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Ep. #184: METZ

METZ is one of the best hard rock bands in the whole wide world and their members, singer/guitarist Alex Edkins, bassist/singer Chris Slorach, and drummer Hayden Menzies all currently reside in Toronto. Their new album is called II and is out now via Sub Pop, prompting them to tour the world over for the foreseeable future. On May 1, METZ and I hung out on a patio on Bloor Street and discussed being a at Strombo’s house, people’s perceptions of the band after they broke out, Jello Biafra and Johnny Rotten, the Shirley Temple I ordered, alcohol abstinence and straight edge, epically PG and PC punk culture, the song from Aladdin and a whole new world, academic punks, feeling too cool for Nirvana as a kid, the amazing band Hoover, people who care about a band playing lots of shows, living the dream, thinking about the future, aging into the music you make, knowing your limits, meticulous production, Cam Loeppky, recording new songs already, chatty Cathy, Highway to Hell, AC/DC, Clickbait Khanna, pancake Tuesday, favourite songs and not always knowing what Alex is writing about, bringing the vocals up, agonizing over lyrics, the song “Spit You Out,” and then we broke up.

Related links: metzztem.com vishkhanna.com

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Ep. #165: Bob Nastanovich of Silver Jews

Bob Nastanovich is an American musician who currently lives in Des Moines, Iowa. Though best known for playing keyboards, auxiliary drums, and shouting in the hugely significant and influential rock band Pavement, Nastanovich also co-founded another immensely important band called the Silver Jews. Highlighting the inimitable songwriting and singing of the American poet David Berman, Silver Jews called it a day in 2009 after a remarkable 20-year run. In the past few months, after cryptic social media posts and photographs, there seems to be something stirring in Silver Jews land and the band seems to be active again in some capacity. Here, Bob and I discuss repping Des Moines, dogs and kids, Pavement’s juvenile sound, Stephen Malkmus’ attitude towards reunion tours, how the Pavement reunion tour ended, a failed pitch to get the band going again, the history of Bob, Stephen, and David and the NYC scene of the early 1990s, an infamous Nirvana show that Bob and David disrupted by heckling the band and angering Krist Novoselic, Kim and Thurston’s home phone number, when Kurt Cobain asked Pavement to play the Reading Festival, recording horse racing calls utilizing the same technology as the Silver Jews on their early releases, Drag City might be magic, David’s new obsession with making unique sculptures, the times David has kicked members of Pavement out of the Silver Jews, Harmony Korine and David are close friends now, David is writing new songs and it sounds like he’s going to record them, Cassie Berman and therapy for horses, wi-fi addiction, funny people on the internet, Tanglewood Numbers, when David feels like things are getting too Pavement-y, not talking to David for over a year, why Bob is releasing little tidbits about this new Silver Jews activity, music for sculptures and people, pushing Brian Kotzur, Searching for Berman, the night owl, @silverjews, @dronecoma, @bnastanowich, the song “New Orleans,” and that was all.

Related links: mentholmountains.blogspot.com vishkhanna.com

Silver-Jews-2015

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Ep. #150: Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche

Avec le soleil sortant de sa bouche is a really cool, mostly instrumental band from Montreal who formed in 2011. The brainchild of Fly Pan Am’s Jean-Sebastien Truchy, the quartet includes guitarist Sebastien Fournier, drummer Samuel Beaubonie, and guitarist Eric Gingras. This past September the band issued Zubberdust!, their wonderful debut album featuring hypnotic, interlocking musical pieces that reimagine funk and psychedelia from an energetic, emotional, punk perspective. Zubberdust! is out now via Constellation Records and here, Jean-Sebastien Truchy and Sebastien Fournier, and I discuss snow in Montreal, perpetuating myths about Canada, being a trickster, what zubberdust means in Urdu, separating long songs and sound collages, how this band came together, being spied on, keeping a groove going but in a pop sensibility, serious fun in Montreal, the jelly bean scene, the band Ought, wordless vocals, jazz scatting, the influence of Afrobeat and long-form Latino music, the Neu! part, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Montreal’s west isles, disappointing dad, community and Constellation Records, Montreal’s old oppressive show bar culture, yellow waterproof Walkmen, Nirvana thanking Sonic Youth on In Utero, Panitopicon Eyelids and a great Montreal record store called L’Oblique, the homing beacon band that was Fly Pan Am, grinding, gatherings, fake parties, making new music, the band’s long-ass French name, the song “Super Pastiche – New Sun,” and then we say au revoir and ciao.

Related links: cstrecords.com/avec-le-soleil-sortant-de-sa-bouche vishkhanna.com

ALSartistpick

 

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