Drinks On Monday With The Strike Team

The Strike Team discuss the films CONTRACTED, THE EXORCISM OF MOLLY HARTLEY, and WE ARE STILL HERE. In the music section, Cheap Trick's ALL SHOOK UP and Lady Gaga's JOANNE are in the queue.      

The Strike Team is back again. This time they're in Mike's new kitchen and trying to get rid of some left over booze with a concoction they call Blue Island Iced Tea. The guys discuss Fantastic Fest and pussy grabbin'. Featuring music from Butch Walker.

Without adult supervision on hand Pat goes full Art Bell again and sits down to talk with local archeologist/barfly Erin "Jones" (not her actual last name because she IS an actual archeologist) about the fossil record, Great Flood myths, the evolution of mankind, and how the heck old is civilization anyways? Jameson Caskmates: Stout Edition is imbibed.

More nonsense from FANTASTIC FEST as Mike Vanderbilt and a cadre of jagoffs talk about their favorite (and less than favorites) films from the week. Very DoM; everyone's drunk, screaming over each other, and the episode is almost two hours long.

Mike is down in Austin, Texas this week covering 2016's FANTASTIC FEST for Daily Grindhouse. FANTASTIC FEST is the world's largest genre film festival and an all around good time. In this Shooter, Mike is joined by fellow writers and festival attendees to discuss the world premiere of PHANTASM RAVAGER as well as their favorite films of the festival

Dan sits this one out as Mike & Pat look back at the past four years of participating in the Chicago 48 Hour Film Project as well as delve into the making of this years film, the rock 'n' roll horror musical BLOODSPRAY!

The Strike Team is back again for the first time! Dan, Mike, and Pat tell us how they spent their summer vacations, their favorite movies of the summer, and how much they hated TERMINATOR: GENISYS. On the cocktail menu is a little '90s nostalgia as the boys suck down Crystal Pepsi with an assortment of terrible vodkas that Dan just want out of his house.

Now available for the first time on iTunes! The very first episode of Drinks On Monday! We've come a long way since August 4th, 2014...but really, its pretty much the same show. The guys drink too much Chivas Regal and discuss GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and some of their favorite summer releases. Just three strokes in a kitchen with shitty microphones.

The Strike Team plays airplane bottle roulette while talking about their plans for the show, gun control, Material Issue, and O.J. Simpson.  The Strike Team WILL return in August in "One More Drink For The Driver."

The Strike Team are joined by friends of the show Amy and Carrie (a Second City alum) to discuss the going on dates in Andersonville, the south side versus the north side, and how contacting new friends online has changed in the past fifteen years.

The kitchen is a little less crowded without Dan this week, but Mike and Pat's egos more than fill some space. The two long-time friends run a gamut of issues and offer their hot takes on the HALLOWEEN reboot, CIVL WAR, Nazi Captain America, HUSH, ShudderLabs, and their favorite subjects...themselves!

The Strike Team gets back to their roots when the trio of Dan, Pat, and Mike settle in around the kitchen table to compare and contrast moonshine from Orland Park, Illinois and Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The guys also delve into the works of Burt Reynolds.

This week on the Drinks On Monday Interview Mike chats with Chicago musician Jay Goepnner. Jay gained notoriety in the ‘80s around Chicago playing with Phil Angotti as the Beatle Brothers, Jay also fronted the   John Lennon tribute Instant Karma, The New Invaders, and most recently can be seen out and about Chicagoland playing with Backdated. Jay and Phil will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Beatle Brothers Saturday May 14th at Fitzgerald’s in beautiful downtown Berwyn. Jay shares stories of seeing Cheap Trick for the first time at Chicagofest and then eventually singing with them when they were doing their Sgt. Pepper shows in Las Vegas. Jay also talks about his Beatlemobile that ALMOST appeared on LOST IN TRANSMISSION, playing with his new classic rock cover band,  Backdated, hanging with Graham Nash at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, and it being Drinks On Monday, the subject of what high schools he and Mike attended.

Chicago filmmaker Jim Sikora stops by the kitchen to sample anarray of scotches with The Strike Team, from Cutty Sark to JohnnieWalker Platinum and everything in between.Sikora has been around the Chicago scene for sometime havingdirected music videos for Tar, members of Husker Dü, and PurpleApple. In the '80s and '90s, Jim wrote, directed, and edited twofeature lengths (WALLS IN THE CITY & BULLET ON A WIRE)featuring David Yow of Jesus Lizard as well as plenty of Chicagobarrooms familiar to The Strike Team including Liar's Club andPhylis's Musical Inn.The guys drink heavily and compare filmmaking notes, discuss howWicker Park has changed, and how dropping out of Columbia Collegechanged all of their lives for the better. It's a supersizedepisode this week, so sit back and enjoy!

Pat talks with Chicago writer turned NYC transplant Jason Diamond about growing up punk rock in the 90s and all things Fireside Bowl. Jason's work as appeared in the Men's Journal, Vice, The New York Observer, The Atlantic and the Chicago Tribune. His memoir "Searching for John Hughes" will be released by Harper Collins later this year. Jason likes the Blue Meanies more than Pat does, but otherwise he's a pretty cool dude.

This week on The Drinks On Monday interview, Mike chats with Mimi Betinis, singer/guitar player/songwriter from Oak Park power pop legends, Pezband. Mike and Mimi dig into the new Pezband EP, WOMEN & POLITICS as well as Pezband's days of playing the clubs around the Chicago suburbs throughout the '70s. 

Burlesque performer Shirley Blazen of Vaudezilla stops by the kitchen to talk about filmmaking, stand-up comedy, and her 4/20 show at Stage 773. Meanwhile, Ashley mixes up Sloe Gin Fizz's while Mike and Pat offer their thoughts on BASKIN and THE INVITATION.

A little something new from Drinks On Monday, a new one on one interview segment. Today, Mike talks with David Bash, the founder of the International Pop Overthrow Festival which stops in Chicago this week and will run from April 14th to April 23rd. Mike's band, The Romeros, will be closing the festival out as they've been doing for the past few years. Mike and Dave chat about the beginnings of the festival in Los Angeles as well as some of the other cities that the IPO stops off in. The two pop fans also talk about Cheao Trick, the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, Mike Love and David Bash's other project, the Power Pop Hall Of Fame.

This week's episode features The Strike Team sucking down a case of Special Export with members of Mike's band, The Romeros. Alex, Stephanie, and Andy sit in and discuss the ROUGE ONE teaser trailer, deleted scenes from THE FORCE AWAKENS as well as offering their takes on the new Cheap Trick record, BANG, ZOOM, CRAZY...HELLO. From there, Mike and Pat reminisce about the early days when they were first starting out in The Romeros. The Romeros will be playing this year's International Pop Overthrow Festival on Saturday night, April 23rd.

This week on Drinks On Monday, Mark and and Jeffery of These Old Men They Play Records stop by the kitchen to partake in some taste testing. Mark paired up craft beers from some of his favorite Illinois-based breweries with some classic Girl Scout cookies from Thin Mints to Trefoils. The guys share with Dan and Mike about how their DJing gig got started with the help of The Rock Island Public House and also share their thoughts on Record Store Day, local favorite Beverly Records, and "vinyls."