A few months back, John Nawodylo, aka Smidge, sat down with me at my house and interviewed me for his podcast, Gunkcast. It turns out his band, Tokyo Expando, played a show with Xvessel, the first version of the Fire Show, at the Cabaret Metro. We talked for about 3 hours and he distilled it down into two segments with plenty of music clips. It serves as a nice musical overview of what I have been up to over the years. Thanks John! You did an excellent job. Here they are! The

Rock and roll is dead to me. It feels that way inside of my heart. My head tries to make sense of it and argue against it. But it was not my head that convinced me to love rock music in the first place. My heart glommed onto it and my head went along for the ride and tried to make sense of it. Rock and roll was once everywhere. It did not need me to keep it alive or argue on its behalf. I liked it that way. My parents did not indoctrinate me in it. In fact, they were a little

I have always loved the big, blustery, anxious and anthemic American rock bands. Husker Du, Snatches of Pink, Drivin n Cryin, Prisonshake, the Replacements and Soul Asylum immediately spring to mind. Back in my youth, I was forever on the search for new additions. I had my eyes peeled for the record that would become my new love, my new reason to live. It sounds a little silly now, but it was the truth. Nothing spoke to me as intimately as music did. I moved to Chicago in Jan

I can say lots of stuff about the music of Kraftwerk, but most of it has been said a million times before by people much more perceptive and analytical than I am. I will keep this simple. Kraftwerk is Trans-Europe Express. Kraftwerk is Computer World. Kraftwerk is Tour de France. Kraftwerk is ultra stiff and ultra German. Kraftwerk is clinical, robotic and detached, yet their music somehow retains a counterintuitive warmth . As I have noted before, I love David Bowie. He was

My recollections of the second Fire Show release are sketchy at best. So I decided to listen to Track #8 which contains the credits read aloud by Seth aka Olias Nil. There are no written liner notes in the CD package. I recorded Seth reading the song/album information into my Roland DJ-70 MKII sampler. Then I loaded the long sample onto the goofy scratch pad/wheel and I hand-rotated it. It played the sample in the same way that spinning a vinyl album with your fingers on a tu

I can trust the liner notes for the first Fire Show LP more than I can trust my own memory. More often than not, if I am not romanticizing past experiences, I am misremembering and romanticizing them. The names, dates and other details in the gatefold liner notes are thus a godsend. The Fire Show was born out of the ashes of Number One Cup. Very dramatic, I know. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? The Fire Show was 1/2 of Number One Cup--Seth and me. I picked up ele

In 2012, Resplendent was on life support. Meaning, I was burned out. Nothing felt fresh any more. Even though I was playing drums with a band, I had been on an extended songwriting hiatus since 2005. What was I doing? I was into photography, motorcycles and cars. Crazy, I know. I was spending all my spare time riding or driving. Then the inspiration hit and I wrote an album's worth of songs. They poured out. Since 2009, my mom's condition took a turn for the worse. She was

In 2004, I started and finished this record. It felt like a big accomplishment at the time. I had a lot of help from my friend Derek Cullimore on guitar. Normally, guitar was not a feature of Resplendent songs. Most songs in the past were written with drum samplers and keyboard samplers. So it was a change. I played my only show as Resplendent in 2005 with Patrick O'Connell on guitar and Joe Adamik on drums. We played at the Hideout and shared the bill with my friends John Kl

At the tale end of 2003, I completed Casket City Wolves. It was and is my favorite EP from the trilogy. I am partial to how it takes elements of I and II and combines them. It moves the ideas forward. If I had to pick a favorite song, it wold be Judas Priest Cul de Sac. It is mournful and hopeful at the same time. Those are my benchmarks. I had the privilege of Ben and Tim from Red Red Meat and Joe from Califone playing on 3 tracks. I forgot about that until just now as I typ

In Spring of 2003, I recorded Resplendent II: Wings Beneath The Sills with a few of the same characters I used on the first EP. What strikes me now in revisiting it is how gentle it seems. Despite the abundance of noise. Here is the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFa1eHHNcl634O74YRh6n0xxFKXVu9YPH Tracks: Resolution Time: flute 1: Chris Neal, flute 2: Katrina Walter Luminescent Exultant Chariot Wordsnotenough: percussion: ES Roth, Guitar: Patrick O'Co

It is hard to believe that it was 2002, 17 years ago, when I recorded the first of a series of three Resplendent Eps. In A Wilderness is the first. I am slowly posting all the Resplendent, Fire Show and Number One Cup records on my YouTube channel in playlist form. Check them out. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFa1eHHNcl62exdkhl6Ym38KQFNgleOKj Tracks: Wolf Chorus Semi-Hellbent Tip In A Wilderness Lone Vox What's To Change Out On The Slicks Have A Fucking Heart Pitch

I was talking the other day with my friend and bandmate Seth Kim-Cohen (Number One Cup, The Fire Show, Nil/Resplendent), and the subject of last songs on our records came up. I realized something interesting. The three bands are connected by two cover songs: You Are My Sunshine and Don't Let It Bring You Down. Here's how. Number One Cup left for an 8 week US tour on New Year's Eve 1998 to support the LP People People Why Are We Fighting . That night's show was in Milwaukee. W

Rites of Spring came along at a time in my life when I was primed for them. I was in college, staring down graduation. My impression was that everyone else had it worked out. I was the lone loser. It was just my impression, but it was a heavy weight nonetheless. Like many college kids before and after me, I couldn't fathom having a serious job. I had worked a number of unserious ones and I even struggled with those. Sadly, I was still a long way from adulthood. When I first h

Jay Spiegel was the drummer for the D.C. band the Velvet Monkeys. When I met him at the ripe old age of 17, I had no idea how influential he would be. We were co-workers for a couple of summers in a file room at the World Bank. I showed up at work for my summer job between high school and college in June of 1984 with a fresh crew cut and a questionable work ethic. I wasn't lazy, but I was neither a focused nor detail-oriented kid. I am still that way to this day. I think he m

Most punk music is anyone's music, but it belongs to a very specific anyone-one who wants to do a little work. One who wants to invest themselves in something. While the angsty and aggressive storytelling of groups like Black Flag immediately appealed to me and many, many others with its mouth-breathing simplicity and musical brutality, the turbulent guitars and scorching, wounded vocals of Bob Mould and Grant Hart of Husker Du were not so easy to apprehend. They were a sharp

I have found that in times of dysfunction, simple moments are what I remember and savor. Stuff that is unremarkable when viewed in isolation but has great significance given the circumstances. A beautiful contrast. Right around the same time that my father was cleaning out my skateboard-related road rash with a garden hose, he was in a losing battle with my mom to save their second marriage to one another. After our family relocation to Florida ended in separation then divorc

In 1973, when I was 6 years old, my dad got a job in Clearwater, Florida in real estate. He had a hard time keeping jobs so this was a big deal. He was an alcoholic and a frustrated photographer. Being a provider was not his strong suit. What I was excited about was going to Florida. Disney World was there. Everyone lived on the beach. Or so I thought. We rented a small ranch house in a scrubby, dusty housing development. I didn't have any concept of how bland and ugly it was

He might be a father, but he sure ain't a dad. --Androgynous, The Replacements I have a need to understand who my father was. There is not much information available. There has not been for many years. My mom was the keeper of much of that valuable history, but she took it with her to the grave. A final act of resistance, sadness and vengeance. In light of that, I attempt to piece together a rudimentary picture from a loose collection of images and anecdotes. I have interview

In high school, I blended in. Maybe that is a blessing. Or is it a curse in disguise? I don't think my teachers would remember me. I was agreeable but forgettable. "Blando blando" as Joe Strummer would say. Hide me please. I used to feel ashamed that I was not more of a rebel in my youth. Now I just accept my nature. I am more curious than I am opinionated and more accepting than I am judgmental. I have never been one to like arguing and confrontation. I went through a lot of

Brit Pop was king when Number One Cup made its first trips over to the UK and Europe. Of the bands that were popular, Radiohead was one of the few big bands we could identify with. Big guitars, anthemic songs and a bold yet quirky singer. His vaguely misanthropic style lacked that cock of the walk swagger that was so common. Like many people in the US, I got acquainted with them through their hit Creep. I guess it was ok. I don't know. It didn't make me a fan. I saw them open