RiYL

Mighty Vertebrate hits different. In a world of sound a likes and slow burns, Anna Butterss' latest solo record makes itself known from immediately out of the gate. The album is as eclectic as it is fresh -- unsurprising, given the musician varied career, performing as the bassist for Jason Isbell's group, performing along side Phoebe Bridgers and Jenny Lewis, and serving as one fifth of impr...

During our conversation, FIDLAR frontman Zac Carper reminds me of band’s acronym, Fuck It Dawg, Life's a Risk. Spontaneity has been a driving force throughout the band’s 15-year existence, but time comes experience and – hopefully – a bit of reflection. Surviving The Dream -- the band’s first record in five years – offers up that introspection, into work. Life and Carper’s recent bipolar diag...

Released in September, Dirt On My Diamonds Vol.2 finds Kenny Wayne Shepherd doing what he was put on Earth to do. With eight tracks spanning a collective hour, it's a tight set that packs a punch, while expanding the songwriting depth that has been a fixture at this stage of his career. Thirty-four years after signing to a major label at age 13, the guitarist has delivered staying power matched by...

Few who have walked the Earth can write a pop song like John Davis. That prowess catapulted his group, Superdrag to massive success on the back of its 1996 single, "Sucked Out." The group's trajectory from there isn't wholly dissimilar from other groups who released a hit during the decade. The music business took an aggressive turn, culminating in the muddy horror show that was Woodstock 99, all...

Plenty of musicians talk about 'leaving it all on the stage,' but few have offered as demonstrable an example as Samuel Herring. His live performance is a conduit for unbridled emotion, capturing mainstream attention as the frontman for Future Islands. As Hemlock Ernst, Herring's lyrics offer insight into life experiences, no better exemplified than on the hip-hop group's latest, Studying Absence....

Released in October, It's Only Rock n Roll is a celebration that has formed the backbone of Michael Des Barres' life. The album's one dozen tracks find the singer paying homage to the biggest names of the glam era, from T. Rex to Roxy Music. Des Barres' own musical career spans more than half a century, including an appearance at Live Aid as the head of The Power Station. As an actor, Des Barres h...

Tom Petty's unexpected death in October 2017 effectively marked the end of the Heartbreakers. The band reunited a handful of times to pay tribute to the late singer, but its members have otherwise used the unfortunate opportunity to explore life beyond its confines. For Mike Campbell, the event marked the beginnings of a second career. His guitar playing and songwriter were foundational to the Hea...

Released at the end of August, Kantos is a “party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it.” A few months later, that possibility seems ever more probable. A one-time resident of both New York City and Athens, GA, Kaoru Dill-Ishibashi now spends his days in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Central California, heading over Highway 17 to surf when not making music. The singer and multi-inst...

When I Get Through follows Breymer's (Sarah Walk) journey up to the day of their top surgery. It's a candid account of the conversations and emotions that precede such a life alternating moment. The musician joins us to discuss the journey and the decision recount the events on their new LP. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Halloween comes early this year, as Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones join us to discuss the final days of their Kickstarter campaign for Dracula Book II: The Brides. The comics veterans talk about their planned four volume series and the lasting legacy of Bram Stoker's monster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler returns to the show. The artist recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to release a new book collecting minicomics and other appearances by his best-known creation, Too Much Coffee Man. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Band People is part music writing and part business book, rounded out by academic research and a host of footnotes. It's a pragmatic look at the life of road warriors in an increasingly untenable industry. More than anything, however, it's a labor of love from lifelong touring musician, Franz Nicolay. Transcript available here . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He's quick to laugh with a twang that betrays his Southern Missouri origin. Steve Cropper discusses his accomplishments with modesty, rarely offering a glimpse into a career that profoundly impacted the course of 20th century popular music. As a core, founding member of Booker T & the MGs, the guitars helped form the backbone of the Stax Record sound. Cropper cowrote some of the era's most ico...

In November, Tokyo Police Club will play its final show. Saying goodbye is never easy, but the Ontario-based band's members seem surprisingly okay with the whole thing. At the end of the day, very few of us manage to eke out a 20-year career playing with high school friends. Graham Wright acknowledges that, perhaps, the reality of the situation hasn't entirely set in, but for now, the band is enjo...

Comics and animation can both be grueling -- especially drawing a 400 page comic or animated a hand-drawn, feature length film. As such, one must be discriminating in choosing such projects. For Dash Shaw, the choice comes down to two principles: 1. It has to seem like he's the only one who can create it and 2. It needs to contain an element of "why would anyone do that." Both can be seen in his m...

While their music owes debts to the towering giants of rock, soul and the Mexican and Brazilian music before them, no one sounds like Chicano Batman. Formed in Los Angeles in 2008, the group released its self-titled debut two years later. But it was 2020's Invisible People and its infectious lead track, "Color My Life" that cemented the group's place in the indie universe. Released at the end of M...

In 2020, Joe Gatto struck out on his own. It was surprising turn, as the Impractical Joker left a beloved and lucrative TV series that found him performing alongside a trio of lifelong friends. The move, Gatto says, was about prioritizing what matter -- namely, his wife and children. Of course, a resume like his means starting over doesn't require a clean slate. Gatto has since launched a successf...

Jet lag is a drag, leaving Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak at a decided disadvantage during our conversation. Mercury Rev just got back from Australia, but the veteran guitarist happily powers through. It's just one of those annoying things that one grapples with, being one of two consistent members of a globe trotting band for the last 35 years. Grasshopper's answers are thoughtful and engaged,...

Her coauthor and husband, Scott Marvel Cassidy, is at the dentist for an emergency root canal, so Maria Bamford and I push ahead. Decades after establishing herself as one of standup's sharpest -- and funniest minds -- she's trying her hand at yet another medium. In June, Fantagraphics released Hogbook and Laser Eyes, a collaboration between Bamford and Marvel Cassidy that recounts their meeting,...

A-Side Graffiti includes, among other things, a surprisingly faithful cover of Dr. Frank N. Furter's "Sweet Transvestite." The song finds Jack Grisham dueting with fellow So. Cal. punk legend, Keith Morris. TSOL's career has been surprising, above all. Ever the consummate showman and raconteur, Grisham presided over the group's initial shift from hardcore to gothic rock, before exiting the band in...

[Apologies for poor audio quality on my end. Technical difficulties suck] Hate returns. So, too, does Peter Bagge. The cartoonist has joined us several times over the years. This time he's back to talk Hate Revisited, a return to form that reunites him with Buddy Bradley, Lisa and the rest of the crew in the modern day -- save for Stinky, that is. Poor, poor Stinky. Transcript available here . Hos...

A new album on a new label, The Well I Fell Into is a chance to consider and process the old and – hopefully – move on. A breakup album of sorts, Why’s eighth finds frontman Yoni Wolf processing the end of a years-long relationship. As relationships go, however, Why has been remarkably long lived and fruitful. After beginning life as a solo act in the mid-90s, Why became a full-fledged group in 20...

Magick Show bills itself as a “masterclass in modern occultism.” It’s hard to argue with the tagline. Richard Metzger is in his element interviewing dozens of experts on different aspects of the occult, in a bid to contextualize the centuries-old phenomenon for the modern moment. Metzger is the man for the job. At the turn of the century, he served as the host of UK interview show, Disinformation....

Dreamers On The Run marks BMX Bandits' 12th LP since the group was founded in the mid-80s. The record finds Duglas Stewart expanding his musical ambitions a 10 years after he began work on the project. The intervening decade was difficult on both Stewart and the world at large, making this latest release a true triumph for one of Scotland's most enduring indie pop acts. Hosted on Acast. See acast....

During our conversation, Brendan Canty makes it clear that he has no interest in revisiting the past. It's not bad blood. If anything, it's his continued relationship with his former Fugazi bandmates that keeps the band from doing the reunion thing. They simply like each other too much. Case in point, the The Messthetics, which reunites the drummer with bassist Joe Lally. The group's latest finds...