Nine months ago Youtube commenter Eric Gabbard wrote the following about the seminal San Diego band Drive Like Jehu:

I’ve listened to a “shit ton” of music in my life...obsessively at times...and I’m about to turn 46. This band was amazing. I keep coming back to it. I was a teenager at the time and listened to this, along with the Melvins, Fugazi, and another big one was Faith No More’s Angel Dust. Great times driving around at night listening to this disc without a care in the world... So goddamn good

Musician and artist Rick Froberg fronted Drive Like Jehu and many noted bands that have inspired the same type of devotion and admiration in music fans like Eric. These bands include Pitchfork, Hot Snakes, and The Obits.

Rick also has a devoted following as an artist. To date, Rick has created album covers and posters for all his bands—often under the moniker "Rick Fork". He has worked at Funny Garbage (Gary Panter’s interactive design company), contributed illustrations to the New York Times, created a line of T-shirts for Altamont Apparel, and shown his art at galleries across the country.

Before the world heard of KISS, the New York Dolls, Marilyn Manson, or Ozzy Osbourne, there was Alice Cooper, the original shock-rock band. Dennis Dunaway is a founding member of the band.  As teenagers in Phoenix, Dennis and lead singer Vince Furnier, who would later change his name to Alice Cooper, started the band that would take them from Hollywood, to Detroit  and finally to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. 

In 2015 Dennis wrote the book Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! , which is a riveting account of the band's creation in the '60s, the heyday in the '70s, and the legendary characters they met along the way. Dennis currently records and tours with Blue Coupe featuring Joe and Albert Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult fame and singers Tish and Snooky who also happen to be the founders of  Manic Panic. 

Andy Shernoff is the founder, songwriter and bass player for the proto punk band The Dictators. He has over 200 credits as a musician, producer and songwriter. Andy also has 35 film and television credits including the movies Kindergarten Cop and Boys Don't Cry and television shows Billions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and LillyHammer. His mantra is "everyday you make music is a good day".

Andy currently resides in the Hudson Valley with his wife Carla Rhodes and his trusty hounds Duchess and Maybellenne.

Born in Siberia, Slava Mogutin is a New York based Russian-American multimedia artist and author exiled from Russia for his outspoken queer writing and activism. A third-generation writer and autodidact journalist and photographer, he became the first Russian to be granted political asylum in the US on the grounds of homophobic persecution. Informed by his bicultural dissident and refugee experience, Slava’s work examines the notions of displacement and identity, pride and shame, devotion and disaffection, love and hate. Slava is the author of seven books of writings in Russian, as well as three monographs of photography, Lost Boys, NYC Go-Go, and Bros & Brosephines, and two illustrated collections of poetry, Food Chain and Pictures & Words. He's the winner of Andrei Bely Prize for poetry and the Tom of Finland Foundation Award for artistic achievement.

For more info please visit:

vimeo.com/slavamogutin

instagram.com/slavamogutin

amazon.com/author/slavamogutin

facebook.com/slava-mogutin-photography

Wayne Kramer was the lead guitarist of the legendary Detroit band the MC5. The band used music to fight many of the political battles of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band's raucous and uncompromising performances also provided a complimentary soundtrack to the race riots that plagued Detroit during the 1960’s. The MC5’s political convictions ultimately led to FBI interventions and arrests.

In 1975, Wayne was sentenced to federal prison for selling cocaine to an undercover agent. After his release, Wayne co-founded the non-profit group Jail Guitar Doors USA. The organization uses music and other art practices to provide incarcerated individuals a creative outlet, spiritual rehabilitation and a framework for coping with difficult situations. To date, Jail Guitar Doors USA has provided instruments to over 100 prisons.

Lydia and Tim have stitched together a brisk episode to help get you into the Easter spirit. Lydia begins by giving a very interesting treatise into the meaning of Easter and why she believes Jesus was a homosexual drug dealer. Tim then presents the research he has been doing all week into April Fools' Day. Tim has gathered strong historical evidence that suggests that not only is April Fools' on the wrong day, but that the holiday is celebrated on the wrong month entirely.

The episode is brought to a timely conclusion with an interview with French artist Paul Toupet. Paul sculpts wax puppets, which resemble children-like figures and rabbit masks. His sculptures with nucleated eyes are adorned in torn tissues or feathers and frequently have hair braids vomiting from the mouth. Paul is influenced by African art, European religious art, and his own exotic tastes. Through his work, Paul is trying to highlight how the world can be peaceful and scary at the same time.

A special thank you goes out to Sebastien Greppo who pulls double duty this week. On most weeks, Sebastien kindly handles all things social media for The Lydian Spin. This week, he also lends a hand translating back and forth between French and English so that Paul, Lydia and Tim can talk.

Happy Easter!

Adele Bertei is a multi-disciplinary artist —poet, writer, actor, performer, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. She was an original member of New York incendiaries, the Contortions, while working as personal assistant to Brian Eno. Adele has appeared in several indie films, most notably Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, and MoMA has acquired two films featuring Adele in lead roles. Her all girl punk-funk band The Bloods was the first out band of queer women. She has toured with, provided backing vocals, and written songs for Tears for Fears, Thomas Dolby, Sandra Bernhard, Culture Club, Scritti Politti, Whitney Houston, Sophie B. Hawkins, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Sheena Easton, Oleta Adams, Lydia Lunch, and the Pointer Sisters. Adele’s work as a vocalist includes her duet with Thomas Dolby on international hit “Hyperactive!” and the lead on Jellybean’s dance/pop hit “Just a Mirage”. 

Opening for writers Kathy Acker and Allen Ginsberg among others in the late 1970s, Adele's stories and essays appear in compilations The New Fuck You: Adventures in Lesbian Reading, edited by Eileen Myles, and Women Who Rock, edited by Evelyn McDonnell. Her first memoir Peter and the Wolves was released in 2020 on Smog Veil Books, and Why Labelle Matters, a book of hymnals to the band who gave the world "Lady Marmalade".

The book was released on March 23, 2021 and is now available from the University of Texas Press.

Rich Keller is a four time Grammy Award nominated engineer and producer. Rich earned twenty nine platinum albums. These records have sold seventy five million albums to date. Artists Rich has worked with include Nipsey Hussle, DMX, Nas, Jay Z, Alicia Keys, Puff Daddy, Swizz Beatz, Notorious BIG, Lil Wayne, Mariah Carey, Method Man, Jada Kiss, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, and Ja Rule.  Rich’s started his career in hip hop since 1992, thus he has earned official “OG” status.

Rich attended North Texas State University and the City College of New York where he studied jazz bass with legendary bassist Ron Carter. He also happens to be one of the first people Tim met when he moved to New York.

Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York’s Innocence Project. 

Gary’s play Paradox Lust ran off-off-Broadway in 2001 and his writing has been published in such notable publications as The New York Times, The Paris Review, and VICE, while his visual art can be seen at apocalippy.com. 

Having lived in Illinois, Florida, California, and France, Lippman can now be found in what used to be called “Fun City” with his Hungarian wife Vera.

Gary Lippman received a law degree from Northwestern University and has worked with New York’s Innocence Project. 

Gary’s play Paradox Lust ran off-off-Broadway in 2001 and his writing has been published in such notable publications as The New York Times, The Paris Review, and VICE, while his visual art can be seen at apocalippy.com. 

Having lived in Illinois, Florida, California, and France, Lippman can now be found in what used to be called “Fun City” with his Hungarian wife Vera.

Check out Gary's latest novel Set The Controls For The Heart Of Sharon Tate. 

Tanya Pearson is a Public Historian and Director of the Women of Rock Oral History Project, a collection of digital interviews and written transcripts documenting the lives and careers of women-identified rock musicians. A documentary film based on the project is currently in production. Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, Tanya's contribution to the University of Texas Press’ Music Matters Series, will be published in July, 2021. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Bust Magazine, Memoir Mixtapes, and some blogs, and journals. Tanya is a staunch proponent of lesbianism, aging, not eating animals, senior dog adoption, punk rock, and Judy Garland. When she's not working she enjoys writing, rock climbing, playing in her band Feminine Aggression, and watching The Golden Girls with her dogs, Samuel and Andrew. Follow Women Of Rock Oral History Project on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Immediately following this week's the interview, Tanya reads an excerpt from chapter 2 of her upcoming book. The piece is titled Trauma is a Gateway Drug.