Going Off Track

Equal Vision Records is a label with awesome vision, as evidenced by the many of our recent guests who call it home. So after great talks with Quicksand, The Flatliners, Sparta, and I Am The Avalanche, to name just a few, we decided to go right to the man in charge, Label Manager Dan Sandshaw. He gets right into it, telling us how hardcore shows in his native Connecticut 'changed his worldview.' H...

Author and music journalist, Andrew Sacher joins us to talk about indie bands, ska bands, classic rock and of course emo, the subject of his new book, "Emo Revival: Community, DIY, and Rebirth in Post-Hardcore and Emo (2008-2018)". Andrew on the web Pre-order "Emo Revival"

Detroit in the house this week with Rich and Ryan, massive-dynamic rhythm section of The Suicide Machines. Snow tricks, Bourgeois Filth, drunk at Punk in Drublic... and what about being too broke to tour with the Foo Fighters? It's another off track classic. 

This week we introduce a new special episode: the first, "Brain Edition with Doc & The Wizard". Two specialists in what's between the ears - both studied professors of psychology, get real with Benny on the mind of the musician (and everybody else). Both are music lovers and rich souls with knowledge to offer. Enjoy.

Minor Threat, Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, Junkyard - there's so many more bands that Brian Baker, guitarist (and bassist) extraordinaire has started or shined in. The boy is still rocking hard and grinding out that SOUND! We're on track and off track and all over with this one. Come hear the legend.

On this day in 2020 - we had fucking MILO AUKERMAN from THE DESCENDENTS on the show! So while none of us want to go back to those lockdown days, we DO want to hear Milo again talk about science and PUNK ROCK!

Everyone loves The Bouncing Souls and who bounces more than Greg Attonito lead singer for New Jersey's most beloved punk rock band? You can bet there's some NJ in here but we go all over the place, discovering what a great athlete Greg once was and discussing how the presence and power of a song performed can become it's own entity. Souls on the web

The hardest working man in hardcore, Walter Schreifels joins us this week to get into it! Quicksand, Rival Schools, Gorilla Biscuits, CIV, Youth of Today... these are all Walter's babies and now fully grown, most of them are still going! We get real deep into the essence of hardcore as well as the 90's scramble by major labels to tap into the underground scene of that era. But lets's start off wit...

The amazing Mike Huguenor is so many things to music: virtuoso singer/songwriter with his own bands, Shinobu and Hard Girls, guitarist for Jeff Rosenstock, and now author with "Elvis Is Dead, I'm Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records"... the list goes on but you know what? He's also a really nice guy, with a lot of awesome stories and we are off-track from the get-go with this one. All thing...

Julia Steiner of Ratboys is a true rock & roll Road Warrior. Taking her front-person position seriously, she definitely leads by example. We talk about her band philosophy, chair therapy, Pittsburgh football and one of the best Epic Fails we've heard so far. Ratboys on the web

Got a double feature this week with Dave Hause (The Loved Ones) and Tom May (The Menzingers). Both very good friends of the show and we loved having them back to hear about how Dave's brother Tim was born while he was at Lollapalooza seeing Rage Against the Machine. We figure out that Tom is a Rancid super-fan and he drops the big one - Menzingers' 20th anniversary coming up!

We go on a real journey this episode with At The Drive-In and Sparta founder, Jim Ward. From his frontier family roots, arriving in Texas via covered wagon up thru his discovery of the outside world during early tours, to the pitfalls of grand success. Along the way we find out about his favorite pedals and that he's an "aggressive sleeper". Sparta online

This week we've got professional music and surf journalist, Jon Coen telling us how 7 Seconds succeeded where the hippies failed. He's also straight edge and a surfer himself and... he lives on a real island off the coast of New Jersey!   Good stuff.  Jon Coen online

So much fun this week with Vinnie Caruana of The Movielife Life and I AM THE AVALANCHE . From the heaviness of writing about his close friend's passing to playing in a Seaweed cover band, it gets real and it gets surreal - like 100% the BEST ghost story we've had to date!

The ever dynamic frontman for The Academy Is..., William Beckett joins us from the land of John Hughes to talk about wrestling, still not meeting Chris Carrabba, and of course - our pending Dave Mathews dance party! He also counts Warped Tours and reveals his most Epic Fail on stage and nerd alert... we do a LOT of Game of Thrones but hey, we're both G.O.T.! The Academy Is... website

The HUGELY influential Dan Yemin of Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Paint It Black and now, Bitter Branches, got real with us this week! Don't worry, you'll hear plenty of what helped put him where he is today but we also go off-track with plenty of psychology talk (his other specialty), New Jersey hip-hop... even a little Yiddish lesson. Listen to Bitter Branches' new music

The Flatliners drummer, Paul Ramirez joins us from Toronto to discuss Canadian bagels, lobster, the danger of horses and Soundgarden. There's also praise for Jersey Pizza, Taco Bell and ringey snare sounds. We also discuss why he's always the designated driver at border-crossings.

American professional wrestler, manager of The Hurt Syndicate, the one and only  Montel Vontavious Porter (aka Hassan Hamid Assad) joins us to talk about bad choices, good recoveries, meeting Zac Blair of Rise Against when Zac was still in his high school band, Japanese steak, Sasquatch, living in Hakeem Olajuwon's house... there is so much good stuff here, you've just got to listen. MVP's Linktre...

Augusta Koch of Gladie joins us this week to discuss growing up in the Poconos (snowboarder), moving to Colorado with a bunch of skater-boys (didn't work out), Action Park, Catholic school and how the best songs are always borderline corny. There's also rockabilly whippitters and having The Menzingers as your neighbors in Philly. Yeah, it's a good one.

Everybody loves Walter. We live in the same neighborhood so I see him all the time but he's hard to miss - the guy won't slow down... Quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits - all still vital, hell Rival Schools just played a run of shows this week in South America ! So why not revisit this vintage episode (almost 10 years old?!?) when Benny was still cutting his host-teeth? Enjoy.

Ever since we recorded this episode, back in 2018 with Justin Brannan, (founding member of NYHC band, Indecision), his political star has been on the rise. Now, he's on the brink of becoming NYC Comptroller where he would oversee the largest municipal budget in the country. Of course we're talking pizza and conspiracy theories in this episode but listen thru to the outro where we essentially endor...

Daniel Kohn , co-author of Tearing Down the Orange Curtain - How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World  joins us to talk about Social Distortion, No Doubt, Offspring and The Vandals. We also go off-track on subjects like sports and how to beat the gambling apps.

Murder by Death frontman, Adam Turla checks in with us while waiting for the vinyl pressing of their latest release. He's also about to embark on the bands' twilight tour! We touch on that but then of course we go off track... way. Murder by Death on the web

Writer and poet (and seriously, a bunch of cool other stuff), Hanif Abdurraqib has been on tour for the last year supporting his latest book, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. So yeah, Benny does get him to talk a lot of hoops but this man is an engaging genius on so many subjects and it's a wonderful talk. Hanif's website - go there now.

Here's a wild ride for 'ya! Two for the price of one - brothers Dave and Tim Hause join us for a nice long chat about... everything! On and off track we go, from TV shows to the funniest musicians and our very first, live BREAKING NEWS! It's deep, it's funny, it's very informative. Sing Us Home Festival website