Performance Anxiety

Today’s guests make me want to do this podcast outdoors. That’s because I’m join by Tim Lee and Susan Bauer-Lee from the band Bark. When we recorded this, they were just hanging outside on a beautiful Mississippi evening. And the way this band came together is really wild. Actually, the way the previous band, The Tim Lee 3, came together is wild. Bark was just the natural progression of that. Tim...

This episode made me think. A lot. I like Steely Dan. But the band and their music has always been a bit mysterious to me. Apparently it has also intrigued my guests. I’m joined by Jason Thomson of Vast Robot Armies, Jordan Zadorozny of Blinker The Star, and Paul Malinowski and Jason Gerken from Shiner. If you’re not familiar with the Steely Dan approach to music, it’s different than your typical...

Today’s guest makes me not want to dream. So maybe it’s fitting that this is released on Halloween. Welcome Emily Whitehurst of Survival Guide to the podcast. And throughout this episode, it’s clear that her band is aptly named. From her start with the bands Plinky and Tsunami Bomb, she’s always had a part in writing lyrics and melodies. And it served her well as Tsunami Bomb played on Warped Tour...

Today’s guests make me happy and hungry. Marc Broussard and Jay Reifel join me to talk about the connection between music and food. Each guy has dipped a toe into the other’s wheelhouse, which makes this a very interesting conversation. We talk about the worst jobs in ancient kitchens, Marc’s best meal ever, and I get excited about aspic. We discuss doing musical and gastronomical covers. Jay expl...

Today’s guest makes me joyful. That’s because it’s Shemaiah Gonzalez, author of the Substack and soon to be book, Undaunted Joy. And true to the Substack, it really was a joy speaking with her. I first learned of her work through past guest Joseph Massey and I couldn’t be more grateful. And like all good podcasts, we start with alcohol. Shemaiah has known for a long time that she wanted to be a wr...

 Today’s guest made me question my preconceived notions. It’s singer/songwriter Tony Cuchetti. And even though it sounds like he’s from New Jersey, he’s not. He’s actually from a Partridge Family type of performing group. As a kid, his family moved from Detroit to Florida and began performing as a musical act. And there were a LOT of family members. Tony talks about literally growing up on the roa...

Today’s guest made me protonic. I don’t even know what that means, but welcome Conan Neutron to the podcast. I get some great insight into the Neutron house, growing up. For example, Conan started playing guitar because a friend of his came to the front door with a bass and told Conan he needed to get a guitar so they could start a band. Well it worked out alright, because he’s been in some pretty...

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,...