Teaser // Death Grips: FASHION WEEK/INTERVIEW/STEROIDS/GMAIL

Summary

Jokermen Podcast: Death Grips – FASHION WEEK/INTERVIEW/STEROIDS/GMAIL (Teaser)

Date: July 16, 2026
Episode Theme: The hosts introduce their Death Grips mini-series on Patreon, focusing on the band’s experimental, boundary-pushing non-album releases: Fashion Week, Interview, Steroids, and Gmail and the Restraining Orders—exploring these as significant offshoots and what they reveal about Death Grips’ ethos, mythology, and place in culture.

---

Main Episode Overview

The Jokermen hosts preview their Death Grips mini-series, centering this episode around the band’s “detours, experiments, and iterations”—four hard-to-define projects released between 2015 and 2019. More than mere B-sides or leftovers, these artifacts illuminate how Death Grips consistently subvert expectations, blur lines between insider/outsider status, and cultivate their notorious mystique.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Stage: The “Oddities” in the Death Grips Catalog

• Projects discussed (Fashion Week, Interview, Steroids, Gmail and the Restraining Orders) represent a break from standard vocal albums or singles (00:41).

• These works “represent a series of different [...] experiments, detours, iterations on the Death Grips sound, without being fully actual new Death Grips lyrical albums in one way or another." – Host (00:49)

• Notable Insight:

  • Fashion Week and Interview have zero lyrics or vocals—challenging the notion of what constitutes a Death Grips record (01:26).
  • Gmail and the Restraining Orders, though it “does have words,” is “just like a track,” not a full album (01:29).

2. Fashion Week: Origin, Structure, and Reception

• Fashion Week stands out as “the most significant one, I would say, because this is—the one that was a real surprise to people” – Host (02:09).

• Chronological first: “It’s the first time they did anything that wasn’t an album, really.” – Co-host (02:17)

• The project leaked ahead of time as a ZIP file with unfamiliar track names, dismissed as fake by fans until its official release (02:24–03:28).

  • "Leaked zip was shared via Reddit in late 2014 [...] it was initially dismissed by fans as fake.” – Host (03:06)

• Track Naming Easter Egg:

  • Every track is “Runway” something (“Runway J,” “Runway E,” etc.), spelling “JENNY DEATH WHEN”—winking at the viral anticipation for their upcoming album (02:32–02:58).

• Album Art:

  • Features Sua Yu (artist behind The Money Store artwork) sitting in a “monstrous rococo chair” at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino in Reno, NV (03:43–04:13).
  • “She looks very small in this monstrous rococo chair.” – Co-host (04:13)
  • “Iconic cover, I think, to pair with the title and the music, of course.” – Host (04:32)

3. Fashion, Death Grips’ Image, and Cultural Positioning

• Death Grips’ apparent disinterest in fashion is ironically paired with an album named Fashion Week.

  • “They just wear a lot of black most of the time.” – Co-host (05:00)
  • “Just black skinny jeans and boxers [...] like Hanes 3 pack from Target boxers.” – Co-host (05:28)
  • “They just dress like skate guys. Like hardcore skate guys. Which is, you know, kind of what they are.” – Host (05:49–05:53)

• The juxtaposition between the album title/artand band image creates a “little confusing” but fitting tension:

  • “In its lack of fitting together, it somehow does in fact fit together.” – Host (06:10)

• Fashion Week as a “hype vehicle” for the much-anticipated Jenny Death, with the “Jenny Death When” meme amplified through Death Grips’ online presence (06:27–07:07).

• Memorable Moment:

  • The hosts riff on social media’s decline and Death Grips’ place in old vs. new online cultures—with a tongue-in-cheek lament over Twitter’s demise and the “horrible” state of Bluesky (07:13–07:50).

4. Death Grips and “Mainstream” Culture: Outsider or Insider?

• Death Grips function as “ultimate outsider band[s]”—defiant, unclassifiable—while still orbiting mainstream culture:

  • Namechecks: reality TV, Chateau Marmont, Beyoncé, Björk samples, Robert Pattinson’s guest appearance, “Shrek guy” on Year of the Snitch (08:14–09:35).
  • “Death Grips have this image as the ultimate outsider band in some ways [...] And yet at the same time, they seem capable of kind of playfully interacting with different strands of mainstream culture in one way or another.” – Host (08:36–09:35)

• Consideration of the membrane between outsider and insider: referencing JPEGMAFIA samples in Beyoncé’s recent tour (10:38–11:08).

  • “That sort of membrane between outsider and insider, mainstream and underground indie [...] they’ve always been very aware of that barrier and how permeable it can be.” – Host (10:54)
  • “Calling an album like this Fashion Week is some sort of gesture in that direction.” – Host (11:08)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Death Grips’ Unconventional Releases:

  • “Each of these approach that iteration in different ways.” – Host (01:34)

• On the Tracklist Spell-out:

  • “Ultimately spelling out the phrase ‘Jenny Death when’.” – Host (02:41)

• On the Irony of “Fashion Week”:

  • “They just wear a lot of black most of the time.” – Co-host (05:00)
  • “Just black skinny jeans and boxers [...] like Hanes 3 pack from Target boxers.” – Co-host (05:28)

• On Outsider Status & Mainstream Blurring:

  • “Death Grips have this image as the ultimate outsider band in some ways [...] and yet at the same time, they seem capable of kind of playfully interacting with different strands of mainstream culture in one way or another.” – Host (09:35)
  • “That sort of membrane between outsider and insider, mainstream and underground indie [...] they’ve always been very aware of that barrier and how permeable it can be.” – Host (10:54)

---

Important Timestamps

• [00:41] – Laying out the episode’s focus and the four Death Grips experimental projects
• [02:09] – Fashion Week as the surprising, pivotal non-album
• [02:32] – Track naming and Jenny Death when meta-commentary
• [03:33] – Details on the leaked ZIP and alternate track names
• [03:43] – Discussion of the Fashion Week artwork, its origin, and unique imagery
• [05:00] – The hosts’ take on Death Grips’ fashion sense vs. the album’s playful title
• [06:27] – Fashion Week’s function as meme/hype vehicle for Jenny Death
• [08:36] – Discussion expands to Death Grips’ surprising brush with mainstream pop culture
• [10:54] – Reflection on outsider/insider boundaries and the band’s cultural elasticity

---

Summary Takeaway

The Jokermen hosts dissect Fashion Week and Death Grips’ suite of “non-album” releases as pivotal works in the band’s mythology. With humor and insight, they explore how these projects—often puzzling in form and intent—play masterfully with the boundaries between underground and mainstream, fan subculture and mass meme, outsider style and inside joke. Fashion Week in particular emerges not just as a curiosity but as a cryptic statement on commerce, hype, and the very meaning of “fashion” in alternative music culture: “In its lack of fitting together, it somehow does in fact fit together.” (Host, 06:10)

Transcript

[Host]

Jokerman podcast is brought to you by Distrokid and their new direct to fan tool. Allowing any artist to sell merch. Distrokid Direct allows artists to create a merch store in minutes without any upfront costs or any technical skills or know how they'll take care of all the logistics and the nitty gritty. And as with distribution through Distrokid, they never take a cut of the proceeds. You, the artist, keep 100% of your earnings. Once again, that's Distrokid Direct. Open a store [e-mail] direct.

[Co-host]

What are we doing?

[Host]

We're doing Fashion Week interview, steroids and Gmail and the restraining orders, which came out between 2015, I think, fashion week, and then 2019. Gmail and the restraining orders and represent a series of different, what would we say, experiments, detours, iterations on the Death Grips sound without being fully actual new Death Grips lyrical albums in one way or another.

[Co-host]

Well, two of those anyway. Interview and Fashion Week, respectively. Those have zero.

[Host]

Zero lyrics, what I would say.

[Co-host]

Zero vocals, What I would say is

[Host]

that something like Fashion Week, to me does almost kind of feel like a full lp. It just doesn't have lyrics on it versus something like Gmail does have lyrics or, you know, does have words, I guess we could say, but it clearly is not, you know, full album. I think they even call it just like a track. And so in one way or another, these are all changes to what we. What we typically think of as the Death Grips album. Each of these approach that iteration in different ways.

[Co-host]

Do we want to just go.

[Host]

We should probably go chronologically.

[Co-host]

Chronologically. I mean, Fashion Week.

[Host]

Fashion Week is the most significant one, I would say, because this is. This is the one that was a real surprise to people.

[Co-host]

I think it's the first time they did anything that wasn't an album, really.

[Host]

Right, exactly.

[Co-host]

Other than the occasional single.

[Host]

Right. And I was reading about it. Didn't someone find a zip on a message board or something?

[Co-host]

Leaked zip.

[Host]

And then, of course, the notable thing, or one of the most notable things we should say is that the tracks all. They're all Runway something. And then it's Runway J, Runway E, Runway N, Runway N2. Ultimately spelling out the phrase Jenny Death win. This album being the interstitial release between the first and second discs of the powers that be.

[Co-host]

So, wait, to be clear, is this the leaked zip? Is that a different thing that we didn't listen to?

[Host]

I'm going mostly based off of what Wikipedia says. A leaked zip was shared via Reddit in late 2014 containing six tracks from fashion week and two unreleased tracks. But it was initially dismissed by fans as fake, I think, because the titles, you know, when people downloaded this, it just said Runway J, Runway N, Runway W or whatever. And so people.

[Co-host]

Well, no, on the leaked zip. It says they have different titles, it seems.

[Host]

Oh, did they?

[Co-host]

Voco beat 13 dark darko drum 12 inch day loop 06. All right, all right, new base.

[Host]

We get the picture.

[Co-host]

Whatever. The COVID art for it is pretty good. It's actually got the artist of the Money Store album art featured on the COVID of this. That photo is of Sua Yu.

[Host]

That's right.

[Co-host]

Who did the money sort. And she's sitting in an insane chair which is apparently located at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino in Reno, Nevada.

[Host]

Next time we're in Reno, we should. We should hit it, see what's up there.

[Co-host]

She looks very small in this monstrous rococo chair.

[Host]

Yeah, it has like. What has it got on the top? It's like spikes.

[Co-host]

Some kind of an eagle.

[Host]

Wings.

[Co-host]

I think it's. Yeah, some kind of bird. It's like very hideous chair indeed.

[Host]

It's an iconic cover, I think, to pair with the title and the music, of course. I love the fact that this album is called Fashion Week. What do you think they're getting at with that?

[Co-host]

It actually is Fashion Week right now.

[Host]

I know I'm seeing all these stories from all the fashion guys I follow on Instagram where it's like 110 degrees in Paris and everyone is just like miserable.

[Co-host]

They're an interesting case to consider when it comes to their relationship to fashion because I think that they are fashionable in certain ways. Like they. I mean, they're probably even influential style wise on fashion to some degree. But it's not really the first thing one thinks about because really they just wear a lot of black most of the time.

[Host]

Yes. If you know. And obviously as we know with Ride, if he's wearing anything at all, at least on his top half, it's usually

[Co-host]

just black skinny jeans and boxers that you can see boxers like, like normal, like the most normal plaid boxers.

[Host]

Just like Hanes 3 pack from Target boxers. And then I feel like black hoodies are often seen about just like white T shirts and black hoodies, depending on.

[Co-host]

I mean, they just dress like skate, skate guys. Like hardcore skate guys.

[Host]

Which is, you know, kind of what they are.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Host]

But yeah, I like the juxtaposition, I would say, between the title of the album and the image of the band, to say nothing of the title of the album and the music contained therein and then the COVID on top of it. It's all. It's all. It's a little confusing to me. And it doesn't all seem to fit together when you think about it, when I think about it. But in its lack of fitting together, it somehow does in fact fit together.

[Co-host]

It serves its purpose as hype vehicle for building anticipation of Jenny Death. I mean, the whole Jenny Death when thing, they were like leaning into that with like tweets and stuff and it became basically a meme.

[Host]

Did they do a lot of posting? I don't remember.

[Co-host]

Yeah, they were tweeting. I mean, remember, Death Grips is online. Yeah, yeah. And Jenny Death. When I think, you know, they would. I feel like regular Twitter feels like so long ago, many moons ago. It's sad, actually. It's. I hope they bring it back someday.

[Host]

Good luck.

[Co-host]

It'll probably never. It will never be the same.

[Host]

I hear they got a good one going over there on bluesky.com.

[Co-host]

everyone says it's terrible.

[Host]

I wouldn't. I would not know.

[Co-host]

I've heard that it's horrible over there, basically that it does seem pretty fucked up over there because it's where all the belligerent liberal people went. Everyone who was really angry. But from a centrist liberal perspective, the

[Host]

one class of person that is worse than the miscreants and Internet racists that predominate on Twitter today, what once was Twitter, the one class of person that's even worse than that. All self selected out of it and has their own little clubhouse, apparently.

[Co-host]

Yeah, it sounds like a truly impossible place to exist.

[Host]

Social media is a tough thing these days anyway.

[Co-host]

Yeah, I think that the idea of it being like Runway and Fashion Week, it does feel kind of, I don't know, a little dress up, a little glitz and clam. It's kind of cute. I mean, it sort of has a cuteness. Yeah.

[Host]

I mean, I like a lot about the band Death Grips. One thing that I've always really dug and admired is. And this sort of shades already into the conversation about Interview as well. Hosted by Matthew Hoffman, I think his name is.

[Co-host]

Who? Well, he's an actor. I think it's just. There's a video, of course.

[Host]

Well, he's an actual reality TV guy. He hosts reality TV shows, that guy. I was reading about him earlier today, but we don't need to get into that conversation quite yet. But between something like that and an album called Fashion Week and no Love, Deep Web, which is all recorded at the Chateau Marmont and the Beyonce picture, the Bjork samples. They've always kind of. You know, Death Grips kind of have this image as the ultimate outsider band in some ways, you know, just like defiant individualists belonging to no scene, no class, no single classifiable genre, whatever. And yet at the same time, they seem capable of kind of playfully interacting with different strands of mainstream culture in one way or another. Being randomly photographed with Beyonce and having Robert Pattinson play the guitar solo and, you know, having this Fashion Week album or whatever. The Shrek guy on Year of the Snitch is another example of this. I mean, I think that relates a lot to the humor element that we've talked about with them. Their kind of gesture like element to a little bit of that, to me. But I think there's a. There's also something more interesting to sort of work at and think about and kind of actually try to understand why is this the ultimate outsider material? Why is this not part of the mainstream versus other things that are part of the mainstream? And what does that say about what is and isn't classified as the mainstream? Because, I mean, you could very easily imagine, to go back to a conversation we were having with Benjamin on the Bottomless Pit episode, he brought up JPEG Mafia. I think there were JPEG Mafia samples in the most recent Beyonce tour, the Cowboy Carter Tour. There were little snatches of his music being played there and interpolated in the Beyonce performance and stuff. And that is kind of the ultimate mainstream representative in some ways. And that's not a whole lot different than some of the music that Death Grips has made. And so that. That sort of membrane between outsider and insider, mainstream and underground indie, quote, unquote, if we want to use a phrase like that. I feel like they've always been very aware of that barrier and how permeable it can be. You can kind of transition from one side to the other very easily. And I don't know, I think that calling an album like this Fashion Week is some sort of gesture in that direction.

[Co-host]

Yes.

[Host]

Okay. Nailed it.