Laughing Monkey with Shawn Ratches

Shawn Ratches
  • 3.8 (6)
  • Music Interviews
  • Updated Semiweekly

Welcome to Laughing Monkey with Shawn Ratches which is a show that explores all genres of music. As someone with autism, I bring a unique perspective to my interviews, aiming to create an authentic and engaging experience for both artists and listeners.Thanks for watching and please subscribe to help me keep bringing new content to you!

  1. Paul Booth: The Dark Art Visionary Who Redefined Tattooing, Horror, and Creative Expression

    5d ago

    Paul Booth: The Dark Art Visionary Who Redefined Tattooing, Horror, and Creative Expression

    Paul Booth is an American tattoo artist and multidisciplinary dark surrealist from Boonton, New Jersey, whose career has spanned nearly four decades. After beginning his tattoo journey in the late 1980s through an apprenticeship in New Jersey, he developed a signature black-and-gray style centered on macabre, psychological, and surreal imagery. Rather than follow standard flash trends, Booth built his name through large custom pieces that explored horror, religion, trauma, and the darker side of human nature. By the 1990s and 2000s, Booth had become one of the most influential names in tattooing, especially within metal and alternative culture. His work attracted high-profile musicians and performers, while his broader practice expanded into painting, sculpture, film, and music. He also earned recognition beyond tattoo culture, helping push tattooing toward wider acceptance as a serious art form. A major part of Booth’s legacy is the world he built around Last Rites in New York, an immersive tattoo and gallery space that became iconic in dark art culture. In 2000 he co-founded the Art Fusion Experiment, bringing tattooers and fine artists together in collaborative work. His fine art later reached international exhibitions, including a solo show at the H.R. Giger Museum in 2011 and a major museum exhibition in Paris in 2014–2015. Although Last Rites closed in 2020 during the pandemic, Booth remains a defining figure in the crossover between tattooing, outsider art, and dark contemporary art

    52 min
  2. Karl Agell on Legions of Doom and Carrying the Legacy Forward

    Jun 23

    Karl Agell on Legions of Doom and Carrying the Legacy Forward

    I spoke with Karl Agell about the story behind Legions of Doom, a band born from a heavy kind of history. In the aftermath of Eric Wagner’s passing, what could have remained only a tribute to the past slowly became something more active and alive. Karl talked about how the project grew out of grief, friendship, and unfinished creative momentum, with musicians choosing not to let that chapter simply close. What makes Legions of Doom compelling is that it does not feel like a band built to imitate what came before. It carries the weight of that history, but it is not trapped by it. Karl made it clear that the group came together with real purpose: to honor the spirit of the music, to give shape to material that still deserved to be heard, and to move forward without pretending the past can be replaced. There is a real sense of continuity in the band’s foundation. The people involved bring shared history, but also the kind of experience that lets them turn loss into creation. In talking with Karl, that seemed to be the heart of Legions of Doom — not just remembrance, but resolve. It is a band connected to legacy, but driven by the need to make something new out of what was left behind.

    1h 11m
  3. VAIN / Davy Vain Opens Up About Disintegrate Together, Band History, Songwriting, and Reptiles ....

    Jun 22

    VAIN / Davy Vain Opens Up About Disintegrate Together, Band History, Songwriting, and Reptiles ....

    Davy Vain’s story starts before Vain the band ever broke out. He first built a name behind the scenes as a producer, then stepped forward as a frontman and songwriter when he formed Vain in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986. After early buzz, club shows, and a growing reputation, the band signed with Island and released No Respect in 1989, an album that never became a huge chart smash but earned lasting respect for its raw, hungry sound. When label turmoil stalled the band in the early ’90s, Davy kept moving—briefly linking up with Steven Adler in Road Crew before reviving Vain and pushing on through years of lineup shifts, underground releases, and cult-level loyalty. Across every era, from Move On It and Fade to All Those Strangers, Enough Rope, Rolling With the Punches, and 2024’s Disintegrate Together, Davy has remained the engine of the band: its voice, songwriter, and constant creative center.

    2h 15m
  4. Boris T of Tryglav and youtube channel Boris T. Talks new music, YouTube and his future!

    Jun 22

    Boris T of Tryglav and youtube channel Boris T. Talks new music, YouTube and his future!

    Boris T. is the online name of Boris Behara, a Croatian musician and YouTube creator best known for metal-focused videos and for leading the one-man project Tryglav. His channel originally started as “Tryglav Official” before expanding into broader content about extreme metal, music culture, and underground scenes. As a musician, he is tied to black/death metal, with Tryglav described as a Croatian one-man project formed in 2018. His work blends aggressive black/death metal with horror-inspired themes, and he has also discussed side projects beyond Tryglav. His video content mixes music, behind-the-scenes material, and metal travel/history features. Recent examples highlighted online include videos about Scandinavian black/death metal culture, including exhibitions, gravesites, and locations connected to bands such as Bathory, Mayhem, and Dissection. https://ruthlesstalent.com/exclusive-creator-boris-t/ https://www.patreon.com/tryglav/about https://tryglav.bandcamp.com/album/the-ritual

    40 min
  5. The Obsessed & Ritual Arcana: The Obsessed return to the studio before launching a major tour.

    Jun 15

    The Obsessed & Ritual Arcana: The Obsessed return to the studio before launching a major tour.

    Wino is officially heading back into the studio to begin work on a new The Obsessed record, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for one of doom’s most enduring voices. With fresh material now taking shape, the upcoming album promises to carry forward the band’s signature weight, soul, and uncompromising spirit while opening the door to what comes next. At the same time, Ritual Arcana is deep in the writing process, with new songs already underway. The creative momentum behind both projects reflects a period of renewed energy and focus, as Wino continues to push forward on multiple fronts with the same intensity and vision that have defined his work for decades. There is also more on the horizon for fans of The Obsessed beyond the studio. Touring plans are currently in the works, with live dates announced with more coming. More details on the new record, additional music from Ritual Arcana, and upcoming tour news will be revealed soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfPMjLm5v8 https://www.wino-art.com/ https://www.theobsessedofficial.net/ https://www.ritualarcana.com/

    28 min
  6. Rose Carleo Band 's Rose talks release 42 Days

    Jun 15

    Rose Carleo Band 's Rose talks release 42 Days

    Australia's own Rose Carleo Band returns with a bold, soul-stirring new album, 42 Days, dropping today. A deeply personal and sonically rich collection, this release captures the essence of resilience, transformation, and raw human emotion.

    35 min
  7. Castle Rat's Riley Pinkerton: Long Live the Rat Queen, Forever in Her Realm

    Jun 9

    Castle Rat's Riley Pinkerton: Long Live the Rat Queen, Forever in Her Realm

    Riley Pinkerton doesn't just front Castle Rat — she is the Rat Queen. Songwriter, guitarist, costume-maker, prop-builder, and self-appointed monarch of a medieval doom metal kingdom of her own design, Pinkerton has spent the last several years turning a Brooklyn doom band into one of the most theatrical and beloved acts in underground heavy music. Castle Rat formed in 2019 and found their identity almost by accident, when a Halloween show at Saint Vitus turned into a full-blown costumed spectacle: Pinkerton as the Rat Queen, flanked by The Count, The Plague Doctor, and The Druid, doing battle onstage with the dreaded Rat Reaperess. The bit stuck. What followed was a fully realized fantasy world built on Sabbath-heavy riffs, Frazetta-painting visuals, and lore dense enough to include interdimensional time travel. Their 2024 debut Into the Realm introduced the kingdom. Their 2025 follow-up The Bestiary — crowdfunded to its goal in 37 minutes — expanded it into a sprawling book of beasts, each track a creature, each creature a chapter. Beneath the swords and smoke, the show is secretly about something deeply human: Pinkerton's own death anxiety, exorcised nightly through a ritual in which the Queen dies and rises again, chanting "Now is forever in this realm" with the crowd. In 2026, Castle Rat are touring North America with Dethklok and Amon Amarth, headed for Sonic Temple and Bloodstock Open Air, and quietly building a 12-foot rat puppet for the next chapter. Industry plant rumors aside — and Pinkerton finds them hilarious — Castle Rat remains stubbornly, gloriously DIY. Long live the Rat Queen.

    21 min
  8. Henry Rollins on the Lost Cramps Album, Ian MacKaye, and 50 Years of Friendship!

    Jun 7

    Henry Rollins on the Lost Cramps Album, Ian MacKaye, and 50 Years of Friendship!

    Henry Rollins has spent the better part of a year buried in tape from October 1977 — a finished Cramps album, produced by Alex Chilton at Ardent Studios in Memphis, that sat on the shelf for nearly fifty years. It's coming out August 21 as Gravest Gravy on Vengeance Records. Rollins and Ian MacKaye handled the restoration and mixing together through their RAM Prod. partnership. "I sent the mixes and my notes to Ian MacKaye, whose ears I trust more than anyone I know," Rollins says. MacKaye agreed with every call. The two saw The Cramps together on April 20, 1979, at a small DC bar. "I've never recovered," Rollins says. "Ian was standing next to me.” * **00:00** – A Student of Life and Music Librarian * **00:45** – The Fragility and Preservation of the Past * **02:00** – Restoring The Cramps' Lost Tapes with Ian MacKaye * **03:11** – Curating the *Gravest Gravy* Release * **04:44** – Unearthing More Unheard Cramps Material * **05:48** – The Archival Mission: Saving History from the Garage * **07:52** – Driving 34 Hours for the Love of the Game * **08:52** – The Art of Paper Preservation and Mylar Forehead Tattoos * **10:53** – Being a Trusted Steward of Musical History * **11:53** – Upgrading Your Archival Game: Hiring the Experts * **13:43** – Rescuing Tapes from Black Mold and Rotting Boxes * **15:04** – Spending Weekends with Sponge Sticks and Toothbrushes * **16:40** – Lessons from the Library of Congress * **17:40** – Ian MacKaye’s Incredible Organization Skills * **18:43** – Scoring Rare Punk Artwork at Auction * **19:13** – Putting the Dinosaur Bones Together at Night * **22:38** – A New Chapter of Friendship: Mixing with Ian * **23:20** – Ian MacKaye as the "Lincoln Cold Sober Judge" of Production * **25:12** – Recording *Lifetime* in England on a Budget * **27:11** – Defining Success as Sustainability * **27:46** – The Three-Year Process of Writing a New Book * **30:45** – Moving Forward into "Old Ass Man” Projects * **32:18** – Singing "Rise Above" with Cyndi Lauper * **35:05** – Navigating Fitness and Aging * **37:12** – Leaving a Trail: The Importance of Provenance * **39:40** – Excitement for the *Gravest Gravy* Release * **41:35** – Ian MacKaye’s "Fishbowl" Philosophy on Internet Comments

    44 min
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3.8
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Welcome to Laughing Monkey with Shawn Ratches which is a show that explores all genres of music. As someone with autism, I bring a unique perspective to my interviews, aiming to create an authentic and engaging experience for both artists and listeners.Thanks for watching and please subscribe to help me keep bringing new content to you!

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