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Ep. #299: Jay Ryan

Jay Ryan is a respected and prolific screenprint poster artist who is based in Chicago, Illinois. He has been making screenprinted concert posters for some of the world’s greatest bands and musicians and festivals for over 20 years and runs his own print shop called the Bird Machine. He has served as vice-president of the American Poster Institute and hailed as a cultural hero by Time Out Chicago. Akashic Books has just published No One Told Me Not to Do This, the third volume of Ryan’s work, annotating and compiling selected screenprints created between 2009 and 2015. I first obtained one of Ryan’s prints when I went to see Fugazi, Shellac, and Blonde Redhead play the Congress Theatre in Chicago on Friday May 8, 1998 and collected two more of his prints on subsequent trips to the city in 2001 and 2006. I’m a fan; we arranged to chat about his work a couple of weeks ago. Sponsored by the Bookshelf, Pizza Trokadero, and Planet Bean Coffee.

Related links: thebirdmachine.com vishkhanna.com

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News Podcast

Ep. #224: Ian MacKaye & Steve Albini (Part II)

Ian MacKaye is known for being in bands like Minor Threat, Embrace, Fugazi, and the Evens and he co-founded the Washington D.C. based label, Dischord Records. Steve Albini has sung and played guitar in bands like Big Black and Shellac of North America and he owns and operates the renowned recording facility, Electrical Audio, in Chicago, Illinois. In this second of a two-part moderated conversation between Ian and Steve, we discuss the Independent Rock Music Label Festivals organized by Heather Whinna in Chicago that featured Fugazi, Shellac, the Make-Up, Blonde Redhead, and the Ex, Jay Ryan, the Rainbow Roller Rink and the Congress Theatre, confidence versus leadership, Ian on Steve’s interviews, how disempowered people feel, Ian doesn’t talk shit about people like Marc Ribot, exemplars, why Steve might call someone out on a position or argument, critiquing your own community, relating to “political correctness” today, the Reagan Revolution and ‘to care is selfish,’ being decent toward other people, biases and presumptions, the Fugazi song “And the Same,” which includes the lyric, “Yes, I know this is politically correct…,” derailing progression, charity was selfish and greed was good, growing up in D.C. without encountering many Republicans, Democrats can’t go radically left, why musicians play music, being attacked by others, Sylvester Stallone, the Urban Outfitters/Minor Threat thing and aquarium warfare, online pile-ons and Henry Rollins and Robin Williams, Steve defends Henry, internet distractions, making sense of the age of outrage, access and speed, super communication and one-way communication and real-life communication, anonymity, the Butthole Surfers, metrics, I can’t even, Steve belongs on twitter, the way Ian demonstrated how to be a decent, thinking person, the punk rock lawyer, creeping professionalism, custodial and active responsibilities, Dischord Records and Electrical Audio, the music scene in Chicago, it’s nice to be right, work and love, people don’t own their own time, the big payback, “The People’s Microphone,” and that was that phone call.

Related links: dischord.com electricalaudio.com vishkhanna.com

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