RiYL

Episode 756: Nicole Georges

19 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"It's such a gift to be queer," Nicole Georges says, putting a bow on our hour-long chat."It's such a gift to be punk. It's such a gift to be queer an...

Episode 755: Langhorne Slim

03 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Life's good when it's just a couple of guys singing about butts (everyone's got 'em). "The Dreamin' Kind" Langhorne Slim healthy, happier, and more ro...

Episode 754: Björn Yttling (Peter, Björn and John; Yttling Jazz)

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What's two decades between releases? Yttling Jazz returned this year, with a new lineup and album, Illegal Hit. Björn Yttling wears his jazz influenc...

Episode 753: Adele Bertei

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

No New York picks up where Peter and the Wolves, with young Cleveland transplant Adele Bertei landing in New York amid a burgeoning new scene. No...

Episode 752: Ben Eaton (Deary)

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Born during the pandemic, Deary proudly wear their influences on their sleeve. Most immediate is a love of the Cocteau Twins, which first connected gu...

Episode 751: Bette A

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Slow Stories took its time. Author Bette A(driaanse) revisited the work decades after initially committing it to print, this time with a new motivatin...

Episode 750: Beatrice Deer

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Upon reflection, Beatrice Deer suggests that Inuit Legend may ultimately be her least personal record to date. That's not to say the musician doesn't ...

Episode 749: Nils Edenloff (Rural Alberta Advantage)

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Rise & The Fall marked The Rural Alberta Advantage's return to a trio. Multi-instrumentalist Amy Cole's return was a homecoming, serving to re...

Episode 748: Mirah

15 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic wasn't a creatively fruitful time for Mirah. Life as a new parent no doubt played a major role in any such blockage, coupled, with a loss...

Episode 747: idk

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Had he served all 15 years of his sentence, Jason Mills would have re-entered the world last year -- almost exactly half his life to that point. The g...

Episode 745: Adam Goldberg

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Goldbergs' 2021 move was meant to be temporary, a relocation from Los Angeles to his wife's hometown while the new network television gig did its ...

Episode 744: Dominique Fils-Aimé

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A few moments into My World is the Sun, there's little doubt Dominique Fils-Aimé is doing what she was put on this earth to do. As an ode to vulnerab...

Episode 742: The Happy Fits

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Surprise, it's all four members of The Happy Fits, beaming in from their Philadelphia practice space. After a rough couple of years -- losing a member...

Episode 723: Ryan Walsh (Hallelujah the Hills)

11 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Few albums warrant their own YouTube explainer direct from the band. It's not exactly necessary for Deck -- particularly in the wake of compilations p...

Episode 742: KT Tunstall

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It takes light 4.2 years from Proxima Centauri, the nearest non-sun star, to reach Earth. It took the songs of 2025’s Stargazer EP nearly five times...

Episode 741: Tom Gauld

28 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It takes a unique talent to find one's work thumbtacked above desks at libraries across the world. But Tom Gauld wasn't content to simply rest on the ...

Episode 740: Sean Mason

21 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How often do we truly afford ourselves a fresh start? Sean Mason went all after his first record.The Southern Suite put the pianist on the map, there ...

Episode 739: Michael Hampton (Parliament-Funkadelic)

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 17, Michael Hampton blasted off from Earth in the Mothership. More than half a century later, the Funkadelic guitarist has never looked back.He doe...

Episode 738: Morgxn

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Happiness wasn’t too far from home. After stints in larger cities, following more traditional music routes, Morgxn settled just outside of Nashville...

Episode 737: Kenny Wayne Shepherd

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A few months after celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut, Ledbetter Heights, Kenny Wayne Shepherd returns to the show to reflect on three deca...

Episode 736: Bruce Driscoll and Andy Chase on Stroik

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A brute force approach helped Drew Stroik land a record deal. The unknown musician sent demo after demo to his favorite musicians, until one -- Andy C...

Episode 735: Saul Williams

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They didn’t go into the forest to create a record. One evening of music and words surrounded by nature was plenty enough reason to gather.Still, Sau...

Episode 734: Anand Wilder (Yeasayer)

09 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On 2022's I Don’t Know My Words, Anand Wilder embraced DIY in a different way, performing each song entirely by himself. Three years after Yeasayer'...

733: Milo (and Bill) Go on RiYL

02 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nothing throughout the Descendents' long history can be taken for granted, started with I Don't Want to Grow Up. The band's second record, which celeb...

Episode 732: Laveda

26 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bursting with the vitality of NYC's outer-boroughs, Laveda returned in September with Love, Darla. The Brooklyn by way of Albany harkens back to the h...

Episode 731: Jamie Lidell

19 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A radical departure in a music career defined by them, Jamie Lidell's first full length in nearly a decade finds the artist exploring a new instrument...

Episode 730: Debi Derryberry

12 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Debi Derryberry's fifth album, Go to Sleep, combines longstanding loves of music making and animation into a single YouTube project, pulling together ...

Episode 729: doubleVee

05 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Note: The interview was cut short and kind of sputters out at the end for weather related reasons I won’t go into here. We’ll have to get the band...

Episode 728: Kadhja Bonet

28 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier songs were political, but never as overtly so. There isn’t much value left to wring from subtlety these days.Battlewear is, fittingly, angry...

Episode 727: Henry Barajas, Rachel Merrill

21 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of their upcoming Image series, Death to Pachuco, artist Rachel Merrill and author Henry Barajas discuss the process of bringing the historical ...

Episode 726: Peter Morén (Peter, Bjorn and John)

13 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

SunYears felt like starting over, in a very real sense. Peter Bjorn and John were on the backburner, and Peter Morén earlier solo work was decidedly ...

Episode 725: Spider Stacy (The Pogues)

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrating its 40th birthday exactly one month ago, Rum Sodomy & the Lash requires no introduction. As epilogues go, however, one could do far wo...

Episode 724: Richard Patrick (Filter)

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

He may have had something to prove early on, leaving the relative comfort of a rocket ship success like Nine Inch Nails, but it didn’t take Richard ...

Episode 723: David Christian (Comet Gain)

23 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thirty-three years, 10+ members, and a dozen albums later, Comet Gain hasn’t lost its step. Released in June, Letters to Ordinary Outsiders maintain...

Episode 722: Jenni Rose and Cory Graves (The Vandoliers)

17 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jenni Rose announced herself in style, with a Rolling Stone interview, back in April. The article dropped a few months The Vandoliers’ fifth album, ...

Episode 721: Marissa Nadler

09 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the end, New Radiations could only be a multimedia affair. Marissa Nadler seems to have her hands in nearly every medium these days, from music, to...

Episode 720: Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show)

30 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What began as a poetry cycle quickly evolved into a dozen of Ketch Secor’s most personal songs. Story the Crow Told Me makes little effort to mask i...

Episode 719: Vitamin String Quartet

26 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s prolific and then there’s the Vitamin String Quartet. In its roughly quarter-century of existence, the outfit has produced more than 400 a...

Episode 718: Ben Nichols (Lucero)

18 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sixteen years is a long time between solo albums, but Ben Nichols’ role fronting Lucero has kept him plenty busy. In that time, the Memphis-based pu...

Episode 717: Katie Fricas

12 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Books, World War I pigeons, queer dating, bygone New York City haunts – Checked Out has a bit of something for everyone. Katie Fricas’ first book ...

Episode 716: Knox Chandler

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Siouxie And The Banshees, The Psychedelic Furs, R.E.M., Cyndi Lauper -- Knox Chandler's resume reads like a who's who of late-20th century pop music. ...

Episode 715: Jessica Robbins (Course)

28 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There are two distinct phases during the writing of Hue Mirror: before and after. Course’s third album is a product of pain, uncertainty and eventua...

Episode 714: Michael DeForge

21 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Holy Lacrimony is a book about turning sadness into art. Also aliens, interpretive dancing and – in an unexpected way – the Scream franchise. Each...

Episode 713: Paul Pope

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the bifurcated world of comics, Paul Pope has never pledge allegiance to the superheroes of indies. The New York-based cartoonist’s move between ...

Episode 712: Amy Millan (Stars, Broken Social Scene)

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Time has a way of getting away from you. You tour with a couple of legendary indie bands (Stars, Broken Social Scene), start a family, and next thing ...

Episode 711: David J Haskins (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets)

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Well into his fourth decade as a professional musician, David J Haskins refers to The Mother Tree as, "my most personal work yet.” With such an expa...

Episode 710: Monique Powell (Save Ferris)

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, Save Ferris released the Checkered Past EP , the band’s first collection of new music in nearly two decades. Plenty had changed over the ye...

Episode 709: Swamp Dogg

17 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The worst thing about discovering Swamp Dogg is kicking yourself for not having done so sooner. The good news is that you’re about to have your mind...

Episode 708: Samantha Crain

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gumshoe is a record about connections in a world where being alone is increasingly becoming the default. It’s the latest from Oklahoma-based singer ...

Episode 707: Craig Thompson

03 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

With Ginseng Roots, Craig Thompson returns to his childhood -- subject matter that already proved a rich vein for his beloved 2003 book, Blankets. Whi...

Episode 706: Grey Delisle

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

About 40 minutes into the conversation, Nickelodeon calls. They need her in the studio post haste. It’s a fitting spot to end things for an artist a...

Episode 705: Amy Irving

19 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Willie Nelson suggests you record an album of his songs, you do it. Amy Irving and the country legend met on the set of 1980’s Honeysuckle Rose...

Episode 704: Anika

12 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Abyss is a dark, heavy album for a dark, heavy time. A journalist in a former life, Anika never shies away from the bleakness. The Berlin-based s...

Episode 703: Benmont Tench

06 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At age 11, his fate was sealed when Benmont Tench met Tom Petty at a Gainesville music store. Fueled by the recent British invasion, the pair made mus...

Episode 702: Luke Lalonde (Born Ruffians)

29 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vladimir Nabokov's 1951 memoir, Speak, Memory, opens with a quote describing life as the content between two dark eternities -- the before and the aft...

Episode 701: Gabríel Ólafs

22 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Polar is as much an exercise in world building as it is a classical album. Icelandic pianist Gabríel Ólafs describes a lifelong desire to score film...

Episode 700: Chester Brown

15 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since its debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Paying For It has garnered rave reviews from critics, drawing comparisons to fel...

Episode 699: Lloyd Kaufman

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One thing you should know about Lloyd Kaufman is that he isn’t dead. The introduction to Mathew Klickstein’s new interview collection is very adam...

Episode 698: Duke Amayo

02 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At 17, Duke Amayo moved from Nigeria to U.S. for a football scholarship at Howard University. Despite his study, a career in medical illustration wasn...

Episode 697: Denison Witmer

23 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Recorded over the course of two years, Anything At All is, fittingly, about slowing down. Denison Witmer finds beauty in domesticity. It’s a meditat...

Episode 696: Charles 'Wigg' Walker

15 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy years since kicking off his music career in his hometown of Nashville, Charles “Wigg” Walker is still madly in love with music. This Love ...

Episode 695: Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson (Tsunami)

09 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

After 35 years, Tsunami returned with a bang. The Virginia-based band capped off 2024 by reuniting to deliver a massive, career-spanning boxset, ...

Episode 694: Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music)

02 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“I am edging away from apathy,” Chuck Ragan bellows, “I am drifting away from the dark. The rain has got my mind in motion.” The stanzas that ...

Episode 693: Chuck Prophet

25 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Music is, at once, a vector for connection and escape. Chuck Prophet found both, as at a bar in San Francisco’s Mission District. Cumbia, a popular ...

Episode 692: Tarriona “Tank” Ball

19 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Following the release of Tank and the Bangas' Grammy nominated The Heart, The Mind, The Soul, singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball returns to the show. The...

Episode 691: Rafael Cohen (Las Palabras, !!!)

11 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fe finds Rafael Cohen returning to his roots on multiple fronts. The latest from the !!! multi-instrumentalist's Las Palabras finds the musician retur...

Episode 690: Grant Mullen (Naked Giants)

05 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does “maturity” mean for a rock band? The answer is, perhaps, a bit easier to answer when you’ve been together since age 18. For Naked Gian...

Episode 689: Ruthie Foster

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Mileage scored Sun Records’ first-ever Grammy nomination. It’s hard to believe for a 72-year-old label that was once home to Elvis Pre...

Episode 688: Anna Butterss

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mighty Vertebrate hits different. In a world of sound a likes and slow burns, Anna Butterss' latest solo record makes itself known from immediately ou...

Episode 687: Zac Carper (Fidlar)

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 686: Kenny Wayne Shepherd

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 collect...

Episode 685: John Davis (Superdrag)

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 684: Samuel Herring (Future Islands, Hemlock Ernst)

20 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 683: Michael Des Barres

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 fin...

Episode 682: Mike Campbell (Dirty Knobs, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 t...

Episode 681: Kishi Bashi

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 se...

Episode 680: Breymer

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 679: Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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: ...

Episode 678: Shannon Wheeler

13 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler returns to the show. The artist recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to release a new book collecting minico...

Episode 677: Franz Nicolay (The World/Inferno Friendship Society, The Hold Steady)

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 676: Steve Cropper

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

He's quick to laugh with a twang that betrays his Southern Missouri origin. Steve Cropper discusses his accomplishments with modesty, rarely offering ...

Episode 675: Graham Wright (Tokyo Police Club)

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 wit...

Episode 674: Dash Shaw

22 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 d...

Episode 673: Eduardo Arenas (Chicano Batman)

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

Episode 672: Joe Gatto

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 perfo...

Episode 671: Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak (Mercury Rev)

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jet lag is a drag, leaving Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak at a decided disadvantage during our conversation. Mercury Rev just got back from Austral...

Episode 670: Maria Bamford and Scott Marvel Cassidy

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 establ...

Episode 669: Jack Grisham (TSOL)

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A-Side Graffiti includes, among other things, a surprisingly faithful cover of Dr. Frank N. Furter's "Sweet Transvestite." The song finds Jack Grisham...

Episode 668: Buddy Bradley Returns (with Peter Bagge)

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

[Apologies for poor audio quality on my end. Technical difficulties suck]Hate returns. So, too, does Peter Bagge. The cartoonist has joined us several...

Episode 667: Yoni Wolf (of Why)

25 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, ...

Episode 666: Richard Metzger

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Magick Show bills itself as a “masterclass in modern occultism.” It’s hard to argue with the tagline. Richard Metzger is in his element intervie...

Episode 665: Duglas Stewart (BMX Bandits)

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ambit...

Episode 664: Brendan Canty (Messthetics, Fugazi)

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 contin...

Episode 663: Brent Rademaker (of Beachwood Sparks)

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 662: Joe Bonamassa

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 661: Tracy Bonham

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 som...

Episode 660: Dent May

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 659: Leela Corman

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 cartoon...

Episode 658: Jim Skafish

22 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 657: Kevin Huizenga

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This year, Drawn & Quarterly is reissuing Curses. Now 20 years old, the book represents Kevin Huizenga at his finest. The book features a collecti...