Zig At The Gig podcast

Interview with Gary & Laura Dumm

Gary is a life-long Clevelander. Gary’s mom helped teach him to read using comic books as a kid, so they’re kind of in his blood! He attended Cuyahoga Community College in the sixties where he took classes in painting and printmaking. He married Laura in 1971, and they started a life of artistic collaboration as well as creating their own art.

Laura was born, raised and still resides in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a self taught artist who was lucky enough to have gone to a high school (West Tech) that was trying out a new program called “Specialized Art Class” with 6 periods of art a day. Basically a college education for 3 years. She married cartoonist/artist Gary Dumm in 1971. In 1986, after working for various magazine publications, she made the decision to become a freelance graphic artist/illustrator and started her own graphic art business to pay the bills. In 2009 she retired to be a full time painter.

Gary & Laura Dumm's Info

https://www.dummart.com

Interview with internationally-known guitar maker and musician Paul Reed Smith. 2024

Paul Reed Smith - Eightlock is a band of high-level musicians who are friends and have “locked” together recording and performing a new kind of groove with its roots in Baltimore funk, DC go-go and New Orleans swing. The band’s sound is a heady brew of blues, soul, rock, funk and other roots sounds, all stirred-up into a groove-alicious gumbo. The line-up is three drummers, a bass player, a female singer and three guitar players, and the excitement around their three drummer groove is infectious. The band’s three drummers are: Dennis Chambers (John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin) who was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2001; Gregory Grainger (Whitney Houston, Acoustic Alchemy); and Ju Ju House the legendary DC Go-Go drummer (Roberta Flack, Trevor Horn and The Chuck Brown Band). Bassist Gary Grainger has performed with John Scofield, Nancy Wilson, George Duke and Bill Evans. Vocalist Mia Samone Davis has a beautiful multifaceted voice that got its start in gospel music at a very young age. Guitarist Mike Ault regularly performs with high caliber artists including Rachelle Ferrell David Grissom, and Davy Knowles. Guitarist Bill Nelson is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center where he was introduced and invited to join the band in their efforts to raise money for cancer patients and families. “This group of highly respected and world-renowned musicians have a lot to say musically and spiritually,” Paul Reed Smith says. “It’s been an absolute joy to be the catalyst for their gifts resulting in the music found in Lions Roaring in Quicksand.” Added guitarist/vocalist Dr. Bill Nelson: “The musicianship in Eightlock is extraordinary, but what amazes me most is that the music - both the recordings and live performances - just keep getting better and better. Locking into an Eightlock groove is a dream." And dynamic lead singer Mia Samone summed it up by saying, "Creating this CD reminded me that, ‘Peace is the price when the mind is at war’......inner peace is priceless."

In addition to performing and recording with his own band, Paul Reed Smith has played with artists such as Santana, Alter Bridge and the Doobie Brothers. He was honored by Vintage Guitar Magazine as a Hall of Fame inductee in 2011. Paul has countless industry connections through all of the artists that endorse his guitars, plus invaluable marketing opportunities through his guitar company and all of the music stores around the world that sell his guitars. Grammy-award winning Mexican rock band Manaì had him open their residency at the LA Forum this year, John Mayer and Santana have taken him on tour. In addition to 10 powerful original songs on Lions Roaring in Quicksand, the new album features a cover of a Manaì song in English, “Ay, Doctor,” that the band has agreed to share on their social media to their millions of fans, as well as scintillating versions of the Al Green soul classic, “Love and Happiness,” the legendary Edwin Starr song, “War,” and “99,” a chart hit for the original version in France.

Paul Reed Smith Eightlock Social Media

Links: https://eightlockband.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063641798882

https://twitter.com/PEightlock

https://www.instagram.com/eightlockband_official/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv-7c7kNFEo0nfpvsim2Gsg

Broken is the latest release from ‘Benjamin Jayne,’ a project that is

Benjamin's info

Interview with Raymond Anderson of Nation of No One

https://nationofnoone.bandcamp.com

https://soundcloud.com/raynon?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Interview with Ramona Jan of The Comateens  Part 2

The Comateens were one of NYC’s earliest synth-punk bands, along with Suicide and Kraftwerk one of the few live bands to perform with a drum machine. Jan and North formed the band in 1978, bonding over their shared love of merely playing music together and the punk rock scene taking shape in downtown NYC. Singer and synth player Lyn Byrd and drummer Harry Viderci joined shortly afterwards. Both cuts were recorded at Mediasound in 1979 with Jan on guitar, North on bass, Byrd on synths and Viderci playing drums. Don Wersheba and Harvey J. Goldberg engineered; Ray Janos was the mastering engineer. The Comateens’ Ramona Jan and Nicholas “Nic North” Dembling had just gotten started when they recorded “Danger Zone,” a sneering, blaring punk song spit-sung by Nicholas with Ramona Jan’s untutored guitars sounding like an electric razor, a catchy chorus floating in from Jan’s love of Motown. “Elizabeth’s Lover” leans toward 60’s girl-group with a gleeful chorus as taunting and addictive as “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The song marks Jan’s turn from punk rock to new wave. “Danger Zone” was originally backed with “Cool Chick,” recorded during the same session and released independently on Teenmaster Records. Jan left the band shortly after recording these songs due to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, so this version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” was never released. Jan recorded it again, later, with Dizzy and the Romilars. Left for Dead’s James Reynolds considered releasing the original “Danger Zone” single on his Jimboco Records, however he put out Dizzy and the Romilars’ version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” in 1980 instead, followed by the Ramona Jan-produced NastyFacts single “Drive My Car” in ‘81. The band was able to record at Mediasound because Jan was an audio engineer there, one of only a handful of women engineers in the world. On the then-gritty Upper West Side, Jan lived cheaply at the bohemian Bretton Hall on the corner of Broadway and 86th Street, dodging pimps and prostitutes on the elevator to her apartment. The building’s low rent also attracted other types of artists, though, and a neighbor heard her singing, knocked on the door and asked her if she’d want to record. The neighbor worked at Mediasound Studio in Midtown. Jan took one look around and realized she just had to work there. She told the boss she’d wanted to be a recording engineer all her life—a lie—and that her mother was an electrician, her father a piano tuner, another falsehood. She was hired on the spot and thrived, kicking off a lifelong career in engineering and production that led to work with Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Ramones (who wrote “Ramona” about her.) and more. Comateens continued after Jan left the band, recording three full lengths and building a dedicated following in France before breaking up in the mid-1980s. Their biggest hit was a cover of the “Munster’s Theme Song,” recorded in 1981. Ramona Jan has also had an active career in music since, performing with Dizzy and the Romilars and more recently Northeast Regional Folk Alliance award winners, JANTURAN. She was a founding member Venus Fly Trap, an all-female vocal group, whose members Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell now tour with Bruce Springsteen. Venus Fly Trap sang with David Johansen’s Buster Poindexter act and won the 1984 Village Voice Award Best Street Performer. Jan is also a writer, the author of the first biography of Jon Bon Jovi, published by Sony. She recently received the 2023 Upper Delaware Council Cultural Award as well as a 2023 Congressional Award for her work as Director of Yarnslingers, a true storytelling group based in the Catskills. She is currently the Tuesday columnist for the award-winning Sullivan County Democrat with her column, Ramona’s Ramblings.

https://www.leftfordeadrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/445047024405291

https://www.instagram.com/leftfordeadrecs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comateens,

https://comateens.com/

Interview with Nicholas West ( Nic North) & Ramona Jan of The Comateens.

The Comateens were one of NYC’s earliest synth-punk bands, along with Suicide and Kraftwerk one of the few live bands to perform with a drum machine. Jan and North formed the band in 1978, bonding over their shared love of merely playing music together and the punk rock scene taking shape in downtown NYC. Singer and synth player Lyn Byrd and drummer Harry Viderci joined shortly afterwards. Both cuts were recorded at Mediasound in 1979 with Jan on guitar, North on bass, Byrd on synths and Viderci playing drums. Don Wersheba and Harvey J. Goldberg engineered; Ray Janos was the mastering engineer. The Comateens’ Ramona Jan and Nicholas “Nic North” Dembling had just gotten started when they recorded “Danger Zone,” a sneering, blaring punk song spit-sung by Nicholas with Ramona Jan’s untutored guitars sounding like an electric razor, a catchy chorus floating in from Jan’s love of Motown. “Elizabeth’s Lover” leans toward 60’s girl-group with a gleeful chorus as taunting and addictive as “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The song marks Jan’s turn from punk rock to new wave. “Danger Zone” was originally backed with “Cool Chick,” recorded during the same session and released independently on Teenmaster Records. Jan left the band shortly after recording these songs due to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, so this version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” was never released. Jan recorded it again, later, with Dizzy and the Romilars. Left for Dead’s James Reynolds considered releasing the original “Danger Zone” single on his Jimboco Records, however he put out Dizzy and the Romilars’ version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” in 1980 instead, followed by the Ramona Jan-produced NastyFacts single “Drive My Car” in ‘81. The band was able to record at Mediasound because Jan was an audio engineer there, one of only a handful of women engineers in the world. On the then-gritty Upper West Side, Jan lived cheaply at the bohemian Bretton Hall on the corner of Broadway and 86th Street, dodging pimps and prostitutes on the elevator to her apartment. The building’s low rent also attracted other types of artists, though, and a neighbor heard her singing, knocked on the door and asked her if she’d want to record. The neighbor worked at Mediasound Studio in Midtown. Jan took one look around and realized she just had to work there. She told the boss she’d wanted to be a recording engineer all her life—a lie—and that her mother was an electrician, her father a piano tuner, another falsehood. She was hired on the spot and thrived, kicking off a lifelong career in engineering and production that led to work with Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Ramones (who wrote “Ramona” about her.) and more. Comateens continued after Jan left the band, recording three full lengths and building a dedicated following in France before breaking up in the mid-1980s. Their biggest hit was a cover of the “Munster’s Theme Song,” recorded in 1981. Ramona Jan has also had an active career in music since, performing with Dizzy and the Romilars and more recently Northeast Regional Folk Alliance award winners, JANTURAN. She was a founding member Venus Fly Trap, an all-female vocal group, whose members Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell now tour with Bruce Springsteen. Venus Fly Trap sang with David Johansen’s Buster Poindexter act and won the 1984 Village Voice Award Best Street Performer. Jan is also a writer, the author of the first biography of Jon Bon Jovi, published by Sony. She recently received the 2023 Upper Delaware Council Cultural Award as well as a 2023 Congressional Award for her work as Director of Yarnslingers, a true storytelling group based in the Catskills. She is currently the Tuesday columnist for the award-winning Sullivan County Democrat with her column, Ramona’s Ramblings.

https://www.leftfordeadrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/445047024405291

https://www.instagram.com/leftfordeadrecs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comateens,

https://comateens.com/

Interview with Catbells on their full-length debut Partly Cloudy. 

All the meticulously crafted material on Partly Cloudy was composed by Catbells, and features

 Catbells's info

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/catbellsmusic

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/catbells

 Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Paul Chastain co-founded Velvet Crush rock group. Signed by Alan McGee to his mythic British indie label Creation Records who gave the band’s first and second albums, the latter, the seminal “Teenage Symphonies To God”, worldwide release. Paul’s musical arc also includes path crossings with a handful of top-notch talent. He has been playing and singing alongside pal Matthew Sweet from the pre-”Girlfriend” days onward. Run-ins along the way with such pop music icons and ne’er-do-wells as Roger McGuinn, Mitch Easter, Susanna Hoffs, Stephen Duffy, Tommy Keene, Ami Onuki (Puffy Ami/Yumi).

Drummer/producer John Louis Richardson has similar roots, brushes with greatness and dubious associations. Among them, Joey Molland’s Badfinger, Tommy Keene, Gin Blossoms, Keene Brothers, Jay Bennett, Will Hoge. He still plays live and records with DIY power pop pioneers and long time friends, Shoes. John runs his Drum Farm Studio in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

A major through-line for the album Ours & amp; Life-events shaped others due to the passing of longtime mutual friend and bandmate Tommy Keene. As an inspirational figure who opened for The Matthew Sweet band, toured with Velvet Crush, and played in Richardson’s band, the impact of his loss was significant. This led to the inclusion of Keene’s song “Baby Face” on the album, as well as aiding in the completion of the track “Can’t Let Go (Oh Tommy)”.

Paul's Info

https://www.instagram.com/smallish.square/

https://www.facebook.com/TheSmallSquare

https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallSquareGroup

https://www.smallsquaremusic.com/

https://farmtolabelrecords.com/artists/the-small-square/

Interview with J. Wilms.

J. Wilms is a multi-instrumentalist and singer /songwriter. Who has a new album out called The Fighter.

Jeremy “J” Wilms has had a long and varied career. He received his Bachelor of Music from

Jeremy's Info

www.jeremywilms.com

Aaron Lange Co-founder of Stone Church Press, author of Ain't It Fun and Peppermint Werewolf.

n the 1970s, Peter Laughner was a founding figure in a primordial ooze of what would come to be called punk rock, in the somewhat unlikely, somewhat necessary place of Cleveland, Ohio. Bands like Pere Ubu, the electric eels, Rocket From the Tombs, the Dead Boys, Devo, and the Pagans all intermingled in this psychosphere; Laughner touched them all. In 1977 at the age of 24 he became punk rock’s first casualty. While his short life ended more than a half a century ago, his legacy continues to resonate; Henry Rollins and Guns N’ Roses have covered his songs, while Wilco and the Mountain Goats drop references to him in their lyrics.

Underground comix stalwart Aaron Lange makes his much-anticipated graphic novel debut with this deeply researched biography. Through extensive interviews with the people who were there, Ain’t It Fun charts the cultural, environmental, and societal factors that shaped both Laughner and the Midwestern proto-punk subculture he championed. Ain’t it fun when you know that you’re gonna die young?

“Grounded in real crime, with blazing and withering faces looking into their precious moments and looking back at what’s left, this is a mystic story of a city wrapped around the life and death of a musician whose talent, on certain nights, on certain records, was otherworldly. A sense of disbelief churns through the intricate, exploding pages. It seems a wonder there’s anyone left to tell the tale.”

Get Ain't It Fun Here:

aint-it-fun-peter-laughner-aaron-lange

Aaron's Info

https://stonechurchpress.com/product-category/aaron-lange/

stonechurchpress

aaron.lange