The Who Cares Anyway Podcast

For Episode 30, we go back into the archives—all the way back to 2016, when I interviewed Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls , Sublime Frequencies, etc.) as part of my research for the book.The interview focuses on Sun City Girls’ relationship to San Francisco, from its “mythical status” as a haven for outcasts to its place in the broader West Coast underground, roughly midway between Phoenix (where SCG started out) and Seattle (where they eventually moved).We hear Mr. Bishop’s recollections of particular bands (Caroliner, TFUL 282) and individuals (Grux, Gregg Turkington) as well as some thoughts on touring, zines, tape trading, and dealing with cops. Toward the end, we also hear his full remarks (quoted in part in chapter 45, “Acting, Theatricality, and ‘Joke Bands’”) on some more meta-level topics involving the use of characters and role-playing in music.As with the previous archival episodes, the audio quality isn’t pristine, but I did my to clean it up and make it presentable.Note: All of the musical excerpts (apart from the very first one) are taken, with permission, from Alvarius B’s forthcoming album Malarial Dream (release date: May 1, 2026).Links* Alvarius B, Malarial Dream ‒ Bandcamp | Forced Exposure* http://www.suncitygirls.com/about/shows/* Sun City Girls on Facebook* Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco & the End of the Analog Age - Bookshop.org | Amazon | more options* Podcast links: Apple | Spotify | Podcast Addict | Substack (direct download link)Music Credits* The Three Doctors, “Leaving Has Hurt”* Alvarius B., “Mako”* Alvarius B., “Rooftop Blue Cameo”* Alvarius B, “Later“* Alvarius B., “The Multiple Hallucinations of an Assassin - Part 2”* Alvarius B., “Texas Headphones”* Alvarius B., “Mako” (second excerpt)* Alvarius B., “Malarial Dream” Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

With this episode, we take a trip back to Silicon Valley (as it was just coming to be known) at the dawn of the 1980s. The same area that gave rise to the Sleepers and U.X.A. during the original 1977/1978 punk era also spawned a variety of interesting but largely unsung bands during the post-punk/new wave era, including Half-Church, the Start, Zru Vogue, and Quiet Room. Several of these groups (all but Zru Vogue) had releases on Win Records, the label founded and run by original Sleepers bassist Paul Draper. Philip Peters was the vocalist and primary songwriter for Quiet Room, whose short lifespan ran from 1980 to 1982 and included a gig opening for Duran Duran at the I-Beam in San Francisco. Their official discography (at least during their lifespan) was limited to a single 7-inch, but more recently, Peters added a new release, thanks to the discovery of some old tapes by former bandmate and recording engineer Bart Thurber. From the Bandcamp page:“In 1982, Philip Peters started writing what would be the next Quiet Room songs. The backing tracks were recorded by Bart Thurber, but never finished, put aside and forgotten till 2025 when the original 4 track tape was found. Philip then completed the 6 songs by adding vocals and some over dubs as was intended back in 1982. So here for the first time the completed “lost Quiet Room Demos" as the new album.”In this episode, we hear more about this new release from Quiet Room, along with a whole bunch of Palo Alto-area underground music history from that interesting window of time.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/wca-podcast-ep-28-philip-peters-quiet-room/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

While probably best known for his 1991 book England's Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, Jon Savage was also an early chronicler of the San Francisco punk scene, championing bands such as the Sleepers, Avengers, and Dils before most audiences outside of the Bay Area or California had even heard of them. In this episode, we hear about his involvement with the zine Search & Destroy; his trip to the West Coast (both L.A. and San Francisco) in 1978; his first-hand observations on the differences between the punk scenes in the U.K. and California; and more.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2025/06/01/wca-podcast-jon-savage-englands-dreaming/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

A new podcast series from the makers (uh, maker) of The Who Cares Anyway Podcast.Interviews with musicians and artists from around the world on making music in the digital age, Metal, electronic, experimental, and gray areas in between. Available wherever you get your podcasts and at fatalstrategies.substack.comMusic credits: Blind Idiot God, "747"Terminal Sound System, "Gridlike"Dreams of the Drowned, "Midnattskogen Sorte Kjerne"Zweizz & Joey Hopkins, "No Clue" Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

Composer and all-around audio wizard James Goode joins the podcast for a weird and wide-ranging discussion. A mere sampling of the topics discussed:growing up in Provincetown, Mass.playing the tape recorder (his first "instrument")meeting the Residents (sort of)joining Faxed Headnot joining Carolinerstudying music at Mills Collegecollaborating with prog keyboardist Roger Powell (formerly of Todd Rundgren's Utopia)touring JapanOther topics include synesthesia, eight-channel audio mixes, Cape Cod Piece, interpretive mime, and (towards the end) perhaps the most in-depth discussion of how some of those noises on the Faxed Head records were created.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/06/15/wca-podcast-ep-23-james-goode/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

With this episode, we take a slight detour to the Detroit, Michigan, area circa 1985-1987. Odell's band Spahn Ranch hailed from this area, but they recorded their one and only LP—1987's Thickly Settled—in the Bay Area with Eric Cope (Glorious Din) acting as co-producer.Here, Odell recounts his first encounters with Eric, Glorious Din, and the zine Wiring Dept., along with his memories of recording at legendary producer/engineer Matt Wallace's studio in Oakland and his overall impressions of San Francisco from his brief stay in the area. We also hear about the origins of Spahn Ranch, their place on the fringes of the Detroit hardcore/post-punk underground, and the eventual formation of Odell's next band, Majesty Crush, out of the remnants of Spahn Ranch's latter-day lineup.Links, show notes, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/wca-podcast-ep-21-odell-nails Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

The multifaceted Mark Gergis takes us through a few decades' worth of his wide-ranging travels (musical and otherwise), from growing up in the East Bay and discovering Negativland in 1985 to co-founding Mono Pause with Peter Conheim in the early '90s to traveling throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the 2000s and beyond.We also talk about his involvement with Sublime Frequencies (which dates back to the I Remember Syria and Cambodian Cassette Archive compilations from 2003 and 2004, respectively), the relationship between the Oakland and San Francisco scenes in the '90s and '00s, and the common threads that unite his recordings/performances as Porest with his archival/curatorial work. (Oh yes, and also about assassinating Henry Kissinger—metaphorically, of course.) Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2024/01/04/wca-podcast-ep-19-mark-gergis/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

We begin with a brief flashback/rewind to the very beginning, as Joe answers a question I'd somehow never thought to ask before—namely, why "Truckin'" (of all songs)?From there, we fast-forward back to mid-1983 and then wind our way through the Joe's Second Record (1984) and Joe's Third Record eras (1985-1986), with Joe sharing his memories of seeing Gregg Turkington (and eventual Pop-O-Pies guitarist) Kirk Heydt's short-lived band Hello Kitty on Ice; transitioning from 415 Records to Subterranean Records; touring the Southwest with the Bill Gould/Mike Bordin lineup of the Pop-O-Pies; working with producer Tom Mallon; and salvaging Joe's Third Record in the wake of some recording-studio disasters.As if that weren't enough, Joe also offers his observations on the "punk-rock winter" of the late 1980s ("It just seemed like some kind of entity was trying to ... not completely obliterate independent music, but temporarily derail it for a time") and then walks us through his unique take on rock 'n' roll history as a series of 12-year cycles beginning in 1952 and ending in the year 2000.Finally, there are some recollections of the 1993 "In Frisco" / "Squarehead" sessions (with Trey Spruance, Danny Heifetz, and Atom Ellis), as well as a bit about Joe's latter-day rock operetta "Lenny in Wonderland" and the recent reissue of the Pop-O-Pies' White EP.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/11/22/wca-podcast-ep-17-joe-pop-o-pie-pt-2/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

Much like previous guest Vincent Albarano, Ryan Weinstein is someone I met earlier this year via social media but had never actually spoken to before interviewing him for this podcast. Under the name Coffin Prick, he released his debut "solo" album Laughing (Sophomore Lounge) earlier this year—a colorful and gently warped collection of songs and instrumentals that brings to mind Ralph Records, Kramer/Shimmy Disc, and the Butthole Surfers at their most melodic.In this interview, we talk about Ryan's early experiences as a member of sludge/stoner metal band Cavity; the time he booked Neil Hamburger to play in Miami; the influence of Ralph Records acts such as Tuxedomoon, Snakefinger, and the Residents on his music; and the process of recording Laughing and subsequently performing the material live (with two different backing bands) in L.A. and Chicago, respectively.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/10/26/wca-podcast-ep-15-ryan-weinstein-coffin-prick/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

For this "bonus episode" of the podcast, we speak with Vincent Albarano about his recently published book Aesthetic Deviations: A Critical View of American Shot-on-Video Horror 1984-1994 (Headpress) as well as his one-off zine, Pinhead Music, which delves into the strange-but-true history of the underground music scene in Keyser, West Virginia (population:~5,000). during the '80s and '90s.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/09/13/wca-podcast-vincent-albarano/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

As a drummer, Phil Franklin has been a key member of bands including Caroliner, Faxed Head, and Sunburned Hand of the Man. As a singer-songwriter, he heads up Franklin's Mint, whose most recent album, Temporary,, was recorded in Australia (where Phil moved in 2019) with help from Mr. Bungle's Danny Heifetz. In this interview, we touch on all of the above, along with Mr. Franklin's memories of touring Japan, his thoughts on the New Weird America moniker, and his days in the late '80s groups Egg and the Dukes o' Pop alongside eventual Presidents of the United States of America frontman Chris Ballew.Links, show notes, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/07/24/wca-podcast-ep-11-phil-franklin Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I speak with Patty Stirling, writer and co-founder (along with editor-in-chief Katherine Spielman) of the zine Puncture. We talk about her initial experiences with the Bay Area punk/hardcore zine, her involvement with Puncture; her impressions of Toiling Midgets, Black Humor, Mark Pauline/Survival Research Laboratories, and Courtney Love (among others); her memories of various San Francisco music venues; and her travels to Australia and other far-flung locales from the late '80s onward.Show notes, links, and music credits: https://whocaresanywaysf.wordpress.com/2023/06/22/wca-podcast-ep-9-patty-stirling-puncture-zine/ Get full access to Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco... at whocaresanywaysf.substack.com/subscribe