Beginnings: Recent Episodes
Andy Beckerman
We all know the stories of how creative people get into the business of creating for a living, but how did they start using their imaginations in the first place? On the Beginnings podcast, writer and performer Andy Beckerman asks well-known and on-their-way-up comedians, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers about their earliest creative acts, their formative childhood experiences, and how they've developed both creatively and emotionally over the years. Beginnings is part therapy, part philosophy and almost all fascinating (95% according to FDA studies).
On today's episode, I talk to musician and producer Tony Simon AKA Blockhead. Originally from Manhattan, Tony grew up in an artistic household and started making music when he was a teenager. He went to Boston University for a year, which may not have worked out academically, but did artistically because this is where he met Aesop Rock and began making beats for him starting with 1999's Appleseed EP. Back in New York, he formed the duo Party Fun Action Committee, and in 2003, Def Jux put out their album Let's Get Serious. The following year, Ninja Tune released Tony's first instrumental album Music by Cavelight, and in the years since, Tony has composed and produced dozens of albums, working with some of the best rappers of the 21st century including the aforementioned Aesop Rock, Billy Woods, Armand Hammer, Open Mike Eagle and so many others. Just a few weeks ago, Phantom Limb released his latest album Boatshoes, a collaboration with one of most fun and creative emcees performing today Brian Ennals, and it is incredible! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Chad Matheny. Raised in Jacksonville, FL, Chad began recording music as Emperor X in 1998. Though he had a deep interest in science and pursued an advanced degree in physics, music was his true calling, and in 2012 he moved to Berlin to tour more easily. Chad has recorded almost two dozen albums and EPs as Emperor X, and his latest Unified Field was just released at the end of June on Bar/None, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to historian and journalist Daniel Bessner. Danny is a true renaissance man, but not in the Danny DeVito sense. As an academic, he is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is also the author of two books, Democracy in Exile and Imperialist Realism and the co-editor of a number of anthologies, including Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency, which just came out in January. As a podcaster, Danny is the co-host with Derek Davison of the fantastic U.S. foreign policy and global affairs podcast American Prestige, which packs more news and analysis into every second than most other political podcasts pack into their entire run. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and academic Matthew S. Originally from Fresno, CA, Matthew founded the sample-based label Illegal Art in 1998 and ran it under the pseudonym Philo T. Farnsworth for 15 years. In that time, Illegal Art released music from Touch People, Junk Culture and perhaps the most acclaimed of the roster Girl Talk. In 2012, Matthew shut the label down to concentrate on his own music and work as a college professor, but this year he has decided to bring it back, and the first release is his own project Myth Math. Their debut EP Tongues just came out last week, and it is excellent! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and writer Jonathan Meiburg. Born in Baltimore, MD, Jonathan started playing music in the early 1990s in Austin and towards the end of the decade began playing keyboards in Okkervil River. A year later, he formed the band Shearwater with Okkervil's Will Sheff as an outlet for their quieter songs, though by their fourth album Palo Santo, it became primarily Jonathan's group. Since 1999, Shearwater has released almost two dozen albums and EPs on labels like Misra, Matador and Sub Pop. In addition to his musical pursuits, Jonathan has also had an impressive writing career, contributing to publications like The Believer and Talkhouse, and his book A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey was published in 2021 by Knopf. Shearwater's latest album The New World will be released by Polyborus Records at the end of July, and it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Jeff Mueller. Originally from Louisville, KY, Jeff formed the band Rodan in 1992 with his friend Jason Noble, releasing the seminal album Rusty two years later on Quarterstick Records. After Rodan broke up, Jeff formed June of 44, and they put out almost an album a year until they stopped playing together in 1999. Rodan's break-up also blossomed into a new band for Jeff and Jason, Shipping News. Shipping News released numerous albums over the next fifteen years, many of them on Quarterstick, until Jason's death in 2012. Most recently, Solid Brass Records released Jeff and Jason's first high school group King G & the J Krew, which is somewhere in-between Rodan and the Beastie Boys, and it is a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Ron Regé Jr. Raised in Plymouth, MA, Ron began making minicomics in the late 1980s, and about a decade later, his first book Skibber Bee Bye was published by Highwater Books. For the next decade, he released comics and graphic novels through Drawn & Quarterly, but a frustration with comics changed his aesthetic focus, and starting with his next book The Cartoon Utopia, Ron began to be published by Fantagraphics. His most recent comic It's Over came out late last year on Parsifal Press. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Dusty Reske of the band Rocketship. Born in San Francisco, CA, Dusty moved around a bit as a child before ending up in Sacramento where he formed Rocketship in 1993. Their first album A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness came out a few years later on Slumberland followed by Garden of Delights on 1999, Here Comes... Rocketship in 2006 and Thanks to You in 2019. This year is the 30th anniversary of A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, and folks, it's just as good as the day it came out! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to journalist and writer Michael Edison Hayden. Originally from Port Washington, Long Island, Michael started out his career as a playwright before transitioning to journalism during a trip to India. This led to becoming one of the few reporters at ABC News covering far-right extremism, and eventually Michael became a Senior Investigative Reporter and Spokesperson for Southern Poverty Law Center, a position he held until 2023. With Jared Holt, he hosts the political podcast Posting Through It, and most recently, his book Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town was published by Bold Type/Hachette, and it is excellent! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Doug Gillard. Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Doug performed in a number of punk groups in high school, and in the early '80s joined the Cleveland rock band Death of Samantha. After their breakup in 1990, Doug became one of the original members of Cobra Verde, who then became Bob Pollard's backing band on Mag Earwhig!. This led to Doug joining Guided by Voices, who he performed with from 1997 to 2004 and then from 2016 to the present. This, of course, is just a small sampling of Doug's musical CV. On his own, Doug has been making albums since the mid-'80s, and his most recent album Parallel Stride just came out a few weeks ago on Dromedary Records, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Felicia Douglass. Originally from New York City, Felicia studied ballet for a long time before deciding that wasn't the path for her. Some of her old school chums had formed the band Ava Luna, and she eventually joined them. In the twenty years they've been together, Ava Luna has released over a dozen albums and EPs, and their latest self-titled album came out on Western Vinyl just last year. In 2018, Felicia became a member of Dirty Projectors, performing as part of the Song of the Earth ensemble, and few years earlier, she and producer/multi-instrumentalist Erik Gundel formed the band Gemma. Their latest album Be About It is out today, and folks, it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to filmmaker Josh Margolin. Originally from Los Angeles, Josh always aimed his life in the direction of acting and filmmaking. He majored in theater, did improv, including performing in "One Night Stand: An Improvised Musical", which toured all over including an Edinburgh Fringe run, but since he was a kid, filmmaking seemed to be the thing. While Josh has written a number of shorts, webseries and a feature-length horror-comedy, his first film as writer and director, Thelma, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and it is easily one of the best films of 2024! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Stefanie Drootin and Chris Senseney of Big Harp. Originally from the San Fernando Valley and the Sandhills of Nebraska respectively, Stefanie and Chris met two decades ago, when they became both romantic and creative partners, getting married, having two children and performing together as Big Harp. In 2011, they released their first album White Hat, followed by Chain Letters in 2013 and now thirteen years later, they've released their third record Runs to Blue on Saddle Creek, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to John Flansburgh of the band They Might Be Giants. Originally from Lexington, MA, John met John Linnell in high school, and they formed They Might Be Giants years later in 1982 after both moving to New York City. Trying to do justice to the breadth and depth of TMBG's CV in a short bio is unfeasible, but a few highlights of their 44 year career are their 24 albums, including five children's albums, their numerous Tony and Grammy nominations and two Grammy wins, Dial-A-Song and a million other things. On his own, John has released albums as Mono Puff, directed music videos for bands like Frank Black and Ben Folds Five, and even appeared as a voice on Xavier: Renegade Angel. They Might Be Giants latest album The World Is to Dig will be released next week on Idlewild Recordings, and folks, it is an absolute delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and producer John McEntire. Originally from Portland, OR, John started playing drums as a preteen and eventually went to school at The Oberlin Conservatory to study music. At Oberlin, John started playing in David Grubbs post-Squirrel Bait band Bastro. The group then moved to Chicago, and Bastro morphed into the first incarnation of Gastr Del Sol. After their debut album The Serpentine Similar was released in 1993, John left to co-found Tortoise, who he's played with ever since. John also performs in The Sea and Cake and Red Krayola, and as a producer and engineer has worked with everyone from Stereolab to Broken Social Scene to Yo La Tengo, and of course, this is just scraping the surface of John's accomplishments. Most recently, Tortoise released their eighth album Touch through International Anthem and Nonesuch Records, and folks, like everything else they've done, it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to writers and directors Zachary Johnson and Jeffrey Max of Fatal Farm. Zach and Jeffrey grew up in Dallas, TX and became interested in film in high school. Eventually moving to LA, the two began to make videos together in the early days of YouTube, calling themselves Fatal Farm. Their work included the live-action Garfield series Lasagna Cat, as well as Infinite Solutions and Alternate TV Intros. Besides being incredibly funny, Fatal Farm also has a technical expertise that was missing from a lot of internet videos - then and now - and this allowed them to build a name for themselves as in-demand commercial and sketch comedy producers, working with everyone from The Lonely Island to Key & Peele, Adult Swim, I Think You Should Leave and many others! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
In 2023, they recorded their first full-length album Revival of a Friend at Tiny Telephone, and it will be released on Exploding In Sound Records at the end of the month! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Julia Steiner of the band Ratboys. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Julia started Ratboys in college at Notre Dame with Dave Sagan. In 2015, they relocated to Chicago and released their first album AOID on Topshelf Records. And since then, the band has accomplished everything you want to happen to a good band: international tours, critical and commercial success and releasing numerous albums and EPs of great music. Their latest, Singin' to an Empty Chair, was just released in early February, and folks, it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Amelia Fletcher of the band Heavenly. Raised in Oxford, Amelia started playing in bands in the mid-1980s. Her first major group was Talulah Gosh, which she formed with Elizabeth Price, and they released a number of singles before Amelia left and formed Heavenly in 1989. Heavenly released four albums on Sarah and K Records, but after a tragic event, retired the name, and since then, Amelia has performed in a number of notable groups including Marine Research, Tender Trap and The Catenary Wires. Alongside her musical career, Amelia became a respected economist and academic, whose accolades are too numerous to mention in a short biography, though one major point is that her work has been used to curb Tech power in the UK, and due to her decades of service, she was appointed OBE in 2014 and CBE in 2020. Most recently, Heavenly has returned after their 30 year hiatus with Highway to Heavenly, which was just released last week on Skep Wax, and regardless of the intervening decades, is as good as anything they've ever done! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comedian and actor Mort Burke. Originally from St. Louis, Mort came up in the Chicago comedy scene before moving to Los Angeles. He's acted on everything from Bunheads to Workaholics to Mythic Quest, recurred on The Mindy Project, wrote and acted in W/Bob and David, and was a regular on both Enlisted and Drunk History. He also hosts the podcast Rebrand with his brilliant wife Ashly Burch and is writing a novel in installments on his Substack, which I can call Dickensian in the only positive use of that word. As a comedian, Mort has released two specials, his first Spiritually Filthy in 2023, and his latest, There's Beauty In It All, which just came out last week, and much like everything Mort does, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Lisa Marr and Lisa Gertrud, two-thirds of the band cub. Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Lisa Marr and Robynn Iwata formed cub in 1992 and while they were only together for five short years, were incredibly prolific, releasing a dozen albums, EPs and 7"es in their half-a-decade as a band. After their break-up, Robin started the band I Am Spoonbender, while Lisa M and Lisa G, who joined in 1994, moved to California where they started the band Buck. Since the '90s, both Lisas have had extensive careers in film and visual art; Lisa M co-founded the Echo Park Film Center, and Lisa G is a founding member of Vancouver's Iris Film Collective. Back in mid-January, Mint Records released the 30th anniversary reissue of cub's second album Come Out Come Out, and even three decades later, it is still fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to harpist Mary Lattimore. Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, Mary began playing the harp as a tween and eventually attended the Eastman School of Music to study it more seriously. In 2012, Mary released her first album, a self-titled cassette, on Fred Thomas' Life Like imprint. This was re-released a year later on Desire Path Recordings with a new title, The Withdrawing Room. Since then, she's released almost a dozen more albums and collaborations on labels like Ghostly International, Three Lobed and Thrill Jockey, and her latest, Tragic Magic, an album she made with Julianna Barwick, was just released in the middle of January, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Julianna Barwick. Originally from Louisiana, Julianna ended up in New York in the early aughts and self-released her debut EP, Sanguine, in 2006. Her first album The Magic Place came out on Asthmatic Kitty in 2011, and since then, she has released a dozen more albums, EPs and collaborations on labels like Dead Oceans and Ninja Tune. Her latest, Tragic Magic, a collaboration with harpist Mary Lattimore, just came out in the middle of January on InFiné, and it is just wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's 16th anniversary episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning TV and comic writer and podcaster Elliott Kalan. Originally from Millburn, NJ, Elliott started as a PA at The Daily Show in 2003 and eventually worked his way up to head writer. In addition to The Daily Show, he's written for the Academy Awards, MST3K, Netflix's upcoming Ghostbusters cartoon and many other shows. As a comic writer, he's written Spider-Man and the X-Men, Harley Quinn and his own Maniac of New York, and as a podcaster, Elliot has been one of the three hosts of the wonderful Flop House, which has been running since 2007. This is just a small sampling of Elliott's CV, and the latest addition is his new book Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense, which was just published by University of Chicago Press at the end of last year! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Jen Bender of Cusp. Originally from Long Island, Jen and her bandmates formed Cusp a little over five years ago in Rochester, before moving to Chicago in 2022. A year later, they released their first album You Can Do It All, followed by the Thanks So Much EP in 2024, and their latest, What I Want Doesn't Want Me Back, which came out in October last year and was one of my favorite albums of 2025! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Steven Brown. Originally from Chicago, IL, Steven moved to San Francisco in the 1970s, where he eventually joined the artist collective and commune The Angels of Light. It was though this group that he would meet his collaborators in the brilliant post-punk band Tuxedomoon. In 1980, they released their first album Half-Moon on Ralph Records, and eventually relocated to Brussels, where they began to release albums on the influential label Crammed Discs. In 1983, Steven began recording albums on his own, and his first record Music for Solo Piano, was released by Crépuscule the following year. Since then Steven has recorded numerous albums and soundtracks on his own and with Tuxedomoon, and his latest In This Very World will be released February 20th on Crammed Discs, and folks, it's great! (Plus if you live in LA, go see Steven at Zebulon on January 25th!) This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Kassie Carlson. Originally from Cape Cod, Kassie began performing in an early incarnation of Guerilla Toss after her hardcore band Western Syndrome played a show with them in 2012. They released their first EP Jeffrey Johnson later that year on Feeding Tube Records, and since then, they've released over a dozen more albums and EPs on labels like Tzadik, DFA and Sub Pop. Just last September, they released their sixth album, You're Weird Now, on Sub Pop, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Amy Oelsner AKA Amy O. Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Amy has been recording and releasing albums since 2004. In 2017, she began releasing albums on Winspear with the wonderful Elastic, which was followed up two years later by Shell and then 2024's brilliant Mirror, Reflect. Alongside her musical career, in 2019 Amy founded Girls Rock Bloomington, a music and mentorship nonprofit for girls, trans and non-binary youth that teaches positive self-esteem and self-expression through many events as well as an annual rock n' roll summer camp. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to experimental musician and composer Claire Rousay. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Claire grew up in San Antonio, Texas and began playing piano at the ripe age of 4-years-old. Dropping out of high school in her mid-teens, Claire began playing music professionally, and in 2017, released her first album Blip on Mended Dreams. Since then, she's released over two dozen other albums and EPs on Mended Dreams, as well as Orange Milk, Shelter Press and her latest, A Little Death, just came out in October on Thrill Jockey, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Brian Michael Bendis. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Brian knew from an early age he wanted to make comics. His late teens and twenties were spent making his own comics, some of them published by Caliber Press, and in 1996, a lot of this work was collected together at Image. This led to working on the Spawn spin-off Sam and Twitch, and in 1998, he began releasing Powers, which would go on to garner both critical and commercial success, as well as Harvey and Eisner Awards. In 2000, Brian co-created Miles Morales when he began writing Ultimate Spider-Man. The next year, Brian began a defining run on Daredevil and co-created Jessica Jones with the start of Alias. And this is essentially just the first decade of his career! Since then, he went on to write defining runs on comics like Avengers and New Avengers, events like House of M, books like Superman and Action Comics for DC, and most recently, for the 25th anniversary of Powers, Brian and artist Michael Avon Oeming are creating a new 12-issue series at Dark Horse, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Marc Hollander. Born in Geneva, Switzerland right after WWII, Marc was raised in Brussels and started the band Aksak Maboul in 1977 when producer Marc Moulin commissioned him to write and record an album for his label Kamikaze. Aksak Maboul was one of the handful of bands that was part of the exclusive Rock In Opposition movement, and they produced two brilliant albums before going on hiatus in the early 1980s. In 1980, Marc founded Crammed Discs, which over the last 45 years has been one of the most interesting and eclectic independent labels in the world, releasing music from bands and musicians like Tuxedomoon, John Lurie, Fred Frith, Konono Nº1 and many, many more. In 2014, Marc ended the long Aksak Maboul hiatus by releasing the "lost" third album from the early '80s, and since then has made two further albums. Their latest, Before Aksak Maboul (documents & experiments 1969-1977), a collection that traces Marc's musical evolution from his first band at 19, Here and Now, up through the formation of Aksak Maboul, is out next week, and it's a blast! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to journalist and writer David J. Roth. Raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey, David started out his writing career writing and editing content for the backs of Topps trading cards. This led to writing for The Wall Street Journal's sports blog, co-founding and editing his own sports blog The Classical, and contributing to Vice and The Baffler, as well as many other publications. In 2017, David became an editor-at-large at Deadspin, and two years later, he and the entire writing and editorial staff resigned, protesting major editorial interference from the private equity holding company that had bought the publication. The following year, David and a number of the other former Deadspin writers formed Defector Media, one of the exciting new worker-owned journalism companies, and in the last five years, it has become one of the most well-regarded sites online. In addition to all of this, David also hosts the wonderful Defector podcast The Distraction. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Thalia Zedek. Originally from Washington DC, Thalia attended college at Boston University for one semester before dropping out to pursue a musical career instead. Each band she formed saw a little more success than the last, and her breakthrough was the group Uzi in 1984. They only stayed together for a short time though, and she next joined the New York no wave band Live Skull, who stayed together until 1990. From their break-up until 2001, Thalia was in the band Come, which she formed with Codeine's Chris Brokaw; in their time together, they released four acclaimed records on Matador, and since then, she's been performing as Thalia Zedek Band. They've released nine albums, mostly on Thrill Jockey, and her latest The Boat Outside Your Window was just released in May of this year. On November 14th, Dromedary Records will release the lost EP of Via, Thalia's other Live Skull-era band, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Gina Birch. Originally from Nottingham in the UK, Gina formed the seminal art-punk band The Raincoats with Ana da Silva in 1977. They released three incredible records on Rough Trade - self-titled, Odyshape and Moving - and then broke up in 1984. But this was merely the start of Gina's artistic career. She worked with Red Crayola, formed the band Dorothy, became a filmmaker and music video director, reunited with Ana to support Nirvana on tour and subsequently make another album as The Raincoats, and of course, record music under her own name. Her first solo album I Play My Bass Loud came out in 2021, and her latest Trouble was just released on Third Man Records, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Joelton Mayfield. Originally from the Marble Falls/Granite Shoals area of Texas, Joelton grew up in a family where music was intertwined with religion. As a teenager, he was even the music director of his church and led Wednesday night worship services. As he gradually moved away from the church, both geographically and spiritually, he began to write music for himself, and released the I Hope You Make It EP in 2019. His debut album Crowd Pleaser comes out next week on Bloodshot Records, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Julia Kugel. Originally from Belarus, Julia and her family immigrated to Atlanta, GA when she was a child. In 2006, she formed The Coathangers along with Meredith Franco and Stephanie Luke. In the last 19 years, they've released over a dozen albums, EPs and singles, mostly on Suicide Squeeze Records. In addition to The Coathangers, Julia records with her husband as Soft Palms, and on her own, both as White Woods and Julia, Julia. The latest Julia, Julia album, Sugaring a Strawberry, just came out at the start of September, and it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Hannah Frances. Growing up just outside of Philly, Hannah was doing all kinds of creative work from a young age, from singing to poetry to composing. In 2018, she made her first album White Buffalo, and since then has recorded four other albums. Her fourth album Keeper of the Shepherd garnered a great deal of acclaim leading Fire Talk Records to reissue it earlier this year, as well as release her new album Nested in Tangles, which is out next week, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar of the band Anamanaguchi. In 2004, school chums Peter Berkman and James DeVito would form the chiptunes band Anamanaguchi, and two years later, they released their debut EP Power Supply on the 8bitpeoples label. In 2009, Ary Warnaar and Luke Silas joined the band cementing the line-up that continues to this day. In the last 16 years, the band has released over a dozen albums, EPs, compilations and soundtracks, including the soundtrack to the Scott Pilgrim video game, and their latest album Anyway just came out in August on Polyvinyl, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comic artist Nick Dragotta. Originally from Cape May, NJ, Nick came to prominence working on Fantastic Four with Jonathan Hickman, which then led to their incredible creator-owned work East of West. Beyond this, Nick has done the art for a number of great books including X-Statix, wrote and drew his own book Ghost Cage, and co-created the character America Chavez. Most recently, it was announced that Nick will do the art for the final arc of Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, while he continues to draw the fantastic Absolute Batman! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Dan Wriggins. Originally from Yarmouth, ME, Dan started playing piano and guitar in high school, and around this time he met his future bandmates in Friendship, Michael Cormier-O'Leary and Peter Gill. In the last ten years, Friendship have released five records starting with 2015's You're Going to Have to Trust Me on Burst & Bloom, and their latest, Caveman Wakes Up, was just released in May on Merge Records. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to singer/songwriter Peter Salett. Born in Princeton, NJ, Peter grew up near Washington DC in Columbia, MD. As part of the New York arts scene in the 1990s, Peter crossed over with the vibrant film and comedy scenes at the time and has written or contributed to the music for a number of films including Wet Hot American Summer, Keeping the Faith, The Ten, The Baxter and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Outside of soundtracks, Peter is an accomplished musician with seven albums to his name, and his latest is a double release Suite for the Summer Rain and Dance of the Yellow Leaf, and they are both just enchanting! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Laura Ballance. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Laura moved around a fair amount as a child, eventually ending up in Chapel Hill for college where she met Mac McCaughan, who convinced her to be in a band. That band is Superchunk, who over the last 36 years have released twelve albums, numerous EPs, compilations and live albums and created one of the most lasting legacies in indie rock. In addition to Superchunk, Laura co-founded, along with Mac, Merge Records, one of the most well-known and well-liked indie labels. Speaking of both Merge and Superchunk, their latest album, the very appropriate -for-2025-named Songs in the Key of Yikes is out next Friday, and I cannot wait! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Carson McHone. Originally from Austin, TX, Carson has been playing music live since she was a teenager. Her first EP came out in 2013 and brought her immediate attention. Over the next five years, Carson built a reputation for herself in the country scene, and her second album Carousel was named by Rolling Stone as one of the "40 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2018". 2022's Still Life, released on Merge, saw an evolution of Carson's style which continues into her latest album Pentimento, which will be out September 12th also on Merge, and folks, it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner and GLAAD Award-winning comics writer Mark Russell. Born in Springfield, OR, Mark broke into professional writing with his book God Is Disappointed in You, a modern retelling of the Bible. This led to comics work writing Prez for DC in 2015 and a number of other comics in the last decade including The Flintstones, Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, Fantastic Four: Life Story, Superman: Space Age, Batman: Dark Age and many others. Most recently, Mark finished a run writing X-Factor for the first wave of post-Krakoa X-Men books and has a number of books on the horizon for publishers like Ahoy and Mad Cave! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Rory Blank. Originally from Carrollton, Georgia, Rory eventually ended up in Austin for college, where he began making cartoons for the student newspaper. In the early 20-teens, Rory began posting his comics online on places like Tumblr and Twitter and began to gain a following. Most recently, Rory was voted the Best Cartoonist in Austin in the 2025 Austin Chronicle "Best of Austin" readers poll for the second year in a row! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and showrunner Selwyn Seyfu Hinds. Originally from Georgetown, Guyana, Selwyn and his family moved to Brooklyn in the 1980s, when he was 14-years-old. After graduating from Princeton, he began writing for The Village Voice. Then in the late 1990s, he became a hip-hop critic and then editor-in-chief at The Source magazine. As a TV writer, Selwyn wrote for Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone reboot and most recently created and showran the new Hulu show Washington Black, based on Esi Edugyan's novel of the same name, and all episodes drop next Wednesday! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Daniel Littleton. Originally from Annapolis, MD, Daniel's first band The Hated was part of the first wave of hardcore/post-punk/emo in the 1980s. In 1991, Daniel and Elizabeth Mitchell began recording together as Ida. They released their first three albums on the formative indie label Simple Machines, and as the '90s progressed they became loosely associated with a wave of chamber pop bands. Their next five albums were released on labels like Polyvinyl and Tiger Style Records, and in the late aughts, the band went on hiatus. Recently though, they began performing again in support of Numero Group's 4-LP reissue of their fourth album Will You find Me. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Kelly Sue DeConnick. Born in Columbus, OH, Kelly Sue moved around a lot as a child and eventually got into comics professionally through adapting translations of manga. Since the mid-aughts, she has jumped between creator-owned work for publishers like Image such as Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet, and work-for-hire at Marvel and DC, including a defining run on Captain Marvel. Most recently, she created FML for Dark Horse. It returns this July, and is easily one of the best comics in the last year! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comics creator Michael DeForge. Originally from Ottawa, Michael had been making mini- and webcomics for years before he created his first "real" comic Lose, which was published by Koyama Press in 2009. Since then, he's published over a dozen books and collections through publishers like Koyama and Drawn & Quarterly, and also worked as a designer on Adventure Time for six seasons. His latest book Holy Lacrimony was published through Drawn & Quarterly just a few months ago, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician David Bazan. Originally from Phoenix, AZ, David started Pedro the Lion in 1995, and his first full-length album It's Hard to Find a Friend was released three years later on Jade Tree. In 2005, David recorded a more synthesizer-focused album as Headphones, and then a year later, Pedro the Lion broke up. David continued to record music under his own name, releasing albums on labels like Barsuk and Polyvinyl, and then in 2017, Pedro the Lion got back together and began a five-album cycle, with each album focusing on a city that David grew up in. The most recent was last year's Santa Cruz, which came out on Polyvinyl/Big Scary Monsters. 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of Headphones' lone album, and to commemorate the occasion, Suicide Squeeze just released a remastered edition at the end of May, and folks, it's just as fantastic as it was back in 2005! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of the band Tune-Yards. Started by Merrill in the mid-aughts, Tune-Yards first official release Bird-Brains came out in 2009 on 4AD. Almost immediately, the band began to garner acclaim from Pitchfork, the Village Voice and many other publications. After the release of Bird-Brains, Merrill moved to Oakland where Nate lived, and since then, the two have recorded five more albums, a number of singles, as well as the score to the Boots Riley film Sorry to Bother You. Their latest, Better Dreaming, just came out a few weeks ago on 4AD, and it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Constance Keane, Jamie Hyland and Sean Nolan of the band Dublin and London-based band M(h)aol. Formed in 2014, the band released a few EPs and singles in their early days, but it wasn't until 2023 that they released their first, full-length album Attachment Styles. A mere two years later, they've put out their second album Something Soft on Merge Records, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Maia Friedman. Originally from Los Angeles, Maia's family moved around to different California locales, and eventually after college Maia ended up in New York. She formed the band Uni Ika Ai in 2016, joined Dirty Projectors in 2018 and began the band Coco around 2020. As a solo performer, she's released two albums, her first Under the New Light in 2022 and her latest, Goodbye Long Winter Shadow just came out on Last Gang Records, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to political cartoonist Dwayne Booth AKA Mr. Fish. For over 20 years, Dwayne has been creating political cartoons for publications like Harper’s Magazine, Truthdig.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, The Advocate, and many, many others. In addition, he was an animated character designer for Bento Box Entertainment and is the subject of a 2017 award-winning documentary by Pablo Bryant called Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End. HIs books and collections include Go Fish: How to Win Contempt and Influence People, WARNING! Graphic Content, And Then the World Blew Up, Long Story Short: Turning Famous Books into Cartoons, and his most recent Nobody Left, which was published by Fantagraphics. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician David Longstreth. Originally from Southbury, CT, David recorded his first album The Graceful Fallen Mango after dropping out of college. After returning to finish his degree, he began recording under the name Dirty Projectors, and in 2003, Western Vinyl released their first album The Glad Fact. They continued to record albums and slowly built a name for themselves in the thrumming Brooklyn music scene of the aughts. In 2009, Domino released their album Bitte Orca to a great deal of acclaim, and in all, the band has released 20 albums and EPs; their latest, Song of the Earth, is a collaboration with the German orchestral group s t a r g a z e, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Krisitin Hersh. Originally from Atlanta, Kristin's family moved to Newport, RI when she was six. Here she met Tanya Donelly, and they formed Throwing Muses when they were teenagers. After moving to Boston years later, they quickly became part of the burgeoning scene that produced everyone from the Pixies to the Lemonheads, and the band similarly found success. Since 1986, they've released eleven albums on labels like 4AD, Rykodisc and Fire Records. In addition, Kristin has also recorded a dozen albums under her own name and as 50 Foot Wave, she has recorded two wonderful albums as well. And as always with guests who have had prolific careers, this is just the tip of the iceberg! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Tina Halladay. Originally from Long Island, Tina met Matt Palmer, and Kyle and Hart Seely in college, and formed Sheer Mag in 2014 after they had all moved to Philly. From 2015 to 2016, the band released three EPs - titled I, II and III - and then performed at Coachella and on Seth Meyers, and since then, they've steadily built a following. Their next two albums were released on Wilsuns Recording Company, and their latest, Playing Favorites, just came out last year on Third Man, and it's incredible! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician John Davis. Growing up in Cambridge, MA, John formed The Folk Implosion with Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr.'s Lou Barlow in the early 1990s. Their first album 1994's Take a Look Inside was a brilliant lo-fi pop record, and then a year later, a song of theirs on the Kids soundtrack blew up, and in the diverse atmosphere that had been created in Nirvana's wake, the band was noticed by a number of larger labels. Their third album would be released by Interscope, after which John left the band. As a solo artist, John has released many albums under different names on labels like Shrimper, and just last year, Lou and he got back together to make a new Folk Implosion album. Walk Thru Me was released on Joyful Noise last June, and it is quite wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Anders Nilsen. Growing up between Minneapolis and the mountains of Northern New Hampshire, Anders is the artist and author of ten books including Big Questions, The End, and Poetry is Useless. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Kramer's Ergot, Pitchfork, The New Yorker and elsewhere. His comics have been translated widely overseas and his painting and drawing have been exhibited internationally. Anders' work has received three Ignatz awards as well as the Lynd Ward Prize for the Graphic Novel and Big Questions was listed as a New York Times Notable Book in 2011. His most recent work Tongues vol. 1 was just published by Pantheon and like everything else he does, it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comics creator Daniel Warren Johnson. Originally from Massachusetts, Daniel started in the world of cartooning with his web-comic Space Mullet, which ran from 2012 to 2017. This led to work at Dark Horse, and eventually Image published his comic Extremity, which netted him an Eisner Award nomination (he would go on to win four for other things). Since then, he's created a number of other series for Image including Murder Falcon, Do a Powerbomb and his latest The Moon is Following Us. In addition, Daniel is writing (and doing some of the art for) the new Transformers series for Skybound, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis. Originally from the Lower East Side, Jeffrey has bounced back and forth between his two loves comics and music for most of his professional life. As a cartoonist, Jeffrey's longest project was Fuff, which he wrote and drew from 2004 to 2020. He also created Revelations in the Wink of an Eye (My Insane Musings on Watchmen, from Conspiracies to Stupidities), and his most recent project is called Statics, which he started writing and drawing in 2022. As a musician, Jeffrey began as part of the New York antifolk scene that would play at the SideWalk Cafe in the 1990s. He released his first album When Madman Was Good - Version One in 1997, and four years later he was signed to Rough Trade, who released his first "official" album The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane. Since then, he's released over two dozen albums and EPs, and his latest The Even More Freewheelin' Jeffrey Lewis just came out on Blang Records, and it's a banger! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning writer Jack Pendarvis. Originally from Mobile, Alabama, Jack has been writing books, articles and TV for decades. HIs first book of short stories The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure was published in 2005 by MacAdam/Cage, and since then he's written eight other collections, novels and books of poetry including Awesome, Your Body is Changing, and Shut Up, Ugly. As a TV writer, he's written for Adventure Time, SpongeBob SquarePants, Summer Camp Island, the Steven Universe movie and many other shows. Most recently, he created a pilot for Adult Swim with Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward called Mystery Cuddlers, which can be seen on YouTube. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Bob Mould. Originally from Malone, New York, Bob attended college in Saint Paul, Minnesota where he formed Hüsker Dü in 1979 with Grant Hart and Greg Norton. One of the most well-known bands of the hardcore punk era, Hüsker Dü released six albums, mostly on SST and then on Warner Bros. before breaking up in 1988. After this, Bob began performing under his own name, and then formed Sugar in 1992. While Sugar was only together for three short years, they released two albums, an EP and a B-sides collection, and their first album Copper Blue, was a big hit. Since Sugar's dissolution, Bob has kept quite busy, releasing over a dozen albums on labels like Anti- and Merge, and his latest album Here We Go Crazy was just released on Granary Music/BMG Records, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to artist Jamie McKelvie. Born in London, Jamie came to prominence in the world of comics through his collaborations with Kieron Gillen. In 2003, the two started a comic strip in PlayStation Magazine that lasted for three years. This led to their book Phonogram in 2006, and its subsequent sequels, as well as Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine. He's also illustrated stories and designed characters for Marvel on books like Cable, The Defenders, X-Men, Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel among others and created art for bands such as CHVRCHES, Art Brut and Tegan & Sara. Most recently, Jamie has been writing and drawing his own series One for Sorrow, which is being published by DSTLRY! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Josh Zetumer. Originally from San Diego, Josh broke into screenwriting on the back of a script that got on the Black List. This led to working on Quantum of Solace, which led to the 2014 RoboCop reboot and the Peter Berg-directed Patriots Day in 2016. Most recently, Josh adapted and showran the FX show about the Irish Troubles, Say Nothing, which was easily one of the best shows of 2024! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Tim Midyett. Originally from Havre, Montana, Tim started the band Ein Heit in 1985 with his friends, and two years later, they changed their name to Silkworm. In the 20 years the band was together, they released over two dozen albums, EPs and singles on a variety of labels including C/Z, Matador and Touch and Go. In 2005, Silkworm stopped performing after their drummer Michael Dahlquist was killed in a car accident. Tim and Silkworm's guitarist Andy Cohen would go on to form Bottomless Pit, who released four albums and EPs on the wonderful record label Comedy Minus One, and most recently, Tim has been writing and performing with his latest group Mint Mile!
(FYI this was taped back in late December; I meant to put it out earlier and then the city caught on fire for a couple weeks - anyway, I only note this because we're a lil' flippant about the current political atmosphere in a way that I don't think we'd be if this was taped today!) This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and podcaster Dave Holmes. Born in New Jersey, but raised in St. Louis, Dave came to national prominence when he lost the inaugural MTV Wanna Be a VJ contest in 1998. Although very soon after, he was hired by the video channel to host a number of shows including 120 Minutes and TRL. Since then, Dave has led an incredibly varied career, acting in things like the first Fantastic Four film and Reno 911!, hosting podcasts like Homophilia and Troubled Waters, writing the book Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs, as well as creating and producing the wonderful limited podcast series Waiting for Impact: A Dave Holmes Passion Project. Just last year, Dave hosted another limited podcast series Who Killed the Video Star: The Story of MTV and currently, continues to be an editor at large for Esquire Magazine! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to director Guy Maddin. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Guy did not set out to be a filmmaker, but after working odd job after odd job, he eventually started taking film classes in his later 20s and became part of the Winnipeg Film Group. After making some short films and a surreal cable access show, he wrote and directed his debut feature, Tales from the Gimli Hospital, in 1988. It became a cult success and established Guy's reputation in independent film circles. Since then, he has written and directed over a dozen other films including The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg, Keyhole and his latest Rumours starring Cate Blanchett, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Festival! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comedian and actor David Cross. Originally from Roswell, GA, David started as a stand-up at the age of seventeen, first in Boston and then in New York in the '90s. David's television career began with a writing job on the The Ben Stiller Show. It was around this time that he met Bob Odenkirk, and they started performing together, eventually creating the brilliant sketch show Mr. Show, which ran on HBO for four seasons. Since then, David has done a million awesome things including Arrested Development, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, as well as smaller parts in everything from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to What We Do in the Shadows. He's also performed eight stand-up albums and specials; his latest Worst Daddy in the World just came out last year on 800 Pound Gorilla, and it's a delight! And of course, you can see him touring this spring, if you live in Canada or Europe. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to director Seth Gordon. Originally on the path to be an architect, Seth's life took a detour into documentary filmmaking when he picked up a camera while teaching abroad in Kenya. After working in different positions in filming and editing, he eventually made his acclaimed doc The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, about rivals in the world of competitive Donkey Kong playing. From there, Seth became a comedy director, directing some of the best sitcoms of the 21st century including Parks and Rec, Community, The Office, The Goldbergs and more, as well as films such as Four Christmases, Horrible Bosses, Baywatch and, his most recent film, which just debuted on Netflix last week, Back In Action starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones of Sunroof. Daniel and Gareth have had long, varied careers for decades - as musicians, music producers and more. Daniel is the founder of Mute Records, which has released albums from numerous groups including Depeche Mode, New Order, Wire, Nick Cave and many others. And as a producer, Gareth has worked with many of those same bands and more including Interpol, Grizzly Bear, Madness and that's just a small sampling. The two began collaborating together in 1982 when Daniel asked Gareth to work with him on what became Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again. After Depeche Mode had gone home for the day, the two would stay on to work on their own sessions. This became Sunroof, and they worked mostly as a remix project. However, in 2019, they started improvising together with modular systems as a lark and enjoyed the results. They've recorded three fantastic albums, and their latest, Electronic Music Improvisation Vol.3, came out at the end of November, and it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to illustrator and comics creator Brian Blomerth. Brian grew up in Newport News, Virginia, and in college started to move towards making art for a living. Some of his early work was for Vice, as well as making tour posters for bands like Phish or album artwork for musicians like Ryley Walker. Since 2019, he's been working on a series of books about 20th century psychonauts starting with Bicycle Day, about the discovery of LSD, and the follow-up, Mycelium Wassonii, about the scientist couple responsible for popularizing the use of psychedelic mushrooms in the US. His most recent book, Lilly Wave, about the life of scientist and psychedelic dolphin tormentor John C. Lilly, came out in October, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Jason Aaron. Originally from Piney Woods, Alabama, Jason started writing comics professionally after winning a Marvel Comics talent search contest in 2001. This opened the door for him, and soon after in 2006, Vertigo published his first major work The Other Side, which netted him an Eisner Award. Since then, Jason has written acclaimed runs on both mainstream and his own creator-owned comics, some of which include Wolverine and the X-Men, The Punisher, The Avengers, Thor, Scalped, Once Upon a Time at the End of the World, Southern Bastards and many, many more. Currently, Jason is writing the fantastic Superman reboot Absolute Superman, as well as a brilliant Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series for IDW! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Ed Herro. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Ed fell in love with improv in middle school. He started doing comedy in college and moved to New York where he performed on house teams in the early days of UCB. Eventually realizing that one couldn't make a living yes and-ing, he became a touring stand-up and then a TV writer, writing on shows like Jeff & Some Aliens, American Housewife, and The Neighbors. Most recently, he created, with his writing partner Brian Donovan, the series The Sticky starring the incredible Margo Martindale, and it is airing now weekly on Amazon Prime! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to rapper and musician Brian Ennals and Tariq Ravelomanana AKA Infinity Knives. Originally from Annapolis, Maryland and Tanzania respectively, Brian and Tariq made music separately for years, and after reading about Brian in the Baltimore Sun, Tariq reached out to him and eventually asked Brian to feature on his album Dear, Sudan. This led to their debut Rhino XXL in 2020. While the album was a local hit, it did not prepare them for the reception their second album King Cobra would receive. Released on Phantom Limb in the middle of 2022, it became a word of mouth sensation, organically making everybody's end-of-year lists, deservedly so, as it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Fred Thomas. Originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan, Fred started playing music as a teenager, and in 1994 founded the math rock band Chore. The band broke up two years later, and he joined the brilliant His Name Is Alive, and in 1999 started the well-known indie rock band Saturday Looks Good to Me. They would release eight albums, mostly on Polyvinyl, before Fred retired the band in 2013. As a solo artist, Fred has been recording albums since 2002, and his 14th album Window in the Rhythm was just released on Polyvinyl, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Jake Xerxes Fussell. Originally from Columbus, Georgia, Jake is the son of folklorist Fred Fussell, and as a teenager began playing and studying with elder musicians in the Chattahoochee Valley, apprenticing with Piedmont blues legend Precious Bryant, with whom he toured and recorded. In 2015, Jake released his debut self-titled album composed entirely of adapted folk and blues songs on Paradise of Bachelors, his home for his next three albums: What in the Natural World, Out of Sight, Good and Green Again. Earlier this summer, Fat Possum Records released his latest album When I'm Called, and listeners, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist John Pham. Born in Saigon, John's family immigrated to the US towards the end of the Vietnam War. In the year 2000, John received a self publishing grant from the Xeric Foundation for his comic Epoxy, and later in the aughts, Fantagraphics published his books Sublife vol. 1 and 2, the latter of which was nominated for multiple Ignatz Awards. In between books, John works as an art director on some of your favorite cartoons including Lucas Bros Moving Co, Axe Cop and the new animated Everybody Still Hates Chris. His latest book J + K was published by Fantagraphics in 2020, and a new paperback edition was released mid-summer this year, and folks, it's terrific! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson of the band Tsunami. Tsunami formed in Arlington, VA in late 1990, when Jenny and Kristin were housemates at Arlington, Virginia’s legendary punk-activist Positive Force house. Over the next seven years, Tsunami wrote and recorded prolifically, releasing three full-length albums (Deep End, The Heart's Tremolo and A Brilliant Mistake) and over a dozen seven-inch singles and EPs, most on their own Simple Machines label. And next week Numero Group will release Loud As Is, a 5-LP box set reissue of their entire catalog, and buddy, you better believe it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to guitarist and composer Roy Montgomery. Originally from London, Roy grew up in Christchurch, New Zealand, and his first band, The Pin Group, was part of the forefront of the New Zealand post-punk scene in the early-1980s, that, along with bands like The Clean and The Chills, centered around Flying Nun Records. After this, he began recording on his own, and he began to draw acclaim by his second solo album, Temple IV, which was released on Kranky. Since then, he has recorded any number of fantastic albums, collaborated with groups like Bardo Pond and Flying Saucer Attack, and become a lecturer - and head of the Environmental Management Department at Lincoln University. His most recent work Camera Melancholia was released on Grapefruit a few years ago, and like everything else Roy does, it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to comedy writer Meredith Scardino. Originally from Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Meredith first got into the business of show as an animator before landing her first writing job on Best Week Ever in 2004. This led to a series of gigs including Late Night with David Letterman, Human Giant and the Daily Show before she landed at The Colbert Report, which she wrote on for six years, netting a handful of Emmy Awards for her work. Meredith's streak continued writing for SNL, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, At Home with Amy Sedaris and Mr. Mayor before creating one of the best shows of the last decade Girls5Eva, all three seasons of which are streaming now on Netflix! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Rose Melberg. Originally from Sacramento, California, Rose has been a performing musician since high school in the early '90s. While only lasting a year, her first band Tiger Trap garnered a cult following and put out a self-titled album on K Records. Her next band Go Sailor lasted from 1994-1996, but in that short time, recorded a number of albums and singles for Slumberland and Lookout! At the same time, Rose formed The Softies with Jen Sbragia. While it was originally meant to be a side-project, it became the main musical focus for the pair, and between 1995 and 2000, they released three fantastic albums on K Records: It's Love, Winter Pageant and Holiday in Rhode Island. Since then, Rose has released a number of incredible solo albums and performed in different bands, but most recently, she and Jen started writing music together again, and their latest album The Bed I Made was just released on Father/Daughter Records, and it's the best! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to rappers Brian Warren and Quentin Branch AKA Angry Blackmen. Both living in Chicago in the mid-20-teens, Brian and Quentin met through a mutual friend and eventually a few years later began making music together. Brian asked Quentin to form a duo saying, "I was looking at probably like, OutKast or something, and I was like, 'If they can do it, we can do it'." Their first album TALKSHIT! in 2019 netted them an online following, and subsequent albums were released on Deathbomb Arc. This includes 2020's HEADSHOTS!, 2021's REALITY! and their most recent, the fantastic The Legend of ABM, which was released back in January. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Karou Ishibashi AKA Kishi Bashi. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Karou grew up in Norfolk, Virginia and although he wanted to make music professionally, it wasn't until he flunked out of college that he began to pursue it in earnest. In 2003, he formed the band Jupiter One, and they were together for a decade and released three albums. Also, during this time, he was a member of Of Montreal for a number of years. In 2011 though, Karou released his first album as Kishi Bashi, 151a, on Joyful Noise, which has been his label ever since. His fifth album Kantos was just released at the end of August, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Josefine Jonsson and Agustina Ruiz of Los Bitchos. Originally from Sweden and Uruguay respectively, Josefine and Agustina formed the London-based Los Bitchos in 2017 along with Serra Petale and Nic Crawshaw. Their first album Let the Festivities Begin! was released in 2022 to widespread acclaim, and their latest Talkie Talkie just came out at the end of August on City Slang Records, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and academic Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings. Originally from Stevens Point, WI, Dylan is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. As an academic, he received his Masters from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and is currently completing his PhD. He's also on the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board and is associate director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College. As a musician, Dylan began singing at pow-wows when he was a kid, in drum groups like Midnite Express and IronBoy, with fellow singer Joe Rainey. But it wasn't until 2015, when he and Joe were given free reign to do what they wanted at the Eaux Claires Festival that Bizhiki was born. Their first album Unbound was just released on Jagjaguwar in July, and folks, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here! Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to cellist and composer Lia Kohl. Growing up in the Bay Area, Lia began playing the cello when she was eight-years-old and is trained as a classical musician. However, after moving to Chicago in the early 20-teens, she began improvising and making her own music. Her first full album Too Small to be a Plain was released in 2022 on Shinkoyo, which was followed by The Ceiling Reposes in 2023 on American Dreams Records, and her latest Normal Sounds is out now on Moon Glyph records, and it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner-winning comics editor and two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist in cartooning Matt Bors. Originally from Canton, Ohio, Matt attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he first began drawing editorial cartoons for the student newspaper. At 23, his work became syndicated by Universal Features, making him the youngest syndicated cartoonist in the country at that time. Since then, his comics have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, Village Voice, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. In 2013, Matt founded the wonderful political comics site The Nib and ran it until it ceased operating in 2023. Most recently, Matt created the fantastic dystopian satire Justice Warriors with Ben Clarkson and is writing an upcoming Toxic Avenger series for Ahoy Comics. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Mabe Fratti. Originally from Guatemala, Mabe studied cello from a young age, but was on a path to become a journalist before a Goethe Institute residency took her to Mexico to work on her music. There she got involved in the Mexico City improvisational music scene. Mabe produced her first album Pies Sobre La Tierra in 2019, which was followed by Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos in 2021, Se Ve Desde Aquí in 2022, and her latest Sentir Que No Sabes was just released in June on Unheard of Hope, and folks, it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and artist Asher White. Originally from Evanston, Illinois, Asher has built an immense discography since she was a teenager, recording over a dozen self-released albums since 2015. Starting with 2023's New Excellent Woman, the wonderful label Ba Da Bing began putting out Asher's music, and her latest Home Constellation Study was just released at the end of June, and like everything else Asher's done, it's excellent! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to journalist and political writer Doug Henwood. Originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, Doug has been writing publicly about politics since he started his newsletter Left Business Observer, which ran from 1986 until 2013. He's also written for Harper's, The Village Voice, Jacobin and is a contributing editor at The Nation. In addition, Doug has written four books: State of the U.S.A. Atlas, Wall Street, After the New Economy and My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency. Currently, he hosts the weekly KPFA Berkeley radio show and podcast Behind the News. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Colin Meloy. Originally from Helena, Montana, Colin played in a few bands in high school and college before eventually forming The Decemberists in Portland, Oregon at the turn of the century. They released their first album, Castaways and Cutouts a few years later on Kill Rock Stars, who they continued to work with until eventually signing with Capitol Records. Since 2002, the band has released nine albums, and in addition, Colin has recorded a number of solo cover albums, starting with Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey almost two decades ago. The Decemberists latest album, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, was just released in mid-June on YABB Records, and like everything else the band does, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson, the founders and 2/3 of the Bay Area band Sour Widows. Originally meeting and becoming friends at Camp Winnarainbow in their youth, Maia and Susanna formed Sour Widows in 2017, when they found themselves living near one another for the first time. Eventually they invited drummer Max Edelman to join them in the band, and since then, they've released two fantastic EPs, a self-titled one in 2020 and Crossing Over in 2021. In 2023, they recorded their first full-length album Revival of a Friend at Tiny Telephone, and it will be released on Exploding In Sound Records at the end of the month! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Marina Allen. Originally from New Jersey, Marina's moved back and forth across the country a couple times, and now lives in Los Angeles. She began to write music in earnest her late-teens/early-20s, and her first album Candlepower came out in 2021, followed one year later by Centrifics and her latest Eight Pointed Star was just released last week on Fire Records, and it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and director Jim Mickle. Originally from Douglassville, PA, Jim studied film at NYU and then worked his way up in the industry, eventually deciding to make his own film in 2006, Mulberry Street, with frequent collaborator Nick Damici. Each film they made got a little more attention: Stake Land, We Are What We Are and Cold In July, which premiered at Sundance and was scooped up by IFC Films. From 2016 to 2018, Jim and Damici showran the Sundance TV show Hap and Leonard, and most recently, Jim has showrun three seasons of the Netflix Jeff Lemire adaptation Sweet Tooth, whose third season debuts today! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to playwright and TV writer Susan Coyne. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Susan studied intellectual history before pivoting to acting. She acted in several seasons of the Stratford Festival (which was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) and then became a playwright. In the early aughts, Susan - along with Mark McKinney and Bob Martin, created the brilliant TV show Slings & Arrows, and over the three seasons won numerous Gemini Awards for writing and acting in the show. Since then, Susan has worked in TV and film both in the US and Canada, and most recently wrote on Mozart in the Jungle and Daisy Jones & the Six. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Jeff Martin. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Jeff started playing piano when he was but a mere toddler. In 1992, he formed the band Idaho with his high school friend John Berry, though Berry would leave a few years later, making Idaho primarily Jeff's project. The band first signed to Caroline, who released their first three albums and an EP, but with their breakthrough album in 2000, Hearts of Palm, they began releasing music on their own Idaho Music label. And their latest, Lapse, will be released at the end of May. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Vicky Nguyen AKA Vicky Farewell. Originally from Garden Grove, CA in Orange County, Vicky has played piano since she was a child and worked as a music writer and producer for a long time, notably with a writing credit on Anderson .Paak’s Grammy winning single “Lockdown” and production credits on Paul McCartney'a album McCartney III. But it wasn't until the pandemic hit that she really began writing music for herself. Her first album Sweet Company came out in 2022, and her latest Give a Damn just came out on Mac's Record Label, and folks, it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi, Couples Therapy, can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Eric Earley. Originally from Salem, Oregon, Eric and his friends formed the band Garmonbozia in the year 2000. Gamonbozia eventually became Blitzen Trapper, and after self-releasing their first few albums, including their breakthrough Wild Mountain Nation, the band signed to Sub Pop. Over the next four years, the label released three albums to acclaim, and since then they've released about a dozen albums and EPs on different labels, including their own. Blitzen Trapper's latest recording 100's of 1000's, Millions of Billions will be released in mid-May on Yep Roc, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Ben Chasny. Born in Los Angeles, Ben's family moved to rural Northern California when he was young. His recording debut was a heavy, free rock project named Plague Lounge, whose album The Wicker Image, was released conjointly between the New World of Sound and Holy Mountain labels in 1996. Holy Mountain released many of Ben's albums as Six Organs of Admittance as well, starting with his first self-titled album in 1998. Since then, he's released just about three dozen albums and EPs as Six Organs. Ben also plays in the wonderful psyche/noise rock band Comets on Fire, who have four albums on labels like Alternative Tentacles and Sub Pop, and Ben's latest album as Six Organs of Admittance, Time Is Glass, was released at the end of April on Drag City, and folks, it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Chris Black. Originally from Toledo, OH, Chris went to USC, which eventually led to him working in television. He started on the USA adaptation of Weird Science, and since then has worked on some of the best shows of the last three decades including Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Invincible, Mad Men, Severance, and a personal favorite of mine, Sliders. That is just a small sampling of his CV, and currently, he co-developed with Matt Fraction and showruns the absolutely wonderful Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is coming back for a second season! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Peyton Pinkerton. Originally from Pleasantville, New York, Peyton formed New Radiant Storm King in 1990 while at Hampshire College. Over the next two decades, the band released nine albums on labels like Grass, Rainbow Quartz and Darla, and in 2010 played their final show. Peyton has also played and toured with Silver Jews, playing on perhaps their best album The Natural Bridge, as well as with the Pernice Brothers. As a solo artist, Peyton has released Rapid Cycler and a self-titled album on Darla, and his last album Ex Tomorrow was released in 2019, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Niko Kapetan AKA one-half of the band Friko. Originally from Evanston, IL, Niko had been writing songs since he was a teenager and formed Friko with his bandmate Bailey Minzenberger in 2019. After self-releasing a number of singles and EPs, the band signed with ATO Records, and in mid-February, ATO released their debut album Where We've Been, Where We Go from Here, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Rafael Toral. Born in Lisbon in 1967, Rafael has been intrigued by the potential of sound and the functions of music since he was a teenager. Working with electric guitar and electronics, in the 1990’s he pioneered a blend of Ambient and Rock and recorded acclaimed albums like Wave Field or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance. In 2004, he began the ambitious 15-year project entitled Space Program, which used experimental instruments to explore an approach to electronic music based on silence. Rafael has performed and recorded with everyone from Jim O’Rourke to Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Sonic Youth and so many more, and his latest album, Spectral Evolution, a synthesis of everything he's explored over the course of his career, was just released in February on Drag City. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Tracyanne Campbell. Originally from Glasgow, Tracyanne founded Camera Obscura in 1996 with John Henderson and Gavin Dunbar. Their first album, Biggest Bluest Hi Fi, came out half a decade later to acclaim, and since then, they've released four other albums on labels like Elefant and 4AD. On May 3rd, Merge Records will release Camera Obscura's latest album Look to the East, Look to the West, and folks, it's a banger! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and home recording pioneer Linda Smith. While Linda had started playing out in New York in the late 1970s, it was really when she returned home to Baltimore that her artistic life blossomed. Starting in the late 1980s, she began recording what is now known as bedroom pop and releasing her albums on cassette. Through word of mouth and distros like K Records, she gained a great deal of acclaim, and in the 1990s, labels like Slumberland, Shrimper and Harriet began to release her albums. In 2021, Captured Tracks released an anthology of Linda's music entitled Till Another Time: 1988–1996, and at the start of March, they re-released two more of her early albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, both wonderful and well worth your time! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to seven-times New York Times bestselling author and award-winning comic book writer Dan Abnett. Originally from Maidstone, Dan began working in the editorial department of Marvel UK before starting to write his own comics. Dan's CV is too extensive to cover here, but a highlights reel includes his incredible work for 2000 AD, which includes comics such as Sinister Dexter and Brink, his revamp of the Guardians of the Galaxy with writing partner Andy Lanning, which became the basis for the MCU films, his work with Lanning on The Authority, Warhammer 40K, and my personal favorite, his Wild's End books, which are some of the best comics I've read in forever! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and founder of TeenBeat Records Mark Robinson. Originally from New Jersey, Mark moved to Washington DC as a child, and in high school formed the indie rock group Unrest. From 1985 to about 1994, the band released seven albums, many on Robinson's own TeenBeat Records, as well as Caroline and 4AD. Since then, Mark has played in a number of groups including Air Miami, Flin Flon, Grenadine, Cotton Candy and many others. As previously mentioned, Mark is also the founder of the very influential indie rock label TeenBeat which has released albums from bands like Bratmobile, Versus, Barbara Manning, The Rondelles, Velocity Girl, True Love Always, Gastr Del Sol and so many other incredible musicians! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Madeline Link. Originally from Calgary, Madeline Link initially started PACKS as a solo project, but it eventually coalesced into its current four-piece configuration. In 2020, they were signed to Fire Talk Records, and the label has since released all four of their albums and EPs. This includes 2021's Take the Cake, 2023's Crispy Crunchy Nothing and their latest, Melt the Honey, which came out towards the end of January and is just wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Andrew Kenny. Originally from Fort Worth, Kenny formed The American Analog Set in 1995 and over the next decade, released six albums on labels like Emperor Jones, Tiger Style and Arts & Crafts, after which the band went on hiatus. In 2009, Kenny released the first of two albums as The Wooden Birds, but since 2011's Two Matchsticks, he has been rather quiet. That is, until this last year. In 2023, The American Analog Set released their first album in almost two decades For Forever, and most recently, Numero Group released New Drifters, a comprehensive box set of the band's first three albums, and folks, it is worth your time! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and director Juel Taylor. Originally from Tuskegee, Alabama, Juel at first wanted to design video games, but in college he shifted his focus to filmmaking. He did different jobs in sound while he was waiting to break through, and in 2018, he co-wrote Creed II. Directing gigs on Boomerang and Twenties followed, as well as co-writing Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021. This all culminated in Juel's first project as co-writer and director They Cloned Tyrone, which was released last year on Netflix and was one of the best films of 2023! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Avery Hellman AKA ISMAY. Originally from the Bay Area, Avery grew up surrounded by music - their grandfather founded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival - but didn't think they would pursue making music professionally until a crisis propelled them in that direction. Their first album Songs of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020, and their latest album Desert Pavement was just released last week, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's 14th Anniversary episode, I talk to MacArthur Genius Grant-winning author Jonathan Lethem. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jonathan at first thought he was going to be a visual artist until some existential realizations about class and art in college in the early 1980s left him disillusioned. He dropped out, hitchhiked to California and started writing while he worked as a clerk in used bookstores. In 1994, Harcourt Brace published his first novel Gun, with Occasional Music, and since then he's written a dozen more - just a sampling: Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City, The Feral Detective - as well as a number of short story collections, and this is just scratching the surface. Currently Jonathan is the Roy Edward Disney Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College, and his most recent book, Brooklyn Crime Novel, was published last October by HarperCollins, and like everything else Jonathan writes, it is great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to composer and artist Arnold Dreyblatt. Originally from New York City, Arnold is part of the second generation of New York minimal composers, having studied with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. His first album Nodal Excitation was released in 1982, and since then, he's recorded almost a dozen more, including 1995's Animal Magnetism, which was released on Tzadik. Based in Berlin since 1984, Arnold was Professor of Media Art at the Muthesius Academy of Art and Design in Kiel, Germany for almost a decade and a half and is currently deputy director of the visual arts section at the German Academy of Art. His most recent album Resolve was released last August on Drag City, and it is fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Evan Dando. Attending the CommonWealth School in Boston in the early 1980s, Evan met Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz, and in 1986, they formed The Lemonheads. The band released three great albums on Taang!, but it wasn't until after signing to Atlantic and releasing It's a Shame About Ray in 1992 that the band broke through. While there have been numerous ups and downs, personnel changes, a six-year hiatus, during which Evan released a wonderful album under his own name, The Lemonheads have endured through the decades. They've recorded a number of new singles, and starting in early February, Evan will be touring across the US! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Tanya Donelly. Originally from Newport, Rhode Island, Tanya founded not just one, but three, incredible 20th century bands. As a teenager in the 1980s, she formed Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersh and performed with them through 1991. During this same time, she founded The Breeders with Kim Deal and co-wrote the first album Pod. Tanya left both groups though to form Belly, where she was the principal songwriter and frontperson. Their first album Star was a huge hit, although the group then broke up after their second album, which started Tanya's solo career. Since then, she's released numerous albums and EPs on 4AD, performed again with Throwing Muses & Belly, and contributed to more albums than I can possibly list here in a short bio! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to composer Doug Bielmeier. Originally from Buffalo, Doug started out playing in indie rock bands before shifting his focus to composition, which he received both bachelors and masters degrees for. His music has been described as an "extension of Xenakis’s early electroacoustic tape pieces", and his albums include 2017's Betty and the Sensory World, 2018's Costa Mesa Rocking Chair, and 2019's Beast of Bodmin Moor. Doug also holds a PhD in education and is a professor at Northeastern University in Boston. In addition to this all, Doug is the creator and host of The Process, a podcast that focuses on the creative process for experimental music. His most recent album Music for Billionaires was released by New Focus Recordings at the end of October, and it is great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to filmmaker J. Blakeson. Originally from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, J. started out making low-budget shorts of his own. This eventually led to him being able to make a slightly larger film, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, in 2009, starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Marsan. Over the next 14 years, J. wrote and directed many other films and TV shows; some highlights include the Gunpowder miniseries for BBC One/HBO and 2021's I Care a Lot for which Rosamund Pike won a Golden Globe. Most recently, J. wrote and directed the Disney+ series Culprits, which just debuted last week, and it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Arone Dyer. Originally from Willmar, Minnesota, Arone began writing songs in high school and even won a contest to perform at the Minneapolis Lilith Fair when she was 18-years-old. But soon after, she developed carpal tunnel syndrome and had to give up playing guitar for many years. After moving to New York, where she took up work as a luthier and bicycle mechanic, Arone met Aron Sanchez, and the two eventually formed the group Buke and Gase, which is named after the instruments they created to play in the band. In the last 13 years, the two have released nine albums and EPs, as well as a documentary about performing live during the first summer of the pandemic. Most recently, Arone recorded a collaboration with the European classical-contemporary ensemble, s t a r g a z e, entitled, appropriately, Arone x s t a r g a z e, and it is out now via Transgressive Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Nina Nastasia. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Nina began writing songs in 1993 but initially had no real ambitions to be a professional musician. She ended up recording many of those songs with Steve Albini, and they became her debut album Dogs, which was released in 2000. Albini sent the record to John Peel, who championed it on his radio show, and Nina began to garner both fans and acclaim. Since then, she's recorded and released seven albums on labels like Touch and Go and Fat Cat Records, and her latest project, Jolie Laide, is a collaboration with musician Jeff MacLeod, and their self-titled debut album was just released on Oscar St. Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and comedian Jordan Morris. Originally from Mission Viejo, Jordan attended UC Santa Cruz, where he met his future podcasting partner Jesse Thorn, and in 2007, the two started one of the longest-running podcasts still going, Jordan, Jesse, Go! on the Maximum Fun network. As a writer, he's worked on everything from @midnight to Earth to Ned, and has also penned two graphic novels. The first, the Eisner-nominated Bubble, was based on his scripted podcast series of the same name, and his latest, Youth Group, a YA horror-comedy is available now for pre-order and will be out next year! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Matt Fraction. Originally from Chicago, Matt started out in comics writing for publishers like IDW in the early 2000s and broke into wider recognition with his 2006 series Casanova. This led to both more creator-owned work like Sex Criminals, Satellite Sam, and November as well as stints on Marvel books like Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and a defining run on Hawkeye with David Aja. Matt also works in television, and most recently, he was the co-creator, writer, and executive producer of the brand-new Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is out now! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Emmy-winning comedy writer Mike Sweeney. Since childhood, Mike wanted to be in showbiz, but family issues prevented him from pursuing stand-up until his late 20s. Stand-up led to writing on shows like Short Attention Span Theater and Politically Incorrect, and in 1995, he joined the writing staff of the then two-year-old Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 2002, Mike became the head writer for Conan and stayed with the show through its transition to the Tonight Show in 2009 and then after that, to the TBS version, which ended in 2020. Since then, Mike has stayed busy doing many things, among them working as the head writer for That's My Time with David Letterman and as a producer on Conan Without Borders. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Marnie Stern. Originally from New York City, Marnie didn't start out trying to pursue music professionally, and her first album In Advance of the Broken Arm came out in 2007 on Kill Rock Stars when she was 30-years-old. It instantly garnered acclaim, and was followed by This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That in 2008, a self-titled album two years later and The Chronicles of Marnia in 2013. The previous year, she made Spin Magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time", and after Seth Meyers took over Late Night, Marnie eventually joined the 8G Band for a number of years. Most recently, Marnie has recorded her first album in ten years; The Comeback Kid is out now on Joyful Noise, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Derek M. Ballard. Originally from Mobile, AL, Derek was an artist from the jump. As a storyboard artist, he's written for shows like Adventure Time and The Midnight Gospel, and as a cartoonist, he wrote comics for the wonderful and sadly defunct site The Nib. Most recently, he created a zine called The Shape of Comics to Come, and his first graphic novel Cartoonshow was just published by Oni at the end of the summer! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Will Butler. Originally from Floriston, California, Will mostly grew up in Texas, and after college moved to Montreal to join his brother's band Arcade Fire. The band was a sensation: their debut Funeral is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s, and all of Arcade Fire's studio albums have received Grammy nominations. However, Will left the band in 2021 to pursue other projects. As a solo artist, Will has released three albums on one of the best labels out there, Merge Records, and his latest record is no different! Recorded with Sister Squares the self-titled Will Butler + Sister Squares was just released towards the end of September on Merge, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and painter Andrew Savage. Originally from Denton, TX, Andrew began playing music seriously when he formed the band Teenage Cool Kids in college in 2006. By the time the group officially disbanded in 2011, Andrew had already been writing music in a new band, Parquet Courts, which he started with his college friend Austin Brown. Since that time, they've released seven albums on labels like What's Your Rupture? and Rough Trade, and Andrew was even nominated for a Grammy for Human Performance's artwork. As a solo artist, Andrew has released two albums, 2017's Thawing Dawn, on his own label Dull Tools and his latest, Several Songs About Fire, which was just released on Rough Trade last week! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Greg Rucka. Originally from San Francisco, Greg grew up in Salinas, California, AKA "Steinbeck Country", and worked a number of jobs - EMT, fight choreographer - until his writing career took off. His first published novels were his Atticus Kodiak books, which were published by Bantam starting in the mid-'90s. Soon after, Greg began writing comics, creating Whiteout, Queen & Country and Stumptown for Oni, writing things like 52 and Wonder Woman at DC, Wolverine and Punisher at Marvel, and Lazarus and The Old Guard at Image, the later of which, he also wrote the screenplay for. And this is just a small sampling of his work! Most recently, Greg created The Forged with his co-writer Eric Trautmann at Image, and like everything else he does, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Fat Tony. Originally from Houston, Texas, Anthony Obi started his musical career performing with a number of different rap groups in high school, but it wasn't until his early 20s that he began writing and releasing albums under the name Fat Tony. Since 2010, he's released over a dozen albums and EPs on labels like Young One and Don Giovanni, and his latest I Will Make a Baby in This Damn Economy was just released on Carpark Records at the end of August, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Rod Argent. Originally from St. Albans, Rod became the founder, keyboard player and one of the principal songwriters of the seminal 1960s British rock band The Zombies at the age of 16. While the band only stayed together a little more than half a decade, they became international stars, and their final album Odessey and Oracle is both one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1960s and of all time. After The Zombies broke up, Rod formed the brilliant prog band Argent, which played through the mid-70s, and since then, Rod has recorded ten albums under his own name. While The Zombies have reformed here and there, in 2004, they began to record music together again, and their latest album Different Game was just released in March this year, and like everything the band does, it is a real delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to comics creator and TV writer Ben Edlund. While still in high school, Ben began developing the satirical superhero The Tick, who became the mascot of the New England Comics newsletter. After a production error led to them needing a new title quickly, the New England Comics folks invited Ben to create a series around the character. The Tick has had numerous comic runs, as well as a cartoon in the 1990s and two live action series, the most recent of which ran on Amazon Prime from 2016-2019. In addition to his comics work and creating The Tick TV shows, Ben has also written on over a dozen other shows, some of which include The Venture Bros., Firefly, Angel, Clone Wars and many others! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Will Oldham. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Will was an actor before becoming a musician, appearing in John Sayles' Matewan as a teenager, as well as in films like Old Joy, Junebug and The Guatemalan Handshake, as well as TV shows like Wonder Showzen. In the early '90s, he began playing music as Palace - or more accurately, as different permutations of the name Palace - but a few years later, adopted the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker which he's used ever since his 1999 album I See a Darkness. In the last two plus decades, he's released almost two dozen albums, some collaborations with artists like Bill Callahan and Matt Sweeney, and his latest Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was just released in August on Drag City, and like everything else Will does, it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and musician Geoff Garlock. Geoff has been playing music since high school, first with the hardcore punk band Switchstance, and eventually with the seminal screamo band Orchid, who in their five short years together released ten albums and 7"es, mostly on Ebullition. After Orchid broke up, most of the members started Panthers, who released four albums on labels like Troubleman Unlimited and Dim Mak, but after they broke up, Geoff began pursuing comedy. He wrote sketch and taught at UCB from 2002 until the theater was bought by private equity, and has written series for IFC, Adult Swim and numerous other outlets. Most recently, Geoff co-founded and co-hosts the sketch/improv podcast 108.9 The Hawk, which is easily one of the best comedy shows out there! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub. Emerging from the Scottish C86 scene of the 1980s, Teenage Fanclub formed out of the ashes of their previous group The Boy Hairdressers. While they immediately garnered positive reviews with their first few albums, released in America on Matador, it was with their third album Bandwagonesque that they broke through to a wider audience. In the thirty-some-odd years since, they've never lost that original creative spark, releasing nine more fantastic albums, and their latest, Nothing Lasts Forever, will be released next month on Merge Records.
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi, Couples Therapy, can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Pat Place and Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. Both art students, Cynthia and Pat moved to New York in the 1970s and were soon sucked into the music scene. Pat became one of the founders and the guitarist of James Chance and the Contortions, and then in 1979, the two formed Bush Tetras. Their debut 7-inch EP, "Too Many Creeps", was released in 1980 on 99 Records, and even though they only stayed together for another three years, the band was an integral part of the downtown New York no wave scene. The band has reformed twice since then, once in the late-'90s and most recently in the mid-aughts, and they've been going strong since. Their latest album They Live in My Head was just released at the end of July on Wharf Cat Records, and it's fantastic!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Christina Schneider AKA Locate S,1. Originally from Westchester, New York, Christina began her career making music in various projects, such as C.E Schneider Topical, Christina Schneider's Genius Giant, and Jepeto Solutions., and in 2018, she began recording as Locate S,1. She's released three albums, Healing Contest, Personalia and her latest, Wicked Jaw, which was just released at the end of July by Captured Tracks!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and artist Jad Fair. Originally from Coldwater, Michigan, Jad began playing music with his brother David in 1974 as the band Half Japanese. As an art rock group that charted its own path, Half Japanese soon began to be celebrated by tastemakers, and this led to their first record contract. Over the next fifty years, they released over two dozen albums and EPs, and as a solo artist, Jad has a discography as numerous as the stars in the sky. He's collaborated with everyone from Thurston Moore to Daniel Johnston to Teenage Fanclub to Yo La Tengo, and his latest album Jump Into Love just came out at the end of July on Fire Records!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Heather Trost. Originally from Albuquerque, NM, Heather really started taking music seriously in college, often touring whenever she wasn't in class. In the early 2000s, she met her now husband, Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and joined his fledgling project A Hawk and A Hacksaw, making it a duo. Since that time, they have released six albums, the latest of which is Forest Bathing in 2018. As a solo musician, Heather has released four albums, and her latest Desert Flowers, was released late last year on Ba Da Bing Records, and it's great!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to writer and podcaster Matt Christman. Originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Matt wasn't pursuing anything specific when he started the left political podcast Chapo Trap House with two friends he met online. But the show struck a nerve in the general zeitgeist and turned into a career for Matt. The show has been going strong for seven years now, and through Chapo and their producer Chris Wade, Matt has created a number of fantastic miniseries: Hell of Presidents, which looks at the ways America has changed by looking at who has been in power, and most recently Hell On Earth, which tells the story of the Thirty Years' War, both as a history lesson and as a analogy for our own era.
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning puppeteer David Bizzaro. Originally from Fresno, CA, David moved around a lot as a child. He fell in love with theater, and eventually began working in a field adjacent to that, as a visual generalist, making videos and other things for the live shows of bands like The Flaming Lips. Puppetry, though, was something he came to in adulthood, when he needed to learn the skill for a TV ad. He found that puppetry just felt right for him, and since then has worked on a number of great shows, performing as Mochi in the hit show Waffles + Mochi and most recently, Gerald Teeth Sr. in The Muppets Mayhem.
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Lindsay Olsen AKA Salami Rose Joe Louis. Originally from San Diego, Lindsay worked in the sciences as a lab tech and made music on the side until Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder released her third album Zdenka 2080 in 2019, which gave her the courage to pursue music professionally. This was followed up by Chapters of Zdenka the next year, and her most recent, Akousmatikous, was released in May, and it's great!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Rob Mazurek. Originally from Jersey City, Rob started playing trumpet and cornet in high school after his family moved to Naperville, Illinois. He first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and then became a mainstay of Chicago jazz in the 1980s. In 1994, Rob formed the Chicago Underground Collective with guitarist Jeff Parker and a cast of revolving players, which in turn birthed Isotope 217, both groups releasing albums on the seminal label Thrill Jockey. In the decades since then, Rob founded the Exploding Star Orchestra, has earned numerous commissions and awards, and in general has created more music and art than a short bio can properly elucidate. Earlier this spring, Rob's most recent work for Exploding Star Orchestra, Lightning Dreamers, was released on International Anthem, and like everything else Rob creates, it's wonderful!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician John Grant. Originally from Buchanan, Michigan, John moved to Germany in 1988 to study German, but eventually moved back to the States, where he formed the band The Czars, who released seven albums in the 12 years they were together. After a four-year hiatus, John began making music again under his own name, and the five albums he's recorded since have garnered both critical praise and commercial success. In 2013, John moved to Iceland, where he works as a translator, and just last week Creep Show, John's collaboration with the synth group Wrangler, released their second album Yawning Abyss on Bella Union!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Zeena Parkins. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Zeena is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices and has essentially "reinvented the harp". Since moving to New York in 1984, Zeena has collaborated with countless musical luminaries like John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Elliott Sharp and Bjork, recorded over a dozen fantastic albums and collected more accolades than you could count in a week, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. For 13 years, Zeena held the prestigious Darius Milhaud Chair in Composition at Mills College, and at the end of June, her latest album of compositions LACE will be released on Chaikin Records!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to TV and comics writer J. Holtham. Originally a playwright, J. moved to Los Angeles in the early 20-teens to pursue screenwriting, eventually landing a staff writer position on the show Pitch. Since then, he's written for Cloak and Dagger, Jessica Jones, Supergirl and The Handmaid's Tale. As a comics writer, the final issue of J.'s first miniseries Bishop: War College just dropped, and it is delightful!
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Isabel Olive AKA Half Gringa. Originally from Carbondale, Illinois, Isabel has been playing as Half Gringa - a nod to a childhood term of endearment as “la Gringa” in her Venezuelan family and her bicultural experience growing up in the United States - since the late 20-teens. Her first album Gruñona was released in 2017 and her second Force to Reckon in 2020. Earlier this year, she released the Ancestral Home EP, and this summer she'll be on tour supporting Iron & Wine! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Joey Alison Sayers. Originally from Colorado Springs, CO, Joey has drawn comics for most of her life, but only really started publishing them as minicomics in her mid-20s. This led to many other opportunities, such as her strip "The Machine That Travels Through Time", which ran in Mad Magazine for almost a decade and "Thingpart", which was syndicated in a number of newspapers in the late-aughts. Currently, Joey writes the syndicated comic Alley Oop, and her own comics run on the wonderful left-wing political comics site The Nib. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait. Originally from Syracuse, Bobcat's career is so full of hyphens that "multihyphenate" doesn't even scratch the surface. From acting in films like Police Academy and Scrooged to directing TV for shows like Community and Jimmy Kimmel to directing comedy specials for folks like Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt to directing his own films like World's Greatest Dad and God Bless America. But since the start of his career, Bobcat has been a stand-up. His special with Dana Gould Joy Ride was released in 2021 and his latest album Soldier for Christ was just released at the end of April by Pretty Good Friends, and it is great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Carl Newman. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Carl began his musical career in the early '90s as a member of Superconductor, but it was really with his next band Zumpano where he began to find his voice, a style that would come to fruition with The New Pornographers. Since their first album Mass Romantic in 2000, the band has become one of the preeminent indie rock groups of the 21st century, with nine albums to their name, all of which are great. Carl has also recorded three wonderful solo albums, and most recently The New Pornographers' latest album Continue as a Guest was released on Merge Records, and like everything else they've done, it is just delightful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics creator Jeff Lemire. Originally from Woodslee, Ontario, Jeff wrote and drew comics for years while working day jobs, until he eventually self-published his book Lost Dogs in 2005. This led to making Essex County for Top Shelf, and since then he's written and drawn a veritable slew of fantastic comics, both creator-owned works for publishers like Image and Dark Horse and for-hire books for companies like Marvel, DC and Vertigo. This includes comics like The Underwater Welder, Sweet Tooth, Animal Man, Extraordinary X-Men, Descender and Ascender, Black Hammer, and Royal City. It should be noted that this is just a small sampling of his work, and currently, he is writing Little Monsters and Phantom Road for Image. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Rachel Brown. Originally from Chicago, Rachel attended NYU where they studied film and television. However, instead of ending up in TV, Rachel's life took a different path, and they became enmeshed in the New York music scene. As thanks for coming, they've released dozens of albums, and their latest, You Haven't Missed Much, was released late last year on Danger Collective Records. As half of Water From Your Eyes, Rachel has released six albums, and their latest Everyone's Crushed will be released on Matador at the end of May. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Satomi Matsuzaki. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Satomi moved to San Francisco in 1995 to study film production, but within a week of immigrating, she joined the nascent rock group Deerhoof, and has been a member ever since. In the intervening years, the band has released over two dozen albums, EPs and live albums on labels like Kill Rock Stars and Polyvinyl, among many others, and their latest, Miracle-Level, was released at the end of March on Joyful Noise Recordings, and like everything they do, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to actor and comedian Jerry Minor. Originally from Flint, Michigan, Jerry came up doing comedy at Second City in Detroit, Chicago and Toronto before joining Mr. Show for the fourth season. This was followed by stints at SNL, Primtetime Glick, The Daily Show as well as appearances on basically every great comedy from the last two decades: Delocated, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Arrested Development, Community, Detroiters, Special and honestly, more than I have time to list here in this intro. Most recently, Jerry has been recurring on the hit sitcom Abbott Elementary. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Oren Ambarchi. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Oren began playing free jazz as a drummer in the late '80s, eventually moving from there to New York, where he became integrated in the experimental and jazz scene. Oren's collaborations and albums are too numerous to mention here, but he's played with everyone from Sunn 0)) to John Zorn to Jim O’Rourke to Phill Niblock, and released albums on labels like Kranky, Tzadik and his own, Black Truffle. Oren now lives in Berlin, and his most recent album is Shebang, which was released on Drag City last year, and it is incredible! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Eva Lawitts AKA Stimmerman. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Eva has been playing music for most of her life. She played in the band Sister Helen for 14 years, and when they broke up she formed Stimmerman in 2017. As Stimmerman, she's recorded a number of albums and EPs, and her latest Undertaking will be released this May, and it's incredible! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Kate Fagan. Growing up in Wisconsin and then outside DC, Kate made many more stops before ending up in Chicago in the late '70s and early '80s. There she became the Founder and frontwoman of long-running Chicago second wave ska trailblazers Heavy Manners, and on her own, she recorded and self-released the new wave single “I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool, ” which became the best-selling single ever by a local artist at the legendary Wax Trax! Records. 35 years later, Captured Tracks has released an expanded, re-mastered edition of I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool as a full-length album, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to comics creator Farel Dalrymple. Originally from Tulsa, OK, Farel Dalrymple has been creating comics for over two decades. While attending the School of Visual Arts in New York, he was one of the founders of the Meathaus Collective, who published the Meathaus comics anthology. And since then, he's written and illustrated a wide range of comics, worked with Jonathan Lethem on Omega the Unknown and created numerous creator-owned books like The Often Wrong, Proxima Centauri, It Will All Hurt, Pop Gun War and The Wrenchies. Many of these are on Image; all of them are worth your time! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Dave Portner AKA Avey Tare of Animal Collective. Originally from Baltimore County, Dave met his future bandmates Josh, Brian and Noah in high school where they played music together, but it wasn't until they all found themselves in New York in the early-aughts that they officially became Animal Collective. The first album as Avey Tare, Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, also doubles as the first Animal Collective album, and since its release on FatCat in 2000, they've written 10 more albums, the latest of which, Time Skiffs was released on Domino last year. On his own, Dave has written and collaborated on over half a dozen albums and EPs, and his latest, 7s, came out just last week, also on Domino! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi, Couples Therapy, can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to actress Emma Paetz. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Emma realized she wanted to act for a living while au pairing in Paris. She moved to London where she studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and was primarily a theater actor for a long time. While she's had roles in shows like The Looming Tower and Gentleman Jack, her first starring role was as Martha Kane in the canceled-too-soon show Pennyworth, all three seasons of which you can still watch on HBO Max! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to actress Elina Löwensohn. Originally from Bucharest, Romania, Elina emigrated to the US as a child under somewhat harrowing circumstances. She studied acting and started performing in theater productions in New York and was hired by Hal Hartley after he saw her in play. She starred in a number of his films including Simple Men, Amateur and Flirt, and in the last 30 years, has acted in everything from Schindler's List to Seinfeld to Basquiat to A Very Long Engagement, and this is just a small sampling of her work! Most recently, Elina starred in the excellent experimental sci-fi film After Blue (Dirty Paradise)! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to musician Damian Abraham. Originally from Toronto, Damian has been playing in punk bands since he was a tween. In 2001, he formed Fucked Up with Mike Haliechuk and has been the lead singer ever since. They've recorded six albums and dozens and dozens of EPs and other recordings on labels like Arts & Crafts, Merge and Matador. Damian is also the host of the interview podcast Turned Out a Punk, which has featured many of the same wonderful guests you've heard on Beginnings. Fucked Up's latest album One Day was just released last week on Merge, and like everything else they do, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's 13th anniversary episode, I talk to Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning TV and film writer Terence Winter. Originally from Brooklyn, Terry became a lawyer before giving it all up to move to LA to pursue a career in screenwriting. Starting on shows like Xena: Warrior Princess and sitcoms like Sister, Sister, Terry eventually became a writer for The Sopranos, which he wrote on for most of its run. Since then, he created the wonderful HBO show Boardwalk Empire, wrote the screenplay for The Wolf of Wall Street, and co-created both Vinyl and the new Taylor Sheridan/Sylvester Stallone show Tulsa King, which just wrapped up its first season on Paramount+. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode, I talk to Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated comics creator Jim Zub. Jim began his comics career making webcomics starting in the early aughts, but it was with his Image book Skullkickers, which allowed him to break through to a wider audience. Since then he's written other creator-owned work for Image like Wayward and Glitterbomb, as well as numerous books for DC and Marvel including most notably The Avengers and Thunderbolts. Speaking of Thunderbolts, Jim is currently writing the latest series of that, as well as a Murderworld miniseries, a Conan series for Titan Comics and much, much more! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode, I talk to musicians Alba Torremocha, Melissa Carter, and Lillie McDonough AKA the band ALMA. Hailing from all over the world, the New York-based trio officially formed in 2019 out of a shared delight in harmonizing and experimentation. Later that year, they were named an NYFA Fellow for their genre-pushing work and the following year, were awarded an Awesome Foundation Grant. Then in 2021, they released their first album MOSAIC to acclaim! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!
On today's episode I talk to musician and scholar Daniel Wyche. Daniel is a visiting assistant professor in Albion College's religious studies department and a brilliant guitarist - his album Earthwork was one of my favorites in 2021, and after his first appearance on the show back in episode 514, we've become friendly. As a former philosophy professor and current philosophy dilettante, I thought it might be fun to go off-topic-ish for an episode and have an actual PhD on to bounce my well-thought out yet unresearched ideas off of, but mostly to ask: is there a way out of our society's current irrational tailspin??? This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode, I talk to theater and TV director Sheldon Epps. Originally from Compton, CA, Sheldon's decades-long career in entertainment has spanned both the stage and television. He was a co-founder & the associate artistic director of the off-Broadway theater The Production Company, conceived and directed the Duke Ellington musical Play On!, which received three Tony Award nominations, and was the artistic director at the Pasadena Playhouse for two decades. For television, Sheldon has directed episodes of Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, Hannah Montana, Sister, Sister, and many, many more, and he was a producer/director for the hit UPN/CW show Girlfriends. Most recently, just this fall, Sheldon's memoir My Own Directions: A Black Man's Journey in the American Theatre was published - check it out! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode, I talk to comics creator Cliff Chiang. Originally from New Jersey, Cliff wasn't sure of his direction in life, but wanted to give his dream of making comics a try and got an editorial job at DC/Vertigo after college. This led to drawing anthology stories and single issues which led to higher profile gigs on books like Human Target and Wonder Woman. In 2015, Cliff co-created the Eisner Award-winning series Paper Girls with Brian K. Vaughan, which was turned into a canceled-way-too-soon series on Amazon this year, and most recently, he wrote and drew the fantastic miniseries Catwoman: Lonely City, which just wrapped up at the end of October. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode, I talk to actor Breeda Wool. Originally from Urbana, Illinois, Breeda moved to New York City after college to pursue acting, where she did everything from sketch comedy to guerilla theater to acting in indie films. This all led to roles in more mainstream work like Vice Principals, The Affair, GLOW, and The Walking Dead, as well as regular roles on shows like Mr. Mercedes and UnREAL. Breeda is also one of the stars of the new Disney+ show National Treasure: Edge of History, which debuts next Wednesday! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode, I talk to musician Kurt Wagner. Originally from Nashville, TN, Kurt was an artist and musician working a day job. But through the late '80s into the '90s, his band Lambchop began to become popular, assisted in some part by Vic Chesnutt enthusiastically talking about them in the press. Since 1990, Lambchop has released almost 20 albums, most of them on Merge Records, and their latest The Bible, came out at the end of September, and like everything else Kurt makes, it's wonderful!
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On today's episode, I talk to writer Jerry Stahl. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jerry won a Pushcart Prize early in his writing career before taking a detour into writing erotica and for magazines like Hustler. This led to another detour writing for TV and movies, although "detour" here might be incorrect, considering this has been a large chunk of his professional career. Jerry penned scripts for ALF, Thirtysomething, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, CSI, Maron, Escape at Dannemora as well as films like Bad Boys II. As an author, Jerry has written a number of incredible books and memoirs including Perv: A Love Story, I, Fatty, Permanent Midnight and his latest Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man's Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust.
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On today's episode, I talk to rapper Homeboy Sandman. Originally from Elmhurst, Queens, Angel Del Villar II AKA Homeboy Sandman started making albums while he was in law school. This led him to leave the judicial path he was on to focus on music, and since 2007, he has recorded over two dozen albums, EPs and mixtapes, including a number of incredible EPs with Aesop Rock. His latest, Still Champion, was just released today - Deca produced it, and it is wonderful!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Bill Orcutt. Originally from Miami, Florida, Bill made films and played music in various groups before co-founding the noise rock group Harry Pussy in the early '90s with his then-wife Adris Hoyos. After releasing a number of albums and EPs on labels like Siltbreeze, the group broke up and Bill moved to San Francisco to focus on filmmaking and other endeavors. In 2009, he began making music publicly again, and in the last 13 years, has produced a number of incredible experimental albums. His latest, Music for Four Guitars, was just released back in September, and it's wonderful!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Robin Holcomb. Originally from Savannah, Georgia, Robin grew up in the Bay Area and began playing piano when she was six. In 1977, she moved with her partner, composer Wayne Horvitz, to New York City and was one of the foundational members of the NY downtown art scene. Since then, she has composed works for orchestras from Portland to Philly, has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to the League of American Orchestras, and recorded albums for labels from Tzadik to Nonesuch. Her latest album, One Way or Another, vol. 1, was just released on Westerlies Records, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to artist and musician Tara Jane O'Neil.Tara cut her teeth in the 1990s Louisville music scene as the bassist of the influential post-punk group Rodan. After their breakup in 1994, she moved to New York, where she performed in a number of fantastic bands including Retsin, Ida Retsin Family, The Sonora Pine, and The Naysayer. She's also released over a dozen albums and EPs under her own name on labels like Kranky and K, and as a visual artist, she's been exhibited all over the world. In early November, The Sonora Pine's second album II will be reissued on Ryley Walker's label Husky Pants Records, and I can't recommend it enough!
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On today's episode, I talk to Dave Kuzy and John Roman of the prolific Pittsburgh band Microwaves. Growing up in and around Pittsburgh, Dave and John formed Microwaves with Zombi's Steve Moore, after John left the brilliant noise rock band The 1985. In the last 20-odd-years, the group has released 10 fantastic albums and EPs and undergone a number of line-up changes, though they are always grounded by John and Dave's presence. Their latest album Discomfiture Atlas invites former vocalists/bassists Steve Moore and Adam MacGregor back, and it's wonderful!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Tony Molina. Constantly juggling hardcore and pop projects, veteran Bay Area musician Tony Molina has won over fans in both camps. Since 2002, Tony has played in several bands including Dystrophy, Ovens, Lifetime Problems, Caged Animal, Violent Change, as well as his own solo work which lives somewhere between early Weezer and Guided by Voices. These albums have been released on labels like Matador and Slumberland, and his most recent In the Fade came out in early August on Run for Cover, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Katy Davidson AKA Dear Nora. Originally from Arizona, Katy has been making music for decades now under the name Dear Nora, starting with the Make You Smile 7" in 2000 on Magic Marker Records. They took a long break from the moniker after 2008's Three States, but picked it up again with 2018's Skulls Example which is one of the best albums Katy's ever recorded. Their new album, Human Features, will be released on Orindal Records at the end of October, and it's fantastic!
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On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-nominated comics writer Kieron Gillen. Originally from Stafford in the West Midlands of England, Kieron began his writing career as a games journalist, writing for publications like PC Gamer UK, Wired, The Guardian among others. HIs early comics work included a comic strip with Jamie McKelvie, which started their long and celebrated working partnership that led to incredible comics like Phonogram, Young Avengers and The Wicked + The Divine. While Kieron's works are too numerous to name, some of his best knows comics include his Uncanny X-Men run, Die, Star Wars: Darth Vader, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Loki: Journey Into Mystery, and most currently Eternals, Immortal X-Men and the massive crossover Judgment Day!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Laura Veirs. Originally from Colorado Springs, Laura first thought she was going to follow her family into the sciences. However, an artistic life called to her, and in 1999, she released her first, self-titled album. Since then, she has released almost a dozen more albums, become an international success, and recorded with Neko Case and K.D. Lang as case/lang/veirs. Her latest album Found Light was just released this summer on Raven Marching Band!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Emilie Rex and musician/filmmaker Rick Alverson AKA Lean Year. As a musical duo, Emilie and Rick have been making music together for a number of years, and their first self-titled album was released in 2017 to acclaim from publications like Pitchfork and NPR Music. In addition to their musical work, Rick is also a lauded indie film director, whose movies include The Comedy starring Tim Heidecker and The Mountain starring Jeff Goldblum. Lean Year's latest album Sides was just released on Western Vinyl, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to author Lincoln Michel. Originally from Virginia, Lincoln's fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Pushcart Prize anthology and his essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Guardian and many other places. His debut story collection, Upright Beasts, was published by Coffee House Press in 2015, and his debut novel, The Body Scout, was published by Orbit just last year!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Attia Taylor. Originally from Philadelphia, Attia is a writer and musician based in New York City. She is the founder of Womanly Magazine, a publication dedicated to providing accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art. She is also half of the psych-pop band Strange Parts, and has been writing and releasing music under her own name since 2009. Her first full album, Space Ghost, was just released this summer on Lame-O Records!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Attia Taylor. Originally from Philadelphia, Attia is a writer and musician based in New York City. She is the founder of Womanly Magazine, a publication dedicated to providing accessible health information to women and non-binary people through visual and literary art. She is also half of the psych-pop band Strange Parts, and has been writing and releasing music under her own name since 2009. Her first full album, Space Ghost, was just released this summer on Lame-O Records!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Karl Blau. Originally from Samish Island, WA, Karl grew up in a family of amatuer musicians and at first thought he was going to be a fine artist. But by the end of high school, Karl was all in on music, and his band Captain Fathom began playing in Anacortes. It was there he met Beat Happening's Bret Lunsford and a pre-Microphones/Mount Eerie Phil Elvrum and they formed the band D+. Being part of the Anacortes music scene eventually led Karl to joining Laura Veirs' band, to working at K Records' Dub Narcotic Studios, and to write and record dozens of albums of his own since the late '90s, which were released on labels like Lunsford's Knw-Yr-Own, K Records, Bella Union, and though Karl's own recording series Kelp!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Tim McIlrath of Rise Against. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Tim grew up about an hour outside Chicago in the suburbs where he started playing in punk bands. In 1999, Joe Principe and Dan Wieklinski formed Rise Against out of the break-up of their former band 88 Fingers Louie, and invited Tim to join. Though the early days were tumultuous, they persevered and released the Transistor Revolt EP a year later. And since those early days, the band has risen to international acclaim releasing albums on Fat Wreck Chords, Geffen, DGC/Interscope and their most current album, the Nowhere Generation II EP was just released on Loma Vista in June!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Tim McIlrath of Rise Against. Originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, Tim grew up about an hour outside Chicago in the suburbs where he started playing in punk bands. In 1999, Joe Principe and Dan Wieklinski formed Rise Against out of the break-up of their former band 88 Fingers Louie, and invited Tim to join. Though the early days were tumultuous, they persevered and released the Transistor Revolt EP a year later. And since those early days, the band has risen to international acclaim releasing albums on Fat Wreck Chords, Geffen, DGC/Interscope and their most current album, the Nowhere Generation II EP was just released on Loma Vista in June!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal. Originally from Ohio, Kevin eventually ended up in Athens, GA where he became part of the Elephant 6 collective, a group that included Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and many others. Kevin's music has transformed over time, as his own aesthetic beliefs have changed. Starting off as a Kinks/Paul McCartney-esque surreal indie pop group with albums on Bar/None and Kindercore, morphing from there into electronic pop and then dance pop, the entirety of the band's output given a throughline by Kevin's psyche. Since 2004, Kevin has almost exclusively released albums on Polyvinyl and his latest Freewave Lucifer Fck is out now!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal. Originally from Ohio, Kevin eventually ended up in Athens, GA where he became part of the Elephant 6 collective, a group that included Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and many others. Kevin's music has transformed over time, as his own aesthetic beliefs have changed. Starting off as a Kinks/Paul McCartney-esque surreal indie pop group with albums on Bar/None and Kindercore, morphing from there into electronic pop and then dance pop, the entirety of the band's output given a throughline by Kevin's psyche. Since 2004, Kevin has almost exclusively released albums on Polyvinyl and his latest Freewave Lucifer Fck is out now!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician John Ringhofer AKA Half-handed Cloud. Based now in Helsinki, Finland, Half-handed Cloud started as a home-recording project in Chattanooga, TN in 1999. Since then, John has released almost two dozen albums and EPs, many of them on Asthmatic Kitty and Sounds Familyre. He's also been a member of Sufjan Stevens' touring band, and his latest album Flutterama is out now!
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On today's episode, I talk to actor Britt Lower. Originally from Heyworth, Illinois, Britt's first big role was on the short-lived 2010 Comedy Central show Big Lake. This launched her into the world of being a working actor, which included a regular role on Man Seeking Woman, as well as recurring roles on shows like Casual, Ghosted, and High Maintenance. Currently, Britt stars in the Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ series Severance, which is easily one of the best things on TV!
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On today's episode, I talk to Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comics creator Mike "Spike" Allred. Originally from Oregon, Mike began his career in comics while working as a journalist. He created his well-known character Madman in the early '90s, and since then has drawn on books like Sandman, Fables, Silver Surfer and numerous others. He co-created two wonderful series: iZombie and X-Statix, and is currently drawing Superman: Space Age and a new X-Statix series.
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On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Casper Kelly. Originally from Burlington, North Carolina, Casper started working at Adult Swim in the early 2000s, writing for shows like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Squidbillies, as well as non-Adult Swim shows like Archer. He's co-created two series, Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell and Stroker and Hoop, as well as the incredible Adult Swim infomercial Too Many Cooks. In addition to his TV work, Casper is a wonderful short story writer, and his book More Stories About Spaceships and Cancer is very much worth your time!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Victoria Park AKA Pictoria Vark. Originally from Cresskill, NJ, Victoria started playing in bands in high school and then college, eventually becoming the touring bassist for indie rock bands like Squirrel Flower and Pinkshift. A few months ago, her first album The Parts I Dread was released on Get Better Records, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to artist Steve Keene. Originally from the DC metro area, Steve wanted to be an artist from an early age, taking off on a path that eventually led him to Yale art school. But it wasn't until his early 30s that he realized what he actually wanted to do as an artist, and since then Steve has become the most prolific American painter of all time, producing more than 300,000 hand-painted works via his studio/chainlink fence cage where he paints more than 50 paintings at a time.Time Magazine even gave him the moniker of the "Assembly-Line Picasso" because of his unique mass-production painting style. In addition to his affordable mass produced paintings, Steve's also painted the album art for many indie rock bands, including Pavement, The Apples in Stereo, The Silver Jews, as well as many others, and a new book about Steve, produced by photojournalist Daniel Efram, was recently published on Hat and Beard Press!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Kasie Shahbaz AKA Kisskadee. Originally from San Diego, Kasie first started playing music under the name Coyote Run. As Kisskadee though, her first release was just last year, a short EP entitled Ambient Music For Bedrooms. And her first full album Black Hole Era just came out in May on Anxiety Blanket Records, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Joe Rainey. Originally from South Minneapolis, Joe is A member of the Red Lake Nation of Ojibwe people and began attending and singing at pow wows from an early age, as well as becoming a pow wow singing archivist. Eventually ending up in Wisconsin, Joe began guesting with different musicians, working with people like Alan Sparhawk of Low, Bon Iver, Chance the Rapper, among many others. This eventually led to his debut album Niineta, which he composed with producer and artist Andrew Broder and which was released at the end of May on Justin Vernon's label 37d03d!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Shaun Fleming. Originally from Agoura Hills, CA, Shaun started out their creative life as a child actor appearing in films like John Waters’ Cry-Baby and as a voice actor on shows like Kim Possible and Lilo & Stitch. As a musician though, they first started playing professionally as the touring drummer for the indie rock band Foxygen. Soon after, Shaun formed Diane Coffee as an outlet for their own music, and since then have recorded five albums and EPs, the latest of which, With People, was just released on Polyvinyl!
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On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Ryan North. Originally from Osgoode, Ontario, Ryan was on a path to a career in computational linguistics before a small webcomic he started, Dinosaur Comics, launched him in a somewhat different direction. Since then, he's become a New York Times-bestselling and Eisner Award-winning writer whose work includes the non-fiction book How To Invent Everything, the semi-fictional graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, and the so-far-fictional Unbeatable Squirrel Girl comic and podcast for Marvel. He's also written Adventure Time, Jughead, The Midas Flesh and many other comics as well, and his most recent work is another non-fiction book How To Take Over The World!
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On today's episode, I talk to composer and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. Originally from Venice Beach, California, Gabriel has been making albums for almost a decade and a half, starting with his self-titled album which was released on Family Records in 2008. Gabriel comes at much of his songwriting from a conceptual standpoint - on his 2014 album The Ambassador, he used ten addresses in LA to write songs from the perspectives of characters both real and imaginary, his 2018 album Book of Travelers was based on a cross-country train trip he took, and his first concert work Craigslistlieder set real Craisglist ads to music. In addition to his songwriting, Gabriel has also been commissioned to write dozens of pieces for orchestras, festivals and theaters, and his latest album Magnificent Bird was just released at the end of March on Nonesuch Records!
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On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Kelly Thompson. After graduating with a degree in Sequential Art from The Savannah College of Art & Design, Kelly began her career as a novelist, penning two books in the early 20-teens, The Girl Who Would Be King and Storykiller. She soon began writing comics with some creator-owned series through Dark Horse and Boom, as well as on the IDW series Jem & The Holograms, among many others. This led to writing for Marvel, where she's written many critically acclaimed and well-loved books including Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Rogue & Gambit and Hawkeye, among many others!
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On today's episode, I talk to musicians Kathryn Calder and Mark Andrew Hamilton. Kathryn and Mark have been making music in different bands for years. Kathryn is a member of The New Pornographers, has released three albums under her own name and was in the indie pop group Immaculate Machine from 2003 to 2011. Similarly, Mark's primary band since the mid-aughts has been Woodpigeon, who have released over two dozen albums and EPs since their formation. After a chance meeting in the hallway of a recording studio, the two vowed to form a band together one day, and in the late 20-teens, they did just that! Their first self-titled album was released in 2018, and their latest Parade was just released last week on Oscar St. Records!
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On today's episode, I talk to rapper, academic and politician Mariah Parker AKA Linqua Franqa. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Mariah wears many hats. As an academic, they earned their master's in Linguistics at the University of Georgia in 2017 and are currently a doctoral student in Language and Literacy Education at the University. As an activist and politician, Mariah ran for and won county commissioner in District 2 of Athens, Georgia. And as a rapper, they've released two wonderful albums, Model Minority in 2018 and their latest Bellringer, which was just released on Ernest Jenning Record Co., and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Carey Mercer. Originally from Okanagan, British Columbia, Carey formed the band Frog Eyes in the early 2000s out of the ashes of his former band Blue Pine. From 2003 until 2018, they wrote and released almost a dozen albums and EPs on labels like Absolutely Kosher and Dead Oceans. And in that time, Carey also released a number of solo albums, as well as with the supergroup Swan Lake featuring Destroyer's Dan Bejar and Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug. In 2018, Frog Eyes disbanded, but four years later they are back with a new album The Bees, which is out on Paper Bag Records, and as usual, it's fantastic!
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On today's episode, I talk to TV writer and actor Andrew Farmer. Originally from Florida, Andrew is a recipient of the 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant, and his work has been produced at The Museum of Modern Art, Ars Nova, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, Joe’s Pub, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Walker Space, Theater Aspen and The Yale School of Drama. As a podcaster, he hosted the long-running Forever Dog podcast Scary Stories to Tell On the Pod, and as a TV writer, he's written for Miracle Workers and the forthcoming animated show Praise Petey.
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On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Dan Erickson. Originally from Olympia, Washington, Dan earned a Masters in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School before moving to LA where he worked a number of day jobs and journeyman writing jobs for places like Super Deluxe and things like Spike’s Lip Sync Battle Pre-Show. In 2016, his hourlong pilot, Severance, became the first TV script ever included on The Bloodlist, an industry list of the best unproduced scripts. This led to a meeting with Ben Stiller's production company, and eventually the show Severance, which is easily one of the best of the last decade. Its first season on Apple TV+ is just wrapping up, and it's already been renewed for a second!
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On today's episode, I talk to actor, writer and improviser Lennon Parham. Born in Marietta, GA, Lennon was acting from a young age, but it was when she moved to New York and started improvising at UCB that her career began in earnest. Performing on a number of house teams at the theater, Lennon eventually moved to Los Angeles, where she booked a regular role on the sitcom Accidentally On Purpose. Since then, Lennon's been a working actor, has had recurring roles on shows like Veep and Lady Dynamite, has had other regular roles on shows like Bless This Mess, and co-created and co-starred in two fantastic shows Best Friends Forever and Playing House. Currently, Lennon is part of the cast of the HBOMax series Minx, airing now!
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On today's episode, I talk to rapper Rollie Pemberton AKA Cadence Weapon. Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Rollie began rapping as a teenager, and released his first mixtape Cadence Weapon Is the Black Hand at the age of 19. He released his first album Breaking Kayfabe just a little later, and since then he's released four more albums, all of which were nominated for Polaris Music Prizes, with his latest Parallel Worlds winning the award in 2021. Rollie was also named as Edmonton's Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2011, and today, the deluxe edition of Parallel Worlds is out via MNRK Music Group!
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On today's episode, I talk to comics creator Kevin Huizenga. Originally from South Holland, a small town of Dutch immigrants in the suburbs of Chicago, he attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is where he started drawing the influential mini-comic Supermonster. After moving to St. Louis, Kevin started the comic book series Or Else, the strip Leon Beyond with Dan Zettwoch, as well as his acclaimed series Ganges. Much of Kevin's work has been published by Drawn & Quarterly; he's won five Ignatz awards and been nominated for Harvey and Eisner awards; and he's constantly creating mini-comics which you can get on his website - one of my most recent favorites is his Rumbling series, but you'll never go wrong with anything he makes!
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On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award Hall of Fame comics creator Jim Starlin. Originally from Detroit, Jim broke into comics in the 1970s, first as an art director at Marvel, and then moving into being an artist and eventually a writer, working on books like Iron Man and Captain Marvel. During his decades at Marvel, Jim created or co-created many of the characters and wrote many of the stories that eventually made up the backbone of the MCU, including Shang-Chi, Adam Warlock, Drax the Destroyer and Thanos, his work eventually leading to the Infinity Gauntlet. And this is just a small sampling of the things he's written and drawn. At DC, he wrote Batman, including the famous story Batman: A Death in the Family, and currently he is working on a new Dreadstar graphic novel!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Julie Doiron. Originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, Julie's musical career began with the acclaimed indie rock group Eric's Trip which formed when she was just 18. While the band was only together six short years, they put out a number of albums on Sub Pop, as well as numerous EPs and 7"es, and just before they stopped playing together, Julie began to record songs on her own. Since then, she's released over a dozen solo albums, as well as collaborations with groups like Wooden Stars and Mt. Eerie. Her last album I Thought of You was released late last year on You've Changed, and in April, her latest album Julie & Dany, which she recorded with her partner Dany Placard, will be released on Simone Records.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Basia Bulat. The daughter of Polish émigrés, Basia was born and raised in Toronto's Etobicoke neighbourhood and grew up listening to her mother's piano students. She attended the University of Western Ontario where she received a degree in English and began an MA in English at Western in 2006 but moved to Montreal to record "an audible memory" of her time there which resulted in her debut album. Since then, she has recorded five more albums, is a three-time Polaris Music Prize finalist, and has been nominated for three Juno Awards. Her latest album is an orchestral reimagining of a number of her songs entitled The Garden, and like the rest of her work, it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Nels Cline. Nels is best known these days as the lead guitarist in the band Wilco, but his recording and performing career — spanning jazz, rock, punk and experimental — is well into its fourth decade, with over 200 recordings, including at least 30 for which he is leader. Nels has received many accolades including Rolling Stone anointing him as both one of 20 "new guitar gods" and one of the top 100 guitarists of all time.
Beyond Wilco, Nels performs in a duo project with guitarist Julian Lage in addition to a quartet, The Nels Cline 4, collaborates with his partner Yuka Honda as the duo CUP, leads The Nels Cline Singers and that is just a brief survey of his many projects. His most recent albums are Wilco's 2019 record Ode to Joy and The Nels Cline Singers' 2020 album Share the Wealth.
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On today's episode, I talk to author Martha Wells. Martha has been a sci-fi and fantasy writer since her first novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, The Death of the Necromancer, the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, The Murderbot Diaries series, as well as media tie-in stories for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering. And this is just a sampling of her work, which it should be noted, has appeared many times on the New York Times Bestseller List. As well, over the last few decades, Martha has been recognized for her writing with numerous Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Awards, as well as a Philip K. Dick Award nomination or two. And most recently, The Murderbot Diaries novel Network Effect won the 2021 Nebula Award and Hugo Award for Best Novel, while the series itself won the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Series.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Matthew Herd. Originally from Glasgow, Matthew is a Scottish songwriter, composer, and saxophonist living in east London. He's the Musician in Residence at Habs Boys’ School and co-directs the Habs Jazz Summer School, and plays in a number of different groups. One of these is his band Seafarers, which he formed in 2013 while studying saxophone at the Royal Academy of Music. Their debut album Orlando was released in November 2020 to widespread acclaim, and their second album, II, is out now, and it's fantastic!
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On the 12th anniversary episode of Beginnings taped back in December, I talk to John Linnell of They Might Be Giants! Raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, John Linnell began writing music with his friend John Flansburgh in high school, and after playing in a number of bands formed TMBG with Flansburgh in 1982. From 1986's self-titled album to today, the band has released over fifty albums, compilations and EPs, has won two Grammys and was even nominated for a Tony Award. John hasn't produced a lot of solo work, but his State Songs album is great, and I wish his Roman Songs EP (sung entirely in Latin) would have been released in the '90s so I could have played it in Latin class to the bemusement of my teacher. Most recently, They Might Be Giants have released a 144 page book and album entitled BOOK, and much like everything else from their 40 year career, it's wonderful!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Logan Lynn. Born in York, Nebraska, Logan eventually moved to Portland after a tumultuous childhood. His musical career began there when he was discovered by The Dandy Warhols.Since 1998, he's released over a dozen albums and EPs on labels like EMI and Caroline, hosted NewNowNext Music on the Logo Network, and in 2021 was named one of the OUT100 in the Performers of the Year category by Out Magazine. This is just a small smattering of his accomplishments. His latest album New Money is out now on Kill Rock Stars!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Wendy Eisenberg. Wendy is an improviser and songwriter who uses guitar, pedals, the tenor banjo, the computer, the synthesizer and the voice. Though often working solo as both a songwriter and improviser, with acclaimed releases on Tzadik, VDSQ, Out of your Head, and Garden Portal, they also perform in the rock band Editrix, and in endless other combinations. Towards the end of 2020, Ba Da Bing! released their album Auto, and their latest, Bent Ring, was just released at the end of last year on Dear Life Records. Both are great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician John Vanderslice. Raised in rural North Florida, Vanderslice was forced into piano lessons as a young child, and eventually picked up the guitar and started writing songs as a teen. After moving to San Francisco in 1989, John made three records as a part of the experimental band MK Ultra, including the critically-acclaimed The Dream is Over. His obsession with recording craft persisted: while working as a waiter at Chez Panisse in 1997, he opened Tiny Telephone Recording as an affordable outlet for the Bay Area’s indie rock community. Between 2000 and 2014, John released 10 records on Barsuk, Dead Oceans, and Secretly Canadian, and collaborated as a producer and musician on records by Spoon, the Mountain Goats, Okkervil River, Death Cab for Cutie and Tune-Yards. Taking a break from his own recording, he became a full-time producer for a number of years, and in 2018, John decided to leap back into his solo career with full force, releasing a number of albums and EPs, the latest of which is a tribute to Dave Berman entitled "John, i can’t believe civilization is still going here in 2021! Congratulations to all of us, Love, DCB"
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Robert Haimer AKA Artie Barnes. Born in Los Angeles, Robert began playing music with his friend, actor Bill Mumy, in high school, recording songs for their own amusement as Barnes & Barnes. But when Dr. Demento began playing their music in the late-'70s, they started to think of Barnes & Barnes more professionally, bolstered by the popularity of their track "Fish Heads" among a number of others. Since then, they've released over a dozen albums, mostly on Rhino Records, and their latest Pancake Dream is now available on Demented Punk Records.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician and Professor of Religious Studies Daniel Wyche. Daniel is a Chicago-based guitarist, composer and improviser. Working with a wide range of physical preparations, extended techniques, and pedal instruments, his solo recorded work and live performances are characterized by long-form structured improvisations. Both by himself and with a number of collaborators (including former guest Patrick Shiroishi), Daniel has released a number of albums, and his latest, Earthwork, just came out towards the beginning of November. As an academic, he specializes in a number of areas including the works of Michel Foucault, and his first book On the Care of the Self and the Care of the Other concerns Foucault's ethical ideas around self-change.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Jack Cooper. Originally from the Fylde Coast, Jack began playing music professionally in the early 2000s, where after signing to Twisted Nerve Records, he began playing with musician Jim Noir. From 2009 to 2018, Jack played in two bands - Mazes and then Ultimate Painting - releasing a number of albums as well as some solo records, and in 2019, he formed Modern Nature. Their latest album Island of Noise was just released on Bella Union, and it's fantastic!
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On today's episode, I talk to actor Rebecca Gibney. Originally from Levin, New Zealand, Rebecca grew up the youngest of six children, and after a somewhat tumultuous childhood, eventually found her way into acting. She first acted in shows like Zoo Family and The Flying Doctors, and in the 1990s starred in shows like Snowy and Halifax f.p. Without going into her full IMDB, Rebecca continued to star in shows and movies including a number of Stephen King miniseries, and in the mid-20teens co-created and co-starred in the wonderful show Wanted. Currently, Rebecca can be seen here in the States every Monday for the next month and a half on the AcornTV show Under the Vines.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician René Kladzyk aka Ziemba. Originally from Michigan, Rene is an El Paso-based musician and writer. As a journalist, she works for El Paso Matters and frequently reports on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. She is also an advocate for music industry reform and creator of the Future Music Industry (a compendium of music industry orgs run by women and non-binary people). And of course, as Ziemba, she's written a number of albums and EPs, including last year's True Romantic and her latest album Unsubtle Magic, out next week on Sister Polygon Records!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Stewart Bronaugh. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Stewart has been playing music for a majority of his life. Professionally, he played for many years as a part of Angel Olson's backing band, and on his own, he's been recording as Lionlimb for over a decade. They released their fantastic first EP Turnstile in 2016, and since then have released two more great albums Shoo and Tape Recorder. Their most recent album Spiral Groove was just released in mid-November on Bayonet Records, and it's an absolute delight!
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On today's episode, I talk to actor Brent Jennings. Originally from Little Rock Arkansas, Brent got his start acting professionally in the New York theater scene of the 1970s, both on and off-Broadway. From there, he became a working screen actor appearing in films like Witness, Another 48 Hrs., and Moneyball, as well as TV shows like Miami Vice, Hill Street Blues, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, among many others. Most recently, Brent starred in Lodge 49, one of the best shows of the 21st century, and currently recurs on the CW sports drama All American.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Cedric Noel. Montreal-based artist Cedric Noel has spent the past decade creating music informed by his unique worldview: He was born in Niger to Canadian and Mozambican/Belgian parents, spent his upbringing around the world, and is currently based in Canada. During this time, Cedric has released a number of critically praised full-length albums, EPs and collaborative works of his own, while also playing bass for acts like Ada Lea and many others. His latest album Hang Time is out now on Joyful Noise, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Ram V. An author and comic book writer from Mumbai, India, Ram V's comics career began in 2012 with the award-nominated comic series, Aghori. Since then, he's written a ton of great comics including Paradiso and Blue In Green for Image, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr for Boom, Grafity's Wall for Dark Horse, Swamp Thing, Justice League and Cat Woman for DC, and is co-writing the next run of Venom with Al Ewing!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Patrick Shiroishi. For years, Los Angeles-based saxophonist and composer Patrick Shiroishi has been playing music in numerous bands and ensembles crossing a number of different genres. These include groups such as Corima, Upsilon Acrux, Nakata, In the Womb, Oort Smog, as well as many others. Patrick also records solo under his own name, and this includes his latest, Hidemi, a solo multilayered woodwind journey, about his grandfather's personal experience after getting out of the Japanese-American concentration camps. And it is easily one of the best albums of the year!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Katelyn Tarver. After getting her start performing in prestigious talent competitions as a child in Glennville, Georgia, Katelyn moved to Los Angeles at the age of 19 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. She promptly made her TV debut with a recurring role on Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, then began independently releasing her music while penning songs for other artists. In 2014 she experienced a major breakthrough when “Crazy Stupid Love” (a song she’d co-written for British pop star Cheryl) shot to #1 on the UK Singles Chart. Since then, Katelyn's released a number of singles and EPs, recurred on shows like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Ballers, and her latest album Subject to Change will be released very soon, in early November!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Buzz Osborne. Originally from Morton, WA, Buzz founded the rock band Melvins in the early '80s, and in 1986, C/Z Records released their first EP Six Songs. Since then, they've released over 40 more albums, EPs and compilations on record labels like Alternative Tentacles, Sub Pop and Ipecac Recordings, and while never achieving mainstream success - if that's even something they sought - the band is both sustainable and hugely influential, influencing everyone from Nirvana and Soundgarden to Helmet, Tool, Mastodon and many others. Their latest album, Five Legged Dog, a 36-song acoustic reimagining of their discography, is out now!
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On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Keith "Keef" Knight. Starting with his K Chronicles in the early '90s, Keith has been a professional cartoonist for almost three decades. In that time, he's started two other series - (th)ink and the Knight Life - and written almost 20 books of cartoons. Keith has been syndicated everywhere, won awards like the Harvey Award and was named one of 2015's History Makers by the NAACP. In addition to all of this, he co-created the TV show Woke, which is partially based on his life, and whose second season debuts on Hulu later this year!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician David Thomas. Raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, David is one of the founders of the short-lived but influential punk band Rocket from the Tombs, who split up after about a year, with some members going off to form the Dead Boys, while David founded Pere Ubu. While David would record on and off with the self-described avant-garage Pere Ubu over the next 40 years, he has also recorded with a number of different collaborators under a number of different names, such as David Thomas & the Pedestrians, David Thomas & the Wooden Birds and David Thomas & Two Pale Boys. Earlier in September, Fire Records reissued two classic Pere Ubu albums Pennsylvania and St Arkansas!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Indigo De Souza. Originally from Spruce Pine, North Carolina, and later based in Asheville, Indigo recorded her first EP, Boys, in a friend's garage in 2016. Following another short-form release, she delivered her debut album, I Love My Mom, in 2018. She then signed with Saddle Creek, which reissued the debut just weeks before releasing the tempestuous Any Shape You Take at the end of August. And it's one of my favorite things released this year!
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On today's special 500th episode, I talk to BAFTA Award-winning comedy writer Arthur Mathews. Originally from Navan, Co Meath, Ireland, Arthur was originally on the path to become a graphic designer until his writing partner suggested they go to London to try their hand at professional comedy writing. Since that day, Arthur has co-created the seminal comedy Father Ted, wrote on some of the best UK comedies of the early 2000s, including Jam, Brass Eye and Black Books, co-created the Simon Pegg-starring sketch show Big Train, and later, with Matt Berry, created Toast of London. And just creating any one of those would have put him in a rarefied pantheon, let alone Father Ted, Big Train AND Toast of London!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician/poet/actor McKenzie Chinn. Originally from Fort Washington, McKenzie is a true triple threat. As an actor, she has appeared on Fox's Empire and The Big Leap, is a 2021 fellow in the Sundance Directors Lab, and wrote, produced and acted in the film Olympia, which made its debut at the 2018 LA Film Festival. As a poet, her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and as a musician, she is part of the Growing Concerns Poetry Collective, whose second album BIG DARK BRIGHT FUTURES was released last fall.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Ramona Gonzalez AKA NIte Jewel. Born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley, Ramona studied philosophy at Occidental College. She remained involved in music throughout her studies, playing in a series of rock bands with her then husband, and eventually starting her solo career as Nite Jewel. After a self-released six-song CD-R titled My CD, which caught the ear of New York's taste-making Other Records, Nite Jewel issued the full-length Good Evening through Human Ear Music. Since then, Ramona has released over a dozen albums, EPs and singles on record labels like Mexican Summer and Secretly Canadian, and her most recent album No Sun was released just last week on her own label Gloriette, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Bill Oakley. Originally from Union Bridge, Maryland, Bill attended Harvard where he spent most of his time writing for the Harvard Lampoon. After graduating, Bill took on a number of different jobs until he and his longtime friend and writing partner Josh Weinstein were eventually hired to work on The Simpsons. Together, the two wrote some of the most classic episodes of the show including "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" and "22 Short Films About Springfield", and were subsequently promoted to executive producer and showrunner during the seventh and eighth seasons. Since then, Bill co-created Mission Hill, wrote for Futurama, Portlandia and Disenchanted, and currently is the showrunner for the delightful HBO Max series Close Enough!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Kath Myers. Originally from Ohio, Kath had a roundabout route into making music that took her from the world of high finance in New York all the way to living the "artist's way" in Los Angeles. Her first album under her own name, Sensitive Groups, was just released in June, and it's fantastic!
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On today's episode, I talk to modern composer Terry Riley. Originally from Colfax, CA, Terry began studying composition and performing solo piano in the 1950s. He befriended and collaborated with composer La Monte Young, and through the '60s further refined his sound. Terry's 1964 revolutionary composition "In C" essentially launched what is now known as the Minimalist movement. The piece's interlocking repetitive patterns changed the course of 20th century music, and its influence has been heard in the works of prominent composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, as well as in the music of rock groups such as The Who and Soft Machine, as well as in collaborations with everyone from John Cale to Pauline Oliveros to Kronos Quartet. Since the '60s, Terry hasn't slowed down a moment, and he continues to compose and perform, and his latest recording is 2019's The Lion's Throne, a collaboration with singer Amelia Cuni.
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On today's episode, I talk to comedy writer Robert Popper. Robert Popper is a multiple award-winning writer, producer and performer. He’s the creator, writer and producer of Channel 4’s six-series Friday Night Dinner, he co-created and starred in BBC 2’s Look Around You with Peter Serafinowicz, produced the Bafta-winning Peep Show, wrote on season 14 of South Park, script-edited The Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd, and Him & Her, and co-wrote several episodes of Channel 4’s Stath Lets Flats, with Jamie Demetriou. Robert also wrote the massive bestselling The Timewaster Letters books under his pseudonym, Robin Cooper, and most recently, created The Timewaster Letters Compendium on Audible!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Joe Jack Talcum. Originally from Wagontown, PA, Joe Genaro AKA Joe Jack Talcum is the guitarist and co-lead singer of the seminal punk band The Dead Milkmen. Formed out of his home recording project dating back to the late '70s, the group didn't really coalesce until Joe went to college at Temple University. Starting with 1985's Big Lizard in My Backyard, they recorded dozens of albums and EPs, and though they broke up in 1995, they've reunited a number of times since for various shows. Outside of The Dead Milkmen, Joe is prolific, recording a number of albums on his own and with groups like The Low Budgets. His latest album Joe Jack Talcum sings Railroad Bill and Other Songs was just released late last year!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Anna McClellan began performing original songs in her hometown of Omaha, NE at the age of seventeen and has been actively recording and touring ever since. Her debut, Fire Flames, earned her an opening slot on a Frankie Cosmos tour. Through the doors that tour opened, McClellan eventually met Father/Daughter Records which led to the release of her second full-length record, Yes and No, in 2018. After a stint in NYC, several subsequent tours and meandering, Anna returned to Omaha and recorded I saw first light, her latest effort for Father/Daughter.
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On today's episode, I talk to writer Steve Aylett. Born in Bromley, Steve is the author of over a dozen novels, comics and collections of short fiction. He started to get acclaim for his writing with his third novel Slaughtermatic, which was shortlisted for the 1998 Philip K. Dick Award. Slaughtermatic was part of his Beerlight series, and this, along with the Accomplice series, make up the bulk of his most well-known work, although one of his best works, Lint - a satirical, Zelig-like biography of a Philip K. Dick/Hunter S. Thompson/Ken Kesey pastiche - stands relatively alone. His latest comic, Hyperthick, will be released at the end of July by Floating World Comics.
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Lou Barlow. Originally from Ohio, Lou formed his first band Deep Wound in 1982, while attending high school in western Massachusetts. Deep Wound's drummer was J Mascis, and when that band broke up, Lou and J formed Dinosaur, later to become Dinosaur Jr. The early years of the band were acclaimed but tumultuous, and after their third album, he was asked to leave the band. Lou then turned his attention to his other band Sebadoh, his side project Sentridoh, and later his other group Folk Implosion. Throughout the years, these projects - including Dinosaur Jr. - have all waxed and waned, but most recently, Lou recorded songs for Dinosaur Jr.'s latest album Sweep It Into Space, which was released in April, and his own solo album, Reason to Live, which was released at the end of May on Joyful Noise!
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On today's episode, I talk to actress and comedian Michaela Watkins. Originally from Syracuse, NY, Michaela's career really began when she moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, where she joined the Groundlings. She was cast on SNL for the 2008 season, and while she only stayed a year, this led to many other incredible roles on shows like New Adventures of Old Christine, Enlightened, Trophy Wife, New Girl, Veep, Wet Hot American Summer, Catastrophe, Get Shorty, Transparent, Search Party, The Unicorn and many other programs. In 2014, Michaela created the show Benched, and while it only lasted one season, it was a delight. And from 2015 to 2018, Michaela starred in the brilliant dramedy Casual, which is easily one of the best shows of the last decade and the spiritual successor to Six Feet Under. Most recently, Michaela co-stars in (friend of the show, friend IRL) Josh Ruben's latest film Werewolves Within.
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On today's episode, I talk to bass guitarist and record producer Melvin Gibbs. A native of Brooklyn, He has been called "the greatest bassist in the world" by Time Out New York magazine and was last year's winner of JazzTimes Magazine's Critics Poll in the Electric Bass category. Melvin's wide-ranging musical resume includes membership in bands ranging from the no-wave of Defunkt to the avant-jazz of the Decoding Society, to Power Tools with Bill Frisell & Ronald Shannon Jackson, Rollins Band (where he was nominated for a Grammy), Socialybrium with Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Bernie Worrell, and the Zig Zag Power Trio with Vernon Reid and Will Calhoun of the band Living Colour. As a bassist and producer, he has worked with Femi Kuti, Caetano Veloso, dead prez, David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, and Sonny Sharrock. He is currently a member of the band Harriet Tubman, who The New York Times twice called "The Best Jazz Performance" of the year, and his latest album is 4 + 1 equals 5 for May 25, an EP he recorded reflecting on the murder of George Floyd, was just released a little while ago, and it's great!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Isobel Campbell. Originally from Glasgow, Isobel's musical career began with the acclaimed indie rock group Belle and Sebastian. She played cello, keyboards and sang in the group, and after five hit albums, she left the band to pursue a solo career as The Gentle Waves. She kept The Gentle Waves moniker for a few albums, afterward deciding to record music under her given name. Between 2006 and 2013, Isobel also made three albums with Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan, and her most recent album There Is No Other, was released on Rough Trade right before the pandemic crushed society for a year!
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On today's episode, I talk to Tony Award-winning actor and musician Michael Cerveris. Originally from Huntington, West Virginia, Michael got his start acting in the early '80s downtown scene, and his career has flourished from there. As a theater actor, he's won two Tony Awards, one for playing John Wilkes Booth in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins and the second for his role in Fun Home. Beyond the official accolades though, he's acted in dozens of productions including Hedwig And The Angry Inch. As a TV and film actor, he's had recurring roles in shows like Mindhunter, Gotham, The Tick, The Good Wife, Treme and Fringe, as well as many other roles. And as a musician, he's been working professionally ever since he backed Bob Mould on his Last Dog And Pony Show tour in 1998. Michael's first solo album was released in 2004, but for the last eight years, he's been writing and recording with Kimberly Kaye under the moniker Loose Cattle, and their first official album Heavy Lifting is out now, wherever you get your records from!
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On today's episode, I talk to Eisner-award winning comics creator John Allison. John started creating webcomics in 1998 with Bobbins, a series which ran on the early webcomics portal Keenspot. When Bobbins ended, he followed that up with Scary Go Round and then Bad Machinery. In 2013, John pitched a spin-off from Scary Go Round, Giant Days, to Boom! Box, a newly formed imprint of Boom! Studios for established artists outside the comics industry. In 2016, Giant Days was nominated for two Eisner Awards and three Harvey Awards, and in 2019, it won two Eisner Awards, for Best Continuing Series and Best Humor Publication.The success of Giant Days led to further work with independent presses. John went on to write the series By Night for Boom! Studios and is now writing and drawing Steeple for Dark Horse.
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On today's episode, I talk to Grammy nominated musician Bonnie McKee. Raised in Seattle, WA, Bonnie had been singing and writing her own songs from a young age, and as a teenager was signed to a label and moved to Los Angeles to record her first album. While critically praised, the album was commercially unsuccessful, and after a while, Bonnie began a second career as a songwriter for artists like Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, Adam Lambert, Ke$ha, Christina Aguilera, Cher, Carly Rae Jepsen as well as some of Katy Perry's most famous songs. Recently, Bonnie embarked on a new direction writing, directing, editing, producing and scoring her own short film April Kills the Vibe!
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On today's episode, I talk to musician Trevor Kampmann. Born in Naperville, IL in the early '70s, Trevor began making music under the name Sea Saw in the early '90s on the indie label Simple Machines, after that recording as hollAnd. Aside from releasing over 12 CDs and DVDs under the hollAnd moniker - many of them on TeenBeat Records, he has worked on countless recordings for bands such as Explosions in the Sky, Cat Power, and Flin Flon (whose song 'Floods' became the theme for CNN's Anderson Cooper 360). Trevor has collaborated often with photographer Mark Borthwick both in music and in various art installations, and he has also produced music for avante-garde fashion designers such as Martin Margiela and ZERO by Maria Cornejo. Kampmann is currently owner of Analogous Digital, a mastering studio in Washington, DC.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Peggy Seeger. Sister of Pete Seeger (the great-grandfather of USA folk revival) and partner of the late Ewan MacColl (theorist and practitioner of UK folk revival), she has carved a special niche for herself in both these countries. Trained in both classical and folk music, her experience spans 55 years of performing, travel and songwriting. A multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, autoharp, English concertina and Appalachian dulcimer), she is probably best known for her feminist songs and for The Ballad of Springhill, which is rapidly becoming regarded as a traditional song.
Born in 1935, she regards herself as "seasoned and in my prime". She has made 23 solo recordings and has participated in over a hundred recordings with other artists. Her 24th album FIrst Farewell was just released on Red Grape Music, and she is playing a number of dates in the UK in May and October, please check her website for when those are happening.
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On today's episode I talk to musician and TV writer Clay Tarver. Clay first came to prominence as the co-founder and lead guitarist of the Boston hard rock/punk band Bullet LaVolta in the late 1980s. They recorded a few records for Taang!, RCA, and Matador Records before disbanding in 1991. He then formed Chavez with Matt Sweeney, Scott Marshall and James Lo, and they released two incredible albums and an EP on Matador. As Chavez was waning, Clay's writing career started to take off. Around this time, he wrote Joy Ride, with J. J. Abrams, and later, Clay wrote for all six seasons of SIlicon Valley. His directorial film debut Vacation Friends with John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, and Yvonne Orji will be released this summer!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Matt Sweeney. Originally from northern New Jersey, Matt started playing in bands in high school with his first group Skunk, who released two albums on Twin/Tone records. In the early '90s, he formed Chavez, which went on to release two incredible albums and an EP on Matador. When the band stopped playing together, Matt became a sideman touring with GBV and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, until he formed Zwan with Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan. Although Matt has continued to be a sideman and session musician, his most extensive musical collaboration in the 21st century has been with Will Oldham. Their album Superwolf came out in 2005, and now their latest record Superwolves will be released on Drag City next week!
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On today's episode I talk to comedian and actor Jana Schmieding. Originally from Oregon, Jana cut her teeth performing sketch, improv and characters at the Magnet Theater in New York City. After moving to Los Angeles in 2016, Jana started the Woman of Size podcast, which she hosted until 2019, and most recently, she writes on and co-stars with Ed Helms in Peacock's newest sitcom Rutherford Falls, which debuts on the streaming network next Friday!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Bob Nastanovich. Born in Rochester, but raised in Richmond, Virginia, Bob spent the early part of his life playing tennis and listening to punk rock. While attending college at the University of Virginia, he met his future bandmates Steve Malkmus and Dave Berman, and the three formed the band Ectoslavia with future Yo La Tengo member James McNew. After college, the three moved to Jersey across from Manhattan, where the first Silver Jews songs were recorded. Malkmus formed Pavement around this time with his old friend Spiral Stairs, and Bob joined a little later, essentially as the utility player of the band. Though Pavement broke up in 1999, the band occasionally reunites for live shows, and since then, Bob has spent a lot of his time with his other passion, horse racing, as well as running the record label Broker's Tip Records.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Jamie Stewart. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jamie played in a number of bands as a teenager, including a parody band and a Bauhaus cover group. However, he didn't really find his voice until he formed Xiu Xiu in his mid-20s. The release of the band's first album Knife Play on the Kill Rock Stars imprint 5RC cemented their style, but it was with 2004's Fabulous Muscles that the band really started to break through. Since then, Xiu Xiu has recorded and released another nine albums, toured the world, and their latest album Oh No, was just released at the end of March on Polyvinyl!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Hans-Joachim Roedelius. A pioneer in the field of electronic music, Hans-Joachim Roedelius is considered one of the founders of contemporary popular electronic music. Born in Berlin in 1934, Hans-Joachim starred as a child in a number of UFA films, and during the war was an unwilling member of the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth, membership being mandatory for all boys from the age of ten. During this time, he also appeared in several propaganda films. He fled Berlin in 1943, moving from one place to another before being conscripted into the National People's Army of East Germany. Again he took flight, only to end up in prison. WHen he got out, he trained as a male nurse, then as a hospice orderly. Having relocated from East to West Berlin, he went on to meander through Europe (as a thatcher, detective, masseur, bartender, janitor and many other things), before finally becoming a freelance artist, with avant-garde music his prime focus. In 1968, Hans-Joachim co-founded the music commune known as "Human Being" and co-formed Zodiak Free Arts Lab, the center of Berlin's underground culture at the time, with conceptual artist Conrad Schnitzler. He formed Cluster a year later, and then Harmonia with Neu! guitarist Michael Rother. In the decades since then, he recorded dozens upon dozens of albums, both solo and in collaboration with everyone from Brian Eno to Tim Story (their album Lunz 3 from 2019 is spectacular), and his latest album Drauf Und Dran, an album of piano compositions, was released late last year.
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On today's episode I talk to musician and painter Tobin Sprout. Born in 1955 in Dayton, Ohio, Tobin is an American artist, musician and children’s book creator. As a musician, he was well known as a founding member of the indie rock band Guided by Voices before going out on his own, releasing his first solo album, Carnival Boy, in 1996. As an artist, Tobin is famous for his photo-realism large format paintings, especially the “Superchrome” series, although he does paint in other styles as well. His children’s book, Elliott, about a magician’s rabbit who finds the courage to leave his top hat, sold out of its first print run. His latest album, Empty Horses, was released late last year on Fire Records, and like everything else Tobin does, it's great!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Sarah Mary Chadwick. New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, Sarah Mary Chadwick has been making music since she was a teenager. In the early 2000s, she formed the band Batrider in Wellington with guitarist Julia McFarlane (now of Twerps). After a number of albums and line-up changes that left Sarah as the only original member, she began writing music on her own. Her first album as herself, Eating for Two, was released in 2012 on Bedroom Suck Records, and since then she's released half a dozen albums on labels like Siltbreeze Records, and her latest Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby was just released in February with Ba Da Bing Records, and it's fantastic!
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On today's episode I talk to drummer and composer Bobby Previte. Originally from Niagara Falls, New York, Bobby was one of the seminal figures of the 1980s New York ‘Downtown’ scene that included John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, and Elliott Sharp, and his original compositions have been recorded and released on labels like Sony, Elektra, Tzadik. He's also led a plethora of diverse ensembles from behind his drums and has collaborated with many of the leading lights in and beyond the world of music, including master composer John Adams, iconic singer Tom Waits, pantheon filmmaker Robert Altman, and most recently, rock legend Iggy Pop. He's also the recipient of the 2015 Greenfield Prize for music and was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2012, and his latest albums are a series of live recordings called Groundtruther, which you can get on his Bandcamp site now!
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On today's episode I talk to writer and showrunner Ron D. Moore. Originally from Chowchilla, CA, Ron broke into TV writing when he passed a spec script he had written to one of Gene Roddenberry's assistants during a tour of the Star Trek: The Next Generation set. This eventually led to him being hired on the show, and from there he wrote on Deep Space Nine, Roswell, Carnivale, and many otherTV shows until eventually he had the opportunity to reboot Battlestar Galactica for Syfy. The show was a critical and commercial success, ran for four seasons and garnered a number of Emmy nominations. Since then, Ron created the spinoff Caprica, adapted the Outlander novels, and most recently, he co-created and showran the great Apple TV show For All Mankind, which just started it's second season last week!
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On today's episode I talk to musician James Yorkston. Originally from the village of Kingsbarns, Fife in Scotland, James has been playing music since he was young, and was an integral early member of the Fence Collective, a collaborative group of musicians that included groups like The Beta Band. James spent years honing his craft was eventually championed by John Peel and John Martyn after he sent them tapes of his music. This led to him being signed by Domino who have subsequently released most of his albums including 2019's critically acclaimed The Route to the Harmonium and his latest album with the Second Hand Orchestra The Wide, Wide River, which is already one of the best albums of the year.
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On today's episode I talk to musician James Yorkston. Originally from the village of Kingsbarns, Fife in Scotland, James has been playing music since he was young, and was an integral early member of the Fence Collective, a collaborative group of musicians that included groups like The Beta Band. James spent years honing his craft was eventually championed by John Peel and John Martyn after he sent them tapes of his music. This led to him being signed by Domino who have subsequently released most of his albums including 2019's critically acclaimed The Route to the Harmonium and his latest album with the Second Hand Orchestra The Wide, Wide River, which is already one of the best albums of the year.
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On today's episode I talk to solo artist and principal songwriter of the band Hop Along, Frances Quinlan. Growing up in Boyertown, PA, Frances recorded their first album as Hop Along during their freshman year of college at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Hop Along soon became a full band and with their third album Painted Shut, the group signed to Saddle Creek. Their fourth album Bark Your Head Off, Dog was met with near-universal acclaim, and just one year ago right before the pandemic, the label released Frances' solo album Likewise, which is just wonderful!
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On today's episode I talk to comedian and actor Mark Little. Originally from New Westminster, British Columbia, Mark has been writing and performing comedy for almost two decades. His sketch group Picnicface gained some acclaim during the heyday of internet videos, leading to their own series, which was executive-produced by Mark McKinney. He's also known for the popular shows Mr. D, Gary and His Demons, and one of my favorites Cavendish, a show Mark co-created that is easily one of the funniest things of the last few years.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Richard Dawson. Originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, avant-garde folk musician Richard Dawson has been performing and releasing albums for over a decade, each one released to great critical acclaim. Starting with 2014's Nothing Important, Domino began releasing his music, and his latest album 2020, which was released in 2019, is absolutely one of the best albums of the last few years.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Ian MacKaye. Originally from Washington DC, Ian is a guitarist and singer who founded Dischord Records as a teenager in 1980 with Jeff Nelson. Ian and Jeff went on to form the defining DC hardcore band Minor Threat, and in 1986, Ian then formed Fugazi with Joe Lally, Brendan Canty and Guy Picciotto. Over 20+ years the band has released seven albums and toured the world extensively covering all fifty United States, Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and many points in between. Ian has also played with a number of other bands including Teen Idles, Egghunt and Embrace, and since 2001, he's played in The Evens, a duo with Amy Farina, and most recently the trio Coriky, whose first album was released just last summer.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Mary Timony. Originally from Washington DC, Mary began playing in bands in the early '90s, first with Autoclave, and after they broke up, with Helium. Between 1992 and 1997, they released two full-length albums, three EPs and several singles on Matador Records. After Helium split up, she released a number of solo albums, as well as albums with two other bands Wild Flag and Ex Hex, both of which were released on Merge. On January 15th, Matador will be re-releasing her first solo album Mountains!
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On today's episode I talk to comics writer Si Spurrier. Raised just outside London, Si had a number of different jobs before he began writing for comics. He started with the British small press, after which, he created a number of series for the beloved UK cult comic 2000AD. This success led to work in the American mainstream, which includes runs on Hellblazer, X-Men: Legacy, X-Force, The Dreaming, and the GLAAD award-winning Star Wars: Doctor Aphra. It also led to the opportunity to write a great deal of creator-owned work here, such as The Spire, Coda, Alienated, Six-Gun Gorilla and much more - all of which are well worth your time. Recently, it was announced that Si would be writing a new book as part of Jonathan Hickman's revamped X-Men line!
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On today's episode I talk to writer Chris Hedges. Chris is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. In addition, he writes a weekly column for the online magazine Scheerpost and is host of the Emmy Award–winning RT America show On Contact. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto and currently teaches college credit courses in the New Jersey prison system. (His column that we discuss in this episode can be found here!)
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On today's episode I talk to TV writer and showrunner Steve Conrad. Originally from Ft. Lauderdale, Steve has been writing screenplays for over two decades, with his notable films including The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Secret Life of Walter MItty and Wonder. In 2015, he started developing one of the first shows on Amazon Prime, Patriot. Though it only lasted two seasons, it is easily one of the best series of the last decade. His latest series Perpetual Grace, LTD debuted on Epix last year.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Chad Clark. Originally from Harlem, Chad moved to DC as a teenager, where he eventually became part of the DC punk scene. He formed his first band Smart Went Crazy while still in high school, eventually releasing two albums on Dischord, the second of which - Con Art - was named by Pitchfork as one of the best albums of the 1990s. After Smart Went Crazy broke up, Chad formed Beauty Pill in 2001. Since then, they've released a number of EPs and albums, and their latest, 2015's Beauty Pill Describes Things as They Are, garnered accolades from NPR, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and numerous other publications. Their latest single "Instant Night" was released at the end of October, and it might well be the best song released in 2020!
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On today's episode I talk to journalist David Sirota. In David's long career, he has done a great deal of work both inside politics and outside, reporting on politics. In the early aughts, he worked as a political strategist and campaign advisor on a number of progressive campaigns, soon after transitioning to journalism, which included everything from a nationally syndicated newspaper column to investigative reporting. His work has garnered him a number of awards including the prestigious Izzy Award for Journalism, and he has written three books, two of which are New York Times Bestsellers. This last year has been a busy one for David, not only did he serve as the speechwriter for Bernie Sanders' primary campaign, but in addition, he is the publisher of The Daily Poster, an editor at large at Jacobin Magazine and a columnist at The Guardian.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Diane Cluck. Originally from Lancaster, PA, Diane began playing music in grade school. She started to perform publicly in New York in the early 2000s, in the same LES folk scene that included Jeffrey Lewis, Regina Spektor and Kimya Dawson, and since then has recorded and released over a dozen albums and compilations. Her latest Common Wealth was just released in June, and it's just wonderful!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Thurston Moore. Originally from Coral Gables, Florida, Thurston eventually ended up in New York in the late-70s, just as a vibrant musical scene was exploding, which included post-punk, new wave, no wave, jazz and numerous other styles. After playing in a few different bands, he met Kim Gordon and they eventually formed Sonic Youth in 1981. Over the next three decades, Sonic Youth released 15 amazing albums and became one of the most well-known indie rock bands. Outside of Sonic Youth, Thurston founded and runs the Ecstatic Peace! record label, has collaborated with everyone from Glenn Branca to Yoko Ono, and started the band Chelsea Light Moving in 2012. In addition to all this, Thurston has recorded a number of albums under his own name, and his latest By the Fire was just released at the end of September as part of the Daydream Library Series.
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On today's episode I talk to writer and director Silas Howard. Silas is an award winning director and writer whose recent work includes executive producing and directing on FX’s Emmy-nominated series Pose. Other TV credits include directing on multiple seasons of Amazon’s Emmy award-winning Transparent, NBC’s This Is Us, HBO’s High Maintenance, Netflix’s Tales of the City, Apple TV's Dickinson, as well as the new Josh Thomas show Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. In addition to all of his directing work, Silas was a founding member of the seminal queer punk band Tribe 8 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2015.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Owen Pallett. Since the age of three, Owen has been playing violin, and as a young teenager, he composed his first piece. This started him on the path to making music for a living. On his own, he's written and recorded a number of great albums both as Final Fantasy and under his own name. Additionally, Owen's written for and toured with a number of great bands including Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, Beirut and perhaps most notably Arcade Fire for their albums Funeral, Neon Bible and The Suburbs. Back at the end of May, Domino released Owen's fifth album Island, and it's absolutely wonderful!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Tim Smith. From 1999 to 2012, Tim was the singer, guitarist and principal songwriter for the indie rock band Midlake. During his tenure, the band recorded a number of EPs and three highly-regarded albums Bamnan and Slivercork, The Trials of Van Occupanther, and The Courage of Others. In 2012 though, Tim left the band to pursue his own projects, and since then has been recording under the name Harp.
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On today's episode I talk to rapper Psalm One AKA Cristalle Bowen AKA Hologram Kizzie. Originally from the Southside of Chicago, Cristalle was set to be a chemist before creating a hip hop album for her junior Creative Writing project. That album led to some meetings, and eventually she signed with Minneapolis indie hip hop label Rhymesayers. They released her album The Death of Frequent Flyer in 2006, but after a number of years, Cristalle parted ways with them. She started releasing music on her own under a few different monikers, and her latest as Psalm One, Flight of the Wig, is one of the best of her entire career.
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On today's episode I talk to TV writer Brian Gallivan. Originally from the Boston area, Brian was a middle school language arts teacher before taking a risk to perform and write for a living, starting first with Boston's Improv Asylum and then, after moving to Chicago, with Second City. Since moving to Los Angeles, Brian has written for a number of shows including Happy Endings, Future Man, Splitting Up Together and created the CBS series The McCarthys.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Shirley Collins MBE (Yes, Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire!). Shirley is an English folk singer, song collector and perhaps the greatest living embodiment of the musical threads that connect England with its history. In 1959, she assisted Alan Lomax on his famous folk song collecting trip in the Southern US, and as a significant presence during the Second English Folk Revival in the 1960s, Shirley formed a duo with her sister Dolly, who accompanied Shirley's raw and direct voice on piano and portative organ; together they recorded the startling Anthems In Eden and Love, Death & The Lady. After almost four decades of silence though, Shirley started recording and releasing material again, starting with 2016's Lodestar and her latest Heart's Ease, which was just released on Domino in July!
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On today's episode I talk to actor and musician Josh Radnor. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Josh got his start in New York theater before being cast as the lead in the wildly-successful CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother in 2005. He has written and/or directed two films, Happythankyoumoreplease and Liberal Arts, and starred in two series since How I Met Your Mother ended: Mercy Street and Rise, and is currently part of the ensemble cast of Amazon's new show Hunters. In addition to all of this, Josh has been writing music with Australian indie rocker Ben Lee for a number of years. Their first album as Radnor and Lee was released in 2017, and their latest, Golden State, was just released in May on Flower Moon Records!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Mac McCaughan. Mac is a singer, songwriter and the co-founder of Merge Records, one of the most influential labels in indie rock. As a performer, he's the lead singer and guitarist of the genre-defining indie rock group Superchunk, who have released 11 albums since 1989, including the most recent 2018's What a Time to Be Alive. On his own, he's released numerous albums as both Portastatic and under his own name, and in addition to all of this, he also scores films.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Sabrina Ellis. Originally from Houston, Sabrina has been a mainstay of Austin indie rock for years. In 2008, they formed the indie rock band A Giant Dog, and since then, the band has released five albums, including a full-length cover of Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. Sabrina also co-founded the bands Heart Bones, with Har Mar Superstar, and Sweet Spirit. Sweet Spirit have released three albums, and their latest, Trinidad, was just released on Merge a few months ago. And it's fantastic!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Andrew Becker. Andrew began his musical career with the post-Faraquet Dischord Records band Medications, drumming on their first few records before moving to New York to form the band Screens. But it was with his move to Los Angeles that Andrew began recording mostly on his own under the moniker Human Potential. He's released four albums under this name. I'm Glad You're Alive, his most recent, produced by Woods' Jarvis Taveniere, was just released earlier this year on What Delicate Recordings!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Sam Prekop. Sam grew up in Chicago and while he went to art school, forming the band Shrimp Boat sent him off in a completely different direction. When the band broke up in the early '90s, he formed The Sea and Cake with Archer Prewitt of The Coctails and Tortoise's John McEntire, and over the last two and a half decades, they've released 11 albums, the most recent being 2018's Any Day. As a solo artist, Sam has released four albums, all on Thrill Jockey, and his latest Comma will be out this September!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Jason Williamson. Originally from Grantham, Lincolnshire, Jason spent several years pursuing music unsuccessfully both with various groups and as a solo singer-songwriter and working as a session musician with a number of bands including Spiritualized. It was when Jason met Andrew Fearn though and they formed Sleaford Mods that things started to take off. Since 2007, they've released ten albums to much acclaim, and their latest All That Glue (a collection of crowd pleasers, B sides and rarities) was just released in May on Rough Trade.
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On today's episode I talk to writer Dave Hill. Dave is originally from Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was raised in a family of carnies, gamblers, hell-raisers and story-tellers. He spent over a decade traveling the United States and Canada as a union organizer before settling down in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and three children. He was a regular contributor to Grantland and a writer for the UCB Theater in New York City, and his work has been featured on This American Life, in New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, McSweeneys, and many more. David's first book, "The Vapors", a hybrid memoir/history of Hot Springs was just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and I can't recommend it more!
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On today's episode I talk to musician Shamir Bailey. Originally from North Las Vegas, Shamir's music career took off relatively quickly after signing to XL Recordings at the age of 19. The push and pull between what Shamir wanted to do and what the label wanted him to do though eventually ended with them dropping him a few years later. After a psychiatric hospitalization, Shamir began making the music he wanted to make, and his latest album Cataclysm, just released in March, is incredible.
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On today's episode I talk to musician, producer, composer and founding member of Deerhoof, Greg Saunier. After graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1991, Greg formed the band Nitre Pit, which a few years later became Deerhoof, and in the last 25 years, the band has released 15 albums on labels like Kill Rock Stars and Joyful Noise. Outside of Deerhoof, Greg has played with many bands, including Nervous Cop with Zach Hill and Joanna Newsom, and Rolling Stone called Greg, Zach and Lightning Bolt's Brian Chippendale "a generation of trailblazing 21st-century avant-rock percussionists". Deerhoof's latest album Future Teenage Cave Artists was just released at the end of May.
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On today's episode I talk to cartoonist Ben Passmore. Originally from Massachusetts, Ben has been writing and illustrating comics since he was a child. He's created comics like Daygloayhole, the Eisner Award-nominated and Ignatz Award-winning comic collection Your Black Friend, and BTTM FDRS with Ezra Claytan Daniels, which was published by Fantagraphics last year. In addition, he is a regular contributor to the daily satirical publication The Nib..
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On today's episode I talk to writer and stand-up Dan Levy. Originally from Stamford, CT, Dan has been performing comedy since he was nine years old, and while in college, performed stand-up as much as possible. This lead to him winning "Funniest College Comedian in America" at the 2001 Aspen U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, which jumpstarted his career. He's hosted shows on MTV, has his own Comedy Central Presents special, and has written for numerous shows including Whitney, Mulaney, and The Goldbergs. This all culminated in the creation of his own show Indebted, based on his relationship with his parents, which is now streaming on Hulu.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Thao Nguyen. Originally from Falls Church, VA, Thao began playing music as a young teenager, but it was with the release of her first album Like the Linen in 2005 that her actual career began. Her next album We Brave Bee Stings and All, her first with the Get Down Stay Down, was released on Kill Rock Stars to general acclaim, and since then, her albums, whether with the Get Down Stay Down or collaborations with musicians like Mirah, are all fantastic and well worth your time. Her latest, Temple, was just released in May by Ribbon Music.
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On today's episode I talk to Eisner-Award winning comics creator Rob Guillory. Born, raised and currently based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Guillory is most known for his eight-year run on Image Comics’ Chew. The book went on to achieve much success, winning two Harvey Awards (including Best New Talent for Guillory), two Eisner Awards, and has been translated into a dozen or so languages. Rob is currently the writer & artist on his hit creator-owned series Farmhand from Image Comics.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Jimmy Flemion. Jimmy and his brother Dennis began playing music together in the late '70s in a number of different groups, eventually forming the band The Frogs in 1980. Since then, the band has vacillated between cult status and mainstream success, championed by such musicians as Billy Corgan, Kurt Cobain, Beck and Eddie Vedder, and releasing albums on labels like Matador and Scratchie. Though Dennis passed away in 2012, Jimmy continues to write and record music, recently touring backed by Even Dando of The Lemonheads. At the beginning of April, The End of All Music released The Frogs' previously-unreleased very first studio album 1st.
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On today's episode I talk to playwright and composer Michael R. Jackson. Originally from Detroit, Michael holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He wrote book, music, and lyrics for the musicals White Girl In Danger and A Strange Loop, which received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in New York City in 2019. A Strange Loop became an off-Broadway hit garnering Michael a number of nominations including the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards among many others. For his work Michael has also received a Whiting Award for drama, a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, and most recently, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Dennis Callaci. Raised in Upland, California, Dennis has bounced around Southern California his entire life. He runs the legendary indie record label Shrimper, noted for bringing forth the earliest recordings from Amps For Christ, Woods, Franklin Bruno, Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, The Mountain Goats, Dump, and a few hundred other releases over the course of the last thirty years. He is also in the band Refrigerator who have released twelve records over those thirty years, as well as solo records by Callaci & collaborations with John Davis, The Debts, and Simon Joyner. Dennis' latest project, 100 Cassettes, which is a quasi-memoir based on his installation at the dA Center for The Arts, was just published in February by Pelekinesis.
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On today's episode I talk to musician Anna Burch. Originally from St. Joseph, Michigan, Anna began touring with her band Frontier Ruckus at the age of 18, and eventually went on to play in the Ann Arbor-based Failed Flowers. But it wasn't until she was almost 30 that she started to write and record her own music. Her first album as herself, Quit the Curse, was released by Polyvinyl in 2018, and her latest If You’re Dreaming, was just released at the beginning of April.
This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Jeff Parker. Originally from Hampton, Virginia, Jeff has been playing music since he was 8-years-old. Eventually ending up in Chicago, he became a member of the experimental post-rock group Tortoise in 1996 and also co-founded Isotope 217 and The Chicago Underground Trio. He's worked with everyone from Meshell Ndegeocello to Smog, and has released six solo albums. His latest, Suite for Max Brown, was released earlier this year on the Nonesuch imprint International Anthem. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to Nika Nemirovsky AKA NIIKA. Born in Uzbekistan in the wake of the USSR's dissolution, Nika and her family immigrated to Chicago when she was very young. Her music reflects being at the nexus of a number of different cultures, both on her 2017 EP Honest Dancing and her debut album Close But Not Too Close will be out May 15th. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to comedian and actor Larry Hankin. Originally from Long Island, Larry got his start doing stand-up in Greenwich Village as a contemporary of Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen. After moving to Chicago and joining Second City, he and a number of other improvisers formed The Committee in San Francisco. Larry is one of the most well-known character actors in Hollywood, and trying to list his numerous credits is nigh impossible, but a few of the more well-known ones are Escape from Alcatraz, Friends, Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, Barry, Billy Madison, Star Trek: Voyager, Laverne & Shirley and over a hundred other roles. In addition, The Loopholes Dossier, a number of writings based on characters he created on stage, was released late last year by BookBaby! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to actress Sarah Bolger. Originally from Dublin, Sarah started acting at a young age, and since then has been in many films and television shows. Early in her career, she starred in Jim Sheridan's Academy Award nominated film In America and she received a number of critics association nominations as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her role. Other films include The Spiderwick Chronicles, End of Sentence and the upcoming A Good Woman Is Hard to Find. On Television, Sarah's been in a number of great shows including The Tudors, Into the Badlands, Agent Carter, Counterpart and currently, she stars in FX's Sons of Anarchy spin-off Mayans M.C. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Jamie Drake. Based in Los Angeles, Jamie has been making music for a long time, though only released her first album When I Was Yours in 2010. She's performed in the Off-Broadway folk musical Lonesome Traveler and collaborated with everyone from Ed Helms to Moby to Tim Robbins. Her latest album Everything's Fine was released late last year, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's special 10th anniversary episode, I talk to musician Stephin Merritt. Stephin is the founder and primary songwriter behind the band The Magnetic Fields. Started in 1991 in Boston, the band has released 11 albums including the three-volume 69 Love Songs and his most recent 5-LP collection 50 Song Memoir. In addition to The Magnetic Fields, Stephin also performs in The 6ths, The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes; has scored a number of films and TV shows; and has even collaborated on a handful of musical theater productions. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to TV writer Josh Siegal. Originally from Niskayuna, New York, Josh took a non-traditional route into TV writing, but that route led to some amazing jobs on shows like Viva Variety, the original UCB sketch show, Crossballs, Monk, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News and currently The Good Place, which is in the middle of finishing up its final season on NBC. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Alexandra Levy AKA Ada Lea. Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Alexandra was on the path to become a professional competitive skater, but the end of her skating career led to an artistic one as a painter, visual artist and musician. Her debut album what we say in private was released last summer on Saddle Creek, and it is incredible! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Mikal Cronin.Originally from Laguna Beach, CA, Mikal's been playing music professionally for almost a decade as a member of bands like Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, King Tuff, Shannon & the Clams and many more. He also has been playing bass in Ty Segall’s touring band for the past 8 years. On his own, he's recorded four albums: Mikal Cronin on Trouble in Mind Records and MCII and MCIII on Merge. Merge also released his latest album Seeker at the end of October, and it's really wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to pianist and composer Alexandra Stréliski. Raised between Paris and Montreal, Alexandra didn't set out to make music for a living, but after a long night of the soul, so to speak, dedicated herself to writing and performing. In 2010, she recorded her first album Pianoscope and late last year, her latest album Inscape was released on Secret City Records. In addition to these, she's also composed the soundtracks for a number of director Jean-Marc Vallée's projects including the films Dallas Buyers Club and Demolition and the HBO series Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to comics writer Magdalene Visaggio. Born in Long Island but raised in Richmond, VA, Magdalene has been making comics for over a decade, but it wasn't until 2016 that she began to garner acclaim thanks to her series Kim & Kim, which netted Magdalene both an Eisner Award nomination and a GLAAD Award nomination. Since then she's written a number of great comics including Eternity Girl, Morning in America and currently, she writes Doctor Mirage for Valiant. In addition to all this, her series Vagrant Queen was bought by Syfy and will be premiering on a television near you sometime in 2020. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Patrick Stickles of the band Titus Andronicus. Originally from Glen Rock, New Jersey, Patrick started Titus Andronicus in 2005. Since then, the band has garnered a great deal of critical praise and commercial success. Their first three albums were released on Troubleman and XL, but starting with The Most Lamentable Tragedy, they've been part of Merge Records. Their latest album, An Obelisk, was just released this past June, and it is wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musician Cara Beth Satalino of the band Outer Spaces. Originally from the small rural town Pittstown, NY, Cara has been playing music since she was young. She moved to Athens, GA after college and formed the band Witches, a fantastic punk trio which put out two 7”s and a full-length record, Forever, and a few years later formed the band Outer Spaces. As Outer Spaces, Cara's written a number of EPs as well as two LPs, 2016's A Shedding Snake, and her latest Gazing Globe, which was released earlier in the summer on Western Vinyl. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
On today's episode I talk to musicians Lætitia Tamko AKA Vagabon. Originally from Yaoundé, Cameroon, Lætitia and her family immigrated to the US when she was 13. While she graduated from CUNY with a degree in engineering, a chance event led her to playing music full time. Her first album Infinite Worlds was released in 2017 to general acclaim, and her latest album, the self-titled Vagabon, will be released on October 18 on Nonesuch Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.