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The Department of Tangents Podcast

Years ago, playing a sort of improv game with friends in which we all picked super powers based on our personalities, I dubbed myself “Tangent Lad.” I was not a very strong superhero, and I could not defeat a super villain on my own, but I could distract them with Monty Python quotes and football trivia. I have many times since apologized to an interview subject in my capacity as a journalist by saying, “I am either very good or very bad at tangents, depending on how you feel about tangents.”

I had a rough time coming up with the concept and naming this blog/podcast. I knew I wanted to create a place where I could address things I’m passionate about – comedy, music, and horror. Finding a name that communicated all three of those things proved a bit impossible. I bugged my friends, and they all tried to help. To no avail. Then I thought, maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle. Maybe my lack of focus should be the focus.

As a journalist, I have written for The Boston Globe since 2000, starting out writing CD reviews and then writing a regular column on comedy for seven and a half years. I still contribute there, and to Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. I’m also a musician, and released my debut full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in March of 2015. And I’ve been publishing short horror fiction for a couple of years.

I like to climb into things I love and see how they operate. That’s what the Department of Tangents is for. The main thing here is love. To talk about the things that make I’ve loved forever, and some new things that might stand the test and be around, at least for me, for decades to come. I’ve had to be critical in my writing at times, and it might not all be nonstop roses here, but in the end, what I really want to talk about is the good stuff. That’s why I will regularly write about things I think are “Perfect,” even if someone can demonstrate empirically that they are flawed. Still perfect to me.

Also, fish.

I hope you, dear anonymous surfer person, will come to expect only the highest-quality, free-range, grass-fed tangents. And I hope some of you love the same things I do and find it useful. Or at least a welcome distraction until the others get here.

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  2. DoT EP87: Nat Freedberg from The Upper Crust to Better Late Than Never, plus New Comedy from Jim Breuer

DoT EP87: Nat Freedberg from The Upper Crust to Better Late Than Never, plus New Comedy from Jim Breuer

Apr 24, 2019

If Nat Freedberg’s voice sounds familiar, it may be because you’ve heard him on this podcast way back on <a href="http://nickzaino.com/departmentoftangents/2017/06/09/dot-podcast-ep32-frippery-and-foppery-with-the-upper-crust-aunty-donna-invades-america-and-comedy-from-ali-wong/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">EP32, when I interviewed his band, The Upper Crust</a>. Of course, back then, he wasn’t speaking as Nat, he was speaking as his character, Lord Bendover, the snarling 18th century aristocrat in a powdered wig and finery that wielded his Gibson SG like a rocque n’ roll weapon. That band got some national exposure on the late night talk show circuit, opened for Tenacious D, and, as Nat mentions here, nearly had their own reality show.

Freedberg was somewhat relieved when that didn’t work out, and he’s very happy to talk as himself here, avoiding the pressure of having to improvise as a character that was a lot more fun to play onstage than off. Unfortunately, The Upper Crust is no longer a going concern, on a kind of permanent hiatus. The good news is, that means we get Freedberg’s first solo album after almost forty years rocking in bands like the Satanics and the Titanics in the Boston scene. And it’s worth the wait.

The adjective that pops up most in reviews of Freedberg’s <em>Better Late Than Never</em> is “tasty,” and that’s well deserved. It’s still a rock album, but one with a lighter touch. Guitar drenched in rich tremolo weaves around electric piano on the opening track, “Devil Rockin’ Man.” There’s a more earnest, occasionally optimistic tone that Lord Bendover would never cop to on songs like “Only Takes A Minute,” “If That’s the Way You Want It,” and last week’s featured track, “Something Good About Love.” The biggest thing that doesn’t change is those sweet, sweet riffs. Freedberg is skilled at filling the spaces between phrases with melodies and lines that really connect all the pieces and keep you humming long after the music stops.

The album almost didn’t happen when Freedberg suffered nerve damage and wasn’t sure he’d be able to play again. He recovered with a new dedication to get these songs out into the world, and he’s already working on the follow-up album. You can find more about the new album on <a href="https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/better-late-than-never" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rum Bar Records’ BandCamp site</a>, and find more of <a href="https://natfreedberg.bandcamp.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Freedberg’s stuff on his BandCamp site</a>, and find more about The Upper Crust at <a href="https://www.theuppercrust.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">www.theuppercrust.org</a>.

This week’s featured track is “Colonoscopy Pt. 1” from <a href="https://officialjimbreuer.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jim Breuer</a>’s new album, <em>Live From Portland</em>. I caught Breuer at last year’s Comics Come Home benefit in Boston where he did an inspiring riff on life and death. Things got complicated over the holidays, but I finally caught up to speak with Breuer for a minicast that will be out next week about love and mortality, two themes which figure heavily on the new album. You get the tiniest of hints of that in this track. Colonoscopies are necessary, yes, but not fun. Unfortunately, I speak from experience on that account, but we’ll leave that topic be so you can enjoy this instead.