I'm With the Band, Man

We here at I'm With the Band, Man HQ had a fairly hectic back-half of 2025 and after much discussion we decided we'd take a brief hiatus to give us time to build up a backlog of episodes.

We decided it wouldn't be fair to the musicians or the listeners to pump these out just to meet some kind of release schedule so we threw this together just so you could hear what's going on.

But we also have some good news! When we return we will have rippin' new intro and outro music courtesy of friend of the show Chuck Coffey, master of the jingles. But other than that, we'll continue bringing on all of the best musicians and discussing all of those albums that provided the soundtrack to my life.

So see you soon. Connect with us on our socials. Come chat with us on Discord and talk about music and maybe video games or movies. Like and subscribe. Well, don't like this one because then we'll assume that you like that we're hitting pause and we're super sensitive so that would be pretty bogus. But all of the others.

Thanks and we'll see you soon!

Welcome Dan back onto the show to talk about all of the episodes of 2025. We cover some of the highlights of the year and go through all of the artists and albums we discussed.

It was great to have Dan back and to talk about what's been going on with both Eric and Dan.

Tune in to see what's next for the show!

To close out the year strong, Chad Malone comes back onto the show to do a deep dive into everything there is to know about Senior Fellows' "Shallow Grave For a Dying God."

Unlike every other band Chad has ever been in, this project is unique in that he was essentially a "vocalist for hire" that was originally just brought in to do some lyrics, then his role increased as the album progressed until he essentially became a full-time member of Senior Fellows.

Chad's humor and his unique perspective on both the band and the album makes for a great conversation to end 2025.

Both songs from this episode were taken from Senior Fellows' "Shallow Grave For a Dying God" (duh) but since this was Chad's first foray into the band he only did vocals on the A-Side of the LP.

"Doctrine Contrary To the Established Faith"

"Examining the Pros and Cons Of Torturing White Collar Criminals"

For our final interview of the year, we decided to bring in friend of the show + Tulsa royalty Chad Malone. This dude has done time in:

Self Destruct

Concept Of Nonsense

The Kids Who Never Learned How To Color Inside Of the Lines

Brother Inferior

Assembly Of God

Welfare

The Leveling

Raparee

Larkin

Bring Down the Hammer

The Shame

Local 630

Senior Fellows

Union Of a Dying Sun

He goes over all of his bands, what the scene was like in Oklahoma when we was first getting involved, his influences (and his influence on other bands) and just about everything else. For a guy with a musical career going back over thirty years, Chad has some unique experiences and stories and he is willing to share it all.

He was an amazing guest and an amazing human and you definitely won't want to miss this one.

https://unionofadyingsun.bandcamp.com/album/union-of-a-dying-sun

https://audioblasphemy.bandcamp.com/album/anthems-94-97

https://seniorfellows.bandcamp.com/

Daisy was kind enough to stick around and record for an additional hour (and more!) to discuss Ayin's "Fear Of Tigers." If you're familiar at all with Daisy and his bands, you'll know that they're all artistic and amazing and Ayin was no exception as well as being my first introduction to him and his music.

Daisy's stories are epic and it was a real treat to go back and hear the stories about how one of my favorite albums of all time came to be. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well!

Both songs from this episode were taken from Ayin's "Fear Of Tigers" (duh) but you should really listen to the entire album from start to finish. It was intentionally designed to be listened to that way and even though both of these songs are bangers, it's more of an experience for the entire album.

"Constrictor"

"Parallels"

Bringing it back to the Midwest for a very special conversation with Daisy Caplan, the man behind the bass (and sometimes guitar) for Ayin and Foxy Shazam and then the drummer extraordinarie for Lung.

We discuss his early days in Louisville, how he got into the scene, the gradual evolution of Ayin and how the band changed once he joined, then to him doing double-duty once he joined Foxy Shazam up to the hiatus / breakup (depending on who you ask) of Foxy to his permanent residence in Cincinnati and the formation of Lung.

Daisy has been around and has a ton of good stories and experiences to share and he's not afraid to hold back. We hope you enjoy!

Both songs used in this episode are Lung songs:

"Brock" taken off the "All the King's Horses" LP

"The Swimmer" taken off the "The Swankeeper" LP

Get you some Lung music here:

https://lunglunglung.bandcamp.com/

Or here:

https://www.lungtheband.com/

Some Ayin here:

https://ayin.bandcamp.com/album/fear-of-tigers

https://brightskull.bandcamp.com/album/ayin-nothing-islands

Some Foxy Shazam here:

https://www.foxyshazam.com/merch

This week we brought Grant Johnson back on to discuss all things Night Owls and let me tell you - trying to pick out just one band of his ouvre was quite the difficult task. Either way, Night Owls (like all of his bands) rules and so this was a fun and entertaining conversation into one of the more unique and fun bands that the scene has ever produced.

Grant's stories are great and my biggest regret is that I never got a chance to see them live in either of their two main incarnations. Hope you enjoy!

Both songs from this episode were taken from Night Owls Records

"Amusing Ourselves To Death" from the self-titled EP

"Rapture" from the aptly named "Rapture" EP

We're staying in the Northeast to bring you Grant Johnson, the man behind such bands as:

Blood Jinn

Set In Motion

Easter Rising

Eternal Youth

Herman Dekalb

Spark Lights the Friction

The Funeral

AWOL

Knife Fight

Dirty Girls

Broken Patterns

Night Owls

Missing Skull

Difficult

Bent Limbs

And he's STILL going with music. That's an impressive pedigree.

Anyhow, Grant was kind enough to come on and talk music and Syracuse and just about anything. He was insightful and knowledgeable and this was a fun episode.

Get you some Grant music at all these links:

Night Owls:

https://nightowls.bandcamp.com/album/rapture-ep

https://hexrecords.bandcamp.com/album/night-owls-s-t-ep

Bent Limbs:

https://bntlmbs.bandcamp.com/album/soft-mind

The Difficult:

https://difficult.bandcamp.com/album/tea-with-the-times

https://difficult315.bandcamp.com/album/to-heal?label=2983238955

The Funeral:

https://hexrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-funeral-discography-2001-2004

And follow his current project - Bent Limbs on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/bntlmbs?igsh=ZGwzeWwyY3Q1azZz

Randy Larsen was kind enough to come back to discuss everything there is worth knowing about how the Cable - "Gutter Queen" album came to be. Randy was brutally honest about the internal struggles the band was facing around this time. In addition, we discuss how Clinton St. Blues (Eric's favorite off this album) came to be an inflection point and a start of a new chapter for the band's sound.

Randy has a lot of fond memories as well as a lot of conflicted emotions around this era of the band but it was a great and informative conversation. You won't want to miss this one at all.

Both songs from this episode were taken from Cable's "Gutter Queen" LP (duh):

"Clinton St. Blues"

"Human Interest Story"

We're traveling way into the Northeast for this one to bring on the legendary Randy Larsen who has done time in:

Cable

Empty Flowers

Isis

Slow Death

Tombs

Come To Grief

Randy's stories of his attempts to focus entirely on bass and shift away from vocals through some of the more turbulant times of Cable make this episode truly special. Of special note is his story for how Cable came to be parted from Hydra Head and you will definitely want to hear this one!

Hope you enjoy this one - it's definitely worth the listen!

The two songs featured in this episode are both Cable bangers:

Time Big Rock - from "Northern Failures"

Gulf Of Texaco - from "The Failed Convict"

Get all your physical Cable music from Translation Loss here:

https://translationloss.com/search?q=cable&options%5Bprefix%5D=last

Bandcamp for all your digital needs:

https://cable3.bandcamp.com/music

Find him at ALL THESE LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/cabletheband

https://www.facebook.com/cabletheband

https://www.instagram.com/translationlossrecords