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 he…

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 p…

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 sur…

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 informati…

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…

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 sou…

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 has…

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 "wh…

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 pla…

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 …

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. Gras…

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 Bamfor…

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 h…

[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. …

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 …

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…

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 en…

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…

What's a dozen or so years between friends? 2012's Tarnished Gold found Beachwood Sparks in fine form. Eleven years had passed since the band's first two records were released within a year of each other. It was a reunion of sorts, though this time 12 years would pass before the Los Angeles group reunited. Released earlier this month, Across the Ri…

At 12, Joe Bonamassa was opening for the BB King. Twelve years later, his career was a at a crossroads. He's been through a pair of major label deals and suddenly found himself tasked with releasing his third album on his own. "There was no plan B," the guitarist says. Blues Deluxe, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, was precisely the…

Like many of us, Tracy Bonham's been through it over the last couple of years. Her latest single, “Damn The Sky (For Being Too Wide)," processes some of those feelings of isolation and disconnect. It's also her first studio release since 2017's Modern Burdens, which found the musician reconnecting with the debut album that put her on the map back i…

The Ukulele was a gimmick, as Dent May is the first to admit. It did the trick on the Mississippi-born musician's second album, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele. The LP -- his first for the Animal Collective-run Paw Tracks -- established May as a musical force. These days he continues his hunt for the perfect pop song. N…

Prior to Beat the Champ, Leela Corman hadn’t drawn much wrestling. The 2015 record would be the first two Mountain Goats covers drawn by the cartoonist. Corman’s passion for bodies in motion would resurface in this April’s Victory Parade, as wrestling plays a key role in the World War II era graphic novel. The book tells the story of personal and s…

It’s not easy being a pioneer, but Jim Skafish came out of the gate swinging. In the late-70s, the Chicago musician became the first American signed to Miles Copeland’s hugely influential IRS records. His band’s first LP, 1980’s self-titled Skafish, failed to catch fire, owing to delays and poor production. Three years later, Conversations, was met…

This year, Drawn & Quarterly is reissuing Curses. Now 20 years old, the book represents Kevin Huizenga at his finest. The book features a collection of stories united by the cartoonist's long time lead, Glenn Ganges, exploring history, fiction, folk tales and more, backdropped against a seemingly mundane suburban midwestern backdrop. It presents a …

Over the decades, Collective Soul has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls that torpedoed their contemporaries. The Georgia-based band saw a quick rise in the early 90s, on the backs of hits like "Shine" and "December." More than 30 years on, the band remains as solid a unit as ever, have maintained an extraordinarily consistent lineup. Longtime b…

The most recent stage of Bruce Sudano’s career began in earnest just over a decade ago. His wife and long-time creative partner, the legendary Donna Summer, passed in 2012. With their children now grown, Sudano restarted his solo career. The move, he notes, felt like nearly restarting a decades-long musical journey from scratch. Hosted on Acast. Se…

It's been a hard few years for most of us, but Pearl Harbour has managed to stay positive throughout. It's no small feat, given struggles with lung cancer that have indefinitely sidelined her singing career. The musician recently penned linear notes for the re-issue of her great unsung 1980 rockabilly LP, Don't Follow Me, Im Lost Too. The album fea…

In Summer 2022, Jon Batiste left his longtime role as band leader for Stephen Colbert's Late Show. Longtime bandmate and sometime replacement Louis Cato stepped into the role, breathing new virtuosic role As Colbert noted at the time, "Give him an afternoon, he'll learn how to play Mozart on a shoehorn." Cato joins us to discuss his journey, music …

The term "love letter" is criminally overused in this industry, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more appropriate phrase for Fall Through. The book finds cartoonist Nate Powell reconnecting with the punk rock touring days of the 90s. Before his career as a cartoonist, Powell played in bands, including his time as one of the longest tenured membe…

The Workbench is an ode to the power of objects. The EP is the celebration of the titular possession Brian Harnetty inherited when his father passed. It's an tribute to a man who could seemingly "fix anything," a trait the musician admits he did not inherit. The younger Harnetty is, however, a whiz at creating songs with his hands, incorporating a …

September marks 25 years since the release of 69 Love Songs. The landmark triple-album cemented frontman Stephin Merritt's states as one of the finest songwriters of his generation. A quarter-century later, the songs don't always come as easily to Merritt. At his most prolific, however, the musician wrote more than enough to carry him through the r…

Ten years is forever in the rock world. There were times it seemed Camera Obscura might never return. The 2015 death of longtime keyboard player Carey Lander put the group’s future in limbo. For the first time since the mid-90s, the band went on indefinite hiatus. An invitation to perform at the Belle & Sebastian curated Boaty Weekender cruise brou…

For our conversation, Emel Mathlouthi popped into a Brooklyn coffee shop. It’s a little cacophonous, but also a fitting microcosm of the city she now calls home. The musician moved to the States after a stint in Paris, but a part of her home country of Tunisia always remains close. As she broadens her cultural and musical horizons, the North Africa…

Fifteen years is forever in the world of popular music. But the number doesn't tell the whole story. While it's been a decade-and-a-half since Mary Timony released her last solo record, the low-key guitar god has been plenty busy. She's released a pair of albums as part of Ex Hex, a record with indie rock supergroup Ex Hex with members of Sleater K…

Few individuals have left as an indelible a mark on late-20th century American popular culture as Don Was. As a producer, he work includes some of music’s biggest names, including Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. In the 80s, he found success on the other side of the microphone as one-half of the Was (Not Was). In 2012, he became the pres…

Fun bonus episode this week, as we're joined by James "Murr" Muray and Brian "Q" Quinn of "Impractical Jokers. The pair discuss their upcoming tour and keeping the show fresh after 10 seasons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Health scares have a way of prioritizing things. For Lauren Denitzio, undergoing heart surgery at the young age of 25 brought one key priority into sharp focus: music. Since then, the musician has approached their creative venue Worriers as a form of pure expression, both musically and emotion. The band's earnest, joyful music has earned it a place…

Ducks Ltd. arrived out of nowhere with 2019's Get Bleak. The tight four-song EP offered grad-level crash course on perfect indie pop hits. This year's Harm's Way find the group plumbing the kind of jangle pop that made 2021's Modern Fiction a critical darling. Tom McGreevy, the singing/rhythm guitar playing half of the duo joins us to discuss life …

There are more than a few points when Hey Panda sounds like the work of an entirely different band. The songwriting is sharp as ever, but Sean O'Hagan gleefully pushes the High Llamas into new directions. It's an impressive accomplishment in itself more than three decades after the band's formed. O'Hagan was already a music industry vet by the time…

In 1970, Mayo Thompson released his only solo record to date. It's a strange thing to write 50 years later, especially given the Texas-born musician's wildly prolific career as the sole consistent member of the eclectic and enigmatic Red Krayola. Ignored in many circles upon its release, Corky has grown in stature over the decades, which -- much li…

The legend of McLusky has grown greatly since the the group's initial breakup in 2005. The release of the three-disc Mcluskyism compilation is no doubt reasonable for much of that prolonged success. So, too, are the members' post-McLusky projects, including Future of the Left. Formed by ex-members Andrew Falkous and Jack Egglestone shortly after br…

After half-a-decade with Montreal's dreamy synth pop group Tops, Marta Cikojevic took her own turn in the spotlight in 2022. The eponymous debut of her project Marci finds the musician embracing dance music, with one foot planted in yacht rock's golden era. Prior to her time in music, Cikojevic had a flourishing career in modeling that took her aro…

For a few decades now, it seems like Doug Gillard is everywhere. He's the second longest tenured member of the wildly prolific Guided By Voices, behind frontman, Robert Pollard, having been in and out (mostly in) of the band since the mid-90s. He is also a long-time guitarist for alternative rock stalwarts, Nada Surf, having played with the group s…

On 2022’s self-titled debut, BLKBOK enlisted poet (and English teacher) Lauren Delaphena to record spoken work tracks, which served to break up instrumental tracks. For the follow up, Charles Wilson III gave the job to his therapist, Dr. Felicia Thomas. Plenty of albums can be described as “deeply personal,” but in that respect, 9 is on another lev…

By the time Roaming arrived last year, it had been nearly a decade since This One Summer, the last collaboration between cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. The comic was their second joint project, follow 2008's award-winning debut, Skim. This One Summer won the pair an Eisner, Ignatz and Coldecott, before running afoul of overzealous censorship bo…

World records can be tricky things. Rules enforced by governing bodies can disqualify potential contenders. While there was no likelihood of enshrinement at the finish line, Pocket Vinyl went for it nevertheless and got their own book in the process. How to Completely Lose Your Mind finds bandmates and husband/wife duo Elizabeth Jancewicz and Eric …

There's no one quite like Gogol Bordello. The band has cultivated a wildly joyful mix of Romani and Ukrainian music, crossed with punk, polka and any other genre that might suitable serve the chaos. Eugene Hütz stands in the eye of the storm, as frontman and ringleader. Growing up in Ukraine studying English language punk and folk, Hütz and family …