Timisarocker is a Minneapolis-St. Paul band with a new live performance video (sponsored by Music in Minnesota) dropping Thursday. Alex called up Tim Dooley to discuss that and several other important topics, including Tim's NSFW custom mic stand. 

Alex: I figured we need to start with the bull penises. We saw you break out the new mic stand at Day Block a couple years ago. Was it brand new at that point?

Tim: I think so. I honestly can't remember when my boys bought that for me. Whether it was for my birthday, or whether it was for a holiday, but it was one of the first few times I'd gotten to use it. And it is my favorite thing of all time. It is like one of the coolest things I own. Because nobody else has it. And I feel like the more I show it off, the more more people will be like, yeah, I want a bull-penis mic stand. So, so far, I'm the only one in the world that I know of that has it. And I just think it’s so so so cool. ​

This account is based on two sources: Alex’s memory of a mysteriously retracted story from a major music news outlet (help me find it, Reddit!), and a 2-minute video clip from the Sun Kil Moon website. This story is reconstructed to the best of one man’s ability.

Please note: Mark Kozelek, a key character in this story, was credibly accused of sexual misconduct by three different women in 2020.
​

On the night of Jan. 14, 2016, Mark Kozelek and his band Sun Kil Moon played the Regent Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Standing near the front of the audience was a fan named Phoebe Bridgers.

As the band neared the end of their encore, Kozelek heard a request from the crowd: “You Missed My Heart,” a solo song he’d released a few years earlier. Sorry, he told the fan, I don’t remember all the words to that one. 

No problem, the fan said. I can sing it.

Every month, the five members of Flip Rushmore will tell the world ? what we're currently listening to. If there's something you think we should check out, email us at flip rushmore @ gmail dot com or leave a comment below.

Hayley Williams, "Over Those Hills" — It's been a long time since I've listened to a new album all the way through ... and then started it from Track 1 again. Williams—who is best known for her pop/rock work with Paramore and the B.O.B. hit "Airplanes"--put out a great record last year, and followed it with Flowers for Vases/Descansos this month. She plays all the instruments (easy hook for me) and tells some memorable stories ("Trigger," "Inordinary"). The song "Over These Hills" is part of a strong middle section on the album that borrows a little bit of Lana, a little bit of La La Land, and revolves around a lick that will probably get it some decent play on AAA radio. (Alex)

Record Time is a recurring feature written by members of Flip Rushmore. This one comes courtesy of Mike Green. Comment with your favorite memories of Moving Pictures at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

​Growing up can be a time of contrasts. You desperately want to fit in, but also feel the need to express your individuality, find your own path and stick to your guns — or at least, a gun you’ve decided is worth sticking to. 

When I was around 14, I befriended an eclectic fellow who was the best person I knew at forging their own path (wearing bright green and orange corduroy pants to middle school in the year 2007 earns you that “best of” title, in my opinion). He encouraged me to check out a Canadian rock trio named Rush, who I was only familiar with thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. He burned me a few tracks onto a CD, and I was hooked — these guys were pretty cool!

Record Time is a recurring feature written by Flip Rushmore's Alex Smith. Comment with your favorite memories of American Idiot at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

​Ten years is typically plenty of time for an artist's pop-culture moment to come and go. The Beatles put out albums for seven years before breaking up. Nirvana only made it two and a half years from Nevermind to Kurt Cobain's death. We got one album, total, from Lauryn Hill. 

Those fortunate enough to make a longer run usually coast by on less-than-essential work by the time they finish their first decade in the spotlight. Only truly special artists are able to bridge the gap and use new ideas to command the attention of two different generations. Any artist that makes two albums at least a decade apart that are both...
​

1. culturally significant in terms of sales and influence and
2. nearly universally acclaimed 

...is part of a very short list. You’ve got names like Bob Dylan (1965's Highway 61 Revisited to 1975's Blood on the Tracks), Kanye West (2003’s College Dropout and 2013’s Yeezus), and the Rolling Stones (1966's Aftermath to 1976's Some Girls). There are a handful of others out there, fringe or otherwise, but it’s an exclusive club. And there are zero American rock bands. Well... one, actually.

Record Time is a recurring feature written by Flip Rushmore's Alex Smith. This week, he interviewed fellow Flip Rushmore member Adam Szczepaniak. Comment with your favorite memories of OK Computer at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

​Alex: People our age were late to OK Computer, because we were only, you know, in kindergarten when it came out. But what was your full introduction to it?

Adam: It was on an episode of 'Cash Cab.' It was a question like, “What Radiohead album, you know, rocketed into the charts in 1997?” And the answer was OK Computer. And a few years went by, but I always had in the back of my head, "I should probably listen to that album." And I think what really kick-started it was a class that I took freshman year in college, History of Rock and Roll, and it specifically focused on 1970 to the present. There was a day where my teacher played "Paranoid Android." And he went through and analyzed it through the lens of his background, which was classical music. It was so fascinating to me. So that sparked me to get the album and actually listen to the whole thing.

​Record Time is a recurring feature written by Flip Rushmore's Alex Smith. Comment with your favorite memories of Get Rich or Die Tryin' at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

​On a weekday afternoon in a suburban Minneapolis dining room, a pair of elementary school kids tried to determine what 50 Cent was saying. 

“Go … Charlie?” 

We pressed the “back” button on the stereo over and over until we reached our conclusion. My friend’s older sister agreed. It was, “Go Charlie / it’s your birthday.” ...

Curtis Jackson’s word in question, of course, was “shawty.” In our defense, he’s never won an award for clearest pronunciation. But, yeah, the word was foreign, just like almost all of the themes of “In da Club”: million-dollar contracts, ecstasy use, bringing 20 firearms into a place of business, etc. Nevertheless, it became a staple in my young life. Had any rapper made a pop record like 50? The production was killer. He delivered us to the choruses quickly. And those hooks were extremely hooky. “21 Questions.” “Wanksta.” “If I Can’t.” “P.I.M.P.” “Many Men (Wish Death Upon Me).” Virtually every other song on the record had a straightforward appeal to it. It didn’t trend as hardcore as Dr. Dre’s 1999 or Eminem’s first three albums. It was ear candy. ​

Record Time is a recurring feature written by Flip Rushmore's Alex Smith. Comment with your favorite memories of Begin to Hope at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

​My first "serious" relationship began when I was 16. And some of my favorite memories from that time were long drives soundtracked by the stereo in her hand-me-down Ford Taurus. Her older sister had moved out east, but had thankfully left behind a CD case with dozens of pop and alternative albums that I’d never heard before. At the time, I was in the midst of an exhilarating Wikipedia-and-Limewire crash course in rock history. I was the oldest in my family, so the Internet served as the cool sibling who told you how good Kid A was (or, at the very least, gave you their copy of Enema of the State).

​Record Time is a recurring feature written by Flip Rushmore's Alex Smith. Comment with your favorite memories of Hot Fuss at the bottom of the story, and check out Flip Rushmore's latest release on Spotify.

In music, the early bird does not usually get the worm.

​A scene takes time to manifest itself in the public consciousness, and the bands making the best music, in, say, 2001, are not the bands who are leading the charge in, say, 2004. That’s a lifetime for a certain “sound,” and The Killers' Hot Fuss is the natural grandchild or great-grandchild—with an extra touch of flamboyance from three time zones away—of The Strokes’ Is This It. The first demo of “Mr. Brightside” might as well have been a B-side from Room on Fire.

 
Twenty five years ago, Pat Smear was missing. The rest of the original Foo Fighters—William Goldsmith, Nate Mendel, and, of course, Dave Grohl—were backstage at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Without their punk-legend guitarist, they waited in a variety of styles: Grohl nervously bounced in place. Mendel sat with his bass, eyes closed. Goldsmith took off his clothes.

The word finally came in: Smear was sitting at the hotel watching Matlock. He arrived shortly thereafter, and the band tore through a 65-minute set to earn their star on the wall.