Shows
Embrace Your StormNick Zaino: From Drums to Guitar and Beyondhttps://embrace-your-storm.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/eysinterview018.mp3
How does a drummer’s unique childhood record collection shape his musical journey? Ever wondered what happens when a pandemic forces a musician to rethink his instruments and creative process? Join us as we sit down with the multi-talented Nick Zaino to uncover the fascinating stories behind his evolution from a young drummer inspired by the Muppet movie soundtrack and classic country legends to an innovative solo artist navigating the modern music landscape.
Nick takes us on a nostalgic trip through his early influences, revealing how an animated Beatles film sh...2024-10-0300 min
Behind The FunnyEp 366 Nick Zaino "100 Years Of Boston Comedy"Nick Zaino joins us in the Acement to talk about 100 Years Of Boston Comedy. Nick is an accomplished arts journalist and even spent time performing comedy to experience stand up himself. This first hand knowledge and his experience writing about comedy led him to develop his 100 Years Of Boston Comedy lectures and his Boston Comedy Radio Station on the Live365 App. Check out Nick Zaino at https://100yearsofbostoncomedy.com/
Go to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/behindthefQ to buy us a coffee or a bourbon. Get your BTF gear at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/scott-higgins 2024-09-051h 26
The Department of Tangents PodcastS2EP6 - Comedian and Late Night Writer Jon RinemanJon Rineman started his career with as tumultuous and triumphant a 15-year run as a comic could envision for themselves. He started in 2003, then freelanced jokes for Jay Leno, wrote jokes for Seth Meyers including one infamous zinger at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that earned the ire of a future president, and wrote for Jimmy Fallon at Late Night and the Tonight Show until 2018. He survived the vicious battles around late night, got to write for the WWE, got married, had his first kid, and then saw things deteriorate quickly, both personally and professionally. A lot of th...2021-06-2935 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastS2EP5 - Stay Scary Podcast Hosts Lisa and YinhThe Stay Scary Podcast is a silly podcast about serious horror, as described by host Lisa McGolgan. Every episode, Lisa and co-host Yinh Kiefer take a theme in horror films or horror lore, everything from insects to puberty, serial killers to doll parts, and have a ripsnorting good time going wherever that topic takes them. The show is as much fun to listen to as it is to be on, and taping this episode was the most fun I had in an interview this season. It devolves almost immediately, and it was a pile o’ fun. That’s right. Not...2021-06-2933 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastS2EP4 - Musician Rob KovacsAt first glance, Rob Kovacs seems to have wildly divergent interests in music. His latest album, Let Go, is lush and rhythmic piano pop. It’s organic and melancholy, and tells a very human story about snakebit would-be lovers who can’t come together and yet can’t quite find their way out of each other’s orbit. It’s built for sepia-tinged sunlight and dry scattered leaves. Look again, and you see his alter-ego, 88Bit, who orchestrates the mechanical soundtracks of throwback video games for piano. The music from Let Go seems as far as you can get from the t...2021-06-2931 min
Why Is This Not a Movie?Sloth Attack!!! w/Nick ZainoBoston Globe comedy critic Nick Zaino is back to tell us why America's love affair with cute, cuddly sloths should come to a violent end! Should an all-star cast of oddball actors get torn to pieces very, very slowly? Or should every role be played by Nicolas Cage? Either way, it's the campy, ridiculous horror movie America needs right now!2020-11-3028 minWhy Is This Not a Movie?Tom Waits: Noir Detective w/Nick ZainoTom Waits' songs are loaded down with darkness, weirdness, and colorful characters, so why not have Waits—who's also acted in a string of indie films through the years—as a hard-boiled detective exploring the weirdness that lurks in the dark? Nick Zaino, who covers the comedy beat for The Boston Globe, and hosts long-running interview podcast Department of Tangents, joins us to talk about why Waits needs to bring his characters to life on-screen.2020-10-1927 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In EP8: Bethany Van Delft - Comedian, StorytellerThis week I speak with Bethany Van Delft, a comedian and storyteller and so much more. Bethany hosts Artisanal Comedy every Wednesday on her Instagram, and she’s got a lot brewing she can’t quite mention yet. She adapted her show to the online comedy world very quickly, partly because she’s not willing to just give up comedy when real world stages are not available. We also talked about taking care of a family under quarantine and taking some time to pause as creative people to prevent burnout. The last part of the conversation revolves mostly around the Bl...2020-06-1929 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastPaul Hansen of The Grownup Noise On New Music, New Instruments, and Some Personal History Welcome back to the Department of Tangents Podcast, a special new episode with Paul Hansen of The Grownup Noise. You may have noticed I haven’t done an official episode of the Department of Tangents in several months. More recently, I’ve been doing the Artist Check-In Podcast which focuses on how creative people are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. That series has a very particular focus, and this episode didn’t quite fit that. Paul and I have been friends for nearly 30 years. I was the drummer in one of his first bands when he was in hig...2020-06-031h 28
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In Podcast EP7 – Gregory Bastianelli: Horror Author, StorytellerThis week I speak with horror author and storyteller Gregory Bastianelli. Gregory released his winter-themed horror novel Snowball at the end of January. He had planned a full slate of appearances and conferences to promote the book, and all but a couple of these wound up being cancelled because of a COVID-19 quarantine. That has left him without a direct line to fans, something that an independent author counts on to sell books. We’ll talk about that, writing habits under quarantine, and the miserable New England winters that inspired him to write Snowball.2020-05-2827 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In Podcast EP6 – Corey Rodrigues: Comedian, Actor, Host of Corey's Stories This week I speak with comedian, actor, and now kid’s show host Corey Rodrigues. Corey was working on a cruise ship as late as mid-March, just as the full weight of the pandemic was coming to bear, and he tells us what that was like. Like most every comedian, Corey lost his bookings for the year, which gave him the excuse to start Corey’s Stories, the show he hosts every weekday at 7:30 now reading to kids. And if you’re listening on May 21, the day this comes out, go to noweherecomedyclub.com to see him on The Best of...2020-05-2141 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In Podcast EP5 – Tanya Gold: Book Editor, Writing Coach, Literary Omnivore This week I speak with book editor, writing coach, and self-described literary omnivore Tanya Gold about how her job has changed, and how it hasn’t, during the quarantine. We get into the finer points of the job – why every editor isn’t always a fit for every writer, the subjective nature of editing a poetry collection, the need for writers to strive for improvement. Tanya also went through a corona-like sickness without access to testing, which is something I’m sure some of you can relate to. Plus, book recommendations!2020-05-1443 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastArtist Check In EP4 Rick Jenkins - Comedy Studio Owner, ComedianMy day job is talking to artists for different publications, which means I know a lot of people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the quarantine associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. In this limited series I’ll be talking with comedians, musicians, sound engineers, authors, and creative people about how they are handling this personally and professionally. This week we get the comedy club owner’s perspective from Rick Jenkins, who owns The Comedy Studio in Somerville, a club that has fostered a lot of talent through the years. The Studio had to shut down in March, but eventually star...2020-05-0736 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In Podcast EP3 – Don White, Musician, Storyteller, Author My day job is talking to artists for different publications, which means I know a lot of people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the quarantine associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. In this limited series, I’ll be talking with comedians, musicians, sound engineers, authors, and creative people about how they are handling this personally and professionally. This week it’s Don White, musician, storyteller, and author. Don is a friend of mine and always a good conversation. Full disclosure, I work with Don on his PR, so I saw how gigs began to d...2020-05-0134 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Artist Check-In EP2: Chris Johnson, Musician, Sound Engineer The Artist Check-In is a limited series of conversations with comedians, musicians, authors, and creative people about how they are handling, personally and professionally, the quarantine conditions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. In this episode, I speak with Chris Johnson, a musician and sound engineer, who is responsible for the sound of this show’s theme song. He is also the bass player for Deafheaven, who had to cancel a tour and are trying to figure out how to record a live album when people can’t gather to watch live shows. If you’re a musician trying...2020-04-2355 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastEP1 Dave Rattigan - Comedian, Booker, and TeacherMy day job is talking to artists, mostly comedians, for different publications, which means I know a lot of people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the quarantine associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a limited series for which I’ll be talking with comedians, musicians, sound engineers, authors, and creative people about how they are handling this personally and professionally. Up first is Dave Rattigan, a comedian, booker, and teacher.2020-04-1728 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastLou Gramm on the Foreigner Reunion, New Music, and Living In RochesterI know I have said this podcast is on hiatus for the year, and technically, it is. I’m developing new ideas, both for the Department of Tangents Podcast and some new podcast projects. But, this interview came through after I had made that decision, and it has a bit of a special meaning for me as I get ready to head back to home to Bloomfield, New York for the holidays. Bloomfield is just outside of Rochester, one of the most hardcore classic rock cities in the nation. Foreigner was a staple on local radio there wh...2019-11-2519 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastLamont Price On the Joy of Halloween and Horror, Plus New Music from Even TwiceThis is the Department of Tangents special joy of Halloween and horror episode with Lamont Price. I love Halloween, and so does Price. And that’s really the only inspiration for this episode. Price is an incredibly entertaining human being, so we sat down with no real notes and not much of an agenda other than to discuss why we love the holiday, horror movies and books, what scares us and what doesn’t. We talked about trick or treating as kids, how that was part of the first taste of independence you get as a kid. And we go thro...2019-10-171h 52
The Department of Tangents PodcastMonster, She Wrote Authors Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson On the History of Female Horror Writing, Plus New Comedy from Corey RodriguesIf you ask a random reader to name foundational women horror writers, you might get two or three names. Mary Shelley. Shirley Jackson. Maybe Daphne du Maurier or Anne Rice. But as Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson point out in their new book, Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror & Speculative Fiction, if that’s where our knowledge begins and ends, we’re missing out on a lot. Eli Colter, who wrote, amongst other things, weird westerns. C.L. Moore who helped introduce swashbuckling rebels into the sci-fi canon. Angela Carter’s re-imagining of folk tales. There are also w...2019-10-101h 25
The Department of Tangents PodcastSue Costello On Staying Positive, Sexism, CBS, and Simmah Down, Plus New Music From Rebecca TurnerSue Costello is someone I saw early on in Boston, specifically playing a show organized by Jimmy Tingle that featured Costello, Patrice Oneal, and Steve Sweeney. She has always been tough, and she wears her Dorchester roots with pride. We got into some thorny topics here, including pervasive sexism in the entertainment industry and her dealings with CBS as the Les Moonves scandal was breaking. She has survived sexism in comedy and in the television industry and come out of it trying to find a way to get people to communicate more productively, to get to a truth. As she...2019-10-031h 28
The Department of Tangents PodcastDave Ross On Smart and Dumb Comedy, Punk, Masculinity, and Kale, Plus Newly-Released Early Dead Kennedys MusicDave Ross has a fantastic new album out now called The Only Man Who Has Ever Had Sex. You can download it, but if you see him at a show, you can buy a download card with a special flipbook he’s made with some beautiful photos and silliness. It’s Ross’s attempt to give you a little something extra for your participation, which is something he does in his comedy, as well. A few years ago, I reviewed the aptly-titled album Holy Fuck for the comedy review site The Spit Take. It was a who’s who of alter...2019-09-261h 09
The Department of Tangents PodcastMike Watt on Jumpstarted Plowhards, The Minutemen, and Keeping the Creative Juices Flowing, Plus New Comedy from Dave RossMike Watt is a bona fide punk rock legend. And he probably hates being described like that. His work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE is seminal stuff, and hard to describe, especially The Minutemen. The second you hear it, you know it’s punk, but it’s also funk and jazz and so many other things, and completely in-the-moment music. It’s as if all music, past and present, lives on the same plane, and he’s filtering all of it at once. The reason for that, he says in this interview, is that when he and D. Boon started...2019-09-181h 21
The Department of Tangents PodcastAuthor David Demchuk On Strangeness, Folklore, Queerness, and Monstrosity, Plus New Music from Jumpstarted PlowhardsDavid Demchuk’s first novel, The Bone Mother, came highly recommended to me at NECON this year by Matt Moore, whom I interviewed in EP104. Demchuk and Moore are both on ChiZine Publications, which had a table in the dealers room. So I picked up The Bone Mother, not knowing what to expect, and innocently set about reading the first fifty pages later that evening. It’s a novel told in short stories that, when taken together, form a story about a hunted and tortured class of people in Eastern Europe, many of whom happen to have supernatural traits or p...2019-09-121h 16
The Department of Tangents PodcastSteve Poltz On Songwriting, Goat Singing, Spirituality, Tom Cruise, and Much More, Plus New Music from Secret ShameI have met my tangenting match. I went into this interview, backstage at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a slate of questions for Steve Poltz, about his new album Shine On, about writing “You Were Meant For Me” with Jewel, about humor in music. I probably could have gotten a good hour with Steve with two or three questions. There is no telling where his mind might flash next. Just in terms of music, the conversation covered his early days with The Rugburns, Nirvana and 90s “goat music,” the Replacements, the Dead Milkmen, Mojo Nixon, Tom Lehrer...2019-09-061h 12
The Department of Tangents PodcastAuthor Matt Moore on Personal Apocalypse, Brevity, and Brain Chemistry, plus New Music from Steve PoltzThis is the third and final interview I recorded at NECON 2019, which I have previously described as a mashup of a horror writers conference and summer camp with adult beverages. I attended NECON for the first time in 2018, and this week’s guest, Matt Moore, was my roommate. Lucky for me, he is also a fine and thoughtful writer. His debut book is It’s Not the End (and Other Lies), a collection of short stories about what Moore calls personal apocalypses. What Moore means by that is that these stories aren’t necessarily about the apocalypse writ large with z...2019-08-281h 19
The Department of Tangents PodcastHorror Author and Editor Scott Goudsward on Zombies, Vampires, and Indie Publishing, plus New Music from ReverseThis is the second interview I recorded at this year’s NECON conference, which is part horror author’s conference and part summer camp. It is with Scott Goudsward, a very busy fellow. I’ve been trying to catch up with him for months, but as you are about to find out, Scott has a lot of jobs. He has written two novels -- Fountain of the Dead and Trailer Trash -- and many short stories, co-edited a series of guidebooks based on horror landmarks with his brother, David Goudsward, and is editor or co-editor of many horror anthologies. The la...2019-08-221h 06
The Department of Tangents PodcastWriter Pornsak Pichetshote and Artist Aaron Campbell on Xenophobia and Horror in Infidel, plus New Music from LandroidPornsak Pichetshote edited other people's books for DC for years before he attempted to write his own. He didn’t give himself an easy out. His first series, now collected as a graphic novel, is Infidel, a horror story that explores xenophobia. It’s hard enough to do horror and politics well separately without trying to combine them in a graphic format, but Infidel is a complex and nuanced story that grounds its truly terrifying ghost story in a very real world. What really brings out these elements is the collaboration between Pichetshote and artist Aaron Campbell, whose imagery and...2019-08-151h 12
The Department of Tangents PodcastWhy Save MAD? with Michael Gerber and Ian Scott McGregor, plus New Music from Twin PeaksIn early July, rumors started to surface that MAD Magazine was going to cease publishing new material and just reprint old stuff with new covers. MAD has been around since 1952 and has influenced multiple generations of smart asses. The eulogies came quick and heavy, and they’re still coming, even though we’ve never gotten a terrible clearly statement about the magazine’s future. Everyone seems so sure it’s dead, but what happens next with the magazine seems far from certain. I loved MAD when I was a kid, and I’m the proud owner of a rejectio...2019-08-081h 39
The Department of Tangents PodcastJ. Edwin Buja On His Debut Novel, King of the Wood, Plus New Music from TC&I (formerly of XTC)This is episode 100 of the podcast, and I thought about doing some sort of compilation of previous interviews, as I’ve done a couple of times in the past, to commemorate that. I decided against that for a couple of reasons. First, I haven’t accomplished everything I want to with this podcast yet, so it’s not time to celebrate. Hopefully, that comes later. Second, I have so many great interviews waiting to be released, I couldn’t see delaying any of them by a week. And third, this week’s interview is representative of one of my goals with...2019-08-0153 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastLucette On Her Americana and Pop Songwriting Influences and New Album Deluxe Hotel Room, plus New Music from AlaskalaskaThis episode was originally planned to be a minicast, but when Lucette and I started diving into her songwriting and her new album, Deluxe Hotel Room, the conversation went a bit longer than I had thought. Which is fantastic, because it means you get to hear more from Lucette about how this album reflects more of her true self as a songwriter, her approach to the arrangements and lyrics, the idea that this is an Americana album lyrically and more of a synth-pop album musically, and how she worked with producer Sturgill Simpson. As she explains in...2019-07-2531 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastBlood On Black Wax Authors Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas Talk Horror Movie Music, Plus New Music From Miss JuneI had been thinking a lot about how sound - the score and incidental music - effect the mood and even the story in horror movies and looking for a way to discuss that on the podcast when I came across the book Blood On Black Wax: Horror Soundtracks On Vinyl, written by this week’s guest conversationalists, Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas. It is, as the name would imply, a guide to horror movie soundtracks, including scores and compilations, that can be found on vinyl. But it’s also a history of the changing styles of horror films, a pe...2019-07-171h 23
The Department of Tangents PodcastLucy Isabel On Being a Jersey Girl in Nashville, Leaving Acting for Music, and Her Debut Album, Plus Live Tracks!If things had worked out as Lucy Isabel had originally planned, she would be firmly planted in New York right now, using the theater degree she got from Yale as a working actor. Instead, shortly after graduation, the New Jersey native left theater behind and moved to Nashville to become a touring singer/songwriter.If things had worked out as Lucy Isabel had originally planned, she would be firmly planted in New York right now, using the theater degree she got from Yale as a working actor. Instead, shortly after graduation, the New Jersey native left theater behind and...2019-07-111h 20
The Department of Tangents PodcastLamont Price on Godzilla, P-Funk, Ringo, and Rambo with New Music From Lucy IsabelIf you want to make anything funnier, just add Lamont Price. It certainly made watching Godzilla a much more enjoyable experience, which is the point of much of this podcast. This one has been brewing for a couple of years, starting with a conversation we had after a more formal interview with Price when he organized the comedy portion of the Boston Calling festival a while back. We were going to talk about Ringo Starr as a drummer, the Beatles, and celebrate the history and vibe of P-Funk. Then I ran into Price at the movies when the Godzilla...2019-07-041h 44
The Department of Tangents PodcastThe Behive Queen Christine Ohlman Talks Rock and Roll, Singing for Saturday Night Live, and Songwriting, plus New Comedy from Erica RhodesIt doesn’t happen often, but sometimes in this job of talking to notable people, you get kind of a day off. You talk to someone with such a long history, with such a broad view of the world of entertainment, with so many stories, that your presence is barely required. That was the case with Christine Ohlman. I just needed to pitch a topic or two out there and get out of her way Since 1992, Ohlman has been the singer with the Saturday Night Live Band, watching generations of cast members from Adam Sandler up to th...2019-06-271h 29
The Department of Tangents PodcastBernard Fowler On Singing Backup with the Rolling Stones and His New Album, plus New Spoken Word from Kate TempestFace it. Bernard Fowler has a better job than you. Not only does he release his own solo work, like his new album, Inside Out, he has also toured the world singing with the Rolling Stones for more than thirty years. He first started working with Mick Jagger on his solo album, She’s the Boss, in 1985. Producer Bill Laswell had told Fowler he had a job for him in London, but didn’t tell him with whom until he got in the same room with Jagger. As he tells me, he was more than surprised. But he aced the...2019-06-2054 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastHorror Author Nathan Ballingrud On His Creepy Fun Collection "Wounds," plus New Music from Bernard FowlerNathan Ballingrud has a wonderfully demented imagination. He has a way of reaching into your brain and finding all of those creepy little corners where you hide the things that make you cringe and make your skin crawl. In his first collection of stories, North American Lake Monsters, there was a bit more realism in his stories and characters. Hulu has optioned that, and will start shooting an anthology series this summer. In Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, he goes for broke, to the point where he was worried he might be going over...2019-06-131h 06
The Department of Tangents PodcastSatirist Jimmy Tingle On Politics and Optimism, plus Audio Excerpts from Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of HellJimmy Tingle is one of the first people I interviewed in the Boston comedy scene years ago. He was hosting and producing a stand-up show on race relations that featured, among others, Patrice O’Neal and Sue Costello. During my twenty years covering this scene, Tingle has always been a community-minded guy, whether it’s been as a theater owner for five years or his Humor for Humanity comedy benefit shows. So it wasn’t a surprise when he declared his candidacy for Lt. Governor of Massachusetts in the Democratic primary last year. He eventually lost, but garnered 41.3 percent of the...2019-06-051h 20
The Department of Tangents PodcastComedian Erica Rhodes On Art, Discipline, and Her New Album Sad Lemon, plus New Music from Cate Le BonIf you have not heard Erica Rhodes’s comedy, you have the perfect excuse to dive in on June 18, when her new album, Sad Lemon, comes out. Rhodes has been performing in some fashion since she was a kid, modeling at five and playing the voice of Garrison Keillor’s conscience on Prairie Home Companion at ten. She was a dancer as a child, then dedicated herself to playing cello before discovering acting and attending the Atlantic Theater Conservatory. That’s where she got some advice from David Mamet, that she needed to fix her voice if she was ever g...2019-05-2953 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP90: Funny Women of a Certain Age with Carole Montgomery, Andrea Henry, and Christine Hurley, Plus New Music from LucetteCarole Montgomery is 61, and she won’t hesitate to mention her age onstage. That is somewhat unusual in an industry obsessed with youth. But Montgomery is proud of her age. She has been doing comedy for roughly forty years, slugging it out in the clubs and balancing stand-up and family. She told Forbes online she once had to leave her baby son with a bouncer while she did her set, and found the bouncer rocking him in his car seat afterwards, afraid to pick him up to comfort him. That’s part of the experience of the come...2019-05-221h 05
The Department of Tangents PodcastIndie Rock Oncologist Karen Haglof with New Music from The Woolly BushmenThere is so much to explore in Karen Haglof’s career. She started out playing with a band called The Crackers in a Minneapolis scene that included Curtiss A, The Suicide Commandos, The Suburbs, and Flamingo before bands like Soul Asylum, the Replacements, and Husker Du put that scene on the map nationally. If, like me, you’re unfamiliar with that bit of history, seek out a new documentary called Jay’s Longhorn, for which Haglof is interviewed. It’s the most Midwestern story you could imagine – a bunch of writers and musicians and fans deciding they want a punk and i...2019-05-1659 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastHorror and Comedy with "About A Donkey" Director Christina Raia, plus New Music from Karen HaglofIf you follow the Department of Tangents Blog, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some of Christina Raia’s work. I featured her delightful ghost story Hello on October 23 of 2017, and another of her horror shorts, Night In, a month later. This past November, Raia debuted a different kind of film for her, a heist film called Enough with an ensemble cast. Raia says she loves to direct horror, and she’s got a new horror short called “Gaze” and a new horror/comedy feature called “Silent Night” in the works. But she also hates to be pigeonholed to a...2019-05-091h 00
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Minicast: Love and Death with Jim BreuerI have been working on this one since last fall when I saw Jim Breuer at the Comics Come Home benefit show in Boston. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it’s an annual event hosted by Denis Leary with an all-star lineup of stand-up comedians, many of whom have local ties. Lenny Clarke is there every year, and the 2018 edition featured Brian Regan, Robert Kelly, Jessica Kirson, Billy Gardell, and Christine Hurley, who will be a guest on next week’s full episode. Since it’s a benefit for the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, there...2019-04-3027 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastNat Freedberg from The Upper Crust to Better Late Than Never, plus New Comedy from Jim BreuerIf Nat Freedberg’s voice sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve heard him on this podcast way back on EP32, when I interviewed his band, The Upper Crust. Of course, back then, he wasn’t speaking as Nat, he was speaking as his character, Lord Bendover, the snarling 18th century aristocrat in a powdered wig and finery that wielded his Gibson SG like a rocque n’ roll weapon. That band got some national exposure on the late night talk show circuit, opened for Tenacious D, and, as Nat mentions here, nearly had their own reality show. Freedb...2019-04-2456 min
The Department of Tangents Podcast"Walk This Way" Author Geoff Edgers with New Music from Nat FreedbergIf you are a fan of music or comedy, you should already know Geoff Edgers. He was a longtime arts writer with The Boston Globe before moving to The Washington Post, where he has written some extraordinary pieces on Roseanne Barr, Chevy Chase, Norm Macdonald, and the article that his new book, Walk This Way, is based on. He makes it clear he is a reporter, not an analyst. So what you get from his writing is the facts about fascinating subjects. You hear from both Chase and his detractors. You see text exchanges between him and Macdonald. You...2019-04-171h 17
The Department of Tangents PodcastDisney and Hanna Barbera Animator Philo Barnhart plus New Music from Matt YorkThis is the last of the four podcasts I taped last November at the NorthEast Comic Con and Collectibles Extravaganza, which happens twice a year out in Boxborough, Massachusetts. Philo has had a long and varied career, and we get into his resume straight away in the interview and drill down from there. You’ve seen his animation work on Disney’s The Little Mermaid, The Smurfs, Super Friends, and more. You may even have heard his voice if you’re a fan of early animated video games, but I will make you listen to find out more about that.2019-04-1046 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastMusical Alien Micropixie Explores the Dark Sight of the Moon, plus New Comedy from Jess SalomonIf you are used to our usual theme song, do not adjust your iPod at the beginning of this episode. This week, we open music from this week’s guest conversationalist, Micropixie. It is the title track to her latest album, Dark Sight of the Moon, and yes she does realize that sounds like another album you may have heard of. Throughout this episode, you will hear a few other songs sprinkled into the mix, including “Nocturnal Concrete Mountaineering” from her first album, Alice In Stevie Wonderland, as well as “New Year’s Day” and “Back To Our Future” from the new one...2019-04-041h 29
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Minicast: Daniel Sloss On Offensive Jokes, "Dad" Jokes, and Why He's Not a TV ComicI interviewed Daniel Sloss a few weeks back for the Boston Globe when he came to town with his new show X, a deeply funny and sometimes devastating look at masculinity and the #MeToo movement. You can find that piece in the archives at bostonglobe.com in the February 21 edition. There are two segments I wanted you to hear that didn’t make the final story. The first is about offensive jokes, and the second is about “dad jokes,” some of the dumb things that make Sloss laugh, and why didn’t wind up being a squeaky clean TV comic. S...2019-04-0118 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastAmerican Bystander Publisher and Editor Michael Gerber with New Music from MicropixieThis week's episode is a conversation with Michael Gerber, publisher and editor of humor and satire magazine The American Bystander. There are hundreds, maybe thousands or more places to get satire and humor online. But The American Bystander is the one place dedicated to it in print. You can subscribe to a PDF version, but everything flows from the print version – its design and construction are part and parcel of its identity. It’s a throwback, most recognizably to The National Lampoon, but in a long tradition that included magazines like Punch and Spy. This is the vision of the...2019-03-271h 45
The Department of Tangents PodcastMusician and Journalist Ted Drozdowski plus an Audiobook Excerpt from Sarah Moss's Ghost WallI first became aware of Ted Drozdowski when I was working at the Boston Phoenix, reading his reviews and features as I helped to transfer them from the print edition to the Web. It wasn’t until later, when I put together a benefit show and Ted stepped in as a player and an organizer, that I really got to see how powerful a guitar player and songwriter he was and is. Then I got to see how he put the two together, doing a show on the history of the blues at a local museum, and using his gu...2019-03-011h 22
The Department of Tangents PodcastComics Artist and Musician Guy Gilchrist with New Music from Ted DrozdowskiThis is an inadvertently Nashville-themed edition, as featured interview subject, comics artist/creator and musician Guy Gilchrist, and the musician behind this week's featured track, Ted Drozdowski, ply their trades in Music City. And for the second week in a row, the featured guest has a Jim Henson connection. A bit from his bio – Gilchrist created the Muppets comic strip and worked on Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Babies. But he also took over the comic strip Nancy for a number of years and worked on cartoons from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to The Pink Panther. And if that we...2019-02-0148 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastWriter/Producer/Puppeteer Bill Diamond with New Music from Teardrop CityGreetings and welcome back to the Department of Tangents Podcast! We are turning 80 today with this episode, featuring an interview with writer, puppet creator, producer, and all around problem solver Bill Diamond, whom I interviewed live back in November at the NorthEast Comic Con & Collectible Extravaganza, which is happening again next week out in Boxboro, Massachusetts. Diamond had a wonderful room full of puppets, from a giant Audrey II used in stage productions of Little Shop of Horrors to a Vincent Price puppet to his own creation, the Moonshins, which he is resurrecting as a television series i...2019-01-311h 00
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP79: Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola Discuss 2018 Horror Films and Their Latest, Clickbait plus New Music from Whispering SonsThis is a special edition of the Department of Tangents Podcast, a look back at the year in horror films with filmmakers, musicians, and writers Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola, who released their own horror film in 2018 called Clickbait. We talked about the best, the most disappointing, and a few mixed reviews, including bigger releases like Hereditary, A Quiet Place, Halloween, Sorry To Bother You, the Suspiria remake, Annihilation, and Mandy, as well as some indie releases like the Kane Hodder documentary To Hell and Back, the video game-themed Livescream, the generically named Horror Movie: A Low-Budget Nightmare.2018-12-312h 16
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP78: North East Comic Con Comedy Panel w Carolyn Plummer, Kathe Farris, Erin Spencer, and Emily Ruskowski, with New Music from illuminati hottiesThis week's episode is a panel discussion with comedians Kathe Farris, Emily Ruskowski, Erin Spencer, and Carolyn Plummer with new music from illuminati hotties. It's the very first time the Department of Tangents was recorded live in front of an audience. The North East Comic Con and Collectibles Extravaganza expanded its podcast panels and its comedy offerings this year, and I was lucky to nab all four comedians on the Friday night show presented by The Boston Comedy Festival before they took the stage. That's BCF founder Jim McCue we're thanking at the end. I haven’t do...2018-12-011h 15
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP77: Celebrating 30 Years of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Kids In the Hall on TVThis week’s episode is a bit different from previous episodes, in that it doesn’t feature an interview with one person about their work. For the Thanksgiving week episode, I am celebrating a couple of things for which I feel very thankful, and that it the existence of The Kids In the Hall and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Both happen to be celebrating 30th anniversaries in television this year, so it seemed fitting to put them together. The Kids In the Hall first came together as a group in 1984, but their pilot episodes debuted in October of 1988, just about a mo...2018-11-241h 38
The Department of Tangents PodcastRyan Lee Crosby Talks Raga Blues, plus "I'm Dissatisfied"I’ve written about Ryan Lee Crosby’s music in the past. I’m not sure when the first time was, but back then he had finished playing with his rock band, Cancer To the Stars, and had moved on to a more acoustic singer/songwriter sound. He has been the type of musician that, if you lose track of him for a little while, he may be doing something completely different when you find your way back. That’s what I found with his new album, River Music. Crosby moved on from singer/songwriter mode to an acoust...2018-11-1656 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP75 Musician Perry Serpa On His New Album, Wherefore Art Thou?I have known Perry Serpa for several years as a press guy. He has been a regular in my inbox, sending me notices about new music. A couple of years ago, I was surprised when he sent me a press release about his own music, helming a band called The Sharp Things. After doing my homework, I found out he is a skillful pop and rock craftsman, and I featured a print interview with him about Everybody Everybody on the Department of Tangents blog. Then, a couple of months ago, I got an e-mail detailing his latest...2018-11-091h 09
The Department of Tangents PodcastDOT PODCAST EP 74 Gad ElmalehGad Elmaleh has a fascinating story. He was born in Casablanca, went to college in Montreal, and then moved to France where he became a stand-up superstar. Three years ago, he moved from the place where he is most popular to America, where he was somewhat known but not a huge star. He was still learning English, and his goal was to get good enough to be able to do an hour in English. He accomplished that quickly, releasing his American Dream special on Netflix earlier this year. This interview wasn’t meant to be a podcast epi...2018-10-2651 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastMike Vago, Author of Selfdestructible, plus New Comedy from Shawn CarterThis episode is an interview with author Mike Vago with new comedy from Shawn Carter. Vago is a talented writer and humor columnist. You may have seen his Wiki Wormhole feature, which has run for the past five years in the Onion’s A.V. Club. Or you might have seen his debut novel, Selfdestructible, about super heroes who have to deal with real-world problems. A teenager discovers he can set things on fire when he’s angry, and the part he’s most excited about, at least at first, is that he gets to be homeschooled and doe...2018-10-201h 14
The Department of Tangents PodcastA DoT Minicast: Paula Finn, Author of Sitcom Writers Talk ShopThis week’s episode is a minicast, an interview with Paula Finn, author of Sitcom Writers Talk Shop: Behind the Scenes with Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, and Other Geniuses of TV Comedy. It’s a collection of interviews with some of the finest writers in television history, including big names like Reiner, Lear, James L. Brooks, Larry Charles, Phil Rosenthal, Mike Reiss, and Al Jean, and some important figures lesser-known outside of TV nerd fandom like Treva Silverman, Leonard Stern, and husband and wife team Austin and Irma Kalish. These people contributed foundational work in the art of te...2018-10-1218 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastWild Artist Cari Ann Shim Sham, plus New Music from the Chandler Travis Three-OI love Halloween, and I live just a few minutes from Salem, Massachusetts, celebrated for the Salem Witch Trials and home of a full month of Halloween insanity through the month of October. You’d think someone would have created a horror-themed festival for the city a long time ago, but it wasn’t until last year that the Salem Horror Fest sprung up, and with it the shorts program where I saw Cari Ann Shim Sham’s film, The Parksville Murders. I had just watched a whole evening’s worth of great horror shorts, some of which I...2018-10-0545 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastMatt Leslie, Writer/Producer of Summer of '84, plus New Comedy from Jo FirestoneI was lucky enough to see Summer of ’84 a few weeks ago in Salem, Massachusetts, not far from where Matt Leslie grew up in Ipswich. I had not heard of the film before, but it was sponsored by the Salem Horror Fest, and I trust the tastes of the folks who run that, so I went into it with no hype, knowing virtually nothing about it. I greatly enjoyed the film. It has the same vibe as movies I enjoyed, oddly enough, as a teenager in the mid-eighties like The Lost Boys or The Goonies. Davey, a su...2018-09-211h 16
The Department of Tangents PodcastSpencer Garland is PR Newman, plus New Music from The Innocence MissionIf you listened to EP69 with comedian and author Guy Branum, you heard a little taste of the new PR Newman album, Turn Out. If not, I hope you’ll take a listen and come back to this conversation. There is a lot to talk about with this music. I got an advance of the album a month or so ago, and wound up listening to it in the car over and over for the next several days – which is the mark of a good album. Car listening is essential. Every time I listened, I heard something different. It star...2018-09-1339 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP69: Writer, Comedian, and Goddess Guy Branum, plus New Music from PR NewmanI am honored to have Guy Branum as my interview guest this week. He is an accomplished television writer, having worked on Chelsea, Lately and written for Joan Rivers, as well as one of the most consistently entertaining sitcoms of the past decade, The Mindy Project. He also currently hosts Talk Show The Game Show on truTV, on which guests get points for witty stories, just the right amount of name dropping to avoid getting a yellow card, jokes, and applause breaks. It’s a fresh and funny show and reminds me of Match Game in a way that th...2018-08-3052 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastAuthor David Wellington from NECON 38 plus New Music from BeanpoleA few weeks ago, I traveled to Rhode Island for NECON 38, the 38th edition of Northeastern Writers Conference. It’s also known as Camp NECON, and it is attended mostly by horror writers, aspiring horror writers like myself, and fans. It was my first time at the conference, but it didn’t feel that way. It is a professional conference, with a full slate of panels on writing and horror-related art, but it is also very social. The regulars think of themselves as family, and that is very much the spirit of the event. I felt very welcomed in this...2018-08-171h 23
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP67: Late Show Comedy Booker Jessica Pilot plus New Music from Walter Salas-HumaraJessica Pilot has one of the best jobs in the business. She finds stand-up comedians for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and helps them perfect their set for television. That means watching as much stand-up comedy as she possibly can, at festivals, in clubs, or, every once in a while, in a pizza shop. As I am recording this voiceover now, she is out scouting at the Just For Laughs Festival. It’s a dream job in a lot of ways, but it is still a job. There is a lot of work involved in getting a five or...2018-07-271h 03
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP66: Comedian Myq Kaplan plus New Music from The RailsMyq Kaplan’s mind is in constant motion. If you saw him early on in his career, you might have caught him in a constant barrage of one- and two-line jokes, all quick-witted stuff that would flit from one premise to the next. Over the years, Kaplan has retained that rhythm, but he has developed the ideas more. Those smaller bits are woven around a larger theme, as with last year’s No Kidding in which Kaplan explored his lack of desire to have kids. Kaplan is about to bring his next show, All Killing Aside (A Work...2018-07-1955 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP65 The English Beat's Dave Wakeling plus Sloane Crosley's Look Alive Out ThereOne of the best things you can do as a fan of any art is to go into something with no real expectations and find something you think is wonderful. That explains my relationship with The English Beat. The band played their first show in 1979 and were part of the two-tone movement in the early 80s, but I didn’t hop on board until I saw the band last year. They were on the Retro Futura Tour, which also featured Paul Young, Katrina Leskanich from Katrina and the Waves, Modern English, Men Without Hats, and Howard Jones. I...2018-07-131h 21
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP64 Comedian Julie Goldman with New Music from Tyler ChildersThis is yet another episode springing from the 2018 Women In Comedy Festival here in Boston. It had been a very long time since I’d gotten the chance to catch up with Julie Goldman, so long that neither of us could quite remember exactly when we’d first met or talked. I interviewed her for the Boston Globe to preview the festival, and the conversation went so many different directions, I wanted to follow up and make sure I got her on the podcast. I saw a lot of great sets at the festival, but Goldman’s might...2018-06-251h 04
The Department of Tangents PodcastMusician Mark Geary featuring "Don't Break"Years ago, I reviewed Mark Geary’s album Ghosts for the sadly departed Boston Phoenix. I would pop that CD in my player on occasion, but fell out of touch with his music for a while. Then a couple of months before this interview, I got an instant message from Geary on Facebook that he’d be playing a few miles away. It was around two in the morning, but I got my tickets a few minutes later, and saw a fantastic show at a little place called The Carriage House in Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was wonderful to catch up w...2018-06-211h 26
The Department of Tangents PodcastJonathan Katz Talks Dr. Katz on Audible, plus New Music fromFor this week’s episode, I sat down with Jonathan Katz in his home in Newton, Massachusetts to talk about his career in stand-up comedy and Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, his popular Comedy Central show which is now an audio series on Audible. Season Two of the new incarnation is coming up this summer, and Katz gives the complete rundown of new guests, plus a preview of what’s happening with Dr. Katz, his son Ben, played by H. Jon Benjamin, and his receptionist, Laura, played by Laura Silverman. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to i...2018-06-061h 06
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Minicast: An Interview Flashback with Lily TomlinOccasionally I dip back into the archives of comedians, musicians, and authors I’ve interviewed for the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix, or various other publications over the years and give you a few short bits of the recordings. This episode, it’s Lily Tomlin, whom I interviewed for the Globe in 2008 and 2013. Tomlin is a delightful person and a delightful performer. If you’ve never seen her live, make a point of it. If you can’t feel good about being a human being after you’ve seen her, I don’t know what to do for you. She’s very o...2018-05-2407 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastComedian Emma Willmann plus New Music from WajattaThis episode is a continuation of EP60 of the podcast in that I got to see Emma Willman perform a lot at this year’s Women In Comedy Festival, and caught up with her by phone shortly after to talk about the festival and everything she’s got going on. She was on the last season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and she’s waiting to hear about next season. She’s got a fifteen-minute Netflix special coming out on August 31. And a lot of her current momentum started with an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in September of 2016...2018-05-1748 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastWomen In Comedy Festival Wrap Up plus New Music from The Smoking FlowersThe Women In Comedy Festival is one of my favorite annual events in Boston, and has been since its more humble beginning in 2009, when most of the shows were held in one venue, ImprovBoston. It has expanded in some way every year, and this year, they brought in some scouts all over the industry to see some of the amazing talent – 115 acts in all. I bounced around to different shows all five days of the festival, and tried to catch people at after parties or between venues. I got four on site, which make up this episode, and one ot...2018-05-0555 min
The Department of Tangents Podcast6 String Drag's Kenny Roby plus New Music from Domenico LancellottiKenny Roby has been one of my favorite songwriters for the past twenty years, since I first interviewed him for a now defunct music magazine for the release of his excellent solo album, Mercury’s Blues. That led me to one of my all-time favorite albums, High Hat, by his then former band, 6 String Drag. There is so much soul and musical diversity in that album – Americana that wanders from New Orleans to Texas, a bit of punk, with a ton of swing and bounce. Roby continued that roving sound on his solo albums, and I have remained a fan...2018-04-281h 14
The Department of Tangents PodcastShape of Water Author Daniel Kraus plus New Music from 6 String DragDaniel Kraus has written a number of novels, including Rotters, a great horror novel I’m reading now. What puts him front and center right now is his work with Guillermo del Toro on the Oscar-winning story for The Shape of Water. Kraus had the idea years ago that he might want to do something about a love affair blossoming between a creature and an employee of a lab. He was already working with del Toro on the Trollhunters book, which became the series on Netflix. He mentioned the idea to del Toro, and that got the ball rolling. Yo...2018-04-211h 00
The Department of Tangents PodcastBroken Lizard in Boston on Super Troopers 2Two weeks ago, the guys from Broken Lizard came to Boston to hand out doughnuts and coffee to a bunch of appreciative fans to promote their new movie, Super Troopers 2, which is out this Friday, April 20. The guys were there for nearly two hours, taking pictures with fans and signing everything from DVDs and beat up old VHS copies of the original film to baseballs and bottles of maple syrup. When that was winding down, I got to speak with Erik Stolhanske and Steve Lemme about the sequel, and the legacy of the original film. What added an extra...2018-04-1813 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastMole Man Doc Director Guy Fiorita with Audiobook Excerpt from The Shape of WaterBack in March, I saw this great film at the Salem Film Festival. The festival focuses on documentaries, and the film is Mole Man, directed by Fiorita, who was in attendance. What I thought I was going to see was a quirky portrait of a 66-year-old man in Western Pennsylvania who has built this labyrinthine complex in the woods behind his parents’ house. And that’s where the film begins – we see Ron salvaging things from abandoned houses, picking through things that got left behind, and piling wood and sinks and bags of clocks on this tiny motorbike and bringi...2018-04-141h 04
The Department of Tangents PodcastComedian and TV Guidance Counselor Host Ken Reid plus New Music from KassinThis week’s guest is stand-up comedian and host of the TV Guidance Counselor podcast Ken Reid, someone I have known for years in the Boston scene and whom I’ve covered occasionally for the Boston Globe. Reid is a good friend to have if you enjoy horror or comedy in film or television. On TV Guidance Counselor, he gives his guests a copy of TV Guide from their childhood and hashes out what they would have watched that particular week. Chances are, Reid has seen whatever show or movie his guests have seen, and probably owns the soundtrack. “I like...2018-03-311h 37
The Department of Tangents PodcastHadron Gospel Hour's Rich Wentworth plus New Music from Courtney Marie AndrewsThis week’s episode is a conversation with podcast host/artist/musician Rich Wentworth. He is co-creator of the Hadron Gospel Hour podcast, a serialized sci-fi/comedy show about the adventures of a scientist who accidentally blows up the multiverse working on a way to weaponize the Hadron Collider. He and his partner Mike, played by co-creator Michael McQuilkin, jump in and out of the rift to visit different timelines and occasionally do battle with evil. The podcast also features sketch comedy, horror, and original music – Wentworth and McQuilkin are both musicians and songwriters. It’s a hell of a good...2018-03-231h 29
The Department of Tangents PodcastComedian Jess Salomon plus an Excerpt from Laurie Kilmartin's Audiobook Dead People SuckI was very happy how this interview came together. Some of you may know I have covered the comedy beat for the Boston Globe for the past seventeen years or so, and one of the best parts about that job is coming across someone who is really funny and maybe just coming into their full voice, and you’ve never heard them before. A few weeks before this interview, I had not heard of Jess Salomon. She has been through Boston, having gone to college at Tufts, but didn’t start doing comedy until she went back to Montreal. And...2018-03-081h 29
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Podcast EP53 Comedian Jenny Zigrino and Guest Co-Host Jessie Baade with New Music from Matt MinigellJenny Zigrino is still very much a comic on the rise. In the past two years, she has played notable roles in films like Bad Santa 2 and Fifty Shades of Black. Last year, she released her debut album, JZ’s New Album, had her own Comedy Central Half Hour, and co-hosted an IFC digital series called The Filling Is Mutual with Jen Saunderson. In 2018, she’s already appeared on Live from Here (formerly Prairie Home Companion) and has a Web series debuting in March for Comedy Central called Bad Ass Bitches of History. I covered her when she...2018-03-011h 14
The Department of Tangents PodcastFolk Duo The Lowest Pair with New Comedy From Paige WeldonTwo performers. Two microphones. Banjo and acoustic guitar. The Lowest Pair are about as elemental an act as you’ll see onstage. You can hear that approach on their album, up to and including the two releases from 2016, Uncertain As It Is Uneven and Fern Girl. I sat down with Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee last year when they played Cinema Salem, and barely got time to establish the conversation before we were off on a tangent about the soundtrack to Get Out and how it worked with the action in that movie. They are a gentle pair wi...2018-02-231h 04
The Department of Tangents PodcastInventor and Philosopher Dr. Robert Doyle Part II with New Music from Ruby BootsWelcome to the extra-tangenty 51st episode anniversary of the Department of Tangents Podcast, my interview with inventor and Information Philosopher Dr. Robert Doyle, with new music from Ruby Boots. This interview came about it a strange way. For years I have been trying to explain to people my favorite board game as a kid, Stop Thief. It had a regular cardboard square with a cartoon grid on it, and your job was to find the thief, who was still actively moving around the different stores and the outside on the street. What was different about Stop Thief...2018-02-1559 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastInventor and Philosopher Dr. Robert Doyle plus new music from Barrence Whitfield and the SavagesWelcome to the extra-tangenty 50th episode anniversary of the Department of Tangents Podcast! This episode came about it a strange way. For years I have been trying to explain to people my favorite board game as a kid, Stop Thief. It had a regular cardboard square with a cartoon grid on it, and your job was to find the thief, who was still actively moving around the different stores and the outside on the street. What was different about Stop Thief was that it had a handheld scanner giving you audio clues – footsteps, doors opening, shattering glass, street noises. It...2018-02-1452 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastMatt York on Between the Bars, plus New Music from PrateekI first became aware of Matt York’s music when he released his Americana album Boston, Texas in 2016. I also write and play music, and we had a few friends in common. We played on a couple of bills together, and I got to know a bit more of his history, how he had been part of Boston’s rock scene years before and had quit for a while until he got the bug again. He released a new album, Between the Bars, in 2017, and it felt like a good time to catch up and explore that history on the...2018-02-011h 18
The Department of Tangents PodcastComedian Christopher Titus with New Music from Matt YorkWhen I first spoke with Christopher Titus, he was coming through a turning point in his career. It was around 1997 or ’98, and he was playing the Funny Bone Comedy Club in Buffalo, NY, where I was writing for the Buffalo News. Titus had been staging a show called Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding at theaters in Los Angeles, and he was trying to make it work in comedy clubs. It impressed me not just because it was funny, but because he wasn’t afraid to talk about a lot of heavy topics, to let the serious points be serious and then...2018-01-261h 14
The Department of Tangents PodcastGlenn Page of The Len Price 3 and New Comedy from Tommy RymanI first heard The Len Price 3 years ago on a Christmas compilation Little Steven put together for his Underground Garage show. When I spoke with Steven about the album, it was clear he was a big fan of the band, which is more than enough of an endorsement for anyone who loves rock and roll. I was thrilled when I got the advance of their new album, Kentish Longtails, which came out in September of 2017. The first thing that hits you about the album is the loud, brash mashup of classic British bands like the Kinks, the...2018-01-181h 23
The Department of Tangents PodcastBoston Comic Con 2017 Part IIThis is Part II of the Boston Comic Con 2017 edition of the DoT podcast. It’s the last podcast of the year, and the last batch of interviews with artists and creators done on the floor of Boston Comic Con back in August. We start with Sam Furst, proprietor of Monsters Are Good, a pop-culture apparel company specializing in horror-related characters. Then author and illustrator EJ Barnes, who left a lucrative career to pursue her art and to write comics, LB Lee of Mental Health comics and writer/editor Ryan Cady of the Top Cow title Magdalena. If...2017-12-2949 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastBoston Comic Con 2017You’ve heard of Christmas in July? This is more like July in Christmas. Or August in Christmas. This is kind of a lost episode, in that I had meant to publish it much earlier, but it kept getting bumped for interviews I felt needed to get out there first. I gathered a bunch of interviews with artists, writers, and creators at Boston Comic Con in August, and this is Part I of a two-part series. I spoke with Gordin McAlpin, creator of the Multiplex Web comic, Michael Denison of the Bea Arthur-centric Bea A Day, a collage artist wh...2017-12-2451 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Halloween Fiction Special - "Walter's Friends"Happy Halloween! Welcome to the Halloween Fiction Special of the Department of Tangents Podcast. In this episode, I read my short horror story "Walter's Friends," originally published in One Buck Horror: Volume Four. I have been a freelance writer for twenty years, but only started pursuing fiction around 2010. Horror fiction, and zombie fiction, in particular, which I developed a taste for after researching a story that never ran on the continuing popularity of that subset. "Walter's Friends" was my first professionally published fiction story, and in this podcast, I read the complete piece. This is a bit...2017-10-3119 min
The Department of Tangents PodcastLonely Troubadour David Ramirez Gets Some Company on the Road, plus New Comedy from Dana Gould!For the past several years, David Ramirez has been traveling around the country with an acoustic guitar, pouring his heart into his fine, passionate tunes. He’s mostly been doing that alone, with no band to back him, while the arrangements on his albums have grown both more subtle and more expansive. On his new album, We’re Not Going Anywhere, the follow-up to his 2015 breakthrough Fables, his sound has taken another new turn. Ramirez is backed by a full band, and brings in earthy-sounding synths and chiming guitars, an almost nostalgic 80s vocabulary of instrumentation to bounce off his...2017-10-271h 01
The Department of Tangents PodcastGrady Hendrix on Paperbacks from Hell, plus New Music from HoundWhen I first scheduled this interview with author Grady Hendrix, I was expecting him to be much more tongue-in-cheek about the subject of horror in print. He had named his book “Paperbacks from Hell,” and started his history of horror novels with The Little People and its unique creation, Gestopochauns – Nazi leprechauns. Plus, he has so much fun describing the outlandish plots of some of these books. Take, for example, this gem, in which he describes Jeffrey Konvitz’s The Sentinel: Young Alison ran away but her father chased her down and tried to strangle her with a crucif...2017-10-201h 03
The Department of Tangents PodcastIan McDonald Talks About Some Freaks, Plus New Comedy from Sean SullivanWriter/Director Ian McDonald has seen a lot of coming of age films, so when he decided to make his own, he had a few critiques and corrections. Some Freaks a story of changing relationships, the strain of feeling different from everyone around you, and ultimately doing what you need to grow. When Matt first meets Jill, he doesn’t make a great impression. He and his friend Elmo are playing video games and making bad jokes, as high school boys are wont to do. Jill overhears Matt make a fat joke, and it almost destroys any chance for th...2017-10-1200 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastCorin Ashley On Broken Biscuits and Stroke Recovery, plus New Comedy from Fern BradyCorin Ashley was in the middle of recording his powerful new rock and roll album Broken Biscuits in January of 2016 when his plans were derailed by a stroke. He was at the gym, feeling a bit numb, with a grey band obstructing his vision. That began what would be a nightmare scenario for anyone, much less a musician in the middle of a project. With the help of medical specialists and a voice coach, Ashley had to learn how to sing and play all over again. What used to be instinctual became purposeful. His fingers didn’t recognize the fr...2017-10-0400 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastThe Near Genius of Nate Dern plus New Music from Corin AshleyWhen I started reading Nate Dern’s new book, Not Quite A Genius, I was expecting a collection of comic personal essays, that being a popular format at the moment. I got that in pieces about being a minor reality television star and hipster vegetarianism, but I also got strange stories about insomnia and dream killers, a piece about the lifespan about a computer becoming self-aware and having an immediate existential crisis. Some of them are silly, some of them are political and pointed at subjects like anti-vaxxing and global warming. At times in Genius, Dern will open in fi...2017-09-2100 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP39: Sweet Harmony in Dark Times with Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, Patrick Coman’s Tree of Life, plus New Comedy from Sasheer ZamataThe first time I remember seeing Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams was at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston. They were backing up Levon Helm, and as I delved deeper into Helm’s music, I would find the Campbell was that band’s rudder. With Williams on acoustic guitar and vocals and Campbell’s sizzling guitar work and ability to switch to violin, mandolin, or whatever the song called for, Helm could go whatever direction he wanted. Campbell had done the same for Bob Dylan on tour for several years starting in the late 90s, but he hadn’t really explored...2017-09-1300 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP38: The Joyful Contradiction of Valerie June plus New Comedy From Shane TorresAbout four songs into her set at New Hampshire's Prescott Park, Valerie June addressed the crowd. “What about the things that are going right?” she said. Random cheers from the audience. “I hear a lot about what’s going wrong, what about what’s going right?” She had just finished a hip-shaking rendition of “Shakedown,” from her latest album The Order of Time, a roots-folk-soul gumbo with a bit more of an electric attitude than her breakthrough album, Pushin’ Against a Stone. June is no saccharine neo-folk artist. Many of her narrators don’t have what they truly want. They either just mis...2017-09-0700 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP37: Humorist Mike Sacks Lets Loose a Stinker, plus New Music from Ian Randall ThorntonIf you are like Mike Sacks, somewhere in the murk of your childhood memories, you have the remnants of some cheesy movies from Sunday afternoon TV watching. Might be rubber monsters battling over plastic model cities. Or a machine-gun-toting muscle freak saving his friends from dubious foreigners with ill intentions. For Mike, the movie that stood out featured a guy named Stinker and his pet chimp commissioned to get some precious cargo to the president before… well… something. Probably something bad. There was also a dim-witted trucker friend, a kid who can’t help but use profanity every other word...2017-08-3100 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastDoT EP36: A World of Soul with Zeshan B plus New Comedy From Ray HarringtonIf you caught Zeshan B on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert a couple of weeks ago, you know how powerful a soul singer he is. On that show, he covered the George Perkins civil rights anthem “Cryin’ In the Streets,” which he also recorded for his debut album, Vetted. Zeshan can soar and swing, and he did that when I caught up with him at Sonia in Cambridge, Ma a week after that appearance, ripping through a dozen tunes at a late-night show. The set list drew heavily from the new album, with outstanding versions of “Hard Road To Trave...2017-08-2400 minThe Department of Tangents PodcastDoT Ep35: Billy D. Washington Never Left Stand-Up, But He's Coming Back, Plus New Music from BIRDSI’ve been a fan of comedian Billy D. Washington for a while. He’s a smart comic, talented in a lot of ways. He can work clean, he can do political satire, he can write from a more observational aesthetic, and he plays a mean piano. Last week, a post he made on Facebook caught my attention. He said he’d been watching all these new stand-up comedy specials, the gold mine frenzy we’ve had lately, and he’d decided to “compete” again. I got in touch with him immediately to see what he meant, and he said he’d been...2017-08-1600 min