Composer-producer-frontman-wizard JG Thirlwell has been making astonishing, orchestral, bombastic music for decades. Born in Australia, he teamed up with Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, then joined Prag VEC, and soon formed his enduring solo project Foetus. Operating under plethora of pseudonyms and monikers meant to confuse, shock, and awe, Thirlwell continues to churn out an astounding amount of music and to perform as a frontman for his own projects, as well as a composer for animated series Venture Brothers, Archer, and Dicktown. We talked about his beginnings in London, moving to New York in the early 80s, starting out using 16 tracks of tape and an elaborate numerical system, his first time wearing "guy liner," the importance of remembering World War Two, his evolving theories on shock value and fear as a part of performance, and his changing relationship to his Australian roots as a citizen of the world.
Episode sponsor: Crazy Eddie's. Opening music: Marchandise by Fugazi, performed by Pierre de Gaillande with James Fletcher, drums. Songs: Courtyard Dogs, Moths, and Witchmarket from The Blue Eyes Soundtrack by JG Thirlwell. Your Lazy Lay Lay by Prag VEC. Is That a Line, What Have You Been Doing, Water Torture, and Danger Global Warming by Foetus. Fun House by Birthday Party. Delights of the Garden by Last Poets. Oilfields and I'll Meet You in Poland Baby, orchestral live performances by JG Thirlwell. Motorslug by Wiseblood. L'espion Qui a Pleuré by Steroid Maximus. A Plastic Island in the Pacific by Manorexia. Spag from Venture Brothers Soundtrack by JG Thirlwell.
www.foetus.org
For this very special episode, we reach way back into the vault and present an interview Pierre did with The Breeders in 1992! We unearthed this cassette recording of an interview with all four members of this massively popular and influential mainstay of 90's alt-rock, the Breeders. Pierre called them from San Diego and interviewed them on the phone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, in advance of their concert in Tijuana, Mexico, at the legendary Iguana's. The year is 1992 and the Breeders are on the verge of superstardom. Pierre is a college student calling from San Diego and he's quite sleepy, but he's awake enough to ask some pretty incisive and trenchant questions, including "Who will play you in a movie of your life" and "Will Bill Clinton be elected?" Listen as young Pierre tries to play it cool on the phone with all four members of the Breeders; Jim McPherson, Josephine Wiggs, Kelly Deal, and Kim Deal.
Phil Manley is a west-coast based rock musician and producer. He runs El Studio in San Fransisco, and he handles the guitar, keyboards, bass, and vocals in bands Trans Am, Life Coach, Terry Gross, and Oneida among others. His band Trans Am spearheaded the Electroclash movement in the 90's and continues to melt faces around the world. We had very pleasant chit chat in his studio about recording very loud bands, Krautrock vs. punk rock, missing the "normal days" of Bush, touring in Europe with a Bush mask on, and how to sheild your kids from the apocalypse.
Episode sweet sixteen features Los Angeles-based activists, musicians, filmmakers, and educators Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo. They run a non-profit called the Echo Park Film Center, and they travel the world spreading their vison of inclusiveness, tolerance, creativity and artistic freedom through the medium of cinema. We spoke about both of their musical and artistic trajectories beginning in Canada and Italy, through the wilds of the Orange County punk MIASMA and the Canadian riot girl scene. We chatted about striving for socialist idealism in a capitalist world, the circus of American politics, the short life of the Sassy Pickles, the film mobile, bicycle-driven projection, cuddle core, and so much more.
Stew is a singer, musician, composer, playwright, and a powerhouse in the world of music and theater. For years he fronted the band Stew and the Negro Problem. He then went on to create and star in a play called Passing Strange which started off-Broadway and then went on to have a successful run on Broadway, where it garnered multiple Tonys and other awards, and was eventually turned into a feature film by Spike Lee. In all of Stew's work, he shines a bright light on what it means to be an African-American guy with a killer sense of humor and an acute sense of history and culture, in a world that wants to reduce everyone to stereotypes. Stew performed a live acoustic rendition of his song "Baldwin Country" and we spoke about "asshole-adjacent people," the role of comedy in music, the American vs European idea of freedom, what Reagan would say about today's mess, his ongoing collaboration with partner Heidi Rodewald, the audacity of craziness, and so much more. 
Lucky number 13 is my good friend Dorit Chrysler, a theremin wizard from Austria. She came to New York in the 90's and was the singer-guitarist for the scorching art-rock band Halcion. She subsequently went on tho become one of the world's premiere theremin experts. She performs at festivals and concert venues around the world on a regular basis, and she was the co-founder of the New York Theremin Society. She has scored films and TV sows, including the upcoming German production "M." for Netflix. She will be performing this year with the San Francisco Symphony as well as Moogfest in Durham North Carolina in April. We spoke about the music scene in New York in the 90's,plasticc molds, the legacy of Austrian culture, the "bread and circus" of American politics, and she performed three live songs in the studio.