The James McMahon Music Podcast

On this episode I’m talking to a group that have been doing what they do – famously, in the words of former manager Pete Waterman, ‘ABBA on speed’ – for the entirety of the time that I’ve been an adult. In fact, I’d like to dedicate this episode to my old friend Stacey Smith for teaching me the dance moves to ' 5,6,7,8 ' in the sixth form common room of Armthorpe Comprehensive, many moon...

Yeah, I know I said I was going to take a short break from this podcast now that we’ve hit 50 episodes, but tomorrow, that's Friday June 17th – MNYS , My New York Summer, or Nick Cozine to give him his real name, releases a new EP, …Before The Internet , on the ever excellent Pure Noise Records . It is a lovely collection of songs by a young man who I think is a bit of a star, and so I wanted...

Bloody hell, we’re 50 episodes old. Which is quite amazing to me actually, so do allow me a moment or two to bask in the glory of the achievement. So much has gone on since this podcast began eleven months or so ago. A global pandemic. Several mental health meltdowns . Hospitalisation. And tonnes and tonnes of great conversations with musicians and bands. It’s been a blast and this podcast has mat...

I’m speaking to rock 'n' roll royalty on this episode – the great Jon Spencer , of Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash, and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – and now, Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers, whose new album, the excellent, wild, weird, strange and characteristically uncouth,  Spencer Gets It Lit , is out now. Have you ever wondered how many times Jon Spencer has said in his life...

Fancy another bonus episode of the James McMahon Music Podcast ? This is an interview I did with Man On Man – that would be boyfriends Joey Holman and Roddy Bottum , the pop conscience of the great Faith No More – in the latter half of the plague days. Originally for the on hiatus - might be back, I don’t know yet - The Spoook Podcast , the audio is a bit scuzzy because I didn’t use a microphone b...

Yeah, I know there was a brand new episode of this here podcast just the other day, but since it had been a while I thought I probably owed you something a little extra. And I’ve been listening to Gojira loads recently – like, loads, basically all the time – and so I thought, ‘why not share with the listers of The James McMahon Music Podcast that interview you did with Joe Duplantier from Gojira l...

Friends, it has been a time. Oh yes. It has been a time. But hey, considerably later than I intended to publish this episode, here’s episode 48 of this here music podcast – recorded on my guests birthday no less! – a conversation with James Veck-Gilodi from British pop rock champs Deaf Havana , a band who are in every way possible, returning harder, faster, stronger… and dryer too. Which is great...

Shall we dedicate this episode to Taylor Hawkins? Yeah, let’s do that. You might like to read some words I wrote about the great man’s passing at Spoook.substack.com. But for now, let’s get down to business. And the business of this podcast is rock. On this episode I’m speaking to immortal megadude Liam Cormier , chief wailer in Toronto, Ontario hardcore punks Cancer Bats . This, I believe, is the...

The last time I talked to Victoria Hesketh , for she is Little Boots , I was out of my mind, in my east London flat, with late 00’s indie rock chaos raging all around. My friend Rob was there. Heavy metal Rob we used to call him. And for some reason he’d decided to pick Victoria out of everyone who was present to have a row with. A row about Tool. Y’know, the proggy metal band Tool, who are so bel...

Ooooh, have you signed up to my Substack yet? It's where I write about music... and all sorts of other things. Spoook.substack.com , FTW. There’s been a bunch of really long episodes of this podcast recently, so it’s about time there was a short one. And yet it’s a good one I think, even if the audio is a bit scratchy in places, and it’s one with one of my favourite living songwriters, Greg B...

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to grow this podcast, and my Substack - spoook.substack.com - and Spoook – the creative hub that bore it and so many of my other projects – and my comics, and the music I make. All the things . Actually, I should rephrase that. I’ve been thinking, not about how I can grow, but how I can connect . Part of this thought process has been inspired by Bristol...

Not just a new logo – thanks Drew Millward – on this new episode of The James McMahon Music Podcast . Oh no! This time round I’m speaking to James Smith , singer – or should that be speaker – in Leeds based mumble punks Yard Act . That band might just have made my favourite album of 2022 so far. The record is called The Overload . It’s their debut. It got to number 2 in the actual UK pop charts, a...

I recorded this episode, with ‘punk witches’ Dream Nails - their words not mine - back in January. A lot has happened since then. Some of it bad. Some of it very bad. Some of it very, very, very bad. But some of it pretty good too. The London based riot grrrls have just been announced as the support to 90’s alt gods Pearl Jam and the Pixies at their big summer London show this coming July. They’re...

Born from the jangliest part of The Wedding Present as the eighties became the nineties, for the last 31-years, Peter Solowka's The Ukrainians have done more than most to preserve the culture of their heritage. There really was only one band I wanted to speak to in this wretched week. With war rearing its monstrous head in Europe once more, with Russian soldiers on the streets of Ukraine and...

From Albany, New York – though as we’ll learn, soon to feature a resident of Australia – next month, on March 11th, the great Drug Church release their fourth record Hygiene on the consistently fruitful Pure Noise Records . Long episode, short intro. Heavy stuff throughout and with a brilliant Cro-Mags anecdote to boot. Know this – on this episode we get deep into mine and singer Patrick Kindlon’s...

During the first few minutes of this podcast – an interview with the great Dan Andriano , the heart and soul of Alkaline Trio , one of my favourite bands ever – you can tell I’m nervous. That said, we groove into a really nice chat. About Dan’s new solo record, Dear Darkness – out now on Epitaph, with a bit of help from his backing band, The Bygones – but also about the dichotomy all creative type...

You might remember Bitch – that’ll be one Karen Mould – as one half of Bitch and Animal , the Ani Difranco endorsed queercore duo from the late nineties and early noughties that made a string of intriguing records like What’s That Smell , Eternally Hard and Sour Juice and Rhyme . Then she made a string of solo records as just Bitch, until, in 2010, she went quiet, seemingly lost to the endless dif...

Two Yorkshiremen. One amazing, and increasingly eclectic punk-cum-noise-cum-post-hardcore-cum-shoegaze-cum-prog-metal band. On this episode I’m talking to James Spence from the great, Sheffield born outfit Rolo Tomassi , whose new studio album – their sixth – Where Myth Becomes Memory -  is released this Friday, on February 4th. It’s a quite remarkable record, and so our chat digs into the making...

I’ve been a fan of Sea Power for years and years. Because really, the idea of an Ordnance Survey Pixies is a very, very good one. I haven’t spoken to singer/guitarist Scott Wilkinson – or Yan as he’s sometimes known – for decades, mind. I think in fact, around about twenty-years. Last time we spoke we were backstage in a Scout Hut. Yes, Scout Huts have backstage areas. Obviously, a lot has changed...

Oooh oh oooh oh! On this episode I speak to Finnish rock megastars The Rasmus – 5 million albums sold and counting! - who, at the time of writing, are in the process of competing to represent their country at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest . They’ve got a new member, a new single , stuff to say about the backstage areas of UK music venues, and, I want to talk to them about the time I saw someone...

Because I don’t half love you lot, here’s a bonus episode of this here podcast – an interview with Lou Barlow , of Dinosaur Jr , Sebadoh , Folk Implosion , one of my absolute favourite musicians of all time – that I did sometime in 2021. I actually spoke to him for a segment  of episode 3 of The Spoook Podcast , which is another podcast I did/do/dunno yet, watch this space, but I just thought it m...

Ah shit indeed, and welcome to 2022’s first episode proper of The James McMahon Music Podcast . And on this episode! I’m speaking to Dean McMullen , one third of Exeter indie punks Muncie Girls – a band I was truly obsessed with for a time – who is on the very precipice of releasing his first solo work, the excellent ‘Clouds Hold Up The Sun’, on the legendary Fierce Panda Records - out January 14t...

Been a while since I uploaded an episode of this podcast – Christmas and New Year kind of got in the way. And so in an attempt to make up for the longer than usual radio silence, I’ve cobbled together a special episode of The James McMahon Music Podcast , made up of a bunch of interviews I did at the NME Awards in 2010, that I’d forgotten I had until now. I think as a historical document, it makes...

It’s hard to defend pop punk these days. The party is long over, the darkness taking the place of the morning sun. It is a scene littered with the corpses of fallen and exposed heroes. But, while Rome fell – or at least the backstage area of Warped Tour – Mayday Parade kept on doing what they do; which is, crunchy guitars, yearning lyrics, melodies dropped from heaven above. The five piece, from T...

Bob Mould really needs no introduction. He was one third of US punk pioneers Hüsker Dü – arguably the very band (with a respectful nod to Black Flag) that ploughed the furrows for every independent band that followed. He was the fulcrum in brilliant post-grunge types Sugar . And in and between both, he’s released a string of brilliant, and often alarmingly eclectic solo records . He’s as close as...