RiYL

Episode 656: Will Turpin (Collective Soul)

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the decades, Collective Soul has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls that torpedoed their contemporaries. The Georgia-based band saw a quick ri...

Episode 655: Bruce Sudano

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 654: Pearl Harbour

26 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ca...

Episode 653: Louis Cato

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Summer 2022, Jon Batiste left his longtime role as band leader for Stephen Colbert's Late Show. Longtime bandmate and sometime replacement Louis Ca...

Episode 652: Nate Powell

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 651: Brian Harnetty

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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. ...

Episode 650: Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields)

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 649: Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura)

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 648: Emel Mathlouthi

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 no...

Episode 647: Mary Timony

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Ti...

Episode 646: Don Was

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 mus...

Episode 645: Murr and Q (Impractical Jokers)

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 an...

Episode 644: Lauren Denitzio (Worriers)

30 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 sh...

Episode 643: Tom McGreevy (Ducks Ltd.)

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 642: Sean O'Hagan (High Llamas)

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 641: Mayo Thompson (the Red Krayola)

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Episode 640: Andrew 'Falco' Falkous (McLusky, Future of the Left)

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 doub...

Episode 639: Marta Cikojevic (Marci, Tops)

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 638: Doug Gillard (Guided By Voices, Bambi Kino)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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, behin...

Episode 637: BLKBOK

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 2022’s self-titled debut, BLKBOK enlisted poet (and English teacher) Lauren Delaphena to record spoken work tracks, which served to break up inst...

Episode 636: Jillian Tamaki

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 Ta...

Episode 635: Elizabeth Jancewicz (Pocket Vinyl)

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

World records can be tricky things. Rules enforced by governing bodies can disqualify potential contenders. While there was no likelihood of enshrinem...

Episode 634: Eugene Hütz (Gogol Bordello)

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Episode 633: Veronica Swift

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

By her early 20s, Veronica Swift was a jazz veteran. The daughter of musicians (pianist Hod O'Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian), she recorded her d...

Episode 632: Meklit Hadero

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Place invariably has a profound impact on the art we make. Immigration melds cultures and creative output, a phenomenon embodied by musical cross poll...

Episode 631: Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin)

20 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As day jobs go, one could do a lot worse than composer. Classically trained at Yale, Ellis Ludwig-Leone spends much of his time writing music for inst...

Episode 630: Matt Pryor (of The Get Up Kids)

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With a name borrowed from the Get Up Kids’ second EP, Red Letter Days finds front man Matt Pryor delving deep into personal stories. The memoir...

Episode 629: Emily Whitehurst (of Survival Guide and Tsunami Bomb)

06 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Survival Guide is, for all intents and purposes, Emily Whitehurst. What began as collaboration evolved into a solo act. For the project’s fourth alb...

Episode 628: June Millington (Fanny)

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Plenty of pioneers aren’t sufficiently recognized in their time. Fanny had its share of high profile champions, from David Bowie to Steely Dan, but ...

Episode 627: MS Harkness

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A deeply personal meditation on life, art and surviving capitalism, Time Under Tension further establishes MS Harkness as a formative voice in auto-bi...

Episode 626: Will Butler (Sister Squares, Arcade Fire)

17 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the time came to put out a new record, Will Butler formed a band. Comprised of the group he’d toured with for his 2015 debut, Policy, Will Butl...

Episode 625: Chris Oliveros

10 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1989, a 23-year-old Chris Oliveros founded a quarterly publication that grew into one of the world’s most respect independent comics publishers. ...

Episode 624: Jack Tatum (Wild Nothing)

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, Jack Tatum and his wife made the move from Los Angeles to Virginia. As timing goes, the decision couldn't have been better, as they rode out ...

Episode 623: Joshua Cotter

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A few months ago, Joshua Cotter did something difficult: he asked for help. Social media posts detailing the number of copies his Nod Away series have...

Episode 622: Kevin Hearn (of Barenaked Ladies)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few bands reach the status of “institution.” It’s a qualifier that has applied to Barenaked Ladies for several decades now. Multi-instrumentalis...

Episode 621: Zia McCabe (of the Dandy Warhols)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last night was a late one – a big show at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown, California, followed by the inevitable after party. Zia McCabe dials in...

Episode 620: Jaime Wyatt

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"World Worth Keeping" is a joyful song of existential crisis, celebrating a planet as it stares down the face of climate change. It's a perfect microc...

Episode 619: Riley Black

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sixty-six million years ago, roughly three-quarters of the Earth’s plants and animals went extinct. As Riley Black notes, such deaths happened almos...

Episode 618: Neil Gust (of Heatmiser, No. 2)

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Music of Heatmiser affords the titular band an occasion to step outside their own large shadow. It's an opportunity to judge the group on its own ...

Episode 617: Josh Radnor

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A dozen different songs about death. That's how one arrives at a title like Eulogy Volume 1. But not all deaths are equal. Some are metaphorical, repr...

Episode 616: Nick Thorburn (of Islands and the Unicorns)

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This month marks 20 years since the Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? The Unicorns' sophomore album is a singular triumph for a group that was cl...

Episode: 615: Jeremiah Fraites (of The Lumineers)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Northern (Redux) began as something altogether different. The planned record length cover of Taylor Deupree’s 2006 ambient album became a collaborat...

Episode 614: Roger Eno

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sitting in the backseat of an Uber on the way home from a three week work trip, I tossed The Skies, They Shift Like Chords on my music player. “Cent...

Episode 613: Kristin Hersh (of Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave)

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Some artists prefer to "let the art speak for themselves." It's a stance I respect, but hope to never encounter during an interview. Kristin Hersh, on...

Episode 612b: Daniel Clowes again

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Several months before the release of Monica, I spoke with Daniel Clowes for a magazine feature. I consider this a kind of companion piece to our more ...

Episode 612a: Daniel Clowes

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With a few days between book tour dates, Daniel Clowes is decompressing in his Bay Area home. It had been a few months since we’d spoken for a magaz...

Episode 611: Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub)

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For 34 years, Teenage Fanclub has remained remarkably consistent, both in terms of lineup and quality. Emerging from the Glasgow scene at the tail end...

Episode 610: Jerry Harrison (of The Modern Lovers and Talking Heads)

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a member of both the Modern Lovers and Talking Heads, Jerry Harrison has had a profound impact of rock music. Along with his solo work, he’s also...

Episode 609: Avey Tare (of Animal Collective)

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Knowing full well that I've become the interviewer who asks about album names, I can't help but draw a parallel between Isn't it Now and Ram Daas. The...

Episode 608: Ibrahim Maalouf

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For some musicians, touring is a strange dichotomy. In him home of France, Ibrahim Maalouf plays stadiums. It’s a different vibe here in the States ...

Episode 607: Jon Lajoie (of Wolfie’s Just Fine)

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first Wolfie's Just Fine album arrived in 2016. I Remembered, But Then I Forgot marked a major shift in Jon Lajoie’s music, toward more earnest ...

Episode 606: Shakey Graves

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Soundtracking a movie was a perfect opportunity to flex new songwriting muscles. As is often the case in life, however, things went nowhere near accor...

Episode 605: Laurie Berkner

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Play children’s music long enough and something peculiar starts to happen: your fans start having kids of their own. A quarter century after releasi...

Episode 604: Rina Ayuyang

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Set during the first year of the Great Depression, The Man in the McIntosh Suit is a classic noir meets immigrant story. The book follows one-time law...

Episode 603: Kyle Kinane

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Released on YouTube earlier this year, Shocks & Struts finds Kyle Kinane in top form. The comedian may have intentionally slowed down his breaknec...

Episode 602: Sarah Mary Chadwick

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a sense of optimism that breaks through on Messages to God. It’s marked change from the darkest moments of its predecessor. Consistent acr...

Episode 601: Hari Kondabolu

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few things in this life make one rethink the state of the world quiet like parenthood. It’s a subject Hari Kondabolu knows well. The comedian’s di...

Episode 600: Bill Griffith

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After Invisible Ink, the floodgates opened. Since the book's publication, Bill Griffith has been a graphical novel producing machine. In fact, he's wo...

Episode 599: Joyce Farmer

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tits & Clits changed the underground comics scene forever. Over its 15-year-long existence, the anthology published such now legendary cartoonists...

Episode 598: Heather Woods Broderick

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Many of us yearn for stillness and peace, as an escape from the movement all around us,” Heather Woods Broderick says of her latest LP. “Yet mo...

Episode 597: Alasdair MacLean (of The Clientele)

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The imagery of a distant fire found its way into several of I Am Not There Anymore’s tracks, most notably “Claire’s Not Real.” Frontman Alasda...

Episode 596: Julia Wertz

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In many ways, Impossible People is a companion piece to Drinking at the Movies. The new book finds Julia Wertz confronting the period of her life deta...

Episode 595: Michael Gira (of Swans)

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last year marked 40 years since the Swans hit the scene. Those decades have produced some of the most forward-looking albums in an era when rock music...

Episode 594: Alex Winter

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we last spoke to Alex Winter, he was in the midst of a publicity push for his Zappa documentary – a longtime passion project about enigmat...

Episode 593: John McCauley (of Deer Tick)

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

[Apologies for the literal jackhammering 10 feet from my window for portions of the recording. I promise it hurt me more than it hurts you.] “I feel...

Episode 592: Alison Leiby and Halle Kiefer

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

[Apologies for the poor audio quality on my end. I was unknowingly dealing with microphone issues.] Ruined’s premise is simple enough. One host love...

Episode 591: Bill Janovitz (of Buffalo Tom)

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey Through Rock & Roll History is every bit as grandiose as its subtitle suggests. It’s a spra...

Episode 590: Trever Keith (of Face to Face)

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do you do when you’ve got a bunch of paintings and nowhere to show them? If you’re Trever Keith, you do the same thing you’ve done your ent...

Episode 589: Cindy Crabb

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In terms of both influence and longevity, few zines rival Doris. While Cindy Crabb hasn’t published an issue in several years, it remains a prominen...

Episode 588: Jad Fair (of Half Japanese)

02 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s prolific and then there’s Jad Fair. The 30 albums released by his seminal art punk band Half Japanese just scratches the surface. Since 19...

Episode 587: Tommy Stinson (of The Replacements and Guns N’ Roses)

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wronger finds Cowboys in the Campfire embracing the sort of stripped down twangy Americana such band name suggests. It’s the latest left turn in a c...

Episode 586: Chad Clark (of Beauty Pill)

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, Chad Clark got a new heart. It was an emergency transplant, after a mechanical version failed – the latest in a horrific season of events...

Episode 585: Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

17 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The bad apology has become a major feature of modern American life. “I’m sorry to anyone I might have offended” more often than not boils down t...

Episode 584: Debora Iyall (of Romeo Void)

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years after its founding, Romeo Void finally got its first live album earlier this year. Released in limited quantities for Record Store Day, Li...

Episode 583: Vashti Bunyan

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 70s, Vashti Bunyan went away. Frustrated with an industry unwelcoming of her talents, she eventually moved back to Scotland and raised th...

Episode 582: Poolblood

27 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A wonderfully lush and layered debut, Mole is awash with ideas. Maryam Said’s Poolblood project arrive with a truck full of ideas and a reverence fo...

Episode 581: Kid Koala

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s no such thing as half-measures in Kid Koala land. Take, for example the recent release of Creatures of the Late-Afternoon. Most would be per...

Episode 580: Vashti Bunyan, Howard Fishman and Ryan Walsh

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A special edition of the podcast this week, as we joined by three musicians who have released books. Howard Fishman’s To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The L...

Episode 579: Carl Newman (of the New Pornographers)

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few in the indie world are as deft at creating a perfect pop song as Carl Newman. Since the late-90s, he’s served as the principle songwriter, front...

Episode 578: Leslie Stein

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brooklyn's Last Secret is a wonderful synthesis of its creator’s twin passions. It’s a book that cartoonist and rock guitarist Leslie Stein was un...

Episode 577: Mark Erelli

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes your body knows innately, well before those reach your brain and sink their hooks into your consciousness. Of course, it’s also entirely p...

Episode 576: Barbara Brandon-Croft

15 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Where I’m Coming From arrived in the Detroit Free Press at the tail end of the 80s. The strip, based on Barbara Brandon-Croft’s friend circle, was...

Episode: 575: (Bonus) Chip Zdarsky

09 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This bonus episode features the a full version of my recent conversation with the Batman writer for Publishers Weekly. The feature can be found here. ...

Episode 574: Paul Rainey

08 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This has never been a podcast obsessed with spoilers. In fact, the topic has rarely comic up over nearly 600 episodes. But Why Don’t You Love Me is ...

Episode 573: Lee Fields

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After more than two decades, Lee Fields left the music industry and strongly considered opening a fish store. “What do you know about fish?” his w...

Episode 572: Renee Scroggins (of ESG)

25 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Formed in the late-70s South Bronx, ESG has an almost impossibly wide-ranging impact on popular music. Factory Records-owner Tony Wilson spotted siste...

Episode 571: Daniel Hunt (of Ladytron)

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even with nearly a quarter-century under their belt, five years was a long time to wait between Ladytron releases. The group had settled into a comfor...

Episode 570: Charles R. Johnson

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, The New York Times Review of Books published All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End. The collection features cartoons dating back t...

Episode 569: Ivan Julian (of Richard Hell and the Voidoids)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are those musical careers that follow predictable paths – and then there’s Ivan Julian’s. The child of a Navy officer, he found himself in...

Episode 568: Rich Brown

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Beyond Vaudeville is a perfect time capsule. It’s a pre-internet era, when public access provided a rare outlet for entertainers. As Frank Hope, Ric...

Episode 567: Marc Byrd (of Hammock)

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes you can’t fully appreciate the power of music until you need it. For me, it was 2019’s Silencia, which helped me through the darkest per...

Episode 566: Say She She

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prism is a breath of fresh air in troubled times. The Brooklyn-based seven piece delivers sunshine psychedelic soul grooves transported from a differe...

Episode 565: Tom Gauld

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of our conversation at Greenlight Books in Brooklyn, Tom Gauld and I sat down to discuss his career. The cartoonist was on tour in the States to...

Episode 564: Robyn Hitchcock

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hard as it is to believe, the half-decade preceding last year’s Shufflemania was the Robyn Hitchcock has gone between albums since 1979’s Soft Boy...

Episode 563: Sadie Dupuis (of Speedy Ortiz)

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Her second poetry collection, Cry Perfume, deals with a lot. There’s a lot to deal with, from overdoses to a society that allows its artists to simp...

Episode 562: Tim Burgess (of The Charlatans)

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With his sixth solo album, Tim Burgess left nothing on the table. The 22-track album found every last new song put down on record. The singer says he ...

Episode 561: Anvil (with director Sacha Gervasi)

31 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In April, Anvil! The Story of Anvil marked its 13th anniversary. Five months later, frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner joined the fi...

Episode 560: Douglas Rushkoff

25 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The plan wasn’t to write a book. The money was enough, Douglas Rushkoff says with a laugh. But appearing in from of anonymous billionaires at a dese...

Episode 559: Nick Drnaso

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

2018’s Sabrina was, quite deservedly, a breakthrough moment for Nick Drnaso. The Chicago-based cartoonist was nominated for a Man Booker Prize and s...

Episode 558: Terre Roche (of the Roches)

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The new album is a product of a largely forgotten time in Roches lore. Before youngest sister Suzzy joined the group, the sister act was a duo: Maggie...