Straightening the Record

Hey, thanks for being here. In this second episode of 2024, my guest is the wonderful Tommy Boynton, who you might know as a solo performer, a member of The Four Freshmen, The River Monks, The Mimzees, Jinnouchi Power, or any number of other pursuits as a musician. He's also extremely passionate about teaching music, and we talk a bit about that here. I felt bad about having to call this conve...

Pat's back! This time we had a pretty long chat in the basement studio of Squayne Manor about Patrick's new McKenna Alise album, Stranded, which is the first of four scheduled to come out this year. We also chat about Neutral Milk Hotel, how we met, and horrifying children's cartoons, and much more. I forgot to mention in my "recent shows" section of the intro that I went to...

We're back, and Ryan Stier of Extravision is back with us! Ryan and I chatted about two weeks after the release of the new album, Temporary Fountain . We talked about the album, evolving relationships with your parents, Hot Ones, tour stories, and so much more! The conversation starts at 16:12. Check out Temporary Fountain and all of Extravision's music here: https://extravisionmusic.bandc...

Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever applies when you're listening to this!  I think we're coming out the gate of 2022 strong here with Andrew Jones, talking about the new Zap Tura album, Ataptasia , among other things.  This was a really fun conversation not only about Andrew's work in particular, but also some fun philosophical talk about some music concepts, including...

I need to get better at recording intros to these things!  New Year's resolution, I guess. Jordan Mayland is a super-productive singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and advocate for music in central Iowa.  You are likely to have seen him with Tires, Volcano Boys, Nuclear Rodeo, The Wheelers, Keepers of the Carpet, or with his band The Thermal Detonators, among others. &nbs...

We're doing something a little different here.  Improvising.  A little podcast jazz, if you will.  Since Nick and I were talking about all these moments in the process of recording, it truly seemed more appropriate to just use clips from the album.  Since we deviated from the usual format, I'm skipping adding songs to the "Featured on Straightening the Record" playlist this mon...

We're back with a long and juicy conversation with the always-creating and always changing Huxley Maxwell.  We get into some wild, fun, deep stuff here from punk and subversion, inclusiveness and the value of art, drug addiction (CW on that), and so much more.  Click all of the links below if you are able to on your listening platform: https://justicefetish.bandcamp.com/releases https://...

We're back to our usual format this month with Annalibera's Anna Gebhardt and Caleb Swank-Ferrara.  Annalibera has been a local favorite of mine since the early days, when they had a dreamy, post-rock inspired sound.  Over the years Anna has never failed to impress, whether the presentation was a solo performance on keyboard or a full band featuring many other talented Iowa musicians, in...

Boy, I sure like, say "like" a bunch in this one.  I must be a millennial!   This time around our guests are Nicholas Frampton and Evelyn Taylor, aka Field Division.  They are Iowans who started playing together in Nashville, moved to Colorado, back to Iowa, and now call Denton, Texas home.  We chatted over Skype on January 23rd about their songwriting and arranging process fro...

We're starting 2021 off strong with eastern Iowa's wizardlike singer-songwriter Brooks Strause.  We talk new and old albums by Brooks, the upcoming Spectral Snake full-length, Brooks' current passion for comic books, and more!  This conversation was recorded on 12/23/2020.  Episode photo by James Dean, aka Great Plains James.   Check out Spectral Snake's first EP here: https://...

You might know this guest from his work as part of the backing bands for Matt Woods or Stutterin' Jimmy, or you might just know him (as I do) as my dad.  Some of my earliest experiences being interested in music were because of my dad's influence, so even though there were a handful of artists who I didn't get to this year, I felt a strong attachment to the idea of closing out this season wit...

Here's a little distraction for your election-week blues!  We're here for you with a throwback to almost 6 months ago!   Back in May I still felt like I was just figuring this thing out, but I was excited.  I had just gotten my new recording gear, and I decided since I knew for a fact that my friend Courtney had a modest home recording setup of her own, she might be an excellent can...

Sorry for the weird audio, but this is a BONUS EPISODE and we kinda just slapped it together to supplement the real deal, coming out very soon.  Courtney and I are just catching up here and filling in the gaps from May til now in our own personal timelines, reflecting, laughing a lot.  Listen now or wait and check it out along with episode 6 next week! Click here to check out City Voices...

Hooo boy.  It's been a few months since one of these has come out, and it's probably not hard to guess why, but I still feel a little embarrassed about claiming to have a consistent release schedule back in May and then sitting on a couple of episodes for so long.  BUT we are back with an interview that I recorded with Steven Bergeron and Kamillah Jonae, who make up the amazing "cinemati...

For this third episode of 2020, I brought my oldest friend Alex on the show to talk about his education in the theatre world, his podcast, titled The Traveler Diaries, his early experiences touring with Dirty Reggae Punx, and whether his debut solo record is the sci-fi concept album that I thought it was.     Alex the Traveler Links: https://www.facebook.com/Findthetraveler/   https...

In the first remote-recorded episode, I talk to my good friend Patrick about Ratboys' new album, Printer's Devil , and Cataldo's most recent album, Literally Main Street .  These are a couple of our favorite new releases, so even if you think it's boring listening to us talk about them, click those links below and support these great bands! Ratboys https://ratboys.bandcamp.com/ Audiotree sess...

For the first episode of season 2, Keokuk singer/songwriter/amazing human Nalani Proctor and I talked about her music, time management, and video games, and had a lot of laughs.   Nalaniproctor.com Nalani’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/nalaniproctor Nalani's other projects: https://cancerleo.bandcamp.com/ and https://finallysomeaction.bandcamp.com/album/circuits-of-time-ep Our Roboco...

0:00 - Intro 3:13 - "Ballerina" 7:39 - Interview 1:08:44 - "Josie's Experiment" In Episode three, recorded 9/30/2018, Charlie from Good Morning Midnight and (sometimes) bassist Griffen Clark joined me to talk about their music, ticket prices, and a bunch of other stuff.  This was such a blast that you can hear us kicking the coffee table more in this episode than any other, hopefully ever. Li...

In episode two, recorded 5/16/2018, I sat down with all four members of Honeycreeper to talk about their self-titled EP, Girls Rock!, and other fun stuff.  This one is a little shorter, but there are a lot of fun moments.   0:00 - "White Letters" 2:55 - Interview 30:19 - "Vagina Tax" Listen to the EP here: https://honeycreeperdm.bandcamp.com/ And Lisa's other band, Odd Pets, here: https:...

0:00 - "What I Will Become" 6:02 - Interview 51:48 - "Waking Up" On the first episode of STRPod, recorded 2/1/2018, I had my good friend Ryan of Extravision over at my old apartment and we talked about the creation of Waking Up , the first Extravision record, among other things.   Check these tunes out, as well as last year's ambient meditation album, Nectarines of Mercy , here: https://extra...