Beginnings

On today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Derek M. Ballard. Originally from Mobile, AL, Derek was an artist from the jump. As a storyboard artist, he's written for shows like Adventure Time and The Midnight Gospel, and as a cartoonist, he wrote comics for the wonderful and sadly defunct site The Nib. Most recently, he created a zine called The Shape of Comics to Come, and his first graphic novel Cartoonshow was just published by Oni at the end of the summer! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician Will Butler. Originally from Floriston, California, Will mostly grew up in Texas, and after college moved to Montreal to join his brother's band Arcade Fire. The band was a sensation: their debut Funeral is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s, and all of Arcade Fire's studio albums have received Grammy nominations. However, Will left the band in 2021 to pursue other projects. As a solo artist, Will has released three albums on one of the best labels out there, Merge Records, and his latest record is no different! Recorded with Sister Squares the self-titled Will Butler + Sister Squares was just released towards the end of September on Merge, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples The

On today's episode, I talk to musician and painter Andrew Savage. Originally from Denton, TX, Andrew began playing music seriously when he formed the band Teenage Cool Kids in college in 2006. By the time the group officially disbanded in 2011, Andrew had already been writing music in a new band, Parquet Courts, which he started with his college friend Austin Brown. Since that time, they've released seven albums on labels like What's Your Rupture? and Rough Trade, and Andrew was even nominated for a Grammy for Human Performance's artwork. As a solo artist, Andrew has released two albums, 2017's Thawing Dawn, on his own label Dull Tools and his latest, Several Songs About Fire, which was just released on Rough Trade last week! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be fo

On today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Greg Rucka. Originally from San Francisco, Greg grew up in Salinas, California, AKA "Steinbeck Country", and worked a number of jobs - EMT, fight choreographer - until his writing career took off. His first published novels were his Atticus Kodiak books, which were published by Bantam starting in the mid-'90s. Soon after, Greg began writing comics, creating Whiteout,  Queen & Country and Stumptown for Oni, writing things like 52 and Wonder Woman at DC, Wolverine and Punisher at Marvel, and Lazarus and The Old Guard at Image, the later of which, he also wrote the screenplay for. And this is just a small sampling of his work! Most recently, Greg created The Forged with his co-writer Eric Trautmann at Image, and like everything else he does, it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop ba

On today's episode, I talk to musician Fat Tony. Originally from Houston, Texas, Anthony Obi started his musical career performing with a number of different rap groups in high school, but it wasn't until his early 20s that he began writing and releasing albums under the name Fat Tony. Since 2010, he's released over a dozen albums and EPs on labels like Young One and Don Giovanni, and his latest I Will Make a Baby in This Damn Economy was just released on Carpark Records at the end of August, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician Rod Argent. Originally from St. Albans, Rod became the founder, keyboard player and one of the principal songwriters of the seminal 1960s British rock band The Zombies at the age of 16. While the band only stayed together a little more than half a decade, they became international stars, and their final album Odessey and Oracle is both one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1960s and of all time. After The Zombies broke up, Rod formed the brilliant prog band Argent, which played through the mid-70s, and since then, Rod has recorded ten albums under his own name. While The Zombies have reformed here and there, in 2004, they began to record music together again, and their latest album Different Game was just released in March this year, and like everything the band does, it is a real delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old

On today's episode, I talk to comics creator and TV writer Ben Edlund. While still in high school, Ben began developing the satirical superhero The Tick, who became the mascot of the New England Comics newsletter. After a production error led to them needing a new title quickly, the New England Comics folks invited Ben to create a series around the character. The Tick has had numerous comic runs, as well as a cartoon in the 1990s and two live action series, the most recent of which ran on Amazon Prime from 2016-2019. In addition to his comics work and creating The Tick TV shows, Ben has also written on over a dozen other shows, some of which include The Venture Bros., Firefly, Angel, Clone Wars and many others! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Will Oldham. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Will was an actor before becoming a musician, appearing in John Sayles' Matewan as a teenager, as well as in films like Old Joy, Junebug and The Guatemalan Handshake, as well as TV shows like Wonder Showzen. In the early '90s, he began playing music as Palace - or more accurately, as different permutations of the name Palace - but a few years later, adopted the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker which he's used ever since his 1999 album I See a Darkness. In the last two plus decades, he's released almost two dozen albums, some collaborations with artists like Bill Callahan and Matt Sweeney, and his latest Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You was just released in August on Drag City, and like everything else Will does, it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiop

On today's episode, I talk to writer and musician Geoff Garlock. Geoff has been playing music since high school, first with the hardcore punk band Switchstance, and eventually with the seminal screamo band Orchid, who in their five short years together released ten albums and 7"es, mostly on Ebullition. After Orchid broke up, most of the members started Panthers, who released four albums on labels like Troubleman Unlimited and Dim Mak, but after they broke up, Geoff began pursuing comedy. He wrote sketch and taught at UCB from 2002 until the theater was bought by private equity, and has written series for IFC, Adult Swim and numerous other outlets. Most recently, Geoff co-founded and co-hosts the sketch/improv podcast 108.9 The Hawk, which is easily one of the best comedy shows out there! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the

On today's episode, I talk to Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub. Emerging from the Scottish C86 scene of the 1980s, Teenage Fanclub formed out of the ashes of their previous group The Boy Hairdressers. While they immediately garnered positive reviews with their first few albums, released in America on Matador, it was with their third album Bandwagonesque that they broke through to a wider audience. In the thirty-some-odd years since, they've never lost that original creative spark, releasing nine more fantastic albums, and their latest, Nothing Lasts Forever, will be released next month on Merge Records. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi, Couples Therapy, can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musicians Pat Place and Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. Both art students, Cynthia and Pat moved to New York in the 1970s and were soon sucked into the music scene. Pat became one of the founders and the guitarist of James Chance and the Contortions, and then in 1979, the two formed Bush Tetras. Their debut 7-inch EP, "Too Many Creeps", was released in 1980 on 99 Records, and even though they only stayed together for another three years, the band was an integral part of the downtown New York no wave scene. The band has reformed twice since then, once in the late-'90s and most recently in the mid-aughts, and they've been going strong since. Their latest album They Live in My Head was just released at the end of July on Wharf Cat Records, and it's fantastic! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy

On today's episode, I talk to musician Christina Schneider AKA Locate S,1. Originally from Westchester, New York, Christina began her career making music in various projects, such as C.E Schneider Topical, Christina Schneider's Genius Giant, and Jepeto Solutions., and in 2018, she began recording as Locate S,1. She's released three albums, Healing Contest, Personalia and her latest, Wicked Jaw, which was just released at the end of July by Captured Tracks! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician and artist Jad Fair. Originally from Coldwater, Michigan, Jad began playing music with his brother David in 1974 as the band Half Japanese. As an art rock group that charted its own path, Half Japanese soon began to be celebrated by tastemakers, and this led to their first record contract. Over the next fifty years, they released over two dozen albums and EPs, and as a solo artist, Jad has a discography as numerous as the stars in the sky. He's collaborated with everyone from Thurston Moore to Daniel Johnston to Teenage Fanclub to Yo La Tengo, and his latest album Jump Into Love just came out at the end of July on Fire Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician Heather Trost. Originally from Albuquerque, NM, Heather really started taking music seriously in college, often touring whenever she wasn't in class. In the early 2000s, she met her now husband, Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and joined his fledgling project A Hawk and A Hacksaw, making it a duo. Since that time, they have released six albums, the latest of which is Forest Bathing in 2018. As a solo musician, Heather has released four albums, and her latest Desert Flowers, was released late last year on Ba Da Bing Records, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to writer and podcaster Matt Christman. Originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Matt wasn't pursuing anything specific when he started the left political podcast Chapo Trap House with two friends he met online. But the show struck a nerve in the general zeitgeist and turned into a career for Matt. The show has been going strong for seven years now, and through Chapo and their producer Chris Wade, Matt has created a number of fantastic miniseries: Hell of Presidents, which looks at the ways America has changed by looking at who has been in power, and most recently Hell On Earth, which tells the story of the Thirty Years' War, both as a history lesson and as a analogy for our own era. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning puppeteer David Bizzaro. Originally from Fresno, CA, David moved around a lot as a child. He fell in love with theater, and eventually began working in a field adjacent to that, as a visual generalist, making videos and other things for the live shows of bands like The Flaming Lips. Puppetry, though, was something he came to in adulthood, when he needed to learn the skill for a TV ad. He found that puppetry just felt right for him, and since then has worked on a number of great shows, performing as Mochi in the hit show Waffles + Mochi and most recently, Gerald Teeth Sr. in The Muppets Mayhem. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician Lindsay Olsen AKA Salami Rose Joe Louis. Originally from San Diego, Lindsay worked in the sciences as a lab tech and made music on the side until Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder released her third album Zdenka 2080 in 2019, which gave her the courage to pursue music professionally. This was followed up by Chapters of Zdenka the next year, and her most recent, Akousmatikous, was released in May, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Rob Mazurek. Originally from Jersey City, Rob started playing trumpet and cornet in high school after his family moved to Naperville, Illinois. He first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and then became a mainstay of Chicago jazz in the 1980s. In 1994, Rob formed the Chicago Underground Collective with guitarist Jeff Parker and a cast of revolving players, which in turn birthed Isotope 217, both groups releasing albums on the seminal label Thrill Jockey. In the decades since then, Rob founded the Exploding Star Orchestra, has earned numerous commissions and awards, and in general has created more music and art than a short bio can properly elucidate. Earlier this spring, Rob's most recent work for Exploding Star Orchestra, Lightning Dreamers, was released on International Anthem, and like everything else Rob creates, it's wonderful! This is the website

On today's episode, I talk to musician John Grant. Originally from Buchanan, Michigan, John moved to Germany in 1988 to study German, but eventually moved back to the States, where he formed the band The Czars, who released seven albums in the 12 years they were together. After a four-year hiatus, John began making music again under his own name, and the five albums he's recorded since have garnered both critical praise and commercial success. In 2013, John moved to Iceland, where he works as a translator, and just last week Creep Show, John's collaboration with the synth group Wrangler, released their second album Yawning Abyss on Bella Union! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!  

On today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Zeena Parkins. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Zeena is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices and has essentially "reinvented the harp". Since moving to New York in 1984, Zeena has collaborated with countless musical  luminaries like John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Elliott Sharp and Bjork, recorded over a dozen fantastic albums and collected more accolades than you could count in a week, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. For 13 years, Zeena held the prestigious Darius Milhaud Chair in Composition at Mills College, and at the end of June, her latest album of compositions LACE will be released on Chaikin Records! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!