Height Zone World

My guest this week is Jordan Weeks. Jordan is a member of the bands South Seas Sneak, Thin Sketch, OC Feef, AA Arm and Vox Robotica. He’s also been a touring drummer in Height With Friends, and he produced part of my Versus The Continental MC’s album. For years, he’s been a guiding force in my quest for music knowledge.


He talks about discovering hip-hop through an episode of Sesame Street, and trying to cultivate a hip-hop scene as a fifth-grader in Bolton, MA. He breaks down the difficulty he faced in trying to connect to the Boston music scene, and the more supportive network he found upon moving to Pittsburgh. We discuss the confusion of making music in the internet age, and his uncertainty about how to grind in 2015.


Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Das EFX’s Dead Serious. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

CORRECTION: The group we’re referring to at 1:10:25 is called Icona Pop, not Lacona Pop or Iona Pop.

My guest this week is Justin Barnes. Justin is the man behind the band Which Birds, and he’s also been a member of Nuclear Power Pants and (my band) Height With Friends. When I invited him to be a guest, he said he would rather interview me, so that’s what we did.

This interview went down over three sessions. In part one, he asks about my early albums and my early influences. In part two, we talk about my albums Baltimore Highlands and Bed Of Seeds, and the collaborative approach I took to making those records. In part three, he asked about the sense of urgency he heard on my newest album, and I try to explain why it’s there.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Critical Beatdown, by Ultramagnetic MC’s. This episode is sponsored by Lineuproom.com, and hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is Kate Ferencz. Kate is a songwriter / performer originally from White Plains, NY and now residing in Philadelphia. I got turned onto her music when I played the release party for her Dumb Hearts, Dumb Flowers album, and I’ve been a fan ever since.

We discuss her four solo albums, as well as her band, Evil Sword. We talk about the difference between Philly and Baltimore’s music scenes, and she makes the case for Philly being a better place for avant-garde music. (I can’t see it) She talks about trying to figure out what she wants her show to feel like, and whether or not she’s out to rock the party.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to J.J. Fad’s Supersonic. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. Gregg is an electronic musician from Pittsburgh, PA. We’ve known each other since I played a show in his parent’s backyard in 2000, and I was excited to get a detailed breakdown of his career.

We talk about his early Pittsburgh-based noise band, The Joysticks, and his background in the noise world. He tells me about the first two harsher Girl Talk albums, and the new direction he forged on 2006’s Night Ripper. His breaks down his new ventures as a hip-hop producer, including his recent collaboration with Freeway.

Mike Riley’s art this week is a mashup of Big Daddy Kane’s Long Live The Kane, Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, 2 Live Crew’s Nasty as They Wanna Be, and Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut. This episode is hosted by splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is B Rich, aka Brendan Richmond. Brendan is a tight MC based in Kingston, Ontario. We’re bandmates in the group Shark Tank, and we’ve been friends since 2004.

He talks about growing up in a small town of 500, and his early hip-hop ventures in rural Canada. We discuss the viral success of his song Out For A Rip, and the cross-country adventures that followed. He tells me about his recent bout of writer’s block, and how he’s trying to kick his writing back into high gear.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Digital Underground’s Sex Packets. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is Chris Sand, aka Sandman The Rappin’ Cowboy. He’s been on a rapping / cowboy poetry mission since the late 80’s, and he’s released twelve albums since 1996. We met during my tour stop in Missoula, MT, and he was nice enough to lay down an impromptu interview.

He talks about growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana, and how hip-hop captivated the young kids on the reservation in the early 80’s. He tells me about starting out doing rap sets in Missoula in the late 80’s, and learning to work folk music into the mix. We discuss his three year hiatus from music, and and how he returned to the DIY touring world with a new way of operating.

Mike RIley’s art this week is an homage to Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five’s The Message. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guests this week are Speak ’N Eye, a.k.a. Unspeakable and M.C.N.eye of Bookhouse. They’re a hip-hop duo based in Winston-Salem, NC. I originally knew them as wild audience members at Greenville, NC house shows, and I’ve been a fan of their music since M.C.N.eye started sending me homespun EP’s in the mail in 2010.

Josh tells me about the inspiration he got from the Greenville, NC DIY scene of the early 2000’s, and his early experimental projects. Aaron tells me about his early rock bands, and how he started rapping. They talk about how they decided to team up as duo, and what they’ve got on deck for the future.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to The Beastie Boy’s Check Your Head. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is Paulie Think. Paulie is a great MC and a true road warrior on the indie hip-hop circuit. We’ve been friends since 2008, and I was happy to get a chance to learn about his past.

He tells me about his wild childhood in Chicago and Memphis, and the chaos of being left to his own devices at an early age. He breaks down his entry into rap in the early 90’s, and his rebirth as a one-man DIY touring act in the 2000’s. We talk about his lifelong struggle with addiction, and his journey toward sobriety.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Fu-Schnicken’s Nervous Breakdown. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is Dan Gaeta, aka OCDJ. Dan is an electronic musician, adventurer and former radio host. He lived in Baltimore for many years, and was a big part of Baltimore’s music scene. We conducted this interview on his sailboat / home in the Charleston Harbor.

He talks about getting involved with New Jersey’s WFMU at an early age, and how he wound up having his own show on the station. He tells me how he’s taken a long break from touring, but continued writing music as a more solitary pursuit. He breaks down his nautical life, and how the world makes more sense to him when he's out on the water.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to 8Ball and MJG’s Comin' Out Hard. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.

My guest this week is pioneering MC, Queen Lisa Lee. She was a member of the Cosmic Force, the Soulsonic Force, and a mainstay on countless Zulu Nation live tapes. She was also a key part of the movies Wildstyle and Beat Street. Today, she contributes to William & Mary's hip-hop library and Cornell University's hip-hop museum, as well as doing speaking engagements across the country.

She tells me about learning to scratch and quick-mix at age 11, and about rocking the mic at a Zulu Nation party for the first time at age 13. We talk about what the early landscape of hip-hop was like, and how she fit into it. She talks about putting music to the side and becoming entrenched in street life, and how telling the truth about her story helped her to heal and start over.

Mike Riley’s art this week is an homage to Gladys Knight and The Pips’s Neither One of Us. This episode is hosted by Splicetoday.com.