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Across the Margin: The Podcast
Episode 163: Steven Bernstein & Sexmob's The Hard Way
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This episode of Across The Margin: The Podcast presents an interview with musician trumpeter, slide trumpeter, arranger/composer and bandleader from New York City, Steven Bernstein. Steven is best known for his work in The Lounge Lizards, Sexmob, Spanish Fly, and the Millennial Territory Orchestra. He has released four albums under his own name on John Zorn's Tzadik Records and he has performed with jazz giants including Roswell Rudd, Sam Rivers, Don Byron, and Medeski, Martin & Wood, as well as musicians ranging from Aretha Franklin to Lou Reed, from Linda Ronstadt to Digable Planets, from Sting to Courtney Love. Steven was a member of Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble band, playing in Helm's Woodstock home, as well as touring with the band. As an arranger he has written for Bill Frisell, Rufus Wainwright, and Elton John, just to name a few. He has composed for dance, theater, film and television, and with composer John Lurie, arranged the scores to many feature films, including Get Shorty. While Steven is prolific with his output, this episode centers on two of his projects, Sexmob, which just released a terrific new album called The Hard Way, and The Millennial Territory Orchestra, which recently released four excellent records, in one day, on the Royal Potato Family label. Sexmob’s latest release is a bit of a departure for the band, as with producer Scotty Hard at the board, The Hard Way skews decisively electronic. On it, Hard’s beats and soundscapes provide Steven, saxophonist Briggan Krauss, bassist Tony Scherr and acoustic/electric drummer Kenny Wollesen, all the stimulus they need for further compose and fearlessly reinvent. With each offering, and certainly with The Hard Way and its rich electro-acoustic groove canvas, Steven and crew reveal a modernizing impulse, but also an equally strong foundation in the roots of jazz and American song. Funky, bluesy, with a tattered dissonance conjured up by Krauss Throaty saxophone tone, the distinctive wail of Steven’s rare horn, and the swagger of Scherr and Wollesen’s rhythm section grind, Sexmob continues to chart new paths in 21st-century creative music. In this episode host Michael Shields and Steven Bernstein talk about Sexmob’s new direction sonically found on The Hard Way while exploring the production process behind this captivating work of art. They converse on producer Scott Hard’s influence on the album, the unique art house label that The Hard Way was released on called Corbett vs. Dempsey, and the four albums Steven recently released with The Millennial Territory Orchestra. They even discuss Sexmob’s forthcoming tour with Laurie Anderson, the many “gifts” Steven received in his career from renowned producer Hal Willner, and so much more.
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Episode 202: The Chronicles of Doom with S.H. Fernando Jr.
41:57|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an with interview Sarath "SkIZ" Fernando, a former music critic, who has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Source, Spin, and Vibe. Later, under the alias Spectre he became a record producer, rapper, and electronica artist. He is the founder and the head of his own label WordSound, as well as the author of several books about hip hop music, including The New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture & Attitudes of Hip-Hop and From The Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga, the definitive biography of hip-hop's greatest group. His latest book, a biography of MF DOOM, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast (Astra House) is the focus of this episode. Sweeping and definitive, The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast recounts the rise, fall, redemption, and untimely demise of MF DOOM. Broken down into five sections: The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music, and The Legend, journalist S. H. Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in in Long Beach, NY, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs, and across the many different cities Daniel called home. Centering the music, SKIZ deftly lays out the history of east-coast rap against DOOM’s life story and dissects the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his immortality.Including exclusive interviews with those who worked closely with DOOM and providing an unknown, intimate, behind the scenes look into DOOM’s life, The Chronicles of DOOM is the definitive biography of MF DOOM, a supervillain on stage and hero to those who paid attention. Learn more about MF Doom and SKIZ’s compelling book on this episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast.Grab a copy of The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast here!
Episode 201: We The Poisoned with Jordan Chariton
43:28|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Jordan Chariton, an independent investigative reporter known for reporting on-the-ground across America on significant stories that often fall through the cracks of mainstream media. Chariton has made twenty reporting trips to Flint since 2016 investigating the water crisis and cover-up. He also covered the indigenous-led protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline, the United Auto Workers strike across the Midwest, and the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, and he has reported across the US on union drives, worker exploitation, poverty, homelessness, and protest movements. He is the CEO and lead reporter for Status Coup News, an independent news outlet on YouTube. His recent book, We The Poisoned : Exposing the Flint Water Crisis and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans, is the focus of this episode. From crooked Wall Street financial schemes to political payoffs, destruction of evidence, witness tampering, falsified water data, threatened whistleblowers, and panicked phone calls, We the Poisoned: Exposing the Flint Water Crisis Cover Up and the Poisoning of 100,000 Americans reveals, for the first time, the real story behind how the government poisoned a major American city — and how they are still getting away with it. We the Poisoned is a cautionary tale about “run-government-like-a-business” leaders who champion privatization and economic development at the expense of the environment, public health, and vulnerable citizens. Perhaps even more important, with water and environmental contamination surging across the US, Chariton’s revelations provide a road map for how to fight back and prevent similar tragedies from happening to other communities. In this episode host Michael Shields and Jordan Chariton discuss how Jordan originally became compelled to invest so much time and effort covering this multifaceted scandal. They expound upon just how bad the water in Flint was when the source was switched to the Flint River, how the declaration of a financial emergency was used to hijack Democracy in Flint, the utter lack of accountability to those responsible for so much pain and loss, how the Flint scandal is emblematic of many profound problems in America, and so much more.Grab a copy of We the Poisoned here!
Episode 200: All Species Parade with Jenny Scheinman
41:18|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with acclaimed violinist and composer Jenny Scheinman. Scheinman has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including 12 Songs, named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by The New York Times. She has played with Norah Jones, Nels Cline, Lou Reed, Ani Difranco, Aretha Franklin, Lucinda Williams, Bono, Bill Frisell, and Allison Miller. For years, Scheinman nursed the idea of a musical homage to Humboldt, in particular the area known as the Lost Coast, a remote, earthquake and mudslide-prone region of coastal northern California, where she was raised. She considered the project from many angles. That idea has come to fruition in the form of her latest album entitled All Species Parade, the focus of this episode. All Species Parade is an epic and sprawling double album with an A-list ensemble, featuring guitarists Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Nels Cline, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Though the album does evoke a sense of pastoral wonder, it also strives to capture in Jenny’s words, “a charged relationship to nature, a feeling of being part of something bigger than ourselves, powerful, and fragile, and constantly changing. Something alive. With All Species Parade, I set out to musically reflect that experience of awe.” In this episode host Michael Shields and Jenny Scheinman discuss how nature, and a personal musical challenge of Jenny’s regarding song length and breadth, inspired the soundscapes found on All Species Parade. They talk about the outstanding grouping of players on the album, how Jenny paid tribute to the Wiyot Tribe with the song “Jaroujiji,” what the true meaning of the song “Shutdown Stomp” actually is, and so much more.
Episode 199: The American Question with James Kicklighter & Guy Tal Seemann
45:31|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with director James Kicklighter and political analyst / producer Guy Tal Seemann. Kicklighter spent the first eighteen years of his life in Bellville, Georgia, population 123. Since then, he has gone on to become an award-winning director and producer of narrative films, documentaries, and advertising. His latest film, The American Question — the focus of this episode — seeks to answer the pressing question: can America rediscover its unifying values and restore trust among its people? The captivating documentary is narrated by political analyst Guy Tal Seemann who has worked in government and campaigns since the age of 16. He is an entrepreneur and community leader. He was a political journalist for a year and a half and worked in the U.S. Senate as an aid. He worked on Middle East national security strategy while in the Israeli government and most recently became an entrepreneur by developing his own startup company in drug discovery and a nonprofit in the performing arts.Examining the heart of a divided America, The American Question explores the historical and contemporary factors that have eroded our trust in our neighbors, communities, institutions, and government. The film takes viewers on a journey from historical empires to pivotal moments in modern America, through an independent team’s eight-year mission to discover the forces that shaped our now divided society. The film shares personal stories from diverse Americans in swing state communities in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and analysis from leading political scientists and historians. The American Question uncovers how economic shifts like globalization and the atrophy of local communities have fragmented the national identity. In this episode host Michael Shields, James Kicklighter, and Guy Tal Seemann discuss a bevy of factors that have led to the political division that is viscerally felt in America today. James and Guy expound on what they learned in the eight years they spent talking to people on both sides of the political divide in crucial swing states while offering thoughts on potential solutions that can begin to heal a divided America, and so much more.Streaming everywhere on October 29th. Find it Here!
Episode 198: UNCIVILISED with Subhadra Das
40:14|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with Subhadra Das who specializes in the history and philosophy of science, particularly the history of scientific racism and eugenics, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, she was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Her debut novel, UNCIVILISED : Ten Lies That Made The West, is the focus of this episode. Western civilisation is a powerful brand, and full of accepted wisdoms that we rarely question. Taking cues from Greek philosophy and honed in the Enlightenment, certain notions about humanity and society grew into the tenets many of us still live by today. But if we take a closer look at these ideas, it seems they are not all they're cracked up to be. In fact, some of them are outright lies — and we can start to ask who really benefits from them. What is the value of a scientific worldview that conjured up ‘race’? Are the Western concepts of ‘saving’ and ‘wasting’ time really the best ways to live? Who are our laws actually designed to serve? And the real question: is the West as civilized as it likes to think it is? In an age of division and entrenched inequality, UNCIVILISED is a timely, provocative and entertaining counter to the ideas and assumptions that have shaped the West, exposing the fatal flaws at its core. In this episode host Michael Shields and Subhadra Das discuss Subhadra’s work with museum collections, as well as her background growing up in Abu Dhabi, which have both informed her worldview and the stories told throughout UNCIVILISED. They dig into a few of the lies that embolden the West such as ‘Knowledge is Power’, ‘Justice is Blind’, and ‘Time is Money” while also celebrating cultures (Blackfoot Nation / First Australians) that Westerners could learn a great deal from, and so much more.Grab a copy of UNCIVILISED : Ten Lies That Made The West here!
Episode 197: Very Fine People with A.R. Moxon
01:02:53|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with A.R. Moxon, author of The Revisionaries, a genre-bending debut novel that The Washington Post said "might be the weirdest novel of the year." His weekly online newsletter, The Reframe, enjoys a readership of over 10,000 people. His latest release — Very Fine People: Confessions of an American Fool — is the focus of this episode.For some people, the rise of Donald Trump's MAGA cult represented only ongoing proof of a supremacist nation they had endured all along. Author A.R. Moxon was not one of them. He was caught unaware. Thus begins this confession of an American fool, a methodical mapping of the nation the author failed to see — a nation of "very fine people" too convinced they are exceptionally good to acknowledge the ways they participate in abuse and harm. Very Fine People is an essay collection contemplating what to do about a populist far-right authoritarian uprising involving so many of our friends and family members. Written from 2016 to 2023, it is a work of progressing awareness, pondering the questions "how did we get here?" and "what do we do about it?" In this episode host Michael Shields and A.R. Moxon ruminate over their shared nativity about how many people in their life, and in America, are comfortable with an open white supremacist and fascist as a president of the United States, while considering how it's clear that an emboldened and vocal minority is willing to do anything to protect their supremacy. They talk about the power of love, art, and story in combating a movement riddled with hate, how being frank with language is a way to replace “current ideas with new ones,” how a hope full of rugged resolve exists within all the madness, and so much more.Grab a copy of Very Fine People here!
Episode 196: Seawind of Battery with Mike Horn & Jarrod Annis
44:21|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with New York City based musician Mike Horn, who helms the experimental folk project Seawind of Battery. Seawind just released their second album, a mesmerizing work full of gorgeous ambient and drowning soundscapes that is called East Coast Cosmic Dreamscaper. While Seawind of Battery is just a few years young, it is not Mike's first musical project. In 2017, Mike launched his indie folk solo project Goldkey, which released several impressive EP's — Background and escapes. His other musical collaborations include Static Traveler (with Eric Lense) and the psychedelic experimental rock project Sunblinders (with Eric Lense and Jeff Saltzburg). We are also thrilled to feature Jarrod Annis in this episode, a tremendous lap-steel guitar player who became an official Seawind member after he started backing Mike up at live appearances back in late ’22. In this episode host Michael Shields, Mike Horn, and Jarrod Annis discuss the evolving sound of Seawind of Battery as they wade into their sophomore release while considering the songwriting process for the songs on the album often derived from live improvisational moments. They discuss Mike and Jarrod’s shared influences and life events that have led to the birth of the project’s unique, soothing instrumental sound, and so much more.
Episode 195: Lonesome Highway with Rainy Eyes
34:47|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with singer / songwriter Irena Eide who goes by the stagename Rainy Eyes. A Norway Native now based in Southern Louisiana, Rainy has recently released her second album entitled Lonesome Highway, a soulful, vulnerable, and beautiful work of art that is the focus of this episode. Lonesome Highway, as the story goes, was born out of revelry and resolution in a redwood cabin tucked into the California coast, endowed with a spirit simmering in wanderlust, and ornamented with the rich traditions of the Louisiana bayou. The 11 songs that comprise the album are brimming with perseverance and perspective, written as Rainy reflected on the juxtaposition of her circumstances. As she basked in the joy of motherhood, she was simultaneously confronting a troubled relationship that had turned toxic. Lonesome Highway marks a hope-filled and assertive new beginning for Rainy Eyes, as electric guitar and drums now join fiddle and banjo. In this episode host Michael Shields and Rainy Eyes discuss Rainy’s musical and geographic journey from Norway to California to Louisiana while exploring the musical influences she acquired along the way. They dig into the ins-and-outs of her new album, exploring the weighty and relatable themes present within it, while also celebrating the collection of 70 original folk songs for children entitled Little Folkies she recently released…and so, so much more.
Episode 194: When Houston Had The Blues with Alan Swyer
52:42|This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast presents an interview with Alan Swyer, an award-winning filmmaker whose recent documentaries have dealt with Eastern spirituality in the Western world, the criminal justice system, diabetes, boxing, singer Billy Vera, and beyond. In the realm of music, among his productions is an album of Ray Charles love songs. His novel The Beard was recently published by Harvard Square Editions. His latest documentary, When Houston Had The Blues — the focus of this episode — shines a bright light on a vibrant Black music scene that has never gotten its just due…until now. Houston’s early and indelible mark on American music and the blues — often overlooked despite its rich history — is celebrated in the soulful, feature-length documentary, When Houston Had the Blues. While Houston may not come to most people’s minds as a major “music city” like Memphis, Chicago or New Orleans, it has a legacy that few other cities can match. Years before Elvis hit the charts with “Hound Dog,” it was originally recorded by Houston’s Big Mama Thornton (arguably the defining version). And long before Motown, Houston was home to one of the most successful Black music empires in the country. When Houston Had the Blues features an extensive collection of photos from the ’40s and ‘50s and vintage/contemporary performances by Bobby “Blue” Bland, Chic “Juke Boy” Bonner, Charles Brown, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Jewel Brown, C.J. Chenier, Arnett Cobb, Albert Collins, Diunna Greenleaf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Albert King, Freddie King, Trudy Lynn, David “Guitar Shorty” Kearney, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, Katie Webster aka The Swamp Boogie Queen, Don Wilkerson and more. With a unique timber and flavor unlike any other town in America, even other Texan cities, Houston’s blues scene — ranging from “gut bucket” to highly sophisticated — has long been a melting pot of music, influenced by salsa, tejano, cajun, zydeco (then known as la-la), jazz, country and, later, rock ‘n’ roll. Stream Houston Had The Blues on iTunes / Apple TV.