100 Words Or Less: The Podcast

Mike Morales grew up skateboarding and playing in a power violence band in Lompoc, a small Central Coast town far from any real scene, before those friendships pulled him into Initiate. We trace that path into the band, into writing Cerebral Circus (the record where Initiate let acoustic guitars and huge choruses sit next to their heaviest material), and into what it's like touring with a band now spread across three states. Mike also gets into the gap between what a band looks like online and what it actually feels like from inside the van, plus watching hardcore grow up around Initiate since 2016.
Long Live Andy Williams
PRE-ORDER THE BOOK FOR 100 WORDS OR LESS

Weekly Recommendation Playlist brought to you by Evil Greed
Apple Music
Spotify

Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube
Rockabilia sells you officially licensed Merch from ALL your favorite bands (and your Dad's favorite band, your siblings etc...). Use the promo code 100WORDSORLESS for 10% off your order.
Get 10% off your Evil Greed order by using the code NEVERSLEEP (for a limited time only)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Christine Goodwyne has been building Pool Kids since she was two people short of a band, booking backyard shows in Tallahassee before there was even a name on the flyer. Nearly a decade later, the group has a Hayley Williams cosign, a flooded studio they somehow saved, a hardcore alter ego born as an April Fool's joke, and three albums that trace a path from math-rock tangents to pop hooks, most recently Easier Said Than Done on Epitaph Records.
This episode, Christine sits down to talk through the parts of the story that don't usually make the press cycle: what it actually takes to survive as an independent band inside the modern music business, what made Florida's DIY scene both a launchpad and a complicated place to come up in, and yes, an honest attempt at ranking math rock bands, because someone had to ask.
PRE-ORDER THE BOOK FOR 100 WORDS OR LESS

Weekly Recommendation Playlist brought to you by Evil Greed
Apple Music
Spotify

Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube
Rockabilia sells you officially licensed Merch from ALL your favorite bands (and your Dad's favorite band, your siblings etc...). Use the promo code 100WORDSORLESS for 10% off your order.
Get 10% off your Evil Greed order by using the code NEVERSLEEP (for a limited time only)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robin Staps started The Ocean in Berlin in 2000 as a revolving cast of musicians before locking into the band's most stable lineup in 2009. Twenty plus years and seven albums later, the group's blend of post metal, prog, and sludge has taken them from Siberian squats to European festival mainstages, and Staps runs Pelagic Records, the label he built alongside the band that's become one of Europe's key homes for post metal and post rock.
In this conversation, Robin talks through The Ocean's first ever full US tour, what it's like bringing a band built on European infrastructure and audiences into American rooms for the first time, and how the reception compares to what he expected. He also runs down his all time top five European hardcore bands, tracing the records and scenes that shaped him before The Ocean existed. And he gets into creative balance, how he manages songwriting, running a label, and touring without losing the thread on any of it.
A look at two decades of restless work from one of European heavy music's most consistent architects.
Weekly Recommendation Playlist brought to you by Evil Greed
Apple Music
Spotify

Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube
Rockabilia sells you officially licensed Merch from ALL your favorite bands (and your Dad's favorite band, your siblings etc...). Use the promo code 100WORDSORLESS for 10% off your order.
Get 10% off your Evil Greed order by using the code NEVERSLEEP (for a limited time only)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brian Gorsegner has spent his life circling the same scene from every angle. He fronted Night Birds until the band's final show at the end of 2022, books tours for acts like Alice Bag Band, Career Suicide, and Generacion Suicida through his company Wired Booking, and sits on the town council in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. But most people know him as the guy behind Ancient Artifax, the Instagram account turned archive turned book that's been unearthing punk history since a single Big Boys 7" post back in December 2016.
In this conversation, Brian talks about booking bands for a living versus collecting the artifacts of a scene that existed decades before he could buy a ticket to it, the strange economics of Discogs and what a first pressing is actually worth once nostalgia and scarcity collide, and what's sitting in his "fire box," the small stack of records he'd grab first if the house was going up in flames. He also opens up about the human side of building the Ancient Artifax book, tracking down items through people like John Brannon and Nathan Strejcek and hearing the stories behind them firsthand.
Weekly Recommendation Playlist brought to you by Evil Greed
Apple Music
Spotify

Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube
Rockabilia sells you officially licensed Merch from ALL your favorite bands (and your Dad's favorite band, your siblings etc...). Use the promo code 100WORDSORLESS for 10% off your order.
Get 10% off your Evil Greed order by using the code NEVERSLEEP (for a limited time only)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before Springfield, Illinois had much of a scene to speak of, Ladd Mitchell was already building one, first with Park, then Tiger Tank, logging years on the road during the golden run of early-2000s midwest emo. We talk about joining Park mid-formation and becoming the one constant across four lineups, chasing a deal all the way to a small Santa Barbara label, and what a yearlong nonstop tour actually does to a band. We also get into the breakup, the return, and how the same restlessness that wrote songs on tour eventually turned into his first novel. This one's about staying creative no matter what circumstance you're handed: van breakdowns, lineup changes, or a blank page twenty years later.
Weekly Recommendation Playlist brought to you by Evil Greed
Apple Music
Spotify

Subscribe to the podcast on YouTube
Rockabilia sells you officially licensed Merch from ALL your favorite bands (and your Dad's favorite band, your siblings etc...). Use the promo code 100WORDSORLESS for 10% off your order.
Get 10% off your Evil Greed order by using the code NEVERSLEEP (for a limited time only)
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.