The Record Player

Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Matt are joined by Howie Edelson to discuss Wild Honey , the 13th studio release from The Beach Boys. Howie is the creative consultant for The Beach Boys and their company, Brother Records, Inc. and brings a wealth of Beach Boys knowledge to today's discussion. Howie works with the band and their associates on all aspects of production for their archival releases, in...

Send us Fan Mail Jackyl's Jesse James Dupree is with Matt to discuss his upcoming appearance as one of the experts on The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America , the new series that premieres Sunday night (06/12/22) at 8pm Eastern on The History Channel. We also talk about the new Jackyl song, "Get All Up in It (Another Round of Mother Funker)." Watch the music video here . Jesse s...

Send us Fan Mail Author and journalist Mitchell Cohen joins Jeff and Matt to discuss Willie Nile's 1980 self-titled debut on Arista Records. The Buffalo, N.Y. singer-songwriter has enjoyed a long career that has been especially prolific in the last decade. Mitchell helps us trace the early days of Nile's career and how it all began. We also discuss Mitchell's new book, Looking for t...

Send us Fan Mail Howard Jones joins Jeff and Matt to discuss the 30th anniversary of his album, In the Running . It was his fifth release and marked a departure from his signature synth-driven style. There was a vulnerability to both the sound and the songwriting which made the record a really engaging listen. To date, it's probably one of his most underrated releases, so it was a pleasure to...

Send us Fan Mail It's been a minute since Jeff and Matt have gotten together for a Cassingle. With a holiday weekend looming, it was good to get together and discuss a busy week of new releases. Bruce Hornsby, Def Leppard, Wilco and others have new albums out. Top Gun: Maverick is in the theaters and the fourth season of Stranger Things has just been released. Find the show notes for this epi...

Send us Fan Mail Singer-songwriter Bill Deasy joins Jeff and Matt to discuss Jackson Browne's third album, 1974's Late for the Sky. The discussion leads to the songwriting muse, how long to spend on a song before moving on and how Bill's own writing has changed. We also dig into the details behind If The Creek Don't Rise , the latest solo release from Bill. He discusses his pas...

Send us Fan Mail Today's Bonus Track features a trio of short conversations. First, Kelly Carlin joins Matt to discuss George Carlin's American Dream , the new documentary from Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio which premieres this weekend in two parts on HBO Max beginning on Friday, May 21. '80s rocker Corey Hart shares the stage with the Go-Go's, Soft Cell and Charli XCX as p...

Send us Fan Mail In his early days as a singer-songwriter, Dan Miraldi met Matt . While the wise thing would have been to run away screaming, Dan did one better than that -- he moved to New York City. But in the years since that initial meeting, Dan and Matt continued to cross paths occasionally and one thing that was always consistent was that they were guaranteed to spend some time nerding out a...

Send us Fan Mail Not long after we launched this podcast, we got an email from Matt Sledge , suggesting that if we ever wanted to discuss R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi , he'd love to be the one to sit in with us. So here we are, Jeff , Matt and Matt, discussing the tenth studio album from the Athens band. It's arguably one of the most interesting records in their catalog in the s...

Send us Fan Mail Today's Bonus Track features Steve Forbert , who joins Matt to share stories from his career and he also performs a couple of songs from his new record acoustically. They discuss his latest album as well as his recent memoir .  Steve is currently on tour and perhaps he's headed your way. Join our Patreon to become a preferred subscriber to this podcast and you'll re...

Send us Fan Mail We're sticking around in 1990 for one more week after our episodes about REO Speedwagon and Eric Johnson. This week, Jeff and Matt are discussing Michael McDonald's third solo album, 1990's Take it to Heart . The album featured a variety of collaborations and guest players and big names like Don Was and Diane Warren in the mix behind the scenes. If you haven't...

Send us Fan Mail Jesse Harms began writing songs in 1989 with REO Speedwagon vocalist Kevin Cronin who had been exploring some creative projects outside of the group. The chemistry between the pair was good and Harms was invited to join REO Speedwagon. Though his stint in the group was a short one, he ended up co-writing six out of the 11 tracks on the band's next album as well as co-producin...

Send us Fan Mail What an absolute thrill it is to welcome guitar legend Eric Gales to our program today to discuss Eric Johnson's pivotal Ah Via Musicom album. Gales joins Matt and Jeff to dig into his love of the Austin guitarist's music and how Johnson's playing influenced his own path as an artist. Both guitarists have new music that you should be aware of. Gales has been turning...

Send us Fan Mail Irish-born/NYC-based rocker Pierce Turner joins Matt for today's Bonus Track to discuss Terrible Good , his latest album, which was released in late February on StorySound Records. The songs for the album came together over a four year period and Turner paired up with guitarist Gerry Leonard (David Bowie, Rufus Wainwright, Suzanne Vega) to bring them to life. The two Irishmen...

Send us Fan Mail Matt and Jeff are joined by author Daryl Gregory to discuss David Bowie's classic 1971 album Hunky Dory. They get into a number of other stray topics including the Hardy Boys and Daryl's latest book, Revelator . Show notes for this episode are right here . Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. Which is why it's probably a good idea for you to join our Record...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Matt are joined by longtime friend Michael Fortes , the biggest Weather Report fan they've encountered in this life. As they'll learn, he's not the holder of that title for the world. That is an honor that surely must go to the guy who wrote a book about the band (along with running the most impressive fan site on the internet for many, many years). Michael...

Send us Fan Mail Guitar maestro Andy Timmons joins Jeff and Matt for a unique conversation about the classic Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . Having recorded his own version of the album, Timmons has spent a good amount of time exploring the music of the Liverpool group, both as a musician and many times, simply a music fan. He brought his guitar and it was a true joy to...

Send us Fan Mail Matt and Jeff are talking about the Eagles, both solo and together. We discuss a few of the week's new releases very briefly and give a nod to the Low Culture Boil podcast (they're talking about Twinkies and ramen and we couldn't look away). Show notes as always are right here . Join our Record Club and help support the musical excellence that is this podcast. We ap...

Send us Fan Mail Jeff and Matt are joined by Miles Francis and Lizzie Loveless (and their dog, Tony) for a special Bonus Track. They both have new albums that deserve your ears. Check out Miles' Good Man and Lizzie's You Don't Know (which Miles produced). The journey that each of them took to arrive at the albums that they ended up with is a pretty compelling story, which we dig int...

Send us Fan Mail The incredible Rax King is our guest to discuss Sleater-Kinney's 1997 album Dig Me Out . But we're also talking about the other Rax King, a restaurant called Rax, the band Creed and the Lazarus of Christian rock. Rax has a great new book called Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer . It's awesome, but don't take our flimsy word for it, just...

Send us Fan Mail There's a new Cowboy Junkies collection on the horizon and it's one to be excited about. Guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins joins Matt to discuss Songs of the Recollection , which will be released on March 25. Michael shares a lot of good stories, including his memories of Vic Chesnutt, and also, the band's collaboration with Garth Hudson of the Band, just to...

Send us Fan Mail Del Amitri's Justin Currie is our guest to discuss all things Dels-related, including Change Everything , the band's third album, which turns 30 this year. On March 26th, Del Amitri will launch their first U.S. tour in 25 years . We discuss the upcoming trek with Justin and he shares the details behind Fatal Mistakes , the band's newest album, which helped to make t...

Send us Fan Mail Matt and Jeff are celebrating 311 Day. March 11 is also a great day, because it means there's now a brand new live album from the Georgia Satellites that you can listen to.  Cowboy Junkies have a new album coming out later this month and Matt just spoke with Michael Timmins from the band. Those are just a few of the many topics we dig into. You can find the show notes here ....

Send us Fan Mail We enjoyed having guitarist George Marinelli on the podcast earlier this year to talk about some of his favorite music, including Ahmad Jamal. He's back for a special Bonus Track to discuss Sign Here , his new solo album that's being released on March 10. You can pre-order the album now and all proceeds are being donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center . We also discu...

Send us Fan Mail Okay, so on today's episode, we actually discuss two albums by Mew , 2005's And the Glass Handed Kites and 2009's No More Stories . Our show intro features " Introducing Palace Players " from the latter album. Yvette Young is our guest to discuss these records from the Danish band that provided interesting influence on her own career as a musician and song...