Peeling The Onion

Hello good people and welcome to this very special episode of Peeling The Onion. I had the immense honour of sitting down with one of my favourite artist of all time, Blixa Bargeld. Blixa has been making cutting edge art for nearly 45 years (next April 1st will mark Neubauten’s first concert).  He was a part of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the groups inception until 2003 and in recent years he has been teaming up with Italian artist Teho Teardo. The duo released their 3rd album, Christian & Mauro [https://open.spotify.com/album/4kXgdcoHny6hy8AyKFs3cP],  last October the 25th. I met Blixa backstage at Le Bikini in Toulouse ahead of their 3rd to last concert of an almost two month tour where they were supporting the new Einstürzende Neubtauen double album Rampen (apm: alien pop music) [https://open.spotify.com/album/3TuIK2GVfmgnnd2A9sCNNs] - which is another one of their masterpieces.  In the interview Blixa talks about the making of the new Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld album and how it connects with their personal lives and the spirit of the times as well as the writing process. We touched upon socialism, living with the pandemic, the change in his voice, his recordings of Bowie songs and hate for saxophones and how Neubauten is beyond good and evil. I sat down with Blixa over a zoom call for an hour and a half last March 25th which went extremely well, so if you haven’t seen that you can get it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kkJn7pPuE4&t=72s or here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/73JQYuudZxEh73KJEtiFhQ?si=gCSb80FvTPCJsifwKW4www  This conversation was recorded on a Zoom H6 portable recorder. All the best ! Elvar Peeling The Onion on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@PeelingTheOnionPod]

Hello good people This is a very special episode of Peeling The Onion given the fact that our guest is non other than Mr David Yow. There are few that have taken the art of singing and performing (as well as writing music and lyrics) to as glorious heights as David Yow has. He came up in the Austin Texas punk scene of the late 70's/early 80's, first fronting the band Scratch Acid (1982–1987) and then forming The Jesus Lizard in 1987 with bassist David Wm. Sims  and guitarist Duane Denison after moving to Chicago.  They were joined by drummer Mac McNeilly in 1989 thus completing the classic lineup that released masterpieces like Head, Goat and Liar. The Jesus Lizard toured heavily throughout the 90's and released groundbreaking music before going on hiatus in 1999. The band has reformed sporadicly throughout the years to play shows and finally after 26 years they are releasing a album of new material.  Rack contains 11 songs of classic Jesus Lizard music. It's genuinely awesome to hear the band is in top form, firing on all cylinders. David moved to Los Angeles shortly after the Jesus Lizard called it quits in 1999 and has been doing  photo retouching for a living. He release a solo album, Tonight You Look Like A Spider in 2013 and has performed with bands like The Melvins, Dumb Numbers, Qui as well as stint as the singer for the band Flipper. David has been acting since the mid 90's and has starred in numerous movies and shorts. His most recent film, A Desert , contains David's biggest role to date and has been getting grand reviews. It was an honor to have a chance to sit down with David and pick his brain about his life and career. I do hope you'll enjoy the conversation. All the best Elvar Peeling The Onion on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@PeelingTheOnionPod]

Break out your baritone ukuleles - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than Mr. Lou Barlow ! Lou has been recording music since he was 12 years old and has been a part of seminal bands like Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and The Folk Implosion - who just released their first album [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ENtL0Dd00&list=PLoB11Z8A5Nz98AoWW-wa7AoQhRdRCXhlX] in 25 years and are currently out on tour (tour dates at the bottom. Get your tickets here [https://www.bandsintown.com/a/76857-the-folk-implosion]). Lou cut his teeth in the mid to late 80’s playing bass for Dinosaur Jr. His strumming bass style is one of the most distinctive is rock history. Yes he was influenced by Lemmy’s  bass style but while Lemmy was doing mostly bar-chords Lou took that style and carved out a nuanced style of his own. Dinosaur’s second iteration from 2005 has been amongst the most interesting reunion’s in rock history. Lou started doing 4 track recordings in the 80’s which became the basis for his early output with Sebadoh and under the moniker Sentridoh. The way he mixed alternative tuned guitars and a baritone ukulele (which he strung with 4 guitar strings) with lyrics, that mixed self reflection and honesty with deadpan humour and christian/messianic imagery, and samples has been copied but never surpassed.  Sebadoh got more streamlined as they became a more prominent live act as the 90’s progressed and Lou seemed to get his more surrealist creative itch scratched by forming The Folk Implosions alongside John Davis. John seemed to draw out a relaxed and fun-loving side in Lou that hadn’t quite been seen before - you can practically hear them stifling their laughter on the opening track of their first album Walk Through This World W/ The Folk Implosion (now we’re talking about the 12 track EP version, not the 24 track cassette one). As fate would have it Lou and John scored the movie Kids in the mid 90’s and got funding and studio time to realise a vision that spawned the top 40 hit Natural One. The Folk Implosion went on to release two great studio albums, 1997’s Dare To Be Surprised and 1999’s One Part Lullaby. Lou has continued to release albums under his own name as well as in collaboration with numerous of his bands and other projects. Since November of 2022 Lou has been hosting the podcast Raw Impressions [https://www.instagram.com/rawimpressionspodcast/]with his wife Adelle. They share a subtle humour and a genuine chemistry that makes them a wonderful delight to listen to. Lou is one of my all time favourite artists. I feel unbelievably lucky that he took time to speak with me.  The Folk Implosions upcoming tour dates are as follows: August 6th at the Riverside Revival in Nashville, Tennessee August 7th at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room in St Louis Missouri (all ages gig - starts at 8 pm) August 8th at the Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa (with opener Bats [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozDgRjDGZx0] who just released an awesome album called Good Game Baby) August 9th at the Cloudland Theater in Minneapolis He’s going to Nebraska on the 10th to play with Dinosaur Jr. at Outlandia Festival in Bellevue, Nebraska Then he’s back with John on August 11th were they’ll be playing at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee August 12th at The Hideout in Springfield Virginia August 13th at Nardo's Pizza, St Joseph Michigan August 14th at The Lovin Touch in Ferndale, Michigan (all ages show) On my birthday August 15th they’ll be playing at the First Congregational Church in Columbus Ohio August 16th at The Treelawn in Cleveland They conclude August 17th at The Government Center in Pittsburg Take care guys ! Elvar Peeling The Onion on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@PeelingTheOnionPod]

There was an unmeasurable loss suffered May 7th when Steve Albini died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, on May 7, 2024, at the age of 61. It’s very hard to state Albini’s importance in music but also what a wide thinking individual he was - with ethos and values that he re-visited and which evolved along with him as a person. He was one of my all time favourite musicians but on top of that he was also probably my single favourite recording engineer, having recorded masterpieces like:  1000 Hurts (Shellac of North America) At Action Park (Shellac of North America) Atomizer (Big Black) In Utero (Nirvana) Goat (The Jesus Lizard) Rid Of Me (PJ Harvey) Song About Fucking (Big Black) Surfer Rosa (Pixies) Tweez (Slint) Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (Rapeman) Pod (The Breeders) Seamonsters (Wedding Present) I have listened to dozens and dozens of interview’s and talks that Steve gives because he was one of the most most insightful and articulated person that ever existed. He was very intelligent but also super humble. He was of course an loudmouth back in the day and and had come out a few years ago on Twitter and taken his responsibility for things said - nothing too horrible, but he did front a band called Rapeman, which was taken from a Japanese manga (and later 9 live-action films!). Point is Steve evolved with the times and was always outspoken how he felt about the current state of the country, political and sociologically but also the state of the music business, or lack thereof in recent years. I feel so I unbelievably lucky to have had that chat with Steve. I had been in email contact with him since mid January of 2024 where we were trying to sort out time (or where he was slightly ignoring me for about a month.)  He did finally come back to me on February 16th and this interview was conducted on Monday February the 20th 2024 at 11am (CST).  It’s one of the last in depth interviews he ever did. Steve was a little standoffish at first but when he realised that I wasn’t just some dweeb asking about Nirvana he eased up and became very warm, funny and as always insightful. Point is Steve was irreplaceable both as a person and as an musical and recording artist. No words can do him justice and the void he leaves no one person can fill, not in a 1000 years. So go back and listen to Big Black and Shellac and all the other stuff he worked on. We are truly blessed to have been alive as the same time as Steve Albini. I love you guys. Take care of each other.  Elvar Peeling The Onion on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@PeelingTheOnionPod]

Alright good people - let’s get our bass springs ready and fire up our jet turbines - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than the almighty Blixa Bargeld ! Yes, this is not a drill. I sat down with Blixa for a 90 minute talk about the new Einstürzende Neubauten [https://neubauten.org/de/] album, Rampen (AMP: Alien Pop Music), which is to be released April 5th, as well as his extremely prolific career.  He of course did 20 years with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds [https://www.nickcave.com/] and has done many collaborations, including his work with Teho Teardo [https://www.instagram.com/tehoteardo/?hl=en] - which he is working on a new album with. Blixa is a true genius and such a super nice and interesting guy to talk to - I hope you like it as much as I did. Thanks for listening you guys - take care of each other. Elvar Peeling The Onion on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@PeelingTheOnionPod]