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Ep. #254: Scott Aukerman

Scott Aukerman is a very talented comedy writer, producer, director, and actor who’s currently based in California. Aukerman is a key figure behind the Earwolf and Howl podcast networks and he’s been a writer/performer on Mr. Show with Bob and David (and its recent Netflix reboot) and gets called in to craft jokes for special presentations like the MTV Movie Awards and the recent Academy Awards broadcast. He’s also the primary writer and director on Funny or Die’s wildly successful web series, Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. A multi-talented comedic force, Aukerman remains best known for hosting Comedy Bang! Bang!, whose tv show was spawned from the popular and influential podcast of the same name. Just past 400 episodes this month Aukerman, his crew, and frequent guests Paul F. Tompkins and Lauren Lapkus are hitting the road for live shows, including Toronto stops on May 5 and 6 at Convocation Hall and in Vancouver on May 26 at the Vogue Theatre. as the podcast celebrates its seventh anniversary. Here, Aukerman and I discuss the history of Comedy Bang! Bang! and how the podcast and comedy landscapes have changed since the show began, a key, early segment with Andy Daly, conducting serious interviews, how alternative comedy is mainstream, working very hard, surreal absurdity, David Letterman, the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV show versus the podcast, working with “Weird Al” Yankovic on the new season of the TV show, improvisation, the live show and audience interaction in different cities, his future plans, Take My Wife and Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and Seeso, and that was it.

Related links: earwolf.com/show/comedy-bang-bang vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #253: Several Futures

Several Futures is a post-punk band from Toronto consisting of Jonny Dovercourt, Matt Nish-Lapidus, and Evan Davies. Dovercourt is the driving force behind Toronto’s celebrated Wavelength concert series and he and Davies once played together in a band called Republic of Safety, who I rather liked a lot. Together with Nish-Lapidus, they’ve formed Several Futures who are playing Ottawa’s Gabba Hey on May 6, Montreal’s Brasserie Beaubien on May 7, Peterborough’s the Spill on May 13, and Toronto’s Double Double Land on May 26, all in support of their new album, Before You Forget, which is out now. I recently walked around Toronto with Several Futures and we discussed Jonny’s apartment in Toronto, roommates, the Trinity Bellwoods area of Toronto, park life, Bitondo’s Pizza, Fresca Pizza, shows at the Monarch Tavern, a cheese bag, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a walk and talk, post-punk dad jokes, PUNZ trading zone and BUNZ trading zone, curb alerts, a dog park, Coachella cultural mindset, the compression of time and temporal confusion, the internet, idea investment, the marketplace, interview safety, where Several Futures came from, Evan Davies shows up all of a sudden, This Mess and Hybrid Moments, Evan’s work in the realm of PR and marketing, Republic of Safety, Converge in a café, a dub workshop at the Hillside Festival, storming Bitondo’s, ordering, a post-punk diet, several futures, The Garden of Forking Paths by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, the state and future of the world, William Gibson’s visions, where Several Futures fits in Toronto, the city’s arts and cultural community, bands like Not of and Champion Lover and METZ, Track Could Bend by Joe Strutt, Feast in the East, Wavelength and the Toronto music scene, several future plans for Several Futures, the Quebec band Fet Nat is huge in Guelph, a new EP, Camp Wavelength, the Constellation Records band Sofa, Ought, the song “Lost Dreams 4: Further Out,” and then there was no future.

Related links: twitter.com/severalfutures vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #252: Bob Mehr on The Replacements

Bob Mehr is an award-winning music critic who currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee. He’s the chief music critic for The Commercial Appeal and has written for MOJO and the Chicago Reader among others and he has composed essays and liner notes for several album reissues, including the Grammy Award-winning Big Star box set, Keep An Eye on the Sky. His new book presents an illuminating and often harrowing look at one of the greatest American rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time. It’s called Trouble Boys – The True Story of The Replacements, it’s out now via Da Capo Press and here, Bob and I discuss the historical and contemporary music scene in Memphis, Sam Phillips and Sun Studios and Sam Phillips Recording Service, labels like Stax, Goldwax, and XL, Fat Possum and Style Wooten, Peter Guralnick and his recent book Sam Phillips – The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, the close-knit Memphis music community, reflecting on Trouble Boys now that it’s out, the first time he heard about the Replacements, their infamous Saturday Night Live appearance in January 1986, discovering Pleased to Meet Me and becoming a hardcore ‘Mats fan, getting to interview Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson and the band’s associates over the years, the real story behind the band’s SNL experience, how their indifference to success gave them power among unsettled music industry people, demystifying the legends and myths surrounding the Replacements, wondering why they behaved the way they did, the horror of Bob Stinson’s life, how Bob saved Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars and Paul Westerberg’s own respective family struggles, framing this book around Bob Stinson’s funeral and the role Bob played as the soul of the band, the first Replacements’ reunion, their strengths and weaknesses after Bob left the band, a clearer sense of Bob’s and the band’s mental health and substance abuse issues, heavy history, damaged American families, brotherhoods and lovable losers, myth and romance, good times and dark humour, dickishness and insularity and the Replacements against the world, the lyrical communication of pain, R.E.M., Peter Jesperson, literally burning up money with fire, Slim Dunlap snarls, the true and strange story of the making of the Don’t Tell a Soul LP, lost in the woods, ‘dodgeknife’ and scaring Metallica, Chris Mars moves on, bringing Bob to life, not necessarily an authorized biography, how Paul and Tommy might relate to their band’s reputation and legacy, what Trouble Boys contributes to the story of the band, the obstacles the Replacements overcame, how they won, the band’s first reconstitution show at Riot Fest in Toronto in 2013, the crowd’s unusual collective joy at those shows, whether or not the Replacements actually broke up for good on-stage in Portugal in 2015, his book tour plans, feedback and reception from readers and people involved in this story, approval from the Stinsons, a 3 AM call from Paul about the book, being a kind of intermediary between people who don’t always communicate with each other very well, learning a lot as he went along, what’s next, the song “Bastards of Young” from the album Tim, my four year old son’s deep passion for the Replacements, and then it was time for decisions to be made.

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Related links: replacementsbook.com thereplacementsofficial.com vishkhanna.com