Author: Matthew Ussia

Episode 20: Make Your Own Damn Records

In this episode renaissance man Mike Seamans who is owner of Mind Cure Records, both the store and the label, stops by and talks about what it takes to run a record store in 2014.  We also discuss the strange intimacy what comes with being someone’s record dealer, The New York Times Best Seller List,  and how it’s possible to make and sell records and STILL like music.  Additionally, Mike outs Tom Hanks as a living villain of history.  Also, if you listen carefully you can hear all of my pets that make noise.

Mind Cure Records is on the second floor of 3138 Dobson St. in the Polish Hill section of Pittsburgh. You can also find them on the interwebs at mindcurerecords.com.  From now until June 2014, Mind Cure will be putting out a 7″ single from a Pittsburgh band on the last Saturday of every month.  Mike is also a documentary filmmaker as seen by the trailer for his upcoming film and the greatest video in the history of all media.

I couldn’t get through an episode without dropping an F-bomb.

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Episode 19: Seriously, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

For this podcast we are lucky to have Endless Mike of Endless Mike and the Beagle Club; The One and Only Matt Miller (who is also in The Beagle Club); and Derek Zanetti of The Homeless Gospel Choir to discuss what it means to share one’s personal life through songwriting.   We also discuss Jimmy Stewart’s hometown, a place where emotions are seemingly not allowed, and Derek provides us with perhaps the greatest moment in the history of the podcast.

Endless Mike has a great song called “Out of Respect”  that we talk about throughout the podcast. You can find out more about Endless Mike and the Beagle Club here, and you can see Matt Miller’s newest movie “Hang With Me” here.  Derek is an old vet of the podcast.  He was here previously to talk about his band The Homeless Gospel Choir in Episode 11, and he was here to promote his book Existentialism: The Musical in Episode 15.

As always, there is swearing.

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Episode 18: The Anxieties of Activism or the Joys of Disobedience

Good pal and union brother Clint Benjamin stops by and talks about overcoming one’s inhibitions and speaking out against an unfair situation.  By day, Clint is a writer and adjunct instructor of English at several colleges.  By night, he works to make life better for the folks who do the majority of college teaching as an organizer for the Adjunct Faculty Association.  Clint explains how he overcame his inhibitions and became a media superstar.  Together , we discuss the fear of getting arrested while protesting and what makes the risk worthwhile.

As always we swear.

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Episode 17: I Know It’s Only Rock and Roll, but the Italians Like It.

The second time I saw Bill Toms perform I said that I though every bar in the country should have a Bill Toms clone or bot that can be pulled out whenever folks need to have gospel infused blues rock good time.   Bill has been performing music for 35 years and is a true master of his craft.  Anyone who has seen one of his joyous live shows can understand why I was super happy to spend part of a Saturday morning discussing songwriting, how an album is a document of a time and a place, why Europeans love American music, his awesome new album Memphis, and when those Bill Toms-bots will eventually rise up and take over the world they will only ask for dark chocolate.

You can find out all about Bill Toms at his website, buy all his merchandise here, and if you never saw a Bill Toms show, see what you are missing with this clip.

As always, there’s a little light swearing.

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Episode 16: For the Love of Extreme Personalities.

Happy New Year Everybody!  It’s was an odd end of 2013 and sad beginning of 2014.  In episode 14, Lori Howsare and I spoke about some of what it meant to do theatre.  Unfortunately, our theatre director, Mr. Kenny Resinski, who we spoke of warmly in that episode, passed away in December.  Lori came back not to do a sappy tribute show, but to explore an uncanny way Mr. Resinski changed our lives in a way that a few other people could, by teaching us to accept and admire extreme personalities.

Lori is a performance artist in Pittsburgh.  She has a blog called Muse Inspired Madness, which she sometimes types words into.  She also will be performing as part of The Pittsburgh Fringe Festival, as well as their kick off party, which will be on Thursday, January 16th.

Light swearing as usual.

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Episode 15: It’s All Just Words, Man.

Our good friend Derek Zanetti is back to talk about Existentialism: The Musical.  If you remember Derek is The Homeless Gospel Choir, but his new project is an impressive collection of poetry and artwork you can order here.  During the podcast we talk about what it means to switch genres and how artistic forms serve certain ideas better.  It all sounds very serious, and if you watch this informational video you can find out more about what Existentialism: The Musical is all about.

As always, I swear.

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Episode 14: When the Circus Leaves Town

Don’t call it a comeback . . . For this episode we speak to Lori Howsare.  Lori’s been doing theater for forever, and in this episode we talk about some of the unique temporary communities that seem to pop up when doing shows.

Check out Lori’s blog MUSEinspiredMADnesS for her random thoughts and performance schedule.

We talk about the bad old days, ebola, and why Brigadoon might just be the scariest show anyone can do.  Also, Lori has the best answer so far for the “bad porno plot” question on the bottom 5.

As always, we swear.

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Episode 13: Rock and Roll Rhetoric (Prequel)

We’re back from our unplanned late-summer hiatus!

In this episode, I talk to former Pittsburgh concert promoter Christopher Caresani (Aka Dr. Z).  We planned on talking about the power of lyrics to either inspire greatness or ruin a person’s life.

Instead, we talked about his awful taste in music, how he doesn’t actually like music (but swears he does), whether or not someone Elton John can inspire someone to commit a misdemeanor, and Dick Cheney.  Also, for some stupid reason I thought it would be a good idea to do a spontaneous Bruno Mars impersonation.   We will get back to our stated topic at some other time.

Christopher has a blog that he updates less often than I bother to do podcasts.  You can read it here.

As always, the f-word makes a regular appearance.

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Episode 12: Escape from South Plainfield

Chris Q. Murphy and I grew up in the not very quaint nor so little town of South Plainfield, New Jersey, and we’ve chosen to live our adult lives in a lifestyle very different to how we were raised.  Chris plays us a song.  We talk about how we were raised, why and how we escaped, and finally, the special kind of cynicism only Jersey kids know.

Chris Q. Murphy is a music teacher and musician in Brooklyn, New York.  You can find out all about his music at his creatively named website chrisqmurphy.com.  He has an amazing backup band called The Fiendish Thingies and together they have a great EP and excellent single that can be found over at his Bandcamp page.  He has a Faceplace but not a Google+.  His wife does not believe I exist. 

And as always, I cannot  not swear.

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Episode 11: Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs

With all apologies to The Minutemen, we talk with Derek Zanetti of The Homeless Gospel Choir about making music with a meaning.  Derek plays live for us new songs for us from the new album he is working on.   He already has some really great albums : the fairly new Luxury Problems, my personal favorite Some People Never Go Anywhere, and You Work So Hard Just to Be Like Everyone Else, which I haven’t heard yet.

We also have a nice chat about what the songs mean, the contemporary crisis of identity, and how you’re better off chopping up your friends when they die.

As always, we swear.

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