Interviews – Page 3 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcase S5E21: Suicide Cages

Suicide Cages is a band from Denver whose sound draws on various strands of heavy music and punk into a seething maelstrom of channeled outrage and raw emotion. More less a product of the social and civilizational wrecking ball of the COVID-19 pandemic, Suicide Cages came together among friends who knew each other prior and finally came together for a project that could express ideas about society, culture and the fragility of life with focus and integrity. Some might hear the music and take away that it’s an imaginative take on math-y metalcore with the kind of momentum and controlled chaos that that music manifests so well. But anyone that takes a listen to the group’s new EP Live Without there is a lot of pain and despair given air and room to breath and to let it drift some out of the psyche through the sheer release of performance and for the audience sharing in the energy of those moments. Suicide Cages also refreshingly and explicitly, according to its Bandcamp page, “stands against white supremacy in all its forms.” It’s a stance that has become increasingly brave with the rise of racist fascism and all that descends therefrom.

Listen to our interview with Devin Rombough and Mhyk Monroe of Suicide Cages on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.

Suicide Cages on Instagram

Suicide Cages on Twitter

Suicide Cages on Facebook

Suicide Cages on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E20: Scorplings

Scorplings is a noise rock/post-punk trio from Denver that started in 2023. The group quickly wrote and recorded demos it uploaded to Bandcamp beginning in June 2024. Along with its subsequent demos it was recorded at Scorplings’ rehearsal space and studio the Spaghetti Warehouse The band jokes about how its members met via music classified ads and longtime Denver indie rock musician and songwriter Bryon Parker (Accordion Crimes, Raleigh, Simulators) seemed to find his future bandmates out of a mutual interest in math-y post-rock band Slint as well as like-minded artists. Andres had recently moved from Los Angeles and drummer Dan had come to Denver from Chicago while Parker from the East Coast in the early 2000s but all finding a community in Denver for a type of left field punk rooted in jazz and angular song structures. At the same time one hears an instinct for informal atmospheric elements in the vein of a slowcore band and the unconventional pop song structures and melodies reminiscent of Yo La Tengo. There is a cinematic aspect to the songwriting like it’s inspired by the pacing and dynamics of classic movies. Fans of classic Chicago noise rock and DC post-punk will find a great deal to appreciate about Scorplings’ core sound.

Listen to our interview with Scorplings on Bandcamp and follow Scorplings on Instagram. Catch them live at Ghost Canyon Fest on the first night, Thursday, August 21 at What’s Left Records in Colorado Springs.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E19: The Problem With Kids Today

The Problem With Kids Today, photo courtesy the artists

The Problem With Kids Today is a punk and power pop trio from New Haven, Connecticut. The group’s sound bursts out of narrow genre with great exuberance, demonstrating an affection for and kinship with 1980s Kiwi rock, the more rambunctious and noisy C86 contingent, the unvarnished pop sweetness of Sarah Records bands like East River Pipe and Sugargliders, the Siltbreeze roster and earlier icons of tuneful ramshackle rock and roll rebellion like The Jam, The Who and The Replacements. The group is set to release its third album Take It! on August 22, 2025 via their own In The Shed Records imprint on CD, digital download and through streaming services. The album represents the band, having had its brush with more “professional” studios and its first tour under its belt, returning to its roots recording in its cleaned up and revamped shed-turned-home-recording-studio with friend Joe LeMieux. The resulting album has a scrappy charm and irrepressible enthusiasm with songs that have the punk spirit but a sound that incorporates a myriad of influences that fans of Tyvek, the more melodic side of Times New Viking and Parquet Courts at its most raw will appreciate greatly. In the interview we discuss where the band came from and its origins in the unique DIY scene in Connecticut where its members met and developed into the purveyors of melodic punk pop it has become.

Listen to our interview with the members of The Problem With Kids Today and follow the group at the links below.

The Problem With Kids Today on Instagram

The Problem With Kids Today on Facebook

The Problem With Kids Today on Bandcamp

The Problem With Kids Today on YouTube

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E18: doubleVee

Oklahoma City-based duo doubleVee is comprised of former Starlight Mints frontman Allan Vest and his wife Barbara Vest who have been releasing some of the most imaginative pop songs going since starting to work on and release music in 2012. The Vest’s have a deep background in music and music culture with Allan writing scores for film and television and Barbara working in radio and producing the nationally syndicated film music program Filmscapes. Starlight Mints were one of the last, great indiepop bands out of that great 90s tradition that included artists out of and connected to the Elephant6 Collective. You can hear that level of compositional and aesthetic sophistication in the music of doubleVee. All of the project’s songs involve a fusion of imaginative storytelling and emotive melodies and an emotional immediacy and intimacy that truly sets the music apart from a lot of modern music. Their music videos reveal an eye for making something that feels like someone dispensed with the usual methods of production and made something accessible like a video a good friend with creativity and cinematic talent would make to share with an immediate social circle. The music of doubleVee invites you to step out of mundane normalcy into something more vital and fun.

The new doubleVee EP Periscope at Midnight, with eye-catching art by Grant Fuhst, is being released on July 25, 2025 digitally and on CD. It’s a kaleidoscopic journey to fantastical places through the lens of everyday curiosity pursued to stimulate the mind and the senses. For the EP the Vests wrote four new tracks and re-imagined a couple of older Starlight Mints songs “Submarine Number Three Vee” and “Maybe Tonight [What’s Inside of Me?]” and brought to all the songs an orchestral power pop sensibility lends each a cinematic aspect that give a dramatic dimension to the songwriting. Fans of XTC and The Apples in Stereo will find much to like about doubleVee’s creative pop songcraft.

Listen to our interview with doubleVee on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.

doubleVee.net

doubleVee on Bandcamp

doubleVee on YouTube

doubleVee on Facebook

doubleVee on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E17: Chris Stamey

Chris Stamey is one of the leading figures of American indie rock as we know it. Born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Stamey grew up in Winston-Salem and earned a degree in philosophy from NYU. While living in New York, Stamey became the bass player for Alex Chilton’s band for around a year and released a 1978 by another Big Star alum Chris Bell on his own Car Records imprint with “I Am the Cosmos” and “You and Your Sister.” Around that time he formed The dB’s with Peter Holsapple. That band’s jangle guitar and post-punk sensibilities in terms of literary lyrics and willingness to write emotionally complex songs made it a favorite of college radio throughout the 1980s before splitting in 1988 (though back together since 2005). Stamey is renowned for his production and his credits would be too long to list. For example perhaps unexpectedly he produced the first two Le Tigre records and Pylon’s classic 1983 album Chomp. Simply put indie rock and pop bears the hallmarks of Stamey’s work directly on indirectly for decades. He has played in numerous bands during the course of his lifetime including a short stint in Let’s Active with his friend and also legendary producer Mitch Easter and he has had an acclaimed solo career as well.

Stamey’s latest long player Anything Is Possible released via Label 51 Recordings on July 11 on 12” LP vinyl (out August 8, 2025), CD, digital download and on streaming. The new record Stamey says “is a love letter to the kind of harmonically rich yet often lyrically innocent pop music I heard, on the family turntable and especially on AM radio, growing up in the late 50s and mid-60s in the American South.” With contributions from Tthe Lemon Twigs, Mitch Easter, Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band), Marshall Crenshaw among other luminaries of modern music the album has the sophisticated and sonically detailed pop songcraft that Stamey has perfected across a lifetime. Shades of Harry Nilsson and Brian Wilson can be heard throughout the album supported by Stamey’s knack for fusing texture and tone into the kinds of pop hooks and moods that linger with you.

Listen to our interview with Chris Stamey on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below.

chrisstamey.com

Chris Stamey on Apple Music

Chris Stamey on YouTube

Chris Stamey on Instagram

Chris Stamey on Bluesky

Chris Stamey on Facebook

Chris Stamey on Twitter

Chris Stamey on Deezer

Chris Stamey on TIDAL

Chris Stamey on qoboz

Chris Stamey on Audiomack

Chris Stamey on Amazon Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E16: Willie Nile

Willie Nile is a a New York-based singer-songwriter and guitarist who released his twenty-first album The Great Yellow Light on June 20, 2025 on CD, 12” LP, digital download and streaming via River House Records. Nile moved to NYC in the early 80s in time to catch the early and classic days of the city’s punk scene and by the time of the release of his 1980 debut album the musicians on the record included Jay Dee Daugherty (Patti Smith Group) and Fred Smith (Television). Then as now Nile’s uplifting songs struck a chord with his literary turns of phrase and the spirited delivery. That debut record was released on Arista Records after Nile met Clive Davis and that same year Willie Nile foud himself joining The Who on their 1980 summer tour. But following the release of his 1981 album Golden Down Nile’s career was stalled by legal problems and he didn’t return to the music world until later in the decade. Nile became a bit of a songwriter’s songwriter and had a fan in Bruce Springsteen who invited him to share the stage with the E Street Band in 2003 at Giants Stadium and Shea Stadium. Interestingly enough, though, Nile really his his stride as an artist from 2009 onward when he seemed more prolific than his entire earlier career with highly acclaimed albums along the way. The new record is brimming with passion and compassion and striking for Nile’s charismatic delivery.

Listen to our interview with Willie Nile on Bandcamp and follow his exploits at the links below.

willienile.com

Willie Nile on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E15: Robert Scheffler

Robert Scheffler, photo by John Matthews

Robert Scheffler is a New York City-based singer-songwriter who released his third full length studio album Truce on June 26, 2025 for digital download, streaming and limited edition CD. Scheffler was a regular in downtown NYC clubs Mercury Lounge, Arlene’s Grocery and the Bitter End including shows with his band A Million Pieces. But the time came when Scheffler took up a job as a research editor and writer for a national magazine. Eventually the lure of songwriting pulled Scheffler back into the world of music but like many a songwriter he had to figure out what he would have to say in a crowded milieu with thousands of artists vying for attention. Without a band the challenge was even greater. But Scheffler found his inspiration in part when filing through his old CD collection and stumbled upon a promo disc for Warren Zevon’s Life’ll Kill Ya given out at the record release party. He tried Zevon’s workmanlike approach to songwriting but once he abandoned that more methodical approach the songs came together. The new album is about people navigating agreements between each other, socially and in their relationships with the world. The record also explores in poetic fashion loss of friends and of hope and the pain of connections coming apart. The music has a folk and Americana flavor but of the vibrant yet pastoral variety with immediacy and a spirit of intimacy like Scheffler is hooked into universal human experiences.

Listen to our interview with Robert Scheffler on Bandcamp and follow the artist at the links below.

robertschefflermusic.com

Robert Scheffler on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E14: The Whimbrels

The Whimbrels released their eponymous debut album on June 27, 2025 via Dromedary Records. The band has in its membership luminaries of the experimental, avant-garde, post-punk and No Wave scene of New York City with credits including playing with The Glenn Branca Ensemble, The Swans and J. Mascis. Between racks of guitars in alternate tunings and unconventional arrangements the band’s new record is somehow both accessible and challenging, filled with gorgeous, left field melodies, discordant atmospheres and dissonant soundscapes. It’s like noise rock abstract jazz with real attention to songcraft. Arad Evans is the primary songwriter as well as vocalist and one of the group’s guitarists and he’s been in more than a few of the great improvisational and experimental guitar bands in NYC since 1980. Norman Westberg many may know as one of the main guitar wizards in Swans for over 35 years but his fascinating ambient solo albums are worth visiting. Guitarist Luke Schwartz is a composer who also played with Glenn Branca but also with ambient legend John Hassell. Matt Hunter on bass and vocals is a co-founder of New Radiant Storm King but has performed with J. Mascis & the Fog, King Missile, Silver Jews and SAVAK. Steve DiBenedetto is mostly known as a painter but his work as a solo musician and with Airport Seven among other projects are highlights of American experimental music. Drummer Libby Fab is a member of Paranoid Critical Revolution and was the technical director of Glenn Branca’s Symphony 13: Hallucination City. Produced by Jim Santo, the record will resonate deeply with fans of its members various musical endeavors but also the textural tonalities of Mission of Burma, the enigmatic soundscapes of Nicholas Jaar and the exotic tonal exercises of Savage Republic. The album is now available as 12” LP, digital download and on streaming platforms.

Listen to our interview with Arad Evans and Norman Westberg on Bandcamp and follow The Whimbrels at the links below.

thewhimbrels.com

The Whimbrels on Instagram

The Whimbrels on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E13: Meatwound

Florida’s Meatwound came into being circa 2014. Threading together strands of hardcore, noise and sludge rock, Meatwound’s mutant sound is a little like what might be described as psychedelic noise power violence with caustic vocals and seething guitar work driven by almost mechanistic rhythms. The group’s new album Macho (out now on Threat Collection) reveals a band that seems to be tearing in all directions with its sharp-edged sonics and a left field sensibility in fusing heavy and aggressive music. The cover in its bright and dark pink is a send-up of the concept of “macho” and the songs are infused with a sense of humor and the absurd. With titles like “Frank Stallone,” “Obese Variants,” “Pig, Tu” and “Barking Dog As Plot Device” it’s clear that Meatwound while making music that can be taken seriously don’t take themselves too seriously as artists. Think something like Killing Joke doing a collaborative album with Napalm Death.

Listen to our interview with Meatwound vocalist Daniel Wallace on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below.

meatwound.com

Meatwound on Bandcamp

Meatwound on Instagram

Meatwound on Facebook

threatcollection.com

Threat Collection on Instagram

Threat Collection on Bandcamp

Threat Collection on TikTok

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E12: Knox Chandler

Knox Chandler, photo courtesy the artist

Knox Chandler made a name for himself as a musician with bands and artists like The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Cyndi Lauper. He also performed with, recorded, arranged and produced for REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Golden Palominos and others. He spent ten years living in Berlin, Germany where he developed a technique called “Soundribbons” in which iPads are used to process and manipulate guitar signals to produce uniquely evocative soundscapes often incorporating field recordings and interactive visuals for live performance. In Berlin Chandler also earned a post-graduate degree in education and served as the head of the guitar department at BIMM College. On May30, 2025 Chandler released his debut solo album The Sound. Rather than the usual type of musical album, it is a set of deep field ambient and otherwise cinematic mood music paired with a visual memoir in book form depicting his shift from urban to rural living where he currently resides in the New Haven, Connecticut area. The vividly rendered collection of images and paintings are served well by the methods Chandler used to process and craft the music and vice versa.

Listen to our interview with Knox Chandler on Bandcamp and connect with the artist at the links below.

knoxchandlermusic.com

Knox Chandler on Instagram

Knox Chandler on Facebook