Cleveland Scene Podcast: No Sleep In The Cle

Today Justin sits down with Angie Hetrick. Angie is the Executive Director of Coventry Village and she also has her hands in a lot of other projects in Cleveland including booking the songwriting series at Luxe. On Saturday July 25th, the park in Coventry will be dedicated to legendary Clevelander and comedy mastermind Harvey Pekar. We talk about that event, Cleveland music and the always present eastside vs. westside battle. 

Justin sits down with Modern Electric Piano/Guitar/Vocalist Garrett Komyati. They talk about Cleveland, movies, movies from the 70s, Wes Anderson movies, oh yea and The Modern Electric

Today Justin sits down with comedian Mike Polk. Mike's all over the place doing standup, sketch and videos. We talk about his influences, how he grew up, whether to or not to be political publically and the lack of an abundance of female comics in Cleveland. 

Today on No Sleep in the CLE, Justin Markert sits down with Cleveland rock band Ottawa. In a year and a half Ottawa has accomplished quite a bit for a local band. We talk about the meaning behind their name, songwriting process, favorite local bands, and the philosophy that a good melody is a good melody even if it's a NKOTB song. 

Today we talk to Chayla and Ryan from the band Seafair who will be releasing their debut album at the Grog Shop on May 23. We play cuts from the record and talk about their journey as a band. Other music featured: Ottawa

In our second episode of the week (!) we sit down with Jimmy Graham. Jimmy is a fascinating comedian who is a part of the Accidental Comedy Club collective run by Ramon Rivas. While he'd probably make fun of me for saying this, his comedy is almost performance art, he pushes boundaries. He once won a comedy "contest" and burned with winnings in front of all the losers. He tells a great story about how he once incorporated a homeless man (?) into his routine. 

Justin Markert sits down with Cleveland singer/songwriter Megan Zurkey who is releasing her latest ep, "Behind Your Eyes" at the Happy Dog on May 15 with the Ohio Weather Band and Top Hat Black. Megan talks about how she got into music, her favorite artists and the songwriting process.

Justin interviews Sam and Jimmy from Welshly Arms, who are releasing their debut album this week and will be performing at the House of Blues in Cleveland on Saturday May 9. We talk about how the band got started, the agony of choosing an album/band name that isn't too goofy and isn't too serious, the power of no, tips for local bands, and through a series of strange coincidences realize what a small world it is. 

On this week's episode, Justin sits down with Todd Mesek, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. They talk about the upcoming inductions here in Cleveland this weekend, as well as the previous years, the way artists are chosen, how a changing music landscape will effect the nominating process in the future and Todd spills the beans that you might not be completely out of luck yet if you didn't get yourself a ticket to the inductions. 

Today we talk to the founder of the Cleveland Flea, Stephanie Sheldon. The Flea has blossomed into a major event in Cleveland. Hundreds of makers, entrepreneurs and craftsmen get together in one place to sell their unique creations, and Cleveland shows up in the thousands. We talk to Stephanie about how the Flea got started and where it's going. Music featured this week: Ragers, Item.

Today we talk to fellow Cleveland music podcasters Mike and Drew from the podcasy Loud in Cleveland. We talk about podcasting as a medium, Brite Winter, some of our favorite Cleveland bands that fly a little under the radar and about how Loud in Cleveland got its start. This week's episode features the music of All Dinosaurs, Ageless Males and Megan Zurkey. 

Justin Markert sits down with Cleveland comedian Brian Kenny. They talk about his start as a comedian, the hot spots for Cleveland comedy, the SNL40 special and whether or not you can separate the art from the artist, even if the artist is a terrible person (Bill Cosby).

On this week's episode, Justin Markert sits down with Emily Hornack, the co-founder of Brite Winter. Brite Winter is a free annual music and arts festival. In it's 6th year, Brite Winter will host 63 bands across 9 stages in Ohio City on Saturday, February 21 to an expected crowd of over 20,000.Justin (who was recently hired as Program Director for Brite Winter) and Emily talk about the the early years of the fest, what this year will be like, and if anybody actually does give a F&$% about an oxford comma. You'll also hear music from a variety of Brite Winter performers including By Light We Loom, Welshly Arms, Brian Straw and Archie Green. 

This week in No Sleep in the CLE, Justin Markert sits down with Brandon Lichtinger to discuss the most romantic/sad bastard movies of all time in honor of this weekends Valentine's Day and last weeks Grammy awards. Topics include deconstructing the career of John Cusack, Wes Anderson, Cameron Crowe, Michel Gondry and Richard Linklater films, The Beatles, Beck, and what we're really talking about when we talk about Kanye West: race.    

This week on No Sleep in the CLE, Justin Markert and Ramon Rivas sit down with Vince DiFranco, singer/guitarist from the band Ohio Sky. They talk about what it takes to be a professional musician, the long journey Ohio Sky has taken, Suma Recording studios (one of Cleveland's best kept secrets), Nancy Grace's incompetence, and racist news organizations. Good times!   Ohio Sky will celebrate the release of their new album on Saturday January 24th at the House of Blues Cambridge Room along with Nights and Columbus band EYE. 

On this week's episode of Cleveland Scene Podcast No Sleep in the CLE, Chucklefck's Ramon Rivas and Cellar Door's Justin Markert talk to Max Stern, singer/guitarist from the band Signals Midwest. Max is a very busy guy, in 2014 alone he clocked over 140 shows on three continents in 13 countries. They talk about influence, how Cleveland's music scene holds up to other cities and our failed and/realized 2014 resolutions and plans for 2015.   Signals Midwest will perform on Saturday January 3 at the Grog Shop as part of their annual free weekend. Other bands performing that night are Light Years, So Long Albatross, Worship This!, and Runaway Brother. Show is at 9 and is, well, free.

Today Justin and Ramon are joined by Tony Madalone, the co-chair of Ohio Homecoming who is with us to talk about the second annual CLE ROCKS NYE, the New Year's Eve event in Downtown Cleveland featuring E-V, Machine Gun Kelly and Carlos Jones. We also talk about Tony's business, Fresh Brewed Tees. When Tony finished grad school 5 years ago, he immediately turned his back on the corporate world and went into business for himself by launching his apparel company which now has 15 employees, two t-shirt trucks, anda physical store at the CLE Airport.

In episode 4 of No Sleep in the CLE, Ramon and Justin talk to Cleveland standup comedian Tim Cornett about his come up in comedy, living and performing in Portland vs. Cleveland, the differences between being a comedian at 19 and 34, and why more women don't do standup comedy.On December 17 at the Beachland Ballroom, Tim will record, FOR THE LADIES,  with one caveat, you must be female to attend.  For his first album in his 19 years of stand-up, Cornett will fill the room (and the album's audio) with his jokes and the lovely sound of female laughter.    

In the third episode of Cleveland Scene's No Sleep in The CLE, Justin and Ramon talk to Nathan Hedges and Mikey Gould from Cleveland band Cities and Coasts. They are playing at the Beachland Ballroom on Friday, December 5 in support of Ottawa for their EP release show alongside, Midnight Passenger and Johnny LaRock.

Ramon Rivas and Justin Markert talk to John Wellington, one of the founders and curators of the Cleveland Comedy Festival happening all this week. We talk about the fest, the best atmosphere to experience a show, the value of art and then tailspin into talking about the best places to eat breakfast on the east side and west side.