RiYL

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.