Oh man, you guys! Look who’s talking transit with us this year: it’s Nardwuar!

For those who don’t know, Nardwuar is a music legend both in Vancouver and beyond. He’s been running his radio show on CITR since 1987, leading his band the Evaporators since 1986, and—oh yeah—doing completely stunning interviews with just about every famous musician you’ve ever heard of, and more! Here’s just a taste of his amazing interview repertoire.

So we’re so happy Nardwuar let us turn the microphone on him for I Love Transit Week 2013, getting the scoop on his experiences with Vancouver transit. Here’s what he told us!

Why do you love transit?

Every time I see a bus in it reminds me of Punk Rock! This  mainly is because Vancouver’s The  Subhumans shot the cover to their record “Incorrect Thoughts” on a Vancouver Bus going through the Downtown Eastside.  That  album cover inspired me so much, my band The Evaporators tried to get the exact same shot, for the cover of our “Gassy Jack and Other Tales” LP!

What are your earliest memories of transit?

Riding on a bus down Granville Street, looking out the window, and seeing that Caligula was playing at Theatre!

What’s your Spadina bus?

It would be a song by the late, great, Wesley Willis’s called “Hell Bus”. You can see an interview I did with Wesley here.

I know Moka Only takes transit, do you know of any other local acts that take transit?

There is one Vancouver band that is so in love with  local transit, they named themselves after the B-Line route to UBC! They are called, The B-Lines! Check out this clip of them playing at Neptoon Records.

[Ed note: Jhen interviewed the B-Lines for the Buzzer in 2009!]

When I say the words, “transit” and “history” what does that make you think of?

The Grouse Mountain Scenic Railway ! It was a railway line that was proposed to run right up Grouse Mountain but was never made. A bit of info on it can be found here.

Have you ever used transit to get you to one of your performances?

Many times, in fact  we took it to one of our early gigs at UBC that you can see here:

We Evaporators are also playing a free all ages gig on Sunday September 8th at Astorinos (1739 Venables) with Tough Age and Thee Goblins, so please feel free to take transit to it ! Doot doola doot doo … Trans It !

Thanks so much Nardwuar!