Square Zeros

Jimmy Doyle is the frontman for Long Island ska punks The Fad and Jimmy Doyle And The Engineers. The Fad has achieved veteran status on their home turf, and they're headlining an all day ska-punk fest this weekend in Amityville, N.Y., called Thing In The Spring. Jimmy came into Brooklyn recently and shared some of The Fad's earliest cuts.

Jordyn Blakely is a super-tight drummer who plays in Brooklyn's Butter The Children and Tom Blacklung & The Smokestacks. She talks with Square Zeros about her high school band, Free Addiction, and their pop punk odes to masturbation, as well as a smooth jazz project she worked on around the same time. (Songs: "Victim Of Choking" and "Maggy's Song" by Free Addiction, "Big Town Boogie" by Allan and Friends, and "Spit It Out" by Butter The Children.")

Square Zeros #13: Louis Ramos with Nova Luz (The Amputees, Mrs. Whitehead) by Square Zeros

Square Zeros #12: Marisa Cerio (Big Quiet, Murray) by Square Zeros

Square Zeros #11: Chris Tracy (Clean Girls, Shire) by Square Zeros

It was high time: In this episode, Square Zeros hosts Derek Hawkins and Jon Mann — with the help of first interviewee Stephen Selman — dig into each other in an attempt to find out what's beneath their impulse to find out what's beneath other people's music.

For most of us, bedroom rock stays locked away in the bedroom. Fortunately, that isn't the case for Amanda B. She shares a couple 10-plus-year-old shoegazey tracks that crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean and eventually got put to tape here in New York. (Songs: "Look Alive" by Crazy Pills, "The Stars Above" and "Bebe" performed by Adolescence, and "Break It Down" by Crazy Pills. Photo: Amanda B.)

Marta DeLeon, the dreamy frontwoman and bassist for The Meaning Of Life, has musical roots that stretch coast to coast. Long before she landed here in Brooklyn, she played cello and, occasionally, melodica in The Getter Flash, a Seattle-based outfit that carved out a spot in the Pacific Northwest indie scene in the early 2000s. In this episode, we get treated with a couple tracks from that project, plus some new stuff from The Meaning Of Life. (Songs: "She Never Screams" by The Meaning Of Life, "Weltschmerz" and "The Days Of Living Velvet" by The Getter Flash," and "Laura V." by The Meaning Of Life.

Combine equal parts folky blue-eyed soul, nu metal, Phish-obsessed jam rock and second-wave ska. Shake vigorously. Wait a decade or so. If you're lucky, in some universe, you'll pour out Typefighter. (Songs: "Back To The Basics" by Politicks, "When It Rains It Pours" by Noise Pollution, "Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Moon" by Kokopelli, "The Oldie" by Sidewinders Ska Club, "Much" by Typefighter. Photo: Ryan McLaughlin, Will Waikart, Thomas Orgren and John Scoops of Typefighter.)

Brooklyn-based guitar wizard and recording engineer Mario Viele plays in Spirit Of Danger and Chandeli'ers — two fairly different but equally shreddy rock n roll bands. He shares a pair of cover songs from his high school metal band, Chuck Of Death, as well as an unnamed, unreleased and relatively unheard cut from a project he worked on later with a late friend. (Songs: "Spirit Of Danger" by Spirit Of Danger, "Slaughter Of The Soul" and "Fault Of The Flesh" performed by Chuck Of Death, "Untitled Track," and "Broke And Alone" by Spirit Of Danger. Photo: Mario Viele, Don Pedro)

Aileen Brophy plays bass and sings in The Space Merchants, a psychedelic four-piece from Brooklyn. She did her first recordings in a dorm basement during her freshman year of college at Harvard. Some of the Minor Threat-inspired tracks from those sweaty, angst-laden sessions get showcased in this episode. (Songs: "1000 Years Of Boredom" by The Space Merchants, "Identity Crisis," Rebel And React" and "Comeuppance" by The Violent Against Themselves And Others, and "Defeat Song" by The Space Merchants. Photo: The Space Merchants. Aileen Brophy, bottom left.)

Kaleen Reading got her start as a teenager making music at School Of Rock in New Jersey. Now she rips on drums in Mannequin Pussy and The Amputees, both of which are busy recording and touring. She shares three early recordings that give an idea of how she developed her tight, powerful style. (Songs: "The Sea" and "Lorraine's Kitchen" by Dyslexicon, a clip from "Shed Sessions" by Destructotoad, and "Better Better Worse" by Low Fat Getting High. Photo by John Bedics.)

Keenan Houser, AKA Spaghetti Blacc, is an MC and producer from the Bronx who's well on his way to releasing 12 albums in 12 months. His music is gritty, chaotic and spaced-out, drawing from Tommy Wright III and Sun Ra in the same breath. He talks with Square Zeros about some of the first songs he put to tape. (Songs: "Goulash Colossal" from 2014, "The Rap Sphinx (Flawless Victory)" and "Third Rail" from 2011, and "Sold Out Food" from 2014. Photo: Spaghetti Blacc.)

Stephen Perry is one of the Brooklyn music scene's most enthusiastic and generous boosters. He plays guitar and sings in The Planes, plays drums in Big Quiet, and runs a blog called Hearts Bleed Radio where he interviews local musicians and curates great shows. He talks with Square Zeros about his work here and shares some gnarly tracks from his high school grunge-punk outfit Epinephrine. (Photo: Stephen Perry, Brian Gregory LaRue, Jeff Patlingrao and Jon Levine of The Planes. Music: "Gap Ad," "Had To Be" by Epinephrine, "Last Night" by The Planes.)

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and producer Stephen Selman talks about talks about his early experiments in songwriting and recording, and gives Square Zeros its first studio performance. Chords — lots of them. (Music: "Road Song" by The Bearded Bravados, "White" and "You Speak Last" by Stephen Selman.)