Top 10 “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” moments – Mike’s best of… well, all of WZW?

It is impossible to comprehend that in just a year and a half, TGEFM was able to pump out THIRTY NINE episodes of our “Who’s Zoomin’ Who?” interview series. What a ride it has been! Band account cyber-bullying, multiple waves of COVID-19, and about 850 empty cans of hard seltzer later, (I literally can’t even take a sip of those things anymore,) I present ten of my very top WZW? moments. Not saying it isn’t all really special, but these ten really stand out. *Cracks spiked seltzer*

#10 – Season 3 | Episode 1: Radical Radical

Adam Lohrbach, formerly of Home Grown, released his first solo effort I Feel Like I Want To under the new moniker Radical Radical this year. As a Home Grown super-fan, I am very, very impressed by it. Adam, joined with longtime friend and drummer Russell Dixon, peeled back the entire story of the project, their time as band mates in (formerly pop-punk now murder-metal) New Years Day, and of course a bunch of bonus Home Grown trivia. (I rapid spitfire about 80 of them on season 1 episode 5 when I joined Lohrbach with Ten Foot Pole and Symphony of Distraction, and I’m happy to say that the second go around I didn’t just creep everybody out.) Radical Radical for life!

#9 – Season 3  | Episode 9: Belvedere

Belvedere is a good fucking band that not enough people know about. There I said it. I sat down with Steve Rawles (rhymes with Bawles) in an attempt to promote their UNTOUCHABLE 2021 release of Hindsight Is The Sixth Sense, and the result was a union of contrasts between Rawles’ touring efforts today and the old Rawles pre-mapquest/bookyourownfuckinglifedotcom horror stories. Steve’s got stories dating as far back as the band’s inception in 1995, and is just a kind fucking soul. Such a great chat.

#8 – Season 3 | Episode 8: Console Wars

Around the time we hit season three I realized that maybe we had enough “street cred” to interview a YouTube series that I was personally a fan of, and it took some Instagram bullying, but I was finally able to lock down Pat and Dan from YouTube’s Console Wars, a brilliant series that contrasts the small nuances between Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game cartridges that share the same title. As a longtime subscriber of the channel, discovering their appreciation for booze, and our prepared “top video game soundtracks,” this episode shot itself, it was as easy as going to a dive bar for some pitchers with some buds. These two are tremendously sweet and creative, and I most recommend their channel.

#7 – Season 2 | Episode 9: Freezepop

Boston synth-titans Freezepop joined a verklempt ME, reeling off of the 2020 release of the crowdfunded Fantasizer. The entire band (with Queen of Tomorrow‘s Liz Enthusiasm’s video chat in front of a band warehouse full of merch) stared strangely at me for how much nerd-driven Freezepop trivia I brought up, but the result was a beautiful reunion of the quartet that is Liz, Bananas Foster, Christmas, and Sean Drinkwater. We dissected their newest album, the nuances of their discography, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000. This is a wonderful memory for me. 

#6 – Season 4 | Episode 9: Boys Night Out

Connor Lovat-Fraser of the now defunct indie/pop-punk/murder-core outfit Boys Night Out didn’t hold anything back as we presented the “complete history of Boys Night Out,” covering every record of their discography, even a documentary a la-Spinal Tap that was released near the band’s final years. More importantly, I got to geek the fuck out about a band you may have forgotten about, and sling bourbon with a wonderful pal and fellow musician-father-of-a-daughter, which is probably what brought Jeff Sorley and myself together before any of this shit started. Thank you Connor for being a terrific sport and an A+ guest.

#5 – Season 3 | Episode 5: Sum 41

Music journalism is fucking strange, and wayyyy more diplomatic compared to being a “step-over-everyone” musician for twenty-five years. Jed from Talking Records Podcast (You’ll be meeting him next season,) approached me about a Does This Look Infected? deep dive, and I set out, compelled, to get bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin from Sum 41 to join us. He kindly obliged, and sweet lord he had some rad dirt on that album’s production. My good journalist karma paid off as I quickly got to interview Cone and Sum 41 guitarist Dave Baksh just weeks later, and the conversation was excellent. These guys are legends and held nothing back, allowing me to conduct a full walk through of their discography and tight ass music videos. Absolute sweeties.

#4 – Season 2 | Episode 1: Propagandhi

My least favorite thing about doing these Zoom interviews… is hassling people. It is gross and it reminds me of booking DIY tour with my pop punk band in my twenties. This being admitted, I have developed a few tricks for attempting to glow bright enough on an Instagram or Facebook message to secure a DREAM GUEST or two. There are few bands on this “top” list that I have loved longer than Propagandhi, and after a few repeated attempts to connect with them, the four of them continued to be a little too busy with their regular lives to respond. THIS IS OKAY, of course. They have relationships, friends, jobs, children, and everything else to worry about, but I was able to bend reality by grabbing my sticks and banging out a “This Is Your Life” drum cover in my old band’s practice space. (While we’re keeping score, I NAILED the cover only to find out that a telemarketing call turned my camera off, and yeah I didn’t put it on airplane-mode because I needed data to hear the song in my airpods so please just don’t rub it in.) My re-recording made it onto Propagandhi’s Instagram feed where I made a final plea to the band account, Chris, Sulynn, and Todd. “Hey thank you so much for sharing my silly attention-grab drum cover CAN I PLEASE INTERVIEW YOU. I’M NOT A CRAZY PERSON.” Sulynn and Todd were class acts, and while we got to discuss Todd’s collection horde of riffs, Quantity is Job Number One lore, and more, the most important part of this episode for me was near the end when Todd stopped, looked at Sulynn and said, “Sulynn, it is so nice to see you in person, how long has it been?” Fucking heart melting love from a quarantined band in two different countries, and further proof that the quartet of Propagandhi are an incredibly tight-knit family.

#3 – Season 1 | Episode 1: PEARS

This shit is how WZW? got started in the first place! A heavily quarantined Jeff “the White Drew Carey” Sorley himself started TGEFM and asked if I wanted to contribute to the site. I had just finished transposing a recorded interview for Punknews with Suicide Machine‘s Jay Navarro, and I gotta say, transposing spoken audio fucking sucks. I had a little bit of rapport with Jarret Nathan from PEARS, was blown away by their 2020 self-titled album and remembered thinking, “I wonder if there is a way to capture Zoom interviews…” and the rest was history. Jarret, joined by vocalist Zach Quinn, hopped on to talk video games, music, the PEARS discography, Fat Mike, and more, and most importantly, it wasn’t that usual band interview, it was straight up beer hangs in a green room. I really really needed that after weeks of uncertainty under the same roof as my wife and wild daughter, and I could tell that they got a lot out of it too. I consider those guys buds now, and this interview will always stick with me.

#2 – Season 2 | Episode 3: Millencolin

I’ll never forget this Saturday morning, well what I remember from it anyways. I vividly remember chuckling as I awoke to my alarm at 6:30am to get my daughter’s kiddie pool an early inflation and refill, all the while cramming Millencolin deep cuts into my ears and double fisting spiked seltzers for my early morning Zoom with Jeff and Sweden’s own Erik Ohlsson and Mathias Färm of Millencolin. Catching the duo before their early evening dinner plans given the time change, we dove deep into Millencolin’s growing sound, Sweden’s herd mentality COVID-19 stance, Färm’s hot sauce, and Ohlsson’s long history as the bands sole graphic designer/brand manager. Highest points of the interview were Mathias joining my side about a certain b-side that should have made it to 2002’s Home From Home, Sorley shoving me off the call of my normal band-nerdom to shop-talk illustrative lingo with Ohlsson, and of course (See above) the desk-chair Millencolin skate trick heard round the world.

#1 – Season 1 | Episode 4: Joey Cape & Brian Wahlstrom

So much can be said about this episode that means so much to me, the first is the sheer DIY momentum that came out of nowhere as the series continued to develop. I simply asked Zach Quinn of PEARS to challenge a musician to join me in a Zoom, in which he hand selected good friend Brian Wahlstrom of Bandaid Brigade/One Week Records/Scorpios. Wahlstrom responded immediately, inviting Joey fucking Cape of Lagwagon and Bad Astronaut as his special guest. If I remember correctly “I mean, would you guys be interested in interviewing Joey?” was exactly how he put it. Not only did these two tremendously talented and humbled men provide Jeff and I with a killer interview full of tasty trivia and Epi-Fat truth-nuggets, but the Caper himself would reveal upon his A Good Year to Forget release that he was actually at his parents house those months to get over a separation, catch up with his folks, write and record said solo album, and ultimately lay his own father to rest within that time frame. I will always appreciate the privilege of Joey’s attention during that afternoon, and we ended up with an insightful and hilarious conversation.

See you in 2022!

Who do you want us to interview next year? Comment with your dream guests. I’m going to go with Billy Spunke of the Blue Meanies, East Bay Ray of Dead Kennedys, and Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals. Thanks for reading and keep it rad. <3