Holy hell! An Update? Sort of! This audio will be posted along with a video on the new YouTube site, go check it out and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5Mlsm3ftsTfZ6ROH5EaoA This teleplay and soundtrack were improvised but sort of autobiographical, thanks for checking it out.
Professor Denise Sandoval Ph.D. is a Professor of Chicano/a/x Studies at CSU Northridge and an expert on the culture and history of lowriding. Professor Sandoval has curated several museum exhibits including a current show Viva Viclas at CAM Gallery in Raleigh, NC and previous shows at the Petersen “La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels (2007-08), Arte y Estilo: The Chicano Lowriding Tradition (2000), and The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración (2017-18). In this episode we talk about the history and origins of lowriding, the impact and influence of the Chicano/a/x identity on car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode was recorded in January 2020.
Ryan Cochran is the creator of the HAMB and the Jalopy Journal, he runs the Garage Journal, and is an incredibly talented writer with great taste in cars. In this episode we talk traditional hot rods, custom cars, Texas car culture, and a whole lot more. This episode has it all- hear how Ryan escaped being kidnapped at Paso Robles, his accidental inadvertent drug trafficking, and how he got banned from a bar for defending a cardboard cutout of Paul Walker & Vin Diesel.
Episode 23 is here! This episode is my interview with Ralph @88Mango Ascencio. Ralph is an incredibly talented painter and custom car builder from Reseda, CA and is responsible for some of the wildest and paint jobs around. In this interview we talk cars, punk rock, custom paint, and a whole lot more, available now on your platform of choice! #metalflake #wildchild #wildchildhos #kustompaint #choptop #traditionalkustom #kandy #bombcitypodcast
RJ Diaz is a big part of the Bay Area custom car & traditional lowrider world and I was stoked to get a chance to talk cars with him for this episode of the podcast. His 1973 metalflaked and panel painted Buick Riviera “The Mothership” excellently showcased his taste and talents and is one of the many things we covered in this fun late-night episode. RJ has been building cars for a long time and he had a lot of great insight into how he approaches doing custom fabrication work & installing hydraulics at his new business RJ’s Hydraulics! Recorded in Newark, CA 2/21/19
The first ever Halloween Special is here! This episode is a joint-effort between Bob & Aaron of the Wheels of Confusion Podcast with Nic & Josie of Bomb City. In this episode we watch and discuss the John Carpenter & Steven King 1983 masterpiece “Christine”. If you haven’t seen this movie before we’d recommend watching it first, but there’s still plenty of non-Christine conversation that you can still appreciate without being too familiar with the film. Beware, shitters of the world! Recorded in an echoey hotel room in Lancaster, CA October 2018.
On this episode we have the incredibly talented painter Phil Leonard of Syrarium Studios! In this interview Phil talks about his style, inspiration, roots as a painter, and give some insight into how he creates the signature wild panels and beautiful color combos he’s known for. Recorded in Hollister, CA 8/2018
The long awaited Episode 20 is finally here! On this jam packed episode we’ve got Ross, the researcher and legendary instagrammer @46to64, talking custom cars, history, car clubs, and a whole lot more! Ross is a passionate researcher who goes through a lot to bring us some of the most important, interesting, and informative glances into custom car past that we’ve ever had access to. Looking through old yearbooks, magazines, newspaper archives, and the depths of the darkest corners of the internet (like Facebook) Ross has managed to breathe new life into the journalistic practices of the past and has used that to create a spectacular Instagram account for us all to enjoy. Recorded in Oakland and Michigan by way of Skype 5/26/18
Jason Webber of At the Risers (ATR), builder of the 1951 Panhead “Booger Sugar”, winner of the People’s Choice award at Born Free 7, joins Billy and Nic by phone to talk choppers, skateboarding, BMX, family, and a whole lot more in this episode of the podcast. Jason has been involved with Born Free since its inception and shared some great insight into what it was like to build a bike for the show, and talks about some lessons he’s learned while raising a family and building rad choppers. Recorded 8/24/17 in Oakland, CA
Skoty Chops has a true passion for building cars, pushing his limits, and for self-improvement. In this interview Skoty sits down with Nic to talk about his craft and motivation for working on hot rods, building customs, learning and teaching metalshaping, coachbuilt cars, and about his passion for Lincoln Zephyrs. Recorded 7/30/17 at Skoty Chops shop in Hayward, CA
Roger Miret, singer of Agnostic Front, Roger Miret and the Disasters, and founding member of the Rumblers Car Club sits down with Nic & Billy at his Arizona home to talk cars, punk rock, architecture, records, and a little bit of everything in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Roger talks through the build of his radical custom 1954 Chevy ‘Morphine’, tells some great stories from the early days of the New York Hardcore scene, talks about working on their amazing 1961 Schreiber home, and a whole lot more! Recorded 6/4/17 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Freddy Corbin of Temple Tattoo and Tattoo 13 in Oakland, CA has been tattooing in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years, and sat down with Nic on the 19th anniversary of Temple Tattoo’s opening to talk about tattooing, tradition, Temple Tattoo, and talk through how the recent “Tattoo School” controversy went down in this episode of the Bomb City Podcast. Recorded 5/5/17 in Oakland, CA.
‘Fabulous’ Freddie Nandin of Fabulous Freddie’s Custom paint in Arizona and guest cohost Billy Parker from Los Boulevardos Car Club Arizona join Nic over the phones to talk about custom cars and traditional lowriders, talk about custom paint, crack jokes, share stories about haunted auto shops, runaway wheels, and building custom cars made to be driven in this episode of the Podcast. If you like breakdown stories and close calls you’re going to dig this episode. Recorded 3/30/17 in Oakland, CA and Phoenix, AZ by way of Skype.
Jeremy Jack and Kyle Martin of the new shop Martin Kolor and Style are members of the Squires Car Club, residents of Napa CA, and are this episode’s guests on the show. For Kyle Martin building hot rods and customs is a family tradition, and with the help and support of his friend and business partner Jeremy he’s able to put his special touch on a lot more cars through their shop Martin Kolor and Style. Both Kyle and Jeremy have some great stories and strong opinions on how to make a custom car special, and you can hear all that and more in this episode of the podcast. Recorded 2/24/17 in Napa, CA
Dirty Donny sits down with Nic & returning guest Mike LaVella for a great conversation about art, cars, vans, pinball, D&D, punk rock, wizards, monsters, and a whole lot more! Dirty Donny is a huge artist in the Kustom Kulture art world and has recently branched out in a ton of new and interesting directions, including doing custom pinball machines for bands like Metallica, Aerosmith, and the Hellacopters. If that mix of bands sounds strange, check out this interview, it’ll all make sense. Recorded 1/11/17 in San Francisco, CA.
Gene Winfield- Legendary custom car builder, hot rodder, metal fabricator, and designer sat down with Matchstick, Josie, and Nic to talk about everything from how Gene got his start lowering cars and building hot rods in his mom’s chicken coop in Modesto, CA to the present day where a nearly 90 year old Gene still swings a hammer and continues to innovate creating some of the most unique and futuristic designs of all time. Gene really opened up in this interview and gave some fascinating insight into his time building hot rods and drag racing in Japan in the 1950’s, working on the Ford Custom Car Caravan, his friendship with Syd Mead, his work building TV and Movie cars with AMT like the Galileo shuttlecraft for Star Trek, what he’s thinking about when he lays out his signature blend paintjobs, and more in this incredible interview. It’s a great podcast to wrap up the first year of this show and an great look forward into some of the exciting stuff going on in the custom car world for 2017.
Bruce Gossett is an insanely talented painter, illustrator, and hot rodder. In this episode Bruce and Nic sit down at Bruce’s workshop in Sacramento to talk about how Bruce found his way into a career in art, hot rods, screenprinting and almost standup comedy. Recorded in West Sacramento, 11/5/16
Creator of Gearhead Magazine, Author of “The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams” and “Cole Foster and Salinas Boyz Customs: Style. Substance”, Member of Pittsburgh, PA’s seminal hardcore punk bands Half-Life and Real Enemy, Mike LaVella sits down with Nic and Josie to talk about self publishing, punk rock, cars, hot rods, careers, and trace back Mike’s roots in the early days of Pittsburgh’s hardcore scene. Recorded 10/10/16 in Oakland, CA.
Brian Jennings of Kustoms By Jennings in Concord, CA sits down with Nic to talk about Brian’s freshly finished panel-painted mild custom 1960 Chevy Biscayne, tell some great stories about drag racing motorcycles, discuss how he learned the trade, talk about his plans for Kustoms By Jennings, and a whole lot more! Recorded 9/24/16 in Concord, CA
Matchstick, creator of Custom Vanner Magazine, sits down with Nic and Bob Helfrich to talk about his shop Matchstick Customs, Custom Vanner Magazine, working with Gene Winfield, learning from Fay Butler, Custom vans, Vanning culture, hot rods, customs, metal shaping, screenprinting, publishing, psychology, and more! Recorded 8/20 in Lancaster, CA.
Joe Compani, Ryan Campi, and Travis Duffy are the outstanding team at Compani Color and have body worked and painted some amazing and award-winning cars. In this episode Nic sat down with them at their shop in Hayward, CA to talk hot rods, customs, muscle cars, and hear stories about some of the incredible cars they’ve worked on. From their humble beginnings working in a local collision repair shop or pushing a broom at Roy Brizio’s Street Rods in South San Francisco, Joe and Ryan have been friends since High School and worked their way up to opening up a shop of their own, where they’ve recently been joined by Travis and continue to put in hard work and crank out flawless paint jobs on some of our generations most significant cars.
Coby Gewertz is the creator of Church Magazine, Church Equipped, and the legendary custom 1963 Econoline Van Go. In this interview he sat down with Nic and Josie to talk about his past, present, and future projects, hot rods, customs, drag racing, photography, art, and more! Recorded 6/18/16 at Wyldwood Studios in Berkeley, CA
In this episode Nic talks with Donny Welch and Bill Ganahl at South City Rod and Custom. It’s a fun conversation that is rich in custom car history, goes deep into hot rodding philosophy, and is full of great stories about working on such legendary cars as the Pierson coupe, the Breece coupe, the Lepesh pickup, the Calori car, and more! . Recorded 5/21/16 at South City Rod and Custom in Hayward, CA.
Elrod (@mexakitsch) and Mayra (@hellabreezy) have been contributing to the Bay Area art community and custom culture for years, and recently they opened up a gallery space in Berkeley called Somewhere Else . In this episode Elrod, Mayra, my wife Josie and I sat down late at night in Elrod’s glitter-packed studio in Oakland and talked about Art, Culture, their upcoming TEASE(D) show, and the conversation quickly turned into one of the goofiest episodes of the podcast yet. Recorded in Oakland, CA 3-30-16
Aaron Groesbeck and Brandon Flaner are the incredibly talented builders behind East Bay Speed & Custom. In this interview I went out to their shop in Concord, CA to talk with these two about their most recent project Mickey’s Mouse, a hot rod with deep roots in the Bay Area show scene from the early 60’s. The conversation gives you a pretty good insight into how these young guys are putting out the amazing work that they do, and why legendary custom car builders Art & Mickey Himsl trusted them to handle the restoration of a car so important to them. Aaron and Brandon have a great reverence for tradition and are overflowing with hot rod and Custom car history, so it was great to hear what’s important to them and what goes into a East Bay custom. We touch on just about everything in this interview from what draws them to the type of early Ford customs that the shop is known for, how they got started working on Hot Rods & customs, and what makes the Bay Area such a great place for the community of custom car builders. This interview was a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to see what rolls out of their shop next. Recorded 2/24/16 in Concord, CA
Alex Valdez and Mario Meza-Murillo are two of the most talented custom painters on the planet, and in this episode Nic sits down with them in Pittsburgh, Ca to talk about paint, cars, and what’s going through their minds as they lay out some of the wildest paint jobs around. Recorded in Pittsburgh, CA 1/24/15
Juan and Jesus Espinoza of Deadend Magazine sit down for an interview with Nic in Salinas, CA to talk about their hometown, their humble beginnings, car culture in social media, Deadend Japan, and the upcoming documentary “On the Road Since 2004”. If you’ve ever wondered who the guys behind this cornerstone of modern car culture are, then you should definitely check out this episode. Recorded in Salinas Ca 11/29/15.
Welcome to the first episode of the brand new Car Culture show, the Bomb City Podcast! In this short episode you’ll get a brief intro to the show, to your host, and you’ll get the answer to a question that probably no one has ever asked- why “Bomb City”? Hit “subscribe” on your favorite podcasting app and you’ll get a monthly look into the people that make the wild world of hot rods, custom cars, lowriders, lowbrow art and music happen. Recorded 11/27/15 in Oakland, Ca.