thelydianspin

This week, Tommy Grenas, also known as Tommy L. Cyborg, joins the Lydian Spin. Tommy is a singer, songwriter, synthesist, and electronic musician who began his career in 1982 with the Belfast garage band The Swamp Rats. His career continued in 1987 with the Los Angeles-based Pressurehed. In 1992, Tommy founded Farflung, and then in 1995, he co-founded the Anubian Lights with Len Del Rio. Tommy played guitar in Nik Turner's Space Ritual and the legendary band Hawkwind. He also performed with Helios and Chrome. Additionally, Tommy has played and collaborated with Lydia, The Brain, Cluster, and many others.

Masha Alyokhina is a member of Pussy Riot — a feminist collective of artists and activists that came to prominence in 2012 when five members, including Masha staged a performance of the group’s anti-Putin song Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The Pussy Riot members were arrested and convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and the three were sentenced to two years in prison for the offense. Masha has been recognized as a political prisoner by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience due to the severity of the response of the Russian authorities. After multiple arrests and periods of imprisonment, Masha left Russia and has openly criticized the war in Ukraine. She continues her work as an activist, artist and musician.

Howard Paar is an award winning music supervisor who is originally from London who continued his career in Los Angeles thanks Sir Freddie Laker's legendary Laker Airways. He has won The Guild Of Music Supervisors Awards in 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2020 respectively for Diary Of A Teenage Girl, 20th Century Women, Before I Fall and Native Son.

Howard first worked in LA as a club creator/DJ/promoter. His work back then was known for developing emergent new music scenes particularly ska, mod  and the paisley underground. His club, The O.N .Klub in collaboration with Sugarhill Records, was also the first locale to play a rap show in Los Angeles. Howard subsequently became an independent publicist representing clients including MTV, Ian Hunter & Mick Ronson, N.W.A., Jimmy Cliff, Eric Burdon, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Bunny Wailer and Michelle Shocked.

Howard then went on to become Vice President, Media & Artist Relations at Polygram Records before transitioning to the role of Vice President, Soundtracks. In this role, he worked on many soundtracks including The Big Lebowski and Gregg Araki’s Nowhere as well as creating opportunities for Polygram artists to write themes for TV shows including King Of The Hill and Ellen. In 2001, Howard was nominated for a Grammy for the soundtrack for the award-winning documentary Dogtown & Z Boys.  

Along with being a music supervisor, Howard is also a novelist. Top Rankin', his punk/ska noir novel, was released in May of 2021, which follows his first novel Once Upon a Time In LA, published in 2015.

This week, drummer Kevin Shea drops by for a chat.  He has been filling in for Bob Bert in Retrovirus as Bob is on hiatus drumming for Jon Spencer. Kevin is a great drummer who has played with Talibam!, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Bar Shea Dahl, Storm and Stress, Rhys Chatham, Sexy Thoughts, American Liberty League and many many other bands.  

Artist Edwin Pouncey works under the nom de plume Savage Pencil. His art has mauled and entertained a generation with a stinking psychedelic cesspit of corpse cluttered comix. As a music journalist, Edwin's writings and Trip Or Squeek cartoon strip are featured regularly in The Wire. He has an insider’s knowledge of the many bands whose records and performances he has reviewed over several decades.

In 1980, Jerry Lang, Chris Tense, and Henry Bogdan formed Poison Idea, a Portland Oregon based punk band that gave voice to the disenfranchised  all over the world for over 30 years. Jerry and his bandmates also went all in on drugs and drinking, spiraling out of control and blowing both the band and their lives apart. Jerry wrote Black Heart Fades Blue a three part memoir in which he reckons very honestly with this past. 

Author and good friend of the podcast Jerry Stahl returns to discuss his new book Nein, Nein, Nein!, One Man's Tale of Depression Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust. The book is a hilarious and fearless recounting of a guided bus tour Jerry took to a series of Nazi concentration camps. Nein, Nein, Nein! hits bookstores July 5th. Preorder the book now at the Akashic website.

Singer, songwriter, record producer, and artist Jennifer Herrema formed the band Royal Trux with Neil Hagerty in 1987. The band split in 2001. Jennifer then went on to form new bands, RTX, and the Black Bananas. She has produced and mixed records with other artists including Bad Wizard. Jennifer has also published numerous articles on music, art, fashion, and lifestyle subjects in various publications including Vice Magazine. 

Self proclaimed herpes of the entertainment industry film director and studio bigwig Lloyd Kaufman and his company Troma Studios are icons of cinema. Lloyd has directed many classics including The Toxic Avenger, Surf Nazis Must Die and Class of Nuke Em High. Troma has produced and or distributed terrific films such as Die You Zombie Bastards, Blood Sucking Freaks and  Frankenhooker.  Lloyd's newest film #Shakespeare’s Shitstorm is a scatological take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Jamie Stewart is the front man and founder of the band Xiu Xiu. Xiu Xiu's music is drawn from British post punk and synth pop, modern Western classical, noise and experimental musics, Asian percussion musics, American folk, torch singers, house, techno and 1950s rock n roll. Jamie and best friend Angela Seo started the band in 2002 while living in San Jose, California. Since then Xiu Xiu has relentlessly toured all over the world since. The music has been called “self flagellating”, “harsh”, “brutal”, “shocking” and “perverse” but also “genius”, “brilliant”, “unique”, “imaginative” and “luminous.”