Beginnings

On today's episode, I talk to painter and singer-songwriter Ed Askew. Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1940, Ed left in the early '60s to attend Yale Art School. In 1967, he moved to New York in the middle of the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk scene, and met Bernard Stollman, the founder of the ESP-Disk label, which was dedicated to releasing uncommercial acts, which included Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Ed's own folk album Ask the Unicorn. With no organized tours however, and hardly any press support from ESP, Ed’s album soon descended into hardly-seen-or-heard obscurity status, before finally finding re-release in the mid-2000s on De Stijl Records. Since being rediscovered, Ed's past and current work has been celebrated with Pitchfork and many other high-profile music media praised his work, labeling him as a NY legend. His latest albums can be found on Spinning Gold Records, Tin Angel Records as well as Drag City.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedian Mehran Khaghani. Born in London to Iranian parents, Mehran grew up partly in Iran and mostly in the suburbs of Boston. In 2007, he began pursuing stand-up as a career and quickly became a Boston favorite, prompting his move to New York. And not only was Mehran on the latest season of Last Comic Standing, but he can now be seen performing regularly at the city's best stand-up club The Comedy Cellar.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kevin Barker. From 1995 to 2002, Kevin was a member of the wonderful indie rock band Aden, whose four albums were released on the fantastic label TeenBeat. At the same time, Kevin had his own solo-ish project called Currituck Co. In addition to these groups, he's played with Antony and the Johnsons, The Essex Green, Hercules and Love Affair, The Ladybug Transistor, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver and as part of Joanna Newsom's Ys Street Band.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to actor Aya Cash. The daughter of a poet and a Buddhist teacher, Aya grew up in San Francisco. After moving to New York, she was cast in a number of plays, films and TV shows, including Zoe Kazan's play Trudy and Max In Love, Law and Order: SVU, and The Good Wife. Currently Aya plays Gretchen, one of the lead roles, in the fantastic FX series You're the Worst.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kurt Heasley. A Floridian by birth, Kurt spent his early years in Hopatcong, NJ and in Virginia Beach. In 1988, he recorded a demo tape which he gave to Slumberland Records boss Mike Schulman. Schulman was so impressed with the demo that he released Kurt's first records, which were recorded under the name The Lilys. Between 1992 and 2006, Kurt would go on to record eight albums as The Lilys including A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, Eccsame the Photon Band, and Everything Wrong Is Imaginary, which span genres from shoegaze to psych-rock to mod revival. Although Kurt stopped making music full time to concentrate on other pursuits, he plays every now and then, including some recent shows in Philly and New York.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Anika Pyle. Originally from Monument, Colorado, Anika moved to New York with some friends to play music. And in 2012, she, along with Drew Johnson, Doug McKeever, and Dan Frelly, formed the Superchunk-esque band Chumped. In 2013 and 2014, Anchorless Records released two of their EPs, one self-titled and the other named That's The Thing Is Like..., and then later that year, they released their first full-length Teenage Retirement. All are well worth your time.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to stand-up and activist Ted Alexandro. A New York native, Ted has been performing comedy for over 20 years and was called one of the linchpins of New York comedy by Time Out. He's performed on Letterman, Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, The View, and he has two half-hour specials on Comedy Central. Ted is also heavily involved in activism, including the Occupy Wall Street movement. He was also one of the founders of The New York Comedians Coalition, which helped organize New York stand-ups to fight for better pay.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Briana Marela. A Seattle native, Briana knew she wanted to be a musician from a young age. In 2010 she released her first album Water Ocean Lake, and two years later Bicycle Records put out her next one Speak From the Heart (which is wonderful). Her first album on a larger indie label All Around Us was recorded in late 2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland with some of the dudes from Sigur Rós and múm, and it was released in August on Jagjaguwar!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to stand-up and writer Marina Franklin. Originally from Chicago, she moved to New York in 1997 after getting her Master's degree in theater. Two short years later, she made the decision to pursue comedy as a career and since then has appeared in numerous shows including Chappelle's Show, Inside Amy Schumer, and The Nightly Show. Marina's performed stand-up on Last Comic Standing, John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, the Showtime special Women Who Kill, and most recently killed it on Conan, as well as internationally at festivals like the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Montreal’s Just For Laughs, and Ireland’s Kilkenny Comedy Festival. Most recently, Marina has been working as a writer on the new Sharon Horgan HBO show Divorce!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to writer and director Leslye Headland. Leslye began her career in showbiz as an assistant to film producer Harvey Weinstein. But her career as a professional filmmaker began in 2012 when her film Bachelorette with Lizzy Caplan and Rebel Wilson debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Leslye is also a playwright and screenwriter - Bachelorette is based on one of the plays in her Seven Deadly Sins cycle, and she penned the screenplay for the Kevin Hart remake of About Last Night. This year, Leslye's second movie Sleeping with Other People premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and in September had a theatrical release by IFC Films.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to political cartoonist and writer Ted Rall. Originally from Kettering, Ohio, Ted's cartooning career began at Columbia University, where he contributed to a number of publications. Since then, his comics have been syndicated in newspapers and alt weeklies around the country, and in magazines like Rolling Stone, Time, and Fortune, and he's edited a series of anthologies of alternative comics called Attitude. Ted's work has also won numerous awards including the  Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award twice and was a finalist for both the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Ted's latest graphic novel Snowden is a look at the whistleblower's life and the surveillance state, and is available from Seven Stories Press.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Murray Miller. Originally from the Bay Area, Murray began his comedy career as a stand-up and moved into TV writing from there. He's written for a number of great shows including Clone High, King of the Hill and American Dad. Currently, he's a writer and producer on the HBO series Girls, and earlier this year his wonderfully absurd tennis movie 7 Days in Hell with Andy Samberg and Kit Harrington debuted on HBO.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Jack Stansbury. Jack's family dates back to the founding of America, and Jack grew up on the not-so-mean streets of Baltimore. Since 2013, he's been releasing music under the name Princess Reason, and recently he formed a full band with his friends Mike Allison and Morgan Spaner under the moniker. Their latest release, the Your Divorce EP is a wonderful take on Pavement-era indie rock, but with their own spark of originality, and it's one of my favorite things that's been released this year.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Tommy Blacha. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Tommy came to TV writing through the Chicago comedy scene. Besides his writing for the WWE, if there's been a weird comedy in the last two decade, chances are Tommy's had something to do with it. He wrote for Conan, where he created PimpBot5000, and has also written for The Eric Andre Show, Pretend Time, Human Giant, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Da Ali G Show, Late Night with Zach, TV Funhouse, and SNL. He's been a voice actor on China, IL and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and with Brendan Small, co-created the Adult Swim hit Metalocalypse! Currently, Tommy is executive producing and writing on the new Comedy Central show Moonbeam City.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to TV writer Jane Espenson. Originally from Ames, Iowa, Jane turned to TV writing after going to school to study computer science and linguistics. And if you can namecheck a beloved hourlong dramedy with a sci-fi bend, chances are Jane had a hand in writing it. These include a five year stint on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, as well as writing for Angel, Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Torchwood, Dollhouse, Firefly, Game of Thrones, as well as Dinosaurs, The O.C., The Batman, and Andy Barker, P.I. She is currently a writer and co-executive producer on the ABC fairy tale drama Once Upon a Time. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, taped live at UCB Sunset on August 3rd, 2015, I'm joined by five of my favorite comedians and musicians: stand-up and actors Ron Funches and Andy Kindler, actor and improvisor John Gemberling, and musicians Open Mike Eagle and Nick Thorburn. Ron can currently be seen on the NBC sitcom Undateable, Andy is on the IFC show Maron, and beyond that, both are some of the best stand-ups out there. John was on the recently canceled NBC show Marry Me, but also plays Abbi's roommate's boyfriend Bevers on the Comedy Central hit Broad City. Mike Eagle is a rapper loosely affiliated with the Hellfyre Club collective/label and his EP A Special Episode Of was released earlier this year. Finally, Nick Thorburn is a member of and the driving force behind the indie rock band Islands, and has also released two solo albums as Nick Diamonds, the second of which City of Quartz was released this year.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's show I talk to comic book writer/artist Dash Shaw. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dash studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and is the author of numerous graphic novels. These include Love Eats Brains! published by Odd God Press, GardenHead published by Meathaus, The Mother's Mouth published by Alternative Comics, Bottomless Belly Button and New School published by Fantagraphics, and BodyWorld published by Pantheon Books.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's show I talk to musician Katie Eastburn. Katie grew up mostly in Nashville (with stints in Hawaii and Colorado), before migrating to San Francisco to choreograph dance and produce musicals. There she met guitarist Jeff Rosenberg of the notorious, now-defunct West Coast noise-rock duo Pink and Brown, and they eventually formed the indie rock band Young People, who released albums on 5RC and Dim Mak. Since then, she's been part of the groups Whispering Pines, Dionne Werewolf, Gigi and most recently has been recording under the name KATIEE. In fact, her first single was just released on the Selfish Agenda label, and so was her first album. And they're wonderful!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's show I talk to musician and editor Jon Fine. Currently, Jon is the executive editor of Inc. magazine. But before he turned to journalism, he was a rock guitarist, most famously in the indie rock band Bitch Magnet. Jon also played in Vineland and Coptic Light, and was a touring guitarist with Don Caballero. Recently, Jon's memoirs and thoughts on the underground music scene - Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock's Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear) - were published by Viking. It's super interesting and well worth your time!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's show I talk to cartoonist Pete Toms. Born in New York, Pete works in the comics industry as a colorist and on his own web comics as a writer and artist. Much like Wonder Showzen, Pete's comics are a wonderful mix of surreality, political and social commentary, violence, and above all, humor. Many of his works can be read through his own website or through Study Group Comics, and they include a strip he co-authors called The Short Con, his fantastic graphic novel Paws, and the Ignatz Award-nominated series On Hiatus. All of which are well worth your time.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.