The Best Midwestern Podcast with hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel celebrates 50 episodes this week. Synth nerdy abounds in their talk with Closeness, featuring Todd Fink of the Faint and Orenda Fink of Azure Ray, who have teamed up to make rad dark electronic rock.
Catching up on recent episodes of the Punknews Podcast, we find Ricky Frankel joining Adam White and John Gentile for #339 and Tom Trauma in the third chair on #340. The shows touch on recent stories like the proposed Riot Fest Dead Kennedys reunion which of course didn't happen, the Montebello Rock Fest in Quebec, HR's brain surgery, the Joe Strummer live record, and new music from Dead Milkmen and At The Drive-In. Also: Tom's fashion report from a Dropkick Murphys show and Adam's half-baked theory on jukebox punk.
Episode #337 and #338 of the Punknews Podcast featured a whole ton of Canadian content, including news on award nominations for The Dirty Nil and Dilly Dally, new releases from the Nil, The Flatliners, and Ancient Shapes, and the new Zodiac release from Fucked Up. We also chat about the Morrissey headlined When We Were Young Fest and some of the debate surrounding it.
The Best Midwestern Podcast with hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel returns this week for a tech-cursed talk with Tim Kasher of Cursive and The Good Life (Omaha via LA) who just released a solo album / movie soundtrack. They also play clips from all his bands and are huge nerds with him.
The Best Midwestern Podcast with hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel returns this week to chat with Mike Felumlee of The Bigger Empty and Smoking Popes. Mike tells us all about the brand-spanking-new EP by The Bigger Empty (out this week!) and we play tracks, and he also tells us about rejoining the Popes and the fun he's having with his video channel Live From the Rock Room. Also, drummer talk.
The Best Midwestern Podcast with hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel bring you a belated episode that is well worth the wait: We sit down with all four members of the current incarnation of Squirtgun (Lafayette, IN based). Bassist and founding member of the band, Mass Giorgini (also of Screeching Weasel, Common Rider, also Greg's boss at Sonic Iguana), joins Greg in his studio. We also talk with Dan Panic (also of Screeching Weasel, The Queers, The Riverdales, Beulah and more), Zac Damon (Screeching Weasel, Big in Japan, Common Rider), and Kevin Sierzega (PT's Revenge). The entire band tells stories of the recent Lookouting Festival and what it was like visiting Gilman Street, a venue most of them hadn't been to in many years. They also pick each other's favorite non-Squirtgun projects and we play tracks. It's a fun one and a total melee!
Catching up on recent episodes of the Punknews Podcast, we find Greg Simpson joining Adam White, and John Gentile for #335 and Tom Trauma in the mix for #336. The shows touch on recent stories like the end of Cheap Girls, Slightly Stoopid's hash record, Jack White's vinyl plant, the arrival of Open City, Greg Graffin on tour and the return of Teenage Bottlerocket to Fat. All that and we get a ton of listener feedback on the Nazi punching debate.
We continue to get caught up on our January podcast posts with episodes 333 and 334. These episodes feature Adam White, John Gentile, and Ricky Frankel chatting about recent music from the Dropkick Murphys, Antisect, The Menzingers, Crusades, Pissed Jeans and many more. We also chat about all the music related drama that lead up to Trump's inauguration. More importantly, we also talk about peaches.
On this episode of the Best Midwestern Podcast hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel review new records by Cloud Nothings (Cleveland), Joan of Arc (Chicago), and Fred Thomas (of Saturday Looks Good to Me, Detroit). The hosts add "We also give mad props to our wives (and Greg's mom) for marching on Washington. Related: fuck Donald Trump, fuck Mike Pence, fuck Steve Bannon, and fuck all those guys."
The Punknews Podcast is starting off the new year strong by forgetting to post stories about the episodes we've recorded for nearly a month. Professionalism abounds in the classic Punknews style. Episodes 331 & 332 feature Adam White, John Gentile, Ricky Frankel, and Tom Trauma taking one last look at the music of 2016 and discussing recent news like the closure of Burnt Ramen, the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame and more.
On this episode of the Best Midwestern Podcast hosts Greg Simpson and Scott Heisel review three Midwest albums we spaced on in 2016, Coloring Book by Chance the Rapper (Chicago), My Woman by Angel Olsen (St. Louis/Chicago) and Lives We Tell Ourselves by Sleeping Cranes (St. Louis). This was recorded immediately after watching Trump’s first press conference, so let’s just say the intro is… heated.