Episodes
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Interview with Bennet Cerven of The Trouble Notes.
Hailing from three different continents, The Trouble Notes blend folk traditions from around the world with a driving, modern energy that transports audiences on a musical journey like no other. Their signature sound, led by Bennet Cerven's virtuosic violin melodies, combined with Florian Eisenschmidt’s dynamic guitar rhythms and Julian Lardis’ powerful percussion, creates a truly immersive live experience. Having played at some of the world’s most iconic festivals—including Glastonbury, Boomtown, and Fusion Festival—their performances are not to be missed.
TICKETS for Thursday July 3RD Negative Space Cleveland OH:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-trouble-notes-at-negative-space-cleveland-tickets-1286009261319
The Trouble Note's Info
https://thetroublenotes.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheTroubleNotes/
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Interview with John Leon of The Royal Arctic Institute. John returns for the third time to talk about The Royal Arctic Institute's new self titled album.
The Royal Arctic Institute is a cinematic instrumental post-jazz group from New York City. They have been recording and releasing records since 2017. Since forming in 2016, the band has been a revolving door of different musicians comprising several different lineups. The current lineup is composed of drummer Lyle Hysen (Das Damen, Arthur Lee), guitarists John Leon (Roky Erickson, Summer Wardrobe, Abra Moore) and Chris Robertson (Elk City, James Mastro), and bassist David Motamed (Das Damen, Two Dollar Guitar, Arthur Lee, Townes Van Zandt). The band name is a reference to the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. All four members of the Royal Arctic Institute have spent decades playing in various ensembles, working as studio musicians, backing musicians, and touring musicians.This self-titled fourth full-length recording from The Royal Arctic Institute is the first to include guitarist Chris Robertson. According to the band, Robertson is a crucial addition to the group, as he provides an added dimension to The Royal Arctic Institute sound and creative process, particularly because this debuts the group as a two guitar quintet. The decision to present this new album as a self-titled record is tightly connected to the band’s excitement about their current musical direction.The new album also marks the first time The Royal Arctic Institute is working with Ray Ketchum of Magic Door Recording. Ketchum, often noted for his engineering and recording work on the last handful of Guided by Voices albums, helped steer the band towards an approach which allowed for a rich and fully developed sonic experience. Ketchum’s keen and well attuned ear in the studio made it possible for The Royal Arctic Institute to focus more on the nuances they had been developing on previous releases, something apparent on “Twigs Of Cries, Feathers Of Sobs.” As guitarist John Leon points out:
https://www.theroyalarctic.com/
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Missing episodes?
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Pete Francis founding member of Dispatch returns to Zig At The Gig.
Tickets for June 13th.
Pete Francis Tickets for June 13th Winchester Lakewood OH
Long Legged Fly C-Level and Pete Francis Pre- Save Link
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/clevel/long-legged-fly-feat-pete-francis
Pete Francis Heimbold grew up in Riverside, Connecticut, taking early influence from the reggae music of Bob Marley along with classic songwriters like Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell. While attending Middlebury College in Vermont, he connected with fellow musicians Chad Urmston and Brad Corrigan. The trio formed Dispatch, a rangy roots-inspired indie band who became a fixture of the East Coast club, festival, and jam circuits. Between 1996 and their 2002 hiatus, Dispatch released four studio albums and a live record, building a sizable audience through heavy touring and grassroots promotion. Francis stepped out in 2001 to make his solo debut with So They Say, an album that bore some resemblance to his work in Dispatch and contained several songs they had played live together. When the group officially announced their hiatus, he kicked into gear, issuing a prolific string of albums through his Dragon Crest imprint. In addition to solo releases like 2003's Untold and 2008's Iron Sea and the Cavalry, he also teamed up with Craig Dreyer for the 2006 joint album Everything is One. Meanwhile, Dispatch continued to gain new followers despite their hiatus and in 2007, they reunited for a charity concert at New York's Madison Square Garden. After a surprise sellout, two more dates were added, both of which also sold out. Francis then teamed up with fellow New Englanders Barefoot Truth for a 2009 EP, then issued his fifth solo album, The Movie We Are In, in 2010. In 2011, Dispatch officially reformed and resumed touring and recording. Although the band occupied much of his focus, Francis continued to record on his own, releasing 2013's Immodal Implozego and a 2015 compilation, Dragon Crest Collective, Vol. 1. In 2019, after three more studio albums with Dispatch, Francis left his longtime group and resumed his solo career in earnest. For a few years he focused on singles and EPs like Humble Down and Sun Fuzz, both of which were released in 2021. He also built his own home studio and began self-producing his music. With its vibrant electronic sounds and drum loops, 2023's PTRN SKY! marked a tonal shift for Francis and was his first home-recorded album. The following April he explored his reggae influences on the sunny EP Neon Light Blind.
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Interview with Steve Short of Brahctopus and formally of Stationary Pebbles.
June 13th Pete Francis of Dispatch with C-Level, and Brahctopus at The Winchester Lakewood OH.
Pete Francis Tickets
About Brahctopus.
Brahctopus is fronted by a ukulele-wielding vocalist with a passion for lyricism. Three unique guitarists and a keyboard wizard feed off one another for ripping solos and lifting harmonies while the bass and drums create rhythmic bliss.
The most recent release is an episodic concept album that coincides with the first volume of a graphic novel, the Proto Terrestrial Freedom Movement. Available on all streaming outlets!
www.brahctopus.com
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Interview with Ryan Fletterick of Songs For An Unknown God.
Songs For An Unknown God" is the musical project of Cleveland-based folk singer-songwriter Ryan Fletterick. He is known for his evocative storytelling and stripped-down acoustic style. Ryan's music is described as a blend of confession and meditation, with songs that aim for the soul rather than the charts. Wax Mage Vinyls https://waxmage.com/products/songs-for-an-unknown-god-100-miles
Tickets June 13th Pete Francis, C-Level, Songs for Unknown God, and Brahctopus
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/pete-francis-of-dispatch-the-winchester-tickets/14338833?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=lakewood-events&fbclid=IwY2xjawKQ0RpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFNaG4wSG5zekhoU0ZITDU0AR4XHNyU_5f4vhFHaTeu5Qk8HJQPBDFyyIfqAFcnVraB5aAeXzWkXRxhJrucQQ_aem_bhIXCC5WaldgghTt1pS25A
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Brooklyn-based goth-folk duo Charming Disaster’s upcoming album The Double—their seventh full-length release—explores the world that exists behind the one we know, featuring songs inspired by nature, mortality, magic, ritual, and literary genres ranging from science fiction to Victorian horror. The new album was co-produced by band members Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris with longtime collaborator, recording engineer Don Godwin. All but one of the ten tracks were recorded at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, MD, with one song recorded by circus music composer Peter Bufano in Boston, MA. The Double will be released on CD, as a 12-inch colored vinyl LP, and on all digital platforms on May 16, 2025. The vinyl will be released in a 2-disc package that also includes Charming Disaster’s 2024 compilation Time Ghost, a collection of singles released over the last decade.
The Double invites listeners to step across the border of an alternate reality, where spells are cast, time travel is possible, plants are taking over civilization, and vampires lurk in the shadows. Adventures in the darkness lie beyond the threshold.
The album’s ten songs include “Black Locust,” a lullaby about mortality; “New Moon,” a magical nature ritual; “Trick of the Light,” a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula; “Time Machine,” in which Charming Disaster change the past and start over again; “Scavengers,” a walk in the woods with vultures and bones; “Beautiful Night,” a defiant response to struggles with depression; “Vitriol,” a tribute to artist Thomas Little, who turns guns into ink; “Haunted Lighthouse,” a swashbuckling sea voyage; “Gang of Two,” a true crime adventure; and “Green Things,” a love letter to what grows between the cracks (and its inevitable takeover).
The album features an array of talented collaborators. Co-producer Don Godwin, who has worked on Charming Disaster’s entire discography, contributed bass, drums, and horns as well as engineering and mixing. “Haunted Lighthouse” features Broadway percussionist Mike Dobson along with circus composer Peter Bufano, who played piano and accordion and engineered the track at Cirkestra World Headquarters in Boston, MA (with additional tracking at Tonal Park). “Scavengers” features cello recorded by Kate Wakefield of the duo Lung, who also created the string arrangement for “Beautiful Night.” Stefan Zeniuk of Gato Logo contributed saxophone to “Green Things.”
In conjunction with The Double, Charming Disaster is releasing the second edition of their “oracle deck” (similar to a Tarot deck). The Charming Disaster Oracle Deck contains 72 cards (including 12 new cards for the second edition), each representing one of the songs from Charming Disaster’s discography. The cards feature illustrations commissioned from more than thirty different artists. The deck can be used as a divination tool, or as a visual accompaniment to Charming Disaster’s music. The duo themselves use these cards in their live performances to determine the set through the element of chance.
Charming Disaster was formed by Bisker and Morris in 2012, inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the American Folk tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret. Together the duo write songs that tell stories about myth, magic, and mortality, using two voices to explore dark narratives and characters with a playfully macabre sensibility.
On their critically acclaimed albums Love, Crime & Other Trouble (2015), Cautionary Tales (2017), and SPELLS + RITUALS (2019), Charming Disaster explored death, crime, folklore, and the occult. On Our Lady of Radium (2022), they turned their attention to science and explored the life and discoveries of pioneering scientist Marie Curie. On Super Natural History (2023), they united the natural world and the metaphysical realm in a musical cabinet of curiosities.
The duo put out two releases in 2024: Time Ghost, an album-length collection of songs released as singles between 2013 and 2024; and Dance Me to the End of Bela Lugosi’s Lovesong, an EP of covers paying tribute to a few of the band’s influences: Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love,” “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus, and The Cure’s “Lovesong.”
In Charming Disaster’s live shows, the duo combine vocal harmonies and clever lyrics with ukulele, guitar, and foot percussion, with a cabaret-influenced performance style that straddles the line between concert and theatre and has been described as “haunted vaudeville” (Splice Magazine).
Charming Disaster’s music has been featured on the spooky hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale. They have opened for legendary cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, Goth icon Voltaire, and Amanda Palmer’s punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. Their concerts have captivated audiences across the United States and in Europe. They have appeared alongside storytellers, comedians, fire eaters, puppets, burlesque artists, poets, and circus performers. Recent appearances have included Joe's Pub in NYC, Atlanta’s massive pop culture convention Dragon Con, Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery, the Rochester Fringe Festival, Philadelphia’s Science History Institute, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, Cleveland's WizbangCircus Theatre, and the Coney Island Sideshow stage, as well as sundry bars, art galleries, theatres, bookstores, libraries, train cars, mausoleums, and museums.
LINKS:
Website: www.charmingdisaster.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmingdisaster
Instagram: http://instagram.com/charmingdisasterband
YouTube: http://youtube.com/charmingdisasterband
Bandcamp: http://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/1RjkfhamohczSXjFy5WcZh
The Double preorder link: charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/the-double
Tickets : Charming Disaster at The Foundry Cleveland June 5th with Cowboy Princess Brigade
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/charming-disaster-cowboy-princess-brigade-the-foundry-tickets/14325923?utm_medium=affiliate&irgwc=1&clickid=yKYzFM2SwxycTOrRPc1Gt0d7UksRjjwhTXGA2E0&camefrom=CFC_BUYAT_219208&impradid=219208&REFERRAL_ID=tmfeedbuyat219208&wt.mc_id=aff_BUYAT_219208&utm_source=219208-Bandsintown&impradname=Bandsintown&ircid=4272
C-Level Pete Francis Tickets :
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/peter-francis-of-dispatch-the-winchester-tickets/14338833?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=lakewood-events
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Knox Chandler’s career has spanned for over four decades including long stints as a member of The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cyndi Lauper band, extraordinary experiences in recording and performing live around the world. Chandler’s also performed, recorded, arranged and produced, working with acts such as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos etc.
Knox spent a decade residing in Berlin, Germany, while he explored sound-scaping. He developed a technique he calls “Soundribbons, which he recorded and performed in its own right as well as applying it to different genres and mediums . He composed, recorded, toured, produced, and wrote string arrangements for Herbert Grönemeyer, Jesper Munk, Pure Reason Revolution, The Still, TAU, Miss Kenichi and the Sun, Mars William’s Albert Ayler Xmas, Rita Redshoes, Them There, The Night, etc. While living in Germany received a Post Graduate certification in education and was the head of the guitar department at BIMM College.
Chandler returned to the States to be near family and now resides in the New Haven Connecticut area.
The Sound is the solo debut of much-travelled musician / producer / arranger / painter Knox Chandler. This project is a musical / visual memoir depicting the shift in his surroundings from the urban to the rural, specifically the Connecticut shoreline off the Long Island Sound and the impact of this dramatic change of environment on his consciousness and the art-work that leads to.
At The Sound ‘s core is Chandler’s “Soundribbon” style of meditative, powerfully cinematic instrumental performance on guitar, accompanied by upright bass and percussion which comprises the audio component of the release. The visual portion is a book of paintings, photographs, sketches and written meditations, interpreting nature through technology. The blending of these mediums is Knox’s attempt to make the diaristic intent of his music explicit. The Sound is being released on Knox’s new label Blue Elastic on May 30. The album is available on digital download and on streaming platforms on its own, or the book comes with a download code.
https://knoxchandler.bandcamp.com/
https://knoxchandlermusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/knox.chandler.3/
https://www.instagram.com/knoxchandler/
C-Level Pete Francis Tickets :
https://www.ticketweb.com/event/peter-francis-of-dispatch-the-winchester-tickets/14338833?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=lakewood-events
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Toby Radloff is a former file clerk and actor who became a minor celebrity owing to his appearances in Cleveland writer Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comic book series American Splendor. Radloff has a distinctive manner of speech and quirky mannerisms.He is a self-proclaimed "Genuine Nerd".
Career Radloff met Pekar in 1980 when Radloff was hired at Cleveland's Veterans Administration Hospital, and shortly became a recurring character in American Splendor. Television profiles of Pekar at work at the VA Hospital, in which Radloff appeared, led to Radloff being featured as a "special correspondent" in a few short comedic pieces on MTV in the late 1980s about Cleveland and White Castle hamburgers (a particular favorite of Radloff's).Radloff was also a frequent guest on a local Cleveland cable access show, The Eddie Marshall Show. Radloff is a huge admirer of the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds, which he estimated in 2003 to have seen at least 25 times; his enthusiasm for the film was documented in the American Splendor comic (and in a number of scenes in the American Splendor film). Radloff's public persona as a "Genuine Nerd", cemented by his appearances on MTV, led to his starring roles as Harold Kunkle in the comedy horror film Killer Nerd (1991) and its sequel Bride of Killer Nerd (1992)
Toby's Info
toby.radloff
https://www.waynealanharold.com
C-Level Pete Francis Tickets June 13th Winchester Lakewood OH
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Interview with Joe Adducci of Souled American.
April 19th Souled American at Negative Space Cleveland OH
Tickets
"There are cult bands and then there's Souled American. In 1988, the Illinois group arguably invented "alternative country" with the album Fe. While the alt-country sound is widely recognized as Southern roots rock with an indie-punk sensibility — largely defined by Uncle Tupelo's No Depression released two years later — Souled American's early music feels as if it was formed in a vacuum, inspired by the time-stretching space of reggae. But over the course of the following decade, Souled American's music grew increasingly slow, insular and esoteric. Although Fe, Flubber and Around the Horn are inarguably more accessible, upbeat and even sometimes fun, if you've never heard this music before, it actually makes sense to start at the end." NPR MUSIC.
Souled American Info:
https://www.souledamerican.net/
C-Level Pete Francis June 13th Winchester Lakewood OH
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On And On is the 3rd studio album from the post-genre power trio mssv featuring the legendaryrhythm team of drummer Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, David Lynch) and bassistmike watt (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, Stooges) alongside the unique and iconoclastic guitar ofits genre-bending bandleader, Mike Baggetta. On And On features brand new songs that werewritten by Baggetta before their 58-show 2023 US tour and performed every night, recorded andproduced by Chris Schlarb at BIG EGO Studio in Long Beach, CA immediately after. The albumcomes out on BIG EGO Records on 12” LP vinyl, digital download and streaming services onFriday, March 7, 2025 and features artwork by John Herndon (Tortoise). Featured in the works on this album is a band-improvised song and, on the vinyl issue only, sixmore band-improvised interludes. These improvised, then recomposed, instrumentals had theirparts recorded separately by each member, then edited down, recombined and recomposed byBaggetta’. They serve as an important connective tissue between the songs on each side,turning On And On into an exciting and trippy psychedelic fever dream of a concept album. Thisserves to really bring out the story of On And On: at its heart it is an album where all the workscombine to create an endless episodic journey through the temporal and seemingly fleetingnature of society, personality, music, and life and death on Earth, only to realize that all of theseare also endlessly repeating.Seven of the eight new songs feature vocals from Baggetta, now much more comfortable in hisvocal role from the previous mssv album Human Reaction. The wordcraft heard here in On AndOn goes a lot deeper than his previous lyric writing, while still remaining wholly individual in itsexploratory playfulness. The subject matter here, while being universally relatable, is rife withpersonal references, stories of his and the band’s friends and relationships, and onesong “Despair & Hilarity” including lyrics written by one of Baggetta’s most important musicalcollaborators Steve Gigante (7 Year Rabbit Cycle, W-S Burn, THETEETHE). Continuing to explore the seemingly endless depths of Hodges’ and watt’s musicianship and skillover the many tours and albums in mssv has grown an instantly identifiable sound fromBaggetta’s songwriting for this band. But the trust that has formed between them, that comesfrom long-running musical partnerships, has also made it possible for mssv to explore moreinteresting ways to incorporate improvised music into the lives of their songs, innovating theirmusic in new ways while still keeping the fearless nature of each musician and this band fullyintact. On And On skillfully combines all of these elements into a newly evolved lens for themusic of mssv, deftly displayed in this album as a high concept love letter to everyday life.
April 13th mssv Beachland Cleveland OH Tickets https://www.beachlandballroom.com/e/14076233/mssv-well/
mikebaggetta.com
https://mainsteamstopvalve.com/
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MikelParis™ (pronounced MichaelParis” – one word, initial caps) is a multifaceted artist whoperforms as keyboardist, percussionist and backup singer for the celebrated American rock bandO.A.R. for nearly two decades. He is also the producer and host of “TuneTrek” and “MusicDrink Stories,” docu-series that follow MP across the U.S. unearthing music gems in history’shidden corners; from the echoing halls of haunted country inns to the majestic ambience ofcastles and museums.https://www.mikelparis.com
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Interview with: James Cook of Captain's Audio Project
New release by Portland Oregon songwriter James Cook. This collection of finely crafted tracks is titled “Waiting For The Moon”, and will be available on vinyl, CD, and digitally online. Release date is February 21st, 2025.
The original concept for the recording was to be basic and raw, recorded live with tenor guitar and vocals. With decades of experience playing vintage jazz and swing on the upright bass, James’ sense of timing made it all to easy to embellish and round out the recording with other great musicians. First, James added the warm and sultry anchor notes on his 100 year old upright bass.
James's Info:
trashcan.joe.5
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Interview with Steve Traina about his new book La Cave.
Steve took time off from childhood activities just long enough to start and run a small business, help raise six kids, and perform various other adult activities. It was just a phase. In his spare time he also managed craft a 30-plus year career as a minor league and college D1 umpire, and fit in an ongoing 22 years as the on-air host of the music history show Steve’s Folk Radio Show on WRUW-FM 91.1 in Cleveland. Now that he can form a baseball team with his nine grandchildren, he realized the foolishness of it all and, between grandfatherly duties, reverted to his childhood dream of sitting around reading and writing. In these pursuits he is guided by his ever-vigilant editor Ethel the Very Large Cat.
About the La Cave Book :
In a dingy basement music club in inner-city Cleveland, something incredible happened, and kept happening throughout the ‘60s. Except it didn’t just “happen.” It was created by a slightly-built visionary named Stanley Kain, and he named this happening “La Cave.”
Stan’s vision was the future and its language was written in musical notation, fueled by post-adolescent angst amidst a backdrop of the military draft, war, race riots, and social upheaval in general. For a buck, maybe two, suburban kids, college students and other young adults could absorb the wisdom of their elders – future musical Hall of Famers, still unknown, perched behind guitars, mere feet away on a tiny stage, dispensing that wisdom with a 4/4 beat.
Performers like The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Moby Grape, The Fugs and countless others were the professors of this new ideology. Mix in political drama, street theater, psychedelic drugs and cheap beer, and you have a microcosm of 1960s America. You have La Cave. History was made nightly, and was it ever fun!
https://www.lacavebook.com/
Steve's info
steve-traina
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Nikki O’Neill, an R&B/Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Chicago, is releasingher third solo album, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It’s being issued on Blackbird Record Labelon March 14, 2025 on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.
This interweaving of Soul, Americana, Rock, Gospel and Blues is an integral part of O’Neill’ssound, and likely due to her upbringing. “I was born in L.A., but grew up mostly in Stockholm,Sweden with a Russian grandmother and Polish mother,” she says. “Both of them, and also myfather, grew up with war and had a history of constantly moving from one country and oneapartment to another. My mom was young when she had me, and music seemed to be hersource of joy. She loved listening to all kinds of artists, from Al Green to Santana, DinahWashington, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, and the Traveling Wilbury’s. I soaked it all up like asponge. I started making up songs when I was twelve, and first picked up a guitar when I was16. I loved going to record stores, and when Prince’s Purple Rain album came out, I bought itimmediately and listened to it religiously. Then a friend and drummer in my first bandintroduced me to Sly Stone. The way Prince and Sly fused soul and rock, and were leaders ofmulti-racial bands with male and female musicians was tremendously influential.”O’Neill moved from Stockholm to New York City where she mostly played guitar in other bands.She relocated to Los Angeles after meeting Rich Lackowski at a music trade show. O’Neillbecame a solo artist, and the couple (now married) eventually became members of L.A.’s small,but supportive Americana artist community. After self-releasing her 2017 solo EP, Love WillLead You Home (with songs co-written by lyricist Paul Menser), she regularly performed aroundL.A. with Lackowski in their 4-piece band, and was signed to Blackbird Record Label in August,2020. In October that same year, she released World is Waiting, her second solo album andlabel debut. With touring opportunities erased by the pandemic and California becomingunaffordable, they packed up their instruments into her little red Honda Fit and drove toLackowski’s hometown of Chicago. “It took me a while to get rooted in Chicago, meet musiciansand start writing again, but I also didn’t want my songs to sound like leftovers from the lastalbum,” O’Neill says. “I wanted to find out how Chicago would inspire me.”Stories I Only Tell My Friends is eloquent testimony to the inspiration she found.
Nikki's Info :
https://nikkioneill.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FA6InY3pide4vE_YFEmYw/featured?view_as=public
http://www.instagram.com/nikkioneillguitar
http://www.facebook.com/nikkioneillmusic
https://nikkioneill.bandcamp.com
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/nikki-oneill/274063501
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AJzwE3ASiLk4z10P3245T?si=KJZg1M00TA-DdVhRCXcr-gSiLk4z10P3245T
https://www.bandsintown.com/a/7592729
https://bsky.app/profile/nikkioneill.bsky.social
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Interview with Kevin Shields Of Detention.
Detention was one of the first and best bands of the ‘80s New Jersey hardcore punk explosion. Their wonderfully tasteless “Dead Rock ’n Rollers” single became the college radio cult classic of 1983. The song’s 97 seconds of primal Ramones-style speed-punk mocked the demise of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious, John Belushi, and John Bonham — who “played the drug game and couldn’t maintain.” They even foretold the drug-related heart attack of Jim Carroll, famous for “All The People Who Died,” screaming, “What are you waiting for? Do it!” Saving the best for last, “Dead Rock ’n Rollers” raised the obvious question: “Why couldn’t it be Barry Manilow?” The Detention story goes back to Central Jersey, to the Shields family home in Hillsborough Township, about 20 minutes from the “culture capital” of New Brunswick. Kevin Shields, the fourth of five sons, grew up listening to his older brothers’ sophisticated record collection of hippie music that ranged from Blue Cheer to King Crimson. Kevin recalls: “Early on, I knew that rock ‘n roll was something special. I was fascinated.” “I enlisted in the Coast Guard when I was 17. I was out on my own. I was always a music guy and realized music was getting stale with Genesis and whatnot. I read all the magazines, and the ads in the back, so I sent money to these labels, and came home with albums like Never Mind the Bollocks and Rocket to Russia, and singles by the Slickee Boys and MX-80 Sound. But the coup d’grace was when we stationed in Alameda and I went wild in San Francisco. I went to the Mabuhay Gardens like three nights a week, seeing all the legendary West Coast bands: DKs, DOA, Black Flag. I got thrashed on the education of seeing live bands.” When Kevin returned home in 1981, he was inspired to make music. “Detention came about because I decided to be a player not a spectator,” he explains. “The easiest way was to recruit my family, so I turned to my brothers. I bought a bass, but I didn’t know how to play it. My brother Paul suggested I get in touch with this guitarist Rodney Matejek. He showed me how to play simply, and within months we started coming up with riffs, and what would become songs came very quickly.” The band — Kevin, Rodney, frontman Paul Shields, and drummer Daniel Shields — played their first show at Raritan Manor on the Somerville Circle, hosted by a young Matt Pinfield in his first radio DJ gig at WRSU (Rutgers). It was a noisy and chaotic affair, with people rolling on the floor — until police arrived and stopped the mayhem. “We were given 100 bucks, and we promised never to play there again,” Kevin says with a grin. Kevin offers some backstory: “Rob Roth, god bless his pointed head, he had a vision. He got us into the studio in Roselle Park, and he paid for it. All we had to do was get good recordings of the two songs, including the B-side “El Salvador.” It came out great. My brother Paul certainly had the lungs for the job! Those 500 copies got us gigs and got us a lot of notice.” In 1985, Detention released a self-produced self-titled album before disbanding.
Kevin's Info
https://www.leftfordeadrecords.com
dead-rock-n-rollers
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Interview with Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto ! Part 4
hackedepicciotto are Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto. Both are legends of their own making: Danielle de Picciotto moved to Berlin in 1987, to become the lead singer of the band „Space Cowboys“, the co-initiator of the Love Parade, a collaborator of the Ocean Club with Gudrun Gut, and Alexander’s partner in crime. Alexander Hacke is founding member and bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten. The artist couple, romantically married in 2006, has creatively interacted with countless international projects for almost 2 decades now besides regularly releasing their own compositions. Their live shows are, to put it mildly, intense. Danielle specializes in unusual instruments such as the Hurdy Gurdy, the auto harp and the cemence besides playing the violin and piano; Alexander is master of the bass, guitar and drums. Together they create beautiful, existentialistic, acoustic soundscapes, which roar and vibrate simultaneously leaving their audiences shaken but overjoyed. Danielle, author of two books, writes most of their lyrics, be it the poetic spoken word moments or the momentous choirs they compose together. Alexander Hacke, an excellent throat singer and vocalist, growls his grnarly, rumbling cries that float eerily over their nomadic desert drones, with screeching birds, bees or wild wind accompanying slow, heavy riffs that start as a whisper and end in a volcanic, rolling wave of apocalyptic frenzy. The collage of this mixed with melancholic, translucent harmonies, very heavy & low bass chords, and electronics are a mesmerizing universe of sound and emotion which has generated an ever growing group of enthusiastic listeners. The Best of hackedepicciotto (Live in Napoli) showcases live interpretations of music from across their career. The album includes reinterpretations of tracks from all of their studio albums: Keepsakes (2023), a tender exploration of friendship and loss, The Silver Threshold (2021), their defiant reaction to the pandemic, Perseverantia (2016), which dealt with the artists nomadic lifestyle, Menetekel (2017), which embodies their collective despair at the state of the world, and powerful energy of The Current (2020), recorded by the Irish Sea.
Hackedepicciotto's Info
https://www.hackedepicciotto.de/
Hear The Current here https://hackedepicciotto.bandcamp.com/
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Interview with Karen and Don Peris of Innocence Mission.
The first studio album from the innocence mission in four years, Midwinter Swimmers soundsimmediately like an old friend. At the same time, it’s a new kind of adventure for the belovedPennsylvania band of high school friends Karen Peris, Don Peris, and Mike Bitts, having both anexpansive, cinematic quality and the strange, lo-fi beauty of a newly discovered vintage folk/popalbum, brimming with melody. Midwinter Swimmers is being released November 29 by ThereseRecords in North America, Bella Union in the U.K. and PVine in Japan.“It’s like it was recorded at Western Electric in the 60’s, and makes me think of Vashti Bunyanor Sibylle Baier, but also has these emotional bursts of orchestration and drums and harmonycoming in - the sound of the innocence mission never stops getting richer”, writes one earlylistener and friend. Lead single and album opening song ‘This Thread Is a Green Street’ is a perfect entrance into the innocence mission’s sound and sensibility. Karen Peris describes it as “a sort of envisioning thelandscape as a world of doorways, that might allow us to locate memory or to be nearer in some way to people we miss. And the transportive quality of scenes we might come upon in the natural world, or even in everyday objects- a sewing thread when I’m mending something could remind me of a street map. One of the things about recording it was, how to find this feeling inside the sound, and how to find the half-remembered beauty of sing-alongs of our 1970’s childhoods. There’s a search in recording that goes on being elusive, in a good way.”‘This Thread...’ is the first of a trio of songs on the new album (the second being the title song)about missing a loved one who is away, and of how love can transcend distance, Karen says.Piano melodies and high electric with strummed nylon string guitars make a glimmerysoundtrack for ‘Midwinter Swimmers’, a happy-sad song of hopefulness about seeing an absentloved one soon. It takes place during an instant when swimmers seen at a distance through tears are refracted and appear as something beautiful and moving. Something of this feeling is echoed in the recording, made with a spontaneity and a sense of trying to capture a single moment andhold it up to the light.This attentiveness to small detail typifies the way the innocence mission’s songs look closely ateveryday moments as miraculous worlds of their own. Karen’s words stand on their own aspoetry, with a particular sense of place and color, of the visual, that communicate universalexperiences of change and loss, and of love, hope, and gratitude.
Walking is a recurrent happening in Peris’ songs, as she finds herself taking walks on most daysof the year, and looking up into trees, which continue to be another feature of her lyrics. In oneverse of closing song ‘A Different Day’, she relates a favorite sycamore tree to an imaginaryappaloosa horse that she might ride to visit a friend, underlining her hope that she could be made into a stronger, more courageous person who is without anxiety.This same hope of personal transformation is present in ‘Orange of the Westering Sun’, whichrecalls being in California to record the innocence mission’s first two albums. “This was at JoniMitchell’s house, and the air always smelled like lilies so it became Easter-like, which may havebeen one of the reasons that there was the feeling of being at the start of something”, Karen
remembers. (In a full-circle experience, Karen, whose first favorite song at five years old was‘Both Sides Now’ was invited by Joni to sing on her album Night Ride Home, an honor shetreasures.)On the opposite US coast, a favorite place visited by the Peris family called Two Lights in CapeElizabeth is the setting of the dynamic and ambient ‘The Camera Divides the Coast of Maine’.Karen explains the song is “thinking about the nature of place in regard to time - when we thinkof going back, is it as if to visit an earlier time in our lives? I often think of the Ivan Lalic poemthat says something like: Is this a street or years?”Here, and throughout the album, there is a palpable emotion inherent in Karen’s voice, and in thedistinctive combination of Don’s luminous, high electric guitar lines with Karen’s low (baritoneand nylon string), rhythmic guitar and piano playing. Their longtime friend Mike Bitts adds afurther dimension of upright and electric bass. ‘There is a companionship about Karen’s voice,’Don Peris says, ‘and a realistic joy and gratitude, in the midst of life’s difficulties, that she isexpressing here on songs like ‘Sisters and Brothers’. I feel bolstered and comforted by them’.
Innocence Mission Info
theinnocencemission.com
www.facebook.com/innocence-mission-111422858887453/timeline/https://www.instagram.com/theinnocencemission/
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Interview with Ollee Owens.
Canadian soul/blues powerhouse singer Ollee Owens announces the release of her new album, Nowhere to Hide, on October 25th through her Ollee Owens Music label imprint. The first single from Nowhere to Hide, “Some Days,” was released on August 30. Produced by Bobby Blazier, the music on Nowhere to Hide is also graced by the presence of Muscle Shoals all-star guitarist Will McFarlane on eight of the album’s eleven tracks. “The writing of ‘Some Days’ came out of a desire to acknowledge the ups and downs of our day-to-day experiences and at the same time call out the resilience of the human spirit no matter what we come up against,” Owens says. “Sonically, we imagined it as a blues-infused song that leaves the listener feeling happy. It was recorded in Nashville with some of the best session musicians in Music City: Chris Rodriguez, Craig Young, Bobby Blazier, and DeMarco Johnson. The energy in the room that day was palpable as the song began to take shape, capturing exactly what I heard in my head when we wrote the song, resulting in a soulful and hope-filled anthem.” After returning to music a decade ago and releasing 2022's Cannot Be Unheard, the Calgary-based blues/rock singer is better than ever with her latest dazzling, down-to-earth studio album Nowhere to Hide. It's one teeming with stylish, sophisticated jewels mined from blues, rock, and soul. Nowhere to Hide features eight co-writing credits by Owens and a few covers, including Bob Dylan's "Lord Protect My Child." Whether it's Owens' confident delivery fueling the driving title track, the infectious "Some Days," or the deliciously well-crafted "Shivers and Butterflies," Owens is as dynamic as the eleven-track album is flawless. "I learned so much," Owens says of the creative process, "especially, vocally, as there was real opportunity to dig deeper and embody the lyrics." Nowhere to Hide, recorded at Nashville's Sweetbriar Studio and Gnome Studios, shines with help from a who's who of acclaimed Nashville session musicians Blazier brought to the album. "Bobby has an incredible ability to bring people together," Owens says of Blazier. "We all got in the studio together, gave it everything we got, and made some great music." That great music derives from Owens' backstory in the farming community of New Bothwell, Manitoba. As a teen, she gravitated toward Dylan, Delta Blues, The Staple Singers, and Etta James. "When I came back to creating music, I really realized the depth and influence that particular style of music had on me," Owens says of her early listening habits. Owens and her husband started their family early and had three daughters, one of whom has a cognitive disability. After some soul-searching, and realizing her daughter had exceptional needs, she took a hiatus from music. "I focused on being present and engaged for my daughters," she says. As a result, "Lord Protect My Child" strikes an emotional chord as Owens pours her soul into it. "That song has really become close to my heart," she says. "My daughter is twenty-three now, but there's still a lot of vulnerability there. The desire for protecting and taking care of her will never go away." Owens will be playing a Canadian concert in October celebrating the release of Nowhere to Hide and has plans for further touring in the spring. She's also performed at the Roots Blues and BBQ Festival in Drumheller, Alberta, and Calgary's National Music Centre, among several other venues. Now with Nowhere to Hide, Owens will have a larger fan base thanks to an amazing album you would be wise to experience wherever you get your music.
Ollee's Info
/https://olleeowens.com/
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Robert Kidney of The Numbers Band 15-60-75 : Part 2 on Zig At The Gig.
Robert Kidney founding member, singer songwriter, composer, and guitarist for the Number band. The Numbers Band (a.k.a. 15-60-75) are an American blues rock[1] and experimental rock band formed in Kent, Ohio, United States in 1969. They are part of the 'Akron Sound' that sprang forth from their home state. The original personnel were Robert Kidney (guitar, lead vocals), the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde's brother Terry Hynde (saxophone), Hank Smith (guitar, keyboards), Greg Colbert (bass) and Tim Hudson (drums). Chris Butler, from Tin Huey and The Waitresses, also played in the band for a stint as a bassist. They premiered as a live act at the local nightspot The Kove in July 1970. Later, they incorporated jazzy influences as well and they have stuck with their sound ever since. By 1972, Gerald Casale, future co-founder of Devo (bass), and David Robinson were added to the lineup. Casale was thrown out after wearing a monkey mask onstage. Due to interior pressures, Kidney terminated the project by year's end and joined his brother Jack's band, King of Hearts. However, King of Hearts reformed as a new Numbers Band a few weeks later with a retooled lineup that consisted of the Kidney brothers, Hynde, Drake Gleason (bass) and Jay Brown (drums). After two years of playing gigs, Brown left the band and Robinson came back. Michael Stacey (guitar), was added prior to the cutting of their 1976 live album Jimmy Bell's Still in Town. The following year, Gleason was replaced by Bart Johnson (bass).
The Numbers Band, like most of the other Ohioans, never became renowned nationally and were not signed by the major labels. ENDURE: Outliers on Water Street out now! https://www.numbersband.com/shop
Robert's info https://www.numbersband.com/
http://www.robertkidney.com/
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Interview with Maura Pond of Luna Honey
Luna Honey was originally formed in 2017 in Washington, DC by Maura Pond and Levi Flack who had informally begun playing together in Flack’s basement and set a goal to write an album’s worth of music. The pair met Benjamin Schurr (Ruah, Br’er, Nyxy Nyx), founder of BLIGHT.records, when his band Br’er opened a show for Arto Lindsay at the Black Cat and he soon after agreed to record and produce them. When they’d finished recording their debut album, Peace Will Grind You Down, Ben insisted that the pair begin performing live, agreed to fill in temporarily, then became a permanent member along with baritone sax player Madeline Billhimer. The four-piece line-up recorded Peace Lives, a live recording of songs mostly from their first album. Billhimer left the band during the recording of their next full-length album, Ballast. Schurr, who was born in Philadelphia, moved back to his home city in 2019 with Flack following shortly after. Christmas Eve of 2019, Pond’s aunt shared she had months to live and asked her to write her some music to help accept her transition, asking that it could be released after her death. Still living in DC, Pond recruited Ben to come down to her house in Anacostia and record an intense week of highly improvised sessions. The two worked around the clock on what would become the fourth album Luna Honey, Branches. After the pandemic hit in 2020, Pond moved back to her hometown of Richmond, VA to be closer to her parents and Schurr followed. All three band members commuted back and forth between Richmond and Philadelphia continuing to write songs. Parables was written during the period of geographic separation across DC, Philadelphia, and Richmond. Three months after moving to Richmond, Pond’s mother passed after an over a decade long fight with cancer. In the wake of her mother’s passing, Pond had found comfort in the solo work of longtime Swans guitarist Norman Westberg and ended up striking up a long-distance collaboration. Aftermath resulted, a meditation on grief and what is left behind. In 2022, Pond and Schurr moved to Philadelphia, finally reuniting the band within the same city. Re-energized after living through the difficulties during COVID and the past several years, the three began recording a new crop of songs that would make up the majority of Bound, with the goal of capturing the raw, powerful energy of their live shows. Luna Honey’s art emerges from the creative tension between the death of the ego and the exploration of the subconscious with the pragmatism and discipline of punching the clock and getting the work done.
http://www.lunahoney.com
http://facebook.com/lunahoneymusic
http://www.instagram.com/lunahoneymusic
linktr.ee/lunahoneymusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3kz45E0sd0kFgZIfQNwm2F
https://lunahoney.bandcamp.com/album/bound
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