The Upful LIFE Podcast 098: MIKE RIVARD [bass/sintir: Club d’Elf] + LONNIE MARSHALL [bass/vox: Weapon of Choice, daKAH, Joe Strummer]

May 24, 2026May 24, 2026 B.Getz adam deitch, Arik Marshall, bass, bassist, Bootsy Collins, Boston, Brahim Fribgane, club d'elf, daKAH, daKAH hip-hop orchestra, drum and bass, Fishbone, Grateful dead, Grateful Dead tour, jerry garcia, Joe Maneri, Joe Strummer, Joe Strummer The Clash, JOhn Medeski, lonnie marshall, lonnie marshall weapon of choice, los angeles, Mat Maneri, microvard, mike rivard, mister rourke, Moroccan sintir, Morocco, music podcast, musician interview, Norwood Fisher, P-Funk, parliament funkadelic, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ryan Zoidis, sintir, trance, turntablist, weapon of choice, William "Bootsy" Collins

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Episode 098 brings a double dose of low end theory, welcoming a pioneering pair of underground bass legends percolating on opposite coasts, both cats boasting decades in the game and deep in the streets, with the catalogues and collaborators to prove it.

0:00 – ep.098 preview
3:30 – High Sierra Music Festival 2026
6:30 – The Upful Update
12:00 – intro: Club d’Elf’s MIKE RIVARD [aka Micro]
15:00 – INTERVIEW w/ MICRO [83m]
1:38:00 – introducing LONNIE MARSHALL
1:42:00 – INTERVIEW w/ LONNIE [43m]
2:24:30 – afterglow x ViBE Junkie Jamz

First up Mike Rivard [aka Micro] – bass/sintir/founder/visionary of Boston’s jazz-trance-dub-hop institution known as Club d’Elf. Twas an honor and privilege to finally tap in with Micro after a quarter century of fandom and awe. We chop it up at length about his group’s unicorn career, magnificent co-conspirators like the late Mark Sandman, John Medeski, Brahim Fribgane (RIP), Joe and Mat Maneri, Dave Tronzo, and (Friends Of The Pod) Mister Rourke, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Jonny G, among several others. We learn about Moroccan sintir; the healing powers of Gnawa trance music; plant medicines and Terrence McKenna; Micro’s personal trials and tribulations along the way; his perspective on the integral role of independent music venues; interpolating NOLA Second Line rhythms in tandem with Morrocan traditions; and revisiting his embryonic journeys with the Grateful Dead as a wide-eared, curious youngster. In April 2026, Club d’Elf unveiled their latest full-length LP Loon & Thrush, a positively magnificent affair in a deep, eclectic d’Elf canon brimming with brilliant configurations and bold adventuring.

We chase that inspired dialog with another informative chat featuring LA-based bassist/badass Lonnie Marshall from pioneering underground funk/hip-hop squadron Weapon of Choice. Lonnie was kind enough to hop on the line and discuss his life of Nutmeg Music, his bombastic and eclectic history and colorful persona, lineage from the P-Funk family tree and his teenage era rolling with Bootsy Collins’ Boot Camp, storytelling and dope collabs, daKAH hip-hop orchestra, recording/gigging with Joe Strummer‘s debut solo LP/group, reflections on his brother Arik Marshall‘s brief, chaotic moment with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and long-term run backing Macy Gray. Plus a whole lot more in this educational inspirational get down with the most mega-nutt mug to ever bless these podwaves!

Weapon of Choice: “Nutty Nutmeg Phantasy” video/remix 2026

Bassist/sintir sorcerer Mike Rivard [aka MicroVard] defies any sort of rigid genre-specifics or generic categorization. The cat finds himself at home in a bewildering array of musical/cultural settings: from the good ol’ Grateful Dead to the melancholic-rock of his late friend Mark Sandman and Morphine, to the mountains of Morocco with local Berber musicians, plus side trips into the Broadway pits, and tantric trance sessions with John Medeski and Joe Maneri. A “military brat” coming of adolescence in the wide expanses of Minnesota, he took in the local sounds of Prince, Husker Du, and the free-jazz coming out of the University of Minnesota milieu. Eventually a young Rivard would find himself while hitchiking on Dead tour, further opening up nascent doors of perception. Later, Micro set about embarking on Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music in 1981. After graduating, he studied with jazz legend Dave Holland. Inspired by North African gnawa music, he picked up a Moroccan sintir (three-stringed bass lute) and with guidance from Hassan Hakmoun and Maalem Mahmoud Gania, he has become one of a handful of Western musicians proficient on the instrument. He puts all of the shared sacred teachings and wisdom to good use in Club d’Elf, the jazz-world-dub-electronica squad he formed in 1998. Club d’Elf can be heard across more than 15 albums over the past 25 years; an eclectic, pioneering collective with a vast array of co-conspirators from around the world.

After years grinding it out on the LA scene with his brother Arik in Marshall Law, Lonnie Marshall founded Weapon of Choice in 1992, holding down bass and lead vocals. After a video directed by Geoff Moore for their song “Uppity, Yuppity Doolittle” came to the attention of Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard, the band was signed to Gossard‘s record label Loosegroove. They released three albums with Loosegroove before the company folded in 2000: “Nut-meg says Bozo the Town” (1994), Highperspice (1996), and Nutmeg Phantasy (1998). In 2001, the band dropped Illoominutty on Fishbone’s Nuttsactor 5 record label, and in 2003, they released Color Me Funky.

Since 1997, Lonnie has performed alongside members of P Funk and Fishbone, among others, as part of Trulio Disgracias – a constantly mutating funk-rock-jazz collective headed by by Norwood Fisher. Lonnie was an emcee, composer, and performer for daKAH, a 65 piece hip-hop orchestra which coalesced periodically in the Los Angeles area for many years. Before that, Marshall wrote, recorded and toured with the legendary Joe Strummer of The Clash, behind Strummer’s dynamic 1989 solo debut Earthquake Weather. Lonnie has contributed/collaborated with Macy Gray, Snoop Dogg, Tone Loc, Ice Cube, George Clinton, Funkadelic, Perry Farrell, Les Claypool, Stone Gossard and his brother Arik Marshall.