Since having formed a punk quartet (Chicago’s Verbӧten, featuring Dave Grohl’s cousin Tracey Bradford on vocals) as a precocious 10-year-old, multi-instrumentalist Jason Narducy has kept busy with other bands (most notably Verbow) and as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Bob Mould, Superchunk and Robert Pollard. He’s also releasing his first solo record under the Split Single moniker, Fragmented World (Inside Outside). Narducy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Narducy: In 2008, the Bob Mould Band had a day off in Barcelona during the Primavera Sound Festival. Jon Wurster and I went to the festival grounds and met Chan Marshall, Jim White and Erik Paparazzi from Cat Power in the artist lounge. Erik and I struck up conversation and within 10 minutes were exchanging numbers. Sometimes you just know when you’ve met a friend that you’ll know for a long time.
The subject of embarrassing experiences came up that night, and Erik told me about a day he was sitting in his third-grade classroom. He needed to use the bathroom but was too shy. There were fourth-graders sitting in with the class, and he just couldn’t muster the courage to ask his teacher in front of them. So he peed in his seat. Then young Erik stood up, feigned shock, and declared, “This seat is soaking wet!”
Three months later, I was in NYC and met Erik at Webster Hall to see Jon play with the Mountain Goats. He introduced me to Wilco keyboardist Mike Jorgensen. Mike sat next to me and we were chatting when he accidentally spilled a beer in my lap. He apologized profusely and bought another beer. We continued our conversation when he again spilled a beer in my lap. I stood up and yelled to Erik, “This seat is soaking wet!”
—photo by Jason Narducy
