Subversion

We begin today's episode with a tip of the hat to Walter Becker, co-founder, and musician in Steely Dan before hearing from not one, but two members of "The Scouting Report".  This band has a truly eclectic and unique sound, incorporating violin/fiddle in a masterful cohesion of genre bending qualities.   Please support my guest, but purchasing their album, Narrows and Neurons via Amazon.   We are also trying to rally donations for victims of hurricane Harvey, at donorsee.com/project/1258

I present to you, the first edition of the new segment, "Forbidden Notion".  Today I lay out the general direction the show will be taking, lay the groundwork for what to expect, and talk a little bit about the ideas behind why we're taking it in this direction.   We've probably all seen the video going around of the University of Utah Hospital's nurse Alex Wubbles being arrested by Detective Jeff Payne of the SLCPD.  That's what I'll be introducing with this new segment with, and expect to see solo episodes like this, interviews with experts and people who know a hell of a lot more than me.   Thank's for sticking around during this paradigm shift in the nature of the content of this show.  I know you'll enjoy it. Also, folks, Texas has been devastated by Hurricane Harvey and they need your help.  Donate, at donorsee.com/project/1258

I'm joined today by Scott McLain.  Like a lot of the artists you hear on this podcast, he represents the spirit of Americana as a blanket genre and has a lot of personal anecdotes to embellish his body of work.   It's back to school time, help these kids get the resources they need! donorsee.com/project/1161 donorsee.com/project/1189 donorsee.com/project/1195 donorsee.com/project/1206 donorsee.com/project/1205 donorsee.com/project/1188 donorsee.com/project/1218 donorsee.com/project/1217 donorsee.com/project/716 donorsee.com/project/685 donorsee.com/project/686 donorsee.com/project/1231 donorsee.com/project/1229 donorsee.com/project/1228 donorsee.com/project/1230

You've all heard me talk a lot about what is called "post-rock" and have been hearing an artist named Nic Bommarito's music in the outros in a lot of the interviews, but today I have a founding member of one of my favorite bands of this genre, Philip Jamieson!   I was pleasantly surprised as to how easy it was to talk to Phil.  I was worried that I would just fanboy out with him and get nervous, but it really just ended up being a conversation between two people that love this style of music.  We reflected on growing up in the Christian faith, how departures from this have shaped our experience, introductions into the world of this rather nebulous blanket genre of instrumentally driven rock.   Songs featured in this episode: Moksha from Caspian's sophmore release, and first studio album, The Four Trees The Raven, from the album Tertia, dropped two years following The Four Trees Echo and Abyss of the band's most recent 2015 release, Dusk and Disquiet You can find Caspian's music

I'm joined today by Ruth Lapointe, otherwise known by her stage moniker "Ruthless Ruth".  We reminisce about coming of age in the rural Midwest communities of North Iowa, which as you may have learned by now, is fertile ground for discussion with yours truly, being as we come from the same general area.  Ruth really is a talented musician with a downright angelic voice and I look forward to seeing more from her in the future. This week's charity project goes straight to repair a much needed road to an orphanage in Uganda, a landlocked country torn by a history of conflict, destabilizing their economy making it one of the most destitute countries on the globe.  Please consider donating, even the most meager donation can help bring this road up to a usable standard.  Find more information at donorsee.com/project/867 or download the DonorSee mobile app.

Any former emo/scene/hardcore folks out there?  Well Dan Smotz and I are from these sort of circles of musicians in the Midwest making loud, angry sounding music often with a message of empowerment and I hope you can relate to us on some of these subjects.  We get into Dan's and my own thoughts on "Christian" music and how his faith has evolved over the years, thoughts on growing up in fundamentalist households and where our experiences overlap in that department.   As far as his solo stuff under the intuitive moniker, Smotz, Dan takes us through a genre bending experience where roots in the aforementioned musical stylings which Dan is familiar with such projects like his full band, The Dawn Retreat, while also heavily geared toward using rap as a lyrical force, sprinkled with a toe tapping jazzy riff here and there such as in "Nicotine" (which is featured on this episode).  It really is a unique listening experience. He also has a band called The Dawn Retreat Dan is a super busy gu

Today we're joined by Philip Westall, aka Blood Brother, a one man band.  This one would be especially interesting inside-baseball for other musicians out there, as Philip is somewhat of a gearhead and his instruments are customized.  His banjo is is somewhat of a mix of a banjo and a bass with a splash symbol mounted on it where he can strike it with his thumb.  His music is unique and quite relaxing, so please consider buying his album and keeping up with his show schedule at bloodbrothermusic.com Also please consider donating to this week's charity project at donorsee.com/project/823

Fans of country/blues rejoice, I have a Minnesota gem for you.  Andrew Spreck's most recent album, Devotion, is aptly named as he has a genuine passion for playing music.  His lyrical style is candid and genuine, coupling with his prowess around a guitar makes for a relaxing listening experience.  Find more on Andrew at andrewspreck.com/ This week's charity project funds a water well for the Chinguluma Village in Malawi.  Donate with the DonorSee app or visit donorsee.com/project/823 for more information.

This episode is honestly what I envisioned when I started this project.  A conversation between two people with a passion for music, a conversation you'd like to be a fly on the wall to listen to.  Dylan and I talk about the history of progressive rock, how it has informed modern music, including one of my personal favorites, post-rock.  We provide a bit of commentary on man's relationship to this beautiful monster we've created with technology known as social media.  I say beautiful because we can not honestly throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.  After all, it has freed up the means to broadcast a message from someone like myself to bring you an hour to provide an ear for the well deserved artists like Dylan.  I don't think I have to really explain why I simultaneously consider it a monster, we all are familiar with the problems of social media.  During this interview, Dylan and myself really threw a lot of band and artist's names out there, so I threw toget

You know how there are those people in this world who just radiate that positive energy, like it's just overflowing and they have more than enough to give without expecting anything back?  That's the kind of person I have as a guest today, and I'm pleased to welcome Ben Kath on this edition of Subversion.  Not only is Ben himself such a positive person, but his music is without question a reflection of himself.  The beats are dope, the delivery is prime, it all just flows together perfectly. Ben also recently launched is new project where he will be selling his services as a beat producer.  You can find information on that at benjamminbeats.com.  Support independent art! Also please consider donating to this week's charity project, which is being brought back out since it hasn't been completely funded.  It goes toward supplying three sewing machines for struggling children in Uganda.  Find more info at donorsee.com/project/487, and also consider downloading the a

I've always had an affinity for lo-fi production.  The warm fuzz of a low quality mic is oddly calming to me, as it captures the visceral relationship between a growing artist and their instrument.  There's this sort of trademark of the kind of music that Eliott shared with Subversion.  It really puts you right in the room with the artist, as opposed to the kind of audio production we generally consume which is, for lack of a better word, sterile and is missing a key element of placing oneself in the very moment in time it was captured through a medium of permanence.   It's rather difficult for me to come up with the words to describe it, so for sake of brevity, Eliott's music evokes a nostalgia in me which isn't conjuring any specific memory of mine, it's simply this fluttering in my core that reminds me of something familiar. This week's charity project goes toward helping to build a water well for a village in Malawi.  "The well should last for 20 years which means

Allow me to pose a question for you: How joyful do you think someone is who sings the blues?  Well, I can tell you with certainty that our guest, Todd Partridge, sings the blues yet emanates mirth and curiosity which is clearly borne out in his music.  Even though the genre in its purest form is outwardly woeful and bleak on the surface, evoking the deep and familiar emotion of despair we often run from.  However, Todd and King of the Tramps has managed to take the curious arrangements of these tones of which we are so familiar, having the ability to use their charm to transform them into something that skirts along the edge of blues, yet compels one feel a sense of inspiration. You can find King of the Tramps at kingofthetramps.com This week's charity project will be revisited from one a few episodes ago which hasn't yet completed it's funding goal.  It goes to fund a fence, which will soon house 100 orphans, but securing the perimeter is the first step.  I urg

Today's guest is yet another Twin Cities artist from none other than Nice Guy Entertainment.  We talk about the simpler times of being a kid, suburbia, depression, Poke-mon, death.  You know, average every day small talk.  But I have to say, you could throw some of Ty's tracks on the radio and no doubt, people would ask "who's this?" in the way one asks the question because it sounds like something they're familiar with. You can find more of Ty Davis at the tag realtylerdavis: Twitter, Soundcloud, Instagram This week's charity project will go to Light for Orphans Ministry to give orphans, who are the lesser talked about victims of the AIDS epidemic in Uganda, shoes and school supplies.  Find this project and more at donorsee.com/project/750

Entrepreneur and genuinely generous force in the world, Gret Glyer joins me to discuss his charity plat form, DonorSee.  If you're a regular listener you're no doubt familiar with this platform, which I can not talk up enough.  When I donate, I get constant updates from the aid workers who posted them, get videos and photos upon completion of the people who are helped by my donations thanking me for my generosity. Gret talks about his experiences in Malawi which drove him to start DonorSee critiques of how charity is often managed, including one problem DonorSee has had with the Peace Corps. I encourage you to download the DonorSee app, to make things easier for you when I tell you about charity projects on this show.  You can also visit DonorSee on PC at donorsee.com You can find more of Gret on twitter, @gretglyer, and you should also check out his blog and sign up for his e-mail list at gretglyer.com to stay up to date with him.

Love, loss, music, and bliss.  I can think of no other words to better describe the interview I had with Joe Scarps, of a two bands quite close to my heart.  As you'll hear in the interview, Joe is part of a small subculture I was deep into some years ago, so we have a sort of kinship from sharing in this community together, and I have many fond memories of going to their shows. Dead Larry is putting on their own festival called the Galactic Get-Down, which you can find more information at facebook.com/GalacticGetDown and follow Dead Larry at facebook.com/deadlarry This week's charity project goes toward buying sewing machines for the Nakaseke Childrens Home from Uganda.  Read more about this project, donate, and receive updates on projects you give to by visiting donorsee.com/project/487

Do you think the American culture has some social damage?  There's a song for that.  Have you ever pondered what an army of cold zombies sounds like, shuffling it's way across Eastern Europe?  There's a rock opera for that.  Ever heard of the power of different auditory frequencies having neurogenic and psychological effects on the human mind?  My guest today knows about this and so much more, which we go over in our episode today during your weekly dose of brilliant independent music.  We also discuss a little bit about the current social order as it happens to be, the peculiar phenomenon that we live in such a safe world, yet somehow the worst of the worst stories seem to rise to the top of the news, much like a small splash of oil in a large lake of fresh drinking water.  All of this and more, in today's interview. Here are some places you can find Cody and his band, The Euclids: https://www.facebook.com/TheEuclids/ and https://soundcloud.com/dj-analogue-

What comes to mind when I say "DJ"?  In the modern sense, you may expect to see a guy on stage in a club with a laptop and some equipment, dancing around and playing with knobs.  Well what if I told you there were still analog producers out there who are manually making the music as it runs?  To most of my audience who aren't audiophiles, this may not make you particularly excited, but the use of analog equipment produces a much higher sound quality without the compressed digitally stored samples that are generally used in this format. Today, I'll let you get to know one of those people who produce such a thing as analog music.  He goes by the stage name Nutcracker Dungeonist.  As always on this show we come to find that my guests are so much more than musicians, but three dimensional human beings with much more behind them than their finished product that you end up hearing in the form of a couple minute songs/tracks.  Robert is a truly unique individual and this interview was

Have you ever heard of the hero's journey?  It's the plot archetype used in Star Wars, for example.  A person in a rather ordinary place, doing ordinary things.  When suddenly a call to adventure comes, be it out of necessity by being pushed into uncertainty caused by a tragic event or simply a longing for a break from the mundane.  This is truly a relevant archetype, because they are the stories which keep our attention and make us feel engaged. Today's hero is none other than the member of a band out of Minneapolis (formerly of Iowa City), Mark McGuiness shares the strife in his life, what events have unfolded before him to make him the man he is today which is one in the same with what informs the music he creates.   You can find more of Dead Larry at https://www.facebook.com/deadlarry/ The guys in Dead Larry are also putting on their own festival called the Galactic Get-Down, which you can find more information at https://www.facebook.com/GalacticGetDown/ Today's c

Hip-hop will be a recurring theme on this program.  Not only out of my own personal affinity for the genre, but by the very fact that this show is based out of the Twin Cities and our culture is very much driven by a specific kind of music subculture.  To this point about hip-hop, here will be no shortage of references to the late Prince on this program, who really did bring this amalgamation of pop and hip-hop into an easily digestible medium and is a rather iconic part of the Twin Cities in general.  For this very reason, the independent music in Minneapolis is strongly influenced and momentum sustained by rap.  What does this have to do with my guest today?  Well it just so happens that Brandon McCollum is one of those people pumping steam into the Twin Cities rap scene.  He founded and manages Nice Guy Entertainment, leading a truly brilliant bunch of artists in his collective.  Brandon is not simply doing all of the things behind the curtain, he is an artist himself and

Louis Blackmore.  It kind of sounds like a superhero alter ego, doesn't it?  Well, if you get to know my pal Louie, you'll find he really is a unique and superb individual.  In this interview, we talk about growing up in our stomping grounds of North Iowa and other details of Louie's background, as well as his current endeavors in becoming a music therapist.  Louis is a former member of "The Enigmaknots", but is always active in playing and producing music.