Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Episode 52 is a conversation with Bim and Ryan of the Portland-based band, Help. They discuss their music and how it came to be, but more so, they delve into politics, culture, and society at large. They talk about Bim's rationale and approach to running for mayor of Portland in 2016, the effectiveness of protest and social scolding, the malevolence of philanthropy, theories of aliens being future versions of humans, Klansmen, guns, and how desperately the world is in need of kindness.
The concept of Cult and Culture began as a short segment created by Justin Pearson, an internationally known musician, record label owner (Three One G Records), author, and actor. He is perhaps best known as bassist for bands such as Dead Cross, The Locust, and Some Girls as well as vocalist for Deaf Club, Swing Kids, and Planet B. Having traveled the world touring in hardcore and punk bands since age 15, Justin has come to know and work with a broad spectrum of captivating personalities and brilliant minds, many of which are key figures in the realm of popular culture and cult followings alike-- from being on the soundtrack to John Waters’ Cecil B. Demented, to acting in an Asia Argento’s Incompresa, to playing in Dead Cross with Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo. Cult and Culture arose as an opportunity to document bits and pieces of the DIY-driven, subversive world of art Pearson identifies with- one that many are not aware of or perhaps have misconceptions about.
Eventually, Pearson joined up with producer and bandmate Luke Henshaw (Sonido De La Frontera, Planet B, Satanic Planet, First Power Crew) to build the idea into a proper podcast, now recorded at his own PengOne Studios in San Diego. Henshaw has collaborated with hip hop legends such as Invisible Skratch Piklz’ D-Styles and Q-Bert, Kool Keith, in addition to being immersed in the world of Cumbia alongside Sonido De La Frontera bandmate Karlos Paez (B Side Players). He also recently scored the music for upcoming documentary Sk8face, which tells the history of skateboard graphics. In this way, both Justin and Luke are influenced by a diverse array of subcultures that all have connected roots. John Waters was one of the first people interviewed for the podcast- an icon of both cult and culture. Since then, guests have included a broad scope of musicians, producers, authors, and anyone passionate about what they do-- anyone from Grammy-winning musician Juan Alderete (Mars Volta, Racer X, creator of Pedals And Effects) to actor Michael Malarkey (Vampire Diaries, Project Bluebook), from San Diego Black Panther Party members to longtime partners Nicola and Adam in electro-punk band ADULT. or The Satanic Temple cofounder Lucien Greaves (who would go on to form Satanic Planet with Luke and Justin as a direct result of their podcast conversation). The focus is not intended to be solely on people in any one realm, and because guests are friends and family, the conversations are frank, informal yet well-informed, and genuine. Pearson and Henshaw seek to achieve a casual openness, blurring lines between traditional guest and host. Cult and Culture is part of Ruinous Media.
Purchase the Cult and Culture Podcast compilation LP (featuring The Locust, ADULT., The Exploited, HIRS Collective, Swing Kids, and more!) either on vinyl or digitally here: threeoneg.com/archive/vinyl/v-a-cult-and-culture-a-planet-b-podcast-compilation-lp
Catch up on all episodes of Cult and Culture podcast, via iTunes, or through Three One G’s Soundcloud.
soundcloud.com/threeoneg/sets/cult-and-culture-podcast
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-and-culture/id1232084207
Podcast video editing by Displaced/Replaced.
Episode 52 is a conversation with Bim and Ryan of the Portland-based band, Help. They discuss their music and how it came to be, but more so, they delve into politics, culture, and society at large. They talk about Bim's rationale and approach to running for mayor of Portland in 2016, the effectiveness of protest and social scolding, the malevolence of philanthropy, theories of aliens being future versions of humans, Klansmen, guns, and how desperately the world is in need of kindness.
The concept of Cult and Culture began as a short segment created by Justin Pearson, an internationally known musician, record label owner (Three One G Records), author, and actor. He is perhaps best known as bassist for bands such as Dead Cross, The Locust, and Some Girls as well as vocalist for Deaf Club, Swing Kids, and Planet B. Having traveled the world touring in hardcore and punk bands since age 15, Justin has come to know and work with a broad spectrum of captivating personalities and brilliant minds, many of which are key figures in the realm of popular culture and cult followings alike-- from being on the soundtrack to John Waters’ Cecil B. Demented, to acting in an Asia Argento’s Incompresa, to playing in Dead Cross with Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo. Cult and Culture arose as an opportunity to document bits and pieces of the DIY-driven, subversive world of art Pearson identifies with- one that many are not aware of or perhaps have misconceptions about.
Eventually, Pearson joined up with producer and bandmate Luke Henshaw (Sonido De La Frontera, Planet B, Satanic Planet, First Power Crew) to build the idea into a proper podcast, now recorded at his own PengOne Studios in San Diego. Henshaw has collaborated with hip hop legends such as Invisible Skratch Piklz’ D-Styles and Q-Bert, Kool Keith, in addition to being immersed in the world of Cumbia alongside Sonido De La Frontera bandmate Karlos Paez (B Side Players). He also recently scored the music for upcoming documentary Sk8face, which tells the history of skateboard graphics. In this way, both Justin and Luke are influenced by a diverse array of subcultures that all have connected roots. John Waters was one of the first people interviewed for the podcast- an icon of both cult and culture. Since then, guests have included a broad scope of musicians, producers, authors, and anyone passionate about what they do-- anyone from Grammy-winning musician Juan Alderete (Mars Volta, Racer X, creator of Pedals And Effects) to actor Michael Malarkey (Vampire Diaries, Project Bluebook), from San Diego Black Panther Party members to longtime partners Nicola and Adam in electro-punk band ADULT. or The Satanic Temple cofounder Lucien Greaves (who would go on to form Satanic Planet with Luke and Justin as a direct result of their podcast conversation). The focus is not intended to be solely on people in any one realm, and because guests are friends and family, the conversations are frank, informal yet well-informed, and genuine. Pearson and Henshaw seek to achieve a casual openness, blurring lines between traditional guest and host. Cult and Culture is part of Ruinous Media.
Purchase the Cult and Culture Podcast compilation LP (featuring The Locust, ADULT., The Exploited, HIRS Collective, Swing Kids, and more!) either on vinyl or digitally here: threeoneg.com/archive/vinyl/v-a-cult-and-culture-a-planet-b-podcast-compilation-lp
Catch up on all episodes of Cult and Culture podcast, via iTunes, or through Three One G’s Soundcloud.
soundcloud.com/threeoneg/sets/cult-and-culture-podcast
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cult-and-culture/id1232084207
Podcast video editing by Displaced/Replaced.
![Microwaves Your Dumb Guts [Official video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iYl14ZC-xaI/mqdefault.jpg "Microwaves Your Dumb Guts [Official video]
Microwaves Your Dumb Guts from the Discomfiture Atlas LP available from Three One G here: https://threeoneg.com/archive/vinyl/discomfiture-atlas-lp
Video credits:
Andrea Parkowski - Filming and animation
John Roman - Editing
David Kuzy - Additional footage
Of innumerable bands that traffic in dissonance, the musick of Pittsburgh, PA’s Microwaves shears clean and hot as an oxy-lance through the defenses of even the most cynical noise rock aficionado. In this iteration of the band, which has been in existence now for 20 years, core members John Roman (drums, vocals) and David Kuzy (guitar, vocals) round themselves out with 2006 alum bassist/vocalist Adam MacGregor on one side (“Pyroclast”), and founding bassist/vocalist Steve Moore (Film composer and member of Zombi, Lovelock, Miracle, and more) on the other (“Plasma”). Over the years, Microwaves continues to pick up the loose ends left by Voivod, MX-80, Snakefinger, and some of their own Pittsburgh-area “math-rock” contemporaries, twisting them into a Gordian knot that at once rages and confounds.
Microwaves’ newest LP, Discomfiture Atlas, is being released by Three One G Records on October 14th. This album features guest appearances by Eric Paul (Arab on Radar, Doomsday Student, Psychic Graveyard), Sarah Quintero (Spotlights), Rebecca Burchette (Exosus), and Todd Rittman (Dead Rider). Discomfiture Atlas will be available through Three One G Records on limited edition of 300 color vinyl, 200 black vinyl, and 50 cassettes, as well as digitally.
Who among us doesn’t long for a “do-over” of our wreck of recent history? Maybe it’s that attitude that accounts for the ascendancy of multiverses, parallel dimensions, the “Berenstain/Berenstein” debate, etc., in public imagination. Whatever the reason, contemplating other planes of existence is no longer exclusive to the hard sci-fi wonk set. Apropos of all the above, Microwaves manifests their own twin realities over the two sides of Discomfiture Atlas, its second album on San Diego’s vaunted Three One G records. Though distinct, both sides of the album, “Pyrocast” and “Plasma,” salt the band’s terse alloy of thrash metal, no-wave, brutal prog, noise-rock, and math rock with a hint of pop brevity, if not the melody to match.
Even at a curmudgeonly 20 years of age, (both versions of) Microwaves lean into the new material with the desperate enthusiasm of a 50-something peeling out in a midlife-crisis Corvette. Roman delivers his usual cyborg clatter, careening through odd meters and deconstructing rock drumming according to plans laid out by Beefheart and Devo. MacGregor complements with tortuous lines that invoke eastern melodic ideas at times, though they seethe with distortion and gurgle queasily through analog filtering. His vocal palette has widened to include an unhinged/unschooled falsetto and a Teutonic metal shriek, used to great effect on “Hammerspace” alongside Kuzy’s wavering, town-crier bark. Kuzy executes his trademark spindly atonalities with a draftsman’s precision, alternately ratcheting through all of the first-wave thrash-metal riffs he probably ever wanted to hear. Moore’s performances on side “Plasma” present a tighter and more reeled-in quality, focused on timbre and monolithic repetition over the flash of the past. In an all-time first for Microwaves, the standout “Your Dumb Guts” finds Moore serving up a vocal melody with stunning earworm potential.")
