Peeling The Onion – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Hello good people and welcome to this very special episode of Peeling The Onion.

I had the immense honour of sitting down with one of my favourite artist of all time, Blixa Bargeld. Blixa has been making cutting edge art for nearly 45 years (next April 1st will mark Neubauten’s first concert). 

He was a part of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds from the groups inception until 2003 and in recent years he has been teaming up with Italian artist Teho Teardo. The duo released their 3rd album, Christian & Mauro,  last October the 25th.

I met Blixa backstage at Le Bikini in Toulouse ahead of their 3rd to last concert of an almost two month tour where they were supporting the new Einstürzende Neubtauen double album Rampen (apm: alien pop music) - which is another one of their masterpieces. 

In the interview Blixa talks about the making of the new Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld album and how it connects with their personal lives and the spirit of the times as well as the writing process. We touched upon socialism, living with the pandemic, the change in his voice, his recordings of Bowie songs and hate for saxophones and how Neubauten is beyond good and evil.

I sat down with Blixa over a zoom call for an hour and a half last March 25th which went extremely well, so if you haven’t seen that you can get it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kkJn7pPuE4&t=72s or here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/73JQYuudZxEh73KJEtiFhQ?si=gCSb80FvTPCJsifwKW4www 

This conversation was recorded on a Zoom H6 portable recorder.

All the best !

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Hello good people

This is a very special episode of Peeling The Onion given the fact that our guest is non other than Mr David Yow.

There are few that have taken the art of singing and performing (as well as writing music and lyrics) to as glorious heights as David Yow has. He came up in the Austin Texas punk scene of the late 70's/early 80's, first fronting the band Scratch Acid (1982–1987) and then forming The Jesus Lizard in 1987 with bassist David Wm. Sims  and guitarist Duane Denison after moving to Chicago. 

They were joined by drummer Mac McNeilly in 1989 thus completing the classic lineup that released masterpieces like Head, Goat and Liar.

The Jesus Lizard toured heavily throughout the 90's and released groundbreaking music before going on hiatus in 1999. The band has reformed sporadicly throughout the years to play shows and finally after 26 years they are releasing a album of new material. 

Rack contains 11 songs of classic Jesus Lizard music. It's genuinely awesome to hear the band is in top form, firing on all cylinders.

David moved to Los Angeles shortly after the Jesus Lizard called it quits in 1999 and has been doing  photo retouching for a living. He release a solo album, Tonight You Look Like A Spider in 2013 and has performed with bands like The Melvins, Dumb Numbers, Qui as well as stint as the singer for the band Flipper.

David has been acting since the mid 90's and has starred in numerous movies and shorts. His most recent film, A Desert , contains David's biggest role to date and has been getting grand reviews.

It was an honor to have a chance to sit down with David and pick his brain about his life and career. I do hope you'll enjoy the conversation.

All the best

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Break out your baritone ukuleles - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than Mr. Lou Barlow !

Lou has been recording music since he was 12 years old and has been a part of seminal bands like Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and The Folk Implosion - who just released their first album in 25 years and are currently out on tour (tour dates at the bottom. Get your tickets here).

Lou cut his teeth in the mid to late 80’s playing bass for Dinosaur Jr. His strumming bass style is one of the most distinctive is rock history. Yes he was influenced by Lemmy’s  bass style but while Lemmy was doing mostly bar-chords Lou took that style and carved out a nuanced style of his own. Dinosaur’s second iteration from 2005 has been amongst the most interesting reunion’s in rock history.

Lou started doing 4 track recordings in the 80’s which became the basis for his early output with Sebadoh and under the moniker Sentridoh. The way he mixed alternative tuned guitars and a baritone ukulele (which he strung with 4 guitar strings) with lyrics, that mixed self reflection and honesty with deadpan humour and christian/messianic imagery, and samples has been copied but never surpassed. 

Sebadoh got more streamlined as they became a more prominent live act as the 90’s progressed and Lou seemed to get his more surrealist creative itch scratched by forming The Folk Implosions alongside John Davis. John seemed to draw out a relaxed and fun-loving side in Lou that hadn’t quite been seen before - you can practically hear them stifling their laughter on the opening track of their first album Walk Through This World W/ The Folk Implosion (now we’re talking about the 12 track EP version, not the 24 track cassette one).

As fate would have it Lou and John scored the movie Kids in the mid 90’s and got funding and studio time to realise a vision that spawned the top 40 hit Natural One. The Folk Implosion went on to release two great studio albums, 1997’s Dare To Be Surprised and 1999’s One Part Lullaby.

Lou has continued to release albums under his own name as well as in collaboration with numerous of his bands and other projects. Since November of 2022 Lou has been hosting the podcast Raw Impressions with his wife Adelle. They share a subtle humour and a genuine chemistry that makes them a wonderful delight to listen to.

Lou is one of my all time favourite artists. I feel unbelievably lucky that he took time to speak with me. 

The Folk Implosions upcoming tour dates are as follows:

August 6th at the Riverside Revival in Nashville, Tennessee

August 7th at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room in St Louis Missouri (all ages gig - starts at 8 pm)

August 8th at the Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa (with opener Bats who just released an awesome album called Good Game Baby)

August 9th at the Cloudland Theater in Minneapolis

He’s going to Nebraska on the 10th to play with Dinosaur Jr. at Outlandia Festival in Bellevue, Nebraska

Then he’s back with John on August 11th were they’ll be playing at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee

August 12th at The Hideout in Springfield Virginia

August 13th at Nardo's Pizza, St Joseph Michigan

August 14th at The Lovin Touch in Ferndale, Michigan (all ages show)

On my birthday August 15th they’ll be playing at the First Congregational Church in Columbus Ohio

August 16th at The Treelawn in Cleveland

They conclude August 17th at The Government Center in Pittsburg

Take care guys !

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

There was an unmeasurable loss suffered May 7th when Steve Albini died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago, on May 7, 2024, at the age of 61.

It’s very hard to state Albini’s importance in music but also what a wide thinking individual he was - with ethos and values that he re-visited and which evolved along with him as a person.

He was one of my all time favourite musicians but on top of that he was also probably my single favourite recording engineer, having recorded masterpieces like: 

1000 Hurts (Shellac of North America)

At Action Park (Shellac of North America)

Atomizer (Big Black)

In Utero (Nirvana)

Goat (The Jesus Lizard)

Rid Of Me (PJ Harvey)

Song About Fucking (Big Black)

Surfer Rosa (Pixies)

Tweez (Slint)

Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (Rapeman)

Pod (The Breeders)

Seamonsters (Wedding Present)

I have listened to dozens and dozens of interview’s and talks that Steve gives because he was one of the most most insightful and articulated person that ever existed. He was very intelligent but also super humble. He was of course an loudmouth back in the day and and had come out a few years ago on Twitter and taken his responsibility for things said - nothing too horrible, but he did front a band called Rapeman, which was taken from a Japanese manga (and later 9 live-action films!).

Point is Steve evolved with the times and was always outspoken how he felt about the current state of the country, political and sociologically but also the state of the music business, or lack thereof in recent years.

I feel so I unbelievably lucky to have had that chat with Steve. I had been in email contact with him since mid January of 2024 where we were trying to sort out time (or where he was slightly ignoring me for about a month.) 

He did finally come back to me on February 16th and this interview was conducted on Monday February the 20th 2024 at 11am (CST). 

It’s one of the last in depth interviews he ever did.

Steve was a little standoffish at first but when he realised that I wasn’t just some dweeb asking about Nirvana he eased up and became very warm, funny and as always insightful.

Point is Steve was irreplaceable both as a person and as an musical and recording artist. No words can do him justice and the void he leaves no one person can fill, not in a 1000 years.

So go back and listen to Big Black and Shellac and all the other stuff he worked on. We are truly blessed to have been alive as the same time as Steve Albini.

I love you guys. Take care of each other. 

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Alright good people - let’s get our bass springs ready and fire up our jet turbines - our guest on Peeling The Onion is no other than the almighty Blixa Bargeld ! Yes, this is not a drill. I sat down with Blixa for a 90 minute talk about the new Einstürzende Neubauten album, Rampen (AMP: Alien Pop Music), which is to be released April 5th, as well as his extremely prolific career. 

He of course did 20 years with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and has done many collaborations, including his work with Teho Teardo - which he is working on a new album with.

Blixa is a true genius and such a super nice and interesting guy to talk to - I hope you like it as much as I did.

Thanks for listening you guys - take care of each other.

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Alright let's get in our little blue dune buggies and let’s get this party started - Chris Ballew is our guest on episode 5 of Peeling The Onion !

Chris is one of the most prolific artist out there - he’s played over 2000 shows throughout the years and released several dozen of albums of original material under multiple aliases. These days he’s releasing solo albums under his own name for the first time in his career, two a year - every January and July for the unforeseeable future. 

I’ve been a big Chris Ballew fan since I was a kid and chatting with him was even sweeter than I thought it would be, what a genuine nice, funny, wholesome guy.

Enjoy the listen and take care of each other you guys

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Turn off your heat and have a bowl of rice - we have an in depth conversation with one of the all time great bass players of our lifetime.

Joe Lally is one of four key ingredients of Fugazi, one of the most influential bands of all time. After Fugazi went on indefinite hiatus some 20 years ago Joe has been prolific and beside releasing three solo albums has collaborated with artist like John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer as well as founding Coriky with Ian Mackaye (Fugazi) and his wife Amy Farina (The Evens) and The Messthetics with Anthony Pirog and Brendan Canty (Fugazi).

The Messthetics are releasing an album on March 15th where they team up with jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. The first single Emergence is out, I encourage you to check it out.

Thanks for tuning in you guys, it means a lot.

All the best

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Henry Rollins taught me a new word: luddite.

Ah ha ! Peeling The Onion is back with non other than the mighty Henry Rollins.

Oh my what an absolute treat. I spoke to Henry on January 2nd and what a great way to start the calendar year. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a yearly thing because what is better than starting the year speaking to a man who is as hard working and successful but as modest and humble as Henry is.

Henry cut his teeth with Black Flag in the 80's. He went on to found Rollins Band which he stayed with throughout the 90's into the 2000's where he stopped playing music but focused on his career as a spoken word performer and writer. His latest book is called SIC and it's absolutely amazing. You can get it here: https://www.twothirteensixtyone.com/collections/frontpage/products/sic

It was such an honour and a privilege to have a talk with one of the greats and I really hope you like it.

Thank you guys for tuning in it means a lot.

All the best

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

Originally recorded for Rás 2 - Icelandic public radio. They probably own the rights to this so if you want to use the recording in any way you better check with them.

Parts of the interview were aired March 3rd 2024 and March 10th 2024.

Greg Norton of Hüsker Dü and now Ultrabomb is of course a living legend.
Hüsker Dü is one of the most hard working and prolific bands in the history of music and it was great to get Greg's perspective of their career. He took a 14 year break from the music business but is back with his band Ultrabomb and was just on his way to record their second album when I talked to him.

I really hope you enjoy my interview with Greg Norton
It was an honour and a privilege.

Elvar

Peeling The Onion on YouTube

I had the jaw dropping - once in a lifetime honour to spend a day with The Messthetics - one of the most innovative bands currently active. Joe, Brendan and Anthony had been touring Europe and I had been in touch with Joe through bass lessons and also through this podcast and I invited them to have a proper layover.

They come to thee main public radio building where they tan through a few tracks as well as sat down for a quick chat.

That sessions and chat was absolutely amazing to say the least. Seldom have i come across a sweeter group of guys. 

Later that night they played at the Smekkleysa record store where non other than Icelandic superheroes and original bad boys Mínus opened for them - just as they had done 25 years earlier when Fugazi played the car park of the National Radio building back in 1999 ! 

I hope you like the talk and encourage you to seek out The Messthetics, Anthony Pirog's solo stuff - as well as what he has done with his wife Janel Leppin - as well as Mínus - they are truly awesome.

All the best, love you guys,

Elvar 

Peeling The Onion on YouTube