RiYL

Fresh off the release of a new record and suddenly unable to tour, Joan Osborne got the work. The musician dug through the closets in her Brooklyn home, pulling together live recordings from across her 30-year career. The resulting compilation, Radio Waves, paints the picture of an evolving artist often paying homage to the decades’ most influential artists, from Sky and the Family Stone to Bob Dylan. It’s a nice reminder of precisely how electric and essential live performances are, in an era when everything ground to a complete halt. Back on the road, Osborne took a moment to discuss her work from her early days as a NYU film student with a penchant for nightclub singing to 2020’s Trouble and Strife, a biting repudiation of American political collapse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I’ve always been in more than one band,” Janet Weiss notes. Even during the nearly two-and-a-half decades she spent as one-third of Sleater Kinney, she’s kept busy. Since 1993, she’s been half of Quasi and had overlapping stints with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks and Wild Flag – to make no mention of the albums she’s performed for indie rock darlings like The Shins and Bright Eyes. When we sat down to speak, she was prepping for a joint tour as Quasi and the drummer for Jon Spencer’s latest project, the Hitmakers. The shows coincide with the release of Cockroach In A Small Town, the debut LP from Slang, a project that also features Drew Grow, Kathy Foster and Anita Lee Elliot. It’s a lot, all at once, but after rehabbing from a serious car accident, followed by a two-year pandemic fueled hiatus, Weiss is more than ready to get back at it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ambient music helped me survive the darkest moments of the pandemic, and David Toop’s 2001 classic, Ocean of Sound, gave me the context to fully appreciate what I was listening to.He is a rare bird, with dual careers as both an accomplished musician and historian/cultural critic. In a world where artists are so often concerned about overthinking, Toop revels in it.I reached out on hearing that a pair of his 90s works – Pink Spirit and Noir World – had been reissued on vinyl.It was equally an opportunity to discuss silence, a frequent topic of his writings that has become an increasing feature for many who’ve been forced to slow down for once, amid the pandemic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Little Secret isn’t an easy book, but it’s an important one. In her first-ever graphic novel, Emily Carrington delves deep into her history and self-conscious, to explore her childhood abuse and the resulting trauma. It’s story Carrington has waited half her life to tell, searching for the right way – and medium – to tell it. It’s a powerful debut from life-long painter, exploring the ins and outs of a new form of storytelling. In this intimate conversation, she discuss her process and how making art has impacted the way she interacts with the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wild 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 with the CSN’s early days, are the subject of his new album, which finds him revisiting the work in a live setting. He’s a loyal person (he’s about to go into the studio to record songs with Hollies’ singer Allan Clarke, as we speak), but not necessarily a nostalgic one. Thankfully, those songs from 50 years ago still pack a proper punch. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 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 conversation. It’s a fascinating conversation, from the guru that changed his life, to the ugly side of the music business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Niineta 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 acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 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 another role, as a place where Giertz can design, iterate and gauge audience interest in potential products for her new online store, Yetch. We caught up early this week for a TechCrunch feature, which you can read here. What follows is the (more or less) complete audio from that conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Life 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 music, of course. Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 18 albums are about to turn to 19 with next month’s arrival of Fire Doesn’t Grow on Trees, following an extended U.S. tour with Mercury Rev. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facing 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, resulting in a new album of the same name. The LP finds him collaborating with familiar names like Lateef the Truthspeaker, Prince Paul and Dan the Automater, along with an appearance by the late-emcee – and his longtime friend – Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.