LSQ

I remember back in the mid 90s when I first got into Elliott Smith’s music and discovered that he also had a band. That band was called Heatmiser, and they were putting out amazing music, as well. A particular favorite for me was their 1996 album Mic City Sons, an album I’ve listened to hundreds of times over the years. And they’ve just released out an expanded 30th anniversary edition via Jack White’s Third Man records that includes demos of tunes from the album, previously unreleased recordings from the sessions, and even a full band version of Elliott’s solo tune “Christian Brothers.” It was awesome getting to talk with Heatmiser singer and guitarist and co-songwriter Neil Gust about the making of Mic City Sons — what went right and what went wrong; by the time it came out they had all but broken up — and also about the making of Heatmiser which was Neil and Elliott and bassist Sam Coomes (also of Quasi), and drummer Tony Lash. We delve into how Neil and Elliott first met as college classmates, initially playing in a band together called Swimming Jesus before as graduation approached they came up with the idea for Heatmiser, and of course we also talk about Neil’s own personal history as a guitarist and songwriter. Over the years, he has recorded under the moniker No. 2. You can get a vinyl copy of the Mic City Sons 30th anniversary edition here. 

I can still remember being in high school in the early 90s and having my mind blown by seeing the video for Fishbone’s "Sunless Saturday" on MTV’s 120 Minutes and going to my local record store (R.I.P., Twisted Disque on Jamaica Ave) to get their album The Reality of My Surroundings, and then walking around Queens with it blasting in my headphones, mesmerized by the way they melded genres like ska, funk, punk, metal and more. Fishbone is one of the bands that showed me what was possible, as far as breaking down both genre and racial barriers in music. SO! When I learned that Fishbone were getting ready to release their first full-length album in almost 20 years, their awesome new LP Stockholm Syndrome and that they would be doing interviews, I knew I had to make it happen. It was a blast connecting with Angelo Moore, who is the only permanent member of Fishbone — the only one who has been in the band for its entire 40 year history, while others have left or joined or left and re-joined — for the conversation in episode 125. We talked about his earliest experiences with creativity — he started out pop-locking and street dancing in Hollywood before he started playing music. He wanted to get a keyboard but his dad insisted on saxophone, and thus the seeds for Fishbone were planted. Angelo talks about meeting his bandmates in eighth grade and schlepping on the bus more than two hours each way from where he lived in the Valley to band practice in South Central LA, working up to their first show at Madame Wong’s and eventually scoring a major label deal that turned out to be a mixed blessing. We also delve into the ups and downs of their career, what he remembers about early encounters with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys, and what inspired Fishbone’s new album, which is a true return to form — the sound of a band that has never been afraid to be completely themselves, in all of their bright, brash, political, genre-melding glory. (You might start by listening to the Stockholm Syndrome single "Racist Piece of Shit" to get a sense of the album as a whole.) One caveat: You’ll notice that the audio sounds a little rough. The band had just begun a run of dates on Less Than Jake’s Summer Circus tour, and when Angelo joined our Zoom, he was on the road. Literally. He called while driving himself to soundcheck for a show in Florida. So it was a little more chaotic than the usual interview, with him attempting to navigate while answering my questions. You’ll also hear him stop for a pee break, mid-interview, which was hilarious. Fishbone are on the road through late August and you can get tickets here.

Following the recent release of her excellent sophomore album, If You Asked For A Picture, Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum joins the LSQ podcast to talk about important musical discoveries along her creative path: Falling in love with the Rolling Stones after her parents took her to see them in concert at Madison Square Garden when she was only seven years old, delving into songwriting a few years later, as a way of coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder, going to as many concerts as she could in NYC as a teenager and seeing bands like the Black Keys, Haim and The Kooks, finding inspiration in the lyrical prowess of Fiona Apple and Frank Ocean, and more. Blondshell is on tour now, and through most of the rest of this year. Get tickets here. 

Ben Kweller’s music first stole my heart back in the early oughts when he released his wonderful debut album Sha Sha, and I have been a huge admirer of his work ever since. I’ve also had the good fortune of his friendship for more than twenty years, so it was amazing to finally get together with him for the LSQ podcast. Episode 123 features a deep and poignant conversation with BK about his entire creative history, including his excellent latest album, Cover The Mirrors, which was written in the wake of the tragic death of his teenage son Dorian. In addition to sharing how that tremendous loss ended up inspiring him to reconnect with making music in the innocent way he’d done as a kid, he details what those early creative years were like for him — writing Beatles-inspired love songs on the piano as a little kid, starting his band Radish after hearing Nirvana, hustling to get Radish their first shows at Chauncey’s Place, a local billiards hall in Greenville, Texas, eventually getting rides from his parents to Dallas to play shows there, recording Radish’s demos and the ensuing bidding war to sign them, and more. I was also fascinated to hear about his family connection to legendary guitarist Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band and Neil Young’s Crazy Horse (as well as being a brilliant artist in his own right), and how Lofgren provided key support at multiple points during Ben’s early days. And then we get into his moves toward stepping out on his own as an artist, including how support from the Lemonheads’ Evan Dando helped catalyze his solo career. Ben also reminisces about the heyday of the New York City indie scene he was part of in the oughts, and how allyship with bands like the Strokes and Moldy Peaches and Kings of Leon (although not from NYC, the Kings regular touring companions of Ben’s and honorary NYC scenesters) created a vital support system. On more recent topics, Ben reveals that Radish’s lost sophomore album, Discount Fireworks, which includes early versions of songs like “Wasted & Ready” and “Harriet’s Got A Song,” will finally be coming out via his own label, The Noise Company. He also talks about the work he’s been doing recently to collaborate with Jason Schwartzman (who is among the guests on Cover The Mirrors) to record new music for Schwartzman’s long-dormant band Coconut Records. 

For episode 122 of the LSQ podcast, I had the pleasure of connecting with the up-and-coming singer-songwriter Uwade, whose beautiful debut studio album, Florilegium, arrived this spring following, truly, YEARS of anticipation from those of us who were first captivated by her voice when we heard her sing on Fleet Foxes’ 2020 album Shore. As you’ll hear, Uwade’s musical influences since childhood span an array of genres including R&B, gospel, choir music, pop, hip-hop, indie rock and more, so it’s no wonder that her own songs are so refreshingly genre agnostic. Uwade is also currently studying for her PhD in Classics, and I was fascinated to hear her talk about how her academic and musical pursuits feed each other. 

“There was always a way that music could speak to me,” says Youth Lagoon’s Trevor Powers. “I was really shy as a kid and I had a lot on my mind that I didn’t know how to get out. And music felt like one of those cheat codes where I felt like what I could say through one song was a lifetime worth of what was in my brain that I couldn’t say any other way.” I was instantly captivated by Youth Lagoon’s music when I first heard it more than a decade ago: Trevor Powers’ plaintive, childlike voice, the dreaminess and heady sonic textures of his music, the candor in his storytelling. In the years since the Boise, Idaho artist’s 2011 debut album, he has continually deepened his ability to make music that soothes and haunts at the same time. His latest album, Rarely Do I Dream, is his best yet, and one of my favorite LPs of 2025 so far. In the conversation in episode 121, Trevor talks about how discovering a trove of old home movies helped inspire the new album, and remind him of the importance of finding the true feeling at the center of a memory. He also discusses growing up hearing artists like Elvis and The Beach Boys and John Denver while being homeschooled, before finally being exposed to bands like Korn and the Offspring and Blink-182 when he eventually attended high school, and later discovering artists like My Bloody Valentine and Oingo Boingo thanks to his uncle introducing him to more cutting edge music. “There’s always something that’s coming in that’s changing not only my thought process, but there’s something internally that’s awakening my spirit in these new ways and pushing me in all these different directions,” he says. “There could be an endless amount of lifetimes and I can’t get it all out, what’s up here.”Trevor also shares why he decided to "kill off" the Youth Lagoon Project several years ago, and to instead record under his own name for awhile, and why he chose to resurrect the moniker back in 2022. Youth Lagoon is on tour in the U.S. until mid-May. Get more info here.

When I learned that house and dance music legend Crystal Waters has been finishing her first new album since 1997 and was getting ready to share singles and do interviews and therefore might be up for talking with me, I was so geeked.  I’ve been a fan since the early 90s when huge hits like "Gypsy Woman" and "100% Pure Love" were all over the radio, and it was an honor to get to connect with her for episode 120 and a conversation about her songwriting process, how she got her start in music, and why this current creative phase is one of the most exciting in her thirty-plus year career.  Crystal recently shared a great new single called "You & Me" -- a collaboration with the Swedish duo ManyFew -- and she was also recently honored during Miami Music Week at the inaugural Femmy Awards with awards for The Voice of House and the Female Icon Award. And there will be a lot more new music coming from Crystal in the remainder of this year, and live shows, too!

In episode 119, I catch up with Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, the noise pop duo better known as Sleigh Bells. I have been a massive Sleigh Bells fan since their first few singles back in 2009 — brash, genre-defying bangers like “Crown on the Ground” and “Infinity Guitars” that sounded unlike anything else, combining elements of pop, metal, hardcore, hip-hop and punk. They’ve continued to blow my mind with the leaps they’ve made since then. The three of us are also old friends at this point, and though we’ve done shorter interviews in the past, it was great to finally get to ask them some of the classic LSQ podcast questions about all the shit they were into as kids. In this episode, Alexis talks about what she learned from her experience in a teen pop band, revelations she had at the punk and hardcore shows she frequented during her New Jersey youth, and learning to integrate the diverse parts of her musical voice. Derek describes falling in love with the soundtrack to La Bamba as a kid growing up in Florida, and then discovering 80s pop greats like Janet Jackson and Cyndi Lauper before venturing into alternative and hard rock (Nirvana, Silverchair) and then having his mind blown by ground-breaking artists such as Radiohead and Björk, and then eventually joining metal core band Poison The Well in his later teens. They also share the story of how they came together to form Sleigh Bells, and how their current approach builds on the foundational principles they established for the band more than fifteen years ago.Sleigh Bells’ new sixth studio album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy, comes out this week and it’s stellar. Find out more (and get tickets for their upcoming tour) at: tornclean.com

It's a good thing ANOHNI and I decided to leave the cameras turned off for the interview included in episode 118 of the LSQ podcast, because there were moments when she was talking --about her creative process, about using her voice and her music as a survival strategy, about what it felt like to grow up as a trans femme amidst the violence of patriarchy -- that I was nearly in tears, so moved by the way she described her experience. And since crying while interviewing is as cringe as "crying in baseball," it was a relief not to be seen in those moments. It was fascinating to hear ANOHNI's story of discovering her musical spirit as a child, motivated by a desire to reveal feminine emotion and power in a way that she felt her mother was not allowed to, and to learn how she developed her creative process from there. ANOHNI talks about drawing inspiration from artists such as Kate Bush, Boy George, Marc Almond, Alison Moyet, Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Diamanda Galas and more, and how she has learned to adapt musical forms to suit her voice (both the literal voice and the symbolic voice). She also shares about her relationship with her mentor, the late Lou Reed, how greatly he encouraged her early in her career, and what it was like to recently perform some of his music live for the first time since he passed. You can keep up with ANOHNI here. This is also the first video episode of the LSQ podcast, with awesome illustrations and animation crafted by Jess Rotter and Andrew Deselm. Thanks to them for the wonderful work!

On the heels of the announcement last week of a much anticipated new album by indie folk band The Head and the Heart, I’m excited to be able to share the following conversation with the band’s Matty Gervais. This is one of your first chances to hear more about their exceptional new collection of tunes, Aperture, the band’s sixth LP, which will be out on May 9th. There are already a few beautiful introductory singles online now, including the anthemic "Arrow" and the newly shared album opener, "After The Setting Sun." It was a pleasure to connect over zoom with Matty to talk about the making of Aperture and how it heralds a new chapter of freedom and collaboration for THATH. We also talk about some earlier THATH history, how they have benefited in more recent years from band therapy, and his own personal creative process for this new album. And of course we start by delving into Matty’s early life experiences with music, growing up in Seattle during the grunge explosion, falling in love with recording his songs using a boombox technique he heard Dave Grohl describe in an interview, playing in bands with his brother and eventually joining THATH more than a decade ago. You can pre-order or pre-save Aperture, and get tickets for their upcoming shows HERE!Preview:3:30 - 13:00 - Early life experiences with music, learning to play drums, growing up during grunge, going to Bumbershoot with his parents, getting into Posies, Fastbacks, Supersuckers, The Presidents of the United States of America and other local bands13:20 - 21:00 - Writing and recording his own songs using Dave Grohl’s boombox technique, developing his sound, playing in various bands leading up to joining THATH21:15 - 31:00 - Observing THATH as a fan, joining the band, adapting to their fame:31:00 - 34:00 - Band therapy and its benefits35:15 - 40:00 - Aperture, how it started and the writing and recording processes that arose from there40:30 - 49:00 - "Forest Bath": Walking through the woods writing melodies and lyrics; the inspiration for “After The Setting Sun”