tlalok [00:00:14]

Nicky P: That's kinda... That's, that is absolutely staying in the beginning of this episode. Thank you. Welcome to another episode of We Came From Celluloid. I am Nicky P., here as always with my good friend Brian. I'm gonna be honest, I'm not even gonna try and pronounce the number of consonants that you have in order.

Brian Pritchard: It's Tlalok. It's Tlalok Rodriguez is joining us today.

Tlalok Rodriguez: That's the hard part, it's just two syllables. Tla-loc, or Tlalok. That works. That's-

Brian Pritchard: So I was already wrong. I, I took a stab, but I was wrong. So loc is how you... Y- y- like Loki?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah. Tlalok.

Nicky P: Now, w- what is, what is the ethnic background of that name?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Hey man, no, you don't need...

That was pretty close. It's, it's Aztec. People always ask that. I bartend and I have to, I have this interaction constantly. The worst is when they're about to walk away, "Oh, hey, thanks. What was your name by the way?" I'm like... And I was like, "This is gonna be an extra couple minutes." Like, but-

Aztec origins, the K vs. C debate, and comparative religion detours [00:01:00]

Brian Pritchard: Call me Big T, buddy.

Have a, have a good night...

Tlalok Rodriguez: So, so it's Aztec. I'm Mexican. Mine is spelt slightly different. Traditionally it's with a C, but my mom wanted to be hip. She put a K in.

Nicky P: Okay, and that, that, that, that sounds like, that w- so my, my, my background for a long time was comparative religion. And so in college I did a little, a little work with the, the Aztec religion.

Is that something like that, you know, you, people keep traditional in your family? Like, I know there, there are some places that it is still pretty, pretty mystic down there. Or is that just kind of like a, just a tradition thing?

Tlalok Rodriguez: For, for me, like my whole family is Catholic, and that's kinda like, I have a, I have a bit of a quarrel with religion because I feel like they burned all the books and we only know so much.

And they, like all the languages are dead, and so, I mean, that's why we speak Spanish. And so but I think-

Nicky P: That's, that's how, how I got into comparative religion was, I was a lapsed Catholic. And it's like, I don't know how I feel about this Catholicism thing, but I wanna learn about all the other ones.

And so that's kinda how I started my journey through religion and stuff. We, we had to have, we had to read, in one of my courses we had to read a whole bunch of stuff on like, I think it was, I think it was a class on witchcraft specifically, and there's a lot of, Aztec stuff behind that, I guess So, well, you don't need to represent anything representing.

That's just fascinating stuff to me

Brian Pritchard: No, and, and it's funny 'cause, like, I was trying to get a handle on, on, what would be considered, if anything, your main project, right? Like, you play in a lot of bands. Like, what, what, what the impression that I, I get as an outside observer is that, you're a gigging musician who is taking on an interesting assortment of work, right?

But I'm curious within that, like, do you have something that you consider your main project, and are you a writer as well? You know what I mean? Are, are you creating, your own original material in, in addition to supporting other people's, you know?

What IS Tlalok's main project? The answer: all of them [00:03:00]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Absolutely. Yeah. That's a great question. So my name's Tlalok, and I use that as a band name.

So I do full band sets under Tlalok, and we have original music. I still haven't dropped, like, my first album of originals yet. I've just been really behind in all the recording stuff, and I feel like every year... First it was, like, juggling full-time work and school and gigging. Then I graduated, and now I'm just, like- I don't know, man.

I feel like I'm falling behind, so, so I'm trying to release more stuff under Tla-

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, now what's your excuse, buddy?

The Bee Gees tribute naming crisis (Night Beaver? The Squeegees?) [00:04:09]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Exactly. But, I'm trying to release more stuff under Tlalok. And my other core groups are, Los Mipoteros. It's my Latin band. We dropped an al- a live album on January 1st. And then I've got a Bee Gees tribute that's been doing pretty good.

We're called Night Fever MKE. There's too many Night Fevers, so we're trying to get creative, maybe Night Beaver, you know, maybe The Squeegees. A lot of the good ones are taken, The Gee Bee's, Staying Alive. I

Nicky P: Mean, are your, are your vocals on point? That's all I care about.

Tlalok Rodriguez: I'm, I'm proudly, I'm proudly holding down vocal number five.

I am I am way in the background, but I do some falsetto. And I, I sing lead on, I Started a Joke, which is one of their ballads.

Released material: I Am Me, the Christmas album, Camino Astral [00:05:00]

Nicky P: Oh, I know, I know the song well.

Brian Pritchard: So you have original music, and, and, but of the released stuff at this point, it is a, a live album, that, that you put out this January and the Tlalok project, you have material you're out performing, but, but it's not, recorded and a- and available at this point?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I have one original out that's, it's under Tlalok. I'm on, I'm on all streaming platforms, so I, I released an original called I Am Me. It's like a hip hop psychedelic, you know, slam poetry kind of vibe. And then outside of that, I just dropped a Christmas album and w- I did a cover off The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

So I think that's kind of the highlight of the whole thing, and I had a, a sax player. It was just, like, an acoustic duo setup, but that's something you can find under Tlalok, and hopefully by the end of the year, I'm gonna have, a, an, a live album released. It's something I rele- I recorded two years ago.

There's a couple originals on it. But I've haven't mixed it yet, and I'm yet to release it, and I feel like now, like, the time's getting there and, like, the time is coming, and I'm trying to make it happen, so.

Brian Pritchard: So do you get into the recording, arts side of it personally then, as opposed to, leaning on other people for that?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I think I've been trying to work with other people because I'm un- understanding my limitations and what I'm a- actually able to take on fully. I've done, some recording work, like, at home by myself. I've got Logic. I've got an interface. I've got a bunch of microphones, you know, but it's, it's nice to go into a place and, and let the guy do his job and I do my job if we, if that's an option.

You know, if, if it, and- Awesome. So, so yeah, I've, I've got some studio time under my belt for sure, and things that, things in the works.

Recording philosophy: when to be the talent vs. run the board [00:06:54]

Brian Pritchard: Well, it's funny, you know, like, like Nick, Nick, for example, recorded... With my other project Dome, you were asking before we turned the mics on about, you know, the shared projects.

Like I, I've been playing with a group of guys, since I was 12 years old, you know, and, and I'm 43 now. So there, there, there's a group of musicians that we've sort of managed to keep together for almost, almost 30 years. N- Nick has helped record stuff, for that project even when he wasn't involved.

And then, like one of the Dome guys who's been helping out with, you know, recording the Puma Thurman record, it was cool, like, 'cause, you know, when, when Nick wanted to do some of his vocals, I, I remember him sort of specifically saying like he thought he would get better results working with an engineer like that, like getting to just kinda show up and concentrate on the performance, right?

As opposed to even if you know how to do it, my point is there's something to be said for not needing to, run back and forth and just getting to be the talent for a change, right? So.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, and yeah, there's some guys, like, you know, I see it the same way as like I am on my music journey. There are guys that are just as dedicated to that side, and I'm like, "Shit."

Like I respec- I see that as like, as its own art as well, you know?

Brian thanks Tlalok for making Milwaukee happen [00:08:13]

Brian Pritchard: That's true. The guy that we recorded with, that, that, that came very much to my mind in, in terms of like noticing the difference when we did pay to work with like a, a professional with pedigree and, and who's really planted their flag in the artistry of recording.

They can extract new life inside it and, and really do some things. You know, I, I, I guess I'm also curious on, on the business side, like y- you're an interesting example on the tour, man, where, where I just, number one, just wanna say thank you, right? That, that, our, our stop in Milwaukee and this opportunity and everything, like it came about because you saw a post that I made and raised your hand and like, like intervened to, to help, man.

And I, I, I, I love doing that for people. I love being a good host, here in town. But o- over these last 30 years, I've sort of found that like- I don't, I sadly don't find that many people that are kinda just naturally wired that way. And, so number one, just thank you. I really, really appreciate it.

How, how long has the business side been a piece of the puzzle for you, man? Like, like, you know, and how long have you been playing at all? Were you in high school bands and stuff?

How long have you been doing this? The full origin story [00:09:36]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Oh, yeah, of course. So there's a lot to unpack there. [Off-the-record question about the band's overnight plans removed.]

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, we do. Thank, thank you for asking. For sure, man.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, 'cause there's, there's a, there's a... I c- are you guys spending the night and h- hitting it right away? Or, like, what's the game? Are you rolling into town that Tuesday? And heading out the next day for the next gig?

Brian Pritchard: You know, our, our, one of the guys in, in Dome and Puma Thurman, lived in Chicago for seven or eight years, so knows that town really well. We've got a Sunday night in Chicago. And then we're taking that Monday off and, and just kinda hanging, hanging back. That's one of our days off and we're gonna hang there.

The drive from Chicago to Mil- till Milwaukee's, what, like, 90 minutes or something, right? So, like, we're gonna get in, as, you know, as early as anybody wants to, on, on the day of the show and have, have... You know, I've never been to Milwaukee actually before. It's not that far away, but I, I have not had an opportunity to visit the city before.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, I'm trying to hook things up more, like, I've got some more connections that I've been trying to use more. So I, I book music at a place and it's actually across the street from Last Rites. And, and the owner there, he owns a Airbnb, and sometimes we, we can, like, you know, maybe this would be for a separate trip, but we, we can potentially host you guys and put you up for the night and give you, like, a guaranteed pay.

So that, that's kinda like the ideal scenario, right? In terms of, like, looking out.

Brian Pritchard: Well, you know, the idea... A- as much... Of course it is. Yes. And, and high, high level man. Having been doing this for 30 years, even though I only met Nick 10 years ago, he's been doing this for 30 years, right? But neither one of us has ever done this before.

Have you... Whoa, whoops. I almost lost my stuff. Ha- have you, have you, be- beyond Chicago and regional stuff, have you done a version of this, like, doing, like, a mult- multi-stop tour kinda thing?

Touring radius vs. wanting to get out [00:11:50]

Tlalok Rodriguez: I've pretty much been stuck here in Milwaukee. I've done a handful of gigs in Chicago, Minneapolis. I, I drove out to Detroit twice, but it was for, like, a Hanukkah gig, so I don't think that counts.

Uh-

Nicky P: Why not? What's wrong with Hanukkah?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I did, like, a, a private event in Indiana, so that's about as far as I've pushed it, you know? But I'm, I'm trying to get out there more. I've hosted a lot of touring bands before. The h- the, it's easy, it's easy to book a show It's hard to make a, book a good show that's gonna get you a lot of money, you know?

Last Ride, you guys are coming on a Tuesday dur- during Summerfest. I got us at Last Rites where they give a, they cut us a percentage of bar sales deal and, you know, we can lean into the merch sales and the idea that you guys are from Cleveland. You know, I'm, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think about that.

Building a scene trade network from Milwaukee [00:12:42]

Brian Pritchard: Well, you know, it sounds like you, you, you've maybe earned some brownie points, above and beyond us where, where maybe at a certain point the key to unlocking those tour dates is, you know, you look at the route, you think about the relationships you have, including in Cleveland, and, and it's just like, it's like, hey man, I'm calling, I'm calling in those, those, can you return me the favor, you know, kind of situations, dude.

Like I've been trying to open those doors for people for years, but, but what, that's part of my comment of saying like I feel like I don't meet a lot of people who, like, take it seriously that way. Like I, th- there were bands in like Columbus or, like from Cleveland where Within a two-hour radius, you've got Detroit, Columbus, and, Pittsburgh are all, like, semi-major markets, you know?

And, and, yeah, like somehow I've never managed to really get a good, like, show trade situation going with, with anybody. But anyway, yeah, so it sounds like you, you're hoping to not only a- a- as y- is the- would you be more likely to, to wanna take the originals or, or look at something like the Bee Gees and go like, yeah, that obviously, you know, has a better money-making potential, but how else do you build a fan base except to take the, take the gospel out on the road, right?

Tribute band economics: why Tlalok plays everything except country [00:14:07]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, that's, that's kinda why I've been pushing the Tlalok, the brand, you know? That's more of, like, something I can push for, like, a private event. Like, it's very niche, and it's gonna make us money, and people like it around here. But I do all sorts of shit like that. You know, I've done Grateful Dead tribute.

I'm actively doing a Sublime tribute, a Nirvana versus Green Day, Michael Jackson.

Nicky P: Okay, what's the S- what's the Sublime tribute? What's the Sublime tribute?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, we just played our first show, and I just did it as Tlalok, and I brought a trio.

Nicky P: You used it as Tlalok?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah. I mean, we didn't necessarily have a band name.

We were just Sublime tribute at Zocalo. We got paid nicely and-

Big Salty Tear (the Sublime tribute concept) [00:14:44]

Nicky P: I've always wanted to start... I've always wanted to start a Sublime tribute, but it was gonna be the fat Sublime tribute. Like, everybody was gonna be plus-sized, and we were gonna be called Big Salty Tear.

Tlalok Rodriguez: That's pretty good. Well, it's not too late for the idea.

I don't, I don't wanna lean into, I don't wanna lean into it too hard and give it its own name, you know, and just kinda keep it as, like, a special thing.

Brian Pritchard: Well, and, I guess I'm, I'm curious 'cause it's one of the, the ingredients of our world, and no big deal if the answer's just not really too, but, like, between these many different acts, what else are you into?

Is, is movie, pop culture stuff, on your radar? Do you have other hobbies and interests? Like, what other stuff are you into, my dude?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I tend to not know a lot of famous movies. But, I don't know. I try to keep up with the times. My girlfriend likes horror movies. Uh- Good question. Def- definitely aliens.

I de- yeah, definitely like all like, all the religions point to one sign, and it's just different interpretations of, the same thing. So that's one thing.

Movies, aliens, farmers markets, and bartending [00:16:04]

Brian Pritchard: Oh, my mind went for a minute to, like, the alien movies and, like... You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, yeah, like in the horror movie realm. But, but you're saying that one of your interests is, like, like alien life and, and, and, extraterrestrials, that sort of thing.

Very cool. Okay. Love it.

Tlalok Rodriguez: I'm a bartender on the side. Work at this place. I was, at SoCo, place I was just telling you about. I also bartend there. I've been doing it for two years. Yeah, I help run this farmers market. I think farmers markets are a cool vibe. Um-

Nicky P: You're a, a very interesting man.

Do you do any growing yourself? You talk farmers markets. Do you, like, make... Grow, grow your own vegetables at all?

Brian Pritchard: Yeah, Nick's got a home garden and stuff like that. That's actually ano- a, a topic-

Tlalok Rodriguez: Really, no, I don't have much of a green thumb. I just like, I, I usually on the... You know, I try to book as many farmers markets gigs as I can.

Go check that out Grew up going to that kind of-

Brian Pritchard: So you're performing at those, at the farmer's markets as well, doing music there?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Not, not mostly, yeah, mostly.

Brian Pritchard: No, it's funny, you know, N- N- Nick's huge into Christmas, by the way, and, and it, it occurred to me, like, you know, 'cause he, he got excited when, when, when you mentioned, the Christmas album.

It's like, I was thinking to myself like, yeah, you have to be pretty serious about Christmas at the point that you, you acknowledged earlier that you hadn't made time yet to do some of the, you know, original recordings that you wanted to. The fact that you prioritized and made a Christmas album, you love Christmas.

The Christmas album decision (no original songs, just covers, one peaking vocal track, no regrets) [00:17:42]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, and I didn't cop out and write a Christmas song. That shit's lame. I did the fucking-

Brian Pritchard: Okay. You didn't try to do a Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas time kinda, yeah, throw your hat in the ring?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I'm happy with what I did, but it was a little thrown together. There's like one where the vocals were peaking and I just couldn't do anything about it, and I didn't wanna scratch it, so I just fucking used it, you know?

So it, it's definitely like not something I'm super, super proud of, but the video's cool. And I, the, I played with this saxophone player, who's like in his si- late, you know, mid-60s. I've been getting to know him and, and we've been building a rapport. And so, like, we had a cool thing going. I, I tried doing like hip a ri-

Why Nicky needs a sax player and why he panicked about the last one [00:18:23]

Nicky P: See, that's also really, that's super interesting to me because, so for years I've done the acoustic duo thing, and I'm kinda find myself without somebody to play with right now.

But I've always done like two guys, two guitars. But when I, I think at heart what I really want is I just wanna have a sax player to play along with. Like, that to me feels like the perfect vibe, and we've yet to find the sax player for, for my project. 'Cause you gotta be cool doing the old school stuff and playing the Coheed and Cambria.

Tlalok Rodriguez: There's a lot of money in the duo stuff. I said I can find you a sax player in Cleveland.

Brian Pritchard: Oh, okay.

Nicky P: By all means, I'll take you up on it.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Facebook is powerful, my friend. I'm in all the group, I'm in all the chats, dude. I'm in all that shit. So I'm like, you know, there's, there's ways to connect, especially like the jazz, the jazz community is like, it's all connected, you know?

Nicky P: I had one sax player message me off of like a, a Craigslist post, and I'm gonna be honest, I got a little too, I got a little up in my own head, like, 'cause I, I hadn't been gigging in a while, and like this dude had like some actual, we'll say some chops, and so had a bit of a pedigree behind him, and it kind of spooked me a little bit, like, ah, I don't wanna waste this dude's time.

He like plays with orchestras and shit. I don't... What am I bringing to the table?

Brian's violin player story and why classical musicians want to rock out too [00:19:53]

Tlalok Rodriguez: You'd be surprised. You'll find the right guy, especially like a open jam.

Brian Pritchard: Well, and, and I think, you know, like, like that violin player that w- that, you know, I mentioned the album Nick helped us, record. We, we, we put it out under the DOME name.

If you, if you look up DOME on any of the streaming platforms, you find the two albums that we've had out for, you know, forever, Watch the Rivers Run Red and The Circus. I put out another album that was like all instrumentals, and we did it with a violin player actually, doing what normally would've been the second guitar parts and, and sort of like you were saying with the Sublime tribute, it was like, I don't wanna come up with a new band name, like, just for this one-off, like, six songs that we wanted to do with this guy.

But you, you, you reminded me of it also just because, like, again, he, he, he's a classical musician. W- he's a trumpet player and a violin player, and he plays with orchestras, and he does all those things, but he loves metal. And, and like, nothing in his musical life ever really got him to scratch that itch for, like, being in a, a, a, like a, a, a, a metal band, you know?

Like, getting to, to rock out with some dudes on, on stage like that. And so, like, yeah, it's like he, he never, never sat there and was asking for-

Tlalok Rodriguez: You found this specific guy where that was his niche, right, and y'all connected on that.

Brian Pritchard: Exactly. And, and, and, and, and so yeah, I thought that same thing, right? As far as, like, Nick feeling like he was wasting the guy's time.

Like, dude probably wouldn't have raised his hand except that, like, there's something missing for him, right? Like, why else would he respond and reach out except he's, he's trying to find that missing piece as well, you know? So... Oh, now I'm, I'm curious. We- we've got this thing when you sent over the, the flow for, for the, for our gig.

We've got, like, that last half hour sort of like jam session part of it. Tell, tell me about, about who, who's, I know who's involved on my side. Who, who are the players that, that, that, what sort of, you know, little thing can we put together, man?

What's the jam session at Last Rites going to look like? [00:21:58]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, I'm gonna just see who we can throw up there. I, I'm really excited about this one guy, Bob Hemp.

He's, listed on there. I met him because he's a amp repair guy, and he, he met, he came out to one of my shows and, like, we just started talking music. And then, like, my drummer, my drummer was, like, hitting it off with him, talking about music. So we're at, this is actually gonna be our first show with him, and I don't think he gets to play out much, so I'm hoping that he brings out some friends or some family, you know?

And, I'm br- and since we're right before that, I'm hoping he stays up there on the guitar- Or if he wants to. Like, I'm not, I, I'll fill in the blanks, you know? I don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah. We'll see who's still around and I'll, and I'll-

Brian Pritchard: I, I write a lot on guitar, but, but I'm not always great in a jam session.

Like, I, I think of myself being a, a competent guitar player. I, I, I dare say I'm a good songwriter. I love the stuff I write, obviously. That's why I write it. But, I, I don't know guitar, like, scales and stuff quite well enough to, like, get in there. Normally if I'm jamming with somebody on guitar, like, I'm, I'm still approaching it the way I, I, I write other stuff, which is, like, I'm kinda looking for, my riff that I can loop on top of what somebody else is doing.

And it's, you know, there, there... I, I love, I really enjoy it, but like, yeah, for, for a jam session like that, probably gonna personally add the most value on, on, the drums and... But also happy to take turns and share and, and all this, all the things. But, I'm excited. I'm excited to see what comes out of that little, 30-minute sesh.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah. Anything goes. Another thing is that it might be a cushion if the, if the show falls off the rails and we're, we're 30 minutes behind, you know. We've got that as a back, as a backbone. I, I,

Nicky P: I've never, never, never seen a show get 30 minutes behind in my life, but-

Brian Pritchard: You're being sarcastic or what, Mick?

Nicky P: No, no.

I'm not at all The shows always run late.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, somebody said in the, in the chat, "That's a lot of music for a Tuesday night." I'm like, "Well, shit, you guys are coming on a Tuesday." Like, we're gonna get it in, dude. And, you know, I think that's the way to, it's the way to go with, like, a percentage of bar sales thing.

Like, we're pitching, like, an experience, you know? And you... And that's what you guys are doing. You gu- you guys are four acts, so we're gonna, we're gonna do it up, you know? And but I'm also keeping the number of people down, just like you guys are. Like, trying to make it make sense.

Logistics and the "Tuesday during Summerfest" math [00:24:46]

Nicky P: So one of the things I am curious about, like, we've talked about your music a little bit, and some of the stuff that you do.

I still, like, don't have a, a firm grasp on, like, what kind of music you, like, u- under your, under your name play, like, with a band. Like, what... Especially considering, like, I know the ba- the bands that we're bringing, I'm looking for that thread that made you think, "I'm gonna go play music with these guys."

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, like I said, I have a lot of projects. So the o- the only, the only gig that I can't take is a country gig. I can do some, some, but not enough to be, like, a country band. Outside of that, I got it all, baby. So there's one, there's one band.

Nicky P: You'll, you'll, you'll appreciate this. So a number of years ago, I'm, I'm...

Brian's probably heard this before, but, I was, We used to gig around the Erie area, and my, my drummer would just randomly call, call bars and, like, pretend he's a manager even though he's our drummer. Because people take a manager more seriously. It makes you seem more professional. Mind you, he would do this when he was supposed to be doing an actual job at Renas Center.

Like, I don't know how much money he made me while he was at Renas Center. But he would also tell them, no matter what they asked, that we were capable of playing it. And so we kind of never knew what we were getting ourselves into with one of his shows. And I want you to keep in mind that we were a three-piece band with a piano player, a bass player, and a drummer.

Who mostly, well, who mostly did a lot of, like, Oasis and Strokes covers. And one night, or well, usually we kept it pretty good. We were all, we all had enough background we could make some weird shit work, and this night we absolutely did.

The country bar story and the Blues Brothers defense [00:26:41]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Were you on... What instrument were you on?

Nicky P: I was on, heavily effected bass for the, for this band.

I essentially played lead guitar and bass simultaneously. But we walk into this bar. I walk in, I look like this. I walk immediately back out. I'm like, "What the fuck did you get us into? Are you out of your goddamn... We're gonna, we're gonna get killed tonight." I lo- as I, as I was looking around, I saw nothing but animal skin, camo, and, like, wood panel.

And you flip a few, few little pages on the jukebox and all I've got's Merle Haggard and Pantera. None of which are what we do. Somehow, I, we, we, we, we, I don't know if you've ever seen the movie The Blues Brothers, but we, we managed to pull off what they did. You know, like, their, they do Rawhide to get them through the night.

We're playing, like, the three country songs that we know. Like, trying to, like... We, we did some very interesting things that night to keep that crowd happy, but I swear to God I was gonna strangle Tommy on our way out. Like, what, what are you... Dude, you gotta do a little bit better than this.

Tlalok Rodriguez: What were the couple country covers you did?

Do you remember?

Nicky P: I'm gonna be hon- I don't, I'm, I'm sure we did a cover of Friends in Low Places 'cause everybody knows it. I know our keyboard player knew a couple, like, old classic Vince Gill songs from a band he used to be in back in the day. I probably pulled a Dwight Yoakam song or two, 'cause, like, I come, I come from that space.

But, you know, we also, as opposed to dive, like, we'd, we'd try to dig, dig more into, like, the classic rock stuff that we knew as opposed to sitting in, like, all of the modern, you know, indie stuff that, like, was what we're, we were kind of trying to... That's the bands that we were playing out with when we were playing original shows is, like, modern indie of the era.

And yeah, we made it out and they paid us.

Brian Pritchard: I was just saying, like, th- th- there's a weird middle... You're just, the idea of fitting into whatever room you're in, right? And, and, Cleveland is a metal town, you know? The, the, there's a lot of, like, that's m- more, a lot of the scene in Cleveland is, metal bands.

And we have distorted guitar and, and some screaming vocals in Dome. More, more melodic than heavy, but he screams sometimes in Dome. But on any given metal bill- More, I don't know, hard rock alternative metal. Like, we, we, we sound more like Soundgarden, you know, th- than we do like, Cannibal Corpse certainly, you know what I mean?

And so to, to be playing in a room of, of like real metal bands, they wouldn't dig us. But it, it, it, it's funny how, um

Any screaming at all turns off a lot of mainstream, you know, people, right? You know what I mean? Like, anything in that, that, like remotely heavy and y- and you are, to them, an angry metal band, you know? So it's, i- i- it's interesting. I mean, but by and large though, like I, I, I, I just trust that people in any given room, like me, listen to all sorts of music.

Like all, all of us, we, we all listen to all sorts of music. I assume that anybody else, you know, who's standing there, that there's gonna be at least a couple people who are into it. But you always find people that can be kind of, genre snobs about whatever they're into, right? And, and, it's like, yeah, if, if, if you're not-

Cleveland is a metal town (and what that does to a band like Puma Thurman) [00:29:00]

Jazz snobs are as real as metal snobs, and why the Zen master analogy explains everything [00:30:29]

Tlalok Rodriguez: It happens with every genre.

Same thing with jazz, just like the metal.

Brian Pritchard: Interesting. So you run into jazz snobs that, that, that are like, "No, this isn't real enough jazz for, for the room"? I mean, that, that actually does surprise me. I think of jazz being like there are no bor- lines, there's no boundaries, you know. You can't put any of it in a box, right?

Nicky P: So, you know, you see, that's, you're mistaken, and I, and I understand this 'cause I've known jazz people. But it's, if you... I don't know if you've ever read the book, there's a book out there about Zen, it's like written by this guy who worked on the Godzilla movies. And he's like, "Everyone thinks of Zen masters as being like these very like very woo centered individuals that are like all, you know, really nice and shit."

And he's like, "But really what you find is that, like anyone who's worked that hard at any of their craft is super, super opinionated." And like, they're like, "These are the lines. This is exactly how it's supposed to be, and if you don't do it you're, you're, you're absolutely wrong." And certainly my experiences with jazz musicians, man, there's a lot of that.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, there's a lot of very opinionated jazz snobs, for sure, just as there is in the m-... That's more what I'm used to, as opposed to dealing with like the metal guys, because I just say right away, I'm like, "Madonna's As Good As It Gets." And if you, if that is-

Nicky P: Did you say Madonna?

Tlalok Rodriguez: I said System of a Down.

Nicky P: Oh, I'm like, I, here r- there's a little bit of a lag, so over here I heard, "Madonna's As Good As It Gets."

I'm like, "Really? Madonna?"

System of a Down vs. Madonna (audio lag chaos) [00:32:00]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Is that what you heard Bra- Brian?

Brian Pritchard: Papa Don't Preach, man. That's heavy.

Nicky P: I mean, I'd ar- I have my arguments about System of a Down. I think they're okay, but-

Tlalok Rodriguez: Well, just in terms of my personal taste, like I've heard metal heads say that System of a Down isn't

Nicky P: Metal. I'd rather listen to the Bee Gees, if we're being honest.

Brian Pritchard: Yeah. No, I hear ya. Like I, I, I, I, there's some stuff, I was, I was talking, Nick and I w- oddly enough just on Monday, right, where I was saying within the world of metal, there's sometimes where if it's just screamy vocals- I can still be into it even though I don't really like that because there's things that maybe are going on inside the, like, virtuoso guitar, or, or what the rhythm section doing that, that I am finding really, appealing and interesting and, and trying to sort of ab- absorb into the mix, you know?

I'm, I'm curious, man, like, we, we, we always like to at the end of these, pl- play for anybody who's been listening, have, have a song to play. And, um,

So give some thought to it. And, and I know we don't have one, like, now, but, like, I, I'd love for you to send something over that we can put on the end of this, whether that's the, the one, you know, And, you, you s- you already said that you don't have a ton of stuff recorded, so li- live recordings, whatever you want.

But what, what's something that, that, we could maybe share with our audience?

Send us a song for the end of the episode [00:33:00]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Would I be able to send over, like, a YouTube video that I like of me playing an original?

Nicky P: You can send over whatever you like. And if you don't, I'm going to find whoever that person is you've been looking at off camera, and we're just gonna get a video of you in the shower, and we're gonna put that up at the end.

Tlalok Rodriguez: It's actually just me and Nicky. I just keep looking for shit.

Brian Pritchard: Well, and, and then as far as the online, like, in the time that I've known you, you launched a new, a website it looked like as well. So where, where, where do, people go to find all of your projects and, and, you know, the, the, the, the main website?

tlalok.com and where to find everything [00:34:10]

Tlalok Rodriguez: There's, like, a motorcycle driving by. Did you guys hear that? There was, like, a motorcycle driving by. Oh, it was really loud over here. So just, tlalok.com.

Nicky P: I, I use the... I ha- I have the noise reduction turned on here, and it works very well.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Okay, good. So it's just tlalok.com, T-L-A-L-O-K.com. You can find out about my projects.

I have, like, a Spotify playlist with all of my studio work. And it's pretty much in order of my favorite stuff, so it's very biased. And I've got a playlist on SoundCloud with some live recordings. I think live recordings end up capturing my sound the best and so I'm gonna be releasing a series of live recordings actually, like, stuff that's well done hopefully and, and properly mixed.

But yeah, so tlalok.com's the best way to find, find out about all my endeavors. That's the main brand and the main band name that I'm trying to push.

Brian Pritchard: Love it. Do you do, studio work, like, as a, a hired gun as well? Like, could somebody want to pick you up as a bass player and send you tracks and just have you add stuff to, you know, the recording, send it back, that kinda thing?

Camino Astral: remote session work from Milwaukee to Chile [00:35:25]

Tlalok Rodriguez: Absolutely. And the b- my best, k- work that I did doing that was with this band from Chile. It's this guy that I connected with while he was here in Milwaukee, and then he actually moved back to Chile. But so I, I sent him my bass parts, which I recorded remotely, and we released a full-length album together.

The project is called Camino Astral. We currently o- only have two singles out, but I plan to slowly release the rest, until we get to the full album.

Brian Pritchard: Fun, man. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm down to, to, you know, play around in those spaces as well. I'm excited. The, the other guy that I mentioned, the other, recording engineer in, in my band Dome, he just got a new house where, we're gonna have a drum kit kind of permanently mic-ed up and ready to record at any given time.

A little, little mini, mini studio setup that, you know, has been a goal for, for a long time. And, and even though it's not my house, you know what I mean? It is my, my drum set and, and my friend. And so it's like, I feel like, that that's gonna open up some fun, interesting doors as far as opportunities to not be, limited by geography and, and, and getting to collaborate on, on fun stuff.

So I, I'm excited to hang out in Milwaukee, dude, and, and get more familiar with each other's, musical endeavors. You know, I... By all means, like, it would be so cool to get to, to host you out here and, yeah, just I, I appreciate your time tonight. I, as I said before, I can't thank you enough for, um- making our Milwaukee stop even possible and, and hooking us up with an opportunity, man.

And it means the world. Thank you.

Future collaboration: a home studio with a permanently mic'd drum kit [00:36:54]

Tlalok Rodriguez: I want- I wanted to add in a couple things to, to go back to, something Nick said earlier, 'cause you said you're still not sure what kind of music I make, so. So the video I'll send will kinda straighten that out. Like I s- I'd say I'm more in like the R&B realm. The, the tune I have out is more of like a trip hop tune, so I rap a little, I sing, but it's like more melodic like you say.

And that's what my personal stuff ends up being like. I have a bossa-

Nicky P: If I were to look, I would assume you're doing like a, like a nako kinda thing...

Tlalok Rodriguez: I might be doing like some indie le- bossa nova kind of vibe stuff. I've got that sort of repertoire in the works as well. So that ends up being my ballpark.

But in t- in terms of what you'll hear at Last Rites, when I'm play with- when I play with Tlalok, the Tlalok band featuring Bob Hemp, this is gonna be totally off the rails. Everything's going out the window. There's no set list. There's just a clock, and we're gonna, and we're gonna make up stuff on the spot.

We're not gonna play any covers, just kinda try to improvise our way through it and get to, get to know each other as musicians and I, I think it's gonna be hip. You know, we're, we're going for like a Alan Holdsworth thing.

Tlalok plays original music live: Burns to the Soul-adjacent R&B [00:38:23]

Brian Pritchard: Dude, I am pumped to be in the room to witness it.

Nicky P: We have to send over some of my solo stuff under my Burns to the Soul moniker just to see what you say since that's very R&B based.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Hell yeah. And then, the band I'm playing with is called Triptych, where it's gonna be our last show as that name because there's a bunch of bands called Triptych, and it was supposed to be temporary, and it's gone on too, on too long now, and we don't have another one to announce yet. But we have a lot of original music that we wanna start releasing, and it's just a really transformative period, so we're gonna do this Last Rites show, try to blow it up as our last show ever as Triptych, you know, before we hit them with a new-

Nicky P: A- and what kind of, what kind of vibe is this, this Last Rites place?

What kind of place is this?

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, and I'd say, I'd say like punk metal. Like, like Milwaukee is, it's definitely like, I'd say it's more of a punk scene than it is metal, but you get a lot of metal heads. There's, there's a lot of love between the scene. Like here there's a lot of overlap. But I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say I'm super, super hip to the metal scene, 'cause here in Milwaukee there's like the Bluegrass and jam band, Grateful Dead fans.

That's all one scene. Then you get all the hip hop and R&B guys. You get all the salsa and mariachi groups and the cumbias and that kind of like Latin stuff. And then, then the indie hip, you know, the indie punk metal original m- music scene. So there's a, there's a lot going on. Not much of a reggae scene, but there are some cats that are true to it.

Nicky P: I was just about to say, where are the Jamaicans at in all this? Jamaicans are where they always are, by themselves

Tlalok Rodriguez: There's like one big reggae band getting all the gigs. They're holding it down

Nicky P: My, my wife hates to go to reggae shows. She said we both love reggae, but she hates to go to the shows 'cause she's, she's too dark and everyone just assumes she's, she's Jamaican, and it's just too many uncomfortable conversations any time we go to listen to reggae.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, that's fair.

Nicky P: No, I'm not from Jamaica. Well, dude, for me, thank you so much for coming on, and I cannot wait to, to enjoy s- a new place. This is, this is both the furthest west I'll have ever been before for that night, and, you know, my, it's my first tour, so I'm, I'm, I'm pumped in a lot of ways.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Awesome.

I wish I could like hook it up so it was like a little more going on so we could have like a couple different endeavors that night-

Nicky P: Tuesday, man.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah. But like maybe for the next time it'll be like more of a two, three-day run, I can like try to get some more stuff lined up, you know?

Brian Pritchard: Dude, I'm happy to have a foundation to build upon, man.

Tlalok Rodriguez: That's the idea, right.

Nicky P: If he's, if he hasn't hinted at it hard enough, he's saying, "Get your ass to Cleveland."

Tlalok Rodriguez: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm try- I'm trying. I'm trying to work it out. I'm shoot- shooting for late November, but that would be helpful. I'm loose for second or s- or like third or fourth weekend of November, and I'm still trying to figure that out, but that's what I'm shooting for, if you got anything around then.

Brian Pritchard: Well, we, we have a, a, a gig booked, I wanna say the first Friday of December, so we're not far off. Isn't it like December 4th, Nick, was the, the one that I did lock down? Friday, December 4th We do have a show, as part of a run we're doing with, Buddy's band out of Brooklyn. The Cleveland stop in that little mini run.

I haven't even completed our first tour and I, I, I'm already trying to plot our second one, you know? But, we're doing a, a small run in December and Friday, December 4th will be the Cleveland show. And, that's close enough to the time that you mentioned, that if you think that that's realistic, my dude, consider it done.

Future tour planning: November? December 4th? Get your ass to Cleveland [00:42:00]

Tlalok Rodriguez: I, I actually, December 4th I have a gig booked that day. I'm playing at the gig. It's a, it's a bar.

Brian Pritchard: Well, then like I said, we will just keep working on it. And, and, and, and as far as the November one, yeah, as, as you get a better sense of, of your options, man, like, we'll figure it out. Like, any- anything I can do.

The, I, I... One of the nice things is, like, me and Nick haven't done actually a- an acoustic gig together, but I would. With, with the one- I play drums in both of the bands, but I write a lot of the music and, and play guitar, like I said before. So I do enjoy, doing acoustic duo and trio kinda stuff. So even if we've got a Puma show booked for December 4th, I could see, like, doing, like, 23 Strings, which is the acoustic thing, or s- something else that we could put together, easily enough for that, that, November timeframe.

And just, you know, we- we've got the relationships with the venues and other acts here to make sure that, that we're, we're doing right by you o- one way or the other.

Tlalok Rodriguez: That would be huge, man. Thank you. Well, we'll be in touch then. If you're

Nicky P: Trying to move along be- between me and Brian, we know people in the vicinity.

Like you said, there's a couple, a couple major cities around this area that we, we could definitely get you set up in.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Hell yeah. That's, that's a great idea. That's, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do, like, a whole little run, you know? Some kind of, trying to organize some sort of tour for around then.

So multiple, definitely multiple cities. That's i- ideal.

All right. Well, thanks, thank you guys for having me.

Closing + Tlalok's original live performance [00:44:02]

Brian Pritchard: Well, send us, send us that YouTube video, man, in, in, in our, our little group thread in Facebook. Send over what you want us to use as the last song. And, and T-L-A-L-O-K.com to, keep up with the ever-growing and expanding musical tentacles.

Tlalok Rodriguez: Thank you.

Not the one you wanna hear from

I was caught up by the potion of a teal plum. I didn't realize how over time it makes you feel dumb. I say you ain't the only one I could see, but you're just the only thing

Keep talking, I'll just mime

Hose, I just can't

It's not the one I wanna hear from

I look into your eyes like a steel gun

I'm always drawn by the bottom of the wheel's rum. Or

Realize how over time it makes the

Wheel come back. You ain't the only one I could see. But you're just the only thing-

Got me talking, I just might leave

Burnin' holes that I just can't leave Swallow in this water if you beg me for more

And I can feel again when with you the fears I endure It's always written in this poetry I've read here before. Instead of I can kiss you in the morning, I will burst in the door

Brian Pritchard: And we're turning it into music and podcasts for you