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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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Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #208: Gary Taxali

Gary Taxali is a gifted and renowned visual artist, author, and illustrator who lives in Toronto. He has exhibited his work in galleries around the world and his images have appeared in many major magazines and advertising campaigns. He also owns his own toy company, Chump Toys, is a teacher at OCAD University, and is one of Canada’s most sought after speakers and lecturers. The Cambridge, Ontario gallery Idea Exchange is exhibiting Here and Now: The Art of Gary Taxali at Design at Riverside until September 20. Here, Gary and I talk about the mysterious tulsi tea that yogis often drink, teaching at the National Institute of Design in India eight months ago, returning to India after many years and not knowing the dialect, Hindi school, seeing Indian movies on Gerrard Street in Toronto’s ‘little India’ as a kid, secretly loving Indian films and culture growing up in Canada, the film Amar Akbar Anthony, assimilation and culture shock as a first generation Canadian, recognizing one’s cachet after high school, Indians in the NBA, the Indian-ness of Gary’s work, parental and family support, his dad the hobby artist, Johnnie Walker, Indian judgment, working for Penthouse and doing a billboard for Levi’s, working collaboratively and the importance of maintaining one’s copyright, ethical considerations, doing fewer illustrations, working with Converse, talking about the Mississippi Delta Blues, Wyatt Cenac and Jon Stewart and white dudes satirizing people of colour, political correctness in art and life, the Bernie Sanders #BlackLivesMatter protesters, punk rock, holding a gallery exhibition between now and the third week of September at Idea Exchange in Cambridge Ontario, Canadians not recognizing achievements by Canadians before international patrons do, watching Kanye West perform at the Pan Am Games, a new solo exhibition called Hotel There at the Robert Levine Gallery in NYC, where the art goes, the Morgan Spurlock story, a Mike Myers story, my print of Gary’s famous work OH NO., the future, and that was it.

Related links: taxali.com ideaexchange.org vishkhanna.com

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