Advertise on podcast: Third Gear Scratch

WARNING! All ye who put your ears toward this episode should know that it is the final installment of Third Gear Scratch, which appropriately features one of my closest friends and bandmates, Mr Chris Metcalf of our band, The Life and Times. But before that Chris had done much wood-shedding with crazy great bands like Stella Link , SImple Lines and Lafayette. The latter one here Lafayette has in fact reformed since Chris has returned to KC after an almost 10 year run in Chicago, and has recently made a new record with Paul Malinowski, Shiner bassist that is due for release. We recount our time together in TLAT through 5 records and 3 more EPs and so many live shows and tours with bands like Russian Circles, Mono, Pelican, Murder By Death, Appleseed Cast, Sparta, Nueva Vulcano, Magnetic Morning and so many more. It's a fantastic way to close out this podcast that I've been so greatful to host and get to meet so many hugely talented artists who've inspired me and Chris is among the most inspiring. There's new Life and Times in the pipeline, so pour one out for Third Gear Scratch podcast but don't weep for me or us. We'll continue to make music as long as our bodies will let us. Thank you all so much for the support and for your ears and for all my amazing guests. ONWARD and Keep on making stuff. All the love! 

Blake Smith and his rock band Figdish from the 90's Chicago scene has never taken things too seriously; never been careerists, and in fact went out of their way to indulge in hijinx and sabotage, despite ending up with 2 hugely influential records and a solid major label record deal. This was the band that came of age with Varuca Salt, Local H and Smoking Popes with comparisons to Replacements and Husker Du that intentionally played a set of Neil Diamond covers at a label showcase in front of A&R from all the biggies. The same band that threw a sandwich off their hotel balcony and covered Marilyn Manson and his crew in hoagie. Blake Smith and band mate Mike Wilison went on to start the electronica based project Caviar with pretty solid success with lots of TV and film placement. But its the music that was written before they lost their record deal with Polygram that is the focus of a new Figdish release, the first in over 25 years, called Feels Like The Very First Two Times (Forge Again). These apocryphal songs complete the journey of this band and round out a top flight collection of powerful chicago indierock of the 90's scene that left a lasting impact on rock today, despite the hijinx and sabotage. 

The service industry has always been in actor Vasily Deris' blood, seeing as how his family owned a group of restaurants in Crown Point IN just south of Chicago. He had been working 12 hours a day in multiple restaurants each for more than a decade but his true calling is on the stage; any and all stages. Since deciding to refocus his existence into the lights he's taken his powerful singing and acting talents to many hallowed Chicago stages in performaces of Bat Out Of Hell: the Meatloaf Musical, Groundhog Day, Kinky Boots, and is currently finishing a 2 month run at Writers Theater in Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812. But his biggest break may have been landing an agent which pretty quickly turned around into impactful screentime on FX's The Bear, Shining Girls Apple TV+, Showtimes Shameless  and now a holiday feature film with Ben Stiller coming later this year. The SAG-AFTRA strike stuck a dagger in not just his work but the entire biz and Vasily still has a toe in the service industry. But you may want to put your order in quick because soon he'll be too busy. 

Going back to school to study World Religions just seemed like the right thing to do for Chris Simpson, the hugely talented solo artist operating under Mountain Time and formerly of the bands Mineral and later The Gloria Record. Minerals influence and impact from the late 90's cannot be overstated from their albums the Power of Failing and then EndSerenading, before getting signed to Interscope Records and then promptly disbanding. Dream Homes (Spartan Records) is the new record from Mountain Time and it sprawls and inspires awe with walls of sound including horn and string sections and loose arrangements that Chris danced with for over a decade while also raising four kids with his wife in Austin. oh and now going back to school. Dream Homes of course reflects his love of giants like Big Star, Neil Young, the Band, George Harrison, Leonard Cohen. But mostly if reflects Chris at his best. 

Gerald Dowd is the rare working musician who is actually making his living directly from his drumming gigs with an extremely wide range of musicians, from Eddie Vedder to Mavis Staples to Robbie Fulks to Neko Case to Justin Roberts, not to mention fantastic players that you may not have heard or be aware of. In addition, he's a songwriter of the first order playing a brand of country music that tips its cap just slightly without ever aping a certain artist or style. On his most recent solo release Fathers Day, his songs are straight from his soul and reflect exactly who he's become as a father and husband making his way in life, with narratives sometimes hilarious but also achingly poignent and heartfelt. After graduating from music school in Boston in the late 90's studying jazz and classical percussion, he found his way to Chicago and spent 20 years traveling the US and the world playing every small venue with various outfits, at which point he'd embedded himself within the Chicago scene and became the go-to hire for so many. Gerald is also a crazy man by staging fundraising events called the Day Of The Dowd in which he plays drums for 13 hours straight with 12 different bands to raise money for local food banks, pantries and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Great rap with the real deal. 

After 13 years of teaching percussion as an adjunct faculty member at a nearby college in upstate New York, Blake Fleming was unceremoniously let go, common with many colleges and shrinking enrollment that is plaguing the academic world. But the loss of this relatively low-paying gig was a blessing of sorts for Blake, a ground breaking drummer who entered the collective conscious with his avant punk band of the 90's Dazzling Killmen, then Laddio Bolocko, followed directly by a stint as a founding member and drummer in The Mars Volta. He used his new-found freedom to channel his creative energies into finishing and releasing a new album of percussion-only music, one that forges an EP from 2020 called Drum Killah with new material that has become his newest release called The Beat Fantastic. It's an eclectic and powerful testament to the tones created by only percussion instruments, revealing much more nuance and melody and actual note from each drum in pieces that feature no stringed instruments or keys of any sort. Blake is also an author of note after he released his first book in 2017 called The Book Of Rhythm (Skin and Stick Publishing) an exhaustive archive of rhythms containing every possible rhythmic combination derived from a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9-beat grouping as well as every combination derived from a 12-beat grouping. With The Beat Fantastic he's offering rock-solid proof of the power of percussive music. 

When the highly respected label The Numero Group approached Brandon Butler, the voice and heart of KC heart throbs Boy's Life, about doing a retrospective of his influential band, his initial thought might've been there's not enough material to reissue, considering they only released 2 full lenths in their short tenure. What he hadn't considered was they were purchasing their entire catalog of 7" recordings and split collabs with bands like Christie Front Drive and Vitreous Humor, turning their rerelease into a 4 LP celebration of this foundational band from Kansas City MO. His career is one of a troubador and seeker always pushing and growing. His evolution over the years of his different bands from The Farewell Bend, to Canyon and on to Six Bells and through a prolific solo career that has seen him blossom from indie rocker to thoughtful and knowledgable musician with command over not only his lyrical narrative but also his voice and the machinations of theory, allowing him to make the music he hears in his head. He's a dedicated father, husband, a talented luthier and a hardass worker with a growing remodeling business in his adopted town of Louisville KY. With the reissues and a few Boy's Life shows in the near future, Brandon's at the top of his game indeed. 

In September of 2020, deep into a pandemic that seemingly had no end in sight, Life and Times bassist Eric Abert made a big decision to move from the place he'd called home for most of a decade, Chicago, and to move back to Collinsville IL outside of St Louis. It wasn't for nothing; in fact it was for a lot of reasons. He and his new bride wanted stability, a house, a solid job, and a child in a time when there was very little stability and no one was certain what the future would hold. He landed a great job at his brothers' digital printing business Pic The Gift, they soon found an amazing house there that would have cost $750k in Chi, and at the same time realised they were pregnant and welcomed a beautiful baby boy 3 years ago. Erics previous band Ring, Cicada (54 40 Or Fight!) had disbanded or gone dormant since his departure to join Life and Times in KC, but now they were all back in the St Louis area. But grown men have grown up life things to do and rocking ain't always at the top of the to-do list. The pandemic, the recent release and rebirth of Shiner also put off the opportunities to get back with Life and Times, so Eric has been missing a big part of his life up to that point: rocking. Well things are looking up in that dept with a recent Ring, Cicada reunion show and now BROASIS, (our Oasis cover band btw) is back in the swing. Could it be that L&T will live again in the near future? Eric has been living his best life and now it seems to only be getting better. 

Guitarist Coley Dennis is the heartbeat of his band Maserati since their inception in very early 00's and continues to be that even when they have to play live and tour without him. It would appear almost like a franchise to the uninitiated until you realize how connected this band is and has been over the years, slowly growing their Athens/ATL fanbase internationally and in the states. Now the shows are much bigger, more fests, more attention, but Coley, as a chef and restaurant owner of The Local with his wife in LuSaunne Switzerland and also a faither of two young children, has to pick and choose his time away. Nevertheless he's steered this ship over the years as the now celebrate the anniversary edition of Pyramid Of The Sun (Temporary Residence LTD) record, originally released in 2010 after the tragic death of their outlandishly talented and beloved drummer Jerry Fuchs (!!!, LCD Soundsystem) after he fell down an empty elevator shaft. In grief, the band waited a year or more before releasing POTS and deciding to move forward as a band with Mike Albanese on the kit ever since. Coley has guided the band through the tumult while maturing as a father, husband and business owner but one who is clearly married to his band of brothers. 

In 2021, in full pandemic tilt, Timothy Showalter aka Strand Of Oaks, released a brilliant  record in the vein of much of his stratospheric catalog called In Heaven (Dead Oceans) but decided not to tour on it, because that's what you didn't do during those heavy days; tour. Instead, he shut it all down. Stopped strumming and humming and stopped checking his emails and all other things that create anxiety for an artist who's been busting his ass for most of 20 years and who's making quite a dent in the music world with his intoxicating mix of Neil Youngian based songs and stories. There's always been an astral leaning, psychedelic connection to Strand of Oaks music, but for that moment it needed to cease, and all Tim Showalter wanted to do was paint. Not to mention, he was asked to join the cast of Mayans MC for 2 seasons, working with Edward James Olmos, something he'd never considered a possibility. The painting and acting paused, and the music started again. But this time he wasn't drawn to his guitar and the usual Youngian template. Instead he headed to his synthesizers and his long time engineer/producer/collaborator Kevin Ratterman (Elliot, Twin Limb) and rebirthed his muse in a different form, albeit one that continues to radiate what Tim does instinctively, move the listener. His new album Miracle Focus, is a fresh start and reflects his DIY ethic completely. It's still 100% Strand Of Oaks, long time fans will be relieved to know, but uses instruments that inspired him for this round of songs after the time off. Songs that give back what he's been living, Transendental Meditation, Yoga, Ram Dass and the feeling of joy that each moment creates, passes and recreates again infinitely. 

As the frontman, face and heartbeat of his band My Epic, singer/guitarist Aaron Stone started his rock band long before he ever imagined having and wife and now 4 year old child and would never have believed his band would still be making music. in fact they're making music on a killer label, Tooth and Nail Records, with their newest LP Loriella due on June 27th. 2024.  But even as he's grown older and now with a family, his bands' trajectory continues to rise as he's split his time between his music and his job--bivocational he calls it. As a kid raised in the church in North Carolina, indeed as a PK (preachers kid), his faith was big for him, and ultimately he majored in philosophy and got his masters in Theology. Throughout it all however, his rock band has been has greatest and most powerful voice for his ideaology without it ever being too heavy-handed for his crowd that often has "mixed or absolutely no belief" in a higher power. His music has been the conduit and has spoken the loudest for this thoughtful and articulate rocker with a larger calling. 

U of I in Champaign / Urbana in the 90's was typical of many satelite college towns to big cities with a happening urban center, dive bars and house parties for the indie scene to procreate within. Drummer Steve Lamos' band American Football was one of the bands within that scene that made a record for Polyvinyl Records, played a few shows then broke up -- except the lore and legend of that special debut album grew like crazy for the next 15 years. Reunion tours in 2014 and reissues all sold like wildfire. An appearance on NPR Tiny Desk Concerts puts the bands success into stark relief. Throughout it all Steve's drumming has added a jazz-influenced mathy component to the jangle and chime of their guitar lines, also punctuating many songs with his trumpet lines throughout their catalog. But even more impressive is his career as Professor of English and Writing at UC Boulder for the past 20 years. He's written extensively on something he calls Resonant Literacy as a way of listeners of music describing what they're hearing in esoteric and abstract ways. As American Football embarks this summer on tours of the US and Europe in celebration of the 25th anniversary of LP 1, Steve's living his best artistic life with more to come! 

Somewhere in the late 00's, drummer Chris Enriquez felt the familiar and invetible societal pull of many artists to finally "get a real job" after over a decade with his bands On The Might Of Princes, Long Island hardcore/emo heros, and Gracer after Princes disbanded. He left it behind and began working as a brand rep for PBR at a time when that brand was making a major push to become indie-rocks beer of choice, which largely came to pass. But much was missing from his life at this time and he held that tide back with alcohol and cocaine until it became untenable at a certain point. It was near the time he joined with the band Spotlights in 2017 that he came out of his self-imposed "retirement" and reentered the rock world with a force. But he took what he learned from his time as a brand rep with PBR and has put it to great use as a Brand Partnership Director with Brooklyn Vegan, Alternative Press, The Hard Times and Revolver Magazines, respectively. As he restarted this life his rock life also got back in to top gear he's now drumming with not only Spotlights, but also Julie Christmas and Orange 9MM, not to mention his pandemic solo project called Light Tower. In the last couple of years there's been much excitement around On The Might Of Princes, and they had great success with a re-release of their final album, in addition to a sold out live performance on Long Island earlier this month. 

There was a point maybe 10 years ago give or take, in which bandleader, frontman, guitarist, singer songwriter, podcaster and outsized personality Conan Neutron had a reckoning or awakening of sorts in regards to his bands and the dynamic within, which had taken a not-good turn. The Conan Neutron of today reflects on those regrets and missed opportunities and how he turned that into his successful podcast Conan Neutrons Protonic Reversal and his band since that fateful about face, Conan Neutron and His Secret Friends with Dale Crover (Melvins) on the kit and Tony Ashe (Trophy Wives/Coliseum) on the bass. This band and larger touring collective that he curates is the result of his embrace of who he is now vs back then. Their new album Adult Prom (Learning Curve) is a split LP with their friends in the band Lung and provide more proof that he's making the best music of his life. His bands Replicator and Victory & Associates, Mount Vicious and Household Gods set the stage for who his today, 380 episodes deep on Protonic Reversal and 7 albums deep making music with his best friends and musical heros, but this time sans drama. 

Deep into the pandemic, drummer AC Paterra and his musical partner in Zombi, bassist-keyboardist Steve Moore also went deep; deep into the sounds and songs that created who they have become today as a pillar of Relapse Records, a label often associated with noisy artists. However the songs that moved AC and Steve over these covid days were the yachti-rock based sounds of Gerry Rafferty, Paul Davis, Steely Dan and Barry Gibb. So faithful were these renditions that many assumed they were singing over the original tracks. This attention to detail doesn't escape their own original music they make as Zombi, a band releasing it's 7th album, Direct Inject, again on Relapse in late March '22. Sure, their band reflects the sounds of the 90's Pittsburgh heros such as Trans AM and a dash of Don Caballero, (to wit Phil Manley of TA guests on Direct Inject) but it would be short-sighted to assume this band is a cookie cutout of those giants. AC goes out of his way to avoid math in his deep grooves. In fact, Zombi continues to expand their sound and even include a touch of the yacht into their songs with Steve Moore's sax. AC is also busy as keyboardist for Grails and tours with them as well. He is living his best life as a full time musician who also happens to be making the best music of his life.