Caropop

From the Young Fresh Fellows through the Minus 5, the Baseball Project and many more, Scott McCaughey has been in a lot of bands. He also played with R.E.M. for years and has collaborated with Wilco and others who love working with him. In late 2017 he suffered a stroke, landed in the ICU and worked his way back to the stage within months amid an outpouring of affection and support. How did Peter...

To cap a year’s worth of Caropop episodes, we’ve got an original Beach Boy, Al Jardine. He provided perfect harmonies to this band of brothers and a cousin; he sang lead on “Help Me, Rhonda,” “I Know There’s an Answer,” “Vegetables” and “Cotton Fields”; and he brought in “Sloop John B” and wrote "California Saga/California." At 80 and still sounding great, Jardine tours with his own Endless Summer...

Welcome to pub rock! Brinsley Schwarz is the namesake of the band Brinsley Schwarz and guitarist for Graham Parker and the Rumour. The band Brinsley Schwarz, which featured songs written and sung by his schoolmate, Nick Lowe, began with a burst of bad publicity—which he recounts blow by blow—but flourished as the quintessential British pub-rock band. Yet not even Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Pe...

Drummer Steve Goulding has brought his crisp, distinct style to more great songs than you may realize. As a member of Graham Parker and the Rumour, he played on Howlin’ Wind through the classic Squeezing Out Sparks . He demonstrated his reggae chops on Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” and powered Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People while earning a songwriting credit on “I L...

Steve Wynn is singer-songwriter-guitarist for the Dream Syndicate and the Baseball Project, with a prolific solo career thrown in there as well. He’s also one of the most thoughtful people in the rock world, someone who was saved from journalism by discovering punk rock yet has retained his searching spirit when it comes to making music. He takes us back to the Paisley Underground and the creation...

Despite some identifiable influences (Velvets, Modern Lovers, Eno…), the Feelies are a band like no other. Their sound is crisp, their playing precise and explosive, their songs indelible in an often-mysterious way. Glenn Mercer and Bill Million provide the jittery, chiming guitars, while Brenda Sauter delivers melodic bass lines amid the propulsive thunder of Stan Demeski's drums and Dave Weckerm...

Pylon lead singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay never thought she’d still be talking about—and singing the songs of—this brilliant, groundbreaking Athens, Ga., band more than 40 years after it began recording. Appearing on the scene between the B-52’s and R.E.M., Pylon was conceived as a sort of art project by University of Georgia students who took inspiration from the textile factory where three of them w...

Go-Go’s drummer Gina Schock brought the beat to “We Got the Beat” and elevated that band with her powerful, disciplined attack. She was hooked on muscular rock with her first concert, a one-time-only double bill of the Who and Led Zeppelin. After touring behind a star of John Waters' Pink Flamingos, Schock joined the Go-Go's, and that band took off. How did her fierce work ethic go over with her b...

When drummer Gilson Lavis joined Squeeze, he became the band’s most experienced musician, having previously played with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Dolly Parton. Starting with the gallop of Squeeze’s debut single, “Take Me I’m Yours,” he powered such undeniable Glenn Tilbrook/Chris Difford songs as “Up the Junction,” “Cool for Cats,” “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell),” “Another Nail in My Hea...

If you’re a fan of Philadelphia soul, you’ve enjoyed the work of Dexter Wansel. He wrote for and produced such Philadelphia International artists as Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass and the Jacksons, and he conducted and played with MFSB, whose “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” was the “Soul Train” theme but wasn't called that for a reason he explains. As a kid working at P...

Drummer Freda Love Smith recently hung up her sticks after a long career playing in bands from Blake Babies to Antenna, Mysteries of Life and the Sunshine Boys. She also wrote Red Velvet Underground , a perfectly titled memoir that covers her rock ‘n’ roll life and her passion for cooking. Here she reflects on growing up in Bloomington, Indiana, and teaming up with John Strohm and, later in Boston...

Drummer Linda Pitmon brings her abundance of power, groove and talent to the supergroups the Baseball Project and Filthy Friends plus other bands. Growing up in Minneapolis, she banged on Tupperware to replicate the fills of her favorite songs. She had indie success with Zuzu’s Petals, then moved to New York, where she connected musically and personally with Steve Wynn, now her husband. She tells...

Soul jazz organist Ronnie Foster works as a solo artist but also played on Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (“Summer Soft”), George Benson’s Breezin’ and albums by the Jacksons, Robert Flack, Grant Green and others. His first album, the scorching Two Headed Freap , came out in 1972 on Blue Note Records and was just remastered by Kevin Gray. Fifty years later he’s got a new Blue Note album,...

Peter Holsapple is the dB’s sole-singer songwriter when the band finally lands a U.S. record deal, but the excellent Like This is undercut by issues with the mix and distribution. Recording and releasing The Sound of Music is a fraught experience as well, and when the dB’s finally split, Holsapple accepts an offer to tour and then to record with R.E.M. He plays on R.E.M.’s breakthrough single (“Lo...

You may have seen Peter Holsapple playing live with R.E.M. or Hootie and the Blowfish, but you should know his own music. He co-led and then led the dB's, writing and singing such smart, tuneful songs as "Black and White," "Big Brown Eyes," "Living a Lie," "Neverland," "Amplifier" and "Love Is for Lovers." He also has played in the Continental Drifters, made three excellent duo albums with Chris S...

Spoon's Jim Eno doesn’t appear to be doing anything fancy when he drums, yet his deceptively groovy playing makes you want to move. He and frontman Britt Daniel, the two remaining original members, keep Spoon sounding unmistakably like Spoon amid the band's constant growth, changes and innovations. Much of the band’s guitar-heavy latest album, Lucifer on the Sofa , was recorded at Eno’s Austin, Te...

In audiophile communities it’s common to read raves about “the Bellman Cut” of an album because if Chris Bellman mastered it, it probably sounds great. One 2021 Record Store Day release even came with a sticker boasting “a killer lacquer cut by Chris Bellman.” How did he go from working on disco-era dance tracks to having the original masters of the first five Van Halen albums land on his desk? Wh...

The continuation of our conversation with the Devo co-leader goes deeper and darker into the band's history and our ominous cultural landscape. What caused Devo to split the first time, and why does Gerald Casale feel like he must do the heavy lifting now? What does he think of Mark Mothersbaugh's movie-scoring career? What was his experience directing videos by Cars, Rush and Foo Fighters? What a...

Devo’s Gerald Casale helped conceive the concept of “de-evolution,” but even he didn’t think things would get so bad. He’s also not happy about that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snub, and he has frustrations with band co-leader Mark Mothersbaugh. Devo’s striking visuals and presentation, often conceived by Casale, may lead some to overlook this groundbreaking band’s power. We dig into the music here...

Filmmaker Judd Apatow listens to other people as much as he projects his own voice. His new documentary, George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO, HBO Max) , is a complex, intimate portrait of one of the most impactful comedians ever. His new book, Sicker in the Head: More Conversations about Life and Comedy , finds him sharing tales of pandemic life, depression and expression with creative people incl...

Delvon Lamarr can play almost every instrument but one, but he’s happiest behind his Hammond organ powering soul-jazz instrumentals that suggest what might happen if Booker T. and the MG’s met the Meters on a rocket into the 21st Century. The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio makes hot, groovy music with seemingly telepathic interplay. Why does Lamarr prefer the trio format, even if it requires him to play...

Chef Sarah Stegner is not only one of the most talented chefs in the Chicago area but also among the most impactful. A two-time James Beard Award-winner, she scaled fine dining’s heights at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago, then decided she’d rather share with more people her vision of how ingredients and guests should be treated, so she opened Prairie Grass Café. She also co-founded...

Jeff Murphy makes brilliant power pop with his brother John and their friend Gary Klebe in the band Shoes. They began by recording at home in Zion, Ill., released indelible songs (“Tomorrow Night,” "Your Imagination") and albums ( Present Tense , Tongue Twister ) for Elektra and went into heavy rotation on MTV when the channel debuted in 1981. Then they discovered they were better off recording an...

Chris Stamey played with Mitch Easter and Alex Chilton before forming the dB’s and producing Pylon and other bands, but he has created a formidable body of his own work. His songwriting and arranging have grown in sophistication and skill, and he has written an illuminating memoir, A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories, that immerses us in his artistic development amid that city’s...

Justin Roberts is a first-rate songwriter who happens to make music for kids. His songs are intuitive, funny and catchy, and four of his albums are Grammy nominated, including 2020’s Wild Life , the first he wrote after becoming a parent himself. Talking in his sunny living room, he digs into the craft of songwriting and the business of releasing his own music. How does he distinguish between song...