The LIFERS Podcast

The Music Box Theatre in Chicago puts on a lot of film festivals. And Scott goes to all of them. From the 70mm fest to the Music Box of Horrors to the Dolly Parton 9 to 5er — you’ll find that fucker at nearly every one. But maybe the greatest and most immersive fests at the Box are Chicago songwriter/composer/projectionist Daniel Knox’s weeklong David Lynch retrospectives. The first one took place...

Local H are on tour again — so that means it’s time for another Road Report. Which means drunken, inane, and pointless conversations in a hotel room. Ryan and Scott talk to Ben and Gabe about Joe Pesci, Dustin Hoffman, the second verse of “Jump”, G ‘n’ R, Kevin Costner, German “Queer Eye”, Danny Elfman, “Animal House”, and Jeff Daniels. This might be the most pointless episode yet. And it’s great.

Since 1993, The Onion’s AV Club has been the source for some of the best pop-culture writing around. And since their offices were located in Chicago, it had also been a distinct source of pride for midwesterners. All that changed when new owners G/O Media announced that they would be shutting down the Chicago office and moving operations to L.A. to “grow its entertainment relationships”. Members o...

On the eve of a certain very invasive medical procedure for Scott (see episode 54), the guys try to get a little invasive with Metro owner Joe Shanahan. A task that proves to be near impossible, as Joe —writhing and squirming like a goldfish— deflects questions at every turn and attempts to transform the interview into something resembling an episode of “This Is Your Life” for Scott. Crafty. But t...

Greg Suran has been called the Skunk Baxter of Chicago. Actually, only Gabe calls him that, but the shoe kinda fits. Since leaving his band —the brilliant but troubled Cupcakes— in the early 2000s to be something of a ronin guitar-slinger, Greg has gone on to play with everyone from Sunny Day Real Estate to Joe Walsh to Lionel Ritchie. On this episode, we talk about all of that PLUS: Playing with...

In the non-stop cavalcade of Scott’s ‘90s pals, Blake Smith is among the closest. As guitarist and vocalist for Fig Dish (and later, Caviar and The Prairie Cartel) — Blake has been there with Scott through a lot of the ups and downs of the Chicago music scene for the last — oh, never mind how many years it’s been. Just listen. On this episode we talk about bad band names, playing the Metro for the...

A post-Keith Smith discussion on an all-new installment of everyone's favorite mid-week bonus episode: Ben's Bits.

Of all the impossible obstacles you could voluntarily place in front of you, being a Christian metal band in Nashville has got to be right at the top. Seriously. What’s the Christian metal scene in Nashville like? We don’t know — but we’re betting that Keith Smith’s band Oblivion Myth IS the Nashville Christian metal scene. And that’s a tall order, man. But Keith has always preferred the road less...

After we talked to Juliana Hatfield a few weeks ago, we stayed on the line and went through a bunch of Facebook and Twitter comments about people's favorite moments from the first year of LIFERS Podcast episodes. Here is that discussion, along with a bunch of clips from shows past. Thanks for sticking with us for our first year. Happy Anniversary to all of us!

What makes the loss of Mark Lanegan so devastating? All you have to do is listen to that voice. It’s the best kind of beauty —the only one that matters, really— the kind that makes you appreciate the experience of living, while simultaneously hinting at the darkness and inevitably of death. It was the most amazing and unique instrument of our generation. Go listen to one of his many records today...

Second chances are rare, man. And you ought to take advantage of them. On the one year anniversary of our first episode(s), we get a second chance with our first guest — Juliana Hatfield. On this episode we try to truly nail down what makes Juliana the quintessential LIFER. It’s also just an opportunity to catch up and hang out. We tried really hard not to mess it up this time. Topics include: ELO...

J. Robbins rules. As singer/guitarist of Jawbox (among many others) and producer of Gabe’s favorite records — J. has made a legendary (and envy-inducing) career out of perfectly balancing the visceral and the cerebral with a series of post-punk-post-hardcore masterpieces that have only grown in stature and influence. Anyway, J. is a hero to us — and on this episode we talk to him about: John Willi...

Scott’s got some stuff to figure out. Until he does, the guys talk to dyed in the wool, hardcore lifer Dave Brooks about growing up in New York, seeing Zeppelin during the filming of “Song Remains The Same”, bouncing on Quincy Jones’ knee, seeing Blondie at Max’s, going to school with Julian Lennon, seeing the Ramones at CB’s, his band Honor Among Thieves, pizza, his dad’s awesome music club, and...

One of the (many) things missing at commercial corporatized radio is personality. The kind of personality that makes a star DJ. You know the type. The DJ that makes you tune into their radio station during their time slot. The kind of DJ that you see at all your favorite shows. The DJ that makes you think, “Goddamn! It must be FUN to be a DJ!!!” Lauren O’Neil of 101 WKQX in Chicago (and the Don Pa...

In the pantheon of great rock and roll front men —right up there with Iggy Pop and Nick Cave— sits the mighty David Yow. Of course, he’d find the idea nothing less than ridiculous — but that’s just part of what makes David the sweet and unassuming legend that he is. It was our pleasure to talk to him about his bands The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid, acting in the new Toxic Avenger movie, the Aust...

Gabe doesn’t like THE FRENCH DISPATCH — and Scott’s got a problem with that. So now you people are gonna hear about it. Along the way, we drag our good buddy Joe Dapier into this mess to talk about his band Dovetail Joint, playing drums with Jonny Polonsky during the Rick Rubin days, the difference between Winnetka and Wilmette, LICORICE PIZZA, the fake ending of AC/DC’s “Problem Child”, Sandahl B...

In the first year of the LIFERS podcast there have been any number of running gags that have found various levels of traction with our audience and ourselves. Everything from Chipotle to Pizza to Mic technique to The Replacements vs. Iron Maiden to taking dump on a hotel room floor. The list goes on and on, but of all the threads, the one that’s gotten the least amount of interest or feedback by f...

With a new year (and another Dry January) underway, the guys are joined by ex-Kill Hannah bassist —and the man who puts the Greg in “gregarious”— Mr. Greg Corner. We talk about Greg’s journey from high school metal head to Dark Wave Disco impresario, Kill Hannah’s major-label frustrations, Gabe as an adjective, Frank Perry, Nicole Holofcener, eating dirt, ‘70s Scorpions, forming your own scene, be...

Merry New Year! To close out 2021 we talked to our good buddy Page Hamilton. Or should we say Page talked to us? Anyway — after keeping his band Helmet going for over 30 years, the guy’s got some stories. Topics covered in this jam packed episode: The New York indie scene of the early 90s, cancelling 250 shows, Page’s time playing in Band Of Susans, odd time signatures, having a Gabed-up year, Sco...

It’s Christmas Eve, so watch IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE with us! Scott’s seen it hundreds of times, Gabe has seen it once, and Ben’s number is somewhere in between. On this episode — the guys record a not-so-informative commentary track that you can sync up with your own copy of Frank Capra’s timeless classic (or, more probably, from wherever you stream shit). So grab yourself a cup (or four) of holida...

If you’ve ever sneaked a peek at Scott’s pedal boards, you’ve probably noticed a few heavy duty and crazy looking guitar pedals from a company called Chase Bliss and wondered “Who the hell makes those things???” Joel Korte — that’s who. Joel started Chase Bliss Audio in 2013 and has watched his company rise to the top of the artisan FX pedal world with his ground breaking, forward thinking —and fr...

Kellii Scott is one of our favorite drummers. He’s also one of our favorite people. On this episode we talk to Kellii about WILD TYPE DROID — the excellent new record by his band Failure. We also discuss contact lenses, recording at Lita Ford’s house, that time when Scott and Kellii took over a radio station in Hartford, Vanilla Ice, and the power of saying “yes”. PLUS!!! — Gabe’s Samhain shirt an...

Despite what you might think, we actually DO edit episodes of The LIFERS Podcast. But every so often, Scott makes cuts that Ben finds just a little too painful. So we’re starting a new feature: Ben’s Bits! These are bonus versions of past episodes that restore some of those pieces that were left on the cutting room floor — and as a result, are a little more, um, “relaxed” than their official count...

Steve Tulipana is the definition of a lifer. As co-owner of Kansas City’s Record Bar and singer of Season To Risk, Steve has done more to cultivate and support his local scene than just about anybody we can think of. But don’t tell him that. He’ll just chalk it up to having nothing else to do. Well, we’re not buying it. On this episode we talk to Steve about keeping a small business going during C...

Caller! Are you there? On a very special Thanksgiving day episode of LIFERS, the guys go live(!)to take listener calls(!!!) and talk about pies, movies, music, Canada, marriage, why Ben’s family eats so early, karaoke, brags, bummers, tamales and much much more. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!