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Ep. #120: Steve Albini

Steve Albini is a world-renowned recording engineer and the owner and one operator of the stellar Electrical Audio recording facility in Chicago, Illinois. He is also one of three singers and one of one electric guitarists in Shellac, one of the most significant and influential underground rock bands of the past 25 years. On September 16, Touch and Go Records will release Dude Incredible, the fifth official album by Shellac. Here, Steve and I chat about a cool Chicago July and the Polar Vortex revival, his recent interview with High Times who care a lot about drugs, how smoking weed is a young man’s game, how certain things should be experienced by all of us who wish to relate to everyone else, the last time he tripped balls, rolling fatties, Kevin Goldstein and getting the royal treatment at a recent White Sox/Astros game in Chicago, meeting Steve Sparks and talking about knuckleballers, living in Houston, being on-field for batting practice, the Cubs are really embarrassing statistically and otherwise, Wrigley Field is cool but Sox games are more fun, the Steve Bartman incident, baseball and curses, National League versus American League baseball, when he first fell in love with baseball as a kid, the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s, why baseball might be the most appealing, compelling, and distinctive major team sport, pulling the goalie, participating in events like the World Series of Poker, welcome back Gabe Kaplan, why poker can be so engaging, oddly complex games like baduci, winning, tells in poker versus the dramatic arts, interpreting behaviour, reverse psychology, and pantomime, the honesty of Jamie Gold, streakiness, the significance of the Ramones, laughing at the Clash, the Jesus Lizard’s BOOK, David Yow and cats that demand respect, Gary the cat, making At Action Park 20 years ago, taking time with Shellac, the Shellac albums don’t need to be remastered, why Shellac haven’t released singles in a while, contemplating a Shellac singles compilation album, a one word encapsulation of every song on Dude Incredible with a slight elaboration on that one word, the Evens, his upcoming Pop Montreal speaking engagement, recording symposium with Howard Bilerman, and a cooking exhibition, making a record in Winnipeg this fall, and that’s the end of radio/podcasting.

Related links: touchandgorecords.com electricalaudio.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #92: The Jesus Lizard Week with David Wm. Sims

The Jesus Lizard Week celebrating the release of Akashic Books’ BOOK concludes with the band’s ace bassist and principal archivist David Wm. Sims. Here, David and I discuss how BOOK was Johnny Temple of Akashic Books’ idea, how the two Davids in the band spent the most time among members making this book with Henry Owings, Sims’ compulsive penchant for archiving things, being an anti-hoarder, how much he learned about his bandmates via the process of writing this book, Mac McNeilly’s obsession with pranks as a kid, how he and guitarist Duane Denison love hearing technical details from musicians about their work and tried returning the favour in BOOK, his emphasis that he just wanted the book to be cool but has some regrets about stuff that didn’t make the final cut, how he has no idea what the band’s legacy is, how their major label situation had less to do with the band’s demise than another thing, band chemistry, the coincidental nature of dramatic shifts in the band’s history, his relationship with Steve Albini and Steve’s piece in BOOK, Rapeman, David Yow being silly, his doubts about BOOK being the final chapter in the history of the Jesus Lizard, whether or not he misses the band, future releases by the Jesus Lizard, his current musical and vocational interests, and then The Jesus Lizard Week becomes the week that was.

Related links: akashicbooks.com/catalog/the-jesus-lizard-book/ vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #91: The Jesus Lizard Week with Duane Denison

The Jesus Lizard Week celebrating the release of Akashic Books’ BOOK continues with graceful, eclectic, and powerful guitarist Duane Denison. Here, Duane and I chat about where BOOK came from and why he hoped they could do better than an average rock band bio, how he’d written a lot about the band’s history already when the Jesus Lizard’s catalogue was reissued in 2009 and wanted to ensure he avoided repeating himself, how Duane’s role in creating the book eventually declined due to his touring schedule with Tomahawk, how I’m the only one who seems even vaguely interested in the odd chronological structure of the book, whether he discovered anything about his bandmates via BOOK, how David Yow and Mac McNeilly never married each other, his interest in informing and possibly educating other musicians and talking about the work, how the Jesus Lizard’s audience was very smart but rowdy as hell, the fact that indie or underground music now is more pop-oriented and metal fans are gravitating towards the Jesus Lizard, the backlash after the band left Touch and Go Records for Capitol Records, how the band fought for everything it had and was legitimate, the laughable amount of money the band received and were vilified as sell-outs for, why Steve Albini is given moral high ground when it comes to underground integrity even though he worked with major labels on a regular basis, how Duane is sick of talking about certain things and would like to get going actually, what a ‘re-enactment’ tour really is, what he sees as the future of the Jesus Lizard, the fact that I don’t know of a good album by Magazine, and then it’s all over.

Related links: akashicbooks.com/catalog/the-jesus-lizard-book/ vishkhanna.com

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