Performance Anxiety

Today’s guests teach me things; specifically symbolism in music. It’s one of those things that I always feel everyone else gets more than I do. So I was beyond happy to have Alexander Hacke, Danielle DePicciotto, and Raven Chacon guide me through their experiences creating work heavy in symbolism. And we go beyond music into visual arts, as well. Hackedepicciotto have released a new album that is...

This guest definitely spells his name correctly. Welcome singer Marc Broussard to the podcast family; and man does he have soul! His voice reminds you of the greats like Otis Redding, Al Green, and Sam Cooke. Marc talks about the movie that started his career, at the ripe old age of five and a half; the influence of his dad, Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductee Ted Broussard, and he tells me abou...

This guest made me float. It’s an unusual episode. Today’s guest is Julee Cruise and was recorded in April of 2019. For reasons I have forgotten, the episode was delayed and ended up slipping through the cracks in an old Work In Progress file. Unfortunately we lost Julee in June of 2022. In this episode, Julee is very candid about her work. You’ll find out why, early on in the discussion. She talk...

This is such a cool episode of Side Projects. It’s the art of improv! And I have to say, I felt a little bit guilty prepping for this one. Ev & Paul from Cinema Cinema have both been on the podcast before, but never together. And we are all joined by the enigmatic Thor Harris. THere’s a lot of juice in this one. To say all three guests are well versed in improvisational music is possibly the bigge...

Today’s guest gives me the blues. But it’s OK; that’s his job. I welcome Lance Lopez to the podcast. While music wasn’t exactly in his DNA, it was a huge part of his family. His dad was in the Army with Elvis Presley and they stayed friends after their time in the service. When he wanted to learn guitar, his dad gave him and acoustic and a Chuck Berry record and said, “Learn this”; no mean feat fo...

Today’s guest makes me look under the bed before I go to sleep. Welcome Belinda Kordic of Crippled Black Phoenix and the new project, Johnny The Boy. Belinda didn’t come from a musical family or start playing music at a crazy young age. But without any real experience, she joined her first band in her early 20’s and just ripped into doing necro vocals. She admits to doing them completely wrong, bu...

Today’s guest just makes me smile. It’s percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah from African Head Charge. He grew up in Jamaica and began playing drums in the Rasta camps and Poco churches. He was running away a lot and sleeping in graveyards. Music helped him get out of those bad situations. He really connected with it and started helping out bands as a young kid, even becoming an unofficial roadie. H...

Today’s guests make me reminisce. Trevor and Laurent from Pelican join me to talk about a lot of stuff. There’s so much history between them and they talk about what music was the most impactful growing up, how they met, and the coolness of riding shotgun and playing cassettes. Their pre-Pelican bands were just as unique as Pelican, but with vocals and more damage. And while Pelican is an instrume...

This is an episode about cults music. Music by and for cults, music of The Cult, and so on. But there is one thing I need to make clear. THIS IS NOT A SERIOUS LOOK AT CULTS! This is the exact opposite. And to prove it, I’m joined by Blinker The Star’s Jordon Zadorozny and multimedia artist extraordinaire, Vic Malang. There’s a ton of cult music out there. We talk about L. Ron Hubbard, Father Yod,...

Today’s guest makes me appreciate the evolution of sound. I’m joined by Shane Harrington, the founder, guitarist, and self described dictator of the band Cinemartyr. And this is actually take two of this podcast. Shane and I were deep into a great conversation before I realized I was having a technical issue. So we started over Shane hails from New York City via Limerick, Ireland, AKA Stab City. T...

Today’s guest is a reminder to always do your best. It’s Britt Lightning, guitarist for Vixen. Her journey to playing guitar really began after hearing Eruption in a shop and buying Van Halen albums that same day. She started playing guitar in a high school with no music program. But it DID have a guitar club. But she was the only girl and wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. But she was dedica...

Today’s guest makes me appreciate my childhood. Lincoln Barr joins me to talk about a lot of stuff! He knew early on that music was his calling. He identified with the musicians he saw on TV before he could even play music. But he went to college for English, not music. He also met his wife at that time. Those two things were foundational for his musical style. He moved to Seattle and started the...

Today’s guest makes me believe in inevitability. Mario Quintero is the singer and guitarist for the band Spotlights. He started the band with his now wife, Sarah. They met at the studio Mario owned. But before all of that, Mario was a kid from Colombia who grew up on his sister’s albums and traditional hispanic music (like Mario Quintero Lara). He went to college for recording but veered off into...

Today’s guest makes me want it to be 1990 again! It’s Brenda Sauter, bassist for the bands Wild Carnation, The Feelies, Speed The Plough, & The Trypes. But she didn’t start off on the bass. In fact, she started off playing the piano before moving to guitar. She began playing with her friends, which makes sense. Music basically defined her friend group at that point. She was playing a lot of folk m...

Today’s guest makes me wish I had a middle name…or two. But it’s OK. He gave me one of his. It’s Danny Lee Blackwell of Night Beats. I’ve wanted to have Danny for quite a while. So I have to thank our mutual friend Paula. Without her, this episode would probably not have happened. Danny and I soon discover that we have another mutual friend, Clyde Mays. And he keeps popping up when you least expec...

Today’s guest is Clay Melton and he makes me want to do a blues deep dive. We actually start off talking about the weather. After discussing the effects of bitterly cold, southern humid winters, we talk about Clay’s influences and the lasting importance of his father’s cassette collection. He started playing guitar on a classic Toy ‘R Us model with a built in speaker and two missing strings. But h...

Today’s guest makes me wish I had written more letters. It’s Eyelids’ Chris Slusarenko. Not only is he the guitarist for the band, he’s also a sweater enthusiast. But before any of that, he was pen pals with Peter Buck. Kind of. That was in Chris’ Death Midget days. But once Death Midget ran its course, he and his brother Nate started the band Sprinkler. They signed to a pre-Nevermind Sub Pop and...

I’ve got a great episode of Side Projects here! Michael Gira of Swans returns to talk about their latest album, The Beggar. Swans never got to tour their last album, Leaving Meaning. So The Beggar, while not a continuation of Leaving Meaning, does have some connections to it. It also means that Swans, who are not known for looking back, reminiscing, and playing older songs from their back catalog,...

Today’s guest has unusual mentors. It’s Dan Montgomery and he’s got a new album out called Cast Iron Songs and Torch Ballads. We start off reminiscing about the great state of New Jersey and how local radio was a huge influence on him, back when stations would play a wide variety of genres and styles. He started playing in bands at the tender age of 14. And Dan gives a few wild stories from some f...

Today’s guest makes me want to read more dictionaries; but old, slang ones. He’s Joe Cannon from Resurrectionists. Joe comes from a family that isn’t exactly musically inclined, although his dad DID play a mean steering wheel. Joe didn’t start pursuing music seriously until he went to Notre Dame in South Bend. At that point he REALLY got into it. He not only played music, but also got national tou...

Welcome to one of the friendliest episodes ever! Jonathan Colman of Muscle Tough joins me for a great discussion about his unique career. He’s really the only artist in his family. But what a supportive family! Jonathan’s gateway into music was Weird Al. He got into music more as a rapper and breakdancer than musician; that is until he heard his first electric bass. Then it was love at first liste...

My guest this episode is Simon Kerr of The Wans. We start the show discussing Guinness, Irish coffee and mead. Makes sense…Simon was born in Ireland and I’m mostly Irish. But he grew up in Northern Ireland whereas I did not. His parents were both very musical and imparted that on Simon. It took such deep root in him that his dad is actually his writing partner to this day! That started when Simon...

This episode is very personal to me. My guest for this show is my brother, Scott Shea. He’s written an in-depth biography of The Mamas and The Papas. But don’t think he’s on just because he’s my brother. There’s no nepotism on this podcast! It’s really a fascinating read. And Scott road to getting it published is a true DIY story. The book gives the backstory for all four members of The Mamas and...

I’ve mentioned having a list of people I’ve wanted on this podcast; like a unicorn list. Today I get to cross another person off of it. Jeremy Toback is one half of the duo Renee & Jeremy, which started off as a personal project, singing lullabies for their kids. Before that, he had a solo career, releasing three albums under his own name. But it was the project that launched his solo career that...

Welcome to another episode of Side Projects. Today we welcome back Eszter Balint and Charming Disaster’s Ellia Bisker & Jeff Morris. If you listen on a fairly regular basis, you might notice that I like many different genres of music. One area that I was never drawn to was musical theater. Most of it seemed too campy and over the top. That’s why I asked these specific guests to join me for this ep...