RiYL

Best know to many for guest starring roles on popular show like Park and Recreation and Girls, Jon Glaser has been a mainstay in the alternative comedy scene since landing writing gigs on the Dana Carvey Show and Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Glaser has long called New York his home, becoming a mainstay in the city's comedy scene and writing and starring in a trio of TV series: Delocated and Neon Joe on Adult Swim, and, more recently, TruTV's Jon Glaser Loves Gear. In anticipation of the mockumentary series' second season debuting this month, the comedian joined us to talk about working in New York, learning to write comedy and what's it's like playing an asshole version of yourself.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the more memorable spots in recent memory, "Wu Tang In Space Eating Impossible Sliders” does pretty much what it says on the tin. The web series created to promote vegetarian burgers at White Castle eschews the traditional ad trappings, in favor of a genuinely entering series of videos starting the RZA, GZA and Ghostface Killah. It’s the latest in a long line of high profile collaborations for director Sam Spiegel. In addition to creating ad spots and other videos with his production company, Squeak E. Clean, Spiegel is also a prolific music producer and has served as music director for artists like Karen O and Kanye West. Spiegel paid RiYL a visit on his most recent trip to his hometown of New York to talk about inspiration and the joys of collaboration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sabrina seemingly came out of nowhere, only to land on the top of nearly every best of 2018 list. Nick Drnaso’s second book-length work (following 2016’s collection, Beverly) perfectly captures feelings of isolation in an always-connected world. It’s a tale of fake news and online conspiracy custom made for the age of Trump — a world that took an emotional toll on its author during the creation process. For all the accolades the book has racked up in the intervening six months, Drnaso is happy to be focused on his next project.The Chicago-based artist sat down with us on a recent visit to New York, to discuss the difficulties of releasing a book into the world, the search for inspiration and learning the art of cartooning from the great Ivan Brunetti. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a familiar refrain. The 15-year itch. It’s the perfect time to look back and how far a group as come — and wonder aloud how much gas is left in the tank. The More I Sleep the Less I Dream is a 15-year album. The fourth LP from a band whose lineup has remained remarkably consistent since forming to perform at a high school talent show. It finds the group searching for the magic that helped catapult their 2009 debut These Four Walls up the indie chart. Thompson admits that the group spent a couple of records hunting down chart success, but adds that this latest finds WWPJ working with something far more authentic and organic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You don’t get to choose your audience. Especially when you’re playing a free to the public show at South by Southwest to promote your first record. It was, quite possibly, the worst showcase for a quiet voiced singer-songwriter.But the bad show gave birth to NPR’s Tiny Mix Tapes. The show’s producers quite rightly believed that Laura Gibson deserved a better showcase for here soft-spoken gifts.This year, Gibson released the haunting Goners, a beautiful and more sonically complex record that meditates on the connection between love and loss. It’s a theme that permeates her best work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fresh off a hike up Mount Kilmanjaro with his fiancee (now wife) and a ritualistic beard shaving, Taylor Goldsmith sits down to talk about Dawes’ latest, Passwords. The new record finds the band diving into the political and personal in ways not found on past records. Goldsmith is clearly in a good place, halfway through the band’s tour opening for pop-rock legends, ELO. He’s making the effort to be thankful for all of the band has amassed with half-a-dozen records over the course of nine years, even as he looks for ways to take things to the next level. It’s a hopeful talk, as Goldsmith discusses music industry competition, the future of indie rock and lessons he’s learned from The Rock’s Instagram account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RE/Search’s North Beach office more closely resembles a library or museum. It’s a wonderfully crammed space that also serves as publisher V. Vale’s home, standing as a small monument to self-publishing and serving as a slightly melancholy reminder of all of the books we’ll never have time to read. Not that Vale isn’t trying, of course. The San Francisco mainstay is several decades into a lifelong search to acquire the world’s knowledge. It’s a quest that’s manifest itself in several wonderful volumes, exploring the works of countercultural icons William Burroughs, Lydia Lunch and JG Ballard and offering examinations of countless countercultural phenomenons. RE/Search hit its publishing peak in the 90s, just before the internet became fully ubiquitous here in the States, but Vale and a team of friends and family continue a commitment to printed matter and the goal of amassing useful and fascinating information.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Somewhere along the line Chris Barron quite literally lost his voice. The condition, vocal cord paralysis, left Spin Doctors frontman barely able to speak, let alone sing. It was, he confesses, a dark time — one that left him wondering whether a return to music was in the cards at all. It slowly returned, thankfully, and Barron, with the help of doctors and a vocal coach, was able to learn how to sing with a single functioning vocal cord. In 2017, he released his second solo record, Angels and One-Armed Jugglers — the second bit an unintentional nod to his own condition. The condition afforded the singer the opportunity to reflect on his life and career. Perfect timing, really, as the Spin Doctors celebrate their 30th year of existence — a run that’s seen remarkably few lineup changes over the decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In an age of uncertainty, This Modern World has remained a rare consistent. For nearly 30 years, the strip has offered a staunchly leftist take on the week’s news, outlasting many of the world leaders its lampooned, along with most of the alternatively weeklies that carried it. Back in 2015, artist Tom Tomorrow celebrated the strip’s 25 anniversary with an ambitious Kickstarter-backed collection. The campaign far exceeded its initial goals, pulling in more than $300,000 — a number that required Tomorrow to get a tattoo of long-time mascot, Sparky the Penguin. These past few years, have proven a bit more of a struggle. The ascendence of Donald Trump has turned the world of political satire on its head, forcing the cartoonist and his ilk to rethink their approach to political comedy. Recently relocated to New York City, Tomorrow sat down to talk about keep the weekly strip fresh after nearly three decades. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A trip to India changed everything for Sonia Kreitzer. It’s the kind of cinematic-style quest for knowledge so many seek out and so few actually achieve. For the singer, who opted the stage name Doe Paoro, the trip came at the most vital of times. Struggling to make ends meet as a part-time singer and full-time waitress in New York, Kreitzer was attempting to make peace with her plan to throw in the towel on the music business. Faint singing in the distance, however, led her to study with a Tibetan vocal master, a style that would ultimately inform her future musical direction. Kreitzer sat down for a conversation about creativity, musical phases and the importance of mindfulness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.