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 to “I’m sorry I got caught. Are the impacted obligated to forgive? And more importantly, what is the process for earning such forgiveness? Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg draws on the teaching of 12th century philosopher and Torah scholar Maimonides for her latest, On Repentance and Repair, which explores the steps for repairing mistakes, both large and small. In addition to her rabbinical practice, Ruttenberg is a prolific author an popular online champion of progressive politics. She joins us to discuss her journey and to reflect how far we’ve come as a society – and how far is still left to go. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fifty years after its founding, Romeo Void finally got its first live album earlier this year. Released in limited quantities for Record Store Day, Live from the Mabuhay Gardens: November 14, 1980 finds the young band at the top of its game. Teetering at the edge of post-punk and new wave, the group rose the charts on the strength of timeless tracks like "Never Say Never" and "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing),” before dissolving in 1985. Lead singer Debora Iyall joins us to discuss the group, her early activist days and finding happiness in a second career. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the early 70s, Vashti Bunyan went away. Frustrated with an industry unwelcoming of her talents, she eventually moved back to Scotland and raised three children. She never sang, and rarely missed it. It was a perfectly content life. But 30 years later, music once again came calling. The singer experienced a resurgence in interest at the turn of the millennium – more interest than she’d ever had the first go round. Last year Bunyan released Wayward: Just Another Life to Live, a memoir recounting one of music’s most unique and fascinating careers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 for pop rock. Said’s religious upbringing offered little access to secular music, though Yusuf Islam’s (née Cat Stevens) gentle folk rock managed to slip through. A later embrace of artists like Fiona Apple, Nick Drake and Apples in Stereo, however, left an indelible imprint of the songwriting that populates this first LP. It’s an album about relationships, and learning to lean into inevitable discomforts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 perfectly content to issue 20 tracks half as innovative and vibrant at this point in their career. Koala, on the other hand, created his own accompanying board game. For nearly 30 years, the Canadian DJ has pushed musical boundaries, fusing a broad range of genres together, with little regard for status quo. He’s also elevated the work of others, from scores to films like Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim, to influential projects like Deltron 3030, Lovage and Handsome Boy Modeling School. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse is available now from Dutton. The book explores the life of converse, who remained largely unknown until her music was reissued in 2009 with the compilation, How Sad, How Lovely. Vashi Bunyan’s music had its own renaissance around the turn of the millennium, when her album, Just Another Diamond Day was discovered by a new generation of musicians. Her memoir, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live is available now on White Rabbit. Ryan Walsh is the founder and front man of Boston-based indie band, Hallelujah the Hills. In 2018, Penguin released his Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968, which explores the creation of Van Morrison’s seminal album. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 man and nucleus of The New Pornographers. A little over a month ago, the band issued its 9th studio album, Continue as Guest – living proof that the band still has new ideas more than a quarter century into its existence. Over the years, Newman has released trio of solo albums under the name A.C. Newman, but he’s always found himself returning to the New Pornographers’ welcoming embrace. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 uniquely qualified to create. The book is built around the daily minutiae of an indie rock band that sets out on tour in hopes of finally catching that one important break. It’s a meditation on friendships, relationships and the harsh realities of the modern music industry that’s alternately funny and touching. Stein returns to the show to discuss the book’s genesis, which finds her continuing to branch out from her deeply personal memoirs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes your body knows innately, well before those reach your brain and sink their hooks into your consciousness. Of course, it’s also entirely possible that Blindsided’s title was just one of those strange bits of cosmic irony. The word arrived well before Mark Erelli was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) a degenerative eye condition that almost invariably leads to blindness. The diagnosis would arrive in the summer of 2020, triggered by fuzzy vision during an outdoor live show. It’s a struggle which informs his latest, Lay Your Darkness Down. It’s a bid to relay a life altering condition, both literally and metaphorically, in a bid to capture broader themes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 a breath of fresh air amid often formulaic newspaper comics. Two years later, Croft’s work received national exposure, upon being syndicated by United Press Syndicate. The strip would go on to run in more than 60 papers, plus magazines like Essence, before ceasing publication in 2005. Earlier this year, Drawn & Quarterly celebrated the beloved and bygone strip, with a collection aimed at bringing the work to a new generation, 18 years later. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 the kind of book you desperately don’t want to spoiler. The Neil Gaiman quote that monopolizes the entire back cover of the Drawn & Quarterly edition sums it up nicely, reading, in part, “The kind of story leading to a last panel that’s all pain and joy and delivers the whole thing.” I would like to say that’s why this conversation veers into all sorts of unexpected areas, but the truth of the matter is sometimes the conversation takes over and you’re just along for the ride. Author Paul Rainey joins us to discuss, among other things, Marvel movies, Peanuts and why Twitter is a terrible source for news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 wife asked. Very little, turns out. He did, however, know soul. In the late-60s, his performances had earned him the nickname “Little JB” – an homage to long-time hero, James Brown. Re-entering music in the 90s, Fields began experimenting with home recording, eventually attracting the attention of the Daptone scene. Last year, he and the label joined forces again, releasing Sentimental – a perfect showcase of the things that make him one of the remaining 60s soul greats. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Formed in the late-70s South Bronx, ESG has an almost impossibly wide-ranging impact on popular music. Factory Records-owner Tony Wilson spotted sister act performing in Manhattan, and within days they found themselves recording in Manchester and playing opening night at the Hacienda. The group’s self-titled debut EP prove a massive hit with critics, while its third track, “UFO,” would go one to become one of music’s most-sampled tracks following the birth of hip-hop – a mixed blessing, to say the least. Singer Renee Scroggins has been through a lot in the 45 years since the group’s founding, but she’s managed to remain active, all while keeping ESG in the family. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 comfortable cadence of three year, but 2019’s self-titled album finally arrived after two major releases. Life can get in the way – take, for example, Daniel Hunt’s move to Brazil. Or his production of big name artists like Christina Aguilera. Or various movie scores. This year, the band happily returned with its seventh record, recapturing the magic and consistency the electropop band has maintained for well over two decades. As contemporary acts and flash in the pan stars has come and gone, the group has maintained and thrived – an increasingly rare feat these days. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this year, The New York Times Review of Books published All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End. The collection features cartoons dating back to the 60s and 70s, offering a glimpse into author Charles R. Johnson many have not seen. Decades before he won the National Book Award for Middle Passage, his historical novel about the slave trade, Johnson was being published as a cartoonist. The works contained in the volume are gag strips tackling some of the day’s biggest hot button topics, primarily race relations at the height of America’s civil rights movement. Johnson joins us to discuss a wildly diverse career, as well as his time teaching drawing on public television and a long-time embrace of Buddhism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 far flung corners, including Guantanamo Bay. After spending his early teenage years as the front man of a Led Zeppelin cover band, he found himself in London, as a touring guitarist for The Foundations, eventually leaving the group behind to take up residence in Macedonia. It was his time in New York that ultimately put him on the map, however, as a founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Subsequent years found him collaborating with a broad range of musicians from Afrika Bambaataa to Matthew Sweet. These days, Julian lives in New York, running Brooklyn’s SuperGiraffeSound recording studio. He’s also gone on to release solo albums, including his newest, Swing Your Lanterns. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Rich Brown was the neurotic calm in the storm. Along with stoic sidekick David Greene, the pair held together a 30-minute variety show that paired celebrities with outsider entertainers for a decade. In 1997, the show was reborn as Oddville, MTV, which managed to revive some of the magic, in a more formal format that partnered gen x names with buzzbin bands. Brown has maintained a high profile show business career in the intervening decades, appearing as a Daily Show contributor and producing shows like Fear Factor and the Jay Leno hosted, You Bet Your Life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 period of the pandemic. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to speak to Marc Byrd on the occasion of Hammock’s 12th release, Love in the Void. Byrd happily discussed the healing role of music as a musician, as writing and performing pulled him through some of his own darkest moments.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prism is a breath of fresh air in troubled times. The Brooklyn-based seven piece delivers sunshine psychedelic soul grooves transported from a different time. At the group’s core is the three-part harmony of Piya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham and Nya Gazelle Brown. Their ties to groups like Chicano Batman and the Dap-Kings betray the band’s rich and dreamy sound. The trio joined us to discuss their New York City origin story and the struggles of being a musician in the post-pandemic landscape. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 promote his latest Drawn & Quarterly collection, Revenge of the Librarians. The book is classic Gauld, gag strips with historic and literary edges. These days, he’s probably best know for the latter, with a weekly strip appearing in The Guardian. As the book’s title implies, the artist has earned a loyal following among librarians for comics that mine the absurdity of canonical classics. He’s also earned a fanbase in an even more unlikely place, with strips for New Scientist that take on the day’s scientific headlines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Boys debut, A Can of Bees. That band, while wildly influential, wasn’t long for this world, breaking up shortly after their second album, Underwater Moonlight. Within a year, Hitchcock released his first solo album, Black Snake Diamond Röle. Shufflemania, meanwhile, marks his 22nd solo studio album. Were it entirely up to him, he explains, he’d release a constant stream of music, but studios and schedules too often get in the way.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 simply scrape by as a result of making art. Her band, Speedy Ortiz, hasn’t toured for some time, owing to the constraints of the pandemic, but has still found her way back onto the road, coheadlining a book tour with cartoonist, Michael DeForge. Dupuis has been plenty busy on the music front, as well. In 2020, she released Haunted Painting, the second LP from her solo project, Sad13. To mark the release of her new book, we sat down to discuss teaching, editing and the importance of killing your darlings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 wanted to give listeners ever once he had left. Of course, for some, creativity is a renewable resource. Since its formation in the late-80s, the Charlatans have given the world 13 LPs, each of which cracked the UK Top 40. Burgess also spent much of the pandemic focused on Tim’s Twitter Listening project, which brought together top musicians from Paul McCartney to Pulp and Pixies, each discussing seminal albums. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April, Anvil! The Story of Anvil marked its 13th anniversary. Five months later, frontman Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner joined the film’s director, Sacha Gervasi, to screen for a limited re-release. The film, which captures the ups and downs of the long-lived Canadian metal band during the recording of their 13th LP, This Is Thirteen, has continued finding new audiences. The Story of Anvil captures a band determined to not just survive, but to one day crack the mainstream. In the wake of its 2008 release, the film helped them do just that. Lips, Reiner and Gervasi join us to discuss the documentary’s lasting impact on the band. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 desert resort was more than ample fodder for a new volume. Survival of the Richest is an exploration on how the wealthy plan to survive seemingly inevitable catastrophe, and few are as well equipped to explore this rich vein as Rushkoff. The media theorist returns to RiYL to discuss the new book, and what it means for the rest of us when billionaires are planning exit strategies for the end of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2018’s Sabrina was, quite deservedly, a breakthrough moment for Nick Drnaso. The Chicago-based cartoonist was nominated for a Man Booker Prize and suddenly placing at the top of numerous best of the year list. Four years later, he returned with Acting Class, a book that was, in part, serialized in The New Yorker early on in the pandemic. Like its predecessor, Drnaso’s third book is a sparing look at the modern human condition that refuses to hold the reader’s hand, this time filtered through the lens of a continued education acting course. The cartoonist returns to the show to discuss the making of the book, and new methods for art making and storyteller. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and Terre Roche. The pair produced one album: Seductive Reasoning. Terre’s latest project, Kin Ya See That Sun, explores the group’s early days, touring the country, encourage by early supporter, Paul Simon. It combines live track from the era with a book that began life as an oral history. The Roches found a bigger, more lasting success as one of rock’s great vocal trios. While the group effectively ended when Maggie passed away in 2017, the group continues to attract new generations of fans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let’s talk about yoga. Let’s talk about the practice behind the familiar, physical movement. That deeper, spiritual resonance heavily informed Rebecca Pidgeon’s latest record, Parts of Speech Pieces of Sound. In fact, the tracks that populate the album were each influenced by different chakras and their corresponding deities. It’s a concept album of sorts, one deeply tied to daily practice under the instruction of Prashant Iyengar. Though focused on her music career, Pidgeon is best known as an actress, best known for appearing in films like The Spanish Prisoner and State ad Main. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of our most requested guests returns to the show. It’s been nearly eight years since we’ve caught up with Will Cullen Hart. The Circulatory System/The Olivia Tremor Control front man has spent most of the pandemic focused on his painting. We discuss his artwork -- one of which falls onto his head, as the interview winds down. But our focus is his continued musical work, from some of the earliest Elephant 6 demos, to forthcoming Circulatory output. Ten years ago this July, The Olivia Tremor Control’s long-awaited reunion came to a close with the tragic death of Cullen Hart’s childhood friend and longtime collaborator, Bill Doss. While the event spelled the end of the group’s live performances, many of Doss’s contributions to a new record, The Same Place, had already been record. Hart discusses the likelihood of that music seeing the light of day. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded in hotel rooms while on tour with the Avett Brothers, Seth Avett Sings Greg Brown finds the musician paying tribute to the titular singer-songwriter over the course of 10 tracks. After being temporarily sidelined by the pandemic, brothers Seth and Scott returned to the touring with full force. Though not even a global pandemic could keep them away for too long, with the band releasing its third Gleam EP in August 2020. Still, the past few years did offer a few moments of silent reflection in a job that seems to rarely offer moments to come up for air. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This year, Love and Rockets celebrates 40 years as – perhaps – the single greatest American comic of all time. Mario Hernandez, along with siblings Gilbert and Jaime, was a principle driving force in the book’s formative years. Mario would soon take a back seat and ultimately leave the book to his brothers, instead focusing on supporting his family with non-comics work. He’s continued to work in the form over the years, including a number of collaborations with Gilbert. Now retired, he’s begun to reconnect with what he loved about the medium in the first place, with plans to produce work that has been building up in his studio for years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We postpone the interview a few days, as there’s a hurricane bearing down on Florida. Tampa staved off the worst of it, but it’s another one of those things – counting yourself lucky that you made it through another one okay. In addition to managing the occasional natural disaster, Pohgoh’s existence has been a series of ups and down. The group spent the better part of two decades in a kind of quantum state – together, but also not really – until it properly reunited in 2016. This year’s du und ich is the group’s second LP in this latest go-round. It’s a deeply personal record, setting Susie Ulrey’s life with Multiple Sclerosis against an indie-pop backdrop.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the beautiful things about music is that it’s a seemingly bottomless resource. Whenever you begin to doubt it, something new and fresh quickly dispels the notion. Big Joanie’s sophomore LP, Back Home, is just such a record. It’s confirmation that the spirit of punk beats on in new groups, even as it charts new territories. Ahead of the album’s release, singer and guitarist Stephanie Phillips joined us to discuss the band’s journey, Sleater-Kinney, music journalism and the power of Solange.     Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s easy to feel hopeless in this world, but a 45-minute conversation with Mariah Parker makes you feel like you can do just about anything. A rapper, politician, activist and mother, the Athens, Georgia-based artist who performs as Linqua Franqa channels both sober pragmatism and hope for a better world. From being sworn in as City Commissioner with a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X to the release of this year’s urgent Bellringer LP, it’s hard to know how they find the hours in the day. But conversations like these make you glad there are people like Parker out there who still do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last year, Immersion released Nanocluster Vol 1. The album finds the duo of Malka Spigel and Colin Newman quickly composing and recording music with names like Tarwater, Laetitia Sadier, Ulrich Schnauss and Scanner. Spigel and Newman – also a married couple living in the U.K. have their own impression back catalogs, as members of Minimal Compact and Wire, respectively. The former has been pioneering Israeli post-punk group that’s sporadically reformed over the course of 40 years. In this conversation, Spigel talks pandemic productivity, production and a potential reunion.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the sole consistent member, Will Sheff has built Okkervil River into one of the smartest and most beloved indie rock bands to walk the earth. This year sees the release of Nothing Special, his first solo record in his nearly quarter century long music career. The milestone, coupled with a seemingly endless pandemic, have afforded the musician plenty of opportunity to reflect on the world around him.In this conversation, we discuss empathy for those we disagree with, the drive to make music and the end of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since 2004, Michael League has remained Snarky Puppy’s one constant. For every album and every show, the bass player has been there to help shape the amorphous jazz collective. Empire Central is a rare concept album of sorts – a musical homage to Dallas, the city near the University of North Texas, where the band began life. The area is now half a world away from Spain, where League now calls home. He phoned me from Catalonia to discuss the new record, which is also the final recorded appearance by the group’s mentor, Bernard Wright. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fatigue arrived like a breath of fresh air. The album is alternately complex and calming, but also deeply felt. The LP is Taja Cheek’s second under the L’Rain name, arriving in 2021. It’s a mix of soul, jazz, rock and field recordings, output into something wholly new. The Brooklyn native is a classically trained pianist and cellist, who began playing bass in rock bands during high school. She’s also served as a curator for MoMA PS1, a job well served by a keen eye for the power of juxtaposition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a video from last November featuring Billy Bragg speaking to the camera outside the Brighton Dome. He’s nearly drown out by the sounds of chants – antivaxxers come to protest venue mandate. The singer is patient and thoughtful, laying out his own nuanced take on the situation. It’s hard to imagine too many artists in his position being so generous with their time. This month, Bragg returns to the U.S. It’s his first time touring the country since 2019 – his longest break since his began traveling across the Atlantic nearly 40 years ago. Many of the songs are new, but the messages are the same – empathy and compassion in an effort to spread hope during an era that can desperately use it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keeping Two isn’t an easy book. It’s a book about loss, trauma and brains wired to project worst case scenarios – things to which many of us can no doubt deeply relate these days. It’s also a gorgeous book. That bit, at least, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Crane is, perhaps, not the most productive cartoonist when it comes to full length comics, but his latest is worth the wait. The artist joins us to discuss the planning and executing his latest, the importance of choosing the right colors and the processing trauma through art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The book took around a year to draw, but Ducks was more than a decade in the making. The foundation of the book arrived in 2014, as a five-part webcomic, documenting her time working in the Alberta oil sands. Fresh out of college, she took a job at the mining site in an effort to pay off her student loans. While the work follows her experience, the story paints a much broader picture, shining a light on the industry’s impact on workers, the indigenous people who live near the site and unaddressed issues of personal safety and assault. It offers another side of an artist who rose to prominence through her online historical strip, Hark, A Vagrant, present a warm and thought picture of what a comic memoir can accomplish. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last time I spoke to Rhett Miller, the conversation turned to 9/11, as it sometimes does. The Old 97s singer was living in New York, not far from ground zero and has a fairly harrowing story to tell. Today, it’s a brand-new collective trauma, nearly three years into a global pandemic. Living out in the country with his family has given the music time to decompress, slow down and spend time getting to reconnect with his kids, after years on the road. As I type this, however, he’s back on the road. It’s a band tour, followed by solo dates, to promote his latest solo album, the Misfit. It’s a Tom Petty inspired affair that finds him learning to let go and once again write from the heart. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paint By Numbers 1 was a pandemic album in just about every sense. Recorded at home with no budget, it was a band release in name only. Life intervened for Goon's members, effectively rendering it a solo release. Along the way, Goon reemerged as a full band, centered around Kenny Becker's song. The result is Hour of Green, an attempt to capture the quiet of suburban pre-dawn. Becker joins us to discuss Goon's evolution, painting and the power of metaphor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2019, Idris Vicuña was suddenly everywhere, an overnight success several years in the making on the strength of “Jealous.” The single found the L.A. musician shooting up Spotify charts on the back of viral TikTok videos. “Romantic Lover” and “Something About You” found their own success as gold records, over the next two years. As with its predecessor, 2022’s Full Time Lover finds Eyedress in full collaborative mode – an element that’s been a key to his art, ever since he found likeminded individuals after years of searching. The musician joined us from his L.A. home to discuss a childhood spent moving around and his continued growth as an artist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a pair of albums steeped in the polarizing politics of the era, Welcome 2 Club XIII finds The Drive-By Truckers in a reflective mood. Frontmen Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley find themselves warmly embracing stories from the band’s earliest days. It’s driven, in part, by the manner of reflective soul searching many of us have undergone, over a difficult past few years. The phenomenon was coupled with a brief, pre-pandemic reunion of the pair’s late-80s band, Adam’s House Cat. It’s the ideal moment to catch Hood for a long, career spanning interview about the ups and downs across a quarter-century of the Drive-By Truckers. The sound quality is a bit hit and miss, due to technical difficulties. Hope you still enjoy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Here’s to the next 20 years,” Emily Haines concludes with a laugh. Nearly a quarter-century into Metric’s existence, the band’s frontwoman is looking forward at the lifelong project. As many of their peers burned out or faded away, the Canadian indie-rock darlings have continued to release some of their strongest work, including 2022’s Formentera. A meditation on a rough couple of years for the world, the album finds Haines and co. laying the groundwork for what’s to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pandemic hasn’t been easy, of course, but it has provided at a new way for Mary Gauthier to engage with her music. Her story songs have comfortably made the jump to virtual performances, as she’s embraced the talk show host inside. Earlier this year, she released Dark Enough to See the Stars – her 11th album overall and the first in eight years made up entirely of her own songs. The album follows 2018’s Rifles & Rosary Beads, a collaborative effort that found providing music for lyrics penned by Iraq War veterans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.