Lamniformes Radio

Frank Meadows and Jonathan Mondragon join me to talk about The Mars Volta, a band beloved by crowds and hated by rock critics in the 2000s. The three of us covered all six of the band's albums, their origins in the wake of At The Drive-In and the El, Paso Texas, the band's unconventional recording process, and how their work mixes progressive rock, salsa, jazz, magical realism, and much, much more...

Today's guest is Christian Segerstrom. Christian is the head editor of Mathcore Index, a blog that has also spun off into the Mathcast Podcast, and the Mathcore Index Fest. Christian is also the head of Dark Trail Records. In our conversation we covered how Christian got involved with the blogging world, how he built out the Mathcore Index brand, the future of live streaming concerts, and why Djen...

Today I am joined by Eva Lawitts. I first knew Eva as the bassist for Sister Helen, a long running DIY band in Brooklyn, but then continued to run into her playing session gigs for a whole host of acts like Vagabon and Princess Nokia. After the dissolution of Sister Helen, Eva formed Stimmerman as an outlet for her songwriting and has since released an EP, a full length, and most recently a score...

This is the audio version of a trilogy of essays that I wrote about entertainment in the live streaming era. I cover what the experience is like for DIY performers and audience members, then zoom out to look at how the NBA struggled to balance social justice advocacy with commerce during it's Bubble experiment, and finally I looked at Code Orange's live stream series in particular to see why they...

Today I am joined by Felix Walworth, who writes and performs music as Told Slant. Told Slant recently released their third album, Point The Flashlight and Walk, their first release in four years. Building off of the sparse arrangements of their first two albums, Walworth has expanded their toolbox as a writer and arranger without sacrificing their bracingly personal lyrical style. I was excited to...

Today I am joined by Sophie Cox and Chandler Kelley of True Blossom, a five piece band based in Atlanta, Georgia. True Blossom recently released their second full length “In Bliss” through Citrus City records. Like their debut “Heater,” “In Bliss” melds New Wave, Disco, sophisti-pop and city pop into a sleek and precise sound. We spoke about the band’s origins in the Atlanta DIY scene, how they se...

Today I am joined by Danny and Erica of the pop duo Tall Bird. Tall Bird released their first full length record, Lost Pet Poster Template in September. The album is a sunny mix of both nostalgic and current pop music styles, mixing indie rock guitar with horn samples and 90s production techniques. Over the course of our conversation, we talked about how the two of them began working together, the...

This episode I am joined by music journalist Joseph Schafer. Schafer has written for Bandcamp, Decibel Magazine, Stereogum and many more publications. He also helps organize Northwest Terror Fest, an extreme metal based in Seattle Washington. The two of us go way back, so our conversation rambled through a lot of topics including Schafer's path into music criticism, his approach to running a fest,...

In this episode I spoke to Danny Sher of the band Horse Torso about his background in Jazz, the movie Whiplash, insta-choppers, the place of humor in music, and the creative process behind the band's latest album "Mikropianist" which you can find on their bandcamp page: https://horsetorso.bandcamp.com/album/mikropianist https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoQ71VBYU-lOAS2m3AD4LkQ https://www.instagram...

This is the audio version of my latest newsletter about Rick Roderick, 100 gec, and Inter Arma. What can remixes and covers teach us about the act of interpretation? You can find the text version on tinyletter: https://lamniformes.substack.com/ Watch Rick Roderick's Lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvAwoUvXNzU&t=1s Read Emmet's Article: https://medium.com/@DumbAristotle/the-gorgeous-dumpst...

Today I am joined by Seth Engel, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, teacher and recording engineer. Seth recently released “Wind’s Gonna Blow” the sixth record by his solo project Options. Seth wrote and played all of the parts on this album himself, and recorded it at Pallet Sound, a Chicago recording studio where he works as an engineer. Over the course of our conversation, Seth and discussed...

Today I am rejoined by Emmet Penny, who you may remember came on the podcast to talk about Korn with me in a previous episode. This time, we discussed Isis, a highly influential band credited with popularizing the sound of “post-metal” in the 00s. As of this year Isis have been inactive for a decade, and the sound they helped pioneer has largely receded from popularity in heavy music. And yet thei...

Today I am joined by Davey Hines, better known as Davey Friday. Davey is a designer, fine artist, and studying architect. His work draws from a wide range of sources, his academic background in biology and architecture, his upbringing in Chicago, and his experience working as a DIY fashion designer. Davey and I first became friends while working together in Chicago and he quickly became one of my...

This is the audio version of my latest newsletter, in which I recommend some of my favorite music related newsletters and talk about why the form has had a resurgence recently. This episode was recorded on my "mobile" setup, so please excuse any harsh plosive sounds that made their way into the mix. You can follow my newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/IanKCory

Today I am joined by Daniel Müller, the bassist of Wilderun, a progressive metal band whose third album, “Veil of Imagination” will be re-released by Century Media on July 17th. The record is, and I say this with all due respect to the band’s first two albums, a massive leap forward for the group on all fronts. The band have evolved from a progressive minded folk metal act into something harder to...

This is the audio version of my latest newsletter, about the current wave of protests in America and a useful concept that I picked up from reading Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow." Power to the people, Black Lives Matter, solidarity forever. The closing song is a cover of The Style Council's "A Stone's Throw Away." https://goodlifegarden.org/

Today I am joined by Greg Obis. Greg is the singer and guitarist of the band Stuck, from Chicago. He is also the co-runner of Born Yesterday, a record label which in addition to Stuck’s music, also recently released Cafe Racer’s Shadow Talk. For a day job, Greg works at Chicago Mastering Service and has mastered records by Greg Fox, Paul Cherry, and Another Michael among others. Greg and I spoke a...

This is the audio version of my latest newsletter, part autobiography and part comparison between how dancing works in the metal scene versus the hardcore scene. You can find the text version by subscribing to my newsletter at https://tinyletter.com/IanKCory

Today’s guest is Emmet Penney, a writer whose work I edited when I worked for Invisible Oranges. Recently one of Emmet’s best articles, about the material conditions that led to Nu-metal’s popularity, started to make the rounds on Twitter. Around the same time I was doing a deep dive into the discography of Korn, the band that inarguably made nu-metal a trend in the 1990s. The timing felt fortuito...

This is the audio version of the most recent issue of my newsletter. Basically, I'm thinking out loud about Bandcamp waiving their revenue sharing once again, as well as Spotify's new Tip Jar feature. Are these good for artists? Does this change anything? Subscribe to my newsletter at: https://tinyletter.com/IanKCory Sources: https://pitchfork.com/news/musicians-earned-43-million-from-bandcamp-on-...

Today I am joined by percussionist and composer Adam Holmes. Last year Adam released his first full length album “Compartments” Stemming from his desire to write music for percussion instruments small enough to carry in a suitcase, “Compartments" is a fascinating listen that combines minimalistic instrumentation with live computer processing to create a sound that is both tactile and otherworldly....

Today I am joined by Andrew Napier, the composer behind the project Noumenah. Andrew is a film composer based in Los Angeles who started creating and releasing music under the name Noumenah as a way of expressing musical ideas and techniques that didn’t fit into his professional life. Drawing from an eclectic blend of electronic genres and acoustic instruments, Andrew’s music is rich with sonic de...

Today I am joined by Frank Meadows. Frank is a solo musician, improviser, composer, and songwriter. As a bassist and keyboardist, Frank is also supporting musician in the bands Putter, Fust, Colamo, Bellows, Small Wonder, and, full disclosure, Lamniformes. But that’s not all! When he isn’t gigging, Frank books shows for artists like Kath Bloom, and works part time at Downtown Music Gallery, a reco...

This episode of the podcast is an audio version of the latest issue of my newsletter about watching the movie "Prospero's Books" and playing in a Blink-182 cover band. You can subscribe to the newsletter at https://tinyletter.com/IanKCory

In this first solo version of the Lamniformes Radio podcast, I try to hash out how we can help each other during these extremely weird and stressful times, using the NBA and Bandcamp as examples. Whoo boy shit is wild right now. Love y'all, stay strong!