Performance Anxiety

This may be the funniest episode we’ve ever done. Today I’m joined by Mike Odd. Mike manages the multi-dimensional band Mac Sabbath. The band leader, Ronald Osborne, re-imagines Black Sabbath songs to send a message about fast food that is simultaneously humorous and serious. Follow the band @officialmacsabbath. I’m really not even sure what else I can say. I’ll just let this show speak for itself...

Our guest this episode is drummer Chris Lacinak. Chris has drummed with some legendary people like Gatemouth Brown, Papa Mali, Tab Benoit, & Adam Peters of Echo & The Bunnymen and Family of God to name a few. But his love of New Orleans jazz and second line drumming drove him to form his band Junko Beat with Vernon Rome and Will Snowden. This episode was an education for me in a genre of music tha...

Pamelia Stickney is our guest this week. Who is Pamelia Stickney, you may ask? Well smartypants, she’s a virtuoso on the theramin. She’s so good, in fact, that Bob Moog asked her to help him design HIS version of the theramin! She tells us how she began playing the instrument, what affects it when you play (like being licked by a puppy), and since she moved to Austria, how to travel with it. She a...

Elizabeth McCullough records as Alpha Cat. But this show is about more than just her music. Elizabeth began her career in music as a photographer. She transitioned to recording artist in the late 90’s. But after a series of personal & professional setbacks, she suffered a breakdown while recording Alpha Cat’s second LP. The breakdown was so severe that she researched and contemplated suicide for t...

Today’s episode features a legacy bassist who has earned his success. Jack Bates began his career playing in Peter Hook & The Light. Peter Hook is the bassist for both Joy Division & New Order. Jack is his son and his career has consisted of playing 3 hour shows ever since! He now plays bass for The Smashing Pumpkins. He tells us what it’s like to grow up playing bass when your dad is a legend on...

This show features Ben Harrison. Ben is a unique guest. He has released his second album as the band Stutter Steps. But he’s also curator for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Through his job and his music, he’s had the opportunity to work with Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips of Dean & Britta, Luna, & Galaxie 500. Ben talks about the great Sound Series at the museum and what he does as a cu...

This show is about Easy Love. It’s not what you think. Easy Love is a project by Justine Brown. We talk about how she got into music and her first band, Summer Twins. After ten years in a band with her sister, she decided to branch out and write her own music, using some difficult personal experiences for inspiration. She talks about struggling to stay organized, having demo-itis, and something ca...

This show features the band Dearly Beloved. The band’s mainstays are Rob Higgins and Niva Chow. Rob grew up in the presence of great music. He started going to Rush concerts while he was still in single digits and hanging out with his uncle, Geddy Lee. After the death of his father, Rob really wanted to just make music with people he loved. That was 14 years ago and the beginning of Dearly Beloved...

This show features bassist & lap steel guitarist, Dana Schechter. When we recorded this, she was staying in Berlin after cutting a tour short for her band Insect Ark. She talks about how wild it was for the band and the crew. Someone may have had to sneak back into their home country, but that’s all I’m saying about that right now. Dana talks about growing up in the early 80’s Bay Area metal scene...

This episode I’m joined by Jared Artaud & Brian MacFadyen, AKA The Vacant Lots. They are definitely the coolest band from Burlington, VT. After realizing they had this great connection, they started writing and playing, and working with some incredible people. They formed a tight bond with Alan Vega of Suicide, Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500, Sonic Boom, Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre...

This week’s guest is Fabio Brienza of Varaha. He moved from Rome as a teenager and found his musical community in Chicago. He compares and contrasts the metal scene in Rome to the scene in Chicago. He also has a background in film and we discuss how writing Varaha’s music... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

KatieJane Garside’s journey into music is a lot different than most. Unless, of course, you know another artist who spent their formative years sailing the world, spending literally years at sea. Then it turns out that she was discovered by legenday producer Glyn Johns. Her first productive band, Daisy Chainsaw, resulted in Courtney Love calling her one of the original Riots Grrrls. From Daisy Cha...

This show features John Agnello. You might not recognize the name, but you sure know the work. He’s had a hand in albums by Mark Lanegan, Dinosaur Jr, Cyndi Lauper, Kurt Vile, The Hold Steady, Sonic Youth, Waxahatchee, Drive-By Truckers, & that just scratches the surface. He tells me how his older brother Tony got him into music, the difference between recording, mixing, & mastering engineers, and...

This show features filmmaker Marco Porsia. He has recently completed a documentary about the band Swans. It’s not easy to do a documentary that focuses on a man who does not look back at his past. Ever. Marco followed Swans and documented tours, practices, arguments, group hugs, and more. He filmed so much that there’s enough bonus material for another feature length film. He interviewed many form...

This week we welcome guitarist Jonny Campos to the show. He’s been playing guitar for Grammy award winning artists, The Lost Bayou Ramblers and Poguetry In Motion for several years. He talks about his early bands and how he got the gig with The Ramblers. But he’s recently released something a little different. He calls it Weeks Island and it’s an ambient EP done on the pedal steel. It’s such a gre...

Buzz Osborne joins us this week. I loved speaking with him. He’s straight forward, no BS. You never have to guess what he’s thinking. That is liberating but it can be a little intimidating, as an interviewer. He’s got a new King Buzzo album out, featuring Trevor Dunn. But before we get to that, Buzz gives me a Melvins history lesson. He’s always been an artist who forges his own path, regardless o...

This show features guitarist Nick Kizirnis. His new album, The Distance, is a bit of a departure from the surf, rockabilly sound he’s honed throughout his career. It is a study in sadness, but in a Gram Parsons meets Roy Orbison kind of way. He’s joined by some great folks, too, like Mark Patterson  of Son Volt and Kate Wakefield of Lung. But there’s a lot more to this episode than just an album r...

This week we welcome the guitarist for Bush, Chris traynor, to the show. He gives us a little of his musical history with Orange 9mm, Helmet, and his seven degrees of Band of Susans. He tells me why, at one point in his career he was over electricity and how his OCD got him into faux painting. After that we get down to his almost 20 year connection with Gavin Rossdale and Bush. Chris gives updates...

Billy Gould joins us this week. You know him as the bassist from Faith No More. We talk a bit about the history of the band and some of the other projects he’s been involved in, like Shandi’s Addiction and Brujeria. But he’s also one of the creative forces behind The Talking Book. They’ve just released their second album and Billy spends some time discussing how he and Jared Blum created the band...

Anthony Pateras is our guest this week. He’s an experimental composer from Australia. He explains how he got into this style of music and what makes it experimental. That leads to a discussion on what “prepared piano” is. He’s collaborated with some great artists, including Mike Patton, Erkki Veltheim, & Will Guthrie in the band tetema. Their killer new album is out and  Anthony explains what tete...

This show is different from anything I’ve done before. I reached out to several former guests of the podcast and asked if they would be willing to talk for just a few minutes about how COVID-19 has affected their professions. I’m joined by people from a wide variety of creative careers. There’s guitarist Buck Curran, who lives at the European epicenter of the virus, Bergamo, Italy. I’m also joined...

This episode was so much fun. I’ve been a big fan of Astronoid for a while. So when singer/guitarist Brett Boland said he was cool coming on the show, I was pumped. It turns out we’re practically the same person. Only Brett can sing, play guitar, bass, & drums. And I can’t. Other than that, though…same. We make up some new metaphors, talk about weird songwriting influences, and running away from y...

This week I speak with Erik Sanden. He performs with the bands Buttercup and Demitasse. We talk about the performance art side of playing live. Sometimes it’s inspirational. Sometimes you get hot boxed. Erik tells me how and why Demitasse grew from Buttercup and which song took over 20 years to record. They have some beautiful videos done by Emmy award winning filmmaker, Alejandro de Hoyos. You ca...

Our guest this week is Zachary Vex of ZVEX Effects. But this show isn’t about how a fuzz pedal differs from a distortion pedal. It’s about the road to creating something really unique. And then trying to market and sell it. There is a lot here for tech geeks, but there’s also a lot here for people who like stories about being successful with your creativity and turning a passion into a business wi...

This week we feature Sean Dowdell. Sean is a very successful entrepreneur, innovator, and author. He changed the face of body art with his renowned Club Tattoo. But before all of that, he was the drummer for the band Grey Daze. Another band member was the late Chester Bennington. Prior to his passing, Chester had announced the band’s reformation. To honor Chester, the band decided to complete the...