My First Band Podcast

Latest Episodes:

61 – Mike Park (Asian Man Records, Skankin' Pickle, The Bruce Lee Band) May 01, 2020

Show notes

Mike Park is nothing short of a ska punk legend. Beyond being an activist and a touring musician with more than 30 years of onstage experience, Park is best-known for his work with Asian Man Records. The label's founder/owner/pretty much everything else started Asian Man in his parents' house in 1996. In the 24 years since that humble beginning, Park's venture has managed more than 300 releases, helped introduce the world to bands like Less Than Jake and Alkaline Trio, and outlasted many of its — oftentimes much larger — record label counterparts as the music industry experienced immense change around him ... all while staying true to Park's D.I.Y. ethics and without moving to a larger office.

Recently, with most of the country under quarantine, My First Band host Tyler Maas took a shot in the dark and asked Park if he wanted to be a guest on the podcast. He said yes! After Maas fanned out for a few minutes, the seasoned ska punk and longtime label owner opened up about his high school hardcore band, his time with Skankin' Pickle, the start of and philosophy of Asian Man Records, his current artistic endeavors like Bruce Lee Band and Kitty Kat Fan Club, and why staying small and specialized has translated to label longevity. Over the course of the hour-plus conversation, Park also talked about giving RoboCop star Peter Weller a ride to the airport, signing a major label deal in Korea and striking up a friendship with Biz Markie while they were part of a nationwide Yo Gabba Gabba theater tour.

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and Bruce Lee Band ("If I Could Only Listen To My Heart"). If you like My First Band and/or Milwaukee Record, please consider supporting the site by donating to our GoFundMe relief fund.

60 – Walt Hamburger (The Hamburgers, Honor Amongst Thieves, Caution to the Wind) Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Before he was traversing the continent, touring Europe and sharing the stage with some legendary punk-rock powerhouses, the singer-songwriter listeners now know as Walt Hamburger was just a guy named Walt Lontkowski who fronted little-known bands in Northeast Wisconsin and had no expectations of making a living as a full-time musician. Thanks to untold hours of experience in those projects, a great work ethic, an ever-improving catalog and a few chance meetings that turned into life-changing opportunities, Walt Hamburger has already accomplished more in the realm of music than he'd ever imagined possible.

The solo artist with the appetizing moniker and infectious material was on the cusp of even bigger things this year, with a Canadian tour and a run of overseas shows booked ... at least until COVID-19 made its way stateside and threw his plans for a loop. Now in quarantine in his hometown of Appleton, Hamburger recently took some time out of his suddenly quite-empty schedule to video conference with My First Band host Tyler Maas.

After they both opened up about the uncertainty the coronavirus has put into their livelihoods, Hamburger told Maas about his early experiences in bands like Caution To The Wind and The Hamburgers (where he got his stage name), memorable shows in rural Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, his animal foundation, early struggles as a solo artist, and how a phone call from Lagwagon's Joey Cape changed his life. You can pre-order Walt Hamburger's reissued and remastered One Week Records #1 album on vinyl now at 1332Records.com.

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers"), Walt Hamburger ("Wisconsin Dells") and Caution To The Wind ("Rebound"). If you like My First Band and/or Milwaukee Record, please consider supporting the site by donating to our GoFundMe relief fund.

59 – Matt Wild (Milwaukee Record, A.V. Club, Holy Mary Motor Club) Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

If you've been keeping up on Milwaukee entertainment and culture coverage at any point in the last 15 years or so, you're likely very familiar with the work of Matt Wild. Before co-founding Milwaukee Record with My First Band host Tyler Maas in early 2014, Wild served as the City Editor of Milwaukee's branch of The A.V. Club and got the occasional byline in national publications as well. Prior to earning a reputation as one of the Milwaukee's most talented and unique journalistic voices, Wild was a musician and film student with little-to-no writing aspirations.

During Milwaukee Record's recent "14-Hour Socially Distant Telethon," Maas and Wild worked in enough time for a My First Band recording. During the lengthy and open discussion, the co-owners and editors talked about the unlikely start of the business, the ups and downs of Milwaukee Record's first six years and how they're trying to get through the economic uncertainty and difficulty of the COVID-19 crisis. Eventually, Wild got into his 15-year run with his first and only band, Holy Mary Motor Club, which consisted of unforgettable shows in West Bend, an abbreviated tour, some interesting costumes and an opportunity to open for The Arcade Fire. Before episode's end, Wild also talked about what eventually brought him into the realm of writing and both he and Maas talked about where they plan to bring Milwaukee Record post-pandemic.

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and Holy Mary Motor Club ("Theme To 'L.A. Llama'"). If you like My First Band and/or Milwaukee Record, please consider supporting the site by donating to our GoFundMe relief fund.

58 – Todd Bell (Braid, Hey Mercedes) Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Compared to many other musicians, Todd Bell got kind of a late start. He more than made up for it, however, when the second band he ever played in would end up becoming one of the most influential emo bands of all time. After first picking up a bass in his early 20s and playing a few house shows in a band he formed with a skating buddy, Bell wound up in the rhythm section of a little project known as Braid. The rest was history.

Despite being under quarantine, Bell has been keeping extremely busy with parenting duties and his day job as a special education teacher. Still, he found enough time recently to get on a video chat with My First Band host Tyler Maas and — despite battling a few technological issues — told him about finding a group of like-minded friends as a teenager in the Illinois college town of Champaign, his decision to take up bass guitar, the unlikely start (and most memorable experiences) of Braid, his time in Hey Mercedes, Braid's second stint, and what prompted his move to Milwaukee more than 20 years ago.

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers"), Hey Mercedes ("Police Police Me"), and Braid ("Milwaukee Sky Rocket").

57 – Tyler Maas (Infinity & One, Milwaukee Record) Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Well, this wasn't supposed to happen, but strange and uncertain times call for desperate measures. With Milwaukee (and much of the world) under quarantine and social isolation for the foreseeable future, we're simply no longer able to record My First Band episodes in person at this point. Rather than shelve the show for a few months, we decided to give this whole "remote recording" thing a go.

Concerned about potentially wasting a guest's time with a subpar recording, My First Band co-producer and audio engineer Jared Blohm had the idea to test the unfamiliar process by interviewing the podcast's usual host, Tyler Maas, about his first/only band. With the aid of video chat and a few beers, the pair talked about their first few weeks in isolation before Blohm asked Maas about the rise and fall of his Menasha, Wisconsin-based pop-punk band called Infinity & One. Along the way, Maas spoke about the importance that his stint playing music had in forming long-term friendships, boosting his confidence and paving the way to his eventual career as an entertainment writer. Maas also reflected on the first six years of Milwaukee Record, revisited some forgotten Fox Cities bands and venues of the early 2000s, and reminisced about winning his high school's battle of the bands even though Infinity & One wasn't very good.

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and Infinity & One ("Pieces Of You").

56 – Caleb Westphal (Devils Teeth, Offend Your Friends, Fish Fries) Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

Caleb Westphal is best-known for his amazing fish fry streak, which currently stands at 325 consecutive Fridays (and counting!). This impressive, hyper-specific and unarguably Midwestern feat has earned the Milwaukee writer attention from national publications, a cameo on a fish fry-focused documentary and — as chance would have it — a spot in a band. After mentioning his desire to play in a band in some of his weekly fish fry reviews on Milwaukee Record, a surf rock outfit called Devils Teeth gave Westphal a chance. A couple years later, the saxophone player is a valued part of the accomplished outfit, and his fish fry streak is still going strong.

Last week, Westphal welcomed My First Band host Tyler Maas into his basement where (from a safe distance), they ate fish fry together before talking about the origin of his weekly ritual, his favorite haunts he's discovered over the course of his six-year odyssey, how he landed in Devils Teeth and his extensive musical past. Over the course of the hour-long discussion, Westphal talked about buying his first sax at a rummage sale, how Christian bands like MxPx and Five Iron Frenzy were his gateway to punk and ska, his experiences in Fond du Lac and Oshkosh bands like Offend Your Friends, and much more. The pair also talked about Westphal's preferred fish preparation and sides. Oh, and if you're reading this the day it was released, today is Caleb's birthday. Happy birthday, Caleb!

My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers" and "Speed, Power, Focus") and Offend Your Friends ("Vacation in the Middle East" and "Olive Branch").

55 – Dylan Mattheisen (Tiny Moving Parts) Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

As the energetic singer and spellbinding guitarist of Tiny Moving Parts, Dylan Mattheisen — along with his cousins/bandmates William and Matthew Chevalier — has toured the world over, built an impressive fan base that's grown with each of the band's seven full-lengths, and helped put his hometown of Benson, Minnesota, on the map. Before Mattheisen and company were bringing the small western Minnesota town to outward consciousness among fans of math-y Midwest emo, he and his future rhythm section were working at their family-owned grocery store, learning covers of Blink-182 and Sum 41 songs and holding no expectations of where they'd wind up.

Last week, before the band was to start a nationwide tour in belated support of last year's "breathe," My First Band host Tyler Maas joined Mattheisen in the band's van outside X-Ray Arcade, where the frontman talked about growing up in Benson, his early artistic attempts in ill-fated projects with numerals in their names, when things really started to click for Tiny Moving Parts and much more. Note: about 10 minutes of the interview cut off due to a recording mishap, but Mattheisen was kind enough to re-record before the show. Also, Tiny Moving Parts was forced to postpone its tour as a coronavirus/COVID-19 precautionary measure, so if you have some cash to spare, support them and buy their stuff!

54 – Marc Solheim (The Globe, Turner Hall) Mar 13, 2020

Show notes

Marc Solheim is a low-key Milwaukee music legend. Though he rarely takes the stage himself these days (except when he fronts his Morrissey and The Smiths cover band, Salford Lads Club), Solheim has been a noted figure in Wisconsin music for close to 30 years. The Pabst Theater Group booker has been instrumental in bringing some notable — and once-unthinkable — acts to Milwaukee and, along the way, he's also helped Turner Hall Ballroom delve into wrestling events.

Well before he was making shows happen at a cluster of downtown venues, Solheim was living in Walworth County and fronting a high school band. After moving an hour north after graduation, he saw potential in many Milwaukee bands and found his way into management. From there, he also booked shows at The Globe, The Unicorn and Mad Planet, where he brought bands like No Doubt, Alkaline Trio and Arcade Fire to the city for the first time. He has a treasure trove of great stories, and he was gracious enough to talk about his lengthy and incredibly interesting career in music, artist management, concert booking and much more when he met up with My First Band host Tyler Maas at Milwaukee Record headquarters.

53 – Sabrina Ellis (Heart Bones, A Giant Dog, Sweet Spirit) Mar 06, 2020

Show notes

Most musicians wait a lifetime for the chance to be part of one outstanding project. Sabrina Ellis is currently in three of them. The front person of A Giant Dog and Sweet Spirit recently added another project to their already-impressive arsenal. Along with Har Mar Superstar mastermind (and Episode 19 guest) Sean Tillmann, Ellis embarked on a new artistic endeavor called Heart Bones. After a successful tour in which they performed the music of Dirty Dancing, the dynamic duo set out to write and record an album of their own.

Last month, Heart Bones released its debut album, Hot Dish, and set out on a lengthy U.S. tour. Before kicking off that run of shows with a performance at The Cooperage last weekend, My First Band host Tyler Maas joined Ellis for a pre-show discussion about the new record, their other projects and everything that came before. Over the course of an hour-long Airbnb interview, Ellis talked about fronting a high school cover band in the suburbs of Houston, finding a place in adolescence at punk shows at a Christian coffee shop, going to NYU with intentions of becoming a playwright and coming back to Texas to join up with former bandmates in Austin and start A Giant Dog.

52 – Sid McCain (WMSE) Feb 28, 2020

Show notes

Sid McCain has spent most of her life immersed in music. Since falling in love with hardcore music while attending boarding school in North Carolina, McCain — who currently works at 91.7 WMSE — has had an undying passion for learning about bands and helping musicians she loves find new listeners. Naturally, she decided to embark on a career in the music industry after college, and she's never looked back.

Earlier this week, McCain came to the My First Band headquarters to talk about her long and incredibly interesting music industry background, including an internship at MTV, memorable experiences with the likes of Angus Young and Iggy Pop, helping to coordinate a concert at the World Trade Center, and helping her father (John McCain) hang out with her then-client (The White Stripes) in the green room at Saturday Night Live when the senator was hosting during his Presidential campaign and The White Stripes were the musical guest. Along the way, McCain talked about the importance of local media and Maas impressed her by listing a bunch of rappers on the Bad Boy Records roster.

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