This very special emergency July Fourth Election Day Special is my attempt to make the case that Joe Biden must step aside and allow for an open Democratic convention. The arguments and dire predictions I share this episode are not meant to stir panic or fear, they are intended only to encourage action. I call this an 'Election Day Special' because I, perhaps naively, believe that if enough voters raised their voices now to demand Biden step aside it might help sway the powers making this...

Episode 92 is finally here, featuring the return of musician, DC punk and now AUTHOR Seth Lorinczi. Last time we spoke back on Ep 62 we said we’d talk again when his book was released and I’m happy so say that day has come! Writing show notes is my absolute least favorite part of making this podcast so here’s my first show notes written in with ChatGPT:  Episode Overview In this episode of the TraegerMethod Podcast, host Jason Traeger sits down with Seth Lorinczi, the author of the...

Episode 91 is a conversation with New York based artist, musician, curator, zine maker, scene maker Rich Jacobs. After having moved in often overlapping punk rock/DIY friend circles for the better parts of our lives, I’m happy to say Rich and I finally got to know one another in the early days of the pandemic talking over the phone, just like we're doing here. This episode covers his early years, discovering punk rock as a preteen in the early eighties, his family’s moves from So Cal to the...

TraegerMethod podcast has finally made it to the 90’s! Appropriately  Ep.90 is a conversation with a friend I met in the Olympia scene of the 1990’s; punk rock n’ roll multi-instrumentalist powerhouse Jessica Espeleta. She shares the story of how she arrived in Oly as a teenager when she was recruited to give the scene a try by the guys in Lync after a show they played at 924 Gilman where she was volunteering. Her decision to jump in the van not only led to a new town but it also marked the...

Episode 89 marks the return Chris Squire for part 2 of our series that tells a history of San Diego punk through the life and lens of one of the scene’s legends. Our conversation picks up where the last one left off in the latter part of 80’s toward the end of Squire’s high school career and the end of the old school SD punk scene. Part 2 moves into the acid drenched, post-hardcore years that in many ways were just as wild and wooly as the earlier period but were far more experimental and...

Episode 88 marks the return of TM Pod’s VERY FIRST guest Los Angeles based creative / clown Paul Schlesinger. Paul is one of my best friends and favorite collaborators so it’s a special pleasure to catch up with him in the pod context. Our conversation focuses on his life today learning, producing and performing in the very happening LA ‘clown community’.  He explains that modern clowning has roots stretching back to European traditional clowning and the circus clowns which most of us...

The podcast is back. We were gone for a spell. Now we’re back. Episode 87 finds us easing back into the podwaters with a low-key ‘comfort food’ conversation between myself and TMpod regular Sean Kelly (father, Tight Bros From Way Back When, SUBPOP, K Records, west coast punk rock real one) We share a warm hearted conversation that touches on the joy of vinyl records, old guitars, self directed programs of learning and growing and other stuff that confirms we are walking, talking embodied...

Hello and welcome! Our ‘Legends of San Diego Punk’ series continues on the pod… Episode 86 is a conversation with one of the great flyer artists of early 80’s ‘Slow Death’ scene, the very talented artist / tattooer Bobby Lane. Bobby paints a picture of his experiences going to his first shows as a teenager in 1980 just as the ‘hardcore’ era was adding a new even more aggressive and stripped down feel to the punk/new wave style that came before. He shares memories of San Diego /...

Hello and Welcome, dear listener.   Episode 86 is the beginning of a conversation with San Diego punk legend Chris Squire. Chris has done it all, he’s run a record label, booked bands, done sound production, and he’s either sung, played bass, guitar or drums in a ton of bands; PG13, The Tori Cobras, Belle Cora, Tit Wrench, Tiltwheel, Battalion of Saints, Russian Tremors, Kerosene, Tar Halos, Dark Sarcasm, TV Eye, Digital Leather, Bizarro Son, No Laughing Matter, Dog Boy, Royal Pains, Half...

Episode 84 is a conversation between myself, Lia Friedman and Britt Neubacher celebrating the life of artist and musician Rick Froberg. Lia and Britt have been friends for decades and the two were close friends of Rick’s going back to the 80’s. Britt tells us how in recent years her relationship with Rick transformed into an intimate partnership that she felt was still only beginning at the time of his untimely death. While Britt is a new friend of mine, I’ve known Lia since we were...

Episode 83 is a conversation with prolific podcaster and veteran DC punk Brian Gathy.  Brian is co-host of End On End, a pod that examines every Discord Records title in the order they were released, he also singlehandedly produces and hosts The Unanimous Hour dedicated to deciphering the fractal brilliance of DC band Lungfish’s catalog of songs as well as Dweller On the Threshold which explores the music of Van Morrison. Our conversation touches on those projects but the bulk of our...

Episode 82 is a free-form conversation with TMpod bestie Sean Kelly (Tight Bros From Way Back When bassist, Derrick Tape originator, Father etc.) Together we talk: Sean's pre-punk years as a Marine kid moving around, Toronto radio in the early 80's, San Diego 'Alternative' format pioneer 91X, the lives and careers of Sinead O'Connor and Pee Wee Herman, UFO/UAP disclosure, the horrors of Late-Stage Capitalism, and our mutual rediscovered love of playing music and musical gear among other...

Hello Deathless Neverborn, I had to toss a conversation with previous TM pod guest Don Ankrom because of some technical difficulties (aka heavy nose breathing on my part and a non-stop barking wiener dog named Enzo) so I am offering TM pod listeners a remix of that episode's introduction with some of my music thrown in for color and intrigue. It's a new twist on the podcast you love. ...you do love it right? Some links of people and places mentioned in the episode: Host of the open mic I...

Episode 80 is a celebration of Rick Froberg's life and a celebration of life in general. I'm flying solo here, strolling down memory lane on a summer morning. When I started the TMpod I did so with the goal of connecting and reconnecting with old friends and sharing those conversations with whoever might want to listen. Rick was an early guest (Episode 15) because he was top of my list of people I wanted to reconnect with. I loved the guy even though we hadn't hung out in years. I always...

TraegerMethod Pod Episode 79 celebrates the return of writer, NO IDOLS HC kingpin Tony Rettman!  Tony has literally written the book on hardcore punk having penned three crucial books on the subject; NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980-1990 ,  Straight Edge and his first book Why Be Something That You’re Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985. That book is about to be reissued in a new edition on June 21st through Revelation Records.Tony will have 100 signed copies with the rare green cover available...

As the episode title suggests Episode 78 is The Very Special ‘Jason finally got Covid 19’ Special episode of the TM pod. A solo thang recorded straight from my sick bed, in it I share some body sounds and assorted horror, tales of the virus, live music reviews, thoughts on my own musical journey and our entertainment saturated culture and some of my current flix pix from the streaming services. I also celebrate the lives and music of Tina Turner and Elliot Smith. Heretofore and furthermore...

Hello and welcome and HAPPY SPRING. Episode 77 is the return of Hutch Harris to the pod. We talk about the formation of his new band Clear Rivers with Jordan Hudson the original drummer of his beloved former band The Thermals. The band's recently released self titled LP is out now and it's a smash that listeners must check out. We also talk pretty extensively about psychedelics and the pro's and cons of altered states of mind. There's also a bit of discussion of home recording and the...

Here's a different way to do show notes. EPISODE 76 Intro: Spring has arrived. Mindfulness. GUEST: Marc Maxey Bio: bass / guitar / singer Justice League, Pollen  Art, The Killing Flame, Slothfist Co-owner (with Justice League bandmate Ryan Hoffman) of Quiet Panic Records Date/Place of our first meeting: Southern California Early/mid 1980’s  Conversation notes: Inland Empire/Pomona punk history: Toxic Shock Records  Fartblossom Records / Bob Durkee Straight edge hardcore...

Hello and welcome! Episode 75 is a conversation with my old friend, Texas / Bay Area punk legend Gary Floyd. Possessing one of the most distinctive, soulful voices of the first wave of US hardcore punk fronting his band The Dicks Gary was always more than a singer; he was a trailblazing ‘out’ queer icon from the get-go. I mean just consider what it meant to be punk band in Texas called ‘The Dicks’ with a communist hammer and sickle in their logo fronted by a singer who at times looked like...

It has been my great privilege to count this week’s guest low-end legend Christopher Sutton as a friend for near three decades now. Episode 74 marks his TMpod debut, the first of many appearances I hope! The conversation starts at the beginning, wherein we meet a young Chris in the 80’s walking down the strip mall streets of his hometown of Lacey, WA carrying his new $208 bass guitar toward home where he would begin practicing his hair metal bass shredding.  It wasn’t until his mom insisted...

We’ve had run of Olympia music history episodes on the pod but with this one we’re heading south on i-5 and sprinkling in some stand-up comedy history. Episode 73 is a conversation with my good friend, stand-up comic and 90’s/00’s Portland punk Gabe Dinger. Now based in Los Angeles, Gabe and I met in 2011 when we were both working the stand-up stages of Portland. Gabe was one of my favorite established comics on the scene and after becoming friends we bonded further on our shared punk...

So good to have Pete back on the pod. This episode Pete Chramiec and I stretch the very definition of what a podcast can be. For instance, together we prove that a podcast CAN consist of two late-middle age men looking through some old stickers and flyers in real time. We also demonstrate that if you space out a guest’s appearances it really doesn’t matter if we tell the same stories we’ve already talked about. Podcasting is a very intimate medium, I hope my voice feels like the voice of a...

It was a real thrill talking with Seattle punk/hardcore/thrash LEGEND Blaine Cook for episode 71. As a kid coming of age in the pre-Grunge Seattle punk scene of the early 80’s, for me and my friends The Fartz set the standard of what it meant to be a hardcore band. Their name sometimes drew snickers from the uninitiated but the intensity of their live shows and recordings, which owed everything to Blaine’s guttural sandpaper delivery, immediately dispelled any idea that this was some kind of...

Episode 70 is a SOLO MINI-SODE. I've decided that here in season/year three of the podcast I am going to release an interview episode and a solo episode alternating weekly. If you subscribe and support the pod because you love the conversations I have with musicians, artists and friends NOTHING IS CHANGING you will still get an episode like that every other week, just like you've been getting. The difference is now you will ALSO be getting another episode in-between those ones. These solo...