William Carlos Whitten on The Bottom Forty Radio Show/Podcast

 

psyched to be on legend Greg Glover's radio show

LISTEN HERE: https://podscan.fm/podcasts/the-bottom-forty

Transcription:

The episode explores new music from Preoccupations, Seam, Ezra Furman, and McCluskey, along with a focus on the Irish artist Maria Somerville and a new collaborative project by Bill Whitten and Diana Crash.

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Up next, a songwriter and author that I think is one of the best on this mess of a planet we live on. Bill Whitten was originally based in Hartford, Connecticut, moved to New York City, and fell in love with everything good and bad the Lower East Side had to offer. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he formed the band St. Johnny, and they were eventually signed to Geffen Records and often unfairly compared to Sonic Youth. 

But once that band dissolved, he formed the criminally overlooked band Grand Mal that sounded like Mott the Hoople teaming up with Johnny Thunder's Heartbreakers. They acted a lot like them, too. Well, Whitten has since moved to the Midwest, put down the bad vices other than coffee. After all, who can quit that? Picked up his pen again, and in addition to writing excellent short stories, he has a book out called BRUTES that I highly recommend. Anyhow, it rivals the work of Tom Jones, if you're familiar with that author, a great writer, T-H-O-M. 

Anyhow, Bill Whitten has got a new project, and this new one features someone else singing Whitten's songs. And, of course, she's just as mysterious of a figure as Whitten is. Her name is Diana Crash. We know that. And the two met in a laundromat. They have this new project together that I'm absolutely loving. Imagine if the Kills cared more for their songs these days than they do their fashion, or if Mazzy Star were formed not on the West Coast but on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1980s. And you have a good idea of this. 
 
Heck, have a listen for yourself right now. This is William Carlos Whitten and Diana Crash's new project. The album is called Telepaths. Really great stuff. Here's I'm Gone, Don't Look For Me, I'll Never Be Back. And you discovered it first right here on the Bottom 40.