Steven L. Jones

Interview with Matt Devine of Ventilator About the lost rough 'n' tumble Psych-pop gem from L.A.'s Ventilator. In the fall of 1994, after nearly four years of playing guitar and splitting the songwriting and lead vocal duties with former Three O’Clock leader Michael Quercio in the psychedelically-tinged Power Pop trio Permanent Green Light, Devine realized he needed to move on. “When you’re in a band where it’s two singers and songwriters, there are always compromises,” he reflects. “And it had gotten to the point where I just wanted to do what I wanted to do.” Devine was ready to go with a subtly emotive tenor voice, a knack for creating atmospheric vistas and earth-scorching firestorms with a Les Paul Standard and a Marshall half-stack, and a bagful of poetic, highly personal songs that synthesized an impressively wide variety of influences. There was one defining element that pulled Devine further into his next phase, something which occupied the second bedroom of the North Hollywood apartment he shared with Linda Kennedy, his girlfriend and future wife: A newly acquired Tascam 388 eight-track tape recorder. A huge Rolling Stones fan — the name Ventilator referenced Exile on Main St.’s “Ventilator Blues” — Devine was intrigued by the idea of mixing the country-blues sound of a steel guitar into his songs, many of which also featured unusual sonic textures provided by a 1950s Gibson parlor acoustic guitar that Devine had strung with electric strings. He drafted his former Lazytown bandmate Jeff Caruana to grace several Reseda Spleen tracks with his evocative lap steel licks (including the epic closer “The Daily Drag,” on which he played the instrument through a wah-wah pedal) and add some wistful Hawaiian steel guitar to “Happy New Year”. For drums, Devine enlisted Byron Reynolds, former (and future) drummer of Possum Dixon. After having Reynolds overdub drums on “Lansdowne” and percussion to “Jericho’s Pool” during early sessions at the apartment, Devine and Caruana lugged the Tascam 388 (now known as the Ventilator Mobile Unit) to the Pomona home of his friend Karl Rumpf for the first of two drum sessions with Reynolds. For tracks like the straight-ahead rocker “In Mysterium,” Devine performed scratch vocals and guitar while Reynolds recorded his drum parts, though Reynolds also used these sessions to overdub his drums on the already-recorded “Lint Duet”. In the summer of 1995, Devine had been invited by longtime pal Brad Laner to play guitar on the final tour by Laner’s noise pop band Medicine that autumn, and Laner returned the favor by playing bass on “Earthquake Song” and giving “Schadenfreude” a radical mixing once-over, the only track not mixed by Earle Mankey, who Devine brought in after working with him on Permanent Green Light’s 1993 release Against Nature. Released in September 1996 by Chicago’s Delmore Recordings, Reseda Spleen should have rightly caught on with lovers of noisy, guitar-driven pop. Unfortunately, as with so many indie releases before and since, the album’s existence went all but unnoticed, save for two rave reviews (from The Big Takeover and TapeOp) which appeared in print long after Reseda Spleen had vanished from the scene. Devine moved on, playing guitar with Possum Dixon for a year (and appearing on New Sheets, the band’s Ric Ocasek-produced final album recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, far removed from Devine's North Hollywood bedroom studio) before finishing the next Ventilator record. Titled Rock Folk Suicide, the album — a total sonic head-trip that picked up where “Schadenfreude” left off — wouldn’t actually see the light of day until 2008. Notwithstanding, 30 years after Devine put the finishing touches on Reseda Spleen, his long-lost second-bedroom masterpiece is finally getting the full-fledged release it deserves. “I leaned on my friends and had the resolve to put the work in,” Devine reflects, “and the success turned out to be the good times and lifelong friendships for which I am forever grateful. Bar/None reissuing Reseda Spleen is another opportunity for total gratitude.” “The record sounds incredible, and I know Matt will say that the Tascam deck was the reason,” says Laner. “But no, it’s what he did with that machine — he really achieved magic with it.” https://www.instagram.com/devine_matt/ https://www.instagram.com/ventilatorofficial/  

John von Seggern has been designing and running the online programs at ICON Collective and other top music production schools for more than a decade, working with the top instructors and adopting the latest educational tech to deliver the best education in the industry. As Director of Educational Technology and Online Education at ICON from 2016-2024, he tripled the online student population and pioneered innovative learning models including AI-powered tools and adaptive learning systems. In addition to his educational work, he is a seasoned studio musician, producer, and sound designer with over 30 years of experience, including collaboration with electronic music pioneer Jon Hassell from 2014 to 2020. His career, which began in New York City in 1991, features extensive touring in Asia, performances with major artists, and the release of electronic jazz albums. He has also made significant contributions as a sound designer to major film projects, including the Oscar-winning Pixar film WALL-E. Before Jon Hassell passed away in June 2021, he released two remarkable and critically adored albums: Listening To Pictures (2018) and Seeing Through Sound (2020), presented as parts one and two of the Pentimento series. ‘Pentimento’ is defined as “the appearance in a painting of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over”, a methodology that Jon applied in a musical sense throughout his career, refining and developing his approach over time. Specifically, Hassell would take previous recordings, whether captured audio from a concert he had performed, or snippets of rehearsals, and use it as base material to play fresh parts over, or take certain sections and loop them into a whole new piece, echoing the ‘version’ approach of dub reggae music from Jamaica, filtered through his love of Teo Macero’s radical tape cut-ups of Miles Davis in the 1970s. Examples of this can be seen as early as 1980’s Brian Eno-produced Fourth World Vol. 1 - Possible Musics where material taken from previous album Earthquake Island, and a live concert recording from the Art Gallery Of Ontario, serve as the launchpad for the musicians to play over as a sound bed, and make entirely new pieces out of the resulting parts. This continues right up to final studio album Seeing Through Sound, where recordings of Jon and band in a church in Vienna, or laying down a session for Radio France are edited, overdubbed, or even overlaid with a completely different recording to create a kind of sonic collage. All of this is to say that whilst Music Is Invisible does capture Jon Hassell and band performing live, the blurred lines between ‘studio’ and ‘live’ in the Hassell discography means that the category distinctions become somewhat meaningless. The musicians here are playing using a sound bed of samples taken from different sources (often their own previous performances), combined with the extensive editing, clean-up work and subtle sampling employed at the mixing and post-production stage, means this is as much a ‘studio’ record as many other entries in the artist’s body of work. The other two ostensibly ‘live’ albums in the rich Hassell discography, The Surgeon Of The Nightsky Restores Dead Things By The Power Of Sound (1987) and The Living City (issued 2023, recorded in 1989). were also created using this sensibility,

Interview with Tim Quirk of Wonderlick Jay Blumenfield's mother died two days before he got on a plane to Virginia to record this Wonderlick album. He went anyway. He and Tim Quirk — the two halves of Wonderlick, a band that's been making records since 2001 — had spent months planning this trip. Inspired by two wildly successful (artistically AND economically) house show tours and binge-watching Les Blank documentaries, they wanted their next LP to capture the sense of immediacy and abandon those acoustic house shows had fostered. So they hired a mobile recording engineer and fiddler named Mike Mitchell in Floyd, Virginia, a tiny Appalachian town where every other citizen just so happens to be a virtuoso player of old-time music. Their original plan had been to arrive on a Friday night, when the Floyd Country Store hosts weekly jamborees, and hire some of the musicians they heard to record Wonderlick’s latest batch of songs in a cabin in the woods. But Mike assembled a stellar crew of locals before they even arrived: banjo players, an upright bassist, a drummer, a clog dancer. He'd also secured a meditation center called the Shanti for the recording — a gorgeous open space with a wood-burning stove that, the band couldn't help noticing, felt a lot like the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks. They'd spent a week Googling the Nashville numbering system, because that's what the Floyd musicians wanted instead of chord charts. The idea was to find out what happens when you teach old-time musicians your punk-y songs. Best case: invent a new genre that somehow sounds like it's been around for centuries. Worst case: waste all the money you earned on your last tour on embarrassingly unreleasable tapes. So Jay flew east with his grief, and Wonderlick got to work. The result is Wonderlick Loves You, an album that has all the immediacy and abandon they’d been reaching for, as well as an undercurrent of woe they hadn’t expected but probably should have been prepared for. It's not a folk record so much as a Wonderlick record played with folk instruments. And it’s not a collection of love songs so much as a set of songs about people who feel unloved — a boy who’s jealous of all the attention a teenager with leukemia gets, a daughter who can't stop worrying, a daredevil who jumps over increasingly ludicrous things to command out attention — that try to correct the very problem they sing about by existing. They cut five songs the first day. Eight more the next. As the sessions progressed, the local musicians stopped following the chord charts and started inventing. Mike heard string quartet parts, and plugged in his electric fiddle when a song demanded it. The bassist compared one tune to Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Fifteen-year-old Margo MacSweeney, a banjo player Tim and Jay saw perform at Friday’s jamboree and insisted Mike hire for the sessions ended up singing on most of the album. Jay describes her voice as sounding “like a vinyl record from the 1920s; she’s only 15, but she sounds 2,000." When Tim asked her if she'd ever heard of Evel Knievel — the subject of one of the songs she was keening on — she replied, "I don't really know modern musicians." After hearing the playback of everything Margo had sung, Jay and Tim compared their goose bumps, and Jay told Tim he'd always wanted to make their Astral Weeks. There's a song called "Eric," which shares its title with a book Tim read when he was ten, about a teenager who dies too young. The chorus mentions how much Eric's mom loved him, and how the person singing it wonders what that kind of love might feel like. Tim insisted on singing that part, because he couldn't bear anyone thinking a child of Susan Blumenfield's felt unloved — since Tim had loved her almost as much as Jay did. They finished vocals at Landslide Studios in Asheville, outrunning an ice storm, eating at Waffle House on gift cards from a fan who'd once hosted them for a house concert. When the engineer whispered "That's a good song" after a playback of Tim’s vocal on “Eric,” it sounded like he meant it. Wonderlick started in 2001 as a side project for Quirk and Blumenfield, who'd spent the previous two decades in Too Much Joy — a band that got arrested in Miami for playing 2 Live Crew songs, charted on Modern Rock, earned an A− from Christgau, and never recouped a dime from Warner Bros. Their self-titled debut pioneered pay-what-you-want pricing years before Radiohead's In Rainbows; fans paid an average of $32. Six albums followed, including last year’s Wonderlick Goes to War, produced by Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Built to Spill), and a 29-day, 27-state acoustic house show tour that included a performance in a Portland sex dungeon. They've spent forty years making music together. This is the best thing they've ever done. https://www.facebook.com/Wonderlick / http://wonderlick.com/ @tbquirk.bsky.social      

Interview with Wesley Stace Wesley Stace was born in Hastings, Sussex, in 1965, and educated at the King’s School, Canterbury, and Jesus College, Cambridge. He released 17 albums under the name John Wesley Harding, before switching back to his birth name for more recent recordings, including 2021’s Late Style and the monumental limited-edition Secret Series, for which he revisited his entire discography for new solo acoustic releases. He has also published four novels. Wesley Stace’s Cabinet of Wonders, his variety show based at City Winery in NYC, continues to sell out. Since the Cabinet’s inception in 2009, the show has become a virtual who’s who of contemporary performers, writers, and comedians. It’s “one of the finest nights of entertainment this city has to offer” (New Yorker), “a brilliant evening of laid-back fun” (Village Voice), and “one of the most whip-smart variety shows on the market” (Portland Tribune). Stace has been joined onstage by Lou Reed, Rosanne Cash, Iggy Pop, John Prine, and Bruce Springsteen (with whom he recorded a duet on his album Awake), among many others. He appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His songs have featured in films (including High Fidelity) and TV (Transparent) and been covered by many other artists, from Graham Parker and Josh Ritter to Kelly Hogan and Tanya Donelly. His first novel, the international bestseller Misfortune, was published to great acclaim in 2004. It was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, listed as one of the books of the year in the Washington Post and the Boston Phoenix, and was one of Amazon’s Top Ten Novels of the Year. His second, By George, (2007) was one of the New York Public Library’s Books To Remember of 2007, and Booklist Editor’s Choice for books of the year. His third, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, (2010) was called “the most confident musical fiction I have read in years” (New Statesman), and an “Inventive black comedy unfolding with Nabokovian precision” (Financial Times). His most recent publication was 2019’s Out Loud, Mark Morris’ memoir, which he wrote with the choreographer. Stace has taught at Swarthmore College (a course called “Novel Beginnings/Beginning Novels”). He has also twice taught a songwriting course (“How To Write a Song”) at Princeton University with poet Paul Muldoon. He has also taught creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Stace’s work has itself been the subject of a university course, “The Allusive John Wesley Harding/Wesley Stace,” at Central Connecticut State University. He has written and reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is currently working on the libretto for Dido’s Ghost, the opera on which he is collaborating with Errollyn Wallen CBE, to premiere at the Barbican in 2021. He has lived in America since 1991, and resides in Philadelphia with his wife Abbey, daughter Tilda, and son Wyn. https://www.wesleystace.com/detailed  

Interview with bassist Paul Zamost of The Effigies. Chicago’s pioneering punk bands, shaping the Midwest punk scene with their aggressive sound and captivating lyrics. The band’s DIY ethos and commitment to authentic themes about corruption and urban alienation positioned them as a seminal influence on the punk scene for generations. Led originally by vocalist John Kezdy, bassist Paul Zamost, drummer Steve Economou and guitarist Earl Letiecq, the band’s early work blended the raw energy of classic punk with a distinct Midwestern working class sensibility, setting them apart from the coastal scenes of New York and Los Angeles. Their early performances in small Chicago clubs energized a local community of fans and helped establish the city as a notable hub for punk and alternative music. Early releases such as 1981’s “Haunted Town” EP, 1982’s 7” single “Body Bag” b/w “Security”, and 1983’s “We’re Da Machine” cemented the band’s significance in the expanding scene.   Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, The Effigies shared stages with many prominent acts, including local favorites Naked Raygun and Big Black, as well as national acts The The, Circle Jerks, Black Flag, The Cramps and PIL. Their live shows became legendary for their intensity and were seen as a threat to the local rock establishment still mired in tribute and cover bands. Renowned record engineer Steve Albini writes that “The Effigies were absolutely essential to development of a healthy punk scene in Chicago. Between them and Naked Raygun in the early 80s they basically kept the scene going until it developed momentum beyond them. The Effigies were a moving force during a crucial and exhilarating time.”   While the band drew inspiration from post-punk, hardcore and metal, they have always maintained that, at heart, they are a punk band. Their music consistently embodies the core values of the punk movement: celebration of individuality, egalitarian ideals, and the power of a committed supportive community.   In 2023, the band emerged from a period of relative inactivity to record a new album. They teamed with Andy Gerber at Million Yen Studios, who also produced the 2007 release Reside, and would go on to take over lead guitar duties with the band. The tragic death of founding member John Kezdy in August of 2023 marked a deeply emotional turning point for the band - Kezdy’s vision and charisma had been central to the Effigies identity. Inhonor of his legacy and last works, Burned was released in October of 2024 on BFD Records followed by reissues of 1984’s For Ever Grounded and 1985’s Fly on a Wire. To support the album releases and continue moving the legacy forward, the band enlisted a new vocalist, Geoff Sabin, whose energy and passion have reinvigorated the group. Their return to the stage has featured festival sets at RiotFest, Rebellion, and PunkRockBowling, a regional tour with The Black Crowes, and coast to coast shows including prominent clubs like Metro, The Whiskey, Sainte Rock, and The Middle East. The live sets havebeen embraced by long-time fans and critics alike, signaling that The Effigies are poised for a new chapter while maintaining the spirit and integrity that Kezdy helped establish. As of 2026, The Effigies are touring extensively, with plans to continue reaching audiences worldwide.  Tickest to SEP 27TH  https://www.bandsintown.com/e/108364731?affil_code=&app_id=js_effigies.com&came_from=700&utm_campaign=event&utm_medium=web&utm_source=widget https://www.instagram.com/theeffigies https://www.facebook.com/share/1DL4Hp63Wr/?mibextid=wwXIfr https://open.spotify.com/artist/17gqhz2M1O1fSw1Uwmeqtv?si=vIdoXARpTsiDTwTSIOYyQg&utm_source=copy-link https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-effigies/259248417 https://music.youtube.com/search?q=The+Effigies https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Effigies https://www.bandsintown.com/a/150038-the-effigies https://www.tiktok.com/@the.effigies?_r=1&_t=ZP-98dTczMNHaQ    

Interview with Chris Stamey !   Chris has a new album out called Modernism.    It features new versions of classic songs such as the Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog” (with Big Star’s Jody Stephens on drums), the Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” (with the dB’s), and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (featuring the Uptown Horns, Brian Dennis [DAG], and Jon Wurster [Mountain Goats, Superchunk]). Deep cuts are also in evidence, including “Shadows Breaking Over My Head” by the Left Banke (with Brian Wilson Band alums Probyn Gregory and Nelson Bragg), “Hernando’s Hideaway” (from The Pajama Game, and a 1954 hit for Everly Bros. producer Archie Bleyer), “At Last” (by Harry Warren), as well as three new interpretations of his own earlier tunes. There’s also a closer of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday,” a version produced by Alex Chilton in 1977. The original mix is now lost, but a charming instrumental rough mix on an old reel-to-reel analog tape (Alex on drums and guitar) was recently discovered, and Chris and Pat Sansone (Wilco, Autumn Defense) were able to replace the missing vocals and (with Don Dixon’s bowed bass and Rachel Kiel’s alto recorder) bring the track to life.   Chris Stamey began writing and playing music in grade school in Winston-Salem, NC, in the mid 1960s, in what is known now as the Combo Corner scene. In 1976, while studying music composition at UNC-Chapel Hill, he self-released Sneakers, one of the very first American “indie” records. The following year, he relocated to Manhattan to play and record with Alex Chilton in the burgeoning CBGB rock scene, then formed The dB’s with fellow Carolinians Will Rigby, Gene Holder, and Peter Holsapple, with whom he made several acclaimed records of original material, including Stands for deciBels (self-produced with Alan Betrock) and Repercussion (produced by Scott Litt).   During the next decade and a half in New York, Stamey worked with a wide variety of musicians. He recorded well-received solo records for A&M and Warners and was a part of Anton Fier’s Golden Palominos project, alongside an international touring cast that included Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Jack Bruce (Cream), Carla Bley, and Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, George Clinton). He continued recording and producing upon returning to NC in 1993.   His recent releases include The Great Escape, Lovesick Blues and Euphoria, as well as Falling Off the Sky with The dB’s and A Brand-New Shade of Blue with the Fellow Travelers. As a producer and a featured singer/songwriter with the Paris-based Salt Collective project, he collaborated with Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), Juliana Hatfield, Richard Lloyd (Television), Matthew Sweet, Aimee Mann, Andy Partridge, The Lemon Twigs, Mike Mills, and Lynn Blakey, among others. As a producer, arranger, and mixer, he has worked with over a hundred artists, including Alejandro Escovedo, Kronos Quartet, Flat Duo Jets, Skylar Gudasz, Branford Marsalis, Tift Merritt, Le Tigre, Those Pretty Wrongs, Ryan Adams, and Yo La Tengo.   From 2010-2018, Stamey was orchestrator and musical director for an international series of concert performances of Big Star’s classic album Third, alongside Big Star’s Jody Stephens, Ray Davies, members of the Posies, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub, Wilco, Kronos Quartet and Yo La Tengo; Thank You, Friends, a concert film of these arrangements, was released by Concord in March 2017. He currently tours as a member of Jody Stephens’s Big Star Quintet, whose line-up includes Mike Mills (R.E.M), Pat Sansone (Wilco), and Jon Auer (Posies). His original radio musical about the early ’60s in Manhattan, Occasional Shivers, premiered nationwide on Christmas Day 2016. A “songwriting memoir,” A Spy in the House of Loud (Univ. of Texas Press), was published in 2018, followed in 2019 by his first printed collection, New Songs for the 20th Century, with a companion two-disc CD (Omnivore Recordings).   open.spotify.com/artist/1i7YYagcULgnW5Qilsto1d music.apple.com/us/artist/chris-stamey/4034250 youtube.com/channel/UCG3O3S8Zg_WJoz2uTt_duig# instagram.com/mrstamey/?hl=en facebook.com/chrisstameymusic/ twitter.com/chrisstamey songkick.com/artists/186319-chris-stamey bandsintown.com/a/78299-chris-stamey deezer.com/us/artist/1279457 tidal.com/browse/artist/3611403 qobuz.com/us-en/interpreter/chris-stamey/515742 audiomack.com/chris-stamey music.amazon.com/artists/B008LPNC4M @chris-stamey.bsky.social chrisstamey.bandcamp.com/

Interview with Kitty Donohoe Ann Arbor based songwriter and Michigan Emmy recipient Kitty Donohoe is not an Irish or Celtic singer, but she clearly draws from that part of her heritage, as well as her American roots, as an artist. Iconic WFMT-Chicago folk dj Rich Warren calls Kitty “far above and beyond most singersongwriters.” She writes music that has been called “earthy, luminous and compelling” (The Weekender) and she’s been praised in the press equally for her voice, her musicality, and her songwriting. Sing Out!, one of the oldest and most respected folk music magazines in the industry, says that Kitty is “ one of the rare singer-songwriters to sensuously weave words and melody into a strong and mezmerizing fabric.” Over the years Kitty has opened for a variety of artists, from Doc Watson to David Bromberg, from Bruce Cockburn to Cheryl Wheeler – and in 2008 she and sideman David Mosher took the stage at an Obama rally just before Bruce Springsteen. Already known for years for her songwriting, Kitty’s visibility escalated to a much bigger world when she wrote a song called ‘There Are No Words’ on September 11, 2001. In addition to the Emmy Kitty received for the song, it’s been featured in a documentary, which led to her singing it live at the Dedication of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial in 2008 – an experience that she calls “profound.” Growing up in a large, creative family outside of Detroit, Kitty started ‘making up songs’ and playing the piano at a young age, then graduated to the guitar in high school, when she began going to coffeehouses and open mic nights, bringing the guitar and her own songs. When she became involved in Irish music Kitty bought a cittern (a large mandolin), and she still primarily plays guitar, cittern and piano. Kitty is a solid solo performer, and also often brings multi-instrumentalist David Mosher to her concerts, where he backs her up with guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and vocals. And although some of her originals may sound like they were written 100 years ago and others are clearly contemporary, one thing is certain: with or without a band behind her, Kitty’s striking voice carries it all, delivering each song with power and emotion. https://kittydonohoe.com  

Interview with Robert Kindey of The Numbers Bands 15-60-75. Robert return to the show for the 3rd time. In this episode we talk about the Number bands during the era of Hot Wire, and about the Late Great David Thomas of Pere Ubu !   Info for Sep 19th &20th concert and film showing   /https://www.numbersband.com/ /https://kentstage.org/     What's all about ( From Numbers band's website ) 15 60 75 The Numbers has been praised by almost every national music publication and several international publications since the beginning of their 50 years of live performances and recordings. The music "cannot be categorized", "cannot be defined", "is too original".  The music industry is not about music anymore. It is about selling products the public can relate to. After all, it is a business. Even "alternative" music has become a label. The founder of the band, Robert Kidney, explains, "The music industry, the media, and the tellsusourvision (TV) are defining for the American public what is good music by only playing and supporting what is profitable. We are taught to disregard everything that is not familiar. We (The Numbers Band) give the people our best. Our effort goes into being creative, unique and original. We define our own sound. There are no rules because we don't play the game. We are not in it for the game, we're in it for the music." So, the band continues to create and evolve outside of the "Rock & Roll" establishment. The majority of the recordings were financed by friends who loved the music enough to put up their own money. Hundreds of photographs taken of the band in different stages of it's existence by different amazing people tell a story of intense performances, long nights, and the passing of time. Band members have come and gone, and returned again. Robert sees music as much more than an emotional release or a performance. It is a job, a job for which he demands respect and payment for services. Robert Kidney picked up a guitar and began teaching himself to play when he 16. He bought a 45 record called Guitar Boogie Shuffle and his cousin, Larren Hesson, taught Robert the licks. He also taught him to play one of his favorite songs, Riders On The Storm. At 17, Robert played solo in coffee houses and also opened for several acts at La Cave in Cleveland such as Linda Rhonstadt and the Stone Ponys and Janis Ian. He never found the time to learn to read music. After a short stint in the service in Chicago, he moved back to northeast Ohio in the spring of 1969. A friend, Gary Hawk, had formed a band called Pig Iron in Wadsworth, Ohio. Robert opened for them at the Akron Art Museum and several band members asked him to come to a rehersal sometime. When Robert did show up, Gary had left the group, and the remaining members wanted him to be their front man. Robert changed the name of the band to 15 60 75. The title of the band has always aroused curiosity from fans. The fans called them The Numbers because it was easier than trying to get the figures right. Numbers had not been used in a name before, and the political climate in 1970 was quite Orwell-ian. Robert choose a sequence of numbers mentioned in a book written by Paul Oliver called The Blues Fell This Morning. In the chapter "The Jinx Is On Me", Oliver describes the Numbers Racket popular in Harlem in the 1950s and how dreams were analyzed as number sequences and used for placing bets. The band's music theory specialist, Terry Hynde, also discovered that 15 divided 15 is 1, 60 divided by 15 is 4, and 75 divided by 15 is 5. In a musician's world, "1, 4, 5," is referred to as the "universal progression". The band resides in northeast Ohio. They have several recordings under their belt and more music than they can afford to release. Robert has recorded and toured with Anton Fier and his Golden Palominos. Robert and his brother, Jack, have toured Holland twice. The brothers also traveled to London, England in 1998 to perform in the Disastodrome! production by David Thomas. The entire band went to London to perform at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000. For more information on the production, and The Kidney Brothers, go to The Brothers And The Blues Abstract. This band has an incredibly interesting history.

Interview with saxophonist of The Numbers Bands 15-60-75 Terry Hynde.   Info for Sep 19th &20th concert and film showing   /https://www.numbersband.com/ /https://kentstage.org/     What's all about ( From Numbers band's website ) 15 60 75 The Numbers has been praised by almost every national music publication and several international publications since the beginning of their 50 years of live performances and recordings. The music "cannot be categorized", "cannot be defined", "is too original".  The music industry is not about music anymore. It is about selling products the public can relate to. After all, it is a business. Even "alternative" music has become a label. The founder of the band, Robert Kidney, explains, "The music industry, the media, and the tellsusourvision (TV) are defining for the American public what is good music by only playing and supporting what is profitable. We are taught to disregard everything that is not familiar. We (The Numbers Band) give the people our best. Our effort goes into being creative, unique and original. We define our own sound. There are no rules because we don't play the game. We are not in it for the game, we're in it for the music." So, the band continues to create and evolve outside of the "Rock & Roll" establishment. The majority of the recordings were financed by friends who loved the music enough to put up their own money. Hundreds of photographs taken of the band in different stages of it's existence by different amazing people tell a story of intense performances, long nights, and the passing of time. Band members have come and gone, and returned again. Robert sees music as much more than an emotional release or a performance. It is a job, a job for which he demands respect and payment for services. Robert Kidney picked up a guitar and began teaching himself to play when he 16. He bought a 45 record called Guitar Boogie Shuffle and his cousin, Larren Hesson, taught Robert the licks. He also taught him to play one of his favorite songs, Riders On The Storm. At 17, Robert played solo in coffee houses and also opened for several acts at La Cave in Cleveland such as Linda Rhonstadt and the Stone Ponys and Janis Ian. He never found the time to learn to read music. After a short stint in the service in Chicago, he moved back to northeast Ohio in the spring of 1969. A friend, Gary Hawk, had formed a band called Pig Iron in Wadsworth, Ohio. Robert opened for them at the Akron Art Museum and several band members asked him to come to a rehersal sometime. When Robert did show up, Gary had left the group, and the remaining members wanted him to be their front man. Robert changed the name of the band to 15 60 75. The title of the band has always aroused curiosity from fans. The fans called them The Numbers because it was easier than trying to get the figures right. Numbers had not been used in a name before, and the political climate in 1970 was quite Orwell-ian. Robert choose a sequence of numbers mentioned in a book written by Paul Oliver called The Blues Fell This Morning. In the chapter "The Jinx Is On Me", Oliver describes the Numbers Racket popular in Harlem in the 1950s and how dreams were analyzed as number sequences and used for placing bets. The band's music theory specialist, Terry Hynde, also discovered that 15 divided 15 is 1, 60 divided by 15 is 4, and 75 divided by 15 is 5. In a musician's world, "1, 4, 5," is referred to as the "universal progression". The band resides in northeast Ohio. They have several recordings under their belt and more music than they can afford to release. Robert has recorded and toured with Anton Fier and his Golden Palominos. Robert and his brother, Jack, have toured Holland twice. The brothers also traveled to London, England in 1998 to perform in the Disastodrome! production by David Thomas. The entire band went to London to perform at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000. For more information on the production, and The Kidney Brothers, go to The Brothers And The Blues Abstract. This band has an incredibly interesting history.

Interview and performance by CLE Collective Zig At The Gig goes live at Negative Space bringing the talent from the streets of Cleveland to you! with CLE Collective ! CLE Collective is a 4-piece instrumental progressive rock band from Cleveland, OH. Their sound consists of odd time signatures, jazzy piano chords, epic guitar solos, soaring synth leads, and groovy bass lines. https://www.facebook.com/CLEtrio/ https://www.instagram.com/clecollect/?hl=en https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJFigawGacFmDmiIJCG5hMA https://open.spotify.com/artist/1gFryFyU6nv9jWIN52Xslp