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Send us Fan Mail John Andrew Fredrick of The Black Watch and I discuss the band’s 27th release. ‘The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop’, creativity, Marilyn Monroe, and much more. *** The praise heaped of late upon John Andrew Fredrick's long-standing and astonishingly productive Los Angeles indie band--from the likes of Mojo, Shindig!, The Big Takeover and even Prog Magzine--has been nothing less than, well, remarkable.  Having made seven albums for ATOM Records (whom they signed to in 2018) plus one for legendary but now defunct A Turntable Friend and one for The Bevis Frond's imprint in 2026, the black watch have enjoyed a dizzying run, characterized by Mojo as having "indelible melodies unspooling across well-crafted songs with a mostly big-overcoat Bunnymen/Orange Juice aesthetic"; and by venerable Shindig! as "pop confections with psychedelic overtones, Beatlesque nudges and literary lyrics (Fredrick's a novelist as well) plus an host of great melodies."   "One of the most consistent and prolific writers in rock," crows Jack Rabid, Editor-in-Chief of The Big Takeover.  "Twenty-six albums and every one worth getting."  Though Fredrick himself mock-resents the aforesaid "p" word.  "It seems to me that pointing that out is terribly facile if not banal," he says from his studio in the all-too-hip Angeleno Heights district; "but songs do seem to pour out of me and I'm, in a not-superstitious way, not sure I'd ever like to find out why.  The same thing goes for studio wizardry--where we've spent so much time; I don't think I've touched the mixing board more than three times in thirty-eight years:  we work with such skilled producers and engineers, you know.  There are so many ridiculously talented ones in our corral, as it were."   One such producer/engineer is Rob Campanella, ex-of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who has produced four or so of the most recent TBW LPs and who plays bass live.  Another is master producer Scott Campbell (Stevie Nicks, Shelby Lynne, Acetone) who's been with the band, on and off, since 1991 and who produced Led Zeppelin Five, the band's whimsically titled, best-selling LP from 2011 (reissued 2020).  Yet another is Andy Creighton who joined up in 2017 on guitar and who played the lion's share of the instruments on The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop.     "Andy had a record industry job doing statistics of some sort and he lost it suddenly and had the hardest time finding a new situation, so I thought it'd be advantageous to us both if we hired him to record the new songs.  He works so incredibly fast it's a marvel.  It was almost like we were under a mad sort of pressure to get the record done--and yet we weren't under any pressure at all.  It must have eventuated from overexcitement, the pace we kept; we just couldn't put a foot wrong, we didn't think," Fredrick chuckles; "though that remains, critically, that is, to be seen!"   Fredrick, who holds a Ph.D. in English literature and who taught Freshman Composition at such illustrious universities as USC, Loyola Marymount, and UCSB and who now teaches tennis for children part-time, has been quite vocal about quitting music--and not being capable of quitting.  He says that, as a convinced Freudian (not quite fashionable nowadays), he's fascinated by the idea of completion, of endings.     "I do think substantial changes are nearing, as it were," he observes; "our time with Andy Creighton has run its course, but my son Chandler and I and Rob and Rob's drummer brother Andy Campanella are still pretty keen on seeing what we can do."   "I've declared that The Fuzzy End is really the end of TBW, but I've been wrong before," he laughs.  "And there are seven or so songs left over from these sessions, so..."  Speaking of laughing, the title of the new (and maybe final!) LP is taken from Billy Wilder's classic slapstick comedy Some Like it Hot, where the boys in drag meet up with Marilyn Monroe as "Sugar Kane"; she's drinking from a furtive silver flask, you'll recall, and when asked by Lemon and Curtis why she's glumly getting tipsy she declares that, as far as her love life's gone, she's gotten "the fuzzy end of the lollipop."  A metaphor for a band that's been a critic's darling without massive sales?  Hardly.  For Fredrick considers that his merry band "has had the sweet end for the duration," since he formed TBW in 1987 and rehearsed in after-hours campus classrooms at the university he taught at, UCSB.    Have at The Lollipop, then--and prepare to get an aural cavity from its sometimes quite tart, often quite sweet flavors, and its (sorry!) licks. Grab a copy of Fuzzy End of the Lollipop here: https://theblackwatch.bandcamp.com/ Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7F0pMIrR6GIb49HDXza8dn?si=iyaL9vZ3ThSpNxmmNeGyig&nd=1&dlsi=4de5ce0a9f504410 Follow on IG Here: https://www.instagram.com/theblackwatchmusic/ ****** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week Jack Grisham, vocalist for the punk rock band T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty) and Joykiller stops by the show. We talk about his latest project, Jack Grisham and the Life Undone with Lars Triesch. We also discuss his involvement over the last  four decades—in literature, film work, and most importantly independent music—with over 70 million streams and over 2,000 live shows under his belt. Grisham remains a constant figure in and beyond the American punk scene. ****** Grisham is known as the frontman of TSOL and later The Joykiller. He has been active for over four decades—in literature, film work, and most importantly independent music—with more than 70 million streams and over 2,000 live shows under his belt. Grisham remains a constant figure in and beyond the American punk scene. Triesch comes out of the German ’90s punk and hardcore scene, later moving into indie with his band Profession Reporter.So how did these two end up making one of the coolest alternative rock records in recent years?For the last 15 years, Lars has been running a store for vintage furniture and design in Berlin. He’s also involved in the occasional arts project. Last year he was in Las Vegas doing research for an Edward Colver photo book. Lars is friends with Edward, who is friends with Jack, who were together at the Punk Rock Museum.If this sounds like one of those right-place-at-the-right-time things, it is.Lars and Grisham started chatting it up, and somehow a “we should make a record” statement got tossed out. Now, there is some disagreement about who said it, but Jack swears it wasn’t him, because he’d recently “walked” away again from what Hunter S. Thompson called “...a business that is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.”Ah, if only the addict knew how to stay away from things that hurt him—did I mention Grisham has been clean and sober for over 36 years? Apparently he forgot about the pain and suffering, and it was on...again.But as you know, talk is cheap, and there are about 6,000 miles from Grisham’s home in Huntington Beach, California, to Triesch’s home in Kleinmachnow, outside of Berlin.Enter Zoom and the internet. Screw the 9-hour time difference. Grisham and Triesch wrote online every day for the next few months. Although, the first few weeks were mainly spent on translation problems. The Germans don’t have a B note in the scale—it’s called an H—and they also don’t understand why Americans would call a bald man “curly”—“But he has no hair at all.”Translation issues aside, the songs were written, and Grisham flew off to Germany to record at the Triesch residence.Now before you start thinking that the record was tossed together in Lars’s bedroom, let me tell you about the house—a beautiful modern home designed by architect Ray Kappe (another strange California connection), with a basement recording studio space filled roof to ceiling with equipment supplied by Neumann.Grisham and Lars were joined by Trevor Lucca—a guitarist known for his onstage work with Dick Dale and T.S.O.L.—and the whole project was guided by the production team of Kurt Ebelhäuser and Michel Wern.Thirteen tracks were laid down in ten days—the bulk of the album—and additional vocal and keyboard recordings were done in Los Angeles at Kitten Robot Studios, engineered by Paul Roessler. Novels: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jack-Grisham/author/B004P9TEDG?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1790530983&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ccs_id=8a9f548c-06f5-468e-b829-0e32b0beeb19 **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week on the podcast, the fashion designer who is known as the “King of Pants,” Alvin Valley, stops by the show. We talk about where he picked up the moniker, how his first runway show came with a little help from Kathy Hilton, and so much more. ***** Named the “King of Pants” by The New York Times, designer Alvin Valley's journey revolves around Miami and, of course, pants. Born in New York City, and educated at the University of Miami, where he studied architecture, Valley’s designer roots are firmly planted with Miami fashionistas. Back in 1995, Valley dressed Miami’s social scene with his eponymous label, which was sold at his Coconut Grove boutique nestled on Commodore Plaza. Best-known for crafting the best-fitting pants for women, New York socialites beckoned him to the Big Apple to open a SoHo atelier. “In 2000, I packed my bags and left for New York to pursue a wider audience,” Valley says of his move. And a great decision. Valley showed regularly during New York Fashion Week with a presence in over 250 stores worldwide. His doors included well-established retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Intermix, and Fred Segal. Hollywood embraced him, too. “I’ve always interacted directly with consumers,” Valley says of his business technique. He forged close relationships with his clients, including Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Zoë Saldana, Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, Cindy Crawford, Madonna, Cher, Cameron Diaz, Celine Dion, Jennifer Garner, and more. In 2007, the Moret Group acquired the Alvin Valley brand, expanding its distribution to Nordstroms, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and even QVC.  “I’m going back to the basics and bringing back my amazing pants. I’ll be making visits around the U.S. to reconnect with my customers and I can’t wait to visit Miami — because my career started there,” Valley says. “I feel like my life is coming full circle.” Check out his designs here: https://alvinvalley.com/ Follow him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alvinvalley/ ***** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Fergal Lawler stops by the show to discuss, The Cranberries, Fame, Grief and more.  **** There's a pivotal moment when a promising young band goes from having a big debut to being launched into the mainstream stratosphere... For The Cranberries, this live album Live At The Long Astoria II, 1994 is that moment.  Live At The Long Astoria II, 1994 was recorded in London after their debut Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? had been released and the band returned from the U.S., having spent a hefty few months doing grueling promo. With their massive singles "Linger" and "Dreams" off that album setting the stage for even more greatness, The Cranberries were just getting started. Still working on their sophomore follow-up and road-testing some new songs, the Irish quartet felt they needed to reconnect with their fans in a much more intimate setting (they had played some massive venues in the States), and so they chose the London Astoria II (capacity: 1,000). With their second album No Need To Argue still cooking (it would be released later that year), they played a handful of brand new songs that would subsequently be included on the next record: “Daffodil Lament,” “Empty” and, of course, the single that would turn them into global superstars, “Zombie." Grab your copy here: https://thecranberries.lnk.to/LiveAtLondonAstoria ****** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail V. Torres stops by the show to discuss her new Album Woman. We also discuss how she once was on track to be a basketball player, but realized that the pressure was leading to burn out. We also talk about grief, the pressure of being a woman and more.  **** Woman is a seven-song collection that moves fluidly through transformation and renewal.  Written during one of the most profound chapters of her life and co-produced alongside longtime collaborator Steve Aguilar, Woman marks a significant creative milestone as the first full-length album Torres has co-produced herself. The project embraces the expansive genres of indie rock, Americana, desert psychedelia, Latin textures, and cinematic storytelling, creating a record that feels both deeply intimate and sonically adventurous. Across its seven tracks, Torres explores endings and beginnings, heartbreak and liberation, grief and healing, all while arriving at a greater understanding of herself. Following the release of "That Night," Torres will bring these songs to the stage with two Southern California performances: August 8 at The Studio in Hermosa Beach (tickets/info) and September 9 at The Mint in Los Angeles (direct support for acclaimed blues guitarist and vocalist Sue Foley - tickets/info). The performances offer audiences an early opportunity to experience the emotional power of Woman live. Watch the video for Woman : https://youtu.be/ISjias_rVcM?si=Zsfx_d2BCsvi4ZBu Etch the video for Winter Solstice : https://youtu.be/lfgXRqBKSVQ?si=GxIkhtckc4kdzBrr Watch the video for That Night :  https://youtu.be/utbP6rzgX9M?si=7PimQMzwHEH_9AFI **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Wendy Stonehenge of the Candy Whips returns to the show to discuss his cover of the classic Heaven 17 song, "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang', Tour Life, Fatherhood and much more. **** "After the doo-wop covers EP Moonlight that I released last year, I wasn't planning on doing more covers for a while. But I was listening to Heaven 17, the pertinence of the lyrics really jumped out at me,” says Wendy Stonehenge, mastermind behind the electro/New Wave-inspired project CANDY WHIPS, about their new single “(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.” "This song was originally released 45 years ago, and it's more relevant than ever. I decided it needed to be given a new life." Candy Whips interpretation of the classic percolating ‘80s hit slows down the tempo slightly but amplifies the dance groove, allowing the very timely lyrics to breathe. "I knew I had to really reinvent this song in order to pull it off,” explains Stonehenge. “I mean, I couldn't do a faithful cover even if I wanted to. The basslines of Heaven 17’s John Wilson are insane. My version is much more stripped down but also even more danceable..this is the first time I've made a straight up dance track. It was a fun challenge to work outside of my usual comfort zone." “(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” follows Candy Whip’s cover EP Moonlight, which features doo wop versions of The Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes For You,” Marvin and Johnny's “Cherry Pie,” and the Chordettes/Pat Ballard's girl group classic "Mr. Sandman." Moonlight was my way of connecting with those roots of yore,” Stonehenge explains. “Modernizing these songs helped me to be a stronger writer.” Ripe with vocal effects, drum machines, and synths, he breathed new life into the songs by dusting them off and polishing them with modern flourishes. "If I could turn young people on to this older music, that would be amazing," he adds. Known as an established member of the well-known Northern California glam rock band Glitter Wizard, Stonehenge formed Candy Whips as a side project during the pandemic. Using this project as an outlet for music that didn’t fit his other band’s glamrock mold, he explored synthpop in a more focused way, fusing punk and electronic. Candy Whips is the solo project of Wendy Stonehenge. The new single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" is out now and is available via Kitten Robot. Website: https://kittenrobot.com/artist/candy-whips/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glitterwizardwagon/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/candy.whips/?hl=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPgCq_P0e-xj84tFAiTXI3A **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Mark O'Connell, Eddie Reyes and Mike Jensen from the band ME stop by the show to discuss, how the band came together, how Mike packed a bag after getting a call and took a risk that changed his life, as well as the future.  ***** ME. wasn’t supposed to be a band. After nearly a decade apart, former Taking Back Sunday founding members Mark O’Connell and Eddie Reyes started writing together again with no intention of forming one. They had already experienced what happens when something you built stops feeling like your own.The distance between them hadn’t come from one moment, but from years of miscommunication and assumptions.  When Eddie exited the band in 2018 under difficult circumstances, he believed Mark had known more than he actually did, when in reality, Mark had been kept in the dark. For years, each of them carried a version of the story the other didn’t even know existed. It wasn’t until much later that they began to understand what really happened, and how closely their experiences mirrored each other. The first real step back came from an unexpected place. Eddie’s son, Jonas, encouraged Mark to reach out to his dad. After a brief reconnection, Casey Carter, a lifelong Taking Back Sunday fan turned friend who had stepped away from the music world years earlier to raise her daughter, helped turn that first step into something that actually moved. Casey ultimately got Mark and Eddie back in the same room for the first time in nearly a decade and helped keep the fragile reunion moving forward when old tensions and outside influences threatened to derail it.It wasn’t easy. At first, they struggled just to exist in the same space together. But slowly, through writing, the tension started to give way to something else. They didn’t take that lightly. They had both lived through what happens when something meaningful gets pulled apart, and neither of them were interested in repeating it. This time, they protected the process. They kept it close, kept it honest, and kept it theirs. So they set rules: no frontman, no hierarchy. Just ten songs and ten different vocalists.For the first time in years, everything was theirs. Mark and Eddie wrote and recorded all ten instrumentals themselves, building the songs from the ground up with a level of creative control they hadn’t experienced since the early days of Tell All Your Friends. Those instrumentals became something more than just songs. They were a way of working through everything that hadn’t been said, tension, confusion, frustration, and loss, without having to explain it out loud. There was something familiar in them too. Not in a nostalgic, looking-back kind of way, but in the feeling. The kind of sound that pulls you back to a version of yourself you remember, even when everything around you has changed.  To kick off the project, they launched an open casting call. They released one instrumental publicly and invited singers to submit vocals. While some strong submissions came in, nothing quite landed.Then something unexpected happened. While scrolling through Instagram, Casey came across Chicago musician Mike Jansen, someone she had known years earlier. Remembering both his voice and who he was as a person, she reached out to see if he might be interested in contributing to the project, not realizing he had already found the casting call himself and started working on a submission. When he finally sent it through, the reaction was immediate.Casey played it for Mark. After listening, he looked at her and asked,“Did you tell him everything?”She hadn’t.But somehow, the lyrics landed exactly where it hurt. They spoke directly to experiences Jansen had no way of knowing, reflecting years of history, tension, and things left unsaid.Jansen was flown out to meet the guys at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, NY. He began by recording the track he had submitted, which ultimately became “Special.” But it was another song, “Grown Man,” that changed everything. When he played the demo he had prepared, the shift in the room was immediate. It was one of those rare moments where everyone hears it at once.They didn’t change it. The version on the record is almost identical to that first demo.Sometimes the right voice doesn’t just sing the songs.It says the things no one else could.At one point, Casey mentioned the band might want him to stay another night or two. Jansen didn’t hesitate.“That’s cool,” he said. “I didn’t pack for a night. I packed for two weeks.”He felt it before anyone said it out loud.Like he trusted something they were still learning how to believe in again. The instrumentals themselves had been written in a very different headspace. For Mark and Eddie, they were a way of working through years of tension, confusion, and unresolved pain. The music was raw, unfiltered, and deeply personal.When Jansen stepped in, he brought something entirely different. As an outsider, he wasn’t carrying that same history. Instead, he layered his own perspective, his own lyrics, and his own story over what they had created.That distance changed everything. It allowed the music to be heard differently, not as something stuck in the past, but as something evolving beyond it.It gave them just enough space to look at it without being pulled under by it.In that sense, Jansen didn’t just step into the project. He helped redefine it.Letting him in wasn’t automatic. For Mark and Eddie, it meant confronting something deeper, not just whether the music worked, but whether they were willing to trust a frontman again after everything they had been through.It wasn’t easy. But it was necessary.Because starting over doesn’t mean forgetting. It means deciding it’s still worth trying again.As producer Chris Bittner put it,“When the universe gives you a gift like this, you don’t say, ‘No thank you. Maybe later.’”Not long after, Neal Amiruddin stepped in on bass. Neal had been part of their lives since childhood, growing up alongside Mark and longtime friend Shaun Cooper in the same tight-knit group of kids who first bonded over music. When those relationships fractured in early 2024, Neal found himself on the outside alongside Mark. His return didn’t feel like adding a bassist so much as bringing a brother back into the fold. The music that followed didn’t come from a comfortable place. Much of it was written during one of the most turbulent periods of the band members’ lives, surrounded by personal upheaval, lawsuits, and the kind of chaos that leaves no room to hide.The result is ALL GOOD THINGS, a record built from fragments of the past but firmly rooted in the present. It carries echoes of where these musicians came from, but it isn’t interested in recreating it. Instead, the band leans into something more human: the messy, imperfect process ofstarting over. The part no one talks about. The part where you’re not sure it’s going to work, but you do it anyway.For Mark and Eddie, it’s the first time in years that making music has felt fully theirs again.For Mike, it became the moment where preparation met opportunity.And for everyone involved, it’s proof that sometimes the most meaningful things come from finally seeing things clearly and choosing not to walk away, even when it would have been easier.ME. isn’t a reunion. It’s a rebirth. **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Keith Carne stops by the the show to discuss his solo release Magenta Light, the inspiration behind it, touring and more.  *** After sitting behind the drum kit for celebrated indie-pop/alternative band We Are Scientists for the last 13 years, NYC-based musical multi-hyphenate KEITH CARNE is stepping into the spotlight with his debut single "Look for the Moon," adding to the largely unexplored notion that he who makes the most noise makes the most beautiful music. Built on glistening synth textures and a steady pulse straight out of the '90s Madchester craze, “Look For The Moon” pairs grounded vulnerability with a pastoral, cinematic scope. The single (out today) is a tender, skybound love song released in tandem with the announcement of his debut solo album, Magenta Light . Written for his wife, artist Hayley Youngs, the single captures the strange emotional and measured altitude of touring life - where love is measured in miles, time zones, and the quiet glow of a shared moon. The lyrics drift between airplane cabins and existential free-fall, landing somewhere intimate and disarmingly human. It’s a song about longing without melodrama - about finding ritual and reassurance in something as simple as looking up toward the common sky. Magenta Light, an album that marks both a departure and an arrival for Carne. While his position for the last 13 years as drummer and backing vocalist for We Are Scientists continues onward, Carne steps toward centerstage as songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Across eight melancholic pop songs threaded together by expansive and transcendent passages, Magenta Light blurs the lines between ethereal tonality and propulsive dance rhythms, all anchored by an indie-pop spine. **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week on the show Bridget Barkan stops by to discuss her new single Red Carpet, touring with Scissor Sisters, prophetic dreams and more.  ***  “I told my friend Rod Thomas a.k.a. Bright Light Bright Light the idea for this song and he said, ‘You must do it!’ The next day my horoscope literally said, ‘Roll out the red carpet, now is your time’,” laughs New Yorker, multifaceted artist, powerhouse performer and certified redhead BRIDGET BARKAN about the inspiration for her new single “RED CARPET” which is released today independently. A campy, ‘70s-infused R&B funk track sprinkled with ‘80s soulful sass, “Red Carpet” serves as a defiant, high-energy theme for self-validation, artistic autonomy, and a tongue-in-cheek anthem for gingers everywhere. In the spirit of retro music, Bridget recorded old school style along with cinematic funk jazz group The Brothers Nylon and singer/songwriter Alex Cherny - one take to tape with horns, synths and background vocals from fellow NYC musician friends Tony and the Kiki, Storm Marrero and Mariela Olivo in post-production. Adding a bit of extra mojo from Morgan Wiley (Hercules and Love Affair) on piano, percussion, sounds and beats (who mixed the record as well), “Red Carpet” offers high camp while grasping tightly to a built-in pop shimmer from all the collaborative glitter. Currently co-fronting platinum-selling, international pop sensations Scissor Sisters (for whom she originally served as backup singer for brazen Ana Matronic) alongside the flashy Jake Shears, Bridget carries over that band’s sparkle and drama into her own music. “I learned so much from Ana touring with them back in 2010-2013,” she says. “She’s always supported me as a sister and I love her so much. I’ve always called her 'Minister Matronic'.” Originally inspired from a playful introduction by Jake Shears (who famously dubbed her “the hostess with the most t**s”), Bridget took his words “she doesn’t need a red carpet because she’s already got one” and embraced the cheeky imagery, transforming it into a profound meditation on her journey as an artist. “Being in the industry my whole life and having a lot of rejection and heartbreak or even being unseen and unheard at times, I often didn’t believe in myself anymore,” she confesses. “I had to take the things that I love and juice them with this humor and sass and make a mantra for myself.” A staple of the New York performance scene, Barkan’s career spans film, television, theatre, burlesque, and performance art. Following her tenure as a background vocalist for the Scissor Sisters (2010–2013), she stepped into the spotlight in 2025 as a co-lead singer when the band returned from hiatus. Her recent trajectory has been meteoric, including a massive successful 2025 UK arena and US tour co-headlining with Kesha, where she commanded stages from Madison Square Garden to Glastonbury. “People often ask me why I haven’t been on Broadway, which is intended as a compliment but often leaves a sour taste,” says Barkan. “After years of chasing external validation, I realized the answer is: ‘I AM Broadway.’ This song is a reminder that I don’t need to book a specific job to validate my existence. It is about dismantling the ‘castles of idolatry’ we build around industry success and empowering ourselves to BE the thing we are searching for and make the art we want to be part of.” Barkan brings a seasoned, unapologetic perspective to her work, tackling industry ageism head-on with lines like, “I ain’t no spring chicken, but I’m still finger-lickin’ good.” The track acts as a “spell for unwavering confidence,” for anyone ready to stop waiting to be chosen and start defining their own success. Red Carpet is not only a personal manifesto but a tribute to her chosen family of drag performers, burlesque dancers, queer artists, and fellow creators who use their hutzpah to entertain, heal and empower. *** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week on the podcast Paul Leary, guitarist for the Butthole Surfers stops by the show to discuss the release of After the Astronaut (Out Today), revisiting the archives, the documentary and more.  ***** In 1998, when BUTTHOLE SURFERS followed up their 1996 mainstream breakthrough Electric Larryland with their next record entitled AFTER THE ASTRONAUT, the major label they were signed to at the time pulled it from their release schedule at the last minute. Their reasoning? They wanted a more “commercial” record. Had that label known Butthole Surfers’ oeuvre better, they probably shouldn’t have expected another “Pepper” (their #1 Billboard Modern Rock from 1996). Instead, After the Astronaut was shelved… until now when Sunset Blvd. releases that mythic and much-discussed follow-up on June 26, 2026. “We were pretty stoked to make another album after the success of our previous album and its single ‘Pepper’,” recalls guitarist Paul Leary. “Capitol Records was stoked to get that next record until our relationship soured.” After some legal wrangling, Butthole Surfers were released from the major label’s roster and their contract was sold. “Hollywood Records bought the album but wanted to make changes to it which was an uncomfortable experience for us,” he notes (the reconfigured and reworked album was eventually released as Weird Revolution in 2001). “Now we have the right to release the original recording the way we intended it to be with its original title, After The Astronaut.” Reacting to the grunge/altrock sludge that was populating the airwaves, Leary, drummer King Coffey and vocalist Gibby Haynes pulled away from the style that was surfacing and, instead, submerged their creativity deeper into electronics, industrial beats, acid grooves, and other synthesized sci-fi sounds. “After the Astronaut was a fun project," says Coffey. "We were using all the digital toys at our disposal at the time, and it felt much like the creation of Locust Abortion (1987). We were playing with new toys, creating things that amused us with the crayons we had, and we weren’t worried about radio airplay. It felt like we were going back to our experimental roots while still navigating the major label ecosystem."    Kicking off with Haynes’ spoken word intro where he announces “I stand as a messenger of strangeness this evening in order to impress upon or at least to instruct the honorable musicians as to the methods and motives of the truly bizarre reality,” “Weird Revolution launches into a trippy and psychedelic cacophony of distorted guitar and beat-heavy rhythms that sets the tone for the record. The syncopated vocals of “Intelligent Guy” veers into proto-industrial synth grunge territory, grimy and dirty with a pulsating, mechanized beat. First single “Jet Fighter” finds the band in a surf-punk mood, exploring lo-fi dadaist psych rock filtered through a thrift store PA system, which originated, as Leary remembers, “when I purchased a 12-string electric guitar and wanted to play it.” It’s the unnatural progression of the anti-mainstream pop song that fit perfectly in the oddball late ‘90s aesthetic. An anti-war protest song that, while originally written decades ago, echoes a sentiment that can be applied today, Gibby sings about Mikey who enlisted in the military and “He got into the cockpit and rose up in the sky / Set his sights on Beirut and he let his missiles fly / Boom, Boom!” The textural and moodily cinematic “I Don’t Have A Problem” is an exercise in layering, with distorted voices weaving in and out of textured fuzz, guitar feedback, and other subterranean and unnerving sounds, which unsurprisingly is Leary’s favorite song on the album. “King showed up to the studio one day with a device that could listen in on other people’s cell phone conversations,” Leary laughs. “We set it up to record and turned it on.  Right out of the gate this guy is talking about girls with ‘knives and daggers.’ We turned it into the song ‘I Don’t Have a Problem’.” Emerging from the 1980s hardcore scene, Butthole Surfers was formed by Haynes and Leary while in college in San Antonio, Texas. Bonding over a shared  distaste for mainstream music, Butthole Surfers traipsed through the music industry, always in the fringes. Championed by Dead Kennedys, Nirvana, and Orbital and compatriots of Scratch Acid, Flipper and Big Black, they remained a fixture in the music scene’s counterculture. In a moment of mainstream acceptance (they scored a #1 Modern Rock Hit with “Pepper”), the band always embraced the obtuse and the obstinate. Though the band has never quite broken up, their legacy still inspires other acts, including Gwar, Flaming Lips, Jane’s Addiction, White Zombie, Monster Magnet, Primus and dozens more.    Butthole Surfers on After The Astronaut is Gibby Haynes (vocals, synths), Paul Leary (lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards), and King Coffey (drum machines). After the Astronaut was produced by Paul Leary, engineered by Stuart Sullivan (Meat Puppets, Sublime) at Arlyn Recording Studio, mixed by Paul Leary at Preacher Mon Studio, and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Herbie Hancock, Beastie Boys, Nirvana). It will be released on June 26, 2026 via Sunset Blvd. with original art by Paul Leary and Gibby Haynes. ***** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week Bette A stops by the show to discuss her book Slow Stories which she collaborated with legendary musician, Brian Eno. We also talk about art and creating as well as AI. One of the other major topics we cover is her charity work to help empower woman and help the world.  ***** As artist/writer BETTE A. explains: “As I developed these stories during two decades, rewriting them from memory, they grew shorter. Strange details persisted and gained significance, while what once seemed like a central plot line or meaning disappeared. I ended up with stories that feel deeper than my ideas - simpler, more layered, and more surprising.” The book inspired an expansion of the stories with a multimedia collaboration with BRIAN ENO, centered on the concept of slowness. Brian Eno’s ambient compositions cradle Bette A.’s voice as she tells two stories of the stories included in her upcoming story collection, “The Endless House” and “The Other Village.” The calm pace of the story is a deliberate choice: “When a story is told slowly, every sentence becomes more vital,” explains Bette. “Usually when we hear stories read, we expect the pace of the reading to be fairly even,” adds Brian, whose only instruction to Bette as she recorded her short stories was: “Slow, slower, even slower, yes, more slow’.” For both artists, slowness functions not only as a stylistic decision but as an act of resistance. Giving thirty minutes of your attention to something that is not urgent, not loud, and not passive, is rare. Putting on a record is a physical gesture to enter that mode, engage with art and, maybe, your inner world. “My stories take place in strange and imaginary towns and villages from pasts that never happened and futures that will never occur," explains Bette. "These worlds exist without an elaborate background description, like islands in a misty sea." “What we discovered when we were making these stories is that leaving longer spaces gives your mind a chance to imagine the detail that is hinted at in the story,” explains Brian. “The music creates a suggestive atmosphere which supports you in doing that. You don't want a lot of action in the music: what you want is to create an evocative space that leaves you, the listener, in a creative frame of mind.” Bette notes, "When everything is fast, fragmented and designed to grasp your attention, attuning to one very slow story can be a radical act. This record is a guided daydream, a space for rest and imagination." The hand-painted artworks accompanying Slow Stories art bundle extend this collaboration into a shared visual world. The paintings by Bette and Brian depict immersive, dreamlike terrains - birch forests with graffiti, lunar mountain ranges, floating eggs, geometric color fields. Like the stories, the paintings leave room for the viewer to enter and make the work their own. The artist’s proceeds of the sale of the bundle will go to their charities; The Heroines! Movement, a global storytelling movement around women role models, co-founded by Bette, and Earth Percent, a charity that channels funds from the music industry to organizations that do the most impactful work around the climate emergency, co-founded by Brian. About Bette A Bette A. is an artist, born in Amsterdam. As a child, she liked to write plays and her primary school teachers allowed her to practise them in the gymnasium. She joined a youth theatre group in her hometown. Bette continued to study Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy of Amsterdam, where she learned to follow wild ideas. After doing a Master in Creative Writing at Oxford University, she started writing in both English and Dutch, and published her novels Rus Like Everyone Else and What’s Mine. Aside from writing novels, Bette makes short stories and drawings, and teaches in art schools. In 2019 Bette co-founded TRQSE- a network of artists and scientists who work together on social projects. **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week on the podcast Gerald Everette Jones stops by the show again to discuss his latest release Jonathan's Journal. We talk about how some choices made in WW1 still affect us today and more.  ***** Gerald Everett Jones lives in Santa Monica. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Women’s National Book Association, as well as a board member of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). He is a Film Independent (FILM) Fellow. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the College of Letters, Wesleyan University, where he studied under novelists Peter Boynton (Stone Island), F.D. Reeve (The Red Machines), and Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, Being There).” More about Jonathan's Journal: When a solitary art historian stumbles across a cryptic World War I diary among his mother’s antiques, his life quietly implodes. In Jonathan’s Journal, award-winning author Gerald Everett Jones invites readers on a richly emotional and historical journey that spans continents and generations. Through dual narratives—one modern, one set during the forgotten campaigns of the Great War in the Near East and India—Jones offers a haunting meditation on identity, duty, and the echoes of conflict that shape who we become. At the center of this literary novel is Jonathan Worthington, a middle-aged professor on sabbatical, whose discovery of an anonymous soldier’s meticulously written journal ignites a quest for truth that blurs the line between past and present. The soldier, initially known only by the initials J.F.W., recounts experiences from the trenches of France to the deserts of Mesopotamia and India. As Jonathan deciphers the diary—with help from Elena, a mysterious librarian who abruptly left a position in the diplomatic corps—he suspects more than a historical connection; family secrets may lie hidden in Fred’s sparse but emotionally loaded prose. Jones’s fifteenth novel is both contemplative and adventurous, seamlessly blending historical research, literary fiction, and intimate personal reflection. Fans of Birdsong, The English Patient, and Possession will find themselves drawn into a world where archival mysteries illuminate inner truths. ***** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show Support the show

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of the Better to Podcast, I sit down with Amy Gaskin. Back in 2020 an idea came to her about going to Marilyn Monroe's grave and even though we were supposed to be masking she found fresh lipstick kisses. This lead her on an incredible journey of how the idol had come to be something more personal than a Movie Icon.  When I was notified of the opportunity to do this interview I jumped at is as it was a way to celebrate Marilyn's 100th Birthday and did into someone that was near and dear to my heart when I was younger. I hope you enjoy it.  ****** Amy Stanford Gaskin is a photographer and journalist based in Los Angeles.  Extraordinary access is a hallmark of her images, which she earns by spending time with the people she photographs. She strives to capture intimacy and truth in her art. Her new book Marilyn Forever!  Marilyn Monroe—A Symbol of Hope documents and illustrates the personal reasons people are inspired by Marilyn Monroe for reasons far beyond her stardom.  During the early days of the pandemic, she happened upon Marilyn’s crypt, where she was surprised to find wet lipstick marks decorating her resting place while the majority of the world was standing six feet apart. She began to interview and photograph visitors at her grave. Many shared stories of how memories of Marilyn’s remarkable attributes and actions helped them through the toughest of times. Perhaps the most surprising discovery was that many identify with the trauma of her abuse, adoption and foster care, while others consider her a civil rights icon for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities. Marilyn’s memory lives on in surprising ways through countless people around the world who are connected and inspired by her enduring legacy.  National Geographic, The Washington Post, STERN Magazine, The Guardian, Associated Press, BloodHorse, CBS, ABC, Los Angeles Times, and others have featured her work.  ****** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show Support the show

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, I sit down with Jules Peters, the wife of the front man of The Alarm, the late Mike Peters. We discuss their incredible love affair, his long battle with cancer, The Alarm’s new album, Transformation, and more. **** "Mike lived a life of beauty and never gave up right to the very end,” says Jules Peters, bandmate and wife of the late Mike Peters of THE ALARM who passed away on April 29, 2025. Following a fearlessly valiant 31-year battle with cancer, his monumental legacy continues with the release of TRANSFORMATION on May 29, 2026 on Twenty First Century Recordings/Virgin Music Group. Its latest single, “Live Today” premieres now via Consequence. Filmed just days before Mike underwent the innovative CAR-T treatment with hopes of eradicating Richter’s Syndrome, an aggressive form of lymphoma, “Live Today” is Mike’s final video. “As the sun rose, watching Mike perform this song with so much optimism and hope will live with me forever,” said Jules as she looks back. “It was a bittersweet day for me as we filmed this incredible joyous film on the beach in the North of England. After filming concluded, we climbed onto the tour bus and drove straight to the Christie Hospital in Manchester, U.K.. We were full of determination that the pioneering CAR-T would save Mike’s life but, at the same time, I was personally terrified as I couldn’t shake off a feeling that cancer had finally caught up with us both.” Diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995 and later with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Peters refused to let his illness silence him. Instead, he turned his fight into a mission to help others. Alongside his wife Jules, he co-founded Love Hope Strength, a music-driven cancer charity that revolutionized awareness and action around stem cell donation that continues beyond his passing. Through its innovative “Get On The List” campaigns—often hosted at rock concerts and even atop mountains—the charity has added over 400,000 people to the global stem cell registry and helped secure thousands of potential life-saving matches for patients worldwide. While this may seem like the final chapter for The Alarm, Transformation promises that the legacy of The Alarm will transform into something larger. While Mike has gone out in a blaze of glory, his love, hope and strength continues on. Echoing the title of the new single,   Jules concludes, “Mike and the spirit of The Alarm will ‘Live Today,’ forever more. I invite you all to blast Transformation out loud. Imagine Mike in the room with you. Transformation is his battle cry, his resilient love of life. Right to the very end, Mike believed that he was going to live, to be totally free. My last memory is driving him open top along the North Wales coast road, playing Transformation at maximum volume. He was so happy. So full of life. Playing his air drums, bass guitar, already imagining himself on his next world tour. So keep that positive spirit moving forwards. Imagine him as you all knew him best, striding out on to that stage, changing lives one concert at a time. This is an album of hope and a passionate celebration of a life well lived. Please do not be sad. Mike wouldn’t want that. He was so proud of this album and had the best time recording it during the last six months of his life. Blast it out loud like Mike did. Play along to the track list and most of all, be happy that we all had Mike in our lives and continue to do so. The music of Mike and The Alarm will always keep us strong”. **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week on the episode author Margaret Gurevich stops by to discuss her latest book, Yasha's Amazin' Bar Mitzvah. Growing up as an immigrant and more.  **** Margaret Gurevich (she/her) is a middle-school teacher and the author of Ain't It Funny, multiple Who Was? books, and the award-winning Chloe by Design series. When not writing or teaching, Margaret enjoys hiking, bingeing too many shows, and spending time with her family. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, son, and their wise cat, Goosie. YASHA'S AMAZIN' BAR MITZVAH offers a poignant and authentic portrayal of the Russian American experience in the 1980s while speaking to the universal challenges of growing up and finding one's place in the world. “Like Yasha’s parents, my parents fought hard to achieve the ‘American Dream’,” says Margaret. “However, in spite of attending night school for months to learn English, holding degrees from the Soviet Union equivalent to MA+ in the US, and achieving a level of employment in the United States that allowed them to save up to buy a house in the suburbs, to many, my parents’ Russian accents were still their main identifying feature. As for me, while I did not have a Russian accent, it took a long time for people to stop seeing my differences—food, clothes, experiences—as anything besides being ‘other’. In time, like Yasha, I learned to embrace the reality of being a hyphenated American—someone who is Russian and Jewish and just as American as others."  When author Margaret Gurevich set up to write YASHA’S AMAZIN’ BAR MITZVAH  she was basing the story on her own experiences growing up during the end of the Cold War. Gureveich’s latest novel is a touching and humorous story following the journey of a young Russian American boy as he navigates the challenges of adolescence, cultural identity, and the pursuit of his dreams.   Set in 1986, thirteen-year-old Yasha Reznik is struggling to adjust to his new life in the suburban town of Rockwood, New Jersey. Having moved from the close-knit Russian community of Brighton Beach, Yasha finds himself feeling out of place and yearning for the familiarity of his old neighborhood. His parents may see their move as the fulfillment of the "American Dream," but for Yasha, it feels like anything but. As Yasha prepares for his Bar Mitzvah, he faces the typical trials of adolescence, compounded by the cultural differences that set him apart from his peers. Despite his efforts to fit in, including adopting the name "Jake," he is still seen as an outsider. The only person who truly understands him is Bernie, a resident at the senior citizen home where Yasha volunteers for his Bar Mitzvah project. Bernie shares Yasha's passion for the New York Mets, and together they dream of seeing the team win the World Series. Determined to make this dream a reality, Yasha embarks on a quest to secure tickets to the game, all while grappling with his own identity and the complexities of friendship.  **** If you would like to contact the show [email protected] Follow us on Social Media YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0ETs2wpOHbCuhUNr0XFTw?view_as=subscriber Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_d.m.needom/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom Support the podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/bettertopodcastwithdmneedom ©2026 Better To...Podcast with D. M.Needom   Support the show