The Solecast: Recent Episodes
Sole
A platform for revolutionary theory, food autonomy, anarchism, permaculture, radical musicians and more. Interviews with authors, organizers, artists, growers and freedom fighters. Hosted by Sole.
The debut episode of "The Institute For Post American Studies," is with Mckenzie Wark on her new-ish book "Capital is Dead." We mostly discuss how the economy has changed under the guidance of silicon valley and exacerbated by the pandemic. We discuss a range of subjects from the book and some in depth analysis of the present.
Pick up the book now on Verso
Quick PSA on Propaganda by the Seed! Subscribe here. Support it on patreon here.
This project is no longer going to be on the Solecast feed... if you wanna hear our episodes subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! Our first episode we dropped today is with Ben Falk, author of "The Resilient Homestead" on Chelsea Green.
And The Solecast is now The Institute For Post American Studies
Closing out a hellish year with the final episode of the “ solecast” before I change the name (and focus) to The Institute For Post-American Studies in 2021. Couldn’t think of a better way to end it, then with two of my favorite co-travellers and co-conspirators in the world of anarchist podcasting: Final Straw Radio. In this episode we reflect on 2020, our hopes and fears for the future and how this year surprised us in many ways. We also talk about our projects and things we've learned along the way, going in depth on on issues of race and anarchy, internationalism, abolition, ecology and much more. Bursts also shares his Kim chi recipe at the end. Check em out at final straw https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/ Music “Gasoline” By Erda
Erda makes emo inspired rap music with an anarchist bent. Their music expresses both the existential angst of our epoch and the spirit of resistance. Based out of NY, Erda has a background in various genres of music, and this lends itself to a very unique aesthetic and approach to hip-hop. In this conversation we talk about bridging the personal with the worldly, Erda's background with farming and permaculture and life under the algorithm.
In this episode we open it up with a recent track, "Riot 2" and close it with an unreleased jam called "The Skyline Would Look So Beautiful On Fire." Uou can follow Erda on Twitter, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp.
In this episode of the Solecast I speak with author and Indiana University professor, Micol Seigel. This conversation is meant as a primer for the the concepts of destituent power and the under commons. After a year of unimaginable suffering and resistance, the ideas of Destitution and under commons provide us critical tools for building the capacity we need to weather the storm(s) that we find ourselves in. We also talk about the free-to-all virtual conference they are hosting the weekend of 11/13-11/16: On November 13th-16th, then, Indiana University’s 2020 Critical Ethnic Studies symposium brings into dialogue two zones of contemporary insurgent study: the undercommons and destituent power. To explore social life that evades political constraints such as citizenship, sovereignty, and governance, we seek to build upon the work of Fred Moten, Stefano Harney and Giorgio Agamben. Reveling in the fields that ground their work, the Black radical tradition and Italian Autonomia, this forum seeks to collect and share what we’ve learned from the practices and forms of life that are already breaking free of politics. To preview Micol’s book “Violence Work” you can check it out here and to learn more/register from the Destituent Power and The Undercommons conference you may do so here
New Issue of Fire Ant available here In this episode of the Solecast I chat w Rob Cat of Fire Ant. Fire Ant is a collaboration between anarchist prisoners and anarchists in so called Maine. Fire Ant seeks to spread the words & work of anarchist prisoners, highlight their plights and help them get the material support they need. Rob & Bria are also homesteaders and we talk about their experience of being self reliant with food production and working with mutual aid networks like the Victory Gardens Project https://www.freehermanbell.org/VictoryGardens.html to their ongoing efforts to provide free food to comrades, friends and neighbors. For more information on Fire Ant, download the latest issue here and to learn more about some of the anarchist political prisoners they support: Jennifer Rose https://bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org/anarchist-prisoners/jennifer-gann/ Eric King https://supportericking.org/ Marius Mason https://supportmariusmason.org/ Sean Swain https://seanswain.noblogs.org/about-sean-swain/ Michael Kimble https://bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org/anarchist-prisoners/michael-kimble/
In this episode of the solecast I sit down with a crimethinc participant. I view crimethinc as some of my favorite philosophers of “anarchy,” with no adjectives. Throughout the pandemic their instincts have been spot on so I’m excited to share this conversation. We start off by discussing how we, along with hundreds of other anarchists and anti-fascists were banned from facebook, what the broader implications of it are and what can be done about it. We talk about the the importance of building up new anti-capitalist digital infrastructure, and how we can think about restructuring an anti-capitalist society. The ideas of civil war is critiques and the concept of revolution addressed. This conversation covers a lot of ground, for me the main takeaway is how high the stakes truly are.
Visit Crimethinc.com
Music: Sole & DJ Pain 1 "Plague Days"
An in depth discussion with Scott Crow, co-founder of Common Ground Relief Effort in New Orleans, scott is also an author, musician and a spokesperson for the Agency collective. We talk about how anarchist strategies and ideas have evolved in the context of the pandemic. We discuss how dramatically daily life has changed, its near-term and future implications and the multiple overlapping crisis' we face. We talk about the limitations and promises of mutual aid & self defense practices in the Coronavirus Era, and how these practices have spread from Hurricane Katrina to the present situation.
ScottCrow.org
Emergency Hearts
(A)gency89o
Photo Credit: Rino Pizzi
Music: 800 Star Constellation (Televangel Winter of 63 Remix) [feat. Kerri Atwood]
In this episode of The Solecast i re-air a recent interview I did with kidDead and Onwerd for their Imaginary Friends podcast. I enjoyed this conversation because its one of the loosest talks I’ve had in a while (it was happy hour on the East coast when this interview was conducted). As long-time Sole supporters and friends, the dynamic lent itself to the sort of back and forth you might hear w friends who might slightly disagree about shit talking at a bar. We talk about music stuff, my early history, and get into some interesting conversations about human nature, collectives, abolition and the revolutionary moment we find ourselves in. Check out Imaginary Friends podcast on all your favorite podcast platforms. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/imaginaryfriendspodcast/id/15051875 Music Guests: Sole & Dj Pain 1 - "Outsiders" - No God nor Country https://sole.bandcamp.com/album/no-god-nor-country-3 Linqua Franqa - "Midnight Oil" - Linqua Franqa https://linquafranqa.bandcamp.com/track/midnight-oil An Illustrated Mess - "PSA" feat. Tré Orona & E-Turn) - Single https://fangoverfistrecords.bandcamp.com/album/psa-feat-tr-orona-e-turn Happy Tooth & Dug - "Always a Threat" - All in your Head https://happytoothanddug.bandcamp.com/album/all-in-your-head
Today I sit down to talk to rapper/activist/producer Bloodmoney Perez about the CHOP (Capital Hill Occupied Protest), an autonomous zone formerly known as CHAZ(Capital Hill Autonomous Zone). This conversation is mostly about the significance of the autonomous zone that has been opened up in Seattle during anti-police protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. We talk about the cultures of mutual aid, solidarity and self defense that have popped up against constant attacks from white supremacists, the media and the police and how this movement is modeling the revolutionary potentials of our time. We also talk about his new album, “Its About Fucking Time,” the loss of his grandmother to Covid 19, and a wide ranging discussion about the economic and social state of affairs in the US. Basically, are we in a civil war yet?
In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd we have seen an unprecedented rebellion take shape across the so called United States. In this 2.5 hour episode I catch up with comrades all over the country to talk about what is going on and some analysis on current events, some challenges that lie ahead and dismantling the misinformation thats been spread through mainstream media, Non-profits and politicians.
Featured in this interview:
Jesse Benn, Colorado
Ted Flowers, Minneapolis
Liz from Rebel Steps, NY
Ted, Eugine
Mic Crenshaw, Portland Oregon
In this episode of The Solecast I chat with Brendan Mcquade and Mark Neoclous about concepts of policing, surveillance and security and how they are playing out in the Corona Virus era. Marc is the author of several books, such as Critique of Security, The Universal Adversary and many more. Brendan is a prior solecast guest and recently released Pacifying the Homeland : Intelligence Fusion.
We lay out a critique of “resilience” and differentiate its usages from practices of mutual aid. We discuss why Universal Basic Income may not be desirable. They talk about how the concept of security itself undermines our liberators freedoms and how the two concepts are at odds. We talk about the concept of medical police, medical passports and the forms surveillance is currently taking.
What does a revolutionary strategy look like right now? What does astroturfed right wing anti-science protestors have to do with the walking dead?
In this episode of The Solecast I sit down with Kevin Tucker of Black and Green Publishing / Wild Resistance Journal. We have a wide ranging conversation about empires, collapse and coronavirus. Kevin’s political analysis is rooted around primal anarchy; and sees anarchy as the natural state of humans, and civilization as the cage we desperately need to get free from. Kevin talks about his historical perspectives on why civilizations fail and why things like coronavirus, lyme disease and other animal borne illnesses are on the rise. A fun, laid back and informative conversation. Pick up Kevin’s new book “The Cull of Personality” and check out his podcast, Primal Anarchy. Music "Love Song For The Apocalypse" by Ceschi
Propaganda by the Seed Its a Good Time To Start a Garden II This episode of propaganda by the Seed is a follow up to “It's a Good Time To Plant a Garden." In this episode we cover: Seed starting / hardening off of plants Good crops for low light / urban environments Growing in containers / small spaces Pest control Creating/maintaining healthy soil Many of these topics are attempts to answer listeners questions, if you would like to see more episodes like this please let us know and submit questions for future episodes.
n today’s episode of the solecast we have an in-depth discussion of anarchic black radicalism with comrades from Ram Philly & Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas. Anarchic Black Radicalism draws on the history of Black Panthers, early abolitionists, Black Nationalism/Liberation Movements and more to synthesize a distinct form of black anarchism. We talk about how recent social movements have radicalized a new generation of black youth and how anarchist ideas have gained traction in their wake. We talk about the importance of centering trans and disabled people and what steps people of color can take to build their own spaces for organizing that aren’t centered around white activists. We go over about some of the theoretical bases that form their analysis and some of the writers and texts that have informed this direction.
For more information follow Afrofuturist Abolitionists of the Americas or Ram Philly .
Music “Pass Dat” by Sima Lee
Some texts discussed:
Combahe River Collective Statement
Anarchy of Colored Girls Assembled a Riotous Manner
Between Infoshops and Insurrection
The Writings of Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin
Solecast w/ Zoe Samudzi As Black As Resistance
Today I sit down with Gabriel Kuhn to discuss his book Liberating Sápmi. The Sámi people are the indigenous peoples of Northern Europe who presently and historically inhabit a territory stretching from northern Scandinavia to western Russia called Sápmi. Many will be surprised to learn that there is an indigenous territory within Europe that doesn’t resemble Europe’s concept of state power & has its own distinct culture. Like most indigenous peoples’ they have been victims of racism, colonialism, and cultural repression by exploitive states. Gabriel’s new book looks at their history and tells first hand accounts of their experiences, their history and acts of resistance. This is one of the most comprehensive english accounts of the Sámi people and is out now on PM Press.
For more information:
Pacific Sámi Searvi: https://www.pacificsamisearvi.org/
Sámi Cultural Center of North America:
https://www.samiculturalcenter.org/
Suohpanterror: https://suohpanterror.com/
Ellos Deatnu!: https://ellosdeatnu.wordpress.com/
Moratorium Office: https://moratoriadoaimmahat.org
Pile o´Sápmi: http://www.pileosapmi.com/
WeWhoSupportJovssetAnte: https://wewhosupportjovssetante.org/
Run for Your Life: https://350.org/run-for-your-life/
I didn't wanna do a podcast this week about theory or history or plants or the pandemic, in some ways I am at a loss for words... So this week I felt called to just toy around with loops, samples and some new beat ideas I've been working on with loop pedals and just try to channel some of this anxiety into some sort of instrumental mix tape. When I'm stressed out, I listen to ambient music and just stare off into the horizon. One of my favorite things to do is to just get lost in making walls of noise, and there's no better time for that then under quarantine. So here's about an hour of semi improvised music combining sketches on my ipad (using loopy, animoog, and i-maschine mostly), sampled loops on my SP404 and some live looping stuff with my akai headrush pedal.
In this episode I talk with author & musician Margaret Killjoy. We start off discussing her new project Vulgarite, the musical approach and the concept behind it. We then get into a podcast she just launched called “How To Live Like The World Is Dying” based around an essay of the same name. Margaret is an interesting guest for the solecast because not only is she an anarchist artist and a writer but also lives off grid in a home she built herself on a land project shared with comrades. We talk about some of the challenges and joys of homesteading and how all these things tie into her politics. We also get into some discussion around science fiction tropes that we see in modern times. Support Margaret on Patreon , pick up the new album on bandcamp and follow her on twitter.
In this episode I talk with K-Death of Moodie Black. K-Death is a trans woman noise rap artist based out of Minneapolis. Moodie Black is dropping “Fuzz” on Fake Four Inc March 27th. K breaks down the new album and its inspiration and the “Moodhouse Festival” that they recently held in Minneapolis. We talk about K-Death’s vision for noise rap and her thoughts on race, gender and the music industry. We also talk about the Moodhouse Podcast and the ongoing project to start producing other acts under the Moodhouse record label. Inspiring conversation with one of my favorite artists.
Hear the debut single "Jesus Bound" here
Pick up "Fuzz" here.
In this episode of the solecast I sit down with Carla & Zach Bergman to talk about rethinking the relationship between youth and adults. Carla is a filmmaker, activist and author of Joyful Militancy and her son Zach is an artist and electronic producer who puts out music under the moniker Sourgout. This interview talks bout un-schooling, the damage that the western education system does and how adults can do better to foster autonomy. We talk about the after school youth space they participated in called the Purple Thistle, the importance of community and how addressing the harm done by schooling is critical to any anti-capitalist radical politics or thinking around decolonization.
Many of the themes cover in this conversation can be found in an upcoming anthology Carla is releasing on AK Press tentatively titled Trust Kids.
Music by Sourgout
In this episode of The Solecast I chat with Scott Olsen and Graham Clumpner of About Face (Formerly known as Iraq Veterans Against The War). Scott and Graham were both involved in Occupy Oakland, Scott is most famously known for almost getting killed when OPD hit him in the head with a bean bag round that was followed by the first general strike in recent US history. Much of Graham’s work today is based around environmental/climate change struggles. We talk about their experiences in the military and what its going to take to build an anti-war movement in the US. We discuss the roles veterans can play in radical movements and some ways that active duty military can resist. We go into some of the history of anti war resistance and discuss what anti-imperialism means in the face of climate change. You can follow Scott at @olsenvet and Graham at @turncoatveteran
In this episode I chat with journalist Robert Evans who is the host of the podcasts "It Could Happen Here" and "Behind The Bastards Podcast." In this interview we talk about how the project came about, the research that went into it and how people responded to it. Robert discusses how his trips to Iraq & Syria made him realize that a civil war like that is not too far off from the political moment we find ourselves in in the US and how that might look in the US. He talks about practical skills and practices we can employ in our daily lives to make us more resilient, the importance of mutual aid, armed self defense and DIY skills. We also discuss climate change & economic collapse as additional factors that would play into all of this. Robert also talks about his upcoming podcast series about Rojava and unveils what Season 2 of It Could Happen Here will be about...
In this super-long episode of the solecast I'm doing a deep dive into the impacts that streaming and corporate consolidation has had on the music industry. This is a very long episode, clocking in at almost 3 hours. Instead of splitting it up into a multi-part episode I wanted everything in once place, so people could treat this as a mini audio documentary, listen while you have time, pause it and return to it, there is a lot of information here that is important, if you care about music. Hopefully this Megasode format allows you to gain a nuanced and in depth understanding of where the music industry is at, how its gotten to where it is, and how we as artists and listeners can navigate this.
First I’m joined by Joe from Don Giovanni Records to talk about how the changes we have seen over the last 20 years have made it increasingly difficult for most independent labels to compete. Joe gives a history of how this consolidation has impacted independent infrastructure from blogs, to record stores to radio and beyond. Don Giovanni is an incredible record label, check out their releases at https://www.dongiovannirecords.com/
For Part two I’m just by journalist Liz Pelly to talk about some of the less considered aspects of how these algorithms are shaping art itself, its ability to surveil moods and advanced forms of marketing. Liz also offers a number of ideas for ways people can reclaim power in this shifting landscape. Check out some of her pieces for the baffler “Big Mood Machine” or “Stream-bait pop.”
Then I sit down with my long time friend, collaborator and distribution partner Daddy Kev of Alpha Pup. Kev is an OG from the LA beat scene and is co-owner of Alpha Pup Distribution. He is optimistic about how artists can do in the future and offers a number of suggestions for how those who choose to engage in these platforms can think about maximizing their potential to reach supporters. https://alphapuprecords.com/
Music: True Deceiver Drifts & Floats
Dusty Hinz is co-founder of the Experimental Farm Network. The Experimental Farm Network is an open sourced social platform that allows for people to develop & breed crops, anything from perennial grains to improved varieties and hybrids of popular plants. They also distribute rare/unique seeds from experimental growers across North America in their store. In this conversation I talk to Dusty about the formation of the network, and his personal thoughts on civilization and global warming. Dusty speaks of this decade as “the collapsing 20s,” and much of what they are breeding / distributing is based around resiliency in the face of climate change. We discuss how we can think about making “back to the land” practices more accessible, creating an “urban to rural pipeline,” and cooperative land trusts. Dusty also talks about the importance of nut trees / agro forestry and what small scale / localized / bioregional post-civilization food systems could look like.
Music Televangel “800 Star Constellation”
In this episode of the solecast we’re talking with Sara Falconer and Daniel McGowan of the “Certain Days Collective.” Certain Days puts out a calendar every year that donates its funds to RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison), Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association and more. It’s a collaboration between political prisoners currently locked up and their supporters on the outside(including former political prisoners). In this interview we talk about the origins of this project, its aims and how it functions. The calendar itself is beautifully designed and reminds us of important and forgotten moments in history, the life and deaths of revolutionaries, their time in prison, moments of resistance both recent and further in the past, and so much more. Its a great way to turn each week into a history lesson and frame our time. Pick them up here. https://www.certaindays.org/order/
For the season 2 premiere of the solecast i sit down with Cindy Milstein to talk about some recent themes they’ve been putting out through various talks and writings over the past year. Cindy talks about the resurgence of Jewish anarchist organizing in the states and its relation to the upswing of anti-Semitism we have seen in the past few years. We explore the themes of a panel Cindy did with Aaron Lakof and Charmagne Kahn at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair in 2019 entitled “From Another World Is Possible to the Possible End of the World.” We talk about the despair of these times and how to think about building a foundation in which cultures of resistance can thrive. Cindy addresses the machismo within radical circles, under representation of marginalized voices within the anarchist podcast world, and the importance of care/mutual aid. We also address the concept of revolution and scale and why various forms of infrastructure are key to sustaining revolutionary movements.
Be on the look-out for Cindy’s forthcoming anthology on AK Press Deciding For Ourselves (The Promise Of Direct Democracy) and check out our preview interview about Rebellious Mourning.
Here's a different kind of podcast about how to build DIY electronics with my good friend Otem Rellik. Otem Rellik is a rapper, producer and self taught builder of incredible electronics based out of Denver. In this podcast we'll talk about the basic concepts of building DIY electronics using Arduino, Rasberry PI, and Pure Data. Check him out on instagram, youtube and bandcamp
Pure Data:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL12DC9A161D8DC5DC
MobMuPlat:
http://danieliglesia.com/mobmuplat/
Arduino: https://bildr.org/
https://little-scale.blogspot.com/
This is a good conversation to have at the end of a strange year. For this episode I am joined by Alfredo of Occupied Southwest Distro to have a wide ranging conversation picking up on the themes in the book Desert. Desert is an anonymously written book which offers a sober assessment of our current material conditions and urges us to toss out-dated thinking aside. In light of the challenges and time tables put on us by climate change what are the revolutionary prospects? What does it mean to be an anarchist or revolutionary in the anthropocene? The book offers a number of ways to analyze the situation and our practices, we talk about how its informed our thinking as long term organizers and informed our current efforts.
You can read/download Desert for free here.
A re-air of Sole’s June interview w/ Rev Left Radio about Sole & DJ Pain 1's new album No God Nor Country.
Check it out here and our new submedia produced single "F.T.L." (Fuck The Law).
Today on the Solecast I'm interview Televangel formerly of Blue Sky Black Death. Televangel is a beatmaker/composer from Oakland currently residing in Portland, Oregon. Unlike most artists I bring on the Solecast to talk about their work and their politics, Televangel does it with his instrumental music, not vocals.
In this interview we discuss the origins of his project and the general concept behind it. We also talk about the themes he explores in his work; drone warfare, the anthrocene, crisis & mutual aid. We also talk about his path to radical politics and how the internet can be a critical tool for political education.
Televangel's new album Emergency Hearts is available on bandcamp and spotify.
In this episode of the solecast i sit down with my homey James Rotten of Denver Communists. In this conversation we are mostly discussing “Confront La Migra” and the organizing that lead to a 200+ Abolish Ice house demo at the warden of Aurora Ice Concentration Camp. We talk about some strategic and controversial/experimental decisions that were made, that lead to this escalation in tactics and a successful action. We also discuss the media backlash, navigating liberalism and turning right wing attempts to spread misinformation into fodder for movement building.
This is a re-air of a recent podcast with SRSLY WRONG examining the absurdity of work in the 21st century.
Check out other episodes from SRSLY WRONG
Artwork by Nicole Marie Burton
Today on The Solecast I speak with activist, author and asst professor at Naropa University, Stephen Polk. In this conversation we'll discuss his contribution to the book Globalism and Localization: Emergent Solutions to Ecological and Social Crises. Stephen talks about global warming and the the need for permaculturists to inform the large scale changes that will need to be made in cities to mitigate its effects. Stephen wants people to think hard about what "power" means, "how do we get it, how do we exercise it, what do we do with it? He also writes about the need for all permaculture designs to consider the political domain to their work, to always ensure front-line communities maintain access to food and the city, to design in ways that don't aid gentrification. He also talks about anti-gentrification approaches, and the possibilities of using Neighborhood Associations to influence outcomes. We cover a lot of ground in this interview and cover a number of other topics connected to these issues.
This is a provocative interview and very timely, pick up the book Globalism and Localization: Emergent Solutions to Ecological and Social Crises. here.
In this Solecast I sit down with Eamon from the Radical People Podcast. The Radical People Podcast does in depth interviews about direct action campaigns and the individuals behind them. He gets deep into the life stories of people and what brings them to radical politics, and radical action. His interviews range from fighters in Rojava, water & land defense, international abortion providers at sea and much more. We talk about his work, his personal story and political evolution and his current life as an anarcho-podcaster, living that farm life.
You can subscribe to his podcast here, support him on patreon and follow him on twitter.
A talk between myself and DJ Pain 1 about our new album that we are crowdsourcing for called No God Nor Country. In this conversation we talk about our creative process, some of the things we’ve learned from our travels; the best of times and the worst of times. We talk about food, advice for people trying to be self sufficient and what’s been on in our lives ately. Much of the talk is about the motivations, inspirations and approaches we took to creating this new album. In this episode we preview 2 new songs, one is an unreleased track that didn’t make the cut called “Everything Must Go” and the other is “Extremist.” To help us get it out, pre-order it now via kickstarter.
In todays episode i will be doing an in-depth “how to” episode with my homey Evan Doukas from Colorado. Evan is a preacher, a permaculturist, a father, a musician and also publishes homesteading/permaculture videos through his youtube channel, The Colorado Garden. In this episode Evan breaks down how to build a “Climate Battery Greenhouse” step-by-step. A climate battery greenhouse uses the heat from the earth to grow fruits and veggies from tropical & mediterranean regions in temperate climates. For more information check out Evan’s youtube page documenting his work with his. For more background info on these check out this prior Solecast with Stephanie Syson from Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute.
Pre-order here via kickstarter
No God Nor Country is Sole and DJ Pain 1’s third album. Its a record about carving out a meaningful life of joy and resistance in uncertain and oppressive times. Since their last album, sole had a kid, bought a farmhouse in Maine, and Pain 1 also bought a house, as his career as an educator, producer and music mentor continues to accelerate. Over the last few years, the pair has recorded dozens of songs, thrown away all the songs that weren’t poignant or musically solid enough and kept the best songs, the songs that speak to most to the current state of affairs.
This record is a major step forward for their song writing, production and overall aesthetic, and while the record has strong anti-authoritarian themes it also explores existential questions: what it means to be a parent, the emptiness of fame and careers, what resistance means amid everyday life. Although the album title is an expression of atheism and anarchism, the album is more of a testament to fighting for liberation and fulfillment while living in uncertain times.
The precarity of the music business is a major theme of this album and albums past, and fittingly, all of Sole and Pain 1's albums have been DIY releases without investors, large labels or PR machines behind them. Both musicians handle the heavy lifting and deliver the music directly to the listeners, without whom these albums would literally not exist.
Do you want to help get this album out? An act as simple as a pre-order can cover the manufacturing costs, the creation of the record, the production of videos, the mixing and mastering and publicity. If they exceed the initial pre-order goals it will give this record-- their strongest, most timely and possibly most important album yet-- the fighting chance it needs to reach more listeners in a world of noise.
This episode of the Solecast is a re-air from Podcast panel at the 2019 Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. This panel was hosted by Mugs and its participants were From Embers, Rebel Beat / Changing On The Fly, Intersection’elle, and myself. We discussed anarchist podcasts in general, their role in the movement, Channel Zero, and the sort of feedback we have gotten from our projects. The conversation took some interesting philosophical turns as we talked about privacy, identity and alienation, among other subjects. We also got some great questions from people in the audience about prison abolition, starting a new podcast and how to handle the feedback and permission of interviewees. Much love to the Montreal for hosting this awesome discussion and for its amazing work keeping this vital infrastructure going for 20 years!
Check out and subscribe to all these podcasts:
From Embers
Intersection’elle
Rebel Beat / Changing On The Fly
This episode of the Solecast I sit down with Stephen Barstow, aka The Extreme Salad Man to talk about his work documenting and popularizing rare edible plants. We are also joined by Aaron Parker from Edgewood Nursery who introduced me to Stephen's work and also grows and sells a lot of these plants.
In this conversation we talk about his book "Around the World In 80 Plants," his website Edimentals.com and his lifelong quest to research, catalogue, grow and experiment with thousands of rare edible plants from around the world. We get into his origin story as a vegetarian in meat-centric Norway uncovering the growing potentials in his region through foraging. He talks about his travels around the world learning about how these plants are grown, used and then bringing those plants home to cultivate. For anyone who is bored with growing the same old shit, or interested in permaculture/forest farming his work is inspiring, informative and coverers a much wider range of vegetables then are commonly discussed in permaculture and market farming.
Pick up his book "Around The World In 80 Plants" direct from Stephen and check out his website Edimentals.com
My guest co-host for this interview, Aaron from Edgewood Nursery sells a lot of the plants and seeds for the perennial plants that Stephen promotes, check out his website at EdgewoodNursery.com.
In this episode of the Solecast I speak with Lee Reed. We talk about his new album “Before & Aftermath” out now on Strange Famous record and his previous album “Steal City” EP which was a benefit for the Hamilton Tenants Union. Lee is one of the longest working rappers in Canada and has a unique and often aggressive rapping style consisting of anti-capitalist prose, well researched topical concept songs shining light on the excesses of capital and people fighting back over updated boom bap style beats. This is a fun conversation between two rapper homies, we talk about everything from economic collapse to why some Canadian rappers have the strangest names. He is about to embark on his first European tour w/ Kay The Aquanot, if you’re on that side of the pond check them out.
In this episode of the solecast i speak with Will Bonsall about his book “Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide To Radical Self Reliance” and discuss ideas on vegan homesteading and “sustainability.” Will is a pioneer of “veganic” farming which is very similar to permaculture farming practices but without animals and focusing mostly on staple crops. We talk about some of his favorite companion planting pairs for growing things like carrots, onions, beans etc. We also talk about the Scatterseed Project which is dedicated to preserving heirloom seeds and promoting them. We also chat a bit about his fantasy novel, Through The Eyes Of A Stranger that imagine a more ecological society, and how that informs his approach to life(and vice versa). This is a great interview for anyone interested in farming, living off the land and self reliance. If you are vegan/vegetarian and you’ve been hearing your whole life that when capitalism ends you’ll have to eat deer, Will’s work is proof that another way is possible.
In this episode of the solecast I speak with Phil Neel. Phil is the author of Hinterland, a new book out on University of Chicago Press that examines what class conflict looks like as we zoom outward from the financial hubs and downtowns to the rural, suburban and exurban communities. In this conversation we talk about how logistics function on a global scale as capital has become diffuse and what this says about the way our system functions. Phil talks about places like Ferguson and Anaheim as examples, and gives context as to why things break down in these locations and what it means for the present & future. We talk about climate disaster, the nuances of so called “Trump Country”, and the importance of analyzing data instead of projecting our own ideas onto situations. We end the conversation with some take-aways from the book and how it can inform our thinking (and our actions).
In this episode of the Solecast I speak with my longtime friend Ceschi. I really can’t say enough good things about this guy, when my career was in the dumps his label had my back and brought me back from the dead… He has gone on to make some of my favorite music to come out of the indy rap scene and is a one of a kind performer blending rap, punk and folks into a unique and compelling package. In 2019 he is releasing a trilogy of records and then ending the “ceschi” monicker, so like our coastal island cities and marginal desert eco systems… catch it before its gone!
In this conversation we cover a lot of ground. We talk about his roots in the bay area, his motivations, his relationship to revolutionary politics and why he does what he does. We discuss how his experience in prison has made him a more empathetic person and he gets into his criticisms of the left, the right and these sick modern times. We talk about race, indie hip hop, Marxism, his label Fake Four and so much more. We close the interview with some live performances from his forthcoming projects.
his new record Sad Fad Luck is available at sadfatluck.com
In this episode of the solecast i speak with anarchist rap innovators Drowning Dog And Malatesta. As far as I know them and Test Their Logik are some of the first rappers to come out and really rep anarchy front and center. They’ve been making music together for about 2 decades and have self released a number of ground breaking records, like Got No Time , Black Cat and their most recent “Sick Of This Shit”
Now living in Berlin by way of Italy and San Francisco we have an awesome in depth and highly informative conversation about a myriad of topics. The main thrust of our conversation is how their music relates to anarchist politics and radical struggle and what they’ve learned and seen living and traveling in all these different places. We talk about the importance of food, of multi generational spaces and why its important to have a more romantic view of daily life. We talk about the legacy of radical struggle and squat culture in Europe and some of the complexities of it. They highlight some of their favorite revolutionary projects they’ve encountered, talk about the pitfalls of fetishizing struggles elsewhere without considering context and most importantly how they approach their art and what its origins are…
Check out their music on bandcamp and follow Drowning Dog & Malatesta on twitter.
In this episode of the Solecast I chat with Jasper Bernes. Jasper is the author of "We Are Nothing And So Can You" which is an epic poem inspired by the global uprisings around 2010. Jasper is also the editor of Commune Mag and we have a conversation about that project, its goals, and the ongoing discussions about "the commune" and what it means. We also talk about an excerpt from his forthcoming book about Agriculture, Logistics and Revolution and have a look-back on the Occupy movement and how intoxicating that moment was(for some people). Excellent episode
In this episode of the solecast I chat with Abby Martin of The Empire Files. Abby is a grassroots independent journalist who has worked previously for RT, Telesur and helped found Media Roots. Her show Empire Files does in depth analysis on the US empire with wide ranging guests from Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Chris Hedges, and Noam Chomsky to name a few. Due to US sanctions on Venezuela Telesur’s funding of Empire Files was cut off so now they continue that work and are a 100% viewer funded operation. This is a wide ranging and at times funny conversation with some huge takeaways. There were many things Abby articulated in this interview I’ve never heard articulated elsewhere. Abby’s vantage point has given her a one of kind approach and analysis that you will not hear anywhere else.
In this podcast we discuss:
How the “fake new” narrative has negatively impacts independent journalists
The ways corporate media algorithms & clickbait are shaping our world
Making sense of Donald Trump’s foreign policy
The strange evolution of conspiracy culture
A recent historical backdrop to the Venezuela situation and her recent personal experiences there
How NGO funding models impacts “independent media”
The importance of art and nature to remain grounded in the fight
To learn more about The Empire Files subscribe to their newsletter, watch em on youtube and back em on patreon.
This episode of the solecast I chat with Carla Bergman and Nick Montgomery about their new(ish) book out on AK Press, “Joyful Militancy.” This book is a critical examination of the toxicity that seems to be so common within activist subculture. They talk about the (potential) influences that schooling, religion, hierarchy, and empire has on our lives and how it can even seep into our organizing. The text is full of nuance and offers many pathways for how we can look at and work through these tendencies within ourselves, our spaces and our communities. They talk about how militant joy, art, and practices that empower us all to thrive can make our movements stronger and healthier. This book is a must read and The Solecast highly recommends this for reading groups to open up conversations on how we can rid ourselves of rigid radicalism, and open up the possibilities for joyful militancy.
Pick up the book on AK Press
For more info visit JoyfulMilitancy.com
Carla is also a filmmaker, check out the Emma Talks video series she talked about in the interview at EmmaTalks.org
On this episode of the Solecast I talk with Aaron Parker of Edgewood Nurseries about some unusual edible trees to use in your backyard garden, orchard or food forest. We get in depth about tree care, disease resistance, picking which species of trees to grow in your area and how to propagate them. This is a long interview, he answers some audience questions about growing fruit trees, controlling pests and dealing with water distribution. He also lays out his approach to creating polycultures of mutually beneficial plants for trees. This is the second time Aaron has been on the Solecast, last time we talked about perennial veggies. To order some seeds, trees or plants hit him up at Edgewood Nursery Online Store and follow him on the gram.
In this episode I premiere a mellow new track “Measuring My Cage” from my upcoming album Destituent, that is available for pre-order here.
An awesome in depth and thoughtful conversation on the Two Paychecks podcast about my thoughts on art, anarchy, race, modernity, survivalism and more. Check out the Two Paychecks Podcast
In this Solecast I took a trip down to Soulfolks Records in Biddeford, Maine to interview Rory Ferreira, the artist formerly known as Milo. Milo is a rapper, producer, poet, shopkeeper, and member of the Ruby Yacht Collective. Milo has a wide ranging catalogue of rap songs which are experimental, poetic and informed by study of his craft and literature. Milo infuses a sense of wonder into his work, toying with the medium and keeps his work engaging without playing into the music industry or its pseudo-hype machine.
In this interview we discuss:
How growing up around a preacher helped shape his approach to rap & philosophy
How poetry informs his work
Maine life and why connection to nature is so important
His time working as a farmer
His politics (he wants Black folks to win)
His origins
Why Ruby Yacht shits on police
Why he opened a record store in 2018, in Maine.
Fatherhood
His mother, Shay Stewart Bouley
Follow Rory, on Twitter, Fedbook, The Gram, or Bandcamp
In this Solecast I chat with Chris Steele Aka Time. Time is an anarchist rapper/writer/journalist/podcaster from Denver , Colorado. He publishes regularly through Truthout and collaborated with Noam Chomsky on his recent “Occupy” book. He just dropped a new album and is currently working on books about the history of anarchist repression and an anthology on Common Ground w/ Scott Crow.
In this interview we talk about:
His band Calm’s new album, “Things I Learned While Dying In Denver”
How anarchism influences his journalism
Themes on his new album; empathy, housing, subverting capitalism & white supremacy
His new podcast called “TimeTalks”
His experience in academia
Thoughts on how white rappers should engage in a black art
Random shit talking anecdotes about FTP marches and Denver in general
In this episode of the Solecast I chat with folks from Woodbine NYC. Woodbine is an experimental hub in Queens that has been going for 5 years strong. Its hard to pin down what they do to any specific ideological persuasion, instead they draw from a wide range of influences and backgrounds to try to find new ways of looking at things to the skills to meet the challenges that face us. They host a multitude of events from poetry readings, educational events, assemblies, skill shares, gardening and too many things to list. At the time of this interview they are fundraising for 2019 operations, please consider donating something here and follow them on fedbook / twitter.
In this conversation we talk about:
Why spaces like this are so important under Trump
How Woodbine came about & the thinking that went into it
The concept of the anthropocene and why it serves as a good way to frame things for this century
Concepts of revolution vs autonomy
What there is to learn from the models of Rojava & Chiapas.
The importance of breaking out of an ideological approach and pointing to specific liberatory practices
Amazon HQ2 coming to Queens and what this means
Silicon Valleys role in our society
The importance of “sharing”
In this episode of the solecast I chat with Rodrigo Starz of Rebel Diaz. Rebel Diaz is a Bronx/Chicago based political rap group that's been killing shit for over a decade. Whether its Ferguson, Occupy or a myriad of other social struggles, Rebel Diaz has been there and engaged. Their family left Chile after their father who was a political prisoner was released and they settled in The Bronx. They have made numerous musical & political interventions over the years and set up one of the only hip-hop squat/community centers in the US called the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective… in the Bronx. Check out their music on Bandcamp, and follow them on twitter.
In this interview we also discuss:
Their origins
Analysis on the socialist wins in Central /South America / North America over the past decades and the subsequent rise of fascism globally.
Their new album America vs America
Cultural differences between rap shows in the US and elsewhere
The role of deportation & immigration in spreading and influencing hip hop culture
Thoughts on early rap history in the Bronx & neo-liberalism (a fancy word for capitalism)
The history of their autonomous hip hop center in the Bronx
Fatherhood & multi generational struggle
His viral intervention against Ted Cruz
The power of culture
In todays episode of the Solecast I speak with Sima Lee. Sima Lee is a truly revolutionary artist who was raised on Black Panther-eque / Black Nationalist communities of self defense and mutual aid. Her entire life has been spent making rap music and doing revolutionary organizing. I discovered her music through submedia’s Trouble documentary on Hip-Hop, check it out here to learn more about her and other radical rap artists. In this interview we discuss:
Her upbringing and how she came to anarchism
The ideas of the maroon communities and how it informs her work
Her work at the maroon House in DC and the mutual aid practices they employ in the community
The importance of self defense and building lasting power beyond mobilizations
How to create stronger ties between (mostly) white anarchists and communities of color
Her new album “Trap Liberation Army”
Here is an interview I did on the Coffee With Comrades podcast a month ago about Nuclear Winter 3. It was a fun conversation ranging from art theory stuff to permaculture/food autonomy, revolutionary organizing and mental health stuff. Great talk with some great folks. If you dug this conversation check out more podcasts from Coffee With Comrades.
Get a free download of Nuclear Winter 3 here.
In today's episode of The Solecast I’ll be speaking with some folks about a new project slash book called Inhabit : Instructions For Autonomy. Inhabit takes a look at what it means to live and fight in a world that is burning around us. It side steps the radical identity and ideological labels and focuses on a set of liberatory practices for building a new world in the ruins of this one. While silicon valley types want to escape the ravages of climate change by building fortresses for the wealthy, Inhabit imagines a world of autonomous territories, sharing resources, skills and power.
This is the first episode of my “Food Autonomy” series where I will be expanding my coverage on things from gardening, food production and how it relates to a revolutionary practice. I started this journey with vegan cooking on a shoestring budget, so thats where I will start this series. In this episode I talk about quick and inexpensive ways to cook dope healthy food for you and your peeps and most of these are good for feeding large amounts of people. These are my go-to recipes and cooking styles when I have limited time and many are focused on storing food to eat throughout the “work week.” In this podcast I cover a number of best practices, recipes and methodologies, including:
Recipes Covered:
How To Bake Tofu
Chick Pea Salad
Tuna Fish Salad
Cooking with lentils & other dried legumes
Tofu Scramble
Lentil Muajadara
Stews
Macrobiotic Cooking
Shepards Pie
Vegan Mac & Cheese Casserole
Seitan From Scratch
Grilling With Tofu
Cashew Gravy
Nutritional Yeast Gravy
In today’s episode of the solecast I sit down with Frank Lopez to discuss Submedia’s new film in their ongoing Trouble series, “And You Don’t Stop.” And You Don’t Stop is a documentary about radical hip-hop as done by grass roots activists. Its an excellent look on hip-hop’s roots, its evolution and highlights some artists that are doing amazing work today.
In our conversation we talk about:
-Hip-hop rising from the failures of
-Neoliberalism in the South Bronx
-The rise of the Zulu Nation
-The importance of aesthetics
-The role music can play in social movements
-Public Enemy and some of Franks favorite artists of the 80s/90s
-Combatting sexism in Rap
-What rap can learn from punk and why we need to build up a network of radical hip hop based social centers
Frank also goes in depth talking about the artists he highlights in the documentary, the work they do and their music.
Trouble #15: And You Don’t Stop
It’s often said that hip hop is more than just a type of music…. it’s a way of life. A code, a set of practices, an aesthetic and a way of handling yourself. And despite the efforts of industry executives to commodify it and strip it of its subversive potential, hip hop remains a lifestyle firmly rooted in the daily struggles faced by oppressed peoples around the world. It is a weapon, masquerading as culture.
In this month’s episode of Trouble, subMedia explores hip hop as a potent site of revolutionary politics, drawing on the first-hand knowledge and experiences of some of Turtle Island’s baddest grassroots emcees: Ant Loc, Mic Crenshaw, La Marea, Sima Lee, Lee Reed and Mare.
Just a heads up that some of the dialogue in the film is in Spanish, so for English speakers we recommend turning on the subtitles by clicking CC on the video player, and/or downloading the SRT file – particularly if you plan on using a hard copy of the video for screening purposes.
As a bonus, The Stimulator brings us a very special sedition of Burning Cop Car, featuring the music of the emcees we interviewed for Trouble #15. Click here to check it out.
On today’s episode of the Solecast I speak with a member of the Black Rose Federation. Black Rose Federation has chapters across North America and utilizes an anarcho-communist tendency called “Specifismo:” which (according to wikipedia) has been summarized as:
The need for a specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis.
The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work.
Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements via social insertion.
In this interview we discuss: Their organizing principles Their approach to building working class power from below Grass roots power vs local politics vs electoral politics The need for a rigorous educational program within movements Discussions on anarchist infrastructure projects Thoughts on "protest,” their limitations and what they are good for The life of Bakunin much more
Fore more information... visit Blackrosefed.org and sign up to their newsletter.
Todays episode is with Margaret Killjoy. Margaret is an anarchist science fiction writer and electronic producer. Her latest album is called "Nomadic War Machine" going by Always, Forever and is available now on bandcamp. Margaret has published several short stories and books, is currently working on a novel and releases a sci fi short story every month through patreon.
In this podcast Margaret also reads one of my favorite short stories she has written called The Northern Host about a civil war in the year 2035, with some incredible plot twists.
In this interview we talk about:
The tension between insurrection and prefiguration
Her new project Nomadic War Machine by Always, Forever
The role culture plays in building revolutionary potential
Living off the land and how it fits into a revolutionary strategy
The importance of infrastructure
The writing process, the format of short stories
Weaving anarchist themes into science fiction and fantasy writings
The importance of radical honesty
and much more
In today’s solecast I sit down with Zoe Samudzi to discuss the new book she just co-authored with William C Anderson called “As Black As Resistance.” This book puts forth a compelling argument for a Black anarchism rooted in self defense & autonomy. In their book they discuss the importance of linking Black liberation to indigenous struggles, and point back to the Seminole War where Indigenous and Black folks successfully fought side-by-side and achieved the first emancipation proclamation. In this podcast Zoe talks about the failure of respectability politics and how appealing to liberals and the state gets Black People nowhere, because it is a system rooted on exploitation and killing of Black People. Zoe also breaks down how people must overcome their own fears & potentially undermine their own class interests for a truly liberatory politics. We also discuss some of the challenges of building movements rooted around autonomy in areas of rapid gentrification and the need to create new kinds of movements/politics that don’t leave people behind. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, and it barely scratches the surface of the book, pick it up now on AK Press.
Follow Zoe on twitter or her website.
In this talk Zoe mentions an article her co-author William wrote about “Cutting Capitalism Out Of Our Relationships."
Outro music on this episode is Mic Crenshaw feat. Dead Pres "Superheroes"
in this episode of The Solecast I talk with Aaron Parker of Edgewood Nursery. Aaron is a self-taught Horticulturist, Food forest designer and lover of Perennial Vegetables. We talk about food forest concepts and he breaks down some of his favorite perennial foods to grow & eat. We also discuss his work with Mt Joy in Portland, Maine, a free public orchard and food forest on the Eastern Promenade. Throughout this conversation we discuss some of the challenges of perennial vegetables, the health benefits and the history of pre-Columbian Americas as some of the largest food forest/agro-forestry projects in human history.
For more information on his work, or to buy some insane rare perennial plants from him check out his website or instagram.
n this episode I took topics from patreon subscribers. Originally this was going to be another "exclusive" episode but I had so much fun doing it I decided to release it.
In this interview I talk about:
Spotify/ streaming servies & their impact on artists
New music plans
Plans for our farm & little fun facts about permaculture plants
Anarcho-Homesteading
"Desert" and "environmental nihilism"
Small communities vs mega societies
The Singularity Web Blog
Exodus from Denver
Political shifts after having a child
Veganism vs Animal Rights
Alienation
If you want to help sustain this work please consider becoming a patreon subscriber for as little as $1 a month.
This is a re-air of one of my first and favorite interviews, its a conversation with Jason Hribal, the other of Fear Of An Animal Planet. Its a book that examines the history of animal resistance, in zoos, circuses and other exploitative situations humans put animals in. We talk about the relationship between the war on pagananism, the rise of calvanism and the loss of the commons and how thats effected animals. He also talks about how animals are part of the working class, and important agents in history that are capable of solidarity, empathy and of course... resistance.
This year Nancy closed Running River down and will be spending the next few years in New Mexico to reflect on what they have learned and where this approach to education needs to go next.
In our interview we talk about how important play is as an aspect of learning, how getting kids in nature invigorates all their senses and how to promote agency in early childhood. We talk about the impact of technology on developing minds and how vital feedback and incorporating the parents into the educational process is to healthy development. Nancy talks about how her life spent living in intentional communities has helped shape her philosophy about education, why running & regular exercise is so important and how vital it is for parents to remain open and vulnerable to promote those same values in young people. In this interview you will find tons of nuggets about child psychology and how children actually learn, as opposed to the military training they get in public education. So whether you are a teacher, a parent or someone like me who didn’t pay any attention to this stuff till I actually had a kid… even us up-tight adults can gain something critical from Nancy’s approach.
Reach out to Nancy through the Running River website
Todays solecast is an in-depth discussion with an editor from Its Going Down.
IGD just launched a new anarchist news podcast called “This is America,” which is meant to be a short, every-other-day digest of anarchist analysis and activity. Check it out.
In this episode have a wide ranging discussion about what anarchist & anti-authoritarian resistance has looked like under Trump and potential paths for the future. We talk about lessons learned from J20, Standing Rock, Prison Strikes, Airport Shutdowns and more. We talk about the things anarchists have done with disaster relief, anti-fascism and pipeline blockades. We discuss certain modes of resistance that people might be interested in replicating, whether its anarchist student groups, unions (like the Burgerville union) or The Black Rose Federation in LA helping to organize resistance against ICE Deportations. We also talk a little about media & ideology.
On Theory, The Passing of Alias, Gardening, Practical Organizing, Music Stuff & Anti-fascism.
An in-depth discussion w/ Chris of Unicorn Riot about what was uncovered in a treasure trove of internal communications on Discord servers that Unicorn Riot leaked. The Unicorn Riot report details a year of the inner workers of one of the most visible & violent neo-nazi groups in the US.
In this interview we talk about:
- The ways white supremacists/neo nazis organize and recruit
- Troubling discussions about white sharia, fondness for mass killers like Dylan Roof, and open discussions of violent acts.
- Members of the TWP openly collaborating with the Atomwaffen Division, a NEO Nazi group that openly promotes acts of "terror."
- How groups like TWP are using leftist rhetoric to appeal to the "white working class"
- TWP is a FEC recognized political party, andt heir legal support of William Planer, (a white supremacist who allegedly stabbed anti-fascists in Sacramento) possibly constitutes a legal breach.
- How the group was brought down by a strange love triangle
- Who these people are, what they believe and why people like them can not be ignored
Todays Solecast is with Cindy Milstein on her new book out on AK Press, Rebellious Mourning. Cindy is a long time anarchist organizer, author and participant in the Institute For Anarchist Studies. In our interview we discuss how mourning, empathy and grief can shape our revolutionary efforts, as we talk about various examples & pieces in her book.
Today's episode is with Efrim Manuel from Godspeed! You Black Emperor / Silver Mount Zion. Efrim and his comrades have been making radical, innovative and genre defying music for over 2 decades, fusing post-rock, punk ethos and classical aesthetics. Efrim’s new album Pissing Stars is out now on Constellation records.
In this interview we discuss:
His new album Pissing Stars
His relationship with anarchism and radical politics
Thoughts on having a kid in these times
Comments on Come Worry With Us
What it means to maintain a career in music with a semblance of integrity
How people in North America are lost people adrift on a stolen continent
The trauma of the Bush years
The influence of religious imagery and poetry in his work
A story about their run in with the FBI and some fucked up cop in Oklahoma
In this episode of Solecast I sit down with Stephanie Syson from Biodynamic Botanicals/ Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute. Stephanie is a permaculturist, educator, gardener, & herbalist. She also hosts a show on Colorado Public Radio called "Living Permaculture." In this interview we talk about herbalism, plants, permaculture and all the basics you need to get started with planting & cultivating your own medicine garden.
Also discussed:
Growing Avocados & tropical fruit in the Rockies w/ climate battery greenhouses
Herb Spirals (a permaculture design for planting perennial herbs)
Human evolution & our co-evolution with plants
Some comments on "invasive species” vs "native plants”
Plants Stephanie discusses & recommends :
Motherwort.
Skullcap
Yarrow
Comfrey
Burdock
Oats
Elderberry
Astralgus
Marshmallow
Elecampagne
Dandelion
Nettle
Mint
Tulsi
Plantain
Calendula
Lemon Balm (Bonus)
(get these at Strictly Medicinal Seeds)
Check out Stephanie's podcast "Living Permaculture" w/ Jerome Ostentowski
Learn more about Biodynamic Botannicals & The Colorado Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute
This is an interview I did on Radical Underground Podcast about my new album. Radical Underground is a global music podcast that highlights revolutionary music from around the world. Old supporters were quick to comment that this is one of the best interviews they've heard me do, these folks asked in depth questions based around the lyrics and what they understand/share politically about my work. We spent most of the interview really digging into the themes and inspirations behind the album and also talked about the creative process on how the songs were written and the beats were made. Highly informative and fun conversation with one of my favorite podcasts.
Subscribe to Radical Underground in I-Tunes.
Pick Up Let Them Eat Sand on bandcamp:
https://sole.bandcamp.com/album/let-them-eat-sand
In this edition of the Solecast I speak with the pedestrian. pedestrian is a scholar, rapper and co-founder of anticon records. He is one of my oldest and best friends and has always been somewhat of a mentor to me. I recently released his album unIndian II on Black Box Tapes and we will soon be announcing a vinyl edition of the record. This podcast also features him reading some of his poems throughout the episode.
We cover a wide range of topics: - Identity - California and armageddon - Growing up in an apartheid state - -Anecdotes about anticon - His new album unIndian II - The importance of Project Blowed & The Goodlife Cafe - How fucked up the world of academia is - The #MeToo movement - Our mutual friend DJ Stef who recently died suddenly
In this episode of the Solecast I sit down with Kalyn of Wheelchair Sports Camp. Wheelchair Sports Camp is a hip-hop band out of Denver that makes light-hearted yet politically charged rap songs with a dope live band setup. The lead singer in the group, Kalyn is a disabled queer with a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta. Her condition is sometimes described as “fragile bones” and she has had over 100 fractures, this really took me by surprise because I have been in many marches & situations with her where shit could have easily gone sideways, but that doesn’t deter her.
We talk about her evolution in activism from participating in Occupy, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock and her own personal/political journey that lead her to examine the plight of disabled people. She discusses learning about the history of disabled folk and how her music has brought her into community with disabled people all over the world. We talk about her recent tour through Mexico. She also talks about her experience as a music teacher at Youth on Records, the organization started by The Flobots.
Pick up their new album "No Big Deal" out now on Strange Famous Records:
In this episode of the solecast I chatted with 4 participants from the Olympia Fracking Blockade, an occupation that shut down the port of Olympia for 2 weeks in November 2018. We take a look back on the occupation in the wake of its raid.
In this interview we discuss:
The history of shutting down the Olympia Port from anti-war resistance to environmental actions
The subtle beauty of occupations and how they serve many purposes
The importance of blockades vs symbolic acts
The role of music & dance in building a culture of resistance at the blockade
How Freedom Of Information Act requests can inform actions
Perspective on the decision to not resist the eviction
Critical discussion of things that the people I talked to think could have been done better
Tons of amazing and informational anecdotes from the blockade
For more information visit the Olympia Stand Fedbook & Twitter
Scott is a long time organizer and activist and is best known as a co-founder of the Common Ground Relief Effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrine. Common Ground is the subject of his seminal book, “Black Flags & Windmills." His upcoming book “Setting Sights” is available for pre-order now on PM Press.
In this episode we have a critical and informative discussion with Scott Crow about new ways of thinking beyond resistance towards a politics of possibilities. We discuss some of the pitfalls of “activism” and the toxic subculture that can tend to exist within in it. Scott explains about how the vocabulary we use can alienate us from our goals and the world we want to build. We talk some shit about Alex Jones, right wing media and the dangers of it as well.
For more information on Scott, follow him on twitter, check out his website and pre-order his new book “Setting Sights” on PM Press.
On this episode of the Solecast I sat down with K Death of Moodie Black. Moodie Black is a noise-rap group out of Minneapolis and is one of my favorite rap acts in North America. K-Death hosts a podcast called the Moodhouse. We talk about their upcoming album “Lucas Acid,” their take on hip-hop and the music industry. K-Death came out a few years ago as trans, and is my first friend to do break out of the gender binary. They talk about their experiences as a youth exploring gender fluidity before having the language for it and debunking myths associated with transgender. K-Death discusses the experience of being a trans person of color and navigating this racist transphobic world.
Check out their podcast at moodhouse.com
Pick up their albums on Fake Four
or go to noiserap.com to learn more
Final Straw is one of the longest running anarchist radio shows in North America focusing on anarchist struggle and political prisoner support(among many other things). Bursts and I have been working closely together over the past year on the Channel Zero Podcast Network and while he was in town for the North American Anarchist Black Cross Conference we had a chance to hang out in my yard before the weather got cold and talk some shit.
We talked about:
CZN and its aspirations
J20 Repression
Political prisoner support
Why the Anarchist Black Cross is so awesome
The Situationists and folk traditions In music
Science fiction books we are geeking out on
Much more!
Check out the final straw on twitter, I-tunes and their website.
On todays episode I do an in-depth with Erin Gallagher. Erin is a truly independent journalist who has been tracking and studying the phenomena of twitter bots, their human operators ( herein referred to as 'cyborgs'), and "hacking public opinion." We go in depth on how social media bots engage in dark propaganda campaigns to sway elections and more. We talk about how information cascades through our networks and manipulates public opinion. We talk about specific cases going back as far as 2012 in places like South Africa, South Korea and Central/South America. We also discuss "Patriotic Programmers" and other actors who are spreading fake news & divisive propaganda with an (often) extreme right wing agenda. For more information on this subject follow Erin on Twitter or Medium and check out the following articles:
South Korea spy agency admits trying to rig 2012 presidential election
Sepulveda "How To Hack an Election"
Federal Election Board Denies Bots Exist
Patriotic programmers
I Bought A Bot Army For $100
Erin Gallagher's Mapping of Fake Antifa Accounts Made With Gephi
Music: Sole & DJ Pain 1 "Teachings Of Ice Cube(Memory Remix"
For the month of March The Solecast is doing a flash fundraiser selling T-shirts, tote bags and hoodies. Grab some merchandise in the sole store.
In 2017 The Solecast went from having a few hundred followers to thousands and continues to grow every day. What began as a humble exploration of philosophy, art and its intersection has expanded to informational episodes explaining everything from how to plant a garden to create a FOIA request, to exploring rare histories and taking theory out of the ivory towers and into our lives.
So far I’ve put out about 70 episodes, which are never about current event or news and are always meant to be timeless long form interviews that go deep. Although this project is coming from an anarchist perspective, I interview anyone who I think has something to offer people who are looking to learn more about how to truly effect change in the world, to better our circumstances and most importantly spread and popularize radical ideas… which is humanity’s only hope if we wish to survive this century.
All of this is a lot of work. I work alone on this project, doing all the research for the interviews, editing, producing, tracking down and booking the guests, creating the artwork, managing the social media bullshit and making sure that each episode is interesting, informative and original. This year I want to push this project even further, do more with it and dedicate more time to it. This March we are doing flash fundraiser by selling hoodies, t shirts and tote bags to amass resources for 2018. If you'd like to support this project you may do so by picking up any of these fine goods:
Solecast Tote Bag $10
Solecast T-shirt
Solecast Hoodies $40
To support the Solecast in a more consistent way, please becoming a monthly sustainer via patreon. If you want to donate crypto currency, you can do so here:
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In this edition of The Solecast I speak with Frank Lopez about his recent trip to Puerto Rico. We discuss the failure of the state to act quickly enough and the devastation he witnessed. We talk about how the people of Puerto Rico are helping themselves and how anarchists have launched mutual aid projects in the region. We discuss his recent initiative to get water filters & supplies to folks on the ground, to donate click here. We also talk about the need for radical media and how Submedia plans to grow their operation in the wake of getting their PayPal shut down by the alt-reich.
Donate To Submedia's fund to provide Water Filters, Solar Panels, & More
Donate To Submedia
Music at the end is a live performance of Ceschi performing "Ojalå"
The first collaborative podcast episode with another podcaster. Revolutionary Left Radio is one of my favorite podcasts, its an incredible resource for history, in depth discussions honing in on specific schools of leftist thought and interviews with academics from various political backgrounds. Check it out here.
In this podcast we discuss:
Discussion about political development
What various strains of radical theory can learn from each other
The difference between organizing in Omaha and Denver
The goals and lessons of our podcast projects
White rappers & hip-hop
Approaching parenting with radical politics
Solecast 50 is a discussion with New School professor, philosopher and author Mckenzie Wark. Wark is renowned as one of the forest theorists today who have dove into the works of the Situationists and built upon the ideas in interesting ways. His new book that we discuss in this interview is called “General Intellects” but his past few books; “Telethesia” “Molecular Red” and “Beach Beneath The Streets” are all great reads.
In this interview we discuss:
His new book, General Intellects & his last book “Molecular Red"
The anthropocene in the wake of recent hurricanes & floods
Technology, what is it & how has it changed us
Neoliberalism in Iraq
The politics of exclusion
Do we still live under capitalism?
A discussion of relevant science fiction novels
Solecast 49 is with author, journalist, and host of the “Danthropology Podcast," Dan Arel. Dan is best known for his atheist-themed books “The Secular Activist” and “Parenting Without God.” Unlike most of the so called “new atheists” who have found themselves promoting Islamophobia and reactionary views that prop up empire, Dan stands apart from he pack by putting forward a more compassionate and nuanced atheism. We talk about how that solidarity informs his writings and why under Trump he has found himself throwing in with the anti-authoritarians who have been militantly resisting the Trump Regime.
Also discussed in this interview:
- The problems within the “new atheist” movement and its leading voices.
- Christian “Terrorism"
- A discussion of Noam Chomsky’s ill informed critiques of anti-fascism
- Trans-humanism
- The generalization and widespread adoption of antifa tactics
- Atheist parenting
Solecast 48 Is a discussion with Pat and Wendy of Unicorn Riot. These two were on the ground for the events in Charlottesville providing media coverage for Unicorn Riot. They provide a blow by blow account of what they saw & experienced in this harrowing & disgusting display of white supremacy and fascist violence. They talk about being continuously physically harassed throughout the weekend, the horrors they witnessed, how they dealt with it and how it compared to covering previous large scale events like Standing Rock or Pikeville. Unicorn Riot has been the target of racist trolls for years, so this has given them a unique perspective on who these people are, what they stand for and how this movement has evolved over to the point that its at now.
Support Unicorn Riot
Music by Godspeed! You Black Emperor
Solecast 47 is with rapper, anarchist, and Doomtree OG, P.O.S. P.O.S. dropped a new album this year called Chill, Dummy that is out now on Doomtree Records. We Talk about anarchy and the influence that early Crimethinc had on his thinking and his approach to life. P.O.S. is a member of a long-standing rap collective called Doomtree and we discuss how a group of artists & friends can function as a collective and succeed. We talk about general shifts happening in culture and in society. He goes in depth about his life-altering kidney surgery which is a beautiful testament to the values of mutual aid and solidarity, but also the effect this had on him. P.O.S. is a thoughtful, nuanced and honest dude and we cover a lot of ground in this interview.
If you wanna learn more about POS check out his last few albums Chill, Dummy, We Don’t Even Live Here, and his new project with Sims, SHREDDDDERS.
Subscribe To The Solecast In Itunes
Support The Solecast via Patreon
Solecast 46 is an interview with Disrupt J20 defendant Carlo Pianitini who recently penned the Op-Ed for Al Jazeera entitled, "Why Am I Facing 75 Years In Prison For Protesting Trump?" #DisruptJ20 was a broad based coalition created to have a massive showing of resistance against the inauguration of Trump. Carlo was indiscriminately rounded up with over 200 other people who were present at the Disrupt J20 Protests in Washington DC that are all facing a possible 75 years in prison. 75 years in prison… for attending a protest against the inauguration of Donald Trump, yes this is REAL. This is a very important interview, this could have happened to anyone reading this who happened to be rounded up by the cops on this day. So please spread this interview around, share it with people and do what you can to raise awareness about this horrifying escalation in state repression.
This conversation covers:
- -How people can help by spreading the word, doing fundraisers and getting involved with the movement to defend Disrupt J20 arrestees.
- -The sexual abuse, the massive violence from the police, and the insane judicial overreach against J20 arrestees.
- -“Wired pleas” where the prosecution is essentially holding couples hostage forcing one to accept a stiffer charge to ensure the freedom of the other.
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- The need for more anarchist lawyers and different sorts of legal strategies that advance political resistance, not just treating political repression as a simple criminal case..
- -The lack of solidarity from “The Resistance,” the mainstream media and most “indy” media.
- -How this repression is effecting the lives and organizing efforts of those arrestees.
For More Info:
Defendj20resistance.org
Defendj20resistance.org/support
Books mentioned:
A Tilted Guide To Being A Defendant byTilted Scales Collective
Crashing The Party by Chris Hermes
Correction: I was wrong about my friend Jared Paul getting swept up at the RNC in 2000, he got his charges in 2008 at St Paul RNC
Solecast 45 is a conversation with folks from the Base in Brooklyn about The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement. From their text:
The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement is a political movement dedicated to freeing people from bondage and building resistance in the United States. We situate our political movement in the context of the abolitionist struggle against slavery and continue in the tradition, from Nat Turner to the Black Liberation Movement. We believe the Civil War was never resolved and the system of slavery transitioned into the prison industrial complex. Our struggle today must begin from this starting point. Lastly, as revolutionary anarchists, the abolitionist struggle must be extended to the state and capitalism, the perpetrators of oppression. The revolutionary movement in the US today is at a cross roads, as fascist movements are expanding, and the state becomes increasingly authoritarian. The Rojava Revolution, in northern Syria, provides us with a model for revolution today with its foundation in communal and council based political organization and militant defense.
Download the .Pdf here or buy the book here.
We talk about the limitations of protest and the need to move beyond it. We discuss the importance of explicitly radical anarchist education and physical spaces in social movements. We mostly talk about the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement and the analysis behind it. R.A.M. pulls together various threads of history and social movements to put forth a framework for collective liberation. They link the foundation of the Americas, the expansion of capitalism, slavery, genocide , points to this historical moment and the struggles since then and shows that in order to truly have a revolutionary politics we must focus on abolishing the prison system, capitalism, patriarchy, and the state. Its a very short read, check it out and if you are interested in getting involved hit them up.
The Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement.
Solecast 44 is with rapper, poet and long time organizer Mic Crenshaw. The conversation begins with him talking about his friend Micah Fletcher whose throat was slit in a recent white supremacist attack in PDX where 2 people were killed. We discuss the importance of food justice, community defense and long term infrastructure projects. Mike talks about the linkage between late stage capitalism and the rise of fascism and the importanwhite supremacist train attack in PDX. We talk about the history of the anti racist action network, what organizing was like in the 80s before the internet, and what accountability looks like beyond the state. He stresses the importance of building friendships and true community within cultures of resistance. He also discusses his work on the continent of Africa helping build computer centers, building up ties between North America and Africa and his tours through the continent with the Hip-Hop Caravan.
Check out his music at https://www.miccrenshaw.com/
Solecast 43 is an interview with Radical Comic Book publisher Ad Astra Comix. This is a super informative conversation about the role art can play in resistance. We talk about their efforts to promote and produce radical comics with social justice themes. We discuss their collaborations with indigenous communities in Canada, the importance of balancing aesthetics with good politics, good research, and much, much more.
For more information check them out online: ADASTRACOMIX.COM
Subscribe to the Solecast in iTunes.
olecast # 42 is an interview with indy rap legend, iconoclast and label-head Sage Francis. We have an in depth discussion about his views on society, music and life. We talk about his latest world tour, his new album “Copper Gone” and his decision to leave Epitaph records and put out his music on Strange Famous. Obviously we cover Trump, the state of journalism and have a critical discussion about the role of politics within art. We talk about shifts in the music industry related to technology, and various experiences we’ve gone through over the years. Sage also lays out the thinking and concept behind his new record label SFR Digital and what he is doing with it to help indy rap artists gain a toehold in the rap game.
Grab his new album, Copper Gone here.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
Subscribe to the Solecast in Itunes.
Episode 41 of the solecast is an interview with Amanda from the Cleveland 4 support crew. We have an in-depth discussion about this harrowing and heartbreaking tale of FBI entrapment. It has now been five years since the Cleveland four was blocked in prison for terrorism charges stemming from an FBI informant hatched plot to blow up a bridge in Cleveland. We also have a wide ranging and informative discussion based around Security culture, best practices, and old school community organizing and resistance building.
The Cleveland Four are still in prison and will be there for another 4 to 5 years, check out their Amazon wish list to send them some books, make a donation for the commissary fund, or write them a letter, anything helps!
Music on this episode is provided by Skyrider & Pat The Bunny.
A critical discussion challenging the ethics, morality and punitive nature of work. James discusses the ideas behind his amazing new book “No More Work”
How do we view intellectual labor in the information age when everything is free?
How can we praise work as a noble enterprise when there is no correlation between work and pay?
What studies have been done over the past century examining these imbalances?
Why are the jobs never coming back?
Follow James on twitter, check his website, and buy his new book "No More Work"!
To support the solecast, join the patreon!
For more information, or to back this project on indiegogo visit Channelzeronetwork.com
Solecast 39 is a conversation with Chris from Unicorn Riot.
This epioside is mostly a how to on shaking the tree of government bureacracy through the usage of Freedom Of Information Act requests and similar requests on a state and city level to gain useful intelligence. Chris has had great success uncovering information on Police tactics in Denver and in North Dakota at Standing Rock. He has used these requests to gain access to crowd-control manuals, officer records, gained confirmation of under-covers and affirmed many things that most people assume about the methods police use to spy on protestors and neutralize them. He is a collective member at Unicorn Riot, is a radical techo DJ that goes by the name of Kill Mckinley and can be found on twitter at @RiotDoge.
Subscribe to the Solecast in I-tunes
Solecast 38 is an in-depth interview with former animal liberation prisoner Josh Harper. Josh is one of the SHAC7, and he went to prison for his work against Huntington Life Sciences. Huntington Life Sciences at the time was one of the biggest companies doing tests on animals and was targetted for their usage of “live vivisection.” The tactics employed by the SHAC campaign were wide ranging and effecive; they went after every link in the supply chain to bring this company to the verge of bankrupcy. Josh is currently living in the Pacific North West and helps run “The Talon Conspiracy” which is an online archive animal rights publication from the recent past.
Follow Josh On Twitter and Check out The Talon Conspiracy
Topics Discussed:
- Josh’s involvement in the Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty campaign & animal liberation struggles
- Lessons from SHAC for current struggles against Trump & fascism
- The conflict between mass movement building & effective interventions
- The approach, philosophy and tactics emplyed in the SHAC campaign
- Some thoughts on the political moment we are in
- Comical anecdotes about the Talon Conspiracy & him briefly being a suspect for the 9-11 attacks
- Thoughts on being a political prisoner and how important support is, inside and out
On Solecast 37 I catch up with LA Based electronic music pioneer Daedelus. Daedelus has 17 or so full length albums and worked with such labels as Alpha Pup, Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder and many others. He also runs a small imprint called Magical Properties. He tours the world with his intense & unique live electronic PA sets and stands apart as a true innovator. Check out/ support his music, and follow him on twitter. (Transcript below)
Topics Discussed:
- The life of an electronic musician in 2017
- How the ruling class have weaponized absurdism
- Current trends in rap and electronic music
- Hacking, circuit bending, & the rebelliousness of anologue music
- Reacting to trump and coping with it
- The assault on truth
- Economics & the future of labor
- Science fiction writers & the present
- The role of record label
- The LA underground hip-hop scene of the early/mid 90s & its evolution to the LA beat scene.
- The transitory nature of things.
Transcript:
Sole (Tim Holland): Today's guest is my homie Daedelus. He's a beat-maker, a producer, an experimental artist, a performer, a pioneer, based out of Los Angeles, California. We're going to have a wide-ranging conversation about rap and electronic music, the shifts that are happening in society; we'll talk about hacking and how motherfuckers are dealing with Donald Trump and the current assault on the truth; how economics is shifting, and labor, and robots. It's all happening at once. We'll talk about science fiction, and just the transitory nature of shit that's happening right now. We'll talk about his music; we'll talk about some of the stuff he's into, his record label.
It's conversations like this where we really get to crack into and get into an artist's mind, and really hear them go deep on shit. I was thoroughly impressed by how thoughtful and what a philosopher Daedelus is, as someone who says he doesn't read very much.
What's new with you, man? What have you been up to? Last time I saw you was in New Zealand at that festival.
Daedelus (Alfred Darlington): New Zealand is such an out-there place. I've gone back since, and I've found the scene to have developed.
I've been doing the clinically insane thing of repeating processes and expecting different results: putting out a record (I've put out a few records, I think, since last we saw each other), doing multiple tours (sometimes having lots of bodies in rooms and having a lot of records sold, sometimes having very few), having projects totally disappear into the ether. And I still find a lot of relevance to it, but it does seem like an affront to the thoughtful world when you're releasing a full-length record and people just want their single little nugget of information to make all of their assumptions from.
It's beautiful, though. I've always been troubled by the commerce aspect of creation. Even though desperately wanting to make a full-time living out of this life, having to balance the creation of recorded music versus the performance of improvised music or more spontaneous music, there are a lot of troublesome moments where you have to put a price tag on it and sell it to somebody and charge a cover. It's a tough line to draw. When you're just a musical soundtrack to somebody's intoxication, it's hard.
The last couple years of playing raves and EDM events and just being someone's turn-up music is hard. But I still find so much to it.
TH: I have the exact same thing with hip-hop, where it's I'm up there, I've worked so hard on these lyrics, I'm trying to communicate these complicated things, and yet I'm playing these shitty hip-hop shows with a bunch of wack rappers, and I'm like, I could say anything right now, nobody cares. It makes me want to be home.
AD: I wonder, too—because I feel this in a pronounced way, but especially because the pendulum has really swung back toward hip-hop—I feel like the MC is really back in a strong way, like hip-hop as a genre has a different new definition. The same with the electronic versions of that. The Trap sound has progressed. Mumble Rap has kind of progressed. If you're doing something that reflects a reality of even a few years ago—in the case of electronic music it's like if you're even quoting Dubstep—it's as if there's this group amnesia towards the genre. I don't blame them. It's a pretty flash-bang grenade of a thing to have gone off, and I can understand. When the sparkle blurs out of your eyes, then you don't ever need to listen to Dubstep again in some ways. But still, if you're not playing Trap music right now, do people even consider it hip-hop unless it's some backpack throwback night?
TH: I thought it was more friendly for electronic artists, but I guess you're right. I think maybe Denver is the last place where people can get away with playing Dubstep.
AD: There are a few pockets. There are different genres that get footholds in places and they live depending on the people breathing life into it. And then there's always the genres that haven't hit yet that everyone expects to go big at some point. Juke is one of those. Footwork. In the hip-hop realm of things, there are people lacing their raps with jazz or gestures towards gospel. Chance the Rapper, even Kendrick. But that hasn't gone wide yet, necessarily. Maybe because it takes a different kind of musicianship. You're always wondering what's going to blow up, and I'm sure there's somebody out there who gets paid to determine this kind of thing with divining rods.
TH: 2008-2009 was a huge turning point for that stuff, I think. That's when internet rap was like a Wild West, during the rise of Lil B and Odd Future. And I feel like that's where weird motherfuckers could just make a video and next thing you know Eminem's management is managing you behind the scenes and nobody knows, and now that's just the way shit is done. There's no underground anymore. There's very few really truly localized scenes, because the way people are experiencing music has so dramatically changed from when we started doing it almost twenty years ago.
AD: A localized scene, like the Korean Drill Rap scene getting big now everywhere—there's no reason that we should have that on our lips, in some ways, because it is such a foreign language with a different cadence, but it's the kind of thing where they are pantomiming a lot if artists who are a lot closer. And maybe it's the shininess of it, the newness of it, the way a reflection can more accurately describe the thing you're looking at, in some ways...
I also feel like there was confusion about the internet at that point, about how music would best be served. A lot of people were still fighting against the overall trends, the rivers that were going towards the big ocean of music culture. And now it's kind of solved, as funny as that sounds. It still doesn't seem like anybody is really making it work. It isn't like streaming is really working for people. There's still a ton of political behind-the-scenes stuff going on with payola, and who's making money and who's not, and the DJ Mag Top 100 is such a joke...but it still feels more solved than it did a few years ago.
TH: What do you think the prospects are for independent music and experimental music and political music over the next few years?
AD: I think it's tremendous. I just don't think it's necessarily going to hit a huge swathe of ears. I don't think it's necessarily going to be able to—this is a funny term—democratically exist. It's either going to exist with the sharp stick-end of a campaign by people who really do that thing— not a record label, but a media machine that can jab people with that stick—or it's going to be something holistic that wells up but isn't necessarily any one person. I don't see it as being a singular creative force, because it's so depreciated in our current machinations.
I've had situations in the past where I was sponsored by Scion or Blackberry or Apple or whatever, companies that really had huge resources to bear, but they had no ideas, so they would just throw money around at weirdos like myself (and many, many others), to see what would stick. And now these brand companies are much more savvy, and music is just a small part of it, with a few exceptions—you see some brands that really make music, sort of as a post they are leaning on. But it's really the exception rather than the rule nowadays.
From a political standpoint, that's the most interesting thing to me, because from the social aspect of music being depreciated, now not as many people are going to the local club just to have a night. Either there's a name of a person who you've known and you want to see playing at your local club, or you're staying at home watching as much Netflix as you can binge on. That seems like the dichotomy. The inertia is not to go out, ever. And then if you finally somehow get pushed out of that door, it's very controlled.
But one area I feel like is really dynamic right now is protest. I would say political music, but it's
more specifically protest music, protest sound. Because it's not only the political scene that I'm talking about, but it's also the existing systems.
Look at the rise of the analog Eurorack music scene, the modular electronic synthesizer scene. There is no reason that should be happening in 2017, that people are getting modular units and adding it together and making weirdo synth music—other than the fact that it's scarce, it's not easy to do, it's not replicable, you can't really record it properly, it has to exist in space, and it is like a rebellious moment. It feels rebellious right now.
TH: I don't know if you're familiar with this guy McKenzie Wark. He wrote the Hacker Manifesto. You know this?
AD: I try to keep my toes dipped in that space a little bit. My friends tell me things, and then I go try to check it out, and sometimes it's readily available, and other times it's weirdly not on the surface.
TH: Basically his extension of a hacker would go to a circuit bender. It would go to people who are hacking, but also circuit bending is part of that. Didn't you get started with circuit bending? Is that right?
AD: I did a lot of it. All my records have some amount of that, with some permanent bends, which is a little different—there are two kinds of circuit bending. There's the kind where you are trying to modify and adapt and mutate existing instruments to have new feature sets. And then there's the other kind of circuit bending where you are looking for aleatoric chance, things that will never happen again because the way the capacitors decide to work that day, because of the way your fingers have a certain amount of spit on them or not. Do you know what I mean?
I feel like the definition of hacker could include both, but there's the one kind of hacker who, through programming or modification, is subverting existing systems to do what they want, and the other kind of hacker who is looking into the crystal ball of electronics or devices or things, to get someplace that nobody would have thought to achieve.
I think it's really important to look at both, because in our society especially, we are going to weird places with things—musically and otherwise; this is including everything—and bringing something back from that. That's shedding some light on our current moment a lot.
TH: What do you think about our current moment, man? Two years ago, did you think we would have a fucking reality star for a president? A sexist racist fascist?
AD: No.
I travel a lot. I know you do too. I see all kinds of reality playing out. Some of it is a lot gentler. China is fucked. The so-called Communist regime is a really tough system of central control that is in everybody's lives constantly, and yet also when you go there—depending on the city they're living in, people are relatively out of touch with these grand decisions going into defense spending or weird limitations on their internet. They're not concerned about that. That isn't where their eyes are at. But you can still feel it touching every aspect. Maybe it's my perspective—the news media, the way things get covered; you can see it in a perspective but also see how skewed it is.
And it's much the same when you come back to the States. I always felt like we had our own skewing and such. But now, it is such a topsy-turvy through-the-looking-glass...and it's not just the top of the ticket. It's not just Trump or Drumpf or whatever. I don't like saying that dude's name. I don't like writing it down, I don't like saying it. It's kind of weird. It's like an allergic response or something.
TH: It's because he's pervaded every aspect of our lives already.
AD: I get dizzy and weak—it feels like an allergic response. My strength is sapped, my will and my resolve—especially right after the election, I was in such a malaise (and I'm sure many, many people were). Every time you have a political system that you're involved in or you feel some sort of involvement in—it's like any kind of contest or competition—you can have sore loser feelings, but this is so much deeper. The deceptions and the psychological response—it's not just this surface depression. It felt way deeper and it took me a lot longer for me to dig myself into a place...
Maybe I can tell you the way I've been coping with it and compare notes with you. For me, it went from being this broad idea of a group of humanity that I really still care about, but now I have about four or five people in my life that I feel like I need to look out for. That isn't totally disassociated from the larger politic, but I really feel like the person who's at my side is the person who I need to be looking after. Even if it's a stranger on a train, if they say some dumb shit I've got to call them out, and at least try to listen and hear them, but also speak to them if I really feel like there's some kind of racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic—if I hear some direct, blatant shit, I've got to say something. But in terms of yelling into the internet, I'm not going to contribute positively to that environment.
So that's been my focus. That's felt therapeutic. That thing has felt therapeutic.
TH: For me, right when he got elected, I was like (of course this is a white guy saying this), okay, he's president now, he got what he wanted, maybe he's not going to do all the fucked up shit. He'll realize the limitations of power and he'll roll with the status quo. And there were these huge protests everywhere, and I was like, okay, at least people are going to fight back. But about a month and a half, two months in, it's like, fuck, man, everyday it's something else. It's so much egregious stuff. The Russia shit—I mean, talk about living in a sci-fi novel.
AD: Totally. All those silly films with the Russkies coming over the Arctic Circle to take us over...it's bananas. But on top of it, there's part of me (and this is the conspiratorial part of me—not InfoWars yet, but fuck, the fact that that's now part of our common parlance is just bananas)...if you look at Beckett and the absurdity that was talked about. It seemed like the only rational reaction to the World Wars was really weird electronic music and absurdity, dadaism, all these things. What else do you do? We're almost to the inverse of that, where absurdity now is used as a political tool of the ruling powers to make you not look anymore. Because every day there is a new absurd, crazy, real thing that, although factual, just makes you shake your head in this Etch-A- Sketch kind of way to get rid of it.
Have you ever been in an earthquake before? It's profound, because we have all this sensory apparatus that grounds us in earth; we have the idea of magnetic north, and our inner ear is constantly balancing us, and our eyes give us this idea of a level plane. So when you shake that even slightly, the mind goes, “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck,” and you get this moment of, “This is not happening.” And that's part of the reason why earthquakes feel so crazy, because all of your systems are going into alarm.
But this same kind of feeling is going on every day, and that button is being pushed so much. I'm trying to figure out if it's a concerted effort to do this, to make the world so absurd that we'll accept any plausibility. Part of the conspiracy is that the Russians have been doing these actions in a lot of different political systems that aren't directed towards electing one person or another, it's just about getting rid of facts. You can't make people believe one thing or another in this current age, but you can get rid of the possibility of a truth.
TH: Aside from all the people it's affected, Donald Trump's presidency has been an assault on truth itself. Steve Bannon is, like, a Leninist or something. Did you hear that? That he studied Lenin in his
early years? I don't know if Steve Bannon is really the one pulling the strings or if these are just tactics Trump learned in the boardroom, about assaulting other people's facts so that they're meaningless, and just repeating lies. And he never even responds to it. He's already lying about something else. He gets called out on one lie, and he's got three others. It's insane.
AD: I do believe that in this current challenging of factual reporting or factual statistics or data or all of these different things—that, again, the arts, the humanities, and music in particular is especially appropriate as a response, because it doesn't speak in direct terms, but it does speak to a deeper truth. It generally is playing on physiological and philosophical ideas that point towards a deeper truth. So maybe this would be a moment of extremely effective protest song and inspirational art that will really get to the essence of it, because everything else is just—as soon as you write the words down, like any kind of punishment, they start to lose their meaning. So maybe this is really an especially appropriate time for the humanities. This is definitely one thing that keeps me interested in pursuing that.
On the flipside, you have groups like Wikileaks which serve such an important role, and arguably this would be its time to shine. This should be the moment where Wikileaks and similar platforms should be speaking truth to power like they were always supposed to. I know this is partially spin— this is partly just the way the system has rocked us—but doesn't it feel like just the fact that Donald Trump hasn't come out condemning the recent leak against American intelligence operations...it's such a weird moment for these speaking-truth-to-power platforms.
TH: Truth and fact have been so attacked over the last few years, everything is relative on the internet now. Whereas sixty years ago, everybody was watching the same news. There were only six channels on TV. It was at least easier to make sense of things. But now that we have millions of sources, we have all this confirmation bias and filter-bubbles, and we literally only have to see the worldview that we want to see.
AD: Totally. Fifty-sixty years ago there were only six channels, and you could argue that there were a lot more racist people, and a lot more people who were not checking in. It seems like there's this trope right now of trying to understand “Trump's America”, and it's perceived-liberal media outlets taking a closer look at the “middle” of America, where “Trump's America” is, in the Ohios and the Michigans and these kinds of places, where the topsy-turvy politics are largely just gerrymandering, creating this Trump thing. I saw one recently where they were interviewing these people who said, “I don't really care about Russia. I don't know why they're treating Trump so bad.” People were saying such stupid shit. Why are we paying attention to people who just don't care?
But it also raised the question: why do I care? My voice doesn't matter. It is one of a lot of privilege in many, many ways. And I don't have that much to add to the soup. Why do I care?
Of course, I don't know. My heart beats, and I really appreciate the natural environment around us, and I want there to be people in the future who can appreciate those things, and I like the freedom of data that my music and output travels on, and I like the way I received that kind of data in the past, and I kind of want to see that continue and flourish. There are just so many different points where I feel like, “Wait, there is a lot of importance to this.” I just wish there were people out there who could help describe the framework of action who aren't so inherently political or politicized in nature.
Did you read that Shaun King piece that just came out today about the irrelevance of the Democratic Party? It's the usual refrain. You have these clear mandates from an upswelling of resistance and populism from a Democratically-leaning population, but that are not being addressed by this upper-echelon leadership, the 1% of the Democratic Party. A lot of it has to do
with corporate involvement and big interests that arguably are sloshing money around the whole political system, so I don't know about singling out the Democrats and making it seem like the Republicans are this or that. But it's like a rallying call for a new kind of party that does address more of what was being talked about in Occupy and Black Lives Matter, and these upswelling political movements that for some reason aren't exactly on the tips of the Democratic Party's tongues, even though it's kind of low-hanging fruit, it seems like. That should have been the shit that was all in the mix.
TH: The thing is with Trump is that Trump can get up there and be like, “I'm the racist boss you wish you had. I'm going to fix things for you.” But he's lying to them and telling them that he's going to bring their jobs back. The jobs aren't coming back. There aren't enough jobs. Even if he does bring the jobs back in ten years, robots are going to be doing that work in twenty, so forget about it.
AD: And everybody who is doing Uber and Lyft right now and whatever else in the gig economy...fuck.
This is kind of an aside, but I've been using a lot of robotic assistance in my musical life recently. I've been using robotic drums, and before that I was using some robotic assistance in a visual show. And I've been finding it so interesting, with so many creative places to go, with the precision and the mechanical nature of the stuff. But it does seem like the overarching concern, if we derive our existence and our purpose in life through work, and then that gets taken away, what is America going to do if you have to somehow look in a mirror and come up with something that gives your life meaning, when we've made a list of such commodities that just don't exist in any real, soul- filling fashion.
TH: What they've done is strip meaning from everyone's lives, and we've become consumers. This seems like an obvious thing to say. But the more time I spend gardening and growing food and producing food, all that shit is work. The community organizing I do, all this work I do, I don't get paid for any of it. But it's in many ways the most meaningful. These are the things we would do if we didn't have to work. If we would educate ourselves and educate each other and create systems of mutual aid...if we took away work as the central thing in our life, people would flourish.
That's why every day I'm on Twitter I see universal basic income tweets. I feel like that movement has gained a lot of steam in Europe, but I would love it if we just skipped over socialism in the States, and Bernie or whoever would run on UBI, and that's what people are demanding, because otherwise our society is just going to fucking fall apart into some crazy tech fiefdom with floating Amazon warehouses above our cities with drones delivering us shit. It's fucking weird, dude.
I get so much shit delivered through Amazon. I just have trucks pulling up all throughout the day. Like, oh, what's in this package? I don't even remember what I ordered. My mailman is always talking shit: “I'm so sick of delivering dog food to people.” And I'm like, “Motherfucker, you complain now, but there's going to be a drone doing your job in ten years.”
AD: I totally agree. And I feel like there needs to be a distinction made between work for money and work for social good. They all have their value, and the value system is really skewed right now.
I really like the basic income idea as well. I know Scandinavian countries have been trying it for a minute. I just don't know if it can exist in the purely economic form, if it needs some basis in a mineral resources or something—if it can just be informational value with an invented economy...I've heard different arguments, and it's tough. The idea of inflation and greed in the system...
A few years ago, every time I met an economist or an accountant or anyone who handled money in any kind of real way, I always wanted them to explain systems to me, because it seems so invented.
There's a Nobel Prize for economics. Somebody out there is getting a big hunk of metal around their neck every year in this field that is really important but also totally imaginary. And the basic principles of it are sometimes grounded in such incredible racism or sexism, it's crazy.
TH: It's capitalism.
AD: Dammit. So here's the thing. I love coffee. I adore the high I get, but even more the taste, and the culture. It's this natural resource that takes some really specific space to grow. It doesn't like a lot of variation in its environment, but it flourishes in these small bands between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. It just happens.
And you can have these farmers using these practices to make this amazing bean, essentially, this amazing fruit, and then if it doesn't get dried properly it fucks it all up. The whole thing falls apart. Then if you have this other group of people who get together and they process and move the fruit properly, then you get this grain pit of the fruit that goes through a roaster, and if the roaster does a bad job, it's game over. But if the roaster really takes the time to consider the grain product in their hand and they really go through the process and they treat it right with the cooling and heating and storing and everything, then it goes to the barista. And then the barista can fuck it up.
Every part of this chain is this amazing confluence of economic scale that creates this thing that I can buy for way too much money, with way too much privilege, and then enjoy for literally ten seconds. It can be super transformative, and I can speak on all the ways that I love it, but also, never throughout the course of human history were we able to get to this kind of precision on this wild, neverending group of factors that could mess up at any point and ruin everything, shake the baby to death.
It's crazy that at the end of that chain you can get this beautiful cup of coffee. I marvel at that. We get all this kind of stuff, and it's only because of this ridiculous economics that it's possible.
TH: Speaking of artisanal shit, do you ever go to that place on Sunset Boulevard in LA? I've ordered a bunch of shit from there. I can't get spices from anywhere but there. That's where these top chef motherfuckers are shopping. But I don't know. Just to play the devil's advocate, I would say that if you remove the economic incentive today, people would still find a way to achieve all of those steps. Because people would still want amazing coffee.
AD: I partially agree. I think people would desire it. But I also think there is another factor of people not caring. And a lot of people get their coffee that's way expensive and immediately hit it with some milk that isn't necessarily super considered, or they throw their Splenda in there, and it just tastes like milk or Splenda, you know what I mean? And it has to do with education and people's pallets and it's all very subjective.
And it's the same thing with music. People will go out and buy these lossless formats and then listen to it through Beats by Dre. And then on the flipside you have people with their super hifi systems and they're listening to music that was recorded with fidelity that was ridiculously low. But their ears are gilded with gold, so to speak, so even the shittiest sound is somehow supposed to be gussied up by these fancy speakers.
And all of this is to say that I feel like we're—whether devil's advocate or not, we are just in a tough moment of discerning...there's no consensus. We're kind of at a weird precipice.
Are you familiar with the term tipping point? In the artistic fashion? In most art forms—especially temporal art forms, like music or poetry, but it happened in the visual arts too—you have a moment in the scheme where the artist will take an extra amount of time, typically, or an extra bit of emphasis to show an emotional depth. This is especially effective, in the arts, to have these kinds of “push moments” where there's a little bit more ask of the audience, basically. And that ask
then has a reward, and it's almost a virtuosity being displayed by the artist to know when the time is to push that button.
And you could argue that the same thing is true in the consumer world, in a way. That there are these moments of challenge that then is released, that should have some of the same relevance, but it's like—yeah, we've stripped all that. We don't have tipping points anymore. We don't have people waiting for their meal and then being satiated by it. You're expected to have it immediately from the drone in the sky.
TH: That's how people are experiencing news and music and everything now.
I keep going back to it, but it's just such a weird postmodern time that we're in. When I was kid thinking about the year 2000 I figured it would be working four hours a day, and then 2010 hit and it was like, you know what? Nothing's really changed. Everything is the same. All we have is phones. But now, I was reading the Wikileaks thing and they're trying to hack into computerized cars to crash them. Oh, okay. There are megamillionaires trying to go to Mars. Corporations are going to be on Mars before states will, and that's crazy.
Would you go to Mars?
AD: No. I love the idea of exploration, and I can safely say that I've done a lot of that in myself— psychedelics and otherwise—around some of these deeper questions I had as a kid that never were solved but I asked aloud of myself...but I would sooner go to the bottom of the ocean than I would go to Mars. There's so much about the world that we live in that we have rarely explored. Again with the same factors of very limited engagement, I do feel like if people went to the bottom of the ocean, they would have a lot more sympathy and compassion for the bottom of the ocean. And I don't see why we're spending all this money to try to go to outer space, besides the fact that it's obviously a lot of novelty and promise and potential, and it would be great so that we wouldn't have one calamitous event on Earth and lose the entire population. It'd be great. But I just don't understand why we're not going down and we're always going up.
TH: Duh, man. It's because the Earth is hollow.
I have actual literal flat-earthers on my Twitter timeline, and I'll make a joke like, “More NASA propaganda! They're showing Earth as a circle!” And people will be like, “Oh, man, I'm so glad you're woke.” Not to keep talking about this stuff, but it's fucking crazy and hilarious to me that in 2017 people would be arguing that the world is flat. If that's not a metaphor for Donald Trump's presidency, I don't know what is.
AD: I think it's a very interesting problem, but also a really unique opportunity. I do find it really interesting: these people are supposedly really hungry for the truth and really feeling like they need to be part of the detective squad, the other Sherlocks. It's kind of cool that people feel so much purpose in this way, but they seem to be so tin-eared about facts. And not to say that one set of facts from a national agency should be totally trusted, but this idea that somehow they are privileged to some truth that they heard randomly somewhere—they seem like they heard it off a mountain, off some tablets, and that's the ultimate end-all be-all and somebody else's tablets that came off a very similar mountain don't have any relevance.
TH: That's like an identity thing. It's like, my identity is linked to this brand new information I have. No one is more annoying than the newly converted. “I have the only truth and everyone else is wrong.”
AD: I just wish these people would wear more cultish robes. They should commit. I'm saying this jokingly, but I kind of mean it truthfully. I kind of want people to go all the way if they're going to go there. But they just have one crazy theory about chemtrails, and then everything else can be
somehow normal in the world, but they're just like yeah, chemtrails. Come on. Go all the way. TH: Wear a tinfoil hit. Wear your bathrobe out.
AD: My dad wears a bathrobe all the time. It's great. It's fashionable. He's kind of crazy. It works. Maybe we're all in that space.
So here's a question. I don't remember the term for it, but there is a concept that the future can't exist until it's written about by sci-fi writers, that until something appears on Star Trek it won't really be invented. It's kind of an imagination thing. If there's a simultaneous invention that happens in the world it's because of technological pressures that have been shown. There is a kind of zeitgeist about the physical problems or commercial issues that then breed solutions that take a form that generally seems to correspond to “science fiction,” even if it's things like inventing teleportation. Which seems so futuristic and science-fiction-y in Star Trek but is now actually being developed. People are part of this because it was dreamed up by somebody. So why aren't we hiring teams of writers to just write the craziest timelines to get us there?
TH: Maybe we are and we just haven't read them yet. As you were saying that, I was thinking about why it's so important to expand your political imagination. If that's true, if all of these technological ideas are like a stream rippling through the eons that eventually become real, it's like The Secret on a civilization-wide scale. Maybe by creating a more radical imagination we really can have, a thousand years from now, people living in a world that we are imagining now. Marx or Adam Smith—when Adam Smith was writing, I don't think he thought, oh, this is the way it's going to be forever. Or even the Bible.
AD: I don't think it has to take a thousand years. There has to be some structure that makes it happen way faster than people imagine. Because again, these books are set in the distant future, but this stuff comes way faster. There's something about that.
But I do agree with you about the political systems thing. Just for instance, the third party thing is always shut down. It's always like, “Nope, not going to happen. We live in a two-party system.” And if ever somebody could really change our imagination to think more parliamentarian, I think it would happen in a second. We have way too many different camps for it not to happen quick.
I mean, it obviously serves its purpose right now, but I think the nuance that's going on makes it seem obvious—we don't have Whigs anymore, but we have a thousand other things that could easily be in that place.
TH: Yeah. I mean, David Graeber has this speech on bureaucracy and technology, and he really looks at the form of governance that the United States uses, and so much of it was based around a time where it would take a pigeon two months to make it across the country, when we were limited by railroads.
AD: We went a long time without a nationwide-spanning railroad. We went a long time with horses that could only go so far.
TH: Do you read graphic novels or science fiction?
AD: I used to read a lot of them, but I'm also dyslexic, so I've always had a hard time. Especially the harder science fiction, I love it. Your Larry Nivens and these kinds of people, I like that stuff. It just takes me a long time to piece through it. I like graphic novels, it's sometimes easier, but it depends on the writer. Some people just have so much text that it really makes my eyes jump around a ton.
TH: Somebody just gave me this Pax Romana graphic novel. Are you familiar with this? It's fucking awesome, man. I never read this shit, but it's like, the civilization has gone to shit and all that remains is the Roman Church and they send people back in time to take over the world before
Mohammed is born. Of course it's born of psychotic Christian Eurocentric fantasies, but they go back there with nuclear weapons and drones and create an army of god. It was a fun read.
Let me ask you some more music questions, actually. Do you still run a record label?
AD: Yeah. I would call it more of an imprint than a record label, though it functions to do a lot of the normal label stuff. The mandate of the record label initially was initially to be a platform for artists to overcome the catch-22 of the music industry, which is: if you don't have a release, you're not going to get attention, and you're not going to be considered by record labels, and so you have to have a release to get attention, essentially. The label functioned as being a lot of artists' first release, the place where they could put a stick in the ground and then hopefully grow the seeds that they planted in that earth out into other spaces. I feel really good about that. Over time, now, I've had a few artists who have released multiple times on the label, and it's been a platform to release older music, some overview stuff of my own as well as others'. But it isn't this kind of thing to yell from the rooftops, or a movement, it's just been a little platform for these kinds of artists in the past.
TH: I was looking at it and going back and listening to some interviews you did where you talked about it. I started a record label a couple years ago. And I mean honestly I'm probably just going to shut it down this year, or close its doors for a while, just because of having a kid and there's so much shit going on, I just can't give it what it needs. But one of the main reasons that I started the label is because I felt like blogs and things—you know, there's no John Peel in 2017. And all the old ways that people were discovering music have disappeared...there were these things that mattered, that if they happened it could set off a chain of events for people. And those milestones don't really exist any more. I feel like that is the function of record labels, now. Even on a small boutique imprint...my question is, do you feel like record labels are replacing blogs and publications? Like they're this other filter, a source of discovery that's almost more important than anything else today?
AD: Yes and no. I think they did function like that about ten years ago. And then over time it became the curation of a few people who did some festival circuits. A while ago Pitchfork ceased being a really critical publication and more of a series of lifestyle choices. And then you had some labels that really represent (and you still have this on occasion) an idea, and that's potent enough to keep their existence. But largely they function as tax shells so you can have loss-leaders and some way of communicating a release, but really most labels just function as P&D deals for publishing houses to license music to movies, television, and radio, essentially.
That's how the larger indies hold on, is through these licensing deals. The people who have taken over the role that you're speaking about, I really feel, are collectives nowadays. There are a lot of collectives—be it focused, usually, around a genre or sometimes more focused around a location— that become the figureheads of their individual pocket of scene and transmit their culture in a way that seems authentic and people like. Look at Teklife—which has a label aspect, but really it's a loose collection of people who are all under the banner of this Juke scene. Or Soulection, with their party sound, and they have tons of nights all over the world that are just selection nights, but you never know which DJs you're going to catch from the crew; they have some bigger-name people in the crew, but really it's just a sound that's really the modern party sound. And similarly with TeamSupreme and Brainfeeder—I mean, I'm kind of quoting off things that might be a little more underground than your listenership knows about, or is kind of specific, but this is really where that curation is happening, where you have people blanket-wise just ascribing themselves to one of these collectives, rather than a label.
TH: Huh. I guess that is true. Of course Hellfire Club comes to mind. I was very excited about Hellfire Club when that was going on. It made me want to live in LA.
AD: And there are exciting outgrowths. Even though Hellfire Club fell apart, there are still exciting outgrowths that are emanating from that. But you see that one moment where you have this supergroup feeling where people could really get behind it and were excited and could pour their energies into something. You could feel it. It emanates, and it's still rippling. I feel like that's one of the reasons why it has such powerful sustain. And I also think there's a collectivism in a lot of people coming together, that friction of different voices together, rather than having one main A&R or one blog writer. That was never sustainable. You always see through the facade of the one- person perspective. It never seems to work.
You have these great runs. And even Peel had his ups and downs. But part of the reason why he was so abundant is because he had so many different outgrowths. He had his radio show and his critical writing. And it's interesting: it was a different time period, too, obviously, kind of a slower time (think of Cream magazine being all just that one dude), just a different way. But I feel like we desperately need more critical vision in our art structures. If it's another group of fifteen-year-olds who get together and make a crazy sound, that's fine, but if there's no knowledge of history or no knowledge of trajectory, they all seem to tear each other apart and go away rather than figure out how to sustain.
TH: I don't have any experiences in my life that sound anything like you're describing, so I don't know what you're talking about...
I'm writing a book right now about hip-hop and radical politics, and I keep thinking about Project Blowed and I keep wanting to ask people in LA what the impact of that scene was and how it influenced you.
AD: I can tell you when I was really young, when I was in high school in the early nineties, the Blowed, or Freestyle Fellowship and those kinds of things—everybody knew the surface of what was going on in gangsta rap, especially in '92 when half the kids were all grunged out and the other half of kids were all gangsta rap, and it was starting to hit the airwaves in LA, and then you had LA hip-hop radio going from a dance mix of freestyle music from Miami and some Information Society, like, weird electro EDM music, industrial music that was going on—to full-on gangsta rap. That was this new sound that had older roots, but for the airwaves, you had people going deeper on the culture and going to the world stage, going to the Blowed, wherever it was being held, specifically the Good Life, and getting tapes from people who would dismiss you, would rip you off —you'd go up there and you'd be lucky to walk away with the thing you were trying to get. But it was this whole level of depth that you could go, which I know was not happening in a lot of other cities. You might be hearing music, but to actually go talk to the people who are making it go, witness them in person, and get the bug, and really feel like there's something really amazing happening, like there's a movement happening, that's special.
But then on top of it: the riots. The LA riots happened in '92. Rodney King. And I mean, that lit fires in people that both tore apart a lot of the scene and caused a lot of friction in this way where the places you went were kind of dangerous, or perceived as dangerous to go...it became a very palpable danger. For years after that, I remember there were clubs that you were warned about.
And that's part of the reason I feel like I did rave music. Because I think every kid wants to inhabit that danger, and LA had an amazing underground warehouse scene that at times played right there with all the LA underground hip-hop. You would catch those same names MCing for jungle artists, or being present in the club scene as much as they were at the Good Life. It's like, there was enough confusion that you could see the bleed between the things way before it happened in the overground worlds of electronic and hip-hop coming together.
TH: You're talking about Peace, and Myka 9 and shit, right? Is that who you mean?
AD: The core Blowedians for sure, but also look at Global Phlowtations. They were taking chances with their beats in the mid- to late nineties that were crazy. Thavius Beck is born of that, and Satchel Page. There are a lot of interesting voices. And they actually had female MCs in a real way —not to depreciate the other people in project Blowed that were doing the same, but...
You know, when I first started touring, in the early aughts, I would go to places like Japan or Europe, and every once in a while I would trip over these stores that were just selling west coast hip-hop. Amazing, right? And I would go in there, and I'd ask, “Where's the LA hip-hop section?” and it's like, no, the store was all an LA hip-hop section. I learned more about what was going on in my own city through places like that. There was one particular one in either Sweden or Norway (one of the Scandie countries, I don't remember which one unfortunately, it's been a long time) that was so dedicated to the culture, and they had all these obscure side projects and shit. It's like, what are you talking about? These people have only one record out, had these one-off tape side projects, and they'd exist in these other places in these other countries, and I never would have found out about it in LA because it was just such a hidden culture that you weren't supposed to go out and engage with. It's tremendous.
TH: I totally forgot about all that shit. In the Bay, too, you'd go to Amoeba Music, and sell five hundred CDRs. Amoeba Music paid my rent for the first two years of my music career. It's so crazy. It's things like that that I think about a lot, and this is one of the questions I had for you. How has the way you work changed over the fifteen years that you've been a full-time musician?
AD: I mean, in some ways it's remained doggedly the same. I'll have a notion, and follow that notion down a winding path, and that will either yield a project that comes out commercially or, often, yields some sort of results that then coalesce into a record. And somehow I've been doing that this whole time. I've released seventeen collections of music that count as full-lengths, and that becomes this thing that somehow has gone on this long, for these past fifteen years.
But then at the same time, technologically it's shifted so much, from being all hardware—no computer in the very beginning, creating everything with samplers and synthesizers—to hybrid forms of that. As sample times have changed, as the hardware has become more possible, in some ways, getting away from samplers with their long sample times (because that provided too many choices), going down to the circuit-bent, going down to the acoustic. I did a series of records a few years ago that were totally...it's almost like every good idea I've had, I've had to abandon because I don't know how to do that idea again. Do you know what I mean?
And I know management and labels would love it if I could sustain the attention span to really do something long enough to make it actually truly good, rather than fidget. But that isn't my job. I kind of realized a while ago, my job isn't to make a lot of money. My job isn't to make great music. It's to bring my sense of wonder that I've always felt towards music and show it to other people. That's probably my highest aspiration at this point.
TH: You're a tinkerer, man. I feel like what you're describing also is—have you ever seen Dosh play live? It's the same kind of thing. I feel like when I'm watching you or when I'm watching Dosh, I'm watching someone just playing in their bedroom. That's where I'm at with music right now. Man, I just don't want to play a show unless it feels like I'm tinkering in my bedroom, so I have to reimagine what my live show is, and incorporate more live PA into that, and it's so...when you're rapping, it's such a challenge to figure out how you can really rap and then have all these moving parts and shit that's organic and live.
AD: I may say—I know you're a thinker. I know you're a deep thinker, but I also know you have a lot of really important things to say. And I feel like this is the kind of perspective that I wish I had other people telling me...but I think at a certain age, past a certain point, people stop giving you critique
and they start to just assume that you're ever-prevalent, and this is just the thing, and it's set. But I feel like, for yourself, when I've caught you, it's always really vital to hear what you have to say. I feel that way honestly. And I understand the idea of building in mechanisms that keep you feeling interested, and keep you feeling like you're doing the work in this way, but I feel like you need to exist because there aren't that many people saying things that are of importance. Or they're not speaking their truth in a way that is including mine, do you know what I mean?
There's a lot of political music out there that is important, and has a lot to say. I really like where clipping. is at right now, for instance. I dig it. But I also feel like they're skipping a lot of harder truths that are won through a deeper examination of the direct political scene. I love the metaphor, and I love the approach. And I think it's super important what they're doing as well, but it's just very different. There aren't many Public Enemy's right now. If any.
TH: I hear that. It's fucked up there's not enough Public Enemy's right now, really.
AD: I like reading about music, both the psychology and the physics of, and also the history of. And those 33-1/3 books can be kind of hit and miss. But the one on Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad production around It Takes a Nation of Millions is phenomenal. It's amazing.
Do you know the 33-1/3 series? It's a series of creative writing. Some of it's very factual, and some of it's very personal narrative. And they always deal with a specific album. My favorites always tend to be the ones that really talk about the creation of or the history of the hard, on the ground facts of a certain record. And usually really classic albums get the treatment.
TH: I'm trying to learn a lot of back story to shit like that right now.
AD: It's a perfect one to dive into, and it really talks about the moment that birthed that record, but also that birthed Public Enemy. It's great. It's one of the ones I really recommend. The Bomb Squad—this is one of those experiences for me where it's like, okay, Public Enemy had a lot to say, but the onomatopoeia with the way they said it, the words they said it with but also the music...this book does a really good job talking about things like the fact there was a horn stab on every single beat in some of their songs. You know? It underlines not only the message, but the message underlines the music. It's perfect. There are a lot of groups out there that have a heavy sound, and they don't necessarily say very much. And the rare groups who have both, I think. I dig death metal groups, sometimes, it's not my favorite thing in the world, but man, the music sounds like those words, and those words sound like that music, and I have to tip my hat at that. I feel like Public Enemy did it really well, as well. The Bomb Squad did it really well.
TH: That's one of the things I'm thinking about. The form was revolutionary in the way that it carried the message. It was a very experimental music. I remember listening to that with my mom. And she was like, “This is fucking terrible.” My dad was like, “Shut this off! This is the worst shit!” The same way that punk music was jarring to people's ears.
So when I'm home just twiddling with loop pedals and shit, I try to think, like, what is that different format today?
AD: It's a great mandate you can give to younger producers who don't usually have the perspective of what they want to say, they're just trying to figure out how to even be in the space. But sometimes if you have the message you want to end with before you have any of the notes, it can help determine those notes real fast.
TH: When you listen to the way they imagine experimental music on TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, it's always some hybrid between noise and techno and cut-up shit. Today it would just be a bunch of Windows dings and the sound of a fucking Mac shutting off.
AD: Are we talking about Vaporwave?
TH: You haven't switched over yet? Or is it too late? Is that over?
AD: It's over and it'll never be over. But yeah, I mean—I think that's a weird moment that we're in that won't ever stop now. All popular music is Vaporwave now. For a long time, I used to consider popular music to be kind of a mash-up culture, where unless you had one popular thing rubbing up against another popular thing, it wouldn't produce the phenomenon known as popular music. But now we're through the looking glass, and now you just have to have a taste of that thing. And it doesn't matter if the thing doesn't live in a serious space. It's better if it lives in a frumpy, humorous, tongue-and-cheek thing, because then you never have to actually commit.
TH: It seems like it's a relative of Witch House. But Witch House was actually dope, I felt like.
AD: Did it ever really even exist? Was it an easy journalistic term for just a passing chord? I liked a lot of the music that was going on in that space, too, and I feel like the “Ethereal & B,” the ethereal R&B that's going on now, you could point towards a lot of artists who are basically making a version of Witch House, but it has different DNA. It goes to the same place.
TH: I've never heard of ethereal R&B, I'll check it out.
AD: There's quite a bit of music in that vein, and you could argue that even Mumble Rap goes there too, sometimes, stuff that's a little bit more—oh god, my head is full of names, and they rarely come out at the right moment. The stuff I'm really feeling, I love the way that tempo has come back in a lot of music, and that chop has come back into rap. You have a lot of rappers now who can actually chop. There's a little more going on than just some catchphrases. I was really tired of that trend before it even set in.
TH: I love the new rap music. I mean, Future. He's such an experimental artist.
AD: Especially that new record. God, it goes places. You should check it out. You've head OG Maco before, right? Some of his—I don't know if you want to call them hits, but his more overground cuts, and his weird deeper-in-the-record cuts are weird as fuck. It's great. Even someone like Post Malone, which is again super-surface, he does stuff with Justin Bieber...but it comes out super strange sometimes. It has some weird blue-eyed soul to it, but then it does something.
TH: Usually before I go I ask if there are any books or anything that you'd recommend to people.
AD: I wish I read more. Dang, I am such an illiterate fool. Maybe I can encourage people, instead of imbibing the outside world, which is very relevant, but just from my perspective if more people took pen to paper and tried their hand at poetry, even the rappers out there who are used to scribbling verses, even the people who maybe keep a journal but try to have a bigger impact with fewer words...that exercise is something I engage in, still to this day. And there is relevance. There is something to be said with your personal voice. Word choice, thinking about what comes next. I'm a musician. I should know nothing about this. I'm largely illiterate. And I feel like it is an incredibly meditative practice. What's the next word? What's that next thing?
So maybe my answer is a reversal of your question.
TH: That's what keeps me from going crazy. Alright Alfred. Thank you for taking the time. AD: Equally! Tell me when this goes live, I can't wait to crow about it.
Solecast 36 is an interview with Frank Lopez of Submedia.tv. Frank is the founder of submedia and for 10 years wasknown by his alter ego The Stimulator. Stimulator was “the foul mouthed news anchor” on submedia’s flagship shpw “Its The End Of The World As We Know If And I Feel Fine.” Todays interview is a discussion about his new documentary series called “Trouble” and how he sees its role in breaking social media alienation and getting people engaged and connected locally. Trouble is a monthly documentary series highlighting uprisings from around the world and taking an in depth and analytical look at them.
Other Topics Discussed:
- Montreal’s maple syrup and its cultural divergence from New England
- The evolution of submedia over a decade
- Basic thoughts on anarchism, and Submedia’s engagement with it
- Mutual aid based projects that are replicable
- The relationship between anarchism and indigenous struggle
- The tension in social movements between the resistance and movement managers
- 90s hip-hop and its role in radicalizing him
Trouble drops the last Sunday of every month. The first one is Sunday March 26th, organize a showing in your area & find new comrades!
Here are some previous collaborations I have done with Stimulator:
Solecast 35 is an in-depth conversation with frequent Sole collaborator, DJ Pain 1. Together we have made 2 albums, a remix album and a couple EP's worth of material. We are currently working on our 3rd Studio album.
DJ Pain 1 is has produced music for everyone from Young Jeezy, to Ludicrous to Public Enemy. He is an educator, a DJ, an activist and one of the hardest working and consistent people I have ever met.
In our interview we discuss a myriad of topics:
- Madison's War on Hip-hop
- How he utilizes social media to maintain his autonomy
- The origins of rap & how neoliberalism influenced it
- His role as an educator both in schools and through youtube beat-making videos
- The importance of a healthy lifestyle
- The origins of hip-hop and its political implications
- The Revolutionary potential and limitations of hip-hop
- Latent racism in white hip-hop fans & anti-blackness is Wisconsin
- Mushroom Foraging
Check out more of his work on his website, follow him on twitter & FedBook.
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