Lamniformes Radio Roundup: January 2021
Video Game Soundtracks, Mathcore, and The Mars Volta
I started doing Lamniformes Radio in the Fall of 2019 with no expectation that the project would maintain a regular schedule and with no real plan for growing it into a “real” podcast. I simply wanted to talk to my friends and colleagues in the music scene, to help promote cool music and to document bands that might not otherwise get many opportunities to talk about their work at length. Before the pandemic hit I was averaging about one episode a month, but once I was forced to start recording the episodes remotely I found that I could easily pick up the pace, and that doing so would put my guests in a better position to pick up new fans. After a slew of false starts, December 2020 was the first month that I was able to publish the podcast weekly. I hope to continue that pace in 2021.
The first episode of December was the audio version of my Who Will Entertain in America series, which you should already be familiar with in text form from this very blog. If you’d prefer to read these articles rather than hear them you can do so here, here and here.
The second episode of the month was an interview with Eva Lawitts, a bassist and composer from Brooklyn who I’ve crossed paths with many times in the local scene but never gotten to know particularly well. Lawitts has played as a session musician for acts like Vagabon and Princess Nokia, and has released music with her own band Stimmerman. In the early stages of lockdown she was hired to compose the score to Get-A-Grip Chip, a punishing platformer video game. We talked about her process, touring experiences, and working as an engineer at Wonder Park Studios.
The third podcast in December was an interview with Christian Segerstrom, the head editor at Mathcore Index and the head of Dark Trail Records. I owe a fair number of the guests that I’ve had on this podcast to Christian’s tireless promotion of the modern mathcore scene, so I felt it was only right to have the man on himself and hear his perspective on the genre’s resurgence and running a label during the pandemic.
Finally, my friends Jon Mondragon and Frank Meadows (who also came on the podcast for an interview earlier in the year) joined me to do a lengthy re-examination of The Mars Volta, a band that was wildly popular in the 00s and despised by critics. Jon took the effort to make a comprehensive outline of the band’s entire career, so we covered a lot of ground here. Along the way we talk about the band’s DIY roots in El Paso, TX, the influence of magical realism on their lyrical style, their intersection with the Gospel Chops community, and a whole lot more. We went long on this one for good reason.
Alright, that’s all for now! More podcasts, blogs, and music is on the way for 2021. Thank you for your ears and your eyeballs!