RiYL
Episodes
Episode 258 (Bonus): Gina Wynbrandt
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When I first encountered Gina Wynbrandt’s work at MoCCA Fest a few years back, the Chicago-based cartoonist seemingly came out of nowhere. Here debu...
Episode 257: Emil Ferris
11 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Do not listen to people’s idea about what you can accomplish,” Emil Ferris insists as we wrap up our interview. “ You must do the thing you...
Episode 256 (Bonus): Joseph Remnant
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve been eagerly awaiting Joseph Remnant’s debut graphic novel since he began collaborating with underground comics pioneer Harvey Pekar for the ...
Episode 255: Torquil Campbell (of Stars)
05 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Without nostalgia,” Torquil Campbell explains, “I don’t know how you make pop music.” It’s an inescapable dimension of Stars music, if on...
Episode 254: Emily Haines
28 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The thing that is the product is the excrement,” Emily Haines posits, loosely paraphrasing English writer, Jeanette Winterson. “The thing that ...
Episode 253: Jay Rosen
22 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I was first made aware of Jay Rosen when he began to pop up in my Twitter feed. As the last presidential election neared, he began to show up more and...
Episode 252: Jon Wurster
15 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Recorded on the eve of a pair of celebrating the 20th anniversary of his first Best Show call, we managed to catch Jon Wurster at the perfect time to ...
Episode 251: Chris Ware
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“I never thought i’d making a living doing this,” Chris Ware explains, candidly. “I just thought i’d be a weird guy on the street shuffling ...
Episode 250: Cecil Castellucci
30 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“Sometimes I’ll write something and I’ll weep while I’m writing it,” Cecil Castellucci explains, as we wrap up the interview with one final ...
Episode 249: Nidhi Chanani
24 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We sit down on a pair of chair in the First Second booth, smack in the middle of a crowded New York Comic Con show floor early on a Saturday. Nidhi Ch...
Episode 248: Janelle Hessig
18 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Founded in 1990, Tales of Blarg became one of the longest running and most influential zines out of the East Bay punk scene that gave the world Lookou...
Episode 247: Mimi Fischer
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“My life makes no sense,” Mimi Fischer says with a laugh. The 64-year-old comedian recently put on her first solo show, “A Late Bloomer” at th...
Episode 246: Simon Hanselmann
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“I don’t want to go back to the bird shit,” Simon Hanselmann explains, reminiscing not-so-fondly about about jobs past. From all appearances, li...
Episode 245: Maura Lynch and Andrew Chugg (of Blush)
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Blush’s debut album is the culmination of nine years worth of songs. Singer Maura Lynch spent the last decade playing in bands and working day jobs ...
Episode 244: Ron Turner and Winston Smith
26 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ron Turner is running late. It’s impossible to find parking in North Beach this time of night. I’m nursing a whiskey upstairs as Cafe Vesuvio, the...
Episode 243: Nicole Georges
25 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Toward the end of our conversation, Nicole Georges takes a moment to point out that her latest book, isn’t the downer this interview might have made...
Episode 242: Trina Robbins
19 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“As long as one can walk one can protest,” Trina Robbins explains, over the white noise of a nearby espresso machine. “And as long as i don’t ...
Episode 241: Anders Nilsen
13 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The last time Anders Nilsen was on the show, we were huddled on a patch of grass out behind the San Diego Convention Center with pedicabs carrying cos...
Episode 240: James Jackson Toth (of Wooden Wand)
05 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“Every once in a while,” James Jackson Toth explains, “you make a record and it feels like the message in the bottle sinking before it gets to t...
Episode 239 (Bonus): Stoya
02 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a few days before the opening of her first theatrical performance, and Stoya doesn’t know what to expect. It’s all really new — aside fro...
Episode 238: Richard Gottehrer and Allison Zatarain
29 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the 60s, he cowrote ”My Boyfriend's Back" and "I Want Candy” and cofounded Sire records with Seymour Stein. But Richard Gottehrer isn’t one t...
Episode 237: Greg Saunier (of Deerhoof)
23 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“When’s this podcast going to air?” Greg Saunier asks with a laugh. “Because the world might be over soon.” The conversation takes a bit of ...
Episode 236: Dylan Marron
16 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a few days since a white nationalist rally resulted in violent outbreaks and the death of a counter protester in Charlottesville, VA. Nerv...
Episode 235: Glenn Morrow
08 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the 80s, Glenn Morrow was at the forefront of Hoboken’s burgeoning college rock scene. The musician moved to Jersey while attending NYU and watch...
Episode 234: Clint Conley (of Mission of Burma)
01 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a beautiful day in Cambridge, MA when we sit down for an interview at a local dumpling shop (his recommendation). It’s all very serene in Har...
Episode 233: Frank Conniff
26 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A stint in rehab moved Frank Conniff from New York City to Minneapolis, derailing his standup career for a bit and ultimately kickstarting his career ...
Episode 232: Phoebe Bridgers
12 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“Right now, I’m in an unchecked creative zone,” Phoebe Bridgers says with a laugh. It’s a sort of cautious half joke, but one that describes h...
Episode 231: Ted Leo
05 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ted Leo balks slightly at the notion that The Hanged Man is a more personal record than previous efforts. He chalks much of the idea up to the media s...
Episode 230: Greg Kotis
27 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The building across the street was on fire the night we sat down to talk. The entire floor smelled of smoke and if you looked out the window, you migh...
Episode 229: Katie Skelly
19 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For Katie Skelly, comics have always been something of side hustle — something she’s never expected or even wanted as a full-time career. During t...
Episode 228: Frankie Rose
12 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When Frankie Rose began work on Cage Tropical, she was living in Los Angeles, employed as a caterer — the struggling actor, Party Down kind. Not exa...
Episode 227: Annalee Newitz
06 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Every so often, my work obsessions bleed into my extracurriculars, and Annalee Newitz was more than happy to help me geek out about robotics. We sat d...
Episode 226: Manchester Orchestra
29 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, Manchester Orchestra released Hope, a new album with an identical track listening as its predecessor, Cope, released the same year. The two a...
Episode 225 (Bonus): Mike Diana
26 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s a conversation recorded a while back and initially intended for publication. While the story never actually appeared in print, the subject ma...
Episode 224: Julien Fitzpatrick
23 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Comics are hard — doubly so when you live in a place like New York, where holding down a day job is a necessity. By their early- to mid-30s, most op...
Episode 223: Kate Stables (This is the Kit)
19 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Kate Stables’ Earl of Lemongrab wallet is on the table when I sit down for our interview at Baby’s All Right — so naturally, we spend the first...
Episode 222 (Bonus): Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman (Resist)
12 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On the heels of the second issue of Resist, we hopped on the line with publishers Francoise Mouly and Nadja Spiegelman to discuss the free comics prot...
Episode 221: Tim Kasher (of Cursive, The Good Life)
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
No Resolution is an album about heartbreak. It’s raw and real, delving into break ups and fears of settling down, topics that Tim Kasher is set to e...
Episode 220: Catherine Burns
03 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Of course Catherine Burns has a good story about getting her current gig. It involves MTV and 9/11 and parents in Alabama who were slightly befuddled ...
Episode 219: Frank Santoro
20 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When I hit up cartoonist Jim Rugg before a quick three day trip to Pittsburgh, he sent his apologies. He was leaving town the same night I arrived, bu...
Episode 218: Ashley Bez
10 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Before it helped elect a president who teetered on the bring of nuclear war with every subsequent tweet, Twitter was an important testing ground for y...
Episode 217: Scott Westerfeld
04 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Westerfeld didn’t move to New York expecting to become a writer. He’s dabbled in politics, music and software design, but after 18 novels, i...
Episode 216: The Coathangers
28 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Everything is running about an hour late, and the opening band has already started by the time two-thirds of The Coathangers show up back stage for th...
Episode 215: David Lloyd
22 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back from a brief hiatus for a conversation with cartoonist David Lloyd. Recorded at an Irish Pub a few blocks from the MoCCA Fest art show th...
Episode 214: R. Sikoryak
01 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“My method is slowly eliminating my style from the work,” R. Sikoryak explains during our long and wide-ranging interview. As with nearly every ot...
Episode 212: Frank Stack
10 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“I’m a Texan and I don’t dislike Texas,” Frank Stack explains. “But I don’t like those sons of bitches.” The artist’s first major work...
Episode 211: Ryan Walsh (of Hallelujah the Hills)
03 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You’re bound to raise some fan suspicion when the first track off your new album A Band Is Something To Figure Out has a title like “What do the P...
Episode 210: Gareth David (of Los Campesinos!)
26 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“[Depression] is something I’m comfortable with now,” Los Campesinos singer Gareth David explains during our conversation backstage at the Warsa...
Episode 209: Tim Kinsella (of Joan of Arc)
19 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“We never make a decision because we want to alienate the audience,” Tim Kinsella explains. “But we also never make a decision according to what...
Episode 208: Ahmed Gallab (of Sinkane)
12 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
After touring around with prominent outfits like Yeahsayer and Of Montreal, Sinkane’s Ahmed Gallab really come into his own on 2012’s Mars. The br...
Episode 207: Tommy Stinson and Chip Roberts
09 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Tommy Stinson is exhausted. It’s the tail end of a long day of interviews, with appearances on high profile outlets like Fox News, and the Bash & Po...
Episode 206: Reverend Jen
19 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Reverend Jen Miller was a Lower East Side fixture when I moved to New York more than a decade ago, an elf-eared, chihuahua-toting being who seemed to ...
Episode 205: Jon Ronson
13 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Ronson confesses with a laugh that he feels at least partially responsible for the rise of Alex Jones, the once-fringe Texas-based radio show host...
Episode 204: Kid Congo Powers
06 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Punk rock resumes don’t get much better than Kid Congo Powers’. The Southern California-born musician has been playing music professional for near...
Episode 203: Adele Bertei
31 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
“I think about music as joy” sounds like one of those things that musicians just say. But then you go see Adele Bertei live, and there’s really ...
Episode 202: Ted Stearn
23 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The latest Fuzz and Pluck (last year’s The Moolah Tree) begins with a rough visual — one I’m admittedly a bit hung up on during my conversation ...
Episode 201: Slow Club
16 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When I arrive backstage at Le Poisson Rouge green room, Charles Watson is digging into a pre-set dinner, with Rebecca Taylor seated in the back on t...
Episode 200: Al Jaffee
11 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It was important to me that we have a special guest for episode 100. They Might Be Giants fitted the job perfectly, a band that played an incredibly i...
Episode 199: MariNaomi
02 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mari Naomi sat down for an interview a matter of days follow the election, a fact that unavoidably colored the conversation. It’s pretty clear liste...
Episode 198: Dame Darcy
27 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Darcy’s got a great comics show gimmick. While cartoonists look on sad-eyed as show goers flip through their work and move on, the artist offer...
Episode 197: Cecil Baldwin
20 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no real podcasting precedent for Welcome to Night Vale. In the decade or so since I started podcasting, I’ve never seen a phenomenon like ...
Episode 196: Kyle Baker
14 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We struggle to find a decent spot to set up shop on the New York Comic Con show floor — finally opting to do the whole thing standing, leaned up aga...
Episode 195: Julian Koster
23 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Neutral Milk Hotel two albums surely cast a long shadow on all involved. Multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster has never shied away from his role in the...
Episode 194: Bobby Rush
16 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Bobby Rush is a storyteller. At 83, he’s no doubt told many of his best ones hundreds if not thousands of times, but as the consummate perform, he s...
Episode 193: Vivien Goldman (with Eve Blouin)
10 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Vivien Goldman’s New York City apartment is a shrine to decades of music journalism, bookshelves overflowing with seemingly every title ever publish...
Episode 192: Jon Ginoli
02 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I must have been 12 or so when I first saw the Pansy Division. The band was opening for Green Day at a benefit show in Oakland, a return to the Bay Ar...
Episode 191: Tom Tomorrow
25 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Of all of the bizarre sights at this year’s New York Comic Con, you’d be hard pressed to find one more serendipitous than the droves of show goers...
Episode 190: El Perro Del Mar
18 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes you finish an interview not quite sure how things went. Other times you just know. With Sarah Assbring, it was pretty clear from the first s...
Episode 189: Dash Shaw
12 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In 2008, Dash Shaw arrived seemingly out of nowhere and the indie comics community feel in love almost immediately. His Fantagraphics debut, the 720 p...
Episode 188: Alex Segura
04 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I’d known Alex Segura for a few years, before I found out about his not so secret passion. We’d work together in the comics world, we as a journal...
Episode 187: Matt Furie (Bonus)
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I was excited when I first saw Pepe popping up on strange corners of the internet. After years of spotting Matt Furie’s work at indie comics shows l...
Episode 186: Faith Erin Hicks
28 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This one took a while to get out, unfortunately. Long story, but it dates back April, around the release of Faith Erin Hicks’ most recent book, The ...
Episode 185: Dr. Frank
22 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Frank Portman sends me his new record a few hours before we’re set to meet up at a coffee shop on Market Street. The whole thing came together at th...
Episode 184: LP
08 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back after an unexpected bye-week (sorry, I’ve been traveling a lot) posting up a fascinating interview with Laura “LP” Pergolizzi. The ...
Episode 183: Miss Lasko-Gross and Kevin Colden
25 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Up to now, Miss Lasko-Gross and Kevin Colden had never professionally collaborated in any official capacity — not out of any conscious decision, the...
Episode 182: Potty Mouth
18 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Somewhere between the first LP and last year’s self-titled EP, things really started getting serious, so Potty Mouth did what any self-respecting ro...
Episode 181: Graham Clark and Dave Shumka (Bonus)
08 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2008, two funny guys saying funny things into microphones with an optional third funny friend was the concept a podcast needed. But we’re li...
Episode 180: Ruben Bolling
08 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Ruben Bolling should have been a lawyer. He graduated from Harvard Law School, he married a lawyer, and he even does some work in the field. But after...
Episode 179: Carrie Poppy
03 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I feel obligated to say that I was very tired when we record this. I had just gotten off a plane from New York to LA, and Carrie Poppy was kind enough...
Episode 178: Starlee Kine
27 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the decade and a half she spent contributing to This American Life, Starlee Kine transformed deeply personal aspects of her life into some of the s...
Episode 177: Minty Lewis
20 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When my sister’s beloved dog passed away just before my trip to LA, Minty Lewis did me a solid. When I wanted to commission a portrait of a Yorkie, ...
Episode 176: Mary Roach
13 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the long-awaited return of RiYL guest number two, the great Mary Roach, who was in town kicking off a press tour for her new book, Grunt: The C...
Episode 175: John Holmstrom
06 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I got more than I bargained for when I interviewed John Holmstrom — which is saying a lot when you know going into things that you’re sitting down...
Episode 174: Eggs Over Easy
29 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s hard to say whether their timing was extremely fortuitous or really unfortunate. After all, until this month’s Yep Roc reissue, Eggs Over Eas...
Episode 173: Hutch Harris (of The Thermals)
22 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Change isn’t always easy when you’re a punk rock band — particularly one with a sound beloved and well-defined as The Thermals. After a pair of ...
Episode 172: Gabrielle Bell
15 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I haven’t seen Gabrielle Bell much since she moved out of the city. New York spoils you like that. Makes getting even a half hour outside of the cit...
Episode 171: Rogue Wave
08 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Delusions of Grand Fur is a sort of return roots. It finds the band experimenting with the sort of fast and loose improvisational set up that first ga...
Episode 170: R.O. Blechman
01 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
He won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animated Programming, was inducting to the Art Directors Hall of Fame, and has drawn multiple...
Episode 169: Mara Wilson
26 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A week or two after our interview, Penguin released the cover for Where Am I Now?, featuring a young, precocious Matilda-era Mara Wilson smiling for t...
Episode 168: Ariel Schrag
18 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When I mentioned casually to a friend that I would be interviewing Ariel Schrag, her answer was less excited that confused, “you haven’t had Ariel...
Episode 167: Kelvin Swaby (of The Heavy)
05 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Heavy makes no bones about it. The Hurt & The Merciless is a breakup record, through and through, from the leadoff track that repeats “The raind...
Episode 166: Rob Crow
28 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
When you write an open letter on your Facebook page about quitting the music business forever, it’s bound to be the opening line of every review of ...
Episode 165: Adam Green
19 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Aladdin is a crowd-sourced paper mache fever dream. It’s both completely singular in Adam Green diverse portfolio of work and perfectly representati...
Episode 164: Glen Weldon
13 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
You don’t know Batman like Glen Weldon knows Batman, and the frequent NPR contributor has the book to prove it. Out now on Simon & Schuster, The Cap...
Episode 163: Eszter Balint
11 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I didn’t recognize Eszter Balint’s name when I got a PR pitch about her Airless Midnight, but I the record a quick listen anyway and shot her repr...
Episode 162: Lloyd Kaufman
05 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The real Tromaville is an unassuming place. Located a few blocks from the East River, in an industrialized section of Long Island City still untouched...
Episode 161: Stern Pinball CEO Gary Stern
30 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Note: Hey listeners, we’re launching a Patreon. Please consider supporting the show to help keep us afloat. By the 80s, the pinball machine had seem...
Episode 160 (Bonus): The Dead Ships
23 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes things just come together. Sometimes one of the geniuses behind Broken Social Scene catches one of your ramshackle live shows and decides yo...
Episode 159: Eleanor Friedberger
21 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I first saw Eleanor Friedberger solo back in 2013, shortly after falling head over heels for her second solo album, Personal Record. Her band was an o...
Episode 158: Chip Zdarsky and Matt Kindt
18 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Chip Zdarsky wore a felt crown during our interview because he was promoting his new Jughead series for Archie — and because he’s Chip Zdarsky, an...