New York City’s Matthew Shipp joins Vish to discuss each and every song on the 2017, Matthew Shipp Trio record, Piano Song, which is available everywhere via Thirsty Ear Recordings. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, Planet Bean Coffee, Grandad’s Donuts, and Hello Fresh Canada.
Mac McCaughan is a talented and influential songwriter, musician, and singer based in North Carolina. Renowned for his prolific output in bands like Superchunk and Portastatic, McCaughan also co-founded Merge Records, one of the world’s most resilient and tastemaking independent labels. In the face of Republican cuts to programs that cruelly impact women and other disenfranchised people, McCaughan and his bandmates in Superchunk just released a limited edition single called I Got Cut with all proceeds benefitting Planned Parenthood. They also worked with local visual artists who custom made artwork for a handful of singles that are up for auction until June 28 on the site, Paddle8.com. Again, all proceeds from the auction benefit Planned Parenthood. Mac and I recently had a conversation about what motivated this new single, the political landscape in North Carolina and how it relates to the rest of U.S., the state of progressivism, his early exposure to political punk and seeing Van Halen in the early 1980s, how his Merge Records partner and fellow Superchunk member Laura Ballance has been doing since leaving the road behind in 2013, Arcade Fire’s departure from Merge for Columbia Records, and much more. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, and Planet Bean Coffee.
Bruce McDonald is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and director based in Toronto and Nick Craine is an acclaimed graphic artist who calls Guelph, Ontario home. McDonald’s fifth film was an adaptation of Michael Turner’s novel, Hard Core Logo, and chronicled a first wave punk rock band’s disastrous reunion tour across Canada. The influential 1996 film was an underground hit; even Quentin Tarantino became smitten with it, securing its U.S. distribution rights. The next year, Craine’s graphic novel adaptation of McDonald’s film was published and, to commemorate its 20th anniversary, House of Anansi has issued an expanded edition of Craine’s Hard Core Logo: Portrait of a Thousand Punks, and the occasion is being marked with book launch events and screenings of the film. I met with Bruce and Nick at Bruce’s Toronto office recently and we discussed how they first met some 25 years ago, the work of comic artist Chester Brown and other underground comic artists, making road movies and graphic novels, Canadian content and hockey, the weird but cool resonance of Hard Core Logo 20 years later, the rise of mockumentaries in a world obsessed with fake news, the Bucky Haight song “Never Done,” and much more. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, and Planet Bean Coffee.
