Zig At The Gig podcast

Charming Disaster Part 3

Brooklyn-based goth-folk duo Charming Disaster’s upcoming album The Double—their seventh full-length release—explores the world that exists behind the one we know, featuring songs inspired by nature, mortality, magic, ritual, and literary genres ranging from science fiction to Victorian horror. The new album was co-produced by band members Ellia Bisker and Jeff Morris with longtime collaborator, recording engineer Don Godwin. All but one of the ten tracks were recorded at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, MD, with one song recorded by circus music composer Peter Bufano in Boston, MA. The Double will be released on CD, as a 12-inch colored vinyl LP, and on all digital platforms on May 16, 2025. The vinyl will be released in a 2-disc package that also includes Charming Disaster’s 2024 compilation Time Ghost, a collection of singles released over the last decade.

 

The Double invites listeners to step across the border of an alternate reality, where spells are cast, time travel is possible, plants are taking over civilization, and vampires lurk in the shadows. Adventures in the darkness lie beyond the threshold.

 

The album’s ten songs include “Black Locust,” a lullaby about mortality; “New Moon,” a magical nature ritual; “Trick of the Light,” a reimagining of Bram Stoker’s Dracula; “Time Machine,” in which Charming Disaster change the past and start over again; “Scavengers,” a walk in the woods with vultures and bones; “Beautiful Night,” a defiant response to struggles with depression; “Vitriol,” a tribute to artist Thomas Little, who turns guns into ink; “Haunted Lighthouse,” a swashbuckling sea voyage; “Gang of Two,” a true crime adventure; and “Green Things,” a love letter to what grows between the cracks (and its inevitable takeover).

 

The album features an array of talented collaborators. Co-producer Don Godwin, who has worked on Charming Disaster’s entire discography, contributed bass, drums, and horns as well as engineering and mixing. “Haunted Lighthouse” features Broadway percussionist Mike Dobson along with circus composer Peter Bufano, who played piano and accordion and engineered the track at Cirkestra World Headquarters in Boston, MA (with additional tracking at Tonal Park). “Scavengers” features cello recorded by Kate Wakefield of the duo Lung, who also created the string arrangement for “Beautiful Night.” Stefan Zeniuk of Gato Logo contributed saxophone to “Green Things.”

 

In conjunction with The Double, Charming Disaster is releasing the second edition of their “oracle deck” (similar to a Tarot deck). The Charming Disaster Oracle Deck contains 72 cards (including 12 new cards for the second edition), each representing one of the songs from Charming Disaster’s discography. The cards feature illustrations commissioned from more than thirty different artists. The deck can be used as a divination tool, or as a visual accompaniment to Charming Disaster’s music. The duo themselves use these cards in their live performances to determine the set through the element of chance.

 

Charming Disaster was formed by Bisker and Morris in 2012, inspired by the gothic humor of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton, the murder ballads of the American Folk tradition, and the dramatic flair of the cabaret. Together the duo write songs that tell stories about myth, magic, and mortality, using two voices to explore dark narratives and characters with a playfully macabre sensibility.

 

On their critically acclaimed albums Love, Crime & Other Trouble (2015), Cautionary Tales (2017), and SPELLS + RITUALS (2019), Charming Disaster explored death, crime, folklore, and the occult. On Our Lady of Radium (2022), they turned their attention to science and explored the life and discoveries of pioneering scientist Marie Curie. On Super Natural History (2023), they united the natural world and the metaphysical realm in a musical cabinet of curiosities.

 

The duo put out two releases in 2024: Time Ghost, an album-length collection of songs released as singles between 2013 and 2024; and Dance Me to the End of Bela Lugosi’s Lovesong, an EP of covers paying tribute to a few of the band’s influences: Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love,” “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus, and The Cure’s “Lovesong.”

 

In Charming Disaster’s live shows, the duo combine vocal harmonies and clever lyrics with ukulele, guitar, and foot percussion, with a cabaret-influenced performance style that straddles the line between concert and theatre and has been described as “haunted vaudeville” (Splice Magazine).

Charming Disaster’s music has been featured on the spooky hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale. They have opened for legendary cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, Goth icon Voltaire, and Amanda Palmer’s punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. Their concerts have captivated audiences across the United States and in Europe. They have appeared alongside storytellers, comedians, fire eaters, puppets, burlesque artists, poets, and circus performers. Recent appearances have included Joe's Pub in NYC, Atlanta’s massive pop culture convention Dragon Con, Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery, the Rochester Fringe Festival, Philadelphia’s Science History Institute, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, VA, Cleveland's WizbangCircus Theatre, and the Coney Island Sideshow stage, as well as sundry bars, art galleries, theatres, bookstores, libraries, train cars, mausoleums, and museums.

 

LINKS:

Website: www.charmingdisaster.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmingdisaster

Instagram: http://instagram.com/charmingdisasterband

YouTube: http://youtube.com/charmingdisasterband

Bandcamp: http://charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/1RjkfhamohczSXjFy5WcZh

 

The Double preorder link: charmingdisaster.bandcamp.com/album/the-double 

 

 Tickets : Charming Disaster at The Foundry Cleveland June 5th with Cowboy Princess Brigade

https://www.ticketweb.com/event/charming-disaster-cowboy-princess-brigade-the-foundry-tickets/14325923?utm_medium=affiliate&irgwc=1&clickid=yKYzFM2SwxycTOrRPc1Gt0d7UksRjjwhTXGA2E0&camefrom=CFC_BUYAT_219208&impradid=219208&REFERRAL_ID=tmfeedbuyat219208&wt.mc_id=aff_BUYAT_219208&utm_source=219208-Bandsintown&impradname=Bandsintown&ircid=4272

 

C-Level Pete Francis Tickets :

https://www.ticketweb.com/event/peter-francis-of-dispatch-the-winchester-tickets/14338833?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=lakewood-events

 

Knox Chandler (Psychedelic Furs and Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist)

Knox Chandler’s career has spanned for over four decades including long stints as a member of The Psychedelic Furs, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cyndi Lauper band, extraordinary experiences in recording and performing live around the world. Chandler’s also performed, recorded, arranged and produced, working with acts such as REM, Depeche Mode, Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful, Natalie Merchant, Tricky, The Creatures, Dave Gahan Paper Monsters and The Golden Palominos etc.

Knox spent a decade residing in Berlin, Germany, while he explored sound-scaping.  He developed a technique he calls “Soundribbons, which he recorded and performed in its own right as well as applying it to different genres and mediums . He composed, recorded, toured, produced, and wrote string arrangements for Herbert Grönemeyer, Jesper Munk, Pure Reason Revolution, The Still, TAU, Miss Kenichi and the Sun, Mars William’s Albert Ayler Xmas, Rita Redshoes, Them There, The Night, etc. While living in Germany received a Post Graduate certification in education and was the head of the guitar department at BIMM College.

Chandler returned to the States to be near family and now resides in the New Haven Connecticut area.

The Sound is the solo debut of much-travelled musician / producer / arranger / painter Knox Chandler. This project is a musical / visual memoir depicting the shift in his surroundings from the urban to the rural, specifically the Connecticut shoreline off the Long Island Sound and the impact of this dramatic change of environment on his consciousness and the art-work that leads to.

 

At The Sound ‘s core is Chandler’s “Soundribbon” style of meditative, powerfully cinematic instrumental performance on guitar, accompanied by upright bass and percussion which comprises the audio component of the release. The visual portion is a book of paintings, photographs, sketches and written meditations, interpreting nature through technology. The blending of these mediums is Knox’s attempt to make the diaristic intent of his music explicit. The Sound is being released on Knox’s new label Blue Elastic on May 30. The album is available on digital download and on streaming platforms on its own, or the book comes with a download code.

https://knoxchandler.bandcamp.com/

https://knoxchandlermusic.com/

https://www.facebook.com/knox.chandler.3/

https://www.instagram.com/knoxchandler/

 

 

C-Level Pete Francis Tickets :

https://www.ticketweb.com/event/peter-francis-of-dispatch-the-winchester-tickets/14338833?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=lakewood-events

 

Toby Radloff "The Genuine Nerd From Cleveland Ohio"

Toby Radloff  is a former file clerk and actor who became a minor celebrity owing to his appearances in Cleveland writer Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comic book series American Splendor. Radloff has a distinctive manner of speech and quirky mannerisms.He is a self-proclaimed "Genuine Nerd".

Career Radloff met Pekar in 1980 when Radloff was hired at Cleveland's Veterans Administration Hospital, and shortly became a recurring character in American Splendor. Television profiles of Pekar at work at the VA Hospital, in which Radloff appeared, led to Radloff being featured as a "special correspondent" in a few short comedic pieces on MTV in the late 1980s about Cleveland and White Castle hamburgers (a particular favorite of Radloff's).Radloff was also a frequent guest on a local Cleveland cable access show, The Eddie Marshall Show. Radloff is a huge admirer of the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds, which he estimated in 2003 to have seen at least 25 times; his enthusiasm for the film was documented in the American Splendor comic (and in a number of scenes in the American Splendor film). Radloff's public persona as a "Genuine Nerd", cemented by his appearances on MTV, led to his starring roles as Harold Kunkle in the comedy horror film Killer Nerd (1991) and its sequel Bride of Killer Nerd (1992)

Toby's Info

toby.radloff

https://www.waynealanharold.com

 

 

C-Level Pete Francis Tickets June 13th Winchester Lakewood OH

Souled American

Interview with Joe Adducci of Souled American.

April 19th Souled American at Negative Space Cleveland OH

Tickets 

"There are cult bands and then there's Souled American. In 1988, the Illinois group arguably invented "alternative country" with the album Fe. While the alt-country sound is widely recognized as Southern roots rock with an indie-punk sensibility — largely defined by Uncle Tupelo's No Depression released two years later — Souled American's early music feels as if it was formed in a vacuum, inspired by the time-stretching space of reggae. But over the course of the following decade, Souled American's music grew increasingly slow, insular and esoteric. Although Fe, Flubber and Around the Horn are inarguably more accessible, upbeat and even sometimes fun, if you've never heard this music before, it actually makes sense to start at the end." NPR MUSIC.

 

Souled American Info:

https://www.souledamerican.net/

 

 

 

C-Level Pete Francis June 13th Winchester Lakewood OH

Mike Baggetta of mssv Part 3

On And On is the 3rd studio album from the post-genre power trio mssv featuring the legendary
rhythm team of drummer Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, David Lynch) and bassist
mike watt (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE, Stooges) alongside the unique and iconoclastic guitar of
its genre-bending bandleader, Mike Baggetta. On And On features brand new songs that were
written by Baggetta before their 58-show 2023 US tour and performed every night, recorded and
produced by Chris Schlarb at BIG EGO Studio in Long Beach, CA immediately after. The album
comes out on BIG EGO Records on 12” LP vinyl, digital download and streaming services on
Friday, March 7, 2025 and features artwork by John Herndon (Tortoise). 
Featured in the works on this album is a band-improvised song and, on the vinyl issue only, six
more band-improvised interludes. These improvised, then recomposed, instrumentals had their
parts recorded separately by each member, then edited down, recombined and recomposed by
Baggetta’. They serve as an important connective tissue between the songs on each side,
turning On And On into an exciting and trippy psychedelic fever dream of a concept album. This
serves to really bring out the story of On And On: at its heart it is an album where all the works
combine to create an endless episodic journey through the temporal and seemingly fleeting
nature of society, personality, music, and life and death on Earth, only to realize that all of these
are also endlessly repeating.
Seven of the eight new songs feature vocals from Baggetta, now much more comfortable in his
vocal role from the previous mssv album Human Reaction. The wordcraft heard here in On And
On goes a lot deeper than his previous lyric writing, while still remaining wholly individual in its
exploratory playfulness. The subject matter here, while being universally relatable, is rife with
personal references, stories of his and the band’s friends and relationships, and one
song “Despair & Hilarity” including lyrics written by one of Baggetta’s most important musical
collaborators Steve Gigante (7 Year Rabbit Cycle, W-S Burn, THETEETHE). 
Continuing to explore the seemingly endless depths of Hodges’ and watt’s musicianship and skill
over the many tours and albums in mssv has grown an instantly identifiable sound from
Baggetta’s songwriting for this band. But the trust that has formed between them, that comes
from long-running musical partnerships, has also made it possible for mssv to explore more
interesting ways to incorporate improvised music into the lives of their songs, innovating their
music in new ways while still keeping the fearless nature of each musician and this band fully
intact. On And On skillfully combines all of these elements into a newly evolved lens for the
music of mssv, deftly displayed in this album as a high concept love letter to everyday life.

April 13th mssv Beachland Cleveland OH Tickets https://www.beachlandballroom.com/e/14076233/mssv-well/

mikebaggetta.com

https://mainsteamstopvalve.com/

 

MikelParis

MikelParis™ (pronounced MichaelParis” – one word, initial caps) is a multifaceted artist who
performs as keyboardist, percussionist and backup singer for the celebrated American rock band
O.A.R. for nearly two decades. He is also the producer and host of “TuneTrek” and “Music
Drink Stories,” docu-series that follow MP across the U.S. unearthing music gems in history’s
hidden corners; from the echoing halls of haunted country inns to the majestic ambience of
castles and museums.
https://www.mikelparis.com

 

James Cook of Captain's Audio Project

Interview with: James Cook of Captain's Audio Project

 

New release by Portland Oregon songwriter James Cook. This collection of finely crafted tracks is titled “Waiting For The Moon”, and will be available on vinyl, CD, and digitally online. Release date is February 21st, 2025.

The original concept for the recording was to be basic and raw, recorded live with tenor guitar and vocals. With decades of experience playing vintage jazz and swing on the upright bass, James’ sense of timing made it all to easy to embellish and round out the recording with other great musicians. First, James added the warm and sultry anchor notes on his 100 year old upright bass.

James's Info:

trashcan.joe.5

 

Steve Traina

Interview with Steve Traina about his new book La Cave. 

Steve took time off from childhood activities just long enough to start and run a small business, help raise six kids, and perform various other adult activities. It was just a phase. In his spare time he also managed craft a 30-plus year career as a minor league and college D1 umpire, and fit in an ongoing 22 years as the on-air host of the music history show Steve’s Folk Radio Show on WRUW-FM 91.1 in Cleveland. Now that he can form a baseball team with his nine grandchildren, he realized the foolishness of it all and, between grandfatherly duties, reverted to his childhood dream of sitting around reading and writing. In these pursuits he is guided by his ever-vigilant editor Ethel the Very Large Cat.

 

About the La Cave Book :

In a dingy basement music club in inner-city Cleveland, something incredible happened, and kept happening throughout the ‘60s. Except it didn’t just “happen.” It was created by a slightly-built visionary named Stanley Kain, and he named this happening “La Cave.”

Stan’s vision was the future and its language was written in musical notation, fueled by post-adolescent angst amidst a backdrop of the military draft, war, race riots, and social upheaval in general. For a buck, maybe two, suburban kids, college students and other young adults could absorb the wisdom of their elders – future musical Hall of Famers, still unknown, perched behind guitars, mere feet away on a tiny stage, dispensing that wisdom with a 4/4 beat.

Performers like The Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Moby Grape, The Fugs and countless others were the professors of this new ideology. Mix in political drama, street theater, psychedelic drugs and cheap beer, and you have a microcosm of 1960s America. You have La Cave. History was made nightly, and was it ever fun!

 

https://www.lacavebook.com/

 

Steve's info

steve-traina 

Nikki O’Neill

Nikki O’Neill, an R&B/Americana singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Chicago, is releasing
her third solo album, Stories I Only Tell My Friends. It’s being issued on Blackbird Record Label
on March 14, 2025 on 12” LP vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.

This interweaving of Soul, Americana, Rock, Gospel and Blues is an integral part of O’Neill’s
sound, and likely due to her upbringing. “I was born in L.A., but grew up mostly in Stockholm,
Sweden with a Russian grandmother and Polish mother,” she says. “Both of them, and also my
father, grew up with war and had a history of constantly moving from one country and one
apartment to another. My mom was young when she had me, and music seemed to be her
source of joy. She loved listening to all kinds of artists, from Al Green to Santana, Dinah
Washington, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon, and the Traveling Wilbury’s. I soaked it all up like a
sponge. I started making up songs when I was twelve, and first picked up a guitar when I was
16. I loved going to record stores, and when Prince’s Purple Rain album came out, I bought it
immediately and listened to it religiously. Then a friend and drummer in my first band
introduced me to Sly Stone. The way Prince and Sly fused soul and rock, and were leaders of
multi-racial bands with male and female musicians was tremendously influential.”
O’Neill moved from Stockholm to New York City where she mostly played guitar in other bands.
She relocated to Los Angeles after meeting Rich Lackowski at a music trade show. O’Neill
became a solo artist, and the couple (now married) eventually became members of L.A.’s small,
but supportive Americana artist community. After self-releasing her 2017 solo EP, Love Will
Lead You Home (with songs co-written by lyricist Paul Menser), she regularly performed around
L.A. with Lackowski in their 4-piece band, and was signed to Blackbird Record Label in August,
2020. In October that same year, she released World is Waiting, her second solo album and
label debut. With touring opportunities erased by the pandemic and California becoming
unaffordable, they packed up their instruments into her little red Honda Fit and drove to
Lackowski’s hometown of Chicago. “It took me a while to get rooted in Chicago, meet musicians
and start writing again, but I also didn’t want my songs to sound like leftovers from the last
album,” O’Neill says. “I wanted to find out how Chicago would inspire me.”
Stories I Only Tell My Friends is eloquent testimony to the inspiration she found.

 

Nikki's Info : 

https://nikkioneill.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FA6InY3pide4vE_YFEmYw/featured?view_as=public

http://www.instagram.com/nikkioneillguitar

http://www.facebook.com/nikkioneillmusic

https://nikkioneill.bandcamp.com

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/nikki-oneill/274063501

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AJzwE3ASiLk4z10P3245T?si=KJZg1M00TA-DdVhRCXcr-
gSiLk4z10P3245T

https://www.bandsintown.com/a/7592729

https://bsky.app/profile/nikkioneill.bsky.social

 

Kevin Shields Of Detention

Interview with Kevin Shields Of Detention.

Detention was one of the first and best bands of the ‘80s New Jersey hardcore punk explosion. Their wonderfully tasteless “Dead Rock ’n Rollers” single became the college radio cult classic of 1983. The song’s 97 seconds of primal Ramones-style speed-punk mocked the demise of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Keith Moon, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious, John Belushi, and John Bonham — who “played the drug game and couldn’t maintain.” They even foretold the drug-related heart attack of Jim Carroll, famous for “All The People Who Died,” screaming, “What are you waiting for? Do it!” Saving the best for last, “Dead Rock ’n Rollers” raised the obvious question: “Why couldn’t it be Barry Manilow?” The Detention story goes back to Central Jersey, to the Shields family home in Hillsborough Township, about 20 minutes from the “culture capital” of New Brunswick. Kevin Shields, the fourth of five sons, grew up listening to his older brothers’ sophisticated record collection of hippie music that ranged from Blue Cheer to King Crimson. Kevin recalls: “Early on, I knew that rock ‘n roll was something special. I was fascinated.”  “I enlisted in the Coast Guard when I was 17. I was out on my own. I was always a music guy and realized music was getting stale with Genesis and whatnot. I read all the magazines, and the ads in the back, so I sent money to these labels, and came home with albums like Never Mind the Bollocks and Rocket to Russia, and singles by the Slickee Boys and MX-80 Sound. But the coup d’grace was when we stationed in Alameda and I went wild in San Francisco. I went to the Mabuhay Gardens like three nights a week, seeing all the legendary West Coast bands: DKs, DOA, Black Flag. I got thrashed on the education of seeing live bands.”   When Kevin returned home in 1981, he was inspired to make music. “Detention came about because I decided to be a player not a spectator,” he explains. “The easiest way was to recruit my family, so I turned to my brothers. I bought a bass, but I didn’t know how to play it. My brother Paul suggested I get in touch with this guitarist Rodney Matejek. He showed me how to play simply, and within months we started coming up with riffs, and what would become songs came very quickly.”  The band — Kevin, Rodney, frontman Paul Shields, and drummer Daniel Shields — played their first show at Raritan Manor on the Somerville Circle, hosted by a young Matt Pinfield in his first radio DJ gig at WRSU (Rutgers). It was a noisy and chaotic affair, with people rolling on the floor — until police arrived and stopped the mayhem. “We were given 100 bucks, and we promised never to play there again,” Kevin says with a grin.  Kevin offers some backstory: “Rob Roth, god bless his pointed head, he had a vision. He got us into the studio in Roselle Park, and he paid for it. All we had to do was get good recordings of the two songs, including the B-side “El Salvador.” It came out great. My brother Paul certainly had the lungs for the job! Those 500 copies got us gigs and got us a lot of notice.” In 1985, Detention released a self-produced self-titled album before disbanding.

Kevin's Info

https://www.leftfordeadrecords.com

dead-rock-n-rollers