In our two featured artist segments this week, Jerry Bryant welcomes Steel Train and Ryan Manno hosts Circa Survive inside the historic JBTV studios.

Circa filmed this incredible afternoon session on our 9-cam, high def sound stage a few weeks back, before their sold-out Chicago show at House of Blues. I’ve always enjoyed their music, but somehow avoided crossing paths with them for an interview or general hangs until now. Based on accounts from our mutual friends in Madina Lake, I knew going in they’d be good dudes. And after spending the day with them (topics of conversation included parenthood and inspiring performers), I can confirm that supporting Circa Survive is support well spent. During the performance, their singer Anthony Green asked our JBTV studio audience, “Who’s coming to our show later tonight?” A handful of kids said they couldn’t get tickets in time and they’re now selling for a few hundred bucks a pop on StubHub. In one of the cooler moves I’ve ever seen an artist pull, Anthony took their names and added them to the band’s guest list. So solid. As is their stripped down, JBTV exclusive set.

Also this week, JBTV cameras follow host Brendan Kelly backstage at UIC Pavilion for an exclusive interview with Slayer. The concept of an artist like Brendan (The Lawrence Arms) interviewing fellow artists like Slayer is endlessly fascinating to me, so I asked BK to walk me thru the atmosphere and his thought process before and during the interview. “I was pretty intimidated interviewing Dave and Kerry ,” he admits first and freely. “They put us in a makeshift living room stocked with beer, soda and somebody’s kid playing Xbox. We waited in there watching this incredibly bored and disenfranchised kid play some version of Mario Bros. for what seemed like hours before Kerry and Dave finally came in saying, “Eh, another one of these [interviews], eh?” as though they were about to get yet another anal probe.” Hilarious insight. I still have a tough time figuring out why some artists have such a disdain for interviews. Maybe because I’m the one always asking the questions?

Brendan continues, “I tried to be conversational and Dave was slightly receptive, but Kerry was clearly wanting to just get in and get out. His answers were super curt and, while he was pleasant enough, he’s scary as hell. Big beard, flame head, in Slayer, etc. Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) is really into Nazi mysticism and all that. Slayer has written a lot of songs that seem to imply a fascination with the third reich, so I tried to go there without being accusatory. The results were pretty entertaining.”

Host Jenna Martinelli sits down with New York City indie rockers, The Do, at Schubas’ Harmony Grill for a candid look at the band during dinner. “Our conversation was really amusing and random,” Jenna told me. “A lot of talk about food and fashion.” Subject matter clearly close to Jenna’s heart.

I head out to Hard Rock Hotel on Michigan Ave. for a visit with our friends from Ocala, Florida, A Day to Remember. This interview was particularly exciting – moments before the shoot, the band had got word that their new album, What Separates Me from You, had unseated Taylor Swift for the number 1 spot on the iTunes music charts. No small feat. Celebratory drinks were had and Hard Rock memorabilia may or may not have been ripped off the walls. At least frontman Jeremy McKinnon stopped short of smashing any of it.

Finally this week, Jerry Bryant revisits one of his favorite classic JBTV segments featuring John Lydon a.k.a. The Sex Pistols’ “Johnny Rotten.” I asked Jerry to recall some details from this legendary 1992 encounter. “John was on the PIL [Public Image, LTD.] tour at the time. He was doing an interview at 93 WXRT and decided he didn’t like how it was going, so he walked out and showed up at JBTV 90 minutes early. I had no cameraman and no crew,” Jerry explains. “We usually have someone tour the guest around the studio before ending up in the on-air studio. John refused the tour and said, “I’m only answering ONE question on this crappy TV show.” So I took the camera, pointed it at John and he talked nonstop, for 40 minutes, about everything from bad music videos to showing his bare ass on TV.”