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Ep. #170: Andy Gill of Gang of Four

Andy Gill is a legendary musician, songwriter, and producer who lives in the United Kingdom. Towards the end of the 1970s, Gill co-founded the remarkable post-punk band Gang of Four whose jagged, dance-able, politically outspoken songs influenced one million musicians and earned them a loyal fanbase. Though the band has gone through many members over the past 30 years, Gill has been a constant and, as the only original member, he spearheaded the latest album by Gang of Four. The record is called What Happens Next, it’s out now via Metropolis Records, and the band is on tour now, including a stop at Lee’s Palace in Toronto on March 9. Here, Gill and I discuss his home studio in London, a mandatory mention of the Jesus Lizard on this show, how there’s a bit of Blue on What Happens Next, clear sounds, the song “Obey the Ghost” and the lyric “we’re Facebook friends with celebrities,” collecting each other, electronic or industrial ambient musical tones on this record, James Brown and the Velvet Underground, having no desire to replicate Entertainment! or anything else from the past, when Jon King quit and almost dissolving Gang of Four, the song “First World Citizen” is actually 30 years old, z, a dancing parrot, a one-legged dog that barks at carrots, having multiple singers, King will not return, the song “First World Citizen,” and then we’re in the ether.

Related links: gangoffour.co.uk vishkhanna.com

GO4 - Photo Credit Leo Cackett

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News Podcast

Ep. #169: Matt Braunger

Matt Braunger is a gifted stand-up comedian and performer who spent a good chunk of his life living in Portland, Oregon but now calls Los Angeles home. He was a cast member on MADtv during that show’s final season, he has starred in Comedy Central stand-up specials and acted on sitcoms, and he has appeared on almost every high-profile late night talk show in America. His new stand-up special is the hilarious Big Dumb Animal, which is out now via the imprint Comedy Dynamics, and here we discuss Atwater Village in Los Angeles, opening himself up in his stand-up lately, feeling sporty at forty, not the lonely guy, working with other people on stuff can be good, unsolicited punch-up, why the general public thinks comedy is easy, Class Clown by George Carlin, old Portland and Portlandia Portland, slightly Marxist good restaurants, doing The Late Show with David Letterman, taking breaks, keeping up with comedy platforms and cultural consumption, making stuff, spec scripts and writing packets, living in the U.S.A., apolitical humour, plans and schemes, stand-up vinyl, playing the Comedy Mix in Vancouver March 5-7, the bit “Killing It!” and that was our time.

Related links: mattbraunger.com vishkhanna.com

matt_braunger

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Ep. #168: Dan Boeckner of Operators

Dan Boeckner is a multi-talented musician and singer who originally hails from British Columbia. After forming a short-lived band called Atlas Strategic on the west coast, Boeckner eventually moved to Montreal where he co-founded the esteemed and popular bands, Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, both of which garnered loyal audiences before ceasing to exist. Boeckner subsequently lived in California for a spell and formed Divine Fits with members of Spoon and New Bomb Turks, garnering strong reviews for their 2012 debut album, A Thing Called Divine Fits. His current focus is an excellent, electronic-based rock band called Operators, who have released EP1 and a single called “Ecstasy in My House” in recent months. Both records are available now via Last Gang, Operators have been touring across North America and here, Dan and I discuss finding a place in Montreal and BBQ, Sam Brown the drummer, landlords and landladies and musicians, switching from audio to video, being a loner and starting a buncha new bands/relationships, obsessing over Eastern Europe, living in an atomic strike zone during the Cold War, Bulgaria and Russia, the Serbian punk band Malfunction, NoMeansNo, Unwound, Nation of Ulysses, playing for the New Pornographers’ audience, re-establishing your artistic self in a whole new band, how people don’t always care about music made by the same people in a band they love, making new fans, analog and electro music, getting into Sonic Youth as a kid, name dropping good bands, M Blanket, Frankie Sparo, Witchies, Dan’s early band Say Uncle, contemplating the 1990s, recording upwards of 15 Operators songs at Hotel2Tango last year, duking it out on the road, hooks, loud louder loudest and pop songs, “Eye in the Sky” and other weirdly dark, minor key songs, what’s going on with Wolf Parade, the not-as-fast-as-it-seemed ascent of Wolf Parade, turning down The Late Show with David Letterman three times, Divine Fits will be back, the song “Start Again,” and that was it.

Related links: operatorsmusic.com lastgangentertainment.com vishkhanna.com

Dan Boeckner

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