Sup Doc: A Documentary Podcast

ROCKTOBER continues!

George Chen sat down with musician Ed Balloon to discuss the documentary series Hip-Hop Evolution (2016). They discuss Russell Simmons' socks, living in Nigeria, The Get Down, Wild Style, Boston's music scene, and much more. Ed's latest EP Flourish just came out on Deathbomb Arc.

While Ed Balloon has never shied away from soul bearing with his streamlined and catchy music, with each new release he brings more socially-focused content to the minimal sound his fans already love. In a unique space between club tracks, love songs, and pop anthems, Ed is able to find the core of a sound, shed the rest, and produce such a focused sound that it is at once huge and cosmic and also as intimate as a cuddle. It is the perfect musical forum for contemplating the ways our world’s huge issues fall right in our laps. Ed Balloon is the best friend we all wish we had; able to tell us those hard truths in a way that is a pure act of love.

Hip-Hop Evolution features in-depth, personal interviews with the progenitors of DJing, rapping, and production, culminating in what is now taken to be Hip hop music and rap, adding to the existing understanding of hip-hip's earliest decades. Such original artists, producers, DJs, and promoters include DJ Kool Herc, Coke La Rock, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Fab Five Freddy, Marley Marl, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Moe Dee, Kurtis Blow, Doug E. Fresh, Whodini, Warp 9, DJ Hollywood, Spoonie Gee, The Sugarhill Gang, and Russell Simmons.

Thanks to Jonathan Snipes for lending us mics and letting us record in his kitchen! 

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ROCKTOBER continues with TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT. George visits director Tyler Hubby at his Echo Park home.

Tyler spent over twenty years following Tony Conrad and decided to put it all into one documentary encompassing Conrad's life and art, as if there were a distinction between the two.

We also talk about punk rock and mental illness, Tony Labat, getting multiple angles for beer, Faust, Bad Brains, Tony as Tupac, Crispin Glover, and mashing up different video formats.

You can arrange your own screening by contacting Tyler through the website!

To hear Tyler discussing The Devil and Daniel Johnston, listen to our short episode.

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ROCKTOBER all month long we cover music documentaries here at Sup Doc.

George and Paco visit with actress/improviser/musician Tawny Newsome to discuss her experience cosplaying STOP MAKING SENSE-era Talking Heads for Documentary Now and in a cover band. We talk about Second City, her projects with Jon Langford (Mekons, Skull Orchard), the WOOZ of Vacaville, and recording with the legendary Muscle Shoals Swampers!

Stop Making Sense (1984) is the concert film of the last Talking Heads tour, shot in Los Angeles and directed by Jonathan Demme. Considered one of the best live concert films of all time!

Tawny Newsome is a series regular on Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, frequent guest on Comedy Bang Bang and Spontaneanation, and a singer who collaborates with Jon Langford, most recently on Four Lost Souls on Bloodshot Records. She is currently starring in the Netflix comedy Space Force along with Steve Carell.

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George talked to Tyler Hubby about the work he did with Jeff Feuerzeig on The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which coincides with our Episode 69 with Kip Uhlhorn and Daniel's current tour (where his backing band changes from city to city and includes Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Doug Martsch of Built To Spill). Listen to this in addition to Episode 69 for some rounded out information. Since we recorded these interviews, The New York Times also reported on the recent death of Johnston's father Bill.

George also met up with Tyler Hubby to discuss his recently completed documentary Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present. That interview will be posted at a later date.

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Sup Doc kicks off the jams w ROCKTOBER a month long line-up of music docs and great guests. We hit the stage with The Devil and Daniel Johnston with our guest, musician Kip Uhlhorn!

The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a 2005 documentary film about the noted American musician Daniel Johnston. It chronicles Johnston's life from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his experiences with bipolar disorder, and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession. The film was directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, edited by Tyler Hubby, and produced by Henry S. Rosenthal.

Kip Uhlhorn formed Cloudland Canyon in 2002. The first Cloudland Canyon release, Requiems Der Natur, 2002-2004 was released by Tee Pee in 2006. Cloudland Canyon quickly set about releasing a number of other releases and touring that same year, most notably a single track collaboration 12”/LP entitled Exterminating Angel with Chicago musician Lichens in 2007 on Holy Mountain.

In 2007, the band was signed to Kranky and released their first proper album Silver Tongued Sisyphus. In 2008, the band released another collaborative 12” with Mythical Beast on Not Not Fun, as well as their second full length, Lie in Light on Kranky. The latter was chosen as one of top 25 albums of the year 2008 by the Magnet magazine. Cloudland Canyon subsequently moved to Holy Mountain, where the band began their own imprint of Holy Mountain (Intercoastal Artists) for 2010’s album Fin Eaves, which has become their best-received work to date, landing on numerous year-end lists. They went on tour with the Flaming Lips (whom Uhlhorn has collaborated extensively with) as well as with Interpol and Bear in Heaven. Members of the Arcade Fire even name checked the band.

Uhlhorn has also played in several other successful groups and bands during this time, including King Khan & the Shrines, Panthers (Dim Mak, Vice), Pharaohs (100% Silk, Stone's Throw, Intercoastal Artists), Eden Express (Holy Mountain), and Tav Falco's Panther Burns He has also played guitar live and on albums by Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, including Chatham's Crimson Grail, which was staged at Lincoln Center. Cloudland Canyon’s ranks have included close friend Jerry Fuchs (also drummer for !!!, LCD Soundsystem, Maserati, Turing Machine, Moby) who died in 2009. Most recently, memphis drummer Ross Johnson (Tav Falco's Panther Burns, Alex Chilton) has joined the band.

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