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Ep. #321: OUT

OUT is a remarkable rock band based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Comprised of close friends Chafe Hensley, TJ Larmee, Mark Larmee, and Ike Turner, OUT have just released a new record called Swim Buddies, which is out now via Comedy Minus One Records, and has prompted the band to play select shows in America over the next while. I connected with everyone in OUT recently for a chat about a band called Minutes, which some of them were in, what goes on in Kalamazoo, how they’re dealing with our heavy times, their record Swim Buddies, and much more. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, and Planet Bean Coffee.

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News Podcast

Ep. #221: Ryan Nelson of Soccer Team

Ryan Nelson is a musician and visual artist who resides in the Washington D.C. area. Formerly in the bands the Most Secret Method and Beauty Pill, Nelson currently plays in Michigan’s Minutes and the D.C. group Soccer Team, which he co-founded 10 years ago with Melissa Quinley. Nine years since their debut, Soccer Team just released their second album, a sharp, witty, pop affair called Real Lessons in Cynicism, which is out now via Dischord Records, and they plan to play Baltimore at Make Studio on November 28 at 3 PM and at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C. on December 11 at noon. Here, Ryan and I discuss my nerve-induced and unnecessary pluralization of album titles, good names, that time he left Washington D.C. for Kalamazoo, Michigan for five years and then came back and Soccer Team was still a thing, wanting to be a teacher and isolating himself, avoiding music and art, a life-altering gym membership, Danzig, no presh, Star Wars Monopoly, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Samuel L. Jackson, the stupid prequels, how Minutes started, what’s up in D.C. and with Dischord, raising twins and letting music scenes pass by, the band Puff Pieces, the band Priests, songs based on conversations, the aging body, why dancers smoke, observational songwriting, mediation, the story of Francesca da Rimini, delving into someone else’s area of expertise, overcoming the stigma of reading comics and getting into making visual art, Roy Lichtenstein and Aquaman, the intricate criminal underworld within Atlantis, funny Justice League comics of the late ‘80s, comics in movies and mainstream culture, making his own comics, the transition from skateboard artwork to album art for Real Lessons in Cynicism, drawing paused motion pictures, The Blob, the future of Minutes and Soccer Team, the song “Vacations on the Lam,” and that was that.       

Related links: dischord.com/band/soccer-team vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

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News Podcast

Ep. #212: Ike Turner of MINUTES & Brown Company

Ike Turner is a musician and professor based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Primarily a drummer, Turner is best known for playing in amazing bands like MINUTES, Brown Company, and the Book-Burners. He recently went on a very long bike ride across some of the United States of America and so it seemed like a good time to catch up. Here, Ike and I discuss saying my name, what it’s like in Kalamazoo, Michigan, teaching, colleges and universities, teaching the history of rock ‘n’ roll, writing a cool book about this history, seizures, Stephen Sowley and MINUTES, punk rock, Electrical Audio and PRF, Matthew Barnhart and the band Tre Orsi, the Kalamazoo music community and the Millhouse, the progressiveness of Michigan, the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, a state-crossing bicycle trip, running towards our dads, man cooking, cheering sections, mountains of information, the band These Estates, meeting good people who tell interesting stories, tales of the trek, sleeping after long days of riding, bicycling on highways or interstates, you can’t ride your bike on the 401, the Tim Hortons Donut Dome in Toronto, reverent baseball at Wrigley Field, the Tragically Hip, MINUTES and Brown Company and a new band, the MINUTES song “Boxes,” and that was the end.

Related links: minutes.bandcamp.com comedyminusone.com vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

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