Interview with Nora Marks

Phil Collins - December 2, 2020

It's been a weird year, to say the least, for bands and fans alike. I know I'm itching to get back to shows. And I recognize that's the least of our problems these days. Yet, in the inimitable words of Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm, "life, uh, finds a way." And so local pop punks Nora Marks have a batch of new songs coming our way, starting with "Friction (But You Still Did)" on Friday. It's the first in a series of self-produced singles called the Soundbox Sessions. I caught up with the band about the new songs and how the year has gone for them.

Nora Marks band pic

Phil Collins: How has 2020 treated you?

Matt Galante (Bass/Vocals): I believe most of us have experienced every possible emotion during this fucked up roller coaster to the present. It really started out hot hot hot, and then obviously everything came to a grinding halt. As a band, we're grateful for the extra time we've been given under the circumstance, but holy shit we miss live music. Even though this year has been a "shit show" in every sense of the term, it's been nice to slow down and recalibrate with a lot of different aspects of life. Spending more time outside biking, grilling, and just enjoying home hobbies again has been mentally rewarding. Also been eating mushrooms pretty regularly, so you take the good with the bad, I guess?

PC: How did you go about recording at this time?

Matthew Garrity (Drums/Vocals): This was (and continues to be) our first time self-recording. I don't really have a fancy vocabulary for what we're doing. I went to school for a year for Audio Production & Design, and I'm using my limited knowledge from there and just tinkering around in the past, and learning as we go. What I will say is that we are trying and really doing a good job of capturing the 'fuck yeah' essence we get when we play a show. Self-recording has been great because it's almost like playing another instrument or having a fifth band member for us. We really get picky and have fun with it. It's kinda the collective chord for all of us to strum at once, if that makes any sense.

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An Encounter with Jack Terricloth and The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Danny Collins - April 2, 2020

Jack Terricloth on stage

Mr. Jack Terricloth of The World/Inferno Friendship Society - Photo courtesy of Nick Nonesuch

One of the best things about following a band as magnetic as The World/Inferno Friendship Society is that whenever they have something eventful happening, such as a new album being released, a tour coming up, or their annual Hallowmas celebration approaching, they tend to stir up a good deal of attention. Tales of intrigue start to come out through major publications and blogs while other stories start to spread through word of mouth. Somehow, this outpour of information only makes the band more enigmatic and alluring as it divulges certain truths at times while adding to their mythos at others. Take their last tour for example, when word spread that the band’s singer, Jack Terricloth, was stabbed by their accordion player during a knife fight on electric scooters; a story too crazy to be true but just bizarre enough believe.

This is The World/Inferno Friendship Society, an anarchist music collective based out of Brooklyn, New York that blends a variety of musical genres such as klezmer, swing and soul with driving punk rock to create a sound and act that owes as much to vaudeville as it does The Damned. I’ve been following Inferno for the past decade… or however long it’s been since they opened for Against Me! in Chicago. After years of observation, I found myself personally sucked into their chaotic lives when they came to town for two nights this past August. My band, Nude Model, whose singer is an alumnus of Inferno’s former label, Gern Blandsten, by way of The Watchers, was opening for their show at The Beat Kitchen on Thursday, August 8th. They had a secret show planned for The Burlington the following night. I arranged an interview with Jack thanks to the help of Inferno violinist Jeffrey Young, who invited me to cover their two nights in Chicago after having had worked with Change the Rotation on [setting up and diligently transcribing] an interview with Jack back in 2016.

I was told to be at The Burlington by 6pm and like a true professional, I showed up at 6:30. The door was locked, the bar was closed. Their van was parked outside so I wandered through the back alley. I ran into a man named Pedro who told me Jack was at The Double, a local favorite down the street, and was expecting me. I walked in and was pleasantly greeted by Jack and Gina, the band’s bassist. “You must be Danny,” Jack said with a grin. Expecting to buy the first round, Gina ordered me a beer. I was caught off guard already.

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Interview with Ren Aldridge of Petrol Girls

Phil Collins - March 6, 2020

Petrol Girls

Post hardcore band Petrol Girls, out of the UK and Austria, won Change the Rotation's 2019 album of the year bracket with Cut & Stitch. I recently caught up with vocalist Ren Aldridge via email, while the band was on tour in Europe. In the meantime, much of the band's planned US and Canada tour had to be canceled due to visa issues. The band will still appear at South by Southwest in Austin. If you're here in Chicago, Typesetter and Blood People will still play at Sleeping Village on March 23. More info on that show here. I asked Ren about her favorite albums last year, touring and her experience with the current political situation.

Phil Collins: Congrats on winning Change the Rotation’s 2019 album of the year bracket. Did you have any favorite albums of 2019?

Ren Aldridge: Thanks so much! It’s always such a massive honour to be considered as anyone’s album of the year – thank you!! My favorites from 2019 are:

Lankum - The Livelong Day (incredible folk band from Dublin - best harmonies)

Personal Best - What You At (self-described as tragic lesbian rock! we’re honoured to have front woman and lead shredder Katie Gatt joining us on bass for our U.S. and Canada dates!)

Lizzo - Cuz I Love You (I don’t normally listen to a lot of pop so I came late to the party on this one but now I seriously can’t stop playing it)

Cult Dreams - Things That Hurt (it’s just so epic!!)

Nervus Tough Crowd (I think it’s such an art to put across radical politics with so much joy, lifts me up)

Refused - War Music (It was such an honour to tour with Refused last year and to hear tracks of this absolute rager live)

PC: Do you have any favorite songs to play live off the new record?

RA: This tour I’m really enjoying Weather Warning because of how hard it kicks in and because me and Katie have ended up coordinating our head banging on it, which is loads of fun! And I’ve enjoyed closing our set with Naive because it gives me the chance to put across the point that’s at the heart of our politics as a band, which is essentially that the unknowability of the future is something we should embrace as an opportunity to try to create the changes that we want to see. It’s an idea that’s hugely inspired by the writing of Rebecca Solnit, and probably what keeps me getting up in the morning.

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A Conversation with Paulie Think: Part One

Danny Collins - January 14, 2020

Paulie Think

Greetings and salutations! Danny Collins from Don’t Panic Records & Distro here to present to you an interview with local celebrity, Paulie Think. Idk if I can get away with saying that but he’s certainly one of the most interesting people I’ve met since moving to Chicago. Hard to say otherwise about someone that has been involved in the Chicago punk scene for over two decades. Paulie currently fronts the Chicago hardcore band SHOTS FIRED SHOTS FIRED who just put out their debut 7” on Dead Nun and No Trend Records this past August; he just released an acoustic EP entitled Dunny en la Isla, recorded in Puerto Rico for Fake Four Inc. under his hip hop/folk punk moniker, Paulie Think; he also hosts Da Dunny Show, a weekly radio program airing Sundays in Chicago from 2-3pm on 105.5 FM Lumpen Radio.

Danny Collins: Who are you and what’re you doing here?

Paulie Think: I’m Paulie Think aka EL Dunny. I’m here to experience life’s ups and downs like everyone else.

DC: And roughly how long have you been involved in the Chicago music scene?

PT: Since 1988. Played my first show singing for Not-Us. Let Reagan Die... Not Us was our lil slogan. It was at the Cubby Bear. We opened for the UK Subs. I was a shortie. Shit was real as fuck.

DC: That’s a solid first show. How’d you first get into punk rock and find your footing in the scene at that point?

PT: I was living in Memphis, dad’s side of the family. I believe it was ’85-86 and I got into skateboarding. The culture went hand in hand back then. Skate and Destroy was real. We would skate cars in parking lots. Like get on the roof of the car, skate down the back window and acid drop off the trunk. The first time I saw people slam dance was at Cheapskates in Memphis; still there by the way! Someone put a Suicidal tape in the boom box and then these weird lookin kids started slamming in the store. I met two kids at my high school that had just moved from Europe. Their Ma was a professor at Memphis State. They turned me on to all kinds of amazing punk. So did a kid that moved from Huntington Beach. My first show I attended was Millions of Dead Cops at the Antenna Club in Memphis. The pit was insane and some Nazi went thru it with a razor blade and ran out. There was a punk radio show outta Rhodes College every Sunday. The kids that did the radio show dedicated “Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide” to the Nazi on the show. The attitude/rebellion of punk pulled me as much as the music. I was hooked.

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Interview with Jason McCue

Phil Collins - August 27, 2019

Jason McCue

Photo by Jake Hanson

Seattle-based indie folk artist Jason McCue comes through Chicago on Friday. He's on a month-long cross-country tour in support of his new album WASTELAND. Recorded in his bedroom, the album takes on a lo-fi indie sound with intermittent psychedlic spins. Lyrics explore the tumultuous, foreboding nature of present day life in America. We're sure there is a mess, but how bad will it get and who will clean it up? The album is out now via Fluff & Gravy Records, check it out at Bandcamp. Jason McCue plays at Teal Nebula in Chicago on Friday, August 30 with Jessica Ever, Badwater Sound and Michael Garrity. More info on that show here. I talked with Jason about the scene in Seattle, hitting the road and recording his new album.

Phil Collins: Where all are you headed on tour this summer?

Jason McCue: This summer, I’m touring across the country from Seattle to Pennsylvania, and then back again. While headed east, I’m going to be in Wenatchee, Missoula, Butte, Billings, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Toledo, Fredonia, and then West Chester PA. I grew up in West Chester, so I’ll be spending a week or so with my family there. Then coming back to Seattle, I’ll hit Harrisonburg, Asheville, Florence AL, New Orleans, Lafayette, Austin, Denton, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Denver, Montrose CO, Provo, then back up to the Northwest. I’m taking off this Wednesday August 21st, and I should be back by September 28th.

PC: That's a nice long set of dates. On your own in a van or are you touring with anyone?

JM: Yeah, you’re telling me! It’ll be nice to be out adventuring for a long while. There’s something pretty enticing about putting everyday life on hold for a bit to do something completely different. I’ll be in an ’04 Toyota Corolla. I have some friends that are jumping the passenger seat for different stretches of the trip, but I’m the only act of the touring unit. There will definitely be a few long drives with no one to talk to but the cactus I keep in the car, but I feel prepared for that. Plus, it’ll make it that much easier to make friends when I get to the different towns I’m going to.

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A conversation with Kyle Ozero of The Breathing Light

Danny Collins - March 13, 2019

              Kyle of The Breathing Light

“Outside the original pitchfork locale. I'm sure as a band we'll probably be blacklisted speaking out but i'm fine with that. We're tired of the suppression and gate keeping that's been on-going since the 1950s. So many black rock artists have gone nameless because of it. Tina Turner along with other black rock artists have had to leave the United States just to be appreciated. When industry reps tell All-Black rock bands they need white members in order to be successful, not much has changed. @tinaturner you are loved and appreciated. There are many black Rock N'Roll artists inspired by you and following your tradition.” –The Breathing Light

Hi all! Danny from Don’t Panic here. I recently had the chance to talk to Kyle Ozero, singer and guitarist of The Breathing Light, about the band’s recent efforts to start a conversation around the roots of rock n roll music and the whitewashing of it by the media. Although I’ve known Kyle and The Breathing Light for some time, posts made, such as the photo above, from the band’s social media accounts were the catalyst for this conversation. What I originally anticipated to be a broader discussion around the band displaying banners and confronting these media outlets boiled down to Kyle confronting my own ignorance and educating me on what rock n roll truly means. Read on and educate yourselves. As I said to Kyle, nothing will change if we’re unwilling to examine and change ourselves.

Danny Collins: Do you have a name for this campaign or is it pretty informal?

Kyle Ozero: For my banners?

DC: Yeah, like would you even consider it a campaign or is it more like, “we’re just gonna show up and see what happens?”

KO: Well everything I’m doing is a conversation starter. I bring up this issue to see how it can change. That’s the whole intention. I don’t know how long I’ll do it with banners or even what I’ll do next but whatever it is. It’s to get thoughts moving an words flowing.

DC: You’ve taken the banners to several media outlets and radio stations, what’s the overall message you’re aiming to get across?

KO: You know about Rosetta Tharpe? Without looking her up…

DC: No, I’m not familiar.

KO: Okay so picture this. You, yourself run a rock n roll music label but you don’t even know who started what we now know as rock n roll. 2 decades before Chuck Berry, Elvis and Little Richard. That’s embarrassing.

DC: I can picture it all too well.

KO: Not only that, up until ‘09 she laid in an unmarked grave. She died in 1973.

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Interview with Nick Feltes and Joe Ott of Death of Self

Phil Collins - February 25, 2019

Death of Self

Chicago skate punk band Death of Self release their first full-length album, Look Elsewhere, next month. You may have seen them around the DIY scene or you may have seen them opening for La Armada at Cobra Lounge. The band will be back at that venue for their album release show on March 16 with Still Alive, Burdened, Thisishowitendedintokyo and Sawbuck. More info on that show here. Listen to Death of Self's EPs at their Bandcamp page. I talked with vocalist/guitarist Nick Feltes and drummer Joe Ott about the new album and release show.

Phil Collins: Death of Self's first full-length album is coming out next month. Is everything pretty much ready or is there still preparation you guys are working on?

Nick Feltes: There's definitely some preparation left. We're mostly just finalizing artwork, making merch designs, and promoting the show, but the month before the release has proven to be just about the busiest yet.

PC: Is there going to be a physical release?

NF: 100%. CDs are coming first, and then we're looking into cassettes, as well.

Joe Ott: Then it would definitely be cool to press it onto vinyl, but we'll see how things go.

PC: Are you self-releasing or are you working with a label?

NF: As of right now, we're releasing it completely by ourselves. We've had a couple of indie-labels express interest, but we feel like we have a pretty good grasp on the business side of the band. In the future, we would definitely be interested in working with a label. It just needs to be one that we feel can bring more to the table than we can ourselves.

PC: Are any of the older songs on the new album or is it all new material?

NF: There are a couple of old songs in there, but it's mostly new material. The old ones that are in there, are back now because since doing them on old releases, we've made some changes and added a couple parts that really expand upon the ideas the old ones presented. But, yeah. There is a lot of new stuff we can't wait to show everyone.

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Interview with Adam Kreutzer of The Kreutzer Sonata

Phil Collins - January 25, 2019

Local hardcore band The Kreutzer Sonata were recently victorious in our annual albums of the year bracket. Their album The Gutters of Paradise was the collective favorite album of four of us at Change the Rotation for 2018. If you haven't heard the album yet, it's about time! Stream it at The Kreutzer Sonata's Bandcamp page. You can see The Kreutzer Sonata twice around Chicago this weekend. Tonight they play at Co-Prosperity Sphere for the Up the Pups fundraiser show with Through N Through, Sasquatch Turf War, October Bird of Death, Shitizen, The Magnifiers and Gnus. Saturday night they play at Liar's Club with Fear City, The Bollweevils, Anger and Fishgutzzz. Vocalist Adam Kreutzer talked with me about The Gutters of Paradise, the next album, the next release after that, old songs and favorite food spots.

The Kreutzer Sonata

Phil Collins: Congrats on winning the bracket! The album has been out for nearly a year already, do any of the songs feel different to you now than they did originally?

Adam Kreutzer: Thanks Phil. Some of the songs on the album feel a little dated for the band's sound in some ways I suppose but overall I still believe in the album that we wrote together. As a band we write fast and put out albums while already having an overload of new material in mind. The songs off Gutters that resonate the most we still keep in the set though. I can say the songs meaning and messages still stay true for us.

PC: It seems like each release stands as its own document, which doesn’t happen by accident. How do you know when it’s time to wrap a release?

AK: I’ve always enjoyed bands who have a discography of records that don’t repeat themselves. That’s definitely a goal with TKS. Gutters sort of happened organically with us just having a slew of new songs with a new band lineup. Where as our upcoming release The RoseHill Gates relies heavily on themes musical, lyrically and visually in the artwork. Gutters is a more straightforward hardcore record while we aimed to write a bunch of songs for this upcoming record that have more dynamic shifts and moods to them. As far as knowing when it’s time to wrap up a release its usually a matter of having too much material at hand and chopping it down into a number of tracks that we think work cohesively as one piece of art. I am a big fan of listening to albums front to back and of bands that can master that format. To do that is a goal with this band.

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Interview with Clyde Moreau of Decibel Crawl Fest

Phil Collins - November 14, 2018

Clyde Moreau

Photo credit Drea Gonzalez

This weekend a new festival launches across Chicago DIY spaces. Decibel Crawl Fest features shows at Observatory, Caliwaukee North, Elastic Arts, Orotund Music, Bohemian Grove and Happy Valley, Friday through Sunday. The fest aims to give a platform to people of color and LGBTQ+ artists in the Chicago community. Bands for the weekend include Bev Rage and the Drinks, ONO, GlitterMoney, Babykettle, Cordoba, Sasha No Disco, Stoneface, Eiigo Groove and more. For the full lineup, schedule and passes see the Decibel Crawl Fest Facebook event. I talked with the fest's creator, Clyde Moreau, about starting it up.

Phil Collins: What is your role with Decibel Crawl Fest and how did it get started?

Clyde Moreau: I’m the Curator and Creator of DC Fest. This came about through my experiences with Chicago’s music/art scene specifically and noticing a lack of promoting diversity within. I became disappointed seeing the same bands being booked week after week.

PC: How did you go about ensuring DC Fest would be something different?

CM: A key factor is/was making sure the venues that participated were aligned with my personal goals of creating a new environment. Each venue is a place that I have personally played or have developed relationships with the venue owners. They are people that I see with potential and vision to make the arts scene here more welcoming and forward-thinking.

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A Conversation with Sandra Malak of The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Danny Collins - October 30, 2018

Sandra Malak

Photo credit John Harrison

Danny from Don’t Panic here for an interview with the lovely Sandra Malak, bassist of everyone’s favorite band of anarchists, The World/Inferno Friendship Society. We last heard from Ms. Malak in November of 2017 after playing our All Hands on Deck festival here in Chicago and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band’s annual Hallowmas celebration in Brooklyn. I had a chance to chat with Ms. Malak to catch up on life, Las Vegas and hangovers. Oh… and her band.

Danny Collins: What have you been up to since we heard from you last November?

Sandra Malak: I had no place to live in November. After Hallowmas in NYC, I flew back to the Rocky Mountains (where I’d run away to on Christmas night the previous year). I packed up my belongings which I’d been storing in the closet at my former apartment into a rental car and drove around the mountains for a few days looking for an apartment. I didn’t find one and could no longer afford the rental car so a friend of mine lent me his closet for my stuff and a co-worker let me sleep on the bean bag chair (which I called The Potato since it was big, brown, and lumpy) in his pot-smoke filled apartment he shared with several other 20-somethings. I bounced between a couple other floors and a couple hotels and hostels for a while until I found a place way out of my price range right before the moment I was about to give up on the whole snow-capped mountain paradise. So I settled in for another winter season in a busy ski resort town, worked my ass off at four jobs, snowboarded, broke another rib (had broken one a few months earlier and it is incredibly awful, I don’t wish it on anyone), went to Hawaii, met Pele face to face on the Big Island where she gave me hope for my future then told everyone to evacuate before sending me back to the mountains. I hiked, biked, climbed, and ran thousands of feet up in the sky all summer, had some health issues, fixed most of them for now, pitched a tent during a thunderstorm the night of the blood moon after wandering into the woods with nothing but the suit on my back, a bottle of wine, and my ukulele, (and the tent). On a random day trip I discovered the house I was meant to live in, a castle on a cliff in southwest Colorado, and dammit I’m going to keep buying lotto tickets and hitting the blackjack tables in Vegas until I win what I need to make that place mine. Where was I? Oh yes, and these days I take lots of short trips, drink a bit less, spend an obscene amount of time in Denver International Airport, and I dance. I dance a lot. Sometimes with no audible music playing. And last week I flew to San Diego to learn how to surf. Always wanted to. Jolly good fun!

DC: Wow that sounds like a very trying, yet beautiful, year. But such is life. How do you get back into the swing of playing with World/Inferno after all that?

SM: Inferno is historically known to get into the swing of things when the countdown gets to 1 -- fueled by chaos and uncertainty. That is not to say the band doesn't do the grunt work to get into gear, just that it typically all falls into place at the very moment everyone begins to truly panic. My current strategy is to panic silently, practice my parts, and take a lot of deep breaths.

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Interview with Gillian McGhee of Turnspit

Phil Collins - February 13, 2018

Chicago punks Turnspit release their debut full-length album, Desire Paths, this Friday. You can stream the whole album now over at New Noise Magazine. I pointed this out earlier this year as one of the albums to look forward to in 2018. It is full of catchy, emo-tinged pop punk songs that are as high on meaning as they are on hooks. Look for a full review here later this week. Desire Paths was recorded right here in Chicago at Atlas Studios. Preorder the album through Dodgeball Records. Catch Turnspit live at their album release show this Saturday at the GMan Tavern with Retirement Party, Blood People and Third Twin Sister. More info on that show here. I chatted with guitarist and vocalist Gillian McGhee about the new album, live shows and making a hot sauce.

Turnspit band photo

Phil Collins: How does it feel to have it coming out where people are going to hear the full album and kind of having it released to the world in a few days here?

Gillian McGhee: Right now I just feel like there is so much to do before that actually happens but I think we're all just ready ... We started recording it in December of 2016. It's just, you know, we've had these songs for a long time and we're so proud of it and we've been sitting on it for a long time ... We're just super stoked to have people finally hear what our sound is now as a band. We've matured a lot since those (2015 and 2016) EPs.

PC: I'm sure kind of announcing the record and then putting out a song and then putting out another song, that's a good lead up and it gets people excited about it but having recorded everything I'm sure you must be ready for people to just hear the whole thing already.

GM: Yeah, definitely.

PC: You said you have kind of a lot of stuff to do between now and it coming out, is it mostly promo stuff and getting ready for the release show or what does that look like?

GM: Yeah, totally. Just even like scheduling an interview like with you, doing a couple podcast things ... promoting the record release show. Just a lot of things getting tied up leading up to the release.

PC: The sequencing of the songs on the album comes off very deliberate to me. It makes a lot of sense switching off who's on lead vocals if you're listening track to track and the tones of the songs. How much did you guys bounce that around?

GM: That was really important and I have to credit Jason with the bulk of that. Because sequencing is something that personally for me, I had a general idea of like oh this song should be at the beginning and this song should be toward the end, whatever. Jason really took over and really analyzed the sequencing and I will say, almost every interview that we've done or friend that we've sent it to, one of the first things that they mention is how smart the sequencing is. That's something that as a songwriter, you don't always think about because your songs are like the meat and potatoes, right. But the sequencing is really important and is something that I never really had to think about too much because I just put out solo EPs with three or four of my songs. This was a different beast with different songwriters and I think the fact that people are noticing that is really really awesome. That was a lot of Jason's doing but we all obviously agreed as a band on the final order of everything.

PC: As a full album listener, in the music industry at large, that's kind of been going off the wayside for the last several, many years. Since the whole Napster thing, it seems like people are just pushing more singles and stuff. So when that is apparent on an album, I definitely appreciate it because that's still how I consume music.

GM: We want to create an experience for people, whether that's our live show or our record. We spend time talking about our setlist as well. I think that just goes to show the amount of detail that goes into what we do, how we do it. It's not just like we get up there willy nilly and figure out what we want to play at that moment in time. Everything has a lot of forethought and planning. That's kind of how we operate as a band and I'm glad that that comes through on Desire Paths.

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Interview with Alex Reilly of Wood Chickens

Phil Collins - January 31, 2018

Madison cowpunk band Wood Chickens released their debut full-length LP, Countrycide, last summer. Jangly guitars race thumping bass on these country-laced punk tracks. Alex Reilly of Wood Chickens talked with me via email about the scene in Madison, touring and a couple new Wood Chickens releases coming soon. Last month, Alex shared his favorite records of 2017 with us. Read that here. Wood Chickens play two shows in Chicago on February 1. The first is an early show with So Pretty at Bric-A-Brac Records. Later that night they play at Cafe Mustache with Wet Wallet and Tijuana Hercules. Check their full run of February tour dates on their Facebook page.

Wood Chickens

Photo by Maggie Denman

Phil Collins: You included a couple bands (Fire Heads, The Hussy) from Wood Chickens' hometown of Madison on your top releases of 2017 list. Can you tell us a little about the music scene in Madison?

Alex Reilly: The music scene in Madison is stupendous! There are tons of bands and a lot going on for the size of the city. A significant chunk of the scene is focused on punk / garage rock / powerpop, but Madison's a diverse mixed bag of artists who are always collaborating and forming new bands. Wood Chickens have only been involved in the scene here for a few years but many folks are saying that it's at a peak and the best that it's been for quite some time.

PC: What kinds of venues are prominent for punk shows? Are they mostly in bars or DIY spaces?

AR: There are always DIY spots coming and going - basements, warehouse spaces, etc. - but Mickey's is a great bar venue that's been around for decades and they throw some of the best shows in town.

PC: You played at Subterranean for Ian's Party recently, how was that show? Did you get to do any venue hopping?

AR: Ian's Party was a helluva good time! There were tons of talented acts and the energy in the room during our set was incredible. We stuck around Subterranean to see our buds Nobunny headline that night.

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Interview with Deanna Belos of Sincere Engineer

Phil Collins - January 24, 2018

Sincere Engineer's debut album, Rhombithian, knocked us over last year. So much so that it won Change the Rotation's best albums of the year bracket. Deanna Belos is the singer and songwriter behind these songs. She talked to me via email about the response to the album, playing shows with Brendan Kelly and puking. See Sincere Engineer this Saturday night at Subterranean (downstairs) with Blood People, the Reaganomics and How It Got Burned. More info on that show here. Read Deanna's list of her favorite albums of 2017 here and read my review of Rhombithian here.

Deanna Belos

Photo by Randy Korwin Photography

Phil Collins: First off, congrats on winning our 2017 best albums of the year bracket. It is no easy feat as the bracket kind of takes on a life of its own with four people voting. Has the overall response to the album surprised you?

Deanna Belos: Thanks so much! :) The response has definitely surprised me. We’ve been very fortunate with the amount of press and attention it has gotten. I try not to “read the comments” too much, but it seems like a lot people are diggin’ it, which is exciting!

PC: Has your perspective on any of the songs changed now that you have a little distance from the recording process and have played a few shows with the full band setup?

DB: I think so. I hear a lot of people say that they like the song Overbite best, which I find interesting because it’s not one of my favorites. That song in particular is weird for me because I stopped playing it at solo shows...the guitar part is very repetitive and the lack of dynamic makes it seem (to me) like a drag to listen to (and play) at a live show. That being said, it’s one of my favorites to play with the full band.

PC: Overbite is actually my favorite song on the record. I think it’s great lyrically. I am a fan of that song structure that lets the verses ride for a while and then is more chorus heavy in the second half. What makes that song more fun to play with the full band?

DB: Thank you! I think it just hits so much harder with the band. And thanks to Matt Jordan’s producing talent, it turned into a fun listen. The lead guitar parts in particular are my favorite, and I think the lyrics come off more raw and honest when I’m yelling them over loud instrumentation versus the slow acoustic strumming I used to do, I guess. Also, I used to dread playing it by myself because of the (previously mentioned) guitar repetition, on top of the fact that it’s pretty long...one of the longest songs on the record, at a whopping 3 minutes (lol).

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Interview with Celia C. Pérez, author of The First Rule of Punk

Phil Collins - August 16, 2017

The First Rule of Punk

Chicago librarian Celia C. Pérez releases her first book, The First Rule of Punk, August 22 on Viking Books for Young Readers. The story follows middle school student Malú as she struggles to find herself in a new school. From afar, her father advises her to abide by the first rule of punk: be yourself. Malú finds joy in punk music, zines and skateboarding. Zine pages are included in the book as part of the story. Being a Chicago librarian with a dedicated space to talk about punk, I wanted to ask the author a few questions and chat about the punk librarian life. We talked through email about getting published, punk as part of one's identity, zine collecting, and more.

Women & Children First Bookstore in Andersonville hosts the book launch party for The First Rule of Punk on August 24 at 7:30 p.m. More information on that here.

Phil Collins: First off I want to say congratulations on the book. When did you start writing it and about how long did it take to get to the final product?

Celia C. Pérez:Thank you! I started writing a version of this character's story around 2012. At that time the protagonist, Malú, was a little bit younger than she is in the final book. I scrapped that and decided to rewrite her a little bit older. But it wasn't until late summer 2014 that I settled on the character as a twelve-year-old and wrote what became The First Rule of Punk. I signed with my literary agent in the summer of 2015, and the book sold to Viking last summer. In between summer 2014 and May 2017 there was a lot of revision and editing happening. So, in all, it took about three years from when I began writing this specific story to its publication date of August 2017.

PC: Were you working at your current library throughout the writing process? Was it hard to find time to write while having a day job?

CCP: Yes, I work full time as a librarian. I'm fortunate that I work at an institution where librarians are faculty. We have the same nine-month schedule as other faculty which leaves me with summers off, as well as student breaks like spring break and winter break. A lot of work got done during those breaks. It was still tough to write and work full time, especially once my manuscript was acquired and I was working with deadlines. A lot of work was done in the evenings after my son had gone to bed, especially zine work because unlike a manuscript that I can carry around and work on whenever I have a free moment, zine making for me requires space to spread out and a bunch of supplies all over the place.

Read more here

Interview with Jahshie P of MoonRunners Music Festival

Phil Collins - April 17, 2017

                 MoonRunners Music Festival 5

MoonRunners Music Festival brings together country, roots and punk for the fifth year running, May 5-6 at Reggies. This year's lineup includes country and roots mainstays Shooter Jennings, Scott H. Biram, Pearls Mahone, Jesse Dayton, The Hooten Hallers and punk bands Escape From the Zoo, Evil Empire, Still Alive, Won't Stay Dead and more. I talked with Jahshie P, founder of the festival, recently on Skype. He also plays in the local punk bands Last False Hope and The Decayed, both of which play this year's fest. We talked about the origins of the fest, MoonRunner's fifth year and how roots/country fans respond to punk and hardcore.

Phil Collins: Congrats on year five of MoonRunners Music Fest.

Jahshie P: Thank you.

PC: Yeah, absolutely. How, can you just take us through how this whole thing got started and have you been at Reggies all five years?

JP: Yeah, it’s been at Reggies all five years. It actually started, me and my friend Shooter Jennings had a website called moonrunnerscountry.com. It was a news website, reviews, show reviews, just random posts, stuff like that. That ended up going under, it got hacked by somebody, something went wrong and the site crashed. I started a music festival right around that same year so I decided to take the name from the website and move it along to the festival so there’s still the MoonRunners name going on.

Read more here

Don't Panic Records Interview with John Olivier of Ghost Bath

Danny Brawlins - March 8, 2017

Ghost Bath

After releasing their critically acclaimed second album, Moonlover, Ghost Bath has been nothing but busy. In 2016 alone, the band signed with Nuclear Blast, started touring, and recorded a new album. 2017 is shaping up to be a big year for the band as well. Just last week they released “Thrones,” the first single from their upcoming album, Starmourner, which the band will be touring on in the coming months. I managed to track down guitarist, John Olivier, for a brief email interview ahead of their DeKalb show at the House Café this Friday because 1) we love the House Café and 2) Moonlover came in third place on Don’t Panic Records & Distro’s list of top ten Black Metal albums of 2015.

How has touring been? What do you like most about it, what do you like least? Any towns stand out as your favorites so far?

This tour has been incredible so far. We all just really enjoy being on the road, away from the normal "comforts" of life at home. Some of the drives on this run have been pretty long, but all in all this tour has been nothing but good things. It’s hard to pick a favorite city, every place is so different, but I think my favorite venue so far was in Madison, WI.

Have you developed any tour rituals over the past few months? I for one like to find a good dive bar and record store in every city I visit.

We all typically do our own thing, but me personally, I like to drink some whiskey and smoke weed before we play. Not a copious amount by any means, just enough to clear my mind.

Read more here

Interview with Christina Michelle of Gouge Away

Phil Collins - February 6, 2017

Gouge Away

Florida hardcore punk band Gouge Away was the surprise winner of Change the Rotation's 2016 best albums of the year bracket. , Dies is their debut album and admittedly, we don't know a whole lot about them aside from the fact that we all held that record in high esteem last year. If at the beginning of 2016 you looked at what albums on the horizon would probably do pretty well on our end of the year bracket, surely you would think of the Falcon, Against Me! and PEARS. Well, Gouge Away took down all those bands on their way to the championship. Now that the dust has settled, we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could find out a little bit more about this band and their future plans. Lead vocalist Christina Michelle talked with me via email to fill us in on what is happening in the world of Gouge Away. If you haven't heard , Dies yet, stream it at the end of the interview. You can also read Steve O's original review of the album here.

Phil Collins: I remember when we first announced the 32 records on our best albums of the year bracket a month or two ago, you commented that you didn't really understand what that meant. Now you've won the whole thing. Do you get it?

Christina Michelle: Yes it makes more sense now.

PC: Did you get hooked on any albums in 2016?

CM: Yea! 2016 was the year for music. There were a lot of awesome releases but the ones that stuck for me are Lemonade by Beyonce, Stage Four by Touché Amoré, Peach by Culture Abuse, and I'm lucky that A Seat at the Table by Solange snuck in there last minute.

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Interview with Joe Vickers of audio/rocketry

Steve O - November 1, 2016

Edmonton’s audio/rocketry are releasing their first record in five years this week, and are following it up with a tour across Canada, with a stop down here in the States too. To celebrate the occasion, I talked to frontman Joe Vickers about the new record, the Midwest, music, travel, hockey, and dinosaurs. And more hockey. You know, normal stuff for any conversation I have.

Joe Vickers

Steve O: Hey, Joe. How’s it going in Edmonton?

Joe Vickers: Hey, it’s overcast and foggy. I farm with my dad; in the spring and summer we’re grain farmers. I grew up on this farm, and for the last 10 years I’ve been farming, that’s my main source of income. And this year, we’re still harvesting, which is wild. We’ve never been this late in the season ever before, but we had snow like two weeks ago and that set us back. I’m kinda stressed with the tour that’s happening next week and I don’t even know if we’re going to be done.

SO: Yeah, especially with you being that far north, this is really late into the fall.

JV: Yeah, normally we’re always combining end of August, September for sure, so when it stretched into October, that was kind of bizarre, but now it’s the 28th.

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Interview with Jack Terricloth of The World/Inferno Friendship Society

Phil Collins - July 10, 2016

This Packed Funeral


Cabaret punks The World/Inferno Friendship Society embarked on a coast-to-coast tour last week. The band last released This Packed Funeral, which made the final four in Change the Rotation’s best of the year bracket in 2014. World/Inferno play Chop Shop in Wicker Park on Tuesday with Culture Shock and locals Voice of Addiction. More information on that show here. Lead singer Jack Terricloth sat down with us over Skype before World/Inferno’s show in Philadelphia on Friday. Jeff Young, violin player for World/Inferno, transcribed this interview. Jack talked with myself and Danny of Don’t Panic Records & Distro about life in the van, what’s coming up for the band and some Chicago memories.


Jack: Hey, how are you, my name is Jack Terricloth from that World/Inferno band.

Phil: Hey, doing pretty good, I’m Phil from Change the Rotation.

Danny: I’m Danny.

Jack: Danny, Phil, nice to meet you, what’s the good word?

Phil: Oh, doing pretty good, thanks for joining us, it’s a pleasure to interview you for the blog here, and we’re excited to have you coming to Chicago in a couple days.

Jack: Always love to be in Chicago. As you know, or maybe you don’t know, our baritone player is from Chicago, or lives in Chicago anyway. He was in that Deal’s Gone Bad band. Who were very good. I always thought it was a bad idea to have the word “bad” in your band name, but they did pretty well.

Phil: Well, here in Chicago we’re familiar with deals going bad, so it’s all right. So today’s day three of your tour, how’s it going?

Jack: Day three and no one’s punched each other yet. It’s all been a good time, I haven’t lost my voice yet, no, everyone’s fine, I would still like more sleep - you know, the first week of any tour, you’re still partying, and your body hasn’t realized that you should stop doing that, so as I just said to our friends in Culture Shock, by Seattle, we’re going to be great. The whole tour will be great, that’s just for me personally, I WILL be great in Seattle, but yes, everything’s cool.

Phil: Great. So Culture Shock, I’ve just become familiar with them myself, but we actually caught Subhumans a few weeks ago at the Double Door, fantastic show, have you guys toured with the Subhumans crew at all before this?

Jack: We certainly have, and I just have to mention that one of the members of Culture Shock is sitting across the room, so, anything I say about them will be sugarcoated- [whispering] terrible, god they can barely, they tuned - [all laughing] …Uh yeah, we’ve toured with Subhumans, god, for the last twelve years, an awful lot, and we toured with Citizen Fish once as well, so yes, old friends, old punk rockers, if they haven’t gotten along by now, they never will, but luckily, we have. Good guys.

Read more here

Change the Rotation chats with Fed Up Fest

Phil Collins - July 21, 2015

I had the chance to chat with Fed Up Fest tonight on Twitter. This is Fed Up Fest's second year featuring queer and transgender talent through music and workshops. The fest will be held in Bridgeport at the Co-Prosperity Sphere on Friday and Saturday, and at Benton House on Sunday. Check out the full line-up on their Facebook event page. Read the full chat for more information about the festival and what it stands for in the punk scene.

Green Dot Sessions featuring Stephen DeFalco

Dave Anians - November 15, 2014

Hoo boy! So it’s been awhile since one of these has happened. Green Dot Sessions has also been around for over a year. This is #7, and it’s with a real cool dude.

Stephen DeFalco is the singer of Chicago punk rock band Turbo Vamps and the main brain behind Friskie Morris and Friends, the awesome band/podcast. With the podcast, he interviews Chicago punk bands and labels/distros. It’s always a lot of fun to listen to and the bands are always badass.

I had been aware of and seen Turbo Vamps for quite a while, but I only met Stephen recently. We both have similar histories of the whole suburban white kid finding punk rock at a young age thing, but there are some cool differences as well. I had a lot of fun picking his brain and you’ll have a lot of fun reading about it.

Turbo Vamps: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Turbo-Vamps/91085749394
Friskie Morris: https://www.facebook.com/FriskieMorrisFriends
Friskie Morris Sessions (podcast): https://soundcloud.com/friskie-morris-sessions

Dave Anians 11/3, 12:10pm

hey dude! we'll get started now if that's cool. if you need to ask any questions or interrupt at any point, that's fine. ill edit it out. other than that, this is super laid back. take as much time as you need for answers, there's no deadline or anything

that being said, please fill in the banks:

Hey! My name is __________________________ and I _________________.

Stephen DeFalco 11/3, 12:50pm

Hey! My name is Stephen DeFalco (Friskie Morris) and I am D, all of the above.

Dave 11/3, 1:20pm

Rad! what's your favorite thing about music?

Stephen 11/3, 1:42pm

Aw man the answer is kind of two fold for me. The therapeutic effects it can have and the ability to bring people together. With the therapeutic effects I mean if you look at most Friskie Morris/Turbovamps songs there are no ex-girlfriends being written about or love songs...they are all personal stuff that's got a darker side to that I wouldn't really open up and talk to someone about so I use music. There is something about screaming all the shit at the top of my lungs that is exhilarating. It's that music as therapy idea that has kept me sane these last 10 years lol. The second being the ability to bring people together directly puts me at a soccer match; I played since I was 4 all through school and a little in college. Even simple musical chants just brings chills up and down my spine. I'll never forget walking into the Fulham Futbol stadium in England and just feeling the ground shake because everyone was singing together the same tune and it just took my breath away. Only music can bring people together like that.

Read more here

Green Dot Session with Billy Mack

Dave Anians - May 24, 2014

Billy Mack travels around the country and plays songs for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. He sings about his life with a small six string ukulele that allows him to travel on megabus for most of his touring. He plays fun/weird/driving/excellent songs about excellent things. Somehow I’ve known him for less than a year and have already played with him like 4 or 5 times. That’s pretty cool. He’s cool. We talked about interesting stuff because he’s an interesting person. So come read about it! Please…

His newest album is out now! It’s really good: http://billymackcollector.bandcamp.com/album/its-okay-to-carrot

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/billymackcollector

Here’s a vid of him playing a song with a bunch of Folk-O-Rama friends in DeKalb:

Read the full interview here

Green Dot Session with Travis Zohfeld

Dave Anians - May 9, 2014

Gina, from Constantine (Travis and Ian) are two super cool dudes who play fun/catchy/inspiring folk punk. Even though we’ve only known each other for over a year or so now, they’re quickly becoming one of the bands I’ve played the most shows with. We have a lot of similar ideals when it comes to music and we’re now part of a quickly forming group of Chicago area folk-punk bands (a scene, if you will, oh my).

They have a new album in the works and (as I’m writing this (5/4/14)) tomorrow we’re playing with one of our favorite bands Ghost Mice. Things are really cool.

I talked to Travis about the usual stuff and it was fun and now please read it, thanks!

Read the full interview here

Green Dot Session with Henry Brawlins

Dave Anians - February 17, 2014

Hey, here’s a new edition of Green Dot Sessions! It’s been a bit, but this is a good one.

Henry Brawlins (Kevin Sawa) is a songwriter/poet/drummer/singer/photographer. He writes and plays for The Stockyards and Sleeping is my 9 to 5. He’s got a lot of passion and a lot of things to say. His work is very real and really good.

We talked about art and music and punk and drumming and you can just read it.

The Stockyards:

Sleeping is My 9 to 5:

Read the full interview here

Green Dot Session with Chris Dertz

Dave Anians - December 8, 2013

Chris Dertz is up next! Chris’s current music project is called Bedroom Sons and it is an awesome mixture of acoustic/rock/indie/punk/whatever/it’scool. He hails from west Illinois but currently lives in Chicago playing shows and hangin out. I’ve known Chris since the open mic era of my college experience and have done a split with him and even played bass for a few Bedroom Sons shows.

He’s a cool dude, so I asked him some of the same questions as the previous Green Dots and some new questions and all that so check it out.

B Sons has a new album out as well, and it’s really good, and you can find it here.

Read the interview here.

Green Dot Session with Paul Aluculesei

Dave Anians - November 13, 2013

Our next Green Dot Sessions is with Paul Aluculesei, a Chicago area guitarist and studio manager and freelance engineer at IV Lab Studios. I’ve known Paul since high school and he has always been a solid dude and an excellent musician. In the past three or so years, he has recorded, mixed, and mastered a solid chunk of my music. It has been a very fulfilling experience as I learned how to not sound like total crap and he learned how to make sure I didn’t, culminating to our last big project at IV Lab, my concept album WAITT (woo self plug!): http://daveydynamite.bandcamp.com/album/waitt

He’s a guitarist in two bands currently: Fathoms and more recently, Warforged.

Check out a badass video of Fathoms that I show people when I drink too much here (my favorite part starts around 2:40).

As a metal/progressive guitarist and a professional audio man, Paul has a lot of experience in things that I have very limited knowledge and understanding of, so this was fun! Hopefully you’ll think so tooooo. Read the interview here.

Green Dot Sessions

Dave Anians - October 7, 2013

Welcome to the new Green Dot Sessions! These are interviews done over facebook messaging, which allows both parties to take time to formulate responses and chat in a less formal way. I’m super new to the whole interviewing business, but I think this will be a fun way to get to know musicians from all around and the way they write and feel about their role in the music world.

Also, I’m probably not gonna stay in the background of these interviews. Many of the people I’ll be talking with are good friends, so including my own stories and relationships with these people will make it easier for me and hopefully give a fuller picture of what I’m trying to show from these interviews.

So yeah! Thanks!

Check out our first Green Dot Session, featuring Jake Joyce of Seasonal Men's Wear:

Green Dot Session with Jake Joyce