Episode 267: John Tole

hello friends! i hope you all had a wonderful passover or record store day or easter or earth day or 4/20 day. a lot of celebrating over the last week. i got some good record store day records... jay-z the black album, ume monuments and a couple of days earlier i got kiss alive and a laura nyro album that i heard about while listening to the paul stanley autobiography. good scores! the record stores were full. i saw my friend eve who owns antone's records at end of an ear records, so there was a spirit of solidarity among the record store owners. what a magical day. did you get anything?my guest for episode 267 is one of my favorite comics and one of my favorite people to talk to, john tole! i met john a couple of years ago after one of the "monkeyshine mondays" shows and we hit it off. so, i had john on the podcast over a year ago but i accidentally deleted it before i could put it out. i've always felt terrible about that. luckily, we made up for it with this conversation. john is an amazing comic, a prolific podcaster, he has 4256 productions where he puts out 4 podcasts, "disrupt the illusion", "after the illusion", "cart path diem" and "take it under advisement". he's always on the road and you can find out when he's coming to your town and what ever else you need to know about john tole at johntole.com i hope you enjoy our crazy conversation. i sure did. ladies and gentlemen, john tole.ciao! -jg

Episode 241: Steve Bernal

Hello my friends. if you normally listen to this show the day it comes out, i'm sorry it's late. i was coming home from a gig in dallas (i talk about the gig in the intro) with some friends on thursday evening when we hit a full-on texas winter snow and ice storm. it took us 7 hours to get 100 miles so we stopped in temple, texas and got the last two hotel rooms and waited out the storm. it was pretty hairy before we got the rooms. parts of the highway were just a sheet of ice. cars were sliding into each other. it was chaos in a winter wonderland. anyway, my friend darin was at the wheel and we made it home safe and sound yesterday afternoon. thanks darin. i was gonna put this out when i got home but i fell asleep and when i woke up in the evening i just ate some dinner and went back to sleep. i guess i needed it. my guest for episode 241 is bass player/cellist and my dear old friend, steve bernal! steve has an extremely interesting story about his journey into rock and roll as a bass player then learning a new instrument in the middle of his career. the cello. he actually went to school for it, joined an orchestra, toured with bands and has made a few albums. his latest is called, portals. it's an album of just bass, cello and drums. steve plays the bass and cello and the drums are played by the legendary barry "frosty" smith. steve and i talk about his colorful musical history, learning world beat and reggae on the road, playing with joe rockhead and a young bob schneider, being a sideman bass player, the billy white trio, learning cello as an adult, his new album, portals and much, much more. i hope you enjoy our conversation as much as i did. ciao! -jg

Episode 236: Sphynx Returns

hello friends! i hope you're getting back to a normal life after the holidays. i've started booking interviews for sxsw. i know. it seems early, but this year, i'm gonna have it all booked before it shows up this year. i think you'll all be very happy with the results. i'm still not smoking. seven days... pretty good right? i'm still nuts, but i'm one week in. is there a chip for that?my guests for episode 236 are making their second appearance on the show, they're one of my favorite bands, sphynx! i heard sphynx for the first time about a year ago and i was sold. i had them on the show last march and since their last appearance, they've toured the u.s. a few time and and made a new album. they're about to head out on a u.s. tour from jan. 21st - feb 8th hitting the pacific northwest, idaho, colorado, new mexico, arizona, wyoming, el paso and marfa. it all starts in austin with a free show at the mohawk on thursday, jan 9th. i'll be there. find out more about their tour and new album (they let us play a piece of a new song before the interview) at sphynxmusic.com. i really love this band and i love hanging out with them. i 'm sure you will too. welcome back my friends, sphynx.ciao! -jg

Episode 198: Joseph King / Halaska

hello people of the world! i hope this episode finds you well. i'm going to take this moment to thank you for listening to this show and for writing me or coming up to me and letting me know that you get something out of it. that means a lot to me. you guys mean a lot to me. thank you for letting me be a part of your life. we're almost to 200 episodes! can you believe it? which episode is your favorite? who was your favorite guest? have you had a favorite moment that touched you or made you laugh? let me know. we have a "how did i get here?" facebook page. you should like it. here's a link https://www.facebook.com/pages/How-Did-I-Get-Here/255200761176138 go to the page. "like" it, and let us know your favorite episode/moment/guest. thanks!episode 198 is a double-header! first up, one of my best friends making his 3rd appearance on the show, joseph king. you might remember that joseph was in a band called, deadbeat darling from new york. they have disbanded since their last appearance on the show and joseph has embarked on a solo career. he was in texas playing some shows and promoting a new kickstarter campaign for his new solo album, "wanderlusting". here's a link to the kickstarter, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/josephking321/joseph-king-records-his-debut-solo-ep-wanderlustin go to it. get involved. give him some money to finish and put out his album. we always have a good time together and i think that comes through in this conversation. my second guests are deter and logan from the progressive rock/math rock band, halaska! i don't get to talk to many bands that are working at this level. these guys are making music that challenges themselves and their audience and i like it! i'm glad there are musicians out there still trying to shake it up and that's what these guys are doing. we had a great talk about their music and music in general. i hope you enjoy our conversation. i did. ciao! -jg

Episode 403: Ocean Of Stars

hello friends! i hope you're all braving the extreme heat that is upon us. i'm doing well. just working on some music, booking a live podcast for sept. 9th (details coming soon), prepping for 3 podcasts i'm doing tomorrow etc. so, i listened to the american top 50 chart on spotify this morning while i was running. i probably heard about 15 to 20 songs on shuffle. i wasn't very moved by anything which made me kind of sad. then i realized that there is so much non-mainstream music out there, so much of it comes through this show. i'm really lucky to be in the position to have so much music coming through and getting turned on to so much stuff. it gives me hope. go find some new music. it feels good.my guest for episode 403 is ocean of stars leader, danny grochow! this is danny's second time on the show. he was on a couple of years ago talking about some solo material he was releasing and now he's back with with a new e.p. from his band, ocean of stars. danny is a great guy who is out there playing bass and guitar as a sideman but still makes the time to write, record and perform his original instrumental-prog-rock. we have a great conversation about four track cassette recording, the rpm challenge, finding musicians, writing complex instrumental music, answering want ads and much, much more. i i hope you enjoy our conversation. i sure did. let's get down!ciao! -jg