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This week on The One You Feed we have Jon Wurster.
I first knew of Jon Wurster as the drummer of Superchunk. From there I began to listen to his work on The Best Show on WFMU which I immediately loved. He plays a series of confident yet clueless characters: Philly Boy Roy, Mike Sajack (Pat Sajack’s pretend brother) and basketball coach Rich McGuiness, among many others. Absolute hilarity. His partner Tom Scharpling plays the perfect straight man to Jon’s characters. You can hear so many of these at The Best Show Gems site. Highly recommended.
In addition to his work with Superchunk he is also the drummer for The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould. He has played with countless other artists including AC Newman, Katie Perry and R.E.M.
He plays Aimee Mann’s boyfriend in a shot-for-shot remake of the Til Tuesday classic Voices Carry for Aimee’s song Labrador. He has also directed other videos and written for TV.
He is also one of the funniest people on Twitter today.
In This Interview Jon and I Discuss…
- The One You Feed parable.
- The importance of acknowledging the bad wolf.
- Some of his favorite personal development books.
- Learning to take what you like from books and leaving the rest.
- His early depression.
- WordHate™
- His dislike of the ukulele music trend.
- Not trusting people from different social circles.
- His comedy with Tom Scharpling on The Best Show on WFMU.
- His favorite character from The Best Show.
- His touring schedule.
- His decision to stop drinking.
- The negative downward cycle of drinking.
- The enjoyment of playing sober.
- The music he turns to for inspiration.
- Getting started in music.
- Playing rock music with Stephen Dubner.
- Remembering that we are all “works in progress”.
- The importance of self-awareness.
- Learning to guide our behavior by how it makes us feel.
Jon Wurster Links
Sterolaffs-The home of Wurster and Schaprling
The Best Show on WFMU Archives
Best Show Gems- Almost exclusively Jon’s phone calls.
BRIDGET says
Loved the hated words song!! My family had BIG issues with food related words too! Good to know it wasn’t just us weirdos- also, I totally got over it and can occasionally say ‘meal’ in conversation without a wince. My biggest success is learning to love the word, “delicious” and at least not hate the word, “yummy”…
but “cold-cuts”? come on! 🙂
Thanks for the great show! Big fan! I always wish the episodes were a little longer- but they are solid, helpful and entertaining to boot!
Keep up the good work!
Eric Zimmer says
Thanks Bridget. Glad you liked the song and thanks for being a listener.
Derek Olsen says
Okay, seriously, I was rolling while listening to this one.
The part about WordHate was just too funny. (Covered dish!)
I was driving by myself while listening and laughing out loud during that part.
Good God, it was so funny.
-Derek
Derek Olsen says
Here’s the WordHate brunch-prayer that he talks about.
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2010/09/13/superchunk-can-always-count-on-wordhate%E2%84%A2/
Bubba says
Deep thinking – adds a new disnomien to it all.
cheap levitra says
Okay I’m convinced. Let’s put it to action.