Transmissions :: Penelope Spheeris

This week on the show, Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury joins Penelope Spheeris, director of The Decline of Western Civilization trilogy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Little Rascals, Suburbia, and Wayne’s World. Spheeris is the host of Peter and the Acid King, a true crime podcast set in the Los Angeles punk scene of the early ‘80s concerning the unsolved murder of Peter Ivers.

A pop culture wunderkind, Ivers was many things at once: an all-star harmonica player who played alongside Little Walter, a pal of Van Dyke Parks who opened for Fleetwood Mac, and a songwriter who wrote music for David Lynch's Eraserhead and artists like Diana Ross and The Pointer Sisters.

In the early '80s, he found found notoriety as host of New Wave Theatre, which showcased Bad Religion, Circle Jerks, 45 Grave and the Angry Samoans. Peter and the Acid King explores that epochal cultural era and its violent end. Working with investigator and co-creator Alan Sacks, Spheeris narrates with 10-part series, which is just about to finish its run, with world weary charm and sly understatement, as well as her signature attitude.

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Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. Next week on Transmissions? Matt Werth of RVNG joins us to discuss the music of Pauline Anna Strom.