Scharpling & Wurster is a beloved and very funny comedy duo consisting of Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster. While they mainly work together on The Best Show radio program and podcast, which airs every Tuesday from 9 pm to midnight ET at thebestshow.net, they’ve been making rare live appearances around North America since the Numero Group released The Best of the Best Show 16 CD box set this past spring. They’re closing out 2015 with three shows at the Mod Club in Toronto on November 28, The Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 29, and Union Transfer in Philadelphia on December 13. Here, Tom and Jon and I discuss their busy 2015 and doing these live shows, comedy frontman versus drumming in a band, doing Late Night with Seth Meyers and condensing comedy for their appearance on the show, going out a different way, how the Scharpling & Wurster live show works in each city they perform in, whether the stage show is as interactive as The Best Show, what the live show brings out in Tom and Jon, Tom’s confidence, Jon’s physicality, local references, Tom’s history with Toronto and the city’s Best Show fans, their love of SCTV, when Jon met Tom, Tom’s history with Superchunk and Mac McCaughan, how Jon and Tom began working together, “Rock, Rot, and Rule,” the Newbridge infomercial, getting into more TV stuff together, what the Best Show box set meant for the trajectory of the duo, how the new Best Show feels, the future, the phone call “OnStar,” and then we hung up our Skypes.
Related links: scharplingandwurster.com thebestshow.net vishkhanna.com
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Steven Lambke is a very talented songwriter, singer, and guitar player who often performs under the name Baby Eagle. A founding member of Constantines, Lambke was raised in Cambridge, Ontario and currently lives in Toronto where he manages the You’ve Changed Records label, which has released music by the likes of Baby Eagle, Attack in Black, Daniel Romano, Daniel, Fred & Julie, Shotgun Jimmie, Marine Dreams, the Weather Station, Apollo Ghosts, and will be handling the reissue of Constantines’ Shine a Light in Canada this June 10. You’ve Changed celebrates its fifth anniversary with special roster-oriented shows at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern on May 22 and Ottawa’s St. Alban’s Church on May 23. At Steve’s place with Shary Boyle in Toronto, he and I discussed things like what Shary is preparing for dinner, the fact that Steve is in Toronto not in Sackville, Venice to Detroit, border crossing when you’re a musician not crossing to play music, “pfft…co-operative,” is Fugazi some kind of heavy metal, hobbies and retirement, teachers and race car drivers, parental tolerance of super loud novice musicians, learning about Superchunk and Merge Records, Encore Records in Kitchener is the best, whether labels matter and how they curate experiences, Steve’s old job at Soundscapes, the influence of Three Gut Records, SappyFest, and Attack in Black on You’ve Changed, how ideas are executed by the people running the label, the mystery of YCR 004 and CST 100, Dan Romano steps back a bit, Colin Medley made a You’ve Changed Anniversary zine, Steve should write a book or two, oh wait, Steve is publishing a book of lyrics and poetry, how writing songs in Constantines compares to writing as Baby Eagle, song batches, Christine Fellows and John K. Samson are encouraging people, balancing things, quality control and propelling important cultural work, “a field left fallow by a pine stand will grow pine,” more You’ve Changed records are coming out many of which will likely be made by Marine Dreams, the Shine a Light reissue, why the Constantines’ ending and starting up again might’ve been Bry Webb’s call, why Constantines will not be touring, the surprise guest at the Toronto You’ve Changed show at the Horseshoe on May 22 is no longer a surprise to you because you just found out that it’s Daniel Romano and his band, the Marine Dreams song “Constant Love” and then we stopped without really talking about our younger selves learning to play music together and forming bands like Captain Co-Pilot. Next time.
Related links: youvechangedrecords.com baby-eagle.com vishkhanna.com
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