Interviews – Page 5 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E09: Charlie Kendall of METALSHOP

Charlie Kendall’s METALSHOP has re-launched in 1995. From 1984-1995 the original run of the syndicated radio program was a well-curated show that broadcast on more than 250 radio stations across the country. It featured interviews with heavy metal and hard rock musicians across a broad spectrum of fame and notoriety. The new weekly show incorporates original feature segments into its new content and will showcase new and classic music and interviews and presented with the same gritty accessibility that made the original show a true touchstone for that music. The new show can be heard online on demand on its Mixcloud account and on the air in select markets.

Listen to our interview with Charlie Kendall on Bandcamp and follow METALSHOP at the links below.

charliekendall.com

METALSHOP on Facebook

METALSHOP on YouTube

METALSHOP on Facebook

METALSHOP on Instagram

METALSHOP on Twitter

METALSHOP episodes on MIXCLOUD

METALSHOP Merch

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E08: MikelParis

MikelParis is perhaps best known these days as a keyboard player in the rock band O.A.R. but for many years he was also a cast member of the STOMP touring show as well as working with Pink, Train, The Dan Band and Jewel. All along MikelParis has developed his “GuitarDrumming” style of playing acoustic guitar. It combines his technique for playing piano, his honed sense of complex rhythms into a fluid and endlessly evolving sound that incorporates intuitive and expressive improvisation and songwriting acumen. His latest, and fourth, album GuitarDrumming 01 has the musician bringing in peers and friends like Vernon Reid (Living Colour), G. Love and Of Good Nature. The sound is richly varied and at times is reminiscent of 90s Peter Gabriel as the latter further integrated non-Western rhythms into his pop songcraft. The album released on March 28, 2025 on 12” vinyl, digital download and streaming services via ZP Records.

Listen to our interview with MikelParis on Bandcamp and follow him at mikelparis.com.

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E05: Detention

Detention (back left is Kevin Shields), photo courtesy the artists

Kevin Shields enlisted in the Coast Guard when he was 17-years-old. But as fate would have it he was stationed in Alameda, California as he was growing tired of 70s rock and learned about punk. That post allowed him the time to go to Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco a few nights of week to witness firsthand the excitement of early West Coast punk acts Dead Kennedys, DOA and Black Flag among others. When he got back home to New Jersey in 1981 he had all the inspiration he needed to start his own band so he recruited his brothers and himself bought a bass that he would eventually learn to play. Their band Detention was a raucous and wiseacre bunch whose first show at Raritan Manor was hosted by Matt Pinfield when he had his first radio DJ stint at WRSU at Rutgers. The police busted the show. But the band went on to record several of its songs many of which were filled with an irreverent spirit but others with more than a touch of social consciousness. Detention put out a self-produced, self-titled album in 1985 before breaking up. But the band’s legacy continued in college radio and beyond up to now with the wonderfully humorous and tasteless “Dead Rock ‘n Rollers” single. Its cover art has been endlessly imitated and the song itself in the realm of “Take The Skinheads Bowling” as an underground classic. The single and choice cuts from the self-titled album as well as unreleased material was released on vinyl in 2024 as Dead Rock ‘n Rollers on Left For Dead Records.

Listen to our interview with Kevin Shields on Bandcamp and visit the Left For Dead Records for more information and to order the vinyl.

leftfordeadrecords.com

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E04: Mike Baggetta of mssv

Comprised of guitarist and vocalist Mike Bagetta, bassist mike watt and drummer Stephen Hodges, mssv is a band whose music defies easy genre categorization. Early on it was mostly or entirely instrumental but with vocals introduced more prominently on its second studio album Human Reaction and an attentive listener can hear rock and jazz roots in the mix with elements of improvisation. But on the group’s new record On And On (out March 7, 2025 via BIG EGO Records on vinyl, download and streaming) the detailed songcraft makes it obvious that the group has always been about songs but that this time the loose concept album explore themes of impermanence and chance in society, in our, on the planet and in our own minds. Utilizing detailed compositions and a keen ear for atmosphere and texture in building the emotional resonance of the songs the band uses the vehicle of the album as a commentary on and celebration of the life we live every day and its own essential significance to everything connected to it.

Listen to our interview with Mike Baggetta and follow the musician and songwriter as well as mssv at the links below.

mikebaggetta.com

mainsteamstopvalve.com

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E03: Nikki O’Neill

Nikki O’Neill, photo courtesy the artist

Nikki O’Neill was born in Los Angeles but mostly grew up in Stockholm, Sweden and now calls Chicago home. The cultural influences in her development as a human probably goes some way to explain how her fusion of Americana, Soul, Gospel and Blues comes off like a confident yet self-aware manifestation of the finely honed pop songs of the late 70s and early 80s with some of its own roots in R&B. O’Neill’s new, and third solo, record Stories I Only Tell My Friends dropped March 14, 2025 on 12” LP vinyl CD, digital download and streaming. The album is full of vibrant energy and instantly relatable tales of having moved from the West Coast to the Midwest and holding on to a sense of self that isn’t jaded and numbed by the pace and demands of our current society. Throughout the record, O’Neill seems to struggle and come to terms with existential doubt, demonstrating she is more than slightly familiar with the importance of learning to come at the world like you’re new to so many things again and again to bring a freshness of spirit to life and one’s creative work. The effort to do so abundant from song to song.

Listen to our interview with Nikki O’Neill on Bandcamp and follow O’Neill at the links below.

nikkioneill.com

Nikki O’Neill on YouTube

Nikki O’Neill on Instagram

Nikki O’Neill on Facebook

Nikki O’Neill on Bandcamp

Nikki O’Neill on Bandsintown

Nikki O’Neill on Bluesky

Nikki O’Neill on Apple Music

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E02: Michigan Rattlers

Michigan Rattlers, photo courtesy the artists

Michigan Rattlers is a band of lifelong friends who have been in bands together since they were in their early teens and started recording their songs in 2016 under their current name. The band’s first two albums offered beautifully pastoral Americana about everyday life, articulating the aspirations of yearnings that would be recognizable instantly to anyone that has spent more than a few months contemplating what it is you really want and what you have and what you value. The 2024 album Waving From A Sea is a creative leap forward for the band with more atmospheric elements and a songwriting style more in line with the kind of power pop one heard in the late 70s or in a more modern era with the likes of The War on Drugs. The songs tie the feelings to a strong sense of place both physically and psychologically at a time when you’re re-orienting your life and finding the anchors in your psyche that remind you of the contexts that have helped shape you and the boundaries you have moved beyond.

Listen to our interview with singer Graham Young on Bandcamp and follow Michigan Rattlers at the links below. Michigan Rattlers are currently on tour with a stop at Meow Wolf in Denver on Thursday, February 20, 2025 with Elias Hix, doors 7pm.

michiganrattlers.com

Michigan Rattlers on Facebook

Michigan Rattlers on Apple Music

Michigan Rattlers on Bands In Town

Queen City Sounds Podcast S5E01: The Velveteers

The Velveteers, photo by Jason Thomas Geering

The Velveteers are a rock trio from Boulder, Colorado that has blossomed from humble origins playing house shows and DIY venues in the mid-2010s after forming in 2014 to touring internationally with the likes of Great Van Fleet and Black Keys. Dan Auerbach of the latter took a liking to the band and produced and released the 2021 debut full-length Nightmare Daydream on his Easy Eye Sound imprint. That record demonstrated that the group had moved beyond some of its more blues rock/garage rock early days into something with more musical depth and with something to say regarding the vagaries of society, identity, self-image and sexism. A little over three years later The Velveteers are releasing their second album A Million Knives which reveals the band’s further explorations into integrating an electronic music aesthetic and songwriting into its core sound of vulnerable pop songs charged with raw emotional power. The themes of the record involve the complexities of navigating relationships and one’s aspirations. Underlying it all are elements of heartbreak of all varieties—the interpersonal, the kind when one’s expectations and dreams find reality lacking from the world and from oneself and the sort stemming from disappointment. But as the album makes it obvious, finding the will and energy to pull yourself back from that brink. Following an album release show on February 14, 2025, expect to find The Velveteers undertaking a tour throughout the American West, Texas and states connected to Colorado.

Listen to our interview with Demi Demitro of The Velveteers on Bandcamp and follow the band at the links below. Catch The Velveteers live for the album release show at the Hi-Dive on Friday, February 14, 2025 with Cherry Spit and Diva Cup. Doors 7pm, show 8pm.

thevelveteers.com

The Velveteers on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E50: Captain’s Audio Project

Captain’s Audio Project, photo by Faerin Millington

Captain’s Audio Project is the solo project of Portland, Oregon band Trashcan Joe’s James Cook. The songwriter and mult-instrumentalist is releasing his debut album Waiting For The Moon under that new moniker on February 28, 2025 on vinyl LP, CD, digital download and via streaming services. Whereas Trashcan Joe is a full band known for including instruments made from found objects as part of its sound hearkening to early jazz, Captain’s Audio Project was built on a foundation of Cook’s vocals and a 1931 National Tenor Resonator Guitar with other instruments and guest musicians overdubbed to fill out the sound when it felt appropriate. But the core appeal of the new record is how it feels like a fusion of indie pop and chamber folk performed with an intimate feel like something sung around a campfire after dinner with friends sharing stories.

Listen to our interview with James Cook on Bandcamp and follow Captain’s Audio Project at the links below.

Captain’s Audio Project on Facebook

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E49: Extra Kool and Time

Extra Kool and Time, photo by Tom Murphy

Extra Kool and Time recently released their album The Grimies for streaming, digital download and limited green vinyl. The record represents the product of decades of working together playing shows and on each other’s respective tracks. Danny Vincennie aka Extra Kool and Chris Steele aka Time are two of the most gifted lyricists and rappers in Denver of recent years but their work has not often been championed in local much less national press and culture. Several years back they worked on tracks together in a project they called The Grimies with singles that appeared on obscure compilations now challenging to track down. But separately and contributing to each other’s work they have written poignantly personal and vulnerable, insightful, emotional songs about life and society that are vibrant and heartbreaking. Time has frequently released music with the brilliant producer AwareNess as the experimental hip-hop duo Calm. and along with Extra Kool and artists under the label umbrella of The Dirty Laboratory they were a force in alternative hip-hop in the 2000s. That world imploded or faded away in “commercial relevance” if not in impact in influence around the 2010s but the legacy of that time has continued in the more interesting hip-hop of today and certainly Time and Extra Kool didn’t stop creating powerful work just because the crumbling music culture wasn’t shining as much of a spotlight on alternative hip-hop for a long time. In September 2024 Extra Kool and Time finally released their fully collaborative album titled The Grimes. It’s full of vivid and emotionally resonant bars traded by both artists with tales of Denver and existential exploration of what endures in the mind and heart long term, the ghosts that haunt us, our communities and our various cultures. It’s a deep record with richly realized production from the likes of Fumes the Threat, AwareNess, Satyr and Preacher vs. Choir with contributions from Illogic. The record is rich with pop culture references used with a cleverness and poetry that makes the music fun and insightful even as it delves into heavier subjects.

Listen to our interview with Extra Kool and Time on Bandcamp and follow the artists at the links below. The vinyl can be purchased on the Bandcamp or at select Denver record shops.

Time on Instagram

Time on Bandcamp

Extra Kool on Instagram

Extra Kool on Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E48: Oryx

Oryx is a trio based in Denver that has been evolving its evolving its unique style of heavy music since forming in 2012. When the band emerged it’s grittily colossal metal sound fit in well with the then ascendant doom metal underground with roots in sludge rock and grindcore. Early Oryx shows and releases showcased a band seemingly able to balance a precise musicianship with a wall of sound that felt spontaneous and on the verge of collapse. It suited well the band’s lyrics that evoked the precarious place the world has been in due to the effects of human civilization under the yoke of rapacious capitalism driven by greed and the accumulation of wealth into a few hands at the expense of all.

Some of Oryx’s early music had a thrilling density of frequency and rhythm but something about their shows have felt cathartic and liberating. That component of the group’s identity has manifested most fully in terms of songwriting on its new record Primordial Sky. The album doesn’t skimp on the beautifully brutal riffs and elegantly pummeling rhythms but also there is a wide open quality that while the lyrics describe a world on the brink of being post-human due to the hubris of societies that seem to be taking a casual attitude toward anthropogenic climate catastrophe and feckless approach to the rise of fascism and authoritarianism worldwide which have historically accelerated mass destruction. And yet the Oryx album doesn’t sound like it’s built on despair. Instead its poetic and mythical lyrics and the sound of the music come off as both looking at the world to come and looking back from another era when the current one we’re living in has passed. The band’s 2021 album Lamenting a Dead World seemed like an angrier affair but one with an accurate diagnosis of the state of things. The new album isn’t hopeful per se but realistic in its spirit of looking forward to a time when things can begin again without the toxic legacy of the world now to poison the possibilities.

Listen to our interview with Oryx on Bandcamp and follow the group at the links below. Primordial Sky is available on streaming, digital download and cassette from their Bandcamp page and on colored vinyl through Translation Loss Records.

Oryx on Facebook

Oryx on Instagram

Oryx on Bluesky

Oryx on Translation Loss Records

Oryx LinkTree