The BrooklynVegan Show: A Podcast About Music

Longtime collaborators (and cousins) Mike and Nate Kinsella have played together in Joan of Arc, the Cap'n Jazz reunion shows, and the current iteration of American Football; they've worked together on Mike's solo albums as Owen; and now they've got a collaborative album under the name LIES out March 31 via Polyvinyl Records. It finds them leaning into new wave-era influences like Depeche Mode, The Cure, Peter Gabriel, and more, and embracing synthesizers, electronic drums, and other aesthetic choices that fall outside of American Football's usual wheelhouse, without abandoning what's made Mike Kinsella such a distinct songwriter for the past 25 years. On this episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast, Mike and Nate discuss the new LIES album, realizing they were both into punk as kids at a family party, and discovering their chemistry on the 2003 Joan of Arc tour. They also discuss Steve Lamos leaving and rejoining American Football, that time Nate fell asleep at an Owen show, that time Mike threw himself a roast for his 40th birthday party, and much more.

We've also got an exclusive dark blue vinyl variant of the LIES album, limited to just 250 copies. Pre-order yours from the BrooklynVegan store while they last!

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The BrooklynVegan Show is brought to you in part by DistroKid, a service for musicians that allows you to easily upload your music to all major streaming platforms. You can get 30% off of your first year's membership by signing up at http://distrokid.com/vip/brooklynvegan.

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Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

We recently ran a list of 25 classic emo & post-hardcore albums turning 10 in 2023, and we dive even deeper into those albums on the new episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. Joining us to discuss such classics as Touché Amoré's Is Survived By, Citizen's Youth, TWIABP's Whenever, If Ever, Foxing's The Albatross, Balance and Composure's The Things We Think We're Missing, and more is Drew Beringer of Chorus.fm (fka Absolute Punk), who documented so much of this scene in real time on AP.net back in the day. Come for the emo talk, stay for the tangent about Metallica's St. Anger.

See the full list at https://www.brooklynvegan.com/25-classic-emo-post-hardcore-albums-turning-10-in-2023/.

The BrooklynVegan Show is brought to you in part by DistroKid, a service for musicians that allows you to easily upload your music to all major streaming platforms. You can get 30% off of your first year's membership by signing up at http://distrokid.com/vip/brooklynvegan.

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Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

The latest episode of The BrooklynVegan Show is an interview with Knapsack. Knapsack were initially around between 1993 and 2000, during which time they released three great albums, and those albums were massively influential on the early 2000s emo boom, and they continue to age gracefully and influence new bands today. One of the reasons we had this conversation is that Knapsack are finally giving their albums long-awaited vinyl reissues via Spartan Records with bonus tracks, and BrooklynVegan is thrilled to be offering exclusive color variants of each one: 1995's Silver Sweepstakes on purple vinyl, 1997's Day Three of My New Life on green vinyl, and and 1998's This Conversation Is Ending Starting Right Now on baby blue vinyl. All three are limited to 300 each and available now in the BrooklynVegan store.

The conversation was between singer/songwriter Blair Shehan (also of The Jealous Sound), drummer Colby Mancasola, guitarist Sergie Loobkoff (also of Samiam, who just announced their first album in 12 years), and myself, and we spoke about the possibility of new music and another live reunion ("I would totally be down for it," Blair said of the latter); the word "emo" and how it means different things to different people; how Knapsack befriended bands like Mineral, Christie Front Drive, and Boys Life (who contributed to the new book accompanying the reissues; and more.

The BrooklynVegan Show is brought to you in part by DistroKid, a service for musicians that allows you to easily upload your music to all major streaming platforms. You can get 30% off of your first year's membership by signing up at distrokid.com/vip/brooklynvegan.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

The latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast is an interview with Conor Murphy, vocalist of Foxing and sole member of Smidley, the latter of whom released the new album Here Comes the Devil this past fall. We talked about Foxing's debut album The Albatross turning 10 this year, Foxing's upcoming fifth album ("I would love if this record was like [Slipknot's] Iowa meets [Sufjan Stevens'] Carrie & Lowell"), the many ways the musical landscape has changed over the past decade for both artists and listeners, the finances of touring musicians, Conor's collaborative relationship with Bartees Strange, his love of (recent Foxing tourmates) Home Is Where, and much more.

Links mentioned in podcast intro:

* Best Albums of 2022

* Anticipated Albums of 2023

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Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

It's been a huge year for hardcore, with more eyes on the genre than ever, so much creativity happening without the genre, and a slew of amazing new records. To go along with our list of 20 great hardcore releases from 2022, I teamed with two of my current favorite music critics that have been covering the hell out of hardcore all year, Eli Enis (Revolver, Endless Scroll) and Hugo Reyes (who writes the hardcore column Step 2 Rhythm over at The Alternative and whose writing can also be found on his Medium), to discuss and debate the best hardcore releases of 2022 on the latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. Each of us ran down our lists of our personal top five hardcore releases of the year, and we discussed a few other faves after that. We also dove into some "hardcore-adjacent" faves and debated a bit about what truly counts as hardcore. There were a few releases that all three of us had on our lists, but a good amount of differences between the lists too. Between the three of us, we touched on everything from the more melodic alt-rock-leaning stuff to different varieties of straightedge to thrashy NYHC to heavy rapcore and plenty of other stuff in between.

Music featured:
Speed - "Not That Nice"
End It - "New Wage Slavery"

Today's episode is an interview with Kevin Devine, who's in the midst of celebrating the 20th anniversary of his career and will continue to do so with two career-spanning Brooklyn shows in January 2023, both presented by BrooklynVegan. Throughout this conversation, Kevin reflected on the first two decades of his career, from his early days up through his new album 'Nothing's Real, So Nothing's Wrong,' and in the process, he touched on everything from being called emo at a time when the genre was very stigmatized, to nostalgia festivals like When We Were Young, to some of his favorite late-career albums by other artists, and more.

Music: "Liar, Liar" by Kevin Devine

The newest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast is an interview with Rich Balling, founder of the experimental post-hardcore supergroup The Sound of Animals Fighting, former RX Bandits member, and the person behind Pyramids, Sailors With Wax Wings, White Moth, the Handmade Birds record label, and the new hyperpop project Hospital Gown. Hospital Gown's debut album Diamond Life 2 came out earlier this month on Born Losers Records, and TSOAF are gearing up to release their first EP in 14 years, Apeshit, on December 8 via the same label, followed by a tour in January. Rich and I discussed TSOAF's comeback; the multi-genre, multi-generational collaborations on the Hospital Gown album that range from screamo to hyperpop to rap and beyond; some TSOAF history, like the time Equal Vision had to destroy copies of their 2006 sophomore album Lover, the Lord Have Left Us because of an uncleared Neurosis sample; how playing Taylor Swift's Red in the car for his daughters led to a love of pop music; dealing with negative comments on the internet; and much more.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

The latest episode of The BrooklynVegan Show is an interview with Walter Schreifels, who's busy as ever. His beloved early 2000s-era band Rival Schools just gave their classic debut LP United by Fate an expanded 20th anniversary reissue, and the band is reuniting for some shows in 2023. On top of that, Quicksand continue to tour and put out new music, Youth of Today just wrapped up some shows, and Gorilla Biscuits just announced some upcoming dates.

I recorded the conversation with Walter before the YOT shows happened and before the GB announcement, which he sort of teased during the episode, and we spoke about just about everything he's got going on lately. We focused a lot on United by Fate; Walter reflected on making the album, working on it with Bon Jovi producer Luke Ebbin, and the impact the album's left over time. We talked about how, with Rival Schools coming at the start of the emo boom and taking bands like Thursday and Taking Back Sunday on tour, Walter was simultaneously a "not-so-elder statesman" of that world and also a contemporary/peer and kindred spirit. He also talked about meeting and being won over by Cave In in those days, and how now Cave In's Stephen Brodsky and Candiria's John LaMacchia have both played as Quicksand's touring guitarists this year.

The conversation also spiraled into other topics, like the parallels between the rising tides of Nirvana in the early '90s and Turnstile today, comparisons between hardcore in the '80s and hardcore now, and much more.

Pick up the new United by Fate reissue on red vinyl in our store, and also browse our collection of Quicksand, Youth of Today, and Gorilla Biscuits records and merch.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

One of the most exciting voices in hardcore right now, Ian Shelton, joins us for a chat about Militarie Gun's recently-released 'All Roads Lead to the Gun' and their upcoming, as-yet-unannounced new album, signing to multi-genre label Loma Vista, learning to love The Baetles and Nirvana after growing up as a punk kid who was taught to hate mainstream music, and why this current moment for hardcore is so interesting and rewarding. Ian talked about feeling a kinship with likeminded artists and friends such as Justice Tripp (Angel Du$t, Trapped Under Ice), Pat Flynn (Fiddlehead, Have Heart), and Patrick Kindlon (Drug Church, Self Defense Family), all of whom share Ian's undying love for hardcore, music in general, finding exciting new bands, pushing the envelope, and bringing influence from outside of hardcore into the genre. Ian also talked about Turnstile's success, and why this moment in hardcore is actually a time in which success is being celebrated and bands who truly deserve it are winning.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

We recently ran a list of the best emo & post-hardcore albums of 2002 on BrooklynVegan in honor of the 20th anniversary of that landmark year for these genres, and now BV editor Andrew Sacher and guest Owen Morawitz dive even deeper into that list on this episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast. We discuss what went into choosing the albums for the list, the process behind ranking them all, some albums that were left off the list, and more, and the episode ends with an album-by-album discussion of the top 10.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

On the heels of releasing their new Wavebreaker #3 split on Bad Time Records, Folly and The Best of the Worst join us on the BrooklynVegan podcast for an interview about their mutual admiration for one another, how they came to meet and do a split, the music on the split (including Folly's first song in 14 years), and both existing as bands who mix ska with heavy metallic post-hardcore -- an unusual combination that both of these bands pull off expertly. We also dug into the recent all-star Folly cover, some Folly history, some ska history, why ska got a bad reputation and why there's renewed interest in it now, and much more.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Keith Morris joins us for a chat about the new OFF! album & film 'Free LSD,' the recent Circle Jerks reissues, and everything from CIA conspiracy theories to punks vs hippies to why his definition of "first wave punk" may differ from yours to Fleetwood Mac to the Grateful Dead to The Doors to Metallica to the one show Circle Jerks played with Danzig-era Misfits back in the day, and much more.

Pick up our exclusive orange vinyl variant of the new OFF! album, plus cool vinyl variants of the recent OFF! and Circle Jerks reissues, in our store.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Today's episode is an interview with Dan Campbell, vocalist of The Wonder Years. Dan joins us to discuss the band's first album in over four years and first since Dan became a father, 'The Hum Goes On Forever,' and he discusses how the album's themes were inspired by the anxieties surrounding fatherhood, dealing with his own mental health while needing to provide for his kids, and why he doesn't wanna write songs about death anymore. He also discusses collaborating with blink-182's Mark Hoppus on the album, and how the album's genre is just: The Wonder Years.

Elsewhere in the chat, Dan reflects on the band's early days and their breakthrough albums 'The Upsides' and 'Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing,' which they recently celebrated the 10th anniversaries of, he talks about the upcoming When We Were Young Fest, some of his favorite late-career albums, favorite new bands, favorite albums of 2022 so far, the back-in-action Fireworks (who The Wonder Years are touring with soon), and much more.

Pick up 'The Hum Goes On Forever' on blue vinyl.

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Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

David Knudson's been having a busy year. He put out his first solo album, The Only Thing You Have to Change is Everything (including a song with his former Minus the Bear bandmate Jake Snider on vocals), his beloved '90s mathcore band Botch put out their first new song in over 20 years alongside Sargent House's new reissue of We Are The Romans, he's been posting tons of guitar playthrough videos of old Minus The Bear and Botch songs, and he's got another new solo EP that'll be out before the end of the year (which will feature Cursive's Tim Kasher). With all of that, plus the upcoming 20th anniversary of Minus The Bear's classic debut album Highly Refined Pirates, we decided to catch up with Dave for the latest episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast.

Music featured in episode - "Varv" by David Knudson

This episode of the BrooklynVegan podcast is an interview with John Nolan of Taking Back Sunday and Straylight Run! John reflects on Taking Back Sunday's landmark debut album 'Tell All Your Friends' (the #1 emo album of 2002, according to a new list we posted on BV) for its 20th anniversary, and he goes deep on Straylight Run, in celebration of the band's recent reunion shows. John also talks about various other projects, the next Taking Back Sunday album, the way his relationship to the oft-stigmatized genre of emo has changed over the years, and much more.

There's also a new 20th anniversary edition of 'Tell All Your Friends.' Pick it up on silver vinyl, CD, or cassette.

This interview originally aired on Vans Channel 66. Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Today's episode is an interview with Anthony Green! If you're unfamiliar, Anthony's been a lifer of post-hardcore and underground rock in general for over 20 years, having fronted the bands Circa Survive, Saosin, The Sound of Animals Fighting, and more, and he remains very busy. He's fresh off releasing his excellent new solo album Boom. Done., Circa Survive recently put out two great new EPs, Saosin have upcoming shows (and new music in the works!), and The Sound of Animals Fighting are plotting their return too. We talked about almost everything Anthony's been up to lately, and he also reflected on his early days, talked about some early influences, and looked at the way his own classic material has influenced new bands like SeeYouSpaceCowboy (who recently put out a Saosin cover). He also talked about writing lyrics that open up about mental health, and the ways even major artists like Kendrick Lamar are doing that, and he talked about the idea of achieving longevity as an artist, and discussed some other artists who have done so, like Deftones and (the just-broken-up) mewithoutYou. 

And just days after we recorded this episode, the news broke that Anthony's fronting the new supergroup L.S. Dunes, which also features members of Thursday, My Chemical Romance, and Coheed & Cambria.

Pianos Become the Teeth guitarist Michael York joins us for an episode ahead of the band's first album in over four and a half years, 'Drift,' which comes out 8/26 via Epitaph. Mike reminisces on Pianos Become the Teeth's early days, when they and their 'new wave of post-hardcore' peers were doing small DIY shows and tours, and building a new underground circuit of their own, before the bigger record labels and music publications started to take notice. He then gets into the moment that Pianos and many of their peers (like Touche Amore, La Dispute, and Defeater) signed to Epitaph, the steady rise that Pianos have been on since then, and how now they've become an influential band on a whole new generation.

Mike also discussed some of the musical influences and the use of analog tape loops that helped lead to the weirder, darker sound of the new album, making it with producer Kevin Bernsten (who also did their first two albums), and how the entire band relocated to Mike's uncle's cabin in the woods to make the album in seclusion.

Additionally, Mike talked about what an "actual dream (no pun intended)" it is to be touring with reunited screamo legends Jeromes Dream this year, he talked about the Baltimore scene that birthed PBTT (and everyone from Beach House to Future Islands to Turnstile to JPEGMAFIA), and other artists he's been inspired by over the years, like Bon Iver, Portishead, My Bloody Valentine, Flume, SOPHIE, and more.

Pick up 'Drift' on red vinyl in our store. Pianos Become the Teeth tour dates and tickets here.

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Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Mike Park (Skankin' Pickle, The Bruce Lee Band, The Chinkees, Asian Man Records) and the great newer ska band Catbite join us for a joint chat! If you're unfamiliar, Mike is a veteran and lifer of DIY, ska, punk, and indie rock, and remains prolific and consistently today, and he refers to Catbite as his favorite new ska band. The episode is in celebration of their new split 12" on Bad Time Records as part of the label's 'Wavebreaker' series, which brings together ska musicians from different generations. We talk about the new split, as well as the current ska scene, some ska history, why ska still gets a bit of a bad reputation (and why it shouldn't), the recent divisive AltPress article on The Interrupters, and much more.

We've also teamed up with them on an exclusive electric blue vinyl variant of the split, limited to just 100 copies and only available in our stores. Pre-order yours now while they last!

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

All four members of LA ska-punk band The Interrupters join us for a chat as they welcome their new album 'In The Wild,' due 8/5 via Epitaph Records. It's the most personal and genre-defying album the band have written, with Aimee Interrupter opening up about struggles with mental health and abuse, and we discuss the intense therapeutic process that led to these songs being written, as well as the impact of COVID lockdown on the album, the various styles of music explored on it, its many cool guests (Hepcat, The Skints, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Rhoda Dakar of The Bodysnatchers), and more. We also talk about the recent comeback of ska, the members' favorite ska bands of all time, the time members of The Interrupters backed Tim Armstrong and Jesse Michaels in an impromptu, semi-Operation Ivy reunion, recording vocal harmonies backstage at Citi Field while opening for Green Day, and much more.

Subscribe to The BrooklynVegan Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and stay tuned for more episodes. Also keep up with us 24/7 on BrooklynVegan.com where we constantly post music news, album reviews, live concert coverage and more, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Theme music by Michael Silverstein.

Thursday's Geoff Rickly joins us for an 20th anniversary interview about the band's classic breakthrough album, 'Full Collapse.' Geoff also reflected on the entire history of the band, from their early days up through their initial breakup and then their 2010s reunion. He reflected on the early 2000s emo/post-hardcore boom that 'Full Collapse' helped kickstart, and the way the scene rose and fell and was later revived with a new generation of bands in the 2010s. He talked about other bands he's collaborated with, like My Chemical Romance and Touche Amore, and much more.

Thursday are playing 'Full Collapse' in full on tour this year, and Geoff's band No Devotion also have a new album due in September via Velocity Records.

The interview featured in this podcast episode originally aired on Vans Channel 66. Interview conducted by Andrew Sacher. Music and editing by Michael Silverstein.

Joyce Manor's Barry Johnson joins us on the first-ever episode of the new BrooklynVegan podcast. With their first two albums recently turning 10, Barry discusses the early 2010s emo scene that Joyce Manor got their start in (1:20) and his current relationship to their divisive sophomore album 'Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired' (11:10). He also discusses their new album '40 oz. to Fresno,' and how it was partially inspired by Barry digging through the band's vaults of old ideas and unreleased material during the pandemic (22:10), the parallels between 'Of All Things...' and the new record (25:50), the story behind how one of the new album's songs ("Secret Sisters") was actually a reworked version of another song on the album ("NBTSA") (27:15), working with producer Rob Schnapf and the parallels between Rob's work with Joyce Manor and his work with Saves The Day (30:04), and bringing in Motion City Soundtrack drummer Tony Thaxton for the new album (36:30). He talks about his relationship with ska (48:20) as well, and he tells the story of how Joyce Manor's new album was named after an auto-corrected text about Sublime (56:24).

Joyce Manor's new album '40 oz. to Fresno' officially drops June 10 via Epitaph, and you can get it on opaque pink vinyl in our shop. Joyce Manor are also touring this summer with Citizen, Prince Daddy & the Hyena, and PHONY. Dates here. 

Subscribe to The BrooklynVegan Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and stay tuned for more episodes. Also keep up with us 24/7 on BrooklynVegan.com where we constantly post music news, album reviews, live concert coverage and more, and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.