Jesse Thorn hosts The Sound of Young America, a radio show and podcast which covers comedy, film, music and other pop culture in the States.  Amongst his guests over the years have been Bill Withers, Jeffrey Tambor, Graham Linehan, Jimmy Carr, Jane Lynch and Rob Halford.  He also appears in Jordan, Jesse, Go! alongside Jordan Morris, and organises the now annual Maxfuncon festival.  I caught up with Jesse as he had just returned from the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

How did Sundance go for you?

Sundance was great.  It was our first time, and I’m a native Californian, so one thing that was wonderful was the snow – it snowed heavily the first two days we were there.  We also got to talk to some amazing people.  Our last interview was with Kevin Kline, and he was every bit as funny and charming as you’d hope.  My only disappointment was that I forgot to ask him to sing the “Hail to the Chief” song from Dave with me.

Everyone knows that the main point of Sundance, apart from rubber necking at Spike Lee, is getting promotional tat.  Did you get any decent loot?

I was too busy working, though I did get a patch for the “gang” that’s at the center of Taika Waititi’s excellent “Boy.”  Probably my favorite film at the festival – a big step up from Waititi’s first film, “Eagle v. Shark.”

A lot of people are looking forward to the new Chris Morris film Four Lions that was screened at Sundance, how did that go down?

I was at the premiere, and people seemed to like it.  Despite the subject matter, it’s surprisingly non-outrageous.  Certainly not as in-your-face as Brass Eye.  I certainly enjoyed it.

Do you want to explain a little about how you got started?

I started The Sound of Young America about ten years ago with my friends Jordan and Gene.  It was a college radio show – initially it aired at 7:30 in the morning.  That was before the campus shuttles at our college started running, so we had to walk a mile through the low fog in the dark to get to the station.  There used to be a fair amount of comedy on the show, but when Jordan and Gene graduated and headed to LA to work in entertainment, I refocused the show on interviews.

How has TSOYA built up over the years since you started it at college?  Where there any significant points where you thought ‘actually, this is going to work’?

My first balls-to-the-wall pledge drive was just short of two years ago now.  With the money we generated, I was able to hire my editor, Nick, one day a week, and pay myself a reasonable wage for the first time ever.  That was about seven years in, and probably the first time I actually felt secure in the show and in the idea that this was my job.

Can you explain how public radio works in the States?

Public radio stations are prohibited from carrying advertising, and primarily funded by listener donations.  They produce their own shows, and carry shows from three big distributors – National Public Radio, which is also a member organization of stations, American Public Media and Public Radio International.  I’m with PRI.  Stations that choose to carry my show pay PRI for it, and I get a cut of that money.  It’s a significant amount of money, but nowhere near enough to fund the show.  Most of my funding comes from other sources – especially donations from people who listen to the podcast, read the blog, and listen to our podcast-only shows.

How are you finding the difference between being a broadcaster via podcast rather than radio?

In radio, you’re targeting people who happen to be listening.  In podcasting, your audience is people who have chosen to listen – or people who might choose to listen.  The former is wonderful – it’s always nice to hear from someone who happened upon the show on their car radio.  The latter, though, is more rewarding.  On Jordan, Jesse, Go!, which is podcast-only, we can go a deeper into our, uhm, distinctive aesthetic.  By which I mean we can act like idiots, and everybody’s on board.

Where do you think podcasting stands in terms of being part of this new way where you can pick and choose your own entertainment?

I think there are still technical hurdles.  It’s still too much of a hassle to listen to podcasts for many people.  That said – I’m really happy to live in an entertainment world where people can choose what they want, rather than tolerating what they don’t not want.

What’s the state of comedy in the US like at the moment?  Has it all fallen apart since they’ve no longer got Bush to have a go at?

Not at all.  I think we’re in a golden age of comedy in the US.  There are certainly hacks out there making a lot of money – people like Carlos Mencia or Jeff Dunham — but there’s also more great stuff than ever before.  I think 30 Rock might be the funniest show of all time.  On cable, you’ve got It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Trailer Park Boys, [adult swim], The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and a pile of others.  In theaters, people like Zach Galifianakis and Michael Cera are getting to make movies.

TSOYA seems to glue a lot of US culture together in one convenient spot, and makes it appeal to people who are outside that circle.  What do you think the knack of it is?

It’s sort of like being the editor of Vogue or something – I know what I like.  That’s my main criterion, frankly.  Do I think it’s great?  If I do, I can find room for it on the show.  I work hard to make sure that those amazing things are accessible to people who don’t know about them already, and to find insight for people who do know about them already.

Do you think recording the show in your apartment gives interviews a different dynamic?  Didn’t someone get stuck in your lift?

A hip-hop group called the Lifesavas got stuck in my elevator, yes.  We had to take the doors off their hinges and hand them down a dining room chair to climb out.  They were exceedingly gracious about it.  Nice guys.

I generally get very positive reactions to the show being in my apartment, and I think it gives things a bit of intimacy they wouldn’t otherwise have.  My guests really are my guests.

Any particular favourites/hard interviews?  That Miss Piggy interview sounded like a bit of a struggle.

It was – I think the guy who does Ms. Piggy is a lot more comfortable doing the Miss Piggy voice than improvising as Miss Piggy.  Probably the toughest was Betty Davis, the funk legend who was once the wife of Miles Davis.  She was a very kind lady, but is not very social – she’s been a bit of a recluse for the last 20 years or so.  I posted the raw interview on the site so people could suffer along with me during the long, awkward silences.

How is Maxfuncon shaping up for this year?

Amazing!  Lots of my favourite people are coming.  Marc Maron, Maria Bamford, Jimmy Pardo, Al Madrigal… people who just warm the cockles of my heart.  Not to mention a chance to see all the great MaxFunsters who really made it a community last year.  I couldn’t be more excited.  And Andrew WK!  So delighted.

What’s the aim of TSOYA in the next couple of years?  Any progress on the TV show?

There’s always the possibility of a new TV show.  We’ll see if it ever happens.  We’re working on some other TV and video projects, but who knows if anyone will ever see them.  I think we’re just continuing to grow at our own modest pace.

Is there any particular podcasts that you listen to?

For comedy, I love Never Not Funny and You Look Nice Today.  Those are the shows that I get excited to see on my iPod.  Outside of comedy, I’m a huge fan of Radiolab (in fact, I invited Jad Abumrad to MaxFunCon this year) and of On the Media.  And of course This American Life, though I can’t imagine anyone’s not on board with that yet.

Subscribe to The Sound of Young America here.

Hear Jesse and Jordan Morris curse like well dressed sailors on Jordan, Jesse, Go! here.

MaximumFunCon is being held at Lake Arrowhead, California on 7^th-9^th May, more details here.

How did Tomahawk start off?

Tomahawk Press started up because there are just too many really interesting subjects for a book, which mainstream publishers won’t touch.  They focus on popular stuff – we go for quality.  Sort of like the Morgan car of publishing.  Each project is lovingly managed.  Our first book, Greasepaint and Gore is a wonderful book to study – filled with never-before-seen makeup designs and test shots from Hammer horror films.  No publisher wanted to touch it.  It was the actress Barbara Shelley who suggested going it alone.  “How?” I said.  “Learn”, she said.  I did.  Everything else followed.

Zulu. Apparently, there were quite a few of them.

What’s the process of getting a book together, do you approach writers for commissions or do the manuscripts gravitate towards you?

We get more submissions than we could possibly publish.  I just go for what excites me most – no real rules here.  Even though we are niche, there still has to be some commercial worth to a project.  I do have some ideas that I would like to see someone develop, though.

Is there anything particularly surprising that you’ve come across whilst putting a book together?

Everything is surprising in putting a book together.  If I’m not surprised, I’m usually not interested.  We publish mostly things that no one knows about.  But what always does surprise me is how diverse people’s interests actually are.  Any one subject can attract individuals from all walks of life.  We seem to publish books on subjects about which many people are passionate.

The books you’ve released so far cover a specific time in film making, are there plans to release books covering different periods?

We’ve covered pre-war Gainsborough films through to films made in the ’80s in our books.  We like nostalgia though.  I never chose any particular time period – but these are the books that seem to flood my way.  I think our niche was created by the market – certainly not created by me.  I’d consider anything good for publication.  Even published a book on Thorntons chocolate this year! And it turned out to be a best seller!

Bruce and Handsome Dan from Wayne's World receive a Saxon Sandwich

Are there any particular areas or people who you’d like to release a book about?

We seem to have strayed into biographies/autobiographies.  I like these. People’s lives are always fascinating.  I’d like to do more books on rock music and jazz though – these are my passions.  I will be publishing a book on Saxon (and their relationship to Spinal Tap) very soon.  Maybe that will lead to other music projects.  My son works for a major music label – maybe I can get one of his famous clients to do something with us.

I am sometimes disappointed with the rich and famous always flocking to major pop publishers, who are into a quick buck.  Maybe a few of them are individualists who can help give a smaller publisher like me a break.  I can often do a better job with a book than a mainstream publisher, too – both with design and marketing.

I don’t view Thornton’s or Saxon to be a departure for us – as our milieu is the untold story.  Each of our books tells the reader something that most people don’t know.  And each of our books are on a subject about which some people at least are very passionate.  As I have already said – I am led by the nose by the market.  The market defines our niche.  And most importantly, I publish important, interesting books that tend to be ignored by the mainstream big business publishers.  As in the music industry, it isn’t healthy for several large multi-nationals to control what we read. This is the dawning of the age of the Indie publisher, and Tomahawk is at the cutting edge!

You recently had to publish a new edition of The Battle for Bond after legal wrangles over some of the material within it.  Can you explain a bit more your recent adventures with the Fleming Estate?

The Fleming estate were looking for any reason they could to ban The Battle for Bond, which is an entirely factual, well-researched book that argued that the screen version of Bond was not created by Fleming.  And not only that, Fleming then went on to plagiarise the character that others had created.  I found the Fleming family to be bullies and small-minded.  They gained nothing by trying to cause problems for us, and the book became more popular as a result.  In fact – soon to be made into a Hollywood film – but can’t say much more about that yet.  There are more detailed statements about us and the Fleming family on our website and also in the new edition of The Battle for Bond.

I recently read Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet, which covers the period between the pre-war silent era to the early eighties.  From that I got the feeling these days that apart from Ealing comedies, Hammer horror, early Hitchcock and the odd Powell and Pressburger, there’s a vast amount of British film that either gets dismissed, unreferenced or unseen – there seems to be a set of chosen films and the rest just get dumped.  Where do you think that this attitude comes from?

That’s an interesting question.  Maybe because there is a lack of familiarity with much British film?  Little of it ever gets shown on TV.  Or maybe because of lot of it is in black and white, which many younger people don’t like.  Remember – Hammer was mostly in colour.

Within university academic departments, there’s loads of interest in British film, and many experts.  Film studies students certainly get exposed to many British films.  But they are far too academic in their approach. I think it might be the responsibility of the BFI (or should be) to promote British film heritage.  But they are rather bad at this, and for a national organisation certainly too much London-centred.  I would like to think that some of Tomahawk’s books are making a small contribution too.  We like out books to be academically competent, but also readable and interesting for a general audience.

But, I am no film expert.  I am sure that our authors would have more to say on this than I could.

Tomahawk will be releasing The Studio that Dripped Blood – Amicus Films by Phil Nutman and new biographies of Charles Hawtrey, James Caan and Jeff Bridges this year.  To find out more about Tomahawk Press and their catalogue, go to http://www.tomahawkpress.com.

All images are the property of their original owners.

For me, the Super Furry Animals were always one of those bands. You know, the kind of band you hear all the time and you like, it’s just you’re not exactly going to rush out there and spend  your cash on the new album. I remember growing up around plenty of people who called themselves fans, but I’d always found another album I’d like to buy instead.

A decade later, and I’m actually starting to like them more. Especially after their ninth album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ hit the (electronic) shelves in March of this year. The album is undoubtedly brilliant, recieving widespread acclaim from sources such as NME, who not only describe the offerings on this album as “sprawling epics”, also referred to their reputation as “one of the best live bands around” [*].

It was with a stroke of luck and a wee bit of modern-day (social) networking that we got to go along to see the band perform last Saturday at Somerset House in London; thanks to the guys over at Magners UK. This may have, in itself, been the highlight of the whole night. There is a constant argument going on about the importance of Social Networking, with many in mainstream and big business writing the whole scene off due to low returns and the lack of a ‘personal touch’. I for one am a big fan of the likes of Twitter, and it paid off this weekend with a pair of gig tickets. I’ve never met these guys, I haven’t taken them out for a business lunch or donned a suit to meet their expectations, but there we were enjoying a free gig on a mild summers evening in London.

But, back to the gig. The NME claim of “one of the best live bands around” isn’t wrong, with the band putting on a fantastic live show. Guitarist and Lead Vocalist Gruff Rhys gained applause and laughs with his use of cue-cards throughout the show, whilst we stood amongst crowds of middle aged fans who seemed delighted to be smoking a bit of weed whilst the kids stayed at home with the babysitters, a hark back to their younger days when the Super Furry’s were at the height of their fame. Somerset House was a great setting for the concert – luckily the weather held out and we were able to enjoy our drinks in relative comfort (apart from finding out a large Pimms & Leomonade was £9…). It was also impressive to see the devout fans come out in style, with the award for Most Effort going to the guy in the full size crocodile suit.

You can listen to the new album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ on Spotify here. If you would like to get in touch with the guys over at Magners, or keep up to date on their events and promotions, then check them out on Twitter or Facebook.

Earlier this year, Vice Magazine and Hot Chip launched a competition for the Creating Sense5 Competition, aimed at photographers, designers, musicians, artists and DJ’s. Submissions were made to Vice, with the winners to play a launch gig curated by Hot Chip. Squidge Mag were lucky enough to score tickets to the event, held in The Arches at London Bridge. The event was also a launch party for the new ’5′ range of chewing gum from Wrigleys.

To be honest, the event was awesome. The free glow sticks and free drinks at the start created a perfect beginning to the evening, followed by some great acts, notably PLANNINGTOROCK. Hot Chip played two live sets, one of which was supported by Kano, and we were also treated to performances from The Penny Serenade, Raf Daddy and Noze.

One other amazing aspect came from the winners of the ‘Smell’ category, who created an “edible forest”, full of different smells, sounds, tastes and visuals. However, we spent much of the time outside with the winning entry for the touch category from Sharon Crew, who created an outside tunnel lined with string curtains, with holes in the side for people to grab through. As you can see from the pictures it was much fun…

You can see more pictures from the event here.

But come on. This is possibly the most awesome thing I have ever heard of, I was never one for buying music online, I much preferred downloading it illegally, I don’t like paying for things that I can’t then hold in my hand, like drinks. But seeing as the whole pirated music thing seems to have become a thing of the past, I needed another option. I am not adverse to buying cd’s in fact I am one of the few people probably who still does it, I do quite like the ability to actually have music physically but that is probably very old fashioned of me. But the ability to listen to loads of different music that I can’t really be bothered to buy the whole album of and the ability to not have to go onto I tunes to download it, that I like, that I really like. I mean this is actually useful technology… don’t get me wrong, I love twitter and facebook and all that shizzle as much as any other blogger but this…this is just awesome. I have been sat for the past two hours listening to all this music that I had forgotten that I wanted and I haven’t had to pay a dime. And so far no annoying emails, no one asking me to find friends or update my profile, I don’t need to add a picture, it’s incredibly un-obtrusive.

It does make me think what have I been doin with my life I could have come with an idea like this…why didn’t I come up with an idea like this? This is easy as a concept goes, the techie stuff I am sure is slightly more complicated but I have geeky computer minded friends who can deal with that kind of crap. You tube for music this is the easiest idea in the world, they have already managed to monetise it, unlike all these other social media sites which leaves marketers helplessly floundering as they try to find a way to use it as a revenue stream. This is the best idea in ages, the guys who did this must be sitting on top of piles of money looking at the fools that created twitter laughing and pointing. The other thing is this isn’t going to grow old, people are already predicting when the twitter bubble is going to burst facebook already has as far as some of us are concerned. Ut who is going to get tired of free music there is always new music coming out and no one is about to stop making it…this idea actually has legs.

That and while I have been writing this I have a listened to a collection of Florence and the machine, badly drawn boy, Camille, Beirut and Vampire weekend, so therefore this thing can do no wrong…

You can check out Spotify, and download the software here.

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