Jughead's Basement

Steve Albini's Life Celebration Reissue of The Big Black Episode from October 2014.
Interviews with Steve Albini, Santiago Durango, Jeff Pezzati, Camilo Gonzalez, Jim DeRogatis, and Russ Forster.

July 22nd is the date of Steve Albini's Birthday.  I never do rebroadcasts of past episodes but I was informed of the idea for a life celebration of Steve on his birthday, so I was encouraged to participate.  The episode is worth it.  One of my best.  Much of the credit goes to my partner in this Russ Forster and of course to Steve and Santiago.
- Jughead

Big Black’s aggressive and abrasive music was characterized by distinctively clanky guitars and the use of a drum machine (who they lovingly called Roland) elements which pre­-cursored industrial rock. The band acknowledged no taboos and Albini’s lyrics openly dealt with loaded topics including murder, rape, child sexual abuse, and racism. They also held staunch principles, shunning the mainstream music industry and insisting on complete control over all aspects of their career. This podcast attempts to tell a portion of the history of the band from the perspective of their ep Bulldozer through their first full length record Atomizer. (Marking a transition from a project purely conceived by Steve Albini into a cohesive band with the added influences from collaborators Santiago Durango and Dave Riley.) This episode is co-hosted by Russ Forster and includes interviews with band members Santiago Durango, Steve Albini, and Jeff Pezzati, including extra interview material with friend and fellow songwriter/musician Camilo Gonzalez. Lastly an audio piece written by journalist/novelist/radio personality Jim DeRogatis. Russ Forster is a perennial dabbler in the underground and eccentric. Past exercises in cognitive dissonance include Underdog Records, 8-Track Mind magazine, documentaries So Wrong They're Right and Tributary, and various and sundry bands and acts like his current extreme-solo project Rakehell. Assistant Editor: Jason Brow of the 6ftplus Podcast.

https://www.patreon.com/jugheadsbasement

Full Interview of Albini:
Link

Episode 196: Eddie Pignataro of The Kobanes, Noodle Brain, and The Mitochondriacs on Catching Up With Friends

The Kobanes
Noodle Brain
The Mitochondriacs

Hello and Welcome to Jughead’s Basement Episode 195 Sub Category LoFi Interviews with HiFi guests.  This week with Blag Dahlia from The Dwarves.  In this episode we talk about such things as Dwarves and Screeching Weasel overlap or lack of overlap in the Chicago Suburbs, Discovering the Cramps and the Ramones and all the music before and after, Self aware punk rock, Sexual content, taboos, and shock value, Leaving Sub Pop, Venn Digram of the Dwarves, Sub Pop to Epitaph, Are You Difficult? Plus much much psycho billy, punk-o-rama dirgey dirty rock-n-roll more more more!

www.jugheadsbasementpodcast.com
https://thedwarves.com/

Episode 194: Marc Ruvolo of No Empathy, Chia Pet, Fur Coats, and Johann's Face Records talks to us about his new novel Pieties, Childhood From City To Suburbs To City, First Shows With No Empathy And Ongoing Trouble with CASH (Chicago Area Skinheads), Rise And Fall Of Walkthrufyre Records, Working with Roadkill Records, The Formation of Mark's Record Label Johann's Face, Ben Weasel Don't Like It, They Weren't Just Bands On A Label They Were Our Friends, The Affect of Coming Out Of The Closet on No Empathy, His Work With Chicago Homocore, plus much much marc more!

Johann's Face Bandcamp
Marc Ruvolo on X (Twitter)
Marc's first book Sloe
Marc's new book Pieties (releases April 20th 2024) Pre order

Episode 193: Chris Wrenn of Bridge 9 Records and Sully's Brand talks to us about Hardcore Passion to Business Hat, On The Road Representing His Bands As An Ambassador For Bridge Nine, Is There Talent In Creating A Roster, Sully's Brand And The Boston Red Sox, DYS And A Bands' Journey Through Years And Style plus much much hardcore more!
Bridge Nine Website
Sully's Brand Website
Bridge Nine Bandcamp

Episode 192 with Jonathan Anastas of DYS and Slapshot talks to us about: On being a left handed bassist, Metal to Punk to Metal to Crossover to a hodgepodge of influences, Every punk band is a small business, Decadence - Newbury Comics - Slam Dance and MTV, Long time relationship with Dave Smalley, Entrance and exit of Slapshot, Dickie Barret and play-to-win, plus much much straight edge more marketing and hardcore melody more more more!

(In the intro I say Brotherhood was released in 1982... it was 1983)
Where to purchase Brotherhood 40th Anniversary Vinyl:
Bridge Nine

Episode 191: John Wright of No Means No, and Author Jason Lamb talk to us about the book NOMEANSNO FROM OBSCURITY TO OBLIVION (an oral history), Jughead and John have a pre-interview discussion about topography and road atlases, how the book came to be, there is an underlying sadness alleviated by moments of joy, how does an oral history work and journalism, John Wright's job is not to intellectualize his music but to express it, the community that punk rock allows plus much much, dead, no, bob, means, hanson, no, more!

Where to get the book at PM Press
Dead Bob Bandcamp

Episode 190: Chris Fogal of The Gamits, Dwayne, Midrake, Discomfort Creature talks to us about his late start to punk, drums a more natural but more often the guitarist on stage, metal band TAUNTAUN, the effect of pop punk in the mainstream, Black in Bluhm Recording Studio, the pitfalls of announcing your band's break up, working with Joey Cape, Gamits reformation and the effort to emotionally and musically support each other, Midrake, on being a worthless trailing spouse, plus much much creature dwayne midgamit comfort more more more! 

Gamits Bandcamp
Discomfort Creature Bandcamp

Episode 189: Mac McCaughan of Superchunk, Portastic, Brick and the co-founder of Merge Records talks to us about school in New York forming Bricks and studying lit and history, preserving a scene compared to growing a scene, melody with a nod to dissonance, Merge, Matador, and Touch & Go, creating a label and its job as a filter, the dire situation within independent music, plus much chunky chunk chunk chunkity more more more!

Link to Merge Records

Episode 188: Paul (Coyote) Fleischmann of The Ratcliffs and DeeCRACKS talks to us about the universe expanding and owning a telescope, growing up in Innsbruck Austria, at university in Russia and speaking multiple languages to varying degrees, influences and similarities, Ratcliffs' history and the struggle to keep a line-up and the joining of the DeeCRACKS, translating is a little like acting, plus much bubblegum, mental, sonic, supermarket warfare more more moreI

The Ratcliffs at Monster Zero