Episode 121: Jason Narducy (Bob Mould Band, Superchunk, Split Single, Verböten)

At just 12 years old in the early 80's, young guitarist Jason Narducy already knew about the emotional roller coaster of starting and ending a band. In this case, that band was Verböten, who exploded onto Chicago's punk scene but folded before Jason became a teenager. Over 35 years later -- with Jason establishing himself since as a terrific singer/songwriter via his band Split Single and collaborating with Bob Mould, Robert Pollard and Superchunk among others -- Verböten is now the subject of a full-fledged musical (the songs courtesy of Jason himself) running at Chicago's Chopin Theatre through early March. To coincide with those performances, the band finally has a seven-inch out on vinyl for the very first time to boot. On this episode, Jason chats about working at record stores in his late teens, how his dad played a formative role in his early love of vinyl, the moral battle of separating great art from a problematic artist, why writing songs for this musical has been easier than writing his own, and his recent experience at a vinyl listening bar in Japan. Performance details and tickets for the Verböten musical can be found at thehousetheatre.com. Follow Jason and get news on Split Single via Twitter @splitsingleband, on Instagram @jasonnarducy and from Facebook @splitsingle.