My First Band Podcast

Latest Episodes:

11 – Bad Cop/Bad Cop May 17, 2019

Show notes

Though the members have all been involved in a variety of projects through the years, Bad Cop/Bad Cop seems like a case of the right band with the right people happening at the right time in life. The Fat Wreck Chords foursome just finished headlining a European tour and they're currently wrapping up a U.S. and Canada jaunt before heading back to California to continue their quest for world domination one great album at a time. Before Bad Cop/Bad Cop's recent concert at X-Ray Arcade in Cudahy, two of the band's members invited My First Band host Tyler Maas up to the club's green room to discuss everything that preceded this project.

While their tourmates in War On Women finished up their soundcheck, Jennie Cotterill and Stacey Dee — both singers and guitarists — talked about what led them to their eventual decisions to take up music. Cotterill talked about growing up in the Midwest before moving to California after high school and eventually pursuing a career in art that's included work on Parks & Recreation and Metalocalypse. Meanwhile, Dee spoke about taking up guitar and making a name for herself in Angry Amputees (as featured on Tony Hawk's Underground), Compton SF and playing in a short-lived band called Park Royal during her stint in London. Both members also talked about how much Bad Cop/Bad Cop means to them and what the band is working on at the moment. Oh, and stick around for a quick cameo from some War On Women members at the end of the episode.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing and 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"), Angry Amputees ("She Said") and Bad Cop/Bad Cop ("I'm Done").

10 – Deanna Belos (Sincere Engineer) May 10, 2019

Show notes

In the roughly year-and-a-half span since her project, Sincere Engineer, released Rhombithian — the band's debut album — on Red Scare Industries, Deanna Belos has earned heaps of attention and praise from music publications and punk audiences alike. Along the way, the Chicago singer-songwriter got the opportunity to open for notable acts, tour the country, play some huge festivals in Montreal and Florida, and hit the road with her idols in The Lawrence Arms.

Belos recently met up with My First Band host Tyler Maas at a room he'd reserved at a public library in Elmwood Park, Illinois. There, they discussed their shared love of Norm Macdonald, and Deanna talked about Sincere Engineer's exciting 2018, teaching herself Alkaline Trio and Lawrence Arms songs as a teenager in suburban Chicago, her soon-to-be-released beer, and how giving a stranger a ride unknowingly started a chain of events that led to a record deal. Along the way, there were lots of fun deviations and the repeated realization they were doing this interview in a public library.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing and and PrideFest Milwaukee. 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 Sincere Engineer ("Ghosts In The Graveyard").

9 – Josh Caterer (The Smoking Popes, Jackson Mud) May 03, 2019

Show notes

Few have heard of Josh Caterer's first band — Speedstick — but after a name change and a swap of drummers, that band, now The Smoking Popes, quickly made a name for themselves in the early '90s Chicago punk scene. The Smoking Popes toured relentlessly, signed to Capitol Records and even appeared on the Clueless soundtrack. The band would break up in 1998 after four studio albums but reunited in 2005 and have put out an additional four albums, including 2018's "Into the Agony."

Caterer recently invited My First Band host Tyler Maas into his on-the-market home in Elmwood Park, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. The 47-year-old front man, who is also a worship pastor at a nearby church, updated fans on his current projects before discussing coming up in a musical family along with his two bandmate brothers, discovering punk rock thanks to his cousin's record collection and learning that his ability to hear a song and almost immediately play it on guitar was unique. Caterer also discussed the benefits and pitfalls of stalkers, the influence traditional pop singers had on his singing style, and a special moment he shared with the other Smoking Popes on the roof of Capitol Records.

8 – Nick Woods (Direct Hit!, The Box Social) Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

Before Nick Woods was the singer, guitarist and founding member of Direct Hit! and the co-owner of X-Ray Arcade, the punk rock front man and all-ages venue owner/operator was a suburban kid with an insatiable passion for music. The journey that started with taking violin lessons from his mother as a child led to learning guitar in adolescence, starting bands as a teen and touring the country to play music during his college breaks.

Woods recently welcomed My First Band host Tyler Maas to X-Ray Arcade to talk about the new business, the influence his guitar teacher had on him, playing in a nu metal cover band, discovering punk rock, learning how to book cross-country tours, his decision to eventually take the lead in a group and how Direct Hit! went from being a jokey side project to a pop-punk sensation on the Fat Wreck Chords roster.

7 – Restorations Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

Even though this is technically the seventh My First Band episode, this was the first interview recorded for the show ... by a long shot. Last October, host Tyler Maas asked Restorations if any members wanted to be interviewed for the yet-unnamed show when the band came to Cactus Club in Milwaukee to play in support of their recently released masterpiece, LP5000. Despite the whole "podcast not actually existing" thing, two members of the Philadelphia rock outfit graciously agreed to sit down to talk about some of their early work.

Restorations bassist Dan Zimmerman and guitarist/keyboardist Ben Pierce met Maas in the venue's green room before their show last year. There, Zimmerman talked about growing up in small-town Pennsylvania and Pierce discussed starting out in New Jersey before both were brought to Philadelphia to be part of a number of bands in the city's vibrant D.I.Y. music scene. Along the way, the bandmates mentioned early shows in churches and skating rinks, they reminisced about CD-R demos, and everyone gave a ringing endorsement to Sticker Guy.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing and 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"), Highlites ("Homework") and Arms Of Orion ("First Round K.O.").

6 – Amos Pitsch (Tenement, Dusk) Apr 12, 2019

Show notes

You might know Amos Pitsch as the singer of Tenement, a Northeastern Wisconsin punk band that garnered national acclaim after releasing the 2015 double-album masterpiece, Predatory Headlights. Maybe you know him as a member of Dusk, an up-and-coming Fox Cities project that's quickly making a name for itself in the Midwest (and beyond) on the heels of last year's self-titled debut full-length. However, you probably don't know Pitsch from his time in Obvious Man Hands, Social Classics, The Waffles or any of his other early musical endeavors.

Pitsch recently welcomed My First Band host Tyler Maas into his Crutch Of Memory Studios to talk about making Predatory Headlights in a dilapidated home without running water, the formation of Dusk, and how he'll always be chasing the feeling he got from playing drums in a band with his cousins when he was in grade school. They discussed Appleton's burgeoning music scene, and they spent some time reminiscing as well. Coincidentally, Maas' one and only band actually played shows with Pitsch's band, Social Classics, more than 15 years ago. Come for Pitsch's incomparable musical insight, stay for the Blue Moon Cafe (RIP) and Valley Fair Mall (RIP) references.

5 – Mike Krol (Mike Krol, Spazmatics, The Reactants) Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

Before he was the front man, bandleader and namesake of a Los Angeles-based project on the Merge Records roster, Mike Krol was a Wauwatosa teen who loved ska. Recently, while in Milwaukee to play a homecoming show in support of his latest/greatest album, Power Chords, Krol met up with My First Band host Tyler Maas to talk about his very early musical endeavors.

In a studio space that was kindly offered to them by WMSE, Krol openly talked about his "checkered past" in suburban ska projects like Spazmatics and The Reactants, recording a demo at UW-Oshkosh, playing shows in churches, his short-lived Saved By The Bell tribute band called The Lark Voorhies, and the impetus of his solo venture (which he almost named "World Denominators"). Before setting out on the European leg of the Power Chords tour, Krol also sent us a few Reactants songs to play at the end of the episode, including a never-before-heard demo about his high school teacher's hairstyle.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing and PrideFest Milwaukee. 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 The Reactants ("Mrs. Ward" and "Screw You").

4 – Jackson Bradford (Masked Intruder, Direct Hit!, Mindframe) Mar 29, 2019

Show notes

Jackson Bradford might have the most interesting job in music. The Milwaukee native spends at least half of each year wearing a cop costume and short-shorts while sporting a mustache as part of his lovable "heel with a switch" character that Masked Intruder fans know as "Officer Bradford." The pop-punk villain's unique line of work has taken him to Europe, Asia, Australia, and much of North America. Currently, Bradford's punk rock patrol is taking him all around the country, as Masked Intruder is on a tour in support of their new album, III.

Before he hit the road (and prior to Masked Intruder's April 2 show at Turner Hall), Officer Bradford met up with My First Band host Tyler Maas to discuss his charity calendar and all of the ... more conventional bands that came before he landed his unique role in Masked Intruder. Bradford talked about his Masked Intruder origin, then got into his time in unheralded suburban Milwaukee acts like Mindframe and Leafrust before being tabbed as the original bassist for Direct Hit!

3 – Kyle Kinane (comedy, The Grand Marquis) Mar 22, 2019

Show notes

Though you probably know Kyle Kinane as a comedian, actor and "the voice of Comedy Central," the prolific stand-up first took the stage in a musical capacity. That's right! Before earning a reputation as one of the funniest comedians working today, Kinane was the guitarist for an Addison, Illinois-based pop-punk band called The Grand Marquis. Even though the band hasn't played since the early 2000s, Kinane — a proud punk rock aficionado to this day — still looks back fondly on his stint in the band.

Last week, during a run of shows at Comedy On State, Kinane met up with host Tyler Maas to discuss his path to music. He talked about what it was like seeing Screeching Weasel for the first time in his early teens, his decision to pick up a guitar, when he realized comedy was a better artistic pursuit for him and what it was like to tour with The Falcon and Arms Aloft. Thankfully, the conversation also took tons of hilarious tangents along the way. Plus, Tyler tried (and absolutely failed) to make a joke about jam bands.

2 – Dan Didier (The Promise Ring, Maritime, Dramatic Lovers) Mar 15, 2019

Show notes

Another week, another prolific percussionist who got his start in Grafton, Wisconsin. This time around, we had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Didier. The drummer (and current keyboard/synth player in Dramatic Lovers) is best known for his work in The Promise Ring. Before his tenure in the legendary emo outfit and the subsequent Maritime, Didier cut his teeth in unknown projects like Proud, Peace Loving Anarchists and an especially short-lived band called Dog. At least he thinks it was called Dog.

Over the course of the conversation, Didier tells host Tyler Maas about his mother signing him up for drum lessons as a child in an effort to combat is anxiousness, learning the ins and outs of touring in his high school band Ceilishrine, hosting a college radio show with Eric Szmanda of CSI, and the experience in Europe recording what he knew would be the final Promise Ring album. Along the way, Didier talks about being in bands with people who'd go on to play in Braid and Arcade Fire, and Maas makes a bunch of dad jokes that Didier graciously laughs at.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing and 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"), drawback ("Immortal Mass") and Ceilishrine ("Projection System").

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