A new podcast series from the makers (uh, maker) of The Who Cares Anyway Podcast.

Interviews with musicians and artists from around the world on making music in the digital age, Metal, electronic, experimental, and gray areas in between. Available wherever you get your podcasts and at fatalstrategies.substack.com

Music credits:

• Blind Idiot God, "747"
• Terminal Sound System, "Gridlike"
• Dreams of the Drowned, "Midnattskogen Sorte Kjerne"
• Zweizz & Joey Hopkins, "No Clue"

In this, the final episode of the podcast, I am joined by David Costanza and Anne Speroni, who have played together in several different bands, including the Whitefronts (1982-1987) and Art of Flying (1998-present).

We follow their story from Santa Barbara (where the Whitefronts formed) to San Francisco (where they relocated c. 1985) to Questa, New Mexico, where they built their own 8-track recording studio after moving there in 1987. The studio has since moved to nearby Taos, NM, but they are still making music and still being as impractical as ever.

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/06/15/wca-podcast-ep-24-david-costanza-anne-speroni-whtefronts-art-of-flying/

Composer and all-around audio wizard James Goode joins the podcast for a weird and wide-ranging discussion. A mere sampling of the topics discussed:

• growing up in Provincetown, Mass.
• playing the tape recorder (his first "instrument")
• meeting the Residents (sort of)
• joining Faxed Head
• not joining Caroliner
• studying music at Mills College
• collaborating with prog keyboardist Roger Powell (formerly of Todd Rundgren's Utopia)
• touring Japan

Other topics include synesthesia, eight-channel audio mixes, Cape Cod Piece, interpretive mime, and (towards the end) perhaps the most in-depth discussion of how some of those noises on the Faxed Head records were created.

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/06/15/wca-podcast-ep-23-james-goode/

From his website: "Matt Wallace is an American record producer born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who started out making records in his parents' garage in the early 80s. He attended UC Berkeley intending to teach, but pursued producing full-time after graduating. Some of his most notable work is with Faith No More, The Replacements, O.A.R., and Maroon 5. With over 30 years of experience, he now produces at his studio, Studio Delux, located in the Sound City Center in Van Nuys, California."

Here, we focus on Mr. Wallace's early years as a recording engineer and producer, from working out of the aforementioned garage circa 1982 to establishing his 8-track studio, Dangerous Rhythm, in Oakland, which served as his headquarters until the late 1980s. We talk about his memories of working with not just Faith No More but also Glorious Din and Spahn Ranch (whose Odell Nails was our guest on Ep. 21). We also talk about the role of the recording engineer/producer and how it has changed over the course of Mr. Wallace's career. (And Faith No More fans, don't worry: there's plenty of FNM material toward the end, including some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits about the recording The Real Thing and Angel Dust.) 

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/04/25/wca-podcast-ep-22-matt-wallace

With this episode, we take a slight detour to the Detroit, Michigan, area circa 1985-1987. Odell's band Spahn Ranch hailed from this area, but they recorded their one and only LP—1987's Thickly Settled—in the Bay Area with Eric Cope (Glorious Din) acting as co-producer.

Here, Odell recounts his first encounters with Eric, Glorious Din, and the zine Wiring Dept., along with his memories of recording at legendary producer/engineer Matt Wallace's studio in Oakland and his overall impressions of San Francisco from his brief stay in the area. We also hear about the origins of Spahn Ranch, their place on the fringes of the Detroit hardcore/post-punk underground, and the eventual formation of Odell's next band, Majesty Crush, out of the remnants of Spahn Ranch's latter-day lineup.

Links, show notes, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/wca-podcast-ep-21-odell-nails

Esteemed Friend of the Book Bill Gould joins the podcast to talk about LA, the Vats, Geordie Walker and Killing Joke, Flipper, MTV, and American Zen.

Links, music credits, and show notes: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/02/13/wca-podcast-ep-20-bill-gould/

Order the book:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3SYLTvB | Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/91315/9781915316059

The multifaceted Mark Gergis takes us through a few decades' worth of his wide-ranging travels (musical and otherwise), from growing up in the East Bay and discovering Negativland in 1985 to co-founding Mono Pause with Peter Conheim in the early '90s to traveling throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the 2000s and beyond.

We also talk about his involvement with Sublime Frequencies (which dates back to the I Remember Syria and Cambodian Cassette Archive compilations from 2003 and 2004, respectively), the relationship between the Oakland and San Francisco scenes in the '90s and '00s, and the common threads that unite his recordings/performances as Porest with his archival/curatorial work. (Oh yes, and also about assassinating Henry Kissinger—metaphorically, of course.) 

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/01/04/wca-podcast-ep-19-mark-gergis/

From ChristineShields.net:

Christine Shields is an artist and musician from Northern California. She grew up in various locations, most of them rural, from the Central Coast to the Sierra foothills.... At the age of 17 she moved to San Francisco, attended the Art Institute, and played in her first band as a drummer. Her creative life, built around necessity and imagination, has taken many forms, including painting, comics, music and illustration. She currently resides in Sacramento, California.

In lieu of a pithy summary, I instead offer a list of hashtags to indicate some of the names or topics discussed:

#Bananafish #SFArtInstitute #ArchipelagoBrewingCompany #Caroliner #DameDarcy #DArcydDollinger #SeymourGlass #HarveyStafford #Revolver #BonerRecords #NevadaCity #Chameleon #Chatterbox #ValenciaStreet#BlueHole #IanChriste #GrouseMountainSkyride #ScrewMagazine #JamesGoode #JainaBee #Pencilvania #TheMissionSchool #AdobeBooks #LaraAllen #TimMooney #ChrisJohanson #RonnieBurns

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/wca-podcast-ep-18-christine-shields/

We begin with a brief flashback/rewind to the very beginning, as Joe answers a question I'd somehow never thought to ask before—namely, why "Truckin'" (of all songs)?

From there, we fast-forward back to mid-1983 and then wind our way through the Joe's Second Record (1984) and Joe's Third Record eras (1985-1986), with Joe sharing his memories of seeing Gregg Turkington (and eventual Pop-O-Pies guitarist) Kirk Heydt's short-lived band Hello Kitty on Ice; transitioning from 415 Records to Subterranean Records; touring the Southwest with the Bill Gould/Mike Bordin lineup of the Pop-O-Pies; working with producer Tom Mallon; and salvaging Joe's Third Record in the wake of some recording-studio disasters.

As if that weren't enough, Joe also offers his observations on the "punk-rock winter" of the late 1980s ("It just seemed like some kind of entity was trying to ... not completely obliterate independent music, but temporarily derail it for a time") and then walks us through his unique take on rock 'n' roll history as a series of 12-year cycles beginning in 1952 and ending in the year 2000.

Finally, there are some recollections of the 1993 "In Frisco" / "Squarehead" sessions (with Trey Spruance, Danny Heifetz, and Atom Ellis), as well as a bit about Joe's latter-day rock operetta "Lenny in Wonderland" and the recent reissue of the Pop-O-Pies' White EP.

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/11/22/wca-podcast-ep-17-joe-pop-o-pie-pt-2/

Part One of a two-part blockbuster with the man behind the Pop-O-Pies. Here, Joe takes us from New Jersey to San Francisco, from recording the original "Truckin'" demo to putting together a live band, from landing a local college radio hit to signing with 415 Records, from touring the East Coast to meeting Courtney Love and hanging out with Jerry Garcia -- and more.

Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/11/14/wca-podcast-ep-16-joe-pop-o-pie-pt-1/