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 African country continues to inform both. Her latest album, MRA, pushes  Mathlouthi’s explorations further still, courtesy of songs performed and...

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 Kinney and cofounded Hammered Hulls with childhood DC punk friend Alec MacKaye. Timony joins us to discusses her latest, Untame The Tiger. Hosted...

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 president of legendary jazz label Blue Note Records and six years later began performing regularly alongside Bob Weir in The Wolf Brothers. His latest...

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 in the world of punk, including an upcoming tour opening for Alkaline Trio. Transcript available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

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 in Ontario, railway disasters and balancing the darker side of life with bright music. Transcript available here. Hosted on Acast. See...

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 he founded the High Llamas in 1990, having spent the previous decade sharing songwriting credits for Rough Trade act, Microdisney. Transcript...

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 like the Red Krayola -- has achieved the status of cult icon. Thompson has begun playing the album live in recent years, as he chart the course for a...

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 breakup, the group carried on its tradition of sardonic and melodic noise rock. Falkous and Egglestone reformed McLusky in 2014. The group's second...

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 around the world, including a long stint in Hong Kong. The musician joins us to discuss finding her voice. Transcript available here. Hosted on...

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 since 2010. His work has earned him spots on the linear notes of many of indie rock's biggest names, as he continues playing with a variety of of...

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 level. The neo-classical piano tracks also serve as a homage to high school civil rights, the Little Rock Nine. Wilson joins us to discuss the story...

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 boards, due in part to its compassionate and humane approach to writing LGBTQ youths. Targeted at a YA audience, Roaming's cast is older, but the...

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 Stevenson racing to finish a tour of 50 states in 45 days. Jancewicz joins us to discuss the book, tour and painting in front of a live crowd....

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 would move across the content to Poland, Hungary, Austria and Italy as political refugees. In the early-90s, the band settled in the U.S. By the...

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 debut at age nine. Swift’s career has taken its share of turns, including a rock opera in which she played a killer nun, composed while studying music at the University of Miami. Last year’s self-titled LP presents yet another side of the musician, as she marries her love of rock with her jazz bonafides. Transcript available here. Hosted on...

Place invariably has a profound impact on the art we make. Immigration melds cultures and creative output, a phenomenon embodied by musical cross pollination. Movement, which began its second season this year, explores the lives and works of immigrant musicians. It’s a subject that is near and dear to the podcast’s host, Meklit Hadero, whose music marries influences from her American home and Ethiopian birthplace. Transcript available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

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 institutions including the New York City Ballet. By night, he’s the principal songwriter and ostensible leader of San Fermin, whose indie-inclined chamber pop has earned a steady following and critical acclaim for more than a decade. Next month, the will release Arms, a rawer, more immediate album dealing with – among other topics – art and the end...

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 was adapted – in part – from the musician’s journals, beginning with his childhood diabetes diagnoses, through his musical journey. Formed in Kansas in the mid-90s, the Get Up Kids went on to become one of the most influential acts of emo’s second wave (referred to as the tongue-in-cheek “e-word” throughout). Pryor joins us to discuss his musical...

Survival Guide is, for all intents and purposes, Emily Whitehurst. What began as collaboration evolved into a solo act. For the project’s fourth album, deathdreams, the musician has continued to push her limits, playing nearly every instrument on its 11 tracks. Whitehurst has had plenty of collaborative projects over the years, including her stint in punk band, Tsunami Bomb and the follow up group, The Action Design. But sometimes the purest form of expression requires an artist to take...

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 nothing amounting to the level of stardom they might have achieved had they come around a decade later. The band’s legend has only grown in subsequent decades, however. More than a quarter-century after the band’s dissolution, however, Rhino resissued the band’s four albums by way of a box set. More recently, the documentary, Fanny: The Right to...

A deeply personal meditation on life, art and surviving capitalism, Time Under Tension further establishes MS Harkness as a formative voice in auto-bio comics. The book – her first for Fantagraphics – follows the Uncivilized Books titles, Tinderella and Desperate Pleasures. Harkness joins us to discuss her work, weightlifting and teaching comics. Transcript available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Butler and Sister Squares released a 14 track self-titled album that is as reflective as is it is danceable. It’s the work of a mature artist, propelled by his two decades playing alongside older brother, Win, in the critically-acclaimed Arcade Fire. Butler joins us fresh off a long run in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Transcript available here. Hosted...

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. In 2015, he left the company after 25 years, in order to focus on his own work. Oliveros released The Envelope Manufacturer the following year, chronicling the titular character’s financial and mental struggles in a changing world. Earlier this year, D&Q released Are You Willing to Die for the Cause?, which delves into a fascinating an...