Crash And Ride

J Christopher Arrison is a guitar player, songwriter, singer, writer for Adult Swim, and a friend I have known for 30 years (!!). His band Trinket had one of the most star-crossed record deals of all time, and the story is all here. Even with that bit of bleakness, this is one of the funniest episodes of Crash and Ride ever, and I'm super proud of it. You can see and hear his work for Fish Center on his Bandcamp: https://murderwizard.bandcamp.com/album/fish-cuts-vol-4 If we ever get to go see live music again, you can see Saved By The Band at Venkman's: https://venkmans.com/event/saved-by-the-band/ You can read his essay about his former wife's journey through cancer surgery here: https://www.salon.com/2012/07/20/my_wifes_brain_surgery/

This is the second half of my interview with Brad Wood, engineer and producer from Rockford, Illinois, now living in Los Angeles. We talk more about trying to make a living in music these days, MORE about bikes, and we get into the Crash and Ride 10 Questions. If you haven't heard pt 1, check out Episode 67 on the Patreon Page, or just search for Crash and Ride, Episode 67 on your favorite podcast app! You can hear Brad's work here: http://www.bradwoodmusic.com/

Brad Wood is an engineer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Rockford, Illinois. He was the producer of the groundbreaking Liz Phair 'Exile in Guyville' and went on produce records by Red Red Meat, Veruca Salt, Ben Lee, and dozens of others. We talk about the year on the road where he played drums behind a deeply ambivalent Liz Phair, we talk about the role that anxiety, depression, and mania can play in the life of a musician, we talk about what he perceives his role to be in the studio, and lord god do we go off on a tangent about bikes. We both love bikes a lot. We talked so much I decided to split this episode in two! You can hear the rest later this week! You can hear samples of his work at his website here: http://www.bradwoodmusic.com/

In a good year, Hannah Aldridge is one of the hardest working musicians in the business. She tours constantly, is always writing, recording, and releasing new work. In the past four years, she's spent more time in Europe than any performer I know. She never stops. That is to say, she never stops *in a good year*. 2020 is not a good year. I caught up with Hannah by calling her apartment in Murfreesboro and we talked for HOURS; Two salty workhorse musicians who found themselves unexpectedly sidelined by a global health crisis. We talked about the relentless nature of hand-to-mouth touring. We talked about never being satisfied with how far we've come, and trying to feel worthy of the work. We talked about trying to tour and parent at the same time. It felt like we'd known each other for decades. You can hear her music here, including her live album that just came out in 2020: https://hannahaldridge.bandcamp.com/

For Episode 65 I finally got to talk to David Pajo. David was, of course, the incredibly influential guitar player in the band Slint,. David later went on to play with Will Oldham, The For Carnation, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, King Kong, Bush League, Zwan, Peggy Honeywell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, most recently, Interpol. Despite his incredibly prolific musical career, he still struggled with depression. In the winter of 2015, he attempted to take his own life. As a survivor he has made it his mission to talk frankly and openly about his depression and how grateful he is that he survived. I am so happy that we had this conversation. We talked about how Slint's record 'Spiderland' absolutely spun out a generation of indie rock nerds like me, about our mutual friend Lance Bangs, about his life since his suicide attempt, and about espresso for maybe longer than anyone could possible care about.  

Edward Burch is a singer/songwriter who lives in St Louis. He was a longtime collaborator of Jay Bennett of Titanic Love Affair and Wilco, right up to the end of Jay's life. They had a long and fruitful creative partnership that weathered years of struggle, depression and frustration, drugs, and thousands of miles of touring. We talk about the record that they made together, The Palace at 4AM, and the documentary that was made about Jay's life. It's an extraordinary story.

Mary-Eleanor Joyce is a guitar player and drummer who has played in Maximum Busy Muscle, Shitty Candy and the Circus Peanuts, the incredibly influential Athens band Incindiaries, and her new project, Sewer Kitty. She's also a mother and a devoted daughter, which is why I wanted to talk to her: A lot of Gen X musicians have waited late in life to start families, only to find themselves raising young children while balancing caring for aging parents. Her father was in managed care for years before we sat down to talk. Then he passed away the morning of the day of our interview. Mary Eleanor still wanted to talk, though, so I went to her house with a very long mic cable and we sat on the back porch while the cicadas and the crickets sang all around us, and she told me all about what she was feeling and what it meant, and it was just amazing. You can hear Incidiaries here: https://thisisincendiaries.bandcamp.com/album/give-me-a-reason You can hear Maximum Busy Muscle here: https://maximumbusymuscle.bandcamp.co

Episode 62 is a very satisfyingly long interview with Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Monks of Doom, The Third Mind, his incredible solo work). Victor and I met when my band opened for Monks of Doom back when the Earth was still cooling, and he impressed me then as an incredibly talented and genuinely insightful guy. We talk about the stress of having success sort of thrust upon you, fighting to have boundaries in an industry whose default model is to chew up artists and spit them into ditches, and the importance of dogs. You can check out Victor's solo work and Monks of Doom on his website here: http://www.victorkrummenacher.com/

I have been waiting for this interview since the very beginning. I absolutely love the work of Will Johnson, from the very beginning with his band Centro-Matic right up through his most recent solo release 'Wire Mountain,' and the million-and-a-half collaborations and releases in between, Will does absolutely tremendous work. We talk about how he's holding up under quarantine, the years he had in Centro-Matic, the decision to take that band off the road, and the work he's done since. You can check out Will's work here: http://will-johnson.com/ [photo: Sean Dunn]

Spencer Thomas is an egregiously talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist from Jackson, Mississippi. His new album 'Hangin' Tough' is an 10-song meditation on depression and love. He was formerly the drummer for the band Young Valley and is currently packing up to relocate to Athens, GA. We talked about his new album, his workaholism, battling imposter syndrome, and Betty Lou, the Greatest Dog Ever.   photo: Drew McKercher

Well, well! Back from the dead! This is one of the Crash and Ride song explications, and this week's is "Revolution Blues" by Neil Young. Seemed apropos! Hopefully it won't be so long before we speak again!

Maurice Rickard is one of the most prolific musicians and composers I have ever met. He is constantly creating. He's also one of the calmest people I know, so I was shocked when he told me that he had battled anxiety his entire life. We talked about how drone music and staying constantly creatively engaged has helped him to focus his mind and stay on top of his periodic bouts of anxiety. You can check out his absolutely voluminous body of work at the following links: Drone/semi-generative work with software he's been writing in Max/MSP: https://snwv.bandcamp.com (of that project, one of his favorite compositions is here: https://snwv.bandcamp.com/album/live-november-5-2015 ) Streaming drone concerts are here every Monday night 8-9PM EDT: http://onezeromusic.com:8000/ Weekly tracks (2014-2020, even years): https://weeklybeats.com/onezero Weekly tracks (2017 and 2019): https://streak.club/u/onezero 2015's on his Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tags/weekly%20beats%202015

My good friend Faiz Razi was my guest for last year's April Fool's episode of Crash and Ride. I interviewed him about his feelings of Imposter Syndrome. This year he wanted to interview me, and so that's what we did. We talked about the genesis if this show, the absurdity and uncertainty of the times we're living in, and we talked about the tragedy of losing our sweet, funny friend Jake Nelson.

Boy, is it good to be back on the air. I'm locked-in to avoid catching Corona virus, but I was able to focus on getting an episode out, finally. Back before the world went sideways, I talked to Ryan Monahan, a guitarist, bassist, recording engineer, and composer about his struggles with childhood trauma and chronic thyroid malfunction. You can check out Easter Island here: https://easterisland.bandcamp.com/ You can watch their Kickstarter video here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ethanpayne/help-easter-island-finally-release-lp-number-2?ref=creator_nav I promised in the episode to post a before and after photo of Ryan from when he got his diagnosis about his bunged up thyroid. Here it is:

Dave Mead and I have known each other since back when the Earth was still cooling. He owned the first drum set I ever got to play and when he dropped out of school to play in the heavy metal band Ambush, he became the first professional rock musician I had ever known.   He grew up in a terribly turbulent home and learned every lesson the hard way. We talk about his journey through a childhood with a charismatic Christian mom, a pugilistic step-father, rock and roll excess and motel life before his 18th birthday, and how he made his way back to music after a 20 year break.

  Zack Hembree is the singer of Hembree and the Satan Sisters and the former guitar player in a zillion bands, including the infamous Music Hates You, a band I was also in. We have slept on a thousand floors together and we were as close as brothers for many years. Zack talks about being the son of an abusive drug addict, surviving his own battles with booze and substances, finding redemption in the arms of his beautiful wife, and how we almost started a riot at a VFW Hall in Selma, Alabama. You can hear HSS here: https://rustyknuckles.bandcamp.com/track/whos-launghin-now You can hear Music Hates You here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6VQZx3jNxc

his is a good one: this week I spoke with my friend John MacBeth and he told a whole hell of a lot of truth. We talked about childhood trauma, trying heroin for the first time at 16, a stolen shotgun, and how crack saved his life. You can check out his band Husk here: https://www.facebook.com/huskbandofficial/ You can listen to Dr. Nadine Burk Harris talk about childhood trauma here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk

This will be one of my favorite episodes for a very long time. Doug Grean is an audio engineer, producer, guitar player, and filmmaker with a resume that is truly stunning: Sheryl Crow, Ricki Lee Jones, Corey Glover, Glen Campbell, Cyndi Lauper, Tim McGraw, John Taylor from Duran Duran, Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow, and on and on and on. Most prominently, though, he was music director, production partner, and lead guitar player for Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots. Doug is also a depression survivor and recovering addict. This interview goes really, REALLY DEEP. It's long, but I think it's totally worth it.

This week I spoke with Lemuel Hayes, Nashville session drummer and one of my favorite people in the world. Lemuel has played with Cindy Wilson from the B-52s, Nicki Bluhm, Jaime Wyatt, Reed Turchi, and so much more. He's also a great photographer. We talked about surviving rejection, handling anxiety when you live a life of complete uncertainty, and causing his therapist to have a car accident.   You can hear Lemuel's playing and see his art on his website, here:   http://www.lemuelhayes.com/

This week's episode is an interview with bassist and vocalist Jeff Rapier. Jeff was a member of Athens, GA punk band American Cheeseburger, as well as Donkey Punch and the Dumps. Jeff is the survivor of a deeply chaotic childhood and also the death of his younger brother. We talked about trying to find the balance between meds, self-medication, and surviving.