Interview: BJ Rubin

Interview of BJ Rubin by Patrick Benny (Tokyo's Coolest Sound)

BJ Rubin is the New Yorker who is behind the eclectic TV show titled "The BJ Rubin Show" that's currently being aired on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN). The show has been going on for over 10 years, it features lots of music segments, and it's edited in a captivating unique style.

I had the chance to meet BJ when he was visiting Tokyo in 2018, and while I already had the show's soundtrack (which featured music by Mark Robinson of label Teen-Beat, an artist who I'm a big fan of), meeting him prompted me to check out more of his show and I've been loving it! I have had the pleasure of helping BJ a bit with English subtitling from Japanese and French, and the latest show even featured a commercial of Tokyo's Coolest Sound (even soundtracked by Mark!)!

The show having plenty of good music and even some hints of Japan, I'm certain that it will also entertain this site's readers. So here's an interview with BJ Rubin who will tell us many details about his show all while leading us to watch his latest and favorite episodes and segments.

— What inspired you to do your show? How long have you been producing it?

BJ Rubin: I was (and continue to be) inspired by a wide variety of artists, musicians, filmmakers and performers. "TV Party" was a legendary New York cable access show in the 70s/80s hosted by Glenn O'Brien and Blondie guitarist Chris Stein (it also featured a 16-year-old Basquiat as a series regular when he was still a local graffiti artist). "The Beat Club" was a television show in Germany in the 60s/70s that had musical performances by pretty much everyone good and often had psychedelic visuals to match. You've probably seen "SNL". Peter Ivers had a show in the 80s called "New Wave Theatre" that featured weird comedy and the best of the local LA underground music scene. I was watching "The Richard Pryor Show" when I came up with the idea for my show, which is one of the reasons I named it after myself. Ernie Kovacs had a bunch of shows in the 50s that were groundbreaking. Who doesn't love "The Simpsons"? Chris Morris had a number of amazing TV shows in the UK, including "Brasseye" (a biting news satire from the 90s), "The Day Today" (which he produced with Armando Iannucci who went on to create "Veep", it also featured a young Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge), "Nathan Barley" (with "Black Mirror" creator Charlie Brooker) and "Jam" (my favorite). If you haven't seen "Doggy Fizzle Televizzle" (Snoop Dogg's MTV sketch show), I highly recommend it. Luis Buñuel is a huge influence on my work, "Un Chien Andalou" changed the way I looked at filmmaking and showed me that it can be anything you want it to be (not bad for a film that came out in 1929). The work of Chris Burden had a profound effect on my thinking and the way I see art and the world (if you don't know him, his most famous work was having a friend shoot him in the shoulder with a rifle, which of course he filmed too). I have a Black Flag tattoo, to remind myself that you can do it yourself if you put your mind to it. I grew up listening to punk music and playing in bands and putting on shows and there are a million bands from that genre that inspired and influenced me but if I had to name one that would be it. The Velvet Underground is a group that I still listen to regularly, I don't know where I'd be without Lou Reed. Tony Conrad recorded drone music and made avant-garde films, his most famous being "The Flicker" (don't watch it if you are prone to epilepsy though). Karlheinz Stockhausen was a controversial 20th century composer from Germany, an electronic music pioneer who influenced just about everyone (including The Beatles, who used his image on the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"). Dischord Records were able to help a number of DC bands (including their own) gain national awareness without having to sign to a major label. Ze Records is one of the coolest labels of all time, from NYC in the 70s/80s putting out records for The Contortions, Suicide and Lydia Lunch. Fast Product out of Scotland had some cool bands before they were famous, including The Human League and Gang of Four. Document Records dug up a bunch of old blues 78s and started reissuing them – each disc is organized first by artist, then chronologically by recording date. So cool! Repertoire Records is a label out of Germany that does amazing reissues of great records (particularly Progressive Rock) with bonus tracks, Belle Antique from Japan is doing the same (but with an obi). Speaking of Progressive Rock, do you know Premiata Forneria Marconi? Also called PFM, they were a progressive rock band from Italy in the 70s that I can't get enough of. They were really the only band from that scene to have fame outside of Italy, albeit just in the UK (thanks to ELP), but as a result they did English language versions of a few of their albums. A great Belgian progressive band was Cos, one of the few to feature a female vocalist. Catapilla were an amazing UK progressive band with female vocals too. Although Aphrodite's Child were Greek they lived in Paris and featured a young Vangelis (many years before he became famous as a film composer, scoring not only "Blade Runner" but winning an Oscar for his "Chariots of Fire" score) and the angelic vocals of Demis Roussos (swoon). Then there was Magma — a French progressive group with operatic vocals in an invented language called Kobaïan. I love Progressive Rock because of the level of difficulty involved — you truly had to be a master of your craft to play the music (it makes me want to practice practice practice). Connie Converse was a singer/songwriter from the 50s who did a few TV appearances and made a number of beautiful recordings, but they weren't released until well after her disappearance in the 70s. Bob Dylan is one of the greatest living artists, duh. This Heat. Neal Stephenson. Douglas Adams. Hunter S. Thompson. Peter F. Hamilton. Isaac Asimov. Philip K. Dick. Richard Brautigan. Homer. J. D. Salinger. Jean-Paul Sartre. Franz Kafka. Werner Heisenberg. Erwin Schrödinger. Niels Bohr. Vincent Van Gogh. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Man Ray. Marcel Duchamps. Pablo Picasso. Joan Miró. Henry Darger. Georgia O'Keefe. R. Crumb. Bill Traylor. John Kricfalusi. Jim Henson. Tex Avery. Stan Lee. Jack Kirby. Jean Dubuffet. Salvador Dali. Shigeru Miyamoto. Andy Warhol. Mike Oldfield. Sally Oldfield. Kevin Ayers. Funkadelic. Stereolab. Can. Clout. Cluster. Brian Eno. Talking Heads. Joni Mitchell. Doris Norton. Wendy Carlos. Suzanne Ciani. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. Silver Apples. Glenn Branca. Terry Riley. Steve Reich. Kid Baltan. Moondog. Nico. Vashti Bunyan. Tangerine Dream. Molam. Koji Kondo. Orange Juice. Yellow Magic Orchestra. La Monte Young. Bernard Parmegiani. Steve Hillage. Kraftwerk. Laurie Anderson. The Casual Dots. Slant 6. The Crainium. Crime. Crom-Tech. The Residents. The Screamers. The Units. X. Mocket. Jean-Jacques Perrey. Bruce Haack. Caterina Barbieri. Lio. Lizzy Mercier Descloux. The Waitresses. Sigrid. Giorgio Moroder. Diaouled Ar Menez. Erkin Koray. Ananda Samarakoon. Fairuz. Oum Kalthoum. Sefako Sa Menoaneng. Bikini Kill. Sleater-Kinney. Calvin Johnson. Kurt Cobain. Daniel Johnston. Captain Beefheart. Frank Zappa. The Fugs. Guided By Voices. Kaleidoscope. July. The Pretty Things. Tomorrow. Skip Bifferty. Nirvana (UK). Coptic Light. Glass Candy & The Shattered Theatre. Drive Like Jehu. Portraits Of Past. Sleepytime Trio. Universal Order Of Armageddon. Unwound. Fugazi. USAisamonster. The Monorchid. Void. Battles. Knyfe Hyts. Leadbelly. Devo. Joy Division. New Order. Kleenex. Nick Drake. Philip Glass. Fela Kuti. William Onyeabor. Mohinder. His Hero Is Gone. Man Is The Bastard. The VSS. The Champs. The Starlite Desperation. The Murder City Devils. Karp. Le Shok. A Minor Forest. Three Mile Pilot. Pee. Shonen Knife. The Spinanes. The Softies. Heavenly. The Vaselines. The Aislers Set. Best Friends Forever. The Clean. The Roches. Girls At Our Best! Dolly Mixture. The Raincoats. The Donnas. The Yummy Fur. Huggy Bear. Antioch Arrow. Moss Icon. June of 44. godheadSilo. Lync. Crystal Stilts. Elastica. The Fiery Furnaces. The Rondelles. The Go-Go's. Gowns. The Great Society. Swell Maps. Popol Vuh. Tubeway Army. The Mountain Goats. Donovan. France Gall. Leonard Cohen. Dolly Parton. Samantha Crain. Liz Phair. Suzanne Vega. Daler Mehndi. Richard Hell. Television. Rocket From The Tombs. Electric Eels. Dinosaur Jr. Sebadoh. Morphine. Karate. The Love of Everything. The Idle Race. Renaissance. Dire Straits. Van Halen. Michel Polnareff. The Monkees. The Replacements. Sugar. Pete Townshend. R.E.M. Raymond Scott. Daphne Oram. Psy. Creedence Clearwater Revival. The Field Mice. Jacno. Aretha Franklin. Ella Fitzgerald. Alice Coltrane. Mahavishnu Orchestra. Iceberg. N.W.A. Dr. Dre. Ice-T. Ice Cube. Kool Keith. Jurassic 5. M.I.A. Dirty Projectors. They Might Be Giants. Violent Femmes. Connie Stevens. Barbara. Robert Wyatt. Os Mutantes. Roy Wood. The Move. Yes. Nuno Canavarro. Conlon Nancarrow. The Rapture. Slint. Dust. Duster. Bedhead. Electrelane. PJ Harvey. Young Marble Giants. Fairport Convention. The Incredible String Band. C.O.B. Steeleye Span. Cressida. Eroc. The Moody Blues. Mudhoney. Guided By Voices. Guns N' Roses. The Good Good. Tears For Fears. Eurythmics. ESG. Liquid Liquid. No Age. Nuzzle. The Fall. Neu! Stiff Little Fingers. The Undertones. Curved Air. Anthony Phillips. Phil Collins. Cream. Yoko Ono. David Bedford. Wesley Willis. Kurt Vile. Chris Leo. Ted Leo. Taylor Swift. Miley Cyrus. The Smiths. The Magnetic Fields. Modest Mouse. The Promise Ring. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Retconned. Rah Bras. The Ex. The Pop Group. XTC. YMCK. The Need. Le Tigre. Les Savy Fav. Less Than Jake. Lifter Puller. Lightning Bolt. Lily & Madeleine. Lindisfarne. Love Of Diagrams. Beaches. Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Sea Scouts. R. Stevie Moore. The Easybeats. Bee Gees. E.L.O. T. Rex. Black Sabbath. Iron Maiden. Metallica. The Hollies. Jonathan Fire*Eater. Lemonheads. Pixies. The Breeders. The Modern Lovers. Jawbreaker. Green Day. Godley & Creme. Paddy Kingsland. Angus MacLise. Diplo. Del Shannon. Delta 5. Stevie Wonder. Prince. Primus. Public Image Ltd. AC/DC. Social Distortion. Bad Religion. Operation Ivy. Skankin' Pickle. Voodoo Glow Skulls. Rudiments. Rye Coalition. Faust. Frank Sidebottom. Ministry. Minutemen. Mission Of Burma. Parenthetical Girls. Pizzicato Five. Nostradamos. Socrates Drank The Conium. The Soft Boys. Wire. The Sonics. The Audience. Alfred Hitchcock. Edgar Wright. Christopher Nolan. Stanley Kubrick. David Cronenberg. Shane Carruth. Quentin Tarantino. Steven Spielberg. Gene Rodenberry. Lorne Michaels. Robert Zemeckis. Crispin Glover. Spike Lee. Spike Jonze. Charlie Chaplin. Federico Fellini. Sydney Pollack. Ub Iwerks. Ricky Gervais. Richard Branson. Mutt Lange. Tom Wilson. Joe Meek. Mark Wirtz. 13th Floor Elevators. West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Wendy & Bonnie. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. S.E. Rogie. Boredoms. OOIOO. Osanna. Out Hud. The Outsiders. Nick Garrie. Brinsley Schwarz. The Millennium. The United States Of America. The Zombies. Rodriguez. Nathan Abshire. The White Stripes. The Secret Stars. Jacques Dutronc. Burt Bacharach. Butch Willis. Ween. "Weird Al" Yankovic. Japanther. Surf City. Mahogany. Mates Of State. Mika Miko. Thanksgiving. The Trashmen. Earles & Jensen. The Mighty Boosh. Tim & Eric. Monty Python. George Lucas. George Washington. Benjamin Franklin. Abraham Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Jimmy Carter. Mahatma Gandhi. Marie Curie. Martin Luther King Jr. Kurt Vonnegut. John Fahey. Dario Argento. Goblin. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ivor Cutler. Ronnie Spector. Bill Murray. Neil Young. Iris DeMent. Johnny Cash. Peter La Farge. George Jones. Steve Martin. Dave Chapelle. Robert Johnson. Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Wim Mertens. Zs. Iannis Xenakis. Miles Davis. Herbie Hancock. Robert Moog. Hawkwind. Malala.

Lately I've been into watching video game speedruns. I love the dedication it takes to beat Super Mario Bros. as quickly as humanly possible. Being the best means mastering nearly impossible tricks and performing them repeatedly, one mistake and you have to start over. Speedrunners will often have tens of thousands of tries before breaking a world record. I find it inspiring. I also love video game music, which is a huge part of the games. I don't actually want to speedrun a video game myself, but I enjoy watching them and have tried to find ways of using that kind of dedication in the production of my show.

I've been producing my show for over 10 years, the first episode went up 28 December 2010 on BCAT (Brooklyn Cable Access Television) in Brooklyn. In 2011 I moved to Manhattan and started shooting at MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Network). Formerly a producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, now I work in outreach for the United Nations. Both of those experiences have further influenced my work as an artist and filmmaker. I started making videos with friends in high school and later studied film at UC Berkeley. I love music and comedy and art and film so television seemed like a good medium to work with.

— The look of your show is very unique, how did you develop it?

BJ: I started off with a classic cable access look, black curtain and red carpet. Then I discovered the green screen, and the more I used it the greater the possibilities I saw with it. I sort of got carried away, trying to jam as much energy into the show as I could. I think sometimes it can be too much for people — they find it overwhelming, but I like it. Whatever you see in the green screen comes from me somehow, be it a video I shot and treated or a photograph I took of a painting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. But I can't take all the credit, Richard Swanson from MNN helped me with the video feedback which greatly amplified what I was able to do with the green screen. The graphics are also an important element, from the beginning Lauren Martin has been a huge part of the show and although she plays keyboard in Frankie Cosmos and works as an illustrator she still makes time for me and produces work for the show. Alice Cohen has contributed some beautiful animations and musical performances as well. The show wouldn't be the same without the theme song, written by serial composer David Earl Buddin. Audio is super important (in many ways even more important than the visuals) — Geoff Duncanson has been a big help with live audio and Kris Lapke with post-production audio. Josh Bonati is an old friend who has pitched in from time to time as well. Jeremy Novak has been a regular behind-the-scenes contributor (he also played in a great band once upon a time called Dymaxion, they had a single on Stereolab's label if you must know).

Recently I returned to the black curtain, I wanted to try to make the show more accessible to a wider audience and I felt that the high energy green screen effects were turning some people off and made it difficult for them to watch (although others I think liked it more for the effects, but you can't please everyone all the time). It's a different process, when you use the green screen you kind of need to just brightly light everything on stage and try to make it even — otherwise stuff gets lost. When you use the black curtain lighting can be more subtle, you can use gels and different colors. It makes you focus on different elements. Process is key.

— How do you book your guests?

BJ: Many of the guests are people I know personally, although maintaining those relationships of course takes effort. Others were artists I saw perform and approached about being on the show. That is one of the most difficult parts about producing the show I would say, booking the guests. You have to follow up and persist. Some guests took 2 years (or more) to book! Rejection is a big part of it too, I ask significantly more people to appear (many of whom promise to and do not) than actually make it on the show. I also offer a small appearance fee to cover transportation costs to the studio, whether taking a cab or driving a car or even the train, it isn't free to get to MNN and it isn't fair to expect my guests to have to pay those expenses out of their own pocket. I think this helps show that I value their time and respect the difficulty in getting to the studio (particularly when it is a band with equipment). If I had to pick three of my favorite guests I would say Lætitia Sadier, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Black Dice, although I could go on: U.S. Girls, Dieter Moebius, Frankie Cosmos, Blues Control, Kate NV, Jeffrey Lewis, Mary Lattimore, Matthew James-Wilson, Rhys Chatham, Forma, Emel Mathlouthi, Billy G Robinson, Badge Époque Ensemble, Mr. Ibok, Owen Kline, Blue Jazz TV, Ye Young Lee, Kevin Shea, Sarah Sherman, Tana Quartet, Tandem Jump, etc.

— What is your favorite part about producing a show at MNN?

BJ: I love producing my show. I don't know where I'd be without it, probably dead or miserable (or worse). MNN is an amazing resource, one that is widely taken for granted (both by people who use it and people who don't). I certainly can't think of another room that I have access to where I can make a lot of noise that also has cameras, microphones, lights and a staff of people to help me use all those things. To do it anywhere else would be prohibitively expensive. The show gives me a positive place to put my energy, it gives me something to feel good about. Plus, I get to collaborate with talented artists and performers from all over the world, many of whom I now get to call friends. For instance — when I was a teenager, I loved a band called Unrest (I found their music on the MTV show "120 Minutes", they were on the 4AD label that Grimes is currently on). Now, Mark Robinson from Unrest composes original music for my show and is a friend. Getting to work with Mark is a real highlight, he is so easy to work with. I write him and ask for some music and he will often send me something later that day. I never have to follow up with him, he even follows up with me sometimes! I saw a Korean ocarina player perform at the UN and asked if she could play my show before she went back to Korea. She didn't speak English so her friend came over and informed me that they were performing at Carnegie Hall the next evening but could come after that. And they did! What other excuse would I have to work with such a diverse group of artists from all over the world? Diversity is important to me, particularly as I produce a variety show. I try to highlight the work of people from all cultures and backgrounds — I've had guests from every continent but Antarctica, speaking in ten different languages. I want to have more species on the show — so far, I've had dogs and cats but I would like to feature birds and lizards and giraffes and elephants (I actually did have an elephant as a guest once, whom I met in Sri Lanka). I want to feature more people with disabilities. A close friend is blind, and I often discuss with him what it's like for him to get around in and how he perceives the world. I enjoy discussing religion since I've learned so much from my Muslim, Hindu, and Christian friends at the UN (many of whom I've had as guests on the show). It is such an important outlet for me — honestly, I'd rather not imagine my life without it.

— Can you talk about some of the performers in the latest episode(s), and how they came to be a part of it?

BJ: I've been lucky in that I've been able to get some pretty amazing guests for my show over the years, and the performers in the most recent episode(s) are no exception. In addition to the previously mentioned Korean ocarina player (Ye Young Lee), there was the Tana Quartet from Belgium. I saw them play at my favorite CD store in New York City (the great Academy Records, I even did a commercial for them a few years ago), and asked how long they were in town and if they'd be interested in being on the show. It turned out they were around for another couple of days, so the next night they came up to the studio. They had just released an album of Philip Glass string quartets and were touring behind it. Philip Glass is one of my favorite composers so obviously I was thrilled. They came and had lunch with me the next day at the UN which was also a lot of fun. Tandem Jump is a local group just getting started out and I think they're great, it features my friends Tara and Luke. Tara I met somewhat recently but Luke I've known since I was in college. He's better known for playing in The Rapture but he has a few new projects as well and I'm a fan of his. We reconnected somewhat recently at my friend Yoko's monthly night at Honey's in Brooklyn, who coincidentally also has a segment on the show about takoyaki. She goes around to various cool events around town and makes takoyaki. So you know you're in the right place if you see Yoko. Luke invited me out to The Surf Club in Montauk to film him and Tara and Tandem Jump and The Rapture so there's also a clip of The Rapture from that afternoon. What a day that was! I had brought a couple GoPros (as I didn't have a crew) and took one swimming in the ocean with me and it immediately broke. Typical!! Luckily, I had another one and also asked their roadie Matt to shoot what he could with his iPhone while I stood up front with my own Sony camera. So it's a bit of a collage with all the different cameras but I think it worked out well. I also went to Union Pool one night with a small crew and shot Badge Époque Ensemble and U.S. Girls, both of whom have already appeared on the show many times over the years in different guises (Meg first appeared on the show back in 2013 in Pilot II, Part 1). Max and Meg are old friends, and we don't get to see much of each other so it's always nice to have them on the show. Plus their bands are great! Forma came in and played a new piece that I don't think they documented anywhere else, it was really great. A few days before the session a picture of La Monte Young and the Theatre of Eternal Music (don't forget Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela and John Cale were also in the group) was passed around for inspiration. As there is a large gong behind them in the pic, the band decided to rent a gong for the session. I was not disappointed! I originally saw Forma when they opened for Roedelius, the day after he played on my show! So it took some time and some back and forth before we were able to make it happen but eventually it did. Billy G Robinson, who is a national treasure (and also used to sing in the great B.T. Express) blessed us with a couple numbers. We're actually close, I'm helping him manage his career a bit and why wouldn't I want to be involved with someone so talented! I had the sincere pleasure of interviewing Mona Heftre in the South of France; she was a member of Le Grand Magic Circus and married to Jérôme Savary. Jérôme and the Circus are not super well known in the US but they are pretty famous in Europe. Emma and Nina (Mona's daughter) play in Lætitia Sadier's band and thus had been on my show before and stayed at my house. They invited me out to stay with them in Caves, a small town in the South of France where they live. How could I say no? When I arrived I met Mona and pretty much knew immediately I wanted to interview her for the show (of course I had no idea about the Circus or any of that before I got there). She also recorded an album of songs with Serge Rezvani, a famous French songwriter. He wrote “Le Tourbillon” which you might know from Jeanne Moreau singing it in "Jules et Jim", it is probably one of my all-time favorite songs and now I regret not having Mona sing it on the show! I also had a bunch of UN colleagues on, as I appreciate their perspective on the world. In addition to Lauren and Alice (mentioned before), Sasha Safir-Temple, Laura Heidotten and Ben Miller all contributed animations. The show wouldn't be the same without them! Although I will mention that much of the typography comes from fonts that I created specifically for the show — the subtitles are Lauren's handwriting and the credits as well as some of the titles for briefer segments are a font I created myself, inspired by Gary Panter's designs for "Pee Wee's Playhouse". I was working as a civilian peacekeeper doing graphic design at the UN, which was a bit of a stretch for me as I hadn't done much design other than a few album covers and flyers and such over the years, but I'm glad I took on the challenge because I had to familiarize myself with Adobe Illustrator and push myself as an artist. It's important to get outside your comfort zone! In any event I felt like I was hot with it and wanted more practice so after working all day at the UN using Illustrator I would come home and use it some more. Then I moved to a different office! But it was fun while it lasted.

— Your new episode "Back In Black" comes in three parts and totals over 4 hours! That sounds like a huge amount of work, how did you do it all?

BJ: I was watching "Stand And Deliver" recently and Edward James Olmos tells his students to take each calculus problem "step by step". And that's exactly how I produced over 4 hours of material for the show — step by step. The third season of the show had taken a lot out of me and I wasn't sure if or when I was going to start the fourth season. Then I went to Academy to see the Tana Quartet and I couldn't resist asking them on the show and they said yes! From there it's been quite the roller coaster ride, I put a lot of myself into the show and I hope it shows. When I was a kid I used to come home with skinned knees (and ripped pants, much to mother's chagrin) because I was always diving for the ball in handball or whatever sport I was playing. I feel like I'm still that kid but now the skinned knees are more metaphorical, I still play hard and hurt myself but it's less physical and more emotional. But you keep going like that and trying your best to get great guests and feature new acts and eventually you have a lot of material. The trick then is to edit it all into something that someone would actually want to watch, which I do with varying degrees of success (depending on who you ask). Editing is a long and difficult process but without it, there's no show (duh). I really obsessed over little details like what frame the subtitle should appear on and whether it's better to cut on the beat or the frame before the beat. As the months went by and I watched it over and over and over my feelings changed but I settled on the frame before the beat and two or three frames before they started saying the first word of the subtitle (FYI). I also taught myself how to do little tricks like click removal which actually is incredibly difficult and requires a lot of focus and attention but now there are far fewer clicks! I wish I could say there were no clicks but it is a cable access show after all, I'm never going to get the lighting 100% right all the time or be able to remove all the clicks. I did my best though! I tried to keep Part 1 succinct, so it clocks in at under 40 minutes, which is quite the feat as the third season was more like 60-90 minutes per episode. Part 2 is 90 minutes (bolstered by Forma's 40-minute piece), and Part 3 is of course about 150 minutes and is actually the longest episode of the show I've ever produced. There was just so much left over from Parts 1 & 2 that I felt would be interesting to somebody at some point. I don't necessarily expect everyone to sit and watch each episode from start to finish, people can skip around or watch however they want. There's a little treat there at the end of Part 3 if you make it all the way through, "The BJ Rubin Show" heads will find a little nugget that might just make the journey worth it. Of course, you can skip right to it but you don't get the health benefits unless you start from the beginning and watch it all the way through to the end...

— I'm a big fan of Mark Robinson, and even once went to Washington DC to see Flin Flon (for the TeenBeat 15th Anniversary). What led him to make soundtracks for "The BJ Rubin Show"? I'm so grateful that he even made the music that accompanies Tokyo's Coolest Sound's commercial!

BJ: I met Mark in 2005, I knew Nattles from Flin Flon and she invited me to go to dinner in New Jersey with her and Mark and Jeff from Aden. I didn't really know much about him at the time but the famous Uncle Floyd performed at this restaurant once a week and everyone was a huge fan except for me because I'd never heard of him lol. Uncle Floyd had a local television show in New Jersey for many years and was sort of a local celebrity. So it was kind of a special night for all of us, but I had never met Mark before and was a huge fan of Unrest and Teenbeat so it was a big deal for me. Uncle Floyd was great by the way, I think Mark recorded it too, I wonder if he's ever gone back and listened to that tape and what else is on it, what we all discussed at dinner that night? I'll have to ask him sometime. Anyway, a few years go by and I've started my own local television show and I invited Mark to come be a guest. It turned out that he had been keeping up with the show and was already a fan so he agreed! Since then he and his family have been regular guests on the show, it's funny but you can see his children growing up over time since the first time they appeared back in 2012. At first it was mostly his group Cotton Candy (he and his wife singing old radio commercials), but I realized that Mark would probably be great at composing background music for the show and I was not at all surprised to learn that I was absolutely correct. So he started doing much of the background music for the show since 2016, and we release soundtrack albums too so you can listen to the music independent of the show (FYI in addition to the show I run the Dick Move label and Pukekos blog where you can find all the soundtrack music and much more). He is so easy to work with, I love it! I went up and stayed with him and Evelyn and Dutch and Cardinal one weekend and we made a few animations together for the show that we used in the "Into The Void II" series of episodes (the Season 2 finale, which of course was spread out over 8 parts). My fondest memory of that weekend is walking Dutch to ballet class only to discover a record store directly downstairs from the dance studio. Mark and I certainly enjoyed killing that hour or so while Dutch was in class, I can't resist looking at CDs if I see them. I am obsessed with collecting CDs, I don't know a lot of other people with the same compulsion as most collectors these days are into vinyl. But CDs sound amazing and are easier to store and listen to — but most of all they are CHEAP and you can get some great stuff on CD that would be ridiculously expensive on vinyl. I went to a record store in LA (Rockaway Records, if you must know), and on the wall they had this super cool looking UK prog album from 1971 by a band called The Dog That Bit People for $2000. After looking around a little I found a copy of the album on CD for $3, with a bonus track! That's quite a savings!! To bring it full circle I have every Unrest album on CD, and if you've never heard them I highly recommend getting "Perfect Teeth" on whatever format you prefer! Or stream it or whatever (if you must).

— You mentioned your own label Dick Move, which can be found on Bandcamp. You've previously released your show's soundtracks as well as your own projects and some for other artists as well. Could you tell us about the latest release, Blue Jazz TV's album "Blue Ragu Volume 2: Live At Magick City"? I have been enjoying it a lot, and I noticed that it features Max Zuckerman whose solo album "The Corner Office" was just recently released on vinyl in Japan.

BJ: I am a collector — and I found that somehow, despite the fact that so much art and music and culture is being documented these days, there were still things that didn't exist that I wanted to add to my collection. I started Dick Move Records as a vinyl only label in 2009. The first release I did was a 12” single for the great Brooklyn band Knyfe Hyts. We did 100 copies in a silkscreened sleeve with a poster. You could only buy the record at a concert I put on for them in Williamsburg back in 2009. I personally signed each record over to the recipient that night, so if you are lucky enough to have one it has your name and mine on it. The second record I did was another limited 12” single (100 again), this time for Teengirl Fantasy. Each sleeve was handpainted and unique. At some point in there I had an epiphany and realized that CDs were much more fun to collect than records, so I made the switch. They're cheap, easy to store, easy to listen to and sound great. Unlike used LPs, used CDs come with mp3s (although I prefer AIFFs as they are full CD quality and can hold metadata). I released small CD editions for Frankie Cosmos ("Zentropy"), Kate NV ("Binasu") and David Earl Buddin ("City Of God").

As for how Blue Jazz came into my life — I first met Adrian Knight at an Alice Cohen concert. She was performing solo, and after the set this strange Swedish man approached her and said that he really liked her music and wondered if they might play together sometime. He ended up joining her band and then asked his friend Dave to join too. I went with Alice to go see Dave and Adrian's other band Blue Jazz TV one night at The Eagle (a gay bar in Manhattan), and they were great. I started regularly going to their gigs. It also features Max Zuckerman (who did indeed recently have an LP come out in Japan) and the great Billy G Robinson. Blue Jazz had never put out a proper CD, so we kicked the idea around for a while. They bought a digital mixer so they could start recording their performances. One night, Dave and I were chatting about it and he said that they had recently played a show at Magick City in Brooklyn that he thought would be great for a small run CD release. The plan was to have the release party at Magick City but then the pandemic hit. We thought since it was a live album and the band couldn't play live that we'd put it out in case anyone missed seeing them. I certainly do! I am excited that this one has an obi because I'm kind of obsessed with them and of course they are a Japanese thing that most Americans don't even know about, but collectors dig them and as I said before I'm a collector! We only made 100 CDs and as of writing there are still a few left so you should order one!

My favorite Dick Move release would have to be the cheese sandwich I made and ate one day in Amsterdam. Very limited edition, only one and now it's gone lol! I gave it a catalogue number and posted it to Discogs where it went without comment for a few years before moderators, while admitting that it was hilarious, took it down. I'm working on a few new projects at the moment but they aren't quite fully cooked yet so you'll just have to wait and see what happens!

— I know you've been to Tokyo before, because we met here. Some segments from Tokyo can be seen on your new show, and also the band CHAI. Could you tell me what attracted you to Japan, how it was when you finally got to visit, and also how you got CHAI to appear on the show?

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BJ: Japan is like a mecca to me. It was a dream come true to be able to visit when I did back in 2018. As I mentioned before I am an obsessive collector of CDs. Of course, many CDs are ONLY RELEASED IN JAPAN. The only way to get them in the US is to pay high prices and exorbitant shipping fees. Of course, everywhere you go in Japan they sell CDs. So I had quite a time, unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day to look through every CD in every store I went to. One of the reasons I went alone was so that I could spend more time CD shopping lol. In particular on that trip I was (and still am) after video game music, which isn't a popular genre here in the US so the vast majority of it, as mentioned before, is only released in Japan. Book Off, a chain of stores in Japan (there are a few in the US as well though) that sells pretty much any kind of media you could imagine, kept me pretty busy in their used section where I was able to find stuff for significantly less than I would have paid for it on the internet, if I could have found it at all. I also love the culture there; everyone is so polite all the time everywhere you go which reminded me a bit of the UN. I was lucky enough to meet Patrick (editor of this very blog) there, who took me to see weird amazing music every night of the week. La Veuve Moustachue was perhaps the strangest act we saw, featuring a moustachioed man dressed as a grieving widow (as the name of the group implies). They sang sad songs about being a widow with a moustache while strange animations played behind them. One was Super Mario themed, featuring a pixelated widow with a moustache hitting cool album covers (like Harpers Bizzare or Harmonia) with his head, only instead of coins, records would come out. I love how seriously they take things in Japan, whatever it is that you do, you do to the max. It seemed like such a silly idea for an act but they took it TO THE LIMIT. I had the best sushi of my life in Kyoto. I had spent the day hiking to the top of a mountain to pray at a Shinto shrine, on my way back to town stopped at a cat café to pet some kitties, then finally wandered around until I found a little out of the way sushi spot that was clearly locals only. I sat down at the bar, where I had my own individual sushi chef. He didn't speak much English, but I was able to point to the menu to show him what I wanted. I didn't have to order everything at the start, because he was right there. I could eat each course and then decide what to have next. I really appreciated how seriously he took his job; he was an excellent sushi chef and had probably spent much of his adult life slicing fish. He knew how to slice a fish. He sliced fish with authority. Its taste was transcendental, it was truly a special experience. One by one, the various other patrons came up to me and paid their respects. One by one, they would ask me where I was from, and when I said "New York City", they would respond, "Oh, New York!" They seemed thrilled to meet someone from such an exciting place. I loved the country, I loved the food, I loved the people. I actually discovered CHAI while I was there; although it pains me to admit it, I was reading Pitchfork on the toilet (duh) and they ran a Rising feature on the group while I happened to be in Japan. I made sure to go to the local Tower Records (still alive and well in Japan) and get copies of all their Japan-only EPs. A few months later I saw they were coming through town and I managed to get in touch with their label who put me in touch with their publicist who put me in touch with their manager and we were able to sort out a little time before their set at Market Hotel for the interview. Unfortunately, I think CNN's digital channel or something was shooting their set that night which is why I couldn't bring my own crew to shoot the concert. But I still held my camera up above my head here and there and the venue shared the audio from the board so I was able to cobble that segment together. I think it turned out pretty well, I love their responses! I love CHAI! Such a great band. The first night I was in Tokyo, Patrick took me to see Avandoned do an instore at HMV. After picking me up at a nearby Disk Union (a chain of record stores in Japan), he took me for a quick bite and then on to see this strange Japanese idol group which I thought was so high energy and great, even though it was just two teenage girls singing over a backing beat. I bought all their singles and had them signed and even got a picture with them! Patrick was such a great host in Tokyo and if you don't know he speaks English, French and Japanese and thus is an incredibly useful person to have around! He did many of the translations for the recent episodes, not only Japanese to English for CHAI but French to English for the interview I conducted while in France with Mona. Thanks again for everything Patrick!!

— Merci à toi, BJ!

Find BJ Rubin on the Internet:

Blue Ragu TV "Blue Ragu Volume 2: Live At Magick City" out now on Dick Move Records
(CD and digital at Bandcamp)

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