RiYL
665 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 months ago - ★★★★★ - 57 ratingsRecommended if You Like: longform conversation with musicians, cartoonists, writers and other creative types.
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Episodes
Episode 527: Graham Nash
May 30, 2022 22:03 - 37 minutes - 52.1 MBWild Tales begins at an impasse. At the tail end of the 60s, Graham Nash writes, his time in The Hollies had seemingly run its course. A trip to the U.S. to visit his then-girlfriend, Joni Mitchell, found him harmonizing with a pair of musicians who had recently left their own iconic groups. That particular story has a happy ending, of course. Crosby, Stills, Nash (and sometimes Young) played a central role in defining the following decade. Nash’s first two solo albums, released concurrently ...
Episode 526: Felix Cavaliere (of The Rascals)
May 20, 2022 23:12 - 44 minutes - 34.5 MBThe transition into the 70s wasn’t an easy one of for The Rascals. But it had been an extraordinaire run before the wheels came off, penning several songs that helped define what could reasonable be called pop music’s greatest decade. Throughout it all, Felix Cavaliere never stopped working. It’s a rich and fascinating career, he eagerly narrates in the recently published, Memoir of a Rascal. He highlights the whirlwind trip up the top of the charts with equal excitement during our conversati...
Episode 525: Joe Rainey
May 14, 2022 00:11 - 46 minutes - 36.5 MBNiineta opens unexpected. A call from inside the penitentiary. It’s a cousin of Joe Rainey’s – but one he considers close enough to call a brother. It’s a striking opening for a striking album that explores the traditional indigenous songs he grew up singing at Pow Wow, set to modern production. The music is both faithful and new. It’s a celebration of the communities carrying on these musical traditions and an opportunity to share that cultural wealth with the world. Hosted on Acast. See a...
Episode 524: Simone Giertz
May 08, 2022 11:30 - 35 minutes - 31.4 MBThe last time we chatted was on stage in October 2019, not long before the world changed. Simon Giertz had recently dealt with some health struggles, chronicling her successful battle with a brain tumor in a very public way. Over the years, her wildly popular YouTube channel has served a number of roles for its creator, as she’s chronicled her builds from the functional (turning her Tesla into a pickup truck) to the absurd (a haircutting drone). As the pandemic has pressed on, it’s found anot...
Episode 523: Anton Newcombe (of Brian Jonestown Massacre)
May 05, 2022 13:19 - 33 minutes - 27.2 MBLife off the road is a strange thing after 18 albums and 30 years , but Anton Newcombe is thriving. After decades in San Francisco, he settled in Berlin with a wife, kid and a dog – the whole deal. He calls me from Germany, giving me a makeshift tour of his home, as he holds his phone to his face. We speak mostly of world events. It’s kind of inevitable, these days – the pandemic, politics, the inevitability of encountering history walking down the street in Berlin. Things invariably turn to ...
Episode 522: Lyrics Born
April 29, 2022 21:15 - 55 minutes - 46.6 MBFacing an indeterminate period of isolation, Lyrics Born did what any rational person would: he started a podcast. While he’s quick to note that the last two years offered a period of reflection and a rare moment to catch his breath during an impressive 25-year career in hip-hop, Mobile Homies was, ultimately, less about working than connecting. The show offered an opportunity to connect with fellow artists and friends during an exceedingly trying time. Conversations became collaborations, re...
Episode 521: Paul Cauthen
April 24, 2022 22:24 - 37 minutes - 29.4 MBIn 2019, Paul Cauthen gave the world a breakup record. That’s not to say that Room 41 didn’t offer hints of what would come next. “Cocaine Country Dancing” offered the hint a brashness its title suggests. But two years into a global pandemic, the Texas-based singer-songwriter comes out of the gate swinging on Country Coming Down. “Country as Fuck” leads of an LP littered with titles like “Champagne & a Limo.” Sure, there are love songs on here, but Cauthen’s made it clear he’s here to have so...
Episode 520: (Bonus) Bob Mould
April 24, 2022 20:11 - 20 minutes - 15.5 MBAs I type this, Bob Mould has jumped back in with both legs. He’s quick to point out that he managed to get a handful of dates in at the end of last year, but the his solo electric distortion tour spans three months and finds him hopping between the U.S. and U.K. It took the world grinding to a screeching halt to get the musician off the road for a while, though he’s kicked 2022 off with a bang. The year opened with the release of The Ocean, an EP that finds him dipping into his back catalog ...
Episode 519: Jonathan Meiburg (of Shearwater)
April 18, 2022 13:11 - 47 minutes - 42.3 MBHis voice echoes as he speaks. The walls are entirely empty ahead of a big move, but Jonathan Meiburg has carved out enough time to sit and speak. We get into the subject of caracaras fairly quickly. They’re strange little birds in the same family as falcons – though they sport personalities more in line with a crow or a raven. Meiburg was so taken by the creatures he devoted several years to penning a book on the topic. But he’s forever returning to music, be it projects like Loma, Okkervil ...
Episode 518: Ramesh Srivastava (of Voxtrot)
April 10, 2022 01:01 - 56 minutes - 55.1 MBHe quotes his therapist when describing his latest album. It’s a conflict of external vs. internal wanderlust. Ramesh Srivastava spent the last several years exploring the former, but Eternal Spring charts his time with the latter. His second solo record since the dissolution of indie darlings Voxtrot finds the singer getting deeply personal in a way that didn’t come naturally in his earlier career. He’s spent the years working on music, waiting tables and getting to know himself. It makes fo...
Episode 517: Dustin Payseur (of Beach Fossils)
April 03, 2022 21:07 - 47 minutes - 41.1 MBThe album-making process has always been somewhat contradictory for Beach Fossils. Front man Dustin Payseur has never suffered from lack of inspiration, with hundreds of unreleased songs to his name, but releasing an album has always been about getting things just right. The Brooklyn-based band has released three LPs of original songs in its dozen or so year existence. The strange and seemingly unending nature of the pandemic, meanwhile, presented the opportunity to do something altogether di...
Episode 516: David Christian (of Comet Gain)
March 28, 2022 13:06 - 42 minutes - 32.1 MBAt the height of social distancing, David Christian (nee Feck) went solo. After 29 years as the chief wrangler of the ever-morphing indie pop act, the musician went to work on For Those We Met On The Way. It’s been strange couple of years for the singer – as it has for most of us. Christian and family left London for the pastoral French countryside. A mostly quiet life, as he describes it, with the occasional bicycling through the rain. The pandemic has also seen him experimenting with new m...
Episode 515: Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini (of Mouth Congress)
March 23, 2022 23:02 - 45 minutes - 36.7 MBAs we’re about to start, Scott runs to the kitchen to check on dinner. He’s making chicken, breaded with Shake ‘N Bake. He’s up a few more times during the conversation, once to proudly present the final product to Zoom call. Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini see each other a lot, these days. They’re prepping for a rare live performance in Philadelphia and spending the rest of their time writing. In fact, it’s a lot like the early days of Mouth Congress, before the band’s carefree approach to q...
Episode 514: Eric Pulido (of Midlake)
March 20, 2022 23:06 - 46 minutes - 44 MBThere was no guarantee we’d ever see another Midlake album. The eight year gap since their last album was more than a simple break before records. Tim Smith’s departure in 2012 left the band with a major gap to fill, suddenly staring down life without a princjple songwriter. Eric Pulido stepped into the role, and the band scrapped two years of recordings, in favor of starting from scratch with Antiphon. The band’s fourth full length was well-received, but its future remained uncertain. The in...
Episode 513: James McMurtry
March 18, 2022 22:40 - 37 minutes - 32.3 MBLast year saw the release of The Horses and the Hounds. James McMurtry’s 10th album was easily one of the year’s best, showcasing a seasoned songwriter at the top of his game, 35 years after entering the industry. The musician is quick to point out that his songs are essentially all fiction, something that has, perhaps, become something of a sticking point after so often inhabiting his characters in the first-person. The son of an English professor and The Last Picture Show novelist-turned-sc...
Episode 512: Josh Caterer (of Smoking Popes)
March 10, 2022 03:57 - 33 minutes - 28 MBFaced with an indefinite touring hiatus, Josh Caterer improvised. The musician recorded a pair of “live” albums – The Space Sessions and The Hideout Sessions. No audience, no overdubs – just a trio of well-rehearsed musicians putting new spins on old classics. Caterer’s vocal range tends toward crooner as many of the song veer into jazz territory. That’s nothing new, of course. His unique vocal delivery is a major piece of what set Smoking Popes apart from their pop-punk brethren in the 90s, ...
Episode 511: Melanie Charles
March 05, 2022 01:12 - 45 minutes - 36.7 MBA talented flautist trained as an opera singer, Melanie Charles wanted to make a splash with her Verve Records debut, Y'all Don't (Really) Care About Black Women. She taught herself to sample and tackled a slate of songs by some of jazz’s all-time greatest vocalists, from Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln. The result is a bold and expansive meditation on music and the many civil rights that permeate to this day, hitting a kind of fever pitch in recent years....
Episode 510: Rutu Modan
February 25, 2022 01:28 - 42 minutes - 32.7 MBEditor’s note: Apologies for the rough audio quality this time out. Just shy of hallway through Tunnels, two of the books leads engage in a spirited exchange. The Israeli and Palestinian characters are debating who got there first. The moment is central to the plot of Rutu Modan’s latest graphic novel, while reflecting the underlying tensions of an on-going conflict that informs much of the artist’s work. It pokes lighthearted fun at the matter without being heavy handed or dismissive. An e...
Episode 509: Basia Bulat
February 20, 2022 23:09 - 57 minutes - 47.7 MBThe past two years have afforded us all plenty of time to reflect – for better and for worse. For all of those who’ve devoted pandemic hours to reaching into past and wondering how we might change the past, given the chance, The Garden presents an ideal metaphor. Over 16 tracks, Basia Bulat revisits her past, breathing new life into old songs with the aid of a band and string arrangements. It’s an opportunity for the singer-songwriter to cover her work as she has countless others, from Daniel...
Episode 508: David Thomas (of Pere Ubu)
February 15, 2022 01:29 - 51 minutes - 39.7 MBNostalgia is a strange thing for any artist – particularly so for a group like Pere Ubu. Perpetually striving for change and innovation, the band’s evolution has afforded little time for reflection. Last year, however, saw front man David Thomas remixing the group’s 11th and 12 albums, Pennsylvania and St. Arkansas. It provided a rare opportunity to revisit and reflect on a pair of 20-year-old albums representing the halfway mark of the band’s career to date. Thomas’ musical career dates bac...
Episode 507: Buzz Osborne (of Melvins)
February 11, 2022 15:17 - 54 minutes - 41.9 MBTwo years of pandemic couldn’t keep Melvins down. In 2021 alone, the group released a pair of LPS: Working with God and Five Legged Dog, their 24th and 25th, respectively. The latter found the band revisiting their back catalog with acoustic reimaginings of 36 tracks. Last month, the group released the four-song EP, Lord of the Flies, a preview for yet another full length due out later this year. Frontman Buzz Osborne and drummer/bassist Dale Crover have remained the driving force for the ban...
Episode 506: Naomi Yang (of Damon & Naomi and Galaxie 500)
February 04, 2022 23:20 - 42 minutes - 37 MBWhen she hops on the call, Naomi Yang is still in the middle of an editing project. It’s one she’s not quite ready to talk about. At it for a little over a decade, filmmaking is a relatively recent passion, but she’s managed to compile an impressive list of projects, including the 2013 short film Fortune and a number of music videos for artists including Marissa Nadler and Waxahatchee. An accomplished photographer, Yang also designs book covers for Exact Change, a publishing house she co-owns...
Episode 505: Buffalo Nichols
January 30, 2022 02:37 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBFresh off a rescheduled tour opening for Drive-By Truckers, I manage to catch Carl Nichols at home. In the not so distant future, he’ll be back on the road, with a headlining stint bookended by tours with Houndmouth and Valerie June. It’s a far cry from the years and months spent at home during quarantine in his newly adopted home of Austin, Texas. Still, he sounds restless. Having graduated from his hometown of Milwaukee and found acclaim with his self-titled debut, Buffalo Nichols, the sing...
Episode 504: Lester Chambers (of the Chambers Brothers)
January 25, 2022 23:53 - 38 minutes - 27.2 MBIn July 2013, Lester Chambers was attacked. Performing at a Bay Area blues festival, the singer had just launched into the Impressions’ classic, “People Get Ready,” as a woman charged through the crowd incensed that he had had dedicated the song to Trayvon Martin. It’s something of a dramatic understatement to say Chambers is a survivor. The musician has seen the heights of music stardom, from fronting The Chambers Brothers to guesting on albums by fellow musical legends like Miles Davis. But...
Episode 503: Mark Oliver Everett (of Eels)
January 20, 2022 01:13 - 31 minutes - 26.2 MBTwo years, Mark Oliver Everett interjects, isn’t really that long away from the road. In March, the Eels return to the road for the perfectly titled, “Lockdown Hurricane” tour. Even as the rest of the world shut down, the band was never away for too long, releasing Earth to Dora in 2020, and returning this month with Extreme Witchcraft – their 14th album overall. It’s a hard rocking affair, a reinvigorated return for a band that’s managed a remarkable run over the past 20 years. It’s a mus...
Episode 502: Kurt Heasley (of Lilys)
January 13, 2022 14:23 - 1 hour - 45.8 MB2021 saw reissues of some of the most beloved albums in the Lilys’ 30+ year history. After many years out-of-print, A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, Better Can't Make Your Life Better and The 3-Way were all reissued. The band kicks off 2022 by revisiting those classics on tour. It’s been more than 15 years since the Kurt Heasley-fronted group has released a proper LP, but something is definitely happening in Lilys land. To commemorate going back out on the road, Heasley – the band’s sole ...
Episode 501: Oliver Ackermann (of A Place to Bury Strangers)
January 09, 2022 00:54 - 46 minutes - 39.8 MBIn February of last year, Oliver Ackermann launched a new label. For some, such a project could easily have been written off as a pandemic project or platform for launching a few pet projects. But from the outside, at least, the Brooklyn-based musician rarely takes half-measures. Dedstrange, “built from the smoldering decay of the music industry,” per its online bio, currently lists a half-dozen bands on its roster. The list, naturally, includes Ackermann’s own A Place to Bury Strangers, whic...
Episode 500: Nick Lowe
December 31, 2021 23:59 - 46 minutes - 33.4 MBThere may be no singular figure in rock who has aged more gracefully than Nick Lowe. This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Convincer – perhaps the quintessential example of the singer-songwriter settling into a comfortable new role as a rock elder statesman. But while the artist notes that he’s happily left the Chuck Berry-esque rock and roll stage antics in his past, two decades later, he finds himself reimagining his catalog with luchador mask-wearing instrumental rock band, Los Strai...
Episode 499: Josh and Sam Kiszka (of Greta Van Fleet)
December 30, 2021 00:28 - 40 minutes - 29.6 MBIn 2017, Greta Van Fleet did the seemingly impossible: broke through the pop music world as a new rock band. And while the Michigan-born quartet was chided in some critic circles as a throwback to the genre’s heyday, it’s a no less remarkable feat. That same year, the band’s second EP, From the Fires would go on a Grammy for Best Rock Album. In spite of its rapid climb to the tops of the international charts, the band – comprised of brothers Josh, Jake and Sam Kiszka and drummer, Danny Wagner...
Episode 498: Julie Doiron
December 26, 2021 18:00 - 43 minutes - 33.1 MBNine years after her last solo album, Julie Doiron returns with I Thought of You. Written and recorded prior to the pandemic, the album was shelved for a spell, in hopes of finding a more welcoming release window. Ultimately, Doiron and her label thought better – in part, due to the stark realization that this moment isn’t ending any time soon. While touring remains difficult, the record is a welcome breath of air, building on her joyful writing and singing in a way that’s both intimately joy...
Episode 497: Tahlena Chikami (of Bite Me Bambi)
December 24, 2021 17:14 - 42 minutes - 34.2 MBA self-proclaimed theater kid, Tahlena Chikami spent much of the past decade landing roles on film and television, including a number of beloved series like Parks and Recreation and Gilmore Girls. In 2019, however, her IMDB page takes a turn. A year after forming Bite Me Bambi with with ex-pats from a number of Orange County ska titans like Save Ferris and My Superhero, the band had already made the scene. Punchy ska singles backed my memorable music videos gave way to virtual shows during th...
Episode 496: Kevin Whelan (of Aeon Station and The Wrens)
December 15, 2021 16:56 - 46 minutes - 35.4 MBIn September, The New York Times published a feature on Kevin Whelan bearing the headline, “The 18-Year Wait for New Wrens Music Is Over. Sort Of.” The piece was exactly as bittersweet as the title betrayed, documenting the genesis behind Aeon Station, a musical project born out of the ashes of what would have been a final Wrens record – the first since the band’s 2003 masterpiece, The Meadowlands. Eighteen years is, of course, an extraordinaire amount of time to wait for a follow up album –...
Episode 495: Matt Madden
December 10, 2021 14:37 - 53 minutes - 48.2 MBMore than anything, Ex Libris is a love letter to a medium. Framed as a meta-fiction mystery of sorts, the book is an exercise in flexible styles and genre, as the story leaps from book to book.It’s an ideal outlet for author Matt Madden, who happily serves the role of stylistic chameleon, expanding the short story form of his 2005 collection 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style into a book length narrative. A comics educator and coauthor of the educational Mastering Comics: Drawing Wo...
Episode 494: Anika
December 01, 2021 01:25 - 55 minutes - 44.6 MBHer music career wasn’t an accident, exactly. But it’s safe to say that Anika didn’t see it coming. A music journalist by trade, the singer assumed she was signing up for a guest vocalist gig on what ultimately became her self-titled debut. Largely comprised of covers, the LP featured a smattering of originals, cowritten with electronic rock band, Beak. After being handpicked by Portishead to perform at All Tomorrow’s Parties in London, Anika went on to form the group Exploded View in Mexico ...
Episode 493: Lou Mathews and Jim Gavin
November 24, 2021 00:05 - 54 minutes - 39.4 MB“If a book is good,” Lou Mathews explains, “it will find an audience.” Finding a publisher, on the other hand, is often a different question altogether. “A writer writes” is perhaps a more appropriate adage for the author and educator who has thus far had two of his seven novels published. Luck, timing and connections are every bit as important in publishing. And thankfully, in the case of Shaky Town, the latter finally paid off. Last year, the book finally saw publication courtesy of newly-m...
Episode 492: Bonnie Bloomgarden (of Death Valley Girls)
November 18, 2021 22:58 - 54 minutes - 40.1 MBThere’s no lingering doubt after an hour-long conversation that Bonnie Bloomgarden believes in the power of music. And not in any abstract sense, mind. This stuff is transformative manifestations, filtered through almost ritualistic commutations of the spirit. But for many, such notions are understandably secondary to the power of rock. And by that measure, Under the Spell of Joy is a routing success. The Death Valley Girls’ latest delivers the joy it promises in a wonderfully fresh garage ro...
Episode 491: Taylor Hanson (of Hanson)
November 11, 2021 02:24 - 44 minutes - 30.3 MBIn 2022, Hanson will celebrate 30 years as a band. It’s a remarkable accomplishment for any group, let alone one whose members ranged from age six to 11. The group was propelled to success in its earliest days on the strength of its 1997’s Middle of Nowhere, a multi-platinum debut. Hanson’s seventh’s studio release, Against the World, arrived earlier this month. At first glance, the title is downright confrontational, though Taylor Hanson explains that the name is intended to reflect a kind o...
Episode 490: Merry Clayton
November 08, 2021 00:54 - 44 minutes - 26.8 MBIn 2021, Merry Clayton returned with a vengeance. In her solo first album in 27, years the singer once again poured her heart out on record. Beautiful Scars bears the mark of a musician who has suffered tremendous loss, but remains defiantly joyous and hopeful. Her voice remains confident and unmistakable, singing a title track that references, in part, a 2014 car crash that result in the loss of both of her legs. It also marks a post-humous return for her husband, Curtis Amy, whose sax part ...
Episode 489: Tillie Walden
November 05, 2021 22:54 - 49 minutes - 40.8 MBReleased over the summer, Alone in Space offers brilliant glimpses in the process and work of a powerhouse cartoonist. The collection offers works from her teenage years and the classroom prompts that catalyzed her early works, include a Windsor McCay homage that would prove foundational her developing style. Walden’s books range from 2017’s deeply personal Spinning to 2018’s sci-fi meditation, On a Sunbeam. Most recently, she’s been working on Clementine, a coming-of-age zombie book set in R...
Episode 488: (Bonus) Dickson Despommier
November 04, 2021 23:15 - 30 minutes - 20.3 MBI spent a lot of hours and a lot of words exploring the world of vertical farming over at TechCrunch. The research, which resulted in this feature, was bookended by conversations with Dickson Despommier, a former Columbia University professor now regarded as the godfather of vertical farming. This final discussion with Despommier is a kind of coda to the piece, exploring his seminal book, The Vertical Farm 10 years after its initial publication. You can read a writeup of the full interview o...
Episode 487: John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants)
October 27, 2021 23:43 - 46 minutes - 40.8 MBSeems hard to believe that 40 years into a career of pushing boundaries and taking risks that They Might Be Giants still have anything left up their sleeve. But amidst a global pandemic, when the world is perpetually falling apart at the seams, the band has returned with a new album and accompanying art book. Book (the book) is a beautiful document celebrating Book (the album) with 144 pages of photography and type-written lyrical art. Most of all, it’s a testament to the fact that a band t...
Episode 486: Cedric Noel
October 23, 2021 01:05 - 57 minutes - 43.5 MBA citizen of the world, Cedric Noel has made his home in Montreal for the past five years. His musical influences are every bit as eclectic as his geographical background, result in songwriting that isn’t particularly beholden to any one form. Hang Time, released this year on Joyful Noise, continues his explorations, and a focus on deconstructing the fundamental elements of popular music, be it Salif Keita or Blink-182. In a wide-ranging conversation, Noel discussing near manic bouts of song...
Episode 485: Guy Delisle
October 17, 2021 23:53 - 50 minutes - 35.5 MBThe press copy describes Factory Summers as Guy Delisle’s “most personal book.” It’s a strange phrase for a cartoonist whose work often tends toward the autobiographical — but it’s hard to ignore. What begins as a memoir of teenage summers spent working the floor at a Quebec City paper factory ultimately grows into something deeper. Ultimately, the book is a mediation on the relationship between a son and his distant father. That dynamic is the heart of the story — a fact the cartoonist says...
Episode 484: Joe Ollmann
October 16, 2021 01:05 - 51 minutes - 37.4 MBFictional Father begins with an apology of a kind — or, at very least, an acknowledgement. Told as a self-effacing autobiographical strip, the preface notes the accidental similarity to the real life story of Dennis the Menace and the 1999 novel, The Funnies. But maybe some stories are too good not to tell through a different lens. “I’m sure you’ll make it your own,” Seth tells Joe Ollmann in the piece. And that certainly proved fortuitous. What happens when your life is made the focus of a ...
Episode 483: Dar Williams
October 08, 2021 15:28 - 49 minutes - 37.9 MB2017’s What I Found in a Thousand Towns finds Dar Williams tackling urban studies. It’s new territory for the singer-songwriter, but one that builds on decades of fascination with the small towns she frequented on tour. The book has taken on a special sort of resident over the past two years, as the pandemic has spurred countless think pieces about the future of life in cities. It’s certainly top of mind as we discuss the force stasis of life during Covid-19, and something Williams is clearl...
Episode 482: José González
October 01, 2021 23:56 - 35 minutes - 28.4 MB“We are the apes that are starting to understand the universe and our place in it,” José González says in a statement released ahead of his latest album, Local Valley. The comment refers specifically to the track “Visions,” but the sentiment can be applied to many of the thoughts that occupy this mind. A one-time PhD student for biochemistry, the musician’s social media outreach reflects the sentiments of a person deeply consider with climate change and the state of the world he leaves for h...
Episode 481: Rob Sevier and Ken Shipley (of Numero Group)
September 24, 2021 23:40 - 40 minutes - 55.7 MBThis month, Numero Group issued I Shall Wear a Crown, an expansive five-LP set that explores the life and work of T. L. Barrett, a Chicago-based Pastor and musician. It’s a testament to the musical genius and master communication of an overlooked artist getting a long-overdue second life. It’s what the label does best, through compilation series like Eccentric Soul and Wayfaring Strangers and spotlights on artists like Barrett and fellow should musician, Syl Johnson. Cofounders Rob Sevier an...
Episode 480: Azure Ray
September 18, 2021 00:48 - 40 minutes - 30.2 MBThe success of Azure Ray’s self-titled debut seemingly took everyone by surprise — not least the band itself. Following the breakup of their group Little Red Rocket, longtime friends Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink reconvened to pen a set of songs aimed at coping with the recent death of Taylor’s boyfriend. Heartfelt and emotional, the sad, dreamy songs would form the foundation for a duo now celebrating its 20th year. There have been hiatuses over the years, finding the musicians focusing on s...
Episode 479:Mary Roach
September 11, 2021 00:15 - 44 minutes - 32.2 MBEvery time I speak to Mary Roach, I invariably get hung up on some minor detail — some story or person she’s teased out to unlock a fascinating new world. This time out, it’s the dried tiger penis lady, and really, how could it be anything else? The writer has a world class knack for finding fascinating tales in edges of the scientific world, from the dead bodies of Stiff to the space travel of Packing for Mars. With Fuzz, Roach finds herself exploring the intersection between the natural wo...
Episode 478: Ben Snakepit
September 08, 2021 00:28 - 45 minutes - 36.1 MBFor 20 years, Ben Snakepit has been building a magnum opus. Day in, day out, the musician-turned-cartoonist draws another daily strip recounting a scene from his life. It’s rare bit of constancy in a chaotic world. Of course, as with everything else, SnakePit does the strip his way. Bucking the ubiquitous world of webcomics, the artist releases the strips as a collection every three years, allowing for a kind of binging of three years of his life in a single sitting. For the past 17 years, S...