Episode 16: Joe Strobl
Joe Strobl joined Badass Records Podcast for episode #16, and I'm not sure what we didn't cover: being engaged, smoking briskets, Anthony Bourdain, pro wrestling, Wakarusa, high school, family, Chiefs season tickets, collecting vinyl, Bruce Springsteen, Swedish visas (or the lack thereof).
You know. The typical Tuesday-evening fodder.
Joe chose My Morning Jacket's Z, The '59 Sound by Gaslight Anthem, and everybody's favorite Wilco record, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, as his initial dabbles into records of badassery.
Early in our conversation I called Joe, "something of a unicorn," and later supposed that perhaps he was striped. He said it was a testament to his family going through stuff together and having that bring them close together. That sentiment hasn't left me since and I don't imagine it ever will.
I barely know Joe. He's a friend of my youngest younger sister and we've only really seen each other at gatherings for a number of years. He's always been a sweetheart in my mind, though, and the kind of human he has always struck me as being now resonates as certain truth, and I can't help but tie that to his upbringing. It in fact makes me hopeful that I am perhaps a little ways down the path to raising quality people that will always have a good relationship with their family and always be kind to those that they meet while out in the world.
Joe owed me nothing, but he gave of his time, nonetheless.
He took from the busy vault that is his soon-to-be-married life, and drove to my house to talk music for the better part of three hours, and for that I am grateful. When I really decided to roll with this project, I had an undecipherable feeling pushing me forward and I think that that feeling was this notion that talking to one another face to face about our lives and the twists and turns in them carries with it a good bit of worldly medicine. And I think a good bit of worldly medicine has felt something along the lines of necessary for the past 26 months, if not the last six years.
So, that's the unconscious impetus here, I guess; the ingredients and the steps for doing a cool thing exist, and if it's potentially mutually beneficial, why not do it.
Someone told me a couple of months ago that this project is "a brilliant idea and the world needs more music love and such if it's ever going to heal and thrive, again. I know you can make this something truly great and you are well on your way."
I don't know how much of that is true, but I hope all of it is. I love that sentiment and love the person that delivered it.
I also love Joe Strobl for hanging out with me and being a part of whatever mix this is.
"Thanks for stopping by. And, please: Enjoy yourself."
copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the intro/outro audio. They are samples from Kurt Vile's "Wedding Budz" off of his It's a Big World Out There (And I Am Scared) EP from 2013, c/o Matador Records. You should get you some Wakin On a Pretty Daze (Deluxe Daze [Post Haze]) stat. It's good for the soul.
Bet.