TraegerMethod Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 56: Nariko Ott (stand-up comic / friend) and Jason talking Jan 6th one year anniversary. Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

Episode 56 is a TMpod first: I'm dropping this one the same day it was recorded. This one is fresh out of the pod oven!

My guest Portland based stand-up comic Nariko Ott is one of my favorite comics, a good friend and someone whose class conscious politics always resonate with me. Even though we're talking about the Jan 6th attempted coup and the rising fascist tide in America we still manage to have some laughs and share hopeful ideas about how to survive and win in our increasingly dystopian reality.

Check out Nariko's instagram and twitter and go see him live whenever you have the chance, dude is a RIOT!

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you for listening, telling a friend and for SUPPORTING the TraegerMethod podcast.

You can do so through the Anchor app or here on Patreon

TM Theme by Jason

Episode 55: Jackie Stewart (Smegma, The Tenses) Dec 21, 2021

Show notes

Episode 55 is conversation with "Rock and Roll Jackie" Stewart of legendary west coast noise/experimentalists SMEGMA. She also makes music today as half of The Tenses with her partner and Smegma founder Ric "Ju Suk Reet Meate" Stewart. Jackie joined Smegma in 1983, ten years after the collective was founded in Pasadena, CA. but her west coast underground bone fides stretch back before the 'Summer of Love'. She tells us about seeing the Grateful Dead playing on a flatbed truck in the panhandle of Golden Gate Park in 1966 as a 10 year old.

Her adolescent dreams of coming of age in San Francisco and one day joining the The Cockettes were dashed when her family relocated from the Bay Area to Salem, OR. in the mid 70's. Determined to keep her freak flag flying, she quickly set her sights on Portland and immersed herself in the burgeoning punk rock / new wave scene.

The conversation is a wealth of Portland punk / underground history. We learn about the long gone venues, people and bands that made this place the "Keep Portland Weird" city of today. Even the most dedicated scholars of PDX punk will likely be surprised to learn that Jackie's first band was called Gumby Anti-Christ and featured a teenage Jerry A. of Poison Idea!

Enjoy this conversation.

Happy Solstice!

SMEGMA/Tenses WEBSITE

Jackie's INSTA

Oregon Painting Society

TM POD PATREON

Music:

SMEGMA: 'One Moment'

'Live at Earth Tavern 7/22/1979'

TM POD theme by Jason

Episode 54: Nicky Thomas (Fire Party, Mavis Piggott) Dec 04, 2021

Show notes

TM pod is one year old! This week we celebrate with a very special friend to everyone at the pod (me)... Nicky Thomas!

Nicky was drummer extraordinaire behind 80's Dischord / DC legends Fire Party, greatSeattle 90's band Mavis Piggott and today she plays with bay area mods Hard Left. As you'll hear there were many bands and collabs before and in-between these notables. Of course with a new covid variant on the way her current band isn't playing much but she tells us she's working on a memoir that she describes as a 'racial reckoning' in part exploring her experience as a black woman in punk rock.

We talk a lot about music but we don't only talk music. We hear about her experiences as a world traveller, as a working mother raising a kid in pandemic times. She tells us about her life-long passion for cooking, growing, eating and celebrating food and the places that passion has taken her, like her work with culinary visionary Alice Waters when she was as a teacher at the Edible Classroom in Berkeley.

It's a great conversation, I loved catching up with Nicky and I know you'll love catching up with her too!

PROFOUND thank you to all TM pod listeners, supporters and guests on this one year anniversary episode. I hope my intro was worth the struggle. THANK YOU!

Music:

Fire Party 'Make it Quick'

Mavis Piggott 'Tense Money'

TM pod theme by Jason

SUPPORT THE POD:

Patreon

Venmo : @Jason-Traeger-1

Episode 53: Sam Knee ('A Scene In Between' book and instagram feed) Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

This week’s episode is a transatlantic conversation with Sam Knee, UK based creator of the always impressive and seemingly endless ‘A Scene In Between’ instagram feed and author/compiler of the book by the same name which is available now in a new revised edition.

Sam and I talk about his life in music and fashion beginning with his immersion in the UK’s early 80’s Mod Revival through his years in the Indie guitar pop/garage rock scene documented in the ‘A Scene In Between’ book, into his time as a member of the band Marzipan living in San Francisco in the early 90’s. From there we explore the philosophy and motivations behind his work today as a documentarian of the underground scenes that he was a part of and the ones that preceded and informed them.

It was a pleasure speaking with Sam. If you don’t already follow ‘A Scene In Between’ you owe it to yourself to do so. I can’t recommend his book highly enough, it’s a remarkable survey of a brief but highly influential moment in UK music history.

Thanks for listening!

LINKS:

A Scene In Between Instagram

Sam's blog where it all started

Music:

Talulah Gosh 'Talulah Gosh'

The Green Telescope 'Make Me Stay'

TMpod theme by Jason

Jason's art

Episode 52: Peter David Connelly (The Mona Reels 'Without Love') Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

Episode 52 is a conversation with brilliant Olympia-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Peter David Connelly aka The Mona Reels. His new album ‘Without Love’ is collection of songs that sound like classics you’ve loved all your life but are hearing for the first time. I just love it.

We talk about the album and the creative process, we get into his history, arriving in Olympia in the early 90’s as a tween from Ellensberg, Wa. As a teen, he rejected the bustling local scene in favor of the ‘grunge’ from up I-5. It wasn’t until a decade later after he embraced the Olympia community that the community embraced him and he began to release music and play in other bands, like KRS artists, Bangs.

It’s a great conversation between two old friends.

The Mona Reels bandcamp

The Mona Reels instagram

Jason's art show:

TraegerMethod.com

support the pod:

Patreon

Music:

The Mona Reels 'Much Too Close'

The Mona Reels 'Spirit Banner'

TM Theme by Jason

EPISODE 51: John Yates (Stealworks, artist, former Atlernative Tentacles co-worker) Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

Hello and welcome to TM pod SEASON TWO Episode 51 with my guest, the prolific, punk rock, political graphic art legend John Yates.

John and I met in San Francisco in the late 80's when we both worked for Jello Biafra at Alternative Tentacles. We've been in touch off and on ever since and I've never stopped admiring his artistic output over the decades. We talk about our time together in that very vital era of SF music before and after the dawn of the 90's. Working at the label gave us access to almost any show or concert around the bay and we were at the right age to take full advantage of that fact, going out every night.

The conversation starts well before those days in a rainy coastal village in Cornwall, England. John tells us about his punk rock journey from seeing The Sex Pistols on the telly getting arrested on the Thames during the Queen's Jubilee to his moving to SF to work for Jello. He tells a hilarious story of his mom's question after he told her he had made up his mind to move to the states; "You're going to move to America to work for Jello Biafra? ...are you sure it's real?" It was real and England's loss has been our gain ever since.

Enjoy my conversation with John Yates.

Music:

NoMeansNo 'Rags and Bones'

Concrete Sox: 'Scientific Slaughter'

TM pod theme by Jason

John's site: Stealworks

John's IG: HERE

TraegerMethod Patreon

Venmo: @Jason-Traeger-1

Jason's art: TraegerMethod.com

Episode 50 Part Two: Ian MacKaye Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

TM Pod is back after a two week break with a special two part Episode 50 featuring guest Ian MacKaye.

Part two of Jason’s conversation with guest Ian MacKaye covers a very broad range of topics from the mystery of the cosmos to the difference between a Plymouth Scamp and Plymouth Duster (there isn’t much).

It’s a fun conversation between two old friends.

Thank you for listening!

Music:

Fugazi 'Great Cop'

Coricky 'Woulda Coulda'

TM pod Theme by Jason

Support the podcast:

Traegermethod Patreon

Jason's art: TraegerMethod.com

Venmo: @Jason-Traeger-1

Episode 50 Part One: Ian MacKaye Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

TM Pod is back after a two week break with a special two part Episode 50 featuring guest Ian MacKaye.

Part One of the conversation focuses primarily on the hardcore years of the early 80's. Ian shares memories of barebones tours with Minor Threat, road tripping in vans, buses and drive-away cars, crashing in punk houses and wild (and sometimes surprisingly quiet) punk shows.

With a friendship stretching back to the mid 80's, "Birthday Twins" Ian and host Jason have more than just a birthday in common. The two also have a web of mutual friends, many of whom we’ve heard from on previous episodes. They talk about those relationships and experiences in the cities and scenes that have been reoccurring themes on the TM pod. Places like San Diego, Reno, San Francisco, Seattle and Olympia.

It’s a fun conversation between two old friends.

Thank you for listening!

Music:

Egghunt 'Me and You'

Fugazi 'Arpeggiator' demo

TM pod theme by Jason

Support the Pod:

TraegerMethod Patreon

Jason's art: TraegerMethod.com

Venmo: @Jason-Traeger-1

Episode 49: Jon 'Quitty' Quittner (Brent's TV, Pinhead Gunpowder, Mukilteo Fairies, Behead the Prophet N.L.S.L.) Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

Episode 49 is a conversation with Jon “Quitty” Quittner.

Listeners will remember Quitty’s previous appearance along with his Tight Bros From Way Back When bandmate (and last week’s guest) Sean Kelly on TM Pod Episode 30. That conversation focused on the phenomenon known as ‘The Derek Tape’

This conversation Jason and Quitty discuss his earlier bands: Pinhead Gunpowder, Brent’s TV, Mukilteo Fairies, and Behead the Prophet N.L.S.L.

The episode closes with a taped phone call made in 1990 between Quitty and his friend Scott Garvey that, although it is much more brief, rivals The Derek Tape as a hilarious document of a uniquely California character.

Thank you so much for listening.

Music:

Behead The Prophet N.L.S.L. 'Of Convenience'

Brent's TV 'Candy Shop Bop'

TM Theme by Jason

Episode 48: Sean Kelly is a father now. Sep 21, 2021

Show notes

This episode Jason talks with return guest Sean Kelly (Tight Bros From Way Back When, Derek Tape) about becoming a father for the first time two weeks ago.

They also talk about Woodstock '99.

THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.

Music:

Capitol Punishment 'El Salvador'

Code of Honor 'What Price Will You Pay?'

No Labels 'Ego'

TM Theme by Jason.