Corin Ashley's guest appearances

Corin Ashley

The Department of Tangents Podcast

Lily Tomlin

Emma Willmann

Tyler Childers

Dana Gould

Paul Tremblay

Jim Breuer

Rita Rudner

Lou Gramm

Sasheer Zamata

Daniel Sloss

Myq Kaplan

Shane Torres

Josh Johnson

Guy Branum

Julie Goldman

OwlTail

Fern Brady

Corin Ashley was in the middle of recording his powerful new rock and roll album Broken Biscuits in January of 2016 when his plans were derailed by a stroke. He was at the gym, feeling a bit numb, with a grey band obstructing his vision. That began what would be a nightmare scenario for anyone, much less a musician in the middle of a project. With the help of medical specialists and a voice coach, Ashley had to learn how to sing and play all over again. What used to be instinctual became purposeful. His fingers didn’t recognize the fretboard of his guitar, and his vocal cords were paralyzed.   Ashley is back now, almost fully recovered, with just a few lingering effects. He’s back onstage, and back out promoting Broken Biscuits. The album was half finished when he had his stroke, and that influenced the songwriting, though Ashley would prefer not to be too on-the-nose about which songs in particular were written about the experience later. It’s a dynamic album, full of pop hooks with a big rock sound reminiscent of Queen and Mott the Hoople, but he also includes lighter touches like "Powder Your Face with Sunshine," which was a hit for Dean Martin in 1948. You can find the album on iTunes or on Ashley’s Web page. He was very open about his stroke and recovery in this conversation, and I thank him for coming out to the new podcast kitchen to talk. There was a technical glitch at the end of the interview, and the last part of the initial conversation was lost, including a big chunk about his recovery. The podcast is split into two section, including the original conversation and a follow-up by phone to expand on his medical experiences and how that influenced the music. We compared experiences -- his with stroke recovery and mine with recovering from my first MS attack to come back to playing guitar and drums. Unfortunately, in between the two interviews, we lost Tom Petty, so we took a few minutes to talk about the huge hole he leaves in rock and roll. In the first section, we go through his musical history, starting with his early band The Pills, and how they navigated the grunge era, letting his singer-songwriter and Beatles influences loose as a solo performer, and recording at Abbey Road. Afterwards, stick around for a track from Fern Brady’s new album, Male Comedienne, in which she discusses her femininity and Twitter comments.

<a href="http://www.corinashley.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Corin Ashley</a> was in the middle of recording his powerful new rock and roll album Broken Biscuits in January of 2016 when his plans were derailed by a stroke. He was at the gym, feeling a bit numb, with a grey band obstructing his vision. That began what would be a nightmare scenario for anyone, much less a musician in the middle of a project. With the help of medical specialists and a voice coach, Ashley had to learn how to sing and play all over again. What used to be instinctual became purposeful. His fingers didn’t recognize the fretboard of his guitar, and his vocal cords were paralyzed. Ashley is back now, almost fully recovered, with just a few lingering effects. He’s back onstage, and back out promoting Broken Biscuits. The album was half finished when he had his stroke, and that influenced the songwriting, though Ashley would prefer not to be too on-the-nose about which songs in particular were written about the experience later. It’s a dynamic album, full of pop hooks with a big rock sound reminiscent of Queen and Mott the Hoople, but he also includes lighter touches like "Powder Your Face with Sunshine," which was a hit for Dean Martin in 1948. You can find the album on iTunes or on <a href="http://www.corinashley.com/#discography" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Ashley’s Web page</a>. He was very open about his stroke and recovery in this conversation, and I thank him for coming out to the new podcast kitchen to talk. There was a technical glitch at the end of the interview, and the last part of the initial conversation was lost, including a big chunk about his recovery. The podcast is split into two section, including the original conversation and a follow-up by phone to expand on his medical experiences and how that influenced the music. We compared experiences -- his with stroke recovery and mine with recovering from my first MS attack to come back to playing guitar and drums. Unfortunately, in between the two interviews, we lost Tom Petty, so we took a few minutes to talk about the huge hole he leaves in rock and roll. In the first section, we go through his musical history, starting with his early band The Pills, and how they navigated the grunge era, letting his singer-songwriter and Beatles influences loose as a solo performer, and recording at Abbey Road. Afterwards, stick around for a track from <a href="https://twitter.com/FernBrady?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Fern Brady</a>’s new album, Male Comedienne, in which she discusses her femininity and Twitter comments.

DoT EP41: Corin Ashley On Broken Biscuits and Stroke Recovery, plus New Comedy from Fern Brady

Nate Dern

When I started reading Nate Dern’s new book, Not Quite A Genius, I was expecting a collection of comic personal essays, that being a popular format at the moment. I got that in pieces about being a minor reality television star and hipster vegetarianism, but I also got strange stories about insomnia and dream killers, a piece about the lifespan about a computer becoming self-aware and having an immediate existential crisis. Some of them are silly, some of them are political and pointed at subjects like anti-vaxxing and global warming. At times in Genius, Dern will open in first person, and you have to wonder if he’s writing as himself or if we’re going to find out a few paragraphs down that the narrator is a robot or a vampire. And it makes for a wonderfully disorienting transition from piece to piece.  Dern is a writer first, a senior writer at Funny Or Die, but he’s also an actor and a director – he’s had walk on parts in Gossip Girl and Boardwalk Empire, and he directed some short films to promote the book as he was writing it and appears in some Funny Or Die shorts. You can see one of those next month in the Department of Tangents Second Annual Daily Horror Film Fest. Dern is also a stand-up comedian and an improviser, and was formerly Artistic Director at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. He’s been a lot of things, but before starting work on the book, he was not a personal essayist. In this interview, he mentioned how he wrote these essays at the request of his editor. Now he’s hooked, so don’t be surprised if you see more of that from him in the near future. If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can ask to read the dissertation he’s working on at Columbia, part of his plan to eventually land a teaching job. After the interview, stick around for a new track from Corin Ashley, next week's podcast guest, from his new album Broken Biscuits. Ashley recently stopped by the newly constructed Podcast Kitchen in Lynn, Ma to talk about the album and his experience as a stroke survivor. The track is called “Magpie Over Citadel,” and you can find the album on iTunes and wherever you buy good music.

When I started reading <a href="http://www.natedern.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Nate Dern</a>’s new book, Not Quite A Genius, I was expecting a collection of comic personal essays, that being a popular format at the moment. I got that in pieces about being a minor reality television star and hipster vegetarianism, but I also got strange stories about insomnia and dream killers, a piece about the lifespan about a computer becoming self-aware and having an immediate existential crisis. Some of them are silly, some of them are political and pointed at subjects like anti-vaxxing and global warming. At times in Genius, Dern will open in first person, and you have to wonder if he’s writing as himself or if we’re going to find out a few paragraphs down that the narrator is a robot or a vampire. And it makes for a wonderfully disorienting transition from piece to piece. Dern is a writer first, a senior writer at <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Funny Or Die</a>, but he’s also an actor and a director – he’s had walk on parts in Gossip Girl and Boardwalk Empire, and he directed some short films to promote the book as he was writing it and appears in some Funny Or Die shorts. You can see one of those next month in the Department of Tangents Second Annual <a href="http://nickzaino.com/departmentoftangents/tag/daily-horror-film-fest/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Daily Horror Film Fest</a>. Dern is also a stand-up comedian and an improviser, and was formerly Artistic Director at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. He’s been a lot of things, but before starting work on the book, he was not a personal essayist. In this interview, he mentioned how he wrote these essays at the request of his editor. Now he’s hooked, so don’t be surprised if you see more of that from him in the near future. If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can ask to read the dissertation he’s working on at Columbia, part of his plan to eventually land a teaching job. After the interview, stick around for a new track from <a href="http://www.corinashley.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Corin Ashley,</a> next week's podcast guest, from his new album Broken Biscuits. Ashley recently stopped by the newly constructed Podcast Kitchen in Lynn, Ma to talk about the album and his experience as a stroke survivor. The track is called “Magpie Over Citadel,” and you can find the album on iTunes and wherever you buy good music.

DoT EP40: The Near Genius of Nate Dern plus New Music from Corin Ashley